Making Money Marketing

Kevin Smith’s Cop Out was not treated kindly by critics, which led many to accuse Smith of simply taking the director gig for an easy payday. Recently, Smith addressed those accusations via his Twitter account. Hit the jump to learn why he took a pay cut to make Cop Out.



Smith tweets in non-stop, stream-of-consciousness, so I’ve aggregated his tweets here in chronological order for easy reading. The following tweets were taken from Smith’s Twitter account on January 1st and January 2nd, 2011. In them, Smith explains the extent of the pay cut he took to make Cop Out:

Via @doubleplusgeoff “you’d do a lot for your credibility if you’d just come right out & say that CopOut was a ‘gettin paid’ movie” I wish I could. But I actually took an 84% pay cut to make #CopOut – because I wanted to work with BruceWillis. Lots of us did. Tracy got paid more than me, but not much. I also gave BACK half my already-way-less salary to get the film green-lit: there was a budget crunch to get to the $35million the studio wanted, so Marc Platt & I each gave up half our salaries IN ADDITION to the big dip in our quotes we’d agreed to. When all was said & done, we came in way under budget. Final cost: $32mil – $3mil less than we were allotted. Contractually, WB didn’t have to give me the money I gave up until they were in the black, but since we came in under budget, they cut me a check for the re-investment I’d made BEFORE the flick hit theaters. And even then, I still made 80% less than I did on my previous flick. I made MORE as the director of DOGMA in 1998 than I did as the director of COP OUT in 2009/2010. So please: enough with the “you musta got PAID” bullshit. I didn’t. Both my agent &  my lawyer were like “Don’t do this. You can get paid more making a Kevin Smith movie.”

Smith also sees the Cop Out as crucial to the making of Red State, a calculus which makes a certain amount of sense. He continues:

But I knew if I wanted to make RedState, I had to make CopOut. There were things I needed to learn, and I learned them – while making a financially responsible buddy cop homage for a major studio, from a script I didn’t write. I’m sorry you didn’t like CopOut; feel free to skip RedState if you feel betrayed in some way. But to suggest I did #CopOut for the money is ludicrous – as it was the least I’ve been paid to direct a film since 1998 – 11 years prior. CopOut may not fit into your KevinSmith narrative, but I know where my story goes – and it was the keystone to everything that RedState is.

Speaking of which, have you seen the trailer for Red State? It’s one of my favorite trailers of the year. If Cop Out is what Smith had to create to birth Red State, then I say more power to him.

Smith ended the discussion by delivering an important life lesson:

We don’t live in STAR WARS, kid. Motivations aren’t always as simple & clear as “The Empire is bad! Save the galaxy!” You may not understand why I do what I do, and that must frustrate you. But in a couple years, it’s all gonna make sense. And by the time it does, you won’t care anymore anyway. But at least I’ll have the record of this exchange; that and it’s one more question I won’t have to answer again. So thanks.

Now we have a record too. It’ll be interesting to see where Smith’s career is in a few years, and if it lives up to what he’s describing here.

Thanks God we are done with celebrating and can start working! Here’s one essential checklist for you to start:

1. Acknowledge Your Biggest Fans

Do you have fans that re-tweet your posts, email your articles to friends, and send new business your way? What have you done for them? Have you at least taken the time to thank them?

You should always monitor your brand, your website link and your own name (I use SocialMention). Every time someone says something nice about you, you should thank them. If you can do something else in return, by all means do.

2. Understand the Golden Rule of Blogging

Most blogs don’t appeal to the audience they’re writing for. The writing may be good, but the topics aren’t. Let’s say you sell furniture. Your blog shouldn’t be about your specials, the new employee you hired or about your vacation to Hawaii. Your blog should be about furniture.

Always ask yourself this question: who am I writing for? What kind of content do they want? It doesn’t matter if you don’t offer all the services you write about. For example, I own an Internet marketing agency and my audience is business owners. But, I don’t only write about online marketing; I write about topics that are of interest to business owners, such as lowering costs, motivating employees and off-line marketing.

Find out what your audience wants and give it to them.

3. Use Decoy Offers

Have you ever wondered why some stores sell an item for $100 and in the price tags says “Was $200″? It makes the current price look a lot better. Some people might think $100 is a lot of money for that item, but hey, it was $200, so you’re getting a great deal, right? Well, believe it or not, it works. This is because everything is either a great deal or an awful deal based on what you compare it with.

Psychologists call this “the principle of contrast.”  How can you use this to your benefit? My favorite way is to present two or more offers. One will be your current offer and then you’ll add some decoy offers. The decoy offers will be really bad deals, but they’ll make your main offer look great. For example, you can sell one can of your product at $19 and three cans at $25 with free shipping and feature this last offer as the weekly special. Try it; it works like a charm and there’s nothing unethical about it. You’ll keep your main offer and all you’re doing is making it look better by adding some not-so-attractive offers.

4. Write Your Marketing Copy First and Develop Your Product Around It

I’ve found this tactic to be extremely effective. Instead of creating a product and then writing the marketing message, I like writing the copy first because by trying to sell it with words, I get a much better understanding of what the audience really wants and I can give them that product or service.

5. People Buy from People, Not Companies

Your customers might have known your company first, but they bought from you because they liked you or the salesperson they dealt with. This is especially true in B2B. The takeaway here is: do a good job explaining how your company can help your clients but do an even better job connecting with your prospects at a personal level.

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Overcoming Bias : Bad <b>News</b>: Kant &amp; Bets

If we were to see life out there in the universe, at or below our level of development, that would be bad news regarding our future. It would suggest that more of the great filter that stands between dead matter and expanding ...

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YouTube - DESKTOP <b>NEWS</b>!!

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Making Money Ideas

Ross Douthat is right to say that worrying about what would happen if Ron Paul seized ultimate power and decreed America a minarchy probably isn't a good use of anyone's time. But where Douthat thinks that minarchy is used as a way to dismiss libertarians, in practice, I've tended to find it their first line of defense -- the right's version of "well, Marxism has never really been tried."

To some degree, you see it in Douthat's post, when he quotes Conor Friedersdorf lamenting "that libertarians hold very little power in this country." The reality is that the sort of incremental libertarianism that aligns with the interests of rich individuals and corporations has quite a lot of sway in Washington, but it routinely manages to escape the consequences of its ideas because, libertarians argue, the world we live in isn't the world they would've built, and so how can they be asked to answer for it? It's the "don't blame me. I voted for minarchy" defense.

But if the argument is that incremental libertarianism deserves more respect, then it also deserves more accountability. Desperate storytelling about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aside, the financial crisis was, in large part, the product of the idea that massive financial markets that we didn't understand would effectively regulate themselves. Alan Greenspan, perhaps the only man in America with the unilateral power to have prevented the blowup, has been quite clear on the flaw in his thinking: "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity — myself especially — are in a state of shocked disbelief."

To a first approximation, that was a failure of not just a crucial pillar of libertarian economic thought, but of libertarian practice: We spent the '90s not just deregulating, but much more dangerously, refusing to enact new regulations even as the financial system changed dramatically. One of the key players there was Sen. Phil Gramm, who certainly has his fans at the Cato Institute. His was the sort of libertarianism that is politically potent because it is backed by lots of money and lots of elites who combine to push it into the public discourse.

Taxes are another example. Plenty of libertarians have lined up for repeated tax cuts under the theory that they would stoke enough growth, and force enough compensatory budget cutting, to put the country on a more sustainable fiscal path. Plenty of wealthy individuals and firms have pumped a lot of money into propagating that theory and rewarding politicians who vote they way it asks them to. That theory, however, has been a disaster as a policy matter, even as the individuals and firms have made a lot of money.

And there's a lot of power, of course, lined up against anything that gets us close to single-payer health care. Most of the arguments made in that debate are fundamentally libertarian ones: that it will reduce freedom, or that government programs are inevitably bloated and wasteful ("Like going to the DMV? You'll love government health care!"). Cato's policy wonks spent much of 2009 on television arguing against reforms that would mean more government intrusion into the marketplace. Politicians and political organizations, meanwhile, received a lot of money and support in exchange for making those arguments. But it's of course true that America, being the developed country with the least nationalized health-care system, also spends the most and has the highest rate of uninsurance.

So when Douthat says that "a more-empowered libertarianism could have a salutary impact on debates over, say, the future of the entitlement system," it's worth asking what impact semi-empowered libertarianism has already had on debates over the entitlement system. That libertarian dreams of a privatized (or completely dismantled) Medicare system haven't come to pass is no more relevant than dreams of minarchy. What has come to pass is an aggressive and successful effort to stop America from following other countries' paths to national health-care systems. And the result can be seen here: If our costs had followed their costs, we'd have no budget deficit to speak of. Libertarians shouldn't have to answer for minarchy. But they do have to answer for that.

Business cycles and the essence of long-run economic growth are distinct issues. Preventing recessions is not the key to growth, as these are regrettable but unavoidable companions to an economy directed by a capital allocation process that is susceptible to systematic failure. Preventing the last failure is pretty irrelevant, because the next systematic failure will be different. Last I checked, only the US government is offering low-down payment loans, and no one offers no-documentation loans, so our government is not really helping here. As for creating growth via something new, if centralized governments could do that, the Soviet Union would still be around.

That decentralized, self-interested, people can collectively make such large errors seems irrational or corrupt to many, but they should remember that growing economies require people to be making things better, which means, new ways of doing things. New ideas are often wrong. Economics has gone onto intellectual cul-de-sacs many times (socialism, Keynesian macro models, input-output models, Hilbert spaces in finance, Arbitrage Pricing Theory, Kalman-filter macroeconomic models, etc.). Other scientific disciplines have their own mistakes, and political mistakes--stupid wars--are also common. These are rarely conspiracies, but rather, smart people making mistakes because the ideas that are true, important, and new, are really hard to discern, and tempting ones are alluring when lots of other seemingly successful people are doing it.

My Batesian Mimicry Theory posits that recessions happen because certain activities become full of mimics, entrepreneurs without any real alpha who got money from investors looking in their rear-view window of what worked and focusing on correlated but insufficient statistics. For example, people assumed a nationally diversified housing prices would not fall significantly in nominal terms, because they had not for generations; people assumed anything related to the internet would make them rich in the internet bubble, conglomerates would be robust to recession in 1970, that the 'nifty fifty' top US companies had Galbraithian power to withstand recessions in 1973, that cotton prices would not fall in 1837, etc.

As in ecological niches, there is no stable equilibrium with when mimics arise to gain the advantages of those with a real, unique and costly, comparative advantage. Every so often there are too many mimic Viceroy butterflies, not enough real poisonous Monarch ones, and a massive cataclysm occurs as predators ignore the unpleasant after-effects and start chomping on all of them. The Viceroy population grows until this devastating event occurs, a species recession. Next time, it won't happen in butterflies, but rather, among frogs or snakes. They key is, some ecological niche is always heading towards its own Mayan collapse (distinct from the 2012 Mayan apocolypse).

The key to wealth creation is doing less with more--destroying jobs at the micro level and creating jobs at the macro level by reallocating capital and labor to more valuable pursuits. The computer got rid of things from typesetters, secretaries, to engineers working with slide-rules, but these people didn't stay unemployed, they did something else, making the economic pie bigger. This is antithetical to government and unions who think creating a permanent 'job' creates productivity--stability at the micro level and stagnation at the macro level. Wealth is created by having decentralized decision-makers focused on simple goal of making money, which means, they oversee transactions where revenues collected are greater than expenses paid. If externalities are properly priced (I know, most liberal think this never happens), this implies value is created. The continual improvements in method (ie, productivity, wealth creation) merely maintain profits in a competitive environment; to do nothing would see their profits eaten away by competitors would could easily copy what they did and just undercut their prices.

The key to this is having managers who keep their workers focused. A good example is a story I heard second-hand about a football player for Minnesota Vikings in the 1970s. Coach Bud Grant called this marginal player into a meeting, and said, 'Here's what I need you to do...'. The player, an articulate fellow quite confident in himself, interrupted with an explanation of why he wasn't doing better and suggestions about how to correct it, mainly focused what others were doing wrong. Grant cut him off: 'You don't understand. This isn't a negotiation. Do what I'm telling you, and you have a role here. Otherwise, you don't.' Hierarchies only work well when people have clearly defined goals, and managers who manage their direct reports singlemindedly.

Private firms can do this much more quickly and often than government, and are rewarded with investment and retained earnings to the degree they do it well. When the government wants to do something, like build a light-rail system, it instead satisfies all its stakeholders who have no financial downside, only veto power, and so the cost/benefit calculus is almost irrelevant. The probability that benefits will outweigh costs when not prioritized is negligible, as highlighted by the fact that companies have to work very hard to make this positive when all those other considerations are ignored.

Thus, Minneapolis's light rail, at the cost of $1.1B for 12 miles of track, takes me longer to go downtown than a car because it stops 19 times at places no one wants to go because these 'hubs' were then sold as development opportunities, and an unusual number of ex-city councilmen are part owners of coffee shops and stores near these stops. Ridership does not even cover their marginal costs. It could have worked if they had an express train that went non-stop from end to end, but doesn't because it was not designed with the goal of making money, only the hope.

Good companies like Facebook, Apple and Google, have this sense of really understanding their users. Lots of simple things that making going to their sites and getting what you want. Their inferior competitors are relatively ugly, cluttered, and clunky. These generally weren't genius ideas like the ideas needed to create the first transistor, or Cantor's diagonal argument, in that there competitors had similar raw competence in these field, but it did take people looking to do things better than others, and decisive people who could empathize with their customers created really great things.

Robin Hanson had a neat article about the Myth of Creativity, where he criticizes Richard Florida's vision of bohemian lead productivity:

This is a Star Wars vision of innovation: "Feel the force, Luke; let go of your conscious self and act on instinct." And it is just as much a fantasy as that celluloid serial. Innovation is no more about releasing your inner bohemian than it is about holding hands, singing Kumbaya, and believing in innovation.

In truth, we don't need more suggestion boxes or more street mimes to fill people with a spirit of creativity. We instead need to better manage the flood of ideas we already have and to reward managers for actually executing them.

Sure, it's good to punish fraudsters, and be wary of the stupid ideas that were passed off as brilliant in the prior cycle (eg, Angelo Mozilo winning the American Banker's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, celebrated by politicians on the right and left, prized by Fannie Mae, and Harvard, is now an example of the 'unregulated predatory private sector'). But this is like learning not to put one's hand on a hot stove--good to know, but old news to most. Our priority at the top level should be to get out of the way, and so government should focus on its essential but limited perennial tasks as opposed to creating some new engine of growth. Leave that for the millions of people making sure millions of small changes are constantly made to daily procedures. Such changes do not require vision from politicians, subsidies, or tax breaks, but are rather the natural by product of people trying to make a buck. It's the standard Hayek/Friedman view of macroeconomics, and it's still the best description of how the complex adaptive system of our economy works.

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The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

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The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

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The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

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The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters macomb
surface encounters noblesville

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

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The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

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The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters
surface encounters noblesville

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters noblesville
surface encounters rock tops

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters
surface encounters
surface encounters

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters macomb mi
surface encounters rock tops

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters macomb
surface encounters

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters noblesville
surface encounters macomb

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters rock tops
surface encounters rock tops

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters michigan

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters noblesville
surface encounters macomb

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters
surface encounters

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Everything is dead

But programmers don't think this way, and I guess most programmers aren't news junkies. Because it was impossible to get through to them. No matter, the market eventually decided. A lot of wasted time, which sucks, but hardly the end of ...

surface encounters macomb
surface encounters rock tops

The Tools of Ignorance: Thursday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

Jorge the DH, Pettitte (the wait and the Hall), the Hall in general, and Soriano.

&#39;Friday Night Lights&#39;: The Bad <b>News</b> Lions - From Inside the Box <b>...</b>

Most of you likely won't be watching “Friday Night Lights” until the NBC run later in 2011, but for the dedicated few tuning into DirecTV, please join our swoony recapage of the series' final season.

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Kids Making Money

Handout/Getty Images

On September 9 just after 5 pm, a security camera at a guard station picked up three kids running inside. Some time later, a police car arrived at the scene, followed by an ambulance. In a few minutes, a woman is seen wheeled out on a medical gurney. The woman is holding on to her head as she is taken to the EMT response vehicle.

This woman is Josie Harris, the same Mrs. Harris that is currently suing the unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. for assault, trespassing and a few more knick-knacks forming an eight-charge case.

This video does a good job confirming that the police and medical staff were indeed there, and that Mrs. Harris was escorted out on a gurney. But that’s about all it does. I am not entirely sure why this video was released, and what it is meant to do. It doesn’t include Floyd, thus has absolutely no ties to the champ.

Floyd is due back in court on January 24. At this point, with such little evidence available, I wonder how this case will conclude. Rarely do I stand in and speak out for the famous defendant, as money and fame has the tendency to change people, in some cases making them unaware of consequences that could come of doing something that others are not allowed to do.

While I don’t speak for all the boxing fans out there, I hope I am speaking for many, by saying that I wholeheartedly hope that Floyd does not get abused by the system, and does not end up serving time. I would really like to see him climb back in the ring real soon.

TMZ Video

Elementary school children in southeast Washington, D.C., eat their lunch. Photo: Eugene Menbane/Bread for the WorldSomehow Congress can find money to give tax breaks to billionaires. But in a little-noted provision of its reauthorization of child nutrition programs, signed into law today by President Barack Obama as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, lawmakers have told schools to raise lunch prices to at least cover what it views as the full cost of making a meal. Entitled "equity in school lunch pricing," the new mandate could, by increasing prices gradually for students whose families aren't low income, pump an additional $2.6 billion into the school meal program over the next 10 years, according to one estimate.

While that's a much-needed infusion of cash, school food services professionals say the move could have the side effect of driving hundreds of thousands of children from the federally subsidized school meals program. The School Nutrition Association (SNA), representing some 50,000 food service workers across the country, likens the new law to cuts in federal support for school meals enacted during the Reagan years, when participation in the National School Lunch Program plummeted 25 percent among full-price students because schools were forced to charge more -- and ketchup was declared a vegetable.

"When you raise prices, it has a real impact on participation," said SNA spokeswoman Diane Pratt-Heavner. "Our members tell us time and time again, even when they raise prices by just a dime, they see participation drop."

"The downside of raising meal prices during these tough economic times is that you run the risk of making the meals unaffordable for kids whose families just barely miss the financial eligibility cut-off," said Kate Adamick, a school-food consultant who has long complained about the pricing disparity. "This is a significant reality in lower-middle class communities, especially for schools located in parts of the country in which the cost of living is extremely high, such as New York City and San Francisco, to name just two. I think this is the right change that may be coming at the wrong time."

Federal subsidies for school meals are intended primarily to help feed low-income children, who receive meals either free or at a reduced price. Even kids who don't qualify and pay "full price" in the subsidized meal line are actually supported by federal funds to the tune of 26 to 34 cents per lunch. But what most schools charge for a full-price meal typically is less than the federal subsidy, currently $1.48 for breakfast and $2.72 for lunch. For instance, here in the District of Columbia, schools serve breakfast free to all students regardless of their ability to pay, while a full-price elementary school lunch is only $1.25, a high school lunch a mere $1.50.

Free breakfasts and underpriced lunches help explain why D.C. schools rack up $7 million in food service deficits every year, or 25 percent of the entire budget.

Critics argue that underpricing also helps explain why schools never seem to have enough money to improve the quality of the food they serve, and that low-income children should not be short-changed in order to support kids who come from wealthier homes, even though there is nothing in federal law to say that government subsidies can only be used to feed needy students. Food service professionals counter that lower prices attract more kids to the meal line, creating economies of scale and helping to lower the marginal cost of meals served in a program they contend is chronically underfunded.

"We all know the effect of higher prices on people's purchasing decisions, and this basic economics lesson applies to school meals as well," Pratt-Heavner said. The new rule, she said, is likely to fall heaviest on families in rural and economically depressed areas where parents "simply cannot afford to pay the higher school-lunch prices charged in wealthier suburban neighborhoods."  

Under the formula approved by Congress, schools that are not charging the full cost for lunch would have to start raising their prices annually by an amount equal to the rate of inflation plus 2 percent. For some schools, getting their prices fully caught up could take 20 years.

A study released in January 2010 by the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonprofit research organization focused on low-income Americans, noted that student payments for federally reimbursable meals account for only about one-quarter of school food-service revenues. The greatest share of income comes in the form of federal subsidies, with sales of competitive foods in á la carte lines (often unhealthy snacks like cookies and chips) and vending machines contributing about 16 percent, and state and local governments chipping in another 9 percent on average.

A study conducted during the 2005-2006 school year by the USDA, which oversees the school meals program, found that the prices schools charged for paid lunches varied widely, from 65 cents to $3, with the most common price being $1.50 -- well below cost. A more recent analysis by the CBPP of the nation's 20 largest school districts found that the average charge for lunch was $1.80 in elementary schools and $2.14 in high schools, still far less than the federal reimbursement rate.

"School districts generally want to set a price that is affordable for the wide range of families with incomes in the paid meal category," the CBPP concluded. "The disparity results in a revenue shortfall that undermines the goal of providing the highest quality meal possible to all students."

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities cited a USDA study as showing that student participation in the subsidized lunch program was only 3 percent lower in districts that charged $2 per meal compared to $1.50 per meal. But in a program involving more than 31 million children nationwide, that 3 percent would represent nearly 1 million students.

Said the SNA's Pratt-Heavnery: "Unfortunately, no one knows how severe the decline in participation will be as a result of [the new law], and that’s a risky gamble to play with a program that is vital to the nutrition and well-being of millions of school children."

online reputation management quotes

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Making Money Your

Values, Value and Valuation — The money is all relative

Oh how timing sometimes works out to be funny. I was driving home tonight and started thinking about the value of products, the valuation of companies and how the values that a company portrays can change the rest. No sooner had I sat down to write this piece than the news of Goldman Sachs investing $500 million into Facebook broke and refreshed the entire thing in my mind. So let’s look at these three things, and try to see if one manages to sway the rest.

Values

Do you, like me, find yourself more inclined to use or purchase something that comes from a company that you can believe in? The ethos of a company can — for me at least — completely break me away from the product. That very fact, because I feel that I’m likely not alone in my actions (or lack thereof) can have a serious impact on the bottom line of a company.

Look at Facebook, for instance. When the Social Graph was announced and the new privacy changes went into effect, many people threw up their hands in disgust. But many others continued with life as usual, even if a bit annoyed. Why? Because Facebook has this outward appearance of a company that’s simply trying to do cool things, and it needs information in order to do them. The company’s values seem, for the most part, to be in line with the things that we Internet users want. As such, there was a lot more wagging and a lot less barking from the angry dogs crowd.

You’re starting a company? There’s likely something to be said for developing an ethos ahead of time, making it known and then sticking to it. Would Google be where it is today if not for the “don’t be evil” tag line? Even if you don’t fully believe that the company runs that way, you still remember it. Point made.

Value

When value exceeds cost, even by a single cent, the purchase will be made – Grant Cardone

That quote is one that has stuck with me for some time now. A few years ago I was making my living selling cars and it is sometimes exceedingly difficult to overcome the objection of price. In the technology world, we’re constantly being offered products for “free”. The only cost? A bit of information, a slice of our privacy or somethings similar. But then, after using those “free” products, we start to build our own value for them.

Don’t believe me? Just look at some of the things that you likely use every day. Gmail? You’d pay for that. Twitter? You don’t want to admit it, but it’s likely become a valuable asset to your daily Internet life. The same can be said for so many things and yet we get them for “free”. But there’s a down side to this issue as well — it becomes very difficult for a maker to charge for a product when there are free alternatives. Don’t believe that? When was the last time that a box office movie didn’t get a torrent version?

And yet, even as companies try to build value in their products, still others think that the economy allows for them to set their own values and tell us what something is worth. TV networks are probably the most well-known perpetrators of this heresy. Apple TV launched, ABC and Fox decided to jump on board and see what would happen. Some of the rest? They decided that $.99 was devaluing the product and yet as the provider of the product, there is no one entity that is more unqualified to name the value.

Consider it a lesson in business, I suppose. The potential buyer will determine the value of your product. Always.

Valuation

Now here’s a sticky one. Valuation is one of those strange things because it means so many different things to different people. To the potential investors, it’s a measure of how much money can be made. To the business owner it’s a gauge of how well the business has done. To the end user? It’s…honestly not much.

As a case in point, around TNW we love Twitter. We want to see it succeed and we are sure that it will. The valuation continues to climb prior to any IPO and yet, as users of the service, it really doesn’t matter much to us. Sure, it would matter if the site closed its doors, but beyond that there simply isn’t anything about the valuation number that matters.

And so, as an entrepreneur you have to ask yourself where the balance lies. Do your company values allow you to build value in your product? If so, then the chances are that your valuation will end up right where it needs to be. There’s a fair amount of truth in the thought that, if you handle the small stuff, the big stuff will fall into place.

So with that, I offer you a thought going into the new year — start with your values. The rest will fall into place.

As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.



It was January 1995, and Newt Gingrich, now considered a right-wing bomb thrower, was taking the gavel from Tom Foley. After taking the oath of office, he delivered a speech that praised FDR as "the greatest president of the 20th century" and presented concern for the least among us as a shared national objective. "The balanced budget is the right thing to do," he said. "But it does not in my mind have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the poorest Americans."



For the incoming Republican speaker, reducing poverty and lifting the poor into the middle class was a moral imperative beyond the left vs. right battlefield -- not just the purview of lefties, socialists, and community organizers:

I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.

So now, with poverty higher than it was 16 years ago, with greater income inequality, and with the middle class struggling to hold on, what will Speaker Boehner make his number one priority? According to the Washington Post, it's "cutting spending," followed by repealing the healthcare law, and "helping get our economy moving" (no specifics on how he plans to do that).



Yet we saw on 60 Minutes that he's very aware of how fragile the American Dream has become, telling Lesley Stahl, "I can't go to a school anymore. I used to go to a lot of schools. And you see all these little kids running around. Can't talk about it." And he choked up when he did try to talk about "making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream, like I did. It's important."

Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.

I have seldom been more shaken," he said, "than I was after the election when I had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to me, 'Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it?' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real people.

But the trajectory of our political discourse over the last decade and a half has meant that taking on poverty has gone from a moral imperative and shared national objective to an afterthought -- or no thought at all.



The question is, is there anything that can be done to help Boehner make the connection between the policies he supports and the effect those policies have on the kids who bring him to tears?



Newt Gingrich failed to follow through on the moral imperative he identified in his first speech as speaker, trading in his moral vision and replacing it 15 months later with an announcement that the Republican agenda could be reduced to six words: "Earn more, keep more, do more."



Will Boehner's take be "Earn more, keep more, cut more"? Or is there a chance he will surprise us? Maybe it's because it's close enough to Christmas that I still believe in miracles, but wouldn't it be great if the John Boehner who takes the gavel on Wednesday is the one who weeps at thought of kids denied a shot at the American Dream?

robert shumake

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The population of bumblebees in the United States is in a kind of free fall, dropping 96 percent over the past two decades, according to a new study that has scientists alarmed. Four species of bumblebees are in a rapid decline, ...

robert shumake detroit

Values, Value and Valuation — The money is all relative

Oh how timing sometimes works out to be funny. I was driving home tonight and started thinking about the value of products, the valuation of companies and how the values that a company portrays can change the rest. No sooner had I sat down to write this piece than the news of Goldman Sachs investing $500 million into Facebook broke and refreshed the entire thing in my mind. So let’s look at these three things, and try to see if one manages to sway the rest.

Values

Do you, like me, find yourself more inclined to use or purchase something that comes from a company that you can believe in? The ethos of a company can — for me at least — completely break me away from the product. That very fact, because I feel that I’m likely not alone in my actions (or lack thereof) can have a serious impact on the bottom line of a company.

Look at Facebook, for instance. When the Social Graph was announced and the new privacy changes went into effect, many people threw up their hands in disgust. But many others continued with life as usual, even if a bit annoyed. Why? Because Facebook has this outward appearance of a company that’s simply trying to do cool things, and it needs information in order to do them. The company’s values seem, for the most part, to be in line with the things that we Internet users want. As such, there was a lot more wagging and a lot less barking from the angry dogs crowd.

You’re starting a company? There’s likely something to be said for developing an ethos ahead of time, making it known and then sticking to it. Would Google be where it is today if not for the “don’t be evil” tag line? Even if you don’t fully believe that the company runs that way, you still remember it. Point made.

Value

When value exceeds cost, even by a single cent, the purchase will be made – Grant Cardone

That quote is one that has stuck with me for some time now. A few years ago I was making my living selling cars and it is sometimes exceedingly difficult to overcome the objection of price. In the technology world, we’re constantly being offered products for “free”. The only cost? A bit of information, a slice of our privacy or somethings similar. But then, after using those “free” products, we start to build our own value for them.

Don’t believe me? Just look at some of the things that you likely use every day. Gmail? You’d pay for that. Twitter? You don’t want to admit it, but it’s likely become a valuable asset to your daily Internet life. The same can be said for so many things and yet we get them for “free”. But there’s a down side to this issue as well — it becomes very difficult for a maker to charge for a product when there are free alternatives. Don’t believe that? When was the last time that a box office movie didn’t get a torrent version?

And yet, even as companies try to build value in their products, still others think that the economy allows for them to set their own values and tell us what something is worth. TV networks are probably the most well-known perpetrators of this heresy. Apple TV launched, ABC and Fox decided to jump on board and see what would happen. Some of the rest? They decided that $.99 was devaluing the product and yet as the provider of the product, there is no one entity that is more unqualified to name the value.

Consider it a lesson in business, I suppose. The potential buyer will determine the value of your product. Always.

Valuation

Now here’s a sticky one. Valuation is one of those strange things because it means so many different things to different people. To the potential investors, it’s a measure of how much money can be made. To the business owner it’s a gauge of how well the business has done. To the end user? It’s…honestly not much.

As a case in point, around TNW we love Twitter. We want to see it succeed and we are sure that it will. The valuation continues to climb prior to any IPO and yet, as users of the service, it really doesn’t matter much to us. Sure, it would matter if the site closed its doors, but beyond that there simply isn’t anything about the valuation number that matters.

And so, as an entrepreneur you have to ask yourself where the balance lies. Do your company values allow you to build value in your product? If so, then the chances are that your valuation will end up right where it needs to be. There’s a fair amount of truth in the thought that, if you handle the small stuff, the big stuff will fall into place.

So with that, I offer you a thought going into the new year — start with your values. The rest will fall into place.

As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.



It was January 1995, and Newt Gingrich, now considered a right-wing bomb thrower, was taking the gavel from Tom Foley. After taking the oath of office, he delivered a speech that praised FDR as "the greatest president of the 20th century" and presented concern for the least among us as a shared national objective. "The balanced budget is the right thing to do," he said. "But it does not in my mind have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the poorest Americans."



For the incoming Republican speaker, reducing poverty and lifting the poor into the middle class was a moral imperative beyond the left vs. right battlefield -- not just the purview of lefties, socialists, and community organizers:

I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.

So now, with poverty higher than it was 16 years ago, with greater income inequality, and with the middle class struggling to hold on, what will Speaker Boehner make his number one priority? According to the Washington Post, it's "cutting spending," followed by repealing the healthcare law, and "helping get our economy moving" (no specifics on how he plans to do that).



Yet we saw on 60 Minutes that he's very aware of how fragile the American Dream has become, telling Lesley Stahl, "I can't go to a school anymore. I used to go to a lot of schools. And you see all these little kids running around. Can't talk about it." And he choked up when he did try to talk about "making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream, like I did. It's important."

Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.

I have seldom been more shaken," he said, "than I was after the election when I had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to me, 'Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it?' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real people.

But the trajectory of our political discourse over the last decade and a half has meant that taking on poverty has gone from a moral imperative and shared national objective to an afterthought -- or no thought at all.



The question is, is there anything that can be done to help Boehner make the connection between the policies he supports and the effect those policies have on the kids who bring him to tears?



Newt Gingrich failed to follow through on the moral imperative he identified in his first speech as speaker, trading in his moral vision and replacing it 15 months later with an announcement that the Republican agenda could be reduced to six words: "Earn more, keep more, do more."



Will Boehner's take be "Earn more, keep more, cut more"? Or is there a chance he will surprise us? Maybe it's because it's close enough to Christmas that I still believe in miracles, but wouldn't it be great if the John Boehner who takes the gavel on Wednesday is the one who weeps at thought of kids denied a shot at the American Dream?

robert shumake detroit

robert shumake

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Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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The population of bumblebees in the United States is in a kind of free fall, dropping 96 percent over the past two decades, according to a new study that has scientists alarmed. Four species of bumblebees are in a rapid decline, ...

robert shumake

Now Tucker Carlson Says Michael Vick Should Not Be Executed - AOL <b>News</b>

Fox News Host Tucker Carlson says that he. ... NEWS PHOTO GALLERIES. From The Wires � Top News Photos � Celestial Delights � Solar Eclipses � The Bright Side � Good News Now � Extreme Elements � Weather Photos � Their Intelligence ...

Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.

Study: US Bumblebee Population in Sharp Decline - AOL <b>News</b>

The population of bumblebees in the United States is in a kind of free fall, dropping 96 percent over the past two decades, according to a new study that has scientists alarmed. Four species of bumblebees are in a rapid decline, ...

robert shumake detroit

Introduction Making money online is practically everyone's dream. However, just like starting a brick and mortar business, it isn't going to be easy. There are a lot of people out there trying to capitalize on your dreams and make money from you in your desperate attempts to figure out how to earn money online. We've written this mini guide to help you avoid scams, know what to look for, and what it takes to earn money online. There are many legit and many not-so-legit ways of making money online. Some are expensive, some are low cost. We're going to explore each one. However, be warned that there may be laws in your local area that require you to have a special license for selling via online. Because this is beyond our expertise, you will have to check out your local business center for more information about required licenses and registration. Legit Ways of Making Money Online The best and most legit ways of making money online are to explore reseller programs, turnkey and affiliate programs. Both ways require time and energy to get off the ground. Have no fear, we are here! Reseller Programs Reseller programs are basically companies who provide a product or service and allow you to resell their inventory in smaller parts enabling you to earn a profit from them. You can have physical inventory or you can have services to promote. The good thing about reseller programs is that most will provide the customer service for you. Some will even allow you to co-brand your logo or name seamlessly into their product or service. Some popular reseller programs are: • Hosting: ResellersPanel.com, Host Gator, APlus.net • Domain Names: Wild West Domains, Enom, Tucows • Software: Cisco Systems Affiliate Programs These types of programs normally pay you per sale or per click. For each lead you send the company, you will get paid a commission. These types of programs are good if you have a lot of traffic going to your website or if you network with a lot of people. Here are some websites that list available affiliate programs: • Commission Junction • Affiliate Guide Some popular affiliate programs: • Ebay • Google Adsense Turnkey Websites Turnkey websites are websites that are ready to go, all you have to do is "turn the key". The majority of turnkey companies will allow you to co-brand your logo, set your own prices, provide your customers with support, include web hosting and a domain name. The downside is you may not have much control over the site content, display, colors and layout. Turnkey companies: • Wild West Domains Not-So-Legit Ways There are some misleading ways to make money online. Some ways are scams, others make it impossible for you to earn a decent return. The most common scams are: • working from home • multi-level marketing (also called MLM) • investing Of course, just being labeled these things does not mean they are not legit. But you should be wary. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. What To Look For Avoiding online scams means educating yourself about what to look for. Here are some things you can do to protect yourself. Simple Searching Search engines are powerful resource providers. Enter the URL or name of the business into the search engine and see what comes up. Better Business Bureau Research BBB.org to see if any complaints were filed against the company. If they do have complaints, see if the company attempted to resolve them and in what amount of time. Remember, just because a company doesn't have a record with BBB, it doesn't mean they have a satisfactory customer base. The Fine Print This has to be the most common mistake people tend to make: overlooking the fine print. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Read the fine print in user/buyer agreements. Look for any discrepancies and compare them to what they say versus what they actually provide. Ask questions. Conclusion Judge each opportunity you come across with skepticism and a closed wallet. Ask questions and tons of them. Good luck and may you have many profitable years ahead!


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Now Tucker Carlson Says Michael Vick Should Not Be Executed - AOL <b>News</b>

Fox News Host Tucker Carlson says that he. ... NEWS PHOTO GALLERIES. From The Wires � Top News Photos � Celestial Delights � Solar Eclipses � The Bright Side � Good News Now � Extreme Elements � Weather Photos � Their Intelligence ...

Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.

Study: US Bumblebee Population in Sharp Decline - AOL <b>News</b>

The population of bumblebees in the United States is in a kind of free fall, dropping 96 percent over the past two decades, according to a new study that has scientists alarmed. Four species of bumblebees are in a rapid decline, ...

robert shumake detroit

robert shumake detroit

Values, Value and Valuation — The money is all relative

Oh how timing sometimes works out to be funny. I was driving home tonight and started thinking about the value of products, the valuation of companies and how the values that a company portrays can change the rest. No sooner had I sat down to write this piece than the news of Goldman Sachs investing $500 million into Facebook broke and refreshed the entire thing in my mind. So let’s look at these three things, and try to see if one manages to sway the rest.

Values

Do you, like me, find yourself more inclined to use or purchase something that comes from a company that you can believe in? The ethos of a company can — for me at least — completely break me away from the product. That very fact, because I feel that I’m likely not alone in my actions (or lack thereof) can have a serious impact on the bottom line of a company.

Look at Facebook, for instance. When the Social Graph was announced and the new privacy changes went into effect, many people threw up their hands in disgust. But many others continued with life as usual, even if a bit annoyed. Why? Because Facebook has this outward appearance of a company that’s simply trying to do cool things, and it needs information in order to do them. The company’s values seem, for the most part, to be in line with the things that we Internet users want. As such, there was a lot more wagging and a lot less barking from the angry dogs crowd.

You’re starting a company? There’s likely something to be said for developing an ethos ahead of time, making it known and then sticking to it. Would Google be where it is today if not for the “don’t be evil” tag line? Even if you don’t fully believe that the company runs that way, you still remember it. Point made.

Value

When value exceeds cost, even by a single cent, the purchase will be made – Grant Cardone

That quote is one that has stuck with me for some time now. A few years ago I was making my living selling cars and it is sometimes exceedingly difficult to overcome the objection of price. In the technology world, we’re constantly being offered products for “free”. The only cost? A bit of information, a slice of our privacy or somethings similar. But then, after using those “free” products, we start to build our own value for them.

Don’t believe me? Just look at some of the things that you likely use every day. Gmail? You’d pay for that. Twitter? You don’t want to admit it, but it’s likely become a valuable asset to your daily Internet life. The same can be said for so many things and yet we get them for “free”. But there’s a down side to this issue as well — it becomes very difficult for a maker to charge for a product when there are free alternatives. Don’t believe that? When was the last time that a box office movie didn’t get a torrent version?

And yet, even as companies try to build value in their products, still others think that the economy allows for them to set their own values and tell us what something is worth. TV networks are probably the most well-known perpetrators of this heresy. Apple TV launched, ABC and Fox decided to jump on board and see what would happen. Some of the rest? They decided that $.99 was devaluing the product and yet as the provider of the product, there is no one entity that is more unqualified to name the value.

Consider it a lesson in business, I suppose. The potential buyer will determine the value of your product. Always.

Valuation

Now here’s a sticky one. Valuation is one of those strange things because it means so many different things to different people. To the potential investors, it’s a measure of how much money can be made. To the business owner it’s a gauge of how well the business has done. To the end user? It’s…honestly not much.

As a case in point, around TNW we love Twitter. We want to see it succeed and we are sure that it will. The valuation continues to climb prior to any IPO and yet, as users of the service, it really doesn’t matter much to us. Sure, it would matter if the site closed its doors, but beyond that there simply isn’t anything about the valuation number that matters.

And so, as an entrepreneur you have to ask yourself where the balance lies. Do your company values allow you to build value in your product? If so, then the chances are that your valuation will end up right where it needs to be. There’s a fair amount of truth in the thought that, if you handle the small stuff, the big stuff will fall into place.

So with that, I offer you a thought going into the new year — start with your values. The rest will fall into place.

As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.



It was January 1995, and Newt Gingrich, now considered a right-wing bomb thrower, was taking the gavel from Tom Foley. After taking the oath of office, he delivered a speech that praised FDR as "the greatest president of the 20th century" and presented concern for the least among us as a shared national objective. "The balanced budget is the right thing to do," he said. "But it does not in my mind have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the poorest Americans."



For the incoming Republican speaker, reducing poverty and lifting the poor into the middle class was a moral imperative beyond the left vs. right battlefield -- not just the purview of lefties, socialists, and community organizers:

I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.

So now, with poverty higher than it was 16 years ago, with greater income inequality, and with the middle class struggling to hold on, what will Speaker Boehner make his number one priority? According to the Washington Post, it's "cutting spending," followed by repealing the healthcare law, and "helping get our economy moving" (no specifics on how he plans to do that).



Yet we saw on 60 Minutes that he's very aware of how fragile the American Dream has become, telling Lesley Stahl, "I can't go to a school anymore. I used to go to a lot of schools. And you see all these little kids running around. Can't talk about it." And he choked up when he did try to talk about "making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream, like I did. It's important."

Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.

I have seldom been more shaken," he said, "than I was after the election when I had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to me, 'Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it?' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real people.

But the trajectory of our political discourse over the last decade and a half has meant that taking on poverty has gone from a moral imperative and shared national objective to an afterthought -- or no thought at all.



The question is, is there anything that can be done to help Boehner make the connection between the policies he supports and the effect those policies have on the kids who bring him to tears?



Newt Gingrich failed to follow through on the moral imperative he identified in his first speech as speaker, trading in his moral vision and replacing it 15 months later with an announcement that the Republican agenda could be reduced to six words: "Earn more, keep more, do more."



Will Boehner's take be "Earn more, keep more, cut more"? Or is there a chance he will surprise us? Maybe it's because it's close enough to Christmas that I still believe in miracles, but wouldn't it be great if the John Boehner who takes the gavel on Wednesday is the one who weeps at thought of kids denied a shot at the American Dream?

robert shumake detroit

Now Tucker Carlson Says Michael Vick Should Not Be Executed - AOL <b>News</b>

Fox News Host Tucker Carlson says that he. ... NEWS PHOTO GALLERIES. From The Wires � Top News Photos � Celestial Delights � Solar Eclipses � The Bright Side � Good News Now � Extreme Elements � Weather Photos � Their Intelligence ...

Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.

Study: US Bumblebee Population in Sharp Decline - AOL <b>News</b>

The population of bumblebees in the United States is in a kind of free fall, dropping 96 percent over the past two decades, according to a new study that has scientists alarmed. Four species of bumblebees are in a rapid decline, ...

robert shumake detroit

robert shumake detroit