The recession affected Americans in many ways, and it appears that one of those ways was in their exercise habits. Due to the recession, Americans took part in more voluntary exercise, but also suffered drops in physical exertion. The increase in available time due to unemployment can help explain the increase in voluntary exercise, and the loss of work-related activities (walking to work, etc.) can explain the decrease in overall physical exertion despite the fact that Americans voluntarily exercised more.

Source: Freakonomics Blog

Bitcoins are a virtual currency which allow its users to bypass banks and other institutions, allowing them to trade with each other directly under the protection of complete anonymity. Its supporters tout it as the next global currency, but as Technology Review investigates, all is not well in the Bitcoin world. They report:

• Because of all the attention that Bitcoins have been getting, their value has skyrocketed, with a tenfold increase in five days in 2010. As a result of this people see bit coins as an investment more than as a token of exchange.
• The currency is volatile and is primarily traded by currency speculators. In a one year period it hit a low of a few pennies and a high of $33.
• There will never be more than 21 million Bitcoins in existence*
• All this means that people are hoarding the currency rather than trading it. The number of transactions conducted in Bitcoins has gone down, a negative development for the prospects of any currency aiming for world domination.

To read more about how Bitcoin needs to avoid being devoured by a circle of hype click here.

Source: Technology Review

Via: Jake Kennon

*Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that there are 21 million Bitcoins in existence.

Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic attempted to calculate how much Angry Birds, a popular smartphone game, cost the US economy every year. Based on some generous assumptions and light research (a technique we’re quite fond of ourselves), Madrigal estimated that the common pastime costs the US economy over 1.5 billion dollars a year. He came up with this number by estimating or finding that:

• 200 million minutes is spent by people playing Angry Birds each day
• 5% of that time is spent while employees are meant to be working
• The average salary of a smartphone owner is $35

Madrigal notes that some of these assumptions are pretty ambitious, but concludes that his final figure is probably accurate in its order of magnitude. To read more about how he came to his numbers, as well as how this value compares to the estimated market value of Rovio, the company that made Angry Birds, click here.

Source: The Atlantic

Via: WPCentral

Ashley Mears, a sociology student at NYU, was so fascinated by the modeling industry that she decided to become a model, to understand it from a sociological perspective. She published her findings in Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion Model, and, as Slate reports, some of her findings include:

• 20% of the models in one small Manhattan based agency were in debt to the agency. Models from other countries seemed especially prone to this problem, as they often owed the agency up to $10,000 for international visas, tickets, and other such expenses.
• It’s a winner-take-all market in which the top models are handsomely paid while the rest have to scrounge around for low paying jobs. Interestingly the most glamorous, jobs such as shoots at Vogue pay meager amounts, or might even require the model to pay for some expenses such as travel.
• Models that take more high paying jobs are known as “money girls”. Those who take too many of these jobs are frowned upon by the industry and find it difficult to make it back into the more glamorous side of fashion.
• One modeling agency compares models to grocery store milk, noting that you wouldn’t buy a carton of milk that would expire tomorrow. They thus encourage models to lie about their age. Once you hit 23 it’s probably time to retire.

To find out exactly how much Ashley Mears was able to make as a model, as well as what it takes to be a winning model according to experts, and the 52 year old who made $500 an hour click here.

Source: Slate

Building a good network is on the to-do list of every business professional, and many have questions about how to create that network. Well, if you’ve got a few million dollars sitting around, we have just the solution for you! You can follow this example and buy yourself a couple dinners with Warren Buffett. That’s exactly what one man did, and now he’s buying stocks for Berkshire Hathaway – no doubt one of the most coveted jobs for anyone working in finance. The dinners were bought at Buffett’s “Power Lunch” auction at around $2.6 million each. Apparently Buffett and the winner got along well and a job offer was given and accepted. This approach may not be quite so practical for most people, though, so I don’t think LinkedIn has to worry about being forgotten in favor of a new trend quite yet.

Source: Yahoo!

This article offers an economic analysis of the piracy that takes place off the Somali coast. This piracy has received a lot of media attention over the past few years, and understandably so as the pirates seem to be increasing the number of ships they take over and their ransoms have increased as well. From 2005 to 2009, the typical ransom was increased by 100 times. This escalating ransom is a form of price discovery on the part of the pirates. It may be asked why shipping companies put up with these problems, but it’s actually cheaper for them to pay the ransom than to lose the ship and the military will not always get involved. Most of these pirates are former fishermen who have decided to give up fishing for piracy because of the money. Many in Somalia make about $600 a year, but a pirate can make $10,000 by taking over a single ship. That may not be much to Jack Sparrow, but it’s certainly more than a typical fisherman in Somalia makes!

Source: Wired

In a new study, it has been shown that creative ideas are often not accepted for the very reasons people seem to seek them in the first place. It is often heard that people are looking for innovation and creativity to find new solutions and ideas, but this study would seem to indicate that people do not back this talk up with action. The main reason creativity is often rejected is the uncertainty that it often carries with it. By their very nature, creative ideas tend to be more unpredictable in their effects which seems to cause some people to reject them in favor of simpler but more proven ideas. Therefore, it is recommended that perhaps we should spend less time promoting the idea of creativity and more time helping those with creative ideas to find ways to implement them.

Source: Freakonomics Blog

The Chinese government has increasingly had to deal with officials who use government funds to buy themselves a car for “official purposes”. The Car Connection examined some of the dimensions of this problem, noting that:

• Being a government official entitles you to many perks including a car. Government figures often use fake fuel expenses to pad their incomes.
• Nearly 12% of all new cars registered in China were for official use.
• Operating these vehicles is thought to eat up to 12% of the Chinese government’s budget.
• The majority of the cars are imported from abroad.

You can find out more about the specific new rules that the Chinese government has enacted, limiting engine size and price of cars, as well as why these efforts will probably fail to solve the problem by clicking here.

Source: The Car Connection

Prostitution is legalized in Germany, but the taxes that officials are meant to be able to collect from the industry are often evaded. One city in Germany decided to try out a new system.

• To roam the streets, prostitutes must pay 6 euros a night. Similar to a car park system, the prostitutes pay the money to a machine which produces a ticket, and the prostitute must keep this ticket with them while they’re out.
• The machine costs $11,575 and is built by Siemens.
• The city government spends over $100,000 to pay for security in the area, in an effort to protect the sex workers.

Click here to read more about the consequences for being caught without a ticket, and what prostitutes think about the new system.

Source: The New York Times

One statistic that seems to defy all common sense is that Americans are more likely to be killed by a vending machine than by a shark. As noted by the author of this post, though, a bit of context is needed. This statistic is based on all Americans, regardless of whether they live near shark infested waters or not. Therefore, someone who lives in the Midwest and does not travel to either of the coasts has no chance of being attacked by a shark; however, vending machines can be found everywhere. Regardless, it is an interesting fact that highlights one drawback of statistics – while statistics can be very useful, the numbers they produce must be kept in perspective. After all, a surfer in California is likely to be in more danger of a shark attack than a farmer from Nebraska. And it’s likely a safe assumption that movie-goers will continue to prefer sharks over vending machines as the antagonists in the films they watch!

Source: Freakonomics Blog