Centives

Walking around New York City’s Times Square it is common to see performers dressed up as famous characters such as Elmo and Batman. They expect a tip if the millions of tourists that flock to Times Square have a picture taken with them. Andrew Grossman took a look at the practice:

• The performers don’t get permission from the license holders of the characters. Sesame workshop, for example, hasn’t authorized anybody to walk around in an Elmo costume collecting tips.
• However dressing up in a costume is an activity protected by America’s First Amendment – Halloween would be far less interesting if it weren’t.
• The number of performers – and the range of characters they dress up as – is growing. Today there are around 50 in Times Square and soon there could be more than 100.
• Elmo is the most popular character. There are 8 of them roaming around Times Square.
• A performer can expect to make up to $200 per day.

Read more about the growing nuisance the performers have become, which superhero is the most popular, and more over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Soon algorithms rather than humans may decide whether or not you get the job writes The Economist. Some of the interesting things they’ve found:

• Applicants who have joined one or two social networks are more likely to stay in the position longer. Those who have joined four or more are not.
• Honest candidates usually make bad salespeople.
• Applicants with a criminal record are better at making customer-support calls than those without one.
• Individuals who fill out online applications with a different browser than that which came with their computer usually do better.

Read more about this future, its perils, its successes, and how businesses are implementing them over here.

Source: The Economist

Do you have a potential lawsuit where you’re reasonably sure that you can sue for damages, but don’t have the time or resources to pursue? You can sell it writes The Economist:

• Litigation firms are specializing in pursuing lawsuits that those who have been wronged aren’t able to pursue.
• They take up the legal costs and prosecution and in return get between 30%-60% of the final payout (if any).
• For firms in the industry the problem isn’t finding promising cases. Instead it is the slow moving nature of the courts. Profits can be erratic because they depend upon the legal system delivering its decisions in a timely manner.
• At the moment demand is greater than supply. It’s worth $1 billion today…and is expected to grow rapidly.

Read more about leading industry players, why somebody might sell off their lawsuit, and ethical considerations over here.

Source: The Economist

For $79 Amazon offers a year of free two day shipping. And soon it might cost next to nothing writes Marcus Wohlsen:

• Those who use Amazon Prime spend twice as much, on average, than non-Amazon prime customers.
• After adding all the extra costs of courting Prime subscribers, the average Prime member accounts for $78 more in profit than regular customers.
• Prime customers are 4% of Amazon’s total subscriber base. And this 4% is responsible for more than one third of Amazon’s profits.
• Prime subscribers likely use the service more because they’ve already invested in it, and can get their goods faster and cheaper than regular customers.

Read more about the future of Amazon Prime, its smart play in enticing college students, and more over here.

Source: Wired

Via: Newmark’s Door

Nicole Perlroth delved into the world of fake twitter accounts:

• According to researchers there are up to 20 million fake twitter accounts floating around.
• The going rate is about $18 for 1,000 followers.
• This means the overall market for fake Twitter followers could be worth as much as $360 million.
• The same account can be sold to multiple buyers. In fact buyers prefer this since it makes the fake twitter account look more authentic.
• Retweets can also be brought. Five a day costs $9 a month.
• Up to 10,000 new accounts can be created in less than a week.

Read more about Twitter’s efforts to crack down on the practice, how Twitter has a different conceptualization of identity than Facebook, and how the numbers were determined over here. And you can become one of our (very real) Twitter followers over here!

Source: The New York Times

Americans rate colonoscopies and cockoroaches more highly than they rate America’s House of Representatives writes Daniel Schuman. They should be given a raise:

• Congress members currently make what sounds like a very generous $174,000 a year.
• Yet when they “retire” to become lobbyists they can see their pay jump to a million dollars. This creates an incentive to quickly create connections and then leave.
• By hiking the pay of politicians, a more qualified group of individuals will see the job as a promising alternative and will run for office.
• Singapore pays its ministers millions of dollars – part of the reason why it’s one of the best managed countries in the world.

Read more about the plight of Congressional staffers, how the President’s salary compares and more over here.

Source: Slate

Even the darkest cloud can have a silver lining, in this case for falcons, writes Elias Groll:

• A prime Pakistani falcon can be worth up to $100,000, sold in the Arab world for hunting
• But this is on the black market. In 2005 the falcons were labelled an endangered species, with only 2,000 of the birds in the tribal region
• Violence has intensified since that date; the region is a battle ground, with Pakistani army offensives and CIA drone strikes.
• As the area became too dangerous for hunters and poachers, falcon populations have been recovering. By 2008 the population of falcons had quadrupled.

“The bitter irony of a brutal civil war creating significant environmental benefits is not something that has environmentalists looking to Pakistan as a model for conservation strategies. Still, the falcons are probably happy” Read more over here

Source: Foreign Policy

Barbie dolls dressed up in the garb of different professions cost different amounts. This might be because parents purchase the Doctor Barbie Doll in the hopes that their child will grow up to be a doctor. You’d expect then that the most expensive Barbie dolls would be the ones that are dressed as those who make the most money in real life. Does the theory hold? The Economist found out:

• There is some correlation. The computer engineering Barbie is one of the most expensive – her real-life counterparts can also expect to make a lot of money.
• In other cases the professions differ wildly. The babysitter Barbie is the eight most expensive version of Barbie, yet in our world childcare workers make very little money.
• On the other end of the extreme the pilot Barbie can be had for a fairly low price, but today pilots and flight engineers make about 1.4 times the median US wage.

Read more over here.

Source: The Economist

To many people, Amazon is the last word in book selling. Yet it recently forked out $150 million for Goodreads, a book recommendation site. Heres why, according to Jordan Weissman:

• The publishing industry relies on super fans; those who read far more than the average person. 19% of Americans accounted for 79% of all books read in 2010 (other than for work or school)
• Personal recommendations are important and becoming more so. 14% of books were found by personal recommendation in 2010. This was up to 19% in 2012.
• Goodreads offers the opportunity for personal recommendations on a huge scale; ‘in the world of books, Goodreads is about as influential as Facebook’
• As of yet Amazon’s plans for Goodreads are unknown. The problem of writers buying good reviews may mean the new purchase is simply a large store of trustworthy opinions.

For helpful diagrams and the percentage of Americans who  read no books for pleasure in 2010 click here

Source: The Atlantic

The third Season of Game of Thrones premiered yesterday. Laurie Kulikowski took a look at three stocks that were “loyal to the crown”:

• Time Warner – the parent company of HBO. Its shares are hitting highs – perhaps helped along by the Game of Thrones buzz.
• As Amazon continues to take the battle to traditional retailers, it too benefits from sales of Game of Thrones DVDs.
• Facebook. HBO has been extensively promoting the third season on the world’s premiere social network. Expect many fan discussions to take place on the website.

Read more over here. And check out some of our editorials on Game of Thrones.

Source: Yahoo Finance