Monday, August 12, 2019

Is the use of nostalgia in the media necessarily a conservative Essay

Is the use of nostalgia in the media necessarily a conservative impulse - Essay Example It helps the customers to easily remember and relate with past products or services, which in turn helps them to accept new or rebranded products. As a matter of fact, many companies or organizations are using nostalgia as a marketing strategy as a strategy to simultaneously reach out to new consumers and retain current consumers (Uten and Solomon, 2013). This has been triggered by the digitization of the world through technology, and the global economic trends. The global economy is highly competitive and hence there is need for retaining excellent past products, rebranding these products, as well as innovatively creating new products (Wheatley, 2007). The use of nostalgia as a marketing strategy helps in creating familiarity within the consumers and further creates curiosity to try new products or services from the same organizations or companies. The use of old products to usher in new or rebranded ones gives the consumers a sense of belonging and helps the customer to easily fami liarize and accept the new or rebranded products (Uten and Solomon, 2013). As much as there is a need to develop new products due to market competition, it is also important to relate new products with other past successful products and maintain the latter. The fashion industry has seen the development of great designs that have a conceptual vintage design (Tungate, 2008). Nostalgia has been highly used as a strategic marketing tool in advertisement, where is helps in reaching out to resident and new consumers who relate to successful past experiences with the product (Sprengler, 2009). This creates a sense of security, comfort and belonging and hence creates a strong foundation for marketers to advertise their products, which has led to mass media diversity, especially in advertisement. Pull media is a classification of traditional media, such as television, newspaper, or radio, where the consumer is willingly engaged (Bell

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Six Sigma Approach Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Six Sigma Approach - Essay Example After picking the low-hanging fruit, they will find themselves in need of a broader and more robust approach. Subsuming six sigma beneath the process-management umbrella addresses those challenges and allows companies to reap its substantial benefits while keeping it away from areas where it won't work. Because process management entails major changes to virtually all management systems, it demands absolute commitment from executives. IT Companies that rise to the challenge will garner extraordinary rewards: not just cost savings, but accelerated new-software introduction, major improvements in client satisfaction and sharp increases in profitability. For those not familiar with Six Sigma, it is first and foremost a philosophical approach that demands the effective use of data to analyze business issues. Key decisions about business activities now beg the question, "How does the available data support that decision" Whether the decision is a make-buy decision, a product change question, a new-model introduction question, or a manufacturing-process decision, the decision on how to proceed is dependent on the available data. Six Sigma is a measurement. ... the decision is a make-buy decision, a product change question, a new-model introduction question, or a manufacturing-process decision, the decision on how to proceed is dependent on the available data. Six Sigma is a measurement. A more illustrative explanation can be found in a 1997 letter Welch sent to GE stockholders: "The Six Sigma quality initiative, very briefly, means going from approximately 3S,000 defects per million operations, which is average for most companies, including GE, to fewer than 4 defects per million in every element in every process that this company engages in every day." (Pande, P.S., et al. 2000) GE was not the first large corporation to undertake the Six Sigma discipline. In the ten years prior to 1995, a number of companies began Six Sigma: Motorola, Texas Instruments, Eastman Kodak, and Allied Signal. Their discoveries and successes were well documented. When embarking on their own process, GE adopted many of the concepts and disciplines of Motorola's Six Sigma methodology. (Pande, P.S., et al. 2000; Harry & Schroeder 2002) Motorola's involvement with Six Sigma began in 1982, when it implemented a quality-improvement program that later became known as Six Sigma. Motorola's CEO asked corporate managers to cut quality costs in half that year. He repeated the charge in 1983. By 1984, the cost-reduction efforts were beginning to point to the need for improved analytical methods and product design for continued process improvement-and the Six Sigma discipline answered this need. (Pande, P.S., et al. 2000; Harry & Schroeder 2002) Motorola's emphasis was on designing for Six Sigma quality, and a number of advanced quality tools were used. Because effective application of these tools was essential, Motorola developed its extensive Six Sigma

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Practical Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Practical Life - Essay Example Teaching polite responses: - children show respect and care to others by good manners they learn. By this tender age, the child should be saying, â€Å"excuse me†, â€Å"please† â€Å"thank you† frequent and this should be a reminder. For instance, if she received a gift in school, teach her to say, â€Å"thank you†. When a child needs something from you as a parent, e.g. a book, explain to her that that you would prefer buying her if she talks politely, â€Å"please mum, would you buy me a book?†, and you do not like if she demands or give orders. Avoiding overreacting: - if your child abuses you by calling you ‘butthead’, try to keep your emotions and react politely. Usually, children who want to annoy and provoke a reaction will tolerate any repulsiveness just to raise your anger. However, face them quietly but boldly and tell them, â€Å"In this family we do not call each other such names.† Thereafter, show them how to get what they need respectfully: â€Å"if you need my help, just ask politely, ‘mum! Please assist me, I have some homework and I cannot manage

Friday, August 9, 2019

The Image Narrative Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Image Narrative - Research Paper Example â€Å"Manga artist Mizuki Shigeru (b. 1922), creator of the famous supernatural series GeGeGe no Kitaro, is one individual who could not be blamed for feeling like a victim.†1 In fact, Shigeru lost his left arm in the war but sees himself, it seems, reflected through his art in the way that the war was torturous and terrible. The key players in the text include Japanese officials, as well as one character we see throughout the panels. They are both parodied, and the character guiding one through the panels who is the main character acts as though he knows nothing about WWII. The cartoon character which is parodied in the panel definitely adds to the overall tone of the piece, giving War and Japan a slightly humorous bent, although little about War and Japan is really humorous. The topic of the cartoon is carnage, massacre, disaster, and war—at their worst. The suffering of the Japanese people is aptly portrayed in this graphic cartoon, bringing the reader to a very dark place. In this sense, it is understood why the cartoon is offensive to some people, both to the Japanese and those who are not Japanese. This cartoon disturbs the reader, but with an overall intent to educate—not just to shock. That is the redeeming value of this cartoon, is that it seeks to educate its readers about the horrors of war as it relates to Japanese history, pre- and post-World War II. This cartoon exemplifies the suffering of the Japanese in different eras, that is supposed to enlighten the reader as to why the Japanese have a certain mindset regarding the war and its effects. III. Second Set of Questions (150 words) Images echo each other in this piece in the sense that violence mirrors itself continually through the piece, not only talking about the Nanking Massacre—but contrasting that with the atomic bomb that dropped on Hiroshima and the carnage that resulted in that. Not only that but, we see the overlap and evolution of soldiers having been sent of f to the South Pacific and Burma from Japan to fight in WWII, an often unseen added element about the War that Shigeru sheds light upon. The images are fixed in terms of being frozen in time, but there is definitely a sense of movement in the images, giving oneself an idea that it is like watching a little movie of World War II from a Japanese viewpoint. The images are more ambiguous when it comes to larger overviews, like the Nanking Massacre and one jungle scenes seen later in the panel. IV. Third Set of Questions (600 words) Sensory stimulation is paramount to War and Japan. The rhythm and pacing is switched up. At first, Shigeru shows us graphic images, and then gives our eyes a rest between graphic images to process what we have just seen, and then the cartoon character narrator tries to explain what is going on in the mind of ordinary Japanese people, bringing the reader back to a sense of normalcy—right before the next image is proffered on-screen. The larger pattern o f movement overall is a wax and wane, bringing us in peaks and valleys to a crescendo of realizing what it means to be a true Japanese—to â€Å"stand tall.† In this way, the progression from panel to panel is very cyclical, nonlinear, and evocative of an emotional rollercoaster in which Shigeru engages us. The turning point of the entire â€Å"cartoon,† if it can be called that—since one usually thinks of cartoons as more humorous than grotesque—is the massacre that occurs after the Manchu people are worked like slaves

Thursday, August 8, 2019

Individual project 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Individual project 3 - Essay Example The total nonfarm payroll increased by 115, 000. There was an increase in the health care industry, warehousing and the transportation industry. In the year 2011, there was a total employment of 17.8 people with disability. In total, the unemployment rate for persons with disability was 16 percent. In household survey data, the total unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percent. Among the major employee groups, the total employment rate for the total adult men was 7.3 percent, the adult women were 7 percent, and for the whites was 7 percent (U. S dept of Labor and Stat 2012). In demographic trends, the population of the US doubled in the year 1950 to 2000. The labor force has been continually growing up to 200 million currently. The wages paid to the workers have continually grown due to the changes in population. The increase and growth in labor force has been largely contributed by the increase in women labor force and the increase in population. The labor force has been increasing by 2.6 percent each and every year. It has been projected that there will be a slower growth rate in the labor force in the next 50 years by 0.6 per year. However, USA is better placed than other countries for example countries in East Asia and some parts of Europe. Those countries are continually facing shrinking workforce (Andrew 2009). According to CNNMoney . com, immigrants in the USA have gained thousands and thousands of jobs since the great Recession. However, thousands and thousands f US born workers lost millions and millions. According to Pew Research Center, US native born workers lost more than 1.3 million jobs in 2008 and 2009. Thus, the unemployment rate for the native born was higher as compared to the immigrants. The unemployment for the immigrants was 8.7 percent while that of the native born was 9.7 percent (Whohlers 2012). In Religion statistics, the major religion is the Christians who are

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Employment Law for Managers ( See Assignment Criteria ) Essay

Employment Law for Managers ( See Assignment Criteria ) - Essay Example For one to be eligible to the claim that employee must have completed the qualifying or probationary period if the employer is small business type or six months in case the employer is a large enterprise (FWA, 2009). Claims are normally made to the Fair Work Australia and this should be within 14 days of being dismissed is the dismissal is unfair. This matter is then put to review by the conciliation conference where most of the issues that are involved in the case are normally resolved between the two feuding parties. If not solved at this level, then the applicant reserves the right to request for a proceeding of the case to a further full hearing (Elizabeth, 2009, pp.1-4). Unfair dismissal occurs if the FWA is convinced that the worker has actually been dismissed; it was harsh or unreasonable; was inconsistent with Small Business Fair Dismissal Code; and that it was not genuine redundancy case. Dismissal is simply the termination of one’s employment at the will of the employer and this does not include demotion. It also does not include a reduction from the person’s salary or duties in a significant manner and the person still is employed by the employer that did effect the demotion. In accordance with the current provisions various matters would be considered while addressing the issues of whether a given dismissal was harsh, unjust or unreasonable. These considerations do include taking into account the reason for dismissal and whether this was valid or not for that dismissal that is duly related to the capacity of a given person or his/her conduct; in case that person being dismissed was actually given notice of the reasons that pertain to his or her dismissal; whether such a dismissed person was given a reasonable chance or opportunity to lodge a response to any of the reasons put forward that are related to the conduct or capacity of the person; if there are any unreasonable refusal by the person’s

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

The Image of the Cyborg as it Appears in Metropolis and Blade Runner Essay Example for Free

The Image of the Cyborg as it Appears in Metropolis and Blade Runner Essay The appearance of the â€Å"cyborg† in science-fiction cinema began with the emergence of the dystopian science-fiction film— both events started with Fritz Lang’s silent film â€Å"Metropolis,† released in 1927 in Weimar Republic Germany, just before the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Lang’s film, made as political allegory, shocked audiences with its complex plot, special effects, and political and religious themes. â€Å"Lang described Metropolis as a battle between modern science and the occult a kind of romantic fatalism that became the directors trademark in later works–[] scene after scene depicting a mechanized world gone madwhich influenced countless other filmmakers. † (Roberts 33)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Among these filmmakers was Ridley Scott, whose 1982 film Blade Runner (based on Philip K. Dick’s novel â€Å"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) stands as an accomplished descendent of Lang’s pioneering work.   While neither film features traditional cyborgs (which are beings created from a synthesis of biological and robotic components) each film features the concept of technologically engineered, sentient life, which closely resembles human life, as a central symbol for the exploration of spiritual and moral themes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Central to Lang’s dystopian vision is a â€Å"mechanized world gone mad,† personified by the creation of a robotic double for the film’s heroine, a Christian leader named Maria, who is opposed by an evil scientist, Rotwang. The opposition of science and religion indicated by the character’s conflict demonstrates Lang’s intention to use themes which inject modern concerns (robotics and science) into the ages-old debates that had historically been associated with religion and philosophy. Lang’s vision is of a robotic construction of artificial life, whereas Ridley Scott, in Blade Runner used genetically engineered â€Å"replicants† as an example of artificially created life. The image of the â€Å"cyborg† is, for Lang, part-human and part-The Image of the Cyborg as it Appears in Metropolis and Blade Runner  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Page   -2- mechanized, a mechanical recreation of human form; for Ridley Scott, â€Å"replicants† are the image of the cyborg, being genetically altered, genetically specified humans designed by a corporation. For both film-makers, the image of the â€Å"cyborg† resulted in an image of evil and danger for humanity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     The very inclusion of modern technologies, or technologies which are closely extrapolated from existing technologies, presents a deviation from the hitherto prevailing â€Å"classical† visions of the Church. â€Å"Dystopia is very much part of the late twentieth-and early twenty-first-century mindset. We see it in films and adverts that dwell on dank futuristic images from a world where the last vestiges of individualism are slowly being expunged and machinery is our enemy.† (Mourby)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The enemy in â€Å"Metropolis,† as personified by Rotwang’s â€Å"evil† robotic doppleganger, presents a new hazard in the modern landscape: if human beings can create sentient life, what are the repercussions of this god-like power and for what purposes will this power be unleashed? The mission of Rotwang’s creation is to vilify and destroy the saintly Maria and in doing so, obfuscate her vision and her message of self-liberation to the oppressed laborers of Metropolis. Rotang aims to â€Å"ruin Maria by creating a robot in her imagea mechanical evil twinto deliver false testimony.† (Roberts 33)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lang’s use of the robot as a symbol of oppression and of deception marks his prosecution of the film’s religious allegory: the robot facsimile of Maria is intended as an ironic variation of the Creation myth, the Biblical notion of the creation of Adam and Eve. Rotwang functions as an inversion of God the Creator, and as Man the Creator â€Å"his main evil act is creating a false robot copy of a Christian leader, Maria. In other words, he gets his minion to pass as a Christian. He The Image of the Cyborg as it Appears in Metropolis and Blade Runner   -creates the robot to foment riots which will lead to the dictatorship of the master of Metropolis† (Tratner). In â€Å"Metropolis† the robot looks and appears as human, though it is actually a mechanical construction; in Ridley Scott’s later film â€Å"Blade Runner† the replicants are indistinguishable from human beings without a sophisticated series of psychological and neurological tests.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The concept of robotics functions, for Lang, as a direct inquiry into the moral bearing of humanity and what significance human ethics play as the role of technology expands in society. If robots can be constructed so cleverly, so efficiently that they can â€Å"pass† for humans in society, then what societal consequences arise from this technology? In â€Å"Metropolis† the robot is envisioned as a minion of perverse human will; its likeness to humanity presents a special problem of evil int hat the robot, programed with foul intentions, can walk among humanity undetected for what it really is— as in the (particularly Hebrew) legends of the golem. However, the robot in â€Å"Metropolis,† while being similar to the golem myth, is a distinctly modern conception and one which carried the ancient Biblical connotations of Creation Myth and the human will to power, which in both traditional Christian terms and in the context of the film â€Å"Metropolis† is portrayed as â€Å"sinful.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lang’s strategy, as revealed in â€Å"Metropolis,† is to contrast the human will-to-power as illustrated by the mad scientist, Rotwang’s, efforts to gain the power of Creation, with the human will-to-individuality and liberty, which is portrayed via the workers’ struggle and Maria’s spiritual vision. In the end, Joh and Rotwang’s scheme â€Å" backfires as the socialites debauch and the workers revolt, unleashing a flood that nearly drowns a horde of innocent children. In the end, Freder and Maria prevail, reconciling Joh with the workers with the slogan, The mediator The Image of the Cyborg as it Appears in Metropolis and Blade Runner between brain and hands must be the heart. (Roberts 33)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lang’s ground-breaking film influenced untold subsequent film-makers and artists in all mediums; among them, Ridley Scott, whose dystopian science-fiction film â€Å"Blade Runner† incurs much debt to Lang for not only the visual and thematic ideas of â€Å"Blade Runner,† but for- the film’s central theme of genetically engineered human life-forms, which, like Lang’s treatment of robotics in â€Å"Metropolis,† comprises a symbol for ethical and religious themes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Scott’s genetically engineered life-forms are called â€Å"replicants† and, as such, they are dissimilar from Lang’s robot in that replicants are biological, rather than mechanical, beings with physical, emotional, and mental characteristics selected and engineered by human scientists.   The central premise of the story is that a number of the replicants, having discovered that they were engineered to have only 3 year life spans, escape from their assignments in the off-world colonies and become renegades on earth in search of their creators, in search of life-extension.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While Lang’s film asked â€Å"What would happen if man could create a perfect robotic likeness of man and program it to do malevolent things?† Scott’s film asks â€Å"What moral decisions would artificially engineered beings make once they realized they were alive?† The resulting narrative, with its dystopian overtones, presents a variation on the Biblical Satan-as-God’s-Enemy. Satan, being the most glorious of God’s angels, rebels against his Creator, God, because of his great pride. In â€Å"Blade Runner† the replicant, Roy, is received by his creator Tyrell as the â€Å"prodigal son;† he then proceeds to murder his creator, Tyrell, because of his existential angst, being a mortal creature with merely his subjective experience in three years as â€Å"eternity.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Scott’s take on the â€Å"man against machines† paradigm is a near-future vison for humanity, severed from superstition or magic (where there are traces of occultism in â€Å"Metropolis†) and The Image of the Cyborg as it Appears in Metropolis and Blade Runner lodged firmly within the capitalistic, technology-driven society that is our modern experience. The idea of hostile machines seems all-too-familiar and in fact plays a central thematic role in mid-to-late twentieth century American medai:   this innovation might result in   the creation of machines that would one day prove intelligent enough to attack us, an idea that lies behind such classic dystopian films as Metropolis, Bladerunner and the Terminator trilogy. (Mourby)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Blade Runner’s† replicants evolve the notion of apocalypse as being human engineered, rather than as the will of God. Humanity will bring about its own apocalypse, and part of this apocalypse are the replicants themselves, a symbol, not of man (or Satan’s) vanity, but of his greed. For Scott capitalism and greed take the place of â€Å"evil† and â€Å"sin† in Biblical reference. Where previously men had imagined: â€Å"The end would occur when the Divine Being had finally had enough of us and it would all be pretty nasty for all except those who had managed to get on the right side of him† man must now manage (by Scott’s reckoning) to throw â€Å"off its glum medieval certainties† and dare, like Lang, to speculate â€Å" about what life might hold in store for us long term.† (Mourby)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For both film-makers, the image of the cyborg, robot, or replicant offered a glimpse into the negative capacities of technology and scientific knowledge. Because in each case, the â€Å"cyborgs† closely resemble human beings, the image of the artificially created life-form is viewed as both negative and dangerous to humanity. The lesson of the images seems to be that the act of the Creation of life, though possible for humanity, is better left to God or Nature than to mankind. Works Cited Mourby, Adrian. Dystopia: Who Needs It? Adrian Mourby Shows That the Nightmare Scenario Can Be Both Dire Warning and Escapist Fantasy. History Today Dec. 2003: 16+. Roberts, Rex. Auld Lang Syne: A Restored Print of the Silent Classic Metropolis Includes Footage Not Seen since 1927. Insight on the News 5 Aug. 2002: 33. Tratner, Michael. Lovers, Filmmakers, and Nazis: Fritz Langs Last Two Movies as Autobiography. Biography 29.1 (2006): 86+.