Fast Food Nation Essay Example for Free

Fast Food Nation Essay Whether we like it or not, fast food and its detrimental effects have become an epidemic. For many years, people have been oblivious to the growth of the fast food industry. However, over the past three decades, the fast food industry has nearly taken over our American society; almost anywhere, one can see its vast influence. As a result, in his book, Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser portrays the influence of the industry. By implementing pathetic appeals for injustice and disgust, statistics from reputable sources, and fear of the consequences of fast food, Schlosser shows the average adult how the fast food industry is ruining American culture as a way to reform its problems. Throughout his book, Schlosser consistently tries to create an emotional appeal, particularly to one’s injustice and disgust to depict his opinion. When one hears things such as, â€Å"The hamburger habit is just about as safe†¦as getting your meat out of a garbage can† (Schlosser 195), he or she cannot help but to be disgusted. Of course no one wants to be told that he or she is eating trash. Moreover, Schlosser discusses other vomit-inducing truths such as, the numerous amounts of cannibal animals among the animals whose meat becomes the food that people eat at a fast food restaurant (202). He also talks about how every year there are millions of dead animals purchased to be fed to the animals that restaurants provide as meat (Schlosser 202). Lastly, Schlosser writes, â€Å"There is shit in the meat† (197), which immediately grabs the reader’s attention and hence shows his pathetic appeal to persuasively convey his opinion. Would anyone really want to eat a feces burger for lunch? In addition, out of 355 detailed pages, Schlosser’s statistics are omnipresent. He constantly uses them to back up his statements with evidence, even dedicating one sixth of the book to notes full of statistics with reputable sources. Although he already states his facts persuasively, they become more convincing with this use of logos. For instance, at many times, authors will make up a statement and act as if it were a true fact. However, when he writes, â€Å"There is a 100 percent turnover rate annually† (Schlosser 325) and quotes it from a published article, one can actually know the turnover rate without having to question its validity. Furthermore, when Schlosser writes about how 7. 5% of all ground beef samples are contaminated with Salmonella and quotes it from a Nationwide Microbiological survey, one does not have a hard time believing its legitimacy (Schlosser 333). One of the most persuasive strategies Schlosser uses in his book is his appeal to his audience’s consequential fears of fast food. For most people, living life is a wonderful gift and if anything could be able to take it away, people would doubtlessly avoid it. Schlosser does an effective job at listing the harmful consequences; since he clearly detests the fast food industry’s influence, he does this to help reform against the influence of it. For example, when Schlosser brings up the existence of E. coli O157:H7 in fast food, he does not simply say, â€Å"It is bad† (199). He goes on and elaborates with great detail, giving a story of a six year old boy named Alex who died because of the bug (200). Not only does he dramatize the story but he also narrates the events chronologically to draw the greatest response from the reader. Schlosser writes, â€Å"It progressed to diarrhea†¦Doctors frantically tried to save Alex’s life, drilling holes in his skull to relieve pressure, inserting tubes in his chest to keep him breathing†¦ Toward the end, Alex suffered hallucinations and dementia, no longer recognizing his mother or father† (200). These events, individually, already seem terrifying. Together, it magnifies the effect. Pathos and logos play an important role throughout Schlosser’s entire book. He is clearly against the fast food industry’s ubiquitous influence and as a result, he writes with pathetic appeals, reputable sources, and fear evoking descriptions to abolish its influence on American culture. What he writes has shown to be true; fast food has had a negative effect on society. While fast food may have some benefits, it’s detrimental in the long run. Day by day, the influence of fast food continues to grow and harm the American culture.

John Keats’ To Autumn and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind E

John Keats’ To Autumn and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind Even though both John Keats’s â€Å"To Autumn† and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s â€Å"Ode to the West Wind† are about the same season, they are very dissimilar. Keats’s poem concentrates on the creating power of autumn, and makes it seem a gentle season, while in Shelley’s poem death is a repeating image, and shows autumn’s destroying power. In â€Å"To Autumn†, Keats uses three stanzas of eleven lines each. The first seven lines of each stanza follow an ABABCDE rhyme-scheme. The remaining four lines of the first stanza follow a rhyme-scheme that is different from the other two stanzas. The first stanza has DCCE and the other two have CDDE. Some lines in the poem are indented, whereas others are not. Numbering the not indented lines 1, the lines with one extra spacing 2, and the lines with two extra spaces 3, the indenting of the lines follows exactly the same pattern as the rhyme-scheme, namely 1212-123-2113 for the first stanza, and 1212-123-1223 for the other stanzas. Shelley’s stanzas are composed of four interlinking triplets, following the principle of terza rima, and one couplet. The stanzas have ABA BCB CDC DED EE rhyme-scheme. Both poems have alliteration to emphasize the quality of the season: â€Å"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness† shows the kind nature of Keats’s autumn, while â€Å"O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumns being† shows the powerful character of Shelley’s autumn. The first stanza of â€Å"To Autumn† describes the way in which autumn is able to support life. On the one hand, its about ripeness as things grow older as the year is approaches its end, and helped by the â€Å"maturing sun† (l. 2), autumn has to â€Å"fill all fruits with ripeness to t... ...ally a form of hibernation. In â€Å"Ode to the West Wind†, death is a recurrent theme, but death is also mentioned in â€Å"To Autumn†. In Keats’s poem, however, it is clear that the creative power of autumn dominates the references to death. In â€Å"Ode to the West Wind†, the autumn is not only the brutal power it seemed to be at first: according to Shelley, autumn also has the ability to preserve life, by letting it die symbolically first. All in all, both poems show that autumn has a number of different facets, and it cannot be described by one or the other, but all. Works Cited: Keats, John. Ode to Autumn. The Norton Anthology of English Lit. Ed. M. H. Abrams, et al. 7th ed. Vol 2. New York: Norton, 2000. Shelley, Percy B. "Ode to the West Wind." The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Frank Kermode and John Hollander, New York: Oxford UP, 1973.

CRM lessons from Ikea

We restricted ourselves to two potential furniture suppliers: a UK-based company,Habitat, with what appears to be a fairly conventional business model, which provides fairly stylish, relatively expensive furniture, and ‘kea, a Swedish furniture retailer with a less conventional business model, with much less expensive furniture, perhaps less stylish. I thought that we would probably end up buying nearly all our furniture from Habitat, whereas actually Kea was our main supplier.Whilst buying this furniture, a number of interesting points about Kike's business model became apparent: o Most of Kike's products are delivered as â€Å"flat-pack† self-assembly kits. Habitat also supply goods in that format, primarily it seems, to ease shipment (and reduce associated costs). However, Kike's products had been designed not only to reduce shipment costs, but also to minimize production assembly costs. Clever design had been used to produce goods which can be assembled by the purcha ser with minimal skill (use of a screwdriver and spanner only), from parts manufactured by machine with little human effort in the production plant.The design also ensured a robust, stylish piece of furniture despite the limited skills of the assembler. Much of the work involved in manufacturing the piece of furniture had been moved from the factory, to the customer. The reduction in cost had also been passed onto the customer. For at least this customer, there was also a significant feeling of achievement in assembling the table or chair. The result – a high quality piece of furniture at low-cost, but with a lot more work for the customer, but tit a resulting sense of achievement. There are differences in the retail outlet model as well. Habitat provides a conventional Main Street retail outlet, with room to display the goods, and attentive sales staff to discuss the furniture. Kike's out-of- town, large-scale outlet had the space to attempt something different. The products were displayed in a number of room mock-ups so that pieces could be seen in relation to other products, with ‘design stations' to help the customer to build their own design. Kea staff were on hand, but not as sales assistants, more to advise on sign, check whether stock was available, etc.This approach helps with the interior design aspects of selecting furniture, again for this customer at least, a difficult aspect of buying furniture. O Distribution: It is here that the most obvious differences with a conventional retail store occur: – You have to pick the goods from the warehouse yourself deliver (though there is a 3rd-party delivery service at a cost). All this may appear to be poor customer service, but again, it takes out a lot of cost from the distribution process, and this is passed on to the customer. Customer Direct Transactions: If you think about it for a minute, because Kea wont take orders, it is key that customers can find out if Kea has a particular it em in stock. (You don't want to go to an out-of-town store, to be told that what you've come for isn't in stock and the store doesn't take orders. ) Kea have recognized this and so provide an automated phone service to allow you to check whether the item you want is in stock. That item is number 1 in the automated service menu – first plus mark.There are a large number of stores I use which I wish provided a similar service. Next, I'd like you to think what ATA you'd ask a customer for if you were designing a ‘check-in-stock' transaction. Well, it's obvious isn't it – you ask for the stock code. Well Kea don't think it's obvious to a customer and when you use their service you recognize that they're right. Instead, they ask you for a catalogue page number, and then the price of the item you're interested in. They then tell you the items on that page at that price and you confirm which one you want.A pretty weird transaction by IT standards, but customer-friendly. If you're a customer interested in stock levels, you're very likely to have the catalogue open. The page number is meaningful to you, is short and easy to enter on a phone keypad (all digits). The price is also meaningful, again short and easy to enter (all numeric). No company I've ever worked for has simple stock-codes. Someone has designed this transaction with the end-user (the customer) in mind. What, if anything has this to do with CRMIn my view, a lot: o Kea have chosen to change from a conventional business model to reduce prices significantly, by placing a lot of burden onto the customer. CRM is not necessarily about better customer service, but about giving the customer a better value reposition, or ‘increased value for money'. O Their change in business model leads to a need for a new transaction for the customer. That transaction is designed to be simple and fast for the customer to use. In Ken's words (nearly) in this week' newsletter – they've listened to their customers.

The Civil Rights Act Of 1866 - 1403 Words

On April 19, 1866, the US Congress passed the first ever Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans the right to own their own property, to have legal protection in business, and to take people to court. The act was also the first time that black Americans were called citizens of the United States. This meant that black Americans would have the same rights and privileges as all other US citizens. Another Civil Rights Act was passed in 1875. This act made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race in public places, such as restaurants. In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled that the 1875 act was unconstitutional on the basis that businesses had the right to choose which customers they served and which they could ignore. This allowed businesses that provided public facilities to choose to exclude black people. On June 1, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed. It became the most important civil rights organization fighting for the rights o f black people in the United States. It is still active today and has a membership of about half a million. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court passed a judgment that changed the course of civil rights in the United States. In the case of Brown v. the Board of Education, the judges on the Supreme Court declared that racial segregation in education was unconstitutional and therefore against the law. This decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896. Shortly after noon on Monday May 17,Show MoreRelatedThe Civil Right Act Of 18661520 Words   |  7 Pages Racial discrimination in granting rights and privilege between the veterans of white Americans and black African American is a major issue since seventeenth century. From the very beginning of America White Americans used to treat African Americans as slaves. Slavery in the United States began soon after English colonists first settled Virginia and lasted until the passage of the Civil Right Act of 1866. The nineteenth century saw a hardening of institutionalized racism and legalRead MoreThe Civil Rights Act Of 18661225 Words   |  5 PagesProclamation freed all slaves in the U.S. After the Civil War, the withdrawal of the federal troops from the south, and the Fourteenth Amendment was what they emancipated. The reconstruction lasted 12 years from 1871 until 1883 when the Supreme Court ruled the Civil Rights Cases in which some Acts were invalid because they addressed social as opposed to civil rights. Although Congress responded with legislation that led to the C ivil Rights Act of 1866, States kept on the books laws that continued theRead MoreProtecting Fundamental Rights Of Citizens888 Words   |  4 PagesProtecting Fundamental Rights of Citizens â€Å"A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury† (â€Å"Civil Rights†). In his article â€Å"To Begin the Nation Anew: Congress, Citizenship, and Civil Rights after the Civil War,† Robert J. Kaczorowski discusses the relationship between civil rights and the constitution laws of the 1860s. The federal government creating amendments and laws â€Å"that conferred on all Americans the preciousRead MoreSignificance Of The Reconstruction Act861 Words   |  4 Pages Reconstruction Acts – after the civil war four bills were passed by the United States Congress in 1867 in order to bring the country back together, providing the process and criteria that would allow the Southern states with the exception Tennessee, readmission into the Union. (Ohio Civil War Central, 2015) The significance of the Reconstruction act was the division of the south into five military districts; loyal freed male now allowed to vote, ex-confederate denied rights to hold office couldRead MoreThe Civil Rights Of The United States Essay1653 Words   |  7 Pagesfounding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People  (NAACP), World War II, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and several supreme court cases, that African American finally achieved the right to vote3. Even after these several legal advancements and many different civil rights movements the playing field, after many attempts to be leveled out, was still uneven and the day by day struggles continued. Even today, 396 years later, there are still racial bias and inequalities towardRead MoreReconstruction : The Failure Of Reconstruction1529 Words   |  7 Pagesend. Reconstruction began in 1865 right after the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln created a plan for Reconstruction that called for Reconcilia tion. Abraham Lincoln believed that preserving the Union was way more important than punishing the South. On the other hand, Robert E. Lee urged southerners to reconcile with the North and reunite as Americans. Abraham Lincoln proposed the Ten Percent Plan which offered southerners amnesty, or official pardon, for all illegal acts supporting the rebellion. The southernersRead MoreChallenges Of Radical Reconstruction748 Words   |  3 PagesFollowing the end of the Civil War in 1865, the United States faced many political challenges. One of these challenges would include the reintegration of the Confederate states that had seceded from the Union. There were many questions and issues with exactly how these states should be reintegrated back into the United States. Another challenge that quickly came to the forefront, after the Civil War, was how to handle the millions of freed African American slaves. This challenge would entailRead MoreHow Important Was the Reconstruction Period of 1865-1877 in the Development of African American Civil Rights797 Words   |  4 PagesThe end of the civil war should’ve marked a major turning point for the position of African Americans. The north’s victory marked the end of slavery and in addition, the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment guaranteed African Americans full civil and political equality. However, the end of the civil war and the beginning of the reconstruction era was seen a ‘false dawn for the slaves in the former confederacy and border states. 1865 saw the creation of the freedman bureau to provide food, shelterRead MoreThe Legacy Of Lincoln And Andrew Johnson1017 Words   |  5 Pagesof Lincoln s policies prevailed the Congressional elections of 1866 in the North, which enabled the Radicals to take control of policy, remove former Confederates from power, and enfranchise the freedmen. In 1876 the presidential vote was veer confused and forcing the congress to make the final decision. Andrew Johnson announced plans of the Reconstruction which was referred his stanch unionism and his firm belief of states’ rights. President Johnson was an inept politician who lost all his advantagesRead MoreThe American Civil War helped to save the nation by rejoining Union Confederate and as result of800 Words   |  4 PagesThe American Civil War helped to save the nation by rejoining Union Confederate and as result of the Emancipation Proclamation, most African American slaves were declared freed men. However, during the American Reconstruction, the lack of political unity was still very apparent as the South saw Reconstruction as being defeated humiliatingly and thus sought vengeance through the slaves it had lose. Although many slaves did receive their freedom, Reconstruction caused an increase in the white supremacy