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Life and Death in Assisted Living
"A Sinking Ship"
On Sept. 30, 2008, an employee at the Emerald Hills assisted living facility in Auburn, Calif., made an entry in a company computer log: "pressure ulcer/wound." Joan, who had spent just 19 days in the facility, had developed the wound on her foot.
by A.C. Thompson
July 31, 2013, 8:29 a.m. EDT
The Emerald City
They're Not Treating Mom Well
Close the Back Door
How This Series Was Reported
Emeritus Response
A Media Strategy to Thwart Federal Oversight
Those Lost and Those Left Behind
How It Was Reported
Life and Death in Assisted Living, Part 3
by A.C. THOMPSON, ProPublica and JONATHAN JONES, special to ProPublica, July 31, 2013
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On Sept. 30, 2008, an employee at the Emerald Hills assisted living facility in Auburn, Calif., made an entry in a company computer log: "pressure ulcer/wound."
Joan, who had spent just 19 days in the facility, had developed the wound on her foot. The fall eight days earlier had hospitalized her and left her with bruises and an abrasion on her right temple. This, though, could be much, much worse.
Pressure ulcers — also known as bed sores — can form when a person loses the ability to move about freely. Lying in bed or sitting in a chair for long stretches of time diminishes the blood flow to the skin, causing it to break down and die. A hole grows. If bacteria creep into the wound, the bugs can devour flesh or invade the blood and bones. Pressure ulcers can turn fatal, particularly in older people.
Because of the lethal potential of pressure ulcers, the federal government monitors them closely in the nursing home business. In the eyes of experts, the sores are often an indicator of poor care. Attentive caregivers can prevent many pressure sores by making sure that people don't spend too much time in the same position.
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"We know that most bed sores are avoidable," said Kathryn Locatell, a forensic geriatrician who investigates allegations of elder abuse for California Department of Justice. "That is the consensus of experts in the field."
Physicians grade the ulcers on a scale ranging from Stage 1 to Stage 4, with Stage 4 being the most serious. In California, assisted living facilities are allowed to house people with Stage 1 and 2 sores, but only if the resident receives medical treatment from a "skilled professional." The law bars facilities from renting rooms to people with more severe pressure ulcers.
The Emerald Hills worker who wrote up Joan's pressure ulcer on Sept. 30 understood its significance. The employee noted that a "skilled professional" would be treating the wound.
Emerald Hills was supposed to contact Joan's doctor when she developed the ulcer. But nobody from Emerald Hills called a doctor. No nurse came to salve Joan's wound. And nobody told Joan's relatives — her husband, Myron, who lived in the same facility, or her son who lived nearby — about the development.
Joan's short, painful stay at Emerald Hills seemed to be accelerating her decline.
Things had been different at the first assisted living facility Joan had lived at, a place called The Palms near Sacramento. There she'd enjoyed a constant stream of activities. "She was doing things every day," remembered Eric Boice, her son. There were storytelling sessions, games of wheelchair bowling, arts and crafts. Once Joan had smeared finger paint on her palm and pressed it to a piece of paper, creating a keepsake for her son.
Adequate staff at The Palms was central to the family's satisfaction with Joan's stay. Promises that staff would keep Joan active and engaged — central ambitions in dementia care — were kept. And the perils of prolonged inactivity, like mental decline and dangerous sores, were avoided.
By comparison, the unit at Emerald Hills where Joan lived seemed to the family to be poorly staffed and thus static. Staff rarely turned up to organize activities. What few staffers were available managed only to bring Joan down to the TV lounge, where she sat, unengaged. Myron and other family members visited frequently, but otherwise she was marooned.
Melissa Gratiot, the Emeritus salesperson who had convinced the Boices to come to Emerald Hills, had given the family a brochure during her sales pitch. The facility's "entire staff" would strive to produce "meaningful interactions and activities" for Joan.
But Gratiot had come to doubt her own marketing pitch, and a lack of staff was part of what colored her regret. She saw few activities going on in the memory care unit and rarely saw her colleagues working to protect Joan from long stays in her wheelchair or bed.
"When I would see Joan," Gratiot said, "she'd be in the TV room, sitting in a chair."
"State Visits, Fines, Resident Upheaval"
Just months before Joan arrived at Emerald Hills, Mary Kasuba, a nurse there, told senior management at Emeritus that things needed to change. She took her concerns directly to the top bosses, the executives in Seattle who ran the assisted living empire from a gleaming glass office cube on the Puget Sound.
In late 2007, Kasuba wrote a five-page letter and sent it via certified mail to the 10 highest-ranking figures in the company. In the letter, Kasuba warned of "total dysfunction" at Emerald Hills because of "the way the corporation mandates this building to be run."
She pleaded for the bare essentials any assisted living facility needed to operate safely: a key one being an adequate workforce.
Alarms bells had been ringing in Kasuba's head nonstop during her short tenure at Emerald Hills. The first was triggered when she had to cover the overnight shift with another employee. There were roughly 80 seniors living at Emerald Hills at the time.
Has your loved one lived in an assisted living facility?
"There were residents that could not necessarily get up and walk to the bathroom on their own," Kasuba said in an interview.
Some of them, she immediately noticed, needed the help of two people — all the workers she had on duty — to get out of bed and shuffle to the toilet. If any sort of emergency had forced Kasuba to evacuate the building, it would have been slow-motion chaos.
Typically, Kasuba would grab a nap as dawn broke and be back at Emerald Hills by 10 a.m. The scene wasn't much better on the day shift. She came to feel the company was exploiting its customers.
In her letter to Emeritus officials, she wrote, "Since I came to work with Emerald Hills, there has not been enough staff to cover any part of the day-to-day staffing needs."
"The med room is a sinking ship with no ballast compartments to keep it afloat."
Mary Kasuba, former nurse at Emerald Hills, in a letter to Emeritus executives
Kasuba's biggest worry was the medication room. The medication technicians, called "med techs" in the industry, were responsible for passing out a mountain of pills each shift. Med techs aren't nurses or even certified nursing assistants. Typically, they have no formal medical education. At Emerald Hills at that time they made approximately $8 to $10 an hour.
One medication technician, Kasuba wrote, "was placed in the med room with maybe a day's training. She worked in the med room until her stress level became such that she stepped down."
Recordkeeping throughout the facility was haphazard at best. Documents were missing or misfiled. One resident's chart, according to the nurse, contained a doctor's evaluation that had been filled out and signed by a family member — not an MD.
Again, Kasuba didn't mince words, calling the medication operation "a sinking ship with no ballast compartments to keep it afloat."
Kasuba ended her letter to the company's executives with an ultimatum: Let her make major changes at Emerald Hills or she was out.
"Corporate can hire someone else and the cycle of dysfunction will begin again," she wrote. "State visits, fines, resident upheaval, staff turnover."
Emeritus replaced Kasuba. The company says it dealt with the concerns she raised about Emerald Hills. Many of those who remained at Emerald Hills tell a different story.
A couple of years later, Susan Rotella got a taste of the same problems, but on a much grander scale. In November 2009, Emeritus tapped Rotella, who had made her career in assisted living, to manage the company's California division. It was a big job. Emeritus agreed to pay her $210,000 per year, plus bonuses and stock options. She'd be part of a three-person executive team overseeing 45 facilities.
Rotella testified under oath that as she traveled around the state meeting Emeritus employees she heard one thing over and over: The facilities needed more staff.
The division, however, wasn't posting the kind of financial numbers Emeritus wanted to see.
"All eyes were on California because we were keeping the stock price down," she said. "As California went, so went Emeritus."
"Ah, so you're the one who is going to run the shithole."
Susan Rotella, former Emeritus vice president in charge of operations in California, testifying in a deposition to what company founder Daniel Baty said to her after she took the job.
One man didn't bother to sugarcoat his feelings about the California division, Rotella said. As she tells it, shortly after signing on with Emeritus, she was welcomed aboard by company founder Daniel Baty.
Baty, she recalled, said, "Ah, so you're the one who is going to run the shithole."
He denies making the statement.
Rotella's superiors directed her to slash labor costs by 10 percent across the board, she said. Facility directors "were constantly being told to cut labor expense, cut labor, cut labor, cut labor," she added.
Emeritus said Rotella's claims were false. "Unfortunately, it is another accusation without any documentation, evidence, or even another person present to verify the conversation. Emeritus would not enact across-the-board labor cuts at the expense of our residents' care needs," the company said in a statement.
The assisted living industry is overseen in a very different manner from its closest cousin, the nursing home business. Nursing homes are governed by a complex grid of federal and state regulations. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services collect a vast array of data from nursing homes — drug prescribing patterns, staffing levels, patients who've had falls, etc. — and make much of it available to the public through a website called Nursing Home Compare. And an array of information on fines and inspections can be found on the easier-to-use website Nursing Home Inspect. States set minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes.
The early advocates of the assisted living movement chafed at many of these regulatory dictates. They wanted flexibility, the ability to innovate. They wanted to create spaces that were more home, less hospital. Today, two decades on, there are still no federal standards and leaders of this growing business sector continue to push back against anything more than modest government oversight.
Their success at staving off uniform regulation from state to state means Emeritus's hundreds of facilities operate under wildly varying regulations and offer different services. From Miami to Dallas to Des Moines, there isn't even an agreed-upon definition of assisted living.
"We say in this business if you've seen one assisted living community, you've seen one assisted living community," said Rick Grimes, president of the Assisted Living Federation of America, a trade group.
Have you worked in an assisted living facility?
you've seen.
The dearth of hard and fast rules gives executives and managers at assisted living companies wide latitude in deciding how many workers should be clocking in on a given shift. Many states require assisted living facilities to keep "sufficient" staff on duty at all times, but don't define what that means.
The increasing frailty of the population in assisted living makes adequate staffing critical to quality of care, said Catherine Hawes, a Texas A&M professor and an expert on the assisted living industry. According to a 2010 national survey, more than 50 percent of assisted living residents need help dressing and bathing and 42 percent have some form of dementia.
Publicly traded companies like Emeritus are under substantial pressure to hit their financial goals — each quarterly performance is scrutinized and failing to meet expectations can damage the company's value.
"We say in this business if you've seen one assisted living community, you've seen one assisted living community."
Rick Grimes, president of the Assisted Living Federation of America.
To hit their goals, then, Emeritus tightly manages its workforce. "Tightly manages" often means reducing staff, slashing wages and curtailing benefits.
Chief executive Granger Cobb addressed the issue with investors and market analysts as recently as last year.
"We're feeling good about the cost structure," he said. "I think we've got a very good control on the — our biggest expense, which is labor. We're managing it very closely."
Emeritus had just cut its overhead by 8.2 percent, largely by cutting pay and benefits.
The company asserts that all of its facilities are adequately staffed, and that it would never compromise care by irresponsibly reducing staff.
One former Emeritus executive, who supervised nurses in multiple states for a period of years, thought the company kept its staffing levels dangerously low as a matter of policy.
"Is that unique to Emeritus? I would say it's ubiquitous to the entire assisted living industry," said the executive. "We need to take a huge step back and look at this whole industry."
Lack of proper supervision at Emeritus facilities appears to have played a central role in several cases in which residents suffered avoidable and sometimes catastrophic harm.
On Christmas Day 2004, Mabel Austin froze to death in front of an Emeritus facility in Texas. The lone staffer on duty in the memory care unit didn't realize that Austin, 91 years old and suffering from Alzheimer's, had walked out of the building. Emeritus would not comment on this case.
It took about 12 hours for staffers at an Emeritus facility in Iowa to call an ambulance after 84-year-old Paulyne Stevens took a fall in her bedroom. An employee at the facility put Stevens back in her bed, but did not contact any medical professionals. When doctors finally examined Stevens they found she had six broken ribs and a deflated lung. Investigators found workers at the facility didn't have legally required training. Emeritus admits the incident was mishandled, and has settled a lawsuit with the family.
June Hassler, 86, died in a locked bathroom at an Emeritus facility in Pennsylvania. It took employees 36 hours to notice. The director of the facility said the staff thought Hassler was visiting family. Two years earlier, 84-year-old Eleanor Hodges died in the same facility after being attacked by a male resident with a history of aggressive behavior. The state found that Emeritus had failed "to provide proper supervision" of the man. Emeritus told the state it would act to correct the problems that led to Hodges's death. Hodge's family has sued Emeritus.
Emeritus portrays incidents such as these as isolated events and says state authorities are citing the company less and less frequently for violations. "If you look at our regulatory history versus others in the industry we probably fare pretty well," Cobb said.
There are no national statistics on regulatory violations in assisted living. But ProPublica and Frontline obtained and analyzed data from California, the state with the most assisted living facilities. The data – compiled by the state ombudsman program, which investigates allegations of abuse and misconduct – shows that between 2010 and 2012, Emeritus had more verified complaints per bed than any of its major competitors. In two of those years, the company had more substantiated neglect complaints than the other big chains, again on a per bed basis.
Some companies have devised their own systems for calculating how many people should be on duty on any given shift. Though Emeritus collects and parses a vast array of data, much of it focused on sales and profitability, it has chosen not to create a staffing ratio or formula.
This surprised Rotella, the California executive. She had previously worked at another major chain called Sunrise Senior Living, which had used a formula based on the health needs of each resident.
Rotella said she brought the issue up at a meeting with the man in charge of quality control for the entire Emeritus empire, a nurse named Budgie Amparo.
"He stood up and he was quite agitated. And he said, 'We will never have staffing ratios at Emeritus,'" Rotella recalled. Amparo said that if somebody got hurt or killed in an Emeritus facility, a written ratio or formula could be a liability, according to Rotella. If it turned out the company wasn't following its own staffing protocol, the plaintiff lawyers would jump all over them.
"I don't remember that," Amparo said. In a statement, Emeritus said "we do not have a staffing formula" because such a formula "would not serve our residents' best interests."
Emeritus ousted Rotella shortly after her conversation with Amparo. It was March 2010 and she had been on the job for three months. Today she works as a consultant to assisted living firms and is suing Emeritus for wrongful termination. Company leaders, Rotella said, viewed her as a "troublemaker."
When Joan Boice took up residence at Emerald Hills in the autumn of 2008, the lack of staff was evident.
The facility didn't assign any workers to the memory care unit on five nights, according to company time sheets.
Emeritus says the employees filled every shift in the memory care unit; they just didn't keep accurate records of their labor.
Workers in the building felt overwhelmed and bitter. As discontent mounted, the facility director ordered employees not to share their complaints with the public.
"They do not need to know you are tired," the director wrote in a memo. "They are NOT to hear we are short staffed."
Then Emeritus decided to shrink the payroll even further. The facility reduced the number of med techs. That meant there would only be one such employee on duty during the facility's busiest shifts.
Jenny Hitt was one of the med techs affected by the downsizing. Hitt had to keep track of "thousands" of pills coming into the building from a host of different pharmacies. Some residents were taking "15 different prescriptions" and needed to receive pills up to six times per day. Hitt, who didn't complete high school and had no medical education, said she was so busy that she sometimes had to "run down the hallways" to get all of her rounds done.
The company, she said, often assigned her to double shifts and once kept her on duty for 24 hours straight.
After Hitt made multiple calls to the company's "Ethics First" hotline — a supposedly anonymous in-house reporting tool — Emeritus fired her. Her boss told her she had made a medication mistake. She says she was fired because she was calling attention to the building's failings.
Out of a job, Hitt said she felt only relief. She was weary of worrying that she might kill someone.
Language Had Left Her
In Room 101, Joan's room, the ulcer on her foot worsened. One day slid into the next. An Emeritus employee faxed a message to Joan's physician: Joan "seems to be experiencing more frequent and intense pain…She has trouble putting weight on her right foot…Please advise."
It was Oct. 14 — a full two weeks after the Emeritus worker had first noted the wound in her records.
The physician promptly faxed back instructions: Bring her in for X-rays of her right foot and ankle. But nobody at Emerald Hills told the family about the doctor's order.
It would be three more weeks before the facility finally informed the Boice family about Joan's damaged foot. An Emeritus worker phoned Kathleen Boice, Joan's daughter-in-law, who lived nearby, on Nov. 3. Blood, the employee said, was seeping through Joan's sock.
Eric Boice took his mother to the doctor on Nov. 4. The doctor's notes show that the physician thought the wound might have been an ulcerated bunion; the physician, Tayyiba Awan, wondered whether Joan had been lying on her side for long periods of time. The wound had scabbed over and seemed to be healing. Awan did not examine the rest of Joan's body for sores.
But Joan had other issues, the doctor noted. She'd lost much of her ability to move the right side of her body. The doctor wondered whether she had suffered a series of minor strokes. And so she ordered physical therapists to visit Joan at Emerald Hills to try and improve her mobility.
Back at Emerald Hills, Myron came to Joan's room frequently, often bringing snacks. Eric Boice would visit his mother one day; the next, Kathleen would visit. They divided the labor, and the heartache.
Over the weeks, Kathleen came to think something was "weird." But she couldn't figure out what was going on with Joan. And Joan couldn't say what was wrong. Language had left her.
"You know, most of the time she was in a bed. Blanket sheets up on her," Eric recalled. "You know, I sat with my mom, I held her hand and I spoke to her."
He told her what the grandkids were doing. He'd inform her if his son had played a baseball game the day before.
Disease had transformed his mother. It had spun their roles around. But in Room 101, Eric couldn't always bring himself to treat his mother like a child. He just never felt comfortable asking her to undress so he could examine her.
If Eric had seen her skin he might have understood what was going on. There wasn't just a single wound. The pressure ulcers were marching across her body.
Correction (8/1): An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated that June Hassler's relatives sued Emeritus. They did not.
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HRC: 40th session, 25 Feb - 22 Mar 2019
Item 4 ID with SR on Eritrea
Item 4: Enhanced interactive dialogue on Eritrea. Statement by Norway on 11 March 2019, as delivered by First Secretary Sean Lobo.
Check against delivery
Mr President
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the new Special Rapporteur and encourage Eritrea to cooperate with her.
As a long-standing friend of Eritrea, Norway remains concerned about the human rights situation. Upholding human rights is an integral part of a government's duties towards its citizens and essential for achieving the SDGs. It is vital to ensure transparency both on progress made and areas where improvements are needed. We reiterate our request to Eritrea to cooperate closely with the different UN mechanisms.
Norway welcomes Eritrea's active participation in the UPR process. We look forward to the response from the Government of Eritrea later this spring.
The rule of law is a vital basis for safeguarding Human Rights. Norway's recent UPR-recommendations to Eritrea addressed the importance of improving the justice system. Judicial and penitentiary reforms in order to ensure compliance with international human rights law was highlighted. In October 2017, the UN organised a thematic workshop in Asmara addressing the same issues. We would appreciate the Special Rapporteur's views on how to make progress in this area. A comprehensive approach is needed to move forward.
The new regional dynamics in the Horn of Africa is raising hopes for peace and normalisation of relations, including improved human rights situation. Norway welcomes the Government of Eritrea's readiness to engage in human rights work both as a member of the Human Rights Council and bilaterally. We remain committed to supporting Eritrea's efforts to fulfil its obligations.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I'm happy for you that you got to visit the beautiful city of Paris. It's always a great experience to go back to places that held a special place in your heart. love the pics as well as the post. I haven't been to this places but it's like I already did because of your post. have a good day.
Thanks for your comment! I sure loved living in Paris and hope to someday be able to go back and spend more time there. A lovely city!
I travelled for four years (I think it's almost compulsory for New Zealanders!) and loved seeing the world too. Great to hear some of your stories. Want to go again now!
Thanks for your comment Karyn! My husband and I spent two weeks in NZ and absolutely loved it. It is by far one of my most favorite places! The Kiwis are so wonderful too. So laid back. I'm happy to be part of the WMB team!
What a great post! So glad you made it there even though it wasn't quite what you'd had in mind. I hope you make it back for a longer, more relaxed stay sometime.
Thanks for your comment! I see that you have a new post as well…I look forward to reading it! 🙂 Weather is finally perking up here and we have gorgeous spring with flowering trees in bloom! Finally!!!!


Approximately three thousand farmers from Kakamega county on Thursday expressed joy after receiving seeds and fertilizer from a Non-governmental Organization known as one acre fund.
Speaking in Emusala, the officer in charge Winfred Akiso, said it was one way of helping achieve agenda four of the government. Officials from the organization took the time to sensitise the farmers on ways to help them obtain a bounty harvest, with the farmers expressing appreciation for the gesture.


text:
Q: create a policy in selinux for a socket file with the regular expression / # ls -lZ /var/run/wpa_ctrl_1790-1
srwxr-xr-x    1 root     root     system_u:object_r:var_run_t:s0           0 Jun 12 14:52 [1;35m/var/run/wpa_ctrl_1790-1
/ #

Wpa_ctrl_(some_number) , (some_number) can change everytime when a different instance of wpa_cli is started. And it is a socket file which is created runtime.
I tried including the below change, but it did not work.
/var/run/wpa_ctrl_.*             -- gen_context(system_u:object_r:NetworkManager_var_run_t,s0)

The above change never changed the context of wpa_ctrl_(some_number) to NetworkManager_var_run_t

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Reprezentacja Argentyny w piłce ręcznej kobiet – narodowy zespół piłkarek ręcznych Argentyny. Reprezentuje swój kraj w rozgrywkach międzynarodowych.

Turnieje

Udział w mistrzostwach świata

Udział w igrzyskach olimpijskich

Udział w mistrzostwach Ameryki

Udział w igrzyskach panamerykańskich

Udział w mistrzostwach Ameryki Południowej

Udział w igrzyskach Ameryki Południowej

Piłka ręczna w Argentynie
Argentyna
Piłka ręczna

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Celebrating the BEST OF THE WEST exclusively!
Australia's BIGGEST BeerFest, the Fremantle Beer Festival, is pouring on the Esplanade Park in Fremantle on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th of November 2017.
1:1 interaction with the largest range of WA Craft Beers, Ciders, Rum, Whisky and more, along with an exclusive hands-on experience with WA producers!
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text:
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in Accounting history, General business
The Templars and accounting
Image from https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/514114113713945395/
I recently finished reading The Templars by Dan Jones. The Templars are the stuff of legend in many texts movies, and Jones's book is a great and detailed read on the history of the Templars.
As I did not know a lot about the Templars – outside of movies – I was surprised at how good they became at accounting. The Templars were a military order, founded in 1119 and remained active for about two centuries until their papal suppression in 1312. They were involved in several Crusades to the Holy Land, all of which entailed military and financial resources. It seems as a result of this and their well structured organisation, they became not only good at accounting, but so good they were trusted by others to hold cash assets on their behalf and act as a bank.
Jones's book gives many insights from an accounting perspective, here are just two examples. A letter from 1220 written by Pope Honorius wanted to ensure that taxes collected to fund the Crusades did not flow via Rome. The Templars were thus used as agents to account for and deliver cash from tax collected to the Holy Land. A second example which appears throughout Jones's book is how the Templars accumulated wealth as an order over time. They acquired land and similar immovable assets, and these were used productively to generate moveable assets – oil, wine and grains for example. All of this has to be accounted for and controlled. Jones also mentions how ultimately one way the Templars were hurt as an order – their wealth was attacked.
in Accounting history, Business analysis
A "living profit"? Some hints from Guinness.
Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com
A pint of the black stuff (Guinness) would be most enjoyable now, ten weeks into "lockdown". Of course, this is not a lament to me wanting a pint, but there is link to Guinness.
For quite a few years now, media and commentators have highlighted the large profits and low taxes of many companies. Take amazon.com Inc, whose Q1 sales in 2020 reached $75 billion (see here for more), or think of Apple, Facebook or many other companies. Before I say anything further, I am not a total socialist, nor am I a total capitalist – there is a happy medium in there somewhere. You may know from reading previous posts that I do some historic research on the Guinness company. Dennison and MacDonagh (1998) in their book Guinness 1886-1939: from Incorporation to the Second World War provide some very useful insights into the general management of the company, and I will draw on one of these now.
Sometimes I ask myself why do some companies need to make so much profit? On the other hand, in a democratic/capitalist society, they are free to do so. Now, with a serious pandemic gripping the entire world, some of our underlying models are at least being questioned. So my question is could companies be happy with a "living profit". I first noticed the term in relation to Guinness dealings with Irish malt suppliers around the turn of the 20th century. The company wished to encourage the production of Irish malt, but were not willing to buy at the lowest market price. Instead the company noted a "living profit" should be attainable. What exactly this means is not specified, but the general principle if clear. Today, most (not all) companies seem to want lowest cost everything and highest profits – presumably to keep shareholders/investors at bay. Would it not be a great improvement for us all if more and more firms took the approach of the "living profit" espoused by Guinness over a century ago? I am sure economists and others could give me many reasons why not. But, perhaps it is worth having the conversation as the business world comes back a new normal in the coming months.
in Accounting history, Financial accounting
Accounting for Alcohol – part 15 "Accounting in the Port wine Chartered Trade Company (1756–1826)"
This is a brief summary of chapter 15 in our book, written by João F. Ribeiro, José M. Oliveira and Maria F. Brandão. This is also the final chapter in the book, so back to normal posts after this. I hope you enjoyed the chapter summaries.
This chapter details some accounting of the Portuguese Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro (hereafter Companhia), which was founded in 1756. While also trading, the Companhia acted as a tax collector and regulation of the Douro wine sector. It was obliged to buy production excess, in accordance with the quantities determined by
the state, to avoid lowering of prices in the market. Furthermore, it acted as a creditor, as it had to lend funds to local farmers at a subsidized annual interest rate of 3%. Finally, it supervised improvement works in roads and waterways in the region, making use of collected taxes. All of this implied in needed to maintain good accounting records. The chapter provides a very detailed chart of the organisation of the accounting function and describes the various books of account maintained. The authors note how the "bookkeeping model is in harmony with the teachings of João Henrique de Sousa, the first teacher of the Aula de Comércio – the Portuguese Public School of Commerce created by Pombal in 1759". This system was also used by other similar companies in Portugal. It is also noted by the authors that income smoothing was a typical feature after 1784, with reported earnings being very similar and accounts such as "Casks Depreciation, Bad Debt Provision, 'Profit' Provision and Extraordinary Income/Costs" being used to achieve this.
in Accounting history, Management control
Accounting for Alcohol – part 14 "The Monastery of Silos and its wine cellar in Ribera del Duero through its accounting books (14th, 18th and 19th centuries)"
This is a brief summary of chapter 14 in our book, written by Lorenzo Maté, Begoña Prieto and Alicia Santidrián. This chapter details the activities at the Monastery of Silos relating to wine and its production, control and consumption through its accounting books. The monastery is a Benedictine monastery of Silos and was founded in the 11th century. The Rule of St Benedict has general rules on the moderate consumption of wine, and the account books at the monastery give some detail on what was consumed and what it cost.
The chapter reveals records from 1338. These accounts have information on the harvests of wheat and wine production. In the account, the incoming (recebta) and outgoing (despensa) of goods in kind (bread, wine) were noted first; and then income and expenditure in monies. A total of 1,550 16 lire pitchers were received during the year and over twice that was consumed (the being locally produced). The total cost is noted at 4,140 maravedis. Sample accounts from later years are also given and these tend to show more detail. The authors also provide a detailed chart of all the books of account of the monastery and outline how these books were used for various forms of accountability. For example, the Father General of the Valladolid congregation received accounts every six months, which were audited by monks having "intelligence in accounts". The Father General also made two visits to the monastery during their four-year term of office. Such visits were a control mechanism, and the chapter provides some details on comments made during a visit in 1826.
in Accounting history
Accounting for Alcohol – part 13 "Accounting in Spanish co-operative wineries during the 20th century"
This is a brief summary of chapter 13 in our book, written by Francisco J. Medina-Albaladejo. This chapter focuses on co-operative wineries in Spain. They emerged in the late 19th century and have played an increasingly important role in the sector ever since – now accounting for over 70% of wine production in Spain. The chapter explores the accounting records of three Spanish co-operative wineries – Rosario (Murcia), San Isidro (Murcia) and Pinoso (Alicante) from the 1930s to the 1980s.
In the early part of the 20th century, the co-operative model was not very successful. Most wineries were under-capitalised, their financial position precarious and their management non-professional. They operated within the framework of the 1885 Commercial Code,5 which required the use of double-entry bookkeeping, through books such as libro de diario (journal book), libro mayor (ledger), libro de inventarios y balances (inventories and balances book), libro de actas (minute book) and the annual preparation of balance sheets. In essence, the accounting practices used by co-operative wineries before the 1940s directly reflected the characteristics of these organisations – small organisations composed of small and medium-sized landowners with no training in accounting, who followed simple administrative procedures and adopted accounting methods which were dictated by external state pressures in the form of legislation.
During the Francoist period, 1939-1971, financial support of the state saw a boom in co-operative wineries. However, the support provided by the Francoist regime did not contribute to the implementation of sound management policies. In accounting terms, a 1942 Act, and its attached regulations, established accounting systems that differed little from those that had already been put in place in the preceding decades. Single- or double-entry bookkeeping was required, depending on the complexity of the operations carried out by each co-operative, as well as annual balance sheets.17 The regulations also recommended producing annual reports, but this was optional.
After Francoism, the mid-1970s witnessed substantial changes in the wine market. Consumer preferences adopted a new pattern: instead of low-quality wine to be consumed daily as part of the Mediterranean diet, consumers began demanding smaller
quantities of better-quality wines, which were bottled and better presented in general. From the point of view of accounting, the state tried to adapt the existing legislation to the new conditions and bring it closer to European regulations. A 1971 decree made double-entry bookkeeping compulsory, regardless of region and the scale of operations, and also demanded that co-operatives submit a profit and loss account to the public regulators, along with the balance sheet and the annual report, which was no longer optional. In addition, the decree gave members the right, for the first time, to request information on administrative issues and accounts. The outcome of this decree was the homogenisation of accounting practices among Spanish co-operative wineries.
Accounting for Alcohol – part 11 "Accounting and wine in Anjou (Maine et Loire) during the 19th century"
This is a brief summary of chapter 10 in our book, written by Valentin Taveau and Béatrice Touchelay. They use the archives of the département of Maine et Loire and the
accounts books of two Maisons de vin, that of René-Jean Goubault-Lambert and that of Jean-Baptiste Ackerman-Laurance. The period covered is between about 1810 and 1870.
As the authors note, the archival records provide an example of accounting practices that were still quite in their infancy and reflect businesses that were not well managed. Indeed in that case of Goubault-Lambert, the authors suggest the account books are a chronicle of a bankruptcy foretold. The main book of account for was the Grand livre which recorded the transactions between the business and partners/customers and was classified by account type – similar to a general ledger today. The authors note little in the way of summary or analysis, and also not several periods throughout the financial years when days or weeks of time seem to be omitted. In the case of the Ackerman-Laurance business, the Grand livre is better maintained and more detailed and includes details about production, sales, inventory and payables – although the book dates from the latter half of the century, and be attributable to the business being taken over by the founder's son. In both cases, it is interesting to note that the Grand livre captures personal/family transactions also. This is similar to many earlier books of account, where the business and family/owners were not separated as per the present day entity concept.
Accounting for Alcohol – part 10 "Spirited accountants – The rise of the Distillers Company"
This is a brief summary of chapter 10 in our book, written by William Jackson, Audrey Paterson and Darren Jubb. The chapter examines some of the roles that accounting has played in the transformation of the whisky industry from its simple roots to its current complexity, with particular reference to the development of the Distillers Company Limited (DCL). It covers a period from 1850-1925. The scale of the whisky industry around 1885 was quite large, yielding about one-sixth of all revenue of the United Kingdom. As the authors note "given the scale and importance of this to the British government, it is easy to understand why excise/revenue men were swarming around the distilleries. Under these conditions it can be no surprise that the quality and completeness of accounting data would be of the very highest standard".
The volume of whisky produced increased dramatically in the middle of the 19th century and some producers made initial attempts to cooperate in 1856 and 1865. Although the first attempt was short-lived, the second had more duration, and six of the larger grain whisky producers formally combined into the Distillers Company Limited (DCL) in 1877. In the 1890s, whisky boomed which ultimately led to the Pattisons crash in 1898. As noted by the authors "what followed was a period of lost confidence, retrenchment, falling sales, a recognition of overvalued stocks throughout the industry and a need to reduce the production of spirit. It was at this time that DCL began to adopt a pattern of activity that would see them attempt to rescue the industry from its woes. Recognising the overcapacity in the industry and the weakness of many of its players, DCL began to acquire distilleries, often at very low prices, and take them out of production in order to protect the future values of existing whisky stocks". The came the First World War, which affected all business., but DCL became the UK's sixth-largest manufacturing company by 1930. As the authors suggest "there can be little doubt as to the importance of accounting practices to this development"
Accounting for Alcohol – part 9 "Life of the party: tequila in the American marketplace"
This is a brief summary of chapter 9 in our book, written by Marie Sarita Gaytan.
Tequila, nowadays, is a globally popular drink. Its origins are from a drink (also from the Agave plant) called pulque. As a Spanish colony, Mexico, had vast supplies of agave. Technological advancements in the process of distillation, in the early 18th century saw the commercial production of mezcal, a generic name for all distilled agave spirits. Demand for mezcal from Tequila increased when Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. By the turn of the 20th century, tequila was being marketed in the US, and by 1907, there were 96 distilleries, producing upwards of 800,000 gallons a year. From an accounting perspective, this growth is likely to be driven by the perceived demand and profitability of tequila distilling at that time. Prohibition, later, increased the price of alcohol (and associated profitability) and created a new international smuggling enterprise along the US-Mexican border.
After Prohibition and the Second World War, Tequila sales to the US grew. In 1943, La Prensa reported that as much as $250,000 worth of tequila was being imported into the United States per month. In 1944 taxes on tequila and vodka imports were reduced
by 5 percent, which cut costs from $4.99 per fifth to $4.45 per fifth. Lower prices and new demand subsequently led to the first tequila "boom" : between 1940 and
1945, the production of tequila increased nearly 400 percent. Making
the most of these circumstances, Mexican distillers increased production in
order to quench the thirst of American consumers and benefited from increased sales and profits. Brands such as Jose Cuervo capitalized on the mounting interest and started to invest heavily in magazine and newspaper ads. By the mid-1950s, US-based distributors were spending upwards of $100,000 to promote the "Mexican beverage in cocktails and mixed drinks".
And, of course, the story continued as tequila became the internationally known drink it is today
Accounting for Alcohol – part 7, "Accounting for vodka in Russia"
This is a summary of the next chapter in our Accounting for Alcohol book, which was written by Viatcheslav Sokolov, Svetlana Karelskaia and Ekaterina Zuga. As the chapter (and post) title suggests, this chapter details accounting practices around vodka in Russia. For me personally, this was a very interesting chapter as I knew very little about accounting in Russia in general.
The chapter details accounting records around vodka dating from the early 1600s. In the 16th century, Russia gradually introduced a state monopoly over the production and distribution of alcoholic beverages. At this time, alcohol could be sold only in special drinking establishments owned by the state, known as kabaks. Profit generated by kabaks was captured made in kabak books, a special type of accounting register, and this profit was reported to the State. In 1649, a standardised system of accounting for alcohol was introduced State wide, and this remained in place until 1832.
In 1817, excise taxes were imposed on private alcohol manufacturers. The tax was based on actual the total output permitted by the producer. Producers recorded different types of beverages in a special book, where they registered the volume of product output, its bottling and delivery. Thes books were maintained using the double entry system. Later in 1895, the State for the first time issued a statute which described vodka, and effectively monopolised its production through strict controls on private producers. This implied Provincial Excise Offices played a key role in the accounting process. They kept ledgers to track cash flows, assets and settlements with the manufacturers, distributors and financial institutions relating to production and distribution of alcoholic beverages.
Accounting for Alcohol – part 5, "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?"
This is a summary of the next chapter in our Accounting for Alcohol book, written by Karen McBride and Tony Hines. It explores accounting and controls for alcohol in the Royal Navy in the time of Nelson, and is a really interesting topic.
In today's world, we may find it difficult to imagine, but beer and other forms of alcohol were part of the normal diet of a sailor in times past. As the authors note, beer was bulky to carry and required much room to store, and of course, it had a cost and needed to have an inventory level maintained and controlled. Thus, the British Royal Navy instituted rules and procedures to ensure alcohol use was controlled, both in terms of cost and volume per sailor. The authors provide some examples of forms used to comply with these regulations, and here is a great example from 1808:
It appearing that considerable quantities of wine and spirituous liquors have
been fraudulently run-on-shore from His Majesty's Ships of War and Transports,
to the great prejudice of His Majesty's Naval Service, and diminution
of the Revenue; for the better preventing of such practice in future, and
for punishing those who shall dare to continue or renew it, all Captains or
Commanders of His Majesty's Ships or Vessels are hereby strictly required,
and positively directed, not to suffer any of those species to be ever issued
to the Companies, or any part of the Companies, of the Ships or Vessels
respectively under their command whilst in the Home Ports, nor at Sea, until
after the Beer is all expended.
The chapter is guided by Focault's notion of governmentality. Rather than I explain this in the context of the chapter, the author's words are very useful:
Foucault's work observes that the unthinkable may become thinkable, where procedures and methods are put in place for one purpose but end up being utilised for another purpose that was not expected at first (Foucault, 1980). We argue that initially
the accounting and control of beer was determined for cost and provision
control; beer was issued for the seafarers' health and well-being, replacing often
foetid water. Later it was used for the prevention of scurvy. Finally, it was used to
keep the men in a controllable but mildly inebriated state, which alleviated the
hardships they were under. Accounting was instrumental in this, as it provided
the means by which the allocation was measured and supplemented.
The chapter has many examples of how accounting was used in the control of alcohol on ships, including some comment on the Royal Navy's own brewery in Portsmouth. It is well worth a read.
Accounting for Alcohol – part 3, valuing a brewery for proposed nationalisation
This post #3 in my summary of a recent edited book. Chapter 3 is written by Desmond Gibney and explores proposals to acquire the brewing sector by the British government during the First World War. Desmond draws on archival records of the Macardles brewery in Dundalk, Ireland.
One of the drivers for the government acquisition of the trade was the temperance movement, which combined with the need for men to fight the war brought the notion to the government. A quote from Thomas Whitaker MP summarises the issue very well:
Drink is the greatest cause of inefficiency, waste, and loss of time, and
consequent under-use of plant and machinery, and an output considerably
less than the largest possible. Its production and sale wastes food, coal, and
labour, and occupies ships, docks, and railways which are badly needed for
vitally important purposes.
At the same time, the brewing sector was a powerful lobby, and if the trade were to be acquired and shut down, compensation would be required. Desmond explores how valuations would be made, and reveals that a multiplier method would be used. This method would average profits from a number of years and then apply a multiplier would be applied. This method is still used to today, and today, like then, an issue was to ascertain the reliability of the accounting records used to calculate profit. The directors of the Macardles brewery took the opportunity in 1915 to ascertain the real value of their assets in preparation for any negotiations with the government. The proposed scheme did not of course happen, but it is interesting to look back 100 years ago and see techniques used today in use then.
Accounting for Alcohol – part 2, optimism in accounting reports.
This post #2 in my summary of a recent edited book. This chapter by Alonso Moreno analyses the narrative information disclosed by a Spanish brewery, El Alcázar, from 1928–1992. The objective is to determine if the tone of the corporate reports is related to profitability. Today, the brewery belongs to the Heineken group.
The study focuses on a document entitled Memoria which is, in essence, similar to the Chairman's Statement. Software was used to analyse the words in this report to determine the tone of the words. The tone (positive or negative) was related to other variables such as performance (profit) and the person acting Chair of the board. Over the full time period, there were more positive than negative references, irrespective of the actual performance of the company. This is a phenomenon called impression management and is something a lot of companies engage in still today. The interesting thing about this study is that overall, a positive tone dominates, despite many political events during the timeframe.
Accounting for Alcohol – part 1, accounting machines at Guinness.
Along with my good colleague João Oliveira, I recently edited a book titled "Accounting for Alcohol -An Accounting History of Brewing, Distilling and Viniculture". It stemmed from my own research on accounting history at Guinness, the world famous brewer of stout in Dublin. The book has 15 chapters covering many topics around accounting and beer, wine and spirits. In this first post, I will summarise Chapter 1, which is titled "The introduction of accounting machines at Guinness" and is written by Carmen Martínez Franco and Martin Hiebl. Over the coming weeks, I will provide a similar summary of each chapter. I hope you like it.
This chapter tells the story of the introduction of accounting machines at Guinness in the late 1920s. These machines, a Smith Premier machine costing around £200 at the time, could be simply described as typewriters with a built-in calculation function. These machines were at the time a new technology. In the modern day, it may be hard for us to imagine that all invoices and statements to customers were typed. I can only imagine the difficulty of having to add and check the sums on each typed item. These machines offered a solution to this problem, and by association made the accounting department at Guinness more efficient. The numbers of staff reduced by about 11 in one year according to the authors, customers were able to receive statements on a monthly basis – something not possible before then – and checking of discount calculations were no longer required. It also allowed Guinness to develop standardised procedures around customer transactions. The authors cleverly compare this technology change of nearly ninety years ago to more contemporary technology changes in the accounting world. They conclude there were several similarities – good management, gradual implementation and delivered efficiencies.
in Accounting history, Accounting Research, Sustainable accounting
The idea of a "living profit"
I recently published a paper in Accounting History Review about a company called Bennett's and their accounting in the early 1900s. This company provided malt, mainly to Guinness in Dublin. In the research for the article, it became apparent that producers of malt did not do very much management accounting. Bennett's, for example, seemed not to cost their production process very often and seemed to accept the market price offered by breweries like Guinness.
One would thus think Guinness may have been in a strong position to dictate the price of malt, but this seemed not to be so. In an official corporate history of Guinness, a note is made of the fact that the malt providers should make a "living profit". What this means is not defined, but when I read this I could only think of the contemporary idea of a "living wage". This latter concept is to pay staff more than the minimum legal rates of pay (if there is one) and give them enough income to live – but not too much. I did a Google search for the term "living profit" and surprisingly – at least to me – there are no explanations or mentions. I cannot help but think that today the idea of a living profit could be applied in many supply chains, and indeed companies (and their shareholders) could ask themselves do they really need to make so much profit – think Apple, for example. I firmly believe history can teach us a lot, and this is one good example where some altered thinking might benefit society as a whole.
A book on the history of CPA Ireland
A colleague and I (Dr Brid Murphy) wrote a nice book on the history of CPA Ireland. You can now view it online at this link. Enjoy.
or click on the books tab.
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Business Information Systems for Accounting Students


After studying the music of South India this week, I found it very interesting how a vaggeyakara (lyricist and songwriter) is so well-rounded. In The Illustrated Companion to South Indian Classical Music, Ludwig Pesch states that "a person who is recognized as being a genuine vaggeyakara would have undergone training in several allied disciplines, such as music theory, performance, poetry, and often dance or drama. Given the difficulty of mastering more than one among these ancient and highly developed art forms, it is understandable that a musician who has such variegated interests and experiences is regarded as belonging to the highest class of composers" (153).
It is fascinating how classical concerts of South India and Western culture contrast. Dr. Johnson's story about the classical South Indian concert at Indiana University really puts this difference into perspective. Dr. Johnson was thoroughly enjoying and keeping tala to the South Indian music at the concert, and the man next to him asked him if he would stop. The duration of concerts in South India is also intriguing. Concerts lasting two to three hours are a relatively recent phenomenon. Until a few decades ago, it was customary for a musician to treat his audience to five or more hours.
According to Pesch, "Karnatic music is literally 'learnt by heart' because first it needs to be listened to attentively, memorized faithfully, and ultimately rendered with feeling."


Add a coach's Chicago toughness to California-style positive reinforcement, sprinkle in kids who are smart, versatile and fearless, and you have the state's most interesting contender in the CIF North Region finals and the last San Francisco team standing.
Without a player taller than 6-foot-2, University has overcome long odds to move into Saturday's Division V title game against three-time state champion Branson-Ross.
Last week, the third-seeded Red Devils (28-7) overcame a 17-3 first-quarter deficit at second-seed St. Francis-Watsonville to win 76-70, and then fought back from a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat defending NorCal champ and host St. Joseph Notre Dame-Alameda 60-58 in overtime.
It was the second time University knocked off St. Joseph, which featured a legitimate Division I prospect in 6-10 post Brendan Keane. The first victory over St. Joseph opened the season and definitely caught the Pilots by surprise.
University had St. Joseph's undeniable attention this time and despite the late deficit, unfamiliar surroundings and size disadvantage prevailed behind 15 points from Zach Karrasch and two late shots in regulation by Ned Tannenbaum, one with two seconds left over the outstretched arms of Keane. In overtime, University's top player - 6-2 junior Noah Springwater, a college prospect - and top scorer, Zio Enriquez, fouled out. Co-captain Eli Wald, one of just two seniors, also had a big game.
Clearly, this was no fluke and neither are the Red Devils, who posted nonleague wins over NorCal entries Redwood-Larkspur and Mission before taking a tough and under-appreciated Bay Counties League West playoff title.
"You look at these guys and don't see a lot of size or athleticism," said University coach Randy Bessolo. "But they're smart, coachable, work hard and are extremely unselfish. They are very talented among those qualities which allow them to compete against bigger and more athletic teams."
Bessolo, 45, has emerged as one of the region's top coaches with little fanfare. He grew up in Marin County, attended Harvard Business School and moved to Chicago, where he coached Amateur Athletic Union teams for 15 years. He coached more than 25 Division I players, including current college players Jon Scheyer (Duke), Jacob Pullen (Kansas State) and Will Walker (DePaul).
"In Chicago, it's all about toughness," Bessolo said. "I suppose I've brought some of that. But we constantly preach about playing with joy, and right now I think the kids are having a blast."
March Madness: UC Santa Barbara's men, who open with Ohio State on Friday, sport seven Bay Area products, including starting guard Will Brew (St. Mary's-Berkeley) and key reserves Greg Somogyi (Priory-Woodside), a 7-3 post, and former De La Salle-Concord guards Paul Roemer and Justin Joyner. Others on the roster: Chris Brew (St. Mary's), Lucas Devenny (Piner-Santa Rosa) and Seth Kamphoefner (Terra Linda).
Princeton's women's team is making its first NCAA appearance largely because of the true-freshman tandem of Niveen Rasheed (Monte Vista-Danville) and Lauren Polansky (Branson-Ross). Rasheed was the Ivy League's unanimous Rookie of the Year and first-team All-Conference after leading the Tigers in points (15.6 per game), rebounds (8.8), assists and steals. Polansky, a starting guard, was second in assists and steals. Princeton opens with St. John's on Saturday.
In memory: San Francisco recently lost two community sports giants, Jim Witt and Ben Legere.
As a boys basketball coach at Polytechnical High, Witt won three Northern California championships in the late 1950s and was voted into the San Francisco Prep Hall of Fame. He also officiated three sports from 1943 to 1985 at the high school and collegiate levels. Witt, 86, is survived by his wife, Margaret, five children and eight grandchildren.
Legere, 77, died Thursday of a heart attack only an hour after umpiring a middle school baseball game. In 2008, the Lowell graduate was inducted into the California Youth Organization Athletics Hall of Fame after an estimated 25,000 games officiated in four sports since 1960.
Lowell baseball coach John Donohue said Legere, an architect, was a beloved figure who gave much of his income to charity: "I am already missing a great friend, a great official and someone whose dedication could never be duplicated," Donohue said.
On SFGate: For playoff schedules, roundups and more, go to sfgate.com/sports/preps.


We are excited to present teas from the highlands of Colombia. The garden from where we sourced our tea has been growing tea for around 50 years. In 2013 they switched to orthodox manufacturing process with technical help from Darjeeling growers. Grown in rich volcanic soil of west Andean mountains at elevations 1800-2000m - comparable to some of the highest tea growing elevations of Asia - the tea has a lovely complexity and a refined smoothness. It is also certified Organic!
Cacao Kisses is a blend of Colombian black tea with cacao nibs and shells without any use of artificial flavorings. The cacao is from Tumaco, a region in the Colombian Pacific (South West), which is known to produce one of the most aromatic cacaos in the country used to make extra fine chocolates.
DRY LEAF: Full leaf, long and wiry with pieces of cacao nibs and shells. Rich aroma of cacao.
INFUSION: Notes of cacao, pepper and touch malty.
CUP: Dark amber with notes of cacao, roasted nuts and pepper. The cacao flavors are in fine balance with the tea without overpowering the latter. The naturalness of all the flavors make this tea decidedly different from many other "chocolate teas" in the market.
Love the subtle aroma and taste of cacao. Elevates afternoon tea to an experience to be anticipated, enjoyed, and savored.


Korean is one of the hardest languages to learn. It is also one of the world's youngest. Created during the 15th century by a local king, it was created to increase literacy. Linguists praise the language for its unique structure.
Quick—list the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Korea! Yes, the Winter Olympics are sometimes held there. Indeed, it is part of a peninsula just south of the other Korea. It is also the 11th largest economy in the world. And while Korean is not one of the most spoken "immigrant" languages, sizable communities exist in big cities all over the world. There are 76 million native speakers. That makes Korean the 17th most spoken language. Learning Korean, however, is not easy. The language is an almost complete "isolate". In other words, it does not share many similarities with other languages. It is believed to have come from the Jeju language.
Korean is hard to master. The reasons? A very different word order, an elaborate honorifics system which determines the endings of verbs, and a mind-blowing array of nouns and verb endings in general. The good news? Picking up the basics is pretty easy. The alphabet at least is easier than Chinese. It has no tones. It also has no gender, number agreements, or articles to learn (like French or German).
Hangul is the name of the Korean alphabet. It was created in the 15th century by King Sejong the Great. Before then, Koreans used the Chinese alphabet and characters (called Hanja). This was difficult for commoners to master, and thus, Hangul was created for the purpose of literacy. There are 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Letters are grouped together in syllable blocks.
3: DOES KOREAN SHARE SIMILARITIES WITH OTHER LANGUAGES?
The Korean language belongs to the Altaic language family. It is related to Turkish, Mongolian, and Manchu (a Chinese dialect). In terms of grammar, Korean is closest to Japanese. It also shares many words of Chinese origin. As such, learning Korean will give you a head start on learning Japanese, as well as some Chinese vocabulary.
Hangul is one of the youngest alphabets in the world, but apparently took its cues from the best. Linguists love Korean. They describe it as the "most perfect phonetic system devised", with an alphabet that fits the language like a glove.
When you look at the shape of the letters, they mimic what your tongue is doing to pronounce them.
Formality, politeness, and status are a big deal. Special nouns and verb endings are used to show respect to the person you're talking to. This is also one of the reasons that international businesses need skilled Korean translators. Nuances are very important in this language.
Koreans often used shared pronouns like "we" or "us", rather than "me" or "I". This comes from the communal nature of Korean culture and society. Learning how and when to use the difference is a subtle nuance that takes years for outsiders to understand.
There are two kinds of counting systems. One system uses native Korean. It is used for all numbers under 99, for counting objects, expressing time, distance, dates, and for talking about age. All other numbers over 100 are derived from Chinese.
There is also starting to be a language drift between North and South Korea. The two countries have evolved different vocabularies, pronunciations, and grammar rules.
There is actually one thing that both North and South Korea can agree on; they love their language so much, they created a national holiday to honour it. In both countries.
At Yuqo, we have skilled translators available to help with your Korean translation needs. Whether it's business documents, web campaigns, or the script for your newest game, we can help you reach global audiences! Contact us today for a quote.
If you thought numbers and logistics were the only things you'd have to worry about when expanding your business overseas, think again. In today's world, there is a huge emphasis placed on cultural diversity and different ways to engage, value, and respect others.
Once SEO and content marketing were two separate things. Now they both share tranches and aspects of one another and overlap so much that one is just as important as the other.


text:
Two Major Attractions Plan to Merge
Travel Articles |
The Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum of Natural History and the Butterfly House & Aquarium plan to become one organization and build a new butterfly conservatory and aquarium on the zoo's campus.
"This is a very exciting day for us," said Becky Dewitz, the zoo's president and CEO.
"You'll have a regional destination here in Sioux Falls where you can come to one place and visit the zoo animals, the aquarium and the butterfly conservatory whether it's wintertime or summertime."
The zoo, which encompasses 45 acres, has a significant amount of undeveloped land, Dewitz said. The organization is working with the city on a master plan for land before determining where the new facility will be located.
That will included an aquarium three times bigger than what could have been accommodated at Sertoma Park, with potential exhibits such as a shark reef with a tunnel for visitors underneath.


text:
Income levels affect the structure of a child's brain, NIH-funded study shows
Brain scans find differences between low-, high-income groups
Listen to this podcast (MP3 - 7 MB).
-Stock photo.
Barrett Whitener: Growing up poor affects the brain. That's the conclusion of researchers from nine universities across the country who've completed the largest study of its kind to date. They found that the physical structure of children's brains differ based on their parents' income level. In more than 1,000 young people, ages 3 to 20, the researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the folds and pleats of the cortex—the part of the brain associated with thinking and intellectual skills. In general, more creases and folds—that is, more surface area—correlates with higher achievement scores. Children from the wealthiest homes had the largest cortical surface area, while children from the poorest homes had the least. The study appeared recently in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Earlier studies have shown that income is linked to nutrition, health care, education, and other environmental influences that may affect the brain, such as exposure to cigarette smoke, chemicals, and general air quality. High stress levels, prevalent in low-income neighborhoods, also affect the brain. Other studies have shown that interventions to ease poverty, such as intensive preschool programs, boost education and income levels.
With us today to speak about this research is a lead author of the study, Elizabeth Sowell, director of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory and a professor of pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.
From the National Institutes of Health, I'm Barrett Whitener, and this is "Research Developments," a podcast from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the NICHD. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Sowell.
Dr. Elizabeth Sowell: Well, thank you for having me.
Mr. Whitener: Let's start with why you focused on income. Why was that the focus of your investigation?
Dr. Sowell: Well, we've known for a long time that children from less advantaged economic backgrounds have more difficulties with cognitive tasks, school performance. And we understood that this must, in some way, have something to do with the brain, given that the brain is what drives the cognitive function. So we had an opportunity to look at these relationships in a very large sample of typically developing children from around the country.
Mr. Whitener: And why do you think a child's family income affects brain structure?
Dr. Sowell: Well, you know, we know that the brain develops over time, within an environment. We know that from, for example, from animal studies that animals raised in more enriched environments, with lots of toys to play with and friends and such, their brains develop differently than animals, for example, who are raised in a very deprived environment, without stimulation. So it makes sense that we would see something similar in humans, given that the brain develops within the environment that it has, right? And so it's not the money itself, but we think that what money can buy is what is relating to why the kids from wealthier families have higher cognitive functioning skills and larger brain surface areas than children from less advantaged families.
Mr. Whitener: Now in the study, you wrote that the differences you saw are probably due to environmental factors. Could you elaborate a little bit on how the environment could play a role?
Dr. Sowell: Yes, so we know that, for example, from other studies, that things like nutrition and clean air and exercise and cognitive stimulation, all of those things help give the brain the input that it needs in order to wire the most efficient connections between different regions of the brain. So the brain develops over time, and it needs those experiences in the environment in order to determine which connections are the most efficient and which are most important.
Mr. Whitener: You also mention that many studies have shown that early childhood educational interventions result in higher education and income levels for graduates. Do you think that programs like that are actually changing brain structure?
Dr. Sowell: I think that the experiences that a child has—now the brain, it's important to note that while more dramatic changes in the brain are happening earlier, there's dynamic changes that continue well into adolescence in the brain. And if you think about it, anything from the outside that influences how the brain is developing can have a greater influence when things are changing a lot than, say, in adulthood when things are changing a lot less. So I think it's likely that enriched experiences early in development do impact how the brain wires over time, but it's important to note that it's not too late to consider enriching experiences for children who are older, and their brains are still changing very dramatically. So I don't want the notion to be that, while yes, earlier intervention—or, you know, enrichment of environment—is better, it's certainly not too late to consider it later in childhood.
Mr. Whitener: Did you find exceptions in the study? Were there children from poorer homes whose brain structure matched that of children from wealthier homes?
Dr. Sowell: Absolutely. That is such an important question. The message is not, "Well, if you're born into a poor family, your brain's going to be smaller and there's nothing you can do about it." So certainly there were children among our poorest families, whose brains and cognition looked very much like the children in the wealthiest families, and vice versa.
So the really interesting thing, and what we need to think about, is what causes that variability. Why would a child from a very poor background be able to achieve and develop the same as a child from a very privileged background?
Mr. Whitener: In the interim, before we're able to nail down that information, is there something, based on your research, that you would suggest that society, or even parents or teachers, should be doing in the meantime?
Dr. Sowell: Yes, I mean I think that anything we can do—I mean, we can't fix the problem of poverty given our limited resources. We can't fix these problems by just giving—standardizing income for every family across the nation. But we could consider investing more community resources in the children in the poorest families.
It's important to note, too, that while the relationship between brain surface area and family income was highly significant across the income range, the most significant changes were occurring in the poorest children. So the difference between, say, an income of $25,000 a year and $30,000 makes a big difference in those poorer children, right? So that extra $5,000 could help make sure that we know where the rent is coming from, we can buy the groceries. Whereas if you're making $150,000, an extra $5,000 isn't going to make that much of a difference in your brain or cognition. It could be the difference between, you know, do we do a summer camp or guitar lessons this year?
Mr. Whitener: Well that's very important information, and I look forward to your future work on this, as we all do, and to learning more about exactly what makes that distinction in the environment for young folks and for their brain structure.
Dr. Sowell: Yes, and that is absolutely the focus of research moving forward, doing a better job of trying to understand what is in these kids' environments: What kinds of schools? What kinds of air quality do they have? You know, how do they interact with their parents? So that is really something that, as a community of neuroscientists, we're really moving forward, going to be paying a lot more attention to what environmental factors could be contributing to brain and cognitive development.
Mr. Whitener: Well, thanks very much for speaking with us today.
Dr. Sowell: Well, thank you for having me.
Mr. Whitener: I've been speaking with Dr. Elizabeth Sowell from Children's Hospital, Los Angeles.
About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute's website at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.
NICHD Research Developments


We would like to understand.
We would under skin under-spend.
Eat out the rotten flesh.
And leave the crystal skeleton.
about everything - that is good for us.
So feed us our daily bread.
Somewhere over the graveyard. Where friends lye.
Somewhere over the Orion-cloud. That's where my home lies.
This stinking rat-hole, I used to love.
But now, the wind shows different.
And I walk with elephants and camels. Very calmly.
Under palm tree forests. And eat caramel for breakfast every day.


The fourth Sunday of Easter is known as "Good Shepherd Sunday." The collect and the readings remind us that we have a good shepherd whose voice we recognize, a caring shepherd who calls us each by name, a shepherd who places us ahead of himself, and who has laid down his life for us. We are the sheep of his pasture, and he has called us together as a flock, a community.
If you've ever driven through the country you can tell just by looking which flocks of sheep are well-cared for and which are neglected. You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a shepherd by his sheep! If you see a group of scraggly, muddy, dirty sheep huddled near a broken-down fence in squalor, miserable and moping, you know what kind of a shepherd they've got. And when you see fat and fluffy sheep munching on lush green grass, reclining in the sunshine and taking it easy, you also know something about their shepherd.
So it is that when you look at a church you can discern what kind of relationship that church has with its lord and master — and who the master really is. For not all churches follow the Good Shepherd. Some have had the misfortune to follow wolves dressed as sheep!
A few weeks ago on Channel 13 there was a documentary about Jim Jones and the People's Temple; or what he called the People's Temple. The haunting thing about this film is that it wasn't a Hollywood made-for-TV movie. It was made up of home movies and news footage, expanded with interviews from the small handful of people who survived the mass suicide — or to name it more accurately, the mass murder, that took place in that tropical paradise gone bad.
And as I watched and listened I thought — who could possibly see this man as anything like a Good Shepherd? Even without the final chilling evidence of the mass murder/suicide itself — the video and audio show a man out of control long before that tragic day, an autocrat who could brook no disagreement, a manipulator and power broker. Who can look at the images of the aftermath of the Flavor-Aid cyanide slaughter, over 700 bodies of men and women, and 300 children; who can listen to the audio tape that was recorded during the 45-minute massacre, and say, This is the work of a Good Shepherd? Is it not the work of a thief who came in to rob and steal, a wolf who murders and slays.
It is easy to see such marks of a bad shepherd. But what does the flock of the Good Shepherd look like? Well, the first thing to note about the community of the Good Shepherd is that, as the reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us, "there was not a needy person among them." In the flock of the good shepherd you don't have one or two fat and happy sheep and dozens of skinny, benighted, forlorn sheep. The community of the good shepherd is marked with the brand of Generosity. Everyone helps out together, pitching in and working together for the benefit of the whole community, not just the profit of one or two at the expense of all.
I once heard the story of an old man who lived in a small country town. He didn't have much money; to make a living he did odd jobs in the houses up and down the dusty roads of that country town. He was quite a sight: his shoes rarely matched and his socks never did — when he wore them. He'd decided years before that suspenders were frivolous and a belt a luxury, so he used a strip of leather from an old harness to keep his pants up. He shaved about once a week, but no one knew precisely when it was, as he always seemed to have a three days growth. He would stop at the kitchen doors up and down those dusty country roads and ask if there were any odd jobs to do, anything that needed mending. The surprising thing people learned was that in spite of his personal appearance, his work was always top notch. It seemed odd that a man who was such a raggedy jumble could paint woodwork with such exquisite precision and care. It was always a surprise that someone who appeared so hastily put together could plane a door to make it swing just right, and even patch a leaking pipe so as you'd never know it leaked.
One family in particular took a liking to him and would always have him in to dinner when he stopped by. The children soon learned it wasn't polite to make fun of his mismatched shoes and his harness belt. In fact, one day the father of the family thought he'd teach his young son a lesson in generosity, and gave the boy a pair of his own shoes, some new socks, and a belt and a jacket, wrapped in a sack, and told the boy to sneak down the road leave them outside the old man's house at the edge of town.
A good member of that flock will not sin against another member of that flock. Now, the root of sin is the opposite of generosity, right? It is self-interest, the attitude that says, my needs come first — the opposite of generosity. That root taps deep, in all of us, right back to the tree that grew in the middle of that other tropical paradise, the garden of Eden, where Eve and Adam put themselves first rather than God. And you know what they got for it, something we've all shared in since, the day's wage of sin, parceled out to all their descendants.
Ralph Woods tells a story, another country story, that illustrates the dead-end of such selfishness very clearly. A farmer heard about some new experimental seed-corn that was reputed to give a much higher yield. Sure enough, the first year he planted it, it brought in a bumper crop. Other farmers in the area saw this, and wanted to know his secret. But he was unwilling to reveal his source. When the neighbors appealed to him to at least sell them some of his corn for seed, he refused that too. He ensured that all his crop — aside from what he stored up for seed the next season, went to feed processing plants. None of his seed corn would fall into his neighbors' hands. What he didn't sell, he saved to plant.
Plant he did, and was a bit taken aback to find that the second year crop — while still good, and better than that of his neighbors— wasn't up to the yield of the previous year. Still, he was doing better than the other farmers; and still he refused to share his secret or his seed-corn.
The third year was devastating. His crop did no better than any of his neighbors — all of them came in a little better than in past years, but nothing like the first year when he had planted his special variety corn.
And finally it hit him: his plans had been undone by the winds that blew over his and his neighbors' fields. The corn stalks shed their pollen, all of them on all those fields, from the tall tassels swinging in the breezes. It spread enough in the mid-western winds to cross-pollinate all of the corn in the whole area — both his and his neighbors. This natural process increased the yield for his neighbors by as much as it decreased his. How much better off all would have been if he had shared his secret from the get-go, in a community of generosity.
I said before, like shepherd like sheep. And our Good Shepherd is not selfish; rather he sacrifices his own life for the sake of the flock. And the community of the Good Shepherd similarly shows forth that graceful generosity that comes from placing another first, stepping aside in the dance of charity and love, sharing even when it doesn't seem like there's enough.
And isn't that the message of the gospel, again and again. Think of that woman who found the lost coin after sweeping her house. What did she do after she found that coin? Did she put it back in the sugar jar? No; she threw a party for all of the neighbors round about. That's generosity.
This is what marks that community, that is what the community of the Good Shepherd looks like: generous, self-giving, pure and orderly. Now, it might not look perfect at first sight. I mean, if there isn't really enough to go round, and even so they share it all out, well, you might wonder at first about those mismatched shoes, the old harness instead of a belt. But you will sense at once the willingness to share in the work, to be generous and not to place oneself first. That's what the community of the Good Shepherd looks like.


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LOL vs Dota 2 vs HOTS vs Smite: Which Is Your Pick?
Multiplayer online battle arenas(MOBAs) are continuing their domination on gaming. We are here to help you to differentiate them. LOL vs Dota 2 vs HOTS vs Smite: Which Is Your Pick?
Defining MOBAs:
Let us first get to know what MOBA is. Traditionally, they will involve two teams of 5 players. Each player gets to control a hero with unique abilities. These heroes battle on a map that includes three lanes, a jungle between the lanes, A.I. minions that march across those lanes, and turrets and other defenses which each team must destroy. You will win once you annihilate a giant structure in the middle of the opponent's base. LOL vs Dota 2 vs HOTS vs Smite: Which Is Your Pick?
This genre actually began as a series of mods for Blizzard real-time strategy games Starcraft and Warcraft III. Defense Of The Ancients became the most popular in the genre at one time. Now let's take a look at each of these games:
League Of Legends:
League Of Legends is one of the first standalone MOBAs. It has been able to transform the spirit of original mods into a free-to-play money-maker. It has faced sturdy competition over the years but, still can claim the No.1 spot.
League Of Legends took out some of the complexities of Defense Of The Ancients. The most notable of them being the capability of players to deny the other team experience and gold through killing their own minions. It kept on the tradition of adding new heroes and right now has a big roster of 126 heroes. It has added different maps and modes. This goes along with the traditional three-laned MOBA standard.
Dota 2:
While LOL may have made some changes from the Defense Of The Ancients, Dota 2 is the most faithful update of the original mod. It features the same mechanics and also most of the same heroes. It is the most technical compared to the other three. So, it may not be the best game to start playing MOBAs if you don't have prior experience playing MOBAs.
Dota 2 is all about playing on the same field of 3 lanes between the two bases. But, develop Valve did recently allow the modding community to create custom games that use Dota 2's assets.
Smite:
The biggest difference for Smite lies in the perspective. While most MOBAs have an isometric, top-down view, Smite is a third-person game. What does it do? Well, it allows for most abilities to require aiming. This ultimately makes the experience feel more frenzied and it will depend on the player's skill. There's another factor, while most MOBAs have a fantasy setting, Smite bases the playable characters after the gods from different mythologies.
Smite also has also come to consoles, with an Xbox One version currently in beta. The third-person experience will make a lot more sense for the controller than the traditional mouse-dependent top-down view.
Heroes of the Storm:
This is the newest kid on the block. Heroes of the Storm is the most casual of the MOBAs. Unlike the other three mentioned above, it doesn't contain an in-game shop to buy items from. It also contains teams leveling up together. This helps the lesser experienced players from being quickly outclassed in a match.
One map has you collecting gold coins to turn into a ghost pirate, who then shoots cannons at the other team's buildings once you meet its price. This only makes things interesting and different compared to other MOBAs.
LOL vs Dota 2 vs HOTS vs Smite: Which Is Your Pick? Let us know in the comments below and don't forget to share.
By Adeeb Imtiaz|2018-04-19T13:56:25+06:00April 19th, 2018|Categories: Articles, Event, Featured, Game, Gaming, Reviews, Special, What's New|Tags: Dota 2, Dota 2 vs LOL, Dota 2 vs LOL vs Smite vs HOTS, Dota vs LOL vs Smite, Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends, LOL, Smite|1 Comment
About the Author: Adeeb Imtiaz
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Anonnymous April 19, 2018 at 8:40 pm	- Reply
the beta for smite ended on xbox a long time ago. Smite is definitely my pick.


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Gardiner Tigers returning top talent including future St. Joe's Hawk, Lizzy Gruber
Tigers reached Class A North Semifinals last season
Published: Dec. 21, 2022 at 5:43 PM EST
GARDINER, Maine (WABI) - The Gardiner Tigers have their eyes on a Class A State Girls Basketball Championship after bowing out to Lawrence in last season's North Semifinals.
Tigers reached Class A North Semifinals last season(WABI)
The Tigers already have a revenge win against the Bulldogs under their belt this season. They're hoping it's a sign of things to come the rest of the way.
"Everybody has a huge impact on our team. Our bench energy is amazing. Obviously, we have Lizzy Gruber. Mckenna Johnson is a big leader, our point guard. Savannah Brown is a great assist. Taylor Takatsu is a junior this year, and she's finally stepping up. That's a big role for her to fill," said Megan Gallagher, senior shooting guard.
Gruber is a big reason why Gardiner can contend.
She recently signed with the St. Joseph's Hawks to play Division I basketball in Philadelphia. Gruber said she's ready for a brand-new experience.
"At the end of the day, those are the people I connected with the most. On my official visit, I loved hanging out with the girls. They have girls from all over the world, which I think is really interesting. I love to travel. My mom's from England, so I'm used to it," said Gruber, senior forward.
Gruber counted the Hawks' team bonding trip to Italy as one kind of adventure that will help her see the world in the years to come.
The Tigers are back in action at home against Messalonskee for a holiday matinee on Friday at 11:30 a.m. depending on weather.


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