Monday, January 20, 2020

Society in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and Thomas Mores Utopia :: comparison compare contrast essays

Society in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Thomas More's Utopia A primary problem with the society we live in today, is the need to be better. The desire to have more, to be worth more, and through these inanimate objects to be happy is what drive us all. As children we struggled to fit in by having nicer clothes and more expensive shoes than the next kid. Although, in a different from this is a sentiment echoed in Sir Thomas More's "Utopia." By analyzing his work, I will shed some light on how this is very similar to a theme proposed in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." In Utopian society, we are shown that the way to fit in, to be cool is to be exactly the same as those around you. Those citizens who had aspirations of wealth and a better life, were treated the same as those who simply can not afford to 'fit in' in our society. They were the shunned, the public outcasts. These people had necessarily done anything wrong, they just were unhappy with their way of life and had glimpsed something better. This mirrors the daemon in Shelley's "Frankenstein." Although he was an extremely well educated person, who aspired for nothing more than love and happiness, they would never be his to have. The sole reason the monster was abhorred by all that knew of him was his appearance. This singular feature was the reason he was beaten by Felix, and nearly killed by the man whose daughter he had saved from river. His only curse was ugliness, but was this his fault? It was easy for the daemon to curse his creator, the man who had formed him the way he was; in many ways I feel sympathy towards him. The sentences for being different in Utopia might not be considered by some to be as severe, but in many ways they were. For many crimes in their society you could be punished to a life of slavery, but this is not unlike Shelley. The daemon, while not punished by a court system, was punished by something much worse: himself.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Panera SWOT Essay

A SWOT Analysis is a â€Å"situational in which internal strengths and weaknesses of an organization, and external opportunities and threats faced by it are closely examined† to provide an adequate strategy (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/SWOT-analysis.html). Panera Bread Company has become one of the leading companies in the quick casual restaurant market. Strengths The Strengths that Panera Bread Company has are the following: a strong presence in its niche segment, a strong relationship with their franchisees, they focus on having a specialty bread and robust financial performance. In 2008, the company operated in 1,252 bakery-cafes in 38 American States and Canada. Panera Bread Company’s success relies on the strategy of quick service and high quality food. According to Wall Street Journal, Panera scored the highest with customer loyalty in their market niche. In 2007, Sandleman & Associates Quick-Track â€Å"Awards of Excellence,† put Panera Bread Company as one of the top chain restaurants for the sixth consecutive year. They have a very strong brand image, which also contributes to their success. Panera Bread Company has a strong relationship with their franchisees. It expects to operate 256 additional franchisees or area developers from their 725 franchise-operated bakery-cafes. Panera primarily operates through franchise agreements throughout the United States and this positive relationship that headquarters has with these companies has led to their success. This aids the growth of the company. The company has a high focus on being a specialty bread store. Panera Bread Company produces Artisan breads. Artisan bread utilizes natural ingredients with skilled attention, which differentiates the company from commercial competition. This helps the company become secure in its segment of the market. Panera Bread Company has had robust financial performance. Its revenues increased by 21.8% from 2007 to 2008. The companies net profit increased by 17.4% from 2007 to 2008. This continued growth provides the company with a positive future. The company also purchased 51% of the outstanding stock of Paradise. Weaknesses Panera Bread Company has highly concentrated geographic operations, meaning the company is confined to operating in North America. This is a problem because if a change in state taxes could bring a risk to the market concentration. It also loses the opportunities that their competitors will have to establish themselves in foreign markets. The company does not operate in the Asia-Pacific region or Europe-Africa, which could be potential areas they could benefit from. Another weakness that Panera Bread Company has is its lack of scale. When compared to its competitors, Panera Bread Company has a lot smaller revenues. Companies such as Starbucks or McDonalds dwarf this company, in yearly revenues. Panera needs to expand to other regions to become a worldwide competitor. Opportunities The three opportunities that Panera Bread Company has are the following: controlling of operating cost, expansion to grow top line and growth demand for organic products. Panera decided to focus its menu primarily with breakfast and lunch. This is why the company removed the Crispani from its product line. The pizza like pastry was intended to attract a late afternoon to early evening consumer, but had little growth. The little growth was believed to be caused by the recession, which made the company have to focus its menu to two meals a day. The expansion of the company has created more geographic presence for top line growth. Panera Bread Company opened its first company in Toronto, Ontario in 2008. In that same year, the company opened 91 new bakeries. This will help give the company a better presence, but another region for expansion would be Europe and Asia. The growing demand for organic products is a huge opportunity for the company. The already natural ingredients in its Arti san bread make this an easy transition for the company. According to article created by Datamonitor titled â€Å"Organic Food in the United States,† the company had a compound annual growth rate of 17.9%. This opportunity would reflect positively on product sales for the company. Threats Panera Bread Company has four major threats to its success. The first threat to the company’s success is the highly competitive restaurant industry. The company has to compete in three different industries. Panera competes in the specialty food, quick service and casual dining retailers. It major  competition is Starbucks, McDonald’s, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Potbelly Sandwich Works and Yum! Brands. This competition could impact Panera Bread Company’s market share. The second threat to Panera Bread Company would be a disruption in the company’s supply. The company provides fresh dough to each location by temperature controlled vehicles. If there happens to be poor weather conditions, labor difficulties, technical issues or damage to any vehicles in the fleet, then the company could have shortage problem. Depending on how long there is a problem in the fleet; Panera Bread Company would see a decline in sales from those locations affected. The increasing popularity of vegetarian food is the third threat. â€Å"At an average growth of 9% per year, this market is projected to reach $1,700 million by 2010† ( http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=44704860&site=bsi-live). The increase of a preference of healthy, natural, and fat free food has created a very successful market. If Panera Bread Company does not adhere to this trend in the market, then they could be left behind by its competitors. The increase in the minimum wage is the fourth threat to Panera Bread Company. The steady increase in minimum wage has increased labor costs, which have impacted the company’s profit. Hopefully, the minimum wage remains at $7.25 because this is affecting overall administrative costs for the company.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Essay about The Artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci - 2416 Words

The Artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci â€Å"Sometimes the heavens endow a single individual with such beauty, grace and abilities that, whatever he does, he leaves all other men far behind, thus demonstrating that his genius is a gift of god and not an acquirement of human art.† (1) Giorgio Vasari. On April 15, 1452, Leonardo Da Vinci was born as an illegitimate child. Even with this setback, he was soon educated and his passion for art began to flourish. Growing up through the years in one of the most important cities in the world at that time, Florence, Leonardo had many different and exciting experiences. Not much information is known about his youth. He created a few paintings in that time, but only a few are still in existence today.†¦show more content†¦More success now has happened than ever before, but the creation is not repairable. Leonardo became obsessed with this painting, and the study of the subjects to appear in it. The Last Supper had taken him over two years to create. He constructed many studies involving the painting. Most were about the physical features of the saints. (5) In one of his studies, he made a wonderful sketch of the creation to come. This study also has been ruined over these 500 years, but new computer technology has been able to restore the sketch as if it was redone. Even with restoration the painting looks as if it has a great piece missing to it, and to fill that old piece would make the painting amazing again. He made each and every person in this painting unique, having different facial expressions according to what is said in the bible. This realistic component of the painting made it overwhelming to look at. In the late 1940’s the painting was in a perilous state and was turning to dust. Italy’s Ministry of Fine Arts sent Mauro Pellicoli, a master restorer, out into the world to find something to hold the painting together. With the new invention that he had found, he began to take away all the attempts at repainting it, and showed the natural beauty of it. (6) This new method had even brought forth a mistake that Leonardo had made during his time painting this. Even so the methods used here made the painting look like it was when itShow MoreRelated Mathematical Order in the Artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci Essay1171 Words   |  5 PagesMathematical Order in the Artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci A large portion of the Italian Renaissance was an obsession with finding order in everything in the universe. Its primary actors sought to show nature as orderly and fundamentally simple. Leonardo Da Vinci, the epitome of the Renaissance Man, was not the first to apply these ideas of geometric order and patterns to art, but he may be the most well known. Da Vinci used mathematical concepts like linear perspective, proportion and geometryRead MoreThe Quintessential Renaissance Man1083 Words   |  5 Pagesan inventor, and a world renowned artist. This man was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci, by definition, is the quintessential Renaissance man. Leonardo da Vinci was â€Å"born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy† (â€Å"Leonardo†) â€Å"Leonardo was born out of wedlock and raised by his father, a lawyer named Piero da Vinci.† (â€Å"Leonardo† Skwirk) Leonardo’s father made the decision to move to Florence Italy whenever Leonardo was 12 years old. Leonardo â€Å"lived during a period of Italian history commonly referredRead MoreRenaissance Art And The Postmodern Frame1245 Words   |  5 Pagessource of ideas to create artworks. These artists include Leonardo Da Vinci from the Renaissance movement and Claude Monet from the Impressionism movement. The artist Chiharu Shiota and Lee Bul have also used the art convention Biennale and the world agent to create â€Å"Conscious Sleep† and â€Å"Diluvium† respectively. Through the use the world as a source of ideas, artists with a focus on the postmodern frame have used art conventions to create artworks. Renaissance artworks challenged the contemporaryRead MoreItalian Figures Of The Renaissance964 Words   |  4 PagesLeonardo Da Vinci, also known by his unnecessarily long Italian name, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, was probably one of the most well-known Italian figures of the Renaissance. Aside from his many other skilled areas, including but not limited to, a mathematician, engineer, inventor, geologist, writer, anatomist†¦he was considered to be one of the best painters of his time. Of course like most painters, he had to scale the ladder of success, pun intended, which is where the story will begin. LeonardoRead MoreThe Importance Of Humanism And Leonardo Da Vinci1114 Words   |  5 PagesAll of Leonardo da Vinci’s work took part in the effort to express humanism throughout the world and affected the world more than people realize. Humanism was an ideal during the Italian Renaissance. â€Å"Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead meaningful, ethical lives capable of adding to the greater good of humanity.† (americanhumanist.org). Humanism was the ideal of the Renaissance and Leonardo da Vinci did his best to embodyRead MoreLeonardo Da Vinci And The Renaissance Era1572 Words   |  7 Pagesbeginning of the modern world, there have been many artworks created that have lived through the force of time. These masterpieces are created to represent the time of its creation. During the Renaissance Era, the humanist and classical values of art flourished. One of the great masters of the Renaissance known as Leonardo Da Vinci, dominated the period of the High Renaissance. The values of the Renaissance exist in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci portrayed through his paintings of Mona Lisa, The LastRead MoreThe Beauty Of Mona Lisa953 Words   |  4 Pagesthe famous painting in the world, personally I believe it still is. This artwork was created by Leonardo Da Vinci, who was an Italian artist. He not only dedicate art in his life but also science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, and many other areas. However, today this essay will only focus on the portrait he painted, Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa have many secrets, the date of this artwork is one of them. The time Leonardo worked on it remain mystery, but the â€Å"portrait was doubtless started inRead MoreLeonardo Da Vinci : The Most Famous For His Art1448 Words   |  6 Pages3/29/16 Leonardo Da Vinci When hearing the name Leonardo da Vinci, what comes to mind? For many people it will be his artwork. This is because of all of the accomplishments da Vinci has, he is most famous for his art. What many people don’t know was that he was also a scientist, inventor, and philosopher. Da Vinci lived in a time period known as the Renaissance. This was a time of knowledge and enlightenment, and it gave birth to many of the world’s most talented and educated people. Leonardo da VinciRead MoreLeonardo Da Vinci1629 Words   |  7 PagesHistory 101 | Leonardo Da Vinci | Renaissance Pioneer | | Luis Quelhas | 11/13/2012 | | Leonardo Da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452. His father was a wealthy notary, named  Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci. His mother Caterina was a sixteen year old peasant girl. Leonardo had no surname when born and took the name Da Vinci meaning from Vinci, the small town in Florence where he was born. Throughout his life Leonardo faced many hardships. From 1457 he lived in the household ofRead MoreThe Famous Mona Lisa Was Created During The Renaissance Essay1016 Words   |  5 Pagesduring the Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci. The Renaissance began in the 14th century and ended in the 17th century. A minority of Italian thinkers decided it was time to begin a new age. It was a European period that linked between the Middle Ages and modern history. It was a revival in interests of artistic achievements and literature of the Classical world. Renaissance also means, A revival or rebirth. The Renaissance invented and created many methods that changed artwork and education for the world

Friday, December 27, 2019

Analysis Of The Book The Bluest Eye - 1917 Words

1. Through the Big Screen and Flashing Lights In the book The Bluest Eye Mrs. Breedlove talks about who was her motivation, who gave her drive to start dressing up nice and refashioning herself. She started using celebrities as role models or a mirror to help her find ways for her to get the same physical attractiveness they have. In the book Mrs. Breedlove mentions that,†I went to see Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. I fixed my hair up like I’d seen hers on a magazine. A part on the side, with one little curl on my forehead. It looked just like her†¦ There I was, five months pregnant, trying to look like Jean Harlow, and a front tooth gone. Everything went then. Look like I just didn t care no more after that. I let my hair go, plaited it†¦show more content†¦They felt that some natural aspects of their bodies are not good enough to look beautiful† (Karupiah 11). This illustrate how women in the media serves as a reflection on ordinary women. Women idolize the beautiful women on tv and all the love and attention they get and try to mimic their physical appearance to have that feeling of beauty and acceptance. Any women who does not fit up to the latest beauty trends or the qualities of the mainstream standards of beauty will have a feeling of being isolated from society and a feeling of not looking good enough for society standards. Feelings like that can only lead up to low self esteem and a anti social attitude taking away their chances of having a happy life. Through the media society puts out high standards and expectation on women to adhere to what they say is beautiful. Making women judge mental and self consciousness about themselves and even judging other woman in a split second. In the book Mrs. Breedlove speaks on the affect the movies had on her,†She was never able, after her education in the movies, to look at a face and not assign it with some category in the scale of absolute beauty, and the scale was one she absorbed in full from the silver screen† (122). This explains how the media can cause society to be judgmental among their peer and categorize them as either beautiful or ugly. Giving society room to isolate and antagonize the ugly and adore and idolize the beautiful. 2. Through The

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Media Coverage of the Emmitt Till Murder Played a Major...

On August 28, 1955, fourteen year old Emmett Till was beaten, tortured and shot. Then with barbed wire wrapped around his neck and tied to a large fan, his body was discarded into the Tallahatchi River. What was young Emmett’s offense that brought on this heinous reaction of two grown white men? When he went into a store to buy some bubble gum he allegedly whistled at a white female store clerk, who happened to be the store owner’s wife. That is the story of the end of Emmett Till’s life. Lynchings, beatings and cross-burning had been happening in the United States for years. But it was not until this young boy suffered an appalling murder in Mississippi that the eyes of a nation were irrevocably opened to the ongoing horrors of racism in†¦show more content†¦Sharpton summarizes her decision, â€Å"She found the strength to say, ‘I’ll bear my pain to save some other mother from having to go through this’. And because she put the pict ure of this young man’s body on the conscious of America she might have saved thousands of young black men and women’s lives.† The Reverend goes on to say that through the media coverage of the funeral, â€Å"She was able to graphically bring home what a thousand speeches could not† therefore forcing America face it’s problem of racism. News of Emmett Till’s murder reached media sources across the country and over the ocean. PBS’s history series The American Experience, provides a timeline of how his story spread like wildfire to newspapers around the world. PBS lists several publications which addressed the murder, causing universal public outrage at how something like this could happen to anyone, especially a child. The list includes that on September 2nd, the same day in which Mrs. Till received her son’s body in Chicago, The Jackson Daily in Mississippi published an article on the Till case. In it, they refer to the murder as a â€Å"brutal, senseless crime,† however in the same story they complain that the NAACP was placing too much attention on the incident by referring to it as a â€Å"lynching†. That same day a Belgium newspaper, Le Drapeau Rouge also published an article which was

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

The Analysis of Internal Control Systems free essay sample

An Investigation of Auditor Decision Processes in the Evaluation of Internal Controls and Audit Scope Decisions 1. Introduction Over the past decade numerous studies have focused on auditors judgments. With few exceptions these studies have found that when auditors are given the same task, they frequently make different decisions. This result has been obtained for relatively simple tasks (e. g. , Joyce [1976]) and relatively complex tasks (e. g. , Reckers and Taylor [1979] and Mock and Turner [1981]). While consensus of decisions is not * Visiting Assistant Professor and Professor, University of Southern California. We would like to thank William Waller and Paul Watkins for their comments on an early draft of this paper. The paper has also benefited from suggestions made by the referee. Financial support from Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co. , the Center for Accounting Research, University of Southern California, and the Graduate School, University of Wisconsin- Madison is gratefully acknowledged. [Accepted for publication August 1982. Studies indicating lack of agreement include: Joyce [1976], Reckers and Taylor [1979], Mock and Turner [1981], and Gaumnitz et al. [1982]. In addition, Ashton [1980] and Libby and Lewis [1981] cite other studies where a lack of agreement has been found. The primary exception to the lack of judgment consensus has been Ashton [1974], which has been replicated by Hamilton and Wright [1982], Ashton and Brown [1980], and Ashton and Kramer [1980]. 234 Copyright (C, Institute of Professional Accounting 1983 AUDITOR DECISION PROCESSES 235 he only criterion by which auditors judgments should be evaluated, it has been of continuing concern to practicing accountants (e. g. , Elliott [1980, p. 10]) and accounting researchers who continue to assess it in various settings. This concern is justified since consensus can be viewed as one of several necessary, although not sufficient, conditions of expert judgment (Einhorn [1974]) and since a lack of consensus may result in excessive audit costs (se e Joyce [1976, p. 31], Mock and Turner [1981], and Elliott [1980, p. 10]). What is surprising, however, is that there is virtually no evidence which can explain why a lack of consensus is often observed. 2 The research reported here was aimed at this question, using verbal protocol analysis to determine how four experienced auditors made different internal control evaluations and audit scope decisions in a relatively complex and comprehensive experimental task developed by Mock and Turner [1981]. The research is a follow-up to the experimental phase of the Mock and Turner study where approximately 200 auditors performed the same experimental task. Mock and Turner found considerable variability in auditors decisions, but their experimental treatments were unable to explain more than 24 percent of the variability. 3 It is hoped that verbal protocol analysis can be used to obtain evidence on the variables which lead to decision divergence by examining the details of subjects step-by-step information-processing behavior. When considered with Mock and Turner [1981], this research can be viewed as a multimethod investigation of auditor information-processing behavior. Such an approach has been recommended as a particularly useful way to employ verbal protocol analysis. (See Einhorn, Kleinmuntz, and Kleinmuntz [1979] and Payne, Braunstein, and Carroll [1978]. ) The overall purpose of the protocol methodology used in this research was to provide detailed evidence of information-processing and choice behavior. Such evidence should help explain any observed differences in decisions, thereby providing knowledge of auditor behavior not available from preceding experimental studies. The focus of the analysis was on the identification of the elements of each subjects problem space. A problem space is a model of an individuals cognitive representation of a task and is a major construct in Newell and Simons [1972] theory of human problem solving. Einhorn and Hogarth [1981, p. 57] have recently emphasized the importance of the problem space in understanding human behavior since different representations can lead to different decisions. Most attempts to explain differences in auditor judgments have concentrated on differences in experience or differences in audit firm association (see Joyce [1976], Hamilton and Wright [1982], and Ashton and Kramer [1980]). In general, these two factors have not provided satisfactory explanations of judgment differences. Subsequent analysis by Mock and Watkins [1981] using a multivariate approach improved the amount of variance explained. However, the variance explained was less than 50 percent in all cases. 236 JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTIN G RESEARCH, SPRING 1983 A key issue, however, is how such evidence can lead to improved judgments. To address this issue two types of situations need to be distinguished. The first consists of situations where optimal solutions are available. Here, research can identify suboptimal behavior and detailed descriptive evidence of auditor decision processes can suggest how to improve subsequent decisions. The second type involves situations in which optimal solutions are not evident. 4 This may be a result of task complexity, incompatible objectives, or a number of other factors. In such cases, the ultimate goal of improving decision making becomes much more difficult to achieve. One approach is to stress consensus in evaluating decisions. While this approach has some merit, there are situations where a consensus cannot be reached, and even if is reached, it may not provide conclusive evidence that a correct decision was made. An alternative approach, which seems to be developing in the research literature, is to gather and evaluate evidence on the components of individuals decision behavior (Hogarth and Makridakis [1981] and Einhorn and Hogarth [1981]). The assumption here is that while it may be difficult to assess the correctness of the final decision outcome, it may be possible to evaluate the decisions individual components. Both satisficing rules and normative evidence from other fields may provide evidence useful in evaluating individual components. For instance, during information acquisition, selective perception (Egeth [1967]) may lead the auditor to disregard conflicting evidence concerning the quality of internal accounting controls, resulting in overreliance on the control and excess audit risk. In complex situations, a multitude of other biases could also occur (Hogarth and Makridakis [1981]) making it difficult to specify, a priori, which of the relevant variables, biases, and heuristics to test. The type of evidence obtainable in a protocol study could be an important first step in developing knowledge which will result in better focused nomothetic audit research and ultimately in improved auditor judgment.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Life Safety Code h... free essay sample

Life Safety Code has provisions for existing as well as new high-rise buildings. NFPA 101 ®, Life Safety Code, 2012 edition, section 11.8 contains requirements potentially applicable to a high-rise building. The chapter for a specific occupancy decides whether all or a few of the section 11. 8 requirements are required for occupancy and decides if the requirements are for new or existing constructed dwellings. Amid section 11.8 needs are an approved supervised automatic sprinkler system; a Class I standpipe system; a fire alarm system alongside an accepted emergency voice/alarm communication system; two-way telephone service for fire department use; emergency lighting; standby power; and an emergency command center. Existing high-rise hotels should be protected throughout by an approved directed automatic sprinkler system. Existing high-rise health care occupancies must be Type I (442 or 332) or Type II (222) construction (as must existing health care occupancies 4-6 floors in height). As per NFPA ,construction of buildings can be categorized into various types. We will write a custom essay sample on Life Safety Code h or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This corresponds to the fire resistive construction type category previously used in NFIRS as well as a subpart of the protected noncombustible category. A provision added to the code in 2009 and modified in the 2012 edition requires existing high-rise hospitals should be guarded with automatic sprinklers within a nine-year period. Since 2006, the code requires all nursing homes, disregarding of height, to be protected with automatic sprinklers. The defined construction types can be briefly summarized by these major characteristics: †¢ Fire resistive – Concrete or fire-resistant-covered steel construction rated for 2 hours; †¢ Heavy timber – Construction where any exposed wood load-bearing members has no dimension less than 2 inches; †¢ Protected non-combustible – Concrete or fire-resistant-covered steel construction rated for 1 hours; †¢ Unprotected non-combustible – Exposed steel construction without fire-resistant covering; †¢ Protected ordinary – Masonry load-bearing walls with columns, wood floors, and roof decks all protected by fire-resistive coating rated for 1 hour; †¢Unprotected ordinary – Masonry load-bearing walls with exposed columns, wood floors, and roof decks without fire-resistive coating; †¢ Protected wood frame – Wood frame construction with wall and ceiling surfaces protected by fire-resistive covering, such as gypsum board; and †¢ Unprotected wood frame – Wood frame construction without fire-resistive covering. High-Rise Building Fires, 9/13 18 NFPA Fire Analysis Research, Quincy, MA Existing high-rise apartment buildings should have an approved directed automatic sprinkler system, installed throughout, with two exceptions. One is if every living unit has exterior exit access in accordance with section 7.5.3; and the another one is whether the building has an approved, engineered life safety system in accordance with section 31. 3.5.11.4. The latter exception for an engineered life safety system is also the only barring to the requirement for a complete, approved, supervised automatic sprinkler system in existing high-rise office buildings. NFPA 1 ®, Fire Code, requires sprinkler retrofitting in all high-rise buildings. Since 1999, NFIRS (the national fire incident data base) has included an option to report fires as confined fires, in which case very little detail is required. This change encourages the reporting of very small fires, but introduces a high degree of uncertainty in the analysis of detailed characteristics of those fires