Argument proposal

My Position

Does technology benefit the music industry? Can music survive file transfer websites? Will hard-core analog listeners switch to digital formats? What formats will become mainstream in the future? Who is the music industry targeting to increase slumping sales? Does music offer health benefits through music therapy? These questions are the current important issues that the music industry faces today.

Let's face it, a large percentage of the Baby Boomers have never made the computer transformation. Due to that fact, there will always be a market for store-bought music. Most baby boomers prefer to go the store and simply buy music. Because of technology, music listeners are given choices a on buying and listening to music. Most boomers grew up with television and have updated their home entertainment systems to watch DVDs. Most of these home entertainment systems are 5.1 surround sound compatible. This is a major marketing opportunity for the music industry and the bands themselves. Market old music in a new and improved format will entice boomers to rebuy thier favorite music again. It is like you are hearing it for the first time again. Baby boomers are 78 million strong in the United States and have major buying power. The music industry, for their survival, must target this age group. This is a prime example of how technology serves as a useful tool for music sales. On the other hand, major record companies might be a bit hesitant to focus on boomers and 5.1 surround sound as a savior. There are no guarantees by simply enhancing the sound of their old favorite songs will make the boomers run to the store with their wallets open. The record companies and the bands themselves have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Marketing this may be costly and a major gamble for the music industry, but they need to do something to stimulate business do to slumping sales.

Another big question is the issue of MP3 downloading off the Internet. Can store-bought formats coexist with MP3 file sharing websites? There is plenty of room for both. MP3 downloading is geared for younger, more computer literate music listeners. This is the format that young people grew up on, making them more comfortable using this format. Radiohead is cutting out the record companies by simply making their music available on their website. Radiohead's last album was only available through their website. Contributions were excepted but not mandatory. This is a great promotional tool but how about the consumer without a computer? There is room for both options, by giving the consumers the option of buying at the store or from the website is good for business. Having more options for the consumer can only stimulate business and create competition, which will keep costs down.

The issue of analog sounding better than digital still prevalent, but doesn't help or hurt the music industry. The record companies have responded to the hard-core vinyl listeners by releasing more albums on vinyl. Turntables and vinyl lp's sales have skyrocketed in the last few years. The artists themselves have retreated back to vinyl as a format option. Basically, the major problem with digital recordings are that they only sample analog sounds and don't present the full spectrum of sound that analog offers. Both analog and digital are here to stay, regardless of which one sounds better.

Reflection on Multi-Modal Project

This project was challenging when it came to the layout and the insertion of the utube links. This was more an informative report than an opinion or argument, making the project just full of facts and explanation. The APA style of citing was difficult and I need more work in this area. This class is turning out to be a multi-media experience rather than you prototypical English class. Looking forward to the Arguement project.

Thousands Americans out of Work. I am One of them!

on January 28, 2008 I was watching ABC's world news tonight. They had a segment about Americans losing their homes because of the bad economy and the type of Morgage loan that they acquired. Anyway, I recently lost my job in October of 2007 and have been struggling financially to keep my home. I wrote my story to ABC news via their website and they chose my story for their "Thousands of Americans out of work" segment. They called me on March 6 to interview me and asked me questions about my unemployment misfortune. Betsy Stark from ABC news talked to me for over a half hour on the phone. After our conversation she asked me if I would be available Friday, March 7, and if they chose my story to be aired on that day. I told her I was available, and ABC called me to set up a time to send the film crew to my house. It was quite an interesting process on how they interview from a speakerphone from New York and make it seem like there are actually in the room asking you questions. I've never been on national news before and it was quite an interesting experience. You can go to the following Internet address to view the interview. http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4411115. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Surround Sound is the Future

Topic Proposal

Music Industry will upgrade to Surround Sound Soon

Technology is rejuvenating the music industry and with continuing research and format development such as surround sound, I believe sales will continue to increase. The development of surround sound through the DVD format is the future for success in the music industry. In layman's terms, instead of hearing music through two speakers which is stereo, surround sound utilizes five or seven speakers and reproduces the music to be heard through all speakers. This is done by remixing the original source tape. Hence the term 5.1 surround sound and 7.1 surround sound. Compared to stereo, surround sound is much clearer and separates the different aspects of music. The highs which are considered the treble are usually allocated to your rear speakers. The front speakers and your middle channel usually handle the voice of the music and the Sub-Woofer re-creates the base and the lows. This is only one format within music reproduction and due to the fact that it has a great reproduction of sound I believe that most of your older music and especially classic rock will begin to remaster in a surround sound format to increase record sales.

What I propose to do with this topic is to give the reader better insight on the difference between analog and digital. Also, to educate them on the different formats and music players that is available in the market. Most importantly, I want to study the data to see if record sales have increased since 1982, when digital music was available and to compare the sales of records and CDs since digital came to the music market. Another question that readers might have, especially with 35 and older age group is if digital sound is better than analog. I'll need scientific evidence and listener preference to answer that question. Still, even today a lot hard-core music listeners will not give up their vinyl albums and replace them with CDs. Maybe I'll be able to persuade them through examples and facts.

End of Assignment Blog

End-of-Assignment "Reflection" Blog

Reflecting back on this assignment, the main skill that I developed is learning how to write for the Internet. Writing a simple research paper uses a different format and writing technique than writing for the Web. In doing this paper made me realize the time and effort that website authors put into doing these pages. Without using office share point designer, which is a program similar to Dreamweaver, my project would have taken forever. When I signed up for this course I thought it was your prototypical English research paper class and was surprised to find out how Web intense this class is.
Searching the Internet for information to do this project was relatively easy compared to what I used to do in the past when I spent countless hours at the library. Also using word processing programs with spell check is a major advantage. In the future I would like to pick a topic that I am more familiar with and that I have a passion for. This class seems to be a ground breaking experience for the English department and for Purdue.
Mechanically my writing style is informal and I need to remember to have a strong thesis statement in my introduction. The body of my articles needs to be informative but exciting for the readers. Conclusions need to back up with examples and fact. Formal writing is something that I need work at. Hopefully, the content of my current project is sufficient. I look forward and expect to become a better writer from attending this class.

Stem Cell Research and Therapeutic Cloning

Stem Cell Research and Therapeutic Cloning

South Korea is taking the initiative in cloning and stem cell research. The authors of this article say that South Korea is taking steps to a tantalizing goal. The reason for describing this goal as tantalizing should be rephrased as tempting. The United States medical companies must see the financial gain to stem cell research and cloning. Therapeutic cloning is described as tailor-made replacement tissues, that seemed to suggest that this is the future despite all the ethical issues, it is time to go full throttle with this new medical technology.

In a more recent study in the U.S., Scientist have used skin cells to grow human tissue. United States scientists said they have successfully reprogrammed human skin cells to behave exactly as embryonic stem cells. The research was published in the Feb. 11 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. This is the third such confirmation that the technique is feasible. "Our reprogrammed human skin cells were virtually indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells," lead author Kathrin Plath, an assistant professor of biological chemistry at UCLA and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, said in statement. "Our findings are an important step towards manipulating differentiated human cells to generate an unlimited supply of patient specific pluripotent stem cells. We are very excited about the potential implications."
Therapeutic cloning is in its infinite stages right now but it is hard to deny the consistent advantages of this process. In this type of cloning it rules out the chance of rejection of an organ as opposed to traditional organ donning by another human being. The risk of organ rejection is almost eliminated through therapeutic cloning. Using sophisticated techniques for cells that are extracted from the human body are genetically identical and lessen the risk of organ rejection. The South Korean scientists harvest embryos from a woman and creative culture that has the ability to turn into any cell in the body. To make these useful, scientists will turn them into particular cells and inject them back into people. Some cells work but not all do.

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity has a Christian analysis on this moral issue.

In conclusion, the ethical argument is that human embryos die. Embryos feel no pain and the benefit far outweighs the negative side to this procedure. The United States needs to invest in this technology now. How many people that are waiting for organ transplants will die waiting? He who hesitates is lost. The writing is on the wall. What are we waiting for?

How to Evaluate a Website

How to Evaluate a Website
The Oncoliink website covered all of the good assets of a professional website. They were authoritative and accurate with their information. Furthermore, they were current and displayed minimal bias. Ccientific studies were accurate and there wasn't any direct advertising on the site. In contrast, the World Health Organization did not supply any supporting references, dates, and no contact information. This website would lead me to believe that this is of opinion and not scientific fact.
The Martin Luther King.org website had authority problems also. It showed that David Duke the leader of the Ku Klux Klan had his biased opinion throughout the website. Also, there was third-party information that was posted on the website that is also very questionable. Thekingcenter.org is a much better source for reference. They supplied actual documents that Dr. King wrote while he was in the Birmingham Jail. This website was authoritative, very accurate, current and did not display any bias.

Technology

Technology

My first experience with technology was when I worked for a grocery store called Dominick's Finer Foods. We used a hand held unit called a Telzon machine. This was a hand held unit, which came out in 1986, had a laser gun attached to it and you were able to order product and keep inventory on it. Previous to this we had to order everything manually with books. Each product had a UPC code and we had to manually write the amount of product for each code. The bad thing about the system was that the chance for error was great. With Telzon machine ordering product was much easier because all you had to do was walk down the aisle, each product was represented by tag, and if he needed the product you would just aim the gun at the the tag that represented the product and the machine would beep back at you confirming the order and presto the product was ordered. Previous to this writing in order for product took three times as long and was less accurate. This was a major innovation in a grocery store.
The bad thing about this machine was that periodically during transmission it would malfunction. The result of this malfunction might mean if you ordered a particular quantity you would receive a different quantity. For example, I once ordered two cases of tuna fish and receive 50. That week we had what they call in the grocery industry and manager's special on StarKist tuna. I made a display, put the tuna in the middle of the display, and on the sides of the display I put mayonnaise. Then I put a price on each of the items and oddly enough it sold within a week, at 25% profit. The point I am trying to make is that this particular machine saved many labor hours but sometimes caused hours to be spent due to mistakes. All in all this made the job much easier and is used still today. Surely, they have made advancements with this technology and eliminated most of the problems that occurred in the past.

The Third Culture

The Third Culture

The Third Culture is created by the internet. This culture is good for some participants and can be bad for others. This culture or Secret Cyber world that helps people that are shy and have problems expressing themselves in a traditional face to face forum. Without this Third Culture, the members of this Culture wouldn't be able to express their ideas and opinions and discuss their point of view with their peers. Chat rooms, news groups,Im's and email is the medium for this. The confidence that they might be lacking when trying to relay ideas is increased because they can take their time, think about what they want to say and them proof read it. Bingo, they got their point across.

The bad thing I see is sometime, people of this culture get addicted to it. I have seen this in all age groups. They get started playing these games "building their character", and forget about real life. They spend their life on this machine in a world that is not real. This is unhealthy mentally. I have seen this happen to a 43 year old man. All of his free time was spent playing this game. He neglected his wife and children and finally his wife had to put her foot down over his addiction.

Another negative that can transpire due to this culture is not being able to relate to people. In the real world we have to interact with people. I have observed that some of the younger people who are computer geeks have a difficult time interacting with people face to face. When the time comes when they have to work, interaction with people is the most important aspect of a job. Your boss, your co-workers, clients and general public the are crucial ingredients that will determine your success. Home schooling is very popular now. Scholastically it may be better but socially it is a catastrophe. Kids need to interact with other kids. Especially when they are in high school. This time is the most crucial time of your life. You need to observe and react to your environment around you. Too much of being in this Third Culture is not good! Like my Italian Grandmother said, who came to the United states in 1923, too much of anything is no good. She had wisdom beyond her intellect.

Popular Culture

I feel popular culture is a Corporate Giants’ best friend. What drives sales? What does everyone want? Retail sales are driven by fashion, fad, and the monkey see monkey do principle.

For example, the iPod. MP3 music players have been available for years. Marketing geniuses at Apple targeted the young and influential popular culture. My opinion is that most of the popular culture is mostly made up of young people. Big business knows this and capitalizes on their naïve vulnerability. iPods are in vogue and you wouldn't be caught dead with a knockoff version of the iPod. The same holds true of clothing, hairstyles, fashion, and even personality.

Popular music is one area that is heavily influenced by pop culture. Rap, Hip-Hop and other categories of today's music is geared to appeal to pop culture and to sell records for corporate America. Content and talent are overlooked. Record companies are in it solely for money and not to make a name for themselves. Once upon a time, record companies like Jam, Capital and especially Charisma from England concentrated and new progressive music. They actually cared about content. Pink Floyd predicted this would happen in the future. Their 1973 song Money off the Dark Side of the Moon talked of how pop culture and Money would rule.

The United States is by far the main producer of popular culture. How convenient is that? All the corporate companies are based in the United States and they love the fact that they can feel the pulse that pop culture creates and they can jump their next victim.