Getting around has never been easier than it is today, and it’s only going to get easier in the future. Self-driving cars and electric bicycles mean that you have to do less work to get from point A to B. Of course, sometimes you want to arrive in style, which is why the Boosted Board exists. Today, Boosted announced that … Continue reading
Many a short journey has been livened up with one of Boosted’s electric skateboards underfoot, but after selling the same line-up for a few years now, it’s time to pimp that ride. The second-generation Boosted boards unveiled today keep the same, cla…
It’s day two of the Google I/O developer conference and by now we’ve gotten a taste of the company’s plans for the future of messaging apps, home assistants and virtual reality. Today, VP of Virtual Reality Clay Bavor takes the stage for a deep dive…
McDonalds in China is getting some themed food to celebrate the launch of The Angry Birds Movie. One of those burgers has a green bun. I’ve had a green burger from McDonalds before, only in my case the green was mold none of the burger makers seemed to notice ALL OVER THE BUN before they put it in the bag. The green-bunned Chinese burger is supposed to look that way, but it doesn’t look very appetizing.
You can also get what appears to be a red bun with double stacked chicken patties inside. The green burger is called the Naughty Green Pork Burger meaning it’s made from pig rather than cow. The sandwich has a pork patty, egg, lettuce, and sauce with jalapenos in it along with the green bun. It sounds weird; I’ve never understood the desire to put an egg on a hamburger, but that’s just me.
The red sandwich is the Angry Red Burger, which is actually a double chicken patty. I wonder why McDonald’s doesn’t ever offer these strangely colored concoctions in the US.
[via Kotaku]
Donald Trump has promised that “we’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.” He said this at a speech at Virginia’s Liberty University and several other events. It is very likely that he is not serious; Trump tends to say things he couldn’t possibly mean. But he did raise an intriguing question about whether Apple — and other American companies — could bring manufacturing back to the United States.
When American companies moved manufacturing to China, it was all about cost. China’s wages were amongst the lowest in the world and its government provided subsidies and turned a blind eye to labor abuse and environmental destruction. Things have changed. China’s labor, real estate, and energy costs have increased to the point that they are comparable to some parts of the United States. Subsidies are harder to get and Chinese labor is not tolerating the abuse that it once did. China is now a more expensive place to manufacture than Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, and India according to Boston Consulting Group.
Add to this the efforts by the Chinese government to spur indigenous innovation — by forcing foreign companies to reveal their intellectual property and use local suppliers–and you have strong motivation to relocate manufacturing.
But Apple is by no means looking to exit from China, its second largest market. It just announced an investment of $1 billion in Uber’s rival Didi Chuxing. It clearly saw a large market opportunity and a way to appease the Chinese government.
Technology is, however, changing the labor-cost equation even more and China is becoming unpredictable because of its faltering economy. It may make sense for Apple to locate some of its manufacturing closer to other markets just to protect itself from this uncertainty.
What is changing the labor situation is robotics. Robots can now do the same manufacturing jobs as humans — for a fraction of the cost. A new generation, from companies such as Rethink Robotics of Boston, ABB of Switzerland, and Universal Robots of Denmark, are dexterous enough to thread a needle and nimble enough to work beside humans. They can do repetitive and boring circuit board assembly and pack boxes. These robots cost less than $40,000 to purchase and as little as a dollar per hour to operate. And unlike human workers, they will work 24-hour shifts without complaining.
The hurdle in relocating manufacturing for any company such as Apple is the tie to the chain of suppliers of its products’ electronics components. The key question therefore is: how dependent is Apple on its China supply chain?
In 2015, the supply chain for Apple’s products consisted of 198 global companies with 759 subsidiaries — so this is quite complex. Seamus Grimes of National University of Ireland and Yutao Sun of Dalian University of China studied each of these subsidiaries and interviewed executives of those located in China. The objective of their research was to advise China on how it could move further up the value chain and cause foreign companies to give it more of their intellectual property. The paper they published, however, provides another interesting insight: into how few of Apple’s technology suppliers are actually Chinese.
The authors researched each of the 759 subsidiaries and categorized the electronics components into core, non-core, and assembly-related, with the high-cost, intellectual-property dependent technologies being designated as core. They learned that 336, or 44.2 percent, of these subsidiaries were manufacturing in China; 115 were in Taiwan; and 84 in Europe or the United States.
When the researchers looked into the ownership of subsidiaries that were manufacturing in China, they found that only 3.95 percent were Chinese. And only 2.2 percent of the core component suppliers were Chinese. The largest proportion, 32.7 percent, were Japanese; 28.5 percent were American; 19.0 percent were Taiwanese; and 6.5 percent were European.
To put it simply, more than half of the components of Apple’s products are imported into China and practically none of the important, core, technologies are made by Chinese companies. Foreign companies do not trust China and nearly all of the intellectual property in Apple’s products originates from outside it.
This means that the value chains could be shifted over time. This begs the question: what it would cost to move manufacturing to the United States?
For this, it may be best to look at what Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn is doing in India. The Economic Times reports that Foxconn is finalizing negotiations to build a $10 billion facility to manufacture iPhones in India. The report anticipates it will take 18 months to get this operational.
India does have a labor cost advantage over the U.S. but robots could eliminate this. Similar manufacturing facilities could be set up in the United States, product by product.
Of course, this will not be easy and there are many risks. But it certainly is possible for Apple to bring manufacturing back to the United States. If Apple can do this, so can most other companies; their value chains are a lot less complex than Apple’s.
So it may turn out that for once, Donald Trump’s rant isn’t so crazy.
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McDonald’s will revamp its McPick 2 value platform on May 24 with a mix of national and local offers, BurgerBusiness.com has learned.
The national portion of the new McPick 2 for $5 promotion launching May 24 gives consumers their choice from among three core McDonald’s items: the Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish and 10-piece Chicken McNuggets. One new wrinkle is that local markets also will have the option to add up to three other items to the “2 for $5” deal, for a total of up to six choices.
At the same time, some markets also will simultaneously run local value offerings outside the “2 for $5” platform during the national promotion. For example, the Chicago co-op has a $4 bundle of a Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddle with a Hash Brown and small coffee. The McDonald’s Tristate co-op (covering parts of West Virginia, Ohio & Kentucky) is promoting a $5.99 bundle of 20-piece Chicken McNuggets and a basket of fries. Such deals can continue alongside the national McPick 2 for $5 promotion, if co-ops choose to do so, providing consumers with additional localized value offerings.
The three local-option McPick 2 for $5 items do not necessarily have to be core items, such as large fries or Quarter Pounder with Cheese; they can be whatever the co-ops decide will best meet local tastes, Adam Salgado, VP-Marketing for McDonald’s USA told BurgerBusiness.com in an exclusive interview.
A four-week advertising flight in support of the promotion begins next week, but local markets have the option to extend it.
The advantages of this approach are the combination of national items plus the overlay of locally popular menu items, Salgado said. “Customers have told us that what they want is the ability to have choice and flexibility in which items they can bundle for a certain price point,” he said.
In January, McDonald’s did a McPick 2 for $2 promotion with entry-price items such as McChicken and McDouble. The company says that offer saved customers 24% over a la carte purchases on average. In March it returned as McPick 2 for $5 with core items, offering savings of 35% on average.
That means “2 for $5” is a better value for consumers and a likely a wiser business decision from operators’ point of view. Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski’s survey of 26 U.S. franchisees in April found solid preference for “2 for $5” over the sharply criticized “2 for $2” platform. “McPick 2 for $2 was the most devastating promotion to operator cash flow we have run in the past 10 years. Any McPick ‘2 for’ below the $5 mark will only erode our check average and cash flow,” lamented one franchisee. But another said, “The McPick 2 for $5 has worked pretty well, I have to admit, even though I dislike food discounts. It isn’t cheap but it creates a good value for products people actually want.”
McPick now is McDonald’s official value platform. Items included and price points will continue to evolve nationally and locally for the foreseeable future, Salgado said. In between national promotional periods, local owner/operators have the freedom to select menu items and the price point they know their local customers want most.
During his Q1 earnings call with analysts in April, McDonald’s Corp. CEO Steve Easterbrook said the question being studied after the “2 for $2” and “2 for $5” promotions was, “at what level do we want to deploy this at a national level, and use that national marketing muscle. And how much do we want to allow the flexibility at the regional level, because we’ve got these re-energized regions, 23 of them, around the U.S. and they want to bring it to life. But maybe the menu mix in that deal could be different in the Southwest of the country than it would be in the Northeast. And I think that flexibility, knowing your consumer group, knowing your competitive group, knowing what that value price is, allows us to unleash on the power of our regional marketing muscle.”
This new national/local combination approach answers the question, Salgado told BurgerBusiness.com. The national layer allows McDonald’s to promote classic items while the local layer flexes that “regional marketing muscle” to meet local taste preferences.
Salgado says the choice of “2 for $5” for the national platform doesn’t mean McDonald’s is neglecting those who used “2 for $2” because of limited discretionary dollars. “We evolved the Dollar Menu into the everyday-value menu that is the place on the menu board with entry-priced items for around $1. Those are up to each market to [choose] and to price. We constantly have products for the entry-value seeker. Those are available on a local basis.”
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The next OPEC meeting on the 2nd of June will act as little more than a forum for continued altercations between Saudi Arabia and Iran
The 2 June 2016 OPEC meeting will be held amid a backdrop of oil prices near $50 per barrel, a sharp drop in Nigerian production due to sabotage, turmoil in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia operating with a new oil minister, and Iran aggressively pumping close to pre-sanction levels.
OPEC interactions have become a direct altercation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with the remaining members reduced to mere observers.
The new Saudi oil minister, Khalid al-Falih, will be attending his first OPEC meeting, but experts doubt he will have the same clout and skills as the outgoing Saudi oil minister, Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi.
Related: Oil Slips After EIA Reports 1.3M Barrel Build
“OPEC’s unity is now in the spotlight more than ever,” said an OPEC official. “Would we ever see a minister that carries the same weight as Naimi? I don’t think so, especially as it is clear now that decisions are in the hands of the deputy crown prince,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
The Prince outlined his strategy in “Vision 2030”, and a major step in that direction is the listing of the state-owned oil company Aramco.
In order to gain additional traction for the proposed listing, the Saudis will continue their aggressive stance in OPEC, and keep all the oil producers on the hook, a glimpse of which was given by the new Saudi Aramco Chief executive Amin Nasser.
“Whatever the call on Saudi Aramco, we will meet it,” Mr. Nasser said. “There will always be a need for additional production. Production will increase upward in 2016,” reports The Financial Times.
Though Mr. Nasser did not hint at the percentage increase, even a small increase will add to the supply glut, because Aramco produces around 9.54 million barrels per day (bpd).
Related: Are The Saudis Facing A Full-Blown Liquidity Crisis?
On the other hand, its adversary–Iran–has quickly ramped up production to 3.56 million barrels per day and is on course to reach its targeted output of 4 million bpd.
Iran has increased its market share in the excess supply environment by offering large discounts, undercutting the Saudi and Iraqi prices for their deliveries to Asia.
Though Iran had initially hinted at joining any production freeze once it reached its target of 4 million bpd, the heightened tensions with Saudi show no signs of abating.
“Our main competitor is Saudi Arabia,” Amir Hossein Zamaninia, Iran’s deputy oil minister for international affairs, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Zamaninia said Iran disapproves of increased politicization of the OPEC. “In the Southern Persian Gulf, oil is becoming a political commodity, more than an economic commodity,” he said. “OPEC is in a difficult situation.”
He said that without solutions to the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, an agreement is unlikely.
Related: Who Will Benefit From The Electrification Of Transport?
The relations between the two warring nations have reached a new low, with Iran refusing participation in the Hajj pilgrimage. The negotiations between the delegates of the two nations ended in conflict.
Considering the existing tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, if the OPEC meeting ends without a fight, it should be considered an achievement.
The proposal by the Kuwaiti deputy foreign minister Khaled Jarallah for the member nations to freeze production is a feeble attempt to support prices.
“It is clear that Mohammed bin Salman wants to confront Iran not just in the Middle East but in the energy markets,” Amir Handjani, a member of the Board of Directors of the Dubai-based RAK Petroleum, told RT. He said that it was unlikely that Prince Salman will back down now. “And certainly the Iranians are not going to back down either,” reports Hellenic Shipping News.
While these two nations continue their slugfest in the OPEC meeting, the smaller nations have no choice but to remain mute spectators, dreaming of their glory days.
By Rakesh Upadhyay for Oilprice.com
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Nicole Kidman likes to describe herself as a walking high-wire act.
As an actress with upwards of 70 film credits to her name over the course of a 30-plus-year career, the image of Kidman teetering on the Hollywood tightrope is hard to reconcile with her enduring celebrity. But this by-the-seat-of-your-pants mentality is exactly what drew the Oscar winner to “The Family Fang,” an offbeat portrait of a family united by dysfunction and the damaging effects of an artistic legacy.
“I have no idea what’s up ahead, what I’m going to do next, how I’m going to do it or where I’m going to go,” Kidman told The Huffington Post in a recent interview. “I try to have that very laissez-faire approach, even though [the work] mines the depths of where I’m at as a mother and as a woman.”
In “Fang,” Kidman has once again reached these depths with a performance best described by what it’s not: affected, treacly or overstated. Adapted from Kevin Wilson’s comic novel and directed by Jason Bateman, “The Family Fang” examines how decisions made by parents can reverberate through the identities of children. Used as props in mom and dad’s boundary-pushing performance art pieces of the 1970s, Annie (Kidman) and Baxter (Bateman) are still struggling with the aftershock of childhood trauma. Their parents, Caleb (Christopher Walken) and Camille Fang (Maryann Plunkett), privileged artistic vision over child-rearing, gifting Annie and Baxter (called Child A and Child B) with both a deep appreciation for art and an unshakable melancholy.
When the family unit is unexpectedly reassembled, the children are drawn back into their parents’ web. But just as soon as the elder Fangs reemerge, they abruptly disappear again under mysterious circumstances, leaving Annie and Baxter to decide whether the two are gone forever or are masterminds of the ultimate performance piece.
For Kidman, the role hits home on many levels. Annie is a 40-something actress searching for her next big role while navigating the difficulties of leading a life in the public eye. Despite the B-level success, she still seeks her parents’ approval, filling the void with shoplifting, inappropriate sex and DUIs. Kidman’s first scene finds Annie negotiating the necessity of a gratuitous nude scene only to later strut on set topless to “control” the moment. In her character’s complexities, Kidman finds a point of resonance, articulating how, as an actress, displacement from one’s identity can be essential for inhabiting a role.
“[Annie] doesn’t quite know what she’s meant to be doing or who she is,” Kidman said. “That’s the plight of an actress a lot of the time, because you can move so swiftly into other psyches and other places that so much of your own real life has to be devoted to seeking out your sense of self.”
Drawing parallels to her experience in the industry, Kidman empathizes with the character’s frustrations, but sees differences in her own career trajectory.
“I’m fortunate in the sense that I’m quite uncompromising in terms of what I want to do now at this stage of my life,” she said. “I wasn’t in my 20s, but now I have a strong idea of where I want to place my time … When you’re single and running around the world, there’s a flippancy to it. Once you’re raising children, particularly as a woman, where you place that time is incredibly important.”
Kidman, of course, has been married for almost a decade to country singer Keith Urban, with whom she has two young daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret. The actress also adopted two children with ex-husband Tom Cruise. Kidman’s and Urban’s daughters travel with them almost everywhere they go, she said, and during our phone call Kidman let slip that the 5- and 7-year-olds were there right beside her.
Parenting, however, is not without its challenges, as made clear by the irreparable damage wrought on Kidman’s character in “The Family Fang.” One line in the film we discuss comes from Walken’s character, who matter-of-factly informs his offspring that their childhood woes are anything but extraordinary. “You think we damaged you?” he asks them. “So what! That’s what parents do.” Kidman says she can, in some small way, empathize with the uncompromising patriarch, explaining that parenting is no perfect science, having now experienced it from both the perspective of a child and a mother.
“I don’t think there are very many people in the world that go, ‘The way I was parented was perfection.’ In that sense, we are all in the same boat,” she said. “In the case of my own family … there were times when I had to rally against my parents to form my own beliefs. They certainly weren’t always completely synchronized and still aren’t at certain times, but that’s healthy.”
But ultimately, parents are the ones who shape us. Both Annie and Baxter find a career in the arts, ironically fulfilled by the origin of their misery. Although by the film’s end, the pair break free of the fangs embedded so deeply within them, the damage has already been done. Kidman admits too that in her own life the connections she shares with her family are what matters most.
“My own purpose in the sense of women’s rights is very tied to my mother, the feminist, so my identity is still very much linked to her,” Kidman said. “I feel very defined now by my relationship with my children and my husband and that’s given me such a strong sense of who I am and what I want.”
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A fraternity has been suspended on University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus after a member reported that the organization created an environment that breeds discrimination and racial insensitivity, the school said.
The Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter on the university’s Madison campus has been suspended of all activities until Nov. 1 and all fraternity members are required to go through diversity, inclusion and mental health training, the school said in a statement on Wednesday.
The suspension stems from a complaint from an unidentified member who reported to theuniversity‘s student-led Committee on Student Organizations that he was subjected to fellow members using racial, anti-gay and anti-Semitic slurs on several occasions since 2014, the school said.
In one instance, the student reported that a fellow fraternity member addressed him with a racial slur and choked him for five seconds until other members intervened during a Halloween party in 2014, according to the school.
The committee found the chapter violated its nondiscrimination requirements and suspended the organization on Tuesday.
The suspension comes amid allegations of other racially insensitive incidents on other U.S. campuses involving the fraternity including reports of members chanting a racist song on several occasions from 2012 to 2015, according to the national fraternity organization.
The national fraternity said in a statement that it was investigating and apologized, saying that members who were responsible are no longer with the fraternity.
“When we find that the behavior of any member is inconsistent with our expectations, we work to eradicate that behavior,” the fraternity said.
University chancellor Rebecca Blank wrote in a letter to the fraternity’s executive director Blaine Ayers, saying that the organization has failed to “address persistent reports of discriminatory behavior, as well as the national body’s inability to address discrimination within its chapter”, an allegation the fraternity rejected.
“The conduct in this situation must not be repeated,” she wrote, calling on fraternity leadership to visit her and explain how the organization will “prevent a recurrence of these issues”, before the suspension is lifted.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien; Editing by Alison Williams)
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For Bon Appétit, by Carey Polis.
Sometimes you might find yourself with a handle of vodka. Here are 7 things to do with it.
Credit: Alex Lau
Blood Orange Jell-O Shots
Potent–but so much classier than your dive bar shots. GET THE RECIPE
Credit: Christopher Testani
Day Tripper Cocktail
To use loose leaf tea, substitute ½ teaspoon per bag. GET THE RECIPE
Credit: Alex Lau
Green Goddess Cocktail
No need to buy preflavored vodka; we got great results making our own. GET THE RECIPE
Credit: Alex Lau
The Troy Monson
Yes, you can use regular oranges, but don’t you just love the color you get from blood oranges?! GET THE RECIPE
Credit: Danny Kim
Pineapple-Mint Vodka
This could not be simpler, and is perfect for a summer barbecue. GET THIS RECIPE
Credit: Matt Duckor
Strawberry-Pineapple Hotness
A perfect use for that leftover can of chipotles in adobo hiding in the fridge. GET THE RECIPE
Credit: Alex Lau
Fresh Ginger Moscow Mule
Moscow Mules are usually made with bottled ginger beer, but nothing compares to the aromatic heat from the real thing. GET THE RECIPE
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