Thanks

“George was my boss,”says Tom Schieffer,who served as president of the Texas Rangers under Bush between 1991and 1995.”But he never made me feel that way.He went out of his way to treat me as a partner,not a subordinate.”That’s one trait that might be of concern,says Michael Useem,director of the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change at the University of Pennsylvania.It’s important for subordinates to feel part of the team,but not just because the boss craves popularity.Just as in the military,it must be understood who is in charge when the final order is given.Bush’s critics say his success has more to do with his family name than his business expertise,that his oil company was bailed out by a timely acquisition and that he leveraged his influence to get a new baseball stadium compliments of taxpayers.His defenders say his leadership skill is real.”I’ve been in business with a lot of Harvard MBAs,”says Texas billionaire Richard Rainwater,a key investor among the 70who put up $86million in the 1989acquisition of the Texas Rangers baseball team.One of the 70was Bush,who borrowed $600,000for a stake that he sold nine years later for $14.9million.

A final point is that some ways of being open are more helpful than others. When you’re angry for instance there’s a difference between throwing a book across the room and talking out your feelings. Both are certainly ways of being open about the anger. However, if other people are with you, talking to them about your anger is probably easier for them than ducking from a book you just threw. It might also be more helpful. Remember also, that the extent to which others are open with you will depend on how open you are with them. Many people find that most of the relationships that they’re involved in become much more important to them the more they to be more open in them. When we stay open to learning, new experiences open up for us. Perhaps the same can happen for you.

A final point is that some ways of being open are more helpful than others. When you’re angry for instance there’s a difference between throwing a book across the room and talking out your feelings. Both are certainly ways of being open about the anger. However, if other people are with you, talking to them about your anger is probably easier for them than ducking from a book you just threw. It might also be more helpful. Remember also, that the extent to which others are open with you will depend on how open you are with them. Many people find that most of the relationships that they’re involved in become much more important to them the more they to be more open in them. When we stay open to learning, new experiences open up for us. Perhaps the same can happen for you.

There are probably more risks attached to sharing that. Probably most important is an immediate here and now honesty that goes along with being open. For instance, sometimes when I resent someone I smile and pretend I’m happy. Well it might be more honest and open for me at that time when I’m right there with that person to share my resentment openly. And that way the situation and my feelings can be changed. Another example is being bored but expressing it. Telling someone that you’re bored is risky, but it takes courage to say, “I’m bored, why don’t we do such and such?”, or “let’s change topics.” For me, declaring your boredom or resentments also means I’m responsible for suggesting alternatives to change my mood. You have the power to change things by being open and sharing things. Keep in mind also that being completely open with everyone in every situation may be very inappropriate. You may want to be more open with your spouse or close friends, but not with your boss or people you don’t know as well.

On the Saturday of the shower, Lawson did all the party decorating, then prepared dinner for 35 guests. Her co-host did not arrive from her office until shortly before the event. Later her friend complained about the cost.Lawson was furious. But deep down, she did not want to break off ties. The two women were in a book club together, had many common friends and enjoyed dinners out together with their husbands. Instead, Lawson decided to remain friends–but not close friends.”Friendships change as our needs and lifestyles change,” Wilmot observes. “It’s healthy to have a host of friends and to sometimes shift the status of one or another.”Making friends can sometimes seem easy, says Yager. The hard part is keeping the connections strong during the natural ups and downs that affect all relationships. Her suggestion: Consider friendship an honor and a gift, and worth the effort to treasure and nurture.

“A well-established friendship carries a long history of experience and interaction that defines who we are and keeps us connected,” says Donald Pannen, executive officer of the Western Psychological Association. “It is a heritage we should protect.”Ironically, says Brant R. Burleson, professor of communication at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., “the better friends you are, the more likely you’ll face conflicts.” And the outcome can be precisely what you don’t want–an end to the relationship.The good news is that most troubled friendships can be mended. Here’s what experts suggest:Swallow your pride. It wasn’t easy, but that’s what Denise Moreland of Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii did when a friendship turned sour. For nearly four months, Moreland, 45, had watched over Nora Huizenga’s two young daughters, who were living with their father on the base, while Huizenga, 40, completed training as a dental hygienist in Nevada. “I felt honored to be asked to step in,” Moreland says.When Huizenga returned at Christmas, Moreland recalls, “I had so much to tell her, but she never called.” One daughter had a birthday party, but Moreland wasn’t invited. “I felt like I’d been used,” she says.

In a scheme that smacks of carrying coal to Newcastle, scientists have proposed importing sharks to Australia’s east coast – causing consternation among tourism and beach safety authorities. Researchers say grey nurse sharks are critically endangered in waters off New South Wales and Queensland and have suggested relocating some specimens from Western Australia, or Africa, to boost the gene pool. Biologists from Macquarie University in Sydney insist that grey nurse sharks, while terrifyingly toothy in appearance, are mild creatures which will bite humans only if provoked. owever, organisations charged with protecting swimmers and surfers are unenthusiastic about having more predators in the water. “Basically they are big fish with big teeth and they scare people,” said Sean O’Connell, of Surf Life Saving Australia, the nation’s principal water safety and rescue authority. “They don’t have very big brains and they could quite easily take a bite a t someone thinking they were a fish.”

A new survey of eastern Antarctica has revealed a surprising find: two lakes buried beneath a 4-kilometer-thick ice sheet that rival the famous Lake Vostok in size. The lakes may hold exotic life, and their position along ancient fault lines could shed light on how a nearby mountain range formed. Earth scientists have so far spied about 145 subglacial lakes in Antarctica. Sandwiched between the ice above and bedrock below, the lakes stay liquid due to a combination of geothermal heat and the crushing pressure of the ice sheet. Lake Vostok, by far the largest of these lakes, is well-mapped, and a Russian team is now drilling through its ice cap in hopes of finding life inside. But scientists know little about most of the region’s lakes, spotted only from sparse radar surveys.

Oil seeping from the seafloor may have contributed to climate change long before the internal combustion engine did. The petroleum deposits are rich in the powerful greenhouse gas methane, which, according to a new study, may have played a major role in two previous episodes of global warming. Bedrock below the ocean bottom keeps a lid on oil reservoirs, but it’s not an impermeable cap. Small cracks allow petroleum and methane to bubble to the surface. Once there, the petroleum oxidizes and turns to tar, which sinks. Meanwhile, the methane drifts into the atmosphere, where it makes up about 15% of the total amount of the gas sent skyward by natural sources such as wetlands and melting tundra. Humans contribute slightly more than all natural sources combined.

Her spokesman, Sean McCormack, has sadly had to bring the game to an end. “She thinks football is the greatest sport on earth but even if she were approached for the job — which she has not been — she would have to decline. She still has many things she wants to accomplish as Secretary of State,” a job which she was enjoying “at the moment”.
The qualifier tagged on to his statement will be familiar to those who have heard a similar formulation of words used to describe her lack of interest in running for president in 2008.Although she has never been elected to any office, she is enormously popular among voters and there is a growing “draft Condi” movement, which believes Ms Rice may be needed to stop Hillary Clinton taking over the White House. George Bush, the 43rd President, is even said to have nicknamed her “44”. But Dr Rice would have to overcome two taboos to become the first female — an unmarried one at that — and the first black president. It is more likely she will be asked to join someone else’s ticket as vice-presidential candidate.In the meantime, she is keeping her options open by softening her public image by discussing her love of sport and R&B music, rather than the policy papers and concert piano with which she has more usually been associated.She has also made an appearances in a fitness video and turned up at football games, sometimes escorted by Gene Washington, a former National Football League star.