Made in ...?!

It's the Hat.

As labor costs have risen and currency appreciated, China is slowly losing work to countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc. at least for cheaper, labor-intensive goods like casual clothes, toys and simple electronics.

For DBL Group, employs 9,000 people making T-shirts and other knitwear, business has been so good that the company is finishing a new 10-story building with open floors the size of soccer fields, planted with row after row of sewing machines.

The company that handles sourcing and apparel manufacturing for companies like Wal-Mart and Liz Claiborne, reported that its production in Bangladesh jumped 20 percent last year, while China, slid 5 percent.

Bangladesh is the third-biggest exporter of clothing after China, and Turkey [WTO] and could probably absorb many more of China’s 20 million garment industry jobs as the Chinese workers demand higher salaries.

With many counterfeit product from China, a small change in the label is a huge business to others " Made in Bangladesh."

Just a thought.

Faking Disability.... Shame.

Image is not related.

She alleged that an unknown male passenger spat on her and threatened her with bodily harm, causing her to fear for her life during her employment with the NYCTA as a bus operator.

She told a transit shrink she couldn’t work because of “anxiety and avoidant behavior when boarding and traveling on a bus”.  Claimed not doing any type of work and couldn’t exercise.

She posted photos of herself on Facebook and Instagram driving around a van with “Celebrities Mobile Boutique’’ painted on it, peddling necklaces, etc. in Harlem.

She was busted and charged with grand larceny after netting $84,000 in workers’ comp since her 2012 “breakdown.’’

After her arrest, she posted a photo of herself in one of her skirts bragging, “Today was grrrreaat!!!!!  “Shout out to all my #celebutants for your support. Now let’s see what tomorrow brings, I’m making a few skirts tonight, since I sold out today,” she wrote.

She could and should get 15 years on the grand-larceny of the public funds charge.

Just a thought.

Alibaba... Don't Buy it..!!

Buy Swim Suit.

Investors should steer clear of Alibaba, valuation expert Aswath Damodaran said.

Investors are not getting a piece of a company, but getting a piece of a shell that owns a company where a politburo, basically, sets the board of directors. To pay fair price and get treated as a second-class citizen  is not a good deal.

Investors marry companies and have to be in for the long term. But in this case it is scary that investors have absolutely no power over how this company run, or what happens in the future.

It's a merchandising company that does it really well, has made a lot of money in China, but can't attach a $250 or $300 billion value.

Alibaba became more China-focused in the last year than less China-focused.

It's never been a particularly innovative company.

Jack Ma has power for life?

Add to all this, the Chinese market is to a great extent ambiguous.

Just a thought.

Missing Student.

The family of missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham pleaded for help in finding their daughter whose disappearance this weekend has left them "heartbroken."

Graham’s apartment is off campus and she and other students were drinking heavily that night and were “fairly well intoxicated." Graham was seen at a pizza restaurant before she and a classmate headed to another party, authorities said. They left at 12:15 a.m., with Graham appearing to be walking home alone, according to police.

The 18-year-old sophomore was last heard from after 1 a.m. Saturday when she texted friends saying she was on her way to a party but never showed up.

 

Unethical...!

Alzheimer Patient.

NYS attorney general filed an antitrust lawsuit seeking to stop a pharmaceutical company from forcing patients with Alzheimer’s to switch to a new version of a widely used drug. The lawsuit contends that the switch is designed to blunt competition from low-priced generic versions of the medication.

Forest Lab announced that it would stop selling the existing tablet form of the drug, Namenda, in favor of new extended-release capsules called Namenda XR that can be taken once a day instead of twice.

While the company said that patients preferred the newer drug, it has made little secret of its desire to switch all patients to the newer form, which has a longer patent life, before the old tablets face generic competition. The strategy would make it much harder for the generics to gain traction.

The step taken by Forest Lab. is intended to maintain its monopoly even after its patent expires.

“A drug company manipulating vulnerable patients and forcing physicians to alter treatment plans unnecessarily, simply to protect corporate profits, is unethical and illegal,” the attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said in a statement.

Remedies is very easy. Since the company abandoned their patent drug, the Generic should jump right into production before the patent expires. In addition, Walmart and the likes should be allowed to import the item from other Countries since US patients are left out in the dark.  Way to go AG.

Just a thought.

Separation-Scotland

Voters in Scotland will decide on Thursday whether to continue a 307-year partnership with England or declare independence from the United Kingdom. How did a seemingly fruitful union reach the breaking point? 

Business leaders and economists worry that an independent Scotland will not be able to prosper alone: its economy relies on revenue from North Sea oil, which has been falling sharply, and its per capita government spending is higher than the rest of Britain.

Scotland would not be able to use the British pound as its currency. And it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible” for Scotland to join the European Union.

Major financial institutions such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, and the insurance giant Standard Life, have indicated they would move their registered offices from Scotland and incorporate in England.

Around two thousand Londoners gathered in Trafalgar Square early on Monday evening in an effort to persuade Scots to reject independence when the country goes to the polls on Thursday.

The European Union has 18 Countries, big and small. The world is moving together and that would be the outcome.

Scotland will stay in the UK. Just a thought.

Humiliated...

Iraq forces and Peshmerga pushed ISIS out of few villages in Iraq. As they entered one village, a horror story of a woman, tied to a tree, naked, repeatedly raped by the ISIS fighters. Another woman was discovered in a second village, similar treatment. The ISIS fighters, it appears, are “rewarded” by having their way with captured women.

ISIS has received attention for its savage beheadings, executions of captured soldiers and men in conquered towns and villages, violence against Christians and Shiites, and the destruction of non-Sunni shrines and places of worship. But its barbarity against women has been treated as a side issue.

Arab and Muslim governments have been virtually silent on ISIS’s systemic degradation, abuse, and humiliation of women. To the men of ISIS, women are an inferior race, to be sold off as slaves.

From ISIS-captured territory in Syria, a photograph of a line of women, covered from head to toe and tied to one another by a rope, as they were being led to a makeshift slave market.  ISIS set up marriage bureaus in captured Syrian towns to recruit virgins and widows to marry fighters, and also called on fellow jihadists in other countries to recruit brides for the fighters. 

[Haleh Esfandiari, The Wall Street Journal]

The Family-Palin!!

Sarah and Todd Palin had been invited to the 40th birthday party for a champion snowmobile racer and brought the children along. Most of the party was outside with dancing and live band.

At one point during the event, Bristol allegedly unleashed a “flurry of blows” at the host because a boy wanted to “have a go” at her sister Willow, the blog said.

The former “Dancing with the Stars” contestant  who has a 5-year-old son, Tripp, stumbled onto the floor and was ushered outside.

Outside, the entire Palin crew got involved, with Track allegedly ripping off his shirt and starting to throw punches. Todd Palin ended up with a bloody nose after the brawl, but it wasn’t clear how, the blog said.

 

According to Alaska political blogger Amanda Coyne, who also reported on the fracas, Sarah Palin yelled at one point, “Don’t you know who I am?”
One partygoer responded, “This isn’t some damned hillbilly reality show!”

Palin family members climbed back into their limousine. Before they left, however, Mrs. Palin unleashed several rounds of profanity and Track Palin made a vulgar gesture toward the crowd.

So what 's the big deal? The story is not clear. Someone must have an accurate video of the events.  Just a thought.

L'Oreal's App.

Lara Stone.

L’Oréal, the French beauty giant, released a Makeup Genius App that lets you see yourself in real time wearing products that aren’t actually on your face.

When you smile, pucker up, or wink, the virtual cosmetics move along with you. If you turn rapidly to the side, the screen lags a second before the digital mask jostles back into place. You can apply, say, a lip liner with a lipstick or choose from full looks such as Evening Smokey and Jennifer’s Nude, created with a bundle of products.

If you hold your phone here rather than here, the lighting will be different, and the color will look different.

The app has been downloaded more than 1.7 million times in the U.S. and France, the two countries where it’s available. Of course, L’Oréal hopes all that tapping will lead to purchases, either through its built-in e-commerce platform or at a local store.

The result is mesmerizing but can look over-the-top: Don't try it when home sick, it only emphasized sunken eyes and sallow complexion. 

It is a great idea.  Just a thought.

Contrave... Weight Loss Pill.

 

Contrave helped patients lose more weight compared to a placebo.

With Diet and Exercise, the drug is approved for adults with a body mass index of 27 or greater, with high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or high cholesterol and  with a BMI of 30 or above without compounding conditions.

In people with diabetes patients lost an average of 2 percent more weight compared to the placebo. 36% of people taking Contrave lost at least 5% of body weight compared to 18% of people taking a placebo.

The extended release of naltrexone and Bupropion combined in Contrave.

The diet pill can cause seizures, raise blood pressure and heart rates.  The FDA warns risks of increased suicidal thoughts behaviors and reported neuro-psychiatric.

Defined minor exercise and selective eating will do miracle.    [W.P.-Abby Phillip]

Just a thought.