7/22/2010
Pride for us Millennials! « Rock the Vote Blog
In the 2008 election, 52% of young people voted. Despite its appearance as an uneventful number, that half-ish percentage represents the largest turn out of the youth vote in my lifetime. What is pretty darn thrilling is that our strong showing at the polls was not some fluke caused by the unique political mood of 2008. Young people’s involvement in elections has trended upwards in every national election since 1996. This is a major source of pride for us Millennials!
Today, the youth vote is sought after by any candidate with a smart campaign. If a candidate wins over the youth vote, they may very well win. So I was absolutely thrilled when a group of candidates running in contests all over Florida also recognized this and asked Rock the Vote to participate in a candidate forum for young voters. First, I gathered questions from young voters in the Sunshine State. Then, we asked the candidates your questions! Many of you asked candidates to specify how they planned to strengthen Florida’s job market for young people. You wanted to hear about strategies that would bring businesses to our state. In addition, we collected many questions about rebuilding communities on Florida’s gulf coast so that young people can continue to live and work in the towns in which they grew up. Finally, lots of you asked about the recent tuition hike of Florida universities, wanting to know how candidates planned to control the cost of higher education in our state. You all asked questions on topics that impacted you, creating a dialogue between Florida’s youth and our political candidates.
Keep it up, young people: require that candidates speak to issues that impact us, demand that candidates engage their youth constituency, and make the crew of candidates earn your vote. For this year’s midterm elections, Rock the Vote will host a score of candidate forums and to prepare for that, we’ll be sending out questionnaires to those running for office. Have a question for your future elected officials? Submit your input here.Share and Enjoy:
Tags: Candidates, Florida
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 10:32 pm and is filed under 2010 elections, Candidate Forum, Florida. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Millennials turn to online resources for financial advice - PRWeek US
Central Valley Business Times
Could tattoos make tough job search tougher?CHICAGO, ILL.
July 22, 2010 11:04am
• Body ‘art’ not a roadblock to success
• ‘Companies have a vested interest in hiring the most qualified candidate’
As job seekers try to find new ways to stand out from the crowd at a time when the pace of job creation remains brutally slow, some are undoubtedly asking themselves if their tattoos and body piercings are helping them stand out but in a negative way.
But John Challenger, chief executive officer of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., says while some employers might frown upon conspicuous body art, the practice is becoming so commonplace that companies would be severely limiting the pool of candidates if they rejected everyone with a tattoo or nose ring.
“Employers’ anti-tattoo stance probably softened considerably during the labor shortages of the late 1990s. Today, even in this tight job market, most companies are not going to view tattoos too harshly. One reason is that with everyone from soccer moms to MIT computer science graduates sporting tattoos, preconceptions about tattooed individuals are no longer valid.
“Secondly, and more importantly, companies have a vested interest in hiring the most qualified candidate,” says Mr. Challenger.
Indeed, employers might have a difficult time finding candidates without some type of body embellishment. Overall, the Food and Drug Administration estimates that as many as 45 million Americans have at least one tattoo.
A 2010 Pew Research Center report on Millennials (18- to 29-year-olds) revealed that 38 percent have tattoos. Tattooed Gen Xers aged 30 to 45 were not far behind at 32 percent.
Despite concerns of how potential employers and others might perceive tattoos and piercings, a surprisingly large percentage do not make any efforts to conceal them. While the majority of people keep their tattoos covered, the Pew Research study found that 30 percent of tattooed Millennials have their body art on full display for the public. Additionally, nearly one in four (23 percent) Millennials have a piercing somewhere other than the ear lobe.
“Two decades ago, showing off tattoos and body piercings would be a surefire way to get your resume placed in the ‘No Way!’ pile. Times have changed. Those making the hiring decisions are younger and not as adherent to traditions about workplace appearance,” says Mr. Challenger.
“There are definitely certain industries where more conservative standards of appearance persist. We may never see visible tattoos on bankers, lawyers, accountants or the clergy. However, areas such as advertising, marketing, sales and technology are more inclined to be progressive and more accepting of new fashion and lifestyle trends,” he says.
“As a job seeker, you have to judge whether the employer you are interviewing with is going to be accepting of your body art. If that is not the case, and that is where you really want to work, then you will have to make an effort to conceal your tattoos and take out your piercings,” advises Mr. Challenger.
And as for piercings: Beware! With increased security at many corporate offices, too much bling could set off metal detectors. “You do not want to be late to the interview because you were forced to remove 12 body piercings at the security desk,” he says.
Tatoos are hitting mainstream
Panel Urges End to Avastin Use in Breast Cancer
The 12 to 1 vote represents a stinging setback for Avastin, which is now the world’s best-selling cancer drug, with global sales of about $6 billion last year. The product has at times been hailed as a near miracle, the first medicine to work by blocking the flow of blood to tumors.
The data discussed at the meeting Tuesday suggested that, at least for advanced breast cancer, the initial data that led to approval was not borne out by subsequent studies.
“I’m really not seeing that this has a benefit for patients,” Natalie Compagni Portis, the patient representative on the committee, said during the meeting in Gaithersburg, Md. “Hope is very important, but to offer hope that isn’t substantiated I don’t think is responsible.”
Avastin, which is sold by Roche’s Genentech unit, will remain on the market even if the F.D.A. follows the committee’s advice, as it usually does. That is because Avastin is also permitted as a treatment for colon, lung, kidney and brain cancers. So even if the F.D.A. does indeed take the rare move of rescinding its approval, doctors would still be able to use Avastin off-label to treat breast cancer.
Insurers, however, might be reluctant to pay for an unapproved use. And breast cancer treatment would no longer be part of a program in which Genentech caps yearly spending on Avastin at $57,000 for patients with incomes below $100,000. Without the cap, the wholesale price of Avastin for a typical breast cancer patient would be $88,000, according to Genentech.
Avastin, also known as bevacizumab, is Roche’s best-selling product. Jeffery Holford, an analyst with Jefferies & Company, said Roche might now lose about $500 million of the estimated $700 million in Avastin sales to treat breast cancer in the United States. He predicted little effect in other countries because approvals there were not made on a conditional basis.
Genentech, in a statement, said it stood by the data and said that “Avastin should be an option for patients with this incurable disease.” Roche’s American depositary receipts fell $1.20, to close at $33 on Tuesday.
Avastin was given so-called accelerated approval in early 2008, a way for the F.D.A. to approve drugs for life-threatening diseases based on less than complete evidence of effectiveness. Manufacturers must then do further studies to confirm the benefit of the drug.
The two new trials sponsored by Roche for this purpose showed a much smaller effect of the drug, so small, that the committee voted 13-0 that the studies did not confirm the initial benefit.
In the initial study, use of Avastin delayed the worsening of patients’ disease by about 5.5 months. Those who received Avastin plus the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel went a median of 11.3 months before their tumors worsened, or progressed, compared to 5.8 months for those who got paclitaxel alone.
But use of Avastin did not prolong the women’s lives by a statistically significant amount, the gold standard for cancer drugs. And the drug had serious side effects for some patients.
The two new studies, in which different chemotherapy drugs were used with Avastin, showed even fewer signs that it could prolong lives. And the delay in a tumor worsening was much smaller. In one trial, it was just under a month and in the other about one to three months.
“It just delays by another visit before they get the news that their tumor progressed,” said Dr. Patrick Loehrer Sr., of Indiana University and a committee member.
Whether delayed worsening in tumors, a measure known as progression-free survival, is a valid goal for a cancer drug is controversial. Even patient groups were split when Avastin initially came up for approval for use in metastatic breast cancer.
Some said that only a reduction in symptoms or longer survival were meaningful to patients. Others said women worry less if the tumor is not worsening. They also argued that so many drugs were used by patients after the trial was over that any effect Avastin might have had in prolonging lives was washed out.
In December 2007, an F.D.A. advisory committee with some of the same members as Tuesday’s panel voted 5 to 4 against full approval. But in 2008, the F.D.A. granted accelerated approval.
On Tuesday, only one woman with breast cancer testified in favor of the drug, saying it had greatly improved her life and allowed her to golf again and go out with friends. Representatives of two patient groups urged the committee to vote for revocation.
For lung cancer and colon cancer, Avastin improved survival and got full approval. But in those cases as well, subsequent studies did not show as big a benefit as the initial studies.
Reversing the breast cancer approval would be a rare move for the F.D.A. A report by the Government Accountability Office last fall showed that none of the 90 drugs given accelerated approval had ever been removed from the market and that the agency sometimes did not make sure follow-up studies were done.
This June, however, the F.D.A. announced that Mylotarg, a little-used leukemia drug sold by Pfizer, would be withdrawn. In 2005, the agency heavily restricted use of the AstraZeneca lung cancer drug Iressa after it did not prolong survival in clinical trials.
But the Avastin studies were conducted promptly by Roche and evaluated by the F.D.A. “This is a good example of the system working,” said Dr. Wyndham Wilson of the National Cancer Institute, who served as chairman of the committee.
Inc.'s Guide to Starting a College Entrepreneurship Club - GOOD Education - GOOD
Noting that students in college today are going to be key to getting our economy back on solid ground, Inc. offers a primer on creating an entrepreneurship club at your college—even one where it may seem aesthetically out of place, such as Oberlin (where the club is known as the Creativity and Leadership Project).
Such clubs offer students the opportunity to apply some of what they may learn at school (in business, economics, and even psychology courses, for instance), while also forcing them to think creatively about in-demand services they could dream up and offer. Given that some attack our education system for killing creativity and discouraging entrepreneurship, it would be great if such clubs existed in high schools, as well.
When you've gathered enough steam to pitch the club to your university (in order to get funding), here's the reasons Inc. suggests to highlight in you proposal:
Once you have a strong mission statement and support network, it's time to register as a student organization and apply for school funding. What's the most effective way to pitch an entrepreneurship club? Remind them of three things: One, creative thought is profitable. Two, starting a successful small business is possible. And three, everyone else is doing it.
Given that some attack our education system for killing creativity and discouraging entrepreneurship, it would be great if such clubs existed in high schools, as well.
Photo via.
The Brian Lehrer Show: Starting Up: Entrepreneurship Panel - WNYC
Our entrepreneurship panel discusses what it means to be a business-leader in tough economic times and how to succeed in different parts of New York. Guests include: Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation; Dr. Andre Fenton, neuroscientist and president of the Bio-Signal Group at SUNY/Downstate Medical Center’s biotech incubator in Brooklyn; Leni Calas, editor and publisher of the blog QueensMamas.com; Gerdie Rene, owner of Sankofa Salon in Cambria Heights, Queens; owner of Brooklyn-based Otte Gear, Todd Fairbairn; Keavy Landreth, owner of Kumquat Cupcakery in Brooklyn; Celine Legros, owner & maker of miniature pastries at Les Canelés de Céline, now using WHEDCo's Bronx kitchen incubator; K.Y. Chow, president of Grand Meridian Printing in Long Island City; Jessamyn Waldman, executive director of the Hot Bread Kitchen in Long Island City; Rob Kalin, CEO of Brooklyn-based Etsy, with Etsy top-seller Alyssa Zygmunt of Brooklyn Rehab, and Puneet Mehta, the co-founder (with Sonpreet Bhatia and Archana Patchirajan) of MyCityWay in Manhattan.
allAfrica.com: Nigeria: China to Assist in Bridging Entrepreneurship Gap
Nigeria: China to Assist in Bridging Entrepreneurship Gap
Abimbola Akosile
22 July 2010
Lagos — The Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Relations with Civil Society (OSAP-CSR) has initiated fresh steps to explore the various opportunities which China is providing through its Economic and Commercial department.
The office is seeking to build a stronger partnership with China in the area of entrepreneurship and skill acquisition to help in the implementation of its economic development drive for the actualisation of the country's push to become one of the major economic forces in 2020.
During a courtesy visit to the Chinese Embassy in Abuja, Special Adviser to the President on Relation with the Civil Society (SAP-CSR), Prince Chineme Ume-Ezeoke, said Nigeria would move faster in its economic development drive if it breaks new ground in skills acquisition through which new jobs would be created.
Ume-Ezeoke said his visit was to discuss possible areas of cooperation for wealth creation and youth development, using the Civil Society as a major driver to provide training opportunities for the unemployed youths.
"I am here to seek your understanding and cooperation in entrepreneurship development because the burden of unemployment cannot be left for government alone, so I would like to find areas where we can cooperate by creating training opportunities and skills acquisition for our Youths using the Civil Society to accomplish this", the Special Adviser appealed.
He noted that China is one of the emerging economies and her greatness began with small scale industries, and that Nigeria is willing to tap from that experience by building stronger economic base that would be private sector driven, according to a statement by Mr. Chika Izuora, Ume-Ezeoke's Media Assistant.
Responding, Zhu Jiang Third Secretary and Deputy Commercial/Economic Councillor who received the Special Adviser on behalf of his boss, Mr. Rong YanSong, disclosed that his country has provided a basket of economic development opportunities for Africa through the Economic and Commercial Councillors office in the Embassy.
Jiang said China is ready to assist Nigeria in her economic development strategy and had demonstrated this by sending out proposals for possible assistance in the areas of human resources sponsorship programmes through the International Cooperation department in the National Planning Commission (NPC).
Relevant Links
According to Jiang, China plans to sponsor some Nigerians to China for capacity building exercise. He pointed out that such sponsorship comes if Nigeria requests for it and commended the Special Adviser for coming to discuss on how to maximise the existing opportunities.
The Third secretary explained that China has designed 10 training programmes that would accommodate 30 participants per programme this year alone. One other area of assistance, he further revealed, is the ongoing building of a comprehensive hospital in Abuja where an anti-malaria centre has been set up.
On employment, he disclosed that 30,000 Nigerians are in the employment of Chinese companies operating in Nigeria and China is committed to assisting Nigeria to develop a virile transport system with emphasis on Railway development.
Read comments. Write your own.
Today's Featured News
Business/Techonology News
More News on allAfrica.com
Copyright © 2010 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
AllAfrica - All the TimeAuthor: alanmulveyThu Jul 22 06:20:00 2010
Yes Higher Education gets you Higher paying job http://bit.ly/a45y6d
Entrepreneurship Case Studies|entrepreneurship | The World Business
Entrepreneurship Case Studies|entrepreneurship
Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 July 2010 11:14 Written by admin Wednesday, 21 July 2010 11:14
Hi
I love case studies , in this article I am explain what is entrepreneurship
If u are very interested to know much detailed on entrepreneurship go through the site http://www.ibscdc.org so let we start
Entrepreneurs: people who create and grow enterprises
Entrepreneurship: the process through which entrepreneurs create and grow enterprises: Entrepreneurship development…the infrastructure of public and private policies and practices that foster and support entrepreneurship.
Some of the entrepreneurs are:
Survival entrepreneurs: who resort to creating enterprises to supplement their incomes because there are few other options available. Sometimes called “entrepreneurs by necessity”
“Lifestyle entrepreneurs” are people who chose self-employment because they no longer want to work for someone else, or because it provides a better way of balancing work and home demands, or because it enables them to stay in communities to which they have great attachment. The focus is usually on providing a living for the entrepreneur and her or his family. They are often called “Mom and Pop” businesses,
“Growth entrepreneurs” are those who are motivated to grow their businesses so that they can create wealth and jobs in their community.
“Serial entrepreneurs” are people who enjoy the process of business creation and over their lifetimes will create several businesses, often selling their ventures in the process.
The process of entrepreneurship is something to which Cathy Ashmore at the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education has given much thought over several years.
some of the case studies available in ibscdc.org are:
1.Dean Kamen’s Technological Entrepreneurship
2.Robert E. Rubin: Executive Entrepreneur
3.Social Entrepreneurship: Serving the ‘Niche’ Business
4.Aravind Eye Hospitals: A Case in Social Entrepreneurship
5.Matrix Laboratories – Road to Success
6.Patrick J. McGovern’s International Data Group: Growth Strategies in Asia
7.Vijay Mallya, the Indian Business Baron: A ‘Bon Vivant’ Entrepreneur?
8.Technology and Business Incubation in India-Challenges and Opportunities
9.Global Hospitals – Where Life Gets a Second Chance
Asia-Pacific’s Largest Repository of Management Case Studies
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 11:14 pm and is filed under Entrepreneurship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.Leave a Reply
entrepreneurship and the ideal business plan | More Wealth Less Work
allAfrica.com: Tanzania: Helping Women to Become Successful Entrepreneurs
Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)
Tanzania: Helping Women to Become Successful Entrepreneurs
Dassu Stephen
21 July 2010
Dar Es Salaam — LOCAL women entrepreneurs have plenty of opportunities for their businesses' growth and expansion only if they employ the right methods of doing business.
According to experts, women entrepreneurs need not only to think beyond the box, but also pragmatic support to surmount huddles which make them sluggish participants in the business arena.
An official in the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Youth Development, Ms Joyce Shaidi, mentions meagre capital, lack of confidence and failure to access information that will expose them to other parts of the world as some of the factors hampering women's effective participation in business.
Ms Shaidi who is the Director of Youth Development says one of the fundamental goals of the Month for Women Entrepreneurs (MOWE), is to address some of the hurdles that hinder women from becoming successful entrepreneurs, both locally and internationally.
"The Month for Women Entrepreneurs is basically geared to promote and assist local business women to become more productive in their respective areas," she says.
MOWE is part of the Women's Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE) programme that was initiated in 2002. Sponsored by the Irish government, the programme is aimed at eradicating socio-cultural, legal and political obstacles for macro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs) women entrepreneurs.
According to the Executive Director of the Confederation of the Informal Sector, Ms Gloria Kavishe, the programme in Tanzania has played a significant role in boosting women from all aspects of life.
Ms Kavishe says the programme provides women entrepreneurs and organizational leaders with opportunities to attend business training such as workshops, symposia and seminars where they get knowledge on how to create a better working environment for MSMEs in Tanzania.
"During such meetings, the participants exchange views and share experiences on matters related to entrepreneurship. We have connected over 1,000 local entrepreneurs with other successful entrepreneurs from a number of neighbouring countries," she explains.
Improvement of the business environment for women entrepreneurs is one of WEDGE's major achievements in Tanzania. The programme has reached out to more than 2,500 women entrepreneurs, who have participated in training workshops on entrepreneurship development using the International Labour Organization-WEDGE tools.
These tools are intended to give skills and new ideas on technical, organizational, leadership, good governance, association formation and communication issues, in order to strengthen the organizations and the entrepreneurs.
In August, last year, at least 12 women entrepreneurs, supported by WEDGE, won an entrepreneurial competition and received grants worth 63m/- from the Vice-President, Dr Ally Mohamed Shein. Ms Kavishe says the programme, since its inception, has also managed to increase access to domestic and international markets.
"More than 1,500 women entrepreneur participated in national and international trade fairs, at Saba Saba, the United Nations Day and at "Jua Kali/Nguvu Kazi" exhibitions held in July, August, September and November, last year," she explains.
The event, she says, provided women and other partners with opportunities to gain experience and exchange contacts with national and international customers," she notes.
One of such events which took place last September linked up more than 1,000 women entrepreneurs to the Tanzania Women's Bank also founded in (2009).
"We have more women joining this bank and most of them have secured soft loans in order to start various ventures," she explains.
Ms Kavishe is optimistic that other ambitious women will make use of available opportunities, such as the Women's Bank, in order to embark on more rewarding businesses.
But others believe that lack of capital is not the only problem there are other forces behind the scene.
According to Mrs Joyce Shaidi, women who aspire to become successful need more courage and perseverance and as she put it: "I think our people should not be afraid of starting businesses and on the contrary, they need to be confident on what they intend to do. Some of them are even psychologically scared to embark on such ventures fearing to incur losses. This kind of negative attitude should be erased in their minds."
Mrs Shaidi also notes that it is equally important for women entrepreneurs to think and act beyond their respective domestic sphere.
Relevant Links
"We, for example, expect our entrepreneurs to make effective use of the newly introduced common market in East Africa. This is an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to learn good things from their neighbours and use the skills gained to improve their businesses in order to capture foreign markets," she says.
Ms Kavishe is also of the view that entrepreneurs need to learn on how to expand and grow and this is possible only if they co-operate and network with other successful business people.
"And that is what MOWE has been striving to accomplish...I think we are now heading on the right direction," she says.
She says the third MOWE event will take place in September, this year in four regions of Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Tanga, Zanzibar and Morogoro.
"We expect to have various entrepreneurship related exhibitions, symposia, seminars and worshops.All of these are the tools to let women and other members of the public know that women can also make a difference in doing businesses," she says.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Today's Featured News
Business/Techonology News
More News on allAfrica.com
Copyright © 2010 Tanzania Daily News. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
AllAfrica - All the Time
