You never know when you might have guests. Whether they're friends passing through or relatives just in town, impromptu entertaining doesn't have to be something to dread. If you keep a few staples on-hand all the time, you'll be ready anytime someone comes knocking that you might want to invite in for a while, whether you planned on their arrival or not.
    
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You don't have to spend a lot of money to get great sound. High end, pricey headphones definitely have their place, but if you know what to look for and shop smart, you can get surprisingly good audio for around $20. Here's what to look for, and some suggestions to get you started.
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(ronnyg)
You’re probably no slump at reading headlines so by now you’ve probably figured out that it takes more than one country to make a jar of Nutella. Because otherwise what would be the point, that’s not news, that’s normal and ho-hum. And yes, it takes a lot more than just say, Italy, where Nutella’s parent company Ferrero is located, to deliver hazelnut spread to the masses.
The reality is that Nutella is way more of a worldwide effort, reports Quartz, citing a case study from OECD on global value chains.
The 250,000 tons of Nutella that are sold across 75 countries all come about with the help of ingredients from countries that might have not much else in common, but they all help to make chocolatey hazelnut spread.
For example, there are factories in Europe, Russia, North American and South America. and all of those need ingredients, which come from other places: The hazelnuts are from Turkey; the palm oil is from Malaysia; the cocoa is from Nigeria; the sugar is from either Brazil or Europe; and the vanilla flavoring is from France.
And hey, now the next time you’re spreading it on toast in an effort to get your kid to eat something for breakfast other than four packets of ketchup and a mini muffin, you can also do a bit of a geography lesson at the same time.
Check out the full map showing the globalization of Nutella over at Quartz for more.
A map of all the countries that contribute to a single jar of Nutella [Quartz]
I’m not saying I’m the sort who consorts with criminals but if whoever stole $120,000 worth of Hershey’s chocolate from a truck is heading off into the woods to have a big bonfire and s’mores party, well, I’m jealous. But the crime part, that’s bad.
The chocolate was loaded onto a semi-truck at a truck center in Florida’s Volusia County, where police got a phone call that a thief with an apparent sweet tooth had made off with the whole thing, reports News 13.
There’s been no luck so far tracking down the truck or its contents, but the phone all between its driver and the 9-1-1 operator is kind of fun so let’s take a look at that”
911 Operator: When was the last time you saw it?
Driver: Three o’clock yesterday [Saturday] was the last time I saw the truck. It’s hooked to a trailer as well, fully loaded, with chocolate.
911 Operator: Fully loaded with chocolate, huh?
Driver: Yeah, someone with a sweet tooth.
911 Operator: Well, you know, maybe that’s what they were going for. Who knows?
The one caveat for the thief, besides the fact that you did a bad thing and the cops are probably going to arrest you at some point, is that all that chocolate needs to stay cool. Otherwise it’ll never make it to the s’mores assembly line and will instead just end up melted all over the truck. And that would just be a gosh darn waste of perfectly good chocolate.
Truck filled with $120,000 worth of chocolate stolen in Volusia [News 13]
This caribiner leash may have carried the “Truly Made in the USA” logo, but the truth is that it was an imported product.
While there are federal standards for what qualifies as “Made in America,” there is no vetting or certification process that goes on before that label can be applied.
So a company could slap a made-in-USA sticker on its products and hope it doesn’t get caught, much like E.K. Ekcessories, an outdoor accessories company that the FTC recently accused [PDF] of deceptively marketing its products with labels like “Truly Made In the USA,” and statements on its website that its products were made at the company’s facilities in Utah.
That company has since settled with the FTC and agreed to stop falsely marketing its imported products as made in America, but who knows how many other products are out there just waiting to be caught in the same lie?
So what does it take to actually count as being made in the USA?
SLINGING LINGO
First off, there is no specific language that manufacturers must use. To the feds, statements like “Made in the USA” and “American-made” are effectively the same. They communicate to the consumer the notion that the product was produced within the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or in U.S. territories.
Additionally, the made in America claim doesn’t need to be explicit. The FTC gives the following example:
A company promotes its product in an ad that features a manager describing the “true American quality” of the work produced at the company’s American factory. Although there is no express representation that the company’s product is made in the U.S., the overall — or net — impression the ad is likely to convey to consumers is that the product is of U.S. origin.
References to America in a product or brand’s name is a slightly trickier affair. For instance, the FTC likely won’t go after a product called USA Joysticks even if said joysticks are made in Vietnam, but if that same product were to be called “Made In USA Joysticks,” then it would likely have to fall into the made-in-USA guidelines.
VIRTUALLY ALL-AMERICAN
Those guidelines require that a product carrying a “Made in USA” marketing claim with no immediate and clear qualifications must be “all or virtually all” made in the U.S. or its territories.
The FTC takes “all or virtually all” to mean that all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. Any foreign supplied parts or ingredients should be negligible.
It gives two examples to show how it determines whether foreign parts constitute a negligible portion of the end product. The first example is a gas grill that is assembled in the USA and whose only foreign-made parts are some tubing and the knobs for controlling the flame. In this case, the FTC says that the knobs and tubing are insubstantial enough and a Made In USA claim would be okay.
The second example is a Tiffany-style lamp where everything but the base of the lamp is supplied by U.S. companies. To the FTC, the base is too integral and substantial a portion of the end product, and so an unqualified Made In USA claim would not hold up to scrutiny.
FOREIGN RESOURCES
Then there is the question of where the raw materials for various components came from. Again, this depends on how much of the end product is made up of those raw materials. A computer that has some parts which contain imported metal would likely pass muster, but a wrench made mostly out of imported metal would probably not. This does not necessarily hold true for clothing with the Made In USA label (see below).
For products that are assembled in the U.S. from a mix of foreign and domestic parts, manufacturers may make qualified marketing claims like “Made in USA of U.S. and imported parts,” “Assembled in the USA from Italian leather and Mexican wood,” or “60% U.S. Content.”
However, the FTC advises companies to tread lightly when making these kinds of qualified claims, as they still imply to consumers that a large portion of the manufacturing was done stateside.
A GUY WITH A SCREWDRIVER IS NOT A MANUFACTURING PLANT
The Commission warns against using the “Assembled in USA” claim for products where the only assembly done in America is what the FTC refers to as “screwdriver” assembly. That’s when all the major parts are already put together elsewhere then shipped to the U.S. to be quickly put together. Basically, if the work being done is no more complicated than putting together some IKEA shelves, it probably doesn’t qualify as “Assembled in America.”
CAR COMPONENTS
One industry that has been prolific in touting “American made” claims is the automobile industry. The American Automobile Labeling Act requires that each vehicle manufactured for sale in the U.S. bear a label disclosing where the car was assembled, the percentage of equipment that originated in the U.S. and Canada, and the country of origin of the engine and transmission.
Even with these additional requirements, any automaker or clothing company making a “made in America” claim in its advertising would be held to the same criteria as other products.
THE CLOTHES ON YOUR BACK
The Textile Fiber Products Identification Act and Wool Products Labeling Act actually requires Made in USA labels on most clothing and other textile or wool household products if the final product is manufactured in the U.S. of fabric that is manufactured in the U.S., regardless of the country of origin of materials earlier in the manufacturing process. So an all-wool sweater may be made from wool that was grown entirely on another continent, but as long as the sweater itself is wholly made in the U.S., it gets the Made in USA label.
Textile or wool products that are partially manufactured in the U.S. and partially manufactured abroad must be labeled to show both foreign and domestic processing.
You naughty boy.
He’s no Tickle Me Elmo, but another stuffed toy has been flying off the shelves at IKEA stores in Hong Kong. And not, it’s not because he’s the “it” toy this holiday season. Lufsig the wolf’s name translates into Cantonese with a very naughty meaning, apparently making him the perfect object for protestors to lob at Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong CY Leung, who some have nicknamed “the wolf.”
While Lufsig the wolf seems to just be an innocent type (besides that whole trying to eat Little Red Riding Hood), his name in Cantonese sounds a lot like a profanity that translates to something bad about female genitalia, reports the South China Morning Post.
The toy has been selling out at IKEA in Hong Kong, with shoppers lining up to buy it after an anti-government protestor tossed one at Leung over the weekend, according to the BBC.
An IKEA Hong Kong spokesman said shoppers were lining up as early as 7:00 a.m. for Lufsig and the toy was sold out by 11:10, but didn’t have any comment on the political message some are reading into the stuffed animal. His name is Lufsig wherever he’s sold all over the world, so it’s not like this is just special to customers in China.
Leung has been dubbed “the wolf” by some in China who see him as cunning, and it sounds like he’s had pretty low popularity ratings since he was appointed by a committee last year to be Hong Kong’s chief exectuive.
Ay protestors still yearning for Lufsig will have to wait for early January 2014, when IKEA says a new stock will be in stores.
Ikea toy wolf becomes Hong Kong protest symbol [BBC]
Hong Kong toymakers upset over stuffed symbol of protest Lufsig the wolf [South China Morning Post]
This is a thing that exists and people actually pay money for.
Yes, the toy that teaches your kid not just how to use the toilet, but also to bring $600 electronic devices with him to the toilet… The iPotty ran off with a full 45% of the vote for the dubious honor given away every year by the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.
“Throughout history, kids have mastered toilet training without touch screens,” said CCFC’s Director, Dr. Susan Linn. “The iPotty is a perfect example of marketers trying to create a need where none exists. In fact, the last thing children need is a screen for every single occasion.”
Folks who voted for the iPotty to win this year’s award say the device only serves to pacify and placate children who are already overexposed to TV and the Internet.
“Toilet learning should be a time of positive interaction between child and caregiver,” explains one voter. “Also, children should be aware of the cues in their bodies as they learn. This toy takes this social/emotional focus out of the process and substitutes the hypnotism of a screen.”
Adds another, “It not only reinforces unhealthy overuse of digital media, it’s aimed at toddlers. We should NOT be giving them the message that you shouldn’t even take your eyes off a screen long enough to pee.”
With 30% of the vote, the runner-up for this year’s TOADY was the VIP Upgrade Membership by The Real Tooth Fairies, which charges users a ridiculous amount of money for an annual subscription to give their kids (we hope) access to a bunch of outfits of online fairies that reinforce harmful gender, body, economic, and cultural stereotypes.
“It’s a hijacking of one of children’s most magical tiny creatures,” complained one voter.
(Muffet)
How does that work? A study published this week in the journal PLOS One shows that milk from grass-fed cows, whether that milk is organic or not, has a different fat composition than milk that comes from cows that primarily eat corn.
Cows that eat grass produce milk with more omega-3 fatty acids. Those are the fats found in foods like flaxseeds and fish that we keep hearing that we should eat more of. While the science isn’t settled regarding how well omega-3 fatty acids protect humans from cardiovascular problems or why, they do seem to be better for us.
The fats in milk come from what the animal eats, after all. The same effect on fat composition happens in milk from conventional agriculture where the cows eat grass, so the key is knowing where your milk comes from and what the animals eat.
Of course, this study just happens to have received most of its funding from Organic Valley, a large distributor of organic dairy products. Scientists who didn’t receive any money from the company told the New York Times that its science looks pretty solid.
Organic Production Enhances Milk Nutritional Quality by Shifting Fatty Acid Composition: A United States–Wide, 18-Month Study
More Helpful Fatty Acids Found in Organic Milk [New York Times]
Sure, here in the states we’ve got people calling 9-1-1 over missing hash browns, and folks threatening to use a sword if they don’t get free tacos, but over in France, they’ve got an angry customer who used his axe on a McDonald’s all because he got cold fries at the drive-thru.
The incident occurred early Sunday morning in the suburbs of Paris, where a 26-year-old customer was unhappy with the restaurant’s response to his complaints about the frigid frites.
He reportedly got out of his van, brandishing an axe that he then used to shatter the drive-thru window.
Just to put a fine point on it, the customer then tossed his axe into the restaurant, which is not the proper way to escalate one’s complaint.
A McDonald’s employee was received some cuts to the face from the flying, shattered glass, but did not go to the hospital.
The customer attempted to flee, presumably without getting the hot fries he so wanted, but he was taken into custody by police. [via HuffPo]
Because we can’t read about french fries in France without thinking of Better Off Dead, we present this culinary clip:
Has the mysterious benefactor behind "Tips for Jesus" finally been outed?
The national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa says a man who provided sign language interpretation on stage for Nelson Mandela's memorial service, attended by scores of heads of state, was a "fake."
Alexandria police and Alexandria Animal Welfare League staff are searching for a dog that bit a resident on Sunday.
