Caitlin Petrakovitz wrote:

• They’re called i.Con Smart Condoms, because of course they are.
• Not only is the product name questionable, it’s also inaccurate. The $70 device is not a condom. That’d be expensive and wasteful (…or gross). It’s a ring to be attached to the base of a condom (no actually, still gross).
• It’ll measure thrust velocity, calorie burn, skin temperature, and, of course, your iGirth.
• And the device will track how many times you’ve had sex. Though, let’s face it, the type of people who want to track that aren’t the type that need a device to do it for them.
• Purchasers of this iDevice will be able to address their iNsecurities by comparing their iStats against other iUsers.
• They’ll also be able to publicly publish their metrics on social media for the world to maybe validate their being.
• It (the device) charges via mini USB. It lasts eight hours (also, it goes without saying, just the device).

Read more on CNet.

Barack and Michelle Obama signed a $65 million deal with Penguin Random House for two books. Laura Miller ran down some numbers:

• Bill Clinton’s (single) book post-Presidential deal was for $15 million, and George Bush got $10 million.
• The publisher probably won’t breakeven on sales in the US alone. Once Europe is included – where more books are bought than in America, and where Obama’s Presidency was more popular – things should turn profitable.
• Barack Obama might command a high price because he was a reasonably successful author even before he became President. His post-Presidential book might actually be good.
• But it’s unlikely that many of the people buying the book will read it. Presidential auto-biographies are more symbols of political leanings to be prominently displayed on the bookshelf, than they are serious reading material.

Read more on Slate.

In the airline industry every penny counts. The Economist wrote about some of the weirder cost-cutting strategies that companies have employed:

• One Indian carrier only hires female flight attendants because they’re typically up to 15kg lighter than men, and this saves on fuel costs.
• Others are going as far as to strip out expensive safety equipment necessary for water landings. They just make sure the plane never flies over water.
• American Airlines famously found that removing the single olive from in-flight salads saved the company $40,000 a year. It turned out the vendor was paid based on the number of ingredients in the salad.
• Southwest has taken its logo off garbage bags to save $300,000 annually on printing costs.
• Even the carpeting on planes has been thinned to reduce weight.
• If the runway is long enough, pilots are encouraged to let the plane come to a natural stop rather than burn fuel on reverse thrusters.

Read other cost saving methods that airlines have utilized on The Economist.

Not J.K. Rowling. Or John Grisham. Or E.L. James. No, the most widely read author is arguably the person who writes all the fortunes for fortune cookies:

• Donald Lau wrote the fortunes for Wonton Food – which claims that it is the largest manufacturer of fortune cookies – for over 30 years.
• He used to write 100 a year but started suffering from writer’s block. This is a problem because fans of the cookie frequently complain about finding repeat fortunes.
• The fortunes that Lau wrote went through a committee vetting process to make sure they would appeal to the widest possible audience.
• The consequences of a fortune that isn’t fully thought through can be dire. One man set for a business trip got a fortune saying he’d find romance on his next trip. His wife divorced him and blamed the fortune cookie.

Read more on CBC. Read our previous coverage on fortune cookies here.

NPR wrote about an unlikely star:

• In the era of silent movies, Rin Tin Tin was a doggie movie star whose name would often headline films, beating out his other human co-stars.
• He was successful because it was natural for him not to speak in a silent movie. Audiences always felt a little strange watching human actors who said nothing.
• The hound was such a reliable star that whenever Warner Bros. had financial difficulties, they’d just make another Rin Tin Tin movie to get back into the black.
• At the very first Oscars, in 1929, the pooch came close to winning the award for Best Actor, although the Academy ultimately decided that handing it to him would lower their credibility.
• As talkies began to rise the canine’s star began to fade. Nevertheless, when he died in 1932, radio programs were interrupted to announce the news, and major newspapers published obituaries.

Read more on NPR.

Via: Cracked

In a way, protesting is the new brunch, wrote Jen Doll:

• Brunch was edgy (having breakfast food in the afternoon! With booz! Scandalous!) This probably helped explain why it became so much of a thing.
• Protesting has the same non-conformist edge – and the alcohol may come during a protest pre-game, or a post protest get together.
• Both brunch and protesting are inherently social, making them appealing to the young.
• Some are suggesting going to a protest as a first date activity – it instantly tells both parties a lot about the other’s beliefs and preferences.
• For some liberals the shift from brunch to protests is an admission of how in somewhat vapid pursuits they did not fully appreciate the previous administration.

Read more on The Week.

The Economist wrote about the app buying experience in Cuba:

• Sanctions mean that software companies aren’t allowed to offer most apps to those in Cuba.
• Entrepreneurs have figured out ways to hack the app stores so that they think the person downloading apps is in another country.
• App lovers then drop their phones off at a store, and for $10 can have 70 app installed on them. They delete the ones they don’t want.
• The selection of apps on offer is refreshed monthly.

Read more on The Economist.

There has been heightened scrutiny at the costs generated by Presidents working outside of the White house. Jane Smith and Frances Robles provided a rundown of Trump’s trips to Florida:

• Around 250 private flights are grounded for each day that the President is in Florida due to airspace restrictions.
• Because of this, one local airport reported $200,000 in lost fuel sales over the course of a single trip.
• One restaurant had 75 no shows – presumably as people were ensnared by traffic blockades.
• Those blockades cost money. Local law enforcement had to be paid $60,000 a day in overtime.
• On the bright side there’s increased interest in the area, and the additional foot traffic is offsetting some of the costs.

Read more on the New York Times.

Brian Resnick wrote about partisan courtship:

• Match.com normally sees an upsurge of activity in January as people resolve to find someone in the new year.
• But in 2017 there was a decrease in activity by those who call themselves liberal, and an increase from those who supported Trump.
• The effect is new – conservatives didn’t decrease their attempts to find a mate after Obama’s victory in 2012.
• Match also found that 60% of liberals, and 56% of conservatives, are unwilling to date someone from the other side of the aisle.
• According to one analyst Americans are now more likely to discriminate based on political views than race.

Read more on Vox.

Richard Davies went to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan and talked about the business acumen there:

• One successful store customizes bicycles by spray painting them and adding stripes. The bicycles are donated and originally all looked the same, which made refugees feel like they were losing their individual identity.
• The bicycle business is a good one since buyers become customers for life as they come to the same store for ongoing maintenance.
• Other businesses – such as carpentry – are less successful. Refugees take careful care of their belongings, meaning that there is little repeat business.
• Some respond to this by updating their product lines month after month to add features and make them look different – much like in the smartphone world today.
• Location matters. The most successful stores are on a road the locals call the Champs-Elysées. Nearby aid workers and new refugees all take that road giving the stores a broad customer base.
• Having established themselves selling basic products, some stores are now moving upmarket to sell luxuries like jeans.
• But refugee businesses must deal with unique problems. As a bloody peace begins to flicker in parts of Syria, some refugees are returning home – a problem for businesses looking to expand.

Read more on 1843.