Spouses in arranged marriages are more generous Participants in the study are playing the dictator game (Photo: Sosina Bezu/UMB) Formerly, only men were owners of land in Ethiopia, and women were considered men's property. Two researchers from the Norwegian University of Life Science (UMB) has studied the effects of new legislation from 2004, which led to both man and wife being listed as owners on joint land certificates which allocate property rights for land. They used a method used in economic studies called ”The Dictator Game”. It involves giving the respondents, in this instance man and wife, a sum of money – independent of each other, and then asking to which extent they are willing to share the money with their spouses. In this way, Professor Stein Holden and Researcher Sosina Bezu, both at the School of Economics and Business at UMB, tested how generous spouses are with each other and whether the generosity depend on the type of marriage: traditionally arranged marriage, love marriage and marriage by abduction. Rusty love?
Predicting the Present, First Five Years of Wired Image from Mark Higgison I was digging through some files the other day and found this document from 1997. It gathers a set of quotes from issues of Wired magazine in its first five years. Here it is in full: We as a culture are deeply, hopelessly, insanely in love with gadgetry. No class in history has ever risen as fast as the blue-collar worker and no class has ever fallen as fast.Peter Drucker, Wired 1.03, Jul/Aug 1993, p. 80 In the world of immersion, authorship is no longer the transmission of experience, but rather the construction of utterly personal experiences.Brenda Laurel, Wired 1.06, Dec 1993, p. 107 I expect that within the next five years more than one in ten people will wear head-mounted computer displays while traveling in buses, trains, and planes.Nicholas Negroponte, Wired 1.06, Dec 1993, p. 136 Pretty soon you’ll have no more idea of what computer you’re using than you have an idea of where your electricity is generated.Danny Hillis, Wired 2.01, Jan 1994, p. 103
Quantitative easing Expansionary monetary policy to stimulate the economy typically involves the central bank buying short-term government bonds in order to lower short-term market interest rates.[10][11][12][13] However, when short-term interest rates have reached or are close to reaching zero, this method can no longer work.[14] Quantitative easing may then be used by monetary authorities to further stimulate the economy by purchasing assets of longer maturity than short-term government bonds, and thereby lowering longer-term interest rates further out on the yield curve.[15][16] Process[edit] Quantitative easing is distinguished from standard central banking monetary policies, which usually targets the interbank interest rate. Quantitative easing, and monetary policy in general, can only be carried out if the central bank controls the currency used. History[edit] Before 2007[edit] After 2007[edit] United States QE1, QE2, and QE3 [edit] United Kingdom[edit] Europe[edit] Japan after 2007 and Abenomics[edit]
Cell Phone Spying: Is Your Life Being Monitored? It connects you to the world, but your cell phone could also be giving anyone from your boss to your wife a window into your every move. The same technology that lets you stay in touch on-the-go can now let others tap into your private world — without you ever even suspecting something is awry. Long gone are the days of simple wiretapping, when the worst your phone could do was let someone listen in to your conversations. The new generation of tools provides a lot more power. Eavesdropping is easy. All it takes is a two-minute software install and someone can record your calls and monitor your text messages. But the scarier stuff is what your phone can do when you aren’t even using it. You don’t have to plant a CIA-style bug to conduct surveillance any more. All you have to do is log on to the web site and enter the target phone number. Once connected, the service shows you the exact location of the phone by the minute, conveniently pinpointed on a Google Map. By JR Raphael
The MintChip: The Canadian Government’s Answer to Bitcoin Picking up on the emergence of innovative payment solutions appearing in the US like Square and projects like Bitcoin, The Royal Canadian Mint decided to get in on the game as well with its own digital currency project: the MintChip, seeking to offer the key benefits of electronic currency backed by the Canadian dollar. “Until now,” the website reads, “there has been no electronic solution that cost-effectively addresses the very-low-value transaction markets, protects privacy, is available to everyone and emulates the characteristics of cash.” And MintChip seeks to address this. So how does such a system work? The question immediately obvious to any Bitcoin afficionado is: how does the system prevent double spending – what prevents the user from sending a payment, resetting the state of the chip to a previous state and sending the payment again? There are other aspects of the system that Bitcoin users are likely to object to. However, the system gets a lot of things right.
All The News Fit to Write: Liberia’s Analog Blackboard Blog (image via: Neatorama) Imagine not being able to check your favorite blogs or even read the news every day. Whether because you can’t afford the newspaper or because the local government doesn’t allow access to the news, it would put you in the dark permanently. It’s a fact of life for countless people in the world. In Monrovia, Liberia, Alfred Sirleaf is striving to bring information to the people. Every morning since 2000, he has headed to his public bulletin board and painstakingly writes out the day’s news on the blackboard for all to see at no charge. Sirleaf’s project is, in all likelihood, the world’s only analog blog. Naked Money: when alchemy doesn't work anymore If we look at longer periods of time, we see money often changes. Not only does the picture on the money change, so does the way we think about it. That is why here at OuiShare, we think a lot about money. In this article, Joel Dietz draws the outlines of the history of our money system. After all, the world was not born with money. The Carrot and the Watermelon We can rediscover the origins of money with a simple thought experiment. So we have a reason to use measurements, and since the carrot is more plentiful, we will probably say that a certain number of carrots is “worth” a watermelon. Money goes wrong? How can this go wrong? Here, we have sheep, cows, and other objects that people generally find useful and can move. Perhaps unsurprisingly, shiny objects dug up from the ground have been the basis for most of the widely circulating currencies. The World of Symbols Here, we necessarily enter the world of symbols intrinsically tied to political consciousness. Gold and iron “Hush child!”
Rant: If You’re Not On Facebook, It’s Time To Get Over Yourself Oh, yeah, I’m not on Facebook. Like, it’s so invasive. If you’ve said anything like this, I feel bad for you. Facebook has over half a billion users. Except really, these people aren’t defending anything except antisocial, extremely annoying behaviour. I will grant you this: Facebook, much like Twitter, has a lot that sucks about it. Why Socialism Failed JUNE 01, 1995 by MARK J. PERRY Socialism is the Big Lie of the twentieth century. In the same way that a Ponzi scheme or chain letter initially succeeds but eventually collapses, socialism may show early signs of success. A pyramid scheme is ultimately unsustainable because it is based on faulty principles. In a capitalist economy, incentives are of the utmost importance. Under socialism, incentives either play a minimal role or are ignored totally. In a radio debate several months ago with a Marxist professor from the University of Minnesota, I pointed out the obvious failures of socialism around the world in Cuba, Eastern Europe, and China. The Marxist admitted that many “socialist” countries around the world were failing. If perfection really were an available option, the choice of economic and political systems would be irrelevant. However, the choice of economic and political institutions is crucial in an imperfect universe with imperfect beings and limited resources. Prices
Jeff Saltons profile Many Muggles, fans and aficionados of the Harry Potter franchise would no doubt be aware that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Theme Park and Resort opened last June. And judging by the fact that the park just sold its one millionth Butterbeer (non-alcoholic) beverage, its popularity doesn’t seem to be waning. The success of Universal’s newest park, located in Orlando, Florida, like most theme parks, will be judged on the experiences it offers its guests. Often this boils down to the teeth-rattling speed, stomach-churning loops and turns, or the full-on "shock and awe" of its rides. Gizmag spoke with Senior Vice President, Creative Studio for Universal Parks and Resorts, Thierry Coup, to get a behind-the-scenes insight into the creation of the park’s rides, namely the Dragon Challenge, Flight of the Hippogriff and The Forbidden Journey.