The new MySpace exec team has promised changes (we havelaid the groundwork for an exciting new chapter of innovation for MySpace). And theyre delivering. A couple of hours ago they changed the MySpace logo. No longer does it say MySpace.com - A Place For Friends. Now it simply says MySpace. The old logo is below.
Weve confirmed that the change just occurred this evening, although MySpace PR is as usual not responding. They refuse to confirm that the logo is new, or say why they changed it. But it sure is absurd to have a conversation that goes something like So it looks like youve changed your logo this evening? No Comment. Uh huh. Ok, so any official reason why you changed it? No comment. Trade secrets, I guess. And heck, Im just happy someone still works there to pick up the phone.
MySpace is also on the warpath to get more users. At login they now strongly suggest you log into your email and invite friends (hopefully theyll avoid turning this too spammy). And theyve also added a people you may know widget that shows friends of friends.
Were also hearing that MySpace will be removing some of the ugliest ad units that adorn the site today. Whether thats an effort to clean up the user interface or simply a sign of slowing ad sales, well probably never know.

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Whether you are already well established in your business or just starting out, I suspect that deep down you know you have gifts and talents that can really make a difference to others. In an ideal world, youd spend the majority of time doing the work you love to do, with a steady stream of clients knocking at your door as and when you want them. The reality, however, can be somewhat different, and the whole process of finding new business can be a time consuming challenge full of uncertainty. Some would be entrepreneurs are so intimidated by the idea of finding clients that they never put their dreams into action. Others start promising businesses, yet give up disillusioned by the frustrating lack of clients. Some die-hards persist, but at great emotional and financial cost as the uncertainty about attracting and maintaining clients takes its toll.
But it doesnt have to be this way. There is a way to reverse the sales process. Imagine a situation where instead of having to go out and chase new business, qualified buyers are seeking out YOUR expertise. Imagine putting your marketing efforts on so the right work turns up as and when you need it. Imagine being able to pick and choose which projects you want to work on. Can you imagine having the confidence to turn down work that doesnt meet YOUR criteria? Heres a metaphor that nicely sums up this approach. There are two boys in a garden. Both of them want to catch birds. One of them is frantically chasing after birds; the other just stands still holding out birdseed in his hand and waits. Instinctively most of us recognise that the second boy will be more successful. Yet most sales techniques used by businesses today involve some form of with the net result that prospective clients are scared away. In this article you will discover how the birdseed approach can help you attract rather than chase clients, and even get them eating out of your hands!
But that doesnt apply in the business world, I can hear you say. If it were that easy, why dont I already have all the clients I want? Well there are a few possible answers. Some of us have entered the commercial garden, but forgotten the birdseed! Others havent even taken the birdseed out of the packet. Some of us have the birdseed in our hand, but clenched so tightly the birds cant get to it. If you are to adopt the latter approach, its important to spend some time selecting the right birdseed. So whats your birdseed? To answer this question you need to know who you are aiming to attract, so that you are offering the birdseed which is most tasty and appealing to your target clients.
First, take a moment to think about your prospective clients.
What are their concerns and fears? What problems are they struggling with right now? What are their hopes and desires? Be willing to think laterally as you think about what is most important to them.
The next step is to align what you have to offer with their most pressing concerns and needs. How can you help your target clients even before they become a client of yours? Its important to emphasise that you already have skills, knowledge and expertise that is valuable to your prospective clients. The trouble is most of us take what comes naturally to us for granted, and completely underestimate the value of what we know to our prospective clients. Not only is what you know very helpful, you could be using it to attract your prospective clients, by packaging your knowledge and expertise in a form that meets one of their current needs. The fact is, when you match up what YOU have to offer with the people in the world who most need it, there really isnt much selling or convincing to be done. Investing time figuring out what is YOUR birdseed is one of the best things you can do to ensure that you have a never ending stream of clients knocking at YOUR door.
Bernadette Doyle
Bernadette Doyle publishes her weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then get your free tips now at www.clientmagnets.

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Canberra is a great place to live. I am proud to be the Chief Minister of such a fantastic part of our world.
My Government is committed to ensuring that all Canberrans have access to information about our plans and important issues affecting their lives.
This site is part of that goal. Other important and useful sites can befound on the links page. I trust that this site is useful and I look forward to serving you in the years to come.
Jon Stanhope
Chief Minister, Australian Capital Territory.

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GE develops new disc to store more music, movies and data
If you have a large collection of movies at home, or lots of music CDs, you might be interested in the latest technology developed at a GE lab in the Capital Region. Our Steve Ference reports on a breakthrough technology that could put a whole lot of information on a single, transparent disc.

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Finance chiefs from the G7 powers said on Friday the global economy may be past the worst phase of a recession although recovery was not yet assured, and they pledged to make sure that big financial firms are sound.Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers said after a meeting that economic activity should begin to recover later this year. However, they said the outlook remained weak and there was a risk that the global economy may still worsen.We are right to be somewhat encouraged, but we would be wrong to conclude that we are close to emerging from the darkness that descended on the global economy early last fall, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.It was a less dire assessment than the G7 finance officials delivered at their last gathering in February, when they warned that the severe downturn would persist through most of 2009 and made no mention of promising signs of stability.Recent data suggest that the pace of decline in our economies has slowed and some signs of stabilization are emerging, the G7 said in a closing communique.We will continue to act, as needed, to restore lending, provide liquidity support, inject capital into financial institutions, protect savings and deposits and address impaired assets. We reaffirm our commitment to take all necessary actions to ensure the soundness of systemically important institutions, the statement said.Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said signs of stabilization was an expression with a question mark.But we understand that the G7 statement has indirectly expressed the view that the worst may be possibly over for the world economy, he added.The G7, which comprises the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, met a day before the International Monetary Fund and World Bank begin their twice-yearly meetings. The larger G20 group, which includes emerging economies such as China and India, held a meeting after the G7 but issued no official statement.Geithner said both groups had the same agenda.The agenda will be: What are we doing? Are we doing enough to help attenuate the risks in this recession, lay the foundation for an earlier recovery, lay the foundation for a more balanced, more sustainable recovery? he said.FIX THE BANKSThe G7 has been under growing pressure to speed up efforts to rid banks of bad assets that have constrained lending and plunged the global economy into its deepest recession since World War Two.The International Monetary Fund, which has estimated that losses at financial institutions around the globe could exceed $4 trillion, urged rich nations to prioritize repairing the financial sector because the world economy cannot fully recover unless credit is flowing.The IMF is absolutely right when it asks countries to deal with toxic assets because transparency is crucial for recovery, said Mario Draghi, head of the Financial Stability Board, a newly fortified group designed to coordinate global regulatory reform.But some European officials questioned how the IMF calculated the magnitude of bank losses. The Fund estimated that European banks may need to write down $750 billion in bad assets, while U.S. firms had $550 billion more to go.We are looking at it very carefully and we think there are methodological issues we have to clarify with the IMF, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet told a news conference after the G20 meeting. I am not criticizing the IMF (but) we have to look at it very carefully.U.S. regulators have put 19 of the largest U.S. banks through stress tests to assess whether the government will have to pump more money into them. Geithner said the results of the stress tests were not discussed at the G7 meeting.The Federal Reserve released a paper on Friday outlining the methodology of the tests, and said banks needed to hold substantially more capital than is usually required to weather a potential worsening of the recession.Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who has expressed frustration over the slow pace of progress in fixing the banks, said after the G7 meeting that he was pleased with U.S. and British efforts to implement their bank repair plans.re going in the right direction, he said.With attention firmly focused on the banking sector, the G7 made no changes to its closely watched statement on currency markets, repeating its February caution that excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates were unwelcome.

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Jamyang (Greg Walton) writes I am editor of the Infowar Monitor and co-author of the recent report, Tracking Ghostnet. I have been asked by the Office of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama (OHHDL) and the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGIE) to offer some policy recommendations in light of the ongoing targeted malware attacks directed at the Tibetan community worldwide. Some of the recommendations are relatively straightforward. For example, I will suggest that OHHDL convene an international Board of Advisers, bringing together some of the brightest minds in computer and international security to advise the Tibetans, and that the new Tibetan university stands up a Certified Ethical Hacking course. However, one of the more controversial moves being actively debated by Tibetans on the Dharamsala IT Group [DITG] list, is a mass migration of the exile community (including the government) to Linux, particularly since all of the samples of targeted malware collected exploit vulnerabilities in Windows. I would be very interested to hear Slashdot readers opinions on this debate here. (More below.

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Our Promise is the work of many hands, many minds, and many hearts. It is a shared commitment to an intense cultural transformation within the community of Capital Health that calls on every one of us to show up differently every day, with a shared goal to improve the health of our community.
This site belongs to all of us who are dedicated to living Our Promise. To learn. To share. To inspire. Enjoy.

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Canberra is a great place to live. I am proud to be the Chief Minister of such a fantastic part of our world.
My Government is committed to ensuring that all Canberrans have access to information about our plans and important issues affecting their lives.
This site is part of that goal. Other important and useful sites can befound on the links page. I trust that this site is useful and I look forward to serving you in the years to come.
Jon Stanhope
Chief Minister, Australian Capital Territory.

Similar posts: capital health

This post is solely my opinion, however as time goes by I believe it more and more. Is the United States economy directly impacted by the major news stations such as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC? In my opinion they are a major catalyst in both economic downturns and recoveries.

The other day I saw a blog post at Dailykos mentioning that the Dow has fallen over 50% since Fox Business News Channel went live on October 15, 2007. That day, the DOW was at 14,093. Sine then it has plunged all the way down to 6,450. Of course there are major underlying problems with the US economy, and by no means am I blaming it mostly on the major news stations. What I am trying to say is that the major outlets help to invigorate these market swings as well as the economy in general.

The Media Problem
Ok, so you hear on CNN that the Market is down more then any other time since the great depression. They then run online polls suggesting that 45% of Americans believe we are headed towards a situation comparable to the Great Depression. The funny thing is, if you had asked 10 of the top economic scholars in the country the same question, I would guess that not even one of them would agree with the 45% taking that poll. CNN then runs show after show about the economy and how almost half of all Americans think we are headed for the worst economic situation, ever int he history of the US. Such a story can easily scare the crap out of any of us. Small Business's begin cutting costs, banks tighten up credit, ordinary people start spending less, as well as taking their money out of the stock market and into cash, and the economy shrinks even more. It's a seemingly never ending downward spiral propelled by the media which feeds on bad news. So what will get us out of this cycle? Likely it will be a small piece of good news, that the media runs with and blows out of proportion like they did with all the bad news. This will get people optimistic, have them spend more, invest more, and create more good news for the media to report on.

Conclusion On The Media and The Economy
Like I said, the media isn't to blame for the cyclical downturns every economy has. What they are responsible for is possibly making an ordinary economic downturn into something the recession from hell. Over reporting on the wrong stories often lead to irrational market behavior as well as economic and business behavior.

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Bureau
Students receive six credits for acting as full-time (35 to 40 hours a week) reporters from Tuesday through Friday, covering either Annapolis or Washington for Capital News Service. Press Seminar
Participants also are enrolled in an upper-level journalism seminar on Mondays with Knight Chair Haynes Johnson, one of the college's Pulitzer Prize winning faculty members. The class explores various topics in public affairs reporting, often with guest lecturers. Public Affairs Seminar or Advanced Writing Course
Students can receive their final three credits from a School of Public Policy class designed specifically for the bureau program or by taking an advanced writing or reporting course with the College's award-winning faculty.

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I am sure by now that many if not of you have heard of the Chris Brown Rihhana incident by now. Chris Brown was dead wrong and as bad as this whole thing was it has opened up the door for us to talk about the 500 pound goriilaa in the African American Community, Domestic violence. On this weeks show host George Cook discusses:
* The lack of male role models contributing to this problem.
*Black men have to step up and start protecting our women.
*The conflicting messgaes some boys get from some black women about hitting girls.
* Yes, girls hit too and do start fights with men.
*From a male perspective he wonders like many men do why more women dont just leave the situation and pleads for women to do so.
Listen to the show here: http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/LTHWEEKLY.

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In the aftermath of September 11, the clandestine national security periphery is infiltrating the broader civilian milieu. Counterintelligence is cited as a critical federal resource for site planning and facilities design. With the goal of safeguarding the cores high-value targets, aggressive protocols are being deployed to manage potential threats cloaked beneath chaotic suburban landscapes. Perimeter security accoutrements of bollards, barbed wire, blast-resistant and tinted glazing, buffer zones, closed-circuit cameras and confrontational signage are external clues of more covert technologies being deployed to discipline the civilian milieu. Like royal hunting forests, sprawls diffuse formations are to be disciplined by the capitals emerging technologies of political control.

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State leaders met to discuss stimulus
With a gaping budget hole facing the state and countless construction projects on the table, there is a full scale financial fight erupting over which priorities are more important. With local leaders angling for money to spend on Main Street and some state leaders pushing to make sure they first pay for the state's problems, the Governor released more details of how the President's plan will play out in the Empire State. Capital Tonight's Erin Billups reports.

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GPS finds hidden treasures in Warrensburg
Have you ever wanted to find hidden treasure? Well now you can as part of a worldwide game of hide seek being played out right here in the Capital Region. It's called geocaching. Never heard of it? Our North Country Bureau Reporter, Kim Lengle, spent the day geocaching in Warrensburg with the Cornell Cooperative.

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Bernard L. Madoff allegedly confided in colleagues that his investment fund was a giant Ponzi scheme that had bilked some $50 billion from investors. Many are already calling it the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.
Not so fast, says Janet Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance. On her companys Web site, Ms. Tavakoli suggests that Mr. Madoff has some competition for the top prize.
The largest Ponzi scheme in the history of the capital markets is the relationship between failed mortgage lenders and investment banks that securitized the risky overpriced loans and sold these packages to other investors a Ponzi scheme by every definition applied to Madoff, she wrote. These and other related deeds led to the largest global credit meltdown in the history of the world.

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Timothy Franz Geithner. New York Federal Reserve President. Technocrat. Bureaucrat. Career civil servant. Didn't like Paulson's financial regulation overhaul. Engineered the Bear Stearns Heartily agreed that Lehman shouldn't be saved. Kinda thought Lehman should be saved. Worked at Henry Kissinger's consulting firm. A moderate Republican turned registered independent turned Obamacrat. Has a master's degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins. Put together the AIG rescue plan. Just 14 days younger than Obama. Dartmouth guy. Has lived in Japan, India and Thailand. Had a general understanding of the complex issues involved when Long-Term Capital imploded (via Alan Greenspan.). Worked at the Treasury department under Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. Faced a steep learning curve when he came to the Fed (via Gerald Corrigan.). Good softball player. Self-deprecating sense of humor. Thinks income inequality and entitlements and too little saving are big problems. Not an economist. Never run a company. Married with a couple of kids. Surfs.

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The United States government unveiled $800 billion worth of new loans and debt purchases on Tuesday, hoping another massive infusion of cash would smooth troubled credit markets and make borrowing easier for homebuyers, small businesses and students.
The Federal Reserve said it would buy up to $600 billion in mortgage-backed assets from government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, The New York Times Jeff Zeleny and Jack Healy reported. It would buy up to $100 billion in debt directly from the companies and up to $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities.
“This action is being taken to reduce the cost and increase the availability of credit for the purchase of houses, which in turn should support housing markets and foster improved conditions in financial markets more generally,” the Federal Reserve said in a statement.

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Clinton in the Capital Region
It was three months ago Barack Obama picked Senator Joe Biden over Hillary Clinton. Now that Obama has been elected, he is putting together his administration and once again, Clinton finds herself in the White House spotlight. CNN is reporting the President-elect has already offered Clinton the Secretary of State job. As Capital Tonight's Erin Billups reports, neither Obama nor Clinton are saying much.

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APT, its new display-ad platform.
Now it's on to Jorgensen: Two main themes in quarter, already apparent in previous comments: worsening economic environment coupled with greater cost cuts. "We are cautious about the advertising market in Q4. But we feel we are well-positioned to weather the downturn." Mentions the Asian properties are valued at $7 billion or so, or more than $5 a share--a clear attempt to point out that Yahoo's stock is undervalued in his view.
Now, the analysts' questions:
* How is Yahoo going to improve monetization on its own sites? Decker says mainly the display ad platform, APT.
* Any lift in ad rates thanks to APT? Decker says no data yet.
* Where were the cost cuts in the quarter? Jorgensen: All year, actually. Slower hiring, but mainly hiring in lower-cost areas like India, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia.
* Any deadline on the Google-Yahoo deal? Yang can't say, though I've gathered from people close to this that the Oct. 22 deadline mentioned widely isn't actually a deadline. Talking with the Justice Department and others.
* How confident are you in the revenue forecast? Decker: watching weakness in Asia, but she mentions some "stability" in the U.S. despite some ad cancellations in travel and other areas.
* Could there be more consolidation among companies online, and what would Yahoo's role be? Yang: Says there are opportunities, especially since ad spending isn't increasing much, so it's hard to grow that way. But he offers no specifics.
* How do you see your growth rate vs. Google? Yang: "There continues to be a flight to quality with regard to consumer behavior and advertiser behavior." Decker more specifically acknowledges the obvious, that Google's growth rate is faster than Yahoo's, and talks about various ways Yahoo hopes to improve its search offerings for consumers and its search ad system for advertisers.
* Was there a sharp downturn in September? Decker: "The trends weakened in the latter part of August." First Europe, then Asia. Also weakened in the U.S. but not as much as the rest of the world.
* What's the '09 outlook? Yang, with a hint of a rueful laugh: "I don't think we have any visibility into '09."
* What's the impact of acquisitions on revenue? Jorgensen says acquisitions contributed 1% to GAAP revenue.
* In what departments or functions is Yahoo making cuts? Yang doesn't provide specifics, just the usual things like real estate.
* How will Yahoo unlock shareholder value? Yang says one way is cutting costs. Conservative on share buybacks, though, so that looks unlikely.
* How much of the weak 3% display-ad growth is due to the economy and how much to losing share to ad networks and niche sites? Decker: Can't really say yet, but says Yahoo is outgrowing the ad networks.
* How sensitive will Yahoo be to diluting shareholders if and when it does acquisitions? Jorgensen: "We'll clearly be very sensitive to dilution."
* Last question: Have you considered hedging out exchange risks in various international markets? Jorgensen: Yes, but doesn't sound like Yahoo plans to do much on that.
And that's it for the call. The stock's now up about 7% in extended trading, so if anything, the details from the call reassured investors--at least to the mild extent that they can be reassured about a company facing this many challenges.

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Katherine Fulton kicked off Day 2 of the Social Capital Markets Conference this morning. Her address focused on the complexities of this moment in history for the economy as a whole and for the social capital markets movement in particular.

Ms. Fulton addressed the driving forces behind impact investing and the social capital markets movement, Monitors characterization of the current moment for the sector and the critical success factors to move the sector forward towards consolidation and efficiency.  

Money seeking diversification, values-driven investment, talent demanding new career paths and more individuals interested in combining money and meaning in their careers are just some of the driving forces behind this movement. The question is no longer whether its possible to reconcile impact and return motives in investment but rather whether the space around it will be able to take off.

And by taking off we mean leaving its current period of Uncoordinated innovation, as Ms. Fulton and Monitor describe the state of the social investment space.

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