Chill, wrote Cracked. Machines aren’t going to put us all out of work:

• Automation has a tendency to create jobs rather than eliminate them (as we’ve covered before). After machines helped make clothing cheaper people started to buy more clothes, boosting employment.
• Machines allow people to take more satisfying, creativity oriented jobs. The entertainment industry, for example, is booming, with a golden age of TV providing employment for many.
• Technological progress is traditionally particularly good for women: they drove adoption of new textile technologies, and are typically better at the soft skills necessary in the increasing number of service sector jobs.

Read more on Cracked.

A controversy over how much Gal Gadot was paid to be Wonder Woman sparked research into superhero pay scales:

• There are so many comic book superhero movies now that there’s an established pay structure for their stars.
• Studios hire a relatively unknown name, and make them sign a multi-film contract for “just” a few hundred thousand dollars before they even audition.
• Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Chris Evans as Captain America, and Chris Hemsworth as Thor all reportedly made less than $500,000 in their first costumed forays.
• Gadot would have had an especially difficult time at the negotiating table since she was just a supporting character in Batman v Superman – her first appearance in the gauntlets.
• Once the initial contract expires stars of franchises of can hope for a real payday. Robert Downey Jr. is said to have made $50 million for appearing in The Avengers.
• Given Gadot’s Wonder Woman has been so much better received than Affleck’s Batman or Cavill’s Superman, it wouldn’t be surprising if after her initial contract is up, Gadot becomes the highest paid of the trinity.

Read more on Vanity Fair, Vulture, and Jezebel.

Forget Disney World, for your next vacation you can visit an uninhabitable nuclear waste zone!

• Chernobyl was the site of the world’s worst nuclear meltdown.
• The area around the reactor was hastily evacuated leaving it frozen in time in 1986.
• This has spurred interest from tourists looking to get a glimpse at life in the Soviet Union.
• Despite the area being designated “uninhabitable” the Ukrainian government has decided to cash in on the interest by opening a hostel in the contamination zone.
• It can currently house 50 people and will expand to accommodate over 100.

Read more on Stuff.

Reality TV romances have a lot more scripting than you’d think found James Callenberger:

• Sex sells. So producers of reality TV shows focused on one person may ask friends of friends if they know anyone who would be willing to sleep with the show star.
• Everyone wins: the guest star will get an exposure boost that increases their social media influence. The reality show star will be part of an engaging story line. And everybody gets to have sex.
• If the show is centered around a group of contestants producers, like high school gossipers, will secretly ask the contestants who each is attracted to – then leak the information and encourage them to pursue it.
• Lines around consent can begin to get blurred. Think there’s a little too much alcohol for a pair to consent to sex? Have a third contestant break things up and record the drama.

Read more on Vulture.

Peter Coy covered research into the relationship between business and the Oval Office during the Obama years:

• Companies that had executives meet with the President and other senior figures went onto perform 0.9% better than the wider stock market.
• The boost comes in the 10 days leading up to the meeting, and lasts for more than a month.
• The analysis excludes meetings with more than 50 people as there would be little face time with the President.
• The companies that benefitted from meeting with the Obama administration underperformed when news of Trump winning the election broke.
• It’s unclear if the relationship continues to hold under President Trump: his administration does ;not make the visitor log public.

Read more on Bloomberg.

Ian Dille wrote about the world’s premiere racing event for toddlers:

• Instead of training wheels, Strider balance bikes eschew pedals. Toddlers run their legs to push the bike forwards.
• Bike enthusiasts wanting their children to join them in their travels have found that they’re effective in teaching the young how to bike.
• Kids trained on Strider bikes can switch over to pedaled bikes at ages as young as two, and ride up to 20 miles by the age of three.
• To further extend its brand the Strider company hosts a World Championship where toddlers race.
• Japan typically sweeps the medals.

Read more on Outside.

Ben Cosgrove examined an invention that, 70 years later, remains controversial:

• Up until the second world war you were either a child or an adult.
• Then in 1944 Life published an article titled “Teen-Age Girls: They Live in a Wonderful World of Their Own”.
• It spoke about a special time in an individual’s life preoccupied by fashion, parties, and boys – before they were sent off to war.
• The article noted that teens were a lucrative and unique market for businesses to target.
• It was a success. “Teen-agers” soon turned into teenagers and became firmly rooted in the general conscience as a distinct group of people.

Read more on Time.

Via: Cracked

Akshat Rathi brought a whole new meaning to “out of town”:

• Kiruna is a Swedish city, founded in 1900, on the edge of an iron ore mine.
• As the state-owned mining company has dug deeper, the risk of the town falling into a sinkhole has increased.
• The company is now in the process of physically lifting and moving historic buildings in the town – determined through a public vote – 3 kilometers (2 miles) to the east.
• People who live in buildings that aren’t being moved will have their properties purchased at 125% market value – or be offered a similarly sized house at the new location.
• All in all the move is expected to cost over a billion dollars, and require at least 20 years.

Read more on Quartz.

Caroline Mortimer wrote about ninjas:

• Tourism to Japan is increasing, and with it demand for ninja shows.
• But performance squads are reporting difficulties in finding ninja candidates.
• Instructors say that there are too many other career tracks for potential recruits. Japan’s ageing society also constricts supply.
• To be a good ninja one must be proficient in combat, stealth, acrobats, and, of course, skilled with throwing stars and swords.

Read more on Independent.

Via: Marginal Revolution

Mark Strassmann wrote about senior year portraits:

• Graduating high schoolers are looking to capture their personalities in their year book portraits.
• To that end they’re going to professional photographers at expensive studios to frame scenes.
• The photos (an example from Shirk Photography above) can cost up to $4,000.
• The waiting list for the best photographers can be up to two years long.

Read more, and see other examples, on CBS News.