An Online Tool Hyperlocally Targets Language Usage

An Online Tool Hyperlocally Targets Language Usage An Online Tool Hyperlocally Targets Language Usage An Online Tool Hyperlocally Targets Language Usage By Mark Nichol According to a recent news article, thanks to Internet magic, online companies can identify hyperlocal vocabulary, which might have an impact on language usage and the development of tomorrow’s vocabulary. Yelp, the popular online search and review site, now has a feature on its site called Wordmaps, which shows visitors the concentration of use of certain words in certain geographical areas as small as city intersections. (The service, as of this writing, is limited to eighteen words used in a dozen American and Canadian cities, plus London and Paris, but it’s certain to expand its linguistic and geographical scope.) What are the ramifications of such a surgically specific service? Think of the possibilities for advertising and marketing: Anyone will be able to search a neighborhood, city, or region to determine the relative prominence of certain words. Real estate agents can note the prevalence of Yelp reviews that mention great restaurants, exciting shopping opportunities, superior schools, and sophisticated cultural experiences. Cities, counties, and states can attract prospective residents and tourists by publicizing the incidence of inhabitant- and visitor-friendly keywords. Businesses in general can take advantage of such data to encourage customers and clients to flock to certain places. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? I’m not passing judgment on it; I just find it interesting, although it’s simply a more technologically sophisticated way of selling a locale something people have been doing since the dawn of civilization (and perhaps earlier). Here’s what interests me: This kind of tool will also have an impact on our language not necessarily a sea change, but something worth commenting on. People who are more technologically savvy will be more likely to employ this type of service and its offshoots. Technologically savvy people are more likely to drive social and cultural change. Thus, Yelp’s Wordmaps and similar tools are likely to accelerate adoption of slang and trendy locutions, to raise the profile of some words and phrases and speed the obsolescence of others. Again, this is nothing new, but the way it is accomplished and the speed with which it might be accomplished is new. It’s analogous to any form of information dissemination: Think of how alphabets, the printing press, journalism, telegraphy, telephony, radio, television, and the Internet, in turn, each revolutionized the way we communicate, introducing new terms and concepts faster and more widely than ever before. Yelp’s Wordmaps is another chapter in that story. Will it have an effect on your professional or personal writing? To some extent, it will but whether it’s measurable or noticeable remains to be seen. However, if you’re in the business of selling and if you write professionally, you are you might want to keep an eye on this new technology. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Business Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should KnowAmong vs. AmongstIs "Number" Singular or Plural?

Airasia Xs Business Environment Tourism Essay

Airasia Xs Business Environment Tourism Essay X targeted the less disposable income travelers who overlooked by traditional airlines even by some low cost carriers. The low price of ticket and abundant of destination network provided travelers more opportunities to fly. Moreover, X explored the new technology to reduce transaction cost for travelers – the cell phone sales of ticket. As Asia’s economic grew, people from Asia have higher spending power and they will select air transportation to travel more frequent than before. X should cater to a broader passengers segment across different needs categories. Back to a short time after the inception of X, the Malaysia Transport Ministry even refused to release the air route from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney for X in order to protect Malaysia Airlines which is the national airline. Afterward, X prepared for IPO but did not want to be list on the KLSE. Due to worry about the Malaysia government could slow down some of X’s expansion and continue to refuse some routes a pplication. X put off the IPO till the end of 2011 and early of 2012. AirAsia X’s industry environment Although the entry barrier of airline industry is high such as huge capital requirement and governmental legal barriers, low cost long haul carriers are suffering strong competition. On one hand, most of low cost long haul carriers are launched by their parent company. For example, X is a sister company of AirAsia, Scoot Airline is a subsidiary of Singapore Airline. They can enter the industry because of the background of their parent company. On the other hand, the cost of aircraft, fuel and airport is the majority expense in airline company, the high bargain power of suppliers gave much pressure to them. Train and ship are the substitutes of airline, but they are hardly to take place of low cost long haul airline. Even though the price is more expensive than bus and ship, low cost long haul carriers provide variable, efficient and convenient transport service. Sometimes, l ow threat of substitutes indicates high competition in the industry. In Southeast Asia market, Jetstar from Australia and Scoot from Singapore are the main competitors of X. Jetstar is the earliest company to operated low cost model of them, it has much experience about low cost control. It has huge fleet and good quality service. Its fatal weakness is the highest ticket price provided among the three companies. Scoot is a new low cost long haul carrier in 2012. It has narrow route network and higher price than X. However, it has absolute cost advantages in route from Singapore to Australia currently. Compared to them, X has the lowest average ticket price and the largest passenger load. AirAsia X’s Strategy X successfully integrated low cost model in every organizational activities. It sharply griped the true needs of lower disposable income customers to attract new customer segments and created value to customers around low cost. Primary activities Activities Description In bound logistics Although X formally separated from AirAsia, they still jointly purchase important resources such as aircraft and fuel. It will strengthen their bargaining power towards suppliers. X reduced costly investment in terminal or non-airplane related infrastructure help to decrease the cost of flight for passengers. Meanwhile, X pays much attention to flight safety. It has a high standard aircraft maintenance team.

Evidence Base Practice Proposal Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Evidence Base Practice - Research Proposal Example Level of education had no major impact on the effect of the intervention neither in men (p=0.39) nor in women (p=0.32). Research concentrates on the general aspects of diagnosis, prevention and treatment. Concentrates on studies regarding communication techniques. Also includes studies that examine intermediate outcomes On the question whether aspirin regime and change of lifestyle would assist in the reduction of heart illnesses, findings found it possible. A change of lifestyle, for example reduced smoking and alcohol intake will definitely reduce the risk of heart diseases. Findings indicated that most women had knowledge of modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease. There were barriers to healthy diet among women one of which was concern of food wastage. The study recorded positive attitudes towards physical activity. Univariate modeling indicated that higher motivation scores were connected with greater individual risk factor knowledge/awareness and more concern about cardiovascular disease (CVD) (R2=0.43, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.35-0.50 for both scores). Younger age, Asian ethnicity, and lower education levels were linked with reduced desire to adjust their cardiovascular risk factors ( p

Persuasive memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Persuasive memo - Essay Example While I respect your professional background, I believe that this is less of an identity and more of a description of a particular aspect of our business model. In reality I believe that Persuade Cafà © suffers precisely from this lack of corporate brand. The following suggestions work within this recognition to both improve business efficiency and establish a more thorough brand identity. While I understand you are opposed to the introduction of t-shirt sales, I believe that our business has simply gone about them wrong. Rather than implement them as a kitsch item with a one-time slogan, they could be constructed with a brand identity like Nike’s that is less about advertising the company and more about embodying its core values. This way the shirts would establish this emotional connection with the consumer and constitute a new mode of in-store revenue. Another point I took contention with was your downplaying of in-store dà ©cor. You indicated that dà ©cor was unnecessary as quick service was the primary goal. I believe even for fast transactions it is important to pay attention to the in-store dà ©cor as this send a message to the consumer about the stores’ values. The employee surveys indicated that training programs were clearly lacking. I believe it would be effective for the corporate offices to hire an instructional designer to establish an e ffective and efficient corporate training program that could ensure new employees are brought into the company in the proper way. Additionally, long-term career opportunities and advancement options could be established. Ultimately, I believe all the problems at Persuade Cafà © stem from a lack of a strong corporate identity. If the company then is going to come out of their Wall Street difficulties that must establish more a market niche. If the company’s intention is fast service, then we need to find a way to maximize the quality of the items in as fast a way as

Morals of The Milagro Beanfield War :: Milagro Beanfield War Essays

Morals of The Milagro Beanfield War The Milagro Beanfield War, written by John Nichols, demonstrates several themes on life. They range from the interactions of the rich and the poor to the hot arid farming climate in New Mexico. All of which have significant importances in this famous novel. Perhaps the most important theme that is represented in this novel is the idea that people should do what is wright no matter the consequences. People are constantly faced with the choice of right and wrong. What they choose not only effects themselves, but everyone else involved. That is why being true to yourself is being true to everyone. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? Yet if I am for myself only, what am I?"(p. 1). This theme carries the plot throughout the book. Milagro is a small agricultural town located in the hot arid state of New Mexico. Joe Mondragon, a man of his mid 30's, provided for his wife and two kids. He was a farmer, but a farmer with no fields. During the 1935 Interstate Water Compact, much of the water was transferred to big-time farmer's fields, like Ladd Devine. This would not have been a problem except for the fact that Joe's field was located on the west side of Milagro and all of the water flowed to the southeast side. All of the people of Milagro were unhappy about this change, but no one would say or do anything that would oppose the Devines. One day, Joe had had enough and tapped into the water supply. He knew that watering his father's field would cause problems, but he didn't care. Day after day Joe worked in his fields, preparing them for harvest. People from all the town gathered each day to watch Joe work. While Joe worked on his fields, the Devines worked on a plan to get rid of him. They did not like the idea that Joe Mondragon, a simple farmer, had not conformed to their ways. The Devines involved several various people in order to get rid of Joe, but all of these people could not stop Joe from obeying his morals. Bernabe Montoya, the Milagro town sheriff, and Sheriff Kyril Montana, a government officer, were assigned the duty of arresting Joe. They worked hard and diligently to arrest him, but time after time, they failed.

Food Inc Essay

The movie makes some really good points. The best point is that subsidized corn artificially lowers the cost of animal feed and high-fructose corn syrup. This creates a tax-subsidized economic incentive for people to choose fast food over nutritious options. Scrapping farm subsidies including corn would be a great idea (that the movie doesn’t propose). It has a good segment about how Monsanto is using intellectual property law to unfairly create a US soybean monopoly, suing farmers who never bought Monsanto seed and forcing them to capitulate because of the sheer weight of legal bills. But the movie descends into sensationalism. For example, it takes a sad case of a kid named Kevin who died of E Coli poisoning after eating a hamburger. It traces the industry’s response — which is to use ammonia to make sure that almost no E Coli survives — and criticizes its solution while playing ominous music in the background along with unanswered cries of anguish from Kevin’s mother. It fails to mention that (1) all E Coli dies when meat is cooked properly (2) using ammonia to kill E Coli is an ingenious idea that’s very effective (3) the food with the greatest risk of E Coli poisoning is organic spinach. It doesn’t mention how the fast food industry eliminated the use of hydrogenated vegetable oil, almost completely eliminating trans fat from fast food. It has a scene comparing the resources used by a free range cow farmer who has about 20 cows versus an industrial slaughterhouse that processes thousands — failing to mention that if the free range farmer produced cows on the same scale he would use 4x to 10x the resources for the same output. The movie takes an ill-advised stance against genetically modified food (google Norman Borlaugh). It makes several self-defeating arguments (like arguing that our industrially-produced food is infected and resource-intensive and that we should pay more to eat organic — which is actually much more resource intensive and more likely to be contaminated by bacteria because of the use of poop as fertilizer instead of nitrates). The movie makes some interesting points. But the whole â€Å"big business bad† thing is a completely useless attitude that is a constant source of irritation to me personally. People and businesses have, do, will, and should act in their own best interests. The question is which policies should be created to incentivize wise outcomes? Regarding Monsanto, the problem isn’t evil big business, it’s that the US should reform its legal system to act like the UK’s where if you sue someone and lose then you have to pay their legal fees. That would prevent Monsanto’s abuses of IP law (and would accomplish tort reform in medical malpractice).

African Elephant Facts

The African elephant (Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta cyclotis) is the largest land animal on the planet. Found in sub-Saharan Africa, this majestic herbivore is known for its remarkable physical adaptations as well as its intelligence. Fast Facts: African Elephants Scientific Name: Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta cyclotisCommon Names:  African elephant: savannah elephant or bush elephant and forest elephantBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: 8–13 feet tall, length of 19–24 feetWeight: 6,000–13,000 poundsLifespan: 60–70 yearsDiet:  HerbivoreHabitat: Sub-Saharan AfricaPopulation: 415,000Conservation Status: Vulnerable Description There are two subspecies of African elephant: savanna or bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) and forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). African bush elephants are lighter gray, larger, and their tusks curve outwards; the forest elephant is darker gray in color and has tusks that are straighter and point downward. Forest elephants make up about one-third to one-quarter of the total elephant population in Africa. Elephants have a number of adaptations that help them to survive. Flapping their large ears enables them to cool down in hot weather, and their large size deters predators. The elephants long trunk reaches food sources located in otherwise inaccessible places, and the trunks are also used in communication and vocalization. Their tusks, which are upper incisors that continue to grow throughout their lifetimes, can be used to strip vegetation and dig to obtain food. Habitat and Range African elephants are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where they typically live in plains, woodlands, and forests. They tend not to be territorial, and they roam large ranges through several habitats and across international borders. They are found in dense forests, open and closed savannas, grasslands, and in the deserts of Namibia and Mali. They range between the northern tropics to the southern temperate zones in Africa and are found at the oceans beaches and on mountain slopes and elevations everywhere in between. Elephants are habitat modifiers or ecological engineers that physically alter their environments affecting the resources and changing the ecosystems. They push over, debark, break branches and stems, and uproot trees, which causes changes in tree height, canopy cover, and species composition. Studies have shown that the changes generated by the elephants are actually quite beneficial to the ecosystem, creating an increase in total biomass (up to seven times the original), an increase in nitrogen in the content of new leaves, as well as an increase in habitat complexity and food availability. The net effect is a multilayered canopy and a continuum of leaf biomass supporting their own and other species.   Edwin Godinho / EyeEm  /  Getty Images Diet Both subspecies of African elephants are herbivores, and most of their diet (65 percent to 70 percent) consists of leaves and bark. They will also eat a wide variety of plants, including grass and fruit: Elephants are bulk feeders and require an enormous amount of food to survive, consuming an estimated 220–440 pounds of forage  daily. Access to a permanent source of water is critical—most elephants drink frequently, and they need to obtain water at least once every two days. Elephant mortality is quite high in drought-affected regions. Behavior Female African elephants form matriarchal groupings. The dominant female is the matriarch and the head of the grouping, and the rest of the group consists primarily of the females offspring. Elephants use low-frequency rumbling sounds to communicate within their groupings. In contrast, male African elephants are mostly solitary and nomadic. They temporarily associate with different matriarchal groups as they seek mating partners. Males assess each others physical prowess by play-fighting with one another. Male elephants behavior is linked to their musth period, which typically takes place during winter. During musth, male elephants secrete an oily substance called temporin from their temporal glands. Their testosterone levels are as much as six times higher than normal during this period. Elephants in musth can become aggressive and violent. The exact evolutionary cause for musth is not definitively known, though research suggests that it may be linked to the assertion and reorganization of dominance. Reproduction and Offspring Elephants are polyandrous and polygamous; mating happens year round, whenever females are in estrus. They give birth to one or rarely two live young about once every three years. Gestation periods are approximately 22 months long. Newborns weigh between 200 and 250 pounds each. They are weaned after 4 months although they may continue to take milk from the mothers as part of their diet for up to three years. Young elephants are tended by the mother and other females in the matriarchal grouping. They become fully independent at the age of eight. Female elephants reach sexual maturity at about 11 years of age; males at 20. The lifespan of an African elephant is typically between 60 and 70 years.   Patrick Robert - Corbis  /Getty Images Misconceptions Elephants are beloved creatures, but they arent always fully understood by humans. Misconception: Elephants drink water through their trunks. Truth: While elephants use their trunks in the drinking process, they dont drink through it. Instead, they use the trunk to scoop water into their mouths.Misconception: Elephants are afraid of mice. Truth: While elephants may be startled by the darting movement of mice, they have not been proven to have a specific fear of mice.Misconception: Elephants mourn their dead. Truth: Elephants demonstrate an interest in the remains of their dead, and their interactions with those remains often seem ritualistic and emotional. However, scientists have not yet determined the precise cause of this mourning process, nor have they determined the degree to which elephants understand death. Threats The main threats to the continued existence of elephants on our planet are poaching, habitat loss, and climate change. In addition to overall population loss, poaching removes a majority of bulls over the age of 30 and females over the age of 40. Animal researchers believe that the loss of older females is particularly acute, as it impacts the social networks of elephant herds. Older females are the repositories of ecological knowledge who teach calves where and how to find food and water. Although there is evidence that their social networks are restructured after the loss of the older females, orphaned calves tend to leave from their natal core groups and die alone. Poaching has decreased with the institution of international laws prohibiting them, but it does continue to be a threat to these animals. Conservation Status The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies African elephants as vulnerable, while the ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System classifies them as threatened. According to the Great Elephant Census of 2016, there are approximately 350,000 African savanna elephants located in 30 countries. Between 2011 and 2013, more than 100,000 elephants were killed, mostly by poachers seeking their tusks for ivory. The African Wildlife Foundation estimates there are 415,000 African elephants in 37 countries, including both savanna and forest subspecies, and that 8 percent are killed by poachers annually. Sunshine Seeds/Getty Images Sources Blanc, J. Loxodonta africana. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T12392A3339343, 2008.Elephant. African Wildlife Foundation.  Foley, Charles A. H., and Lisa J. Faust. Rapid Population Growth in an Elephant Loxodonta Africana Population Recovering from Poaching in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania. Oryx 44.2 (2010): 205–12. Print.Goldenberg, Shifra Z., and George Wittemyer. Orphaning and Natal Group Dispersal Are Associated with Social Costs in Female Elephants. Animal Behaviour 143 (2018): 1–8. Print.Kohi, Edward M., et al. African Elephants (Loxodonta Africana) Amplify Browse Heterogeneity in African Savanna. Biotropica 43.6 (2011): 711–21. Print.McComb, Karen, et al. Matriarchs as Repositories of Social Knowledge in African Elephants. Science 292.5516 (2001): 491–94. Print.Tchamba, Martin N., et al. Plant Biomass Density as an Indicator of Food Supply for Elephants (Loxodonta Africana) in Waza National Park, Cameroon. Tropical Conservation Scie nce 7.4 (2014): 747–64. Print.The Status of African elephants. World Wildlife Magazine, Winter 2018.Wato, Yussuf A., et al. Prolonged Drought Results in Starvation of African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana). Biological Conservation 203 (2016): 89–96. Print.Wittemyer, G., and W. M. Getz. Hierarchical Dominance Structure and Social Organization in African Elephants, Loxodonta Africana. Animal Behaviour 73.4 (2007): 671–81. Print.