Thursday, October 31, 2019

Copyright Law Master Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Copyright Law Master - Essay Example In many cases, the competition for this standard will be fierce,(n6) because the winner likely will have intellectual property rights in the technology and hence reap a significant reward. Such incentives often are needed for the development of objectively good standards. Yet, as a consequence of granting intellectual property rights, a monopoly is created in a product that Internet users need. Once an Internet technology becomes a standard, how can the owner of the corresponding copyright be prevented from extracting monopoly rents and thereby negating the increase in consumer welfare that the standard created It is an understatement to say that the Internet has become an important communications and commercial network. The large number of Internet consumers grants each user the benefit of network effects -- the effects of a system whose value to a given user increases with the number of users of that system --- a significant externality that affects decisions by potential new participants. Network effects are particularly important with regard to the Internet, because the more users it has, the more valuable it is as an information resource, a communications tool, and a marketplace for goods and services. In fact, the network effect of the Internet would be destroyed were it not for the adoption of common standards to ensure compatible communication. For example, computers use the public domain protocol TCP/IP, which allows the network effect to prosper, because it allows everyone using the Internet to speak the same language. Without such compatibility, email messages would not be readable by, and web pages would not be accessible to, all users; such facile interchange is precisely the value of being on the network in the first place. Thus, the need for compatibility also drives the standardization of Internet protocols and tools, because the network effect requires users to be on the same network. Copyright in the Age of Internet Copyright is a relatively neglected area as far as economists are concerned and it occupies a backseat by comparison to the economic analysis of patents and R&D. This is surprising since it plays a major role in industries that are increasingly important in post-industrial economies, the cultural industries (publishing, sound recording, film, broadcasting) and computer software. It is a fruitful area for the application of law and economics, for modern theories of industrial organisation and for public choice theory. Copyright law provides the institutional framework for markets in the cultural sector of the economy. Each country has its own national copyright law; however, the necessity for that law to be effective with international trade of cultural products has led to harmonisation of copyright across countries. The author may license, assign or sell these fights outright or in part or transfer them to an agent. All such transactions are made through contracts. Only the author's moral right in the work may not be sold or transferred1. The right way to evaluate policy on copyright is to undertake empirical analysis of the economic effects of changes to the law and to see how markets respond to them. It does not seem that this approach has so far even been considered in European policy-making on copyright. Principal-Agent

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Bank of America Corporation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bank of America Corporation - Research Paper Example One reason why it is important to analyze Bank of America Corporation as a profitable banking sector is its large market share and the amazing offers it provides to its customers in all its branches that puts it as the world’s biggest and wealthiest corporate company, as reported by Giannone (2009). If only the bank can reach out to the opportunities that exist by accommodating even the low-income earners, no doubt it can become the largest banking and financial service centre in the word. It has continued to offer banking and financial services to its clientele in the US. The bank boasts of featuring as the 13th largest corporate company, according to the CNN fortune 500 company ranking. It has a primary listing base in the United States. It has its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, and enjoys a large market in the banking industry. This shows that the institution has a potential of expanding beyond measure if it decides to be tactical in its operation. Although it has the ability to compete favourably with other banking and financial institutions, it has to up its game since its rival banking institutions are also offering almost the same products. One thing it should do is to conduct a thorough feasibility study on some of the new range of products not yet tapped by other competitors. By the time competitors become aware of the existence of that particular product, the bank shall have identified another new product altogether. This is the actual utilization of the strengths of an organization to outdo other organizations through taking advantage of their weaknesses. According to a recent Annual Report by Moynihan (2011), the bank features as the second largest in the US by assets having its branches in 50 states in the US and about 40 branches in the world. The external analysis purely indicates that the bank operates where there is stiff competition almost in all its branches and therefore any mistake made by the bank results in insurmountable losses.     

Sunday, October 27, 2019

A Study Of The Political Theories Of Cicero Politics Essay

A Study Of The Political Theories Of Cicero Politics Essay Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman philosopher, political theorist, politician and statesman lived from 106 to 43 BC. In modern scholarship, Cicero is thought to be one of the most engaging of the Roman philosophers, and was responsible for introducing the chief Greek schools of philosophy to Rome, even though at the time he was more focused on his own political career. Cicero wrote a great deal about customs, rights, law, and society, so it is natural that his works included a lineage from Greece on the subject of honesty and ethics. Cicero believed that in order to have a true friendship with someone one must have complete honesty, truth and trust. This honesty was extended not only to personal friends, but to society in general, since that forms the basic template for the individual to actualize. Also, friends do things for each other without expectation of repayment. An individual has a responsibility, in fact, to help friends maintain the correct and moral path. Since evil is define d as ignorance, to maintain friendship it is necessary to rebuke ignorance and be honest (If a friend is about to do something wrong, one should not compromise ones morals. One should explain what is wrong about the action, and help ones friend understand what is right, because Cicero believed that ignorance is the cause of evil. Finally, friendships come to an end because one person in the friendship becomes evil, or dishonest. Similarly, without abject faith in honesty, society cannot exist. The Ancient Greeks argued over the needs of the individual as opposed to the needs of the State (Athens, for example); and throughout history generals and heads of state have had to balance out the ends versus the means of attainment. The concept even made it to the motion picture screen and was given a popular treatment in the science fiction movies Star Trek 2 and 3.  [1]  At the center of this debate is the notion that many remain dissatisfied with the definition of good or appropriate being at the whim of a particular social order, or ruling elite. This concept continued within the philosophical debate through Aquinas, Locke, and Kant. Hobbes and Locke differed, and put forth the notion that there were natural rights, or states of nature, but disagreed on the controlling factors of those natural tendencies. Kant took this further, reacting, and argued that a state or society must be organized by the way laws and justice was universally true, available, and, most importantly, justified by humanity. Yet, for Kant, these laws should respect the equality, freedom, and autonomy of the citizens. In this way Kant, prescribed that basic rights were necessary for civil society, and becomes a rubric by which we may understand modern utilitarian principles and their interdependence with the concept of human rights. In general, utilitarianism is an ethical system most often attributed to John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, both 19th century social philosophers commenting on conditions arising from the Industrial Revolution. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical thing one can do is any action that will maximize the happiness within an organization or society. Actions have quantitative outcomes and the ethical choices that lead to the greatest good for the greatest number are the appropriate decisions, even if that means subsuming the rights of certain individuals. It is considered to be a consequential outlook in the sense that while outcomes cannot be predicted the judgment of an action is based on the outcome or, the ends justify the means. Deontology is similar, arguing that there are norms and truths that are universal for all humans; actions then have a predisposition to right or wrong, moral or immoral. Kant believed that humans should act, at all times, as if their individual action s would have consequences for all of society. Morality, then, is based on rational thought and is the direction most humans innately want. Roughly, deontology is the means justify the ends. A classic illustration comparing the two ideas has you as a Police Captain managing a situation in which a sniper is shooting individuals who pass by a busy downtown square, apparently at random. The police have cornered the shooter and have their own sharpshooters ready for a kill shot. However, the shooter grabbed a child and is using her as a human shield. Do you authorize your own snipers to take a shot, knowing there is a chance of killing the child; or wait and risk the shooter killing more pedestrians? Certainly, the human shield did not wish to die, but then neither did the hundreds of potential victims on the street and in office buildings surrounding the shooter. If you take a utilitarian approach you give the order to shoot and hope the child is missed if you take the deontological approach you hold that childs one life in the same reverence as the publics good. Obviously, neither answer is completely right nor wrong but situationally dependent, which would be anathema to both Kant and Mill, who saw the world in much clearer terms. What if, for instance, the child will grow up to discover the cure for cancer and thus save millions of people? However, what if the person who might be the next President and develop a global peace accord is in the building across from the shooter giving a presentation and is randomly shot? Too, what if a future megalomaniac is shot during this exchange, thus preventing pain and suffering at some future date? Thus, morality and ethics are not always right or wrong. While there are some agreed upon moral duties we share as humans and should follow in order to preserve a working society, so too are there times which require us to act extraordinarily to save or enhance lives. The key, as it has been since Ancient Greece, is to have the intellectual and moral toolbox with which to make such a decision.

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Amazing Color-coded Campus :: Personal Narrative Essay Example

The Amazing Color-coded Campus At a glance ours had seemed the perfect school, with its large remodeled buildings, looming green trees and a campus filling a whole city block. Everyone wanted to go there, just so that they could cut class and escape to the real world. For me, leaving a private school where everyone looked and acted the same for a school known for having the largest and most diverse student body in the United States was nothing less than a dream come true. On my first day, though, I realized why my parents had originally yanked me out of public school. I had rejoined all those same kids who six years before had been stapling their ears, whispering talk of sexual things I'd never heard of, and literally gluing themselves to their seats after being told to do so figuratively. In a way I was glad, having spent six years at a school whose students' only quirks were random temper tantrums and acting out scenes from the latest novel they'd finished. The school had fences protecting us from the outside world, and how it might make us feel about ourselves. I had learned to disappear in that crowd, to appear as one of them when I felt like an outsider. I would listen to their stories of shoplifting, knowing their allowances covered anything their hearts desired, and lie about my own shoplifting experiences. I couldn't help but think that there was more beyond those gates, things that mattered and things that were real. The sky seemed to hang dangerously low above my head that day, the clouds so thick and gray it was if the universe ended at their edges. I had survived a week of high school, but still walked around campus feeling anxious, as if everyone could see I was shaking inside. My eyes scanned the people pouring from the buildings, desperately wanting to find my best friend. Through the undulating sea of students, which lightened and darkened every couple of feet, I finally spotted Kay doing her best to be invisible. The path to where we ate curved through "The Slopes," where black and Latino football players hung out, and "The Bricks," which held mainly white seniors. Ashamed of our nervousness to walk through "The Slopes," we looked only at each other and talked in hurried tones.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Woman in White

Women's Rights Collins hammers home the point that women in England, regardless of their social standing, their education, their moral behavior or their finances, have few legal rights for protection. Laura Fairlie is robbed of her identity and her inheritance by a greedy, unscrupulous husband. Mrs. Catherick has her reputation ruined by a misunderstanding that leaves her divorced and alone at the mercy of the man who caused the misunderstanding. Anne Catherick is falsely imprisoned in a mental institution, as is her half-sister Laura Fairlie.Both escape without the help of any man and go into hiding. Countess Eleanor Fairlie Fosco is denied her rightful inheritance by her older brother Philip simply because he disapproves of her marriage. This drives her to crime to gain back her inheritance. Laura Fairlie is assaulted by her husband and finds no help from the law to protect her, and even her guardian, Frederick Fairlie,†¦ An Analysis of Female Identity in Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White  Ã‚   This article looks at the issue of female identity in Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White.It analyzes two key scenes from the novel to reveal how construction and style inevitably influence the representation of identity, as well as assessing the text in relation to genre, particularly the role of the Gothic in Collins's narrative. A prevalent theme in The Woman in White is confinement. Both Anne Catherick and Laura Fairlie are confined in a mental asylum by Sir Percival Glyde. The novel effectively reworks traditional Gothic conventions in its depictions of confinement and the female characters' jailer.The Woman in White belongs to the genre of ‘sensation' fiction, Collins's novel being regarded as innovative as it is the first, and arguably the greatest, of the English sensation novels. Sensation fiction is generally considered a hybrid genre in that it combines the elements of romance familiar to readers of Gothic fiction and the domestic context fami liar to readers of realist fiction. In The Woman in White the terrors of eighteenth-century Gothic fiction are transferred from their exotic medieval settings, such as those employed in the novels of Ann Radcliffe, and relocated in contemporary nineteenth-century English society.Melodrama is a genre closely related to sensationalism. Some of the features of melodrama, such as extreme states of being, situations, actions; dark plottings and suspense, are clearly apparent in the storyline of The Woman in White. The character of Laura Fairlie comes closest to a typical melodramatic heroine, especially in terms of physical appearance, being young, fair and beautiful. She also embodies both purity and powerlessness. However her role in the story is curiously passive as she is denied a formal narrative voice.Her passivity is the counterpart of her half-sister Marian Halcombe's activity. Marian is a complex individual whose characterization falls outside conventional literary or social mod els, partially evinced in the striking physical contrast between her face and body. Walter informs the reader that her figure is â€Å"tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed†¦ her waist, perfection in the eyes of a man† (p. 31). Yet her facial features are somewhat inconsistent with her body: â€Å"the dark down on her upper lip was almost a moustache. She had a large, firm, masculine mouth and jaw† (p. 32).The formal nature of Walter's description employs melodramatic techniques yet the incongruous content of this description appears to challenge melodramatic conventions. Sensation fiction's emphasis on plot means that it often depends on secrets, which seem never-ending: as when one secret is uncovered, another is revealed. The presence of secrets inevitably invites spying, an action Marian chooses to take in one of the novel's most suspenseful scenes, when, fearing that her half-sister's livelihood may be in danger, she spies on the villains Sir Perc ival and Count Fosco in the dead of night.A forbidding atmosphere is swiftly established with an air of menace clearly apparent in the imminent rain, described as being â€Å"threatening†, while the adjectives â€Å"black†, â€Å"pitch† and â€Å"blinding† are used to evoke the impenetrability of the night's inevitable â€Å"darkness†. Marian's decision to listen at the window seems to be partially determined by Count Fosco's opinions of her â€Å"sharpness† and â€Å"courage†. Later on in his and Percival's conversation, Fosco asserts that Marian has â€Å"the foresight and resolution of a man† (p. 30). The shedding of her womanly attire in order to facilitate her position on the roof goes someway to consolidate this identity as a ‘masculinized woman', a type fairly common in sensation fiction. However Marian is somewhat at odds with the heroines of most sensationalist novels in her fundamental moral probity, evinced in this scene with her eagerness to find one factor to justify her subsequent actions to herself: â€Å"I wanted but one motive to sanction the act to my own conscience† (p. 24), finding it in the form of her half-sister: â€Å"Laura's honour, Laura's happiness – Laura's life itself – might depend on my quick ears and my faithful memory tonight† (p. 324). The actual passages detailing her spying on Percival and Fosco are especially tense, partially through Marian's situation – her position on the roof is precariously close to the Countess's bedroom and it is apparent, from the light behind the window, that the woman is not yet in bed.The paragraph that discloses this fact to the reader is composed of sentences comprising numerous short clauses, some of only two words in length, as well as a copious use of dashes – stylistic effects that succeed in bringing the reader ever closer to the â€Å"strangeness and peril† (p. 328) of Marian's si tuation, and the â€Å"dread†, which she â€Å"could not shoulder† (p. 328). Also Collins's use of direct speech in depicting the villains' conversation consolidates this effect, and added with the moodily Gothic ambience, succeeds in bringing the reader into uncomfortably close proximity to Marian's current situation.The style of narrative an author adopts inevitably effects the nature of their characters. In The Woman in White we see the characters of female protagonists shaped by both formal and contextual decisions. This article has gone some way into revealing how identities are constructed through a combination of narrative methods and genre conventions, as well as the actual content of Collins's novel, such as other characters and settings. The Woman in White was an incredibly popular novel.Collins' masterful creation of suspense made for an immensely successful work amongst the Victorian populace. SENSATION FICTION: Contemporary Reviews and Responses The follow ing reviews of Victorian sensation fiction are arranged according to theme and author. The reviews included here are are only a small sampling of Victorian reaction to and enthusiasm for sensation fiction. In future, this collection will be more thorough and will feature full reviews rather than selected sections.Sensation Fiction in General At no age, so far as we are aware, has there yet existed anything resembling the extraordinary flood of novels which is now pouring over this land — certainly with fertilising results, so far as the manufacture itself is concerned. There were days, halcyon days — as one still may ascertain from the gossip of the seniors of society — when an author was a natural curiosity, recognized and stared at as became the rarity of the phenomenon.No such thing is possible nowadays, when most people have been in print one way or other — when stains of ink linger on the prettiest of fingers, and to write novels is the normal condit ion of a large section of society. Margaret Oliphant on Count Fosco from The Woman in White: The violent stimulant of serial publication — of weekly publication, with its necessity for frequent and rapid recurrence of piquant situation and startling incident — is the thing of all others most likely to develop the germ, and bring it to fuller and darker bearing. What Mr.Wilkie Collins has done with delicate care and laborious reticence, his followers will attempt without any such discretion. No divine influence can be imagined as presiding over the birth of [the sensation writer’s] work, beyond the market-law of demand and supply; no more immortality is dreamed of for it than for the fashions of the current season. A commercial atmosphere floats around works of this class, redolent of the manfactory and the shop. The public wants novels, and novels must be made — so many yards of printed stuff, sensation-pattern, to be ready by the beginning of the season. H. L. Mansel, Quarterly Review, 113 (April 1863): 495 – 6. Sensation Fiction and the Woman Reader [Today’s heroines in English novels include] Women driven wild with love for the man who leads them on to desperation before he accords that word of encouragement that carries them into the seventh heaven; women who marry their grooms in fits of sensual passion; women who pray their lovers to carry them off from the husbands and homes they hate; women †¦ who give and receive burning kisses and frantic embraces, and live in a voluptuous dream. †¦ the dreaming maiden †¦ aits now for flesh and muscles, for strong arms that seize her, and warm breath that thrills her through, and a host of other physical attractions which she indicates to the world with a charming frankness. On the other side of the picture, it is, of course, the amber hair and undulating form, the warm flesh and glowing colour, for which the youth sighs. †¦ this eagerness for physical sens ation is represented as the natural sentiment of English girls. * * * * * * * [Lady Audley’s Secret] brought in the rein of bigamy as an interesting and fashionable crime, which no doubt shows a certain deference to the British relish for law and order.It goes against the seventh commandment, no doubt, but it does it in a legitimate sort of way, and is an invention which could only have been possible to an Englishwoman knowing the attraction of impropriety, and yet loving the shelter of law. There is nothing more violently opposed to our moral sense, in all the contradictions to custom they present to us, than the utter unrestraint in which the heroines of this order are allowed to expatiate and develop their impulsive, stormy, passionate characters.We believe it is one chief among their many dangers to youthful readers that they open out a picture of life free from all the perhaps irksome checks that confine their own existence. †¦ The heroine of this class of novel is charming because she is undisciplined, and the victim of impulse; because she has never known restraint or has cast it aside, because in all these respects she is below the thoroughly trained and tried woman. Wilkie Collins The Woman in White Mr. Collins is an admirable story-teller, though he is not a great novelist.His plots are framed with artistic ingenuity — he unfolds them bit by bit, clearly, and with great care — and each chapter is a most skilful sequel to the chapter before. He does not attempt to paint character or passion. He is not in the least imaginative. He is not by any means a master of pathos. The fascination which he exercises over the mind of his reader consists in this — that he is a good constructor. Each of his stories is a puzzle, the key to which is not handed to us till the third volume.With him, accordingly, character, passion, and pathos are mere accessory colouring which he employs to set off the central situation in his narrative. †¦ Men and women he draws, not for the sake of illustrating human nature and life’s varied phases, or exercising his own powers of creation, but simply and solely with reference to the part it is necessary they should play in tangling or disentangling his argument. He is, as we have said, a very ingenious constructor; but ingenious construction is not high art, just as cabinet-making and joining is not high art.Mechanical talent is what every great artist ought to possess. Mechanical talent, however, is not enough to entitle a man to rank as a great artist †¦ Nobody leaves one of his tales unfinished. This is a great compliment to his skill. But then very few feel at all inclined to read them a second time. Our curiosity once satisfied, the charm is gone. All that is left is to admire the art with which the curiosity was excited. In response to Saturday Review commentary above: The Woman in White is the latest, and by many degrees the best work of an author who had already written so many singularly good ones.That mastery in the art of construction for which Mr. Wilkie Collins has long been pre-eminent among living writers of fiction is here exhibited upon the largest, and proportionately, the most difficult scale he has yet attempted. To keep the reader’s attention fairly and equably on the alert throughout a continuous story that fills three volumes of the ordinary novel form, is no common feat; but the author of the Woman in White has done much more than this. Every two of his thousand and odd pages contain as much printed matter as three or four of those to which the majority of Mr.Mudie’s subscribers are most accustomed, and from his first page to his last the interest is progressive, cumulative, and absorbing. If this be true — and it appears to be universally admitted — what becomes of the assertion made by some critics, that it is an interest of mere curiosity which holds the reader so fast and holds him so long? The thing is palpably absurd. Curiosity can do much, but it cannot singly accomplish all that is imputed to it by this theory, for it is impossible that its intensity should be sustained without intermission through so long a flight.If The Woman in White were indeed a protracted puzzle and nothing more, the reader’s attention would often grow languid over its pages; he would be free from the importunate desire that now possesses him to go through every line of it continuously; he would be content to take it up and lay it down at uncertain intervals, or be strongly tempted to skip to the end and find out the secret at once, without more tedious hunting through labyrinths devised only to retard his search, and not worth exploring for their own sake.But he yields to no such temptation, for the secret which is so wonderfully well kept to the end of the third volume is not the be-all and end-all of his interest in the story. Even Mr. Wilkie Collins himself, with all his cons tructive skill, would be at fault if he attempted to build as elaborate story on so narrow a basis†¦ Unsigned Review, Spectator, 33 (8 September 1860): 864. [pic] Henry James on Wilkie Collins: To Mr Collins belongs the credit of having introduced into fiction those mysterious of mysteries, the mysteries which are at our own doors. Mary Elizabeth Braddon M. E. Braddon] might not be aware how young women of good blood and good training feel. . [pic] Lady Audley is at once the heroine and the monstrosity of the novel. In drawing her, the authoress may have intended to portray a female Mephistopheles; but, if so, she would have known that a woman cannot fill such a part. The nerves with which Lady Audley could meet unmoved the friend of the man she had murdered, are the nerves of a Lady Macbeth who is half unsexed, and not those of the timid, gentle, innocent creature Lady Audley is represented as being. †¦All this is very exciting; but is also very unnatural. The artistic fa ults of this novel are as grave as the ethical ones. Combined, they render it one of the most noxious books of the modern times. Marian Halcombe from The Woman in White â€Å"I said to myself, the lady is dark. She moved forward a few steps –and said to myself, the lady is young. She approached nearer – and I said to myself with a sense of surprise which words fail me to express – the lady is ugly! †Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The Woman in White Victorian novels with poor, plain heroines are nothing unusual, but it’s rare to find one who is downright ugly.Then again, Marian Halcombe, the heroine of Wilkie Collins’ sensation novel The Woman in White, cares very little for social convention. In 1860, when even the first wave of feminism was yet to hit, Marian refuses to be content with a life that limits her to â€Å"patience, petticoats and propriety†. She knows that in a world where a woman is her husband’s legal property, marriage was not th e happy ending for women of her era that convention claimed: â€Å"No man under heaven deserves these sacrifices from us women†¦they take us body and soul to themselves, and fasten our helpless lives to theirs as they chain up a dog to his kennel.And what does the best of them give us in return? † She has a point – the novel revolves around a rather melodramatic plot by the sinister Sir Percival Glyde and the fiendish Count Fosco to gain control over the considerable fortune of Laura Fairlie, Marian’s angelic half-sister, and the attempts of both Marian and Walter Hartright, Laura’s equally poor would-be suitor, to rescue her from an abusive marriage.Our first glimpse of her is through Walter’s eyes, and the description is hardly intended to be flattering – she’s sporting a bit of a ‘tache, and he finds her pallor unattractively â€Å"swarthy† (Laura’s later reference to â€Å"Gypsy skin† suggests that Marian is of mixed heritage). But before feminist readers have time to draw an outraged breath, Marian proceeds to launch into a five-page monologue that establishes her as one of the most sparkling creations in the whole of literature. Ever.Although Walter is the overall narrator and inexplicably believes himself to be the hero of the hour, all the risks and major discoveries are made by Marian. It is her diaries that provide a large portion of the narrative, and her quick thinking that saves her sister from a grisly fate. In addition, she can beat any man at billiards, she’s a bit of an intellectual goddess, and she singlehandedly runs the entire household. On the downside, she’s a bit of a snob and prone to making rather rash decisions like taking off most of her clothes, climbing onto the roof and then doing a bit of eavesdropping.She is driven by her near-obsessive love for Laura and whilst their relationship is emotionally complex, it is never cloying or mawkish – instead it is intense, co-dependent and rather more passionate than their sibling bond should allow. Their closeness is such that Laura’s one act of assertiveness in the entire novel is to insist that Marian’s constant presence in her life be written into her marriage contract, and Laura extracts a promise from her that she â€Å"will not be fond of anybody but [her]†.When the wedding night approaches, it is Marian who explains what Laura is to expect: â€Å"The simple illusions of her girlhood are gone; and my hand has stripped them off. Better mine than his – that’s all my consolation – better mine than his. † Steamy stuff for 1860. But neither her implied queerness or her supposed ugliness stopped countless readers writing to Collins asking if Marian was based on a real woman, and if said woman happened to be single. Even the evil (and married) Count Fosco is taken with her, although he seems to be more attracted to her as a potential partner in crime as a candidate for a mistress.Whilst Marian may lack the ethereal beauty of her sister, critic Nina Auerbach describes her as â€Å"a truly sexy woman†, noting that she is in fact the embodiment of androgynous pre-Raphaelite sensuality. The end of the novel has drawn criticism from feminist readers – the plucky, independent heroine is now content to stay at home and help her sister and brother-in-law raise a family in true domestic bliss. However, true to the spirit of their multilayered relationship, Marian is less Laura’s unpaid babysitter than a co-parent, still threatening the bonds of hetero happiness long after the supposedly happy ending has occurred.In a world that presented marriage and motherhood as the only options, Marian rejects what Adrienne Rich would later describe as â€Å"compulsory heterosexuality† in favour of life as the devoted partner of another woman. She is an amateur detective, early feminist and, de spite her vulnerable position, refuses to be a damsel in distress. She was a groundbreaking character when she first appeared, and even 150 years later she remains one of the most memorable characters in Victorian literature.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Acc 300 Exam 2 Study Guide

Ch18 Revenue Recognition (when it is realized or realizable, when it is earned) Revenue Recognition at point of sale: (1) Sales with Discounts (2) Sales with Right of Return: Three alternative revenue recognition methods, and recognize revenue only if all of six condition (3) Sales with buybacks (4) Bill and Hold Sales: buyer is not yet ready to take delivery but does take title and accept billing.Revenue is reported at the time title passes if (a) the risks of ownership have passed; (b) the buyer makes a fixed commitment of purchase the goods, requests the transaction be on a buy and hold basis, and sets a fixed delivery date; and (c) goods must be segregated, complete, and ready for shipment. FOB shipping-buyer FOB destination-seller Ch7 Cash and Receivable 1 Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and Bank overdrafts: (1). Cash equivalents are short-term, highly liquid investment. Ex.Treasury bills, commercial paper and money market funds. (2). Restricted Cash Ex. Petty cash, payr oll and dividend funds. Amount is not material, not segregate from cash; amount is material, segregate. (3). Bank Overdrafts: when a company writes a check for more than the amount in its cash account. 2 A/R: (1). Trade receivable: A/R, Notes Receivable. (2). Nontrade receivable: Advances to officers and employees and subsidiaries; Deposits paid to cover potential damages or losses; dividends and interest receivable†¦ (3).Recognition of A/R: (a) Trade discount. (b) Cash (sales) discounts. Companies value and report short-term receivable at net realizable value—the net amount they expect to receive in cash. (Determining NRV need both uncollectible receivables and any returns or allowances) Two methods are used in uncollectible accounts: (1) the direct write-off method (Bad debt expense-debit, Accounts Receivable-credit). (2) Allowance method: NRV, three essential features: (a). estimate uncollectible receivable. (b).Debit estimated uncollectible to Bad Debt Expense and cr edit them to Allowance for Doubtful Accounts. (c). When companies write off a specific account, they debit actual uncollectible to AFDA and credit that amount to A/R. Companies do not close AFDA at the end of fiscal year. Recovery of an Uncollectible Account: It reverses the entry made in writing off the account. It journalizes the collection in the usual manner. Percentage of sales: sales—Bad Debt Expense; Percentage of Receivable: A/R—AFDA, Ch8 Inventories . Perpetual system: continuously track changes in the inventory account, a company records all purchase and sales of goods directly in the inventory account as they occur. ( Purchase of merchandise for resale or RM for production are debited to inventory rather than to purchase; Freight-in is debited to inventory, Purchase returns and allowances and purchase discounts are credited to inventory; COGS is recorded at the time of each sale by debiting COGS and crediting Inventory 2.Periodic system: a company determines the Q of inventory on hand only periodically. It records all acquisitions of inventory by debiting the purchase account. The periodic system matches the total withdrawals for the month with the total purchases for the month in applying the LIFO method. In contrast, the perpetual system matches each withdrawal with the immediately preceding purchases. FIFO periodic and FIFO perpetual provide the same gross profit and inventory value. LIFO usually produces a lower GP than FIFO. 3. Basic issues in inventory valuation: (1). he physical goods to include in inventory (who owns the goods: FOB shipping point—Buyer’s at time of deliver; Consignment goods—seller’s; Sales with buyback—seller’s; Sales with high rate of returns—buyer’s, if you can estimate returns; Sales on installments—buyer’s, if you can estimate collectability. (2) The cost to include in inventory (product vs. period costs). (3) The cost flow assumption to adopt (specific identification, average cost, FIFO, LIFO, retail) 4. FIFO: in all cases, the inventory and COGS would be the same at the end of the month whether a perpetual or periodic system is used.LIFO: results in different ending inventory and COGS amounts that the amounts calculated under the periodic method. Not allowed under IFRS; LIFO liquidation can suddenly Inc tax liability; ADV: matching—reflect current prices; tax benefits; fewer write downs of Inventory; DIS: lower NI; understate EI Ch9 Inventories: Additional valuation issues 1. A company abandons the historical cost principle when the future utility (revenue-producing ability) of the asset drops below its original cost.Companies therefore report inventories at the lower-of-cost-or-market (a conservative approach to inventory valuation) at each reporting period. Net realizable value is the estimated selling price less reasonably predictable costs of completion and disposal (net selling price). A normal profit margin is subtracted from that amount to arrive at net realizable value less a normal profit margin. The general LCM rule is: a company values inventory at the LCM, replacement cost with market limited to an amount that is not more than NRV (upper, ceiling) or less than NRV less a normal profit margin (lower, floor).The designated market value is the amount that a company compares to cost. It is always the middle value of three amounts (replacement cost, NRV and NRV less a normal PM). Assumption A: Computes a cost ratio after markups (and markup cancellations) but before markdowns. One approach use only assumption A. It approximates the lower-of-average-cost-or-market. We will refer to this approach as the conventional retail inventory method or the LCM approach. It also provides the most conservative estimate of EI.