durrtyurr

durrtyurr t1_jc6j5y4 wrote

Reply to comment by WolfPaw_90 in TIL If Coca-Cola's inventor had decided to file a patent application in 1892 instead of keeping the recipe a secret, patent protection would have expired long before Pepsi ever came onto the market in 1965. Patent protection lasts 20 years at most. Trade secrets can last forever. by ethereal3xp

Yeah, it was definitely a thing when my grandfather was growing up. He always laughed at the "pepsi generation" ads because he considered himself to be the pepsi generation because a bottle of pepsi was almost twice the size of a bottle of coke when he was growing up, so that was all he drank. Growing up with a single father in rural eastern kentucky in the 1930s, he took what he could get.

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durrtyurr t1_j06ph1g wrote

Reply to comment by minniedriverstits in TIL that until 2012, when they switched to a bacterial source, Roche Pharmaceuticals used up to 90% of the world's annual star anise crop to produce shikimic acid, a chemical intermediate used in the synthesis of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) by Kintpuash-of-Kush

It's actually a really good example of a monopsony, where there are many sellers but only one buyer. The only other example that I can come up with off the top of my head is barley in South Africa, where there are hundreds of farmers who grow barley but South African Brewing buys 90% of all the barley grown in the country.

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durrtyurr t1_j018tk2 wrote

Reply to comment by Guide_Worth in TIL Western music traveled to China in the 80s through these cracked cassette tapes. Once discarded as trash, and shipped to China's black market from abroad, they were purposefully destroyed by labels to prevent resales. And these tapes influenced a generation of musicians in China. by fangz_fabricated

The free thing is a total double-edged sword. yeah, people can get clothed, but it cuts the legs out from under retailers and producers in those countries and helps to prevent a domestic industry there that would improve the local economy.

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durrtyurr t1_iwy4r4s wrote

Reply to comment by PromptCritical725 in TIL in response to infamously high suicide rates at Mapo Bridge in Seoul, South Korea, the bridge was adorned with suicide prevention messages and uplifting photos. These measures weren't enacted by the government, however, instead the entire project was financed by Samsung's life insurance division by evilclownattack

The phrasing that economists use for that is "aligning incentive structures"

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