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Reports on family owned businesses in the United States, now numbering two million with revenues over $1 million. Discusses the tax problems family businesses face; `Family dynamics'; Congressional legislation; Several examples of working family businesses and how they operate including Barton Nelson, Inc., Central Freight Lines Inc., and Kohler Co.

Reports on Yvon Chouinard, 50, founder and chairman of Ventura, Calif.-based Lost Arrow Corp., the $67 million (1988 revenues) holding company best known for its rugged and colorful Patagonia line of outdoor gear. Working six months per year; Company history; Chouinard's career.

Examines the secret to staying on the `Forbes' list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America. Also examines the histories of four companies that seem to have found the secret of success. Companies include Paychex Inc., Group 1, a tiny division of Comnet Corp., American List Corp., and Franklin Resources; Strategies; Cliches; Niches; Knowing your management and products before investing.

Examines the many pros and cons behind biotechnology stocks at the moment and includes tips on whether investors should buy or sell. `Potential' aspects of the company; The current biotech market frenzy; Looking back on the history of biotech stocks; What drives market cycles; Historical patterns; Recent biotech waves; Future speculation.

Reports on the successful publishing business of Cliffs Notes, Inc. which summarizes such books as Charles Dickens' `A Tale of Two Cities' for use in studying by high school and college students. Discusses founder Clifton Hillegass, 71, and how he came into the business.

Reports on the valuations of `Time' and `Life' magazines as reported by the `New York Times,' which reflect the shrinking market for such commodities. Discusses the future of newsweekly magazines in a changing marketplace. `Newsweek' and other competitors; Struggle for readers; Advertising.

Profile of Gino Pala, 61, of Vero Beach, Fla.-based Dixon Ticonderoga Co., who began in business as a high school dropout, became a small-time corporate raider and is now a pencil magnate.

Discusses the founders of Rhino Records, Richard Foos, 40, and Harold Bronson, 38, who have made a business out of repackaging oldies rock 'n' roll. How they operate.

Discusses how retirees Hip Siegel and Abe Kaminsky started S&K Famous Brands, a company that sold $75 million worth of heavily discounted menswear from 122 stores in 21 states, mostly in small markets in the Southeast. How the company got started; Success of the stores; Major discounts on suits.

Profiles Douglas Carlston, the founder of Broderbund Software Inc., the hottest name in educational software publishing. What separates Broderbund's computer games from the rest; Worth of Carlston's company stock; Description of the company's product line.

Chronicles the growth of Healthcare Services Group. Chairman and founder, Daniel McCartney; Partner Melvyn Mason's shady past; Healthcare's cash flow decline; Mounting problems with receivables; The problems surrounding the acquisition of American Services Co.; The Securities & Exchange Commission's (SEC) involvement; Predictions.

Relative populations of excited states of He(I) in reduced-pressure ICPs have been shown to obey Fermi-Dirac statistical counting. A single thermodynamic temperature—2000 K—defines the distribution. The experimental relative populations and the Fermi-Dirac distributions agree within fractions of one percent.

Looks at the success of the Tasty Baking Co. during a time when other manufacturers in the snackcake industry are losing business. Tells how the snackcakes are beating out the lighter versions which are more fat-free; Five new products from Tasty to be introduced this year; Follows the business up through the years; Problems with the company and how they were solved.

Uncovers how John W.A. (Doc) Buyers created a success story out of the leveraged takeover of C. Brewer & Co., the world's largest macadamia nut and guava company. How Buyers raised the $189 million acquisition price, plus $8 million in fees; Diversification of the company; Limited partnership; Outlook.

Reports that at a time when many catalog merchants are flagging, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is going strong. Discusses what makes this cataloger so different from all the rest. Marketing strategies; What products are sold through the catalog; Tasteful goods and well-tended mailing lists; Possibilities seem endless.

Profiles Edward Behr, 39, writer, illustrator, and publisher of `The Art of Eating,' a tiny quarterly newsletter. Works from his home in Peacham, Vt.; Former carpenter; Behr's background; Some paid subscribers; How Behr sells his quirky newsletter.

Explores how efficient fish farming techniques at farms such as Sea Farm Canada Inc., have cut the wholesale price of salmon almost in half, to $4 a pound. How the farming process works; How the glut doesn't seem to be hurting the producers; Innovations in the industry.

Reports how Tom Tanis, the 71-year-old business broker who turned high-tech entrepreneur, is learning the hard way that doing business is easy, but making business perform is tougher. Multiplying losses for World-Wide President John Freitag.

Discusses the efforts of two startup American companies to find commercial applications for an obscure technology called meteor-burst communications. Construction of a meteor-burst network by the U.S. Air Force to serve as an emergency backup to satellite communications; Difficulties in finding a meteor trail in the right position to reflect a signal down to the truck; Information on the number of trucks that will get some form of long-range two-way communications by 1995.

Discusses the sales techniques used by salesmen of Craftmatic/Contour Industries Inc. of Trevose, Pa., sellers of the much advertised Craftmatic Adjustable Beds which has signed consent decrees and assurances of voluntary compliance with State andFederal agencies seven times. Chief Executive Stanley Kraftsow; `Upselling' techniques.

Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of buying and using `big iron,' large aircraft, that have been customized, such as Boeing 727s.

Reports on the merger of BellSouth stock and Mobile Telecommunications Technologies, known as Mtel, a grab bag of telecommunications-related businesses and investments run by Chief Executive John Palmer, 55, of Mississippi. Discusses its most promising property, National Satellite Paging, and predictions of enormous growth.

Reports on International Telecharge, Inc., based in Dallas, founded in 1985 by G. Ray Miller and now headed by 47-year-old Edmund Tagg. The company charges twice as much as its competitors for alternative phone services and insiders are selling out.

Reports on the growing number of advertisers who refuse to buy time on such trash television shows as `Geraldo' and `Morton Downey Jr. Show.' Yet the number of such tabloid television shows increases.

Describes the computer accessories catalog business of Inmac Corp. Founder Kenneth Eldred, 45. Quick success for the Santa Clara, Calif., business with no competitors; New pricing now that competition has sprung up.

Discusses Network Equipment Technologies of Redwood City, Calif., which earned $12 million last year helping companies like American Airlines' Sabre reservation service put together its own telephone network and save millions of dollars. Chief executive Bruce Smith, 45.

Reports on Tyco Toys, Inc., and President Richard Grey, who has learned to play hardball in the children's toy industry by copying successful products and winning the resulting lawsuits.

A report on Baldwin Piano and Organ Co. which was going bankrupt as Baldwin-United in 1982 and is now making profits again under Chairman Dick Harrison, 56, and President Harold Smith, 63; Diversification.

Discusses how we are in the midst of a bull market, one so bullish that almost any company, no matter how silly, can be packaged and sold to investors. Market overheated; Caution-to-the-winds investing; Example of Glacier Water Services, Inc.; Investors bidding high for bad stocks.

Profiles Russell Goldsmith, chief executive of Republic Pictures, who has been successful as getting the company to make television productions. Goldsmith demonstrated a skill at packaging and repackaging film assets such as `It's a Wonderful Life.' Other projects; Success of `Bonanza' series; Declining earnings.

Profiles Thomas Reed, a former stockbroker and money manager who founded Vivigen, Inc, the country's largest prenatal testing lab. Reed thinks his profitable little genetic testing lab can continue to prosper by focusing on service and leaving the R&D to others. Wall Street skeptical; Vivigen's problems; Competition from Genzyme Corp.; Risky strategy.

Looks at how Acxiom Corp.'s chief executive, Charles Morgan Jr. runs a highly specialized data processing outfit and races cars in his spare time. Background on Acxiom Corp.; Morgan's past success both in business and on the track; Acxiom's slowdown can be attributed to the weak economy; Morgan's comparison between business and racing; Refocusing attention.

Questions whether Laser Precision can now realize its potential for growth since it has managed to weather a managerial storm that would have sunk most little companies. Background on the origins of Laser Precision; Details of the managerial difficulties; Firings and hirings; Survival due to an excellent product; New chief executive, Fredrick Sehnert; Sehnert's record.

Reports that over the past year, stock prices for `Forbes' 1990 list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America have risen an impressive 75 percent. Advice from Thomas James, chairman and chief executive of Raymond James Financial; James qualifications for dispensing advice; Background; Looks at the performance of small-cap stocks; James' answers to a series of questions concerning small caps; The tremendous international opportunities of telecommunications.

Details the so-called shotgun agreement designed to end the partnership between McCaw Cellular Communications and PacTel Corp., in which one will buy the other's shares of cellular licenses. PacTel owns 61 percent of Bay Area licenses while McCaw owns 33 percent; McCaw's chairman, Craig McCaw; McCaw's crushing debt; PalTec's access to cash; How the situation developed; Prospects.