Centives

Forbes has a list of the world’s 400 wealthiest people. You can’t trust it, wrote Preeti Varathan and Max de Haldevang:

• Wilbur Ross, the US Secretary of Commerce was found to have successfully tricked Forbes into putting his name on the billionaires list – even though he was a hundred millionaire at best.
• There is evidence that Donald Trump similarly never quite made it to the billionaire’s club. But he convinced Forbes that he was one…and that probably helped him become President of the United States.
• One trick is to argue for an impossibly high valuation, thus convincing Forbes that when they come up with a valuation that’s just implausibly high, they’re being conservative.
• Entrepreneurs try to boost estimates of their wealth because it lends them an air of credibility that makes business deals easier to negotiate.
• Meanwhile those that inherit their wealth typically try to lower estimates of their net worth to prevent solicitation from charities, or friends and family.

Read more on Quartz.

Desperate times call for desperate measures when it comes to ensuring a future for Northern White Rhinos, wrote Thomas Page:

• There are three Northern White Rhinos left in the world – two females, one male.
• The one male seems to have given up on his species – he has been reluctant to procreate.
• And so he joined Tinder.
• It is part of a publicity stunt to raise the $10 million needed for invitro fertilization, to preserve the line of rhinos.
• His Tinder profile includes the statement “I don’t mean to be too forward, but the fate of my species literally depends on me” – those that swipe right can then donate.
• His general disinterest in procreation seems to appeal to the Tinder crowd. So many people swiped right on his profile that the donation website crashed soon after he made his Tinder debut.

Read more on CNN.

You can donate to the project here.

You can find the rest of Centives’ coverage on rhinos here.

Cracked put together a list of psychological tricks that supermarkets use to boost sales. Highlights include:

• The mascots on breakfast cereals often look downwards – to catch the eyes of children.
• The aisles with the highest margin items sometimes have smaller floor tiles to slow down shopping carts, increasing time spent at the store.
• Flowers are typically sold at the entrance of supermarkets to prime customers into thinking about freshness.
• Removing dollar signs from prices – so that it reads 9.99 instead of $9.99 – makes the money seem more abstract, and purchases more likely.
• Scents can affect spending – a coconut fragrance in the swimwear aisle increases sales.
• Supermarkets don’t want shoppers to settle into a routine – they will shuffle around inventory, so more time is spent looking for staple buys.

Read the full list on Cracked.

Daniel L. Chen and Arnaud Philippe looked into the compassionate side of judges:

• Judges are more likely to give lenient sentences to defendants if they are sentenced on their birthday.
• Judges reduce the length of prison sentences by 2% if it’s the defendant’s birthday on the day of the sentencing.
• If the defendant takes time out of their birthday to show up in person, they can expect their sentence to go down almost 3%.

Read the entire study here.

Via: Marginal Revolution

The Economist wrote about the boom in Latin American cable cars:

• As a mode of public transportation cable cars don’t cause the disruption that other public works projects – like subways or bus lanes – typically do.
• They’re quick to build which means that politicians that authorize them are typically around long enough for the ribbon cutting – and the subsequent electoral rewards.
• They’re particularly popular in Latin America’s more mountainous terrain where cable cars are an ideal form of transportation.
• Thieves are more likely to strike in public buses -they typically leave cable cars alone.
• And the more intimate nature of cable cars – two benches facing each other – helps encourage conversation and build community.

Read more in The Economist.

Zheping Huang wrote about a flying train:

• Impressed by the idea of Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, China is planning its own “flying train”.
• The plan is to build a train that can run at 4,000 kilometers per hour – three times the speed of sound.
• If China achieves this the train will be ten times faster than the fastest bullet train in the world – and four times faster than a commercial jet.
• It will also be faster than Musk’s Hyperloop – which is only projected to reach speeds of 1,200 kilometers per hour.
• Critics note that any such transport system would likely be prohibitively expensive compared to an airline ticket.

Read more on the World Economic forum.

Lisa Pham wrote about the idiosyncrasies of the stocks market:

• “On-line Plc” announced that its new name would be “On-line Blockchain PLC”.
• The company’s share price jumped 400% after the announcement.
• Executives hurriedly released a statement saying that their blockchain product was in an early stage.
• The share price remained elevated – adding fuel to concerns that cryptocurrencies are a bubble.
• This seemingly irrational exuberance has happened before. A company in Colorado changes its name from “Bioptix Inc.” to “Riot Blockchain” – and saw its market value double.
• The social media industry – also a potential bubble – has had its fair share of vagaries too. SNAP Interactive saw its share price rise 150% soon after Snapchat announced plans to list as “SNAP”.

Read more on Bloomberg.

Feargus O’Sullivan reviewed Paris’ sparkling water fountains:

• Paris currently has a network of 8 sparkling water fountains – and it is looking to expand.
• Officials say that they promote hydration – more people are willing to replenish themselves if the water sparkles.
• The fountains themselves don’t look that glamorous; the one O’Sullivan reviewed was covered in graffiti and slime.
• The water, though, was delicious, and may well encourage passer bys to take a gulp.

Read the full review on City Lab.

Natasha Frost wrote about food during the age of the zeppelin:

• Zeppelins were slow. It’d take three days go get from South America to Europe.
• Passengers wiled the time away reading, looking out the window and, of course, eating.
• Meals were frequent and lavish. Guidelines required having 7.5 pounds (3.5 kg) of food per passenger per day.
• This required identifying weight savings elsewhere – one tactic was to provide travelers with a single napkin when they first boarded, and requiring them to use it for the entire journey.
• The food was poorly reviewed by American and British passengers. It was quintessentially German – heavy on meat, with little in the way of vegetables.
• This suited the Germans that ran the zeppelins just fine. They saw their airships as the height of luxury and a symbol of German ingenuity.
• The Zeppelins were to usher in a new era of German cultural dominance – and imposing German cuisine on the world’s elite was a point of pride for people like Goebbels – who invested in them.

Read more on Atlas Obscura.

President Trump’s twitter account has drove the creation of a new industry wrote Chance Seales:

• President Trump has a habit of criticizing on Twitter companies that displease him.
• This often leads to a sharp decline in the stock price of the company.
• Some insurance firms are now protection against become the target of a Presidential tweet.
• One executive believes that a negative tweet from Trump should be addressed in the same way that an earthquake or flood might be.

Read more on Kron 4.