Last year Congress gave the Department of Defense the authority to design a new civilian personnel system for its employees as part of the defense authorization bill.

Leon Theremin's original designs are elegant ingenious and effective. As electronics goes the theremin is very simple. But there are so many subtleties hidden in the details of the design. It's like a great sonnet or a painting or a speech that is perfectly done on more than one level.

Although my family - parents and sister - all work in the personnel management business their real passion is performing amateur operatic societies and so on.

There is no business in America that would be prevented from taking results into account when making personnel decisions.

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves it's amazing what they can accomplish.

I have three phobias which could I mute them would make my life as slick as a sonnet but as dull as ditch water: I hate to go to bed I hate to get up and I hate to be alone.