| South Africa: The Thick End of the Wedge
BUSINESS Day's deputy editor ends her 14 years with the paper later this month, the last four spent, basically, doing my job. There's no worse place in a newspaper than the deputy editor's office. It's where all the bull, if not the buck, stops. It's where the bad news breaks as staffers queue up to complain about their pay, jobs, lives, their colleagues and their editor. It's where management reverse into with cost complaints because the editor is still at lunch, where the advert department slinks with another breathless request ("can we run the masthead in Nedcor's corporate colours when they announce their BEE deal, pleeease?") where the legal threats go and where the editor retires to complain about the pressure he's under. Robyn Chalmers has borne all these trials with biblical good grace these past four years.
SurModics Reports Second Quarter 2007 Results
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SurModics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRDX), a leading provider of surface modification and drug delivery technologies to the healthcare industry, today reported financial results for the second fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2007. Second Quarter Highlights: Revenue of $17.4 million, down 2% year-over-year and up 4% sequentially Record non-CYPHER-related revenue, up 19% year-over-year 11th consecutive quarter of growth in non-CYPHER revenue Strong year-over-year revenue growth in two of our three operating segments: Record product sales of $3.4 million, up 16% year over-year Operating income of $8.1 million Net income of $5.7 million Diluted EPS of $0.31 14 new licenses signed with SurModics customers Six new customer products introduced Completed the repurchase of $35 million of common stock; approximately 5% of total shares outstanding retired "SurModics is pleased to report record non-CYPHER revenue in the second quarter, and for the eleventh consecutive quarter we delivered growth in non-CYPHER revenue," said Bruce Barclay, President and CEO.
300 milestone a Day to remember
Danvers High hadn't qualified for a postseason baseball berth in a decade when one-time athletic director Dick Lynch invited Roger Day for an interview. Lynch immediately asked the candidate what his practice plan would be if he were starting tomorrow, was very technical in subsequent questions, and about half way through the AD said, "That's enough. I don't need anymore."
There's a reason Lynch has been inducted into five Hall of Fames. He was a great athlete and an awesome administrator. He knew his stuff. Who was more respected as a true-blue coach? Football. Baseball. Basketball. He was the whole package.
No decision he ever made on the AD end was more accurate or productive than hiring Day 20 years ago.
The 52-year-old star Ipswich alumnus just won his 300th game as the Falcons' coach in a romp over Marblehead, leaving him 300-128.
Consumer' CHECKBOOK rates repair services and HMOs in latest edition
This time the non-profit rates everything from cell phone providers to top doctors in the metro. The magazine also compares local HMOs, examines the pros and cons of laser eye surgery, and takes a closer look at heating and air-conditioning services.
CHECKBOOK makes its list of "best" and "worst" from customer surveys and from undercover price shopping.
One of the biggest areas of consumer dissatisfaction is computer repair service.
According to CHECKBOOK, General NanoSystems, Inc. tops the list when it comes to both price and quality. The locally-owned computer repair company credits its success with old-fashioned customer service.
"What we found out is that its all about customer satisfaction, listening to customers problems, and then trying to solve them," Shazad Mazhar says.
Cultivating a New Generation of Gardeners
In Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv explains that as fewer children have access to natural places, they are forgetting how to play and to use their imaginations, and have little or no appreciation for natureor worse, they fear it. To develop fully a child needs time and a natural place to explore, build things, dig, run, jump and climb. If you cant bring kids to the garden, bring the garden to the kids! The National Gardening Association (NGA) has an Adopt a School Garden program, which allows individuals, organizations and corporations to make donations toward the purchase of garden supplies, curricula and gardening expertise. Also, some botanical gardens cultivate childrens gardens. For instance, children from the Evergreen, Colorado community are involved in all aspects of greenhouse gardening in a 500 square-foot-solar greenhouse designed and constructed specifically for Global Childrens Gardens.
|
