The Celiac-Banana Connection

Odds are you know at least one person with Celiac Disease who manages it by eating a gluten-free diet. Yesterday I stumbled upon this story about how kids with Celiac used to be put on a (temporary) banana diet. Why? Because someone made a connection between farmers eating a banana-rich diet not having the problem / people not eating bananas having the problem. It's a pretty quick read and super interesting:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/24/529527564/doctors-once-thought-bananas-cured-celiac-disease-it-saved-kids-lives-at-a-cost

tl;dr? Folks felt better after eating the banana diet because they weren't eating wheat (gluten), and so bananas were hailed as the cure. They weren't, of course, but they probably saved some lives.

the data of going viral

Today on my morning drive I heard a story on the radio and made mental note to look it up and share it with all of you. The story? It was about crowdfunding -- kickstarter -- and the consulting industry that has grown up around it. In particular, the host was questioning if people engaged in crowdfunding should be spending money (on PR, flashy videos, etc.) based on promises that these folks can help their campaigns "go viral."

Well, the expert they had on the clip (from the Wharton crowdfunding study - https://crowdfunding.wharton.upenn.edu) said that no one can promise you'll go viral -- he's looked at the data and it just can't be predicted.

Read the story here: https://www.marketplace.org/2017/05/22/business/crowdfunding-has-created-whole-new-consulting-industry

or listen:
 

Your data is worth $10 million!

Yes, now companies are buying and selling datasets as data is of invaluable help to investors when deciding on which stocks to invest. Here is a very brief NPR podcast mentioning how these things work. I believe you will enjoy listening to it!