So much of our world today depends on money. As it's been said, "Money is what makes the world go round." Sad as it may be to admit it, this is a fact that we live with. Business, commerce, stocks and trading are what keep us sustaining and moving forward.
With there being such a focus on business, and for that matter, honest business practices, we as journalists need to have access to the most relevant and up-to-date information about what is going on in the business world. As many may know, public companies, those that have shares traded and managed on the New York Stock Exchange, must file reports quarterly and annually with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In addition, anytime these companies will be talking to analysts about company profits, incoming revenue and stock, it is necessary for them to file these meetings with the SEC. This ensures that the public is aware of these discussion and helps to prevent insider trading. Following these discussions, a report is then written up detailing the information discussed and then filed with the SEC. All of these reports and more can be found on the SEC's website at http://sec.gov.
When it comes to private companies however, getting financial information is not quite as easy. Because these companies only have their stock opened to a select group of people, and not the general public, they are not required to file reports with the SEC. But, it is still possible to find this information simply by going to the company website and looking for it's "Investors" page. Many companies post information about the company and it's financial heading for their investors to see on their website.
Another useful site for any business reporter is Business.com (http://www.business.com). This site is both a search engine and index of all things business. Whether it's advice on how to start a business, a search for a particular business or just information about business in general in today's world, this site can help you access the most relevant information.
It allows you to type in your search criteria or allows you to narrow your search based on its indexed categories. In addition, when clicking on a specific index category, a list of the most popular searches, and links, comes up in addition to the generated results. This can be useful whether you're not exactly sure what you're looking for in a particular category, or you want to find out what others are searching and talking about in the business community.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
InfoPlease and Book Release information
Recently I was introduced to a site called InfoPlease (http://www.infoplease.com/). It not only contains a keyword search engine and index like many other search sites do, it has a loads of useful information. As their slogan, "All the knowledge you need" states, this site really does deliver an immense amount of information on a variety of subjects.
For example, you can search for statistics and polls (political, population, most popular movies and names etc), look up information on government officials, business reports and more.
The site also has an almanac, encyclopedia, atlas, dictionary and other electronic forms of research tools commonly used. Just think about all of the outlets and types of media you would go to when looking for information, the endless number of websites you could scour and roll them all into one; welcome to InfoPlease.
About.com is becoming a very popular reference site on the web. It has a multitude of information and I highly encourage you to check out all it has to offer, specifically as a more reliable alternative to Wikipedia. However, the section of About that I am most interested right now is the "Bestsellers" book section. Here you can find a database of recently released books organized by month as well upcoming releases with accompanying cover art. As an avid reader, I find this site very useful and as would other readers and journalists as well who are doing book reviews.
You can access this section of About.com directly by going to http://bestsellers.about.com/.
For example, you can search for statistics and polls (political, population, most popular movies and names etc), look up information on government officials, business reports and more.
The site also has an almanac, encyclopedia, atlas, dictionary and other electronic forms of research tools commonly used. Just think about all of the outlets and types of media you would go to when looking for information, the endless number of websites you could scour and roll them all into one; welcome to InfoPlease.
About.com is becoming a very popular reference site on the web. It has a multitude of information and I highly encourage you to check out all it has to offer, specifically as a more reliable alternative to Wikipedia. However, the section of About that I am most interested right now is the "Bestsellers" book section. Here you can find a database of recently released books organized by month as well upcoming releases with accompanying cover art. As an avid reader, I find this site very useful and as would other readers and journalists as well who are doing book reviews.
You can access this section of About.com directly by going to http://bestsellers.about.com/.
Friday, March 9, 2007
D'LUXE Magazine: Assignment 1
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet Joshua Kaufman, the Editor-in-Chief of D'LUXE magazine, a new fashion and lifestyle mag here in South Florida. He provided me with a copy of the latest book and I was even more interested in working for him. Luckily, I made a good impression and Josh offered to send a few freelance stories my way.
Due to scheduling conflicts I wasn't able to write the first story he gave me, but the second was just around the corner. Last week I had the chance to sit down and interview Ivonne de la Vega, a coutoure fashion designer based in Ft. Lauderdale. De la Vega was just coming off dressing both Gloria Estefan and Mary Hart for the 79th Annual Academy Awards and was gracious enough to sit down and talk to me. It was definitely an incredibly exciting and memorable experience for me.
My profile on de la Vega will be published in the April/May issue of D'LUXE coming out at the end of this month.
Due to scheduling conflicts I wasn't able to write the first story he gave me, but the second was just around the corner. Last week I had the chance to sit down and interview Ivonne de la Vega, a coutoure fashion designer based in Ft. Lauderdale. De la Vega was just coming off dressing both Gloria Estefan and Mary Hart for the 79th Annual Academy Awards and was gracious enough to sit down and talk to me. It was definitely an incredibly exciting and memorable experience for me.
My profile on de la Vega will be published in the April/May issue of D'LUXE coming out at the end of this month.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Search Engine Spotlight: SuperPages and Ask.com
Powered by Idearc Media, SuperPages is exactly as its name suggests: the super version of the yellow and white pages combined. With its easy to use tabs and a number of listings, SuperPages is easy for anyone to use. When searching for a business, whether by it's name or category, the results include an address, phone number, map (and driving directions if you type in your starting place), website link (if registered) and a business profile. You can find your listing by using the search engine, where you key in your own words to look up, or through the index, entitled "Consumer Center". This feature allows you to narrow down your search, starting with general categories and gradually getting more specific.
Another really helpful feature of this site is that the "People Pages" allow you to find someone by doing a reverse phone number search. So, for example, if you only have a phone number, but do not know or remember the name of who it is, you can enter it into the search engine and it will generate the name of who is registered to that number. Assuming the number isn't unlisted of course. This same feature also allows you get an address for that person and map of the residence or business.
Ask.com, formerly AskJeeves.com, is another very useful search site. While I was less than impressed with the results generated by the main search engine, others I have spoken with are avid users of this site. Therefore, I will leave it up to you to decide if you like it.
However, I will point out, that Ask does have some great features outside of its search engine. Some of these include a currency converter, weather reports, blog and podcast searches, city maps and directories, images, current news from a variety of top journalism outlets and much more. The variety of tailored searches, that are EASY to use, on this site are enough to make me want to frequent it more often.
One of my favorite aspects of Ask.com though is its site preview feature. When the results of your search are listed, many if not all, have a little set of binoculars underneath the link to the site. By rolling your mouse over them, you are given a preview of that website without leaving the search engine. This way you can easily see if that listing is what you are looking for without having to waste time clicking on each result and using your browser's "Back" button to check out the next one.
SuperPages is located at http://www.superpages.com/.
Ask is located at http://www.ask.com/.
Another really helpful feature of this site is that the "People Pages" allow you to find someone by doing a reverse phone number search. So, for example, if you only have a phone number, but do not know or remember the name of who it is, you can enter it into the search engine and it will generate the name of who is registered to that number. Assuming the number isn't unlisted of course. This same feature also allows you get an address for that person and map of the residence or business.
Ask.com, formerly AskJeeves.com, is another very useful search site. While I was less than impressed with the results generated by the main search engine, others I have spoken with are avid users of this site. Therefore, I will leave it up to you to decide if you like it.
However, I will point out, that Ask does have some great features outside of its search engine. Some of these include a currency converter, weather reports, blog and podcast searches, city maps and directories, images, current news from a variety of top journalism outlets and much more. The variety of tailored searches, that are EASY to use, on this site are enough to make me want to frequent it more often.
One of my favorite aspects of Ask.com though is its site preview feature. When the results of your search are listed, many if not all, have a little set of binoculars underneath the link to the site. By rolling your mouse over them, you are given a preview of that website without leaving the search engine. This way you can easily see if that listing is what you are looking for without having to waste time clicking on each result and using your browser's "Back" button to check out the next one.
SuperPages is located at http://www.superpages.com/.
Ask is located at http://www.ask.com/.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
A Discussion with President Bill Clinton
On Thursday, March 1, former President Bill Clinton stopped by the University of Miami's Coral Gables campus to speak to members of the university community. As it was a closed event, only university staff, faculty, students and alumni were provided with tickets to attend. Perhaps the most visible person in attendance, besides Mr. Clinton himself of course, and UM President Donna Shalala was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Flashbulbs illuminated the Bank United Center upon his entrance and didn't stop until 10 minutes after the President began his speech.
Due to time constraints, President Clinton announced gave what he said was an abbreviated version of his normal speech. He began by saying, "I believe every responsible citizen must be able to ask and answer five simple questions." They are as follows:
1. What is the fundamental character of the 21st century?
Clinton: Interdependence
2. Is it a good or a bad thing?
Clinton*: Both. The ways that it is good are self-evident. Just look at this crowd here. The UM student body is more diverse that it was 30 years ago. The result of that diversity is a better audience to speak to. There are three reasons why it's bad: a) it's unequal (half the world is poor, 1 billion people have no clean water etc.), b) it's unstable (we're vulnerable to disease, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism etc), c) current world is unsustainable (with the way our climate is changing, people are depleting our natural resources)
3. How should we change it?
Clinton*: Work from interdependence to integrated community on the local, national and international scales. Share the opportunities and responsibilities of keeping our world alive and thriving. We should embrace the simple idea that the differences between us are interesting, but our shared humanity matters more.
4. How do we do that?
Clinton*: We need a new security policy, to push diplomacy ("It's not possible to jail, kill or occupy all of our adversaries"), stress cooperation and improve at home (policies, standards etc).
5. Who's supposed to do all this?
Clinton*: "We ALL have to do something." Government is important, but we need more aggressive policies. Policies like more efficient energy sources so we can reduce the damage that global warming is doing to our planet.
Clinton then continued to speak for 15 minutes on the change his life has taken since leaving the White House (going from politician to private citizen), his personal views on what he would do to if he were still president and his current public policy endeavors.
Following his speech, there was a short question and answer session facilitated by President Shalala. Questions were submitted by students and selected prior to the event.
Overall, I thought it was a great experience to hear such a great president speak about the state of the world today, after he's left office. However, his speech was riding on the coattails of Al Gore and unfortunately seemed to fall a little flat in comparison. Nonetheless, he is still President Bill Clinton, and I personally hope not the last Clinton we will see in the White House.
*Denotes paraphrasing of Clinton’s words.
Due to time constraints, President Clinton announced gave what he said was an abbreviated version of his normal speech. He began by saying, "I believe every responsible citizen must be able to ask and answer five simple questions." They are as follows:
1. What is the fundamental character of the 21st century?
Clinton: Interdependence
2. Is it a good or a bad thing?
Clinton*: Both. The ways that it is good are self-evident. Just look at this crowd here. The UM student body is more diverse that it was 30 years ago. The result of that diversity is a better audience to speak to. There are three reasons why it's bad: a) it's unequal (half the world is poor, 1 billion people have no clean water etc.), b) it's unstable (we're vulnerable to disease, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism etc), c) current world is unsustainable (with the way our climate is changing, people are depleting our natural resources)
3. How should we change it?
Clinton*: Work from interdependence to integrated community on the local, national and international scales. Share the opportunities and responsibilities of keeping our world alive and thriving. We should embrace the simple idea that the differences between us are interesting, but our shared humanity matters more.
4. How do we do that?
Clinton*: We need a new security policy, to push diplomacy ("It's not possible to jail, kill or occupy all of our adversaries"), stress cooperation and improve at home (policies, standards etc).
5. Who's supposed to do all this?
Clinton*: "We ALL have to do something." Government is important, but we need more aggressive policies. Policies like more efficient energy sources so we can reduce the damage that global warming is doing to our planet.
Clinton then continued to speak for 15 minutes on the change his life has taken since leaving the White House (going from politician to private citizen), his personal views on what he would do to if he were still president and his current public policy endeavors.
Following his speech, there was a short question and answer session facilitated by President Shalala. Questions were submitted by students and selected prior to the event.
Overall, I thought it was a great experience to hear such a great president speak about the state of the world today, after he's left office. However, his speech was riding on the coattails of Al Gore and unfortunately seemed to fall a little flat in comparison. Nonetheless, he is still President Bill Clinton, and I personally hope not the last Clinton we will see in the White House.
*Denotes paraphrasing of Clinton’s words.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
An Evening with Al Gore
"I am Al Gore and I used to be the next president of the United States." With an opening like that, Gore automatically brought the audience to his side. Whether Democrat or Republican, one couldn't help but to find the humor in what was such a controversial election as was held in 2000.
Since is unsuccessful presidential race, Gore has become the public face of global warming. Though the environment and its well being was a large part of the work he did while in the office of Vice President, it is his recent movie and lectures entitled "An Inconvenient Truth" that have really brought the issue to the forefront of the news. Global warming is no longer something we as citizens of this planet can ignore. It's an issue that no matter your religious beliefs, politics or nationality, affects us ALL. Therefore it is up to all of us to do something to change the dismal future we are headed towards.
During his one and three quarter-hour presentation at the Bank United Center on the University of Miami's Cora Gables campus, Gore presented his slideshow "An Inconvenient Truth"; the same presentation that was done in the movie of the same title, with a few updates to include the most recent information. The damage that we are doing to our planet is astonishing and Mr. Gore illustrated that clearly with graphs, diagrams and illustrations. The subject of global warming is one that is very scientific and sometimes difficult to understand. Even so, Gore has found a way to combine the science and fact of the matter with a sense of humor and candor that makes it easy to understand, not to mention enjoyable.
When Gore made is final points and the lights finally rose, I, along with many other attendees, were shocked at how quickly time had passed. Gore had engaged and enamored his audience to the point that the length of the presentation, though longer than intended, was no longer an issue. It was the topic at hand that took precedent.
Following his presentation, Mr. Gore took questions from the audience. As could have been anticipated by many, the question of whether he would consider another run for the presidency arose. To my dismay, as I am a huge supporter of Mr. Gore and his efforts to help the environment, he confirmed that politics is no longer on his agenda. He stated that he was flattered by the desire expressed by so many, but that he had found another path and was enjoying the work he was currently doing.
If you'd like to learn more about global warming, please visit the Environmental Protection Agency's website at: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/. In addition, information on Al Gore and his presentation "An Inconvenient Truth" can be found at http://www.climatecrisis.net/.
If you have not seen the movie, a recent Academy Award winner, I implore you to make the effort to do so. Though global warming is a large issue, there are many things we as individuals can do to make a difference. The first step is to become educated, so go to your nearest video store and rent the movie that has affect so many people and policies already. Then head to the polls next December and cast your vote for the candidate with the clearest, most realistic policies in regards to energy efficiency. This is an issue that touches us and can no longer afford to be ignored.
Since is unsuccessful presidential race, Gore has become the public face of global warming. Though the environment and its well being was a large part of the work he did while in the office of Vice President, it is his recent movie and lectures entitled "An Inconvenient Truth" that have really brought the issue to the forefront of the news. Global warming is no longer something we as citizens of this planet can ignore. It's an issue that no matter your religious beliefs, politics or nationality, affects us ALL. Therefore it is up to all of us to do something to change the dismal future we are headed towards.
During his one and three quarter-hour presentation at the Bank United Center on the University of Miami's Cora Gables campus, Gore presented his slideshow "An Inconvenient Truth"; the same presentation that was done in the movie of the same title, with a few updates to include the most recent information. The damage that we are doing to our planet is astonishing and Mr. Gore illustrated that clearly with graphs, diagrams and illustrations. The subject of global warming is one that is very scientific and sometimes difficult to understand. Even so, Gore has found a way to combine the science and fact of the matter with a sense of humor and candor that makes it easy to understand, not to mention enjoyable.
When Gore made is final points and the lights finally rose, I, along with many other attendees, were shocked at how quickly time had passed. Gore had engaged and enamored his audience to the point that the length of the presentation, though longer than intended, was no longer an issue. It was the topic at hand that took precedent.
Following his presentation, Mr. Gore took questions from the audience. As could have been anticipated by many, the question of whether he would consider another run for the presidency arose. To my dismay, as I am a huge supporter of Mr. Gore and his efforts to help the environment, he confirmed that politics is no longer on his agenda. He stated that he was flattered by the desire expressed by so many, but that he had found another path and was enjoying the work he was currently doing.
If you'd like to learn more about global warming, please visit the Environmental Protection Agency's website at: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/. In addition, information on Al Gore and his presentation "An Inconvenient Truth" can be found at http://www.climatecrisis.net/.
If you have not seen the movie, a recent Academy Award winner, I implore you to make the effort to do so. Though global warming is a large issue, there are many things we as individuals can do to make a difference. The first step is to become educated, so go to your nearest video store and rent the movie that has affect so many people and policies already. Then head to the polls next December and cast your vote for the candidate with the clearest, most realistic policies in regards to energy efficiency. This is an issue that touches us and can no longer afford to be ignored.
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