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Five years ago, several executives at McKinsey & Company, America's largest and most prestigious management-consulting firm, launched what they called the War for Talent. Thousands of questionnaires were sent to managers across the country. Eighteen companies were singled out for special attention, and the consultants spent up to three days at each firm, interviewing everyone from the C.E.O. down to the human-resources staff. McKinsey wanted to document how the top-performing companies in America differed from other firms in the way they handle matters like hiring and promotion. But, as the consultants sifted through the piles of reports and questionnaires and interview transcripts, they grew convinced that the difference between winners and losers was more profound than they had realized. "We looked at one another and suddenly the light bulb blinked on," the three consultants who headed the project—Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod—write in their new book, also called "The War for Talent." The very best companies, they concluded, had leaders who were obsessed with the talent issue. They recruited ceaselessly, finding and hiring as many top performers as possible. They singled out and segregated their stars, rewarding them disproportionately, and pushing them into ever more senior positions. "Bet on the natural athletes, the ones with the strongest intrinsic skills," the authors approvingly quote one senior General Electric executive as saying. "Don't be afraid to promote stars without specifically relevant experience, seemingly over their heads." Success in the modern economy, according to Michaels, Handfield-Jones, and Axelrod, requires "the talent mind-set": the "deep-seated belief that having better talent at all levels is how you outperform your competitors."
This "talent mind-set" is the new orthodoxy of American management. It is the intellectual justification for why such a high premium is placed on degrees from first-tier business schools, and why the compensation packages for top executives have become so lavish. In the modern corporation, the system is considered only as strong as its stars, and, in the past few years, this message has been preached by consultants and management gurus all over the world. None, however, have spread the word quite so ardently as McKinsey, and, of all its clients, one firm took the talent mind-set closest to heart. It was a company where McKinsey conducted twenty separate projects, where McKinsey's billings topped ten million dollars a year, where a McKinsey director regularly attended board meetings, and where the C.E.O. himself was a former McKinsey partner. The company, of course, was Enron.
The Enron scandal is now almost a year old. The reputations of Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, the company's two top executives, have been destroyed. Arthur Andersen, Enron's auditor, has been driven out of business, and now investigators have turned their attention to Enron's investment bankers. The one Enron partner that has escaped largely unscathed is McKinsey, which is odd, given that it essentially created the blueprint for the Enron culture. Enron was the ultimate "talent" company. When Skilling started the corporate division known as Enron Capital and Trade, in 1990, he "decided to bring in a steady stream of the very best college and M.B.A. graduates he could find to stock the company with talent," Michaels, Handfield-Jones, and Axelrod tell us. During the nineties, Enron was bringing in two hundred and fifty newly minted M.B.A.s a year. "We had these things called Super Saturdays," one former Enron manager recalls. "I'd interview some of these guys who were fresh out of Harvard, and these kids could blow me out of the water. They knew things I'd never heard of." Once at Enron, the top performers were rewarded inordinately, and promoted without regard for seniority or experience. Enron was a star system. "The only thing that differentiates Enron from our competitors is our people, our talent," Lay, Enron's former chairman and C.E.O., told the McKinsey consultants when they came to the company's headquarters, in Houston. Or, as another senior Enron executive put it to Richard Foster, a McKinsey partner who celebrated Enron in his 2001 book, "Creative Destruction," "We hire very smart people and we pay them more than they think they are worth."
The management of Enron, in other words, did exactly what the consultants at McKinsey said that companies ought to do in order to succeed in the modern economy. It hired and rewarded the very best and the very brightest—and it is now in bankruptcy. The reasons for its collapse are complex, needless to say. But what if Enron failed not in spite of its talent mind-set but because of it? What if smart people are overrated?
At the heart of the McKinsey vision is a process that the War for Talent advocates refer to as "differentiation and affirmation." Employers, they argue, need to sit down once or twice a year and hold a "candid, probing, no-holds-barred debate about each individual," sorting employees into A, B, and C groups. The A's must be challenged and disproportionately rewarded. The B's need to be encouraged and affirmed. The C's need to shape up or be shipped out. Enron followed this advice almost to the letter, setting up internal Performance Review Committees. The members got together twice a year, and graded each person in their section on ten separate criteria, using a scale of one to five. The process was called "rank and yank." Those graded at the top of their unit received bonuses two-thirds higher than those in the next thirty per cent; those who ranked at the bottom received no bonuses and no extra stock options—and in some cases were pushed out.
How should that ranking be done? Unfortunately, the McKinsey consultants spend very little time discussing the matter. One possibility is simply to hire and reward the smartest people. But the link between, say, I.Q. and job performance is distinctly underwhelming. On a scale where 0.1 or below means virtually no correlation and 0.7 or above implies a strong correlation (your height, for example, has a 0.7 correlation with your parents' height), the correlation between I.Q. and occupational success is between 0.2 and 0.3. "What I.Q. doesn't pick up is effectiveness at common-sense sorts of things, especially working with people," Richard Wagner, a psychologist at Florida State University, says. "In terms of how we evaluate schooling, everything is about working by yourself. If you work with someone else, it's called cheating. Once you get out in the real world, everything you do involves working with other people."
Wagner and Robert Sternberg, a psychologist at Yale University, have developed tests of this practical component, which they call "tacit knowledge." Tacit knowledge involves things like knowing how to manage yourself and others, and how to navigate complicated social situations. Here is a question from one of their tests:
You have just been promoted to head of an important department in your organization. The previous head has been transferred to an equivalent position in a less important department. Your understanding of the reason for the move is that the performance of the department as a whole has been mediocre. There have not been any glaring deficiencies, just a perception of the department as so-so rather than very good. Your charge is to shape up the department. Results are expected quickly. Rate the quality of the following strategies for succeeding at your new position.
a) Always delegate to the most junior person who can be trusted with the task.
b) Give your superiors frequent progress reports.
c) Announce a major reorganization of the department that includes getting rid of whomever you believe to be "dead wood."
d) Concentrate more on your people than on the tasks to be done.
e) Make people feel completely responsible for their work.
Wagner finds that how well people do on a test like this predicts how well they will do in the workplace: good managers pick (b) and (e); bad managers tend to pick (c). Yet there's no clear connection between such tacit knowledge and other forms of knowledge and experience. The process of assessing ability in the workplace is a lot messier than it appears.
An employer really wants to assess not potential but performance. Yet that's just as tricky. In "The War for Talent," the authors talk about how the Royal Air Force used the A, B, and C ranking system for its pilots during the Battle of Britain. But ranking fighter pilots—for whom there are a limited and relatively objective set of performance criteria (enemy kills, for example, and the ability to get their formations safely home)—is a lot easier than assessing how the manager of a new unit is doing at, say, marketing or business development. And whom do you ask to rate the manager's performance? Studies show that there is very little correlation between how someone's peers rate him and how his boss rates him. The only rigorous way to assess performance, according to human-resources specialists, is to use criteria that are as specific as possible. Managers are supposed to take detailed notes on their employees throughout the year, in order to remove subjective personal reactions from the process of assessment. You can grade someone's performance only if you know their performance. And, in the freewheeling culture of Enron, this was all but impossible. People deemed "talented" were constantly being pushed into new jobs and given new challenges. Annual turnover from promotions was close to twenty per cent. Lynda Clemmons, the so-called "weather babe" who started Enron's weather derivatives business, jumped, in seven quick years, from trader to associate to manager to director and, finally, to head of her own business unit. How do you evaluate someone's performance in a system where no one is in a job long enough to allow such evaluation?
The answer is that you end up doing performance evaluations that aren't based on performance. Among the many glowing books about Enron written before its fall was the best-seller "Leading the Revolution," by the management consultant Gary Hamel, which tells the story of Lou Pai, who launched Enron's power-trading business. Pai's group began with a disaster: it lost tens of millions of dollars trying to sell electricity to residential consumers in newly deregulated markets. The problem, Hamel explains, is that the markets weren't truly deregulated: "The states that were opening their markets to competition were still setting rules designed to give their traditional utilities big advantages." It doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone that Pai ought to have looked into those rules more carefully before risking millions of dollars. He was promptly given the chance to build the commercial electricity-outsourcing business, where he ran up several more years of heavy losses before cashing out of Enron last year with two hundred and seventy million dollars. Because Pai had "talent," he was given new opportunities, and when he failed at those new opportunities he was given still more opportunities . . . because he had "talent." "At Enron, failure—even of the type that ends up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal—doesn't necessarily sink a career," Hamel writes, as if that were a good thing. Presumably, companies that want to encourage risk-taking must be willing to tolerate mistakes. Yet if talent is defined as something separate from an employee's actual performance, what use is it, exactly?
What the War for Talent amounts to is an argument for indulging A employees, for fawning over them. "You need to do everything you can to keep them engaged and satisfied—even delighted," Michaels, Handfield-Jones, and Axelrod write. "Find out what they would most like to be doing, and shape their career and responsibilities in that direction. Solve any issues that might be pushing them out the door, such as a boss that frustrates them or travel demands that burden them." No company was better at this than Enron. In one oft-told story, Louise Kitchin, a twenty-nine-year-old gas trader in Europe, became convinced that the company ought to develop an online-trading business. She told her boss, and she began working in her spare time on the project, until she had two hundred and fifty people throughout Enron helping her. After six months, Skilling was finally informed. "I was never asked for any capital," Skilling said later. "I was never asked for any people. They had already purchased the servers. They had already started ripping apart the building. They had started legal reviews in twenty-two countries by the time I heard about it." It was, Skilling went on approvingly, "exactly the kind of behavior that will continue to drive this company forward."
Kitchin's qualification for running EnronOnline, it should be pointed out, was not that she was good at it. It was that she wanted to do it, and Enron was a place where stars did whatever they wanted. "Fluid movement is absolutely necessary in our company. And the type of people we hire enforces that," Skilling told the team from McKinsey. "Not only does this system help the excitement level for each manager, it shapes Enron's business in the direction that its managers find most exciting." Here is Skilling again: "If lots of [employees] are flocking to a new business unit, that's a good sign that the opportunity is a good one. . . . If a business unit can't attract people very easily, that's a good sign that it's a business Enron shouldn't be in." You might expect a C.E.O. to say that if a business unit can't attract customers very easily that's a good sign it's a business the company shouldn't be in. A company's business is supposed to be shaped in the direction that its managers find most profitable. But at Enron the needs of the customers and the shareholders were secondary to the needs of its stars.
A dozen years ago, the psychologists Robert Hogan, Robert Raskin, and Dan Fazzini wrote a brilliant essay called "The Dark Side of Charisma." It argued that flawed managers fall into three types. One is the High Likability Floater, who rises effortlessly in an organization because he never takes any difficult decisions or makes any enemies. Another is the Homme de Ressentiment, who seethes below the surface and plots against his enemies. The most interesting of the three is the Narcissist, whose energy and self-confidence and charm lead him inexorably up the corporate ladder. Narcissists are terrible managers. They resist accepting suggestions, thinking it will make them appear weak, and they don't believe that others have anything useful to tell them. "Narcissists are biased to take more credit for success than is legitimate," Hogan and his co-authors write, and "biased to avoid acknowledging responsibility for their failures and shortcomings for the same reasons that they claim more success than is their due." Moreover:
Narcissists typically make judgments with greater confidence than other people . . . and, because their judgments are rendered with such conviction, other people tend to believe them and the narcissists become disproportionately more influential in group situations. Finally, because of their self-confidence and strong need for recognition, narcissists tend to "self-nominate"; consequently, when a leadership gap appears in a group or organization, the narcissists rush to fill it.
Tyco Corporation and WorldCom were the Greedy Corporations: they were purely interested in short-term financial gain. Enron was the Narcissistic Corporation—a company that took more credit for success than was legitimate, that did not acknowledge responsibility for its failures, that shrewdly sold the rest of us on its genius, and that substituted self-nomination for disciplined management. At one point in "Leading the Revolution," Hamel tracks down a senior Enron executive, and what he breathlessly recounts—the braggadocio, the self-satisfaction—could be an epitaph for the talent mind-set:
"You cannot control the atoms within a nuclear fusion reaction," said Ken Rice when he was head of Enron Capital and Trade Resources (ECT), America's largest marketer of natural gas and largest buyer and seller of electricity. Adorned in a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and cowboy boots, Rice drew a box on an office whiteboard that pictured his business unit as a nuclear reactor. Little circles in the box represented its "contract originators," the gunslingers charged with doing deals and creating new businesses. Attached to each circle was an arrow. In Rice's diagram the arrows were pointing in all different directions. "We allow people to go in whichever direction that they want to go."
The distinction between the Greedy Corporation and the Narcissistic Corporation matters, because the way we conceive our attainments helps determine how we behave. Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Columbia University, has found that people generally hold one of two fairly firm beliefs about their intelligence: they consider it either a fixed trait or something that is malleable and can be developed over time. Five years ago, Dweck did a study at the University of Hong Kong, where all classes are conducted in English. She and her colleagues approached a large group of social-sciences students, told them their English-proficiency scores, and asked them if they wanted to take a course to improve their language skills. One would expect all those who scored poorly to sign up for the remedial course. The University of Hong Kong is a demanding institution, and it is hard to do well in the social sciences without strong English skills. Curiously, however, only the ones who believed in malleable intelligence expressed interest in the class. The students who believed that their intelligence was a fixed trait were so concerned about appearing to be deficient that they preferred to stay home. "Students who hold a fixed view of their intelligence care so much about looking smart that they act dumb," Dweck writes, "for what could be dumber than giving up a chance to learn something that is essential for your own success?"
In a similar experiment, Dweck gave a class of preadolescent students a test filled with challenging problems. After they were finished, one group was praised for its effort and another group was praised for its intelligence. Those praised for their intelligence were reluctant to tackle difficult tasks, and their performance on subsequent tests soon began to suffer. Then Dweck asked the children to write a letter to students at another school, describing their experience in the study. She discovered something remarkable: forty per cent of those students who were praised for their intelligence lied about how they had scored on the test, adjusting their grade upward. They weren't naturally deceptive people, and they weren't any less intelligent or self-confident than anyone else. They simply did what people do when they are immersed in an environment that celebrates them solely for their innate "talent." They begin to define themselves by that description, and when times get tough and that self-image is threatened they have difficulty with the consequences. They will not take the remedial course. They will not stand up to investors and the public and admit that they were wrong. They'd sooner lie.
The broader failing of McKinsey and its acolytes at Enron is their assumption that an organization's intelligence is simply a function of the intelligence of its employees. They believe in stars, because they don't believe in systems. In a way, that's understandable, because our lives are so obviously enriched by individual brilliance. Groups don't write great novels, and a committee didn't come up with the theory of relativity. But companies work by different rules. They don't just create; they execute and compete and coördinate the efforts of many different people, and the organizations that are most successful at that task are the ones where the system is the star.
There is a wonderful example of this in the story of the so-called Eastern Pearl Harbor, of the Second World War. During the first nine months of 1942, the United States Navy suffered a catastrophe. German U-boats, operating just off the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean, were sinking our merchant ships almost at will. U-boat captains marvelled at their good fortune. "Before this sea of light, against this footlight glare of a carefree new world were passing the silhouettes of ships recognizable in every detail and sharp as the outlines in a sales catalogue," one U-boat commander wrote. "All we had to do was press the button."
What made this such a puzzle is that, on the other side of the Atlantic, the British had much less trouble defending their ships against U-boat attacks. The British, furthermore, eagerly passed on to the Americans everything they knew about sonar and depth-charge throwers and the construction of destroyers. And still the Germans managed to paralyze America's coastal zones.
You can imagine what the consultants at McKinsey would have concluded: they would have said that the Navy did not have a talent mind-set, that President Roosevelt needed to recruit and promote top performers into key positions in the Atlantic command. In fact, he had already done that. At the beginning of the war, he had pushed out the solid and unspectacular Admiral Harold R. Stark as Chief of Naval Operations and replaced him with the legendary Ernest Joseph King. "He was a supreme realist with the arrogance of genius," Ladislas Farago writes in "The Tenth Fleet," a history of the Navy's U-boat battles in the Second World War. "He had unbounded faith in himself, in his vast knowledge of naval matters and in the soundness of his ideas. Unlike Stark, who tolerated incompetence all around him, King had no patience with fools."
The Navy had plenty of talent at the top, in other words. What it didn't have was the right kind of organization. As Eliot A. Cohen, a scholar of military strategy at Johns Hopkins, writes in his brilliant book "Military Misfortunes in the Atlantic":
To wage the antisubmarine war well, analysts had to bring together fragments of information, direction-finding fixes, visual sightings, decrypts, and the "flaming datum" of a U-boat attack—for use by a commander to coordinate the efforts of warships, aircraft, and convoy commanders. Such synthesis had to occur in near "real time"—within hours, even minutes in some cases.
The British excelled at the task because they had a centralized operational system. The controllers moved the British ships around the Atlantic like chess pieces, in order to outsmart U-boat "wolf packs." By contrast, Admiral King believed strongly in a decentralized management structure: he held that managers should never tell their subordinates " 'how' as well as what to 'do.' " In today's jargon, we would say he was a believer in "loose-tight" management, of the kind celebrated by the McKinsey consultants Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman in their 1982 best-seller, "In Search of Excellence." But "loose-tight" doesn't help you find U-boats. Throughout most of 1942, the Navy kept trying to act smart by relying on technical know-how, and stubbornly refused to take operational lessons from the British. The Navy also lacked the organizational structure necessary to apply the technical knowledge it did have to the field. Only when the Navy set up the Tenth Fleet—a single unit to coördinate all anti-submarine warfare in the Atlantic—did the situation change. In the year and a half before the Tenth Fleet was formed, in May of 1943, the Navy sank thirty-six U-boats. In the six months afterward, it sank seventy-five. "The creation of the Tenth Fleet did not bring more talented individuals into the field of ASW"—anti-submarine warfare—"than had previous organizations," Cohen writes. "What Tenth Fleet did allow, by virtue of its organization and mandate, was for these individuals to become far more effective than previously." The talent myth assumes that people make organizations smart. More often than not, it's the other way around.
There is ample evidence of this principle among America's most successful companies. Southwest Airlines hires very few M.B.A.s, pays its managers modestly, and gives raises according to seniority, not "rank and yank." Yet it is by far the most successful of all United States airlines, because it has created a vastly more efficient organization than its competitors have. At Southwest, the time it takes to get a plane that has just landed ready for takeoff—a key index of productivity—is, on average, twenty minutes, and requires a ground crew of four, and two people at the gate. (At United Airlines, by contrast, turnaround time is closer to thirty-five minutes, and requires a ground crew of twelve and three agents at the gate.)
In the case of the giant retailer Wal-Mart, one of the most critical periods in its history came in 1976, when Sam Walton "unretired," pushing out his handpicked successor, Ron Mayer. Mayer was just over forty. He was ambitious. He was charismatic. He was, in the words of one Walton biographer, "the boy-genius financial officer." But Walton was convinced that Mayer was, as people at McKinsey would say, "differentiating and affirming" in the corporate suite, in defiance of Wal-Mart's inclusive culture. Mayer left, and Wal-Mart survived. After all, Wal-Mart is an organization, not an all-star team. Walton brought in David Glass, late of the Army and Southern Missouri State University, as C.E.O.; the company is now ranked No. 1 on the Fortune 500 list.
Procter & Gamble doesn't have a star system, either. How could it? Would the top M.B.A. graduates of Harvard and Stanford move to Cincinnati to work on detergent when they could make three times as much reinventing the world in Houston? Procter & Gamble isn't glamorous. Its C.E.O. is a lifer—a former Navy officer who began his corporate career as an assistant brand manager for Joy dishwashing liquid—and, if Procter & Gamble's best played Enron's best at Trivial Pursuit, no doubt the team from Houston would win handily. But Procter & Gamble has dominated the consumer-products field for close to a century, because it has a carefully conceived managerial system, and a rigorous marketing methodology that has allowed it to win battles for brands like Crest and Tide decade after decade. In Procter & Gamble's Navy, Admiral Stark would have stayed. But a cross-divisional management committee would have set the Tenth Fleet in place before the war ever started.
Among the most damning facts about Enron, in the end, was something its managers were proudest of. They had what, in McKinsey terminology, is called an "open market" for hiring. In the open-market system—McKinsey's assault on the very idea of a fixed organization—anyone could apply for any job that he or she wanted, and no manager was allowed to hold anyone back. Poaching was encouraged. When an Enron executive named Kevin Hannon started the company's global broadband unit, he launched what he called Project Quick Hire. A hundred top performers from around the company were invited to the Houston Hyatt to hear Hannon give his pitch. Recruiting booths were set up outside the meeting room. "Hannon had his fifty top performers for the broadband unit by the end of the week," Michaels, Handfield-Jones, and Axelrod write, "and his peers had fifty holes to fill." Nobody, not even the consultants who were paid to think about the Enron culture, seemed worried that those fifty holes might disrupt the functioning of the affected departments, that stability in a firm's existing businesses might be a good thing, that the self-fulfillment of Enron's star employees might possibly be in conflict with the best interests of the firm as a whole.
These are the sort of concerns that management consultants ought to raise. But Enron's management consultant was McKinsey, and McKinsey was as much a prisoner of the talent myth as its clients were. In 1998, Enron hired ten Wharton M.B.A.s; that same year, McKinsey hired forty. In 1999, Enron hired twelve from Wharton; McKinsey hired sixty-one. The consultants at McKinsey were preaching at Enron what they believed about themselves. "When we would hire them, it wouldn't just be for a week," one former Enron manager recalls, of the brilliant young men and women from McKinsey who wandered the hallways at the company's headquarters. "It would be for two to four months. They were always around." They were there looking for people who had the talent to think outside the box. It never occurred to them that, if everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing. ♦


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How to Prepare Accounts for Allowance by a Probate Court
When preparing accounts for allowance, you will need to choose the accounting form used in your local probate court. Some states require principal and income accounting, and others require receipts and expenditures accounting. You may prepare your accountings on an annual basis as you do your estate income tax returns.
Check to see what form of account applies in your jurisdiction and when they are required to be filed and allowed. Even if they're required to be filed annually, you may not be required to seek their allowance until the final account is filed. The first (which is sometimes also the final) accounting starts with the assets you listed on the estate inventory.
Check with your court to see which one of the following forms of probate accounting you should use.
Principal and income
Some states require an accounting that differentiates between income and principal, but most don't for estates (but may for trusts under wills).
Income is interest, dividends, rents, and the like; the earnings on the principal during the period of the accounting. Principal is the assets of the estate on which income is earned.
Principal and income accounting basically means that the principal and any additions to or subtractions from principal are accounted for on their own schedule, and income to the estate is accounted for on its own schedule. The income and principal are then reconciled at the end of the accounting or at the bottom of the columns.
Receipts and expenditures
In some states you have to report assets or income received (receipts) on one schedule, including as your first entries those assets on the probate inventory (for example, Schedule A), expenditures on another schedule (for example, Schedule B), and property on hand at the end of the accounting period on a third (for example, Schedule C).
This form of accounting is called receipts and expenditures accounting. If your accounting balances (as it should), and this is your final account, your ending balance will be zero because you'll have distributed all the assets of the estate before you file your final accounting.
Length of accounting period
Some courts may require that an annual accounting be filed, but others permit your accounting to run from the date of death through the closing of the estate, even if that period is several years. If you're preparing an annual account, you may have two choices to bring your account to a full year after your decedent's date of death:
Using a calendar year-end (which coincides with the 1099 forms you may be receiving)
Using a fiscal year-end (any month end other than December)
If your court allows a choice, choose whatever works best for you. Remember, just because you may have chosen a fiscal year-end for income tax purposes doesn't mean you're required to choose the same year-end for your probate accounting.

subset: commoncrawl


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Today is the third anniversary of President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) inauguration as president of the Republic of China (ROC). Since then, he has proven to be a Trojan horse — no one has done more in striving to make this centennial the nation's last.
Ma promised "no reunification, no independence and no war" with the People's Republic of China (PRC) in his inaugural address, but soon backed away from the first of those policies, doing everything he could to push eventual unification. There never was any chance Ma might declare independence, but his "no war" promise was even more of a joke, given the way his policies have eroded Taiwan's national security by downgrading the ROC military and cozying up to Beijing.
Ma's first order of business was getting former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) jailed on corruption charges. Chen was proven to have engaged in some dodgy dealings as president, but the overall impression of his judicial ordeal is that the verdicts and judges were stacked against him from the start. The message was clear — go against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and win and it will not stop until it crushes you.
On Ma's first trip abroad to Latin America in August 2008, he trumpeted his policy of diplomatic detente with China, including neither side wooing the other's diplomatic allies. His visits to the Dominican Republic and Paraguay were marred by hints that he would not announce any new aid packages. This policy has backfired, costing the ROC allies.
Pro-China policies quickly followed. Ma launched direct cross-strait weekend charter flights, opened Taiwan to Chinese tourists, eased restrictions on investment in China and approved measures to allow Chinese investors to buy stocks in Taiwan.
In November 2008, Ma continued the KMT's policy of annual meetings with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to push for reunification, only this time under the guise of a resumption of talks between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS). While the meetings now had a veneer of officialdom, they were still closed to legislative or public oversight. ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) visited Taiwan for the first time that month, the first time such a high-ranking PRC official was ever allowed into Taiwan. His visit sparked massive protests, countered with repressive tactics by the National Police Agency. Ma also did not demand that Chen Yunlin call him president — "Mr Ma" was enough.
Taiwan and China resumed direct sea, air and mail links in December 2008, leading many to accuse Ma of giving too many concessions to China, too quickly.
Despite Ma's campaign promise to maintain GDP growth at 6 percent, push unemployment down to 3 percent and elevate per capita income to US$30,000, his administration found it impossible to reverse Taiwan's slide into an economic abyss with the rest of the world during the financial crisis.
More trouble arrived when Typhoon Morakot struck in August 2009, revealing his administration's complete inability to deal with disasters and Ma's arrogance toward people in the south.
Despite his plunging popularity, Ma continued to race toward economic integration with China and the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was signed in June last year, cementing Taiwan's economic unification with China. Beijing all but annexed Taiwan without having to fire a single bullet.


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here is a recipie i got from a member of my sunday school group. We tried this and boy this was good.
Coffee Punch
1-2oz bag of french vanilla coffee. (here in the south we use community coffee)
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of creamer (powdered)
1 qt of vanilla ice cream
Make coffee using 12 cups water
pour into large bowl
stir in creamer and sugar. Mix well and freeze
Take out of frezer and let sit till soft. Enough to slush. (about 2 hrs)
Add ice cream to coffee, slush to well blended and serve.
Now i know this is a cold treat but it's great to serve for any gathering you have.
Coffee punch
Share your recipes and cooking tips!
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Online star Ambam turning 24
A gorilla which became an online sensation when footage emerged of him walking like a human is turning 24.
Internet video of western lowland gorilla Ambam aping humans with his unusual habit of walking upright has been viewed nearly six million times since 2011.
Normally gorillas get around on all fours, but Ambam has perfected balancing on his two hind legs at Port Lympne wild animal park near Hythe, Kent.
His habit of walking like a human is also exhibited by his sister Tamba and her two-year-old son Kabale, a park spokesman said.
Head of gorillas Phil Ridges said: "All gorillas have the ability to stand upright to some degree, although they often choose not to, but Ambam and his sister have a particular talent at standing and walking completely upright on two legs."
Ambam shares his birthday with stars including actresses Julie Christie and Sarah Michelle Gellar, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and actor Robert Carlyle.
Weighing 220kg, Ambam is Port Lympne's biggest gorilla, whose lifespan can stretch from 30 to 50 years. He was born at the park's sister site, Howletts, in 1990.
He was hand-raised for a few months when he was a year old after falling ill, meaning he had to be taken away from his mother Shumba.
The precise number of western lowland gorillas is unclear because they inhabit some of the most dense and remote rainforests in Africa.
But wildlife experts say that due to poaching and disease, as well as Ebola-induced mortality, their numbers have declined by more than 60% over the past 20 to 25 years.
PA Media


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Overhauled Omax Website Publishes Content in Numerous Languages
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Thursday, November 1, 2012
Waterjet-cutting equipment manufacturer Omax Corp., Kent, WA, has recently overhauled its website to improve communications with its international customers. Content on the site, www.omax.com, is available in several languages including English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, German, Hindi and Chinese. Complementing the multilingual website are business partnerships with distributors in 50 countries, including 12 European distributors; and technical-support personnel in Europe, Canada and Central America, with plans to add technical-support people in India and Asia.
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This guest post is by Allison Boyer of NMXlive.com.
I've never actually met a fan of Twilight.
It's true. I've met people who say they kinda-sorta-maybe like the books, but can't stand the movie. I've met people who say they're reading the series because they're curious. I've met people who say they just watching the movies for a laugh. But I've never met, face-to-face, a hard-core, die-hard Twilight fan.
Yet they exist out there. I see message boards and fan sites brimming with excitement over the latest film or gossip about one of the actors, and when they show snippets of the premiers on the news, there are always lots of screaming fans. So why won't anyone actually admit to me that they are a huge fan of Twilight?
The answer is exactly why I believe this series has such a massive following in the first place—and it's an extremely important lesson for any blogger trying to grow a community.
The empty protagonist
The protagonist of the Twilight story is a teenage girl named Bella who is forced to move to a new town, where she finds that one of her classmates (and all of his siblings) are actually vampires and that her best friend is a werewolf. Two of the vampires fall in love with her, fight over her, and constantly save her from other supernatural beings.
Bella, as a character, is nothing special. And that's the point.
At some point, we've all daydreamed about a hunky man or beautiful woman falling so deeply in love with us that they're willing to fight off other suitors and even risk their lives on our behalf. We all know what it feels like to deal with unfairness in life, like having to move to a new town. We all know what it feels like to be unsure of our feelings, like Bella is with both potential partners at some point or another. And the supernatural element is just fun. We all have the child inside, who remembers how much fun it is to play pretend.
Bella is an empty shell, so the reader (or viewer) can image being in Bella's shoes.
That's why it's so hard for people to admit liking this series, even if they have every special edition DVD at home. It's embarrassing to admit that you just want to be like Bella, living in this fantasy world with two hotties fighting over who gets to save you this time.
(Of course, few people actually want that for real, but it's a fun little escape from life for a few hours.)
This isn't the only time an empty protagonist, or an "everyman" type of character, has shown up in a book or film. Ishmael in Moby Dick, Winston Smith in 1984, and Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy all have these qualities. It's a common technique used to help you relate to a specific character.
Why bloggers should care
All of us would love to have a massive following like Twilight, right? So how can we take the concept of an everyman character and bring it to a blog about food or social media or fashion (or whatever your niche may be)?
The answer isn't an easy one, but the solution is to suck your audience into a story they can relate to, using that to support the thesis of your blog post.
Take this blog post for example. I'm writing about how to build your community, but I started by talking about something everyone knows—Twilight. My first line, about not knowing anyone who actually admits to liking the series, was designed to make you think, "Huh. I don't either!" or even "Wait, I know someone!"
Either way, you're internally having a conversation with me and this blog post now, rather than just passively reading a list of tips.
Many bloggers do this extremely well. Check out Elizabeth Potts Weinstein. Read a few posts from Erika Napoletano. Browse the archives of Man Vs. Debt for posts from Adam, Courtney, and Joan.
On all of these blogs, with almost every post, you learn something, but only after they suck you into the story, making your nod your head and completely relate to whatever they're talking about. Even if you haven't been in their specific situations, you understand what it feels like.
You can put yourself in their shoes.
And that is the key to make people come back again and again. It's slow at first. People know they like a post you've written, but they aren't quite sure why. So they read some more and then some more, and soon they are subscribed to your RSS feed and signed up to your mailing list and sharing every post you write with their social media followers.
This is obviously not the only way to build a community on your blog, but if you're struggling to find your place, think about using this technique on your blog. How can you pull readers into your post by using an everyman story? How can you keep your fans coming back for more by helping them relate to you? How can you entertain and inspire instead of just educate?
For more tips on building a community, check out the "Three Very Unique Ways To Build A Massive Community" panel at New Media Expo (NMX – formerly BlogWorld) in January. It's a can't-miss session if you're looking for new ways to find your fans and keep them coming back for more.


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Intel Pentium Processor B960 (2M Cache, 2.20 GHz), 4GB DDR3, 750GB SATA HDD 5400rpm, 39.624 cm (15.6") HD LED BrightView 1366 x 768, AMD Radeon HD 7450M 1GB DDR3, DVD Super Multi DL, Fast Ethernet, WLAN 802.11 b/g/n, WebCam, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
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Light up your life – there's one colour to suit just your style.
- The HP Pavilion g6 comes in multiple colour options so everyone will find one to suit their personal style. Choose from a palette of colours and then watch it light up your life – in a high-gloss finish.
Packed with all the essential features for your everyday life – and so easy to manage.
- Here is everything you need, in a compact, reliable, well-designed notebook. The HP Pavilion g6 means you can surf the web, manage daily tasks, listen to music – and all at a price you can afford.
HP Pavilion g6-1365sl, Intel® Pentium®, 2.2 GHz, 39.6 cm (15.6"), 1366 x 768 pixels, 4 GB, 750 GB
HP Pavilion g6-1365sl. Product type: Notebook, Form factor: Clamshell. Processor family: Intel® Pentium®, Processor model: B960, Processor frequency: 2.2 GHz. Display diagonal: 39.6 cm (15.6"), Display resolution: 1366 x 768 pixels. Internal memory: 4 GB, Internal memory type: DDR3-SDRAM. Total storage capacity: 750 GB, Storage media: HDD. Optical drive type: DVD Super Multi DL. On-board graphics adapter. Operating system installed: Windows 7 Home Premium. Product colour: Charcoal,Grey


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text: CTND - TV Support CTND Program Schedule Purchase Programming Catholic Television Network of Detroit Our broadcast television network known as Catholic Television Network of Detroit, or CTND, is available in 900,000 homes throughout southeast Michigan. Since 2011, CTND has been an affiliate of Boston-based CatholicTV Network. CTND has been on air in Metro Detroit since January of 1985. Available only when CTND is broadcasting LIVE on Livestream


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Subject to limited rolling availability as vehicles come off lease beginning July 2015 in designated market regions on approved credit through American Honda Finance Corp. Closed-end lease for 2013/2014 used Honda Fit EV for well-qualified lessees. Not all applicants will qualify. No purchase option at lease end. $199 per month for 24 months with $199 due at signing (first month's payment). Excludes tax, title, license, fees, registration, options and liability insurance. Total monthly payments $4,776.00. Lessee responsible for non-routine maintenance. Lease includes collision coverage, routine maintenance, roadside assistance and navigation system updates. Total due at lease signing $199 plus tax and title. Please see your authorized Fit EV dealer for complete details.
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[1] 132 city/105 highway/118 combined miles per gallon of gasoline-equivalent (MPGe) rating; 82 mile combined (city/highway) driving range rating (adjusted). Ratings determined by EPA. Use for comparison purposes only. Your MPGe and range will vary depending on driving conditions, how you drive and maintain your vehicle, lithium-ion battery age/condition, and other factors. For additional information about EPA ratings, visit
[2] Subject to limited availability through September 2014 to residents of CA, OR, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, and MD on approved credit through American Honda Finance Corp. Closed end lease for 2014 Honda Fit EV for well-qualified lessees. Not all applicants will qualify. No purchase option at lease end. MSRP $37,415 (includes destination). Excludes tax, title, license, fees, registration, options and insurance. Total monthly payments $9,324. Lessee responsible for non-routine maintenance and excessive wear/tear. Lease includes collision coverage, routine maintenance, roadside assistance, unlimited mileage, and navigation system updates. Total due at lease signing is $259 plus tax and title and includes first month's payment. Please see your authorized Fit EV dealer for complete details. For lessees who elect to install 240-volt charging equipment in their home, the charging equipment (hardware only) will be provided by Honda, the lessee remains responsible for installation and installation materials.
[3] Check local or state laws


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Dispelling the Myth: Nothing Happens on Campus in the Summer
A myth in the outside world is that "nothing happens on campus in the summer." So to dispel that myth, we've shown below a nominal sampling of scholarly activity taking place during the lazy, hazy days in Grinnell.
All Over the Campus: MAPs
From Noyce to Burling, Steiner to Mears, Mentored Advanced Projects are all over the campus map this summer. Here are a few examples of the works in progress that incorporate student learning with faculty development and scholarship:
"Civil War Public Memory," with Sarah Purcell, history During this Civil War Sesquicentennial summer, Ethan Drutchas '13, Christian Snow '13, Sara Lowenburg '13, and Amanda Borson '13 are writing papers about commemorations of the war and co-curating an archival exhibit at Burling Library as part of their MAP. Each student chose a specific 1861-2011 commemoration for in-depth research, in collaboration with Purcell's on-going study of public memory and political funerals of the Civil War period.
"Environmental Effects on Exercise Psychology and Physiology," with Elizabeth Queathem, biology
Biology majors Bethine Moore '13 and Mike Nodzenski '12 are working on summer MAPs with Queathem to assess physical activity and behavior change in middle school children (Moore) and to examine how indoor and outdoor exercise environments affect cross-country runners (Nodzenski). Queathem's research generally focuses on the psychological barriers that prevent humans from meeting established exercise criteria.
"American Nana: Grandmothers in the U.S., 1900-2000," with Victoria Brown, history
As a grandmother and sociocultural historian, Brown became interested in changes over time in both the popular culture images of grandmothers and their lived experiences. Students Kathryn Hardy '13 and Erica Seltzer-Schultz '12 are collaborating on Brown's research in their summer MAPS; Hardy is exploring the image of African American grandmothers in the '60s and '70s, while Seltzer-Schultz is analyzing the image of black and white grandmothers in children's literature during those decades. Both were students in Brown's "U.S. Women's History" course last spring.
"Poetry Writing, Performance, and Publication," with Ralph Savarese, English
Ethan Kenvarg '12 and Grace Mendel '13 studied "Craft of Poetry" with Savarese last fall and chose a summer MAP to focus on the process of publishing poems in professional literary magazines, with opportunities to meet writers and attend readings in nearby Iowa City. Kenvarg, a biology major, recently learned that his poem "The Animals of My Sorrow" was accepted for publication by the Seneca Review, a prestigious literary journal.
Cooking Up Local Foods
Grinnell Area Local Foods apprentices Jackie Blair '12 and James Yox '12 have organized a series of local foods cooking classes. Each class is taught by an area cook producing a simple recipe using healthy local produce. Participants receive a cookbook compiled by the Center for Prairie Studies of recipes for local foods dishes. Chase Felker '12 and Radka Slamova '13 are using background from the "Human-Computer Interaction" course to implement a user-centered website for the Grinnell Local Foods Coop as part of a MAP project directed by Janet Davis, assistant professor of computer science. The site will allow student coop members to order foods from local farmers.
Film Matters
Ten students and recent graduates are collaborating this summer to edit "Film Matters," an undergraduate film journal by Intellect Press. During their Humanities 290 "Film Genre" course last spring, the Grinnell students sought submissions from colleges with film studies programs and are evaluating the journal articles this month with the assistance of film theorist Terri Geller, assistant professor of English. According to Geller, the Grinnell students on the editorial board are the first guest editors for the online publication.
The Apprentice, Grinnell Style
The six apprentices working in local non-profit organizations are wrapping up their one-year commitment this summer to the charter program sponsored by the Office of Community Enhancement and Engagement. A new class of apprentices will begin in August.
Learning for Learning's Sake
Faculty members David Harrison (French), Jon Andelson (anthropology), Shannon Hinsa-Leasure (biology), Dan Gross (Alternative Language Study Option Program) and Jan Gross (French) are sharing their expertise through the Adult Community Explorations Series (ACES), offering local participants short courses on contemporary Paris, historic France, vaccines, and local history. Harrison, director of the Center for International Studies, will also deliver a webinar on the Grinnell-Nanjing University partnership in mid-July.
Statistics in the Liberal Arts Workshop (SLAW)
The Statistics in the Liberal Arts Workshop (SLAW), formed in 1987, meets at Grinnell each July. SLAW includes statisticians from Bowdoin, Cornell, Grinnell, Kenyon, Lawrence, Mt. Holyoke, Oberlin, Pomona, St. Lawrence, St. Olaf, Smith, Swarthmore, Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo, and Purdue who meet to further the teaching of statistics and to champion the role of the liberal arts college statistician. Tom Moore, professor of mathematics and statistics, was a co-founder of SLAW, along with Rosemary Roberts of Bowdoin. The group's pursuits have resulted in a Statistics II textbook to be published fall 2012.


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IN the United States, 2.8 million children are living in households with incomes of less than $2 per person per day, a benchmark more often applied to developing countries. An additional 20 million Americans live in extreme poverty. In the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, poverty rates are near 20 percent. In some of the poorer counties of Texas, where I live, rates often approach 30 percent. In these places, the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, ranks as high as in some sub-Saharan African countries.
Poverty takes many tolls, but in the United States, one of the most tragic has been its tight link with a group of infections known as the neglected tropical diseases, which we ordinarily think of as confined to developing countries.
Outbreaks of dengue fever, a mosquito-transmitted viral infection that is endemic to Mexico and Central America, have been reported in South Texas. Then there is cysticercosis, a parasitic infection caused by a larval pork tapeworm that leads to seizures and epilepsy; toxocariasis, another parasitic infection that causes asthma and neurological problems; cutaneous leishmaniasis, a disfiguring skin infection transmitted by sand flies; and murine typhus, a bacterial infection transmitted by fleas and often linked to rodent infestations.
Among the more frightening is Chagas disease. Transmitted by a "kissing bug" that resembles a cockroach but with the ability to feed on human blood, it is a leading cause of heart failure and sudden death throughout Latin America. It is an especially virulent scourge among pregnant women, who can pass the disease on to their babies. Just last month, the first case of congenital Chagas disease in the United States was reported.
These are, most likely, the most important diseases you've never heard of.
They disproportionately affect Americans living in poverty, and especially minorities, including up to 2.8 million African-Americans with toxocariasis and 300,000 or more people, mostly Hispanic Americans, with Chagas disease. The neglected tropical diseases thrive in the poorer South's warm climate, especially in areas where people live in dilapidated housing or can't afford air-conditioning and sleep with the windows open to disease-transmitting insects. They thrive wherever there is poor street drainage, plumbing, sanitation and garbage collection, and in areas with neglected swimming pools.Continue reading the main story
Most troubling of all, they can even increase the levels of poverty in these areas by slowing the growth and intellectual development of children and impeding productivity in the work force. They are the forgotten diseases of forgotten people, and Texas is emerging as an epicenter.
A key impediment to eliminating neglected tropical diseases in the United States is that they frequently go unrecognized because the disenfranchised people they afflict do not or cannot seek out health care. Even when there is a clinic or community health center in an impoverished area, it often lacks the necessary diagnostic tests, and the staff is rarely trained to recognize and manage neglected tropical diseases.
We have an opportunity to stop these diseases, but we need to act. First, we need programs of active surveillance and monitoring to obtain more accurate information on the true prevalence of these diseases and how they are transmitted. We also need better diagnostic tests; worm infections like cysticercosis and toxocariasis can often be treated effectively with antiparasitics and anti-inflammatories, but they are frequently misdiagnosed.
Finally, we need safer and more effective drugs and new licensed vaccines. For instance, there are drugs to treat Chagas disease, like benznidazole and nifurtimox, but they are hard to procure, often not effective in adults after the symptoms of heart disease begin and so toxic they cannot be taken by pregnant women. And unfortunately, with a few exceptions — like some promising new dengue vaccines under development — the major pharmaceutical companies see little financial advantage in investing in better treatments or vaccines for these diseases.
With the looming possibility of budget cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its excellent Parasitic Disease Branch, others will need to step up. Texas and the Gulf Coast are home to some of the country's greatest universities and medical schools, and they can bring considerable brainpower to bear on this problem.
In Houston, the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development have organized a research unit to develop new vaccines and diagnostics. And Baylor College of Medicine created a new tropical medicine school to teach doctors and other health care providers to recognize, diagnose and treat these infections. A key component is a tropical disease clinic outside Houston where patients show up every Friday. On recent Friday mornings just over the last month, the clinic's director has treated a young woman with cutaneous leishmaniasis, three people with brain lesions from cysticercosis and a middle-aged man with Chagas disease.
While immigration is sometimes blamed for introducing neglected tropical diseases into the United States, the real issue is that they are now, to varying degrees, also being transmitted within our borders. Without new interventions, they are here to stay and destined to trap people in poverty for decades to come. Fifty years ago, Michael Harrington's book "The Other America: Poverty in the United States" became a national best seller. Today more people than ever before live in poverty in this country. We must now turn our attention to the diseases of this Other America.Continue reading the main story


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If you need a reason to consider a spa vacation, there are plenty. How about one of the following?
A vacation at a full-service spa can lift you out of a "lifestyle rut." If you feel that you're caught in a daily pattern of too little sleep, not enough exercise and eating the same old unhealthy foods, a spa vacation will instantly take you out of that rut. You'll be able to exercise, relax, pamper yourself with spa treatments and try healthy new foods.
Taking a spa vacation will also give you time to spend with your loved one or your friends. A spa vacation is all about destressing and taking time to care for yourself, which means caring for the relationships that are important to you. Imagine an hour or two of side-by-side massage with your significant other, followed by conversation over a delicious, light dinner; or, getting facials and manicures with your three best friends, talking about everything or nothing. You might even muster up the courage to try some new spa experiences, such as a hot stone massage, sugar polish treatment or aromatherapy.
A spa vacation can even help you avoid the stress that can come with vacation planning. Choosing an all-inclusive spa vacation means you won't worry about where to go each day or where to have dinner each night. A full-service spa destination will meet all of your needs.
Any spa can help you relax and improve your sense of well being, but no two spas are alike. Different spas provide different settings, types of accommodations and menus of treatments. In addition, many spas specialize in areas such as weight loss, hydrotherapy, acupuncture or recovery from medical procedures. With so many options, let a travel professional help you choose the one that's right for you.


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Any chance you could reply to this in thread?
Lets stick with escape for a minute. Do you think you could create a system where escapes are sufficiently rare that the innocent deaths that happen during them are fewer than the possible innocent deaths due to execution? That would mean you would need less than one escape a year (the actual rate is much, much higher).
As far as having a vast knowledge of the Bible...I don't think that's true. I just have a vast arsenal of resources at my disposal. I'd be "blind" without them I think. lol
I use a Bible Study program called Logos (www.logos.com) to study and to use during debates. I can't recommend it high enough, best tool I've ever found, I love it and have been using it for about 3 years now I think.
re: fellowship, reading the Bible...I don't do as much as I should or would like. But it's sort of a "resolution" I've made with myself to do better in these areas as no matter how much we do, I think we can always do better. Right now I host a weekly Bible study at my house, though I don't always lead it. We cover what was learned via the sermon (this is popular in many non-denominational churches...they are often called "Life-Groups" and they are where the real fellowship takes place) or tackle issues that people have an interest in (How does the OT apply to Christians today? What will the end times be like? How do we know the Bible is from God? What is the function and purpose of prayer? etc...). In addition, my wife and I have a couples devotional we go through.
And yes, that's my son Sawyer, now 7, in the photo. I change up the personal pic every now and again to give equal time to my daughter.
Because people with life in prison can still murder. They can murder other inmates, they can escape or they can be released by feel good governors. Any one segment of those is larger than the even suspected of possibly being innocent list.
You can post that in thread as well.
Yes, she is the oldest girl out of 5 children. When I took that picture I thought it was a very good one.
I was active duty for five years and have been in the National Guard for another five.
lol no. A lot of people, but never Simon.
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Sweet Dreams...
Blush n' Black
Hi everyone! In this outfit I wanted to combine two of my favourite shades: powder pink and black. I think these colours complement each other, since blush offers sweetness to the look, while black gives the necessary class to the outfit. What about you, which colours do you love to compine in your outfits?
Let the Sunshine in your Heart
Hi everyone! Today, I decided to wear a chic and comfy white outfit to celebrate the beautiful sunny days of summer! I completed the look with grey and faded blue details and my favourite sandals. I think that white is the most suitable colour for the hot summer weather. And you, what do you like to wear in hot sunny days?
Ετικέτες H&M, Outfits, skirt, streetstyle, summer, Tsakiris Mallas, white, ZARA
Clear Skies, Clear Lines
Hi everyone! Words can't describe our joy for this photoshoot! In a perfect stractured scenery, wearing total white and high heels, talented Olga Sunrise captured amazing pics for this post. That's one of the few moments you see the team,Eliza and Eva, on the same post! For summer, we believe there's nothing better than tanned skin, white dresses, gold accessories and natural make up. Summer is here at last!
Crystallized Blue...
Ετικέτες Asos, Inspiration, River Island, Sheinside
Style Inspiration: Victoria Beckham
Victoria Beckham is a famous singer and the last years a noted fashion designer. Her style could be described as structured and usually monochromatic, yet she manages to stand out with her confident simplicity. If you like her style, the following tips will help you create a simple yet stunning look!
Ετικέτες Inspiration
Sport and Chic
A Walk to Remember
Hello again! Today I decided to show you an elegant and chic outfit, appropriate for day and night meetings. For this look, I chose simple and flawless textures paired with bold accessories. The last days Eliza and I took advantage of the sunny weather and created beautiful pictures. Wait for more wonderful things to come in this blog!
Hot Summer Trend: Jumpsuits!
Do you like jumpsuits? I believe that jumpsuits are the best option for lazy summer days, since they are so easy to pair and they manage to create an effortessly chic outfit, day and night. The best part? There are so many different patterns and shapes, for every taste!
- For special occasions, you can choose pieces like the above, with vibrant colors and fine materials(like silk, chiffon). For more glamorous outfits you can add sparckly accessories.
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Parking Enforcement
Downtown Burlington is patrolled by civilian parking officers Monday-Friday to ensure fair and equitable parking opportunities for downtown patrons, employees, and visitors.
three ways to pay civil penalties:
There are three different ways to to pay traffic citations:
- The citation is an envelope that can be mailed.
- You can pay in person at city hall, which is located at 237 W. Maple Ave.
- The citation can be dropped in the red mailbox located inside the police department. @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
Violations and Fines:
|Handicap parking, exit obstructions
|Noise ordinance, fire lane parking, fire permit ordinance, smoking ordinance, cruising ordinance, animal control ordinance, zoning ordinace
|Skating/ skateboards, residential parking
|Overtime parking, double parking, after hours parking, 12 inches from curb, within 20 feet of corner, within 15 feet of hydrant, loading zone, non-parking space, blocking driveway, left-side to curb, blocking sidewalk, backed to curb
If payment for violation is not made within 10 days, a penalty charge will be added. The charge is an additional $20.00 on fees of $10.00; $25.00 on fees of $25.00 or $50.00; and $50.00 on fees of $100.00.
Contact Us:
Traffic Division:(336) 229-3153
Pay Citations:(336) 222-5120
City Hall:237 W. Maple Ave.
- Sec. 10, 22, 40, 103
- Sec. 119
- Sec. 121, 135, 141, 161
- Sec. 144
- Sec. 146
- Sec. 151
- Sec. 154
- Sec. 155
- Sec. 163
Burlington Traffic Codes
- Sec. 36-10 - Use of roller skates, skateboards, etc. restricted: No person upon roller skates, skateboard, or riding in, or by means of, and coaster, toy vehicle or similar device, shall go upon any roadway, unless it be while crossing a street at a crosswalk or intersection
- Sec. 36-22 - Clinging to motor vehicles: No person riding upon any motorcycle, bicycle, coaster, sled, roller skates, or any other toy vehicle, shall attach the same or himself to any public conveyance or moving vehicle upon any roadway.
- Sec. 36-40 - Notice on illegally parked vehicle: Whenever any motor vehicle without driver is found parked or stopped in violation of any of the restrictions imposed by ordinance of this city or by state law, the officer finding such vehicle shall take its registration number and may take any other information displayed on the vehicle which may identify its user, and he shall conspicuously affix to such vehicle a notice of violation, on a form provided by the chief of police, for the driver to pay the civil penalty within ten (10) days during the hours and at the place specified in the notice.
- Sec. 36-103 - Driving in school zones/ stopping for school guards mandatory: Whenever authorized signs are placed designating any street or part thereof as a school zone pursuant to section 36-89, drivers of vehicles using such street shall exercise the greatest care for the protection of children. All persons driving vehicles in school zones when a school crossing guard is on duty are required to stop at the direction of said school crossing guard when said direction of any said crossing guard is given for the purpose of assisting school children to safely cross any said street. Those persons not stopping at the direction of any school crossing guards shall be in violation of this ordinance and shall be subject to North Carolina General Statues, Section 14-4. @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
burlington traffic violations
Sec. 36-119 - Maximum speed generally:
- (a) No person shall drive a vehicle on a highway or on any parking lot, drive, driveway, road, roadway, street or alley, upon the grounds and premises of any public or private hospital, college, university, benevolent institution, school, orphanage, church or any of the institutions maintained and supported by the state or any of its subdivisions, or upon the grounds and premises of any service station, drive-in theater, supermarket, store, restaurant or office building, or any other business or municipal establishment providing parking space for customers, patrons or the public at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions then existing.
- (b) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, it shall be unlawful to operate a vehicle in excess of the following speeds: (1) Twenty (20) miles per hour in any business district. (2) Thirty-five (35) miles per hour in any residential district (3) Forty-five (45) miles per hour in places other than those named in sub paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection for: a. All vehicles other than passenger cars, regular passenger vehicles, pickup trucks of less than one (1) ton capacity and school buses loaded with children; and b. All vehicles, of whatever kind, are engaged in towing, drawing or pushing another vehicle; provided; this sub paragraph shall not apply to vehicles engaged in towing, drawing or pushing trailers with a gross weight of not more than three thousand (3,000) pounds.
- (c) The fact that the speed of a vehicle is lower than the foregoing limits shall not relieve the driver from the duty to decrease speed when approaching and crossing an intersection, when approaching and going around a curve, when approaching a hill crest, when traveling upon any narrow or winding roadway or when special hazards exist with respect to pedestrians or other traffic or by reasons of weather or street conditions, and speed shall be decreased as may be necessary to avoid colliding with any person, vehicle or other conveyance on or entering the street or highway, and to avoid causing injury to any person or property either on or off the street or highway, in compliance with legal requirements and the duty of all persons to use due care. (Code 1959, & 19-126) @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
burlington traffic codes
- Sec. 36-121 - School zones: It shall be unlawful for any person to operate or drive any vehicle at speeds exceeding twenty-five (25) miles per hour from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and from 2:15 p.m. to 3:34 p.m. unless otherwise indicated, in school zones.
- Sec. 36-135 - Stopping in streets generally: No vehicle shall stop in any street except for the purpose of parking as prescribed in this chapter, unless such stop is made necessary by the approach of fire apparatus, by the approach of a funeral or other procession which is given the right-of-way, by the stopping of a public conveyance, by the lowering of railway gates, by the giving of traffic signals, by the passing of some other vehicle or a pedestrian, or by some emergency; and in any case covered by these exceptions such vehicles shall stop so as not to obstruct any foot way, pedestrian aisle, safety zone, crossing or street intersection if such can be avoided. (Code 1959, & 19-140)
- Sec. 36-141 - Parking with left side towards curb/ parking on one-way street no vehicle shall stop with its left side to the curb in the business district, except that on one-way streets vehicle shall stop headed in the direction of traffic. (Code 1959, & 19-148)
- Sec. 36-161 - Parking in limited parking zone: Whenever a parking zone is designated in accord with section 36-89, limiting the time or conditions under which such vehicle may be parked, no person shall park any vehicle in such zone, except in accord with the signs and markings erected therein. Such zones shall be clearly and distinctly marked and indicated upon the official traffic-control and parking regulation signs, markings and other devices map on file in the office of the traffic division. A change of position of a vehicle from one (1) point directly to another point in the same block shall be deemed one (1) continuous parking period. @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
burlington traffic ordinance
No person shall stop, stand or park a vehicle except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or in compliance with the directions of apolice officer or traffic-controlled device in any of the following places:
- (a) On a sidewalk, between the curb and sidewalk or between the curb line or ditch line and the right-of-way when there is no sidewalk.
- (b) Within an intersection, or within twenty (20) feet thereof.
- (c) On a crosswalk
- (d) Within thirty (30) feet of any flashing beacon, stop sign or traffic-controlled signal located at the side of a street or roadway.
- (e) No vehicle shall park on either side of any street approaching a grade crossing within fifty (50) feet of the closest rail; provided, that where existing permanent structures are located along the street and closer than fifty (50) feet, parking may be permitted in front of such structures, unless otherwise prohibited, if such parking does not interfere with the view in either direction of an approaching locomotive or train.
- (f) Alongside or apposite any street excavation or obstruction, when such stopping, standing or parking would obstruct traffic.
- (g) Upon any bridge or other elevated structure.
- (h) Within fifteen (15) feet in either direction of the entrance to a hotel, hospital or any public building where the street is so marked.
- (i) On the roadway side of any vehicle stopped, standing, or parked at the edge or curb of a street.
- (j) In front of a public or private driveway.
- (k) In front of any motion picture theatre, except bicycles.
- (l) Within fifteen (15) feet of a fire hydrant.
- (m) Within twenty (20) feet of the driveway entrance to any fire station and on the side street opposite the entrance to any fire station within seventy-five (75) feet of the entrance when properly signposted.
- (n) At any place where signs prohibit parking. @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
burlington traffic ordinances
Sec. 36-146 - Residential parking permit program.
- (a) Residential parking permit program defined. The residential [parking] permit program intends to make it possible for residents in a restricted no-parking area to have access to on-street parking.
- (b) Designation of areas. The city council may designate controlled residential areas based on the criteria as recommended by the traffic commission and the engineering department: a. The area shall either contain at least five (5) continuous block faces abutted by property primarily in residential zoning districts or shall be a contiguous expansion of an existing controlled parking area with the area being abutted by property primarily in residential zoning districts. A block face as used herein shall mean on (1) side of a street between two (2) intersection streets. b. A petition identifying the boundaries of streets within the proposed controlled parking residential area had been presented to and accepted by the traffic commission requesting such designation and signed by adult residents from at least seventy (70) percent of the living units contained in each block of the proposed controlled parking residential area.
- (c) Eligibility for parking permit. Residents of the houses located in the restricted no-parking area shall be eligible to receive on (1) residential parking permit decal for each vehicle, which in principally operated by the resident. The revenue collector shall verify the residence address of persons obtaining such decals and shall record on the face of the decal the license number of the vehicle. The residents shall be permitted to show a current vehicle registration, current utility bills, notarized affidavits of a landlord (in those instances that residents do not own property in the residential parking district), current lease agreement or a current driver's license displaying the current residential address to verify the address of residents applying for a parking permit.
- (d) Parking decal. Residential parking permit decal shall mean a special permit issued here under by the revenue collector and authorizing that a vehicle bearing such permit be allowed to be parked in a controlled residential parking area. The residential parking permit decal shall be attached to the left rear windshield of the vehicle for which issued and shall contain the vehicle license number, year of issue and identification number.
- (e) Cost of parking permit. The revenue collector shall issue the initial residential parking permit decals at no cost to the resident. If replacement permits are required there will be a cost of five dollars ($5.00) each for the requesting resident. No residential parking permit decal shall be transferred to another vehicle.
- (f) Guest passes. Two (2) guest passes will be provided to each resident on an annual basis. There will be no replacements for lost permits. In the event of a special function such as a wedding, party, reception, or similar occasion a resident may contact the parking enforcement office at least five (5) working days prior to the event. Failure to provide advance notice could result in citations being issued.
- (g) Validity. Permits are valid for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and will expire at midnight on June 30.
- (h) Hours. Restricted no-parking area will be designated by signs stating no parking between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on school days in session.
- (i) Restrictions. No person shall display a residential parking permit decal on a vehicle unless such vehicle displays the same vehicle license number as shown on the residential parking permit decal and any such use or display except as authorized herein shall constitute a violation of this Code by the permittee and by the person who used or displayed the residential parking permit decal. It shall constitute a violation of this Code for any person to falsely represent himself eligible for a residential parking permit decal or to furnish any false information in an application to the revenue collector in order to obtain a residential parking permit decal. The revenue collector is authorized to revoke the residential parking permit of any permittee found to be in violation of this section, and upon notification thereof, the permittee shall surrender such permit to the revenue collector. Failure to surrender a residential parking permit shall constitute a violation of the Code. A residential parking permit shall not guarantee or reserve to the holder a parking space with in a designated controlled parking residential area. Ord. No. 97-3, & 1,2-18-97)
- No Parking from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm on school days on the following streets: On both sides of Franklin St. between Arlington Ave. and Glenwood Ave. On both sides of Parkview Dr. between Arlington Ave. and Glenwood Ave. On both sides of Parkview Dr. at its western most intersection with Sunset Dr. to a point 630 feet north of the centerline of Sunset Dr. On both sides of Circle Dr. from its northernmost intersection with Glenwood Ave. southwest to its southernmost intersection with Glenwood Ave. On both sides of Hillside Dr. between Country Club Dr. and S. Church St. On both sides of Silverlake Dr. between County Club Dr. and S. Church St. On south side of Country Club Dr. between Tarelton Ave. and S. Church St. On both sides of Tarleton Ave. between S. Church St. and Country Club Dr. On west side of Tarleton Ave. between Country Club Dr. and Sunset Dr. On the northeast side of Arlington Ave. between Franklin St. and S. Church St. On the north side of Sunset Dr. between Tarleton Ave. and Parkview Dr. @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
burlington traffic ordinances
Sec. 36-151 - Parking of oversize vehicles:
- (a) No person shall park any vehicle, which has a width in excess of ninety-six (96) inches, upon any of the streets of the city for a continuous period of time longer than thirty (30) minutes.
- (b) No person shall park buses, trucks, tractor-trailers, mobile homes, or any vehicle exceeding twenty-two (22) feet in length on public streets in business section for over fifteen (15) minutes or in a residential district for over a period of sixty (60) minutes.
- (c) This section shall not apply to motor vehicles momentarily stopped for the purpose of taking on or discharging passenger or loading or unloading freight at a point of origin or destination, not shall it apply to motor vehicle accidentally and unavoidably disables, provided such parking or stoppage is necessary for emergency repairs to permit such vehicle to be put in operating condition. (Code 1959, & 19-156; Ord. No. 85-75, 10-15-85) @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
burlington traffic ordinance
Sec. 36-154 - Handicapped parking:
- (a) It shall be prohibited for any person to park or leave standing any vehicle in a space designated for handicapped persons or visually impaired persons when the vehicle does not display the distinguishing license plate, placard, or identification car or a disabled veteran registration plat as provided by state law.
- (b) It shall be prohibited for any person not qualified for the rights and privileges extended to handicapped or visually impaired persons to exercise or attempt to exercise such rights or privileges by the unauthorized use of a distinguishing license plate, placard, or identification card.
- (c) Any violation of this section shall subject the offender to a civil penalty in the amount of one hundred dollars ($100.00). Any duly authorized local government official is authorized to issue this civil citation, and the violator shall pay the penalty to the city tax collector's office within ten (10) days of receipt. (Ord. No. 95-12, & 3, 4-18-95; Ord. No. 95-26, & 1,5-16-95) @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
burlington traffic ordinance
Sec. 36-155 - Fire lanes:
- (a) It shall be prohibited for any person to park or leave standing any vehicle in a space designated as a fire lane.
- (b) Any violation of this section shall subject the offender to a civil penalty in the amount of fifty dollars ($50.00). Any duly authorized local government official is authorized to issue this civil citation, and the violator shall pay the penalty to the city tax collector's office within ten (10) days of receipt. (Ord. No. 95-27, & 1,2,5-16-95) @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>
burlington traffic codes
Sec. 36-163 - Overtime parking:
- (a) If any vehicle shall remain parked in any parking space beyond the parking time limit therefore, such vehicle shall be considered as parking overtime and beyond the period of legal parking time. The parking of a vehicle overtime or beyond the period of legal parking time in any part of a street or parking lot where any such parking space is located shall be violation of this division. It shall be unlawful for any person to permit any vehicle to remain or be placed in any parking space when said vehicle has already been parked beyond the period of time prescribed for such parking space. @(Model.BulletStyle == CivicPlus.Entities.Modules.Layout.Enums.BulletStyle.Decimal ? "ol" : "ul")>


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Nutrition Facts
Ingredients and Preparation
- In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, sugar, and basil.
- Heat olive oil in a wok or large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add scallops and stir-fry for about 3 minutes, until cooked through. Transfer to a plate.
- Add broccoli to the wok and stir-fry for about 2 minutes. Add sugar snap peas and stir-fry for another minute.
- Add lemon-basil sauce to the wok and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and add scallops back in. Cook for another minute.
- Garnish with remaining basil and serve.


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Oil & Gas/CPI
Better safe than sorryProcesses in the oil, gas, and chemical industry present operators with enormous challenges in the area of technical safety. This makes it all the more critical to use exclusively top-quality materials. As a globally recognized materials partner, we develop extremely corrosion-resistant steels, from super-duplex materials to nickel alloys. The many specialists at our research facilities and steel mills provide the expertise that this requires.
Oil & Gas/CPI
- Fasteners, Bolts & Nuts
- Pumps & High Pressure Components
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- Comp. for Chemical plants (incl. LNG, FGD, Urea, LDPE, etc.)
- Flowlines & Connectors
- Well Completion Tools
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- Wellhead, X-mas trees & Manifolds (incl. Tubing hangers), BOPs
- Drilling Tools & Comps.
- Wire Lines
- Comps. for Food processing & Animal Feed
- Components for Recycling Industry
- Other O&G+CPI comps.


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School of Health Sciences and Human Performance
Karen Piegorsch '80 introduces ergonomics
to Guatemalan backstrap weavers.
By Keith Davis
Lying immediately south of Mexico, Guatemala is distinguished...
Active Voice By Gary Frank
Don't ask Natalie Hernandez-Pachon to choose a favorite activity during her four years at Ithaca College — she liked all of them....
By Virginia Van de Wall '12
It was wet, windy, and cold in Washington, D.C., last March, as students and faculty waited two days for a new flight to Colombia, South America. The Alternative Spring Break trip to South America and the Carib-bean islands had been designed to provide a cultural immersion experience...
A group of students visits one of the world's poorest countries — and comes away richer. by Doug McInnis
There are just over 14 million people in Malawi, and 930,000 of them either have AIDS or are infected with the virus that causes it. AIDS has killed so many adults that the country now has a million orphans. As the country's health problems have...
Teacher Calan Gibney '02 turns a yen for adventure into global volunteerism. by George Sapio
"We should go somewhere," said Calan Gibney '02 idly to her colleague.
"How about New Zealand?" her...


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|Home >> Course Descriptions >> College of Arts and Sciences
|Fundamentals of Mathematics I
|Three semester hours.
Sets, relations, functions, number system, and elementary number theory. This course cannot be used to fulfill Core Curriculum requirements. Prerequisite: MATH 1314.
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LONDON—A first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that contains author J.K. Rowling's notes and original illustrations is going on sale at a charity auction.
The personal annotations from the bestselling author included comments on the process of writing and a section from an early draft of the novel. They also included a note on how the bestselling author came to create the game of Quidditch.
It "was invented in a small hotel in Manchester after a row with my then boyfriend. I had been pondering the things that hold a society together, cause it to congregate and signify its particular character and I knew I needed a sport," she wrote.
Rowling also drew illustrations in the book, including a sleeping baby Harry on a doorstep and an Albus Dumbledore Chocolate Frog card.
The copy will be sold Tuesday at Sotheby's London as part of an auction jointly organized with the writers' association English PEN.
The group, a charity that promotes the freedom to read and write, asked 50 acclaimed authors to "scribble second thoughts, marginalia or drawings" on a first-edition copy of one of their books.
Other participating authors included Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Seamus Heaney, Lionel Shriver and Yann Martel.
Sotheby's said Monday the funds raised will benefit English PEN.


text: In the spring of 1979 the Schreder Planetarium was opened in Redding as a multi-media science education facility serving the students and citizens of Northern California. The planetarium provides student and community education in Astronomy and Space Science. Capturing the passion and curiosity of children, teenagers and adults, the planetarium is a beautiful, domed theater in which a realistic and scientifically accurate simulation of the night sky is created, using a highly specialized digital projector. The Digistar 3 projector uses powerful graphics hardware and software to generate immersive full-dome images on the interior surface of a dome, integrating all-dome video, real time 3D computer graphics, and complete digital astronomy.