The inverted funnel-like organ just posterior to the oral and nasal cavities is the
Which of the following were responses that both Tyler Schult…
Which of the following were responses that both Tyler Schultz and Erika Cheung decided to do once they realized that Theranos was a fraud?
Lisa and Richard wish to acquire Acacia Corp., a C corporati…
Lisa and Richard wish to acquire Acacia Corp., a C corporation. As part of their discussions with Tobias, the sole shareholder of Acacia, they examined the business’ tax accounting balance sheet. The relevant information is summarized as follows: Fair value Adjusted basis Assets: Cash $30,000 $30,000 Equipment $70,000 $10,000 Building1 $260,000 $140,000 Land1 $410,000 $180,000 Total $770,000 $360,000 Liabilities: Payables $20,000 $20,000 Mortgage1 $150,000 $150,000 Total $170,000 $170,000 1 Mortgage is attached to the building and the land. Tobias’ basis in the Acacia stock is $400,000. Lisa and Richard offer to pay Tobias $900,000 for his company. How much gain or loss must Tobias recognize if the transaction is structured as a direct asset sale and Acacia distributes all its after-tax proceeds to Tobias in liquidation of his stock? (assume a 21 percent corporate tax rate)
Note: use the following fact pattern for the next four quest…
Note: use the following fact pattern for the next four questions. Lisa and Richard wish to acquire Acacia Corp., a C corporation. As part of their discussions with Tobias, the sole shareholder of Acacia, they examined the business’ tax accounting balance sheet. The relevant information is summarized as follows: Fair value Adjusted basis Assets: Cash $30,000 $30,000 Equipment $70,000 $10,000 Building1 $260,000 $140,000 Land1 $410,000 $180,000 Total $770,000 $360,000 Liabilities: Payables $20,000 $20,000 Mortgage1 $150,000 $150,000 Total $170,000 $170,000 1 Mortgage is attached to the building and the land. Tobias’ basis in the Acacia stock is $400,000. Lisa and Richard offer to pay Tobias $900,000 for his company. How much gain or loss must Acacia recognize if the transaction is structured as a stock sale to Lisa and Richard?
STAY HOME, VOLUNTOURISTS! Several years ago, w…
STAY HOME, VOLUNTOURISTS! Several years ago, when I was working as a reporter in Haiti, I came upon a group of Americans, struggling with heavy shovels to stir a pile of cement. They were there to build a school alongside a church. Muscular Haitians stood by watching, perplexed and a bit amused at the sight of men and women who had come all the way from the United States to do a mundane construction job. The Americans were a familiar sight: They were voluntourists. They would come for a week or two for a “project” — a temporary medical clinic, an orphanage visit or a school construction. A 2008 survey of 300 organizations estimated that 1.6 million people volunteer on vacation. Celebrities drop in to meet locals and witness a project that bears their name. Other people come to teach English during school vacations or during a gap year. And some sun-seeking vacationers stay at beachside resorts but also want to see “the real (name your country).” Volunteering seems an admirable way to spend a vacation. We donate money to foreign charities to make the world a better place, so why not also use our skills? However, I wonder if these good intentions are misplaced. The people I watched knew nothing about construction. They had spent thousands of dollars to fly there to do a job that Haitian bricklayers could have done much faster. Imagine how many classrooms could have been built if the volunteers had donated that money instead of flying to Haiti. Those Haitian masons could have found weeks of employment with a decent wage instead of being out of a job — at least for several days. Moreover, constructing a school is relatively easy. Improving education, especially in a place like Haiti, is not. Do volunteer groups have long-term plans to train and recruit qualified teachers to staff the school? Do they have a budget to pay those teachers? Other school-builders I met in Haiti admitted they weren’t involved in any long-term planning. Sometimes, volunteering causes real harm. Research in South Africa has found that “orphan tourism” — where visitors volunteer as caregivers for children whose parents died or can’t support them — has become so popular that some orphanages operate more like businesses than charities, intentionally subjecting children to poor conditions in order to entice unsuspecting volunteers to donate more money. Many “orphans,” it turns out, have living parents who, with a little support, could probably do a better job of raising their children than some volunteer can. Importantly, the constant arrivals and departures of volunteers have been linked to attachment disorders in children. Some volunteers possess specialized skills. In Haiti I met an ophthalmologist from Milwaukee who had just spent a week performing laser eye surgery. He recounted the joy he felt at helping people who were going blind from cataracts to see. But not all voluntourists come with an expertise like ophthalmology. When I asked one volunteer why she moved to Haiti, she said, “I felt called to be here, and came not knowing what I was going to do.” In many ways, this woman is typical; many believe that being a good neighbor in a globalized world means that simply experiencing a foreign culture is not enough. They must change that place for the better. Perhaps we are fooling ourselves. Unsatisfying as it may be, we ought to acknowledge the truth that we, as amateurs, often don’t have much to offer. Perhaps we ought to abandon the assumption that we, simply by being privileged enough to travel the world, are somehow qualified to help. I believe that the first step toward making the world a better place is to simply experience that place. Unless you’re willing to devote your career to studying international affairs and public policy, researching the mistakes that foreign charities have made while acting upon good intentions, and identifying approaches to development that have data and hard evidence behind them — stay home, because voluntourism is not for you.
VOLUN-TOURISM Some do it to get into heaven, s…
VOLUN-TOURISM Some do it to get into heaven, some to get into medical school. Some do it because everyone else is doing it. Whatever the motivation, the number of health care volunteers heading from developed to developing countries has soared recently. The reasons to applaud are self-evident: The old epidemics are compounded by the new ones, and the health-related fallout of wars and natural disasters never ends. If both skilled and unskilled labor can help, then surely those who provide such labor should do good, feel good and learn much. Not necessarily, critics say. Some concur instead with a Somali blogger who in 2013 said that the developing world has become a place for young adults from developed countries to “pay” for being lucky enough to be born in a wealthy country. Indeed, as sociologist Judith Lasker watched groups of American and Canadian volunteers in matching T-shirts surging through the Port-au-Prince airport two years after Haiti’s disastrous 2010 earthquake, she was reminded of “the weekly Saturday turnover at American vacation resorts.” Dr. Lasker, a professor at Lehigh University, asks: “Do volunteers help or hurt?” she asks. “In what ways?” It turns out these questions cannot be answered very precisely. Still, anyone thinking about a volunteer stint is likely to be interested in Dr. Lasker’s results. Tens of thousands of religious and secular institutions send hundreds of thousands of health volunteers from the United States into the world, generating close to an estimated $1 billion worth of unpaid labor. Volunteers include experienced medical professionals and individuals who can provide only manual labor; between these extremes of competence are the students in the health professions, among whom global volunteering has become immensely popular. Dr. Lasker presents data from a few hundred programs, gleaned from several surveys, dozens of interviews, and some brief trips of her own. (She did not look at large organizations like Doctors Without Borders, which are organized differently and generally do not use unpaid volunteers.) Most of the programs she considers sponsor volunteer assignments that last just weeks rather than months, despite almost universal agreement among hosting communities that longer stays are much more helpful. The hosts generally have fairly simple expectations: Volunteers should do as they are asked, know enough about their destination not to violate local norms (“Women in shorts!” grumbled one African social worker), and understand that dirt, dust and discomfort are part of the experience. However, students may take advantage of the circumstances to attempt tasks well beyond their expertise. Experienced professionals may adhere to standards of practice that are irrelevant in poor countries. Unskilled volunteers who do not speak the language may monopolize local personnel with their interpreting needs while providing little value in return. Problems may lie with the structure of a program rather than the personnel. One set of volunteers may not be told what the previous group had been doing and not be able to leave suggestions for the next group. Medications may run out. Surgery may be performed with insufficient provisions for postoperative care. Nor are the benefits to the volunteers themselves clear. Do they learn the true meaning of charity? Do they become more educated global citizens? A few studies on the long-term effects of short-term good works are ongoing. In the meantime, “there is little evidence that short-term volunteer trips produce the kinds of transformational changes that are often promised,” Dr. Lasker finds. She winds up cautiously endorsing short-term volunteer work, provided the volunteer chooses carefully among programs and behaves responsibly while at work. Still, she suggests that returning volunteers be “humble” when it comes to claiming they have made a difference, either for others or for themselves.
The best indicator of an infant’s overall cardiopulmonary st…
The best indicator of an infant’s overall cardiopulmonary status immediately after birth is
22F develops anaphylactic shock. You are the nurse and give…
22F develops anaphylactic shock. You are the nurse and give her epinephrine. You know epinephrine is the drug of choice as it is an agonist for which of the following receptors? Select all that apply
True or false: The Supreme Court has ruled that it is unreas…
True or false: The Supreme Court has ruled that it is unreasonable for police to arrest someone for a minor traffic offense.
Installing and monitoring a GPS receiver on a vehicle is nev…
Installing and monitoring a GPS receiver on a vehicle is never a Fourth Amendment search.