Surge Pricing Comes To The Restaurant Industry

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People Are Using Ubers Instead Of Ambulances

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Why Have A President When You Can Have A Monarch?

Leslie Wayne wrote about today’s monarchists: The International Monarchist League argues that

 

Why China Doesn’t Have A Wall Street

September 14, 2012 in Daily Bulletin, Signature

Since 1992 China’s economy has grown by 1,700%, yet its stock market has declined by 40%. What gives? Carl Walter and Fraser Howie found out:

  • It’s because of the way the stock market is set up. Only state-run companies are allowed on the market, and the Chinese government must have at least 51% ownership of the company.
  • When a Chinese company first sells shares on the market, the Chinese government sets the share price, and then forces other state sponsored enterprises to buy shares at that price – guaranteeing a successful sale.
  • If Steve Jobs were to start a company in China its valuation would not be driven by how visionary his ideas were, rather, it would depend entirely on his relationship with the Chinese government.
  • While the Chinese government could change the way it does things, it won’t, because that would require the introduction of private property and the Communist Party of China would rather that everything just belong to them.

Read more about the largest IPO in history, the veneer of a modern economy, and more over here.

Source: Foreign Policy

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What Happens To Apple If The iPhone Fails?

September 13, 2012 in Daily Bulletin, Signature

Yesterday Apple previewed the latest model of the iPhone. The company has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, so even if the iPhone 5 ends up disappointing consumers it shouldn’t be too big a deal for Apple right? Not so argues Henry Blodget. Apple’s future depends on the iPhone doing well:

  • Apple’s legal battles with Samsung forced the company to release detailed financials. They showed that Apple depends on the iPhone for almost 66% of its profits.
  • The iPad generates about another 15% of the company’s profits.
  • Tim Cook talked up the post-pc era, but Apple better hope that this future isn’t driven by iPads. The cost of making the device is so high and its price is so low that if the iPad became Apple’s dominant product, its profit margins would be crushed.
  • All of this means that if the iPhone fails then Apple’s financials will take a steep dive. The company’s future is entirely dependent upon the success of this one product.

Read more about these estimates, what experts have to say, and a fascinating graph that visualizes the profits from Apple’s different products over here.

Source: Business Insider

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Are Americans Less Stylish Than Europeans?

September 13, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

Bob Unwin argues that Americans are less stylish than Europeans in…everything. From clothing to architecture. He suggests that it’s because:

  • Due to its sheer size, there is a greater average distance for a given American from a major cultural center.
  • Class distinctions are less important and there is more internal diversity in the US. There is no need to differentiate yourself through fashion.
  • Americans have a more informal culture and this is reflected in their style.

Read the full argument here.

Source: Marginal Revolution

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Pet Funerals

September 12, 2012 in Daily Bulletin, Signature

We’ve seen restaurants with menus designed specifically for pets. It turns out that there are crematoriums and other such services that operate on largely the same principles. Eric Spitznagel wrote:

  • The pet after-care industry has grown tremendously – some report growth rates of hundreds and thousands of percent annually. In 2011 it was worth $52.87 billion.
  • Some of the services offered include $1,765 bronze grave markers and $1,135 velvet lined caskets. You can also get your pet freeze dried, embalmed, or have a diamond made of their remains.
  • According to one service provider, families are quite likely to complain about the cost of burying/cremating their human relatives. They never complain about the cost of after care services for their pets.
  • Some suggest it is because baby boomers find their only source of companionship in their pets after their children leave home or their spouses pass away. But young people are just as likely to use these services.

Read more including some of the other options offered, and why people from Ohio will bury their dogs in Pennsylvania, but not their relatives, over here.

Source: Business Week

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Cloudy With A Strong Chance Of Riots Next Year

September 12, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

According to some analysts who arguably sort-of predicted the Arab spring, there will be widespread global riots next year, writes Brian Merchant:

  • Statistics show that the single greatest driving factor in creating unrest and riots is hunger. The higher the food price, the greater the likelihood of riots.
  • A food price index of around 220 seems to just about guarantee riots. So far this year the world has hovered within the 210-216 range – perilously close to disaster.
  • But food prices are expected to continue to rise, and the experts predict that in August 2013 the probability of riots will be extremely high.

Read more about the methodology of the study and see an excellent visualization of the relationship over here.

Source: Mother Board

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Emma Watson: The Most Dangerous Celebrity On Earth

September 11, 2012 in Daily Bulletin, Signature

According to McAfee, Emma Watson is the most dangerous celebrity in the world:

  • If you search for Emma Watson on the internet there’s a 12.5% chance that you’ll end up on a site that could harm your computer.
  • If you append the words “nude pictures” to your search for “Emma Watson” you further increase your chances of landing on a site that could compromise your computer.
  • In general searching for women on the internet is more dangerous than searching for men.
  • The only male to make the top-20 list of most dangerous celebrity searches is Jimmy Kimmel.

Get the full list over here, and find out who Emma Watson displaced to take the top spot this year.

Source: Slate

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Grow Your Own Fruit Salad…On A Single Tree!

September 11, 2012 in Daily Bulletin, Signature

Everybody loves the experience of eating fruits that were grown in one’s own garden. The problem, however, is that few of us have enough space to plant more than a couple plants. As it turns out however it is possible to get a single plant to yield an assortment of fruits…enough to create your own home-made garden picked fruit salad. Ferris Jabr wrote:

  • By combining together the branches and stems of different plants it is possible to create one super organism that grows several different types of fruits.
  • Some examples include a single tree that can grow peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots and peachcots. Another can grow winter oranges, summer oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes, grapefruits, tangelo and pomelos.
  • Farmers have engaged in this practice for years – mostly for practical reasons. They attached the kind of plant they wanted to grow to the roots of another plant that grows well in the local soil. This is why most of Florida’s orange trees have the roots of lemon trees, and why in California the reverse is true.
  • Some of the combinations are quite creative. A pomato plant grows potatoes under the ground and tomatoes above the ground.

Read more about how these plants are made, some ground rules for making them, why you can’t always trust a seed, and some of the other fascinating combinations, over here.

Source: Scientific American

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A Boss-Less Corporate Culture

September 10, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

Gamers know Valve as the maker of ground-breaking titles such as Half-Life 2, as well as distribution channel that lets you buy games online. Behind the success of the company is a unique corporate culture writes Nick Wingfield:

  • Valve considers itself to be a ‘boss-less’ company. New employees are told that nobody reports to anybody else.
  • Instead most employees’ desks are on wheels and they are encouraged to find a project that they’re interested in, and then push their desk over to that group.
  • Many of its employees have eccentric qualities. One likes to spray-paint graffiti in his free time; another is leading an initiative to use Valve’s games to teach students physics.
  • The company is privately held and its CEO refuses to entertain the idea of bringing in external investors. Experts suggest that Valve is worth $2.5 billion.

Read more about some of the projects the company is working on, and the challenges it faces over here.

Source: The New York Times

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The History Of Nerf

September 10, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

Jason Fagone wrote about some of the history of, and the current challenges for, Nerf the maker of foam weapons:

  • The most frequent request is for Nerf to build guns with greater firing ranges and more ammo capacity.
  • The desire to build a better Nerf gun is so strong that there’s a vibrant modding community. Run a search for it and you’ll find how you can double the firing range, build homemade darts, and even make your Nerf gun look like an AK-47.
  • The history of Nerf begins with a foam ball created in 1969 by the same person who invented the game Twister.
  • In 1989 the first Nerf blaster was sold. It shot foam spheres. Other Nerf products including a football which howled in flight soon followed.
  • The first Nerf gun to fire the now iconic darts was released in 1992.
  • Recent guns include one that can switch between single shot and rapid fire mode, removable parts, and a semi-automatic firing mechanism.
  • The latest addition to the Nerf line is the Hail-Fire pictured above. It fires darts at a speed of 50 miles per hour and holds 144 of them distributed among 8 clips.
  • Hasbro, the parent company of Nerf, relies on sales of the products. It is one of only three product lines (in addition to Beyblade and Transformers) that brought in more than $400 million last year.

Read more about the evolution of the Nerf gun, the design process behind it, and the laboratory in which kids try out the guns over here.

Source: Wired

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“Affordable” Space Tourism

September 9, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

Ever wanted to travel to space? It turns out that you have several options available, all catered towards whatever price range you may be looking at. Jesse McKinley reported:

  • For $150 million one company promises to send you to the dark side of the moon by 2017.
  • The budget conscious can go up 60 miles in a two hour flight which includes five minutes of weightlessness for $200,000.
  • If you don’t want to go that low, you can spend $50 million to make a trip to the International Space Station.
  • The space industry is already beginning to see the kind of price competition that might make space trips (relatively) more affordable. Some upstart challengers are promising to cut costs by more than half.
  • The sudden interest in space flights doesn’t come just from advances in technology. There are very few unexplored places left to go on earth and space is the next frontier. There is a primal animal drive – for males especially – to prove their manhood by doing remarkable things. Perhaps this is why 77% of the space customers of one company are male.

Read more about the future of this industry and the various competitors that are trying to dominate the market over here.

Source: The New York Times

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