Centives

Daniel Lametti used the Olympics as an excuse to discuss how our facial expressions are in some ways contingent upon our origins:

• Broadly speaking human facial expressions do not vary across cultures. The corners of the mouth turned upwards are regarded by all as signs of happiness.
• However evidence suggest that even these basic emotions have ‘accents’ within cultures. Americans can figure out if somebody is Japanese-American or a Japanese-National by observing their facial expressions.
• Our facial expressions are also mediated by culture. In the presence of a professor while watching a horror movie Americans will exaggerate their negative expressions while Japanese will hide it with a smile.
• The most distinctive national smile seems to belong to England. They use an extra facial muscle that leads to a more polite looking smile.

To read more including the troubles we have detecting the nationality of neutral faces, an interactive game where you can play “Guess the Smile” and test your own skills, links to the studies and fuller descriptions of them, and the difference between Tom Cruise and Prince Charles, click here.

Source: Slate

Want China Times reported on a disastrous effort by a local government to deal with a Piranha menace:

• In the local rivers of Guangxi Zhuang region, there has been an unexplained surge in piranhas.
• To allay fears the government offered US$160 for each piranha caught.
• This led to an influx of aspiring fisherman who did an excellent job of killing local marine life, but not so much at catching piranhas.
• Meanwhile businesses sprang up offering to sell imported piranhas for $1.80 per fish.
• The government eventually abandoned the effort. 0 piranhas were caught.

To read more including some of the devastating tactics used by the fishermen, how this relates to Jaws, what the government tried to do to prevent this ‘arbitrage’ and much more click here.

Source: Want China Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

When we ask our readers what they think of Centives they normally smile, pat us on the head, and tell us that at least we’re trying. Someday though they will universally stop to say that this website is the best thing since sliced bread. Because, well, sliced bread is pretty awesome, as Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg writes.

Someday.

• It took 13 years of design and perfection to invent the first commercial automatic bread slicing machine.
• Bakers hated it saying that it was a bad idea since selling sliced bread would mean the bread would go stale faster.
• Yet when it was finally released in 1928 it was a hit – so much so that it made the front page of the local paper.
• During WW2 the government tried to ban bread-slicing machines, saying that the country needed blades more than sliced bread. In light of public outcry though the ban was soon dropped.

To read more including the historical origins of the machine, what the original patent looks like, and links to other interesting articles about the history of sliced bread, as well as a video from 1946 about the baking industry, click here.

Source: The Atlantic

Via: Kottke

“With its prosperous north and underdeveloped south, Italy is a microcosm of the euro zone itself” writes Rachel Donadio. In an article that looked at Sicily’s problems she highlighted:

• Sicily – an autonomous region within Italy – has a regional government that employs 1,800 people. This is more than Great Britain’s Cabinet Office.
• In total the state directly or indirectly employs 100,000 of Sicily’s five million people.
• These employees draw generous pensions. One man sued and won a case to keep his half a million dollar annual pension.
• Almost 20% of Sicilians are unemployed, and around double that percentage of young people don’t have jobs.
• In addition to these issues Sicily is also dealing with a political movement that calls for Sicily’s independence from the rest of Italy.
• As the private banking sector exits the country, organized crime has seen a boost.

To read more including Sicily’s underlying political dynamic, how it is a bell-weather state, why it gets to keep almost all of its tax revenue, the emergency assistance promised by the central government, what Sicilians have to say about the problem, and the looming shadow of former prime-minister Silvio Berlusconi, click here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

In a couple of posts The Economist took a look at the Economics of corporate crime:

• If we assume rational actors then corporations are likely to commit crimes if the potential benefits outweigh the costs.
• If we assume that we detect corporate crimes 10% of the time and that we fine them 40% of revenue, then the expected cost of committing the crime is only 4%. The gains could be much higher – creating an incentive to commit the crime.
• One way to reduce crime then would be to massively increase fines.
• However they shouldn’t be prohibitively high since there might be false convictions, and it could lead to less competition.
• America with penalties of up to 40% does a better job than Britain which maxes penalties at 10%.

To read more including the influential economist who helped established thinking about the subject, the economist who believes that we should let the free market sort it out, recent examples of corporate wrong-doing, how fines have changed over time, how regulators should act, and how this relates to class action law suits, click here and here.

Source: The Economist

Alex Williams described some of the challenges you face when trying to make friends once you get past the age of 30:

• Your workplace is where you meet the most people however since you are, in some ways, competing against them, you hide your vulnerabilities and quirks.
• It is also difficult to know when (and if) networking turns into a true friendship.
• Having a different salary than others can make things awkward – narrowing the potential friendships you can build.
• Once you find a partner you might want to find other partners to spend time with – but that requires at least four people to like each other.
• Those that have kids more often than not find themselves spending time with the parents of their kids’ friends, rather than people of their own choosing.

To read more including what the experts have to say, what one man did to solve the problem, the conditions under which people are most likely to form new friendships, how our definition of the word friend evolves over time, when we miss their presence the most, what C.K. Louis has to say about it, and the importance of ‘proximity’ click here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Kottke

When Anna Chapman, the red-headed Russian spy, was caught in the United States, people derided Russia for planting an agent in suburbia. These people don’t understand how spies work in reality writes Edward Lucas:

• Spies have to be boring. If they want to transport secret documents then they need to build careers where they get to travel.
• If on the other hand they want to recruit agents, then they need jobs where they can meet lots of people without drawing suspicion.
• These spies are almost impossible to detect. They can’t be rooted out precisely because they’re so boring.
• Spies like Chapman build boring histories for themselves so that they can be considered for employment in places where they might have access to secrets.

The full article is here, and discusses many other things including the evolution of spies in the Soviet Union and Russia – the role they play in society, the rules they play by, what their lifestyle is like, how they exploit America’s strengths, the author’s own history, and the time when Putin was rejected from the KGB.

Source: Foreign Policy

On the one hand you hear that piracy is killing the movie industry and that movie attendance is plummeting, yet on the other you hear that Disney made record profits in fiscal 2012. How is this possible? Edward Jay Epstein explained:

• Television series have become a cash generator. One executive estimated that 85% of profits come from cable television series.
• These TV shows and movies are then licensed to online providers. The competition between Netflix, Amazon and Hulu has caused licensing fees to rise – especially since they pay a premium for exclusive access to the media.
• Theater attendance might be plummeting in the states but it’s rising in other countries. Movie studios have raised prices there to increase revenues.
• Stars will often earn a lot less than their contracts suggest that they do.

To read more including how movie stars game the system, and why they do it, as well as why online licensing fees are so lucrative, the Video-on-Demand bonanza, the role that 3D plays, and the $20 billion network, click here.

Source: The Hollywood Economist

Via: Newmark’s Door

Burkhard Bilger delved into the world of strong-man competitions and met the strongest people in the world:

• Strongman events aren’t like weight lifting events. You do everyday tasks like lift logs or carry rocks.
• The performance improvements in recent times have been stunning. In 1953 the first 500 pound bench press was done. These days it’s around 1,000.
• Americans no longer do well in Olympic weight lifting events. Strongmen events have since become the proving grounds for America’s strongest people.
• Diet is important. Before competitions they’ll eliminate liquids and salts to remove the water underneath their skin – giving them an advantage.
• Fat helps to insulate them from the physical stresses to their body. They force themselves to eat far beyond the point of hunger. A typical breakfast can include ten eggs, and three pounds of bacon. Throughout the day they periodically drink 1,200 calorie shakes.
• It’s not just muscle mass. Power depends on how quickly you can use that strength. The most powerful have muscle fibers that are synchronized and react quickly.
• Despite all the blood they shed and the punishment their bodies go through, the money is uninspiring. Most competitions yield around $4,000 for the winner. The most competitive ones go up to $55,000.

It’s an article from The New Yorker which means that the summary provided here can’t possible do it justice. It’s long, interesting, and informative. Some of the many, many, (many) things you’ll find include the physical punishment that the participants endure, the spectre of drug abuse, the role that yoga plays, and how it relates to Arnold Schwarzenegger, when you click here.

Source: The New Yorker

Via: Marginal Revolution