Apple And Samsung Suppliers in China Replace 60,000 Workers With Robots; McDonald's, ADIDAS Too

[From article]
Apple and Samsung supplier Foxconn has reportedly replaced 60,000 factory workers with robots.
One factory has "reduced employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000 thanks to the introduction of robots", a government official told the South China Morning Post.
Xu Yulian, head of publicity for the Kunshan region, added: "More companies are likely to follow suit."
China is investing heavily in a robot workforce.
[. . .]
"We are applying robotics engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies to replace repetitive tasks previously done by employees, and through training, also enable our employees to focus on higher value-added elements in the manufacturing process, such as research and development, process control and quality control.
[. . .]
Economists have issued dire warnings about how automation will affect the job market, with one report, from consultants Deloitte in partnership with Oxford University, suggesting that 35% of jobs were at risk over the next 20 years.
Former McDonald's chief executive Ed Rensi recently told the US's Fox Business programme a minimum-wage increase to $15 an hour would make companies consider robot workers.
"It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who is inefficient, making $15 an hour bagging French fries," he said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966

Foxconn replaces '60,000 factory workers with robots'
BBC
May 25, 2016

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A battery-powered robot serves dishes up to 8 hour a day in a restaurant in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province

[From article]
A former McDonald's CEO warned that robots will take over staff jobs at the fast food empire - because it's cheaper than employing humans.
Ed Rensi has said that buying highly skilled robotics is a cheaper alternative than employing people on minimum wage to work in the company's worldwide restaurants.
He warned that huge job losses are imminent, and commented that it would be 'common sense' to replace humans in the workplace.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/building-robot-mcdonalds-staff-cheaper-8044106

Building robot McDonald's staff 'cheaper' than hiring workers on minimum wage
10:18, 25 MAY 2016
UPDATED 17:32, 25 MAY 2016
BY JESSICA HAWORTH
The worrying forecast could threaten jobs at the fast food franchise, a former CEO of the company warns

* * *



[From article]
Adidas is relocating some of its shoe production from Asia to the company's homeland — but Germans shouldn't expect a jobs boom.
What is currently done by hand will soon be carried out by robots as part of what the firm calls an "automated revolution."
The sportswear giant unveiled its prototype "Speedfactory" on Tuesday — a 3,000-square-foot, high-tech facility in the southern German town of Ansbach.
The first 500 robot-made high-performance running shoes are scheduled to be rolled out later this year.
"We believe that this is pioneer work for a fully automated production process," Adidas spokesman Jan Runau told NBC News, adding that the facility will mean the firm "will be able to get the desired product to the customer much faster."
[. . .]
A 50,000-square-foot "Speedfactory" is due to be finished in Ansbach by the end of 2016. A second is expected to open in the U.S. next year while a third is also in the pipeline, according to Adidas.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/adidas-pulls-back-asia-robots-get-jobs-n579991

MAY 25 2016, 9:50 AM ET
Adidas Shifts Production — But Robots Get the Jobs
by ANDY ECKARDT

One More Reason To Dress Down in New York City

[From article]
The NYPD says it happened at about 3:25 p.m. The victim was on an "L" train at the Broadway Junction station when he was attacked.
The attack continued on the train to the Atlantic Avenue station where it spilled out onto the platform.
Police say the man continued to be beaten. In a short video clip that was posted on social media, the man appeared to be unconscious and dragged back toward the train by one of the attackers.
The attackers then stole his pants, shoes, and phone and then ran off.
The victim was taken to Brookdale Hospital where he was being treated for various injuries.
Police say there have been no arrests and the investigation continues.
Community activist Tony Herbert says it appears to be part of a growing pattern where gang members will walk up to someone, ask what gang they are in, and then attack.

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/29080061/victim-beaten-and-robbed-of-pants-on-subway-platform

Victim beaten and robbed of pants on subway platform
Posted: May 15, 2015 10:55 PM EDT
Updated: May 15, 2015 11:03 PM EDT
By LUKE FUNK, Senior Web Producer

Nine NYC Doctors Charged With Medicaid Fraud, Sneakers For "Let me see your Medicaid Card."

New York Post did a feature story about this several years ago. Perhaps they were who alerted the clueless government. 

[From article]
“Free sneakers, shoes and boots today,” Bernard Rorie shouted, standing outside a soup kitchen in East New York, Brooklyn, where he was being recorded by investigators
Mr. Rorie was recruiting homeless people, prosecutors said, and whoever had a valid Medicaid card would be packed into a van and sent to medical clinics around New York City. There, after hours of unnecessary tests and fake diagnoses, the homeless people would be sent off with sneakers — selected from stacks of shoeboxes in the clinics’ basements. The doctors, staff members and billing specialists, meanwhile, would rack up hundreds or thousands of dollars per recruit in false Medicaid claims, prosecutors said.
On Tuesday, nine New York doctors were among 23 people indicted in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn in connection with the sneaker scheme, which the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said made almost $7 million and took advantage of thousands of homeless people.
The charges in the indictment include health fraud, enterprise corruption and money laundering.
[. . .]
“Free sneakers, shoes and boots today,” Bernard Rorie shouted, standing outside a soup kitchen in East New York, Brooklyn, where he was being recorded by investigators
Mr. Rorie was recruiting homeless people, prosecutors said, and whoever had a valid Medicaid card would be packed into a van and sent to medical clinics around New York City. There, after hours of unnecessary tests and fake diagnoses, the homeless people would be sent off with sneakers — selected from stacks of shoeboxes in the clinics’ basements. The doctors, staff members and billing specialists, meanwhile, would rack up hundreds or thousands of dollars per recruit in false Medicaid claims, prosecutors said.
On Tuesday, nine New York doctors were among 23 people indicted in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn in connection with the sneaker scheme, which the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said made almost $7 million and took advantage of thousands of homeless people.
The charges in the indictment include health fraud, enterprise corruption and money laundering.
[. . .]
The doctors in the group made money by, for instance, seeing a patient for four minutes and billing for 30 minutes, or claiming they had reviewed tests when they had not, or simply billing for procedures they had never done, prosecutors said. Some doctors paid Mr. Vainer a referral fee for each recruit, while some split the Medicaid payment with him.
Mr. Vainer made money from the scheme in several ways: He owns medical clinics where the patients were sent; he supplies devices for foot and leg problems; and he had financial arrangements with doctors to whom he sent the recruited homeless patients, prosecutors said.
Mr. Vainer also made money by supplying cheap equipment and billing it to Medicaid as a custom medical device — for instance, supplying a drugstore shoe insert and billing it to Medicaid as a custom orthotic, for which he received about $330.
[. . .]
Some of the doctors involved are affiliated with well-known institutions. Dr. Joseph Grossman, 82, a cardiologist, was a clinical assistant professor of medicine at New York Medical College. The vein surgeon Dr. David Glass, 65, a former assistant chief of surgery at New York Methodist, is an assistant clinical professor at Cornell, according to his website. Dr. Grossman and Dr. Glass pleaded not guilty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/nyregion/9-new-york-doctors-indicted-in-medicaid-fraud-using-homeless-patients.html?_r=1

9 New York Doctors Are Accused of Defrauding Medicaid Using Homeless People
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

MARCH 31, 2015

NY Thieves Get $400,000 Worth of Shoes and Handbags

[From article]
The ringleader, Tamara Williams, 36, is accused of stealing Social Security numbers and birthdates of more than 20 Saks credit card holders and disseminating that information to four store sales associates, who were also busted.
Some 200 pairs of sky-high stilettos, including $2,250 Giuseppe Zanotti boots, and 80 handbags like a black leather YSL beauty priced at an eye-popping $10,000, were on display Monday morning at a press conference to announce the indictments.

http://nypost.com/2014/10/06/scammers-swiped-400k-in-designer-shoes/

Scammers swiped $400K in designer shoes
By Kathleen Culliton and Lia Eustachewich
New York Post
October 6, 2014 | 12:48pm

GPS shoe

How long has this been going on? If a small device for tracking can be placed into the shoe of a person with Alzheimer's Disease, what stops criminals from using the same device to track a person they want to rob?

http://www.gpsshoe.com/blog/

Teaneck company’s GPS shoe helps track Alzheimer’s patients

Cocaine Shipped As Designer Shoes

[From article]
"The bust revealed possibly the most inventive method of smuggling the drug, which was mixed with a liquid, turned into a paste, molded and painted to look like shoes.
In the past, Spanish police have discovered cocaine shipments disguised as replica sculptures, a “plaster cast” protecting a man’s broken leg, and even an entire 42-piece tea set."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/manolo_blownik_shoes_oWK38oOAeRTX6XdttqYyNO

Spanish smugglers molded cocaine into Manolo Blahnik replicas
By DON KAPLAN
With POST WIRES
New York Post
Last Updated: 7:57 AM, November 5, 2011
Posted: 1:21 AM, November 5, 2011

Shoes Help Shape Thighs?

"Toning Shoes" or Phony Shoes?
Source: USA Today, June 30, 2010

Those roly-poly sneakers you are seeing everywhere -- with rounded soles like a rocking chair -- are marketed by manufacturers like Skechers, Reebok, Avia and New Balance with claims that they promote healthy weight loss, improve posture, fight cellulite, reduce knee joint stress and improve the shape of wearers' thighs and buttocks. The customer base for the shoes is 90 percent women, and they sell for $100 to $250, They also represent the fastest-growing segment of the athletic footwear industry. Skechers even hired Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana to tout the shoes in an effort to entice more men to buy them. But doctors are starting to warn that the shoes destabilize how people walk, and wearing them can strain people's Achilles tendons. The shoes can also be a special threat to older people who have more difficulty keeping their balance. Their built-in instability makes a wearer work harder to maintain balance, giving more of a workout, according to companies that make them, and while there are some elements of truth to the ads, doctors question their safety and want more independent studies of the shoes instead of industry-financed research. Meanwhile, David Davidson, national president of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine, says "Nothing about these shoes has any redeeming value to me," and he says he's suspicious of any shoes that come with an instructional booklet and DVD.

Iraqi Gets 3-Years for Throwing Shoes at Bush

Iraqi Gets 3-Years for Throwing Shoes at Bush

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070579.html


Last update - 13:02 12/03/2009
Lawyer: Iraqi journalist jailed for 3 years for hurling shoes at Bush
Haaretz
By The Associated Press