Burger King Holdings Inc.

Burger King Holdings Inc. was formed in 23 July 2002 and incorporated in Delaware. The holding company restaurant system includes restaurants owned by the company and franchises. The company is the second largest fast food hamburger restaurant chain (BurgerKingHoldingsInc, 2008). Controls set by the company The controls set by the company are to ensure that the financial statements provide reasonable assurance on the reliability of the financial statements and financial reporting.Internal controls ensure that the financial statements are prepared according to GAAPs. Internal controls ensure correct maintenance of records, transactions are recorded according to GAAPs and the prevention of unauthorized use or disposal of company’s assets. The effectiveness of the internal controls should be reviewed regularly to determine their adequacy although the controls put in place may not prevent and detect misstatements given its limitations due to changing conditions or degree of compli anceExamples of controls are the security and business controls put in place to prevent access and use of personal information possessed by the company that if leaked, may expose the company to litigations (BurgerKingHoldingsInc, 2008) Financial statements The total revenues for the company have been growing over the years. The total revenue in 2004 was $1. 7 billion rising to $2. 4 billion in 2008. The company’s revenues are generated by franchise and company owned restaurants.In year 2008, 88% of sales were from franchise restaurants. The operating income and net income over the same period grew from $73 million in 2004 to $ 354 million in 2008 for operating income while net income rose from $ 5 million in 2004 to $ 190 million in 2008 The diluted earnings per share i. e. earnings after adjusting for dilutive effects rose from $106. 1 in 2004 to $ 137. 6 in 2008 Total assets grew from $ 2. 5 billion to $ 2. 6 billion in 2008.Total stockholders equity also witnessed growth f rom $ 716 million in 2007 to $ 845 million in 2008 Net cash flows from operating activities grew from $67 million in 2006 to $ 243 million in 2008 Other aspects of the company’s performance is the opening of 202 new restaurants which brings the company’s total number of restaurants to 11,505 as of June, 30 2008 Techniques to analyze financial statements The financial statements are prepared and disclosed according to the GAAPs as well as presented according to the SEC regulations.The financial statements have been presented based on the reportable segments of the company i. e. USA and Canada EMEA/APAC and Latin America. As seen earlier, the company’s revenues are generated from company’s restaurants and franchise restaurants. The analysis has also been done according to the source of revenue Comparison of restaurant sales from the three reportable segments has been done in the financial statements (BurgerKingHoldingsInc, 2008) ImpactThe preparation of the financial statements according to reportable segments helps the company to formulate strategies for the various business segments in line with their performance. Comparison of sales growth in the segments over the years helps the company to evaluate the performance of each source of revenues thus formulate strategies that can improve growth References BurgerKingHoldingsInc. (2008, August 28th). Form 10-k. Retrieved April 10th, 2009, from Burger King Holdings Inc. : http://media. corporate-ir. net/media_files/irol/87/87140/BKC_AR08/10-k. html

Common Problems for an Extended War and the Solutions Essay

Neither the North nor the South had prepared for an extended war. Two years into the conflict, both faced common difficulties. Foremost was the lack of money and manpower. The war was expensive and both treasuries were depleted. While neither initially wanted to impose direct taxes to finance the war, they were forced by circumstances to turn to taxation though on a small-scale. The North seemed to have had more success in raising funds. With the North’s population greater than that of the South, the new tax was able to finance 21% of the war expenses while it was only 1% for the South. Both also tried borrowing. The North being more committed to the idea and was able to obtain more than $2 billion worth of bonds in loan. Another solution that was considered and eventually enforced was the printing of paper money. The Confederacy started with $100 million while the Union printed $150 million worth of â€Å"greenbacks† so called because of its color. The flooding of paper money expectedly led to inflation that resulted to food prices increasing to 80%. This led to hardships in the urban areas which were unable to produce their own food. Volunteers in the army for both sides dwindled off as disillusionment set in. The prestige of army life with its military parades and victories were gone as the harsh realities of deadly diseases, camp life boredom, loss of values, impersonal destruction and conditions of being â€Å"half-starved, half-frozen and half-drowned† were experienced. There were also desertions. To entice would-be soldiers, sign-up bonuses of $800 to $1000 were given to outsiders. Soon, they resorted to the draft despite anticipated opposition and anger by the general populace. However, instead of forcing men to serve, they encouraged those who are already in the army to re-enlist and attract volunteers. The South needed more of these draftees since the North had about 180,000 able immigrants to choose from. The allowance for substitution and exemption, however, led to even further resentments as the conditions clearly favored the rich.

Psychological Journal Article Summary and Analysis Research Paper

Psychological Journal Article Summary and Analysis - Research Paper Example Another explicit purpose of the study was to compare mere exposure (exposure without a reward) to a no-treatment control condition. The role that this control condition played in the experiment was to provide a baseline for the analysis of child responses when external rewards were presented. The authors were also interested several factors that contribute to the discrepancy between the tendency for rewards to increase acceptance in field studies on one hand, but the tendency of rewards to decrease liking in laboratory studies. Implicit in the design of their study, the researchers attempted to study the type of reward used, the initial liking, and the intended outcome of the study and whether those factors play a role. To accomplish these tasks, the researchers used a cluster-randomized experimental design that arranged over 400 children into four conditions: an exposure plus tangible non-food reward, an exposure plus social reward, an exposure alone, and a no-treatment control grou p. Over 12 days, the children were presented daily with the exposure to a vegetable that children find objectionable in taste. Then, the children from the respective conditions were either given an additional reward or, for those in the control condition, left alone. The results measured from these tests of taste were collected at a one-month and a three-month point after the 12 exposures in order to examine the effects of the exposures on acquisition and maintenance of the taste. This research design was intended to either accept or reject the hypothesis that external rewards have a significant effect on changing children’s tastes for vegetables. The children in the study fell in between the range of 4 and 6 years old and were randomly assigned to their conditions. To test each of the children individually, the researchers used a vegetable that the child rated in the middle of five other vegetables so that there was the potential of learning to enjoy the taste of that middle vegetable. During the intervention period, children were given praise as a reward (in the social reward condition), a sticker (in the tangible non-food condition), or minimal social interaction (in the no exposure condition). Through all of this testing, the researchers discovered that liking for the vegetable increased in the three intervention conditions as compared to the control condition, in which children were not exposed to the vegetable. Within these results, there was no significant difference in liking between each of the exposure conditions (that is, social rewards did not increase liking more than non-food tangible rewards). In terms of timing after the initial study, each of the interventions maintained their difference at a significant level for one month, during the acquisition phase. However, children who were rewarded with external rewards maintained their liking for three months or more during the maintenance phase. Likewise, during this maintenance phase, there w as no significant difference between the social reward and the non-food tangible reward condition in terms of who continued to like the vegetables more. Meanwhile, the effect of the no reward exposure because insignificant by that three month point. In other words, external rewards do not produce negative effects and may actually be useful to

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Rhetorical Analysis - Essay Example There are always the breathless promos ("Nude man found at mall: Film at 11!"). There are always the two amiable chatting anchors, usually a middle-aged man and a somewhat younger woman. There are the younger roving reporters, featured live at various points around the community or nation, where they chat up the anchors. ("Do you know why the man was wearing no clothes, Jim?" "We're working on that, Susan") There's the joking weatherman, the jock sportscaster, and more recently, the health editor and the lifestyle reporter. In a nation of enormous diversity, there's something both comforting and appalling in knowing that no matter where you are, the local news--like the local McDonalds--is always the same. What makes most of these newscasts pernicious is that they are at the same time so influential and so awful--at least in journalistic terms. In recent years, the local newscast has replaced the network evening news and the newspaper alike as the average American's main source of ne ws: A study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in 1996 found that 65 percent of all adults said they regularly watched the local TV news; only 42 percent reported that they did the same with a network newscast. In about two-thirds of all markets, according to another study, the early-evening local news shows attracted better ratings than the network newscasts that followed them--and the local news is on for a longer time. Though local newscasts have been studied far less systematically than the national news, nearly everyone who has examined their content has come away with the same conclusion. For example: A 1995 study of the local news in 50 major markets by the Rocky Mountain Media Watch found that crime and disaster news make up about 53 percent of the news on local newscasts--the grislier the crime, the better. ("Son shoots mother five times with bow and arrow") Fluff--deemed by the study as 'soft news, anchor chatter, teases, and celebrity items"--takes up about 31 percent of the whole newscast, on average (items such as "Girl reunited with dog" or "How to tango"). An informal 1993 survey by The Washington Post of local newscasts on stations in five big cities found the percentage of stories involving crime, sex, disasters, accidents, or public fears running at anywhere from 46 to 74. In its survey, the Post found local newscast obsessed with murders, serial killers, snakebites, spider bites, tornadoes, mudslides, explosions, and satanic activity. A 1990 study published by the Columbia Journalism Review found that 18 of the 32 stories analyzed on local newscasts were inaccurate or misleading, and the station usually made no attempt to correct the mistakes. A report published the same year in the L.A. Reader, following examination of a week's worth of stories in that market, found stations routinely airing PR footage provided by companies with no acknowledgment that this was what was going on. In a 1991 book examining the local news, Making Local News, Phyllis Kaniss found, among other things, that local TV news reporters are more likely to accept their sources' viewpoints than are print reporters. A Chicago reporter looking at "sweeps week" on Los Angeles television found heavily promoted news stories on lesbian nuns, Geraldo Rivera's love life, and sex after 60. As a critic once put it: The worst scandal the local news could ever uncover is itself. Local news didn't start out this way. Until about 1970, local news--with its

Prep 12 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Prep 12 - Essay Example In genetic variation, probability measures the possible gene variations that may occur in the future generation. In genetic drift process, rapid change in gene variation is readily noticeable in small reproductive isolated population. (Zimmer & Emlen, 2013). Smaller population is more affected by genetic drift due to less allele to balance out the effect of random changes. Small population also increases the likelihood of inbreeding that negatively affects the changes in allele frequencies over time, allowing recessive genes to be dominant over a small population hence causing the rapid genetic variation. For example, from the above experiment there is an explicit indication of abnormal frequency outcome from two flip coin results compared to a fifty flip coin results. Factors affecting Allele frequencies: various factors can cause the dominance of allele in a given population. These factors include genetic isolation that refers to the separation of potentially interbreeding animals. This condition reduces the chances of balancing allele frequency by facilitating the development of a less dominant allele into the future generation. Selective sexual selection affects the allele frequency where only particular phenotypes get selected by mates. The allele of the chosen ones increases in the frequency and those not chosen will decrease. For example in peacock, fancy feathers males are chosen to reproduce. Another factor is genetic drift that occurs in small populations. Chance, mating, or luck can dramatically change the frequency of alleles in the small gene pool. Buri experiment: He set up over 100 replicate populations of 16 Drosophilla flies and follows each population for many generations to measure variation in allele frequency. All of the population used in the experiment begun with 8 males and 8 females that were all heterozygous for an eye color mutation. Drosophila eye coloration for genotype was easily observed. He took 3 different genotypes which

Alexander Hamilton Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Alexander Hamilton - Essay Example Hamilton served as Secretary of Treasury during the Washington administration from September 1789 until January 1795. During his stint, hew was deemed to have significantly helped position the US under a sound economic regime. He presented a comprehensive financial program to the first Congress ("Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia"). To illustrate this point, his works such as the Report on Public Credit (1790) proposed to the federal government the redemption of confederation government securities and full payment of debt accumulated by the Continental Congress. As part of his financial program, this provision resolved and nationalized financial chaos inherited from the Revolution (Foner & Garraty). Apart from this, Hamilton also generated the Report on Manufactures (1791), wherein he impelled the federal government to encourage manufactures and proposed protective laws including the imposition of tariff on imported manufactured goods and series of excise tax both for the purpose of preserving of home market and generating revenue for the government to pay its debt (Burt).

Presuasive abbreviated outline Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Presuasive abbreviated outline - Research Paper Example The New York State DMV states that a driver with a blood alcohol content of 0.08, just above the legal limit, is four times more likely to cause a traffic accident than when sober. Underage drinkers are at even higher risk, being three times more likely to be involved in a fatal alcohol-related crash. (NYSDMV) Therefore, it is vital that our justice system impose penalties to act as a deterrent to these behaviors, and be strict enough to convince drivers to think twice. However, after an analysis of the current legal situation with regard to DUI/DWI penalties, it becomes clear that the current punishments are too harsh for the crime. Preview Statement: In order to analyze the strictness of DUI and DWI laws, we will first look at the current laws on the books, how violations are determined, and finally the success of those laws. I. Current DUI Law A. Legal intoxication - BAC at or above 0.08 in all states. Is â€Å"pre se† law, a finding of BAC at the requisite level is conside red a violation regardless of circumstance (FindLaw DUI Basics) B. Zero tolerance laws (FindLaw DUI Basics) i. target drivers under 21 ii. range from any (above 0.0) to negligible (0.1-0.2) BAC iii. usually involve higher penalties, such as longer periods of license suspension (NYSDMV) C. Most states have penalties that increase with each offense (FindLaw DUI Basics) D.