ok

?>
RSS

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Tough $$$ Decisions

The people, who make decisions in accounting, make it based on three categories. First, people who manage a business, second, the external people of a business who have a direct financial interest to a business, and third the people and organizations that have an indirect effect on a business. This applies to non profit organizations as well. Management refers to the group of people who are in charge for operating a business and for measuring up to the profitability and liquidity goals. If a business is extremely large, then the management will most often require more than one person, and the people are hired to perform their job. Managers need to answer important questions such as what was the company’s net income, and if they have a substantial rate of return. Does the company have enough assets, and which products bring in the most money? When making a decision, managers usually follow a systematic approach. Even though larger businesses require a more concrete analysis, they follow a similar pattern to small businesses.

Financing a business: Financing for a company is critical, because they need that money to continue their operations. Here is a nice website to find out more information about financing a business. http://www.sba.gov/financing/
Investing in a business: Companies invest in their current assets so that it will make money for them in the future.
Producing goods or services: Operations and production management is responsible for developing and producing goods and services that the company can sell.
Marketing: Learning marketing and advertising skills so that they can distribute goods and services more efficiently.
Managing workers: Human resource management requires the hiring of qualified employees, and also paying them.
Providing information: The information management retrieves data about the company such as how much they made in the last month, and organize the information in a way so that it can be used. It also releases information to managers, and to important people outside the business.

Another group of individuals that needs knowledge in accounting is those you have a direct interest in the business, go figures. They use the information to analyze how a business is performing. Most businesses generally publish their financial report which shows how well they meet their profitability and liquidity goals. These statements display how well a company did in the past and probably most important, how well they will do in the future. However, many people outside the business also study the financial reports. They are the investors and the creditors. The investors are the individuals that invest in a business and will keep a part of the ownership. They are concerned with their past success and failures, and also will like to know the potential earnings. A concrete analysis of the financial statement will help prospective investors base their decisions. Once they finish investing they must continue to study a business financial statement. Next, the creditors are the companies that lease money to businesses for short or long term needs. Creditors are the people that deliver money or provide services for companies in advanced before getting paid. Their main concern is whether a business will have the money to repay the money with interest in an approximate time. Some of the things they study before they make their decisions are a company’s liquidity, cash flow, and profitability. Some examples of creditors are banks, mortgage companies, and insurance companies. Over the years the shift of people who used accounting information has varied drastically. Now, it is heavily used by governmental agencies, and in matter of fact taxes is the main source of income for government. According to the rules and regulations of federal, state, or even local laws, individuals and companies are required to pay a variety of taxes. These include but are not limited to, sales tax, excise tax, social security tax, federal, state, payroll, and city income taxes. Each tax requires there own rules and regulations which can be very confusing at times. Reporting your taxes is a law and a very meticulous and tedious process. For example, The Internal Revenue Code contains over a thousand rules for delivering accounting information in federal income taxes. Also, most companies generally have to report to one or more regulating agencies in the United States All corporations must answer to the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC(To find out more information visit there website at http://www.sec.gov/). This is set up by the government to insure and protect the public by regulating the buying and selling of stocks. Companies that are listed on the Stock exchange must adhere to the rules and regulations. Some other groups such as labor unions analyze the financial statements of corporations to help negotiate a contact. The income of a company plays a major role in forming these contracts. The individuals who give advice to investors and creditors such as brokers and financial analysts have an indirect financial interest in a business. The amount of inertest in the financial health of corporations has been growing by consumer groups such as customers and the public. They are also concerned about how the corporation will affect the social patterns of the environment and of the people that reside in that area. The President’s Council of Economic Advisers and the Federal Reserve Board use accounting information to set economic policies and programs. It’s interesting to note that about thirty percent of the businesses in the United States consist of non profit organizations. Some examples of non profit organizations (NPO) include hospitals, and universities. Some well known non profit organizations include Red Cross, YMCA, Better Business Bureau, and WWF(World Wildlife fund, was formerly in a lawsuit and won against WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, which was originally known as World Wrestling Federation). You may think that the managers of these organizations don’t need to know their accounting skills but they do. They still have a budget and needs to raise money just like any other business. They raise money by collecting it from creditors, donors, and even investors. They also need to have a nice plan and to pay creditors back in an efficient manner, and they also have to follow the tax rules. So even though businesses and non profit organizations have different agendas they both generally follow the same basic rules.
Accounting is a systematic information system that measures, process, and communicate information, I particular financial. When an accountant is making a measurement they must answer four simple questions. First, what is being measured, second when should a measurement be made, third how much money should be placed on what is being measured, and last how the measurement should be classified. These four questions deal with the basic rules of accounting, and the answers help establish what accounting is and what it is not. Accountants in different fields challenge these questions every day, and therefore the answers are changing often so that’s why it’s a good idea to keep to date with some of the trends. The first question deals with what is measured. Consider a machine that makes clothes. How many different measurements of this machine can you make? Well, you can measure how much it costs, how many t shirts it can produce, and how quickly it can produce the t shirts. Some of these measurements are extremely important to accounting and some of them are irrelevant. Financial accounting will use money to see how business transactions affect other businesses and corporations.

The phases of Memory

Memory is the retention of information over a period of time through storage, encoding, and retrieval. For something to be considered memory, you have to take it in, store it, and then retrieve it for use in the future. Memory is a very complex things and it can let you down sometime especially when our trying to remember something, especially during an important test in your life. Also memory can also cause some confusion, especially when two people experience different events. For example, if two friends went on a trip and one said scenario A happened while the other says that scenario B happened then It could lead to lots of confusion. I think it’s fair to say that most individuals have experienced frustrations when they can’t recall someone’s name or a place that they visit. It’s obvious that memory is not installed like data is in a computer; human memory is a little more concrete. The initial stage of memory is known as encoding, in which the information is processed for storage. When you are listening to music, or watching television you are encoding information into memory. Some data gets into memory practically effortlessly, while other requires some extensive time to get in there. How information gets stored into data is an interest in psychologist because it tends to vary from individual to individual. When we start encoding we use selective attention which means that we focus on a specific situation while ignoring everything else. It’s like showing undivided attention to a specific factor. Although our brain is magnificent, and is more powerful than a super computer it does has its limits, and it can’t pay attention to everything at once. Divided attention also has an impact on memory, which means that people try to pay attention to too many different things at once. When researchers measure divided attention they have participants to try and remember a list of materials, but they are asked to perform an additional task at the same time. Participants that focus their attention on one single event as opposed to trying and remember numerous of things simultaneously perform a lot better. However simply paying attention to something does not guarantee success with remembering it. Encoding is processed in three different levels. Levels of processing is known as encoding information from shallow to deep and the deeper processing produce better results than the shallow.

 Shallow level: Includes the sensory or physical characteristics of stimuli that are analyzed. For example, we might detect some shapes of printed characters, or detect the pitch of a particular sound.
 Intermediate level: The stimulus is recognized and is given a distinct label. For example, we will identify an object that drives on the road as a car.
 Deepest Level: Includes information that is processed semantically which means in terms of its meaning. When we get to the deepest level we make associations with things which mean that we are more likely to remember it in the future.

Time after time it seems that people memories improve when they make associations to stimuli that are used in deep processing as opposed to tuning into just the physical characteristics. For example, you are more likely to remember someone face if you make some type of association with it as opposed to remembering how the people look. You could attach a meaning to it or correlate the individual to a famous person. Likewise you could associate a famous individual with a friend of yours not is not a celebrity by any means. Next, cognitive psychologists or the psychologists that studies the thinking process realize that there is more to memory than just deep processing. There’re a lot of layers of memory so to speak. While were still on the topic of deep processing, the more extensive the processing, the better you will remember something. Elaboration is defined as the extensiveness of processing at any level. Rather then just remembering a definition, you should come up with a deep concept of the word by thinking of examples that relate to the word his is a strategy that is used often of Kaplan’s Sat flashcards. On the front it has the word, and on the back it has the definition followed by a sentence that uses the definition properly. The primarily reason that elaboration is so successful is because it helps makes something distinct in your mind. Just think of an event that you remembered in your life. A one that I think that affects people living today is the World Trade Center event. Most people most likely remember where they were and how they first heard the news. The people that were in the event and survived most likely have a hard time forgetting about the event and can most likely remember the sounds and all of the imagery very clearly. Speaking of seeing things clearly, imagery is a very important aspect of memory. To make memories extremely powerful it is important to use mental imagery. An example of using mental imagery is remembering where you placed your remote control once you finished watching television last night. Some psychologists believed that using mental imagery is so powerful, because people will tend to remember images more then words. It has been proven that images can help individuals learn a foreign language. However, how intricate storage is just don’t determine how well it will get encoded. Storage refers to the ways that information stays in storage for a long period of time. We remember some information for years, and some we forget within a minute or possibly less. Sensory memory is a type of memory that holds information in a sensory form for an instant. It is extremely high in detail but the information is quickly loss. Think of the sounds you hear when you’re getting out of the car, or the sound of a bird singing. These are some common examples of sensory memory. Next, short term memory is information that is usually contained in storage for 30 seconds, or less there are some other strategies used to keep it in storage longer. Some ways that you can improve short term memory is by chunking and reversal. We all probably have experienced with rehearsal which is the repetition of something, usually a number. If we have to remember a telephone number then an easy way to do this is to keep repeating the number. Likewise you can try and remember long numbers by chunking them. For example, look at this number and turn away and try to repeat it. The number is 7835677876. How did you do? Don’t feel too bad if you did poorly. However, you could have done better if you’re chunked or grouped the numbers together. For example rather than trying to remember this big blob of 7835677876, you can chunk in into 783-567-7876. Well, look at what we got it looks similar to a phone number. This is an example of how chunking can b helpful in helping individuals remembers content.

The nuts and bolts of socialization

Socialization is not as easy as it sounds, and to completely understand and it is an on going process throughout life. There are a lot of different parts to socialization so we will try to cover them as brief as possible. The infamous psychologist Sigmund Freud stated that biology pays a significant part in human development. He believed that humans have two simple needs, and the first is the need to bond, and the second is the aggressive drive in which he coined as death instinct. Freud stated that these are two opposing forces that works in the unconscious level and causes some internal torment. The unconscious theory of psychology is both controversial and debatable because there is really no concrete proof that it exists. He also combined personality and the basic drives into three separate parts which are known as the id, ego, and superego. The id is an individual’s basic drives in the unconscious mind, and it demands attention from people. A popular example for this is why a young child demands a bundle of attention and materialistic objects. However, this is usually neutralized that’s why one of the common words added to an individual’s dictionary is no. To avoid being angry and unsatisfied a child most come to think consciously and with rational abilities. It will be illogical and impractical if a child could get everything they want and this is known as the ego stage. The last part is known as superego and this happens when an individual use cultural norms to help make decisions. This happens during the conscious stage as well, and an example is study hard to get good grades and get accepted into college. The id and the superego will always have a battle with each other, but with a socially adjusted individual the ego helps balance these two out. The superego is an important stage because if an individual don’t have it then they will develop an attitude that center around themselves and would not be willing to make sacrifices in life. During his time, sex was a controversial topic and was not viewed as a basic drive for human beings. Now-a-days things have changed quite greatly but are still controversial because it shines women in a negative light. Another psychologist that did great discoveries for the development of children around their environment is Jean Piaget. He was a Swiss psychologist that main concentration was in cognition or the mental processes of individuals. He put together four basic stages for cognitive maturing. The first stage was known as the senorimotor stage. During this stage an individual experiences things solely through their senses such as smelling, tasting, and listening. The second stage is called the preoperational stage and occurs around age 2. This is the stage when a person starts talking and use signals such as the classic “good bye” wave. In this stage an individual sill lacks abstract development. For example if you pull liquid into two separate containers and one is tall while the other is wide, then children in this stage will automatically assume that the taller glass contains more liquid even though it’s the same amount of fluid in both containers. The third or concrete operational stage is which individuals can experience a more logical connection to their surroundings. An example is when an individual can note that a day can have one the more significance. If it’s Sunday than not only do an individual go to church but they also have no school. The last stage is known as the formal operational stage and an individual has the ability to think very abstractly. They have a deeper understanding of things can solve some concrete math or logic problems. Even though Piaget based his theories on cognition he didn’t really consider the effect that society would have on an individual developing stages, and some individuals don’t go through all stages as a result of this. In some parts of the world especially in the very traditional cultures individuals don’t go through all stages. However don’t think that his only happens in the United States because it may surprise you that a large portion of Americans can’t read or write. A sociologist that built on Piget’s discoveries was named Lawrence Kohlberg. What he studied is individual’s moral rationalizing capabilities or how they how they come to reason on what is right, and what is wrong. As young children we don’t rely on our guilt feelings but more like what feels good to us. What feels good is usually associated with what is right, and this is known as the pre-conventional stage. In the next stage or conventional stage, which usually happens in the teen years, individuals usually will become less selfish and try to adjust to society’s needs. In the final or post-conventional stage people look up and beyond their society’s norms and ethics to help make their decisions. An example of this is debating the law because the average person will not question it, but some people may think that just because something is not against the law doesn’t mean its right. Most individuals will not make it to this stage. However, there were some common errors in Kohlberg’s study and this was a very common one. There was a gender bias because all of his subjects were male and he generalized female morality based on males and you can see the obvious flaw here. Luckily, Carol Gilligan fixed this error and compared the moral development of boys and girls. What she concluded that men were more by the rules. If they hear that someone broke into a hospital and stole medicine then they will view it as wrong. However, a woman may look into it deeper and consider why an individual would break into a hospital and steal medicine and would be more sympathetic to those that steal for a meaningful purpose such as Robin Hood. Perhaps it was to save his sickly life when he didn’t have the capital to pay for it.

Socialization and is it all that important?

Socialization is extremely critical for human beings, without it life would be dull. In 1938 it was an unfortunate but true case study of this. A girl named Anna was born to a mentally impaired woman that lived with her father. She was sent countless of places but was then returned home due to financial restraints. She was then forced into the attic and was given only enough milk to live on and lived there until she was five. She wasn’t given no affection, no smiles, no hugs, or anything else, just coldness. Luckily, social workers saved the girl and sociologist Kingsley Davis went to see the girl immediately once he heard of the tragedy. The girl was completely unresponsive, he reported and she did not laugh nor speak. However, with some help and guidance the girl did learn how to walk, speak a little, and even care for herself. However, she died at the young age of 10. This is an example of how lack of socialization can harm someone both physically and mentally. The term socialization refers to the way humans adapt to their surroundings and learn their culture. Unlike animals that behavior is biologically programmed, humans learn and adopt over time. Social experience and interacting with people is what helps forms an individual’s personality or an individual’s consistent pattern such as emotions, thoughts, and behavior. Animals generally tend to act similar such as a cat. A cat in America will usually act the same as a cat in Egypt, but the same can’t be applied to humans. We build a personality it just doesn’t come automatically to us, and we build it by our surroundings but as the case I mentioned earlier, without socialization a personality doesn’t form. In Anna case it is defiantly clear that humans depend on other people to not only mature physically, but mentally. About a century ago it was believed that people was born with certain instincts that would form personality and behavior. An example is Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution that led people to think this. The US economic system led some people to believe that some behaviors just occurred “naturally,” such as some people are born criminals, or women tend to think more emotionally while men think more rationally. People also used this thinking for centuries to justify their “ethnocentric” view on society. They claimed that members of a technologically inadequate society were not as biologically evolved as they were so they were viewed as being less human. Why not exploit others if they seem to be less evolved and not as human as us? You can obviously see the flaw in this. In the twentieth century a psychologist who helped explained behavior clearer is known as John B Watson, and developed the theory of behaviorism. This refuted the theory mentioned above and stated that behavior was not something that people are born with, but more learned by their surroundings. He also stated that people around the globe are equally human beings, just they share different cultures and that behavior can be correlated to not nature, but more with nurture. However, that does not mean that biology does not play any part of behavior. Most people usually share biological traits with their parents such as height and hair color, and their parents genetic makeup could influence their intelligence and artistic talents such as art or music. But, as again it deals with socialization, and individual can’t develop a personality without interacting so children tend to pick up habits from their parents through years of socialization. Also, it’s interesting to note that people brains can’t fully develop if they didn’t utilize it when they were a child. So yes, it’s quite important to get mysterious games and puzzles for your children so you can help them develop a more elastic brain. So avoiding people is not good for numerous of reasons. An interesting and classic study was conducted by psychologist Harry and Margaret Harlow using monkeys. It would be illegal to use human beings for a study like this. Since monkeys show the closest correlation to human beings than they were used for this experiment. The experiments included testing monkeys in various environments and comparing the results to one another. When a baby monkey was placed in complete isolation (except for food and nutrients) for six months they reported some deformities in their development. They found that when they returned to their group that they were extremely fearful and subservient. They then placed a baby monkey in cage with an “artificial mother,” and this mother was made of wire and had a wooden head, and a feeding tube for a nipple. These monkeys also showed some deformities because when they were placed back in their group they were unable to interact properly. However, for the last experiment a baby monkey was placed in a cage with an artificial mother made of “soft cloth,” than the monkey held on to the artificial mother very closely and show very little sociological deformities. So what was the difference between the artificial mothers? Well, with the hard wired one the monkey was unable to hold on to the mother because it was rough and didn’t give back. However, with the soft artificial mother the baby monkey held on to it very deeply because it was soft more like the way a mother is and it developed a bond with it. So, this experiment confirms how important it is for infants to receive love and hugs so that they can develop properly. It’s also interested to note that the psychologists studied that the infants can recover from as much as three months of isolation, but around six months the behavior was noted to be “irreversible.” Like the story I mentioned earlier with Anna, after ten days the sociologist visited her she showed immediate improvement and even smiled. A year later she show some slow but steady progress showing some interest in objects and people and even teaching herself how to walk. About six months later she could take care of herself such as feeding and even played with toys. Even though she showed drastic improvement by the age eight she showed the mental development of that of a two year old, and at the age ten she died of a blood deformity. This is evidence that some things are irreversible but this statement can easily be argued. As noted earlier she was born to a mentally disabled mother so that could have stunted her developing process even greater and the mystery remains unsolved even to this day. A more up to date case of child isolation took placed when a California girl was tied up in a dark garage in a basement. The girl name was Genie and when she was saved at the age of thirteen she weighed only about sixty pounds. She had the mental capacity to that of a one year old, and her language remains that of a young child. Today she lives in a home of mental disabled adults. This is evidence that socialization is crucial for the development of humans and animals for that matter. Human beings can sometimes recover from damage but to what extent is the answer, and I will assume it will remain the same because every individual is different.

Sell that Merchandise

Merchandise stores have a couple of objectives. They need to make a decision on the price that they re willing to sell the merchandise, and the quality of service that they need to give customers, that’s basically it. There are a couple of well known department stores in the world and they are Wal-Mart http://www.walmart.com/ and Target http://www.target.com/. A department store can have the option of setting high prices for items and providing quality service, or they can become a discount store. A discount store sells items a frugal price but provide little to none customer service. Target is a discount store and that’s why they are so distinguished. They provide good customer service, and high quality brand name products. Target prices are extremely competitive because they sell well known material with a nice discount. A merchandising business makes their income by the purchasing and selling of goods. Every merchandising company whether it’s wholesale or resale uses a similar accounting formula. For a retail company the management is a difficult task because the buying and then selling of goods make it an uneasy task. The accountings for a merchandidng business compared to that of a manufacturing business are just about equal. The cash flow management is important for a merchandising business and it requires organizing a company’s receipts and payments of money. If a company is not capable of paying their bills when they are needed then that is when they will go out of business. This is very true for merchandising business, and the goods that are sold are known as merchandise inventory. The normal transactions that merchandising business go through is known as the operating cycle. First, the business purchases the merchandise inventory, and pay for it on either cash or credit and second, they sell the merchandise inventory for wither cash or credit. What’s risky about a merchandising business is because the purchases are usually made on credit which means that they have to wait some time before they actually receive the money for it. However, this is not really a huge issue. The proper management of cash flow is extremely crucial for a merchandising business because they have to keep financing the inventory (goods in stock) until they are sold which can be risky. The financing period is the time from the purchase of goods for inventory, until the customers come in and purchase the products. This is also commonly referred as the cash gap. So, if it takes 50 days to sell inventory, and 60 days to collect sales for it, an the creditors payment conditions are 30 days, then the financing period is 90 days. In the financial period the company will currently be out of cash and will need to borrow money from creditors such as banks if they don’t have the funds available. A merchandising business specialist is defiantly Claire’s Stores, Inc. They specialize in selling to teenage females and young adults. They are testing what products are selling and which ones are not. Target generally has a low financial period because they usually receive payments by cash, as opposed to credit which takes longer. The sell of goods on Visa and MasterCard are considered cash sales because they take the money right from the purchaser’s account. Generally the smaller retail stores have more sales on cash then credit, while the bigger ones sales come mostly from credit. The average merchandising store will have a combination of both. Also, cash flows is not the only concern of a merchandising business because they also take into account profitability. The reason why merchandising businesses sell goods at such a large price is so that they can have enough money left to make an income. Profitability management is a very hard task and it includes getting a decent margin, and to maintain appropriate levels of operating expenses. Getting a decent margin will depends on the appropriate pricing of merchandise, and purchasing merchandise for a fair price. To keep the operating expenses going smoothly it depends on controlling expenses and operating everything properly. At important times throughout the year the management should compare its estimated budget to its actual one. For example, if a company has estimated that they will spend 10,000 on purchasing merchandise but actually spent $10,150 then they went over a little. However, it can be countered if they estimate that they will make $17,000 from the profit but actually ended up making $19,000. A company must also look at home their advertising is going because if they are under spending then they may not be getting the recognition that they are looking for, but if they are overspending and not getting the results they attended then they are wasting their money. They should also pay special attention to their insurance expense as well. Another important aspect of the management system is to choose the inventory system properly. Management must choose one or a couple of systems that will get the job done in a timely manner. There are two basic systems used in accounting for this and they are perpetual and the periodic inventory system. When using the perpetual inventory system, numerous of records are kept for the quantity available and the cost of the individual items as they are sold. This detailed system gives the management team a better chance of the wants or needs of customers because they have an idea what is in stock. The cost of an individual item in this system is recorded in the Merchandise Inventory account, and when the item is sold it is transferred to the Cost of Goods sold account. However, for the periodic inventory system the item that is not sold is checked often, but usually towards the end of an accounting period. No records are kept for the inventory throughout the accounting period. The inventory is only accurate for the balance sheet date. The reason why some retail stores use this method is because it cuts down on the clerical work. This method is acceptable for small business, but I’m not sure it will work too well for large businesses. Generally companies that sale items in bulk amounts or high quantity but low quality such as discount retail stores will favor this method. On the other hand, companies that sell high priced but high quality but low quantity items such as jewelry stores will tend to use the perpetual inventory system. The main transactions of merchandising businesses come from buying and selling. Merchandising business uses assets, merchandise inventory, and accounts receivable. A merchandising business is extremely opened to theft and fraud. The reason for this is its quite easy to that the cash and inventories are easy to steal and its difficult for a large company to keep track of all of the transactions that goes on each day. So, that’s why it’s extremely critical for a merchandising business to take the precautions to protect their assets which is commonly referred as internal controls. To maintain control of the inventory, it is required in both systems to take a physical inventory. This is a physical count of the merchandise that is currently available. This can get tricky at times because humans can miscount, so accuracy is very crucial during this process. The merchandise inventory is all of the goods that will be sold in the future. These include all goods whether in boxes on the shelf or currently on the self. The ending inventory is inventory that cannot be sold, or are not intended to be sold. These include merchandise that has been damaged, but it’s a good idea to sell the damaged goods at a significantly reduced price if they can to get rid of it. The count for the business is usually taken at the end of the fiscal year or when the business will significantly slow down such as in January or February. However, they will generally do this when their store are closed, or sometimes on the weekends. It’s very common for companies to experience loss of merchandise from their own employees. When using the periodic system there is no way of finding out how this happened because the loss of merchandise is automatically included in the cost of goods sold. For example, if a company lost $2,000 during an accounting period then that will automatically included in the cost of goods sold. However, with the perpetual system this makes it a lot easier to identify losses because the merchandise inventory account is constantly updated with sales, and returns of goods. Once the amount of loss is calculated the merchandise inventory account will be updated.

Personality and what’s the Real You?

Personality like many things in life is sort of concrete and can be difficult to define at times. The basic definition is the relatively stable characteristics that are enduring and distinctive which means it separates people from the crowd. Psychologists that study personalities try to analyze why people act differently to different situations such as why one person acts shy when they first meet a stranger or while some people are just natural and funny and be themselves. Some scientists believe that this is genetically engraved and that people don’t have much control over this. Other psychologists believe that it’s the environment has a significant say in the way people act. The truth is that personality is a multi dimensional topic and requires pieces from various theories because everyone is unique. One theory is the psychodynamic perspective which was discovered by Sigmund Freud. This theory basically states that personality merely exists on the surface and to find someone true personality you have to dig deep in mind. Psychologists who favor this approach believe that personality is an unconscious process, or that the individuals are not aware that they conceited or confident. He was known for his controversial theory that young boys have a sexual attraction to their mother, maybe he was referring to himself with his romantic relationship with his mother who was 20 years younger than his father. A theory about the unconscious mind that makes somewhat sense is when people are having a conversation and calls someone they know a different name. For example, if a woman broke up with her boyfriend and got a new boyfriend and calls her current boyfriend her ex boy friend name it could mean that he is still in her thoughts. Freud also believes that dreams hold important motifs in behavior. He also believed that personality can be constructed into layers like an ice berg. The part that is buried far below the water is the id or the unconscious aspect. A good example will be children because a lot of time they will act on pleasure without thinking about the end result much. If people would have a strong id personality than this would be a very scary place to live. People would act on natural impulses rather than conforming to society norms. The ego is nice to have because it helps people realize reality and help conform to society norms. For example, a lot of people realize that they can’t have their sex and aggression levels high and unmanaged and when they let it go than it usually lead to crimes like rape for one. Last, the superego also referred as the conscious aspect is the moral decider. It decided what is right and what is wrong. A lot of psychologist didn’t follow Freud’s unconscious theory and a psychologist that was heavily against it was Alfred Adler. He believed that people were motivated by purposes and goals to achieve something in life. He also believes that people had the ability to be aware of what’s going on in their life and to consciously monitor their day to day events. He also believed that people try to compensate for things they don’t have. For example, a person that tries to be superior may being doing it for their own insecurities because they will feel better about themselves by bringing other people down. This theory was known as individual psychology, in which states that people are motivated by purposes and to attain goals. When people attempt to overcome their insecurities this is known as compensation. When psychologists ignore the unconscious mind they tend to look at the environment more when determining personality, and this is known as the behavior approach. They believe that you can only determine personality by what you see on the outside surface. For an example, if someone is shy, work hard, and are motivated to achieve something, this is apart of their personality. This theory was founded by an early psychologist named BF Skinner. He also believed that a person personality can change due to the stress in the environment, so he believed that personality was never consistent. So a person that is shy can be shifted to someone that is aggressive and out going, and a person that is out going can be shifted into a shy personality all due to their environment. If a person is giving a positive reinforcement for a particular behavior, than it is more likely that it will come up again in the future. A different approach from Freud and Skinner’s theory is the humanist approach discovered by Carl Roger. This approach is a less pessimistic view, and finds the good in humans and believes that humans have the freedom to choose their own destiny. The central theme in Roger’s approach is self concept which is an individual’s view of their own abilities, behavior, traits, and personality. If a person has a distorted self concept than most likely they will be awkward to hang around and associate with. When analyzing self concept Rogers talked about distinguishing yourself between the real self and the ideal self. The ideal self is the type of person that we would like to be. If a person has a large conflict between their real self and the type of person that they would like to be than the more awkward or maladjusted they will act. To correct this we should try to focus more on our real self and develop a positive view on it and stop caring about what other people want or expect of us and try to have more positive experiences in our everyday lives. Another way we can help develop a more positive view of our real self is by a concept known as unconditional positive regard. This term can be defined by being accepting of different individuals regardless of their behavior which is kind of hard to do. When a person is being rude, aggressive, or disrespectful, as weird as this sounds they still need support and to be loved. This doesn’t mean to hug someone after hey punch you, but more like “I don’t like the way you are acting but I still care about you and respect you as a person.”

I prefer Long term Assets

To see how well a company is doing with managing their long term assets you just need to know where to look. Some places you can find this is in the reported total assets, net income, and cash flows that are related to the investing activities of a business. An idea of how a company is utilizing long term assets can be found in their financial statements. A company that is particular good at this just happens to be one of the largest food companies and goes by the name of H.J Heinz www.heinz.com or that famous ketchup company. It has close to 66 percent of its total assets are classified as long term assets. The income statement comes in handy because it displays depreciation of assets over time, and Heinz has had about 299 million dollars worth of depreciated expenses. Long term assets are constantly looked at to see if some of the assets have loss some of its value which will result in what is known as asset impairment. Getting rid of long term assets could show an increase or decrease on the income statement, it just depends on the situation. So, long term assets are classified as assets that have a relatively long life, usually of at least one year. Second, they are used for the operation of a business, and third, they are not usually resold. In the pass years long term assets were usually referred as fixed assets, but this statement is not correct today because fixed usually apply to something that lasts forever. There is no really set in stone rule to classify a long term asset, but they are usually thought of to last for at least one year with repetitive use. Assets that are not normally used in the everyday operations of a business should not be included in this category, and assets that are available for resale should be called inventory. Also, assets are different from current assets because they are expected to aid a business for longer periods of time, and are used in the day to day operating cycle of an entity. A very important part of long term assets are its carrying value, or the part of the price of an asset that hasn’t expired yet. It is also known as the book value of an asset. If a long term asset just happens to lose part or all of its money producing potential before the end of its self life than the carrying value is reduced. Asset impairment occurs when the cash flow of the asset ends up being less then the carrying value. When the carrying value is reduced then it is counted as a loss. Long term assets can be further broken down into three distinct items. They are tangible assets, natural resources, and intangible assets. A tangible asset is a type of long term asset that is physical like land, buildings, and equipment. Natural resources are a type of long term assets that is exchanged for economic value and can be obtained from the land, like gas, gold, and ore. Last a intangible asset is an type of long term asset that doesn’t have any physical worth but have a value based on the rights that is granted to the owner. An example of this is copyright, patent, and trademarks. The way that tangible assets loses value is through depreciation, the way that natural resources lose value is through depletion, and the way that intangible assets loses value is through amortization. Picking long term assets are a very concrete and intricate process. Before choosing a long term asset the management must decide how they will finance an asset one they have it. Companies that generate enough profit can pay for long term assets from the cash flow of their day to day operations. It’s very similar to how an individual pays for the loan of a car or the loan on mortgage. When companies want issue a long term acquisition then they must do this through capital stock, bonds, or long term notes. A nice place to analyze a company’s long term financing is through the financing activities in the statement of cash flow. When you’re dealing with long term assets you must make sure that you’re using the matching rule appropriately. The first thing you should do is find the total expense in the current accounting period. Second, you should see how much money is retained from the on the balance sheet to see if the asset will be beneficial in the future. To solve these dilemmas there should be four important questions that you ask yourself. First, how is the value of the long term asset determined? Second, how much the depreciated value of the long term asset should be allocated against the revenues in the long run. Third, how much money on expenditures such as repairs is use? Last, how would the disposal of the long term asset is recorded in the financial records? Because long term assets are very confusing, they have many alternatives to manage them. It’s best to think of long term assets as something that will provide a particular need or operation over the years. For example, you shouldn’t think of a truck on how long it will run, but on how many miles it will drive. Another example is how much paper a photocopier machine will copy, and how many people a hotel will shelter. It’s also important to determine if a business will have the money to finance the asset in the future. Expenditure is known as the payment or a promise to make a payment in the future for an asset such as for a payment of a service or for a new laser printer you purchased for your business. There are two types of expenditures, and they are capital expenditures and revenue expenditures. A capital expenditure refers to the expenditure of a long term asset like land for example. Revenue expenditure refers to the expenditure for something related to repair or maintenance such as the repair of a bull dozer for a construction company.

I don’t like your attitude

People always fluctuate in their behavior from day to day and we all have had our times in which we acted rude to people, and had the pleasure of having the reverse happen as well. Kay Redfield Jamison an international guru of about mood disorders has had her share of mood swings during her times. For years she kept this extreme psychological disorder a secret in which she had moods that switched from being super excited known as mania, to times that she was lethargic and depressed. She actually wrote a book about these events and tells about it in more detail. By the way, the disorder was known as bipolar disorder and effects many people around the world. With determination, a strong will, and support from her family and friends she overcame her struggles and continue to teach about psychological disorders to this day. I know that you’re probably wondering what are the types of characteristics of deviant or abnormal behavior? Well, one way abnormal behavior can be diagnosed is with some common symptoms. It may surprise you that there are about 40 million Americans that are affected by some type of psychological disorder. You may think of a psychological disorder as what the main character had in the movie “A beautiful Mind.” In essence you are right but there are a lot more other characteristics involved and a psychological disorder can also be defined by having an addiction to a substance like alcohol or drugs. To fully understand psychological disorders an individual must analyze abnormal behavior. Let’s take a look at three different case studies.

 A twenty six year old woman named Helena has a need to walk in a specific way. When she is walking on the street in the public she believes that if she steps on certain cracks she will have bad luck, but in order to reverse that bad luck she has to turn around and walk back a block. She doesn’t like to do this much so she often stay home and pay people to go and pick up her groceries and other needed items.
 A thirty five year old woman has recently got a divorce from her husband who she has been previously married to for eleven years and has two children with. Her husband have left her for her best friend and she is going back to college to continue her education so she can earn some more money to better support her children. She has a hard time struggling with school work and has grown separate from her friends and colleagues. A lot of the time she doesn’t feel like doing much and tends to cry a lot at nigh time. She also has a more pessimistic view in life and doesn’t believe in true love anymore.
 A thirty year old man named Don has to have things arrange in his house a certain way. Even though he is wealthy enough to afford a maid he constantly has to rearrange things in his house after she leaves. He sweeps the floor and wipes off tables even though she has done that before.

Most people would say that the behavior of all of these individuals are abnormal, but are all of them bizarre? That’s a common myth about behavior, because people will automatically assume that abnormal behavior is bizarre and it’s not necessary true. Take the women in the second case study described even though her behavior is abnormal it is not necessary bizarre. A lot of times people with abnormal behavior cannot easily be distinguished from people with normal behavior. Also, just because a person currently has a mental disorder doesn’t mean that they will always have it. The term abnormal behavior varies from different academic mediums. However, the federal courts define insanity which is more of a legal term rather than a psychological on as the inability to differentiae right from wrong. This is a very common term that comes up in terms. One infamous example is in 1996 when multimillionaire John Dupont shot and killed Olympic Gold medalist wrestler David Schultz. He also has been charged with a couple of assaults earlier. Dupont lawyers used the “insanity” definition as a lame excuse to get him off the hook and it worked because in the end because the jury declared that he had a psychological disorder and he was found guilty of third degree murder. There are three criteria’s for crossing the line between abnormal behavior and normal behavior. Abnormal behavior is usually deviant which means it abstracts from the norms of society. However, remarkable people like Martin Luther King and Bill Gates are not the average person but they are far from being abnormal. When a behavior deviate from what is expected by society than it could be called abnormal. The second criteria are that it is usually maladaptive which means that it interferes with a person’s ability to function properly in the real world. Last, abnormal behavior includes personal distress. This means that the person is deeply bothered by this and it causes them unnecessary pain and suffering. The causes for abnormal behavior can vary tremendously. We can look at several factors such as biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors to help determine this. Psychologists who favor the biological approach tend to emphasize the brain and genetic traits as the primarily cause of abnormal behavior. When using this approach the primarily form of treatment is drugs or drug therapy. The biological approach is used often in the medical model, which describes psychological disorders as diseases related to biological origins. From the medical view abnormalities are seen a mental illness. The people that are infected with the mental illness are known as patients and they have to be treated by doctors. The biological view can also be broken done into three more categories. These are known as structural views, biochemical views and genetic views. The structural view thinks that abnormalities in the brain structure are the main lead to mental disorders. The biochemical view looks at the imbalances in the brain’s chemical structure such as neurotransmitters and hormones as the cause to mental disorders. In the genetic view they look at distorted genes as the main contributor to mental disorders. While the biological approach focuses on inherited traits to be the main contributor to mental disorders, the psychological approach looks at the environment and the unconscious mind as the main contributor to abnormalities. This has three parts to it which includes the psychodynamic perspective, behavioral and social cognitive prospective, and the humanistic perspective. The psychodynamic perspective thinks that psychological disorders come from unconscious conflicts that can cause anxiety and a maladaptive behavior. The main contributor to deviant behavior in this approach is from early bad relationships. If an individual develops bad relationships with either offspring early on in their life than the individual will develop abnormalities. Sigmund Freud was the developer of the psychoanalytic approach in which it places more emphasis on what you can’t physically see. In the behavioral and social cognitive prospective they place an emphasis on the environment in shaping abnormal behavior. They believe that people learn behavior by observing those around them, through self control, through their beliefs in themselves, and through a variety of other cognitive factors which are the key to psychological disorders in this approach. In the humanistic perspective they place an emphasis on an individual’s freedom to do what they want and chose their own destiny and personal characteristics. They believe that psychological disorders come up when an individual fails to meet their own potential. All of the psychological perspective focuses on the individual. The next approach is the sociocultural approach. This concept places a larger emphasis on the area in which an individual lives such as their family, neighborhood, economic status, and culture. For one example, they believe that a conflict between one’s cultures will be a contributor to a mental disorder in an individual. It’s not necessary the individual that has a mental disorder but rather to an unbalanced social life. There are also some gender effects in determining mental disorders. Women are more likely to have internal mental disorders, which are disorders that affect them inside. They are more likely to be effected with anxiety attacks, and moods of depression. On the other hand, men are more likely to be effected with external disorders or disorders that are seen outward. Some examples of these disorders are substance abuse and moods of aggression. Many psychologists now believe that psychological disorders are universal which means that they are the same for people everywhere around the world regardless of geographic location or their social status. However, depending on the factors I just mentioned they do vary. There are also some disorders that strictly effect people of one culture, and here are three big ones that I’m currently aware of: Amok, Windigo, and Anorexia Nervosa. The Amok effect people of Malaysia and the Philippines and in this disorder and individual suddenly has a fierce burst of rage and anger and kill and injure as many people as possible before they are killed. This disorder is commonly found in males and the cause of this can be numerous of factors such as jealously, or losing a lot of money through gambling. Windigo is a disorder commonly found in Algonquin Indian hunters and is very similar to a horror story in which an individual is hunted and chased by a fictionist character and become bewitched such as by a bit of a vampire or werewolf. The hunter becomes worried that they will turn into a flesh eating cannibal and harm other around them. The last disorder, I think that many Americans is aware of the last disorder and that is called anorexia nervosa and effects people of mainly Western cultures with a special emphasis on the people in the United States. This is an eating disorder in which an individual tries to maintain an unhealthy low weight through starvation which can ultimately lead to death.

How past experiences affect your life

Sociologist Herbert Mead developed a theory known as social behaviorism, which helped explained why past social experiences help form an individuals’ personality. Mead did not believe that personality was developed by drives or biologically, but more on terms socially. He stated that the self only developed when people interact with one another. Without the interaction of other people an individual can’t develop a personality. An example of this is if a child is left in total isolation for a long period of time then they don’t mature both physically or mentally. Next, social experience is crucial, and this includes the exchange of symbols. Only people attach meanings to words and symbols. If you tell a dog to sit and it obeys then you may give it a snack. However, this doesn’t mean it knows why to sit down, but it does so to get food. You can tell a dog to sit for numerous of reasons such as wanting to impress your friends, or to calm it down because it is running all over the place. Also, Mead noted that understanding individual intentions is critical. This will help us to analyze how an individual will respond even before we act. For example, when we’re driving we all anticipate what others may do because of experience. If an individual behinds you is speeding up rather quickly, then you can assume that they are about to switch lanes, or you can assume that they are in a rush and need to get somewhere quickly. Mead refers to this as taking another individual’s role. Another important theory that is related to social behaviorism is the looking-glass self. This is basically like mirroring what we think others think of us. If we think others view you as being “good looking,” then you will see yourself as being good looking, or if you think people think that you are fat then you will have that image of yourself. People take the roles of other people during development. Infants have very little knowledge so they tend to mimic others. Children often have creative minds and take on roles of other significant others or people such as parents that have a special importance in their social development. For example, children will play house in which someone will take the role of a mother while another take that of a father. As they age children will learn to take various roles and adjust to their surroundings. As we continue to age we will continue to see changes in our social life. There are a lot of critics of Mead’s theories and some claim that he focus too much on the society in developing an individual’s behavior. Another sociologist Erik H. Erikson stated that unlike Freud who believed that personality was pretty much set in stone in the first couple of years of an individual’s life, that personality changes in stages and occurs all the way up to death. His theory is not all that accurate as well, because people experience changes in different orders and time. Through all of the disagreements, sociologists generally agree on this main idea, and that is that the family has the greatest impact on an individual’s socialization abilities. When an individual is an infant they have no control and usually rely on their parents and family members to help nurture them. Through family they learn several of communication techniques such as trust, culture, and beliefs. Don’t get me wrong, not all learning comes solely from family; they can come from the environment as well because in a lot of cultures they use the environment to help raise a child. I guess the saying is true in which it takes a “village to raise a child.” It may not be surprising to you that different social classes tend to raise their children differently. An interesting survey that happened in the United States compared what a lower class family would want in a child compared to that of an upper class family. A lower class family would usually favor obedience and conformity while an upper class family would tend to favor creativity and good judgment (NORS, 2003). Have you ever wondered why? Well the reason is lower class workers tend to have jobs that they must be very obedient in and are highly supervised. Subconsciously they are gearing their children towards that route and will even use physical punishment to achieve it. In upper class workers they tend to have jobs that inspire individuality and creativity which is very similar to the traits they would like to have in their children. School also has a large effect on an individual’s personalities. If you think about it you spend a huge chunk of time each day at school. It’s also interesting to note that children tend to play with people as the same race and gender, and that boys are more physical and aggressive while girls are more well behaved. Boys also tend to find abstract activities more interesting like video games and girls tend to be more artistic. The same thing follows when they get to college because boys tend to major in physical sciences, and computing while girls usually major in humanities and arts. In school is where children discover peer groups or individual that has similar interest as themselves. People tend o indemnify more with their peer groups and can have conversations about things they understand like clothes, music, and style. Peer groups are a way for individuals to escape adult supervision, and people are usually more out spoken in peer groups. During the adolescent years people tend to identify more with their peer groups because they identify themselves as an adult and that is also a time in which parents are concerned about who their children hang around because they know that who they hang around influence their behavior deeply. During these years the mass media heavily affects individuals as well. Studies have showed that television have made people more passive and lessoned their creativity. In the United States we spend he most time watching television and own the most T.V sets per household.

Got to love that accounting equation

A company’s financial position indicates the amount of resources that they have, and also the claims against those precious resources at any time. Claims can also be referred as equities. So, a company can be known as a combination of economic resources and equities. Economic Resource=Equities. No mater what type of business your in, every type of company has two different types of equities. They are creditor’s equity and owner’s equity. In another way Economic Resources= Creditors Equities +Owners Equity. When using accounting language, the economic resources a company has at a particular time is called their assets? On the other hand the amount of creditor’s equity a company has is known as their liabilities. So here is the standard equation of accounting or better known as the accounting equation: Assets=Liabilities + Owner’s Equity. Similar to an algebraic equation, both sides of the equation has to be equal. This equation comes in handy when analyzing the financial effects of your everyday business activities. Let’s talk about a very important concept of any business. Assets are known as the economic resources that a business has that are expected to generate money for them in the future. Some examples are real estate and any other property that a business own so that they can rent out to people. If a business is owed money than it goes into what is known as accounts receivable which are monetary items. However, there are some assets that are not physical. Some examples are copyrights, trademarks, and patents, but they are still extremely valuable to a business. Next, liabilities are the obligations that a business has such as paying cash, provide future services to individuals, or transferring assets to another entity. These are known as the debt of a business or the money that they have to owe in the near future. All of these are recorded in the accounts payable. As I’m sure you know, having a lot of debt is not fun and liabilities/debt are claims that are seen by the law. The law gives creditor (People that money is owed to) the right to push the sale of a company’s assets if they don’t pay their debt on time. Creditors have a ton of rights over owners and they have to be paid in full even before the owners receive anything. It is very possible for a debt to consume up all a company’s resources. Next, owner’s equity refers to the claim that owners of a business make in regards to the assets they have. It is the residual interest or the remaining assets of a company after deducting the amount of entity liabilities. Here is the equation for owner’s equity. Owner equity=Assets-Liabilities. The owner’s equity within a particular corporation is referred as stockholders equity, so the equation then looks like this. Assets=Liabilities +Stockholder’s Equity. The stockholders equity has two distinct parts which are the contributed capital and retained earnings. Stockholder’s Equity=Contributed Capital + Retained Earnings. The amount than an individual stockholder puts into a business is known as the contributed capital. Contributed capital is usually divided into two separate parts known as par value and “par value” and “additional paid in capital.” The retained earnings are the amount of equity that is earned by stockholders from the income generating activities of a business that are kept for future uses by a business. Retained earnings are affected by three types of transactions which are revenues, expenses, and dividends. The increase and decrease in a stock are known as revenues and expenses respectively and these come from operating a business whether online or offline. If you’re online than an operating expense that you will have if you have your own website is your domain name and hosting service. Another example is if a customer agrees to pay you in the near future for a service that the company will perform. The money is recorded in the accounts receivable (asset account) which increase the asset value but decrease the stock holder’s equity amount which is an example of revenue. However, if a company promises to provide a service in the future than this is known as an expense. When this happens the assets decrease (accounts receivable) and the liabilities (accounts payable) is increased, which makes pretty good sense right? When the revenues exceed the expenses this is known as the net income which is good, and on the other hand when expenses are greater than revenues than this is known as net loss which means that you’re losing business or your business costs more to operate than what you make. Dividends are the distribution of assets to stockholders which refer to the past earnings. Do not confuse expenses with dividends, because they both are reducing the retained earnings amount. Retained earnings are the collected net income or revenues minus expenses. The financial statements are the main way for communicating information about a business to those who have some type of interest in it. What helps me is to think of these statements as a type of model for business because they show how a business is doing in financial terms. However, like a variety of methods and models, financial statements are not perfect and have their flaws. There are four main financial statements, and they are income statement, the statement of retained earnings, the balance sheet, and the statement of cash flows. What the income statement does is summarize the revenues earned or the money made, and the expenses or the money that is deducted from a business. Many accountants consider it the most important financial report because it makes it clear whether a business has met its profitability goal. The next one is the statement of retained earnings, and it displays the retained earnings over a period of time. The time that the retained earnings will be zero is when a company first started out in their accounting period. A lot of companies use the statement of stockholder equity as a substitute of retained earnings. This is a more detailed statement because it displays not only the aspects of retained earnings but it also shows the changes in the stockholders equity accounts. Next, the financial situation of a business on a particular date, usually on the end of the month or the year is the balance sheet. The balance sheet displays the value of a business according to their assets and the claims against those assets which are the liabilities and the stockholders equity. Last, the statement of cash flows is geared towards a company’s liquidity measures. They are basically the flow and outflow of cash in a company. The net cash flow is the subtraction between the inflow and outflow of money. The statement of cash flows also display the money generated by simply operating a business, and it also displays the investing and financing transactions that occurs during a particular accounting period.

Follow the Magical Accounting Rules

To make sure that financial statements are easy to understand, there is a set of rules and practices that is established, which is known as the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). This has been developed to provide a basic guideline for the rules of accounting because I think it’s fair to say that it can get confusing at times. There are a lot of variations to the meaning so here is the best answer. It’s the generally accepted accounting rules and procedures that are necessary to define accounting practice. Basically it’s a set of theories that accountants come to accept, and there are always controversies with some methods between accountants like any other field of study. Accounting is a discipline that is always growing and changing so it’s a good idea to keep up to date with all of the trends that are going on. Since the management prepares the financial statements of a company it is possible that a financial statement can be altered to give a company a particular boost. So, that’s why the companies that sell their ownership to the public needs to get their financial statements audited by a public certified accountant. A certified public accountant (CPA) are licensed through the sate for the same exact reason lawyers and doctors are, so they and protect the public by providing the highest quality of professional service possible. The reason why CPAs are used is because they have no connection with the company and are independent. They have zero financing ties with the company. Some firms that employ a lot of certified public accountants include Deloitte & Touch http://www.deloitte.com, KPMG http://www.us.kpmg.com/index.asp, and PricewaterhouseCoopers http://www.pwcglobal.com/. An accountant with no strings attached or is independent commonly performs an audit, which is evaluating a companies financial statements, product, accounting systems, and records. The main purpose of an audit is to make sure that the financial statements have been properly prepared according to the excepted accounting rules. Keep in mind; since accounting is not a precise science it has room for interpretation according to the GAPP. However, that doesn’t mean that the accountants report should contain substantial errors in the financial report, but more like that for the most report it is reliable for creditors to take a look at. An accountant can make a decision only when the financial statements conform to the guidelines of GAAP. In the past creditors, banks, and investors tend to favor an auditor when they are deciding to invest in a company or give loans, because of their independence. The individualistic audit is an extremely crucial factor in the growth of financial markets internationally. Also, many organizations can directly or indirectly influence a GAAP. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) http://www.fasb.org/ is the most critical body for the development and issuing of rules on accounting practice. The website I previously listed is extremely critical and you can attend seminars online for no cost, and also stay up to date with the rules. This independent body issues the Statements of Financial Accounting Standards. Next, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) http://www.aicpa.org/index.htm is the official professional association for certified accountants. It’s the largest CPA organization that exists in America and heavily influence accounting practices through its senior committees. The Securities and Exchange Commission is the agency of the federal government that legally has the power to set and execute accounting practices for companies that sell security to the public, and it has a large impact on accounting practice. Next, the governmental accounting standard (GASB) http://www.gasb.org/ is critical for accounting because its main job is to issue the standards for accounting to the local and state governments in the United States. However, a lot of these organizations are focused on the rules in regulations in the United States. There are a lot of businesses and accountants internationally so that’s why the International Accounting Standard Board http://www.iasb.org/ (IASB) was formed. It was approved by more then 25 international agencies. The U.S laws that analyze the revenues for the cost of operating a business can also affect accounting practice. It’s no question that the major provider for income for the government comes from income tax. The income tax rules are heavily applies by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) http://www.irs.gov/. Sometimes these rules actually cause a conflict with the accepted rules of accounting. A lot of businesses use accounting practices because it’s a requirement by tax law. Also, companies can use the rules of tax law to their advantage financially. Accounting also has laws of conduct for profession, and one extremely important one is ethics.

 A nice website dealing with the issues of ethics is http://www.ethics.org/.

It touches bases on questions that help determine if something is either right or wrong, and is based on moral decisions. Most people are faced with several ethical issues each day and, and some ethical activities could be on the range of illegal. If a business decides to use false or misleading advertising, or to bribe customers into giving them testimonials for a specific product, then they could be acting in an unethical manner. The ethics of a company could also be a result of the employees so that’s why it’s always a good idea to run a background check of who you are hiring, whether it’s online or offline. Professional ethics is the guidelines that apply to the conduct of individuals of a certain profession. Similar to the ethical actions of a company, the ethical actions of an individual is a decision. As being a member of an organization, accountants have to take the responsibility not only to their customers and employers, but also to the general public to act in the greatest ethical way possible. Accountants are very good at following professional ethics because they are the second professional group as having the largest ethical standards, with clergy being the highest, no surprises about that one. It is important for individuals who decide to become an accountant to have the highest levels of professionalism as possible. To enforce that its prestigious members are following the rules, the AICPA along with each state have adopted some codes of professional conduct that certified public accountants have to follow. Some simple rules are being responsible to the people that depend on the trust of accountants, such as creditors and investors. When working with people the accountant must act with integrity which means that they are honest, and the individuals gain from the visit with the accountant. The accountant must display objectivity which means that they are intellectually honest, and they must remain independent which means that they must avoid any relationship with the business or individual because it will damage the accountant’s principles.

Don’t steal my information

It’s important to take the precautions to protect you and your products from information theft these days, because it’s getting easier and easier for people to share digital products. Information theft is a type of computer security risk and it’s defined as stealing an individual’s personal or confidential information. When this is stolen this can cause as much damage, or possibly more then hardware or software theft. Business or home users are both at risk of information theft. One example is a malicious individual stealing credit cards so they can make unauthorized purchases on another person’s account. If information is transmitted over a network then it has a very high chance for malicious users to intercept the information. Every computer in the path of your data can see what you send, and they can also see what you send. A lot of companies try to stop information from being stolen by applying some user identification and authentication controls. These constraints are best for protecting computers along a company’s premise. However, to protect information on the Internet and on networks, companies use a handful of encryption methods. Encryption refers to the process of converting data into an unreadable form. One type of encryption software is Obfuscated code which is a programming language that is extremely hard to read. Encrypted data is like any other data because you can send it through a lot of options, but to read it you must decrypt or decipher it into a more readable form. Throughout the encryption process, the unencrypted data or input is known as plaintext and the encrypted data, or output is known as ciphertext. To encrypt information, the programmer converts the plaintext into
ciphertext using some type of encryption key. An encryption key is the programmed formula that the person who receives the data uses to decrypt the ciphertext. There are a variety of encryption or algorithm methods. However, with an encryption key formula, you will be using more then one of these techniques. Some business use available software, while others develop their own. When an individual send information online such as through an email for example, they will never know who might intercept it, or to whom it could possibly be forwarded to. That’s why it’s not such a good idea to send confidential information online. However, an individual can help protect themselves by encrypting the information, or signing it digitally. Some very popular email encryption software is known as Pretty Good Piracy (PGP) and Centurion Soft Secure Protection. Pretty Good Piracy is known as freeware, which means that individuals can use it for their personal needs but not for commercial purposes. You can download this for no cost. A digital signature is a type of encrypted code that a individual, website, or company pastes to an electronic document to make sure that the individual is who they claim to be. The code will most likely consist of the user name and a hash of usually part of the message. A hash is a type of mathematical formula that generates content from a specific message, so it is different from a message. The recipient will have to generate a new hash from the received message and compares it from the one with the digital signature to make sure that they match appropriately. The main purpose behind using digital signatures is to make sure that it’s not a deceiver participating in the transaction. So, digital signatures help narrow down e-mail scams. A digital signature can also make sure that contents of a message have not been changed. A lot of web browsers use encryption that is regarded as 40 bit encryption, and this is a very low level. A variety of browsers also offer 128 bit encryption which has a higher level of protection because the encryption key is longer. Some important places that require extremely hire security like banks, and online retailers needs at least 128-bit encryption. A website that successfully uses encryption methods to secure information is known as a secure site. A secure site uses digital certificate with security protocol. The two most popular security protocols are secure sockets layer, and secure HTTP. A digital certificate is a notice that verifies that a user or a website is for real or not a scam. A lot of ecommerce websites will usually have digital certificates. A certificate authority (CA) is an authorized company or individual for that matter that has the ability to issue and verify digital certificates. There are several of websites that offer a digital certificate. Some popular ones are Verisign http://www.verisign.com/, Godaddy www.godaddy.com, Digicert http://www.digicert.com/, and Thawte http://www.thawte.com/.The digital certificate will usually contain information such as the username and the serial number of the certificate. By the way, the information in the digital certificate is also encrypted. Next, the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides encryption of every detail that passes between a server and a client. SSL also requires the client to have a digital certificate, so the web browser can communicate securely with the client. The web pages that use SSL will usually begin with https as opposed to http. SSL is available in 40 and 128-bit encryption. Secured HTTP (S-HTTP) allows individuals to choose encryption for data that pass through a client and a server. When using S-HTTP, the client and the server must have a digital certificate. This makes S-HTTP more difficult to use then SSL, but on the other hand, it is more secured. Companies that have to use verify a client such as online banking companies use S-HTTP. Also, mobile users can also access computer networks through a virtual private network. When mobile users successfully logon to a main office using some type of standard Internet connection, a virtual private network (VPN) allows the mobile user to secure the connection. VPNs encrypt data as it passes from a notebook computer or any other mobile device so it won’t be intercepted. Regardless of your security method, I will highly recommend using the most powerfulness safeguard which is a backup. It prevents data loss from several of sources such as system failure for one. A backup is simply a backup of a file, program, or desk that can be used in place of the original if its loss, destroyed, or corrupted. If the files are destroyed, then you can replace them by restoring it, which copies the backed up files into their original position in the computer.

Computer Security Ethics and Privacy

Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse. For example, it is crucial for businesses to keep information they have secure so that hackers can’t access the information. Home users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when they are participating in online transactions. A computer security risk is any action that could cause lost of information, software, data, processing incompatibilities, or cause damage to computer hardware, a lot of these are planned to do damage. An intentional breach in computer security is known as a computer crime which is slightly different from a cypercrime. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the internet and is one of the FBI’s top priorities. There are several distinct categories for people that cause cybercrimes, and they are refereed as hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist, unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy. The term hacker was actually known as a good word but now it has a very negative view. A hacker is defined as someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully. They often claim that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network. The term cracker has never been associated with something positive this refers to someone how intentionally access a computer or computer network for evil reasons. It’s basically an evil hacker. They access it with the intent of destroying, or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are very advanced with network skills. A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer network or the internet to destroy computers for political reasons. It’s just like a regular terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to implement, and years of planning. The term cyperextortionist is someone who uses emails as an offensive force. They would usually send a company a very threatening email stating that they will release some confidential information, exploit a security leak, or launch an attack that will harm a company’s network. They will request a paid amount to not proceed sort of like black mailing in a since. An unethical employee is an employee that illegally accesses their company’s network for numerous reasons. One could be the money they can get from selling top secret information, or some may be bitter and want revenge. A script kiddie is someone who is like a cracker because they may have the intentions of doing harm, but they usually lack the technical skills. They are usually silly teenagers that use prewritten hacking and cracking programs. A corporate spy has extremely high computer and network skills and is hired to break into a specific computer or computer network to steal or delete data and information. Shady companies hire these type people in a practice known as corporate espionage. They do this to gain an advantage over their competition an illegal practice. Business and home users must do their best to protect or safeguard their computers from security risks. The next part of this article will give some pointers to help protect your computer. However, one must remember that there is no one hundred percent guarantee way to protect your computer so becoming more knowledgeable about them is a must during these days. When you transfer information over a network it has a high security risk compared to information transmitted in a business network because the administrators usually take some extreme measures to help protect against security risks. Over the internet there is no powerful administrator which makes the risk a lot higher. If your not sure if your computer is vulnerable to a computer risk than you can always use some-type of online security service which is a website that checks your computer for email and Internet vulnerabilities. The company will then give some pointers on how to correct these vulnerabilities. The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center is a place that can do this. The typical network attacks that puts computers at risk includes viruses, worms, spoofing, Trojan horses, and denial of service attacks. Every unprotected computer is vulnerable to a computer virus which is a potentially harming computer program that infects a computer negatively and altering the way the computer operates without the user’s consent. Once the virus is in the computer it can spread throughout infecting other files and potentially damaging the operating system itself. It’s similar to a bacteria virus that infects humans because it gets into the body through small openings and can spread to other parts of the body and can cause some damage. The similarity is, the best way to avoid is preparation. A computer worm is a program that repeatedly copies itself and is very similar to a computer virus. However the difference is that a virus needs o attach itself to an executable file and become a part of it. A computer worm doesn’t need to do that I seems copies to itself and to other networks and eats up a lot of bandwidth. A Trojan Horse named after the famous Greek myth and is used to describe a program that secretly hides and actually looks like a legitimate program but is a fake. A certain action usually triggers the Trojan horse, and unlike viruses and worms they don’t replicate itself. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are all classifies as malicious-logic programs which are just programs that deliberately harms a computer. Although these are the common three there are many more variations and it would be almost impossible to list them. You know when a computer is infected by a virus, worm, or Trojan horse if one or more of these acts happen:

 Screen shots of weird messages or pictures appear.
 You have less available memory then you expected
 Music or sounds plays randomly.
 Files get corrupted
 Programs are files don’t work properly
 Unknown files or programs randomly appear
 System properties fluctuate

Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload or instructions through four common ways. One, when an individual runs an infected program so if you download a lot of things you should always scan the files before executing, especially executable files. Second, is when an individual runs an infected program. Third, is when an individual bots a computer with an infected drive, so that’s why it’s important to not leave media files in your computer when you shut it down. Fourth is when it connects an unprotected computer to a network. Today, a very common way that people get a computer virus, worm, or Trojan horse is when they open up an infected file through an email attachment. There are literally thousands of computer malicious logic programs and new one comes out by the numbers so that’s why it’s important to keep up to date with new ones that come out each day. Many websites keep track of this. There is no known method for completely protecting a computer or computer network from computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to significantly reduce their chances of being infected by one of those malicious programs. Whenever you start a computer you should have no removable media in he drives. This goes for CD, DVD, and floppy disks. When the computer starts up it tries to execute a bot sector on the drives and even if it’s unsuccessful any given various on the bot sector can infect the computer’s hard disk. If you must start the computer for a particular reason, such as the hard disk fails and you are trying to reformat the drive make sure that the disk is not infected.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

On the Set of Transformers 3 – Nov 8 & 9, 2010

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, On the Set of Transformers 3 – Nov 8 & 9, 2010 Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Shia LaBeouf filming some intense looking stunts on the set of Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon in Los Angeles in these past couple of days, on November 9 and 8. Have a look in the gallery

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, On the Set of Transformers 3 – Nov 8 & 9, 2010 Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Shia LaBeouf filming some intense looking stunts on the set of Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon in Los Angeles in these past couple of days, on November 9 and 8. Have a look in the gallery

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, On the Set of Transformers 3 – Nov 8 & 9, 2010 Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Shia LaBeouf filming some intense looking stunts on the set of Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon in Los Angeles in these past couple of days, on November 9 and 8. Have a look in the gallery

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, On the Set of Transformers 3 – Nov 8 & 9, 2010 Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Shia LaBeouf filming some intense looking stunts on the set of Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon in Los Angeles in these past couple of days, on November 9 and 8. Have a look in the gallery

Images have been added of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Shia LaBeouf filming some intense looking stunts on the set of Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon in Los Angeles in these past couple of days, on November 9 and 8. Have a look in the gallery!

2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, 2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, 2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, 2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, 2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley walked the runway during the 2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on Wednesday, November 10, at NYC’s Lexington Avenue Armony.

The 23-year-old British model rocked a VS Sexy Little Things Balconet push-up bra, matching panty, and lace corset. She finished her look with Sahani jewelry and studded wings by designer Juliette Meurisse! For her second look, Rosie wore an Angels by VS demi bra and a satin face organza gown that was hand-painted by Jeff Fender. The third look was a custom-made metal bra, VS Body by Victoria Bare Ultimate hiphugger, silk chiffon half gown by Jane Law, and Robert Lee Morris silver collar and cuffs.

VS Angels Heart Katy Perry

Rosie Nominated for British Model of the Year!

Rosie Nominated for British Model of the Year! Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Big congratulations to the stunning Rosie Huntington-Whiteley for her Model of the Year nomination at the British Fashion Awards 2010!

ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY is one of three British models to be nominated as Model of the Year at British Fashion Awards 2010. LARA STONE, DAVID GANDY and Huntington-Whiteley have been listed as this year’s finest models and on Tuesday 7th December one of them will walk away with the award. VICTORIA BECKHAM’s self-titled fashion brand has also been nominated for ‘Best Designer Brand’ and faces competition from Burberry, Mulberry and Pringle of Scotland.

In 2009 the prestigious award was won by Georgia May Jagger, the daughter of Mich Jagger and Jerry Hall who’s been the figurehead of advertising campaigns for brands including Rimmel make up and Hudson Jeans.

As well as being a prominent name on the modelling circuit, Rosie has also been named as the love interest for SHIA LABEOUF’s character Sam in the third instalment of the Transformers series. Transformers: Dark of the Moon is set for release in 3-d on July 1st 2011.

Transformers The Dark of the Moon Berlin Premiere

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, Transformers The Dark of the Moon Berlin Premiere Rosie Huntington-Whiteley


images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, Transformers The Dark of the Moon Berlin Premiere Rosie Huntington-Whiteley


images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, Transformers The Dark of the Moon Berlin Premiere Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

images, wallpapers, gambar, manga, picture, amazing, Transformers The Dark of the Moon Berlin Premiere Rosie Huntington-Whiteley