Ford recalls 518K SUVs in US over possible fuel leak, fire risk
The Ford Motor Company is recalling more than 500,000 sport utility vehicles across the United States over fire risks resulting from a possibly cracked fuel injector. Ford, the second-largest car manufacturer in the U.S., said that while the likelihood of fires was rare, it was compelled to offer the recall after being informed of at least 20 such incidents….
https://nypost.com/2022/11/24/ford-recalls-518k-suvs-in-us-over-possible-fuel-leak-fire-risk/
Ford recalls 518K SUVs in US over possible fuel leak, fire risk
The Ford Motor Company is recalling more than 500,000 sport utility vehicles across the United States over fire risks resulting from a possibly cracked fuel injector. Ford, the second-largest car manufacturer in the U.S., said that while the likelihood of fires was rare, it was compelled to offer the recall after being informed of at least 20 such incidents….
https://nypost.com/2022/11/24/ford-recalls-518k-suvs-in-us-over-possible-fuel-leak-fire-risk/
Yankees-Mets collusion charges in Judge-deGrom cases don’t hold water
Just as there are reasons for the Yankees not to pursue Jacob deGrom, there are reasons for the Mets not to focus on Aaron Judge.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/24/why-yankees-mets-collusion-charges-dont-hold-water/
Giants will now reveal just how legitimate they really are
If the Giants are as good as they looked not so long ago, they will find a way, too. Starting next week.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/24/giants-will-now-reveal-just-how-legitimate-they-really-are/
Man who tried to sexually assault woman on moving NYC subway train arrested: cops
The NYPD alleged Tapia removed his pants and underwear just before 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 17.
WeWork China’s former tech head introduces on-demand work pods for mental health
At a time when China’s zero-COVID policy continues to interrupt offline work and face-to-face interactions, Dominic Penaloza, the former head of innovation and technology at WeWork China, is introducing a bold idea — on-demand work booths placed in public locations — and has managed to quickly raise capital for the business.
Penaloza named his new venture Peace in hope of boosting mental health for those using the company’s quiet, privacy-first space to avoid crowded offices and noisy cafes. Peace announced this week that it has raised a seven-figure funding round from a group of business partners and entrepreneurs.
Peace is the latest iteration of Penaloza’s continuous experiment with flexible work. In 2019, the executive spearheaded an internal project to offer pay-as-you-go spaces at WeWork China. A year later, he moved on to found his own proptech-focused startup studio, which incubated a similar on-demand workspace service but tapping third-party landlords.
Seven-month-old Peace launched its first batch of portable pods last week at three high-end malls and two office buildings in the heart of Shanghai. It aims to deploy 1,000 of them across the metropolis in the coming year, Penaloza said on a video call from one of the pods in the mall.
“We are selling privacy on demand,” the founder said when I asked if the booths would be equipped with security cameras, an infrastructure that has become ubiquitous across China and often raises privacy concerns.
“We don’t plan to put cameras in… I think it’s more important to make our users feel that it’s really 100% of private space. No one can hear what they’re saying. And of course, no one can see their screen or them.”
Each Peace pod is 35 square meters big with a meeting table that fits four people. The portable box comes with an app-enabled lock, electric sockets, WiFi, soundproof walls, and ventilation fans. It also features COVID-19 prevention technology provided by a startup called LumenLabs that utilizes the novel far UVC method to inactivate viruses and bacteria.
Each of Peace’s work pods fits four people. Image: Peace
The long list of equipment explains the steep cost of the pods — in the mid tens of thousands of yuan (1 USD = 7.16 yuan as of writing) to manufacture one.
Penaloza believes his team has figured out a sustainable revenue model. Each pod costs 11.25 yuan per 15 minutes, but this is a reference price, the founder said, and in the future, the cost can vary based on location and real-time supply and demand. It isn’t cheap — an Americano costs about 25 yuan at an average cafe in China’s top-tier cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen, but if four people were to split the cost of 45 yuan, plus the upsides that a pod brings — privacy and stable internet — and if Peace reaches a meaningful density, it could be a viable business.
Peace also found a sweet spot in its relationship with landlords, including retail spaces, office building lobbies, urban renewable spaces, transportation hubs, exhibition centers, and residential developments.
“We don’t rent the space,” explained Penaloza. “Our formula for working with real estate companies is one of our most secret sauces because this hardware, in the landlord language, is actually an asset enhancement. It should be part of the renovation budget that they have from year to year to make the building better and keep the building competitive, so Peace pods would attract white-collar people to spend more time in a building.”
“Even when we put it in an office lobby, even though everyone has an office upstairs, people still use it, especially in China where hybrid work is not popular yet, because small meeting rooms in offices are frequently fully utilized, and everyone needs peace and quiet from time to time,” the founder added.
Working with landlords also helps Peace save on maintenance costs. Since the COVID outbreak, the Chinese government has started asking operators of enclosed spaces to clean their facilities after use. Peace’s tech platform automatically alerts the property manager at the end of every booking, and a cleaner will be sent to the pod, a process that can be as quick as spraying surfaces with disinfectant and wiping them.
Investors in Peace consist mostly of entrepreneurs, including Joachim Poylo and Francois Ammand from Aden Group, Chris Brooke from Brooke Husband, Pablo Fernandez from CleanAir Spaces, Patrick Berbon from CM Venture, Hei Ming Cheng from Kailong, Wei Cao from Lumenlabs, Penaloza himself, and Panda Eagle Group.
WeWork China’s former tech head introduces on-demand work pods for mental health by Rita Liao originally published on TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/24/wework-chinas-former-tech-head-launches-on-demand-work-pods/
Margot Robbie reveals how she prepared to film ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ nude scene with Leo Dicaprio
Margot Robbie revealed a boozy behind-the-scenes moment with her “The Wolf of Wall Street” costar Leonardo DiCaprio.
War On Cash: India Rolling Out Retail Pilot Program For Digital Rupee
War On Cash: India Rolling Out Retail Pilot Program For Digital Rupee
We recently reported that the Federal Reserve plans to launch a 12-week pilot program in partnership with several large commercial banks to test the feasibility of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The US isn’t alone in experimenting with digital currency. India is working on developing a digital rupee and recently announced the second phase of testing.
After successfully running a pilot program to test its digital currency at the wholesale level, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced it will test the digital rupee in a retail setting.
According to the RBI, the central bank digital currency “is a legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form. It is the same as a fiat currency and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency. Only its form is different.”
Digital currencies are similar to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They exist as virtual banknotes or coins held in a digital wallet on your computer or smartphone. The difference between a government digital currency and bitcoin is the value of the digital currency is backed and controlled by the state, just like traditional fiat currency.
As the RBI put it, “Unlike cryptocurrencies, a CBDC isn’t a commodity or claims on commodities or digital assets. Cryptocurrencies have no issuer. They are not money (certainly not currency) as the word has come to be understood historically.”
According to a report in the Economic Times of India, the National Payments Corporation of India will host the platform for the digital rupee payment system during the testing phase. The Reserve Bank of India wants each commercial bank in the pilot to test retail use of the digital rupee with 10,000 to 50,000 users.
State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank will participate in the pilot program. If the pilot is successful, the RBI will roll out the program to the entire Indian banking system.
“The e-rupee will be stored in a wallet, the denominations will be available as per the customer’s request, just like you request cash from an ATM. Banks are launching this only in select cities,” a person involved in the program told the Times.
In a concept note, the RBI touted the benefits of digital currency.
It is believed that retail CBDC can provide access to safe money for payment and settlement as it is a direct liability of the central bank. Wholesale CBDC has the potential to transform settlement systems for financial transactions and make them more efficient and secure. Going by the potential offered by each of them, there may be merit in introducing both CBDC-W and CBDC-R.”
Government-issued digital currencies are sold on the promise of providing a safe, convenient, and more secure alternative to physical cash. We’re also told it will help stop dangerous criminals who like the intractability of cash. But there is a darker side – the promise of control.
At the root of the move toward government digital currency is “the war on cash.” The elimination of cash creates the potential for the government to track and even control consumer spending, and it would make it even easier for central banks to engage in manipulative monetary policies such as negative interest rates.
Imagine if there was no cash. It would be impossible to hide even the smallest transaction from government eyes. Something as simple as your morning trip to Starbucks wouldn’t be a secret from government officials. As Bloomberg put it in an article published when China launched its digital yuan pilot program, digital currency “offers China’s authorities a degree of control never possible with physical money.”
The government could even “turn off” an individual’s ability to make purchases. Bloomberg described just how much control a digital currency could give Chinese officials.
The PBOC has also indicated that it could put limits on the sizes of some transactions, or even require an appointment to make large ones. Some observers wonder whether payments could be linked to the emerging social-credit system, wherein citizens with exemplary behavior are ‘whitelisted’ for privileges, while those with criminal and other infractions find themselves left out. ‘China’s goal is not to make payments more convenient but to replace cash, so it can keep closer tabs on people than it already does,’ argues Aaron Brown, a crypto investor who writes for Bloomberg Opinion.”
China launched its digital yuan pilot program last year. The Chinese government-backed digital currency got a boost when the country’s biggest online retailer announced the first virtual platform to accept the Chinese digital currency.
Economist Thorsten Polleit outlined the potential for Big Brother-like government control with the advent of a digital euro in an article published by the Mises Wire. As he put it, “the path to becoming a surveillance state regime will accelerate considerably” if and when a digital currency is issued.
Governments around the world have quietly waged a war on cash for years. Back in 2017, the IMF published a creepy paper offering governments suggestions on how to move toward a cashless society even in the face of strong public opposition.
As with most things the government does, you should be wary of the digital dollar. It has a dark side that you can be sure the mainstream will mostly ignore.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/24/2022 – 22:40
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/war-cash-india-rolling-out-retail-pilot-program-digital-rupee
Kansas cops pardon turkey from criminal charges after breaking into home
The names of turkeys involved have been changed “to protect the innocent.”
https://nypost.com/2022/11/24/kansas-cops-pardon-turkey-from-charges-after-breaking-into-home/
Thanksgiving 2022: Kim Kardashian, Kate Bosworth and Justin Long celebrate, share gratitude
Celebrites are sharing holiday messages, including what they are grateful for, through Thanksgiving day.
