Centives

Frances Woolley delved into a paper from 1945 written by an English soldier taken as a Prisoner of War during World War 2:

• Prisoners of War received four and three days’ worth of rations of bread and margarine on Thursdays and Mondays.
• These were supplemented with extras like cigarettes, chocolate, meat, and tea by the Red Cross and other aid organizations.
• Cigarettes emerged as a form of currency. They’re uniform, durable, and can easily be packaged together for large transactions.
• There was weekly inflation in the lead up to ration days. By Sunday, the day before the next ration, the price of bread had increased by 14% – from seven cigarettes to eight.
• More often though there was deflation. The problem with cigarettes as a currency is that they eventually go up in smoke, creating recessionary conditions when they weren’t replenished.
• This economy rewarded special skills. An Urdu speaking English prisoner could engage in a form of international trade with the Indian part of the camp.
• Soldiers who were particularly addicted to cigarettes risked starvation – as they bartered all their food away for the next nicotine hit.
• Officers in the camp considered policies of redistribution where bread would go to hopelessly addicted smokers in need.

Read more on the National Post.

Kelly Conaboy wrote about giant checks:

• Who popularized the idea of giant checks? Nazis. Goebbels, in 1936, received one and it is the first such documented case.
• But the oversized check was really born due to the invention of the portable camera and the rise of photojournalism around that time.
• The tabloid was first born in 1919, and while its photo heavy content was derided by mainstream journalists, it was popular with readers, and giant checks made for good photo opportunities.
• The rise of portable video cameras furthered their popularity. Game show hosts liked to film the reactions of people receiving prizes, and an oversized check made for a striking visual.
• Contrary to popular belief giant checks can be cashed in if they’re filled out correctly.

Read more on The Outline.

Storm. Black Lightning. Static. A lot of black superheroes have electricity related superpowers. Charles Pulliam-Moore looked into the reasons:

• Black characters are often written to be closer to nature – an unfortunate trace of when they were depicted as savages.
• The tamable nature of lightning might also be an unconscious expression of bias.
• Lightning is powerful enough to make yourself known in a fight. But when you’re teamed up with, say, Superman, it’s not enough to win the battle. Since black characters are often side characters this suits writers well.
• There’s probably an element of competition. DC has Green Arrow. Marvel has Hawkeye. There’s also Deadpool and Deathstroke, and Darkseid and Thanos. When one company released a black lightning character the other eventually followed.
• Nonetheless heroes like Storm have grown to become strong characters who are more than just their electric powers.

Read more on io9.

In an article about The Enquirer’s relationship with Donald Trump, Jeffrey Toobin had some fascinating nuggets of information about tabloid economics:

• Revenue mostly comes from impulse buys at the checkout counter – chain stores account for 75% of sales.
• For this reason the cover matters. The right cover can boost sales by 15%, and the wrong one can see them drop by the same amount.
• Tabloid editors have to be careful to not push limits so far that a store like Walmart refuses to stock them.
• Cover phrases that are particularly successful include “sad last days”, and “six months to live”. Stars such as Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie also sell well.
• A.M.I., the owner of several tabloids, positions them by target age group. OK! and US Weekly are for the young and talk about Hollywood gossip. The Enquirer is for the old and focuses on the British Royal Family, and Hillary Clinton.
• The Enquirer is so effective at targeting the old that it sees a bump in sales every time social security checks go out.

Read the full story on The New Yorker.

Rachel Premack wrote that workers in South Korea are being asked to create new identities for themselves:

• In Korean culture it can be rude to refer to people by their first name; honourific titles are used instead.
• This contributes to a hierarchical organization that discourages the free flow of ideas.
• Management knows it’d be difficult to overwrite tradition and convince everyone to refer to each other by their real first names – so they ask them to pick fake western ones instead.
• This breakdown in hierarchy is difficult for some to handle – particularly older employees who benefit from the existing system.
• Others dislike the cultural overtures of adapting a western name – they point out that a person’s birth name is a core part of their identity and was given to them by their parents.

Read more on The Washington Post.

Via: Marginal Revolution

Fidget spinners – simple toys that spin around a central anchor – have become weirdly popular. Jean Grant explored their rise in Toronto:

• Fidget spinners are so popular that there are entire retail stores devoted solely to selling them.
• Most cost just a few dollars, but you can get ‘luxury’ ones for as much as $60.
• Retailers claim that it’s not unusual for buyers to drop over $200 on the toys.
• Some have added features like in-built Bluetooth speakers.
• They were invented in the 90s but, unfortunately for the inventor, they didn’t see their sudden burst in popularity until 12 years after the patent expired.

See examples of the variety of fidget spinners now available on Toronto Life.

Poke – a Hawaiian street food typically made with raw tuna, rice, and mixed greens, has become the next big thing in food. Kate Krader examined its rise:

• Consumers love it because it’s basically a fresh, healthy, and high-protein salad with a bit of a classy sushi edge thrown in.
• Restaurants love to make it because all it requires is a fridge and a rice cooker.
• Skipping the industrial oven and venting system typical for most dining establishments can shave half a million dollars off the cost of a restaurant.
• One expert estimated that opening a poke place costs just a third of what it takes to open a regular restaurant.
• There are risks ahead. Tuna supplies are declining and prices can erratically jump around which can make the economics very unfavourable very quickly.

Read more on Bloomberg

Protesting used to be the new brunch. Now it’s a career perk wrote Claudia Cowan:

• Companies in America are increasingly giving employees days that they can take off to engage in “action”.
• This time can be used to attend a rally, volunteer, or protest.
• Typically the only limit is that the time can’t be used to support a group that advocates violence.
• It can be risky – if employees support something controversial, the company itself could become a target of protesters, and sales could suffer.
• But, as one company noted, “Civic engagement is a foundation of…democracy, and companies should encourage it”

Read more on Fox.

Geoff Edgers wrote about the economics of the guitar market:

• In the past decade sales of electric guitars have fallen 33% from 1.5 million to 1 million a year.
• During their golden age “guitar heroes” like Chuck Berry, Pete Townshend, and Eddie Van Halen inspired American youth to pick up electronic guitars.
• Now that generation is retiring and downsizing its collection. Newer generations are more interested in electronic music.
• The industry has tried to innovate: millions were spent developing a self-tuning robotic guitar. They were widely derided.
• It is also experimenting with monthly subscription models so parents don’t have to worry about investing in a guitar that their children may lose interest in.
• One unexpected bright spot in the broader market for guitars: Taylor Swift has inspired a generation of girls to try their hand at the guitar.
• Swift’s origins as a country musician helps explain why acoustic guitars have done better than electronic ones in recent years.

Read more on The Washington Post.

Via: Marginal Revolution

No, the title does not refer to fast food. Food unfit for human consumption. Again, no, not fast food. The Economist wrote:

• Fake – or replica – food is used by restaurants to market their wares.
• These used to be made of wax, but it too easily lost its shape.
• Now, in most instances, a special plastic polymer is poured into molds and then painted.
• For something like ramen, individual threads are created to give a true sense of the dish.
• Raw food like fish, and clear liquids are the most difficult to convincingly depict.
• Things start with a consultation where an expert makes a detailed sketch and takes note of the dish’s colour, consistency, and texture.
• Fake dishes are particularly popular in Japan. They became so once western food started to spread in the 1930s and restaurants needed a way to show diners what they would be getting.
• The “chefs” take pride in their work – they boast that it takes a decade to truly learn how to make replicas of sushi – just as long as it takes to master real sushi.
• One Japanese company claims to serve more than 80% of the market, with annual revenues of $46 million.
• The price of a replica can be up to twenty times the cost of the menu item.
• Still, business is slowing. People now go to food blogs to see photos of the real life food.
• The trade is also a victim of its own success – the replicas last so long restaurants don’t really need to become repeat customers.
• The dominant company in Japan is trying to change that. It now offers annual subscriptions where it touches up the replica every three months.
• It is also looking to expand into other markets. Some hospitals are clients and use the replicas to educate patients about the types of food they should eat after a procedure.

Read more on The Economist.