The current Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II, is probably the most well-travelled monarchy in history writes Cordelia Hebblethwaite. But what stands out is the countries that she hasn’t visited:

• The Queen’s husband is from Greece but she has never visited the country as a queen due to Greece’s complicated history with her husband’s family.
• The Queen has not visited Israel due to political tensions involved with the legitimacy of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.
• She has visited only two countries in Latin America and while that will probably soon expand she is unlikely to visit Argentina because of the tensions created by the Falklands war.

To read other examples, why she has never visited Egypt, what it means for the Queen to visit a country, the people who plan these visits, and the places she chooses to go to during her holidays, click here.

Source: BBC News

When Adam Davidson wanted to find a nanny for his children he wondered if his child would benefit if he hired a nanny that was more expensive than the $15 that the standard nanny charged. What he found surprised him:

• One elite nanny in New York City had a salary of $180,000 a year. Her $3,000 a month apartment on Central Park was also paid for by her employers, and she earned a Christmas bonus.
• To make this much money a nanny must be willing to be available 24/7. The rich people who hire such nannies are paying so that they don’t have to worry about their children’s care, which means that the nanny can’t have other plans.
• Other ways that a nanny can improve her market value include being able to speak another language such as French or Mandarin. Skills such as being able to wash a horse, steer a yacht, and manage an art gallery are also valued.
• Some rich families want their kids to start networking early – and one way that they can have their children play with other affluent children is by hiring an elite nanny who has other elite nanny contacts who work for high profile families.

To read more about one of these nannies, whether we should compare the pricing of nannies to wine or to an auto tune-up, and why scientists haven’t conducted studies on the effectiveness of nannies who receive more pay, click here.

Source: New York Times

Ben Popken discussed the results of the WorldWide Shrinkage Survey. Some highlights include:

• Cheese is the most shop-lifted food in the world.
• However a lot of the cheese is likely being stolen for resale to other places such as restaurants and markets.
• Cheese is easy to steal because it comes in small packages. It is also difficult to trace once you remove the label.
• Other popular items for shop lifters include meat, candy, and infant formula.

To read the lengths that one store owner went to, to protect his cheese, as well as more about what shop-lifters like to carry, click here.

Source: The Consumerist

We might see Rhinos go extinct in our lifetimes write David Randall and Jonathan Owen. Highlights of their report include:

• Rhinos could go extinct as soon as 2025.
• This is because Rhino poaching has sharply increased. In 2007 13 Rhinos were killed. In 2012 the world is on track to see 600 Rhinos killed.
• There could be as few as 11,000 Rhinos left in the world.
• The poaching is happening because of the high demand for Rhino horns for Chinese medicine and jewelry.
• The price of Rhino horn is £40,000 a kilo – more than gold.
• Countries have been using automated drones and sonar devices to detect poachers.

To read more about the role that arms and humans trafficking plays in the problem, the elephants that are also being killed, and why a military solution might be the only option, click here.

Source: The Independent

Jon Kelly took a look at adverts designed specifically to appeal to children, and the popularity of one toy in particular:

• 60 years ago Mr. Potato Head was the first ever toy to be marketed on television to children instead of their parents. It was a revolutionary idea at the time.
• The original Mr. Potato head did not have a potato body – kids were to use a real potato. The potato body didn’t come until a decade later.
• In the wake of anti-smoking campaigns the pipe was dropped from Mr. Potato Head toy sets in 1986.
• Advertizing toys to kids has become widespread and this has led to complaints from parents that toy manufacturers rely on “pester power” or the “nag factor” where adverts try to convince children to nag their parents for the things they see on television.
• The toy makers say that they act responsibly, especially since their most effective ads draw children into a fantasy world, rather than those that get children to nag their parents.

To read more about the advertizement that depicted cartoon characters being led to a butcher’s shop, what the Mothers’ Union has to say about it, when Mr. Potato Head found Mrs. Potato Head, how effective the advertising campaign was, and the person who invented the toy, click here.

Source: BBC

With Instagram being valued by Facebook at $1 billion, Patrick Moran took a look at what it took to start your own billion dollar company:

• To be valued at a billion the conventional wisdom is that it must have revenue of around $100 million.
• However the market seems to be willing to tolerate lower annual revenue if the revenue is growing and recurring.
• Recurring revenue is easiest in the world of software where the “Software as a Service” model is becoming dominant.
• In Software as a Service customers pay a periodic (weekly/monthly/annual) fee for a service rather than pay a high up-front cost. The aim is to lock your customers into long term contracts.
• A growth rate of 20% is healthy. A churn – the rate at which you lose customers – of about 2% is acceptable.

To read more details about these requirements, why it’s important to get Instagram out of your mind, what Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM have yet to get, and the importance of paying top dollar for sales and marketing, click here.

Source: TechCrunch

Harvard University’s Faculty Advisory Committee has sent out a memo requesting that professors encourage the growth of free, open-access journals. Highlights from the memo include:

• Harvard’s annual cost for journals is $3.75 million. The most expensive journals can cost as much as $40,000 per year and the price is rising unsustainably. In some cases prices have risen by as much as 145% in a year.
• Harvard faculty are encouraged to “move prestige to open access”.
• They are also asked to “consider resigning” if they are on the editorial board of pay for access journals.

To read the full memo and find out what the profit margins of the journals are, click here.

Source: The Harvard Library

Via: Arstechnica

The film industry is moving towards digital formats instead of standard 35 mm film. In a six page article Gendy Alimurung discussed some of the consequences of this:

• Studios are pushing the drive for digital film because it costs $1,500 to print one copy of one movie and to ship it to one screen in one theater. Multiply that by all of the theaters that a movie goes to and it gets expensive fast. In contrast digital costs just $150
• To play digital films new equipment is needed, but not only is upgrading the equipment expensive, it also costs a lot more to maintain. Since studios are no longer giving out 35mm films anymore to accelerate the transition to digital, many art house theaters are likely to go out of business.
• Some within the industry such as Christopher Nolan have fought back. These people note that film forces filmmakers to be masters of their craft. They can’t use digital monitors to check their progress. And since film cameras have to be reloaded every ten minutes discipline is required.
• Digital has its advantages. It can be set up easier and the cameras are smaller. Iconic scenes in 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire could not have been shot without digital.
• However digital movies are more expensive to maintain and there are more risks involved. Toy Story 2 was accidentally deleted by the filmmakers, and they were just barely able to recover it. Moreover because digital formats change so often it’s very easy for movies to become lost in time.
• Film is mortal – every time you play it, there’s a little wear and tear on the film. Every screening of a film is a slightly different experience. Some prefer this more organic experience. Titanic was so popular that the film was literally falling apart within the projector.
• Quentin Tarantino owns an art-house cinema and has threatened to burn it to the ground the day the cinema puts in a digital projector.
• The theater management doesn’t have the heart to tell Tarantino that they’ve been using a digital projector there for years.

To read more about the role that Avatar played, why Robert Downey Jr. sometimes leaves bottles of urine around on set, what exactly is “The Digital Dilemma”, what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has to say, why some movies will not make the transition to digital, becoming lost to our generation, and the fate of projectionists, click here.

Source: L.A. Weekly

Via: Slate