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Daily Bafflements

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Daily Bafflements
June 16, 2015
• Today in Billionaires: one architect has figured that when the zombie underclasses revolt, luxury apocalypse shelters will be a must. His five-star bunker is equipped to withstand nuclear blasts with “self-contained water, power, climate, ventilation, air ...

Daily Bafflements
June 15, 2015
• Yesterday, pundits commented that Jeb Bush’s new logo (“Jeb!”) downplays his dynastic Bushiness. Maybe so. But with this move, Jeb, whose name is an acronym of “John Ellis Bush,” is also divesting himself of his ...

Daily Bafflements
June 12, 2015
• Today in Billionaires: inequality is terribly unfair, not least for billionaires. This surprisingly present sentiment was expressed most recently by Johann Rupert, the chairman of the company that owns Cartier. Speaking at the Financial ...

Daily Bafflements
June 11, 2015
• Today in catering (badly) to Millennials: Whole Foods is opening a new chain of stores targeting Millennial customers. The new “365” stores will be “fun and convenient,” according to 365 division president Jeff Turnas, and will offer all the pretension of ...

Daily Bafflements
June 10, 2015
• This week’s DARPA Robotics Challenge had us wondering: Why, when have we set the bar so low for them, are robots still so astoundingly inadequate? Case in point, provided by the BBC: One robot, “nicknamed Running Man, was so confident on its second day finish that when ...

Daily Bafflements
June 09, 2015
• Yesterday, Kansas City Business Journal released its Venture Capital issue, replete with a self-flagellating roundtable about why VCs aren’t investing there. One possibility they didn’t consider: Have the VCs been away betting on Innovation Economy winning the Belmont ...

Daily Bafflements
June 08, 2015
• A new currency minted by Russian farmer Mikhail Shlyapnikov has been declared “a threat” to the rouble by the Russian Central Bank. Five “kolion” will buy you a bucket of potatoes in Shlyapnikov’s village of Kolionovo. Shlyapnikov pointed out that his notes ...

Daily Bafflements
June 05, 2015
• The American Press Institute has recently released two reports on innovation in media and news organizations. PBS MediaShift takes a look at the measures being taken to get sometimes “fearful” newsroom staff on board for the all-important quest toward innovation. ...

Daily Bafflements
June 04, 2015
• Pittsburgh has been ranked lowest in startup activity among the country’s major metro areas, frightening the city’s entrepreneurial set. Denizens of the startup ecosystem can’t be stopped from wringing their hands—despite the fact that the city’s ...

Daily Bafflements
June 03, 2015
• Today in Billionaire Branding: the one-of-a-kind “Billionaire watch” that makes a luxury lifestyle “tangible.” Mind you, the B-watch is only about feeling like a billionaire—you don’t have to be reining in the runaway 0s like a husky sled musher to get a taste of ...

Daily Bafflements
June 02, 2015
• Over at The New Republic, Esther Breger chronicles “Television’s Long History of Humiliating Poor People.” She traces this illustrious tradition back from today’s “The Briefcase” and “Britain’s Hardest Grafter,” to 1945’s “Queen for a Day,” in ...

Daily Bafflements
June 01, 2015
• Happy first of National Homeownership Month! Celebrate with this new survey by the American Institute of CPAs, which finds that retirement has replaced home ownership as the touchstone of the American dream: “The US homeownership rate has now reached a 20-year low,” ...