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Harley-Davidson has a very strong social-cultural force. Harley-Davidson has a traditional customer base of Caucasian men in the age range of 35-74 years-old. In 2012, nearly half of the sales of a new Harley-Davidson were to new customers who have never previously owned a Harley-Davidson. A unique aspect of Harley-Davidson is that they consider their employees to be their â€Å"only long-term competitive advantage.† A quote from their website states, â€Å"To us, our culture is as strong as the iron and steel we put into our bikes, and shines as bright as the chrome.† Some recent changes in the culture include a change in age demographic. Harley-Davidson sales have increased to selling almost half of their motorcycles to new customers. Sales to â€Å"young adults 18-34, women, African-Americans and Hispanics – grew overall at more than twice the rate as sales to [the] traditional U.S. customer base of Caucasian men, ages 35-plus† (Harley-Davidson). The customer base for Harley-Davidson is estimated at 50 million people and Harley-Davidson expects this to remain â€Å"stable and strong.† In the last five years, Harley-Davidson considers international dealers like India, China, and Brazil to be emerging markets. Additional, in that time frame international sales have increased over 5%. Lastly, Harley-Davidson has another quote: â€Å"All roads lead home.† Riders are usually encouraged to be involved in their communities and neighborhoods. The company engages in partnership activities with companies such as Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Club, and the YMCA. Economic Changes Harley Davidson, Inc. has had a consistent increase in net income for the last three years per the consolidated Statement of Operations filed in February of 2013. Despite this... ...on in any material product liability claim against us could adversely affect our operating results or financial condition. Polaris mentions a risk of reliance upon intangibles. Beneficial to Polaris, however, is their cultural environment of innovation. They have the potential to continually keep ahead of this risk. Additionally, Polaris mentions the potential for product liability. Like motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles can be risky to users when not used properly and maintained. Technological Changes Polaris does not actually mention any specific technological changes or risks in their financial statements apart from the reliance on intangibles. However, Polaris has similar risks to technological changes that Harley-Davidson does. Polaris offers unique apps and has a website that encourages an interactive usage between the user and the company.

Function of Music in Theatre Essay

QUESTION #1 Discuss the dramatic functions of music in two works of Music Theatre, including some consideration of the relationship between music and other elements of the performance event. Music and drama have the capability of not only integrating to create spectacular visual and aural events in theatre, but they have a distinct capacity to support each other – to heighten one-another to innovative, intrepid and even excessive levels. These levels reached are rarely paralleled in real life, at least not as effortlessly as they are in musical theatre. It seems that in some cases, the two elements aren’t complete unless they form a relationship – just as hydrogen and oxygen bond to produce water. ‘Music is created from sound as life is created from matter’ (Reti, 1961). Music in drama is somewhat a broad topic, as this communicates the infinite range of subtleties of music in drama, but the approach to evaluating this form of theatre is particularly important; is the focus upon the effect of the music upon the drama, or the drama upon the music? Is the focus upon the unity of the two, or their distinctions? This report will focus upon the use of music in theatre as an amplifier. The aim of this document is to hold a metaphorical magnifying glass over two individual pieces of drama: Lionel Bart’s music in ‘Oliver!’ and Elliot Goldenthal’s music in ‘Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within’. The two pieces of drama are poles apart when relating the plots, themes, settings and a great many others, but although the two works have over 30 years between them in production, there are particular conventions to be found within the composition of their music scores, which both illustrate the effectiveness of the basic systems in music to develop the drama, and the revolutions occurring in the new generation of drama for today’s new generation of audience. Although the music analyzed in this report can be easily disregarded by the audience as ‘backdrop’ music, there is a much deeper and arousing basis to the composer’s production of this music, which is there for much more than simply saying to the audience â€Å"This is where the character is†. ‘The great composers were fully aware both of the thematic principle and of the technique through which they materialized it.† – (Reti, 1961) The music used in these examples were not used simply for a pleasing auditory ‘spanner in the works’, but to achieve a new level of understanding especially from the point of view of particular characters. The music of the composers Bart and Goldenthal, successfully achieves a more intense portrayal of their characters featured, through the use of both subtlety and supplement. ‘Oliver’ will be the main focus for the initial component of this report, so that the two pieces of drama can be analyzed chronologically. ‘Oliver!’ is a musical interpretation of Charles Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’ and is a tender account of an orphan boy who runs away from the orphanage and journeys to London. He endeavors to â€Å"pick-a-pocket-or-two† for his new lodger Fagin, but gets caught. As Fagin tries to save him, Oliver decides that all he wants now is go to his newly discovered uncle, and live a good life. Oliver premiered on Broadway in January of 1963 and ran for 774 performances. It was converted into a film later that decade and subsequently won 6 academy awards including best picture for 1968. Throughout the duration of the Musical, the audience is drawn into Oliver’s world – hauled into his story through the use of melody and song. The initial scene where Oliver Twist first enters London is a defining component of the Musical, where (in film version) you see him gaze adoringly out at the clock tower above from underneath a dozen cabbages – the symphony slowly building as he pulls together the impulse to jump out form the basket and then stumble out into the middle of the street to view this living, breathing city before him. The music now escalates at this point and creates a strong resonance whilst he gawks with innocence and naivety at every moving spectacle around him. A brass fanfare erupts in unison with Oliver’s eruption from the basket and strongly accompanies the other sounds of the city such as the hustle and bustle of loaded carriages, trains blasting their whistles, people rich and poor alike scurrying about busily like ants – oblivious to the music unlike Oliver. This scene captures almost every conceivable aspect of the city from Oliver’s eyes and packs it tightly into song with The Artful Dodger’s swift introduction, reception and invitation in the song â€Å"Consider Yourself†, at which point he takes Oliver on an excursion around the busy city. A humorous contrast is provided here in this scene – where Dodger sings the lines â€Å"Consider yourself at home, consider yourself one of the family† whilst at the same time, both he and Oliver are being scrutinized by policemen and chased by merchants as they weave and bob their way through the immeasurable stream of dancing butchers, grocers, paperboys, fishmongers, etc. Soon after this scene, Fagin gives Oliver a lesson on how to â€Å"Pick a Pocket or Two†. The music in this scene is lighthearted and comedic but offers many subtleties to be investigated, such as the deep brass used to convey the sense of danger, the sense of capture or discovery, but the underscore of flutes happily tooting away at Oliver’s new found conception that the art of thievery is all just a game – not something evil or punishable at least. Interestingly, when you meet up with the character Bill Sikes (a fiendish henchman with a violent and deadly temper) there is an immediate shift in music, just as if his entrance creates a wind that pushes the high-spirited music out of the room to make space for his deep, rich and threatening score. Although Oliver is a high-spirited production, there are strong hints of the dilemmas of poverty and violence brought into three dimensions with song, but more contemporary dramatic works have required more than these fundamental methods to bring the characters and scenes to life – literally. ‘Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within’ was released as a full-length feature film in 2001. This feature however was different to any other as the entire film was animated. The story of ‘Final Fantasy’ is set in the year 2065 where the remaining inhabitants of earth are locked in a battle to take back the Earth from marauding alien invaders. Led by a strange repeating dream, Dr. Aki Ross may be the only one who can save the human race from extinction. Elliot Goldenthal was provided the challenge of bringing the synthetic characters to life through his musical composition. ‘There seemed to be only one logical answer for me, which was to amplify the humanness in any place that was dramatically possible. I wanted to treat the character’s emotional interactions, for example, as one would treat them in normal drama, with a lyrical sweeping melody.’ (Goldenthal, 2001). Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Goldenthal’s music for ‘Final Fantasy’ attempted at every point to bring life to the characters in the story both emotionally and physically. This is evident in the very first scene of the film where the audience is introduced to Aki, when she is having her repeated dream. The introduction of the accompanying piece is led by the sound of a glass harmonica to convey the potential sensitivity and fragility of Aki’s character. She wakes from the dream and finds herself on her spacecraft, revolving across the surface of the earth. In the next scene, she descends to earth accompanied by an almost military fanfare of brass and strings coming together on a strong Eb chord, giving a feeling of purpose and decision to this descent. Her ship touches down on the desolate, empty streets of New York, and the music instantly stops in a parallel with the apocalyptic emptiness of the long-dead city. Further on in the movie, Aki’s love interest Gray Edwards becomes critically infected by one of the aliens and is given only a matter of minutes to live unless treated immediately. Aki is forced to work against time in an attempt to save Gray, The dramatic tension in this scene is heightened by Goldenthal’s Score â€Å"Code Red†, composed basically of intense strings and strong percussion symbolizing a clock, and also signifying the value and importance of time. The music steadily builds in pitch, volume and intensity as the timer next to the operating table nears 0:00, but the tempo remains the same due to the fact that the time on the clock cannot speed up or slow down. At the climax of the scene, Aki saves Gray with only seconds to spare and as soon as the operation finishes the music abruptly ends, leaving the audience somewhat temporarily suspended in a moment of heightened tension. In a later scene, Gray and Aki are engaged in a private conversation where Aki speaks of a terminally ill eight-year-old girl she once spent time with before her death. In this scene where Aki reveals her emotional vulnerability for the first time, Goldenthal chose for this to be the first moment in the film where a piano is used. He decided on this due to the fact that the characters are so far away from any type of home in a desolate land, instead of going high-tech, a more earthy instrument is needed, something not basic, but elementary in musical design. The piano in this scene reminds the audience of home and connects the animated characters with images of a soft and sympathetic reality. A scene later in the film shows General Hein, (the villain of the film) in his office speaking of how his wife and child were killed by the aliens. Throughout the earlier scenes of the movie, the General is composed in a gloomy light, but in this particular scene, he is viewed musically in a sympathetic light. The music is tender and wistful as he unconsciously shows why his contempt for the aliens proves to cloud his judgment. There is a reference in the music that although there is compassion within this character, it is somewhat suppressed to an almost dormant state, overshadowed by hate and resentment. ‘We must always rely on the music as our guide toward our understanding of the composer’s conception of the text. It is this conception, not the bare text itself that is authoritative in defining the ultimate meaning of the work.’ (Kerman, 1989). The function of this music being strategically used in drama is for the benefit of the audience not only because it has the ability to paint a scene, but it also opens up the dialogue and opens up the characters and lets the audience see what is going on inside of them. The function is ‘to supply certain kinds of meaning to the drama, meanings that enrich immeasurably, and enrich dramatically, and that cannot be presented in any other way’ (Kerman, 1989). Drama alone can hopelessly attempt to convey some of the aspects of life that music can convey in just a few notes, and music can ridiculously hope to fulfill all the needs of a script without any real actions or dialogue, but in the end, the two combined provide an infinite array of possibilities and interpretations to be searched. In conclusion, if the composer is faced with the challenge of creating music to accompany drama, there is no unambiguous method of composition that one has to follow, but the impartiality between the two elements requires a strong correspondence at every point where they meet, or else the implication, sensation or meaning you are trying to convey will become caught in some redundant crossfire and the audience will lose the chance of gaining something extra from a piece of theatre capable of reaching outside of it’s three dimensions. – B. Daly Clark REFERENCES Goldenthal, E. (2001) The Composer’s Challenge. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, New York: Marca Registrada Kerman, J. (1989) Opera as Drama, London: Richard Clay Limited. Lippman, E. A., Hatch, C. (1999) The philosophy & Aesthetics of Music, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press Reti, R. (1961) The Thematic Process in Music, London: Faber and Faber Limited.

Facebook and Privacy Essay

Objective Summary: Ex-Apple Engineer, Peter Warden, has collected public fan page data from 215 million Facebook pages, revealing current trends, such as ‘God’ being the number one most popular fan page among Facebook users in the Southern U.S., whereas ‘Barack Obama’ featured heavily for San Francisco users, and ‘Starbucks’ was number one in Idaho. Warden plans to release this data to the academic community because he sees great potential in the data that can be extracted from these sites. This process is called data harvesting. The article suggests future academic work in this area is likely to occu impacting on people’s privacy. (FACTS – 100 words) Response: The ETHICAL issue central to this article is privacy and control. On one hand, Warden claims his intentions are altruistic (helpful to others) and that the data he is making visible here is a matter of public discourse. However, the FACTS are that individual users who are generating this data have neither been consulted about the data collection nor have they given permission for Warden to use it. Clearly Warden does not VALUE other’s people’s privacy as much as he WANTS (emotion) to create the website. The argument could be made that once a user ‘becomes a fan’ of a page on Facebook or, indeed, publishes any content to the internet, that information becomes public. User who have deployed privacy settings to carefully maintain a strong sense of control over their profiles, however, might well feel very ANGRY about this use of their data. Facebook can harvest that data (and does, for targeted advertising purposes) because they have a commitment to those adve rtisers (emotion)and engineers like Warden can develop data-trawling engines to collect accessible information across a massive dataset. The LAW needs to be much clearer about the rights of consumers, companies and advertisers in these situations. As Facebook is presumably bound by its own set of critically considered ETHICAL guidelines, these are neverthess underpinned by commercial VALUES and a vested interest (emotion) in keeping the data of its users from competitors. Warden claims to be operating under his own set of ethics that privilege (value) the furthering of knowledge. The issue then shifts to the academic community. Warden contends that one of his central motivations for collecting this data was so that he could share it with the academic community. Although this claim may be true, most (if not, all) Universities have clear ETHICAL guidelines for research that explicitly VALUE and therefore require consent from participants. If none of the users gave consent for their data to be collected in this way, this in effect denies them a sense of AGENCY. Thus, academically, this data is tainted. While its implications are important the trends it makes visible are crucial to understanding the localised structures of social network sites like Facebook. Personally, I would believe people should be able to tick a box that gives consent for the use of their personal material. I do not believe, either, that it should be one of those boxes you are obliged to tick before being able to use a site: that removes my personal AGENCY and I VALUE this very much. It should be up to me to decide whether other people get my data. If this sort of system was in place, everyone would know the FACTS, everyone would understand what is going on and no one would feel (emotion) betrayed or exposed unfairly.

Response Essays Essay

Response to: Foul Shots In Foul Shots, Rogelio R. Gomez writes about his Chicano background and the neighborhood he grew up in. Furthermore, he describes himself being stereotyped as one of the â€Å"barrio boys† basically meaning that he is considered inferior to the Anglos. In high school, the writer states that he was on a basketball team and that there was one day when his coach announced that his team was to â€Å"buddy up† with the opposite team. The opposite team was all White and therefore had a big conflict with the â€Å"barrio boys† due to racism. One of the Anglos threw a bag of Fritos to the â€Å"barrio boys† as an insult because of the â€Å"Frito Bandito† commercial which was, at its time, very popular and involved a stereotyped â€Å"Mexican bandit† from the Western movies who would steal Fritos. Gomez states in his essay that this insult still persists in his mind after â€Å"more than 20 years† have passed because he still wonders what he should have done in the situation and always comes to a though in where he is crushing â€Å"a silly bag of Fritos. The title seems to go well with the whole theme of this essay and has two meanings on being that since they are on a basketball team and a â€Å"foul† in basketball is an illegal move and also using the meaning of the word â€Å"foul† as unfair; they are being compared in a sense. The Anglos in the essay are very stereotypical due to the fact that they threw a bag of Fritos at the â€Å"barrio boys† and treated them very rudely; they basically thought of them as â€Å"inferior† as stated in by the author. Something that can also be said in this situation; however, is that the stereotypical thoughts could be turned towards the Anglos implying that the Mexican-Americans discriminate towards them too. The reason why is because, in the essay, it says that the â€Å"barrio boys† tried to act like they were superior because of their â€Å"toughness† and how they played basketball much better than the Anglos, beating them at every game. This whole problem could have probably been prevented if the coaches took a different approach towards the conflicts between the two teams. Rather than having the two teams get together, which obviously magnified the problem, the coach should have talked to the students about the different ethnic backgrounds and how to deal with racism and stereotypes. Response to: The Happiest Day of My Life In the essay, The Happiest Day of My Life, a man by the name of Michael T. Smith worked in an office with large windows that were facing a busy overpass. One day, Smith decided to start waving at the people that would pass by. Smith started these â€Å"window antics† to bring joy and relieve the stress during work. Smith kept on waving to these people to the point where it became a daily routine. Eventually, his co-workers began to notice this and share the laughs he would get from waving at these people. Around Christmas time, it began to get stressful because of all of the job cuts and to help cheer everyone up, Smith decided to dress up as Santa Claus during work. When his supervisor found out about this, he called Smith into his office which made Smith become very nervous, especially during this time, but to his surprise, his supervisor couldn’t help but laugh and thanked him for what he had done to cheer everyone up. I personally thought that Smith was going to get warned not to do something like this again or he would lose his job because of the reaction given in which it says that his supervisor â€Å"†¦turned and left. † After a while, Smith began to see a bond growing between the people he would wave to, especially the bus riders, but didn’t realize how strong it was until the day when his daughter was born and they held up a sign saying â€Å"congratulations! †

Doctrine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Doctrine - Essay Example In order to provide a comprehensive understanding about human nature, Marx made a clear distinction between the actions of animals and the activities perform by human beings differentiating themselves as a superior creature in the earth (Sayers 610-612). In the identification of human nature and taking into concern Marx’s distribution theory, it can be affirmed that Marx had given a distinct place to the individuals in society. According to him, individuals are no longer slaves in the prevailing communist societies. They can play a decisive role in the development of modern societies. In the background of communist society and Marx’s distribution theory, individuals not only tend to generate greater value for themselves but also serve the best interests of every community member. Thus, labor forces are not only selected by the individuals but also play a foremost role in making greater contribution towards the welfare of the communist societies (Rosen

What Is Meant By Market Failure And How Can Government Attempt To Essay

What Is Meant By Market Failure And How Can Government Attempt To Correct It - Essay Example In economics, a market failure takes place when â€Å"the production or use of goods and services by the market is not efficient†. In other words, market failure occurs when free market fail to provide optimum allotment of resources, either over-allocating, or under-allocating their resources, which results in economic inefficiency In other words, market failure occurs when free market fail to provide optimum allotment of resources, either over-allocating, or under-allocating their resources, which results in economic inefficiency (Francis, n.d). In such a case, there exists another possible outcome where the market participants’ gains would compensate their losses. Market failure is a serious issue as in consequence it disrupts social and economic region of a particular region or even the whole country. Thus, it is a challenge for governments to interfere and ensure that there is no risk of market failure. There are several ways in which governments can correct the sta te of markets: by public section production, regulations and antitrust legislation, taxation and subsidies (Francis, n.d). This paper discusses different kinds of market failure and the ways in which government can attempt to correct them. There are several general categories of market failure: market power, externalities, public goods, and equity. Market power is the ability of a company to influence the market price of a good or service, raising prices above competitive levels (Francis, n.d, ICT regulation toolkit, n.d). A company with market power can raise prices without losing a significant portion of its business to other companies. The rise in the prices above competitive levels may affect negatively the market as it results in diminished customer demand, efficiency loses, and harm on the public interest. Furthermore, companies with significant market power may abuse their power, using their leading position to reduce competition. Some common forms of anticompetitive conduct involve abuse of dominance, cross-subsidization, and misuse of information (Market Power, n.d). There are several ways in which governments can deal with abuse of significant market power. To start with, all national regulatory authorities (NRA) have to make an assessment of the state of completion in specific markets and consider whether such competitive behavior harms another companies and customers (European Regulators Group, 2007). In such a case, the dominant company may be required to stop its abusive behavior or make specific changes to its policy so that it would not be damaging to competition anymore (Remedies for Abuse of Dominance, n.d). This remedy requires the authorities to monitor the company continuously to guarantee that the behavioral change is maintained. Another possible solution is fining the company or its employers with direct responsibility for anticompetitive behavior. The firm can also be ordered to pay compensation to its customers and competitors who have been harmed by their policies. The European Regulators Group (2007) proposes functional separation in markets where non-discrimination procedures were ineffective in dealing with problems of abusive market power. Functional separation may involve breaking the company into two different firms with separate market shares, or separating competitive and monopoly products and services of the company. This solution may also include such elements as separation of operational support systems, brands, employees, and information management systems among new, individual business units. When deciding on the degree of the separation proposed, the NRA’s have to take into account the cost and benefits of this solution and base their decision on completed market reviews (The European Regulators Group, 2007). Cross-subsidization occurs when companies with market power charge a high price for their non-competitive products services and use different proceeds to subsidize low prices for compet itive goods. In such a case, governments can implement and enforce a price floor for the low-cost products in order to ensure that the revenue that is generated by the product

Alcoholic anonymous meeting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Alcoholic anonymous meeting - Essay Example Bob Smith in Akron, in the year 1935. The program developed, involves Twelve Step spiritual and character development process which aids in the stabilization as well as growth of the alcohol addict. According to Ohio, "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety". Individuals belonging to such a self-help group can benefit themselves by learning and adopting diverse skills to build confidence and make amendments in behaviour which enable them to perform well in their social environment. Such an approach not only tapers their alcohol dependence but also enables them to motivate other new members of the group to overcome such awful inclination (AA Better Known as Alcoholic Anonymous; Wormer et al, 2007). Alcoholics Anonymous group offers independence concerning to group membership. One can attend the meeting weekly or as per his/her wish. The group does not possess any red-tape attitude, on the other hand acquaintance and friendships developed in the group do not have any bindings. This is one of the major reasons why such groups are emerging as the most preferred groups to overcome their addiction quandary (Wormer et al, 2007). The group members interact with each other, confess in front of the group that they seek a solution to the problem of alcohol addiction. The group members utilize their previous experiences to tackle the situation by asking all the details of the addiction trouble, the cause of distress, issues that paved the way for alcohol addiction. Members express their gratitude and formulate a plan to overcome their problem and support other individuals or the group members in tackling the situation (Wormer et al, 2007). Spiritualism is the sole motive that incites self renewal attitude in the person. The environment provided to the new comer is congenial and motivating. Group members discuss their personal stories of revival in details and then the session is open for