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Google is using peer pressure to help cities save energy
With climate change on many minds, cities around the world have affirmed their dedication to improving sustainability efforts. To help with that, Google recently unveiled the Environmental Insights Explorer, which overlays emissions data and efficiency analyses atop a city’s Google map. So far, the tool’s beta version has been rolled out in five cities: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Melbourne, Australia; Victoria, Canada; and, in the US, Pittsburgh and Mountain View, California. The project will collaborate with more cities to bring additional data into the fold.
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Researchers have identified a new personality type. Chances are you’ve had it
Whether it’s the ancient Greeks trying to divine one’s character from the stars, or modern surveys that purport to tell you what type of person you are, experts have struggled to come up with a trustworthy personality test. Now, the largest study of its kind suggests people reliably shake out into four major personality types—including a brand new one that, surprisingly, most people will possess at some point during their life. “I think this is an extremely impressive study,” says Richard Robins, a social psychologist at the University of California, Davis, who has been researching human personality for decades.
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How designers keep you calm in long queues (it sometimes involves elephants)
Four million tourists flock to the Empire State Building’s world-famous observatory each year to get a glimpse of Manhattan’s landscape. Before they get to the view, however, they often have to contend with more than an hour of waiting in a labyrinth of queues. “We had two things to offer before: the line and the view,” admits Anthony E. Malkin, CEO of the Empire State Realty Trust. The notoriously long queues have frustrated time-crunched tourists and created a logjam at the Empire State’s office building lobbies. Speaking at the opening of a new visitor entrance yesterday, Malkin explained how he turned to a team of designers and architects to fix the problem.
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The trick to learning when to cut your losses
You’ve popped down the shops to pick up some milk. Halfway there you remember that this particular shop is actually closed on Sunday afternoons. And as far as you know, there are no others open nearby. Still, you’ve already spent 10 minutes walking in that direction, so you might as well at least finish your journey, right? Unless you were already desperate to stretch your legs, this is a transparently stupid way of thinking. Yet, bizarrely, this illogical cognitive pattern is widespread in decision-making; often, involving choices with far higher stakes. A gambler might call it chasing your losses. The British saying – ‘don’t throw good money after bad’ – captures a similar sentiment.
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Imaginary Worlds of Childhood
In 19th-century England, the Brontë children created Gondal, an imaginary kingdom full of melodrama and intrigue. Emily and Charlotte Brontë grew up to write the great novels “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre.” The fictional land of Narnia, chronicled by C.S. Lewis in a series of classic 20th-century novels, grew out of Boxen, an imaginary kingdom that Lewis shared with his brother when they were children.
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‘This Is How Rats Work.’ Why Twitter’s Emphasis on Follower Counts Could Be Backfiring
Online follower counts have become a fashionable form of currency, numbers people use as evidence of personal and professional clout. Media outlets treat it as news when celebrities amass big followings, and an entire industry has ascended around “influencers” who endorse goods via popular feeds. It’s a metric increasingly ingrained in modern life. It’s also under the microscope at Twitter. CEO Jack Dorsey has expressed a willingness to rethink not just policies but the platform’s fundamental design as Twitter continues to grapple with issues ranging from hate speech to disinformation campaigns.
