Ah ! My Goddess

This anime story revolved around Morisato Keiichi. Morisato Keiichi is a down on his luck college student. Although possessing a diligent and generous nature, he had the misfortune of being born under an unlucky star. As a result, the current state of his life is somewhat unenviable. All that is about to change, however as Heaven has taken notice of his plight. A goddess, Belldandy, is dispatched to earth to grant Keichi one wish. One wish, be it unlimited power, wealth or his fondest desire. And his wish that a goddess like Belldandy will stay with him forever.

Golden Boy

Each volume and episode of this Japanese Animation placed Kintaro Oe in the opposite of a young beautiful woman, whose interest or disdain for him acts as the conflict of the plot. Some of these women initially dismiss Kintaro as an idiotic and clumsy pervert and either give him or accept from him some challenge to prove their superiority. Kintaro invariably lusts after these women, but he is principally driven by his desire to be of actual service to them and to thereby learn more about the world. Despite his outward appearances, Kintao is an incredibly clever and resourceful individual and consistently exceeds what the women in his encounters thought possible, winning their hearts despite his outward awkwardness. But due to chance, necessity or a sense of honor. Kintaro never takes advantage of these newfound feelings.

Kintaro Oe ia a 25 year old dropout from Tokyo University Law School, he rides his bicycle around Japan “ learning about life”. He takes various part-time jobs and meets different kind of girls while he travel. This anime is a six part 1995 OVA and has more subtle content, while the 10 volumes manga (Japanese Comics) is more suitable for adult readers.

Great Teacher Onizuka ( GTO )

The Story of this anime is revolved around Onizuka. Onizuka is an ex-biker punk who’s taken on the formidable job of teaching high school. Lucky for him, street experience and martial arts are just what the job needs. Like cross between a thug and walking, talking after school special. Onizuka will go to any length to help his students. However his career might be in jeopardy because of his unusual behavior. GTO is evolving from a manga into Japanese animation and then into Japanese drama (Dorama).

Naruto Shippuunden

This Japanese animation is a second chapter / season of Naruto. The story revolves around an older and slightly more matured Uzumaki Naruto and his quest to save his friend Uchiha Sasuke from the grips of the snake-like Shinobi, Orochimaru. Orochimaru and his group kidnapped Sasuke from the Konoha village at the previous chapter of Naruto Anime. After two and a half years Naruto finally returns to his village of Konoha and set about putting his ambitions to work, though it will not be easy, as he has amassed a few (more dangerous) enemies, in the likes of shinobi organization ; Akatsuki.

IRS issues warning on scammers and other security issues

The IRS issued a warning to taxpayers on July 10th regarding the activity of identity theives who use e-mail, faxes and other means to gather personal information from taxpayers while pretending to be from the IRS. I think it should be obvious but take note that the IRS will never send an unsolicited e-mail requesting information.

Which brings me to another security issue. I attended a class for CPAs yesterday and learned that many states now have laws making it illegal to send driver's license, social security and bank account numbers through the internet either in the body of an e-mail or in an attachment. Seems there are people in other countries writing progrms that monitor e-mail traffic just looking for bits of personal information. E-mails and their attachments are not secure.

The solutions (I'm not a techie but this is what was recommended) were either encryption, FTP transfers or portals. Portals are direct links, similiar to online banking, between a secure server and the two parties. For instance, instead of sending the tax return as a PDF attachment, we now place a document through a portal on to a secure server which can only be accessed by the client. They can go to the portal and pick it up whenever they want.

I also learned that the top two ways identity theives get information:

1. Voluntary disclosure
2. Theft of hardware that contains personal data

Make sure you encrypt and/or secure all data that resides on portable devices.

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Within 10 minutes of posting this blog entry I rec'd an official looking IRS e-mail claiming I was due $863.80, and that I'd receive it in 6-9 days if I just "clicked here" and gave them some personal information. I quickly forwarded that e-mail to phishing@irs.gov .

Naruto

Deep within the Konoha Village (Hidden Leaf Village) a lot of sharp and cunning Ninja carry amazing talents and power while Uzumaki Naruto carries an amazing secret. Twelve years ago, the fourth Hokage sacrificed himself to save the village by sealing the Nine Tailed Fox Spirit inside this newborn orphan. Now this plucky prankster must do what it takes to achieve his life-long goal to become the next Hokage. The story of this anime is revolved around Naruto, his friend and his mission. At the end of this season Naruto carried his quest to save his friend Uchiha Sasuke which will be continued in the Naruto Shipuunden.

Bleach : The Sealed Sword Frenzy

A Shinigami named Baishin who was sealed by Soul Society long ago is set free on earth. On a fateful day Kurosaki Ichigo encounters him and has roughly half of his reiatsu drained. It’s now up to Ichigo and Soul Society to finally stop Baishin and his destruction. The Sealed Sword Frenzy is one of Bleach anime OVA.

Bleach

This anime story is revolved around Kurosaki Ichigo. Kurosaki Ichigo is a high school student who has the ability to see ghost and other supranatural beings. When a female Shinigami (god of death) named Kuchiki Rukia stepped through his bedroom wall. Surprised that human could see her, Rukia accidentally involved him in a battle between the shinigami and Hollow (an evil soul that devours good souls). Hurt in the process to protect him, the only way that Rukia could save Ichigo’s family was by giving him her shinigami power.

Without her powers, Rukia was forced to stay in the land of the living in a false body until her power returned while Ichigo assumed her responsibility as the shinigami. This Japanese animation is definitely the most thrilling anime because of the fighting scene and the depressing movie soundtracks.

Grave of Fireflies

Grave of Fire flies was one of anime masterpiece from Hayao Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki also well known for Japanese Animation such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away (oscar winner), Nausicaa, Howl’s Moving Castle (Oscar nominated) and Castle in The Sky.

Grave of Fireflies story set in Japan during World War II, the story revolved around Setsuko and Seita a homeless brother and sister who losed their mother in the firebombing of Tokyo. They live with their aunt’s family for short time and then they moved into abandoned shelter where a lot of fireflies painting the sky. The story has a bitter and sad ending and the movie was narrated by Seita soul.

Grave of the Fireflies is a touching and extremely painful and depressing movie to watch it is such an emotional experience and the greatest Japanese animated picture ever made.

Grave of the Fireflies was produced by Studio Ghibliand directed by Isao Takahata and the story is based on a bestselling novel by Akiyuki Nosaka.

Yet another reason to go green and be proactive

Fines and penalties paid to the government for legal violations are not deductible for taxes. This applies to fines for environmental damage as well. The public policy doctrine and IRC Section 162(f) provide the basis to disallow tax benefits inconsistent with articulated public policy.

Over the years, many companies have had fines reduced by agreeing to perform a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) or similar project to settle a matter with the state or federal government. As a general rule, violators pay a smaller fine when they agree to a SEP or other remedial project.

In a recently released IRS Coordinated Issue Directive (http://preview.tinyurl.com/6m9z6l), the IRS says it will deny deductions for these projects because in their view, the cost is a nondeductible fine if the work is done to settle government charges of pollution. This includes wildlife habitat restoration and wetlands purchases.

Hopefully, this position won’t discourage the government and polluters from agreeing to mutually beneficial SEPs. Ideally, this provides yet another incentive to be proactive, go green and avoid the expensive and now non-deductible cost of remediation.

Greenwashing and environmental claims

I was recently drinking from a disposable cup that claimed to be “biodegradable”. While it may in fact be biodegradable, the question that arises is by when and under what conditions? I’m not a scientist but I suspect everything is biodegradable given enough time. Therefore, the biodegradable claim provides no useful information and may in fact be misleading if the cup is simply tossed in the garbage and ultimately buried in a landfill without sunlight and oxygen.

The point I’d like to discuss today is the importance of accurate environmental claims and to point readers towards a new guide published by our friendly neighbors to the north.

On June 25th, Canada’s The Competition Bureau, in collaboration with the Canadian Standards Association released guidelines for the business community to ensure that green marketing was not misleading, while providing consumers with greater assurance about the accuracy of environmental claims. The 72-page report addresses a number of commonly used green claims and provides examples of best practices on how such claims can be used by businesses to comply with the false or misleading provisions of Canadian laws.

Among other practices, the Guide states that:

• The use of vague claims implying general environmental improvement are insufficient and should be avoided.
• Environmental claims should be clear, specific, accurate and not misleading.
• Environmental claims should be verified and substantiated, prior to being made.

You can get a copy of the guide here: Environmental Claims: A Guide for Industry and Advertisers

One item I found particularly interesting was the entry on sustainability claims. Here is what the guide says:

The concepts involved in sustainability are highly complex and still under study. At this time there are no definitive methods for measuring sustainability or confirming its accomplishment. Therefore, no claim of achieving sustainability shall be made.
CAN/CSA-ISO 14021, Clause 5.5

In the spirit of honest advertising and useful information, I have to agree that a claim of achieving sustainability would be inappropriate within the systems thinking paradigm.

I haven’t had a chance to completely read the guide but based on a quick review, it looked like a responsible list of criteria we could all adopt as we go forward with our green business, working towards sustainability.

The value of a CPA

I may have saved a friend well over $50,000 in taxes this weekend.

I don’t want this to be a tax column and I haven’t researched this specific issue to speak with authority but I want to point out the value of professional advice, especially when you are going through life’s transitions (marriage, death, children, divorce, starting or closing a business, etc.) and dealing with non-routine transactions.

During a casual conversation, my friend mentioned that her elderly father wanted to leave his California home to her when he died. The house has over $500,000 of potential gain in it (Market price less tax basis). Dad had or was going to simply add her name to the title with right of survivorship.

While this would get the house to her upon death, my concern here is that dad has made an Inter vivos transfer as opposed to a testamentary transfer. This difference can have significant tax implications since the beneficiary of a testamentary transfer gets a step up in basis while the recipient of an Inter vivos transfer doesn’t.

My advice to her was to talk with an attorney and her CPA to make sure they were doing this transaction correctly from both a legal and tax perspective. While it will cost some money for the professional services, I think it is better to be safe then sorry when engaged in transactions with significant financial implications.

As a CPA, I really, really like it when my clients call me for advice BEFORE these situations arise since it provides us the best opportunity to accomplish their goals and to avoid nasty surprises.

Tonari No Totoro / My Neighbour Totoro

Tonari No Totoro (My Neighbour Totoro) is a fantasy movie about Japanese family’s life, who move to a small town. All the story focused on the Kasukabe’s family and their new neighbour. Totoro is a forest spirit that become the Kasukabe’s family neighbour. Two young girls Satsuki and Mei find that they share their home with the forest spirit. Satsuki and Mei Father is a university professor while their mother is sick in the hospital. Their mother condition is getting worse so Mei determined to see her mother by herself.

Totoro was one of masterpiece from Hayao Miyazaki and one of well known movie from Studio Ghibli. The movie describe a very wonderful relationship beetween human and nature. With the cute characters of the little girls and a lovable creatures this movie will give you a cheerful and new experience into the world of Totoro.

Movie Detail :

Japanese Distributor : Tokuma Shoten Publishing.
North America Distributor : Fox Video.
Movie Length : 87 minutes
Genre : anime / animation / drama / fantasy / comedy
Rating : G, suitable for family viewing
Format : Original Japanese dialog (VHS/LD), dubbed (VHS)
Written, directed and produced by : Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli.
English version director : Carl Macek.








Japanese Voice Cast :
Totoro - Hitoshi Takagi
Satsuki Kusakabe - Noriko Hidaka
Mei Kusakabe - Chika Sakamoto
Tatsuo Kusakabe (Satsuki & Mei's Father) - Shigesato Itoi
Yasuko Kusakabe (Satsuki & Mei's Mother) - Sumi Shimamoto
Kanta - Toshiyuki Amagasa
Kanta's Grandmother - Tanie Kitabayashi
Kanta's Mother - Yuko Maruyama
Kanta's Father - Masashi Hirose
Teacher - Machiko Washio

Accounting's role in sustainability

My accounting professor at Bainbridge Graduate Institute (http://www.bgiedu.org/), Dr. Kate Lancaster, PhD, CPA has written a paper with two of her colleagues urging the development of sustainable curriculum for university finance and accounting students, and outlined some specific courses or curriculum modules that need to be created.

Kate asked me if I would write a few sentences about why it is important to include sustainability in finance and accounting curriculum. Here is what I wrote:

"The shift towards sustainability will be a significant business driver over the foreseeable future. An emerging and evolving set of metrics beyond traditional financial measurements will provide guidance, scoring, comparability and accountability for sustainable business practices.

Who better to measure, report, analyze and interpret the data than accountants? It is vital that students learn the thinking and tools they'll need for jobs in the 21st century."

Sustainability offers significant opportunities and challenges for both internal and external reporting. In a sustainable economy, everyone will be on board. It is a hopeful sign when even traditionally conservative professions like accounting begin to see the light.