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August 12th, 2010 | 
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Empire Avenue (Beta)
Holy Cow! another awesome new Beta project we have to share.
(This may be “Part One” and watch for a second installment about Empire Avenues due to the awesome compexity of their product.)
This is Social Media Monopoly meets WALL-STREET!
I have to admit, because of my profession, I am slightly biased about a site that blends a virtual and fictitious,
stock-trading system with a fast action social media site.
Instructions:
First you sign in and self-assign a “stock-like” symbol (and vanity URL) to your profile for social dollar trading tha called “EAVES”. The traded commodity is you, your profile, and all of the members based on influence and popularity. Your “IPO” is the standard $10 of “EAVES” to start and I am not certain how many shares are issued. Your dashboard tells you what percentage of your shares are outstanding and there is no lack of information of what transpires throughout the entire community.
Next the sites guides you in a very clear and simple step-by-step process shown on the right of your home-page at all times. There is even a video on how to use the site.
Without details, you earn cash to trade when you do various connection activities and raise your level of coolness and connect-ability. Then you buy other members’ profiles that are listed by symbol based on your perception of their influence. As transactions occur and you build your portfolio, prices fluctuate and your entire portfolio moves across the top of the site as your “Ticker-Tape” keeps your eyes on the real time movement of the value of all of your holdings.
There are social groups that are Geo-Segregated and quite a few Topically cataloged so you can venture out to find friendly potential buyers of…. YOU.
This site is for the more advanced social media user and may be frustrating for those looking for a more simple or less complicated time-waster.
Good
1. Vanity URL, which we always love. ex http://empireavenue.com/DAMON
2. FaceBook and Twitter integration and friend finders.
3. The most organized beginner’s check list and sequential profile building of any social media site we have navigated. All instructions are simple, in plain English, and available in a video format.
Bad
1. Navigation is complex and the features are not for the novice.
2. The interaction can suck you in and you would want to open this up at your desk, on a work day .
3. Some of the features are limited for newer users and users without a higher EAVES value.
4. If you are not thick skinned or your emotional maturity is limited, when someone sells you or your values decrease, you may need therapy or medication.
P.S. On a side note I am available for non-licensed therapy sessions for $65 an hour as needed.
BTW, my value is up almost 1.5% in my first day, look:
SEC CLAIMS: “Do as I say, not as I Do” (From Fox Business)
SEC CLAIMS EXEMPTION FROM ALL PUBLIC FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUESTS, CITING NEW FINANCIAL REFORM LAW
Commentary by Tatyana Ladd-Thomas
The SEC keeps its files secret while forcing advisors and their firms to be completely public and transparent? The government and its closely monitored “SRO’s” have fallen to the age old parenting adage of ”Do as I say, not as I do”. Politicians want citizens to pay more taxes for their legislation while they criminally avoid paying their fair share. Government legislated SRO’s (Self-Regulatory Organization’s) force small financial firms to be transparent, liable, self-sufficient and liquid while funding the bad decisions and financial collapse of large firms. This new announcement is completely absurd from a governing body who’s sole mission is ethical transparency of the financial industry as a whole.
Referring to article and below and actual citing.
Dunstan Prial
- FOXBusiness
- July 28, 2010
SEC Says New FinReg Law Exempts It From Public Disclosure
Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and ExchangeCommission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
So much for transparency.
Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.” Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.
That argument comes despite the President saying that one of the cornerstones of the sweeping new legislation was more transparent financial markets. Indeed, in touting the new law, Obama specifically said it would “increase transparency in financial dealings.”
The SEC cited the new law Tuesday in a FOIA action brought by FOX Business Network. Steven Mintz, founding partner of law firm Mintz & Gold LLC in New York, lamented what he described as “the backroom deal that was cut between Congress and the SEC to keep the SEC’s failures secret. The only losers here are the American public.”
If the SEC’s interpretation stands, Mintz, who represents FOX Business Network, predicted “the next time there is a Bernie Madoff failure the American public will not be able to obtain the SEC documents that describe the failure,” referring to the shamed broker whose Ponzi scheme cost investors billions.
The SEC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Criticism of the provision has been swift. “It allows the SEC to block the public’s access to virtually all SEC records,” said Gary Aguirre, a former SEC staff attorney-turned-whistleblower who had accused the agency of thwarting an investigation into hedge fund Pequot Asset Management in 2005. “It permits the SEC to promulgate its own rules and regulations regarding the disclosure of records without getting the approval of the Office of Management and Budget, which typically applies to all federal agencies.”
Aguirre used FOIA requests in his own lawsuit against the SEC, which the SEC settled this year by paying him $755,000. Aguirre, who was fired in September 2005, argued that supervisors at the SEC stymied an investigation of Pequot – a charge that prompted an investigation by the Senate Judiciary and Finance committees.
The SEC closed the case in 2006, but would re-open it three years later. This year, Pequot and its founder, Arthur Samberg, were forced to pay $28 million to settle insider-trading charges related to shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). The settlement with Aguirre came shortly later.
“From November 2008 through January 2009, I relied heavily on records obtained from the SEC through FOIA in communications to the FBI, Senate investigators, and the SEC in arguing the SEC had botched its initial investigation of Pequot’s trading in Microsoft securities and thus the SEC should reopen it, which it did,” Aguirre said. “The new legislation closes access to such records, even when the investigation is closed.
“It is hard to imagine how the bill could be more counterproductive,” Aguirre added.
FOX Business Network sued the SEC in March 2009 over its failure to produce documents related to its failed investigations into alleged investment frauds being perpetrated by Madoff and R. Allen Stanford. Following the Madoff and Stanford arrests it, was revealed that the SEC conducted investigations into both men prior to their arrests but failed to uncover their alleged frauds.
FOX Business made its initial request to the SEC in February 2009 seeking any information related to the agency’s response to complaints, tips and inquiries or any potential violations of the securities law or wrongdoing by Stanford.
FOX Business has also filed lawsuits against the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve over their failure to respond to FOIA requests regarding use of the bailout funds and the Fed’s extended loan facilities. In February, the Federal Court in New York sided with FOX Business and ordered the Treasury to comply with its requests.
Last year, the network won a legal victory to force the release of documents related to New York University’s lawsuit against Madoff feeder Ezra Merkin.
FOX Business’ FOIA requests have so far led the SEC to release several important and damaging documents:
•FOX Business used the FOIA to obtain a 2005 survey that the SEC in Fort Worth was sending to Stanford investors. The survey showed that the SEC had suspicions about Stanford several years prior to the collapse of his $7 billion empire.
•FOX Business used the FOIA to obtain copies of emails between Federal Reserve lawyers, AIG and staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in which it was revealed the Fed staffers knew that bailing out AIG would result in bonuses being paid.
Recently, TARP Congressional Oversight Panel chair Elizabeth Warren told FOX Business that the network’s Freedom of Information Act efforts played a “very important part” of the panel’s investigation into AIG.
Warren told the network the government “crossed a line” with the AIG bailout.
“FOX News and the congressional oversight panel has pushed, pushed, pushed, for transparency, give us the documents, let us look at everything. Your Freedom of Information Act suit, which ultimately produced 250,000 pages of documentation, was a very important part of our report. We were able to rely on the documents that you pried out for a significant part of our being able to put this report together,” Warren said.
The SEC first made its intention to block further FOIA requests known on Tuesday. FOX Business was preparing for another round of “skirmishes” with the SEC, according to Mintz, when the agency called and said it intended to use Section 929I of the 2000-page legislation to refuse FBN’s ongoing requests for information.
Mintz said the network will challenge the SEC’s interpretation of the law.
“I believe this is subject to challenge,” he said. “The contours will have to be figured out by a court.”
Here is the actual citing…
SEC Financial Regulatory Law H.R. 4173
Helpful Links and information about Saving for College and Scholarships
Helpful Links and information about Saving for College and Scholarships:
- Qualified Independent Local Advisor http://www.tdmontana.com/
- FINRA http://apps.finra.org/Investor_Information/Smart/529/000100.asp
- Bankrate http://www.savingforcollege.com/
- Federal Student Aid http://www.college.gov/wps/portal
- Mark Kantrowitz http://www.finaid.org/about/
- UPromise http://www.upromise.com
- Military Scholarship Finder http://aid.military.com/scholarship
- Army ROTC http://www.goarmy.com/rotc/scholarships.jsp
- Air Force ROTC http://www.afrotc.com/
- Navy ROTC http://www.navy.com/careers/nrotc/
- Scholarships http://www.collegescholarships.org/
- Georgia Colleges https://secure.gacollege411.org/default.aspx
- Georgia Student Finance Commission http://www.gsfc.org/gsfcnew/index.cfm
- Hope Scholarship http://www.hopescholarshiprequirements.com/
Local muralist, Michelle Black donates services to Trip Elementary
For two years, Nicole Dineen, the media specialist at Trip Elementary School, had been saving money from book fair sales to pay for someone to paint a mural in the media center.
Special Photo Michelle Black paints a scene in a mural she volunteered to construct in Trip Elementary School’s media center. The mural is designed around the Dewey Decimal system, and the scene pictured here depicts the classification of books about the arts.
GRAYSON — For two years, Nicole Dineen, the media specialist at Trip Elementary School, had been saving money from book fair sales to pay for someone to paint a mural in the media center.
Now she’ll get to spend the money on a couch or other comfy seating, as a local resident volunteered to paint the mural at the new school.
Michelle Black, whose son recently completed fifth grade at Trip Elementary, said she volunteered to paint the mural after she saw a newsletter asking for parents to volunteer in the media center. Since she couldn’t volunteer her time because of her busy work schedule, Black decided to volunteer her services as a muralist.
“It makes me feel good to be able to donate the mural,” said Black, a Duluth High School graduate who has painted more than 300 murals in two years.
The mural spans the entire perimeter of the media center. Titled “A Trip through the Genres,” the mural’s design is based on the Dewey Decimal System. Above the different classes of books, Black is painting a related scene.
Each scene contains a Grayson ram and a character holding or reading a book.
Black is also turning Dineen’s office into a clubhouse by painting the exterior walls of the media specialist’s office.
“It’s my dream come true,” Dineen said of the mural. “It will truly make (the media center) the heart of the school … (and) I think the media center should be the focus of the school, where people come to read and research.”
Dineen is currently soliciting suggestions for names for the media center and the clubhouse. To submit a suggestion, e-mail nicole_dineen@gwinnett.k12.ga.us.
To view pictures of the mural in progress, visit Black’s Web site at www.acoloraffair.com.
Reporter: By Heather Darenberg, Staff Writer
Email Address: heather.darenberg@gwinnettdailypost.com
Watch the transformation here
Top Ten Reasons to Join the Florida Commerce Club!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Top Ten Reasons to Join The Florida Commerce Club
10 Reasons to Join the Florida Commerce Club
Free Personal Profile – so customers and civic leaders can join, even if they are not a business owner.
Free Business/Commercial Listings – no limit to how many businesses, charities, churches, or groups you may want to promote.
Free Group Page – Great for chamber promotion and open discussion from experts in their fields
Free Community Calendar – controlled, owned, and updated by the members to promote their own events for business or other.
Free Real Time Instant Chat – Network 24 hours a day when you have time. Great for those that are too busy for events or cannot leave the office enough to meet new networking partners.
Free Blog “Feed” – Instant Blog capture that is added to your profile even when you blog with your current provider so that others can find your most recent posts.
Free GPS Google Map – So that your new clients and prospects can find you.
Free Job/Resume Board – Let’s keep Florida Working!
Free “One-Click” Sharing – to all the most popular social media sites right from one place to save time signing in to multiple sites.
Free Photo Album Style Portfolios- Great for artisans, musicians, and clubs to post their art or activities.
PS-Did we mention the classifieds?
Top 10 Reasons to Join the Georgia Commerce Club.
Join Our New Website (or tell us why not?)
Our website has been live since January 4th and has become extremely popular for businesses and “networkers” that use social media in Georgia.
We are averaging over 100,000 hits a day in our first two months.
Make sure these hits land on you.
www.georgiacommerceclub.org
Our team has worked hard to add many features generally not available for free on most conventional websites. Let’s just list 10.
1. Free Personal Profile – so customers and civic leaders can join, even if they are not a business owner.
2. Free Business/Commercial Listings - no limit to how many businesses, charities, churches, or groups you may want to promote.
3. Free Group Page – Great for chamber promotion and open discussion from experts in their field.
4. Free Photo Album Style Portfolios- Great for artisans, musicians, and clubs to post their art or activities.
5. Free Community Calendar – controlled, owned, and updated by the members to promote their own events for business or other.
6. Free Real Time Instant Chat – Network 24 hours a day when you have time. Great for those that are too busy for events or cannot leave the office enough to meet new networking partners.
7. Free Blog “Feed” – Instant Blog capture that is added to your profile even when you blog with your current provider so that others can find your most recent posts.
8. Free GPS Google Map – So that your new clients and prospects can find you.
9. Free Job/Resume Board – Let’s keep Georgia Working!
10. Free “One-Click” Sharing – to all the most popular social media sites right from one place to save time signing in to multiple sites.
All of this wrapped up into a Free Business/Personal/Civic/Association Interconnected Digital “Base Ball Card” for social media networking.
Join Today and let us bring Commerce to you.
If you have already joined you may have missed some of these extra features, and it may be time to check them out.
This is our gift to you, take advantage of it.
Damon & Taty
Founders
www.georgiacommerceclub.org
Also, if there is some reason that you have not joined we want to hear from you. This site was built entirely on what business owners in Georgia have asked us for. If what you are looking for is not on our site, just ask. If what you do not like is on our site, tell us and we will fix it.
You may post a message to us on the wall on FaceBook, in our Inbox, or through email. (We prefer public conversations because then some folks with similar questions may get the answer through open discussion.)
