World’s first surviving panda triplets ‘very healthy’ | CNN.com

August 14, 2014August 13, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Very few pandas are born each year, but even fewer of the fragile cubs stay alive. That’s why zookeepers say it’s a “miracle” after a panda gave birth to a healthy set of triplets, who have now survived over two weeks and are reportedly doing well.

The cubs, which weighed 83 grams, 90 grams, and 122 grams, respectively, at birth, are thought to be the only living panda triplets in the world. The 12-year-old mother, Juxiao whose name means “chrysanthemum smile” gave birth to the adorable cubs on July 29 in China’s Chimelong Safari Park in the southern city of Guangzhou. The delivery took four hours, said Dong Guixin, the manager of the park.

“After nearly half a month under the care of the mother, the babies are very healthy,” China Daily reported Dong as saying.

10 Essential Tips for Email Marketing Campaigns|businessnewsdaily.com

August 14, 2014August 13, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Email has become one of the easiest ways for businesses to reach their customers. Cost-effectiveness, shareability and the speed of message delivery have made email campaigns a critical component of most businesses’ marketing strategies. However, with the increasing popularity of email marketing comes a greater risk that messages will be blocked from your customers’ inboxes. Info group, a provider of business data and marketing solutions, offered 10 tips to help small businesses create successful email marketing campaigns:

The Genius of Robin Williams in “Aladdin” | The New Yorker

August 13, 2014 ~ CBPS ~ 3 Comments

Williams could be a teacher even when he wasn’t playing one—and could instruct even in silly roles. For me, and for people my age, he was a guide into a more adult world in what was likely his very silliest performance: as the voice of the Genie in Disney’s 1992 animated movie “Aladdin.” It is no diminishment to say that I will always remember Williams as a bright-blue cartoon.

Read Article.

Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing |ducttapemarketing.com

August 13, 2014August 12, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

B2B lead generation seems to be a mystery to many marketers. Just do a search on the topic and you’ll find little that’s helpful.

In my opinion, there are two reasons for this. One – people are searching for that one killer lead tactic that will mask all ills or, Two – people fail to realize that successful B2B lead generation is made up of activities that are by nature very hard to quantify and pin down.

The latter then leads to plenty of articles spouting the virtues of practices such as inbound marketing and content marketing, but little hard advice on how to make any of it pay.

Here’s my take – the real problem lies in the fact that you don’t simply generate a lead today, you guide it.

You can no longer run an ad that say’s “hey, we’ve got what you’re looking for come and get it” and expect much. Once a prospect actually knows what they are looking for, they’re already looking for a price.

Trying to Understand the Impact of Minimum Wage Hikes on Small Businesses | NYTimes.com

August 11, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Does the battle over the minimum wage pit employees against small-business owners? That was the notion put forth on the Real Clear Politics website recently. In an essay titled “Living the Wage? Try Living the Small Business,” Tom Bevan, a co-founder of the site, ridiculed Democratic politicians who had embarked on an effort to understand how people subsist on minimum wage.

Several officials, including Jan Schakowsky, a congresswoman from Illinois, signed up for a week-long challenge called Live the Wage. For that week, they attempted to spend just $77, which is the effective take-home pay for someone making minimum wage, according to the advocates who want to raise it. Mr. Bevan called this effort “a gimmick cooked up by the progressives at Americans United for Change.”

Microsoft Scraps Windows 8 Major Updates. Bets The Farm On Windows 9 | Forbes.com

August 8, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s official, Windows 8 is a write-off . Sales for the operating system have been poor and now it is even starting to lose market share to Windows 7. To Microsoft’s credit it has bravely persisted addressing issue after issue. Most notable was the major Windows 8.1 Update 1 patch released in April which makes the OS a genuinely credible platform. Still it remains far from perfect and now Microsoft is prematurely pulling the plug.

In a blog post by Microsoft Senior Marketing Communications Manager Brandon LeBlanc, he explains that there will be no more major updates for Windows 8: “despite rumors and speculation, we are not planning to deliver a Windows 8.1 ‘Update 2’.”

Fruits and Veggies Intake Can Help Reduce Smoking | Greenpacks.org

August 7, 2014August 6, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Looking for a way to quit smoking? Eating fruits and vegetables may help you quit smoking. A new study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research observed that smokers who ate the most fruit and vegetables were three times more likely to be tobacco-free as compared to those people who ate fewer amounts of fruits and veggies.

Also, people who consumed more fruits and vegetables smoked fewer cigarettes per day. Another observation is that they also waited longer to smoke their first cigarette of the day. These people scored lower on a commonly-used test of nicotine dependence.

Well, what could be the reason for this? Even the researchers have not zeroed into on any particular reason regarding this. They have in fact come up with several explanations.

5 Percent of “Gluten-Free” Foods Aren’t. New FDA Rules Start Aug. 5 | Businessweek

August 6, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

At last count, 28 percent of adults said they were gluten-free, or something close to it; the U.S. market for gluten-free foods has grown to more than $4 billion. And yet, as anyone who’s ever wondered whether there’s really gluten in oats can tell you, there hasn’t been an official definition of what, exactly, qualifies a food as gluten-free. Now there is one, courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration.

Starting on Aug. 5, packaged foods will be officially considered gluten-free if they contain fewer than 20 parts of the protein per million per kilogram, an amount that even people with celiac disease can tolerate—and the smallest quantity that can be reliably measured. With all the hype and its inevitable debunking, naturally I was suspicious of some gluten-free claims. But the FDA says 95 percent of food labeled gluten-free meets the criteria.