[CE] Wall Street Protests

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/30/inside_occupy_wall_st_a_tour

Protests are breaking out all over major cities in the United States demanding some kind of economic reform. However, they have no solid demand and they are just shooting blind shots of demands. The protests share the same name but they share no core; no unity nor teamwork. They blindly demand reform but they themselves do not how to reform. How ironic.

The economy is just a system of theories driven by the exchange of money between limitless transactions. It is surprising how something that just deals with numbers and scraps of paper can become so complex and valuable. What happened to the relaxing days where money was not a monstrous issue? 99% of the population demand economic reform and are tired of being controlled by the top 1%. Although reforms are necessary, there are reasons why the top 1% are the top 1%. How do you think they got there in the first place? I believe the secret is to find loopholes in the system which we call the economy. It has been brought to my attention that most people are suffering due to taxes, and the top 1% benefit from their tax rates. However, they gain more revenue in proportion to “normal” people because they own other sources of income. They go around the huge tax percentages by making most of their money off something else. In a system as complex as economy, there are bound to be loopholes.

[A&F] Profit vs Morals

To increase sales of a certain brand, retailers have developed methods that immediately captures their consumers attention. By hiring a specific target group, they attract another certain type of group - consumers want to look like good-looking people. By hiring these attractive people, retailers can achieve their two goals: getting the job done, and gain more revenue. Employees directly represent the image of the company or retailer because they are the ones that are directly involved with the consumers. Retailers should have the right to alter their store’s environment or employees in order to profit or become more successful.
A business profits when a customer spends their money at their store. Several methods such as advertisements and their stores’ presentations all contribute subtle factors that can affect a customer’s decision to buy the product. There are two distinct types of method retailers can use to attract customers: indirect and direct interaction. Indirect interaction can be but not limited to advertisements. Advertisements such as billboards provide an image for the retailer and attract a consumer’s attention. Direct interaction is the interaction between an employee and customer at the store. The employee can convince the shopper to buy the products by offering discounts and substantial deals. However, employees are also people, and individual variety is random and broad. A business that profits off selling goods that affect one’s appearance, providing good-looking people can substantially alter their standpoint in their decision. Given certain conditions, retailers will profit based on the store’s employees environment, and price of their exclusive products.
By having specific employees, retailers will attract their buyers more easily. Would you be more likely to purchase products from a store filled with beautiful people or grimy people? Most employees are required to wear the store’s attire as part of their uniform. However, consumers will observe that the attractive employees look good despite what they are wearing. They may conclude that the store’s produce helps improve their attractiveness and be prompt to purchase products for themselves. Retailers will be more likely to higher attractive people over experienced ones. Although experienced employees are easier to manage, a less attractive person does not become more attractive over time. The physical appearance of a person is set in stone; however, their ability to get their job done is not. Training an attractive employee will eventually be more beneficial than hiring a less attractive but experienced employee. An attractive employee fulfill two roles in an employer’s perspective: someone who can get the job done and model for their consumers.
The environment also contributes consumers to be more prone to purchasing their products. Music, aroma, and type of clothing that the store has contribute to a consumer’s decision. Music plays a role in the mood of the people inside the store by providing a taste of modern culture. It subtly expresses of what the store considers “fashionably acceptable” and the music may appeal to mood of the shopper. Would you purchase items from a store that played music that you did not enjoy or a store that did? By providing a favorable and lively environment, people are more likely to buy their products. The smell of the store also provide the similar contributions to a shopper’s mood. Would you buy items from a store that smelled bad or good? The type of clothing presented and the manner in which they are presented also play subtle factors of a shopper’s final decision. Would you even enter a store that displayed unfashionable clothing in the front? All of these subtle factors ultimately contributes a more significant role in a shopper’s decision.
Many people are often swayed by the expensive price of a retailer’s products. They become reluctant to buy and the retailer will lose revenue. However, if a good-looking employee assisted and complimented the consumer, they would be more willing to buy their products. By having employees directly interacting with the customers, the customers are more aware of what the employees are wearing. They will acknowledge that how they present themselves is attractive with a taste of modern culture. The customers will more willing to purchase expensive clothing if the good-looking employee approves of what they are trying to buy. If good-looking employees are more capable of convincing consumers to purchase more expensive products, the retailer will profit more than it would with less good-looking employees. Good-looking employees will become the base of the retailer’s success.
Many people believe retailers’ method of hiring attractive people is immoral and wrong. They believe that they are discriminating people for their race, age and disabilities. However, a business should hire with the mindset of profiting and they should have the ability to manipulate the factors that affect their revenue. Why should they hire people that may squander their business? Should they hire people for the people’s benefit or because it is simply more “fair”? In a capitalistic society, employers should hire people who satisfy their requirements the best; otherwise, they should just randomly hire people. Would that be more fair? Maybe to the potential employees, but the business will not benefit as well as it should. Employers run their business, not the employees.
The type of employees an employer will hire will be the biggest contribute to the success of a business. A business that relies heavily on appearance should also have employees that provide such an appearance. With many people applying for jobs, retailers must decide who to hire and who not to hire. These employees will conduct direct interaction with the consumers and influence them to buy their products. These people will ultimately produce the image of the company and the business should have control over how they want to represent their business.  Although morals and discrimination will always be a pr oblem in the United States or any other nation, a business should have the right to hire the ones who are most qualified for their position. “A guy wants to go hang out in a store where he can see good-looking gals”.

[RE] Kids These Days

This is a response post to Brenda's free post.

Ever take a look at the younger generation now and think to yourself, “I never had that when I was younger”?

Seriously, these kids are so spoiled. There are elementary school kids that have their own cell phones and iPods. Who would those kids call? The only person I would call at their age would be my parents. At their age, I could barely even remember my own address! The music industry is filled with profanity and inappropriate material. Do parents even care about ratings or what their children listen to? Mainstream music has involved sex, alcohol, and partying. What do kids know about these subjects? They shouldn’t even be aware of these things yet.

I also hear kids swearing here and there without a care in the world. When I was their age, swearing was taboo. Those words meant trouble - no, it defined trouble’s very meaning. However, I highly doubt these kids are even aware of what the words even mean, and how slang has completely changed the meanings of these words. Like the F word means to sexually assault, but these kids do not even understand the meaning of rape. How ignorant the next generation is becoming.
What happened to playing outside? What about playing with Legos, or stuffed animals? What happened to imagination? In the past decade, too many things have changed. We grew up with Legos, Barbie, and board games. They grew up with computer games, television, and Eminem. smh

[CE] Activists hack into Syrian government sites

Although hackers are often prone to the negative response of the public, this anonymous group of tech savvy individuals openly expose their government’s actions. They let the public know what the government is capable of and of their recent activities. They even pulled out a map of how many deaths at protests were recorded on. They also give other viewers warnings and has hacked many government websites. One of the hackers say that hacking the government websites was actually really easy, and they have also planned another hack very soon. Videos that were revealed a famous activist singer with his throat slashed and a cartoonist who had his hands broken. The anonymous group also stated that the government monitors their online activity and have put up warnings about it. A Revolusec member stated that they want to educate the public and help the people of Syria.

It’s amazing that hackers typically receive negative feedback and yet they are capable of such justice. Without any profit or personal gain, they come as a group to attack the Syrian government online. Despite knowing they are monitored, they deliberately edit websites to educate the people of Syria about their online privacy. However, the group does not know who their own allies are, but they are still united as a whole. For a group of individuals who do not know each others’ faces or names to team up against a government must possess a large amount of motivation and determination. This is a true unification and justice.

[BC] UC essay prompt#2

    For a huge majority of my prepubescent years, I was an immature, obnoxious brat that did not understand what “respect” meant. I had the entire playground under my thumb and I believed everything I did was correct. I freely pushed my weight around. However, all of this soon changed when my parents enrolled into a local Chinese school. I enrolled into taekwondo, a popular Korean martial art, as an elective after my classes. I originally thought it would be beneficial to know self-defense, but martial arts are not that simple. Martial arts do not only teach self-defense; the discipline, strength and respect are all valuable life lessons.

All taekwondo students begin with the beginner white belt, my first lesson of discipline. Thrown into competition, students who had more advanced belts could exercise their dominance freely. However, bullying was not a problem; the Master regulated behavior among the advanced students. We were taught how to punch, kick, and simple techniques, and we were punished for minuscule details. This taught me perfection and to put full effort into everything I did. It refined my views of half-hearted work. I completely agree that all tasks should be completed with full effort.

As we did our daily drills of our punches and kicks, we were taught to yell after every completed rep. The first week of class was extremely embarrassing. I imagined us as a group of little kids just moving in unison and yelling nonsense. We were told that yelling is a sign of strength, release and power. This has been scientifically proven that yelling can produce more force, but the iron will and strength that has been forged within me has proven more significant than any amount of force I could produce. It improved my confidence; I punched hard, and fast with a smile on my face.

I eventually progressed to my green belt examination, and sparring with another person was the requirement I was not familiar with. As an orange belt, my legs shook as they announced my opponent was a green belt who was also having his blue belt exam. The chubby boy had weight, height, speed and experience on me. To impress the exam supervisors, points are scored by successfully landing kicks to your opponents sides and chest. My fellow classmate who has the red belt before the black gave me some advice: let him punch me and to parry his kicks. Anyone who would take this advice is a fool; who would let someone punch them? However, as I advanced through the hierarchy of taekwondo, she has earned an extreme amount of respect from me. I did as she said, punches penetrated my defensive stance, but his kicks proved unsuccessful. I felt defeated: my morale destroyed, landed only about three good kicks on him. After the round, we shook hands.

I never heard of my round, pudgy opponent again, but I did receive my green belt a week later. Despite the joy and life lessons that were included in the class, I soon quit due to school work. However, the life lessons learned will stay with me forever.

[RE] Student Reactions to French Prayer-Ban

After last week’s weekly blog posts, we had an in-class discussion about a potentially controversial topic concerning France’s ban of public Muslim practices. Mr. Sutherland presented to the class his response to many posts about the same event.

The arguments provided by my peers are extremely relevant, but this ban was approved with the intention of improving the well-being of their country. Although, we Americans have always believed that all humans have unalienable rights, but that can only be enforced by the citizens’ government. we are ignorant about other countries’ problems because we unconsciously believe that our rights apply to everybody. However, this is not the case. France has their own constitution and they should have the right to protect their own culture and regulate their people’s actions. The ban of Muslim practices is not simply trying to remove Muslim influences from their people.

Due to the overwhelming number of Muslims, the mosques cannot contain the huge crowd of believers. They overflow the street and can possibly block pathways and streets. They could possibly block the path of cars, public transportation and pedestrians. The French government also included a building for religious practices, so the people should not be wary of their government attempting to completely remove Muslim practices or becoming anti-Muslim. The ban will clear the streets and allow people and vehicles to pass through the streets safely and it would not obscure emergency vehicles such as police cars, ambulances and fire trucks from reaching their destinations. The French have thought this through.

[CE] Philippine school made out of bottles

Filipino schools are adapting to an environmentally challenged world. They are reusing bottles to rebuild schools twice as big as their old ones, but only half the price. Statistics show that every town in the Philippines can build a new classroom using the bottles every two weeks. These bottles are filled with a brick-like mixture and then packed together to create the walls of the classroom. The huge amount of waste produced by each town in the Philippines can now be a clever solution to the small amount of classrooms.
Our world is currently rapidly changing into a community where industrialization dominates our societies. However, that does not mean industrialization has no consequences. Every country in the world has a waste problem and we should adapt like the Philippines for the mutual benefit for the cleanliness of the planet Earth. We can potentially remove the waste from our waters, junkyards, and streets. Community service programs and jobs can benefit from the waste and we could produce many new things.

Producing buildings and other things using bottles will allow a new form of art to bloom. Although critics may call it “unprofessional”, or “outrageous” or maybe even “jank”, these projects are often viewed as positively “ghetto” and amusingly creative. Teenagers, young adults and the current generation will soon lead our economy and the evolution of the creations and inventions can be influenced by the latest trends. Creative things is an explosively expanding trend among many teenagers and young adults, and may influence the upcoming generations of what people will soon call “art”.