Comparing and contrasting two lifestyle magazines Essay

The mass media has over the years evolved to what some people judge as the way we think. No longer has everyone got their own opinion but they are conjured by adverts and promotions. People are classed into different stereotypes with their opinions reflecting their own accord, thus including what they look like, what they do and who they are. With each new stereotype category arrives a new lifestyle for people to follow. People have now taken lifestyles into their own (this is known as materialism) and identified their ‘stereotype’ by indicating this to the public through the medium. Magazines are a good way to promote lifestyles because they are easily accessible through retail, any kind of lifestyle can be promoted as the amount of magazine concepts are only barred by the levels of creativity and magazines can target a certain type of audience and still sell rather than be obliged to target a mass audience such as TV. Editors play a big part in how the lifestyle is represented in any magazine. The editor’s view reflects the lifestyle, especially if it is a large selling magazine. It basically follows the theory of how media controls our opinions which relates to the trend or ‘what’s hot or not’. Advertisements within magazines also reflect the lifestyle itself because a business wouldn’t really promote their products in irrelevant locations that would not attract consumers. I have chosen â€Å"Adobe Photoshop Handbook† (APH) and â€Å"Smash Hits† as my magazines to compare and contrast. APH is a magazine for web site designers. It shows you how to make graphics using Adobe Photoshop (a popular software with web site designers). As this software costs a lot of money (i500+) and not many people choose to use extreme personalised graphics on their web sites this is not a popular lifestyle as others this magazine does not sell to a large audience. Smash Hits is a popular magazine on pop music lifestyle. It costs a third less than APH and has a much larger audience. It generally targets males and females of 9 – 16 years of age. Pop music is hard to classify because of the amount of different kinds of music such as jazz, blues, metal, rock, dance etc. but Smash Hits generalises pop music as what is in the charts and making an impact on the teenage public. This is a good way to promote a magazine because it constantly keeps up to date with celebrity lifestyles and ‘gossip’. People like keep track of what their favourite celebrities are doing because they see them as role models in how they themselves can become just like them. APH has gossip on what kinds of talent is currently hitting the art side of the computer world. Web site designers like to be individual in their work so they don’t follow the handbook ‘religiously’ but use the ideas to apply to their own graphics. This kind of editorial has a weak concept but a good reaction. The ideology is to show people how to make attractive images that relate to the current trend of web arts but the reaction is to use these guides to work alongside web designers’ own arts. The language used in APH is complex in a computer literate fashion. Throughout the magazine there are amazing eye catching images. The front cover always has the most interesting image in the handbook because this is the main advertisement for the magazine. If the image looks good then people are more likely to buy it because they will suggest that the producers of the magazine knows how to make attractive art. They try to shorthand most of the content because they repeat words over and over again in the tutorials. Smash Hits language is Basic English; this is to make it easier for the younger audience to interpret the magazine. Many of the images in the magazine are pictures of celebrities with more focusing on whoever is in the public eye. The graphics are large and colourful this is ‘easy on the eye’ and attracts attention to it because of the primary colours reflecting off the opposite colours (i. e. black and white, red and blue, yellow and blue etc. ) When you hear your favourite artist sing a song you tend to sing along with it (in public or not), APH is like a handbook of lyrics to songs and people read off these lyrics and use it to write their own songs. This is the major difference between the two magazines. One is aimed at artists and the other is aimed at the pop music market. The readerships are bound to differ. Therefore the editorials are apt to justify with their target audience. Although they are different in lifestyles they do share comparisons. The magazines both target male and females and the conventional layout consisting of; front page, contents page, editors words, letter page, main articles, interview and then a page at the end on next months contents. The costs of the magazine diverge of each other, as there is more money in the music industry than in the web design industry and many other industries. The fact that the magazine only idealises on pop music means that it will always have a large audience of people that follow popular music, which tend to be a younger audience who have yet to develop a taste in different kinds of music. More and more people are getting into web site building because it is easy and cheap. People can make their own reflections of lifestyles in their own impressions on their web pages. This then attracts other people and the ‘acceptance’ into a society is then established (because as people know, there is a website for everything). The monopolisation of the computer market by Microsoft means that the variety of software available is limited. Denoting that the amount of different advertisers available to the publisher are limited, consequently making the magazine highly priced. The advertisement in any magazine normally reflects the lifestyle that the magazine idealises. In APH the adverts are about other computer software that work in cooperation with Adobe Photoshop. These adverts are scattered throughout the magazine in a variety of sizes depending on the quality and popularity of the products. The only other adverts are of other magazines published by future publishing (the magazines publisher) that focuses on magazines that have a ‘passion with media’. These tend to be full-page adverts; about 20% of the magazine is made up of adverts. Smash Hits is made up of 50% of editorials and the rest are adverts. This makes the magazine cheap to buy. The adverts are scattered throughout the magazine and they are all of products and services that justify their readership. For example, there is a NSPCC advert at the bottom of the letters page; NSPCC is the ‘National Society of Protection against Cruelty to Children’, which is obviously targeted at children. The adverts consist of music albums of pop bands and the other magazine that the publisher publishes also feature in the magazine on full pages. Smash Hits normally comes with ‘freebies’ such as a single or extra miniature books that are sealed onto the front cover. APH came with a guide to how you can dual boot your system with Linux and Windows; it also came with a disk with Linux on. Freebies are popular with magazines because people like to think that they are getting more than what they paid for. This makes the consumer more likely to buy the magazine because of this ‘give away’ offer. Lifestyle magazines cannot represent a lifestyle completely; it just shows a reflection of an opinion on its chosen lifestyle. A person cannot instantly know about new trends instantaneously, they need to be told about them through the media or other forms of communication. This is why they buy magazines on their favourite lifestyles and to learn about what ‘their world’ is up to. Lifestyles are endorsed as guidance for people to lead and live their lives. They are popular with people because it allows them to ‘belong’ to a society. With this self – belief of acceptance it gives people a push through life. This can be related to religion; as where people follow a religion in credence of hope and these lifestyles can be seen as hope to be accepted into society.

MOBA Game Addiction

The first mechanical or automatic computer was made in 1822 by Charles Babbage. It was capable of computing several sets of numbers and making had copies of the results. Despite its only single purpose, it was the start and the foundation of all the technology we have today. Ever since the day the computer was first made, different inventors have been creating their own computers with different functions, they also improved the inventions of others. For almost two centuries, computers have always been evolving. In our era, computers have many different functions, functions that do efficiently better than human beings.Functions of computers can be solving mathematical problems, socializing, searching answers for specific problems, or entertaintment. But nowadays, computers are used mostly for entertainment purposes. The reason is because computers are machines that are able to capture images,videos and audio. An examples would be, instead of watching shows from your television, listen ing music to the radio or checking photos from your albums, you are able to do all these using the computer alone. But the main objects of entertainment from computers are video games.Video games contain both video and audio files, it also has a purpose or goal for someone to achieve. The first ever computer game made was in 1952 by A. S. Douglas, a graphical computer version of Tic-Tac-Toe. The game was programmed on a EDSAC vacuum-tube computer, which had a cathode ray tube display. Like the computer, computer-based games were also evolving at the same time, people are creating games of their own. Graphics of computer games was the notable characteristic of a game evolving. Computer games have different genres, they can be puzzles, shooters, action or strategy.According to (____), the average of people who play computer games is 18-49, and the most played genre is puzzle. Computer games have also become competitive because of the amount of players trying to achieve the highest sco re possible. Because of this nature, game developers are developing more multiplayer games which purpose is generally to win by performing better than the other player. Due to multiplayer games, a term called â€Å"eSports† has been developed. eSports is the term for organized video game competitions, especially between professionals. The most common genre associated with eSports is multiplayer online battle arena.

Economic Problems of the Philippines Essay

Economic problems of the Philippines are very similar to those being battled by other underdeveloped and developing nations. After a long tryst with colonization, the nation is now grappling with increased imports and a mixed economy that is still to stabilize. The Republic of the Philippines is located in Southeast Asia and Manila is its capital city. The country comprises 7,107 islands and ranks as the 12th most populous country in the world. Like most other southeast Asian regions, the Philippines too has a history of European colonization. It was a colony of Spain and the USA. The country is now home to multiple cultures and traditional ethnicity. It is also looked upon as a perfect example of a ‘mixed economy’. Industrialization is a new development in the Philippines. Traditionally, the economy stabilized on the agrarian contributions and the manufacture of garments, pharmaceutical products and semiconductors. In the last decade, electronic exports added to the exports, including various products obtained by mining. The economy of the nation also largely depends on the remittances from Filipinos residing overseas and investing in the homeland. However, exports are not evenly balanced by the imports that include heavy electronics, garments, various raw materials, intermediate goods and fuel. The influence of the Manila galleon on the nation’s economy during the Spanish period, and bilateral trade when the country was a colony of the United States has resulted in the preference of a mixed economy over a centrally planned or market based one. It is very important to understand the shift during the Ferdinand Marcos leadership, from a market economy to a centrally planned economy, to relate to the economic recession that the country is now facing. With adverse global trends and the world economy entering a protracted depression, in 2011, the Philippines faced another economic downturn. The country’s lack of internal economic strength due to the absence of core manufacturing sector and an absence of firm and bold domestic policy initiatives have led the economy to be dependent on the state of the global economy. Thereby making it vulnerable to external shocks. Here we try to look at three possible challenges posed to growth and real development of the economy in 2012, based upon the insights provided by the economic policy-making and decisions by the Aquino administration in 2011. Major Financial Problems of the Philippines Over-dependence on Global Economy The growth of the Philippines economy drastically slowed to just 3.6% in the first three quarters of 2011, which is significantly less than the 7%-8% growth targeted by administration’s Philippine Development Plan (PDP). Though the slowdown may have been due to the ongoing global crisis, it was markedly slower in comparison to other South-East Asian neighbors. Economic performance figures indicated a contraction in exports and a drop in FDI. Though the remittances from overseas Filipinos to the country grew in the first ten months of 2011, however the compensation that overseas Filipinos received actually fell, in peso terms, due to an appreciating peso. In 2011 the Aquino administration sought a FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with the EU and join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The administration further allowed the US to even more directly influence Philippine economic policy making in its self-interest, by entering in a Partnership for Growth (PfG). These partnerships will consequently further the dependence of the economy on the global economy, whereas a regional arrangement between less unequal Southeast Asian countries is potentially useful. Greater attention has to be paid to addressing to the internal problems of the economy and enhancing domestic-oriented growth. A policy of removing structural impediments to growth has to be adopted with lesser focus on foreign investors and exporters. Unemployment The official unemployment figures for the Philippines in 2011 are among the worst in Asia, higher than its South-East Asian neighbors and according to the International Labor Organization the country is among the worst one-fourth in the world in terms of unemployment rates. Without a strong manufacturing industry or real Filipino industry, the economy will be unable to create enough decent paying jobs. Till then manufacturing or services will remain substandard, or of low value-addition. According to employment figures, jobs in the Philippines manufacturing sector increased by just 8% of the total employment. Nearly three out of every ten people in the labor force are looking for work or are jobless. The mining sub-sector said to be one of the fastest growing industry in 2011 failed to generate new jobs (just 0.6 % of total employment). Steadily rising inflation has contributed to the erosion of the value of the minimum wage. Though the Aquino administration increased the minimum wage and announced cash dole-outs but lack of quality decent paying jobs and higher real wages continue to be a problem. The government’s policy to encourage foreign capital, even if in just low value-added assembly operations will continue to hinder real growth and development of the manufacturing sector. The Aquino administration needs to plan over the long-term, and prepare an industrialization program that encourages value-addition manufacturing or services and builds Filipino-owned industries. Misplaced Fiscal Austerity Practicing fiscal austerity just to get favorable credit ratings can be counterproductive. The Aquino administration, in 2011, pursued fiscal austerity and spent 2.1% less in the first 11 months than it did in the same period last year. This along with increased revenues brought down the fiscal deficit and subsequently international credit rating agencies Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch upgraded the country’s credit ratings and outlooks. In 2011 the government cut spending on economic services, including infrastructure, in the same vein did not fill in for shortfalls in education, health and housing sectors. As a result, over the first three quarters of 2011, income from public construction contracted by about 46% whereas government consumption reduced by a mere 1.7% in comparison to the same period last year. Misplaced austerity measures and an exaggerated concern about credit ratings contracts the economy, reduces demand and undermines future growth. The proposed public private partnerships (PPPs) are a poor substitute to real investment and public expenditure, because the former are majorly driven by short-term profit while the latter play a vital role to create development. These are just some of the economic challenges looming large over the Philippines. The country is facing significant decline in industrial production, gross domestic product, income and employment and sales. The Aquino presidency supposedly is getting the support of the people, as indicated by its high approval ratings, for the necessary economic measures that are in the general public interest. In 2011, the Aquino administration’s policy choices to give greater weight to narrow foreign and domestic elite interests, unfortunately, underscores the challenge of pushing for real reform in 2012.

Social Capital Creation and Sustainable Relationship among Stakeholder Dissertation

Social Capital Creation and Sustainable Relationship among Stakeholder in Construction Business in Thailand - Dissertation Example The other objective of this study is related to the creation of sustainable relationships in between the stakeholders of the organisations operating its business in the construction industrial sector of Thailand. Hence, the previous works related to the importance of such kind of stakeholder relationships in organisations can prove to be very much helpful in conducting the present research study. In addition to this, various kinds of business relationships that can be found in an organisation with special reference to cultural relationship traits found in Southeast Asian nations and Thailand will also be discussed here. This research study will try to build a model related to social capital possessed by companies operating in the construction industry of Thailand which can prove to be advantageous for the related companies in Thailand. Therefore, this literature review will give insights to some of the existing theories and models related to social capital. All these facts will help to attain the research objectives of this study utilizing the literature review as discussed in this section. 2.2 The Importance of Social Capital Many empirical studies have been conducted regarding the importance of social capital and have been mentioned in the existing literature by different authors. A wide range of socio-economic phenomenon related to the importance of social capital can be found in many of the existing literature presented by various authors (Durlauf, 2002, pp. 1-31; Krishna, 2001, pp 71-93). Research on social capital has resulted in various theoretical debates and different empirical investigations being conducted. This again has resulted in giving a stimulus towards reconsidering facts related to human relations, organisational forms for developmental performance and life quality, networks, etc. The importance of theory related to social capital is observable because of the application of the concept of social capital in various fields and its widespread in terest amongst different organisations and its stakeholders. The existing studies and literature gives way to ample evidences regarding the political, social and economic implications of social capital. However, according to Halpern et al. (2002), there are ambiguities or misspecifications related to the models or equations that have been utilized to measure the impacts of social capital. Thus, the social and economic outcomes that arise based on the empirical evidence related to the importance and significance of social capital need to be dealt with caution. Without having a rigorous method formulated for the purpose of measuring the importance of social culture, it is not clear as to how those benefits associated with social capital can be tested or ascertained (Halpern, 2001, pp. 236-251). However, it can be found as a surprising fact that the

Harry potter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Harry potter - Essay Example This story is all about an orphan boy, and unbeknown to him, he is a wizard and very popular in the world of Wizards and is admitted in the well-known magic academy, Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry, whose ten years of life is surrounded in a tiny cupboard under stairs with the very detestable Dursleys and their nasty son Dudley, could never imagine a life full of magic, but all that is about to change when a letter comes through an owl messenger announcing his admission in the great Hogwarts. Once he makes his way into the school, he becomes aware about the reason for his fame – Lord Voldemort, the most feared wizard who is also referred as â€Å"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named†. However, the first novel of the whole series mostly shows Harry getting aware of the magic and making friends, nemesis and facing Voldemort for the first time, after getting cursed by him when he was just a baby. As the story evolves one can, to some extent, grasp the few agendas tha t the book seems to be outlining and those are the value of humility and friendship, the dangers of desire and the periodic need of rebellion. Regardless of his surrounding and the people he is dealing with, Harry’s respect and dignity for others is never lost on anyone. Even though he is just a kid, his values and thinking is that of an adult, usually a kid of his age is very naughty, lively, whiny and childlike, but after reading the book and watching the movie one cannot blame him for having any such traits. The value of humility in him can be judged at different turns in the book, for instance, in the academy he is uncomfortable with the popularity and when his potions teacher, professor Snape dubbed him as â€Å"our new celebrity† he gets embarrassed, similarly, when the teacher humiliates him on ignorance of herbs he remains silent, showing respect for the teacher. Interestingly, children often seems to enjoy and take advantage of being famous, but again this is not the case with

ASEAN Free Trade Area Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ASEAN Free Trade Area - Essay Example The AFTA agreement aims at promoting free trade in the region by bringing down the tax barriers and making the trade related policy framework to be more encouraging. The agreement can be understood as a kind of regional liberalization of trade policies that are favorable for boosting regional trade. Further the article focuses to find out whether if formation of this agreement has created trade creation or trade diversion. Trade creation can be considered as a development whereas trade diversion from the non member nations to the member nations can not be considered as a positive development. An important instrument for applying the trade agreement in the total region is the Common Effective Preferential Tariff scheme that requires the tariff of certain commodity to fall below zero to five percent. These commodities include capital and non capital as well as manufactured goods. This process of liberalization and eliminating the identified commodities from taxable commodities has been phased out in for phases. This has been done in order to prevent any instantaneous impact over the respective national economies of the member countries. A gradual tariff reduction would assure that the change shall be absorbed over a period of years and thus promote trade. After fifteen years of the agreement, it can be observed that the countries have largely succeeded in achieving the goals.

Reagan Remembered Interview Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reagan Remembered Interview - Research Paper Example America had its longest peacetime economic expansion under Reagan and the tax benefits actually had a trickle effect that the people felt. There were job increases and unemployment was down. Even with a brief recession in 1982, the country still managed to come out on top economically speaking. It is really sad that Ronald Reagan knew of the importance of privatizing the Social Security program of the country but he never had a chance to do so. He actually liked the idea of allowing the members to choose how and where their money would be invested. He was a president who knew that social security, even though he was against it due to its Ponzi scheme like nature, could benefit the poorest of the poor. That is why he wanted to allow those who could prove that they did not need the retirement benefits of social security to get a refund and opt out of the program. For all of the good that Reagan did for our country though, his presidency seems to be best remembered for the Iran Contra scandal wherein our high ranking government officials illegally sold firearms to Iran which, at the time, was the subject of an arms embargo. Regardless of the embargo though, it is easy to understand why he did it. There were seven American lives at stake. These were American citizens being held hostage in Iran by a terrorist group with ties to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. What started out as a deal based on you scratch my back and Ill scratch yours ended up as an arms for hostages scheme instead that had individual executive branch representatives selling the weapons in exchange for American lives. He may not have done right by going around the arms embargo but, and this is the most important part, he brought those Americans being held hostage home. Each one of them alive and kicking. Nobody will ever forget the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagans life because a mad man tried to

Write an equity research report on JUNIPER NETWORKS, INC Essay

Write an equity research report on JUNIPER NETWORKS, INC - Essay Example Juniper’s strategy into the network’s industry as well as in the provision of data service aimed at connecting customers to a stable and reliable network infrastructure that would support both individual personal users as well as big data streaming. This approach was at par with the growing use of data within the social sphere as well as the business environment of various corporate entities. The aim of the network and data provision service was to challenge existing companies and business rivals into developing a competitive approach into business to ensure standards were improved while at the same time making use of innovation to provide customers with relevant and sustainable service. Additionally, the company is innovation oriented and through the adaption of technologies such as the framework of the M40, the company aims at constructing a competitive advantage for the survival of its business mission and operations sustainability within a competitive contemporary e nvironment. While the strategies of most companies within the active global markets are analyzed with reference and respect to their financial capability, the operations of Juniper are considered in a timeline approach to showcase how time as a resource, innovation as a strategy, and competition as a motivation combine to strengthen and sustain the company over years of active business participation. With reference to the very first production that the company invented, the M40 router, the company aimed at providing North American region with network infrastructure that surpassed the then available technologies. In 2000 towards mid-September, Juniper provided the market with its first full-performance routers under the brand name MSeries Multiservice Edge routers. In 2001, the company was at it again improving its own business competitiveness by providing the market with routers integrated with XML instrumentation considering the technological solution, IPv6. While production of

Employee Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 5

Employee Relations - Essay Example industrial relations take place within a particular organization is determined by the frame of reference through which its top managers recognize the formal relationship with individuals and/or their representatives. The unitary frame of reference is widespread among managers. According to this unitary perspective, all individuals in the organization are working towards one goal, where there is one sense of power and where conflict is abhorred. Managers frequently view themselves and other managers in the organization as part of a ‘managerial team’, and they expect their employees to pledge to the same point of view. Managers who take this approach consider themselves as the only rightful source of power and authority which they value and protect. They view their role as one of controlling the activities of the workforce and presume that all employees share the common goals of the organization, are faithful to the `management team’ and entirely dedicated to the objective of the organization. On the other hand, a different way of looking at organizations is to view them as pluralities of interest groups, each with differing and occasionally opposing interests, which might come together in alliances, although these alliances shift and modify according to the situations. Whatever the long-term interrelatedness of interest groups, in their daily struggle for resources and in their work-related activities, they emphasize on sectional interests. Here, managers might tolerate and keenly promote freedom of expression and the development of groups, which create their own norms and choose their own informal leaders. In this way, authority and control takes place in a number of areas of the organization and loyalty is commanded by the leaders of the groups, which are frequently in competition with each other for resources. The managers accomplish results by combining the groups, promoting participation, motivating employees and managing their work efforts (Gennard &

NURSING CARE PLAN Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

NURSING CARE PLAN - Research Paper Example Dorothea Orem considered all human beings as basically biopsychosocial beings with capabilities and willingness to take care of themselves and also be dependent on others. It is through these capabilities that human beings live and maintain health (Clark, 1986). The ultimate aim of these capabilities is to meet 3 groups of needs, which are known as 'self-care requisites' and they are universal, developmental and health deviation (Orem, 1985; cited in Comley, 1994 ). The requisite for Mr. C at this current juncture is health deviation. Mr. C is in congestive heart failure, has anemia and also deep vein thrombosis. He also has hypothyroidism. He is on lasix and metoprolol for heart failure and coumadin for deeep vein thrombosis. He is very pale because of low hemoglobin and also congestive heart failure. His laboratory tests are suggestive of renal impairment. In view of congestive heart failure, he is dyspneic and his saturations are low. Mr. C needs to feel comfortable at breathing. He is dysneic and his saturations are low.

Philosophy of religion exam review questions answers Essay

Philosophy of religion exam review questions answers - Essay Example 397). What does he mean by this? William Cavanaugh wrote his essay as he is unpleasantly surprised by the fact that the government wants the religion to play the role of â€Å"peace creator†. Such approach can easily return us to the Middle Ages’ level of development as every person in democratic country should feel free in choosing his/her religious beliefs. Our ethical principles should be based first of all on justice, democracy and positive examples and religion should not direct our behavior. Actually during â€Å"the wars of religion† there were many alliances created not because of religious allegiance. The perfect example of is the alliance during the 3rd war when protestants were allied to William of Orange who needed that alliance in order to establish political control. â€Å"Wars of religion† usually served as pretexts for starting military actions to establish control in another country. The term â€Å"development of doctrine† was used by John Henry Newman, who studied how religious dogmas were developed through time. He made the conclusion that Catholic teaching was the most developed through time in comparison to other christen teachings, the dogmas of which mainly remained unchanged. The views of Plato and Freud were similar in one thing: they considered love to be the most important in our life. However, Freud considered love to be the production of physical desire, while Plato stated that physical desire is the consequence of spiritual affection. Plato was against sexual activity that is fulfilled only to satisfy physical needs. He valued spiritual love high and considered erotic attraction of a person to be the consequence of spiritual affection. According to Plato, erotic attraction does not depend on appearance or sexual appeal, it fully depends on spiritual feeling. The first principles are found when our

History of Gaming Essay Example for Free

History of Gaming Essay Gaming has been around since the late 1960’s far later than I had thought, for me I had always thought that the Atari 2600 was the first gaming system known to mankind, and after starting my research I found out how wrong I was. In this part of the teams paper I will discuss the different types of this technology thought it history. In 1967 the first gaming console ever was created and was named the â€Å"Brown Box.† A German born television engineer Ralph Baer and his colleagues created the Brown Box which worked on your basic standard television set. Working with a firm called Sanders Associates, Baer along with co-workers drew up schematics for a game which was called the chase game, and they built a vacuum tube circuit that connected to the television. Two players controlled two squares that basically chased each other on the screen, at that point in time gaming was born. Baer and his associates later added a light fun and developed a total of 12 games for the Brown Box. Fast forward five years after Baer and his associates created the Brown Box, Magnavox began production of the Magnavox Odyssey. The Odyssey was called the first commercial video-game console and was marketed in Magnavox TV dealerships. The Odyssey used six cartridges to play up to twelve games. The Odyssey downfall is that many TV dealers didn’t see any potential in it and along with the false rumor that it only worked in Magnavox televisions hurt the popularity of the gaming systems. In 1972 Nolan Bushnell founded Atari and three years later in 1975, they had their first smash hit with an arcade game called Pong. Atari sold a home version of the game Pong through Sears under the Sears Tele-games label. What made Pong unique was that it produced an on-screen score and sound all by single chip. With his first system Nolan Bushnell and Atari shot to the top of household gaming. Knowing that some of not anything last forever especially a single game system popularity, Nolan Bushnell and Atari started working on a cartridge based system, one that could play multiple games. In 1976 Bushnell Sold Atari to Warner Communications, and Warner immediately backed the Atari project, and the Atari VCS later renamed the Atari 2600 was introduced. The Atari was a big hit and had multiple game hits to go along with it, hits like the ever popular Spaced Invaders, Breakout, Missile Command, and Combat just to name a few. Atari was the first ever massed produced home video gaming system, selling 400,000 systems and hitting sales figures of $120 million dollars during the first Christmas season in 1977. In 1980 Mattel released Intellivision, and was the first to take a run at Atari’s gamming thrown. This sparked what some would like to call a console war between Atari and Mattel. Intellivision featured better game graphics and synthesized voices in video games. Both systems brought on other game developers like Coleco and Activision, but with so many of the games being unlicensed games and no household system lead to gaming industry crash in 1983-84 cause in many companies to file bankruptcy. Nintendo, a Japanese based company became part of the gaming industry in 1985 with its release of the Nintendo Entertainment System. With some of the most popular titles ever like Super Mario Brothers, Metroid, and Legend of Zelda and that of third party games like Tecmo Bowl and RBI baseball, the NES turned the non-believers that didn’t think it was a good idea to get into gaming after a crash, into believers. In 1987 Sega released its gaming system which dwarfed the capabilities that its predecessor, the NES, had offered. It was called the MasterSystem but it didn’t make the splash that many in the Sega camp had thought it would make, due to its lack of third-party games and other things it was the demise of the MasterSystem and the first failing of Sega. Sega went directly back to the drawing board and soon after released its first hit the Sega Genesis in 1989. Backed by many game developers like Electronic Arts, the Sega Genesis opened the door for the first ever battle for supremacy for gaming dominance. Four years after the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo released its second smash hit, with the Gameboy. Gameboy was dubbed the as the first ever handheld gaming console and had a black and white screen. Tetris one of the most popular Gameboy games ran the Gameboy sales through the roof. With many make-overs throughout the course of history Gameboy continued to stay relevant in gaming. 1990 was the release of SNK’s Neo-Geo a 24 bit home gaming system that was said to be many years ahead of its competitors and its time. The Neo-Geo had one problem, it wasn’t 2-D graphics those were great, it wasn’t its arcade level quality that was what everyone wanted, it was neither of those two things that helped the Neo-Geo fail it was its $650.00 price tag and its $200.00 games that took the Neo-Geo from great innovation to under achiever. In 1991 Nintendo releases the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Beaten to the punch by Sega with its gaming system the Sega Genesis, the 16 bit SNES had some catching up to do. It wasn’t long before the SNES thanks to its technological superiority, had overtaken the Sega Genesis thanks to its big name games like Super Mario Brothers, Metroid, and Zelda. By the end of the 90’s Sega Genesis was no more than an afterthought for SNES who had taken over the 16 bit era and the gaming industry. It wasn’t till the year 1995 that Nintendo again was challenged for its gaming dominance. Sony introduced the Sony PlayStation a 32 bit CD-ROM based technology and has been said to be the most popular gaming system ever. The games had three dimensional gameplay much better than the 2-D of the past. What was the most attraction to any gamer was the price of the games which dramatically dropped compared to those of cartridge based games. It was also in 1995 the second day of September that the Sega franchise basically started its demise. This day marked the release of the Sega Saturn, which was dubbed the best worst system, according to many. Because it was pushed up to get out ahead of the newly announced PlayStation 2, it gave the Sony corporation time to sit back and polish the upcoming PlayStation 2 and learn from the mistakes that the Sega Saturn was making. In 1996 the Nintendo franchise countered the PlayStation with the Nintendo64, the last cartridge based system. Although the cartridges loaded faster than the CD-ROMS of PlayStation the Nintendo64 couldn’t even keep up with the amount of games that were released for the PlayStation, leaving the PlayStation on top of the gaming for the time being. It was in 1998 when Sega made its final push as a contender in the world of gaming with its release of the CD-based system Dreamcast, which incorporated a 128-bit processing system. The Dreamcast was the first system that had a modem which allowed for internet connectivity that brought on the ability to play online, download extra content and updated to the system itself. This would be the last time that anyone would here from the Sega franchise in the console industry. In 2001 Sega discontinued the Dreamcast and announced that it would be leaving the console market for good and taking its Sonic franchise with them. Four years after the release of the Nintendo64 and five years after the first initial PlayStation, Sony releases its second version of the PlayStation 2. The first 128 bit system featured backwards compatibility allowing the PS2 to play the older PlayStations games, and also could be used as a DVD player. Not only was the PS2 named most popular 128 bit system but with its release it marked the rise of console popularity played over the internet. 2001 was the introduction of the old guy with a new system and the new kid on the block in gaming. Nintendo hit the gaming market again going away from its usual cartridge based systems and introducing its first ever CD based system. The GameCube was marketed more for the younger demographics and is said to be what made the system flop and sell short. Along with the inability to connect to the internet it was called a one trick pony and was behind in the gaming world and home entertainment systems. The now new kid on the block Microsoft introduced its own gaming system the X-box. The PC giant used PC technology when building the X-Box which allowed for greater performance. Although the X-Box’s technology proved greater performance when compared to that of the 128 bit PS2 it still remained behind the number of sales that the PS2 had leaving Sony alone at that top of the gaming world. In 2002 Nintendo stepped back in with the Gameboy Advance and again in 2004 with the Nintendo DS. Some would argue and go as far as to say that all Nintendo did was step on its on toes with how they released the two versions so closely together. By doing so experts say that they made the Gameboy obsolete by releasing the DS so soon. Playstation soon joined Nintendo in the hand held gaming evolution, challenging Nintendo’s dominance. The PlayStation Portable like the Gameboy and DS featured wireless capability, high graphics and non-gaming functions mimicking PC-based devices. 2005 also marked the release of the Microsoft X-Box 360. The processing power of the X-Box 360 was said to be unrivaled, and all came with an internal hard drive, played DVDs and had the ability to connect four controllers at one time wirelessly, as well as connecting to the internet. The Nintendo Wii was released in 2006 and featured a built in WiFi for online game play, wireless controllers and Bluetooth. The wireless controllers weren’t new to gaming but what Nintendo did bring to the table with their wireless controllers was the motion sensor technology, allowing the game to mimic the performance of the actual player. 2006 is also when the Sony franchise again exerted its dominance and rivaled back against Microsoft X-Box 360 with the PlayStation 3. The PS3 came with an internal hard drive as well and the ability not only to play DVD’s but also Blue Ray DVD, along with its ability to connect to the internet wirelessly and connect multiple controllers wirelessly, it is said to be still atop the gaming industry, but again that’s all in who you ask. These two systems, PlayStation 3 and X-Box 360, along with the Nintendo Wii brings us to where we are now with gaming in what is called the 8th Generation of gaming. Every year the three gaming giants Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo continue to wow us with different and greater gaming innovation that keeps the rivalry for gaming dominance going on and going strong. In the last few years the X-Box 360 stepped up the gaming war and has released technology that gets rid of the hand held controllers all together! The Kinect from Microsoft has really stepped up its technology and has gotten rid of the controller period. The Kinect set the Guinness Book of World Record for the fastest gaming system ever and comes highly recommended by many consumers and game developers. Recently it was reported that Microsoft X-Box 360 is looking to compete with cable television providers announcing that its consoles will allow the gamer to watch television through it. All of the consoles allow you to watch things like Net Flicks and get on the internet and surf the net, but rivaling cable providers that’s a big step. I look for Sony and Nintendo to sit back and wait to see where this goes before they follow in the footsteps of Microsoft, as they have previously done, but I don’t think they will jump right on board with this because of fear of failure and losing money. If you are a gamer a hardcore gamer you have to be excited for the future of gaming, from a standpoint it looks bright and exciting. With rumors of Sony releasing the Playstation 4 and the system having touch screen technology; it has all the gamers grinning from ear to ear about what the future of gaming actually may be. Gaming has already developed full 3D gaming technology and 3D moti on sensors and powerful graphics and they look to continue to improve upon these technologies. Many have argued that consoles in the future will eventually fall by the wayside making way for hand held portable gaming to be the dominate gaming systems in the future. Of course this upsets many hardcore gamers because they don’t see that as being a plus since many like to play their games on a larger scaled screen. With that being said many say the IPhone 8 will probably be the future of gaming and going as far as to say it although it is a hand held device it will be able to plug into a television set or even connect wirelessly to continue to give that big game experience. Many say that the future of gaming is mobile, digital, and cloud gaming. The better gaming system is said to be one that you can take anywhere and everywhere. Most of the time even of if home many gamers are even using mobile gaming at home, some experts say up to 47% of gamers are mobile gaming even at home. Mobile gaming is not just the casual gaming it used to be and has changed the way all gamers vi ew games. Spending approximately 16 hours a week compared to that of the 18 hours of traditional gaming some say digital is the way of the future and hardware doesn’t matter anymore. The type of hardware you use never really ever did matter, it has always been about the software. Hardware will be less and less relevant in the future and it will be more about the software. With cloud gaming it is becoming more and more of a reality and with two client services already launched it is coming along full circle. The angle of cloud gaming is to offer high definition gaming on any television or device that can receive a broadband signal with even high-end games that can be played on devices that get low power. In a CNNTech report back in September of 2008 had reported that a future release of the Emotiv EPOC headset. The Emotiv EPOC headset is said to be the first Brain Computer Interface and would be able to pick up on over 30 different expressions all by processing real time brain activity. With this technology many enthusiast say that this type of technology makes movies like The Matrix and the Star Trek Holodeck more of a reality in the future. Me personally I am kind of skeptical about that type of technology, and even though experts say that being able to control a computer with your mind is the ultimate quest of human to machine interaction, I still don’t feel any better. In those movies, well all except Star Trek, the machine had a way to take over. So all I see is me playing the video game and the machine taking over my mind and it controlling me and then the earth being run by machines. Well that is how it works in the movies hopefully this won’t be the case. The goal of this though is for the interactions of machines to mimic the way interaction with humans and they say it will ultimately bring communities closer together, so I guess that is one thing we will have to wait to see in the future. So with that being said there is no clear cut way to know which way the future of gaming is actually going, but seeing how far it has come since the Brown Box it is very interesting to sit back and see what the technology produces. At one point in time it was all about transistors and diodes and now it’s about multiple processors, internal memory, and real life graphics. What’s more gaming consoles are no longer just gaming consoles they are now the full true definition of Home Entertainment, with internet connection, streaming music and video and HDD, it is truly a new age for gaming. Social media and social networks has become a big part of many of our lives, well I really should say all of our lives. With that gaming has also being a part of that as it is being input into the Social Medias like Facebook. Many game makers look to theses Social Medias to see exactly what the gamers are taking to and what they are not taking to. World of Warcraft is one of those who uses social media to help them develop more of what they think users want to see and how they want the game to operate and it is actually one of the largest virtual game worlds due to just that along with Second Life which heralds itself as a virtual social world. Social Medias focus on building blocks, identity, conversation, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups, and many gaming systems that can connect to the World Wide Web can do just that. These gaming technologies give you the opportunity to engage with others from around the world no matter where they may be. Facebook has gaming that lets you connect with others and build a farm or a city and share with each other and allows you to help keep up someone else’s farm, building relationships with people anywhere anytime. No matter what you think about gaming and the gaming technology it has come a long way from where it started and there is no telling where it will go. It is a mainstay in the lives of many of people and I am sure that the technology will only get better or more interesting from here into the future. I do myself wonder what is next will the whole computer to brain interaction ever come full circle or is it just a past thought. Will Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo continue to stay on top or will a unknown company come along and knock all of them off the throne. I guess all we can do is sit back watch wait and see what that next big technology is and who will be the first to come out with it. Right now it’s more or less of a waiting game, the Kinect was a big jump and gaming technology and, I love to sit and watch my kids play on it, I have even been known to play on it myself, gaming technology is what keeps many of us known and connected so there is nothing wrong with that. Works Cited Admin. (2012). The History of Video Game Consoles. computergameoffer.com. Bellis, M. (n.d.). Computer and Video Game History. About.com. Edwards, B. (2009). 30 Years of Handheld Game Systems. PC World. Johnson, J. (2008). From Atari Joy Board to Wii fit. BBG. Melanson, D. (2006). A Brief History of Handheld Video games. engadget.

Part I Professional Development Plan Nursing Essay

Part I Professional Development Plan Nursing Essay Introduction Nursing is a profession of caring. As a nurse respect for human dignity is one of the core values I strive to maintain throughout my career. Advocacy is the consequence of that respect and requires that as a nurse, I am accorded the ability to understand healthcare from the patients perspective and range of socio-cultural factors that influence their decisions. I have acquired the knowledge to assess how each individual interacts with and relate to others, families, and communities within a constantly changing society. As a nurse and agent for change, it is my responsibility to analyze how their environment can positively or negatively affect health and research means that will promote the modification of stressors and develop alternative resources that can be made available to the individual. As a nurse on the forefront of my career, I hope to continue to evolve and assist our future nurses to be adaptable to those changes. Part 1: Personal and professional goals My name is Melinda Kelly, and I would like to share with you information about myself and my career goals. I currently reside in El Paso, Texas which borders New Mexico and the country of Mexico. I also reside in Scotland seasonally from June through August of each year. I came to the Southwest from Natchez which is a small town in Mississippi, because the opportunities available in my chosen profession of nursing were limited. My mother who was the charge nurse at a local convalescent home gave me my first nursing opportunity in the eleventh grade when she hired me on as a Nurses Aide in training. My mother is my role model. Every day of her working career, she displayed love, compassion and empathy towards her patients. The nurses under her tutelage were a source of information and never made others feel as if they were an inconvenience. My professional goal is to obtain my Doctoral degree in Health Services self-designed program which will allow me the opportunity to choose courses that are education based. I chose this specialization because I have a commitment to learning, both personally and professionally. I know that returning to school and pursuing my degree will open up other opportunities in a world in which knowledge and class interaction will inspire me to advance my career even further. Now as an online student at Waldens University, I hope to develop the skills and the foundation for the facilitation of learning through research, evaluation, advisement, and mentoring (NLN, 2008). Part II: Educational Background and Research According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2005), the shortage of faculty in schools of nursing with baccalaureate and graduate programs is a continuing and expanding problem. The deficit of faculty has reached critical proportions as the current faculty workforce rapidly advances toward retirement and the pool of younger replacement faculty decreases. It is because of this shortage I feel that all nurses should have the opportunity to give back to the field of nursing through education. After I left Mississippi, I continued my career as a Nurses Aide and worked as one for 5 years, during which time I found a rekindling of the love I had for caring for others and decided to continue my career by enrolling in nursing school in the Bachelors of Science of Nursing (BSN) program. In 1986, I challenged the Licensed Vocational Nurses licensure while in my second year of the (BSN) program and to my surprise passed the boards. I then worked as a Licensed Vocational Nurse for 5 years in Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Geriatrics while returning to school part-time. I attempted to return to the Bachelors of Science of Nursing program full-time, but was put on a waiting list and not wanting to wait any longer, I chose to complete the Associate Degree of Nursing program at New Mexico State University in 1991. Working as an Associate Degree Nurse in the Intensive Care Unit, Pediatric ICU and Newborn Nursery was fulfilling but the long hours became impossible after my divorce. I needed an occupation that would allow me the freedom of being available for my children and earn a living. I left the hospital for Home Health Nursing. In Home Health, I discovered the independence in nursing that few hospital nurses can experience without an advanced degree. But I found that I still felt inadequate when it came to discussing and applying research to the work environment and also felt limited in my conversations with other (BSN) nurses. It was working as a school nurse and being around educators which instilled in me the desire to follow a specialization in education. I felt it was imperative that I further my education and gain the knowledge that I felt lacking for all those years. This led me to Grand Canyon University where I could attend class online and continue to work full-time and obtain my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I completed my degree August 27, 2008. While attending Grand Canyon University I completed the Capstone Project: Effects of Nursing Shortage on Patient Care. The devotion to this project and the information I obtained encouraged as well as motivated me to go all the rest of the way in my education. Attending Walden University was the next step in my learning. I entered Waldens Masters program in nursing education and graduated June 2011. Entering collegiate education as a faculty member, I found I would have to return to school in order to obtain my Doctoral of Philosophy (PhD) in order to advance and teach BSN students, which was my dream. I began this journey applying in the Education department, but soon found that I had nothing in common with my cohorts, and subsequently found my home in the Health Sciences department. I chose to return to healthcare because I feel I can make a greater impact on future nurses all levels of curriculum. In addition, I feel that the information and training I will acquire through my PhD program will assist me in problem solving, research and development. I will also have the opportunity to perfect the APA style of writing as well as learn more in the field of research and its various applications in nursing. I am encouraged when I read how Wal dens faculty is contributing to professional nursing journals and hope to one day to be in their league. I am also encouraged that Walden, as a reputable institution, will provide me with the knowledge and skills I will need in order to be successful in my future endeavors. I viewed other colleges information on their Doctoral courses and their descriptions that was provided and I was impressed that Waldens University did not treat their students as a financial entity but had a vested interest in their success. I also liked that the Doctoral program provided a course that would assist the student in beginning their program of study (Foundations of Graduate Study in Health Services (HLTH 8001 3). Waldens mission, vision statements and visions of social change states Walden University supports positive social change through the development of principled, knowledgeable, and ethical scholar-practitioners, who are and will become civic and professional role models by advancing the betterment of society (Walden, 2008). By contributing to the nurse educator faculty shortage, I hope to better society by assisting with educating the nurses of tomorrow. Part III: Plan of study and program of study form Now that I have returned to school, I am reading more research papers and reviewing the APA writing style. I plan to devote more time to reading, reviewing and applying the information I learn into my daily routine. The subsequent pages include my Program of Study Form for Health Services Degree Program plans for the Doctoral program. My completion date is targeted for March of 2014. I am dedicated to becoming a professional researcher and educator through Waldens University. Upon collegiate education, I found I would have to return to school for my Doctoral of Philosophy (PhD) in order to advance and teach BSN students, which was my dream. I began this journey applying in the Education department, but soon found that I had nothing in common with my cohorts, and subsequently found my home in the Health Sciences department. I chose to return to healthcare because I feel I can make a greater impact on future nurses all levels of curriculum. In addition, I feel that the information and training I will acquire through my PhD program will assist me in problem solving, research and development.

Explanation Of Choice Of Competitors

Explanation Of Choice Of Competitors The report is regarding Velour which is a Swedish fashion company in the upper medium price segment. The company has existed for 9 years and has succeeded to sustain and also expand on the Swedish market throughout the years. We as a consulting group have focused on Velours womens wear collection. Under a 6 week period we have been investigating how the fashion company Velour is operating. We have looked into the main competitors to the brand which we defined as Acne and Whyred. These are also Swedish companies which have the same target audience group as Velour; young women. The companies are also using the same kind of style in their design in womens wear and are strongly involved in the artistic sphere. The report describes Velours strategy of purchase, assortment and their different use of sales channels. The competitive brands are presented in the same way to create a coherent impression for the reader. The purpose of this report was to develop different parts within the company to be able to achieve its growth in the Swedish market. The improvements of Velours strategies are presented in the end of this thesis. A budget and time plan is also presented in the report. Table of contents 1.Introduction We have chosen Velour which is a brand based in Gothenburg. We were able to get in contact with Ann-Sophie and Hanna who are working with the brand and are also the persons who provided us with information about the company. We consider the brand to be interesting since it is a rather small clothing brand with clothes that attract us and we saw opportunities to develop brand strategies. The brand is still small but we think that Velour has capabilities to become an even stronger brand than it currently is on the Swedish market for womens clothing. We consider the design to be timeless and stylish which can be interesting for a lot of women in the Swedish market. Assignment We are acting as a consultant group with the purpose of developing new strategies for the brand Velour. This is made to be able to increase the sales volume and to increase the awareness of the brand. Method To be able to develop these strategies for Velour we have been in contact with employees of the company and also with employees of the competitors. We have also been visiting the stores and done researches on the Internet to increase our knowledge of the brands. Delimitations We are only focusing on womens wear on the Swedish market. Therefore other collection lines from the brand will not be mentioned in this report, neither will international markets. 2. Industry definition The industry contains of companies that are in the wholesale segment acting as product developing brand suppliers; that means that they are working with product development, design, marketing, purchasing and producing womens wear with a creative twist within the upper medium priced segment on the Swedish market. 3. Industry description Below description of the industry will be presented. Choice of competitors and an explanation of the five force model can also be found. 3.1 General description The fashion industry within textile is one of the most globalized sectors, this due to the great amount of employment opportunities the industry provides. The industry of fashion constantly changes and as a company in this industry one always has to pay attention and be first to deliver the latest trends. What is the latest today is not the latest tomorrow. There are constantly new competitors to the industry and to survive one really has to have a strong business idea and be clear about the message of the companys brand. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/themes/crisis/textil.pdf The Swedish fashion market contains mostly of small to medium sized companies. The Swedish fashion market is of high importance for Swedish trade and today around 300 000 people work within the Swedish fashion industry and this is approximately 5 percent of the Swedish GDP. Many of the Swedish brands have succeeded on an international level. Velour is one of them and is followed by HOPE, Filippa K, Anna Holtblad, Whyred and many other fashion brands. http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/9622/a/96709 Velour is categorized to be an upper medium price brand on the Swedish market. The industry Velour belongs to, has a target group of young women to middle age women in Sweden. The woman is someone who is aware of her approach and has a rather large interest in fashion. However she is not a fashion slave since she does not follow all current trends, instead she creates her own style by combining different pieces. The woman in Sweden is a person who is down to earth and is conscious about society and environmental issues (M. Solomon and N. Rabolt, 2009). In the industry Velour belongs to, collections consist of quite plain designed clothes with a creative twist that very simply create recognition about the brand. Brands in this industry have a collection that fits in a base wardrobe with tops, dresses and chinos. Statistics kring turnover industry- mailat svensk handel 3.2 Explanation of choice of competitors Through the description of the brand and the description of the customer we can say that the competitors of Velour on the Swedish market for women swear are Acne and Whyred. We choose to select Acne and Whyred as competitors of Velour on the Swedish market for women swear through issues of price, presence in the country, style and interest in arts. To begin with Acne it is a young Swedish fashion brand which was founded in 1996. Acne represents the Swedish style for women from 18 to 45 years old and is the typical brand of style without efforts. We see Acne to have the same target group as Velour and to also have the interest in arts just like Velour but more interested in graphics and design. Acne has a Swedish style of clarity, fluidity and urban design and considering the price Velour and Acne are in the same price range. Our other competitor Whyred which was founded in 1999 also has interest in arts, especially in music. Whyred ´s clothes are classic, with a modern twist which give them this artsy touch that inspires Whyred designers. Considering the price Whyred and Velour is in the same range. Whyred as the other two companies have a Swedish styl e in their design. When looking at the three companies we can see that they all three have the same target group. 3.3 Five force model To understand the industry of Velour within the fashion industry we have been using the model of Porters five forces. The model is used to understand the structure and profitability within an industry. Porter states that the underlying economic structure is a factor that plays a great role of a companys strength to be competitive. The company analyzes Industry competitors, Potential establishers, suppliers, customers, substitutes. The five fundamentals in this model establish the strength for each force (Hollensen, S 2007). 3.3.1 Industry competitors Strong competitors on the Swedish market to Velour are Acne and Whyred. Both this companies are Swedish and have a Swedish background. When looking at Acne and Whyred one can see that they have quite the same target group within the women collection. Both Acne and Whyred have similar design of their collection as Velour and they all three is categorized within the middle price brand. You can find the collections near each other in the same town in Sweden. Other competitors on the Swedish market are brands like Filippa K, Carin Rodebjer, Carin Wester and Hope. 3.3.2 Potential establishers Both existing and potential companies in an industry can affect the profitability of the industry. As we already have mention the fashion industry constantly changes and the level of new players is also in constantly movement. The fashion industry has a high level of new entrants and the competition for Velour we see as quite tough. This due to new designers that more easily enter as an middle price brand than in comparison as an high price or luxury price brand. Some French brands like Sandro, Claudie Pierlot, Comptoir des Cotonniers and Maje are today not on the Swedish market but we see these brands to have the potential to become competitors on the Swedish market. They could compete with Velour if they were entering the Swedish Market. They are powerful French companies focusing on women, targeting the same group of people and really involved in arts. The price range is the same and they could offer a wider group of products, where customers could find anything: from shoes, via c oats, to evening dresses. 3.3.3 Suppliers Within the fashion industry the supply chain is of high importance. Merchandise trade in the fashion industry plays a very central role and the suppliers have to take action very fast. The bargaining power is high for the supplier of fashion companies and this due to the fact that they mostly have the control of the production. Some fashion companies own big parts of the suppliers themselves and this result in more control for the fashion companies. The most comment is that the fashion companies outsource some parts of the value chain to another company. Velour has manufacturers of fabrics, trimmings and garments. Velour design within the company and own their designers. The production and distribution is outsourced to other companies and today the company has dependency on single suppliers. 3.3.4 Customers We have been focusing on the companies bargaining power due to the suppliers within the industry. In the industry of fashion the buyers have a restrained power to effect to their benefits, this because there is a great amount of small buyers and retailers in this industry. Velour is selling to retailers who are selling to the end-consumers. Velour is also acting as an integrated retailer since they have their own stores. 3.3.5 Substitutes Substitutes can affect the attractiveness of the industry and also influence the profitability within the industry. A substitute in an industry depends on buyers willingness to substitutes but also of the cost performance of the substitutes. The risk of substitutes in this industry is very high and this because of the great amount of designer cloths and fashion houses. Another factor that influence is high threats between substitutes is the generic substitutes that mostly very easily enter the fashion industry. This with help from the already existing well know name that help the generic substitutes to be introduced on the market. We see luxury brands to be a substitute for Velour and this because the luxury brands offer high fashion products and also the absolutely latest trends to wear. Secondhand are also within this category and this because like Velour, secondhand products offer uniqueness and inspiration to create a style of your own. The option of tailor made fashion we also s ee as a substitute and this since customers today are more aware than ever to have perfect fitted clothes. It becomes more and more usual to travel abroad and in many countries you can get your tailor made items at a very reasonable price. We think this option is going to increase and the prices should decrease if the demand for tailor made clothes gets higher. We also place made to measure and swopping with colleagues as substitutes for Velour. Suppliers Manufacturers of fabric, trimmings and garment Substitutes Secondhand, luxury brands, tailor made, made to measure, swopping with colleagues Buyers Retailers + Velour is acting as an integrated retailer Potential establishers Maje, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Sandro, Claude Pierlot, Industry Rivalry Velour ACNE, Whyred, Filippa K, Hope, Carin Wester 4. Commissioned company description and analysis 4.1 General description The Velour brand was created by Per Andersson and Johan Lundell. The idea for the brand was created through the store Nostalgi which they operated in Gothenburg. The store was opened in 1997 and the idea was to sell never worn clothes from the 1940s and 1980s. The shop found success and became popular amongst the independent scene in Sweden and design and music people found the store interesting. Per and Johan started to design t-shirts during 2001 and the Velour label was created. A third person joined the team at this time, Andreas Remling who had knowledge in finances and could handle the brands economics. http://www.va.se/nyheter/2007/01/19/bakom-kulisserna-pa-svensk/ Mattias Lind also joined the brand but left the company and started his own brand Julian red in 2003. Today the company has got 14 employees working with the brand. At first only a few basic casual clothes were designed but this soon developed into whole collections of garment. The first real collection of the brand was launched in 2001 and could be found at the Nostalgi store. In the year of 2005 a woman named Titti Andersson was hired for the design of the womens collection. http://www.alltomstockholm.se/shoppingmode/article29059.aos The company has had several different designers working with the brand during their years in the business, one of them is Karl-Wilhelm Bjà ¶rk who previously worked with Vivienne Westwood. http://www.kingmagazine.se/Markeslistning/?designer=17771 The core values of the brand are tailoring, graphic and casual. Perfect fit and focus on beautiful details should create the opportunity for the person who wears the clothes to be able to create its own style by combining pieces from the brand. The overall design concept of Velour springs out of a classic preppy look with traditional garments redesigned in a new stylish, yet effortless, way. We call this Feelgood Preppy. [1] The clothes are for people who are interested in fashion but not follow all trends that are present, Velour is for the people who wants to create their own unique style. The colors used in the different collections are mellow with colorful accents. The brand is present in 100 stores spread through Europe countries such as Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom but its largest market is still in Scandinavia. Velour can also be found overseas in Canada, Australia, the United States and in Japan. The target group of the brand is people between 20-35 years. http://feed.ne.cision.com/wpyfs/00/00/00/00/00/0D/6A/CE/wkr0010.pdf The Velour creator Johan Lundell is no longer working with the brand and neither is Andreas Remling, however, Per Andersson has continued his work at Velour and is the head designer for the mens collection. He is at this point alone running the brand management for Velour. The turnover for Velour in 2009 was 19,807 million SEK. In 2008 the turnover was 13, 302 million SEK which was a small growth from the year before. http://www.foretagsfakta.se/G%C3%B6teborg/Velour_By_Nostalgi_AB/989686 Velour has used creative ideas in their marketing. For example in 2006 Velour held a fashion show in a tunnel in Stockholm. They got permission to block off this area and do this project. http://www.foretagsfakta.se/G%C3%B6teborg/Velour_By_Nostalgi_AB/989686 According to Velour people in the music business are dedicated to the brand and find it interesting. Velour is a brand which is inspired by the music branch and they mean that their design is following that lifestyle. http://feed.ne.cision.com/wpyfs/00/00/00/00/00/0D/6A/CE/wkr0010.pdf http://www.businessregion.se/download/18.8afae6210a70372e0c8000236/Business1-06_klar_pdf.pdf According to Velour they have a competitive advantage of being situated in Gothenburg. According to Andreas Remling their main competitors are located in Stockholm and this can result in that the brands from the same city become coherent in their design, they are inspired by each other and the uniqueness can fade. Another positive thing about Gothenburg is the good solutions for logistics and the existence of good suppliers. http://www.businessregion.se/download/18.8afae6210a70372e0c8000236/Business1-06_klar_pdf.pdf 4.2 Value chain 4.3 Brand promise Velours nerve springs out of their history, eclectic inspiration and their values. Velour is offering a perfect fit and beautiful details, leaving it up to the wearer to create his or her own individual style, offering key pieces or a whole wardrobe. Beautiful details Create an individual style Perfect fit To claim to be offering a perfect fit is crucial according to us. Everybody is different and do probably not fit perfectly in Velours clothes. Velour means that they are leaving it to the wearer of the clothes to create their own unique style which we think is correct. The customer is as mentioned above in the report aware of her appearance and approach and is combining different pieces to create her own individual style. They depend on the customer to be able to do this on her own which we think is the case. 4.4 Current Strategy In this part we will explain how Velour works with its purchase strategy and explain lead times within the company. The different lead times are regarding the different activities from idea to finished product and the time to perform the different activities. For Velour from the first day the inspiration starts to the day that the products is out in the stores it takes around 12 months. If Velour starts in August on a new collection the sales samples are done in December. The company uses different manufactures and the samples are sent to manufactures abroad and the manufacturers are choosing matching suppliers to Velour. Below the process will be explained more detailed. 4.4.1 Purchase strategy Velour gets a lot of inspiration from the city Gothenburg where the brand also was founded. The studio of Velour is located in the long streets in the Linnà © district in Gothenburg and this street represents a classic mixed- use variety. They all share the same precious urban oxygen and here you can find galleries, recording labs, artist studios, coffee shops and sex shop all in the same street. This gives a feeling of uniqueness to the design and the brand of Velour. The preppy classic look is the overall design concept for the company. The designers make new collection in an effortless, new stylish way with traditional garments. The Swedish west coast also influences the designers mind when it comes to creating the right style of Velour ´s collection. When the inspiration and the design are finished, Velour picks sober colors to use in the collections and this with colorful touch. The choices of the colors are often grey, black or marine blue. The prints and patterns that are u sed together with the colors are gently created where every image, square and pigment has its place. (www.velour.se ) The inspiration together with product development and the ready sales sample takes for Velour 4 month. (Interview with Velour) The company does not have any production of its own; instead the production is handled by manufacturers abroad in countries like India, China, Portugal and Tunisia. The lead time at the manufacturers is around 3 months. Velour ´s manufactures are always working with different suppliers and this to be able to find suppliers that can produce Velour ´s needs to the price the company is able to pay. The amount of different supplier varies from season to season, usually 20-25 different suppliers are used each season. (Interview with Velour) Velour is using the full price purchase which means that the product development manufacturer place a purchase order to the producers of finished products. Then it is up to the producer to (according to the description of the purchase order) to do the purchase of the different garments and trimmings. Then the producer send Velour a full price suggestion which consists of a total price to produce the products ( Interview with Velour).This way of work can also be called purchase of ready-made garment (RMG) (Hedà ©n, McAndrew, 2005) The transportation is at all times made through shipping by boat and Velour always has the FOB (Free on board) agreement. When a company has the FOB agreement, the company takes the risk of the goods when the goods have been shipped and are placed on the pier. The transportation from the factories to Sweden takes around 3 months. From April to July Velour have sell-in to their different retailers and for Velour this has a show room in Stockholm were they show all new collections to the retailer. Under this period the product also is placed in stock and Velour has their warehouse in Borà ¥s. When the time is ready for the collection to be out in stores all products are sent from the warehouse in Borà ¥s to all the retailers within the Swedish market and to the single store in Gothenburg. The company has no written code of conduct and does not follow any initiative but examines their businesses as well as they can. Velour tries to be as ethical and critical as possible regarding the process of making the clothes. In environmental aspects the clothes that are made in cotton are all made by ecological cotton. 4.4.2 Assortment strategy Velour uses different types of fabrics; the company describes them as traditional. Fabrics they use repeatedly are wool, nylon, lining, acetate, cotton, elastane, lambswool, polyester, polycrepe, acrylic, mohair and ramie. The cotton that is used in the garment making is ecological. The sizes of the womens collections are divided into 4 steps; XS, S, M and L. Two collections are launched each year and these are called spring and autumn. The product groups that Velour offers are visible below. This is based on the womens autumn collection 2010. The assortment in each product group are not the same in every collection, that is why for example no shoes are present in the womens autumn collection 2010. The product groups stay the same, but the number of products in each category varies from the different collections. 4.4.3 Sales channel strategy Velour has only got one store of its own. This store is situated in Gothenburg at Magasinsgatan 19. The brand Velour was founded in 2001 and at this point the brand was sold through the store Nostalgi which was operated by the founders of the brand. However, this store does no longer exist and has been replaced by the one on Magasinsgatan. Velour is mainly sold through retail stores and department stores where the brand is presented amongst other clothing brands. Velour is also sold through their own online store which can be found at the companies website. The reason for using this kind of sales channel strategy is because of the fact that it is requires a high financially capacity to own its own stores. Through shop-in-shops which are currently used, the brand is represented in a lot of location but at a smaller amount of costs. 4.5 Future goals In 2006 the goal was, within a ten year period, to be one of the top fashion brands within Scandinavia. http://www.businessregion.se/download/18.8afae6210a70372e0c8000236/Business1-06_klar_pdf.pdf 5. Brief competitor description and analysis for 2 competitors Below the first chosen competitor, Acne will be described. 5.1 General description of Acne Acne was founded in 1996 and the first collection of Acne clothes was launched in 1998. The company was founded by Jonny Johansson who did not have any background in design before starting the brand. The brand has been a success in Sweden and currently a well known brand among young people which are interested in fashion. Acne studios have an advertising agency, art gallery, furniture collection, magazine. (Acne Official Website) Today the Acne studio represents 5 brands (Acne Paper, Acne Advertising, Acne Art Department, Acne JR and Acne Fashion and Denim) with 200 employees and has approximately an annual turnover of 38 millions Euros. (Georgina Safe, 2010) . The company also enjoy the involvement of a Capital-Risk firm: ÃÆ'-resund, which opens Acne to a wide range of possibilities in term of development and investments. When it comes to self expression Acne sees fashion to be the best way of have that (Acne Official Website). The style is typical Scandinavian, with simple lines, without abundance of colours: The style is simplistic but in the same time Acne clothes can be identified to be cool and personal. They are creating an image, not only a clothing brand. They are building a Lifestyle brand through desirable products. They also created an identity through their jeans with the famous red stitching. This identity is the result of Jonny Johanssons will of a garment that makes you feel stronger and more self confident. The brand is known of the denim jeans but the company dont want to be a denim brand, instead they wanted to offer ready to wear where the denim is included as a product. According Jonny Johansson they did not wanted to categorize themselves (Nina Jones, 2009). When Acne opens a new shop they dont think in the way of where they need to be located, instead they use the strategy of where they want to set up new stores. They are based the store locations on friendship and people who really want to have the brand located in that particular area. Acne doesnt believe in the strategy to put stores everywhere just to cover the map. In terms of strategy they also have an attitude of branding by doing,not advertising(JC Marcus, 2010, [1]). Acne adopted a code of conduct; they joined the Fair Trade Foundation. Acne is in accordance with their value and this new value of the fashion industry: labour practices and conditions have to be taken in account to preserve social matters of the value chain. There are also two types of production, one for their own stores and the other for all the other retailers and franchises. This difference of production shortens or lengthens the lead-time. 5.2 Value chain Acne buys material and produces in factories in Italy, Portugal, Hong Kong and Turkey. All of the production is outsourced. They act in the textile value chain in the wholesale segment as product developing brand suppliers which means that they concentrate on design, purchase, marketing and distribution. Concentrating on distribution, Acne is present in the retail segment in several levels: as a retail branch company (they own 4 stores in Sweden), as integrated wholesalers through Corner in department stores for example, in the Internet through their website on which one can shop online and through outlets with two outlets in Sweden, one in Gothenburg and one in Stockholm and also the web outlet. 5.3 Brand promise; Create novel expression Current strategy We have to precise first that Acne does not have a proper strategy that leads the brand. The team does what is necessary to both realising Acnes envies and to satisfying customers. If once they have to change their own strategy, theyd do it. In fact, the brand is lead by its Brand Promise, its Values and Vision. 5.4 Purchase strategy Acne buys material from Italy, Portugal, HK and Turkey. These counties they also have al the production placed (S.Jà ¶nnson L.Lagerdahl, 2005).In the factories Acne has divided two groups: production for their own stores, and production for the other retailers. They have through this organisation different lead-times between inspiration and arrivals of the clothes on the shelves. Inspiration to garments in the stores takes approximately 10 months year since we first do a sell collection to our WH clients, then we need to wait for their sales figures before we place the production orders. If we do garments only for our stores it takes 4-6 months(Therese Munthe, Acne Chief of Production ) 5.5 Assortment Strategy The assortment strategy comes from a great group work. Jonny Johansson said that in Sweden he was used to work in groups and for him it is the only way to succeed. The brand produces two collections a year: Autumn/Winter, Spring/Summer. The collections do not have so many articles and are made on an arithmetic scale, 15 pieces for each product group (11). 5.6 Sales Channel Strategy In Sweden Acne develops itself through its 4 own stores situated in Gothenburg and Stockholm, they also own a corner in Ã…lhà ©ns and an Outlet Store in Stockholm. They also sell through department stores and via the Internet. Acne choose to work through this way to be able to control the image they have of their brand, they can choose the department stores they want to work with and with their own shops and the Internet they have a total image control of the brand. Moreover, they spotted a trend with the Outlets thanks to which they can sell what was left from the previous collections. 5.7 Future goals New collaborations. Bags/ Underwear 6. Brief competitor description and analysis for 2 competitors Below the second chosen competitor, Whyred will be described. 6.1 General description of Whyred Whyred is a Swedish fashion brand which is founded by three ex-employees of H&M; Roland Hjort, Lena Patriksson Keller and Jonas Clason, in 1999. The story began with a Mens collection in 1999 and one year later the first Womens collection was in the shelves. The brand is positioned in the middle high price segment, with a turnover of 45 million SEK in (2006/2007) and 75 million SEK in (2007/2008) the brand is really growing, touching new customers. The first own shop is opened in 2001 in Stockholm, they have in 2010, 4 stores in the main Swedish cities. In 2005 they launched the shoe production line and also they set up the online outlet stores in 2007. The interesting part is that Whyred has labeled the products with Stockholm instead of Sweden, because Stockholm shows the country of origin (Sweden) and it is known as a beautiful city (Knudsen Lind 2007). The name of the brand comes from a radio interview with Roland Hjorts grandfather who was a famous Swedish artist. In that interview he was asked, What is your favorite colour? He replied: Red and the interviewer asked immediately Why red, he quipped Well, blue then. (A.K Sari, 2010) The strong inspiration of Whyred has been from the iconic style of the 1960s to give to the consumer the possibility of a Clean Living under Difficult Circumstances, inspired from THE WHOs manager Pete Meaden(Whyred Official Website). Whyred is strongly involved into the arts (especially in Cinema and Music) since the primary steps, they have project through collaborations. For instance, for their fourth art project, the short movie La Vitesse Et La Pierre is directed by Igor Zimmermann and the music is composed by Yourhighness which unveiling will happen on November 2010 in Sweden (Whyred Official Website). Moreover, they are pursuing the pull strategy by publishing the pictures of well-known people who dressed Whyred garments in the magazines or the newspapers (Knudsen Lind 2007). The brand is following simplicity by considering postmodern aesthetics, giving aesthetic awareness and making new expressions for their customers. They have ambition to make a brand as a leading European premium fashion brand (A.K Sari, 2010). 6.2 Value chain 6.3 Brand promise 6.4 Current strategy 6.4.1 Purchase strategy 6.4.2 Assortment strategy Whyred has set up its production to tow collection per year f

A Painful Childhood Experience Essay example -- essays research papers

Painful Childhood Experiences In a child’s world, there is always a lot of imagination. Children create worlds of their own out of their familiar surroundings, despite what adults tell them. The only way to let them realize the truth is to make them experience it, as Rosaura from â€Å"The Stolen Party† and An-mei from â€Å"Scar† do in their lives. Liliana Heker’s â€Å"The Stolen Party† and Amy Tan’s â€Å"Scar† share a similar theme. Both stories follow the perceptions of young girls. Although Tan’s â€Å"Scar† and Heker’s â€Å"The Stolen Party† share a distinct resemblance, they also differ. Rosaura suffers the pain that others give to her, but An-mei suffers it from her loved ones, such as her grandmother. The main similarity is that both Rosaura and An-mei suffered from the painful circumstances of their lives. Rosaura convinces herself that Luciana is her friend and that she has been invited to Luciana’s birthday party as any other guests. For Rosaura, there is the proof that every afternoon she goes to Luciana’s house and they do their homework together. That is all the evidence Rosaura needs to consider herself a friend to Luciana. She even helps out with some chores during the party thinking she has some sort of â€Å"special† status in the house because of her familiarity with Luciana’s home, as Heker states, â€Å"Rosaura was the only one allowed into the kitchen. Senora Ines, Luciana’s mother also says, â€Å"You yes, but not the others, they’re much too boisterous, they might break something.† Rosaura ha...

Dantes Inferno - A Religious and Morally Challenging Experience :: Divine Comedy Inferno Essays

Dante's Inferno - A Religious and Morally Challenging Experience      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages, was born in Florence, Italy on June 5, 1265.   He was born to a middle-class Florentine family.   At an early age he began to write poetry and became fascinated with lyrics.   During his adolescence, Dante fell inlove with a beautiful girl named Beatrice Portinari.   He saw her only twice but she provided much inspiration for his literary masterpieces. Her death at a young age left him grief-stricken.   His first book, La Vita Nuova, was written about her. Sometime before 1294, Dante married Gemma Donati.   They had four children.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dante was active in the political and military life of Florence. He entered the army as a youth and held several important positions in the Florence government during the 1290's.   During his life, Florence was divided politically between Guelphs and Ghibellines.   The Guelphs supported the church and liked to keep things as they were, unlike the Ghibellines. The Ghibellines were mostly supporters of the German emperor and at the time Dante was born, were relieved of their power. When this change took place, the Guelphs for whom Dante's family was associated took power. Although born into a Guelph family, Dante became more neutral later in life realizing that the church was corrupt, believing it should only be involved in spiritual affairs.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At the turn of the century, Dante rose from city councilman to ambassador of Florence.   His career ended in 1301 when the Black Guelph and their French allies seized control of the city.   They took Dante's possessions and sentenced him to be permanently banished from Florence, threatening the death penalty upon him if he returned.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dante spent most of his time in exile writing new pieces of literature.   It is believed that around 1307 he interrupts his unfinished work, Convivio, a reflection of his love poetry philosophy of the Roman tradition, to begin The Comedy (later known as The Divine Comedy).   He writes a book called De Vulgari Eloquentia explaining his idea to combine a number of Italian dialects to create a new national language.   In 1310 he writes De Monarchia presenting Dante's case for a one-ruler world order.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Among his works, his reputation rests on his last work, The Divine

Jesus And Law of the Prophets Essay

During the time of Jesus many did not believe in Him for what He teaches are a contradiction to their beliefs. Pharisees are the ones who are considered the righteous persons during that time. They and the people thought that Jesus’ testimonies are not true because what He teaches and did are against the Law of the Prophets, He opened the eye of a blind during Sabbath Day which is a sin for them. On Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus said that He cone not to abolish the Law but to fulfill them. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:19). With that account, Jesus is trying to say that He did not come to abolish the Law; in fact He is more concerned with the Law. The rest of Matthew 5 gives us a clear thought that Jesus is in favor of the Law. He said on Matthew 5:21-22 that anyone who is angry of his brother will be subject to judgment (note that in Matthew 5:21 Jesus said: You have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’). With that account we can say that the Law is not what the Pharisees think and do. If the Law is like what the Pharisees have thought He would have not said: For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Why Jesus did say this? This is because no one can obey the law all the time. No who is perfect enough to not commit sin against the Law. That was also the purpose of Christ coming; to save the world. That why in Ephesians 2:8-9 it says: For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. Actually, Matthew is does not contain a Jewish and anti Jewish in gospel. The matter is not because of the people itself but with the belief and practices that they have. Jesus is not imposing a new law but rather fulfilling the law as what He said. God is not against of the people but He is against of what the people (sinners) have done. Work cited: The Holy Bible (1988). The New International Version. Broadman & Holman Publishers: Nashville

Spirituality for the Alienated

attempt with the savor in todays world is a daunting chall(a)enge. around fail. This is because the mainline culture lay down believes that the feel of the Spirit is actually a life of the mind, a life of the emotions both(prenominal)what distorted by older, discredited system of opinionuality and life. Burgs project, however, is non so oft denying this alternatively arbitrary apostrophize, moreover in re drawing it so that the raws heap come to the life of the spirit with few doubts and lines. However, Borg speaks to me for several reasons first, my shaft of the easterly tradition stresses delivery boy as Tao, as the path, kinda than as a tyrannical set of impressions.It is non so practically that dogma is a businessas it merely asserts things as true(p) entirely these propositions neer pull with in themselves, they exist as part of a broader whole, a jumble with myself and the upstart world (Damascene, 1999). This struggle is more or less integration the integration of a tradition, a set of beliefs held propositionally, provided too its integration within a culture that is often hostile, and thatit seemsseeks to constantly throw roadblocks in the focal point of binglenesss struggle. This paper, then(prenominal), ordain take my feature struggle through the methods Borg uses to reconnect delivererianity to new life.The basic thesis here is integration taking the insights from all germane(predicate) communities to construct a reasonable and effectual understanding of deliveryman and his bursting charge. For Borgs (1995) work, the squ be struggle is twofold first, the struggle between the communal understanding of delivery boy and his diachronic essence, and second, the struggle with integrating forward-looking in foundation with bingles life of true faith. This struggle is very actually, just for Borg, his noncritical allowance of late intuition as a set of infallible oracles who expect no agenda or cove rt motives define his approach weak and compliant.Nevertheless, the insights interpreted from this approach keister non be ignored. The basic historical approach Borg takes is highly fussatic savior did not imagine what is attri exactlyed to him, this existed as an talkn tradition prior to being write cut, accordingly unreliable, and give outly, that these oral ideas were written down by a companionship that had already ensured saviour and hence, itself is handsomely own(prenominal) and cultural (Borg, 1995). Unfortunately, he refuses to read with the large body of work that disproves these theses, such as McDowell (2006), Strobel (1998), Siciliano (2001) and so galore(postnominal) differents.His assumption that the neoist eruditeness is true ( sooner than as an ideological construct) shows his critique to be poorly developed if the christ of the ancient world is an ideological construct of the community (and hence unreliable), why is the innovational schoolman, excessively part of a community, not guilty of the equivalent crime? The detail that Borg is a part of this community aptitude help in answering that problem. If I am to create that saviour is the institution of an ideologically motivated community, then in that location is no reason why the modern scholarship on this question is not to a fault an ideologically motivated community.Nevertheless, it is the contingency that struggles against the modern idea atomic number 18 real, and some of their insights dirty dognot be cast out of hand, as this community does to what they call the fundamentalists. There argon several issues Borg takes the reader though that are full of insight and use for the modern rescuerian buffeted by the modern mentality. In Borgs come across delivery boy Again for the First Time (1995), he stresses that images of delivery boy are important for ones development as a Christian. There are several images that he identifies savior as Sa vior apparent the most common image. Christ came to realm to save man frm sin, to take his world nature and link it to the divine, hence cleanup position it, and way out it through the realm of death, hence conquering it. Second, savior as teacher, Jesus came to commonwealth to primarily teach a set of doctrines or so Himself, the world and the Christians relation to it. Third, Jesus as the king of creation, the stern judge and teacher of righteousness. Fourth, Jesus as moralist, that Jesus came to earth to primary teach an ethical system.And lastly, Jesus as a liturgical figure, the Jesus whose beauty is such that normal actors line terminatenot describe it, but it can nevertheless if be understood in meter and the symbolism of liturgy (Borg, 2-5). This is an important approach. whole of these, to one extent or another, are a part of each Christians life, but some are more significant than others. Borg seems to hold that the real problem for modern Christians is the p ropositional nature of faith. That faith, for him, is the enter to a series (literally a list) of propositions Christ is the Son of perfection, Christ walked on water, etc.The problem is that the modern person lives in a society that lives by its own dogmas that such things cannot happen because they violate the laws of nature. Of course, this assumes that Christ is not their author. He does suffer a solution, one that I bugger off in-personly acceptable that there are two Christs (though not literally), the Christ that existed prior to the resurrection, and the Christ that came after. The last mentioned is the Christ that should motivate the modern reader, and this is the Christ that motivated the early Christian community to write the scripts.The assumption is that this community do up a series of stories and held to it. The occurrence that the resurrection and crucifixion made no aesthesis to the surrounding Jewish or goy world is not considered. In other words, tha t no real religious liaison was served by creating these stories, since the concept of a crucified graven image was abhorrent to both communities. Nevertheless, he holds that the motivating of writing the Gospels come from the resurrection, which Borg takes as true from the testimony of the Scriptures that he does not trust (Borg, 1995). Nevertheless, Borg, plot of land inconsistent, is involved with a similar struggle to my own.Being from a temporal household, the concept of Christ and his miracles was eerie to me. No different, really, than a cartoon superhero. It was so wanton to reject them, so hard to accept them. exclusively this was not a case of assent and intellectual life, but rather socially. To lecture Christ to anyone other than the reborn is to lose a great deal of social capital. This I felt motivefully. and intellectually, I never had a problem science, or rather, the scientific establishment, tells me that the infinitely mixed life of DNA came into hu mans by chance.If this was true, then how strange was it to believe that god came to earth to teach men near Himself? I never thought it strange that Christ was perfection, while my friends believed that Eric Clapton was God. What I did find strange was the mentality of belief as propositions. In other words, that one could hold to the list of accepted beliefs about God and Christ, but the integration of these ideas into the world about them was the real challenge. Borgs other bonkn work, The midriff of Christianity Rediscovering the life of Faith, has helped me put this problem into a make better perspective.In fact, it is precisely the relation of the problem that makes the most champion, just as much as the solution itself. In other words, the context of the problem suggests its own answer. Borg writes that Christ should be seen as a way of life rather than as a set of beliefs (Borg, 2004, 25). However, the problem is that Borg seems to set up this so as to relieve hi mself of the public press of believe things that modern scholarship has distinguishable are false. This, as I nurse already said, is the great weak manage of this series of books. and it helps to place it a standardized(p) thisDogma This is an intellectual approach to God and Christ. It holds to a set of beliefs both as reflecting the historical world of facts, and at the same time, demands a consistency among the propositions believed. This is fair enough. But the real issue is that it is a case of the head. If Christianity was to be a strictly rational, trial-and-error religion, then why did Christ not speak in this way? Christ, rather than speaking as a metaphysician, spoke in parables, He spoke in aphorisms, He spoke in stories of only a few sentences. He seems to preach by example as much as by words.Way Christ preached by example, by the words and actions that he coordinated within himself for a short hybridize of tercet years. He struggles with non-belief, the arro gance of the Pharisees, and incomprehension of the Romans. But this is precisely our condition our modern Pharisees, our modern secular people consistently relent us trouble. Christ is a way of struggle rather than as a set of dogmatic beliefs (Damascene, 1999). Borg (2004, 28-37) does one better he reduces the struggle this way Christ and the Christian mission in the modern world can be decreased to four specific approaches(1) Assensus this is a emergence of rational assent. This is the problem, at least when such assent is separated from the community. mavin can hold that Borg is really trying to play down conflicts, to minimize the dogmatic element of Christ so as to lower the door of belief more and more can come to Christ if they do not need to pass the belief test. At the same time, Borg can also be said to hold this because either he does not believe the dogmatic pronouncements about Christ, or his community (i. e. the academic community) does not, and he does not want to be leftover out, or attacked as a fundamentalist. (2) fidelity this is the study is individual(prenominal) relationship. This is not so much a matter of a-dogmatism, but goes beyond it love is stronger than intellectual assent. One follows Christ not because he has abandoned assent to a series of dogmas, but rather, because Christ is a man model(prenominal) of being followed. A man that exudes love in the strongest sense of the world. (3) Vision the approach where faith in Christ makes sense out of the whole the world, the community stock- clam up of religion. While it is is true that Christ preached the glide path of his Church, he did not speak of it all that much.Christ spoke of a life of struggle, of virtue, of a personal relationship through faith. The apostles had this, and still could not keep Judas. The vision is to bring the whole into integration with Christs teachings, the real derriere of this paper and the groundwork of my personal life. One cannot run fro m the world, but one can infuse it with Christ and his teachings. But this is difficult with so many teachings about Christ, one does not know which image to pick,. This is the problem, and many engage spurned Him altogether because fo the disagreements. This many be the real strength of Borg and his approach.(4) Trust this seems to synthesise all the above. One trusts in the center of Jesus, but a message that efficacy not be literally true, but is the consume of God in and by the community. If one approaches scriptures in this manner, then one can get over the belief threshold and see the Scriptures as a response to God, rather than a historical record. On a more personal note, the most satisfying part of Borgs work is in his threefold basis of the Christian life in the modern era. Id like to make this the conclusion, and the real central element of my personal response to reading Borg.In his (2004) work, Borg holds that the modern mission of Christianity can be reduced to t hree elements (1) The affirmation of the reality of God. Now this can be done two slipway first, through intellectual arguments, but also as a set of experiences. Borg prefers the latter. Nevertheless, in my own history, it was the former that led me to the latter. In my younger years of obligatory doubt, it was not the experience of God, it was the understanding of him. Once I understood him, I could feel and experience him. But my understanding came in the form of a series of negations I could not believe that DNA ever came into existence by chance.DNA is the great proof of the perception of God, the very nature of His creative power (at least that which is open to human observation). I could not believe that matter was eternal. veritable(a) in my younger years, while I could not articulate such an idea, I most receivedly believed it. Materialism holds that matter is God, in the sense that all things, including life, came from it. It is also eternal and hence, all powerful. On ce I realized this set of ideas that must be held by materialism, I realized that the life of the spirit was for me. Life cannot come from death, since something cannot take back what it does not surrender.Consciousness does not come from chance. I saw these as the affirmation of the dogmatic and ideological community of modern scholarship and science, I saw it as the pip and crudest form of obscurantism (2) The centrality of Jesus. While I have no problem with this concept, I can not imagine that Borg can say the same. Jesus? But if one holds that the Jesus of Scripture is deliberately falsified, then what is he speaking of here? He never says. Jesus seems to become an archetype rather than a person. If one holds that the New testament is falsified (a concept I hold as fantastic) then Christ can never be central.In other words, unless one holds to certain things as historically true (i. e. dogma), then Christ can never be the central part of ones life. (3) Lastly, the centralit y of the scriptures. There are two slipway of viewing this first, the scriptures as historically true, which Borg rejects, and the scriptures as reflecting, in words, the early communitys experience with God. Of course, these are not in return exclusive, but the latter does more accurately reflect out situation. We do experience God in our lives. What we write about this comes out as vague and poetic.It is not history, but at best, psychology. It does not represent that the experiences are false, but that there are only so many shipway that such experiences can be expressed. The final looking at cannot, however, be called history. I praise Borg for trying, but he ultimately, fails. He cannot have it both ways to reject scripture (as his community does) but still hold Jesus as central. Jesus cannot be central if his life is falsified. Borg is ultimately a sloppy writer that seems to want to pleas everyone, and make Christianity an easy religion for all to approach.Whatever he likes about the Scriptures he uses, whatever ordain get him made fun of by his colleagues, he rejects. This is dishonest, and says more about the academic community than the early Christian community. fundamentally Borg is trying to rescue Christianity from the attacks of the modern critics, while affirming that everything that those critics say about the Bible is true. Nevertheless, we have all experienced the doubt, the pressure of the after-school(prenominal) world. It is all the matter of context and expression how we approach God in a materialistic world. That, Borg can do nicely. BibliographyBorg, Marcus (1995) Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. HarperOne. ___. (2004) The Heart of Christianity Rediscovering the Life of Faith. HarperOne Damascene, Fr. (1999) Christ the Eternal Tao. St. Hermans Press. Fr. Damascenes book powerfully takes the approach advocated by Borg. He holds that Christ as a relational entity (so to speak) leads to believing in Christ as the Way, a me thod, a path to Enlightenment and truth. McDowell, Josh. (2006). express for Christianity. Thomas Nelson Publishers. Strobel, Leo. (1998). The Case for Christ. Zondervan. Siciliano, Terry. (2001) Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Evidence for Christianity.Truth Press. These are three major works that refute the thesis that Christs message was falsified. There are many office to do this, but the most brilliant one is that the message that came out in the Scriptures is repugnant to both the Jewish and pleasure seeker mentality rising from the dead, execution like a common criminal, no multitude force, etc. were all highly unsweet to the environment in which the Scriptures were first written and disseminated. Hence, they must be true. If one was going to invent a series of events, the last series one would invent at the time was that which was actually written.