2MERRILL

Winners of the recession

Winners of the recessionis good reading to see how some businesses benefit from the downward economy. There always is a silver lining for people who choose to look past the doom and gloom and find one," says Robyn Feldberg, president of the National Résumé Writers' Association. Beyond resumes, everyone should write to expand their thoughts and thinking. 

DELL CELEBRATES WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD

Dell celebrates women around the world is a great lead from a US corporate company.  It also shows the power of a corporate blog to dessiminate information and receive comments as well. Blog it UNICEF is worth a review.

WHAT'S GOOD BEFORE AN MBA?

If You Know You'll Get an MBA it could make sense to get a degree in the sciences or humanities first says Geoff Gloeckler.  Even if you missed out on a liberal arts education at the undergraduate level you can still take some humanities and economics at the graduate level as well. Some extra months taking extra courses could also be considered good continuing education.  It is never too late to catch up. You may never want to forsake attending the self-taught university in your very own study.  However, getting tested proves competency.

QUESTIONS AS POWERFUL STABILIZERS

Research shows that the most powerful way to learn new information is to convert it into Questions and Answers. 

LOST LUGGAGE

Missing luggage will cost the airline industry $2.5 billion in the 2006 jet set. So about 1% of airline baggage will go astray, and for every one million bags handled 68 bags will be lost for good. With 3 billion airline bags expected to be checked in 2006 then 204,000 bags will be lost or stolen for good. 

What bothers me is why the airline industry could not use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags on airline baggage so that nothing will go a miss. Retailers are using RFID to great advantage, so why not the airline?  The advantage of RFID is that it could store passenger information limiting loss by baggage mix-up. The other racket is that in some developing countries, some passengers can walk away with a foreigners suitcase instead of their own. While paper tags can easily be made, a RFID tag can prevent such a racket. You even have to watch out for luggage been stolen from a hotel lobby. Perhaps, RFID tags can monitor a piece of luggage beyond the airport and aircraft as well. For more information on the RFID debate, also see the RFID Journal.

PS: I am not an engineer by any means. So if a scientist or engineer can add a comment on the feasibility of using RFID's for airline luggage check-in, please do so.

LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION

March 1-2, 2006, was the seventh year marking the annual Humanities Advocacy Day, which promotes federal support for scholarly research, education, and public programs in humanities, otherwise known as the liberal arts. During these two days, scholars, librarians, museum officials and other intellectuals from across the US are gathering in Washington D.C. to reiterate to government policy-makers of the public value of the humanities. Has a liberal arts education any value to society?