Aggregator

An anonymous reader shares a report: Tucked in the foothills of Tennessee's Smoky Mountains is a factory that has figured out a way to manufacture in America that's cheaper, quicker and better. It's the home of a famous American writing implement: the Sharpie marker. Pen barrels whirl along automated assembly lines that rapidly fill them with ink. At least half a billion Sharpie markers are churned out here every year, each one made of six parts. Only the felt tip is imported, from Japan. It didn't used to be this way. Back in 2018, many Sharpies were made abroad. That's when Chris Peterson, who was the CFO of Sharpie maker Newell Brands challenged his team to answer a question: How could they keep Newell from becoming obsolete compared with factories in Asia? "I felt like we had an opportunity to dramatically improve our U.S. manufacturing," he said. Peterson is now the CEO. And these days, most Sharpies -- in all 93 colors -- are made at this 37-year-old factory. Newell did it without reducing the employee count, and without raising prices. But to get to this place took close to $2 billion in investments across the company, thousands of hours of training and a total overhaul of the production process. The result is a playbook for making low-cost, high-volume products domestically, albeit one that requires long-term planning and a lot of investment.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The marijuana-smoking bigamist - who had a tangled love life involving several different women - started wearing traditional Islamic dress and holding 'gatherings' in the front garden, they said.

Essex Police said the victim could have died

A guest on Sunday's episode of the Antiques Roadshow was left stunned into silence when he discovered the value of his 'really rare' smoking heads collection.

The novellist, whose book of the same name inspired the hit Disney+ series, died after a fall, her family announced on Monday.

The Sherwood actor, 61, was married to author Esther, the great-granddaughter of psychoanalysis founder Sigmund Freud, for 13 years before their shock separation in 2019.

Jack Watkin, 26, promised friends a profit from his Hermes handbag business but it never materialised and instead he used their cash to fund his lavish lifestyle.

Her family said she was a "true patriot" and "a warrior"

No evidence of exploitation … yet

A 13-year-old critical flaw in Redis servers, rated a perfect 10 out of 10 in severity, can let an authenticated user trigger remote code execution.…

The Supreme Court has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal after she claimed she was wrongly prosecuted for sex trafficking.

Deforestation is draining color from butterfly populations in Brazil. Researchers studying butterflies in the state of EspÃrito Santo found 31 species in natural forests but only 21 in eucalyptus plantations. The plantation communities were dominated by brown-colored species. Roberto GarcÃa-Roa, part of the research project, said the colors on butterfly wings have been designed over millions of years. Lead researcher Maider Iglesias-Carrasco from the University of Copenhagen observed a general feeling of emptiness in the plantations. Ricardo Spaniol from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul discovered in 2019 that the most colorful Amazonian species often disappear first after deforestation, probably because of the loss of native vegetation and increased exposure to predators. Eucalyptus plantations cover at least 22 million hectares around the world. Spaniol's research found that forested Amazon habitats regenerating for 30 years after use as cattle pasture showed a remarkable increase in butterfly color diversity.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In early 2024, we all had been wondering how OpenAI was going to pay for its $100 billion Stargate datacenter infrastructure project it was rumored to be planning with Microsoft. …

Did AMD Use ChatGPT To Come Up With Its OpenAI Partnership Deal? was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Renowned as a fearless and tough-tackling forward, Moody won 71 England caps and was also a British & Irish Lion in 2005, featuring in all three Tests on that year's tour of New Zealand.

The gang - including a young mother - allegedly flew to the seaside resort of Shengjin, Albania, and posed as tourists as they checked into a owned by their target, Ardian Nikulaj.

Levi Dewy is continuing to come to terms with his new life, having had to relearn everyday tasks-including how to drive without his legs.

Altman promises copyright holders a cut of video revenue, if he ever figures out how to make some.

analysis  OpenAI's new Sora 2 video generator has become the most popular free app in Apple's App Store since launching last week. It has also drawn ire from Hollywood studios and anyone whose characters and storylines appear in the user-generated content without their explicit permission. Now CEO Sam Altman says rightsholders will be getting greater control over how their properties are used - and may even be paid. …

Restless leg syndrome, which affects up to 10 per cent of the population, causes an unpleasant 'crawling' sensation in the legs, mostly at night, and an urge to move.

The Peri-Peri chicken chain, known for its 'bottomless' drink option, previously allowed diners to refill soft drinks freely during their meal.

A wide range of institutions are expected to take part in the event organised by the Together Coalition which was co-founded by Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox.

Justin Bieber battled the driech Scottish weather as he chipped and putted his way around the iconic championship courses at the world-famous Gleneagles Hotel.