In an expansive article that analyzed the history of the regulation of the American airline industry Phillip Longman and Lina Khan point out:

• Left to the free market the airline business will tend to an equilibrium where a few airport ‘hubs’ get all airline traffic while smaller regional airports are ignored. This is because taking off from the ground requires more energy compared to actually flying the craft. This makes it more efficient for the airliners to have few long-haul routes rather than several short-haul routes.
• However this means that people who live close to small regional airports are ignored. Already the closure of airports in places such as St. Louis and Pittsburgh is forcing businesses to migrate closer to regional airport hubs, because it’s too difficult and expensive to fly out of regional airports. Airline capacity is at its lowest level since 1979.
• The problem is only likely to get worse as airlines continue to operate on razor thin margins. The value of all publicly traded US airline stocks is $32.3 billion – less than the value of Starbucks. All six of the major ‘legacy’ carriers have filed for bankruptcy. In this context the only way for them to claw out of continued losses is to further consolidate and cut capacity, which in practice hurt smaller airports the most.
• But there is great economic value to having an airline system that covers the entirety of the United States. Imagine if areas in the US didn’t receive plumbing, or electricity, or even roads. It’s inconceivable yet the fact that several areas are unable to get air-service should be just as concerning.
• The airlines aren’t the only industry where this is a problem. The railroad network and America’s mail system faced similar problems where only concentrated regions of the United States were receiving the benefits of full service. This was fixed when the government decided to step in to regulate.
• The American airline system was initially regulated when the Civil Aeronautics Board was started in 1938.
• Yet Kennedy and Carter decided to undo this regulatory framework. This was primarily because the airline system had become over-regulated and because of the example of Southwest Airlines – which escaped regulatory scrutiny by limiting its operations to Texas – and achieved great success through low fares. Moreover no new major airline had emerged since the 1930s suggesting that something was wrong with the system.
• At first de-regulation seemed to be incredibly successful. However subsequent analysis has suggested that it was not as successful as is commonly believed. Moreover it led to the current problem of many areas of America being ignored by the airlines.

To read many more details, in what is a long, fascinating, and thorough article, and to find out about the role that Ralph Nader played in deregulation, the role of oil-shocks, why a period of inflation was crucial to the current problem, what would have happened if the airlines hadn’t been deregulated, why anti-trust has become crucial, the billions of dollars in taxpayer support that the airlines have received, why the prices of airline tickets fell, why the fall in the quality of the service of airlines demonstrates the scope of the problem, what a new regulatory framework would look like, the future of those cities that aren’t classified as hubs, and how this all relates to NASCAR click here.

Source: Washington Monthly

Via: Marginal Revolution

The Guinness World Records has awarded Sherlock Holmes with the honour of being the “most portrayed literary human character in Film and TV.” In giving him the award they highlight that:

• Holmes has been depicted on screen 254 times.
• Over 75 actors have played the character.
• The runner-up is Hamlet – who has been depicted 48 fewer times than Holmes.
• If you drop the ‘human’ requirement from the award then Sherlock no longer comes out on top. Dracula wins by having been depicted on film and television 272 times.

To read more about why this record was created, how it relates to the London Olympics, and the records for longest marathon hug and largest parade of boats, click here.

Source: Guinness World Records

Via: io9

io9 looked at various works of science fiction between 1880 and 2010 to determine how far into the future authors imagine our society’s progress. They divided their data into three types: science fiction that is set 0-50 years into the future, 51-500 years into the future, and 501+ years into the future. Some of their results include:

• After the great depression in the 1930s and the economic and terrorist woes of the 2000s there were spikes in the number of science fiction stories set more than 500 years into the future. This is possibly because society prefers to get away from the present during times of distress and uncertainty.
• In the 1900s and 1980s there was a surge of science fiction stories set between 0 and 50 years into the future. Both these times were periods of rapid technological progress and authors might have been inspired to look at where the technology would lead us next.
• During the 1920s and 1960s future stories were evenly distributed across the various categories. Both were periods of liberalizations in the United States and this might have caused society to envision its near-term, medium-term, and long-term futures.
• Stories set between 100-200 years into the future are the most common.

To read more results and to look at some beautifully rendered graphs and charts click here.

Source: io9

Via: Marginal Revolution

The end of the Harry Potter movies has led to the widespread abandonment of pet owls reports David Paul:

• There was a surge in the number of owls purchased after the first Harry Potter film came out. In the films, the titular character has a Snowy Owl named Hedwig.
• However the birds are difficult to care for. They live for up to 20 years, cost about £900, and ideally require a 20 foot aviary.
• As the movies have come to an end, owl-owners have become tired of cleaning up after the birds and are returning them to sanctuaries.
• One rescue worker says that the number of owls she has to look after has gone from 6 to 100.
• There are fears that some owls have been released into the wild illegally where they will have likely starved.
• JK Rowling, the author of the series, has asked fans to refrain from purchasing owls as pets.

To read more about Rowling’s proposed alternative, the legality of keeping owls as pets, and how this relates to The Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles, click here.

Source: Mirror

Ray Fisman* reports that data from India suggests that politicians aren’t as corrupt as they are commonly believed to be. Highlights from his study include:

• On average the wealth of an elected politician grows by 6% relative to the runner-up that they beat.
• This can add up: after five years this means an additional $60,000 in wealth.
• This is more than the few thousand dollars that politicians can expect to earn through their salary. But in absolute terms the figure is much lower than one would expect.
• Those who are appointed to cabinet level posts truly benefit. Their wealth increases by 15% compared to those who lost against them.
• However to be appointed to a cabinet level position requires you to be intelligent and skilled – the very qualities that are likely to lead to a higher income in the first place.
• Politicians who come from the private sector and are re-elected actually see their income grow by less than their opponent.

To read more about why this paints a fairly benign picture of Indian corruption, some potential deficiencies in the study, why this study was possible, the methodology behind it, and what happens to the wealth of incumbents, click here.

Source: Slate

Via: Freakonomics

*Centives incorrectly spelled Mr. Fisman’s name as “Ray Fishman”. Apologies for the error and thanks to T. Fitch for pointing this out.

Alec Nevala-Lee has noticed a fascinating trend. After The New Yorker publishes a profile of somebody in the Hollywood industry, their careers almost always take a turn for the worst. Highlights from the article include:

• Last year director Andrew Stanton had a long, positive piece written about him in the magazine. His movie John Carter, released just six months later, is among the costliest flops in Hollywood history.
• Others who have fallen prey to the effect include George Clooney and Steve Carell.
• This might be because of what in finance is called ‘performance chasing.’ The New Yorker only runs profiles of the most successful – likely right after they’ve had a big hit. But such success cannot be maintained indefinitely and artists will eventually return to their performance mean.
• The effect might also be because The New Yorker is forced to tie its profiles into a wider theme – since it publishes so few of them a year. These themes attempt to project into the future of entire industries and they almost always get it wrong.

To read more about those who have fallen to the curse, how this relates to Sports Illustrated, why Armando Iannucci should be worried, the one exception to the rule in recent times, and why the New Yorker can’t focus on emerging talent, click here.

Source: Salon

In theory medical conferences “aim to disseminate and advance research, train, educate, and set evidence-based policy” yet John P. A. Ioannidis argues that they should be abolished. Here’s why:

• Travelling to the conference imparts significant environmental costs. One estimate suggests that each mid-sized conference produces 10,000 tons of carbon.
• The conferences create a branding system where those with high reputations get more attention. But this might mean that attention is given to those that know how to effectively navigate power circles rather than those that produce the best research.
• The information disseminated is often not properly peer reviewed and instead the conference is used by participants to pad resumes.
• Medical conferences may go extinct on their own: if physicians no longer pay attention, if people no longer attend, and if they no longer receive funding then they will naturally die out.
• A better alternative would include small, focused groups of experts.

To read about the “virtual online late-breaker portal” that could be created to replace some of the functions of conferences, why medical conferences might discourage young researchers from focusing on what counts, the questionable peer review that takes place at these conferences, and how the issue of conflicts of interest is dealt with at these conferences, click here.

Source: JAMA

Via: Chris Blattman, Common Health

Why don’t countries try to poach the rich away from the United States with tax incentives? Matthew Yglesias explored the issue:

• Some do. The cofounder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin, has renounced his American citizenship, and has likely taken up citizenship of the country he now lives in – Singapore. This is probably because Singapore has no capital gains tax and now that Facebook is going public he’ll save a lot of money.
• But other countries could do more. Canada could offer a flat $50,000 tax rate for Americans. America’s rich would benefit by having to pay much less tax. Canada would benefit by increasing tax revenue and attracting the rich with all of their investments.
• If countries tried to pull tricks like that the United States could always invade.

To read more about what the United States could do, an outline for what Canada should do, details about Saverin’s case, and why the world is better off that this doesn’t currently happen, click here.

Source: Slate

In 1977 the Death Star destroys a planet by causing it to explode. 32 years later when the makers of Star Trek wanted to show the death of a planet they injected it with red matter so that it slowly imploded on itself until it turned into a black hole writes Forrest Wickman. The Dark Knight Rises, Cloverfield, and The Avengers all contain scenes where structures implode rather than explode. Why the rise in implosions on the silver screen?

• Explosions have become too common-place and fail to excite audiences anymore. Implosions are refreshingly disturbing.
• In contrast to explosions which can be filmed by chucking a few sticks of dynamite into the item being destroyed, implosions were hard to depict before CGI. Now that CGI has become both more prevalent and cheaper film-makers have more artistic leeway and now have the opportunity to experiment with implosions.
• Implosions evoke the chilling imagery from 9/11. Directors are either consciously or subconsciously being influenced by the pictures and videos that have defined the decade.

To read other examples of notable implosions, Michael Bay’s fascination with explosions, why implosions will never be able to top the primal majesty of explosions, and to watch a video comparing the explosions and implosions from Star Wars and Star Trek, click here.

Source: Slate

Inflation seems to largely be under control in the global economy, but The Economist reports that panflation – the inflation of everything – is becoming a rising problem. Examples include:

• Since women are more likely to buy clothes if they can easily fit into a smaller label size, fashion retailers have been adjusting the size numbers. Today’s size 10 is really a size 14.
• There is grade inflation. An A grade today is equivalent to a C grade of the 1980s.
• Airlines no longer have an ‘economy’ class. Instead British Airways has “World Traveller”.
• Food portions have been getting larger.
• There is job title inflation. A receptionist is now a “Director of First Impressions” and a ticket inspector is a “Chief Revenue Protection Officer”.
• While this sounds humorous it has serious consequences because it modifies incentives and makes data more obscure and less reliable.

To read other examples including the supply of airline miles, the consequences of these trends, what it means for Starbucks to soon be introducing a “Trenta” size, and why deluxe hotel rooms are anything but, click here.

Source: The Economist