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Some people find a mental break stimulating to the creative process, and there are plenty of new dads who work from home and let the flowcharts they are working on go to screen save for a couple of minutes while they change a nappy.
But for those who yearn to eliminate distractions an arrangement can be made for them to shut themselves away. A friend of mine says ‘goodbye’ to his family at 9am each morning and then shuts himself in an upstairs room for the rest of the day.
For the employer the savings are considerable - even if an employee only works from home a proportion of the time.
The cost of employing someone isn't just their salary but providing them with the office space for their desk. If a desk can be shared through ‘hot desking’ between two members of staff this saves money - in the Royal Navy the equivalent is hot bunking.
Big companies find that they need to be more flexible to retain talented staff who might otherwise contemplate quitting the ‘rat race’ to become self employed.
Bankers Morgan Stanley and accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers are among those who allow a majority of their staff to sometimes work from home - and surveys have shown greater satisfaction and motivation from those working partly from home.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson is among those welcoming the trend. ‘I have to say that I think home working is an important thing to encourage,’ he says. ‘I think particularly when we are looking at the transport movements around London and the huge flows - T S Eliot described the crowds flowing over London Bridge, "Each man fixed his eyes before his feet' - or whatever it was - 'Flowed up the hill and down King William Street."
The mayor does have a point. There is a buzz about a busy working environment and a camaraderie about bouncing off ideas with the chap at the next desk. But is that really needed five days a week?
Some exponents of hard work will always be suspicious that letting people out of the office is an opportunity for shirkers. They still believe that the key measure of a productive worker is someone in work by 9am and no sloping off before 5pm.
Of course, for many jobs such time keeping is essential. Yet for many others a psychological shift is needed.
The measure is not the hours put in but the output achieved. The work of Roger Mills should be judged on its merits - not its location. Rather than set detectives on him he is showing us the way of the future.
CHAMPIONSHIP side QPR have announced their ludicrous financial report which will make your eyes water.
Harry Redknapp's side have been revealed as the biggest losers in English football with annual figures disclosing a wage bill higher than Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund and bigger losses than Manchester City.
QPR lost £65.4million last season, when the club was relegated from the Premier League, while their debt almost doubled to £177million.
No other club in English football lost more money last season - City reported losses of £51million and Chelsea of £49.4million. But while both the top-flight clubs have had impressive increases in turnover, QPR's fell to a meagre £60.6million.
That turnover does not even cover their wage bill, which rose from £58.4million in 2011/12 to £78million last season. By comparison, Dortmund's salary bill totalled around £60million.
If QPR are not promoted back to the Premier League then they are likely to face a huge fine under Football League financial fair play rules. These have a tariff of fines depending on losses: a similar loss next season would incur a £47million fine, though spending on stadium or youth development can be written off, lessening the fine.
The shocking state of QPR's finances were revealed by latest figures were disclosed in annual figures posted by QPR's holding company at Companies House.
Football League sources confirmed it would look at the holding company's accounts.
QPR continue to be bailed out by their owners. Loans from the club's owners totalling £72.7million plus a £15million short-term bank loan of £15million were taken out last year, which saw the club's debts spiral to £177million from £91million in the space of 12 months.
Even if the club wins promotion back to the Premier League, they will also be subjected to new FFP rules in the top flight.
QPR chairman Tony Fernandes said in a statement in the accounts: "Clearly in 2012-13 the club did not meet its performance targets and was relegated from the Premier League.
"A critical driver of any club's value is its presence in the Premier League, and the club is focused on regaining its Premier League status as quickly as possible.
"The financial results reflect the club's focus on trying to achieve on-pitch success.
"Being relegated was obviously not part of our plans, but our focus and determination to achieve our long-term goals has not diminished.
"During the summer 2013 transfer window we have worked to put together a squad of players we believe will give us a good chance of achieving promotion back to the Premier League."
J_une 6_ Sea bream I lay out on platter goes bad before I am inspired. Robert says I should use frozen fish. Robert does not understand Painter’s Block. He is not an artist.
On wearing glasses while painting: Is this cheating?
Father’s clients give him V.I.P. tickets to moma opening and he gives them to me. I refuse to go on principle. Art is for the masses. Also: massage at 8:30. Robert goes anyway.
Fish man at Citarella says sea bream is no longer in season but halibut is nice.
query: Goya painted sea bream (“Still-Life with Golden Bream”). Is it still considered an homage if I use halibut?
Father says I should think about paying off my business-school loan, but I am not of the “for-profit” world anymore.
Robert says he found moma exhibit so moving he wants to become an artist on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when he doesn’t teach physical therapy. He is thinking of making Staple Art—in other words, stapling staples onto a piece of paper, canvas, or even fabric to create an image. Robert says the possibilities are probably endless, since he is pretty sure they make staples in many sizes.
query: Does a still-life cease to be when it moves?
Robert says he came up with the idea of Staple Art when he saw the way Matisse’s shapes stood out against the background in his papiers découpés. I explain to Robert that he is talking about “figure and ground” and we have a lively intellectual debate. How exciting to toss around ideas about theory and praxis with a fellow-artist!
query: Robert had a nose job in high school. Is it “true” to paint him with a fixed nose?
Mother says she believes in my art but maybe I should work as a ratings analyst with Uncle Hank at the We Channel. She says many artists do other things. Jeff Koons traded cotton on the commodities exchange.
I have not painted for three months and five days. They say the creative process always goes on, so it looks like I am getting some work done after all.
Robert says that living alone has been a positive influence on his work.
query: Can you have a “vision” if your eyes are closed?
Ran into Robert in front of “Vétheuil in Winter” at the Frick. He feels Monet is too painterly. Isn’t that the point?
Gustave Courbet was painting a seascape when a solar eclipse darkened the sky. Though he knew that staying outdoors put him at risk of blindness, he kept painting because artistic instinct murmured to him that the cloud wafting overhead was extraordinary and he wanted to capture it on canvas. I hope I will be just as brave if I am ever confronted with anything like that.
Reach goal of three paintings a day.
Get Guggenheim Fellowship to study light in Paris.
Find out how to remove oil paint from Balenciaga cargo pants.
Robert wins the New Artist Competition at the National Academy of Design. The museum will exhibit his piece “Doomed Trout.” His technique shows strong development—he used fishhooks instead of staples.
Mother says she will pay me to do a painting of the family for Father’s birthday, but I am not into the concept of the portrait. Besides, I cannot paint a subject that does not interest me.
A confession: I would like to achieve immortality through my art, but I want to know it before I die.
Barneys commissions three pieces of Staple Art from Robert to hang in Housewares. How will Robert’s commercial success affect our relationship? Are the Artist and the Artisan viable as a couple?
Robert says he never loved me. Is he jealous of my art? Or my integrity? He says I should take the job at the We Channel. I tell him he can still store some of his stuff here.
I may have developed a technique for painting using only water, no paint. It is a simple idea, but aren’t those the best?
St. Louis, MO: American Indian College (AIC), the nation’s only Christian college with multiple majors serving primarily Native American students, has selected Three Rivers Systems’ CAMS Cloud as its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, AIC prepares students for service throughout North American and other parts of the world through spiritual, intellectual, social and physical growth. AIC chose CAMS Cloud based on its desire to upgrade to a robust, comprehensive system that could be quickly deployed and easily maintained.
Three Rivers Systems, Inc. is the only privately-held, independent provider of ERP software focused solely on higher education. Its ERP solution, CAMS Enterprise, liberates colleges and universities from the administrative labyrinth of complicated software systems. It is an easy-to-use, totally integrated academic management system with everything in one place to manage the entire student lifecycle – admissions, registration, billing, financial aid, student services, fundraising, and fiscal management with HR and payroll. The company has focused on innovation and service to its worldwide customers for more than 25 years from its St. Louis headquarters.
The occasion was PeaceGame 2104: a “scenario-based, multi-media” approach to developing “new ideas for coping and defusing extremism worldwide” organized last Friday by Foreign Policy magazine in partnership with the USIP and funded by the United Arab Emirates.
David Rothkopf, Foreign Policy’s CEO and editor, facilitated the daylong session, asking probing questions, offering incisive comments and injecting humor. The topic: “Peacemaking in an era of violent extremism” with a focus on Nigeria where the war being waged by Boko Haram has claimed more than 10,000 lives over the past 12 months alone.
The participants — I among them — were given roles to play. Suppose you’re a senior government official, a diplomat, a business executive, a journalist — even a terrorist. Now suppose X happens. What do you do in response? Then what?
Everyone was smart, educated and cosmopolitan. Almost everyone said sensible things. But almost no one questioned the conventional wisdom, the prevailing and “politically correct” memes, the foundations upon which America’s foreign policies are being constructed. So let me do a little questioning now.
Yes, Boko Haram is a “violent extremist” group. But no, the fact that its fighters proclaim they are waging a “jihad” against “infidels” is not insignificant. It means Boko Haram is a part of a larger movement — one that also includes, for starters, al-Shabab in Somalia, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Back in the late 1970s, I spent some time reporting on Northern Ireland’s sectarian strife. Both Catholics and Protestants had compelling stories to tell and forceful arguments to make. By contrast, Boko Haram’s campaign to force Nigerian Christians and moderate Muslims to submit to its authority — a campaign that has included kidnapping and enslaving hundreds of Christian schoolgirls — is beyond the pale. Far beyond.
Also: In Ireland, there were always Protestants and Catholics eager to end the strife and willing to make concessions to achieve that goal. Does anyone think there is a single member of Boko Haram, al-Shabab, AQIM or the Islamic State about whom the same can be said?
A few years later, I was a New York Times correspondent in Africa. I encountered no violent extremists among the Muslims of Nigeria — or anywhere else in West Africa. Have Saudi and Iranian policies been responsible for radicalizing the region over recent decades? This, too, was a topic that most of my colleagues preferred to avoid.
Instead, we discussed such “drivers of violent extremism” as poverty, unemployment, social injustice, corruption and paucity of government services. Left unmentioned was the fact that those same drivers have produced no terrorist groups akin to Boko Haram in Nigeria’s mostly Christian and animist south.
Nor is it conceivable that such “drivers” are motivating young Muslims from Sweden, France and Minnesota to join al-Shabab and the Islamic State. Evidence suggests these volunteers believe they are embarking on a noble mission: the founding of a 21st century caliphate that will restore to Muslims the power and glory they enjoyed in antiquity. That these would-be empire builders may be provided with slave women and money, license to cut the throats of unbelievers, and a promise of heavenly rewards should they be “martyred” in battle may be contributing factors as well.
Discussing such matters is not comfortable. Those who do so risk being denounced as Islamophobic. But as Dubai-based analyst Taufiq Rahim pointed out, anyone living in the Middle East is well acquainted with such concepts as “Islamism” and “jihadism” — and they know where these ideologies lead.
The PeaceGame demonstrated — at least to me — that even the most distinguished members of the foreign policy community have yet to formulate coherent responses to the 21st century’s most threatening expressions of violent extremism. The strategies suggested — e.g. more economic development projects, more education projects, more civil society projects, more attempts to battle corruption — are not likely to cut the mustard.
But achieving security is no mean feat either. True, French troops took back Mali last year after jihadists overran Timbuktu, destroying the mosques and shrines of moderate African Muslims. True as well: French troops remain in Mali and will need to stay for a long time. Mali’s military is not yet ready to handle the situation.
Nor are Nigeria’s armed forces making headway against Boko Haram. Who expects the U.K., the United States or NATO to provide more than token assistance?
According to former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Michael Flynn, there are now 41 “Islamic terrorist groups spread out in 24 countries.” Formulating a plan to neutralize them will require, as Mr. Rahim pointed out, not just strengthening immune systems but also accurately diagnosing the disease.
And that, I would argue, will require less “political correctness” and more conceptual precision and candor; a recognition that conventional wisdom is often very conventional but not at all wise.
• Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for The Washington Times.
Shares of electric car maker Tesla Inc. fell more than 6 percent early Friday after the CEO appeared to smoke marijuana during an interview and the company’s accounting chief left after a month on the job.CEO Elon Musk appeared on “The Joe Rogan Experience” overnight. About two hours into the podcast, which can be seen on YouTube, Musk inhales from what the host says is a combined marijuana-tobacco joint, which Rogan notes is legal. Rogan passes the joint to Musk, who also takes a sip of whiskey.
Shortly after smoking, Musk looks at his phone and laughs, telling Rogan he was getting texts from friends asking why he was smoking weed during the interview. Later Musk says he doesn’t notice any effect from the joint, which he claims he rarely smokes.
As the video gained traction, more news hit: Early Friday, the Palo Alto, California, company announced that Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton resigned after a month on the job, citing public attention and the fast pace of the post.
The company disclosed the departure in a regulatory filing.
“Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations,” the company quoted Morton as saying in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla’s leadership or its financial reporting,” Morton was quoted as saying.
Tesla is under extreme pressure to turn a sustained net profit starting this quarter, as promised by Musk. But in the second quarter it burned through $739.5 million in cash and lost a quarterly record $717.5 million.
Musk has said the company is producing more than 5,000 Model 3 electric cars per week, and cash generated from the sales will bring sustained quarterly profits. The Model 3 starts at $35,000, although the cheapest one that can be purchased at present costs $49,000.
Moody’s Investor Service downgraded Tesla’s debt into junk territory back in March, warning that Tesla won’t have cash to cover $3.7 billion for normal operations, capital expenses and debt that comes due early next year. Tesla said cash from Model 3 sales will pay the bills and drive profits.
The company said its accounting functions will be overseen by the chief financial officer and corporate controller. Morton’s resignation is effective immediately.
Four years ago, Karly Kirkpatrick of Elgin created the Elgin Literary Festival as an alternative to Chicago writers' conferences.
"I was a local writer and I was finding that there was not a lot of writers' conferences in the area," she said. "Writers usually do it for love and not money, and they put out money for conferences and it can be cost prohibitive."
Details: Cash bar at Friday night performances (7 and 8:30 p.m.). On Saturday, Blue Box Café will offer lunch items and there will be books for sale from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Search "Elgin Literary Festival" on Facebook.
The fourth annual festival, which is free, takes place Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25-26, at the Hemmens in downtown Elgin. Featuring a variety of speakers and workshops, ELF is a place for book lovers and writers -- as well as would-be writers -- to come together, celebrate and explore the written word.
Last year saw 400-500 people wandering through the offerings, and the lack of an entrance fee is partially responsible.
"It grows a little every year," said Amanda Harris of St. Charles, cultural arts manager for the city of Elgin.
"The thing that's notable is that people come from as far away as about an hour and a half to attend. They attend both days. They don't just come and go."
A diverse group of authors and speakers are expected, Harris said, as well as "a ton" of local authors.
"There's a lot of different perspectives, it's not just one genre or ideology," said Elizabeth Melvin of Elgin, a presenter at the event. "There are history writers and local writers and visiting writers and readers."
"We have a very broad offering this year," Kirkpatrick said. "I'm very excited about the great things that will really excite a lot of people."
"You can meet local authors and support them," said Melvin, who, along with her literary group, which publishes a literary magazine called Neologian, will offer a presentation titled "Writing Abroad and Reading Across Borders."
"It's about getting off the New Best-sellers list and helps you find what they are reading in England or Pakistan and broadening your horizons that way," she said.
There will be nearly 30 local authors exhibiting their books and 16 presentations with such diverse subject matter as "Carving Out Time to Write in This Crazy and Chaotic World," hosted by Gregory Thompson and Lea Grover, and "Candid Conversations About Race and Equity" by featured speaker and author Traci D. Ellis.
Ellis is one of four featured speakers -- the others are Justina Ireland, Jim McDoniel and Jenn Sommersby.
Two groups will perform on Friday. At 7 p.m., Goodly Creatures, a theater ensemble with a cast of eight, will perform Shakespeare's sonnets, updating them for 21st century audiences. Leaving the language intact, the ensemble will present 12 sonnets within a story of three couples.
Following at 8:30 p.m. will be "The Question is the Answer: A Live Poetry Event." The open poetry readings have become a must-see for those that attend every year.
"The Friday night live poetry reading is the best snapshot of Elgin at an event I have ever seen. We can't nail down why," Harris said. "There is every type of person present in that room, and they're all so supportive and they're all there to share their art. And people come to listen because they know they're going to get that quality there."
The atmosphere is more welcoming than one might expect from a literary-based event, according to Melvin.
"It's so accessible in a comfortable environment," she said.
"Sometimes when people hear 'literary festival,' they think they're going to go to a conference type thing, and that's not what this is," Melvin said. "This is an event where people who are readers and people who are writers can come together and learn something."
Sailfish Circle in Carter's Mill Estates has been the scene of a flurry of police activity over the past week that led to one arrest and an arrest warrant being issued on another individual stemming from one of the incidents.