Animation in the 1920s :: essays research papers

Animation in the 1920’s   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As the science of technology rose into entertainment, not even Hollywood could compete with the new stars of animation. The first broadcast ever was in 1928 and the technology used for the broadcasts consisted of a turntable, which was solely used to be the base for the Felix the Cat figurine and propped him up for the shoot; studio lights, which helped transmit the picture and they also needed to be constant; an actor was needed and had to be impervious to heat, cheap, and also constant. In turn, the use of a Felix figurine was perfect for the job not only because of these reasons, but also because the picture was black and white, and Felix was a black and white cat. A scanning disk was also needed since it was the part of the equipment that actually made the broadcast, so was an electric kinescope receiver and a rotoscope. A rotoscope was needed to trace images of the characters on paper frame by frame and was invented by Max Fleischer in 1915. (Felixthecat.com) In the history of animation there were many directors and famous characters. The most famous of them were those of the 1920’s. This includes Otto Messmer and his character Felix the Cat, Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, and finally Grim Natwick and his character Betty Boop.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Felix the Cat was created by Otto Messmer, but didn’t start as a cartoon like i mentioned earlier on. Felix was first a 13† paper mache figure. His first appearance was as the first broadcast ever on television. When displayed on the screen Felix the 13† figure became Felix the 2† figure. His first broadcast lasted for two hours but he went on to become the official figure used in a decade of television experiments. When Felix made the transition into a cartoon he was drawn by the famous cartoonist, Pat Sullivan. In later years to come Joe Oriolo became his drafter and after Joe came his son Don Oriolo. Felix’s cartoon was printed and enjoyed by all people in 250 different newspaper companies across the world. When Felix the cat got big in the newspapers he later went on to be produced in his own shows, and his first show ever was made in the 1919. The first show was called â€Å"Feline Follies† and lasted the time period of four minutes and ten seconds.

International Copyright Circumvention Essay -- Technology Copyright Es

International Copyright Circumvention A little under three years ago, I heard about a case where a programmer had been arrested for a program that bypassed the copy protection mechanisms in one of Adobe's products1. People who have published information on or performed security circumvention in the past, even when done in a non-destructive manner have faced some legal problems. Specifically, it reminded by of the Kevin Mitnick case2 a few years earlier. In that case, a hacker was detained for two years, without bail, pending a trial, for gaining access to (but not damaging) several corporate networks. This new case however had an different twist - the security circumvention was done only to let people access documents that they already had a right to have, and it was done outside the United States. That raises issues regarding the United States having any right to do what they did, and even if they did have the right, was a wrong even committed. This case is an example of something which a decade earlier would never have even been considered to be illegal. But, it falls into in of the heavily opposed section 12013 of the new Digital Millenium Copyright Act which tries to halt circumvention of anti-piracy measures. There was opposition before the law passed, but it became stronger when the DVD CAA tried to oppress distribution of the DeCSS - code that could bypass the encryption used on DVDs.4 (this was before the Abode case) The intended purpose of DeCSS was to facilitate the development of an open-source DVD player. There were no DVD players for Linux, BeOS, FreeBSD, or any of the other operating systems that now have DVD players thanks to the DeCSS code. However, if the DVD can be decrypted and decompressed, it can also be re-compressed and re-distributed in another medium more practical for bootleggers, such as VideoCDs. (Which could also be done simply by playing the DVD in a normal DVD player, recording the output, just not producing as high quality results.) At the time no such re-encoding tools were available, and such behavior would be protected under traditional fair use for personal backups. Furthermore, the code was released anonymously by someone outside the United States. This lead to an initial attack using trade secret laws (The DMCA's anti-circumvention aren't protected by international treaties on copyright such as the Berne c... ...umvention tools is and has been illegal anyway. And trying to aggressively impose the views of our companies on our countries is certainly uncalled for. Works Cited "Fallout From Def Con: Ebook Hacker Arrested by FBI", Slashdot. July 2001 http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/07/17/130226&mode=thread&tid=93 (for more from Slashdot on the case: http://yro.slashdot.org/search.pl?query=Sklyarov) "Free Kevin Mitnick" http://www.freekevin.com/ "Unintended Consequences: Five Years under the DMCA", Electronic Frontier Foundation, http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php "CSS and DeCSS", DeCSS Central, http://www.lemuria.org/DeCSS/decss.html "Berne Covention for the Protection of Literary and Scientific Works" http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html "Enforcement of DMCA Criminal Penalties Suffers Setback", Copright Corner. March 2003. http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/Copy-corner53.htm Locke, John. "Two Treatise of Government" Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1967. http://www.ecn.bris.ac.uk/het/locke/government.pdf "Constitution for the United States of America" September, 1787. http://www.constitution.org/constit_.htm

Reflective statement †IRS Essay

After finishing my research project and finally submitting my report, it is necessary that I write a reflective statement on what I have gained from my study. My tutor helped me to change the topic of my research which was â€Å"The link between employee satisfaction and service quality in the hotel industry† to â€Å"How to increase employee retention at the Blue tree hotels†. This helped me be more specific, to focus on a situation on ground, rather than being too general. The broadness of my topic would not help me narrow down to a specific case. This would not help me to draw clear lessons from the project. Being more specific in the project topic statement helped me come up with concise hypothesis for the research. It ultimately made me learn a lot from the project. My methodology was to carry out a filed survey, and sample some of the industries to get information from them. On the advice from my tutor, I changed it to comparative method, which I performed, selecting international hotel chains, such as Marriott, and also using different kinds of case studies in the hospitality industry in order to analyze, compare and opt for the best system and attitude used by them. I got these findings with the intention of implementing them at the Blue Tree Hotels and as a consequence meet the company’s goal. On presenting my idea my tutor, the feedback was negative, but it was helpful as I need pressure to work better. Her guidance led me to the above-discussed process which finally gave me success. At this point I was able to carryout my research with ease and also became considerably successful. The whole process has imparted in me skills and knowledge that are necessary for working on projects, and managing employees for a successful organization or a company. Since the choice of this research project made me to research on employee retention and job satisfaction, it made focus on specific parts of Human Resource management. The ‘employee’ is a very important aspect in an organization, company or institution (Henriques and Sadorsky 199). There are several principles about job satisfaction and retention that I have learned from this project. Furthermore, I have also gained skills in project management, especially in terms of research in order to meet a certain objective. On project management, I was able to sharpen my skills on research. The first thing was the ability to plan my research project (Kumar, 2005). From the topic that my tutor recommended I was able to come up with a research problem. The formulated problem was that the high turn over of employees in various companies has become very expensive. This is fundamentally because the organization or the company loses knowledge and resource they have invested in equipping these people in favor of their competitors (Ramlall, 2003). I was also able to design a model that fit my research project well. I chose on secondary research, which would led me to visit various websites to collect information about how various hotels and hospitality industries had succeeded in maintaining their employees. Secondly, I studied how these companies had achieved their overall goals, based on the principle of employee retention and satisfaction. I chose the highly trusted online data base sites such us Emerald and Ebsco. This formed a good basis of data collection. After identifying this method, I chose the samples to study. These were the best performing companies in this industry. They are Marriot, and Four Seasons. This ultimately led to my writing of the proposal that was accepted by my tutor after following her guidance. In the second step, conducting the study, I was successful in collecting the data from various websites, and studied the data in comparison (Kumar, 2005). I also used books to learn how these companies had applied specific principles in managing this vital resource in the companies. This was in the process of data processing to make them clear during presentation. After successful processing of data, I wrote the report that would easily help in the implementation phase of the project. The report had a very clear explanation on facts about employee retention, loyalty and satisfaction. The aspect I gained through this project is the way to conduct a research and not only stop at the research level but write a report that has conclusions that have clarity and teams can use them to conduct the implementation stage of the project. As I mentioned earlier, I have also come to appreciate the importance of taking care of employees in an organization. Retaining them goes along with how satisfied they are. This becomes a good basis of quality efficient service for the company, institution or organization. In order to maintain competitive advantage, companies have to do all their best to retain the employees they have (Ans and Meganck, 2009). This is because if an organization loses an employee, the quality of the service delivered will be greatly affected, decrease on the efficiency of the service delivery and as a consequence lose guests in addition to profits (Ramlall, 2003). Again, It is clear that in hospitality business, success comes from the loyal employees, since they are committed and trustworthy. This will increase organization’s profitability alongside customer loyalty (Villares and Coelho, 2003). Finally, I learned that increased job satisfaction leads to decreased turnover rates (Smith and Rupp, 2002). From the study I found out that competitive schemes of paying employees, diverse programs of employee motivation, training and reward plans would be very effective in retaining the employees in an organization. Emphatically, such things as opportunities that the companies give in terms of professional growth of the employees also matter. Mutual and hierarchical recognition also are very important in the organization. Lastly the social fabric must be constructed in to encourage teamwork and so cordial relationships among all the workers. This project has made me set for my future career as a manager; for I definitely know that the whole picture of an organization is seen in its employees. Four Seasons rightly confess that, â€Å"Our greatest asset, and the key to our success, is our people† (Four Seasons, 2010). In addition to this I have gained knowledge and skills in research, which will greatly help in project management. This has also sharpened my critic ability, and I will be able to analyze situations keenly, consequently coming up with well judged conclusions.

The Blunt Truth Essay Uploaded

Even though the resistance to legalize marijuana is present due to the fallacy Of the natural herb, it should be legalized because it will positively elf the economy and also has countless health benefits. Many people who oppose medical marijuana are persuaded by the propaganda due to their misunderstanding and misconception of medical marijuana. One debatable topic is that medical marijuana is considered a gateway drug. A gateway drug is best defined as a habit-forming drug that is not addictive, but its use may lead to the use of other addictive drugs.The Eagle Forum stated, â€Å"Since TECH is continually in the body, the ‘high' from pot gradually diminishes, and so pot smokers usually take other drugs to get a kick† (â€Å"Is Marijuana†). Although is it possible to build a tolerance to marijuana, it is highly unlikely for the user to move to other more addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroine. Lynn Simmer, PhD argues the correlation between medical marijuan a and other drugs by stating, â€Å"In the end, the gateway theory is not a theory at all. It is a description of the typical sequence in which multiple-drug users initiate the use of high-prevalence and low-prevalence drugs† (â€Å"Is Marijuana†).Another controversial topic with medical marijuana is the potential addictiveness it possesses to its users. According to Proton, symptoms of withdrawal from marijuana have been identified including symptoms of depression, anxiety and appetite loss that were based on 60 percent of the study participants. On the contrary, a recent study suggests that medical marijuana has no exact symptoms of withdrawal in this quote, â€Å"Unlike for nicotine, alcohol and hard drugs, there is no clearly defined withdrawal syndrome, the hallmark of true addiction, when use is stopped† (Iverson 1).This supporting evidence displays that a user can start and stop consuming medical marijuana without any side effects or possible addiction. F or the most part, medical marijuana usage is frowned upon because of many misconceptions towards negative effects. These misconceptions are propaganda based and inaccurate. With that said, medical marijuana actually has positive benefits, and even possibly an economic benefit. For people who cannot actually smoke marijuana for various reasons, â€Å"the plant may be altered into different forms to allow various forms of ingestion† (Brick).Modifying marijuana into foods or drinks allows numerous states to be able to tax marijuana. Although the economy has experienced a downfall, he taxation of medical marijuana would contribute millions of dollars to each state's budget. California is a prime example with a $24 billion budget deficit; the vision of adding any kind of business to the tax rolls can start to sound like a good plan. The chairwoman of the State Board of Equalization, Betty T. Ye, supports the plan and states, â€Å"it could produce annual tax revenues of $1. 4 bil lion [for California]† (Kate).The government publicizes their terrible revenue like a baby crying every hour but when the baby is given a solution it ignores it and continues to cry. In addition to adding an enormous income, medical marijuana's legalization has a potential impact on crime rates. II Paso City Council member Recourse states, â€Å"our drug policy is directly responsible for the murder and violence that people are experiencing in our sister community/' (Kate). He also states that decentralization would â€Å"relieve a lot of the costs related to interdiction and imprisonment and enforcement and tap new revenues we're missing out on† (Kate).In essence, legalizing medical marijuana would reduce crime rates and lower imprisonment rates, therefore enabling the government even larger revenue. Without a doubt, medical marijuana's legalization has the potential of adding billions of dollars while reducing crime rates; nonetheless, medical marijuana's greatest po wer is its health benefits. Accordingly with medical marijuana's economic benefit, the health benefits can help millions of people suffering from a variety of diseases. Cancer as it is known is very deadly but in some cases treatable with chemotherapy.Many cancer patients that have gone through chemotherapy usually have unpleasing side effects, the greatest one being nausea and vomiting. Many of these patients have reverted to medical marijuana to help with the side effects and it's shown to help. This is confirmed with this quote, â€Å"It is established that marijuana does ease the pain of cancer and the nausea of cancer chemotherapy† (McGinnis 1). Likewise, medical marijuana also helps with severe/chronic pain to ease these pains temporarily similarly to other medicine that's usually prescribed.The Institute of Medicine confirmed by stating ‘the available evidence from animal and human studies indicates that innovations can have a substantial analgesic effect† (Institute of Medicine). Additionally there are more diseases that marijuana can have a positive effect on such as AIDS (HIVE), Arthritis, Asthma, Gastrointestinal disorders, Epilepsy, Glaucoma, Hepatitis C, and the aid with the terminally ill however these are still ongoing debates with many doctors and scientists that are for and against medical marijuana prescription. On the other hand, medical marijuana's main benefit is that it offers any of its users happiness and hunger.These two effects combined can temporarily relieve stress. Along with these various benefits marijuana is a natural herb grown from earth's soil and is God's gift to many to seek it. All facts considered, medical marijuana's pros outweigh its cons on many different bases. Medical marijuana has the potential to greatly help the economic crisis and can also impact many people who suffer from various diseases. Those who frown upon medical marijuana do not realize the helpful benefits it contains but rather agree with the many misconceptions that have destroyed marijuana's reputation and transformed it into an immoral substance.

Costco Pay and Benefit Essay

Consequently, many of them are part of a union and hold strikes known as â€Å"Black Friday Strike†, to fight against their job dissatisfaction. Furthermore, Weissmann (2012) goes on to state that Costco is paying their employees â€Å"commendably† better. As demonstrated in figure one, the average wage for a Cost Co cashier, after 5 years of employment is approximately 64% higher than that of an employee at the Wal-Mart Empire (McArdle 2012). Moreover the commentary of Business Week Magazine quotes â€Å"At Costco, it’s better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder,† says Deutsche Bank†. By showing generosity to employees, they are able to retain them (Commentary:The Costco Way 2004). This is unlike at Wal-Mart where are higher focus is made on shareholder value (Weissmann 2012). Additionally, no Costco employees are part of a union in Washington State (Frey 2004). This only goes to show that employees at Costco are generally satisfied and as such they have no need to join a union, as they have no criticisms on employee treatment. Despite remarks that Costco has more employee value than shareholder value, figure two demonstrates otherwise. Where Costco’s market price had risen constantly over the past 5 years, Wal-mart’s market price has been relatively constant (Yahoo Finance 2013). One particular employee was offer a biannual bonus and had been given time off paid after suffering health issues (Frey 2004). Moreover, Costco offers health care and life insurance although it should be noted that most companies, particularly in USA where health care is not free. As depicted in figure one, Cost co pays for 82% of their employee’s medical costs. However at Wal-Mart, only 50% of health care expenses are paid for, meaning the employee bears 50% of the costs. Additionally, Employees at Cost co can also add family members and de-facto partners to the program and increase their package (Costco 2013). Furthermore, they offer mental care to employees and their families (Costco Wholesale 2011). The 31 December 2012 annual report goes on detail that they do not attempt to minimise wages and benefits but to ensure their satisfaction and reduce employee turnover (Costco 2012). However Costco also has a share scheme where by employees at Costco are offered shares if they have been employees for a substantial period of time (Costco 2012). Additionally, employees also benefit from â€Å"retirement plans† if they complete at least 90 days on the job (Costco 2012). Although it is not offered to employees who are members of the California Union (Costco 2012). One could assume that this retirement scheme was offered to employees to reduce their turnover. Hence Costco will replicate in act of good faith. DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH In terms of the development and growth of their employee’s one motivator factor that creates much satisfaction is the fact that Costco promotes internally (Katsarski 2008). The chance of a promotion may motivate employees to perform better and to persevere with their employment. This is reflected by their low turnover rate (Katsarski 2008). In 2009, the turnover rate, for the average employee at Costco, was 12%, which was considerable lower than the industry average (Ruggeri 2009). (REQUIRE MORE STATISTICS) For instance, Sinegal explains that many managers started out at 19-20 years of age and have been employed by Costco for at least 10 years (Staff 2012). . It appears as though the CEO of Costco understands that employees have needs and desires to grow professionally. For this reason, opportunities for development are not only offered to long-standing employees, but also t. Figure ONE: Comparison Table | Cost Co| Wal-Mart(Including Sam’s Club)| Difference| Employee Starting Rate| $11| $10| $1| Wage after 5 years| $19. 50| $12. 50| $7| Health Benefit Costs paid for| 82%| 50%| 32%| Profit per Employee| $10,623| $7,428| $3,195| McArdle, M 2012, ‘Why Can’t Walmart Be More Like Costco? ’, The Daily Beast, 26 November, viewed 13 May 2013, Figure TWO: Movements in Market Price (listed share price) Yahoo Finance (2013) Costco Wholesale Corporation share price data 2008-2012, Yahoo Finance, viewed 13 May 2013 Figure THREE: Equity Theory Applied for Costco Ruggeri, A 2009, ‘Jim Sinegal: Costco CEO Focuses on Employees’, US News, 22 October, viewed 20 April 2013, Reference Costco Wholesale Corporation 2012, Annual Report 2012, Costco Wholesale Corporation, viewed 19 April 2013, Frey, C 2004, ‘Costco’s love of labor: Employees’ well-being key to its success’, Seattlepi, 28 march, viewed 20 April 2013, Weissmann, J 2012, ‘Who’s Really to Blame for the Wal-Mart Strikes? The American Consumer’, The Atlantic, 22 November, viewed 20 April 2013, Costco Wholesale 2013, Costco Employee Benefit Program Annual Open Enrolment 2013, Costco Wholsale, viewed 20 April 2013, Costco Wholesale 2011, Costco Employee Benefits Program Summary Plan Description, Costco Wholesale, viewed 13 May 2013, Commentary:The Costco Way 2004, accessed 30 April 2013, Ghillyer, A (2010), Management Now, McGraw Hill Higher Education Katsarski, S 2008, ‘Employee Motivation – The Key to Success’, Ezine Articles, 18 September, viewed 20 April 2013, Staff, M 2012, ‘Jim Sinegal on Costco’s â€Å"Promote From Within† Strategy and Why It Needs to Think Like a Small Company’, Daily Finance, 21 June, viewed 13 May 2013, Ruggeri, A 2009, ‘Jim Sinegal: Costco CEO Focuses on Employees’, US News, 22 October, viewed 20 April 2013,

Williams Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Williams Company - Essay Example New business direction promised opportunities for the Williams Company and resulted in high revenue growth during 1998-and 2001. An examination how strategy is formed gives useful insights into the nature of financial strategy itself. In 1999 Williams decided to list WCG (Williams Conunumcatiort Group) in initial public offering. It was made to have a major source of finance from shares came in the form of IPO that raised approximately $650 million and 5725 million raised through placements to private investors. The main problem was that Williams did not take into account rapidly changing environment of the telecommunication industry, long-term predictions as for its financial activity, and economic peculiarities of the industry. There were two main problems led into collapse: the industry suffered from over production and it could not fared well in the economic downturn. Williams took pains to improve the situation by newly issues shares of WCG equity. Again, Williams faced with the problem of indirect "credit support" WCG's debt" provided for WCG. In accordance with the legislation it was treated as "pff balance sheet," and did not appear as a liability on the firm's balance sheet. An addition to this in April, 2002 the state security started investigation process as for WCG's financial activity. Accept WCG financial problems Williams faced problems with Energy Marketing and Trading Divisions caused by the unstable market situation. Credit ratings and rising yields on the trade worsen the situation and created another problem for Williams traders which needed a credit but were unable to get it from counterparts After these nuisances, Williams developed new financial strategy based on "aggressive program of asset sales" and capital expenditure. The plan to cut investment was developed in previous years and was the promising one to help Williams to overcome financial crisis. The investment made by warren Buffin in Williams allowed Williams to achieve financial flexibility and economic stability at the middle of 2002, but did not sole the main problems. In addition, Berkshire Hathaway and Lehman Brothers offered a 900 million dollar loan to Williams, but on the strict terms. Williams financial reporting involves the collection and presentation of data for use of financial management and accounting. According to the Exhibit 2 and 3, the main financial figures of the Williams companies main positions are high in comparison with Domination Recourses, Murphy Oil, except Dynegy company. The net income of William applicable to common shares figure has the highest rate between 1999-2001. According to the financial data Williams Company has the market value on equity which increased between 1999 and 2000, but failed in 2001; only Dominion resources has the highest rate. The figures of the total assets of Williams Company show the stable growth in 1999 and 2000. Because of the crisis affected the company the level of total assets decreased 1,5% in 2001 but remains the highest in comparison with its competitors. The cash flow investment activity was $1,970M (1999), 2,337M (2000) and 3, 543M (2001). Only Dominion Resources has the high figures in 2001. It is known that EBITDA is used to analyze the profitability between companies and industries, because it eliminates the effects of financing and accounting

Modern bsuiness in comparative perspective Essay

Modern bsuiness in comparative perspective - Essay Example These include the purchasing power parity, which considers the standards of living of the people in countries under comparison to ascertain their purchasing might and ultimately the measure of GDP. The comparison concludes that some economies are better structured and better performing than the other economies around the world. Some of these better-performing economies have come to be referred to as the major economies of the world with United States, China, the European Union, Germany, and Japan fitting this classification. Questions linger into how they came to attain such a high status in the economic circles and not their peers such as Nigeria, Mexico or Haiti. It is such questions that this essay seeks to address with the major focus on Porter’s national competitive advantage theory in explaining the characteristics and performance of the business systems of major economies. Apart from Porter’s national competitive theory, various theories have been fronted the behaviour, characteristics and performance of business systems of major economies. These theories are referred to as international trade theories. They fall into two categories; that is the historical trade theories also known as classical and mainly centre on the perspective of a country; they are country based. The second category is the modern firm based theories developed in the 20thcentury by theories as a shift from the country-based theories. Among the classical trade, theories include mercantilism theory that asserts a country’s wealth is dependent on its gold, in addition to, silver holdings. The theory holds that the big economies of the world retain their holdings of silver and gold via promotion of exports and hindrance of imports. When the countries are buying more from these big economies instead of selling more to them, they pay the variation in gold as well as silver. The aim of every state is to have a trade surplus and discourage trade