Peter Enterprises Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Peter Enterprises - Essay Example An income statement represents a company’s activity or performance over a period of time. The income statement is intended to provide investors an accurate depiction of the company’s profitability over the period of time (in this case 1 year). This includes mainly the sales and cost figure of the company over the period of time. Cost which are capitalized are included in the category of either depreciation or amortization expense. The income statement is generally full of accounting assumptions; fundamentally the matching principle. The matching principle dictates that the revenues of the company should be matched with the expenses incurred during the period. Any accrued sales (Credit Sales) or expense is accounted in the income statement. Earnings from the income statement are essential criteria when investors evaluate or opt for a company to buy its share. It is earning power of the company which lifts its value and attracts the investor about the profitability of the company. In the case of Peter enterprise, it has generated a net profit of  £444,400 which is 14.79% of the sales. This implies that the net profit margin is 14.79% which is promising; however the company is profitable but we cannot jump into any conclusion unless we compare it with the industry standards for the particular year or a company which has risk similar to the Peter enterprises. (c) Peter Enterprises Balance Sheet As of 31 December 2009 Assets          Current Assets    Accounts Receivable 294,800 Stock 287,000 Total Current Assets 581,800       Fixed Assets    Machinery 1,480,000 Equipment 163,100 Motor Vans 148,700 Total Fixed Assets 1,791,800       Total Assets ?2,373,600       Liabilities          Short-term Liabilities    Trade Creditors 273,000 Bank Overdraft 54,000       Long Term Liabilities    Loan 1,500,000       Total Liabilities ?1,827,000       Net Assets or Shareholder's Equity ?546,600       Capital 417,200 Add: Net Profit 444,400 Less: Drawings 315,000 ?546,600 (d) A balance sheet shows a company’s financial position at a particular point in time (Krakhmal & Day, 2010). We can determine through balance sheet that how much financially strong and economically efficient a company is. It shows how much the company owns or how much money is owed by it. The assets are financed by either debt or equity and the balance sheet can reveal important information about it. We can compute a lot of ratios using the numbers in balance sheet and compare them with the industry standards. The most common ratios are liquidity, solvency, and profitability and efficiency ratios. A balance sheet can explain how the company is being managed. For instance, a high day on receivable implies that management is not efficient in collecting money. This impacts cash flow cycle and can cause liquidity problems for the organization. Furthermore, Solvency ratios such as the Debt/Equity ratio can provide an important insight to creditors to whether grant a loan to the organization or not. It also gives an insight to shareholders about the current worth of the company. An analysis of Peter’s balance sheet shows that it has a very high Debt/Asset ratio which is equivalent to 70%. Answer 2a) Cash Forecast for the next 6 months    Jan-10 Feb-10 Mar-10 Apr-10 May-10 Jun-10 Cash Inflows                   Cash Sales* 262000 254000 268000 288000 296000 292000

The Great Gatsby Essay Example for Free

The Great Gatsby Essay â€Å"The most iconic characters in literature are alienated by the changing world around them. † Discuss these ideas in relation to The Great Gatsby and Nineteen Eighty-Four. In ‘The Great Gatsby,’ Fitzgerald frequently demonstrates how isolated his strongest characters are by the world around them through a variety of techniques. Both Nick and Gatsby are presented as being alienated from the world in some way and, as suggested by William Troy, both characters represent two forces in Fitzgerald’s own life – â€Å"’intelligent and responsible’ vs. ‘dream ridden romantic. † He uses symbolism frequently throughout the novel to suggest that this split autobiographical portrayal of his characters is representative of the limbo between â€Å"‘power’ and ‘dream’† as said by Lionel Trilling in his critical essay, and the immovability this creates within people. I find confinement of characters is shown in the novel through a use of pathetic fallacy. Fitzgerald also uses the novel to introduce the theme of class and demonstrate how wealth constricts different people in different ways, despite sometimes seeming like the key to happiness. Many of these ideas are echoed in ‘Nineteen Eight-Four,’ in which Orwell uses symbolism to emphasise his totalitarian oppressive society. One way Fitzgerald portrays his characters as confined by the world around them is through his use of pathetic fallacy. The phrase ‘weather-beaten’ is used to describe Nick’s bungalow on the West Egg and this implied that it wasn’t just the people in ‘The Great Gatsby’ that the weather and change bore down on, but the buildings too. When Nick first visits Tom Buchanan at his home, Fitzgerald says the two men talk on ‘the sunny porch’ with the sunshine here being presented as a sense of optimism that Nick can find companionship with a man he knew at ‘Yale’. When Nick talks to Daisy during that first visit, he tells her there’s a ‘persistent wail all night’ along the shore of where they’ve left; Nick is bowing to Daisy’s desire to be missed by personifying nature to allow it to chase after her, much like Gatsby. Sunshine again is used by Fitzgerald to present those who are indulgently wealthy when Nick visits Tom and Myrtle’s apartment which was ‘full of cheerful sun’ until night time and alcohol were brought into the story. Alcohol is usually accompanied with darkness within the novel, to reflect Fitzgerald’s potential personal distaste as a recovering alcoholic at the point of writing the novel. Of Gatsby’s parties, it is said they are held on ‘summer nights,’ a phrase still managing to retain the concept of summer and nice weather to attach to the wealth. Once Nick has arranged the meeting between Daisy and Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses pathetic fallacy to mirror Gatsby’s emotions within the chapter. As he waits for Daisy coloured with ‘embarrassment,’ it is ‘pouring rain’ but once Daisy arrives and he sees her with ‘unreasoning joy’ it has ‘stopped raining,’ and finally as Nick leaves Daisy and Gatsby looking at each other with ‘wonder’ over a piano, there are ‘twinkle-bells of sunshine’ leaving a sense of hope to the chapter that the constraining rain did not hold. Again, at Gatsby’s funeral, Fitzgerald writes the weather to very clearly reflect the character’s moods. Nick is deeply saddened by the loss of his friend and the rain is repeatedly described to be ‘thick’ and ‘heavy,’ a force to be reckoned with that the characters must move ‘through to the cars. ’ The rain is shown to hang around Nick, replacing the people the funeral lacks in attendance and shows that Fitzgerald thinks it is a trapping task for a man to abandon the side of him that dreams. Similarly, Orwell also uses metaphor at the beginning of ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ as Winston enters Victory Mansions to describe the ‘swirl of gritty dust’ following him into the building, reminiscent of how the Party trace every movement and every action, confining their citizens in the most suffocating of manners; the dust reminiscent of the dark, rainy sky in ‘The Great Gatsby’ closing in on the characters. Fitzgerald frequently depicts the isolation of characters in ‘The Great Gatsby’ with use of various reoccurring symbols. Colours are something the author uses in various ways. The colour yellow, which we have already seen mirrored in Fitzgerald’s use of pathetic fallacy with the large amounts of yellow sunshine symbolises decay and corruptness. The reader is told Gatsby’s car is a ‘rich cream’ colour. Not only is the mustard colour of the car symbolism, it is a representation of Gatsby himself – ostentatious and over-the-top in displaying his wealth. Later in the novel, Fitzgerald writes that the car ‘mirrored a dozen suns’ with its large amount of windshields. This give the interpretation that the car is glowing, further drawing on the yellow symbolism of decay for the personal representation of corruption. Perhaps intentionally, it is also this car that leads to Gatsby’s own destruction by being so conspicuous. Gatsby’s demise by his own car leads to the idea presented by Fitzgerald that one cannot escape decay. The Valley of Ashes is riddled with symbolism, from the ‘ash grey’ men that inhabit the ‘grey land’ to the looming billboard eyes of T. J. Eckleburg. The colour grey here symbolises dreariness and monotony, and with the character of Wilson, Fitzgerald ties this to a lack of wealth. The lack of light implies claustrophobia within its inhabitants – Tom says it’s good for Myrtle to ‘get out. The ‘dimmed’ eyes of Eckleburg ‘look out’ over the characters in the novel and symbolise the ever growing commercialism of America and how this change causes moral depravity. This is again emphasised by how Wilson equates these eyes to God when finding out about Myrtle’s affair with the phrase ‘God knows’ what she’s being doing. The eyes watched as Tom and Myrtle had to drive past them to get to their apartment, and the loss of Myrtle’s life occurred in the miserable valley of ashes under their omniscient gaze. Another colour Fitzgerald utilises is white, though it is usually placed in juxtaposition to the character wearing it. Daisy and Jordan, first seen in ‘rippling’ white dresses, are not seen in any other colour but white – falsely implying the purity and innocence women were just losing the expectation to have. This lies in line with Joan Korenman’s interpretation that says the ambiguity of Daisy’s hair colour from dark to light symbolises ‘the fair and the dark women’ of literature, with fair hair being stereotyped as innocent – something the reader finds neither Daisy nor Jordan to be. Fitzgerald is also referencing the ‘expansion of femininity’ with the 1920s â€Å"new women. † In ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ Orwell also uses symbolism when he writes a poster that ‘gazes down’ with large, ‘dark’ eyes much like those of T. J. Eckleburg, that are pasted all over London by the Party – comforting to some inhabitants with the name ‘Big Brother,’ but a threat to others because the posters watch their every move. However the connotations of ‘Big Brother’ are a lot more oppressive than those of God in ‘The Great Gatsby’ and cause Winston’s alienation and his subsequent relationship with Julia. Another way Fitzgerald shows that the characters in ‘The Great Gatsby’ are ostracised because of the world they inhabit is through his presentation of classism and how that affects the interaction between people, as well as isolating them to their own class. Ross Posnock argues that the characters in ‘The Great Gatsby’ are so obsessed with material wealth they treat each other like objects and this could leave many people feeling objectified and therefore ostracised by those who claim to care about them. This is seen when Nick says the cocktails are ‘floating’ – completely overlooking the fact Gatsby’s hired staff are holding the trays. Marxists argue that Nick overlooks the existence and therefore the difficulties of the working class. However at the start of the novel, after the events of the story, Fitzgerald writes that Nick is aware the ‘fundamentally decencies’ are ‘parcelled out unequally at birth’ at that point, which means he knows class play a big role in identity in his current society. Fitzgerald further supports this with the phrase ‘wanted the world to be in uniform’ which is simultaneously a nod to the passing of World War I and also emphasising that Nick has had enough of the upper class’ selfish behaviours. When Nick is sitting on the porch with Daisy and Tom, Tom states that their society is ‘going to pieces’ and spews racist ideals. This is Fitzgerald showing that Tom feels he is at the top of society and does not want to be ‘submerged’ by those he feels are beneath him – the lower class and immigrants. However, earlier when Tom shows Nick his ‘nice place’ the reader can see it isn’t as big or obnoxious as Gatsby’s home and the divide between the â€Å"Old Rich† and â€Å"New Rich† starts to become clear. This minute difference in class leaves the upper classes estranged from each other. At the start of the novel, it is made clear that even Nick’s family have been wealthy ‘for three generations’ and this makes him acceptable despite been less rich than those he socialises with. Like Fitzgerald, Orwell uses the class divide in ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ to define between members of the Party (who are granted great privileges and freedoms), the middle class who obey the Party (such as Winston), and the proles who ( are a ‘swarming mass’ so poor they are ‘disregarded’ by the Party, which is so convinced of their inability to have action against them – much like Nick’s complete ignorance to Gatsby’s servants at the party. After exploring a variety of factors throughout this essay, I agree with the critical opinion, especially in terms of ‘The Great Gatsby’ as one of Fitzgerald’s main themes throughout was of how Gatsby was trapped in the past and this isolated him from the present. This can be seen especially in the last paragraph of the book, in which Fitzgerald compares his character to boats ‘beating on. ’ I feel Orwell’s characters also felt claustrophobic in their London because of the new law implemented by the Party, and Winston’s submission at the end of the novel is representative of Orwell’s warning to the readers.

Venezuela Culture Facts And History History Essay

Venezuela Culture Facts And History History Essay Venezuelas culture has been molded by the Spanish colonialists that ruled the country for almost four centuries. Before and during the Spanish conquest, the indigenous people had little influence on the development of the nation since they were scattered tribes with no political or social presence. Along with order and organization, the Spanish also brought Christianity to the South American continent and as a result, Venezuela has one of the largest Christian populations within its borders. Thus, most of the nations customs and traditions have been derived from medieval Christian practices and depict the influence of the Orthodox Catholic Church. However, the most popular image associated with Venezuelan culture is that of the Ilanero or the South American Cowboy. The entire tradition arose from the animal breeder and cattle wranglers that made the fertile grasslands of the Ilanos their home. The national dance of Venezuela i.e. the Joropo as well as the components of Venezuelan ins trumental music such as the maraca and the quartro are all derived from the Ilanero tradition. Writing has become a feature of Venezuelan culture since the post-independence period of the nineteenth century. Literary masters such as Simon Rodriguez and Andres Bello were the first to make their mark on Venezuelas literary scene. Simon Bolivar, the liberator of the nation and hero of the Independence struggle, also wrote nationalistic works during this period. Also emerging at the later end of the 19th century was the well-known writer and translator Juan Antonio PÃ ©rez Bonalde. His ties with the Free Masons made him the subject of a tremendous amount of speculation but his works have survived through it all. Venezuelan art was given a leg-up by the popularity of Venezuelan writing and sculptors such as Marisol (Escobar) and Rafael Soto made their presence felt internationally. VENEZUELA FACTS South American nations are steeped in a rich history of people and civilization, dating back thousands of years. This region also has some of the worlds plushest and most diverse natural resources and about ninety percent of all know plant and animal species are found here. However, with respect to human and economic development, South America lags behind and a large percentage of the population live without basic amenities. One of the exceptions to this situation is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which has prospered due to its oils reserves and whose natural beauty has earned it the sobriquet Land of Grace Venezuela became an independent nation in 1830 and today is a thriving federal republic. It has had a history of militarism, but rarely has the country seen an utterly violent phase of existence. The nation is comprised of over twenty five million people from various ethnic backgrounds. Like much of South America, Venezuela was also under the rule of the Spanish conquistadors for much of the medieval period of history. Consequently, the country is mainly Roman Catholic and its culture arises out of traditions inspired by its Spanish past. Given the general character of South American nations, most people are surprised by Venezuelas near perfect rate of literacy and the moderation with which the nation is governed. The nation is divided in to 23 states, called estados in addition to the capital district of Caracas. Although its relations with the United States are a little tainted, Americans traveling to Venezuela rarely have to put up with any angst on political issues. Venezuela is generally divided in to four geographic zones as per its major land features. These are the northwestern Andean mountain terrain, the coastal Caribbean and Pacific Ocean region, the central grass plains or Llanos and the Guyana highlands in the south. The climate of Venezuela is largely tropical, very mild in the highlands and hot in the plains. South Americas largest lake i.e. Lake Maracaibo and the worlds highest waterfalls the Angel Falls are located in Venezuela. The country is facing environmental degradation largely due to the irresponsible nature of mining in the forests. The government however has identified the problem and actions are being taken to correct the natural balance. VENEZUELA HOLIDAYS The nation of Venezuela has a rich and varied past, although much of it was erased by the Spanish conquest. The nation today is fast developing power in the global economy, with an abundance of resources and an immaculate but judicious military background to back it up. The nation was one of the first to experience the missionary services of clerics who migrated from Europe to preach the Word to the new world. Most of the population, nearly ninety-six percent, is Roman Catholic, with Protestants and indigenous religions making up the remaining bit. As a result, most of the holidays are Christian celebrations that fall in common with all such holidays the world over. Such as most other nations, Venezuela follows the Gregorian calendar, where the year begins on the January, the first, marking the first holiday of the year. This is followed by a festival commemorating the visit of the three Magi to Jesus Christ on the Day of Epiphany on the 6th of January. The next Christian holidays fall on the days of Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter. St Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary is commemorated on the 19th of March whereas the Mother, herself is praised on the day of the Immaculate Conception, held on the 8th of December. In between the two holiday s lies All Saints Day, celebrated on the first day of November. Such as the accepted norm, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are celebrated on the 24th and 25th of December, whereas the 31st is observed as the last day of the Civil Year. The remaining holidays of Venezuela are centered around its freedom struggle, that lasted from 1810 to 1830. Many famous and decisive battles as well as the birth anniversaries of the leaders of the freedom struggle are commemorated in the form of national holidays. The first among them is April 19th, which marks the beginning of the struggle. The Day of the Liberator or the birth anniversary of Simon Bolivar, who was personally responsible for freeing much of South America from the Spaniards, is one of the most important days for all Venezuelans. It is celebrated on the 24th of July whereas the Venezuelan Independence Day is on the 5th of July. VENEZUELA PEOPLE The people, and not the forests, rivers and mountains, make up a nation. Without knowing the people, no one can claim any knowledge about any place, because the essence of that knowledge lies in the people that inhabit the place. The real way to understand the people of a region is to interact and communicate with them, one-on-one, even if it is for just a little while. However, many prefer studying the demographic as a statistic rather than getting to know individuals on a personal level. Travel will always amount to little if it escapes an introduction to the people of the land. Venezuela is a prosperous nation on the northern edge of South America with a population of nearly twenty five million people. Most of the people have ancestral connections to the indigenous populations of South American which were the basis of the Mayan and Incan civilizations. The second major ethnic group is of the people with European descent, whose roots are thee people who entered the land of Venezuela along with the Spanish conquistadors and remained as residents. This group sees a vast variety of people, who were originally citizens of Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany. Another large majority of people descend form the African laborers who were brought to Venezuela by the Spanish as slaves and later formed settlements of their own. A small percentage of the population is formed by migratory Arabs, Central Americans and Asians. Venezuela is a largely Catholic community and thus the customs of the land are largely dictated by the religion, although the region is hardly orthodox in its outlook. The official language, spoken by nearly the entire population is Spanish, but a large number of dialects are prevalent in different regions. People between the ages of fifteen and sixty form the largest art of the demographic and thus the nation has a largely young and vibrant atmosphere. Also, more than ninety percent of the population is qualified as educated due to which the prevalence of diseases such as AIDS has been checked in Venezuela. Venezuela is also one of the few Latin American countries with a nearly even male/female sex ratio. VENEZUELA HISTORY We are not makers of history. We are made by it Martin Luther King Jr. To learn where we are going, it is very necessary to see where we came from. History, even if it just a mingling of romance and imagination at times, is of paramount importance if humanity is to be prevented from repeating its past and ruining its future. Most of South American history speaks of destruction of the land and the people at the hand of colonial powers. Venezuela, like any other nation was not spared its due when the great butchers of Europe came to proclaim the virgin land ad their own. In the classical period, that is the earliest known period of human habitation in Venezuela, the country was home to nomadic tribes of people. These tribes were not nearly as civilized and urbanized those of the Egyptian kingdoms or even those of the other Mesoamerican civilizations. The three main groups of people were the Arawak, the Carib and the most advanced amongst them, the Chibcha. The Chibcha were credited with creating a highly organized agricultural system, complete with terrace farming on the slopes of the Andes and use of irrigation canals. Unlike the Mayan cities and the Aztec pyramids that dot the remaining sites of ancient civilization in South America, Venezuelan people have left no such wonders for generations to gaze up on. The modern phase of Venezuelan history begins in 1498, when the renowned explorer Christopher Columbus set foot on the mainland of what is now South America. Other explorers such as Alonso de Ojeda, soon followed and discovered that the land was virtually flawless and unlimited in natural beauty. The locals had come up with ingenious methods to construct on top of water along the edges of Lake Maracaibo by using stilts. The houses raised on stile were called palafitos and they resembled dwellings in Venice and thus, the area was named Venezuela or little Venice. As modern methods of surveying had not been established, Venezuela was not marked out as a mineral-rich territory. Consequently it was spared the pillaging that the remainder of the land, rich is gold, was forced to endure. It was chalked out a poor and unimportant nation and shocked the world after its independence when massive oil reserves were discovered on its soil. Customs and tradition are written by the hands of the past and become engraved in the lives of the people. Customs define the land and all those that live on it. They give humans something to cling on to when they are on foreign soil, lonely and bereft, they give hope in the time of the greatest ostrasization. Venezuela is a land of immense natural beauty and national pride. Both of these are amply evident in the way the people live, eat and celebrate. Most Venezuelan customs can be traced back to the nations colonial past under the Spanish. The reason that native influences are missing from these traditions is that that no native organized civilization existed in Venezuela before the Spanish entered the scene. Of course indigenous people were present, but their dissipated culture was hardly responsible for shaping Venezuela, as it is known today. The most significant custom of Venezuela is the national dance the Joropo. It is essentially Spanish in its feel, resembling the Samba and Salsa in many ways. Joropo is meant for couples and has a few basic steps, which are varied in numerous ways to create a sequence. A large majority of Venezuelas population is Catholic and the nation constitutes some of the most vibrant and colorful customs known in the Christian world. Foremost among them is the rhythmic Red Devils of Yare dance, which is performed to celebrate the symbolic victory of good over evil on Corpus Christi day. The dance involves people dressed as the Gods angels who fight those costumed as the Devils demons and usually lasts all day. Initially the angels look like they are going to loose the battle, but at the end of the day, virtue triumphs. Christmas traditions are also marvelous in Venezuela, with celebration beginning as early as the 16th of December. The nativity scene is put up in most households and the churches display elaborate scenes from the bible. On Christmas morning, when the children awake to find presents under the Christmas Tree, they are told that the Infant Jesus and not Santa Claus has left them these things.

Savanna Theory Versus Aquatic Ape Theory of Human Evolution :: Anthropology Essays Paleontology Papers

Savanna Theory Versus Aquatic Ape Theory of Human Evolution The evolution of man is constantly in question. While we are reasonably sure that modern humans and primates are both related to the same common ancestor, there is constant debate over what initially caused the two species to split into early hominids and apes. According to some, our longest and most popular theory on the division of man and ape is profoundly wrong. However, those same individuals usually offer an equally controversial theory as a substitute, one that is almost impossible to scientifically test or prove. Both the Savanna Theory and the Aquatic Ape Theory offer solutions to how and why humans evolved into bipedal toolmakers. But with enough questioning, each loses its accountability to rhetorical science. It was commonly believed that early hominids left the jungle to live on the open plains of Africa. Called the Savannah Theory, it was strongly promoted by Professor Raymond Dart, after he gained recognition for discovering the Taung skull in 1925. The Taung skull was the first admitted link between man and ape, and Prof. Dart based his theory on the modern location of the discovered fossils. However, a report in 2000 by Marc Verhaegen claims that a savanna evolution is extremely improbable. Based on biological and physiological data, he tries to disprove the savanna theory and suggests that our evolution would more likely occur in a humid and wet setting than the dry heat of the grasslands. Humans have almost nothing in common with any surviving mammals of the savanna. Most mammals of hot, dry climates do not rely heavily on water for survival. They have a high tolerance to heat, and their body temperatures can fluctuate more than 6oC between day and night. They can bear a dehydration of 20%, whereas 10% or more would be fatal to humans. What little they do drink or consume naturally through food, is conserved because they do not sweat. Hair and fur keeps the sun off their direct skin, while humans would have to sweat 10-15 liters of water to physically cool down. (Verhaegen) Even structurally, humans and African land mammals don’t have much in common.

History of Accounting

Accounting has a history that is usually discussed in terms of one seminal event- the invention and dissemination of the double entry bookkeeping processes. Paul Garner and Atsuo Tsuji (1995) report that the first printed treatise of bookkeeping in the world is the Summa de Arithemetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita written by Luca Pacioli. The treatise was published in Venice in 1494, and was reprinted at Toscolano in 1523. This work is one of the most important books on mathematics and has had an enormous impact on the field of accounting ever since. The Treatise 11 of Section 9 of this book – that is, â€Å"particulars de Coputis et Scripturis,† is a treatise about double entry bookkeeping. The system of bookkeeping that Luca Pacioli described first introduced the practice and theory that had developed in commercial cities in Italy, particularly in Venice. Pacioli wrote in the first chapter of his treatise, â€Å"We will here adopt the method employed in Venice which among others is certainly to be recommended, for with it one can carry with any other method†. Pacioli was born in Borgo San Sepolcro, lived in Venice and became the tutor of the three sons of a rich merchant, Antonio de Rompiasi. It seems that he could have had the chance to see the account books of the Venetian merchants and to study the method of double entry bookkeeping in Venice. The bookkeeping system that Luca Pacioli has several distinct characteristics: 1. Pacioli wrote that there are three things needed by one who wished to carry on business diligently. The most important of these is cash or any other substantial power. The second is a good accountant and a sharp bookkeeper. The third is good order in order to arrange all business to debit and credit. 2. Pacioli explained the opening inventory, but he did not describe the closing inventory. 3. Pacioli’s account book system is three account books- that is, a day book. The day book is the first book, the journal is the second book and the ledger is the third book. Pacioli thought of the day book as the formal account book, because he wrote that the day book must be presented to a certain mercantile office. 4. All things pertaining to a transaction must be written in the day book, without omission. Pacioli wrote that no point must be omitted in the day book. 5. Pacioli described debit and credit- that is, â€Å"per† and â€Å"A† in the journal, and â€Å"die have re† in the ledger. However, any view of accounting history that begins with Luca Pacioli’s contributions will overlook a long evolution of accounting systems in ancient and medieval times. In attempting to explain why double entry bookkeeping developed in 15th century Italy instead of ancient Greece or Rome, accounting scholar A. C. Littleton describes seven â€Å"key ingredients† which led to its creation. -Private Property: The power to change ownership, because bookkeeping is concerned with recording the facts about property rights. -Capital: Wealth productively employed, because otherwise commerce would be trivial and credit would not exist. -Commerce: The interchange of goods on a widespread level, because purely local trading in small volume would not create the sort of press of business needed to spur the creation of an organized system to replace the existing hodgepodge of record-keeping. -Credit: The present use of future goods, because there would have been little impetus to record transactions completed on the spot. – Writing: A mechanism for making a permanent record in a common language, given the limits of human memory. – Money: The â€Å"common denominator† for exchange, since there is no need for bookkeeping except as it reduces transactions to a set of monetary values. – Arithmetic: A method of computing the monetary details of the deal. Many of these factors did not exist in ancient times, but, until the Middle Ages, they were not found together in a form and strength necessary to push man to the innovation of double entry. Writing, for example, is as old as civilization itself, but arithmetic- the systematic manipulation of number symbols- was really not a tool possessed by the ancients. Rather, the persistent use of Roman numerals for financial transactions long after the introduction of Arabic numeration appears to have constrained the earlier creation of double-entry systems.

Praying Mantis Sex and Cannibalism

Praying Mantis Sex and Cannibalism The female praying mantis is often painted as an evil seductress, a cannibalistic lover that lures males closer, only to eat them after mating. Is her reputation deserved? Does praying mantis sex always end in cannibalism of the male? Female Mantis Shaming or Truth? Rumors of the praying mantis cannibalistic tendencies began when scientists observed their mating behavior in a laboratory environment. Entomologists would offer a captive female a potential mate and would quite often be horrified to watch the female bite the head or legs off the smaller male- sometimes even before mating. After the male had served his copulatory purpose, he was nothing more than a good meal for the female and her upcoming offspring. For a long time, these observations of praying mantis sex in the lab were thought to be the way things were in the mantid world.   Much Less Common in the Wild After scientists started observing praying mantis sex in a natural setting, the story had a different ending, which is good for the males. When unconfined by laboratory terrariums (and not starving), the majority of praying mantis mating ends with the male flying off unharmed. By most estimates, sexual cannibalism by praying mantis females occurs less than 30 percent of the time outside the lab. Those are better odds for the fellows than what had been seen in the lab. Praying mantis sex, it turns out, is really a rather romantic series of courtship rituals and dances that typically ends satisfactorily and safely for both parties involved. How Males Choose Females Given a choice between females, male praying mantises will move toward females seen as less aggressive (i.e., ones they hadnt just seen eating another male) more often than the more aggressive females. The males also tend to prefer to mate with females that appear fatter and more well fed than others, as the skinnier and hungrier mantises are more likely to eat their mates during or after sex. This could also point to the males being more attracted to females that are healthier, for the betterment of their offspring.   Advantages of Beheading Your Mate There is a decided advantage for the female if she does decide to behead her lover. The praying mantis brain, located in his head, controls inhibition, while a ganglion in the abdomen controls the motions of copulation. Absent his head, a male praying mantis will lose all his inhibitions and consummate his relationship with wild abandon. And what if shes hungry? For certain, a slow-moving and deliberate predator like the praying mantis is not going to pass up an easy meal. If a male makes the unfortunate choice of a hungry female for a mate, hes probably going to be toast after theyve mated. Either Way Could Benefit the Males A twist: Being eaten by the female paradoxically may mean that that particular male has more of his genetics making it to the next  generation  if more of his sperm fertilize his mates eggs while she is eating parts of him. More eggs are laid by females who eat their mates as well (88 vs. 37.5 in one study). However, if a male can mate more than once, that also increases his odds of having his genetics passed on.