Centives

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, and Erica Frantz wrote about what happens when a dictator dies:

• Many are hopeful that when Robert Mugabe, the 91 year old dictator of Zimbabwe, and Nursultan Nazarbayev, his 75 year old Kazakh counterpart pass away, democracy will finally have a chance to flourish in the countries.
• Others feel that the passing of old dictators could throw a country into chaos as rival factions compete for power.
• Evidence indicates that both are incorrect. Usually after a dictator passes, the status quo just sort of continues. This happened after Chávez’s, passing in Venezuela, and Kim Jong Il’s death in North Korea.
• One reason is that while a dictator may get all the attention, in reality they rule with a wider government that ensures continuity after the head dies.
• This is what happened to Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad. He took over when his father passed away, and tried to liberalize the country. However figures from his father’s regime thwarted him.
• Another reason is the strength of succession plans. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are strong monarchies and nobody expects there to be uprisings after their aged leaders pass away.
• Leaders who have the luxury of being able to die in office must have been particularly adept at crushing opposition, eliminating dissent, and corrupting institutions over the decades.
• Therefore the very things that allow a dictator to die in office also ensures that the dictator’s legacy lives on.
• That’s not to say there’s no hope for regime change. Evidence indicates that coups, elections, and term limits are effective ways to end dictatorships.

The full article provides many more details, and explores other fascinating tangents. You should read it here.

Source: Foreign Policy

It’s not what it sounds like, but there’s an Uber for goats. Michelle Martin described it in an article she wrote for, well, Playboy. But really, it’s not what it sounds like:

• Goats like to forage for different types of vegetation to eat. They’ll eat things such as stinging nettles and ivy that other animals such as cows won’t.
• By clearing brush they also reduce the risk of fires, and they fertilize as they go. As mountain climbers they’re particularly good at navigating around difficult terrain.
• Therefore government agencies, and owners of sprawling mountainous lands are increasingly hiring goats to remove weeds and clear vegetation.
• Rent-a-Ruminant has 115 working goats. It costs about $650 to use them for a small project.
• This seems expensive, but it includes the cost of placing electric fencing around poisonous plants, ensuring that workers that escape are quickly captured, and transportation.

Read about how you can ensure that you’re getting the right goat provider, and other uses for the animals here.

Source: Playboy

Via: Marginal Revolution (See? We’re not reading Playboy. Our friend gave it to us.)

Ardberg’s release of a whiskey aged in space made headlines around the world. Ria Misra wrote about why it might just be a scam:

• The whisky doesn’t seem to taste that great, and descriptions such as “antiseptic smoke”, “rubber”, and “beefy” have been used by those who tried it.
• The key to making good whisky is ageing it the right amount. Therefore today’s supply is determined by decisions made in years past.
• Whisky makers seem to have underestimated the demand for whisky and are currently facing a supply shortage.
• They could try selling product that hasn’t aged as long, but that can have an “antiseptic edge” to it.
• Companies thus are trying to get consumers to buy whiskies that don’t taste as good through gimmicks like ageing in space.

Read more about the science behind making whisky and why the industry is facing this problem, here.

Source: io9

A refugee crisis is sweeping across North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe due to chronic instability and years of war. Matthew Brunwasser wrote about the apps that refugees are using to help their journey:

• Once a refugee lands in a country one of the first things they do is buy a smartphone so they can let family and friends know that they’re safe.
• They then use smartphone maps and GPS to make their way across the forests and beaches of the countries they arrive at.
• While it might be odd to think of refugees wanting advanced smartphones, the money they use to purchase it is money that will now not be spent on traffickers who charge thousands to cross Europe by dangerous means.
• As a result, despite the surge in demand, the price for trafficking has dropped by as much as 50%.
• The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has noted the increasing importance of smartphones and distributed 33,000 SIM cards and 80,000 solar lanterns for charging to refugees in Jordan.
• It has also used smartphones to provide refugees with real-time information about falling mortar rounds and the areas they’re expected to hit.

Read more here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

Gunther is a dog. Who is worth $370 million. Emily Jane Fox wrote about what happens when a human leaves a vast sum of money to their pets in a will:

• When a pet owner leaves money to their pet a trust is usually established.
• The person’s will usually specifies the kind of treatment they expect for their pet, and the trust appoints a caretaker to look after the pet and ensure the departed owner’s wishes are met.
• The caretaker themselves don’t usually get any money. Instead they have to provide receipts and the trustee has to decide whether or not the expenses are legitimate.
• After the pet passes away the remaining money will usually go to a charity or to others named in the original will.
• This can mean that the pet’s caretaker is suddenly unemployed. Therefore upon death the caretaker may go out and buy a replacement pet that looks the same.

Read more here.

Source: Vanity Fair

Noah Davis explained the state of freelance writing economics in 2015:

• With the rise of sites such as Buzzfeed, Vox, and Vice, demand has shot up causing prices to rise.
• In 2013 earning 37 cents per word was about normal for a writer. Today it’s closer to 53 cents a word.
• Established websites, such as the New York Times, or websites looking to make a name for themselves by attracting the highest quality, offer rates as high as a dollar per word.
• Longform pieces can earn a writer up to $3,000.
• And other websites offer revenue share fees with an agreed upon flat-price, and then additional money based on the number of people who read the article.
• The good times are unlikely to last though. News organizations all over are laying off staff and sites that generated a lot of buzz once, such as the Huffington Post, are having financial problems.

The full article provides many more details. Read it here.

Source: The AWL

It’s been a while since arcades were a part of the national conversation. Willie Clark looked at the ones that still run today and how they work:

• It’s difficult to make any real money from games so most modern arcades are game areas with bars attached.
• At one arcade, games make up just 4% of revenue. The other 96% is mostly food and drink.
• Arcade owners are experimenting with different pricing models. Some still charge the quarter per play common when arcades were popular in the 80s and 90s.
• Others are trying out flat rate models where, for example, a customer pays $7 to play unlimited games for an hour – although this can lead to people hogging machines.
• Many of the arcades are filled with classic games from the arcade era. The machines can be bought on eBay and can cost anywhere between $1,000 and $3,000.
• Given the age of the machines, arcades also have to factor in about $200 a month to pay for maintenance.

Read more about arcade games with drink holders, how Dave and Buster’s is an exception, lingering legal obstacles, and other details here.

Source: Polygon

The image above may make you less interested in this website, at least according to a study reported on by Thu-Huong Ha:

• An experiment involving 8,500 participants found that after viewers saw an ad filled with sex and violence they were less likely to buy the product advertized.
• This is possibly because while humans pay attention to sex and violence, they focus so much on it, they are unable to absorb the underlying message about the product being advertized.
• In contrast audiences exposed to neutral ads are able to focus on the product and are more likely to purchase it afterwards.

Read more here.

Source: Quartz

More mothers are having caesarean deliveries than necessary, wrote The Economist. Here are some of the reasons why:

• Hospitals make more money from caesareans, which can be a complicated procedure, than from natural births.
• Moreover natural births take time. Doctors are paid per delivery and they can deliver several caesarean children in the time it takes for a natural birth to run its course.
• A caesarean makes it look like a doctor is putting effort into the birth and makes parents less likely to sue if there’s a problem during the delivery.
• There are also mundane human motives at play. If a baby isn’t ready to meet the real world towards the end of a Friday, or by the end of a shift, then impatient doctors may just call for a caesarean.
• In fact an abnormally low number of babies are born on public holidays, with doctors presumably wanting to enjoy long weekends.
• It’s not just doctors nudging expectant mothers though. Some parents want their children to be born on certain dates for good luck.
• And those in developing countries may just be afraid of being stuck in traffic on the all-important delivery date if it’s not pre-planned.

This, The Economist notes, is a bit of a problem:

• There’s no doubt that caesareans are important in multiple cases. Countries that don’t have enough caesareans suffer.
• However if caesareans are being used for any more than about 15% of pregnancies then they’re being used too much.
• The procedure is dangerous – those who undergo it are three times more likely to have emergencies during the delivery process.
• It can also lead to weaker children who don’t pick up the bacteria they normally do through a natural birth.

Read more about the distorted baby heads that maybe playing a role, how to make mothers comfortable during a natural birth, and many other fascinating details here.

Source: The Economist

Don’t get us wrong – treating women like property and selling their hand in marriage is unequivocally wrong. But just like how volcanoes, for all their destructive fury, lead to some pretty awesome looking photographs, so too is there evidence for at least one positive outcome from having bride prices, according to research covered by Kevin Grier:

• A paper indicates that brides who are educated command a substantially higher price in societies where the practice of pricing brides is common.
• For example a college degree in Indonesia can lead to a 100% increase in the price of a bride.
• This gives families an economic incentive to send daughters to school, as it becomes an investment into future profits.
• This also seems to drive the construction of schools for girls in bride-selling communities.

Grier points out that it’s not explained why education leads to higher prices, and notes other open questions. You can read them here.

Source: Cherokee Gothic

Via: Marginal Revolution