Properties of Light free essay sample

A drop of isopropyl alcohol will absorb light energy of different colors, and the evaporation rate of the alcohol will be measured. The key to this lab is the evaporation rate is directly related to the energy of the light shining on the drop. Materials: * * LEDs and circuits (from previous lab) * Pipette (or eyedropper) * Rubbing alcohol Index card * 9-volt battery * Flashlight * Stopwatch * Small cardboard box (shoe box) Procedures: A three-sided enclosure from the cardboard box was made. This created a location for applying light from the LED to the drop of alcohol while minimizing the effect of air currents on the evaporation rate. The eyedropper was used to place a single drop of isopropyl alcohol on an index card within the enclosure. The same size drop was used each time the step was repeated. The time it takes for the drop to evaporate without the LED present was recorded. The dark spot on the card caused by the alcohol was no longer visible. We will write a custom essay sample on Properties of Light or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A flashlight was used to help with the observance of the dark spot. The evaporation time was recorded. The same procedure was repeated for the different colored LEDs over the alcohol drop. The current through each LED and the distance from the LED to the drop of alcohol was the same for each run. The procedure for each color of LED was repeated at least 10 times and an average time of evaporation for each color was calculated. A graph of evaporation time versus frequency of the LED was then made. The red light has a lower energy than the violet light that’s at the end of the spectrum. The frequency of the light increases as the color of the light changes from red to violet. Wavelength and frequency are inversely proportional, which causes the wavelength to decrease as the color changes from red to violet (Hewitt, pg. 520). Depending on the color of the light, the wavelength can range from 710-5 cm (red) to 410-5 cm (violet), but all electromagnetic radiation travels at the speed of light. The frequency of the light, which is the number of wavelengths per seconds is calculated using the equation C=LN. L is the wavelength, N is the frequency, and C is the speed of light (Library Thinking Quest). From the observations collected, the red LED light took the longest to dry the drop of alcohol and the blue dried it the fastest. Since the red light is on the lower end of the electromagnetic spectrum is used the lowest amount of energy. Just by looking at the brightness of the light, this conclusion was made but reassured after doing some research. The red light was very dim and faint compared to the brightness of the green and the blue. The blue was the brightest of the lights. This light used the most energy and is one of the farthest on the spectrum beside violet. Since the frequency of light increases as the color of light moves down the spectrum, the red light has the smallest frequency of 4. 2*10-14, green has middle frequency of 5. 66*10-14 and blue has the largest frequency of 6. 37*10-14. The frequency is directly proportional to the energy produced by each of the light, which is shown in the graph above. The blue light had the highest frequency and that used the most ener gy. The red LED used the least amount of energy because it had the lowest frequency. The greater the frequency caused the alcohol to dry faster since it used more heat (energy) at one time. Light energy and frequency are directly related in the real world also. Typically since red lights have less energy than blues lights, blue objects are said to be hotter. In 1923, American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) made an astounding discovery. As Hubble observed, the light waves from distant galaxies are shifted to the red end, and he reasoned that this must mean those galaxies are moving away from the Milky Way. These observations concluded that something that showed red was moving away from its observer. The laws of thermodynamics state that where heat is involved, the movement is always away from an area of high temperature and toward an area of low temperature. Heated molecules that reflect red light are areas that are moving toward an area of low temperature. Molecules of low temperature reflect bluish or purple light because the tendency of heat is to move toward them. Fire, for example, it lets off heat to keep people warm. The color of fire is mostly red and orange. These colors are at the lower end of the spectrum of light. The reason why fire is the color red is because; red gives off the lowest amount of energy because it has the lowest frequency. Fire can be used in many different ways in the world without using mass amount of energy to heat things up. As mentioned in the lab from last week, the alligator clips caused a lot of issues with holing the connections together. A better material would be the connection covers where the wires go inside a little tube and are squeezed together at each end to insure security.

Profile of Serial Killer Richard Angelo

Profile of Serial Killer Richard Angelo Richard Angelo was 26 years old when he went to work at Good Samaritan Hospital on Long Island in New York. He had a background of doing good things for people as a former Eagle Scout and volunteer fireman. He also had an out-of-control desire to be recognized as a hero. Background and Early Life Born on August 29, 1962, in West Islip, New York, Richard Angelo was the only child of  Joseph and Alice Angelo. The Angelos worked in  the educational sector - Joseph was a high school guidance counselor and Alice taught home economics. Richards childhood years were unremarkable. Neighbors described him as a nice boy with nice parents. After graduating in 1980 from St. John the Baptist Catholic High School, Angelo attended the State University of Stony Brook for two years. He was then accepted into a two-year nursing program at the State University at Farmingdale. Described as a quiet student who kept to himself, Angelo excelled in his studies and made the deans honor list each semester. He graduated in good standing in 1985. First Hospital Job Angelos first job as a registered nurse was in the burn unit at the Nassau County Medical Center in East Meadow. He stayed there a year, then took a position at Brunswick Hospital in Amityville, Long Island. He left that position to move to Florida with his parents, but returned to Long Island alone, three months later, and began working at Good Samaritan Hospital. Playing Hero Richard Angelo quickly established himself as a highly competent and well-trained nurse. His calm demeanor was well fitted for the high stress of working the graveyard shift in an intensive care unit. He gained the trust of the doctors and other hospital personnel, but that wasnt enough for him. Unable to achieve the level of praise he desired in life, Angelo came up with a plan where he would inject drugs into patients at the hospital, bringing them to a near-death state. He would then show his heroic capabilities by helping to save his victims, impressing the doctors, co-workers and the patients with his expertise. For many, Angelos plan fell deathly short, and several patients died before he was able to intervene and save them from his deadly injections. Working from 11 pm to 7 am put Angelo into the perfect position to continue to work on his feeling of inadequacy, so much so that during his relatively short time at the Good Samaritan, there were 37 Code-Blue emergencies during his shift. Only 12 of the 37 patients lived to talk about their near death experience. Something to Feel Better Angelo, apparently not swayed by his inability to keep his victims alive, continued injecting patients with a combination of the paralyzing drugs, Pavulon and Anectine, sometimes telling the patient that he was giving them something which would make them feel better. Soon after administering the deadly cocktail, the patients would begin to feel numb and their breathing would become constricted as did their ability to communicate to nurses and doctors. Few could survive the deadly attack. Then on October 11, 1987, Angelo came under suspicion after one of his victims, Gerolamo Kucich, managed to use the call button for assistance after receiving an injection from Angelo. One of the nurses responding to his call for help took a urine sample and had it analyzed. The test proved positive for containing the drugs, Pavulon and Anectine, neither of which had been prescribed to Kucich. The following day Angelos locker and home were searched and police found vials of both drugs and Angelo was arrested. The bodies of several of the suspected victims were exhumed and tested for the deadly drugs. The test proved positive for the drugs on ten of the dead patients. Taped Confession Angelo eventually confessed to authorities, telling them during a taped interview, I wanted to create a situation where I would cause the patient to have some respiratory distress or some problem, and through my intervention or suggested intervention or whatever, come out looking like I knew what I was doing. I had no confidence in myself. I felt very inadequate. He was charged with multiple counts of second-degree murder. Multiple Personalities? His lawyers fought to prove that Angelo suffered from dissociative identity disorder, which meant he was able to disassociate himself completely from the crimes he committed and was unable to realize the risk of what he had done to the patients. In other words, he had multiple personalities which he could move in and out of, unaware of the actions of the other personality. The lawyers fought to prove this theory by introducing polygraph exams which Angelo had passed during questioning about the murdered patients, however, the judge did not allow the polygraph evidence into the court. Sentenced to 61 Years Angelo was convicted of two counts of depraved indifference murder (second-degree murder), one count of second-degree manslaughter, one count of criminally negligent homicide and six counts of assault with respect to five of the patients and was sentenced to 61 years to life.

Modern Japan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Modern Japan - Essay Example According to Prindle (1989) "[t]he stories expose the internal mechanisms of business transactions and the mentality of the people involved, making technical information accessible to a lay audience and convincing even to economists." (qtd in The Japanese Business Novel). Arai Shinya is the executive vice president of Summit Inc., and director of Sumitomo Corporation who is popular under the pen name of Satoshi Azuchi writing Japanese business novel, one of which is the popular Tales of a Shoshoman. Shinya related that the Tales of Shoshoman "begins with a story of a Japanese businessman who commits suicide because he failed to be promoted when his peers in his company were promoted" (qtd in The Japanese Business Novel). The novel illustrates the traditional aspects of the Japanese society and preserved these traditions by means of these types of novels. The novel reveals the values of Japanese "salary man" (The Japanese Business Novel) with high regard to his work and dedicated to his organization, with preserved value of loyalty and devotion which allows the world to have knowledge of the Japanese nature in which ways the traditional Japanese culture in business is upheld. In another novel authored by Norma Field, "In the Realm of a Dying Emperor" tells of three separate tales woven together with intentions for a greater purpose. The novel successfully pointed the struggles of Japan of its past as it faces the twentieth century in the end of war. The novel attempted to reveal a glimpse of hope to recover from injuries brought about by the imperialist rule. Each tale in the novel depicts of a true Japanese value in each character which is struggling from atrocities and Western pressure. The character of the supermarket owner burning the flag of the Rising Sun illustrated the value of braving to fight for dignity over the struggles of an Okinawan to escape the memories of the bitter past. In the review of Steve Edwards he acknowledged the research done by Field which was a strong point rather than a personal conviction which revealed that "Many Okinawans continue to feel objectionable towards the emperor system for the incidents there during World War Tw o The Rising Sun flag is a prime example of the rape and pillaging of countries across Asia during World War Two. These citizens also feel the flag represents a part of their history they would like to leave behind and obstructs them from completely Surname 3 whitewashing the entire issue away." (Edwards, Steve). In another tale tells the story of an ordinary woman protesting the emperor rule because of "deification" of her husband who died and enshrined "as a way to pass on the ritual of dying for the emperor" (Edwards, Steve). In this story the constitutional practices under the hybrid system is criticized. The defiant character of the ordinary woman is a typical character of the Japanese when principles are laid shaken. The final tale in the novel tells the story of the "mayor" who strongly defied against the emperor rule whose character suggested that the emperor was responsible for the atrocities during the war. In line with such grand accusations, the

Health education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health education - Essay Example By coordination, it is meant that a number of stakeholders must be identified, encouraged to participate in meaningful ways, and persuaded that they can contribute to student health education, student health at the individual level, and to more expansive notions such as family health and community health. It has been noted, for instance, that â€Å"Children and adolescents are more likely to practice healthy behaviors when those behaviors are broadly supported at school, at home, and in the community† (Health Framework: 11). This broad type of support, therefore, must draw on people from the school itself, from the students’ support network at home, and from relevant health care and other professionals in the community. The best way to gain support is by enlisting networked groups, explaining the objective links between student health and performance, and then implementing a coordinated program with regular assessment periods. This is so important at these levels becaus e, as the data demonstrates, A variety of risk factors influence whether or not a child will be healthy and will maintain a commitment to health. The school, the home, the community, and the peer group are four major areas of a child’s life in which these risk factors may be found. The risk factors include, among others, economic deprivation, neighborhood disintegration, poor family-management practices, peers who use alcohol and other drugs, low expectations for children’s success, and academic failure. Although some risk factors are far beyond a school’s control, others can be addressed directly and effectively through health education supported by collaborative efforts that include parents, the school, and the community (Health Framework: 11-12). The significant point is that, because these risk factors derive from a variety of sources, the response must be comprehensive enough to ameliorate or otherwise create an

The Production Of Gorillaz Album Plastic Beach Music Essay

The Production Of Gorillaz Album Plastic Beach Music Essay Creators of Gorillaz, musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, began working on a new Gorillaz project in November 2007 called Carousel,[1] which evolved into Plastic Beach, the groups third studio album.[2] In the November 2007 issue of Q, when asked what his top priority for 2008 was, Damon Albarn replied Well, Im doing the next Gorillaz thing, but it wont be called Gorillaz.[1] In the February 2008 Gorillaz-Unofficial interview, Jamie Hewlett elaborated on this, saying I think the idea behind it is that its like how The Who presented their movies Tommy and Quadrophenia and so on. Those were presented as by The Who even though none of the members of the band were in the movies. I dont think anyone from The Who was in Quadrophenia. But its the same people working on it, thats the principle.[3] In a July 2008 interview with The Observer he also said, Gorillaz now to us is not like four animated characters any more its more like an organisation of people doing new projects. [ ] Thats my ideal model Gorillaz is a group of people who gave you this, and now want to give you new stuff.[4] In the Observer interview, Hewlett said that there is a new project which Damon and I are working on now, called Carousel, which is even bigger and more difficult than Monkey, and it isnt going to fit anywhere and no ones going to like it, ha ha ha! Weve started work Ive done a lot of visuals and Damons done a lot of music but we havent figured out how theyre going to fit together. I cant say much about it yet but its sort of like a film, but not with one narrative story. Theres many stories, told around a bigger story, set to music, and done in live action, animation, all different styles, well originally it was a film but now we think its a film and its a stage thing as well and look, its basically us doing what the fuck we want without worrying about whether its for a record company or a film company or whatever. So Im not sure how itll pan out, or even if it will happen. But Damons written around 70 songs for it, and Ive got great plans for the visuals, but right now, at this mo ment, its still just a really good idea.[4] Carousel was to be about the mystical aspects of Britain.[2] [edit] Concept Damon Albarn got the idea for Plastic Beach while on a beach next to his house: I was just looking for all the plastic within the sand, he said.[2] On 17 September 2008, Albarn and Jamie Hewlett announced that they would be doing another Gorillaz album in an interview with CBC News.[5] Hewlett said that from their work on Monkey, we just learned more about what we do, musically and artistically. Thats a great place to come at when we come to another Gorillaz album. It doesnt have to be animation and music.[6] Hewlett also expressed annoyance at having to draw the band members again: Im so fucking bored of drawing those characters. But then we had a moment where we had a new angle on it Im gonna adapt them.[5] In a later interview Hewlett said: theyll be the same characters, but a little bit older and told in a different way.[7] Albarn said in September 2008 that he wanted to work with an incredibly eclectic, surprising cast of people.[8] As with previous Gorillaz albums, Plastic Beach features a number of collaborations with other musicians and music groups. The album features Snoop Dogg, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Kano, Bashy, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Gruff Rhys, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Mark E. Smith, Lou Reed, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Yukimi Nagano, sinfonia ViVA and The Syrian National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music.[9] [edit] Recording Albarn began recording material for a new Gorillaz album around June 2008.[10] He travelled to Beirut in March 2009 to record with the National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music.[11] The following month, he recorded with Derby-based orchestra sinfonia ViVa.[11] Grime rappers Kano and Bashy, who feature on White Flag, both had the flu during recording. Kano said We werent feeling great, the music was out of our comfort zone, it could have been a complete disaster.[11] Bobby Womack knew nothing about Gorillaz and was initially unsure about the collaboration, however, his daughter liked Gorillaz and convinced him to do it.[12] Womack was told to sing whatever was on his mind during the recording of Stylo. I was in there for an hour going crazy about love and politics, getting it off my chest, said Womack.[11] After an hour of recording, Womack, a diabetic, started to pass out. He was sat down and given a banana, before waking up minutes later.[11] Sweepstakes, the first song Mos Def r ecorded with Gorillaz,[13] was done in one take.[11] Mos Def described the song as one of the greatest things as an MC that Ive ever done.[13] Mick Jones and Paul Simonon completed their portion of the title track Plastic Beach in a day.[11] Several musicians who collaborated on songs for the album did not end up having all or any of their songs appear on the final album; some guests announced to have collaborated with the band do not feature on the album. British garage rock band The Horrors were invited to play on the album after Albarn heard their 2009 album Primary Colours.[14] They recorded a track with Albarn,[15] but no songs with the band appear on the final album. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Posdnuos of De La Soul said that the group had provided vocals on two songs for the album, Electric Shock and Sloped Tropics.[16] De La Soul only features on one song on the album, titled Superfast Jellyfish. Gruff Rhys recorded two songs Superfast Jellyfish and Leviathan. The latter, described by Rhys as more of a night-time song, a three oclock in the morning, speeding down the autobahn evading West German police-type track, does not feature on the album.[11] Mos Def said that he collaborated with Albarn on three songs;[13] however, Def only appears on two songs on the album. Albarn had previously announced that musician Barry Gibb would feature on the album but Gibb did not turn up to any recording sessions.[2] Animated Gorillaz bassist Murdoc said the band had collaborated with actress Una Stubbs,[10] however, she too does not appear on any of the albums tracks. [edit] Music Albarn said in an interview, Im making this one the most pop record Ive ever made in many ways, but with all my experience to try and at least present something that has got depth.[2] He added, I suppose what Ive done with this Gorillaz record is Ive tried to connect pop sensibility with trying to make people understand the essential melancholy of buying a ready made meal in loads of plastic packaging. People who watch X Factor might have some emotional connection to these things, this detritus that accompanies what seems to be the most important thing in peoples eyes, the celebrity voyeurism.[2] The first time Albarn went to Mali, he was taken to a landfill where he saw people taking every little bit, a little bit of fabric to the fabric regenerators, or the metal and the cans to the ironsmiths and the aluminium recyclers, and it goes on and by the time you get to the road, theyre selling stuff.[2] When Albarn went to a landfill outside of London to record the sound of seagulls for the album, he noticed a juxtaposition between the way the two countries dealt with rubbish.[2] Theyve got more snakes like adders, grass snakes, slow worms, toads, frogs, newts, all kinds of rodents, all kinds of squirrels, a massive amount of squirrels, a massive amount of foxes, and obviously, seagulls. [] This is part of the new ecology. And for the first time I saw the world in a new way. Ive always felt, Im trying to get across on this new record, the idea that plastic, we see it as being against nature but its come out of nature. We didnt create plastic, nature created plastic. And just seei ng the snakes like living in the warmth of decomposing plastic bags. They like it. It was a strange kind of optimism that I felt but trying to get that into pop music is a challenge, anyway. But important.[2] Albarn says the album maintains a lot of the melancholy from Carousel.[2] He worked hard on making his lyrics and melodies clear on the album.[2] Loads of orchestral stuff was recorded but only a fraction made it onto the final album.[2] [edit] Release and promotion On a black background is red uppercase text in a thick wavy font. The top line says Gorillaz, the second line says Plastic and the third line says Beach. The Plastic Beach logo used in promotional videos. A new picture of the band was published on 9 December 2009 on the cover of the UK edition of Wired magazine. On 14 January 2009, Albarn made an appearance as a guest DJ on BBC Radio 1, premiering demos of three new Gorillaz songs Electric Shock, Broken and Stylo.[17]. Stylo went to be heavily edited in its final version, while Broken remained mostly unchanged. Electric Shock did not make the album, though samples of the song were used in Rhinestone Eyes, as well as the intro orchestral separated into bonus track Three Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons. On 20 January 2010, the official Gorillaz website was heavily revamped to fit the Plastic Beach theme. Over a period of time, a numerous amount of short clips were posted on the site, mainly showing various shots of a large Plastic Beach model backed by segments of new Gorillaz music. Out of the 13 short clips, only 2 of the clips had audio that would eventually end up on the album. The tracks were White Flag and Pirates Progress (an extended version of the Orchestral Intro found on the album). Also on the website was a countdown timer, which on 23 February 2010 counted down to zero. After a significant delay, a new full Kong studios-esque interactive Plastic Beach Beachsite was uploaded onto the website, opening certain sections of Plastic Beach to be visited by guests. On 21 January 2010, Gorillaz member Murdoc took over NME Radio and Yahoo! Radio. He played a 45 minute set of songs while providing exposition on the story of Gorillaz. A total of four broadcasts were uploaded online, leading to the release of the album. All four are now available on the official Gorillaz website. Short animated idents have been released for fictional band members Murdoc, 2D, Russel, and the Noodle cyborg. The first depicts Murdoc fleeing from an unknown, rifle-wielding assailant, and the second depicts 2Ds abduction and transportation to Plastic Beach by a masked figure. The third features a snippet of the song Three Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons playing in the background. The track can be found as a bonus track along with Pirates Progress on the iTunes Deluxe edition. Russels ident has him stomping off of the edge of a pier and diving into the ocean, presumably headed to Plastic Beach for reasons unknown. The fourth feature a zoom in on the cyborg, its face plate open. A fifth ident has been released, showing a luxury cruise sail being bombarded by torpedoes coming from planes flying above it. A crew member rushes over to cabin 13 to warn a passenger, who is revealed to be Noodle (wearing the Oni Mask), that the cruise is under attack by pirates and he was told to escort her to the lifeboats. Noodle then grabs her briefcase and opens it, revealing a gun, and passes the crew member while heading out, presumably to face the pirates. Noodles ident acts as a trailer to the On Melancholy Hill music video, which was released on June 15. On 26 February 2010, a minimix of the album was made available on the official website to download for free.[18] The minimix is an eight-minute composition of songs from the album, a number of which had not been previously released. Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach, Rhinestone Eyes and White Flag were premiered on the Australian radio station Triple J on 28 February 2010, in respective order, at one hour intervals. On 1 March 2010, NPR debuted the entire album via streaming.[19] Later on in the day, the album also become available for streaming at Guardian.co.uk.[20] [edit] Singles The album has produced two singles as of August 2010. * Stylo was the first single from the album, released digitally on 26 January 2010. * On Melancholy Hill became the second single from the album which replaced Superfast Jellyfish and was released exclusively on iTunes on June 15th.

Foods representing American Essay

The United States of America is a melting pot of different ethnic cultures and hence in that respect is considered to be one of the most diverse countries in the universe. The cultural cuisine is marked by the influence of different cultures and is difficult to actually say which one stands out to be a symbolic representation of American culture. But before one can delve any further it is important to understand the root significance of what is it like to be American or the American way of life. What is the American way of life all about ? Or, what is Americanism all about and how does it permeate it’s way into defining certain kinds of food onto an iconic level. Imagine food being granted the iconic status of being truly American! An average outlook on the part of most Americans, is that they generally like and prefer food that is cheap, quick, and convenient regardless of whether it is purchased from a supermarket or a fast food store. In other words, cooking or buying food is never expected to be a hassle- it ought to be fast, easy, â€Å"with minimal or economic sacrifice† (Ikerd,2009). The characteristics of America’s food culture are cost, convenience, and appearance. Let us take a look at some of the foods that have acquired an iconic brand status of being truly American. These foods have a sense of place and a signature style as being a symbolic representative of a place / region in America. What one generally gets to hear about is hamburgers, French fries, potato chips, e. t. c Apart from just the usual common food/snack varieties that are popular, and if one were to really look harder for a search- there are regional / locational foods that have shaped the thought process all across America. Apple Pie, New England Clam Chowder, Pastrami (New York), Shoofly(Pennsylvania), Smithfield ham(Virginia), Po boys (Louisiana), Fajitas (Texas). a) Apple Pie: is considered to be a European import and has come to stay in America for centuries and been perfected over the years. An American Apple pie is homely and rustic in appearance. b) New England Clam Chowder: No trip to Boston is complete without a proper bowl of clam chowder. A proper chowder is deep and aromatic, with layered flavors atop a porky foundation (Bonne, 2009) c) Pastrami (New York): Pastrami is man’s mastery over meat. It begins with a simple slab / plate of meat — a cut which is different from the grill-and-serve of the obvious hunk of a cow, needs the much needed transformation. It is then subjected to a dry cure process: salted with a good portion of cracked black pepper and maybe with a little sugar and spice — which rest on the meat as it is left to be smoked. When it is finally ready- whole pastramis are steamed for quite a few hours before serving. d) Shoofly pie (Pennsylvania): is a fruity pie and quite a tasty one. It is crusty with molasses and crumbs. The crumbs add texture to the dense and rustic pie rich with molasses in taste. According to popular Amish folklore one is reminded of the fact that the name derives itself from an activity that refers to the constant need to shoo away flies from these succulent and juicy sweet treats atop which are the generous pools of molasses that lay formed. d) Po-boys (Louisiana): This a generally considered a workaday food meant for hungry and hardworking people trying to meet ends. It’s discovery is attributed to two brothers viz. , Benjamin and Clovis Martin, who ran a restaurant in the city’s French Market. Eating a ‘Po-boy’ is quite an unforgettable sandwich treat. WORKS CITED Ikerd, John (2009) â€Å"The American Food Culture† Retrieved on 29th May, 2009 Bonne, Jon (2005) â€Å"10 Foods that make America great† Retrieved on 29th May, 2009. < http://www. msnbc. msn. com/id/8392312//>

Compare and Contrast Harry Potter Movie and Book

Tianhao Mr. Findley Human Resources Management MGT-3375 Nov 28,2010 Employee Turnover Introduction â€Å"In a human resources context, turnover or labor turnover is the rate at which an employer gains and loses employees. Simple ways to describe it are â€Å"how long employees tend to stay† or â€Å"the rate of traffic through the revolving door. † Turnover is measured for individual companies and for their industry as a whole. If an employer is said to have a high turnover relative to its competitors, it means that employees of that company have a shorter average tenure than those of other companies in the same industry.High turnover can be harmful to a company's productivity if skilled workers are often leaving and the worker population contains a high percentage of novice workers. †(Wikipedia,Jan,2009) Turnover occurs when employees leave an organization and have to be replaced. With today's baby boomer generation beginning to retire from the labor market, man y companies are finding it increasingly difficult to retain employees. Turnover is becoming a serious problem in today's corporate environment. The employment culture is changing as well.It is now relatively common to change jobs every few years, rather than grow with one company throughout the employment life as was once commonplace. In addition, employees are increasingly demanding a balance between work and family life. Types of Employee Turnover Turnover is classified in a number of ways. Each of the following classifications can be used, and the various types are not mutually exclusive: * Involuntary Turnover Employees are terminated for poor performance or work rule violations * Voluntary TurnoverEmployees leave by choice Involuntary turnover is triggered by organizational policies, work rules, and performance standards that are not met by employees. Voluntary turnover can be caused by many factors, including career opportunities, pay, supervision, geography, and personal/fami ly reasons. Voluntary turnover also appears to increase with the size of the organization, most likely because larger firms are less personal, are permeated by an â€Å"organizational bureaucracy,† and have more employees who are inclined to move. Functional Turnover Lower-performing or disruptive employees leave * Dysfunctional Turnover Key individuals and high performers leave at critical times Not all turnover is negative fo organizations; on the contrary, some workforce losses are desirable, especially if those who leave are lower-performing, less reliable individuals, or disruptive co-workers. Unfortunately fo organizations, dyfunctional turnover does occur. That happens when key individuals leave, often at crucial work times.For example, a software project leader left in the middle of a system upgrade in order to take a promotion at another firm in the city. His departure caused the system ungrade timeline to slip by two months due to the difficulty of replacing that pr oject leader. * Uncontrollable Turnover Employees leave for reasons outsides the control of the employer * Controllable Turnover Employees leaves fo reasons that could be influenced by the employer Employees quit for many reasons that cannot be controlled by the organization.These reason include: (1) the employee moves out of the geographicarea, (2) the employee decides to stay home with young children or elder relatives, (3) the employee’s spouse is transferred, and (4) the employee is a student worker who graduates from college. Even though some turnover is inevitable, many employees today recognize that reducing turnover is crucial. Therefore, they must address turnover that is controllable. Organizations are better able to retain employees if they deal with the concerns of employees that are leading to this type of turnover. Causes of high or low turnoverHigh turnover often means that employees are unhappy with the work or compensation, but it can also indicate unsafe or unhealthy conditions, or that too few employees give satisfactory performance (due to unrealistic expectations or poor candidate screening). The lack of career opportunities and challenges, dissatisfaction with the job-scope or conflict with the management have been cited as predictors of high turnover. Low turnover indicates that none of the above is true: employees are satisfied, healthy and safe, and their performance is satisfactory to the employer.However, the predictors of low turnover may sometimes differ than those of high turnover. Aside from the fore-mentioned career opportunities, salary, corporate culture, management's recognition, and a comfortable workplace seem to impact employees' decision to stay with their employer. Many psychological and management theories exist regarding the types of job content which is intrinsically satisfying to employees and which, in turn, should minimise external voluntary turnover.Examples include Hertzberg's Two factor theory, McClelland 's Theory of Needs, and Hackman ;amp; Oldham's Job Characteristics Model Effects of Employee Turnover High turnover can be a serious obstacle to productivity, quality, and profitability at firms of all sizes. For the smallest of companies, a high turnover rate can mean that simply having enough staff to fulfill daily functions is a challenge, even beyond the issue of how well the work is done when staff is available.Turnover is no less a problem for major companies, which often spend millions of dollars a year on turnover-related costs. For service-oriented professions, such as management consulting or account management, high employee turnover can also lead to customer dissatisfaction and turnover, as clients feel little attachment to a revolving contact. Customers are also likely to experience dips in the quality of service each time their representative changes. The cost of turnover varies with the difficulty of the job to be performed.For example, in a food-processing company, s howing someone how to put jars of jam into a cardboard box may take five minutes, so the cost of training someone to handle this job would not be high. If, however, the tyrannical manager of the food processing line at the company kept driving away food cookers and quality-control workers, the cost of constantly training employees in this critical area could be high. Turnover costs Many organizations have found that turnover is a costly problem.In many service industries, the turnover rates and costs are are frequently very high. Employee turnover can cost companies millions per year. Good managers work to reduce turnover by taking a step beyond business level conversation. When accounting for the costs (both real costs, such as time taken to select and recruit a replacement, and also opportunity costs, such as lost productivity), the cost of employee turnover to for-profit organizations has been estimated to be up to 150% of the employees' remuneration package. There are both direc t and indirect costs.Direct costs relate to the leaving costs, replacement costs and transitions costs, and indirect costs relate to the loss of production, reduced performance levels, unnecessary overtime and low morale. In a healthcare context, staff turnover has been associated with worse patient outcomes. The costs of employee turnover can be staggering, ranging anywhere from 1/2 to 5 times an employee's annual wages dependant upon his or her position. It is neither possible, nor desirable to completely eliminate turnover from your organization.Some of the costs associated with employee turnover are unavoidable and must be expected to occur in the normal course of business. Turnover Calculation (1). Calculate the average number of employees (2). Calculate the number of departures during the period (3). Divide departures by number of employees Prevent Turnover Employee turnover is not just a Human Resources Issue. When an employee leaves a company, the employee takes with him kno wledge and experience, that which cannot be monetarily measured and that cannot be easily recreated.These are the little hints, tricks and history that relates to how to perform effectively and efficiently. Higher turnover can cost a company millions of dollars per year and can slow down productivity! It is important for managers to find ways to motivate and reward employees that don't break a budget line item, but still make the employee feel needed! Most employees spend between 40 and 60 hours per week on the job and away from a family. Because of this, the workplace sometimes becomes almost like a second home.This is a huge amount of time and the last thing a good employee wants is to feel that time is wasted or has become inefficient. â€Å"Managers can make the difference! Although professional achievement goals are mentioned quite often in managerial handbooks; these handbooks don’t always make note of the small things that make coming to work a desired event. Humans e njoy interaction. Although bonding is a term that has been misused lately, this is exactly what a manager should encourage. Some workplaces are conservative and some are liberal. No matter the culture, the small things matter!If most of the employees enjoy playing ping pong, watching Judge Judy or like pizza, what better way to reward employees who contribute the most? A used ping pong table can cost fifty dollars – a used TV set can cost about the same and pizza can certainly cost less. Lunchtimes can be used to engage in some fun activities that relieve stress and encourage sharing. † (Linda,2007) Here are some steps for reducing employee turnover. First, hire the right people and continue to develop their careers. Does your company have an ongoing career development program, tuition reimbursement, or skills training program?An investment in upgrading the workforce is one of the best investments a company can make when looking at long-term growth. Hiring the people th at are a good â€Å"fit† with the culture of the organization — meaning that their values, principles, and goals clearly match those of the company — and then training as necessary will go a long way toward ensuring employee loyalty and retention. Second, most companies with low turnover rates are very employee oriented. They solicit input and involvement from all employees and maintain a true â€Å"open-door† policy that avoids closed-door meetings.Employees are given an opportunity for advancement and are not micro-managed. Intrinsic rewards are critical. Employees must believe they have a voice and are recognized for their contribution. Remember that â€Å"trust† and â€Å"loyalty† are a two-way street. Third, develop an overall strategic compensation package that includes not only base and variable pay scales, but long-term incentive compensation, bonus and gain-sharing plans, benefit plans to address the health and welfare issues of the employees, and non-cash rewards and perks as well.To be competitive in today's labor market, most companies find it necessary to offer a standard benefit package, including health, dental, and life insurance, vacation and leave policies, and investment and retirement plans. In general, reducing employee turnover saves money. Money saved from not having to find and train replacement workers can be used elsewhere. Not All Empolyee Turnover is Bad â€Å"Not All Employee Turnover Is Bad — Celebrate ‘Losing the Losers’. (John,2009) It’s hard to find a more misunderstood and mismanaged human resource area than employee turnover. Executives are constantly sounding off about how â€Å"bad† employee turnover is, but in some cases, employee turnover is actually a positive thing. Imagine, for example, that you had a poor-performing worker like Homer Simpson. If Homer walked in late one day as usual and announced that he was leaving, would you consider that a bad thing, or would you secretly celebrate his departure? The idea of keeping everyone is just plain silly.The fact is that there are many factors that can transform â€Å"ordinary turnover† into either positive or negative turnover. As a result, few firms are beginning to classify their turnover as either â€Å"regrettable† or desirable turnover. Whether turnover is good or bad depends primarily on the business impact caused by the departure of the employee. â€Å"It’s easy during tough economic times to under focus on turnover and retention because the turnover rate of almost every firm decreases, as employees increase their emphasis on job security.However, this â€Å"lull† in turnover might be an ideal time to re-examine your processes, metrics, and goals related to turnover and retention. It’s especially important to act now because quite often the â€Å"seeds† or initial causes of turnover are more likely to be happening now because of the frustration related to budget cutting, hiring freezes, layoffs, and lack of development funds and opportunities. †(John,2009) Summary Employee turnover is a ratio comparison of the number of employees a company must replace in a given time period to the average number of total employees.A huge concern to most companies, employee turnover is a costly expense especially in lower paying job roles, for which the employee turnover rate is highest. Many factors play a role in the employee turnover rate of any company, and these can stem from both the employer and the employees. Wages, company benefits, employee attendance, and job performance are all factors that play a significant role in employee turnover. Now days most managers make their best to reduce the high employee turnover to make the organization better, but nothing is absolutely, â€Å"Not all turnover is bad†.References Dr. John Sullivan, Not All Employee Turnover Is Bad — Celebrate â€Å"Losing th e Losers† retried from http://www. ere. net/2009/04/06/not-all-employee-turnover-is-bad-celebrate-losing-the-losers/ Linda Banks, Reduce Employee Turnover: How to encourage your employees to stay retrieved from Nov 28,2010 http://www. suite101. com/content/reduce-employee-turnover-a20445 Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Turnover(employment) retrieved from Nov 28,2010 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Turnover_(employment) http://www. missouribusiness. net http://www. referenceforbusiness. com