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owicpub · 5 years

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I AM not amused

I AM not amused is a modern and different take on Christian entertainment. This book takes us through my story of growing up during the radical shift in media entertainment, evaluating the message in entertainment from the mouths of the creators, and then dive into the Bible to see how we should respond.

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Here is an excerpt from Chapter 2

Writing the Ballads

If a man were permitted to make all the ballads he need not care who should make the laws of a nation – Andrew Fletcher

As we venture through our examination of media entertainment, it is important to consider what the artists themselves say about their creations. It seems media’s proponents and opponents always cross words, both making specific claims about the entertainment they produce. Truly, what is the intended meaning behind a song, a movie, or a game? Do artists really just create entertainment for creation’s sake? We cannot rule out some art is constructed to teach or promote a concept or a lifestyle. Education was the intention behind the after school HBO presentation, The Truth about Alex, and another program by CBS titled What if I’m Gay? Both of these presentations were produced as after school specials to entertain but also to teach kids about homosexuality as merely another lifestyle choice. While our modern culture routinely discusses homosexuality, the 1980’s media landscape generally treated the topic as taboo. Like all social agendas, artists broke into media to influence the audience’s mind, which slowly becomes law. To that end, the next two chapters will examine how media affects us and what the modern artists intend to teach the consumers through their art, whether present or absent from the life of Christ. With the popular artist’s influence established, we will determine what they intend to teach us and what lifestyle has resulted from their beliefs.

Early World Entertainment

On the seventh day of creation, God rested, and the command to observe the Sabbath was included in the ten commandments to reflect the general principle of rest from a hard week’s work. The exact purpose of the Sabbath is not entirely clear. It could have been a day to set aside for the complete worship of God, or it could have been a day set aside to merely rest. Because the entire Israelite social system was theocratic and Paul declared Jesus the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest, its observance was no longer commanded according to a few separate verses from Pauline writings (Romans 14:5, Colossians 2:16). I will simply suggest our rest is a matter of the conscience and I will leave the discussion of the Sabbath intent to others. With that, however, we are free to engage in entertainment to the extent God is honored by what we do.

We know that the root of the Olympics was born from the sports-like competitions used to showcase the best warriors of the ancient Greece. Gladiatorial games were spawned by the cruel Emperor Nero who turned the games from simple competitions into a bloody fight to the death. Sin had taken hold and our bloodlust spilled over into violence. The gladiatorial games finally ended when a martyr named Telemachus died in the arena in protest to Christian Rome participating in the ungodly games[i]. His death ended the gladiatorial games once and for all under Emperor Honorius, but we know what comes next for our unrestrained entertainment: either more bloody violence, uncontrolled heathen sex, or maybe a spattering of other sin.

The lost city of Pompeii was discovered in the mid 1700’s and the archaeological excavation continues today. The archaeologists revealed a culture so vile the people experienced what had to be a replay of Sodom and Gomorrah. Curiously, another town, Herculaneum, was also destroyed by the same volcano, Mount Vesuvius, in AD 79. The still available artwork inscribed on the statues, pillars, and walls in these towns depict a city totally saturated in sex and perversion. I am not about to suggest all natural disasters in our world are God’s specific judgment, but perhaps artwork from the valley of salt would yield similar imagery before the sulfur fell from the skies, and perhaps God acted in this manner to destroy a city so vile a message would ring through to the young expanding church: beware of resting too comfortably, a lesson Israel failed to learn time and again through the historical period of the judges. About the great city of Pompeii, the artist Bastille wrote[ii]:

Oh where do we begin? The rubble or our sins?

This artist asks a reasonable question which we must ask ourselves. Though our world is mostly not in total rubble, the sin of the culture is leaving a rubble of wrecked lives, ruined marriages, fatherless children, and drug and alcohol abuse. Do we start with our rubble or our sin? That is the core of what we are trying to answer in this book.

Pleasure is entertainment’s destination, and research has shown the more affluent a culture becomes, the greater the people seek both pleasure and entertainment. Since all means of entertainment is from the hearts of the people that produce it, it is not any wonder that their heart comes out in the art they produce. C.S. Lewis wrote the great series The Chronicles of Narnia. Though people frequently say that he wrote it to portray the sacrifice and redemption of Christ, that is simply not true. C.S. Lewis spoke many times on the subject and made it very clear he was merely writing in-depth children’s stories during a time it was assumed people did not want to read fanciful tales (an aspect he made light of in Eustace’s family in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). He says that the Christ-like imagery merely came out of his heart because defending Christianity was one of the ultimate callings in his writing. But some hearts are full of evil. During the creative process, the evil present in an artist’s heart will spill out into the books, games, and productions they create and the end result will be a work that is not wonderful or beautiful, but twisted and evil. Such was the case of the Golden Compass series. The author, Philip Pullman, is an outspoken atheist. His childrens’ story depicted an enemy who was none other than God Himself. Such was the outpouring of his heart. In light of this, one Christian commentator of the entertainment industry revealed that for the most part, the writers, directors, and producers in Hollywood are generally not church-going people, and do not typically regard God or His word. Let us not be mistaken, if these are the people that are writing the shows we watch, let us not presume their views on life will not impact our own worldview. My message is clear: be careful what you watch on your television, do on your computer, or listen to in your personal time while secluding yourself through headphones.

Considering some artists teach out of intention and others teach out of the overflow in their hearts, we are led to a discussion of ethics. Most college programs now require students to take ethics courses. I was a graduate student studying biological sciences and our ethics course was intended to teach about what is right and wrong in scientific studies. Of course, the typical university preaches there is no absolute truth, so how can we possibly define what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ in a college ethics course? This is not a moot point because when the ground was broken for the USC film school, the attendants were Steven Spielberg, George Lucus, Irvin Kershner, and Randal Kleiser. In the article about the event, Lucas gave this ominous observation of the position of film in our modern age:

Film and visual entertainment are a pervasively important part of our culture, an extremely significant influence on the way our society operates. People in the film industry don’t want to accept the responsibility that they had a hand in the way the world is loused up. But, for better or worse, the influence of the church, which used to be all-powerful, has been usurped by film. Films and television tell us the way we connect our lives, what is right and wrong.[iii]

From one of the top directors of that time, and even still currently after three decades, Lucas reminds us that film and television do impact our lifestyle and thought. He even acknowledges movies and television impact us more than the church, for better or for worse. For this reason, Lucas goes on:

It’s important that the people who make films have ethics classes, philosophy classes, history classes. Otherwise we are witch doctors.[iv]

It is interesting Lucas wants to talk about ethics. According to Webster, ethics is the area of study dealing with moral right and wrong. From sciences to business, to human and animal studies, universities that proclaim there is no moral right and wrong want to teach their students about what is right and wrong! Chip Ingram deals with this problem in his message on Whatever happened to Right and Wrong?[v] He says that everyone agrees we need ethics, but no one can agree on whose ethics we adopt. I agree. My ethics, my moral rights and wrongs, are defined by God’s character as expressed in His Word. Other people say we should let our internal compass and feelings define what is right ‘for us’. This was the message in an interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono who helped to spread the mantra of existentialism, which is basically the ‘do your own thing’ philosophy. Ravi Zaccharius, however, observes that some cultures want to eat with their neighbors while other cultures want to eat their neighbors…do we have a preference? Yes, ethics are important, but unless those ethics are grounded in truth, they may be little more than lip service. We will continue a discussion of Christian ethics in chapter 4, for now, ethics aside, we want to see what the artists and producers want to teach us about the influence of art, and also what they want to teach us through their art.

The Method of Impact

The documentary Decadence: Decline of the Western World explores the steady decline of the Judeo-Christian culture that has dominated the western world for over 300 years. The description of the film on IMDB declares: The West consumes without consequence, loves without longevity and lives without meaning[vi]. The latter part of the film discusses media and religion. The narrator gives a prophetic summation about how our consumer lives are influenced by the media:

We watch helplessly as our sons and daughters, mesmerized by pop-idols and Hollywood’s cut-glass heroes, advertise for sex first and then maybe a relationship which soon enough reaches for the headache pill.

About two decades before Dunn wrote this prophetic statement, Alan Bloom wrote similar projections in the book, The Closing of the American Mind:

Picture a thirteen-year-old boy sitting in the living room of his family home doing his math assignment while wearing his Walkman headphones or watching MTV. He enjoys the liberties hard won over centuries by the alliance of philosophic genius and political heroism, consecrated by the blood of martyrs; he is provided with comfort and leisure by the most productive economy ever known to mankind; science has penetrated the secrets of nature in order to provide him with the marvelous, lifelike electronic sound and image reproduction he is enjoying. And in what does progress culminate? A pubescent child whose body throbs with orgasmic rhythms; whose feelings are made articulate in hymns to the joys of onanism or the killing of parents; whose ambition is to win fame and wealth in imitating the drag-queen who makes the music. In short, life is made into a nonstop, commercially prepackaged masturbational fantasy.[vii]

How did we arrive at such a place where our freedoms lead us only to perversion? To examine how our culture slipped to this extreme is not an easy task and entire books have been written on the topic. I only hope to summarize some of the debate with the sheer intention of whetting your appetite to search for better personal conclusions on the matter. Examine everything carefully.

Musicians, film producers, video game programmers all agree their respective art affects us. But as George Lucas notes in the above quote, they do not want to admit they have any role in how bad the world is, but most want to declare that art makes the world a better place. It is true, from the Christian pop-artists to the thrash-metal bands, from the shamanistic styling of the Grateful Dead to the unique brand that is Frank Zappa, musicians, neurologists, and everyone else who looks casually at the facts will honestly agree: music greatly affects our disposition. Research is starting to mount that other forms of media entertainment also take hold on us, teaching us, forming us. Rand Salzman said it best: “Viewers simply cannot help but be ‘rippled’ by the emotional gut-wrenching influence of huge moving color images backed by stereo sound.[viii]” The question remains is whether this emotional, gut-wrenching influence is a good influence or a bad influence on the consumers of such entertainment.

Some may argue the influence is negative. When school shootings and other violent acts are perpetrated by youth, some people are fast to point the finger at the violent songs, games, or movies often consumed by these kids. Such blaming is an oversimplification, however, on the other hand, many will suggest that their favorite music has no impact on their worldview; they merely ‘like the beat’. That, too, is an oversimplification. The delivery as media is actually neutral, like money. The point of agreement among those with a positive view and those with a negative view is that music can affect the way we live, it can give us something to relate to, something by which to blow off steam, or something by which to teach us about our world.

During the initial influx of film into the American culture, it was very clear that the entertainment industry was going to change the way people lived their lives. During the 1920’s, a series of morally questionable films, the murder of William Taylor, and a Hollywood rape prompted the proposal of several laws to place regulations on the film industry. Will Hays was appointed to produce a conduct guide for Hollywood film producers, a guide that became known as the Hays Code. The document begins by saying:

If motion pictures consistently held up high types of character, presented stories that would affect lives for the better, they could become the greatest natural force for the improvement of mankind.[ix]

The introduction to the document continues on to say entertainment and art are important influences in the life of a nation, thus the film entertainment is “directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking.” The code guided and directed the moral content of the film industry for over forty years, but some people whom did not agree with the code or the morality it proposed pushed the boundaries so far as to force the document into the ancient and out-dated relics of the American entertainment industry. The code was later replaced with the current rating system which will be discussed in more detail in chapter 8 of this book.

During these early years of film production and with consideration of the Hays Code, the realization that film does impact the moral disposition of its viewers, Warner Brothers adopted the slogan, “Good Citizenship with Good Picture Making”. In the early years, the film company did focus on morally good films, but the steady decay began to erode the message and while to this day the company has an entire affiliated website dedicated to good citizenship, that may be exclusive lip service from the company that brought us such morally bankrupt films as Natural Born Killers. In all, despite the clear evidence film does morally direct the society, the film industry merely produces what we pay to see.

The power of film transcends beyond simple moral messages, and music can direct the listeners to the intended message the artist seeks to teach. With a full-on media campaign, anyone can convince even the most studious people to change their ways and adopt a belief system for which they generally do not believe. This was very clear by governments who started to use the power of film to change the minds and beliefs of its citizens into their own ideals. Although many people will point to the Russian (Alexander Nevsky) and German films (Triumph of the Will) that were used to turn the citizens of those countries into what amounted to war criminals in the reigns of Stalin and Hitler, the Italians and the United States were also among those using film for propaganda. Gerald Nye, a Republican senator from North Dakota, declared in a congressional meeting:

When you go to the movies, you go there to be entertained…and then the picture starts-goes to work on you, all done by trained actors, full of drama, cunningly devised…Before you know where you are, you have actually listened to a speech designed to make you believe that Hitler is going to get you.

Nye was attempting to make the point that Hollywood was being transformed into a propaganda machine for war-mongering to change the American people’s stance on World War II. Nye was against the Hollywood propaganda machine, but the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered it necessary. In 1939 Nazi Germany was producing propaganda in a full-fledge media campaign to garner support for the Nazis under Joseph Goebbels. Roosevelt responded with using American film to sustain morale and according to Nancy Snow, Hollywood now acquired a prominent place in the battle for men’s minds[x]. 1940 saw the creation of the Motion Picture Committee Cooperating for National Defense, the industry-wide organization that would produce military training films and patriotic films for the American people in order to gain support for a war effort that many Americans were not sure merited participation. The government only unofficially supported this effort, though after the entrance into World War II, FDR created a specific division in the government to inform Hollywood producers on ways to portray any manner of political matters from war and foreign policy to domestic affairs. Though it is unclear whether this direct influence is still enacted, officially, in 1949 an appropriations act restricted the use of public funds for “publicity and propaganda.[xi]” Regardless of this act, film plays a large part in unifying the ideals in the people whom consume media.

Though we hear very little about it today, marketing itself is propaganda. Companies pay millions to place their products in movies, and in America today government-paid advertising on health care, political parties, food, defense, and social services can be observed daily on television and displayed as Internet advertising. Even the enemies of the United States use propaganda in order to garner support for their cause. Suicide bombers for Al Qaeda and likely also ISIS are recruited by viewing the successful explosions of other martyrs and hearing the praise for the perpetrator and seeing the community celebritizing the remaining family, showering them in riches. Such films and rallies gain support for the cause of suicide bombings and acquire willing people to carry out the acts[xii]. Whether we are seeing a commercial for the latest laundry detergent or seeing a new spin on a political agenda, we are better off acting on our mind’s sound logic rather than by the seductive, humorous, or emotionally appealing commercials.

Beyond propaganda, modern entertainment including movies, music, and video games desire to teach the consumers. The writers and producers want to convey a worldview or question the audience’s presuppositions. This is not just a modern trend that cropped up in the last decade. As early as the 1920s, research was commenced to determine the influence movies exert over youth. The results of the studies determined teenagers learned how to dress, how to behave socially, and how to think about the world though film. Some movies, such as The Crying Game sought to question erotic love between same gender adults and For a Lost Soldier examined homosexuality in adult-child relationships. Both films were released in 1992, though the latter was a foreign film. These productions were very intentional in how they made the viewer question their presuppositions. Most movies have just as great an impact in a passive way like the manner in which dirty uncle Eddy can influence the kids into uncouth manners.

Taken together, these observations indicate media entertainment, in any form, can certainly convey a message to those who consume the art. The message is not entirely bad or entirely good. The creators and producers of the art cannot choose to positively impact the consumer because they wish to deny the negative consequences of bad media, but neither can someone decide a certain song or movie contains all negative impact based solely on the beat or the reputation of the band. All these taken together, we will consider next some special considerations surrounding music and video games and their role in impacting the consumers.

Music and Sound

Music is all around us. While some want to dismiss music as a harmless pastime, most artists defend the positive impact of music in the world, though as Lucas admits, they do not want to admit the negative impacts. Even the MTV producers know about the impact that music can have on the listeners. One executive for the station said:

Music tends to be a predictor of behavior and social values. You tell me the music people like and I’ll tell you their views on abortion, whether we should increase our military arms, [and] what their sense of humor is like.[xiii]

Likewise, Michael Greene, the former president of the Grammy Music Awards, said in his 2000 speech:

Music is a magical gift which we must nourish and cultivate in our children, especially now as scientific evidence proves that an education which includes the arts makes a better math and science student, enhances special intelligence in newborns, and let’s not forget that the arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, they are certainly not the cause of it.[xiv]

Notice how Greene defends music as making students better at math and science, though those studies were conducted using classical music including Mozart and Beethoven, not the music the Grammy’s generally support or award. He talks about music’s impact in the newborn, and simply dismisses the clear impact it can have in rebellion of the listener. But his 2001 speech embraces the rebellion behind music:

People are mad! And people are talking and that is a good thing, because it is through dialog and debate that social discovery and progress can occur. Listen, music has always been the voice of rebellion, it’s a mirror of our culture, sometimes reflecting a dark and disturbing underbelly, obscured from the view of most people of privilege…We cannot edit out the art that is uncomfortable. Remember, that is what our parents tried to do to Elvis, the [Rolling] Stones, and the Beatles.[xv]

Greene discusses a very true point, and it is one point that I am attempting to make in this book:

Most of the adults who pass judgment have never listened to, or more to the point, have never even engaged their kids about the object of their contempt [the music]. This is not to say that there is not a lot of fear in this violence driven society of ours.[xvi]

I agree with Greene on this final point, but he does not go far enough. It is not a matter that we just need to look at the media our kids are consuming; we need to look at the media we are consuming because our kids model our own behavior before they will live out our instruction. We cannot blame music or movies entirely for the cultural decay Greene clearly admits, but we are foolish to think watching violent, sexual films or listening to violent, sexual music is just a meaningless distraction, since we already believe music alters our mental and emotional state. We must find a balance and consider that art does teach us and we will learn the messages they espouse whether we want to or not.

Michael Greene is not the only professional in the industry to believe music can cause tremendous positive impact while denying it’s negative effect. To a degree, these people are correct. When the Columbine shooting occurred, Marilyn Manson was thrown under the bus as a major cause of the event, even though Klebold and Harris did not even like his music. Manson wrote an article in his own defense appearing in Rolling Stone magazine, and Manson does raise several great arguments. He writes:

Responsible journalists have reported with less publicity that Harris and Klebold were not Marilyn Manson fans -- that they even disliked my music. Even if they were fans, that gives them no excuse, nor does it mean that music is to blame. Did we look for James Huberty's inspiration when he gunned down people at McDonald's? What did Timothy McVeigh like to watch? What about David Koresh, Jim Jones? Do you think entertainment inspired Kip Kinkel, or should we blame the fact that his father bought him the guns he used in the Springfield, Oregon, murders?[xvii]

Manson is not alone in the camp of artists who do not like to hear their art being blamed for violence in the culture. Some people echo the sentiment of a young heavy metal fan who said, “It’s all fantasy, none of it is real, you can’t take this seriously, it’s just like a movie.[xviii]” Many artists over the years have been asked if they believe violence in music has any impact on the listeners, and their answer is generally a resounding ‘No’. But that does not stop people from trying to blame music anyway. In a commentary blog, the author identified “Six Most Idiotic Attempts to Blame Musicians for Violent Events.[xix]” The article was written on the heels of the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson. It appears the perpetrator was a big fan of the song, Bodies Hit the Floor which the artists, Deadpool, say the song is about the moshpits in heavy metal concerts (curious how we are in a relativistic world yet the violent interpretations are not accepted). Nevertheless, the connections have been made not only to this song, but others as well.

Some arguments suggesting that music plays a role in violence can seem valid, such as the teen suicide committed when a young man placed the Ozzy Osbourne song Suicide Solution on repeat while he hanged himself. The AC/DC song Night Prowler was blamed for the Richard Ramirez murders, and serendipitously, he accidentally left his AC/DC hat at one of the murder scenes! While researching about lessons learned from school shootings, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine researchers compiled a book depicting the warning signs and character traits of several high-profile shootings from the 1990’s and it would appear violent music lyrics did have a role in the legal cases surrounding a copycat killing a month following Columbine[xx]. These are just a few of the notable examples where music has been blamed in part for violent crimes.

Though I do not in any way suggest music is the root cause of violence and rebellion in our culture, I do not deny it may be a rather large contributing factor. I personally have listened to my fair share of horrible music including heavy metal and gangsta rap, but I for one have not gone out killing people. I do find it telling, however, that very few mass killers are not big fans of Beethoven although heavy and violent music more often than not is readily consumed by the young killers in our society.

Taken together, it is more likely music and movies reflect our nature back to us. As they become more violent, violence starts seeping out into the culture at large. So music may not cause the violence, but it is a reflection of the violence we feel inside ourselves, more of a mirror and less of a causation.

1. [i]The Last Roman "Triumph", Foxes Book of Martyrs, John Foxe, Chapter 3

2. [ii]Pompii, All This Bad Blood, 2013, Bastille, Virgin Records

3. [iii]U.S.C Breaks Ground for a Film-TV School, New York Times, November 25, 1981

4. [iv]ibid

5. [v]What Ever Happened to Right and Wrong, Chip Ingram, Living on the Edge

6. [vi]Decadence: Decline of the Western World, Pria Viswalingam, 2011, Fork Films

7. [vii]The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom, 1987, Touchstone Publishing, Part 1; Music

8. [viii]The real effect of make-believe Don't let filmmakers tell you they can't shape public opinion, Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 19th, 1991 pg D1

9. [ix]Hayes Code, http://pre-code.com/the-motion-picture-production-code-of-1930/, Accessed November 11, 2018

10. [x]Confessions of a Hollywood Propagandist, Nancy Snow, https://learcenter.org/publication/warners-war-confessions-of-a-hollywood-propagandist-harry-warner-fdr-and-celluloid-persuasion/, Accessed November 11, 2018

11. [xi]Advertising by the Federal Government: An Overview, Kevin R. Kosar, Congressional Research Service

12. [xii]Cult of the Suicide Bomber, 2006, Disinformation Studios

13. [xiii]MTV is Rock Around the Clock, Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov 3, 1982

14. [xiv]2000 Michael Greene Grammy Music Awards speech, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Glq-ecgGjE, Accessed November 11, 2018

15. [xv]2001 Michael Greene Grammy Music Awards Speech, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP4vcVcydkM, Accessed November 11, 2018

16. [xvi]Ibid

17. [xvii]Columbine: Whose Fault Is It, Rolling Stone, May 28, 1999

18. [xviii]Heavy metal and violence: More than a myth?, CNN, May 12, 2008

19. [xix]Six Most Idiotic Attempts to Blame Musicians for Violent Events (or, the Tucson Tragedy was Caused by a Crazy Person, Not by Drowning Pool’s “Bodies Hit the Floor”, LA Weekly, Thursday, January 13, 2011

20. [xx]Deadly Lessons, Understanding Lethal School Violence, The National Academy Press, 2003

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buildsearch · 4 years

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Architectural Draftsman & Drafting – The Ultimate Guide

What is Drafting?

Drafting, is the process of drawing an accurate technical representation of a building that will be constructed and is required for council approval in Australia. In the modern age drafting is completed on computer-aided design (CAD) software on a computer.

The core idea is to create a set of drawings that will communicate both form and function. It is different from merely drawing pictures of things, since these drawings are the bases for the construction of their real-world counterparts.

Drafting is incredibly precise, and yet it is also a form of art as the audience needs to be understand the plan being drawn. This includes drawing the building with multiple elevations as well as the plan, and even an “exploded” section and detail views that contains the information on specific components.

As a process, drafting uses a very specific set of symbols and units, a type of notation that can help the uninitiated to understand what the building is all about. Other conventions, all the way down to the page layout, needs to be followed. Failure to do so can result in miscommunication, and problems with the final building. A standard guide has been created to help with this called the ISO 128 standard.

What is a Draftsman?

A Draftsman is a skilled person that prepares technical blueprints on CAD software and in the past, by pen and paper.

There are various ways to complete a technical drawing, either by hand or by a software such as AutoCAD. Various applications of drafting, from architecture to engineering, would impose different draftsman requirements as well. Some are also known to work directly in the field, with surveying instruments and similar equipment and then come back and drawn the plans.

Draftsman usually specialise in a certain areas and industries and it is not often for them to cross over due to the technical knowledge needed in each area. There are five common drafting industries of specialisation:

Architectural

Structural

Electrical

Civil

Mechanical

When in the business of designing residential buildings, a draftsperson may work hand in hand with construction managers and surveyors, and may also help plan and organise the project as a whole.

Drafters are expected to be knowledgeable in the Australian standards and Building Codes of Australia. This means that on their own, they can validly inspect the project’s compliance with the local specifications and standards. Therefore, this is a far-reaching job that requires versatility and knowledge.

Some drawings a draftsman is expected to create for architectural projects are:

Floor plans

Elevations

Sections

Details

Site plans

Room layouts showing tiling and cabinetry details

Electrical plan

Difference Between an Architect and Draftsman

Some people equate the job of a draftsman (also known as a “drawing technician”) with that of the architect. These are two different disciplines, however. While a draftsman can prepare home drawings for the building of a home, an architect is usually focused on the looks and design of a project. In contrast, a draftsman focuses on the technical side as well as less complex design.

Nowadays, especially in Australia, there are several overlapping areas in the two specialties. Architects are more commonly hired for the design of commercial building projects, Where as in residential projects, draftees are usually preferred for the drawing and design due to the practicality aspect and cost reasons.

If you want a residential home designing, the majority of experienced drafters can design, without blowing the budget, just as good as architects. This is due the sheer amount of homes they have drawn and technical knowledge they have. However, If you have a really large budget, or will create a large luxury design, then an architect is probably more appropriate for you.

Drafting Courses and Qualifications

Drafters, unlike architects, do NOT need to complete a specific degree. Essentially, anyone who has completed basic education (preferably up to a technical course at TAFE), can become a draftsman even if they haven’t studied it.

In Australia a draftsman is generally expected to complete basic training courses, such as a Certificate IV in Residential Building Drafting, or a Diploma in Building Design.However, this is not needed in some states.

Drafting courses can be taken through TAFE or other Australian education providers. A Certificate IV in Residential Building Drafting will take a year full-time, and two years part-time. For most course offerings, the only requirement is being at least Year 12. There are various offers from different states and educational institutions.

Here are some Australian drafting courses to take a look at:

CourseDurationCostCertificate IV in Building Design Drafting CPP401151 Year$7,500Certificate IV in Engineering Drafting MEM404121 Year$10,650Diploma of Building Design CPP509112 Years$12,000Certificate IV in Manufacturing Technology MSA401081 Year$4,000Certificate IV in Residential Building Drafting 52757WA1 Year$4,500

There are some states, however, where drafters need to be licensed — Queensland and Victoria. Victoria has three registration classes. One for those producing drawings for domestic building constructions, another one for those producing designs and drawings for interiors, and another one for those developing projects related to water, hydraulics, sewerage, lighting, and the like.

Victorian Drafters are also required to produce a VCE (Completion of Victorian Certificate of Education), or an equivalent qualification if they are coming from other states.

How To Become a Draftsman?

For those who are interested in becoming a draftsman the best advice I can give is to reach out and try get a traineeship. Gather a list of all the drafting, engineering and building companies you can find and call them up or go in to their offices. Tell them you are interested in drafting and would love to work for if you are financially stable, I advise saying you will work for a period of time for free while you learn and become productive.

Your wage will be low, but not as low as if you were studying. In addition, in my opinion, you will learn just as much as if you were studying at TAFE. I highly recommend you to do this before taking on your study as you will save time and money if you secure a job.

What Makes a Good Draftperson?

Aside from the basics, such as the ability to create working drawings for residential projects and the ability to work with basic design principles, the ideal drafter should also be well-skilled in creating cost effective design and sustainable designs. In addition, they should be knowing the regulations very well and get drawings approved by council with no hiccups.

Many certification courses for drafting also include lessons on the use of solar technology, and the passive use environmental factors to create sustainable designs. There should also be an understanding of the basics of the Australian conditions that could affect buildings.

Along with this, there would also be a rundown of the various rules and regulations needed to ensure the project’s approval in the council. In a nutshell, a quality draftsman is well-equipped not only in creating a usable cost-effective design, but one that can get your plans though council with no problems.

Drafting Service

If you have a project in mind, and you already have specifics such as how you want it to look (or maybe a design you want to draft out), then you might want to consult a draftsman near you for a discussion and a quote.

Perth Drafting Service

Drafting Service Melbourne

Sydney Draftsman

As mentioned earlier, because the qualifications required for being a drafter can be fairly lax, you should be careful when you approach one. Be prepared to give specifics, and take notes. Ask as many questions as you can and previous examples of their work. It is the draftsman’s responsibility to make you feel comfortable with his skill.

Whether you want to have just preliminary pictures, or completely detailed plans, a trusted draftsperson could be of service. Check out my site and contact, and let’s meet up!

The post Architectural Draftsman & Drafting – The Ultimate Guide appeared first on BuildSearch.

from BuildSearch https://buildsearch.com.au/drafting via https://buildsearch.com.au

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ynsespoir · 5 years

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Using Augmented Reality in Healthcare

With the ever-changing landscape in technology, some of those principles have been transferred over to the field of medicine. One of the more unique but critical types of engineering used in the medical field is augmented reality or AR. A cross between virtual reality and computer imaging, AR give doctors a chance to see things in their patients they missed before. Here are a few examples of how augmented reality is used in the medical and healthcare fields.

What Is Augmented Reality?

AR is very similar to visual technologies like virtual reality except that it uses your real-time view of the world through a digital device. It overlays an image or other types of media across your view on the screen to add a different reality to it. This differs from virtual reality because the landscapes in virtual reality are entirely digital and every element added is also digital. Many cellular phone games now incorporate this method into their programming. It can be used in practical applications also such as car repair, training soldiers, and retail settings. Like the video games that work with AR, you can also look at the stars and learn constellations through your phone.

Augmented Reality in Surgery

One place where AR has successful results is in the surgical suite. During an Augmented Reality operation, the surgeon lays the patient’s scans over their body digitally through the mask they are wearing. This gives them the opportunity to see precisely where they need to make an incision and what areas they need to work with. This limits the chance for error since they have a clear vision of the patient’s anatomy through this superimposed graphic. This information can be accessed immediately instead of researching through the patient’s chart to see what needs to be done and how to accomplish it.

Augmented reality also gives a surgeon an extra tool to find problems that previous tests would miss. They can catch diseases while they are in the early stages before aggressive measures have to be taken: One particular type of surgery where this is a game-changer is brain surgery. This area of the anatomy is so sensitive that one wrong move could be devastating. There are many blood vessels and other delicate tissues that operating on the brain can be difficult. Using augmented reality, a surgeon can superimpose a scan of a patient’s brain to the real view he is seeing through the goggles then navigate his steps knowing where and how to proceed.

Using AR In Emergency Situations

Paramedics and emergency room physicians can utilize augmented reality in critical situations when a patient needs help immediately. Instead of thumbing through a patient’s chart, whether it is paper or online, they can summon the information they need immediately through the AR glasses and see directly on the person’s body where there might possibly be issues that will need to be addressed while treating them. It will indicate any artificial prosthetics, parts of the body that might have a defect or are monitored for anomalies, or health situations that might affect what services emergency personnel might provide. This gives the patient a better chance of survival when every piece of information is available and used in an instant.

This can also be applied when the situation involves a broken bone that must be set. The doctor who is treating the patient can use the x-ray image that was taken and call it up on the headset that he wears. Through it, he can see the bone that is fractured and where specifically is lays within the patient. The physician can provide complete care since he will know what spot needs to be set and whether more intensive treatment such as surgery to set the bones with a pin must occur. There has been software designed to move the scan in accordance with the patient’s movements, making the doctor’s actions reliable even if the person has moved into another position.

Imposed Images In Reconstructive Surgery

Cosmetic surgeons can use augmented reality for the delicate work they must do. Using such a tool helps them avoid the muscles, tissues, bones and blood vessels that could cause problems if they are nicked. The scans also tell the doctor how blood in that particular area moves. They are able to navigate around the damaged area a patient needs help with and repair it with fewer incisions since they are exact.

This also cuts down the amount of time a patient is on the operating table and how long it will take to heal. Adding the image digitally over the patient’s body makes the procedure safer and healing faster. If surgery requires the use of a prosthetic, 3D augmented reality programs can help the designer making the new limb to fit it exactly to the patient it is meant for. They can take a scan of the body and with the help of AR, mold it and form it to fit exactly so it is useful and fits comfortably.

Scanning the Body To Look For Clues

Imaging is vital to augmented reality. A doctor needs x-rays, CT scans, and MRI tests to compare them to their patients. These are the images that a physician will superimpose against the natural scene they see in their goggles. Imaging also creates the 3D models that instructors can present to their class for teaching purposes. These models can also be used by family doctors for the patient to point out where they are feeling ill or sore.

The doctor can in turn show on the image what treatment they want to do and what body systems it will affect. Pharmacists can use 3D images to show the side effects that a drug can How in relation to the body. Radiologists also have an imaging device that gets a 360-degree picture of a patient’s limb to give the doctor a better idea of what might be happening and how to make it better. It is easy for you but gives a detailed description of any injury.

Tracing the Blood Flow Through Scans

Augmented reality can be found outside the operating and emergency room. Laboratories now use AR to find a patient’s veins before they draw blood. Once they take a scan of whichever limb they need to pull from, they can overlay the image directly onto the patient’s skin. This gives the technician a real-life view of where the best vein is that will cause less pain to the person getting the draw. This reduces pain and discomfort for the patient as well as there being less chance of trauma such as bruising. Nurses can also use this tool to readminister IV lines that might have been disconnected or seem to flow slowly into the bloodstream. A patient will recover quicker if they get a full dose of the proper medication when they need it.

Augmented Reality During a Scoping

There are many reasons why a patient would need to have a scoping done. The most common of these would be a colonoscopy. While a camera is usually involved with these procedures, AR would allow the doctor to use the scan of the patient as a map to guide the camera through the body. Doing this would give the physician a better idea of where they were going in a patient’s body so that they could concentrate on finding the issues that they are looking for. This would also make the test easier for the patient undergoing, have a less likely chance of something going wrong, and let the anesthesiologist use less sedative on the patient undergoing the test.

Mapping Out The Human Eye With AR Technology

The eye contains many tiny blood vessels that are difficult to work out unless there is guidance. With augmented reality, an optometrist can make a model of a patient’s eye so they can study it and make a diagnosis. They can reference the model when they perform eye surgery. A patient will have shorter recovery time with less pain. An optometrist can use the model to explain to their patients what they found and how it can be treated, giving a greater understanding of those involved. There is also software that lets a patient see themselves in a pair of glasses so that they will be comfortable with their choice before they purchase them.

Using Augmented Reality To Diagnose Dental Problems

Along with other parts of a patient’s anatomy, augmented reality can improve a person’s dental health. Many dentists already take 3D digital scans of a patient’s mouth so that they can see first hand what problems there might be. With the AR glasses, the dentist can see where there might be an infection in a patient or how deep into a tooth a cavity may go. This gives the dentist an exact place to drill if they need to, reducing the discomfort the patient is in.

Oral surgeons have the opportunity to use it to extract teeth or perform other procedures. A dentist can use software to design an implant or crown just like a doctor can develop a prosthetic for a limb. This allows the dental piece to be comfortable for the patient. It can also be used to train dental students and dental assistants. Instructors can create 3D virtual models with AR software that allows students to see and experience many different types of dental issues so they can examine and remedy the problem.

Teaching Future Generations With Hands-On Experience

Medical students can get a look inside the human body to see how it works with the benefit of augmented reality. While they have a chance to do this with a cadaver, they can see the systems work in real-time with AR and a volunteer who lets them do an examination. With this technology, they can watch how blood flows to and from the heart, how muscles contract, and how joints move.

With the new software, they can also study this while the patient moves to see how the body functions both stationary and in motion. They can see in real-time any health issues the volunteer has and discuss how they can be remedied. Instructors can also manufacture 3D images of body parts for students to study, evaluate and discuss. AR is also a great tool when a doctor must explain what is happening to a patient. They can allow a patient to see on themselves what happens to be wrong and what the physician will do to correct it. They can also see where a surgeon may make an incision and what other things may happen during a procedure.

Augmented Reality and the Patient Experience

While AR is a vital tool when it comes to healing a patient, it can also provide a distraction as they heal. Augmented reality games can be provided to a patient, especially a child, to keep them still and busy while they are in the hospital. This will cause them to fidget less which could pull free intravenous tubes and other equipment that is needed to help them heal. It can also take their mind off of the pain even for a little while. This could reduce the need for pain relievers since the enjoyment of the game has taken their mind off the discomfort.

Augmented reality can also be used as a rehabilitation tool. Patients can wear the AR glasses to relearn tasks that may have fallen by the wayside due to a catastrophic injury. It can help a patient through physical therapy by coercing them to move as they play an AR game. To succeed at the game, they must physically rotate a limb or frame, making what could be a painful therapy a fun experience. The therapist can also program the glasses to simulate items in the patient’s home that they will need to learn to adapt to or move around. People can get back to the life they once knew before their injury with the use of augmented reality.

The New Face Of Medicine

Technological advances in medicine benefit the physician and the patient. Augmented reality provides an excellent training tool for instructors to teach future doctors what they should look for when diagnosing a patient. It gives surgeons a safe guide when they operate on a patient, allowing for fewer incisions and promoting a quicker healing time. Also, it provides a building block for those designing implants or prosthetics so that their patients can live pain-free lives. It also helps patients recuperate from surgeries and illnesses so they can get back to normal. This fascinating type of technology has the potential to benefit even more people in the future.

from Health Care Technology – ReferralMD https://ift.tt/37pLdGX via IFTTT Using Augmented Reality in Healthcare Health Care Technology from topofbestone https://ift.tt/2qwnVOT via IFTTT

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knoldus · 6 years

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Software development has reached beyond the mere question of, “Does it work?”’ However, the question of “how to improve the code quality and its efficiency?” becomes the primary concern.

The code quality improvement is one of the things that requires well-developed strategy and adhering to it throughout the project’s lifecycle. It’s only a matter of time when it catches you up and causes problems if you leave it unaddressed. That’s why it is much better to manage this problem beforehand.

Let’s understand it using a metaphor: Suppose you construct a house without architecture. How long that house is going to stay intact is difficult to say as a foundation is of major concern, not the interior design. In a similar manner, we must strive for a good quality code so that the code will be able to live on without rotting over the time.

Writing code with desired functionality that compiles well is not enough as there are few concerns beyond functionality such as:

Proper naming conventions are followed or not.

Indentation is proper or not.

Style warnings are taken care of or not.

Code Optimization is taken care of or not.

Best coding practices are followed or not.

Design principles are followed or not.

Unit test cases are written or not.

The code is readable or not.

Code quality is not an abstract concept that has a value only in the developer’s world, it is a real thing which is missing, can lead to great financial losses over the time.

CodeSquad – A revolutionary product for continuous quality check and enables you to identify missing or problematic attributes of your code.

CodeSquad is an application that provides a qualitative analysis and insight of the projects by displaying the quality metrics of the project in a way that is easily accessible, understandable, and easier to compare with previous metrics. CodeSquad keeps the user informed by highlighting the missing or the problematic parameters.

Features:

1. Code Quality at a glance

CodeSquad dashboard presents project’s current quality at a glance by placing all quality parameters in a single row.

2. A check on technical debt

Use graphs and visualizations to track project quality over time and zoom in on specific time periods for more granular analysis

3. History graphs of project quality stats

Visualise the history of a project and understand precisely what happened in the past till past six months.

4. Notifications

CodeSquad dashboard notifies the user about activities like report upload status, health report by comparing new report’s result with the previous one(if exists) and outdated reports. It raises an alarm if the project hasn’t been through quality check for the past fifteen days.

5. Collaborator permission

CodeSquad provides quality status not only to project’s admin but also to the collaborators of the project.

Type of Quality metrics/reports CodeSquad can monitor?

Before answering this question, let’s first understand,”what are static analysis tools?“.

Static analysis tools:

They are generally used by developers as part of the development and component testing process. Source code acts as an input to the tool and tool itself is executed. It helps the developers to understand the structure of the code, and can also be used to enforce coding standards. A compiler can be considered as a static analysis tool because it builds a symbol table, points out incorrect usage and checks for non-compliance to coding language conventions or syntax.

Advantages of static analysis tools are:

Identifies defects in source code.

Provides help in understanding code.

Helps in analyzing dependencies and structures.

Enforces coding standards.

Computing metrics such as cyclomatic complexity which provides tester an indication of the amount of testing, nesting, and a number of lines of code.

Examples of the static analysis tools are:

Checkstyle: Checkstyle is a blooming tool that help programmers write Java code that adheres to a coding standard. Each rule can raise notifications, warnings, and errors. For example, checkstyle can examine- naming conventions of attributes and methods, the presence of mandatory headers, spaces between some characters, good practices of class construction and multiple complexity measurements among which expressions.

Programming Mistake Detector(PMD): PMD is a source code analyzer that detects flaws in source code, like duplicate Code, wasteful String/StringBuffer usage, classes with high cyclomatic complexity measurements, empty blocks or statements and unused local variables, parameters, and private methods.

Copy Paste Detector(CPD): CPD finds duplicate code. Copied/pasted code can mean copied/pasted bugs and thus decreases maintainability.

FindBugs: FindBugs is an open source tool used to perform static analysis on Java code. Findbugs scans for possible bugs in Java software. FindBugs operates on java bytecode, rather than source code. Each finding is reported as a warning. Warnings are categorised into four ranks: (i) scariest, (ii) scary, (iii) troubling and (iv) of concern.

Java Code Coverage(JaCoCo): JaCoCo is an open source toolkit for measuring and reporting java code coverage. JaCoCo offers instructions, line and branch coverage.

Lines of Code(LOC): LOC computes the size of a Java source code file by counting the “logical lines of code.”

Scalastyle: Scalastyle examines your Scala code and indicates potential problems with it. It is similar to checkstyle in java.

Scoverage: Scoverage is a free Apache-licensed code coverage tool for scala that offers statement and branch coverage.

Scapegoat: Colloquially known as a code lint tool or linter. Scapegoat works in a similar vein to Java’s FindBugs or checkstyle, or Scala’s Scalastyle.

CodeSquad support these programming languages: Scala & Java

Quality Metrics For Java

Check Style

Programming Mistake Detector(PMD)

Copy Paste Detector(CPD)

Find Bugs

Java Code Coverage(JaCoCo)

Lines of Code(LOC)

Quality Metrics For Scala

Lines of Code(LOC)

Scala Style

SCoverage

Scapegoat

CPD

Why codeSquad?

Secure – CodeSquad don’t need any access to your source code to generate the monitoring dashboard, it only needs the reports generated by code analysis tools.

Efficient – It can be used in all types of projects structures/frameworks like SBT/Maven etc.

CodeSquad is not limited to few software matrices. Any type of report can be parsed and corresponding results can be displayed.

User-Friendly: You don’t have to be a technical person like a tester or a developer for monitoring software health. It allows all levels of users (stakeholders like Managers, QAs, BAs etc.) to understand the quality of code.

What makes codeSquad unique?

CodeSquad not only inspects the quality of code but also keeps its users and collaborators informed about the current check on code’s quality and raises alarm if the project hasn’t been through a quality check. Clients can keep the continuous check on project matrices and can ensure that their money is spent wisely.

Sounds Interesting? Contact us for having this awesome tool and check your code quality: [email protected]

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