Centives

Alert the Queen of England! Rajeev Syal reports that a nefarious band of delinquents is considering running ads trashing the glory of Great Britain and painting it as a horrible place to live. These misfits operate out of the heart of London and are reportedly led by a Mr David Camer – wait, what?

• Next year curbs on the immigration of Bulgarians and Romanians to the rest of the EU will be lifted.
• In an effort to stem the influx of Bulgarian and Romanian citizens, the UK government is considering running ads that would point the true horrors of life in England in an effort to dissuade them from arriving.
• This is an odd twist for a country that exports image consultants that help improve the image of other countries.
• It would also diminish the legacy of the 2012 Olympics, since the whole point of hosting those games in England was to improve England’s image abroad.
• There probably won’t even be that many immigrants anyway. Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants will have over 25 countries to choose from, and will probably go for Germany.

Read more about the ads, a notable precedent, and what they might complain about over here.

Source: The Guardian

Via: Foreign Policy

Nicholas Day looked at how playgrounds have changed over the years…and what the next big thing might be:

• After the 1970s Americans became more concerned about the safety of the playground and replaced things like merry-go rounds with the brightly coloured spongy hard plastic material you see at most playgrounds today.
• However this made playgrounds boring. And ultimately this is worse for the health of a child because this encourages them to stay inside at home, thus neglecting exercise and contributing to health issues.
• Efforts to make playgrounds more interesting since then have failed due to the fear of lawsuits.
• Enter the “Imagination Playground” which simply gives children giant blue blocks to move around, build structures with, and ultimately have fun with.
• At the Imagination Playground “play associates” – a common sight in the UK – oversee the fun to ensure that everybody is having a good time and no blocks go missing.

See photos of the Imagination Playground and read more about how it works over here.

Source: Slate

Move over cupcakes. Popcorn is the next big food trend writes Martha Write:

• The new popcorn is nothing like what you get at a movie theater. Some of the more interesting flavours include bacon, blue cheese, beer, cheesecake, and truffle.
• This gourmet popcorn is not cheap and can cost $5 or more per small bag.
• Caterers are increasingly serving popcorn at classy gatherings such as weddings.
• The popcorn business looks set for a lot of growth in part due to the low startup costs – anybody can make popcorn, as well as high margins, since the raw ingredients cost very little.

Read more about the biggest players in this growing market, and musings on why popcorn has become so popular over here.

Source: Time

Via: Newmark’s Door

As a website that got its start at Lehigh University, Centives managed to attract some of the best and brightest students. Many of them either have, or would like to, become management consultants. And, at least according to Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan, the world will be a better place because of it:

• In one experiment where Accenture – a management consulting company – offered its services to small Indian businesses for free, researchers found that Accenture’s advice was so valuable that if they had charged for their talent then the Indian businesses would have easily paid it back after a year of improved profits.
• By increasing incomes management consultants help generate more wealth for people around the world.
• And it’s not just about money. If hospitals had better management practices then they could increase the number of lives they saved.
• Countries with the worst management practices (India, China, Brazil, Greece, and Argentina), would benefit if management advice was exported by those who do it best (USA, Japan).

Read more about Davos, a conference where managers pay $19,000 each to discuss their businesses, and more about the importance of good management practices over here.

Source: Slate

Harry Bradford looked at the value of The White House:

• Strip the White House of its historical value and the American President’s home office with its 132 rooms, movie theater, bowling alley, and tennis court would be worth $110 million.
• Only two properties in the entire United States are worth more.
• In contrast the residence of the UK’s Prime Minister was valued at $7.3 million in 2010.
• If you took into account The White House’s history and importance as a national symbol the building would likely fetch more than $1 billion in an open auction.

Read more about what you would be paying for if you were considering making the President an offer for the property, and how The White House compares to Buckingham Palace over here.

Source: Huffington Post

There’s no reason why men couldn’t start wearing high heels (again) writes William Kremer in his history of high heels. Highlights from the article include:

• High heels originally became popular around the 1500s when Persian members of the cavalry wore them.
• If it seems like high heels aren’t designed for day to day activities like walking it’s because they weren’t. They came in handy in the military where archers could use them to balance in the stirrups on their horses to stabilize themselves and aim their bows at the enemy.
• Europe then had a wave of interest in all things Persian and soon European men started sporting high heels as well.
• King Louis XIV of France is famous for his high-heeled shoe collection. He was likely fond of them in part because of the valuable inches in height they added to his short stature.
• In the 1630s women began to adopt the fashion of men, and thus started wearing high heels as well.
• During the Enlightenment function was elevated over style, and men traded in their high heels for flats. 50 years later women followed them.
• The heel came back into fashion during the 1800s when pornographers started photographing their models with them. This is why high heels have erotic connotations to this day.

The entire history is fascinating, extremely well written, and goes into much more detail. You should read it here.

Source: BBC

You might want to think twice before instagramming your next lunch writes Helene Stapinski. Restaurants are increasingly looking down upon the practice:

• Because the flash can distract other diners, and, even the chef, some restaurants are banning the practice of individuals taking photographs of their meals.
• Others are being more creative. One restaurant is offering to send diners professional digital images of their food in the hopes that this will stop people from snapping their own pictures.
• Some are merely upset by the quality of the photographs taken in such environments. One such individual offers classes in iPhone food photography.

Read more about diners who support the ban, those who get around it, and why the restaurants do it over here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

In its latest issue, The Economist looked at the economics of sports insurance:

• Teams now pay hundreds of millions of dollars for key players. They then buy insurance policies on these players so that if the player gets injured, the team gets reimbursed.
• This creates moral hazard – players have no incentive to get back into playing form, and teams might encourage the player to draw out their recovery so that the team continues to get a steady infusion of cash from the insurance company.
• Certain leagues such as the NBA and NHL have set up leaguewide insurance requirements so that risk is pooled, and insurers don’t have to worry about getting stuck insuring only the most injury prone players.
• In contrast several athletes in golf, tennis, and soccer are uninsurable. Those who can be insured have to pay for their own insurance policies.

Read more about the economics of sports insurance, and why insurance companies are underestimating the likelihood of a player getting injured over here.

Source: The Economist

The United Nations once again tightened sanctions against North Korea. Centives favourite Brian Palmer looked at the dynamics of North Korean sanctions:

• Sanctions on North Korea are relatively light. Weapons and luxury goods can’t be sold and about a 100 individuals, companies, and government agencies are blacklisted.
• This is in contrast to countries such as Iran, Cuba, and Syria that have blanket trade restrictions imposed upon them by the United States.
• Even the existing sanctions are easily circumvented. The UN hasn’t defined what it means by ‘luxury’ goods allowing China to send North Korea tobacco and cars. Shell companies set up by the North Korean government allow it to disguise all other economic transactions.
• Yet America doesn’t make it easy to trade with North Korea, even in non-sanctioned industries. Those who want to trade get no support from the various export encouragement programs that the United States has set up.

Read more about how trade with South Korea compares with that of North Korea, and the countries that don’t take the sanctions seriously over here.

Source: Slate