Maybe the super-rich aren’t so different from the rest of us after all. The Associated Press wrote about how the uber rich approach membership rewards points:

• When Chinese Billionaire Liu Yiqian bought a $170 million Modigliani painting he paid for it with his American Express “AmEx” card.
• This will allow him and his family to fly anywhere in the world in First Class for the rest of their lives.
• Yiqian was the owner of AmEx’s black card – an invitation only card with no credit limit.
• The card comes with a membership reward program not too different from the one that plebs with common cards are enrolled in.
• The $170 million purchase will give him enough points to fly 3,000 times between the US and Europe in Singapore Airlines’ decadent Suites Class (pictured) – a ticket that normally costs $17,800.
• The real loser is Christie’s – the auctioneer that Yiqian will be paying. AmEx takes a 2-3% cut from merchants of all sales paid for by its card.

Read more here.

Source: CBC News

Via: Marginal Revolution

In the age of Amazon and e-commerce your next book is just a click away. But Michael S. Rosenwald wrote about the smaller guys that are thriving in this competitive market place:

• As Baby Boomers are retiring and downsizing they’re looking to give away their books to people who they know will respect them.
• Thus bookstores are able to acquire books for about 10% of the original cover price, and sell it for half the price of a new book. This works out to a 400% markup – substantially more profitable than the business of new books.
• In fact, Amazon can be a help instead of a hindrance. Bookstores are able to list their books on Amazon’s third party marketplace and access a broader customer base.
• The startup costs can be as high as $85,000.
• But canny bookstore owners will turn their shops into cultural centers with meet the authors and other events.
• They can also target customers who enjoy the thrill of the hunt, or who like to wrestle with the notes and comments that past readers leave in the margins of used books.
• Some just enjoy the surprise of having a postcard or love letter fall out of a used book.

The full article talks about some strategies that bookstore owners use to sell books, and contains other details. You can read it here.

Source: The Washington Post

Derrick Rossignol wrote that more than Taylor Swift, Adele, or Beyoncé, it’s Drake that’s showing the way forwards for the music industry:

• Drake and other artists released multiple albums in 2015.
• This is because the music business is increasingly about name recognition. Money is made from live performances, not from album sales.
• To draw audiences to their performances, music artists need to stay on top of consumers’ minds.
• They used to be able to do so through “low priority content” like podcast appearances, blog posts, or Twitter updates.
• Now however we’re saturated with those and they no longer draw attention.
• The only way to really keep people aware of your music is to stay in the headlines – preferably by continuing to release new and good music.
• More frequent releases makes sense. Artists only used to release an album every few years because the process of manufacturing and distributing CDs and advertizing materials took months.
• Now with the internet this is less of a concern and artists can release songs on a more frequent basis.

The full article goes into more detail about the history of the music industry, and details other artists that are starting to shorten their release cycle. You can find it here.

Source: The Guardian

Via: Marginal Revolution

Christian Millman wrote about some of the unique challenges of providing food for space travellers:

• The first big step for human space exploration was proving, in 1962, that the human body could consume food in zero gravity.
• Later in the 1960s astronauts were sent with the freeze dried ice cream that is oddly popular in science stores across the world to this day. Astronauts, for their part, hated it so much that freeze dried space ice cream has never left earth again.
• More generally astronauts hated the food that they were being sent with enough that there was a mini-insurrection – an astronaut smuggled a corned beef sandwich into space in his space suit.
• The sandwich created a cloud of floating bread bits that led to Congressional hearings and a promise by NASA to prevent food smuggling in the future.
• Food boredom seems to increase dietary requirements. Even after upping daily calorie intake to 2,800 NASA found that astronauts were returning to earth having lost substantial amounts of weight.
• In 1973 Skylab, the predecessor to the ISS, had a menu of 72 items. NASA declared success when astronauts returned home weighing about the same.
• The next step is to find food that could survive a multi-year trip to Mars and still be considered edible by astronauts.

Read more about the dynamics of space food here.

Source: Discover

Zoltan Istvan wrote about an initiative to have a beauty contest judged by robots:

• People would take selfies of themselves for the contest and upload the photos for AI to evaluate beauty.
• Make-up, beards, and hats aren’t allowed in the selfies.
• The contest is expected to be held once every six months.
• The aim of the project is more than just skin deep – through it the contest backers are hoping to teach robots how humans evaluate beauty.
• This may lead to AI driven advances that help people look younger.
• If robots can be taught abstract concepts such as beauty it may also be possible to teach them to appreciate art, music, and other things that humanity is fond of.
• And if robots start to evaluate each other’s appearance then this could be the beginning of robot attraction and someday, maybe even love.

Read more about the companies and researchers backing the competition, how it is open-sourced, and other details here.

Source: TechCrunch

Via: Marginal Revolution

Carrie Melago wrote that there are people across the United States desperate to get their hands on your tangled balls of yarn:

• A group of “detanglers” find that fixing tangled up balls of yarn helps relax them in an overwhelming world.
• To that end 25 pound boxes of tangled yarn can go for $50 on eBay.
• Online community sites have sprung up where people can send photographs of the mess they’ve gotten their yarn in – and people offer to help untangle it for them.
• They also discuss untangling techniques. All agree that using scissors to cut out the knots is never the answer.
• Those on the community like to share “tangle porn” where they show before and after pictures of their ultimately perfect looking balls of yarn.
• The community’s proudest project is the stuff of legend – 50 balls of yarn mistakenly thrown into the dryer. Over a dozen detanglers work together to fix it up.
• Some are branching out and offering to help untangle headphone cables and Christmas tree lights.

Read more here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Via: Marginal Revolution

The Economist pleaded that top executives demonstrate a modicum of sanity:

• The World Economic Forum lists 14 things that successful people should do before breakfast. They include working on a personal project like a novel, having pre-dawn sex, and networking.
• 90% of executives say they wake before 6am on weekdays. PepsiCo’s CEO says she gets up at 4am.
• A surprising number go to the gym in the morning – and while working out they read, make phone calls, and maybe watch a little TV.
• Others like to take time off to climb mountains and fly fighter jets.
• Business magazines run articles such as “how to train like a Navy SEAL”.
• Companies are also increasingly building lavish gyms for their employees to use.
• Less officially some top employees are said to be experimenting with drugs that help increase focus.
• There is evidence that boards of directors are coming to expect this kind of over-performance – and using fitness trackers to ensure that their executives are staying active.
• People need to calm down a little. Top executives are no good if they’re going to show up to work exhausted.
• Moreover, over-working doesn’t prove that you’re a great boss – it shows that you’re incapable of delegating.
• And anyway, a company whose success depends on one super-human CEO probably won’t do well for long anyway.

Read more here.

Source: The Economist

Eat your hearts out, Siri, Cortana, and Google Now. A new phone in (Ghanaian) town(s) is garnering all the attention according to Emmanuel Quartey:

• The phone pictured above costs about $25, and, believe it or not, is as thick as it looks. And it’s all the rage in Ghana.
• Part of the popularity seems to be that in blackout prone Ghana, the phone can act as a power bank to charge other electronics such as .mp3 players and more upscale phones.
• Its battery also means that the phone can go a week without being charged, meaning that it is an effective backup phone.
• The phone has a built in torch light, further increasing its usefulness during blackouts.
• Despite not having a touchscreen the phone comes with Facebook pre-installed, and is helping to increase internet penetration in Ghana.
• Its distinctive and bulky form factor maybe part of the reason it’s doing so well – people instantly recognize it, helping spread its popularity.

Read more about the phone and the mysteries that surround it, as well as the lessons the phone holds for businesses looking to sell in emerging markets over here.

Source: Quartz

Mint is associated with fresh breath. It’s an entirely artificial association writes Joseph Stromberg:

• The first mouthwashes and toothpastes contained ingredients like gillyflower, ginger, and cinnamon.
• The person responsible for getting Americans to brush every day – the maker of Pepsodent – wanted to use behavioural conditioning to make people feel good about brushing their teeth.
• To that end he added mint oil – which generated a tingly feeling in the mouth – to toothpaste. Every time people brushed they were “rewarded” with that tingly feeling.
• That feeling soon came to be associated with freshness – even though it is entirely artificial. While mint oil makes your mouth feel cooler it doesn’t actually clean anything in your mouth by itself.
• Listerine noted the brilliance of the strategy and pumped its mouthwash full of menthol – a chemical that produced a similar cooling effect.
• Listerine also launched a marketing campaign that told people that they would be social outcasts if they had bad breath.
• The campaign was a success and sales of Literine exploded.
• Now everybody associates the feeling of mint oil and menthol with mouth freshness, a relationship that reinforces itself.

Read about the differences between mint and menthol and the history of toothpaste and mouthwash in the United States over here.

Source: Vox