Outsourcing is as controversial as ever in today's globalized world. But for all the noise about it in the media, whether reflecting the perspectives of labor, business, consultants, academics, employees, or protestors, there is far more emotion surrounding the benefits and drawbacks of the trend than there is common sense. Not only are these messages from different constituents polarizing, they are also confusing because they muddy the waters regarding corporate performance. Buffington clarifies the role of outsourcing in business today so that Americans can focus on something that really matters—real increases in productivity and competitiveness in a global economy. In most cases, he contends, neither outsourcing nor its close cousin, offshoring, are effective as a means to their intended end. Moreover, he points out, Americans focus a lot of negative energy on offshoring, not realizing that domestic outsourcing might be more harmful to our economy in the long run. Corporations lack awareness of this distinction, according to Buffington, and therefore they don't know which should be implemented in what circumstances. That ignorance is not only an obstacle for any company seeking to implement a successful outsourcing strategy, but it is also a dire threat to the long-term growth of the American economy.

Buffington demonstrates that outsourcing often functions as an easy out for corporations that are reluctant to look instead at the root causes of their problems, whether low productivity, lack of innovation, or an unwillingness to invest in marketing, promotion, and sales. The reason that corporations aren't focusing on these core issues has a historical element as much as an evolutionary one within a global economy; the divisions today between workers and management are as sharp as they were back in the early 20th century, Buffington argues. But as much as we have to learn from the past about the impact of worker/management relations on worker productivity, we have even more to learn about all aspects of the productivity puzzle. Corporate productivity, or lack thereof, drives the success or failure of outsourcing or offshoring more than the act itself, according to Buffington. This book challenges business leaders to find their productivity and only then to make outsourcing decisions. This approach will work for corporations, consulting firms, outsourcers, and in the end, customers themselves. A more productive, worker-manager friendly business environment will lead to greater U.S. productivity, and therefore, more effective outsourcing/offshoring decisions.

zachomikowany

1,3 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

Jack Buffington - An Easy Out, Corporate America's Addiction to Outsourcing (2007).pdf

zachomikowany

167 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - The C itizen's Almanac, Fundamental Documents, Symbols, and Anthems of the United States By Office of Citi zenship (2008).jpg

USA Books1 - U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - The Citi...ms of the United States By Office of Citizenship 2008.jpg

The Citizen’s Almanac is a publication developed for new citizens. It includes information on U.S. civic history, rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship, biographical details on prominent foreign-born Americans, landmark decisions of the Supreme Court, presidential speeches on citizenship, and several of our founding documents including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

zachomikowany

6,5 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - The C itizen's Almanac, Fundamental Documents, Symbols, and Anthems of the United States By Office of Citi zenship (2008).pdf

zachomikowany

104 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Dave Marsh - Bruce Springsteen, Two Hearts, the St ory (2003).jpg

Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts is the definitive biography of one of the most important songwriters and performers of the last three decades. Critic Dave Marsh has traced Springsteen's career from its beginning, and has earned the singer's respect through his careful documentation and critical description of Springsteen's work. This biography brings together for the first time Marsh's two previous biographies, Born To Run (which covered Springsteen's early career through the mid-'70s) and Glory Days (which took him through the mid-'80s). Both were widely praised for their insightful and near definitive coverage of Springsteen's life and music. For this book, Marsh has written a new chapter covering major developments in Springsteen's career to today, particularly focusing on his album The Rising and its impact on American culture.
Until Springsteen writes his autobiography, this book will stand as the best single introduction to a major force in American culture.

zachomikowany

20 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

David Kirkpatrick - The Facebook Effect, The Insi de Story of the Company That Is Connecting the Wor ld (2010).jpg

USA Books1 - David Kirkpatrick - The Facebook Effect, The Inside ...tory of the Company That Is Connecting the World 2010.jpg

There's never been a Web site like Facebook: more than 350 million people have accounts, and if the growth rate continues, by 2013 every Internet user worldwide will have his or her own page. And no one's had more access to the inner workings of the phenomenon than Kirkpatrick, a senior tech writer at Fortune magazine. Written with the full cooperation of founder Mark Zuckerberg, the book follows the company from its genesis in a Harvard dorm room through its successes over Friendster and MySpace, the expansion of the user base, and Zuckerberg's refusal to sell. The author is at his best discussing the social implications of the site, from the changing notions of privacy to why and how people use Facebook—increasingly it's to come together around a common interest or cause (the eponymous Facebook Effect). Though significantly more informative, thoughtful, and credible than Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires, it may be hamstrung by its late entry; the furor over Facebook has more or less subsided, and potential readers are more likely to be using the site than to be reading about its origins.

zachomikowany

153 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

S. D. Smith - Slavery, Family, and Gentry Capitali sm in the British Atlantic, The World of the Lasce lles, 1648-1834 (2006).jpg

USA Books1 - S. D. Smith - Slavery, Family, and Gentry Capitalism i... Atlantic, The World of the Lascelles, 1648-1834 2006.jpg

From the mid-seventeenth century to the 1830s, successful gentry capitalists created an extensive business empire centered on slavery in the West Indies, but inter-linked with North America, Africa, and Europe. S. D. Smith examines the formation of this British Atlantic World from the perspective of Yorkshire aristocratic families who invested in the West Indies. At the heart of the book lies a case study of the plantation-owning Lascelles and the commercial and cultural network they created with their associates. The Lascelles exhibited high levels of business innovation and were accomplished risk-takers, overcoming daunting obstacles to make fortunes out of the New World. Dr Smith shows how the family raised themselves first to super-merchant status and then to aristocratic pre-eminence. He also explores the tragic consequences for enslaved Africans with chapters devoted to the slave populations and interracial relations. This widely-researched book sheds new light on the networks and the culture of imperialism.

zachomikowany

2,8 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

S. D. Smith - Slavery, Family, and Gentry Capitali sm in the British Atlantic, The World of the Lasce lles, 1648-1834 (2006).pdf

zachomikowany

20 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack - Recollect ing, Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Nor thwest and Borderlands (2011).jpeg

USA Books1 - Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack - Recollecting,...Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands 2011.jpeg

Recollecting is a rich collection of essays that illuminate the lives of late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century Aboriginal women, who have been overlooked in sweeping narratives of the history of the West. Some essays focus on individual women -- a trader, a performer, a non-human woman -- while others examine cohorts of women -- wives, midwives, seamstresses, nuns. Authors look beyond the documentary record and standard representations of women, drawing also on records generated by the women themselves, including their beadwork, other material culture, and oral histories.

zachomikowany

7,8 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack - Recollect ing, Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Nor thwest and Borderlands (2011).pdf

zachomikowany

102 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Rod Powers - ASVAB For Dummies (2010).jpg

Want to ace the ASVAB? This essential guide includes in-depth reviews of all nine test subjects with complete explanations for every question, proficiency exercises, and tips to help you pinpoint your weaknesses and hone your test taking skills. You'll discover the pros and cons of the paper and computer exams, which tests are important to your military career, and cutting-edge study techniques.
Features four full-length practice ASVAB tests
Includes a new sample Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT)
Presents a thorough review of foundational concepts for every section, including: building word knowledge, paragraph comprehension, solving math word problems, mechanical comprehension, assembling objects, and more
Helps you conquer the subtests and compute your scores

Packed with practice questions and proven study tips, ASVAB For Dummies, Third Edition is the only guide you need to score your best and find your place in the military!

----------------------------------------

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is a multiple choice test, administered by the United States Military Entrance Processing Command, used to determine qualification for enlistment in the United States armed forces. It is often offered to American high school students when they are in the 10th, 11th and 12th grade, though anyone eligible for enlistment may take it.

zachomikowany

165 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

John Leguizamo - Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends (2006).jpg

In this brash autobiography, comic Leguizamo recalls a life lived "on the fine line between acting and acting out." Readers who know his celebrated one-man shows, Mambo Mouth and Spic-O-Rama among them, will recognize some of the same people and topics: the doting mom, authoritarian father, brother Serge and the author's perpetually adolescent fascination with sex. Familiar, too, are the chameleonlike shifts of tone and theme— Leguizamo's trickster charm and outspoken ethnic pride can morph to candid yet searing takes on money, fame and the acting life. Mostly, Leguizamo tracks his maturation and unlikely rise from a smart-ass acting tyro born in Colombia and raised in Queens, N.Y., to an award-winning actor, director and family man. As he puts it: "I'm a horrible example of how to have a successful career." Yet Leguizamo makes this story full of behavioral quirks and professional beefs memorable. Whether he is being tough on Latin stereotypes or describing his sexual conquests, the text is hilarious—propelled by jokes, quips and situations in which the author usually finds himself driven to reaction instead of reflection. This mix of the glib and the sometimes glam presents a refreshing cultural tonic.

zachomikowany

4,0 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

John Leguizamo - Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends (2006).pdf

zachomikowany

96 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Sam Ford, Abigail De Kosnik, C. Lee Harrington - T he Survival of Soap Opera, Transformations for a N ew Media Era (2010).jpg

USA Books1 - Sam Ford, Abigail De Kosnik, C. Lee Harrington - The ... Soap Opera, Transformations for a New Media Era 2010.jpg

The soap opera, one of U.S. television's longest-running and most influential formats, is on the brink. Declining ratings have been attributed to an increasing number of women working outside the home and to an intensifying competition for viewers' attention from cable and the Internet. Yet, soaps' influence has expanded, with serial narratives becoming commonplace on most prime time TV programs. The Survival of Soap Opera investigates the causes of their dwindling popularity, describes their impact on TV and new media culture, and gleans lessons from their complex history for twenty-first-century media industries.

The book contains contributions from established soap scholars such as Robert C. Allen, Louise Spence, Nancy Baym, and Horace Newcomb, along with essays and interviews by emerging scholars, fans and Web site moderators, and soap opera producers, writers, and actors from ABC's General Hospital, CBS's The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, and other shows. This diverse group of voices seeks to intervene in the discussion about the fate of soap operas at a critical juncture, and speaks to longtime soap viewers, television studies scholars, and media professionals alike.

zachomikowany

3,5 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

Sam Ford, Abigail De Kosnik, C. Lee Harrington - T he Survival of Soap Opera, Transformations for a N ew Media Era (2010).pdf

zachomikowany

256 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Alejandro M. de Quesada, Jr., - The Men of Fort Fo ster, Enlisted Uniforms, Equipment and Artifacts o f the United States Armed Forces, 1835-1842 (1996).jpg

USA Books1 - Alejandro M. de Quesada, Jr., - The Men of Fort Foster...cts of the United States Armed Forces, 1835-1842 1996.jpg

The Men of Ft. Foster contains enlisted uniforms, equipment and artifacts of the United States Armed Forces, 1836-1842 and is written by Alejandro M. de Quesada, Jr. Fort Foster lasted only a year and a half during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), but was very strategic guarding a trestle bridge that spanned western Floridas Hillsborough River. The uniforms, equipment and artifacts of the army, militia, navy, marines and revenue marines of this fort represent a transition from a smaller peacetime army to one of wartime, and received new uniforms and equipment. The artifacts from Fort Foster are typical of those from other Seminole War camps & fort sites.

zachomikowany

47,9 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

Alejandro M. de Quesada, Jr., - The Men of Fort Fo ster, Enlisted Uniforms, Equipment and Artifacts o f the United States Armed Forces, 1835-1842 (1996).pdf

zachomikowany

92 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

John Sepich, Edwin T. Arnold - Notes on Blood Meri dian (2008).jpg

Blood Meridian (1985), Cormac McCarthy's epic tale of an otherwise nameless "kid" who in his teens joins a gang of licensed scalp hunters whose marauding adventures take place across Texas, Chihuahua, Sonora, Arizona, and California during 1849 and 1850, is widely considered to be one of the finest novels of the Old West, as well as McCarthy's greatest work. The New York Times Book Review ranked it third in a 2006 survey of the "best work of American fiction published in the last twenty-five years," and in 2005 Time chose it as one of the 100 best novels published since 1923. Yet Blood Meridian's complexity, as well as its sheer bloodiness, makes it difficult for some readers. To guide all its readers and help them appreciate the novel's wealth of historically verifiable characters, places, and events, John Sepich compiled what has become the classic reference work, Notes on Blood Meridian.
Tracing many of the nineteenth-century primary sources that McCarthy used, Notes uncovers the historical roots of Blood Meridian. Originally published in 1993, Notes remained in print for only a few years and has become highly sought-after in the rare book market, with used copies selling for hundreds of dollars. In bringing the book back into print to make it more widely available, Sepich has revised and expanded Notes with a new preface and two new essays that explore key themes and issues in the work. This amplified edition of Notes on Blood Meridian is the essential guide for all who seek a fuller understanding and appreciation of McCarthy's finest work.

zachomikowany

2,3 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

John Sepich, Edwin T. Arnold - Notes on Blood Meri dian (2008).pdf

zachomikowany

67 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Robert Kolker - Stanley Kubrick's 2001, A Space Od yssey, New Essays (2006).jpg

Almost all students have seen 2001, but virtually none understand its inheritance, its complexities, and certainly not its ironies. The essays in this collection, commissioned from a wide variety of scholars, examine in detail various possible readings of the film and its historical context. They also examine the film as a genre piece--as the summa of science fiction that simultaneously looks back on the science fiction conventions of the past (Kubrick began thinking of making a science fiction film during the genre's heyday in the fifties), rethinks the convention in light of the time of the film's creation, and in turn changes the look and meaning of the genre that it revived--which now remains as prominent as it was almost four decades ago. Constructed out of its director's particular intellectual curiosity, his visual style, and his particular notions of the place of human agency in the world and, in this case, the universe, 2001 is, like all of his films, more than it appears, and it keeps revealing more the more it is seen. Though their backgrounds and disciplines differ, the authors of this essay collection are united by a talent for vigorous yet incisive writing that cleaves closely to the text--to the film itself, with its contextual and intrinsic complexities--granting readers privileged access to Kubrick's formidable, intricate classic work of science fiction.

zachomikowany

1,7 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

Robert Kolker - Stanley Kubrick's 2001, A Space Od yssey, New Essays (2006).pdf

zachomikowany

30 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Jay Stevens - Storming Heaven, LSD and the America n Dream (1988).jpg

For an entire generation that came to maturity in the 1960s, LSD, the hallucinatory drug which promised liberation of human consciousness, was the catalyst of an all-pervasive cultural revolution. This is the riveting account of the unique social phenomenon created by LSD.

zachomikowany

1,5 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

Jay Stevens - Storming Heaven, LSD and the America n Dream (1988).pdf

zachomikowany

26 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Rob The Bouncer - Clublife, Thugs, Drugs, and Chao s at New York City's Premier Nightclubs (2007).jpg

In Clublife, Rob takes readers on a harrowing tour of the seedy, dangerous, and often deranged world of New York's hottest nightclubs. In the tradition of Kitchen Confidential and The Tender Bar, Clublife is a remarkable memoir of the nightclub business and how drugs, alcohol, troublemakers, and violence conspire against the men clubs enlist to keep it all under control. Brutally honest and filled with incredible tales only a true insider could tell, Clublife gives readers an all-access pass into the seamy subculture of New York nightclub security.

zachomikowany

123 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Amy E. Ansell - Unraveling The Right (2001).jpg

Viewing the modern right as more than a passing fad for state-anxious individuals, Amy Ansell and the contributors in this volume treat the current conservative movement as an important effort to contextualize and rearticulate the truths taken for granted in the American liberal tradition.Each author in this volume provides a contribution to an alternative perspective on the relevance of today’s conservatism in American thought and politics. Based on a common recognition that the 1994 victory represented much more than the temporary infiltration of right-wing extremists or the public’s spontaneous combustion of reactionary sentiments but rather twenty-plus years of diligent, conscientious organizing on the part of new actors on the right, the authors here agree that the American right wing continues to be a force to be reckoned with. Despite the apparent failure of the Republican Revolution and subsequent reelection of Clinton to office in 1996, the political and sociocultural forces that contributed to the 1994 victory are still very much at play, demanding that those interested in reversing the rightward drift of political opinion and government policy thoroughly understand the processes at work if another swing to the right is to be successfully combated.

zachomikowany

80 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Marsha Francis Cassidy - What Women Watched, Dayti me Television in the 1950s (2005).jpg

In this pathfinding book, based on original archival research, Marsha F. Cassidy offers the first thorough analysis of daytime television's earliest and most significant women's genres, appraising from a feminist perspective what women watched before soap opera rose to prominence.

After providing a comprehensive history of the early days of women's programming across the nation, Cassidy offers a critical discussion of the formats, programs, and celebrities that launched daytime TV in America—Kate Smith's variety show and the famed singer's unsuccessful transition from patriotic radio star to 1950s TV idol; the "charm boys" Garry Moore, Arthur Godfrey, and Art Linkletter, whose programs honored women's participation but in the process established the dominance of male hosts on TV; and the "misery shows" Strike It Rich and Glamour Girl and the controversy, both critical and legal, they stirred up.

Cassidy then turns to NBC's Home show, starring the urbane Arlene Francis, who infused the homemaking format with Manhattan sophistication, and the ambitious daily anthology drama Matinee Theater, which strove to differentiate itself from soap opera and become a national theater of the air. She concludes with an analysis of four popular audience participation shows of the era—the runaway hit Queen for a Day; Ralph Edwards's daytime show of surprises, It Could Be You; Who Do You Trust?, starring a youthful Johnny Carson; and The Big Payoff, featuring Bess Myerson, the country's first Jewish Miss America. Cassidy's close feminist reading of these shows clearly demonstrates how daytime TV mirrored the cultural pressures, inconsistencies, and ambiguities of the postwar era.

zachomikowany

3,5 MB
14 paź 24 19:51

Marsha Francis Cassidy - What Women Watched, Dayti me Television in the 1950s (2005).pdf

zachomikowany

139 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Thomas Doherty - Pre-Code Hollywood (1999).jpg

This was a Hollywood of loose dames, hot whoopee, and coked-up killers who'd do anything for a pot of jack. It was a world that was often amoral and anarchic--an industry that allowed James Cagney and Paul Muni wild orgies of violence, openly flaunted the sexuality of Marlene Dietrich and Mae West, gave King Kong permission to crush cars and eat people, and allowed Tod Browning to make Freaks, one of the ghastliest, most sensationalistic, and greatest American movies.

zachomikowany

228 KB
14 paź 24 19:51

Stephen D. Engle - Struggle for the Heartland (200 1).jpg

Struggle for the Heartland tells the story surrounding the military campaign that began in early 1862 with the advance to Fort Henry and culminated in late May with the capture of Corinth, Mississippi. The first significant Northern penetration into the Confederate west, this campaign saw the military coming-of-age of Ulysses S. Grant and offered a hint as to where the Federals might win the war. For the South, it dashed any hopes of avoiding a protracted conflict. Stephen D. Engle colors in the details that bring great clarity and new life to the scene of these battles as well as to the social and political context in which they occurred.

zachomikowany