Centives

Philip N. Howard advocates for a radical idea: The US government should take control of Facebook.

• Facebook’s share price has plummeted. Almost half of all surveyed Americans believe that Facebook will eventually fade away.
• This would be a pity – Facebook’s dominance in the social media sphere makes it incredibly valuable to the public.
• Under the government’s control, Facebook’s privacy standards could be solved with federal laws being enacted to safeguard our data.
• While Facebook works towards the social good a lot of the time, there are times when it doesn’t. Such as when it banned Palestinian pages, or its policy against using pseudonyms which hurts democratic activists in authoritarian countries.
• Facebook employees might even support such a move – with government control they would no longer have to devise ways to get people to click on more ads and generate revenue. Rather, they could focus on combing through the data for important social research.
• Non-Americans might dislike the idea of the American government taking control of Facebook, but there are plenty of government owned properties that are accessed and appreciated by the world over such as the BBC.

It’s a fascinating article and well-worth a read. If you click here you’ll find out the feasibility of such an idea, the potential risks, why international users might support such a move, how such a move could stimulate new business ventures, ethical implications of Facebook’s management decisions, how Facebook could help us in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases and terrorism, how it would be like a public utility, and greater analysis of all the issues involved.

Source: Slate

It’s election time and the Presidential contenders are spending billions of dollars to win. But what are they spending it on? Rebecca Berg reports:

• Swing voters – those who aren’t certain yet which candidate they will vote for – make up only about 4% of the electorate.
• Many of them are located in states which reliably vote for one candidate or another – meaning that their votes won’t matter.
• It’s the thin sliver of swing voters who live in swing states who will see up to $2 billion spent persuading them.
• Swing voters have become rarer in recent years as the electorate has become more polarized.
• Swing voters are more likely to be young, female, or Hispanic.

To read more including the examples of several such swing voters, what the Obama and Romney campaigns have to say, what swing voters look like, how and when they might decide, the importance of the debates, how Romney’s Vice Presidential pick changed things, and other fascinating details, click here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

From Amazon stars to reviews on Trip Advisor, we rely heavily on websites for reviews of services and products before purchasing them. Are they reliable? Ray Fisman wrote:

• The benefits from gaming the review system are potentially lucrative. An extra half star on Yelp can boost revenue by up to 9%.
• Smaller businesses gain more from a half-star review than bigger ones because they’re less well known. Everybody knows what it will be like to eat at a Pizza Hut. Therefore smaller businesses have a greater incentive to game the review system.
• Smaller businesses also have a bigger incentive to post fake reviews because for them the repercussions are less serious. If a large company is caught engaging in such practices then the resulting press coverage would affect their brand across any other stores or franchises that they might have.
• Research suggests that not only are small business owners likely to post fake reviews which rate their businesses highly, they are also more likely to post negative reviews for nearby competitors.
• Evidence suggest that many anonymous book reviews on Amazon also come from the authors and the publishers themselves.
• Technology might be the solution: algorithms can potentially detect if a review is genuine or not.

To read more including the what economists describe as the “cheap-talk” problem, the virtues of crowdsourcing, links to research and papers, how one fake review detection algorithm works, how the ratings of TripAdvisor compare to Expedia, the limits of open-source, and various examples of companies caught posting fake reviews, click here.

Source: Slate

It’s Shark Week this week, an annual event that is now celebrating its 25^th anniversary. Micah Zenko argues that more people have probably died from shark-attacks on screen than in real life. Since less than one America dies each year from shark attacks he compiled a list of things more deadly to Americans than sharks:

• Dogs. Man’s best friend has a murderous streak – canines kill 16 people a year.
• Fireworks. They may finish off a Disney Land show but they also finish off 6.6 people a year.
• Trampolines. Perhaps it’s an Olympic sport because 1.1 people die on one every year.
• Skydiving. To be fair this is really just natural selection at work. Americans don’t really have…feathers.

To read more including the theme park ride that’s more dangerous than a shark, why sugar and fat aren’t the only deadly things about snacks, and blades spinning 100 times a second, click here.

Source: Foreign Policy

Via: Freakonomics

Now that the Olympics are done and dusted who came out on top? Who disappointed? More populated countries should do better since they have more people who could potentially be star athletes. Richer countries should also do better since they can spend more on facilities and training. Using a country’s GDP and population numbers then, a list of expected medals per country can be created and compared with the actual medal count. Charlotte McDonald reports:

• Former members of the Soviet Union exceeded expectations. This is likely because of the strong sporting infrastructure left over from the days of communism.
• Small or low-income countries with a lot of depth in track and field events such as Jamaica and Kenya also did well.
• The US, UK and China did better than expected – and it shows – they dominated the medal tables.
• Countries with large populations and relatively large GDPs did badly if their per capita GDP was low. India, Indonesia and Mexico fall into this category.
• Countries with high income but no sporting tradition did poorly. They include Saudi Arabia and Israel.
• Countries that focus on the Winter Olympics such as Austria and Switzerland also underperformed.
• The countries whose success surprised all experts were Iran, Jamaica, and New Zealand.
• Those who did unexpectedly poorly included Germany, Brazil, and Romania.

The entire article has much more details and full tables. The examples presented here are just a selection of those discussed here.

Source: BBC

They’re ubiquitous, boring, and crucial to the global product supply chain. Tom Vanderbilt unlocked the story behind the humble pallet:

• 80% of US commerce is carried on a pallet.
• Pallets may account for 46% of US hardwood lumber production.
• IKEA has updated the design of its products not for aesthetic reasons, but to modify it so that more can fit on a pallet. IKEA was able to reduce costs by 60% when it almost tripled the number of mugs that could fit on a pallet.
• Pallet efficiency is so important that there’s an entire science devoted to figuring out ways to fit more products on a pallet.
• Pallets trace their rise to the late 30s when gas-powered trucks made pallets the ideal way to transport goods. World War Two also helped. Wars are won, in part, upon the efficiency of supply lines, and the effectiveness of American supply lines were due in part to the pallet.
• The future of the pallet is uncertain. They’re useful for transporting large quantities of goods. Now grocery stores prefer to get smaller, more frequent deliveries, and consumers order individual goods online.

To read more including the credit given to shipping containers, what “pallet overhang”, “pallet gaps” and “the pallet loading problem” are, the leading pallet magazine, the merits of a pooled versus a one-way pallet, the fragmented pallet standards across the globe, and what “mixed product SKUs” are, click here.

Source: Slate

In Ancient Greek mythology there is a nation called Amazon made up entirely of female warriors where no males are allowed to reside. Surprisingly it is an idea that seems to have struck a chord with officials in Saudi Arabia writes Caroline Davies:

• Saudi Arabia is planning an industrial city where only females would be allowed to work.
• The Saudi Arabian Kingdom is famously conservative and strictly limits the rights of women.
  • Females, for example, are not allowed to drive.
• By creating a separate city for women, the Kingdom is hoping to create more opportunities for females, while maintaining the conservative principles that are deeply embedded within society.
• The first is to be built in Hofuf and is expected to create 5,000 jobs.
• Last year the government also announced that women would soon be able to vote in some local elections. The King is thought to be slowly working towards promoting equality.

To read more including other restrictions that Saudi women face, in which industries the Hofuf development will create jobs, the disparity between male and female employment in Saudi Arabia, why Saudi women are now allowed in lingerie shops, and what polls tells us about Saudi Arabian women, click here.

Source: The Guardian

Via: Marginal Revolution

Farhad Manjoo discussed what Apple’s upcoming iPhone (not pictured above) will look like, and what that means for Apple:

• The numerous leaks suggest that the new iPhone…won’t be all that great. It’ll have a slightly bigger screen, a new port that makes all old accessories incompatible, and a headphone jack on the bottom of the phone.
• The leaks are strange. The company is famous for its secrecy and some have speculated that the leaks are, in fact, decoys planted by Apple to throw us off the real iPhone which will be much more exciting and dynamic.
• Manjoo agrees that the leaks could be deliberate, but thinks that the parts are real. He believes that Apple is trying to lower the expectations of its fans by giving them leaked previews so that they won’t be disappointed when they see the real thing.
• The only thing that is likely to get Apple to radically revamp the iPhone and make it more exciting would be the development of a new technology such as flexible screens.

To read more including why Apple won’t be creating “the best iPhone yet”, what Apple’s patent case against Samsung tells us about the mentality of Apple, what experts think about it, why a bigger iPhone isn’t necessarily better, the limits of industrial smartphone design, Apple’s position on aesthetics, and more details about what the device will look like, click here.

Source: Slate

Anne D’Innocenzio reported on a fast-growing market: $600 dresses for toddlers.

• The luxury market is still small – it’s only about 3% ($34 billion) – of the children’s wear market. But it’s growing faster than the rest of the market. In the past year it grew 7%.
• The clothes are marketed to households with an income of at least $350,000.
• Sales of such items are high in resort areas which contain many retirees. Doting grandparents are more comfortable splurging on their progeny.
• No age is too young. Even infants can find luxury-wear.

To read more including the brands that used to dominate the market, the eye-popping prices for some of the items on sale, a Gucci store for children, and several quotes from parents who purchase these items, explaining why they buy them click here.

Source: USA Today

Via: Kottke

For some reason the countries which have been blessed with the most natural resources also seem to have the most problems. Why is this? Joseph E. Stiglitz reported the general consensus:

• Countries with access to a lot of natural resources generally have strong currencies, hurting other exports. This makes it difficult for other industries to emerge and for the economy to grow.
• Extracting resources doesn’t create many jobs, and since there are few other industries in resource-rich countries, there is a high level of unemployment.
• The prices of resources are volatile. This creates instability which hinders economic development.
• Politicians bicker over who has access to the resources. They may even become corrupt.

To read more including a few other reasons why resource-rich countries have so many problems, what this means for countries that have recently discovered new reserves of natural resources, and how to solve the problem click here.

Source: Slate