Tronchón is a semi-firm traditional Spanish cheese from the Aragon region, made from a blend of pasteurized cow, goat, and sheep milk. It boasts a flattened globe shape with a distinctive deep crater, much like this newsletter. Truncheons, meanwhile, are how British police officers flatten protesters in the absence of guns. You might hear a copper yelling "truncheons at the ready" just before the riot police charge a crowd angry about bad dentistry and free, taxpayer-funded health care, for example. Today's cheddlines, meanwhile, are high on rich men throwing their weight around, which used to be a good reason to riot, I think? Charge! —Matt Davis, Need2Know Chedditor P.S. We've got a robotic arm that detaches from a robot body to scuttle off on its own, on our instagram! |
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"There are a number of things that Elon Musk could gain from Trump's election." — Emily Glazer |
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1. Your Sack of Doritos: Now With 20% More Doritos |
PepsiCo has announced it will be adding more chips to some of its snack packages in response to complaints of "shrinkflation" — a practice where companies reduce product size but not prices.
During a recent earnings call, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta mentioned that Tostitos bags would contain 20% more chips and additional bags of Doritos would be included in multipacks to offer more value to consumers.
The decision follows a revenue drop and a cut in PepsiCo's annual forecast, driven by North American consumers opting for less expensive brands amid rising inflation. PepsiCo had faced criticism last year after a French supermarket chain highlighted that the company had decreased the volume of certain products while increasing prices. #BUSTED. Read More |
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2. Battle of the Bazillionaires: Mark Cuban for Kamala Harris, Elon Musk for Donald Trump |
Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur widely recognized for his role on "Shark Tank" and as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has been campaigning for Kamala Harris in the upcoming presidential race.
At a recent campaign event in Wisconsn, Cuban said Donald Trump's proposed trade tariffs would "spoil Christmas" by making gifts more expensive. Trump "thinks that China pays for them," Cuban said of proposed tariffs.
"This is same guy that thought that Mexico would pay for the wall," he said.
Trump has repeatedly said that tariffs will bring in massive revenue from overseas, fund tax cuts and boost U.S. industries. But U.S. importers are the ones who directly pay those tariffs to the government, and economists say enacting Trump's plans would raise costs on Americans.
Cuban's backing of Harris signals his trust in her ability to understand and address the challenges faced by small business owners. Meanwhile, Elon "Elon Musk" Musk has been campaigning for Trump, likening the country's Southern Border to "a zombie apocalypse" and saying "it's not safe to walk around" U.S. cities. Crime is down across the country over the last year and Musk travels everywhere with a phalanx of security.
"If we get four more years of this," with Harris elected, "we're going to be fully in 'Mad Max,'" Musk added, presumably hoping that the backdrop might finally sell a few more Cybertrucks. Read More |
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| Addams Family's Thing went robotic. 🖐️🤖
Swiss researchers have created a hand that can detach from a robotic arm and crawl off to grab things.
Typically, robotic arms are fixed to keep them stable, which limits their reach. But this new hand, developed at EPFL's Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory, has a unique design that lets it act independently. Its fingers can bend both ways, allowing some to lift objects while others scuttle around like little legs. |
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3. Richard Branson to Co-Pilot Space Balloon's First $125K Passenger Flight Next Year |
Sir Richard Branson is set to co-pilot the first crewed flight of his hydrogen-powered "space balloon," Spaceship Neptune, offering a luxurious stratospheric flight experience for $125,000 per passenger.
Over 1,800 seats have already been booked for these flights, set to commence in 2025, following a successful test flight last month. Travelers will soar 20 miles above Earth, enjoy fine dining, cocktails, plush seating, and onboard Wi-Fi in a window-filled cabin during a six-hour journey, hopefully not followed by a slightly briefer plunge to their doom. The flight will have a two-hour ascent and similar (we hope!) descent, will allow passengers extensive time to admire Earth's curvature (or, perhaps, its unlikely flatness?) without the need for astronaut-level fitness.
Branson, an investor in the balloon's designer, Space Perspective, and a notorious adventurer, brings his extensive ballooning experience to this new venture, having previously set world records crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Read More |
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4. Will Elon Musk Help or Hinder Donald Trump? |
Wall Street Journal reporter Emily Glazer joined us to talk about Elon's $45 million-a-month support of Donald Trump. For context, if your net worth is $400,000, the equivalent investment in Trump's campaign would be $72 a month.
"We had reported back in May that Elon Musk and Donald Trump had been getting closer," she said. "But he was never fully saying that he was endorsing Trump. It was much more anti-Biden, then the assassination attempt happened, and he decided to be more public about his support of Donald Trump."
But why on earth would a man worth $247 billion decide to allot less than one-5000th of his net worth each month to elect a man president who might be sympathetic to his business interests?
"There are a number of things that Elon Musk could gain" from Trump's election, she said. "He is all about deregulation. Space X is heavily regulated. It's one of the top government contractors on the defense side, and there are several different regulators that oversee different aspects of that. There's also Tesla. Obviously, electric vehicle policy is going to be huge going forward."
Musk-ivation: It's not exactly rocket science.
"Elon Musk has roughly 200 million followers on X, so we don't know how many of those people are U.S. citizens, real people, whether they are registered to vote, whether they can vote. But it's still a huge number," she said. "You don't know for sure, but you do know he has a massive following, and you can't discount that. It certainly does not hurt Donald Trump that he's got Elon Musk."
Unless, of course, it does hurt him. Trump is trailing Kamala Harris by 0.01% in Pennsylvania this morning. My guess is that the number of people who'll be delighted to see Musk campaigning for Trump are about the same as the number of people who'll be repulsed by it, so the investment will be net neutral. Read More |
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5. Starbucks Baristas Complain of Staffing Shortage |
A recent internal survey at Starbucks reveals widespread dissatisfaction among baristas who are grappling with understaffing issues across the chain's 10,000 U.S. stores. Only a third report adequate staffing levels, identifying this as the most significant problem, involving "skeleton" crews managing heavy workloads. Equipment reliability adds to the challenge, with less than half of staff saying their stores have reliable machines, affecting their service efficiency.
Totally unrelatedly, over 11,000 workers at 500 Starbucks stores in at least 40 states have voted to unionize although Starbucks has fought and strongly opposed unionization for decades. Starbucks baristas start on about $15 an hour.
As new CEO Brian "I Commute to Seattle on a Private Jet From San Diego" Niccol assumes leadership, he also needs to grapple with an uptick in online orders that exacerbate customer wait times. Niccol, recognized for doubling sales at Chipotle through digital initiatives, has promised baristas the "tools and time" necessary.
Despite efforts which include bolstered staffing in 3,500 stores this year, upgraded appliances, and a new barista role to streamline operations, managers still report being overburdened and sometimes unable to complete administrative duties due to the necessity of assisting with customer service. Some employees forego breaks and handle multiple roles to cope with the demand.
Starbucks states it has seen "consistent improvement" and maintains that most employees acknowledge competitive pay and satisfactory working hours. Only a quarter of staff at premium Reserve and Roastery locations feel staffing is sufficient, however, with just half willing to endorse Starbucks as an excellent workplace. I'm sure it's fine. Read More |
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