slamboard

Here is an essay concerning the topic of ethics.

The website that provides a searchable database of free essays and term papers uses language that suggests that these documents are to be used for researching your own original work.

In my scholastic experience, we were taught about research. The main resources werebooks, periodicals and journals. The professors failed to mention actual essays as a useful resource.

Teachers have resources too. There is a Plagarism Checker, but it is really just piggy backed on Google and Yahoo search engines. Here is a result from one phrase that I lifted at random from the example essay.

I have served on the safety commitee of a two very different employers. When a committee comes up with a list of necessary improvements and changes in the workplace, it often falls to one person to implement those changes. Luckily there is an online business that has a huge stock of virtually everything related to workplace safety from leather work gloves to Yellow Caution Barricade Tape.

I know how business works, sometimes safety concerns come to the forefront because of an outside body determining that some action is necessary. In a case like that, you want to be able to get fast delivery of supplies that may be needed in order to comply with an order. AllInSafety.com will get your order out the door on the day you make the order. Because this company is a direct importer and a national distributor, you can expect very competitive pricing.

Even if you are just managing an office, you should have some safety supplies in stock in a central place and have key people aprised of what is contained in the storage cabinet.

Just prior to the release of the iPhone, I participated in a promotion that promised a free iPhone to the best video. That particular promotion has been very quiet ever since. I am scared to even ask about this prize because I suspect that the answer is, “Yeah, we were just getting to that..and the prize goes to NOT MARTIN!!!”

So, despite my great sense of entitlement, I have been quietly waiting to see if they are ever going to give away an iPhone.

But, I digress. This post was going to be about Apple stock falling on the release of news about a steadily decreasing demand for iPhones. The business story is mostly about great expectations. The sales performance of the device is actually in line with more conservative observers.

Phil McGraw has admitted no wrongdoing in relation to his involvement with promoting a diet supplement.

…And how’s that working for you?

The class action suit resulting from consumer’s impressions that they were being misled or defrauded was started in 2004 and a settlement was reached in 2006 that will see $10.4 million in cash and product being handed out to consumers.

Here is some interesting back story. The company that made the diet pills shares an office building with Phil McGraw’s litigation-consulting firm. This is the firm that was Phil’s principle endeavor before he met Oprah when that same firm provided legal consultancy services to Ms Winfrey. She was being sued by Texas cattle ranchers.

The cattle farmers failed in their bid to milk millions from HARPO.

Dr. Phil quickly became a regular on Oprah and eventually was given his own show. Dr. Phil gives some sound advice about parenting and relationships. I think he needs to stay clear of issues related to marketing and consumerism, because he has a habit of contradicting himself in both word and action.

Sources: LawCash, WomansPassions

Along with roof leaks, basement leaks are one of the inevitabilities of home ownership that make me glad that I am renting.

I called my sister a few weeks ago and she was a bit bummed out because she had a moldy basement. A contractor investigated it and it turns out that it is a major concern. When I called her she hadn’t gotten any word from her insurer, so she had some hope that it would be a huge inconvenience rather than a huge inconvenience and a huge expense.

The B-Dry waterproofing system is a lifetime solution for problematic basements crawlspaces and foundations. If you went looking in your basement and you found a problem, you need to start looking for a solution. There are 60 independent licensees
and franchisees nationwide that can waterproof your basement with the B-Dry system.

Microsoft is following in Google’s footsteps by announcing that it intends to anonymize the data from search queries after 18 months with the permanent removal of cookie IDs, entire IP addresses or other identifiers from search terms.

They have a good reason to do this. They are jumping into the third party advertising pool with both feet subsequent to their $6 billion purchase of aQuantive. I remember reporting on this when it was announced. I didn’t grasp the significance of it back then. I am working on my grasping skills.

Andy Cohen is a man who uses magic as a metaphor for business success. He is an accomplished keynote speaker who has specialized in leadership management.

I have witnessed a few speakers in my day who were pretty unconvincing with the nothing up my sleeve line. From what I can see on various YouTube videos, he knows how to hold a crowd’s attention. He has videos on his own site, but I think the videos uploaded by participants are qite illustrative as well. The cameras seem to get distracted by audience members who can’t master the simple coin hiding trick. I wonder if these audience members are CPA’s?

Regardless of what business you are in, you should try to have him appear in front of your people so they can get a new outlook on leadership, marketing and management.

This grabbed my attention while I was looking for something unrelated. It seems that there really are no depths that people will not sink to in order to make a buck.

Fraudsters Claim a Red Cross Connection in New Phishing Scam

The Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers about a scam targeting families of military members. A caller, claiming to work for the Red Cross, notifies an individual that their family member has been injured while on duty. To get immediate aid to the injured service member, the caller says, paperwork must be completed, and personal information must be verified.

The FTC, the nation’s consumer protection agency, says this scheme is a variation of “phishing” – a technique identity thieves use to get personal or financial information from unwary consumers. The identity thief claims to represent a trusted source – a bank, a government agency, or in this case, The American Red Cross – to get someone to divulge their personal information. The FTC urges military family members not to give out personal information on the phone if they are contacted by an individual they don’t know – or via the Internet if the message comes via e-mail.

According to the American Red Cross, its representatives typically do not contact military members or their families directly. Visit http://www.redcross.org and http://www.defenselink.mil for more information.

For more information about phishing, visit http://onguardonline.gov/phishing.html. To report a phishing incident, visit www.ftc.gov or call 1-877-FTC-HELP. Because victims of phishing schemes can become victims of identify theft, you also may want to visit www.ftc.gov/idtheft.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

I would be interested to know whether these criminals simply target neighborhoods with a high concentration of military families, or if they can buy a list of phone numbers.

To callously take advantage of the family of a soldier is inexcusable.

“Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles.”

Walter Cronkite

I had never seen this quote before. Carolyn Kepcher used it in a column that she wrote for the New York Daily News. The column is about business ethics. My business is blogging. I think this montage of clips from The Apprentice is fair use. It focuses on Carolyn.

Before I do my balancing act with this blog post, I just wanted to mention Michigan born Michael Moore and his vehement rebuttal of what he felt was gross misrepresentation by a large and mostly respected news outlet, CNN. I have to wonder if he may have unwittingly emboldened ‘big’, ‘bad’ corporations to stand up for themselves against media criticism as well. Is Michael Moore a Catalyst? Not likely, huge corporations have in the past been known to buy several full pages of a newspaper to defend their actions and rebut their detractors.

With regards to the substance of an article in the Chicago Tribune, I would be prepared to accept it as fact. I have been given the opportunity to examine and present the facts as presented by the oil refinery, a BP factory in Whiting, Indiana.

The newspaper states that BP “aggressively markets itself as an environmentally friendly corporation.”

That kind of language is clearly aimed at calling the company’s ethics into question.

The reason for changes at the facility is that the company wants to concentrate on processing Canadian crude oil instead of the lighter, cleaner oil from Middle Eastern sources. The company stresses that Canadian Heavy Crude is a secure and reliable source. I would like to point out that every trans-oceanic shipment of crude oil has the potential for an environmentally disasterous oil spill. With the threat of terrorism, this potential is even greater.

In the newspaper article, a spokesperson for an environmental group bemoans the lack of spending on treatment. In fact $150 million has been earmarked to enhance the BP refinery’s wastewater treatment capability.

BP works in a collaborative and transparent way with all levels of government and their proposed activities are within the rules and guidelines set by government bodies.

I went to the Wikipedia entry for BP. Its neutrality is also in question. Despite it’s questioned neutrality, I would highly recommend it as a source of further information. Be sure to check for proper citation and even go to the source material itself wherever possible. BP wants people to have an accurate picture of what they are all about.

It’s kind of a catch 22 that BP comes under fire for Green Washing its image. We have a civilization and an economy that depends on fossil fuels and a population that demonizes the business of providing them.