Results for “markets in everything” 1862 found
Norwegian markets in everything
The multiple layers of deceit in this Shakespearean story are becoming increasingly strange:
Norwegian prime minister defends cab stunt as it emerges passengers were paid
An audacious election stunt where Norway’s Prime Minister worked undercover as a cab driver has backfired after it emerged that five of his passengers had been vetted and paid.
Here is more, via Yannikouts.
Canine markets in everything
At a recent class in New York City on how to use iPads, an instructor had a remedy ready for distracted students: She smeared the screen with peanut butter.
One student, a Hungarian hunting dog named DJ Sam, ate it up.
Dog trainer Anna Jane Grossman began providing private iPad lessons to dogs last year. About 25 of her clients have signed up, and she is planning a 90-minute iPad clinic for dogs later this month, where they will learn to nose the screen to activate apps.
“People always say, ‘Oh, can you have my dog do my online banking?’ ” Ms. Grossman says. In reality, dogs don’t “necessarily do very useful things on the iPad,” she adds. “But I don’t necessarily do very useful things on the iPad either.”
Ms. Grossman is part of a nascent but growing group touting the use of apps for pets. They say the apps can entertain pets stranded alone at home, teach valuable motor skills and even promote social behavior by engaging loner animals.
Felines are involved too:
Brooklyn cat owner David Snetman intended to let his cat, Pickle, play with his iPad until he tired of it. An hour later, Pickle was still whacking at the screen. Although Pickle’s interest never flagged, Mr. Snetman hasn’t let him play again since. “It seems very frustrating for him,” Mr. Snetman says.
…He and business partner Nate Murray developed it after an app they designed for children flopped. They now have three cat iPad apps, including one that allows cats to paint on a screen and “Game for Cats,” which encourages cats to swat a laser dot, mouse or moth scurrying across the screen. Mr. Murray says the apps have been downloaded more than one million times. The basic version of the original is free; others sell for $1.99.
There is more here, interesting throughout. At first I thought this was a kind of novelty item, but there is a good deal of evidence that many of the pets are quite absorbed in these games or perhaps even obsessed with them. Is it wrong for me to think that some of these games are, using behavioral inducements, actually torturing the pet, a bit like perpetual catnip?
Gephyrophobia Maryland markets in everything
For $25, a driver hops behind the wheel of your car to take you across the Bay Bridge.
You will note this is a kind of privatization:
The Maryland Transportation Authority used to drive people across the Bay Bridge who were afraid to drive themselves but it no longer provides that service.
The Bay Bridge, sometimes called the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, is very long — 6.9 km — and it is considered one of the scariest bridges in the world, for many at least. For me it was fun.
The article is here, and for the pointer I thank Fred Smalkin.
Addendum (also from Fred): Sometimes there is a very strong case for using the markets which have been placed before you.
Bounty hunter markets in everything?
The farming and ranching town of Deer Trail, Colorado, is considering paying bounties to anyone who shoots down a drone.
Next month, trustees of the town of 600 that lies on the high plains, 55 miles (34km) east of Denver, will debate an ordinance that would allow residents to buy a $25 hunting licence to shoot down “unmanned aerial vehicles”.
…”We don’t want to become a surveillance society,” he [Phillip Steel, the architect of the proposal] told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He said he had not seen any drones, but that “some local ranchers” outside the town limits had.
Under the proposal, hunters could legally shoot down a drone flying under 1,000 feet with a 12-gauge or smaller shotgun.
The town would also be required to establish a drone “recognition programme” for shooters to properly identify the targeted aircraft.
“In no case shall a citizen engage an obviously manned aerial vehicle,” the draft proposal reads.
It is admitted that the idea is a symbolic one and may not pass. But perhaps teachers in particular should be encouraged to participate? The story is here, via Michelle Dawson.
Here are Alex’s earlier posts on bounty hunters.
China markets in everything
Entrepreneurial Taobao vendors are now offering a service that will send a stranger to visit your parents in your place for a few hours, which may fulfill the requirements of the government’s new initiative the “Law on Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly”. The law, which came into effect on July 1, obliges China’s sons and daughters to visit their parents but does not specify what number of visits would ensure a healthy parent-child relationship under the law.
Shanghai Daily reports that “The service targets people who are too busy or have a bad relationship with their parents.” A Taobao vendor described “We offer services such as chatting, celebrating birthdays and even performances,” and that they have “a professional team but you have to tell us topics they like to start a good chat.”
The amount one must pay for this façade of familial love and companionship is surprisingly affordable, with most offers being much cheaper than a cross country train ticket. One vendor charges 100 yuan per hour while other sources report an even cheaper rate at “Ten minutes for 8 yuan, one hour for 20 yuan.” The rates differ by region, the service is currently only available in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and three other cities.
Here is more, via Karina Zannat.
The culture that is Japan markets in everything Newcomb’s paradox edition
In Japan, where palm reading remains one of the most popular means of fortune-telling, some people have figured out a way to change their fate. It’s a simple idea: change your palm, change the reading, and change your future. All you need is a competent plastic surgeon with an electric scalpel who has a basic knowledge of palmistry. Or you can draw the lines on your hand with a marker and let him work the magic you want.
The story is here, hat tip goes to Robert Martinez. There are some other interesting points in the article, but I shall not reproduce them here.
China markets in everything
“Adult [clients] can drink it directly through breastfeeding, or they can always drink it from a breast pump if they feel embarrassed,” the report quoted company owner Lin Jun as saying.
Wet nurses serving adults are paid about 16,000 yuan (US$2,610) a month — more than four times the Chinese average — and those who are “healthy and good looking” can earn even more, the report said.
Traditional beliefs in some parts of China hold that human breast milk has the best and most easily digestible nutrition for people who are ill.
There is more to the story here, and for the pointer I thank a loyal MR reader.
Probably not good news markets in everything
For US$249 a company in the United States is promising to send curious and competitive players of computer games an unusual headset. The device, the company claims, will convert electronic gamers into electronic-gamers. At the touch of a button, the headset will send a surge of electricity through their prefrontal cortex. It promises to increase brain plasticity and make synapses fire faster, to help gamers repel more space invaders and raid more tombs. And, according to the publicity shots on the website, it comes in a choice of red or black.
The company is accepting orders, but says that it will not ship its first headsets to customers until next month. Some are unwilling to wait. Videos on the Internet already show people who have cobbled together their own version with a 9-volt battery and some electrical wire. If you are not fussy about the colour scheme, other online firms already promise to supply the components and instructions you need to make your own. Or you could rummage around in the garage.
Here is more, with further interesting points, via Michelle Dawson.
Austrian markets in everything, rising inequality edition
An Austrian hotel is advertising for a modern-day court fool, who is communicative, extroverted, musical, creative and imaginative.
Applicants are asked to bring — and play — their musical instrument during the job interview. Also welcome: creative costumes. The successful candidate will earn 1,400 euros — around $1,900 — a month.
Hotel director Melanie Franke says those interested should not think they’re on a fool’s errand in applying. She says the idea is to treat guests like royalty, noting that “jesters were a luxury that royal families indulged themselves in.”
Here is a little bit more.
Outsourcing markets in everything
If you live in India, you can now get a job staring at a monitor that displays images of American doctors entering hospital rooms thousands of miles away. Your task is to sound an alarm if the doctor fails to wash his hands.
This may sound disturbingly similar to being an auditor for the telephone handset sanitizers guild, but in practice it turns out to be very effective. It also turns out that this Big Brotherish technology has gotten a big boost from the passage of Obamacare.
That is from Kevin Drum.
Markets in Everything: AER Publication
From EJMR:
I have a new paper that I consider my best work. For a variety of reasons, the marginal return professionally for this paper is very small for me. But I think it has an excellent shot a top
journal, I would estimate 1/3 at the AER (I have published there before). So I am offering it for sale. Here are the details:1. This paper is not yet posted on my website. It has not been circulated and I have not yet presented it.
2. The paper is applied micro although I will sell it to anyone.
3. Email bids to [email protected]. Use a fake account and make sure to send no revealing information.
4. Your bid is for an AER or QJE. If it ends in Restud, you pay 65%. If it ends in the Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Public Economics, or EJ, you pay 35%. Other journals are negotiable. You can choose the submission path as long as it starts with one of the top journals.
5. I will contact the winning bid (or highest real bid) to arrange an in person meeting in Philly at the meetings. We will never leave a paper trail.
6. Half of payment is due with a revise and resubmit. I will also make the needed changes. The final half is due with final acceptance.
7. Spare me any discussion of the ethics here. I am dead serious and I will not be commenting further on this thread.
The whole thing could be a troll or an experiment but let’s assume it’s real. An AER could easily be worth 50k, especially for someone early in their career but that’s for one you wrote yourself. An AER written by someone else has a significantly lower expected value since, if revealed, it may end your career. Moreover, suppose the buyer, as unlikely as it seems, takes advantage of the big push and makes it big on their own. Is the buyer not then vulnerable to blackmail from the seller who already has signaled their ethics? I can see this appealing, however, to the scion of some dictator who could afford to pay well over 50k and also afford to make the seller pay if the secret is revealed. Caveat emptor and also caveat venditor. True, there are not many econ PhDs among the dictator set but there are a few and sadly this kind of thing does have precedents.
P.S. I did like the discounting by journal, a nice, accurate touch.
Markets in everything, the culture that is Manhattan
Some wealthy Manhattan moms have figured out a way to cut the long lines at Disney World — by hiring disabled people to pose as family members so they and their kids can jump to the front, The Post has learned.
The “black-market Disney guides” run $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day.
“My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ — the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours,” crowed one mom, who hired a disabled guide through Dream Tours Florida.
“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,’’ she sniffed. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney.”
That is by the way much cheaper than Disney’s own “VIP service,” which costs over $300 an hour. Here is more, and I thank Neal and also Adam Cohen for the pointer.
Attempted fish markets in everything, economies of scope edition
The headline is: “Desperately Seeking Cichlid: Fish Species Down to Last 3 Males, No Known Females.”
Once upon a time the Mangarahara cichlid (Ptychochromis insolitus) lived in a single habitat: a river in Madagascar from which the species gets its name. That river has now been dammed and the habitat has dried up. Today there are just three Mangarahara cichlids left—all males. Two reside at the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) London Zoo Aquarium; the third lives at the Berlin Zoo.
Although the species appears to be extinct in the wild, ZSL London Zoo hopes that somewhere, somehow a female or two might exist in private hands. “We are urgently appealing to anyone who owns or knows someone who may own these critically endangered fish, which are silver in color with an orange-tipped tail, so that we can start a breeding program here at the zoo to bring them back from the brink of extinction,” aquarium curator Brian Zimmerman said in a press release last week.
The zoo has already reached out to other facilities around the world, with no luck. Now the only hope lies in private aquarium owners, fish collectors and hobbyists who might see the zoo’s appeal and realize that they own a female cichlid. The zoo has even set up a dedicated e-mail address for anyone with information: [email protected].
Of course you can’t count on the market alone, as there are cultural preconditions for cooperation:
…even if a female does turn up, breeding won’t be guaranteed. Zimmerman told the BBC News that the Berlin Zoo used to have a female that it had hoped to breed with its male. Instead, the male killed its potential mate. “It’s a fairly common thing with cichlids,” Zimmerman said.
We’ll see how the supply elasticity works out on this one…
For the pointer I thank Chris MacDonald.
Markets in everything
The market for methadone vomit in prison is lively, and the preferred recipe for this cocktail is one part puke (strained, please, bartender) to one part Tang.
Here is more, interesting on other points too, by Graeme Wood, mostly on the drug problem in the country of Georgia, and the pointer is from Wonkbook.
Labor markets in everything
A New York City real estate company made the offer and dozens of employees are getting inked.
As CBS 2′s Emily Smith reported Tuesday, a tattoo can be a way to show off your personality. For Rapid Realty employees, it is the fast track to a 15 percent pay raise if you get inked with the company logo.
There are no size or location restrictions. Brooke Koropatnick got hers behind the ear.
The story is here, and for the pointer I thank Mark Thorson. By the way, there is this too:
The credit doesn’t go to Rapid Realty owner Anthony Lolli. He said he got the idea from a loyal employee who wasn’t doing it for money.
“He calls me up, he says ‘Hey Anthony, I’m getting the logo on me.’ I show up at the shop and I’m like ‘this is cool, how can I repay you?’” Lolli said.