Concentrate

Just when you thought University of Michigan students couldn't get any quirkier, meet the members of the Michigan Squirrel Club, a new student-run organization focusing on the rodents that rule the Diag. This kind of extracurricular may lead to higher GPAs, so the theory goes.

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What they do: The main purpose is to "spread a bit of squirrely cheer to everyone," says club president Peter Feng. To put it simply, members spend their Sunday afternoons feeding peanuts to the hundreds of fat squirrels that roam U of M's campus. "Salted peanuts are unhealthy, so we just give them roasted or raw," Feng says. "I don't think the squirrels mind what they get."

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Soldiers cashing in on the GI Bill can be expected to home in on Ypsilanti now that GI Jobs magazine has ranked Eastern Michigan University as one of the nation's top military friendly schools.

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Eastern Michigan University has been named one of the country's top "military friendly" schools by GI Jobs magazine for 2011. The magazine's list recognizes the 15 percent of schools that best serve veterans nationwide.

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This ranking doesn't exactly make the University of Michigan the leader and the best, but being in the Top 100 of Forbes Best American Colleges isn’t too shabby.

This entry also points out that the inventor of the iPod, co-founder of Google and national editor of Time all went to U-M. Read all about it here.

Domino's is famous across the U.S., especially in its hometown of Ann Arbor. But the Tree town-based pizza chain is rapidly becoming popular in India, where it is opening 70 new stores.

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Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd. rose to a record after the Indian franchisee of Domino's Pizza Inc. said it plans to add 70 stores in the year ending March to tap demand for pizzas and western food in the South Asian country.

Jubilant, which operates 320 Domino's Pizza stores in India, will also spend as much as 60 million rupees ($1.3 million) to set up three outlets in neighboring Sri Lanka, Ajay Kaul, Jubilant's chief executive officer, told reporters in New Delhi today. The company is considering alliances with other global food brands, though it hasn't signed any deal, he said.

Shares climbed 14 percent, the most since April 7, to 420 rupees in Mumbai, the highest closing level since their debut in February. The stock gained as much as 15 percent earlier on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Domino's, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is expanding in the world's second-most populous nation as overseas sales outpaced demand at home. India will be among the five biggest markets for the second-largest U.S. pizza maker in the next three years as rising incomes and taste for foreign food boost local sales 42 percent annually, Chief Executive Officer J. Patrick Doyle, said in March.

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Ann Arbor's growing high-tech ecosystem is attracting outside firms to set up new offices or even grow their Ann Arbor acquisitions. Now if we could only convince them to move their headquarters here.

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Ann Arbor's hottest homegrown startup companies are fast becoming a way for the region to attract major global corporations and other rapidly growing firms to set up shop here.

Several local startups were sold over the last 2 years to corporations based outside of Michigan. But Ann Arbor economic development officials say they are encouraged the newcomers have maintained the local operations of the companies they targeted.

It's a sign that Ann Arbor's talent base in sectors such as medical devices and information technology is too valuable for these corporations to simply abandon.

The latest encouraging sign came Aug. 9, when Plano, Texas-based Tektronix Communications, a subsidiary of $12.2 billion Washington, D.C.-based conglomerate Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR), said it had reached a deal to buy University of Michigan network security spinoff Arbor Networks.

"These companies come in and acquire our startups - assuming they continue to grow here, which it seems like they are - it's a really good thing for our region and our state," said Ken Nisbet, executive director of U-M's Technology Transfer Office.

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The best hope for revamping and reinventing Michigan's economy is from the entrepreneurs who aren't entrenched in it yet. Don't believe it? Go check out the fresh produce in a Detroit city liquor store and ask yourself who made that possible.

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A relative's complaint about pricey special occasion clothes for an infant who would quickly outgrow them sparked Allen Kim's idea for an online rental service for baby clothing.

A desire to make credit-card purchasing safer and more convenient inspired Daniel Pearson to develop a smart card that combines multiple credit cards into one.

The ideas have earned Kim, a University of Michigan senior, and Pearson, a Central Michigan University senior, the honor of being two of the five national finalists in a competition run by Entrepreneur magazine.

The fact that two of the five finalists are Michigan students is likely a testament to the increased emphasis on entrepreneurism in the state. It's an emphasis some say is crucial to turning the state's economy around. Not only is much of the job growth happening in small companies, but experts say an entrepreneurial mind-set -- including being open to new opportunities and developing different ways to do business -- is crucial to being successful working in large companies.

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Ever doubt the power of the national appeal of Zingerman's brand? How about after reading a Florida food writer describe the Ann Arbor-based deli's name as a "magical word for foodies?"

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — President Barack Obama flew here in May to deliver the University of Michigan commencement address. He didn't stick around. But before Air Force One departed, the White House put in a to-go order from Zingerman's Delicatessen for delivery to the airport. Even the leader of the free world doesn't go to Ann Arbor and miss Zingerman's.

Zingerman's is a magical word for foodies. Its reputation as one of the most famous and beloved delis in the United States is improbable, tucked away as it is in a charming university town that's not a destination city unless you're a football fan or parent of a university student.

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Most kids go to camp to play sports or escape into the wilderness. Kids in Ann Arbor go to camp to capitalize on their nerdiness thanks to iD Tech, a Silicon Valley firm looking to cultivate the next generation of video game creators.

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Remember this: In a world where computers run everything, nerds rule.

So you might think the 31 kids glued to glowing screens last week at the Ann Arbor summer camp run by iD Tech, a company out of California's Silicon Valley, were just a bunch of campers who prefer computers to campfires. But you would be wrong.

These are future masters of the universe, acquiring sophisticated programming skills in video-game design with Flash and Maya animation and other programs that most adults who design games don't get under their belts until they hit college or the professional world.

The campers wore their nerdiness with a cheerful swagger.

"Oh yeah, I'm definitely a nerd," said Alex Eichner, 15, a camper from Alexandria, Va. "No doubt about it."

The week-long program was one of seven iD Tech sponsored this summer at the University of Michigan, as well as at other universities around the country. The last U-M session begins Sunday and winds up Aug. 8.

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Make it two years in a row for Salon Vox and its place in ELLE magazine's Top 100 Salons in the U.S. The downtown Ann Arbor salon was recently features in the magazine's Best Hair in America's story, which highlights the most sought-after celebrity styles on the continent.

For more on the ranking, click here.

If you're a comic book geek, you know the significance of an award from the San Diego Comic Con. If you're not, trust us on this one. It's a big deal that a little comic book store in downtown Ann Arbor, Vault of Midnight, won.

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The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, presented under the auspices of Comic-Con International: San Diego, is given to an individual retailer who has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large.

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Ted Dacko earned his reputation as one of Ann Arbor's big-name entrepreneurs because of his runaway success with HealthMedia. Now he's taking another swing for the fences with his latest start-up, InfoReady.

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Ted Dacko thinks he may have spotted the next HealthMedia Inc., and he's signed on with Ann Arbor-based InfoReady Corp. to try to make another success.

HealthMedia, a provider of online health resources and wellness programs, headed by Dacko and backed by local venture capitalists, saw dramatic growth and a successful sale to Johnson & Johnson in 2008 for as much as $200 million.

InfoReady is a spinoff of Ann Arbor-based GDI Infotech Inc. that has raised almost $1 million in seed and angel funding, including loans from both Ann Arbor SPARK and the Detroit-based First Step Venture Fund.

InfoReady collects information about new grants from federal, state, and philanthropic sources and alerts university researchers and government units about them daily. It also serves as social media for the grant-seeking community, allowing would-be collaborators to share ideas and to track progress on grant work.

"They built a cool, exciting product that could make them another HealthMedia," says Dacko, who will serve for now as a part-time consultant in the role of vice president of sales and marketing.

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Lots of people want southeast Michigan, and the Ann Arbor area in particular, to do everything it can to become a rival to Silicon Valley. Local leaders are now going the extra mile to form relationships with business leaders in what is arguably the world's most dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem.

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Ann Arbor is getting cozy with Silicon Valley - and local economic development officials hope the budding relationship leads to more jobs for this area.

Local companies, investors and economic development leaders are seeking to leverage Ann Arbor's connections with businesses based in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco region. In Silicon Valley, life sciences, information technology, research services and environmentally friendly products account for 33.6 percent of total employment, according to the Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance.

Cultivating relationships with West Coast business leaders is a central goal of several California trips organized by Ann Arbor leaders in recent months.

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Ever feel guilty for enjoying a delicious meal and not just for the calorie intake? Fear not, GQ magazine has come up with a national Top 10 list for places to enjoy a meal that is both ethical and delicious. An Ann Arbor-based eatery is at the top of the list and a farm in Chelsea is in the thick of it, too.

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With a few glorious exceptions, eating ethically for a month, as I did for this month's GQ, was an exercise in frustration. One illuminating moment took place in a coffee shop in Boston: My café au lait was handed to me in a disposable take-out cup, whereas everybody else in the place was drinking coffee from genuine porcelain cups. I wanted mine in a real cup, too. Not only is there less waste, the need to wash the cup creates a job for an entry-level employee, possibly someone with a family to feed...

When I ate in restaurants run by chefs committed to ethical eating, or in the homes of people who feel the same way, dining was a joy, not simply because the products were better, but also because the people doing the cooking were inevitably committed to preparing wonderful meals. I'm not talking about dining with gastronomic outcasts, such as disciples of macrobiotics. (You've seen them. They endure a colorless life of brown food and brown clothing.) People devoted single-mindedly to ethical-eating causes invariably dine poorly, whereas those who make ethical eating a component of a higher dining ideal tend to be entirely admirable—plus well-fed. When I drove through rural Maine, I stopped at Chase's Daily in Belfast for a bowl of made-from-scratch vegetable soup, followed by a preposterously rich chocolate meringue tart, the kind that can easily sustain a person meatlessly through a winter New England day. Chase's Daily is part-restaurant, part-bakery, part-farmstand, and almost incidentally vegetarian. It's not a health-food restaurant—butter and cream abound. It offers the sort of ethical eating I came to admire on my travels, devoid of the pretentiousness and dogma that so often curses admirable causes.

Here then are my top ten ethical dishes, some from restaurants, some from homes or farms, all enjoyed earlier this year during my ethical-eating travels through America.

1. Brioche-Crusted Walleye, Grange Kitchen & Bar, Ann Arbor, MI
We northeasterners hardly ever get to eat freshwater fish—okay, maybe now and then somebody slips us a trout. This filet of walleye showed me why the Great Lakes deserve to be called great. The flesh was sole-like, and the crust offered a light, sweet accent.

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Ann Arbor has made so many "Best of" lists lately, is anyone surprised it made this one? It would probably be more surprising if the college town didn't make it.

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Football season may be this city's most popular pastime, but residents of Ann Arbor would insist that the city is always a great place to be.

This friendly college town has all the perks of a much bigger city. The downtown area is a Mecca of arts and culture, with museums, theatres, and galleries. Golf courses and biking and hiking trails are never far away.

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