Free Essays on Laughter

When told of this assignment I had no clue where to begin. I didn’t know what I wanted to write about or even what the topic was. I than called a friend from class, which really didn’t help me cause he didn’t know either what to write about. Than it hit me as I was watching Will Ferrell from Saturday Night Live do his classic impression of Harry Carry. I burst out laughing and after doing so was left with that feeling of deliciousness. The feeling you get when something you say makes someone laugh for forever. Or the feeling you get when you watch Homer Simpson do something stupid. It’s the feeling of joy. I guess it all stems back to when I was a little kid. I always enjoyed the feeling after a good chuckle. You felt alive and happy. I recall leaving the movie theatre after watching Home Alone and laughing at all the traps that Kevin set on the wet bandits. I felt great. You really cannot beat that pure feeling of happiness. Unless of course your on some magical drug. Which is beside the point but in that case it’s a great feeling, but only a different great feeling. Laughing is the cure for everything in my eyes. If your sad, laughing cheers you up. If you are sick, laughing is like the Dayquil of wonders. If you just lost an arm, well I am sure laughing will cheer you up a little, although losing an arm is an intense thing. Yes its really intense. The point is that no matter what, laughing will bring that great smile upon your face and make that moment or even your day better. My grandpa contributed to a lot of my laughter as a child. He always knew how to have a good time and make light of every moment. He would always make jokes at the dinner table and do funny impressions. He was never serious. I guess looking back it’s a good thing and a bad thing. Theirs times to be serious and times to not care. But even those times of seriousness need a little laughter. And that’s where he came in. I... Free Essays on Laughter Free Essays on Laughter When told of this assignment I had no clue where to begin. I didn’t know what I wanted to write about or even what the topic was. I than called a friend from class, which really didn’t help me cause he didn’t know either what to write about. Than it hit me as I was watching Will Ferrell from Saturday Night Live do his classic impression of Harry Carry. I burst out laughing and after doing so was left with that feeling of deliciousness. The feeling you get when something you say makes someone laugh for forever. Or the feeling you get when you watch Homer Simpson do something stupid. It’s the feeling of joy. I guess it all stems back to when I was a little kid. I always enjoyed the feeling after a good chuckle. You felt alive and happy. I recall leaving the movie theatre after watching Home Alone and laughing at all the traps that Kevin set on the wet bandits. I felt great. You really cannot beat that pure feeling of happiness. Unless of course your on some magical drug. Which is beside the point but in that case it’s a great feeling, but only a different great feeling. Laughing is the cure for everything in my eyes. If your sad, laughing cheers you up. If you are sick, laughing is like the Dayquil of wonders. If you just lost an arm, well I am sure laughing will cheer you up a little, although losing an arm is an intense thing. Yes its really intense. The point is that no matter what, laughing will bring that great smile upon your face and make that moment or even your day better. My grandpa contributed to a lot of my laughter as a child. He always knew how to have a good time and make light of every moment. He would always make jokes at the dinner table and do funny impressions. He was never serious. I guess looking back it’s a good thing and a bad thing. Theirs times to be serious and times to not care. But even those times of seriousness need a little laughter. And that’s where he came in. I...

Why Britain Attempted to Tax the American Colonies

Why Britain Attempted to Tax the American Colonies The attempts by Britain to tax its North American colonists in the late 1700s led to arguments, war, the expulsion of British rule and the creation of a new nation. The origins of these attempts lay, however, not in a rapacious government, but in the aftermath of the Seven Years War. Britain was attempting to both balance its finances and control the newly acquired parts of its empire, through asserting sovereignty. These actions were complicated by British prejudice against the Americans. The Need for Defense During the Seven Years War, Britain won a string of major victories and expelled France from North America, as well as parts of Africa, India, and the West Indies. New France, the name of France’s North American holdings, was now British, but a newly conquered population could cause problems. Few people in Britain were naà ¯ve enough to believe that these former French colonists would suddenly and wholeheartedly embrace British rule with no danger of rebellion, and Britain believed troops would be needed to preserve order. In addition, the war had revealed that the existing colonies needed defense against Britain’s enemies, and Britain believed that defense would be best provided by a fully trained regular army, not just colonial militias. To this end, the post-war government of Britain, with a major lead taken by King George III, decided to permanently station units of the British army in America. Keeping this army, however, would require money. The Need for Taxation The Seven Years War had seen Britain spend prodigious amounts, both on its own army and on subsidies for its allies. The British national debt had doubled in that short time, and extra taxes had been levied in Britain to cover it. The last one, the Cider Tax, had proved highly unpopular and many people were agitating to have it removed. Britain was also running short of credit with banks. Under huge pressure to curb spending, the British king and government believed that any further attempts to tax the homeland would fail. They thus seized upon other sources of income, one of which was taxing the American colonists in order to pay for the army protecting them. The American colonies appeared to the British government to be heavily undertaxed. Before the war, the most that colonists had directly contributed to British income was through customs revenue, but this barely covered the cost of collecting it. During the war, huge sums of British currency had flooded into the colonies, and many not killed in the war, or in conflicts with natives, had done rather well. It appeared to the British government that a few new taxes to pay for their garrison should be easily absorbed. Indeed, they had to be absorbed, because there simply didn’t seem to be any other way of paying for the army. Few in Britain expected the colonists to have protection and not pay for it themselves. Unchallenged Assumptions British minds first turned to the idea of taxing the colonists in 1763. Unfortunately for King George III and his government, their attempt to transform the colonies politically and economically into a safe, stable and revenue-producing- or at least revenue-balancing- part of their new empire would flounder, because the British failed to understand either the post-war nature of the Americas, the experience of war for the colonists, or how they would respond to tax demands. The colonies had been founded under crown/government authority, in the name of the monarch, and there had never been any exploration of what this really meant, and what power the crown had in America. While the colonies had become almost self-governing, many in Britain assumed that because the colonies largely followed British law, that the British state had rights over the Americans. No one in the British government appears to have asked if colonial troops could have garrisoned America, or if Britain should ask the colonists for financial aid instead of voting in taxes above their heads. This was partly the case because the British government thought it was learning a lesson from the French-Indian War: that the colonial government would only work with Britain if they could see a profit, and that colonial soldiers were unreliable and undisciplined because they operated under rules different from those of the British army. In fact, these prejudices were based on British interpretations of the early part of the war, where cooperation between the politically poor British commanders and the colonial governments had been tense, if not hostile. The Issue of Sovereignty Britain responded to these new, but false, assumptions about the colonies by trying to expand British control and sovereignty over America, and these demands contributed another aspect to the British desire to levy taxes. In Britain, it was felt that the colonists were outside the responsibilities which every Briton had to bear and that the colonies were too far removed from the core of British experience to be left alone. By extending the duties of the average Briton to the United States- including the duty to pay taxes- the whole unit would be better off. The British believed sovereignty was the sole cause of order in politics and society, that to deny sovereignty, to reduce or split it, was to invite anarchy and bloodshed. To view the colonies as separate from British sovereignty was, to contemporaries, to imagine a Britain dividing itself into rival units, which might lead to warfare between them. Britons dealing with the colonies frequently acted out of fear of reducing the crown’s powers when faced with the choice of levying taxes or acknowledging limits. Some British politicians did point out that levying taxes on the unrepresented colonies was against the rights of every Briton, but there weren’t enough to overturn the new tax legislation. Indeed, even when protests began in the Americans, many in Parliament ignored them. This was partly because of the sovereignty issue and partly because of contempt for the colonists based on the French-Indian War experience. It was also partly due to prejudice, as some politicians believed the colonists were subordinate to the British motherland. The British government was not immune to snobbery. The Sugar Act The first post-war attempt to change the financial relationship between Britain and the colonies was the American Duties Act of 1764, commonly known as the Sugar Act for its treatment of molasses. This was voted in by a large majority of British MPs, and had three main effects: there were laws to make customs collection more efficient; to add new charges on consumables in the United States, partly to push the colonists into buying imports from within the British empire; and to change existing costs, in particular, the importing costs of molasses. The duty on molasses from the French West Indies actually went down, and an across the board 3 pence a ton was instituted. Political division in America stopped most complaints about this act, which started among affected merchants and spread to their allies in assemblies, without having any major effect. However, even at this early stage- as the majority seemed slightly confused as to how laws affecting the rich and the merchants could affect them- colonists heatedly pointed out that this tax was being levied without any expansion of the right to vote in the British parliament. The Stamp Tax In February 1765, after only minor complaints from the colonists, the British government imposed the Stamp Tax. For British readers, it was just a slight increase in the process of balancing expenses and regulating the colonies. There was some opposition in the British parliament, including from Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Barrà ©, whose off the cuff speech made him a star in the colonies and gave them a rallying cry as the â€Å"Sons of Liberty,† but not enough to overcome the government vote. The Stamp Tax was a charge applied on every piece of paper used in the legal system and in the media. Every newspaper, every bill or court paper, had to be stamped, and this was charged for, as were dice and playing cards. The aim was to start small and allow the charge to grow as the colonies grew, and was initially set at two-thirds of the British stamp tax. The tax would be important, not just for the income, but also for the precedent it would set: Britain would start with a small tax, and maybe one day levy enough to pay for the colonies’ whole defense. The money raised was to be kept in the colonies and spent there. America Reacts George Grenville’s Stamp Tax was designed to be subtle, but things didnt play out exactly as he had expected. The opposition was initially confused but consolidated around the five Resolutions given by Patrick Henry in the Virginia House of Burgesses, which were reprinted and popularized by newspapers. A mob gathered in Boston and used violence to coerce the man responsible for the Stamp Tax’s application to resign. Brutal violence spread, and soon there were very few people in the colonies willing or able to enforce the law. When it came into effect in November it was effectively dead, and the American politicians responded to this anger by denouncing taxation without representation and looking for peaceful ways to persuade Britain to scrap the tax while remaining loyal. Boycotts of British goods went into effect as well. Britain Seeks a Solution Grenville lost his position as developments in America were reported to Britain, and his successor, the Duke of Cumberland, decided to enforce British sovereignty by force. However, he suffered a heart attack before he could order this, and his successor resolved to find a way to repeal the Stamp Tax but keep sovereignty intact. The government followed a twofold tactic: to verbally (not physically or militarily) assert sovereignty, and then cite the economic effects of the boycott to repeal the tax. The ensuing debate made it quite clear that British Members of Parliament felt the King of Britain had sovereign power over the colonies, had the right to pass laws affecting them, including taxes, and that this sovereignty did not give the Americans a right to representation. These beliefs underpinned the Declaration Act. British leaders then agreed, somewhat expediently, that the Stamp Tax was damaging trade and they repealed it in a second act. People in Britain and America celebrated. Consequences The result of British taxation was the development of a new voice and consciousness among the American colonies. This had been emerging during the French-Indian War, but now issues of representation, taxation, and liberty began to take center stage. There were fears that Britain intended to enslave them. On Britain’s part, they now had an empire in America which was proving expensive to run and difficult to control. These challenges would eventually lead to the Revolutionary War.

Lsweek4rem3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lsweek4rem3 - Essay Example The arguments put by Kilduff and Mehra (1997) are based on earlier discussions by Rosenau (1992). However they also mention the idea of that postmodernism can be thought of as one of the great 20th century challenges, an idea put forward by Wisdom ( 1987) This particular argument is not only about research in social sciences, but also within areas such as physics (Farney, 1994;) as cited in 1997 by Kilduff and Mehra. Alvensson and Skoldberg (1995) point out that critically evaluating a variety of issues will provide insight for reflective ways to investigate social sciences. The authors focus on the way in which issues are described and articulated which appears to ensue from using the expressions postmodernism and modernism. Their discussion is concerned with the use of postmodernism as being a means used by researchers when they wish to put forward a totally new image. Going back to Kilduff and Mehra (1997), they discuss postmodernism concepts as being linked with the process of knowledge creation. This they do by discussing the writing of Giroux (1992) who stated that within postmodern research the aims are to challenge the makeup and shape of prevailing patterns of knowledge as well as how to create new types of knowledge. This., it is suggested, happens when disciplinary boundaries are broken down and when those who are relatively unrepresented are given their voice. I find myself agreeing with postmodernism. concepts when it comes to knowledge creation. There needs to be a focus upon two things – the way in which postmodernism presents a challenge to older models of knowledge as well as the production of new knowledge. In the work situation there needs to be a challenging of the already existing body of knowledge while at the same time ensuring that new knowledge is being produced. This means that postmodernism can be a successful conce pt when it comes to the creation of new bodies of knowledge. How has

Comparison between Management Information System (MIS) and Executive Essay

Comparison between Management Information System (MIS) and Executive Information System (EIS) - Essay Example In the banking industry, such systems find tremendous use as they are employed for various activities like financial reporting, analysis, capital investment decisions, investment risk analysis and cash flow analysis. All these activities require executive overview as well as managerial decisions at different levels, which require the use of either EIS or MIS as deemed necessary. Specifically speaking, the project will analyze the utilities of these systems for senior and middle management in the target industry, who use the services of these mediums for business planning, forecasting, monitoring and control. Further, the significance of these systems amongst various departments within companies as well as their specific uses by employees for realizing various tasks will be studied thoroughly. As mentioned above, the primary purpose of the project is to provide a critical comparison between the use of Management Information Systems (MIS) and Executive Information Systems (EIS) in the investment banking and financial sector. For this purpose, an elaborate study will be undertaken to analyze such systems used in prominent investment banks in the United States like Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. In this study, a number of objectives have been outlined which will be evaluated to provide an extensive comparison amongst the two chosen categories. These objectives are listed below. As the name implies, Information systems serve the primary purpose of information gathering, processing and appropriate display. In doing so, the worthiness of both MIS and EIS will be evaluated for their efficiency in processing information without much processing and user involvement. This is especially essential for users in specific departments as relieving them from additional processing provides them the much needed time for elaborate decision making using the information provided by these systems. Two

Second World War Music Propaganda Music Essay

Second World War Music Propaganda Music Essay From Wilhelm Richard Wagner to Irving Berlin, the music of World War II was used on both sides of the conflict to gain support at home and give a feeling of patriotism and boost morale. Interestingly, it was also used as a vehicle to express a vision of government, to attract the enemy troops to propaganda, and encourage the home troops as well. Looking at the music of this time provides insight into the attitudes and cultural tone of the political leaders to all different levels of society Adolf was a fanatical admirer of Wagner since his teens. His passion for Wagner knew no bounds and a performance was almost like a religious experience to the young Adolph. Adolph was carried away by Wagners powerful musical dramas, the evocation of a heroic, sublimely and distant mystical Germanic past. Adolphs first and favorite Wagner opera was Lohengrin, which is the saga of a knight of the grail, the epitome of the Teutonic hero, who was sent from the castle of Monsalvat by his father Parzival to rescue Elsa who had been wrongly condemned, but ended up betraying her. Adolphs philosophy was built upon the works of Wagner which can be seen in his statement These criminals who wanted do away with me have no idea what would happen to the German people, they dont know the plans of our enemies, who want to annihilate Germany so that it never can rise again. If they think that the western powers are strong enough without Germany to hold Bolshevism in check, they are deceiving themselvesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I am the only one who knows the danger, and the only one who can prevent it. The author Ian Kershaw sums up Adolphs statement Such sentiments were redolent, through a distorting mirror, of the Wagnerian redeemer-figure, a hero who alone could save the holders of the Grail, indeed the world itself from disaster a latter-day Parsifal. (Page 851). Adolph thought he could save Germany and the world, but how wrong he was in his thinking that he was an epic hero. As fascinated with Wagner as Adolph was One cannot help but wonder what Richard Wagner would have thought about Adolf Hitler, one of his all-time biggest fans! (Ferguson). Would Wagner consider Adolph and epic hero? One has to think not, but one could be wrong. German Songs Due to Hitlers fascinating with Wagner and especially the Germanic culture that Wagner promoted, the Nazis took a strong interest in promoting the music and culture of their remote ancestors through the use of radio and at the same time promote their propaganda. As with most dictatorial governments the Nazis had an obsession with controlling and promoting the culture of the people and as a result the common peoples taste in music was kept secret, but many Germans were able to use their radios to listen to Jazz which was hated by Hitler but loved by the world. Soldiers in the German army were expected to learn a repertoire of marching songs and traditional songs that they could perform on demand. (Les Cleveland page 8). Which is a type of propaganda. One of the most popular songs of World War Two was Lili Marlene which was popular with both the German and British forces. Based on the German poem Das Mà ¤dchen unter der Laterne which was set to music in 1938. The song was recorded in both German and English versions. German English Vor der Kaserme vor dem großen Tor stand eine Lanterne und steht sie nach davor so wollen wir da uns wieder sehen bei der Lanterne wollen wir stehen wie einst Lili Marlen Unsere beide Schatten sahen wir einer aus daß wir so lieb uns hatten daß gleich man daraus und alle Leute sollen es sehen wie einst Lili Marlen Schon rief der Posten, sie blasen zapfenstreich es kann drei Tage kosten Kamrad, ich komm so gleich da sagten wir auf wiedersehen wie gerne wollt ich mit dir gehen mit dir Lili Marlen Deine Schritte kennt sie, deine Zierengang alle abend brennt sie, doch mich vergaß sie lang und sollten mir ein leids geschehen wer wird bei der Lanterne stehen mit dir Lili Marlen? Aus dem Stillen raume, aus der erder Grund heßt mich wie un Traà ¼me dein verliebster Mund wenn sich die Spaten nebel drehn werdich bei der Lanterne stehen wie einst Lili Marlen Underneath the lantern by the barrack gate, Darling I remember the way you used to wait, Twas there that you whispered tenderly, That you loved me, Youd always be, My Lili of the lamplight, My own Lili Marlene. Time would come for roll call, Time for us to part, Darling Id caress you and press you to my heart, And there neath that far off lantern light, Id hold you tight, Wed kiss good-night, My Lili of the lamplight, My own Lili Marlene. Orders came for sailing somewhere over there, All confined to barracks was more than I could bear; I knew you were waiting in the street, I heard your feet, But could not meet, My Lili of the lamplight, My own Lili Marlene. Resting in a billet just behind the line, Even thowere parted your lips are close to mine; You wait where that lantern softly gleams, Your sweet face seems to haunt my dreams, My Lili of the lamplight, My own Lili Marlene. Due to the popularity of the song it was used throughout the war not only as a popular song, but a propaganda tool. The best understanding of German Music from World War Two has to come from official Nazi government policy. Regrettably as the losers in the war, Nazi songs and German music from this time period has not been assigned the high heroic status as have British and American popular music of this time period. British Songs Although First World War poets [Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon] are often presented as the literature of wartime, popular songs were important in keeping up morale.   Those from World War II have become especially well known. Some songs were overtly nationalistic, such as ThereHYPERLINK #There%27ll%20Always%20Be%20An%20EnglandHYPERLINK #There%27ll%20Always%20Be%20An%20Englandll Always Be An England. Other music was popular because it evoked emotional states common in wartime, for instance a sense of nostalgic sadness and loss. ( Modern History Sourcebook: Therell Always Be An England and other War Music.) Without question the most popular vocalist of World War Two would be Vera Lynn who sang almost ever well known war time tune in her concerts including Lili Marlene and Therell always be an England but her best know songs were Well meet again and White cliffs of Dover. These songs just give a hint of the differing varieties of wartime songs, other popular music genres included music with lush instrumental compositions as well as just silly songs. American Songs During the war, many people in the US and Great Britain found an escape by listening to the radio. Hit songs were a nice form of catharsis for the public; the lyrics were often about situations the average person could relate to, and it helped the listeners to feel that they were not alone. So, naturally, songwriters wanted to provide music that would be uplifting, encouraging, and of course, patriotic American Songs. A list notable songs of World War Two from America would have to include hits such as Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy which was composed by Don Raye and Hughie Prince and was recorded on January 2, 1941, nearly a year before the United States entered the war The storyline of the song told about, a renowned Illinois street musician is drafted into the United States Army during the draft. In addition to being famous, the bugler was the top man at his craft, but the Army had little use for his talents and he was reduced to blowing Reveille in the morning, which caused the musician to become dejected. Other hits were: Dont Sit Under The Apple Tree (With Anyone Else But Me), Ill Be Home For Christmas, Juke Box Saturday Night, Kiss The Boys Goodbye , Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition, and God Bless America which was written by Irving Berlin in 1918 but made famous by Kate Smith in an Armistice Day radio broadcast in 1938. This list could go on with all the notable songs from this time period but space and time will not permit. Conclusion Music goes much deeper, and reaches into our psyches for reasons other than its initial sound. Music evokes emotions of patriotism, fear, jubilation, sadness and many more emotions. As well as invoking emotional responses, music is used as a propaganda tool to get people fired up for a certain cause whether in war or even politics. Was the music of World War Two patriotic or was it propaganda, or was it both? It all depends from which side you view the question. Usually the winning sides music was patriotic and the losers propaganda In closing Susan Burns states from the article War, music, and evolution. No doubt, its dismaying to realize that warfare is so deeply a part of our makeup that well never have the war to end all wars. Those war songs touch a deep, dark chord. Yet, I consider myself better off for having this perspective on warfare.(Burns 2003). What kind of music will be used as patriotic music in the next major war? What music will be used as a propaganda tool? We may have to wait for the answers to these questions, but one thing is certain, as with all past wars, music will have an influence.

Customer Relationship Management and Flight Attendants

Essentials of MIS Additional Cases 1 BUSINESS PROBLEM-SOLVING CASE JetBlue Hits Turbulence In February 2000, JetBlue started flying daily to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Buffalo, New York, promising top-notch customer service at budget prices. The airline featured new Airbus A320 planes with leather seats, each equipped with a personal TV screen, and average one-way fares of only $99 per passenger. JetBlue was able to provide this relatively luxurious flying experience by using information systems to automate key processes, such as ticket sales (online sales dominate) and baggage handling (electronic tags help track luggage).Jet Blue prided itself on its â€Å"paperless processes. † JetBlue’s investment in information technology enabled the airline to turn a profit by running its business at 70 percent of the cost of larger competitors. At the same time, JetBlue filled a higher percentage of its seats, employed non-union workers, and established enough good will to scor e an impressive customer retention rate of 50 percent. Initially, JetBlue flew only one type of plane from one vendor: the Airbus A320. This approach enabled the airline to standardize flight operations and maintenance procedures to a degree that resulted in considerable savings.CIO Jeff Cohen used the same simple-is-better strategy for JetBlue’s information systems. Cohen depended almost exclusively on Microsoft software products to design JetBlue’s extensive network of information systems. (JetBlue’s reservation system and systems for managing planes, crews, and scheduling are run by an outside contractor. ) Using a single vendor provided a technology framework in which Cohen could keep a small staff and favor in-house development of systems over outsourcing and relying on consultants. The benefit was stable and focused technology spending. JetBlue spent only 1. percent of its revenue on information technology, as opposed to the 5 percent spent by competitors. JetBlue’s technology strategy helped create a pleasing flying experience for passengers. As president and chief operating officer Dave Barger put it, â€Å"Some people say airlines are powered by fuel, but this airline is powered by its IT infrastructure. † JetBlue consistently found itself at the top of J. D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction surveys. JetBlue believed it had learned to work lean and smart. The big question was whether JetBlue would be able to maintain its strategy and its success as the airline grew.By the end of 2006, the company was operating 500 flights daily in 50 cities and had $2. 4 billion in annual revenue. Along the way, JetBlue committed to purchasing a new plane every five weeks through 2007, at a cost of $52 million each. Through all of this, JetBlue remained true to its formula for success and customers continued to return. February 14, 2007, was a wake-up call. A fierce ice storm struck the New York City area that day and set i n motion a string of events that threatened JetBlue’s sterling reputation and its stellar customer relationships.JetBlue made a fateful decision to maintain its schedule in the belief that the horrible weather would break. JetBlue typically avoided pre-canceling flights because passengers usually preferred to have a delayed arrival than to camp out at a terminal or check into a hotel. If the airline had guessed correctly, it would have kept its revenue streams intact and made the customers who were scheduled to fly that day very happy. Most other airlines began canceling flights early in the day, believing it was the prudent decision even though passengers would be inconvenienced and money would be lost.The other airlines were correct. Nine JetBlue planes left their gates at John F. Kennedy International Airport and were stranded on the tarmac for at least six hours. The planes were frozen in place or trapped by iced-over access roads, as was the equipment that would de-ice o r move the aircraft. Passengers were confined inside the planes for up to ten and one-half hours. Supplies of food and water on the planes ran low and toilets in the restrooms began to back up. JetBlue found itself in the middle of a massive dual crisis of customer and public relations.JetBlue waited too long to solicit help for the stranded passengers because the airline figured that the planes would be able to take off eventually. Meanwhile, the weather conditions and the delays or cancellations of other flights caused customers to flood JetBlue’s reservations system, which could not handle the onslaught. At the same time, many of the airline’s pilots and flight crews were also stranded and unable to get to locations where they could pick up the slack for crews that had just worked their maximum hours without rest, but did not actually go anywhere.Moreover, JetBlue did not have a system in place for the rested crews to call in and have their assignments rerouted. The glut of planes and displaced or tired crews forced JetBlue to cancel more flights the next day, a Thursday. And the cancellations continued daily for nearly a week, with the Presidents’ Day holiday week providing few opportunities for rebooking. On the sixth day, JetBlue cancelled 139 of 600 flights involving 11 other airports. 2 76 Part I: Information Systems in Hits Digital Age JetBlue the TurbulenceJetBlue’s eventual recovery was of little solace to passengers who were stranded at the airport for days and missed reservations for family vacations. Overall, more than 1,100 flights were cancelled, and JetBlue lost $30 million. The airline industry is marked by low profit margins and high fixed costs, which means that even short revenue droughts, such as a four-day shutdown, can have devastating consequences for a carrier’s financial stability. Throughout the debacle, JetBlue’s CEO David G. Neeleman was very visible and forthcoming with accountability and apologies.He was quoted many times, saying things such as, â€Å"We love our customers and we’re horrified by this. There’s going to be a lot of apologies. † Neeleman also admitted to the press that JetBlue’s management was not strong enough and its communications system was inadequate. The department responsible for allocating pilots and crews to flights was too small. Some flight attendants were unable to get in touch with anyone who could tell them what to do for three days. With the breakdown in communications, thousands of pilots sand flight attendants were out of position, and the staff could neither find them nor tell them where to go.JetBlue had grown too fast, and its low-cost IT infrastructure and systems could not keep up with the business. JetBlue was accustomed to saving money both from streamlined information systems and lean staffing. Under normal circumstances, the lean staff was sufficient to handle all operations, and the computer syste ms functioned well below their capacity. However, the ice storm exposed the fragility of the infrastructure as tasks such as rebooking passengers, handling baggage, and locating crew members became impossible. Although Neeleman asserted in a conference call hat JetBlue’s computer systems were not to blame for its meltdown, critics of the company pointed out that JetBlue lacked systems to keep track of off-duty flight crews and lost baggage. Its reservation system could not expand enough to meet the high customer call volume. Navitaire, headquartered in Minneapolis, hosts the reservation system for JetBlue as well as for a dozen other discount airlines. The Navitaire system was configured to accomodate up to 650 agents at one time, which was more than sufficient under normal circumstances.During the Valentine’s Day crisis, Navitaire was able to tweak the system to accomodate up to 950 agents simultaneously, but that was still not enough. Moreover, JetBlue could not find enough qualified employees to staff its phones. The company employs about 1,500 reservation agents who work primarily from their homes, linking to its Navitaire Open Skies reservation system using an Internet-based voice communications system. Many ticketholders were unable to determine the status of their flights because the phone lines were jammed.Some callers received a recording that directed them to JetBlue’s Web site. The Web site stopped responding because it could not handle the spike in visitors, leaving many passengers with no way of knowing whether they should make the trip to the airport. JetBlue lacked a computerized system for recording and tracking lost bags. It did have a system for storing information such as the number of bags checked in by a passenger and bag tag identification numbers. But the system could not record which bags had not been picked up or their location.There was no way for a JetBlue agent to use a computer to see if a lost bag for a partic ular passenger was among the heap of unclaimed bags at airports where JetBlue was stranded. In the past, JetBlue management did not feel there was a need for such a system because airport personnel were able to look up passenger records and figure out who owned leftover bags. When so many flights were canceled, the process became unmanageable. JetBlue uses several applications provided by outsourcing vendor Sabre Airline Solutions of Southlake, Texas to manage, schedule, and track planes and crews and to develop actual flight plans.Sabre’s FliteTrac application interfaces with the Navitaire reservation system to provide managers with information about flight status, fuel, passenger lists, and arrival times. Sabre’s CrewTrac application tracks crew assignments and provides pilots and flight attendants access to their schedules via a secure Web portal. JetBlue uses a Navitaire application called SkySolver to determine how to redeploy planes and crews to emerge from fligh t disruptions. However, JetBlue found out during the Valentine’s Day emergency that SkySolver was unable to transfer the information quickly to JetBlue’s Sabre applications.And even if these systems had worked properly together, JetBlue would have probably been unable to locate all of its flight crews to redirect them. It did not have a system to keep track of off-duty crew members. Overtaxed phone lines prevented crew members from calling into headquarters to give their locations and availability for work. JetBlue’s response to its humiliating experience was multifaceted. On the technology front, the airline deployed new software that sends recorded messages to pilots and flight attendants to inquire about their availability.When the employees return the calls, the information they supply is entered into a system that stores the data for access and analysis. From a staffing standpoint, Neeleman promised to train 100 employees from the airline’s corporate office to serve as backups for the departments that were stretched too thin by the effects of the storm. Chapter 2:of MIS AdditionalBusinesses Use Information Systems Essentials E-Business: How Cases 77 3 JetBlue attempted to address its customer relations and image problems by creating a customer bill of rights to enforce standards for customer treatment and airline behavior.JetBlue would be penalized when it failed to provide proper service, and customers who were subjected to poor service would be rewarded. JetBlue set the maximum time for holding passengers on a delayed plane at five hours. The company changed its operational philosophy to make more accomodation for inclement weather. An opportunity to test its changes arrived for JetBlue just one month after the incident that spurred the changes. Faced with another snow and ice storm in the northeast United States on March 16, 2007, JetBlue cancelled 215 flights, or about a third of its total daily slate.By canceling early, ma nagement hoped to ensure that its flight crews would be accessible and available when needed, and that airport gates would be kept clear in case flights that were already airborne had to return. In the wake of its winter struggles, JetBlue was left to hope that its customers would be forgiving and that its losses could be offset. Neeleman pointed out that only about 10,000 of JetBlue’s 30 million annual customers were inconvenienced by the airline’s weather-related breakdowns.On May 10, 2007, JetBlue’s Board of Directors removed Neeleman as CEO, placing him in the role of non-executive chairman. According to Liz Roche, managing partner at Customers Incorporated, a customer relationship management research and consulting firm, â€Å"JetBlue demonstrated that it’s an adolescent in the airline industry and that it has a lot of learning and growing up to do. † Sources: Doug Bartholomew and Mel Duvall, â€Å"What Really Happened at JetBlue,† Base line Magazine, April 1, 2007; â€Å"JetBlue Cancels Hundreds of Flights,† The Associated Press, accessed via www. nytimes. om, March 16, 2007; Susan Carey and Darren Everson, â€Å"Lessons on the Fly: JetBlue’s New Tactics,† The Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2007; Eric Chabrow, â€Å"JetBlue’s Management Meltdown,† CIO Insight, February 20, 2007; Jeff Bailey, â€Å"Chief ‘Mortified’ by JetBlue Crisis,† The New York Times, February 19, 2007 and â€Å"Long Delays Hurt Image of JetBlue,† The New York Times, February 17, 2007; Susan Carey and Paula Prada, â€Å"Course Change: Why JetBlue Shuffled Top Rank,† The Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2007; Coreen Bailor, JetBlue’s Service Flies South,† Customer Relationship Management, May 2007; Thomas Hoffman, â€Å"Out-of-the-Box Airline Carries Over Offbeat Approach to IT,† Computerworld, March 11, 2003; and Stephanie Overby, â€Å"JetBlue Skies Ahead, † CIO Magazine, July 1, 2002. Case Study Questions 1. What types of information systems and business functions are described in this case? 2. What is JetBlue’s business model? How do its information systems support this business model? 3.What was the problem experienced by JetBlue in this case? What people, organization, and technology factors were responsible for the problem? 4. Evaluate JetBlue’s response to the crisis. What solutions did the airline come up with? How were these solutions implemented? Do you think that JetBlue found the correct solutions and implemented them correctly? What other solutions can you think of that JetBlue hasn’t tried? 5. How well is JetBlue prepared for the future? Are the problems described in this case likely to be repeated? Which of JetBlue’s business processes are most vulnerable to breakdowns? How much will a customer bill of rights help?

Commonly Confused Words Nutritional and Nutritious

The adjectives nutritional and nutritious are both related to the noun nutrition (the process of eating the right kinds of food so you can be healthy and grow properly), but their meanings are slightly different. Definitions Nutritional means related to the process of nutrition—that is, using food to support life and maintain health. Nutritious means nourishing or healthy to eat. In the Good Word Guide (2009), Martin Manser notes that the more formal adjective nutritive may be used in place of nutritional or nutritious, but it more frequently replaces the former. Also see the usage notes below. Examples In a growing trend, there is more and more demand that chain restaurants, at least, should be required to give nutritional information in the restaurants, either on the menu or on or near a posted menu. (The A-Z Encyclopedia of Food Controversies and the Law, 2011)Nutritional advice is notoriously nebulous, and food groups regularly alternate between demonisation and deification. Fat makes you fat; fat makes you thin; carbs are basically crack; carbs are back. Corporate agendas are behind much of this confusion. (Arwa Mahdawi, Take It With a Pinch of Salt: The Food Marketing Myths Weve Swallowed Whole.  The Guardian [UK], June 7, 2016)While growing teens need extra calories, they should get them from nutritious sources--not from high-fat, high-calorie, high-sugar foods.Agriculture’s practitioners have often believed their main task to be the production of ever-increasing yields; concerns about the  nutritious  quality of the food have been dismissed as a nuisance that co uld only interfere with quantity. (Roger Thurow, Why the First 1,000 Days Matter Most. The New York Times, June 20, 2016) Usage Notes Nutritional means related to the nutrition process (using food to support life). This chart contains nutritional information for certain menu items.Nutritious means healthy to eat or nourishing. To increase energy, eat nutritious foods like eggs, fruit, or whole-grain breads. (Dave Dowling,  The Wrong Word Dictionary, 2nd ed. Marion Street Press, 2011)[N]utrition is the discipline concerned with desirable foodstuffs and feeding, also desirable feeding itself; nutritional means having to do with nutrition;  nutritious means  having the character associated with desirable nutrition. (Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 6th ed. Cambridge University Press, 2002) Practice Exercises The papaya is a wondrous fruit--abundant, tasty, and _____.Every junk food manufacturer is expending large amounts of money on research to improve the _____ content of their foods. (Andrew F. Smith, Fast Food and Junk Food. Greenwood, 2011) Answers to Practice Exercises The papaya is a wondrous fruit--abundant, tasty, and nutritious.Every junk food manufacturer is expending large amounts of money on research to improve the nutritional content of their foods. (Andrew F. Smith, Fast Food and Junk Food. Greenwood, 2011)