How to find a good restaurant? Economists can help

Big data is here to save your dinner.

Where to eat? It's a question you've probably pondered when visiting somewhere unfamiliar.

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Culture & Religion

GPS is changing your brain (and it's not good)

Creating more neural circuits through visual landmarking not only benefits your spatial orientation, it could keep Alzheimer's disease at bay.

Photo by Michal Fludra/NurPhoto via Getty Images
  • Journalist M.R. O'Connor writes "paying attention to the spatial relationships of places in our environment" could help offset neurodegenerative diseases.
  • The initial signs of dementia are short-term memory loss and disorientation; both deal with spatial orientation in some capacity.
  • While getting lost is no fun, visual landmarking is an extremely important skill.
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Technology & Innovation

Thumbs up? Map shows Europe’s hitchhiking landscape

Average waiting time for hitchhikers in Ireland: Less than 30 minutes. In southern Spain: More than 90 minutes.

Image: Abel Suyok
  • A popular means of transportation from the 1920s to the 1980s, hitchhiking has since fallen in disrepute.
  • However, as this map shows, thumbing a ride still occupies a thriving niche – if at great geographic variance.
  • In some countries and areas, you'll be off the street in no time. In other places, it's much harder to thumb your way from A to B.
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Strange Maps

Why Elon Musk doesn't like Jeff Bezos's space colonies

Elon Musk took issue with recent ideas for space exploration from Jeff Bezos.

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  • Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have sparred over space exploration previously.
  • Musk wants to focus on Mars while Bezos has the moon and space colonies as goals.
  • In a recent tweet, Musk called out Bezos's plans for space colonies as unrealistic.
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Technology & Innovation

In Sweden you can roam anywhere you like, without the landowner's permission

Where would you go if you could go anywhere?

The concept of access regardless of land ownership is called 'Allemansrätt' - 'everyman's right'.

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Culture & Religion