Surge Pricing Comes To The Restaurant Industry

An elite London restaurant is experimenting with surge pricing wrote Richard Vines: The Bob Bob Rica

People Are Using Ubers Instead Of Ambulances

Brad Jones wrote about an unexpected healthcare cost reduction method: Getting into an ambulance can

Why Have A President When You Can Have A Monarch?

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

 

The Cost Of Being An Unbeatable Evil Overlord

May 27, 2012 in Editorial, Top

If there’s one thing that the movies have taught us it’s that evil never succeeds. Yet most of the time evil fails for silly reasons. In 1994 Peter Anspach published the 100 things he would do if he ever became an evil overlord. They included such gems as:

  • If my advisors ask “Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?”, I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.
  • When I’ve captured my adversary and he says, Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?” I’ll say, “No.” and shoot him. No, on second thought I’ll shoot him then say “No.”
  • I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line “No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!” (After that, death is usually instantaneous.)

But while following such prescripts are likely to lead to evil-overlord levels of success, is it financially viable to do so? Read the rest of this entry →

16 Comments »

Women And Children First? Nah.

May 26, 2012 in Daily Bulletin, Signature

Anybody who watched Titanic will remember the valiant men who put women and children before themselves. Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixson decided to find out if this and other expectations about behaviour during maritime disasters are accurate:

  • The popular perception is that the crew are meant to help the passengers, and the men are meant to help the women.
  • In reality the study suggests that the opposite is true. The crew has the highest survival rate, followed by men, and then women. Children have the lowest survival rate in ship-wrecks.
  • In fact the survival rate of women is 16.7% lower than that of men.
  • Contrary to the perception of the British as noble and polite, women have an even lower survival rate when they’re travelling on British ships.
  • Women have a slightly better chance of living if the captain orders women and children first – although not by much, and this in itself is a rare occurrence.
  • Overall it seems that it’s not so much “women and children first” as it is “every man for himself.”

To read more about the surprisingly high survival rate of ship captains, how this relates to our expectations of helping behaviour among the genders, how the study was conducted, how the speed of the disaster affects survival rates, if things have changed over time, and the implications this study has for disaster situations and leadership read the entire study here(.pdf).

Source: Institutet för Näringslivsforskning (.pdf warning)

Via: Freakonomics

Comments Off on Women And Children First? Nah.

Zimbabwe’s Dollar Woes

May 26, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

From the days of hyperinflation that saw the distribution of 100 trillion dollar bills that weren’t enough to buy a loaf of bread, Zimbabwe has come a long way. Crucial to its economic recovery was its decision to peg its currency to the US dollar. However this has led to its own problems writes Lydia Polgreen:

  • In Zimbabwe $1 goes a really long way, and most purchases require change in nickels, dimes, quarters, and pennies.
  • However while it’s relatively easy to ship US dollar bills across from the United States, it’s too difficult to send over coins which are heavy.
  • Other countries deal with this by minting their own coins and promising that their coins are worth the same value in the pegged currency. However after Zimbabwe’s experience with hyper-inflation during which the life-savings of many people were wiped out, nobody trusts money issued by Zimbabwe’s government.
  • Some have resorted to using South African coins but even those are in short supply and the fact that its value fluctuates relative to the US dollar makes it difficult to determine how much each South African coin is worth in US currency.
  • A barter economy of sorts has risen where cashiers sell thing such as 5 cent aspirins to make up full dollar amounts so that coins don’t have to be given out.

To read other creative ways that people have dealt with the problem, as well as why $2 bills are popular, why some $1 bills have turned black, what the American Federal Reserve has to say about the problem, why Zimbabweans approach the problem with humour, and the examples of various people affected by the problem click here.

Source: New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

1 Comment »

Does Working From Home Work?

May 26, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

10% of America’s workforce now regularly works from home write Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts and Zhichun Jenny Ying. What effect does this have on productivity? Their research suggestes:

  • Over a 9 month period there was a 12% increase in performance for those who opted to work from home.
  • 8.5% of that was due to people working more minutes because they took fewer breaks and fewer sick days.
  • 3.5% of that performance boost was due to more productive use of time, likely due to a quieter environment.
  • Those who worked from home also reported higher job satisfaction, and their attrition rate fell by 50%.
  • There were no negative consequences for those left over in the office.

To read the entire report, its methodology, some more conclusions, some limitations of the study, and what this might mean for businesses, click here.

Source: Stanford (.pdf)

Via: Chris Blattman

Comments Off on Does Working From Home Work?

Fascinating Facts About The Economy

May 25, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

Morgan Housel produced a list of 50 amazing numbers about the economy. Some of them include:

  • The unemployed lose the ability to read over time.
  • Adjusted for inflation, the $6 billion predicted to be spent in the 2012 elections will be 60% more than the amount spent in the 2000 elections.
  • China’s growth is the equivalent of a Greece every three months.
  • For every dollar that newspapers make through digital advertising, they lose $7 in print advertising.
  • The end of the housing bubble annihilated wealth equivalent to half of inflation adjusted America of just 60 years ago.
  • Those older than 60 in America owe $36 billion in student loans.
  • Americans spend 1.8% of their income on alcohol and tobacco. In the UK it’s almost three times that.
  • 5% of Americans account for 50% of health care costs.
  • Five companies (Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Google, Pfizer) hold almost 25% of all corporate cash.
  • 88% of non-farm jobs created since 2009 have gone to men. 41% of men say that the economy has improved while only 26% of women do.

To read the rest of what is a fascinating list, click here.

Source: The Motley Fool

Via: Boston

Comments Off on Fascinating Facts About The Economy

A Neighbourhood Built And Run By Ikea

May 25, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

Doug Saunders described Ikea’s latest business initiative: a push into urban community planning.

  • The business best known for furniture is building a centrally planned neighbourhood in East London called Strand East.
  • Strand East will have a sophisticated public transport system and most of the main streets will be free of cars to encourage people to walk. Garages hidden underneath the neighbourhood’s buildings will hold most of the automobiles.
  • The neighbourhood will contain 1,200 homes and apartments, and 40% of them will be family sized. This will give it a higher proportion of children than most urban centers.
  • There will be no Ikea store in the neighbourhood.
  • Strand East will be fully owned by Ikea and residents will only be able to rent their apartments. Ikea is doing this because they see this as a long-term investment and a way to build upon their cash reserves. However they will maintain a tight grip on “undesirable activity.”
  • Ikea is hoping to build a community and will deliver an events calendar to the residents to let them know of things such as farmer’s markets.

To read more about how being in the city would feel like being in an Ikea store, how this could help Britain’s dire housing shortages, the benefits and drawbacks of living in a neighbourhood where everybody is a renter, and how this deals with a problem common in East London, click here.

Source: Doug Sanders

Via: Chris Blattman

Comments Off on A Neighbourhood Built And Run By Ikea

Should We Re-Regulate The Airlines?

May 25, 2012 in Daily Bulletin, Signature

In an expansive article that analyzed the history of the regulation of the American airline industry Phillip Longman and Lina Khan point out:

  • Left to the free market the airline business will tend to an equilibrium where a few airport ‘hubs’ get all airline traffic while smaller regional airports are ignored. This is because taking off from the ground requires more energy compared to actually flying the craft. This makes it more efficient for the airliners to have few long-haul routes rather than several short-haul routes.
  • However this means that people who live close to small regional airports are ignored. Already the closure of airports in places such as St. Louis and Pittsburgh is forcing businesses to migrate closer to regional airport hubs, because it’s too difficult and expensive to fly out of regional airports. Airline capacity is at its lowest level since 1979.
  • The problem is only likely to get worse as airlines continue to operate on razor thin margins. The value of all publicly traded US airline stocks is $32.3 billion – less than the value of Starbucks. All six of the major ‘legacy’ carriers have filed for bankruptcy. In this context the only way for them to claw out of continued losses is to further consolidate and cut capacity, which in practice hurt smaller airports the most.
  • But there is great economic value to having an airline system that covers the entirety of the United States. Imagine if areas in the US didn’t receive plumbing, or electricity, or even roads. It’s inconceivable yet the fact that several areas are unable to get air-service should be just as concerning.
  • The airlines aren’t the only industry where this is a problem. The railroad network and America’s mail system faced similar problems where only concentrated regions of the United States were receiving the benefits of full service. This was fixed when the government decided to step in to regulate.
  • The American airline system was initially regulated when the Civil Aeronautics Board was started in 1938.
  • Yet Kennedy and Carter decided to undo this regulatory framework. This was primarily because the airline system had become over-regulated and because of the example of Southwest Airlines – which escaped regulatory scrutiny by limiting its operations to Texas – and achieved great success through low fares. Moreover no new major airline had emerged since the 1930s suggesting that something was wrong with the system.
  • At first de-regulation seemed to be incredibly successful. However subsequent analysis has suggested that it was not as successful as is commonly believed. Moreover it led to the current problem of many areas of America being ignored by the airlines.

To read many more details, in what is a long, fascinating, and thorough article, and to find out about the role that Ralph Nader played in deregulation, the role of oil-shocks, why a period of inflation was crucial to the current problem, what would have happened if the airlines hadn’t been deregulated, why anti-trust has become crucial, the billions of dollars in taxpayer support that the airlines have received, why the prices of airline tickets fell, why the fall in the quality of the service of airlines demonstrates the scope of the problem, what a new regulatory framework would look like, the future of those cities that aren’t classified as hubs, and how this all relates to NASCAR click here.

Source: Washington Monthly

Via: Marginal Revolution

Comments Off on Should We Re-Regulate The Airlines?

Dictators And Their Eccentricities

May 24, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

In light of the release of Sacha Baron Cohen latest film, The Dictator, Helier Cheung took a look at some real life autocrats whose eccentricities have come to define their reign. They include:

  • Emperor Caligula of Rome
    • His love of race horses led him to give his favourite horse an army of slaves who served the horse wine in golden goblets.
    • His troops were ordered to collect sea shells during a fight against the British.
  • Francois Duvalier of Haiti
    • He believed that voodoo spirits guarded him on the 22nd of every month and refused to leave his palace on any other day.
    • He believed that a voodoo curse he placed on US President John F. Kennedy led to his assassination on the 22nd of November.
    • He banned the boy scouts.
    • Some reports suggest he killed all black dogs in Haiti.
  • Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan
    • The 150m tall gold statue that he had built of himself was made to revolve so that it always faced the sun.
    • He named the month of January and a meteorite after himself.
    • He had an ice palace built in the capital.
  • Kim Jong-il of North Korea
    • State media reports that he scored a perfect 300 the first time he bowled, and had five holes-in-one the first time he golfed.
    • His fear of flying meant that he travelled by train. He had live lobsters air-lifted to the train every day.
    • He loved movies so much that he kidnapped a South Korean film director and forced him to make films for the “Dear Leader”

     

To read why these men acted in these ways as well as more examples and other details, including the King of Scotland, the lake in the middle of a desert, and the double rainbow that appeared in the sky when one was born click here.

Source: BBC

Comments Off on Dictators And Their Eccentricities

Motorcycle Polo: The Future Of Sport?

May 24, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

Josh Kron reported on a rising craze in Rwanda: Motorcycle Polo. Details of the sport include:

  • It’s like standard polo except you’re on motorbikes rather than horses.
  • One person drives the motorcycle and is considered the real star, while the other sits in the back with a mallet and scores the goal.
  • There are five player teams and 15 minute quarters that are broken up by beer breaks.
  • The game has spread to Uganda.
  • Drivers are paid $20 for an hour long game, and all damage sustained by motorcycles is paid for by organizers of the game.

To read about some of the rules of the game, how and when it originated, the rivalry between North and South United States, and a version of the game that was played in 1912 but was lost to history click here.

Source: New York Times

Via: Chris Blattman

Comments Off on Motorcycle Polo: The Future Of Sport?

Predicting Civil Wars

May 24, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

The Economist reviewed some of the computing technologies that are being developed to predict civil wars. Some of the more notable ones include:

  • Tribal links are necessarily strong in Iraq and Afghanistan as it’s difficult to trust the motives of people from other tribes. This means that bombs will be planted in tribal territory, close to the places they are made. Using data about previous bomb locations and the ethnic-lingual distribution within the region algorithms can predict where ammunitions dump can be located.
  • In East Africa a computer program called RiftLand tracks the migration of people and analyzes who they might clash with in times of conflict and drought, helping the US navy to predict conflict.
  • Another system called Condor tracks data from social media, ranking the individual users based on their influence, and identifying the types of messages they send out. Based on this data it is possible to predict how long protest movements will last. In particular when tweets become cynical it means that a protest movement will soon burn out.
  • Lockheed Martin is developing a system that can forecast “riots, rebellions, coups, economic crises, government crackdowns and international wars.”

To read many more examples, some of the advantages and drawbacks of these systems, a system that can recommend strategies to deal with conflicts, what this means for terrorist networks, and the $10 million bounty that might soon be won by one of these computer systems, click here.

Source: The Economist

Via: Chris Blattman

Comments Off on Predicting Civil Wars

← Previous Entries
Next Entries →