CO2 and Hay Fever (quick hit)

Carbon dioxide may cause hay fever to worsen

By Becki Francis

Higher carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels, which contribute to global warming, may make the fall season worse for those with ragweed allergies.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released research showing that elevated environmental CO₂ levels can lead ragweed to produce twice as much pollen as in a lower, current level.

Lewis H. Ziska, a plant physiologist with USDA's Agricultural Research Service, performed the research. He counted the pollen on ragweed grown in indoor chambers at various levels of CO₂. The chambers were set at turn-of-the-century levels of 280 parts per million (ppm), today's levels of 370 ppm and future predicted levels of 600 ppm. Pollen production went from 5.5 grams to 10 grams to 20 grams as CO₂ moved through these three levels.

Sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, and itchy eyes, nose and throat are all familiar reminders of ragweed’s effects. Ten to 20 percent of Americans suffer from hay fever, or allergies to ragweed pollen, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. While ragweed plants only grow for one season, each plant can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains.

Ziska, conducting his research in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Towson University and Multidata Corporation, says this ongoing experiment should show how global warming and higher CO₂ levels might already be increasing ragweed pollen counts.

For more information, visit the USDA press release online at: http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/2000/08/0278.htm.

Indiana Beef Industry- Agriculture Story

Because I wasn't sure whether we were supposed to still be working on business stories or move on to agriculture stories, I picked one that was both a business and agriculture story: this article online at Hoosier Ag Today.
I think the writer uses a writing style that makes it easy to understand without previous agriculture knowledge. It makes a lecture at a conference sound interesting to anyone- whether you understand ruminant nutrition or your own diet. I think this would have been more relating to a mainstream audience if specific information about why these overeating cattle could affect our own diets. It does give specific advice and information to farmers who would want to manage this issue. One example of mainstream impact discussed in the article is the influence of urea in the environment. An aspect I don't like about this release is that there's not a link to additional information to learn more or register for the event.

Technology Story: Freedom for Prisoners of VoiceMail

I read this article from New York Times' Technology section from February 15. It was called "Freedom for Prisoners of Voice Mail. I found it an interesting article and concept, but had a few issues with the story's style. First off, the lead really got my attention, although I was a little confused about the point of the article until the 4th graf. Second, I thought I was going to learn about something that would save me time & money from the lead. However, towards the end of the article, when you finally learn details about the service it's discussing, I realized that this service was probably going to cost MORE than just calling to check my voicemail. The average time I spend on checking voice mail on my cell phone is one to two minutes. With my Cingular 2000 nation plan with rollover minutes, I pay $0.20/minute (excluding the ambiguous fees & taxes), and $0.40/min on overage (although it's hard to go over 2000 minutes on a cell phone unless you use it daily for business). So I spend about $0.40 each time I check my voicemail, if I have multiple messages. I would have to check my voicemail 20 times per month just to pay for the service. I don't see how inconvenient it is to hold the 1 key and listen to my messages. A praise, I also thought the numbered points helped to keep me reading this really long article. It is also a thorough review of the service. Overall, informative, but a little unfocused.

By the way, I don't feel like a prisoner of my voice mail, but maybe the fact that we HAVE to have documentation and be connected others at all times frightens me.

McDonald's 4th quarter (2006) earnings

Here is the brief about the McDonald's fourth-quarter earnings.

McDonald's reports strong fourth-quarter earnings

McDonald's reported revenue increases in the fourth-quarter of 2006. The diluted shares of $1.00 doubled 2005's share values ($0.48).

“During 2006, we demonstrated our ongoing commitment to enhancing shareholder value with several notable events," said McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner. "We increased our annual dividend by nearly 50% to $1.00 per share, returned nearly $5 billion to shareholders through dividends and shares acquired, and completed the disposition of our ownership interest in Chipotle Mexican Grill."

The revenue, operating income and net income increases were partly due to the disposition of Chipolte ownership and a positive foreign currency translation from the Euro and British Pounds.

Although net income increased dramatically for McDonald's, they also incurred strong operating expenses. High interest rates, stronger foreign currency, income taxes, selling and administrative fees, as well as offering performance-based compensation packages to employees, were costly operating expenses for the quarter.

View McDonald's press release

The full report can be found online at EDGAR (Fourth quarter report, 2006 8K)

Business story game plan

Here is my game plan for my business story. For some reason, every time I open up Word it freezes up and won't let me make any changes. Even when I tried converting it to a pdf, it all froze up. It is really strange because it's the only program that I'm having issues with, and I downloaded the 'security updates' that the error report said I needed. I even tried my laptop, and the same thing happened. So I made a new version of the file on the computer, and still the same thing. I was going to reword some things like primary audience (from farmer to livestock farmer; secondary audience- general energy consumer, home/ business owner). I'm not sure what to do now because I can't get to another computer. Please leave any comments- hope you don't have trouble opening it.

Technology article: event planning software

I read an article in Monday's Indy Star Business Section, by Erika D. Smith. It was about a small event planning company's software to help organize event volunteers and staff. I thought it was an interesting article because you heard the voice of a small-business entrepreneur, who created this software to make her work easier. I thought it was good that the article gave examples of real companies that had used the software to organize their large events. While it mentioned companies were basically fighting over licenses for the product, which is Internet based, no prices or contact information to buy the program was given. Doing a search for the product on the Internet, I found the company's web page and contact information.

Business Story- Foodservice Study

Here's my story on the food service study written for a business owner.

Study relates high manager turnover to job satisfaction

By Becki Francis

High turnover in the food service industry may not a big surprise to restaurant owners, but managers’ job and life satisfaction can affect their intentions to stay, according to a recent study.

“Satisfaction levels of food service managers affect food service,” said Richard Ghiselli, associate professor who conducted the study.

The survey showed that the number of hours worked was one of the most important reasons for leaving, with the average manager working close to 60 hours per week. Also, many managers felt that their work schedule created discord in their personal lives.

“Among the things that leave a manger unsatisfied are amount of pay, number of hours and quality of life,” said Ghiselli.

Compensation was rated the lowest component of job satisfaction. When the survey asked managers why they might leave their current position, low wages were listed most frequently. Restaurant and food service managers earned a measly $460 per week, or $23,920 annually, back in 1996.

While you may think making changes to your business to keep managers would be too costly, management turnover can negatively impact your bottom line. Turnover reduces overall organizational effectiveness, lower sales and hamper productivity. Even worse, it could be taking as much as $20,000 out of your pocket to replace one manager.

“Corporations have to make long-term, concentrated efforts to come to terms with the management turnover,” said Ghiselli.

Enhancing overall job satisfaction may help reduce manager turnover. During the survey, respondents rated achievement, creativity, independence and advancement very low. Intrinsic satisfaction seems to motivate managers at first, while external recognition is more important later on. Close to one-fifth of the managers considered their lives more boring than interesting, and expressed feelings of loneliness and disappointment. These factors should be considered when evaluating your management training and retention program.

(Service Journalism box/ POE)

How to keep your managers:

• Schedule them around 50 hrs/wk to prevent burnout
• Offer competitive salaries
• Research competitors
• Recognize significant accomplishments
• Build camaraderie, family atmosphere
• Encourage personal creativity, independence, diversity
• Offer bonuses for implementing new ways to improve productivity

Super Bowl commercials

I read an interesting article about the Super Bowl ads from Monday's New York Times by Stuart Elliot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/business/media/05adcol.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

Although it seems like I have heard a lot of news circling around Super Bowl commercials this year, I thought this one was interesting because it tried to find an underlying theme for the #1 most expensive advertising timeslot of the year. Something that I liked about the article was that it broke down who made commercials (the parent and advertising company) for what. Elliot draws the conclusion that the undertone of the commercials was related to the war in Iraq. While I'm not really sure of this, I think the advertisers were trying hard to be funny and relate to their audience. With the popularity of online video sharing (YouTube, etc.) and the often off-beat content, advertisers were trying to use the style of random humor to catch viewers' attention. I liked the comparison to older ads. And as far as the story idea goes, it was something that A LOT of people are interested in (I know many who watch the game for the commercials), and few reporters brave their own interpretations of commercials.

Something different that I would have been interested in seeing with this article was how much each of the commercials cost to air during the Super Bowl. I think that is public information, and it would be interesting to see what company spent the most money on Super Bowl advertisements (to create and air them). Compare this to how much commercial spots during the Super Bowl used to run, and figures of how many people watch the Super Bowl (approximate numbers that are used to bill for spots would be fine). This would take it from a straight commentary about the ad content to a more comprehensive business story that a more general audience would be interested in.

Marketplace

I listened to Monday's Marketplace story about Daimler-Chrysler's future changes.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/02/05/PM200702053.html

The reporter, Alisa Roth, gave background of the situation with other Detroit automakers in case listeners didn't remember the exact figures or details. While this was more of a business, as opposed to consumer, story, they tried hard to relate it in terms that 'regular' people would understand. One source explains that there has been a shift in consumer tastes from mid-size sport utility vehicles to smaller passenger cars. A quote from an economist explained why Daimler-Chrysler should be cautious when forming partnerships because of differing customer bases. Instead of using big words or confusing statistics, he explained that a potential Mercedes customer may be turned off by similarities between the luxury car and a much cheaper Chrysler car. The story discussed potential lay-offs as well, but didn't explain what this might mean for consumers (cheaper but harder to find Chryslers?) Overall, though, I thought this story did a very good job of explaining business in an easy-to-understand way.