Moshe Cohen reported on a novel way to rob banks:

• One man managed to “rob” at least eight banks by merely asking bank tellers to hand over cash.
• He was careful about the teller he selected – it was usually a woman.
• He then explained to them that he had no weapons, and had no intention or means of hurting anybody.
• After sliding over a bag for them to fill he apologized for what he was doing and explained that he was facing difficult financial times.
• The tellers would report the robbery only after the man made a safe getaway.
• He is thought to have gotten away with about $28,000 through this technique.

Read what the police think and why this may not qualify as a robbery in the first place, here.

Source: Arutz Sheva

Via: Marginal Revolution

In a documentary David Borenstein looked at the foreigner renting industry in China:

• China is in the midst of a construction boom that has left multiple properties in search of a buyer.
• One way that realtors can boost demand is by renting foreigners.
• Firms provide menus where customers can select skin colours and nationalities.
• By having such faces present when interested buyers come around to visit, developers can make an area seem more globalized than it really is.
• Some of the purchased foreigners will play the role of low level VIPs to further enhance property values.

Watch the full documentary here.

Source: The New York Times

Proving that you can almost never please everybody China.org wrote about an unexpectedly aggrieved interest group:

• Sexy female “car babes” have been banned from the Shanghai International Automobile Industry exhibition.
• This has led to models protesting the decision by dressing up as beggars.
• The protesting models note that their efforts to get thin have been “in vain”.

Source: China.org

Via: Marginal Revolution

Emily Badger looked at buildings that cast a shadow on us all:

• Developers are racing ever-faster to build the tallest buildings in the world – often times for the rich to exclusively enjoy.
• What’s often given less attention is the long shadows these buildings cast on the streets and people below.
• These shadows are in part why in New York City laws require that buildings get narrower as they go up, so that the city isn’t darkened by shoulder to shoulder skyscrapers.
• In San Francisco developers have to hire “shadow consultants” that measure the amount of “theoretical annual sunlight hours lost” and submit this information to the government before getting approval to put up a new building.
• As such buildings continue to be built, light is becoming another expression of inequality. Those who can afford to pay to live in high skyscrapers get to enjoy it at the expense of those living below.
• The battle between light and dark has taken on an added dimension with the spread of solar installations that can be blocked by new skyscrapers.
• Half a world away, in the sweltering Middle East, citizens jostle for the shade offered by the shadows of big buildings.

Read more about the dark side and the light side here.

Source: The Washington Post

Peter Eavis wrote about air ambulances:

• The air ambulance business has been booming. Since insurers usually pay the costs, companies have expanded their fleets and increased their coverage.
• The ambulances save lives. However they’re falling upon hard times since insurers are beginning to ask consumers to pay more of their bills.
• Moreover rapid growth in the industry has left it with a problem of oversupply, with each helicopter flying a fifth less than it used to in 2006.
• Costs are high. Helicopters start at about $4 million and can cost much more.
• The average flight is estimated to cost anywhere between $7,400 and $10,000.
• The average bills has gone up from $17,200 five years earlier to $40,800 now.
• Those who go out of business first might be the non-profit ones who don’t have cash buffers for a decrease in demand.

Read about the lobbyists that the industry has hired, the lengths that companies will go to, to collect debts, and many more details here.

Source: The New York Times

The New Avengers film has been facing some blowback due to its portrayal of women, particularly Black Widow. An anonymous former Marvel employee noted that the Avengers merchandising largely ignores the female Avengers and explained why:

• Age of Ultron has had one of the biggest openings in film history – a lot of it driven by female audiences – yet the toys and action figures aren’t geared to appeal to girls.
• This seems to be something that happened after Marvel was acquired by Disney.
• Disney already has its merchandising towards females locked down with dolls from movies such as Frozen and Brave proving popular with girls.
• Part of the reason for Disney’s acquisition was so that it could build a line of merchandise that was also popular with boys.
• Thus toys from films such as Frozen are aimed at girls, and those from The Avengers are aimed at boys.
• Moreover female characters are often hyper-sexualized in the movies, and there are concerns about selling merchandise to young children with that kind of imagery.

The full article talks about how consumers can best go about pressing the industry for change, and takes a more detailed look into how merchandising deals are set up financially. You should read it here.

Centives has also previously covered how male oriented action figure toys prevent executives from greenlighting comic book cartoons aimed at girls here.

Source: The Mary Sue

Via: io9

Joe Pinsker wrote about research that indicates that wearing formal attire changes how people interact with the world:

• Wearing formal clothes seems to make people feel powerful.
• While wearing them people think more holistically rather than about fine-grained details.
• Similarly wearing a Doctor’s white coat can make a person more attentive.
• However if the wearer believes that the same coat belongs to a painter the effect is no longer observed.

Read about how the study was conducted, and why the effect may get stronger in the years to come over here.

Source: The Atlantic

Laurel Randolph wrote about the rise of sushi in the United States:

• The first known American sushi restaurant was opened in 1966 in California, by a Japanese man looking to spread his native culture.
• It became popular with Japanese businessmen who invited their western counterparts who took a liking to the dish.
• It was also the beginnings of the health food craze, and sushi began to draw the attention of movie stars, making the restaurant a Californian hot spot.
• In the 1970s the California roll was invented and this unleashed a wave of experimentation across the United States.
• Soon sushi included things like jalapenos, cream cheese, and steak. Some places, of course, tried deep frying sushi rolls.
• But there are concerns about the decline of quality sushi. Fewer sushi chefs are travelling to the United States from Japan – possibly as a result of the difficulties in obtaining a visa.
• While there have been several great non-Japanese sushi chefs, they were often well trained in special academies – something that is also becoming less common.

Read about the wider 1,700 year history of sushi, and more over here.

Source: Paste