Uri Friedman took a look at the money being ponied up by the US in the fight against the group commonly known as ISIS:

• The first airstrikes against ISIS began roughly 100 days ago, and the US has spent about $800 million on the campaign.
• This comes out to $8 million a day, or $300,000 an hour to fight the extremist group in Iraq and Syria.
• This is a bargain compared to the $200 million a day that the US spent during its 13 year campaign in Afghanistan.
• Analysts note that if the US wants to destroy rather than merely degrade the terrorist group it will have to massively expand its military and financial commitment.

Read about the confusion over when the battle against ISIS truly began, different ISIS battle scenarios, and difficult questions facing the American government here.

Source: The Atlantic

Joe Pinsker wrote about a piece of financial art:

• An artist started a project where he trained rats to make predictions about the foreign exchange markets.
• Movements in the value of foreign currencies were translated into musical notes. Rats were then trained to predict the next musical note. If they got it correct they got a treat, if they got it wrong they got a minor shock.
• After a few months rats with low rates of accuracy were removed. The good predictors were then cross-bred to create offspring that turned out to be even better at making predictions.
• One second generation rodent trader had an accuracy rate of 57% – better than many of the world’s leading fund managers.
• The rats have their own (mock) corporate website and claim to be headquartered in the Cayman Islands.
• Those looking to find the nearest rat for instant riches should note that the rodents get tired after about 20 trades, severely limiting their use.
• Moreover this was an art, not a science project. It did not go through tests for statistical significance, or have its method scrutinized. The correlation is likely a coincidence.

Read more about why the rats may outperform humans, why this should be treated as satire, and what the artist thinks about it all over here.

Source: The Atlantic

Tim Fernholz wrote about some business research sponsored by DHL:

• The map above depicts the volume of phone calls between countries.
• The average international phone call travels over 4,000 km.
• The average person spends 152 minutes a year talking to somebody in a foreign country – up from 88 minutes in 2005.
• 7.7% of all international phone calls are from the US to Mexico and 3.2% are from the US to India.
• 41% of all calls go from developed countries to developing ones while just 9% go the other way.

Read more about popular non-US telephone connections, why this shows that the earth isn’t flat, and see an alternative depiction of the data above here.

Source: Quartz

Jun Hongo wrote about the latest service offered to residents of Tokyo:

• For a 10% service fee those in Tokyo can have a model or actress deliver their food to them.
• The service is intended for corporate customers who want to wow participants at seminars, galas, and other events.
• The models come from those signed up with a major talent agency in Japan. They will engage with customers and provide “polite and attentive service”.
• Orders must be placed three days in advance so that the deliverers have time to study and understand the menu.
• There is a $260 minimum.

Read more about the service, its inception, and how it works over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Via: Business Insider, Marginal Revolution

Janaki Jitchotvisut wrote about a fascinating scheme launched by Domino’s Australia:

• On a service called “Pizza Mogul” anybody can use Domino’s custom pizza builder to create their own pizza, and list it on Domino’s menu.
• The creator of the pizza gets between $0.25 and $4.25 for each pizza sold.
• Creators are encouraged to advertise their creations on social media boosting both Domino’s and the pizza maker’s earnings.
• The program has been going on since August and the top pizza maker has made over $22,000 since the program began.
• His top creation is “The Mega Meat Lovers” which includes various meats including Rasher Bacon and Pulled Pork.

Read more about Pizza Mogul, how it works, and thoughts about bringing it to the United States here.

Source: First We Feast

The “dark net” is a part of the internet that can only be accessed by those using software that conceals identities. Among its many uses is to allow users to purchase drugs and other illicit contraband online. The Economist took a look:

• Sales on the dark net are growing, possibly as high as 20% every two months according to one measure.
• Sellers usually list their products on Amazon like sites where they pay a fee to be listed, and then a commission of 3-6% on each sale. The goods are then usually dispatched via domestic mail and normally go undetected.
• Like Amazon the sites have five star rating systems that allow buyers to purchase only from those with the most stellar reputations. This requires a high degree of professionalism from sellers.
• Sellers are getting increasingly sophisticated with strategies such as loyalty discounts, two for one offers, and discounts during special days such as smoke weed day.
• The sellers have also begun to act like corporations with mission statements and money back guarantees.
• The dark net offers at least some benefits to society. By moving trades online it could reduce crime resulting from suspicious transactions taking place between distrusting parties in dark allies.

Read more about the business of selling credit card information online, the types of products that are most popular, why it’d be difficult to shut down the dark net, and much more here.

Source: The Economist

In an article titled “We are the 20%” Alexa Tsoulis-Reay, and Mary Jane Weedman interviewed various service sector workers who rely on tips and found out secrets of the trade:

• Odd things affect tips. Being understaffed, being pregnant, or engaging well with children will boost earnings.
• Baristas will usually have two tip jars. One where the coffee is ordered and another where the coffee is made. The second is for people who are moved to tip after they’re dazzled by the beauty of their concoction.
• In coffee shops sad music usually leads to lower tips.
• When bartenders give free drinks, they actually have to pay for it themselves. They try to invest those free drinks in people who will offer more in tips in the long run.

Read more of the stories, tricks, and tips here.

Source: Grub Street

The appropriately named Mariella Moon spoke with an astronaut to find out what life on the International Space Station (ISS) is like. Some of the more interesting highlights include:

• The ISS orbits the earth every 90 minutes which means that those onboard go through 16 sunsets and rises a day.
• Now that America has retired its space shuttle program, astronauts hitch rides on the Russian Soyuz craft to get to the Space Station. It costs $71 million per person.
• A condition to get on the Soyuz is the ability to speak Russian.
• In 2011 the ISS got internet although it was incredibly slow at first. These days astronauts can browse the web at speeds of 300 Mbps.
• However crew members report that the best form of entertainment is simply to look out the window at the planet below. (They’ve clearly never been exposed to Centives).
• Astronauts are allowed to sleep 8.5 hours a day every 24 hours. Most wake up after six though since the body is less tired in microgravity.

The full article includes many more details including a sample daily schedule, experiments that are done, and how triathlons are done in space. Read it here.

Source: Engadget

Svetlana Z, an escort, wrote about the economics of sex workers going “on tour”:

• Sex workers living in big cities can make a lot of money by going on tour. Many customers will only have sex with touring escorts since they know there’s less of a danger of running into them again.
• Big city escorts can also lower their rates when going to other cities. Those in smaller cities then feel like they’re getting a great bargain when, for example, they pay $600 for an escort that usually costs over a thousand in a city such as New York. The volume of services sold makes up for the price cut.
• Certain cities are just good for business. The number of politicians and the amount of money slushing around DC make it a place that escorts should visit if they want a cash infusion.
• Buyers have to be careful though. If an escort finds that they’re with somebody rich or powerful they may try to poke holes in the condoms.

Read more about why touring prostitutes are more likely to get online reviews, and other tricks of the trade here.

Source: Medium

We’ve covered both drones and ambulances in the past. Our interest was piqued, then, when one inventor put the two together. NDTV reported:

• A student has developed a drone that can transport lifesaving medical equipment at 100 km/h.
• When an emergency call is received the drone can be dispatched to the patient’s location using the GPS location from the phone of either the victim or a bystander.
• Live audio and video feeds provide crucial information to doctors working remotely.
• The drone is currently configured to transport a defibrillator to a patient, but it could be equipped with other items such as an oxygen mask or insulin injection.
• Each drone is expected to cost approximately €15,000

Read about the drone, details of how it works, a cost benefit analysis, and more over here.

Source: NDTV