Centives

In decades past there’s not much that countries could do about a red suited intruder violating their airspace and infiltrating their houses. In the age of heat-seeking intercontinental ballistic missiles however, Santa Claus should probably think twice before entering these countries:

• In Uzbekistan Santa Claus, and, from Soviet folklore, his female sidekick, are banned. They might be able to hide behind a Christmas tree though – those are still allowed, at least on television.
• The atheist North Korea doesn’t allow the celebration of Christmas – and threatens to bomb South Korea if they celebrate it to close to its border.
• In Saudi Arabia, Father Christmas might be able to deliver presents inside Western compounds – but nowhere else.
• The Vatican was successfully able to pressure Venezuela to allow Christmas in 1998 – but Santa may want to leave Rudolph and his bright red nose at home – discretion would be wise in a country where the government still discourages “western” festivals.

Read more about each of these countries, as well as one other country where Santa isn’t welcomed over here.

Source: Foreign Policy

In western countries Christmas lights strung up both inside and outside the house are a common sight. Heidi Davis presented a brief history of the lights. Highlights include:

• People used to decorate their trees with lit candles. A bucket of water was kept on hand in case the tree ignited.
• Electric Christmas tree lights didn’t gain popularity until 1895 when American President Grover Cleveland displayed the first electronically lit White House Christmas tree.
• During World War Two the Rockefeller Centre Christmas lights remained unlit – in keeping with wartime blackout regulations of the time.

Read more about the history and present of Christmas tree lights over here.

Source: Popular Mechanics

Pawn shops are rapidly becoming popular in the United States writes Andria Cheng:

• It all began with the 2008 financial crisis when families desperate to raise cash, sold their items to pawn shops.
• However while at the stores they began to see the kinds of discounts – sometimes as high as 70% – that they offered.
• People then started to buy more items from pawn stores, including high value items such as luxury watches and diamonds that cost thousands of dollars.
• The History Channel show Pawn Stars also helped to remove the stigma associated with visiting a pawn shop.
• The stores themselves began to move to upscale neighbourhoods and built nicer looking interiors.
• The shops are also starting to build an online presence to advertise their wares.
• However as the economy continues to improve the pawn industry faces an uncertain future.

Read more about the rise of the pawn shop, some of the drawbacks of shopping from them, and the kinds of people who are now starting to buy from them over here.

Source: Market Watch

When designing their online stores, retailers are making a mistake if they focus on the mobile at the expense of the traditional desktop computer write Claire Cain Miller and Stephanie Clifford:

• More and more people are browsing the internet on their smartphones and tablets rather than the desktop computer.
• However studies indicate that people still prefer to finally purchase items through a desktop computer.
• Yet many major stores don’t sync shopping carts between devices. This means that after browsing for an item on a tablet, the consumer then has to find the same item and add it to their shopping cart again on their PC if they want to purchase it.
• This might be a temporary phenomenon as people grow more used to the mobile web. A decade ago the pattern was repeated with desktops where people were comfortable browsing for items from their computer, but would go to a physical store to purchase it.

Read more about this new type of consumer, the opportunity for increased ad revenue, and what experts have to say over here.

Source: The New York Times

Cracked presented Mind-Blowing (True) Facts About Money. Highlights include:

• The Perth Mint in Australia has created a coin with a face-value of $1 million. The 99.99% pure gold coin itself costs over $50 million to produce.
• If you drive 10 miles to buy a lottery ticket you’re 3 times more likely to die in a car accident than you are to win the jackpot.
• At its peak, one drug cartel spent $2,500 a month on rubber bands to hold its money together.
• A check is nothing more than an instruction to a bank. In the past people have written ‘checks’ on things such as cows and bananas.

Find the full list of 23 items in easy picture format over here.

Source: Cracked

The Economist visited Africa’s biggest shanty town. Some highlights of their experience:

• The slum isn’t provided power or water by the government. Into the breach has stepped the private sector which offers both.
• Most homes don’t have toilets. Instead private businesses operate public toilets, requiring you to pay for each visit. Competition is fierce.
• The slum is large and diverse enough that there is no organized crime. The markets are free of cartels, and the diversity means that no one ethnic group is able to dominate.
• It is possible to summon a spear-wielding escort by mobile phone.
• New York’s Upper East Side was once a shanty town. The bustle of commerce suggests that this area too, might one day become a great city.

The Economist ultimately concludes that it is not a hopeless place and, indeed, is a “reservoir of tomorrow’s winners”. Read the entire fascinating description of life in the shantytown over here.

Source: The Economist

London, Paris, and New York – how did these and other cities become ‘great’? Christopher Kennedy explained:

• For a city to be great it must be rich. And the wealthiest cities are financial centres which host key financial markets.
• To become the centre of finance a city must go through a four step process. It must first become a centre of commerce, then industry, then a transportation hub, and then finally a financial centre.
• Quebec, for example, lost out to Toronto as Canada’s great city, because it didn’t property invest in transportation infrastructure. A failed airport launch meant that international travelers preferred flying through Toronto and the rest, is history.

Read more about cities, and those that grow without being financial centres over here.

Source: The Montreal Review