Albert Stansell

Albert “Al” Fletcher Stansell grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. Al identifies as a gay, middle-class, Caucasian, male and at age 72 he happily resides in Boise, Idaho. After serving as an air traffic controller in Atlanta, Al shares his coming out process during a controversial time period when he could have easily lost his job for publicly claiming his gay orientation. During this interview, Albert also opens up about his 30-year relationship with his partner Dick, his 12-year marriage to a woman, the relationship he has with his two children including what it was like raising his son with Dick and finally he reflects on the journey that him and Dick embarked on when they decided to become the sole owners and operators of the now well-known Balcony bar located in downtown Boise.https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/idlgbtq_oral_histories/1002/thumbnail.jp

Convergent evolution of coloration in experimental introductions of the guppy (Poecilia reticulata).

Despite the multitude of examples of evolution in action, relatively fewer studies have taken a replicated approach to understand the repeatability of evolution. Here, we examine the convergent evolution of adaptive coloration in experimental introductions of guppies from a high-predation (HP) environment into four low-predation (LP) environments. LP introductions were replicated across 2 years and in two different forest canopy cover types. We take a complementary approach by examining both phenotypes and genetics. For phenotypes, we categorize the whole color pattern on the tail fin of male guppies and analyze evolution using a correspondence analysis. We find that coloration in the introduction sites diverged from the founding Guanapo HP site. Sites group together based on canopy cover, indicating convergence in response to light environment. However, the axis that explains the most variation indicates a lack of convergence. Therefore, evolution may proceed along similar phenotypic trajectories, but still maintain unique variation within sites. For the genetics underlying the divergent phenotypes, we examine expression levels of color genes. We find no evidence for differential expression, indicating that the genetic basis for the color changes remains undetermined

The progress of female police officers?An empirical analysis of organisational commitment and tenure explanations in two UK police forces

Purpose of paper. Although the number of women in UK police forces has grown rapidly, it appears that they continue to be under-represented in senior ranks. This research paper aims to establish empirically whether there is any foundation in the premise that female officers' lesser tenure and or lower levels of commitment than men explain their lack of career progress. Methodology. Using whole population surveys of two county police in the UK we compare the promotion of men and women police officers controlling for tenure. We then compare the organisational commitment of male and female officers and analyse whether female officers experience managerial and organisational influences that undermine their organisational commitment compared to men. Findings. The findings refute some of the widespread beliefs about reasons for female officers’ lack of progress in their policing careers since the analysis indicates that gender differences in length of tenure and organisational commitment can be discounted as possible explanations for lack of advancement in these two police forces. Overall, our results clearly show that female officers are just as committed as male officers and thus cannot be justified as a reason for lack of career progression. Managerial variables were found to be the strongest influence on organisational commitment and it appeared that there was no evidence that management support or organisational support were different for female officers compared to their male colleagues. Research Implications/Limitations. We accept that survey methods such as ours do not capture the entirety of employee feelings and responses since they tend to homogenise male and female working experiences. However, survey methods do have the advantage that it is possible to generalise from the results and thus these two studies allow us to suggest that our findings can be viewed as providing insights to other UK police forces in particular and to the broader field of the antecedents of organisational commitment in general. Practical implications. The relatively low levels of organisational commitment found should be a cause for concern for senior managers in the Police. The key importance that management has in influencing organisational commitment has been shown by our findings and this indicates the importance of the current Police Leadership Development Board’s agenda to improve workforce management skills to encourage transformational leadership styles. Moreover, there clearly remains much to be done to make police HRM policies more effective in achieving equality in promotion opportunities since the data presented shows that women’s careers are lagging behind even when tenure is taken into account. Value and originality of the paper. The paper make an original contribution by refuting widely held assumptions about the reasons for under-representation of female officers in senior ranks. It also contributes to the sparse literature that examines organisational commitment in the police and its antecedents

Spartan Daily, October 8, 1959

Volume 47, Issue 12https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/3928/thumbnail.jp

The Evil of Banality: Moby Dick vs. the Extreme Machine

In this article I am suggesting that Feidelson’s approach be appropriated for the contemplation and understanding of extra-literary phenomena like the extreme machine. As Russell Reising points out, Feidelson’s “historical premise—that symbolism arose at a particular historical moment —could generate semiotic analyses of the relationships between cultural texts (literature, advertising, political discourses and so on) and social contexts, even though the texts themselves purport to transcend social determination” (180). One might extrapolate from this passage to ask the following questions: How do popular mass-produced objects and trends take on symbolic weight in American culture? What connections might we make between these commodities and American literary texts that represent historical events, debates, and individual psychology? And more specifically, if also more whimsically, is there a secret symbolic relationship between Melville’s Moby-Dick and the extreme machine

Swearwords Used by Gangsters in the “Alpha Dog” Movie

Many people assume that swearwords is a rude word and should be avoided. Those words are used to insult, to curse, to offend or to mock at something when the speaker has strong emotion (Hughes, 1991,05). To swear at someone or something is to insult and deprecate the object of abuse, as well as to use other kinds of dysphemism (Allan & Burridge, 2006,76). Apparently some experts and scholars have been able to prove that swearwords also has a purpose and a meaning beside the one as commonly held. Therefore, the writer took the "Alpha Dog" movie as an example of the analyzed cases. Examples have been found by the writer including the categories of epithets derived from tabooed bodily organs, epithets derived from bodily effluvia, epithets derived from sexual behaviours, dysphemistic epithets that pick on real physical characteristics that are treated as though they are abnormalities, imprecations and epithets invoking mental subnormality or derangement. Finally, the writer also managed to find a purpose or a reason for the people to use swearwords in real life