Hilton ends room service in favor of grab-and-go grub.

The New York Hilton Midtown is the largest hotel in the city, with nearly 2,000 rooms. In August, it will earn another distinction: It will discontinue room service.

The move will eliminate 55 jobs. It could also ignite an industrywide trend. Other hotels, such as the Hudson in New York and the Public in Chicago, are already nibbling at the concept, offering meals delivered in brown paper bags.

It's a cafeteria

The Hilton property on Sixth Avenue, between West 53rd and West 54th streets, will open a downmarket grab-and-go restaurant this summer called Herb n' Kitchen, a cafeteria-style eatery that will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. The plan was announced in October as part of a larger initiative at the hotel chain, which is simplifying its food offerings at Double Tree by Hilton and Embassy Suites as well.

Read more at Crain's 

Jacquelyn Smith, Forbes

We all know that most doctors, lawyers, and CEOs make good money–but you may be surprised to learn that funeral service managers, hot dog vendors, and ice cream testers can also pull in a pretty penny.

To compile our 2013 list of 10 unusual jobs that pay surprisingly well, I combed through BLS data and scanned the pages of Odd Jobs: How to Have Fun and Make Money in a Bad Economy.

Odd Jobs is a book by Abigail Gehring that features over a hundred jobs that don’t require you to sit in an office eight hours a day, five days a week. Gehring has had twenty-four of the jobs listed in her book. Read more at Forbes

According to Newsweek, on average, Americans watch TV more than 5 hours a day. 

Using that as a basis, by the time you’re 80 you will have spent 21% of your adult life, or 4,175 days (nearly 13 years) watching TV.

But….in the last 40 years, the way we watch TV has changed drastically.

In the 1970s and 80s, when you had a favorite TV show you wanted to watch, you had to gather with the family around the TV the night the show was on and watch, and wait until the commercials to run to the bathroom.

When the episode had a really good cliffhanger ending, you had to wait until the next week to see what happened.

These days, you don’t have to do that. 

Today, with:

• DVR’s
• ‘On Demand’ features
• NetFlix
• Roku

….you can watch your favorite shows when you want, on your TV, or on your computer, tablet or smart phone.

So, while the way we watch TV has changed drastically…what has also changed is HOW writers are writing the shows. 

And it’s all geared towards making you ‘BINGE WATCH.’

WHAT IS BINGE WATCHING?

‘Binge watching’ is simple.  It’s defined simply as sitting down and watching several episodes of a particular TV show in a row.

Time Magazine recently described ‘binge watching’ as this:

"You know the feeling. You’re caught up in a TV show—it could be an old favorite, or one that’s totally new to you—and suddenly you want more.  And because you’re watching over the Internet or On Demand, you have entire seasons at your fingertips.

Just one episode”, you tell yourself. Before you know it, fifteen hours have passed, you haven’t showered, and your lap is littered with crumbs."

There are two types of “binge” watching:

• the “marathon binge” (most commonly done with shows that are off the air)
• the “catch-up binge” (in which viewers want to be up-to-date with their favorite still-airing shows)

Experts say we binge watch because it literally feels good.  Watching compelling, shows written to be fast- paced and keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for the result releases endorphins.

According to Andrew Romano of Newsweek, today's most popular shows, think:

• Game of Thrones (HBO)
• Scandal (ABC)
• Dexter (Showtime)
• Homeland (Showtime)
• Walking Dead (AMC)
• House of Cards (Netflix)
• Breaking Bad (AMC)

....are all desgined by people who ask themselves the singular question:

‘How do I get you to watch the next episode’?

To answer that question, they write them specifically to “hook” you by ‘serializing’ them on purpose.

A serialized show is a show where the episodes run in order, each episode is connected to the last, they are not independent of one another.

So, if you miss an episode you usually miss something (sometimes something big) and end up lost the next time you watch.

These shows are designed purposely to be more exciting and more addicting than anything networks have ever produced in the past.

In short, they are designed to be ‘binge-able'.

BRINGING BINGING TO A NEW LEVEL

Netflix is breaking even newer ground in this with "House of Cards", they committed $100 million for two seasons of the show.  That's 26 , hour-long episodes.... before even one was written.

In February, they released the entire first season, 13-episodes all at once, an unprecidented move.

According to Netflix data, thousands of subscribers downloaded and watched all 13 episodes within 15 hours of the release.

And Netflix is poised to do it all again this Memorial Day weekend, with Arrested Development, which will release the entire 4th season, 15 episodes on Sunday.

Cartoon Network's, Stuart Snyder was named the “Most Playful CEO” for 2012 and can be seen most days riding an oversized tricycle around company headquarters.

His employees are encouraged to have just as much fun.

One of the core values of the company Zappos is:

“Create fun and a little weirdness”

Now in its second year under Amazon.com, Zappos and their 3,003 employees maintain its zany culture with thinks like: 

• Their ‘Zfrog awards’, which lets employees pitch new business ideas to management

• on-site, free, "laughter yoga" classes for employees

So…do you have fun at work?

Studies show that workers who have a little fun on the job are: 

• more creative

• more productive

• less stressed out

• more trusting of their employers

• better able to communicate with other employees and management

• Less likely to call in sick

Experts say just look at toddlers.  Toddlers learn best when they are playing, it’s also the best way of motivating them to do something.

The sad thing is that, as we grow up, and progress further in life, we tend to get rid of the ‘fun’ element, thinking it’s ‘not professional’.

But, according to the book The Levity Effect: Why It Pays To Lighten Up:

“If people are having fun, they’re going to work harder, stay longer, maintain their composure in a crisis and take better care of the organization.”

The Great Place To Work Institute, a global research, consulting and training firm compiles Fortune Magazine’s annual, “100 Best Companies To Work For” list.  Ironically, they're not on the list.  SEE THE LIST

Each year, they ask tens of thousands of employees to rank their workplace experiences by answering 57 questions on a variety of factors including whether or not: “This is a fun place to work.”

Their decade of research that shows, that:

• companies denoted as ‘great’ places to work score EXTREMELY HIGH on that question… an average of 81%

Now, skeptics make the argument:

“Well, that just because the company is successful, because of that employees view the company as ‘fun’”

But Amy Lyman, co-founder of the Great Place To Work Institute, disagrees saying it is VERY unusual for a company to be among on the ‘100 Best’ list and not score extremely well on the ‘fun’ question.

She points to the research that shows some very successful companies on the list that are only denoted as ‘good’ places to work.  On the ‘fun’ question, those companies only score an average of 52%.

We all remember the most bizarre headline of the year: Dennis Rodman watches basketball and dines with Kim Jung Un.

It was a huge, internationally recognized publicity stunt.

But a lot of people ignored who exactly set the meeting up.

That was Vice Media, a multimedia company based out of Brooklyn.

One correspondent said:

“Dinner was an epic feast. Felt like about ten courses in total. I’d say the winners were the smoked turkey and sushi, though we had the Pyongyang cold noodles earlier in the trip and that’s been the runaway favorite so far.”

Vice received a lot of criticism for the visit, bragging about the food while millions starve in North Korea. But by all other measures, the visit was a success.

Vice correspondents were the only Westerners to ever meet Kim Jung Un. The hype was built for their TV series.

So how did they get to this point? And what does it mean for the future of journalism?

According to NPR, In its nearly 20 years, Vice Media has gone from a small Canadian magazine to figuring out the holy grail of media: how to capture an international audience of aloof 18- to 24-year-olds.

In the office's edit rooms, young producers work on everything from a food series, to a film about Somali pirates, to interviews about electronic dance music.

These projects violate all the rules of what's supposed to make money on the Web. Articles can approach New Yorker length. Videos can last an hour, covering topics both serious and salacious. They attract millions of views, as do the ads that accompany each video.

Vice's secret sauce has attracted big-name investors like Tom Freston, who ran old-media conglomerate Viacom after helping found MTV in the '80s. He has pushed Vice to expand to reach urban youth around the world.

Vice now employs 1,000 people across 34 countries, producing dozens of stories and videos a day. More at NPR News

Hear Bill tell the story of Vice Media.

With a revolutionary multi-media communications platform, Julie Stav inspires and empowers people from all walks of life through her popular national radio show, “Tu Dinero con Julie Stav”; her New York Times bestselling books; and appearances on Univision Television as their on-air financial expert.

But there is more to Julie’s story than most people know.

Julie’s youth was marked by struggle. Her family’s life was totally upended the day Fidel Castro took control of the country. From a seemingly perfect life in her native Cuba, in which her father, a well to do factory owner, was forced into becoming the janitor of the factory he used to own.

Her parents made the painful decision to send Julie out of Cuba for the opportunity of a better life. Immediately upon being separated from her family, she was sent to an orphanage in Mexico and endured a difficult two-year separation from her family.

When Julie was finally reunited with her family in Los Angeles and enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District, it seemed like her troubling story’s happy ending had arrived.  But Julie's struggle didn't end there.

She spoke no English and was unable to communicate successfully, so LAUSD classified Julie as mentally retarded. 

Her father, however, knew Julie's potential and refused to let the school district’s label determine her fate. He encouraged her to persevere.  Julie did and became wildly successful and has dedicated her life to empowering others and giving back. Read more about Julie here.

Follow Julie on Facebook and Twitter

Listen to Bill's interview with Julie Stav

Part 1

Part 2

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers. His mother, Mallie Robinson, single-handedly raised Jackie and her four other children. They were the only black family on their block, and the prejudice they encountered only strengthened their bond.

From this humble beginning would grow the first baseball player to break Major League Baseball's color barrier that segregated the sport for more than 50 years.

Read more about Jackie Robinson here

LISTEN HERE

If you were married in the 1950s the dynamic was simple.

• the husband worked and brought home the money
• the wife stayed home, raised the kids and managed the home

But that dynamic has been changing.

A recent USA Today analysis of Census Bureau data reveals an interesting change in the traditional roles of men and women.

Today, when one spouse works and the other stays home:

• in 23% of families, it’s the WIFE who is the sole breadwinner.

When the Census Bureau started tracking this data in 1976, that number was just 6%

In addition, when BOTH spouses work: 

• WIVES out-earn their husbands 28% of the time (up from 16% in 1987)

That means, in more than 12 million families, it’s the wife who is earning more than her husband.

And here’s an interesting fact: 

• women 30 and under make more money, on average, then their male counterparts in all but 3 of the largest cities in the U.S.

According to U.S. Census Bureau, the Pew Research Center and the Education Department reports:

• 54% of college graduates are women

In 2010, women earned: 

• 57% of Bachelor’s Degrees
• 60% of Master’s Degrees
• 52% of Doctoral Degrees

According to Census data, during the recession:

• 3 men lost their jobs for every woman who lost theirs

As a result, more men were forced to stay home and take care of the house and kids while their wives worked. 

What’s the price of a bowl of chili? Whatever you want it to be–at least at some Panera Bread cafes in the St. Louis area. The cafes are at the forefront of a trend: letting consumers set their own price.

As reported by ABC News and the Associated Press, other businesses are experimenting with this same model. 

Among restaurants

• Salt Lake City’s One World Everybody Eats
• Cafe Gratitude in California

Video game downloads are available for whatever buyers want to pay through sales site Humble Bumble. Way back in 2007, rock band Radiohead used the same model to sell their album “In Rainbows.”

Ron Shaich, founder and CEO of the Panera chain, says the purpose of his pricing is partly charitable: If customers pay more than the chili costs Panera to make, the profit subsidizes meals for customers who cannot afford to pay as much. Diners are told upfront, when deciding what to pay, that this is how the system works.  Read more aboutt his trend at ABC News