Katharine Schwab writes that some of the most attention grabbing images depict emptiness. She talked with experts to find out why:

• Humans have a natural tendency to focus on faces in photos. If there are no faces, then we’re forced to take in the entire image.
• Such images also cause the viewer to imagine themselves in the scene, bringing a level of interactivity absent from people filled photos.
• Without having something like a human to anchor our perception, it can be difficult to figure out the relative size of the things we’re seeing in an empty photo, making things appear bigger and grander than they are.

Read more here.

Source: Fast Company

Micro-satellites, artificial intelligence, and social media are all being used to cut through the marketing and figure out the real state of businesses writes The Economist:

• Want to figure out if your local Walmart is struggling? Satellite imagery is used to approximate daily revenue by checking on how full the parking lot is.
• Factory productivity can be estimated by the number of lorries that pass through.
• The height of oil tanks varies according to the amount of oil in the tank. A taller evening shadow means greater oil reserves.
• Market moving events will be reported on social media before anywhere else. Savvy investors can make a quick buck by using social media analytics.
• One smartphone app measures how frequently users stop in a store. Any more than five minutes and it likely means they’re a patron.

Read other examples of alternative-data over here.

Source: The Economist

There are self-driving taxis now! Sort of. With restrictions. Annabelle Liang and Dee-Ann Durbin reported:

• Singapore has the honour of being the first country with self-driving taxis romaing the streets.
• It’s not the driverless utopia we’ve been promised. The taxis only run on specific roads in a single business and residential district, with a limited number of pick-up and drop-off locations.
• …And they come with a driver who will take control if anything goes wrong.
• But hey credit where credit is due. It’s the start of the future. The service is basically in beta and is run through an invite-only app.
• So far there are only six of the Renault Zoes and Mitsubishi i-MiEV electrics in the taxi fleet.
• But the service is expected to rapidly grow as the sophisticated, yet miniscule island state looks to ease the congestion on its roads.

Read about some of the technical specifications of the vehicles, one rider’s experience, and more over here.

Source: MSN

The idea of drive-in theaters seems pretty cool. Instead of being stuck in a cramped movie theater seat, you get to drive up in your car, lean your seat back, uncover the snacks in the glove compartment, and enjoy a show. Evan V. Symon wrote about why we don’t see more of them:

• Price is a factor. Drive in theaters usually charge by the car, and so an entire group of friends on a truck can watch a movie for a fraction of what it would cost them at the theater.
• Having an outdoor movie theater has unique challenges. Like bird nests. And moths attracted to the big bright screen.
• In most locations they can only be used during certain times of the year. No one wants to take their car through a snow storm to watch a film in the winter – around the time that audience driving blockbusters like Star Wars come out.
• And then there is the rain. Even if the viewers aren’t watching from flatbed trucks, those inside cars will still have their movie experience ruined by windscreen rain splatter.
• Drive in theaters also have to double as auto mechanic shops to deal with all the people who have car trouble as they try to leave the lot.
• There is still hope. Drive in theaters might survive by appealing to families who don’t have to be embarrassed about crying children. Toddlers with too much energy could run about outdoors.

Read other details including some of the…grosser aspects of having an outdoor movie theater here.

Source: Cracked

Ted Goodman wrote about the military’s role in the creation of McDonald’s drive thrus.

• In 1975 the McDonald’s brand was running strong and it was a well-known and popular fast food restaurant.
• At the time a military base in Arizona had a rule against soldiers wearing their military fatigues in local establishments.
• McDonald’s wanted their business though, and to get around the military’s rules, they created an outdoor window that soldiers could order from, without having to actually enter the restaurant.
• Today this is recognized as the first ever McDonald’s drive thru.
• Sadly, while McDonald’s has a plaque memorializing it, the drive thru itself no longer exists – it has been turned into a parking lot.

Read more here.

Source: Daily Caller

Norway’s tourism board helped Disney with the creation of Frozen, believing that the film would boost tourism to the country. The plan worked a little too well writes Jon Henley:

• After the release of Disney’s Frozen, tourism to Norway increased by 20%.
• It set off a trend with an increasing number of movies being shot in the scenic Nordic country.
• One island’s roads are unable to handle the traffic from a sudden influx of visitors.
• Their waste disposal infrastructure isn’t built for these kinds of numbers either.
• And the most popular beaches are eroding away.
• Things are only going to get worse with the number of tourists expected to double in the coming years.
• The Economist though speaks out in the defense of such tourism. The magazine notes that it brings substantial economic benefits to local communities.
• And infrastructure failures are more signs of poor policymaking and governance, they suggest, than anything else.

Read the full article here.

Source: The Guardian

Via: Mental Floss

Believe that politicians are lying scum who will say anything to get votes? Turns out most of them follow through on what they say:

• Studies have consistently found that American Presidents have made a good faith effort to keep about two thirds of their campaign promises.
• Bush, after all, cut taxes and enacted education reform as he had promised. Obama delivered health care and environmental legislation.
• In fact, Obama so far has kept about 70% of his promises, while Republicans have kept about the same proportion of the promises they made before they took over the house.
• Over in Europe politicians keep even more of their promises, likely because in parliamentary systems the ruling party controls both the legislative and the executive branch.
• In cases where politicians don’t keep to their promises, it is often due to unusual circumstances – such as the once in a generation financial crisis that required Bush to pass a deficit inducing stimulus package.
• Perhaps politicians are thought of as liars because when they do abruptly go back on their word there is a lot of coverage around it, and people remember it more than instances of promises being kept.

Read more over here.

Source: Five Thirty Eight

Peter Yeung reported on a study that looked at CEO pay and company success:

• A study found that an individual who invests $100 in companies with the most highly paid CEOs, will see their money grow to $265 over ten years.
• But if that same $100 was invested in companies with the lowest paid CEOs, the money would balloon to $367 over the same time period.
• This seems to be driven in part by a corporate culture – that regulators sometimes encourage – which focuses on annual performance rather than long-term gains.
• What’s unclear is if potential bosses demand high pay so that they take on the job of the CEO of a company that was already struggling – thus explaining the poor performance.

Read more here.

Source: The Independent

Hannah Nichols looked at how the calendar affects divorce rates:

• A study found that divorces peak during August and March.
• These are the months right after winter and summer school holidays.
• One explanation for this could be that struggling couples want to make it to the holidays to see if something like a Christmas vacation can save the relationship.
• But perhaps the disillusionment that comes with an unsuccessful vacation is what pushes couples over the edge.
• The peak in August might also be a result of couples wanting to sort out what a post-marriage family structure will look like before kids start a new school year.
• And there’s more sun in the August – something that leads to increased activity and motivations to act.

Read more here.

Source: MNT