The Squatters of Beverly Hills
curbed.com/article/squatters-rights-california-beverly-hills-los-angeles.htmlAfter a fugitive doctor abandoned his mansion, an enterprising group of party throwers slid in, upending the lives of their wealthy neighbors.
The truffle industry is a big scam. Not just truffle oil, everything
tasteatlas.com/truffle-industry-is-a-big-scamThere is a good joke: because of sanctions against Russia, the price of tartufata will increase. I may not be objective about the quality of the joke, as I invented it, but the fact is: what is sold as truffle flavor is 2,4-dithiapentane, an organosulfur compound that is naturally found in truffles, and though it is practically impossible to extract it from truffles, it can be extracted from oil.
Wake up and smell the fraud : Planet Money
npr.org/transcripts/1119606931Sometimes online shopping can feel a little unsavory. There are the listings that make you question if you'll really be getting exactly what's advertised. And there's no worse feeling than paying for something and then not getting it. But when Nina Kollars ordered coffee pods and got WAY more than she asked for, it made her feel just as uneasy. Her quest for answers and what it teaches us about a new generation of online fraud. | Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
The optimal amount of fraud is non-zero
bam.kalzumeus.com/archive/optimal-amount-of-fraud/Counterintuitively, businesses, customers, and society prefer having fraud to what they'd need to do to not have it.