Remember that article we ran in July entitled, "5 New Places to Advertise"? Well, in the article we mentioned that airplanes from America West and U.S. Airways featured advertisements displayed on the tray tables. This article from the   International Herald Tribune  says the European airline Ryanair has taken things a step further by installing advertising panels on the covers of the overhead luggage compartments. Ryanair also places ads on the backs of the seats.

After July's study showing first-born children have slightly higher IQs, USA Today wanted to know if birth order had any relation to the business world. So it asked Vistage, the world's largest CEO organization, to survey its membership and it received 1,582 responses from CEOs. It turns out their hunch was right: 43 percent were born first, 23 percent born last and 33 percent were somewhere in the middle. USA Today also surveyed 155 CEOs on its own panel, of which 59 percent were first born, 18 percent were the youngest and 23 percent fell in the middle.

The findings don't come as much of a surprise to those who study birth order or psychology: First-born children tend to feel more pressure from their parents to succeed and are more self-reliant because they have to be independent and care for younger siblings at a young age. Of course, just because they tend to be natural leaders doesn't mean they're good leaders--and I'm sure lots of younger siblings can attest to that.

For more on the topic, including personal stories from CEOs of various birth orders, see USA Today's article .--Francine Kizner

With many schools kicking off their year this week, back-to-school shopping season is in high gear. In addition to other essentials like work supplies and backpacks, new clothes are must-haves for students wanting to make an impression when they go back to school. Yet the top five American cities spending the most per person on children's apparel are not the typical fashion hot spots.

Brookings, Oregon tops the list with $449.69 spent on children's clothes annually per person, according to Pitney Bowes MapInfo, a demographic analysis provider. Following Brookings are Palm Coast, Florida with $361.85, Grants Pass, Oregon with $361.25, Payson, Arizona with $343.73 and Prescott, Arizona with $331.01.

The reason behind such hefty spending in these cities? They all have a large population of older residents; an average of 66 percent of the populations in these cities are made up of residents over 75 and empty-nest couples over 50. It seems there are quite a few spoiled grandchildren out there.--Kevin Manahan

Small-business owners' optimism has declined, reports the August 2007 SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, an economic indicator that tracks the health of U.S. small businesses.

The percentage of owners saying they're optimistic about the economy stood at 80.4 percent in June, fell to 76.6 percent in July and dropped to 69.5 percent last month.

Despite growing pessimism, SurePayroll reported that hiring was up in August and that salaries also increased.

The SurePayroll Hiring Index ended the month at 10,754, a 38-point increase (0.36 percent) from July and the ninth straight month of hiring growth. The SurePayroll Pay Index clocked in at 1,051 at the end of August, up three points (0.28 percent) from the end of July. The average small business salary for the U.S. now stands at an annualized rate of $32,317.

Year to date, small-business hiring is up 3.0 percent, and small-business salaries have increased 3.3 percent.

The SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard is based on payroll records of more than 18,000 companies that use SurePayroll's payroll service. For more details on SurePayroll's analysis, visit SurePayroll's website.