Baidu Sells Unit to Alibaba's Startup

Baidu Inc. sold control of its unprofitable food delivery business to startup backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as the search engine cuts back on cash burning ventures to focus on artificial intelligence.
Baidu will become a shareholder in Ele.me after the Alibaba backed firm completes its purchase of the Waimai business, the companies said on Thursday. No price was released and it does not include the group buying business Nuomi.
The companies were in talks for a deal at a steep discount to the US$2.5 billion Waimai was valued at in its last round of fundraising, a person familiar with the matter said last month.
Quitting its own standalone business represents a retreat for Baidu founder Robin Li, who told investors in 2015 that online to offline services like food delivery would come to define the company.
He pledged to invest 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) over three years to make it a profitable multibillion dollar business that used artificial intelligence to cut frosts, boost service levels and dominate its rival.
Instead, Baidu's arch rivals used their deeper pockets and aggressive discounting to win customers, turning the search giant's food delivery and group buying platforms into loss making also rans.
Ele.me, which is 23 percent owned by Alibaba, had 28 million monthly active users as of May and complements the e commerce operator's own on demand services affiliate Koubei.
Together they are vying for supremacy with Tencent backed startup Meituan Dianping.
Waimai is the latest example of Baidu finding itself on the wrong side of costly startup battles.
It backed Huber Technologies Inc. in China through years of subsidy wars before the United States ride sharing giant surrendered to local rival Didi Chuxing. In 2016 profit growth fell for the first time since the company listed.

Blomberg/ Beijing/ Hong Kong

Spice And All Things Rice: Lagos Pays Homage To Jollof

In Nigeria, jollof rice isn't just a tasty West African dish - it's a national obsession.
Dozens of top chefs gathered on the weekend for Lagos' inaugural jollof festival, showcasing their personal twists on the tangy tomatoey rice to a crowd of hundreds of hungry hipsters.
Imoteda Aladekomo, a 31 year old chef who has been making jollof for four years, has led the way in reinventing the national staple, creating several pioneering variants through her company Eko Street Eats.
"It's so popular because it's easy to customize," she said while preparing take away boxes at the jollof fair, staged at former railway yard complete with disused train tracks, blaring Nigerian music and a giant version of Scrabble.
"Rice is really easy to get here whereas other ingredients aren't. Every party has to have jollof rice and every Sunday people will have it, having looked forward to it all week," she added, her plastic gloves caked in rice.
"Jollof rice will always reign supreme - even compared to McDonald's or whatever, your jollof rice captures people's childhoods."
Her flagship version, deep fried in breadcrumbs and served with plantain sauce and a fiery red pepper coulis, drew a steady stream of jollof aficionados.

Literally Obsessed
More Alatise, a self taught chef, also drew a crowd with her distinctive fusion style jollof offerings.
"We try to do a mix of really local recipes, but I imagine it with things from other countries - like very traditional gnocchi from Italy with jollof," the 30 year old told AFP.
"Or a rice bowl from Asia - but instead of white rice, I made it with jollof," she said, wearing oversized sunglasses and a hat decorated with a feather.
"I've been to Italy and I read and researched a lot. It's literally our staple, we're so proud it's the nation's favorite dish. We're literally obsessed."
The origins of the distinctive, deceptively simple dish are hotly contested.
The word jollof is related to "Will of," a language spoken in Senegal where the dish is also popular. As well as Nigeria and Senegal, variants of the recipe are enjoyed across West Africa.
"There's this big battle about where it came from. I've tried jollof from Senegal and it wasn't great. I think ours is best - but I'm a little biased," said Alatise.
But the divisions were set aside in 2014 when British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver adapted the local favorite with alien ingredients including parsley and lemon - inspiring Ozoz Sokoh, a Lagos food blogger, to set up the festival this year.

You Cannot Colonize Our Plates
"There was this whole brouhaha when Jamie Oliver made it and it didn't look like jollof," said Sokoh, a 42 year old geologist and author of the Kitchen Butterfly blog.
"Despite the jollof wars between Ghana and Nigeria they came together to say: 'You cannot colonize our plates'."
The "jollof wars" reached fever pitch last year when Ghanaian singer Sister Deborah released a song called "Ghana Jollof" that accused the Nigerian recipe of "tasting funny."
Controversies aside, Sokoh said the universal affection for the dish helps to unite the Nigerian diaspora and people with West African roots around the world.
"It brings many countries together - it's not just West Afeica, but countries where the slaves went, like the American south and parts of Mexico," she said.
And while food delivery services offering international favorites like sushi and pizza are expanding rapidly in Nigeria's big cities, jollof has retained a special place in the hearts of the country's huge youth population.
"Most of us young people forget about our traditional food," said Jane Ibitola, a 32 year old financial adviser from southern oil city of Port Harcourt.
"But whenever you move away from it, you cherish it again."

Gregory Walton
Agence France Presse/ Lagos, Nigeria

An Inconvenient Sequel presents Truth To Power

More than a decade after An Inconvenient Truth put the climate crisis on the map, its sequel comes delivering a more hopeful message.
When An Inconvenient Truth was released in 2006, the documentary, which centers on former United States vice president All Gore's campaign to educate the public on global warming, sent shockwaves around the world with its warnings of imminent environmental catastrophe brought by climate change.
Gore followed his gut and his heart, putting everything he had into an issue that had long lit a fire within him - confronting the increasingly alarming prospect of a global climate crisis that could literally signal the end of human civilization.
At that time, the climate crisis itself was at a crossroads, with scientific consensus coalescing around the costs to mankind, the global economy and the planet If zero efforts were made to cut down a man made greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change. Then, the scope of the threat was just breaking through to the public and the fossil fuel industry was putting up strong resistance.
The inspiring film, directed by Davis Guggenheim, won two Oscars and contributed to taking the issue of climate change into popular culture, propelling Gore to being named a co winner of the Nobel Peace Prize alongside the United Nation's panel of climate scientists in 2007.
Its sequel, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, which hits theaters here on Aug. 25, shows how far the battle to reverse the effects of climate change has come in 10 years. It serves as the next chapter of the story as people see not just accelerating change, but also the emergence of new battles. Simply put, if the first movie was the wakeup call, millions of people are now wide awake.
Directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, the sequel sets off in a new direction. It follows Gore as he continues his tireless fight, traveling around the world training an army of climate leaders while influencing international climate policy.
The award winning directors (The Island President; Audrie & Daisy) offer a fresh perspective and sense of warmth to the sequel, bringing in their skilled eyes for cinematography to make the story, which may not be easy to tell, entertaining.
Cameras follow Gore behind the scenes in a direct cinema style, connecting the audience to the subject while revealing the complexity of human relations in a manner as electrifying and dramatic as fiction.
The sequel reveals both private and public moments as well as funny, poignant and unscrioted , off the cuff moments, as Gore explains that, while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion.
Cameras also shadow Gore on his journey across Greenland, India, Europe, Asia and the US, navigating through corridors of power as well as "in the trenches" with survivors, scientists, unlikely leaders and ordinary people moved to take extraordinary actions.
Unexpected scenes intimately show Gore's day to day efforts - he peels off his soggy socks after wading through ocean flooded Miami; he escapes traffic by taking a crowded Paris subway; he engages in power brokering roles with top officials such as New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Climate Chief Christiana Figures; and he listens to heart wrenching stories from typhoon survivors in Tacloban, Philipplines.
The film also allows viewers to "be there" with Gore as he visits the Swiss Camp research station in Greenland that monitors the movement of ice sheets. There, he learns the station itself has collapsed several tines over the last decade because the ice on which it is anchored is melting so precipitously.
One moving scene at Russell Glacier in Greenland shows Gore standing, his face in awe, while taking in what he sees - ice cracks off into a river that leads to the ocean, then says he can see that the glacier is in worse condition compared to the last time he visited.
The film shows image of the climate change impacts splashed in the media - in the US alone, Louisianans in their cars are saved from drowning in a flood; ocean fish swim in Florida streets; and sci fi like "rain bombs" deluge Arizona. In India, a woman falls into a melting road. These scenes show that the urgency to solve the climate crisis is as great as ever.
Throughout the film, there is a sense of urgency and optimism, as well as a sense of connection with Gore's passion, courage, resilience, heart and, most of all, his unique ability to inspire others.
While the first film may have caused deep concern, the sequel, while still pointing to extreme droughts, record breaking downpours, melting Arctic ice and worrying scientific facts as evidence of climate change, has a more hopeful message in the world's ability to solve the crisis.
Heart warming scenes show, in the past 10 years, a low carbon economy is emerging at an unprecedented pace, driven by innovative technologies and growing economic upsides. In fact, the year 2016 marked an all time high in investments in renewable energy across the globe.
The sequel points out some huge climate success stories, including cities around the world achieving the goal of using 100 percent renewable electricity generation now exceed fossil fuels with markets increasingly turning away from them.
The film's message is clear. There is hope that, together, we can solve the climate crisis. While economics alone do not paint the entire picture, the trends put the writing on the wall: the future belongs to renewables.
Just like the first film, the sequel delivers a powerful message for the world to hear. As Gore says: "The next generation, if they live in a world to hear. As Gore says: "The next generation, if they live in a world of floods and storms and rising seas and droughts and refugees by the millions escaping unlivable conditions, destabilizing countries around the world, they would be well justified in looking back and asking, 'What were you thinking?"

Steve Emilia
The Jakarta Post/ Jakarta

American Made Puts Tom Cruise Back in The Pilot Seat

Tom Cruise returns to Top Gun territory in the new comedy thriller American Made, but with a lot more cocaine, guns and money put into the picture.
One of the Hollywood's most painstakingly constructed actors, Tom Cruise revisits his ace flyboy role as an American commercial pilot, who ends up working for the CIA while simultaneously smuggling drugs between Latin America and the United States.
Based on a true story, it chronicles historical accounts of Barry Seal, an infamous US pilot who became a drug smuggler. The movie has the Iran Contra scandal of the 1980s as its background, but history takes the back seat behind the fictionalized depiction of real life events.
To execute the complicated story in a timely manner, the plot is narrated from the perspective of Barry Seal (Tom Cruise).
The story begins with the recruitment of Barry by CIA operative Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) for his exceptional flying skills. His job is simple. He is asked to fly a spy plane over Central America to photograph communist insurgents.
While in service with the CIA, he goes about his work not purely out of a patriotic sense of duty, as he begins running cocaine for a mammoth drug cartel. His drug smuggling operations expands as he makes US$2000 for every kilogram of cocaine delivered to US soil. The high demand for drugs in North America eventually earns him millions of dollars.
Driven by the lure of money and lacking any moral compass, he has no qualms meddling in a country's politics and engaging in the drug trade.
The film makes a bold statement about America's place in the world during the presidential administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and their fight against the international drug epidemic.
The complex plot is not the easiest to follow, especially because the movie spends a lot of the time picturing Barry's missions in the air. To keep viewers on the same page, the movie features video diary flashback clips made by Barry, as he documents his experiences on a handheld camera.
The awkward narration does a poor job in accurately explaining the timeline of the story and rather complicates things further. In fact, it is only toward the end of the movie that the flashback narration seems to fall in place with the plot.
With its grainy texture and comic book reportage, the whole movie feels like a throwback to the 70s and 80s.
Tom Cruise does a good job in fully deploying a charming bravado with a self destructive level of arrogance. His great performance steers the audience to take a dive into a wild chain of dark events and transgressions that unfold throughout the plot.
The movie tries to highlight Barry's character so much that every frame of the film is packed with his presence. Supporting characters in the movie have lifeless qualities and only serve as devices for exposition.
American Made is Cruise's second collaboration with director Doug Liman, after Edge of Tomorrow. Liman, famous for Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity, and screen writer Gary Spinelli have taken a creative license with the plot.
The movie is full of suspense that feels almost unpredictable. It is an adrenaline journey that puts the audience at the edge of their seats knowing that the story is not completely fictional.

Yun Kyung Kim
The Jakarta Post/ Jakarta

Meet Lulu Hashimoto, The 'Living Doll' Fashion Model

Meet Lulu Hashimoto, a "living doll" and the latest trend in Tokyo's fashion modeling scene.
Lulu - a full body doll suit consisting of a wig, a mask and stockings patterned with doll like joints - was born from one woman's desire to become cute.
"I have always really liked dolls and for me, the epitome of cuteness is dolls," said the 23 year old fashion designer Hitomi Komaki, who created Lulu.
Dressing up as a mascot, called kigurumi in Japanese, is a popular art form in Japan. Komaki has take it to a new level by creating a body suit that looks like a doll and let's you move like a human.
"Many people call my project a fetish, but for me it's not a fetish but fashion," she said. "It's like wearing nice clothes or putting on false eyelashes to become cuter."
There is only one Lulu body suit, Komaki said, but dancers, designers and models are among those who have worn the costume.
The identity of exactly who is inside is secret, she added.
The stockings worn by Lulu were created by fellow fashion designer Koh Ueno, who airbrushes doll like joints onto the material.
"I want to see women wear these stockings and transform," said 29 year old Ueno.
"I want them to experience the extraordinary - to become otherworldly, artificial, or like a doll," he said.
While popular among fans of Japanese subculture, Lulu is now turning heads at the annual Miss I'd beauty pageant where she is among the 134 semifinalists chosen from around 4,000 entrants.
The pageant, which includes "non human" characters generated by artificial intelligence and three dimensional computer graphics for the first time, will announce a winner in November.
Lulu's ability to blur the line between reality and fiction has mesmerized fans on social media, where the Lulu Twitter and Instagram accounts have drawn tens of thousands of followers.
"I find it miraculous that dolls and humans - two things that exist in different planes - are standing in the same space," said Erika Kati, 24, who met Lulu for the first time at a recent fan event.
The possibility of wearing a suit and becoming Lulu also appealed to fans like 22 year old Miu Shimoda.
I'd like to be a beautiful girl like Lulu at least once in my life," she said.

Minami Funakoshi
Reuters/ Tokyo

Japan's Richest Village Can't Find Workers For Its Factory

Sarufutsu village in the far north of Japan's northernmost island is the nation's richest village, thanks to a bounty of scallops pulled from the Sea of Okhotsk.
The village - which is closer to the Russian island of Sakhalin than Tokyo - boasts some of the highest average incomes of any town in Japan, thanks to the earnings of some of the fishermen.
But the new scallop factory is not running a full capacity because it shows that some industries may not survive as the population ages and shrinks, even if they are profitable.
The scallops from the nearby waters are dried and then mostly exported to Hong Kong and elsewhere as premium ingredient in Chinese food. By value, scallops are the biggest international export from Hokkaido.
But the workers in the factory are mostly older women, and in about seven or eight years, there won't be any more Japanese working there, according to Koichi Kimura, an executive of the fishing cooperative that runs the facility.
"If we wanted to we could run 24 hours a day and triple production," says Kimura. "But we would need more than 100 new people for that."
The village's population is not shrinking. But it's flat, and while the factory employs 19 Chinese trainees among its 90 staff, it can't legally increase their numbers without adding more Japanese employees. So the village authorities are trying to encourage people to move to the town.
For the past three years the village has run tours to bring people from other parts of Japan to check it out as a possible place to live, and also appointed the chef of a Tokyo restaurant that uses their scallops as a tourism ambassador.
But it is a hard sell given that work in the factory is seasonal and wages are low.
While the 250 or so fishing cooperative members who work the boots earn good money, pushing up the average, those employed in the factory earn minimum wages, and it's only open for seven months a year. The factory is closed during the winter, when temperatures in the area go below minus 20 degrees Celcius.
Without better pay and conditions, it will be hard to attract people to live in the area, but the cooperative doesn't think it can dramatically increase wages.
"Young Japanese people aren't interested if we just raised pay a little," says Kimura. "If we were to double or triple wages, we could attract workers, but we wouldn't be able to make ends meet."
While economist and the Bank of Japan point to the shrinking population as an opportunity for companies to increase automation and productivity, not all jobs can be done by machines. The 2.4 billion yen (US$22 million) new factory was opened in April 2016 with new machinery, but it still requires workers.they might have to consider moving the factory, according to Hokkaido University Professor At sushi Miyawaki, who studies government policy.
"Even with the cost of capital falling so low, there just isn't new investment," he said. "In a few places, the economic story the BOJ tells may work, but it's impossible here in Hokkaido."

Masahiro hid aka
Blomberg/ Tokyo

Holder Real Draws Dortmund, Spurs in Champions League

Holder Real Madrid will face Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League group stage while five time winner Barcelona was drawn with last season's runner up Juventus on Thursday.
Zinedine Zidane's side is chasing a third successive European title and fourth in five seasons after demolishing Italian champion Juventus 4-1 in Cardiff in June.
The record 12 time European champions also take on APOEL of Cyprus in a testing Group H that will see Gareth Bale face Spurs for the first time since leaving for Real in a then world record deal in 2013.
"We are the holders so there is always an extra motivation for the teams you face. It won't be easy at all, we'll need to play well and find our best form," said Real spokesman and former striker Emilio Butragueno.
"We've played a lot of times against Borussia Dortmund recently and know how good they are. Tottenham have shown in the Premier League they are a very strong team."
Tottenham forward Harry Kane said he was excited to line up against the defending champions.
"You want to test yourself against the best and Real Madrid are the best at the moment," said Kane.
Barcelona beat Juventus 3-1 in the 2015 final but the Spanish club has endured a difficult month with Neymar departing for Paris Saint Germain in a mammoth £222 million (US$261 million) deal.
They will also come up against Greek champions Olympiakos and Sporting Lisbon in a competitive Group D.
"It is a high level group with four historic teams. We will be fighting against a well known rival in Juventus and the games against them will condition our chances in the group," said Barca general manager Pep Segura.
Juventus director general Beppe Marotta said Barca was weaker following the record breaking sale of Neymar.
"Missing a player like Neymar weighs heavily. We'll have to see how they intend to replace him. But Barcelona remain a top quality side with great individual players," Marotta told Italia 1.
Bayern Munich coach Carlo Ancelotti will return to Paris in a Group B that also features Celtic and Anderlecht.
"It's an exciting group with some great teams and Paris at the top," said the Italian. "It's a nice story for me to meet my former club again. As everybody knows, Celtic gets incredible support from from their fans. And Anderlecht can not be underestimated as Belgian champion."
PSG coach Unai Emery, looking to mastermind a much deeper run after last year's spectacular collapse against Barca, expects his side to Join Bayern in the last 16.
"Bayern Munich are a very strong side. We will be the two favorites," said Emery.
Chelsea, one of a record five English teams to qualify for the group phase, will meet Atletico Madrid in Group C as well as Roma and Qarabag, the first side from Azerbaijan to reach this stage of the competition.
Jose Mourinho will visit his native Portugal with Manchester United after they were placed in Group A with Benfica, CSKA Moscow and Basel.
Pep Guardiola's Manchester City is in Group F alongside Shaktar Donetsk, Napoli and Feyenoord while Liverpool will play Spartak Moscow, Sevilla and Maribor in Group E.
"We want to be a football club where we are always there in the quarterfinals, semifinals and getting to finals," said City director of football Txiki Begiristain.
"We have refreshed the team and we are hoping that we can remember what we did two years ago when we got to the semifinals and why not even more?"
Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp was pleased to have avoided Europe's heavyweights.
"There are groups with Barcelona, Bayern, Juventus and Real Madrid, and not to get them is of course more good than bad," said Klopp.
French champions Monaco, who reached last season's semi finals, face Porto, Besiktas and debutants RB Leipzig in Group G.
The opening round of matches will be played Sept. 12-13.

Agence France Presse/ Monaco