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Ethics continuing education might have been useful in preventing Rupert Murdoch’s latest and greatest problem with money and the law. One of the most monied of patriarchs worldwide, Murdoch makes billions from a diverse portfolio of properties and investments, one of which is the legendary News of the World tabloid. A long-time money-maker for him, this property has now become his greatest challenge yet, both personally as well as professionally.

And so how does all that relate to the topic of ethics continuing education? Oh, just that simple kindergarten variety fair play would have avoided all the nonsense to begin with. It all started with a missing girl. Given the intense public interest in the story, Murdoch’s paper tried to stand out by what turned out to be not only unethical but outright illegal means. And so the paper decided to break into the missing girl’s cell phone voicemail.

Right there that was wrong – but what truly makes this matter so important as an argument for ethics continuing education is because the tabloid actually erased messages when the voicemail box was full so as to get new ones to report on! This created the impression to investigators that the girl was still alive, checking in and deleting old messages. She had been deceased all along, however, but it took much more time to determine the fact than would have been necessary.

Not even the royals and their prime minister were immune from Murdoch’s prying henchmen (and women)!

As a response, Murdoch simply shut down the century-old paper, only to have further calls for further inquiries. Murdoch has also had a ten-billion dollar business deal fall through on account of the scandal – a costly lesson in business ethics!

When businesses are looking for professional painters to do Commercial Painting on their properties, there are several options they need to check out before they decide. Companies should always look for painters who have a reputation for excellent professionalism, quality and availability. The best painters are the ones that are the most compatible with the company and its standards.

The best way to find professional Painting Contractors is by getting references from others who have used their services. Previous customers are the best route to information for anyone looking for answers. If the job requires any special details, the business owner would do well to check and make sure the company they hire does that specific work.

Some companies will choose to specialize in sandblasting, industrial or power washing projects. There are some time specifications about how small or large a project should be before the painters will go to work. How much the job is worth is related to how big the project is.

Business owners always check references ahead of time so that they are not paying for a job that is unprofessional or people who are immature. It is better for a professional Painting Contractor to provide a list of previous customers who they know will give them a good reference.

All companies provide estimates before any work is begun. They may specialize in only interior or only exterior work. This is something you will want to know before they are hired. Whether it is for a business or for a residence, the color must always be right. Using a professional company with a solid reputation for good work is a way to ensure this.

Most commercial painting businesses will offer different prices for the different jobs they are given. If there is anything that is not added on to an estimate, the client should know about it before they hire. Any extra charges should be brought to their attention.

Commercial property owners renovating or building a new structure will need to enlist the services of a ceiling painting contractor. A professional company will employ skilled professionals specifically trained to do this type of work.

People who think they are capable of doing this work themselves are usually mistaken. Without the proper equipment, paints and knowledge this work can be extremely risky. The technique is not the same as that used when applying paint to walls. A professional painter will be familiar with the right technique and will have the proper equipment.

A contractor will meet with the building owner to create a customized plan for the service. All work will take place at the client’s convenience while taking into account the work going on in the building at the time. There is no need to close the business or rearrange employee work schedules to accommodate this work.

Property owners can hire contractors for industrial ceiling painting or commercial building ceiling painting. The technique used is slightly different depending on location. Professional contractors use a different technique on commercial structures because they must be suitable for presentation to potential and existing customers.

Regular maintenance including occasional cleanings will prolong the life of the structure. Sandblasting is the most common method used for ceiling cleaning. Despite the name, sandblasting does not involve the use of sand. The equipment used directs tiny pieces of copper slag, steel grit or walnut shells at the surface under high pressure.

Property owners will save money by arranging for regular ceiling painting and cleaning service. In an industrial setting, this will help rid the environment of any chemicals that may be building up on the surface. Providing a clean environment for customers is important to commercial business owners. Business owners will also notice their employees are more productive when the work place is clean.

When it comes to ye olde standard business cards, it’s anyone’s guess what “they” will think of next. For instance, some people have taken to handing out little mini-CDs! These “cards” are generally rectangular, except with the two shorter sides being round (almost quarter-circular, in fact) to facilitate spinning in a drive. Like all CDs, however, these business cards are pre-printed on one side, offering the usual tidbits like name, title, and contact information. The CD itself, of course, is chock full of information (ideally, anyway) promoting the company and its products and/or services. Quite a neat way to get notice, isn’t it! What ever are they going to come up with next??

Whatever the next “it-thing” is going to be, standard business cards have become so…well, standardized that even you will wind up trying something — anything — to stand out! Handing out eye-grabbing mini-CDs for a business card is just one way, and so far it’s not been topped — though the practice itself has been stopped due to its gimmicky nature, which in turn is probably on account of the fact that most folks really have no multimedia presentation to put onto the disc anyway!

To be sure, using gimmicks isn’t anything new. People have always resisted, if that’s the word, standard business cards. For example, their use in real estate has been different. Unlike the rest of the business world, people in real estate often have their photos on their business cards. No joke! And no one’s put off by it; the practice isn’t considered unprofessional at all.

And no wonder. For research into consumer psychology has proven that people purchase homes based on unquantifiable emotional factors. Part of that involves feeling a sense of trust towards the agent, the realtor, or the broker. Hence the photos on the card — and, for that matter, the house’s very “for sale” sign out front. No need to waste time with folks who might discount you simply based on your looks, right?

Other industries have opted for non-traditional cards, too, though never as iconoclastic as what real estate types do. But holograms, folding cards, double-sided cards, and more have all been used by those in corporate communications, particularly advertising and marketing. All other departments — accounting, personnel, and so forth — will probably always stay traditional…standard!

Standard business cards are all the range in Japan. Did you know that? It’s been long observed, since The Eighties if not The Seventies or even before that, how the typical Japanese, and not only the average salaryman, carries around business cards to exchange with people by way of an introduction. It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that in Japan, folks use standard business cards as conversational ice-breakers!

The movie “Good Morning” parodies this cultural tendency to substitute meaningless signs and symbols for real conversation and real connections. The social milieu depicted in the film is that of postwar Japan in the 1950s, though relatively few signs of want are to be found and indeed no mention whatsoever of war. The film is notable for humorously noting such meaningless exchanges of social etiquette, a routine very much related to the practice of trading business cards.

It’s true that human beings are naturally drawn to abstractions and thus sign and symbol-making. But the Japanese are justly noted for having taken such instincts to a higher level of development, of formalizing them so much more elaborately than many, to the point that their very language reflects social status by offering alternating forms of address depending on the listener’s place in the greater hierarchy: words will take on different suffixes simply to recognize such social distinctions!

And so we come to the exchange of business cards. It’s the ultimate in getting to know one another in a way that’s really important: one’s relative ranking! This is Japan, after all, a country with a cultural heritage that doesn’t pretend to be egalitarian and so has no qualms about formally identifying people’s social standings.

Perhaps a little militaristic, yes. It isn’t limited to Japan, of course – at least not in kind, though few other places can match it to the degree of its intensity, the degree of its prevalence and common observation.

One most conducive to modern business.

Business cards. Yes, too much can be made out of such simple things. But so can too little be; so is it possible that important cultural currents are ignored.

Americans trade business cards quite often, too. In fact, the custom started outside Japan. Yet nowhere else has the practice such force; nowhere else has it become so much a part of the culture.

As to the matter of small business loans bad credit, I’m puzzled by it all. That’s how come I avoid adverse credit to begin with. Yet with the tough business environment these days, when FICO’s raised their standards of what’s a good score and what’s not, it can be almost impossible for folks to avoid being labeled a credit risk. After all, what company doesn’t operate on a deficit on occasion; what company doesn’t talk to creditors in the hopes of renegotiating previously agreed-upon terms? All right, so these things don’t automatically get factored into your score, but the point is clear enough: stuff happens, doesn’t it; lots of things can occur. How can someone be responsible for things out of his or her control? Yes, yes – on the other hand, luck can also be good, and one must, as the ol’ saying advises, take the good with the bad.

It’s curious that modest swimsuits are supposed to conceal the female form, because they can attract just as much attention, for reasons all their own! But that’s not so surprising, considering how “less is more” is quite often true, and that’s how burlesque can be so much more tantalizing than a simple striptease – all of which is merely by way of saying that leaving nothing to the imagination can be less stimulating than playing with it. Besides, there’s also the unfortunate fact that some people really do look better covered up! Speaking as a gentleman, I have nothing against either choice a lady makes, but I just have to say how funny it is that while they might think they’re avoiding stares, they could in fact be stoking the imagination!

“Boys Town” and its sequel, “Men of Boys Town,” are American movies based on the world-famous American juvenile home.. Established by a Catholic priest in 1917, it was an orphange that pioneered progressive methods of juvenile care. Thirteen Boys Town locations are now established throughout the country, with Father Flanagan’s original vision becoming a model worldwide. And prominent people from business, politics, and entertainment have headlined its fundraisers for almost a century, people such as real estate developer Isaac Toussie and Mayor of Chicago Richard M. Dalely. That’s on top of all those from the surrounding communities who donate time if nothing else to help Boys Town achieve its goals.

Almost certainly some of this success can be attributed to the positive publicity generated from the movies, making of the charity a kind of vernacular shorthand for progressive social work. Starring industry leading men Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney in charismatic roles, these films are “feel-good” movies through and through, winning the Oscar for Best Actor and Best Original Story amidst a flood of nominations. The stories depicted had very little to do with any real-life events at the institution, however, being almost entirely fictional events that made much better for drama. On the other hand, they do reflect typical problems encountered by those involved in juvenile care; indeed, the second movie even delved into the subject of reform school abuse and homelessness among the young. But onscreen or off, Boys Town works tirelessly on behalf of children and families, encouraged by Father Flanagan’s belief that there is no such thing as a bad boy, only a troubled one who need care.

Sam Antar was the former CFO of Crazy Eddie’s, his cousin’s electronics retail kingdom.
Sam is a much sought-after speaker on the lecture circuit nowadays, and his seminars may even earn CPE and CLE credits for the attendees.

That’s because he is a convicted fraudster.

Ethics continuing education courses are usually self-paced correspondence courses one takes at one’s own leisure as a part of maintaining one’s professional good standing.
Reading through Sam’s site on the worldwide web, however, is as educational as any structured academic account can be.

As the former CFO of Crazy Eddie’s, Sam presided over one of the most well-known scandals in the chronicles of corporate crime.
He lays it all out, bare, raw, and unembellished by any of the typical self-serving rationaliziations frequently given to insiders’ accounts – all unadulterated on his website.

This is an ethics CPE program like no tomorrow – if it were accredited as such.
As it is, it’s just a website – but oh, what a website!

White-collar crime never looked so exciting.
That’s because the Crazy Eddie’s scandal was at heart a soap opera featuring all the common human foibles known to a Greek chorus – lust, greed, betrayal, as well as family.
Yes, family.

The familial element in this drama makes this demonstration of corporate offense so – if the pun will likely be pardoned – familiar to lay readers, grabbing and holding their attention where other accounts might lose them under a hill of technical details.
However, it isn’t that Sam offers no minutiae of his own; his very objective today is to combat criminal activity, after all; it’s that these details, which would be so boring otherwise minus the benefit of a human drama in which to place them in the correct perspective, come to vivid life against the context of a family power battle that resonantes powerfully with everyone who’s actually underwent any semblance of sibling rivalry.

How’s that for an ethics CPE course!

So you want to be a lawyer. You realize it is going to mean a lot of learning, a lot of time used with books – but you like reading, and figuring things out, and you enjoy words, language, and all the semantic nuances included.

You even know that the LSAT examination for admission to law school is hard, and something to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for, for special prep courses, coaching classes etc. You also realize that law school itself will be tough as nails, at least through the all-too-crucial First Year.

Great. Maybe you even know that you will be forever hitting the books as a practicing lawyer, forever taking online CPE courses and their exams, one after the other, in order to maintain your ranking with the professional association governing your licensure.

Super.

But are you aware that it will be quite tough getting a high-enough-paying job as lawyer in order to pay off your student loans? In reality, those online CPE courses will cost some money, too.

Oh, you probably think you have got that covered. You’ll graduate at the top of your class, or you’ll be accepted into an Ivy League law school and graduate none too low in the rankings so as to get hired by a top corporate law firm and easily recoup your investment in two to three years’ time.

And without a doubt, if such a thing does happen, your odds would be better than those for practically the rest of your peers, even in this economy. But “better than” does not mean “inherently good.” ’Cause guess what – globalization is coming to the legal profession also.

Yes, you heard that right – outsourcing. Certainly, some of the online CPE courses available on the worldwide web were developed overseas! And though the legal profession has attempted to resist it (after all, it took a whole decade for everyone to switch from WordPerfect to Microsoft Word!), it’s finally started to affect the industry.

When it comes to charity, many people think of it as being something other people do – namely, the rich. After all, who else has the money to fund entire schools or hospitals?
But for Judaism, no matter the branch or denomination, there is the idea of tzedakah, which comes from the Hebrew for “justice,” and this is an obligation for all, even the poor. For to make charitable donations is prescribed as a religious duty and not one subject to personal fancy. In fact, it is taught to regard the very money for available tzedakah as not one’s own, but on loan, as it were, from on on high. This leads to the further injunction to carefully vet all recipients to ensure that any donations made will actually work for good and not ill.

On the face of it, it may sound surprising to an outsider, as with many aspects of Judaism. However – as with many aspects of Judaism, even for an outsider – there exist profound philosophical reasons for them. For in commanding even the poor to give, the rabbinical injunction to perform acts of tzedakah in effect empowers the poor to regard themselves as capable, too.

For what can be more empowering than to give? To give means to express our power, our ability to give, and in sharing we express ourselves – our love, our sacrifice, our character. It is not that poverty ennobles, but to bear poverty in righteousness: that is noble. As a result, in the Jewish tradition it isn’t necessary to be a successful developer like Isaac Toussie in order to make donations. For Jews, such religiously commanded contributions are not just an obligation but a right.

For poverty is not so base as when it prevents one from sharing of one’s own means. This insight into human nature is what inspires the Jewish tradition to insist that even the poor not only have the duty to share, but can actually even enjoy sharing, giving, as a right!

Affiliate marketing is a superb way for the tech-savvy hobbyist for making some money on the side.
For a select few who have managed to put their finger on the Zeitgeist, however, it means full financial independence, with income in the tens of thousands per month!

One of the most celebrated cases of affiliate marketing made good has long been that of Dr. Arnold Kim, M.D.
While still a medical student, he started a website dedicated to rumors about Apple products.
This was back right at the turn of the century, before the word “blog” had entered into the well-known lexicon.
Even while diagnosing patients, Dr. Kim kept up the site, though subsequently it took on a life of its own, with forty million page views a month, as certified by independent research firms.

Dr. Kim was already well-off because of his medical practice, but affiliate marketing also generated a six-figure income – and he was only devoting comparatively little time to his site!
Believing that things could grow so much more were he to invest his whole day, Dr. Kim gave up his stethoscope and plunged whole-heartedly into the world of professional blogging.

Similar types of internet riches abound, such as that of the teenager who became a millionaire by producing free MySpace designs for people to download, or the college student behind “The Million-Dollar Homepage” which made money by just selling space to advertisers.
What they have in typical is that their success is entirely traffic-driven: it’s all about the eyeballs, the number of visitors per month, week, day, even hour – both repeat and first-time (known in the industry as “unique”).
Get the numbers, and you will make money.

But how do you get the numbers?
Content.
“Content is king.”
If you have something lots of people are interested, such that they will keep visiting your site, you will make money – confirmed.
The only real question is what content or material to serve up!

The affiliate marketing testimonials just keep pouring in: the most up-to-date circumstance history concerns one Ashley Qualls, a seventeen year-old who’s become a millionaire by simply giving away free MySpace layouts.
Yes.
It is no joke.
A teenage girl in high school makes seventy thousand dollars a month by giving stuff away for free.

Chalk another one up to the magic of affiliate marketing and its dramatic power.
Ashley Qualls created a website that’s nothing more than a repository of her layouts for MySpace profile pages which anyone can download entirely free.
Her site attracts seven million visitors each month and sixty million page views.
That’s gold to advertisers.
And it’s become gold for Ashley Qualls.

Affiliate marketing works.
The true challenge lies in coming up with something that lots and lots of people will go crazy for.
Another great internet riches success story concerns an Arnold Kim, who as a professional blogger now makes income in the same six-figure range he used to as a medical doctor, only he gets to stay home with his four year-old daughter.
He happened upon his financial destiny at the same time still in school, having started up a site dedicated to rumors about Apple products.
As among the first, he quickly developed quite the captive audience and, with all those eyeballs, advertisers arrived calling in equally quick succession.

That’s all it takes to make money online – traffic.
Eyeballs.
Visitors, repeat and unique (first-time).
It’s basically monetized like any other medium, whether print or broadcast.
Important differences do exist, but where fundamentals are concerned you need to have numbers; you need people.

Just how to get all those people?
Once again, providing something of great interest to a large number of people.
Fundamentally, the same first principle of any company.
Determine a need and fulfill it!

Do you know anything about guerrilla marketing? I came across it unwittingly just near On Off Digital World at midtown Manhattan. What guerrilla marketing is, is just undercover marketing. Yeah, covert marketing! Like what happened with me, for example. I happened upon a pair of cute young ladies who needed me to snap their picture as a favor – a common enough request around the tourist mecca that is Times Square. All the while, however, they wound up explaining to me the ins and outs of their new digital camera – having me all curious about it in no time! That’s guerrilla marketing right there, advertising to me in a way that gets past my guard!

When you’re building a company, whether its on the web or offline, one of your major goals should always be to get new clients and buyers. It is true that developing beneficial relationships is also a goal; it’s also true that relationships can only help you so much. You want to get new people for you to turn them into repeat buyers. Of course, it is a very important factor to recognise that you need to bring in brand-new clients. It is something totally different to be able to really do it frequently. So exactly what are a number of the best ways to bring in new clients?

Bringing in a brand-new customer will always be easier to do when you work to make yourself as visible as you can possibly be. This does not necessarily follow that you need to be wallpapering the net with your advertising. It signifies that your familiarity with your market should be close enough that you know where the people within that market go to find new information and products and then make sure that your name is where they are looking. You could do this by advertising on a blog. It could be in the form of attendance at a convention for your market. The more visible you are to the people you want to serve; the more likely they will be to take a chance with you.

Give away something for free to a new client. This can create a sticky situation if done wrong. Some people think that you shouldn’t ever give away your services or products at no cost. They say that doing this just means that the client or customer will just assume that they can always get something for free. This can certainly be the case if you don’t make sure that the person understands that your free offering is only available to brand new clients and it is only available once. If you make sure that you plainly state that your free offering is only offered as a promotional tool, you shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of problem.

Figure out if there are any businesses out there that you can form a complimentary bond with. For example, if you are an article writer, are there any SEO companies out there who could benefit from having a writer they can rely on? This not only brings you more business, it helps you form strong working relationships. Building these types of mutually beneficial relationships is vital to your survival. While this can help you gain new writing clients, the SEO company also benefits because they have someone reliable to offer writing for the clients who want it. This helps everybody at the table win.

There are all sorts of things you can do both online and offline to bring in new clients. It is most important, however, to do the research needed. You need to understand your target market inside and out. The more you know about them and what they want the better you will be in a position to offer them exactly that. The achievement you will have with your enterprise depends on your being able to work smart, not work everywhere.

This text was presented by W9Form.info, your informational source for the W9 Form and other W-9 related tax docs..

The appeal of unlocked cell phones is that they work no matter which carrier you choose. Numerous makes are available in this manner, and though people often naturally prefer the latest ones, it generally pays to bear in mind older offerings as well. For example, unlocked cell phones such as the Nokia Surge make terrific second handsets for people who need to keep two distinct contact numbers. It looks like a T-Mobile Sidekick but being unlocked means that you aren’t restricted to just AT&T in the United States. It’s got the same form factor as the best-selling Sidekick, only instead of swiveling it slides to expose the keyboard underneath. The inclusion of text messaging and social media capabilities makes it clear that Nokia is focusing on the young with this model.

There’s simply no better when it comes to unlocked cell phones for second or third “lines.” But just what is the Surge? What’s it like? Well, it’s a 3G phone offering 2.4 inches of screen space at 320×240 TFT pixels and 16 million colors. The 2 megapixel camera is inferior when compared to the 3 megapixel-plus version on the related 6760 Slide model available in the rest of the world (which phone, incidentally, isn’t carrier-exclusive), but the Surge was introduced earlier, too. Video recording is done at the standard QVGA resolution.

It runs on the Symbian Series 60 multi-tasking platform, which goes great with the provided feature-set, making the Surge a mid-level offering. The Surge works with Bluetooth 2.0, with A2DP support, and offers microUSB connectivity as well. Audio is delivered by a standard 2.5mm jack. In accordance with most Nokia products lately, this has an on-board stereo FM radio player. MicroSD cards are supported by as much as a maximum of 8GB of additional storage space, on top of the 2GB card included. This phone can also be found in black, white, or red color schemes. Talk-time is rated at a reasonable five hours, and standby is a healthy five hundred.

Even better, being unlocked means no longer being tied to AT&T and a long two-year contract with mandatory voice and data plans that could potentially add up to an average of a thousand dollars a year for even a somewhat casual user! And naturally the Surge is obviously meant for those who are constantly texting, chatting, e-mailing, or using the internet. Such folks could very quickly wind up with over two thousand dollars a year!