The Pitiful Campus Dining Experience Essay example -- Argumentative Pe

The Pitiful Campus Dining Experience      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When I was a waiter at a local pizza parlor, the area manager would come in once every two weeks and give the restaurant an inspection. He would watch us through the course of an evening, and when the crowds subsided, he would gather us all around and give us our review. At the onset of every debriefing, as they were called among the crew, the first words from his mouth would always be, "From the moment the customer enters those doors, his dining experience begins. He will form an opinion in his mind about us, and it is your job to make sure that opinion is good! If it isn't, I'll know about it, and then so will you." Even though my experiences at that restaurant are a year behind me, whenever I eat out I always keep in mind the customer's opinion -- especially when I am the customer. When  Ã‚   State students eat at the campus facilities, they form opinions about their dining experience just as any customer would, and whether that opinion is good or bad is the responsibility of the food service. Recently I conducted a survey to determine the student opinion of the food service at  Ã‚   State. My purpose was simply to see if the students were satisfied with the overall performance of Service America, the catering company that handles all of the campus dining facilities. I surveyed fifty students over a period of two days at different times and locations. All of those I surveyed ate at least occasionally at one of the dining facilities. The survey rated such aspects as variety, quality, and taste of the food offered as well as the student's opinion of the prices they paid and overall service they received. The ratings given were initially somewhat mediocre. ... ...ts known will have them resolved in one manner or another, and by solving the students' problems as best they are able, Service America will ensure good public opinion and keep its contract. This arrangement is beneficial for both parties involved, and since my results concluded that there is no widespread discontent with the food service, there is no real justification for procedures any more radical than those I have suggested. Perhaps a monopoly does exist at  Ã‚   State in the form of Service America, but it is a monopoly that is ultimately controlled by its patrons, who have the freedom and the power to act on their opinions. The choice for action lies in their hands.      Sources Cited Goodman, Stephanie. "Dinner Is Served--At the Mall." Adweek's Marketing Week 24 Ju1y 2013:30-34. Loprete, Michael. Personal interview. 26 Feb. 2014.   

Elphaba from “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire Essay

Analyze the Main CharacterThe main character named Elphaba, in the novel Wicked, raises the debate to whether evil is inherited genetically or developed by social injustice. Elphaba, having been born with a pale green skin tone and razor sharp teeth was automatically rejected by society at birth. As she grew older she developed a vast knowledge of the world around her which led her desire to be influential towards the greater good. Even though her intentions were genuinely efficacious she was labeled wicked due to the narrow views on eccentricity throughout society. This is the conflict in which Elphaba was to succumb in order to fulfill her desire to better the world. Elphaba was born a munchkinlander to the reverend of a unionist church and the daughter of a wealthy family. Even though she was born to a promising background she was destined for failure due to birth defects. Elphaba was born with green skin and razor sharp teeth because of a green elixir in which her mother ingested in large quantities during the pregnancy. These abnormal traits caused even the narrow minds of her parents to have distaste for her; her parents were afraid of her at first but later learned to love her for she had become an extremely kind and loving person. She was born with a negative connotation to her name which could possibly dampen her future. Despite the constant badgering and scrutinizing due to her irregularities Elphaba developed a mind of phenomenal capacity. Her father spent much time tutoring her in her younger years and teaching her to love knowledge. With this love for knowledge she excelled in public schooling and was accepted with full decoration to attend Shiz University. Wishing to attend Shiz to develop her brain she was soon discovered to be that of a witch with potential to develop amazing powers. She was then lead on by the head mistress madam Morrible to pursue her powers and then later to engage in a meeting with the wizard of Oz. Now, having developed a great magical ability, Elphaba was to meet the wizard who she thought could be able to help her fulfill her desire to better the world. To her surprise, it was revealed that the wizard had no power at all  and with the help of madam Morrible planned to use Elphaba as the power in order to fuel his own dictatorship. Elphaba quickly rejected the wizards’ proposal and went into hiding promptly. In doing so the wizard persuaded society that she was wicked because of her abnormal looks and that she was capable of destroying their Land of Oz. Society surged against Elphaba killing everyone and everything she ever loved. This drove Elphaba to lose all control and use her divine magical powers to harm the society that rejected her. This could be considered the point in which Elphaba fulfilled her title as â€Å"wicked.†Elphaba was born to abnormal looks with a kind heart but later became wicked because of the cruel behavior of society. If she were only given the chance to prove her intentions she may have succeeded in improving the status of the world. But due to the evil intentions of the wizard her life was thus written as the wickedest of them all.

Death Penalty Synthesis

The death penalty goes back as far as the 17th century. From burning alive to beating to death, the death penalty was carried out in some of the cruelest and most painful ways one could imagine. Although more efficient ways of execution have been discovered, such as lethal injections, capital punishment is still ruthless and a lot of times unnecessary. Capital punishment is like the easy way out of dealing with criminals by â€Å"eliminating the complexities of judge and jury† (Source J), when there are much more efficient punishments that could be used when dealing with a felony.Capital punishment should not be used for so many different reasons; it is immoral, very costly and mistakes that could be prevented happen way too often. Some may argue that capital punishment should be used to remove the criminal because they are dangerous and they deserve to be executed but â€Å"the deed is done and taking another life cannot change† (Source A) the fact that one life is alr eady gone. There are other ways of preventing the culprit from harming others, such as removing them for society by putting them in jail.Being sentenced to â€Å"life imprisonment is a far more practical form of retribution† (Source F) for the defendant; it’s much fairer, more efficient and a lot less cruel than execution. Citizens are just as safe when the criminal is in jail as they would be if capital punishment was used. Plus, if the criminal was eventually found guilty then they could be freed from jail. According to the Declaration of Independence, â€Å"everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person† (Source B).Capital punishment â€Å"violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment† (Source K) by taking away the right to life that every citizen has. The criminal has the right to â€Å"equal protection under the law† (Source K) no matter what the situation might be. The death penalty is promoting violence more than anything else.Executing someone for their wrongdoing makes it appear that killing someone is acceptable, but it’s not and shouldn’t be tolerated no matter what the  circumstances are. Studies have shown that capital punishment does not affect the amount of crimes committed (Source F); therefore using the death penalty has no impact on preventing the murders from happening. Capital punishment is not only the most â€Å"cruel and uncivilized punishment† (Source F), but it is also the most expensive and most time consuming solution to punishing the criminal.On average, one â€Å"death penalty case resulting in a death sentence costs approximately $3 million† (Source C), which is â€Å"a waste of taxpayer funds and has no public safety benefit† (Source K). Taxes need to be spent on improvements for the state, not on the execution of one person when there are much more efficient solutions to punishing the culprit. The most brutal part of ca pital punishment is the fact that it is possible to take an innocent person’s life, which happens way more than it should.There have been 142 people â€Å"freed from death row after being exonerated with DNA or other kinds of evidence† (Source F), if that evidence wouldn’t have been found in time then any one of those innocent people could have been executed for doing nothing wrong. Some research shows that one in every ten people executed were later found guilty; if they hadn’t been put through capital punishment then many innocent people could have been saved from suffering for something they were never responsible for.Not only are innocent people executed, also deciding â€Å"who should be sent to death row is arbitrary and discriminatory† (Source F). Studies by professors at North Carolina University have shown that the â€Å"odds of receiving a death sentence raised by 3. 5 times among those defendants whose victims where white† (Source C), which shows how race might have an impact on whether or not the death penalty is used in the case. There are so many reasons why capital punishment is not the answer to a crime. Everyone has the right to live and deserves a second chance.The death penalty doesn’t prevent violence, it only promotes it. It is an expensive process that can end up accidently putting innocent people to death because they were blamed for something they really didn’t do. Without capital punishment, the world would be a much better place and many innocent lives could be saved, and the guilty criminals can get help and continue their lives while not harming anymore citizens. Capital punishment is unconstitutional and should be avoided at all costs, no matter what the situation may be.

English and International Integration Essay

International integration is a process by which countries remove barriers to trade freely and absorb new technology, new culture†¦ outside national borders. In the integration period, English is considered a bridge linking countries together. Nowadays, nearly 4 billion people all over the world use English as their first or second languages. Fluency in English has become an indispensable skill in the context of economic integration today. In my opinion, English not only helps you to extend the scope of communication but it also brings you many other benefits. Firstly, mastering English allows people to be kept informed of the latest news about fashion , sports, science or politics. For example; 80% of the Websites on the Internet in English and popular Newsletters on TV like BBC or CNN in English. You can update the newest fashion style of the week, the hottest news about a football match at the World Cup or the latest information of the upcoming Iphone. That’s why you easily become fashionable as long as you use English. Secondly, English offers you great chances for career promotion. Thanks to the International integration, many foreign companies have invested in our countries. They also join Vietnamese companies to do business. So English competence is the priority for big companies to hire staffs as well as considering employees for higher positions. Although there’s no official statistics on the correlation between English proficiency and wages, it’s pretty clear that the oppotunities always open wider for English candidates. Therefore, learning English is very important in the age of integration .And I don’t hesitate to share some tips on English learning with you . 1. Spend at least one hour everyday listening to news or discussion programs such as CNN news or BBC news. It’s hard to understand what they are saying when you first begin to listen to them, but gradually you’ll get used to the speed and tone. Then you can get a brief idea of what they are talking about, although you can’t get all the details. 2. Watch some English TV and listen to some English radio. TV and radio are the best and most inexpensive teachers to learn real English. Not only you can learn formal English from  news or debate TV programs, but you can also learn everyday English from soap operas, cartoons or comedies. 3. Spend more than two hours every day on reading English news or articles. Reading builds up your vocabulary, idioms, phrases, and the concepts of English structures. If you do enough reading, it will save you a lot of time since you won’t need to spend more time on building your vocabulary or grammar. Read out loud when you do your reading to improve your pronunciation at the same time. 4. Make some pen pals or native-English friends and write to them at least once everyday. The best way to improve your writing is to practice writing as much as you can. The more you write the more you know how to use what you’ve learned from reading and listening. 5. Make friends with speakers. This is the most difficult task because of the difference in culture, but you can’t really master English unless you can have good conversations with an American or Briton. Remember to ask a lot of questions to keep the conversation going. When someone asks you a question, give more than just basic information. For example, if someone asks you â€Å"Do you like living here?† don’t just answer â€Å"Yes† or â€Å"No,† but tell them why, too. 6. Think in English. Getting used to using English all the time will make it easier to listen and react with it. Follow these small tips can make it easier for you to learn English. In conclusion, eventhough English has already played an important role in our lives since Viet Nam was a full member of the WTO. This, may somehow, affect Vietnamese. But to catch up with the speed of the world’s development, we need to take the risk, learning English as much as we can, and not forgetting to keep the beauty of Vietnamese.

Kohls Corporation and Dillards Inc Essay

Kohl’s Corporation was organized in 1988 and is a Wisconsin corporation. The company operates family-oriented department stores that sell moderately priced apparel, footwear and accessories for women, men and children; soft home products such as sheets and pillows; and housewares. Stores generally carry a consistent merchandise assortment with some differences attributable to regional preferences. As of February 2, 2008, the company operated 929 stores in 47 states. (Source: Company 2007 Form 10-K) Originally founded in 1938 by William T. Dillard, Dillard’s, Inc., now operates 326 stores in 29 states. The company’s store base is diversified, with the character and culture of the community served determining the size of facility and, to a  large extent, the merchandise mix. In general, stores offer a wide selection of merchandise including fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods. Most stores are located in suburban shopping malls but customers may also purchase merchandise online. (Source: Company 2007 Form 10-K) Learning Objectives †¢ Read and compare financial statements for two companies in the same industry. †¢ Consider how different strategic choices lead to different financial statement relationships. †¢ Perform an analysis of financial information using common-size balance sheets and income statements, ratios, and other techniques. †¢ Critically evaluate two companies based on financial information. †¢ Evaluate a financial analysis to form investment recommendations. Refer to the 2007 financial statements and notes of Kohl’s Corporation and Dillard’s, Inc. Analysis a. Describe the industry in which these two companies operate and assess the competitive environment. What current economic factors affect the companies’ operations? Who are the main competitors in this industry? What threats do the companies face? What opportunities? How are the two companies similar? How are they different? b. Consider the income statements of both companies. Are there any unusual or nonrecurring items that need to be considered in your analysis? That is, are the earnings of high quality? Are the earnings persistent? c. Prepare common-sized income statements and balance sheets for each company for fiscal 2007 and 2006. To common size the income statement, divide each item by net sales. To common size the balance sheet, divide each item by total assets. A company’s financial performance can be analyzed in many ways. Return on equity (ROE) is a widelyused measure of financial performance that compares the profit the company made during the period (net income) to the resources invested and reinvested in the company by shareholders (stockholders’ equity). The DuPont model systematically breaks ROE into components. One form of the DuPont model is: Stockholders’ equity is reported on the balance sheet and excludes any reported minority interest or non-controlling interest. Note that once the common terms cancel in the second equation (the DuPont model), the right-hand side of the ROE equation collapses down to the first equation: Net income divided by the firm’s Stockholders’ equity. Reading from left to right in the second equation, the first right-hand side ratio represents the fraction of pretax earnings that the shareholders keep. One minus that ratio is the average tax rate so the ratio decreases as the tax rate goes up. The second ratio represents the fraction of EBIT (i.e., operating profit) that the firm keeps after financing costs so the ratio decreases as the net cost of debt increases. The third ratio represents operating return on sales or the operating profit earned on each unit of revenue. The fourth term is  the asset turnover ratio, a measure of overall efficiency in asset use. The product of the third and fourth terms is operating return on assets. The final ratio captures the leverage of the firm—a measure of how the firm has paid for its assets. The ratio increases as the firm takes on more debt (that is, for a fixed level of equity, more assets must mean more debt). Note that the final term is equal to 1 + (Average total liabilities / Average stockholders’ equity). Normally, analysis of the financial statements begins with operating return on sales and asset turnover (thus, operating return on assets). Then it turns to leverage (liquidity and solvency) and the cost of leverage. Finally, a review of the tax burden is conducted. The ROE analysis can be followed up with an analysis of the company’s cash flows. d. Compute return on equity (ROE) for both companies for fiscal 2007 and 2006. Calculate the five components of ROE and verify that their product equals ROE. Remember to use average total assets and average stockholders’ equity in your ratio calculations. e. Refer to the common-sized income statement you prepared in part c and your ROE decomposition from part d. Assess the companies’ asset efficiency. Which firm is more efficient in its use of assets? Consider efficiency in terms of total asset turnover, receivables turnover (and average collection period), inventory turnover (and average holding period), payables turnover (and average time to payment), cash conversion cycle (i.e., receivables days + inventory days – payables days), and fixed asset turnover. g. Assess the companies’ liquidity and solvency. Are the companies likely to meet their debts as they come due? Consider ratios such as the current ratio, the quick ratio, and the debt-equity ratio. Also consider interest costs and the times interest earned ratio. Is there any â€Å"off-balance-sheet† financing that will constrain future cash flow? You should explicitly consider operating leases at both companies. Assume that the discount rate implicit in the capital leases is the appropriate discount rate for capitalizing the operating leases. Further, assume that the lease payments due in 2013 and beyond will be paid evenly over 20 years for Kohl’s and paid entirely in 2013 for Dillard’s. h. Assess the cash flow of each company. Are cash flows from operations a source or a use of cash? How are operations and investments being financed? What differences do you note? i. As a potential investor, would you be interested in seeking additional information about either of these companies? What sort of information would you want? Would you invest in either company?

Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Supply Chain Management - Essay Example Packaging also allows the consumer to acquire the product in the desired form. Therefore, Goldsby and Martichenko (2005, p. 47) assert that packaging is vital part of any implementation of lean operations. Most firms incur losses during packaging and also produced a lot of waste. Most companies have realized the importance of the lean philosophy to gain optimisation in their operations as well as the whole supply chain (Tsigkas, 2012, p. 12). The losses can be alleviated through lean packaging. Lean packaging results in value added activity and also reduce costs. The concept of lean packaging is not industry specific. Lean packaging eliminates waste in packaging. In the packaging industry, the packaging materials are regarded just like raw materials. Therefore, they contribute significantly to the overall costs of packaging. Any firm that adopts lean packaging has the net effect of driving the costs down. This means that a change in packaging results in a considerable reduction in overall costs. Companies gain competitive advantage by eliminating wastes. The new competitors enter the market as low cost providers. Since lean is the elimination of all waste in order to develop an operation that is faster, more dependable, produces higher quality products and services, lean packaging ensures that waste is eliminated by coming up reusable packaging materials. Using the reusable materials for packaging enhances the flow of products along the supply chain, thus reducing costs. World-class firms, such as Tyson, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Ford, John Deere, Unilever, Gregg’s, and Amcor among others have already recognised the significance of reusable packaging in moving their products better, faster, and in a more cost effective manner (ORBIS Corporation, 2004, p. 6). Proceeding further, reusable packaging fits perfectly into the lean environment. The packaging is designed in a way that it fits specifically

Totalitarianism and the individual using the book Under a Cruel Star Essay

Totalitarianism and the individual using the book Under a Cruel Star and two other readings - Essay Example horrible living conditions and galling transportations can be used to describe the camp as trying to establish one’s life and a family was hardly possible due to starvation and violence. Another form of totalitarian form of governance was in Moscow where purge was conducted as authors were controlled over the content with which they are to publish. Those carrying out the purge are described as lacking sophistication and stupidity. Under controversial circumstances, books were withdrawn and example being Lenin’s book because they were listed under Marx’s â€Å"Communist Manifesto† with Riazanov’s forward, but in many other instances this explanation breaks down. The â€Å"Authoritative† and â€Å"Educated† bunch of people were forming purging committees and recommending the removal of controversial readings. Under â€Å"philosophy† the Leningrad instructions propose that â€Å"idealistic philosophy should be removed entirely fro m circulation and this would leave only Kant’s and Hegel’s works in circulation since their writing and ideologies went in line with the governing authorities. Questions were raised over the withdrawal of many writers especially those who by the humblest and most general assessment are on a higher level and less pernicious than the hundreds of junky kinds of belles-lettres that Gosizdat put out even at this time. The kind of leadership being experienced was resulting in a totalitarian form as the main instructions of Glavpolitprosvet are more restrained and balanced, TBTW. The recommendation was to remove all the prerevolutionary literature that was concerned with upbringing and education, all prerevolutionary mathematics textbooks, all anthologies of Russian literature, collections of pieces for recitation, oral public reading and narrations from the local public libraries to central and pedagogical libraries (Kova?ly 17). On the other hand, Adolf Hitler being an arde nt militarist, during his rule rejected democracy terming it a bankruptcy and promoted an authoritarian form of politics based on the leadership principle. He was of the belief that war was a crucial test of a nation’s vigor and the defeat of Germany in 1918 was not the result of military failure but rather the product of the diseased condition of the German society in general, (Hitler 513). The corruption and weakness that was evident in the country was caused by the diabolical machinations of the Jewish people, whom Hitler had portrayed as a degenerate race engaged in an international conspiracy designed to destroy the national principle binding the German people together as a â€Å"master race† and Hitler then offered himself as the leader of the revitalized militantly nationalist Germany purged of all those who would weaken or diminish the racial purity of the German people. Hitler’s thoughts were centered along an obsessive preoccupation with racial â€Å" hygiene† which according to him was a basis of national strength. According to Hitler (517), the Jewish people with all their apparent intellectual qualities are nevertheless without any culture of their own and the sham culture which the Jew possess today is the property of other people and is mostly spoiled in their hands. He furthers the opinion that the state is a means to an end, and