Markets in Everything: Kiosk Telehealthcare

From Gizmag:

Billed as a telehealth system, the HealthSpot Station is a telepresence kiosk designed to take pressure off a beleaguered health care system by providing a private area where acute care patients can speak to a physician over a high-definition video conference system.

It’s purpose is to act as an alternative to urgent care centers and emergency rooms while giving physicians a way to use their time more efficiently. There is an attendant on duty to answer questions and provide assistance and inside the kiosk is a suite of digital instruments to aid diagnosis, such as a pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuff, dermascope, patient touchscreen, video conference screen, otoscope and stethoscope. In addition, there are antibacterial surfaces and UV-C lighting.

HealthSpot sees the kiosk being used in a wide variety of locations including grocery stores, hospitals, doctors and specialists offices, emergency rooms, large businesses, rural communities, military bases, schools, nursing homes and remote villages in developing countries.

Markets in Everything: The Batmobile Sells for a cool $4.2M

Markets in Everything: Virginity Cream

Weird stuff. Who would fall for such a pitch?

Markets in Everything: Who's Your Daddy?

In a sign of the times, New Yorkers might see this truck cruising their streets offering quick DNA tests. The DNA tests, which cost between $299 and $575, require a simple cheek swab from each participant and lab analysis. Results are available in a couple of days. I'll leave it to reader's imaginations as to why this service would be in high demand.

Markets in Everything - Smart Contact Lenses

PITTSBURGH (CBS) — "Forty-million Americans wear contact lenses. In the not so distant future, contacts may do a lot more than just help you see. What if the lenses could look inside of you to diagnose, monitor and even treat disease? Sound far-fetched? Well, it may not be too far away.

The new generation of contact lenses is being called “smart lenses,” and they are packed with circuits, sensors and wireless technology – all designed to keep an eye on your health.“There’s a possibility to develop a really, really important new tool for medicine,” said Babak Parviz, PH.D., the developer of the Smart Lens."

Markets in Everything: Drainage Pipe Hotel Rooms

From Bit Rebels:

The space we occupy in this physical world is getting ever smaller while the space we take up virtually is getting ever larger. It’s quite interesting really how we’re migrating into the virtual world one step at a time. I am guessing in 50 years the world will look a lot different than it looks today. Japan is one of the leaders when it comes to compact living, and pretty much every week they announce some new “pod” for us to live in that has pretty much everything we could ever need. It’s also interesting to notice that the price for real estate, or rather the land that houses or buildings stand on, is getting higher while the real estate in the virtual world is getting cheaper.

Some people in the hotel industry have taken to their imaginations to come up with something to lure new customers and to get noticed in the flood of new buildings, hotels and apartment complexes. It is also something that will give us a new experience. Tubehotel is a company that truly knows how to come up with crazy ideas that just might work. It’s basically about drainage tubes converted into a bunch of hotel rooms in which you can get a whole new traveling experience to add to your collection.

They cost $50 per night, and even though there are rooms to choose from (on the bottom or on the top), they are pretty much the same size all around. It’s a brilliant conversion, and a fast one as well, by the looks of it. All you really need to do is add a few boards in the tube, and you have yourself a bed. There is no putting furniture together or even securing them to the wall. They are just stuck in place wherever you put them. And to top it all off… you will even have WiFi in your tube! It’s perfect for a weekend with your geek girlfriend. Hopefully these tubes were not recycled though… if you know what I mean.

Grouch: I don't think I'll be staying in one of these places on any business trips I take. Maybe as a novelty on a personal trip..... just to say I've done it, and who knows it may turn out to be a pleasant experience.... so where's the shower? Do they have room service?

Markets in Everything: Hallmark Layoff Cards

In the new American of hope and change, Hallmark, the company with a card for every occasion, has produced a new line of cards to give messages of encourage to those who have been laid off recently. With unemployment rates stuck at 9%, and the underemployment rate stuck at 17%, these card will probably be an astounding success. Hallmark is in the emotion business, and what is more emotional and painful than losing a job? One Hallmark card with a photo of a cat reads: "Is there anywhere I could hack up a hairball, like say, on a former employer's head?" Another card says: "Losing a job is just plain painful. So I want you to remember I'm in your cheering section ..." When I was laid off, I know I would not have appreciated getting one of these cards. I probably would have been hurt and insulted.... but that is just me.

Markets in Everything: Future History: Riverside, Iowa

Markets in Everything: Baseball Bat Sales Skyrocketing in the Land of Cricket

Baseball bats are suddenly the rage across Great Britain. Sales have soared all across the country. Law-abiding citizens are trying to arm themselves to protect their loved ones and property in this country that has outlawed handguns and other protections that Americans might take for granted. The citizens are arming themselves the only way they can legally.

Markets in Everything: The Anthony Weiner Action Figure

The Weiner action figure can be found online at: Herobuilders.  The Australian reported:

A TOY company known for producing action figures of US political figures has started advertising its latest addition, the Anthony Weiner doll.

Herobuilders.com is offering two versions of the doll modelled after the New York Democrat who shot to fame around the world last week after admitting to having sent a lewd photo of his crotch to a Seattle college student on Twitter.

The Weiner doll comes as a standard doll for $US39.95 ($37.85) and an adults-only “anatomically correct” version for $US49.95 ($47.35).

Both figures are dressed in a T-shirt and gym shorts — with the words “tweet this” printed on the shorts.

For an extra $US18.00 ($17) customers can add a toy BlackBerry for the doll to hold.

The Grouch:  It's time for Rep.Weiner to respect the office by resigning his position in Congress, and recognize that his conduct was disgraceful and inappropriate, and outside the norm of acceptable behavior.  He should just go away quietly, get the help he needs and heal his relationship with family and friends.  I hope he has the good sense to stay away from public office again, and live the rest of his life without much fanfare in the private sector.

Markets in Everything: Charlie Sheen Tattoos

Markets in Everything: Crown Jewels

 

I'm sure the happy couple is orgasmic at having their likenesses associated with this product.

The Beauty of Pixar

Markets in Everything: Space Travel

Good news for rich people: commercial space travel is no longer the stuff of science fiction. Virgin Galactic, the commercial spaceship company backed by Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, is now offering space travel on its brand of spaceships.

Branson himself plans to take the first Virgin Galactic trip with his mom and adult children in the spaceship that would depart from Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert.

The WhiteKnightTwo will be attached under a "lifting craft" jet, flown to roughly 50,000 feet and detached. Using a hybrid engine, it then will shoot to about 65 miles above the planet, "to a height where you can see 1,000 miles in every direction, and you will see the blue ring of the earth's atmosphere," said Peter Friedman of Unique Travel in Delray Beach.

At its peak height, an announcement will be made: "You are now free to float around the cabin." Passengers can spend four to seven minutes weightless. The craft then will slowly glide down to earth and land like a jet on the runway – perhaps two hours after takeoff, said Friedman.

Mostly affluent men from their 30s to 60s have been booking trips so far. The $200,000 price tag pays for three days of training, the stay at the spaceport and the trip.

Galactic plans to start with one spacecraft seating six passengers and two pilots. More than 100 people already have paid $200,000 in full to be among the first space trippers. As more craft and trips are added, prices should dip, said the agents, who must be individually trained to sell the space packages.

With the lack of vision coming from NASA over the future of space, ventures like Virgin Galatic may be what's required to push space travel forward.

Markets in Everything: The Foam Weapon League

The Foam Weapon League is an alternative sports league that combines the best of live action role playing and martial arts, featuring male and female Warriors drawn from all walks of life, battling one-on-one in a combat circle using foam rubber weapons.

Like the WWE, each FWL Warrior has their own sci fi- or fantasy-inspired combat character name, as well as a distinctive costume to go along with it. Like a video game brought to life, Warriors wear whatever kind of makeup or costume they desire, and fight with the foam rubber armor and weapon of their choice.

Like the UFC, all FWL fights are 100% real and are not staged or choreographed in any way. FWL Warriors are real athletes who use real martial arts skills, but instead of grappling with or striking
opponents with hands and feet, they are only allowed to strike each other with approved foam rubber weapons.

In order to simulate a battle fought with real weapons, Warriors wear harnesses with bags of fake blood attached at strategic points on the body. The first Warrior to break two of his opponent's blood bags wins.

"Fake blood. Real fighting."

More Info:
www.foamweaponleague.com
www.twitter.com/FWLfightclub

What's White and Sparkly and Worth $330,000?

Michael Jackson's glove sold at auction this week for that tidy sum.

Sure glad it wasn't my $330K.  This looks like a sure fire bet for major price depreciation over the coming years, and makes gold look like a bargain at $1400 an ounce.

Google Opens its Own Bookstore-- Google eBooks

From Yahoo News:

Internet giant Google opened an online electronic bookstore on Monday in a heavyweight entry into a booming market long dominated by Kindle-maker Amazon. The site can be found at http://books.google.com/ebooks.

Google eBookstore was being rolled out in the United States featuring the Mountain View, California-based company's massive library of digitized works online at books.google.com.

"We believe it will be the world's largest e-books library," said Google spokeswoman Jeannie Hornung. "Including the free books, there are more than three million."

Hundreds of thousands of digital books from leading publishers such as Macmillan, Random House and Simon & Schuster will be for sale in the eBookstore, which Google said will expand internationally next year.

Google e-books will be kept online in the Internet "cloud" and be available for reading from any Web-linked computer or using free applications on gadgets such as Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch or on smartphones running Google's Android software.

Digital books sold through the eBookstore can be read on the Sony Reader, the "Nook" from Barnes & Noble and other dedicated e-readers but not on the popular Kindle from Amazon.

Google believes that most people will prefer to log in and read their books online from whichever gadget is most convenient at a given moment, in a manner similar to the way people check Web-based Gmail accounts.

------------------------------

Grouch: The more competition, the better for consumers. I'll have to check out this service and see how it works. They do support Linux with their web reader :-)/

Markets in Everything: TSA 4th Amendment Undergarments

Will these be on every frequent flier's Christmas list this holiday season?  4th Amendment wear can be purchased at http://cargocollective.com/4thamendment

Markets in Everything: "Democratic Prices," Venezuelan Style

Today Venezuelans go to the polls to see if Hugo Chavez can increase his hold over this country, in spite of the recession and a rampant crime wave that has touched many families.  The growing opposition to Chavez has prompted the state to get into the restaurant business to remind people where their priorities should lie.

To quote from the NY Times article:

Tucked into a corner on Plaza Bolívar is Café Venezuela, part of a chain of open-air restaurants established by the government this year. The cafe serves Venezuela-grown coffee and Venezuelan snacks like cassava bread at so-called solidarity prices, half or less than what customers would pay elsewhere.

Ideology is also on the menu. The cafes were created by Comerso, a state holding company for socialist enterprises, which also manages stores that sell everything from subsidized arepas, the crispy corn cakes that are the staple of the Venezuelan diet, to inexpensive Chinese cars. The branch in Plaza Bolívar replaced a clothing store that once occupied the same spot and was expropriated live on television by Mr. Chávez.

The planners behind the cafes have multiple objectives: to provide food and conviviality at democratic prices, to serve as commercial linchpins to renew some of the city’s most run-down districts and, not incidentally, to remind satisfied patrons of the government’s populist program in an election year.

Note it is the Times reporter, not a Venezuelan Chavista, who coins the phrase "democratic prices."

But the best part of the story is this:

Doris, 20, said she still planned to vote for Mr. Chávez and his list of congressional candidates. “Supporting Chávez is the best way to get a job,” she said. She is studying petroleum production and hopes the correct political views can help her land a job at the national oil company.

I guess that is called crony socialism.

However, there does seem to be some legitimate opposition to Chavez, but how many seats they can actually capture remains to be seen.

------------------------------------
Grouch: I'm no fan of Chavez, and think he is causing massive long-term damage to the Venezuelan economy, and is harming the very people he claims to help.  I refuse to buy gas from Citgo gas stations because I don't not want the profits funneled to the Chavez regime.

HT: Kids Prefer Cheese

Open Courses at Yale

Follow this link to an ECON 252: Financial Markets (Spring, 2008) class taught by Robert Schiller.

The general course page can be found at: http://oyc.yale.edu/.