Mark Hill spoke with some hand models to learn about their industry:

• Hand “super” models can make $75,000 a year. It’s not much by typical modelling standards, but given that hand models have longer careers than traditional ones, it can end up being more lucrative.
• An aspiring  hand model should have long fingers and nailbeds, with small knuckles.
• There are different categories of hand models. There are “mommy hands” for ads which involves doing the dishes. “Glamour hands” for things like cosmetics. And “kid hands” because the job requires enough skill that adult hands usually have to pretend to be kid ones.
• It’s not just ads. Some actresses are infamous for having unattractive hands. So, whenever you see a close-up of Megan Fox’s hand in a movie, it’s probably a hand model.
• Other times they’re used in movies because an actor’s time is too expensive to bother filming close-up hand shots.
• The industry is a secretive one. Hand models will know what a movies heroes and villains will look like before the first trailer launches, as they shoot spots for the toys.
• Since it’s the modelling industry the use of photoshop is rampant. In fact, it’s even more prevalent because there’s never a popular backlash against airbrushing a hand model’s body.
• And so, you’ll rarely see a hand model with knuckle wrinkles, or any other line. Photoshopping is so extensive that white hands may even be used to play the role of black ones.
• While it’s the nature of hand models to be anonymous, some find wider recognition. The owner of the hands on the front cover of the Twilight book goes to conventions to sign autographs and pose with fans.

Read the full article at Cracked.

Uri Bram listed the different ways that a new generation of apps is using game theory to make online heterosexual dating better:

• The ratio of men to women in most dating apps is 60:40. However since men message a lot more than women, it’s effectively 80:20.
• Women are inundated with hundreds of messages from men who are only vaguely interested, and men have little other choice since the response rate is so low. It’s an unhappy equilibrium.
• Enter game theory. The problem is that there’s no cost to using a limited resource – in this case, the resource is a woman’s attention.
• One app got over this by imposing a limit on supply: only one match was allowed a day.
• Others are targeting the demand side. Coffee Meets Bagel allows users to pay to send a “woo” which indicates significant interest. By adding a price, the app helps regulate demand for the scarce resource.
• Game theory addresses other concerns. Women may feel it’s inappropriate to send a message first, even if they really like someone. So one app only lets women do the messaging.
• Messaging too quickly by either gender can make someone seem needy. So Bumble only gives users 24 hours to message each other, giving them an excuse to communicate early.

Read the full article on 1843.

America’s armed forces are known for their expensive weapons programs. But even they have a limit writes Sean Gallagher:

• Since the Gulf War the Navy hasn’t had boats that can pound enemy land positions to make way for a rush of Marines.
• The USS Zumwalt was meant to rectify that. The first of what was meant to be 24 boats was deployed last month.
• However due to the expense of the program that was cut down to just three ships.
• And since the manufacturer can no longer take advantage of economies of scale, each projectile – from a gun that fires them at the rate of ten a minute – is now expected to cost $800,000.
• In contrast America has a nuclear missile that costs just $1 million to shoot. And other guided rounds cost as little as $70,000 a shot.
• The warships won’t go to waste. The guns can probably be retrofitted with different, cheaper projectiles, though they’ll be far less accurate.

Read more on ArsTechnica.

The Economist wrote about floating palaces:

• Super yachts appeal to the uber elites. At one trade fair the average yacht cost $22 million.
• It is a market prone to trends. These days the hottest yachts come with companion vessels that will carry gear such as jet skis and speedboats, without taking up valuable space on the yacht itself.
• Space is at such a premium that yacht makers are creative about ways to maximize it. A helipad might be set up to quickly transform into a squash court, or an outdoor movie theater.
• The industry is worth $27 billion a year, and through shipbuilders, insurers, and service staff, is thought to employ 150,000 people.
• It is an industry that takes its cues from others. Seeing the popularity of virtual assistants such as Cortana, today’s yachts accept voice commands, allowing owners to speak to their boat.
• Shipbuilders also realize that younger millionaires value experiences over anything else. So they’re building the yachts to make sure they can survive environments like Antarctica.
• Yachts are a status symbol. Perhaps this is why the average boat is only kept for three years – before its owners sell it and move onto something better.

Read more about the industry at The Economist.

You never hear of bank robberies anymore. Lawrence Dobbs wrote that the artisanal professional is in its final throes:

• In 1992 there were over 800 bank robberies in the United Kingdom. By 2011 there were just 66.
• And the average bank robber is old. A younger generation isn’t coming in to fill the gaps left by an ageing workforce.
• The young don’t seem to be interested in the profession because of how much harder it has gotten.
• Banks will, for example, hide GPS enabled dye packs in stacks of cash. Take the money too far from the bank and the dye explodes making money from the heist easy to trace.
• In many ways heisting is another casualty of technological progress.

Read about attempts to keep the dying profession alive here.

Via: Marginal Revolution

Sarah Zhang wrote about the market for cow genes:

• Farm Arlinda Chief was a bull born in 1962 with unusually good milk producing genes.
• Of course, having a bull with good milk producing genes is basically worthless. Which is why he fathered 16,000 milk producing daughters.
• Today he has 2 million great-granddaughters and 14% of all cows of his breed in the dairy industry carry his genes.
• All in all, his milk producing genes are thought to have created $30 billion worth of additional milk production, compared to if an average bull had fathered the same daughters.
• He is, in part, responsible for the quadrupling of the milk production of an average cow since the 1960s.
• He’s not perfect. It turns out he had a genetic defect that led to a mutation which caused some to die in the womb. It is estimated that this defect has created $420 million worth of industry losses.

Read more at The Atlantic.

Mark Ellwood wrote about the hottest thing in New York real estate: driveways.

• If a luxury building wants to attract top dollar in the Big Apple, then they’re expected to have roomy driveways for their residents.
• They’re popular with those who value their privacy – the driveways are usually walled off in a way that prevents the paparazzi from snooping around.
• Over-anxious parents also talk about the comfort they get from being able to load their kids into vehicles on a private driveway, rather than a side street where cars go whizzing by.
• In an increasingly siloed world a driveway gives residents the opportunity to actually talk to each other and maybe build a community.
• But the biggest reason for the interest in driveways might just be that they’re status symbols. Property values in Manhattan are so high that having a wide open barely utilized space is a sign of wealth and power.

Read more at Bloomberg.

In a wider article about the afterlife of ballerinas, Alice Robb had some fascinating details about the economic pressures they face:

• At their peak, ballerinas only earn about $18,000 a year.
• They can maybe double that through non-dance events.
• To make matters worse they’re overly optimistic about how long they’ll be able to work. Most expect to go until their 40s, but the average ballerina retires at 34.
• Retirement is often forced upon them by career ending injuries – only 5% voluntarily leave the industry.
• Only 3% of ballerinas say they want to go onto teach dance, but 53% end up doing just that.

The full article provides a far deeper look at the life and afterlife of a ballerina. Read it at Elle.

Via: Marginal Revolution