#32

Comparison Essay:

Franchising

2/26/11

          

             The reading passage contends how franchising is beneficial for new owners. On the other hand, the speaker talks about the disadvantages of franchising.

             The article makes three advantages of franchising. They are reliable products, saves money on advertising, and business security. Because merchandise have tried and tested their products, owners are assured by the high quality and popularity. For instance, McDonald’s owners know what to sell and invest in and public already like the shop and the products by its name, McDonald’s. The reading also says about how new owners save money on advertising. They don’t have to spend time nor resources for selling their products. There already is national marketing campaigns and solid trading name. For example, KFC owners don’t worry about promoting unknown products. They don’t have to flyer neighborhoods, vie out examples, or pay expensive advertisements! The last benefit that the passage gives out is business security. There is low rate of failure because franchisor helps the owner. On top of that, owners continually get assistance and training program.

             However the speaker talks about how franchise is actually disadvantageous. She brings up three points as well. They are no control, frustration, and unprofitable enterprise. According to some surveys, she says, many owners do not have control. They don’t have freedom for selling products. They are forced. They also do not have control in their work, even though they are boss. Franchisors decide what products to be sold and services, which directly affects marketing and income of the franchise. Second disadvantage is the frustration the owners get. She talks about how 6% of income is used for advertising the main store, which is basically just promoting themselves. Despite these investments, the main stores do not payback. This disagrees to national marketing schemes. Owners have better ideas for local promotions. However, they get frustrated by the control of franchisors. The last draw back that the speaker makes is the whole enterprise is unprofitable after all. Owners have to pay for advertisements and the use of the system. This costs more than what the franchisors return. Because many owners spend less than gaining, some say they will start individual business. These points go against what the passage says about how franchising is reliable on product, money, and security.

             As a conclusion, franchising is not really a smart choice for a new boss-wanna-be.

#31

NANO TUBE

2/23/11

           Have you ever seen dew closely? It has a round top and its base firmly stuck to the bottom. This is cause by self-assembly. Self-assembly applies to our cells too. In one cell, 100 billion molecules can fit inside it. Cells make their own unique structure. Bucky tube (nano tube/Buckminster fullerene), is assembly of 60 carbon molecules. When the assembly is done, it first looks like a soccer ball. It also looks like architecture, made by Buckminster fuller, the American architect. That is why nano tubes are also known as Buckminster fullerene or Bucky tube. When this Bucky tube is stretched into a tube, you call it a nano tube. How easy is that?

           Nano tube is the 3^rd-carbon-molecule-ever-found. The first one is diamond and the second one is black lead of a pencil. Bucky ball was found in 1985 by Professor Richard Smalley from Princeton University. He got a Noble Prize for it. Bucky tube was found in 1991 by a Japanese material scientist. It was found in sooty blotch by an electron microscope.

           There are a lot of facts about Bucky tube that are amazing and advantageous. To name few, Bucky tube is one nanometer. That is, 1 over 1,000,000,000 meter. So if you compare a piece of your hair and a Bucky tube, the nano tube is 100,000 times smaller than the hair. However, if the nano tube was combined and used as a rope, the tensile force is 100 times bigger than iron. Bucky tube can also transport electricity faster than copper and heats up faster than a diamond. If 10 Bucky tubes are combined as a rope, it can control electronic current like semiconductor, which means that it can replace silicon! Bucky tube can minimize electron gun of a screen of PC or TV. Famous home appliances companies are being competitive in selling flat screen TV, using nano tube.

           However, the best part didn’t come yet. It is the outer-space elevator. The outer-space elevator was first introduced to the public in 1930, by a Russian engineer. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really capture anyone’s interest. It actually got interest from the public by the number one sci-fi author, Arthur C. Clarke. He wrote a book called ‘The Fountains of Paradise’ in 1979. It talks about space elevators about how 30,005,800km above the earth and we can place a satellite and connect it to the earth and space elevator it is. NASA has been giving out papers and papers about how it is possible. Nevertheless, there are many shout outs about how this whole idea is impossible. For instance, we will need some kind of substance that is 30 times stronger than iron. NASA did say that there is the nano tube that is more than 60 times stronger, but this is not the only problem. Speed of elevator might burst the eardrums out and harsh climates are something that we just cannot control.

           I believe that just a bit of more work on nano tubes will allow us to step further into the better world.

#30

Comparison Essay:

Hydrogen energy, good or bad?

2/21/11

              

             The reading passage contends that hydrogen energy is an attractive new source. On the other hand, the lecturer brings up several points that contradict this argument.

             The article says that hydrogen can replace fossil fuels because they are the third most abundant element on earth, eco-friendly, and easy to transport and store. We can get hydrogen by splitting water to produce hydrogen with electricity. Thus, because hydrogen is found in water, and earth is mostly covered with water, it is much cheaper alternative energy source. Hydrogen is also very environmentally friendly. The passage tells how the process makes no emission and renewable source could be used to split water, for instance, wind or sun. Hydrogen energy is also easy to transport and store, which was allowed by the new technology, according to the reading. Hydrogen energy could be converted to liquid or gas when being transported and storage alloys are available for storing.

             On the other hand, the lecturer talks about the bads about hydrogen energy, which contradicts the author. The speaker talks about how the cost of hydrogen is higher than gas. He says that one kilogram of hydrogen is higher than gas per gallon. He also argues that the process of splitting water into hydrogen needs a lot of electricity, which proves how hydrogen energy is not eco-friendly. On top of that, renewable sources that the reading provided, weather, can not be controlled by us. The last argument is how hydrogen is not easy to store and transport as it seems to be. Converting hydrogen energy into liquid or gas is not only hard but also volatile and dangerous. Moreover, the alloy is too heavy, which makes the idea of storing hydrogen unfeasible.

             In conclusion, hydrogen energy needs to be improved in order to be used as new source yet.

#29

Taking over family business:

           I think taking over family business is a rightful decision to make when the present CEO will retire, whether it is small business like selling ice creams, or a big business like Samsung. Who gives or either receives the business, which is a parent giving their offspring their job, will feel very grateful and relieved to one and another and it’s the best for CEO when he or she wants to retire peacefully without spending money.

         First of all, the son or a daughter will know the best of their mom or dad’s job because he or she knows that one will take over the business and their parent always talks about it. When the CEO’s offspring is working, there is more chance for them to know it’s work and more likely to be the next CEO. It might be hard when he or she got handed down the business at first, but with the previous CEO’s help, there will be no problem in handling the business.

         Secondly, the giver and receiver both mentally feel nice. The parent will feel very safe, and personally great for themselves, to their son or daughter because the parent will think they can actually give over their business to their own trustworthy child than to some strangers at work. Whether it is successful business or not, they’ll also feel proud to give their own business to their child because it was the business that they were working at for at least 20 years of their life, and they’ll feel inspired that their child will work along the business which the parent were working. Not only the parent will feel great, the child who will now own the business will feel relieved that they got a job. All the better, he or she is a CEO of that job. So the parent and the child will get benefits from family business.

         Lastly, it’s more financial and efficient in time. If the offspring of the CEO doesn’t take over the business, there has to be a public recruit to choose the next CEO. In order to do public recruit, it needs to have advertisements, tests, meetings… et cetera. So as to do the public employment, it needs lots of time and money. For advertisements and tests, you need paper and ink. Making time for this whole thing might take for about 2 weeks, doing this thing will take for about a month. But hiring one of your own family members doesn’t cost money or that much time.

         Overall, taking over family business is a controversy topic when it’s time for employment time.

#28

Going Solo

By Roald Dahl

2/9/11

                         This book begins with a description of a ship that carried Roald from England to Africa. Her name was the SS Mantola. She was an old paint-peeling tube of 9,000 tons with a single tall funnel and a vibrating engine. As one can see, she was quiet old. On the way of 2 weeks journey to Mombasa, she went to six other places. Roald mentions about how nowadays, we can fly to Mombasa within a few hours but not getting to sight-see anymore. I wish I would have an opportunity to take a ship to Mombasa and fascinate by their amazing nature.

             On the ship-ride to Mombasa, Roald shared his cabin with a manager of a cotton mill. Near his bed, there was a port hole on a wall, which abled Roald to look through and see the other side of the wall. One day, Roald was lying on his bunk. He suddenly saw a figure of a naked man working by! Roald at first thought that he had seen a phantom of a naked ghost, but he didn’t. He had actually seen a naked man! The man, Roald realized, was Major Griffiths, a man who had told him only the night before at the dinner table how he had spent thirty-six years in India and was returning once again to Allahabad after the usual home leave. Roald had also spotted another naked figure standing beside him. It was his wife. Goodness, moreover, major called him to join their ‘walk’! The next morning, the major called on Roald during breakfast in front of everybody, ‘You were getting an eyeful of the memsahib, that’s what you were doing!’ If I was Roald, I would’ve punched the major in his nose to make him be quiet. How embarrassing yet funny this part was! Roald later says that there were only dotty people on the ship and he was becoming to be one, too.

           Another part that comes to me is when Roald met the lion, Simba. The story is all about how Simba caught a chef’s wife and how Roald, the chef and the other villagers went to the wild to catch Simba and rescue the wife. I wasn’t supposed to laugh but I couldn’t help it.

           Despite these amazing events that happened in Africa, Roald was sent to the World War Ⅱ air force. With only 6 months of training, he and his pal, David Coke, fights the enemies and somehow survives. Even though Roald doesn’t actually get into his emotions through the book, I could feel through my bone that he and David went through a lot. There is this particular event when Roald stuck in a dessert upside down and got almost blind! Even though he wrote about this fairly… interesting, it wouldn’t have for Roald, actually.

           Throughout, anybody who read this book could tell that it was Roald’s. Even though he’s handling a hard subject, a war, it’s very exciting and thrilling. If I didn’t mention this, in this book, there are a lot of pictures that Roald had taken during those days and in each chapter, there are at least one letter written to his mom. From those pictures and letters, you can feel love to family from Roald. As everyone knows, family is important.

#27

Comparison Essay:

The early bird gets the worm

2/14/11

           There is a saying that everyone knows; the early bird gets the worm. It means that people who wake up early succeed. However, it’s still up for debate whether early birds will benefit. There surely are benefits and disadvantages when getting up at dawn. Early birds do get morning hours for constructive purposes. On the other hand, recent studies have shown that getting up early causes health issues and it depends on one’s gene.

             Early birds are productive in two ways. Early birds use their time for constructive purposes. Subtracting the time people spend by working and taking care of other needs, for instance, sleeping, eating, from 24 hours, equals to ‘little’ time. This problem can be solved by just waking up two hours before one’s usual get-up-time. If a person wakes up two hours earlier, s/he can save 730 waking hours per year. This 730 hours could be used for self improvement or simply improvement of the quality of life. Early birds also get quiet morning hours for themselves. They get fewer distractions from their babies, noise, car engine… etc. They can relax and work in peace with certain concentration.

             However, waking up early isn’t as good as it seems to be, according to recent studies. Studies have shown that waking up early may cause health problems. If a person doesn’t get certain hours of sleep, one might get sick because one’s body won’t cope. Not only that, even if people wake up early, they would have to sleep early, which leaves to not gaining extra time after all. Recent studies have also shown that some people just don’t work well in the mornings, because it’s all in our genes. Each and every person has their own natural rhythm. We have to follow it instead of violating it. Those of who did violated their natural rhythm found out that they got groggy and body dysfunction till the rest of the day and didn’t actually get anything done. This concludes to how waking up early doesn’t necessarily make people succeed.

             As one can see, early birds might and might not succeed. It’s all in their genes. Some people are early birds when the others are night owls.

#26

Life Cycle of a Star

2/9/11

           Stars are alike humans in the life cycle. They are born, alive, and die.

Stars are made by gas and dust from all over the space. When they gather, pressure and temperature rises, which creates nucleus reaction, which also creates light. Now, you’re able to see a twinkling star in the night sky.

           A young star makes their light out of hydrogen for long good periods of time. An old star however, doesn’t have enough hydrogen as fuel, so it eventually goes big and becomes red. This is so called a red giant star.

           Each red giant star has different ways of taking ‘death’. A red giant star as big as the sun, leaves planetary nebula and white dwarf in silence. But some humongous stars die dramatically with a loud explosion. Other stars that are five times smaller than the sun, burst and become supernovas, and then become neutron stars. But those of which are five times bigger than the sun takes the first same process till becoming supernovas, but some of them become a black hole.

           Black holes have far too mare quantity than their size, so they suck in basically everything that’s near. Therefore even a light can’t escape. Matters that are scattered all over the outer space from explosion, are being reused for materials for making a new star

#25

Early bird gets the worm…not

2/7/11

           In this whole wide world, there are a lot of people who wakes up in different periods of time. Some wake up early when some don’t. There is a quote saying, ‘Early bird gets the worm’. That is that people should wake up early because a day is 24 hours and it will not wait for them. However, there is another quote; ‘the second mouse gets the cheese’, which means that people should not rush foolishly into things. In this outlaws’ world, people should be the second mouse in order to success.

           First of all, efficiency is better than waking up early. Many people get up early, but don’t use that time wisely. Thus, no matter how much time a person gets, the result or the success depends on how he/she uses it. Success is not the amount of time that matters. For bird, it might be a huge success to catch a worm before any-bird else. There are a lot of worms available; it’s just that some birds need to go find it. So, people have a lot of opportunities to grasp their success when they actually use their time. The early bird might not find the worm and procrastinate, which lets the other birds to get it. This applies to humans too. The success belongs to people who used their time wisely no matter how much time they get. There are 24 hours for everyone. Nobody gets less or more. How they use this time makes them into different people. For instance, a baby sleeps more than 15 hours a day and the rest goes to toilet, nursing, or crying. A president has more complicated schedule. S/he goes to a couple of conferences, gets more than a dozen of phone calls… etc. As one can see, different people have different jobs to do. The only difference that distinguishes their identity is how they use their time. As a conclusion, the amount of time doesn’t mean success, its how people efficiently use that time.

           Secondly, getting-up-early may cause social problems. There are several types of people. There are students, business-men, mothers, grandparents, teachers…etc. The first three types are the people who need lots of sleep yet the most exposed target of getting-up-early. They have major social problems of their own because they need to wake up early for several reasons. Students who need to go to school by at least 8:45 wake up at the average of 7a.m, forced by their parents or what so ever. Most of them go to sleep late in the midnight, thanks to the homework they get from academies or schools. Sadly, they will have to focus in class and at home while doing their homework. Eventually, there are a lot of students who fall asleep during classes. Moreover, as one can see, they won’t be able to catch up when this situation continues. This proves that waking up ridiculously early won’t lead to students’ success that much. For business men, they have a boring routine. How boring it would be if they didn’t get enough sleep? They’ll feel drowsy during work time. Even worse, if their manager or boss finds out, they might have a possibility of getting fired. Mothers need to cook, do the dishes, look after their family, pay the bills, or even work! Being a good mother is one of the hardest things to do. However, many of them don’t get enough sleep. What would happen to an exhausted mother when she’s cooking? She may fall asleep and the kitchen might burn down! It is a low rate of possibility but it could happen. These dangerous factors are all caused by waking up early. They should sleep as much as they can, instead of drinking two cups of coffee, since coffee too, is bad for health.

           Lastly, people who live in present needs to think twice. Recently, the crime rate from all over the world is rising. That is, each person’s lives are being threatened more serious than ever. In this chaos-world, people need to be more meticulous. Like the quote ‘the second mouse gets the cheese’, perhaps waiting for a success and getting it at the right time and place is more favorable than foolishly falling for a booby-trap. Most people who get up early feels like they are in a hurry like most Koreans. This concept leads them to ‘rush’. As anyone knows, ‘rushing’ isn’t always good. Many people make mistakes, for example, forgetting a car-key, locking the door, feeding pets…etc. If people just wait and think twice, these incidents could be prevented.

           As a conclusion, there are people who get up early and people who do not. It is not perfectly true that only those who wake up early succeeds, because efficiency overweighs the amount of time, getting-up-early causes social problems, and people nowadays needs to think twice. One might say the world still goes around, but there are a whole lot of people who sleep.

#24

AC vs. DC

Alternating Current

2/9/11

There are two major electronic currents used by people. They are called AC, alternating current, and DC, direct current. AC is the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. DC is the flow of electric charge is only in one direction. AC is very useful when kinetic energy needs to be transformed into electricity. It also ables electricity to be extended. For instance, a socket that you can see in any rooms is kind of like AC. DC, however, is used when chemical energy is transformed into electric energy. You can imagine of batteries or fuel cell, which are portable. Nikola Tesla invented AC, and DC was invented by Thomas Alva Edison. In the old days, the US was considering whether or not they should use DC. They had a huge debate about it and after all, AC won. So USA used AC as a whole.

             AC is usually provided in buildings. In Korea, they use 60Hz, which means in a second, current changes 60 times. If you see AC on a graph, the graph should show a wavy line.

<DC, on the other hand, shows a straight line on a graph>

             In the old days, as I said before, used AC. But nowadays, we use both AC and DC, because the technology of handling electricity has improved enough to find a way to convert AC to DC or DC to AC, by placing ‘diode’. However, this process wastes a lot of energy. Fill the heat from back of a computer or a TV? That is the wasted energy during the process. There are a lot of home appliances that are semi conductive. These semi-conductive machines mostly use DC power. That means that AC power that goes into the machines need to be changed into DC in order to get the machines going. That process, as I stated, wastes a ton of energy. Some people nowadays use solar energy, thinking they are saving energy. Despite all those effort people put into installing and actually using the solar panel, they still are wasting energy. Solar panels just basically store the electricity they gained by solar energy into a huge ‘battery’, which equals to DC. This again leads to the same energy-wasting-process. As a conclusion, people are just wasting a lot of energy whether it is AC or DC. We, as a whole, need to find smarter way of using Ac or DC, and fast.