With the prevalence of Occupy Wall Street these days, many people are talking not only about the issue brought up by the protesters, but also about what elements of the protest were all about. This article looks at youth in the occupy movement; who are they and why are they there? What is the relation to previous youth protest? It’s a brief article that will give you the basics. Click here.

The issue of HIV/AIDS is very important to a plethora of people around the world. As developed countries cut their funding for research, the Copenhagen Consensus Center and the Rush Foundation instituted a project called RethinkHIV. The goal of this project was to find the most efficient use of money in AIDS research in order to benefit society as a whole as much as possible. Here are the five key areas noted by economists:

• Find an HIV vaccine
• Spend more on prevention of mother to child transmission
• Make blood transfusions safer
• Increased use of male circumcision
• Direct funds to the most infectious

To read more on slate.com, click here.

Anyone who has ever been in a relationship during the reign of Facebook knows how sensitive and troublesome “relationship statuses” can be. Relationships are of course complicated, but a new dimension is added when Facebook comes into the mix. Not only are you dealing with your significant other (or not), but you have to contend with the implications of everyone you have ever known (plus some) interpreting your action or inaction. This has led to an array of:

• new etiquette on and off the site
• amplified competition post-break up
• broken hearts

Check out the rest of the story on Time here.

With all the recent clamouring over sovereign debt and credit ratings for government issued bonds around the world, Centives thought it prudent to let you know more about one aspect to the debate. The rating downgrade for US treasury bonds and other countries shook many investors and though it happened a while ago, it is important to understand what all the jargon behind the ratings means as well as how Standard and Poors categorizes countries. Succinct articles of this sort are quite helpful, check it out.

Today, Centives decided to enlighten all you Star Wars fans, addicts, or curious folk who have like many of us wondered: How in the (world) do lightsabers work? The answer is, well, complicated. Centives has yet to find a credible account of the existence of a lightsaber which resembles those used in the Star Wars movies. Even so, howstuffworks.com has made the complicated physics and applicability of lightsabers available to all. From its physical characteristics, various uses, and internal workings, this article has it all; it makes you wonder if they had some access the rest of us don’t. Read the full article here.

A new voting system may be coming to a town or county near you this election season. Instead of the traditional method of voting for one candidate in a contest, in a manner which seems natural and inseparable from our current conception of the word, some towns’ ballets will be ranking candidates instead.

Voters will have the chance to rank their favorite contenders in a manner which will reduce potentially costly run-offs for local governments.

For all the details, reasons, causes, and implications, check out the article by Freakonomics here.

Watch what you say; casual conversations have the potential to lead to enormous and incredible results, just ask Geert Jan Olsder. He was the man who wrote a paper called “Population Planning; a Distributed Time Optimal Control Problem” and according to Freakonomics, might have played a role in inspiring one very influential man in China to push for the nation’s infamous One-Child-Policy.

Here is a summary:

• Olsder met with Song Jian, a well educated fellow from China for some drinks
• They discuss the implications of population planning, without a second thought from Olsder
• Jian ultimately plays an instrumental role in developing China’s population control policy

Whether or not it was intended, Olsder looks to have served as a link in the story from theory of population control to actual, full-scale birth rate policy in China.

For the full story, check out the full article here.

Source: Freakonomics