crusades Essay -- essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Crusading, much like Imperialism in the 20th century, was all about expansion. During the middle ages however, it was more about the expansion of religion rather then power, or at least that’s the way it was preached. Crusading by definition is; â€Å" a holy war authorized by the pope, who proclaimed it in the name of god of Christ. It was believed to be Christ’s own enterprise, legitimized by his personal mandate† (1). This essay examines the background of the crusades to offer a better understanding as to why they occurred. It also examines the effects that the crusades had on the world. It is easy to look at the crusades as a violent meaningless act, but one must understand the type of setting this movement occurred during. This was a time when if you took part in the crusades, you were seen as a warrior of god, recruited by the pope. Any man who fought in the name of god would be rewarded in heaven. Popular belief in the 10th and 11th cen turies was that the more you did for god, the less accountable you were for you’re past sins. The more deeds you did, the better your credit in the ‘Treasury of God’ (2). The Treasury of God is a summarization of the good deed outweighing the bad deed principle of the time. Acts of violence in the name of god are far less common in the world today. But, as seen with September 11th, jihad or holy war is still occurring. This essay gives a basic timeline and underlying principles behind the crusading missions. Justification for these acts remains unclear and is simply opinion based.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To understand the effects of crusading one must be familiar with the background in which it took place. The major conflict that initiated the crusading endeavors occurred when the Seljuk Turks aggressively took Syria and Palestine. Turkish Muslims also invaded the Byzantine Empire and subjected all classes of people to their rule, even Christians. At the same time, Popes of the 11th century were trying to extend their religious power beyond its original borders. They did this by forcing religion upon certain groups such as: heretics, pagans, and most all non-Christians. When Pope Urban seen the action of the Muslims he then thought it was his duty to Christianize those people. These facts combined started the First crusade in 1095 (3). At a personal level however, crusading could be unde... ...land; Toronto: Longman 2002), 175.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  9. Nicholson, 134.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  10.Phillips, 347.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  11. Jonathan Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople (London: Jonathan Cape, 2004), 202.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  12. Nicholson, 120.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  13. Nicholson, 147.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  14. Yvonne, Friedman, Encounter Between Enemies: captivity and Ransom in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2002), 340.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  15. Nicholson, 166. Bibliography Asbridge, Thomas. The First Crusade: A New History New York; Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2004. Friedman, Yvonne. Encounter Between Enemies: captivity and Ransom in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2002. Nicholson, Helen. The Crusades. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2004. Phillips, Jonathan. The Crusades: 1095-1197. Harlow, England; Toronto: Longman 2002. Phillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. London: Jonathan Cape, 2004. Slack, Corliss. A Historical dictionary of the Crusades. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2003.

Neuromancer Essay -- Literature Review

The life of a human being is defined not only by their own definition by character or nature but also by external influences such as environment and development. It is only natural for a human being to be inter-connected with surroundings and to be a part of the actions and events around him /her. Due to the nature of the human mind in which we use to improvise upon existing methods of improving quality of life and comforts, the world has evolved into a place of complex technological development. The influence of technology and other developments in regard to artificially created luxuries has played an important role in shaping our world and continues to be our top priority of existence. The impact that the evolving world and ideologies has had its influence on most other fields, including literature, as authors attempt to envision the future that the evolution process holds for us, trying to imagine extreme possibilities that might take shape in the future, leading us into a world that would have seemed like a fantasy in the past. This paper studies in detail the use of technology for negative causes, contributing to the view that technology could mean destruction or negative implications when considered in the light of its negative applications. Another aspect that has been discussed is the fact that these negativities would seem plausible as it might be common in the future that we will have to face as the human race evolves further in terms of science. There have been several authors that have based their fictional works on the future of science, William Gibson being one such author who was successful in conveying to his readers the vision of a distant future that he held in his mind, a place that held c... ...nternet crimes. The novel gives a picture of the world that technology could lead us into, the main themes mentioned giving us an idea of the outcomes that would follow the extension of the technology that prevail currently. The base of the story may said to be "more accurate in an iconic sense than as a map of where we're going."(Gibson 55). However, the most interesting aspect is that these ideas were not entirely predictable in the year of the book’s publication, 1984 and yet has been successful in guessing the direction of the development of scie4nce and technology. This is perhaps the most disturbing aspect too, as it makes the readers wonder that if he was right about the direction that technological advances have taken, it could also be true that we will be lead into a world similar to that described by Gibson in his book.

Diversity of Individuals Essay

1.1.i DIVERSITY Diversity means difference. It is about recognizing the different needs and preferences of an individual and accepting them. This could be related to their culture and personality or just their preferences. As well as many other factors. Everyone is different. 1.1.ii ANTI-DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICE Not to discriminate against someone in terms of race, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation and age. 1.1.iii ANTI-OPPRESSIVE PRACTICE In social care you need to take an anti oppressive approach. You can not try and make someone do what you want because it’s easier for you. If the resident would like to do something you can advise but you can not make them do what you want because you are in a stronger position. 1.2 Explain why it is important to recognize and respect an individuals heritage Every resident should be treated with the same respect they would deserve if they were not in care. They should be treated as if they could do things for themselves. Carers are there to assist the resident. Their customs and religious practices are very important to them. It defines who they are. Some like their dietary needs met regarding not eating pork etc. Some will not accept blood transfusions. We need to honor their wishes to the best of our ability. 1.3 Describe why an individual with dementia may be subjected to discrimination and oppression A resident who has dementia may not be able to remember her preferences so its down to the carer to find out. For example if the resident is Muslim then her religious beliefs means she doesn’t eat pork. It is down to the carer to respect this and not just take on the attitude of â€Å"it doesn’t matter† 1.4 Describe how discrimination and oppressive practice can be challenged As a carer if I was to see a colleague discriminate against a resident, first of all I would highlight the residents preferences and point out what they are doing is wrong. If the carer was still to carry on I would bring it to the attention of my senior or manager who would then deal with it following company policy. 2.1 Explain why it is important to identify an individuals specific and unique needs It is important to identify a residents needs so they can live their life as they want. Sometimes the resident may not be able to express their wishes and preferences so it is important to speak to close family members and friends to find out what they would prefer. 2.2 Compare The Experience Of  Dementia For An Individual Who Has Acquired It As An Older Person With The Experience Of An Individual Who Has Acquired It As a Younger Person It would not be much different between an older and younger person, they would both still experience the same effects that dementia brings to a person. However a younger person getting dementia would probably feel more affected as they may feel that it’s unfair that they have it so young when they have a lot of life left ahead of them, they also may not be able to deal with it very well as most people associate dementia with older people. Their life will change so much and sometimes so quickly, they may have to leave work, stop driving etc. Then they would have to think about the help they would need, finance etc. which with so much happening and changing can lead to a lot of stress and then to depression in a person and sometimes more. Having dementia as an older person is probably more easier to deal w ith than getting it as a younger person because you have experienced a lot and lived a life so you would be more acceptance of it and deal with it a lot better.

Forward Software Essay

Forward Software, Inc. is a software company potentially facing a copyright infringement lawsuit. The spreadsheet product Forward sells includes an optional menu navigation system identical to that of Focus Software, the original developer of the menu system. Forward’s spreadsheet product currently dominates the market. Focus Software is currently suing a smaller software company that has also used this identical menu system in their spreadsheet software. It is believed that based on the outcome of this pending lawsuit, Forward Software, Inc. may also be sued. Forward has to decide between offering Focus an unsolicited settlement prior to the pending trial’s conclusion or waiting for the outcome and possibly facing litigation. To do this, Forward needs to determine the optimal decision strategy to take and how much the strategy is expected to cost. The hiring of an outside law firm that may be able to provide a prediction of the company’s success in winning a trial must also be considered, as well as the maximum that should be paid for that service. Savings associated with hiring the firm need to be determined and analysis of the best decision strategy will also need to be done. Based on our analysis, the best strategy is to wait until the outcome of the pending lawsuit. If Focus wins that lawsuit and files a lawsuit against Forward, Forward should hire the law firm to conduct the proposed study for the lawsuit. Based on the law firm’s findings (predicted win, predicted loss, can’t predict) Forward will have to decide to go to trial or settle out of court. The results show that unless the firm can make the prediction that Focus would likely win the lawsuit, Focus should settle out of court. The expected costs of this strategy range between $9 – $12.8 million dollars. This includes expected costs associated with hiring the firm. The maximum amount that should be paid for hiring the firm is $1.14 million. If the firm could accurately predict the outcome of the Forward versus Focus case, Forward could expect to save $2.4 million. A decision tree was constructed to determine the best strategy for Forward. This approach was chosen as there were many decisions and states of nature to consider and chronology was important. The decision tree allowed for evaluation in a chronological pattern. In determining the optimal strategy, analysis was performed to determine if it is best to settle now or wait on the verdict of a pending trial, whether to hire or not hire a law firm if sued, and also to determine the value of information that could be provided. Our analysis is as follows -Settle Now or Wait? The optimal strategy indicates that it best is to wait until the outcome of the pending trial. Following the optimal strategy, there is a probability of .64 that Focus will not have to make any payout, this is based highly on waiting on the outcome of the trial as there is a .60 probability that Focus will lose and not initiate a lawsuit. As the bulk of the non-payout probability is based on the out come of the current Focus case, this event was included in a sensitivity analysis of the overall strategy. The analysis was performed to assess how sensitive the strategy is to changes: in the probability of Focus winning its pending lawsuit (0-1); the probability of Forward winning a suit if brought (0-1); the maximum expected settlement if sued (+/-50%); the maximum expected judgment (+/-50%); and the cost of the firm’s research prediction (+/-100%). The torpedo graph below shows that the optimal path is influenced most highly by the probability of 1) Focus winning the pending suit and 2) the probability of Forward winning if sued. Of particular importance is the increase in cost (expected value) based on changes in the probability of the outcome of the pending Focus vs. Discount Software trial. The increase in expected cost to over $6 million indicates that the decision to wait or offer settlement prior to the pending suit’s outcome changed. To determine the point at which the strategy changed base on the probability of the current suit’s outcome, a second sensitivity analysis was performed focusing on this event. The strategy region chart below indicates that the decision to wait or settle now changes if there is a chance great than 67% that Focus will win its pending suit. As there is currently only a 40% chance given to Focus winning its pending trial, the recommended strategy of waiting for the outcome should be followed. (Though Forward should confirm the probabilities assigned to this event.) Do or Don’t Hire a Firm? Should Sam hire this law firm to do a study for the lawsuit and what is the maximum amount of money Sam should pay for the service? Important considerations in determining whether to hire the firm include the value of the information the firm can provide and the cost for this information. To determine the value of the information provided by the firm, expected costs of making the decision with and without the firm’s (free) information must be compared. Without the law firm’s analysis, Forward’s expected cost is $12.1 million. With the firm’s analysis, Forward’s expected cost is reduced to $10.96 million. (This figure assumes the information is provided for free.) The difference in the expected cost with and without the information is $1.14 million. This is the value of the information the firm can provide and is also the maximum amount Forward should pay for the service. If the law firm could accurately predict the outcome of the Forward versus Focus case, how much money can he expect to save? If the firm was able to accurately predict a win or loss, this would be considered perfect information. The expected cost in this case is $9.7 million. The difference between this expected cost and the expected cost of proceeding without the firm’s perfect information ($12.1 million) is $2.4 million. This is the amount Forward could expect to save if the firm was able to accurately predict the outcome of the Forward versus Focus case.

Bee Season

The story of â€Å"Bee Season† is focused on an apparently warm home which will prove to be in fact a mere holding pen for four individuals spinning in completely separate universes. It is the kaleidoscopic portrait of a modern American family whose picture-perfect surface conceals an underlying world of secret turmoil.The focal center of the novel is Eliza Naumann, the nine-year-old student who discovers that she has a talent for competitive spelling. Although the book is set in the competitive world of spelling bees, the contest is just one of the many plot devices in this family drama.On the surface, the Naumann family appears to be ideal – upper middle-class, highly accomplished, deeply spiritual, and seemingly tightly knit. But it will gradually reveal that the picture-perfect family is, in fact, comprised of individuals on disparate (and often desperate) paths toward their own notions of transcendence – quests that lead them to pursue intense and even dange rous spiritual experiences. Eliza's unlikely emergence has the effect of tearing the fragile fabric that has thus far held them together. The plot examines faith, spirituality and what happens to a family's own belief system when changes occur.Eliza was â€Å"a student from whom great things should not be expected†; thus when Eliza is forced to compete in her first spelling bee, she is certain that this event, like so many others, exists only to â€Å"confirm, display or amplify her mediocrity. † Yet when the words start coming, she realizes she can not only spell the words directed at her but, as if by magic, everyone else's words as well. She wins the school's contest, and then a few district and regional ones, before heading to Washington for the national bee.Her father Saul, the cantor at Beth Simcha synagogue, sees Eliza's skills and begins training her for spelling competitions and for greater, more spiritual challenges ahead. Saul's obsessive attention to Eliza comes at the expense of her older brother Aaron, who is being bullied at school and who feels his own religious aspirations, closely modeled on his father's, unfulfilled. Miriam is the Naumann wife and mother, who’s already pronounced remoteness from her husband and children, grows apace while Eliza and Saul are sequestered in his study, poring over dictionaries.Apparently, like most families, the Naumanns seem to have settled comfortably into a routine, each member playing an accepted role in the day-to-day family drama. Saul is the family anchor, preparing the meals, running the household, and nurturing his son Aaron's interest in Judaism. Miriam, a brilliant high-powered lawyer, with a voracious intellect and a compulsion toward order slips easily into the role of wage-earner, happy to leave the emotional demands of family life and parenting to her husband. Aaron is the smart, socially isolated, and physically awkward teenager who thrives under his father's attention.Amid this dazzling display of intellectual power and intensity, Eliza, an unremarkable student, is resigned to remaining in the shadows. She's among those sad-sack C students who â€Å"never get picked for Student of the Week† and â€Å"never get chased by boys at recess. † While other kids are singled out for gifted-and-talented programs, Eliza is shuffled off into classrooms where the walls are covered with posters of kittens dangling from ropes above slogans like â€Å"Hang in there† and â€Å"If at first you don't succeed. . . .† Even her mother considers her â€Å"a gosling born into a family of ducks.† But her surprising triumph launches Eliza into the spotlight, radically altering the family dynamics. Through her success in the contest she becomes her father’s protege, thus taking the place of her brother, in which point the fragile equilibrium of forces in the family is shattered. The image of perfect consensus is changed as Eliza’ s new discovered talent places her in the center of her father’s preoccupations. It propels her from the ignominy of being an ordinary pupil to the triumph of shining in local, state, and national spelling competitions.Because she can spell — intuitively, hypnotized by the combining and recombining letters — she replaces her older brother Aaron in the attentions of their cantor. In considering the composition of the action, which for much of its part takes place inside the characters' hearts and minds, winning the contest represents the crucial element that triggered the demise of the equilibrium that was apparent in the Naumanns house. By shattering the image of harmony and consensus the proof of parallel existences emerged for each member of the family.Eliza, when replacing her brother in her father’s perception, destroyed the silent consensus that ordered their lives up until then. From that moment, her family would grow apart. Thus, more realities sur face in perceiving her family. The myth of the perfect family falls to pieces. Faced with a sudden change and forced by the circumstances to adapt to the new situation, each of the characters would show that their personality has a three dimensional development. Therefore, each of them is portrayed in three circumstances: in relation with his own self, with his family and in connection to the outside world.In dealing with the new reality, the characters receive a multiple perspective for analysis. On the one hand, there is Miriam, Eliza’s mother. Her character, defined by the three dimensions of her life, seems quite contradictory. In relation to the outside world, she is a brilliant, long hours working lawyer. In a slightly opposing image is her attitude which unfolds in relation with the other members of her family. It is obvious that her children baffle her; she is so uncomfortable with them that when one of them asks her about the boyfriends she'd had before marriage, she blushes.â€Å"She wishes there were a book on the subject, slim as it would be, a ‘Mother's Dating Life' she could substitute for conversation in the tidy manner of ‘Where Do Babies Come From? † In the relationship with Saul she is a complex yet mysteriously troubled wife. She always saw him as the man who talked about fixing the world, â€Å"restore what had been shattered† and she thought he could heal her. Social exchange theory explains the relationship with another person as depending on the perception of the balance between giving and receiving.The fact that Miriam never felt saved by her husband, that her expectations were unanswered and somewhat betrayed can explained the estranged connection and the unspoken sadness between them. She finds Eliza and Saul's shared focus on studying with their father a painful reminder of the connection she once had with her husband and her own parents, who died tragically when she was a young girl. The sudden disco very of her daughter's ability to apply the concentration and the desire for perfection that define her own self-image triggers a flood of contradictory emotions and sends her life spiraling out of control.Always emotionally absent, she falls deeper into her secret life of petty theft, thus revealing her most hidden side. Therefore, a central theme for Miriam becomes the kaleidoscope from her childhood that she brings to Eliza. The kaleidoscope is important to Miriam because it is a device that gathers shards together and no matter their movement, they stay together. When Miriam gives the kaleidoscope to Eliza after the spelling bee she wants to share an important and precious secret of how to survive.Secondly, there is Aaron who is defined through the social relationship as facing typical teenager problems; inside the family his father’s attention is a guiding light in his pursuit of becoming an eminent rabbi. When this place is taken by Eliza and he is exiled from his fathe r's inner sanctum of Jewish music and Hebrew learning, he seeks out other forms of spirituality than the Naumanns' Judaism. Formerly his father's assistant at the synagogue, he comes to see the family as an encumbrance for reaching perfection.Exploring his spiritual needs he hungers for his own means of transcendence and he finds a community of Hare Krishnas, who’s chanting, rituals, and self-abnegation appeal to his need for a warm community, near to God and thus detaching himself from the family. Yet, the center element of the novel is the developing relation between Elisa and her father. At a first glace, Saul is the distracted father, who spends most of his time in his study, researching forms of Jewish mysticism and worrying about the transcendence he'll never achieve.His relationship with his daughter was mostly based on her achievements at school and the image depicted by those, therefore he could not have taken her into consideration, as â€Å"he only learns of his d aughter's exclusion through one of his congregants who, after Shabbat services, announces loudly enough for the people on the other side of the cookie table to overhear that her son has been identified as Talented and Gifted†. Thus, his attention was focused on Aaron because â€Å"Eliza hasn't tendered Saul the congratulatory note Aaron delivered at her age, the one that made Saul feel like a sweepstakes winner†.But when Elisa wins the spelling bee, he begins to take notice of her. Motivating her talent as having religious connections, Saul sees something Kabbalistic in the way Eliza can intuit spelling words by having the letters fall into place all on their own — a hint of a talent far beyond his own abilities. As they practice together for the national spelling competition, he leads her carefully through an old Jewish mystical text and toward a state of biblioglossic transcendence in which the alphabet begins to crack open and reveal a hint of the light of God .He feels that Eliza is breaking through the illusion of reality and getting closer to God – something he has wanted to do all his life. He begins to see Eliza as able to fulfill his own dreams of transcendence. The scenes with Eliza and the Abulafia exercises in the reading room were compelling for showing the crossing form the family perspective in which Saul is just happy father to a superior one in which he is trying to take Eliza into his personal spiritual quest. Their relationship transcends the ordinary world. He wants to be her spiritual teacher, but he doesn't see the effect on her and the family.Throughout the novel, he sees his family as a means of achieving a higher goal, of transcendence to a superior apprehension of the world. And he sees this possibility first in Aaron, then in Eliza, whom he considers to be â€Å"pretty special†. In their house of closed doors, Eliza pursues her father's tutorials, as he directs her study for the spelling bees. First d ictionaries, then incantatory repetitions of letters and combinations of letters, then initiation into the meditation of the medieval mystic Abraham Abulafia:â€Å"Letters,† Saul says. â€Å"Abulafia believed that, by concentrating on letters, the mind could loose itself from its shackles to commune with a presence greater than itself. â€Å"Do you mean,† Eliza whispers, â€Å"that I'll be able to talk to God? † (pp. 172-73) She masters the techniques of mystic concentration: â€Å"She could feel the different vowels in her marrow, her bones chimes through which the letters blew† (p. 190). Then she surpasses her father's knowledge.Alone with Abulafia she experiences a religious ecstasy that rips through her body and mind, with visions, pain, â€Å"crawling Sects and crashing waves† (p. 268), her own disembodied voice, â€Å"infinite human and animal possibilities† (p. 269). Possibly, she sees God: â€Å"the shape's face is every face ever formed† (p. 269); she feels herself disintegrate and return anew. In fact, the experience is for her a try to find a new place in the world, one which leads away both from the front stage reality of the spelling bees contests and from the hidden, back stage of his father’s personal quest.In uniting the contemporary realistic tradition in which â€Å"Bee Season† is written-the tangible world of cereal boxes, grade school hallways, kaleidoscopes, Friday night synagogue services-with an ancient discipline derived from wonder and longing for God, Goldberg has painted a original picture of the particular unhappiness experienced by one family as a result of resistance to change. Bibliography Goldberg, Myla. Bee Season. New York: Anchor, 2001.

Eddie loves Catherine Essay

The reason why Eddie loved Catherine so much is because she knew everything about him and had the qualities that Eddie liked. Eddie treated her like a child because he did not want he to realise that she was growing up. Eddie liked this because he could have control over her. At this point this is when the audience realises that Eddie has no hopes except from the hopes of having a woman he can never have. The audience may think that Eddie is selfish because he will not let Catherine lead her own life. By looking at the way eddies personality changes I think that he is having a mid-life crisis. There are different types of relationships in the play: The relationship with Eddie and Catherine is incestuous love. The relationship between Beatrice and Eddie is platonic love. The relationship between Rodolpho and Eddie is they are like rivals trying to get Catherine. The relationship between Marco and Eddie is hatred. The relationship between Alfieri and Eddie that Alfieri is eddies lawyer. I feel that Catherine is partly to blame because she knew everything about Eddie and so she should have realised his feeling to wards her. Also she should have not acted like a child all the time allowing Eddie to have control over her. I feel sorry for Marco because he is a good person trying to give his family a good future but Eddie destroys his plans. I also feel sorry for Rodolpho because he done what everyone does, falls in love. We can tell that he is a good person because he tries to make up with Eddie. I think Beatrice has no self-esteem because she does everything that Eddie tells her and does not stick up for herself. I think that Eddie is helpless. He is obsessed with work and I think that he has no future. I think that because he did not get his only hope that he did not mind dying. I do not feel sorry for Eddie dying because he is a back stabber and should not of done what he done. I think that he is very over protective and over reacted when he found out that Catherine was in love. The audiences’ reaction might be different to mine but I was shocked when Marco killed Eddie because I thought that it might have been Rodolpho that killed him because of all the things that Eddie done to him.

Auditing Chapter 2

Chapter 2 The CPA Profession 2-1The four major services that CPAs provide are: 1. Audit and assurance services Assurance services are independent professional services that improve the quality of information for decision makers. Assurance services include attestation services, which are any services in which the CPA firm issues a report that expresses a conclusion about the reliability of an assertion that is the responsibility of another party. The four categories of attestation services are audits of historical financial statements, attestation on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, reviews of historical financial statements, and other attestation services. 2. Accounting and bookkeeping services Accounting services involve preparing the clients financial statements from the clients records. Bookkeeping services include the preparation of the clients journals and ledgers as well as financial statements. 3. Tax services Tax services include preparation of corporate, individual, and estate returns as well as tax planning assistance. . Management consulting services These services range from suggestions to improve the clients accounting system to computer installations. 2-2The major characteristics of CPA firms that permit them to fulfill their social function competently and independently are: 1. Organizational form A CPA firm exists as a separate entity to avoid an employer-employee relationship with its clients. The CPA firm employs a professional staff of sufficient size to prevent one client from constituting a significant portion of total income and thereby endangering the firms independence. 2. Conduct A CPA firm employs a professional staff of sufficient size to provide a broad range of expertise, continuing education, and promotion of a professional independent attitude and competence. 3. Peer review This practice evaluates the performance of CPA firms in an attempt to keep competence high. 2-3The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board provides oversight for auditors of public companies, including establishing auditing and quality control standards for public company audits, and performing inspections of the quality controls at audit firms performing those audits. -4The purpose of the Securities and Exchange Commission is to assist in providing investors with reliable information upon which to make investment decisions. Since most reasonably large CPA firms have clients that must file reports with the SEC each year (all companies filing registration statements under the securities acts of l933 and l934 must file audited financial statements and other reports with the S EC at least once each year), the profession is highly involved with the SEC requirements. The SEC has considerable influence in setting generally accepted accounting principles and disclosure requirements for financial statements because of its authority for specifying reporting requirements considered necessary for fair disclosure to investors. In addition, the SEC has power to establish rules for any CPA associated with audited financial statements submitted to the Commission. 2-5The AICPA is the organization that sets professional requirements for CPAs. The AICPA also conducts research and publishes materials on many different subjects related to accounting, auditing, management advisory services, and taxes. The organization also prepares and grades the CPA examinations, provides continuing education to its members, and develops specialty designations to help market and assure the quality of services in specialized practice areas. 2-6Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements provide a framework for attest engagements, including detailed standards for specific types of attestation engagements. -7The PCAOB has responsibility for establishing auditing standards for public companies, while the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) of the AICPA establishes auditing standards for private companies. The ASB previously had responsibility for establishing auditing standards for both public and private companies. Existing auditing standards were adopted by the PCAOB as interim auditing standards for public company audits. 2-8Generally acce pted auditing standards are ten general guidelines to aid auditors in fulfilling their professional responsibilities. These guidelines include three general standards concerned with competence, independence, and due professional care; three standards of field work including planning and supervision, understanding the entity and its environment, including its internal control, and the gathering of sufficient appropriate evidence; and four standards of reporting, which require a statement as to presentation in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, inconsistency observed in the current period in relation to the preceding period, adequate disclosure, and the expression of an opinion as to the fairness of the presentation of the financial statements. Generally accepted accounting principles are specific rules for accounting for transactions occurring in a business enterprise. Examples may be any of the opinions of the FASB. 2-9Auditors can obtain adequate technical training and proficiency through formal education in auditing and accounting, adequate practical experience, and continuing professional education. Auditors can demonstrate their proficiency by becoming licensed to practice as CPAs, which requires successful completion of the Uniform CPA Examination. The specific requirements for licensure vary from state to state. 2-10For the most part, generally accepted auditing standards are general rather than specific. Many practitioners along with critics of the profession believe the standards should provide more clearly defined guidelines as an aid in determining the extent of evidence to be accumulated. This would eliminate some of the difficult audit decisions and provide a source of defense if the CPA is charged with conducting an inadequate audit. On the other hand, highly specific requirements could turn auditing into mechanical evidence gathering, void of professional judgment. From the point of view of both the profession and the users of auditing services, there is probably a greater harm from defining authoritative guidelines too specifically than too broadly. -11International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) are issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). ISAs are designed to improve the uniformity of auditing practices and related services throughout the world by issuing pronouncements on a variety of au dit and attest functions and promoting their acceptance worldwide. A CPA who conducts an audit in accordance with GAAS may not comply with ISAs because there may be additional ISA requirements that extend beyond GAAS requirements. 2-12Quality controls are the procedures used by a CPA firm that help it meet its professional responsibilities to clients. Quality controls are therefore established for the entire CPA firm as opposed to individual engagements. 2-13The element of quality control is personnel management. The purpose of the requirement is to help assure CPA firms that all new personnel are qualified to perform their work competently. A CPA firm must have competent employees conducting the audits if quality audits are to occur. 2-14A peer review is a review, by CPAs, of a CPA firms compliance with its quality control system. A mandatory peer review means that such a review is required periodically. AICPA member firms are required to have a peer review every three years. Registered firms with the PCAOB are subject to quality inspections. These are different than peer reviews because they are performed by independent inspection teams rather than another CPA firm. Peer reviews can be beneficial to the profession and to individual firms. By helping firms meet quality control standards, the profession gains if reviews result in practitioners doing higher quality audits. A firm having a peer review can also gain if it improves the firms practices and thereby enhances its reputation and effectiveness, and reduces the likelihood of lawsuits. Of course peer reviews are costly. There is always a trade-off between cost and benefits. 2-15Firms may belong to Center for Audit Quality and the Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) Firm Practice Center. The mission of the Center for Audit Quality is to foster confidence in the audit process and to aid investors and the capital markets by advancing constructive suggestions for change rooted in the profession’s core values of integrity, objectivity, honesty and trust. The PCPS Firm Practice Center provides practice management resources for firms of all sizes. In addition to these resource centers, the AICPA also provides the Governmental Audit Quality Center and Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center to provide resources for performing quality audits in these unique and complex audit areas. 2-16a. (1)b. (2)c. (3)d. (3) 2-17a. (2)b. (1)c. (2)d. (3) 2-18a. The comments summarize the beliefs of many practitioners about the Sarbanes–Oxley Act and the PCAOB. The arguments against the Act can be summarized as four arguments: 1. Costs of complying with the Act are excessively high, especially the requirement to report on internal control over financial reporting, and will discourage companies from becoming public companies. 2. Relative cost for local audit firms is excessively high. 3. Additional oversight is not needed because sufficient quality controls have already been implemented by most audit firms. 4. Three other things already provide assurance of adequate quality: a competitive economic environment, legal liability, and auditing standards. To support these comments, it can be argued that the profession has generally functioned well with relatively little controversy and criticism. The arguments against these comments are primarily as follows: 1. Reporting on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting will provide benefits in improved controls, resulting in higher quality financial reporting and reduced losses from fraud. 2. The increased confidence in financial reporting will increase access to capital and lower the cost of capital by reducing information risk. 2-18 (continued) 3. Changes in the scope of CPA practices and other threats to audit quality required government regulation. 4. Regulation of public company audits will not affect most audit firms that do not have public company audit clients. b. There is no correct answer to this question. Different people reach different conclusions, depending on the weights put on the various arguments. Time is needed to effectively assess both the costs and benefits of the Act. 2-19a. Engagement performance . Human resources c. Engagement performance d. Engagement performance e. Relevant ethical requirements f. Monitoring g. Acceptance and continuation of clien ts and engagements h. Human resources i. Human resources j. Leadership responsibilities 2-20a. Rossi and Montgomerys primary ethical consideration is their professional competence to perform all of the audit work for filing with the SEC. In addition, if Rossi and Montgomery have performed bookkeeping services or certain consulting services for Mobile Home, they will not be independent under PCAOB and SEC independence requirements. The firm must also be a registered firm with the PCAOB. b. The filing with the SEC, in addition to normal audited financial statements, will require completion and registration with the SEC of Form S-1 which includes an audited summary of operations for the last five fiscal years as well as many additional schedules and descriptions of the business. Each quarter subsequent to the filing, Form 10-Q must be filed; and within 90 days of the end of each fiscal year Form 10-K must be filed with the SEC. In addition, Form 8-K must be filed whenever significant events have occurred which are of interest to public investors. These forms must be filed in conformity with Regulation S-X, which requires considerable disclosures in addition to those normally required in audited financial statements. 2-21 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF GAAS |HOLMES ACTIONS RESULTING IN FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH GAAS | |GENERAL STANDARDS | | |The auditor must have adequate technical training and |It was inappropriate for Holmes to hire the two students to conduct | |proficiency to per form the audit. |the audit. The audit must be conducted by persons with proper | | |education and experience in the field of auditing. Although a junior | | |assistant has not completed his formal education, he may help in the | | |conduct of the audit as long as there is proper supervision and | | |review. |The auditor must maintain independence in mental attitude|To satisfy the second general standard, Holmes must be without bias | |in all matters relating to the audit. |with respect to the client under audit. Holmes has an obligation for | | |fairness to the owners, management, and creditors who may rely on the | | |report. Because of the financial interest in whether the bank loan is | | |granted to Ray, Holmes is independent in neither fact nor appearance | | |with respect to the assignment undertaken. |The auditor must exercise due professional care in the |This standard requires Holmes to perform the audit with due care, | |performance of the audit and the preparation of the |which imposes on Holmes and everyone in Holmes organization a | |report. |responsibility to observe the standards of field work and reporting. | | |Exercise of due care requires critical review at every level of | | |supervision of the work done and the judgments exercised by those | | |assisting in the audit. Holmes did not review the work or the | | |judgments of the assistants and clearly failed to adhere to this | | |standard. | 2-21 (continued) |BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF GAAS |HOLMES ACTIONS RESULTING IN FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH GAAS | |STANDARDS OF FIELD WORK | | |The auditor must adequately plan the work and must |This standard recognizes that early appointment of the auditor has | |properly supervise any assistants. advantages for the auditor and the client. Holmes accepted the | | |engagement without considering the availability of competent staff. In| | |addition, Holmes failed to supervise the assistants. The work | | |performed was not adequately planned. | |The auditor must obtain a sufficient understanding of the|Holmes did not obtain an understanding of the entity or its internal | |entity and its environment, including its internal |control, nor did the assistants obtain such an understanding. There | |control, to assess the risk of material misstatement of |appears to have been no audit at all. The work performed was more an | |the financial statements whether due to error or fraud, |accounting service than it was an auditing service. | |and to design the nature, timing, and extent of further | | |audit procedures. | | |The auditor must obtain sufficient appropriate audit |Holmes acquired no evidence that would support the financial | |evidence by performing audit procedures to afford a |statements. Holmes merely checked the mathematical accuracy of the | |reasonable basis for an opinion regarding the financial |records and summarized the accounts. Standard audit procedures and | |statements under audit. |techniques were not performed. | |STANDARDS OF REPORTING | | |The auditor must state in the auditor’s report whether |Holmes report made no reference to generally accepted accounting | |the financial statements are presented in accordance with|principles. Because Holmes did not conduct a proper audit, the report | |generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). should state that no opinion can be expressed as to the fair | | |presentation of the financial statements in accordance with generally | | |accepted accounting principles. | 2-21 (continued) |BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF GAAS |HOLMES ACTIONS RESULTING IN FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH GAAS | |The auditor must identify in the auditor’s report those |Holmes improper audit would not enable him to determine whether | |circ umstances in which such principles have not been |generally accepted accounting principles were consistently applied. |consistently observed in the current period in relation |Holmes report should make no reference to the consistent application | |to the preceding period. |of accounting principles. | |When the auditor determines that informative disclosures |Management is primarily responsible for adequate disclosures in the | |are not reasonably adequate, the auditor must so state in|financial statements, but when the statements do not contain adequate | |the auditor’s report. |disclosures the auditor should make such disclosures in the auditors | | |report. In this case both the statements and the auditors report lack| | |adequate disclosures. |The auditor must either express an opinion regarding the |Although the Holmes report contains an expression of opinion, such | |financial statements, taken as a whole, or state that an |opinion is not based on the results of a proper audit. Holmes should | |opinion cannot be expressed, in the auditor’s report. |disclaim an opinion because he failed to conduct an audit in | |When the auditor cannot express an overall opinion, the |accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. | |auditor should state the reasons therefor in the | | |auditor’s report. In all cases where an auditors name is| | |associated with financial statements, the auditor should | | |clearly indicate the character of the auditors work, if | | |any, and the degree of responsibility the auditor is | | |taking, in the auditor’s report. | | 2-22a. International auditing standards. b. PCAOB auditing standards. c. PCAOB auditing standards (reporting in the U. K. will be under international auditing standards). d. Generally accepted auditing standards. e. International auditing standards. f. PCAOB auditing standards (due to the publicly-traded debt). 2-1International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) are issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB (http://www. ifac. org/IAASB/). Visit the IAASB’s website to answer the following questions: 1. What is the primary objective of the IAASB? Answer: The objective of the IAASB is to serve the public interest by setting high-quality auditing and assurance standards and by facilitating the convergence of international and national standards, thereby enhancing the quality and uniformity of practice throughout the world and strengthening public confidence in the global auditing and assurance profession. International Standards on Auditing (ISA) are used by auditors in countries that have adopted ISAs as their auditing standards. 2. What is the IAASB’s due process that it follows when setting standards? Answer: The IAASB follows a due process in setting standards. The standards-setting Public Interest Activity Committees (PIAC) identify new projects based on review of international developments and consultation with the Public Interest Oversight Board. †¢ The project may be assigned to a task force, which considers whether to hold a public forum or roundtable. †¢ Dra ft pronouncements are exposed for a minimum of 90 days. †¢ The task force considers all comments and whether re-exposure is needed. †¢ The PIAC votes on the approval or withdrawal of the pronouncement. Affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the members, but not less than 12, is required to approve an exposure draft. Internet Problem 2-1 (continued) 3. The IAASB is committed to transparency. How does the IAASB make public information related to standards setting activities? Answer: The IAASB is committed to transparency. Where practicable, meetings are broadcast over the Internet or recorded. Meeting agendas and minutes are published on the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) website. All exposure drafts are subject to public exposure for a minimum of 90 days. (Note: Internet problems address current issues using Internet sources. Because Internet sites are subject to change, Internet problems and solutions may change. Current information on Internet problems is available at www. pearsonhighered. com/arens).