BWimg01 EU is planning on trying to bailout all of Europe. Their plan has one great asset that the U.S. has yet to make a public effort for, Foreign Cooperation. Everyone is trying to bail themselves out of this sinking Economic ship. I get email alerts from a prominent business magazine every day. A simple list of linked headlines and a small description provides me fodder for the brain. I usually enjoy reading them but not on December 13. Lets look at the rest of the headlines, as this first one wasn't all that bad.

BWimg02 Okay. Right. Really? This is news? Let's just yell at each other until neither of us apologizes so that we can kill precious "Economic Salvation" time. Germany has always been pissed off and Britain has always been the stuffy older brother. Here is my message to them, "Grow some Cajones and start Cooperating!"

BWimg03 Oh job. Oh so special job. I will miss you. Okay, I haven't been laid off but I'll be a college graduate at the point of, arguably, the lowest slump in the job market since the Great Depression. My advice is to keep your chin up and refine your competitive edge. No sense in brooding over an ugly outlook. I'll be pushing myself for the next half a year to grow as much as possible in my current job and to make myself irreplaceable. That way there will be little chance of losing the job and higher chances for more opportunities.

BWimg04
I agree with this one. But its a no-brainer. Everyone should try to effectively manage their own stress. Not only for the sake of their job, but also for their health. Stress has been one of the most malicious human shortcomings. It causes heart attacks, breaks up relationships, and presents itself as a nasty headache more often than not. Managing stress can improve company performance because as the old adage goes, Happy employees are Better employees. However, it is not the answer to everyone's problems. Sometimes people are completely unhappy with their jobs and will leave because of stress. Losing an employee will often hurt a company more than help it. Sure the wage expense is gone but the revenue source is also gone.

BWimg05 Bailouts. Heavy on our minds like an overflowing pail of rainwater. I'm not a fan of dolling out money to fix a bad business model. Automakers are in a tight spot because they did not effectively adapt to consumer demand. Only a couple years ago, Americans were buying Big Cadillac Escalades and Hummer H2 Gas-Guzzlers in waves. Of Front eines Hummer H2Image via Wikipediacourse the automakers needed to cash in on this demand but how did they not notice the billions of consumers turning in their old cars for new Eco-friendly and Gas-saving vehicles? How could they not see this coming? Why didn't they bank all the revenue from SUVs to create dominant Energy Efficient divisions? Its sad that a bad business model can put millions of people out of jobs but their are other methods to managing such an economic reduction. Foreign investment in American auto industry, Mergers and Acquisitions, splitting companies, and I'm sure their are more.

BWimg06 Credit and Debt are in the worst position of all. Their is not enough credit available to those who need it, and their is too much debt to take care of it with credit. Saving and banking on efficiencies are the answer to debt. If businesses and consumers were able to fractionally save on being efficient and innovative they could slowly reduce their debt. As soon as debt falls off a bit, the credit markets will be able to ramp up. I'm using all of my income each month. First I pay static bills such as rent and cable and phone. Then I move over to paying my debt off, credit cards and loans. Depending on how much income is left always pay the minimum payment + any fees + the amount you want to reduce your debt by for that month. This way you will know how much you are effectively reducing your debt each month. If you're cool enough to pay off the entire bill then I'm happy for you.

I'm a sucker for common sense and logic. Logically, when your news alerts give you nothing but the dumps turn it into something useful. Some of the best situations to learn from are the worst ones to experience.

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I've been working on a project aimed at creating a communications program with the effective goal of reducing dangerous drinking among college students. I know, its a daunting task. Drinking in college is so accepted and enjoyed that Grandma's Apple Pie may not look as appealing as drinking with your buds on a weekend night. As I look at all of the statistics and research on college drinking habits and trends, I find they all point to the same billboard. It reads in Big, Red letters, "Can't take me down".

Did you know that the accepted definition of Binge Drinking is consuming five or more drinks in a period of two hours by males and four or more drinks in the same period of time by females? The frame of time is up for debate because some feel it should be in one sitting, or one occassion. Another pseudo-definition says the time frame is once every two weeks.

Homeralc 

Love that picture! I think we can do it. I think we can start a movement and change a habit. That's all it really is. Changing a normative behavior. Okay, not all that simple. It will take a lot of work and a lot of brain power to figure this one out.

Movements change normative behaviors. Passions motivate people to do different. These two tenets of the human psyche are my goals.

Although to be perfectly frank, I don't believe there is any reason to reduce the amount of drinking on college campuses. I think that students should learn to be a bit more responsible so that there are less accidents, injuries, rapes, and deaths due to alcohol. College drinking teaches too many students a very difficult lesson, and the worst part is that some of them don't even pay attention.

[Do you think I should start vlogging? I'm trying to figure out the best way to increase my published content because writing has been very hard for me to keep up with.]

Written while watching the heat of Super Duper Tuesday 2008:

Barack_ObamaI realized more than ever that this election is going to be historic, with Barack Obama mobilizing the nation’s youth, and with Hillary Clinton expanding her group of loyal supporters – the first ever potential female or black U.S. president!

This is incredible! The only other place I’ve seen crowds with the energy and size of Obama’s supporters has been major rock concerts. His speech writer is really good, especially when matched with Obama’s vocal expertise.

Hillary Clinton also generates large boisterous crowds. Her support is widespread across the nation. As can be supposed her husband, Bill, is playing a key role in the campaign. I’d have to assume that all her popularity in the past years has carried over well into the primaries and caucuses. [P.S. when you do a google image search for "Hillary Clinton" a lot of funny images are the first to appear.]Hillary_Clinton

I wonder who either dem candidate may take as their VP if elected…

John_Mccain
McCain is really old. He is definitely a senior citizen. I really doubt that his age and years in Washington is an advantage this election season. It seems that if he were pitted against Hillary or Barack, they would be running circles around him. The experience McCain has built up is really attractive but I don’t know if his physical condition would make him a good leader to wield that experience.

Huckabee. I really don’t have much to say about him. He is very religious and just seems a little off kilter when discussing topics with the media. I’m notMike_Huckabee
saying handling the media is easy, but just that being a candidate for President he should be able to handle questions with more thought than he has.

Mitt_Romney
Romney is another who I really don’t have much to say about. I see him as being a third rank candidate.

So as we get ready to send off President Bush into the relaxing days of Texas retirement, lets make sure the next president is able to pick up right where he left off and even go back to fix the overlooked snags in the lines of liberty. [<-- good line!]

Think about Live Earth on 7-7-07
Just think about it. A global concert and awareness event. This is a major step in converting the idea of global climate and environmental change from a mere pipe-dream to reality. I did some quick math calculations and with Live Earth concerts showing at 8 worldwide locations, with an average of 100,000 expected attendance per venue, and tickets being sold for an average of $100US each: ticket sales should soar past $100 million USD. If you factor in worldwide media coverage of this event I don’t even want to look at the numbers of people who will see the event via television, radio, and the internet. I have a feeling this event will blow Live Aid of 1985 out of the water in terms of widespread coverage and contribution. Live Aid was a globally covered concert put on to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.
81174_matter

I wish I was able to afford tickets because I do believe it is for a good cause and also the music artists performing at the NY concert are a once in a lifetime collaboration. Smashing Pumpkins, The Police, Dave Matthews Band, Roger Waters, Kanye West, and Bon Jovi– just to mention a few. And, yes, Al Gore is a major player but we don’t need to think about that.

Just think about it

In an addition to my ongoing series on the increasing difficulties print news companies are encountering, I bring you a story from the West Coast.

Sfchron

The San Francisco Chronicle is said to cut 1/4 of their newsroom employees by the end of summer. Management decided to go through with this move as well as being open to voluntary buyouts, at a time when the SFChronicle may be experiencing high losses due to the changing world of media. They attribute the layoffs to ‘cut costs and adapt to a changing media marketplace’. It is an effort to outweigh the costs of running a newspaper during a time when most consumers are getting their news from free online sources. Also falling advertising revenue can be included in their reasons for cutting back on staff.

I have said before that newspapers are enduring a changing landscape of which they used to be champions of. Personally I read most of my news from a variety of online sources including bloggers, Newspapers
MSM news sites, and news aggregators. I still firmly believe that newspapers do have an incredible readership and they are able to survive as we have seen in the recent years. It may be that they must learn to live off of less than 20% profit margins which is completely possible. Although I do not believe that cutting news staff is the smartest move for struggling papers. A lot of my news comes first from print and television reporters who are the ones out pursuing stories; I found this out by merely sourcing out a story that I read online. Trace it back to the original reporter. Losing these original reporters could very well let more stories go unheard and un-spread.