The 1935 smash hit "G Men" signaled a departure from the gangster-glorifying films of the earlier part of the decade. Rather than lionizing the bank robbers and bootleggers that captivated Americans during the Great Depression, this movie focused on James Cagney as a selfless FBI recruit.

According to James L. Neibaur's "James Cagney Films of the 1930s," it's unclear how involved FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was in the production of the film. Some sources indicated that he opposed the movie, but ended up changing his mind once he saw it in theaters. Neibaur writes that there were also rumors that Hoover himself signed off on the script's glowing portrayal of the Bureau.

Since those days, fictional depictions of FBI agents have undergone a number of transformations, which often shift along with the American public's view of the agency. We've seen the paranormal-investigating power couple Mulder and Scully on "The X-Files," coffee-loving, eccentric Dale Cooper on "Twin Peaks," the heroic squad featured on "Criminal Minds," along with the ominous, overbearing suits that appear in the background of many police shows. Some clichés surrounding the FBI are specific to the Bureau, while many of the tropes that cling to the organization also pertain to law enforcement and federal agencies in general.

Business Insider spoke about these different fictional portrayals with three retired FBI agents, Jerri Williams, author of the upcoming novel "Pay to Play,"Joe Navarro, author of "What Every Body is Saying," and Chris Voss, author of "Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It."

They revealed which popular fictional clichés about the FBI are dead wrong and discussed the handful of shows that come close to getting it right:

SEE ALSO: Here's what it's really like to work for the FBI

DON'T MISS: A former FBI agent reveals 7 ways your body betrays you when you're nervous

Myth: The FBI doesn't play well with others

It's a scenario that plays out in "Die Hard,""Law and Order," and "Dexter," just to name a few — stony-faced or smug federal agents swooping in to seize control of a case and shut out local law enforcement. "TV Tropes," an online wiki of fictional works, refers to this trope as "Jurisdiction Friction."

All three of the former agents that spoke with Business Insider listed this portrayal as a major pet peeve.

"That is just such a cliché," Williams says. "A local detective or sheriff is working on something and the FBI comes in and takes over and just treats everybody terribly. That is the worst. When I see that I just think, 'Doesn't whoever wrote this have any original ideas?'"

Williams isn't just irked because the trope depicts the agency in a negative light — she says the stereotype can be self-perpetuating, causing local law enforcement agencies and other institutions to regard the FBI with suspicion.

"We might have to break down some resistance before we can even do our job, because people expect us to be like that," Williams says.

Navarro says the trope is fundamentally untrue. When a case falls under FBI jurisdiction, the Bureau typically establishes a task force with local law enforcement agencies. Additionally, the FBI may become involved to provide investigative resources that some smaller police forces simply don't have. Navarro recalled working on a kidnapping in Arizona, where the FBI provided over a hundred agents to assist the local sheriff's department.

"We don't just walk in and say, okay boys and girls, we're taking over," he says.

Voss notes that there are some situations where he can understand why local law enforcement agencies might get a negative impression of the Bureau. He recalled arresting the wife of a fugitive on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list outside a convenience store in a small town in Pennsylvania. Voss and his partner were driving an unmarked car when they seized the woman, which alarmed two local cops who just happened to be parked outside.

However, Voss says he believes that fiction exaggerates the issue, citing the movie "The Negotiator," which features antagonistic FBI agents who wrangle with local authorities over a case.

"They were sort of this threatening, looming presence," Voss says. "The FBI just doesn't operate like that."

Myth: FBI agents are robotic bureaucrats

Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator and CEO of the Black Swan Group, explains how fiction can have a negative impact on how FBI agents interact with the public and other law enforcement agencies.

"Fictional television does in fact have an effect on peoples' opinions," he says. "And so many people just expect FBI agents to be jerks."

Williams says that, in her experience, practical jokes in the office were fairly common.

"We'd take our jobs seriously but not necessarily ourselves," she says.

Navarro says that this cliché can cause people to view the agency as a monolith of stiff, sinister bureaucrats and sunglasses-wearing, suited men.

"Obviously most FBI agents are concerned about crime and national security, but they also, for the most part, have families," he says. "They have kids, they have sick days off, they worry about their wives or their husbands, and they attend birthday parties — just regular stuff."

Myth: FBI agents are constantly fighting serial killers

In fiction, FBI agents frequently do battle with a frightening enemy — serial killers.

The novel and subsequent movie adaptation of "Silence of the Lambs" seemingly kicked off this trend, pitting FBI Academy student Clarice Starling against the sadistic Buffalo Bill. In the same vein, the characters on "Criminal Minds" continue to track down serial murderers around the country.

Williams, who served as a special agent for 26 years and mainly investigated economic crimes, noted that, while the FBI does investigate serial killers, only a small percentage of agents handle such cases.

The prevalence of the federal agent vs. the serial murderer trope points more to our culture's fascination with serial killers, as as Dr. Scott Bonn previously wrote in "Psychology Today," than how the Bureau actually operates.

I love tacos, but I'm also a horrible taco snob. I only like mine served off a truck in a parking lot in Los Angeles. I want them to be small, tasty, and very, very cheap. 

I spent the better part of a decade eating off taco trucks in LA, and in 2007, I found MY truck: Tacos La Estrella, always parked at a gas station on Colorado Boulevard in LA's Eagle Rock neighborhood, northeast of Downtown.

Then I moved back to New York. "You will never have good tacos again," people warned me, ominously. Yes, when I lived in NYC a decade earlier, it was a Mexican-food wasteland. But surely, with the whole food-truck revolution, that had changed?

Nope. Every purported "taco" truck I tried was a massive fail. Tacos too big. Tacos too busy (Lettuce? Shredded cheese? Sloshings of guacamole?). Tacos uncheap. A great taco is less than $2. Period. It's usually significantly less.

Every purveyor I tried — and I got away from the trucks after a while — botched the job. New York taco-makers seemed to think that a simple little piece of street food, made from unwanted cuts of meat and rendered delicious through ingenuity and an obsession with freshness, had to be improved. More meat. Fancier preparations. Ungodly sauces.

Great tacos are an art form, every bit as exacting in the details as great sushi, but at a much, much lower price. They are street art. And this art was long ago perfected in Southern California. It should be copied, not modified.

Thankfully, after a year and half of suffering, I got back to LA for the Los Angeles auto show last year. I went straight to the parking lot, fingers crossed that my beloved truck would be there.

It was:

SEE ALSO: The 20 best US cities to live in if you love to try new food

It was a gorgeous, sunny day in Eagle Rock.

I headed for the gas station where I used to get my cars smog-checked.

OK, I wasn't getting this car smogged. It was a $400,000 McLaren 675LT supercar that I borrowed for a few days. But what's that in the background?

Here's the review of the car.

As Ursula the sea witch famously said, "Don't underestimate the importance of body language."

Some tricks, like remembering to smile and having a firm handshake, are pretty easy to implement in your everyday life.

However, there are other techniques that, while relatively commonsense, are somewhat trickier to tackle.

Still, they can make a huge difference.

Here are six body language hacks that can be tricky to master, but will definitely pay off  forever once you do:

SEE ALSO: 11 signs someone is lying to you

DON'T MISS: 11 skills that are hard to learn but will pay off forever

Maintaining good eye contact

It's all in the eyes.

People with a shaky gaze often come across as anxious, distracted, or dishonest. And it can be tough to master the skill of maintaining eye contact, since it's a very uncomfortable and unnatural thing for some people. But it's a practice that can help you immensely in life.

Luckily, there are some simple techniques for maintaining better eye contact if you feel your stare isn't cutting it.

In "How To Talk To Anyone," author and communication expert Leil Lowndes advises that you should "pretend your eyes are glued to your conversation partner's with sticky, warm taffy."

Once you master this trick, you'll immediately see an improvement in your face-to-face communications with others.

Keeping your hands visible

It's hard to know what to do with your hands sometimes, especially if you're a somewhat nervous person.

As a result, you might take to compulsively jamming them into your pockets or crossing your arms. Those are understandable moves, but they also project a somewhat negative image.

As Business Insider previously reported, it's important to keep your hands visible, lest you look like you're hiding something.

Invite people in and allow them to trust you by using more open body language. Avoid positions that make you appear defensive (even if that's how you're feeling).

Not fidgeting or swaying (but not being too stiff, either)

Some people are just a bit twitchy. Some people are almost unnaturally still. The problem is, others may mistake that for dishonesty or fear.

That might be common knowledge, but Dr. Lillian Glass, a behavioral analyst and body language expert who has worked with the FBI on unmasking signals of deception, previously told Business Insider that you should also watch out for people who are not moving at all.

"This may be a sign of the primitive neurological 'fight,' rather than the 'flight,' response, as the body positions and readies itself for possible confrontation," Glass said. "When you speak and engage in normal conversation, it is natural to move your body around in subtle, relaxed, and, for the most part, unconscious movements. So if you observe a rigid, catatonic stance devoid of movement, it is often a huge warning sign that something is off."

If you can strike a balance between swaying and stiffness, you'll be able to make a better impression with others.

Mount Rushmore. The Washington Monument. The Golden Gate Bridge. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. These are the monuments and museums and sights that family trips are planned around. It can feel like we go through life trying to tick these off the figurative list, grabbing a photo at each stop.

But as lovers of food and weirdness, we wanted to find the lesser-known statues and galleries—the wacky food-themed destinations that affirm our country's desire to play with our food (and immortalize it in statue-form). We wanted to find a bit of personality beyond the country's best restaurants or best farmers markets.

So we solicited your help! (Twice.) We scoured Weird U.S. and Roadside America and the accompanying website. We found so many to be strange and strangely interesting.

On our list you will find... the world's oldest ham! And the world's largest prairie chicken (and peanut and Holstein cow and non-stick frying pan)! And several places where all of your childhood dreams have been realized (like the Pez Memorabilia Museum, the Jelly Belly factory, and Hershey Park, which combines chocolate and amusement rides).

Stay quirky, America!

1. Spoonbridge and Cherry, Minneapolis, MN

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A refreshing cocktail garnish in the summer, the 51-foot sculpture takes on a new aspect in the winter season: Topped with snow, “the cherry turns into a mouthful of ice cream sundae.”

Update: The sculpture is not on display now but will be back next summer. All the reason to start planning the trip today. (Thanks for the info, Renae!)

2. Coffee Pot and Cup Water Tower, Stanton, IA

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 Stanton is the birthplace of Virginia Christine, the actress who was briefly famous as Folgers’ "Mrs. Olson" on television commercials and the sides of coffee cans. It was taken down in 2013, but the giant coffee pot is now displayed at ground level.

3. Randy’s Donuts, Los Angeles, CA

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 You can’t miss it!

Podcasts have become excellent sources for great storytelling, interviews, and journalism.

From a few minutes to more than an hour, podcasts give content creators a chance to speak directly to their listeners free of distractions, and give listeners a new way to expand their minds during their daily commutes.

We have a lot of podcast nerds at Business Insider. So we collected our favorite podcasts, which are equally informative and enjoyable, across four big areas of interest: technology, culture, science, politics, and innovation.

We've included links to our picks for each of these podcasts' best episodes, but you can find all of them in iTunes or through your favorite podcast app.

SEE ALSO: There's a simple trick to looking your best in smartphone photos

AND: There's powerful evidence that the ancient Mediterranean diet can extend your life

"Codebreaker"

As a co-production of Tech Insider and Marketplace, "Codebreaker" is dear to our hearts in the newsroom. But it's also got some of the smartest storytelling about technology you can find anywhere.

"Codebreaker" moves past newsy takes to ask big questions about technology's impact on our world. The first season began with three simple words: "Is It Evil?" Ben Johnson, the host, asked that question of internet porn, virality online, and even software updates — finding depth and nuance to each topic you probably never knew existed.

Starter episodes: 

"Internet Porn" 

"The Decisive Machine"

"Reply All"

When I asked Tech Insider's writers and editors to recommend their favorite podcasts beyond "Codebreaker," this was the runaway favorite.

Gimlet media's "Reply All" calls itself a "show about the internet." But that doesn't begin to sum up what hosts PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman explore each episode.

In the past they've tackled ISIS's internet presence and LSD microdosing, solved the mystery behind hundreds of people showing up at an Atlanta house looking for their lost phones, and told the beautiful, tragic story behind a video game about losing a child.

Their best work yet came in their most recent episode. They revealed that "pizza rat" and "selfie rat" may in fact be the first shots fired in a barrage of hoax viral content from a disinformation artist named Zardulu. And that story's even weirder than you think.

Starter episodes:

"Zardulu"

"In the Desert"

It isn’t always easy to travel Europe on the cheap as necessities such as lodging, food and transportation are pretty expensive. Add in the fact that the US dollar’s exchange rate isn’t favorable, and travel costs can easily soar.

But don’t cancel your grand European travel plans just yet. With a healthy dose of reality and a bit of advance planning, budget trips to Europe are still possible.

Read on for five top ways to travel Europe on the cheap:

1. Dine a la picnic style

Make no qualms about it; restaurants in Europe are expensive, particularly in cities and other touristy areas. Chefs are topnotch, restaurant rents are expensive, and high-quality fresh ingredients are the norm, all of which contribute to high prices.

Though for those willing to forgo the ambiance of a restaurant, there is another viable, more affordable option—shopping at a local market. Buy cured meats and cheeses along with fresh olives in countries like France and Italy, or pickled herring and freshly baked bread in Scandinavia. It’s a chance to be adventurous too, so try a few items from the freshly prepared food section. Who knows you may fall in love with such delicacies as sour cabbage rolls in Finland, spicy pepper spread (ajvar) in Macedonia, or even pickled salmon in Norway.

Once you have your tasty treats in hand, pop a squat in a scenic plaza or park and dine a la picnic style. If you have access to a kitchen and are willing to take the time to cook, more power to you!

2. Walk, bike or take public transport

There’s rarely any reason to take expensive taxis in Europe. Though rental bikes and public transport charges vary across the continent, costs are by and large much cheaper than taking taxis. Walking is a great option in smaller cities such as Copenhagen where the terrain is flat and neighborhoods are easy to navigate. Rent bikes in bike-friendly areas such as Amsterdam, and ride the subway in large, confounding cities such as Paris. Buses tend to be a bit slower in traffic-ridden metropolises, but are perfect for getting to and from the airport.

3. Stay in hostels or small bed and breakfasts

Hop on Expedia and check out hotel prices in London, Paris or Rome during the summer months and your heart may just skip a beat. Hotel prices in Europe are prohibitively expensive! Though if you’re willing to forgo living space and a few creature comforts (who needs bathrobes and slippers, anyways?), deals do exist. Supplement guidebooks with sites such as TripAdvisor.com to find affordable, suitable hostels and small bed and breakfasts. In addition to being cheaper, hostels and bed and breakfasts are often great places to meet fellow travelers too.

On the surface, it makes no sense: you finally have a job you love, or at least like, but here you are, dealing with the Sunday Night Blues again. Before you question whether you're on the right track professionally, rest assured: you could be running your own company, making money hand over fist, doing exactly what you know you were born to do, and you'll probably still have the occasional bout of "meh" on Sunday nights.

Why? Because even work you love is still, well, work.

Also:

SEE ALSO: 11 things unsuccessful people do over the weekend

The more you love your job, the harder it is to make time for non-work things

"If you suffer from the Sunday blues, it's likely that you haven't dedicated sufficient time to rejuvenate, recharge, and destress," writes Lolly Daskal, President and CEO of Lead From Within, in a recent column at "Inc."

When's the last time you took a whole weekend off, no checking email allowed, or got out of bed without looking at your phone before your feet hit the floor? Technology has liberated us from needing to be in the physical office, but it's also bound us to work, 24/7. When you like your job, it's even more difficult to unplug, because it's not just the boss who's demanding your round-the-clock participation — it's you, putting pressure on yourself.

To reduce this stressor, you'll have to be firm with yourself, and set better boundaries. Remember: the goal is to keep loving your job. You can't do that, if you never get any rest.

Even good employers ask a lot of people who do a lot

At most companies, the reward for being an exceptional employee is more work. (Hopefully, it's also a raise and a promotion, but the more work part is almost guaranteed.)

What this means is that you're likely to be more stressed if you're more dedicated, and not just because you're inspired to work hard. Chances are, you actually do have more to do.

The answer is slightly scary to an A-student type who prides himself on being able to do it all: you'll have to ask for help. Start by keeping your manager in the loop about what you're doing and whether you need more resources to do it well. You won't be seen as a whiner as long as you frame your updates in the context of finding solutions, not pointing out problems</a

Goal-oriented people often have trouble being here now

The nature of achievement-focused workers is to look forward. That's all well and good, but if you want a measure of peace along with your other accomplishments, you need to be present.

"Instead of zooming around, focus on whatever is in front of you, and complete it calmly and carefully," Daskal advises. "Once you get used to that way of working, you'll find that you get things done much more quickly and with less stress."

Being in the moment will also help you enjoy your non-work time more. Once you learn how to be here now, you'll be able to enjoy Sunday night as the holiday it is, instead of looking at it as an on-ramp to the week. With a little practice, you could get back all those hours you normally spend thinking about Monday morning.

Warehouse clubs like Sam's Club, Costco, and BJ's Wholesale Club offer great deals on some items -- but not all. That's often because shoppers can find cheaper prices elsewhere but also because some items aren't wise to buy in bulk. From foods to paper goods, here are 10 things to avoid.

Condiment packs

Costco sells a condiment "picnic pack" with two 32-ounce ketchups, one 28-ounce mustard, and one 26-fluid-ounce pickle relish. For anyone who doesn't use relish as often as mustard -- or just doesn't care for one of the three -- up to a quarter of the purchase price goes to waste. Condiments may sit in the fridge for months but don't stay fresh as long as you might expect once opened. Ketchup lasts six months, while mayo lasts just two, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Unless you're a business owner in the food-service industry or you're inviting everyone you know to a summer barbecue, sticking to supermarket sizes may be smarter.Related:10 surprising things you can buy from Costco, Sam's, or BJ's

Diapers

There are many places to buy cheap diapers -- Amazon, Diapers.com, Target, Walmart, and more. Warehouse club diapers are similarly cheap, but their larger packages may not be the best option, especially when buying very small diapers for newborns. The smallest quantity available at Costco in size 1 (which fits babies up to 14 pounds) is 192 diapers. A child might grow out of the size before the package is empty. Smaller quantities available at Target and Amazon -- both of which have subscription services with convenient delivery and discounted prices -- could be a better buy for a fast-growing child.

Trendy clothes and shoes

Costco and Sam's Club sometimes carry name-brand clothes and shoes, such as Hunter boots at Costco and Carter's brand kids' clothes at Costco and Sam's Club. But sometimes these deals really are too good to be true. Company representatives say Costco is not a "fashion retailer." If a designer brand turns up at a warehouse club, it is likely to be a fading trend or a style unpopular with retailers. Unless it's a very basic item, it might soon look passé, so don't let a designer label override personal taste.

The way most Americans build wealth is no secret: Save, invest, repeat. How average people keep their wealth, though, gets a lot less attention.

It boils down to how they handle risk. It's hard to accumulate wealth without taking some risks, but there are perils that "next-door millionaires" seem to avoid.

Next-door millionaires weren't born into wealth. They haven't invented killer apps or won the lottery, exercised a pile of stock options or played professional sports.

They're the majority of millionaires, and they include teachers, small business owners and professionals who accumulate wealth gradually over time. They're often in their 50s or 60s before their net worth ticks over to seven digits.

Research into how they think and act can give other regular folks some good insights. Here are some rules of thumb you might consider applying to your own finances.

SEE ALSO: I'm worth $1.5 million, and here's my best advice about getting rich

1. Follow the 'One house, one spouse' rule

Marriage can really benefit your financial life. People who get and stay married tend to be much wealthier than never-married singles, according to research by Jay Zagorsky at Ohio State University. By retirement age, married people have nearly 10 times the financial assets of singles, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

But divorce can dramatically shrink your wealth. Zagorsky found that people who split up experience an average wealth drop of 77 percent. So while the uber-rich may be able to divorce and remarry with relative impunity, dividing assets can be wickedly costly for everyone else.

Sticking with one house can pay off, too. Every time you sell a house and buy another, you're giving up a chunk of your wealth to commissions and moving costs. Trading up also means staying in debt longer if you take on a new, 30-year mortgage with each purchase. If your home has appreciated substantially, you also may owe capital gains taxes on the sale. (The first $250,000 of home sale profit is exempt for singles, or $500,000 for a couple.)

If instead you keep the house and bequeath it to your heirs, it gets an updated value for tax purposes, and that gain is income-tax free. Paying off a single mortgage over time, or refinancing only to shorter-term loans, can leave you with a ton of equity that you can borrow against in an emergency or use to help finance your retirement.

2. Take risks, but don't gamble

"Safe" investments don't get you anywhere. The returns on Treasury bills and bank accounts insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. don't even keep up with inflation, so you're actually losing wealth over time. But next-door millionaires aren't speculators, either. Millionaire portfolios tend to be widely diversified, with investments in stock funds, bonds, cash and real estate.

The most popular investment choice? Low-cost Vanguard index funds, according to the 2014 CNBC Millionaire Survey.

3. Teach your children well

Some people question the value of a college education, but in wealthy families, it's usually a given, says Myra Salzer, an inheritance coach and founder of the Wealth Conservancy in Boulder, Colorado.

Nine out of 10 millionaires surveyed by BMO Private Bank in 2013 had a college degree and over half had a professional or graduate degree. (For comparison, just 36 percent of people ages 25 to 29 had college degrees in 2015 and only 9 percent had graduate degrees, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.)

Eight out of 10 millionaires told the 2014 CNBC Millionaire Survey that wealth inequality was due at least in part to wealthier families' greater access to education. Encouraging your kids to go to college, and helping to pay for it if possible, could help your kids get on the right side of the have versus have not divide.

Apple might be secretly building a self-driving car or the software to power it, but it already makes software for cars. 

If you haven't driven a new car in the past two years, you might not be familiar with Apple CarPlay.

It’s dead simple to use, and provides easy access to music, phone calls, and Apple Maps.

I was able to try CarPlay out because it was included with a 2016 Chevrolet Tahoe I rented for a recent vacation in California.

I’m a New Yorker and I don’t own a car — but the next one I buy will certainly have CarPlay. To me, it's now a must-have for iPhone users. 

Here’s why it impressed me so much:

SEE ALSO: 19 of the best secret categories on Netflix and how to find them

CarPlay doesn’t connect through Bluetooth. You have to plug your phone in through a Lightning cable.

But once you plug it in, it boots into CarPlay automatically. (Most of the time. I found if I was doing Google Maps turn-by-turn directions, the pairing could be wonky.)

The display looks a lot like an iPhone screen! The best way to think about CarPlay is as a 2nd monitor for your iPhone built into your car’s dashboard. If you change apps on your iPhone, it will change the app on the CarPlay screen, and vice versa.

By now, we've all heard about the benefits of working remotely — that the happiness a remote job brings is equivalent to a $40,000 pay raise — and you may be aware that remote job opportunities have increased nearly 36% in the last few years.

2016 will undoubtedly be the year of the digital nomad, an epithet for those of us who, armed only with a laptop and reliable internet connection, have made the world our office.

In the last year, I've been in eight different cities and several new countries without taking off for vacation. Unfortunately, since this freedom is so enticing, remote jobs at companies that provide the steady, well-paid work are hard to come by.

So how did I break free from my desk and enter this highly competitive world? Of course, the tried-and-true job hunting procedures still stand: I updated my cover letter and resume, sanitized my social media accounts, and prepared for interviews with research.

But remote work is unique in its setup. To get hired, I had to prove myself capable of remote work's nuanced challenges. If you really want to stand out as a top quality remote worker, be sure to emphasize these five skills to get that high-earning remote job of your dreams.

SEE ALSO: The 7 best websites for landing a freelance gig with skills you already have

1. Communication

Weekly Skype chats, emails, shared Google docs, Slack. These are my team's main avenues for dialogue. Before starting, I had no idea how important precise, cogent communication would be to my efficiency and success. This does not exclusively mean that an ideal candidate must be talkative and fluent in English; more so, you must be effective in the use of a variety of electronic media while collaborating with fellow workers that may be based in different time zones.

The ideal candidate won't drag down productivity by being overly needy, untimely, or so vague in their use of language as to lead to confusion. In the interview, be eloquent, but also demonstrate a knowledge of the hurdles inherent in working with a far-flung, multi-timezone team.

2. Organization

At home or abroad, my remote boss or fellow workers can't stop by my desk, coffee mug in hand, and check in on my progress and priorities. A perk? Absolutely. But also a hindrance to some. There is undoubtedly less hands-on oversight in day-to-day remote work.

So, during interviews, show your potential employers how you managed complex projects and the productivity tools you used to boost your efficiency. Tools are the remote worker's best friend, and I'm not just talking about the old Swingline Stapler. I highly recommend you experiment with organizational tools in the office, or research and acquaint yourself with the remote worker's go-to, such as Trello for ease of collaboration or TopTracker for record keeping.

3. Tech savvy

Since most remote work occurs online, it is essential that candidates demonstrate the ability to use many different platforms, operating systems, and tools. Mastery isn't necessary, but a history of experimenting with and learning new and wide-ranging technologies is key. Ever used Skype before? You, me, and everyone else.

But did you know that Skype has countless shortcuts available, some specifically geared towards remote work efficiency? Much of the tech you use leisurely can be revisited in such a way. Most importantly, demonstrate that you are a quick study with at least a base knowledge on multiple technological fronts, which, in the end, will help you integrate faster into your new team and open up more opportunities for you within the company.

If there's a solid bet for big-budget Hollywood movies these days, it's the superhero genre.

One of the biggest movies of this summer was (for yet another year) a Marvel mashup, "Captain America: Civil War." Meanwhile, Warner Bros.' DC Comics title "Suicide Squad" struggled, breaking a record in its first weekend and then quickly dropping based on bad reviews and worth of mouth.

But "Squad" can't even come close to the most epically disastrous superhero movies. Long before they were Hollywood's cash cow, comic-book adaptions were known as a notoriously mixed bag. For every Tim Burton "Batman" there was... "Blankman."

Here are the wide-release superhero movie titles with the lowest box-office grosses, going back to 1978, as reported by Box Office Mojo:

SEE ALSO: 100 movies on Netflix that everyone needs to watch in their lifetime

10. "The Meteor Man" (1993)

Adjusted gross: $16,769,200*

An original superhero movie starring Robert Townsend, "Meteor Man" is about a teacher who becomes a superhero when Washington, DC, is taken over by street gangs. Critics didn't think it quite worked though, with Roger Ebert saying it "contains big laughs and moments of genuine feeling, but it seems to be put together out of assorted inspirations that were never assembled into one coherent storyline."

*Note: All figures adjusted for inflation.

9. "Blankman" (1994)

Adjusted gross: $16,454,000

Damon Wayans in his "In Living Color" days starred in a comedic take on superhero movies. He plays a naive repairman who loves Batman. It probably wasn't intended for primetime, though the admittedly funny movie became a cult hit on video.

8. "Zoom" (2006)

Adjusted gross: $15,851,500

Tim Allen took his own shot at the superhero genre with this family/sci-fi affair also featuring a then-unknown Kate Mara. Panned by critics, it couldn't recoup its $35 million budget. If you have no memory of the film, you're far from alone.

There are some serious drawbacks to living in a big city. While you have the benefits of being in the center of all the excitement that it has to offer, you also get the noise, the smells, and the high rent that forces you to compromise on your apartment choice.

But living downtown doesn't have to be as hard as it seems. We rounded up eight of the most common city living frustrations and showed you how to hack your way around them. Whether you just moved or have been dealing with these issues for years, we're sure we'll have some solution to make your life a little easier.

Problem: You live on a busy street and can’t fall asleep at night.

Problem: Your kitchen and bathroom are prone to bug and vermin infestations.

Hack: Prevent any pests from coming inside by keeping your apartment airtight. In the kitchen, keep fruits and veggies in your fridge, use storage bins for cereal, and never leave any dishes in your sink overnight. In the bathroom, don’t leave any puddles of standing water and check for leaky pipes.

Problem: You don’t have a washer/dryer in your apartment building.

Hack: If you are unable to install a laundry unit into your space, you’re unfortunately going to have to find another option. First, see if any friends nearby have one and are willing to let you use it. If you’re lucky enough to have multiple offers, set up a rotation so you won’t be bothering anyone too much.

If not, weigh out the prices of your local laundromat and wash-and-fold cleaners. To avoid spending too much on dry cleaning, use a special dryer sheet like Dryel, which lets you clean up to five dry clean-only items in a thirty minute cycle. Seriously. You will never have to pay to have your silks cleaned again.

Gold, silver, and bronze aren't the only medals an athlete can win at the Olympics. 

A fourth medal — known at the Pierre de Coubertin medal— is awarded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to recognize those who demonstrate sportsmanship and Olympic spirit. It's named for Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the IOC.

And since the medal's introduction in 1964, it's been awarded a total of 17 times — sometimes to politicians and Olympic organizers, but mostly to athletes. The IOC has given the medal to athletes (either individuals or teams) 12 times in total. 

These are the inspirational stories of all the athletes who've earned this rare honor.

1964: Luz Long

Luz Long, a German track and field athlete, competed in the 1936 Berlin games. He became famous for giving long-jumping advice to black American athlete Jesse Owens, even though Adolf Hitler was watching from the stands. The advice helped Owens win a gold medal.

"It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler," Owens later said, according to the BBC. "You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24 carat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment."

Long was awarded the first Pierre de Coubertin medal posthumously, in 1964.

1964: Eugenio Monti

Just before a race at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, Italian bobsledder Eugenio Monti found out that his British rivals were missing a crucial bolt on their bobsled. He offered them a bolt from his own sled, and the Brits went on to take gold, according to the IOC. 

Monti won bronze — and the Pierre de Coubertin medal, too. 

1988: Lawrence Lemieux

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At the Seoul summer games in 1988, Canadian sailor Lawrence Lemieux was racing through heavy winds and 10-foot waves when he noticed that fellow sailors from Singapore had capsized and were quickly being swept away.

Lemieux abandoned his second-place standing to save the sailors, and waited for a rescue boat to arrive before completing the race, the LA Times reported. 

"There's no protocol for women attending," says a white man in a suit holding a sheaf of papers.

"There's no protocol for a man circling the Earth either, sir," Taraji P. Henson retorts in my favorite line from the new trailer for the movie "Hidden Figures," due theaters this January.

Henson plays Katherine Johnson, a brilliant mathematician at NASA working on the space program in its earliest days, beginning in the 1950s. Many of NASA's first missions were made possible by Johnson's intrepid, unparalleled calculations.

The movie is based on a nonfiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, who grew up near NASA's Langley Research Center, where Johnson and her colleagues worked.

Johnson still lives near Langley in Hampton, Virginia, where she'll be celebrating her 98th birthday later this month. Keep scrolling to learn the true story of her incredible life.

SEE ALSO: 12 incredible women you've never heard of who changed science forever

As a child, Johnson has said in interviews, she loved to count. Her father placed a premium on education and insisted all four of his children go to college, working overtime to pay for it. Johnson says this atmosphere was crucial to her success. "I was always around people who were learning something. I liked to learn."

Sources: NASA, interview

Johnson graduated high school at 14 and college at 18. Her high school principal sowed the first seeds for her career in space — he would walk her home after school pointing out the constellations overhead. At college, a family friend from her home town who knew her talent for math ordered her to enroll in her class.

 Sources: NASA, interview, interview

Later, she was mentored by Dr. William W. Schiefflin Claytor, who suggested she aim to become a research mathematician. He created the classes he knew she would need to succeed, including one in which she was the only student. Throughout her education, she says she succeeded in part because she was always asking questions — even when people tried to ignore her, her hand stayed up.

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 Sources: NASA, interview, interview

The Aston Martin unveiled the stunning new Vanquish Zagato Volante at the 2016 Monterey Car Week on Friday. The stunning drop top is a companion model to the Vanquish Zagato Coupe the company introduced in May at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este on shores of Lake Como in Italy.

It's the latest in a long line of dazzling collaborations between Aston Martin and storied Italian design house Zagato. 

"The Vanquish Zagato Volante illustrates the ways in which Aston Martin design can evolve in collaboration with such a trusted and long-standing partner," Aston Martin design boss Marek Reichman said in a statement.

"Vanquish Zagato Volante continues Aston Martin's new century of innovation and creativity, strengthening the association between these great automotive marques in the process."

The Vaquish Zagato Volante is based on Aston Martin's flagship Vanquish super-GT car. 

SEE ALSO: This $500,000 armored Mercedes-Maybach limo is a force to be reckoned with

The Vanquish Zagato Coupe and Volante marks the fifth collaboration between Aston and the Milanese design firm dating back to 1960 and the first since 2011's V12 Vantage Zagato.

According to Aston, the decision to put the Zagato Volante into production was made after receiving what the company calls overwhelming customer interest for the Coupe. Unfortunately, just 99 Zagato Volantes will be built and all are expected to be sold this week.

Even though the Vanquish Zagato Volante's looks are undeniably Aston Martin, the Zagato design DNA is still present. The rounded edges and curved body panels are standard Zagato design features.

The "King of Cocaine" was the son of a poor Colombian farmer, but by the time he was 35, he was one of the world's wealthiest men.

Despite his humble origins, Pablo Escobar became the leader of the Medellín cartel, which was responsible for 80% of the global cocaine market.

"El Patron" brought in an estimated $420 million a week in revenue, making him one of the wealthiest drug lords ever.

While verifying Escobar's wealth is impossible because of the nature of drug money, estimates run as high as $30 billion.

WATCH: Pablo Escobar: The life and death of one of the biggest cocaine kingpins

SEE ALSO: Legendary drug-lord Pablo Escobar lost $2.1 billion in cash each year — and it didn't matter

1. In the mid-1980s, Escobar's cartel brought in an estimated $420 million a week, which totals almost $22 billion a year.

Source: The Daily Beast

2. Escobar made the Forbes' list of international billionaires for seven years straight, from 1987 until 1993. In 1989, he was listed as the seventh-richest man in the world.

Source: Forbes

3. By the end of the 1980s, he supplied 80% of the world's cocaine.

Source: A History of Modern Latin America: 1800 to the Present

One man's hero is another man's tyrant, a popular aphorism goes.

But while we can argue the validity and virtue of certain political agendas, the callous methods by which some leaders attain their goals are less up to interpretation.

After all, no matter how a historian tries to spin it, ordering a tower to be constructed out of live men stacked and cemented together with bricks and mortar is pretty brutal.

Business Insider put together a list of the most ruthless leaders of all time featuring men and women who employed merciless tactics to achieve their political and military agendas.

Note: All people on the list ruled prior to 1980, and no living figures were included. People are arranged in chronological order.

Qin Shi Huang

Reign: 247-210 B.C.

Qin, also called Qin Shihuangdi, united China in 221 B.C. and ruled as the first emperor of the Qin dynasty. He was known to order the killing of scholars whose ideas he disagreed with and the burning of "critical" books.

During his reign, he ordered the construction of a great wall (roughly speaking, the prequel to the modern Great Wall of China), and an enormous mausoleum featuring more than 6,000 life-size terra-cotta soldier figures. Large numbers of conscripts working on the wall died, and those working on the mausoleum were killed to preserve the secrecy of the tomb.

"Every time he captured people from another country, he castrated them in order to mark them and made them into slaves," Hong Kong University's Xun Zhou told the BBC.

Source: British Museum, Britannica, History, BBC

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (aka Caligula)

Reign: A.D. 37-41

Caligula was quite popular at first because he freed citizens who were unjustly imprisoned and got rid of a stiff sales tax. But then he became ill, and he was never quite the same again.

He eliminated political rivals (forcing their parents to watch the execution), and declared himself a living god. According to Roman historian Suetonius, Caligula had sex with his sisters and sold their services to other men, raped and killed people, and made his horse a priest.

He was eventually attacked by a group of guardsman and stabbed 30 times.

Source: Biography.com, BBC, "Atlas of History's Greatest Heroes and Villains" by Howard Watson.

Attila the Hun

Reign: A.D. 434-453

After killing his brother, Attila became the leader of the Hunnic Empire, centered in present-day Hungary, and ended up becoming one of the most feared assailants of the Roman Empire.

He expanded the Hunnic Empire to present-day Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and the Balkans. He also invaded Gaul with the intention of conquering it, though he was defeated at the Battle of Catalaunian Plains.

"There, where I have passed, the grass will never grow gain," he reportedly remarked on his reign.

Source: Britannica, Biography

Students in Britain have just received their A-level results and many are now in the process of choosing which university they should go to.

Emolument.com's table of European colleges with the highest earning graduates shows universities in Switzerland and France — not the UK — produce the graduates with the highest pay.

But if you're thinking of staying in the UK, there are a number of universities across Britain that produce graduates earning six figure salaries.

Emolument analysed the salaries and bonuses of 5,622 graduates with a Bachelor or Masters degree from a European university and who has had 5-10 years' professional experience, in order see the median salary for graduates from each higher education institution.

These are the top 8 UK universities from this list.

8. Warwick University & Business School — £69,000

7. City University London & Cass Business School — £70,000

6. Imperial College London & Tanaka Business School — £75,000

Some people learn about new cultures through sights, others through food. But for Marcela Makarova and partner Philippe-Henry, an outfit says more than a thousand words.

The couple went on a backpacking trip in 2013, and started photographing the unique outfits they came across. They have since photographed outifts in 30 countries "and counting."

According to Makarova, their street style project, "Around The World In 80 Styles," has made them interact more with locals, and has better connected them to new cultures.

"We focus on style in a broad sense. Style is broader than fashion. The way people dress is revealing of a culture because it is the result of multiple factors: the climate, the history, the income level of a country, customs, habits, traditions, religion," Makarova explained.

From sumo wrestlers in Japan to buskers in Cuba, here are some of the coolest outfits the couple has captured. 

Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan

Havana, Cuba

Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan