European Financial Reporting Adapting to a Changing World

Book Description

European Financial Reporting analyzes the revolution that is currently taking place in the financial reporting of the major European companies, following the European Union's decision that from they must present their accounts according to the IASB's standards. The book covers both the theory of financial reporting and its practice at both national and international level. It covers the very latest developments in the EU and the IASB with a detailed analysis of the impact of the Enron scandal.

Book Description

When change is underway, pay can be a powerful communicator of values and directions. And in today's challenging business environment, the need to use pay strategically is more important than ever as organizations and their leaders look for ways to improve outcomes, performance, productivity, and teamwork. Linking rewards to business goals and competencies is essential to gain competitive advantage through people.

Based on extensive research with Fortune 100 companies and on their own consulting work with companies in various industries worldwide, Jay R. Schuster and Patricia K. Zingheim offer a powerful strategy for making pay a positive force for organizational excellence. This pioneering work includes the first "best practices" study to show the impact of pay practices on organizational performance. With numerous sample pay strategies and examples of pay tools that can be adapted to a wide range of situations, the authors provide how-to guidance to executives, managers, and human resource and compensation specialists--anyone responsible for developing base pay, incentive, and benefit plans.

Where traditional models of compensation and reward no longer serve the best interests of organizations and the employees who must make companies succeed, The New Pay provides the critical tools for creating a total compensation strategy and pay programs that add value and support organizational success.

Customer Reviews:

A pioneering study on the new pay !!!.......1999-09-12

As written by Schuster and Zingheim "understanding what pay and benefits can do to help organizations succeed is essential and best learned early in a career. Edward Lawler's Strategic Pay and this book were the first books to address pay outside of the context of traditional pay grounded in the 1940's, when challenges and opportunities were remarkably different from what are today."

Within the context of comparison between the new pay and traditional pay approaches Schuster and Zingheim discuss some crucial concepts such as :

* base pay (market-based pay/skill-based pay, job-based pay)

* variable pay (group performance, individual performance)

* indirect pay (obtained results, employee's tenure)

* job evaluation (external/market based equity, internal/point factor based equity)

I higly recommend this pioneering study to HR professionals.

See also :

*J. Schuster and P. Zingmeim-Pay People Right,

*T. Wilson-Rewards That Drive High Performance,

*H. Risher-Aligning Pay and Results,

*J. Belcher-How to Design and Implement A Results-Oriented Variable Pay System

Average customer rating:
The New Pay: Linking Employee and Organizational Performance
Jay R. and Zingheim, Patricia K. Schuster
Manufacturer: Lexington Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NQIM06

Average customer rating:
THE NEW PAY: LINKING EMPLOYEE AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE "A challenging road map for the future of pay systems in organizations...Ought to be read by everyone who impacts total employee compensation in today's business environment."
JAY R. SCHUSTER , and PATRICIA K. ZINGHEIM
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JWBEEK

Book Description

This history explains the design, production, and marketing of the first Ford and Fordson tractors produced after the company reneged on the late Henry Fords infamous handshake agreement with Harry Ferguson. The NAA, or Jubileeand the 600, 700, 800 and 900 Series are all featured and more.

Book Description

Dr. Prilicla, a veteran of Sector General, commands an expedition answering several near-simultaneous distress beacons. What he finds is two intelligent species, one of which has nearly wiped out the other; a revelation of a botched first contact; and a rare opportunity to set matters rightif he can make the right diagnosis.

Customer Reviews:

4th volume from an alien viewpoint: Prilicla.......2002-05-19

Sadly, this is the last Sector General story, published posthumously.

After _Star Healer_, White never again used Conway as the viewpoint character. This story is from the viewpoint of his old friend Prilicla, the spider-like empath, who like Conway has been groomed for years (without his knowledge) for eventual Diagnostician status, if only he can overcome his empath's aversion to being assertive, with the subsequent risk of having unpleasant emotional radiation turned back on him. (In other stories Prilicla is referred to as a neuter "it", in keeping with polite cross-species standards, but from his own viewpoint he's referred to as "he".)

After all these years, White still finds new things to tell us about Prilicla, especially from his point of view: the only member of his species at Sector General. For instance, we always knew that he was fragile, but did you know that he uses up so much energy that every few hours he *has* to sleep? (He'll pass out on duty otherwise, but everyone knows it so it doesn't happen.) His empathic talent is exceptionally strong even for his own people; and by his own standards, he thinks he's pretty well crazy, from a culture where cowardice is considered necessary for sanity. Mind you, he doesn't *care*; life on Cinruss was boring. :)

Prilicla is still assigned to Rhabwar, having taken over when Conway was promoted, and due to the nature of interstellar travel, Rhabwar in its job of answering distress calls is the most frequent means of making first contact with newly encountered starfaring species. On the present occasion, Rhabwar will make not one, but two first contacts. The first such contact, with the Trolanni, involves a civilization from a world wherein the ecology has been damaged to the point that it no longer really supports life; the Trolanni blame another group on their planet, the druul, but that's only their side of the story. Unfortunately, to Trolanni eyes, while Prilicla isn't frightening, humans *are* - Trolanni think they look like druul.

It should be said that while White's galactic civilization has a non-interference directive of sorts, it's tempered by intelligence and good sense. On several occasions, having discovered a culture that hasn't achieved starflight but is in severe distress, a planet has been declared a disaster area and relief has been sent, rather than letting people die needlessly. Granted, this has been known to go wrong, sometimes spectacularly (see _The Genocidal Healer_), but at least they err on the side of compassion.

A solid addition to the series.......2000-08-23

If you are a fan of the Sector General series then you will welcome the latest addition. As usual it presents a first contact situation but this time with not one but two new races at the same time. Interestingly the story this time is told from the point of view of Dr Prilicla and offers some new insights into this character which has formerly offered support without taking the central role.

The Last Book............2000-02-12

Another wonderful book from James White in his Sector General Series. Unfortunately,he passed away right after the book was written. The Sector General novels have been great fun to read, reminding me of the "old" sci-fi style of books. What made his book so interesting was the mix of aliens in his books and how they worked together in a medical setting to help other species. Some of his ideas were great! If you get a chance to read this book, I say start from the beginning of the series if you can get the books and enjoy yourself. This is his last book and I am sad to think another Sector General novel will not happen since he has passed away. Bless him!

Average customer rating:

Prometheus and the Insects
Absolutely gripping!
Classic Early SF
Exciting work of literature
This Rocked

Ace double novel books
Murray Leinster
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B0007H93EA

Customer Reviews:

Prometheus and the Insects.......2006-05-17

The publishing history of this novel is a bit complicated. In the early 1920s, Murray Leinster wrote two stories for _Argosy_: "The Mad Planet"(June 1920) and "The Red Dust"(April 1921). The stories were set on a future Earth in which man has degenerated to a primitive state and in which giant insects have become the dominant life form.

There were few science fiction books in those days, but the stories were reprinted several times in magazines such as _Amazing Stories_,_Tales of Wonder_, and _Fantastic Novels_. In 1953, Leinster published a third story in the series, "Nightmare Planet" for the short-lived _Science Fiction Plus_. In 1954, he reworked the stories into a novel that was set on an alien planet that has been terraformed and (because of a lost computer card) abandoned. The humans are the ancestors of the survivors of a space liner that has crashed on the planet.

The result is a novel which has a scientific background much like science fiction novels of the 1950s, but which has the style and plot conventions of science fiction of the 1920s. Leinster was already writing smoother, more mature stories than _The Forgotten Planet_ by 1954.

The style is loaded with choppy sentences ["Smolderings became flames. Sparks became coals"(63);"Burl watched them. And then he saw motion overhead" (75}] and repetitions ["His body felt remarkably warm. It felt hot"(61);"Two slender, threadlike antennae popped out. They withdrew and popped out again"(83)].
There are cliches: "Burl's hair stood on end from sheer fright"
(89). There is almost a complete absence of dialogue.

But the novel has a number of virtues as well. The first virtue is the realism of its monsters. Leinster consulted books on insects by Jean Henri Fabre, Ralph Beebe, and Maurice Maeterlinck to describe the behavior of his insects. Leinster's choices were excellent. All three of these writers were superb nature writers who based their books on careful first-hand observation. Here is one example among many of Leinster's realism:

The grasshopper strained terribly in the grip of the wasp's six barbed legs. The wasp's flexible abdomen curved delicately. Its sting entered the jointed armor of its prey just beneath the head with all the deliberate precision of a surgeon's scalpel. A ganglion lay there; the wasp poison entered it. The grasshopper went limp. It was not dead, of course, simply paralyzed. (33)

A second virtue of the novel is the simplicity of its story. It is a retelling of the Prometheus myth-- an account of how humans rediscover lost knowlege (including how to make fire) and how they finally choose a life of dangerous independence over a life of comfortable safety. The Prometheus figure is a primitive genius named Burl,who makes an incredible number of discoveries that he passes on to his tribe. We may fleetingly say to ourselves that it is unlikely that one person could make _that_ many major discoveries in the course of a few days. But we are willing to accept this improbability for the sake of the story.

In short, while _The Forgotten Planet_ has some of the weaknesses of 1920s science fiction,it also has some of its strengths. It has held up well over time.

Absolutely gripping!.......2005-05-04

When man ventured out into space, he found many planets in the correct zone to support human life, but upon these planets life had never appeared. And so, a great project began to terraform these worlds by seeding them with life from earth. But, on one such planet, a clerical error resulted in the process ending before it was finished, leaving molds and fungi and insects to grow to enormous and monstrous size. Later, an interstellar space-liner crashed on this world, bringing its last addition - humans. This is the story of Burl and his tribe of humans, trying to stay alive in a world of living horror, where giant insects stand atop the food chain and men must do what they can to survive!

I must admit that when I first heard about this 1954 book, I was somewhat dubious, as the premise of the story sounds a bit outlandish. Well, I am now a believer! The author does an excellent job of building a vastly different world that is fascinating and quite horrifying. The characters are believable, and the story is absolutely gripping! I loved this book, being quite unable to put it down until I had reached the ending. I highly recommend this book to all science-fiction fans who love reading a story set in a fascinatingly different environment.

Classic Early SF.......2004-11-05

I read Forgotten Planet many, many years ago when I was in Jr. High. The story was so great, I still remember the main parts of the plot. It concerns the descendents of colonists on a planet that had undergone partial terraformation. Political trouble in the wider society leaves the original settlers stranded, and their progeny have to deal with a world gone mad, with insects grown to giant size. (An impossibility, hence the four stars.)
Follow Burl as he becomes the leader of the small tribe of humans, and leads them to their own promised land. As corny as it sounds, the reunion between man and dog is rather touching. And, without giving anything away, I will say that their isolation does not last forever.
All in all, an excellent example of mid-twentieth century science-fiction.

Exciting work of literature.......2004-04-17

The Forgotten Planet is everything the positive reviews here say that it is, so thank goodness I don't have to try to say a number of things that I find said better than I could.

I read The Forgotten Planet on an off chance years ago, it was one of those "two-in-one" deals that you flip over & there's another novel on the other side. Between that & the title, it didn't seem promising, but what the heck.

The author Murray Leinster was an entomologist & he brought a scientific perspective & also a remarkable literary talent to the descriptions of those giant bugs & the buggy, mushroomy environment, including many vivid fantastic scenes. He even brings a scientific perspective to his picture of the humans & makes it natural & interesting, as one of the other reviews here describes. And it feels like your reading SCIENCE fiction.

Having read much genre science fiction when I was young, & much literary fiction since, I have to say that I can't recall a novel that was so truly both. And, at the same time, a third thing-a work reflective of a scientific sensibility.

If I grade it as literature, I give it four stars (if two or three to Updike, Mailer, etc., & five to Hemingway, Paul Bowles, etc.). That's really good. As science fiction, there's no way for it not to deserve five stars.

Whether Heinlein or Hemingway is more to your taste, this novel is for you.

This Rocked.......2004-03-09

Forgotten Planet was the first Murray Leinster book I ever read. I got the book in fifth grade and still have a copy twelve years later that I enjoy reading. The author was a master story teller who could wrap the reader up in worlds of incredible fiction and fantasy. Not only do I highly recommend this book, but I recommend any other books by him as well.

The planet of the double sun (Professor Jameson Space Adventure / Neil R. Jones)

Average customer rating:

Ancestors of R2D2 and CP3O

The planet of the double sun (Professor Jameson Space Adventure / Neil R. Jones)
Neil R Jones
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Similar Items:

The Sunless World (Professor Jameson Space Adventure #2)

ASIN: B0007FBY08

Customer Reviews:

Ancestors of R2D2 and CP3O.......2006-06-07

"Professor Jameson stood in the fore of the spaceship and gazed philosophically into space, ruminating upon the past, present and future, and upon the strange events in his life"(35). The opening line to "Planet of the Double Sun" catches the flavor of this book-- a roughness of style coupled with a naive charm and amiability.

Neil R. Jones was an insurance claims investigator who wrote science fiction on the side from 1933 to 1951. His most popular stories were those of Professor Jameson and the Zoromes. The professor's body is launched into space in 1950. He is revived forty million years later by a civilized, robotlike race called the Zoromes. They transplant the professor's brain into a metal body like their own.

_Planet of the Double Sun_ consists of the first three Professor Jameson stories: "The Jameson Satellite" (_Amazing_ 1931), "Planet of the Double Sun" (_Amazing_ 1932), and "The Return of the Tripeds" (_Amazing_ 1932). The first story is an expositional piece, setting up the background to the series. The second story dramatizes the defeat of the Zoromes on a hostile alien planet. The third story shows--not overly convincingly-- how victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat.

The stories are pretty good pieces judged by the standards of 1930s pulp magazines. But the truth is, they haven't aged well. They creak a bit at the joints.

Double Full Moon Night (A Bantam spectra book)

Average customer rating:

Great story but tie things up a bit.
Maybe I needed the first volume
Enjoyable
What an utter waste of time
A fun read

Double Full Moon Night (A Bantam spectra book)
Gentry Lee
Manufacturer: Spectra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Adventure | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0553090070
Release Date: 1999-03-02

Amazon.com

Gentry Lee, who has inherited the Rama mantle from SF legend Arthur C. Clarke, continues the story he began in Bright Messengers. In the first book, mysterious clouds of sparkling white particles beckon Beatrice and Johann into a strange craft that whisks them, and nine other colonists, from their homes on Mars to a deserted island inside a huge alien sphere. Beatrice dies after delivering a child, Maria.

As Double Full Moon Night begins, Maria has just turned 8. Their idyllic island life is suddenly ruined when a deadly creature threatens their lives, so Johann leaves his little paradise to find the other colonists. Their happy reunion is short-lived when they are transported to a strange place where they must start over and learn to survive. Lee effectively captures the sense of mystery and excitement that characterize the Rama universe. This long-awaited sequel will please fans of his first solo Rama book. --Adam Fisher

Book Description

From Gentry Lee, New York Times bestselling co-author with Arthur C. Clarke of the Rama series, comes the magnificent sequel to Bright Messengers, his first solo novel set in the Rama universe.  In Double Full Moon Night, Lee continues the saga of Johann, Beatrice, and the Martian colonists chosen to embark on one of the most thrilling and mysterious adventures in human history.

For engineer Johann Eberhardt, life has come down to this: a tiny but bountiful island inside a vast alien sphere that is both paradise and prison.  Eight years ago, Johann, accompanied by nine Martian colonists, entered the sphere with his beloved Beatrice, priestess-bishop of the Order of St.  Michael, searching for the true nature of the mystical visitors some said were extraterrestrial--and others said came from God.

Once inside the sphere, the colonists were separated and Johann has since lived in virtual isolation to raise the daughter Beatrice left behind after her tragic death.  Now the island paradise Johann shares with the child Maria has been invaded by a violent and enigmatic life-form.  Risking everything, Johann begins a dangerous journey across the water in search of safety and his fellow colonists.

It is an odyssey that is beset with deadly peril: from strange sentient creatures to imprisonment in an underwater world by a species whose motives may be benevolent.  But it is when the colonists are reunited and transported to an exotic planet that the true challenge for survival begins.

For as dissension and jealousy threaten to divide his fellow settlers, Johann is visited by Beatrice with a dire warning: Johann must learn from the planet's creatures how to survive the upcoming "double full moon night." If not, they will all be destroyed, leaving forever unanswered the secrets of the universe they have traveled so far--and sacrificed so much--to discover.

Customer Reviews:

Great story but tie things up a bit........2007-05-07

I enjoyed this book and its companion Bright Messengers but I would like to see some of the Rama mystery resolved already. Mystery gets frustrating and boring after a while if no light is shed. I still really love the stories and hope for more from Mr. Lee.

Maybe I needed the first volume.......2004-09-04

There's something about airports. When I'm flying, I pick up reading material I would normally have passed over. That's how I came to pick up DFMN.

This is the second in a series, and I never read the first. That always gives the feeling that I walked in partway through someone else's conversation, and missed whatever it was that would have made the sequel make sense. I'm not so sure, though.

Our Heroes are taken by mysterious sparkling beings and set into an unfamiliar world. For some reason, that is a dangerous world. Even with births, their numbers dwindle. Then they taken by mysterious and malignant being and set into a cavernous world. They are kept alive for reasons unknown, and then <<plot discontinuity>> and the survivors are set into another unfamiliar world. Despite unexplained visitations from the dead, their numbers dwindle in this dangerous environment. In the final onslaught <<plot discontinuity>> and there is only one left. She is taken by the original mysterious beings and set into an unfamiliar environment.

That's about it. I guess. There are some goings-on between characters that I've skipped over, maybe the book was about those. I dunno.

//wiredweird

Enjoyable.......2004-02-08

I found this book very entertaining. Perhaps it is Gentry's writing style, I don't know, but it was hard for me to put the book down. True, there are probably too many sentient creatures running around with no explanation of their origins. I read the the last Clarke-Lee Rama novel 7 years ago so I can't nitpick any of the details. Overall though, I enjoyed returning to the Rama universe in this book and Bright Messengers, thanks Gentry.

What an utter waste of time.......2001-04-18

I waited so long for this book, I had nearly forgotten what it was supposed to be about. Apparently the author did as well. The last half of the book is a haphazard collection of incidents with very little to do with any sort of plot, except to, perhaps, explain the title of the book - which by the way, ultimately had little to do with a consistent plot other than to kill off some inconvenient characters. Lee at least had enough sense to raise some questions that I as a reader needed to have answered, otherwise I would never have finished reading it. But he should have stopped raising the more complicated questions somewhere before the final section. Had he done so, he wouldn't have had to tie things up in such a neat, improbable little package in the final 3 chapters. Don't even get me started on thin character development, and an unhealthy tendency to insert a new life form merely to lengthen the novel as a whole. And as an atheist, I found being preached to on a regular basis rather insulting.

When Lee was co-credited for some of the Rama novels, I hoped I'd found a new author whose work could at least partially fill the void left by Clarke's declining output and the total loss of Asimov's. I'm afraid I'll have to look elsewhere, because I won't subject myself again to this kind of drivel.

Frankly, the 2 stars I gave this book are generous, but unfortunately, worse books than this exist and I needed to save room for them.

A fun read.......2000-12-17

Having waited almost four years for this sequel, I must say I was rather happy with it. It made for a very interesting and fun read. Most of the story deals with characterization, but the descriptions of the alien landscape are wonderful. The story moves at a very fast pace, and although there is not much of an external plot, the character interactions are never dull. While this book could be read and enjoyed without having read the first one, the ending would probably not have the same meaning to someone who had not read the entire Rama series. Overall I would say this is a good choice if you are looking for a fun story.

The Puzzle Planet / The Angry Espers (Ace Double D-485)

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The Puzzle Planet / The Angry Espers (Ace Double D-485)
Robert A. W. Lowndes , and Lloyd Biggle
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

The Beasts of Kohl / A Planet of Your Own (Ace Double G-592)

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The Beasts of Kohl / A Planet of Your Own (Ace Double G-592)
John Rackham , and John Brunner
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Product Description

ACE DOUBLE BOOK TWO Science Fiction Fantasy books The Beasts of Kohl The return of Kohl and Rang to earth after many thousands of years of space travel. A Planet of Your Own Kynance Foy her travels from Earth to Planet Zygra to work as Planetary Supervisor a simple job that involved much more

Ace Double : Flower of Doradil and A Promising Planet

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Ace Double : Flower of Doradil and A Promising Planet
John and Strike, Jeremy Rackham
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000KF4Q6E

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The altar on Asconel (Ace double)
John Brunner
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: B0007EJM1C

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Cosmic checkmate (An Ace Double)
Charles V De Vet
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007FCIJY

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Dark planet (Ace Double novel books)
John Rackham
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000735XJ8

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