Funds for the arts Essay Example for Free

Funds for the arts Essay In a world that thrives on science, the neglect of the arts is somewhat uncommon. What is baffling though is that the arts could have societal contributions as well. Some would find it hard to agree especially when some of the people had been driven to think that the scientific breakthroughs would be sufficient enough for their existence. Governments would readily shed some funds for the scientific pursuits but were reluctant to shell out some for the arts. It is in my belief then that the artistic pursuit should be recognized as important. But if the government were to just shell out some funds for the arts that would reflect the majority of the people then this should be thought twice. The diversity in people would be reason enough for the government to rethink their position. This diversity would not help in pinpointing what the majority really wants. Besides, it was said that the government funding could lead the arts to become passive (Radbourn). If people were to focus more on the majority then the artistic input would not be an artistic input at all but an input for the government’s satisfaction. The government should fund the arts but they should not give out rigid demands that only the voice of the majority would be reflected. Funding the arts could have considerable outcomes. Arts could affect the educational system since it would help learning become more interesting, it could also preserve the culture, it could have economic benefits (arts plus industry), and many more (Arts Funding). The rigid demand for the majority then could not help portray other ideas that may become essential and/or helpful in the near future. It would seem that funding the arts with such rigid demand for reflecting only the majority of the people would mean that the hidden motives are for the profit that the art would bring. Most artists frown upon those who would use their creativity and label it art for the benefit of the fame and money that they will receive. In fact, it will only be an exhaustive task where its sincerity is highly questionable. Works Cited Arts Funding. 2002. August 22 2007. http://www. michiganinbrief. org/edition07/Chapter5/ArtsFunding. htm. Radbourn, Jennifer. How Government Funding of the Arts Kills Leadership and Creativity. August 22 2007. http://prodos. com/archive014fundingkillscreativity. html.

Evolution Of Media And Entertainment Consumption Habits Media Essay

Evolution Of Media And Entertainment Consumption Habits Media Essay The Media Entertainment (ME) sector comprises the creation, aggregation and distribution of content, more specifically news, information, advertising and entertainment through a number of channels and platforms. The combination of new digital distribution modalities and evolving audience consumption habits and demands has continued to challenge traditional ME business models during 2009. It also could mark the initiation of a drastic transformation that reshapes the entire ME ecosystem. There seems to be a stiff competition as far as the media industry is concerned, with industry players battling for the eye-balls of the viewers and readers. In this rat race, only those ME companies will survive that are able to rapidly identify and react to the evolving demands and consumption patterns of end users. As the time has evolved, ME consumption has undergone a paradigm shift. During old days the entertainment through media typically meant a few grainy channels on the television or tuning into limited stations on the radio or else gorging on stale news from newspaper or reading a hard copy of a book. In those days, outdoors were more welcoming. Today, one is connected to the world through plenty of hi-tech networked means. As the consumers have changed, so has the media (Kenneth A., 2009: 3). Advancing technology has been the single biggest factor behind this resurgence. The same technology has also created cultural shifts. Now consumers have understood their power and have become more demanding. Earlier they would adjust their daily routine according to the availability of the content. Today, the providers have to wrap up their broadcasting and publishing as per the consumer choices and conveniences. With the growing popularity of tools like cell phones that enable pulling of media software, media has become location agnostic. The use of social sites has to be seen as a game changer. At any given point people are exchanging notes with each other about media content and the death or survival of published or broadcast content are decided in fraction of seconds. Consumers have liberalized themselves from limitations and are enjoying greater choices and enlarged personal freedoms as far as media and entertainment are concerned. Along with independence, consumption has also significantly gone up. This has led to a double edged challenge for the suppliers-great returns and significant risks. In the era of technology shifts it is imperative that only those media and entertainment entities that enable themselves to rapidly identify and act to the growing demands and consumption patterns of end users will survive (Bill, 2005: 26) . There is a single measure that can enable these companies decipher complex customer requirements-information. The key is to filter through this information using analytical tools and gather intelligence that can be effectively used. In nutshell, ability to apply intelligence and creation and sustenance of loyalty among its consumer will be the major deciding criteria that will enable media companies to achieve success in an increasingly competitive marketplace. There appears to be plenty of ways in which the users can access and enjoy diverse media and entertainment content due to its mass availability. The cost of switching is also low for end users who want to switch to new content providers or media and entertainment companies. The greatest challenge in the media industry seems to be the changing loyalties of consumers forcing them to identify ways of tailoring content in compelling, highly targeted ways (Kenneth A., 2009: 6). 2. Factors Shaping Consumer Behavior 2.1 Quality of Content Todays well informed consumers expect a spectrum of content granularities. Their demands may change depending on the time, their device/network characteristics, and even their moods. This forces the providers to customize content so that fits within the media consumption patterns of the consumer. 2.2 Structure of Tariff Model Even though certain content will always be paid for, tariff remains a debatable issue. The users want low fee for themselves and expect the companies to generate most of the content through advertisements. In reality lot of content particularly on the online media are co-created between the company and the consumer. This challenges the companies to design superior quality, customized content and charge the consumer less for the same. 2.3 Timing of Attention In spite of variety new digital content that has replaced earlier scarcities along with easy access the only issue that has emerged seems to have been that of user attention. For the content providers, getting user attention has been nothing short of a battle. 2.4 Real Time Experiences The evolution of real-time business intelligence is enabling mass-customization of content and entertainment that delivers highly personalized and engaging experiences, consumers are demanding more. 2.5 Competition ME companies have been forced into transitioning into non-traditional roles. Networks are providing content online to consumers, bypassing traditional cable or satellite distribution; telecom companies are competing with cable via Internet Protocol television platforms; and cable companies are competing with telecom companies with voice over IP. As competition and churn rate increases, customer data analysis can provide competitive advantage for customer retention. (Barlow, 2009) 3. Impact of Changing Media Consumption Habits on Media Industry Rapidly changing consumer tastes and increasing digitization has created a number of industry-wide challenges. Some of these are protecting intellectual property, continuing historical revenue streams and finding ways to utilize and monetize emerging new platforms for traditional content including print, filmed entertainment, and recorded music as well as user-generated content and other new services, applications and formats that compete for consumer mindshare and time. 3.1 Gaming The interactive gaming sub-sector has enjoyed tremendous growth because of changing demographics. Increasingly gamers are older and there is significant growth in number of female population engaging in idle time. Introduction of new growth segments like mobile and online gaming, successful titles and the phenomenon of in-game advertising, resulted in gaining mass popularity for this new medium (Kenneth, 2009: 3). 3.2 Entrainment Companies Growth of multiplex culture in upcoming metros and option of entertaining oneself at home through DVDs, home theatre systems, has forced filmed entertainment companies to embrace the digital distribution business. The traditional ME players are struggling to understand and exploit new distribution windows, metrics and economics. However, as long as the demand for professionally-produced content remains high, the filmed entertainment industry will continue to evolve and find new ways to monetize their content. 3.3 Broadcasters Since traditional networks and broad-based cable networks own very little of their content and their advertising-based business being centred on attracting eyeballs and reselling attention, they are greatly impacted by shift in audience preferences. On the other hand, most themed cable networks have targeted subject matter and audiences and, hence, have an opportunity to extend their brands into products, events, etc. 3.4 Print Media Reduced cash flows caused by the migration of readers and advertising dollars to the Internet, compounded by 2008s economic downturn, are threatening newspapers very existence. Major consolidations may be their only avenue to existence. (Kenneth, 2009: 5) 3.5 Music With introduction of high tech electronics gadgets like mobiles, ipods, MP3 players containing dedicated software for superior quality of music and growing number of radio stations the music sub-sector is being forced to transform. There has been a wave of publicity surrounding new audio sources such as satellite and iPods, which may lead some to believe that traditional over-the-air radio services are losing a significant portion of its audience to these new choices. Currently, 20% of Americans subscribe to satellite radio, own an iPod/MP3 device or listened to Internet radio in the past week, compared with the 95% of Americans who listened to radio during the week. The sub-sector will continue to see decreased revenues for years to come and there is substantial likelihood of tomorrows music industry to be very different from what it is today. (Bill, 2005: 20) 4. The imperatives for the Media Entertainment industry: Media market is a heterogeneous mixture of human beings with multi-variant economic, cultural, social and political characteristics. This is the market whose consumption pattern should be responded to by appropriate production levels if the media industry is to remain in business; since capitalist production can only make sense when converted to monetary terms at the end of the process. Even public service media companies like state television and radio broadcasting need to produce according to viewers and listeners tastes if the policy objectives of their formation are to be realized (Bill, 2005: 24). 5. Recommendations for ME companies 5.1 Content Digitization Today digital is in while analog is out. ME companies should transform all content in digital format so that it can be quickly edited, stored, combined with other digitized content and rapidly repurposed as needed. Content needs to be tagged through a metadata framework which enables its easy location, identification and helps in determining digital rights permissions. It is vital to have smooth collaboration from pre-production through post-production all along the value chain. 5.2 Flexible Business Models With media and entertainment consumption pattern undergoing rapid shifts, traditional business models are becoming obsolete and thus unable to fully capitalize on the available opportunities or counter threats in contemporary market. In such case, adoption of flexible and evolving business models will help ME companies to sustain competition (Newman, 1991: 215). 5.3 Targeted Audience Revenue, especially through advertising can be maximized if consumption patterns could be effectively analyzed and identified. This will aid the ME players to break down larger segments into interest-specific fragments and deliver truly targeted and less intrusive advertising. 5.4 Active Participation through User-Generated Content The knack to actively engage its consumers and create a connect would give any media entities the ultimate competitive advantage. It has also been observed that engaged customers have the probability to be loyal. They consume more content, evangelize for content and services they use, and can act as a barometer for cultural and technological change (Bill, 2005: 23) 5.5 Content Protection and Consumer Privacy Development of grey market, piracy and unauthorized copying must be carefully controlled and digital rights must be enforced in order to protect the interest of ME players. Also, to actively engage customers and encourage incoming content in various forms (including comments, rating etc), it is crucial to ensure that unauthorized dissemination of information or access to such information will be restricted only to authorized audience. Thus implementing privacy controls have become very important. (Barlow, 2009) 5.6 Mergers and Acquisitions The business will react structurally to the changes in consumption if such a structural adjustment will give the company more leverage to compete effectively in order to maximise returns or survive the attrition of market forces. If consumption decreases and threatens viability, one method that is adopted by a company is to merge with others in the same media business and eliminate redundant structures from the resultant new company. This reduces overheads. Other structural changes that can be implemented as a reaction to threatening reduction in consumption are hostile or friendly take-overs. For example, Viacom and CBS merged to form the third largest media company Viacom-CBS after Time Warner and Disney. (Newman, 1991: 213) 5.7 Improvement in Distribution Network A company might also decide to improve its distribution networks. It may acquire distribution companies of the media in question, in order to achieve better coordination between production and sales, and to benefit from the resultant synergies and from the economies of scale in distribution. A company may even control al phases involved from the production of content to its sale. If it is music, these phases could be composition, recording, and packaging into CDs, DVDs or VHS video cassettes and transportation to retail outlets. This vertical integration achieves better utilisation of resources and higher production efficiencies, thereby cutting costs and increasing sales revenue, and makes the company compete better in the oligopoly. (Curran and Gurevitch, 2002: 137) 5.8 Incorporate the on-demand media lifestyle into programming decisions Young adults are most engaged by on-demand media devices and behaviours. As teens and young adults mature and on-demand media devices become more prevalent, consumers desire to control their media use is likely to spread. Marketers need to work now on strategies that will cut through in an increasingly on-demand media world. Consumers want media to fit their schedule, and they are adopting new devices and media to meet that need. Traditional media should consider playing first-run programs more than once, provide consumers with content online in addition to over-the-air, and partner with on-demand media services. (Bill, 2005: 23) 5.9 Make listening and viewing experiences more compelling through Internet Internet media incorporate several elements that appeal to young consumer, including programming not easily found on traditional media, fewer commercials and a wide variety of content. Therefore, Internet broadcasters need to continue to focus on providing unique programming that generates greater consumer passion for their medium. Internet advertising needs to expand beyond banners, search and pop-ups. Internet users are becoming more sophisticated and are learning to block much of the current advertisements and spyware. Internet broadcast advertising with Internet radio and visual ads attached to video content cannot be skipped or avoided, and may prove to be a vital part of the Internet experience. (Bill, 2005: 29) 6. Summary Production is a function of labour, capital and space and from economic theories, supply is related to demand. For any commercial media business, making profit is the primary concern, and therefore consumption determines cultural production. There are many factors that come into play when examining consumption of media. The macro economic situation of the target market, the real salaries, the educational levels, the attributes like age, gender, children, population densities, social classes, political beliefs and cultural aspects like language and religious beliefs, influence consumption which in turn determines production of media content and their products. The consumption levels caused by all these attributes and factors are different, since the informational, educational, entertainment and leisure requirements are different across diverse economic, political, social and cultural strata. Production strategies and content are modelled by management of media companies from the consumption patterns caused by these characteristics (Curran and Gurevitch, 2002: 154). However, there are limitations to which consumption determines production. Because of the imperfection of the market, the producers may have no knowledge or inadequate knowledge or may have sketchy knowledge about al the aspects that affect consumption in that market place, causing the producers to make decisions out of imperfect information. (Murdock, 2000) Fashion journalism and regulation in favour of minorities and other social biases also limit the extent to which consumption determines output. Collusion between media owners, governments and powerful organisations, lead to market corruption, which in turn causes distorted responses to consumption patterns. Some of the special economic characteristics of media like non-diminishing content with consumption also limit the way output is determined by consumption. (Vogel, 2004) Time and monetary constraints also limit the extent to which production is determined by consumption. This structural change as a reaction to changes in consumption is limited by government intervention and regulation to curb anti- competitive vices, and to maintain pluralism in the market, and to discourage possible abuse of market power by media moguls. Therefore, market consumption determines media output though such effect is limited in some cases due to imperfections of the market and human intervention. (Newman, 1991: 209)

Components Of Material Management Construction Essay

Components Of Material Management Construction Essay The decision to purchase starts with the decision to build or to produce depending on the type of product an organization produces. The construction industrys product is a tangible structure that can either be residential house, school, hospital, office building, recreation center, sport complex, or roads, bridges, dams, sewers, railways, airport runways, pipe lines, etc. To produce the end result of the effort to construct, different resources are required by an organization. These resources are manpower, money, machineries, and most importantly material. It is estimated that 60-70 percent of a project direct costs accounts for material cost. Therefore material procurement is an important aspect of every construction work, and worth planning earlier when the decision to construct starts. Planning material procurement starts with identifying and estimating the amount of materials needed, evaluating the availability of the material in market, selecting the reliable source for obtainin g the material, and answering questions on the problem of transportation and storage of the material on site throughout the construction period of the project. This is to avoid unwanted or extra cost incurred as a result of poor material management process. Material management function starts from office where likely constraints associated with every type of resource needed to build the prospective project can be sorted out. It further extends to construction site where practical implementation of the plans and schedules developed during the initial planning stage of the material procurement is needed. Construction site layout of temporary facilities such as office, staff canteen, security shed, material stores, position of crane, and temporary walkways largely affects the movement of workers and material delivery vehicles. And the proposed position of permanent structures within the project site cannot be affected because of temporary facilities. This put a challenge on the project manager who must study the activities likely to happen on site and provide solution to anticipated risk and inconveniences that arises due to poor arrangement of site temporary facilities. With careful positioning of temporary site facilities, material deliv ery can be easier, accident can be minimized, access to material of work can be faster and ultimately the speed of construction process can be increased. 2.0 Literature review on material management The procurement of material of work is the reason for which an organization should maintain a competent material procurement department. The primary function of this department is to plan the quantities of the materials needed at a particular time, identify the source of purchasing the materials and initiate the process, planning of inventory and control, ensures quality control measures are taken, and maintain a steady flow of material to avoid shortage during the construction period. Other function of the department includes coding and classification of material, maintaining good record of the movement of material right from delivery to storage and use, and observing the current trends in purchase system and market availability of construction materials. 2.1 Components of Material Management Contractors are bound to cut expenditures and make even more profit if adequate attention is given to material and equipment planning, scheduling and control. Therefore profitable contracting requires sound material management. It is found that bout 60-70 percent of a project direct cost is incurred on material and equipment. Construction projects are undertaken to finish within a specific time, cost, and quality. To this end number of people, material, machineries and equipment are needed collectively to tackle the individual activities that together make up the whole project. Although projects are classified into two; Infrastructure and Building projects both requires a common resource depending on the size and complexity of the project. On a large building project such as multi-storey building as well as highways construction, the typified equipment used are machine excavators, heavy bull dozer and number of trucks for carting away surplus excavated material, and transporting aggr egates, cement, blocks, reinforcement bars, timber, etc. to the project site. Other materials used in building type project are sanitary appliances, surface finishes such as marble, granite, ceramic tiles, plaster board, paints, etc. Material management is composed of series of activities that must be collectively identified, planned, organized, implemented, and monitored and controlled. These are:- Purchasing Handling and Transportation Receiving and Inspection Storage and Warehousing. Purchasing: When the need for material arises, the material procurement or purchasing department makes an inventory of the material, sometimes refer to as Material Indent and send to the selected supplier. This is termed as Purchase order/ Material Enquiry. Initially, the suppliers quotation had been received and reviewed by the purchasing department. It is also the sole responsibility of the department to negotiate price with suppliers and select the most reliable one in terms of quality of product, delivery time, and lowest purchase cost. Upon receiving purchase order from the contractor, the supplier makes available all the materials in the correct quantity and quality before transporting to the contractor who receives the goods in his own store. The materials supplied to the contractor are often accompanied by consignment notes indicating the types and quantity of the material loaded, and usually this happen within a short time having confirming before placing the order that the materials needed are available in the suppliers store. However in some cases, the contractor has to follow up order especially if time is against the project. This is known as Expediting by Contractor. Expediting can be done through phone calls, email, fax or any means of communication available. Material Handling and Transportation: Difficulties can be encountered with handling and transporting materials to the project site especially large fragile materials such as interior glass partitions. Handling materials should start from the point of uploading onto transporting vehicle through maneuvering of the vehicle around busy area to have to reach the project site, and downloading and storage. It further extends to proper positioning in the store till the period when the material can be incorporated into structure or component. Material handling and transportation procedures are not limited to fragile items only. Long and heavy materials such as steel column, galvanized steel angle iron for steel trusses, reinforcement bars, precast concrete components, bricks/blocks and cement bags are almost first line items needed onsite, and deserves careful handling both offsite and onsite. Some materials applicable to a particular trade may be required at a time when other trades are busy working. For example aggregates can arrive at the project site when steel fixers/iron benders are fabricating reinforcement bars. And the truck may have to pass across the iron workers before reaching the designated point of delivery. To avoid such an incident, the planners should take consideration of all materials likely to be required within the time other trade workers are working. This ensures smooth interaction between workers of different professionalism onsite. Receiving and Inspection: Different types of materials of work are being delivered on site prior to construction work begin or as the work proceeds. Some materials are fragile such as glass panel, asbestos, ceiling board, wooden and plastic door panels etc. while others are of metallic or aluminum nature e.g. door and window frames, steel columns, reinforcement bars, burglar proof etc. Other materials that are directly tipped onsite include aggregates, bricks/blocks, and cement. Whatever type of material needed onsite must be received and ascertained by site manager or the clerk of work upon arrival of delivery. Materials are prone to breakage and or damage in the cause of transportation. Similarly shortage can occur mistakenly as materials are being uploaded from the suppliers store. However, as a precaution to ensure quality control, proper record of the number of materials received and inspection of their qualities is necessary. This ensures security of expenditure since shortage and broken items are necessarily wastage. Efficient material record also documents the material movement in and out of store for use. It shows the material destination from the store including date and signature of the receiving person e.g. masonry foreman. Three important documents received by the store officer are copy of purchase order from the purchasing department, suppliers advice document, and consignment notes. This enables the store officer to organize and plan for clearances of material. Where materials received are from internal divisions e.g. from contractors central store to the site store the document involved are usually Material transfer and Return to store Notes. Storage and Warehousing: Competent and experience staffing is needed to perform the activities of storing materials. Although aggregate materials may not require warehousing, some materials such as sanitary appliances, glass panels, door and window frames, electrical equipment such as air conditions, ceiling fans, room heaters, water heaters, and interior finishing materials such as floor tiles, wall tiles, carpets and rugs etc. requires storage within an enclosed storeroom to safeguard the material against loss, theft or pilferage, damage, etc. Nevertheless, in some cases material deterioration may occur in the cause of keeping materials in store. For example heavy materials placed over a fragile material can result to breakage. Therefore a designated operation of store personnel that takes into account downloading deliverables, good positioning and proper arrangement in the store should be maintained. Also good storage practice ensures that materials to be used early are kept close r to the store entrance for ease of access to the material in order to avoid displacing other materials before reaching the needed item. And frequent rotation of materials around storeroom should be avoided as it leads to breakage or damage of materials. 2.2 Objectives of Material Management The goal of operating any business entity is to make profit over the goods or services it offers. In this respect, construction business is not an exception. The goal of the investment made on plants and machineries, expenditure on material of work and payment of staff and lobour wages is to make a reasonable profit at the end of every project work. At the inception of every project work, there is gradual absorption in the use of materials to form components. The components makes up a structure and the structure makes up the whole building. However the total quantity of all the materials needed to build a project must not be obtained at hand before work starts, rather the materials will be supplied daily or periodically as scheduled by the project management team. This requires efficient planning of inventories, effective buying and purchasing strategy, good storage and inventory control, timely supply and distribution of materials, and maintaining the harmonious relationship between the supplier and the customer. 2.3 Function of Material Management The function of material management can be divided broadly into primary and secondary functions. Primarily it aims at planning material of work required, purchasing which includes selecting the reliable supplier, ensuring the availability of material at the designated point, and ascertaining and maintaining the steady flow in material supply. The secondary function has to do with proper recording of material through coding and classifications of the materials to ensure proper record are kept both for receiving and using of material. The other secondary functions of the material management deals with the assessment of difficulties in handling and transportation of the material. This challenges the project management team with need to adopt systematic implementation of their plans at all level of the management organization. Ultimately it requires strict monitoring and control. 2.4 Problem of Material Management There are number of problem associated with material management. The problems may be associated with structure of an organization, storage space requirement, delivery problem, lack of security, market availability of materials, legislation etc. These problems are examined in details below: Organization Structure: Good organization structure that properly defines roles and responsibility of the individuals at all level is likely to support material management purpose. The coordination and communication between estimating department, research and development department, purchasing department, and plant and machineries department should be maintained at highest level. Where there is poor coordination and communication, internal memo/notes cannot reach an intended destination. For example when there is plant breakdown e.g. excavator is not working due to mechanical problem and the plant and machineries department did not alert engineering department about the problem until the time when soil excavation is needed. Or quantity of materials such as cement is low in the store without informing the purchasing department by the store officer. Storage Space: Large number of materials is required depending on the magnitude of the project. And the term storage space implies both enclosed and open space that can be used to keep materials of work safe until the need for it arise. All materials need protection against many threats such as pilferage, theft, damage or loss. Material such as aggregates, bricks/blocks may not require enclosed storage protection than proper outdoor positioning and stacking. However, other materials such as reinforcement bars, steel columns, timber, and galvanized steel for trusses must be protected against contact with water in order to avoid rust/corrosion. The size of proposed building may occupy 60% of the total project site, enabling the remaining 40% to be used for temporary access and site facilities. In such case, the planners must arrange for periodic delivery of certain materials to avoid cluttering the space, and maintain constant operation to keep the surrounding area clean. Problem of Delivery: Not withstanding material order is placed early, a situation exist in which material can not arrive on time. This may be due to a problem on the side of the supplier. And certain specialized materials may not be available within the proximity of the construction site. The material must be transported possibly from another city e.g. hot rolled or cold rolled materials. Eventually worker must be left redundant and time is being wasted. Security Problem: Security of materials onsite is of paramount importance. Gradual pilferage and theft are issues of concern to the project managers. Loss of materials through pilferage and theft represent financial lost to the project as a whole, and in the end it increases the cost of the project. Materials are prone to be stolen despite being in store. And some materials as earlier mentioned may not require indoor storage. Therefore, a well designated vigilante must be maintained 24 hours onsite. Availability of Materials on Market: Steady flow of materials throughout project duration is among the primary function of material management. However, this can be affected by market availability of the material of work. Occasionally manufacturers can run out of raw material or be affected by government policy to the extent that production may have to be slow or suspended. Unavailability of materials of work on market can affect material management by either increasing competition in material purchase or delay the general work progress. Legislation: Domestic manufactures are not likely capable to satisfy construction industrys need for raw materials. This is true no matter how develop a country is, certain products must be imported from another country. Example of these materials can be specialist hot rolled items, structural members such as steel I section columns, galvanized steel angle iron, air conditions, heaters, wall tiles, floor tiles, etc. and government policy on importation can affect the flow or availability of material on market. Another example can be seen in the price of labour to be used for government projects. Construction labour costs are divided into two; government price, and the price determined by other labour unions such as bricklayers union, steel fixers union, etc. All labour cost whether union cost or government cost can be influenced by the act of legislative committee who are responsible for monitoring and controlling the aspect in a particular country. 3.0 Relations of the Existing site layout to position of Material/Site facilities Construction sites are bound to face trouble not only technically related, also management related difficulties results into unwanted situation that affect time and cost. Site-based management can make a significant improvement in the cost and time saving during the construction process without involving mass of additional work. Among the important tasks of site management is the site layout planning. Without effective and systematic approach to site planning, extensive time loss and cost overruns could result especially in large projects, where the number of manpower, subcontractors, and equipment involved are high. A detailed planning of the site layout and location of temporary facilities can enable the management to make considerable improvement through minimizing travel time, waiting time, and increasing workers morale by showing better and safer work environment. Existing Site Layout: Contrary to the above idea, the existing site layout shows concrete batching plant, timber, materials 1, material 2, temporary building, waste materials, reinforcement, scaffold store, store 1, store 2, and temporary road with little information to fully identify the use of the facilities. It further located the concrete batching plant quite away from any storage facility. Waste material is situated behind the temporary office. And finally the project site does not contain security room and toilet. The major short coming of the existing site layout is lack of proper definition of the site facilities, whether the store is for cement or tools, what sort of material can be stored in the facilities named Material, as both do not convey ideal information that indicates the type of materials to be stored. Assuming the current position of the temporary facilities is to be maintained, the lead time of concrete work must be slow due to large distance between the concrete batching plant and stores. There is proposed two units of 2-storey building as shown on the site layout, however no provision for tower crane that hoist materials of work to high rise area. Waste material facility should not be too far from the center where most construction activities takes place, this is true in order to encourage the site sanitarians in keeping the site free of scraps that can cause injuries e.g. cut off pieces of metal or timber, broken asbestos, long span aluminum roofing sheet, etc. The temporary walk ways in the existing site layout does not lead up to the spaces between both semi-detached and double storey twin buildings. Following rainfall, the surrounding site area is likely to become bog and muddy, thus inconveniencing traffic around the site. 4.0 Anticipated problems to be encountered on the existing site layout Most engineers have the impression that site planning can be undertaken simultaneously as the work proceeds day by day. It is important to know that condition of project site will be the condition in which workers live for the duration of the project. Thus, careful pre-planning is imperative. Since construction labour cost constitutes 30-40 percent of project total cost, it is important to realize that significant cost saving will be achieved if the labour force moves freely and quickly within the project site. With free and quick progress of labour force, large amount of work will be done in a day. Conversely, lack of free movement slows rate of production by obstructing the cycle time of material delivery to workers. 4.1 Anticipated Problem Strictly speaking, the existing site layout contradicts the general site management idea. Construction projects are to start on a specific date and end on a specific date. Consequently, individual activities in the project are given expected starting and finishing time. Unless the activities are on schedule, the project will not finish on the time it is expected to finish. And unless production is maintained at highest speed level, the individual activities would not meet the schedule. To maintain production at highest speed level, access to material of work must be uninterrupted. Interruption to material access is caused by different reason including the distance through which the material must pass before reaching the final production point. The following problems should be anticipated by the site manager:- Laydown Space: The site layout does not consider simple laydown space for materials such as aggregates, bricks/blocks, etc. which do not require enclosed space for storage. Also for materials which are arranged to be periodically brought to site such as pile for foundation and precast concrete components. If bored pile foundation is to be used for the double-storey building and the scheduled work force is that only 80 piles can be driven into the soil per day. There bound to be problem for space to stack these items upon delivery before they are used. Plant Equipment Wrongly Located: The concrete batching plant located far away from any storage facility indicates how far workers need to travel in order to bring material of work to the batching plant. The batching plant and the material stores are located in two opposite sides of the project boundary. This apparently increases the cycle time for the production of wet concrete mix. The ideal procedure for casting wet concrete should not suggest any delay in the production cycle which can be achieved by keeping all the materials needed closer to the batching plant. When materials are closer to production point, the number of labourers needed to be supplying the materials can be reduced because of the short cycle distance than they otherwise have to cover assuming the material is far away. Consequently, the amount of money that must be paid for lobour is reduced. Poor Location of Temporary Building/ Site Office: It is important to locate temporary site office closer enough to be able to monitor the site activities probably by looking through the window. However, it is equally important to locate the office where noisy construction activities can be avoided as much as possible. The location of the temporary office as shown on this existing site plan seem to be too close to construction activities especially vibration and sound produced by jetting down pile into the ground. Large magnitude of vibration and sound is produced during hammering pile down into the ground, and dust flew up when drilling and chiseling holes on concrete or wooden components. Thus the office is also too close that dust may be entering into the building as a result of such activities. Inadequate Space between The Existing Site Facilities: The existing facilities such as temporary building, reinforcement, scaffold store, waste material, material, and store are located too close to one another. The effect of this can be manifested by the need for material delivery to the store between waste material and materials. Locating site facility in a confined space do not allow delivery vehicle to reach the location of the facility. And in the extreme it results into double handling of the material by having to off-load temporarily before arranging for workers to move the material to its final destination. Double handling should be avoided as much as possible as it waste time, and often attracts petty charges which when accumulated can make a reasonable amount of money. Insecurity: The major problem to be faced by the site manager comes from the complete omission of the provision for site security shed. Materials, plant and equipment are never to be taken home by workers nor always brought from high rise areas down to store and locked up, and the next morning they are taken up again. This is tedious. It is a good practice if small electric tools such as drilling machine, welding machines can be left where they have been used today for instance on 2nd floor, and tomorrow the work continues without need for taking it up again. However, this can only be proven good practice if constant day and night security of the material is maintained in the construction site. Material pilferage by labourers is another reason for maintaining security on site. Omission of Staff Canteen: Notwithstanding workers are always busy onsite, provisions should be made for location of temporary staff canteen. Omission of this facility on this project site may cause workers to travel some distance for need of water, cigarette, mints, cake, etc. and when this happens, automatically the work is retarded. Lack of Temporary Toilet: The provision of this seemingly less important site facility is almost necessary in every project site. Site management personnel, visitors, members of statutory agencies, and workers are bound to require toilet to ease themselves of their demand. It is impracticable while work is on progress for a worker to seek to go back home or anywhere away from the project site for the need of toilet. Therefore temporary site toilet should be among the site planners focus when design temporary site facilities. 5.0 Proposed New Site Layout The architectural drawings of a project indicate among other things, the proposed position of the individual structures within the scope of the project work. Invariably, this position must be maintained and never to be altered because of the need for temporary site facilities such as material stores, security shed, staff canteen and toilets, site office, position of crane, etc. It is the project managers responsibility to examine the activities that take place in the cause of construction work and provide viable alternative that maintain the proposed position of the structures as well as proper location for the temporary site facilities. In achieving this, number of factors deserves consideration. These are lead time of individual activities on the project, ease of access to material of work, activity cycle time, raw material delivery, safety of workers, types of materials, and space requirement for laydown purpose and free interaction. Site Security Shed: Among the important site facilities is security shed as it provides shelter for site security personnel against weather. It can be constructed of timber, metal/aluminum, tent leather, and even masonry materials such as brick/block, and stone defending on the decision of the project management team. Security shed is almost provided in every type of building project whether it is office building, commercial building, school, hospital, etc. therefore it is advantageous to build the facility once and for all. Building security shed using temporary material like timber, metal etc. can be considered as waste of money and time since the temporary one must be replaced by the permanent structure to serve the same purpose at the end of the project work. The most suitable position for locating security facility is always by the main entrance of the building, since security personnel are to monitor any movement in and out thereby looking after the properties in and around the building. In this respect, site security building is no exception. Its position has to be by the site main entrance. And it should be properly sited to allow clear coverage of reasonable locations both left and right. Specifically to this project, the security building should be by the right side of the entrance. This is because the left side is a proposed double-storey structure, and can block proper view of the semi-detached structures at the opposite side due to double-storey height of the building. Conversely, positioning the facility at the right hand side enhances proper viewing of the facade of the double-storey, as well as reasonable view of the semi-detached structures. Material Store: There can be number of stores on site defending on the type of material to be kept in the store. Site material stores do not need to be located all in one position. The location has to be based on the type of material in the store, distance between the store and the point of using the stored items, and accessibility by the delivery vehicle. All material stores must be accessible to the material delivery van, and be close enough to ease difficulty in removing items out of the store. Inaccessibility of store location result into double handling a situation where materials need to be temporarily off-loaded before moving the same into the store. This is time consuming and attracts expenses. Waste Material Store: Waste is being generated in the course of executing works onsite. Therefore daily waste management should be designed and maintained throughout the project duration. Site waste can be broken stones, blocks/bricks, empty cartons, cut-off pieces of metal, aluminum, timber, etc. which is no longer needed or seen as valuable. Defending on the site managers decision, waste can be stored as salvaged items which can subsequently be sold for recycle purpose. However, not all onsite waste can be salvaged for recycling. Waste such as paper cartons and polythene e.g. for tiles, sanitary and electric appliances are best disposed up by taken them away to any refuse collection point nearby, since it is not needed for recycle. This type of waste may not require enclosed storage facility. A simple laydown waste collection point can be satisfactory before they are disposed-off. Only solid non-combustible waste e.g. cut-off metal as piling material, steel angle iron, steel sectio ns, rebar etc. can be stored in waste material facility before they are removed for recycling. The best practice for onsite waste collection is to collect the generated waste on daily basis just at the point it occurs. Since different trades are working at different places around the project site, it can be difficult to set a single point for waste collection. The waste collected from all points can be taken to central waste collection facility from where the accumulated wastes from all the project activities are moved out of the project site. For example, waste can be generated at 2nd floor, 3rd floor, 4th floor, and ground floor respectively. The waste collected at each floor should be packed and brought down to the central waste collection point. Like material store, the proper location for central waste collection should always be accessible by both vehicle and workers to increase morale in dumping and subsequent removal away from the project site. Scaffold Store: There are different types of scaffold designed to serve different purpose. These are independent tie scaffold, bird cage, slung scaffold, mobile tower scaffold, and putlog scaffold. The independent tie and bird cage scaffolds are specially designed for external works, covering from ground floor up to high rise areas to enable painting, plastering, glazing, and external electric work. They are mounted immediately on arrival, and once mounted do not need to be dismantled until the end of the project. Such scaffold does not need to be kept on site; ideally they can

Different Styles in Coaching :: essays research papers

Different Styles in Coaching No one is alike, everyone has there own way of doing things. For example, I was coached by two different basketball coaches in my high school years; both of whom had their own unique style of coaching. Coach Lira and Carla coached the same sport even though each had different strategies for their athletes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Coach Lira was forty years old and had coached for ten years. She coached for the same high school she played basketball at, and has a lot of experience in coaching as well as playing the game. Being on Varsity her sophomore year shows she is a good basketball player and knows the game well. Lira is considered a good coach because she can make a team win games. The relationship she had with her players was more like a teacher to a student. She wasn’t a friend figure. Being late was never an issue with her, she was always on time. Lira had many rules and was very strict. For example if you were late you would have to do one hundred pushups. During the games she would pick the players she liked over the players who deserved to play because of her short temper.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  She had workout practices. Every practice she made us do drills that would help us in a game. Making the players do 100 pushups and sit-ups before going through plays was very tiring. We would go through plays over and over until we got them down exactly they way she wanted them. We would practice every Saturday morning from 8:00 to 11:00. Are practices were different from regular practices because they were so intense. Lira took us to the championship game. Without her coaching, we would never have gone that far.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My other coach, named Carla, was 20 years old, still going to college with no experience in coaching or playing basketball. She wasn’t a very good basketball player herself. In high school she was on the team but was on the bench. Carla really didn’t know the game that well. Losing games made her a bad coach. Carla was not a coach; she was more like a friend. Being late to every practice made her irresponsible. One positive thing about her was she never picked favorites. In fact, the players thought she wasn’t strict enough. She didn’t set rules. No one was scared of her because she was too nice.

Emperor Justinian: Builder of the Byzantine Legend :: essays research papers fc

?Ã… ¡Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The writing in Bold refers to the Works Cited page where the info came from Justinian was a Byzantine Emperor who helped to revitalize the Byzantine Empire that would leave a lasting legacy for Western Civilization. During Justinian?fs reign, the Byzantine Empire was at a time of decline. With Justinian?fs visions, he was able to lay out a foundation that would help the Byzantine Empire live for many years to come. Justinian (Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus) was born in 483 AD at Tauresium in Illyricum in the Balkans of what is now central Europe. He was the nephew of Emperor Justin. His uncle Justin had passed over the duties of governing the Empire to his wife Lupicina, and nephew Justinian (Fortescue-Justinian I, Roman Emperor). Justinian worked hard and rose in his uncle?fs government. He studied in Constantinople and became consul in 521. He married his wife Theodora in 523 (Shelter)and rose to general-in chief of the Byzantine Empire in April 527. That same year, his uncle, Justin died and Justinian became the new Emperor (Fortescue-Justinian I, Roman Emperor). Justinian had dreamed of restoring the Roman Empire in Europe so he immediately set out to secure and expand the weakening Byzantine Empire(Norwich- A Short History of Byzantium,68). The only way Justinian could achieve his goal was by retaking control over the Western provinces that were once ruled by Rome (Fortescue- Justinian I, Roman Emperor). His first challenge to conquest in the West was to end warfare in the Persian Empire. The two empires had been long time rivals in the Middle East and had battled often (Norwich-A Short History of Byzantium,27). During the 400?fs, both the Romans and the Persians struggled to cope with invasions from outside groups. But in 502, conflict re-ignited between them. From 502-505, the Byzantines, led by Justinian fought the Persians and then again from 527-532. This revisited conflict of warfare between the two rival empires ended when the Byzantines fought the Persians to a standstill and ordered them to accept a peace treaty (Whittow-Making of Byzantium,41). With peace now in the East, Justinian appointed General Belisarius to lead an army and re-conquer the western Roman provinces(Fortescue-Justinian I, Roman Emperor). In 533, Belisarius?fs army smashed the Vandals and took over North African provinces and sent their King, Gelimer, back to Constantinople as a prisoner. In 535, the Byzantines overtook Sicily and then moved into Italy (Norwich-A Short History of Byzantium,68-69).

John Adams and His Roles as President Essay

John Adams was one of the leaders in the fight for American Independence. He was born on October 30, 1735. His presidency began in 1976 through 1800 and was the second president of the United States, after winning the election against Alexander Hamilton. Upon winning the election he became the Chief of State. His most notable accomplishment, as President, was to avoid a war with France, while maintaining American honor. In our opinion he did a good job of this however he was not greatly supported by the Americans at the time. John Adams was not a very popular president of his time. Being the president, and Chief Executive, Adams was allowed to choose his own cabinet. He replaced Washington’s cabinet which consisted of Edmund Randolph, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and William Bradford. Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts was appointed the secretary of state, Oliver Welcott of Connecticut became the secretary of treasury, James McHenry of Maryland became the secretary of war, and Charles Lee of Virginia was appointed the attorney general. It’s obvious that George Washington had a much better cabinet than Adams did. John Adam’s cabinet was not nearly as sharp or as intelligent as the one of Washington. Obviously, Mr. Adams did not do too good of a job on choosing his colleagues. Another role that John Adams endured was the role as Chief Administrator. In today’s modern world the president would be in charge of agencies such as the CIA and the FBI. In Adam’s days these agencies did not exist. Nonetheless he was still in charge of keeping the government functions running as smoothly as possible. As a believer in centralized government, he helped strengthen the Federal government. As Chief Diplomat, John Adams ran into the biggest problem in foreign policy. The French were attacking American shipping. He sent three representatives to France to try to work out differences between the French and the US government. His emissaries were met by three French representatives demanding a bribe. This became known as the â€Å"XYZ† affair. Infuriated by the absurd 250,000 bribe of the French agents Adams began to prepare for war. He first asked for a provisional army. He also asked for the officers to be commissioned and for recruiting to begin. However, he did not call for an establishment of a large, professional army. Throughout the two years that the possibility of a war had existed, Adams had made it clear to everyone that he put he put his faith in a strong navy. As commander-in-chief he decided he did not want to use the army as an instrument for defense. Adams believed that the only way France could be brought around to treat with American envoys on an even basis is if it was made clear that the Americans were prepared to fight and that they would not submit to any further humiliation. He wanted France to see that the Americans were not backing down and that they were not afraid to go to war with the nation of France. After the â€Å"XYZ affair† John Adams acted on his role as chief legislature. He responded with The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. They were designed to crush the conflict. After two years John Adams decided it would be best to reopen negotiations because war with France was not in the best interest of the United States. He signed a peace treaty with France and thereof is accredited with bringing peace between the U.S. and France. Yet another role of the president is to be Chief of Party. We believe that John Adams was a failure in leading his political party as the end of the Federalists came about because of his presidency. During Adams’ presidency, the Federalist party split up. This happened because of how much John Adams and Alexander Hamilton disliked each other. Hamilton didn’t want Adams to be re-elected, and so he critized his performance as a President. Undoubtedly, Adams lost his re-election and Thomas Jefferson, the leader of the Democratic-Republican party, won office. After Adams retirement, and Hamilton’s unfortunate death, the Federalist Party was left without strong leader and steadily grew weaker and weaker. John Adams was not a bad president. However, because of society’s selfish and impatient needs, he was made out to be the enemy. Americans blamed John  Adams for being scared to go to war, but in reality, it’s a lot easier to go to war than it is to keep peace. It’s also quite difficult to go against the majority of ones colleagues who continually pressure you to act. John Adams may not have been the greatest president because of his ambition. However, he was a much better president and showed exemplary qualities as a chief citizen than what he was given credit for. He was a brave and honorable man who gave up re-election by not going to war. It shows real honor when you can give up your own selfish needs for the good of your country. John Adams was a much better president than he was given credit for.

Comparative Essay Between Movies and Books Essay

In 2003, David Foster Wallace said â€Å"Reading requires sitting alone, by yourself, in a room†¦I have friends—intelligent friends—who don’t like to read because there’s an almost dread that comes up about having to be alone and having to be quiet†¦When you walk into most public spaces in America, it isn’t quiet anymore. † Although the collective amount of time spent by people reading has declined with our minds, moving pictures with sound continue to further embed themselves in culture. Ask a group of fifteen year olds how many books they have read in the last month, and the likely answer will be that most of them have not finished a book since a month ago. But ask the same group the last time they saw a movie, and a week previous (or less) will fail to be an uncommon answer. A question then poses itself: why is it that one source of entertainment and art is falling out of favor while another is becoming more and more common? One could ascribe the comparative quality of the two, implying that movies are superior to books. However, a more accurate, yet less popular affirmation would be that books are superior to films and that superiority is not necessarily synonymous with prevalence. To go into detail in a movie the same way as one might in a book would be painfully difficult. The resulting abomination would be torturously monotonous due to movies very nature, which panders to the short attention spans of the average person by constantly moving and embellishing ideas with pictures and music. It would also be horribly long, the length of, or longer than an audiobook. For evidence, one could look at documentaries and nonfiction books. The former are far less informative, although one may wish to believe otherwise because a documentary film takes less work to enjoy and is, to some, more pleasurable. Take two lectures, both approximately an hour and twenty minutes in length (approximately the running time of a movie) and both by two highly acclaimed authors. The first, by Thomas L. Friedman, was on his book The World is Flat, and the second, by Temple Grandin, was on her book Animals in Translation. In either lecture, one could see the speaker constantly speaking and cramming more information into their allotted time. Yet neither covered even close to what was in their books. A documentary trying to do such a thing is even more preposterous, demanding copious amounts of time for a garnish of pretty images and smooth transitions. This is the reason scholars do not publish their findings in case-study documentaries but in texts. Long, arduous texts the average person would rather die than pick up. Further evidence is in the quality of film adaptations of books. If one went to see the recent movie Life of Pi after reading the original novel by Yann Martel, a period of misanthropy and depression may not be a completely unrelated concept. The movie was one hundred twenty-seven minutes long and left out numerous important facets, such as Pi’s connection with a Suffi man in part of Pondicherry, his grade-school teacher Mr. Kumar, and the training of Richard Parker. The content of the film was not, however, wanting when compared to others movies of its length. It might take several weeks to finish the book; how could a film-maker be expected to fill all of the information in it into one hundred twenty-seven minutes, with exposition, visual stimulation, and graphic theatrics as obligations? Life of Pi is art as a book, but as a movie, is a source of mass-market entertainment. Although film’s quantitative flaws of constriction are more than surfeit to deem texts as the more valuable mediaform, ample also are its qualitative stiflings. For example, if a movie character began to speak the way Jean Genet does in his books, the production would come across as contrived and pretentious. For a moment I was no longer a hungry, ragged vagabond,† wrote Genet in The Thief’s Journal, â€Å"whom dogs and children chased away; nor was I the bold thief flouting the cops, but rather the favorite mistress who, beneath a starry sky, soothes the conqueror. † Using words like â€Å"vagabond† and â€Å"flouting† in everyday speech is incredibly uncommon, and even english teachers will tell you that using the conjunction â€Å"nor† will get one beat up. Genet, however, is widely regarded as a brilliant artist for, including but not limited to, his beauteous prose. A stark contrasts between books and movies shimmers here. The language in a movie is only of characters, who are constantly in a mode of speech too casual for grace past a certain point, while a book is free to use English (or whatever tongue it is written in) freely. The confinement of characters as one of the only modes of expression—and almost always the most utilized—is also a problem when expressing greater themes. Compare most classic cinema achievements to esteemed novels, and an underlying trend will emerge: movies repeatedly project something about humans, or the nature of man, while books are far ore diverse, sometimes delving deeply into the emotional lives of characters without the chains of lengthy exposition and making discourse seem natural, while some dwell extensively on philosophical musings such as the meaning of life and the cyclical nature of history. One of the biggest reasons books dominate movies is also one of the biggest reasons books are becoming significantly popular. That is, books effect mental wo rk. Culture as a whole has become increasingly fast paced, and the instant gratification of movies fits in with the utmost dexterity. The interactive experience one has with a book is a glorious cradle for the type of deep thought about a topic that lasts maybe thirty minutes rather than thirty seconds. To read a novel by James Joyce, one must spend a significant amount of time trying to process the underlying themes and meanings, often rereading even a small portion several times until it makes sense. Many people loathe James Joyce for the daunting density of his work. But to watch a James Cameron movie, a two hour slot of time is all that is usually given up before a person begins eulogizing or bashing the piece. When one challenges one’s brain, it becomes more powerful, like a exercising a muscle. All aforesaid is meant not to bash movies, but simply to expose how they are surpassed by books. Many people who would argue the converse position are not without reason. Some may sight â€Å"art films† like Citizen Kane and Nosferatu, arguing that despite how these are very different in nature than books, they are greater and more beneficial media. Others would assert that there are more options in film. That there are new dimensions to work in when visuals are added into the mix: lighting, filters, cinematography, etcetera. And an entire other artform is said to be a fundamental part of movies but not books: acting. What a character says on paper can be extremely affected by what the inflection and tone of the speaker is. For example, the phrase â€Å"I wanted to kick his ass† can have a huge shift in meaning when emphasis is put on â€Å"I,† â€Å"wanted,† â€Å"kick,† â€Å"his,† or â€Å"ass. † Books, falling in the numerical eye of statisticians as a great form of media, are truly better and more diverse than the silver screen. Books are far freer to paint with complex detail and long topics, while most movies re tied to a certain length, making books better beacons for information. Freer still are books in the possibilities of both subject matter and ways to express that because they are not stuck on characters so severely. With their richness comes an opportunity for the reader to exercise the brain to a greater degree, enriching all parts of their mental life. Although some people disagree, using great old films and the unique opportunities filmmaking does provide the artist with as talking points, books remain the prevailing art the face of a shrinking audience.