Centives

Nandagopal J. Nair wrote about yet another Middle Eastern conflict – the battle to have the best airport:

• Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi are all about six hours away from two thirds of the world’s population and want to leverage this to become global travel hubs
• Dubai is currently in the lead. This year it became the second busiest airport in the world, and in 2015 it is expected to overtake Heathrow to become the busiest.
• The success of the airport has led to Dubai’s Emirates Airlines becoming the world’s third biggest airline.
• So many people go through the airport that Dubai Duty Free is expected to make $1.8 billion this year.
• But Dubai isn’t resting on its laurels. By 2020 it wants its airport to generate 22% of total employment and 32% of the emirate’s GDP.
• Qatar isn’t just going to take this sitting down though. It is building an airport in Doha which is two-thirds the size of the metropolitan Doha area.
• The airport will also have its own monorail network and a residential district to house the 200,000 employees who will work there.
• Never one to miss out on a good fight, Abu Dhabi is also trying to get in on the action. It is spending $3 billion on an international terminal to be opened in 2017.
• Aviation experts point out that there will soon likely be over-capacity in the region. Travelers are “only” expected to increase by 120 million a year – much less than the capacity that is currently being installed.

The entire article is fascinating and a very good and easy read. You should go through it here.

Source: Quartz

Andrew E. Kramer wrote about Russia’s own…spin on stimulus:

• Oil prices have stayed level in recent times, causing Russia’s economy to stall.
• In an effort to stimulate the economy Russia is considering releasing business owners who were guilty of “economic crimes” from gulag prisons.
• In Russia a business owner has a better chance of ending up in a gulag than a common burglar does.
• This is largely due to corruption. One business owner who sold leopard-print fabrics was locked up for “copyright infringement”. His inventory was given to a competitor who sold them for a fat profit. The business owner somewhat dryly points out that it’s unclear who owns the copyright to leopards.
• Russia may be onto something. Several of those guilty of white-collar crimes have actually become fairly successful entrepreneurs even in prison. They probably could give Russia’s economy a jolt.

Read more about the conditions of the gulags, other examples of those who were arrested for “economic crimes” and more over here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

Feargus O’Sullivan wrote about Bucharest and Budapest’s attempts to stop being confused for one another:

• Michael Jackson, Iron Maiden, and Metallica have all gone on stage in Bucharest – Romania’s capital – to yell “how are you doing, Budapest” – the capital of Hungary.
• A campaign has recently been launched to end the confusion. At Budapest airport for example visitors see a “Welcome to Not Bucharest” sign.
• The confusion is particularly irksome since political relations between Budapest and Bucharest are often tense.

Read more about the Bucharest not Budapest campaign over here.

Source: The Atlantic

Eliza Ronalds-Hannon wrote an article that examined a couple things about airplane food. First up, the history of the service:

• Airlines used to once be tightly regulated, and this led to uniform stable prices. The only way to compete and differentiate was through amenities such as hot multi-course meals.
• Some airlines even offered free airline-branded cigarettes.
• The meals became so extravagant that soon airplanes couldn’t make them on board. Instead during the technical stops that planes frequently had to make back in the era, passengers disembarked and were fed at a special restaurant.

All of that however ended once airlines began to start competing on price. The other half of the article looked at how peanuts became an airline staple:

• Southwest started offering low-cost flights by getting rid of in-flight meals entirely. They marketed themselves as the “peanut airline” and as a marketing stunt gave peanuts to the passengers.
• The trend stuck and soon all airlines were offering free peanuts.
• But in the hyper-competitive world of the airline industry, executives soon realized that even these were introducing real costs. Delta calculated that a one-cent increase in peanut prices could increase costs by $610,000 a year.
• There were also concerns about passengers who had nut allergies.
• Now peanuts can be bought on most airlines – but the small bags that are purchased for $3 cost the airline about 7 cents.

Read more over here.

Source: Quartz

Last week it was announced that three sequels to the movie Avatar would soon begin filming. Despite it being the highest grossing film of all time nobody…really…seemed to care. In fact the movie has disappeared from our collective consciousness entirely. People still remember and quote movies like The Dark Knight and Titanic, but few talk about Avatar. Why? David Haglund suggested a few reasons:

• The movie isn’t as popular as the numbers suggest. While it may have been the highest grossing movie of all time, once adjusted for inflation, it was only the 14^th highest of all time. And anyway this movie gross was boosted by higher priced 3-D tickets.
• As a 3-D movie Avatar was also designed to be watched in the theater. Since there isn’t that much of a point to watching it at home, people haven’t repeatedly played it, thus not memorizing the dialogue or growing attached to the characters.
• Unlike movies such as the Batman films Avatar consisted of original characters. People remember Batman because he was already a part of our cultural landscape. The characters from Avatar weren’t and so it’s harder for us to keep them in mind.
• Perhaps dialogue and characters from the movie aren’t remembered because…the dialogue and characters weren’t that great.
• That said the movie could still arguably be said to have had an influence on filmmakers. Pacific Rim uses the concept of mind-melds that were seen in Avatar, and After Earth has the mysterious lush planet thing going for it.

Read more about how Avatar relates to Ewoks, Ben Stiller, and more over here.

Source: Slate

The Rolling Stones recently concluded yet another tour despite the band being over 50 years old, and the members being worth several hundreds of millions of dollars. Why keep touring? Rob Wile explained:

• The band (and musicians everywhere) aren’t making much money from music sales in the era of digital music.
• Conversely touring has become incredibly lucrative. The average ticket sells for $370. The last three Rolling Stones tours have grossed around $1 billion.
• While the core band members are rich, the overall band has employed more than a dozen individuals who need to be paid.
• The Rolling Stones are artists and as such enjoy performing in front of audiences.

Read more over here.

Source: Business Insider

Via: Newmark’s Door

The Economist argues that realpolitik – the basing of diplomacy on power considerations – is back:

• Last month Barack Obama rolled out the red carpet for the leader of Vietnam – helping to normalize relations between the two former combatants.
• Yet another former enemy – Cambodia – was harangued about human rights abuses in a “tense” meeting.
• Cambodia has been stumbling towards democracy with (admittedly imperfect) elections recently being held.
• Vietnam on the other hand refuses to hold elections and doesn’t tolerate political dissent.
• Why the difference in treatment then? Because Cambodia is a close ally of China – a power that could potentially rival the United States in the future.
• Vietnam stands up to China. And so the United States is trying to improve relations with the enemy of its enemy.

Read more over here.

Source: The Economist

“Economists take preferences as given, they don’t discuss preferences, they don’t question preferences; the best they can do they can measure preferences. And that’s what we seek to do.” Explains Enrico Moretti in a recent podcast for Freakonomics. His findings were as follows:

• Couples who conceive a child out of wedlock and find out that it will be a boy are more likely to marry before the birth of their baby.
• Parents who have first-born girls are significantly more likely to be divorced.
• Fathers are significantly less likely to be living with their children if they have daughters versus sons.
• In any given year, roughly 52,000 first-born daughters younger than 12 years (and all their siblings) would have had a resident father if they had been boys.
• Divorced fathers are much more likely to obtain custody of sons compared to daughters.

Such were the findings of analysing U.S. census data from 1960 to 2000. Perhaps then the 2000’s will cease to show this trend. Read more details about the study, including possible causes of this seeming son-preference over here.

Source: Freakonomics

On Reddit users discussed why the clock industry is so strong in Switzerland. Here are some highlights:

• Wrist watches became popular in part as a result of World War I where, what was once considered a female accessory, was adopted by (male) soldiers who didn’t have the time to pull out a pocket watch.
• Around the same time several well-known Swiss watch companies were formed and they capitalized on this demand.
• During World War II Swiss brands provided pilot’s watches to both the RAF and the Luftwaffe. These watches were considered superior to those available to others – a reputation that followed after the end of the war.
• Quartz watches almost killed the Swiss watch. Such watches are far more precise than mechanical ones, yet Swiss watchmakers chose not to develop the technology because they believed that consumers would still demand mechanical watches.
• They didn’t. Sales plummeted and several well-known names had to close shop.
• In the 80s Swatch came along and produced cheap quartz watches with odd designs that managed to become incredibly popular.
• Swatch then purchased other Swiss companies like Omega and Tissot and marketed these as luxury products, playing upon the history of Swiss watchmaking.

Read the rest of the fascinating discussion, including a look at how religion might have played a roll over here.

Source: Reddit

Heather Timmons asks if it is “time for the world to stop funding China’s Panda Industrial Complex”. What could a headline like that possibly mean?

• Zoos around the world have to “rent” pandas from China. They cost around $500,000 per breeding pair.
• If a baby panda is born then zoos pay several hundred thousands more.
• Usually when they sign the deal for the Pandas zoos also commit to millions for China’s conservation projects and domestic research which drives up the overall cost of having panda bears.
• Ultimately Zoos aren’t allowed to keep the pandas. They must return to China where the goal is, ostensibly, to reintroduce them into the wild.
• However this is looking increasingly unlikely as panda habitats are being lost to urbanization.

Read more about the economics of Panda, iPanda – a 24 hour HD live telecast of pandas, and more over here.

Source: Quartz