Services such as Netflix and Pandora have revolutionized how we consume movies and music. Now one company is trying to do the same for art. Melena Ryzik reported:

• If you go to Netflix then it recommends other movies for you to watch based on your preferences. Currently there’s nothing similar for art: a site which can recommend other pieces of art for you to enjoy based on recorded preferences.
• Art.sy is aiming to fill this gap. It has worked with various museums and institutions to put together some of the world’s most famous art.
• Each piece of art is rated on a scale of 1-100 on various categories such as “Renaissance”. Algorithms then use this information and information about your preferences to recommend art work.

Read more about the service, how the founder thought of it, and how it works, over here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

The most important journalism is increasingly being done by freelancers writes Sarah A. Topol. Highlights of her article include:

• Media organizations can no longer afford to keep staff in countries all over the world in preparation for the next big news story.
• Into the breach have stepped freelance journalists. These people are often young, inexperienced, and unprepared. Even basics such as flak jackets, satellite phones, and health insurance are rare.
• The freelancers fund their own way to conflict areas such as Libya and Syria and report stories from there. These articles take weeks to write, at great personal danger, and sell for a few hundred dollars.
• Freelancers do it because in an increasingly competitive world, this is the only way that they can hope to break into the journalism business. Although success – in the form of a permanent job – is not guaranteed.
• The one perk of being a freelancer is that individuals get to choose which topics they want to cover.

Read more about times when freelance journalism has gone horribly wrong (and once when it went wonderfully right), how newspaper editors implicitly encourage the practice, and efforts to make things better for freelancers, over here.

Source: The Daily Beast

Trendwatching outlined 12 trends that budding entrepreneurs can try to capitalize on. Some of the more interesting ones include:

• One touch delivery. One pizza chain is giving its most loyal customers a Bluetooth enabled fridge magnet that looks like their favourite pizza. If they press it, then they’ll see a full sized, edible version of the same pizza delivered to their home.
• 24/7 feedback. A tennis racket has been developed that uses sensors to provide you with real time information about ways you could improve your game.
• Tasksumers. Ways for everyday people to make a little money on the side. One website specializes in putting people in touch with travelers who could bring them things from outside their country that are hard to find locally.
• Real World Liking. One retail store puts its clothes on hangars that display the number of “likes” on Facebook that that particular item has received.
• Artificial scarcity. A musician has decided to release his music in a format that only one person can listen to at a time. Another bakery makes a set numbers of donuts each day and closes up after they’re sold.

The full list is fascinating and might end up sparking several ideas. Find it here.

Source: Trendwatching

Via: Newmark’s Door, Business Insider

It turns out that Google and Apple aren’t the only options when it comes to mapping. In fact, the best mapping company in the world might actually be Nokia. Alexis Madrigal reported:

• While Google may use Street View cars to collect data, they have “only” travelled about 5 million miles. Nokia collects data from FedEx trucks that travel 3.3 billion miles a year, creating maps that are far more accurate.
• Traffic information is also collected from these vehicles, meaning that Nokia’s traffic information is accurate and comprehensive.
• Nokia is also more aware than other companies about how frequently maps change. New roads are built, old rules are updated, and for this reason Nokia has to update anywhere between 6% of its network for developed cities to 85% of it in developing cities in an effort to remain current.
• Nokia maps also learn about your habits over time and use that tailor a mapping experience relevant specifically to you.

See a visualization of how Nokia’s maps are developed, its equivalent of the Street View car, the people who drive them, and what the future of maps will ultimately look like over here.

Source: The Atlantic

Conventional wisdom says that oil prices are controlled by the Middle Eastern countries which actually produce the stuff. If you told Middle Eastern countries that today, they would likely laugh at you writes Blake Clayton:

• When America’s Federal Reserve decided to continue monetary easing prices soared as investors looked to invest in commodities. If the US decides to tap into its emergency stockpile of oil then prices will likely fall. Overall this gives Washington a lot of power over prices.
• If Israel attacks Iran then prices will also likely soar, meaning that Israel, too, can strongly influence prices.
• If China’s economy doesn’t pick up soon then oil prices will fall.
• If Angela Merkel lets parts of the Eurozone breakoff then oil prices could go either way depending on how the breakup happens. Thus Berlin, too, can influence prices.
• All in all the days when OPEC was the final arbiter of prices has passed.

Click here to read about the other countries that could cause prices to change tomorrow.

Source: Foreign Policy

According to one group of researchers at the University of California, squirrels are best understood as investment bankers. Yasmin Anwar reported:

• Squirrels have to gather and save food during the months when it is available so that they can eat it during the winter months when it is not. This is essentially a long term savings strategy where the squirrels are making ‘deposits’ now so that they can consume later.
• Squirrels don’t just store their food in one location. They spread it around to mitigate risk so that if one deposit is plundered, they will have others to draw upon. This type of diversification will be familiar to investment bankers.
• The squirrels have to remember for several months where their nuts are stored. This suggests sophisticated cognitive capabilities.

There’s no word yet on whether or not squirrels have developed walnut-backed-securities. You can read more about the squirrels and their behaviour over here.

Source: UC Berkeley

Via: Marginal Revolution