Centives

The era of the self-driving car is nigh and cities could suffer due to them writes Alex Davies:

• Self-Driving cars won’t break speeding, traffic light, parking or drunk driving laws.
• Cities make hundreds of millions of dollars from those violations. Everything from fines to towing fees go to city coffers.
• People will also probably buy fewer cars which means that cities won’t make as much money from car registrations.
• It’s not all doom and gloom. If there are fewer accidents then money will be saved from not having to treat victims.
• Increased productivity from people being able to do things like work in their car could also contribute to economic growth and thus tax income.
• There’ll be less pollution as cars will use fuel more efficiently, creating health savings.
• Cities will be able to re-allocate a whole lot of traffic cops to fighting crime.

Read more about other sources of revenues that cities could consider, and other implications of a self-driving future here.

Source: Wired

Partially as a result of China’s one child policy, China’s fertility rate – the number of children that an average woman will have – has dropped to 1.6, below the 2.1 required to prevent population decline. This means that the country is rapidly ageing, which Japan’s experience indicates could lead to an economic crash. The Chinese government has taken steps to loosen the one child policy and encourage more children but the initiatives haven’t been successful. The Economist took a look at the reasons why:

• Years of government propaganda about the importance of only having one child has been imprinted on people’s minds and many still believe it’d be unpatriotic to have more children.
• The country’s pollution and traffic problems are blamed on over-population further convincing people that the population needs to shrink.
• The country has grown used to a one-child policy. Hotel rooms for families with two children cannot be booked online.
• Play vehicles are set up with space for two parents and a child.
• Even toothbrush holders usually assume a two parent one child household.
• The cost of education and healthcare means that many parents feel that they cannot afford a second child.
• Since both parents are often working, grandparents help take care of children. But people are having children at older ages which means that grandparents can barely keep up with one child let alone two.

Read more about the effects that the one-child policy had on the country, the next steps that the government might take, and other details here.

Source: The Economist

For a while there it was unclear if we would ever be able to eat Greek yogurt again. But it seems like the Eurozone has figured out a deal, and Greece will stay in the European Union. Peter Berlin took a look at the role that being the host of the 2004 Olympics played in contributing to Greece’s current financial crisis.

• The games are thought to have cost Greece €7 billion, and the country continues to pay the debt from those games.
• Meanwhile the International Olympic Committee made close to $1 billion from the event.
• The IOC seems reluctant to award the games to countries that do things affordably.
• One solution would be to make a country – probably Greece since the Olympics originated there – a permanent host of the games.
• As Greece still has all the facilities from the 2004 games which largely sit unused, it would be a boost to the local economy, and would save other countries from expensive construction projects.
• The 2016 games in Rio, for example, are expected to cost €13.2 billion.

Read more here.

Source: Politico

The Sky Times wrote about how the movie Frozen has changed the destiny of babies across the United States:

• Elsa is now the 286^th most popular baby name in the United States, with 1,131 girls getting that name in 2014. This is the best that name has done since the dying days of World War 1 in 1917.
• But it’s not just the main protagonist. Olaf, the snowman from the film, inspired enough parents so that 22 babies were given that name in 2014, compared to seven the year before.
• And it’s not just good guys. The name of the antagonist Hans went from being used for 98 babies in 2013, to 132 in 2014.
• Some parents were inspired more by the animal characters than the human ones. Sven, the reindeer, saw 55 namesakes being born in 2014 compared to 33 a year before.
• Surprisingly Anna, already a popular name, didn’t see its share of names increase. It remained the 34^th most popular name.

Read more here.

Source: The Sky Times

Kelly Robinson looked into the weird practice of women jumping out of cakes:

• The Ancient Romans were the first known people to mix food with entertainment. They would cook and stuff one animal – such as a roasted pig – inside another, such as a cow.
• They also staged animals to make them look like they were alive. Fish swam in seas of sauce, and medievals continued this practice by using alcohol to create fire-breathing effects.
• This is also around the time that having an apple in the mouth of a pig became a thing. The idea was probably to make it look like the pig was alive and munching.
• By the end of the Middle Ages having living things – such as birds – inside food to fly out once the food was cut open, became popular.
• Having living people inside was a natural evolution and one banquet host managed to fit 28 musicians inside a pie.
• By the 1800s it was usually women in the pastries as such entertainment was often presented at parties by the elite for the elite. Wives, of course, were unwelcome.
• A 1970s article indicates that a cake jumper could make $220 (in 2015 dollars) per event.
• By the end of the 1970s having live humans come with your meal became less common as the equal rights movement meant that more and more women were at party events.
• The practice lives on though during events such as bachelor parties and areas of extravagant excess such as Las Vegas.

Read about the murder that truly brought the practice into the mainstream, the role that The Sims played, and famous examples of humans jumping out of food over here.

Source: Today I Found Out

A cat got an obituary in The Economist. Once you read her achievements, you’ll kinda sorta agree with the decision:

• Tama-chan (“Little Treasure”) was a calico cat – a type particularly popular in Japan.
• She soon moved to a small train station that was losing $4 million a year. As there was no money to hire employees the cat was appointed the stationmaster.
• She wore the specially made hat she got, and the stationmaster’s badge with pride. Over the years as she became more successful she even got her own office.
• She earned her keep by rubbing against passengers’ legs. Her fame spread and soon traffic to the station massively increased as people stopped by to be blessed by her.
• All in all she is thought to have earned $8 million (at today’s exchange rate) for the local economy.
• As an employee of a Japanese company her rank rose as she aged, and she was the first female operating officer to be recognized at her company.
• She ended as a Vice President within the company. Her funeral was held at the station and was attended by thousands.

Read about Tama-chan’s approach to life, her deification, and more over here.

Source: The Economist

A Japanese company is looking to offer on demand artificial meteor showers:

• A large number of shooting stars – often known as a meteor shower – is usually due to dust from space burning up in the earth’s atmosphere.
• A company aims to create on-demand meteor showers by launching a satellite which is able to release a cloud of dust that soon burns up in a specific part of the night sky.
• Different chemicals in the dust could be used to create multi-coloured showers.
• They’re not just for entertainment. Scientists may actually learn something by studying them, since unlike regular meteors they’ll know exactly when and where to look out for them.
• In case of cloudy weather the show could be called off about 2 hours before it is scheduled to begin.
• It is expected to cost about $8,100 per meteor.

Read about the secret chemicals that go into the meteors, the problem of light pollution, and more over here.

Source: Space

Via: Marginal Revolution

The American women might have won the world cup, but they’re losing the battle against wage inequality writes Mary Pilon:

• Female football players have salary ranges from $6,000-$30,000 which means that some of the players are earning less than the poverty line in the cities they compete in.
• In contrast the men have a salary cap of $3.1 million.
• Women are also unable to make much money from brand endorsements. One American forward earns $92,500 a year after endorsements. Their male counterparts can make millions.
• What makes it particularly unfortunate is that the women’s team seems to be more successful than the men’s, being ranked #1 in the world, compared with #27 for the men.
• While this is all largely because women’s football generates less attention than the men’s game, this maybe a chicken and egg problem. Few people may watch the game because few broadcasters properly advertize it.
• The attention that female tennis players get indicates that there is a market for women’s sports if broadcasters are willing to invest in it.
• The worst comparison is the prize money. When Germany won the men’s World Cup last year they got $35 million. This year’s female winners received $2 million.

Read about how other sports deal with this problem and more over here.

Source: Politico

When a new car is launched it is reviewed by automobile experts such as Matt Hardigree, who delved into the economics of handing out cars for reviewers to write about:

• Those who loan out a car to be reviewed carefully analyze the journalist that it is being loaned to and ensure that the car is loaded with the additional optional features that the reviewer likes.
• The car is also customized for the environment. If it is going to the north east then it’ll come with steering wheel and seat warmers.
• They don’t necessary get all the options. For example a review car probably won’t have the sun-roof feature because this can hurt fuel economy and manufacturers don’t want that written about.
• After the car has been selected it is ‘broken in’ by being driven a few hundred miles to make sure that there are no issues with it.
• Before the car is delivered the gas station closest to the reviewer is found so that the reviewer gets a full tank. They are not required to refill it before returning the car.
• The reviewer normally gets to drive it for around a week before it is handed off to the next reviewer.
• Manufacturers will monitor what the reviewer has to say and upgrade any parts that are getting negative reviews.
• Parts such as polished chrome wheels will be replaced rather than repaired to ensure that the vehicle gets the best possible press.
• Each car will be driven by around 15 journalists. Manufacturers make sure it ends with less than 10,000 miles so it can be auctioned off. Final buyers don’t know that it was a press review car once.
• In general sending a car to be reviewed costs about $2,800 per journalist – assuming that there is no damage to the car which reviewers are not liable for.
• If journalists write positive things about the car then the manufacturer may pay the publication to use quotes from the positive reviews in advertizements.
• All of this can create a conflict of interest. This is why some publications such as Consumer Reports outright buys the cars it reviews – in secret so the car manufacturer can’t fine tune the car for the reviewer.
• Hardigree, the author of the article, goes through about 25 review cars a year.

The full article takes a much deeper dive into the economics of the industry and provides many more fascinating details. It is worth a read over here, and worth considering the next time you read a car review.

Source: Jalopnik

Katia Moskvitch wrote that in-flight tv screens might be coming to a gentle end:

• The TV screens that often come embedded in airplanes cost $15,000 a seat or almost $8 million per aircraft.
• They’re the biggest driver of maintenance costs, after engines and landing gear.
• With planes increasingly coming with Wi-Fi there’s less of a need to keep passengers entertained with movies. While they won’t be able to stream Netflix in the air, they can do some internet reading and chatting.
• Other airlines are handing out devices to passengers. Openskies a French Airline distributes 500 tablets to passengers pre-loaded with videos. This costs $250,000 per plane which is much cheaper than built-in systems.
• Another airline, Trasavia, has trialed giving out Occulus Rift virtual reality headsets to each of its passengers.
• Aircraft can also come with movies on a central server which are then streamed to passengers’ own personal devices. Since the movies are stored onboard passengers don’t have to pay absurd charges to access the movies.

See how other airlines are cutting costs, the future of in-flight holograms, and much more over here.

Source: BBC