Financial accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Financial accounting - Essay Example Another reason in support of recognizing the goodwill intangible assets is that decision to acquire assets from others reflects there is intangible asset value of the asset acquired. The extent of a business acquiring another business entity facility or brand name instead of developing its own demonstrates that an external value of intangible asset exist in the market transaction. Consequently, business organizations should recognize the external value triggering acquisition of external market value attached to the assets to reflect the real value of the business entity in the balance sheet statement. However, there has been argument against recognition of the various intangible assets in the balance sheet financial statement. One of the arguments against recognition of intangible assets in the balance sheet is that it enhances the earnings information since the balance sheet financial statement will be cleansed from soft assets that have no physical substance. In addition, balance sheet information quality is improved since the cost of managing earnings is relatively reduced (Wahlen, Bradshaw, Baginski, & Stickney, 2010). Another reason against recognizing intangible assets in the balance is the uncertainty and difficult to ascertain the ability of asset recognized will generate revenue in future. Consequently, recognition of goodwill, market-related assets and contract related assets has the potential of causing material bias on the value of the business entity according to arguments against recognition of intangible assets in the balance sheet statement. Amortization of intangible assets faces both support and disapproval due to the potential material effect it causes in the balance sheet statement. One of the reasons in support of amortization of intangible asset is that the ability of a business to generate revenue in different financial is influenced by the market reputation of it brand name.

The articles of confederation and the constitution Essay Example for Free

The articles of confederation and the constitution Essay Abstract The simple difference between the Articles of Confederation and US Constitution is that the articles were not strong enough to hold our young nation together. The articles operated the US as separate states. Under the articles, it was very difficult to pass laws since the requirement of 9 out of the 13 states approval was needed for ratification. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments. The need for a stronger Federal government soon became apparent and eventually led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The members of the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Constitutional Convention convened in response to dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation and the need for a strong centralized government. After four months of secret debate and many compromises, the proposed Constitution was submitted to the states for approval. Although the vote was close in some states, the Constitution was eventually ratified and the new Federal government came into existence in 1789. Articles of Confederation and Constitution There were many differences between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. At the end of the American Revolution the free states needed some sort of control that would generate to a unified country. Issues arose such as: How should power be divided between local and national governments? How should laws be made, and by whom? Who should be authorized to govern those laws? How could the government be designed to protect the unalienable individual rights? Their first attempt at solving this issue was the Articles of Confederation, which was a failure for the most part, but not completely. After the failure of the articles, the state delegates tried to revise the articles, but instead, constructed the Constitution. There were so many changes made and very little remained the same. The Articles of Confederation were approved by Congress on November 15, 1777  and ratified by the states on March 1, 1781. It was a modest attempt by a new country to unite itself and form a national government. The Articles set up a Confederation that gave most of the power to the states. Many problems arose and so a new Constitution was written in 1787 in Independence Hall. The new Constitution called for a much more unified government with a lot more power. One of the key differences between the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation is in the way that they set up the Legislature. The thirteen states formed a Confederation referred to as the league of friendship in order to find a solution for common problems such as foreign affairs. The Articles of Confederation was the nations first Constitution. The articles created a loose Confederation of independent states that gave limited powers to the central government. Under the Articles each state could send between 2 and 7 delegates to Congress. In the Constitution each state was allowed 2 members in the Senate and 1 representative per 30,000 people (this number has now increased greatly) in the House of Representatives. The states with bigger populations wanted representation to be based solely off of population. The states with smaller populations wanted there to be a fixed number of representatives per state, each state would have one vote in the house of Congress, no matter the size of the population. Under the articles, there wasnt a strong independent executive, it established as a unicameral legislature, which it refers to as a Congress. The Constitution on the other hand establishes a bicameral legislature with an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house, the House of Representatives. In the articles, There wasnt any judicial branch but Congress had the authority to arbitrate disputes between states. Congress was responsible for conducting foreign affairs, declaring war or peace, maintaining an army and navy and a variety of other lesser functions. But the articles denied Congress the power to collect taxes, regulate interstate commerce and enforce laws. Because of this, the central government had to request donations from the states to finance its operations and raise armed forces.  The states attempted to limit the power of the national government because they feared that it would become a monarchy. In an effort to limit the power of the national government, Congress created one without enough power to govern effectively, which led to serious national and international problems. George Washington called for a convention in late May 1787; in order speak about the nations political and economical problems and revise the Articles. Delegates from eleven out of the thirteen states attended this convention. They decided on a government consisting of three branches: legislative (Congress), executive (the President), and judicial (Supreme Court). These branches were under the checks-and-balances in order to maintain balance in powers and to prevent tyranny in the country. The Great Compromise solved the issue that arose between the delegates that believed the separation of powers into three different branches would ensure that the United States would not become another monarchy. The Great Compromise resolved the representation issue by forming the two houses that we have today by using the idea of a two-house legislature in order to satisfy both sides. It proposed a legislature in which each state would be represented by two senators (Senate) and another legislature that would be distributed based on the state population (House of Representatives). Voting in Congress was different in the Articles and the Constitution. Under the Articles of Confederation, each state received 1 vote regardless of how many representatives it had. While in contrast to the constitution where in one house, the Senate, every state is represented equally regardless of population. In the lower house, the House of Representatives each state receives one representative for a set number of people. This meant that people could now be represented on a more personal level through the House of Representatives. This satisfied all of the states and helped resolve one of the greatest conflicts while writing the Constitution. Also, in the Three-Fifths clause, delegates agreed that each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person when determining the population and thus the number of representatives in the House of each state. One of the main weaknesses under the Articles of Confederation was its  incapability to regulate trade and levy taxes. The states controlled all of their cash flows. Sometimes, the states were in debt because of tariff wars that they would engage in with one another. Because of these debts, the states refused to give the national government the money it needed. Hence, the government could not pay off the debts it had gained during the revolution, including paying soldiers who had fought in the war and citizens who had provided supplies to the cause. Congress could not pass needed measures because they lacked the nine-state majority required to become laws and couldnt amend articles because unanimous consent of the all states was required. The states largely ignored Congress, which was powerless to enforce cooperation, and it was therefore unable to carry out its duties. The national government could not force the states to adhere to the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1783 ending the American Revolution. Foreign countries saw lack of unity in states. Because of the lack of income the national government collected, the new nation was unable to defend its borders from British and Spanish abuse because it could not pay for an army when the states would not contribute the necessary funds. The country would not get rich as a whole because states controlled all interstate commerce. States coined their own money and regulated its supply, so values of currency varied from state to state. Under the Constitution, Congress had the right to levy taxes and regulate commerce. The delegates b_elieved that a strong central government was a threat to American liberties and rights. Usually they were states rights advocates, backcountry farmers, poor farmers, the ill-educated and illiterate, debtors, and paper-money advocates; the low-income classes of society_ had an easier time outlining presidential powers. Although some delegates had extreme opinions-Alexander Hamilton proposed a legitimate monarchy headed by an American king-most agreed that a new executive or president was needed to give the country the strong leadership that it had lacked under the Articles. The primary aim of the Constitution was to create a strong elected government that was responsive to the will of the people, although there is some controversy over this. Many of the Founding Fathers believed that the new  government needed to be insulated from the will of the people; hence the design of such features as the Electoral College or the election of Senators by the state legislatures. The concept of self-government did not originate with the Americans; indeed, a measure of self-government existed in the United Kingdom at the time. But the degree to which the Constitution committed the United States to rule by the people was unique, even revolutionary, in comparison with other governments around the world. In addition to dividing the executive departments into four, the Judiciary Act of 1789 was created. The Judiciary Act of 1789 is a law that created the Supreme Court, thirteen district courts and three circuit courts. This act gave the Supreme Court the right to review state laws and state court decisions to determine whether an act or law is constitutional or not. Laws, acts, civil liberties were protected by the act as well. The delegates wanted to build a government for the people. On the opposing side, there were the Federalists. Federalists were supporters of the Constitution that desired a strong central government. Federalists felt that the Articles of Confederation were weak and ineffective. They felt that National government would protect the rights of the people. Over two hundred suggestions were submitted to Congress in order to protect American citizen rights, but only 10 were chosen. These 10 suggestions became the first ten amendments, known as our Bill Of Rights. The Articles of Confederation are a major part of the USs roots. Some of the ideas and theories from the Articles were strong and did try to better the US but they werent applied the strong enough. Ideas such as the Bill of Rights derived from the Articles. When I think back to how great the Constitution has worked it truly amazes me. It has lasted for over two centuries and continues to help our government function today. The US was able to build upon the mistakes of the Confederations first government. Living by the phrase united we stand and divided we fall the US has been able to build a strong government for its people, making changes as time goes by. References Comparing the Articles and the Constitution The U.S. Constitution Online USConstitution.net. _Comparing the Articles and the Constitution The U.S. Constitution Online USConstitution.net_. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. Feldmeth, Greg D. Articles of Confederation vs. the Constitution. _Articles of Confederation vs. the Constitution_. 31 Mar. 1998. Web. 28 Sept. 2014. Journals of the Continental Congress THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, WITH AMENDMENTS :: :: :: APRILOCTOBER, 1777. _Journals of the Continental Congress THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, WITH AMENDMENTS :: :: :: APRILOCTOBER, 1777_. Web. 20 Sept. 2014. S. Doc. 108-17 Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis, and Interpretation 2002 Edition. _S. Doc. 108-17 Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis, and Interpretation 2002 Edition_. 28 Jan. 2002. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. Welcome to OurDocuments.gov. _Welcome to OurDocuments.gov_. National Archives Education Staff. The Constitution: Evolution of a Government. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2001. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

Computers and Society :: Technology Essays

Computers and Society More often than not in today’s world you will tend to use computers. Directly or indirectly they have been increasing their influence on our lives from their invention in the 50’s, until the current state of their presence in every aspect of our lives. What before was done on paper, today is done on the same paper, a computer, a copy, and a form to input the data into the computer. The paperless revolution has turned sour. The very purpose of the computer as a business machine -- to reduce clutter, to organize data better and faster, and mostly to reduce the paperwork, has been abandoned for a system dictated to us by the needs of our computers. This is only one way that computers are being misused in our society. Think for example of the regular answer you would get if you call up any beuracratic agency, such as a bank or a government agency, with any problem. The first response would probably involve something like: â€Å"Our computer doesn’t show that record†, or â€Å"The computer doesn’t say you did so and so.† That is also probably as far as you will get to solving that problem. The computer is the perfect cover-up for the clerk on the other end of the phone line. If the computer says so, how can anyone argue? The computer shows no record of such and such a paper, and therefore it must not exist, and that is the end. The clerk need not involve himself in though as to why the record is not in the computer, or how did it get out of the computer, but what the almighty computer tells him is certainly enough. There is not a thing in our lives anymore that is not governed by computers. The computer handles our paperwork, calculates our salaries, grades, our car’s mileage. It is almighty, all-powerful, and definitely not to be argued with. What we do forget in this line of though is that computers and all the information therein is produced and entered by humans, is subject to human mistakes and errors. We do not see it that way. For example, the phrase â€Å"the computer made a mistake,† is commonly used, although everyone knows that computers cannot make mistakes, and the mistake was made by a human. But we believe that the computer is a separate entity, and thus we could say something like â€Å"the computer made a mistake.

The Crying of Lot 49 – the Mystery of Trystero

Thomas Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49 is his second novel, and its his shortest novel, and many even consider it more of an experimantal novel. This novel is about a woman named Oedipa Maas and her quest for the secret behind a hidden and a shadowy organization known as Trystero ( it is also sometimes spelled as Tristero ). This novel was written in 1960s which was a very turbulent time in the history of the United States. Many things happened during this period, many of them had a dramatic influencce on the lives of the ordinary people. During this period, the world witnessed the assassination of J. F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, there was also the rise in the rights women and Civil Rights movement. This was also a time of the so called drug culture, for the abuse of drugs was very common. The novel shows us this world as a world that is constantly high, constantly on drugs and drunk, filled with secrets, information from questionable sources and secret identites. The subject of this paper is the secret society and an organization known as Trystero and their secret underground war against United States government and the official state postal system. Before we move on to the story of the novel, we must first remind ourselves of the postmodern novel and what constitutes a postmodern literature. Postmodern literature, as postmodernism as a whole, is very hard to define for there are no standards for it nor are there any founding fathers, writers who set the standards for it. We could say that postmodern literature is a continuation of the experimantation started by the modernist writers and authors and their usage of fragmentation, paradox, questionable authors, etc and it is also a reaction against the enlighment ideas set by modernist literature. As it was mentioned, postmodern literature is very hard to define and many even say that is no longer exists, also hard to determine. However, many authors and literary critics agree on common themes that occur in postmodern literature, themese that are almost always present in these works and that are always grouped together in order to create irony, humour or to parody something. These themes are however not always used all the postmodern authors, so they can not be called standard postmodern themes, but they occcur most commonly. Thomas Pynchon and his novel The Crying of Lot 49 are an example of postmodern writing, for Pynchon always uses parody, paranoia, playfulness and black humour in his works, and this work is also filled with these themes. Postmodern authors, Pynchon among them, usually treat serious themes and subjects in a humorous and funny manner. Pynchon does that in this novel. In The Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon deals with a serious topic about lives of people in a modern consumer America, about secrets and mysterious organizations, secret identities and also how information can influence our thoughts and even confuse and disturb us, but he approached all of that in a humorous and a funny way. This novel is a sort of a parody of a detective novel. This is because in real detective novels, the hero starts to solve the mystery starting from various and numerous clues, from a, we could say, chaos of information and draws a conclusion which leads to the truth behind the mystery and reveals the bad guy. In this novel however, we have Oedipa who opens a mailbox to get the letter and discovers that she has a job to do, pretty simple really, but as the novel progresses, her life and task become more complicated and complicated, she learns about the Trystero and her ex-boyfriend’s job and business undertakings but instead of making things clear, instead of solving the mystery of the Trystero, she became even more confused than she was when she first found out about them, so much confused that she almost lost her mind and started to think if it all was nothing more than a joke, created by her deceased ex-boyfriend or even maybe this was all just the work of her own imagination. This novel also has paranoia present in itself, Oedipa becomes paranoid about the world and the people around herself, but she is not the only one really. Almost all characters are paranoid, and the existence of the Trystero is more than enough to create a paranoid world. What also makes this novel postmodern is the usage of wordplay. Pynchon plays with words, names of the people, like Pierce Inverarity, Mike Fallopian, Stanley koteks, Oedipa Maas, with the names of the towns like San Narciso and we also have the wordplay with words like waste which is turned here in this novel into an acronym W. A. S. T. E. and KCUF radio station. What also makes this novel postmodern is that we have unreliable narrator. Oedipa Maas is the main protagonist of this story, but we see the action of the novel only as she does and we know what we know, no more no less, and she is almost always drunk or on drugs, just like all other characters that appear in the novel. We can say that this novel also combines elements of both modern and postmodern novels, because the relation between these two genres is often connected because they share both similarities and differences. Oedipa Maas is the heroine, a modernist heroine who is trapped in a postmodern world. Her quest is not only to discover the death of Mr Inverarity and of the Tristero, but also to discover her inner self and her inner soul. She meets people who can be considered as lost causes, but Pynchon sees them as someone really worth fighting for as they have shown the real self-discovery. We could say that this is the novel of the character development, a bildungs roman, for Oedipa develops her character, no matter how confused she is in the end, she becomes stronger and more determined to discover the real truth, no matter how weird and confusing that truth really is. She continues and carries on even though her quest is a lost cause. However, Pynchon also uses his postmodern novel in order to criticize the modernist vision of the world by showing us a society that filled with discarded objects and discarded people. The most obvious example of this is the acronym WASTE, which becomes a central theme in the novel, but will talk about it later in the paper. There are also discarded people who formed secret underground groups and societies as a response to various forms of rejection by their society. For example we have IA group, created by a man who swore off love after his wife cheated on him, The Alameda County Death Club and the Peter Pinguids, a group of people who are against industrial capitalism etc. As it was stated in the beginning, the subject of this paper is the mysterious Trystero organization. This novel is a bout a world, a world that seems to be constantly on drugs or drunk. We could think that this is the world that many people try to get away from, trying to vanish from it, for in this novel Oedipa meets various people who just want to be left alone, forgotten perhaps. We see people who have not rebelled against the government and they are not the deserters, they have just chose to leave, to hide and stay hidden. Oedipa sees this as their first real independent choice, a choice they have all made away from the press, the government and its institutions. They don’t use official state institutions, in this case the official postal system of the United States. This is the world of secrets and hidden identities, and of course secret societies, underground organizations, like Trystero is. What is this Trystero? Who are they? What is their goal? Their mission and agenda? Oedipa wants to find out just that, who they are and what they want, but unfortunately all she accomplishes is to end up completely baffled by everything and everyone she meets. As it was mentioned in the previous paragraph, she does not give up and is determined to continue with her search. Trystero represents this main aspect of underground and of hiding away from the government and the world. We as readers of this novel know about Trystero as much as Oedipa does and we also in the end, as she does, end up confused and baffled if all of this was actually real or was it all just her imagination or a bad joke. The bulk of the book is spent following Oedipa as she tries to track down what exactly the Trystero is. She stumbles upon this one night when she and Metzger are at The Scope, a club frequented by Yoyodyne employees, a huge defense contractor for the military in the area. While in the ladies’ room Oedipa notices the following written near a drawing of a muted horn: â€Å"Interested in sophisticated fun? You, hubby, girl friends. The more the merrier. Get in touch with Kirby, through WASTE only, Box 7391, L. A. †1 The book then follows a play-within-a-play format when Oedipa watches a play called The Courier’s Tragedy which puts into some context the history between Tristero and Thurn And Taxis, the latter being a real mail distribution company throughout Europe for many centuries. It is from this play that Oedipa learns about the history of Trystero. According to the story, Trystero was defeated by Thurn and Taxis in the 1700. and since then it has been hiding and went underground. This Trystero now exists, or at least it appears to exist, or maybe not, as a secret society that is completely separated from the United States government and the official postal service. Oedipa even believes that Trystero battled with Pony Express and United States Postal Service over the control of information flow. However, this battle seems to go on, between Tristero and US Postal Service. Tristero is the symbol of the underground here in the novel and they are present as an invisible force with a hidden agenda and goals. Their symbol is a muted post horn which is the first thing Oedipa sees of the Tristero in a club mentioned early and their way of communicating and transfering of information is through the WASTE system which uses clever disguises – their way of transferring information, a kind of parody to the official postal service, is by using waste-bins as their post-boxes. Thomas Pynchon does a very good job in making us believe that this society indeed really exists, but he also confuses by putting various names, most of them of people who are actually not so important for the story of the novel, but he does manage to create and illusion of a conspiracy. The most important part of the novel is the reproduction of the fictional Jacobean Drama known as The Courier’s Tragedy. This play is where Oedipa first hear the name Tristero and of their struggle with Thurn and Taxis. This play provides us with the first account of the Tristero, but it is their symbol that really draws our attention. We will now discuss the symbols of Tristero, for they are the key to understanding it, or at least trying ot understand the story behind them. These include the muted post horn and WASTE system. We will begin with the first symbol that Oedipa comes in contact with and tha th is the muted post horn. Oedipa first sees this symbol in the bathroom of a club The Scope, as a part of a small message, more like an add. Fro mthat moment she will see this symbol everywhere she goes. Genghis Cohen will show her the post horn tha ris hidden in a certain stamp collection that was I nthe possession of her late ex-boyfriend, mr Inverarity. Later she will see the same symbol being scribbled on paper by a technician in Yoyodine building, Stanley Koteks. Oedipa even sees it when children draw it in the park and play a game in which they mention Tristero. This post horn, as Oedipa finds out from Cohen, was a symbol of Thurn and Taxis. Their symbol is a post horn, while Tristero uses a muted post horn, probably as a way to mock them. Tristero, as it is given, fought against Thurn and Taxis and lost the battle. Tristero went into the hiding and managed t oreach United States somewhere arund 1853. nd fought the Pony Express and Wells, Fargo, and their agents were always either dressed as outlaws in black or as indians, Oedipa manages to recover a ring fro man old man, Mr. Thoth, who lives in a retirement home bulit by Pierce Inverarity. He tells her that this ring, which ha s the muted post horn engraved on it, was given to him by his grandfather who got it from an indian he killed. However, at one time, Oedipa met a man who wore a pin with the muted post horn: â€Å"What if I told you, â€Å" she adressed the owner of the pin, â€Å"that I was an agent of Thurn and Taxis? † â€Å"What, â€Å" he answered, â€Å" some theatrical agency? †2 Here we have a different story about the origin of the muted post horn. According to his story, this is a symbol of Inamorati Anonymus, a group of people who forsook love, which they see as the worst addiction of all. The creator of the organziation and of the symbol was a Yoyodine executive, who found the Inamorati Anonymus after finding out that his wife was cheating on him. This leads us back to point when Oedipa saw for the first time the muted post horn as a part of the advertisement for this organization, which makes us believe if Tristero really is real or just an organization of people who have forsook love and make sure that no one else ever falls in love are using secretive methods to communicate with each other. Another characteristic of this novel, and another symbol of the Trystero, is the so called WASTE. This can stand as an acronym which means We Await Silent Trystero Empire, which is always written on regular waste bins. This can also stand for a secret undergrounf information network that is used by people who forsook their own lives and chosen t olive I nsecrecy and away form the government. There are even corporations who refuse to use the official postal system, like Yoyodine, and there is also an organization known as Peter Penguid Society, of which Mike Fallopian is the member, who oppose the monopoly of the US Postal Service and are using their own private system. This is a system of information transfer that is used by those who want to remain hidden, secret, and there are signs that Tristero is the runner of it. They use waste bins and their postman, or couriers,are bums and other social missfits. Inamorati Anonymus is the organiztion that openly uses the WASTE system for their communication. These two symbols, the muted post horn and the WASTE system, give us and Oedipa clues about Tristero but the lalso confuse us, brcause as we learn about their connectionwith Tristero, we also learn their other meanings and that they are being used by some other ynderground isoalted groups and organizations. After all this confusion, Oedipa returns to the Jacobean Drama, where she first heard the word Tristero. She comes in contact with Emory Bortz, a proffesor at San Narciso College, for the information about the play itself, especially the Tristero version of the play. Unfortunately, the only person who knew the real story about the play was Driblette, who directed the play Oedipa saw, and he commited a suicide. As we draw near to the end of the novel, we see that Oedipa discovers a great deal of historical Tristero, about its origins. She discovers that it was created around 1577, I nthe Netherlands. After William of Orange achieved independence from Spain and the Holy Roman empire, he replaced the people who were in control of the Thurn and Taxis and Leopold I’s rule, and in their place put a man named Jan Hinckard. However, Hinckard was challenged by his cousin Hernando Joaquin de Tristero y Calavera. Tristero fought a guerilla war against Hinckard from 1578. until 1583. Tristero gives up the fighting and sets up a covert system. However, Oedipa finds out that during 17th Century, Thurn and Taxis struggle to maintain their system ,and this may mena that Tristero was very effective during that time and period. Tristero’s presence as the black coated bandits was confirmed by Proffesor Bortz wh ogave her a book An Account of the Singular Peregrinations of Dr. Diocletian Blobb. Dr. Blobb survived one of their attacks with him being captured by them and sent back to England in order t otell everyone of the power of Tristero. Oedipa in the end managed t odiscover a great deal of historical information about the Tristero, but this did not satisfy her because she still did not know why Driblette mentioned the Tristero in his work, when in the original work there is no mentioning of them at all. Wheteher this is true or not, Oedipa tells everything to Mike Fallopian back at the Scope, where she first saw the muted post horn. Fallopian, after hearing her story and her findings, asks Oedipa if she ever considered the possibility that this may all had been a joke orchestrated by Pierce Inverarity. She did consider this, but refuses to think like that anymore. Later she goes back and again searches through all of the Pierce’s possesions and finds out that Pierce had presence in all the places and had inlfuence on all the people she met. He owned Zapf’s Used Bookstore, where she bought her copy of the Jacobean drama, he also owned the Tank Theater, where she saw Driblette’s production of â€Å"The Courier’s Tragedy†. Proffesor Bortz works at San Narciso College, which was founded by Pierce himself, and even blobb’s Peregrinations were bought at Zapf’s Used Bookstore. Thisl eads her to believe that Fallopian may be right, that all of this was nothing more than joke, a gag produced by Pierce himself. The ending of the novel also does not help us, for it is open ended. Oedipa goes to an auction of Peirce’s stamp collection, which is under the name Lot 49, but that is where it all ends. In a conclusion, we are left confused whether this was all real. Pynchon did a great job of providing the information about the historical founding of the Tristero, but he also filled his novel with other information, all of it made up, even the historical. Instead of finding answers, we find more and more questions. The Crying of Lot 49 shows a fragmented world in which there are always more alternatives, in this world information leads to more information which create more questions and answers. This leads people, like Oedipa in this case, to create various alternate interpretations just in order to create some sort of the bigger picture onto which they will hold to. This entire Tristero conspiracy may have been a joke or a paranoid creation by Oedipa herself, or maybe there is truth behind it all. We will never know. We do know, that there are secret organizations who uses secret and undercover means of communicating, there are people who have secret identities, who seek truth somewhere else. We all live in the world filled with information and symbols and who knows, maybe there is a secret undercover conspiracy by a secret postal system who wants t obring down the monopol of the government’s postal system. Personally, I find this novel to be very interesting because it deals with a mystery and search for the truth. When I read it, I found it hard t ounderstand it in the end, whether this is all true, if there really is Tristero, or maybe this was all just a paranoid dream by Oedipa or maybe even a possibilty that this was all a bad joke by Pierce with Oedipa as its target. Whatever the truth is, we will never really know, for the novel has the open ending, but all quests, all attempts to find some sort of truth end up like that – with more questions than answers and with multiple interpretations of evidence and information. End Notes 1. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, First perennial fiction library edition, 1986. Pg. 52 2. ibid. , Pg. 111 Bibliography www. wikipedia. org www. sparknotes. com http://www. examiner. com/x-13462-West-Palm-Beach-Literature-Examiner~y2009m7d19-Modernism-v-Postmodernism-part-one-The-Crying-of-Lot-49 http://cl49. pynchonwiki. com/wiki/index. php? title=The_Crying_of_Lot_49 Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, First perennial fiction library edition, 1986

Economic and Political Status in Paraguay

Paraguay’s economy has constantly been improving over the years despite some set-backs they must face. Since they are a land-locked country, they do not have as many resources as most of its surrounding countries. They must rely mostly on agriculture for their main exports. As for Paraguay’s government and political conditions, they now have a president elected for a 5-year term. There are many different political parties, and the type of government Paraguay runs under is constitutional republic. Unlike Paraguay’s surrounding countries, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, it is land-locked therefore giving them fewer resources than their neighbors. With a predominantly agricultural economy, Paraguay is most dependent on these products. Conflict theory can be applied in a very large scale, to the country of Paraguay as a whole. Paraguay’s resources are much scarcer then others and they must compete and work hard for what they do have. The larger countries with the ocean as a resource have more power; therefore Paraguay will do what they must to get what they need from other countries. This provides the country with a difficult struggle trying to balance out their economy. However, their economy has been improving. There is a large amount of underemployment and unemployment in the economy. Nearly 35% of Paraguay’s population is unemployed. Those who do work, work mostly in agricultural jobs since that is Paraguay’s main export. The country has vast hydroelectric resources, including the world's second-largest hydroelectric generation facility built and operated jointly with Brazil. One large resource they lack that many others do not is petroleum resources. The economy is dependent on exports of cattle, soybeans, timber, cotton, grains, and sugar; electricity generation. Paraguay also re-exports products made elsewhere to Brazil and Argentina. Paraguay is a major illegal producer of marijuana and most or the entire product goes to Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Paraguay’s gross domestic product rose from 12. 8 billion to 16. 1 billion dollars, which was a 26% increase. Also, the foreign exchange reserves rose 33% to 3. 2 billion. Although Paraguay struggles with their range and certain aspects of their economy, it has constantly been improving over time. Paraguay's government is highly centralized, which was changed by the 1992 constitution, which provides for division of powers. The president, who is popularly elected for a 5-year term, then appoints a cabinet. Paraguay has a bicameral Congress which consists of an 80-member Chamber of Deputies and a 45-member Senate, elected with the president through a comparative representation system. The Deputies are elected by department and senators are elected nationwide. Paraguay's government also foll ows the three branches of government. The president alone comprises the Executive branch. Legislative is made up of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. Lastly, the Judicial branch belongs to the Supreme Court of Justice. The A governor elected by a popular vote heads each of Paraguay's 17 departments. Paraguay has some limits with its economy, however has improved drastically and will continue to do so. Looking at the large increase in the GDP, Paraguay’s overall economic status has been bringing in more money, which will only help improve the country’s economy. They have a strong market for agriculture which brings in most of their revenue. As for their government, it could be somewhat comparable to the United States. Their president has a longer, 5 year term, and there are lower braches and houses in government that help run the country.