Centives

Rates of crime have seen truly incredible rates of decline over the past few years. Why has that happened? The Economist examined several theories:

• Policing has substantially improved – and people are less likely to engage in crime if they know there’s a chance they’ll be caught.
• This is in part thanks to the tools that the police are armed with such as DNA testing, mobile location tracking and surveillance cameras.
• Technology has helped in other ways – home burglar systems make it more difficult to rob houses. And since the value of prior luxuries like televisions have dropped, the rewards from successfully robbing a house have also decreased.
• Young people are “increasingly sober and well-behaved”. Drug use is less widespread.
• Inner cities have been repopulated by a middle class that had earlier migrated to the suburbs.
• Since most crime is committed by young people, the general ageing of the western world has led to fewer potential criminals.
• Steven Levitt argues that the legalization of abortion reduced the number of children growing up in poverty and who were thus pre-disposed to crime.
• Lead exposure might make individuals more likely to commit crime – and so the advent of unleaded petrol might have played a role.
• It could just be an anomaly.

The Economist looks at many more explanations…and also why some of the explanations outlined above are extremely unlikely to be true. Read more over here.

Source: The Economist

Amar Bose, the man who created the company that sells the famous headphones passed away at the age of 83 last week. Sam Grobart took a look at the legacy the man leaves behind:

• Before Bose, audiophiles were deeply technical individuals who had a lot of cash to burn in pursuit of the perfect sound.
• Bose changed that by marketing up-scale sound to the upper-middle class.
• While the audio quality produced by Bose speakers was debated, the marketing was such that just like the BMW, and Ralph Lauren, Bose became a luxury brand that had a mass market appeal.
• Before Bose cars would also have shoddy audio systems. However tie-ups with Porsche and other car manufacturers changed the expectation.
• The company benefitted from the rise of mp3 players where the only peripheral that mattered were the speakers – a market the company had cornered.
• Ultimately though, Grobart concludes that Bose combined “technology with status” because he “took things that were previously considered complicated and esoteric and sold them right down the upper-middle”

Read more about the legacy Bose leaves behind over here.

Source: Businessweek

Wearable fitness devices such as the Nike Fuel Band and FitBit are becoming increasingly popular. They track your physical activity such as steps taken, distance moved, and even quality of sleep. Michael Grothaus took a look at what this meant for sex:

• It is possible to discern from the recorded activity of a wearable fitness device when an individual is having sex – since there’s a fair amount of physical exertion and very little distance travelled.
• Even stationary activities such as yoga and weight-lifting don’t produce the same activity patterns as sex.
• Since most wearable fitness devices are social in nature – with friends being able to see what you’re up to – this means that your friends know exactly when you’re having sex.
• Spouses could use this to find out if their partners are cheating.
• It is also possible through such devices to figure out if an orgasm is being faked.
• And this technology is just in its infancy…soon it’ll be able to figure out much more.

Read more about what the fitness devices mean for our sex lives over here.

Source: Fast Company

Attempting to change the future costs about $1,000 in Japan write Jake Adelstein, and Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky:

• In Japan palm-reading is a popular means of fortune-telling.
• People who are unhappy with the lines on their palm can have plastic surgery that adds new lines, thus (allegedly) changing the individual’s fortune.
• The surgery takes around 10 minutes and individuals get up to 10 new lines.
• One doctor has had to learn the art of palm-reading to ensure that his patients don’t end up asking him for inauspicious lines.
• Men are more likely to change lines related to business success, while women prefer to change marriage and romance lines.
• Anecdotal evidence suggests that the surgeries are successful – those who have gone through the surgery have seen their fates transformed.
• This is probably a self-fulfilling prophecy. If an individual is committed enough to get the lines on their palm changed, they’re also probably taking other actions to achieve their vision.

Read more about the practice, how it is done, and why learning how to read palms is a useful skill in Japan over here.

Source: The Daily Beast

Via: Marginal Revolution

This coming February the Russian city of Sochi will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The Economist took a look at how things are going:

• Sochi is one of the few places in Russia where snow is scarce. The organizers have stored last year’s snow in case it doesn’t snow enough this year.
• It is also close to the north Caucasus – a part of Russia that has been involved in a civil conflict. About as many soldiers have died there as American soldiers in Afghanistan, making it akin to holding the winter Olympics in Kabul.
• When Russia bid to hold the Olympics it proposed spending $12 billion to prepare Sochi – more than any other country.
• It is now estimated to cost $50 billion. While most Olympic games have cost overruns of 180%, Russia’s has gone over budget by 500%.
• Workers on the project make little money (when they’re paid at all) and sometimes have their passport revoked so that they can’t leave.

Read more about the Sochi Olympics, why Putin is looking to hold it there, and more over here.

Source: The Economist

As it turns out the American government is spending millions of tax-payer dollars for the surveillance of Americans. Anne Flaherty looked at what it cost them:

• Verizon charges $775 for each wiretap, and $500 a month thereafter to maintain the wiretap.
• Emails are usually handed over by service providers for $25.
• Google and Skype allow law enforcement agencies to have real-time access to communications. The fees for this are unknown.
• Overall AT&T and Verizon make about $5 million a year from servicing government spying requests.
• But the payment to mobile operators are just a fraction of the cost of spying. While a Verizon wiretap might cost about $1,000, the total bill for a wiretap can come out to $50,000 to cover other operational costs.

Read more about the costs of the domestic surveillance programs, how mobile operators justify the costs, cases where the information is handed over for free, and more over here.

Source: USA Today

Jennifer Lopez recently got into trouble for singing Happy Birthday to the leader of Turkmenistan. Katy Waldman looked at the economics of the celebrity-authoritarian ruler relationship:

• By performing at private events celebrities can make a lot of money (up to $16 million) from the ultra-wealthy for very little effort, making it a lucrative proposition.
• Performing for dictators is a particularly attractive since they often pay in cash – which is difficult for the tax authorities to track.
• There are three tiers of celebrities that do this, depending on their level of star-power.
• Those who just about famous such as Enrique Iglesias’ father can perform for corrupt dictators without attracting too much negative media press.
• Then there are the celebrity A-Listers such as Johnny Depp and and Tom Hanks who are too rich to really need side-gigs.
• In the middle though there are celebrities such as Christina Aguilera, Robin Williams, and Destiny’s Child among others who are famous enough that when they perform for the wrong individuals they can court controversy.
• Yet this controversy rarely sticks. Mariah Carey, Nelly Furtado, 50 Cent, and Beyoncé have performed for questionable individuals, but they remain popular.

Find out who Robin Williams, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Celine Dion, and others have performed for, as well as why celebrities do it over here.

Source: Slate

Protests over the coup/revolution in Egypt continue, even as Ramadan – a lunar month where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk – begins. Edmund Sanders looked at how this might affect the protests:

• The Egyptian military is hoping that protesters will find it hard to demonstrate as their energy wanes during the day.
• However many of the protesters feel that the holiday gives their protests an even deeper religious meaning. They are now sacrificing food for their country.
• The Muslim Brotherhood is trying to create a festive atmosphere in the areas where the protests are being held by laying carpets and planning moonlit soccer matches.
• Charities will also offer free food to the protesters after dusk, to ensure that the protests continue.
• It is possible that both the protesters and the military will be less violent as Ramadan is a month of charity and equality.
• Yet if one side perceives the other as acting against this festive spirit, it’s likely that this will add to the tensions between the protesters and the military.
• Fasting might also make the protesters and the soldiers more irritable, and thus violent.

Read more about the rewards of martyring yourself during Ramadan, why Egyptians might be unable to enjoy the festivities at home, and what the protesters think, over here.

Source: LA Times

The recent coup/revolution in Egypt got Rosa Brooks wondering if the US could lose its streak of 237 consecutive years without a military overthrow of a civilian government. Highlights include:

• American military officials are becoming more partisan. Political endorsements by retired senior officers, for example, are now a regular feature of Presidential campaigns.
• Army officers also increasingly distrust America’s civilian leadership.
• This is in part due to the all-volunteer military. A particular subset of individuals enlist for the military and they increasingly feel that the wider public don’t understand the lives of those in the military.
• While the military might distrust civilians, the American public holds extremely positive views about the military…perhaps a little too positive. Only a minority of Americans now favour civilian control of the military.

Read more about the conspiracy theorists who (almost certainly wrongly) believe that America is already on the verge of a coup, how those in the military are increasingly uncomfortable with discussing politics, and the distortions introduced by an all-volunteer military over here.

Source: Foreign Policy