Northward!

Like many of my students I'm anticipating the holiday weekend. I hope to be kayaking some of Northern Michigan's rivers.

Before I go, I want to comment on some more of these blogs!

Irene has some interesting posts on Starbucks' growth in Asia.

Ashley has some fascinating info on hybrid cars, including some models sold overseas I wasn't aware of.

Brandon gives us a list of salaries in jobs college grads are pursuing.

Julie has several more articles on interviewing, including 17 ways to annoy an interviewer.

Kristin has a nice discussion of the National Organic Program for identifying truly organic foods.

Matt looks at mergers and buyouts among upscale retailers.

Brad continues his discussions of misleading rhetoric in politics and business.

Nick is investigating Christianity and environmentalism.

Paul has some great statistics from book publishing.

And Cory has a nice set of articles on how to market your small business.

Nice work gang!!

More Blog Reviews

Many of you are now posting faster than I can read them!

Brian's FW Baseball Blog has lots of new posts, not just on Harrison Square, but also on the new proposals for Southeast development.

Andy's blog on Warren Buffet has some nice posts on the Charity Auction for lunch with Buffet, and also some personal, little known information about the business guru.

Reggie has a post on global warming.

The Career Woman at Home blog has some great, detailed posts, including a great one on work-at-home scams on the internet.

Mhariel has an interesting set of posts on the Basel convention on electronic waste. Just like Kyoto--an environmental agreement we haven't ratified.

Back to the Blogs!

A week in Burlington--didn't have time to see much of anything other than a restaurant or two. Still, being able to look east towards mountains and west over Lake Champlain was exciting. I miss that kind of scenery.

The blogs are getting exciting! Great visuals and great information in a lot of them. These are good reads.

This week really marks the halfway point of the course, so rededicate yourself to blogging and following the syllabus. Again, the secret to getting a good grade of the blog is to blog frequently (2-3 times per week), regularly (don't go long periods of time without blogging), and to blog seriously (give me some content, and flex your blogging muscles by using visuals and links).

Angie's blog asks a very good question about the cost/benefit relationship in Sarbanes-Oxley.

Tia personalizes the issue of job losses caused by digital photography killing the analog business. The story she tells is fascinating.

Tom has returned to his blog, and has some interesting thoughts on agribusiness careers. Great entry--give me more of them!

After a slow start, Alvin may be hitting his stride with the Sony blog. I'm particularly interested in the blog because I'm at a loss as to why Sony is not the great innovator in electronics it once was. Why has what was once an ailing computer company (Apple) become the leader in innovation in electronics? The idea of delivering music and web content on portable devices is not particularly special--most anyone could see that the industry should move in that direction. But Apple figured out how to do it right with the IPOD and IPhone.

Heather's blog has a great set of management book reviews. What a fine example of using a blog entry for research purposes.

I'll try to touch on a few more blogs later.

Friday!

Some of these blogs are getting very active!

Jen has an interesting post which shows the relationship between the wage gender gap and poverty rates.

Mhariel's blog is really opening my eyes on the illegal export of electronic waste. This is a huge environmental disaster in the making!

Irene has a cool link at You Tube showing fake merchandise in Chinese markets.

Brandon has some more great info on resumes and a funny yet educational cartoon on the interview process.

And speaking of interviews. Juliana has posted a number of interview questions you should be prepared to answer.

Kristin has provided a link to the Organic Valley website with recipes and coupons.

Matt has info on Macy' class action suit.

Paul has some neat info on another report genre the book ignores--the book proposal genre. I've taught this genre in my Document Production and Management class.

Cory has a nice detailed post on the intricacies of buying an existing business.

My reading? Jack McDevitt's Seeker won the Nebula Award this year. I decided to start reading this series by the writer, starting with The Engines of God. It nicely makes archaeology a science fiction theme.

Making Travel Preps

I'll be leaving next week for a conference of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) in Vermont, so I'll be out of e-mail range much of the week. Keep following your syllabus and keep blogging!

Nick has made some interesting posts on global warming and climate change. I'm not sure the actions of 300 million Americans on the conversation side can make a huge impact, just as Nick points out. However, risk management alone says we can't simply bury our heads in the sand and ignore the problem. That's why I enjoyed the Kim Stanley Robinson series so much--it was about a group of people making a difference about the problem.

Paul has a nice post on e-publishing. I've been using Lulu.com for e-publishing in some of my classes. the new technology is impressive!

Cory has a number of recent posts on business plans and setting up a small business.

Angie addresses the issue of Fraud and Accountability provisions of Sarbanes Oxyley. She seems to be nicely narrowing her focus.

Tia discusses the impact of digital photography on her own workplace.

Aimee has a nice post on a very interesting biotech company-Genentech.

Tuesday Musings

I'm really tearing through books right now--just read completely through Cormac McCarthy's latest, The Road, in less than 24 hours.

It's a hard book to put down--for one thing, there are no chapters--just one event after another, encountered by a father and son wandering through a post-apocalyptic world. Kind of a union of CBS's Jericho and the Mad Max movies.

It much less hopeful than any of those works. This novel is probably the saddest, and most horrifying book I've every read. There is no limit to what human beings will do in order to survive!

So to more hopeful fare--the student blogs!

Ashley's hybrid vehicle blog has more on NYC's use of hybrids for taxis.

Brandon has found some very helpful suggestions on cover letters.

Juliana talks about maintaining the right attitude during interviews, and has an interesting article on the use of humor during the interview process.

Kristin has posted a number of links to organic food websites.

Matt shows us that even the wine industry is experiencing Friedman's flatteners--imagine, Louis Vuitton buying a Chinese distillery!

Brad has interesting posts on privacy, YouTube, and Live leak.

Good work, group!

China and the Future

I just finished reading the new Kim Stanley Robinson novel, #3 in a trilogy on global warming. In it, China experiences an environmental catastrophe due to pollution caused by rapid industrialization. Irene's blog shows some examples of just that happening, with pictures she took during a recent visit to China.

Brian has some interesting things on the Fort Wayne Baseball Blog, including a copy the recent presentation given by the project's sponsors.

Mhariel has some interesting information on computers and the environment, and how third world countries are being used as disposal dumps for hazardous IT waste.

Heather has some interesting info on ROI on MBA degree programs.

Andy has some information on CEO compensation, and Warren Buffet's thoughts on the subject.

And Jen has some really good coverage of the way ATT is allowing people to telecommute, through its virtual office program

I will comment more later--people have been busy--now I need to catch up! That is a good thing!

A busy day blogging

Lots of students posted new entries in the last 24 hours.

Angie posted a long article ob the affect Sarbanes-Oxley has had on IPOs and Start-ups. A great example of using your blog to collect research.

Kristin has posted some ideas on how to identify if foods are genuinely organic.

Julie has posted some great cartoons related to the interview process--nice use of visuals and humor.

Brian, posting the the FW Baseball Blog has information demolition of the Belmont Beverage outlet which has been displaced by the Harrison Square project.

Ashley has a very brief post on hybrid cabs in NYC.

Aimee found some very interesting information of the "Great Place to Work Institute."

Matt has a fascinating post on auctions--not your typical auctions--luxury auctions.

I've started new read: Kim Stanley Robinson's final novel in his global warming trilogy--interesting take on intrigue in washington D.C. the book is titled Sixty Days and Counting.

Straight Man

Just finished Richard Russo's novel, Straight Man, a rather bitter yet humorous sendup of life in academia as told by an English professor. Russo is the Pulitzer-Prize winning aithor of Empire Falls.

I realize I haven't reviewed two blogs.

Irene has an interesting blog on doing business in China--which should help give her info for her research paper later in the class. Only five entries so far, but they are good.

Reggie has started his blog, but there haven't been any entries since may 19.

I'm now following the blogs with my feed reader, so I'll start commenting on them as new posts come in.