Pizza and the White House – together they provide insight into the state of the world. (Image source: Adobe Stock)
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On the night of Saturday to Sunday, April 14, Iran attacked Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones. It was a reaction to the attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria, for which Iran and its allies blame Israel (via daily News).
Experts have been fearing a conflagration in the Middle East since last weekend at the latest. This refers to the uncontrolled spread of acts of war in the region.
What came as a surprise to many people was announced early on. Shortly after the attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria at the beginning of the month, Tehran threatened retaliation (via daily News).
And shortly after the first rockets were launched, the world's power centers, especially Washington, were informed of the situation.
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About crises, Google Maps and pizza
Even laypeople could have guessed that something of potentially enormous international importance would happen on the night from Saturday to Sunday before it was published by the media. All it took was a look at Google Maps.
This offers a function that shows how busy pizzerias and delivery services are, for example – and in special cases even live. Now you may be wondering how one is related to the other.
A lot can be learned from pizza orders
It's easy: What do people who work in offices often do when they have to work overtime? Correct! Order takeaway. And what is perhaps the most popular dish among delivery services? Correct! Pizza.
This also applies to the people who have to work extra shifts in the White House, the Capitol or the Pentagon. If massive overtime is being worked there, it is usually related to national or international crises.
Pizza orders from delivery services around the White House are now increasing significantly, this indirectly indicates a crisis of major proportions. And that's exactly what you can query via Google Maps, as can be seen from the following tweet. The red bar shows the unusual capacity of a restaurant in the Papa John's Pizza chain:
Link to Twitter content
The phenomenon is not new
Now that might sound far-fetched. But already in 1998 the reported Washington Post of the phenomenon, which is definitely called Pizza meter
or Pizza Index
could describe.
When the sexual relationship between then US President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public in January 1998, orders at the pizza chain Domino's increased significantly.
During a normal three-day period, $550 worth of pizzas were sold delivered to the White House. In the three days after the affair became known, the value rose to $2,600.
In December 1998, during the congressional impeachment hearings of Bill Clinton (over the affair with Monica Lewinksy), the value even rose to $3,100.
On Capitol Hill, a small hill in Washington DC on which the United States Capitol stands, pizza sales from Domino's even rose from $1,700 to $11,600.
How can you see this on Google Maps?
Basically, all you have to do is navigate to Washington DC in Google Maps and select the delivery services closest to the Capitol, the Pentagon or the White House, for example the Papa John's Pizza chain, and scroll through the overview until you hit peak times.
Typically, average values from previous visits for specific days and times are displayed. However, if there are unforeseen peaks, Google Maps shows live dataas you see for example in the tweet above.
How exactly this live data is recorded (is positioning sufficient for this?) and how reliable it is is unclear. However, in the case of Iran's attack on Israel, it appears to have worked, as evidenced by the tweet.
Google Maps allows conclusions to be drawn that something is happening in the world, but not what exactly it is about. Ultimately, it is up to politicians and the media to clarify this.