Website Info!

www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/stutter.html

National Institute on Deafness and other Communcation Disorders
This website is the website for the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders. The motto for this organization is "improving lives of people who have communication disorders". They defined stuttering as a speech disorder in which sounds, syallables, or words are repeated or prolonged, disrupting the normal flow of speech. Symptoms of stuttering can vary significantly throughout a person's day. Generally, speaking before a group or talking on the telephone may make a person's stuttering more severe. Roughly three million americans stutter. It occurs most often in children between the ages of 2 and 5 as they are developing their language skills. This website is very informal and helpful to those who are interested in stuttering and learning more about what this is. I personally learned a lot more I didn't know about stuttering and the causes and effects of it. Their are links to this website that have different research and news articles that are informative about what is being done about this disease.

How has the housing crisis affected home fashion retail??

Being that the United states is currently going through an Recession, it has taken a big tole in the home market and the home interior market. Many families don't have the funds to buy new homes so a lot of them are starting to sell there homes to save money. By doing so people are buying less furniture and different home decor arrangements to furnish one's house. Decorating ones' home now a days is not an neccesity it can be viewed as an luxury. The same goes for the fashion retail. Many families has cut back on shopping for shoes and clothing since the beginning of the year. Those that work for the retail industries has seen a recent cut on sales in many different stores. Families aren't shopping as much as they usually would. They are now starting to focus on the necessites such as gas and food since they are fluctuating on a daily basis. Although Christmas season has started and it is just around the corner many families are not spending as much money on gifts as they would have in the past. As talked about on the news, families are bargain shopping and going to department stores that will save them the most on the sales that they may have.
Hopefully in the near future you will see the home fashion retail climb back to where it orignally was. For now since the economy is suffering the home fashion retail will still be an issue.

Sweatshops

Sweatshops have been around for decades now. The word "sweatshops" means cramped,dangerous, and unsettling working conditions that may alter one's health and well-being. Back in the 1900's, young women and children worked long and hard hours in these treacherous factories for no benefits and pay. Many of them worked 15 hour workdays to make ends meet for their families. These problems became a big issue in many garment factories. In 1938, President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This law enforced a set of minimum wage, require overtime pay after 40 hours a week, and prohibits child labor and industrial homework. (www.heartandminds.org/articles/sweat.htm)
Still today sweat shops is an major not just in the US but in other countries as well. Many American jobs are being shipped overseas to China and many other countries. The reason being is that other countries are willing to work these treacherous hours in these sweatshops for cheap labor and a faster job, that some critics argue. The US is strugggling to keep some of our jobs from being shipped overseas but is finding it hard to do sense so many people cover up the real issue behind the sweatshops in ohter countries. In China for example, many factories are getting better at concealing abuses. Many believe that numerous Chinese factories keep double sets of books to fool auditors and distribute scripts for the employees to site if questioned. China is America's largest single source of our imports. American companies continually demand lower prices from Chinese suppliers, allowing American consumers to enjoy inexpensive clothes,electronic,etc. However, factory managers in China complain in interviews that, US price pressure creates a powerful incentive to cheat on labor standards that American companies promote. (www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_48/b4011001.htm)

Fashion: Art or Usability?

I personally feel that fashion is an form of art. Some may feel that it is not a form of art however a lot of fashion designers or designers in period are inspired by a piece of artwork. Fashion just like art expresses one's feelings or emotions at that particular time. Fashion can tell you what people wore at certain period of time just as an painting can express the same thing. You can't just put fashion in it's own catergory neither can you put art in it's own category because they both intell a lot of thought and inspirtation. It's as if they go hand in hand with each other. When you bring up fashion one can instantly think of art. Whether it's getting an idea from an actual painting, scenery, movie,etc each one comes from some form of art. The same amount of artisitc expression goes into making clothing as well as into creating some form of artwork. Fashion is a form of artwork that is always relevant and rejuvenating itself on a daily basis. It is always being changed and redeveloped into something else that is relevant and in at a certain time period. Whereas art is most of the time is a piece of work to be remembered and mounted for people to look at from time to time. There are designers such as Ossie Clark who would say that fashion is art because he felt his clothing designs were worthwhile, his clothes were being shown in musems at that time. www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003

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