Climate Change Talks-Is it really all about money?

Too bad the climate change talks aren't about making a serious improvement on the environment. Instead it is all about money. Problem with wealthy nations contributing money to poor nations is that money is too easily embezzled or redirected into other "programs" i.e. defense.

clipped from www.nytimes.com The Major Players in the Copenhagen Talks and Their Positions Targets -- how much countries are willing to scale back the gases that trap heat in the atmosphere -- may appear to be the main issue at hand. But there are others that delegates will be absorbed with. Poor countries want billions of dollars to stave off global warming disasters and help reduce costs of lowering their own rising emissions. Wealthy nations are tiptoeing cautiously around the money question, and are demanding their own new set of checks and balances on whatever new agreement emerges that replaces or builds upon the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. What it wants: for developed countries to collectively slash up to 40 percent of CO2 below 1990 levels by 2020. It also has called for wealthy nations to contribute 0.5 to 1 percent of their gross domestic product to help poor ones address the threats of climate change.

Taking a closer look at Diversity Training

In the end, the good ole boy network is prevailing?

clipped from www.fistfuloftalent.com We Don't Need No Stinking Diversity Training It needs to be said: diversity training is futile. Training like this provides instant gratification for companies who can declare, Well, alrightee! We’ve done diversity. That wasn’t so bad. What it doesn’t deliver is results. Despite the good intentions and assumed good business sense, diversity training often achieves just the opposite of its intended effect: a study led by a sociologist at the University of Arizona found that after mandatory diversity training, representation in upper management dropped for women (7.5 percent), black men (12 percent), and black women (10%). The Latinos and Asians suffered a similar drop. Bottom line: stop talking about not tolerating intolerance and just stop tolerating it.

More Money being dumped into Email Marketing

Oh yippee...more spam for my poor email filter.

clipped from www.marketingprofs.com Marketers to Invest in Email, Social Media in 2010 Businesses are gearing up to increase their marketing spend on email marketing and social media in 2010, making those the top two areas of marketing investment in 2010, according to the just-released  2010 Marketing Trends Survey by StrongMail Systems. Asked to identify the top benefits of social media  as a marketing channel , marketers selected the following: Awareness building (64%) Customer loyalty and retention (49%) Expanded reach (46%) B2B lead generation (20%) Driving revenue (12%)

Message to Virtual Assistants is confusing

This message is touting the progressiveness of the organization and industry while in the same breath using outdated format.

There are many industry leaders who consider the term "virtual assistant" outdated. If this organization were truly innovative they would have thought of an updated term.

Secondly, many people are environmentally conscience these days. Being environmentally friendly is a sign of being progressive. Why is this organization hyping it's print publication? Seems like a throwback to the old school and not very progressive.

A visit to their website informed me the organization does have an electronic version of their publication. Now their message seems confusing and unfocused.

clipped from www.pr-inside.com Dee Middlebrooks-Bernal, Chairwoman of NAVAH, "However, we quickly discovered that that format is outdated and no longer relevant to today’s virtual assistants. Virtual assisting is no longer a business, it’s an industry. If those of us in the field don’t start treating it that way, the entire profession risks being labeled a fad and fading into irrelevance." NAVAH is also the publisher of VA Today Magazine, the first print publication for the virtual assistant industry.

Veterans Deserve So Much More

Wish there was more we could do

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Game developer's newest 'call of duty': Help vets find jobs Unemployment may have hit double digits in the nation last week, but for veterans, finding a job has always had its challenges. The unemployment rate among people who served in the military since 2001 was 11.6 percent in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of those veterans who had found work, 25 percent earned less than $21,840 per year, the VA study said. Fifty-eight percent of recent veterans worked in the private sector and 36 percent had government jobs, according to the study. The foundation will make its first donation of $125,000 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America to help open a vocational rehabilitation center, the company said.

Entrepreneurship on the rise

""Rather than creating the next generation of employees, we want to create the next generation of employers," says Ted Zoller, associate professor and executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School (Kenan-Flagler Full-Time MBA Profile)."

clipped from www.businessweek.com With Jobs Scant, MBAs Consider Startups Landing a banking or consulting job used to be the main reason for going to B-school. These days, it's just as likely to be launching a business Aspiring MBAs have always had an interest in starting their own businesses, say experts. But student loan debt and attractive career prospects at traditional firms have usually swayed them from pursuing startup dreams during and right out of school. Now, they're breaking with tradition and feeling less risk-averse because there isn't as much to lose. "Before students looked at entrepreneurship as job options three, four, and five," says Rob Adams, director of the Moot Corp business plan competition and lecturer at the University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business (McCombs Full-Time MBA Profile)."Now, it's job option one, two, and three."

Understanding Google Sitelinks

Does your website have a Google Sitelink?

clipped from www.dailyblogtips.com How To Get Google Sitelinks The last question is: what are the benefits of having Google sitelinks? I believe there are two, one tangible and one intangible. The tangible benefit is an increase in traffic for your website, because the sitelinks will give you more exposure in the search results, increasing the CTR you will get on search queries. The intangible benefit is the credibility that you get from having sitelinks. Only established and authority sites have sitelinks, so when users come across them after searching for the name of your website or blog they will get a reassurance from Google itself that your content or products must be good.