Yahoo rescinds "Work at Home"

Since Marissa Mayer was recently hired as the chief executive officer to try to revive Yahoo, she has apparently been reverting to more traditional business practices.  Both Yahoo and her former employer, Google had established policies of certain people being able to work from home.  However after taking over at Yahoo, Mayer has rescinded the work at home policy at Yahoo, and is now requiring employees to work together in a more collaborative environment.  The current thinking is along the lines of, "People who work at home are said to be more productive but less innovative".
Silicon valley innovations like instant messaging and video conferencing have made working remotely much more available and acceptable today, however Yahoo feels that working in the same location drives innovation.  The standard Silicon Valley perks still are abundant, such as free cafeterias, gyms, shuttle buses, ice cream, and dry cleaners not only are employee perks, but also help to keep the employees on campus during the day, and promote interaction between co-workers. 
Bank of America is another company that is curtailing working at home, and is reducing to a small number the number of remote jobs.
What is ironic is that just yesterday, the news mentioned that Marissa Mayer was having a nursery built at her Yahoo office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/technology/yahoo-orders-home-workers-back-to-the-office.html?hpw

COSTCO is coming to France

The U.S. distribution's giant - COSTCO - wants to open 15 of its hypermarkets in France. Stores are planned in Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice, Bordeaux and Paris.

It has been quite a while ago the French supermarkets had experienced such an event. For the first time in last two decades, a giant Anglo-Saxon prepares to challenge the ultra-powerful "locals" (Auchan, Carrefour, Leclerc) on their own land. The COSTCO - number 3 in the USA, with its &97 billion in revenue and &1.7 billion of net income - has such an ambitious development plan, which, however, is still waiting for the green light from local authorities.

"Over the next 5 or 10 years, we hope to be present in a dozen cities", says Gary Swindells, CEO of COSTCO France.

However, this is not going to be easy to reproduce this COSTCO low-cost model in France. Based on the principle of club membership, COSTCO offers its customers the possibility to purchase wholesale at unbeatable prices. Its gross margin never exceeded 15%, while that of the French retailers varies between 23% and 30%. At COSTCO store, to attract richer clients, luxury goods are sold off - the phenomenon never seen in France.

The company will, thus, have to overcome many obstacles before becoming powerful across the Atlantic. The Raffarin's Law (former French Prime Minister) makes it very difficult to open new hypermarkets in France, especially in the food sector.

"In Canada, we decided to open a store in February and it opened in November. In France, the standard lapse of time is situated between 24 and 30 months", says Gary Swindells.

Also, COSTCO will not be able to sell that many items as in the U.S. Luxury brands have signed a fairly strict "selective distribution" contracts, and it seems impossible that COSTCO can sell Chanel or Guerlain perfumes in its stores in France, as it does in America. It will also be impossible to sell at a loss, what happens on rare occasions in New York.



Indictments Linked to 2009 Salmonella Outbreak

According to the New York Times four new workers at a peanut manufacturing plant have been linked to the 09 salmonella outbreak and are being charged with plotting to produce, then release to the public salmonella tainted peanuts.  In 2009 the outbreak killed nine and sickened hundreds, which sparked one of the largest product recall in the nations history.  These four individuals were indicted by a federal grand jury in Georgia, which is an extremely rare move when it comes to food related products.  Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell, brother Michael Parnell, Georgia plant manager Samuel Lightsey, and quality assurance manager Mary Wilkerson all face a combined 76 count indictment in a federal court in Georgia.  Charges range from introduction of adulterated and misbranded food into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead to conspiracy, which alone holds a maximum of 20 years in prison.   Tainted food cases in court are becoming more widespread as companies expand to more locations.  This case is rare because criminal cases are rare in food outbreaks because they are hard to prove and even harder to get a confession out of the guilty parties acknowledging their mistakes.  New York Times Article

Bowman vs Monsanto

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing the case Bowman vs Monsanto to determine whether the patent of a replicable good also extends to future generations of that good. Elements are contract law are visited, however, this case specifically delves into the jurisdiction of federal intellectual property laws. While the idea and use of patents dates back to the early kings and queens of England, the initial U.S. patent law was instated in the Patent Act of 1790 and has been modified multiple times since.

The issue at hand is to determine whether farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman, 75, of Indiana, can grow Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" genetically modified soybeans without contracting with Monsanto. Monsanto sold its beans to farmers with a contractual agreement for farmers to not save seeds; thus requiring farmers to contract with Monsanto for every crop cycle.

Bowman argues that he legally obtained the soybeans from a mix of beans generally used for feed and industrial uses. However, Bowman then treated all of the beans acquired with Roundup herbicide to kill off any unmodified beans after planting, and saved the beans from the plants that grew. Bowman was therefore able to grow and sell crops solely made of Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans without compensation to Monsanto.

Monsanto argues Bowman not only find a way around contracting for the beans, but also intentionally violated intellectual property law as well, claiming future generations of Roundup Ready soybeans are included with their patent.

New York Times Article

Class Reflection

Now that the semester is over I would like to say how much I enjoyed this class and how sad I am that it is over. I always looked forward to going to this class and loved my classmates. We were a group of talkative and interesting people that made  it that much better. By the end I think we were all comfortable enough with each other that we didn’t care about getting up in front of the class and making fools of ourselves. I wish more classes were like this one. I was never bored and learned something new almost every class.

1) Episteme: I felt we learned quite a bit in this category. Out of these four I feel this aspect lacked the most. In the beginning we started out strong in this subject learning about the constitution and the separation of powers but we slowly moved away from this to focus on the other categories . I’ve also been in your other two law classes where we spend most of class on this subject so maybe that’s why I feel that way.

2) Techne- This played an important part in our class time. We had to work hard together to stray productive and try to keep ahead of the other groups in the nation state game. The class as a whole also worked as a group learning from each other’s experience as we went through the different laws and social problems.

3) Phronesis: Social skills played the largest role in this class because we were always interacting with each other. We first had to learn to w0rk together with our groups then how to work together with other groups. I very much enjoyed the videos we watched in class that taught me many things I had never known before about human emotion. I gained the most in this aspect. I have never been good at getting up and taking in front of a group of people and usually get really anxious.  By the midterm in this class I was able to get up and give a speech and then again in the final get up and dance without feeling nervous. That was something I’ve never experienced before.

4) Metis: Metis was very important in the nation states game. It was needed to know which move would keep you from being attacked or how to get some low points from Andrew or resources from another country. One example was baking cookies and brownies that persuaded Andrew to give us 100,000 law points.

Thank you Prof. Ellerman for another semester of fun! I hope to see you in future semesters!

As I write this final blog I want to say I had a great time and worked with a good group of people.  I really enjoyed Professor Ellerman's class and can honestly say I have never experienced a college class like this one.  So as I reflect on what I took away from this learning experience and am glad I took this educational ride.

I will do my best on reflecting what this class taught me using the four definitions the Greek's used to define knowledge.

1) Episteme:  I love what this means because I love both science and the law and really enjoyed studying the United States Constitution - which more of us should really read.  I like the discussions regarding a states rights vs. the federal government and how important this separation of powers is to all of us.  Reading the New York Times and discussing current stories that effect us all was a big plus to me.  How many of us, outside a class like this,  really debate the issues of today in any great depth.

2) Techne:  This area was much more out of my knowledge base and was quite difficult at first.  I have never written on a blog or facebook for that matter, but I did learn something knew.  I really appreciated the help from other younger and more technological savy group members, and thank them all for their patience and advise in this area.  Although I struggled with it I feel it is a necessary evil to make this class work.

3) Phronesis:  When it comes to emotional and social skills this is an area I feel comfortable with and really enjoyed watching the emotional life in class.  Some of the stories went on too long and should have been shortened, but overall I liked it.  We as people and a society need to learn better ways to communicate in both our personal lives and professional ones.  Most of us have a story involving a difficult working relationship with a fellow co-worker or boss and would really benefit from some sound advise in how to resolve our differences - with out all the drama!

4) Metis:  I guess the cunning and savvy this class represented was in our Nation Game and how we all had to compete against each other for resources and points.  This part of the class was definitely the funnest part of all for me.  Writing the laws for our nation of Arethusa was a challenge, but informative as well.  My only complaint is that I felt we had to write too many of them.  At times these laws became quite redundant and maybe this is part of the problem in the U.S. today.  Laws are an important part of a civil society when they improve our lives, but a liability when they restrict our freedoms and choices as citizens.

I leave this class wanting to learn more about the laws of our society and how I as a citizen can improve not just my life, but the lives of my fellow citizens.  I think you did pretty good Professor Ellerman.

Our National Anthem

The Hero of Arethusa

After the turn of the century
In the clear blue skies over Cerebria
Came a roar and a thunder men had never heard
Like the scream and the sound of a big war bird
Up in the sky, a man in a plane
Baron von Jeffery was his name
Eighty men tried, and eighty men died
Now they're buried together on the countryside

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Mighty Green Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Mighty Green Baron of Cerebria

In the nick of time, a hero of Arethusa arose
A funny-looking dog with a big black nose
He flew into the sky to seek revenge
But the Baron shot him down--"Curses, foiled again!"

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Mighty Green Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Mighty Green Baron of Cerebria

Now, Snoopy had sworn that he'd get that man
So he asked the Great Council for a new battle plan
He challenged the Cerebrian to a real dogfight
While the Baron was laughing, he got him in his sight

That Mighty Green Baron was in a fix
He'd tried everything, but he'd run out of tricks
Snoopy fired once, and he fired twice
And that Mighty Green Baron went spinning out of sight

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Mighty Green Baron was defeated for
The Great Arethusa by the dog Snoopy

Our Victorious Country was finally free


Our recording of the anthem that we played in class was too big of a file to let me upload on here and my internet sucks so it would have taken way to long to upload to youtube. Here is the original music video of the above song we modified.