Interesting Links for 17-08-2016

[andrewducker]

Women Athletes Gave Up Gonads And More To Continue Olympic Competition (tags: women testosterone mutilation OhForFucksSake olympics sports ) Nice breakdown of costs and profits on a Kickstarter novel (tags: kickstarter business publishing CrowdFunding viaTheFerrett ) My favourite commentary on No Man's Sky (tags: games funny video ) How to lie

Comments

[lilchiva]

Well for starters they completely disrupt rental prices in urban areas making it much, much harder for working class people to find housing. Why would a landlord rent out an apartment for $600 a month if he or she can get $125 a night from AirBnB people?

This isn't really happening here. If I could have reliably gotten more than $600 per month from my condo, I wouldn't have sold it. As it stood, $600 was the max rent and the local $125 air bnb places would have easily rented monthly for $1500-2000. But, then again, at the time, I lived in a ghetto. I had friends who owned multiple units and basically used them for storage. Also, there are similar apartments (without crack houses tho) near where I live now and none of them are going for more than $800, for a two bedroom.

I could see turning a downtown loft into an air bnb, instead of renting it. But, downtown lofts cost as much as someone's mortgage payment. I'm not going to cry because some yuppie/hipster got sent to cheaper and yet more lux digs.

"It's also putting a lot of hotels out of business"

That doesn't seem to be happening here either. Maybe you are speaking for places outside of Canada and the US. I say this because, after like 3-4 nights, in Texas, you have to pay the same sorts of taxes and fees as any hotel/motel. It's not such the 'money maker' after you notice that. Sure, you can play it under the table. But, that's not really something everyone is comfortable doing.

"West Bank Jewish "settlers" are now forcing Palestinians out of their homes and then renting the homes out on AirBnB and the company has said it's not their problem."

Now that is a deal killer. Do you have sauce for this?

[bart_calendar]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/12/airbnb-listings-illegal-settlements-israel-palestine-west-bank

https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/stolen-homes/

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-highlights-how-airbnb-profits-israeli-occupation

http://972mag.com/global-protests-target-airbnb-over-israeli-settlement-rentals/119842/

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/01/airbnb-israel-west-bank-settlements/424836/

https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/11/activists-at-disrupt-protest-airbnb-over-listings-in-israeli-settlements/

[lilchiva]

Oh fuck them.

(also thanks for the links)

[bart_calendar]

Your welcome!

This has been a big, ongoing story in Europe. Maybe it didn't get much play in America.

[lilchiva]

#stolenhomes is adorable.

Well, we are a little preoccupied with riots, mass shootings, and the presidential apocalypse. Also, I don't watch/pay attention to very much news these days. I find it all cumulatively "triggering". Eventually, I get sucked in and start emotionally investing into shit that I can't control or do anything about. So, for all I know, every other thoughtful citizen already knows about this.

[bart_calendar]

Well I'm probably more informed. My job entails checking out what apps and such are popular and researching them to see if my clients can use them in some way to make money. So anything as big as AirBnB I have a Google Alert on so I'm seeing all the news - and none of it is positive.

[bart_calendar]

I do like that th ey are using #stolenhomes to protest it.

[lilchiva]

Really, it's just "What kind of scumbag thinks this is okay?"