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Every (Successful) Dunk From The Worst Dunk Contest In NBA History

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Terrance Ross

How bad was the 2013 NBA Dunk contest? Terrence Ross, a player most of you have never heard of, won the contest despite making just four dunks and missing six (40%). Now consider that Kyrie Irving made 80% of his shots in the final round of the three-point contest and Ross' victory sounds even less impressive.

In all, there were 14 successful dunks and 36 missed dunks, meaning the competitors shot 28% in a dunk contest.

It was that bad.

And despite all the misses, and the lack of a signature moment (e.g. blindfold, pump the Reeboks) there were still a few impressive individual dunks. And on the next few pages we will show you every (successful) dunk from this year's competition.

There was a time when dunking meant you could dunk without help from a teammate



Some fake flight attendants had absolutely nothing to do with this dunk



Terrence Ross finally converted this dunk on the sixth try. On a side note, remember when a 360-dunk was actually a 360? Now, if you take off facing away from the bucket and do a 180, they call it a '360.'



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Meet Apple's Most Important Internet Executive, Eddy Cue (AAPL)

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Eddy Cue of Apple at The Daily launch

We know vanishingly little about Apple's top executives. At most we get dribs and drabs of information, like CEO Tim Cook's bicycling regimen or design chief Jony Ive's Aston Martin.

Then there's Apple executive Eddy Cue.

Cue had been primarily responsible for Apple's iTunes Store, App Store, and iCloud email, calendar, and file services. He added responsibility for Maps after Scott Forstall, the executive in charge of it at launch, left Apple.

Other than that, we don't know squat.

So we turned to the unlikeliest of sources for insight into Cue: his Foursquare friends list.

Like pieces in a mosaic, Cue's friends and their stories combine to form a full picture of the executive himself.

Why Foursquare? We were inspired to check out Cue's presence on the location check-in service after rumors that Apple was pursuing a deal with Foursquare to improve its mapping service. 

After we looked at his friends, though, we realized that these publicly shared connections might be far more telling than the accounts Cue follows on his lightly used Twitter account or his carefully locked down Facebook profile.

That's because, when you sign up for Foursquare, the app encourages you to scan your address book for friends' phone numbers—meaning that you tend to add the people you actually call or text. Founder and CEO Dennis Crowley has suggested this and other features make it more likely that you add your real friends on Foursquare.

Foursquare only lists first names and last initials, but a trivial amount of sleuthing and cross-checking on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn identified some very interesting contacts.

Axel Jessen, Apple

Jessen, previously a manager of Apple's online services, now works in the office of the CEO providing executive technical support. His LinkedIn profile has a brief debunking of the myth that Steve Jobs killed off Apple's eWorld service when he returned to the company.

Based on his career history, it's likely that Jessen worked with Cue in Apple's IT operations.



Blake Roberts, Pier to Pier Brokers

Robert, a former Apple executive, now works in real estate in the Los Angeles area.



Brenda Spoonemore, Dwellable

Spoonemore's Foursquare profile was unlinked to other accounts, but we quickly found her professional connection to Cue: As SVP of interactive services at the NBA, she signed a deal to bring basketball games to iTunes in 2006. She's now CEO of Dwellable.



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The Incredible Evolution Of App Design

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rise iphone app

Apple's App Store for iPhones and iPads launched nearly five years ago. 

In that short time, app design has evolved rather quickly. 

At first, app design mimicked classic computing inputs like buttons and icons, but developers have recently taken advantage of touch controls by implementing gestures and swipes in their apps to get around.

Check out the gallery below to see how far we've come.

The iPhone's stock alarm app hasn't changed much since the iPhone was first introduced. It's pretty tedious and annoying to scroll through all these options just to set an alarm.



Now look at Rise, a third-party alarm app in the app store. It lets you use simple swiping gestures to set your alarm. Plus it's much more beautiful.



This is what Foursquare looked like in the fall of 2009. Pretty basic.



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You Won't Believe What These Huge Brands Are Called Outside The US

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burger king perfume

If you're craving some Lay's chips in London or a Burger King meal in Australia you're in luck because those brands exist abroad.

The only problem is that you might never be able to find them.

Famous brands in America often go by extremely different names abroad. Sometimes the change makes sense, other times the changes are so small and random that it seems completely ridiculous.

See if you can identify what famous brands are called outside of the U.S.

Do you know what Burger King is called in Australia?



The Australian franchise of Burger King is called Hungry Jack's.



Do you know what name T.J. Maxx goes by in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, and Poland?



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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There's A Reason This Ad Works On You (FB)

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Facebook is a $65 billion company.

Mostly, that's because it sells ads.

In 2012, those ads generated almost all of Facebook's $5 billion revenues.

Why do these ads work when they work?

There are two main reasons.

One is that they are well-targeted. Facebook ad buyers can tell Facebook who they want to see their ads. 

The second reason Facebook ads work, when they work, is that the ads are well-made.

What does "well-made" mean?

We asked Facebook's research team, and they provided us with some answers.







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10 Places You Never Thought You Could Afford To Travel

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Moscow Marriott Royal Aurora Hotel

For some destinations, a reputation precedes them. They are thought to be expensive, inaccessible, and out of reach for many travelers.

But don't judge them on their pasts. Far-flung places like Hawaii, New Zealand, Russia, and even China are becoming easier to get to, and some recent deals are too good to refuse.

So in the interest of challenging stereotypes, consider these 10 destinations that just might be more affordable than you think.

Note: Deals listed are meant to illustrate a trend and many will expire soon; however, similar offers are likely to follow so check back with the providers mentioned for the very latest.

Moscow, Russia

Moscow is an imposing and expensive city for many U.S. travelers. But it doesn't have to be. While hotel rooms in the Russian capital are often considered the most expensive in the world (at about $400 per night on average), flights seem to be getting more affordable.

At the time of publication, Kayak lists February flights from New York for just $469 round-trip on Aeroflot, and several other airlines are also posting fares for under $500. Additionally, Lufthansa's most recent special features flights from $529 round-trip for travel through mid-May; book by March 12. Swiss International Air Lines' published sale includes options from $746. And Singapore Airlines offers flights from Houston to Moscow starting at $819 for travel through April 30. Note that fares to Moscow are cheaper than to any other city mentioned in these sales.

Apart from airfare, Moscow is working hard to upgrade its image to that of a more tourist-friendly city. Through a Leisure and Tourism Development program that aims to be fully realized by 2016, it hopes to attract 70 percent more foreign tourists. The results are emerging. Just launched in December, the Moscow Pass claims to save up to 30 percent on main attractions. Other new additions include double-decker tour buses and tourist information centers. Although hotel prices remain on the high end, the city appears to be having a hostel boom, which includes new budget-friendly properties such as the Safari Hostel, with shared rooms from around $22 per night, and Moscow's first Sleepbox hotel for under $100 per night.



Hawaii

Over the past several years, faraway Hawaii has increasingly landed on SmarterTravel's affordable destinations lists (most recently, our Top Five Bargain Destinations for Winter 2012/2013). But thanks to an early 2013 sale from Hawaiian Airlines, the Aloha State just went from affordable to bargain-basement cheap, with fares from San Jose to Kahului starting at just $250 round-trip and from Oakland to Honolulu for as low as $335.

Other airlines have been making waves as well. For example, American has launched a sale matching some of Hawaiian's routes but also adding a few of its own, such as $479 from Las Vegas to Kona and $536 from New York to Lihue. Allegiant Air has been expanding into the Hawaii market, most recently with service from Phoenix to Honolulu beginning on February 8. Sample fares start at $343 round-trip for March departures.

Another option is to look for airfare-and-hotel packages. Pleasant Holidays, for example, lists a three-night Oahu deal from $479, which also includes a free mid-size car rental. As for hotels, Aston Hotels & Resorts has a slew of spring deals starting at $99 per night on Kauai, Oahu, and Maui; book by March 15 for travel through June. Air Canada is offering free nights on the islands when you book airfare. Deals like these have been the norm lately, so keep an eye out for new ones. The Hawaii Tourism Authority keeps a list of current promotions.



Peru

Land of adventure and now a burgeoning culinary destination, Peru has been catching the eye of many travelers lately. In fact, OneTravel.com just dubbed capital city Lima as one of its top five international travel destinations for 2013. Recent deals have made it more affordable to reach than ever.

LAN Airlines kicked off the New Year with a big sale featuring flights to Lima starting at $499 from Miami, $599 from New York, and $699 from Los Angeles or San Francisco. While that sale has ended, others will likely crop up. For instance, a flex search on Kayak yields fares from between $444 and $679 for New York departures in March. Also be sure to check with airlines like Taca and Copa, which both have extensive route networks for South and Central America.

Airfare-and-hotel packages make planning especially easy since you can book two components with one transaction. Go-Today is offering a four-night Lima escape from $899. Tack on Cusco and Machu Picchu and pay $1,599 for six nights total. Hotels offer affordability as well. At Terra Andina Hotel in Cusco, winner of TripAdvisor's Travelers' Choice 2013 Award, rates for 2013 start at $149 per night. And Sonesta's Posadas del Inca Puno, set on Lake Titicaca, has two-night packages with breakfast for two from $204; add $25 for a Peruvian dinner. Posadas del Inca Yucay in the Sacred Valley of the Incas offers a similar package; however, you pay only $160 for February stays.



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18 Companies That Are Probably Freaking Out About Those Leaked Wal-Mart Emails (WMT)

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walmart

Last week, Bloomberg reported that emails exchanged by Wal-Martexecutives suggested that February sales so far were a "total disaster."  Blaming the recent payroll tax hike, among other things, at least one exec reportedly wrote that this was the "worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company."

A spokesperson for Bloomberg said that the emails "lack the proper context."

Regardless, anything short of an outright denial could be a troubling sign for the U.S. consumer, Wal-Mart's business, and furthermore the businesses of Wal-Mart's suppliers.

The International Securities Exchange offers an index that consists of 30 major suppliers that are heavily exposed to Wal-Mart.

We pulled 18 big publicly-traded companies that get at least 20 percent of their revenue from Wal-Mart.

These are the companies that are probably most worried about the content of those leaked emails.

Helen of Troy

Annual Sales To Walmart:

$236.3 million

Percent of Helen of Troy's Sales:

20.00 percent

Percent of Walmart's Costs:

0.07 percent

Products: Helen of Troy designs and distributes consumer products across three main segments: personal care, housewares, and health care. Goods sold include appliances, hair dryers, a skin care line, combs, and other accessories. Helen of Troy also owns the OXO brand name.

Source: Helen of Troy 2012 Annual Filing



Hasbro Inc.

Annual Sales To Walmart:

$857.1 million

Percent of Hasbro's Sales:

20.00 percent

Percent of Walmart's Costs:

0.26 percent

Products: Hasbro sells children and family leisure products. Brands under the Hasbro name include Transformers, G.I. Joe, Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley, and Nerf among others.

Source: Hasbro 2011 Annual Filing



Jarden Corp.

Annual Sales To Walmart:

$1.34 billion

Percent of Jarden's Sales:

20.00 percent

Percent of Walmart's Costs:

0.40 percent

Products: Jarden sells a variety of outdoor and indoor goods. Its outdoor solutions segment sells air beds, camping stoves, coolers, gas grills, lanterns, and sleeping bags. Jarden's consumer focused group sells Mr. Coffee coffee products, as well as indoor heaters, toasters, irons, and fans.

Source: Jarden 2011 Annual Filing



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Here's Everything You Missed From Last Night's NBA All-Star Game

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Kobe Bryant

The NBA may only be the third most popular sport in this country, but it has the most entertaining All-Star game.

The NFL Pro Bowl is more like touch football with the family on Thanksgiving, and MLB tries too hard to pretend their All-Star game is important.

Meanwhile, from Craig Sager's suit, to Chris Bosh making faces and dunks galore, it was a greatly entertaining night in the NBA.

On the next few pages, we will take a look at our favorite moments from the 2013 NBA All-Star game.

Craig Sager, who is well-known for his crazy suits, may have worn his craziest suit yet



And Kevin Garnett, who often mocks Craig Sager's suits, demonstrates how Sager picks his outfits



Joakim Noah started the pregame introductions with a strange dance



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23 Laws The US Should Adopt From Around The World

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canada flag girl

Traveling is a great way to learn about other cultures and ways of thinking.

While most of our encounters with a host country’s legal system usually revolve around visas and Customs offices, there is a much broader and underlying set of laws that guides the flow of daily routines and reflects a people’s values and beliefs.

Here are 23 laws from around the world that, while maybe not perfect, could be steps in the right direction to make the United States a better place to live.

The Law of Mother Earth

Bolivian President Evo Morales recently enacted his country’s Law of Mother Earth (Pachamama) and Integral Development to Live Well, a groundbreaking piece of legislation that redefines the Earth and all its inhabitants as a living system with rights instead of a commodity to be exploited.



Gross National Happiness (GNH)

Expanding conventional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measurements of wealth to include non-monetary factors like psychological well-being, community vitality, and environmental quality, Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a sophisticated survey instrument to measure the population’s general level of well-being. Proposed policies in Bhutan must pass a GNH review similar to an Environmental Impact Statement in the US.



Renewable Energy Act

Germany’s Renewable Energy Act mandates that 80% of the country’s power will come from renewable sources by 2050. With new wind and solar installations as well as huge investments in overhauling its entire grid, a complete conversion to renewable energy by 2050 is now becoming a realistic target.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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The 7 Best Tech Companies For Interns

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Google employees, Android, Gingerbread OS

If you want to work for one of the big tech giants, it helps if you start as an intern.

Which tech companies treat their lowest-level people best?

Job review and career site Glassdoor assembled a list of the 20 best internship programs. The rankings are based entirely on feedback from previous and current interns. Companies were only included if they had received at least 20 intern reviews in the past two years.

Of the 20 best internship programs, seven tech companies were recognized. One even stole the number one spot. Facebook, LinkedIn and Apple didn't make the cut.

7. Amazon

Company rating: 3.9

Interview difficulty rating: 3.4

Average monthly salary: $5,564 for a software development engineer intern; $3,138 for a financial analyst intern

Intern review:"Very supportive team mates who helped constantly raise the bar by asking the right questions and putting the foot down at the right time.” — Amazon Software Development Engineer Intern (Seattle, WA)

Ratings are based on a 5-point scale, 0 = very dissatisfied or easy, 5= very satisfied or very difficult



6. IBM

Company rating: 3.9

Interview difficulty rating: 2.8

Average monthly salary: $4,609 for a software engineer intern

Intern review:“Pay was really high compared to what I’m supposed to get for being so junior. Nice office, really cool building, and really great people. A flexible schedule, yoga lessons, and gym. The company is really large and you feel like you belong.” — IBM Software Engineer Intern (Ottawa, Ontario)

Ratings are based on a 5-point scale, 0 = very dissatisfied or easy, 5= very satisfied or very difficult



5. Cisco

Company rating: 4.0

Interview difficulty rating: 2.5

Average monthly salary: $4,077 for a general intern; $3,618 for a software engineer intern

Intern review:“As an intern, I was given the same freedom and regular employees, I could work from home, arrive and leave work when it was convenient for me, and I could wear normal street clothes to work.” — Cisco Software Engineering Intern in Research (Triangle Park, NC)

Ratings are based on a 5-point scale, 0 = very dissatisfied or easy, 5= very satisfied or very difficult



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The Favorite Drinks Of 11 Iconic People

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ernest hemingway cuba 1946When these celebrities and iconic characters want to knock one back, these are the drinks they choose.



1. Madeira – Ben Franklin

If there are two things Big Ben Franklin will always be remembered for, it’s drinking and syphilis.

Or is it persuading the French to join in with the colonists to fight the British and the key-on-the-kite electricity experiment?

Either or, the point is, when Franklin wasn’t changing the world he was refilling his glass.

His drink of choice? Madeira, an oxidized and fortified wine.



2. Mojito – Ernest Hemingway

You’d think Hemingway, the man’s man, would go for something like whiskey, straight up.

But no, Bumby liked his rum and mint.

If you’ve never been one for the Cuban cocktail, give Ernie’s recipe a try:

6 fresh mint leaves
Juice of 1 lime
2 tsp light brown sugar
1-1/2 oz. white rum, 3 oz. champagne
Sprig of fresh mint, for garnish



3. Gin Rickey – F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Rickey’s resurgence in the last decade has made it cool again, especially within the D.C. Beltway.

But for F. Scott Fitzgerald, it was always cool. In the roaring '20s, he was known for being more than just a great writer—Fitzgerald’s low tolerance and tendency for tomfoolery gave him a reputation as a prankster.

So, when he disclosed he loved gin because it wasn’t easy to detect on his breath, his friends were probably left biting their tongue.

He made no secret of his love affair with drinking, once saying, "First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you."

The gin rickey took him and was forever immortalized in The Great Gatsby.



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15 Clever Augmented Reality Campaigns

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national geographic augmented reality

In a world full of smartphones, augmented reality (AR) campaigns are a very smart and unique way for brands to engage with consumers.

Instead of watching a television commercial, looking at an ad in a magazine, or seeing a quick web ad before your YouTube video, AR lets consumers actually interact with the brand.

Whether consumers are test driving a new car model, learning a new recipe, or playing a game, AR campaigns resonate with consumers in a way that most other ad platforms fall short. The ad becomes a game, versus just promotional material. And the product still comes across, which is, of course, the point of advertising.

More and more brands are starting to integrate AR campaigns into their ad budgets.  ABI Research estimates the market for augmented reality in the US will reach $350 million in 2014, which is up  from only $6 million in 2008.  

Check out which brands have put out clever AR campaigns that got people talking. 

Stella Artois' Le Bar Guide app allows consumers to find out how close they are to a Stella-serving bar and how to get there. The app also provides the phone numbers of local taxi services to help users get home safely.



Airwalk's AR campaign allowed people walking through Washington Square Park in NYC to shop at the "world's first invisible pop-up store."

The Airwalk Invisible Pop Up Store from SnapsApp on Vimeo.



Maybelline's AR app allowed consumers to see see what more than 30 different nail polish colors would look like on their hands without testing it on their nails.



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Watch Out, Obama: Second Terms Have Been Tainted By Scandal

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bill and hillary clinton and barack obama

"The Second Year Curse" is the idea that after getting re-elected for a second term, presidents have had problems maintaining the momentum. 

Ever since Franklin Roosevelt, two-term presidents have seen their second-terms marred by scandals and failures.

Some managed to continue with a successful closing act despite their problems, others saw their administration implode in scandal. 

Will Obama continue or overcome the trend? Only time will tell. For now, here are eight cautionary tales for the President to consider during his second term.

Franklin Roosevelt: Court Packing Plan

After a landslide victory in the 1936 election, Roosevelt announced a controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court to up to 15 judges in order to shift the political leanings of the branch to support the New Deal support. 

To the ire of both Republicans and Democrats, FDR tried to use his post-election momentum to try to force aging conservatives off the court.  His plan was struck down in the Senate 70 to 22. 

Source: History.com



Harry Truman: The Korean War

In 1951 Truman got into a public, heated fight with the wildly popular General Douglas MacArthur over the Korean War.  

MacArthur wanted to bomb the People's Republic of China, while Truman refused to escalate.

When MacArthur criticized the President's decision publicly, Truman fired him for insubordination. MacArthur returned to the U.S. and recieved a hero's welcome. 



Dwight Eisenhower: The Overcoat Scandal and the U-2 Incident

In 1958, two years after Eisenhower was elected to office for a second time, his White House chief of staff, Sherman Adams, was accused of accepting a vicuña coat and an oriental rug from Boston Industrialist Bernard Goldfine in exchange for intervention with regulatory agencies. Adams resigned, but his exit would cast a pall over the second term of the Eisenhower administration. 

Then, during the final year of Eisenhower's second term, a U-2 spy plane was shot down over China while carrying out espionage over the U.S.S.R.

The pilot, Francis Powers, was captured — as was the plane — and a humiliated Eisenhower was forced to admit that the jet belonged to the U.S.

Source: St. Petersberg Times, History



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18 Ways Your Office Job Is Destroying Your Body

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working guyIf you're used to the hours of sedentary, stressful working conditions that come with your office job, you may want to know that this kind of working environment is killing you a lot faster than you think.

Aside from the stress that comes from tight deadlines, plenty of things you do every day in the workplace are slowly chipping away at you.

From the printer to your keyboard, the dangers presented in an office can have real effects on your physical well-being, just as mental strains can hurt you in the long-term.

Sitting at your desk all day

Sitting for lengthy periods is terrible for your body. Aches and pains are the least of your problems — it can lead to an early death. You're at a higher risk of muscular skeletal disorders, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more, even if you work out regularly.



... And slouching is even worse

If your job requires you to sit most of the day, it's best if you get a sitting device that allows you to straighten your poor posture. If not, you're "contributing to a pool of chronic, long-term ailments — including arthritis and bursitis."



Increased chances of physically hurting yourself

Although a treadmill desk may help with the risk of obesity and heart disease, these desks are also prone to increased typos and might cause you to fall more often than merely sitting in a chair.





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The 9 Most Expensive Cities For Divorcees

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couple walkingThe rate of couples backpedaling down the aisle in the U.S. is growing so quickly, states across the map are searching for new ways to ease the process for consumers.

Even with a rise in do-it-yourself divorce cases, the  average divorce still costs about $20,000. And not all states – or even cities – are created equally when it comes to legal fees.

We tapped AttorneyFee.com, a new legal fee-tracking site, for help compiling the average rate for divorce attorneys in cities across the country. 

Using their data and insight gleaned from a host of family law experts, we've put together a list of nine cities where calling it quits will cost you the most. 

9. Dallas

Average: $291/hr

Fees are so high in the Lone Star state that in 2010, the state's Supreme Court created a task force to handle consumers looking to file without legal assistance.

There's also a reason celebrities like Sandra Bullock filed for divorce there. It's one of the least friendly states in the spousal support arena and tends to divvy up property rather than cash.

"They still won't order (alimony) unless it's a marriage of 10 years," says Spencer Williams of Cordell and Cordell, P.C."Then they max it out at $5,000 (per month)." 



8. Philadelphia

Average: $297/hr

The real cost associated with divorce trials has much to do with how long the state takes to process cases. If you ask Williams, that makes Pennsylvania one of the worst in the country, with average process periods of three years in some cities. 

"I would not want to get divorced in Pennsylvania, to put it that way," he says. "That's a real burden both emotionally and financially.



7. San Diego

Average: $300/hr

Fees are so high in California that nearly 80 percent of individuals filing for dissolution of marriage in San Diego opt to skip lawyers altogether, according to family law attorney Michele Sacks Lowenstein

"It's a huge problem (because) they don't know what they're doing in court," she says. "Ultimately, divorce is just another civil case. It'd be like representing yourself in a car accident. Would you really know what to do?" 




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YACHT OF THE WEEK: For $33.75 Million, Own The Luxurious, Speedy 'Harmony'

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harmony charter luxury yacht

Most luxury yachts are pretty slow, with top speeds under 20 mph. For those who want to spend a relaxing vacation while also getting somewhere on time, there's Harmony.

The luxury yacht has room for 12 guests in 6 staterooms, and is staffed by a crew of 12, with accommodations below deck.

All the decks are accessible via an elevator, and there's a lot of room on the 164-foot yacht to relax.

Unlike many high-end yachts, there's nothing tacky about the Harmony: The decorations are luxurious, but elegant.

Harmony is listed for sale by Moran Yachts, for $33.75 million.

Harmony is powered by a MTU 16V 4000 series engine.



It can reach a top speed of 23 knots (26.47 mph) and cruise at 20 knots (23 mph), pretty speedy for such a large boat.



And her draft is only 8 feet, so she can sail in shallow waters.



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19 Chateau-Style Mansions That Will Make You Feel Like You Live In France

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French Chateau

Chateaus are not only found in France. 

Thanks to our friends at Estately.com, we bring to you some stunning French-inspired chateaus that are currently on the market in America.

They include wine cellars, manicured gardens, and even an indoor basketball court.

Florida's Versailles is largest home in the country.

Situated on more than 10 acres in Windermere, Fl., Versailles is a 90,000-square-foot mansion and largest home currently under construction in the U.S.

Price: $65,000,000



Le Palais is a 48,000-square-foot chateau in Beverly Hills.

Le Palais, in Beverly Hills, Calif., has seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms.

Other amenities include a walk-in glass refrigerator, a 5,000-bottle wine cellar, an indoor/outdoor pool, and a garage with room for up to 12 cars.

Price: $58,000,000



Palm Beach is home to this $74,000,000 estate.

This exclusive waterfront estate in Palm Beach, Florida is located on Billionaire's Row and has its own dock.

Price: $74,000,000



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eBay's New Homepage Is A Disappointment (EBAY)

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eBay Personalization Walkthrough

eBay is rolling out a new, personalized homepage to U.S. users tomorrow.

It is at once a major improvement to eBay's aging website, and a crushing disappointment—a glaring missed opportunity to take a more substantial leap forward and transform the eBay shopping experience.

Click here to see the new eBay >

The eBay marketplace today is driven by search and categories—old concepts for organizing the Web.

The new eBay takes what are essentially searches and converts them into "interests," and then displays them in a tiled layout that many have compared to Pinterest, the highly visual image-collecting site which has inspired a million copycat Web designs.

It's not about you, it's about eBay's limitations

This redesign has been highly anticipated, in part because of the startup talent eBay has recently brought into its fold, including the New York-based teams from Hunch and Svpply. (Svpply actually was acquired after the redesign was underway; Hunch cofounder Tom Pinckney, now a director of engineering at eBay, is currently overseeing the effort.) 

TechCrunch, which got an early look at the redesign, declares that it makes eBay "essentially all about you." That's a bold claim, one we would love to be true—but it's simply not borne out in our experience of the new site.

At best, the new eBay is making guesses about simple product descriptors that match products you've looked at or bought, and then converts those into interests—again, what are really saved searches.

So the new site really just saves you the time of thinking about how to phrase something as a search query and typing it in. It's not about you; it's about what was easiest for eBay to deliver on its aging infrastructure.

The problem is that this incremental improvement doesn't really launch eBay into the business it needs to be in, which is what's known as social discovery.

To sidestep Amazon, eBay needs to stop displaying what people know they want, and start showing them things they never knew they wanted.

Flash-sales sites and daily deals are misunderstood as discount-driven gimmicks. What those new formats for e-commerce really do is create scarcity and novelty, bringing the kind of excitement physical retail excels in to online shopping.

It's the opposite of Amazon's A-to-Z abundance and efficiency—and it's far more fun.

A more ambitious vision for the new eBay

A source familiar with eBay's product plans recently told us about a far more sweeping vision for a new eBay.

Crucially, this plan went back to eBay's roots as a social network built around commerce—people buying things from people. In trying to compete with Amazon, eBay erased the personality from its site—and along with it, it erased the persons, too.

Look at the way bidders' user names are obscured on eBay today. You can't even get to know the people you're competing with to win an auction, because they're anonymized. What's the fun in that?

The new eBay, we were told, would let you follow people—sellers and buyers. Those features already exist in some form on the eBay website, but they're buried.

A truly social redesign of eBay would let you follow interesting people, not just "interests."

Still, eBay has to start somewhere. And the introduction of a new homepage feed is hopefully a foundation on which eBay can build.

Here's the explainer that greets you when you visit www.ebay.com/new ...



A signed note from eBay marketplaces chief Devin Wenig! It feels personal already.



A "shopping concierge." This sounds great ...



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20 Gorgeous Art Hotels Around The World

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Thompson LES

For busy vacationers who want to do it all, it can be hard to pack in tours, museums, landmarks, restaurants, nightlife, and shopping.

Sometimes you have to give one up. But why not cut some corners by combining your museums and hotels?

Some hotels have art worthy of museums, and some museums are works of art themselves. Here are 20 hotels around the world that double as museums.

21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Ky.

The 21c hotel is named for the 21st century, despite the fact that it consists of former 19th century tobacco and bourbon warehouses.

21c is home to a $10 million dollar collection of contemporary art owned which includes works by Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, who is known for creating multimedia pieces from materials like chocolate syrup or garbage and taking pictures of them.

When guests check in, they receive preloaded iPods with a narrated tour of the collection.



The Anse Chastanet Resort, St. Lucia

The gallery at the Anse Chastanet Resort features paintings, sculptures, and other handmade pieces by local St. Lucian artists. Some visiting artists also contribute St. Lucia-inspired works to the small collection, and stay on the island while they complete it.

The art at the Anse Chastanet is intended “to highlight the eco-luxury resort’s commitment to preserving the island’s culture and shunning invasive technology,” according to Oyster.com.



The Bellagio, Las Vegas, Nev.

The Bellagio routinely features works by various artists; some of whose pieces that have lived in the hotel include Roy Lichtenstein, Edouard Monet, Andy Warhol, and Frank Stella. 

Warhol's work is on display again starting February 8 and admission to the gallery is very reasonable: $13 for Nevada residents, $16 for non-residents, $11 for students, teachers, and members of the military.

The Bellagio also houses the restaurant Picasso, which has its own original Picasso paintings.



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A Step-By-Step Guide To How Chinese Hackers Steal American Secrets

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chinese hackerDota is an anonymous member of a military-backed group of Chinese hackers notorious for stealing data from American companies.

According to Forbes, this group has likely broken into computer systems owned by Coca Cola, security tech firm RSA, and energy company Schneider Electric.

But now we learn from The Next Web that security firm Mandiant was able to screen-capture Dota in action. It's pretty compelling evidence, showing the hacker registering a new email address (he even provides his phone number for the SMS verification), breaking into victim computers, and stealing their data.

We're looking at the screen of a hacker named Dota. To start, he creates a new Gmail address and lists his country as the US.



But he receives his SMS verification on a phone he indicates as being in China.



Inside one of his email accounts, we see that Dota has used it to create numerous other addresses. There are also bounced messages that indicate this address was used in phishing attempts.



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