The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 - Essay Example a) Independent and competent audit committee: The act requires the audit committee members to be a part of the board of directors. Also they need to be independent, i.e. not a part of the management and not receiving any compensation from the company either as an employee or even as a consultant. b) Responsibilities of Auditors: The act requires that the lead and reviewing partners of the audit firm are changed once every five years. The best way to do so is to change the auditing firm every five years. c) Certified Financial Statements: The Act states here that the chief executive and the CFO need to certify the appropriateness of the financial statements. Also, any false certification can give rise to liability. The Act also requires that none of the chief executives, i.e. CEO, CFO, Controller, or CAO, were a part of the auditing firm for one year preceding the audit, to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest. e) Disclosure: The Act requires a number of disclosures which include all information on internal control mechanisms, any corrections to the past financial statements, material off balance sheet transactions and also the material changes in operations or even the financial situation of the company. f) Whistle Blower Protection: The Act supports the whistle blowers and takes complete actions on any firm that might take any action against employees who report suspected illegal activities in the organization. g) Document Destruction: The Act considers the destruction of any litigation – related document or alteration, cover-up, falsification as a serious issue and especially if this is done to prevent the use of the documents for official proceedings (SOX law, 2003). The SOX Act can prove to be beneficial to the accountants as this allows the people to be more truthful and ensure that all books are in place. Also, with the various sections in place, it allows for protection of whistle

The Affects of Cutting Nasas Budget Essay Example for Free

The Affects of Cutting Nasas Budget Essay Many people undermine the importance and contributions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA. As president Obama is forced to make severe budget cuts, NASA is among the most affected programs to endure the blow. This issue does not take aback many people, but experts say that what is occurring will affect everyone as well as the economy more than they may believe. These extreme budget cuts recently issued by Congress impinge on the NASA space program by having a large impact on culture, and risking the setback of innovation in today’s machine-driven society. With all do respect, I have never seen an 8th grader sit up in their chair and say I want to be an NSF Researcher. With all do respect, these agencies do important scientific work but they are unknown and invisible at the age where people choose what they want to be when they grow up. † [1] Neil Degrasse Tyson brings into play a very important thought as he explains the affect of the budget cuts on the younger population of America. Scientists are worried that if NASA is taken way, we are taking away the birthplace of the STEM research fields. STEM, which stands for Scientists, Technologists, Engineers, and Mathematicians†[2] are those who make up tomorrow, or in other words, our future. By eradicating the space agency, we are also eradicating potential heroes to come. Furthermore, â€Å"NASA is the only agency that taps into the frontiers of all basic subjects including, biology, chemistry, physics, math, astronomy, geology, atmospherics, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. †[3] The people involved in these subjects, who innovate through opportunities given to them by the NASA program, are being deprived of their chance to invent and potentially become heroes. These heroes are those who leave lasting impacts on society and culture. For example, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, and as time progressed, the telephone evolved into the cell phone. Today the cell phone is used for almost everything; web browsing, emergencies, work and entertainment, and serves as a sizeable part of everyday life. Therefore, it’s easy to see that destroying the funds of NASA is simultaneously ruining our chance for new innovative heroes who are likely to create and impact the world we live in. Lastly, during the decade of the 1960’s, the average person knows that this was a decade of many important events; to name a few, the construction of the Berlin Wall, MLK Juniors â€Å"I Have a Dream† Speech, the first heart transplant, the first super bowl, the assassinations of JFK, MLK Jr. , and Kennedy and the Cold War. But most importantly these major events were not necessarily the highlight of the 1960’s but more so â€Å"the shining pearl of that decade was the ‘Mission to the Moon. ’ Everyone was a participant, emotionally and intellectually. [4] Many people say, â€Å"I think we should solve our problems here on Earth before we go into space. †[5] In the year 2007, the requested budget for the NASA program totaled to roughly $17 billion dollars. Numerous people argue that this amount of money could and should be used to solve other problems that concern the people here on Earth. For example hospitals contend that the money should be used for needed medical expenses. Others argue that the money could be used to solve poverty problems and debt.

Pregnancy in the Military :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As the United States military moves towards a more bi-gender dependant force, it will be necessary for leaders and managers to combat the growing increasing of junior enlisted pregnancies. Through leadership skills, communication, and understanding the causes of the problems, leaders will be able to lower the rate of pregnancy, henceforth, increasing fleet readiness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To even consider any type of resolution or solution to the problem of pregnancy amongst junior enlisted members, we must first analyze the concept of fleet readiness and the units that comprise it in today’s military. As the post-Cold War military is downsized to fit the new world order and the decreasing defense budgets, there is increasing concern about the readiness of the military. If the military is called upon to achieve our national objectives, will they be where they are needed, when they are needed, and prepared to perform their missions? Since no one wants another episode of the ill-equipped, poorly trained â€Å"hollow force† that existed in late 1970’s, both President Clinton and former Secretary of Defense Perry cited readiness as the top defense priority.1   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The joint forces Publication 1-02 defines readiness as the ability of forces, units, weapon-systems, or equipment, to deliver the outputs for which they were designed (this includes the ability to deploy and employ without unacceptable delays).2 In other words, deployability of servicemen/women and equipment to accomplish tasks around the globe is paramount. With this broad definition of fleet readiness, we can determine that the deployability of junior servicemen and women is a major factor to accomplishing fleet readiness within any force. While junior enlisted personnel comprise the majority of service people deployed throughout the world, this paper will explore the impact of the junior enlisted servicewoman and how different factors within command climate cause pregnancy to be a fleet readiness problem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since readiness of the military is a high priority issue, Public Law 103-337, Section 533 requires the Department of Defense to submit an annual report on readiness factors by race and gender, beginning in FY96. As part of this report, deployability trends must be tracked. To ensure the data is reported correctly, a contract was issued to Logistics Management Institute to provide â€Å"a comprehensive analysis of the impact of non-deployable personnel on readiness. This study will also look at the degree to which individuals in active component units, who are non-deployable, are adversely affecting readiness.†1 With all the attention being given to readiness, it is important to understand some of the factors that may impact readiness

Evaluation of Business Code of Ethics

In preparation for your research paper, write a research proposal that includes the following: †¢ Identify the topic and state the question you will answer in your research. Criminal justice to work in the area as a Probation Officer working in the Juvenile Hall †¢ Provide the rationale for your research question. Refer to the Research Question Appendix on your Week Two student Web site for examples of identifying topics and generating research questions for that topic. 1. Working with gang crime statistics members? 2.Violent offenders? 3. Sex offenders younger than 15? †¢ Describe your research writing purpose. Will you explore a question of fact, definition, value, cause and effect, or consequence? Refer to Ch. 3, Establishing a Purpose. Are you taking a stand on an issue or arguing a point? Refer to the Evaluating Your Purpose checklist in Ch. 16 of Bookmarks. I am explaining the work of a probation officer and what probation officers have to deal with juveniles. â € ¢ Describe the type of research you will conduct—primary (based on interviews, etc. ) or secondary (based on sources already written).Describe your research strategy by explaining the process you will follow to collect your information. Refer to Ch. 4, Planning Your Research Strategy. It would be secondary research, going online finding valid sources to get the information Begin building a research log: Identify (cite) details of each source and collect facts, statistics, expert opinions, examples, and definitions that address your research question. Include your research log with your research proposal.†¢ List at least five sources in the research log. Research Log Jacobson, Michael. â€Å"Probation Officers. † Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement. Ed. Larry E. Sullivan, et al. Vol. 1: State and Local. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2005. 369-371. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 22 Apr. 2010. Document URL http://go. galegroup. com/ps/i. do? &id=GALE%7CCX3 452600164&v=2. 1&u=apollo&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w

Francisco De Zubar N And His Work English Literature Essay

Francisco de Zurbaran, a Spanish painter was born in Fuentes de Cantos, Badajoz Province in Estremadura and baptized on Nov. 7, 1598. His male parent was a comfortable tradesman of Basque descent. In 1614, Zurbaran ‘s male parent sent him to Seville to apprentice for three old ages to a second-rate painter of images, Pedro Diaz de Villanueva. Zurbaran opened a workshop in Llerena in 1617 and married a adult female older than himself. She died after holding three kids. He was married once more to a widow in 1623. During his 11 old ages in Llerena, Zurbaran ‘s piousness was influenced by Spanish Quietism, which was a spiritual motion that taught inner backdown, the find of God in meekly submissive silence, and the usage of penitentiary exercisings to repress the senses and quiet the mind. Although this influence had a deep consequence on his art, it in no manner limited his artistic creative activities. The contracts for this period are so legion that he would hold been obl iged to delegate many of them to helpers. In add-on, he was transposing to Seville to put to death plants for the Dominican, Trinitarian, Mercedarian, and Franciscan monasteries. In 1629, the Seville Town Council persuaded Zurbaran to travel his workshop to their metropolis. He arrived with his married woman, kids, and eight retainers. The undermentioned twelvemonth the painters ‘ Guild of St. Luke ordered him to subject to an scrutiny and he refused. The town council ended up back uping him. His frequenters continued to be largely monasteries including the Capuchins, Carthusians, and Jeronymites were added to the list. In April 1634, the painter Diego Velazquez, who was in charge of the ornaments for the new Royal Palace in Madrid, commissioned Zurbaran to put to death for the Hall of Realms two conflict scenes, which were to belong to a series that included Velazquez ‘s Surrender of Breda, and 10 Labors of Hercules. Zurbaran returned to Seville in November with the hon orary rubric of Painter to the King and the happy memory that Philip IV had called him the male monarch of painters. Zurbaran was at a extremum of creativeness and felicitousness in 1639, when his married woman died. His art production declined markedly and his manner became graver. He married for the 3rd clip, in 1644, but his artistic star was falling. Missing sufficient committees at place, Zurbaran was obliged to make the bulk of his plants for South America. With four more kids born of his new matrimony, he sold Flemish landscapes and pigments and coppices to the South American market. He continued to bring forth largely for South America until 1658, when he decided to seek to alter his fortune in Madrid. His art, nevertheless, was small apprehended at that place. Zurbaran died destitute in Madrid on August 27, 1664. Zurbaran ‘s work was really sophisticated with accurate pragmatism and indefinable mysticism. Zurbaran chose to be a painter of spiritual topics. His work was ever created big. Other effects are attained by the elaborate finished foregrounds which mass out mostly in visible radiation and shadiness. He was really adept in painting figures with curtain as shown in one of his works The Annunciation. He worked with oil pigments and most of his plants were spiritual scenes and portrayals. Two-thirdss of his plants were painted in the 1630 ‘s and the other 3rd is about every bit divided before and after that decennary. The Annunciation was painted in 1650 with oil on canvas. It measures about 85 inches tall and about one-hundred and 24 inches broad. â€Å" This Annunciation falls rather late in Zurbaran ‘s calling, when his simple and disconnected mold, dark to visible radiation, begins to soften and film over. His pallet becomes less blatant and more blended, while the about militaristic urgency of his earlier work is replaced by an familiarity and tenderness. The walls of the Virgin Mary ‘s room literally dissolve in a inundation of cherubs bathed in visible radiation, as the angel Gabriel with great heroism and discretion announces that she is with kid † says Joseph J. Rishel. Francisco de Zurbaran has a realistic manner shown in the picture. It features a room in which an angel is seen at the left kneeling on the land before the Virgin Mary. The figure of Mary is placed between a chair and a little wooden tabular array draped with a green fabric. Mary looks as though she is s urprised to be greeted by the angel although glancing at the floor. She disregards the unfastened Bible since she has been distracted. Behind and above the two figures are cherubs resting on beds of clouds merrily staring down at Mary with eyes from Heaven. Elementss such as visible radiation, colour, and texture are used in The Annunciation. Francisco de Zubaran does non demo a beginning of visible radiation in the picture, but we can see the light get downing from heaven with the cherubs and bit by bit gets darker to where the image about looks blurry on the lower left following to the angel. Light besides emphasizes the just tegument of the Angel and Mary as they both look down towards a shady floor. It reflects the unfastened Bible hinting on the sanctity and importance of Mary. Color draws attending to of import characters and objects in the picture. The ruddy and bluish Mary wears gives us a sense she is the chief focal point of the image since they are two different colourss in temperature and really concentrated. The bright yellow used indicates a celestial felicity or spirit such as how the dove is painted. The little soft silky texture used in this picture shows Zurbaran ‘s usage of pragmatism. The curtain looks about perfect compared to the remainder of the room. If the picture is looked at closely, you can see more symbolism such as a really weak xanthous visible radiation around Mary ‘s caput about like a aura which signifies her sanctity. The little xanthous dove at the top of the picture besides looks down at Mary and even gives a visible radiation pointed down at her caput. The cherubs and the angel are all smiling giving the image a joyful significance. You can besides see the flowers at the bottom right giving the painting an even more sense of softness, raising, and peace. The iconography of The Annunciation is shown how Zurbaran portrays the narrative of the Angel Gabriel looking earlier Mary to denote that God has chosen her to bare a boy, Jesus, who will salvage God ‘s people from their wickednesss. An anon. individual explains â€Å" Zurbaran besides idealizes Mary to stress her sanctity. Mary maintains a graceful airs even when she is frightened by the Angel ‘s intelligence. The room is besides au naturel and suggests Mary ‘s modestness. The Angel appears soft and the white colour of the angel shows the pureness of God ‘s courier. † Today, The Annunciation corsets at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as Francisco de Zurbaran continues to delight many with his endowments with the elements used in such an of import spiritual event. You can state he take to paint spiritual bible narratives with his really precise manner of painting the significance, symbolism, and great item.

Family Life Essays - Tierra De Villanos, Curse Words, Free Essays

Family Life Essays - Tierra De Villanos, Curse Words, Free Essays Family Life Observation #1:On Family Life It was just like Vancouver, everything is so unstable! For five days straight there were golden mornings and glowing afternoons. Then when Saturday crept up on the celestial planner, the sky's face lifted to gray and drizzling. If this weather change could be viewed with thought maybe it would seem almost shocking. It was not really cold, but it looked like it. Mom occupied herself in the kitchen, doing what really was not necessary. Oddly enough, she was always standing there doing all the "somethings", but the place managed to still look like a mess. No one in this house wanted to cook anymore either, so we just scrounged around, digging whatever there was to fill our stomach. It does not matter anyway, everything, even good things, tastes like cardboard these days. My father blamed my mother for her poor cooking, I just blamed the weather. I sat, dull-eyed, at the "dining" table, staring at some dried carnation that hung so peculiarly from that wall lamp that vainly attempted to impersonate an old fashioned streetlight (too bad streetlights were not that synthetic, bleached white). I shrugged it off as I knew Mom had a strange preference for decoration. I mean, the powder pink that stained nearly every wall of this house was her idea. Sometimes, it came to a point where I just want to scratch relentlessly at those colors, or take a permanent marker and scribble curse words all over it, or draw grotesque bleeding figures on it. Not this morning, I sat there idly...Food brought to my mouth like a robotic twitch. In fact, I hardly knew what it was that I ate. Dad came through the door from his errands, and also took a seat beside me without a word. He started to scoop food into his mouth, eyes glazed over and troubled with wrinkles of worry. I could scarcely feel his presence if not for his physical form sitting next to me, reflecting my own action of shoveling feed into a muzzle. I continued to daze disapprovingly into that hideous, died carnation, and he continued to glaze over into his troubles. At length, Mom came in, settled down a bowl of some sort of leftovers from last night. It struck me that food did not look like food anymore, of course not, it was Mom's cooking! That thought did not linger. Mom stuffed a spoonful in her mouth and glanced at Dad. She asked him about his errands casually, almost callously. Dad did not look at her, but he answered her in monosyllabic words. She seemed annoyed and proceeded to yell at him, something that we were all accustomed to by now. Dad merely blinked, didn't even bother to retaliate this time around, and let the silence respond to her. He finished eating, and pushed his bowl aside nonchalantly. I could see him looking at me, then at my book. "What's that trash you are reading?" "It's just a book Dad." I replied, an imitation of boredom. "What, you can't even tell me that much now? How many times do you actually speak to your family in a week? You've changed you know?" (Gee Dad, you mean people change?). I rolled my eyes like I always do when he went off like that; a mad ejaculation of rhetorical questions. Whatever I say really is just going to be used against me in the near future, or in my mother's case, the distant too. It's like a freaking courthouse, and he blames me for not talking to him. Whoever invented the term "catch twenty-two" must know what I am thinking right now. "There had better be educational value in that." He grunted at last, bulging his blood-shot eyes at an invisible spot across the room. "Okay then..." I remarked ever so snidely, and took note to never read anything of "value" again. So this is what the world's nuclear families are supposed to be like? Or is that just mine that feels like a slow devolution? Every cursed day, the pink gets to me a little more, the carnations a little dryer. I usually lock myself up in my room and hope no one will come in, or try to make conversation outside the shut piece of rotted bark. Like I always said, all I need in here is a toilet and maybe a little hole through which food maybe passed through in a versatile plastic package (and later a knife inside

The Meaning of Life in To the Lighthouse Essays

The Meaning of Life in To the Lighthouse Essays The Meaning of Life in To the Lighthouse Paper The Meaning of Life in To the Lighthouse Paper Essay Topic: Light in August Virginia Woolf was never reticent about her atheism, stating that certainly, emphatically, there is no God. This does not mean, however, that she did not feel the need for something that would give a purpose to life, and in To the Lighthouse, each of the characters appears to be searching for this. The apparently trivial details, to which she pays such attention, carry the weight of a struggle to draw form out of chaos, to grant shape and meaning to human experience. Each of the characters clings to one philosophy or another, be it art, scholarship or family duties, although they all lack the self-knowledge that previous literature had presented as the crucial form of wisdom. The self in this novel is elusive, complex and volatile, but it is with this that the characters must discover the meaning in life. An unmarried woman has missed the best of life, argues Mrs. Ramsay, who has faith in marriage above all things. Marriage, she believes, is not merely a contract, it is an affirmation of order and stability. There is a clear demarcation of masculine and feminine domains in the novel. The feminine domain is the home, where Mrs. Ramsay fulfils her purpose as a woman by being a good wife and mother (She would be happy if always to have a baby in her arms). She also has the whole of the other sex under her protection, not only due to admiration of them, but also because she pitied men always as if they lacked something women never, as if they had something. There is, she believes, profound value in the traditional womans role. Within this role, the process of establishing relationships between people is of paramount importance. In fact, drawing people together, overcoming their personal differences, has become her reason for being. She struggles against the complexity of life, described as her old antagonist, in order to act as a consoling presence for her family and friends. In XVII (The Window), she contemplates the meaning of her existence. All she has, she thinks, is only this an infinitely long table of plates and knives. But she seems here to be standing separate from her life, for when she gives herself a shake, the old familiar pulse begins to beat again, suggesting a return to life. That pulse is hospitality without it she looked old and worn, but when she regains it, it was as if the ship had turned and the sun had struck its sails again. Mrs. Ramsay had given. Giving, giving, giving, she had died and had left all this, complains Lily. Helping the less fortunate was something that Mrs. Ramsays lived for. Her compassionate nature made her alert to the plight of the poor and the suffering, and she desired to help in some practical way to alleviate their distress. In I, 1, she knits a stocking for the lighthouse-keepers son, who is unwell, and visits the home of a sick woman in the nearby town. She is active in promoting certain improvements in social welfare, which should ameliorate the lot of the underprivileged. She gives her whole self for the happiness of others. Indeed, happiness, when applied to other people, is meaning is itself. She contemplates the lives of her children: knowing what was before them love and ambition and being wretched alone in dreary places she often had the feeling, Why must they grow up and lose it all? And then she said to herself, brandishing her sword at life, Nonsense. They will be pe rfectly happy. Mr. Ramsay is also concerned with social issues, caring so much about fishermen and their wages that he lost sleep, and believing that the lot of the average person should be of paramount concern in social policy. He evidently finds great value in poetry (though he considers art a superficial embellishment, unnecessary in a truly civilised society). These are not central to his understanding of purpose, however. He has a linearity of thinking best suited to logical argument and extraordinary concepts, and sees mental achievement in terms of an alphabet, where meaning comes from climbing up, letter by letter, and reaching Z is the ultimate goal. This brings its insecurities: In that flash of darkness he heard people saying he was a failure that R was beyond him. Although he appears to be driven by a fiery unworldliness, suggesting a deep purpose to his life, at one point Lily sees him as a petty, selfish, vain, egotistical tyrant. Indeed, he is obsessed with the nature of greatness, fearing that his own work will not be valued by posterity. There is a sense that if he is not remembered after his death (through his books), his life will have been meaningless. Art is Lily Briscoes means to emulate Mrs. Ramsay in making coherent form from lifes chaos without adopting her faith in marriage, which she perceives as a shortcoming. Importantly for her, as a woman, the creative affirmation of painting allows her to move out of the domestic confines which constrained Mrs. Ramsay. So what would seem to Mrs. Ramsay to be misfortune, she considers as luck: She had only escaped by the skin of her teeth though, she thought. She had been looking at the table-cloth, and it had flashed upon her that she would move the tree to the middle, and never need marry anybody, and she felt an enormous exultation. It is a meaningful break from the cycle of tradition. Virginia Woolfs own decision to become a writer enabled her to experience the world beyond those limits within which her mother led her life. In the novel, it is Lily who has the final joy, the final fulfilment of purpose: With a sudden intensity, as if she saw it clear for a second, she drew a line the re, in the centre. It was done; it was finished. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision. Augustus Carmichael (rubicund, drowsy, entirely contented), has broken from a different cycle. He is evidently indifferent to worldly success, and has surrendered all ambition in a manner unthinkable to Mr Ramsay. In doing so, he has found peace. Minta and Paul followed the advice of Mrs. Ramsay, but the marriage had turned out rather badly. What brought them some happiness was untraditional it was Pauls infidelity which made them excellent friends. The idea that meaning belongs in a traditional life is now shattered. Allusion in the novel to the Great War suggests that the dominance of conventionally masculine values has reached an impasse. The gaining of power is not the essence of life, only the cause of death. How aimless it was, how chaotic, how unreal it was, she (Lily) thought, looking at her empty coffee cup. Mrs. Ramsay dead; Andrew killed; Prue dead too repeat it as she might, it roused no feeling in her. In any case, time and nature obliterates any individual determinati ons in its sweep. Deaths are mentioned in parenthesis, as if they are of little consequence to the whole. Chaos and disintegration are the realities of life. For James, in The Window, visiting the lighthouse is a distant goal, the object of an adventure. The intensity of James hostile response to his father is a measure of the strength of his desire to reach the lighthouse. By The Lighthouse, this purpose has changed into fighting tyranny to the death, and it is Mr. Ramsay whose purpose is that of visiting the lighthouse. Both are fulfilled Mr. Ramsay ends his tyranny by praising James; they reach the lighthouse. Mr. Ramsay rose and stood in the bow of the boat, very straight and tall, for all the world, James thought, as if he were saying, There is no God. This confident declaration of independence appears to be the conclusion to his search for meaning. Lily, far away, perceives this: He has landed, she said aloud. It is finished. Mrs. Ramsay lives on after death in the way she is remembered. This is Mr. Ramsays idea of meaning in life the gaining of immortality. But of all the people in this book, it is the mystic and the visionary who have the surety. They, walking the beach on a fine night, stirring a puddle, looking at a stone, asking themselves What am I, What is this? had suddenly an answer vouchsafed them: (they could not say what it was) so that they were warm in the frost and had comfort in the desert. The ineffability suggests that each man must find the answer for himself. Perhaps Mr. Ramsay stumbled on that answer as he stepped from the boat, and Lily also, for she has had her vision.