What To Look Out For In Greece This Weekend


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Greece has occupied the center of attention today, as fears of default mount. This apprehension will continue over the weekend.

It would, however, be surprising to see anything like this happen before Greece meets with IMF/EU/ECB officials to discuss $11 billion in bailout funds next week.

Of prime importance this weekend is a speech PM George Papandreou will deliver in Thessaloniki Saturday, amid mounting hostility within his own party. While the government publicly reaffirmed Greece's will to go ahead with the bailout today, his remarks may provide insight into a handful of different issues.

Here are the four big questions we'll be looking to answer:

- How serious is the ECB/EU/IMF troika about actually revoking the next tranche of aid funding ($11 billion) it promised to provide?

- How long can Greece last without a bailout?

- How fragile is Papandreou's position?

- How close is the Greek government to giving up and throwing in the towel?

We're betting that Papandreou will not actually answer any of these questions directly.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/o-2MB8_4a9k/what-to-look-out-for-in-greece-this-weekend-2011-9

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Pinterest Raises A Huge Round At A $75 Million Valuation


Ben Silbermann Evan Sharp Paul Sciarra Pinterest

A month ago, we wrote that Pinterest, a startup that lets everyone keep a virtual bulletin/inspiration board, was raising a massive round. What we didn't know is who led the round, or how much was raised.

A source involved in the financing tells us the company has indeed closed a big round and the valuation is massive. It's at least $75 million.

That's pretty crazy considering Pinterest has yet to generate revenue. But investors think it can be big in the long term. Rob Go, an investor in Boston who says he was not involved in the round, says why he's bullish on Pinterest:

"I’ve said before that I think experiential shopping is a big opportunity, and the process of buying stuff like art, furniture, fashion, etc should be very very different than what we typically see from e-commerce today. The day before I heard about Pinterest, I was literally thinking about how to create a product that merges the best of SVPPLY and Polyvore for the market for home-goods.  I’ve been using Pinterest for this purpose ever since.  The product is beautiful (if a little slow), the content I’m finding from other users is inspiring, and I’m noticing mainstream friends of mine signing up for the service way more than some much more hyped companies like Instagram. It’s super early, but I think the company is on a great path."

We've reached out to the founders about the financing and will let you know when we have more details.

Not sure what Pinterest is? Pinterest pages are like collages. Here's an example of a user's Pinterest board. This user is dragging and dropping pictures of her "dream house" and saving them on her page for design inspiration.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/YDHSHCQdJqk/pinterest-raises-a-huge-round-at-a-75-million-valuation-2011-9

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Is There Really A Secret To Financial Freedom?

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Even with many types of investments today that provide a lot of options for an individual to pursue and take advantage of its money making potential, you still wonder how are you suppose to know what the best deals are. But with the power of the Internet and some basic research, anyone can become knowledgeable about the different financial opportunities available.

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Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6541340

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God-Sized Goals Met at Northland

When Marc McMurrin, Executive Director of Operations, walked into his pastor?s office at Northland, A Church Distributed, he thought he had just the plan they needed to improve the church?s finances?a well thought-out capital campaign to eliminate the church?s debt in three years. But Pastor Joel Hunter said he just didn?t feel like it was the right time for that sort of thing; he felt they needed something totally different. Surprised, Marc went back to the drawing board. Soon after, a Financial Peace University (FPU) volunteer from the congregation encouraged him to attend Dave Ramsey?s Momentum training.

Marc decided to make the trip from Longwood, Florida, to Nashville for the workshop just to see what it was all about and explore new stewardship-related options to present. He discovered that it is a radical approach to financial discipleship that starts with teaching people how to manage money wisely. As the families in the church turn their finances around, the church?s finances follow as a natural result. When Marc found out that Momentum included setting a goal of putting 80% of the congregation through FPU at one time, he was overwhelmed. While he was fired up by what he learned at the workshop, he was concerned it might be too much of an undertaking for a congregation of 15,000, unless he had unanimous support from leadership.

When he took what he learned at the Momentum workshop to Pastor Joel, he didn?t know if it would fly. But as soon as he explained Momentum to Pastor Joel, he was on board. This was just the out-of-the-box approach they?d been looking for. The elders followed suit in unanimous agreement. Knowing what a big deal this journey would be, Marc told them from the start: ?The only way this will work is if, from the top down, we are all on board encouraging the congregation to make this happen.?

Momentum in Motion

Church leaders met with the elders to lay out a plan that included having 500 FPU small groups going on across the city at the same time. This was a huge undertaking for a church that did not have small groups in place before Momentum! ?It?s always good to set a goal bigger than you think you can attain, because then you?re leaving enough room for God to show up.?

That?s exactly what happened. Every church leader committed to lead or participate in FPU. The majority of senior leaders led a class.?Don?t just get leaders to buy in?ask for their participation,? Marc said. When they recruited small-group hosts from the congregation, the response was unbelievable?200 more people than they needed volunteered, for a total of 700 volunteers! The leadership had cast the vision convincingly. They assured people that all they needed to do was make themselves available to what God might do; after that, it was as simple as turning on a coffee pot, playing a DVD, and asking prepared questions to the group. Check out this video Northland put together to help recruit FPU small-group hosts.

The next question the leaders faced was how to fill these small groups. They knew that one of the most critical things was to have major support from the senior pastor from the pulpit. ?A senior leader has to rally everyone for this to work,? Marc said.

To kick things off, Pastor Joel preached a message on money as part of a year-long series on ?Breaking Free From Bondage.? People began to respond by signing up for FPU in droves. They reached out into the community and invited neighbors and friends. One of the neatest things that happened was neighbors began realizing for the first time that they attended the same church and got into groups together!

The journey wasn?t without its hitches, but the Northland team anticipated them and made plans to overcome hurdles. One way they showed the congregation how seriously they were taking the initiative was by subsidizing the cost of the FPU membership for every family participating. They also spread class start dates over a three-week period so that late adopters would be able to join in. They carefully created their small-group infrastructure for Momentum to ensure that it would last past their churchwide FPU classes.

Lasting Payoff

Now that testimonies of life change are rolling in continuously, the leaders of Northland know their hard work was worth it. They?ve heard phenomenal stories on financial, spiritual and community-building levels.

On top of that, the economic climate at Northland has improved for the first time since the national downturn. While they were affected by the hurting economy, as most churches have been, they were recently able to report some great news to their congregation: Expenses are down and giving is up! Giving increased from 92% of the budget in 2010 to 99% of the budget in 2011, even in the midst of a down economy.

With a fundraising background, Marc has never been afraid to ask people for money when it comes to building the Kingdom. Yet he believes it?s vital to understand that fundraising and stewardship are not the same thing. ?Fundraising can?t be successful unless you?ve done the stewardship part first.?

A traditional capital campaign is based around asking people to give sacrificially. Momentum is more of what Marc calls a ?reverse campaign.? It?s doing something for the people to get them out of debt. Then, the byproduct is they care about getting the church out of debt.

He believes it?s important that you treat people as individuals and not a program. ??Get involved in my stewardship program? is the wrong approach,? he said. ?Rather, ?How can I come alongside you to help you and your stewardship efforts???

The first run of FPU was just the beginning. Northland continues to offer FPU regularly and encourages FPU grads to continue by taking more classes, such as Howard Dayton?s new curriculum, Marriage and Money God?s Way.

?It?s been a great privilege for us to partner with Dave to get the tools in people?s hands to help them do it themselves.?

Dave Ramsey has created a program called Momentum to help churches teach their congregations what it means to live out biblical generosity. Momentum is all about bringing people back to God?s view of money management and cultivating a culture of lasting generosity. Discover today how Momentum can help your congregation.

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Source: http://www.daveramsey.com/article/god-sized-goals-met-at-northland/lifeandmoney_church

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If You Want Job Security, Become A Data Scientist


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Data scientist is the hot new gig in tech, says Fortune, which points out that: 

Stanford University's course on data mining is packed: More than 120 students registered last year; when it was first offered five years ago, just 20 signed up.

"That shows you the growth and interest in large-scale data mining," says course instructor Anand Rajaraman, who also runs @WalmartLabs. "Companies want these people, and they become more attractive if they learn the skills."

Fortune also highlights a McKinsey Global Institute study that says "by 2018 the U.S. could face a shortage of up to 190,000 workers with analytical skills." 

Now check out 8 management lessons I learned working under Steve Jobs >

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/3UM2Qb9_NnA/data-scientist-demand-2011-9

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Brady Earnings Preview

Brady (NYSE: BRC  ) came in under analysts' estimates last quarter but now has a chance to fix things. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, Sept. 12. Brady is an international manufacturer and marketer of identification solutions and products that identify and protect premises, products, and people.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Brady, with five of eight rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Brady as much as competitor Checkpoint Systems overall. Two out of three rate Checkpoint Systems a buy, compared with three of eight for Brady. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared with three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $344.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 6.7% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.60 per share. Estimates range from $0.55 to $0.65.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 92.6% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars, with 92.1% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Brady, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 41 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Brady, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Brady's profit has risen year over year by an average of 28.9% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters. 

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Brady movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

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Source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/09/08/brady-earnings-preview.aspx

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