Quotes4study

MAFIA, n:

    [Acronym for Mechanized Applications in Forced Insurance

>Accounting.] An extensive network with many on-line and offshore

subsystems running under OS, DOS, and IOS.  MAFIA documentation is

rather scanty, and the MAFIA sales office exhibits that testy

reluctance to bona fide inquiries which is the hallmark of so many DP

operations.  From the little that has seeped out, it would appear that

MAFIA operates under a non-standard protocol, OMERTA, a tight-lipped

variant of SNA, in which extended handshakes also perform complex

security functions.  The known timesharing aspects of MAFIA point to a

more than usually autocratic operating system.  Screen prompts carry an

imperative, nonrefusable weighting (most menus offer simple YES/YES

options, defaulting to YES) that precludes indifference or delay.

Uniquely, all editing under MAFIA is performed centrally, using a

powerful rubout feature capable of erasing files, filors, filees, and

entire nodal aggravations.

        -- Stan Kelly-Bootle, "The Devil's DP Dictionary"

Fortune Cookie

Now that I have my "APPLE", I comprehend COST ACCOUNTING!!

Fortune Cookie

If we can ever make red tape nutritional, we can feed the world.

        -- R. Schaeberle, "Management Accounting"

Fortune Cookie

Wings of OS/400:

The airline has bought ancient DC-3s, arguably the best and safest planes

that ever flew, and painted "747" on their tails to make them look as if

they are fast. The flight attendants, of course, attend to your every need,

though the drinks cost $15 a pop. Stupid questions cost $230 per hour,

unless you have SupportLine, which requires a first class ticket and

membership in the frequent flyer club. Then they cost $500, but your

>accounting department can call it overhead.

Fortune Cookie

    There was once a programmer who was attached to the court of the

warlord of Wu.  The warlord asked the programmer: "Which is easier to design:

an accounting package or an operating system?"

    "An operating system," replied the programmer.

    The warlord uttered an exclamation of disbelief.  "Surely an

>accounting package is trivial next to the complexity of an operating

system," he said.

    "Not so," said the programmer, "when designing an accounting package,

the programmer operates as a mediator between people having different ideas:

how it must operate, how its reports must appear, and how it must conform to

the tax laws.  By contrast, an operating system is not limited my outside

appearances.  When designing an operating system, the programmer seeks the

simplest harmony between machine and ideas.  This is why an operating system

is easier to design."

    The warlord of Wu nodded and smiled.  "That is all good and well, but

which is easier to debug?"

    The programmer made no reply.

        -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"

Fortune Cookie

What segment's this, that, laid to rest

On FHA0, is sleeping?

What system file, lay here a while    This, this is "acct.run,"

While hackers around it were weeping?    Accounting file for everyone.

                    Dump, dump it and type it out,

                    The file, the highseg of login.

Why lies it here, on public disk

And why is it now unprotected?

A bug in incant, made it thus.        Mount, mount all your DECtapes now

And copy the file somehow, somehow.    The problem has not been corrected.

                    Dump, dump it and type it out,

                    The file, the highseg of login.

        -- to Greensleeves

Fortune Cookie

“Establish a strict control over production and the accounting for products. Arrest and turn over to the Revolutionary Tribunal of the People every one who injures the property of the People, by sabotage in production, by concealment of grain-reserves, reserves of other products, by retarding the shipments of grain, by bringing confusion into the railroads, the posts and the telegraphs, or in general opposing the great work of bringing Peace and transferring the Land to the peasants....

John Reed     Ten Days That Shook the World

My mind grew very uneasy on the subject of the pale young gentleman. The more I thought of the fight, and recalled the pale young gentleman on his back in various stages of puffy and incrimsoned countenance, the more certain it appeared that something would be done to me. I felt that the pale young gentleman's blood was on my head, and that the Law would avenge it. Without having any definite idea of the penalties I had incurred, it was clear to me that village boys could not go stalking about the country, ravaging the houses of gentlefolks and pitching into the studious youth of England, without laying themselves open to severe punishment. For some days, I even kept close at home, and looked out at the kitchen door with the greatest caution and trepidation before going on an errand, lest the officers of the County Jail should pounce upon me. The pale young gentleman's nose had stained my trousers, and I tried to wash out that evidence of my guilt in the dead of night. I had cut my knuckles against the pale young gentleman's teeth, and I twisted my imagination into a thousand tangles, as I devised incredible ways of accounting for that damnatory circumstance when I should be haled before the Judges.

Charles Dickens     Great Expectations

11:19. Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Whereupon also he received him for a parable.

THE EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE HEBREWS     NEW TESTAMENT

"You may as well call it impertinence at once. It was very little less. The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking for _your_ approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike _them_. Had you not been really amiable, you would have hated me for it; but in spite of the pains you took to disguise yourself, your feelings were always noble and just; and in your heart, you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you. There--I have saved you the trouble of accounting for it; and really, all things considered, I begin to think it perfectly reasonable. To be sure, you knew no actual good of me--but nobody thinks of _that_ when they fall in love."

Jane Austen     Pride and Prejudice

Elizabeth had settled it that Mr. Darcy would bring his sister to visit her the very day after her reaching Pemberley; and was consequently resolved not to be out of sight of the inn the whole of that morning. But her conclusion was false; for on the very morning after their arrival at Lambton, these visitors came. They had been walking about the place with some of their new friends, and were just returning to the inn to dress themselves for dining with the same family, when the sound of a carriage drew them to a window, and they saw a gentleman and a lady in a curricle driving up the street. Elizabeth immediately recognizing the livery, guessed what it meant, and imparted no small degree of her surprise to her relations by acquainting them with the honour which she expected. Her uncle and aunt were all amazement; and the embarrassment of her manner as she spoke, joined to the circumstance itself, and many of the circumstances of the preceding day, opened to them a new idea on the business. Nothing had ever suggested it before, but they felt that there was no other way of accounting for such attentions from such a quarter than by supposing a partiality for their niece. While these newly-born notions were passing in their heads, the perturbation of Elizabeth's feelings was at every moment increasing. She was quite amazed at her own discomposure; but amongst other causes of disquiet, she dreaded lest the partiality of the brother should have said too much in her favour; and, more than commonly anxious to please, she naturally suspected that every power of pleasing would fail her.

Jane Austen     Pride and Prejudice

Lady Catherine observed, after dinner, that Miss Bennet seemed out of spirits, and immediately accounting for it by herself, by supposing that she did not like to go home again so soon, she added:

Jane Austen     Pride and Prejudice

A fortnight had passed since the events recorded in the last chapter, and the position of the actors in our story had become so changed that it is almost impossible for us to continue the tale without some few explanations. Yet we feel that we ought to limit ourselves to the simple record of facts, without much attempt at explanation, for a very patent reason: because we ourselves have the greatest possible difficulty in accounting for the facts to be recorded. Such a statement on our part may appear strange to the reader. How is anyone to tell a story which he cannot understand himself? In order to keep clear of a false position, we had perhaps better give an example of what we mean; and probably the intelligent reader will soon understand the difficulty. More especially are we inclined to take this course since the example will constitute a distinct march forward of our story, and will not hinder the progress of the events remaining to be recorded.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Idiot

Now the advent of these outlandish strangers at such a critical instant as the lowering of the boats from the deck, this had not unreasonably awakened a sort of superstitious amazement in some of the ship's company; but Archy's fancied discovery having some time previous got abroad among them, though indeed not credited then, this had in some small measure prepared them for the event. It took off the extreme edge of their wonder; and so what with all this and Stubb's confident way of accounting for their appearance, they were for the time freed from superstitious surmisings; though the affair still left abundant room for all manner of wild conjectures as to dark Ahab's precise agency in the matter from the beginning. For me, I silently recalled the mysterious shadows I had seen creeping on board the Pequod during the dim Nantucket dawn, as well as the enigmatical hintings of the unaccountable Elijah.

Herman Melville     Moby Dick; or The Whale

Still the strike of the Ministries went on, still the sabotage of the old officials, the stoppage of normal economic life. Behind Smolny was only the will of the vast, unorganised popular masses; and with them the Council of People’s Commissars dealt, directing revolutionary mass-action against its enemies. In eloquent proclamations, (See App. XI, Sect. 12) couched in simple words and spread over Russia, Lenin explained the Revolution, urged the people to take the power into their own hands, by force to break down the resistance of the propertied classes, by force to take over the institutions of Government. Revolutionary order. Revolutionary discipline! Strict accounting and control! No strikes! No loafing!

John Reed     Ten Days That Shook the World

“The resistance of the capitalists and high officials will be broken. No one will be deprived of his property without a special law on the nationalisation of banks and financial syndicates. This law is in preparation. Not a worker will lose a single kopek; on the contrary, he will be assisted. Without at this moment establishing the new taxes, the new Government considers one of its primary duties to make a severe accounting and control on the reception of taxes decreed by the former régime....

John Reed     Ten Days That Shook the World

'Oh, a song, please, if the Mock Turtle would be so kind,' Alice replied, so eagerly that the Gryphon said, in a rather offended tone, 'Hm! No accounting for tastes! Sing her "Turtle Soup," will you, old fellow?'

Lewis Carroll     Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

"You are mistaken; it is because he has a wife and family, and ambitious desires for himself and them. Also because he is not sure of always retaining his situation, and wishes to provide for the future. Now, M. Bertuccio is alone in the world; he uses my property without accounting for the use he makes of it; he is sure never to leave my service."

Alexandre Dumas, Pere     The Count of Monte Cristo

Finally, there is the same set of problems in respect to accounting and control in local as in central finance. Though the materials are simpler, the need for a well-prepared budget is existent in the case of the city, county or department, if there is to be clear and accurate financial management. Perhaps the greatest weakness of local finance lies in this direction. The public opinion that affects the national budget is unfortunately too often lacking in the most important towns, not excluding those in which political life is highly developed. Entry: A

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 3 "Fenton, Edward" to "Finistere"     1910-1911

Let us consider some common phenomena in the light of these rival theories as to the nature of matter. When a few lumps of sugar are added to a glass of water and stirred, the sugar soon disappears and we are left with a uniform liquid resembling water, except that it is sweet. What has become of the sugar? Does it still exist? The atomist would say, "Yes, it is broken up into its atoms, and these are distributed throughout the spaces between the particles of water." The rival philosopher, who believes water to be continuous and without spaces between its particles, has a greater difficulty in accounting for the disappearance of the sugar; he would probably say that the sugar, and the water also, had ceased to exist, and that a new continuous substance had been formed from them, but he could offer no picture of how this change had taken place. Or consider a well-marked case of what we are in the habit of calling _chemical combination_. If 127 parts of iodine, which is an almost black solid, and 100 parts of mercury, which is a white liquid metal, be intimately mixed by rubbing them together in a mortar, the two substances wholly disappear, and we obtain instead a brilliant red powder quite unlike the iodine or the mercury; almost the only property that is unchanged is the weight. The question again arises, what has become of the original substances? The atomist has an easy answer; he says that the new body is made up by the juxtaposition of the atoms of iodine and mercury, which still exist in the red powder. His opponent would be disposed to say that the iodine and the mercury ceased to exist when the red powder was formed, that they were _components_ but not _constituents_ of it. The fact that the two components can be recovered from the compound by destroying it does not decide the question. It is remarkable that pure chemistry, even to-day, has no very conclusive arguments for the settlement of this controversy; but the sister science of physics is steadily accumulating evidence in favour of the atomic conception. Entry: ATOM

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 8 "Atherstone" to "Austria"     1910-1911

The method of accounting hitherto described represents _single-entry_, which--albeit manifestly incomplete--is still very generally used by small business houses, and particularly by retail traders. Its essential weakness is that it provides no automatic check upon the clerical accuracy of the record, and, should any mistake be made in the keeping of the books, or in the extraction therefrom of the lists of assets and liabilities, the statement of assets and liabilities and the profit or loss of the current financial period, will be incorrect to an equal extent. It was to avoid this obvious weakness of single-entry that the system of double-entry was evolved. Entry: STATE

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 2 "Bohemia" to "Borgia, Francis"     1910-1911

The acknowledgment of man's structural similarity with the anthropomorphous species nearest approaching him, viz.: the higher or anthropoid apes, had long before Prichard's day been made by Linnaeus, who in his _Systema Naturae_ (1735) grouped them together as the highest order of Mammalia, to which he gave the name of Primates. The _Amoenitates Academicae_ (vol. vi., Leiden, 1764), published under the auspices of Linnaeus, contains a remarkable picture which illustrates a discourse by his disciple Hoppius, and is here reproduced (see Plate, fig. 1). In this picture, which shows the crudeness of the zoological notions current in the 18th century as to both men and apes, there are set in a row four figures: (a) a recognizable orang-utan, sitting and holding a staff; (b) a chimpanzee, absurdly humanized as to head, hands, and feet; (c) a hairy woman, with a tail a foot long; (d) another woman, more completely coated with hair. The great Swedish naturalist was possibly justified in treating the two latter creatures as quasi-human, for they seem to be grotesque exaggerations of such tailed and hairy human beings as really, though rarely, occur, and are apt to be exhibited as monstrosities (see Bastian and Hartmann, _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, Index, "Geschwänzte Menschen"; Gould and Pile, _Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine_, 1897). To Linnaeus, however, they represented normal anthropomorpha or man-like creatures, vouched for by visitors to remote parts of the world. This opinion of the Swedish naturalist seems to have been little noticed in Great Britain till it was taken up by the learned but credulous Scottish judge, Lord Monboddo (see his _Origin and Progress of Language_, 1774, &c.; _Antient Metaphysics_, 1778). He had not heard of the tailed men till he met with them in the work of Linnaeus, with whom he entered into correspondence, with the result that he enlarged his range of mankind with races of sub-human type. One was founded on the description by the Swedish sailor Niklas Köping of the ferocious men with long tails inhabiting the Nicobar Islands. Another comprised the orang-utans of Sumatra, who were said to take men captive and set them to work as slaves. One of these apes, it was related, served as a sailor on board a Jamaica ship, and used to wait on the captain. These are stories which seem to carry their own explanation. When the Nicobar Islands were taken over by the British government two centuries later, the native warriors were still wearing their peculiar loin-cloth hanging behind in a most tail-like manner (E.H. Man, _Journal Anthropological Institute_, vol. xv. p. 442). As for the story of the orang-utan cabin boy, this may even be verbally true, it being borne in mind that in the Malay languages the term _orang-utan_, "man of the forest," was originally used for inland forest natives and other rude men, rather than for the _miyas_ apes to which it has come to be generally applied by Europeans. The speculations as to primitive man connected with these stories diverted the British public, headed by Dr Johnson, who said that Monboddo was "as jealous of his tail as a squirrel." Linnaeus's primarily zoological classification of man did not, however, suit the philosophical opinion of the time, which responded more readily to the systems represented by Buffon, and later by Cuvier, in which the human mind and soul formed an impassable wall of partition between him and other mammalia, so that the definition of man's position in the animal world was treated as not belonging to zoology, but to metaphysics and theology. It has to be borne in mind that Linnaeus, plainly as he recognized the likeness of the higher simian and the human types, does not seem to have entertained the thought of accounting for this similarity by common descent. It satisfied his mind to consider it as belonging to the system of nature, as indeed remained the case with a greater anatomist of the following century, Richard Owen. The present drawing, which under the authority of Linnaeus shows an anthropomorphic series from which the normal type of man, the _Homo sapiens_, is conspicuously absent, brings zoological similarity into view without suggesting kinship to account for it. There are few ideas more ingrained in ancient and low civilization than that of relationship by descent between the lower animals and man. Savage and barbaric religions recognize it, and the mythology of the world has hardly a more universal theme. But in educated Europe such ideas had long been superseded by the influence of theology and philosophy, with which they seemed too incompatible. In the 19th century, however, Lamarck's theory of the development of new species by habit and circumstance led through Wallace and Darwin to the doctrines of the hereditary transmission of acquired characters, the survival of the fittest, and natural selection. Thenceforward it was impossible to exclude a theory of descent of man from ancestral beings whom zoological similarity connects also, though by lines of descent not at all clearly defined, with ancestors of the anthropomorphic apes. In one form or another such a theory of human descent has in our time become part of an accepted framework of zoology, if not as a demonstrable truth, at any rate as a working hypothesis which has no effective rival. Entry: I

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo"     1910-1911

The difficulties facing the manufacturing census were of a different character. A large proportion of the industries of the country keep satisfactory accounts, and can answer the questions with some correctness. But manufacturers are likely to suspect the objects of the census, and to fear that the information given will be open to the public or betrayed to competitors. Furthermore, the manufacturing schedule presupposes some uniformity in the method of accounting among different companies or lines of business, and this is often lacking. Another source of error in the manufacturing census of the United States is that the words of the census law are construed as requiring an enumeration of the various trades and handicrafts, such as carpentering. The deficiencies in such returns are gross and notorious, but the census office feels obliged to seek for them and to report what it finds, however incomplete or incorrect the results may be. Even on the population returns certain answers, such as the number of the divorced or the number unable to read and write, may be open to question. Entry: UNITED

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 6 "Celtes, Konrad" to "Ceramics"     1910-1911

The figures in the above tables are very fairly representative of different classes of British and Irish beers. It will be noticed that the _Mild Ales_ are of medium original gravity[8] and alcoholic strength, but contain a relatively large proportion of solid matter. The _Light Bitters and Ales_ are of a low original gravity, but compared with the Mild Ales the proportion of alcohol to solids is higher. The _Pale and Stock Ales_, which represent the more expensive bottle beers, are analytically of much the same character as the Light Bitters, except that the figures all round are much higher. The _Stouts_, as a rule, are characterized by a high gravity, and contain relatively more solids (as compared with alcohol) than do the heavy beers of light colour. With regard to the proportions of the various matters constituting the extractives (solids) in English beers, roughly 20-30% consists of maltose and 20-50% of dextrinous matter. In mild ales the proportion of maltose to dextrin is high (roughly 1:1), thus accounting for the full sweet taste of these beers. Pale and stock ales, on the other hand, which are of a "dry" character, contain relatively more dextrin, the general ratio being about 1:1½ or 1:2. The mineral matter ("ash") of beers is generally in the neighbourhood of 0.2 to 0.3%, of which about one-fourth is phosphoric acid. The proteid ("nitrogenous matters") content of beers varies very widely according to character and strength, the usual limits being 0.3 to 0.8%, with an average of roughly 0.4%. Entry: IV

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 5 "Bedlam" to "Benson, George"     1910-1911

KARMA, sometimes written KARMAN, a Sanskrit noun (from the root _kri_, to do), meaning deed or action. In addition to this simple meaning it has also, both in the philosophical and the colloquial speech of India a technical meaning, denoting "a person's deeds as determining his future lot." This is not merely in the vague sense that on the whole good will be rewarded and evil punished, but that every single act must work out to the uttermost its inevitable consequences, and receive its retribution, however many ages the process may require. Every part of the material universe--man, woman, insect, tree, stone, or whatever it be--is the dwelling of an eternal spirit that is working out its destiny, and while receiving reward and punishment for the past is laying up reward and punishment for the future. This view of existence as an endless and concomitant sowing and reaping is accepted by learned and unlearned alike as accounting for those inequalities in human life which might otherwise lead men to doubt the justice of God. Every act of every person has not only a moral value producing merit or demerit, but also an inherent power which works out its fitting reward or punishment. To the Hindu this does not make heaven and hell unnecessary. These two exist in many forms more or less grotesque, and after death the soul passes to one of them and there receives its due; but that existence too is marked by desire and action, and is therefore productive of merit or demerit, and as the soul is thus still entangled in the meshes of karma it must again assume an earthly garb and continue the strife. Salvation is to the Hindu simply deliverance from the power of karma, and each of the philosophic systems has its own method of obtaining it. The last book of the Laws of Manu deals with _karmaphalam_, "the fruit of karma," and gives many curious details of the way in which sin is punished and merit rewarded. The origin of the doctrine cannot be traced with certainty, but there is little doubt that it is post-vedic, and that it was readily accepted by Buddha in the 6th century B.C. As he did not believe in the existence of soul he had to modify the doctrine (see BUDDHISM). Entry: KARMA

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 6 "Justinian II." to "Kells"     1910-1911

Index: