Shakespeare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Shakespeare - Essay Example Shakespeare wrote the second series of history plays at the peak of his career, roughly around 1595-1599, covering the history from around 1398-1420. Although the events he writes about occurred around two centuries before his time, but Shakespeare expected his audience to be familiar with the characters and events he was describing. The rise and fall of kings and the battles between the houses were woven into the cultural fabric of England and formed and integral part of country's patriotic legends and national mythology. The specific details of important historical events have obscured with the passage of time and thus, the heroes and battles of an event are to a degree, cloaked in myth. The plays innovatively mix history and comedy, moving from lofty scenes of kings and battles to base scenes showing ruffians engaging in robberies and drinking. The strength of the plays is its remarkable richness, a variety of textures and a fascinatingly ambiguous take on history as well as on political motivation. Shakespeare drew on a number of sources for writing his history plays as he did in almost all of his work Since it is not possible to know Shakespeare's beliefs, attitude and the methodology he used in writing his plays, we can only hypothesize on the basis of his textual evidence regarding his authorial intentions and the underlying didactic message found in the second tetralogy

The Theory And Practice Of Organisations

The Theory And Practice Of Organisations Various theories have been significant in forming and recognising organisations. Throughout the twentieth century, the theory and practice of organisations have been modified from a more traditional management approach were efficiency and profits were the main goals to a more networked approach where service and user satisfaction are the focal points (Hughes and wearing 2007). Each organisation is different. Differences relate to varying missions, demographics, location, physical environment, management style, levels of funding and financial conditions, and whether the organisation is public, nonprofit, or for-profit, among other factors. This essay will discuss the importance of organisational mission/vision statements, structure, resourcing and service in distinguishing human service organisation from one another as well as provide theoretical analysis on how this can influence the organisations practices and services. Human service organisation is the word often used to describe health, welfare, and educational organisations, and is generally identified as organisations whose goals are to provide some kind of service for people individually or communities (Gardner 2006). Human service organisations set out influence in structuring the nature of social work practices. The agency provides the decree and authorisation for carrying out societies order in regard to the health and well-being of the citizens and regulates the resources essential to accomplishing this work (Hanson, 1998). Human service organisations obtain their purpose from community needs and priorities, as characterised by the social settings at any given time. In many ways social work practice is established , facilitated, and at the same time controlled by the purposes and operating modes of human service organisations. In theory , purpose is comparatively consistent across all human service organisations in that in a broader sense meet the needs and contribute to the well being of consumers , and to contribute to the overall social welfare (Jones and May 1992,pg.84 , as cited by Gardner 2006).It is imperative that the overall vision does conveys the broad hopes of the organisation as well as comprehend the intricacy of its purpose. Womens Domestic Violence Crisis Service (WDVCS) is a Victorian State-wide service for women enduring violence and abuse from a partner or ex-partner, another family member or someone else they are close to. Women Domestic Violence Crisis Service acknowledge the diversity of women and childrens experience and supplies a response that respects the unique needs of the individual woman and their children. WDVCS will ensure that the response meets the requirements of the organisations funding and service agreement and its legal obligations. The organisation through feminists realised the importance of servicing woman who have been experiencing domestic violence, and the wants for those women to be safe. At the beginning, WDVCS started from several individuals houses, were they would answer phone calls to service the community, to what is now classified as an organisation. The philosophy of the organisation is that violence is not acceptable on the basis of human rights and that women expe riencing domestic violence have the right to be safe. Domestic violence does not affect one certain type of individual but in fact affects a vast array of individuals from across all levels of society and from all types of religious, ethnic and race groups. The Womens Domestic Violence Crisis Service of Victoria (WDVCS) acknowledges that the staff of the organisation are a vital and valuable resource. WDVCS has an obligation to supporting the growth and preservation of a demographically diverse workforce that is highly skilled, motivated and resourced to ensure quality and continuity of service delivery. All staff of WDVCS are expected to work within the Philosophy, Policies and Procedures of the organisation and abide by the Code of Conduct. WDVCS is not an auspice, it is a corporate association in its own right which means WDVCS has its own board, CEO, coordinators and staff .WDVCS has four coordinators, Telephone crisis coordinator, accommodation coordinator, communication coordinator and Quality committee coordinator. All of whom supervise the phone team and accommodation team. The Communication coordinator works on community development and media projects which was established by WDVCS in 2008, the aim of the project is to educate women on how to share their experience in domestic violence to the public via the media and also to empower women to respond to media in a self-assured way. The board of WDVCS is responsible to set all WDVCS strategic plans of the organisation. The board insures all the risk managements of the organisation, as well as ensures that the CEO utilises the organisation resources, budget in order to carry out the strategic plan. WDVCS has nine female board members who came from diverse factions o f the community. Organisational structure frequently involves an array of values and beliefs about the roles and responsibilities on how decisions should be made by using a criterion. The Womens Domestic Violence Crisis Service of Victoria (WDVCS) has a commitment to feminist, democratic work practices. It is essential that decision-making authority be informed by processes that are participatory, democratic, transparent and responsive to the needs of women who use the service. There are two ways decisions can be made ,formal and informal, the formal part is governed by board .WDVCS is not a very hierarchical organisation as such. The organisation has regular meeting, quality committee which involve staff member who have inputs to the organisation policy and procedures via quality meeting and they make recommendation for same policy to be taken for further discussion on staff meeting, CEO of the WDVCS stated in the interview that they take a more democratic and concise of organisation decision making but the end of the day the final decision lies back to CEO. Workers involvement and input to worker meeting and quality meeting result in less frustration with organisational superiors as participation allows workers to feel somewhat accepted. The community does not have much input on the organisation decision making process , however if user or community member were interested in the organisations decision making process they can be nominated to join the board that way they can become more involved. The only way the organisation receive input from community is the feedback from their clients via telephone service and through women who access the accommodation but it is an area the organisation is working on to improve via WDVCS website. So the community can have an opportunity to have an input and provide feedback. The Womens Domestic Violence Crisis Service of Victoria (WDVCS) is committed to a rights advocacy direct service delivery model. The service model emphasises a crisis intervention response, which prioritises safety, informed choices and the rights of women to control decision making about available alternatives. This service model offers high quality crisis intervention, counseling, advocacy, support, information, referral and emergency accommodation services to women and their children who are victims of domestic/family violence. The service model is primarily focused on reinstating women and their childrens right to live safely in the community. This service delivery model supports the unique role of the WDVCS as the only statewide telephone crisis service and supported emergency accommodation service provider for women and children who are victims of domestic/family violence. The Womens Domestic Violence Crisis Service of Victoria (WDVCS) recognises the basic human rights of all w omen and children to: safety, shelter and food; live free of fear and violence; and dignity and respect. WDVCS is committed to providing responses that respect the rights of women and their children to be supported in their efforts to be free from violence in an environment that is safe from physical, sexual, emotional/psychological, economic and verbal abuse.The primary service users of WDVCS are women and their children who are victims of domestic/family violence. The Majority of the WDVCS service users are self referral, however they might get a hold of WDVCS information from other services in the sector such as the police, other domestic violence services, community health or the yellow pages. WDVCS has a policy to empower women even if other service do initial referral WDVCS staff will make sure to speak to woman to hear her story with empathy Today, viewpoints toward how organisations should be run vary considerably from the classic bureaucracy expressed by earlier theorists. Efficiency has culminated to have its appeal as the most crucial goal or characteristic of organisations. The work environment itself is seen as a critical variable in how much and how well organisations function to attain their purposes. In todays view organisations are dynamic, developing and changing in interaction with external stimuli. Partnerships within and between organisations form and restructure among employees and interest groups as each searches for to improve its own interests. Within this framework, each organisation cultivates a unique philosophy that influences how it functions (Hanson, 1998). Human service organisations are so different; it is not feasible to touch on all the aspects that affect the organisational base of practice. Internal factors have to do with decisions largely made within the organisation about how it will accomplish its business. External factors include social welfare laws and regulations, judicial decisions, funding allocations, and the level of competition among similar agencies in the community. These and other factors determine the parameters in which the organisation functions and set the boundaries for social work practice within them.

Virginia: State and National Science Standards :: Essays Papers

Virginia: State and National Science Standards Across the field of education, standards have become both a guideline for teacher lesson plans and a measuring device for students’ achievement. In recent years several subject-based standards have been put in place by national organizations of scientists, mathematicians, and other professionals. Simultaneously, states have been developing their own set of standards, many of which may or may not correspond with offerings such as the National Science Education Standards (NSES). One example we will focus on in this paper is the State of Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOLs). As a result, the VA SOLs received a rather poor grade on a national scale, measured by the Thomas B. Ford Foundation in March 1998. Much of the criticism lies in the VA SOLs’ lack of broad ideas and theoretical structure. Educators across the state have differing opinions concerning the VA Science Standards. Many educators have expressed disagreement over the value and the implementation of the SOLs. With regard to the VA Science SOLs, one elementary school teacher stated, "I don’t find the science SOLs controversial at all. I really enjoy teaching science and can find many ways to include the SOLs in all my academic areas." Not all teachers feel so positively about the standards. A Northern Virginia elementary principal expressed this viewpoint when he said, "Your feeling about the science SOLs will depend on your philosophical point of view about a fact vs. experiential science curriculum†¦Teachers who like open-ended, experiential-thinking based curriculum will not like them [VA SOLs], teachers who like sequential, fact-rich curriculum will." One criticism of the VA SOLs points towards its lack of exploratory learning due to its fact-based nature. Many believe that the extensive content needed to be covered handicaps teachers in such a way that they are unable to teach anything else but the SOLs and therefore can not delve deeply into any one area of study. On the contrary, VA SOLs can be a valuable resource for lesson plans. Since all teachers on a certain grade level must hold their students responsible for the same information, they can easily share lessons and materials. This lends itself to collaborative teaching. The NSES also have both positive and negative aspects. The National Science Education Standards appeal to those who appreciate an inquiry-based, constructivist approach. As stated in Catherine Kelly’s article, Reaching to the Standards (2000), "The Standards [NSES] have also encouraged constructivism and rallied support for a developmental curriculum in which students are more process oriented than product oriented.

Imperialism in Heart of Darkness

Before being published in the present form of the novel, Heart of Darkness was printed in a serial form in 1899 and then part of a volume entitled Youth: A Narrative and Two Other Stories in 1902. Based on Conrad’s own personal experiences after the African country of the Congo and the famous Congo River flowing through this country the story assumed the present novel. It was in this year 1890 that Conrad had performed his sailing trip upon the river Congo as a captain or skipper of a Belgian steamship.During his trips, Conrad studied at first hand the conditions which prevailed in the Congo and formed his own impressions of the kind of life which the savages were leading under the imperialist Belgian rule. Conrad also observed the attitude of white traders and their manner of treating the native savages. His reaction to the treatment was unpleasant and, in fact, he was greatly dismayed and even shocked at what he observed. We find in his novel, Heart of Darkness, more or less a record of all this which experienced during his own travels through the Congo and the Dark Continent.The title of the novel Heart of darkness signifies simply the interior of the dark country known as the Congo. The theme of Heart of Darkness is the conditions prevailing in the Congo under the imperialist rule of the Belgian King, Leopold II. These conditions include the impact of white traders and explorers on the life of the African savages, and the influence of the native way of life on the white man, with special reference to one man who is given the name of Kurtz. In fact, Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness has several themes, one of which is the theme of imperialist exploration of a backward country.In this essay I’ll show imperialism intervened with his life and Conrad as a victim of imperialism; the experiences of Conrad in the dark country of the Congo where the white man had become unsuccessful in performing civilizing function. I will end my essay discussin g the white man’s callous treatment towards the native savages and demonstration of their hypocrisy in the novel. Joseph Conrad (Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) worked as sailor on French and British ships before becoming a ‘naturalized British subject’ in 1886. He developed an elaborate and beautiful English prose style.His work was adventurous and ‘darkly pessimistic’. â€Å"One of the most noted practioners of literary impressionism, Conrad offered a fictional rendering of subjective response that had a profound impact on writers like Ford Madox Ford and Virginia Woolf. He wrote that the primary task of the novelist was â€Å"to make you see. †Ã¢â‚¬  Conrad was born in the city of Berdychiv in Russian-controlled Ukraine, on December 3, 1857. Conrad was orphaned at the age of eleven. His father was imprisoned by the Russians for his nationalist political activities. At the age of seventeen he went to Marseille to become an apprentice in the merchant marine.He was hired to take a steamship into Africa, and according to Conrad, the experience of firsthand horrors of colonial rule left him a changed man. Heart of Darkness is a fictionalized exploration of his life. Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness is largely a record of Conrad’s own experiences in the dark country of the Congo. The character named Marlow, the chief narrator in the novel, is largely none else but Conrad. Marlow, like Conrad, experiences a strong sense of disillusion and disappointment after observing the behavior of the white traders and also the conditions of the natives.There is a lot of resemblance between Conrad’s Congo Diary and the contents of the novel Heart of Darkness to justify such an assumption. It might be said that Marlow’s view of philosophy of life is very much the same as that of Conrad himself. Conrad in the novel talks about the unproductive efforts of the white-men to civilize the savages. The white-men instead became exploiters. At the time the Congo was being governed by the Belgian King, Leopold II, the Belgian trading companies were sending their agents into Congo for trading purposes.The chief commodity these Belgians found worthy was ivory and to the native savages ivory was of no use. The white traders collected ivory and sent it to Europe where it could be used profitably. We can see, throughout the novel, the mention of ivory is constant and dominates the thoughts of almost all the white characters, like the manager of the Central Station, the Brick Maker, and many others. They loiter around the country in search of ivory and Marlow describes these agents as â€Å"faithless pilgrims†. ‘Subsequently we find that ivory not only dominates the thoughts of Mr.Kurtz but has become an obsession with him. ’ Marlow is told by the manager of the Central station that Kurtz collects more ivory than all the other agents put together. Thus, ivory becomes the symbol o f greed in the novel, symbolizing the white men’s greed and commercial mentality. We have the failure of Mr. Kurtz to civilize and uplift the savages of the Congo. Even Mr. Kurtz who has begun to identify himself with the savages, has done nothing for the uplift of the natives. Instead of improving their mode of life, he has himself become a savage in their company.He has begun to satisfy his various lusts without any limits. Even in his prime of life, when he had supported the view about white man’s civilizing role, he had written down the following words conveying an opposite message â€Å"Exterminate all the brutes. † Instead of a civilizing effect in the novel, we find the white man’s callous treatment towards the savages. The sight seen by Marlow after getting down from the streamer is very disheartening and freighting. This reflects the wretchedness and the misery of the natives of the Congo. Marlow sees a lot of black people mostly naked, moving ab out like ants.Later he sees half a dozen men chained to one another, and each wearing an iron collar in his neck. Marlow feels deeply upset to see the sight. Alongside, there are quite a few other scenes which clearly demonstrate the hypocrisy of the white men. They are simply wasting time and effort to show that some kind of constructive work is going, while in actuality there is none. There is a project to construct a railway line in this region; but Marlow sees that a rock is being blasted with gunpowder even though this rock doesn’t stand as an obstruction. Then he also comes across some pieces of decaying machinery, and a large heap of rusty rails.The whole effort of the white man is completely misdirected. The futility of the white man’s efforts becomes clearer when we come across certain employees of the trading company. Marlow’s description of the brick maker is satirical. He describes him as a â€Å"paper-mache Mephistopheles† because of this man ’s cunning. In the end we may say that Conrad has exposed the Belgian imperialism in Heart of Darkness. There are wider implications of the Belgian imperialism as depicted by Conrad in his novel. It conveys to us the deceit, fraud, slave-trading and other cruelties of the Belgian rule.But Conrad here is not only exposing the hollowness and the weakness of the Belgian imperialist rule over the Congo, but also indirectly remind us of the British imperialist rule over the countries of the world of his time. Heart of Darkness is an autobiographical novel, in the sense that the book contains indirectly Conrad’s own experiences in the dark country known as the Congo, and is a firsthand account of his own voyage upon the river also named as the Congo. But the novel is not a straight biography as Conrad doesn’t speak in his own person but through the character of Marlow and also through another narrator.

Effects of War on Soldier in Generals Die in Bed

The Horror of war on the Soldier in Charles Yale Harrison’s Generals Die in Bed Eng 22 PB 963 Words Some people say that war can change a man. What exactly do they mean by this phrase? What are some possible things that a soldier could experience in war? What are some things a soldier has experienced enough of that can fundamentally change his life? In Charles Yale Harrison’s novel Generals Die in Bed, the horror of war is a vital theme and is characterized through many challenges the narrator encounters in the novel.The horror of war is portrayed throughout the novel through things such as having a perpetual fear of the unknown, the psychological effects of war, and conclusively: death. Not knowing what is going to happen is always an intimidating feeling. The idea of not knowing what is coming up always makes us believe that something horrendous is going to take place. In Generals Die in Bed, a non-stop fear of the unknown is an important point throughout the novel. I n war, there are only millions of things that could take place during one single day.Charles Harrison has made this point clear to the readers by focusing on one scenario after another of unexpected events right in the narrator’s face. It is through what the narrator experiences that we glimpse the true nature of war. In Chapter 4, â€Å"Back to the Round†, the narrator and the rest of his company have to move around the trenches on their bellies. This is because there are snipers in the trees which causes consistent fear of death. Although they identify that there is a sniper, they still fear it because they cannot anticipate exactly when he will strike. Sooner or later this German sniper, who keeps us cowering in a cold fear, will be caught in an advance by our troops. † Also in chapter 4, the character of Brown, is killed by the sniper. Brown’s death would have made the narrator even more frightened of the unknown because he now knows what a sniper is t ruly capable of. This is the same fear that drove the narrator to long for a biting hunger for safety. This would seemingly show us exactly why the narrator would dismay the unknown. â€Å"The shattering explosions splinter the air in a million fragments. † â€Å"The air shrieks and catcalls. â€Å"The air screams and howls like an insane woman. † These are all statements that the narrator uses to interpret the sounds a shell makes as it collides through the sky and as it climactically annihilate anything and everything around it. These sounds would drive anyone psychotic. How can the soldiers even go through the war without going deaf? Being exposed to those noise levels would have a few long term effects on human being. In London, it is visible to us that the narrator has been affected in some way or another, by even exposure to the deafening sounds. Bang! An explosion on the street. I leap to my feet. My hearth thumps. She laughs. † That bang was in reality j ust a motorbike back firing. Since the narrator had been so used to the loud sounds that were made when being shelled, he started to consider that every single loud sound is either a gunshot or a sound of a shell going off. This clearly shows us that war can psychologically affect soldiers for long periods of time, maybe even for the rest of their lives. This can be considered as a horror of war because it is a lifelong consequence.Generals Die in Bed should not all be classified as a typical war novel because all of the deaths that occur in the novel, the death of the enemy German soldier â€Å"Karl† is what stands out the most. This is because out of all of the deaths the narrator has witnessed, Karl’s death is what truly affected his life the most. â€Å"The image of Karl, he who died on my bayonet, seems to stand before my eyes. The shaking becomes worse. The movements are those one of who is palsied. † The feeling of knowing that you have killed a man would be unbearable.The narrator himself could not take it. â€Å"I begin to sob. I am alone. † The nature of his language highlights the damage war causes. This shows psychological effect that the narrator would have had to bear with himself for the rest of his life. The constant fear of war is something that cannot be avoided. This constant fear is what drives soldiers to keep fighting. This constant fear is the fear of death and the soldiers are fighting for survival. Death is one of the distinct, recurring themes that Charles Harrison has plainly placed in Generals Die in Bed for a purpose.The idea of having to witness a comrade dying is a horrible thing. Death is an important point of the horrors of war because death takes everything from an individual. It strips them of their honour, dignity, memories and their life. The narrator is stripped of his friends. The people he had considered brothers throughout the novel. â€Å"Like the hundreds of other men I had seen die, Broad bent dies like a little boy too – weeping, calling for his mother. † The most important word in that quote is â€Å"hundreds. The narrator clearly shows us that he has witnessed many men dying. Without any doubt, death summarizes â€Å"the horror of war. † The narrator, who is still nameless, is a perfect example of one of the horrors of war. The way the narrator is kept nameless throughout the course of the novel is proof that war can transfer loss of individuality and loss of one self. The way that this clearly is kept constant throughout the course of the novel also proves that the horror of war is the underlying theme of Generals Die in Bed.

Living With Ulcerative Colitis essays

Living With Ulcerative Colitis essays Ulcerative Colitis affects the Large Intestine (Colon) The colon is part of the digestive tract. When food is ingested it goes through the mouth, down the esophagus, to the stomach, then to the small intestine, which empties into the large intestine. The large intestine, averaging three feet in length, absorbs nutrients and water from food as it pushes it along toward the rectum. Once the food, now a waste product, reaches the rectum it is eliminated in the form of a bowel movement. How Ulcerative Colitis affects the Colon Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes inflammation and sores, called ulcers, in the top layers of the lining of the colon. The inflammation usually occurs in the rectum and lower part of the colon, but it may affect the entire colon. Ulcerative colitis rarely affects the small intestine except for the lower section, called the ileum. Ulcerative colitis may also be called colitis, ileitis, or proctitis. The inflammation makes the colon empty frequently, causing diarrhea. Ulcers form in places where the inflammation has killed colon lining cells; the ulcers bleed and produce pus and mucus. It is not quite understood what causes Ulcerative Colitis. There is one theory that suggests that the bodys immune system reacts to a bacteria or virus, which causes continuous inflammation in the colon. Ulcerative Colitis Ulcerative Colitis causes fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite, blood in stools, and loss of bodily nutrients and fluids. About half of the people with Ulcerative Colitis only experience these mild symptoms; the other half will also suffer from abdominal pain, fever, nausea, severe bloody diarrhea, and an urgent need to use the bathroom. Some people also encounter problems with arthritis, eye inflammation, liver disease, osteoporosis, skin rashes, anemia, a...

Breakfast Club Film Review essays

Breakfast Club Film Review essays Five disparate high school students, Allison Reynolds, a weirdo; Brian Johnson, a nerd; John Bender, a criminal; Claire Standish, a prom queen; and Andy Clark, a jock, are forced to spend the day in Saturday detention. Having absolutely nothing in common, except for having to give up their day, they sit in the school library, and write an essay for a teacher, Richard Vernon. Being from such widely different backgrounds and having such completely different personalities, its inevitable that some frictions and shenanigans develop, especially when Vernon leaves the room. Each begins to see the others apart from their stereotypes. Each finds qualities about the others that make the Saturday morning change their lives. In the 1980s, Hughes was responsible for writing and directing some of the funniest (National Lampoons Vacation) movies of the era as well as some of the most perceptive ones about young people (Some Kind Of Wonderful). One that combined the humor and the perception was his 1985 smash The Breakfast Club. It fell into that 80s menagerie of teen flick known as the Brat Pack movies, yet it is easily the most transcendent of all of them. While many of the other Brat Pack movies have become quite dated (St. Elmos Fire) The Breakfast Club is still fresh today, despite somewhat dated references and music selections. What makes it transcend the genre so well is its accurate depiction of high school society. Never mind that the film was made in 1985, the depiction of the class system in high school (Jock, Preppie, Outcast, Thug, Geek) is still relevant today. Yet this is not just a movie for teenagers. The performances are all good: from Judd Nelson as the Thug to Molly Ringwald as the Preppie. You also have Emilio Estevez as the Jock, Anthony Michael Hall as the geek and Ally Sheedy as the Outcast. The only actor who really goes over the top is Paul Gleason as t...

Symmetry and Proportion by Vitruvius and Da Vinci

Symmetry and Proportion by Vitruvius and Da Vinci Architecture depends on symmetry, what Vitruvius calls the proper agreement between the members of the work itself. Symmetry is from the Greek word symmetros meaning measured together. Proportion is from the Latin word proportio meaning for the part, or the relationship of the portions. What humans consider beautiful has been examined for thousands of years. Humans may have an innate preference for what looks acceptable and beautiful. A man with tiny hands and a large head may look out of proportion. A woman with one breast or one leg may look asymmetrical. Humans spend an enormous amount of money every day on what they consider is a beautiful body image. Symmetry and proportion may be as much a part of us as our DNA. Diagram Of ManS Proportions From Vitruvius Translation, 1558. Bettmann/Getty Images (cropped) How do you design and build the perfect building? Like the human body, structures have parts, and in architecture those parts can be put together in many ways. Design, from the Latin word designare meaning to mark out, is the overall process, but design outcomes depend on symmetry and proportion. Says who? Vitruvius. De Architectura Ancient Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio wrote the first architecture textbook called On Architecture (De Architectura). Nobody knows when it was written, but it reflects the dawn of human civilization - in the first century B.C. into the first decade A.D. It wasnt until the Renaissance, however, when the ideas of ancient Greece and Rome were reawakened, that De Architectura was translated into Italian, French, Spanish, and English. During the 1400s, 1500s, and 1600s, what became known as The Ten Books on Architecture was widely distributed with a number of added illustrations. Much of the theory and construction basics spelled out by Vitruvius for his patron, the Roman Emperor, inspired Renaissance architects and designers of that day and even those in the 21st century. So, what does Vitruvius say? Leonardo da Vinci Sketches Vitruvius Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) is sure to have read Vitruvius. We know this because da Vincis notebooks are filled with sketches based on the words in De Architectura. Da Vincis famous drawing of The Vitruvian Man is a sketch directly from the words of Vitruvius. These are some of the words Vitruvius uses in his book: SYMMETRY in the human body the central point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centered at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circleAnd just as the human body yields a circular outline, so too a square figure may be found from it.For if we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, and then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth will be found to be the same as the height, as in the case of plane surfaces which are perfectly square. Note that Vitruvius begins with a focal point, the navel, and the elements are measured from that point, forming the geometry of circles and squares. Even todays architects design this way. Drawing of the Proportions of a Head by Leonardo da Vinci. Fratelli Alinari IDEA S.p.A./Getty Images (cropped) PROPORTION Da Vincis notebooks also show sketches of body proportions. These are some of the words Vitruvius uses to show relationships between elements of a human body: the face, from the chin to the top of the forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the whole heightthe open hand from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger is a tenth part of the whole bodythe head from the chin to the crown is an eighth partwith the neck and shoulder from the top of the breast to the lowest roots of the hair is a sixthfrom the middle of the breast to the summit of the crown is a fourththe distance from the bottom of the chin to the under side of the nostrils is one third of itthe nose from the under side of the nostrils to a line between the eyebrows is a thirdthe forehead, from between the eyebrows to the lowest roots of the hair, is a thirdthe length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the bodythe length of the forearm is one fourth the height of the bodythe breadth of the breast is also one fourth the height of the body Da Vinci saw that these relationships between elements were also the mathematical relationships found in other parts of nature. What we think of as the hidden codes in architecture, Leonardo da Vinci saw as divine. If God designed with these ratios when He made man, then man should design the built environment with the ratios of sacred geometry. Thus in the human body there is a kind of symmetrical harmony between forearm, foot, palm, finger, and other small parts, writes Vitruvius, and so it is with perfect buildings. Designing with Symmetry and Proportion Although European in origin, the concepts written down by Vitruvius seem to be universal. For example, researchers estimate that Native American Indians migrated to North America from Northern Asia about 15,000 years ago - well before even Vitruvius was alive. Yet when European explorers like Francisco Vsquez de Coronado from Spain first encountered the Wichita people in North America in the 1500s, symmetrical huts of grass were well-built and proportioned large enough to house entire familes. How did the Wichita people come up with this conical design and the proper agreement described by the Roman Vitruvius? Wichita Native American Grass House. Edward S. Curtis/George Eastman House/Getty Images (cropped) Concepts of symmetry and proportion can be used purposefully. Modernists of the early 20th century defied Classical symmetry by designing asymmetrical structures. Proportion has been used in spiritual architecture to accentuate the holy. For example, the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong shows not only the symmetry of the San Men Chinese mountain gate, but also how proportion can bring attention to the outlandishly large Buddha statue. Big Buddha at Po Lin Monastery, Lantau Island, Hong Kong, China. Tim Winter/Getty Images (cropped) By examining the human body, both Vitruvius and da Vinci understood the importance of symmetrical proportions in design. As Vitruvius writes, in perfect buildings the different members must be in exact symmetrical relations to the whole general scheme. This is the same theory behind architectural design today. Our intrinsic sense of what we consider beautiful may come from symmetry and proportion. Sources Vitruvius. On Symmetry: In Temples and in the Human Body, Book III, Chapter One, Ten Books on Architecture translated by Morris Hicky Morgan, 1914, The Project Gutenberg, gutenberg.org/files/20239/20239-h/20239-h.htmRaghavan et al. Genomic evidence for the Pleistocene and recent population history of Native Americans, Science, Vol. 349, Issue 6250, August 21, 2015, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/349/6250/aab3884Wichita Indian grass house, Kansas Historical Society, kansasmemory.org/item/210708

Produce a report comparing the methodological approaches undertaken by Essay

Produce a report comparing the methodological approaches undertaken by the authors from two peer reviewed journal articles - Essay Example Numerous researches have been conducted and are being conducted in various fields of studies. If a person wants to know some new thing of certain issue or enhance his/her knowledge regarding some commonly known issues, then indulging himself/herself in through research regarding the issue of his/her concern would be the best thing. It will also help others to know about certain things. However, conducting research is not an easy thing. A systematic way has to be adopted to obtain reliable and viable results. A research method comprises of various steps. There are also different kinds of research methodology. Methodology of researched vary according to the purpose and objective of researches. This paper will put its focus on comparing the methodological approaches undertaken by the authors from two peer reviewed journal articles. For the purpose of this study, two articles should be chosen from same field of research otherwise comparison of the methodologies will not be quite helpful. Various kinds of researches can be conducted in the same field of study and hence methods also differ on the basis of purpose of the studies irrespective of the field of study. In this paper a particular topic area has been chosen. The topic area under consideration is impacts of holding the world cup in a country, the pros and cons. The two research articles chosen for the present study belong to the topic area selected for the present purpose. The prodigious sport events have become so much demanding and super popular throughout the globe both for both the developed and developing countries in terms of property and possessions (Swart and Bob 2009). Hosting mega events like Olympic, the FIFA World Cup or World Cup Cricket, World Cup Rugby, World Cup Hockey, FA Cup and other mega sports events bring up some significant the long living on the hosting countries. It has been a kind of norm that Economists have been very skeptical about hosting very big events such as the Olympic Games or the World Cup, or the FA Cup because these events have reasonable costing scale and seem to have tangible benefits. These doubts are seldomly used by policy makers and the population who remains very excited about such events. Very often people talk about economic impacts of hoisting mega sports events. By the help of different trade models various researches have shows that hosting such big events do have a positive impact on national exports. Statistically, this effect is robust, large and permanent for countries who host such mega events. Also there are phenomenon where unsuccessful bids to host such events like Olympics have a similar positive effect on national exports. Here it can be said that the effect of mega sports events have a positive impact on trade wherein they send a signal that countries will have higher profit margin more in bidding to host the games rather than actually going out carrying out the mega events. But it is not very clear how this large effect on t rade can be reconciled with the fall in GDP. Most probably, there is a signaling effect and a winners’ curse effect that works out over here. However, the effect of hosting mega sports events is not only limited to economical factors. The impacts can be economical, foundational, environmental or social. The impacts can be good or bad. It is really interesting to examine the impacts of hosting

JP Morgan Chase Proposal Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

JP Morgan Chase Proposal Analysis - Essay Example The essay "JP Morgan Chase Proposal Analysis" talks about the in-house software development process to solve one of JP Morgan Chase challenges in cyber security. Through research and development, the technology team at JP Morgan Chase will come up with a system that will use in protecting the intrusion of hackers. The process of developing software to deal with the problem of cyber security is as important as the outcome. Through the development of the system from scratch, the information and technology team will have a greater understanding of the functionalities. In designing the system, for instance, the description of the data flows help the development team to identify any potential weak point in the system. Through charts and diagrammatical explanations, other members of the organization can also easily understand the underlying processes in the system. In most organization, the introduction of new ideas and ways of doing business is often met with a degree of resistance. The r esistance will stem from the fact that the members of the organization have little or no understanding of the system. As such, implementing the change brings with it a high level of challenge. Through this process, JP Morgan Chase staff involved in the change to the new system will receive an in depth understanding that is crucial for the system’s successful implementation. As a direct result of the comprehensive understanding of the system, the employees involved in the development process can also easily troubleshoot the system.

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 22

English - Essay Example One of the main differences between soccer and football is the use of the hands and feet. In soccer, the only person who can touch the ball with his hands is the goalie. In football, the ball is carried by hand or thrown by hand only (Tara OÂ ´Gorman) For American football the playing field will be of size 90-120 m long and 45-90 m wide while in world football it is around 110 m long and 48.8 m wide. In world football each player will have specific positions while in American football such positions are not defined. In football there will be mostly the match is controlled by a referee and 2 lines man while in American football apart from a referee another 6 more judges will be there. In football the ball will be a round leather ball measuring 68 and 71 cm in circumference, weighing between 396 to 453 g. But in American football the ball is an extended spheroid with a circumference of 72.4 cm around the long axis and 54 cm around the short axis, weighing about 397 to 425 g. Though both in American football and in world football colored uniform is used by player, the pants of the world football players will be little longer than that used in American football. American football players enjoy direct contacts with the fans while in world football players will be under protective armor. World football playing time is 90 minutes consisting of two equal halves of 45 minutes with a 15 minute break in between while in American football is divided into 4 quarters of 15 minutes each. World football is more popular than the American football with famous football playing countries like, Brazil, Italy, England, Argentina, Germany, Netherlands, etc. which brings joy to trillions of fans

Quality Indicators Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Quality Indicators Paper - Essay Example It provides it services to patients from its three locations at Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Arizona (About Mayo Clinic). In 2008, Mayo Clinic was again adjudged as the best hospital in United States of America by U.S. News & World Report for the nineteenth consecutive. This continuing honor for Mayo Clinic is a reflection of the commitment to quality in health care that Mayo Clinic demonstrates which becomes evident from these words of Glenn Forbes, CEO of Mayo Clinic, Rochester â€Å"Were committed to setting the standard for high-value care †¦.. Nothing is more important to Mayo Clinic than quality and providing the best care to every patient, every day" (Honor Roll for 2008). The primary value at Mayo Clinic is putting the needs of the patient first. Core principles guide the various activities at Mayo Clinic. Medicine is practiced as an integrated multi-disciplinary team with compassion. Mayo Clinic believes in continually educating its physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals and also being a source of information to its patients and community that it serves. Basic and clinical research at Mayo Clinic is founded on the principle of the research enhancing patient care and being of benefit to society. Mayo Clinic believes in mutual respect and practices it by treating all the members of its diverse community with respect and dignity. Mayo Clinic is committed to quality and strives to improve the quality of health care that it provides by continually improving all the processes involved in the delivery of patient care, education and research. Mayo Clinic believes in an appropriate work atmosphere that is brought about by fostering teamwork, personal responsibility, integrity, innovation, trust, and communication through all the processes of a physician-led institution. Its commitment to society is made up of benefiting humanity by patient care, education and

Food and beverage Management ( Case study) Essay

Food and beverage Management ( Case study) - Essay Example 6. ‘The Olive Tree’ can roll new items without much of the operational hurdle commonly found in the large chains. Six weaknesses can be identified as per the following. 1. ‘Resource limitation’, the company cannot spend much on creating its own unique brand. 2. The company does not have much leverage on large menu additions. 3. ‘No brand promotion’ to compete with large companies. 4. No market research possibility for introducing new menu items. 5. Owner is the sole guiding force; no other competent staff that can replace him at the time of emergency. 6. Low equity holding does not allow easy expansion at other locations. Answer 2 Critical Evaluation of the Restaurant The below mentioned table shows all important parameters such as total sales, gross profit, net profit, average spend per head, food versus drink sale, % gross profit for food and drink, % net profit for food and drink, total gross profit combined for food and drink that are necess ary to judge the company performance. The Oliver Tree’s performance (Calculated) for the year 2012-13 April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March Total Sales 49,660 51,194 53,204 54,505 55,403 53,191 49,240 48,070 49,046 41,628 41,280 42,077 Gross Profit (Food) 23,115 23,864 24,252 25,643 25,842 25,176 23,525 22,901 20,292 17,644 18,181 20,033 Gross Profit (Food) % 68.29 67.09 67.19 68.20 66.39 67.70 68.09 67.40 63.50 60.26 62.10 65.70 Gross Profit (Drink) 11,450 11,034 11,706 11,783 12,462 12,386 10,272 10,202 10,800 8,065 8,414 7,668 Gross Profit (Drink) % 72.4 70.6 68.40 69.70 75.60 77.40 69.90 72.40 63.19 65.30 70.09 66.2 Total Gross Profit (F+D) 34,565 34.898 35,955 37,426 38,304. 37,562, 33,797, 33,103 31,092 25,709 26,595 27,701 Net Profit 21,455 23,574 23,612 24,018 22,293 21,498 20,897 20,653 18,929 14,777 14,966 15,794 Net Profit % 43.2 46.04 44.38 44.0 40.23 40.42 42.43 42.96 38.6 35.5 36.25 37.53 Avg. spend (?) per head 8.76 8.67 8.86 9.06 9.30 9.33 9.5 5 9.82 10.81 8.46 8.76 8.79 Trading Position First five months of ‘The Olive Tree’ show a consistent rising trend as far as the trading position is concerned; however, thereafter a slowdown has been observed with a major fall seen in last quarter. Trades between June and September show higher revenue earnings with weekly sales remaining above ?12,000 throughout. Sales February is the slack-month for the company registering sales of only ? 41,280 while August is the boom period for the company recording sales at ? 55,403. The difference between these two months is over 30 percent. It is important to analyze the fall in last quarter for remedial measures. Value-wise, the company's sales on drink constitute over 30 percent of the total and percentage profit margin from drinks is higher than food items. Average spend per Head As calculated and mentioned in the above mentioned table, average-spend per head vary between ? 8.46 and ? 10.81. The lowest spend is found at ? 8.46 in month of February while highest spend is registered in month of December at ? 10.81. Food Gross Profit The highest food gross profit is registered in month of August at ? 25,842 and the lowest profit is in month of February at ?17,644. It is pretty clear that profit in winter is on lower side compared to profit earned in summer months. Wages Wage bill varies between ?10,932 and ?16,064 per month. Again, the lowest bill has been registered in February and highest has been register

National Changes In Tuition Fees And Funding 2006 Essay

National Changes In Tuition Fees And Funding 2006 - Essay Example As has been scientifically proven, a slight change or shift in an equilibrium situation is bound to set off a reaction process that moves to contain the change could mean different things to different people going by the Betty and Adams illustration painted above. The obvious fact in education today is that there has being a regime change in tuition fees for new students and this sector and implications underlined. There are currently two tuitions fees types. The first indicates that new students are expected to pay 3,000 up from 1,200 that its initially was. This initial amount is however sustained for old students who are returning to campus. The expectation attached to this increase is that having been calculated and pegged till 2009 it will not be rising above this figure. Fees for sandwich and home foundation years are incidentally not part of this 3,000. One unique observation is however the fact that payment of these fees can be deferred until after graduation. The second tuition type is one in which a tuition fee loan is available, accessible without a no means test. This kind of loan is available to home students and EU nationals and it is paid directly to the university, it also has no age limit for applicants. 75% of students' loans for living costs are available without means test whole 25% is dependent on a means test. The sum of 6,170 is pegged as the maximum loan rates for those in London living a way from home while for those living in parental homes in London if is 3,415. The payment schedule for this loan is on an installment basis paid either in September or January and April. It has an age limit of 60years. Fees and living cost are repayable starting from the April after graduation provided that gross earnings stand at minimum of 15,000 per annum. So it is really dependent on how much the student earns after graduation. 9% of earning over 15,000 are paid through the tax system with an interest not above the approximate rate of inflation. This loan however will be written off after 25years if it remains unpaid. Grant such as the LA grants for living cost exists with a new 2,700 non-payable but means tested grant available to students. Income of 17,500 or less attract the maximum grant partial grants are awarded to families with income of between 17,500-37,425.Families with income above the upper limit of 31,425 are given no grant. Maintenance loans will be reduced by up 1,200 for some students who are receiving full grant or living at home e.t.c. where however the students qualify for social security benefits they shall have the maximum grant without and reduction from their maintenance loan. A minimum of 300 should be offer to students benefiting from the maximum 2,700 grant by institution of higher education charging the maximum 3,000 tuition fees. This is towards helping the students in course-related cost and are not expected to pay back. This compulsory payment to student is done by SLC in January. Additional bursaries are awarded as deemed fits by the institution. Also obtainable in the new tuition and

Food and beverage Management ( Case study) Essay

Food and beverage Management ( Case study) - Essay Example 6. ‘The Olive Tree’ can roll new items without much of the operational hurdle commonly found in the large chains. Six weaknesses can be identified as per the following. 1. ‘Resource limitation’, the company cannot spend much on creating its own unique brand. 2. The company does not have much leverage on large menu additions. 3. ‘No brand promotion’ to compete with large companies. 4. No market research possibility for introducing new menu items. 5. Owner is the sole guiding force; no other competent staff that can replace him at the time of emergency. 6. Low equity holding does not allow easy expansion at other locations. Answer 2 Critical Evaluation of the Restaurant The below mentioned table shows all important parameters such as total sales, gross profit, net profit, average spend per head, food versus drink sale, % gross profit for food and drink, % net profit for food and drink, total gross profit combined for food and drink that are necess ary to judge the company performance. The Oliver Tree’s performance (Calculated) for the year 2012-13 April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March Total Sales 49,660 51,194 53,204 54,505 55,403 53,191 49,240 48,070 49,046 41,628 41,280 42,077 Gross Profit (Food) 23,115 23,864 24,252 25,643 25,842 25,176 23,525 22,901 20,292 17,644 18,181 20,033 Gross Profit (Food) % 68.29 67.09 67.19 68.20 66.39 67.70 68.09 67.40 63.50 60.26 62.10 65.70 Gross Profit (Drink) 11,450 11,034 11,706 11,783 12,462 12,386 10,272 10,202 10,800 8,065 8,414 7,668 Gross Profit (Drink) % 72.4 70.6 68.40 69.70 75.60 77.40 69.90 72.40 63.19 65.30 70.09 66.2 Total Gross Profit (F+D) 34,565 34.898 35,955 37,426 38,304. 37,562, 33,797, 33,103 31,092 25,709 26,595 27,701 Net Profit 21,455 23,574 23,612 24,018 22,293 21,498 20,897 20,653 18,929 14,777 14,966 15,794 Net Profit % 43.2 46.04 44.38 44.0 40.23 40.42 42.43 42.96 38.6 35.5 36.25 37.53 Avg. spend (?) per head 8.76 8.67 8.86 9.06 9.30 9.33 9.5 5 9.82 10.81 8.46 8.76 8.79 Trading Position First five months of ‘The Olive Tree’ show a consistent rising trend as far as the trading position is concerned; however, thereafter a slowdown has been observed with a major fall seen in last quarter. Trades between June and September show higher revenue earnings with weekly sales remaining above ?12,000 throughout. Sales February is the slack-month for the company registering sales of only ? 41,280 while August is the boom period for the company recording sales at ? 55,403. The difference between these two months is over 30 percent. It is important to analyze the fall in last quarter for remedial measures. Value-wise, the company's sales on drink constitute over 30 percent of the total and percentage profit margin from drinks is higher than food items. Average spend per Head As calculated and mentioned in the above mentioned table, average-spend per head vary between ? 8.46 and ? 10.81. The lowest spend is found at ? 8.46 in month of February while highest spend is registered in month of December at ? 10.81. Food Gross Profit The highest food gross profit is registered in month of August at ? 25,842 and the lowest profit is in month of February at ?17,644. It is pretty clear that profit in winter is on lower side compared to profit earned in summer months. Wages Wage bill varies between ?10,932 and ?16,064 per month. Again, the lowest bill has been registered in February and highest has been register

Do we overplay the influence - especially the harmful influence - of Essay

Do we overplay the influence - especially the harmful influence - of the media on British politics - Essay Example Hodgson (2007) claimed that since ‘World War II’ British media has played an influential role in the country in terms of political participation, elections and political process among others. Considering this fact, media and newspaper has undermined several aspects of the country in terms of voting, elections, political equality and accountability. As a consequence, the impact of the political activities in case of business sectors, has diversely affected the performance of the country. Moreover, it has also affected the financial stability of the country in context of political background. Additionally, during the early 21st century the traditional trend of media changed to a considerable extent and the presence of social media highly influenced the political performance in Britain (Hodgson, 2007). In this assignment, the objective is to identify that whether we overplay the influences of media on the British politics. At the same time, the study has also emphasised to identify the harmful influences of media and newspaper of the British political system. During the contemporary era, the role of mass media has changed, which has influenced potential problems on the democratic environment of the British government. More precisely, media and newspaper has identified all the agenda from the domestic environment of the British and framed the same in front of Britain citizens. In this regard, mass media have a high influence on the macro political agenda, which has initiated difficulties for the political parties in Britain. According to the viewpoint of Tulloch (2007) British political system is usually established on the basis of democratic governance. In this context, it is evident that constitutional issues and governmental elections are usually the core agenda’s of the British political system. On the other hand, a large number of the

Different kinds of motivation

Different kinds of motivation The importance of different kinds of motivation in SL learning The presence of different types of motivation can be really helpful for the language learner to achieve the best possible results in the learning process. Indeed, it is difficult to think of any kind of learning without motivation. Although too high levels of enthusiasm may backfire (and cause anxiety), it is inevitable to possess a healthy level of motivation in order to achieve results. Although students motivation is obviously not entirely under the teachers control, the instructor should do whatever is possible to increase this factor. It is commonly acknowledged that motivation can positively influence language learning. People are heavily dominated by their emotions, even in such seemingly dispassionate issues as language learning is. No wonder that student feelings have as much power to affect their learning success as their styles and strategies (Ehrman, 1996, p.135.). According to the definition of Ehrman (1996), motivation is the perceived payoff for the students investment of time, energy, and effort.(p.137.). Apparently, if this payoff is low, the student will either stop learning the language for good or, if they do not have an option, they will be caught in a web of bad feelings and even worse grades. Then, the failures will only generate further disappointment. On the other hand, a student who finds at least one legitimate reason for continuing their language study is already on the right track. Anyone who has attempted language study is able to think of a number of such reasons. Yet, the scientific study of motivation is extremely challenging, since all the factors influencing motivation are interrelated and continually changing. They cannot very well be categorized according to the degree of their power. Therefore, motivation for learning a foreign language has usually been classified according to its possible sources. A common way of categorization is to distinguish extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. According to definition (and closely connected with its name) intrinsic motivation is thought of as being within the task itself: a sense of achievement, self-esteem, pride in solving the problem, enjoyment of the class, being able to use the language as desired. (Johnson Johnson, 1998, p.220.) Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is connected with other consequences of success on the task (Johnson Johnson, p.220.), such as promotion at ones workplace, good grades, and so on. Another model of classification is that of Robert Gardners (as cited in Ehrman, 1996). He divided motivation into instrumental and integrative types. The first may be equated to extrinsic motivation, while the other is more interesting; it has to do with the desire to become part of a target language community. (Ehrman, 1996) As the research of motivation in language learning progressed, many other theories have been drawn up, using similar and new motivating elements as well. An especially intricate model of motivation has been created by Zoltà ¡n Dà ¶rnyei. It is called the L2 Motivational Self System and it consists of three main components: ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self and the L2 learning experience. (as cited in Csizà ©r Kormos, 2009, p.99.). The ideal L2 self is an image of how students would like to see themselves, in this case, as fluent speakers of a given language. This component includes Gardners integrative motivation as well. The ought-to L2 self includes the characteristics of an ideal person who is able to evade failure in language study. The notion of L2 learning experience is quite easy to grasp, it basically means the motivating force of the learning settings. An experiment that Csizà ©r and Kormos (2009) conducted with the participation of secondary school and university students in Budapest gave the results that the main factors influencing language learning were the ideal L2 self and the learning experiences, while the role of the ought-to L2 self seemed marginal (Csizà ©r Kormos, p.109.). Although this study is bound to be somewhat narrow to draw too general conclusions from, it clearly demonstrates an important idea: the learning environment has a great influence on student motivation. As is shown by the experiment of Csizà ©r and Kormos (2009), some motivation types have an implication for language instruction, because they may be influenced by teaching strategy. However, there are several problems with enhancing motivation. In the first place, as it has been mentioned before, it is not an easy task to study motivation: motivation types are notoriously difficult to isolate and motivation is problematical to measure. Moreover, the relationship of theory and research to classroom situation (Johnson Johnson, 1998, p.223.) is also questionable, that is, the theories are often difficult to prove and apply in real life situations. What is more, although motivation is generally considered to be necessary, teachers might not be able to devote enough attention to it, because of the large size of the learning group or other unfavourable circumstances. Finally, there are cases when motivation simply cannot be influenced from the outside, as in the case of integrative motiv ation of a person who pointedly dislikes a culture associated with a language or feels aversions to the language itself. In spite of all these complications, there has been a consistent move towards motivation-enhancing learning activities (Johnson Johnson, 1998, p.224.). The ways Ehrman (1996) suggests to deal with lack of motivation are the following: most importantly she advises listening to the anger, tension, and mixed motivations (p.142) of the unenthusiastic students and helping them cope with their destructive emotions using, for example, relaxation exercises(p.143). Another idea of Ehrman (1996) is to motivate students with activities that are in accordance with their interests and pastimes. These strategies sound very practical and sensible, however, they have considerable limitations taking into account the varied composition of the class and the fact that the teacher is not a psychologist. There are other, more theoretical means that are thought to boost motivation as well. According to Stevick (as cited in Johnson Johnson, 1998) relevance of material to the students language requirements , completeness of the syllabus, authenticity of the information provided, satisfaction of students beyond learning and immediacy of the knowledge gained are five types of reward that could be built into materials and would encourage students to persevere and succeed. (Johnson Johnson, 1996, p.224.). Some of Stevicks ideas, namely that of relevance, authenticity and immediacy have already been adopted (the first two by the Language for Specific Purposes movement and the last one in Notional Functional Syllabuses), while completeness and satisfaction are more debated (Johnson Johnson, p.224.) In summary, motivation is a slippery notion that can be neither measured properly, nor examined very precisely, as it changes from community to community, from person to person, and may even change in the learning history of a single student. Still, there are ways to study motivation and as it is admittedly an important factor of language learning, research and practice, hand in hand, should try to find ways to make it as high as possible. References Csizà ©r, K., Kormos, J. (2009). Learning Experiences, Selves and Motivated Learning Behaviour: A Comparative Analysis of Structural Models for Hungarian Secondary and University Learners of English. In Z. Dà ¶rnyei E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self (pp. 98-119). Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters. Ehrman, M. E. (1996). Understanding Second Language Learning Difficulties. London: SAGE. Johnson, K., Johnson H. (Eds.). (1998). Motivation. In Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. (pp. 219-225). Oxford, England: Blackwell.

W.B. Yeats and the Importance of Imagination Essay -- Biography Biogra

W.B. Yeats and the Importance of Imagination The poetry of the Irish writer WB Yeats celebrates how the human imagination gives meaning to life's struggles. Yeats's vision of human creative power evolves with his writing, broadening from seeing the imagination as the embodiment of human desires to understanding the power of the imagination to inspire others and immortalize the creative spirit. Yeats's work, by embracing this power, embraces the human condition itself, giving dignity to hardships and suffering by transfiguring 'dread' into 'tragedy.' The inevitable suffering described in poems like "Adam's Curse," "The Wild Swans at Coole," and "The Circus Animals' Desertion," is transfigured into works of art which immortalize the human spirit, as in "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "A Dialogue of Self and Soul," and "Lapis Lazuli." In Yeats' poems, human life is an experience wrought with sorrow and suffering. "Adam's Curse," for example, defines the human condition in terms of the twin hardships of labor and mortality. Just as the Biblical Adam was cursed with toil and death when he was exiled from Eden, all people in "Adam's Curse" must struggle to live, only to ultimately die. Like the "old pauper" who must "scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones" to survive, all people labor in life, especially when making a work of beauty: the poet, for example, works "hours" at "stitching and unstitching" lines in order to create "sweet sounds," only to be called an "idler," and every woman is "born...to know" that she must "labour to be beautiful." The "curse" of labor is made more bearable when it informs the creation of beauty, as in a poem, a woman's "sweet and low" voice, or a "love...compounded of high courtesy," but the curs... ...g the inflexible realities of life, Yeats's works come to appreciate the greater powers of the creative soul to inspire others to embrace their own suffering, to see and balance all parts of the human experience and transfigure even hardship into art. The imagination thus empowers man to defy with his spirit what his body cannot- he finds spiritual timelessness, perfection, and immortality in a world where he will decay, fail, and perish. It is the imagination which allows this discovery, transfiguring the deepest anguish of bounded life into free and eternal "gaiety." Works Cited Finneran, Richard, ed. The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats. 2nd ed. New York: Scribner, 1997. Frye, Northrop. The Educated Imagination.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1964. Parkinson, Thomas. W.B. Yeats: The Later Poetry. University of California Press: Berkeley, 1964.

The Ethics for Internal Auditors in Communicating Inappropriate Financi

Ethical dilemmas occur every day in the accounting industry. We have witnessed scandals such as Adelphia, Enron, and WorldCom. They demonstrate the extent of unethical practices. The introduction of Sarbanes Oxley Act and stricter accounting standards have definitely helped mitigate unethical acts. Unfortunately, the incorporation of these systems is not sufficient to accomplish ethical business practices. Businesses use internal auditors to help protect their financial reputation. An internal auditor’s role is to assure the organization’s operations are conducted systematically, properly controlled, and with discipline (The Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation 3). The Internal Auditor position was created, as a result of a rapidly growing American economy, in the mid twenty century. The developing American economy, also known as the golden years, included inappropriate business practice. These practices included, but not limited to, stock manipulations and false business statements. Maintaining an ethical position will avoid the breakdown of organizational progress and the opportunity to correct inappropriate accounting procedures. As the need for proper accounting increased, the demand for internal auditors took place. An internal auditor will review and assure the quality of cash disbursements, cash receipts, corporate governance, ethics, financial reporting controls, fixed assets, project management, sales, and stock controls within an organization (J.L. Vergaert). It is important for the auditors to abide by and ensure the company follows the accounting policies and standards via proper communication and suggestion for correction of any in adequate process found while performing their functions. In addition t... ...hip Styles and the Moral Choice of Internal auditors. Volume 15, No 1, 2010 Jean-Louis Vergaert, Sarbanes-Oxley and Internal Audit. 2002 Jubb, P. B. International Journal of Auditing. â€Å"Auditors as Whistleblowers† Volume 4: 153-167| DOI: 10.1111/1099-1123.00310. Date: 2000. Print "Reporting and Relationships Case Study: Internal A". Anti Essays. 30 May. 2012 Rittenberg, Larry; Wayne Moore,; Mark Covaleski. "The Outsourcing Phenomenon." Institute of Internal Auditors, Inc. High Beam, 1999. Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS 112) The Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation. â€Å"Internal Audit Reporting Relationships: Serving Two Masters†. ISBN: 978-0-89413-669-6 Publisher: The IIA Research Foundation. Publish Date: 2003. Print

Horizontal Integration

Competition DG Information, communication and multimedia Media Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law Miguel Mendes Pereira* â€Å"The ICT and Media Sectors within the EU Policy Framework† U. L. B. -SMIT (Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunications) CEAS-Norwegian School of Management, Oslo Telenor Broadcast Brussels, 7 April 2003 OUTLINE Introduction I. Convergence and integration 1. Technical convergence 2. Economic convergence 3. Efficiencies II. Competition issues 1. The competitive arena 2.Foreclosure 3. The dominance test III. Vertical integration 1. 2. 3. 4. The gate-keeper issue Foreclosure of input markets Leveraging Network effects IV. Horizontal integration 1. General assessment 2. The Newscorp/Telepiu case 3. The EMI/Time Warner case V. Remedies 1. The balance between efficiencies and foreclosure 2. Remedies in the Newscorp/Telepiu case 3. Remedies in the cases Vivendi/Seagram/Canal Plus, Vizzavi and AOL/Time Warner Conclusion * Administrator, European Commission/DG Competition/Media Unit. Lecturer at the Law School of the University of Lisbon.The opinions expressed are purely personal and only engage the author. â€Å"Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M. Mendes Pereira Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish first of all to thank the SMIT Center and Telenor for inviting me to speak here today. I intend to give you a brief overview of the competition issues raised by vertical and horizontal integration of companies in the media sector. I will start by referring to the convergence trend in the media and telecommunications sectors and its link to the concentration wave we have witnessed during these past three years.I will then highlight the main competition issues which this type of operations raise from a theoretical point of view. I will subsequently address the issues linked specifically to vertical as well as to horizontal integration, and c onclude by illustrating how the European Commission has dealt with these problems by means of remedies accepted as a condition for the approval of this type of concentrations. In so doing, I will refer to a number of cases recently assessed by the Commission such as AOL/Time Warner, EMI/Time Warner, Vizzavi, Vivendi/Seagram/Canal Plus and, decided just last week, Newscorp/Telepiu.I. CONVERGENCE & INTEGRATION Convergence has become all too familiar to most of us as one of the main driving forces behind the recent changes occurred in the media and telecom industries. However, as it so frequently happens with notions that turn into â€Å"buzzwords†, the many meanings attributed to the term â€Å"convergence† are often ambiguous and, as such, unhelpful in order to describe the evolution of the media and telecom industries. Let me therefore turn, first of all, to the two meanings of the term â€Å"convergence† that I consider to be most relevant from a competition la w point of view. . Technical convergence Technical convergence mainly concerns the possibilities offered by digital technology. Those possibilities are reflected, for example, in the infra-structures required to deliver contents like movies or music. With the current digital technology, huge amounts of data may be transmitted to a high number of users through different networks (mobile networks, Internet, satellite). This allows for the dematerialization of media products traditionally sold as physical products (newspapers, films, CD’s) by transforming them into packages of bytes.At the same time, digital technology allows for the convergence of traditionally separate media into a single product, putting together text, sound, video and voice in what has become known as multimedia. Access to TV broadcasting, or rather webcastig, on the Internet is already nowadays a reality and listening to an MP3 music file on a cellular phone is nothing new. 2. Economic convergence Audio-vis ual products were never cheap but the growing competition induced by the proliferation of TV channels has inflated production costs. For example, the by now famous saga â€Å"The Lord of the Rings† has had reported costs of â‚ ¬ 278 million.In order to have an idea of the recent increase in the price for audio-visual contents it is sufficient to compare, for example, the price paid for broadcasting rights of the Football World Cups of 1990, 1994 and 1998 – 241 million ECU – with the price paid for the same rights in respect of the World Cups of 2002 and 2006 – 1,7 billion Euro. Only large companies seem to be able to afford such astronomical costs. 2 â€Å"Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M. Mendes Pereira In face of economic barriers of such dimension, media companies have shown a trend towards concentration. . Efficiencies What appeared to be particularly new about these alliances and mer gers in the media industry was the search of not only the traditional economies of scale but, above all, the search of economies of scope. This translated into an attempt to use the same product in a number of different ways: pure entertainment and telecommunication, or entertainment and information, or information and telecommunication. From an economic point of view, economies of scope basically translate in lower Average Total Costs as a result of producing a wide range of products.The main feature of this type of concentrations is the vertical integration of the different levels of production and distribution of media products that leads to companies which are able to, for example, produce films or music, register them in DVDs or CDs and distribute them not only to â€Å"brick and mortar† shops but also through the cable, satellite or mobile telephony networks they own. Vertically integrated companies are in a position to exploit their products at every single level of th e value chain. „Create Once, Place Everywhere! seemed to be the motto for the media industry during the Internet bubble, illustrating the need for media producers to place their products in the largest possible number of different platforms. This was the underlying reason for alliances and mergers between companies which are active in sectors of the economy that used to be separate like television and telecommunications. Operations like AOL/Time Warner, Vivendi/Universal, Vivendi/Vodafone for the setting up of portal Vizzavi or the acquisition of Dutch entertainment producer Endemol by the Spanish telecom company Telefonica clearly illustrate this trend.It should be said that, to a large extent, the ratio underlying some of these operations was a deep faith in the Internet potential and a strong belief in the synergies resulting from cross-supply between different technical platforms belonging to the same vertically integrated company. The burst of the â€Å"dotcom bubbleâ₠¬  showed how some of these expectations were possibly premature. We now start seeing some of the vertically integrated groups selling off some of their units (AOL/TW or Vivendi/Universal) and witness consolidation caused by heavy losses incurred during these past few years.Such is the case of the pay-TV industry, as illustrated by the merger in Spain of the platforms Canal Satelite and Via Digital and the merger in Italy between the platforms Stream and Telepiu, approved by the Commission just last week. After a period of extensive vertical integration, we now witness a reflux of horizontal integration dictated to some extent by financial reasons. II. COMPETITION ISSUES 1. The competitive arena Turning now to the competition issues raised by integration of companies, the first step required in order to understand the forces at play is to determine the perimeter of the competitive arena.What do media companies compete for, whom do they try to sell their products to and how do they intend to do it? Media companies compete for – essentially – three things. First, they compete for content, which is what they will ultimately sell to their customers. Access to content produced by third parties or the establishment of production facilities is a sine qua non condition for entering or staying in business. Secondly, they compete for the best way to deliver such content to customers. Access to delivery channels owned by third parties or 3 â€Å"Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M.Mendes Pereira the possibility to establish their own paths to the customer is what allows media companies to distribute their output. Finally, they compete for the obvious ultimate addressee of all this competition: the customer. But this is a contest which goes beyond the obvious competition for a onetime sale. Some of the businesses in the media & telecom sector (e. g; pay-TV, Internet access), like most IT-driven b usinesses, are based on a durable relationship with the customer. An established customer basis allows for the progressive development of new services and products and for the consequent increase in ARPU1.Access to potential clients managed by third parties or the build-up of their own client basis is the ultimate target of media companies. 2. Foreclosure Foreclosure of the competitive arena is a central concern of EU competition policy in relation to vertical agreements and mergers. Restricted access to input markets (copyrights or contents) or to sales markets (customers, at retail level) may limit inter-brand competition. The extreme example is where a company, as a result of a vertical or horizontal integration, succeeds in simply barring the access to a given market to its competitors.However, in real life foreclosure does not arise in such simplistic terms and mostly materialises by indirect means. For example, by raising rivals’ costs, by raising barriers to entry or b y engaging in tying/bundling. Tying is particularly relevant in the media and telecom sectors given that it is often present in explicit (and in most cases, legitimate) commercial offers: for example, a bundled offer of pay-TV and Internet access, or both plus fixed telephony (so called â€Å"triple play†). The ability to raise rivals’ costs may easily arise where a dominant firm is in a position or acquires such position as a result of a concentration) to control the access by competitors to a given infra-structure or input (a technology or a copyright) and where it has the possibility to charge supra-competitive prices for such access. In the media sector one could think about, for example, access to a satellite platform for TV distribution or to a proprietary standard for Conditional Access System. A company in these circumstances is commonly referred to as a â€Å"gate-keeper†. A central element in the assessment of market power of a company and its possibil ity of foreclosing a given market is the concept of barriers to entry.Where entry barriers do not exist, easy entry will quickly eliminate the problem, even where the incumbent holds large market shares. Entry barriers might be described as â€Å"the advantages of established sellers in an industry over potential entrant sellers, these advantages being reflected in the extent to which established sellers can persistently raise their prices above a competitive level without attracting new firms to enter the industry†2. Although in most cases barriers to entry will indeed have an economic nature, they may in some cases assume other forms.Regulation may function as an entry barrier when it provides for the establishment of special rights, for example when only a limited number of licenses is foreseen. This is the case of terrestrial TV and/or radio broadcasting due to spectrum scarcity. 3. The dominance test Most competition law issues related to vertical and horizontal integrat ion in the media sector have been dealt with by the European Commission under the Merger Regulation, i. e. in respect of concentrations notified under the EC Merger Regulation3. As 2 3 1 Average Revenue per User.J. Bain, Barriers to Competition, H. U. P. 1965, p. 3. Council Regulation (EC) No 4064/89 of 21 December 1989 on the control of concentrations 4 â€Å"Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M. Mendes Pereira you know, pursuant to Article 2 (3) of the Merger Regulation, â€Å"a concentration which creates or strengthens a dominant position as a result of which effective competition would be significantly impeded in the common market or in a substantial part of it, shall be declared incompatible with the common market. The test applied by the Commission when assessing these operations was therefore a dominance test. The concept of dominance used under the Merger Regulation is equivalent to the one defined by the Court o f Justice in Article 82 cases: â€Å"The dominant position (†¦) relates to a position of economic strength enjoyed by an undertaking which enables it to prevent effective competition being maintained on the relevant market by giving it the power to behave to an appreciable extent independently of its competitors, customers and ultimately of its consumers†4. (†¦) such a position does not preclude some competition, which it does where there is a monopoly or quasi-monopoly, but enables the undertaking which profits by it, if not to determine, at least to have an appreciable influence on the conditions under which that competition will develop, and in any case to act largely in discard of it so long as such conduct does not operate to its detriment. †5 III.Vertical integration The reason why vertical integration is a particularly relevant competition issue in the media sector is because many media companies have during these past years actively sought to take vert ical integration as far as possible. This has been a constant between undertakings, OJ L 395/1, 30. 12. 1989, as amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 1310/97 of 30 June 1997, OJ L 40/17, 13. 2. 1998. ECJ, United Brands, case 2/76, ECR [1978] 207. ECJ, Hoffman-La Roche, case 85/76, ECR [1979] 461. eature of the concentrations in the media sector assessed by the Commission. The multiplication of the presence of a company throughout a number of markets along the value chain of the product concomitantly multiplies the possibilities for such a company to foreclose one or more of the corresponding markets where the company possesses market power. In these circumstances, vertical integration may in itself raise barriers to entry. A number of recurrent competition issues has arisen in the cases dealt with by the Commission, and I propose to address the most significant ones. 1.The gate-keeper A gate-keeper role is played by a company possessing a certain infra-structure, technology or know -how allowing it to exert a significant degree of control in respect of the access to a given market. This degree of control is relevant from a competition point of view only where the market power of the gate-keeper is significant and where the infrastructure is a crucial gateway to the market or where the technology at stake is an essential input for any potential new entrant. A gatekeeper will be able to engage in exclusionary practices vis-a-vis its competitors and/or excessive pricing vis-a-vis its customers.A clear gate-keeper issue arose in the recent Newscorp/Telepiu case6, concerning the merger of the two Italian pay-TV platforms Stream and Telepiu. As a result of the merger, the new entity would become the gate-keeper in respect of the access to the only satellite platform in Italy for the provision of pay-TV distribution services. Furthermore, it would become the gate-keeper in respect of a number of technical services associated to 6 Case COMP/M. 2876 Newscorp/Telepiu. S ee prior notification notice in OJCE, C255, 23. 10. 2002, p. 20; press release IP/02/1782 of 29. 11. 2002; press release IP/03/478 of 02. 4. 2003. 5 4 5 â€Å"Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M. Mendes Pereira pay-TV such as Conditional Access Systems, set-top boxes and Electronic Programme Guides. A gate-keeper issue also arose in the AOL/Time Warner merger7 approved in the year 2000. AOL was the leading Internet access provider in the US and the only provider with a presence in most EU Member States. Time Warner, on the other hand, was one of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies with interests in TV networks, magazines, book publishing, music, filmed entertainment and cable networks.The Commission found that the new entity resulting from the merger would have been able to play a gate-keeper role and to dictate the technical standards for on-line music delivery, i. e. streaming and downloading of music from the Internet. Consequently, AOL/TW could end up holding a dominant position on the emerging market for on-line music delivery. This could happen in two ways. First, AOL/Time Warner would be in a position to develop a closed proprietary formatting technology for all the downloads and streaming of Time Warner and Bertelsmann tracks.The formatting language of AOL/Time Warner could become an industry standard and competing record companies wishing to distribute their music on-line would be required to format their music using the new entity’s technology. Because of its control over the relevant technology, the new entity would be in a position to control downloadable music and streaming over the Internet and raise competitor’s costs through excessive license fees. Alternatively, AOL/Time Warner could format its music (and Bertelsmann’s) to make it compatible with its own software Winamp nly, ensuring at the same time that Winamp could support and play di fferent formats used by other record companies. By formatting its music and the music from Bertelsmann to make them compatible with its own software Winamp only, the new entity would cause Winamp to become the only â€Å"player† in the world capable of playing virtually all the music available on the Internet. By refusing to license its technology, the new entity would impose Winamp as the dominant music player as no other player would be able to decode the proprietary format of TW and Bertelsmann music.As a result of the merger, the new entity would control the dominant player software and could charge supra-competitive prices for it. 2. Foreclosure of input markets A given company may hold a significant degree control over the source of the different businesses at stake in the relevant markets, i. e. of the primary input at the top of the value chain of the product. In the media industries, this will generally refer to the company producing the audio-visual product (films, music, TV-programmes) and/or holding the corresponding copyrights.The control exerted at the source will become relevant from a competition law point of view where the amount or breadth of products and/or copyrights is such as to allow the company to gain a competitive advantage by means of exclusionary or discriminatory practices vis-a-vis its competitors. In AOL/Time Warner, for example, the combined entity would not only possess one of the largest music libraries in the world (Warner Music is one of the 5 music majors) but would also, due to contractual links, have preferential access to the library of Bertelsmann Music Group, also part to the group of the 5 music majors.This would result in the combined entity controlling the leading source of music publishing rights in Europe. 6 7 Case COMP/M. 1845 AOL/Time Warner, decision of 11. 10. 2000, OJ L 268/28, 9. 10. 2001. â€Å"Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M. Mendes P ereira The problem was aggravated due to the simultaneous notification of the projected merger between EMI and Time Warner8. The preferential access by AOL/Time Warner to the music copyrights of EMI, Warner and Bertelsmann would have put in the hands of the new entity half of all the music content available in Europe for on-line delivery.A similar problem arose in the Vivendi/Seagram/Canal Plus9 merger in respect of both music and films. Vivendi was a leading company in the telecommunications and media sector, with interests in mobile telephony networks, cinema production and distribution, and pay-TV services. Seagram was a Canadian company which, among other interests, controlled the Universal music and filmed entertainment businesses. In terms of content, the merged entity would have the world’s second largest film library and the second largest library of TV programming in the EEA.It would also be number one in recorded music combined with an important position in terms of publishing rights in the EEA. The position of Vivendi/Universal concerning music rights became particularly relevant in respect of the Vizzavi portal, a portal run by a joint-venture between Vivendi and Vodafone. The Vizzavi joint-venture10 had itself been notified to the Commission just some months before the Vivendi/Universal merger. 3. Leveraging A classic competition concern is the leveraging ability of the parties, i. e. their ability to transpose their market power in a iven market into a neighbouring market, thereby creating or strengthening a dominant position. This problem may become particularly acute in cases where the parties extend their activities into different product or services markets, something that is explicitly sought for by media companies wishing to distribute their products across different platforms. In the Vizzavi case, the creation of the jointventure raised concerns in respect of the ability of the parties to leverage their market power in the market fo r mobile telephony into the market for mobile Internet access.The stated purpose of the Vizzavi portal was to create a â€Å"horizontal, multi-access Internet portal†, providing customers with a range of web-based services across a variety of platforms (PCs, mobile phones, TV set-top boxes). As regards Internet access via mobile phone handsets, the issue arose in respect of the significant market position of Vodafone in the market for mobile telephony in a number of European countries (and of Vivendi in France). Vodafone and Vivendi already had a very significant customer basis in these countries and therefore a solid path to the future customers of the JV was already established.On the basis of their client basis for mobile telephony services, the position of the JV-parties in the market for mobile Internet access would be strengthened by the Vizzavi branded and integrated approach to Internet across various platforms, which would allow for cross-selling and bundling of offe rs. This would allow the new entity to leverage a strong position in the mobile telephony market into a dominant position on the mobile Internet access market.As regards Internet access via TV set-top boxes, a similarly solid distribution channel was also owned by Canal+ in respect of its customer basis for pay-TV services. A similar concern therefore arose in respect of the ability of Canal+ leveraging its strong market 7 Case COMP/M. 1852 Time Warner/EMI, see Press Release IP/00/617 of 14. 06. 2000. 9 Case COMP/M. 2050 Vivendi/ Seagram/ Canal Plus, decision of 13. 10. 2000, OJ C 311/3, 31. 10. 2000. 10 Case COMP/JV. 48 Vodafone/Vivendi/Canal Plus, see Press Release IP/00/821 of 24. 07. 2000. 8 Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M. Mendes Pereira position in the pay-TV market into the market for Internet access via set-top boxes. The overall concern therefore arose in respect of the ability of both Vodafone and Canal+ to m igrate their customer basis from the mobile telephony and pay-TV markets to the Internet access markets by using the already existing distribution channels. Another clear vertical leveraging issue arose in the Vizzavi case, as regards the buying power of the J-V parties.Already before the operation, Canal+ was an important buyer of content for pay-TV, such as TVprogramming, sports and films. Furthermore, it had a large customer basis accustomed to pay for content. The Vizzavi portal would combine a powerful new Internet access mechanism with paid-for content. Given the dominant position that the parties would acquire on the Internet access markets which I mentioned before, the operation would allow the parties to leverage their market power in the markets for Internet access into the market for the acquisition of paid-for content for the Internet.Moreover, the structural link between Vivendi and Canal+ and AOL France (55%) made the concern in respect of the increase in the bargainin g power of the parties even more serious. The leverage allowed for by the operation would naturally work in detriment of the parties’ competitors in the markets for mobile telephony and pay-TV. The concerns identified in the Vizzavi operation were strengthened when Vivendi and Canal+ notified some months later their acquisition of Seagram, the Canadian company owning the music and film business of Universal.The Commission considered that Canal+ would further increase its dominant position on a number of European pay-TV markets at national level. Already before the operation Canal+ enjoyed an almost monopolistic position in respect of the acquisition of the exclusivity on Hollywood films produced by the major studios (in France, Spain and Italy). The acquisition of Universal Studios would further strengthen Canal+’s position as purchaser of Hollywood films, not only in respect of Universal itself but also in relation to other studios due to underlying financial links.Du e to the vertical integration of Universal and Canal+, Canal+ would be able to leverage its position in order to secure the renewal of the exclusive agreements for pay-TV with all of the Hollywood studios and in fact also to enter into new deals. The bargaining power of Canal+ vis-a-vis the film studios would therefore be increased, allowing Canal+ to further foreclose the payTV markets where it already was active. 4.Network effects Let me now turn to another issue that often arises in media cases, most notably since convergence with the telecom industry became a reality: network effects. A network effect may, in simple terms, be described as the self-multiplying power of a network. In economic terms, a network effect occurs when the benefit of an individual who is linked to the network increases with the accession of other individuals. In AOL/Time Warner, the Commission found that the distribution strength of AOL combined with the content of Time Warner and Bertelsmann would create network effects n respect of both content providers and consumers: – for content providers, the AOL Internet community would become an essential outlet for the distribution of their products; – on their side, consumers, would be deprived of any incentive abandon AOL. The network effects would work both ways: more subscribers would bring more content and more content would bring more subscribers. Newcomers would also be attracted to AOL community because the 8 â€Å"Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M. Mendes Pereira arger the community, the more the possibilities to chat and communicate through AOL. The reason for this lies at the critical mass of content owned by Time Warner and Bertelsmann (namely their huge music library) combined with the huge Internet community formed by AOL subscribers and the members to its Instant Messaging services. The critical mass of content owned by TW and Bertelsmann would att ract further music from other record companies. Competing record companies would feel obliged to distribute their products through AOL’s online outlet, which would end up having access to all the available music.Furthermore, AOL would be able to bundle TW and Bertelsmann music content (or filmed entertainment content) with Internet access and other proprietary services and give its subscribers preferential access to that content, allowing for instance its subscribers to access new releases before they were made public through other distribution channels. Attractive content such as music or films could also be used as promotional tools or loss-leaders in order to subscribe to Internetaccess services.Consequently, the more subscribers AOL would attract, the more important it would become as a carrier for content providers seeking to secure maximum distribution. First mover advantages are particularly strong in network industries. It comes as no surprise that, for example, mobil e telephony companies give away, or strongly subsidise, mobile handsets to their customers such as to quickly establish a significant customer basis leading to increasingly stronger network effects.This circumstance justifies a particular attention by the Commission when assessing concentrations in the media & telecom industries. The combination of network effects with a strong market position may significantly raise barriers to entry and consequently lead to market foreclosure. IV. Horizontal integration Competition problems which are specific to the media sector are more likely to be found in cases of vertical integration than in cases of horizontal integration.I would argue that in cases of horizontal integration, the competition issues arising in the media sector are equivalent to the ones to be found in any other sector. The issue basically concerns classic market power and the required exercise translates into measuring such market power with the help of the traditional analyt ical tools: market shares, barriers to entry, etc. Furthermore, there haven’t been that many examples of problematic cases of horizontal integration in the media sector dealt with by the Commission.The two most significant examples are probably EMI/Time Warner and the recent Newscorp/Telepiu. 1. The Newscorp/Telepiu case This concentration was notified to the Commission on 16 October 2002 and was cleared on 2 April 2003, further to the submission by the parties of an extensive package of undertakings. Newscorp, the acquiring firm, is a global media company, which is active in the film and TV industries, publishing (newspapers and books) and a number of other areas.It controlled the Italian (satellite) pay-TV platform Stream jointly with Telecom Italia. Telepiu, the acquired firm, was controlled by Vivendi Universal, itself a global media group. Telepiu is the dominant pay-TV operator in Italy. Its platform started operating via analogue-terrestrial means in 1991 and went on s atellite in 1996. The markets affected by the operation were: a) the market for pay-TV services; b) the markets for the acquisition of contents, namely: 9 Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M. Mendes Pereira G G G G premium films; football events; other sports; TV channels. parties’ music recording publishing11 businesses. and music It should be underlined that experience shows that some of this content, namely premium films and football, is crucial for the success of any pay-TV operation. The notified operation would give rise to significant horizontal overlaps and would have a very strong impact on actual competition.In more concrete terms, the operation would lead to: a) the creation of a near monopoly in the Italian market for pay-TV; b) the creation of a near monopsony in the markets for the acquisition of rights Furthermore, the characteristics of the markets at stake would cause entry barriers to rise signific antly. 2. The EMI/Time Warner case This concentration was notified to the Commission on 5 May 2000. It never materialised given that, further to a statement of objections issued by the Commission, the parties withdrew their notification.Time Warner is a global media company, with interests extending from film production and distribution to TV production and broadcasting, cable systems operation, magazine publishing, book publishing, recorded music and music publishing. EMI is a company incorporated in the UK, its main activities being music recording and publishing world-wide. The notified concentration involved the combination of the There were serious doubts as to the compatibility of the proposed operation with the common market due to the significant horizontal overlaps in the relevant markets.The assessment carried out by the Commission showed a very high likelihood of the operation resulting in a single dominance of the merged entity in the music publishing business and collec tive dominance, jointly with the other four remaining music â€Å"Majors†, in the market for recorded music. V. Remedies Having gone through some of the competition problems raised by vertical and horizontal integration in the media industry, let me now conclude by explaining how the Commission has tried to solve these problems.The Commission had to achieve a balance between two somehow conflicting elements: – on the one hand, the Commission was aware of the reasons that lead companies to seek further integration, namely where these reasons were related to clear efficiencies; – on the other, it became aware of the serious competition problems to which some of these concentrations gave rise, namely the risk of foreclosure of the affected markets. The approach taken by the Commission was therefore not to prohibit most of these operations but rather approving them on the basis of strict undertakings proposed by the parties and accepted as a condition for the approv al.However, the Commission can only accept commitments by the parties when the 11 Music publishing consists of the acquisition by publishers of rights to musical works and their subsequent exploitation upon remuneration, mostly in the form of a commission charged by the publisher to the author on the revenues generated by the commercial exploitation of musical works. 10 â€Å"Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M. Mendes Pereira competition problems are effectively solved.In fact, the underlying objective of any remedy package should be to create the conditions for actual competition to subsist and/or for potential competition to emerge. This aim must be achieved by lowering barriers to entry in the affected markets and through the creation of competitive constraints which effectively operate as a disciplining and restraining factor of the dominant player. The main concern of the Commission in media-related cases was to ens ure access, access to the relevant markets or access to those crucial elements allowing for new entrants to establish themselves in those markets.In parallel, the Commission has often imposed divestitures or the severance of structural links that aggravated the foreclosure problems. 1. Remedies in the Newscorp/Telepiu case In Newscorp/Telepiu, the undertakings accepted by the Commission can be divided in three major groups: a) access to content, via namely a reduction in the duration of exclusivity agreements with premium content providers and the establishment of a sub-licensing scheme through a wholesale offer; b) access to infra-structure, i. . access to the satellite platform for pay-TV distribution as well as to the technical services associated with pay-TV; c) withdrawal from terrestrial broadcasting activities. As regards access to content, with respect to ongoing exclusive contracts, a unilateral termination right shall be granted to film producers and football clubs. Furthe rmore, the new entity will waive exclusive rights with respect to TV platforms other than DTH12 (terrestrial, cable, UMTS, Internet etc. ).The parties shall also waive any other protection rights as regards means of transmission other than DTH. With respect to future exclusive contracts, the new entity shall not subscribe contracts exceeding two years with football clubs and three years with film producers. The exclusivity attached to these contracts will only cover DTH transmission and would not apply to other means of transmission (for example, terrestrial, cable, UMTS and Internet ). Furthermore, the parties shall waive any protection rights as regards means of transmission other than DTH.Lastly, the merged entity shall offer third parties, on a unbundled and non-exclusive basis, the right to distribute on platforms other than DTH any premium contents if and for as long as the combined platform offers such premium contents to its retail customers. Such wholesale offer will be mad e on the basis of the retail minus principle and will imply an account separation and cost allocation between wholesale and retail operation of the platform. The beneficiaries of the wholesale offer shall be free to determine their own pricing policy.As regards access to the infra-structure, the merged entity shall grant third parties access to its satellite platform and access to the application program interface (API) and conditional access system (CAS), according to a fair non-discriminatory pricing formula. The new entity will also have the obligation of entering into simulcrypt agreements in Italy as soon as reasonably possible and in any event within 9 months from the written request from an interested third party. As regards the withdrawal from terrestrial activities, the merged entity shall divest of Telepiu's digital and analogue terrestrial 2 Direct To Home satellite. 11 â€Å"Vertical and horizontal integration in the media sector and EU competition law† – M . Mendes Pereira broadcasting assets and commits not to enter into any further DTT activities, neither as network nor as retail operator. The frequencies will have to be acquired by a company willing to include pay-TV broadcasting of or more channels in its business plan for the operation of the divested business after the switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting in Italy. . Remedies in the Vivendi/Seagram/Canal Plus, Vizzavi and AOL/Time Warner cases In Vizzavi, the project of the parties provided for the Vizzavi portal to be the default portal on Vodafone and SFR mobile phone customers, as well as on Canal+ set-top boxes. The Commission imposed the possibility of customers changing the default portal on their devices, as well as the possibility of competing telecom operators accessing the customers’ devices.This commitment by the parties prevented them from bundling their offers on a fully exclusive basis and prevented them consequently from l everaging their market power in a way such as to gain dominant positions in the markets for Internet access and Internet portals. In Vivendi/Seagram/Canal Plus, the parties undertook to grant access to Universal’s music content to any third party on a nondiscriminatory basis, therefore reducing the concerns in respect of the Internet portals market and the on-line music market.The parties also undertook not to offer more than 50% of the Universal’s film production to Canal+, thereby reducing the concerns in respect of the foreclosure by Canal+ of the pay-TV markets. As regards the severance of structural links, Vivendi undertook to divest from BSkyB in which it held a 25% stake. The severance of this link to Fox, namely through their joint venture UIP for the distribution of films in Europe, significantly reduced the impact of the acquisition of Universal.In AOL/TW, you may recall that the competition concerns started at the source, due to the breadth of music copyrigh ts that the new entity would control. Warner Music, combined with Bertelsmann music due to crossed shareholdings, and in addition the EMI library (should the EMI/TW merger be approved), would put in the hands of the new entity a huge amount of content that rendered the gate-keeper role played by AOL in respect of music player software and the network effects resulting from the AOL community as serious competition concerns. The abortion of the EMI/Time Warner merger already reduced significantly the competition concerns.Therefore, the attention of the Commission was focussed on the structural link between AOL and Bertelsmann in AOL Europe and AOL France. In this respect, AOL undertook to put in place a mechanism pursuant to which Bertelsmann would exit from AOL Europe. Once solved the problem at the source, the other concerns were partially dissipated. As regards online music delivery, AOL also undertook not to take any action that would result in Bertelsmann music being available on line exclusively through AOL or being formatted in a proprietary format that was playable only on an AOL music player.Conclusion If I had to sum up the Commission’s approach in three words as regards competition in the media markets, they would certainly be: access, access and access! No matter how far media companies integrate, vertically or horizontally, access is crucial. Access to inputs, access to contents and access to infra-structure remains fundamental in order to ensure the freedom of choice by the ultimate addressee of competition policy: the consumer. Thank you for your attention. 12