Results for “markets in everything”
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Markets in everything

At Cloudflare, we started from a simple principle: we wanted content creators to have control over who accesses their work. If a creator wants to block all AI crawlers from their content, they should be able to do so. If a creator wants to allow some or all AI crawlers full access to their content for free, they should be able to do that, too. Creators should be in the driver’s seat.

After hundreds of conversations with news organizations, publishers, and large-scale social media platforms, we heard a consistent desire for a third path: They’d like to allow AI crawlers to access their content, but they’d like to get compensated. Currently, that requires knowing the right individual and striking a one-off deal, which is an insurmountable challenge if you don’t have scale and leverage…

We believe your choice need not be binary — there should be a third, more nuanced option: You can charge for access. Instead of a blanket block or uncompensated open access, we want to empower content owners to monetize their content at Internet scale.

We’re excited to help dust off a mostly forgotten piece of the web: HTTP response code 402

Pay per crawl, in private beta, is our first experiment in this area. 

Here is the full post.  I suppose over time, if this persists, it is the AIs bargaining back with you?

Markets in everything those new service sector jobs

Witchcraft and spellwork have become an online cottage industry. Faced with economic uncertainty and vapid dating apps, some people are putting their beliefs—and disposable income—into love spells, career charms and spirit cleansers.

Etsy, an online marketplace for crafts and vintage, has long been home to psychics and mystics, but the platform has enjoyed new callouts from TikTokers as a destination for witchcraft.

The concept of hiring an Etsy witch hit a fever pitch when influencer Jaz Smith told her TikTok followers that she had paid one to make sure the weather was perfect during her Memorial Day Weekend wedding. The blue skies and warm temperature have inspired TikTok audiences to find Etsy witches of their own. Smith didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Rohit Thawani, a creative director in Los Angeles, said Smith was his inspiration for paying an Etsy witch $8.48 to cast a spell on the New York Knicks ahead of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals in May.

Thawani found a witch offering discount codes. Thawani was half-kidding about the transaction but was amazed when the Knicks won. “Maybe there’s something more cosmic out there,” Thawani, 43, said.

Thawani bought a second spell ($21.18) from the Etsy witch for Game 6, but the Knicks lost. He doesn’t rule out the possibility that Indiana Pacers fans “used their devil magic,” he joked.

Magic practitioners sell on Instagram, Shopify and TikTok, but most customers say Etsy is their go-to.

The shop MariahSpells has over 4,000 sales on Etsy and 4.9 stars and sells a permanent protection spell for about $200. Another shop, Spells by Carlton, has over 44,000 sales and lists a “bring your ex lover back” spell for about $7.

Here is more from the WSJ, via the excellent Samir Varma.

China markets in everything

But in the country’s large cities, spaces that offer the solution have begun to spring up: companies that allow people to pretend to work.

For a daily fee of between 30 and 50 yuan ($4-$7), these companies offer desks, Wi-Fi, coffee, lunch, and an atmosphere that mimics any work environment. According to a report in Beijing Youth Daily, although there are no contracts or bosses, some firms simulate them: fictitious tasks are assigned and supervisory rounds are even organized. For a fee, the theatricality can reach unimaginable levels, from pretending to be a manager with his own office to staging episodes of rebellion against a superior.

Zonghua is Cantonese and prefers not to give her real name. Tired of traveling and the pressures of the financial world, she resigned from her position in the spring of 2024, she tells this newspaper via a local social media platform. “I was looking for a more stable life,” she writes. But she doesn’t dare tell her family the truth. At first, she went to libraries, but for the past few months, she has been paying a monthly fee of 400 yuan ($55) for a comfortable space to spend the day; it’s much cheaper than spending hours in a cafe. Zonghua doesn’t know how much longer this situation will last, as, for now, she’s not having any “success” with her applications.

Here is the full story, not unrelated to UBI debates either.  Via R.

Houston alligator kill markets in everything

In Houston, where custom boots are a source of great pride and style, one local brand is taking the bespoke boot experience to a new level. Republic Boot Company, known for its elevated, hand-crafted creations, just launched a Gator Hunt Experiencewhere customers can source an alligator hide, which will be transformed into a pair of cowboy boots.

Part adventure and part traditional craftsmanship, the experience begins with a hunt in the marshlands near Anahuac, about an hour from Houston, and ends with a custom-made pair of alligator-skin cowboy boots tailored to the client’s vision by a Republic Boot Company boot specialist.

Here is the full story.  Note that it costs more for a larger alligator.

Markets in everything

Creative powerhouse VML, genomic innovators The Organoid Company, and sustainable biotechnology firm Lab-Grown Leather have joined forces to develop the world’s first T-Rex leather made using the extinct creature’s DNA…

“This project is a remarkable example of how we can harness cutting-edge genome and protein engineering to create entirely new materials. By reconstructing and optimizing ancient protein sequences, we can design T. Rex leather, a biomaterial inspired by prehistoric biology, and clone it into a custom-engineered cell line,” said Thomas Mitchell, CEO of The Organoid Company…

While it was previously believed that dinosaur DNA wouldn’t survive for millions of years, recent discoveries have found collagen preserved in various dinosaur fossils, including an 80-million-year-old T Rex.

Last year, MIT researchers decoded how the dinosaur collagen survived for so long. Interestingly, they discovered a specific atomic mechanism that shields collagen from water’s damaging effects. 

In this new work, the T-rex-based leather material creation method differs from plant-based or synthetic alternatives by focusing on growing biological structures in a lab. This bio-fabrication process directly cultivates leather-like tissue from cells.

The process of creating T-Rex leather uses fossilized dinosaur collagen as a template. Using this, the team will generate a complete collagen sequence for the T-Rex to cultivate new skin.

The collagen sequence will be translated into DNA and introduced into Lab-Grown Leather’s cells.

Here is the full story, via Mike Doherty.  The actual product might be ready by the end of the year, at what price I do not know.

Markets in everything

  • Authorities alleged Vong essentially rented out his U.S. identity to developers based in China who used it to get more than a dozen remote tech jobs, some of which involved contract work for sensitive government agencies.

A 40-year-old Maryland man is facing decades in prison after he allegedly worked with foreign nationals in China to get remote work IT jobs with at least 13 different U.S. companies between 2021 and 2024. The jobs paid him more than $970,000 in salary for software development tasks that were actually performed by operatives authorities allege are North Korean and working out of a post in Shenyang, China, according to the Department of Justice.

Here is the full story, via William.

Markets in everything?

Senior U.S. Officials, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, are reporting that the United States and Ukraine are on the verge of signing an “Improved” Mineral Deal and Partnership. According to the New York Times, who has read the Document, the Deal calls for Ukraine to relinquish Half of its Revenues from Natural Resources, including Minerals, Gas and Oil, as well as Earnings from Ports and other Infrastructure, without any kind of U.S. Defense or Security Guarantees. The Revenue from Ukraine’s Natural Resources will be directed to a Fund in which the U.S. holds 100% Financial Interest, and that Ukraine should contribute to until it reaches $500 Billion; while stating that for any additional Military Assistance provided by the United States, Ukraine will be required to contribute to the Fund a sum equal to twice the amount provided to Ukraine. As stated previously, the Deal does not contain any Security or Defensive Guarantees by the United States to Ukraine, but does state that the U.S. intends to provide a “Long-Term Financial Commitment to help Ukraine develop Economically.”

Link here, and more speculatively:

BREAKING: The President of Congo just offered the United States ownership of his country’s minerals to entice President Trump to put an end to the war backed by Rwanda. Congo holds more than half the world’s Cobalt and Colton. They also have substantial deposits of Gold, Copper, Tin, Lithium, etc. China currently has a considerable influence in Congo’s mineral sector, and before them, it was the Europeans.

Equilibria will be solved for.

I wonder if he enjoyed our Markets in Everything series?

Now he is in it:

A former senior adviser to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors was arrested Friday and accused of leaking inside information from the Fed to the Chinese government over a period of several years, at one point receiving a $450,000 payment, and then lying about it to Fed investigators.

Economist John Harold Rogers, 63, of Vienna, Virginia, worked in the Division of International Finance of the Fed from 2010 until 2021, according to an indictment unsealed Friday in federal court in the District. Last year, he told a podcaster that he had retired from the Fed in May 2021, approximately a year after he had been questioned by investigators for the Fed’s inspector general and allegedly lied about how he accessed and transmitted sensitive information to two unnamed Chinese co-conspirators.

After leaving the Fed, Rogers moved his family to Shanghai and began working as a professor at Fudan University, according to comments he made to the EconVue podcast last year and posted in online biographies.

Here is the full story.

Lunar spectrum markets in everything?

Private companies are staking claims to radio spectrum on the Moon with the aim of exploiting an emerging lunar economy, Financial Times research has found. More than 50 applications have been filed with the International Telecommunication Union since 2010 to use spectrum, the invisible highway of electromagnetic waves that enable all wireless technology, on or from the Moon.

Last year the number of commercial filings to the global co-ordinating body for lunar spectrum outstripped those from space agencies and governments for the first time, according to FT research. The filings cover satellite systems as well as missions to land on the lunar surface.

“We will look back and see this as an important inflection point,” said Katherine Gizinski, chief executive of spectrum consultancy River Advisers, which has filed for lunar spectrum for three satellite systems on behalf of other companies since 2021.

Here is more from Oliver Hawkins and Peggy Hollinger at the FT.

Marriage markets in everything (tax arbitrage!)

Looking to marry someone with $1m+ of short-term capital gains (LA California) for tax savings (I have $1m+ in losses) and split the savings

I (unfortunately) lost a bunch of money this year with some risky gambles and have ~$1.2m of context of capital losses.

I would like to marry someone with very large ($1m+) short-term capital gains and split the difference on the tax savings.

I am proposing keeping ~40c for every $1 of capital losses I provided for myself and offering you the remainder (~10c or so, $120k context if you are at the highest tax bracket). The formal agreement can be formalized with a lawyer in relation to the marriage

Slight preference for females but open to males too (preference is just to avoid having to explain why I (straight male) married a man in the future).

Prefer if you are in the LA / Socal Area as that’s where I’m located.

That is from Reddit, via Stephen J.

Markets in everything, personal fire hydrant edition

The latest sought-after home amenity? Personal fire hydrants. The logic is that when there’s a major disaster there may not be enough fire engines to protect every house in an area. If homeowners have their own hydrant ready to go—along with hoses, nozzles and adapters—and are trained to use it all, that could help reduce the number of homes destroyed.

Real-estate agents say mentioning a personal fire hydrant in the marketing materials now helps sell homes. “People notice it. It’s definitely a plus,” says Stephen Kotsenburg of Christie’s International Real Estate, who has the listing for a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 3,388-square-foot home in Park City, Utah. It’s on the market for $2.1 million and advertises a fire hydrant, which is painted bright red and is visible as you come up the driveway.

Victoria Waldorf is the listing agent for a five-bedroom, three-bathroom, 4,691-square-foot house that is for sale for $1.775 million in Agua Dulce, Calif. She says she points out the personal fire hydrant to everyone who comes through for a viewing. “There’s relief in people’s faces,” she says.

Here is more from the WSJ, via Daniel Lippmann.

China markets in everything

This is very interesting, and I think a world first: a local government in China has just sold its sky, literally. This is the government of Pingyin County, Jinan, Shandong Province who sold for 924 million yuan (approximately $130 million) a 30-year concession to operate and maintain its low-altitude economic projects to a company called Shandong Jinyu General Aviation Co., Ltd. The “low-altitude economy” is a big trend in China at the moment. XPeng, one of China’s leading EV manufacturers, recently released a low-altitude flying car for instance. Drone deliveries are becoming increasingly common in Chinese cities, and various regions are actively developing low-altitude transportation networks. Shanghai, for instance, plans to establish 400 low-altitude flight routes by 2027. But this is the first time a local government has monetized its low-altitude airspace…

Here is more from Arnaud Bertrand.  Via Jesper.

Schengen eroding, child legal arbitrage markets in everything

“We are increasing surveillance, in part to increase security, but also to prevent hired Swedish child soldiers who come to Copenhagen to carry out tasks in connection with gang conflicts,” he added.

Hummelgaard revealed on Thursday that there had been 25 incidents since April where Danish criminal gangs had hired what he called “child soldiers” to commit crimes in Denmark. In the last two weeks alone, Danish police have linked three shootings to Swedish teenagers…

Swedish police say that powerful criminal gangs often use children to commit murders as they will receive light sentences. Drug gangs — many of whom are led by second-generation immigrants now living outside the country — have infiltrated parts of the welfare, legal and political systems, meaning the fight against them could take decades, according to Swedish officials.

Here is more from Richard Milne at the FT.  Elsewhere, “Brown bears are protected under EU law,” solve for the equilibrium (FT).