On Yelp, Doctors Get Reviewed Like Restaurants — And It Rankles

(8/6/2015) Do you have an experience waiting at a doctor's office for more than a hour? And when the doctor comes and apologizes, all you can say is "It's OK, I understand" because you cannot leave without their treatment? Hospital's waiting line management is probably one of the worst if patients do have a chance to rank. Now people can go to Yelp to complain about it. To some degree, I would agree with one doctor's comment "ranking on doctor's waiting line management, but not on how doctors treat patients professionally."

However, knowing how a waiting line system is mostly influenced by service time uncertainty (the time spent on a patient can varies from several minutes to several hours, which is mostly beyond doctor's control and cause a wide range variation) in healthcare, I also understand the improvement won't be easy. It's very unlikely that we can educate patients to understand the complexity of a waiting line system (most OM/SCM programs don't even cover in their undergraduate curriculum), so it's administrator's responsibility to make it right.

It Took A Musician's Ear To Decode The Complex Song In Whale Calls

(8/6/2015) I heard this touching story of whale's singing from NPR today. I am surprised to hear that scientists use 'data analytics' to decode the song of humpback whales's singing. You will see 'visual representations' used in her methodology in decoding whales' songs. Not only that, scientist Payne found the whales' song evolved over time. "But over time, some parts of a group's song gradually change, too — in rhythm, pitch and duration — as the whales listen to each other, and together take up variations that eventually become a new tune."

Morning Edition's audio file

Jeep Cherokee Owners File Lawsuit Against Fiat Chrysler, Harman After Hackers Wirelessly Hijack Vehicle

(8/5/2015) This is one of times that "less is more." High-tech cars now are subject to WiFi hijack.

No WiFi technology in the car, please. I don't even want those technology package or upgrade at all. More technologies in the car, more mechanical problems will send the car to the repair shop.