Even folks in the U.K. are impressed by the size of our big brains. Which inspires one to ask: Does it also mean we also have big heads? Excerpt: Move over East Coast elite! Ann Arbor is America's most educated city but New York doesn't even make the top 50, study says: -The Michigan city is number one among the nation's 150 largest metro areas, according to Wallet Hub -The study analyzed nine metrics including number of workers in tech and science, quality/size of a city's universities and educational attainment -Ann Arbor was followed by Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina; Provo, Utah; Provo, Utah; Manchester, New Hamphsire Read the rest here.

Dave Gallinat has possessed two things for a long time: a desire to open his own restaurant and "plaidmelon" as an online nickname. Beginning on Sept. 17, those two facts took on a new meaning with the opening of Plaid Melon Cafe in Chelsea.  "My wife worked in Chelsea for a number of years, so we were hanging around here a lot," says Gallinat, a resident of Manchester. "I saw a need for a breakfast place downtown - both breakfast and lunch, and I like Chelsea." When he saw a 2,200 square foot storefront become available on Main St., he knew it was the right place to realize his dream. Plaid Melon Cafe focuses on quality ingredients, unique menu item and food made carefully and to order.  "If you order the omelet, we're cracking the eggs," Gallinat says. "Our bread is coming from Stone Hearth down in Brooklyn, and there's no junk in it. I'm trying use good stuff. It takes a bit longer, but my omelets are a bit fluffier." Gallinat operates the restaurant with a staff of six, and, with his son helping out and wife in charge of his graphic design and website, is building Plaid Melon Cafe to be a family business. ? Source: Dave Gallinat, Plaid Melon Writer: Natalie Burg

Visible Learning Center is just a few weeks old, but the family who opened the new Ypsilanti childcare and education facility has decades of experience in the business. Hanan Dari co-owns the center with her father, Hisham Dari who has been in the childcare business for 21 years in Ann Arbor. When it came to opening a facility together, however, Ypsilanti just made sense.  "We'd get phone calls from families who needed care, and there is a lot of care available in Ann Arbor," says Hanan Dari. "We wanted to expand in Ypsilanti because there is more need for care there."  The 4,500 square foot Visible Learning Center opened on Sept. 15. In addition to childcare, children participate in a creative curriculum and assessments from birth to five years old. The center also offers expanded hours in the evenings to cater to families with non-traditional schedules.  "A lot of families need to have evening care to finish their education," Dari says. "Some don't finish their bachelors or masters because they work in the morning and they don't have care at night when they would go to class." Visible Learning Center accepts children from infancy to 12 years old, and has the capacity to care for up to 74 children. Dari says she hopes to continue to grow the facility and perhaps eventually open multiple locations. ? Source: Hanan Dari, Visible Learning Center Writer: Natalie Burg

Hannigan Insurance is consolidating its operations into a new office in Ann Arbor, a move that is bringing a handful of new jobs to Tree Town  - with the promise to create dozens more in the next few years. Hannigan Insurance is both a technology company and national insurance brokerage. Its web-based distribution platform provides insurance options for people who are looking for everything from automotive insurance to renters insurance. The platform also offers similar services in the financial industry. Because the company is primarily doing online work, it meant positioning itself for growth by setting up show where knowledge workers want to live and work. "For us it’s all about attracting top talent," says Brian Hannigan, CEO of Hannigan Insurance. Hannigan Insurance has offices in Clinton Township and Ann Arbor. It employs five at each office. It has hired four people over the last year, primarily insurance agents. "We wanted to pick a spot," Hannigan says. "We looked at spots like Royal Oak, Birmingham, and downtown Detroit. We already had a facility in Ann Arbor and choose to consolidate there." Hannigan Insurance is looking to go through a period of fast growth over the next few years. It’s opening an customer retention and acquisition center in Ann Arbor in November that will provide space for it grow to from 10 people to 25 before the end of the year. It currently has 15 open positions for insurance agents and software developers. "We have a three-year plan to scale up to 75 jobs," Hannigan says. "We're going to grow rather quickly." The Michigan Economic Development Corp is providing Hannigan Insurance with a $400,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant to execute the move. Ann Arbor SPARK also helped broker the deal. Source: Brian Hannigan, CEO of Hannigan Insurance Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

A recent University of Michigan graduate is creating a new video game, and it stars a "Happy Dude." What exactly the Happy Dude in Black-White Game is is still up for debate. It’s a small white character going through a Super Mario Brothers-like game made up of black, white, and grey scenes. This much is known, the main character is small and happy. "He is sort of a block with legs," says Paul Nagel, creator of Black-White Game. "He is of his own species. He's not a marshmallow or a tooth. He is just a happy little dude." Nagel, who also goes by the alias James Covenant, graduated from the University of Michigan earlier this year with a bachelors degree in industrial engineering. He is currently working at the university as a video editor while working to create Black-White game. "We have a lot of the mechanics down, general story outline," Nagel says. "If we had the funding now we would ship it a year from now." Nagel describes the game on its Facebook page as, "Black-White is a puzzle platform video game for PC/Mac/Linux. You must invert Happy Dude's color from black to white to solve challenging puzzles." So the Happy Dude can change colors which will allow the protagonist to make his way through different levels. Check out a demo of the game here. "When you're playing it it's very intuitive," Nagel says. "It makes a lot of sense." Nagel plans to launch the Black-White Game for laptop next year. He is working to launch a crowd-funding campaign for the video game later this fall. Source: Paul Nagel, creator of Black-White Game Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Josh Ross is starting his career by combining the two main subjects he studied in college, business and music. Ross graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelors degrees in both business administration and music earlier this year. So he launched the J-RO School of Music, a new business that teaches young people about music by using both classical and contemporary examples. "Everyone teaches classical," says Josh Ross, founder of J-RO School of Music. "That's great but if someone wants to learn about pop or hip-hop there aren’t many places that do it." The idea is to swim with the current when it comes to teaching young people about music by teaching them fundamentals for songs they are already excited about. Ross does camps and workshops that put equal emphasis on contemporary music, like pop, rock, musical theater, and hip-hop, and classical music. "What's great about it is the kids are familiar with the songs and then they want to learn how to play them," Ross says. The J-RO School of Music has facilitated 50 students so far this year. The students have ranged in ages from 7 to 70-years-old. Ross, who is releasing his own acoustic rock album this fall, would like to up those numbers beyond 100 and open his own storefront for the company over the next year. He hopes to use the base of that business to do more community outreach so underprivileged kids can have equal access to music education. "I want to make it sustainable so I can provide some programs for children who don’t have those opportunities," Ross says. Source: Josh Ross, founder of J-RO School of Music Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

With high scores in academic environment, good scores in quality of life and, well, less than good scores in professional opportunities, Ann Arbor still manged to take second place, sandwiched between Boulder, CO and Madison, WI. Excerpt: "The “college experience” is about more than simply attending a top-notch university. The city or town where the school is located also is important. The people students meet, the places they go, and the jobs they may hold are essential supplements to formal education." Check out the rankings here.

What we at Concentrate love almost as much as a story about a local musician developing technology to help his fellow artists is that this U.K. publication considers Ann Arbor part of Detroit. Yay regionalization! That's the spirit! Excerpt: "The dad-of-two, who now splits his time between visiting his children in Preston and Ann Arbour in Detroit, has performed in front of 25,000 people at Ewood Park after winning the Rock FM Rock Idol competition back in 2002. However, part of the ?reason for him developing the app was to allow musicians to have their music discovered without relying on radio play." Read the rest here.

Having gallons of pure, authentic Greek extra virgin olive oil around the house never seemed out of place for Grigorios Stamatopoulos, whose family has been farming olives and making oil for centuries in Greece. After bringing over an extra large supply and sharing it with some friends, however, he realized just how rare such high quality olive oil was to others.  "They said that there was something different about my olive oil," Stamatopoulos says. "They thought I should start selling it." A few years later, he began to do just that. His family in Greece began supplying him with the oil, and after bottling it, he began to sell it at a farmers market in Pittsfield Twp. After finding success there, he had market managers from all over the area approaching him to be a part of their market as well.  While he will continue to offer his Stamatopoulos and Sons olive oil at area markets, that demand inspired him to look for a more permanent place to sell his products. In a couple of weeks, Colonnade Mall on E. Eisenhower will become that place as the first Stamatopoulos and Sons store opens in a 1,700 square foot space.  "My goal in the beginning was just to raise awareness that in order to get the good stuff you have to know where it comes from," says Stamatopoulos. But people wanted to know where they could get this olive oil all the time." What makes his olive oil different, he says, is it's purity. Accoriding to Stamatopoulos, so much of what is sold as extra virgin olive oil in stores are in fact olive oil blends, some of which aren't actually extra virgin. His oil, coming from his family's farm in Greece, is superior in a way people can taste.  Stamatopoulos will offer a variety of olive oils in his store, at which he plans to employ a staff of five. He hopes to continue to grow his wholesale operations as he becomes established in retail as well.  Source: Grigorios Stamatopoulos, Stamatopoulos and Sons Writer: Natalie Burg