Results for “markets in everything” 1895 found
Markets in Everything: Torturer
At left is an ad that ran in the Guardian newspaper. “The government of a Middle Eastern state is recruiting a senior torturer to work in a well-equipped prison. Our ideal candidate would be prepared to inflict extreme pain and suffering… Candidates will be expected to inspire a small but enthusiastic team.”
No, I don’t think the ad is real. Alas, I am sure the job is real.
Hat tip: Boing Boing.
Markets in Everything: Fashion Like
These hangers in a São Paulo store show in real-time the number of “likes” an outfit has received on the Facebook page of Brazilian fashion retailer C&A. I shudder to think how many likes my typical outfit would receive.
The internet of things is approaching rapidly.
Markets in everything
And while I knew that retired baseball players sell their autographs for $15 a pop, I had no idea that Pete Rose, who was banished from baseball for life for betting, has a Web site that, Sandel writes, “sells memorabilia related to his banishment. For $299, plus shipping and handling, you can buy a baseball autographed by Rose and inscribed with an apology: ‘I’m sorry I bet on baseball.’ For $500, Rose will send you an autographed copy of the document banishing him from the game.”
That is from Thomas Friedman.
And yet there is no copyright for recipes (Singapore markets in everything)
How much is a recipe worth?
About $1.8 million, according to the owner of Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint, who boosted the sale price of her Singapore eatery by that amount when she put it on the market this year.
Betty Kong and her husband want S$3.5 million ($2.8 million) for their 60-plastic-stool establishment, a premium over the S$1.25 million assessed value of the site. The price includes the property, their recipe for roasting duck, pork ribs and crispy pig skin as well as other Cantonese-style classics, plus three months of cooking lessons — and, presumably, the loyal clientele that lines up outside, sometimes for more than an hour.
The article is interesting throughout. How about this bit?:
The Roast Meat Joint generates sales of around S$2,000 a day, she said, or S$620,000 annually, assuming it’s shut one day a week and three days for Lunar New Year holidays. Profit margin is 60 percent, according to her broker Raymond Lo at Knight Frank LLP. The asking price is 5.6 times annual sales, compared with the 1.1 multiple for the Singapore benchmark Straits Times Index. (FSSTI) It would take six years to recoup the recipe premium.
How about this paragraph, from a critic:
“Two million dollars for a recipe? Too much,” said Leong, known by patrons as Grandma or ‘Poh Poh,’ shaking her head in disbelief and counseling against giving up a line of work she herself has been doing for 53 years. “You will start developing dementia if you stop working.”
And this, from the woman selling the recipe:
Her knees are giving out, she said, and she can’t have replacement surgery because it takes four months to recover. Instead, she plans to start closing for two days a week, Mondays and Tuesdays. And to keep dreaming of an easy retirement — visiting her son in Australia, and eating someone else’s food for a change.
“Fish and chips in London, Kentucky Fried Chicken in America,” she mused, insisting on maintaining the fortitude that has helped her build her business. “I won’t haggle over the price. I will stick to it.”
The full article is here, and for the pointer I thank Alex Kowalski.
State-contingent insurance markets in everything
Fortunately, when you purchase a low-powered car from Young Marmalade, the free installation of a black box can cut your insurance premiums into half. By monitoring the driving behaviour such as acceleration, braking, what time of the day the car was driven and at what speed, Young Marmalade provides affordable telematic insurance premiums.
It’s simple. The black box data is used to calculate premiums, if the car was driven well, the lower the premiums will be and vice-versa.
According to MD Crispin Moger, “A young male driver who has Intelligent Marmalade in his car will pay on average £2,601/year for comprehensive insurance, while a young woman will pay £1,642/year. If the black box detects a bad driver, initial premiums will be subjected to a £250 and £500 increase or Young Marmalade will cancel the policy.”
Here is more, and for the pointer I thank KM.
Markets in Everything: Prison Consultants
NYTimes: Mr. Levine is a prison consultant. The business — which entails advising people who are facing jail time on how to prepare for life on the inside, deal with medical issues, transfer to other prisons and even reduce their sentences…The consultants [also] teach prison etiquette.
For example? “Never walk across a wet floor,” Mr. Mulholland advised, saying you might mess up the work of the prisoner manning the mop. And then he might kill you.
Prison consultancy seems to be one of the few businesses where the owners aggressively advertise their criminal record:
Mr. Levine said he thought the competition would thin out over time because the competitors lack marketing smarts. Besides, he argued, he has the criminal CV to back up the marketing.
If they handed out diplomas for prison savvy, he said, “These guys have maybe an associate degree. I have like a Ph.D. or above.”
Indeed, “some prison consultants say that others are so lacking in expertise that their businesses are practically criminal enterprises.”
Markets in everything the culture that is India
German carmaker Audi makes special horns for its vehicles sold in India where local drivers hoot so much as they fight their way through chaotic traffic, the firm’s country director has revealed.
“Obviously for India, the horn is a category in itself,” Michael Perschke, director at Audi India, told Monday’s Mint newspaper.
“You take a European horn and it will be gone in a week or two. With the amount of honking in Mumbai, we do on a daily basis what an average German does on an annual basis.”
Perschke said the horns are specially adapted for driving conditions in India, a booming market where Audi is one of many foreign car brands competing for increasingly wealthy customers.
“The horn is tested differently – with two continuous weeks only of honking, the setting of the horn is different, with different suppliers,” he said.
Perschke also added that so many Audi owners in India have personal chauffeurs that car interiors have been redesigned so that “you can be more in command from the rear seat.”
The story is here, and for the pointer I thank Mark Thorson.
Markets in everything there is no great stagnation
You can now get rolls of toilet paper especially printed with the Twitter feed of your choice.
That is from Tim Worstall.
Markets in everything there is no great stagnation
The sOccket harnesses the kinetic (motion) energy of the soccer ball during normal game play and stores it for later power needs. After play, small electrical appliances, like an LED lamp, can be plugged into the sOccket. Learn more about our first mass-produced sOccket on our blog.
The web page, with lots of pictures, is here. It’s not just free energy, one goal is to prevent so many people from dying from kerosene lamps.
For the pointer I thank Brent Depperschmidt.
Arbitrage markets in everything
Companies like EurimPharm work much as arbitrageurs do in the financial markets. Instead of trading stocks or bonds, the drug arbitrageurs buy prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals from European countries where they cost less, such as Spain and Greece.
They repackage and resell them at a markup in more- expensive European markets, including Germany and the Netherlands.
The arbitrageurs’ profit comes from country-to-country price differences that can be hefty. A Europe-wide price survey in 2009 by a Spanish parallel trader showed price differentials that in a few cases topped 200 percent.
“There used to be a rule of thumb that said you can make money on a price difference of 20 to 25 percent,” he says. “Now you can do it with 10 percent.”
Here is more, there are several other economic points in the article, and for the pointer I thank Alex Bilimoria.
Syrian arbitrage markets in everything
…insurgent commanders say most of their weapons come from the very army they’re fighting, either seized or purchased in a thriving illicit trade. Intermediaries such as a merchant known as Abu Hussein arrange arms deals between the two sides.
Abu Hussein described how the rebels will shoot a few times at a government checkpoint, giving soldiers the cover to fire off their weapons. If the troops expend 200 bullets, Abu Hussein said, they may tell their superiors that 400 bullets were fired. The remaining 200 bullets will be sold to the rebels, typically for 150 Syrian pounds (about $2.50) per bullet.
The full story is here, and I thank Daniel Lippman for the pointer.
Markets in Everything: US Public Schools
Reuters: Across the United States, public high schools in struggling small towns are putting their empty classroom seats up for sale.
In Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, and Lake Placid, New York, in Lavaca, Arkansas, and Millinocket, Maine, administrators are aggressively recruiting international students.
They’re wooing well-off families in China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Russia and dozens of other countries, seeking teenagers who speak decent English, have a sense of adventure – and are willing to pay as much as $30,000 for a year in an American public school.
The end goal for foreign students: Admission to a U.S. college.
So far the numbers are small. US high schools do outperform those in many other countries but the quality is modest relative to other developed countries and it’s hard for me to see this as a boom market. Nevertheless, I think I will warn my teenager that an exchange program with South Korea is an option.
Hat tip: Daniel Lippman.
Markets in everything
By Sunday morning, four National Football League teams were linked to a “bounty” scandal that came to light in Friday’s NFL announcement that New Orleans Saints defensive players were paid for “big hits” that took opponents out of play. “Knockouts” were worth $1,500 and “cart-offs” $1,000, with payments doubled or tripled for the NFL playoffs.
Here is more detail, and for the pointer I thank Sheldon Gilbert.
Markets in everything the culture that is Japan
In theory the mechanism is really quite simple:
1. A sensor detects the rumblings of an earthquake.
2. Within .5 to 1 second an air tank pushes air in-between an artificial foundation and the actual structure of the home, lifting it as high as 3cm off the ground.
3. While the earth below violently shakes, the levitating home quietly and patiently waits, returning back to the ground once the tectonic plates have settled.
There are pictures and videos at the link, and the company claims it is implementing the idea at 88 sites. The final video is especially fine.
Urban markets in everything
The French village of Courbefy, in Limousin, a region in central France, has been put up for sale for the seemingly low asking price of $436,370, according to the Telegraph. The village, which includes 19 buildings and a swimming pool, was once home to about 200 people. But after the town failed to transform itself into a tourist destination, local residents say it’s now filled mostly with “thieves, drunks and squatters.”
But Courbefy isn’t the only town to go up for sale recently. Last April, a medieval village in the central Italian region of Abruzzo was put up for sale for about $770,000, according to a separate Telegraph report. The village, which is largely uninhabitable, includes 11 “crumbling stone buildings” and a half-ruined 13th century church. More recently, the British village of Askham Richard near York, went up for sale with a price tag of more than $10 million.
Here is more, and for the pointer I thank the excellent Daniel Lippman.