Ever wonder how NASA and its affiliates generate publicity for their missions?  They work hard at it.  The link is to an article that details the Pluto flyby mission, which went off so successfully this past July.  It turned out to be a multi-day media event that required plenty of logistics, press access to the scientists, conferences, […]

Posted on September 21st, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 47 Comments »

The global financial community has been involved in a guessing game.  The sport?  When the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates from the near-zero level where they are today.  Yesterday was the latest iteration of the game and once again, the Fed blinked and left rates alone.  This means the sport will last months longer […]

Posted on September 18th, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 181 Comments »

More than sparking sales, McDonald’s needs to rebuild its relationship with its franchisees.  They are hurting and as a result, their view of corporate is negative.  McDonald’s can’t afford to go to war with its franchisees.  What it needs to do is to listen to them closely then decide what to do to regain growth. […]

Posted on September 17th, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 189 Comments »

Google Books started out as a generous and innovative idea.  Google wanted to scan all of the books in the world and make them available online.  Then, it ran afoul of authors and publishers who didn’t want their works made available free when there was still a chance of remuneration.  Since then, Google Books has […]

Posted on September 16th, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 217 Comments »

As this article points out, the cost of healing or delaying fatal symptoms in healthcare is hard to determine and fraught with cost-benefit calculations.  If the only regimen is a high-priced medicine for a particular condition, health care providers have to hold their breath and pay.  They can scream later to the government that it […]

Posted on September 15th, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 179 Comments »

Collegiate rankings are a much fought-over area of education, and as the White House discovered, it is best not to do them.  The reasons are clear.  Using a single measurement ignores multiple outcomes.  It is poor PR to proclaim rankings on the basis of one or even two measurements.  The publicity factor is high, of […]

Posted on September 14th, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 174 Comments »

News has come out of a flaw in General Motors’ OnStar GPS and communications system for vehicles.  It turns out that five years ago, university researchers demonstrated a software hack of OnStar that would allow someone to take over control of a car except for steering.  GM did nothing about it until this year.  Apparently, […]

Posted on September 11th, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 183 Comments »

Book stores were among the first businesses to be affected by the internet and it hasn’t changed.  Try as they might, bookstore chains haven’t found the key to unlock increasing sales.  The public has found other means, such as Amazon, to buy books.  This raises the question of whether it is time for the mass […]

Posted on September 10th, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 162 Comments »

University of Utah health Care is pioneering cost accounting in health care and in the process is controlling expenses as it has never done before.  Traditionally, cost accounting was reserved for manufacturing where stop watches and minutely examined activity were the norm.  University of Utah Health Care has brought that standard to medicine, something that needed to […]

Posted on September 9th, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 46 Comments »

In the migrant crisis enveloping Europe, Germany has stepped up more than any other country in taking refugees in.  It will absorb 800,000 this year, and it claims it can handle 500,000 a year for several years more.  This is a river of humanity entering a country that historically was standoffish.  The numbers will change the culture of Germany […]

Posted on September 8th, 2015 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 180 Comments »