Great story about Malawian Teen Who Built Windmills

This is an absolutely wonderful, very inspiring story about a 14-year-old boy in Malawi who built windmills to bring electricity and water to his hometown near Lilongwe. I have been to Malawi. It is one of the poorest countries in the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/10/05/malawi.wind.boy/index.html

A book about this story was released last week.

Jeremy Rifkin- Expert, Author.....short summary of Beyond Beef

I've just read Rifkin's book about the cattle and beef industry- Beyond Beef. It is very critical of the beef industry.

He presents an amazing critique and summary of the industry. He reveals that the beef industry is actually causing global and environmental threats to mankind and the earth that may end up being catastrophic. Yes, you read that right.

It is not just a matter of animal rights. And yes, the fact that beef and animal products are a cause of health problems and disease is very important and actually tragic.

But Rifkin shows that the whole beef and cattle issue is more than those things- it is actually a matter of survival for mankind and the earth. If the developed world, which demands and consumes beef, continues their beef-consumption lifestyle, the earth may not be able to handle it. More than that, much of the world has been and is now suffering the serious consequences of this over-emphasis on beef. Rifkin points out that beef is big business all over the world.

The beef and cattle industry is a contributing factor to the fact that almost 20% of the world s population is living in abject poverty and with rampant disease and death. The poorest people of the world are starved to support the appetites of wealthy nations.

Great Charity: Smiletrain

This is a link to a wonderful charity that provides children with cleft surgery to greatly improve their smile, their face and their life. One of these surgeries only costs about $250.

www.smiletrain.org or 1-800-932-9541

The Power of Journalism

This story shows it. The LA Times had a story yesterday, Thursday, Sept. 17, about 20 developmentally-disabled people getting evicted from an apartment complex.

CA Gov. Arnold saw the article, tweeted about it, and then- boom! He stepped in, and the apartment mgmt. company has decided to let them stay.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/schwarzenegger-stops-monrovia-eviction.html

Happy writing....

Icons and Social Media Marketing Series

I am just gonna go for it. It's about time!

Yes, I have some big goals for this blog- I wanna be on the Top 20 on Technorati!!!! And you can help me....ok, seriously, this is a journey, so let's get back to the item at hand.

It has been fun learning the code and process for getting icons onto a blog or website. Once you get the code and find a place for the images to reside, it is easy to place the cool icons where you want them. Then, voila! people can click-through to another webpage.

So, back to my goal- I want to create a blog that is popular, relevant, practical, informative, diverse, fun, cool, hip and much much more.

I want the blog to have very useful, important information for people on a wide variety of topics-- but of course not too broad and general.

Idea: a blog that spawns other blogs about specific subjects- tech; health; careers; politics; pets and animals; environment; the list goes on & on!!!

I will keep you updated.

Today I am learning more about utilizing Technorati to help bloggers increase their rank and traffic. More on this later.

Also, today is the anniversary of 9/11. So I think we should all pay respect and honor to those who lost their lives and who were deeply affected by the events of that day. God Bless America.

How to Place Social Media Icons on Your Blog

I am helping my clients with social media marketing, branding and SEO. This blog entry will start a series of entries on How To Place Social Media Icons on Your Blog.

This is something pretty basic. But I am intending this entry and other ones for those who do not know anything about websites, code, blogs, etc.

So this short tutorial is for those who want to learn more about blogs, websites, code and the like. I will try to put everything in simple, easy-to-understand language so anyone can understand it.

It's That Time of Year

It is early September. School has started for most everyone. Fall is just around the corner. And yes, for Americans, it is now football season.
I do feel that many people get too "into" football and other sports. I have to admit, there are many things about football that are interesting and exciting. I do not want to be too critical, but here are some things that I do not like about it:
1. Too violent- people get injured regularly.
2. Dysfunctional- the very purpose of football is completely dysfunctional: destroy and defeat your opponent; conquer them physically and in every other way, even hurting them, in order to win the game.
3. Alcohol- an intrinsic aspect of pro & college football is alcohol-consumption.
4. Gambling- again, an inherent aspect of pro & college football is gambling- some illegal, some legal.
5. Ego- this aspect of football is no different from many other fields of work. For many people, their main motivating factor is their ego and building up their ego.

Ladies Howl Over Vet's Name for Castration: Brain Surgery

Relevant Media News
NASHVILLE, TN- “Another brain surgery for a horse,” the assistant explains.
Veterinarian Dr. Marc Smith’s patients might be a little startled these days. Especially when they hear his vet staff proclaim another “brain surgery” procedure- his code word for castrating a horse.
Always known for his candor and wit, the amicable Smith came up with the name because of some of his staff’s comments.
“Well, the ladies in the office were talking one day about how men seem to be controlled by something below the belt, so to speak,” said Smith. “So when they heard me refer to equine castration as brain surgery, they kind of got a big kick out of it. I guess the name stuck.”
So that explains his staff’s giggling and laughter at various times during the week.
Smith has been a busy man recently. Between his vet practice and his pet food company, Pet-Tao, not to mention his wife and two young daughters, Anna and Lily, Smith barely has time to go fishing anymore.
But Smith still has time to amuse his clientele and staff, especially after his moniker for castrating a horse created a stir and caused a major funny-ruckus among the ladies in his circles.
Now his staff is adding comedian to his calling card- and brain surgeon.

The Day Nashville Died

It's hard to write this. Steve McNair died today.
Steve was everyone's hero. He was a father, a son, a brother, a brother-in-law, a friend, a co-worker. He was an athlete, a superstar, a titan- more than that, a legend, a hero.
I cannot put my feelings and thoughts into words. I am still dazed. I knew Steve. I was planning on pursuing writing a book about him- about his remarkable life and career; how he grew up poor in Mississippi with older brothers (like me) who influenced him; how he grew up in a one-parent family (like me); how he defied the odds and nay-sayers and became a NFL superstar.
Steve was much more than a superstar athlete. He did things for this community and for people in need that no one knows about. I have heard numerous stories from his friends and others that Steve would often do things for people in need- and he did not want the media to know about these things- visiting sick children in the hospital; giving poor people material things, hosting his football camp for inner city children; on and on.
He just did his football camp for kids in Nashville. He just opened a restaurant in north Nashville near TSU, hoping to help improve that area and the revitalization there.
He was helping out all over the place. His foundation was for children, to help them in many different ways. Just two months ago, I was at a fund-raising event in Green Hills for two organizations. Steve was there for several hours, helping them raise money and public support. He was playing with his young 8-year-old boy, having a good time, greeting his many fans and admirers, including me.
He was a great person, a top-notch individual and leader and friend.

I am a native Nashvillian. I have seen how this city has changed. We as a city have grown and improved and evolved. The Titans have been a big part of that growth. And Steve was the heart and soul and leader and hero of our Titans- and he still is.
But he was more than that. He is one of us, a Nashvillian, raising his family here, serving the community, raising his children. He was not perfect, no one is. But he was about as great as you can get.
He was more than just a player and athlete. He was our hero, our titan, our giant, our legend, our friend.
He came to Nashville and made this his home. And someone killed him.
This is the day Nashville died.
This is the day that society died.

The George Gillett Business Empire

A former Nashville, Tennessee, resident continues to build his business empire and has been in the news regarding one of his business ventures- pro soccer in England.
George Gillett and his family of six lived in Nashville in the 1980s when he owned the local WSMV TV station. Throughout his career, he has been known as an innovative and creative businessman. Since some trouble in the early 90s, Gillett has been hugely successful in a variety of industries and is now in the exclusive 'billionaire' club (and moreover, he is basically self-made). His varied and vast recent and current business ventures are enough to make any normal person's head spin.
His sports franchise ventures alone are very impressive, to say the least.
First, Gillett has been the majority owner (80%) of the Montreal Canadiens since 2001. The club is the 3rd most valuable NHL franchise at $334 million, according to Forbes (2007 list).
Second, since early 2007 he has been 50% owner of the Liverpool Football Club (FC) in the UK. According to Forbes, Liverpool FC is the fourth most valuable soccer team in the world (value: $1.0 billion, Forbes 2008 list).
On top of that, he owns the NASCAR team Richard Petty Motorsports, the fourth most valuable NASCAR team at $128 million (Forbes, 2007).
According to Forbes, the value of these investments alone is approximately $962 million.

The string of news stories over the last year, primarily in the British press, are related to controversy surrounding the ownership of the Liverpool FC.
The group that was close to buying the team in 2006-7, Dubia International Capital (DIC), has continued to try to buy the team from Gillett and co-owner Tom Hicks (of Texas).
As with any controversial issue, there are numerous reports about 'who is trying to sell/buy/make a deal to whom'. The passionate Liverpool fan base apparently feels that DIC's vast wealth and capital will be better for the future success of the club. The franchise plans to build a stadium in the next few years.
Gillett and his son Foster (who is prominent in Gillett's companies) have even received death threats from Liverpool fans regarding this controversy. The threats apparently are related to the fans' desire that Gillett not sell any of his stake in the team to Hicks.

Gillett has also made attempts to buy other franchises. In 2000, he, Pat Bowlen (owner of the Denver Broncos) and Broncos' hero John Elway attempted to buy the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche (NHL) and the Pepsi Center. The bid did not work out.
In the last few years, Gillett has also made efforts to acquire a Major League Soccer (MLS) team in North America. He had attempted to bring a MLS team to Montreal.
Regarding his ownership of the NHL team, the Canadiens are one of the most successful hockey teams in history. They have won more NHL Stanley Cups than any other team (26). The club is also the oldest pro hockey franchise in the NHL. This year marks their 100th anniversary.
It basically goes without saying that Gillett is a big sports fan. In one form or another, he has been involved in most major sports during his career.
He is currently a member of the Leadership Council of the Unites States Olympic Committee. He is the past Chairman of the Board of the Denver Grand Prix Association.
On a related note, Gillett (as noted below) is a major player in ski resort ownership in the U.S. and has been a promoter of professional skiing.
When he was owner of Vail Associates, which owned and operated the Vail and Beaver Creek Ski Resorts from 1985-1991, he was instrumental in bringing the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships to Vail, the first time it had been held in the U.S. since 1950. Gillett is a member of the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.
Has he been involved in other pro sports? Yes.
In the 1970s, Gillett was business manager and minority partner of the NFL's Miami Dolphins. Right after that, he was CEO and owner of the Harlem Globetrotters and created the Globetrotters TV show and other brands for the franchise.
So, are there any pro sports he has NOT been heavily involved in? Let's see, he's in soccer, hockey, car racing, snow-skiing, the Olympics. He has been heavily involved in pro football and basketball (and tried to buy an NBA team). Okay, he apparently has not been in baseball.....well, he actuall made a good choice on that one.

Gillett has obviously rebounded from his struggles in the early 1990s. During that time, Gillett Holdings, primarily involved in TV broadcasting and the meat-processing industry, experienced a downturn as a result of several complicated issues. One of the main ones was junk bond financing. In April, 1992, his companies entered bankruptcy protection. Gillett himself filed for personal bankruptcy. He made it through fairly well but lost, among other things, his collection of 30 sports cars and his 235,000-acre ranch in Oregon.
The longtime businessman is now a bona-fide mogul, and his companies thrive in numerous industries. In addition to sports franchises, his empire has companies and holdings in: entertainment, meat processing, food production, organic foods, ski resorts, auto dealerships and more.
The Gillett Entertainment Group (GEG) in SE Canada and NE USA is one of the top entertainment promoters in the world. The GEG produces approximately 600 live shows a year. According to industry source Pollstar, in 2007, GEG ranked 4th in ticket sales in North America and 7th in the world.
In Montreal, Gillett owns the Bell Centre, where the Candiens play. He acquired the Centre along with the Canadiens.
His company Booth Creek Management Co. (BCMC), based in Vail, CO, oversees many of his businesses.
One of the main ones is meat processing and production, an industry he has been in since the 1970s.
Here are just a few samples from his more recent business endeavors. In the 1990s, he built Corporate Brand Foods which was bought in 1997 by Iowa Beef Processors for $550 million.
From 2001 to 2007, he and leverage buyout firm HM Capital (Tom Hicks group in Texas) owned ConAgra's beef operations, Swift and Co., before selling it to Brazilian firm JBS S.A., considered the largest meat processing company in the world ($30 billion in revenue in 2008, 40,000 employees).
Today, BCMC's current holdings include companies in beef, poultry, turkey, lamb and pork production. The companies include: Petaluma Poultry, Snowball Foods, Kings Delight, B3R Country Meats, Gerard's Napa Valley Sausage, Coleman Natural Foods and Wheat Montana Farms & Bakery,

Coleman Natural Foods is a leading producer and supplier of natural and organic protein products; Wheat Montana Farms & Bakery is a producer of wheat and other grains for use in bread products and an operator of a line of natural delicatessans.

Gillett has been very successful in the ski resort business. He and two business partners own Booth Creek Resort Properties, the fourth largest ski resort owner in North America. Booth Creek owns and operates the six resorts. They are: Northstar at Tahoe and Sierra at Tahoe, both in California; Waterville Valley, Cranmore Mt. Resort and Loon Mt in New Hampshire; and The Summit at Snoqualmie near Seattle, WA.
Gillett first started his ventures in ski resorts in 1985 when he acquired Vail Associates, the owner and operator of ski resorts in Vail and Beaver Creek, CO. The two resorts eventually became two of the top snow-skiing vacation destinations in the nation. In 1992, when Gillett Holdings filed for bankruptcy, the company came under control of Apollo Ski Company LP of New York.
Gillett's owns five auto dealerships in five different states: Colorado, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Tennessee (in Nashville- Action Nissan on Thompson Lane.) The dealerships are part of Summit Automotive Group.

This story is sad, I know- but I wanted to bring up something very positive in the midst of it.
Just recently here in Nashville, well-known musician Dan Seals passed away after a battle with cancer. I went to the service for him here in the Antioch neighborhood.
Dan is Texan who lived in Nashville since the 1980s.
I just think it is really neat that Dan was an absolutely great musician for many, many years and wrote and performed many wonderful songs- and that his older brother Jim has also been a very successful, famous musician, part of the duo Seals and Croft.
Dan was a country star in the 80s; before that he was part of the duo England Dan and John Ford Coley.
Jim's group Seals and Croft was one of the most successful duos of the 1970s. Just one example of their hits is "Summer Breeze", the iconic song that speaks for itself.
It just seems to me this is a "small world" type story. Two brothers who were extremely talented and successful, just doing what they do and touching a lot of people in the process.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Ahhh, it's a wonderful time of year, agreed? Springtime, birds singing, school's out, Memorial Day....
The 'story of the day' is the Spring Fling sports event here in middle Tennessee.
Even if you're not a sports fan, this is a cool event. It is the annual finale for high school sports in Tennessee. It is the state championships for every spring sport- track & field, baseball, softball, soccer and tennis. This year, it's in Murfreesboro and Smyrna. It looks like it will be in a different location next year.
Yes, there is winning and losing- and no one likes losing- or seeing it happen.
But, in my book, it's all about everyone doing their best and participating and competing and learning through the whole process.
Tonight is the finals for the boys track & field events.
Anyway, have a great weekend.