Results for “markets in everything”
1895 found

Temporary rental markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Timeshare Backyard is a grass lot in Manhattan’s Lower East Side that is rentable for $50 per hour (see a Reuters report on the project). Renters can specify added cost options like a slip-n-slide, barbecue grill, or live band–though they’ll have to act quickly as the backyard is almost fully booked through August 28, when the endeavor comes to an end. Timeshare Backyard is a project by The Participation Agency, a rather mysterious New York City brand consultancy.

Here is the link, with a good photo (very enticing), a barbecue grill is extra, and for the pointer I thank Selena M.  After August 28, the rental offer goes away.

iPad markets in everything, and fungi too

by  Tyler Cowen in

New York entrepreneur John Vaccaro bought a bunch of Bernie Madoff’s expensive tailored clothing at the federal auction of Madoff’s property in November, 2010, and has resewn them into iPad covers, which he is selling (at rather luxurious prices) through his recently-launched clothing label Frederick James. Vaccaro has estimated that he has enough material to make 31 covers. Perhaps when that runs out, he can start making them from Madoff’s new clothes. Personally I prefer bright orange canvas to dull gray cashmere, anyway. [via CNN]

Here is the link and for the pointer I thank Andrew Zumwalt.  From another direction, Jim Swift directs my attention to this iPad app which helps auction off parking spaces.

Via Mark Thorson, here is plants trading with fungi:

Beneath your feet, plants and fungi are exchanging nutrients in a marketplace where generosity is rewarded and cheating punished. The two kingdoms were known to exchange nutrients at root level – now, researchers have shown that they have evolved ways to enforce fair trading.

Sentences to ponder markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Only children’s books or specialist scuba diving titles currently boast to be fully water-resistant.

A waterproof paperback book will be hitting the market next year, hat tip goes to Bookslut, who knows of one other waterproof title.

And here is another Markets in Everything, hat tip to TW.

By the way, the (possible) salt water flows on Mars were in part discovered by a 21-year-old Nepalese undergraduate, and it seems he had the key contribution.

Job markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Economy Designer:

It’s the economy, stupid! Drive players to invest in our game economy by analyzing the subtleties of behavioral economics and pondering the pitfalls of specialization and free trade. Theorize why people make irrational economic choices and use the tricks you’ve learned to ensure players only make the irrational choices you want them to. Create an economic system that will fulfill a player’s needs just as much as shooting an alien in the face.

The Economy Designer at Bungie will develop a robust and rewarding game economy that drives player behavior toward intended goals and validate those systems through intense simulation, testing and iteration. You’ll design the systems and mechanics which drive in-game trade, satisfy the players’ need for possessions and wealth whilst ensuring rewards retain their intended value despite attempts to exploit or grief the system. You will determine what data is necessary to mine, ensure we have all of the hooks necessary to gather that data, and come up with all of the interesting metrics and questions we should ask of that data. You will run simulations of these mechanics based on expected player behavior and test these simulated results against actual player behavior; tuning the live system accordingly.

Sports number markets in everything what would Oliver Williamson say?

by  Tyler Cowen in

Pitcher Roger Clemens gave slugging first baseman Carlos Delgado a Rolex, valued at $20,000, for uniform #21.  Former NBA player Vin Baker once bought his number from another player for the relative bargain price of $10,000.   In 2007, NFL player Jason Simmons used the opportunity to do a good deed, giving new teammate Ahman Green #30 if Green agreed to pay the down payment on a home for a disadvantaged single-parent family.

Former NFL punter Jeff Feagles is one of the few who has been able to sell a number twice — although with mixed results.  His first transaction, with quarterback Eli Manning, went smoothly, and Feagles got a family vacation to Florida out of the deal.  His second one, however, did not go so well.  When wide receiver Plaxico Burress joined the New York Giants in 2005, he bought #18 off Feagles in exchange for an outdoor kitchen.  But as of August 2010, Feagles had not received the kitchen. (Apparently, this was unrelated to the fact that by this point, Burress was in prison for accidentally shooting himself in the leg at a New York City night club.)

There is more to the article here, and my Dan Lewis source is here.  Of course, given that the players are now on the same team, these are more like repeated exchanges than at may first appear.

Labor markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

It is good to see dynamism in at least one segment of the labor market, namely tanning concierges:

With his tousled brown hair and athletic frame, Anastasio resembles Tom Cruise, circa “Risky Business.” He politely introduces himself to guests when they arrive on the pool deck, 18 stories above SoHo. Guests decide whether they’d like the teen to gently tap them on the shoulder or send a text when it’s time to turn over.

“Most people like to be texted. It’s less invasive,” Anastasio said. The text comes every twenty to thirty minutes and simply says, “Turn Over.”

He earns $15 an hour, and the full story is here.  For the pointer I thank Adam Frey.

Markets in everything, Hitler-themed beer edition

by  Tyler Cowen in

For German and Austrian tourists, it would seem, sold from northern Italy.  It is also reported that Germans and Austrians are the people who complain the most about the product.  Here is a photo.  Here is a Google translate on the core article.

My apologies if this is not real, but as far as I can tell it seems to check out.

For the pointer I thank Daniel B.

Nigerian markets in everything facts of the day

by  Tyler Cowen in

Lagos bigwigs have long paid on-duty local cops to speed them through jams by riding shotgun with machine guns and menacing other drivers with bullwhips.

And:

In 2009, the latest year for such data, more than 2,600 Lagosians were forced to take a psychiatric exam at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital because of wrong-way driving, according to the state transportation commissioner.

Officials at the hospital say that the number was slightly lower and that they couldn’t recall the last person to fail the test. Failure would trigger more outpatient tests—and mean continued impoundment for the offending car, officials say.

The article is interesting throughout.

One of the strangest and most depressing markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen

The link is here.  It deserves more than a mere link in a list, yet I can’t bring myself to excerpt from it either, or for that matter to really comment on it.  It is estimated that the woman (the link is safe for work, by the way) earns $90,000 a year, although she denies this.  There’s the consumer surplus on top of that.

For the pointer I thank Andrew H.

Canadian (signaling) markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Telegrams Canada will write your telegram for you—or at least suggest gram language for appropriate occasions. The “Get Well” suggestions include “The office/this place is just not the same without you,” and “Your many friends here are hoping for your quick recovery.”

The service isn’t cheap. A same business day telegram costs CAN$19.95 plus 99¢ per word. “Quebec usually next business day,” the company advises. “Rural routes and post office boxes may take longer.”

Here is more, a fascinating story about supposedly dead media forms which remain in existence.  Via The Browser.

Very good sentences thwarted markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

“Such exorbitant commercialism must stop,” said Jan Tönjes, chief editor of Germany’s St. Georg magazine. At a recent show in Wiesbaden, he said, a woman tried to buy a rubber glove that the horse had spat on as a souvenir.

The article is here (interesting throughout) and for a related pointer (not to this passage) I thank Michelle Dawson.

Thwarted markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

A New York City pet store that’s surrounded by bars has banned drunken puppy-buying.

Workers at Le Petite Puppy in Greenwich Village say customers tend to stumble in after happy hour and purchase a dog without thinking. Drunken customers now are forbidden to even hold the puppies, because they can drop them.

Store owner Dana Rich tells WINS-AM that she instructs people who have clearly been drinking to come back the next day.

Employees say they stress how much work it is to own a dog. They say they would rather lose a sale than send a puppy into an unsafe home.

For the pointer I thank Daniel Lippman.