You don’t see as many water fountains as you used to these days. Kendra Pierre-Louis looked into what happened:

• In the old days the poor would drink water bottled from sewage infested sources.
• Then in 1859 London installed the world’s first clean water fountain in a ceremony watched by thousands. The fountain was so popular that at the peak 7,000 people used it a day.
• In the next 20 years London installed 800 fountains and American cities soon followed.
• Bottled water soon lost favour as it was thought that only low-class places which couldn’t afford modern plumbing were forced to use it.
• Then in the 1990s companies saw an opportunity to expand sales of bottled water by creating doubts in people’s minds about the safety of tap water.
• The advertising campaigns were successful and soon people felt that tap water wasn’t safe – even though it has been shown to be about as safe as bottled water.
• Since people stopped trusting tap water they stopped trusting water fountains.
• A water fountain can cost up to $4,500 to install so cities could save on costs by cutting back on an amenity that was becoming increasingly unpopular anyway.
• This has health consequences. People, for example, resort to sugary drinks instead of water when there are no fountains around.
• And all the oil based plastic bottles aren’t that great for the environment.

Read about a possible renaissance for water fountains and more over here.

Source: The Washington Post

Paul Sullivan took a look at the arduous task of figuring out your private jet travel:

• When it comes to flying around in a private jet there are a lot of factors to consider and most people don’t make such a purchase frequently, so there are consultancies who help you figure out your options.
• For example if you decide to charter a jet the consultancy will provide safety support by doing a background check on the pilot to make sure they actually have experience flying that particular type of plane.
• They may also recommend programs similar to international minutes for phone cards. Customers purchase ‘hours’ that they can use on a private jet, and they’re eligible to spend those hours whenever they want.
• They can always top up the hours if they run out.
• The costs usually comes out to $16,000 an hour – before membership fees and fuel surcharges.
• This is substantially cheaper than the millions of dollars that purchasing your own jet costs.

Read more about the factors that Centives readers should consider when they next drop in to their local private jet dealership over here.

Source: The New York Times

The Economist took a look at the market for passports:

• Passport holders of countries in the Caribbean get visa-free travel to various European countries.
• There are many people who’d like to visit Europe but who would have…trouble getting a visa approved or don’t want to go through the hassle of it all.
• Spotting a market opportunity, Caribbean countries are willing to sell citizenship to those who are able to pay.
• The “donation” required for this can be as little as $250,000.
• Some require that you at least spend some time in the country before getting its passport – usually a long weekend will do it.
• The business is lucrative. St Kitts made $100 million from the business – 13% of its GDP.
• It can lead to awkward situations though. Iranians have apparently been using St Kitts passports to circumvent American sanctions.

Read more about the different countries and the amount of money they’re willing to sell citizenship for, and how countries around the world are responding over here.

Source: The Economist

The era of the self-driving car is nigh and cities could suffer due to them writes Alex Davies:

• Self-Driving cars won’t break speeding, traffic light, parking or drunk driving laws.
• Cities make hundreds of millions of dollars from those violations. Everything from fines to towing fees go to city coffers.
• People will also probably buy fewer cars which means that cities won’t make as much money from car registrations.
• It’s not all doom and gloom. If there are fewer accidents then money will be saved from not having to treat victims.
• Increased productivity from people being able to do things like work in their car could also contribute to economic growth and thus tax income.
• There’ll be less pollution as cars will use fuel more efficiently, creating health savings.
• Cities will be able to re-allocate a whole lot of traffic cops to fighting crime.

Read more about other sources of revenues that cities could consider, and other implications of a self-driving future here.

Source: Wired

Partially as a result of China’s one child policy, China’s fertility rate – the number of children that an average woman will have – has dropped to 1.6, below the 2.1 required to prevent population decline. This means that the country is rapidly ageing, which Japan’s experience indicates could lead to an economic crash. The Chinese government has taken steps to loosen the one child policy and encourage more children but the initiatives haven’t been successful. The Economist took a look at the reasons why:

• Years of government propaganda about the importance of only having one child has been imprinted on people’s minds and many still believe it’d be unpatriotic to have more children.
• The country’s pollution and traffic problems are blamed on over-population further convincing people that the population needs to shrink.
• The country has grown used to a one-child policy. Hotel rooms for families with two children cannot be booked online.
• Play vehicles are set up with space for two parents and a child.
• Even toothbrush holders usually assume a two parent one child household.
• The cost of education and healthcare means that many parents feel that they cannot afford a second child.
• Since both parents are often working, grandparents help take care of children. But people are having children at older ages which means that grandparents can barely keep up with one child let alone two.

Read more about the effects that the one-child policy had on the country, the next steps that the government might take, and other details here.

Source: The Economist

For a while there it was unclear if we would ever be able to eat Greek yogurt again. But it seems like the Eurozone has figured out a deal, and Greece will stay in the European Union. Peter Berlin took a look at the role that being the host of the 2004 Olympics played in contributing to Greece’s current financial crisis.

• The games are thought to have cost Greece €7 billion, and the country continues to pay the debt from those games.
• Meanwhile the International Olympic Committee made close to $1 billion from the event.
• The IOC seems reluctant to award the games to countries that do things affordably.
• One solution would be to make a country – probably Greece since the Olympics originated there – a permanent host of the games.
• As Greece still has all the facilities from the 2004 games which largely sit unused, it would be a boost to the local economy, and would save other countries from expensive construction projects.
• The 2016 games in Rio, for example, are expected to cost €13.2 billion.

Read more here.

Source: Politico

The Sky Times wrote about how the movie Frozen has changed the destiny of babies across the United States:

• Elsa is now the 286^th most popular baby name in the United States, with 1,131 girls getting that name in 2014. This is the best that name has done since the dying days of World War 1 in 1917.
• But it’s not just the main protagonist. Olaf, the snowman from the film, inspired enough parents so that 22 babies were given that name in 2014, compared to seven the year before.
• And it’s not just good guys. The name of the antagonist Hans went from being used for 98 babies in 2013, to 132 in 2014.
• Some parents were inspired more by the animal characters than the human ones. Sven, the reindeer, saw 55 namesakes being born in 2014 compared to 33 a year before.
• Surprisingly Anna, already a popular name, didn’t see its share of names increase. It remained the 34^th most popular name.

Read more here.

Source: The Sky Times

Kelly Robinson looked into the weird practice of women jumping out of cakes:

• The Ancient Romans were the first known people to mix food with entertainment. They would cook and stuff one animal – such as a roasted pig – inside another, such as a cow.
• They also staged animals to make them look like they were alive. Fish swam in seas of sauce, and medievals continued this practice by using alcohol to create fire-breathing effects.
• This is also around the time that having an apple in the mouth of a pig became a thing. The idea was probably to make it look like the pig was alive and munching.
• By the end of the Middle Ages having living things – such as birds – inside food to fly out once the food was cut open, became popular.
• Having living people inside was a natural evolution and one banquet host managed to fit 28 musicians inside a pie.
• By the 1800s it was usually women in the pastries as such entertainment was often presented at parties by the elite for the elite. Wives, of course, were unwelcome.
• A 1970s article indicates that a cake jumper could make $220 (in 2015 dollars) per event.
• By the end of the 1970s having live humans come with your meal became less common as the equal rights movement meant that more and more women were at party events.
• The practice lives on though during events such as bachelor parties and areas of extravagant excess such as Las Vegas.

Read about the murder that truly brought the practice into the mainstream, the role that The Sims played, and famous examples of humans jumping out of food over here.

Source: Today I Found Out

A cat got an obituary in The Economist. Once you read her achievements, you’ll kinda sorta agree with the decision:

• Tama-chan (“Little Treasure”) was a calico cat – a type particularly popular in Japan.
• She soon moved to a small train station that was losing $4 million a year. As there was no money to hire employees the cat was appointed the stationmaster.
• She wore the specially made hat she got, and the stationmaster’s badge with pride. Over the years as she became more successful she even got her own office.
• She earned her keep by rubbing against passengers’ legs. Her fame spread and soon traffic to the station massively increased as people stopped by to be blessed by her.
• All in all she is thought to have earned $8 million (at today’s exchange rate) for the local economy.
• As an employee of a Japanese company her rank rose as she aged, and she was the first female operating officer to be recognized at her company.
• She ended as a Vice President within the company. Her funeral was held at the station and was attended by thousands.

Read about Tama-chan’s approach to life, her deification, and more over here.

Source: The Economist

A Japanese company is looking to offer on demand artificial meteor showers:

• A large number of shooting stars – often known as a meteor shower – is usually due to dust from space burning up in the earth’s atmosphere.
• A company aims to create on-demand meteor showers by launching a satellite which is able to release a cloud of dust that soon burns up in a specific part of the night sky.
• Different chemicals in the dust could be used to create multi-coloured showers.
• They’re not just for entertainment. Scientists may actually learn something by studying them, since unlike regular meteors they’ll know exactly when and where to look out for them.
• In case of cloudy weather the show could be called off about 2 hours before it is scheduled to begin.
• It is expected to cost about $8,100 per meteor.

Read about the secret chemicals that go into the meteors, the problem of light pollution, and more over here.

Source: Space

Via: Marginal Revolution