Ravenweb Blog

In a December post, I mentioned how a local sports team brightened the burden of a boy with a degenerative liver condition . Unfortunately, while the gift made a big difference, the boy's medical problems have worsened and he now awaits a new liver. At this time, I would like to introduce you to the boy. His name is Mitchell Simon, and he is an 11 year old who resides just outside of Buffalo, NY. Mitchell was born with  Biliary Atresia -- a congenital liver disease -- and the disease has progressed rapidly over the past year such that a transplant is necessary. Because medical and related expenses for a liver transplant recipient typically exceed $100,000, the family is accepting donations and a fundraiser benefit will be held on June 2, 2012 to help defer costs for the transplant. DONATIONS You may send donations to the address below or donate online at  http://cota.donorpages.com/PatientOnlineDonation/COTAforMitchellS/ . Miracle for M...

We live in an era of sweeping change and uncertainty. There's economic nervousness and under-employment, climate change and wild weather, concern over peak oil and the future of energy, globalism and a flat world, and a dizzying array of social networking tools for connecting like never before. Such a mix creates both strain in the system and new opportunities to connect, and this has led to a dramatic rise in cultural movements, including the recent Arab Spring and Occupy movement. In Uprising: How to Build a Brand--and Change the World--By Sparking Cultural Movements , author Scott Goodson looks at movements from a marketing perspective and offers a fascinating survey of recent movements as well as an elaboration of how marketing and business are beginning to add value and collaborate with movements, without co-opting them. Goodson terms this new marketing "movement marketing" and cites several examples, including the Pepsi Refresh project, the InnoCentive move...

Gallup chairman Jim Clifton offers a timely and compelling exploration of the urgency of job creation and the current "all out global war for good jobs". Jobs are critical, Clifton contends, because they underpin societies and allow people to prosper, thereby creating well-being and fostering new achievements in all areas of human development. Unfortunately, we face a global job shortage approaching 2 billion with no apparent driver for jobs imminent. The country that does the most to enable job growth will become the next economic superpower. The text explores the multifaceted dimensions of this topic, with plenty of corroboration from Gallup data. As an American, Clifton admits to a U.S. bias and speculates on what America must do to maintain its predominant economic position and prevail in the coming jobs war. His ideas include encouraging job creation in cities, emphasizing entrepreneurship over innovation, drastically cutting healthcare costs, improving...