Were the Beatles Bigger Than Jesus?

John Lennon made this comment now over 40 years ago and I am in no doubt that he was correct for the context in which he intended to say it. He received a great amount of flack for his comments that The Beatles are 'more popular than Jesus now' mainly because they were quoted out of context in a US Teen Magazine. People reacted by both burning Lennon's albums and to a greater extreme, sending him death threats.

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Should Smoking be Allowed in Public Places?

I'm going to tell you the story of a young jolly chap named Dave. Dave is twenty three years old and has never touched a cigarette or, god forbid, any sort of illegal substance in his life. Dave enjoys sports and likes to keep himself healthy but does occasionally indulge himself with a drop if light beer at his favourite bar every so often. He gets to the bar on what is usually a busy Friday night and notices that the usual smell of stale smoke seems to have gone. Ah, yes its non-smoking here now, hasn't that smoking ban worked wonders? Dave looks around to find his mates and goes to sit with them. Shouldn't be too hard, it looks quite empty, I suppose its still quite early though.

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Interviews. Can You Say Something Whilst Saying Nothing?

You are the perfect candidate. An honours degree at the top University in the country, a decent work history and solid references. So why then did you not get through the first round of interviews? Did you say something wrong? More importantly what did you do wrong?

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How to Measure the Impact of Direct Mail Campaigns

It appears to be a common trend nowadays to say that direct mail campaigns are dead. The development of the Internet has certainly left many more avenues of marketing open but those who suggest direct mailing is dead simply are not implementing their campaign efficiently.

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Is Chivalry Dead?

"Save me, save me Robin" shouted Maid Marion as she was held captive by the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. Without a second of thought Robin Hood leapt over the castle walls, no worry for his own life to save the one he loved. After an epic battle with the Sheriff, Maid Marion was safe. "Come on Marion, jump on my horse and I'll take you home," said a relieved Robin. "Do you think I'm totally incapable of anything, I'll get a cab thank you very much!" said an angry Marion at Robin's outrageous offer.

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Which are better, fast or slow zombies?

The older Zombie movies such as Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead all featured slow zombies. The rotting flesh, stiff joints and probable lack of limbs naturally makes them slower. However, what about a recently turned zombie? Surely they don't instantly turn into this clumsy reck of an ex-human being? A freshly turned Zombie sprinting past the old decrepit Zombie is far more fun and to me makes far more sense. I can't understand how somebody can be scared of a Zombie walking towards them at a snail's pace, why can't they just run away? Ok, so Zombie movies aren't supposed to be realistic but I would like to see some sort of feasability.

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Does Technology Impoverish the Mind?

In the beginning there was no technology but man was able to survive. Unfortunately though, man got a little fed up with walking across the lands for miles so started to use a donkey. That was much easier. Some of them even tried using camels. Man had a problem when he came to a river though as donkey's don't like swimming so he built himself a boat out of wood. Of course, this was too small to go across oceans so man started to develop ships so he could travel. Unfortunately, when he got to the other side of the Atlantic, the donkey's and camel's had died as they do so were no good. Man invented the car, all he had to do was sit there and let the wheels do the work. Brilliant. He looked cool in his car while the others were still riding donkeys. Driving in style started to get a bit slow though so man wanted to fly. The aeroplane came. What he had was never enough and man got greedy. Soon man built buildings, phones and bombs just to be safe.

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Does Video Game Violence Contribute to Real Life Violence?

As I completed my game of Doom I went out into the garden to grab a breath of fresh air, delighted that I had finally done it. I don't know if it had made me a more aggressive person but as a went into the shed, grabbed my raygun and begun my journey to distant planets to slay those evil mutants I thought that I could have become slightly deluded. It just happens all the time.

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What is the most Famous Name in the World?

When I was travelling through the dark and deep parts of Eastern Asia I stumbled across the answer to what is the most famous name in the world.

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Travel - Saint-Maries-de-la-Mer, France

Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, the 'Saint Marys of the Sea,' is a small fishing village located on the South Central coast of Mediterranean France in the Camargue region of Bouches-du-Rhone. Lying around 45km from Arles, this overgrown village and tourist resort has a population of around 2,000 and acts as a port on the Petit Rhone. The Camargue in general and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in particular are associated with the Roma (Gypsies, French Gitans).

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Is Australia or New Zealand Better for an 'Extreme' Experience?

Before I travelled down under, I knew very little about New Zealand. I knew it was there but beyond that, my knowledge was rather minimal besides some crazy dance that the rugby team do before a match. I didn't know why my travelling buddy had booked for us to stay in the country for 2 months

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How to Deal with a Pushy Salesman?

I used to hate it when I went to open the front door only to find a man with a gleaming smile, clutching a clipboard and all ready to venture off into his pitch. Even though the product may well have been something I possibly wanted, I still wasn't prepared to listen to his carry-on. The door would generally be slammed with minutes, or seconds most probably. I'm pretty sure this is the case with most people. However, my perceptions changed since, in one of my many temporary employments, became a door to door salesman.

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Building a Microsoft Access Database

There is possibly no simpler way to store data than on a database and Microsoft Access gives an excellent interface to hold, manipulate and analyse your data. It is a common misbelief that creating a database is something which is difficult to do but this is not the case. Here are a few tips to get started.

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Is it acceptable to re-schedule a job interview?

A job interview gives the first insight to a potential employer of a candidates attitude and integrity towards their work. If you feel the need to re-schedule an interview you will be going in there with a point to prove from the outset and find yourself a step behind the other applicants. Naturally, there are some occurances, 'life or feath' situations so to speak that cannot be helped but even in these circumstances, an employer is unlikely to look kindly on re-scheduling. The question really is what is the best way to go about it?

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Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of mouth is potentially the best form of marketing for a business and best of all, is probably the most cost effective! Also known as viral marketing, word of mouth lets your customers do the promotion for you which is the best recommendation that anyone can get. However, it doesn't just happen on its own. The company itself must attempt to influence word of mouth marketing with high impact customer service that achieves that 'wow' factor.

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Should there be a maximum limit that businesses can pay their CEO's?

In the United States at present, the top fifth of the population receives in excess of 50% of the nation's annual income. In contrast the bottom fifth takes home somewhere around 3.5%. Is it just me or is this disparity edging somewhere near to that of a Third World Country? To add to this, the income levels for the top percent are continuing to rise and still declining for the bottom percent. Surely this is quite a serious problem for the United States?

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Travel - Arles, France

In the South of France lies the historical city of Arles, famed for its links to Vincent Van Gogh. This is where Van Gogh painted almost 200 of his pictures including the famous 'Sunflowers.' However, although the memory of Mr Van Gogh is still very prevalent in the city, there is so much more to appreciate about the place. Arles boast a fabulous concoction of French and Spanish flavours with a huge portion of history and a wealth of diverse and energetic people.

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Should Nurses Have the Authority to Decide if a Patient is Resuscitated?

Recent guidelines have suggested that nurses should have the authority to decide whether a not to resuscitate a patient. Up to 2007 in the UK, only GP's and consultants have been permitted to make such important decisions but The Patients Association has come to the decision that nurses are far better placed to make such a judgment. So, should nurses decide?

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Are Celebrity Role Models Giving Children the Right Image?

The drug problems of celebrities such as Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty are continually talked about in the press but yet they continue to win prestigious awards. British athlete Dwain Chambers has been allowed to compete in the upcoming World Indoor Championships despite being previously banned for illegal substances. What sort of message is this sending to our children? 'Don't worry about drugs, you'll still be a winner.'

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How mobile phones have affected the art of conversation

Starting a relationship, telling someone that you love them, cancelling arrangements, breaking up with a girlfriend; a set of incredibly difficult scenarios which can now be avoided thanks to the wonderful development of the mobile phone!

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The Impact of the 2012 Olympics on the Construction Industry

From the time London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games in July 2005, the impact on the construction trade has been a point of speculation for many pundits. Since 2002, the UK construction industry has reported buoyant conditions with some large housing and office projects managing to catapult the total value of the market up by some 15%. It is certainly an industry that is still on the rise so why are so many construction economists fearing the worst when it comes to the Olympic Games? One concern is that the project has been blown completely out of proportion with regard to the amount of work that is actually available. Various figures have been speculated but how accurate are they really. In a report by the CITB Construction skills, who are conducting a huge analysis into the Olympic impact on construction, it is estimated that the Olympic workforce will peak at around 7,500. The report shows that the industry has taken in somewhere between 20 and 40 times the this amount of workers from Eastern Europe in less time than it will take to build the Olympics! Does 7,500 workers constitute a substantial impact in an industry that currently employs over 2 million people and is already creating work at a higher rate than that predicted for the Olympic Games? In the grand scheme of things, are the Olympic Games really such a huge project? Would much of the planned work go ahead anyway even if London were not hosting the Olympics, like Stratford City for example?

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Will Censorship Destroy the Internet?

In February 2008, the Pakistani government ordered the video sharing site YouTube to be taken out of service for containing un-Islamic material. There was a two hour outage of the site which was apparently caused by 'erroneous Internet protocols' sourced in Pakistan. It was reported that YouTube had some Danish cartoons published on the site which contained references to the prophet Muhammad. In essence, the Pakistan Telecom Authority hijacked the YouTube server to block the site around the world. The question here is to what extent should governments been able to intervene when it comes to the Internet? Surely this is another case of taking away freedom of speech? Was the Internet not devised to create a platform for freedom of speech in the first place which isn't always easily accessible in the real world?

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Will online storefronts wipe out brick and mortar businesses?

Although the popularity of the Internet is always increasing, many people still prefer to make their purchases at traditional brick-and-mortar stores as opposed to online storefronts. Granted, the number of people who have made a purchase online has augmented but the actual overall spend is still lower than of offline shopping. It is unlikely that this statistic will change for a number of reasons.

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Political Implications of the Movie '300'

Prior to watching this movie, I had heard rumours saying that it showed strong aspects of racism, to an extent where a friend of mine was actually refusing to view it. I can't say I knew the story of '300' before the movie and from the trailers it just looked like a macho blood fest with fight scenes akin to those of the 'Lord of The Rings' battle field. However, it wasn't long until I found I was mistaken and through watching the film, realised that there could be a potentially large number of political implications. I will go through these potential political implications before saying why I am almost convinced to disregard them.

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