Emil Johansson has gone through all of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works to find some interesting statistics about the characters from Middle Earth that Tolkein describes:

• Humans have the largest population followed by Hobbits, Elves and Dwarves.
• Only 19% of the total characters are female. There is only one female dwarf.
• At 589 years, Gollum had the longest lifespan among all Hobbits.
• Samwise Gamgee and Rose Cotton had 13 children – a record for Hobbits.

Check out the rest of the fascinating statistics over here.

Source: LOTR Project

Via: io9

There’s a change happening in the nature of queues writes Benjamen Walker:

• For the longest time the single serpentine line was the most popular form of queue. Instead of forming multiple queues everybody was in a single queue so that the person who waited the longest would be served next.
• Now however businesses and the government are experimenting with priority queues.
• In a priority queue you pay extra money to jump the queue in some way.
• This is becoming increasingly common in airports, where first class passenger are allowed to skip ahead of everybody else, and even on high ways, where people can pay a special toll to go on an express lane.
• Sea World has implemented a system where those who buy expensive special passes can leave the queue to do other things and then be alerted when it is their turn.

Read more about the morality of this practice and other places where you may soon be paying to get into a faster queue over here.

Source: BBC

Via: Marginal Revolution

Underpinning the foundation of a globalized world is an economy that has become increasingly local, writes Enrico Moretti:

• As the world economy has moved towards services and information technology, human capital matters more than physical capital.
• Unlike physical capital, human capital tends to clump together. Neighbourhoods with a lot of college educated people attract more of the same people, making it unlikely that the best and brightest will distribute themselves across America.
• This phenomenon isn’t limited to the United States. In India and China relatively small cities are racing ahead, leaving the rest of the country behind.
• For a company to be successful it must set up shop in places where these talented workers are available. This means that despite the globalized world, companies have to be careful to set up in the right localized area.

Read more of the argument here.

Source: CNN

Via: The Economist

Services such as Netflix and Pandora have revolutionized how we consume movies and music. Now one company is trying to do the same for art. Melena Ryzik reported:

• If you go to Netflix then it recommends other movies for you to watch based on your preferences. Currently there’s nothing similar for art: a site which can recommend other pieces of art for you to enjoy based on recorded preferences.
• Art.sy is aiming to fill this gap. It has worked with various museums and institutions to put together some of the world’s most famous art.
• Each piece of art is rated on a scale of 1-100 on various categories such as “Renaissance”. Algorithms then use this information and information about your preferences to recommend art work.

Read more about the service, how the founder thought of it, and how it works, over here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

The most important journalism is increasingly being done by freelancers writes Sarah A. Topol. Highlights of her article include:

• Media organizations can no longer afford to keep staff in countries all over the world in preparation for the next big news story.
• Into the breach have stepped freelance journalists. These people are often young, inexperienced, and unprepared. Even basics such as flak jackets, satellite phones, and health insurance are rare.
• The freelancers fund their own way to conflict areas such as Libya and Syria and report stories from there. These articles take weeks to write, at great personal danger, and sell for a few hundred dollars.
• Freelancers do it because in an increasingly competitive world, this is the only way that they can hope to break into the journalism business. Although success – in the form of a permanent job – is not guaranteed.
• The one perk of being a freelancer is that individuals get to choose which topics they want to cover.

Read more about times when freelance journalism has gone horribly wrong (and once when it went wonderfully right), how newspaper editors implicitly encourage the practice, and efforts to make things better for freelancers, over here.

Source: The Daily Beast

Trendwatching outlined 12 trends that budding entrepreneurs can try to capitalize on. Some of the more interesting ones include:

• One touch delivery. One pizza chain is giving its most loyal customers a Bluetooth enabled fridge magnet that looks like their favourite pizza. If they press it, then they’ll see a full sized, edible version of the same pizza delivered to their home.
• 24/7 feedback. A tennis racket has been developed that uses sensors to provide you with real time information about ways you could improve your game.
• Tasksumers. Ways for everyday people to make a little money on the side. One website specializes in putting people in touch with travelers who could bring them things from outside their country that are hard to find locally.
• Real World Liking. One retail store puts its clothes on hangars that display the number of “likes” on Facebook that that particular item has received.
• Artificial scarcity. A musician has decided to release his music in a format that only one person can listen to at a time. Another bakery makes a set numbers of donuts each day and closes up after they’re sold.

The full list is fascinating and might end up sparking several ideas. Find it here.

Source: Trendwatching

Via: Newmark’s Door, Business Insider