Fundraising is a staple of the school experience in the U.S. There's an assembly showing off all the prizes kids can win by selling enough wrapping paper or chocolate to their neighbors. But it's pretty weird, right?

Why do schools turn kids into little salespeople? And why do we let companies come in and dangle prizes in front of students?

We spend a year with one elementary school, following their fundraising efforts, to see how much they raise, and what the money goes to.

The school – Villacorta Elementary in La Puente, California – has one big goal: To raise enough money to send every single student on one field trip. The whole school hasn't been able to go on one in three years.

We find out what the companies who run school fundraisers do to try to win a school's business. And we find that this bizarre tradition is ... surprisingly tactical. That's on today's episode.

Today's show was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez and produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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When you buy a bottle of rum in the United States, by law nearly all the federal taxes on that rum must be sent to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It's an unusual system that Congress designed decades ago to help fund these two U.S. territories. In 2021 alone, these rum tax payments added up to more than $700 million.

Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands split the money according to how much rum each territory produces. And the territories produce a lot of it — especially Puerto Rico, which single handedly supplies the majority of the rum that Americans drink.

But in 2008, the U.S. Virgin Islands pulled off a coup. It convinced one of the largest rum brands in the world, Captain Morgan, to abandon Puerto Rico and to shift its operations to the tiny island of St. Croix.

This was the beginning of the Rum Wars.

On today's show, the story of how a scheme designed to help Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands turned them into bitter rivals. And how it ended up putting hundreds of millions of dollars a year — U.S. taxpayer dollars — into the pockets of big liquor companies instead.

This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo and Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by James Sneed with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Molly Messick, engineered by Cena Loffredo, and fact checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

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You might have seen ads for online banking services that seem to offer a lot of great stuff — accounts you can open in minutes and without a minimum balance or monthly fees. The ads seem to say: "These aren't your parents' boring old banks." But the truth is: Even though they might resemble banks, they aren't.

These "bank-like" companies are a type of "fintech" or financial technology company. And this is a story about the potential risks of putting your money into these apps.

Banks go through a whole regulatory gauntlet in order to exist. But, in the past several years, there has been a rise in fintechs that skirt regulations. And many of these pose a real threat to even the most savvy of depositors.

When a little known tech company filed for bankruptcy a few months ago, thousands of people couldn't access the millions of dollars they saved. On today's show, we meet some of the people affected and learn what the fintech industry reveals about banking regulation.

Today's show was hosted by Erika Beras and Sally Helm. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and Sofia Shchukina with help from James Sneed. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Kevin Volkl. It was engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez with help from James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Soyo Oka walks us through her journey from studying classical music to calling up Nintendo looking for a gig.

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Words are never just words. They carry context and controversy; they can signal identity or sow discord. This week, TED speakers explore the history and politics of our ever-evolving language. Guests include linguists Anne Curzan and John McWhorter, social psychologist Dannagal Young and writer Mark Forsyth.

TED Radio Hour+ subscribers now get access to bonus episodes, with more ideas from TED speakers and a behind the scenes look with our producers. A Plus subscription also lets you listen to regular episodes (like this one!) without sponsors. Sign-up at: plus.npr.org/ted

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Newsroom is highlighting Bruins who are creating the future at UCLA by advancing the strategic plan’s goals and priorities.

Toronto, ON –  When a person suffers cardiac arrest, there is a one in five chance a potentially life-saving Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is nearby. But up to 30 per cent of the time, the device is locked inside a closed building, according to a study led by U of T Engineering researchers, published today […]

To serve customers who want to decarbonize and become more efficient, the folks at Regal Rexnord are leveraging new technology to meet new standards.

Incarcerated Americans aren’t allowed to vote. Those with felonies also face barriers. Here’s what that means for democracy.

A note from adrienne maree brown: Gilda Sheppard directed a film called Since I Been Down, in which Kimonti Carter was a protagonist as a transformed man leading his community

Reactive energy compensation is an essential process in improving energy efficiency. It reduces the power consumption and thus its cost, enables optimum use of installations by preventing them being oversized, and more generally it improves the quality of energy systems.... Read more

The post The theory behind reactive energy compensation that every engineer should know appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Queens College alum Nira Burstein talks about making "Charm Circle," her intensely persona, award-winning documentary about the fractured emotional landscape of her parents' lives in the house in Flushing where Burstein grew up.

Washington, D.C. -- The 2022 NAB Show will explore the latest technologies and techniques reinventing the storytelling process through special sessions, deep dive examinations and panel discussions. Content creators will gain exclusive insight into the creative choices and innovations behind recent hit film and television productions during NAB Show, held April 23–27 in Las Vegas, Nev.

Washington, D.C. -- Award-winning actor, writer and producer Brett Goldstein will take NAB Show into his process in creating compelling content that resonates with audiences and that has made him one of Hollywood's most sought-after multihyphenates in a fireside chat on April 17 at 4:00 p.m. on the Main Stage of the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Nev.

"Everything to love, and nothing to hate." This is also exactly what I'm hoping for with this show. HBO has unveiled a promo featurette for the new sci-fi series Dune: Prophecy, which will begin streaming on Max later this week. Looks like it'll be worth the wait. Set 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, before the universe knew them as the Bene Gesserit... This is directly connected to Denis Villeneuve's two (so far) brilliant Dune movies but takes place in the distant past. Based on the book "Sisterhood of Dune" by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (Frank's son). This exciting behind-the-scenes look at the epic interplanetary series includes tons of making of shots + interview bits edited into clips of footage from the big sci-fi series. Dune: Prophecy stars Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel, Mark Strong, Jade Anouka, Chris Mason, Jodhi May, Josh Heuston, Tabu, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Aoife Hinds, & Shalom Brune-Franklin. We've seen a handful of stellar trailers for this series already, with this promo being a final reminder to add this to your watchlist in time for its imminent debut. I'm impressed by the scope and scale of this HBO show - it's connected […]

In the third quarter of 2024, Apple’s iPhone 15 soared to the top of global smartphone sales, cementing its position as a premium choice for consumers. According to Counterpoint Research, Apple’s iPhone 15 lineup led the global market, with the base iPhone 15 model capturing a 3.5% share. This success highlights Apple’s effective strategy of […]

The Geotab research also shows that only five out of the 27 local authorities that were surveyed have electrified more than 8pc of their fleets.

Read more: Cork City Council leads the EV fleet charge while others lag behind

After missing a chance to capitalize on the AI boom, "Samsung's profit has plunged," reports CNBC, and "around $126 billion has been wiped off its market value, according to data from S&P Capital IQ." It's gotten so bad that "an executive issued a rare public apology about the company's recent financial performance." [A]s AI applications such as OpenAI's ChatGPT rose in popularity, the underlying infrastructure required to train the huge models they rely on became a bigger focus. Nvidia has emerged as the top player in this space with its graphics processing units (GPUs) that have become the gold standard used by tech giants for AI training. A crucial part of that semiconductor architecture is high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. This next generation of memory involves stacking multiple dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, but it had a small market before the AI boom. That's where Samsung got caught out and failed to invest... SK Hynix saw this opportunity. The company aggressively launched HBM chips which were approved for use in Nvidia architecture and, in the process, the South Korean firm established a close relationship with the U.S. giant. Nvidia's CEO even asked the company to speed up supply of its next generation chip, underscoring the importance of HBM to its products. SK Hynix posted record quarterly operating profit in the September quarter... Analysts said that Samsung is lagging behind competitors for a number of reasons, including underinvestment in HBM and the fact that it is not a first-mover. "It is fair to say that Samsung has not been able to close the gap with SK Hynix on the HBM development roadmap," said Kazunori Ito [director of equity research at Morningstar]. Samsung's ability to make a comeback in the short term appears to be closely linked to Nvidia. A company must pass a strict qualification process before Nvidia approves it as a HBM supplier — and Samsung has not yet completed this verification. But a green light from Nvidia could open the door for Samsung to return to growth and compete more effectively with SK Hynix, according to analysts.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sony's decision to allow theaters to screen "The Interview" on Christmas day has an impact beyond the silver screen. CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk joined "Up to the Minute" to discuss the American and international politics behind the film's release and North Korea's relationship with China and the global community,

[Leadership] President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday declared a new chapter in Edo State's history with the triumph of democratic values as Senator Monday Okpebholo and Dennis Idahosa were sworn in as governor and deputy governor, respectively.

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Brand Evangelists for Beauty (Be for Beauty) was created 5 years ago by Colette Laxton & Mark Curry. Over the last couple of years, the company has faced strong growth.

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The post ‘Fat Leonard,’ Navy contractor behind one of the military’s biggest scandals, sentenced to 15 years first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Threat Intelligence and Incident Response Team at Context Information Security has identified a new threat group behind a series of incidents targeted at the aerospace and defence industries in the UK and Europe.

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Welcome to AppleVis Extra 101, where Dave Nason is joined by Xiaoran Wang and Huasong Cao from Agiga, the team behind the upcoming Echo Vision smart glasses. Check out some early demos, with more to come, on their YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@AgigaAi/videos And learn more on their website at: https://echovision.agiga.ai/ The team would love to hear your feedback, so please comment below, or contact them through the website.

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by Aiko, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Hello there and welcome to the AppleVis Extra.

This is episode number 101.

My name is David Nason and I'm delighted to be joined by two fantastic guests from Agiga.

We have Xiaoran Wang and HuaSong Cao

Is that correct, guys?

Thank you, David.

Thank you for having us.

So yeah, delighted.

And the product you're going to talk to us about is the Echo Vision.

So before we get into that, though, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourselves, the company, what you do, really, and how it all came about?

Sure.

My name is Xiaoran.

I'm the CEO, and before doing this company, actually, I had long experience building and shaping intelligent devices.

I started my career at Amazon Level 26.

That's the first place of the world's first Kindle and also the world's first Alexa.

And I was actually in the early team that developed Alexa devices.

And this experience gave me good exposure and got me enough experience on how to build a good intelligent device.

I think that's one of the confidence I brought in when I was doing this company that we can build a great product for the community.

Brilliant, and obviously, Alexa, a device that's very popular, being a voice-first product, very popular in the blind and visually impaired community.

So yeah, that's really cool.

And tell us about yourself, Hua Song.

Yeah, thanks, David.

So my name is Hua Song, and I'm an engineer by training.

Before I started this company with Xiaoran, I was with Google for about nine to ten years.

I did various software projects, and the latest one is Google Assistant, the voice assistant similar to Amazon counterparts.

Yeah, I've been enjoying doing software, building stuff, both hardware and software.

And with Giga, what we are trying to do is really to use our expertise built prior to this company and take that to something that we can really use to help everyone.

That's brilliant.

So do you want to quickly tell us what the product is, and then we can delve into a bit more detail.

Yeah, so the product is called EchoVision.

By looking, it looks like a normal pair of glasses.

The key feature is to articulate visual information into voices.

Think about it.

If you can't see this, and there's someone next to you, how will this person help you?

So basically, he or she is going to describe it for you, like read it out for you.

And that's how we envision our product, basically.

It's like an assistant, a virtual assistant that does this work for you.

Well, I was going to…

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Founded by Supam Maheshwari and his colleague from a previous business, Amitava Saha, FirstCry has been the darling of investors which include SoftBank, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, Premji Invest, Mahindra & Mahindra and TPG Growth.

The incoming Senate Republican Conference will meet Wednesday morning to elect the successor of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Since George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, rage that had accumulated over centuries of racial violence spilled into the nation's streets. From Atlanta , Macon and Savannah to London , Amsterdam and Paris , protesters are flooding streets that, only weeks ago, stood nearly empty due to fears of COVID-19. The crowds are unprecedented in their size , diversity and condemnation of police brutality and systemic racial injustice. Despite early property damage , largely peaceful protests have gained momentum over the course of the last week.

In November, the typically straitlaced Office of Government Ethics surprised observers with a series of tweets mimicking Donald Trump's bombastic style, exclamation points and all: "Brilliant! Divestiture is good for you, good for America!" The controversy was two-fold: (1) The OGE doesn't typically air its positions publicly, advising White House transition teams behind the scenes. (2) Trump hadn't promised the total divestitures of business interests implied by the tweets. New records shared with NPR on Friday show that behind the curious tweets was the head of the OGE himself, Director Walter Shaub Jr. In two emails, dated Nov. 30, just several minutes apart, Shaub sent to OGE Chief of Staff Shelley Finlayson the nine tweets that took the Internet by storm that day. He then followed up with a link to a legal document referenced in one of the tweets and writes: "Get all of these tweets posted as soon as humanly possible." The emails were part of a 365-page document shared with NPR in

Today, we look into how elections are structured. How our ballots are designed. How ranked choice voting actually works. And, the people who work to ensure our elections run smoothly.

Today we go inside San Quentin’s mock elections. Then, we hear about comic books and mental health — for veterans. And, the passionate mix of music and movement of Flamenco.