Want a business with a relatively stable demand base unaffected by recessions or the wider business cycle? Look into the graveyard business! Sarah Stone created a handy dandy guide to explain some of the key considerations:

• Graveyards have a difficult problem: unlike most other businesses what they sell – land to bury people in – is limited and will run out.
• Luckily most graveyards are run as non-profits so they don’t have to worry too much about taxes as a part of their cost base.
• It’s important to build a long term trust fund that can keep the graveyard financed for generations to come.
• If a graveyard does fill up its life could be extended by creating new graves in the spaces between, and under the pathways around, existing graves.
• In countries such as Germany, Australia, and New Zealand graves are thought to be more of a lease on land. After the lease runs out the remains are exhumed and cremated, creating space for a new grave.
• When all else fails cemeteries can look into multi-story stacked graves to continue to pay the bills.
• If, as eventually all business do, the graveyard goes bankrupt then the local municipality may agree to take over control of the land.
• It may also be sold to investors who would pay for the remains to be reburied somewhere else – nobody really wants to live or work in property built atop a gravesite.

Read about what makes the United States unique in its treatment of burial plot rights, what happens to those who pre-pay for a plot after a graveyard goes under, and more over here.

Source: Today I Found Out

Over the past few weeks a campaign to replace the portrait of former US President Andrew Jackson on an American $20 bill with that of a woman has been picking up speed. Jaime Fuller looked at some of the complications involved:

• In theory the Treasury Secretary could unilaterally decide to change the portrait on the banknote.
• The only real requirement is that the person being memorialized be dead.
• The last time the Treasury made a change was in 1929 when Andrew Jackson replaced Grover Cleveland.
• Not that there haven’t been prior attempts – the most frequent one is to have Ronald Reagan replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10.
• The $10 bill has always looked a promising candidate for change since the current occupant of the portrait was never President.
• Not all modern campaigns to change currency have failed. An effort to make American currency suitable for the blind with tactile features was successful.
• The mission to get a woman on currency has targeted the $20 bill, as the current face belonged to Andrew Jackson, known for having a controversial history with Native Americans.
• The initiative will be fought tooth and nail by the National Automatic Merchandising Association – a lobby for vending machine owners who would have to redesign their systems.

Read more here.

Source: New York Magazine

Tuition costs are high and rising. Yet few people pay attention to the cost of university room and board which is often rising even faster writes Jill Barshay:

• At one university students pay what averages out to $24 a day for food – twice what the average American spends on food every day.
• The rent comes out to $786 for a shared room – the same as the median monthly rent for an entire house in the US.
• These costs are rising. Universities have raised prices for room and board at a rate 6-9% a year – after adjusting for inflation
• The universities have a bit of a monopoly on their customers as they often require that students remain in campus housing and have a campus meal plan.
• One reason for the increase in price is the increase in quality – students can now get gourmet food at their dining halls.
• Universities will also go for organic, locally sourced food which is more expensive.
• Students now expect dining halls to be open late at night during exam times.
• Many university buildings are old need to be refurbished.
• Yet after taking all this into account university revenues are higher than their costs for providing food and accommodation.
• Part of the drive to increase these prices is because such increases receive less scrutiny by prospective students and regulators than normal tuition increases.

Read how one university was able to keep room and board costs unchanged for three years, the most expensive schools for room and board in America, and more over here.

Source: Vox

To deal with its debt problems European governments are looking to sell works of art writes Doreen Carvaljalapril:

• In light of government budget cuts a British museum sold a 4,500 year old Egyptian statue for $27 million to create a new endowment to fund the museum.
• Germany is selling its national treasures to finance a state owned casino.
• Another German museum’s collection may be used to pay back the debts of a failed bank.
• Critics point out that once these works are sold to private collectors they may never be seen by the public again.
• Defenders retort that museums can typically only display 10% of their art anyway, and all the stuff stored in inventory should probably just be sold to help in a time of crisis.
• On the plus side, news of the sale of works of arts drives up museum visitors as people flock to see famous works for one last time.

Read about some American museums that have resorted to the same tactics, the use of ethical guidelines in sales, and more over here.

Source: The New York Times

Stephanie Vozza summarized research that looks at how the colours of the walls of an office affect performance:

• Red increases the heart rate and raises blood pressure. It is a good wall colour for employees who have to focus on details.
• Blue settles the nerves and is good for those working on creative tasks, or looking to brainstorm.
• Green is similar to blue in that it’s good for innovation.
• Yellow creates optimism but too much seems to create anxiety. People are more likely to yell at each other in a yellow room.
• In contrast walls painted white – the preferred colour of offices around the world – seem to lead to an increase in errors.
• Personality matters. “High-Screener” individuals aren’t as affected by the colour of walls as “Low-Screener” ones.

Read about the studies, the methodologies, why grey isn’t that great a colour either, and more over here.

Source: Fast Company

On Reddit’s “Explain Like I’m Five” sub-reddit, user romanapplesauce asked how a reward for providing the authorities with information that leads to somebody’s capture works. Highlights of the responses include:

• The rewards are on a first come first serve basis. If ten people give the same information then the first person to come forward with it will get the money.
• An “up to” amount is specified so that if a couple people come in with different pieces of useful information the reward is split between them.
• The amount of the reward might be weighted by the usefulness of the information so that the most helpful tip is awarded the most cash.
• If the person who is captured is then acquitted by a court of law, the person who provided the information is still eligible for the award.
• The money is taxable income and must be declared to the IRS.

The information is unsourced so if you’re planning to do something based on this, maybe talk to a lawyer first, just in case? The full discussion is wide ranging and covers many other topics including the why governments offer a bounty in the first place and much more. Read it here.

Source: Reddit

Douglas Lavanture, David Ingold, and Adam Pearce looked into how much money is bet on March Madness, an American college basketball event, each year.

• Betting on March Madness is illegal in every state except Nevada.
• In Nevada about $245 million is estimated to have been legally bet on the event in 2014.
• But the real allure of college basketball is the billions bet in illegal office pools across America.
• According to one estimate, for a domestic event like March Madness, for every $1 bet in Nevada, about $50 is bet in the rest of the country.
• This would mean that about $12.5 billion is wagered on the college basketball championship every year.
• Approximately $2 billion is on brackets alone. The rest is thought to be from Vegas style bets.
• The NCAA, the organization behind March Madness, ostensibly opposes gambling on the event.
• In reality though about 80% their revenues come from viewership of the event, and a big draw for watchers is to see how their betting brackets are doing.

Read other details about how the numbers were calculated, the most common types of bets, other estimates for how much is wagered, and more over here.

Source: Bloomberg

Milk may well be the manna that turned human civilization into what it is today writes The Economist:

• Only about a third of people can digest milk well into adulthood.
• Data indicates that places where humans had the ability to digest milk, such as Western Europe, went onto become more developed countries.
• Milk is good because it’s a source of on demand liquid energy.
• Its nutrients help provide for a balanced diet in all seasons.
• It also increased the returns from agriculture since not only did it allow for animals to provide wool, fertilizer, and ploughing power, but also food.
• This increased population density which made it easier to create infrastructure, laws, and overall society.

Read about the theory, the role that war plays in it, and more over here.

Source: The Economist

[Season 1 spoilers] In Game of Thrones protagonist Ned Stark decides to go visit the southern parts of the fictional continent of Westeros, which is widely thought to be inspired by Europe. This ultimately ends with him having his head cut off. Weirdly this is encouraging people across the (real) world to take in the same sights.

Even more weirdly Europe’s future could depend on it. Jason Karaian wrote:

• The place where Ned loses his head was filmed in Croatia. Tourists inspired by Game of Thrones to travel to the city are estimated to be responsible for about half the explosive growth in tourism to the country over the past few years.
• This is particularly important to Croatia since almost 20% of its economy is dependent on tourism.
• Given that the country is among the weakest performing members of the Eurozone, and has been in recession for over half a decade, Game of Thrones is providing a welcome boost to GDP.
• This year part of the show was filmed in Spain, which currently has an unemployment rate of 24%.
• Producers are doing their part to combat unemployment by hiring local extras.
• And while this year’s season hasn’t debuted yet, tourism numbers are already up because of the considerable amount of staff that have had to go there to film the season.
• Iceland and Northern Ireland are two other economically weak European countries that have benefitted from an influx of tourists.

Read about the lengths that Croatia has gone to, to accommodate the show; how New Zealand has provided the model Europe is now following, and more over here.

Source: Quartz