Hypebeast Arbitrage
Hypebeast arbitrage is the simultaneous buying and selling of extremely popular and hyped retail merchandise released in limited quantities in order to take advantage of differing prices in the market.
Hypebeast arbitrage opportunities are created by brands’ retail strategy based on a point-in-time release of merchandise at limited volumes and at prices low enough relative to the secondary market so as to enable immediate sellout and hype.
Retailers shift some costs and inventory risk to scalpers. However, these costs and risks to scalpers are mitigated by a robust secondary market (example: StockX).
Brands manage the degree of hype by optimizing the mathematical relationships between retail price, secondary price, release volume, number of retail outlets, and distribution of stock keeping units.
[Continue reading…]
National Institute of Nutrition and Food Health
Establishment of the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Health (NINFH) is envisioned, with a mission to seek fundamental knowledge about food and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. This mission would be distinct from other public institutions that serve various food system functions.
One way to establish the NINFH is within the National Institutes of Health (FY 2017 budget $33.1 billion) as the 28th institute and center. Another way to establish the NINFH is as an independent institution—similar to the founding of the National Cancer Institute (FY 2017 budget $5.4 billion) through the National Cancer Act of 1937—that requests budget directly from the United States Department of Health and Human Services (FY 2017 budget $1.1 trillion).
Rationale:
- Connection between Food, Illness, and Health
- Funding Gap
- Separation of Duty to Agriculture and Duty to Public Health
- Trusted Authority for Public
To Husband
It’s fun when the universe leaves us Easter eggs.
The verb form of the word “pet” (to stroke lovingly) explains how best to treat the noun form of the same word.
The verb form of the word “kid” (to be silly with) also explains how best to treat the noun form of the same word.
I was disappointed that this pattern doesn’t work for the word “husband,” where the verb form means “to conserve.” Then I looked at the definition of the verb again…
hus·band
ˈhəzbənd/
verb
“use economically”
[Continue reading…]
Cryptoassets Pose Existential Threat to the Financial System and It’s Not in the Way You Might Think
The ascension of cryptoassets exposes an inherent weakness of the current financial system — the feedforward dynamic between marginal price change of assets and the size of the total balance sheet in the financial system.
In financial systems that rely on mark-to-market pricing of assets on balance sheets, even a small rise in marginal price of an asset results in a large expansion of the aggregate balance sheet (i.e. paper gains). That expanding balance sheet serves as increasing collateral for potential leverage and as demand capacity for other assets (seeking additional returns, safety, diversification, rebalancing, wealth effect, etc.), which represents potential upward pressure on the marginal price of other assets (or itself).
[Continue reading…]
DNA is Nature’s Blockchain
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a blockchain, selected through competition among energy-expending participants. It reflects a history of biologic transactions without the burden of recording its entire past. It has done rather well over time.
[Continue reading…]
High-Alignment Food
The single most important thing that has changed about your food is the alignment of interest. Until modern times, your food was provided by kin with a vested interest in your well-being. Today, food is provided by counterparties (food companies, restaurants, etc.) who profit from your consumption. They compete among themselves to bait you with food coloring and salty, sweet, and fatty flavors while using chemicals, antibiotics, preservatives, pesticides, substitutes, and additives that increase profits, irrespective of their long-term effects on your body. There is a never-ending food fight in society about what constitutes healthy food as counterparties game every healthy food trend to their advantage. The future of food will be about managing counterparty risk, understanding food chain provenance, and restoring alignment between you and your food provider.
[Continue reading…]
Chairlift
Musings on aerial chairlifts at ski resorts.
[Continue reading…]
Thoughts and Observations
Thoughts and observations on media, technology, community, education and modern life.
[Continue reading…]
Burning Man
Reflections on Burning Man
[Continue reading…]
Homeostatic Capacity and Functional Longevity: 3rd Edition
Homeostatic capacity—a concept analogous to resilience, strength, buffer, robustness, antifragility, and antifrailty—is the efficiency of an autoregulatory system to maintain functional homeostasis against ubiquitous stressors and entropy. The interaction of homeostatic capacity and stressors determines health. We envision a model for healthy, functional longevity based on evaluating and improving homeostatic capacity.
[Continue reading…]