Centives

The biggest tech companies are working to spread internet access across the world. Leo Mirani took a look at their approaches:

• Google is planning to use satellites, balloons, and drones to provide internet access to low income communities.
• Facebook also dished out $20 million for experts in solar-powered drones that can be used to spread internet.
• A more modest idea is to utilized unused parts of the electromagnetic spectrum reserved for television. These unused parts are the space in between television channels – white space.
• In tests run by Microsoft in Kenya, the company was able to provide internet access for $5 per month – cheaper than the plans offered by mobile providers.

Read more about the various approaches here.

Source: Quartz

Danielle Kurtzleben looked at how our looks affect our financial prospects:

• Over the course of a lifetime a good looking person makes about $230,000 more than others.
• The gap is smaller for women than for men. This may be because only prettier women are incentivized to go out and work while others choose to stay at home.
• More attractive CEOs have companies with higher stock market valuations.
• Each additional inch of height is worth $790 a year in the labour market.
• It’s not all good news. Attractive women have some problems getting masculine jobs.

Read more about why attractive people might be less likely to go to jail, how attractiveness affects attitudes on inequality, and more over here.

Source: Vox

Look we didn’t do the study. We’re just helping to summarize it. Arielle Duhaime-Ross writes that female hurricanes are deadlier than male ones.

• One study found that severe hurricanes with female names cause, on average, 42 deaths, while those with male names cause 15 deaths.
• After 1978 hurricane names have alternated between male and female so there’s no selection bias here.
• Instead it seems that people find a hurricane with a female name less threatening, and so take fewer measures to avoid it.
• The study found, for example, that people are more likely to evacuate if a storm is named “Victor” instead of “Victoria”.

Read more about how hurricanes could be named to make the threat more real, why the researchers excluded Hurricane Katrina from their sample, and more over here.

Source: The Verge

Ice for the uber wealthy is a thing, writes Zachary Crockett:

• For $325 the frozen water connoisseur can get 50 Gläce cubes.
• What makes the $8 per piece ice special? It’s perfectly spherical, and is “individually carved from a 300-lb. block to ensure flawless quality and a zero-taste profile”.
• It will also not break like, and we quote, “less deserving ice”.
• The makers recommend letting the ice age for about three minutes before consuming the beverage it’s in.
• Even if the company behind it uses the best ice blocks possible, it still marks its products up by about 3,150%.
• The ice has been featured at Playboy parties and luxury car shows.

Read more over here.

Source: Priceonomics

Individuals have increasingly been criticizing the amount of luxury lavished on passengers of First Class – at the expense of those in Economy. The Economist argued that we only have ourselves to blame.

• Airlines would like nothing more to offer – and charge for – than a better experience in Economy Class.
• Yet passengers always pick the carriers with the lowest fares.
• These are, unsurprisingly, the airlines that strip all the bells and whistles from flying.
• Travelers then complain about their flying experience – but they’re only getting what they pay for.
• If passengers put their money where their mouth is and stop rewarding the worst airlines with their dollars, perhaps we could all fly in greater comfort.

Read more about the airlines that offer a better flying experience (and how badly they’re doing financially) over here.

Source: The Economist

Tony Manfred took a look at why the future of The Olympics might be a lot more authoritarian.

• Event organizers usually over-estimate the benefits of hosting The Olympics while the cost of the games invariably go over-budget.
• As a result of this voters are increasingly rejecting the idea of hosting the games in their city.
• A referendum in Poland led to the city withdrawing its application to hold the 2022 Winter Games, as did a vote in Germany.
• Other countries are either planning to, or have already, withdrawn their candidacy to be hosts.
• The remaining serious contenders are from Kazakhstan and China.
• They are, unsurprisingly, authoritarian countries that don’t have to pay attention to taxpayer concerns.

Read more over here.

Source: Business Insider

Richard Florida looked at the development of heavy metal music:

• Heavy metal originates in economically ravaged working class areas where discontent was rife.
• These days however it is most popular in Scandinavia – which is odd because Scandinavian countries have a really high quality of life.
• Some suggest that the emotional darkness of the music resonates well with those who have to deal with long, dark winters.
• Others suggest that it appeals to those with Viking blood.
• Yet others suggest its popular because the societies are so affluent and this leads to boredom and backlash against the privileged.
• Its popularity may be helped by the fact that Scandinavian countries have the wealth to experiment with new sounds, and wealthy youth with the leisure time to listen to it.

See a map showing where heavy metal is most popular and read more about the odd trend over here.

Source: Citylab

While social media may have acquired a reputation for being a place where teenagers compulsively post their unrefined musings, Aaron Taube wrote that companies approach it with extensive planning:

• A single corporate tweet can require a team of 13 people up to 45 days to post.
• First individuals come together and decide what the theme of a social media campaign should be.
• A writer then comes up with the words of the tweet itself and a graphic designer creates an image to accompany it.
• Senior copywriters, strategists, and corporate executives have to then sign off on a tweet before it can go out.
• Running a company’s social media account is a 24/7 job. If somebody engages with the brand at 10pm, a response is expected to be posted soon – even if it interrupts a date.

Read more about the fun parts of having a job in social media and more over here.

Source: Business Insider

Michael Jordan made over $90 million last year. Kurt Badenhausen looked at how he did it:

• When Nike released the latest edition of its Air Jordan sneakers sales were worth $35 million on the first day.
• In contrast Adidas sold $40 million worth of its signature shoes over the entirety of 2013.
• One of every two basketball shoes sold in 2013 carried Jordan’s brand.
• Despite it being a decade since Jordan played in an NBA game he was responsible for $2.25 billion in US retail basketball sales in 2013.
• There were references to Michael Jordan in 50 new songs in 2013. The next athlete on the list was Kobe Bryant with 18 mentions.
• And things are only looking up for the former athlete. His ownership of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats could soon turn him into a billionaire.

Read more over here.

Source: Forbes

Vlad Savov took a look at how supermarkets price their wares:

• In the era of big data supermarkets are using information from loyalty card programs to figure out how much customers are willing to pay for items.
• This data allows them to build complex and surprisingly accurate models that show what a change in pricing strategy will mean for profits.
• The software can predict at what price point an individual will switch brands, and what incentives are required to make the customer switch to the bigger product.
• The model has identified some quirky trends. An eight packs’ price affects the sales of four packs more strongly than the price of four packs affects eight packs.
• Buy one get one free is a more profitable offer than a fifty percent price cut since customers will sometimes forget to get their one free product.
• The software also evaluates how the price of one good affects the sales of another.

Read more about the system and how it works over here.

Source: The Verge