Masculinity and the Cold War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Masculinity and the Cold War - Essay Example While the possibility still remains valid today, the menace appeared more eminent within the 60's, as a result of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki incidents, as well as the novelty of the technology. The cold war can actually be compared to a chauvinist conflict, whereupon both nations involved tried to use their supposed technological supremacy as a tool to undermine the influence of other nation. This notion is quite obvious in Stanley Kubrick's movie "Dr Strangelove: or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb", as well in the text authored by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Joseph Rotblat, "A war-free world". Though the cold war no longer exists but the situation in Iran, Iraq and the role of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has again compelled this world to think of a very different approach towards nuclear deterrence. Mohamed ElBaradei, the eminent scientist who is heading IAEA while giving a lecture at Stanford, called for a new commitment from the peace loving world to go for nuclear disarmament rather than nuclear deterrence. Such relationship is quite obvious in "Dr. Strangelove".

From a decision making point of view, why are some costs relevant and Essay

From a decision making point of view, why are some costs relevant and others irrelevant Give a detailed example of each - Essay Example Overlooking the irrelevant data in the assessment process moreover would greatly benefit the company in saving time and effort (Averkamp 2012, p.1). For relevant costs, a company could for example be deciding whether to remove a product line or not. This product line could be accounting for about 4% of this firm’s activities. If the company eliminates this product line, the corporation officers will continuously receive similar salaries as before such that the expenses for the central office will not change. Product line managers plus others staffs working directly with this product line however will receive a termination thus eliminating their salaries. According to Averkamp (2012, p.1), such eliminated salaries for individuals who worked directly with the direct line will be relevant in the decision-making process. If the salaries were $700000 when the product line was operational and $0 in its absence, the $700000 savings is therefore relevant (i.e. relevant cost). Considering this same product line scenario, salaries linked to the officers are not relevant for decision-making. This means that whether the salaries amounts to $500,000 or $5, 000,000, they will remain irrelevant. The salaries will be similar in the presence or absence of the product line. Averkamp (2012, p.1) noted that a decision-maker will need not know the expenses of the central office because they will be constant in the presence or absence of the product line. Previous year’s expenses will similarly remain

Describe the product or service your business provides and a Essay

Describe the product or service your business provides and a description of the market it serves - Essay Example A number of football clubs (such as Manchester United, FCB Barcelona) in Europe make enormous amount of money through merchandizing. Apart from club’s official products, goods such as jerseys, hats, watches, bags, mugs etc. can also be brought at specialist sports shops in Europe. Despite a late start, Soccer has been growing its popularity in US In the past few decades. America’s better than expected international performance in the recent FIFA World Cup has lifted people’s interest in the sport. My business idea is to develop a chain of specialist sports shops deal in soccer merchandize and sports equipment. The following write-up describes the business idea in detail in terms of the overall market, anticipated growth and competition, products description and marketing plan. Soccer Market in US Over the last few decades, professional and amateur soccer has made noteworthy strides in the US. As of 2007, there were 14 million soccer players and over 2 million hou seholds having young soccer participants in the country. The following graph shows the comparison of sports popularity in different age groups implying that it is a youth-centered sport in America. Because of this, soccer has attracted the attention of advertisers from companies such as Starbucks, Addidas, Nike and other youth oriented products. Major League Soccer (MLS) and US Soccer Leagues are the two best known soccer leagues in US with over 16 member Clubs. Soccer in US gained more recognition with the arrival of foreign football stars such as David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Freddie Ljungberg and Cuauhtemoc Blanco playing for MLS clubs. The richest club in US, LA Galaxy is worth $100 million (2008). As the game has gained such wide acceptance in US, it is a great market for merchandizing business adopting the European model. Business Idea The concept behind my business idea is to build a specialist soccer outlet selling all products and goods related to soccer including soccer ge ar, equipment and related goods. Soccer Merchandise Products: The following chart gives an overview of the products that would be sold at my Soccer Specialty Store (SSS) for various clubs and leagues: Distribution Channels: In the business of sports retail, it is essential to have and efficient supplier chain and distribution channel in order to make profits. As there are number of players in the supplier chain such as team/club or league dealers or distributors, my competitive advantage will be retail locations and outreach to customers. Apart from consumer retail store, online distribution channels would help reduce inventory and administrative expenses. Marketing: The success of consumer retail sales depends on a number of factors such as retail store location, prices, promotions and consumer demand. My retail stores location will be vicinity to major universities and schools, preferably with high number of international students (as soccer is more popular abroad). The prices of the products would be competitive to other stores such as addidas etc. Personalized items would be higher priced. Since, I am targeting students and their parents as my potential customers, promotional activities such as free passes to soccer matches, group or team discounts would be given. Competition: The competition in US in the soccer merchandising industry is not intense as in Europe but is developing. Major League Soccer

Hip-Hop as Black Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hip-Hop as Black Music - Essay Example The first few chapters of the book dig out the exact origin of hip-hop which is an amalgamation of rap music, break-dancing and graffiti art. The social condition of New York in the 1970’s played a crucial role in hip-hop’s origination. According to Jeff Chang, the building of the Cross-Bronx road laid grounds for the birth of hip-hop music. The building of this road forced almost 60,000 people to relocate to other neighborhoods. Thus, while the white people moved to better places like the Westchester Country, the black and brown communities retreated to South Bronx which was annihilated economically. â€Å"Where once apartment buildings or private homes had stood were now hills of rubble, decorated with ripped-open bags of rotting garbage that had been flung atop them† and though there was an increase in social housing in the area, there were barely any jobs. Almost 80% of the youth were left jobless. Thus, gangs were formed by the American-African and Afro-Cari bbean mostly to revolt against the â€Å"white-gangs† who were already present in the neighborhood. Thus from Chang’s presentation of the historical settings it is evident that origin of this art form was in the impoverished South Bronx areas where â€Å"where a complex maelstrom of social and political forces at play in the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s left the African-American and Hispanic communities searching for a way out of a lives of poverty, gang-dominated crime, and drugs†.... One of the bases of the music is racism. Discrimination, loss of jobs, fake promises and deindustrialization paved the way for the â€Å"gang-culture†. Gangs like Black Panthers safeguarded the interests of the blacks and rebelled against the whites. Similarly, several other gangs came into existence. Puerto Rican revolutionaries and Bronx gangs joined hands with drug dealers and other illicit groups against the government. Thus, gradually and eventually a firm footed unity enveloped between the gangs. Chang also talks about some of the well-known pioneers and inventors of hip-hop music who started making their name in these gangs. DJ Kool herc was the inventor of hip-hop music and the best known DJ in the whole of New York City and was an immigrant from Kingston (Chang, pg-69). He created a new way of playing music, inspired by Jamaican sound culture, and became a renowned DJ. Along the same lines, Chang has also written about the emergence of another famous DJ- Afrika Bambaa taa who previously led a gang called Black Spade. Here we are able to understand that the impoverished areas hosted a lot of parties where. The parties were held as an alternative to gang life. Herc created his own music and recited words according to beats, thereby becoming laying grounds for rapping. Thus, hip-hop slowly emerged as a party movement where most people presented new music forms. These youth who were jobless and impoverished slowly developed an identity and brought in hip-hop music. In the next section, Chang describes the politics associated with hip-hop music. The political atmosphere caused a transformation of hip-hop music from a party music to a more politically inclined art form. The music form was implicitly political in the sense that youth from diverse national backgrounds