The image above may make you less interested in this website, at least according to a study reported on by Thu-Huong Ha:

• An experiment involving 8,500 participants found that after viewers saw an ad filled with sex and violence they were less likely to buy the product advertized.
• This is possibly because while humans pay attention to sex and violence, they focus so much on it, they are unable to absorb the underlying message about the product being advertized.
• In contrast audiences exposed to neutral ads are able to focus on the product and are more likely to purchase it afterwards.

Read more here.

Source: Quartz

More mothers are having caesarean deliveries than necessary, wrote The Economist. Here are some of the reasons why:

• Hospitals make more money from caesareans, which can be a complicated procedure, than from natural births.
• Moreover natural births take time. Doctors are paid per delivery and they can deliver several caesarean children in the time it takes for a natural birth to run its course.
• A caesarean makes it look like a doctor is putting effort into the birth and makes parents less likely to sue if there’s a problem during the delivery.
• There are also mundane human motives at play. If a baby isn’t ready to meet the real world towards the end of a Friday, or by the end of a shift, then impatient doctors may just call for a caesarean.
• In fact an abnormally low number of babies are born on public holidays, with doctors presumably wanting to enjoy long weekends.
• It’s not just doctors nudging expectant mothers though. Some parents want their children to be born on certain dates for good luck.
• And those in developing countries may just be afraid of being stuck in traffic on the all-important delivery date if it’s not pre-planned.

This, The Economist notes, is a bit of a problem:

• There’s no doubt that caesareans are important in multiple cases. Countries that don’t have enough caesareans suffer.
• However if caesareans are being used for any more than about 15% of pregnancies then they’re being used too much.
• The procedure is dangerous – those who undergo it are three times more likely to have emergencies during the delivery process.
• It can also lead to weaker children who don’t pick up the bacteria they normally do through a natural birth.

Read more about the distorted baby heads that maybe playing a role, how to make mothers comfortable during a natural birth, and many other fascinating details here.

Source: The Economist

Don’t get us wrong – treating women like property and selling their hand in marriage is unequivocally wrong. But just like how volcanoes, for all their destructive fury, lead to some pretty awesome looking photographs, so too is there evidence for at least one positive outcome from having bride prices, according to research covered by Kevin Grier:

• A paper indicates that brides who are educated command a substantially higher price in societies where the practice of pricing brides is common.
• For example a college degree in Indonesia can lead to a 100% increase in the price of a bride.
• This gives families an economic incentive to send daughters to school, as it becomes an investment into future profits.
• This also seems to drive the construction of schools for girls in bride-selling communities.

Grier points out that it’s not explained why education leads to higher prices, and notes other open questions. You can read them here.

Source: Cherokee Gothic

Via: Marginal Revolution

We’ve previously covered Canada’s “strategic maple reserve“. Ian Austen looked at why it was there and the wider maple syrup cartel:

• Quebec produces 70% of the world’s maple syrup and has a federation that enforces production quotas.
• Those that try to skirt the federation’s rules get massive fines and can even have their production equipment seized.
• Maple syrup is notoriously difficult to make. The sap that it requires only flows from trees at a very specific temperature.
• Before the federation prices would fluctuate wildly as the amount of sap that trees produced drastically changed from year to year.
• The federation stepped in and set up a strategic reserve. If maple production exceeds quotas it is stored in the reserve. When production is low the reserves are released to maintain a stable price.
• The federation charges a membership fee of several hundreds of thousands of dollars. It also taxes each pound of syrup 12 Canadian cents.
• That money is then used to enforce production quotas, and promoting maple syrup around the world.

Read about the farmers who are very upset with the quotas, the threat from the United States, and more over here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

Casinos are buying abduction insurance in China’s gambling center, Macau, writes Mark Rivett-Carnac:

• Due to economic concerns more people are racking up gambling debts that moneylenders get repaid through kidnappings.
• Gamblers are normally abducted from their hotel rooms, meaning that hotels are potentially liable for what happens.
• Therefore hotels are taking out insurance policies – if their guests get kidnapped, the insurance company will pay.
• This comes at an awkward time for Macau which is already dealing with falling visitors as a result of China’s anti-corruption drive which has made people worried about displaying wealth.

Read more here.

Source: Time

Lauren Sherman looked into the business of prom:

• Families that earn more than $50,000 a year will spend around $800 on prom.
• Oddly families that earn less spend more. Those that earn less than $25,000 will spend almost 1.5 times that amount.
• Most of that money will go into the prom dress, which can cost anywhere between $200 and $800 in one major store.
• To ensure that no two girls are wearing the same dress to a prom, stores will keep lists of the girls that have bought each of the dresses.
• This means that big stores with a lot of inventory have an advantage. One company, rent the runway, spotted a market opportunity and offers a Netflix like service for dress rentals. The company rents $800 million of clothes a year.
• Prom dress makers need to be agile. The dresses in demand will be those that Beyoncé and Taylor Swift were wearing in the weeks leading up to the event.
• They also need to know the social landscape. If the prom queen buys a dress from a certain store, then they can advertise this and see a boost in sales.
• They may also offer discounts if buyers post about their prom dress purchases on social media.

Read more about the business, the fashion shows, and broader trends for the future over here.

Source: Racked

Evidence indicates that the world may be set for an incredibly strong El Niño this year. The Economist had an explanation of what El Niño is and how it’s formed over here. But the more interesting article maybe about the impacts that one could have:

• El Niño is, first and foremost, a natural disaster. The strongest ever happened in 1998 and was responsible for killing 21,000 people and $36 billion in damages.
• Indonesia would likely be particularly hard hit if one took place this year. Dry weather would mean that coffee and palm oil production would suffer causing prices across the world to skyrocket.
• The dryness could also mean forest fires which would release billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air.
• In Nigeria El Niño led to rain which led to stagnant pools of water that were ideal breeding conditions for malaria carrying mosquitos.
• In the west coast of the United States El Niño will also mean more rain. In California the rains may lead to landslides in a state stricken by drought.
• It wouldn’t even help fill up California’s reservoirs since most of the rain would just return to the ocean. What California actually needs is snow in the mountains that’ll gradually melt and replenish water supplies.
• However an El Niño will raise temperatures, making snow less likely, and the drought even worse.
• Some places in the US may benefit though. An El Niño event means that hurricanes are less frequent in the east and crop yields improve in the Midwest.
• All in all the 1998 event is thought to have added $15 billion to America’s GDP.

Read more about the weather event, and the effects it could have across the world if it strikes over here.

Source: The Economist

We’ve previously written about investors investing in people dying of horrible disease. Now Leah Ward Sears and Crystal Conway wrote about the opportunity to invest in divorce:

• In divorce cases where one spouse is far wealthier than the other, the wealthy spouse may have the funds to litigate a divorce case indefinitely, forcing the poorer spouse to accept an unfair settlement.
• Instead companies are springing up that will fund the battle. They’ll pay the legal and forensic accounting costs required to win these battles.
• They may even pay a stipend so that their clients can pay living expenses while they wait for the divorce case to run its course.
• Fees are high – the company may take as much as 20% of the winnings from the divorce.
• There’s also high selection criteria. Companies want to make sure that they only get clients with strong cases. Therefore they require that the client hasn’t engaged in acts that could hurt the case such as fraud or adultery.

Read more about the business, and its future, over here.

Source: Wealth Management

La Tomatina is an annual festival in a Spanish town where residents and tourists have a massive food fight with tomatoes, and then bathe afterwards in a river. 2015 is the festival’s 70^th anniversary. Phil Edwards looked into the history and logistics of the event:

• Buñol, the town that hosts the festival, has about 10,000 residents but 50,000 people show up for the world famous event.
• Tickets to take part in the event cost between $12 and $75.
• The town reserves 5,000 tickets for residents to ensure that the festival has a local vibe to it.
• The festival is a boon for local traders who sell tomato themed merchandise.
• Several imitators have sprung up across the world. There’s even a company called Tomato Battle that helps organize such events.
• New York had one in 2013, and Tide used it as an opportunity to distribute stain removal capsules.

Read more about where the tomatoes come from, the effect that the festival has on city infrastructure, and other details over here.

Source: Vox

Tim Johnson wrote about a generous program by the Mexican government:

• In a bid to convert the country from analogue TV to digital the government is handing out 10 million free digital televisions to the poor.
• The government has until the end of the year. It’s handing out about 40,000 sets a day but will have to double that if it is to make the deadline.
• The program costs $1.6 billion.
• The televisions being handed out are 24 inch flat screen televisions that cost $145.
• Critics point out that the government could instead just hand out $40 decoder boxes that allow existing analogue televisions to read digital signals.
• The government argues that analogue televisions with decoder boxes require about 350 watts to run, while a flat-screen television only requires 40 watts, making it a program that helps the environment.
• However it has been pointed out that most people will probably just keep both televisions, buying a decoder box for the older one, and perhaps keeping the spare in the children’s room, ultimately increasing energy consumption.
• In addition to smiling masses the program has been a boon to television manufacturers and the media conglomerates that provide digital television services.

Read more about the industry, the shifting competitive landscape, and the manufacturer that lost out because they offered “a better product” over here.

Source: McClatchyDC

Via: Marginal Revolution