Chavie Lieber wrote about Yankee Candle and its rise as a successful multinational scented candle company:

• Yankee Candle got its start in 1969 when a 17-year-old couldn’t afford to buy his mother a Christmas gift and so he made her a candle using a milk carton as a mold.
• A family friend saw the candle and wanted to buy it – and thus began a business empire.
• Today the company grosses $832 million a year in sales, accounts for almost half of all candle sales in the United States, and is growing rapidly.
• Part of the success is due to the stores. The company tries to evoke an emotional connection of homely authenticity with customers and looks to Disney’s branding efforts as an example.
• 80% of its customers are women. They’re mostly between the ages of 30 and 50, are homeowners, and have families. Holiday themed scents like Christmas cookie are particularly popular with the group.
• The company once tried to expand its market to men by releasing scents such as Riding Mower and Man Town. It was successful – with female buyers who said that the candles smelled like perfect lumberjack boyfriends.
• New scents are released four times a year and range from the creative – “Clean Cotton” – to the eclectic – “Child’s Wish” and “Schnitzel with Noddles”.

Read more about the company, its history, what happened to its founder, its most rabid fans, and the challenges that lie ahead over here.

Source: Racked

Waiting around at the airport can be a drag and American ones are getting creative in finding ways to keep passengers entertained:

• Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport has brought in miniature horses – which it calls therapy unicorns – for irate passengers to pet and interact with.
• San Diego has hired circus performers to help travelers stay calm.
• Yet another avoids such gimmicks and straight up hands out free lollipops to anybody who wants one.

Read more here.

Source: The Telegraph

Via: Marginal Revolution

Natalie Zarrelli wrote about grooms that get their own cake:

• Until the 1940s it was tradition for a wedding to have two cakes – one for the bride and one for the groom.
• While the tradition has faded in parts of America it’s still strong in the south.
• The bride’s cake is the main one. It is larger and fancier and embodies the colours and the theme of the wedding.
• The groom’s cake is usually more representative of the groom’s personality and a way for them to leave their own mark on the wedding.
• Thus the groom’s cake might have R2-D2 on it, the logo of a favourite sports team, or be in the shape of an Xbox.

Read more here.

Source: Atlas Obscura

William MacAskill had a fascinating article about unintended consequences:

• Sponsoring first-time skydivers is a popular way to raise funds for charity. One study of 1,500 such events over a five-year period found that all in all they raised £120,000.
• However, since some of the funds are used to pay for the event ultimately only £45,000 was sent directly to charities.
• And since these were first-time skydivers with limited training there were 103 injuries which, on average, required nine days of hospitalization.
• This cost a total of £610,000 in medical expenses – which was paid for by the government through its funding of the NHS.
• All in all, for every £1 raised, the government had to kick in £13 to deal with the fallout from the charity effort.
• Bringing the story full circle: often times the sky-diving events aimed to raise money for health-related charities.

The full article has more information about the the study and contains a wider analysis of our blind-spots when supporting charities. Find it here.

Source: Time

Via: Reddit

Ben Valentine wrote about a company that redesigns the atmosphere for your viewing pleasure:

• A company in Cambodia uses a mixture of compressed air and soapy liquid to make “clouds” that gently float into the sky.
• Their most popular customers are businesses that hire them for corporate events.
• Their services can be had for $500 an afternoon.
• They’re an effective daytime replacement for sky lanterns that are popular in the region but work best when it’s dark.

You can read more details about the clouds here. Looking for something more upmarket? We’ve previously covered a service that will create meteor showers on demand.

Source: Hyperallergic

Via: Mental Floss

Alex Tabarrok wrote that in certain circumstances requiring safety features on cars can actually detract from, rather than enhance safety:

• Indian auto manufacturers recently released a series of low cost cars that have a safety rating of zero stars, due to their lack of features such as air bags.
• Because they lack any bells and whistles such cars are incredibly cheap – one can be had for as little as $4,000.
• Adding air bags could cost as much as $400, increasing the price of the vehicle by a substantial 10%.
• Only 6% of Indian households have cars, but 47% have motorcycles.
• Any kind of motorcycle is more dangerous than a car. And not even the most advanced motorcycle has features like airbags.
• If low cost cars can convince Indians to switch to four wheeled vehicles, safety will dramatically improve – even if the cars themselves lack common safety features.

Read more of the argument here.

Source: Marginal Revolution

As market uncertainty continues after the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union, Vipal Monga and Tatyana Shumsky wrote about one sector that could see a boom:

• At a minimum the UK will require two years to extract itself from the EU, requiring months of discussions involving international law experts.
• Some law firms have set up 24 hour hotlines to respond to the deluge of requests they’re getting in the wake of the referendum results.
• The need for private sector aid is especially acute because the UK hasn’t had to conduct its own trade negotiations in a long while – this was largely taken care of by the EU.
• If EU laws ever stop applying then the UK will have to start drafting its own laws on subjects as varied as food safety requirements around the making of cheese, and ensuring routes for the migration of honey bees.

Read more here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The Association for Psychological Science wrote about a study that examined the behavioural impact of having bad dating prospects:

• A series of experiments suggested that if people believe that gender ratios in their area are skewed in a way that lengthens the odds of finding a romantic partner, they are more likely to engage in risky behaviour.
• From an evolutionary perspective it sort of makes sense. If it’s difficult to find a mate then high risk-high reward behaviours and a willingness to do whatever it takes may be the way to go.
• Crucially though the high risk behaviour isn’t limited to finding a mate – those with poor romantic prospects seem to engage in risky behaviour in all domains in life.
• Thus people who struggle to find a date may engage in high-risk behaviour related to investments, gambling, and sports.
• In countries such as India and China with heavily skewed gender ratios this has implications for the kinds of societies that such pressures may create.

Read more about the experiments and their methodology over here.

Source: Eureka Alert