Centives

In Las Vegas, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Dr. Dre is shaping the future of how we listen to music writes Matthew Garrahan:

• Beats by Dr. Dre controlled 70% of the premium headphone market, and 40% of the overall headphone market this Christmas.
• The brand is now expanding to other products. Beats technology is being integrated into cars and laptops.
• It is also expanding internationally. Offices have been opened in China and Russia.
• But perhaps the best indicator of its success is the surge of imitators. Simon Cowell, Tim Tebow and even Snooki have started marketing their own headphone brands.

Read more about what Dr. Dre thinks about his competitors, the other rappers trying to enter the market, and why Beats might transform how we listen to music over here.

Source: Financial Times

A single delay in America’s air traffic network has a domino effect that causes flight disruptions for hundreds of other flights according to an article in the MIT Technology Review:

• The thing that propagates across the network the quickest is when crew and passengers are held up on one flight, preventing the next flight from departing.
• On multi-leg flights a delay in one take-off will also cause further disruptions down the chain. This can affect other flights because airports have limited capacity and if more planes arrive than scheduled, then passengers will have to be kept waiting.
• Problems such as weather disruptions generally stay contained in localized areas.
• Congestion problems reset every evening when flight volumes decline.

Read more about the study and its findings over here.

Source: MIT Technology Review

In The Half-Life of Facts Samuel Arabson argues that 50% of what we know is wrong. Ronald Bailey found out what he was talking about:

• Science is always changing. It is estimated that scientific knowledge grows at a rate of 4.7% a year.
• Yet we don’t stay updated with the latest facts. Research suggests that the half-life of truth is 45 years. This means that half of what we learn now will be proven wrong 45 years later.
• Moreover a lot of the things we learn are wrong. Several biases in science lead us to read ‘facts’ that are anything but.
• And of the facts that we are exposed to, we are likely to selectively accept the facts that already fit into our worldview, ignoring those that prove us wrong.
• Perhaps the solution is that we should forget all facts. After all that’s what the internet is for. Every time we need a fact we could just look it up on Wikipedia.

To find out how you can protect yourself from believing things that are wrong, as well as why a lot of published science has little factual basis behind it click here.

Source: Reason

Via: Newmark’s Door

Dan Slater believes that online dating could make marriage obsolete:

• Through online dating individuals can find so many attractive, intelligent, and compatible partners that individuals may no longer be willing to settle down with just one.
• This is because there’s no longer an advantage to commitment. The next great relationship is a mouse-click away.
• Dating sites might themselves be encouraging this trend. After all, their profit models depend on repeat customers, and a permanent relationship means a lost revenue stream.
• For example, dating sites email you, even when you’re in a relationship, to let you know of all the interesting people who would like to meet you. If your current relationship isn’t going that well it’s then easy to jump ship.

Read more about what dating site executives have to say, how our relationships depend on circumstances, the different relationship strategies that one can utilize, and the story of one individual who is finding it impossible to settle down click here.

Source: The Atlantic

Via: Marginal Revolution

Last year Centives posted an article that looked at the Disneyland of the future. There were to be no more lines, and a wristband that acted as a credit card. We wrote then that the system could be put in place as soon as 2013. Well it’s 2013. And it’s here:

• The Disneyland experience is now driven by a website and app called MyMagic+ where visitors can book high priority seating at parades and shows.
• The app allows guests to reserve their spot in a line, and then be alerted when it’s their turn to board, meaning that visitors no longer have to wait in queues.
• Visitors can also register for an RFID bracelet that serves as a park ticket, hotel room key, FastPass, and, even, credit card.
• These bands can store personal information such as your name, so that the next time Princess Jasmine kneels to talk to a child, she can greet him by name, and, if appropriate, wish him a happy birthday.

Read more about this new Disneyland experience, exhibits that can interact with you, security restrictions that are in place, and why Disneyland is doing it over here.

Source: The New York Times

Jeff Wise writes that instead of being worried about there being too many people for the planet to sustain in the future, we should be concerned about the very extinction of our species. Highlights include:

• It took 12 years for the world population to reach 6 billion. It took 13 years to reach 7 billion. Our population growth is – for the first time – slowing.
• In countries such as Russia and China the total population could fall by 50% in our lifetime.
• This is because as countries develop and women get educated, there is a higher opportunity cost to having children, causing birthrates to decline below the 2.1 rate necessary to keep our population levels stable.
• The world’s population is expected to level out at around 9 billion – and then to start declining.
• Dealing with this problem is difficult. Countries such as Singapore have offered up to $18,000 per child and its birthrate is still just 1.2.

Read more about this future and when our population is projected to go extinct over here.

Source: Slate

International space agencies have been conducting experiments about the challenges and issues related to a future manned-mission to Mars writes Adam Mann. Here’s what they’ve found after a test where participants were locked up in a simulated space craft for 520 consecutive days:

• Most volunteers maintained a 24 hour a day sleep cycle – and it is important that all crew members do so in a spaceflight to Mars so that people are awake and sleeping at roughly the same times to maintain cohesion and morale.
• Volunteers also slept a lot more than usual – probably due to boredom. But this added rest increased cognitive performance.
• Overall there were a lot of individual level differences in how the participants reacted to the conditions, with some having significant psychological issues. A future manned mission to Mars will have to carefully screen to ensure that the space-voyagers that go on the trip have the right personality.

Read more about the study and what it found over here.

Source: Wired

Economists are having a raging debate about the monetary and fiscal effects of Smaug, from The Hobbit, taking over the Lonely Mountain. Our favourite was Eric Crampton’s take:

• When Smaug arrived he ate a lot of skilled Dwarven craftsmen. The loss of this human dwarven capital would have hurt the economy.
• The entire region around the mountain had also developed an economy that was based on trade with the Lonely Mountain. Their economy must also have been crippled by the arrival of Smaug.
• The people of the region knew that the dragon was in the mountain and could emerge any moment. This uncertainty could have had permanent effects on the lifestyle of the populace.

Read more about the economic issues behind having a giant fire-breathing lizard taking up residence in your home over here.

Source: Offsetting Behaviour

Via: CNBC

Psychologists have discovered a new effect that they’ve termed ‘the end of history illusion’ reports John Tierney:

• A study found that while individuals are usually cognoscente of how much they’ve changed from their younger days, they underestimate how much they’ll change in future years – (incorrectly) believing that things won’t change much.
• This effect was observed in all age groups, from teenagers to the elderly.
• This might be because “believing that we just reached the peak of our personal evolution feels good”.
• It has some negative effects – believing that our tastes and preferences will remain static might lead us to make regrettable decisions about things such as what we ink on our body or who we marry.

Read more about the effect, the details of the study, and what experts have to say over here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

Almost all of the world’s diamonds pass through a single Indian city writes Jason Miklian. Highlights of his article include:

• In the city of Surat, it is estimated that 10% of the 5 million population is involved in the diamond trade.
• More than 90% of the world’s diamonds pass through this city – only about two thirds of them are legal.
• Diamond polishers here earn $1 for every $1,000 diamond they polish.
• The diamond trade is controlled by a secretive familial network that doesn’t allow outsiders. Those who cheat are kicked out of the circle, ensuring everybody’s loyalty.
• $150,000 worth of stones can be transported for as little as $2.
• “Blood diamonds” and other restricted stones that are intercepted are auctioned off by the Indian government, putting the conflict gems back into circulation.

Read more about the failed attempts to police the world diamond market, how the town came to achieve prominence, how the townsfolk reacted to the movie Blood Diamond, and much more over here.

Source: Foreign Policy