Six weeks after MH370's disappearance, the search continues. What can we learn by salvaging the wreckage of the missing plane? Amazon is offering $5,000 to warehouse workers that are unsatisfied and want to quit. Is this a good incentive for someone to quit his or her job? Later, what does CNN's decision to air more original programming during primetime mean for the rest of cable TV news?
Why is solving the Malaysia airline mystery worth $44-million (and counting)?
Six weeks after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, the multinational search team has brought in an autonomous underwater drone to comb through the ocean floor for wreckage, launching the hunt in another direction.
The batteries in the plane’s black boxes are thought to have died. The search team last picked up last a “ping” from the transponders six days ago. While searchers have narrowed down an area around 230 square miles—and close to 1,000 miles northwest of Perth, to focus their search efforts on, it could still take months for the underwater robot to scour the entire expanse.
Cost of the search has reached $44 million, according to a Reuters analysis,and is on track to become the most expensive search in aviation history.
The Boeing 777 plane dropped off radar soon after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur on March 8. The flight was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members and was headed for Beijing.
What can we learn by salvaging the wreckage of the missing plane?
Guest:
Captain Ross "Rusty" Aimer, former United Airlines pilot and CEO of Aero Consulting
Would you take $5,000 to quit your job? Amazon banks on it
Say you're a warehouse worker at Amazon, not too happy with your job and thinking about quitting. The company offers you $5,000 to walk away. Sounds like a great deal, right?
The program, called Pay to Quit, offers Amazon workers who aren't committed to their jobs $2,000 in severance pay in the first year of employment, going up to $5,000 in the fourth year.
The existence of the program went public in a letter that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos wrote to shareholders in 2013 released last week. The method behind the madness is that Amazon, which got the idea from Zappos, wants its workers to be happy, and therefore encourages employees who would rather not be there to leave.
Bezos said the intent is not to get rid of employees - the program actually has the headline 'Please Don't Take This Offer' - but to ensure that the employees who stay are happy and committed to their jobs.
According to a recent study by Gallup, employees who are "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in their jobs cost the US economy $450 billion to $550 billion a year in lost productivity.
It sounds like a good deal for both sides but what happens when the money runs out? With unemployment still high, particularly in California, is it a good idea to take a small payoff to be back in the job market? How much would be enough to get you to quit your job? Would employees get a bigger payoff by getting themselves fired instead?
Guest:
John Boudreau, Ph.D., Professor and Research Director at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and Center for Effective Organizations; co-author of 'Beyond HR: The New Science of Human Capital'
Is PTSD being over-diagnosed?
After this month's shooting rampage at Fort Hood, we learned the alleged gunman, Specialist Ivan Lopez, was being assessed for post-traumatic stress disorder - despite having never seen combat during his four-month deployment to Iraq.
The Pentagon says 155,000 U.S. troops have PTSD - and that's just a sliver of the 7.7 million Americans said to suffer from it. So what exactly is PTSD and how has its definition changed over the years we've learned more about it?
The latest DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) defines it as a psychiatric disorder that can occur in people who have experienced (directly or indirectly) or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a violent event such as war/combat, sexual assault or other violent personal assault.
In some studies, people who developed PTSD sometimes experienced events that were not necessarily as traumatic as rape and combat, such as non-life-threatening auto accidents. Whatever the cause, the common consequences are flashbacks, emotional avoidance and hyperarousal.
As we learn more about PTSD, will its diagnoses expand or be limited? Have you experienced PTSD? How have you communicated your diagnosis to people in your life?
Guest:
Dr. Richard J. McNally, Professor and Director of Clinical Training Harvard University’s Department of Psychology. He is a clinical psychologist, anxiety disorders and PTSD researcher, and the author of "What is Mental Illness?" and "Remembering Trauma."
Does CNN’s primetime shakeup spell a new future for TV news?
CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker has unveiled a new lineup for CNN, which spells an end of an era for a primetime cable news staple. Instead of interview-based news programs, Zucker is betting on original series and films instead to fill the 9pm slot previously owned by Larry King and, until recently, Piers Morgan.
“We believe that genre is no longer viable. There are just too many outlets with not enough big gets for a pure talk show to thrive any longer," Zucker said Thursday. "And just because CNN has always done a talk show at 9, it doesn't mean that's what we should be doing there going forward."
In other news, Al Jazeera America, which launched 8 months ago and went on a hiring spree, announced layoffs reportedly involving dozens of staffers and a large number of staffers. The cuts touched the entire network, but the new network’s sports department and a social media show named “The Stream” were the hardest hit.
Larry talks to Bloomberg Industries’ media analyst Paul Sweeney for a check in on the cable TV news industry.
Guest:
Paul Sweeney, Bloomberg Industries Senior Media analyst
High School’s Big Night: Are we spending too much on prom?
Sending your kid to prom? Headed there yourself? If the answer is yes, chances are you’re in for one expensive night. The cost of attire, limousine rental, and tickets to the actual event can add up quickly.
Luckily for 2014 prom attendees the average cost of attending a prom is expected to decrease for the first time since 2010. A survey conducted by Visa found that prom spending by teens and their families is expected to fall by 14 percent from $1,139 in 2013 to $978 in 2014.
Families in California may not be as lucky. The survey anticipates that prom spending in the Western United States will average $1,125, the highest regional average in the country. Families in the Midwest will spend the least, only $926, while those in the northeast are expected to spend $1,104.
When it comes to who actually pays for all of proms expenses, Visa found that parents are footing 56 percent of the bill while teens pay for the remaining 44 percent.
How much did you spend on your prom? If you are a parent, how much would you spend on your child’s prom? How much money is too much money when it comes to prom?
Guest:
Kit Yarrow, PhD, consumer psychologist and professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco and author of “Decoding the New Consumer Mind” (Wiley, 2014)
The fight of their lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro turned baseball's ugliest brawl into a story of redemption
The Fight of their Lives: tells the story of two men forever linked by a moment portrayed in an iconic photograph: Marichal with his bat poised to strike Roseboro in the head.
At the time, Marichal was a Dominican anxious about his family’s safety during the civil war back home; John Roseboro was a black man living in South Central L.A. shaken by the Watts riots a week earlier.
That Sunday afternoon in August 1965, on a day when the Dodgers and Giants clashed in a tight pennant race, the national pastime reflected the tensions in society and nearly sullied the two men forever.
Yet Marichal and Roseboro were able to rise above the moment, eventually reconciling and becoming friends.
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Guest:
John Rosengren, author of “The Fight of Their Lives” (Lyons Press, 2014) and “Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes” (New American Library, 2013), which has recently come out on paperback