Planes, Trains, Automobiles, & Foursquare Check-ins
This visualization, from Foursquare, nicely illustrates the travel chaos that many in the U.S. will experience over the next few days (as if anyone really needed reminding).

The data was collected as Foursquare users “checked in” at different locations between Halloween and New Year’s in 2010. Click on the image to see a larger version and a timeline that shows spikes in activity just before Thanksgiving and Christmas.
While the graphic doesn’t reveal anything particularly surprising about travel on Thanksgiving, and the picture is inherently limited because Foursquare users are just a small slice of the whole traveling population, it does highlight the vast amount of social data that many companies are now collecting, which can be mined in various ways.
Another cool example is the Facebook data revealed yesterday that shows there are roughly 4.75 degrees of separation between users, rather than the six that Stanley Milgram proposed in his famous 1967 paper.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build
“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”
ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it
The narrative around cheating students doesn’t tell the whole story. Meet the teachers who think generative AI could actually make learning better.
Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives
The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.
Learning to code isn’t enough
Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.