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When’s the best time to book travel? Depends on the continent: 53 days out for Europe, 162 days out for South America, etc.

That’s a chart based on Kayak — the travel website — analyzing millions of fare searches and ultimate purchases. It shows the best time to book travel from the United States to the continents described in the chart: so, for example, your best bet… Continue Reading

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The most popular two words to rhyme in modern pop music history might be “do” and “you”

This is fairly cool: if you analyze the Billboard Hot 100 at the end of every year from 1960 to 2013, and look for what words the artists attempted to rhyme together (and only take one example per song, to avoid… Continue Reading

When CBS pushed aside Dan Marino for Tony Gonzalez, was it a straight-up ‘asshole-for-good-guy’ trade?

FOX’s NFL pre-game show — with Curt, Terry, Jimmy, Michael et al — kills CBS’ show in the ratings, so this off-season, CBS had a shake-up: Dan Marino and Shannon Sharpe out, Tony Gonzalez (recently retired) in. Things like this had been… Continue Reading

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

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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

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

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Twenty years after Kerrigan vs. Harding vs. Baiul, this week could be Yuna Kim vs. Julia Lipnitskaia vs. Gracie Gold

I watched The Price of Gold last night, and it was really solid — I almost forgot how big a three-ring circus that whole period of time was, especially Kerrigan screaming “WHY????” and then Oksana Baiul actually winning the gold, and the… Continue Reading