Centives

What do NASA and Charlie Sheen have in common asks Simon Houpt? They’re both killing it on Twitter:

• The Mars Rover Curiosity has a twitter account that went from 140,000 followers to 800,000 in just four days.
• The twitter feed is managed by three women who make frequent references to pop culture.
• The name Curiosity was selected in a contest that was announced on Twitter.
• NASA used to let news networks hook into its video feeds and images, but NASA felt that the news media weren’t doing them justice. After the space shuttles were retired the airwaves were dominated by talk of NASA’s imminent demise, when in reality they had exciting initiatives in motion such as the Mars rover.
• NASA thus decided that it needed to bypass news networks and use social media to engage with the populace directly.

To read more including a short history of NASA, the “comically informal vernacular” that is sometimes used, how NASA’s broadcast compared with CNN’s, the “hot guy with a red and blue mohawk in Mission Control”, and why Housing and Urban Development probably wouldn’t benefit from a social media strategy, click here.

Source: The Globe and Mail

Via: Marginal Revolution

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In Assam, India, farmers are now able to make a living from growing a crop that has seen a surge in demand. This is all thanks to the Guinness Book of World Records writes Helen Pidd:

• In 2007 the Guinness Book of World Records certified an Indian chili called bhut jolokia, used to repel elephants, as the world’s hottest chili.
• This caused demand to surge. People all over the world ordered it to prove their toughness. One woman ate 51 of them to set her own record.
• The military worked on a way to weaponize it for crowd control purposes.
• Today farmers can make ₹1,800 for a kilo of the crop. This is a fortune since the average farmer survives on ₹150 a day.
• Bhut jolokia has since lost its title to an Australian spice as the world’s hottest chili. However this new chili isn’t as widely available, and doesn’t have the same multi-generational reputation for hotness that bhut jolokia does.

To read more including some of the other applications for the spice, what happens if you’re exposed to it, what the liquid extract from bhut jolokia looks like, what the Indian forces have used it for, and the role of the Assamese government and NGOs, click here.

Source: The Guardian

Via: Marginal Revolution

The invaluable Wikipedia that, let’s face it, all of us rely on, owes a large part of its success to automated robots that scan the encyclopedia writes Daniel Nasaw:

• Over 700 bots prune through Wikipedia’s 4 million articles.
• These bots detect and remove vandalism, categorize posts, fix references, and complete other invaluable tasks.
• The first robots pulled out data from the US census on small towns. They produced thousands of articles a day but the robot articles were short and formulaic with basic information.
• Today robots aren’t allowed to create articles but they maintain the Wikipedia experience.

To read more including why human writers don’t have to worry about being replaced just yet, why they aren’t like cars, the small rate of false positives, the potential for one of the robots to go crazy, and what would happen if the bots went on strike, click here.

Source: BBC

Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority took a look at what people found offensive about ads. Tom de Castella reported:

• 16% of people say that they had felt offended by advertising in the past year.
• For children the figure jumped to 30%.
• Surprisingly charity adverts seem to be the worst offenders with people feeling that they had gone too far to illicit sympathy and guilt.
• Charity ads about animal welfare, child protection, drunk driving, rape, and smoking were the most upsetting.
• Defenders of the ads say that charities need to use their meagre advertising funds to stand out, and that people should be more upset by the fact that what is depicted in the ads happens on a daily basis, rather than the ads themselves.
• Sex is the traditional problem area with ads, but attitudes seem to be changing. People are less upset now about scantily clothed models, as long as it is in the appropriate context and the postures aren’t overly suggestive.
• Yet there are limits to this. The mixture of sex and religion upset many.
• Moreover 56% of teenage girls said that advertising made them feel insecure about their appearance.

To read more including the role the internet has played, links to some of the most offensive ads, what industry experts have to say, more statistical points from the survey, what the defenders of offensive ads have to say, the feeling of being powerless, the ad that most people objected to, the effectiveness of some of the ads, how ‘gratuitous’ ads are different, the questions of body image and teenage sexualisation, and how this all relates to Father Ted, click here.

Source: BBC

In China there exists a sort of cap and trade system for crime writes Geoffrey Sant:

• The 99% Occupy Wall Street movement enthralled the United States but income inequality is far worse in China.
• To say nothing of political inequality. There is an elite that is made up of a few close knit families.
• At times when a member of this elite is sentenced jail time for a crime, they will pay a body double to take their place.
• Rates go for as little as $31 a day. The double’s family may also be cared for.
• This is not a new practice. For centuries – even as far back as 1834 – foreigners have reported that the Chinese would hire doubles to serve sentences.
• In ancient times it was even possible to hire a double to take your place during your execution.
• In the past some have defended this practice. The criminal still suffers since they have to pay the market value for the crime. Whereas the double gains, as long as it was a voluntary exchange. It’s a cap-and-trade system for crime.
• The practice might be coming to an end though. Through the use of the internet citizen journalists rapidly identify body doubles, stirring outrage.

To read more including various examples of modern China hiring doubles for crimes that were committed, the inexact science of identifying doubles, the light sentences that the rich receive, how this relates to the Mafia, the lifestyle of the elite in China, how common the practice is, family members that sometimes take the perpetrator’s place, and the historical context of this practice, click here.

Source: Slate

In a heart-warming story Emma Graham-Harrison reported from Kabul on a business that has grown rapidly and has managed to cross all ethnic, language, and ideological differences. Highlights include:

• Ahmad Faizy decided to capitalize on his hometown’s reputation for making the best ice-cream in Afghanistan. He began with a $500,000 investment and now estimates that his company is worth $15 million.
• The ice -cream goes to the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan in expensive refrigerated trucks. Yet they are never attacked because “even the Taliban like ice-cream.”
• The ice-cream is sold from street vendors who announce their arrival with a loudspeaker that blares “My Heart Will Go On”
• Estimates suggest that 2/3rds of Afghans are below the age of 25 – an ideal market for a budding ice-cream business.
• Faizy produces 30 tonnes of ice-cream a day and each packaged item costs around 20 cents.
• The company is backed by a US government team that aims to develop small enterprise.
• The biggest problem the company faces is competition from Iranian ice-cream makers who have taken note of the opportunity and are undercutting price to gain market share.

It’s a beautiful story from a country that for the past century or so has had to deal with arguably the worst circumstances in the world. If you click here you can find out about future plans, barriers to doing business in Afghanistan, the different ice-cream flavours available, what happens in the winter, what they need to grow even more, and a review of their products with a surprising conclusion.

Source: The Guardian

Via: Marginal Revolution

Japan has had two lost decades – years where the country’s economic growth has failed to impress – and continues to deal with a weak economy. Martin Fackler looked at one reason why:

• The value of the yen compared to other currencies is extremely high. And the government is doing little to reduce its value.
• A high yen is good for Japan’s retirees – who make up almost a third of the population – since it allows them to buy cheap imports from abroad.
• It’s bad for the young. Local businesses are unable to sell products to other markets, because the high value of the currency makes their products more expensive.
• This inter-generational inequality is not widely known or understood in Japan.
• Since the elderly make up such a large proportion of Japan’s population, and because they come out to vote in large numbers, it is difficult to propose policy measures that would bring down the value of the Yen.
• In the long run though as Japan’s domestic industry continues to wither even the elderly will suffer.

To read more including why the Bank of Japan isn’t acting, how other countries have responded to the same issue, some of the strategies that Japan could pursue, what this means for Japan’s future, the actions that the government has taken, an initiative by the Democratic Party to solve the problem, what experts have to say, and what the elderly have to say, click here.

Source: Financial Chronicle

Via: Marginal Revolution