#i was changed to design which is more critical and this isnt engineering but i found a deed no one else could find
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terrorbirb · 11 months ago
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:) getting a good grade in my new division at work :)
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kaeyachi · 2 years ago
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What do you do in architecture?
oh! i can answer this one quickly before i go back to work! Thank you for the ask!!
Are you perhaps considering becoming an architect as well? Let me tell you first that Alhaitham's criticism of us doing so much work just to put a smile on our client's faces hurt so much because he was right (I was fuming with Kaveh at that moment lmao).
I'd honestly say that our job as architects, at the base of it, is to design structures or spaces that fit the user/s needs and/or wants.
Majority of us do a bidding phase where we offer designs to our clients for them to emotionally destroy us tell us the changes they want until we reach a final design.
Afterwards, that depends on the kind of Architecture firm you own or work at(some only do design and get paid for it. Others can continue towards the construction phase along with the help of people in the engineering field)
I personally work in a construction firm (the biggest in my country which i wished i were proud of, but I'm fairly sure the amount of stress and fatigue is never worth the prestige I get for working here lmao. Cant quit though *sobs*). We do basically everything from start to finish (and I work 6 days a week for 9 hours daily so tbh how am I still coping).
As for other kinds of architecture (if the usual job isnt your thing), some dabble into historical structures and study the history, how ancient to old structures were created, and ways to do proper reconstruction, restoration, or renovation (all 3 have different meanings to us) said old structures.
Another type are those that actually have focuses like acoustics or landscaping for example. They will only design specified places and get paid for the design of said spaces (these people are specifically hired for their expertise most of the time)
And there are others that absolutely loathe the usual jobs and end up becoming furniture designers (we studied this in passing where im from) or fashion designers (weve technically also studied this somewhat in passing?) and somehow, several peers of mine have become pastry chefs? (i guess there is technically some architecture involved in pastries...)
Honestly, there are multiple routes you could take once you get the undergraduate done... but that's a very lengthy discussion, and I think I've been typing for long enough? Even if I wanted to discuss every single one (they're very interesting to me), I don't think I should do it as an answer in tumblr hahaha (I might make one for my peers though hmm...)
IF YOU DO WANT TO GET INTO ARCHITECTURE DON'T LET MY RANTS STOP YOU FROM TRYING THOUGH. You won't know you like or hate it if you don't try...just expect sleepless nights to reach deadlines (the worst I've done is just a cute 52 hours lmao). I've definitely gotten an even worse experience thanks to my adhd :(
I want everyone to know that I will be a Kaveh haver someday. I will get my anxious architect character and no one can stop me.
If any of you want clarifications or more information, do not hesitate to ask! I'm still passionate about my field- it does feel very fulfilling- I just hate the place I work at lol.
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patriotsnet · 4 years ago
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What Happens If The Republicans Win
New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-happens-if-the-republicans-win/
What Happens If The Republicans Win
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The Plausible Solution: Just Win More
What Happens If Republicans Hold The Senate?
Whether the public sees Democratic demands for these structural changes as overdue or overreaching, the key point is that they are currently exercises in futility. The only plausible road to winning their major policy goals is to win by winning. This means politics, not re-engineering. They need to find ways to take down their opponents, and then be smarter about using that power while they have it.
They certainly have issues to campaign on. In the few weeks, we have learned that some of Americas wealthiest people have paid only minimal or no federal income tax at all. Even as the Wall Street Journal editorial writers were responding to a Code Red emergency , the jaw-dropping nature of the reportfollowed by a New York Times piece about the impotence of the IRS to deal with the tax evasions of private equity royaltyconfirmed the folk wisdom of countless bars, diners, and union halls: the wealthy get away with murder.
Of course this is a whole lot easier said than done. A political climate where inflation, crime and immigration are dominant issues has the potential to override good economic news. And 2020 already showed what can happen when a relative handful of voices calling for defunding the police can drown out the broader usage of economic fairness.
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Republicans Will Almost Certainly Win Back The House In 2022
A byproduct of the surprisingly strong showing of downballot Republicans in 2020 is that even the smallest midterm wave will give them control of the House. An analysis from Larry Sabatos Crystal Ball projects that even without taking redistricting into account, Republicans are expected to flip nine seats in 2022 and enjoy roughly the same narrow but very real majority Democrats have now. And thanks to a dramatic underperformance by Democrats in 2020 state legislative races, redistricting of congressional districts will add to the high odds of a GOP House. The Cook Political Reports David Wasserman suggests Republicans might pick up the five seats they need for control of the House via redistricting decisions in just four states .
As my colleague Eric Levitz has pointed out, since World War II the presidents party has lost an average of 27 House seats in midterm elections. Last time Democrats controlled the White House, they lost 63 House seats in the first midterm. It wont be that bad in 2022, but suffice it to say that any remotely controversial legislation Biden hopes to enact in his first term better be on his desk by the end of 2022.
If Republicans do win the House in 2022, could they promptly lose it again in 2024? Of course they could, but the last time the House changed hands in a presidential election year was 1952.
More Tax Cuts For The Wealthy And Further Spending Cuts For Middle
Most legislation needs 60 votes in order to break a filibuster in the Senate, but a congressional budget resolution can establish parameters for subsequent legislation to be enacted through the reconciliation process, which only requires 51 votes to pass a measure. The budget resolution itself cannot be filibustered and also only requires 51 votes to pass the Senate. As a result, it is easier for the majority to pass a budget resolution and a reconciliation bill than most other legislation.
The current conservative economic and fiscal roadmap is the fiscal year 2015 budget put forward by former vice presidential nominee and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan . The Ryan budget would provide those with incomes of at least $1 million another $200,000 per year in tax cuts while cutting nondefense spending by $4.8 trillion. Roughly $3.3 trillion of those cuts, or nearly 70 percent, target programs that help low-income and middle-class families, such as Medicaidwhich provides health coverage for low- and moderate-income familiesand Pell Grants, which help students pay for college.
When given the opportunity, Senate Republicans voted for the various Ryan budgets in 2011, 2012, and again in 2013. Previous Senate Republican actions make it clear that the budget that would result from a Republican majority would most likely feature many of the same components as Rep. Ryans past budgets.
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Eight Ways Things Would Be Different If Republicans Win The Senate
If Democrats lose the Senate in November, what happens?
Well, its just less than two weeks before Election Day, and the papers are all abuzz with news of Democratic defeat. This mornings Review-Journal features the results of a new AP-GfK poll, which says 55 percent of people believe a Republican takeover is the likely outcome of the November election. And number-crunching website FiveThirtyEight.com predicts that Republicans are 66 percent favorites to take the Senate.
Personally, Im not convinced, although Democrats have had some setbacks in recent weeks. But it did get me thinking about a few of the ways things would be different if the Republicans took over from majority Democrats.
1. Senate shifts from filibustering the presidents Democratic agenda to filibustering new majority leaders Republican agenda. Lets be honest, the Senate isnt exactly known for its smooth, efficient operations. George Washington was said to have opined that the Senate existed to cool legislation from the House, the way a saucer cooled a hot cup of tea. But more recently, the Senate has operated more like a cryogenic chamber, keeping legislation from both houses in a permanent deep-freeze. A change in leadership is most likely to shift whose legislation is getting blocked.
Weakening Of The Investigations Against Trump
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If Democrats dont control the House or the Senate, they cant initiate investigations of Trump or some of his more controversial cabinet members, such as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.
More importantly, after the 2018 elections, the electoral process will recede as a constraint on the president and GOP in terms of the Russia investigation at least for a while.
We dont really know why Trump, despite his constant criticisms of the investigation, has not fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or why he has not directly tried to stop the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller. Maybe Trump, despite his rhetoric, has some real respect for the rule of law. I think its more likely that Trump understands that firing Rosenstein or making a drastic move to stop the Mueller probe would increase both the chances of Democrats winning the House and/or Senate this year, and the odds that the resulting Democratic-led chamber would feel compelled to push to impeach Trump. But if the GOP emerges from 2017 and 2018 without losing control of the House or the Senate, I suspect that, with the next election two years away, the president will feel freer to take controversial steps to end the Russia probe. And I doubt Republicans on Capitol Hill would try to stop him.
Read Also: Trump Quote Republicans Dumb
A Division Of Power In Government Is Common In The Us With The Republicans And The Democrats Often Splitting Control Of The White House And Congress
Joe Biden may have been announced as President Elect but there are still some crucial decisions to be made on how America will be governed for the next four years. The presidential election appears to have been a pretty resounding win for the Democrats but the picture is less clear in the Senate, when both parties retain hope of having a majority when the Upper House reconvenes next year.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released a statement after Bidens victory was called, saying: “A Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate would be the biggest difference maker to help President-elect Biden deliver for working families across the country.
Sen. Chuck Schumer: “There has been no evidence of any significant or widespread voter fraud. Joe Biden won this election fair and square. The margins of his victory are growing by the day.”
The Hill
All elections in Georgia, not just those for the Senate, require the winning candidate to pick up over 50% of the votes cast. This year neither of the states two Senate races had a majority winning so a run-off will be held on 5 January, with both the Democrats and the Republicans holding out hope of securing the vital seats needed to give them a majority in the Senate.
Why is control of the Senate so important?
Although President Elect Biden will be the head of the government, he would rather govern by concensus than executive order. Therefore most large-scale bills will need to pass Congress before they can be signed into law.
A Warning About Argentina
Oliver warned that if Democrats take the presidency and the Senate and retain control of the House of Representatives, it would cause a concentration in power that the Constitution was designed to prevent. He expects the presidency and Senate to go together in the election.
In the event of a concentration of power toward the left, he said the U.S. government will look more like Argentina than Switzerland. He also questioned why America’s fate would be any different than what happened to Argentina since it “embraced Peronist populism.”
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Democrats To Keep Control Of House; Battle For Senate Majority Ongoing
But assuming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., does maintain control of the Senate, a lot of progressive dreams go out the window. Democrats will be hard-pressed to shore up the voting system, for example. They won’t be able to pass HR 1, which would establish nationwide automatic voter registration, restrict partisan gerrymandering, grant former prisoners the right to vote and prohibit many voter suppression tactics. Nor will they be able to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore key parts of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down in 2013, which required states with histories of voter suppression to clear any voting changes with the federal government.
Without a Senate majority, Democrats also won’t be able to rebalance the judiciary. McConnell has stuffed the federal bench with Republican jurists who support the GOP’s narrow, self-serving definition of voting rights. This culminated in the week before the election with the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, creating a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court that can be expected to uphold gerrymandering and protect Republican tactics of disenfranchisement. Biden had hoped to create a bipartisan commission to come up with strategies to rebalance the court but any such strategy is likely doomed by Republican opposition.
Without a Senate majority, Democrats also wont be able to rebalance the judiciary.
A Political Scientist Explains Why The Gop Is A Threat To American Democracy
What if Civil War broke out between Republicans and Democrats?
It sounds hyperbolic to say that American democracy is broken, but an honest glance at the country at our institutions and the broader political culture makes it hard to conclude otherwise.
As things stand, one of our two major political parties is committed to suppressing as many votes as possible, and the leader of that party, the president of the United States, has said outright that he wont accept the legitimacy of the election process if he doesnt win.
If, under those conditions, Trump either wins the election or loses and throws the country into a bitter, protracted fight over the results, it doesnt seem all that alarmist to suggest the US will have descended into what political scientists sometimes call a weak democracy or even competitive .
But I really dont want to be overly alarmist, so I reached out to Pippa Norris, a political scientist at Harvard University and one of the leading authorities on global democracy. I wanted to know her honest assessment of the state of American democracy, why she thinks the upcoming election is a true turning point for the country, and what the US will have to do moving forward to undo the damage done in the past several years.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
Sean Illing
If American democracy was a patient, how would you describe its condition?
Pippa Norris
Id say the patient has not been well for a long time. The patient is obese and doesnt exercise.
Sean Illing
Pippa Norris
Also Check: Did Republicans Support The Civil Rights Act
Gold If Democrats Win The Election
If Democrats win the election and especially take both the presidency and Senate, Oliver expects the gold price to soar. He said if the pendulum swings all the way to the left, it means even more money printing than what has already been going on with a mixed government.
He noted that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are promising a $7 trillion spending problem. That doesn’t include the trillions in additional stimulus to deal with the pandemic, which he believes “will include bailouts of urban centers turned into war zones by Democrat mayors and governors) or reparations.”
Oliver also noted that Democrats want to fund their “mad spending” with taxes partially. Biden wants to increase income taxes, corporate taxes and taxes on capital. However, he said federal, state and local taxes are already so high that he believes higher taxes may not boost tax revenue much.
“In short, the economy must suffer , and the deficit will explode further,” he wrote. “The Federal Reserve will be forced either to monetize the spendings or watch as soaring interest rates cause the financial system to implode along with the state’s ability to finance itself. The credit bubble that has been growing since 1971 , will crash onto the rocks of progressive politics.”
What If The Republicans Win Everything Again
Total victory for the G.O.P. would mean Trump unleashed.
By David Leonhardt
Opinion Columnist
The end of Robert Muellers investigation. The loss of health insurance for several million people. New laws that make it harder to vote. More tax cuts for the rich. More damage to the environment. A Republican Party molded even more in the image of President Trump.
These are among the plausible consequences if the Republicans sweep the midterm elections and keep control of both the House and Senate. And dont fool yourself. That outcome, although not the most likely one, remains possible. The last couple of weeks of polling have shown how it could happen.
Voters who lean Republican including whites across the South could set aside their disappointment with Trump and vote for Republican congressional candidates. Voters who lean left including Latinos and younger adults could turn out in low numbers, as they usually do in midterm elections. The Republicans continuing efforts to suppress turnout could also swing a few close elections.
No matter what, Democrats will probably win the popular vote in the House elections, for the first time since 2012. Trump, after all, remains unpopular. But the combination of gerrymandering and the concentration of Democratic voters in major cities means that a popular-vote win wont automatically translate into a House majority.
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Use Of The Congressional Review Act To Weaken Environmental Rules Jeopardizing Public Health
Under the Congressional Review Act, once the administration submits a major rule to Congress, Congress can pass a joint resolution disapproving of the administrations rule. If a joint resolution disapproving the rule is enacted, the rule would not go into effect and the administration would be prohibited from issuing a substantially similar rule in the future. The Congressional Review Act allows the Senate to expedite consideration of a joint resolution disapproving of a final administrative rule within 60 days, and this consideration is not subject to the filibuster.
What Is Happening To The Republicans
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In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in;the past.
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But, for all the anxiety among Republican leaders, Goldwater prevailed, securing the nomination at the Partys convention, in San Francisco. In his speech to the delegates, he made no pretense of his ideological intent. Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, he said. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Goldwaters crusade failed in November of 1964, when the incumbent, Lyndon Johnson, who had become President a year earlier, after Kennedys assassination, won in a landslide: four hundred and eighty-six to fifty-two votes in the Electoral College. Nevertheless, Goldwaters ascent was a harbinger of the future shape of the Republican Party. He represented an emerging nexus between white conservatives in the West and in the South, where five states voted for him over Johnson.
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agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.
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If California Governor Is Replaced With Republican Senate Could Swing To Gop
Human Rights and Global Wrongs
Theres a good chance that California a solidly blue state will get a right-wing Republican governor as a result of the September 14 recall election. If Gov. Gavin Newsom is recalled, the health, civil rights and future of Californians and people across the country will be profoundly threatened. It is also possible that Newsoms defeat could change the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, since the next California governor may be in a position to appoint a senator.
In defending his governorship, Newsom emphasizes that a GOP leader would likely roll back progressive reforms.
The recall is an attempt by national Republican and Trump supporters to force an election and grab power in California, Newsoms ballot statement in the Official Voter Information Guide says. The leaders of the Republican recall seek to repeal Californias clean air protections, roll back gun safety laws and take away health care from those who need it.
Newsom cited his efforts to fight racism and police violence in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune:
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sarahvera13 · 5 years ago
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Research
Co-design is known as research that develops process such as creative practice which is well-established in the public sector. Philosophy is professional designers, who are empowered and encourage, help their users to promote product, service and making decisions solutions for themselves. It has a background in participatory design techniques made in Scandinavia in the 1970s. Co-designs can be used in different terms such as participatory, open design processes and got a breakthrough from Prahalad and Ramaswamy's Co-creation concept which is a big part. Co-creation involves breaking away from a company and product-centric from them to forces on the value towards the customer experience-centric view.
Reading more about co-design I see that it reflects a major change in the traditional designer-client relationship. Co-design has access to allow a lot of people to build a creative improvement in the management and solution of the problem. The way they took this situation went above "consultation by building and deepening equal collaboration between citizens affected by, or attempting to, resolve a particular challenge" The main tenet of co-design is that user is known as experts of the own knowledge for them to become central to the design movement. There is a range of tools and techniques are available to support co-design project, that can "help participants create user personas, storyboards and user journeys”.
Reference
https://www.mbabrief.com/what_is_co_design.asp
http://designforeurope.eu/what-co-design
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Design Culture is known as having lots of terms and rarely understood. Different companies think they are embrace design culture but you can see if there is different meaning on the term so it is hard to know what it exactly. I feel like this term is difficult to explain because everyone has our opinion especially designer they will have stronger opinions. Companies are informed to understand and respect the value of design. Design is sometimes mistaken on just being created to be for things to look nice. "When the design isn’t properly understood or respected, it often plays second fiddle too engineering and business decisions, resulting in poorer outcomes." With the design culture, the full team and non-designers accept that design is a holistic and process-driven discipline that should be integrated throughout the organisation. "Design culture hinges on an understanding that decisions should be made intentionally. Even the smallest details can add up to produce a massive impact, so a design-centric organisation is biased against leaving anything up to chance.”
Reference
https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/what-is-a-design-culture/\
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Design Thinking is known to be "a human-centred approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” This was said by Tim Brown CEO OF IDEO.
It's known to allow individuals to make plans for future customers and what they need or want. It awaits on intuition, shows patterns and builds up ideas that are both functional and emotionally meaningful. Now design thinking has been acceptable in the same way as the scientific method and being the big adopted approach. It is well known and here to stay. For example, the Honey and Mumford learning styles are built upon Kolb’s work and is used to help individuals recognise their skills and how to apply them to work to their best ability.
One of the most popular methods of design thinking in design communication, using mind maps to develop ideas. Which is an efficient method of organising thoughts and ideas to find creative? In the design industry, it can be used for cross-fertilisation of ideas for new ones. This can happen by combining thoughts into one, or by taking inspiration from other disciplines.
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ENVIRONMENT UNDER STRESS
Humanity has actively reshaped the plant by our appetite for natural resources and large scale industrial activity and disrupting the global climate balance on an extraordinary scale. Lending us entering a new geological period (Anthropocene) In history, it's been known that the environment that has shaped us but now its humanity that is shaping our environment. There have been lots of early warning signs like the one "In the 1920s the palaeontologist and realist philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin forecast the increasing complexity of the present-day society that would inevitably lead to shock in evolution.
"The report from the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) says that their 7-year study on Natural World change shows that that is habit loss, climate change and pollution and exploitation is the greatest threat to the plant's biodiversity.”
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Thinking Differently About Fashion - The Future Of Fashion
Fashion is known to be the seventh-largest global economic sector, this shows that fashion can keep up with the fast-evolving pace of the modern world. Fashion is something we deal with every day no matter if you don’t care about it. With fashion dependent on individuals with various and ever-changing flavours, it may be driven and enabled into wearable technology. Wearable technology hopes to provide easy to use, comfort and innovative materials and designs. It hopes to create a user-friendly product that goes hand in hand with the users wearable and fashionable needs. Nanotechnology enables this to come to life by allowing new ways to make or create new materials and fabrics.
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Seeing design differently
When it comes to the future, designing can be difficult so that why people look at different angles so they can reach their goals and make better places for the future. When we looking at technology we see that it has started to involve in design though fashion. Doing more research I see that more information on the garment. When ur creating and design the garment you have to make sure it was comfortable and protected. What I think the design is to the future is you should be able to make different ways to grow things with smart material and advanced computing devices.
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Critical design is a theory-based concept this used with design fiction and speculative design proposals is a tool to create ideas, not objects. The principal foregrounds the ethics of design practice and can be quite controversial at times as it is often negative. What I think it does is that it makes us think again about design and not to move relevant to technological, economic and social changes, the critical design comes with a satire approach. For example, The ‘Victimless leather’ is the design that on takes speculative design proposals within the critical design in which immortalised cells. Critical design is modern and futuristic meaning it has it advantage however everything faces critique which in this case is that light condition exists in poor countries and can be studied to have come from an elitist perspective. It can only occur in institutions and museums and highlights issues however none acts on them that most people don’t agree with. Even though being criticised, the critical design goes on to show a big part in the design.
Reference
http://dunneandraby.co.uk/content/bydandr/13/0
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Experience Design is a way of thinking its works by an individual identifies that worth of the product and service. The design shows the customer with purposeful and realistic experiences. This can be done through the interactive design, which is a practice of designing interactive digital products, environments and services. This will lead to making an identity for the band, the design should fit with the business ambition. The skill that the experience designers have is they are the most creative fields. Looking at what Interaction design is, it's a process in which the designers stay on making engaging web interfaces with logical and over the behaviours and actions. The interactive design has an outstanding result on the use of technology and principles of good advice to create desired user experiences.
Reference
https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/03/experience-design-innovation-isnt-enough/
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onwheelsxyz-blog · 6 years ago
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SUV Review: 2019 Toyota RAV4 Limited 2019 Toyota RAV4 LimitedDerek McNaughton OVERVIEW AWD Compact Utility Vehicle with good practicality, but annoying quirks PROSSmooth ride, durability and dependability CONSNoises, lack of refinement VALUE FOR MONEYGood WHAT TO CHANGE?Make it quieter, especially the engine and cabin HOW TO SPEC IT?Trail Edition The last generation Toyota RAV4 was so good it received one of the higher scores handed out during a Driving.ca test drive. Sadly, the fifth-generation replacement isnt quite as excellent, at least not yet, suffering from a malady of quirks that detract from its sharp new looks.Oh, to be clear, I wanted to love the 2019 RAV4, which has undergone a complete makeover and borrowed design elements from one of our favourite vehicles of all time, the Toyota 4Runner. But a number of things about the new RAV4 came across as irritations. First and foremost was the growl from the engine any time throttle was applied.It sounds like my grandmothers Scamp, blurted my wife, who is never one to criticize. But she is not alone. Driving writer Brian Harper concluded the same thing twice, although he is far more sophisticated than me, pointing out the RAVs 2.5-litre engine had a rather discordant note. I suspect much of the growl of this engine comes from the high-compression nature of the Dynamic Force four-cylinder. The engine produces 203 horsepower (up from 179) and is paired with an eight-speed automatic that shifts well. Its odd, too, that it would
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s0022795a2film · 8 years ago
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Creative Investigation S - Essay Abstract
HYPOTHESIS
Debated heavily from the time it was first introduced in the French publication Cahiers du Cinéma in 1954 by François Truffaut, authorship is still a controversial topic today. Theorists such as Sarris have argued over whether a director can be considered the true auteur of a film or not, and what a director has to do in order to be worthy of that status.
Having produced over 400 films and directed over 50, Roger Corman has been bestowed with the nickname ‘The King of the B’s’ following a filmography full of low-budget shockers and lurid exploitation films, often full of gore and nudity. These are not the type of films critics would consider to be ‘art’. The typical auteur creates films full of thematics and meaning, with distinct stylistic personality carrying over their films, and bolstering the film with their own ideologies and feelings.
Rather than merely dismissing Corman, though, I wish to investigate some of his earlier contributions to the film industry and analyse whether he meets the criteria of a typical auteur. Through the less refined aesthetics of his films, I wish to investigate as to whether Corman carries a particular personal style that indicates that he could in fact be considered an auteur as much as more respected directors. I believe that this could reveal an interesting angle of the authorship debate- do films need to be ‘artistic’ for their directors to be considered an auteur?
I will specifically looking at three of Corman’s earlier films, which he directed from the period of 1956 to 1960. Specifically, I will be studying Corman as a director, although he has numerous other credits as well, as this is the role that the authorship debate is centred around. My focal films are as follows:
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SUBTOPICS
1. Did Corman develop the horror and sci fi genres further through his films or did he rely on convention? [Genre]
Roger Corman is often referred to as ‘King of the B’s’ and one of the defining genres of that type of film were horror and science fiction films. From a modern perspective, his early filmography may appear clichéd. I would like to know whether that is really the case- whether Corman really did just turn out as many generic films as he could to draw an audience, or whether he helped alter the conventions and ideologies reflected in the genres. This requires knowing what audiences at the time wanted out of their cinema experience, and how Corman responded to that, and whether Corman added hidden depth and nuance to films that on the surface are just rapidly-made low-budget films designed to shock their viewers.
2. Do It Conquered The World, Attack of the Crab Monsters and The Little Shop of Horrors show that Corman used personal stylistic techniques in the period of the 1950s to 1960s? [Style]
Films in the 1950s to 1960s were generally not as flashy and complex as films of the modern era, but directors still had room to develop their own aesthetics. Style is considered a significant aspect of what defines authorship, as it shows that the director is able to carry a consistent visual theme through their films, which in itself is comprised of aspects of their psyche. By looking at three of Corman’s films, which come from a specific time frame, I will investigate whether Corman’s films can be considered to have a stylised edge, or whether there is a lack of consistency between films, and what exactly that style is.
3. Was Corman’s ideologies and representations of women more developed in his films than other directors of the time? [Female representation]
The 1950s to the 1960s, which is the period from which the films I am focusing on originate, is a time reflected on as still majorly unpleasant for marginalised groups, and often seen as offering mostly sexist films in an industry with little to offer to women of the time. However, unlike some directors of the time, Corman did include representations that differed to the general societal view of the time. I would like to see how far Corman went into positively representing women, but also how he used them in exploitation films, in order to see whether he is truly reflective of early feminist ideals not, and whether that was intentional.
1. Did Corman develop the horror and sci fi genres further through his films, or did he rely on convention? [Genre]
Point: Corman’s films are cheap and designed to shock, but regardless contain a certain level of ideology that furthers the simple narrative of the films and perhaps builds on the basic foundations of the film’s genre. Corman stated that his pictures are ‘entertainment… underneath subtextually, is a little bit of thought on my part’ [9].
Source: Pawel Aleksandrowicz considered that the message of Attack of the Crab Monsters ‘matches the anti-militaristic trend in the 1950s science fiction’, despite being silly on the surface, and also claims It Conquered The World can be classed as ‘an anti-Communist film’. [11]
Evidence:
Explain:
2. Do It Conquered The World, Attack of the Crab Monsters and The Little Shop of Horrors show that Corman used personal stylistic techniques in the period of the 1950s to 1960s? [Style]
Point: By the 1950s, Corman had settled into a groove of turning out cheap, no-frills films that could be compared to other similarly inexpensive films of the time- Chris Nashawaty notes that he ‘wasn’t much of a stylist at first. He was working too quickly...’ [10] However, this period may actually have seen the development of Corman’s initial style.
Source: In Corman’s own words, the trilogy of black comedies including Little Shop of Horrors helped him to ‘put together some of the most definitive elements of my style’. [6] Director Joe Dante stated that Corman ‘liked to move the camera a lot... sometimes the camera would merely tip over and he wouldn’t do another take…’ [8]
Evidence:
Explain:
3. Was Corman’s ideologies and representations of women more developed in his films than other directors of the time? [Female representation]
Point: Corman stated in his autobiography that he does ‘ believe in the feminist movement’ [6]. It Conquered The World is notable for the speech given by Beverly Garland’s character Claire, cementing her as an unusually assertive female character in a period where women weren’t often seen doing much significant in films. However, as William Grimes stated in a New York Times article, ‘The Corman message tends to be practical rather than moral’, and this may have been an exploitative measure to cause a stir amongst audiences.
Source: According to Pawel Aleksandrowicz, Corman’s use of exploitative topics ‘served as a framework or context for stories about exclusion or female empowerment’. [11]
Evidence:
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In the penultimate scene of It Conquered The World, as well as the diegetic dialogue from Claire Anderson which denounces the monster and ultimately confronts it, there is the use of this medium shot, which is framed in a way that presents Anderson as larger than the Venusian monster. The camera angle shows her facing it directly, prepared to take it on.
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On an alternate end of the spectrum, Attack of the Crab Monsters’s sole female character Martha Hunter is shown throughout the final scene framed by her two male colleagues. In this way, they appear to be almost like sentinels around her, protecting her from the titular beasts. She does not break away to fight them herself. In addition they are often seen leading her by the hand away from danger.
Explain:
REFERENCES
[1] Armstrong, L. (1980). Roger Corman’s Flicks May Be ‘B’ Shlock, but No One in Hollywood Has Nurtured More 'A’ Talent. People. [online] Available at: http://people.com/archive/roger-cormans-flicks-may-be-b-shlock-but-no-one-in-hollywood-has-nurtured-more-a-talent-vol-14-no-20/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017].
[2] Corman, R. (2013). The Poe Perplex. Sight and Sound, p.29.
[3] Grimes, W. (1995). COVER STORY: Yikes! Roger Corman is Back, Still. New York Times. [online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/09/tv/cover-story-yikes-roger-corman-is-back-still.html [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].
[4] Queenan, J. (2017). B-movie king Roger Corman: ‘Death Race isn’t an essay on violence – it’s an action comedy’. The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/16/b-movie-king-roger-corman-death-race-isnt-an-essay-on-violence-its-an-action-comedy [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].
[5] Holte, M. (2010). Value Engineering: Roger Corman Within His Own Context. East of Borneo. [online] Available at: https://eastofborneo.org/articles/value-engineering-roger-corman-within-his-own-context/ [Accessed 1 Oct. 2017].
[6] Corman, R. and Jerome, J. (1990). How I made a hundred movies in Hollywood and never lost a dime. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, pp.Chapter 4, Chapter 6, Page 237.
[7] Frank, A. (1998). The Films of Roger Corman: ‘Shooting My Way Out of Trouble'. Bath: The Bath Press, pp.12, 35-39, 72-76, 79.
[8] Masters of Fantasy: Roger Corman, (1997). [TV programme] Sci-Fi Channel.
[9] Post Mortem with Mick Garris: Roger Corman, (2010). [TV programme] Comcast.
[10] Nashawaty, C. and Landis, J. (2016). Crab monsters, teenage cavemen, and candy stripe nurses. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, p.Introduction, Preface, Chapter 1.
[11] Aleksandrowicz, P. (2016). The cinematography of Roger Corman: exploitation filmmaker or auteur?. 1st ed. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.63, 71-74, 164, 181, 186.
[12] Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel. (2011). [DVD] Directed by A. Stapleton. USA: A&E IndieFilms.
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