BP becomes latest oil giant to invest in electric vehicle charging

BP, the British oil company, announced today an investment in a US-based electric vehicle charging station manufacturer in order to trial charging technology at its own retail sites by the end of the year. Oil companies have been increasingly interested in electric vehicle charging as they start to see electric vehicles slowly taking over the car industry.
Read more: https://electrek.co/2018/01/30/bp-oil-giant-invest-electric-vehicle-charging/?source=Snapzu

Apple's market value drops $45 billion in a week on fears of plunging iPhone X demand

Nikkei reports Apple is cutting iPhone X production due to weaker-than-expected demand for the high-end smartphone.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/29/apple-falls-as-iphone-x-order-cut-reports-mount.html?source=Snapzu

Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Create Healthcare Company to Cut Costs

Amazon.com Inc, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co will form a healthcare company aimed at cutting costs for their U.S. employees, they said on Tuesday, sending shares in the broad healthcare sector sharply lower.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-healthcare/amazon-berkshire-jpmorgan-create-healthcare-company-to-cut-costs-idUSKBN1FJ1NF?source=Snapzu

The Hot Mess Of The Free Market’s Side Effects

How every little thing affects every other thing… By Rob Larson.
Read more: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/01/the-hot-mess-of-the-free-markets-side-effects/?source=Snapzu

An ER visit, a $12,000 bill — and a health insurer that wouldn’t pay

A new insurance policy expects patients to diagnose themselves.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/29/16906558/anthem-emergency-room-coverage-denials-inappropriate?ICID=ref_fark?source=Snapzu

Meet the CIA

Guns, Drugs and Money. By Jeffrey St. Clair, Alexander Cockburn.
Read more: https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/26/meet-the-cia-guns-drugs-and-money/?source=Snapzu

U.S. Farmers have much to lose if NAFTA Deal Collapses

A collapse of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to scrap, could create the most profound disruption for U.S. farmers who produce grains, meats and dairy products sold to Canada and Mexico.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-effect-nafta-farmers/u-s-farmers-have-much-to-lose-if-nafta-deal-collapses-idUSKBN1FH0O0?source=Snapzu

Darwin on Endless Trial

Morten Høi Jensen weighs two takes on Darwin’s legacy.
Read more: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/darwin-endless-trial/?source=Snapzu

Most Business Laptops Still Have Horrible, Low-Res Screens. Here's Why.

Businesses are still buying laptops with low-resolution displays at an alarming rate, hurting productivity to save a few dollars.
Read more: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/businesses-shouldnt-buy-1366-laptops?source=Snapzu

The death effect on artists prices actually occurs when they’re alive.

According to economists the death effect of artists prices is actually only observable for the five years before an artist dies. The theoretical underpinnings for their conjecture are simple, but sophisticated in their application. Prices are governed by the interaction between supply, the quantity and quality of a good or service, and the demand for it. In the art world, demand for an artist is influenced by many factors, such as critical reception, museum shows, and which collectors or institutions own works. But over the course of an artist’s lifetime, supply is governed chiefly by one factor: the artist who produces the work.
Read more: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-death-effect-artists-prices-occurs-alive??source=Snapzu

How to Get Your Prospects on the Yes Ladder (and Make the Sale)

People follow predictable patterns, and if you understand these patterns, you can use them to your advantage in your sales process. As Robert Cialdini notes in Influence: The Psychology for Persuasion, “automatic, stereotyped behavior is prevalent in much of human action, because in many cases it is the most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it is simply necessary.”
Read more: https://www.phoneburner.com/blog/how-to-prime-prospects-to-say-yes/?source=Snapzu

The mystery of the rounder, sweeter chocolate bar.

People are known to associate sweetness with roundness and angularity with bitterness and, hence, making a traditionally rectangular food rounder may be expected to alter the perceived taste by priming notions of sweetness in the mind of the consumer. (2013)
Read more: https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2044-7248-2-28?source=Snapzu

Class action lawsuit accuses Ticketmaster of using ‘drip pricing’ to deceive Canadians

Online ticketing giant Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation are facing a class-action lawsuit accusing them of deceptive marketing and pricing. The litigation comes on the heels of a Competition Bureau lawsuit which alleged widespread use of “drip pricing,” a practice in which customers pay far higher prices than advertised, due to the addition of various fees and surcharges.
Read more: https://globalnews.ca/news/3990837/ticketmaster-live-nation-class-action-lawsuit/?source=Snapzu

Feds investigating select Ford Explorers after drivers complain of feeling sick

Dizziness, nausea, and vomiting are not things typically associated with a drive to the store. But after more than 1,300 complaints of similar symptoms reported, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ( NHTSA) says it is investigating Ford Explorer SUVs. They are looking at models from the years 2011-2017. Ford says they haven't found any problems that could explain why someone would develop those symptoms. The automobile manufacturer even says the SUVs are safe to use.
Read more: http://abcnews4.com/news/local/feds-investigating-select-ford-explorers-after-drivers-complain-of-feeling-sick?source=Snapzu

85 cool and unusual things to do in Belgium.

Discover 85 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Belgium from The Blue Forest to Vlindertuin.
Read more: https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/belgium?source=Snapzu

Woman sues Walmart for racial discrimination with beauty products

A woman filed a lawsuit against Walmart claiming race discrimination for having to be escorted to a register to buy African-American beauty products that were locked in a case. Essie Grundy, who was joined by her husband, daughter and attorney Gloria Allred, talked about the suit during a press conference Friday. She shot cellphone video of the incident, describing what she found at the Walmart.
Read more: http://abc7.com/business/woman-sues-walmart-for-racial-discrimination-with-beauty-products/2994249/?source=Snapzu

Vancouver to adopt ‘locals-first’ housing strategy

Vancouver locals are about to get first crack at some new condo projects in the region, as developers are either being forced to comply with new regulations or they are voluntarily changing tactics as they face an increasingly irate public. As the city's real estate market continues to move out of reach for many local residents, reports of condo units being presold to foreign buyers have generated anger and concern. So now at least three projects in Vancouver are moving to a locals-first strategy when preselling and more are to come, say marketers and city officials.
Read more: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vancouver-to-adopt-locals-first-housing-strategy/article37741666/?source=Snapzu

Trump’s Entire Nativist Agenda Is Based on a Lie

Behind the scenes, the president’s businesses are begging to employ foreign workers. By Bess Levin. (Jan.19, 2018)
Read more: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/01/trumps-entire-nativist-agenda-is-based-on-a-lie-immigration-trump-winery?source=Snapzu

Trump’s National Defense Strategy Has the Pentagon Popping Champagne

Along with the entire the military-industrial complex. By Andrew J. Bacevich.
Read more: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/trumps-national-defense-strategy-has-the-pentagon-popping-the-champagne/?source=Snapzu

The Dead Enders

In district after district, the Democratic Party machinery is throwing its weight behind congressional candidates who are out of step with the national mood. By Ryan Grim, Lee Fang.
Read more: https://theintercept.com/2018/01/23/dccc-democratic-primaries-congress-progressives/?source=Snapzu

Ideas for food-based cryptocurrencies

How many shares of LaCroix'n can I interest you in?
Read more: https://mashable.com/2018/01/25/cryptocurrency-you-can-eat-bitcoin/?utm_cid=hp-r-2#6pd1sVD4pmqA?source=Snapzu

Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People?

Humanity has 30 years to find out.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/charles-mann-can-planet-earth-feed-10-billion-people/550928/?source=Snapzu

Ford aims to patent an autonomous police car that can ticket you

Welcome to hell, everyone.
Read more: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/ford-patents-an-autonomous-police-car-that-can-ticket-you/?source=Snapzu

Gary Vaynerchuk Is Trying To Kill You

There’s a certain message you know you’re going to get when you read Gary Vee’s blog or watch his videos. And it appeals to a lot of folks, I mean I’ve found it motivating and inspiring from time to time myself. So this isn’t meant to be a fucking hit piece on him. He does what he does, and that’s great. But there’s an underlying danger to his message.
Read more: https://medium.com/hi-my-name-is-jon/gary-vaynerchuk-is-trying-to-kill-you-7ad6c0457db9?source=Snapzu

'Perfect storm': Global financial system showing danger signs, says senior OECD economist

The world financial system is as dangerously stretched today as it was at the peak of the last bubble but this time the authorities are caught in a "policy trap" with few defences left, a veteran central banker has warned. Nine years of emergency money has had a string of perverse effects and lured emerging markets into debt dependency, without addressing the structural causes of the global disorder.
Read more: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/the-economy/perfect-storm-global-financial-system-showing-danger-signs-says-senior-oecd-economist-20180123-p4yyr2.html?source=Snapzu

The U.S. Can No Longer Hide From Its Deep Poverty Problem

We might direct assistance to the millions of Americans whose suffering is as bad as that of poor people in Africa or Asia.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/opinion/poverty-united-states.html?source=Snapzu

Monsanto’s Fingerprints All Over Newsweek’s Hit on Organic Food

Henry Miller is still failing to disclose his collaborations with Monsanto as he attacks their critics and competitors .
Read more: https://usrtk.org/pesticides/monsantos-fingerprints-all-over-newsweeks-hit-on-organic-food/?source=Snapzu

Amazon pulls products featuring racist slogan

Amazon removed an assortment of products from its website that depicted a racist slogan advocating for the slavery. The products in question had images of pyramids above the slogan “Slavery gets s–t done.”
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/amazon-pulls-products-featuring-racist-slogan/?source=Snapzu

Grumpy Cat wins $710,000 coffee lawsuit

A cat made famous online because of its permanent scowl has been awarded $710,000 (£500,000) in a copyright case by a California federal court. Grumpy Cat Limited sued the owners of US coffee company Grenade for exceeding an agreement over the cat's image. The company only had rights to use the cat to sell its "Grumppuccino" iced drink, but sold other Grumpy products.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42808521?source=Snapzu

Starbucks to increase wages, improve benefits for 150K employees

Starbucks said Wednesday it will increase wages and enact other perks for more than 150,000 U.S. employees as a direct result of recent tax reform, joining other corporations in rewarding workers. The Seattle-based coffee chain is giving all of its U.S.-based hourly and salaried workers an unspecified raise in April, in addition to a wage increase already dispersed earlier in the Starbucks’ fiscal year, which began last October. Starbucks says it is investing roughly $120 million in the wage increases.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2018/01/24/starbucks-to-increase-wages-improve-benefits-for-150k-employees.html?source=Snapzu

The Internet Is Enabling a New Kind of Poorly Paid Hell

For some Americans, sub-minimum-wage online tasks are the only work available.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/amazon-mechanical-turk/551192/?source=Snapzu

Milford Track: 'World's finest walk' in danger of becoming just another bucket list tick

Epic trail in the wild south was once a path to inner peace but popularity has trampled its tranquillity. Dawn is hours away on a cool Fiordland night but the packed bunk rooms of Clinton Hut are seething with activity. Tramping boots stomp against wooden floors, bunks creek as their inhabitants fling their bodies around, and an urgent, sleep-fogged crescendo of angry whispers is building in the gloom.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/22/worlds-finest-walk-new-zealands-milford-track-spoilt-tourists?source=Snapzu

In-N-Out employees can work their way up to $160,000 a year with no degree or previous experience

In-N-Out Burger pays employees really well, with store managers pulling in six-figure yearly salaries.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/in-n-out-employee-pay-2018-1?source=Snapzu

Inside The Fight For One Of The World's Biggest Antivirus Companies

Kaspersky Lab is under fire in the US over concerns that it could provide its clients' private — and at times secret — information to the Russian government. A new investigation by Russian news site Meduza, published here exclusively in English, goes inside the battle for control of the company — a battle sources say was won by the side allied with Russian security services.
Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ilyazhegulev/russia-kaspersky-antivirus?utm_term=.xnl4Re03ob#.jwOXqB8Kd5?source=Snapzu

Why Bitcoin is taken more seriously than Dogecoin

Cryptocurrencies encompass a wide range of technologies, communities and uses. Not all of them are taken seriously.
Read more: https://theconversation.com/why-bitcoin-is-taken-more-seriously-than-dogecoin-90224?source=Snapzu

Exclusive: U.S. sanctions curb Microsoft sales to hundreds of Russian

Two of Microsoft’s official distributors in Russia have imposed restrictions on sales of Microsoft software to more than 200 Russian companies following new U.S. sanctions, according to notifications circulated by the distributors.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-microsoft-exclu/exclusive-u-s-sanctions-curb-microsoft-sales-to-hundreds-of-russian-firms-idUSKBN1FB0MU?source=Snapzu

America Has a Foreign Tourism Problem

As more international travelers decide to skip the United States, 10 business associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Restaurant Association, have created a travel industry group aimed at reversing the growing unpopularity of the U.S. as a vacation destination. Historically, the U.S. had only to sit back and let foreign tourists and their money roll in.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/how-to-reverse-america-s-foreign-tourist-problem?source=Snapzu

McDonald's Just Made a Stunning Announcement That Will Completely Change the Future of Fast Food

In the United States alone, McDonald's sells more than 1 billion pounds of beef and more than 500 million cups of coffee each year. While I don't eat at McDonald's very often anymore (the few times I eat a burger in any given year, my place of choice is In-N-Out), I have unwrapped plenty of Quarter Pounders with Cheese, Egg McMuffins, and other delectable McTreats in my time.
Read more: https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/mcdonalds-just-made-a-stunning-announcement-that-will-completely-change-future-of-fast-food.html?source=Snapzu

Bitcoin Mania

Sue Halpern reviews “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World” by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, and “Attack of the Fifty Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum and Smart Contracts” by David Gerard. (Dec. 21, 2017)
Read more: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/01/18/bitcoin-mania/?source=Snapzu

Paul Krugman got the working class wrong. That blunder had consequences

One of the most influential commentators in the US now recognises that white working-class voters have shifted en masse to the Republicans. By Thomas Frank. (Jan. 10, 2018)
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/10/paul-krugman-mistake-white-working-class-voters-republicans?source=Snapzu

There Are 2 Vacant Investor-Owned Homes for Every Homeless Person in America

The difference between the greed of the wealthy and the precariousness of American workers is painfully stark when looking at vacant homes. 2016 figures from ATTOM Data Solutions — which publishes comprehensive housing data — show that wealthy investors are buying up more and more real estate as a moneymaking venture while housing prices and homelessness continue to skyrocket across America.
Read more: https://gritpost.com/vacant-properties-homelessness/?source=Snapzu

Why Are Some People More Creative Than Others?

Creativity is often defined as the ability to come up with new and useful ideas. Like intelligence, it can be considered a trait that everyone—not just creative “geniuses” like Picasso and Steve Jobs—possesses in some capacity. It’s not just your ability to draw a picture or design a product. We all need to think creatively in our daily lives, whether it’s figuring out how to make dinner using leftovers or fashioning a Halloween costume out of clothes in your closet.
Read more: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-are-some-people-more-creative-than-others/?source=Snapzu

Soon, Cars in Denmark Will Only Be Taxed at 100%

Copenhagen’s reputation as a cyclists’ paradise isn’t just due to a lack of hills: Registration duties of up to 180 percent mean Denmark is one of the most expensive countries in which to buy a new car.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-29/soon-cars-in-denmark-will-only-be-taxed-at-100?source=Snapzu

Bitcoin Wallet Ledger increases Mammoth 75 million dollars in B Series funding

Cryptocurrency Hardware Release Software Ledger announced a new round of 75 million dollars B series funding to speed up operations and keep up with demand for products such as its Bitcoin Wallet Hardware. British Ledger Financial Insurance Company, founded in Paris, raised 75 million dollars from investors in a series B run by Britain’s Draper Espirit venture capital company. “The round is one of the largest B-series traditional investment in blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies so far except for ICO’s,” Ledger said in an announcement today.
Read more: https://247cryptonews.com/bitcoin-wallet-ledger-increases-mammoth-75-million-dollars-in-b-series-funding/?source=Snapzu

Movie Theater Attendance Hits 24-Year Low, Ticket Prices Rise Nearly 4 Percent

The National Alliance of Theater Owners (NATO) announced Wednesday that the national ticket average for 2017 rose 3.7 percent year-over-year to $8.93, up from $8.65 last year. At that average, the estimated number of movie tickets sold last year is 1.23 billion. While that is only a rough estimate that does not account for the higher ticket prices for premium formats and theaters in more expensive cities like New York and Los Angeles, NATO’s estimate is the lowest since 1993, when “Jurassic Park” was the top grossing film of the year and an estimated 1.24 billion tickets were sold.
Read more: https://www.thewrap.com/movie-theater-attendance-hits-24-year-low-ticket-prices-rise-nearly-4-percent/?source=Snapzu

Why Microsoft knows it needs to beef up its Xbox leadership

Microsoft announced today that Phil Spencer has appointed a new boss of games to handle the role that the executive had previously handled as head of the company’s games business. Spencer will serve as executive vice president in charge of all things games at Microsoft — including hardware, games, and platforms. But Matt Booty, the former head of the Minecraft business, will now be corporate vice president of games in charge of all of Microsoft’s studios. The various studio executives will report to Booty, who in turn will report to Spencer
Read more: https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/17/how-microsofts-phil-spencer-chose-his-new-top-game-executive/amp/?source=Snapzu

Apple announces plans to repatriate billions in overseas cash, says it will 'contribute' $350 billion to the economy over 5 years

Apple on Wednesday made a slew of announcements about its investment in and contribution to the U.S. economy in part because of the new tax law. The headline from Apple is that it will make a $350 billion "contribution" to the U.S. economy over the next five years, although it's unclear exactly how the company came to that number.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/17/apple-announces-350-billion-investment-20k-jobs-over-5-years.html?source=Snapzu

Panama hotel votes to drop Trump, but his company won't go

The owners of a Trump-branded hotel in Panama sued President Donald Trump's family-owned company in federal court Tuesday, alleging that the namesake business committed mismanagement and fraud. The lawsuit includes previously confidential arbitration filings before the International Chamber of Commerce. It alleges that Trump Hotels tried to "bully, intimidate and harass" its way out of a $15 million arbitration claim.
Read more: http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Hotel-News/Panama-hotel-votes-to-drop-Trump-but-his-company-wont-go?source=Snapzu

Egg Company Reports $74M Loss Due to Vegan Alternatives

Giant egg company Cal-Maine Foods’ CEO says vegan alternatives are responsible for the company’s first big loss of profits in over a decade. Large egg company Cal-Maine Foods (CMF) released its earnings report for 2017, and the numbers looked dire. For the first time in over one decade, the company reported a loss of $74.3 million for the last fiscal year. The company’s profit plummeted by $24.5 million in its fourth-quarter alone—a stark contrast to the $367,000 that the company lost in the same time period last year.
Read more: https://thetimewire.com/egg-company-reports-74m-loss-due-vegan-alternatives/?source=Snapzu

In Venezuela, money has stopped working

How can Venezuelans possibly go on?
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/01/17/in-venezuela-money-has-stopped-working/?utm_term=.84e99056df34?source=Snapzu