This is the third part of a seven part mini-series looking at how and why to turn your blog into a social media hub. You’ll be able to find the complete series here. Last time we looked at decluttering your social networks, for the simple reason that having too many spreads you too thin. Being spread too thin dulls your impact, and to use social media for your goals (and meet those of your customers) you need to have impact at every touch-point. Think of it like a flashlight in a power cut. All your current networks are lights, and too many lights blind and confuse, especially if…
Selected by johnhaydon
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danny brown
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7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub – Day 3: Building Blocks
8 Feb 2010 | 5:50 pm -
Introducing DANgerous Liaisons
6 Feb 2010 | 10:29 pmOkay, so first, apologies again for the no-show of part three of the Social Media Hub series. I’ve been snowed under with a lot of 12for12k stuff, so I apologize sincerely and promise that the remaining parts will be consecutive all this week. Now… on to some juicy stuff (hopefully). I recently wrote a guest post over at Sarah Robinson’s blog about the Bounceability of Craptastic. It was a bit different from the normal topics here, and a nice change of pace if you like. Which set me thinking. Obviously my “niche”, if you like, is social media, marketing, business… -
A Slight Intermission on Blog Comments Respect
3 Feb 2010 | 5:53 pmHi guys. So today was meant to be the third part of the 7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub series. This will appear tomorrow, as something’s been chewing on my mind today (and apologies to anyone who was expecting the Hub post). When I write a blog post, it’s obviously my point of view. Once it’s in the open, though, it then becomes a shared point of view with you, the readers – and your point of view is what builds the discussions around a post. Sometimes you’ll agree with me; other times, not so much. And that’s what makes the comments after… -
7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub – Day 2: Decluttering
2 Feb 2010 | 9:47 amThis is the second part of a seven part mini-series looking at how and why to turn your blog into a social media hub. You’ll be able to find the complete series here. Yesterday we looked at why you need a social media hub, and why your blog is the ideal platform. There were some great comments left on why a website should be your hub, and the blog just another spoke. While websites are still used and useful I prefer the blog approach, as outlined in my response to Mark W Schaefer’s valid comment: I guess I view websites as the storefront for the business relationship that’s built… -
7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub – Day 1: Defining Your Hub
31 Jan 2010 | 9:59 pmThis is the first part of a seven part mini-series looking at how and why to turn your blog into a social media hub. You’ll be able to find the complete series here. Social media. It’s all the rage. Pepsi is pinning its Super Bowl hopes on it. Ford’s social media strategy, led by Scott Monty, helped regain trust (and profits) after the Detroit Big Three Meltdown last year. Barack Obama used it wisely to help his overall campaign in winning the White House race. Marketers are allocating more of their budgets to social media marketing and advertising in 2010. So, yeah –…
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All Facebook
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Google Declares War On Facebook With Google Buzz
9 Feb 2010 | 11:26 amWhile it was expected that Google would use Gmail accounts as the center of users’ social graphs, the new Google Buzz makes it pretty obvious. Will Facebook eliminate Twitter or Facebook with this new service? Definitely not, however it’s clear that the new product is aimed squarely at Facebook. With Gmail, Calendar, and a location aware stream, Google is on the offensive. Read the rest of this entry on Social Times» -
Facebook Officially Kills Lexicon
9 Feb 2010 | 7:46 amA couple weeks ago we began wondering what happened to the company’s lexicon product as it was no longer providing useful data. It appears that the company has decided to shutter the year and a half old product, as Steve Rubel points out. When you visit the Lexicon page it now says “We are removing the Lexicon product from Facebook for the time being.” The page also suggests that the resources focused on the Lexicon product have been shifted to building out the Page and Application analytics tools. We recently wrote about the need for deeper analytics within Facebook Pages. -
Facebook Releases New Statistics: Sharing Quintuples In 6 Months
9 Feb 2010 | 7:29 amFacebook has updated their new statistics page and the most significant statistic is that sharing has increased 500 percent in only six months. The total number of users on the site has less than doubled in the same amount of time, growing from 250 million users to 400 million. That means the average user is sharing over 12 pieces of content each week. As Kim-Mai Cutler points out, Facebook users don’t appear to be increasing their volume of status updates though: Facebook users are also posting 60 million status updates a day or 50 percent more than they were in September. However, the… -
Facebook Lets Users Opt-Out From Dashboard App Stories
9 Feb 2010 | 6:52 amFacebook has developed what they believe to be a sufficient solution to the dashboard privacy flaw that we’ve covered over the past few weeks: an application activity privacy setting. With the new layout, Facebook users can visit their applications privacy settings and change a new setting that lets you “Control who can see your activity in the Friends’ Recent Activity, Friends’ Applications and Friends’ Games sections” of the application and games dashboards (pictured below). This Isn’t A Transparent Shift When we listed out the options that Facebook… -
Can You Get More Facebook Fans Than A Celebrity?
8 Feb 2010 | 1:26 pmWhether it’s pickles, onion rings, sausages, or purple monsters, the latest Facebook meme attempts to drive more fans to Facebook Pages than to celebrity pages. While this tactic has been used for Facebook groups for some time, the volume of new Pages dedicated to arbitrary objects that have successfully attracted hundreds of thousands or a million fans has increased dramatically in the past couple days. Two weeks ago, the creator of the page “Can this purple monster i made on paint get more fans than the president?” reached out to us about his Page. At the time, we thought…
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Liz Strauss at Successful Blog
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Why Businesses Still Aren’t Engaging Online With Their Customers
9 Feb 2010 | 6:54 amA Guest Post by Frank Angelone Are you a business? Whether you are a large corporation or a small business, you should be engaging with your customers. As many already know, the best way to engage with your customers is through social media. There are so many sites available at your disposal to be an active participant, yet many businesses still aren’t using social media to its full potential. Why is this? Well, I believe it can be answered in 5 bullet points… Laziness. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t engage in social media, your sales for your business… -
3 Simple Steps to Add Irresistible Influence to Your Brand
8 Feb 2010 | 7:20 amMagnetic from the Very First Minute! What makes a person or a company unforgettable from the second you interact? Why do some folks motivate and energize us? What is it about some folks that attracts people so powerfully? What makes a magnetic personality? Is it possible for a company or a brand to have those qualities? Can we carry them online and off? 3 Simple Steps to Add Irresistible Influence to Your Brand The brands and the businesses we love don’t just deliver on a promise. They make us feel good about working with them and feel good about being part of what they’re doing. -
Beach Notes: What Goes into Effortless?
7 Feb 2010 | 7:25 amby Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh A couple of times recently we have seen this man at our local beach, Rainbow Bay, with a didgeridoo ( or yidaki), the traditional Australian Aboriginal musical intrument. This day we saw and heard him playing with the end of the “didge” submerged at the water’s edge. My thought was that there might be some spiritual explanation, connecting with the spirits of the sea, etc. A bit of a web search suggests something more mundane. Evidently the exercise of playing the instrument in this way trains the diaphragm and builds the player’s… -
Thanks to Week 224 SOBs
6 Feb 2010 | 8:56 amSuccessful and Outstanding Bloggers Let me introduce the bloggers who have earned this official badge of achievement, and the right to call themselves Successful Blog SOBs. I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs. They take the conversation to their readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger. I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on. Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community. Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award… -
SOB Business Cafe 02-05-10
5 Feb 2010 | 7:03 amWelcome to the SOB Cafe We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection. The Specials this Week are Doc Searls Weblog What you have to appreciate, even admire, is how well Apple plays the vertical game. It’s really amazing. What you also have to appreciate is how much we also need the horizontal one. The iPad needs an open alternative, soon. There should be for the iPad what Google’s Nexus One is for the iPhone. Up the creek…
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TwiTip
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13 Ways To Get Your Blog Posts Retweeted
9 Feb 2010 | 6:19 amWhat’s the big deal about getting retweeted? If you have a ton of followers who are engaged, and you’re happy, then why should you care if they retweet your junk? If you’re using Twitter for business reasons, you should care. And here’s why: Measure Engagement Retweets are an indication of how engaged your followers are. If they aren’t retweeting any of your posts, chances are they don’t find them that interesting. Follower Attrition Some of the folks who are singing your praises now will be gone in six months. That’s because you can’t be all… -
Twitter Romance: Don’t Tweet Where You Eat!
8 Feb 2010 | 6:22 amWith the state of the world going down the drain faster than my credit–thanks Target–we single tweeters have but one thing to look forward to–finally finding that special person who will accept us for who we are–big fat slobs. And with so many people to choose from, especially with a click of a mouse, our online dating options are endless; there’s eHarmony, Match.com and now, twitter? Cue the Love Boat theme song. Wait, I’m here to tell you why that’s the worst idea you’ve had since deciding to bring back the Billy Cyrus mullet. It’s no… -
How to Win the AFI Twitter Background Design Contest
5 Feb 2010 | 7:41 amIf you fancy either the rock band AFI or designing Twitter backgrounds, then you’ve probably heard about the Twitter Background Design Contest that AFI is co-running with TwitBacks. While the contest runs until the end of February, there are already a lot of awesome background designs being submitted. So, how do you make your background design stand out from the crowd to catch the band’s eye and win the most votes? Lucky for you, I have some winning tips: Follow the Rules As a child, you heard it from your parents, teachers, and coaches: “Follow the rules”. And as much as you may not… -
You are Judged By Your @ Replies
4 Feb 2010 | 6:53 amI judge you by you by your @ Replies…. I do. Guilty as charged. One of my quirks when it comes to using Twitter is that I don’t automate my follows or DMs. I try to follow people whom I think would be interesting and more importantly who might be cool to interact with. Whenever I get a new follower notification, I at least check out their Twitter page to see what they like to talk about. So I thought I’d highlight some of the things I look for when I decide who to follow… Bio – Even though Bios are short, it’s a great way to put your best foot forward and let people… -
How To Get Celebrities To Tweet You
3 Feb 2010 | 6:14 amImage via Wikipedia I never joined Twitter to Tweet with celebrities and even now, two years after joining, it’s a small part of why I love Twitter so much. However, after Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) sent several Tweets to me and even created a hashtag topic dedicated to me (he also followed me as one of the 32 people on his following list for a couple of days but sadly, that ended), there was an unintended side effect: people I know suddenly were interested in joining Twitter to Tweet with their favorite celebrities. In addition to Justin, I’ve Tweeted with many celebrities…
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Ted is Preposterous
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E-Glide + Ground Industries = GI Powerboard! Sweet!!!
9 Feb 2010 | 7:45 amvia e-glide.com I think they might need some help testing this sucker. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
4Runner in the mud
8 Feb 2010 | 2:40 pmPermalink | Leave a comment » -
Notes from Claremont
7 Feb 2010 | 10:15 amPermalink | Leave a comment » -
Midway Pub + Dirty Truck
6 Feb 2010 | 2:19 pmSee and download the full gallery on posterous Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Junkyard find
6 Feb 2010 | 12:26 pmPermalink | Leave a comment »
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Facebook Blog
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The Importance of Thinking Before You Post
8 Feb 2010 | 10:10 pmToday is Safer Internet Day in the European Union, a day that promotes safe and responsible use of the Internet and mobile technologies among young people. We asked Childnet International, a member of Facebook's Safety Advisory Board, and its CEO Will Gardner to share more about this year's theme and how the organization is working with young people on Internet safety. When young people discuss the future of the Internet and new technologies, a central theme is keeping safe. Many see it as a right. At Childnet International, we saw this reaction firsthand as part of the recent Youth IGF… -
Faster, Simpler Photo Uploads
5 Feb 2010 | 2:57 pmFacebook is the largest photo-sharing site with over 2.5 billion photos uploaded to Facebook each month. In order to make sharing photos even easier, today we are announcing a new and improved photo uploader. Recently we've received feedback that people struggle with our current photo uploader due to various technical issues, while others are confused by the installation process. In this new version of the photo uploader, we have solved many of those problems and developed a fast, stable and simple experience for sharing photos on Facebook. The new uploader will be rolling out gradually over… -
Introducing Your New Navigation
4 Feb 2010 | 6:46 pmOver the past few months, we've been testing several different designs of the home page to improve navigation to and discovery of commonly used features. Today, we started rolling out the most recent navigation updates to help you find what you are looking for on Facebook. Now from the top and left menus you can quickly get to what's new and important. Stay Updated from the Top Menu In the top menu, you will find your newest notifications, requests and messages. For example, when you receive a Facebook notification about someone writing on your Wall or tagging you in a photo, you'll see a red… -
Six Years of Making Connections
4 Feb 2010 | 5:41 pmToday we're celebrating our sixth birthday, and this week there will be 400 million people on Facebook. Just one year ago we served less than half as many people, and thanks to you we've made great progress over the last year towards making the world more open and connected. Facebook began six years ago today as a product that my roommates and I built to help people around us connect easily, share information and understand one another better. We hoped Facebook would improve people's lives in important ways. So it's rewarding to see that as Facebook has grown, people around the world are… -
Connecting with... Sam Gosling: Facebook Psychologist
2 Feb 2010 | 12:56 pmAt Facebook, we're constantly connecting with interesting people—from experts in their field, academics and researchers to celebrities or visitors to our office. Occasionally, we'll share these conversations on the Facebook Blog in our "Connecting with...." series. I had the opportunity to speak with Sam Gosling, professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin and author of "Snoop: What your stuff says about you." He recently published research that found that people are expressing their real personalities on social networks like Facebook, rather than inflated takes on…
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NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network
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Calling all NPTech Knights to the RoundTable!
9 Feb 2010 | 10:18 amFlickr Photo by Trainer62You may have noticed there's a lot going on at the NTEN court as of late -- new nten.org (just look around), release of the NTEN Data Ecosystem Report, NTC Scholarship Campaign, the NTC, and a great line-up of webinars! Along with the many ways to engage and learn, we still want to continue to give NTEN Members the opportunity to talk with their colleagues who might be struggling with the same issues they are. So we invite you to gather 'round with the NTEN Community at one of our upcoming RoundTables. The NTEN RoundTables focus in on 3 areas -- Consultants,… -
Why My Mom Is My Fundraising Guru
8 Feb 2010 | 3:26 pmFlickr Photo: Mez LoveYou may have heard by now that we're raising money for scholarships to the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference.Last year was the first time we ran the campaign, and while we met our goal, it was a stretch, and we almost burnt ourselves out. The challenge in online fundraising today is that it's more than just email: it's Facebook, and Twitter, and e-mail, and widgets, and your website, and your blog, and your supporters blogs, and... well, you get the idea. During the course of the 2009 fundraising campaign, the task ahead of me often felt like Medusa: if I stared… -
Introducing the New NTEN.org
8 Feb 2010 | 3:12 pmAfter what seems like months of work, we've finally implemented our web site redesign. (If you've been following this space, you'll know it seems like months because it was: 8 of them since the start of our information architecture review. So, to those of you who've been waiting with bated breath, our apologies. Hopefully the faster-loading site makes it up to you.) While the new look has thrown off a few of us here at NTEN HQ -- years of habituation to click the same spot to go the the NTC pages, undone! -- we hope it will make the process of finding things on our site more intuitive for… -
NTEN Member Buzz Round-Up: February 5th
5 Feb 2010 | 10:43 am(Note: This is a weekly round-up of NTEN members doing and sharing their nptech awesome. Members are in bold. Tag your own news with "nten member" or "nptech" to help us find your awesome online, or contact Annaliese with your updates.) Amy Sample Ward blogs about a new report on nonprofit's use of social media, summarizing the findings and adding a few insights and tips of her own. Thank you for sharing, Amy! ReadWriteWeb wants to point out the "social media for good" organizations that deliver on the "good" part, not just the social media. -
The Overhead Question: What's Our Role?
4 Feb 2010 | 2:27 pmFlickr Photo: tylerdurden1Ask any nonprofit to describe how they feel about their overhead percentage, and you're most likely to be met with groans, sighs and rolls of eyes. None of us like the fact that the percentage of income we spend on "overhead" is the primary measure of our effectiveness. The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle aptly summarized the problem with the overhead measure this summer. Then, in December, some of the sector's top rating agencies, including Guidestar and Charity Navigator, agreed that a new measure is needed. Here at NTEN, we're keenly interested in this…
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Zyozy Foundation Blog
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Be a Part of the ‘Haiti Choir Project’ Power Tribe!
8 Feb 2010 | 5:10 pmTo all those who have signed on to support the spread of the Brighter Way Haiti Choir Project, Let’s have a quick call! If you’re free on Friday, February 12 at 5PM CST, join us for 30 minutes to discuss the plan to spread the message of this project and the song! We’ll discuss ways for you to be involved on the social media, networking and fundraising sides of things! And we’ll gladly take your suggestions! Come with ideas and excitement!! All are welcome! Call-in details: Number: (712)-775-7100 Access Code: 429712# We’ve been tweeting some of the choir… -
Something so simple
8 Feb 2010 | 3:49 pmWe’re looking for something so simple. So simple, that we can’t hold it in our hands or in our heads. So we look to him. To her. To them. To there. We look to everywhere but here. To when. To then. But not to now. It’s hidden just beyond our cleverness. So we presume it’s out there. But perhaps it’s in here. -
One Week to Wait: Haiti Choir Project Update
3 Feb 2010 | 12:29 pmI woke up this morning, looked at what day it was and smiled. In one week, we’ll have all of the videos to start compiling the final piece. And then it begins. We have already raised $200 for people in Haiti. That buys a lot of water, some clothing, maybe even some medical supplies. But I want for us to do so much more. It really isn’t about how much money you are able to give - it is about the lives of these orphaned children- it’s about protecting them from the traffickers, providing them with education, offering them love. On Valentines Day, I am going to ask that you… -
Help Heal Haiti
31 Jan 2010 | 4:06 pmdeisgn by Kyle Ellis -
US corporate and foundation donations to Haiti
29 Jan 2010 | 8:54 amPeople walk on a debris-covered street in Port-au-Prince January 17, 2010. (REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar) Below are selected corporate donations of $100,000 or more. The list omits gifts of goods and services, while including money from customers and corporate matches. Company releases are the source. Nonprofit recipients are listed when identified. via Bloomberg ========================================================================= Corporate Donors Amount Recipients ========================================================================= = Verizon Wireless Capital LLC $7,820,000 American Red…
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THE DAILY BLONDE
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Tainted Salami
4 Feb 2010 | 10:38 pmI read a lot about food recalls. They concern me. Mostly because I found myself in the ER a year ago after getting it on with Sal Monella. Recently there has been a big to-do about a rather substantial lot of salami and sausage products made in my fine little state that were tainted with salmonella. [...] -
Apple iPad vs. Kotex: Does it have wings?
27 Jan 2010 | 3:41 pmInterestingly enough I received an email today from Kotex as I was in the midst of writing my opinion about Apple’s new iPad. I was writing hours before the big Apple media fiesta was to begin and, at that time, the rumor was that it would be called the iSlate or something similar. So, of [...] -
Spell Check Doesn’t Help
24 Jan 2010 | 10:00 pmI wanted to grow up to be a writer who was a mix between Erma Bombeck and Ernest Hemingway. Strange mix. Then again, I’m talking about myself here. I haven’t grown up yet. There is still hope. I am, however, a writer. I mostly like to write senseless crap here on my blog, but that doesn’t [...] -
Repeat AssHat Award: John Edwards
22 Jan 2010 | 7:44 amIn April of last year I gave John Edwards an AssHat of the Week award. Just the fact that he was just such a pompous jackass when it came to his affair with Rielle Hunter was enough to give him a mention. Men have affairs. Women have affairs. It’s just something that goes on with people [...] -
Why Do Women Cry So Much?
19 Jan 2010 | 8:02 amI’ve recently given some thought as to why women cry and men rarely do (or at least they hide it well). There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, but it seems to be something to do with hormones, miscommunication, frustration or sadness. Maybe it’s just a PMS roller coaster ride. That usually [...]
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Guy Kawasaki
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How to Avoid Gullibility
8 Feb 2010 | 3:45 pmWe’ve all been sucked into doing something stupid, right? Fortunately, Steven Greenspan has written a book called Annals of Gullibility. In its conclusion he explains how to avoid gullibility, and I’ve provided a synopsis for you. Read the full story at the American Express Open Forum. More on psychology if you need the advice. -
How to Be Empathetic
4 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pmBy definition, good marketers are empathetic. That is, they have a capacity to understand and care for the needs of others. Bruna Martinuzzi explains how to be empathetic over at the American Express Open Forum. -
How to Not Be Annoying on Twitter
4 Feb 2010 | 10:19 pmAmber MacArthur explains how to not be annoying on Twitter over at the American Express Open Forum. Sage advice for you to develop a great reputation and following on Twitter. More Twitter tips. -
The Elements of Guyle: British Blogging
27 Jan 2010 | 10:06 pmWant to make your blog classier? You should blog like a Brit. I explain how to do this in ten easy steps. -
How to follow the Apple announcement
27 Jan 2010 | 7:56 amFollow the Apple announcement at Apple.alltop. We aggregate over 200 sources there.
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SmartBrief: Leadership
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Are dog owners dumber than cat owners?
8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmCat owners tend to be far better educated than dog owners, according to a new study in the U.K. -More- Director, Financial Planning & Analysis Virgin America -
Real leaders know how to fight right
8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmGood leaders know how to smooth over destructive disputes -- but also how to fan the flames of constructive conflicts within -More- -
Can AT&T escape the iPhone quagmire?
8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmWhen AT&T became the sole U.S. -More- -
Populism won't put America back on track
8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmThe current upswelling of angry populism is understandable, but serious politicians should do their best to ignore it, writes -More- -
Bonfire of the vanity metrics
8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmWhen it comes to measuring success, it's always tempting for managers to focus on numbers that make them look good, writes Er -More- Search Engine Strategies New York brings you the experts that can help determine which emerging technologies and channels you should be investing in for 2010. Join nearly 5,000 marketers for training and discussion on topics like ppc and seo management, keyword research, social media marketing and more.
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SmartBrief: Entrepreneurship
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Who needs a storefront?
4 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmTaylor Llewellyn launched his Tucker Blair line of needlepoint belts and other accessories during a recession, only to find t -More- -
Surf's up -- but money's tight at Mavericks
4 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmKeir Beadling, a former corporate lawyer, took over California's popular Mavericks surfing contest in 2003, turning it into a -More- -
Hunting for opportunity, farming for growth
4 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmAre you a hunter or a farmer? -More- -
Should the SBA be a lender of last resort?
4 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmEntrepreneur Steve Gordon asked President Barack Obama a question at a town hall meeting that many other business owners may -More- -
Advantages of the middle-aged brain
4 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmYoung people generally have more energy and technological adaptability, but recent discoveries in brain science show that mid -More-
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The Bloggess
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This is how my whole life goes
8 Feb 2010 | 2:53 pmThis is why I shouldn’t be allowed to be on twitter: PS. My friend MariaMelee is truly amazing and her roach spray review was like the Iliad of roach spray reviews. She’s awesome. I’m going to go to bed now. -
It’s been a very long week.
7 Feb 2010 | 11:41 amIt’s Sunday which means it’s time for my weekly wrap-up: This week on Ask the Bloggess: Sexomnia: No one’s falling for it, asshole. I was on a lot of drugs when I wrote this but it’s still vaguely valid. This week on my sex column (which is satirical and relatively safe for work if your boss isn’t a douche canoe): How Nina Hartley became my new best friend. This week on the internets: I was on twitter too much. This week on Good Mom/Bad Mom on the Houston Chronicle: My daughter, the scientist Buckle up, buttercup. This week… -
RIP, Aunt Ollene
5 Feb 2010 | 1:04 pmMy sister, Lisa, just called to tell me that our great aunt Ollene just died and we decided to go in together on a flower arrangement and so I ordered it online from the florist across the street from the funeral home and it was very nice because their website basically pre-populates all the funeral home info since that’s where they do most of their business but then the end of the form left me a little baffled: Huh. Do I want you to remind me of my dead aunt’s death again next year? Well, of course I do. Why wouldn’t I want you to bring up this painful event with an… -
It’s like they’re just doing it on purpose now.
5 Feb 2010 | 7:23 amRemember a few weeks ago when I fell into a shitstorm because of Dr. Pepper and then the next week the questionable Dr. Pepper was missing and instead that shelf was covered in Bawls? I just got back from Target. The bawls have been removed. They’ve been replaced with nuts. I couldn't even make this shit up, y'all. Honestly, it’s like the magical shelf of things-to-make-Jenny-suspect-she’s-being-videotaped. And I actually went and looked for the Bawls since so many people said I should try them but I couldn’t find them anywhere and when the clerk asked me… -
Also, I invented gravity.
2 Feb 2010 | 11:16 amPeople that I’m suing this week: 1. My 10-year-old niece, Gabi 2. The creators of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” 3. Natalie Dee Why? Remember back in January of 2009 when I invented kitten-mittens? Remember? And you said it was awesome? Fuck. Hang on. Here’s a snippet of the post to jog your memory: …I also came up with another idea to re-purpose used breast-pumps to suck dead kittens inside out because then…TA DA!…fur-lined mittens for homeless people. I told my friend Kregg about it and he was all “That’s…weird” and I’m all “It’s…
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Zen Habits
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On minimalism
8 Feb 2010 | 12:26 pmPost written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. How does ’simple’ differ from ‘minimalist’? That’s the question someone asked me on Twitter recently, and it’s a good one. Zen Habits has become known as a leading simplicity blog, and at the same time I recently started mnmlist, a blog about minimalism. Why the two blogs? What’s the difference? It’s an important question as it forces us to examine each concept a little more closely. First, let’s acknowledge that the two concepts are related, and in some ways are two ways of saying the… -
12 Classic Zen Habits Posts You Might Not Have Read
6 Feb 2010 | 4:37 pm“There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. This morning I found myself lying around, enjoying a lazy weekend with my wife and kids, basking in the peaceful simplicity of today. It’s in these moments that I find not only my greatest happiness, but my purpose in life. I am here not to achieve or even to change the world, but simply to live. Life is a gift, and I’m happy to accept every moment of it. And so, in this spirit, I thought I’d dig through my archives and share a few favorite posts, to… -
9 Unconventional Steps to a Thriving, “Very Small” Business
4 Feb 2010 | 7:00 amEditor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity. For more than ten years I’ve operated a string of one-man businesses. My model is: keep it lean, hire no one, and outsource very little. I’ve made my share of mistakes (a long list!), but one thing has remained constant—I want to add extreme value to my customers, and I want to make a good living without simply creating a job for myself. Here’s what I’ve learned. 1. Hire no one. My Unconventional Guides business took off in early 2009, and for a while I felt an internal… -
Zen Habits Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1 Feb 2010 | 2:57 pmPost written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. I get asked a lot of questions, many of them repeatedly, and I figured instead of answering them all over and over, I’d compile my answers for everyone here. Of course, there’s a lot more about me and this site on the About page, and I’d always love it if you checked out the Books page. I hope you find this useful! 1. Why did you turn off comments on Zen Habits? This has been the most difficult decision I’ve made since starting Zen Habits, as I truly loved comments here. I love hearing from readers, and it was my… -
How Not to Hurry
28 Jan 2010 | 4:56 pm“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~ Lao Tzu Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. Consider the above quote from Lao Tzu, (perhaps mythical) father of Taoism: how can it be true? Is it possible to never hurry, but to get everything done? It seems contradictory to our modern world, where everything is a rush, where we try to cram as much into every minute of the day as possible, where if we are not busy, we feel unproductive and lazy. In fact, often we compete by trying to show how busy we are. I have a thousand projects to do! Oh yeah? I have 10,000! The…
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Signal vs. Noise
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PHOTO: Stewart Butterfield's resignation letter
9 Feb 2010 | 8:12 amStewart Butterfield’s resignation letter from Yahoo (from Watching the birth of Flickr co-founder’s gaming start-up) -
PHOTO: There's quality control for you. This is
8 Feb 2010 | 4:06 pmThere’s quality control for you. This is the latest entries in the Entertainment category on iTunes. -
The App Store: Quality control without the quality
8 Feb 2010 | 1:42 pmI love my iPhone and I love Apple (cue images of flag pins and “I love muh countray!”), but I believe they’re blowing it with the App Store gate keeping. That’s of course not a new opinion. Developers left and right have been decrying the broken process. But there’s nothing like feeling it on your own bones to make the point. We have a couple of new features in the wing for Campfire. They’ve been done for more than 10 days now. Why haven’t we released them yet? Because the iPhone app Ember needed to have a simple regular expression updated to support… -
Scope a variable to a block in your template code
8 Feb 2010 | 10:38 amSometimes you are coding a template and you need to refer to the same method chain over and over. For example, you’re coding a template that summarizes activity on recent messages. You iterate through a block of messages, and for each message you want to display some information pertaining to the last comment. You could do it like this: <div class="active_messages"> <% @active_messages.each do |message| %> <h1><%= message.title %></h1> <div class="latest_comment"> <div class="avatar"> <%= avatar_for(message.comments.last.creator) %>… -
Descriptive words and phrases found on a $6 bottle of hand soap
8 Feb 2010 | 9:38 amExtremely mild Richly foaming Naturally gentle Deeply cleanses Nourishes Pure and soothing Synergistically Refresh and restore Skin radiance Cool soothing Protects and restores balance Harmonize and replenish Additional moisturizing benefit What doesn’t this stuff do? Lather up and this naturally gentle, richly foaming, pure and soothing nourishing cleanser will synergistically refresh, harmonize, replenish, protect and restore balance with cool soothing botanicals. Kinda ridiculous, isn’t it? Reading this should remind you to read your own site, your own marketing copy, your own…
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xkcd.com
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Trimester
7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm -
You Hang Up First
4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm -
Tensile vs. Shear Strength
2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm -
Strip Games
31 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
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Blog Design, Optimization & Usability - TopRank Marketing
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Blogger.com Shutting Down FTP
1 Feb 2010 | 7:45 amOne of the biggest features that Blogger.com had over other free blogging sites is the ability to publish files to a website via FTP. This allowed site owners to have a blog in a directory on their site without having to install and maintain software on their web server. Unfortunately, on March 26th, Blogger.com is shutting down their FTP functionality. Blogger claims that only .5% of their users use this feature and that it’s a big strain on their engineering staff to keep it working like it should. So they are shutting it down. So now what? Are you a part of that .5%? Believe it or… -
Are Trackbacks & Pingbacks Dead?
20 Jan 2010 | 2:15 pmThe idea of trackbacks and pingbacks are great. It’s a way of getting notified when someone else posts about you on their blog. However, spammers have taken over and it makes you wonder if there is any value in trackbacks anymore. My guess is that most bloggers will say that the value is little to none. The number of spammy trackbacks are overwhelming at times and, even if you do have a good spam plugin protecting you, the ones that get through are not quality. The chances that a good trackback comes into your site is rare, but when it does, it is great to see. The idea of trackbacks is… -
The Only Must Have Item For A Successful Blog
7 Jan 2010 | 7:52 amBelieve it or not, there is only one item you need to have a successful blog; and that’s ambition. Ambition – Photo from hlkljgk It doesn’t matter if you use WordPress, Blogger or TypePad. It doesn’t matter if you are an industry thought leader or a virtual unknown. As long as you have the ambition to post often, the ability to stick with it, and can be patient, you’ll be successful in time. Yes, there are other things that can help make your blog successful but if you don’t put forth the effort to create good content in the first place, all the tools and… -
Relocate Upload Organizes Your WordPress Uploads
21 Dec 2009 | 7:53 amHave you ever wanted to have the ability to better organize your uploads folder in WordPress? By default, WordPress organizes all uploaded media by year and month. Where this works well for some bloggers, others want to organize their uploads into things like pdfs, downloads, videos and so on. This is especially important when using WordPress as a CMS. That’s where the Relocate Upload plugin comes in handy. Relocate Upload allows a blog admin to setup custom folders inside the uploads folder, or anywhere on the web server, for better file organization. Relocate Upload Settings When… -
MacGyver Guide To Blogging – 13 Free Tools
10 Dec 2009 | 8:28 amIf MacGyver has taught us anything, it’s that you don’t need big expensive tools to get the job done. The same goes for blogging. There are plenty of free blogging tools and resources to do everything from creating SEO friendly sites to keyword research and analytics. Why spend the money on a tool when you could use that money on internet marketing services or to grow your company? Here are 13 free blogging tools and resources that MacGyver would be proud of. WordPress MacGyver would surly use the most popular, customizable, powerful, and completely free, blogging software on the…
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The Bloggess
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This is how my whole life goes
8 Feb 2010 | 2:53 pmThis is why I shouldn’t be allowed to be on twitter: PS. My friend MariaMelee is truly amazing and her roach spray review was like the Iliad of roach spray reviews. She’s awesome. I’m going to go to bed now. -
It’s been a very long week.
7 Feb 2010 | 11:41 amIt’s Sunday which means it’s time for my weekly wrap-up: This week on Ask the Bloggess: Sexomnia: No one’s falling for it, asshole. I was on a lot of drugs when I wrote this but it’s still vaguely valid. This week on my sex column (which is satirical and relatively safe for work if your boss isn’t a douche canoe): How Nina Hartley became my new best friend. This week on the internets: I was on twitter too much. This week on Good Mom/Bad Mom on the Houston Chronicle: My daughter, the scientist Buckle up, buttercup. This week… -
RIP, Aunt Ollene
5 Feb 2010 | 1:04 pmMy sister, Lisa, just called to tell me that our great aunt Ollene just died and we decided to go in together on a flower arrangement and so I ordered it online from the florist across the street from the funeral home and it was very nice because their website basically pre-populates all the funeral home info since that’s where they do most of their business but then the end of the form left me a little baffled: Huh. Do I want you to remind me of my dead aunt’s death again next year? Well, of course I do. Why wouldn’t I want you to bring up this painful event with an… -
It’s like they’re just doing it on purpose now.
5 Feb 2010 | 7:23 amRemember a few weeks ago when I fell into a shitstorm because of Dr. Pepper and then the next week the questionable Dr. Pepper was missing and instead that shelf was covered in Bawls? I just got back from Target. The bawls have been removed. They’ve been replaced with nuts. I couldn't even make this shit up, y'all. Honestly, it’s like the magical shelf of things-to-make-Jenny-suspect-she’s-being-videotaped. And I actually went and looked for the Bawls since so many people said I should try them but I couldn’t find them anywhere and when the clerk asked me… -
Also, I invented gravity.
2 Feb 2010 | 11:16 amPeople that I’m suing this week: 1. My 10-year-old niece, Gabi 2. The creators of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” 3. Natalie Dee Why? Remember back in January of 2009 when I invented kitten-mittens? Remember? And you said it was awesome? Fuck. Hang on. Here’s a snippet of the post to jog your memory: …I also came up with another idea to re-purpose used breast-pumps to suck dead kittens inside out because then…TA DA!…fur-lined mittens for homeless people. I told my friend Kregg about it and he was all “That’s…weird” and I’m all “It’s…
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37days
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found-art tuesday : Quick! Grab Your Camera! They're everywhere!
9 Feb 2010 | 9:14 amQuick! Grab Your Camera! They're everywhere!I love found art. My camera is always with me, my beloved Canon S90, the one I bought recently to replace my beloved other much written about Canon Powershot. Always in the front pocket of my Scottevest along with an index card and a pen from the Graves 601 Hotel. Unrelated, but constant companions. And so I was delighted to be introduced to the work of Ruth Kaiser who is on a mission to help people find smiles in their days. She's collecting photos from folks all over the world who are finding smiles. These photos are all from her. Go, look at her… -
thinking thursday.
3 Feb 2010 | 9:31 pmmind :: my brain and yoursSelf-imposed constraints foster creativity.What is the optimal size of groups?My Bridging Differences book group has begun for 2010. With a Twitter component starting soon. Read with us.Playing to Learn.I like pictures.body :: my place and yours I want to see this painting in person.Perfect lasagne (vegetarian, not vegan). From one of my favorite food blogs. Perfect. Every. Time. And most importantly: EASY. QUICK. You know what makes it perfect? The nutmeg. And the eating part.I don't get what the big deal is. I put my pants on like this every morning.Technology… -
poetry wednesday : snow slam
2 Feb 2010 | 10:21 pmI don't really do snow. Ask my family. It snows, I stay inside by a DeLonghi portable heater with tiny handwarmers stuck inside the twittens Laurie Foley knitted for me, my neck swathed in the wool/silk blend scarf knitted for me by Aurora Fox. I don't like to be cold. My limbs are cold-prone. I'M A COLD WEATHER WIMP. I am a fan of the apres-ski, not the ski. There. I said it. Given that aversion to cold, and particularly to blizzard-type cold, where cold=wet and cold, it might come as some significant surprise that last Friday night IN THE MIDDLE OF A BLIZZARD with impassable roads, I made… -
found-art tuesday : snow. light. see.
1 Feb 2010 | 9:10 pmThere is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. -Leonard CohenI love this photo taken by Mr Brilliant after our most recent snowstorm. What does it mean to change our perspective? To see through to something else? To find the opening that allows us to see new things? To see. Not just look, walk past, point a camera at. But see.We lose the ability to see. We see what we expect to see. Not what's really there. Or what could be. We rue the cracks ... when the cracks are the very thing that let the light in.We see snow on the surface of the ground, forgetting to look up.See. What… -
mindful monday : sit in.
1 Feb 2010 | 8:57 amToday is the 50th anniversary of the moment when people just like you and I said "enough." They sat. And because they sat, we live the lives we are living now. "Fifty years ago, on Feb. 1, four black college students sat down at a whites-only Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. The 'Greensboro Four,' along with friends and supporters, returned to the counter every day for six months until the lunch counter was desegregated." -NPRThose students were Ezell A. Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond.Here's to sitting. Here's to…
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Inspiration & Motivation Blog
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5 Weaknesses of Leaders of Sun Tzu Style
5 Feb 2010 | 9:38 pmPhoto by Al-khairi “The greatness of a leader will determine achievement of success. The weakness of a leader will drag his followers into defeat.” A leader takes a very vital role in winning a war. That’s shy in the book: “13 war strategies of Sun Tzu”, the figure of leader is the central point. The great capability of a leader will determine the success achieved. On the contrary, the weakness of a leader will take his followers into defeat. This war strategy of Sun Tzu is already more than 2500 years old but up to this moment it is still relevant in discussing the role of leaders. -
Ears (The Story About Love)
21 Jan 2010 | 7:04 pmPhoto by mbanas7 “Can I see my baby?” the happy new mother asked. When the bundle was nestled in her arms and she moved the fold of cloth to look upon his tiny face, she gasped. The doctor turned quickly and looked out the tall hospital window. The baby had been born without ears. Time proved that the baby’s hearing was perfect. It was only his appearance that was marred. When he rushed home from school one day and flung himself into his mother’s arms, she sighed, knowing that his life was to be a succession of heartbreaks. He blurted out the tragedy. “A boy, a… -
How To Deposit Your Relationship For Interest ?
7 Jan 2010 | 9:09 pmPhoto by JH Events “In the first place, those who become leaders are not necessarily the strongest or the greatest, but the ones that have the most friends and connections.” (William F. Allman, author of “The Store Age Present”) Deposit account is one popular way to invest our money because it offers safety at a very small risk. In spite of its low interest, deposit account is much preferred among other alternative of investment. As all savings in general, you can only with draw money to the amount you deposited and can’t withdrawn more than what you put in. withdrawal can’t also… -
God’s Coffee (A Story About Life)
24 Dec 2009 | 5:07 amPhoto by trondjs A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were… -
Ever Onward, No Retreat (Never Give Up)
10 Dec 2009 | 4:37 amPhoto by softbeesmart Have you ever seen a stone mason crush a large stone with a sledge hammer? Have you too ever asked him how many times he must strike to break such a large stone? I am sure if you did ask that question, you would not get a definite answer because the stone mason himself would not know how many blows it takes to break that stone. All he knows is that as long as he keeps striking, any stone however hard and big will eventually be broken to pieces. Drawing some lesson from that, we sometimes are actually about to step into the door of success if only we keep on moving a…
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Max Gladwell - social media and green living
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Smart Grid Citizen: Happy Paperless Trails
9 Feb 2010 | 8:05 amMax Gladwell Smart Grid Citizen: Happy Paperless Trails - http://smartgridcitizen.blogspot.com/2010... 4 hours ago from Google Reader - Comment - Like -
Embracing the Geo-Local Revolution http://bit.ly/as6Ws8 How will geolocation tech make society more sustainable? #geo
9 Feb 2010 | 7:23 amMax Gladwell Embracing the Geo-Local Revolution http://www.maxgladwell.com/2010... How will geolocation tech make society more sustainable? #geo 4 hours ago from Twitter - Comment - Like -
Foursquare Inks Deals With Major Media and Entertainment Brands
9 Feb 2010 | 7:07 amMax Gladwell Foursquare Inks Deals With Major Media and Entertainment Brands - http://mashable.com/2010... 5 hours ago from Google Reader - Comment - Like -
Startup Priorities: Is Design More Important Than Engineering?
8 Feb 2010 | 8:33 pmMax Gladwell Startup Priorities: Is Design More Important Than Engineering? - http://www.readwriteweb.com/start... 15 hours ago from Google Reader - Comment - Like -
Max Gladwell Embraces Geo-Local Revolution
8 Feb 2010 | 8:30 pmMax Gladwell Max Gladwell Embraces Geo-Local Revolution - http://www.maxgladwell.com/2010... 15 hours ago from Google Reader - Comment - Like
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Change.org's Women's Rights Blog
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New Hampshire Women Want to Be Included in the Constitution
9 Feb 2010 | 9:40 amYou let women get a little power, and what happens? They want to rewrite the whole constitution! Good for them. In the United States Senate, women fill less than a fifth of the seats. Pitiful. On the other hand, New Hampshire broke new ground in the 2008 election by voting a female majority into the state Senate, making it the first state in the nation to upset the tradition of male dominance. And women want the state constitution to recognize that they are here: proposed legislation would replace constitutional references to men with gender-neutral language, starting at the top, with "All… -
On One Florida Corner, "12th & Delaware" Finds Microcosm of Abortion Battle
9 Feb 2010 | 7:00 amLast week I had the privilege of watching some truly amazing documentaries at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. "12th & Delaware," directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady ("The Boys of Baraka," "Jesus Camp"), explores the battle raging on a Fort Pierce, Florida corner where an abortion clinic and a pro-life pregnancy center sit across the street from each other. Just before daybreak, a single pro-life protester awaits the arrival of an abortion provider to the clinic. When she sees him coming -- covered in a white sheet, sitting in the passenger seat of a bright yellow Mustang -- she lets… -
The Super Bowl: Double Standards and Fighting Against Choice
8 Feb 2010 | 9:06 pmSuper Bowl Sunday is over, but the advertisements live on around the internet. The misogyny certainly rolled; my fav is Dodge Charger's Man's Last Stand, which you can read a great Feministing commentary summing up. But since we've been chattering about Focus on the Family's Tim Tebow ad for a while now, I'll weigh in on that (hopefully) one last time. The ad was surprisingly cutesy and innocuous (if also vague and confusing), but Michael Jones over on the Gay Rights blog writes that even though it turned out not to spell out the extreme anti-choice message FoF is famous for, CBS was still… -
Abercrombie and Fitch Dislikes Disabled, Non-White, Non-Thin Women
8 Feb 2010 | 1:07 pmHere's to hoping that Abercrombie and Fitch is on the verge of a quick spiral into oblivion. The brand has earned a lovely reputation as a discriminator against Hispanics, Asians, African Americans and people with disabilities, and has been forced to settle lawsuit after lawsuit for its discriminatory and unfair unemployment practices. It's hard to think of a store that more faithfully celebrates white, blond, excessively thin WASP-iness as a superior aesthetic and, indeed, a superior racial category. It does so with a "look policy" that stipulates how long employees' nails should be, how… -
Johnny Depp Defends Rapist
8 Feb 2010 | 9:30 amJohnny, you make such a sexy Captain Jack Sparrow. And there will always be a special place in my heart for Edward Scissorhands. I have to admit, your version of Willy Wonka was just a little too creepy for me, but that didn't make me cherish your pirating days any less. Unfortunately, you've lost all your charm (and your place in my fantasies) with your defense of a child rapist. It doesn't matter that you've joined a chorus of celebrity voices defending Roman Polanski for raping a 13-year-old. It doesn't excuse your comments that Whoopi Goldberg claimed what happened to the girl wasn't…
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Children
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The Silent Cries of India’s Untouchable Children
7 Feb 2010 | 9:33 amMany of us fail to think that in today’s modern society there is truly a caste system and that populations, including children, would be deemed ‘untouchable’. For me what first comes to mind is the Biblical references to the Lepers, or how our society once condemned most with mental or learning disabilities to a life of institutionalized isolation. However caste-based discrimination is far from a thing of the past in India, as discrimination against Dalits, or “untouchables” in Indian society, continues. In India’s historical Hindu caste system, which was… -
News…
6 Feb 2010 | 6:22 amNew vaccine might protect children from malaria An experimental malaria vaccine that boosts immune responses has produced powerful antibodies in young children during initial trials, U.S. researchers say. Scientists hope the vaccine can be used to bring an end to the 1 million deaths a year associated with malaria. Polio survivors face new threats Post-polio syndrome continues to haunt hundreds of thousands of aging polio survivors, adversely affecting their quality of life. The absence of polio in the U.S. for several decades has created a dearth of medical professionals with experience… -
Haiti News…
4 Feb 2010 | 11:40 pmHaiti housing concerns mounting Haitian authorities and aid groups are in a race against time to ensure earthquake survivors have shelter before the rainy season begins in March. Aid groups are hoping to encourage the use of transitional shelters that can later be reinforced into more permanent structures over tents. Some food aid sold via Haiti’s underground economy Although food distribution has become more orderly since the chaotic first days after the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake, some of the food has been diverted to the black market. World Food Programme representatives say some such… -
15th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women
3 Feb 2010 | 9:03 pmPhoto: UNICEF This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing, China in 1995. With one hundred and eighty-nine Member States adopting the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which laid out a comprehensive agenda for women’s political and economic empowerment and the foundations for gender mainstreaming. The Conference was seen as an historic milestone in the advancement to attain global gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment. Since the Beijing conference, a number of significant UN and government steps have… -
National Freedom Day
1 Feb 2010 | 7:16 pmToday is National Freedom Day, marking the anniversary of the ratification the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution under Lincoln, promising freedom from slavery and involuntary servitude. The day was enacted by President Harry Truman on June 30, 1948, as he signed the bill proclaiming February 1 as National Freedom Day. I spent the evening at a Freedom Day celebration, hosted by Courtney’s House, for which they held an open house and shared their dreams of freedom with the community. Taking time to honor others in the filed, the organization recognized key supporters who have…
