BRICS is an odd amalgamation of countries. For the most part it makes sense why four of the five BRICS economies are expected to dominate the future, but there’s one country that is dissimilar from the rest and quite obviously shouldn’t be included. Joshua Keating is talking, of course, about:

• Brazil. The other countries have seen incredible rates of growth. Brazil, on the other hand, has at times seen growth rates of under 2%.
• Russia. It once had a lot of promise but corruption and bureaucracy are suffocating the country’s infrastructure and economy.
• India. It’s perennially on the verge of a balance of payments crisis and doesn’t seem to be serious about attracting the foreign investment it so desperately needs to ensure future growth. To say nothing of the corruption.
• China. Thanks to the one-child policy population growth is going to start falling soon and that’ll drastically reduce its growth potential in the coming future.
• South Africa. It has taken a turn towards illiberalism and appears to have given up on its post-Apartheid ideals of equality and justice.

Read more about some of the countries that should replace the one outlier in BRICS, more about why each of the countries don’t belong, and why the disparity among the BRICS isn’t all that surprising compared to other international groupings over here.

Source: Foreign Policy

Just ten years ago up to 85% of nightclub bartenders were male. Today 60% of them are female writes Ann McGinley. What explains the change?

• Nightclubs became sexier. These days they have “pleasure pits” and topless “European” pools.
• Female bartenders are a part of their experience. With professional hair and makeup they are more akin to models than bartenders.
• Customers are also less irritated at the prospect of waiting in a long line if they’re ultimately served by a female.
• This also explains why female card dealers are more common. Some even sing and dance on stage to entertain after they’re done dealing.
• All in all it appears to be a positive development for women. Before they were limited to working as cocktail servers and while the money was lucrative – $100,000 a year – the job itself was demeaning and involved a lot of groping. Bartenders make less money but have more prestige.

Read more about how men feel about the trend, the (unlikely) possibility of seeing men in mankinis in night clubs, and more over here.

Source: Slate

The United States government offers a generous retirement package to those who formerly occupied the White House. Here are some of the more interesting numbers:

• Overall the four ex-Presidents of the United States cost $3.7 million last year.
• George W. Bush was the most expensive – costing $1.3 million. However this is likely because recently departed Presidents get more assistance than those who have been out of office for a while.
• Jimmy Carter, on the other hand, only cost $500,000.
• The costs include a $200,000 annual pension, as well as $96,000 every year for office staff. Other costs include travel, office space, and postage.
• These costs don’t include the price of the Secret Service protection that former Presidents and their family receive.

Read more about when and why ex-Presidents started to receive these benefits, why they may no longer be required in the modern era, how much the widows of former Presidents receive, and what Nancy Reagan spent on postage over here.

Source: Fox News

We’ve previously covered the future of wireless charging. According to Duncan Graham-Rowe that’s just the first step. Nokia is developing technologies that could lead to the end of us having to charge our phones:

• In most places we go we’re surrounded by ambient radio waves, and it’s possible to harvest these waves to generate power.
• This is also how RFID chips draw their power, thus operating without a battery.
• Nokia has found a way to draw around a thousand times the power that most technologies can typically draw from the ambient waves. With this amount of power it can keep a phone powered on in standby mode indefinitely.
• If Nokia is able to develop the technology a little further then it could even use the ambient waves to slowly charge the phone…leading to the end of the charger.

Read more about how the technology works, the long history of the technology, and what experts have to say over here.

Source: The Guardian

Via: WMPoweruser

Steve Cohen took a look at college rankings:

• The most commonly accepted measures of college rankings have serious deficiencies. The proportion of professors with a Ph.D. is usually an important metric but the educational level of the Professor has nothing to do with their educational ability.
• In fact the most prestigious professors might be the poorest educators because they have the least amount of time to focus on their students.
• Another measure that is used is the average size of classes. But some of the most dazzling professors do their best work in front of large audiences.
• Instead college rankings should look at the ‘happiness quotient’ of a campus.
• Salaries of graduates up to ten years after graduation should also be evaluated.
• For those going to college to find a job, measures of what employers think of the University should also be published.

Read more about the more questionable metrics that existing rankings use, what they should actually look at, and the increasing importance of the debt that university can put people into over here.

Source: The Daily Beast

Mercedes has just revealed its latest flagship: the S-Class W222. Damon Lavrinc took a look at what those who have the dough to spend on a car like this get for their buck:

• The car comes with active perfuming technology. A bottle of Mercedes’ own perfume is dispersed by the car’s cooling system.
• Not only are the seats and steering wheel heated…so are the armrests and the center console of the car.
• The rear seats come with a pop-out ottoman so travelers can relax their legs.
• The seats themselves are massage chairs that have six different settings, including two with added heat creating an experience similar to a hot-stone massage.

Read more about the car’s sound system, navigation system, and, unfortunately, the price over here.

Source: Wired

Megan Garber took a look at the history of applause:

• Applause appears to go back centuries and seems to unite us across cultures.
• Applause really came to the fore during the Roman Empire when leaders used applause as a gauge to measure the audience’s reaction to their speeches…and those of their opponents.
• In the Empire competing politicians would also hire individuals to applaud their own speeches, and heckle those of their opponents.
• When Joseph Stalin entered conferences in Soviet Russia audience members who didn’t clap for long enough would be arrested.
• In the modern era applause has lost a lot of its nuances. It only happens at certain times, and audience members either give all or nothing. It is no longer a dialogue with the audience, but, instead, a brute transaction that is expected rather than rewarded.

Read more about the rise of automated laugh tracks, how Facebook is changing the nature of applause, and more over here.

Source: The Atlantic

Around five percent of all magicians are females writes Ashley Fetters. She explored some theories as to why so few choose to take up the trade:

• Magicians normally get there start early as young kids with a magic kit as a present. Boys are more likely to get this as a gift than girls.
• Magic is essentially a puzzle and like math and science seems to attract more boys than girls.
• Male clothing – with its more baggy jackets and large pockets – is better suited for the art of deception.
• Women also have smaller hands, on average, than men – and large hands are useful for obscuring the audience’s gaze from, say, a deck of cards.
• Magic unlike other forms of entertainment is best viewed in a live setting. Until relatively recently it was expected for women to stay at home and constant travel wasn’t a realistic option.

Read more about the role that the inquisition played, what women would likely appreciate about magician’s conferences, and some of the more notable female magicians over here.

Source: The Atlantic

Via: Marginal Revolution

In the wake of the Newton attacks and moves by the American government to increase controls on the sales of guns, there has been a surge in arms purchases. This has the unexpected effect of helping to protect wildlife writes Jim Malewitz:

• A federal tax on the sales of guns and ammunition is used to finance wildlife projects.
• Declining gun sales were causing revenues flowing to such projects to fall.
• But in 2012 gun sales surged and the revenues collected for wildlife increased 43% to $555 million.
• This year should be another good one for wildlife…thanks to the increasing number of guns in the hands of Americans.

Read more about the types of projects that are financed with the funds, the effects that the sequester has had on the program, and why states might not be able to afford it if it continues to do so well over here.

Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts