Life comes at you fast â one minute youâre an actress/yoga teacher/fire dancer in Glasgow and the next youâre internet famous as the jellybean-rationing âMeth Lab Oompa Loompa Lady,â the enduring image of last monthâs shambolic âWillyâs Chocolate Experienceâ that left a bunch of Scottish kids crying. Now, that actress, Kirsty Paterson, may be the only person whoâll come out on top from the whole mess: sheâs charging $35 for video greetings on Cameo.
In todayâs email:
3D-printed homes: The next wave of them is here.
Weird patents: Strap your baby into this diaper/pillow.
Bananas: Thankfully, a fruit that inflation forgot.
Around the web:Star Wars plus beer ads, how grown-up Disney superfans are made, and more.
đ Listen: The potential impact of 3D-printed homes â and the flaws that must be ironed out before itâs realized.
The Big Idea
Would you live in a 3D-printed house?
A new model shows promise, but 3D-printed homes still have some big hurdles to clear.
2024-03-07T00:00:00Z
Juliet Bennett Rylah
In this economy, Iâd live in anything that had an in-unit washer and dryer.
But that question is more than hypothetical for whoever moves into a 988-square-foot 3D-printed home in Detroit.
They can print houses now?
Sure can. Citizen Robotics, a nonprofit seeking to make housing affordable through robotic construction, printed the pieces at a facility in southwest Detroit, then assembled the home on site.
What that means is that a robotic arm â typically used in auto manufacturing, the industry that has long defined Detroit â layered a cement material to build walls, perThe Detroit Free Press. (Watch a demo here.)
Itâs a cheaper process that requires less time and fewer people than pouring concrete into a form. Citizen Robotics said itâs also strong and affordable, and will likely reduce heating and cooling costs by ~$120 per month. Those costs could be fully covered if the owner installs solar panels.
ButâŚ
⌠itâll still cost you $224.5k to call this two-bed, one-bath house yours.
That might seem like a steal in NYC or LA, but itâs very high for Detroit, where most homes sell for under $100k. Unsurprisingly, thereâs been no sale, perBusiness Insider.
The problem, according to Bryan Cook, the architect of the home, is the development process. For 3D-printed homes to actually be affordable, theyâd need to be constructed at scale and not as one-offs.
In Georgetown, Texas, thereâs a community of 100 3D-printed homes selling at $475k-$599k each. Georgetownâs median home price is $460k.
Thereâd also need to be coding changes in some areas, including in Michigan where a requirement to reinforce walls with concrete columns increased costs.
Donât let new heads struggle in the first few months
You could just throw them in the river and let them start swimming. (Natural selection is savage, but that shit works.)
We suggest: setting up new recruits to win with a referential road map. This all-in-one sales onboarding template has sections on hierarchy, who to meet, tech setup, North Star goals, and more.
Simplify the first three months and prime them for success. Or just be pretty forgiving if they flounder.
Spain became the first country to block Sam Altmanâs Worldcoin, which offers its cryptocurrency only to people who consent to eyeball scans. The scans are meant to become a reliable way to distinguish humans from machines in Altmanâs AI dystopia, but Spainâs data protection regulator isnât on board with its potential to collect minorsâ personal data.
SNIPPETS
This guyâs such a tease: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell still isnât budging on interest rates, saying the central bank wants to see inflation closer to its 2% goal first. He does think thatâll occur âat some point this year,â though.
US credit-card late fees are now capped at $8 as the Biden admin continues to tackle junk fees. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates the new rule will save families $10B+ per year.
Palantir won a $178m US Army contract to build project TITAN (Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node), an AI-powered battlefield system.
Europa, one of Jupiterâs moons, produces enough daily oxygen to sustain 1m humans, per new data from NASA. Though very cold, scientists believe there could be life below the moonâs icy surface.
Oscar Mayer is collaborating with plant-based food brand NotCo on two new meatless products. The NotHotDogs and NotSausage follow parent company Kraft Heinzâs investment in alternative dairy, despite plant-based meat sales falling 9% in 2023.
Revel is using anonymized data from Uber to dictate future EV charger locations in New York City and solve for charging deserts. The company will also give a 25% charging discount to eligible NYC Uber Pro drivers.
OK: To celebrate International Womenâs Day, crypto exchange Binance released âCRYPTO,â a fragrance that smells like ozone, salt, and moss, available via samples at mall pop-ups in Bahrain.
Don’t miss this…
When Bluesky went public, it jumped to ~4m users â even snagging Chrissy Teigen and The New York Times. So, should your business be on Bluesky? Check out what HubSpotâs manager of social strategy and analytics has to say.
Weird Patents
In the 1940s, busy parents didnât always have both hands free for baby holding. Enter inventor Margaret P. Knecht of Muncie, Indiana, who patented the âbaby supporterâ in 1946. Part pillow and part diaper, the baby supporter would strap wee ones to a wedge-shaped, cushioned backing to keep them from tipping over, which, according to Knecht, âis an annoying and troublesome inconvenience to the mother, and also to the child.â
FIT THE BILL
There are thousands of companies valued at $1B+. How many clues do you need to identify todayâs billion-dollar brand?
Clue 1: This company has nine sub-brands serving tourists around the globe; its namesake flagship brand serves customers in durations ranging from 2 to 31 days.
Clue 2: Along for the ride during the companyâs first day of service were hundreds of travel agents. This business used to heavily rely on them, but that ship has sailed.
Clue 3: That aforementioned maiden voyage actually ran aground in Miami, requiring five tugboats to yoink its only ship off a sandbar. Today, the corporation has more backup, with 87 vessels in operation.
đ Scroll to the bottom for the answer đ
Data Point
This shit is bananas: Even when the world turns upside down, the humble banana at your local bodega will never betray you. Thatâs because the price of bananas has stayed under 80 cents per pound since 2004. (At Trader Joeâs, bananas have been 19 cents each since the 2000s.)
The US, which imports more bananas by volume than any other country, has the highest per capita availability at 26.9 pounds per person. And no wonder people are reaching for the trusty fruit: The average monthly price for a pound was 62 cents in January, compared to oranges at $1.55, grapefruits at $1.71, and lemons at $2.08.
Thankfully, the Federal Reserve predicts it could take ~210 years for a banana to cost $10, so we wonât be alive to witness that grim reality.
AROUND THE WEB
đ˛ On this day: In 1923, Robert Frostâs famous poem âStopping by Woods on a Snowy Eveningâ was published in The New Republic.
đď¸ Newsletter: C-suites and Wall Street are reading Semafor Business, a semiweekly newsletter penned by two of Wall Streetâs best reporters, bringing original scoops and exclusive interviews. Sign up for free here.
đş Haha: These beer commercials were inserted into Star Wars during dubbed TV viewings.
đŚ Aww: Saying good morning to your lizard friend.
Todayâs Fit the Bill answer is Carnival Corp. (Market cap: $20.01B)
Today’s email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Sara Friedman. Editing by: Ben âWhy compare apples and oranges when you can compare bananas and lemons?â Berkley.
media.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Critical_Template_Imagery/logo_glow.png?upscale=true&width=1000&upscale=true&name=logo_glow.png 500w” sizes=”(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px”>
media.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Critical_Template_Imagery/eye.png?upscale=true&width=280&upscale=true&name=eye.png 140w” sizes=”(max-width: 70px) 100vw, 70px”>
media.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Daily%20Newsletter%20Images/Tweet37.png?upscale=true&width=2400&upscale=true&name=Tweet37.png 1200w” sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px”>
media.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Critical_Template_Imagery/referral_prizes.gif?upscale=true&width=2400&upscale=true&name=referral_prizes.gif 1200w” sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px”>
