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This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website
The Former Financial Regulation
The Former Financial Regulation
The Former Financial Regulation
This summary has been archived and will not be updated, because the summarised document is no longer in force or does not reflect the current situation.
The Former Financial Regulation
To lay down the procedures for drawing up, adopting and implementing the budget of the European Union.
Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 applicable to the general budget of the European Communities.
Amended by:
Council Regulation (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) No 1252/79 of 25 June 1979
Financial Regulation of 16 December 1980 (80/1176 /EEC, Euratom, ECSC)
Council Regulation (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) No 1600/88 of 7 June 1988
Council Regulation (ECSC, EEC, Euratom) No 2049/88 of 24 June 1988
Council Regulation (Euratom, ECSC, EEC) No 610/90 of 13 March 1990
Council Regulation (ECSC, EC, Euratom) No 1923/94 of 25 July 1994
Council Regulation (ECSC, EC, Euratom) No 2730/94 of 31 October 1994
Council Regulation (EC, Euratom, ECSC) No 2333/95 of 18 September 1995
Council Regulation (EC, Euratom, ECSC) No 2334/95 of 18 September 1995
Council Regulation (EC, Euratom, ECSC) No 2335/95 of 18 September 1995
Council Regulation (EC) No 2444/97 of 22 September 1997
Council Regulation (EC, ECSC, Euratom) No 2548/98 of 23 November 1998
Council Regulation (EC, ECSC, Euratom) No 2779/98 of 17 December 1998
Council Regulation (EC, ECSC, Euratom) No 2673/1999 of 13 December 1999
"The budget of the European Communities is the instrument which sets out the forecasts of, and authorises in advance, the expected revenue and expenditure of the Communities for each year". It is on the basis of this definition (given in Article 1) that the Financial Regulation goes on toshape the European Union's financial architecture step by step. Subsequent articles of the Regulation introduce the key concepts underlying the budget and lay down the procedures and rules for its establishment and implementation. The main features of the Financial Regulation are summarised below. More detailed questions can be answered by referring to the text of the Regulation itself.
I. European budgetary law in 16 definitions
The financial year: The financial year runs for 12 months from 1 January to 31 December. The budget comprises all expenditure and revenue authorised for that year. The appropriations entered in the budget are authorised only for the duration of one financial year. (See point 12 - Carryover of appropriations).
Differentiated appropriations: One of the principles governing the Community's financial system is annuality. This means that operations relate to a given financial year, making it easier to control the work of the Community executive. However, multiannual operations are often necessary (e.g. research programmes, structural measures, etc), in which case the notion of differentiated appropriations is used. Differentiated appropriations, as opposed to non-differentiated appropriations, are split into commitment appropriations and payment appropriations. Operations extending over more than one financial year have a deadline attached, i.e. a date by which the relevant projects must be completed.
Commitment appropriations: Commitment appropriations cover the total cost, in the current financial year, of the legal obligations entered into for operations to be carried out over more than one financial year. This type of appropriation constitutes the upper limit of expenditure which can be committed during the financial year.
Payment appropriations: Payment appropriations cover expenditure arising from commitments entered into during the current financial year or preceding years.
Appropriations for commitment: This term refers to the sum of commitment appropriations and non-differentiated appropriations.*
Appropriations for payment: This term refers to the sum of payment appropriations and non-differentiated appropriations. *In effect, non-differentiated appropriations authorise an equal amount of commitments and payments, so that both aspects must be fully taken into account.
Principles of sound financial management: Principles underlying the use of budget appropriations, including economy, cost-effectiveness, evaluation prior to mobilisation of Community resources, regular review of operations, etc.
Financial statement: The financial statement sets out the various financial aspects of an operation (financial consequences, links with financial instruments, schedule, etc). Any proposal or communication which may have budgetary consequences must include a financial statement.
No offsetting: According to this principle, all revenue and expenditure must be entered in full with no adjustment against each other, thus ensuring an exhaustive and complete presentation of the budget.
No assignment of revenue: This rule prevents specific revenue from being used to finance specific expenditure. Total revenue covers total expenditure. There are exceptions to this principle: for example Member States' financial contributions to certain research programmes and contributions from non-member countries to Community activities under the Agreement on the European Economic Area.
Booking of revenue and expenditure to articles: Revenue can be collected and expenditure effected only if it is booked to an article in the budget. This means that all financial operations (revenue or expenditure) must have a budgetary basis, i.e. a specific article in the budget. In addition, no expenditure may exceed the authorised appropriations.
Carryover of appropriations: As a general rule, non-differentiated appropriations lapse if they are not used at the end of the financial year for which they are entered. However, in the case of payments outstanding in respect of commitments entered into before the end of the financial year, appropriations left unused must be transferred to the budget of the following year. Optional carryovers are possible when requirements cannot be met from the budget of the following financial year. Differentiated appropriations (consisting of commitment appropriations and payment appropriations) also lapse if they are not used at the end of the financial year, although a decision may be taken to carry them over in certain instances (e.g. where the basic legislative instrument is adopted at the end of December and the Commission is unable to commit the amounts before 31 December).
Provisional twelfths: If the budget is not finally adopted by the beginning of the financial year, i.e. 1 January, the "provisional twelfths" system comes into operation. In this case, payments may be made monthly up to a limit of one twelfth of the appropriations entered in the budget of the previous financial year.
Adoption of the budget: The adoption of the budget marks the end of the budget procedure. The budget, which is drawn up in euros, is declared adopted by the President of Parliament and then published in the Official Journal. Once the budget has been finally adopted, each Member State is required to make available to the Community its own resources payments with effect from 1 January of the following financial year.
Reserves: Under European budgetary law, there are six types of reserves, of which three are expressly provided for by the Financial Regulation:
These reserves are designed to facilitate budget management. They can be drawn on - during the financial year - to enter amounts in a budget line for an operation that was not entirely finalised when the budget was adopted, to increase the authorised appropriations in order to deal with unforeseen circumstances or to reduce the authorised appropriations for the sake of economy, taking into account the progress made in implementation. The reserves can be used only by implementing a transfer procedure.
The financial perspective provides for three other reserves designed to create room for manoeuvre, so that expenditure can be covered even where the requirements could not easily have been foreseen when the financial perspective was drawn up:
Discharge: The European Parliament, acting on a recommendation by the Council, grants the Commission discharge for its implementation of the budget, after examining a series of reports, in particular that of the Court of Auditors. The purpose is to bring the financial year to a close in both formal and political terms. The discharge decision covers the accounts of all Community revenue and expenditure and the situation described in the balance sheet (statement of assets and liabilities). It consists of an appraisal of how the Commission has discharged its responsibility for budget management over the past financial year.
II. Establishment of the budget
The first stage in the process leading to the establishment of the budget is that each institution (Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions and the Ombudsman) draws up estimates of its expenditure and revenue for the following year and sends them to the Commission.
After receiving the various estimates, the Commission draws up the preliminary draft budget, which must be presented by 1 September and contains:
During the procedure, the Commission may amend this preliminary draft by sending a letter of amendment to the Council at least 30 days before Parliament's first reading of the draft budget.
In exceptional circumstances, the Commission may present preliminary draft supplementary and/or amending budgets, which are examined according to the usual budgetary procedure. A preliminary draft supplementary budget either increases the total amount of appropriations or finances new operations without increasing appropriations. A preliminary draft amending budget makes technical changes, without increasing the overall budget or providing for new operations. These preliminary drafts must be accompanied by statements of justification.
The budgetary procedure is laid down in Article 272 of the EC Treaty. After examining the preliminary draft budget, the Council sends Parliament a draft budget, accompanied by an explanatory memorandum explaining why it has departed from the preliminary draft budget, if it has done so.
III. Structure and presentation of the budget
The budget contains a general statement of revenue (estimated revenue of the Communities for the financial year in question and actual revenue in the previous financial year), plus a number of sections subdivided into statements of revenue (revenue for the financial year in question and the previous year, together with the relevant remarks) and expenditure. The various sections cover:
The Commission section contains a Part A (staff and administrative expenditure) and a Part B (operational expenditure). Part B is broken down into several sub-sections, according to requirements. These subsections, which correspond to European Union policies, are shown in the table below. The figures are taken from the 1999 budget.
Policies (sub-sections)
Amount in 1999 budget (EUR million)
Percentage of the total budget
Common agricultural policy (CAP)European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, Guarantee Section
40 940.0
Structural operationsstructural and cohesion expenditure
39 260.0
Training, youth, culture, audiovisual media, information, social dimension and employment
Energy and environment
Consumer protection, internal market, industry and trans-European networks
Research and technological development
External action
Common foreign and security policy
Guarantees and reserves
Each section or subsection is divided into titles, chapters, articles and items. The statement of expenditure in each section (i.e. for each institution) includes, for the various titles, chapters, articles and items (each subdivision being accompanied by remarks):
IV. Implementation of the budget
The implementation of the budget is based on a fundamental principle - the need for a legislative basis - which has been both the cause and the result of a series of crises between the two arms of the budgetary authority. The implementation of appropriations entered in the budget for "significant" Community action requires the prior adoption of a basic act, i.e. a legal provision such as a regulation, a decision, etc., providing for the expenditure. Pilot schemes and certain kinds of information activities are deemed not to be "significant", so that they can be put into effect merely on the basis of the relevant line in the Community budget.
The Community budget is implemented by the European Commission, acting under its own responsibility, in accordance with the Financial Regulation and within the limits of the appropriations entered in the budget. But while the Commission's implementing responsibilities cover its own internal operations and Community policies, the other institutions (Parliament and the Council, etc.) implement the sections of the budget which concern them. This power to implement the budget cannot be delegated to external bodies, at least in relation to the tasks of the European civil service (e.g. public procurement). Implementing powers may be delegated within the European administration so that certain officials act as authorising officers, accounting officers and financial controllers. In practical terms, it is they who implement the budget. This internal delegation of powers is subject to strict conditions in order to avoid conflicts of interest or abuse of power.
Within the European administration the implementation of the Community budget rests on the existence of three different functions, which must be performed separately: authorising officer, accounting officer and financial controller.
The authorising officer administers the appropriations. He alone has the power to "commit" expenditure, i.e. to give the initial authorisation for expenditure. The authorising officer is liable to disciplinary action and may be held financially liable if he fails to comply with the Financial Regulation or neglects tasks relating to his function.
The accounting officer makes the payments. He is the only person empowered to handle monies and other assets and is also responsible for their safekeeping. The accounting officer is liable to disciplinary action and may be held financially liable for payments in which a procedural error is detected. Officials performing accounting functions receive a special allowance to compensate for their increased responsibility vis-à-vis "ordinary" officials.
The financial controller carries out monitoring and audit tasks. He checks the commitment and authorisation of all expenditure and ensures that revenue is properly collected. In short, he checks the legality of operations. To carry out this task, the financial controller has access to all the necessary documents and information. In his capacity as auditor, he is also regularly consulted on and evaluates changes to financial management systems. Commission staff exercising this function are governed by special rules guaranteeing their independence (for example, in certain cases they may bring actions before the Court of Justice). The financial controller is liable to disciplinary action and may be held financially liable if he grants his approval to expenditure in excess of the budget appropriations.
In a stricter sense, implementation of the Community budget consists mainly of expenditure, which, under budgetary law, is broken down into various stages: commitment, validation, authorisation and payment:
1 Commitment
Prior to any measure which may give rise to expenditure (in particular legal commitments vis-à-vis third parties), the authorising officer must draw up a proposal for a budgetary commitment on which the financial controller must grant his approval. The purpose of the financial controller's approval is to establish that the appropriations are available and that the expenditure is consistent with the relevant legislation and correctly charged to the budget. If some of these conditions are not met, the financial controller may refuse to grant his approval. The superior authority may overrule such a refusal, informing the Court of Auditors of its decision, but this hypothetical facility is rarely used in practice.
2 Validation
Validation is the act whereby the authorising officer checks the claim of the creditor (the recipient of expenditure), the amount of that claim and the conditions under which payment falls due. Validation is subject to presentation of supporting documents.
3 Authorisation
Authorisation is the act whereby the authorising officer instructs the accounting officer to pay an item of expenditure which he has validated. Payment orders are sent for prior approval to the financial controller, the purpose being to establish, among other things, that the payment order agrees with the commitment of expenditure and that the amount is correct. After approval, the order is forwarded to the accounting officer.
4 Payment
Payment is the final action whereby the institution is discharged of its obligations towards its creditors. It is carried out by the accounting officer.
Appropriations are classified under chapters and articles. Parliament and the Council may transfer appropriations from one chapter to another and from one article to another within their own section of the budget. The Commission may, within its section of the budget, transfer appropriations from one article to another within each chapter and from one chapter to another within each of the titles relating to staff and administrative expenditure. The Commission informs the budgetary authority of these transfers, giving a statement of the grounds.
The balance from each financial year is entered in the budget of the following financial year as revenue or expenditure, depending on whether it represents a surplus or a deficit.
During the financial year, the Commission sends Parliament, the Council and the Court of Auditors figures on the implementation of the budget in the form of:
In the course of the year, following a given financial year, the Commission produces several documents describing its financial activities in that financial year. By no later than 1 May of the following year, it draws up a consolidated revenue and expenditure account comprising:
The revenue and expenditure account encompasses all revenue and expenditure operations relating to the past financial year for each institution. It is presented in the same form as the budget. At the same time, the Commission presents a consolidated balance sheet setting out the Communities' assets and liabilities, including borrowing and lending operations, and an analysis of financial management.
The institutions comply with existing European legislation regarding public procurement.
The Communities' movable and immovable property is recorded in an inventory, which is used in drawing up each institution's balance sheet.
The Community accounts are kept in euros, using the double entry method, on the basis of the calendar year. The accounts show all revenue and expenditure for the financial year and are supplemented by supporting documents.
The Court of Auditors monitors the implementation of the Community budget. The institutions send it all the supporting documents required for that purpose. The object of the Court's supervision is to ensure that revenue and expenditure is legal and consistent with the Treaties, the budget and Community legislation. The Court also ensures that sound financial management is practiced. The Court's comments are set out in its annual report. It may present special reports when it wishes to comment on specific matters. Special reports may also be drawn up at the request of an institution.
V. Special status of certain areas of the Community's financial activities
The very nature of certain operations or policies means that their financial management receives special treatment:
4) deadline for implementation of the legislation in the member states
Not applicable.
5) date of entry into force (if different from the above)
6) references
7) follow-up work
8) commission implementing measures


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Shawls on my Mind
I'm a little obsessed with the idea of knitted shawls right now. Only the idea, because I don't have time to knit as many shawls as I would like to, apparently—if you look at the projects most recently added to my "To Knit" list, there's a ton of shawl patterns. I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool festival last week and though I managed to stick to my budget and only buy a few skeins of yarn, they're all either lace or fingering weight and half of them are already "promised" to a few shawls.
Maybe it's because it's springtime, and the weather is transitioning quite violently here in Colorado—yesterday was lovely and sunny, today it's a little on the chilly side and my sinuses tell me it's likely to rain later—but shawls are such fantastic spring knitting projects. Heavier shawls like Cecily Glowik MacDonald's Insignia Shawl are great for days like today, with it's simple garter stitch and gentle heft to cover the shoulders and stay warm without having to break out a jacket. (I've got a thing about this—I feel that, by May, I should be able to put away heavier jackets.)
Sarah Fama's Loon Island Shawl would have been a great choice yesterday. A fairly simple lace repeat in a silky laceweight yarn is a wonderful accessory for a warmer day that's still a bit windy and nippy in the shade.
I'm knitting a shawl right now, one that I'm kind of "winging" as I go. I don't have any pictures, as it's going to go live with someone else whenever I finish it and thus must remain a secret, but I'm enjoying the process of seeing the little bit of knitted shawl grow with each lace repeat, and I just started working on the lace edging last night. A few days ago, I came across this fantastic lace knitting "cheat sheet" for shawls over at Laylock.org. It displays the five most recognizable kinds of knitted shawls and a basic "recipe" for knitting each of them. If you're looking to make up your own shawl, print this out, pick a stitch pattern, and knit away!
If creating your own shawl pattern requires too much brain power that is currently being sapped by seasonal allergies, a) I feel your pain, and b) pick up a copy of knitscene's Summer issue and go stash diving for yarn for the Insignia Shawl, Loon Island Shawl, or any of the other 26 projects in our first-ever summer issue.
'Till next time, happy knitting!
PS – Did you know you can know sign up for our auto-ship program and receive a copy of knitscene in your mailbox? Same cover price, free domestic shipping, no having to cross your fingers and hope the LYS still has a copy—what a deal!

subset: commoncrawl


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The UK Government plans to make the feed-in tariff scheme for renewable energy more predictable for the future, saying the reforms "will provide greater confidence to consumers and industry investing in exciting renewable technologies such as solar power, anaerobic digestion, micro-CHP, wind and hydropower".
Climate Change Minister Greg Barker says: "Instead of a scheme for the few, the new improved scheme will deliver for the many. Our new plans will see almost two and a half times more installations than originally projected by 2015 which is good news for the sustainable growth of the industry.
"We are proposing a more predictable and transparent scheme as the costs of technologies fall, ensuring a long term, predictable rate of return that will closely track changes in prices and deployment."
Highlights for consumers:
- A tariff of 21p/kWh will take effect from 1 April this year for domestic-size solar panels with an eligibility date on or after 3 March 2012. Other tariff reductions apply for larger installations;
- Properties installing solar panels on or after 1 April this year will be required to produce an Energy Performance Certificate rating of 'D' or above to qualify for a full feed-in tariff. The previous proposals for a 'C' rating or a commitment for all Green Deal measures to be installed was seen as impractical at this stage;
- From 1 April 2012, new 'multi-installation' tariff rates set at 80% of the standard tariffs will be introduced for solar PV installations where a single individual or organisation is already receiving feed-in tariffs for other solar PV installations. The threshold is set at more than 25 installations. Individuals or organisations with 25 or fewer installations will still be eligible for the individual rate. DECC is consulting on a proposal that social housing, community projects and distributed energy schemes be exempt from these multi-installation tariff rates; and
- The tariff for micro-CHP installations will be increased to encourage its development.
Highlights for the renewable energy industry:
- DECC is proposing to peg the subsidy levels to cost reductions and industry growth to provide more certainty for future investments. This should ensure that subsidy levels keep in step with the market. It builds on the German system and should remove the need for emergency reviews; and
- Using budget flexibility to cover the overspend resulting from high solar PV uptake this year, while still allowing £460 million for new installations over the Spending Review period.
REA response
The Renewable Energy Association (REA) policy team says it is currently analysing the various documents to be found on DECC's website, but has released the following comments from Chief Executive Gaynor Hartnell:
"These proposals should help re-orientate the tariffs towards cost-effectiveness and greater predictability – which on principle is welcome."
On the extra funding: "This was essential, as the budget was overspent. A transfer from the Renewables Obligation into the FIT is perfectly justified if it spent on projects which deliver renewables at a similar cost. It is more problematic if it ends up delivering far less bang for the buck."
On the new upper limit of 21p for hydropower and small-scale wind: "Obviously this will be gravely disappointing to smaller projects unable to commission before the October, but the logic of capping the smallest bands is sound. On really windy, remote sites, these tariffs are probably still attractive. What won't work is small wind turbines in the urban environment areas or places without a tip-top wind resource. Smaller hydro plant will now have no incentive to size themselves in order to maximise revenue, but to maximise output.
On solar PV: "For solar power, the FITs have an important role in tiding us over to the point where solar panels no longer need subsidy. On present trends this won't be far away, but it will be delayed if we go backwards and starve the industry by reducing the tariffs too fast. These new tariff rates will be very challenging as the reductions seen over the past 12 months are unlikely to be repeated, because of global trade trends."


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The Dirty Spoon News Hour and Online Journal will share the highlights of my exploration of culture and sense of place in the Arkansas food scene. Tune in this Friday 6.15 4 pm EST on 103.7 WPVM for a reading and check out the full article on DS's online journal.
A review by Nicholas Litchfield for Colorado State University's Center for Literary Publishing
Vickie Fang's review at Best New Fiction
A review by Brad Windhauser via SFWP Quarterly
Emilia Fuente's review at Five Writers
"Children of the Country is a literary novel that reads like a thriller. In luminous prose, Shaffer tells a riveting, terrifying story of human violence, cruelty, and undying love, and she never puts a foot wrong. A marvelous debut." – Pinckney Benedict, author of Dogs of God and Miracle Boy and Other Stories
"In this haunting debut, Abigail Shaffer plumbs the depths of the Rough South as too few female voices do. She chronicles generations of youth spent on splintered porches and sweaty backseats, lost to the specters of sex, drugs, and short horizons. I hear Bonnie Jo Campbell in her work, but more than that, I hear Harry Crews and Breece Pancake and Larry Brown, car wheels on a gravel road, the echo of a barn owl near dawn. This is a writer to listen to, for years to come." – Ashley Warlick, author of The Arrangement and Seek the Living
"There is magic within these pages. Shaffer's prose, gorgeous though it is, is merely our guide into the dark piney woods, the haunting and shimmering psyches from which characters speak to us in tongues of generational wisdom and survival. A formidable debut." – April Ford, 2016 Pushcart Prize recipient, author of The Poor Children
Big News Ahead
I'm thrilled to announce I've completed my second book and am entering a new phase of my writing career. The second book is very different from the first, so stay tuned!
CoC @newbookcovers
Check out @newbookcovers for Spring reading inspiration!
#newbookcovers #newbooks #bookstagram #indiebooks#indeauthor #author #writersofinstagram
Goodreads Giveaway complete
Many thanks to the folks who entered my Goodreads giveaway of Children of the Country. Winners should receive a copy just in time for the holidays! Cheers!
COC Goodreads Giveaway: Just the Thing
Whether you want a head start on holiday shopping, to perhaps treat yourself to a fireside read on a late Autumn evening, or maybe simply just snag a book, enter my Goodreads giveaway to win a copy of Children of the Country. Giveaway runs between 11.8.17 and 12.8.17. Cheers and happy reading!
Found in Translation: Debut Feature Post
Welcome! The long-awaited feature post is finally a go!
Found in Translation: The Politics of Place Through Reinvention
~ with Gisele Firmino
Artistic expression doesn't occur in a vacuum: expression through creation, desire, or, say, an encompassing dénouement, feeds and nourishes, can sustain, forge, and sometimes draw quarter for one's soul. To me, expression in all its amazing forms is vital to the human experience. In this new regular feature post, my endeavor is to connect with writers, artists, musicians, and sundry folk gracious enough to share their amazing creative stories. Let's discuss the stuff of life that feeds us.
For this debut post, some backstory: a character's identity defined by sense of place – which I'll define as how locale, setting, place, and oftentimes regionalism shape the character and story as a whole – has been a subject of my attention (an obsession, if you will) nearly my whole life (even an MFA craft thesis!). Moving around frequently, obsessing over ancestral roots (old family legends and 23andMe!), forging an identity in relation to the place I live, and more often than not, the places I wish I live as the characters I wish I could be and strive to write, has shaped and infused my work – and my identity. Sense of place has affected and defined who I am, both as a human being and as a writer.
I reached out to my friend, Brazilian-born writer Gisele Firmino, about how connection to place affects her identity and her writing, particularly in relation to the writing of her novel, The Marble Army.
Abigail (A): In what ways has your background influenced your identity as a writer?
Gisele (G): I think the main reason why I feel I have something to say is because of where I come from and where I am right now. I grew up in Brazil, and even though I've lived for many years in the US, I still feel as though I'm in a sort of cultural exile here. But when I go back, for instance I lived in Brazil between 2011 to 2015, I still feel the same way. This constant sense of displacement, regardless of where I am, is always there.
A: You wrote The Marble Army in English and mentioned it's difficult to translate into Portuguese. Tell me about the translation process. What's one of the more difficult aspects? Is it the emotional experience/difference in expression between the two languages?
G: Possibly a little bit of both. I feel like the distance between colloquial or spoken Portuguese and written Portuguese is greater than what we experience with English. Sometimes, in order to meet minimum standards of written Portuguese, I fear I might need to sacrifice my narrator's voice. I'm from the south of Brazil, for instance, where we're constantly ignoring proper verb conjugations when we speak with one another, but that's not really acceptable when you're writing. So, finding a balance has been challenging for me.
Emotionally, I've always thought writing in English enriched this idea of nostalgia in which Luca, the narrator, exists. An inevitable distance between what he envisioned for his future, and how things actually turned out. He looked to the past as if it belonged to a completely different world, and I always thought, hoped, that writing in English could add another layer of distance.
A: Why might TMA lend itself well to English?
G: I'm not sure why I feel this way; maybe because that's how I wrote it first. It took me almost 10 years to write TMA. You hear these voices for such a long time it's hard to imagine them differently. I understand all these characters must speak Portuguese, right? It has to be natural for them to speak Portuguese – it's where they are from. But it's kind of like when I moved to Los Angeles for the first time, and heard some of the cartoons I grew up with no longer dubbed in Portuguese. I've always known they were made here, in the US. I've always known we didn't watch the 'original,' but it was still odd to hear them speaking English after listening to them for so long.
I've always written for myself, but never in English. My first attempt was in 2004, I think, when I was living in Los Angeles, as an effort to improve my English. And I fell in love with the language. English felt more honest to me, more authentic. My characters and my narrators could sound the way I've wanted them to sound.
But I think when you write in a second language, there is also a sense of reinvention. I express myself differently in English. So, in many ways, you're not just creating a new world for your characters, but you're creating a new writer too, a new person. And this idea, to me, is very liberating and exciting!
A: Agreed! How has bridging multiple cultures and languages affected your own writing? In what ways does it enrich?
G: Writers such as Edwidge Danticat, Julia Alvarez, Jhumpa Lahiri, Rigoberto González, and Junot Díaz have not only inspired me tremendously, but also shown me it was okay to write about where I come from, to explore and expose worlds an English speaking audience wouldn't necessarily be familiar with. That it is okay to be proud of such origins, while also being critical, now that we have gained some distance from these places. That idea informs my process and everything that I write, and I am constantly aware of the things that separate and unite us. To me, all writing is political, and every time I choose to portray or ignore a character, I am making a political choice as well.
So, absolutely! It certainly enriches my writing process. I don't know if it actually enriches the writing itself. I really hope it does! But that's for the readers to say.
A: How might this connect to sense of place? And indeed – I also believe all writing is political. Do you think if you were, say, in Brazil, and immersed in Brazilian culture and the primary language infusing your environment was Portuguese, do you sense that your translation perspective might be influenced by place?
G: Maybe. But I was living in Brazil between 2011-2015, and I continued to write creatively in English only. I've spoken to other authors who write in their second language, and more often than not I hear it's almost impossible to translate one's own work. I can write perfectly fine in Portuguese, but I struggle to write creatively for the same reasons I mentioned earlier. It's not an easy language.
And even though I also struggle with English, when I think creatively, when I'm writing something in my head, I'm thinking in English.
A: As far as Latinx writing, not to generalize, but when I read writers like Gabriel García Marquez, Julia Alvarez, Isabel Allende, as well as Caribbean writers like Maryse Condé, Jean Rhys, and Nelly Rosario, place and landscape and surroundings are lushly infused and reflected in the prose. It's like place and identity are synonymous – and elevated to the mythical. Same goes, in my mind, for Tejano/Chicano writers of the American Southwest: Rudolfo Anaya, Denise Chavez, Alfredo Véa, Jr. What I'm calling the mythic – or magic realism – seems such an integral part, at least in my mind, to sense of place. To me, this spirituality/place/land infusion is almost like a calling or a draw to the ancient past. Subjugation and conquest, old magic, families and falling kingdoms whisper from a story's vegetation. It also plays big time into Children of the Country. I'm wondering if it's simply infusing a sense of place with spirituality? Like delving into the spiritual is also delving into place.
G: Yes! Totally agree. I don't think we can isolate identity from place, and we're probably most aware of this when we are removed from home. I guess we all look to the mythic/spiritual to situate (place) ourselves – to understand where we came from, how we got here, where we'll go after, and the meaning behind the whole thing. I wonder, though, if this infusion of mythic or magical realism in writing doesn't have to do with how willing certain places and their people are to allowing such infusion in their daily lives. Superstition is so rich with surrealism.
A: Nowadays, however, I don't feel that call coming from where I currently reside – no huge cultural identity specific to place. This is significant for me both personally and as a writer because I've always thought of characters as kind of molded of the earth from which they were birthed – for better or worse. Myself, too. I live where I live, and the land shapes me. In retrospect, I can see this manifesting in CoC, in that most of the characters are pretty much wholly consumed by place. Sheri, Kelly, and Walter most definitely. And poor Ricky.
Cindy Rae, though, she's different. Maybe Treecie, too. Recently, I've been of a mind to blaze forward, to completely reinvent myself – particularly as my third mss begins to foment. Regardless, I would say there is often a sense of yearning and longing that manifests in my characters, and it often has to do with place.
G: No doubt. Having moved so many times and being away from home, I certainly identify with this feeling you mentioned that we/I might lack a cultural identity. But the way I feel about this seems to change constantly.
A: Perhaps an absence of place and absence of identity can also shape a writer or a character, just as much as a connection. Perhaps a certain fluidity in how we define ourselves becomes a de facto shaping of identity and place as much as a fixed and steadfast tethering to "homeland."
G: I think there's a benefit to letting go of what makes us so culturally distinct from one another; maybe it facilitates coexistence, maybe it proves how much empathy we are capable of showing. Of course, more often than not, there is emptiness and loneliness, and a need to seek and define such identity, whether it is the one I might have inherited or the one I might be trying to create for myself. I guess what I'm trying to say is this longing and yearning isn't just limited to whatever answers the past might hold.
So. Here's to blazing a new future, buoyed by the past but embracing our ability to let go. Join the conversation! How does sense of place connect with your creative work/expression and identity? How does it connect with your identity? We'd love to hear your thoughts!
Gisele Firmino is the founding locale coordinator for the Queens University MFA in Creative Writing: Latin America and author of The Marble Army. She divides her time between Brazil and the United States, and I am over the moon she agreed to explore this theme of place and identity with me.


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Directions: Go in the ground-floor entrance at the mall side of the building and go up the main stairs one flight. Apparently when they built this building during the Revolutionary War they didn't understand that the "first" floor meant the "first one you get to when you walk in the damned door." But go up the steps and turn left. Follow the hallway around one corner and it will be on your right.
Cleanliness: C-
It's not gross, it's just old. Which, if you've ever been to a nursing home, are two adjectives that are easily confused.
Odor: D+
Could have just been the suspicious-looking kid that was shuffling out, but a field of spring flowers this joint is not.
Solitude: F
Disastrously overcrowded.
Lighting: D+
It feels like the weird brown tile is sucking up all the light in here. You won't get any reading done here.
Stalls: 3, motion flush
Urinals: 2, motion flush
Sinks: 2, automatic faucets (useless.)
Note: It's old. There's nothing you can really do about that other than the old "build a new bathroom" approach, so you'll have to deal with that. What you might not be able to deal with are the SINKS. They're horrible. A "drizzle" is being generous here. Completely unfunctioning. It's also got those old-style urinals that are pretty much inviting all the weird unbalanced freshmen to check out your coin purse.


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The man started arguing with his wife because she came home later than usual, deputies said.
A Deltona woman was choked and beaten by her husband because she refused to give him her cellphone's password, investigating deputies said.
The 20-year-old wife, Mayelin Ferrales Perez, said she arrived home from work a little later than usual and her husband, Danyer Faura Salgado, 22, started arguing with her, demanding that he give her the password to her cellphone, sheriff's reports said.
Perez arrived home at 5:40 a.m. Tuesday and started cleaning the home, deputies said.
Investigating deputies determined that when the wife refused to give Faura Salgado the password, he grabbed her by the neck and started choking her. Perez told deputies her husband only let her go when she started losing consciousness and started shaking, the report states.
The wife continued cleaning the home when Faura Salgado approached her again and slapped her on the side of the face. Faura Salgado started choking his wife again but let go, sheriff's investigators said.
Faura Salgado told deputies he was upset because his wife came home late and he thought she was cheating on him, deputies said.
Faura Salgado, who works as a server at Cracker Barrel, denied battering his wife but deputies found a red mark on the woman's neck, reports said.
Deputies arrested Faura Salgado and charged him with felony battery and battery, the sheriff' report shows.
Faura Salgado got out of the Volusia County Branch Jail Tuesday night after posting $2,000 bail, a booking officer said.
Faura Salgado could not be reached Wednesday afternoon.


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When we first designed targeted policy, we defined a domain that allowed users and administrators to login and have the same access privileges they would have had if SELinux was disabled. Similarly, we wanted to allow third party applications to be installed and run without requiring the administrator/user to write special policy rules for these applications. They would just work.
We designed the unconfined domain for this.
The unconfined domain originally was written as a rule like
allow UNCONFINED_DOMAIN *:* *;
meaning processes running as the unconfined_domain are allowed to do everything SELinux can deny. Unconfined domains are thus an exception to the way an SELinux system is usually written.
Over time we have had requests to add exceptions to the "unconfined can do anything" rule.
We confine the unconfined domain in a couple of different ways.
One way to confine an unconfined domain is via process transitions. We can write rules to specify that an unconfined_domain will transition into a different, confined, domain when it executes a program with a certain label.
On most targeted systems, the init scripts run as initrc_t, an unconfined domain. When an init script executes a file labeled httpd_exec_t, the process transitions to the httpd_t domain, a confined domain. Another process that transitions from an unconfined domain to a confined one is the unconfined_t domain, the domain used by unconfined users. For example, when the unconfined user tries to set up a vpn connection using vpnc, the vpnc program transitions to vpnc_t, a confined domain. Currently in Rawhide, I count around 50 transitions from the unconfined_t domain to other domains.
# sesearch --allow -s unconfined_t -c process -p transition | wc -l
A second way to confine the unconfined domains is to wrap specific allow rules within a boolean.
We have changed the line
allow UNCONFINED_DOMAIN *:* *;
to something like
# Use any Linux capability.
allow $1 self:capability all_capabilities;
allow $1 self:fifo_file manage_fifo_file_perms;
# Userland object managers
allow $1 self:nscd all_nscd_perms;
allow $1 self:dbus all_dbus_perms;
allow $1 self:passwd all_passwd_perms;
allow $1 self:association all_association_perms;
allow $1 self:process ~{ transition dyntransition execmem execstack execheap };
# Allow making the stack executable via mprotect.
allow $1 self:process execheap;
# Allow making anonymous memory executable, e.g.
# for runtime-code generation or executable stack.
allow $1 self:process execmem;
Wrapping the access within booleans gives the administrator the ability to decide whether or not to add limited confinement to the unconfined domains.
For example, we restrict the unconfined users from executing memory that is both writable and executable at the same time. This access can be tuned using these booleans: allow_execheap, allow_execmem, allow_execstack, allow_execmod.
Denying this access allows us to stop a lot of buffer overflows from being exploited. If a user downloads content that can cause applications like acroread or evince to overflow a buffer, these checks will prevent the execution of code in corrupted memory, protecting the user. Since the permission checks prevent the execution of random code, they help secure the system.
I would like to point out that these checks are trying to protect a user who is not trying to crack the system from being cracked. These checks do nothing to prevent a cracker currently running as unconfined_t from attacking the system.
Periodically we have added checks to try to harden the machine against broken or malicious applications running as unconfined_t from attacking the machine. Most of these preventions are the equivalent of putting a garden fence around the prison, i.e. they are easily gotten around. If a cracker gets into an SELinux box as unconfined_t, SELinux will prevent him from doing very little, since that is how unconfined_t is designed. It is up to DAC to protect the system.
Last week, Brad Spengler revealed a vulnerability that allowed him to gain control of the kernel and in doing so is able to disable all security mechanisms including those of LSMs like SELinux. this is a whole new vulnerability, although it is in the same class of bugs as one he reported a couple of years back, and in that case he was also able to turn off SELinux policy enforcement. The mmap_zero check was added to the kernel to control whether or not applications would be allowed to map memory at the zero address. A decision was made to treat this differently on systems with or without SELinux enabled. On systems without SELinux, applications have to run as root or you need to disable the check on the entire system. On systems with SELinux enabled, this is decided by policy, and whether you are root or not is ignored. One application that requires mmap_zero is wine. If you want to run wine apps on an SELinux disabled machine, you need to disable this check, for the entire system. To run wine as a non-root user you need to
lessen the security of every single program on the machine. On a machine with SELinux enabled you can run wine as normal user, and still have the protection where all confined domains, even those running as root, can not subvirt the machine. The only confined applications that have the mmap_zero privilege in RHEL5 are vbetool, xdm, xserver and wine. In rawhide, only wine and vbetool have the privilege. All unconfined domains have a boolean, allow_unconfined_mmap_zero, wrapping the mmap_zero privilege. In RHEL5 the boolean is enabled by default for backwards compatibilitally, as mmap_min_addr was introduced during the lifetime of RHEL5, allowing all unconfined domains to mmap_zero. By default in Fedora 10, 11 and rawhide, the boolean is disabled, denying all unconfined domains the mmap_zero access. We are not planning on changing the default in RHEL5, to maintain backawards compatability.
You can toggle the boolean off by executing
# setsebool -P allow_unconfined_mmap_low=0
There was a bug in policy in both Fedora and RHEL5 where unconfined_t, ignored the boolean. This means unconfined_t could mmap_zero, whether or not the boolean was turned on. We have decided to change the unconfined_t domain to follow the boolean in updates. Versions: selinux-policy-3.5.13-66.fc10, selinux-policy-3.6.12-66.fc11, selinux-policy-3.6.22-1.fc12.noarch, selinux-policy-2.4.6-253.el5, have the fix.
Brad figured out that unconfined_t domain ignores the boolean and is always allowed to mmap_zero. The default logged in user on a targeted SELinux system has the ability to mmap_zero.
But I question whether or not this is even worth doing. We are putting a speed bump in front of a determined cracker. If a cracker is logged in to a machine as the unconfined_t user he can easily compile the executable described by Brad, change its context to vbetool_exec_t, and then use runcon to execute the script with the mmap_zero privilege.
$ /usr/sbin/getsebool allow_unconfined_mmap_low
allow_unconfined_mmap_low --> off
So the user downloads the cracker.
$ ./cracker
mmap: Permission denied
SELinux is working, but the unconfined_t user can label his cracker app as vbetool_exec_t, (a tool that needs mmap_zero).
chcon -t vbetool_exec_t ./cracker
$ ./cracker
mmap: Permission denied
Notice that it still blew up. This is because it does not transition from unconfined_t to vbetool_t, automatically.
But how about.
$ runcon -t initrc_t -- sh -c ./a.out
got a NULL mapping...
This succeeds because, there is a transition defined from unconfined_t to initrc_t, and also a transition from initrc_t to vbetool_t.
In conclusion, this shows that the boolean preventing the unconfined_t domain or any other unconfined domains from performing mmap_zero is pretty useless in preventing a cracker from attacking the system.
If you use unconfined_t users and a cracker gets to login as one, SELinux can not prevent mmap_zero.
A cracker running as unconfined_t, can use just about any root exploit, just as if SELinux was disabled.
In the future we need to better understand what it means to try to confine the unconfined user.
Dan Walsh's Blog
Got SELinux?
( 5 comments — Leave a comment )
should runcon/chcon be priviledged commands ?
I'm a bit surprised that an unconfined normal user is allower to use runcon/chcon this way. I would expect these to be priviledged commands only available to root.. Shouldn't they be?
runcon and chcon do not add any priv they just execute the libselinux api. The kernel is responsible for checking whether on not a type is able to change the context from one context to another.
Similary, the kernel/policy will control whether one process can transition to another process.
From an SELinux point of view running as UID=0 means NOTHING. There is no concept of Privledged in the DAC sense.
Similary, the kernel/policy will control whether one process can transition to another process.
From an SELinux point of view running as UID=0 means NOTHING. There is no concept of Privledged in the DAC sense.
Re: should runcon/chcon be priviledged commands ?
Alternatively .. shouldn't modifying the file security context be a priviledged operation ? I've never had a use for letting non-admins modify these labels, and always assumed they were managed by the central file_context policy..
Well the type enforcement rules are controling what labels they can relabel from and what labels they can relabel to.
So a user_t user might be allowed to relabelfrom user_home_t to httpd_user_content_t to allow them to make content available to apache from within their home dir.
This is very different then the way traditional MLS machines worked. So they are not changing the sensitivity level of data, they are just labeling data from one type they control to another.
So a user_t user might be allowed to relabelfrom user_home_t to httpd_user_content_t to allow them to make content available to apache from within their home dir.
This is very different then the way traditional MLS machines worked. So they are not changing the sensitivity level of data, they are just labeling data from one type they control to another.
unconfined == root?
If I understand you correctly, the unconfined user can always relabel his apps into whatever domain is convenient for him. So in essence he has the capabilities of all of them. So we arrive back at the idea of the all-powerful root, aka the guy who holds all the keys.
The NULL pointer exploit thing is big and flashy, but I have a hunch that there are other ways to escalate from unconfined --> root. I think you are going to have to forbid non-root users from running as "unconfined."
Anyway, in spite of all the difficulties, I'm glad you guys are working on selinux. Capability-based security is definitely an idea whose time has come...
The NULL pointer exploit thing is big and flashy, but I have a hunch that there are other ways to escalate from unconfined --> root. I think you are going to have to forbid non-root users from running as "unconfined."
Anyway, in spite of all the difficulties, I'm glad you guys are working on selinux. Capability-based security is definitely an idea whose time has come...


text:
What does a girl with no time to blog do?
Start a second blog, of course!
I have been thinking of starting a sewing blog for about 6 months now and I finally decided to go ahead and pull the trigger. If you would like to see what I am up to when I am not chasing after Landon you can go here to check it out...
Let me know what you think!


text:
Whoman is calling this one Intimate Complexity. 9:30-3. 100 people only. BYO. Free before 10:30 and $5 afterwards. Get up close and personal with our headliner, the amazing Exillon whose fractured beats are to-die-for and watch an incredible 3-D Street Fighter II tournament projected into mid-air via a Helio Display. The rest of the lineup also rocks: N8, Emis, Derek Michael, DreamElectric, Dr. Rek (who will be leaving for Japan at the end of the month!) and Qrixs. Feel the broken techno-future rise among the corpses. At
Dapper Cadaver: 5519 Hollywood Blvd.


text:
ATS Diesel
Stage 2 LCT1000 6-Speed Package - 2008-10 GM HD Truck, 4wd, w/ PTO
Call 1-888-556-0743 for the LOWEST PRICE!
The ATS Allison Packages feature increased line pressure, modified C1-C5 clutch packs, trim valves that get more line pressure to the clutches, deep pan and the vaunted ATS Five Star Converter.
All packages are backed by a 5 year / 500,000 mile warranty through ATS. Street Diesel Power is proud to offer labor and shipping warranties through an ATS-exclusive program. Select 1, 2 or 3 years of labor and shipping coverage from our checkout menu.
Each ATS Allison Package is setup for daily driving, towing or racing. Contact Street Diesel Power for help picking the right setup for your Duramax!


text: Last week, I wanted to load the new Ozark NF permit forms onto the Download section. However, from the instructions, it appears that the form must be on a web page and cannot be loaded from one's PC (like you would do with a picture file). 8O Is this correct? Or am I missing something? :roll: I ended up emailing the forms to LadyEngineer, who then passed them on to Gaddiel, who finally was able to get them loaded. Is there any easier way? :wink: -- ORR


text:
China's got a new beastly toy to mow down the massses: the YLGA01 8x8 SWAT APC. It's rugged, armored, and scary looking—exactly what you want from an APC. But on the inside? Pure comfort!
Well, it still looks like the inside of an APC, but dig this: full central air, wall to wall carpeting, and hot and cold water! And those seats look pretty plush! This APC would cost about $900 a month to rent in Manhattan. But can your cramped apartment oppress civilians? No.
By comparison, here's the interior of an Australian APC. No thanks! We need the cast of a Bravo reality show to make that thing over. [China Defense Blog]
Bottom photo by Mike Coghlan


text:
For a better experience, switch to Desktop Version
MLC School
HSC year: 2007, ARTEXPRESS year: 2008
Expressive form: Film/video
In my work, I explored the natural human desire to change the past and take back seeming mistakes they have made in the past. I explored issues of regret, remorse and the misunderstanding of one's place in life – similar to Christopher Nolan's film Memento, which was a heavy inspiration of my work. By constructing the work backwards, I was linking my explored concept to the physical properties of the film and exploring the non-linear properties of contemporary filmmaking challenging the perceptions of the audience.
Or view all 62 works.


text:
Norma Raccuglia
(Sept. 13, 1924, to eternity)
Norma L. (Skibbe) Raccuglia, daughter of Adolph and Lydia (Reh) Skibbe, was born on Sept. 13, 1924 in Hillsboro, Kan.
She peacefully passed away on Aug. 6, 2013, with her family by her side. Visitation was to be at 10 a.m. today, Aug. 14. Services follow at 11 a.m. at Overland Park Assembly of God, 7700 W. 75th St., Overland Park, Kan.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the National Parkinson's Foundation. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 58 years, Tony; her loving parents; and her beloved brother, Robert.
Norma is survived by her son, Gary, and his wife, Kathy; her daughter, Karen Rogers, and her husband, Chris; and her son, Jay, and his wife, Jan. She is also survived by her precious sister, Ruth Heiser. Norma so dearly loved her nine grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
Norma was a serene, composed, and gracious woman who tried to brighten the corner for others throughout her entire life. She lived her faith every day — it was the core of her existence on this earth.
The family would like to express our sincere gratitude to the staff of Good Samaritan Center in Olathe for their care giving over more than three years.
In one of her books, Norma wrote "God has been good to me. I had a wonderful husband that I loved with all my heart. Together we loved the Lord and had a good life. And the children that came of this marriage have made my life worth living. I know the Lord will be there to welcome me into Heaven and my dear husband of 58 years will be there to greet me and say 'What took you so long, Dove?'"


text:
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text:
What Is a Mental Illness?
Definition of mental illness plus the five major categories of mental illness and misconceptions about mental illness.
A mental illness is a disease that causes mild to severe disturbances in thinking, perception and behavior. If these disturbances significantly impair a person's ability to cope with life's ordinary demands and routines, then he or she should immediately seek proper treatment with a mental health professional. With proper care and treatment, a person can recover and resume normal activities.
Many mental illnesses are believed to have biological causes, just like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, but some mental disorders are caused by a person's environment and experiences.
The five major categories of mental illness:
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses. The three main types are phobias, panic disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. People who suffer from phobias experience extreme fear or dread from a particular object or situation. Panic disorders involve sudden, intense feelings of terror for no apparent reason and symptoms similar to a heart attack. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder try to cope with anxiety by repeating words or phrases or engaging in repetitive, ritualistic behavior such as constant hand washing.
Mood Disorders
Mood disorders include depression and bipolar disorder (or manic depression) symptoms may include mood swings such as extreme sadness or elation, sleep and eating disturbances, and changes in activity and energy levels. Suicide may be a risk with these disorders.
Schizophrenia is a serious disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and acts. Schizophrenia is believed to be caused by chemical imbalances in the brain that produce a variety of symptoms including hallucinations, delusions, withdrawal, incoherent speech and impaired reasoning.
This group of disorders includes diseases like Alzheimer's which leads to loss of mental functions, including memory loss and a decline in intellectual and physical skills.
Eating Disorders
Anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and bulimia are serious, potentially life-threatening illnesses. People with these disorders have a preoccupation with food and irrational fear of being fat. Anorexia is self-starvation while bulimia involves cycles of bingeing (consuming large quantities of food) and purging (self-inducing vomiting or abusing laxatives). Behavior may also include excessive exercise.
Common Misconceptions About Mental Illness
Myth: "Young people and children don't suffer from mental health problems."
Fact: It is estimated that more than 6 million young people in America may suffer from a mental health disorder that severely disrupts their ability to function at home, in school, or in their community.
Myth: "People who need psychiatric care should be locked away in institutions."
Fact: Today, most people can lead productive lives within their communities thanks to a variety of supports, programs, and/or medications.
Myth: "A person who has had a mental illness can never be normal."
Fact: People with mental illnesses can recover and resume normal activities. For example, Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes," who has clinical depression, has received treatment and today leads an enriched and accomplished life.
Myth: "Mentally ill persons are dangerous.
Fact: The vast majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent. In the cases when violence does occur, the incidence typically results from the same reasons as with the general public such as feeling threatened or excessive use of alcohol and/or drugs.
Myth: "People with mental illnesses can work low-level jobs but aren't suited for really important or responsible positions."
Fact: People with mental illnesses, like everyone else, have the potential to work at any level depending on their own abilities, experience and motivation.
How You Can Combat Stigma:
1. Share your experience with mental illness. Your story can convey to others that having a mental illness is nothing to be embarrassed about.
2. Help people with mental illness re-enter society. Support their efforts to obtain housing and jobs.
3. Respond to false statements about mental illness or people with mental illnesses. Many people have wrong and damaging ideas on the subject. Accurate facts and information may help change both their ideas and actions.
For More Information:
Contact your local Mental Health Association, community mental health center, or for additional resources, please call 1-800-969-NMHA.
NMHA offers additional pamphlets on a variety of mental health topics. For more information or to order multiple copies of pamphlets, please call 1-800-969-NMHA
Source: Mental Health America
APA Reference
Writer, H. (2009, January 6). What Is a Mental Illness?, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2019, August 25 from https://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/what-is-a-mental-illness


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It seems that, after a few years of redesigns, navigation on most e-commerce sites follows a pretty familiar pattern.
There is some sense in this. Online shoppers are accustomed to the same general patterns of navigation from their experiences on the online retail sites they use regularly, so there is much to be said for following precedent in this area.
But does this prevent innovation in e-commerce design? Are there better ways that retailers could be using?
I've been asking the e-commerce experts and looking at a few examples…
E-commerce navigation
If you look at the most popular retailers in the UK, navigation design has settled down to a pattern of top navigation bar with drop-downs, and a site search box.
For a department store retailer such as John Lewis, a top navigation bar with 11 categories allows customers to easily access the section of the site that they are looking for, as well as to switch departments while they are shopping on the site.
Most sites follow a similar pattern to that of John Lewis, though there are one or two slight exceptions.
ASOS, for example, has just two top nav options, men and women, which lead to huge drop-down menus. However, it does show product categories down the left hand side:
Amazon clearly sees the search box as massively important for navigation. It's prominent and big enough to handle most search queries. Meanwhile, navigation is 'hidden' in a huge drop down, which opens down the left of the page.
Alternative navigation
While I'm all for innovation, new approaches to navigation often don't work. Take Whistles for example. It relaunched in 2009 with a Flash homepage which moved around unless you left the cursor in the centre of the page.
It has since replaced that particular aspect of the design, but it still delivers a poor user experience.
There's no search box, which is odd, and even when you select categories, there are no price or product names displayed, and no way to filter product searches.
Poor navigation is a common affliction for luxury brand sites, as design often seems to trump usability at the planning stage. There are exceptions though.
I like the Christian Louboutin site for this reason. First of all, it gives users the option of skipping all the Flash intros and just getting on with shopping:
I like the option of browsing by colour, size and heel height and just scrolling up and down looking at product images. It works well for this site, though it wouldn't necessarily apply to most e-commerce sites.
Harrods has improved a lot. For a start, it is a good example of how to use mega drop-down menus.
The menus are large enough to allow users to view all sub-categories, while they avoid the usability drawbacks , such as losing the menu when the cursor moves away from the area.
Also, as you scroll down, the sections of the site displayed change as the arrow moves along the top navigation bar, offering an alternative way to navigate:
What makes an e-commerce site easy to navigate?
Best practice is all about giving customers the option to travel through the site in the way they choose, but enough of a helping hand to guide them if they get lost.
It should be driven by testing and data. Use analytics to learn how customers are actually using your website, this can inform your design decisions.
For example, are they using site search? If not, perhaps it should be moved to a more prominent position, or perhaps redesigned to make it easier to see.
According to Matthew Curry, E-commerce manager at Lovehoney:
Remember that people may not even use your menus. A popular navigation path I've seen is Search -> Results -> Product Page -> Breadcrumb to Category. Having a clear product taxonomy & naming convention is vital.
Dan Barker, e-commerce consultant:
An e-commerce site becomes easy to navigate when you focus on three things: 1) understand what your visitors may want to achieve on the site, 2) show them in the most enjoyable way possible how they can achieve those things, and 3) remove the pieces that would add extra pain and get in the way of that. All of that comes down to good decision making, good execution, and good testing.
James Gurd, e-commerce consultant:
It's a mix of functionality that caters for a diverse audience. One navigation structure alone doesn't cut it because most websites have a heterogeneous audience. There are a few essentials web managers need to tick off, such as a minimal click path, clear menu structures, consistent global site navigation, and well structured site search.
Is e-commerce navigation the place for innovation?
According to Chris Moffatt, Online Merchandise Manager at luxury retailer Smythson:
I'm a firm believer that for etailers, navigation isn't the place for innovation. It's too easy to alienate potential customers by giving them a difficult journey through your site. The principles of "Don't Make Me Think" still apply.
Paul Rouke of usability agency PRWD believes that retailers need to get the basics right first of all:
Before looking to innovate when it comes to search and navigation, retailers should ensure they get the core principles and best practice of good navigation in place first, so customers can find what they want how they want.
This does not mean that retailers cannot attempt to improve the user experience for customers navigating their websites. Indeed, over the past ten years, usability standards in this area have improved considerably.
However, retailers should consider experimenting within the 'constraints' of existing navigation formats, rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel.
James Gurd believes that there is a balance to be struck between innovation and usability:
There shouldn't be a limit on innovation. Innovation is what takes e-commerce forwards. However, I'd exercise caution. You shouldn't ignore the core principles that drive effective web design, such as usability, user experience and accessibility.
Any new development should be planned with these in mind because it doesn't matter how innovative a solution is if your customers can't easily use it. If you're not sure, follow the lead of companies like B&Q who open up beta versions for customers to use and provide feedback before they implement a major change.
Any significant changes to navigation constitute a risk that needs to be carefully considered -are you willing to risk losing customers from your website with non-standard navigation?


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Thanks for reading, everybody. I know there won't be any surprises, since the official English version is already out, but still, it is nice to know I am not the only one who is looking forward to the complete/unabridged version of this story. Forgive me for my slow speed.
Chapter 3 Talisman tucked inside the sleeve encircles and divides the room, unexpected success of an auger out of the sack.
(Translated by Foxs)
In less than a day they had reached Beijing, by the time they entered the city, it was already afternoon. Mao Shiba warned Wei Xiaobao to be careful in everything he say or do, it was the capital, governments eyes and ears were numerous, they should not expose any mistake.
What mistake? Wei Xiaobao said, You are the one who should not expose any mistake. Arent you here to challenge Oboi to a duel? Just go out and find him. Mao Shiba let out a forced laugh without answering. When he said he was going to find Oboi and challenge him the other day, it was on an impulse while his frame of mind was in rage. Although he was a hot-headed and crude warrior, after all, he had been wandering the Jianghu for more than twenty years, how could he not know that Oboi was an important official in command of ten thousand men? How could he have a martial art competition with an ordinary Jianghu man? His own martial art skill was only a second or third class, if Oboi was indeed the Manchus number one warrior, most likely Mao Shiba was not Obois match. However, he had boasted in front of Wei Xiaobao, he simply must go to Beijing. He was thinking he would take this child strolling around Beijing for about ten days or half a month, enjoying the scenery of the capital, merrily drinking and eating, and then he would send the child back to Yangzhou. Undoubtedly Oboi was unwilling to have a martial art contest, so he did not have any choice, it was not because he did not dare, so Wei Xiaobao could not mock him as gutless. In a very slim chance that Oboi agreed to have a duel, Mao Shiba would definitely stake his old life to fight him.
The two of them reached a small wine shop in the western part of the city. Mao Shiba ordered some food and wine. While he was drinking, two men entered the wine shop, one old, the other young. The old one was roughly sixty years old, while the young one looked around eleven or twelve. Both were wearing strange looking attire. Wei Xiaobao did not know what kind of people they were, but Mao Shiba was aware that those two were eunuchs from the Imperial Palace. The old one had a sickly complexion, his back was bent at the waist, and did not stop coughing, as if he was suffering from a serious illness. The young one was helping him, slowly walking to sit at a table.
With a shrill and raspy voice the old eunuch said, Bring me some wine! The wine shop attendant responded repeatedly and hastily took out some wine. The old eunuch took out a package wrapped in paper from his side and opened it. Very carefully he used the tip of his fingernail to scoop a little bit of its content and dissolved it into the wine. He put the medicine package inside his pocket before picking up the wine cup and slowly drank the wine. A short moment later he went into convulsion; his body shook continuously.
The wine shop attendant panicked. What is it? What happened? he asked.
Get out of the way! the little eunuch shouted, Its none of your business! The wine shop attendant bowed and forced a smile, he walked away, but did not stop looking at the two.
The old eunuch used both of his hands to prop himself on the table, his teeth chattered, his body shook more and more violently. A moment later, even the table was shaking that the chopsticks on the table fell down to the floor.
The little eunuch panicked, Gong-gong[1], he said, How about another dose? while reaching out to fetch the medicine package from his pocket. He was about to open the package when with a shrill voice the old eunuch said, No no I dont want His expression looked pressing. The little eunuch held the medicine package in his hand, he did not dare to open it.
Right that moment they heard footsteps outside the inns door, seven big men walked in. They all naked on top, but wore leather pants on the bottom, with their hair braided into pigtails on top of their heads. Their entire body was unsightly greasy, glistening under the light, it seemed like their bodies, from head to toes, were smeared with some kind of oil. All seven of them had sturdy muscle like young dragon, their chests were hairy, and their mouth were covered in black mustache, when they stretched out their arms, all their palms were huge with thick fingers. Seven men sat on two tables and shouted in their mumbling speech, Bring out the wine and some beef and fat chicken, the quicker the better!
Yes, yes! the wine shop attendant replied, while busily setting up chopsticks. Master Guest, he asked, What would you like to eat?
Are you deaf? one of the men bellowed. Another man suddenly reached out and grabbed the wine shop attendant on his waist, raising his arm straight up, he brought the attendant up in the air. The wine shop attendants hands and feet flailing randomly, he cried out Wah! Wah! in fright. The men roared in laughter. The one holding the attendant flung him outside the shop, 'Bang!' the attendant hit the ground. "Aiyo! Mommy!" the wine shop attendant cried out. The men laughed even louder.
In low voice Mao Shiba said, "What they are doing is a wresting technique. The victim must be thrown far away; if he fell close by, he could spring up and counter-attack."
"Do you know any wrestling?" Wei Xiaobao asked.
"I haven't learned it," Mao Shiba replied, "This kind of 'hard' skill is useless against a martial art expert."
"Can you beat them, then?" Wei Xiaobao asked.
Mao Shiba said with a laugh, "What good is it for me to beat those boorish men?"
"But you are alone against the seven them, you will definitely lose," Wei Xiaobao said.
"They are not my match," Mao Shiba said.
Wei Xiaobao suddenly raised his voice, "Hey, big men, my friend here says he alone can beat the seven of you."
"Don't create trouble!" Mao Shiba sternly said. But Wei Xiaobao liked nothing better than creating trouble. Seeing without any reason those seven men tossed the wine shop attendant that he was half-dead half-alive, his heart was angered; hearing Mao Shiba said that he alone could beat the seven of them, he deliberately provoked them, with the hope that Mao Shiba would teach them a lesson.
The seven big men turned their gaze toward Mao and Wei, two people. "Little baby," one of them said, "What did you say?"
Wei Xiaobao replied, "My friend here says, you bullied the wine shop attendant, you cannot be considered hero or warrior. If you have guts, come and fight him."
One of the men glowered and said to Mao Shiba, "Son of a b*tch, did you say that?"
Mao Shiba knew those seven men were Manchurian wrestlers; at first he did not want to create any trouble, but first of all, he was angry just by looking at a Manchu, secondly, the Manchu was cursing him. Lifting up the wine pot, he threw it toward the man's face. The man reached out to catch the pot; to his surprise, however, in this throw Mao Shiba had used his internal strength. 'Crack!' the wine pot hit the man's arm. "Aiyo!" the man cried out for he felt severe pain on his arm. Another man pounced on Mao Shiba, which he responded by a flying kick. Manchurian wrestlers very seldom used their legs, the man was unable to dodge this kick, his lower abdomen was squarely hit, he was sent flying backward.
The other five men cursed, "Scoundrel bastard!" and pounced together. Mao Shiba was quick and agile, unleashing his qin na[2] skill, his elbow struck his palm hacked, in a short time he managed to knock down four men. The last one slanted his body sideways to take Mao Shiba's palm on his shoulder, while he reached out to grab Mao Shiba's lower back and lifted him up. He was about to turn Mao Shiba's body around to dash his head against the stone steps; Mao Shiba suddenly launched a chain kick, 'puff! puff!' twice his feet landed on the pit of that man's stomach. The man's mouth opened, blood spurted out wildly, his grab loosened instantly.
The man fell face up, Mao Shiba followed and kicked him hard with both feet on the pit of his stomach, then with both palms he launched the 'tornado brushing the willow', hacking diagonally down toward the back of the first man, the one hit by the wine pot. 'Crack!' several of the man's ribs were broken; he scrambled onto a table.
With one hand Mao Shiba pulled Wei Xiaobao and said, "Little demon, you really know how to get into trouble, let's go quickly!'
The two of them dashed toward the door of the shop. But they only took two steps when they saw the stooped-down old eunuch was standing at the door. Mao Shiba reached out to lightly push his right arm, he only wanted him to push him aside. To his surprise, as his palm touched the old eunuch's shoulder, Mao Shiba felt a violent jolt; he could not help but stagger and fell several steps sideways, his right waist bumped into a table, immediately the table toppled over.
The momentum of the fall had brought Wei Xiaobao along. Wei Xiaobao yelled, Aiyo hey, Mommy, it hurts! I am dead!
Mao Shiba quickly held on to the table and only then was he able to stand. He felt his entire body was boiling, as if he was roasted alive. He was greatly shocked inwardly. He looked at the old eunuch; he saw the old eunuch was still bending down at the waist and did not stop coughing, seemingly oblivious of what had just happened. Mao Shiba knew that he had met an expert today, most like the other side was using sorcery; otherwise, even if one had a much higher level of martial art skill than himself, one could not possibly turn his light push into a tremendous force like that. Although there existed skill such as 'borrowing force to counter-attack' within the martial art study, this kind of 'with four liang pulling a thousand jin' technique needs opponent's large force to produce a large force reaction; there has never been any skill turning a light force into a large one.
Mao Shiba turned around; grabbing Wei Xiaobao, who was still screaming and yelling, he bolted toward the rear of the shop. Yet after taking only three steps, he heard a coughing and saw the old eunuch had already stood in front of him. Mao Shiba was startled, exerting all his strength into his feet, he leaned forward as if he wanted to pounce of the opponent, but just as quick he sprang backward. Before his feet even touch the ground, he felt a light force on his back. Hastily his left hand struck backhandedly, but it hit an empty air. His body was thrown forward and landed on the bodies of two men. It was a heavy fall, fortunately the men were fat and sturdy, with their thick flesh as cushion, they did not suffer any injury.
Those two men's legs were broken, they were unable to stand; however, their hands were unaffected. Immediately they used their wrestling skill to grab Mao Shiba firmly. Mao Shiba wanted to struggle free, but his limbs were devoid of any strength; turned out the acupoint on his back was sealed by the old eunuch.
Mao Shiba fell face down, he was unable to see what was happening behind his back, he only heard the old eunuch was coughing continuously, and blaming the young eunuch with weak voice, "You want me to take another dose, aren't you deliberately trying to kill me? Just another half of a dose more, then my old life would be gone. (Cough ... cough ... cough ... cough.) You, little lid, really want to create trouble."
The young eunuch said, "Child really did not know; next time I will not dare."
"Will there be next time?" the old eunuch said, "Ay, I don't even know if I will live in a few days. (Cough ... cough ... cough ... cough.)"
"Gong-gong," the little eunuch said, "Where did this man come from? I am afraid he is a rebel thief."
"Friends," the old eunuch addressed the men, "Which palace are you from?"
"In response to Gong-gong's question," one of the men replied, "We are from Zheng Wangye's Palace. If not for Gong-gong's help by catching this rebel thief, we might lose a lot of face today."
"Humph," the old eunuch said, "Just ... just consider it a coincidence. (Cough ... cough ... cough.) You don't have to raise any alarm, just send this man and that child to the catering department of the Imperial Palace, tell them they are wanted by Hai Lao-gong[3]."
The men responded with one voice. The old eunuch said, "Why haven't you called a sedan chair? Looking at my condition, do you think I can still walk?" The little eunuch complied and dashed out the door. The old eunuch bent down on a table, while still coughing nonstop.
Seeing Mao Shiba was captured, Wei Xiaobao remembered a storyteller once said, "Living on a green mountain, no need to fear there won't be any firewood to cook." Must smear some grease on the soles of the feet, execute the thirty-sixth stratagem, if all else fails, retreat! Creeping quietly along the wall, he wanted to slip away from the back of the shop. Seeing that nobody was paying attention, he was feeling very happy inwardly when the old eunuch flicked his finger, sending a chopstick flying toward Wei Xiaobao. The chopstick stabbed the back of his right knee.
[1] Term to address a court eunuch.
[2] grab and capture, grappling technique.
[3] Old eunuch.


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Obama to pick Hagel for Pentagon
President Barack Obama has settled on Chuck Hagel, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Nebraska, to succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, with an announcement expected Monday, Democratic officials told POLITICO.
The choice of Hagel, who opposed his party on the Iraq War as a senator, is likely to ignite a raucous confirmation battle because several Democratic interest groups and prominent Republicans have voiced strong opposition since Hagel's vetting for the job was reported five weeks ago.
Story Continued Below
( Also on POLITICO: The shortlist for Obama's top jobs)
A Democratic aide described the White House's logic for choosing Hagel, age 66: "Chuck Hagel is a decorated war hero who would be the first enlisted soldier and Vietnam veteran to go on to serve as secretary of defense. He had the courage to break with his party during the Iraq War, and would help bring the war in Afghanistan to an end while building the military we need for the future.
"He has been a champion for troops, veterans and military families through his service at the VA and USO, and his leadership on behalf of the post-9/11 GI Bill. The president knows him well, has traveled with him to Iraq and Afghanistan, trusts him and believes he represents the proud tradition of a strong, bipartisan foreign policy in the United States."
Obama, who arrived back in Washington on Sunday morning, is expected to announce his nomination of Hagel on Monday as his first public appearance after the continuation of his Hawaii vacation.
Within a few days, and perhaps at the same time as the Hagel announcement, the president is likely to name his successor for former CIA Director David Petraeus. The candidates are John Brennan, White House homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, or Mike Morrell, acting CIA director.
( PHOTOS: Chuck Hagel's career)
Neoconservative Republicans have rallied against Hagel. More damaging in the Democratic-controlled Senate, pro-Israel groups and gay-rights groups have marshaled opposition to him.
A Senate Democratic official said: "I don't think Dems just fall in line. Ultimately, he may be confirmed. But at this stage, his fate is totally up in the air. He will really have to work hard to overcome some of his previous statements and positions."
In 1998, Hagel disparaged James C. Hormel as "openly aggressively gay," after President Bill Clinton named him ambassador to Luxembourg.
( Also on POLITICO: Graham calls Hagel an 'in-your-face' pick)
On Dec. 21, Hagel issued a strong apology for the quote, which had appeared in the Omaha World-Herald: "My comments 14 years ago in 1998 were insensitive. They do not reflect my views or the totality of my public record, and I apologize to Ambassador Hormel and any LGBT Americans who may question my commitment to their civil rights. I am fully supportive of 'open service' and committed to LGBT military families."
The Human Rights Campaign accepted his apology. The gay rights organization's president, Chad Griffin, said Hagel's statement "of support for LGBT equality is appreciated and shows just how far as a country we have come when a conservative former senator from Nebraska can have a change of heart on LGBT issues."
Hagel's past comments also have stirred anger among some in the Jewish community and other Israel backers.


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DWTS Rants & Raves – Why the Pros Should Count Their Blessings
This post started off far more "rant" than "rave", but I opted to change the tone a bit, perhaps in hopes that the message would then be more easily swallowed 🙂 As many of you know, Edyta has recently been writing a series of blogs about her time on the show that have been rather…bitter. Vengeful. Even malicious. And it's unfortunately colored many of our opinions of her for the worse – she even went so far as to block a reader who dared to make a comment expressing "disappointment" in Edyta's choice to be so critical of the show that made her a household name. That's when it dawned on me: some of the pros seem to have forgotten what life was like BEFORE they were on Dancing with the Stars.
For those of you unfamiliar with the "real" world of ballroom, first things first: prior to 2005, when DWTS & SYTYCD hit the air, most ballroom dancers (even the world champions) led lives of relative obscurity. They may have been well-known within the ballroom community (which is still relatively small), and may have even been what I like to call "ballroom famous" – a title that me & my teammates from my college ballroom dance team bestowed upon dancers that were particularly respected & admired in ballroom circles – but they most certainly weren't household names, and they weren't mobbed by fans in public. In short – they were just like you and I. Just average people with a not-so-average occupation.
How bout a short poll: how many of you had heard the name "Tony Dovolani" prior to 2005? Now of those who had, how many of you HAVE NOT somehow been involved in the world of ballroom dance at some point in your life? If you fit both of the criteria above, then I applaud you – because prior to 2005, the only mainstream thing Tony had really done was a bit part in the American version of Shall We Dance?, and he was also credited as a choreographer in that film. The fact that he actually got a few lines to say was pretty impressive, considering that, at that time, the biggest movie/tv role (besides choreographer) that most ballroom dancers could ever hope for was either dancing around in the background as an extra in a big dance scene, or maybe being a "dance double" for a particularly ungraceful actor (true story: the owner of my bf's dance studio was Ben Affleck's "foot double" in the movie Going All the Way – apparently Ben has 2 left feet!). Dancers were lucky to even get credited as extras, let alone hope for a speaking part. The widely held opinion with most casting directors was that "if you're doing a dance movie, you'd better find actors that can dance…because you aren't going to find dancers that can act!" It was a far, far cry from the starring movie roles that Julianne & Derek have been given in recent years, and the tv gigs that Maks (Bachelor Ukraine, Celebrity Ghost Stories), Cheryl & Louis (Suite Life of Zack & Cody), Edyta & Alec (CSI: NY), and Mark (Samantha Who?) were able to get due to their DWTS fame.
You know all those spiffy endorsement deals that so many of the pros on the show have gotten over the years, with their faces plastered over everything from shoes to hair extensions to diet pills to makeup to exercise tapes to dancewear? Yeah, pretty non-existent back in the pre-DWTS days – most competitive ballroom dancers were lucky if they could get a dance shoe or costume sponsor to help mitigate the exorbitant cost of competing. And speaking of money – let's just say they weren't raking it in back then like they are now 🙂 Don't get me wrong, some ballroom dancers make quite a good living for themselves just on coaching, choreographing, and doing exhibition performances, but it's peanuts compared to what they're rumored to make on the show (which I've heard reported as roughly $6k+ per week). And can you really put a price on the exposure the show gives them??? Since the beginning of the show, how many of the pros have opened successful dance studios with their name plastered on it? So far, I count Cheryl, Karina, Chelsie, and Maks & Tony (with the new Dance with Me in CA). For those who already had dance studios (like Jonathan & Anna), I can only imagine they started booking up faster after their appearance on the show – I know for a fact that Jonathan is now one of the most in-demand pro-am teachers in the country.
How many pros have graced the covers of magazines since joining the cast of the show? Back in the day, the biggest magazine a ballroom dancer could hope to appear in was American Dancer, the bimonthly publication put out to its members by USA Dance – which, of course, was only sent to members. All those invites to parties/award shows/premieres/charity benefits/etc? Probably wouldn't happen to your average ballroom dancer. And how many pros can now count some pretty big celebrities amongst their friends…and sometimes exes? Without the platform of DWTS, Maks may never have met Kirstie, Derek may never have met Shannon, and Julianne may never have even been in the same room as Ryan Seacrest. In the entertainment business, it really isn't what you know, it's who you know – and DWTS has supplied some primo connections for its pros.
I don't want ths post to be a neverending soapbox of why DWTS is so great, so I'll get to my point: as much as the pros may bitch & moan in the media about the show and how "unfair" or "fake" it is, at the end of the day I daresay their participation in it has done them far more good than harm – it has plucked many of them out of obscurity and opened doors to opportunities far beyond their imagination as young ballroom competitors. Some (namely Julianne, Derek, Mark, Cheryl & Maks) have parlayed those opportunities into success better than others (namely Alec & Edyta), but even the latter has undoubtedly benefitted from having the show on their resume – Dance Temptation may not have taken off with someone less notable at the helm. And fans, you can take something away from this too – you may complain about how the show has been so "unfair" or "biased against" [insert pro here] (which, of course, is pretty subjective), but I challenge you to imagine a life without that pro in it. Would you rather watch Maks occasionally "take a beating" from the judges, or have never known him at all? Would you rather see Tony tough it out with such duds as Wendy Williams & Kate Gosselin, or have no idea who he is? I know many of you will probably argue "you can't miss what you never knew to begin with", but I've seen how this show brightens some of your lives, and what an important role some of the pros play in it. They inspire you, entertain you, and can even motivate you to better your own life. Yes, sometimes this show is indeed "unfair", "fake", "scripted", & "storyboarded", and I'm not saying the viewers or the pros should accept every aspect of the show without complaint. But when it comes down to it, it still fulfills one crucial purpose in the lives of its pros: to share their love of dance with the world…and reap some sweet benefits while they're at it 😉