Curated Commons // Edition 89
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 89th edition of Curated Commons. Happy reading, and do pass on the newsletter and share it on your social networks if you find it interesting! It’s free!
Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
Using plants to remove carbon
Interesting approach from a startup that uses plants to remove carbon, converts it into oil and buries it deep into geologic reservoirs. Can it scale? Unsure, but another approach worth trying - Read here
Hotel rooms as NFTs to be traded in a marketplace
The future is definitely here, at least the weird version of it. Some hotels want to convert room nights as NFT tokens, that can be bought or sold by guests. So if you want to cancel the room, all you need to do is…find a buyer for your token. Ingenious way for big, fat companies to transfer risk to individuals! - Read here ($)
Does your tractor have AI?
Who doesn’t love recurring revenues! John Deere wants to sell autonomous driving for its farming equipment as a recurring subscription service. - Read here
Facial recognition, the slow-growing monster of our times
Not a day passes without another strange facial recognition story. When your face is just another ‘dataset’, expect weird outcomes with opt-in by ! - Read here
If population is moving to urban areas, can we move farms too?
A new generation of farmers wants to reduce complicated supply chains and bring farming into cities. Possible? - Read here
Will higher taxes dissuade customers from buying super-sized SUVs
Super-sized SUVs are both terrible for the environment, and deadly on the roads. Can higher taxes deter them? Washington DC is trying. In Germany, there’s been a 600% increase in parking fees for SUVs - Read here ($)
Stripe, and the Collison brothers
Good read on Stripe. Interesting stat - for the 2021 holiday season, Stripe’s tools were down for a combined 1.2 seconds only! - Read here
AI is breaking patent law.
Should an AI system own a patent? And if it can’t, then does that reduce the incentive for organizations to use AI to get to outcomes quicker and more efficiently since they can’t patent it? - Read here
EVs, not all green?
Interesting read - apparently, due to the heavy batteries that some electric vehicles have, they often create more brake dust (ultra-fine particles from brake pad abrasion) than their ICE-powered peers. - Read here
Some NFT stories tell themselves
Actor Seth Green’s bored ape NFT was supposed to be the star of a new show. It was stolen. And now the actor keeps tweeting at the owner to return it. And the show will likely be shelved, thanks to copyright law. - Read here
One big brand pulls back from analog advertising
Pepsi will no longer sponsor the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Preferring instead to spend more on digital media. Big move. - Read here
Gravity as an energy source
Interesting look at how electric vehicles can unlock ways of generating energy. - Read here
More Interesting Reads:
Sony says it is ready for the metaverse. Given the breadth of content they have, they better be! - Read here
Quantum Internet gets closer - Read here
Like someone was saying, we are still some ways away from a crypto bottom - Read here
Niantic is building a massive AR social network - Read here
Why is China still obsessed with disinfecting everything? - Read here
How are brands that dove into NFTs coping with the crypto crash? - Read here
One super-long thread on a real-life super hero - Read here
The last remnants of Lehman Brothers - Read here ($)
Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, thank you, and maybe consider sharing it? My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.