The AFC playoff picture is a mess.

The Titans, Jets, Ravens, Chargers, Steelers, and Dolphins are all 5-6 and tied for the final spot.

Beyond that, we have a new No. 1 this week, as well as a new No. 32.

32. Houston Texans (previously 30th)

Record: 2-9

Result: 13-6 loss to Jacksonville

Biggest thing we learned this week: The bottom has fallen out for them. Kubiak will almost certainly not survive the offseason.

Week-by-week ranking: 1-3-4-13-13-18-22-26-27-28-30-30-32

31. Jacksonville Jaguars (previously 32nd)

Record: 2-9

Result: 13-6 win over Houston

Biggest thing we learned this week: They might lose the No. 1-overall pick after an easy stretch against Cleveland-Houston-Buffalo in early December.

Week-by-week ranking: 32-32-32-32-32-32-32-32-32-32-32-32-31

30. Atlanta Falcons (previously 31st)

Record: 2-9

Result: 17-13 loss to New Orleans

Biggest thing we learned this week: They're this year's Chiefs — a talented team having a freakishly bad year.

Week-by-week ranking: 9-9-9-12-14-17-19-18-28-30-31-31-30

RJ Jaramillo, the founder of the Cook Like A Dad blog, is officially the first man to take calls on Butterball's "Turkey Talk" line, the company's hotline for answering cooks' questions about prepping their Thanksgiving birds.

The turkey-producing giant invited men to participate for the first time this year when it noticed one in four of its tip-line callers were male, The AP's Candice Choi reports.

But before Jaramillo could field his first Thanksgiving call, he — and every other Turkey Talk expert — had to graduate from Butterball University, a three-day intensive course in Naperville, Ill. where the people who work the phones learn everything there is to know about cooking a turkey.

Freshmen receive a six-inch binder full of how-tos that stays with them throughout their tenure as Turkey Talk Line experts. Every year, all Butterball turkey experts go through advanced refresher courses that take place on days two and three, according to The Chicago Tribune. 

According to The Tribune's Emily Bryson York, who attended in 2010, the course includes a review of pre-cooking safety measures, like opening the packaged turkey in a clean sink and preparing it with a rub.

It also touches on the anatomy of a turkey and how to properly take its temperature. The experts practice cooking a turkey various ways, like oven roasting, grilling, smoking, microwaving, and deep frying.

Turkey Talk Line experts-in-training also learn the culture associated with each method, York wrote. For instance, oven roasting is the most popular method overall, while microwaving is popular among college kids. 

And finally, they get to taste the fruits of their labor.

SEE ALSO: 12 Cooking Hacks For A Hassle-Free Thanksgiving

Join the conversation about this story »

We recently brought you a fraternity fashion email from the self-proclaimed "Fratshionistau" that was making the rounds at Emory University.

We spoke with the author — Emory sophomore Jonathan Weiss— and put together our own Fraternity Fashion Guide. Weiss helped us determine some do's and don'ts for the well-dressed frat boy.

Inside, you'll find tips on how to dress for any occasion — formals, date nights, class, or parties.

You'll also find some advice directly from the Fratshionistau, such as this gem about how to best pull off a semi-formal look: "Simplicity stands out! Busy designs on shirts or ties are distracting. A solid white shirt with a solid colored tie, or a basic pattern, is always the easiest way to go."

Formal Wear

Formal wear is a look you'll only need to pull off once or twice a year, so why not make sure you're doing it right? When in doubt, opt for a dark ensemble — slacks, jacket, dress shoes, tie  — but please, we're begging you, get your pants hemmed. No one likes a guy in an ill-fitting suit. 

Sure you can rent a tux or suit, but if you invest now (assuming you've stopped growing), that $1,000 tuxedo will last you a long, long time. 

Occasions: Formal fraternity events in college and your friends' weddings after college.

Avoid: Tacky patent shoes, ill-fitting pants, and the cummerbund. As Weiss says, "It didn’t get you lucky at senior prom, and it won’t do the trick now."

Formal Look #1: The Tux

Our recommendations:

Tux:  Boss Hugo Boss 'The Stars Glamour' Trim Fit Wool Tuxedo ($895)

Cuff Links: J. Crew Fabric Knot Cuff Links ($12.50)

Bow Tie: J.Crew Italian Satin Point Bow Tie ($55)

Shoes: To Boot New York Ballard ($375)

Formal Look #2: Suit & Tie

Our recommendations: 

Jacket: Theory Eclipse Multi Wellar Suit Jacket ($645) 

Pants: Theory Marlo U Suit Pant ($235)

Bow Tie: Lauren Ralph Lauren Bow Tie ($50)

Tie: Theory Roadster Tie ($98)

Shoes: ALDO 'Brownlie' Wingtip Oxford ($100)

The United States is in a state of fashion emergency, especially when it comes to our political leaders.

From Rep. Alan Grayson's (D-Fla.) tacky printed ties to everything worn by Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the U.S. political scene is pretty much a wardrobe disaster zone.

So the next time you call up your elected official about the new zoning laws or school taxes, maybe it wouldn't hurt to also give them some friendly style pointers.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) owns a collection of loud ties and pocket squares.

...and also these shades.

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) channels a Texan rancher with that bolo tie.

Foodies are always on the search for the next big thing, be it a reservation at the most coveted table in town, a meal from the hot new burger joint, or a cronut.

From gourmet edibles to beautiful serveware and kitchen tools, we've got 15 gifts sure to impress even the toughest-to-please gourmands.

Get them into the most exclusive supper club in town.

Dinner Lab has been called"the 2.0 of the supper club," and features talented guest chefs who cook an ever-changing array of menus in 10 cities around the U.S.

The price of membership varies depending on the city, but it opens the door to gourmet, twice-weekly dinners that are never short on attendees.

Price: $100-$200/year (tickets to dinner events are purchased separately)

Give the gift that makes foodies drool.

One pot, infinite uses. Le Creuset is the ultimate, do-it-all Dutch oven that foodies crave. It locks in heat and moisture for even cooking, and is oven- and dishwasher-safe.

Best of all, it has a lifetime warranty, so wear and tear from normal household use guarantees the owner a new product at any point down the line.

Price: $105-$465

Keep their food well-seasoned.

This isn't your run-of-the mill, powdery table salt. Give your gourmand a beautiful set of salts from around the world, from pink Himalayan salt to black, flaky salt from the island of Cyprus.

They come in convenient, corked test tubes displayed in a reclaimed cedar base. Good looking and good tasting!

Price: $40

A year ago at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Jaguar introduced a car that was unlike anything we were expecting. We know and love Jaguar for sleek, low cars that exude sex appeal.

Then we saw the XFR-S.

Compared to its siblings, it's rather stubby, and it's got a big wing stuck on the back of it. But a peek under the hood reveals that the XFR-S isn't an abomination, it's just something new. Something very powerful, and very fast.

Over the weekend, we had the chance to spend a few days with the 550-horsepower, four-door, five-seat sedan. We took it out of Manhattan, up to Bear Mountain, where the roads all curve and the engine can do its thing.

That's where it all clicked. The XFR-S is no joy to look at. But it's a terrific performance car.

The XFR-S starts for $99,000. The version we tested cost $105,770.

Let's start with a quick look back at Jaguar's past. The brand makes fantastically sleek cars, like the iconic E-Type.

And the 2013 XF sedan.

The newly debuted F-Type Coupe is just drop-dead gorgeous.

Nike flew us out to its world headquarters last week to talk about its newest golf equipment.

While there, it also took us on a tour of the campus. We didn't get chance to snoop around in the offices, to see what it's like for employees, but we did get a sense of what the place is like. It's not as massive as Microsoft or Google, but it's in the next tier.

Nike, unsurprisingly, is all about athletes and sports. It has two soccer fields, a tennis court, a big gym, and a putting green. There's also a big running trail.

Typically it's raining and miserable in Oregon this time of year. The day we walked around the campus, it just happened to be sunny. 

We started our tour in the Tiger Woods building. There is a statue for Woods in the lobby.

Generally, we don't encourage people to read in a visual slideshow like this ... but this screed about Tiger Woods is a doozy worth reading. He's compared to Frank Lloyd Wright, Helen Keller, and Helen Keller. Lower down, it says he conducted "a jihad against the record books."

Deeper in the building, there's this relief of Tiger Woods.

Over the years, we've seen companies show off a number of awesome phones that had a lot of potential, but were doomed by their makers' poor decisions.

A bunch of them weren't released in the U.S. — the largest global market for smartphones — or weren't released at all.

From attempts to raise $30 million to release a high-end phone for free-software-loving Linux fans, to investing millions into a phone with almost no apps, these are examples of great phones we'll never see on the market.

Nokia's N9 had a beautiful design and an operating system unlike anything on the market. Unfortunately, Nokia never worked out a deal with U.S. carriers — so most Americans never even knew it existed.

The Ubuntu Edge raised more than $12 million via crowdsourcing site Indiegogo this summer, but it still wasn't enough to bring the device to market (they needed $30 million). Which is a shame, because it would have given us a high-end device running Ubuntu, a Linux distribution with a pretty wide range of apps available.

The Project S is another bold attempt to raise money for a high-end smartphone via Indiegogo. Don't expect to see this any time soon: while they're asking for far less than the budget of the Ubuntu Edge, it's also not getting as much attention because it's basically just another Android phone.

Click here to see the Project S Indiegogo page >>

Catching Fire is that rare book adaptation that stays remarkably true to the source material while compressing the plot and compositing the characters.

Little is left out that matters, and a few things are added to make it all matter more.

How did director Francis Lawrence do it? We paid close attention, and came up with a long list of tweaks made to the story in the process of taking it from the page to the screen.

While we're sure hardcore fans could probably come up with a few more, these are the 22 that jumped out at us when we saw the movie. We've kept the list in chronological order so it's easy to follow along.

Let's jump in.

Katniss Has a PTSD Flashback While Shooting a Turkey

In the Book: Suzanne Collins communicates Katniss' struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder by having her talk about her nightmares, and her gut reaction to anything that reminds her of the Games.

Bonnie and Twill Are Missing, So There's No District 13 Foreshadowing

In the Book: Katniss' eventual relocation to the rebellion's headquarters in District 13 is foreshadowed by her introduction to Bonnie and Twill, two District 8 refugees hiding in the woods near District 12 while on the run from the Capitol.

In the Movie: Bonnie and Twill didn't make the cut, so the only reference we ever see to District 13 is in one of the Capitol's propaganda videos. Producer Nina Jacobson revealed the change months ahead of the movie's release, explaining, "I want every single thing in there. But you know what? If you have to give up something in order to give more time to Katniss and Gale or to Effie as she starts to feel a conscience, you make the sacrifices in order to serve the characters and themes that are more essential."

Katniss and Gale Kiss a Third Time

In the Book: Katniss and Gale kiss twice. The first time he kisses her while they're out checking their snares for game in the woods near District 12. The second time, Katniss kisses Gale while he's recovering from his flogging at the hands of Commander Romulus Thread.

In the Movie: That first kiss happens in town instead of in the woods. The second kiss happens just like in the book. Then there's a third kiss when Katniss takes the lead and kisses Gale in the woods, leaving him just as surprised as the Gale fans in the audience.

U.S. markets are closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving, and many investors will be away from their workstations during the holiday.

So, what to do for those who want to keep tabs on what's going on overseas — where markets will be open for business as usual?

Luckily, investors with smartphones or tablets have their choice of apps to keep them up to speed while away from their desks.

We went through nearly 100 finance-related mobile apps and these are the best ones we found.

Most of the apps listed here are either free or pretty inexpensive, too.

NetDania Forex

App Store rating:
4.5 stars

Price:
Free

Available on:
iPhone, iPad, Android

Why we like it:
Live updating quotes on currency pairs, global stock exchanges, and key commodities, as well as an awesome feed with economic data releases around the world. The best part: you can set up the app to send you push notifications when economic data is released.

Download it here >

FRED Economic Data

App Store rating:
4.5 stars

Price:
Free

Available on:
iPhone, iPad, Android

Why we like it: 
For those unfamiliar with FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data), it's a massive repository with tens of thousands of time series for various economic datapoints. Now, you can chart 34,000 economic data series from around the world, right on your mobile device.

Download it here >

ChartIQ Pro - Stock Charts and Technical Analysis

App Store rating: 
N/A

Price: 
$12.99

Available on: 
iPad

Why we like it: 
The best app for drawing charts on the iPad. Overlay charts with various drawings like Fibonacci retracements or trend lines, or add technical indicators to the chart. When you're done, use the share button to tweet charts directly from your iPad.

Download it here >

While in D.C. for a recent defense conference, I couldn't fight the temptation to visit the International Spy Museum, located right in the center of the city.

Surprisingly, when I got in there, the employees told me there was no rule against taking photographs.

It suddenly became my mission to leave with as much of the museum saved to my phone's camera roll as humanly possible.

Just outside the museum I determine that the man in the red jacket is way to ostentatious to be gathering intel on me.

Behind the front desk is a map of every Bond spy villain in history. I wonder if I'll see any real spy stuff.

I give the ladies at the counter money, and they give me a Spy Guide map of the museum, along with a ticket.

Instead of worrying over the big Thanksgiving meal at home, tons of people across the country will throw in the towel in favor of a chore-free, restaurant-served turkey dinner. 

Foursquare, a location-based social network, ranked the restaurants where people checked-in the most last year on Thanksgiving.

Restaurants in tourist destinations like Las Vegas and New York City were especially popular last year. Spoiler alert: people even found the chain restaurant Hard Rock Cafe festive enough to land it in the top three. 

Check out the full list of the most popular Thanksgiving restaurants below. You might want to hit them up this year for your annual family feast. 

10. Mike Ditka's in Chicago, Ill. 

9. Be Our Guest Restaurant in Walt Disney World's Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

8. Porto's Bakery & Cafe in Glendale, Fla.

7. Mon Ami Gabi in Las Vegas, Nev.

6. Balthazar in New York, N.Y.

5. Junior's Restaurant in New York, N.Y.

4. Serendipity3 in Las Vegas, Nev.

3. Hard Rock Cafe in New York, N.Y. 

2. Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington, D.C.

1. Wicked Spoon Buffet in Las Vegas, Nev.

SEE ALSO: These Maps Show How Thanksgiving Celebrations Differ Across The US

Join the conversation about this story »

Business travelers love sharing tips and tricks for surviving life on the road.

From scoring upgrades to maximizing credit card rewards, anything that can make the hassle of jet-setting a little more appealing can be a life-saver. 

We reached out to several of our favorite frequent fliers to reveal their favorite travel strategies.

Sign up for Global Entry status

SmarterTravel executive editor Anne Banas raves about Global Entry, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection program that pre-qualifies certain travelers for expedited customs. 

"I just went through the [application process] a couple weeks ago on a trip to France," Banas says. "I was the only person in line for Global Entry and I went right though. And if you get a combination of flying business class plus Global Entry status, you can just whiz out of there with your luggage right away." 

Be loyal to businesses and they'll treat you well

"The key thing for business travel is frequent flier programs," Banas says. "You want to be brand loyal so you can get that elite status and have access to more perks and upgrades." 

If you don't want to marry yourself to one airline or hotel chain for infinity, Banas recommends at least getting a rewards credit card that lets you rack up points and miles no matter which company you choose to do business with.

Know the difference between non-stop and direct flights

"Especially if you're on business and going to and from meetings, it's such a waste of time to take a day to get there and a day to get back [because of layovers]," Banas says.

But don't mistake "direct" flights for "non-stop" flights when booking. 

"A direct flight might still stop, but you would just stay on the plane instead of having to switch planes," Banas explains. "There's a lot of confusion about this. I would say always choose a 'non-stop' flight instead of direct." 

We visited the high-tech lab where Nike is testing and creating its next generation of golf balls. 

Next year, the company is going to release a new line of balls with the RZN brand name. It flew us, and others, to its headquarters in Oregon to talk about its golf equipment. 

Right now, Titleist with its ProV1 line, is the biggest ball company in golf. Nike hopes that its new branding for RZN will eat into some of Titleist's sales. 

Nike say the key differentiator for its RZN line is that the core is made of resin, which is a lighter material than rubber. A golf ball has a small core, then other stuff around the core, and then the outer coating. By making the core lighter, Nike can make the stuff around the core heavier, which it says promotes stability and distance.

The RZN ball will come in Black, Platinum, Red, and White for different swings and skills. We got to hit the balls and they seemed pretty good. We'll do more testing next year when it's a bit warmer to get a truer sense of the ball's performance.

For what it's worth, Nike pro Rory McIlroy says he's a half club longer with the new ball. Nike pro Paul Casey said he fell in love with the new ball the first time he hit it, and he's pretty finicky about equipment. 

Yes, these guys are paid to use Nike stuff, but they don't have to switch to the new gear immediately. For instance, Tiger Woods is still using a golf ball that's 4-5 years old. Nike says it's going to try to get him to switch to the new stuff. The golf ball is the only piece of equipment a player uses on every hole, so it has to be pretty exact to meet the standards of a pro. 

As part of the trip to Nike we got an inside look at the R&D facility Nike uses to work on its next-generation of golf balls.

Welcome to the Oven West! (Nike has another "Oven" in Texas.)

We were invited to look around, but asked not to touch anything.

Stepping into the facility, it's loud and filled with all sorts of machines.

Photographer Ruddy Roye considers himself an "Instagram activist," tasked with telling the stories of New Yorkers whose stories would otherwise go untold. 

The more than 2,700 photos on his Instagram profile accomplish just that. Roye photographs the people he sees on the streets, most often when he's driving to and from dropping his sons off at school in Brooklyn's Fort Greene and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods. 

Click here to jump right to the photos >>

The people in the photos have stories to tell. There are the two men waiting outside a bodega for their reduced food stamp benefits. Then there's Sidahi, the former Alvin Ailey dancer who complains of hearing voices. And there's Andrew, the veteran addict looking for work. 

"All the people I photograph have interesting stories," he said to Business Insider. "My aim is to tell them as best as I can."

He hopes that his stunning, gritty portraits can spread a message of inclusiveness in his community. 

"I want people to be more aware of their surroundings and communities. I want to help change the way we look at people," he said. "I want the images to humanize a face that we scorn [and] ignore for whatever reason, and I want us all to judge less because we all have a story to tell."

Roye grew up in Jamaica, an upbringing that had a significant impact on his growth as a photographer. 

"We would all sit around, telling stories that are older than my grandparents,"he said to DNAinfo. "So for me it's in my blood to tell stories I see on a day-to-day basis."

For Roye, Instagram has proven to be the most direct way to share those stories with his audience. 

"It is a platform that does not have the usual gatekeepers. It is the great equalizer," he said. "I am allowed a voice here."

He shared some of his photos with Business Insider. They are shown here with the original captions from his Instagram account.

April 23, 2013 — Ernst & Young

 "What occupies a New Yorker's mind is anyone's guess."

Source: Ruddy Roye/ Instagram

May 16, 2013 — Common Grounds

"All he said was 'it is a nice day for a stroll.'"

Source: Ruddy Roye/ Instagram

May 18, 2013 — Silk Road Cafe

"Falun Gong Parade — DimSum Saturday at Nom Wah Tea Parlour."

Source: Ruddy Roye/ Instagram

Minus a few exceptions, men can't buy a good pair of dress shoes for under $350.

The idea of the $150 dress shoe (most of which have cemented on soles and corrected grain leather, those noted in this article are of course not that) is a false economy.

You will go through multiple pairs of said junk shoes before you would go through one pair of well made welted shoes.

Think of it this way: “You are either in your bed or in your shoes. So it pays to invest in both.” Remarked John Wildsmith, who was an English shoemaker. 

Luckily, the price of that investment has become more reasonable over the past few years with a plethora of upstart men’s dress shoe brands popping up across the globe. A man doesn’t have to just look to England, Italy and America to find well-made dress shoes. Singapore, Spain, Portugal, China and Mexico are all capable of producing quality shoes at a reasonable price.

However, to find many of these brands you often had to head to the Internet. Whether or not you would buy a pair of dress shoes online without trying them on first is a matter of personal preference. But just know that if you are open to it, you often have the opportunity of getting a better value.

For those of you not comfortable with doing so, there are solid options to be had in person. But as is often the case, you get what you pay for, so you should expect to get a substantially better shoe for $350 than $135.

So without further delay, here’s a list of 12 brands you should check out for less than $350.

Meermin

Style: More English than anything else (you’ll find my review of them here).

Construction method: Goodyear welted, hand welted.

Company location: Mallorca, Spain.

Point of manufacture: China and Spain.

Price: $215-350.

Point of sale: Online and occasional trunk show.

Markowski

Style: Combination of English and Italian, the French would likely say French though.

Construction method: Goodyear welted.

Company location: Paris, France.

Point of manufacture: Spain.

Price: $225-300.

Point of sale: Online, in-store (France only).

Septieme Largeur

Style: Combination of English and Italian, the French would likely say French though (you’ll find my review of them here).

Construction method: Goodyear welted.

Company location: Paris, France.

Point of manufacture: Spain.

Price: $300-350.

Point of sale: Online, in-store (France only).

Forget the rumors you've heard about making an espresso on your stove top.

According to Darleen Scherer, the co-owner of Brooklyn-based Gorilla Coffee, that's technically just brewed coffee, since the brewer can't control the pressure of the steam — an essential part of making espresso.

"You really need a consistent temperature and pressure that you can only get from a so-called fancy machine," Scherer told Business Insider.    

So what's a coffee snob to do when he or she wants a quick fix from home?

Scherer had two recommendations for concentrated coffee, a stronger dose than regularly brewed coffee that can substitute for espresso in a pinch. One brew method's fast while the other's slow, but yields a larger volume.  

AeroPress

Brew time: About one minute

How-to:  Insert coffee grounds into the chamber, add heated water, put the plunger on top of the AeroPress and slowly press down. The farther down you press, the more bitterness you extract from the grounds.

Difference from regular brew: The press extracts coffee across an equal surface area instead of over-extracting from the sides and center like a drip-brew.

Cold Brew

Brew time: 18 - 24 hours

How-to: Steep rough coffee grounds in cold or room temperature water overnight or longer, depending on how strong you want the flavor. A Toddy set is a typical tool for cold brewing. Once brewed, some grounds have to be filtered out of the coffee. Then the extra brew can be stored in the fridge for about a week for quick coffee later. 

Difference from regular brew: It has a concentrated flavor, but cold brewing doesn't extract the acids from the coffee bean, making it less bitter.     

SEE ALSO: 7 Apps For Coffee Addicts

Join the conversation about this story »

The average Thanksgiving Day dinner this year will cost $49.04, 44 cents less than it did in 2012.

The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates the cost of Thanksgiving around the country every year based on feeding 10 people a meal with a 16-pound turkey, bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, carrots, celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and coffee with milk.

But what would the same dinner have cost a century ago?

The Morris County Library in New Jersey researched the advertised prices of common Thanksgiving goods from November 18-22, 1911 in the NJ newspaper, The Daily Record. They discovered the cost of everything from sweet potatoes to plum pudding on the newspaper's old microfilm, and shared it with Business Insider.

Here's what a Thanksgiving dinner would have cost in 1911:

Turkey: $.28/pound ($4.48 for a 16-pounder)

Bread stuffing: $.05/pound

Sweet potatoes: $.29/6 quart basket

Rolls (bread): $.05/pound

Butter: $.37/pound

Peas: $.05/can

Cranberries: $.13/quart

Carrots: $.25/6 quart basket

Celery: n/a

Pumpkin pie: (milk, eggs, flour, sugar, pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon) ~$.84 to make (recipe)

Whipped cream: n/a

Coffee: $.25/pound

Milk: $.05/pint

Total cost: ~$6.81

Of course, these prices don't take inflation into account: That measly-seeming $6.81 suddenly jumps to a staggering $165.29 when you consider inflation (calculated here for 2012 prices).

It's mostly due to the sheer size of the turkey, since a 16-pounder in 1911 prices would cost roughly $110 today (This year, the same-sized turkey would $21.76, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation).

See the full list of prices from New Jersey in 1911 over at the Morris County Library website, and be thankful that your turkey this year didn't cost over $100.

SEE ALSO: 12 Cooking Hacks For A Hassle-Free Thanksgiving

Join the conversation about this story »

Marissa Mayer became the CEO of Yahoo on July 16, 2012.  Since then, the stock has exploded from ~$16 to over $35.

But while Mayer has done a remarkable job improving the working culture at Yahoo, hiring mobile developers and redesigning the company's wide array of products, she is not the only reason for Yahoo's stock turnaround.

In fact, the main reason Yahoo stock is up so much is that way back in 2005 Yahoo bought 40% of a tiny Chinese e-commerce company called Alibaba for $1 billion.

Then, over the next six years, Alibaba turned into a massive hit.

In the spring of 2012, Alibaba bought a portion of its stock back from Yahoo for $7.65 billion. When Mayer took over in the summer of 2012, she agreed to use some of that money to buy back Yahoo stock.

This financial engineering drove Yahoo's stock price. So did Yahoo's remaining stake in Alibaba, which continued to grow in value as the Chinese company's market cap went from ~$50 billion in 2012 to a rumored $100 billion now. 

Soon, Yahoo will be able to realize that gain. Alibaba is expected to IPO in 2014. When it does, Yahoo will sell all but 10% of its stake in the company, adding another few billion dollars to its bank account — money that will almost certainly fuel more share buybacks.

Despite its prominent role in Yahoo's turnaround, Alibaba remains a mysterious company in the U.S. To remedy that, I visited the company during my recent trip to China.

Marissa Mayer took over Yahoo in July 2012.

Since then, the stock has exploded. But, really, much of the credit goes to Alibaba — a Yahoo investment in China that has performed exceptionally well.

But what's Alibaba?

This post originally appeared on Details.com.

"Fresh good. Packaged bad." The clean-eating mantra makes perfect sense, but it turns out your supermarket's produce section never got the memo.

In two recent studies from Britain, researchers purchased a half dozen different kinds of fruit and vegetables, all of which came in two varieties: fresh and frozen. After buying them — and then having them chill out in either a fridge or freezer for three days — researchers conducted 40 tests to compare their nutritional content.

Turns out the frozen varieties were richer in health-boosting vitamins and antioxidants. In fact, frozen broccoli had four times more beta-carotene than its fresh counterpart, while frozen carrots had three times more lutein and double the beta-carotene as well as greater levels of vitamin C and polyphenols.

A few produce picks (raspberries and peas, for example) performed about the same across the board whether they were fresh or frozen, but they were exceptions to what could become the new rule of produce: go frozen.

What gives? While it's true that foods gradually lose nutrients as they move through the supply chain, that chain is far longer for fresh produce than their "just-picked" stickers suggest. Fruits and vegetables are regularly held in storage for up to a month before you ever see them.

Plus, according to study author Graham Bonwick Ph.D., a professor of applied biology at the University of Chester, once they hit your fridge the nutritional loss escalates. That's probably due to plants' continuing metabolic activity and how cells react to oxygen and even exposure to artificial dark-light cycles.

Case in point: A recent study from Rice University and the University of California at Davis found that the fluorescent lights of supermarkets and the perpetual darkness of your fridge can screw with fruits and vegetables' circadian clocks so that they excrete fewer glucosinolates — compounds with cancer-fighting properties.

That's where sub-zero temps come in handy.

"Produce's degradation reactions are very much slowed by lowering the temperature to freezing levels," Bonwick says. "Furthermore, when you freeze produce, the water present in the cells of the food is locked up as ice, slowing or preventing these processes that require the presence of free water."

Plus, since the produce in the freezer section was frozen solid almost immediately after being plucked, it's preserved at its nutritional peak.

Think of it as cryogenic freezing. Your food stays young until you thaw it out — and so do you. The antioxidants and nutritional compounds saved by freezing produce are critical to fighting free radicals, weight gain, preventing chronic diseases, and even obtaining blemish-free skin and a thick head of hair.

So unless you plan to take up gardening, opt for frozen varieties whenever possible — especially as winter approaches. If you do buy fresh — and we know that some picks just taste better that way — pop your plants in the freezer post-purchase or just eat them ASAP. After all, if you're going to eat your veggies, you might as well get something out of it.

More From Details:

• The Best of Men's Fall Fashion 2013
• The 5 Most Beer-Friendly Cities in America
• Do Single People Have Better Sex Than Couples?
• Are Egg Whites Really Better Than The Yokes? Time to Rethink the Whole Egg
• The Art of the Gym Date
• The Ultimate Weights-Free Workout

SEE ALSO: Here's The Trick To Picking The Tastiest Fruits And Vegetables

Join the conversation about this story »