Over the Sea and Far Away: The Cost of Remittances
One of the biggest, but gnarliest, opportunities for startup entrepreneurs is the business of sending money across borders. Western Union has been dominating this space for years ($1 out of $5 sent is through Western Union), and making a ton of money at about 28% margin. They solve the problem of the last mile, where they have a ton of agents who hand the cash over to those who live in rural areas who don’t have bank accounts.
This is why I’m so stoked about helping to connect more Southeast Asians on Facebook via Mobile. We could possibly help startups solve the last mile problem. Imagine if overseas workers could be connected to their family members via Facebook. They could then possibly send money to their family members safely. Possibly, the money could be sent from their bank accounts and received via their mobile carrier accounts. We could reduce the remittance cost significantly and allowing the overseas workers to retain more of their hard earned money.
There are over 10 million Filipinos who work overseas. Western Union charges them 10% each time to remit their salaries. An average salary of a domestic helper in Singapore is about $500 per month. That’s $50 that could be used to feed their families. If they do not have to worry about food, then things like access to education, hygiene, etc could become real. Millions more could go directly to the Philippines’ GDP.
Via Kai Elmer Sotto, Mobile Developer at Facebook
HEY, DID I MISS ANYTHING?
Kids:
A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know. Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community, with two seasoned fellows that I’m sure are quite nice - actually, I have it on good authority they’re…
Air-Breathing Lithium Batteries Promise Recharge-Free Long-Range Driving
IBM-led research to create lithium-air electric vehicle batteries gets a boost from Japanese chemical companies toward the goal of 800 kilometers out of a full charge
Researchers predict a new type of lithium battery under development could give an electric car enough juice to travel a whopping 800 kilometers before it needs to be plugged in again—about 10 times the energy that today’s lithium ion batteries supply. It is a tantalizing prospect—a lighter, longer-lasting, air-breathing power source for the next generation of vehicles—if only someone could build a working model. Several roadblocks stand between these lithium–air batteries and the open road, however, primarily in finding electrodes and electrolytes that are stable enough for rechargeable battery chemistry.
IBM plans to take lithium–air batteries out of neutral by building a working prototype by the end of next year. The company announced Friday it has stepped up development efforts by adding two Japanese technology firms—chemical manufacturer Asahi Kasei Corp. and electrolyte maker Central Glass—to the IBM Battery 500 Project, a coalition IBM established in 2009 to accelerate the switch from gas to electric-powered vehicles among carmakers and their customers.
The Gong Show: Our Investment in Priceonomics
A few vertical marketplaces have their own pricing guides. In cars, Kelly Blue Book has been the industry standard for years, and nearly all car purchases use KBB as a starting reference point. Cars are a high ticket item, a considered purchase, and a fairly liquid market, so it’s not surprising…
I’ll echo everything Andrew Parker of Spark Capital wrote about Priceonomics, which CrunchFund has also invested in. I’m a total sucker for this type of data and their simple execution of the “Blue Book for everything” idea is brilliant.
TechCrunch has a bit more about the company — and the Priceonomics blog is also pretty awesome.
via thegongshow
What draws us to play, or to love hearing, some instruments above all others? Why are 40m children in China learning the piano? What accounts for the guitar’s dominance in Western popular music? Why do composers express their most melancholy thoughts on cellos? These questions go beyond music. They touch on the essence of identity, aspiration, expression, history and politics, as well as what Jung called our collective unconscious…
How you interpret any sound depends on its context and your knowledge.
In honour of Jack White’s brilliant forthcoming album “Blunderbuss”, this is a rarity from The White Stripes’ 2001 John Peel Sessions on BBC Radio 1. On this cover of Robert Johnson’s “Stop Breaking Down,” Jack shreds the electric slide like only he can.
Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young
Excerpted from an essay by David Foster Wallace
Television’s greatest appeal is that it is engaging without being at all demanding. One can rest while undergoing stimulation. Receive without giving. It’s the same in all low art that has as goal continued attention and patronage: it’s appealing precisely because it’s at once fun and easy. And the entrenchment of a culture built on Appeal helps explain a dark and curious thing: at a time when there are more decent and good and very good serious fiction writers at work in America than ever before, an American public enjoying unprecedented literacy and disposable income spends the vast bulk of its reading time and book dollar on fiction that is, by any fair standard, trash. Trash fiction is, by design and appeal, most like televised narrative: engaging without being demanding. But trash, in terms of both quality and popularity, is a much more sinister phenomenon. For while television has from its beginnings been openly motivated by—has been about—considerations of mass appeal and L.C.D. and profit, our own history is chock full of evidence that readers and societies may properly expect important, lasting contributions from a narrative art that under- stands itself as being about considerations more important than popularity and balance sheets. Entertainers can divert and engage and maybe even console; only artists can transfigure. Today’s trash writers are entertainers working artists’ turf. This in itself is nothing new. But television aesthetics, and television-like economics, have clearly made their unprecedented popularity and reward possible. And there seems to me to be a real danger that not only the forms but the norms of televised art will begin to supplant the standards of all narrative art. This would be a disaster.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band’s grungy “Dropout Boogie” from their 1967 debut “Safe as Milk”, which inspired covers from the likes of The Black Keys, The Kills, and Black Lips.
“Nobody’s dreaming about tomorrow anymore. The most powerful agency on the dreams of a nation is currently underfunded to do what it needs to do — and that’s to make dreams come true. How much would you pay for the Universe?”
A beautiful supercut of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s passionate Senate testimony on the spirit of space exploration, edited with awe-inspiring historical images and footage. Inspired by the Sagan Series and the Feynman Series.
Jurassic 5 “Jayou” from their 1999 “EP”. Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark drop one of their suavest beats of all time to a chorus of very capable MCs. Just wait for Chali 2na’s verse.
