stock market

The PopSci Predictions Exchange (PPX) is one of PopSci.com’s signature features. With three new “props” to consider each week, users place bets on the outcome of real world science news, maintaining individual portfolios and competing for fame within the game as high-ranking players, and for awesome monthly prizes. Now, in the name of innovation, we’ve gone and made a good thing better. We are pleased to introduce (drum roll please): PPX Leagues! Seasoned trader or total newbie, you can create and join as many leagues as you like. Grab your friends, family, colleagues and classmates and get started. You make the rules, you determine the prizes. Ah, freedom. Ain't it sweet?

There's just no nice way to say it: You're stupid with your money. You may fancy yourself a shrewd investor, but if you have normal human instincts—if you stand up and cheer at sporting events, if you follow the crowd toward the exit at the theater—then you have the instincts that make investors alternate between delirious greed and inconsolable fear. Like most of your peers, you are wired to buy high and sell low, and that's why Richard Peterson is about to become one very rich psychiatrist.

Snapped undersea cables off the coast of Egypt have cut bandwidth in India to half its normal capacity. Users from Bangladesh to Egypt have been affected, and even Dubai's stock exchange experienced some problems late Wednesday. Big companies with backup plans probably won't be hurt too badly, but the outsourcing industry could experience some hiccups, as all those administrative and customer-service-related tasks could slow.