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Urban farming in the US: Breaching the urban-rural divide

Lucy Wallwork Waste Management & Environmental

Farming is one of the oldest professions there is. But as society has urbanized, we have gradually lost our connection with the industry that puts food on our plates. One jarring survey in the U.K. found that nearly 1 in 10 elementary school children think that tomatoes grow under the ground. In parallel with urbanization has come the severing of our relationship with the people and land that grows our food. But now we are hearing that a new urban revolution in food is apparently sweeping through our city centers… so, can urban farming change our relationship with food?

Sears continues to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic

Linda Popky Retail

Sears Roebuck, the embattled retail giant, recently unveiled a new logo designed to broaden its appeal to its core consumers. Unfortunately, what Sears had intended to appear as a combination of home and heart looks amazingly like the Airbnb logo. We can wonder why no one involved with what was likely an extremely expensive redesign process thought to look and make sure the logo was unique, but there’s a bigger question: Why on earth is Sears redoing its logo now anyway?

How VMware practices inclusion from the top

Simma Lieberman Business Management, Services & Risk Management

I've been working with leaders in organizations of all sizes to build inclusive cultures that last, from startup to scale, for over 25 years. I've seen leaders and companies come and go. So, I'm a bit skeptical when I hear an executive talk about how inclusive their organization is, how much they love diversity, and everything they're doing to promote equity, and then everyone looks alike, sounds alike and lawsuits are piling up. But two events made me think that maybe VMware is different.

Voice is the next step for smart policing

Bambi Majumdar Law Enforcement, Defense & Security

The annual Role of Technology in Law Enforcement Paperwork report is quite an eye opener. It shows how police officers are spending a lot of their time on paperwork and reporting, which prevents them from tackling cases or combating crime. It is no wonder that a vast majority want their departments to invest in smarter tools to help with incident reporting. The present systems are too slow and cumbersome and documentation processes are quite inefficient. One technology that can significantly help in this regard is voice.

Amazon set to descend on Lakeland, Florida, bringing jobs and planes

Matt Falcus Transportation Technology & Automotive

Lakeland’s Linder Airport in central Florida will soon be the focus of large cargo jets and thousands of extra workers after a deal to bring a new Amazon air cargo facility was approved. While the roar of the Blue Eagles and historic piston aircraft at this year’s Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In and Expo were still entertaining the crowds at the airport, the deal to bring Amazon in was entering its final stages.

The thrills and spills of e-scooters create a safety debate

Ryan Clark Transportation Technology & Automotive

My co-worker and I stood staring transfixed at the Bird e-scooter. It had been decided that if I were to write about the safety of these things, I’d have to at least ride one. I wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to do it. Images of my broken and balled up body weighed heavy on my mind. I remember asking, "Are these things even safe?" And as if answered by the universe, a young woman, wearing sun shades and earbuds — stone deaf and blind to the world — floated down the street in front of us on an e-scooter. Travelling at the speed of “whatever dude” she coasted by at 10 mph, in the middle of the street, with a caravan of irritated drivers honking their horns behind her.

What’s your office’s air pollution level?

Lisa Mulcahy Facilities & Grounds

You probably figure you don't need to worry about air pollution unless you're sitting in traffic. Think again — the way you go about daily tasks in your office can actually create unhealthy levels of harmful air, putting you and your team at risk for respiratory diseases and other health issues. What can you do to stop the problem?

Infographic: How to make your life easier with automation

Safiyyah Bazemore Science & Technology

With limited time and a seemingly endless list of things to do, how can we hope to get everything done without losing our minds in the process? That’s where automation comes in. Automation, which allows you to "set and forget" a process or technology to get tasks done for you, can free up precious time by handling mundane activities that still have to get done. For example, you can automate your finances to pay down debt, make shopping a breeze by signing up for automatic grocery delivery, and set up auto-responders to keep your inbox free of clutter.

Pew report: Provider demand for accurate patient matching is high

Scott E. Rupp Healthcare Administration

The Pew Charitable Trusts is concerned with the ability to accurately match patients to their health records. According to healthcare providers surveyed, match rates are "far below the desired level for effective data exchange," said researchers at Pew, which collaborated with eHealth Collaborative on the report. Patient matching is the comparing of data from different health IT systems to verify if data sources match and belong to the same patient. Matching data completes the patient’s health history and medical care record. If data matches, that patient’s records are combined to eliminate duplication and confusion.

Newly approved device to help increase access to suitable lungs for transplant

Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied Healthcare

On April 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new device that may increase access to more lungs for transplant. The new Xvivo Perfusion System (XPS) is a type of ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) therapy, which can temporarily ventilate and pump preservation solution through lungs. The process can increase the percentage of lung transplants by allowing transplant teams to identify better quality lung grafts that would have been otherwise rejected for transplantation in the past.

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