Measles Outbreak in San Diego

There’s been an outbreak of measles in the San Diego area, with 11 cases identified and a 12th awaiting confirmation by medical tests. Measles presents at first as flu-like symptoms including fever, but quickly expands to more unusual symptoms like conjunctivitis and an unusual rash. Measles often leads to complications, up to and includig death.

None of the 11 children diagnosed with Measles were immunized against it. This has been attributed to the growing anti-vaccination movement. The anti-vaccination movement largely believes that a preservative used in some vaccines, thimerosal, is linked to an increase in child autism. Original anti-vaccination hypotheses were that the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination was linked to child autism. These studies have been disproven. But, the conflation of worries about thimerosal and the MMR vaccination and autism has already taken root with many fearful parents.

Here’s the truth: there is no causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Thimerosal, which is mercury-based and hella dangerous, was never used to preserve MMR doses. Therefore, you should have every child who can tolerate it innoculated with the MMR vaccine without fear. The three diseases it protects against are all extrememly contagious, and the MMR vaccine has dramatically improved health in the US and the world.

Obviously, you have to trust doctors and the CDC on this information, which might be difficult, since they apparently did let manufacturers preserve some vaccines with a mercury-based preservative. But in truth most of the treatments that were preserved with thimerosal have long since expired (check the table here) and probably should be considered mercury-free.

I’m not saying anything definitive about autism and vaccinations, because what do I know? We were very careful about selecting what immunizations our children would get and when…and my oldest son is autistic anyway. What I am saying is that the potential risk of autism through vaccination has been examined closely by scientists, and the body of opinion is that there is no causation. I’m also saying that the supposed link between MMR and autism is a myth, and an artifact left over from 1 original study with an extremely small sample set and some unacceptable biases introduced into the study has been superseded by larger better designed studies that reached the opposite conclusions. You don’t want to mess around with the measles (Canada recently had a mumps outbreak which seems even worse).

More Information About the Measles Outbreak

Measles Information

The Preventable Plague

Vaccine choices and the San Diego Measles Outbreak

CDC report on San Diego Measles Outbreak

Have you tried the Top Ten Wholesale Firefox Plugin?

I thought this was a nice time to tell you AGAIN about the Firefox Search plugin I made. Yep, I’m one of those irritating guys, that did something once and tells you about it for the next twenty years. But, if you click on the link below, you get a happy new addition to your Firefox search box, and you can find wholesale products, even quicker and easier.

Top Ten Wholesale Firefox and IE 7 Search Plugin

OK, so there you go, put it in your browser. I swear (and you can believe me, my brother was an Eagle Scout) that it won’t do anything funny to your computer…except FILL IT TO THE BRIM WITH VALUE!!!

Also…Hey! Chumpy! You, over there, with the e-commerce website! Does that web site have a search function? Yeah, you never use it, but I bet it does. It takes like 5 minutes to make a Firefox search plugin at Searchplugins.net — yep that’s right, I’m still bragging about making that thing, even though all I had to do was fill out a form.  Do you think there would be any harm to offering your customers a way to use Your site in a way that directly aligns with Their Needs? I think it would be a good thing to do. 5 minutes, I’m serious…what’s the worst thing that could happen? Nobody would use it? OH, what a tragedy, your valuable time wasted, just think in 5 minutes, you could…almost make a sandwich. Don’t be a Negative Nancy Nincompoop, TRY to reach your customers. You can do it. You want to know what I have really learned about the web, my big secret? It’s this…if you try 10 things, 1 thing will work. As you try more things and learn more things, you’ll start to improve the strike rate, once you have 2 or 3 things working out of every 10, then you are the Web equivalent of a fresh El Camino rolling kilo-g.

But, you can’t really ever stop trying.

Let’s Welcome the New Advertisers! #3

I’m just going to keep saying it because its true. I love wholesale companies. Worlking with them was my bread and butter for such a long time, and if you’ve been reading this blog you know I love new products. Let’s see what the new blood brings to the table. I’ve been laying off of this, because you know, you’re not allowed to write about anything unless Google approves it, and Google levelled their unblinking eye on “sponsored posts” late last year. These aren’t sponsored posts, but the content of these posts is entirely influenced by who signs up at Top Ten Wholesale. So, even though my purpose is to increase the engagement and community between all parties at Top Ten, and illustrate everything that’s great about wholesale companies, it entirely possible that Google will disapprove. As I always say, it’s Larry and Sergey’s world, you and I are just paying the rent. On to the new advertisers…

First of All, while I hate to play favorites. we were lucky enough to snag the Greatest Web Site in the History of the World (be prepared your eyes will explode from the blinky goodness). Although they have taken like 2/3 of the blinkies down since I first discovered Magic Matt’s lo these many years ago, it is still a site chock full of awesomeness. I am pretty pumped they are with Top Ten now. I always kind of hoped they would, since I sent them fan letters, approached their representatives in person, linked to them with abandon as often as I could, and refer to them as the greatest web site ever, but obviously one of our salespeople was able to convince them of my ardent, uncontrollable love for their products. Hooray! How can we celebrate? How about by me forcing you to look at a picture of a flashing Longhorn steer? Mmm-Kay?

This is how we raise ‘em where I’m from

Imposter City – They seem to have gone away a bit from using their fantastic name Imposter City but they are still one of the best replica sunglasses dealers around. I think it’s neat that a product sector like replica sunglasses is full of great merchants, who work hard to earn your business with great product selection. Replica products unfairly get a bad rap, but I have great respect for MANY of the sunglasses wholesalers currently doing business and Imposter City is certainly one of them.

WHOA! Double Secret Awesome Alert…if I could pick the way I’d like to make my next fortune, it would be treasure hunting. I’m totally fascinated by sunken treasure, the Oak Island Money Pit, and just the whole way that history forgets about huge piles of money every once in a while. Like most people, when I have an interest in something, it quickly gets commercial. And the commercial entry point to treasure hunting is metal detectors.

So it is with great pleasure that I note that we have an metal detector dealer, Blue Bay Metal Detector Sales

They sell a great line of metal detector products, from compact security metal detectors, to underwater detectors to general purpose units that look like they are meant for families and casual treasure hunting.

This company is obviously also aggressively looking for dealers, and…this is so exciting…they drop ship! I’m itching to finish this blog post, so I can head over to Weebly and start making that treasure hunting site, I keep talking about.

Anyway, that’s some new advertisers. I have quite a few more and I’m going to get to them in rapid fashion.

Retailers Finding New Opportunities with Off-Price Goods

Mainstream apparel and accessories retailers traditionally have used off-price goods as promotional/sales items to pull customers into their stores and ultimately toward their full-price merchandise. While off-price goods are always attractive as sales items, savvy retailers today are finding new opportunities with off-price goods by cycling them into their regular inventory.
At the recent Off-Price Specialist Show in Las Vegas, one of the major exhibitors at the show said, “Whereas closeouts used to be used as loss leaders in stores, retailers are now using them for margin building. They’re not necessarily looking for the sale item; they want to make money.”
Retailers shopping the Show agree. One Florida retailer shopping for medical care uniforms said, “A good 60% of the merchandise we carry is off price. Off price is becoming more and more important to us.”
A Washington State retailer said, “At one time, the theory behind off price was finding the sale item—bargain basement goods. Now, with the quality of the merchandise you find, you can retail it and sustain a higher margin.”
The beauty of off price is that it has value in every economy—from weak to strong. The American consumer expects high quality goods at low prices, and retailers are forced to scramble to fill those needs. While the market is tough and competition fierce, the Off-Price Specialist Show provides retailers, both large and small, with sourcing opportunities for apparel, accessories and footwear to meet their customers’ expectations.
Attendance, particularly among new buyers, was up at the February Off-Price Show [create link] and order writing was brisk, further proof that retailers are turning to the Off-Price Show to find great bargains on quality apparel.

Bob Nordstrom

More Ebay Boycott Resources

You can see the mood of the people on this. It’s seems to be fueled by the honest anger of small business executives.They are using tactics reminiscent of Ron Paul activists, and that’s a pretty good formula for success. Here’s another video

This post has all you need to know from the enormous Ebay boycott thread that is the source of the whole thing.

And that new video on the tube.. What an awesome experience!!

Have no more auctions on ebay as of this afternoon and am feeling relieved… now I can spend the evening at ola to start building my business, a much stronger one with support and people who like the “flea market feel”… Ahhhhhhh… To breath freely again… To actually see a little profit… What a blessing….

Stocks are down, Listings are down, and unless someone out there listens to the one’s who are left behind, I see only failure for this company…

BOYCOTT VICTORIOUSLY!! FEB 18 THRU 25

These people are Paultards on spring break. eBay had better look out.

It’s getting some news coverage in advance which is a big deal. h/t to this BMW forum

for a video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4MtVPuU9-Q[/youtube]

Ebay Boycott Feb 18th-25th

Ebay Sellers really felt the pinch of the latest Ebay fee increases. Although, listing fees went down, the commission charged on successful auctions went way up, especially on items selling for under $25. And then they further lowered fees on high volume listing categories like books and software, but then came the change in the feedback policy.

Sellers will no longer be able to leave negative or neutral Feedback for buyers. This change will occur in May, 2008.

So basically, no more mutual feedback — which seems weird but eBay has an explanation:

No negative or neutral Feedback for buyers The current system prevents buyers from leaving honest Feedback as they fear retaliation from the sellers if they leave a negative. This makes it hard for buyers to distinguish between sellers while making bidding or buying decisions. In addition, when buyers receive negative Feedback, they reduce their activity in the marketplace, which in-turn harms all sellers.

Let’s see how the eBay sellers are taking this — pssst, my guess would be not well

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23TomS5–nQ[/youtube]

This is goig to be interesting to watch….

Our Hopes and Prayers Are With The Southern Tornado Victims

JP Communications has many friends and clients in the southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas, including in some of the specific cities where the tornadoes touched down yesterday. We were horrified to learn of the extent of the destruction, and we hope to soon hear that everyone’s families and homes and businesses are OK.

The bill for the damages caused by the line of tornadoes is going to be pretty severe. If you have family, friends or interests in the affected areas, I urge you to help out by donating to local relief agencies.

In Tennessee (TN) the Nashville Red Cross is coordinating relief efforts in the Volunteer State, which was the hardest hit.

Information on coordinating chapters of the Red Cross for the other states is unavailable at the moment. But the all draw upon the Disaster Relief Fund

Keep these people in your thoughts, and try to think of a way to try to help.

UPDATE: Wendy from the Red Cross stopped by to leave a comment and give us some good places to keep up with the Red Cross relief efforts in the affected states.

If you want to follow the Red Cross response to the tornadoes, visit: redcrosstn.wordpress.com/

or follow Twitter updates at twitter.com/redcros

Most Places You Just Get a Parking Space..

But the Employee of the Month at JP Communications? They enjoy the health and recreational benefits of the Hawaii Chair

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9_amg-Aos4[/youtube]

Try to top that, Other Wholesale Search Engines! I’m hula-ing my way to a slimmer, sexier me, as we speak. (eww)

Anyway, watching the video I take note that:

a) the guy at the beginning is gesturing and talking to “Tamara” who clearly is not there.

b) Then he sends it over to Erin Lee, who in both her shots on this clip, looks like she is barely able to stay on the thing. In her second scene, she looks like she’s trying to stay on a mechanical bull.

c) The guy who says “It feels great on my abs” : is either confused about anatomy or didn’t feel comfortable saying where the Hawaii Chair was really working.

Microsoft Makes a Bid on Yahoo!

Ask Jason Prescott, I have long predicted that Microsoft would make a bid for Yahoo!, but it still was a strange surprise to wake up to this morning.  In the above story, there’s a bit from an analyst that claims this is all about advertising revenue from search:

“This deal is mainly about advertising, and mainly about search-based advertising,” said the 451 Group, based in Boston. “It combines the second and third players in that market to take on the number one, Google. The main thing this brings Microsoft is a profitable advertising business, something it has not managed to achieve with its own online services business, which loses money.”

…that’s a pretty shallow look at things, probably they just had an early reading in on the memo that Ballmer sent to Microsoft employees, which is nothing more than a leak to the blogs and the press directly from Ballmer. It’s definitely not just about search. Microsoft has been making a sustained effort to drive entertainment and lifestyle options over a Microsoft software and increasing hardware platform platform. Yahoo is certainly more than just search advertising. Yahoo! Games, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, Flickr, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Personals are all powerful competitors in their space. It fits in seamlessly with Microsoft’s powerful Xbox platform and gives it a much broader userbase to compete against Google’s Gmail and the other Google Apps like Google Docs. Google is still really just getting started in terms of taking on Microsoft’s dominant office productivity software, but it is definitely part of their mission, leveraging the super appealing Gmail and trying to wedge it and their improving online office suite into the picture for business customers.

Where’s Bill?

Maybe its a coincidence but I think it’s interesting that this comes immediately on the heels of a press offensive to celebrate Bill Gates’s retirement. Especially since the public celebration comes 6 months before his real departure in July.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr5w3X4R8b4[/youtube]

Is This the Front Lines of Microsoft’s Endless War Vs. Open Source

One of the things, most people don’t know about Yahoo! is that they are one of the big champions of open source software, the free community developed applications that are like garlic to Microsoft’s software sales and licensing vampire. Yahoo is mainly deployed on FreeBSD, and a Microsoft takeover would be a crushing blow to many open source initiative, including Yahoo acquisition Zimbra, which has been emerging as a worthy alternative mail server to Exchange. Read more in this thread at Slashdot

No surprise YHOO closed up 47%

Yahoo’s Story About Microsoft Trying to Buy Yahoo
Funny Bitterness: An Ex-Yahoo Employee’s Advice to Microsoft

Check out this comment:

I have contacted a few mid level management people at Yahoo who could be described as, ‘Yahoo Purple Lifers”. They have intimated that they will stay and work to make any cultural changes to the organization, and I quote, “as painful as possible for the new Microsoft directors and division Veeps, short of insurrection”.

I’ll try and write something up on this attitude that seems pervasive, on my blog, over the weekend. There has been plenty of bitterness over the layoff’s already.

They are very different companies; although one could reason that this acquisition is the lawful and logical harvest of equity for Yahoo’s long term investors and employees with stock. But it takes more than a mere decision to make such a gargantuan move work.

They are Very Different cultures.

Hey! There’s one reason you might not want to buy the stock…