Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 1 Apr 2013 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090508/2316154813/dailydirt-actual-theft-underground-economies.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090508/2316154813/dailydirt-actual-theft-underground-economies.shtml unemployment or GDP are more than just slightly off. Here are just a few interesting stories related to some fairly sizable underground economies.

• An underground economy of off-the-book businesses could account for trillions in commerce and employ nearly half of all workers. This gray market called "System D" could be worth $10 trillion per year, making it the biggest economy after the US (which itself has an underground economy estimated to be about 10-20% of its GDP). [url]
• A real-life heist involving about 8 men posing as police officers made off with about $50 million in diamonds from a plane headed for Zurich, Switzerland. It might be difficult for these robbers to sell these diamonds through legitimate routes, so the jewels will probably become part of an underground currency. [url]
• Surprisingly, Tide detergent isn't just soap; it's also used as a currency for buying drugs. Procter & Gamble hasn't seen much of a negative effect on its brand, so bottles of liquid Tide will likely continue to be part of the black market. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090508/2316154813 Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110726/18173715268/dailydirt-safe-drinking-water.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110726/18173715268/dailydirt-safe-drinking-water.shtml

Banana peels have actually been proven to effectively filter out various harmful metals from water. They don't kill bacteria, though, and stuffing them into Brita bottles probably won't work, either. [url]

Desalination should be a "last resort" for water purification, but it's been getting more widely used despite its costs. Desalination technology is improving, but it still uses a lot of energy. [url]

Perhaps the real last resort, though, should be towing an iceberg to where you need fresh water. A 30 million ton iceberg could provide enough drinking water for about about 500,000 people -- for a year. [url]

A bunch of companies are promoting water conservation with the slogan: "Wasting Water is Weird." Will quirky viral videos help people to conserve water? [url]

To discover more related links on stuff we eat or drink, check out what's brewing on StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110726/18173715268 Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101216/00451812297/dailydirt-better-living-via-chemistry-just-got-bit-more-complicated.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101216/00451812297/dailydirt-better-living-via-chemistry-just-got-bit-more-complicated.shtml

The atomic weights of ten elements will now be expressed as intervals. And I'm looking forward to how They Might Be Giants will explain this in a song. [url]

There's a very boring answer to the question of what would happen if you threw every element together at the same time. It would reach equilibrium after creating a cloud of smoke. [url]

Do you know where your elements come from? Are they conflict-free? Blood diamonds get a movie, but when will they make a movie about "blood tantalum"? [url]

Have you noticed that your dish detergent is phosphate-free now? Procter & Gamble says it had no choice but to remove phosphate compounds from its products -- because it's better for the environment. Unfortunately, dishes everywhere aren't getting as clean as they used to be. [url]

Gold is not a gas, doesn't burn and won't kill you -- are those good enough reasons for you? I'll take: "Reasons why an element is precious for $200, Alex." [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101216/00451812297 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:11:05 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080819/0137032022.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080819/0137032022.shtml same business. All advertising is content, and all content is advertising -- whether intentional or not. The latest example of this is pointed out by reader lavi d, who points us to a clip from NPR's All Things Considered about how Procter & Gamble has teamed up with Def Jam records to create a new record label: Tag Records, which is connected to the P&G product Tag Body Spray.

Rather than bringing on a big name star to "endorse" its product, Tag Records has signed a relative unknown, and is basically promoting both this new musician, Q, and the body spray at the same time. The music doesn't necessarily directly promote the body spray, but the promotions go hand in hand, and there is no real border between the content and the advertising. If the content itself is good content, it doesn't much matter. And, it appears that other brands are following suit. The radio clip notes that the energy drink Red Bull is apparently building its own studio to do the same thing. To some extent, it's no surprise that Def Jam would recognize this as a direction to go in: we pointed out in the past how a bunch of hip hop music execs were way ahead of the curve in recognizing new business models where the music itself is part of the promotion for something else.

And here, once again, we're seeing a totally new business model for the music business. Suddenly the success of the musicians on these labels isn't as much about selling music as it is in getting the music out there to promote other products as well. This doesn't mean (as I'm sure some angry commenters will imply) that all music will soon have some sort of consumer packaged goods connection -- but it shows, once again, that new business models emerge, and those business models will ensure that plenty of good content continues to show up. Because, if the music put out by these record labels suck, then it won't do much good for anyone: the consumer goods they're connected to, the musicians or the labels.

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]]> soap-opera http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080819/0137032022