Cordelia Hebblethwaite wrote about what happens when traditional values meet the social media age:

• Instead of asking the fiancé of his daughter for a cash dowry payment, one Yemeni father is asking for 1 million Facebook likes.
• It’s a tall order for the fiancé as Yemen only has 25 million people.
• The father explains that he’s doing this because dowries are becoming unaffordable. Other workarounds that people have used are to borrow from neighbors or to arrange for mass weddings.
• His detractors say that he simply wants to be famous as the likes are for his own Facebook page rather than his daughter’s.
• For his part the father says that as long as his son in law to be makes a significant effort, he may be willing to negotiate on the 1 million “price”.

Read more here.

Source: BBC

Rachel Feintzeig wrote about the latest twist on bonuses: grocery shopping.

• Companies are experimenting with awarding high performing employees two minutes at a supermarket to fill their shopping cart with whatever they can.
• One employee manage to ring up $25,000 by purchasing bottles of Champagne, several Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners and plasma televisions.
• Companies impose some limitations such as limiting items to one of each type, banning jewelry and gift cards, and disallowing “clotheslining” – the practice of sticking out an arm and sweeping a long line of items into a cart.
• Those who have been given the award suggest going to the gym and training in advance to take maximum advantage.

Read about the person who decided to take the challenge at Victoria’s Secret, the importance of getting the lay of the land, and more over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The Economist took a look at the pawnbroker industry:

• In Britain several pawnbrokers are facing financial difficulties. One has essentially pawned itself by putting itself up for sale.
• This is in part due to the easing of the global economic slowdown – lowering demand for pawnbrokers.
• The price of gold – and thus the jewelry that pawnbrokers frequently receive – has also fallen further cramping their ability to pay off their debts.
• However the industry should bounce back and is doing well in the US since the basic business is sound.
• Pawnbrokers offer individuals a line of credit without needing to have proof of income or threatening their credit ratings.
• They’re a business geared towards those with lower incomes – just like payday lenders. But they “only” charge about 90% in effective interest – payday lenders charge 6,000%

Read more about the industry and its outlook over here.

Source: The Economist

The US Mint is hiring. Ben Richmond described the opportunity:

• In an economy with stubbornly high unemployment, the Mint is looking to do its part by hiring 20 artists to design American coins.
• Artists are paid between $2,000 and $3,000 for each design that they submit.
• There’s a $5,000 bonus for submitting a design that actually makes it onto a coin.
• Even if a design is accepted that doesn’t necessarily mean the coin will make it into general circulation. Many of the Mint’s coins are commemorative.
• While coin designers don’t get much credit they do get the satisfaction of knowing that they can sneak their initials onto the final design.
• The opportunity isn’t just for any buffoon with a paintbrush. To qualify as an artist one must have five years of experience or a degree among other qualifications.

No word on what the designer of a potential trillion dollar coin would get. You can read more about how to apply for the job, the projects you might be tasked with, and where your coins might be distributed over here.

Source: Vice

Roberto A. Ferdman highlighted the latest crisis to hit the shaving industry: stubble.

• Men are embracing beards and stubble.
• This has caused the sales of razors and blades to crash. One leading CEO has called the decline “unprecedented”.
• Companies are trying to respond by selling products that can double as both shavers and trimmers, and to raise prices in an attempt to increase revenues.
• Cheap disposable blades have done very well – presumably because as people are shaving less they need fewer high quality razors.
• Men’s toiletries such as deodorant are overtaking shaving products as the biggest component of the male grooming market.

Read more here.

Source: Quartz

The Economist took a look at the business of building pianos:

• In the first half of the 1900s there were 300 piano makers in Europe. Today there are nine.
• European grand pianos take up to 1,500 hours to construct and cost €100,000.
• The reason for the decline of Europe’s piano makers are familiar – Asian upright pianos cost just €2,000 and electrical keyboards start at €100.
• Of the 493,000 pianos made in 2012 almost 80% were manufactured in China.
• European piano makers are trying to make a comeback by shifting to a services model and offering piano courses to the super-wealthy.

Read more about the industry, its notable names, and more over here.

Source: The Economist

People can be difficult as Cracked pointed out in an article describing laws that contributed to the very problem they were trying to solve:

• In the days of British controlled India, Delhi had a snake problem and so the governor offered a bounty on snakes. Ever enterprising, the residents of the city bred their own snakes and then killed them for the bounty. By the time the bounty program had ended the number of snakes had massively increased.
• When Mexico City tried to control pollution levels by preventing cars with certain license plate numbers from driving on certain days of the week, Mexicans responded by buying an additional car with a license plate ending in a different number to circumvent the ban. The additional cars were cheap high polluting cars…contributing to Mexico’s pollution problems.
• Gun buyback programs increase the amount of guns since buyers know that if they regret their purchase they can easily return it at the next buyback…or perhaps sell their current gun to upgrade to a better one
• Fishing quotas in the European Union led to fisherman sorting through their catch to pick only the best fish. To stay within the limits of the quota the rest of the (dead) fish were thrown back into the ocean…polluting it, and killing more fish.

There’s more on the full list, and of course a summary like the one above can’t reproduce the wit and humour of the article. You should read it here.

Source: Cracked

Hot on the heels of the battle for the best airport, and best airline seat is the battle for the best lounge writes to Scott McCartney:

• On the highest tiers of air travel the differences between airlines are disappearing – they all offer incredible experiences.
• Instead airlines are trying to attract customers by offering premium lounge experiences on the ground.
• At the best lounges you can find concierges who can score theater and dinner reservations in locations across the world.
• In Frankfurt elite passengers are driven to their airplane in luxury cars.
• British Airways’ Concorde Room has museum-quality art and leather seats taken from the now decommissioned Concorde.
• Other lounges offer designer haircuts, iron service while passengers shower, and wine bars.

Read more about what a First Class ticket on an international airline can get you, as well as why domestic air travel in the US is far less glamorous and more over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal