Megan Draper, Bob Benson, and of course Don Draper … what might happen in Mad Men Season 7?

We don’t know much about Mad Men Season 7, although we know a little bit. Let’s try to piece some stuff together, no? 1. For sure: the premiere date is April 13th.  2. For sure: the final season will be divided into two parts,… Continue Reading

Twitter is good for finding information, for sure. But could it be used to predict events ahead of time?

Could you use Twitter to ostensibly figure out that a historical tide is shifting before it actually does? Kinda. This is from a new study done by a PhD student at MIT named Nathan Kallus. Here’s the abstract: With public information becoming widely… Continue Reading

In this era of Amazon and Google, could we finally drastically lower the cost of textbooks?

Check out the chart above. It’s from here (AEI) via here (The Atlantic), and basically it captures this idea: since 1978, the cost for college textbooks has exceeded the rising rate for medical services, new home prices, and even inflation. While… Continue Reading

African-Americans don’t own the welfare rolls, and do more community service than almost anyone. Can we start having a more real dialogue about race?

That video above is hopefully an outlier, but it’s also some guy telling Nightline that blacks and Jews are, disproportionately, “predators.” This is 2014. We have an African-American U.S. President — and have for about five years — and we’re probably going to have… Continue Reading

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A company from Israel is saving the Alps for skiing and tourism (with an idea from a Siberian gulag)

Depending on your particular political ideology, you may embrace or deny climate change — that’s all well and good, but the science behind it is there and rather indisputable. Now it’s a question of who benefits and who loses, which Shell (oil… Continue Reading

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Could a mouth swab for cortisol levels change how we approach mental illness?

If you’ve never heard of cortisol, here’s a quick primer: Cortisol, known more formally as hydrocortisone (INN, USAN, BAN), is a steroid hormone, to be more specific a glucocorticoid, produced by the zona fasciculata of the adrenal cortex.[1] It is released in response to stress and a low level of blood glucocorticoids. Its… Continue Reading

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Cities go with low taxes to attract entrepreneurs and new companies; the entrepreneurs want talent and livability

Fact: San Francisco and Boston — two innovation hubs based on coasts, universities, etc. — are becoming more expensive. Fact: cities like Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, right there in the heartland/Rust Belt, are beginning to attract new start-ups and incubators and… Continue Reading

American investors love companies that have growth potential but may be losing money: Amazon, Pandora, etc. Is Spotify next?

Amazon doesn’t really make profits, and investors love it. Pandora is having strong growth in monthly active users, but was a company in 2005 and just had a profitable year in 2013 — and that’s only if you remove certain one-off expenses. Meanwhile, look at… Continue Reading