The Great Gatsby Assignment Essay Example

The Great Gatsby Assignment Essay Example The Great Gatsby Assignment Essay The Great Gatsby Assignment Essay Essay Topic: The Great Gatsby ts a new year and after 2 seasons on my last steed I am lucky enough to be able to build up my new ride for the 07 season. While todays off the shelf rigs can offer an amazing value for what you pay, I wanted to build something unique that stands out a bit. What I ended up with is a 36. 3 lbs coil sprung DH bike that you wont see anywhere else. I have to say that coming in a close second to the actual riding, the technical aspect of mountain biking is what really excites me. I am a self admitted tech nerd. I can spend hours reading about the latest gadgets from any sport, be it Fl, MotoGP or ven tennis. If its lighter, faster or uses a new material then I am interested. The great part about our particular sport is that if you have the time, money and knowledge you can build some really neat things. I dont have a great deal of any of those three things but I still try, even though a smart guy once told me it was the first step towards failure. So what I did was try to build up a light and very functional DH bike. Actually what I built is a full on DH race bike. I Just happen to not race all the much, only hitting up a few each year. But what I do like to do is pin it. All-the-time. Weight was a huge concern for me, not because of any delusions of getting my pro number plate, but because this is my only bike. I have had more XC-type bikes in the past and I hated descending on them. It was not worth the uphill gain. I want to ride everything on my DH bike and to make that a little more enjoyable I had to pick my parts real carefull like. I Just happend to end up with a really light DH race bike! Fact: All 3 current Honda factory riders have raced World Cups on Oranges Fact: All 3 current Honda factory riders have raced World Cups on Oranges The biggest decision to make when building up your dream bike is which frame you will decide to hang all your parts on. I had a few on my short list so there was some thinking to be done. The U. S. made Iron Horse Sunday frame is one that Ive always had my eyes on (not that Id ever rail a corner like Sam even if I was on his bike). The Glory from Giant was also hard to say no to, being one of the best deals out there. The DW Link and Giants Maestro designs look similar but work in different ways and are about as far away as you can get from a well thought out single pivot design as seen on the Orange 224 frame. I have spent the last two seasons on an Orange 223 and came to love the light weight and simple bike, so even though the 224 frame is almost more than the Glory and Sunday put together, I still wanted one. After doing my homework on the frames the decision was made for me. The 224 was the only one that had the geometry that I liked. A bikes angles are absolutely the most important factor in its performance. There are a lot of different takes on suspension out there but the truth is that while some work different, they all do work good. But a DH bike with a 67 degree head angle will be ntirely different beast than a 64 degree monster. The 224 has that slack 64 degrees up front and also the low b. b. height and longer wheelbase that I feel at home on. Another consideration of mine was a full length seat tube on the frame. Some of my best rides are xc rides from home with my iPod and the seat on my DH bike Jacked up to the max. Oh, and it is light. The 224 is claimed to be one of the lightest production DH frames which is key when trying to piece together a light bike, might as well start off on the right foot. Suspension is the second most important part of any rig. Again, there are a lot of hings out there that do work great so it is more important to pick something based on your needs instead of Just looking for the trickiest possible set of sliders. But what if I could have a fork that came in at under 6. 51b, had a super low crown to axle length and worked great to boot? Id say that would be a pretty trick fork! So what I built is most likely one of the more unique forks out there. I started with a set of white 07 Boxxer lowers that use the Maxle system. Dropping the pinch bolts helped save a bit of weight but also means I only need a single allen key to get my wheel off. It doesnt hurt that the athena white lowers look dope next to my white 224 frame. I had originally planned on tracking down some of the old gold ti-nitrite stanction tubes, I did find a few but nothing in usable condition. Thankfully Tyler had some of the slippery silver tubes laying about from a buddies wrecked fork. The rest of the fork was garbage but the silver stanctions were mint so a small amount of money was exchanged and I nearly had a complete fork. Instead of dropping in some boring (but good working) World Cup internals, I installed a MOJO Boxxcart in the right leg and the ingle MOJO spring in the left. MOJO decals MOJO decals Now, you may or may not be aware that MOJO does not even produce these nice little units anymore. So why am I telling you about this stuff if its not made anymore? Because it is by far the best suspension I have even ridden. Ill admit, its not for everyone. It feels like ass in the parking lot (but thanks for telling me, everyone! ) but once you open it up on dirt it will blow you away. Stay tuned for pictures and details of the Boxxcart that will be in the (really long) review of the whole bike this summer. So what I ended up with is a 6. 1b coil sprung and MOJO damped Boxxer. The MOJO rebound knob Out back the boing is handled quite well by a Fox DHX 5. 0. Fox obviously know how to produce top end stuff as they have been in the suspension game for a long, long time. The great thing about the 5. 0 is the range of adjustment. If I am on a trail or course that would normally be faster on a smaller travel (read: stiffer) bike I can turn my 224 into that bike without to much hassle. Likewise, she can be a rock and root eating machine and all I need to do it is a single 4mm allen key and a simple shock pump. Another plus is the range of rebound adjustment. Some of the newer shocks on the market seem to have no noticeable difference in return speed until the final turn of the adjuster. All this adjustment is great if you know what is going on back there but one thing I did want was a slightly more active ride out of my 5. 0 shock. After some top secret trickery on a late night at the shop I think I have get her dialed. 5. 0 w/ Ti spring So you may be starting to see a trend here. I am building a very single purpose bike. A bike that is meant to pin it fast down fast trails. I am not the rider who stops to hit p the skinnys a few times or goes to sesh the local gravel pit drop, all I want to do is go. Sometimes the most important part of going is the stopping or Just slowing down a bit. Only a little bit though. I am a huge Avid fan, having spent time on the original Juicy 7s, 5s and Juicy Carbons. You cant really go wrong with any of those setups but I wanted something a little bit special. Last season some of the top SRAM riders were sporting the new Juicy Ultimate levers mated with Code calipers. Since I am nobodies top rider I had to spend my personal booty. Lucky for us peons the Code and Ultimate parts can be bought seperately. Using the Ultimates upper end saved some grams over the 7s master cylinders plus there are no finicky red dials for friends to play with. You still have the ability to fine tune the bite point but youll need an allen key to do it. Code caliper Code caliper The Code calipers bump up the power a bit by using four pistons and more importantly a much larger pad surface area. After a few bleeds the Ultimate/Code combo works great, much to my relief as SRAM does not advise combining the two systems. Two years ago I saw a picture of Fabian Barels bike sporting a 6 rear rotor o I decided to give it a try. It worked great with my old Juicy Carbons, actually saves nearly a 1/4 pound and should perform Just fine with the even more powerful Code calipers. I expect a lot of power but will my hybrid brakes keep the Juicy modulation that I love so much? X. O shifter and Ultimate lever mounted using Avids sweet Matchmaker bar clamp X. O shifter and Ultimate lever mounted using Avids sweet Matchmaker bar clamp It is no different with the wheels I chose but I did decide to avoid the more expensive rims out there. I put a rim thats on a DH bike in the same category as brake pads or a hain: Disposable. I wanted something light but nothing to expensive as I would most likely be going through a few as the season got bigger and badder. I have had nothing but great results with my set of Alex Supra Ds, under 600 grams, easy to build and very reliable (gotta love the anodized gold option! ). But at $90 msrp canadian they are a little expensive to be turning them into squares. The SingleTrack from Sun seemed to be the perfect choice. Closer to 500 grams then 600, a decent width and cheap! The msrp here in Canada is only $40 so it was hard to say no. Hubs re a hard one. There are a lot of amazing hubs out there, some seem to be more art then a bike component. The truth is that they all use wheel bearings that I can buy from local hardware store or distributor so why drop more on a rear hub then most regular people spend on a whole bike? Well.. l cant! As much as I wanted a Hadley or DT I could not Justify it. I would rather put that money into my suspension or brakes. I did manage to find a sweet set of hubs that come in at nearly half as much as some others, are lighter and are easy to service. WTB may not Jump out at you hen you are thinking about hubs for your big bike but you should really look them up. The Super Duty rear hub is an amazing little bit of work. Unlike most hubs, everything is a push fit which makes it super easy to disassemble and clean. The 12/150mm Super Duty rear hub has been stripped of absolutely any extra material that it does not need. You also slide your cassette onto a aluminum freehub body which is where most of the weight savings come from. WTB SuperDuty hub Check the aluminium freehub body Actually, the rear hub weighs 305 grams and the front comes in at only 190. The folks at WTB are also good people which has a lot to do with me picking their hubs over some others. Poor spokes. No one ever thinks about them and they do so much work. I really did want to build these wheels with Sapims super high end CX-Ray spokes but time was not on Sapims side. All my parts were where they needed to be and I had some very nice black DT Champion spokes to hold everything together so that is what I chose, pertinence be damned! The CX-Rays do make a lot of sense though and I hope to use them on my next wheelset. I have not had a spoke break in years but hey are light and the minimal middle section is bladed which makes building and truing alot easier as I can hold the spoke with a special tool to prevent and wind-up (wind-up is when a spoke turns with the nipple when truing, it makes things difficult). Aluminum nipples get such a bad rap but as long as you treat them right they work great. I weigh in at 1701b. which is not huge but I have run al. nipples exclusively for years now with no problems. I am sure I have had no trouble because I look after my wheels though. With A1. ipples you need to keep the tension from getting to low as he constant loading and unloading of spokes can snap the heads off. I also use a four sided spoke wrench to finish the build, tension and true. Holding onto all four sides minimizes the chance of rounding the corners on the softer metal and also dropping a touch of thin lube into the nipple now and then keeps things from seizing up. A light wheelset can be the k ey to a fun and nimble bike so I thought it was important to choose parts carefully to end up with the right package, something I think has been done. Everyone go buy Srams X. O shifters and derailleurs. And if you cant afford them then ell a liver or something because you owe it to yourself to roll with X. O. I like nice stuff (obviously) but my rides dont depend on it. If I am on a test bike with a lower end group set I will have Just as much fun as on some rare super bike. But this X. O stuff is amazing. Basically, you put it on your bike and then 6 months later you scrape the dirt off it and maybe make a small adjustment. The 1:1 cable pull ratio means that stretch and other variables that can cause shifting to go haywire will have half the effect that it would on Shimanos traditional 2:1 pull. I love how I am able to move the lower shift paddle to a more comfortable position for my tiny girls hands. Its a feature that I thought was more gimmick than function but now I Just would not be comfortable with a stock non adjustable shifter. All around quality parts and despite the fragile look they can take a beating. 0k people, stop buying outboard bearing cranksets. They are not better. In the real world they do not last longer and you can not tell me that you can feel a differance in stiffness on your mountain bike with big knobby tires and suspension. k, you can ell me whatever you want but I wont believe you. I will go through two ISIS b. bs in a year of riding. I gave outboards a shot a while back and if I had stuck with it would have gone through four sets of cups. Lame. Take your chain off your external bearing crankset and give it a spin, not to great eh? Even on a broken in external bearing b. b. you will have a ridiculious amount of seal drag, way too much to be accept able for the meager amount of power we put out. Unfortunetly, the amount of companies putting out nice light ISIS cranks is shrinking so hit up e-bay and scoop up what you can get

Scoville Scale Organoleptic Test

Scoville Scale Organoleptic Test The Scoville scale is a measure of how pungent or spicy hot chili peppers and other chemicals are. Here is how the scale is determined and what it means. Origin of the Scoville Scale The Scoville scale is named for American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, who devised the Scoville Organoleptic Test in 1912 as a measure of the amount of capsaicin in hot peppers. Capsaicin is the chemical responsible for most of the spicy heat of peppers and certain other foods. Scoville Organoleptic Test or Scoville Scale To perform the Scoville Organoleptic Test, an alcohol extract of capsaicin oil from a dried pepper is mixed with a solution of water and sugar to the point where a panel of taste-testers can barely detect the heat of the pepper. The pepper is assigned Scoville units based on how much the oil was diluted with water in order to reach this point. As an example, if a pepper has a Scoville rating of 50,000, that means capsaicin oil from that pepper was diluted 50,000 times before the testers could just barely detect the heat. The higher the Scoville rating, the hotter the pepper. Tasters on the panel taste one sample per session so that the results from one sample dont interfere with subsequent testing. Even so, the test is subjective because it relies on human taste, so it is inherently imprecise. Scoville ratings for peppers also change according to a type of peppers growing conditions (especially humidity and soil), maturity, seed lineage, and other factors. The Scoville rating for a t ype of pepper may vary naturally by a factor of 10 or more. Scoville Scale and Chemicals The hottest hot pepper on the Scoville scale is the Carolina Reaper, with a Scoville rating of 2.2 million Scoville units, followed by the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper, with a Scoville rating of around 1.6 million Scoville units (compared with 16 million Scoville units for pure capsaicin). Other extremely hot and pungent peppers include the Naga Jolokia or Bhut Jolokia and its cultivars, the Ghost chili and Dorset Naga. However, other plants produce spicy hot chemicals which can be measured using the Scoville scale, including piperine from black pepper and gingerol from ginger. The hottest chemical is resiniferatoxin, which comes from a species of resin spurge, a cactus-like plant found in Morocco. Resiniferatoxin has a Scoville rating a thousand times hotter than pure capsaicin from hot peppers, or over 16 billion  Scoville units! ASTA Pungency Units Because the Scoville test is subjective, the American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) uses high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to accurately measure the concentration of spice-producing chemicals. The value is expressed in ASTA Pungency Units, where different chemicals are mathematically weighted according to their capacity to produce a sensation of heat. The conversion for ASTA Pungency Units to Scoville heat units is that ASTA pungency units are multiplied by 15 to give equivalent Scoville units (1 ASTA pungency unit 15 Scoville units). Even though HPLC gives an accurate measurement of the chemical concentration, the conversion to Scoville units is a little off, since converting ASTA Pungency Units to Scoville Units yields a value from 20-50% lower than the value from the original Scoville Organoleptic Test. Scoville Scale for Peppers Scoville heat units Pepper Type 1,500,0002,000,000 Pepper spray, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion 855,0001,463,700 Naga Viper pepper, Infinity chili, Bhut Jolokia chili pepper, Bedfordshire Super Naga, Trinidad Scorpion, Butch T pepper 350,000580,000 Red Savina habanero 100,000350,000 Habanero chili, Scotch bonnet pepper, Peruvian White Habanero, Datil pepper, Rocoto, Madame Jeanette, Jamaican hot pepper, Guyana Wiri Wiri 50,000100,000 Byadgi chili, Birds eye chili (Thai chili), Malagueta pepper, Chiltepin pepper, Piri piri, Pequin pepper 30,00050,000 Guntur chilli, Cayenne pepper, Aj pepper, Tabasco pepper, Cumari pepper, Katara 10,00023,000 Serrano pepper, Peter pepper, Aleppo pepper 3,5008,000 Tabasco sauce, Espelette pepper, Jalapeo pepper, Chipotle pepper, Guajillo pepper, some Anaheim peppers, Hungarian wax pepper 1,0002,500 Some Anaheim peppers, Poblano pepper, Rocotillo pepper, Peppadew 100900 Pimento, Peperoncini, Banana pepper No significant heat Bell pepper, Cubanelle, Aji dulce Tips to Make Hot Peppers Stop Burning Capsaicin isnt water soluble, so drinking cold water wont ease the burn of a hot pepper. Drinking alcohol is even worse because the capsaicin dissolves in it and gets spread around your mouth. The molecule binds to pain receptors, so the trick is to either neutralize alkaline capsaicin  with an acidic food or drink (e.g., soda, citrus) or surround it with a fatty food (e.g., sour cream, cheese).

Dance Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Dance Paper - Essay Example ce also occurs in various forms like the jazz walk, the toe rise, the pirouettes, the ball change, the pivot step, and the contraction, which is characterized by a contracted torso, a back curved outward and the pelvis pulled forward. Jazz dance occurs in repetitive forms characterized by syncopated rhythm, or an interruption of the regular dance rhythm, which is characteristic of the rebellious character and distinct identity of jazz dance (Feliksdal, 2004). Overall, the elements of jazz dance help to create a type of dance that is full of energy and at the same time revealing the themes of surprise and rebellion through its syncopated rhythm. On the other hand, ice dancing, is made up of the long, short, continuous and tranverse axes. The continuous axis is the most important as this is the â€Å"imaginary line running around the ice surface that serves as the basis for the dance pattern,† and which are joined at each end by a semi-circle (General Terminology, 2012). This is the strict path of the ice dance. The forms are creative but formally and gracefully executed. These include the lifts where the man will hold the lady high and in a creative manner. There are also spins, where the couple or the lady rotates at least three revolutions and changes feet positions. Moreover, there are twizzles, where the ice dancers turn at least four revolutions while moving across the ice (Farris, 2012). These forms then repeat in several patterns. Original steppings as well as positions and timings may be set but the dancing couple may modify the spins, lifts and twizzles, and may modify the starting positions or location of t he dance relative to the axis (General Terminology, 2012). Overall, the elements of the ice dance help each other create a dance of numerous creative and graceful moves but with strict discipline. When it comes to the general characteristic of the dance, modern dance usually focuses on the â€Å"natural and spontaneous or uninhibited,† which means that

International and Comparative Human Resource Management Essay - 5

International and Comparative Human Resource Management - Essay Example The rapid technological advancement has greatly influenced the change observed in the business environment. Organisations’ processes are constantly being re-engineered and delocalised because work can now be carried out both at home and in the office. The re-engineering process has reduced middle management levels as today’s lower level managers are faced with more work and decision making activities. The work processes have been restructured to comply with the existing technology in the business environment, fragmentation against departments has been reduced in an attempt to fasten decision making process and accomplishment of tasks, the quality and speed of strategy execution has been improved, employees are empowered and information flows swiftly within the organisation (Thakur 2001, p. 311). For instance Joel Salatin owner of the Polyface Farm in Virginia has adopted sustainable agricultural operations such as use of green technology to maintain the quality of his l and and animals. He is also able to meet the sophisticated demands of consumers that desire to use green technology products which are deemed to be safe as they cause less harm to the environment and their health. The business environment has been changed to a business of data by ‘formatting’ the workplace. Today workers manipulate data related to the products they are producing instead of the working materials. The communication technology has acquired a multiplier phase enabling all players in the business environment to get the same information simultaneously and thus react or act on it at the same time

Realism and Naturalism :: essays research papers

Realism and Naturalism In Music and Art As intellectual and artistic movements 19th-Century Realism and Naturalism are both responses to Romanticism but are not really comparable to it in scope or influence. For one thing, "realism" is not a term strictly applicable to music. There are verismo (realistic) operas like Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chà ©nier created in the last decade of the 19th century in Italy, but it is their plots rather than their music which can be said to participate in the movement toward realism. Since "pure" untexted music is not usually representational (with the controversial exception of "program" music), it cannot be said to be more or less realistic. In contrast, art may be said to have had many realistic aspects before this time. The still lifes and domestic art of Jean-Baptiste-Simà ©on Chardin1 (1699-1779) anticipate many of the concerns of the 19th-Century Realists, and he in turn owes a debt to the Netherland school of still-life painting of the century before him, and one can find similar detailed renderings of everyday objects even on the walls of 1st-century Pompeii. Realism is a recurrent theme in art which becomes a coherent movement only after 1850; and even then it struggles against the overwhelming popularity of Romanticism. In mid-19th century France, Gustave Courbet2 set forth a program of realistic painting as a self-conscious alternative to the dominant Romantic style, building on earlier work by the painters of the Barbizon School (of which the most famous member was Jean-Franà §ois Millet), which had attempted to reproduce landscapes and village life as directly and accurately as possible. Impressionism can be seen as a development which grew out of Realism, but in its turn still had to battle the more popular Romanticism. Realism has never entirely displaced the popular taste for Romantic art, as any number of hotel-room paintings, paperback book covers and calendars testify. It became just one more style among others. In Fiction Realism's most important influences have been on fiction and the theater. It is perhaps unsurprising that its origins can be traced to France, where the dominant official neoclassicism had put up a long struggle against Romanticism. Since the 18th century the French have traditionally viewed themselves as rationalists, and this prevailing attitude in intellectual circles meant that Romanticism led an uneasy existence in France even when allied with the major revolutionary movements of 1789 and 1830. Influence of Realism Realism had profound effects on fiction from places as far-flung as Russia and the Americas.

Planned Obsolescence

Planned obsolescence is the industrial tactic of designing, manufacturing, and distributing a product with an inadequate lifespan, as so it will become obsolete specifically to force the consumers to buy the latest generation of said product. These products are put into practice before the next generation is even fully functional; companies like Apple are most famous for doing this. Planned obsolescence has been in use since the beginning of the Great Depression and for the past eighty years the ethical grounds of companies and the reliability of their products has been argued.As 20th century economist Victor Lebow says in his article on consumer capitalism, Price Competition in 1955: Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption†¦ We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace. (Lebow, Price Competition in 1955) Planned obsolescence goes hand and hand with conspicuous consumption, the act of spending money to acquire luxury goods and services in order to publicly exhibit ones economic power.The 1950s was a time of immense consumption of household goods and services. Tupperware and kitchen appliances were products of vast majority that persistently improved and with conspicuous consumption, was bought. Car commercials today take advantage of American consumers with their annual announcements of new models. Every model is designed with the motive it will be bought. A model only a year older than the one previous can be expected now to include an MP3 playing stereo with hands free cell phone capabilities as well as higher miles per gallon and durability.Although the auto industry is trusted most with reliable products they are still infamous for their use of technical obsolescence. Technical obsolescence is when the cost of repairs is u nparalleled with replacement cost. It can be tremendously cheaper to replace a nine or ten year old car rather than repair frame and axel damage from wear and tear or even an accident. (The Daily Green) Style obsolescence also plays factor when the definition of what an attractive product is changes, therefore newer models are made in order to provide a more aesthetically pleasing ppeal. Marketing has always been driven by aesthetic design. By continually introducing fresh designs whilst retargeting and discounting the others, corporations can do what is called â€Å"riding the fashion cycle. † The fashion cycle is the repeated introduction, rise, popular culmination, and decline of a style as it progresses through various social strata. (The Daily Green) A certain style of dress is primarily aimed at high income worth and then steadily re-targeted to lower income segments.In the beginning of the Ugg craze, Uggs were going at incredibly high prices and as years pass they depr eciate in value. The same cycle happens for designer brands like Coach or Vera Bradley. The fashion cycle will repeat itself in cases when an obsolete product that was once stylish regains popularity and ceases to be obsolete. (New Vision Ireland) Think of the Miami Vice suits, shoulder pads and parachute pants, trends of the 80s that no longer exist yet styles like oversized tops, fingerless gloves, miniskirts and huge earrings have found themselves back in the limelight.As advanced as the public feels technology is, with the idea of planned obsolescence in manufacturers’ minds, everything is built with a fail safe for producers. Obsolescence by depletion is a form of planned obsolescence used in products like home printers. The color printer is useful for consumers who need to print photos and graphics/charts for presentations, but other than that, there is not always a need to print color. An owner can choose to print only black with their colored ink jet printer except at a price.Despite the owners’ indications that they want black and white prints, the color cartridge, at a smaller amount than normal, will be used in order to deepen the shade of the text or graphics. So that leads to the question, can’t one just take the color cartridge out? Unfortunately not, in order for the printers to function properly all the cartridges must be in place even if one cartridge is out of ink completely it still has to be left in. In the long run people who print enough black and white will pay the cost when the colored ink needs replacement. Castle Ink Cartridges & The Daily Green) In some cases notification may be combined with the deliberate disabling of a product to prevent it from working. Printer manufacturers like EPSON are infamous for employing proprietary smart chips in their ink cartridges to prevent them from being used after a certain threshold even though the cartridge still contains usable ink. Some companies have developed a version o f obsolescence in which the product reports to the owner on when it is time to buy a replacement.Pool water filters are known to display replacement messages at predetermined times and some disposable razors have color changing strips to mark blade dullness. Whether consumers are notified before the product has truly depreciated or the product simply deteriorates more quickly than is required, planned obsolescence is the result. (New Vision Ireland) Systemic obsolescence is the intentional effort to make a product obsolete by altering the structure in which it is used in such a way that it makes its continued use problematic.Newer software is frequently introduced that is incompatible with older versions. One example of systematic obsolescence is Microsoft Corporation’s termination of support for Microsoft’s older OS services in order to meet the needs of the support for newer versions. Another Microsoft example would be their recently launched Internet Explorer 9 Web Browser that is not compatible with Windows XP even though Internet Explorer 8 is. Software is not the only technology affected by planned obsolescence; oftentimes hardware developers will prevent a product from being backwards compatible with older models. New Vision Ireland) Back in the early 1990s Nintendo launched the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) to precede its first gaming system the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in order to make the NES obsolete. The processing power and other capabilities of the SNES overthrew the NES and made the massive NES game library out of date because the SNES could not play the old cartridges. Those who wanted to play earlier games have to keep both systems around. (The Daily Green) In more recent times, Sony launched their console for the seventh generation consoles, the PS3.The PS3 greatly outshone the PS2 but like the SNES later models were unable to play PS2 discs. With the introduction of PS3 and its Blu-ray disc reader consum ers have begun to accept and love Blu-ray. The most concentrated opposition in the next-generation â€Å"optical video disc format wars† is between HD-DVDs and Blu-ray. Not only a format for HD video and audio, Blu-Ray is a higher-capacity storage format than HD-DVD. HD-DVD at this point is being out sold by Blu-ray. Blu-ray has not yet been considered a planned obsolescence movement yet because it still is too new of technology. (Computer Info Web)Today’s leading seller in products on the market is Apple electronics. Apple has designed products from computers to the world famous iPhone. Planned obsolescence is big in design schools and designers need to understand its workings in order to fulfill a longing career in today’s economy. Steve Jobs, the now deceased CEO of Apple, understood the importance of design in relation to selling product. An advertising magazine warned in 1928, â€Å"An article that refuses to wear out is a tragedy for business,† Stev e Jobs understood the necessity to make products obsolete and he implemented it into his products.The original iPods had less appealing designs and as the years passed. Later, Apple came out with much more attractive looking products built with more innovated advancements, but still made to be replaced within a year. (New Vision Ireland) In 2003, the Neistat Brothers made a video of them going around sharing the story of how their iPod battery only lasted 18 months and explained how Apple did not have a replacement option and they would have to buy new iPods. They took the company to court and sued on the account that Apple planned the batteries to die after a certain period of time.Before Steve Jobs passing his legacy was to leave four years of new products for the company, blueprints for a new iPod, iPad, iPhone and MacBooks were put in place and permission for new futuristic Apple headquarters was secured by Jobs in June. (Daily Mail) Without planned obsolescence there would be n o malls. There would not be any products or designers. There would be no need for architects and salespeople or even service workers all around. The ideas of planned obsolescence, although beneficial in fulfilling our needs as humans, depreciate the overall lifespan of the products we use.It is debatable whether companies are to blame, but in the end the consumer is still the ones who replace these intolerable products. Works Cited â€Å"Consumerism: Planned Obsolescence – New Vision Ireland. † New Vision Ireland. NVI, n. d. Web. 10 June 2012. . â€Å"HOT Web Resource for Computer Info, Maintenance , Information Technology, Security, Training, Outsourcing: Blu-Ray. † http://www. computerinfoweb. com. Computer Info Web, n. d. Web. 10 June 2012. . Howard, Brian C. Planned Obsolescence: 8 Products Designed to Fail. † The Daily Green. The Daily Green, Aug. 2011. Web. 10 June 2012. . Koep, Gregg. â€Å"Not Buying Anything. † Notbuyanything. com. Not Buy Anything, 30 Mar. 2012. Web. 10 June 2012. . Lebow, Victor. â€Å"Price Competition in 1955. † Journal of Retailing Spring 1955 (1955): n. pag. Print. < http://classroom. sdmesa. edu/pjacoby/journal-of-retailing. pdf> â€Å"Printing Monochrome Pages Using a Color Printer. Castle Ink Cartridges. Ed. Adam Haigh. N. p. , 16 Feb. 2010. Web. 10 June 2012. . Ubeda, Joan. â€Å"The Cutting Edge. † News. The Cutting Edge, 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 10 June 2012. . Gardner, David. â€Å"Steve Jobs’ Secret Legacy: Dying Apple Boss Left Plans for Four Years of New Products. † Mail Online. Daily Mail, 8 Aug. 2011. Web. 14 June 2012. .

HM Report - 2508 Words

Table of contents 1. Introduction 2. Macro environmental analysis (PESTLE- political, economic, social, technology, legal, ecological) 3. Customer analysis 4. Market description 5. SWOT analysis (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunity, threats) 6. Conclusion and Recommendations 7. References P.1 D002 T2242531 Introduction Hamp;M (Hennes amp; Mauritz) is a global fashion brand and retail clothing company founded in Sweden, 1947 by Erling Persson. H amp; M founder Erling Persson†¦show more content†¦Hamp;M Company supports UNICEF in Uzbekistan to show their social responsibility and tries to prevent child work in cotton factory of Uzbekistan. These projects raise the awareness of the right of the child and give safeguard. Hamp;M is going to donate US$ 150,000 to UNICEF’s work in Uzbekistan. (â€Å"IPS ipsnews.net†, 2011) P.3 D002 T2242531 Technological: new product and process technologies; new materials (David Jobber, 2007, p.43) Hamp;M has two types of technology that will affect the business that are media technology and printing machines. In the operation of making clothes some of certain colors and designs need some unusual or more high-class machine to finish therefore Hamp;M can keep the product in a quality. (â€Å"Adpunch.org†, 2010) The evolution of media technology will help Hamp;M become popular through the Internet and advertise. The website and media have to be updated to become more eye-catching and disseminate their news events, it can extend the exposure of Hamp;M to the community. Legal: EU and national laws; codes of practice (David Jobber, 2007, p.43) Hamp;M Company cares about the protection of child; however so far this year, the collective fainting incident at theShow MoreRelatedH M a Multichannel Report Essay3429 Words   |  14 PagesAt a glance: This report looks at the key value propositions of the website http://www.hm.com and how it fares against its competitors in its online multichannel strategy. The report recommends the following changes to keep the costs down and serve its customers better. Provide online retailing to countries where the option is unavailable, especially US. Ask for gender of the customer during profile creation so that they have targeted advertisements about specific products in the home pageRead MoreHM Accounting Analysis Report2940 Words   |  12 Pagesï » ¿Report by Analysts of Group 6. Investment Recommendation:HOLD (Current stock is fairly priced) Business Analysis Overview The Swedish company Hennes Mauritz AB is the second largest clothing retailer in the world, just behind Spain-based Inditex (parent company of ZARA). The HM Group’s business consists mainly of sales of clothing, accessories, footwear, cosmetics and home textiles to consumers. In additionRead MoreHM Analysis1227 Words   |  5 PagesIn this report, an inside look will be taken on Hennes Mauritz AB (HM). We will analyse on it using PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces and SWOT to get a clear concept of what HM is today and where it can go. This positioning will be helpful in strategy designing. Company activities HM was established in Và ¤sterà ¥s, Sweden in 1947 by Erling Persson. We now sell clothes and cosmetics in around 2.200 stores around the world. * HM offers fashion and quality at the best price * HM offersRead MoreComparing Annual Reports of Abercrombie Fitch and HM431 Words   |  2 PagesOn the balance sheet, HM lists the following elements of shareholder equity: share capital, reserves, retained earnings and profit for the year. Abercrombie Fitch lists common stock, paid-in capital, retained earnings, accumulated other comprehensive income and treasury stock. Neither company has preferred shares outstanding. ANF reports treasury shares, but does not disclose in the notes the reason for reacquiring these shares. On the income statement, the basic and diluted earnings per shareRead MoreH M s Mission4131 Words   |  17 PagesProject- HM Part 1 HM’s Mission/Vision Hennes and Mauritz AB is a Swedish retail-clothing company, which has expanded enormously in the past years. HM has grown from one single store in a small town in Sweden to a multinational ranked as the second largest global fashion retailer with its 3,600 stores in over 58 countries and $22 billion in annual sales (The World’s). This incredible story of success makes us wonder about their strategies and how they managed to get where they are today. HM’s visionRead MoreHM- Brand and Distribution Strategy2245 Words   |  9 PagesBrand Analysis and Distribution Strategy by DIANA CAMPOS 1 Table of Contents 1. Intro: The HM Hennes and Mauritz AB Group 2. HM The Brand 2.1. Company Profile 2.2. Environment of the brand 2.3. Target consumer 2.4. Geographical extension 2.5. Turnover 3. Distribution Strategy 4. Conclusion Bibliography 3 3 3 4 6 6 7 8 10 11 2 1. Intro: The HM Hennes and Mauritz AB Group The HM Hennes and Mauritz AB Group is a Swedish multinational retail company, considered the second retailer in theRead MoreExecutive Summary: HM Conscious Actions and Sustainability Report 20111578 Words   |  7 PagesHamp;M Conscious Actions and Sustainability Report 2011: Executive Summary This report was completed to focus on multi-national retail company, Hamp;M, and their quest for producing high-quality production while aiming to achieve sustainability and environmentally conscious goals. Hamp;M is valued for their quality fashion while still providing affordability to consumers. They partake business in 43 different countries on 4 separate continents and have about 8.7 million Facebook fans as of 2011Read MoreAnnual Report of Abercrombie Fitch Co.1109 Words   |  4 PagesStatement and HENNES MAURITZ (HM) AB Account Statement The accounting standards used by Abercrombi and Fitch are International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), while Hennes Mauritz (HM) AB uses Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The auditing standard used is Generally Accepted Auditing Standards, GAAS Analysis of the companies annual statements Starting with Hennes Mauritz, the statements of account which is made available in the annual report of the company consists ofRead MoreInternational Financial Reporting Standards1036 Words   |  4 Pagesprinciples (GAAP) as the basis for the production of its financial statements. In contrast, Hennes Mauritz (HM) uses international financial report standards (IFRS). HM also utilizes Swedish GAAP. For its annual report, there is no indication of what standard is used, and there are no official financial statements. HM does not note what auditing standards it uses in its annual report. By contrast, the ANF Form 10-K notes that the companys auditors use the Internal Control Integrated FrameworkRead MoreComparing the Annual Financial Statements of HM and AF1061 Words   |  4 PagesThe big problem with HMs annual report is that it does not contain financial statements. In order to acquire balance sheet figures, the latest quarterly financial report has been acquired. The HM balance sheet does not disclose anything about the types of equity the company has. The Abercrombie and Fitch balance sheet does. The book value of its Class A common stock is $1.033 million. The paid-in capital is $369 million, retained earnings are $2.32 billion and the accumulated other comprehensive