Vinyl or CD the age old debate essays

Vinyl or CD the age old debate essays At the beginning of the last decade of the Twentieth century a new media for the storage and playback of music came into the picture. The compact disc was a phenomenon of sorts, causing people to completely rebuild record collections that had taken years to build. It was a situation of, out with the old in with the new. There seemed to be no place for the vinyl records that had been so true to so many for so long. Compact discs do have several benefits over the vinyl records of the past, but there is also something about a record on vinyl that sets it apart from its digital counterpart. Convenience is likely the most noticeable benefit that compact discs have over vinyl records. They are easily stored in a binder or on a small shelf. You can load some stereos up with several at a time and have continuous play of music for hours with out having to deal with changing anything. The compact disk also brought the concept of quality sound out of the home and into the cars and walkways of the world, something the cassette never quite managed to do. Essentially for the busy lifestyle that was embodied by the nineties in America the compact disc made sense convenience wise. Before too long the major record companies stopped producing vinyl releases of many of the albums they released in favor of the new cheaper to produce compact discs. Less and less could you buy new releases on vinyl and even more rarely could you buy reissues of older albums. If you wanted to listen to new music or a copy of past favorite you were left with compact disc as the only quality choice. Therefore availability of new music became a strong benefit of compact discs. Another commonly mentioned benefit of compact discs is there durability and easy of care. You can play a compact disc millions of times and it will sound the same each and every time. They are susceptible to scratches and finger prints, but both are easily avoided ...

Doing it publicly essays

Doing it publicly essays With talk shows ruling day-time television, people are left with little choice but to watch this humiliating form of entertainment. Turn the television on in the afternoon and you will find a large variety of talk shows to choose from. "Maybe we have become a nation addicted to hearing our neighbors' seamy personal problems.Personally, I feel it is both the lack of choice and the attraction to other peoples problems. Many of the topics on talk shows are degrading to our society. If person came to America for the first time and watched television, they would probably see a talk show. The model a talk show would give of American society is horrifying. For example, a common talk show topic is teens having multiple sex partners at young ages. However, not all teens are sexually active at such a young age. For this reason talk shows are misleading not only to foreigners but to children and young adults who are learning about morals and our society. In a letter to the corporate CEO's distributing these programs, William Bennett and Senator Joseph Lieberman asked: "Would you want your young children to view a program showcasing the sexual adventures of a 14-year-old girl who married her 71-year-old foster father"(Flint and Wharton). To those who do not tune into these shows this discription may sound like an exaggeration; however, it is not. This is exactly the type of topics on some shows. Not only are half the shows ridiculous with topics of deceit, revenge and "extreme behavior", but some of them are false(Flint and Wharton). On the Jerry springer Show a Canadian comedy troupe went on the show and created a story. The story was that one of the men had an affair with his baby-sitter. After the show appeared on television, the troupe members went to the press saying how they deceived the program and its audience(You 52). Some people will do anything to be on television. Some shows trick peop...

Definition and Examples of Conjuncts in English Grammar

Definition and Examples of Conjuncts in English Grammar In English grammar, a conjunct, from the Latin, join together, is a word, phrase, or clause linked to another word, phrase, or clause through coordination. For instance, two clauses connected by and (The clown laughed and the child cried) are conjuncts. It may also called a conjoin. The term conjunct can also refer to an adverbial(such as therefore, however, namely) that indicates the relationship in meaning between two independent clauses. The more traditional term for this kind of adverbial is conjunctive adverb. Examples (Definition #1) George and Martha dined alone at Mount Vernon.The back of my head and the head of the bat collided.The dogs barked furiously, and the cat scampered up the tree. Take, for instance, the following sentences from The Revolutionist, [one] of [Ernest] Hemingways short stories [from In Our Time]: He was very shy and quite young and the train men passed him on from one crew to another. He had no money, and they fed him behind the counter in railway eating houses.​​ (Jonathan Cape edn, p. 302) Even in the second sentence, the two clauses which form the conjunct are linked by and, and not, as one might expect in such a discourse context, by so or but. The suppression of complex connectivity in this way seems to have baffled some critics, with comments on the famous Hemingway and ranging from the vague to the nonsensical. (Paul Simpson, Language, Ideology and Point of View. Routledge, 1993) Coordinate Structure Constraint Although a wide variety of structures can be conjoined, not all coordinations are acceptable. One of the first generalizations regarding coordination is Rosss Coordinate Structure Constraint (1967). This constraint states that coordination does not allow for asymmetrical constructions. For example, the sentence This is the man whom Kim likes and Sandy hates Pat is unacceptable, because only the first conjunct is relativized. The sentence This is the man whom Kim likes and Sandy hates is acceptable, because both conjuncts are relativized. . . . Linguists are further concerned with which material is allowed as a conjunct in a coordinate construction. The second example showed conjoined sentences, but coordination is also possible for noun phrases as in the apples and the pears, verb phrases like run fast or jump high and adjectival phrases such as rich and very famous, etc. Both sentences and phrases intuitively form meaningful units within a sentence, called constituents. Subject and verb do not form a constituent in some frameworks of generative grammar. However, they can occur together as a conjunct in the sentence Kim bought, and Sandy sold, three paintings yesterday. (Petra Hendriks, Coordination. Encyclopedia of Linguistics, ed. by Philipp Strazny. Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005) Collective and Average Property Interpretations Consider sentences such as these: The American family used less water this year than last year. The small businessperson in Edmonton paid nearly $30 million in taxes but only made $43,000 in profits last year. The former sentence is ambiguous between the collective and average property interpretations. It could be true that the average American family used less water this year than last while the collective American family used more (due to more families); conversely, it could be true that the average family used more but the collective family used less. As to the latter sentence, which is admittedly somewhat strange (but might be used to further the political interests of Edmonton businesspeople), our world [knowledge] tells us that the first conjunct of the VP must be interpreted as a collective property, since certainly the average businessperson, even in wealthy Edmonton, does not pay $30 million in taxes; but our world knowledge also tells us that the second of the VP conjunctions is to be given an average property interpretation. (Manfred Krifka et al., Genericity: An Introduction. The Generic Book, ed. by Gregory N. Carlson and Francis Jeffry Pelletier. The University of Chicago Pre ss, 1995) Interpreting Naturally and Accidentally Coordinated Noun Phrases [Bernhard] Wlchli ([Co-compounds and Natural Coordination] 2005) discussed two types of coordination: natural and accidental. Natural coordination refers to cases where two conjuncts are semantically closely related (e.g. mum and dad, boys and girls) and are expected to co-occur. On the other hand, accidental coordination refers to cases where the two conjuncts are distant from each other (e.g. boys and chairs, apples and three babies) and are not expected to co-occur. If the two NPs form natural coordination, they tend to be interpreted as a whole. But, if they are accidentally put together, they are interpreted independently. (Jieun Kiaer, Pragmatic Syntax. Bloomsbury, 2014) Declaratives Interrogatives Interestingly, an interrogative main clause can be co-ordinated with a declarative main clause, as we see from sentences like (50) below: (50) [I am feeling thirsty], but [ should I save my last Coke till later]? In (50) we have two (bracketed) main clauses joined together by the co-ordinating conjunction but. The second (italicised) conjunct should I save my last Coke till later? is an interrogative CP [complementiser phrase] containing an inverted auxiliary in the head C position of CP. Given the traditional assumption that only constituents which belong to the same category can be co-ordinated, it follows that the first conjunct I am feeling thirsty must also be a CP; and since it contains no overt complementiser, it must be headed by a null complementiser . . .. (Andrew Radford, An Introduction to English Sentence Structure. Cambridge University Press, 2009) Related Grammar Definitions Compound SentenceConjunction and Coordinating ConjunctionCorrelative Conjunctions

Business Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Business Strategy - Essay Example Jayesh (2012) further added that strategic alliances differ from mergers and acquisitions on the aspect that under strategic alliances, the partner companies maintain their autonomy or independence, which is not usually the case under mergers and acquisitions. Secondly, companies that form strategic alliances are not usually involved in direct competition but rather they offer related products and/ or services that are directed towards similar target consumers. According to Dorata (2012), there are various forms of strategic alliances and they include direct cooperation, which is the most common. The second form of strategic alliance is joint ventures whereby different companies come together and form a separate entity that they jointly own and manage together. The other form of strategic alliance is minority investments mostly in new and fast growing business organisations. Advantages Dorata (2012) in his writings listed the most common advantages of strategic alliances of which one of them is the fact that it enables companies to offer a wide variety of goods and/ or services to their consumers without incurring huge cost or spending lengthy durations in developing new products. Secondly, Dorata (2012) noted that businesses usually enter into strategic alliances to obtain competitive advantages that they would not have otherwise obtained if they operated on a solo basis. Therefore, strategic alliances enable businesses to expand more rapidly while still maintaining their autonomy unlike mergers and acquisitions strategy. Consequently, it is correct to assert that strategic alliances enable businesses to expand its customer base since it is able to reach a wide target market. Specifically to the car industry, Jayesh (2012) stated that among the companies that have recorded competitive advantages because of strategic alliances include Fuji and Toyota, which have jointly cooperated in various projects. Fuji gained an advantage from its strategic alliance with To yota based on the research and development that was conducted by Toyota that lead to the development of the Toyota’s gas-electric Prius hybrid model. Because of their strategic alliance, Fuji was also able to develop their first Subaru hybrid mainly based on the Toyota technology that was used in the manufacture of first gas-electric car (Hill, 2010). Another strategic alliance in the car industry is the one between Fiat and Chrysler that enabled the two companies to share their technology, distribution channels, and vehicle platforms. This strategic alliance was viewed to be of much benefit to Chrysler, which was struggling financially at the time when both companies where entering a strategic alliance and therefore, it was able to gain added advantages without losing its independence despite its financial position at that time (Hill, 2010). Another example of strategic alliance that demonstrated the advantages of strategic alliance over mergers and acquisition is the one be tween General Motors and Fiat that enabled both companies to benefit from reduced cost of operating, common architecture and platforms, increased efficiency in financial service operations, and cross-sharing of automotive technologies (Hill, 2010). Disadvantages According to the writings by Dorata (2012), the key disadvantage of strategic alliance is because of the fact that neither of the companies gains

Why do firms exist Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Why do firms exist - Essay Example A simple, yet, complete definition of firms may help in starting the debate about why they actually exist. Fisher, Prentice & Waschik (2010), define firm as â€Å"a group of workers and managers, collectively called labor, and a group of physical assets, like machinery in a manufacturing operation or computers in a service sector firm, collectively called capital, which produce goods and/or services (p. 14). This definition provides three major areas where people are involved with the firms. People, firstly, work for or manage the firms as labor, secondly they invest in businesses and firms to earn profits and giving firms the strength of progress in the form of capital, and lastly people use the products or services offered by the firms. Hence, our life is, in one way or the other, dependent on firms. It is a way of earning for one group and a way of gathering necessities of life for the other like food stuff, clothing, and professional services like legal, educational or healthcar e services and so on. Owing to the importance of firms in our regular activities and modern life, this paper aims to answer the question: why do firms exist? In doing so, this paper will provide perspectives of different researchers and their theories to justify the claims made. Theory of Firm Theory of firm necessitates by trying to predict how the business would carry out their prescribed strategies to achieve their ultimate goal and that is profit maximization. The theory of firm helps predict and explain other alternatives and decision made by the company. Traditionally it was based on having sole goal of profit maximization. But most recent analysis, theories and researches suggest that sales maximization or market share that is satisfying the needs of the customers along with satisfying its legitimate stake holders, combined with satisfactory profits may be the main purpose of businesses in short term as well as in long term to survive. Traditionally companies’ were fol lowing stock holder theory that is managers had one objective of maximizing share holder value. For example a company would not mind shutting down a branch in a region or country and resulting in thousands of people being unemployed and affecting the whole economy of that region or country. Despite these factors, the managers would have let the factory moved to another region or country because labor is cheap and plentiful there. Traditional theory suggested companies to disregard safety practices or other practices to preserve social responsibilities, according to theory, as they would have to spend money over it which reduces profit. However, if such avoidance of such actions charges the companies with substantial penalty or case file or dereputation resulting in more expenses (fines) than the companies were encouraged to provide equipment and running the safety policy. The risks of fewer sales by customer boycotting the company’s products are also avoided by adopting such practices in the modern business arena and companies would fall into instrumental form of skate holder theory (Schroeder, Clark, and Cathey 2010, pp. 124-128). Stake holder theory is referred as 21st century theory where the organizations are so large that they can affect the whole society significantly. This broader impact of organizational procedures and processes suggest that they cannot just be responsible to share holders i.e. obeying stock holder t

Fiorello La Guardia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fiorello La Guardia - Essay Example However, in 1933, he became the mayor of New York. He introduced and implemented many infrastructural reforms that totally revamped the map of the New York City. In the subsequent parts of this paper, first, early life and education, political career and then reforms of La Guardia are described. Early life and education Fiorello Henry La Guardia was born on December 11, 1882 in the New York City. La Guardia spent most of his early life in Prescott, Arizona where he attended high school. He also passed his part of life in Hungary. Soon after his father’s death, he secured a job in the American consulate in Budapest, Hungary. In the year of 1906, he returned to New York and become an interpreter at Ellis Island and at the same time, he started and completed Law degree from the New York University in the year of 1910. Due to his Law degree and being an owner of visionary and dynamic personality, La Guardia turned to politics with an intention of serving the people of New York. Po litical career La Guardia became the mayor of New York City after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives (1917, 1918-21, 1923-33). After completing his education, La Guardia joined politics when he was elected as a Republican to the House of Representative in the year of 1916. In 1919, he was honored with the presidency of New York City’s Board of Aldermen. ... Reforms His reforms are permeated in economic, infrastructural, and political grounds. The New York City was experiencing worse economic condition, its budget was controlled and managed by bankers; and one in six New Yorkers subsisted on relief. The 1910 Census revealed that only 26,000 factories had employed three-quarters of a million people (Jeffers, 2002, pp.39). In order to revamp the economic condition, La Guardia introduced and implemented an Economy Bill, putting the city of New York on the road leading to financial stability and also by declaring a war on corruption by implementing measures strengthening merit basis of the civil service. And, at the same time, La Guardia established a humane relief policy. Modernizing the city of New York was envisioned by La Guardia. To meet the needs of a world class metropolis, he devised his ambitious plan for modern new infrastructure. First, La Guardia introduced urban vision to City Hall. As the population was rapidly growing, he clea rly embarked on such infrastructural strategy facilitating and fulfilling the needs of growing population without compromising the quality of life. In order to develop and construct new infrastructure such as bridges, subways, airports, public housing, slum clearance and street repair, he collected engineers, architects and building experts, suggesting each project with a realistic price label and plan for the generous utilization of relief labor (New York World Telegram, 1933). As the mayor of New York, he instead of supporting, fought against Tammany Hall, and, introduced more civic reforms through low-cost housing and social welfare services inside the city of New

Employees Incentive System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Employees Incentive System - Essay Example "These collective risks are being operationalized in incentive programs that often impact as much as 30% of a manager's income" (Tully, 1995; Schraeder and Becton, n.d.). As the threat of global trade liberalization looms, "competitive pressures" on business organizations will continue to expand. Therefore, business organizations must take the necessary steps in order to become more "innovative, productive, and efficient". [In order to remain more competitive], business organizations have to make use of all its "resources" in order to maximize the usefulness of its "operations" (Scharaeder and Becton, n.d.). And labor, being the most essential part of expenditure of the business, must be utilized to the fullest by developing and adopting "compensation strategies such as incentive programs [in order to] align individual motivation and goals with the objectives of the organization (Scharaeder and Becton, n.d.). This caused the organizations to "continually faced" with problems of maintaining and energizing excellent employees and "elevating additional business units into the upper echelon of excellent performance". "It is within the confines of these t wo separate, but related challenges that an organization must differentiate between employee recognition and performance improvement" (Driving excellence to the bottom line, n.d.). U.S. business organizations are now being encouraged to adopt employee's incentive programs in order to improve and encourage employees' performance, improve overall operation of the firm, and thereby promote peace and harmony among the work force especially on management-employees relationships. It has long been proven by a variety of research and studies that the performance of the employees can be enhance or influence by the way they are managed (Delaney and Huselid, 1996). The "National Organizations Survey" survey on 590 profit and non-profit companies has proven the "positive associations between human resource management (HRM) practices, such as training and staffing selectivity, and perceptual firm performance measures. [The study also] further suggests the methodological issues for consideration in examinations of the relationship between HRM systems and firm performance" (Delaney and Huselid, 1996). Now, it is evident that more and more companies are tapping into the advantages of employee incentive programs in order to remain competitive. "The National Association of Manufacturers surveyed 4,500 companies to follow up on prior studies examining skill level of workers and common human resource practices. They found that 54% of these companies offered some type of bonus plan and another 35% offered some type of gain-sharing or pay for performance program" (Micco, 1997; Schraeder and Becton, n,d,). Furthermore, employee incentive programs are now being use by the reputable U.S. companies. "As an example, Pagoago and Williams (1993), by using the Hay survey to study 1,256 hospitals and 350,000 individuals in the healthcare field, has found out that more than half of the surveyed hospitals are adopting various kinds of employee incentive programs and "that a growing number of these organizations used contingent pay such as discretionary bonuses, skill based pay, and team based pay. It is also interesting to note that survey results indicated a significant