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Melting Away Ice Hazards
RadioheadKid writes "Dartmouth College Professor Victor F. Petrenko is getting a grip on ice. He and his colleagues have found ways to take advantage of the "protonic" semiconductor properties of frozen water. They see many applications of this discovery from melting ice on power lines to electronic speed control for skis and snowboards. I guess those Petrenkos just love the ice."
they can make my ice last longer in my kalua & milk?
"It is essential that justice be done
The mere existence of water should be proof enough of a divine creator.
Will Auditing Reform Die Before It Begins?
For the accounting industry, 2002 was the year of capital punishment, in both senses of the term. But will prosecutorial vigor lead to real reforms in an oligopolistic industry?
The death of Arthur Andersen, which shrank the Big Five to the Final Four, resulted from a Justice Department prosecution that startled accountants. But in showing they were tough, the prosecutors also eliminated the possibility that a new Andersen, under Paul A. Volcker's guidance, could lead the way to reform.
That auditors have sometimes not lived up to their obligations was proved this year as never before. But what the public needs to know is whether spectacular audit failures are isolated events or reflect systemic problems, either in the way audits are conducted or in the financial pressures that confront the auditors.
What is clear is that the new Sarbanes-Oxley Act could not end the fundamental conflict facing auditors: the people who hire the audit firm, and can replace it if they choose, are from the very company being audited. The people who depend on the job being done by the auditor -- the investors -- have no say in the matter.
What is needed is for someone to audit the auditors regularly, to review the way they conduct audits and to essentially reaudit some companies. That could show what problems exist, leading to new audit procedures where needed. But the most important effect could be one of strengthening auditors' backbones. Knowing that all the documents might be reviewed by outsiders, auditors might be far less willing to cave in to their clients' demands.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act gave that responsibility to the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. But Joel Seligman, the dean of law at Washington University in St. Louis and the author of the leading history of the Securities and Exchange Commission, says no change in securities law ever had "a slower or more inept" start. "They don't have a full board, don't have a budget, don't have a staff, don't have an office, don't have a plan," Mr. Seligman said. "It's as sad a beginning as one can imagine."
To both Mr. Seligman and John Biggs, the pension fund executive who was passed over for chairman of the board, setting off a controversy, the way the board conducts its inspections will be the most important issue confronting it. "The major function of the board will not be enforcement so much as working with the firms to develop better assurance of quality control," Mr. Biggs said. "The means for the board will be through the annual inspections."
The law establishing the board was full of compromises. Just how thorough those inspections will be, and even who will do them, is up to the board. Reformers want it to hire its own staff and to carefully review numerous audits each year. Many in the accounting industry would prefer that the board do little more than the "peer reviews" that used to be carried out under the auspices of the ineffective Public Oversight Board, in which one major accounting firm would bless another firm's work.
Unfortunately, the accounting industry got Congress to specify that when the board finds problems with the quality control systems of an auditing firm, that information will be kept secret if the firm addresses the issue within a year. Similarly, disciplinary proceedings may remain secret until the S.E.C. has considered appeals of the board's rulings, a process that could take years.
That secrecy means that investors will have limited ways to be sure that the board is doing a good job and makes it all the more important that the board's chairman be someone whose record provides assurances of a commitment to reform. William Donaldson's choice for that job after he is confirmed as S.E.C. chairman may determine whether the scandals of 2002 bring real changes...."
remember, dysfunction STARTS, at the "top".
Heckler and Koch .44 USP Special Edition Semi-Automatic Handgun - Ballistic tests have shown that this handgun, when used by curious children who discover it in their parent's sock drawer, has a very low chance of accidentally going off and killing them or their equally curious friends. Any person who has purchased a Heckler and Koch .44 USP Special Edition Semi-Automatic Handgun may return it to the dealer in exchange for the brand new Heckler and Koch .45 USP Assault Model, which shoots explosive anti-children bullets designed specifically for home accidents. If you return your handgun now, you will also receive a free storage case which has a defective lock and reads "FREE CHOCOLATE INSIDE!!!" in large, festive letters.
Pussy Pussy Pussy
ice freezes you !
So my question is: what should I talk about when I am giving head to a lady or playing with her breasts?