Finishing Up
Mil-8. Madang PNG
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Helicopter
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Gonnae No Eat Me
Gonnae No Eat Me
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edinburgh
scotland
museum
national
animals
stuffes
models
armour
history
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icons
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ships
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art
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Friday, July 29, 2011
School bus
School bus
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2010
agosto
nikon
D40
usa
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ny
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eeuu
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bus
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school bus
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Train in German Museum of Technology, Berlin
Lehman Cranks Up Sales
The estate of Lehman Brothers, the failed investment bank, is ramping up sales of its property portfolio as commercial real-estate prices recover, in a move that could help creditors of the defunct firm.
In its most recent deal, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. agreed to sell its majority stake in a portfolio of 10 office buildings in Rosslyn, Va., in a transaction that values the properties at $1.26 billion, Lehman said in a court filing late Tuesday. The sale, to a real-estate private-equity fund run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is at a value nearly equal to the $1.29 billion that a venture led by Lehman paid at the market's peak in 2007.
![[Lehman0727_NS]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tB8A4P2Kr1qmmL7q-6ZthLfSJmuA61mQA0M3I103w8OPvHc9-BdvPP3qBwM8_ZwsTG3cSVNaYvuuFyNXQAud7BJYjpDnvC9ucohT5DDIPjFBUs1DYp27Exn4L_A05S7e2tfn6UnucKY-Vco4Rn12l-KQ=s0-d)
While the sale still represents a slight loss, the price is much higher than the properties would have fetched a year or two earlier, thanks to a surprising recovery in commercial real-estate values in some cities.
Seeking to capitalize on that recovery, Lehman's estate manager, restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal, is cranking up its effort to sell some of the $13.2 billion-worth of property assets that remained on the books at the start of this year.
The Rosslyn sale "is another example of executing the strategy and pace we set at the beginning of the year to take advantage of the improving real-estate market," Jeff Fitts, a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, said in an email. Lehman's partner, Monday Properties, is staying in the deal.
The real-estate sales will likely help Lehman's diverse group of creditors, which range from hedge funds that bought debt at steep discounts after the bank's collapse to longtime investors such as pension funds and other money managers trying to limit their losses.
When Lehman filed for bankruptcy-court protection at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008, its real-estate holdings were valued at $23 billion. The amount was written down by billions of dollars after the firm's collapse.
Last month, Lehman raised the amount it expects to recover from its real-estate portfolio between 2011 and 2014 to $13.2 billion, up from $12.1 billion just in January, according to court filings, coming largely from sales. By contrast, Lehman retrieved only $3 billion from its real-estate portfolio between its bankruptcy filing in the fall of 2008 and the end of 2010.
Now, creditors are poised to recover a total of some $65 billion from Lehman's estate—a fraction of what the Wall Street firm was once worth but a far higher number than in the midst of the crisis—in part because the failed bank's properties now boast healthier values. Lehman's estate managers spent time persuading creditors to let them hold onto the real-estate assets and wait for the market to recover rather than sell them off at fire-sale prices during the financial turmoil.
Lehman even made a number of controversial reinvestments in its real-estate portfolio, effectively doubling down on properties that needed more money in 2009 and 2010, when values weren't as high.
Now Lehman is marketing multiple assets to investors, including its majority stake in LCOR Inc., which owns about 5,400 apartments; the vacant 560,000-square-foot former General Re headquarters in Stamford, Conn., and a set of unsold Ritz Carlton condominiums in Hawaii, according to people familiar with the matter.
The firm is also making preparations to sell its largest single real-estate asset, the Archstone-Smith Trust apartment portfolio bought in 2007 for $22 billion, either through an independent public offering or through sales to private buyers. That deal is complicated, though, because Lehman shares ownership with Bank of America Corp. and Barclays PLC, and the three don't see eye-to-eye, according to people familiar with the matter.
To be sure, much of Lehman's portfolio has values still well below what the investment bank put in, and some investments in areas such as land development are likely worth a fraction of the original investment. Lehman is looking for partners for a longer-term hold on many land investments.
For higher-quality assets, prices are down in the 15 to 20 percent range, as opposed to 40 to 60 percent for land, according to Matthew Anderson, a managing director at Trepp LLC, which tracks real-estate lending.
It also isn't clear how long the recovery will last and whether it will extend beyond the most desirable markets like New York City, Boston, Chicago and the Washington, D.C., area. Weak jobs growth continues to put downward pressure on rents and occupancy rates.
At the same time, the debt market, an important factor in the recovery in prices, recently has shown signs of fragility. Just last week, underwriters had to boost yields numerous times to boost investor demand for two issues of commercial mortgage-backed securities.
Lehman's extensive real-estate investments, both debt and equity, played a major role in the undoing of the firm. Its sprawling portfolio ranged from vast tracts of undeveloped California land, to office buildings, to one of the country's largest apartment-building companies.
Lehman's decision to reinvest in some of its properties, rather than sell them at a steep discount, appeared to have paid off. In 2009, for example, it said it would invest as much as another $30 million in 200 Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan, in which Lehman owned a majority stake. At that time, the building's value was underwater, below its $580 million in debt, according to people familiar with the matter.
This spring, it reached a deal to sell its stake in the building to a fund managed by JP Morgan Asset Management, which is a unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., for about $700 million, say people familiar with the matter.
That is still less than the amount that the property was valued at when Lehman made its investment, $820 million. But it is well above what it would have gotten by abandoning the project in 2009.
—Mike Spector contributed to this article.
Write to Eliot Brown at eliot.brown@wsj.com
goldman sachs group, sachs group inc, lehman brothers holdings inc, lehman brothers holdings, goldman sachs group inc, private equity fund, real estate values, goldman sachs, lehman brothers, real estate private equity fund, real estate sales, majority stake, property assets, marsal, bankruptcy court, steep discounts, fitts, rosslyn va, money managers, property portfolio
Kingsbridge Fairweek 2011
Kingsbridge Fairweek 2011
My favourite week of the year in Kingsbridge (aka Trumpton) and the fair comes to town. My tripod gets a lot of work because all the best images are taken after the sun goes down.
This ride is fantastic, because it swings fron side to side like a pendulem. However, that is not all it does. Once it gets going it spins the riders through 360 degrees, so they get to the sky then the ground very quickly.
You wont catch me on it cos my Neuro surgeon says I should not, and I do do what she tells me!!!
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tramsteer
fairweek
kingsbridge
longexposure
night
lowlight
fairs
Kingsbridge Fair Week 2011
pendulem
estuary
boat
westcountry
water
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southhams
southdevon
boats
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devon
england
nighttime
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nikond300
nocturn
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nocturne
people
pendulem, neuro surgeon, trumpton, kingsbridge, tripod, sky, images, sun
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Celtic at the Olympic Stadium, Sydney, Australia.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Independence Day - July 4
Independence Day - July 4
Wall of Red, White, and Blue American flags symbolize the love of country on holidays such as Independence Day - July 4, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day, and many more.
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4th
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July
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Living
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usa
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american flags, veterans day, flag day, memorial day, independence day, july 4, 4wall online, holidays, love
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Phone Hacking Testimony Disputed
Two former executives broke ranks with News Corp. for the first time on Thursday over whether James Murdoch knew in 2008 that the phone-hacking scandal at the company's now-defunct U.K. tabloid likely involved more than just one rogue reporter, as the company had long maintained.
The rupture in the ranks comes as News Corp. is under pressure over a key piece of its defense against phone-hacking allegations: a 2007 internal investigation by an outside law firm. That inquiry appears to have been less rigorous than company executives have said.
View Full Image
Associated Press
News Corp.'s James Murdoch said Thursday he stands by his testimony.
On Thursday, Colin Myler, former editor of the News of the World tabloid, and Tom Crone, a former lawyer for the paper, said in a joint statement that in 2008 they informed Mr. Murdoch, now News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer, about a crucial email suggesting that phone hacking went beyond one reporter. Mr. Murdoch on Tuesday said before a parliamentary committee in the U.K. that he had never been made aware of the email—even though he had approved a roughly £700,000 settlement ($1.1 million) in the matter.
In a statement, Mr. Murdoch said, "I stand by my testimony." The settlement was one of his first major decisions after becoming head of News Corp.'s Europe and Asia operations in 2007. He didn't work at News Corp. at the time of the alleged hacking.
View Full Image
The two executives' statement amounts to an unusual public rebuke by long-serving allies of News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, who is the father of James. Mr. Myler edited the New York Post before returning to the U.K. to run the News of the World in 2007. Mr. Crone had made his name defending the company's racy tabloids in court.
Separately, the Justice Department is preparing subpoenas as part of preliminary investigations into News Corp. relating to alleged foreign bribery and alleged hacking of voice mail of Sept. 11 victims, according to a government official. While the company has sought to isolate the legal problems in the U.K., it has been bracing for increased scrutiny from both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with the company's strategy. Final approval to issue the subpoenas hasn't yet happened, the official said.
A person close to News Corp. said the preparation of subpoenas is "a fishing expedition with no evidence to support it."
Meantime, News Corp. and its former U.K. law firm are increasingly at odds.
As recently as last week, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch said the company had hired "the best lawyers in London" to investigate the hacking claims in 2007, providing them with "thousands of documents." Mr. Murdoch said Harbottle & Lewis LLP was hired "to inquire into the whole situation" and that "it was their major mistake in reporting that there was nothing further to worry about."
However, the law firm's inquiry was limited—not a full-blown investigation but rather a narrow inquiry related to an employment dispute—according to public evidence submitted to parliament and people familiar with the matter. It was based on a review of at least 300 emails forwarded to the law firm by two executives at News International, the media company's U.K. newspaper unit, according to the parliamentary committee evidence. The law firm's remit was limited to whether or not five staffers at the News of the World tabloid knew about one reporter's illegal hacking activities or had engaged in similar activities, according to evidence submitted by News International to a parliament committee.
![[LAWFIRM]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vqj9MjFIz_XKxNazohE6EdbA8y3hOAJgF3VluJ5Q-uBQlfzwltrAbYJiweFmudALDjxojsa6LzfzNj16qDe0ucNGaO7PtGDZUq-sOnUd8ScCfzmLG3_rnDEa66wbKuyCUlCIJqSNb61LifH7h4aQZmEA=s0-d)
The tabloid's former editor, Colin Myler.
Furthermore, the batch of emails also contained evidence of police bribery, according to a lawyer recently hired by News Corp. to review some of them. The indications of bribery weren't reported to the police until last month, according to News Corp.; it isn't clear why. The recently hired lawyer, a former U.K. prosecutor and current News Corp. adviser, Ken MacDonald, on Tuesday told a parliamentary committee that the nine or 10 emails he reviewed contained "blindingly obvious" evidence of bribes.
Lord MacDonald and other legal specialists said British lawyers generally don't have a duty to report crimes to authorities because advice to clients is privileged. But lawyers said it would be typical to alert a client if evidence of serious wrongdoing were found.
U.K. Hacking Scandal
U.S. Prepares Subpoenas for News Corp. Inquiry
More on the Claim by Former Soccer Player Gordon Taylor Against News Corp.
There is much that isn't yet known about the Harbottle inquiry. Among important unanswered questions: exactly how many emails News International turned over to Harbottle, how many people at the media company read those emails, and to what degree senior executives were made aware of their contents. It's also unclear whether Harbottle interviewed any News of the World staffers.
On Thursday, Harbottle said it couldn't discuss the details of its work because of client-confidentiality restrictions. The firm said it had asked News International to release it from those restrictions.
![[LAWFIRM]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vu6Q-psyS2Mv6ZDs18MymG2BDkCG_ZsKyPnfaxdMyGDc9Nan6emMCIbPfutr7ZGZFkeW4G2lWM-GPftB2rk7Z_pTs0gIcjS0gu8GQRl6ukHCfsBHU9lYnDV5O-n7iPsKHXkot4ZQkhPz8EESB3I8qVBQ=s0-d)
The tabloid's former lawyer, Tom Crone.
Under pressure from a parliamentary committee, News International on Wednesday partially lifted the restriction, allowing the law firm to give evidence to the committee and to police. However, a person familiar with the matter said the company hadn't authorized Harbottle to speak to the media.
News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, declined to comment.
Harbottle wasn't the only law firm News International drafted to look into phone-hacking allegations. After the scandal first erupted, in 2006, it hired another law firm, London-based BCL Burton Copeland, during a police investigation at that time following the arrest of News of the World reporter Clive Goodman for phone hacking.
In July 2009, Mr. Crone—one of the two men who on Thursday broke ranks with News Corp.—told a parliamentary committee looking into the phone hacking that the firm was "brought in to go over everything and find out what had gone on, to liaise with the police." At that time, Mr. Crone was News of the World's legal counsel.
However, the law firm's review was in fact mainly limited to examining payments to one investigator on the paper's payroll, according to 2009 parliamentary testimony. BCL Burton Copeland didn't respond to requests for comment.
Web of Connections
Learn more about who's who and how they're all connected in the scandal over allegations of voice-mail interceptions and corrupt payments to police.
View Interactive
More photos and interactive graphics
Mr. Crone, who left News International this month, declined to comment.
Mr. Myler, the other former executive to break ranks on Thursday, told the parliamentary committee in 2009 that News International's own inquiry included a review of 2,500 emails and that he spoke to executives about the matter. It isn't clear how many of those emails Harbottle received for review; News Corp. handed over 300 emails from the file to police in June.
The Harbottle assignment was born out of a legal battle with Mr. Goodman, the former reporter, who had been dismissed from the paper in 2007 after his imprisonment for hacking.
Mr. Goodman brought an internal wrongful-dismissal action against the company. During this process, Mr. Goodman alleged other employees were engaged in, or knew about, similar phone-hacking practices, a person familiar with the matter said.
In response, News International's head of legal affairs and head of human resources, Jon Chapman and Daniel Cloke, brought in Harbottle. In May 2007, Messrs. Chapman and Cloke reviewed and sent a batch of emails between Mr. Goodman and five other individuals to Harbottle, according to a document News International submitted to the parliamentary committee.
Messrs. Chapman and Cloke are no longer with the company. A lawyer for Mr. Cloke declined to comment and Mr. Chapman couldn't be reached.
In a letter dated May 29, 2007, Harbottle told News International that it "did not find anything in those emails which appeared to us to be reasonable evidence that Clive Goodman's illegal actions were known about and supported by" senior editors, or that "others were carrying out similar illegal procedures."
The company ultimately reached a private settlement with Mr. Goodman. News Corp. has told the parliamentary committee that the settlement was approved by Les Hinton, who at the time was head of News International and to whom Messrs. Chapman and Cloke reported.
In this past Tuesday's parliamentary testimony, Rupert Murdoch said his close friend and longtime aide Mr. Hinton had informed him of the Harbottle review.
Mr. Hinton resigned last week as the head of Dow Jones & Co., which is owned by News Corp. and which publishes the Journal. At the time of his resignation, Mr. Hinton said he was "ignorant of what apparently happened" at the tabloid. He didn't respond to requests for comment.
In 2009, Mr. Hinton told a parliamentary committee, "Look, I obviously did not look at those emails personally but I know that that scrutiny went on and no emails that raised any further suspicion were brought to my attention."
The Harbottle work resurfaced this year when police re-opened a criminal investigation into phone hacking. Upon discovering suggestions of bribery in the emails, Lord MacDonald, the News Corp. adviser and former prosecutor, reported his findings to News Corp.'s board, and advised giving the material to police. The company did so in late June, sparking police to launch a probe into corrupt payments.
—Bruce Orwall
and Jeanne Whalen contributed to this article.
Write to Cassell Bryan-Low at cassell.bryan-low@wsj.com, Paul Sonne at paul.sonne@wsj.com and Steve Stecklow at steve.stecklow@wsj.com
Online.wsj.com
Friday, July 22, 2011
Pale king and princes
Pale king and princes
Couple: Tamar & Stas
Camera: Hasselblad, film: 120mm color 160asa.
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naama sarid
vintage
israel
luz
light
traditional
art
photo
portrait
retrato
europa
retro
architect
israeli
drama
woman
mujer
square
old fashion
antiguo
conceptual
concept
minimalism
body
cuerpo
carrete
hasselblad
film
120mm
texture
textura
brillo
face
personal
skin
creaboom
serie
eros
venus
contemporary
cropped
cuadrado
mittelformat
nametor
2011
people
wedding
boda
bride
novia
flores
Thursday, July 21, 2011
The lakehouse..
The lakehouse..
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canon
tokina
12-24mm
stockholm
sweden
black
white
b+w
lake
sea
clouds
water
house
lakehouse, stockholm
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Through the glass
Through the glass
A few minutes after the last upload, Rachel was playing with water. I of course feared for my D7000's life so I went in and decided to shoot through our dirty glass :)
I purposefully had her slightly out-of-focus here to add more emphasis on the glass; hopefully that comes across well.
Portfolio & Blog | 500px | Facebook | Twitter | Google+
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Nikon
D7000
50mm f/1.4G
Glass
Wet
Water
Looking
Bokeh
playing with water, dirty glass, facebook, twitter, google, few minutes, amp, blog
FIORI?????SI............MARINI!!!!!!
Hitting the Snow
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
From Down There
Monday, July 18, 2011
Italy Pushes to Narrow Growth Gap With Peers
ROME—Italy is seeking to halve the gap between the pace of its economic expansion and the average growth rate of the euro zone within three years, with the help of several recently approved deregulation and tax-relief measures, a top government official said.
View Full Image
Reuters
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, left, and Minister for Public Administration Renato Brunetta in Rome.
Italy's gross domestic product grew 1.3% last year, compared with 1.8% for the euro zone as a whole, according to European statistics agency Eurostat—a gap that puts Italy some 30% behind the average. "If the new growth measures are implemented entirely, that gap will be halved," Italy's Minister for Public Administration Renato Brunetta said in an interview.
The minister said he was referring to several growth-boosting measures in a €40 billion ($57 billion) budget package approved by Parliament last week and to other measures passed in May, aimed at helping Italy's under-developedsouth, cutting red tape for real-estate developers, and streamlining accounting for businesses.
Financial markets have recently homed in on Italy's anemic growth amid worries over the country's large debt, which is 120% of GDP. To try to quell market panic, the Parliament on Friday quickly approved measures aimed at balancing the country's budget by 2014 and encouraging long-term growth.
Italy faces an uphill battle as it tries to raise its growth rate, however. Like Germany, Italy's growth is driven mainly by exports, which made up about a quarter of its GDP in 2010.
Many of the goods Italy produces for export, however, are in low-tech sectors such as textiles, chemicals and machinery, where Italy faces fierce competition from emerging economies like China. As a result, Italy's output has lagged far behind Germany's. In May, Italy's industrial output rose 1.8% compared to the same period last year. Germany, meanwhile, clocked a rise of 7.5% in industrial production for the same period year-on-year.
Italy is also saddled with an aging work force and a new generation of workers struggling to gain a foothold. In the first quarter of 2011, nearly one in three Italians between the ages of 15 and 24 was without a job.
Italy's efforts to rein in public spending could also hinder consumption and growth. Public-sector wages accounted for more than 10% of Italy's GDP in 2004 to 2008, according to the European Central Bank.
![[ITALY]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vRor9wA-q-qOY2TE82y5udVH-XN-cvJ_tLkkXEEVNcxp9x562ZtxPSLEJxt0u2DBDwo31ekR783zQkFj-wH82u_kQ0pZ4qo5hpaDmN1DCiEQsfG9A4CL1cuRNxLgjwWAb4RGGcH6SOdr2HL5p7sY_UrWs=s0-d)
As public administration minister, Mr. Brunetta, a labor economist, is in charge of squeezing more productivity out of a public-sector work force that accounts for about 20% of Italy's payroll employment. So far, the minister has raised hackles among public-sector workers by introducing measures aimed at boosting accountability, posting their salaries on the Internet and cracking down on absenteeism.
The minister has been branded a scourge by Italy's public workers—a label he largely embraces. "We have a series of structural gaps that are causing our slow growth," Mr. Brunetta said, citing public-sector inefficiency, tax evasion and a lack of infrastructure as key sources of economic weakness.
Mr. Brunetta, who has served in the conservative government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi since its inception in 2008, said Friday's passage of budget measures is a "watershed moment" that should prompt the government to shift gears from belt-tightening to the deeper, underlying problem of low growth.
"The government needs a re-launch," he said. "We now need growth reforms in the justice system, in financial and labor markets, in energy policy."
Many economists say one of the biggest obstacles to growth in Italy is the national system of labor contracts and a collective bargaining system that forces many of Italy's biggest companies to hire people under cushy open-ended contracts that aren't tied to productivity. A decade ago, Rome introduced temporary employment contracts, but the majority of the work force is still on open-ended contracts.
Mr. Brunetta conceded the result has been a system of insiders, or older workers who never have to worry about job security, and "an excess of [job] insecurity that is dumped on the outsiders, mainly the young." But he said it would be difficult—politically and socially—to overhaul the system anytime soon.
—Alessandra Galloni contributed to this article.
Write to Stacy Meichtry at stacy.meichtry@wsj.com
prime minister silvio berlusconi, renato brunetta, silvio berlusconi, european statistics, budget package, rome italy, market panic, real estate developers, statistics agency, s industrial, prime minister silvio, emerging economies, eurostat, euro zone, economic expansion, government official, uphill battle, gross domestic product, red tape ebook download, deregulation
NYPD
NYPD
New York Police Department car at Times Square
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York
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America
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Police
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car
Times
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EOS
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Dacora Dignette
Dacora Dignette
© - a 35mm camera, produced by Dangelmaier, reutlingen between 1963 and 1969 for film type 135.
see it all / on DARCKR / alles sehen
(1138) Dacora Dignette - eine Kleinbildkamera, hergestellt von Dangelmaier, Reutlingen zwischen 1963 und 1969 fr Kleinbildfilm Typ 135.
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alt
old
lter
older
elder
Kamera
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collection
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photograph
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berwachung
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film type, reutlingen, fr
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Co-Worker Conundrum: The Office Bambi
By a show of hands, who has seen the How I Met Your Motherepisode where Ted dates someone they refer to as “Oh honey”? I like to call her and those like her “Bambi”. This woman believes absolutely everything that people tell her, she never assumes the worst and sarcasm completely escapes her. She makes The Little Mermaid’s Arielle seem like a world-weary cynic. Bambi is the epitome of the word naive.
It seems sweet to think about a person who believes intrinsically and trusts completely. Its sweet until you need them to operate in the real world. People like Bambi belong in fairytales. Its the only place where they aren’t chewed up and spit out by society. They do not belong in a business, specifically not one where I’m working. Because Bambi is so kind and so helpless and so intensely frustrating.
Most people assume that Bambi has to be female. That’s completely false. Blissful ignorance is not a female attribute. For men, they’re just normally seen as idiotic, instead of endearing. Maybe I’ve been hardened by life, all-women’s colleges can be tough. Maybe I’ve lost all my sympathy and compassion. I know that I should want to protect the Bambis of the world. But all I want to do is kick them out on their butt and tell them to grow up a little. You can’t walk through life in a fog of pretty flowers and bubblegum. At least not without stepping in some s--- along the way. And ya know what Bambi, no one is going to clean your shoes for you. Really, the only upside I see to extreme naivet is that they aren’t competition for a promotion and they often bring in treats for the entire office.
How should you deal with a co-worker who truly believes that the client who hasn’t paid their bills in six months put a check in the mail last week and it must have gotten lost?
Patience, patience, patience. Bambi is a timid creature. If you start to get too demanding, they could completely shut down to avoid confrontation. You have to control the eye-rolling and remove that sharpness from your voice. Give them time to adjust to the situation.
Stay positive. Do you remember that kid in t-ball who just cried every time the coach yelled at him? You’re dealing with that kid. Negativity will get you no where. So try to look at the bright side and communicate things in an optimistic manner.
Explain your reasoning. If you present your needs in a way that Bambi understands, they are more likely to want to help you. Talk about why you guys need to finish the project this week or how their actions are effecting you.
And how do you manage an employee who might actually cry every time you give them a critique?
Lay out the consequences up front. Bambi needs clear cut directions and consequences. They need to know that they could lose an account if they don’t complete something on time. As a manager, you have to prepare them for the worst, because Bambi is incapable of doing it themselves.
Control the bleeding heart. It’s hard to dislike a Bambi. They’re sweet and kind. They smile a lot. So many times, as a manager, you want to protect this employee from the cruel facts of life. But you can’t and that’s not your job. You can give them the tools that they need to succeed.
You can reach this post's author, Lindsay Cross, on twitter or via e-mail at LindsayACross@gmail.com.
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timid creature, little mermaid, pretty flowers, blissful ignorance, bambis, show of hands, bambi, epitome, co worker, bubblegum, sarcasm, confrontation, compassion, patience, attribute, fog, butt, real world, six months, nbsp
Friday, July 15, 2011
Stony Brooke State Park
Stony Brooke State Park
Tags
Stony Brooke
State Park
NY
New York
waterfall
falls
fall
creek
stream
river
water
outdoors
hiking
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Coccinella septempunctata - Coccinelle sept points - Ladybird or Ladybug - 14/07/11
Coccinella septempunctata - coccinelle sept points - Ladybird or Ladybug - 14/07/11
Coccinella septempunctata - Coccinelle sept points - Ladybird or Ladybug - FRANCE - Bretagne
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Coccinella septempunctata
Ladybird
Ladybug
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coccinella septempunctata, coccinelle, ladybird, ladybug
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Minnesota Shutdown Hits Happy Hour
MINNEAPOLIS—State parks, horse-racing tracks and the state Capitol are all closed because of the government shutdown here. If the budget standoff lingers, the neighborhood watering hole could be next.
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Leah Millis/ Star Tribune
Ari Mlnarik serves a customer Tuesday at the Ugly Mug, a Minneapolis bar that can't buy more alcohol.
More than 300 bars and liquor stores can't buy beer, wine or liquor to sell to consumers because their $20 alcohol-purchasing licenses, known as buyer's cards, have expired, a casualty of the July 1 shutdown. For some proprietors, inventories are dwindling and anger is rising.
"This is beyond the realm of anything I ever thought in my wildest dreams," said Trevor Berg, a liquor-store owner in Walker, Minn. With his annual buyer's card expiring Sunday, he is borrowing cash from friends to buy as much beer and wine as he can get his hands on now.
Meanwhile, state officials told MillerCoors LLC, the second-largest beer maker in the U.S. behind Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, that it must remove all 39 brands of its beer from shelves statewide because its $1,170 brand-label registration fee wasn't processed before the shutdown. The brewer says it is trying to negotiate a resolution with state authorities.
Minnesota's government screeched to a halt after Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican lawmakers failed to close a projected $5 billion funding gap in the state's coming two-year budget.
Retailers cannot renew their buyer's cards during the shutdown, said Doug Neville, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. The cards—licenses to buy from a wholesaler beverages that have more than 3.2% alcohol—already have expired for more than 300 businesses, and if the shutdown reaches Aug. 1, that number will rise to 424, he said.
Minnesota Booze
Bars and other alcohol retailers: approximately 10,000
Barrels of beer sold in 2010: 3.5 million
Per-capita beer consumption (ages 21 and older): 28.7 gallons a year (national average: 29)
Biggest beer suppliers: Anheuser-Busch InBev (45% of market); MillerCoors (36%)
Sources: The cities, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Beer Institute, Beer Marketer's Insights newsletter
Municipalities and counties are also unable to grant or renew liquor licenses without information from furloughed state employees, Mr. Neville said.
Enforcement of the alcohol sales laws continues, he said.
Erik Forsberg, owner of the Ugly Mug bar in Minneapolis, paid his fee last month and has a stamped receipt to prove it.
But when the government shut down, it stopped sending out cards in the mail. Mr. Forsberg normally purchases alcohol weekly for the bar, which has 21 craft beers on tap and is near Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins baseball team.
At a court hearing Tuesday on shutdown issues, an attorney for Mr. Dayton suggested bars purchase a low-alcohol beer— "3.2 beer"—sold in Minnesota and a few other states. It doesn't require a buyer's card.
But Mr. Forsberg said his customers don't want that product, and even if they did, distributors don't stock enough. If the shutdown drags on, he will start to run out of some beers and may have to lay off some of his 25 employees, he said. "It's not about drinking," he said. "It's about jobs and tax revenue."
One of Mr. Forsberg's regular customers, Richard Martenson, blasted the governor and state lawmakers as he ate a steak-and-eggs lunch Wednesday. "For political purposes, they're destroying a lot of businesses and a lot of lives, just to make a point," said Mr. Martenson, a 62-year-old software engineer.
In Walker, a town of 900 about 190 miles north of Minneapolis, Mr. Berg has borrowed a delivery van to make a big purchase of Busch Light, Coors Light and other beverages before his buyer's card expires Sunday. But he said he would have to close Hoss' All American Liquor as soon as mid-August if the government shutdown continues and he can't buy new inventory.
"At this point, we have to buck up and buy as much as we can," said Mr. Berg, who lives at his store to keep costs down.
Liquor store owner Dennis Pursley has a different problem: "I can buy the stuff, but I can't sell it."
Months ago, he sent in paperwork on time to renew his city-issued liquor license, but when St. Cloud, Minn., officials sent his application to the state for certification, it never returned.
For 13 days, he has kept his store open to sell cigarettes and soda, but has turned away hundreds seeking booze, he said. He estimates he has lost $10,000 to $15,000 in sales.
"I can handle a few more weeks but after that I either gotta open up illegally, which I don't want to do, or I just gotta shut her down," Mr. Pursley said.
MillerCoors, a joint venture of SABMiller PLC and Molson Coors Brewing Co. that controls nearly 30% of all beer sales in the U.S., sent $1,380 to renew its brands before a June 13 deadline. But the state said that was $210 too much and sent it back. MillerCoors sent the proper amount—$1,170, or $30 per brand—and it was received June 27. Although the shutdown didn't begin for another four days, the MillerCoors application "didn't arrive in time to be processed," said Mr. Neville, the state Department of Public Safety spokesman.
Now the company's products "need to be" removed from shelves, Mr. Neville said, but the state isn't sure how.
MillerCoors spokesman Julian Green said Wednesday: "As of today, we are selling beer in the state. We're working with the state to hopefully bring this to resolution."
—Melissa Korn contributed to this article.
liquor store owner, republican lawmakers, anheuser busch, label registration, beer consumption, liquor stores, department of public safety, walker minn, democratic gov, state authorities, beer maker, wildest dreams, government shutdown, mark dayton, beer wine, inbev, ugly mug, millis, watering hole, proprietors
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Item in the Discovering Rastafari Exhibit at the Smithsonian
Item in the Discovering Rastafari Exhibit at the smithsonian
Item in the Discovering Rastafari Exhibit at the Smithsonian.
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joanna8555
@shebbalone
thejabproj3ct
Washington
DC
Washington DC
trip
spring
vacation
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Smithsonian
museum
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Natural History Museum
awesome
Rastafari
Rasta
Discovering Rastafari
rastafari, smithsonian
Captain John Paulson Lectures at STEM Session
Captain John Paulson Lectures at STEM Session
We are very lucky to have Captain John Paulson, USN (Ret) leading our STEM sessions. Captain Paulson is a former submariner, who recently retired as a high school teacher.
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Naval Historical Foundation
Cold War Gallery
United States Navy
US
Navy
Museum
Washington Navy Yard
Covert Submarine Operations Exhibit
nuclear
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boomer
sub
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The
National Museum of the United States Navy
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captain paulson, john paulson ebook download, high school teacher, submarine operations, captain john, submariner, usn, navy, sessions
Monday, July 11, 2011
Golden Sun Feeds sign
Golden Sun Feeds sign
Interesting sign on the side of a thrift store in Tacoma, Washington
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Golden
Sun
Feeds
sign
thrift
store
tacoma
washington
old
vintage
antiques
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pacific
northwest
puget
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image
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United
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golden sun, thrift store
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Day 190/365
Day 190/365
My husband and I went to Leland, MI for the weekend on the motorcycle. It was a wonderful, romantic time away from reality! I love it Up North in Michigan! This was one of the pictures I took near time of sunset in Leland.
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365
landscape
boathouse
boat
water
reflection
trees
leland mi, romantic time, motorcycle, sunset
Saturday, July 9, 2011
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