Daily Bafflements

• Today in Bespoke: Long Island-born duo Cody and Zachary Vichinsky have founded Bespoke Real Estate, an agency that deals exclusively with homes worth $10 million and above in the Hamptons. The real estate slump is over, they say; with a $147 million home selling earlier this year, the Vichinksys tell Bloomberg TV that the market is stronger than ever. The host of the segment asks where the new investors are coming from, whether they are foreign or local; at one point he observes that, the last time he was out in the Hamptons, “it looked like a lot of rich white people.”

• These two apps both imitate the look and feel and sound of a typewriter, on an iPad, but only one of them was made by Oscar-winner Tom Hanks. (Via The Paris Review Daily.)

• Today in Billionaires: Forbes reports that three Chinese billionaires, Wang Jianlin, Pony Ma, and Robin Li, with a combined fortune of $428 billion, are teaming up to launch a new e-commerce platform to challenge Alibaba. Sounds like the makings of an excellent TV sitcom.

• Speaking of e-commerce, the developers of a new “Fed-proof,” regulation-proof Bitcoin marketplace insist to Andy Greenberg at Wired that it isn’t all about drugs. “We’re not the ‘Super Silk Road,’” says Sam Patterson. “We’re trying to replace eBay in a better form.” Another developer connected to the project says it’s meant to “equip the people with the tools needed for the next generation of digital black markets.” Right, so, drugs? No, more like raw milk, radar detectors, and fireworks, they say. So, drugs.