I love the angle of this photograph showing Jackson Pollock’s (1912-1956) famously unique way of working. Lee Krasner (1908-1984), an extremely talented artist herself, and married to Pollock watches him work. To me, this image symbolises Krasner putting her own work to one side to support her often turbulent husband throughout their difficult relationship.
Freedom of speech is widely accepted as a prime human right in a democracy, and no American needs reminding that it forms the basis of the First Amendment to their Constitution, having been added in 1791: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech”. It therefore has a power similar to that of holy writ.
However, other countries have certainly made such “abridging” laws, and the United Kingdom is one of them.
Several laws and statutes currently in force in the UK cover what is generally referred to as “hate speech”. For example, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act of 2006 specifically states that: “A person who uses threatening words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, is guilty of an offence if he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred.” The Act makes it clear that the expression of such views as part of general discourse or criticism is not illegal, but the line is crossed when the intention of any such expression is to “stir up religious hatred”.
Any prosecution under this Act would therefore have to prove that the perpetrator’s intentions were malign, and that might not always be straightforward.
Racial hate speech is prohibited by the Public Order Act of 1986 that covers words or behaviour that are intended to stir up racial hatred, and Part 3A of this Act has been amended by a clause of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 in order to cover hate speech based on sexual orientation.
In all such cases, the emphasis is on the threat implied by the words or actions, although the occasioning of alarm or distress is sufficient to be counted as threatening behaviour.
In the United States, the wording of the UK Acts would certainly fall foul of the First Amendment. American case law has established that hate speech is permissible unless it can be shown that it is likely to lead to immediate violence, which is clearly a more stringent requirement for prosecution than merely the threat of violence or the causing of alarm or distress.
An excellent case for illustrating the difference between British and American attitudes is that of Westboro Baptist Church.
(Photo by "dbking")
Westboro Baptist Church
This is a relatively small religious organisation in Topeka, Kansas. It is believed to have around 40 members, most of whom belong to a single extended family. It was founded in 1955 as a daughter church of Topeka’s East Side Baptist Church, with Fred Phelps as the first pastor. However, Phelps soon broke away from East Side Baptist and made Westboro Church virtually his personal property.
Fred Phelps soon established a reputation for condemnation of anyone who did not fit his strict interpretation of how the Bible directed people to live. His particular hatred was for sexual impropriety, with homosexuality being the number one sin. This eventually took the form of picketing the funerals of people known to be gay, with his supporters carrying placards with the words “God Hates Fags” and similar slogans. The other main focus of his hatred was Roman Catholicism, leading to the picketing of funerals of people (most notably soldiers) who were Catholic.
Fred Phelps died in March 2014 at the age of 84. Although he alienated several members of his family, others stayed loyal and have continued the Phelps tradition of being thoroughly objectionable to “sinners”.
(Photo by David Shankbone)
To the credit of Christians throughout the United States, other churches will have nothing to do with Westboro Baptist Church and refuse to associate with it. There is considerable discomfort over their use of the name “Baptist”, in that other Baptist establishments do not wished to be tarred with the same brush that Westboro uses.
Free speech versus hate speech
It is perfectly clear that the picketing activities of Westboro Baptist Church would not be acceptable if they took place in the United Kingdom. This was shown to be the case in 2009 when church members were barred from entering the United Kingdom with the purpose of picketing a school in Hampshire that was staging a play (“The Laramie Project”) based on the story of Matthew Shepard, a gay student who was murdered because of his sexuality. Presumably the Westboro members took no exception to such a crime, but were prepared to fly the Atlantic to protest against people who did.
Other cases in the UK have shown how the hate speech laws work in practice to curtail free speech in certain circumstances. An example is the successful 2001 prosecution of Harry Hammond, a street evangelist who acted in a similar way to the Westboro picketers by displaying a sign in a public place that read: “Jesus Gives Peace, Jesus is Alive, Stop Immorality, Stop Homosexuality, Stop Lesbianism, Jesus is Lord”. This was judged to be insulting and offensive to any passer-by who was gay.
However, in the United States Harry Hammond (if he had been an American citizen) would have escaped prosecution, as do the Westboro picketers. This is because hate speech is seen very differently from hate crime, with the former being protected by the First Amendment.
However, the question that must be asked is: Is this situation tenable? Hate speech and hate crime are not entirely separate, because the former can be regarded as encouragement for the latter. Surely the time has come for a pious statement written in the 18th century – a very different age from the present day – to be confined to the dustbin of history, on the grounds that laws that abridge the freedom of speech are sometimes not only desirable but essential.
In case you're some way or another ignorant of the social fixation on podcasts, you're truly passing up a major opportunity. Plain and basic: Podcasts are a brilliant approach to find out about cash. While there are various individual back podcasts out there, a significant number of us do not have the more elevated amount monetary education to really profit.
Be that as it may, these seven are unimaginably open, all around created, phenomenally investigated, brimming with huge identity, and on substantial turn with the DailyWorth staff.
1. To Understand the Economy, Listen to Planet Money
Planet Money's basic slogan, "The economy clarified," isn't joking: The show has all the instruction of a school course with no of the claim. Envision your most patient and intriguing companion just talking with you about the economy in an open and drawing in way, and you will have summoned Planet Money. Resulting from This American Life, Planet Money is an absolute necessity tune in for any individual who needs to recognize what's happening on the planet without first acquiring a degree in financial matters.
Begin With: The Case Against Patents
2. To See How a Business Is Built, Listen to Start Up
In case you're as of now a fanatic of podcast all-stars Planet Money or This American Life, Start Up is for you. Facilitated by Alex Blumberg, Start Up follows the principal phases of an organization (it concentrates on a media organization in its first season), from introductory origination to picking up financial specialists, setting up an office, and attempting to hand a benefit over infrequently flinch commendable detail. Presently in its second season, Start Up spreads another organization, a dating application keep running by two young ladies hoping to change the internet dating amusement.
Begin With: How Not to Pitch a Billionaire
3. For Female-Focused, No-Fuss Information About the Business of Being a Grown-Up, Try Stuff Mom Never Told You
Stuff Mom Never Told You is consistent with its name—has Cristen Conger and Caroline Ervin cover an extensive variety of bare essential data about how to be a grown-up. While their substance isn't 100% cash centered, their shows about working ladies, the socialization that keeps ladies down, and the instruction crevice amongst men and ladies with regards to back are clear and convincing.
Begin With: Are Women Less Financially Literate Than Men?
4. For Personal Finance and Quick Explainers, Listen to Money Girl
In case you're searching for individual fund exhortation, it doesn't get less difficult than Laura D. Adams' Money Girl podcast. In her nibble estimate podcasts, she clarifies indispensable themes like the advantages and disadvantages of credit unions versus banks, the contrast between a 401(k) and a Roth IRA, and the impacts of hard and delicate credit checks. In addition she answers individual inquiries, helping you to better control your cash.
Begin With: 4 Radically Simple Places to Invest Your Money
5. In case You're Fascinated by the Weird Truths in the World, Listen to Freakonomics Radio
You may recall the accomplishment of Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's 2005 book that connected the standards of financial aspects to those inquiries you never thought to ask: Why do street pharmacists have a tendency to live with their mothers? Are guardians really that essential? Which is more risky: a weapon or a swimming pool? Freakonomics Radio develops that establishment, helping you better comprehend your general surroundings—or simply give you some incredible feed for your next supper party.
Begin With: Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better?
6. In the event that You Want to Up Your Side Gigs Game, Smart Passive Income Is for You
Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income podcast gives you an investigate the intricate details of automated revenue organizations, which create cash yet oblige practically zero customary exertion. Flynn routinely meets fruitful business visionaries who have nailed the easy revenue model, and gives genuine counsel about approaches to eliminate your exertion without gambling income.
Begin With: Types of Passive Income and What to Expect From Each (Part 1)
7. Respectable Mention: This American Life
You're likely effectively acquainted with Ira Glass and group's account narrating show, and it loans itself splendidly to clarifying expansive budgetary occasions. Don't completely comprehend the 2008 lodging emergency, from which despite everything we're attempting to skip back?
Georges Seurat (1859-91) died at the age of only 32, but during his short life he was able to effect a revolution in art that moved painting forward from Impressionism into what was dubbed “Neo-Impressionism”. His painting “The Bathers, Asnières”, although the artist’s first major work, is widely regarded as the marker of that revolution.
Seurat was fascinated by the science of colour, and the process by which the human eye and brain resolve the impression of colour as seen in Nature. The technique he developed was to apply paint to the canvas not as continuous streaks but as tiny points of colour, such that the subject of the painting can only be appreciated when the viewer is at the correct distance from the canvas. As “The Bathers” measures some 6.5 feet by 10 feet, the ideal viewing distance is quite considerable. The individual dots are invisible, but the proportions of dots of different colours in any one area create the impression of a certain shade.
The technique is known as “Pointillisme” and it has also been called “Divisionism”. To the modern viewer, who is used to the technique used to create images on a computer screen, the dots of paint are the same as “pixels”, or “picture elements” that cheat the eye into believing that a solid image exists when it is actually composed of millions of individual points of colour. Going the other way in time, it is similar to mosaic work.
Seurat’s canvas portrays a scene by the River Seine on a hot summer’s day. To the left of the canvas is a grassy bank on which several figures sit or recline. There are piles of clothes that the bathers have discarded. A small dog sits up, looking round at something on the river. The most prominent figure is that of a boy who sits on the bank with his back hunched and his feet presumably dangling in the water. Another boy stands in the water nearly up to his waist. He has his hands raised to his mouth as though calling to somebody on a boat on the river; perhaps this is what has made the dog sit up and look round.
Also visible is another boy standing in the water, who is the only character not looking over to the right. In the distance we can see boats of various kinds, trees overhanging the water, and, in the far distance, factory buildings and chimneys, one of which is producing dark smoke.
This is therefore a commonplace impressionist scene of ordinary people doing ordinary things, but portrayed in an extraordinary way. Seurat is able to show his skill at producing a range of textures, including light and shade, skin tones and reflections in the water. What works best in this painting is the impression of a heat haze, with the distant objects having fuzzy edges as they meld into the clear blue sky.
Seurat probably began work on “The Bathers” in 1882, and worked on it for more than a year. He painted and drew a number of smaller works in preparation for the main canvas, concentrating on individual figures and experimenting with his technique until he was satisfied with it. His aim was to achieve an exact interplay of colour and light in the open air, and to this end each area of shadow was broken down into the complementary colours of the neighbouring unshaded areas. Every element of the painting, whether water, grass or flesh, was made up of colours reflected from the objects adjoining it.
It should not, however, be assumed that the entire area of the canvas consists of dots of paint. Seurat used a variety of textures, including short criss-crossing strokes which become gradually shorter with distance. This technique is apparent in the depiction of the grass, for example.
Despite the apparent relaxation of the scene, Seurat left nothing to chance in either his execution or composition. “The Bathers, Asnières” is therefore a coming together of art and science.
Seurat continued to develop his pointillist technique in later works, despite the inevitable criticism that was bound to befall the leader of a revolution. Other painters who used the technique include Van Gogh, and many modern artists have been influenced by it, including Andy Warhol.
The painting is today housed in the National Gallery, London.
Benchmarking is an inevitable truth of our lives. In the absence of it we live a life of no one and reach no where. Since childhood, we use benchmarking. When we start to go to school, our parents benchmark the schools we go to, they benchmark our grades to be achieved. As we grow up, we benchmark our likings in clothing, places where we eat, we enjoy, even the college that we complete our higher studies from.
At every stage of our life, we follow benchmarking to make ourselves better than what already are. Similarly, for the lifespan of an organisation too, benchmarking plays a very important role. We benchmark ourselves at many different aspects of the business lifecycle, out of which one of the most important benchmarking is Salary Benchmarking.
Ironically many organisations confuse themselves between, Benchmarking and Competitor Analysis. We need to understand the basic difference between the two, as Benchmarking is journey of What to How, whereas, Competitors analysis is nothing more that just a "wannabe approach". While analysing yourself against your competitor is not a bad deed at all, but it is widely different from Benchmarking.
When you do benchmarking, you actually look for the blind spots that are stopping you to be better than what you already are, and work towards improving them. This is not a one time exercise, rather it's a continuous improvement process. You discover the best practices in the Industry and Market, to achieve the best performance results for an organisation.
Salary Benchmarking
Salary benchmarking is the process of matching the market rates for each position for the internal job descriptions with external jobs with similar responsibilities. In this process you want to ensure that while you hire a resource from the market for a certain role, you don't end up over or underpaying the resource for that certain role. There are many external and internal factors that must be considered while doing the benchmarking for a certain role i.e. geographic location, company size, and education level factor.
Types of Benchmarking
While searching for the right point where an employee would be considered as rightly paid resource for the right kind of job, you may have to look in all directions, inside, outside and beyond.
Internal Benchmarking
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In Internal benchmarking you compare internal salary parities to a similar role inside the organization in maybe a different department to acquire the best internal benchmark. For example, at the Managerial level, two department might have two different set of requirements and the complexity of their roles, still what we need to check is that there is not a huge disparity in their salaries. However, it could be a possibility that Manager in an IT Department might earn a little higher salary than of a Manager in an Admin team, as there are lot of many other factors fall in for that. Still, it should not be the case that a manager in department A earns 'n' salary, whereas in department B a manager is earning (n)x10. This would be a huge disparity and may become a cause of internal discomfort among employees
External Benchmarking
The external benchmarking much similar to the internal benchmarking, with one major difference is that you compare your salaries, benefits and other best practices with the other companies in the similar or different industries (Preferably in the similar Industry). However, doing an external benchmarking with a different industry is also a good approach, as it might show you the blind spots of your industry as a whole too.
Geographic Benchmarking
You might notice that most of the multinational companies have a slightly different work culture and policies, the main reason behind it is that they benchmark themselves not only to the local practices and cultures, but also to what best practices are followed in different parts of the world. This kind of benchmarking doesn't only help you in looking at fresh new perspective, but also in innovating to ensure higher level of employee engagement. While doing such benchmarking, you might find some good compensation related practices which you might overlooking, all for the reason that it is not a normal practice in your geography.
Steps in doing a successful Benchmarking
An ill defined Benchmarking process, will lead to no good, rather it might end up creating lot of confusion in the end. Hence, while doing the benchmarking one much keep the below points in the list to be completed for sure
1. Define what you want to Benchmark
2. Understand where you are right now
3. Document the current status, it will reduce
a. Wastage of time and resources in collecting and processing already existing data
b. The chances of deviating the focus
4. Define appropriate Comparators
a. What to measure
b. How to measure
c. What to keep
d. What not to keep
e. How to calculate
5. Develop the Data Collection plan, and tools to be used
6. Convert Data into Information and benchmark
7. Develop the implementation plan and implement it
8. Update and Recalibrate
Benchmarking Tools
To complete the process of Benchmarking, one could adopt multiple tools to ensure that the Benchmarking is effective and relevant. You could use Internal as well as External tools.
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How Salary Benchmarking Defines a Company's fate
It all starts with people. Company is nothing but a group of rightly aligned highly engaged people working towards one single objective of making the organisation successful.
It's been observed that highest number of attritions that any organisations in any industry sees is due the "Better Opportunity" that their attritting resource have received from the market, which many a times is with the better salary and other benefits than what they have been getting as a package at some other place.
On the contrary, many organisations face dreadful fate as they ignore the important fact of Salary benchmarking and go ahead in offering sky high salary figures to the talented resources and hire them not in ones or twos but in masses, and as a result they run out of cash to pay salaries even before those highly talented resources become productive enough to get the ROI on their salaries. Many startups has fallen for this trap already, ruining their fate as a company and careers of employees they have hired and later left them with no choice but to leave and join other opportunities with lesser packages and benefits, with which they have live forever, until they reach that level once again
The benefits of right salary benchmarking can be defined in a timeline as below
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Hence, it will not be wrong saying that rightly done Salary Benchmarking does play a vital role in deciding the fate of any organisation if they will fall or rise.
About the Author
Dr. Manan is the founder of #GlocalizedHR and a 360º HR Setup and Transformation services company Fortune Architect. He is a scholar of Human Resources and works closely with companies design their data-driven talent acquisition strategies that drive effectiveness, growth, and competitive advantage. He also speaks, writes and chairs conferences on HR Development and management.
Dogs are audacious optimists. They do every little thing with enthusiasm and verve—manners be damned. Drinking water is no exception, and anyone who has ever seen a dog lap from its water bowl on a hot summer day knows they are willing to loudly splash their way to hydration. But how does the water get from bowl to mouth?
In 2014, a team of researchers led by Virginia Tech’s Sunny Jung used high-speed cameras to film dogs as they drank water from a bowl. They examined the slow-motion footage and were able to study the mechanics behind a thirsty dog’s tongue.
As Discover magazine reported, “dogs curve their tongues backwards in a ladle-shape … When they rip their tongues out of the water, they cause a significant amount of acceleration—about five times that of gravity.”
