The Beatles Essay -- essays research papers

The Beatles There have been more books published about one 20th century icon than any other, this band that is said to have broken down barriers in all ways, is the Beatles. Their music was said to have driven that younger generation mad. Perhaps it was because they were one of the first bands ever play real rock and roll music; or maybe it was those cute little peacoats they wore. Or maybe it was just because they were foreigners in the world of music, yet seemed to fit right in with the young people. Whatever reason was, the Beatles were a band that shaped a generation and ones soon to come. The Beatles were more than just a rock and roll band , they were a group of young men who wanted to go a new direction in music. John Lennon, one of lead vocalists, basically started with the intention of moving away from the "Skiffle Boom Era" which was dominating the time. In his doing so, he began to lay the foundation for what would later be the most famous rock band ever. The original band members were as follows : John Lennon, vocals and guitar ; Paul McCartney, vocals ; George Harrison, guitar ; Pete Best, drums ; Stuart Sutcliffe, bass guitar. In March of 1961, the Beatles began to play at the club that would later be nicknamed "The Home of the Beatles". The Cavern Club, which's premises comprised a small group of cellars below a seven story warehouse which had originally been used as an air raid shelter during the war. Later, Alan Sytner, a jazz fan dec...

The Air Traffic Controllers Strike of 1981

In this study, I intend to provide an overview of the air traffic controllers' strike that occurred in 1981. This strike came at the peak of increased tension between the air traffic controllers union, PATCO, and the FAA, a federal agency charged with overseeing the management of all civil air flights. The strike occurred on August 3, 1981. On that day, approximately 12,000 air traffic controllers went on strike, effectively crippling the civil air industry. As members of PATCO, these individuals certainly felt they had the right to strike; however, under the terms of certain laws affecting federal employees, the air traffic controllers, in fact, did not have this right. As a result, President Reagan immediately threatened that any air traffic controller not back at work within 48 hours of the start of the strike would lost his or her job. Three days later, the FAA issued 12,000 dismissal notices and the strike officially came to an end (Spector, 1982, p. ). Of particular interest to me is not only the details and particulars of this strike, but also the structural circumstances that precipitated it and why compensation negotiations were ineffectual. Therefore, I will focus the remainder of this overview on several key points: the internal and external environmental forces that led to the strike, specific human resources issues that made air traffic controllers apt to strike, and a review of the negotiation process and the failed proposals on both sides. In the course of this evaluation, I will discuss some of the major players in the strike, analyze some of the fundamental causes of this strike, and even present at least one alternative solution that was proposed at the time and should have probably been implemented without fail. In this, I intend to illustrate the nature of the air traffic controllers' strike of 1981 and the factors that made it all but inevitable. To begin with, let's consider some of the major players who were involved in the air traffic controllers' strike. First, there is the FAA. This is the federal agency that was established in 1958 to manage all civilian air flights in the United States. At the time of the strike, all air traffic controllers in the United States were trained, certified, and employed by the FAA (Spector, 1982, p. 1). In other words, the FAA had a literal stranglehold on the market for air traffic controllers in the United States. To work in the United States as an air traffic controller, thus, meant that one had to work with the FAA and abide by their prescriptions for how air traffic controllers should be employed. Second, we should consider PATCO, or the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. This group was affiliated with the AFL-CIO and was created in 1968. It was, in short, a union of air traffic controllers. During the 1970s, in particular, PATCO grew at a tremendous rate (Spector, 1982, p. 2). By the time the potential strike rolled around, most of the air traffic controllers in the United States were members of PATCO. Third, we should consider the head of PATCO, the man who lead the organization down the more militant path towards strike and whose ultimate negotiations with the FAA would precipitate the strike in the first place. Robert Poll took the reins at PATCO in 1980, partially in response to attitudes within the organization that felt a more aggressive stance was needed towards the FAA on the part of unionized air traffic controllers (Spector, 1982, p. 2). In this context, we can see that Poll and PATCO were immediately at odds with the FAA, which as an organization naturally wanted to maintain its monopolistic control over the supply of air traffic controllers. The conflict between the two primary players in this strike-the FAA and PATCO-was only exasperated by certain pieces of federal legislation that prohibited federal employees from using strikes, sit-ins, or work slow downs to affect changes in their employment status. Legislation such as the Federal Relations Labor act prevented federal unionized employees to use their union status for anything other than collective bargaining (Spector, 1982, p. 2). This structural component of the issue further tied the figurative hands of PATCO and the air traffic controllers. It may even have precipitated a strike if the air traffic controllers felt cornered and desperate in their dealings with the FAA. If the air traffic controllers did not think there was any possibility of seeing their demands met-and how could they, if they were not permitted to use the threat of a strike? -then it is possible that they would have instigated the strike in desperation. There were a number of other issues that certainly led to a strike-style conflict between the FAA and PATCO. For example, of the 17,275 air traffic controllers employed in July 1981, all had to take part in a seventeen-week training course and then participate in on-the-job training for an additional two to four years. The FAA estimated that the total cost of training an air traffic controller amounted to $175,000 (Spector, 1982, p. 4). From the perspective of the FAA, labor negotiations were unlikely to result in higher pay rates or other forms of compensation. From the federal perspective, a significant amount of money had already been invested in these individuals; more was not a viable option. For the air traffic controllers, however, increased pay was the least of their concerns. As air traffic controllers knew all too well, the job of managing dozens of aircraft from the ground simultaneously was not easy. When PATCO went to the negotiation table with the FAA prior to the strike, they listed a number of concerns and problems that they wanted to see corrected. These included, but were not limited to, the following. One, PATCO was concerned about access. The FAA gave unfettered access to airports at any time, to anyone. The result was extremes of traffic during peak and off hours of the day or week. PATCO also cited poor supervision from individuals who were often paid more than the air traffic controllers to do nothing more than shift paperwork around. Safety responsibility was also a concern-given the demands of the job and the life-or-death nature of it, some air traffic controllers felt that there should be a better system of managing and accepting responsibility. Finally, the air traffic controllers were concerned about their pay scale, especially lost overtime hours according to federal mandate (Spector, 1982, p. 10-11). Salaries for air traffic controllers were reasonable for the period, however some federal regulations placed a cap on the amount that any individual could earn as a federal employee. Additionally, limitations were made regarding the amount of pay that could be awarded during any two week period, regardless of hours worked. This fact, combined with the extremely stressful nature of the job, upset many at PATCO (Spector, 1982, p. 4,6). The fact that the FAA rated as one of the poorest employers of air traffic controllers worldwide in terms of hours worked per week, vacation days, and sick leave only made matters worse (Spector, 1982, p. 5). Thus, when the FAA and PATCO went to the negotiation table in the days and weeks preceding the strike on August 3, there were a number of issues that had to be resolved between them. The air traffic controllers felt overworked, overstressed, and under appreciated in general. The FAA felt that it had the upper hand because the air traffic controllers were unable, by federal law, to go on strike. For this reason, the eventual strike-in hindsight-seems all but inevitable. In fact, the assumption that the FAA had the upper hand in the negotiations may have led directly to their counter offer which was much more conservative than the original PATCO demands. PATCO wanted an increase in salaries, a new maximum salary limit, a reduction in the work week, earlier retirement benefits, and cost of living adjustments to be made twice a year. The FAA negotiator, John Helms, estimated that this package would cost the government around $744 million the first year. He countered with a proposal that would only cost $40 million the first year, but which was a significantly watered down version of PATCO demands (Spector, 1982, p. 10). The union rejected this offer and went back to the negotiation table. When the second counter offer from the FAA was also not to their liking, they voted 95% in favor of going on strike (Spector, 1982, p. 11). The consequent strike on August 3, 1981 cost most of PATCO members their jobs and ended up costing the aviation industry, as well as associated industries such as tourism and hotels, millions of dollars in lost profits. Given these myriad environmental forces, symptoms and causes, and the inherent conflict between the FAA and PATCO, it is little wonder that a strike was the ultimate result between the negotiations between the FAA and PATCO. But what might have been done differently, what other solution might have worked in the past to alleviate the problems that occurred? For an answer I turn to Lane Kirkland of the AFL-CIO who said at the time, â€Å"The air traffic control system is a purely subsidized service the government is providing for the private airline industry. Under the Reagan doctrine of getting the government off people's backs, you'd think they might try to turn the whole thing over to the industry to run instead of using the might and majesty of the government to suppress a strike† (Spector, 1982, p. 4). In fact, this is exactly the solution that I would have suggested at the time and would advocate today as a solution to the mess that the FAA found itself in in 1981. If the FAA had been privatized, the concerns and issues that air traffic controllers were having could have been easily resolved between PATCO and the airline industry, in whose best interest it would have been to resolve the matter to keep planes in the air and profits in the black. Instead, the government used an ineffective law to force almost 12,000 people out of work who were simply trying to use the power of the strike to leverage themselves better working conditions. Especially when we consider the magnitude of the job that air traffic controllers did (and do) and the safety of countless lives that could have been at stake, it is even amazing that the government responded to the legitimate concerns of air traffic controllers in the way that it did.

Effects of the Media on Young Women

Nicole Ruben TRF 235 January 31, 2012 LIRWA The Effects of the Media on Young Women Women seen in the media are typically gorgeous, thin, and flawless. Seeing these characteristics promotes an unrealistic body type that many girls strive to have. What this does is lower the self-esteem of these girls, ultimately leading to unhealthy eating habits and disorders. A study done by Harvard researcher Anne Becker demonstrated this by examining the effects of television in Fiji. Television was introduced in Fiji in 1995. At this time, only three percent of girls there reported they vomited to control their weight.However, three years later, fifteen percent of girls reported they acquired the same behavior. The culture in Fiji generally promotes eating healthy and looking robust, so this is considered a dramatic change in behavior for a culture that encourages the opposite (Corydon, 1). Another factor consider when looking at eating disorders caused by the media is that twenty years ago, mod els weight eight percent less than the average woman. Today, they weigh twenty-three percent less (Media-Awareness, 1). Sexualization is another effect the media has on young girls.An article by BBC News defines sexualization as â€Å"occurring when a person’s value comes only from her or his sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is portrayed purely as a sex object. † Television shows such as Gossip Girl and other shows similar to Gossip Girl substantially consist of sexual content. A large percentage of the viewers of these shows are young girls who look up to the characters they see on television. When they see their role models dressing and acting the way they do, they want to do the same.One study found that adolescents who have seen a lot of media with sexual content were more than twice as likely as others to have had sex by the time they were sixteen (TIME). Furthermore, many songs heard on the radio appeal to yo ung girls, but the lyrics are not suitable for them. Katy Perry’s hit song â€Å"Last Friday Night† acts as a quintessential example of this. Some of the lyrics say, â€Å"Last Friday night / We went streaking in the park / Skinny dipping in the dark / Then had a menage-a-trois†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The outfits Katy Perry wears in her music videos, at her concerts, and on her posters also contribute to the sexualization of young girls.In her â€Å"California Girls† music video she wore a provocative bikini-like outfit with cans attached to her breasts that were shooting out whipped cream. As a role model to many young girls, Katy Perry has the power to be very influential in their lives; however, it seems as though she is going about it the wrong way. The media can also influence many girls to start using drugs and alcohol at a young age. Similar to sexualization, drugs and alcohol are presented in many television shows and other forms of media.Young girls want to fit in with what they see in the media, so when they see their favorite characters on their favorite TV shows doing drugs they are likely to want to do the same. They are not doing it because they are interested in trying drugs and alcohol; they are merely doing it because they think it is the cool thing to do. Many magazines also have stories about celebrities going to rehab, getting belligerently drunk, etc. Although it is likely that an adolescent may stay away from a certain drug if they see their role model has had a negative experience with it, they are likely to do the drug if they don’t see any disadvantages to it.For example, a video of Miley Cyrus doing salvia went viral in 2010. It showed her hysterical laughing from the drug and hallucinating from it, making her think that her boyfriend was in front of her, even though he wasn’t. The video essentially made the drug look appealing. Being a Disney star, it can be debated that Miley Cyrus is even more of a role mo del to young girls than Katy Perry. If her young fans see her doing this, they are likely to want to follow. Commercials also influence drug use in adolescents. For example, the intention of beer commercials is to make beer look appealing.Jay leno was once asked why he does commercials for Doritos corn chips but refuses to do beer commercials. â€Å"You don’t see dead teenagers on the highway because of corn chips† was his answer (Singer, 415). In today’s society, the media affects young girls in many negative ways. It causes eating disorders, sexualization, and the use of drugs and alcohol. Seeing flawless women all over the media lowers the self-esteem of the average girl, which can ultimately lead to disorders such as depression, bulimia, and anorexia. Television shows and songs with provocative material encourage adolescents to behave more suggestively.This includes dressing and acting provocatively and taking part in the use of drugs and alcohol. There is s omething that should be done about these detrimental effects of the media, possibly teaching children about understanding how the media works or decreasing the accessibility of explicit content to children. Is it really possible to prevent adolescents from being exposed to such content as much as they are? Will the effects of such content get worse in the future? These are questions to think about as the media not only affects our society today, but it will affect societies and generations to come.Works Cited â€Å"BBC NEWS | Health | Sexualisation ‘harms' Young Girls. † BBC News – Home. BBC News, 20 Feb. 2007. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. . â€Å"Beauty and Body Image in the Media. † Media Awareness Network | Reseau education Medias. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. . Ireland, Corydon. â€Å"Fijian Girls Succumb to Western Dysmorphia | Harvard Gazette. † Home – Harvard Public Affairs & Communications. 19 Mar. 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. . Luscombe, Belinda. â€Å"The Truth About Teen Girls. † TIME Magazine 11 Sept. 2008. Print. Max, Martin. Mckee, Bonnie. Perry, Katy. (2011). Last Friday Night. [Recorded by Katy Perry]. On Last Friday Night (T. G. I. F. ). United States: Capitol Records. Pozniak, Alexa. â€Å"Part 1: Media Portrayal of Drugs. † ABC News. ABC News Network, 23 Feb. 2002. Web. 20 Feb. 2012. . Singer, Dorothy G. Singer, Jerome L. (2001). â€Å"Handbook of Children in the Media. † Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc.

Bacteria produce gold by digesting toxic metals

Bacteria produce gold by digesting toxic metals High concentrations of heavy metals like copper and gold are found to be toxic for most of the organisms. But scientists have discovered a modern alchemist that can extract valuable trace elements from a compound of toxic metals without poisoning itself. One of the interesting side effects is the production of gold nuggets. This microbial magician, C. metallidurans, when placed in a minilab full of gold chloride converts it to 24-carat gold in a week’s time, a process that this bacterium is thought to carry out regularly in nature. This finding by Kazem Kashefi and Adam Brown has been exhibited as an art instalment called â€Å"The Great Work of the Metal Lover†. The art work consists of a portable lab which consists of a glass bioreactor containing the bacteria. While Kashefi calls this as microbial alchemy, Brown calls it as neo-alchemy which is a cross between modern microbiology and alchemy. This artwork received an honourable, mentioned in the world renowned cyber art competition, Prix Ars Electronica, held in Austria. Producing pure gold from bacterium seems to be a boon at a time when the price of gold has reached an all-time high. But, does this mean that the scientists have got the answer to the international debt crises? Although this bacterium can produce the 24-carat pure gold, but it has been said that it will be cost prohibitive to carry out this experiment at a larger scale. So, one should not see this as a golden investment in economic crisis. But, this discovery has surely created a debate over the use of science and technology, the greed and other economic and environmental impacts associated with it. This work can be used to address questions regarding the ethics related to science and the magnificent engineering of nature. When discovered, the bacterium was initially found to be resistant to cadmium but subsequent studies identified that this strain is multi-metal resistant and has two plasmids pMOL28 and pMOL30 which harbour multiple loci for metal resistance. The bacterium’s ability to thrive in toxic environments with a high number of heavy metal resistant genes makes it an excellent model organism to study the means by which microbes deal with heavy metal stress. Such unique ability of this extremophile to metabolize toxic substances might also provide an insight into understanding the origin of life. When too much copper has accumulated inside the bacteria, it is normally pumped out by the enzyme CupA. However, when gold compounds are also present, the enzyme is suppressed and the toxic copper and gold compounds remain inside the cell. Copper and gold combined are actually more toxic than when they appear on their own, says Dietrich H. Nies. To solve this problem, the bacteria activate another enzyme CopA. This enzyme transforms the copper and gold compounds into their originally difficult to absorb forms. This assures that fewer copper and gold compounds enter the cellular interior. The bacterium is poisoned less and the enzyme that pumps out the copper can dispose of the excess copper unimpeded. Another consequence is that the gold compounds that are difficult to absorb transform in the outer area of the cell into harmless gold nuggets only a few nanometres in size, says Nies. In nature, C. metallidurans plays a key role in the formation of so-called secondary gold, which emerges following the breakdown of primary, geologically created, ancient gold ores. It transforms the toxic gold particles formed by the weathering process into harmless gold particles, thereby producing gold nuggets. The study conducted by the joint German-Australian research team provides important insights into the second half of the bio-geochemical gold cycle. Here primary gold metal is transformed by other bacteria into mobile, toxic gold compounds, which is transformed back into secondary metallic gold in the second half of the cycle. Once the entire cycle is understood, gold can also be produced from ores containing only a small percentage of gold without requiring toxic mercury bonds as was previously the case.

Business cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business cycle - Essay Example For instance, the choice of the parameter values depends on the macroeconomic evidences available for comparison purposes (Romer 217-220). It is also apparent that the calibration model can result in the statistical rejection of adoption of a concept in business operations. This is because most models are always difficult to interpret and a model that fits the data properly, within different dimensions, may be statistically rejected if one aspect is omitted (Summers 129-148). A model may still be ignored if the data is consistent with a wide variety of options. The models are calibrated to ensure that they undergo testing via the formal econometric methods. This is normally done through the identification of available evidence against the variances of other data in the series. For instance, the comparison of labor against capital and output can adopt the calibrated model (Romer 217-220). This means that government intervention and technological components do not apply in the final determination of outputs. The calibration is different from other models like the Solow theory that assumes the prevalence of technology in productivity. However, an alternative model for calibration is the proper assessment of fully specified models in which the researchers determine models using macroeconomic evidences (Romer 217-220). This focuses on the main building aspects or through the evaluation of the model’s consistency with other statistics. According to Summers (p. 129-148), calibration model enables economists to apply different concepts in the interpretation of their business performance. The historical data comparison helps in speculation purposes in which a firm can change its methods to suit the trend. This is done through the relation between variables and independent factors present in the industry (Summers 129-148). As a result, the real-business cycle model relies on

Employee Retention in UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Employee Retention in UK - Essay Example Organizationally committed employees will usually have good attendance records, demonstrate a willing adherence to company policies, and have lower turnover rates. In particular, their broader base of job knowledge often translates into loyal customers and even pay premium price. Employee retention is an issue since the turnover levels from various industries are rising. Statistics show different percentages related to turnover rates as well as the reasons for the increasing turnover. "Turnover levels vary very considerably from industry to industry. The highest levels of turnover (22.6%) are found in private sector organisations. Successive surveys of labour turnover show that the highest levelsare found in retailing, hotels, cateringand leisure,and among other lower paid private sector services groups. The public sector has an average turnover rate of 13.7%." (Stone, 2007) Almost a quarterof employees in the UK have been in their current jobs forfive years.As a proportion of aggregate turnover, the percentage of people leaving organisations through redundancy remains small. There was a slight decreasefrom 28% to 24%of organisations making more than ten people redundant during 2006 and in those operating a recruitment freeze from 24% to 22%in the course of the year. The cost of high staff turnover can be substantial. ... irect financial costs of replacing staff but also other repercussions such as the potential loss of key skills, knowledge and experience, disruption to operations and the negative effect on workforce morale. In addition, high turnover represents a considerable burden both on HR and line managers as they are constantly recruiting and training new staff. When seeking to resolve the problems associated with high turnover, companies must first investigate the underlying causes. They need to have in mind an appropriate level of attrition by benchmarking against similar organisations and taking into account the real costs of turnover to the company. Different theories of employee retention People are vital components for the effective operation of the organisation; as a matter of fact, managers often say that people are their most important assets. The human assets are never shown on the balance sheets as a distinct category, although a big amount of money is invested in the recruitment, selection, training of personnel. Rensis Likert suggested maintaining accounts of the valuable human assets through human resource accounting. The importance of the employees cannot be over emphasized because it can determine the success or failure of the organisation. Make-You-Happy Action Teams (MAT) plays a critical role in managing employee retention. This is Z-Theory management. To briefly sate, Z-Theory management means everyone that is effected by a decision for the company gets a "say" or a "vote" in the decision (tons more on Z-Theory Management in another article). This means employees are directly involved in decision making that affects them. When then make decisions that directly affect them, they stay around longer. This theory can help in managing employee retention due

MGMT 4350 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

MGMT 4350 - Essay Example and the processes of change and transition in order to articulate all the available mental and physical resource to ensure that the process goes on seamlessly. This paper seeks to discuss the various factors worth considering while managing change and transition. Particularly, the paper will focus on managing an organization culture transition in a student organization in which I am the leader. Â   The change transition objective is to change the organizational culture of our students’ organization. The university requires that students form a student union that will be mandated with the responsibility of representing the issues to the university management board. The student union is a leadership team selected, through voting, by the university students. The university implemented the student union in early 1950s. Therefore, most of the organizational culture of the student union reflects the ideas that the university senate had in 1950s. The university and world at large has undergone tremendous changes in various facets of life. Many changes have occurred in the management styles due to improvement in technology and the emergence of new theories and models of leadership. Therefore, the student union has been left behind with its old organizational culture when other universities have embraced the power of information technology in management. In order to make the stu dent union to cope with the challenges of modernity, the organizational culture needs to be changed from the conventional leadership culture to technologically powered type of organizational culture. The transition seeks to transform the student union from conventional based to technologically based organizational culture. The student union is ripe and ready for transition. Indeed, the challenges that the student union is facing is overwhelming. The conventional type of organizational culture has become a burden for the student union in terms of meeting its obligations. Since the student union is