When Intel Dan was a child, his parents would take him to Nathan's when he brought home a good report card. As Dan believed hot dogs and crinkly fries to be the pinnacle of human culinary achievements, it was usually an effective incentive. Nowadays, some extremely lucky (but also impoverished) kids in the privately funded Sparks pilot program are being paid up to $500 a year for getting good grades. Lo and behold, it turns out gobs of cash are a pretty effective incentive too. Probably even more than hot dogs. [NYP]