China

Photoshop Request: “This is me celebrating my graduation. Can you make it look more like a celebration?” Photoshop Request: “I want to look more dangerous.” Photoshop Request: “I want to look like the son of a powerful politician!” Photoshop Request: “Make me look like hot shit, please!” Photoshop Request: “My friend behind me looks a little dull. Can you make him more dramatic?” Photoshop Request: “I want to look like a hero with courage!” Photoshop Request: “Can you make me look less bored?” Photoshop Request: “Lose the clothes, more tattoos, and I want a knife. Make me look like the kind of person who would take all your money and your life. Photoshop Request: “I wanna look more like a hero. Maybe put a lady in there?” Photoshop Request: “Dear artisans, please make this background more powerful.” Photoshop Request: “That kid walked into the shot. I don’t want any kids in this photo.”

SunPower's higher guidance has investors excited about solar stocks again, and even Chinese companies have dreams of making a profit. It's been a long road back for investors in solar stocks, but the clouds are lifting. With financial performance improving at leaders First Solar and SunPower it may be time to get into the market. The Motley Fool's Erin Miller sat down with Fool.com contributor Travis Hoium to get the latest on the industry. First Solar has been one of the best performers this year. If you're looking for continuing updates and guidance on the company whenever news breaks, The Motley Fool has created a brand-new report that details every must know side of this stock. To get started, simply click here now.

Mercedes-Benz is hoping for big sales with its new front-wheel-drive CLA-class sedans, like this 2014 CLA250. (Photo credit: Mercedes-Benz) Mercedes-Benz is one of the great auto brands of all time. But is it running out of steam? Mercedes was once the dominant luxury-car brand. But several years ago, it fell behind BMW -- and then, more recently, behind Volkswagen's Audi brand, in total worldwide sales. Despite strong growth rates for luxury-car sales in general around the world, Mercedes' parent company, Daimler , actually lowered its profit expectations last month, after its first-quarter earnings missed Wall Street estimates. Daimler, which is also the world's biggest big-truck maker, blamed weaker than expected Mercedes sales in China for the miss. But the problems with the famous brand may be larger than that. Is the shine wearing off of the famous three-pointed star? An important and fast-growing market Luxury cars are a small part of the overall auto market, but they're important to investors because they're exceptionally profitable products. To take just one example, Audis represent a small portion of VW's overall worldwide sales, but they account for roughly half of VW's total profits - and VW's profits lead the industry. VW is using profits from Audi to fund a massive global expansion. That example hasn't been lost on VW's chief rivals. General Motors is in the midst of a massive multi-year overhaul of its Cadillac brand, a key part of its push to close the profit gap between it and VW, which remains significant. But what of Mercedes-Benz? While BMW and VW have seen their stocks jump in the seven years since Dieter Zetsche took over as Daimler's CEO, Daimler's stock is up just 14% over that same period. That disparity is mostly due to the fact that Mercedes-Benz hasn't performed as well as its rivals in two big areas: China and smaller cars. Why Mercedes lags in China So far in 2013, Mercedes is the leading luxury-car brand here in the U.S. It's a different story in China, though. Mercedes is a distant third behind BMW and Audi, China's luxury-car leader. That gap has grown recently: Mercedes' sales in the world's largest auto market fell 11% in the first quarter, while both of its German rivals score gains. Daimler blames a restructuring effort for the China decline, but the deeper story is that the restructuring was necessary because Mercedes' initial China strategy was a mess. The company had two separate Chinese distributors, who competed aggressively with each other via loud ad campaigns and deep discounts. That did considerable damage to the brand. The larger challenge facing Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz has a larger challenge, though, one that has become increasingly apparent as the auto industry has consolidated: Simply put, the company lacks the scale of many of its rivals. To take the most obvious example, Audi shares engineering resources (and many parts) with other brands in Volkswagen's vast global empire. That gives Audi advantages in both engineering and in costs that Mercedes can't really duplicate. Similar advantages favor GM with Cadillac, which will compete more and more directly with Mercedes over time, and Toyota's Lexus brand. BMW, like Mercedes, lacks an affiliation with a major global automaker. But it has done better, in part by expanding downmarket with smaller and less-expensive models that depart from old-school notions of "luxury cars". That strategy has increased BMW's volume and scale, and so far BMW has mostly appeared to avoid the dilution in brand cachet that has worried many analysts. Mercedes has followed in that direction, though its smaller cars haven't had great sales. The company is looking to change that with its new CLA, shown above. The CLA is an "affordable" compact sedan that it hopes will attract younger buyers to the brand (and away from the likes of BMW). The CLA's starting price is over $5000 less than that of the C-Class, long the cheapest Mercedes sold in the U.

A group assessing China's role in stealing trade secrets from American companies wants the U.S. government to consider a controversial method for protecting those firms from Chinese hackers: Let them hack back."Without damaging the intruder’s own network, companies that experience cyber theft ought to be able to retrieve their electronic files or prevent the exploitation of their stolen information," said the report released Wednesday by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, a private task force that included former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair.More...

Jungleboys’ previous venture A Moody Christmas Screen NSW has announced funding for four film and TV projects which it claims will generate more than 1000 jobs. According to the announcement from the state government body, its $974,000 in grants will also create “more than $25 million investment”. Among the TV shows to receive funding is the follow-up to A Very Moody Christmas, The Moodys, from production company Jungleboys. Screen NSW claims that its $200,000 grant will be responsible for 274 jobs and lead to production spend of $3.5m on the ABC comedy. The funding was given to the projects through Screen NSW’s Production Finance Fund and Regional Filming Fund. According to the announcement, the “four new film and television projects… will together generate more than $25 million investment and 1,015 jobs for the State”. George Souris, Minister for the Arts, said in the announcement: ”The follow-up to the hugely popular series A Moody Christmas, is slated for Sydney and the NSW South Coast supporting 274 jobs and a production spend of more than $3.35 million.” One of the projects, a film called Backtrack, will be written, directed and produced by Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Rite writer Michael Petroni. This is Petroni’s first work in Australia since 2002′s Till Human Voices Wake Us. Souris said Backtrack would support 520 jobs and have a production spend of more than $6 million. The other works include international TV comedy/drama Camp, starring Rachel Griffiths, and a Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder documentary called Two Men in China. The announcement: Title: Backtrack Company: See Pictures Pty Ltd. Locations: Sydney, Picton and/or Bathurst surrounds. Screen NSW support: $500,000 from Production Finance Fund and grant of $100,000 from Regional Filming Fund. Jobs and production investment: 520 jobs and NSW production spend of $6,649,558 million. Production dates: July 1, 2013 – August 14, 2013. Synopsis: Backtrack is described as a spine-chilling supernatural thriller from writer/director Michael Petroni and producers Jamie Hilton (The Waiting City) and Antonia Barnard (Last Ride). Psychologist Peter Bowers’ life is thrown into turmoil when he discovers that his patients are the ghosts of people who all died in an accident 20 years previously. Afraid of losing his mind, Peter returns to his home town where he uncovers a terrifying truth, which only he can put right. Title: The Moodys Company: Jungleboys. Locations: Sydney and NSW South Coast. Screen NSW support: $200,000 from Production Finance Fund Jobs and production investment: 274 jobs and NSW production spend of $3,352,438. Production dates: August 26, 2013 – October 11, 2013. Synopsis: The follow-up to the hugely popular series A Moody Christmas. Picking up a month after we last saw them, it will visit the Moodys at various family events throughout the year. Like A Moody Christmas, each episode will revolve around a particular occasion that naturally brings them back together such as Australia Day, Bridget’s 60th Birthday, or the Easter Long Weekend. Title: Camp Company: Matchbox Pictures for NBC Locations: Murwillumbah and surrounding Northern Rivers areas. Screen NSW support: $100,000 grant from Regional Filming Fund. Jobs and production investment: more than 200 jobs and NSW production spend of $14,703,216, including a regional spend of $3.2 million. Production dates: March 18, 2013 – June 27, 2013 Synopsis: A raunchy, funny, loud summer series with moments of romance and wistfulness following the lives of the families, counsellors and owners of the quintessentially American Little Hawk Family Camp. It’s a relentlessly cheerful, lakeside slice of family summer heaven that is completely unplugged – no cell phone reception, no TVs, no internet. Title: Two Men in China: Australia Company: Cordell Jigsaw Locations: Australian locations including Po

Following a tsunami of bad news for electric car maker Fisker Automotive earlier this year, the company has been silent in recent months, as it’s been figuring out what will happen to it: will it be acquired, will it sell off its assets, will it declare bankruptcy? Well, according to Reuters, a group of investors that includes former General Motors exec Bob Lutz and Chinese auto tech company Wanxiang are offering to buy Fisker for $20 million in a prepackaged bankruptcy deal. If Fisker is bought for $20 million that would mean the company would be bought for less than 1 percent of its reported $2.2 billion valuation when it launched the Karma in the late summer of 2011. Twenty million dollars is not quite two percent of the total funding ($1.2 billion) that Fisker raised. Fisker also owes the U.S. government another $171 million to pay back its loan. That’s got to be one of the biggest losses in venture capital history. Row of Fisker Karmas Earlier this year there were media reports that Fisker was being bids for between $200 million to $350 million from different Chinese auto companies. But either those reports put the bidding high (if so, I would speculate they were leaked by Fisker to help with bidding), something changed in the valuation of Fisker (it plummeted), or the bidders realized a lower valuation of Fisker after looking under the hood. In a similar end game, solar thin film company Miasole was sold for $30 million to Chinese renewable power company Hanergy, after raising at least $500 million in venture capital funding. Both Miasole and Fisker were backed by Valley firm Kleiner Perkins. Fisker’s potential bidders include VL Automotive, which is a joint venture between Lutz and Gilbert Villarreal. VL Automotive wants to turn the Fisker Karma into an internal combustion engine car, stripping out the electric drivetrain and giving it an engine. Read my long investigative story on Fisker: A look under the hood: why electric car startup Fisker crashed and burned. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Tesla’s Model X could make the electric SUV a hitGreen IT Q4: solar, subsidies and the outlook for EVsGreen IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times

The 4th Danzhou Grand Master Chess Tournament is taking place in Danzhou, Hainan, from 20 May to 29 May 2013. Ten Chinese Grandmasters compete in the round robin tournament.Ni Hua is leading the field as the only player that maintained a perfect score after three rounds. Two of these victories were achieved with the black pieces.The first victim of the fourth seeded player was Xiu Deshun. A very long and hard-fought battle finished with Ni Hua getting the faster passed pawns on the queenside.In the second round the leader had to face the Dutch put up by Lu Shanglei. After a series of simplifications the players went into a queens and rooks endgame where white’s initiative was enough to get ahead. Shanglei resigned on move 41 when he is about to lose his rook.Young GM Wei Yi was the last one to fall. He played white and agreed to get in a sharp Ruy Lopez. A tactical sequence around move 22 left him a piece down and he decided to resign instead of suffering any longer.Rating favorites Bu Xiangzhi and Ding Liren are sharing second place with 2.5/3.Live gamesMore informationStandings after 3 rounds:1 GM Ni Hua 2646 32 GM Bu Xiangzhi 2662 2.53 GM Ding Liren 2707 2.54 GM Zhou Weiqi 2590 1.55 GM Yu Yangyi 2675 1.56 GM Zhou Jianchao 2607 17 GM Xiu Deshun 2534 18 GM Wen Yang 2618 19 GM Wei Yi 2530 0.510 GM Lu Shanglei 2551 0.5 Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Over the past month, copper prices have reached the lowest level in 18 months, dipping below US$7000 per tonne, as concerns over the robustness of Chinese growth have weighed on the outlook for demand. Early indications of a decoupling from other cyclical assets like equities suggest that...

Those sneaky Chinese hackers are always up to no good. If they keep this up, our government is just going to have to quit borrowing money from them. Now, more that three years after that posting on what came to be known as Operation Aurora, it appears that the cyber marauders were after more than just information on activists. They were also after information on investigations on Chinese spies in the United States being conducted by the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice. Comments

Ready to hear the worst or possibly the best news ever? Mr. Chow, the Chinese death-obsessed, all-around crazy man from The Hangover series may be getting his own spin-off film. For some critics the trilogy is a staple comedy series, and for other critics the films are nothing more than lazy frat boy comedies. That said there’s no denying that the true star to break out from all the films (well, besides Zach Galifianakis) is Ken Jeong. In all three films Jeong plays a seriously demented Chinese gangster, who’s obsessed with women, getting everyone killed, and in the third installment takes up cock fighting. While The Hangover III is ending its trilogy, Zach Galifianakis let the cat out of the bag to Entertainment Tonight, about a possible spin-off for Mr. Chow. During the interview Galifianakis explains the possibility of a Mr. Chow spin-off: “The ‘Hangover’ movies… have to be in the context of the three of us, I think, and Doug as well. If there was a spinoff — I don’t think I envision a spin-off — but if there was one, I think one with [Mr. Chow, Ken Jeong's demented Chinese gangster character] would work.” Sure Mr. Chow is a beloved character of The Hangover series, with his hilarious one-liners and outrageous hijinks, but he’s a character that should only be taken in small doses. Having a fully fledged film about Mr. Chow would be a disaster if he’s not watered down for situational comedy. Ken Jeong started out as a cameo at best in the first film, but his involvement in the franchise has grown with each film. In the second film he had a nice chunk, which proved to be too long for critics. In this third film the central plot involved Jeong’s Chow has proven to be just too much for some critics. What do you think? Will you watch a Mr. Chow spin-off? ‘The Hangover’s’ Mr. Chow To Get A Spin-Off? is a post from: The Inquisitr