Menurutnya, sebuah perusahaan, ketika ingin bergerak maju dan gesit, harus dapat mengurangi sebisa mungkin, energi-energi yang tidak perlu dikeluarkan. Lebih spesifik lagi, tertuju ke perusahaan kami yang akan diarahkan menjadi suatu entitas usaha bernama holding, harusnya memiliki tujuan yang definitive, dan perusahaan-perusahaan yang bernaung di dalamnya, masing-masing harus fokus menuju tujuan atau goal tersebut.

Memang diakui, berbagai macam kesempatan usaha yang lewat di depan mata, akan sangat menggoda, dan setiap kesempatan yang lewat, akan selalu berbisik…”aku tidak datang padamu dua kali..so sikat bleh ! ”.

Tapi apakah setiap kesempatan usaha akan selalu ditangkap ? Kalau tidak, apa yang akan menjadi landasan yang jadi parameter yang menentukan, apakah hanya sekedar nominal keuntungan yang terproyeksikan ? Atau point pembelajaran juga diikutkan ? Kelihatannya akan banyak opini berkembang dari pertanyaan-pertanyaan tersebut.

Saya pernah mendapati itu menjadi pembahasan yang menarik di salah satu milis pengusaha yang saya ikuti. Maksud saya dengan kata menarik adalah dilihat dari cukup banyaknya respon yang menanggapi. Dan seperti mudah diduga, banyak perspektif berbeda tentang memaknai “fokus” dalam berusaha.

Walaupun seingat saya, thread topic itu tidak mendatangkan kesimpulan apa-apa, tapi ada beberapa hal yang saya dapat ambil dari diskusi virtual itu :

1. Strategi.

Bisa jadi, berusaha untuk mendiversifikasi produk, adalah bentuk dari perluasan jaringan, yang artinya, walaupun terkesan sporadis ketika kita menjual range product yang terlalu besar, tapi ketika itu dibingkai dalam satu kemasan bernama strategi, maka tidak ada yang perlu dikhawatirkan, karena satu-satunya yang perlu dikhawatirkan adalah menjawab pertanyaan, apa yang kita lakukan adalah benar-benar bagian dari strategi ?

1. Pemercepatan

Ketika memutuskan untuk melakukan diversifikasi produk dan layanan, yang jelas berada di depan mata, adalah tuntutan-tuntutan untuk men-deliver produk dan layanan itu dengan baik bahkan excellent, which is berarti, penguasaan produk bukan satu kewajiban, tapi kebutuhan. Demikian juga pengenalan medan pasar, pengaturan strategi financial untuk pendukung kelancaran operasi usaha, penguatan kompetensi sumber daya manusia, dan masih banyak lagi aspek lain yang harus diperhatikan dan jelas, butuh energi pemercepatan, karena makna “sukses” dalam kamus menjalankan usaha, sangat sering melibatkan kecepatan merespon sesuatu sebagai parameter yang menentukan. Dan yang jelas, agenda tersebut, saya yakin betul, tidak dapat dilakukan sendirian, tidak bahkan oleh pemilik perusahaan, walaupun misalnya, dia adalah pemegang tunggal saham kepemilikan. So, let’s start to make a team..!

1. Perubahan

Akhirnya kita harus menghadapi kenyataan bahwa benar sebuah adagium yang berisi “change is the only constant”, tidak ada hal yang berubah, selain perubahan itu sendiri.

Beberapa tahun lalu, mungkin Larry Page dan Sergey Brin hanya dua orang mahasiswa paska sarjana, tapi sekarang, mereka adalah bagian dari sejarah dunia.

Bahkan mengelola perubahan, telah menjadi bagian keilmuan dari ilmu manajemen, Change Management, karena diyakini, ketika perubahan tidak dapat dikelola menjadi suatu hal yang dapat ditunggangi untuk dapat meraih goal, maka efek yang timbul adalah sebaliknya.

4. Totalitas

Semalam, saya mendapatkan sesuatu pengetahuan baru, dimana dalam sebuah program acara di Discovery Channel, menampilkan tentang bagaimana sebuah kawat tembaga diproduksi. Hal baru yang saya maksud sebenarnya tidak tertuju ke isi acara tersebut, tapi adalah ketika istri saya bercerita tentang aktivitas PT. Smelting di gresik, dimana mereka melakukan proses refinery tembaga. Dijelaskan bahwa Smelting dalam melakukan proses refinery, menggunakan satu proses dimana patent atas proses tersebut, dimiliki oleh Mitsubishi. Di dunia metalurgi, proses tersebut dikenal dengan nama “Mitsubishi Process”.

Sedikit mengingatkan, mungkin anda lebih mengarahkan kata Mitsubishi ke merk kendaraan, tapi sebenarnya, aktivitas mereka diawali dengan mendirikan pabrik pesawat dan kemudian kapal laut.

Hal yang jauh lebih menarik lagi adalah, sisa pemurnian dari hasil Mitsubishi process tersebut, menjadi milik perusahaan mitsubishi, dimana sisa pemurnian dari tembaga, berupa Emas.

Di acara tersebut, disebutkan bahwa, tembaga yang masuk ke proses pemurnian, sebenarnya paling tidak memiliki kadar 99,99%, kapasitas PT. Smelting per tahun adalah 250 ribu ton tembaga, dimana, 0,01 %-nya, atau berarti dalam setahun, penerimaan dari ”sampah” proses pemurnian tembaga, adalah berupa 25 ton emas/tahun !

Maksud saya men-share hal di atas, adalah berusaha untuk menyampaikan, bahwa seluas apapun range product yang kita ingin libatkan dalam usaha kita, jelas butuh totalitas. Totalitas dalam belajar hal baru, totalitas untuk bekerja, totalitas untuk berinovasi, totalitas dalam membuat perencanaan, dll.

“Bekerjalah untuk duniamu seakan – akan kamu hidup selamanya. Dan bekerjalah untuk akhiratmu seakan – akan kamu mati esok”. (Hadits Riwayat Turmudzi)

Wallahu A’lam

Virtually all website owners concentrate their efforts and energy into getting more visitors. With business owners this effort is spent on getting more and more new customers. What many people forget - with both their website and their business - is that getting new customers (or visitors) is only a small part of the equation for success.

Reason For Failure No. 1 - The 'I am God'-Syndrome

God got his name from being able to do anything and everything and be everywhere at once. Despite what we are taught from an early age many people still insist on believing they themselves are God. Ever found yourself answering the phone, making a sale, running a sales meeting, welcoming customers and doing your company's accounts all in one day? Sure you have. You're trying to be God and do everything and be in more than one place at one time. You will fail. People do this with their website too.

Rather than just stopping at providing content (which is where you should stop and hand everything else over to the professionals) some people think that despite no professional training or education in the subject they are experts in web design, website marketing, graphic design and business consultancy. Remember - stick to what you know, leave everything else to the experts. Your job is to run your business - not to run around like a headless chicken trying to create a website, market a website, do the books, answer the phones and make the tea.

Reason For Failure No. 2 - 'Build It And They Will Come'

Ah yes. The halcyon days of the early 1990s when anything seemed possible and merely owning a domain name or funky web address meant certain success and riches beyond your wildest dreams. "Build it and they will come" is what they said. They were wrong.

Disaster after high profile disaster came crashing down into a pile of dotcom carnage as the millions poured into the idea pit were consumed by fast-spending entrepreneurs who possessed more pairs of trainers than they did explanations for where the profit was going to come from. Just remember - there are more web pages in the world than there are people so if you really think that just building a website is enough it's time for a serious re-think. You've spent the money on graphic design, content, domain names, hosting, web design and testing and your site has just gone live. Congratulations - you have just completed step 1 of 1000,001 in having a site that generates business for you.

You now need to market the site - just as you need to market your business when it first starts - advertising, fliers, yellow pages, referrals, networking, cold calls, direct marketing, mail shots, radio slots, events, conventions, product launches, press coverage etc. A website is exactly the same. Don't forget the new statement for the new age of new technology:

Build it and they will say - 'I can't find it!'

Reason For Failure No. 3 - You Choose The Wrong Website Marketing Company

It's difficult isn't it? There are so many to choose from how do you know where to start? Well word of mouth recommendation is always a good indication. Failing that you can look at the key areas that are likely to indicate the quality of their service. For example, ask these questions;

• Do they offer guarantees of any kind on their results?
• Do they proudly display testimonials from satisfied customers on their website?
• What is their profile on the web like, can you find them easily?
• Do they have detailed case studies explaining how they have helped other businesses?
• Do they have a long-standing track record in the industry and wide client-base?
• There is no real way to avoid making the wrong decision but if you keep learning more and more about website marketing you will be arming yourself with enough information to at least reduce the risk of choosing the wrong company.

Mike Cheney
www.magnet4web.com

P.S. Are you happy with what your website is earning? What if I told you I knew someone who makes $19,156 a month just from AdSense? You need to see this:
http://www.adsense-videos.info

About The Author You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a FREE Special Report "How To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnet" worth a value of £47 ($85) here: http://www.magnet4web.com/website_services/?page=freeguide

Creative Writing Tips –

When an idea comes to us for a short story, we either think of a story line first or a character first. Whichever we think of first, and later on build, we have to make sure the plot and the character suit each other.

Example one – We think of a story line first.

Your story is set in a rural area. A company opens a factory and employs workers from that small town. The residents welcome this, as there aren’t many jobs going around. The management takes advantage of that fact and exploit the workers.

Using a technicality in the system, perhaps listing them under different job titles in their books, they pay them less than they are entitled. Your main character sees this injustice and leads the workers to rebel against the management.

Now in a plot like this you will need your main character to posses certain qualities. Like…

Leadership

To be able to lead the people to rebel.

Convincing

The workers are from a rural area. Some might be uneducated and not aware of their rights. The main character has to convince them that what the management is doing, is wrong.

Persuader

Living in a rural area, jobs are hard to find. Most of the workers will view the company as their saviour. Their thinking will be that receiving little money is better than none at all. The main character has to persuade them that being in a rural area the company needs them as much as the workers need the company.

Strong Personality & Confident

We need a strong character that will see things through to the end. We don’t want someone giving up when things get tough. He will also need to be confident that he is doing the right thing (not to make things worse for the workers) and believes in himself (knowing what he’s doing is right).

Strong people skills

To be able to speak and relate to people on all levels.

Negotiator

To negotiate a solution with management and workers.

Public speaker skills

To be able to address this mass group of workers, in a voice that is confident, persuading, authoritative etc.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So these are the qualities we will need our character to have.

Now let’s see if we can make him believable. Remember he lives in the same rural area, so what makes him different from the rest of the workers who are willing to settle for less?

I could say he recently move to that rural area from the city. He used to work as a union leader and wanted to get out of the rat race. But having fought for workers rights his entire career, he can’t stand now to see injustices and comes to the decision to fight for them and himself.

So this character would suit our plot because we need someone like him for our story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Example two – Thinking of a character first

We notice a man on the street. Something about him triggers our interest so we decide to write about him in a short story. So at this point we will build the character first and then work a story around him.

Let’s go back to where we saw him…

He’s walking briskly along a busy street. He’s in a hurry. He’s dressed in a three-piece suit, which indicates he might be a businessman. He’s got a stack of documents under his arm; a briefcase in his left hand and his right hand is occupied by holding the phone to his ear, which he’s shouting into.

Let’s observe him closer…

He’s in his mid thirties. He looks authoritative. Perhaps he has his own business. Why is he shouting into the phone? Perhaps one of his employees made a mistake, which has cost the character a lot of money.

What if this employee made the mistake on purpose? What if he’s secretly working for the opposition, planted to destroy the main character’s company? What if the owner of that opposing company is the main character’s own brother? Etc…

So as we analyze this character and ask questions about him, our plot begins to unfold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Plots and characters have to suit each other.

When we have finished plotting and are ready to write the story, they shouldn’t be ill-fitting pieces of a puzzle – They should be a perfect match.

Does your plot suit your characters and vice-versa?

About The Author Besides his passion for writing, Nick Vernon runs an online gift site where you will find gift information, articles and readers’ funny stories. Visit http://www.we-recommend.com

What are you thinking when it comes to your no load mutual fund selections? Are you saving pennies and sacrificing dollars?

Are you spending your time looking at expense ratios, analyzing Morningstar ratings and searching for funds with low fees and no 12b1 charges?

If you are like most people, you know these things in and out. You've spent hours evaluating them, and your chosen mutual funds cost little to purchase and maintain. But they still don't perform to your hopes and expectations.

So, why is this happening? Because this kind of investing focuses on cost as opposed to value.

Investors with this philosophy have usually interviewed numerous advisors. But instead of trying to find someone suitable with a sensible approach, they only want to know who has the lowest fees. That's like going to the cheapest auto repair shop and getting the best price, but your car still doesn't run well.

Then there are the investors who call or email me wanting a recommendation on a no load mutual fund. They want one with no 12b1 charge, but they completely ignore the issue of how the fund might perform.

Both these kinds of investors spend their time trying to save pennies and in the process they are losing dollars. Instead of falling into the penny wise, dollar foolish trap, here are some ideas that will assist you in evaluating the end profit rather than just the short term saving.

1. Shift your focus from penny pinching to looking at the big picture: What can a mutual fund or an advisor do for you, not how much does it cost? Why? If you buy a given no load mutual fund at the right time and it gains a tidy 15% for you over a 6 week period, would you really care about the costs? If a mutual fund-or an advisor for that matter-can give you superior performance and an increase of several percentage points over your bargain price pick wouldn't you pay an extra 0.25%?

2. Consider finding a fee-based investment advisor who uses a facts-based methodology and has a track record indicating those kinds of returns. For example, in my own practice I used a trend tracking approach to get my clients into the market on April 29, 2003. Plus, our research and homework led us to recommending funds that gained anywhere from 11.50% to 22.00% over the following 6 week period. How did you do during that time? Do you think any of my clients care whether one of these funds has a small 12b 1 charge? Or whether they have the lowest expense ratios in the industry? I know they don't. (If you are looking for an advisor, please see my article “How to find an Investment Advisor” at http://www.successful-investment.com/articles18.htm)

The bottom line is to look at costs as balanced by performance and that's where you find value. Then seek true value not simple savings, enjoy healthy dollar-level returns and don't sweat the pennies.

About The Author Ulli Niemann is an investment advisor and has been writing about objective, methodical approaches to investing for over 10 years. He eluded the bear market of 2000 and has helped countless people make better investment decisions. To find out more about his approach and his FREE Newsletter, please visit: http://www.successful-investment.com ulli@successful-investment.com

According to research estimates:

• Best-in-class companies, share several common characterstics.

1. 62% utilize analytics solutions
2. 57% of the agents are empowered to decide when is the right time to sell
3. 57% have access to sales experts and knowledge for informal training

• Best-in-class companies achieved

1. 86% of the companies achieved a sale of $ greater than $20
2. 84% of the companies have customer retention of 50% or greater
3. 59% have a cost per contact of less than $10

Interestingly, only 40% of the best-in-class companies leverage their cross-selling & up-selling measurements to support their cross-selling & up-selling initiatives!

Uniquely built web sites can create unique issues when promoting your site on the search engines. From a basic 3 page brochure site, to a corporate site with hundreds of dynamically generated pages, every web site needs to have certain design aspects in order to achieve the full effects of an SEO campaign. Below are a few points to take into consideration when building or updating your web site.

1. Size Matters.

The size of a web site can have a huge impact on search engine rankings. Search engines love content, so if you have only a few pages to your site and your competitors have dozens, it's virtually impossible to see a top page ranking for your site. In some cases it may be difficult to present several pages of information about your business or products, so you may need to think about adding free resources for visitors. It will help in broadening the scope of your web site (which search engines like) as well as keep visitors on your site longer, thus possibly resulting in more sales.

2. Graphics-Based Web Sites.

While web sites that offer the visitor a more esthetically-pleasing experience may seem like the best choice for someone searching for your product, they are the most difficult to optimize. Since search engine robots cannot read text within graphics or animation, what they see may be just a small amount of text. And if we learned anything from point #1, that will not result in top rankings. If you really must offer the visitor a site jam-packed with graphics, or even a Flash experience, consider creating an html-based side of your site that is also available to visitors. This site will be much easier to promote on the search engines and your new found visitors will also have to option to jump over to the nicer looking part of your site.

3. Dynamic Web Pages.

If most of your web site is generated by a large database (such as a large book dealer with stock that is changing by the minute) you may find that some of your pages do not get indexed by major search engines. If you look at the URL of these pages you may find that they are extremely long and have characters such as ?, #, &, %, or = along with huge amounts of seemingly random numbers or letters. Since these pages are automatically generated by the database as needed, the search engines have a tough time keeping them up to date and relevant for search engine users.

One way to combat this problem is to offer a search engine friendly site map listing all your static pages just to let them know that yes, you do have permanent content on your site. A good internal linking system also helps in this case because if search engines see links going to and from these dynamic pages, they may index and assign them decent PageRank values. The link popularity of your site may carry more weight in this case as well, so if you can't offer as much static content as your competition, make sure you have an aggressive link campaign on the go.

4. Proper Use of HTML.

There is quite a bit of sub-par web design software out there. Word processors usually have a way to create HTML documents which can be easily uploaded to a site via ftp. However, in many cases the code that the search engine robots see is mostly lines and lines of font and size formatting, not actual relevant content. The more efficiently written web sites usually achieve higher rankings. Our choice for web design software is Macromedia Dreamweaver, as it is an industry standard. It also makes using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) a breeze, which can drastically cut down on the amount of text formatting in HTML code.

And there are some no brainers too. Web sites with abnormal amounts of hyperlinks, bold or italicized text, improper use of heading, ALT, or comment tags can also expect to be thrown to the bottom of the rankings.

5. Choosing a Domain Name.

The golden rule to web development of any kind is to keep your visitors in mind above all else...even search engine optimization. When choosing a domain name, one should pick either your business name (if you are making yourself known by just your name, ie. Chapters or Kleenex brand tissues) or a brief description of your products. Domain names can always help with search engine optimization, as it is another area of your web site that important keywords can appear. Exclude long-winded domains such as www.number-one-best-books-on-earth.com as no one will ever remember it and it will be hard to print on business cards or in print ads.

If you need to change your domain name for any reason, you obviously don't want to lose your existing rankings. An easy way to do this, and one that is currently supported by most search engines, is the 301 redirect. It allows you to keep your existing rankings for your old domain name, while forwarding visitors of that site to your new one virtually seamlessly.

6. Using Frames.

Just don't, it's that simple. Frames are a thing of the 90's (and in the Internet world that is eons ago) and are not even supported by some search engines. The ones that are able to index your site through frames will most likely frown upon them. Whatever you are trying to accomplish by using frames can usually be done with the help of PHP includes or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Some browsers are not frames-compatible, so there's the danger of some visitors not being able to see your site at all. Bookmarking of individual pages within a frame becomes difficult without lengthly scripts being written.

7. Update Your Information.

Not only does information printed two or three years ago look badly on your organization when it is read by a visitor, it is also looked down upon by search engines. Web sites that continuously update and grow their web sites usually experience higher rankings than stagnant sites. When the trick to SEO is offering visitors the most relevant information, you can bet that the age of web pages is taken into consideration by search engines. Consider creating a section of your site devoted to news within your organization, or have a constantly updated resources area.

Many shortfalls of web sites can easily be attributed to designers who just don't keep the user or search engines in mind. Search engine algorithms are quickly improving to try and list the most user-friendly sites higher, given that the content and link popularity are there to back it up. So first and foremost, know your target market and make your web site work for them before focusing on search engine optimization. If you build it (properly), they will come.

About The Author Copyright John Metzler of Abalone Designs, November 2004. This article may be freely distributed if credit is given to the author. Abalone Designs is a family-run Search Engine Optimization firm in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Visit www.abalone.ca for a free personalized analysis of your web site. john@abalone.ca

The term "stupid curve" was coined by former US Deloitte boss Mike Cook in reference to the over-representation of men in management. Ms McPhee said Australia's stupid curve showed the female talent that business had wasted for too many years.

Despite a perception that few women had leadership roles because they chose to become mothers, most women were "pushed".

The Age

That invisible force keeping women out of the top jobs? It's called the patriarchy.

One important quote from the Good to Great [G2G] book is that "Executives who ignited transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus, then get the people to take it there. Instead, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off) and then figured out where to drive it."

This shows the importance people have in any company and more so in the software industry because it is a people driven. People drive the ideas, innovations, processes etc etc.

So what kind of people should a software company look at and what should be the process?

The right people on the bus are those who

• Have selfless commitment to the company, their personal aspirations and ambitions are aligned to the company. They understand that they would be able to meet their personal aspirations once the organizations goals and objectives are met.
• Right people do not have all the necessary technical skills but they have the right attitude to learn and grow. They are passionate about technology and keep themselves updated with the latest.
• Irrespective of the technologies that they would use, their core concepts like Object Oriented Analysis and Design, Design Patterns, Good coding, refactoring etc are solid. They have strong logical reasoning.
• All the above require a good hiring process to get the right person on the bus. Hence the hiring has to be stringent. A process that I would propose is Pre-Screening over the phone, followed by in-person full day assessment which includes assessment of technical and soft skills. Refer to my post on InfoQ. The screening process should vary according to the experience level and maturity of the individual. Refer diagram. The only thing which remains constant is Good Attitude + Strong software development concepts. I am not saying that hiring these people is easy but the mantra is "When in doubt, dont hire".
• Another important factor is creation of a healthy pyramid, on how teams can be formed with the right mix of maturity related talent. Many organizations have a mix of 1 Sr to 10 Jrs, which in my opinion is a bit skewed. If you have 1:6 ratio then team formation is ideal w.r.t. learning, team colloboration and economies of scale.
• The last thing is a no-brainer, if you need great people you need to pay them well, better than the market for sure. Give them good infrastructure, good working environment, good pay packets and you would realize that 5 people can do the job of 10 with salary of 8.

As you might have noticed the importance is laid on Attitude, Passion, Strong software development foundation, Craving to learn and share. If you have such people on board then you do not need to have a destination pre-decided. Great people come on board and colloboratively decide where they want to take the comany. Of course there would still be some directions from the leaders but you would not have to motivate people to follow because the great people on the bus are self motivated.

If you have to motivate people to follow, then you have wrong people on board.

In the next post I would talk about Brutal Facts.

The deal, which was clouded by the bitter dispute between the Ambani siblings, was called off a day after RIL nominated an arbitrator to resolve the dispute with RCOM.

From Times of India

The deal, which had seemed a real possibility at one stage, went off the rails after Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd claimed that it had first right of refusal on RCOM shares, as part of an agreement at the time of partition of the Reliance empire. The proposed deal depended on RCOM and MTN agreeing on a share swap, which could not proceed once RIL stepped in.

The final nail in the deal's coffin appears to have been RIL's decision to move for arbitration and appoint retired Supreme Court judge B P Jeevan Reddy as arbitrator on Thursday. Though the exclusivity period was due to lapse only on July 21, the two parties decided to call it off on July 18 itself, citing "certain legal and regulatory issues".

The RCOM-MTN-RIL triangle would have been riveting enough even as a purely business story, but it gained further drama with the addition of a political angle. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, a close friend of Anil Ambani, is reported to have suggested that the prime minister should play peacemaker between the Ambani brothers and that the government should throw its weight behind the deal, as it had in the case of Lakshmi Mittal's takeover of Arcelor. The SP has gained immense clout of late, since it has become essential to the survival of the UPA government.

Conclusion : There could be a possibility that Mukesh Ambani might have sensed that the deal could have been bad for his younger brother Anil as the controlling stake of Anil would have been diluted.

What are your opinions on the RCOM-MTN deal ?

“The current market jitters are centred on disturbances in the world’s credit markets. Worries about the viability of sub-prime mortgage lending have spread around the financial system, and the central banks have been forced to pump in billions of dollars to oil the wheels of lending.” — ‘Financial crises: Lessons from history’, Analysis By Steve Schifferes Economics reporter, BBC News[1]

Thus runs the opening para from the BBC’s missive (written in September 2007) on the ‘credit crisis’. The piece purports to explain a series of economic meltdowns going back to the 1860s, but explanations of why these periodic collapses occur there are none. One has to read very carefully between the lines to gain some inkling of what links the crises together: in a word, speculation, but the word gets mentioned only once in the entire piece, in relation to the Crash of ‘29.

“After a huge speculative rise in the late 1920s, based partly on the rise of new industries such as radio broadcasting and carmaking, shares fell by 13% on Thursday, 24 October.” (ibid)

“Speculative rise”? “Partly”? What’s the other part? Conveniently, we are not told.

Contrast this with the huge investment in Internet companies toward the end of the 1990s, which too was caused by speculation in what investors then thought was a license to print money (note the parallel with the 1920s, one that is not made by the BBC nor it must be noted, with the latest and most severe of crises),

“During the late 1990s, stock markets became beguiled by the rise of internet companies such as Amazon and AOL, which seemed to be ushering in a new era for the economy.
…
“But in March 2000, the [Internet] bubble burst, and the technology-weighted Nasdaq index fell by 78% by October 2002.” (ibid)

78%, that is to say, over three-quarters of the value of hi-tech stocks was wiped out almost literally overnight. “Beguiled”? What kind of an explanation is this? The key sentence in the BBC’s ‘explanation’ is,

“But the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, cut interest rates throughout 2001, gradually lowering rates from 6.25% to 1% to stimulate economic growth.” (ibid)

But making money cheaper by lowering the interest rate only fuels inflation. ‘Growth’ may well occur but it was achieved by increasing the credit debt and devaluing the money supply which sooner or later would bite the hand that fed it.

In fact, aside from the ‘29 Crash, the piece, which uses six examples scrupulously avoids any mention of the central role not only of gambling (or speculation) but of the crucial role of government in propping up a bankrupt capitalist system. Instead, state intervention in the market is described as the “central banks” that is to say, ‘socialism’ for the capitalist class.

Speculation played an enormous role in the latest crisis but was not the underlying cause, rather it is a symptom of the system brought about by the falling rates of profit which could only be solved (in the short term) by the complete deregulation of the financial sector, a process initiated in the 1970s which enabled retail banks to operate like commercial investment companies (using ordinary depositors money rather than investors).

Deregulation opened the floodgates of speculation that started with the Savings & Loans companies which were the first to go belly-up back in the 1980s. Billions were stolen and a vast bailout by central government followed. (See ‘Bush Family Connections: Silverado Savings & Loan Scandal’ and ‘Bush Family Connections: The Family That Preys Together’)

Words like “jitters” “worries”, and “central banks” pepper the piece, innocuous descriptions of fundamental contradictions that underly the latest “disturbance”. Thus the BBC would have us believe that the fundamental problem is caused essentially by what the marketeers call ‘sentiment’, that is to say, individuals who fear losing money. But come on folks, is this any way to run an economy, on the subjective feelings of a bunch of parasites?

According to the BBC, the following are the ‘lessons’ to be learned from past financial crises,

• Globalisation has increased the frequency and spread of financial crises, but not necessarily their severity
• Early intervention by central banks is more effective in limiting their spread than later moves
• It is difficult to tell at the time whether a financial crisis will have broader economic consequences
• Regulators often cannot keep up with the pace of financial innovation that may trigger a crisis. (ibid)

It’s not only a brilliant piece of double-speak but it also tells us nothing about the underlying causes of periodic crises. Take the first ‘lesson’,

“Globalisation has increased the frequency and spread of financial crises, but not necessarily their severity”. Oh really? The million-plus people who have lost their homes in the US or the food riots in over forty-seven countries and the rising unemployment are not severe enough for the BBC?

“About 8.5 million Americans actively seeking work are unemployed, an increase of about 21.4 percent over one year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The unemployment rate of 5.5 percent is up from 4.6 percent a year ago. More important, about 1.5 million of the 8.5 million unemployed have been unemployed at least six months, a 37 percent increase over the past year, according to the BLS. Not included in the numbers are the “1.6 million people who are ‘marginally attached’ to the workforce, who had looked for work in the previous 12 months, but not in the last month,” according to Andre Damon of Global Research. Damon also reports that the BLS data does not include about 420,000 “‘discouraged workers’, who had given up looking for work because they think that there is no work available.” — ‘US: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid’, By Walter Brasch

‘Early intervention’?

What, like Northern Wreck or Fanny Mae and Freddy Mack in the US? The sheer irrationality of the BBC piece is revealed when it tells us that a “It is difficult to tell at the time whether a financial crisis will have broader economic consequences”. A crisis by its very definition is something that is far-reaching in its effects but obviously the BBC has a different definition of the word.

And just in case we still don’t get it, the final ‘reason’ that, “Regulators often cannot keep up with the pace of financial innovation that may trigger a crisis” is pure dissembling. After all, in theory the entire point of ‘deregulation’ was to get government off the backs of the financial sector and let the ‘market’ do its thing.

“Innovation” is BBC-speak for deregulation which led to speculation, thus avoiding the fact that the financial sector has been ‘deregulated’ for almost thirty years, during which period there have been four major financial crises each with disastrous consequences for millions of people, so to say that the regulators can’t keep pace with innovation is simply a lie of grand proportions (see Silverado above).

What emerges is the fact that the BBC’s ‘analysis’ is nothing more than a clever coverup that masks the fundamental contradiction of an economic system that operates to make a tiny handful of people disgustingly wealthy by stealing from working people. It ignores the fact that such periodic crises are intrinsic to capitalism and the result of nothing more than the pursuit of private profit regardless of the consequences.

Note

1. Also of interest is why this article, which is getting on for a year old, is listed as an important link to its piece ‘Banking rally boosts US markets’, dated 16 July, 2008, especially so given the current reality which bears no resemblance to the ‘analysis’ (any more than it did when it was written) but then the BBC hedges its bets by telling us that “It is difficult to tell at the time whether a financial crisis will have broader economic consequences”, a finer piece of double-speak is difficult to find.

The BBC only gets away with this kind of rubbish by completely ignoring any analysis that proposes an alternative cause for the periodic crises of capital, over-production/under-consumption, falling rates of profit, competition, loss of markets and so forth.

This essay is archived at: http://www.creative-i.info/?p=296

see

Economic Collapse by Norman Livergood

Swan Song for Fannie - Eulogy For The “Ownership Society”

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse

War, war, war or jaw, jaw, jaw? by William Bowles

We think organizations have to change way they capture or mine data. They need to look at where else can they 'dialog' with these customers - Twitter, Facebook, Google Chat etc.? How often have you seen companies even capture  such" Dialog Points" for a possible "information opportunity"?

There is an interesting point of view on the same on this issue. Take a look:

To stay on top of purchase trends or address dissatisfactions, marketing teams often administer surveys and comb through hundreds of thousands of responses to find needles of profundity in the customer service haystack. In reality, if today’s consumer has a gripe or suggestion, he or she no longer fills out a comment card or a survey. Instead, the customer takes it to the keyboard and posts comments online for the whole world to read. Given the influence of word of mouth (or more appropriately, word of “blog”), your business will feel the direct effects of online reviews - positively or negatively.

According to a 2007 Deloitte & Touche study, more than eight in 10 (82 percent) of consumers said their purchasing decisions have been directly influenced by online reviews.¹ With the advent of the blogosphere and social-media tools such as Twitter and Facebook, there are more opportunities for customers to voice their opinions, and the circle of influence has grown much wider. Monitoring for these comments must be a core part of your business.

Organizations have a unique opportunity to connect with their customers just by letting them know they are being heard. JetBlue Airways created a Twitter account after learning customers were using this platform to voice their frustrations. Now, Twitter has become a key customer service portal where the airline offers discounts and responds to flyers in real time. Using Twitter, JetBlue has turned around its negative public perception, even in a struggling aviation market.

The Web’s reach is boundless and social-media text is quite unstructured making it impossible for a typical search to uncover everything of relevance. So, how can marketers and executives sift through all of the social-media noise - the ruminations, misfindings and the insignificant rants - to find the true opinions and reviews about their brands?

The answer is semantic search and analysis. Semantic search provides early identification of consumer concerns, suggestions, likes and dislikes and purchasing trends. It uncovers this information from the most unstructured corners of the Web. The retrieval of such information is not limited to recognizing key words as typical Web searches do. Instead, it uncovers the meaning the words express in their proper context and accepted meaning no matter the number (singular or plural), gender (masculine or feminine), verb tense (past, present or future) or mode (indicative or imperative).

Popcorn (Wikipedia)

Anwar said that Tan Sri Ani Arope resigned because he was not in favour of the government' s stand on the independent power producers (IPPs). Tan Sri Ani was TNB's executive chairman from 1990 to 1996 and it was during his tenure that the first generation IPPs were created.

Tan Sri Ani is known for his honest and no nonsence way of doing things and former high court judge, Dato Syed Ahmad Idid justly described the Penang-born scientist as follows:

"Tan Sri Ani was and remains an upright person and had to suffer because he did not agree with the IPPs getting away with too much ... and consumers have to pay."

"I am not anti-IPPs per se. It is good to have other players but it has to be done fairly. It has to be fair to the consumers, not just TNB, which is a conduit. TNB, because of the electricity hike, has been treated as the whipping boy. The focus should be on the consumers," Tan Sri Ani once told StarBiz in an exclusive interview.

When Anwar touched on the IPPs, Shabery Cheek replied that it was implemented when Anwar was Finance Minister. It is interesthing to note that in the StarBiz interview, Tan Sri Ani was asked "How was the Malaysian model of IPPs created?" and he answered "Ask our Prime Minister."

He was also asked "How was the process of negotiations with IPPs conducted?" and he replied: "There was no negotiaion. Absolutely none. Instead of talking directly with the IPPs, TNB was sitting down with the EPU (Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister's Department). And we were harassed, humiliated and talked down every time we went there. After that, my team was disappointed. The EPU just gave us the terms and asked us to agree. I said no way I would."

Tan Sri Ani also said the pricing and terms of the contracts was all fixed up. "This is the price, this is the capcity charge and this is the number of years. They said you just take it and I refused to sign the contracts. And then, I was put out to pasture."He described the terms agreed by the EPU as "grossly unfair.

" At 16 sen per unit (kWh) and with the take or pay situation, actully it was 23 sen per unit. With 23 sen, plus transmission and distribution costs, TNB would have had to charge the consumer no less than 30 sen per unit. If mix with TNB's cost, Tan Sri Ani said the cost would come down but that was at TNB's expense because the utility company were producing electricity at 8 sen a unit. "We can deliver electricity at 17 sen per unit," he said.

Tan Sri Ani also said that "nobody produces excess electricity like Malaysia and it goes to waste because there are no batteries to store that power. TNB only needs a reserve of 15 per cent to 20 per cent."

In the interview, Tan sri Ani told StarBiz that he felt sick of the process of awarding the IPP contracts. "It was morally wrong and not fair. If it is legal and not fair, I will not do it. If it is fair and illegal, I still won't do it. It has to be legal and fair. We work for the consumers, workers and shareholders. TNB is morally obliged to these three, but the consumers come first, otherwise we won't be around. It is then the workers and the shareholders. "

Source: StarBiz (The Star)Posted by Syed Imran at Friday, July 18, 2008

Affiliate marketing has been there for quite sometime, and on this internet age quite many people are being attracted to the idea. This is good news and bad news at the same time.

Good news because the more people that are becoming affiliate marketers the more turn over or profits that are going to be generated.

The bad news is that the more people that are implementing this new idea the more competition that is going to be involved,the competition is stiff when it comes to affiliate marketing

Clickbank itself has over 30,000 affiliate marketers, and there are successful affiliate marketers and there are the not so successful affiliate marketers.

I have been a wealthy affiliate member for almost 3months and one of the best thing that i have ever been taught at wealthy affiliate was how to know which clickbank products convert easily and which ones do not, the biggest mistake that i know most affiliate marketers make is that they go for the highest converting products, think about it how many people have done the same, the product has alot of competition and chances of making a sale are very slim.( Learn more about affiliate marketing).

Wanting to know affiliate marketing and knowing affiliate marketing are two different things, but what you do in between is what counts, most people resort in reading e-books while others make a more wiser decision the opt in for more support, good mentoring and tools.

If your really want to learn affiliate marketing and avoid an embarrasing clickbank affiliate marketing failure story you might consider the idea of getting a more elaborate affiliate marketing training, tools and coaching as a viable option.

all the best and success to you all

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Freddy: So this lemonade is really free?
Sergei: Yep.
Freddy: Really?
Sergei: Can't you read?
Freddy: I'm just wondering why you're giving away free lemonade.
Sergei: It's a business. Duh.
Freddy: I see. But how are you making money from it?
Sergei: Double duh. The point is not to make money, but to develop a user base.
Freddy: A user base?
Sergei: Yep. If I get enough customers coming to my lemonade stand, I can sell ad space to sponsors.
Freddy: Uh-huh. So do you have sponsors now?
Sergei: Kinda.
Freddy: Kinda what?
Sergei: See that stack of flyers from the Clique Mortgages Company?
Freddy: Yeah.
Sergei: If you take one, the company pays me one cent. It's a pay per Clique model.
Freddy: And that one cent gives you a profit on the lemonade?
Sergei: Hell no. The lemonade costs me 10 cents a cup. But I'll make it up on the volume.

Since I was a liberal arts major, I assume his math is correct.

Sergei: (leaning in and whispering) But hey, mister, can you keep a secret?
Freddy: Sure. (I don't mention that I'm a blogger.)
Sergei: My friends come by every day and take all the flyers to make spitwads. That way I get paid by the Clique and I don't have to give away any lemonade.
Freddy: So you're telling me a bunch of six-year-olds are doing all the Cliquing. That doesn't exactly help the mortgage company.
Sergei: That's not my problem. If the advertiser is too cheap to pay up front, that's what they get.
Freddy: But that's not exactly ethical...
Sergei: (shrugging) It's legal.
Freddy: Why don't you just throw the flyers away yourself?
Sergei: What do I look like, a crook?
Freddy: Right. Well then, give me a cup of lemonade. And a flyer.
Sergei: Cool, but first you gotta fill out this form.
Freddy: Form? Why?
Sergei: Man, you are one dense dude! I gotta prove to my future sponsors that I got a user base. Plus, all I'm asking is your name, email address, phone number, and a little demographic info.
Freddy: You know a lot for a six-year-old.
Sergei: I watch CNBC.
Freddy: So you're the one... Now, how do I know you're not going to sell my personal information to someone else -- or call me up in the middle of the night?

Sergei ducks under the table and re-emerges with a stack of papers the thickness of War And Peace.

Sergei: Here, read my privacy policy.
Freddy: I'm not going to read all that.
Sergei: I thought so. Now do you want the lemonade or what?

Just then, Zucky, the kid at the original stand across the street, signals me over. He now has a sign that says "Drink lemonade, get paid!" Hmm, this is even better than free. I go back over to his stand.

Freddy: Let me get this straight. I get your lemonade -- and your money?
Zucky: Yeah, though it's not exactly my money.
Freddy: Whose is it?
Zucky: You know my dad, Victor Cunning?
Freddy: Oh yeah, VC.
Zucky: He's financing this joint.
Freddy: Why?
Zucky: What else is he gonna do with his money -- invest in real estate?
Freddy: Good point. Speaking of which, what is the point of this business?
Zucky: Oh, my dad plans to sell it once I reach critical mass.
Freddy: Critical mass of what?
Zucky: Users, stupid. Once I build up a big enough user base, some major corporation will want it.
Freddy: What is it with you kids and user bases?
Zucky: Dude, did you break all the bulbs in your chandelier? Building a big user base is a best practice!
Freddy: Why is that a best practice?
Zucky: Because Sergei does it and he's the market leader.
Freddy: Zucky, just because a market leader does something doesn't make it a best practice.
Zucky: It does.
Freddy: Does not.
Zucky: Does.
Freddy: Does not. Listen, if Sergei were to jump off a cliff, would you do the same?
Zucky: That's so patronizing! Stop talking to me like I'm six years old!
Freddy: You are six years old.
Zucky: Oh. Right. I use words like "patronizing" and I forget.
Freddy: In any case, why would a big corporation buy a money losing operation?
Zucky: Lotsa reasons. They wanna diversify. They wanna appear cutting edge by getting into the next big thing. They wanna invest their liquid holdings before the dollar depreciates anymore.
Freddy: You're pretty savvy for a six year old.
Zucky: And you're pretty dopey for a sixty year old.
Freddy: I'm forty.
Zucky: Same difference. Anyway, the big corporation has big resources, so they can suck up the losses longer, and then when there's a recession, they just write down the investment so that it's all bundled up with a whole lotta other losses at the same time. That forces management to do a lotta cost cutting, and Wall Street loves cost cutting, so the CEO gets rewarded a fat bonus.
Freddy: Only in the mind of a six-year-old.
Zucky: Or a corporate CEO. So, you gonna have a lemonade or what?
Freddy: Do I need to fill out a from?
Zucky: That's stupid. No, just put this in your pocket.

Zucky hands me a lint-covered Oreo.

Freddy: What's this?
Zucky: It's a cookie. I keep track of how many users I got with cookies. Just don't throw it out.
Freddy: Sure. Whatever.
Zucky: And here's your lemonade and a penny.
Freddy: Gee, a penny. How generous.

I drink, but immediately gag and start spitting up pink chunks of meat.

Freddy: There's Spam in this lemonade!
Zucky: Those are my advertisers.
Freddy: This is terrible!
Zucky: What do you want for less-than-free?
Freddy: Not Spam in lemonade!
Zucky: Well, if you want an ad-free experience, you have to upgrade.
Freddy: How much is an upgrade?
Zucky: Four dollars.

Just then Zucky's father, Victor Cunning, appears with another adult male in a suit.

Zucky: Whassup, pops?
VC: Hey, Zucky. I'd like you to meet the new manager of the lemonade stand.
Zucky: What do you mean? I'm the manager!
VC: Well, Zucky, what's best for the business is if you're relieved of your day-to-day responsibilities so you can focus on, uh, serving as a consultant to us.
Zucky: Consultant?! But this is my lemonade stand! I started it! I don't want to consult my own company!
VC: Technically, it's MY company. But don't worry, Zucky, this guy is an MBA.
Zucky: Great, there goes the neighborhood.

As Zucky sulks, Sergei starts shouting from across the street.

Sergei: Hey, user dude, my lemonade is ad-free and I'll pay you a dollar to drink it!
Zucky: You're paying him a dollar?! Are you crazy?!
Sergei: Winner takes all!
Zucky: Fool! You'll drive us both out of business!
Sergei: Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
Zucky: You're a unitard!
Sergei: I know you are but what am I?

And that's when both boys start scrapping in a flurry of fists and feet. I break up the fight and only suffer moderate injuries in the process.

Freddy: Boys, boys! Don't you see that you're just repeating the mistakes of the first Lemonade Bubble?
Sergei: There was a first Lemonade Bubble? When did that happen?
Freddy: Oh, around 2000, 2001.
Zucky: Dude, that was more than five years ago.
Freddy: Yes. So?
Sergei: Well, don't you know, if a mistake happens more than five years ago, it's OK to repeat it.
Zucky: Yeah, Sergei. That's why your mom's pregnant again.

The boys laugh and start walking off together, but I can hear their words on the quiet street.

Sergei: That guy was such a nimrod.
Zucky: That's why he's a user and we're the entrepreneurs.
Sergei: Hey, Zucky, that just gave me an idea.
Zucky: Whatcha thinking?
Sergei: We can save on costs by making the nimrods provide their own products!
Zucky: You mean --
Sergei: User-generated lemonade!
Zucky: Yeah! We just build the ultimate stand!
Sergei: And promise them a share of the revenue!
Zucky: Yeah! Like one-tenth of one-tenth of one-tenth percent!
Sergei: How much is that?
Zucky: I don't know, I haven't learned fractions yet.
Sergei: How will we get it started?
Zucky: Easy. First, we'll steal some lemonade from the store.
Sergei: And we'll take the labels off.
Zucky: And we'll tell the cops that the users provided it.
Sergei: And then we'll put some chairs around the stand, and the users will bring lemonade so they can talk to each other!
Zucky: Yeah, adults have trouble socializing, so they need all the help they can get!
Sergei: We'll call it... social wet-working!
Zucky: I love it!
Sergei: Awesome, huh?
Zucky: Yeah! So I'll have my lawyer call yours?
Sergei: Sure -- but let's go to my place and watch Hannah Montana first.
Zucky: Hannah Montana?! She's so 2007.
Sergei: I know, dude, but I just dig on older women... Hey, got any of those Oreos left?

   Well, first there is the obvious...sales reduce, making it necessary to cut costs in any way we can.  Many of us have a tendency to reduce unneccessary expenses that might have slid by us in the budget in previous months without a second thought.  Reduction in staff...which adds to the unemployment rates in our area.  And usually an increase in advertising, to try to find more customers.

   As we are considering cut-backs at the office to help us weather the stormy economy, most of us begin to consider the unknown losses or find previously undetermined losses by counting our inventory, comparing to stock orders and finding out where our stock or money has been leaking.  The unfortunate thing: during times of economic downturn, business losses usually increase due to theft by employees and customers.

   As the Unemployment and Foreclosure rates in our country continue to climb, and so do prices of food and necessities, people get desperate, because they cannot afford to continue their life the same way they lived before.  Unemployment doesn't just affect those "other cities".  These displaced people are in our towns, our neighborhoods, and might be coming into our businesses to find anything that they can get their hands on.  In Chicago, nearby to our Platinum CCTV Showroom in Naperville, the big talk on the news has been about the increase in violent crime...with shootings at and around the "Taste of Chicago" this year, gang activity at surrounding local town festivals, and increases in burglaries and even bank robberies, yet the news is turning on new Police Superintendent Jody Weis, saying his tactics in the last 2-3 months since his appointment to the position have led to these increases.  Why isn't anyone looking at exactly what is happening?  2 months of changes to try to shake up the police department in Chicago isn't going to have this drastic of an affect in such a short time...We might not agree with everything he has done in his short stint as the superintendent, but honestly...times have been tough, and they are getting tougher for many, many people.

   Not to say I would advocate going out and robbing a bank, or even stealing from your local convenience store, but I can say that these types of economic conditions can make otherwise good people do things that they would never even dream of normally.  So as business owners, while we are trying to keep our businesses up and running and reduce losses, lets take a look at what steps we have taken to protect our own businesses.

    Security cameras can help you keep watch over both your employees and your customers, providing you with an infinite source of information to prevent theft, and provide evidence when something does occur.  People think twice about stealing when they are stared in the face by a camera, plain and simple.  When things start showing up as losses in the bottom line, it provides us a way to track our inventory back to the source of the theft, and quickly rectify the situation.  If we are going to be trimming the fat in our businesses, lets at least make sure that the dishonest employees are the ones that we are removing from our facilities.  But Security cameras go beyond just loss of money from the register or product from the shelves.  We can easily use these same security cameras to monitor customer - employee interactions, to determine how customers are responding to our personnel or procedures, so that we can make on-the-fly adjustments to our techniques to better our customers' experience and improve our sales or service results.

    Many systems, like our Alnet Systems PC Based DVRs or Standalone DVRs provide the capability to watch your business even when you aren't there.  After all, no matter how much we trust our employees, we trust our own eyes better.  Some of our systems even provide PDA remote viewing of your Security Cameras capabilities right from a Windows Mobile PDA Phone or Windows Mobile Smartphone.

    While in the past, a business needed to invest $10K to $40K for a quality security camera system.  Some Security camera companies out there still won't even write an estimate for less than that, even though the cost of technology has dropped drastically in the past 5 years.  So that would mean that only the larger businesses would be able to afford safety and security.  REALISTICALLY, every business should be protected, and thankfully a quality security camera system does NOT have to cost that much.  Platinum CCTV in Naperville, IL has been helping Thousands of businesses and homeowners find the protection they need at affordable rates throughout the country online and in person.  With 2-Camera systems starting at $200 and 4-Camera security systems starting at $300, with NO ONGOING MONTHLY CHARGES and allowing for remote access to your cameras, there is no reason that your business isn't protected.

Let us help you find a system that will suit your needs AND budget.  At least get something in-place and recording, then we can help you expand it later.  But don't wait until after something happens...unfortunately we answer calls everyday from people who did wait...and they wish they hadn't.

Find out about our Naperville, IL Security Camera Showroom

Or purchase business security camera systems online from our online store

Hoping your business stays safe, and never really NEEDs the camera system you installed.
-Michael-

GABORONE - Botswana Institute of Accountants (BIA) has received compliments from the International Federation of Accounts (IFAC) as one of the best six affiliate members with clear and achievable action plan worldwide.

Botswana, the only country in Southern Africa to make it in the top six, has been rated among countries such as Argentina, China, Czech Republic, Kenya and Romania.

The top six countries represent four continents with Africa having two representatives in Botswana and Kenya.

These actions plans are reflective of the kinds of programmes and activities that all IFAC member organisations are developing in their own jurisdictions says a press release from the organisation.

The release quoted chairperson of the compliance advisory panel, Mr Robert Mednick, saying these actions plans demonstrate the leadership of [continue reading]

GABORONE - Cyber Foods, a South African company, is recalling its peanut butter manufactured and supplied in Botswana to government schools and other institutions.

An advertisement from Cyber Foods published in some local newspapers states that the peanut butter is packed in 20kg and 2.5kg buckets under the Cyber Foods and Ratan Foods brand names.

The advertisement requests consumers in possession of these products to contact the local authorities.

It says laboratory tests have revealed that samples of these peanut butter brands have high aflotoxin levels above the required limit.

Aflotoxin is a potent liver toxin that can cause cancer in both animals and human beings. It is caused by a fungus.

Some schools confirmed that they bought the product from Ratan Foods but had not been notified to [continue reading]

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Lots of photos/pictures and links so please continue reading at the original source. Someone please tell me why "the profits are private, losses are public"? ~ Lo

by Norman Livergood
Hermes Press
July 2008

Capitalism has struck the deadly ice reef of corruption and is now sinking fast. But passengers of the American ship of state--already drowning in the murderous waters of loss of homes and jobs--are still believing politicians' reassurances that nothing's really happening.

The lifeboats, courtesy of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. treasury, are "saving" big financial institutions: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, IndyMac, and a host of others to the tune of 400 billion dollars so far.

Most Americans have become so brain-dead that they're not aware they've been thrown into the freezing waters by predatory capitalists.

...continued at http://www.hermes-press.com/collapse.htm

h/t: Speaking Truth to Power

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

Swan Song for Fannie - Eulogy For The “Ownership Society”

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse

What is Socialism? (archive of posts)

Our team has worked incredibly hard over the last month in preparation for these 2 showcases. 12 - 14 hours have been the norm, especially since we were concurrently working on Ning's mega escape. Amidst our producing and rehearsing schedule, we made sure we made time for interviews and photoshoots for journalists; not to mention our corporate shows that we did for different organizations such as Sony, JTC and Starhub. The "Ultimate Magic" team did a great job and thanks to the other team back in the studio who makes sure all other things are in order!

The full-house showcases were a major success and were attended by top in-bound tour agencies from across Asia, tourist associations and members of the media. Our benchmark for the success of the showcases is not the applause and edulation from the audience but the fact that key tour agencies have pledged their commitment to support the daily show when in opens. While I will not delve into the business mechanics of their commitment, suffice to say, their agreement will ensure the success of the show and help make it an iconic attraction in Singapore.

Singapore Tourism Board also was down to preview the show and were wowed! They expressed how the show is a fantastic unique addition to Singapore's entertainment offerings. Besides officially endorsing the show and even speaking to Channel News Asia in support of the show, we will be featured in the official tourist website of Singapore www.visitsingapore.com shortly, under the 'What to See' in the ' Singapore River' page.

I don't want to give away too much of the show's content, but I've included a series of sneak peek photos from the showcases:

We are also thrilled that our local media continues to be incredibly supportive. While we often hear that local media does not support local talent but honestly, the media has been tremendously supportive of our shows and projects. As you probably have seen, in the last 2 months, we have been covered by every newspaper and many magazines in the promotion of Ning's "The Impalement Cage" mega escape as well as "Ultimate Magic". With this successful showcase just done, several more features are in the works:

Channel News Asia is featuring "Ultimate Magic" and its significance to the Singapore tourism scene in a a substantial segment called "The Big Picture" during the night news on Channel News Asia on 20 Jul 2008 at 1020pm as well as on all other major TV channels. Thanks to the journalist for the hard work and time in putting this extensive story together. CNA came down to film Ning's mega escape two weeks ago and also filmed the preview show. CNA also interviewed representatives from 3 major in-bound tour agencies as well as a spokesperson from STB, so let's see how it goes!

In Aug, Channel U will be coming down to film our show as part of a TV variety program. I got to meet producers who also worked on my Street Magic series in Top Fun from 2 years ago so it will be great working together again.

We also did a radio interview for the popular morning talk show "The Living Room" on 93.8FM. Stanley - thanks for the support! Stan is the host for the show and he is showing his support for "Ultimate Magic" by graciously choosing our interview to be replayed during a weekend slot on Sun 20 July from 2.10pm - 3.00pm.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I have a 2-page interview in FHM this month, but we overlooked that Ning is also inside, in the SAME issue. This includes her being featured in the 'Letters to the editor' section as well as an ongoing pub magic tricks column.

Ning also just completed a shoot for Nuyou (Chinese female fashion magazine) yesterday and it will showcase her diversity of looks in a fashion feature. If you thought 'Magic Babe' is only a sassy sexy gal, think again. We had the priviledge of having SPH magazine's chief photographer shoot Ning! Here is one of the looks from the 4-hour shoot:

Well, with the showcases done, we are now concentrating on rehearsing the full 60min production. Sneak preview tickets are moving fast as there are only 5 shows altogether - every Sat in August at 7.30pm. If you have not purchased your sneak preview tickets yet, get them at www.sistic.com.sg now!

Few weeks ago I ran into a friend and former MBA classmate that I haven't seen for a few years. Randy ended up telling me a little about Preo Software, a web-based print management system software company that he is now involved with. From our brief chat and a quick look at their website, looks like they are doing something cool in helping companies being green and cutting their print costs. Here is an excerpt from their overview (emphasis added),

Printelligence™ by Preo Software complements this newfound interest by enabling green initiatives, cost control and cost recovery at the end-user's desktop. Printelligence™ measures the true cost of print for every organizational unit (including end-users), on every device, and provides deep insight into organizational and individual behavior, by measuring the usage of print features and capabilities, such as color, duplexing and N-up imposition.

The system turns all this measurement into actionable knowledge, through a unique adaptive rules engine that implements the organization's print management policies at the point of print decision-making - every time an end-user prints a document. If a job "breaks" the rules, the system presents advice and alternatives to the end-user. Unique to Printelligence™ is its ability to adapt its responses to individual behavior over time, so messaging stays fresh and appropriate.

Printing, in a supposedly paperless society, is getting so out of hands these days. So it is fitting to see a good solution is possible. Now, I admit I am a bit biased in this case as I know Randy personally. (big smile) But I think it is fair to say the fact (see Preo's home page) that their software has been recognized by Gartner as Best Software Solution in its 2007 Print & Imaging Summit is certainly an indication of how good their software must have been. So it is nice to have Preo Software's Printelligence featured in the Reimagining the Wheels series.