Sanmina Corporation SANM is increasingly focusing on being a key enabler of the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem to capitalize on the rapid buildout of AI data center infrastructure. Leveraging advanced engineering, supply chain management and system integration through strategic acquisitions, collaborations and focused investments, the company is positioning itself to capture growth across ...
Sanmina Corporation SANM is increasingly focusing on being a key enabler of the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem to capitalize on the rapid buildout of AI data center infrastructure. Leveraging advanced engineering, supply chain management and system integration through strategic acquisitions, collaborations and focused investments, the company is positioning itself to capture growth across the rapidly expanding AI hardware value chain. Over the past year, Sanmina has surged 67.2% compared with the industry’s growth of 106.4%. It has outperformed peers like Jabil, Inc. JBL, but lagged Celestica Inc. CLS. While Jabil has gained 45.8%, Celestica is up 197.7% over this period. One-Year SANM Stock Price Performance Zacks Investment Research Image Source: Zacks Investment Research SANM Rides on ZT Systems Buyout In October 2025, Sanmina completed the acquisition of ZT Systems' data center infrastructure manufacturing business from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD. ZT Systems is a major supplier of high-performance cloud and AI infrastructure for hyperscale customers, including rack-scale computing platforms. The buyout added massive scale to Sanmina’s AI and cloud manufacturing capabilities, offering a more comprehensive and integrated solution for the fast-growing Cloud and AI end-market. Moreover, the transaction enabled Sanmina to gain stronger access to hyperscale cloud providers, who are investing billions in AI infrastructure. AMD also selected Sanmina as a manufacturing partner for its AI rack-scale solutions, enabling faster deployment of cloud AI infrastructure. The collaboration combined AMD’s AI chip-design capabilities with Sanmina’s manufacturing and systems integration expertise to accelerate the deployment of AI systems infrastructure. 42Q Connected Manufacturing Aids SANM Beyond AI, Sanmina is also focusing on 42Q connected manufacturing that effectively integrates data from customers’ global factories and suppliers’ fleets and creates an up-to-date...
Every year, we have a blast covering a fresh crop of winners of the Ig Nobel prizes. After 35 years in Boston, the annual prize ceremony will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, this year and will continue to be held in a European city for the foreseeable future. The reason: concerns about the safety of international travelers, who are increasingly reluctant to travel to the US to participate. “Dur...
Every year, we have a blast covering a fresh crop of winners of the Ig Nobel prizes. After 35 years in Boston, the annual prize ceremony will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, this year and will continue to be held in a European city for the foreseeable future. The reason: concerns about the safety of international travelers, who are increasingly reluctant to travel to the US to participate. “During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of The Annals of Improbable Research magazine, told The Associated Press . “We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the US this year.” Established in 1991, the Ig Nobels are a good-natured parody of the Nobel Prizes; they honor “achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.” As the motto implies, the research being honored might seem ridiculous at first glance, but that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of scientific merit. The unapologetically campy awards ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and the 24/7 lectures, in which experts must explain their work twice: once in 24 seconds and again in just seven words. Read full article Comments
Oracle (ORCL) will release its third-quarter fiscal year 2026 results today after the market closes. Notably, ORCL stock has suffered a dramatic correction in recent months. Shares have fallen more than 55% from their 52-week high of $345.72, erasing any artificial intelligence (AI)-driven gains. The steep decline reflects growing investor unease over several issues, including Oracle’s aggressive ...
Oracle (ORCL) will release its third-quarter fiscal year 2026 results today after the market closes. Notably, ORCL stock has suffered a dramatic correction in recent months. Shares have fallen more than 55% from their 52-week high of $345.72, erasing any artificial intelligence (AI)-driven gains. The steep decline reflects growing investor unease over several issues, including Oracle’s aggressive capital spending on AI and cloud, customer concentration risk, and uncertainty about how the company plans to finance the massive infrastructure investments required to support rising demand. Despite those concerns, the company’s business momentum remains solid. The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) segment is witnessing a surge in AI workloads. In particular, demand tied to graphics processing units (GPUs) has been a key contributor, as enterprises increasingly deploy AI applications that require significant computing power. This could provide a meaningful boost to Oracle’s top line. Further, due to the selloff, Oracle’s 14-period relative strength index (RSI) currently sits around 46, well below the 70 level that typically signals overbought conditions. This suggests that the stock has room to run following the earnings release. Options markets are pricing in a potential move of about 10.4% in either direction for contracts expiring on March 13. That implied volatility is lower than Oracle’s average post-earnings move of roughly 16.1% over the past four quarters, suggesting traders anticipate a more moderate reaction this time around. Historically, Oracle’s earnings announcements have produced mixed responses from investors. The stock has declined following two of its last four earnings releases. Oracle's Q3 Expectations While Oracle stock has dropped significantly, expectations remain high for another solid quarter from the company as it continues to benefit from accelerating demand for cloud and AI infrastructure. Notably, in Q2, Oracle’s cloud business accounted for ro...
Panchanut Chobjit/iStock via Getty Images Seat model breaks, pricing shifts to usage and outcomes, and the winners are the ones who control the new meter The “SaaSpocalypse” take is seductive because it’s clean. AI agents show up, humans do less clicking, and suddenly all those per seat subscriptions look like dead weight. It sounds like the same story we’ve seen before: a new layer arrives and ea...
Panchanut Chobjit/iStock via Getty Images Seat model breaks, pricing shifts to usage and outcomes, and the winners are the ones who control the new meter The “SaaSpocalypse” take is seductive because it’s clean. AI agents show up, humans do less clicking, and suddenly all those per seat subscriptions look like dead weight. It sounds like the same story we’ve seen before: a new layer arrives and eats the old one. But if you’ve spent any time inside an enterprise, you know the enterprise doesn’t work that way. Nobody wakes up one morning and uninstalls Salesforce, ServiceNow, SAP, Workday, Microsoft because an agent got smarter. Those systems are not “tools,” they’re the rails. They are where data lives, where permissions live, where audit trails live, where compliance lives, where approvals live. They are the system of record and the system of action. So no, SaaS isn’t dying. What’s dying is the idea that the right unit to bill for is “a human seat.” And that is a much bigger change than people realize. Because the whole SaaS model of the last decade quietly assumed a stable relationship between headcount and economic output. More employees meant more seats. Growing company meant rising ARR. Even if the product wasn’t loved, it could still ride the headcount curve. Seat-based pricing was a tax on organizational growth. AI breaks that relationship. Not overnight, not everywhere, but enough to matter. If a company can run flatter, if one agent can do the repetitive work of a team, you end up with something that feels weird at first: output grows, headcount doesn’t. Or headcount shrinks. And once headcount becomes a variable you can reduce without destroying output, every CFO looks at per seat SaaS and starts asking a question they didn’t used to ask out loud: "Why am I paying a headcount tax?" That’s the re-metering event. The fight isn’t about whether software tools remain. They will. The fight is about what the vendor gets to charge for when the human seat is no long...
OLEKSANDR KOZACHOK February U.S. Existing Home Sales: +1.7% M/M to 4.090 M vs. 3.880M consensus and 4.020M prior (revised from 3.91M), according to data released by the National Association of Realtors on Tuesday. Developing… Check back for updates. More on the US Economy U.S. dollar slips as Middle East tensions and oil volatility weigh: Currency Recap Mortgage originations in Q4 climb to largest...
OLEKSANDR KOZACHOK February U.S. Existing Home Sales: +1.7% M/M to 4.090 M vs. 3.880M consensus and 4.020M prior (revised from 3.91M), according to data released by the National Association of Realtors on Tuesday. Developing… Check back for updates. More on the US Economy U.S. dollar slips as Middle East tensions and oil volatility weigh: Currency Recap Mortgage originations in Q4 climb to largest quarterly tally in three and a half years Investors Find Hope In The Fog Of War
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX) (SPY) is down -0.04%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI) (DIA) is down -0.13%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX) (QQQ) is up +0.13%. March E-mini S&P futures (ESH26) are down -0.16%, and March E-mini Nasdaq futures (NQH26) are up +0.13%. Stocks are being pressured today by fresh disruptions in the Persian Gulf that raised doubts about President Trump’s comment yesterd...
The S&P 500 Index ($SPX) (SPY) is down -0.04%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DOWI) (DIA) is down -0.13%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX) (QQQ) is up +0.13%. March E-mini S&P futures (ESH26) are down -0.16%, and March E-mini Nasdaq futures (NQH26) are up +0.13%. Stocks are being pressured today by fresh disruptions in the Persian Gulf that raised doubts about President Trump’s comment yesterday evening that the Iran war could end “very soon.” In addition, the Pentagon said the US military is today conducting its most intensive day of bombing yet. Stocks are also being undercut by today’s +1.7 bp rise in the 10-year T-note yield. An Iranian drone attack today caused the biggest refinery in the UAE at the Ruwais Industrial Complex to halt operations due to a fire in the complex. Also, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported an explosion today involving a tanker near Abu Dhabi, but no further details were available. Despite those disruptions, April WTI crude oil futures prices are down -7% today, erasing part of the sharp rally seen in the past 1-1/2 weeks. Oil prices on Monday spiked to a high of $119.48 after Israel over the weekend bombed 30 Iranian fuel depots. However, WTI oil prices have since fallen to the $ 85-per-barrel area after President Trump said on Monday that the Iran war is “pretty much” over, and after G-7 finance ministers said on Monday that the G-7 nations stand ready to release oil stockpiles if needed. At a press conference Monday evening, President Trump was asked when the war would end, and he answered, “I think soon, very soon.” G-7 energy ministers are meeting today beginning at 1:45pm local time (8:45 am Eastern) at the International Energy Agency in Paris, with most ministers joining remotely, according to French Finance Minister Roland Lescure. Mr. Lescure said today, “We are gathering the G-7 energy ministers today here in Paris; we are going through the process but obviously all options are on the table,” including an emergen...
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Everything is more expensive now, even Fortnite’s in-game currency. Starting on March 19th, V-bucks packs will include less of the premium currency at the same prices. For instance, players can currently get 1,000 V-bucks for $8.99, but after the price increases they will only get 800 V-bucks at the same rate. ...
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Everything is more expensive now, even Fortnite’s in-game currency. Starting on March 19th, V-bucks packs will include less of the premium currency at the same prices. For instance, players can currently get 1,000 V-bucks for $8.99, but after the price increases they will only get 800 V-bucks at the same rate. The price of exact amount packs is increasing from $0.50 per 50 V-bucks to $0.99 per 50 V-bucks. Epic is also adjusting the price of Fortnite’s Battle Pass, which will now cost 800 V-bucks to access and reward 800 V-bucks upon completion, rather than costing and awarding 1,000 V-bucks as it currently does. Unfortunately, Battle Pass bonus rewards will no longer include V-bucks after next week’s price changes. Epic has also lowered the cost of the OG Pass to 800 V-bucks (previously 1,000) and the LEGO and Music Passes will cost 1,200 V-bucks, rather than 1,400. However, existing V-bucks gift cards can still be redeemed for their printed values. Epic says “the cost of running Fortnite has gone up a lot,” forcing them to increase their prices. Fortnite isn’t the only Epic game seeing price hikes, either — the premium currency in Fall Guys is getting similar pricing changes starting on April 8th.
Pawel Gaul/iStock via Getty Images The iShares MSCI Brazil ETF ( EWZ ) has surged 16% year-to-date through March 2026, closing at $37.10 on March 9, 2026, driven by Brazil's robust commodity exports and oil strength amid global energy demand. As the world grapples with the oil price surge due to the war, Brazilian ETF like EWZ could benefit from it. Below is a list of the top holdings of the iShar...
Pawel Gaul/iStock via Getty Images The iShares MSCI Brazil ETF ( EWZ ) has surged 16% year-to-date through March 2026, closing at $37.10 on March 9, 2026, driven by Brazil's robust commodity exports and oil strength amid global energy demand. As the world grapples with the oil price surge due to the war, Brazilian ETF like EWZ could benefit from it. Below is a list of the top holdings of the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF, ranked according to their Seeking Alpha Quant Ratings. Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras ( PBR ) tops the list with the highest Quant Rating of 4.96, earning a Strong Buy designation. B3 S.A. - Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão ( BOLSY ) and Vale S.A. ( VALE ) follow closely behind, with ratings of 4.87 and 4.85, respectively. The majority of the ETF’s top holdings carry bullish ratings, with Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP ( SBS ) and WEG S.A. ( WEGZY ) also earning Strong Buy ratings. Financial sector giants like Nu Holdings Ltd. ( NU ) and Itaú Unibanco ( ITUB ) round out the top holdings, with NU holding a Buy rating and ITUB rated as a Hold. Seeking Alpha’s Quant system ranks stocks based on their performance on critical quantitative measures, including valuation, growth, stock momentum, and profitability. Each stock is rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with any rating above 3.5 indicating a bullish rating. A score of 2.5 or below represents a bearish profile. Here is the list: 1. Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras ( PBR ), Quant Rating: 4.96 2. B3 S.A. - Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão ( BOLSY ), Quant Rating: 4.87 3. Vale S.A. ( VALE ), Quant Rating: 4.85 4. Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP ( SBS ), Quant Rating: 4.78 5. WEG S.A. ( WEGZY ), Quant Rating: 4.63 6. Ambev S.A. ( ABEV ), Quant Rating: 4.12 7. Nu Holdings Ltd. ( NU ), Quant Rating: 4.12 8. Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. ( ITUB ), Quant Rating: 3.47 9. Banco Bradesco S.A. ( BBD ), Quant Rating: 3.22 More on iShares MSCI Brazil ETF Investing In Brazil Thr...
is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. A lot of people are mad at Ticketmaster, and have been for a long time. (Did Swifties directly create an antitrust trial? Discuss.) The US government’s c...
is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. A lot of people are mad at Ticketmaster, and have been for a long time. (Did Swifties directly create an antitrust trial? Discuss.) The US government’s case against Live Nation-Ticketmaster appeared poised to lay bare some of the strangeness of the music business, and maybe even change the way the company works. Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Vergecast wherever you get your podcasts. Head here. Not a subscriber? You can sign up here. And then, well, the Department of Justice and Live Nation-Ticketmaster decided to settle. On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Lauren Feiner explains what happened during the first few days of the trial, the machinations that led to the settlement, and what’s likely to happen next in this fight. The trial may not be over, but it’s certainly about to change. After that, The Verge’s Hayden Field joins the show to catch up on the latest between Anthropic, OpenAI, and the US Department of Defense. She explains why OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s deal announcement backfired so spectacularly, why this whole thing is both a big win and a huge problem for Anthropic, and whether the end result of this saga will change the way we use, and regulate, AI going forward. Finally, David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about foldable and flippable phones. They’re cool, they’re fun, they kind of seem like the future… but what are they for? If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:
There were "differing opinions" about whether the UK should "physically" join strikes on the country, he added, but the UK should not have rejected the initial US request to use British bases for strikes on missile sites used to target allies.
There were "differing opinions" about whether the UK should "physically" join strikes on the country, he added, but the UK should not have rejected the initial US request to use British bases for strikes on missile sites used to target allies.
Deep-pocketed investors have adopted a bearish approach towards Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM), and it's something market players shouldn't ignore. Our tracking of public options records at Benzinga unveiled this significant move today. The identity of these investors remains unknown, but such a substantial move in TSM usually suggests something big is about to happen. We gleaned this information...
Deep-pocketed investors have adopted a bearish approach towards Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM), and it's something market players shouldn't ignore. Our tracking of public options records at Benzinga unveiled this significant move today. The identity of these investors remains unknown, but such a substantial move in TSM usually suggests something big is about to happen. We gleaned this information from our observations today when Benzinga's options scanner highlighted 30 extraordinary options activities for Taiwan Semiconductor. This level of activity is out of the ordinary. The general mood among these heavyweight investors is divided, with 26% leaning bullish and 56% bearish. Among these notable options, 8 are puts, totaling $517,508, and 22 are calls, amounting to $1,473,761. What's The Price Target? After evaluating the trading volumes and Open Interest, it's evident that the major market movers are focusing on a price band between $200.0 and $470.0 for Taiwan Semiconductor, spanning the last three months. Analyzing Volume & Open Interest In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Taiwan Semiconductor options trades today is 2905.54 with a total volume of 4,150.00. In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Taiwan Semiconductor's big money trades within a strike price range of $200.0 to $470.0 over the last 30 days. Taiwan Semiconductor Call and Put Volume: 30-Day Overview Noteworthy Options Activity: About Taiwan Semiconductor Following our analysis of the options activities associated with Taiwan Semiconductor, we pivot to a closer look at the company's own performance. Where Is Taiwan Semiconductor Standing Right Now? With a volume of 2,091,831, the price of TSM is down -0.6% at $346.61. RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock is currently neutral between overbought and oversold. Next earnings are expected to be released in 37 days. What The Experts Say On Tai...
Earnings Call Insights: ADC Therapeutics SA (ADCT) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Ameet Mallik highlighted a strategic plan focused on ZYNLONTA with optimized life cycle management, including advancing LOTIS-5, initiating LOTIS-7, and investigator-initiated trials (IITs) in indolent lymphomas. Mallik stated, "By focusing the company, we reduced our operating cost structure by approximately 50%. At th...
Earnings Call Insights: ADC Therapeutics SA (ADCT) Q4 2025 Management View CEO Ameet Mallik highlighted a strategic plan focused on ZYNLONTA with optimized life cycle management, including advancing LOTIS-5, initiating LOTIS-7, and investigator-initiated trials (IITs) in indolent lymphomas. Mallik stated, "By focusing the company, we reduced our operating cost structure by approximately 50%. At the same time, we refined our go-to-market model, which resulted in strengthened KOL advocacy, and a sustained market position in the third-line plus DLBCL setting despite the entry of the bispecific class." Mallik reported strengthened leadership, improved execution, and a balance sheet "through equity and BD and improved our strategic flexibility with an amended HCR agreement." Strategic horizons for value creation were outlined: "These are centered around final data disclosures, approval and compendia inclusion and ultimately delivering growth." ZYNLONTA’s net product revenues in Q4 were $22.3 million, attributed to variability in customer ordering and new account activation, with annual sales of $73.6 million. Mallik reaffirmed, "We believe ZYNLONTA plus glofitamab has the potential to transform the future of lymphoma treatment..." and estimated a "potential annual U.S. peak revenue opportunity of $600 million to $1 billion." CFO Jose Carmona stated, "ZYNLONTA net product revenues in the fourth quarter of 2025 were $22.3 million as compared to $16.4 million in the same quarter in 2024. On a full year basis, net product revenues were $73.6 million versus $69.3 million in 2024... Total operating expenses were $41 million and $202.9 million for the fourth quarter and full year..." Outlook The company expects to share LOTIS-5 top line data in Q2 2026 and publish full results by year-end, with a supplemental biologic license application submission and potential compendia inclusion in the first half of 2027. "We expect to have multiple data catalysts in 2026 across the ZYNLONTA...
As US President Donald Trump prepares for his first China trip in nearly a decade, Chinese scholars see an opportunity to steer ties away from confrontation and towards a managed coexistence. Speakers at a seminar hosted by the University of Hong Kong’s Centre on Contemporary China and the World last week were cautiously optimistic about prospects for the relationship That was despite Washington’s...
As US President Donald Trump prepares for his first China trip in nearly a decade, Chinese scholars see an opportunity to steer ties away from confrontation and towards a managed coexistence. Speakers at a seminar hosted by the University of Hong Kong’s Centre on Contemporary China and the World last week were cautiously optimistic about prospects for the relationship That was despite Washington’s strategic pullback, heightened sensitivities over the Taiwan Strait, and intensifying conflict in the Middle East. Advertisement Da Wei, director of the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, argued that the “relative stability” in today’s US‑China relations was fundamentally different from the cycles of crisis and summit diplomacy seen under previous administrations. “I think the nature of the relationship has changed,” he said at the event on Friday. Advertisement Da attributed that shift to the Trump administration’s “strategic retrenchment” which he said “basically ended the international liberalism which [Washington] had honoured for 80 years after World War II”. He said the world’s largest developed country and largest developing country had moved on from the “love and hate” partnership of the post-Cold War era, anchored by hyper-globalisation.
Climate breakdown is shrinking the amount of time that people can safely go about their lives, according to a study that shows a third of the world’s population now resides in areas where heat severely limits activity. Rising temperatures, driven by the continued burning of fossil fuels, are making it difficult even for many young, healthy adults to do basic physical activities, such as housework ...
Climate breakdown is shrinking the amount of time that people can safely go about their lives, according to a study that shows a third of the world’s population now resides in areas where heat severely limits activity. Rising temperatures, driven by the continued burning of fossil fuels, are making it difficult even for many young, healthy adults to do basic physical activities, such as housework or walking up stairs during daylight hours at the height of the summer, the report warns. The limitations are greater for elderly people, who have less ability to sweat and thus control their body temperatures, according to the research, which combines physiological studies of heat tolerance with seven decades of global and regional data on population, temperatures and human development. On average, the report finds that people over 65 now experience about 900 hours each year when heat severely restricts safe outdoor activity, compared with 600 hours in 1950. This is equivalent to more than a month of daytime hours. Worst-affected are those in poorer countries or regions, even though they are far less responsible for climate breakdown than wealthy consumers whose lifestyles produce higher greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of gas, oil and coal. In some tropical and subtropical regions, heat restricts outdoor activity for older adults for between one-quarter and one-third of the year. The most severe challenges are found in south-west Asia (Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Oman), south Asia (Pakistan, Bangladesh, India) and parts of west Africa (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Djibouti and Niger). View image in fullscreen A volunteer pours water on a man’s head during a May 2024 heatwave in Karachi, Pakistan. Photograph: Fareed Khan/AP Within countries there are huge variations according to geography, income group and types of work. In India, limitations are most pronounced across the Indo-Gangetic Plain and eastern lowlands, and least ...
Chopping chives, I notice my weak wrists for the first time. My knife is connected to my hand which is connected to my wrist, which is flopping about like an overcooked piece of asparagus. “You’ve got to keep them more sturdy,” says chef Trisha Greentree. “Lock in that line.” We’re in the kitchen of Sydney restaurant Fratelli Paradiso, where Greentree is executive chef. Lunch service is about to s...
Chopping chives, I notice my weak wrists for the first time. My knife is connected to my hand which is connected to my wrist, which is flopping about like an overcooked piece of asparagus. “You’ve got to keep them more sturdy,” says chef Trisha Greentree. “Lock in that line.” We’re in the kitchen of Sydney restaurant Fratelli Paradiso, where Greentree is executive chef. Lunch service is about to start but she stays by my side, scrutinising my posture (“squeeze those glutes”), my wrists and my knife skills. View image in fullscreen For many chefs, chopping chives is comparable to a musician knowing their scales. It’s a foundational skill for those trained in the western canon of cookery. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian I gently grasp the green spindly stalks in my left hand, keeping them bunched together with my pinky and thumb, while my remaining fingers rest on top. I attempt to slice the chives into immaculate, exacting circles. Because a pile of immaculate, exacting circles is how one scores a 10 out of 10 on Rate My Chives, the Instagram account that rates sliced chives like a competitive sport – and Greentree has committed to showing me how the pros do it. Rate My Chives has more than 93,000 followers including top-end chefs such as Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago, Australian-born Matt Abé, formerly of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, and Australia’s Mark Best (in return, Rate My Chives follows only five accounts, including two chefs and Taylor Swift). Almost every day, chefs and home cooks submit photos of their chives to the “number one authority on chives worldwide”; and almost every day, its anonymous founder rates them. The Rate My Chives founder, a UK-based chef, started the account in 2022 after noticing poorly cut chives on a dish while dining out. They are a herby harbinger of a bad meal, a green canary down the mine. “If the chefs don’t care about the little things like how to chop chives, then the rest of the food’s going to be crap as well,...
When a couple of cops turn up to a domestic violence call, things take a nasty turn as we see the mayhem unfold thanks to their body-worn cameras At its best, this low-budget found-footage horror recalls the early Paranormal Activity films, with plenty of jump-scares and low-fi atmospheric eeriness. The “found footage” here isn’t black-and-white security videos though, but the bodycams worn by a p...
When a couple of cops turn up to a domestic violence call, things take a nasty turn as we see the mayhem unfold thanks to their body-worn cameras At its best, this low-budget found-footage horror recalls the early Paranormal Activity films, with plenty of jump-scares and low-fi atmospheric eeriness. The “found footage” here isn’t black-and-white security videos though, but the bodycams worn by a pair of cops on what they initially believe to be a routine domestic violence call in a neighbourhood noted for its large population of “tweakers” (AKA methamphetamine addicts). Shot on location in Alberta, Canada, the film makes good use of real derelict locations, giving a plausible griminess to a broadly supernatural tale. The bodycam conceit starts out as an ace up the film’s sleeve before gradually becoming a bit of a liability, though in a way that is different from the usual pitfalls of the genre. In most found-footage films, the nagging question is why and how the filming would plausibly continue – there is usually a point where a character’s self-preservation would take precedence over neatly capturing whatever mayhem is going down. The bodycam conceit handily avoids this issue – the filming is passive and the cameras cannot be turned off. Continue reading...
In 2010 the Guardian gave the romcom Leap Year a one-star review. The script was “horrendous”, according to the reviewer: “Afterwards, the only ‘leap’ I felt like making was off a motorway gantry into the fast lane of the M25.” He wasn’t alone. Leap Year has an approval rating of 23% on Rotten Tomatoes; the New York Times called it “so witless, charmless and unimaginative that it can be described ...
In 2010 the Guardian gave the romcom Leap Year a one-star review. The script was “horrendous”, according to the reviewer: “Afterwards, the only ‘leap’ I felt like making was off a motorway gantry into the fast lane of the M25.” He wasn’t alone. Leap Year has an approval rating of 23% on Rotten Tomatoes; the New York Times called it “so witless, charmless and unimaginative that it can be described as a movie only in the strictly technical sense”. It’s been 16 years. And here is why Leap Year is good, actually. The premise is this: Anna, an American woman (Amy Adams), decides she’ll make use of an alleged Irish rule that says women – shock horror – can propose to men on 29 February. She follows her cardiologist boyfriend (Adam Scott, who looks like a lesbian mouse who wished to be human – complimentary) to Dublin with the intention of getting down on one knee. The wet Irish weather conspires against her and for whatever reason – don’t question it – a tall, beautiful, cranky publican (Matthew Goode) is her only hope of transport. They are very rude to each other, in a way that is very hot. She ruins her heels in the mud; he laughs when her suitcase is stolen. At one point they need accommodation – and guess what? There’s only – say it with me – one room at the inn. And the owners are religious, so Amy and Matthew have to pretend to be a married couple. Oh, and the shower curtain is semi-transparent. View image in fullscreen ‘It seems entirely plausible they fall in love over two days on a road trip.’ Photograph: Universal/Sportsphoto/Allstar The appeal of a romcom is that we know what is going to happen; therein lies the comfort and joy. Previous reviewers have mistaken well-loved tropes for a lack of imagination. Done properly, a romcom takes our hand through a series of events that are both audaciously unrealistic and deeply familiar. Everything, every character, every line of dialogue, every Irish cow that blocks the bickering pair’s journey – is there in service of...