Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 166
April 18, 2017
Tesla workers are threatening to strike
The Tesla workers who are key to ensuring the automaker meets its lofty production targets are threatening to strike, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The German industrial trade union IG Metall is calling for a worker strike at Grohmann Engineering, the German engineering company Tesla bought in November, claiming workers have been making 30% below union wages since Tesla acquired the company, according to the report. IG Metall could decide by late Tuesday whether it will call for a strike to negotiate new wages.
Tesla denied the claim that Grohmann workers were making 30% below union wages.
“We continue to work directly with Tesla Grohmann employees and are prepared in the event there is an action initiated by the union,” a Tesla representative wrote in a statement to Business Insider. “We don’t anticipate any impact on the Model 3 timeline.”
The California-based automaker acquired Grohmann as part of an effort to further automate its factories and speed up production.
In the past, Tesla has experienced severe manufacturing issues, most notably with the Model X, which suffered three years of delays. (The Model S also faced delays and was delivered in mid-2011 instead of 2010.)
The Model 3 will serve as Tesla’s greatest test yet, and it is scheduled to begin rolling off assembly lines by the end of this year. Tesla ultimately hopes to sell 500,000 vehicles a year starting in 2018.
The electric-car maker missed on deliveries in 2016 (it shipped 76,230 cars, versus its forecast for 80,000 to 90,000) and must now contend with the Model 3 on top of Model S and Model X production.
There’s a lot of pressure for Tesla to execute on the Model 3. The company is valued as high as Ford and GM despite selling a fraction of the vehicles.
Tesla factory workers in Fremont, California, are looking to form a union because of what they say are difficult work conditions and “excessive mandatory overtime.”
Source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-grohmann-engineering-workers-threaten-to-strike-2017-4
Irish startups stake their space in the fashion tech industry
German online fashion platform, Zalando, achieved revenue of €3.6bn last year, while in Ireland, start-ups, including TV fashion stylist, Sonya Lennon’s FrockAdvisor, have been joined by newcomers, Outfitable and Hello Bezlo, in the fashion tech arena.
But what is fashion tech? The term seems to fit any online fashion business, from e-commerce to v-commerce, to smart wearables and clothes and accessories with built-in functionality.
On the e-commerce side, there are platforms to connect boutiques with customers like Farfetch and Frock Advisor, while v-commerce company, Trillenium, creates virtual stores for brands.
Smart wearables range from FitBit to Knomo and high-end jewellery brand, Vinaya, which has Bluetooth functionality.
Fashion and tech are being combined on the catwalk using innovative fabrics, LED lights, and conductive thread.
On the perimeters are inventions that combine medical and environmental functionality with clothing.
For example, there is the Foxleaf drug-dispensing bra and Dahea Sun’s Rain Palette line, which can detect air quality. Lennon co-founded FrockAdvisor with fellow fashion designer, Brendan Courtney. It’s a platform that connects independent fashion retailers with fashion-conscious customers.
She is sceptical about the term being used to describe every online fashion business.
“For me, it’s just a little bit gimmicky,” she says, adding that “there’s hard tech and soft tech. Any fashion business is going to have to harness technology to survive and thrive”.
FrockAdvisor is not a virtual customer service. It’s real customer service through a digital medium, she says. “Every business has to be led by a digital strategy. In a way, technology is a medium by which we do business, rather than a solution in itself.” Dima Kfouri recently pitched her start-up, Outfitable, at NDRC, as a response to her frustration at online clothing retailers’ lack of uniformity of sizes.
She plans to harness technology to develop her brand. “What we hope to do is apply machine-learning technology to create a personalised feed, the equivalent of a Netflix experience.”
Clodagh Connell, of Irish children’s wear brand, Hello Bezlo, views fashion tech as “fashion being enhanced by technology”, how fabrics are produced to match the function and experience of wearing clothes and accessories. While researching her idea for a fashion brand that encourages young girls to get involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, Ms Connell became fascinated with fashion tech. Hello Bezlo recently co-hosted Code Couture — a workshop that combined fashion and technology — with coding club network, CoderDojo and Zalando.
Ms Kfouri attended the Dublin Tech Summit earlier this year and was happy to see a full stage devoted to fashion. She says fashion tech is much more than smartwatches.
“You’ve got things like AI and Chatbox and user-messaging, for a more customized and tailored service. You’ve got virtually augmented reality, virtual changing rooms with interactive mirrors.” She says that the two industries have a lot in common. “The fashion space is creative, but every fashion line’s bottom line is going to be based on profit, which is ultimately based on transactions.”
Ms Connell says she’s been “blown away” by how the industry has evolved in the last year. “Designers like Iris van Herpen have really paved the way forward. And because this space is so new, there is so much room for innovation and new start-ups.” So what’s next for the industry?
Fashion tech and advancements in technology are going to make the industry more sustainable, Ms Kfouri believes. “Stella McCartney is one of the leaders in this area. She’s using tech in amazing ways and she’s a big believer in sustainable fashion.”
Ms Kfouri foresees the 3D printer being front and center. She says that using the printer, “along with open-source platforms, you’ll be able to create fashion right then and there. It’s already been done with jewelry and accessories.”
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Jesce Horton is the owner of Panacea Valley Gardens a cultivation center and boutique edibles line serving cannabis patients in Portland, OR.
In addition to providing a network of contacts and educational resources for aspiring entrepreneurs of color, MCBA advocates for legislative changes to state and local policies that impose legal and financial barriers to legal weed for many would-be business owners and consumers of color.
Beyond its being a “slap in the face” to the communities hurt most by marijuana enforcement, Horton sees the legal industry’s lack of diversity as a real hindrance to its potential for growth.
“It’s not just about doing the right thing and doing the moral thing,” he said. “But I think we’re in a unique industry where doing the right and the moral thing means more money, means more growth, means more sustainability.”
Meanwhile, in New York, Plowden and his fellow co-founders at the nonprofit Cannabis Cultural Association are hoping to get ahead of this issue by educating people of color on the evolving city and state marijuana policies, and encouraging minority involvement in the ancillary products of the cannabis industry, such as vaporizers and hemp products.
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“We know we can’t do the same things as California or Portland can do,” but, Plowden insisted, it’s important to start having these conversations about diversity now.
“The industry is coming, but if we don’t have somewhat of a structure set up, we can stumble and put ourselves back 20 years,” he said.
For both men, their missions to reshape the black community’s relationship with marijuana have led them to change the conversation within their own families.
About a year or two ago, Plowden broke his family’s long-standing “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and asked his great-aunt Molly if she smoked weed. Yes, she answered, adding, “you’re the first one in the family to honestly ask me that question.” A few months later, she spoke at one of CCA’s events about her experience with marijuana and the effects of drug laws on her family.
Even Plowden’s mother has recently begun exploring medical marijuana as an option for dealing with skin cancer. However, she continues to implore her son to use caution, reminding him, “You’re still a black man who is promoting something that’s federally illegal.”
More than four years after he gave up his comfortable corporate career, Horton says, his parents are “very, very excited” about his success in the legal cannabis industry.
“My dad sees that I’m an entrepreneur now,” he said. “I’m much, much happier than I was when I was in corporate.”
Horton has also opened the door for other members of his family, like his cousin and brother, who both moved to Oregon to work with him. More than anything, though, marijuana is no longer the cause of family strife.
“My dad is a cannabis consumer; he always has been,” Horton said. Now “we can finally smoke together.”
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April 16, 2017
United kicked off a bride and groom headed to their wedding
At this point, it’d be more shocking to read a positive headline about United Airlines.
A bride and groom heading to Costa Rica for their wedding were kicked off a United flight out of Houston this weekend, KHOU-TV first reported.
The couple said they simply moved into other economy-class seats after finding a passenger sleeping in their assigned row. United said the betrothed were sitting in upgraded seating they hadn’t paid for and refused to return their assigned seats when asked.
However it went down, it certainly doesn’t bode well for United’s image problem.
A week after David Dao was violently dragged off an overbooked United flight out of Chicago, the negative stories keep flowing like complimentary wine.
A passenger on a flight from Kauai to Los Angeles said he was threatened with handcuffs for refusing to give up his $1,000 seat to “somebody more important.” A man on a flight from Houston to Calgary was stung by a scorpion after it fell on his head. Competing airlines trolled United, and Saturday Night Live made fun of it, too.
Dao was forcibly removed to make room for United crew members. This weekend, the airline said it changed a company policy and will no longer allow crew members to displace customers who are already aboard the plane.
But United is hardly done putting out PR fires.
Enter Amber Maxwell and Michael Hohl of Park City, Utah.
On Saturday, the couple had flown from Salt Lake City to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, where they boarded a connecting flight to Liberia, Costa Rica.
The bride and groom said they were the last to board the plane, which was half-full. As they walked down the aisle, they noticed a man was sprawled across their seats in row 24, Hohl told KHOU-TV. Not wanting to wake the napping passenger, they decided to grab seats in row 21.
“We thought, ‘not a big deal,’ it’s not like we are trying to jump up into a first-class seat,” he told the news station. “We were simply in an economy row a few rows above our economy seat.”
Hohl said a flight attendant approached them, and the couple explained they weren’t in their assigned seats and asked to get an upgrade. The flight attendant told them to return to their assigned seats, and they did. Then a U.S. marshal came onto the plane and asked them to get off.
‘The Fate of the Furious’ Nabs $100.2M in U.S for Record $532.5M Global Start
Universal’s Fast and the Furious franchise is showing no signs of running out of gas on the world stage.
The Fate of the Furious, directed by F. Gary Gray, raced to an estimated $532.5 million global debut over Easter weekend, including $100.2 million domestically and a $432.2 million overseas.
If those estimates hold when final numbers are tallied early Monday, Furious 8 will eclipse Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($529 million) to boast the biggest worldwide opening of all time. Either way, it is assured of scoring the top international launch of all time, surpassing fellow Universal title Jurassic World ($316.7 million).
Furious 8 had the advantage of opening day-and-date in China, where it earned a massive $190 million, the biggest three-day bow in history. Overall, the tentpole debuted at No. 1 in all 63 foreign markets, and it did more business than any previous installment in 32 of those.
In North America, Furious 8 scored the second-biggest launch of the franchise behind Furious 7‘s $147 million. Furious 7 (2015) was the final film in the series to star Paul Walker, who died in a tragic car crash in November 2013. Globally, Furious 7 launched to $397.7 million (it didn’t open in China until a week later).
“This franchise is showing no sign of wear and tear,” said Universal international distribution chief Duncan Clark. “Fate of the Furious is satisfying audiences on many different levels.
Added Universal domestic distribution president Nick Carpou: “Considering this is the second-highest opening domestically out of eight films speaks to the fact that people continue to be interested in the storyline.”
Long heralded for its diverse cast, Furious 8 played to audiences of all ethnicities and nabbed an A CinemaScore. Domestically, Caucasians made up 41 percent of the audience, followed by Hispanics (26 percent), African-Americans (21) percent, Asians (11 percent) and Native American/Other (3 percent), according to comScore’s exit polling service PostTrack. The pic skewed male at 58 percent, far more than the last film at 51 percent.
Gray is making his franchise debut after helming Straight Outta Compton for Universal. Fate of the Furious once again stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky and Kurt Russell. Newcomers include Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren and Scott Eastwood. The story follows a villainous superhacker (Theron) who turns Diesel’s character against his crew.
The Fast and Furious movies have collectively grossed more than $3.9 billion globally. Furious 7 was far and away the biggest earner and the only installment to cross $1 billion on its way to finishing its worldwide run with $1.516 billion.
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Fashion line shows African fashion as versatile, luxurious and elegant
With a little help, dreams can come true. For designer Breanna Moore, a successful Kickstarter campaign provided the necessary and invaluable resources to help launch her fashion business idea into reality. The LaBré fashion line has grown into LaBré Bazaar, an e-commerce platform which provides African and diasporic artisans with increased access and exposure to the international market, alongside her Fashion Made in Africa Initiative. One of the Initiative’s pillars is to generate global visibility of African-inspired fashion designers and harness the fashion industry to create economic opportunities for young and talented African designers.
The young designer has used the LaBré fashion collection to educate the public on the history of “African prints” with “The Threads of Africa” on display currently at the Art Sanctuary. The exhibit explores “threads” or fabrics that are traditional to the continent and the origin of those that have been imported and adapted into West and Central African culture. Before the 1960s every fabric sold in West and Central Africa was manufactured in Europe. According to Moore, the African print market is overwhelmingly void of African ownership. LaBré aims to complicate the narrative surrounding what is known as African prints.
“The descriptions on the walls discuss literally the ‘Thread of Africa’ and goes over the history of a lot of the fabric [being manufactured] by the Chinese, British and Dutch,” said Moore. “It is imported and hardly owned by Africans themselves in Africa. I thought that was a point to bring up so people could know how to best contribute to the economy when they do buy the fabrics.”
Through the LaBré Threads of Africa Gown Spring 2017 Collection, Moore wants to ensure that young women who can’t afford a prom dress have the opportunity to enjoy their high school proms without having to pay hundreds of dollars on a beautiful gown. For every seven gowns sold, LaBré will donate a free dress to an in-need Philadelphia high school student who cannot afford a prom dress.
The giveaway has roots in the tough times of the designer’s own high school years.
“I just look back to my experience. My senior year of high school was during the end of the recession,” recalled Moore. “Both of my parents were unemployed at the time and we really couldn’t afford a dress. I was able to do so by working a side job at the time, after school and weekends. That definitely helped me to provide this for the high school seniors because I know how hard it is when you can’t really afford a dress. And also, it would be a great cultural [merger] to help have confidence in your culture and where you come from when you have a dress made of African fabric, especially young ladies from the Continent who might be from a country that may particularly trying to be banned by Trump’s immigration policy.
“This will help them feel comfortable and beautiful in their country or native land’s choice of fabric, textiles, et cetera. I can see that African and African-inspired gowns are really becoming popular. There have been a few cases highlighted where girls have gowns made out of African fabric. I wanted to shine more light on that and let people see that African fashion is versatile, luxurious and elegant — just as European-style fashion,” Moore said.
Moore says she is also offering sponsorship opportunities for people who want to provide these unique gowns to needy high schoolers.
The LaBré “Threads of Africa” Gown Spring 2017 Collection exhibit is at the Art Sanctuary gallery, 628 S. 16th St., until Saturday. The deadline to apply for the LaBré Prom Dress Giveaway is April 30. for more information, visit shoplabre.com.
Facebook knocks down massive spammer network
Facebook famously boasts it has 1.86 billion users who visit the social network every month. It looks like that number shrank on Friday.
The company, which previously announced it’s cracking down on fake accounts, said it’s disrupted a major spam operation being run out of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
“The apparent intent of the campaign was to deceptively gain new friend connections by liking and interacting primarily with popular publisher Pages on our platform, after which point they would send spam,” Shabnam Shaik, a Facebook technical program manager wrote in a blog post.
“We found that most of this activity was generated not through traditional mass account creation methods, but by more sophisticated means that try to mask the fact that the accounts are part of the same coordinated operation,” Shaik wrote. “By disrupting the campaign now, we expect that we will prevent this network of spammers from reaching its end goal of sending inauthentic material to large numbers of people.”
The number of authentic users matters for Facebook because the company charges marketers and advertisers to reach the most eyeballs. Facebook didn’t reveal the number of accounts affected by this crackdown.
Fake profiles, or bots, are an ongoing problem for social networks, and making software that generates the fake fans has become a big-money industry. In 2014, Facebook estimated 67.7 million to 137.8 million accounts were either duplicates or fake.
Twitter has had the same problem. About 15 percent of Twitter’s 319 million active monthly users are reportedly bots, according to research from the University of Southern California and Indiana University.
Source:
https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-knocks-down-spam-network-fake-accounts/
Cleveland police update on search for suspect in Facebook murder
The Cleveland Division of Police is searching for the suspect who shot and killed a man live on Facebook Sunday afternoon.
The murder happened on East 93rd in Cleveland. Police said the shooter broadcasted the deadly shooting live on his social media page and claimed to have committed other homicides. Police are still investigating those claims.
Cleveland police identified the suspect as Steve Stephens. He is 6 foot 1, weighs 244 pounds and is bald with a full beard. He is wearing a dark blue, and gray or black striped polo shirt.
He is driving a white Ford Fusion with temporary tags.
The suspect is considered armed and dangerous. If seen, do not approach. Call 911 immediately.
The Cleveland Division of the FBI said it is assisting in the investigation, as well as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
A Cleveland State University spokesman said the campus has issued a shelter in place or to stay away.
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Cleveland police update on search for suspect in Facebook murder
Authorities say they have found the killer of Google’s Vanessa Marcotte
Authorities have arrested a man suspected of killing Vanessa Marcotte, a 27-year-old Google employee who went out for a jog one afternoon and never came back.
Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 31, has been charged with aggravated assault and battery and assault with attempt to rape, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. announced Saturday. Early told reporters during a news conference that a murder charge is expected to be filed.
“We got him,” Early told reporters, according to the Associated Press. “We’re very comfortable that we’ve got Vanessa Marcotte’s killer.”
The arrest comes eight months after Marcotte’s body was found about half a mile from her mother’s house in Princeton, Mass., where she was visiting for the weekend. The health-care account manager for Google was last seen about 1 p.m. Aug. 7. Massachusetts State Police K-9 teams discovered her body in a wooded area later that night, the Boston Globe reported.
Investigators have received more than 1,300 tips from the public, but a break in the case happened after a state police trooper spotted a dark sport-utility vehicle driven by a man who matched the suspect’s description, according to the district attorney’s office.
The trooper wrote the license plate number on his hand and later tracked down the man’s address. The trooper went to the man’s home in Worcester, Mass., not far from Princeton. There, Colon-Ortiz provided the officer with a DNA sample, the district attorney’s office said.
The DNA matched a sample taken from Marcotte’s hands. Police believe that Marcotte fought her attacker, scratching his face, neck and arms, the AP reported.
“It’s through her determined fight and her efforts that we obtained the DNA of her killer,” Early told reporters.
Colon-Ortiz is being held on a $10 million bail and will have his first court hearing on Tuesday.
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