Centives

Dan Kopf looked into what makes a region’s food distinctive:

• A cuisine becomes associated with certain ingredients usually because of either geography – such as fish in Japan – or cultural history, such as ham in Spanish food.
• An analysis of the most popular ingredients by cuisine shows that for Americans butter is the most common part of any recipe.
• This isn’t confirmation of the trope about Americans and obesity – in most cuisines (including European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern) some sort of cooking lubricant like butter or oil is the most common ingredient.
• But an analysis of the most unusually distinctive ingredients is more interesting. For example Galangal – Siamese ginger – is in over 10% of Thai dishes, but only in 0.1% of other cuisine’s dishes, making it 100 times more common in Thai food.
• In the United States, the land of freedom and apple pie, applies are the most unusually common ingredient.
• For the Greeks its feta cheese.
• For Southwesterners its grits.
• For the Irish it is, of course, whiskey.

The full article talks about many other types of cuisine including Chinese, African, Mexican and Indian. It also has some musings on things such as the centrality of eggs in Jewish food. You should read it here.

Source: Priceonomics

Via: Marginal Revolution

In the Star Trek universe “replicators” – machines that can make anything – have removed the problem of scarcity – the defining point of economic theory. Noah Smith wrote about what our society may look like if it was similar to the world presented in Star Trek:

• In the Star Trek universe there is a large amount of automation. In our own universe more automation seems to have led to more income inequality.
• Yet as people got richer governments would probably impose progressive tax rates that would redistribute money from the richest to the poorest.
• Even if they didn’t, as people got richer it is possible that they would increasingly want to give their wealth away to those who don’t have enough.
• Therefore, over time, our society should evolve into one that has a high absolute level of living – similar to the world of Star Trek.
• The lack of scarcity probably means that the population isn’t growing.
• This isn’t too hard to imagine in our own world: rich countries are seeing their populations shrink not grow, a trend that is expected to continue as poor countries grow richer.
• People currently get a feeling of self-worth from their jobs. In a Star Trek like future where there doesn’t seem to be much commerce, they may increasingly be getting it from art and hobbies.
• Economic theory usually assumes that we’re the slaves of our own desires and interests. But in the future we could hack our brains to change the kind of person that we are, to match what we want to be.
• Some people will be able to choose to just always be happy – without the side effects of drugs. Others may choose to have a yearning for exploration, and to “go where no man has gone before”.

Read other musings on the topic here.

Source: Bloomberg

Flights get overbooked and people are told that they can’t fly that day. Melanie Pinola looked into this:

• Passengers should never volunteer to give up their seat. Airline compensation for doing so is as little a $200.
• In contrast if no one volunteers and the airline is forced to deny passengers boarding, then Federal Law requires compensation of up to $1,300.
• Passengers who want to avoid overbookings should shy away from United, Southwest, and, especially, Delta.
• Instead they should consider Hawaiian, jetBlue, and Virgin America which have the lowest rates of passengers getting bumped.
• Those who are signed up for frequent flyer programs also usually get to avoid being asked to get off the plane.

Read other details here.

Source: Life Hacker

Jon Stewart is retiring from The Daily Show. Suzanne Vranica took a look at how much it cost to buy ad spaces on his show:

• While the show doesn’t have the largest audience, it is popular with wealthy left leaning youths which is a lucrative demographic.
• Usually 30 second spots on the show cost about $46,200.
• However during the show’s final episode that has spiked to $230,000.
• One of the buyers of a finale advertizing spot is Arby’s which Stewart has spent the last two years making jokes about, once saying that going there was for “when you’re wondering what it tastes like when a cow dies”.
• In the ad the restaurant chain will announce a new sandwich named after the show: “The Daily Deli”

Read more here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The finale of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is tonight. You should watch it.

Which country does the most to save the world? There is a case to be made for Bangladesh writes Laura Secorun Palet who explained why the country contributes the most troops to United Nations peacekeeping operations:

• Bangladesh notes that it has topped the list of contributor nations to peacekeeping missions for 26 years due to its interest in seeing peace around the world.
• The country may also want to keep the military – which is prone to orchestrating coups – far from the country where they pose less of a threat.
• There is also the hope that these missions will spread democratic ideals among the troops.
• It is a source of revenue for the government. Bangladeshi troops have a starting salary of $193, while the UN pays $1,028 for their services. The government keeps the difference.
• This is estimated to have contributed $1.28 billion to state coffers between 2001 and 2010.
• It’s unclear if Bangladesh can keep it up though. The UN increasingly wants soldiers trained in using sophisticated equipment – something that Bangladeshi troops aren’t the best at.

Read some of the ethical questions this arrangement raises, other countries that contribute personnel to missions, and more over here.

Source: Ozy/Yahoo News

James Whitbrook took a look at the history of Star Wars merchandising:

• Due to pre-reviews nobody expected Star Wars to do particularly well which is why George Lucas was able to negotiate a contract that allowed him to get revenues from merchandising, a move that would make him immensely rich.
• However it was difficult to get anybody to make merchandising in the first place. Several major toy companies passed on the movie until one finally agreed.
• The movie’s success was unprecedented. So much so that despite coming out in May, the company making the toys couldn’t supply enough for the all-important Christmas period.
• So the company began to literally sell empty boxes. The boxes showed pictures of the figurines on the outside, and kids were encouraged to mail in a coupon that let them get the real toys months later.
• For the prequels the maker of the toys was Hasbro and they found a new way to generate both revenues and to drum up interest in the film: action figures of Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu and a Battle Droid speeder were the first look fans got at the characters.
• For the second prequel movie, episode 2, Hasbro experimented with releasing toys at midnight, which got fans to line up in costume hours in advance in order to be the first to get the toys.

Read about the struggle to balance between the demands of children and collectors, the controversial Boba Fett action figure, and what toymakers have planned for the next set of films, as well as other details, over here.

Source: io9

Olivia Coy looked into the long, slow decline of Neopets, the virtual pet care and gaming community:

• The Neopets site was once a Wall Street darling. Millions of users visited every day and each stayed for, on average, close to 20 minutes, longer than most others.
• This time was profitable. Games such as “Spider-Man Cheese Nips Hunt” meant that advertizers could target kids while they were having fun with games.
• Neopets was also able to harvest data on its underage users and sell them to advertizers.
• However the site got ahead of itself. It was pressured to release an increasing number of sponsored games which helped the company’s finances but destroyed the in-game economy.
• The games increased the amount of cash available which led to hyper-inflation that meant that new players were priced out of the marketplace.
• While the company tried to institute deflationary monetary policies other problems such as outdated content or overall site neglect kept players away.
• Now Neopets has been sold to an educational software company and may possibly see a revival.

Read about the company, its history, the scientology influences, and much more over here.

Source: The Kernel

Single women in Korea are increasingly deciding not to get married. Some are instead opting for weddings without husbands:

• Single wedding packages include wedding dresses and photo shoots.
• The idea behind them is that photos from a day as important as a wedding should be taken when the bride is in her prime.
• Some hope to add a husband in the future – perhaps at a time when a wedding photographer would’ve captured a few more wrinkles around the eyes.
• Friends are sometimes invited to the photo shoot since weddings are family experiences.
• It is even possible to hire a male model to stand in as the groom.

Read more here.

Source: The Economist

The writers at Cracked took a look at how some of our most famous bits of culture were partly driven by financial motives:

• Batman and Superman first started working together because DC Comics needed to save on paper costs during the Great Depression.
• Instead of printing two separate comics with the two heroes, it was cheaper to bring them together to tell one big story over fewer pages.
• Hip Hop got its start in inner-city New York because instruments were too expensive for families living there.
• Teenagers would take the records that they had, scratch them, merge beats together, and experiment until Hip Hop was born.
• The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy because paper shortages during World War Two meant that it was impossible to release it as one big volume, the way that J.R.R. Tolkien originally intended.

The full article takes a look at why Darth Vader is Luke’s father and how George Carlin got his start. You should read it here.

Source: Cracked

Mark Wilson wrote about a creative way that one resident of Manchester, England, used to fix the potholes in his city:

• The vigilante draws official attention to potholes by drawing giant – often graphic – penises around them.
• Every superhero has a tragic origin story, and this caped crusader was inspired to fight the disease in his city when he saw his friends get injured in a bicycle accident caused by potholes.
• His tactics work. Potholes are usually fixed within about 48 hours after the drawings appear.
• City officials are unamused. They point out that they have to clean the chalk off the streets which diverts money away from actually fixing more potholes.
• But of course city officials could just let the chalk wash away in the rain if they wanted to.

Read more about the superhero name this mysterious warrior has chosen for himself, the international fan base that he is building, photos of his handiwork, and more over here.

Source: Fast Company