Recent Articles
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Machines serving people: A continuous debate
Linchi Kwok Travel, Hospitality & Event ManagementEvery time when a machine replaced labors in an assembly line, we gave a big round of applause. Now, when machines are replacing the service staff in hotels, shall we make a big toast to celebrate a new revolution? Or shall we mark it the beginning of "the end of humanized service" in the hospitality industry? As customers, we probably have had enough negative experience with those automatic services provided by machines, such as calling the cable or telephone companies. Now that Starwood is introducing a "Botlr," or robotic butler to the Aloft Hotels, will the hospitality industry follow the same path of other businesses, offering more "cold" automatic services?
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Design insights for more livable kitchens
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesKitchen renovations top the list of home remodeling projects, and for good reason. The kitchen is the hub of the household, the place where families and friends come together, the place where meals are transformed into wonderful memories of tempting aromas and tasty, comforting cuisine. Above all, though, the kitchen is a work space.
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Are you at the wrong end of the value chain?
Adrian Davis Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementIn the past, the secret to success was economies of scale. This is no longer true. We see large companies collapse. No one is safe. Every organization — no matter how large — began as an idea. Then, organizations go through five stages of maturity.
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Recess redress: The importance of play in education
Suzanne Mason EducationAsk any child what his or her favorite subject is in school, and most will say recess. Yet a 2010 Gallup poll conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that up to 40 percent of U.S. school districts have reduced or eliminated recess to focus more on academics. Despite these changes, recess still remains an important part of a child’s education. Here's how.
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Pros and cons of the wadcutter bullet
John McAdams Recreation & LeisureThis article discusses a relatively uncommon bullet type: the wadcutter. Though the wadcutter is not extremely rare, it is still a relatively specialized bullet type that is only utilized in a few different cartridges. Like most highly specialized bullets, the wadcutter is great at the job it was designed for: competitive shooting. However, it struggles in applications outside of its primary use.
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Just how serious is the tech world about diversity?
Ross Lancaster Science & TechnologyThis summer, Silicon Valley companies and the tech world at large have come under fire for their hiring practices with regard to both racial and gender diversity. The issue ignited in May when, under pressure from civil rights leaders like Jesse Jackson, Google released statistics stating that just 17 percent of its tech staff is female, 1 percent black and 2 percent Hispanic. Meanwhile, 60 percent are white and 34 percent Asian.
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How the Affordable Care Act is changing emergency medicine
Stephanie McKenzie Healthcare AdministrationThe Affordable Care Act is affecting all areas of medicine, and emergency room care is no exception. The way emergency medicine and particularly payments are handled is changing with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Here is what you need to know about the changes and how they may affect your practice.
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QZAB: The secret funding resource for superintendents
Art Stellar EducationThe Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZAB) program has been in existence for 15 years, yet most superintendents know little about it. Therefore, in some states these bond funds go unused year after year until they run out of time and essentially evaporate.
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Pitfalls in logistics partnerships
Ken Ackerman Distribution & WarehousingFour decades have passed since a logistics magazine published an article about how the relationship between the public warehouse operator and the customer should be one of partnership. In the next issue of the magazine, a letter to the editor contained an angry response for the author, a logistics service provider.
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An army of robots fighting corrosion
Alan Kelsky EngineeringRobots are not new in the never-ending battle against corrosion. Perhaps, the news blitz about C2D2 is because the corrosion-fighting robot design was from a camera bot used by the Disney Company. Here is a look at a few places other robots dare to go.