Centives

Will Oremus writes that when seen from the perspective of those who lived less than a century ago, we’re rapidly turning into super-humans:

• Wearable technologies such as ultralight fabrics, or strength enhancing suits make us capable of incredible feats of strength and endurance.
• Our knowledge capabilities have been extended as we have the entire internet in our pocket.
• Scientists have demonstrated that telekinesis is possible. One quadriplegic woman fed herself chocolate with a robotic arm she controlled with her mind.
• Drugs such as Adderall also boost our focus and capabilities.

Read more about how we’ve entered the age of the Superman, and what this age will look like going forwards over here.

Source: Slate

In the United States there are tank brokers who can help you acquire your very own tank writes Michael M. Phillips

• The hobby is expensive. Purchasing your own personal tank can costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Not to mention the maintenance costs. Vintage tanks require more than an hour of maintenance for every hour of operation. They also get about 1.25 miles per gallon.
• But they can be a good investment. A Sherman tank cost $75,000 in 1993. Now that same tank goes for $385,000.
• Believe it or not in certain states these tanks can have operational guns.
• Don’t expect to see these vehicles on the streets though – most tanks aren’t street legal.

Read more about the upkeep required of a tank, the most sought after tanks, the difficulty of bringing American tanks home from abroad, and much more for those interested in acquiring a tank over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Via: Marginal Revolution

The Economist writes that the music industry might finally be back:

• Sales of music grew last year, for the first time in more than a decade.
• The internet, long thought to be what was killing the industry, is finally saving it. Digital sales grew by 9% and now represent a third of the music industry’s revenues.
• Performance rights and licensing have also increasingly helped generate revenues.
• In 2011 there were only 23 countries with digital music stores. Now there are over 100.

Read more about the challenges that the industry still faces, some more facts and figures, and the importance of mobile over here.

Source: The Economist

There’s been a bit of a kerfuffle over Marissa Mayer’s decision to ban employees from working from home. Farhad Manjoo believes that this is a mistake and pointed out all the benefits of working remote:

• By taking away the commute workers have more time to be productive.
• Workers also no longer have to worry about office distractions such as small talk or figuring out where to get lunch.
• When attending a meeting in person individuals are forced to pay attention. If they dial into a conference call they only have to pay attention if the meeting is actually useful for them.
• For employees that work remotely managers are forced to focus on the quality of the employee’s work rather than arbitrary metrics such as how much time they spend at the office to evaluated their performance.

Read more about Manjoo’s thoughts as well as why Mayer might have taken the decision over here.

Source: Slate

We’ve previously covered the difficulties that Android is creating for Google. Amir Efrati writes that now they have something new to contend with: a competitor that they themselves helped create. Samsung.

• Samsung has gone onto become the top maker of Android devices.
• Google is worried about Samsung’s success and wants to work with Samsung’s competitors to ensure that Samsung’s devices aren’t as successful.
• Google fears that if Samsung’s domination continues then Samsung will leverage its market dominance to demand better revenue sharing terms with Google.
• Google may use Motorola, its own hardware arm, to make devices with advanced software features that it doesn’t make available to Samsung, in a bid to ensure that Samsung’s devices fail.
• Samsung, for its part, has recognized that Google may try to sabotage its success, and has spread its bets by investing in other systems such as Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

Read more about what Google executives are thinking, Samsung’s dominance, and how HTC plays into all this over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Via: ArsTechnica

The people behind Skullgirls are trying to find funds to add a new character to the fighting game’s line-up. The total cost? $150,000. Here’s the breakdown:

• It costs $48,000 to hire the people who code the character.
• Another $4,000 for voice recording.
• $20,000 for quality testing.
• $30,000 for the animation contracting.

Find out the rest of the costs here.

Source: Kotaku

Learning that a book made it to the top of a best-seller’s list is an instant endorsement of its quality, insight, and content. Or so you’d think writes Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg:

• Individuals can use marketing companies that buy the book soon after it’s launched to drive it to the top of the charts.
• After reaching the top of the list sales usually dive as the demand was artificially produced. In one example more books were returned than sold one week after a book’s chart topping debut.
• Those who use the service have to pay about $55,000 for the books that the marketing company buys, as well as an additional $30,000 for the company’s service – which ensures that the books are bought in a way that don’t raise suspicion.
• Business books are especially likely to fall prey to this tactic since it takes a relatively small number of sales – 3,000 in a week – to top the business genre list.
• Other authors use tricks such as asking people to purchase their book in lieu of speaking fees to drive up sales.
• For the authors being able to put ‘best-selling author’ on their resume leads to instant fame and lucrative consulting engagements.

Read more about the practice, other tricks in the arsenal, and what those who produce top-seller lists are doing to crack down on the practice over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Via: The Verge

Both Democrats and Republicans agree that low growth rates in the United States are a concern. They’re wrong writes Scott Winship:

• As a country becomes wealthier it becomes harder to maintain high growth rates, because the initial base that is growing has become larger.
• Rather than growth rates what we should actually think about is the absolute economic gain that we see each year.
• For example from 1959-1969 the economy grew at 3% a year, leading to an absolute (inflation adjusted) increase in income of $600 per person. From 2000-2007 the economy grew at 1.4% – less than half the rate – but led to income gains of $650 per person. From this perspective then America’s economic growth is doing just fine.
• Moreover there are intangible gains we now have that aren’t measured by GDP. We have air conditioning, air travel, and smartphones – once considered absolute luxuries now available to the common man.
• The focus on growth also takes away focus from the problems of income inequality within the United States.

The full article is a lot longer and goes into much more detail. You can find it here.

Source: The Breakthrough

Via: Marginal Revolution

The Oscars will be happening tonight and on the face of it it’s an impartial, unbiased ceremony that hands out awards based on quality and nothing else. Delve a little deeper, writes Rebecca Thomas, and just like any of the movies that will win Best Picture tonight, there are other layers to this story:

• Around awards season giant billboards go up with the name of a movie and the words “for your consideration” underneath in an attempt to convince those who determine the Oscar winners to vote for that film.
• Other aspects of the publicity campaign include parties, Q&A sessions, special gifts and much more.
• These publicity campaigns can cost up to $500,000.
• This is also why most Academy Award contenders are released late into the year. This way producers can combine the advertising for theater audiences and the Oscar voters into one bigger and cheaper marketing effort.

Read more about the types of ads that go up and more over here.

Source: BBC

Joshua E. Keating believes that if you look closely you can see a Foreign Policy agenda within Hollywood:

• Some Hollywood movies such as The Avengers seem to glorify the American military and suggest that it’s the only thing that could save us from something like an alien invasion.
• Others such as Avatar are more critical about how America conducts its foreign policy.
• They are, however, almost all united in suggesting that the world outside of the United States is a horrible place. Black Hawk Down, Hotel Rwanda, The Last King of Scotland…even Argo are all examples of films set in countries outside the US that show a terrifying world.
• There are signs that this is changing, perhaps because of the increasing importance of the international box office. The Life of Pi and Slumdog Millionaire both suggest that India, at least, is getting a voice in Hollywood.

Read more about what different films show us about the world, the problem of implicit racism, and Zero Dark Thirty’s chances at The Oscars over here.

Source: Foreign Policy