Centives

Aaron Schachter wrote about a (real) travel agency for…stuffed toys:

• For $45 a day the Japanese company will take your stuffed animal on a tour of Tokyo with stops in places such as Tokyo tower and the Imperial Palace.
• To prove that they visited those places the tour guide will take photos of the stuffed animal at the attractions.
• Before the trip owners of the toy will get a questionnaire asking about things such as the toy’s dietary restrictions.
  • The service seems to appeal to those who can’t afford to go on trips themselves, and so live voraciously through their stuffed animals.

Read about how the service got started, and more over here.

Source: Public Radio International

No need for any post-holiday blues, writes Matthew Yglesias. The most patriotic thing you could do as a global citizen would be to start planning for another Christmas celebration:

• Statisticians don’t usually talk about it because they like to “seasonally adjust” their numbers, but up to 3 million Americans have jobs due to the Christmas season – and are fired soon afterwards.
  • It’s not just the demand created by presents. There’s also a surge in travel and food spending that props up the economy.
• Having a second Christmas sometime in the spring would give the economy a lasting boost, and perhaps make some of the “seasonal” workers permanent ones.
• For the economy as a whole this would be affordable. Yes, you’d have to spend more on presents, but all the extra demand would ultimately raise everybody’s wages.

Read the rest of the argument, why Yglesias is serious, and more over here.

Source: Vox

Via: Marginal Revolution

Suzanne McGee wrote about research into how much society should value Santa:

• Insure.com looked at all the jobs that Santa does and added up how much he would earn if he took those skills to other jobs.
• Overall it came out to $139,924 this year.
• This is mostly due to his prowess as “an industrial engineer” managing a toy factory in the North Pole.
• His value includes 182.5 hours a year spent in labour negotiations with the elves.
• He also makes some pocket money from all the personal guest appearances he makes when he visits malls.
• The figure does not, however, include hazard pay for having to spend so much time in the North Pole.
• Santa will be pleased that he’s entitled to a raise though. Last year the same work was worth $2,000 less.
• According to (real) surveys about 29% of people think that Santa should be paid $1 for every child, meaning he should be paid around $1.8 billion.
• Another 29% of survey respondents thought he should be paid nothing.

Read about the study, its methodology, and more over here. And read our own analysis of how much it would cost to make Santa’s presents here.

Source: Fiscal Times

A Korean Airlines executive (who has since resigned) made global headlines when she forced a plane to return to the gate after her outrage over being served macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a plate. Macadamia nut growers could not be happier:

• Sales of macadamia nuts got a substantial boost after the incident made headlines.
• Demand was driven, in part, by Koreans who before the outburst weren’t widely aware of macadamias.
• Prices for the nut have risen 10% this year.
• The Australian Macadamia Society says that macadamia sales used to make up 5% of total nut sales. They are now responsible for 50%.
• In Korea one retailer reports that sales have increased 149% in a week.

Read more about why this is just the beginning for the humble macadamia nut at the source links below.

Source: Fraser Coast Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal

John Leicester wrote about how Qatar manages to keep its stadiums full:

• Qatar has a population of 1.8 million. Of those only about 300,000 are Qatari citizens. The rest are temporary workers.
• Volleyball, handball, and football matches are played in front of full stadiums as workers are offered $8 to pretend to be a fan.
• Given the amount of time a match takes this comes out to less than $1 an hour.
• Some even dress up in white robes and headscarves to look like proper Qatari citizens.
• While the crowds look good for television, they’re actually keeping real fans from going to the stadium. Two thirds of a survey’s respondents said that paid fans are the reason why real fans don’t go to matches.

Read more about the practice here.

Source: AP

Via: Marginal Revolution, Slate

Doctor waiting rooms rarely have any good magazines lying about. Kevin Lora reported on a study that figured out why:

• Researchers found that all the best magazines are stolen by those passing through.
• People are more likely to steal newer magazines than older ones.
• They’re also more likely to steal gossipy celebrity magazines rather than magazines such as The Economist or Time.
• Oddly people were more likely to take cheaper magazines with them.

Read more about the study here.

Source: Slate

Google posted a list of top searches in the year so far. Andrea Chang wrote:

• Kim Kardashian didn’t break the internet this year, Robin Williams did, whose name was the #1 search of the year.
  • Perhaps hoping that Google knew where misplaced a jumbo jet, Malaysia Airlines came 4th on the list.
• The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge which we will soon be able to refer to as “so 2014” was #5 on the list.
• To the frustration of parents everywhere “Frozen” came #9 on the list.
• The Football World Cup was more popular than the Winter Olympics.

The full list is:

1. Robin Williams
2. World Cup
3. Ebola
4. Malaysia Airlines
5. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
6. Flappy Bird
7. Conchita Wurst
8. ISIS
9. Frozen
10. Sochi Olympics

Read other insights, and check out how the most popular searches differed in the US, and see other people who trended over here.

Source: LA Times