Dinah Washington Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dinah Washington - Research Paper Example After starting to record with Apollo label, she was backed up by saxophonist Lucky Thompson in 1945. She later went solo but would occasionally record with other artists. 12. Dinah Washington made her living as a performer and through sales of her music. However, besides her music, she was also a shrewd business woman and she had apartments in Chicago, luxurious apartments in Manhattan and owned a hotel in Detroit. 13. Dinah Washington parents were Ollie Jones and Alice Williams. She was married seven times and her husbands included John Young (1942-1943), George Jenkins (1949), Walter Buchanan (1950), Eddie Chamblee (1957), Raphael Campos (1957), Horatio Malt (1959 – 1960), Jacky Hayes (1960), and Richard Lane (1963). From these marriages, she had two children including Robert Grayson and George Kenneth Jenkins. ‘What a Difference a Day Makes’- the song was composed in 1959 and was arguably one of her greatest songs. The song was rated the top ten in Billboards and she won a Grammy award for the best R&B record with the song. ‘Jazz sides’ was recorded in 1958 and is often referred as one of the most exciting performances by Dinah Washington. She did the song and featured other prominent artists including Quincy jones, Paul quinichette, Wynton Kelly, and Terry Gibbs. ‘Dinah jams’ was a song in an album that contains one of her best Jazz songs. The song was recorded as she performed live on stage. She performed together with Ben Webster, Clark Terry and Cannonball

Researching Politics and International Relations Essay

Researching Politics and International Relations - Essay Example 11) The idea is that politics is abstract in its character, with its ideologies and values, and could not be perceived by the senses. The positivist school identified this as the most important criterion in order for a field to be considered factual and, hence, measured, examined and analyzed scientifically. In addition, along with the abstract concepts such as aesthetics, political theory was relegated to the mere declarations of conflicting preferences and opinions. This perspective, however, changed with the emergence of behaviorism. Here, political science under the wider coverage of social science became scientific because of the systematic introduction of quantitative methods of analysis as the supreme methods of inquiry as well as displacement of the normative frameworks of political theorists by the development of the empirical theory. (Held, p. 13) One of the most important arguments behind this school is the Aristotelian thought that man is a social being and human activity is carried on in a social and political setting. Political science, hence, studies, â€Å"inter alia, the chief theatre in which good men must act out their lives; and in determining the design of the theatre it will of necessity take an interest in, and sets limit upon, the type of drama which may be played out there.† (Aristotle et al. p. xvii) In this regard, Held also cited the arguments of figures like Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos and Mary Hesse who stressed that science, as a form of human activity itself, is inescapably an interpretative endeavor, involving problems of meaning, communication and translations – variables that political science also covers. (p. 13) Finally, one turns to Lyotard’s (1984) criteria in order for politics to be considered as scientific. For him, science is a subset of learning and that it is composed of denotative statements and imposes two supplementary conditions on their

Frank Lyod Wright and Louis Sullivan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Frank Lyod Wright and Louis Sullivan - Essay Example Louis Sullivan, one of the great architects of the last half of the 19th century, was a brilliant artist with both practical office experience and a year at the famed cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before entering a partnership with Dankmar Adler in 1879. Credited with being the first to give an appropriate form to the steel skyscraper, he was a precursor of American modernism and managed to produce the only forward-looking design of the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago.1 Unfortunately and unfairly, this designer of dozens of lauded buildings, who helped reshape the manner of building structure and aesthetics, is primarily known today for one thing-his role as Frank Lloyd Wright's Sullivan's famous motto of "form follows function" influenced Wright immensely and was a major reason why Wright considered Sullivan his only influence. That the relationship was mutual is demonstrated by the events of 1889. In that year Wright married Catherine Lee Clark Tobin, and Sullivan loaned him the enormous sum of $5,000 to buy property in Oak Park, Illinois and build a house.4 His willingness to help Wright illustrates the mutual respect between the employer and employee at this time. Although one of his early works, the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park can be considered a workshop, used by the architect to begin developing some intriguing concepts. The initial construction phase of 1889 "exhibits features that portend the mature Wright's philosophy of architecture: the emphasis on pure geometric forms, the broad, sheltering roof, the use of natural materials and the unity of building and site".5 These features blurred the distinctions between inside and outside, and marked a growing integration of landscape and construction. In addition, the interior was focused around the fireplace and astonishingly open in design, with none of the Victorian hierarchy of divided spaces evident. Wright continued designing houses in Oak Park on the side, and this conflict of interest led to Sullivan firing him in 1893.6 Never one to stop working, Wright simply opened his own office and specialized in domestic architecture. By 1902 he designed his first Prairie house, a style defined by horizontal orientation, rows of small windows, low-pitched roofs featuring overhanging eaves and an open interior plan with a central fireplace.7 With its definitive wood and stucco exterior, it also works in conjunction with the suburban setting. Its cruciform plan is designed so that the movement from one wing to the next is diagonal, and these 45 degree angles are featured in other parts of the house.8 This epoch construction, completely distinct from Sullivan's verticality, would not have been possible had he not been fired. Decades of both personal and professional trouble followed, but Wright weathered the strenuous difficulties and re-emerged in the 1950's. His most famous project from this final stage is undoubtedly the Wright, Frank Lloyd, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of 1956-1959. Completed after his death and considered Wright's "great swansong",9 it is an exercise in pushing concrete to the limits of plasticity. After entering the inverted swirl, visitors move to the top via elevators and proceed "downward at a leisurely pace on the gentle slope of a continuous ramp".10 This final monument vividly illustrates how far Wright progressed from the early stages of his career. However, the first Wright building to feature an internal spiral ramp was the V. C. Morris Gift Shop of 1949, designed concurrently to the Guggenheim project.11 Inside are display cases and shelves that follow

Limited Brands INC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10500 words

Limited Brands INC - Essay Example Limited Brands INC The report will commence with a brief preview of the company after which it will commence with the analysis of the company on various angles. First, the company will conduct an internal analysis of the company to establish how internal factors affect or shape up the company. Secondly, the report will focus on the external analysis that was carried out in order to establish how external factors influence the company and how the company has been forced to readjust or realign itself with the external factors. The third analysis of the company will focus on the financial aspect and in this regard, the report will analyze the company’s financial ratios. It is important to note that these analyses were aimed at establishing key problems that the business faces and hinder it from prospering further. Findings from the analyses carried out showed that the company faced four critical problems that include dealing with poor brands that makes the company less competitive in an industry revered for superior brands. The second problem that was established is lack of resources, which hinder it from competing competitively in the market. Third problem was inadequate technology within the company, which means that it is unable to decrease cost and operate more efficiently. The fourth problem that was established was that the company presently suffers from positioning within the market, which reduces its ability to compete competitively.

Drug Abuse Essay Example for Free

Drug Abuse Essay Drug abuse has an effect on all aspects of life; overall health and wellness, family life, and the community. With there being so many different kinds of drugs the effects are endless. The effect of drug abuse does not discriminate or focus on any one person. Drug abuse can be found in any area of the world and the overall effects can be devastating to anyone involved. A person’s choice to use any kind of illegal drug or abusing prescribed medicines can have a damaging impact on their overall health and wellness. This damaging effect on addicts overall health and wellness can be both short and long term. An active addict can face many health changes and challenges throughout the time that they choose to use. There can be many short term effects that depend on exactly what drug is being abused. There are drugs that can raise your heart rate, make you hallucinate, and even dehydrate you badly. â€Å"The impact of addiction can be far reaching. Cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and lung disease can all be affected by drug abuse. Some of these effects occur when drugs are used at high doses or after prolonged use; however, some may occur after just one use.† An addict can face many mental health issues during their addiction that can have a devastating effect on their own life. Women substance abusers are more likely than men to have poor self-concepts (low self-esteem, guilt, self-blame) and high rates of mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar affective disorder, suicidal ideation, psychosexual disorders, eating disorders, and Post traumatic stress disorder.† â€Å"Chronic use of some drugs of abuse can cause long-lasting changes in the brain, which may lead to paranoia, depression, aggression, and hallucinations.† The addict has a giant effect on their family and home environment. There can be many issues that a family must face when an addict is living in the home. There can be many forms of abuse in a home where there is an addict. There can be sexual abuse, financial abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse in any home. The addiction is not responsible for the violence but can intensify and make it more common. When an addict is deep in their addiction they will often put financial responsibilities of the home off to get high instead. This can cause child neglect by no food being in home, no  electricity or heat. There can be consequences for the children living in a home with an active addict. These consequences may not show up for years until the child of the addict is grown. â€Å"The disturbed home and family setup, the inter-parental and parent-child conflict, parental neglect in large families, defective disciplinary techniques (too lax or too strict) and family disorganization ar e considered as some of the causes of drug abuse.† There is a higher risk of children of an addict growing up to become addicts themselves An addict has an effect on the community in which they live. This effect from an addict can cause problems for the entire community There is more possibility of crime and erratic behavior in the community where an active addict is living. A defining characteristic of addictive behavior is that they involve in the pursuit of short-term gratification at the expense of long-term harm When a person is under the influence of any drug they may not be fully conscious of the choices that they are making. When there is an active drug area in the community there is usually more violence and less desired living situations. When there are drugs in a common area that area becomes more prone to violence and could actually desensitize the people in the community When you have shootings, robberies, rapes, and murders in any area there will be less of a desire for anybody to want to live there. Conclusion In conclusion with their being so much drug abuse in today’s society where do we begin to help break the cycle? We have seen that the problem is a mental health issue that begins with the addict; however drug abuse has an effect on all aspects of life; overall health and wellness, family life, and the community. If we stop judging the addicts and making them feel so much shame and embarrassment, we can lift them up, encourage them and support them to better then it can change the overall hurt and damage that is being inflicted on our people and society.

MCI WorldCom Essay Example for Free

MCI WorldCom Essay As noted above, Latin America is and has been ahead of many countries with emerging economies in the development of its telecommunications sectors and the attraction of private investment. Similarly, it has been substantially advanced in its promulgation of rules and regulations, changing as required to keep up with constant change in technology and services. All of the above drives or suppresses competition and growth depending on how the change is effected and how effective enforcement is executed. In Mexico, we have seen investment moratoria declared by MCI WorldCom and ATT based on alleged failure of the Government to enforce the telecommunications regulations against TELMEX, which most affect the economics of service-provision by the competitors. While resolution has commenced of these issues in Mexico, full resolution is not yet a reality, and the sector has suffered a slow-down in investment at a time when investment should have been the most robust in Mexicos history. On the other hand, one sees in Mexico, a reversal of the cross subsidies which previously characterized the service of TELMEX. For example, before privatization, TELMEXs local exchange service failed to cover one third of its costs and was permanently subsidized by TELMEXs dramatically high international tariffs. That has reversed, forced, in part, by the requirements of its Concession and the introduction of competition in long distance and international service. As new international operators can compete on price, without regard to local exchange service, if the incumbent does not lower international prices and remain competitive, it will lose a large portion of its revenue and its best and most lucrative customers. In fact, some of the most vigorous of the complaints of TELMEXs interconnection and access charge practices demonstrated a policy of avoidance of competition in this lucrative market. Currently, ITU reports show dramatically higher local exchange charges than those, which characterized the pre-privatization company. Indeed, TELMEX monthly recurring charge is on par with other countries of Latin America which have rebalanced their tariffs to eliminate the cross subsidies. Thus, it is significantly higher than monthly recurring residential charges of companies in other countries that have not been obligated to rebalance. The latter means that those countries remain largely without formal or effective competition. This is because competition forces rebalancing of tariffs in order for the incumbent to maintain market share in the price-competitive and lucrative markets like long distance, international and commercial. Similarly, Argentina and Peru have monthly recurring charges, which reflect a rebalancing of tariffs and elimination of much of the cross-subsidies that previously characterized the companys finances. This means necessarily, a higher monthly recurring residential charge than countries such as Paraguay, Surinam and others that have not yet eliminated their cross subsidies (again typically revealing a lack of competition which threatens the market share of lucrative and over-charged markets). As noted earlier, the law and the vigorous competition in Chile contributed to the elimination of cross subsidies and the balancing of tariffs with cost of providing the service. Thus, like Argentina, Peru and Mexico, Chile had monthly recurring residential charges, which reflected its cost of providing the service, and operators competed vigorously in long distance and international pricing for market share. At the end of 1999, however, the Government forced a lowering of monthly recurring charges, which substantially impacted the revenue balance of local exchange carriers. That is, with long distance and international tariffs subject to severe competition and thus as marginally low as possible, the monthly recurring charge is one of the few revenue sources available to generate margin. While it cannot create wide margins as monopoly international services once did due to the economy of the market of residential users, it at least covered its costs and generated profit in a rebalanced tariffing environment. Now Chilean local exchange carriers are saying that the new rules no longer allow that. Thus, they have declared a moratorium on the construction of local exchange infrastructure. Perhaps by the time of the PTC conference, we shall have a resolution of the dispute. What all of the above, and current marketing of services in other countries, like the U. S. , cause us to think about is how networks will be paid for in the future. In a technological environment where long distance is virtually the same as local exchange service (eg. ATT advertises its one service which encompasses the entire of the U. S. , local and long distance; Venezuela has reduced its domestic long distance to two regions, all else within them is local exchange; Sprint sells its ten cent minute anywhere in the country, etc); wire line virtually the same as wireless (Ugandas second national operator uses exclusively a GSM cellular network with software distinctions for price-capped services; Canada and U. S. move toward wireless local loop being interchangeable with cellular and fixed line telephony); data equals voice services (GPRS and UMTS provide telephony services with internet access, interactive email and other mixed services features), etc. Thus, technological convergence; global seamless mergers of services and service operators and new means of delivery, like the INTERNET, point toward different measures of financing infrastructure build-out. For example, whereas operators used long distance and international revenues predominantly in the past as a primary revenue stream, which supported financing of build-out, those streams have shrunk substantially in a competitive environment. The same is true for international settlements. Now, as we are seeing in Chile, the same could be true in the future for the monthly recurring charge on local exchange service. Prepaid services and cellular or other wireless substitutes for local exchange service, already threaten this revenue stream.

The Concept Of Starbucks Marketing Essay

The Concept Of Starbucks Marketing Essay Starbucks places the customer and the service delivered to the customer above everything else. Even though Starbucks is a retail coffee store, the value proposition is not about the coffee exclusively but about the coffee culture and the experience of drinking coffee. With its value proposition, Starbucks moves away from the tangible benefits that the coffee offers, such as taste, stimulation, alertness and concentrates on the quality of its coffee and the intangible benefits of the experience of drinking Starbucks coffee. Starbucks value proposition is not about coffee, it is about the experience of drinking coffee in a Starbucks store integrating the product with the emotional benefits. All these factors were strong enough to maintain Starbucks success after a slowdown when consumers seemed to draw inward after September 11; Starbucks is rocketing ahead once again. Sales in stores open at least 13 months grew by 6% in the 43 weeks through July 28, and the company predicts monthly same-store sales gains as high as 7% through the end of this fiscal year. That is below the 9% growth rate in 2000, but investors seem encouraged. Were going to see a lot more growth, says Jerome A. Castellini, president of Chicago-based CastleArk Management, which controls about 300,000 Starbucks shares. The stock is on a run.Moreover, the Starbucks name and image connect with millions of consumers around the world. Starbucks now commands so much disk space in consumers heads that its extremely difficult to compete against them, said Nancy Koehn, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ It built its brand through its storefronts, and that is a very powerful word of mouth. It was one of the fastest-growing brands in a BusinessWeek survey of the top 100 global brands published Aug. 5, 2002. At a time when one corporate star after another has crashed to earth, brought down by revelations of earnings misstatements, executive greed, or worse, Starbucks has not faltered. The company confidently predicts up to 25% annual sales and earnings growth this year. On Wall Street, Starbucks is the last great growth story. Its stock, including four splits, has soared more than 2,200% over the past decade, surpassing Wal-Mart (WMT ), General Electric (GE ), PepsiCo (PEP ), Coca-Cola (KO ), Microsoft (MSFT ), and IBM (IBM ) in total return. Now at $21, it is hovering near its all-time high of $23 in July, before the overall market drop. From commodity to indulgent necessity Starbucks blasted open a new market by turning a basic commodity into an indulgent necessity for the 20-million customers it serves each week, creating an espresso bar culture nonexistent in this country only two decades ago. In 1992, right when the company became public, Starbucks had 140 stores located in the Northwest and Chicago. Ten years later, in 2002, Starbucks had over 4500 stores scattered throughout the U.S and internationally. During those ten years, Starbucks established itself as the à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"number oneà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚  coffee store in the U.S by following an expansion strategy. Starbucks had locations in 42 of the 50 states and was continuing this expansion strategy in order to capture new markets and cluster existing markets. Starbucks retail expansion strategy consisted of the company selecting locations based on whether the demographics of an area matched the profile of a typical Starbucks drinker, the level of coffee consumption and the nature and intensity of competition. An important component of this strategy was that Starbucks did not mind cannibalizing the sales of its stores as long as the incremental sales resulting from the opening of a new store were higher than before. Clustering stores increases total revenue and market share, Schultz argues, even when individual stores poach on each others sales. The strategy works, he says, because of Starbucks size. It is large enough to absorb losses at existing stores as new ones open up, and soon overall sales grow beyond what they would have with just one store. Meanwhile, it is cheaper to deliver to and manage stores located close together. In addition, by clustering, Starbucks can quickly dominate a local market. The lesson learned by both Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts is that a retailer can create demand where demand is latent, said Jim McKenna, president of McKenna Associates Corp., a retail real estate training company in Milton, Mass. They can increase the siz e of the pie. Progress or Regress The retail expansion has led the Starbucks customers to view it as more corporate and caring about making money. Indeed, the crowding of so many stores so close together has become a national joke, eliciting quips such as this headline in The Onion, a satirical publication: A New Starbucks Opens in Rest-room of Existing Starbucks. And even the company admits that while its practice of blanketing an area with stores helps achieve market dominance, it can cut sales at existing outlets. We probably self-cannibalize our stores at a rate of 30% a year, Schultz says. Adds Lehman Brothers Inc. analyst Mitchell Speiser: Starbucks is at a defining point in its growth. Its reaching a level that makes it harder and harder to grow, just due to the law of large numbers.