Paul Mc Namara's WorldView

The Guardian reports that the optimum time to buy an airline ticket is eight weeks.

Help is at hand. An economist, Makoto Watanabe, has calculated that the optimum time to buy an airline ticket is eight weeks in advance of flying.

His yet-to-be-published findings also suggests that airline tickets are cheaper when purchased in the afternoons, rather than the mornings, prompting him to speculate that airlines are assuming business travellers will book their tickets at work in the morning on the company account, whereas leisure travellers are more likely to book from home in the afternoon

Hmm, I did a couple of searches yesterday but for me, the theory didn’t hold true. But Sunday wasn’t a normal day so perhaps that is the exception.

I just rewatched “Before Sunset”, the sequel to one of my favourite films “Before Sunrise”. I was struck during the dialogue that Ethan Hawke’s character notes that 6 months after a life-changing event whether it was winning the lottery or becoming a paraplegic, a person reverts to the psychological state that they inhabited before the event. Then I read the latest post by Tim Harford this evening.

It’s quite possible that our image of these possible futures is not very good. As the psychologist Dan Gilbert points out, you might think that winning the Lottery would make you happier than being permanently paralysed from the waist down, but the empirical evidence suggests that this is just a failure of imagination: paraplegics are not, in fact, less happy than people who have won the Lottery.

By the way, the film is definitely better the second time around. I wish that I could see Before Sunrise again right now. My favourite part is at the end of the film where they show all of the places in Vienna where the story unfolded the next morning, deserted. I felt that way about Prague for a long time.

Who needs a hard drive now?
From DP Review

The BBC reports that a Ukrainian bride is looking for guests for her side of the wedding.

The woman says in the advertisement: “I’m having a large mixed wedding of about 150 people.

“My partner has loads of family around to invite to the wedding. Unfortunately for me, my family are all in Ukraine so they all can’t make it. Only my mum and dad will be there.”

Volunteers have to send a photograph and write about themselves, but in return they get invited to the reception.

Perfect opportuntity for any “Wedding Crashers”!

I’m a late adopter when it comes to using the internet on a phone. This has mainly come about due to the dearth of services that were available, my reluctance to commit to any type of contract and I wanted to get away from being online when I am away from the office or my apartment. However, now that I do a weekly commute and the fact that the train services I use don’t have any wireless services meant that I was out of touch for long spells on Mondays and Fridays. That was annoying when it meant being out of the loop while news was breaking on Monday or social plans were being made on Friday. This all came to a head when I needed a new phone and after a terrible experiment with an Lg, I found a review of the nokia 6220 classic on youtube that suggested it had the features of the N82 but without the huge pricetag. I got it and I got a kick out of using features like GPS, google maps, twitter, etc. However, the frequency and cost of topping up my credit was a problem. I went into t-mobile in Munich and they offered me a priceplan of 10 Euro a month but I had to commit to a contract. Since then, I haven’t looked back. My costs have good down, my train journeys are not so boring and now I’ve written my first blog post on the phone. Have a nice weekend.

Beautiful simulation of the amount of air traffic that happens every day throughout the world.

Telemegaphone promises that your voice will be carried over the fjords of Norway by calling a number that is hooked to the loudspeaker powered by wind turbines. However, if the weather is especially calm, there may not be enough power make your announcement heard.

According to A Very Short List where I got the tip, it will only continue until September 6, the start of deer hunting season.

Interesting talk from Will about Psychogeography.

13 year old German boys tries to joyride to Paris. Now that’s what I call adventurous!