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

PredictGaze is software that might transform how you interact with electronic devices writes Hamish McKenzie:

• PredictGaze uses the standard camera built into your computer or smartphone to track your facial movements, including your eyes.
• Using this technology you can turn the page on an e-book just by looking at the bottom right corner of the page. Or you can have the device automatically scroll a long article for you as you read through it.
• Stores can use the software to track which products consumers are looking at, and what their facial expression is at that time.
• It’s ability to track facial movements could allow you to mute a show by pushing your lips into a “shush” gesture.

Read more about the people behind the software, the visa troubles they have, other applications for the technology, video demonstrations of the product, and the danger of spreading themselves to thin over here.

Source: PandoDaily

Via: Kottke

Through the internet you can share your car, your home, your office, and even your pets. Eilene Zimmerman wrote about the rise of the sharing economy:

• There are various models of business in the sharing economy. Companies such as Zipcar and Netflix own a product and they’ll lease it to you for a while. Others such as Airbnb and RelayRides don’t own anything, all they do is bring together two people who are willing to do business.
• This economy challenges the widely held assumption that computers make us more isolated. Most of these social, community based services would not have been possible without technology.
• It’s not just computers. The increasing urbanization of society has made it easier than ever to share things.
• ZipCar’s car sharing service is thought to be the first company to make a business out of sharing.
• Money isn’t always exchanged. On CouchSurfing you find a place to stay for a few nights, and in return the host gets your company.
• Other services offered by the sharing economy include Kichit, a company that finds you a chef who’ll cook you a dinner in your own kitchen, and ReDigi, a place to sell your digital music.

This is The Christian Science Monitor’s cover story and it covers a lot of ground in its analysis of this new trend. It also has many more examples of things that can be shared, and you may just find something useful to you if you read through the article here.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

Zynga, the maker of Farmville, looked set to usher in a new era of more casual games that people could play on Facebook. At its IPO Zynga sold for $10 a share. Now it’s trading at less than a quarter of that. What happened? Josh Constine reported:

• Zynga used to advertize its games by buying ads on Facebook. But ads on Facebook have become more expensive making it difficult for Zynga to promote as much as it used to.
• At the same time Facebook users got tired of all the notifications that Zynga’s games sent out, even to non-players. Eventually Facebook stepped in and rebalanced things so that these notifications weren’t as intrusive; making it even more difficult for Zynga to advertize.
• Facebook got smarter. Now Facebook takes a 30% tax on every game that makes money of off the social network, cutting into Zynga’s revenue.
• Screens got smaller. More and more people are accessing Facebook through mobile devices and games are not optimized for this.

Read more about financial factors that have played a role, the cost of acquisitions, and what Zynga needs to do, over here.

Source: TechCrunch

Star Wars has seduced another generation of kids writes Alan Greenblatt. Highlights from his article include:

• The last Star Wars movie came out in 2005. Yet children who were born after that are still interested in the franchise.
• More importantly they stay interested in it as they grow up. Teenagers are just as happy as toddlers to talk about Star Wars.
• In part this is because the makers of Star Wars have kept bringing the series to new formats. In addition to the popular television show there are Star Wars books and games.
• Some believe that the enduring appeal is due to the father-son themes in the series. There isn’t just the relationship between Luke and (spoiler) Darth Vader, but also the master-apprentice relationship between the Jedi.
• Others say that it’s because George Lucas introduced a variety of characters that could appeal to everybody: from the cute cuddly Ewoks to the more sinister Darth Maul.

Read more about the staying power of this phenomenon over here. Or find out how much Centives believes it would cost to build The Death Star over here.

Source: NPR

You can tell a lot about a country by what it chooses to keep in its strategic reserves. Zoe Chace went over some of the more interesting ones.

• China has a strategic reserve of…pork. (Pork prices were an issue earlier this year).
• Helium in the United States. Back in the 1920s the US thought it might need them during wartime to fill up blimps. It only just got around to realizing that this wasn’t really a concern anymore.
• Maple Syrup. It’s what keeps the Canadians in such a cheery mood all the time.
• Oil. The US keeps them in salt caves.

Read more about how these stockpiles came to be and where they’re located over here.

Source: NPR