The USA Today just ran an article on the annual cost of operating an average automobile for 2012 driving 15,000 miles. (Larry Copeland, April 16, 2013). The article had a couple of very interesting quotes: “The biggest percentage increase this year was in maintenance costs, which grew by 11.26% to 4.97 cents per mile, on average, for sedan owners.” “The maintenance cost estimates are based on the cost to maintain a vehicle and perform needed repairs for five years and 75,000 miles, including labor expenses, replacement part prices and the purchase of an extended warranty.” “Since last year's study, there...
In my last blog, I presented some of the financial findings in the Center for Green Schools report. There was an additional article published in the LA times focusing on the school conditions in LA compared to the report. You can find the article at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0313-lopez-disrepair-20130313,0,7138841.column?page=1 (it is a two page article – so don’t overlook the second page) It is interesting to consider that the school district there has over 35,000 work orders in its backlog. Maintenance personnel are referred to as “triage doctors” – I wonder if that is the same as the more common terms such as...
Last week, (March 12th to be specific), the Associated Press published an article based on a startling report by the Center for Green Schools. In case you missed the article, it stated the following about US school (K-12) buildings: It would take $270B to bring existing school buildings back to their original condition It would take $542B to update and modernize the same buildings The same report highlights the fact that in 1995 a similar study was published, showing that it would have taken $112B to restore existing buildings (at that time). So, despite having this information about building deficiencies,...
The February 2, 2013 issue of the New York Times carried an article “Raging (Again) Against the Robots”. This article again highlights some of the issues that were raised in my last few blogs; (re)Training the workforce and jobs. The article highlighted several points from the book “Race against the Machine” (another of my recommended reads – the Amazon Kindle version is very economical). There are several great points made in the NYT article and the textbook. One in particular was “If a job can be reduced to an algorithm, it will be”. Both the article and the book point...
When was the last time you read about someone from your local school district tour an industrial facility? When was the last time a local school official, such as a school board member, a principal, or a superintendent visited your plant or facility? When was the last time that one of these officials reached out to your company in an attempt to understand what skills your company’s employees need to be successful? If your answer is “a long time”, then how can they produce a graduate that is “employable”? Let’s put this in a different context. What if a company...
There was a great article in the New York Times on 12/25/2012. The article was titled “Pay in Oil Fields, Not College, Is Luring Youths in Montana”. It was written by Jack Healy. My thoughts were deeper than the article’s reporting on the employment boom in Montana; they were about the push and shove that is going on between the educational system and industry today. The background on the situation is the fracking going on in Montana has created a growing job market for skill trades personnel to support the assets/ equipment that is being deployed. The article pointed out...
