The word "honeymoon" conjures up images of a romantic getaway a deux, created for lovebirds who have just tied the knot and are ready to enjoy some time one-on-one. But that wasn't always the case. Though it was first coined back in the 16th century, honeymoon took on (a version of) its current meaning in the early 1800s, when Brits used it to refer to a post-wedding tour in which newlyweds (and their families) visited relatives throughout the country who had not been able to attended the nuptials. 

Fortunately, by the time the 1950s rolled around, honeymoons only had room for two. But they were still quite different from what they are today. While the most popular destinations for honeymooners these days include Hawaii, Mexico, and the Bahamas, back then honeymooners from the U.S. and U.K. had their sights set elsewhere. Four of the most popular honeymoon destinations of the '50s just may surprise you -- so take a look.

1. Verona, Italy

When newlyweds in the United Kingdom decided they deserved a post-nuptials getaway, thereby starting one of the most significant tourism movements to date, most headed to romantic destinations in Europe. Rome, the French Riviera, and Venice were all popular locales, but so was -- somewhat more surprisingly -- Verona. We shouldn't be too surprised, though. The setting of three of Shakespeare's plays (including the ultimate romance "Romeo and Juliet" -- you can even visit her famous balcony at Casa di Giulietta), this Italian town is filled with beautiful churches, cobblestone streets, and cafes selling delicious pastas and gelato.

Romantic Hotel Pick: Accademia Hotel

2. The Poconos, Pennsylvania

Shortly after World War II, the Poconos became a hot spot for romantic getaways; couples were attracted to the relative seclusion and natural beauty the mountainous region provided, and by the 1960s the destination had adopted the moniker "The Honeymoon Capital of the World." Inexpensive inns and hotels catered to the newlywed crowd with features such as heart-shaped hot tubs and round beds. For better or worse, not much has changed since then. Some honeymooners still choose the destination today; for those who prefer their romance with a side of cheese, this is the spot.

Romantic Hotel Pick: Paradise Stream Resort

3. Jersey, United Kingdom

While American newlyweds were heading to the mountains, their British counterparts were beach-bound. Part of the Channel Islands, Jersey, a U.K. dependency, sits off the coast of Normandyand attracted honeymooners with its beautiful beaches, French flair, and stunning coastal drives. It gets a good amount of rain, but couples in particular don't seem to mind -- especially since the island is dotted by quaint inns and bed-and-breakfasts. Just nine by five miles, Jersey became known as "Honeymoon Island" in the 1950s.

Romantic Hotel Pick: The Atlantic Hotel

As Patrick J. McGinnis writes in "The 10% Entrepreneur: Living Your Startup Dream Without Quitting Your Day Job,""You don't become an entrepreneur because you want to be rich or famous. You become an entrepreneur because it chooses you. No matter when you make the decision, you know in your gut you just have to go for it."

That call is hard to resist, especially as you imagine fleeing your cubicle to follow that gut feeling.

But McGinnis, a venture capitalist and private equity investor, suggests starting small: becoming a "10% entrepreneur."

According to McGinnis, a 10% entrepreneur invests just 10% of their time and resources into a new venture, while holding on to their full-time job. This way, he says, they have the best of both worlds, rather than throwing all their time and money into something uncertain. He's for entrepreneurship, but he doesn't recommend going all-in right off the bat.

Part of the reason he recommends this approach is because it's impossible to predict whether your entrepreneurial dream will work out. If you aren't prepared for things to go south, you could be in for a rude awakening. "When you choose entrepreneurship, you accept that the success and the money are terrific if they come, but they cannot be the only drivers of your decision," he writes. 

Here are McGinnis' five arguments against quitting your job to pursue full-time entrepreneurship: 

SEE ALSO: 8 lifestyle changes to make if you want to earn more money

The lifestyle is lousy. 

When you leave a company to be your own boss, there might be some undesired trade-offs. "You have to rethink your financial goals, your lifestyle, and your definition of success, all while being plagued with self doubt," writes McGinnis. 

You might also find yourself working far more hours than your nine to five, for a fraction of the pay. "Sure, you have 'freedom,' but you also have long hours, demanding clients, and the stress of making ends meet on less money," writes McGinnis.

You can ruin your finances.

McGinnis refers to a study by Compass, a website that provides automated management reports for small and medium-sized online businesses, which found that 73% of startup founders make $50,000 per year or less. 

"Those figures are surprisingly low when you consider how much responsibility they carry on their shoulders," McGinnis writes.

Along with not getting paid generously for your work, there are also high expectations from investors who expect startup founders to put all their eggs in one basket and make money as the value of their shares in a company increase, he writes.

You're abandoning status and affirmation.

"Changes in your career affect the way you are perceived by your peers, society, and even yourself," McGinnis writes. "Endangering this affirmation can mess with your head."

Having a routine and structure usually comes with working for an established company, but you might have to leave those behind to start your own business, McGinnis says. You will also have to learn to swallow your pride to pitch your business, and shouldn't be surprised if you run into some rejections along the way.

On the search for a new job? You may want to check out openings at H&R Block, Wells Fargo, or Amazon. 

Those three companies are doing some of the heaviest hiring right now for jobs that pay over $50,000 a year, according Indeed.

The job search engine recently compiled a list of big US companies currently trying to fill the most full-time jobs that pay over $50,000. The salary data is a combination of company and user input.

Here are the nine big-name companies with the largest number of job openings right now for high-paying jobs:

SEE ALSO: The highest-paying companies in the US outside of tech

9. AT&T

Job openings (for positions paying over $50,000 a year): 1,300

The Dallas-based telecommunications giant AT&T employs 280,000 people worldwide. 

8. Kaiser Permanente

Job openings (for positions paying over $50,000 a year): 1,455

Founded in 1945, California-based Kaiser Permanente is one of the country's largest not-for-profit health plans, serving close to 11 million members.

7. Walls Fargo

Job openings (for positions paying over $50,000 a year): 1,473

The financial services company, which was founded in 1852, employs about 265,000 people.

You've heard it a zillion times:

"Remember, you're interviewing them just as much as they're interviewing you. Ask your own (good) questions to get a feel for if you truly want to work there."

But are you digesting this — and doing it — every time you meet with a hiring manager? If you're not, you're missing out on an important opportunity to dig in and really get a feel for what's going on at your potential next employer.

You're also squandering an opportunity to demonstrate fully your preparedness, confidence, and complete non-desperation (which is always an attractive trait to hiring managers).

So, what are some great questions you can ask in your next interview? Here are five brilliant ones that, truthfully, may not be fully answered but will still likely provide you with some solid, fruitful information about your potential next boss, team, and organization.

SEE ALSO: 29 brilliant questions to ask at the end of every job interview

1. Is this a vacancy, or a new position (and, if it's a vacancy, what's up)?

I worked with a client a few months ago who was a finalist for a VP of Sales & Marketing job at a profitable, admired company. He was, he believed, very close to having an offer in hand. And then he learned that, in the space of three years, this company had three other leaders in this same role. As in, they were looking to hire their fourth VP of Sales & Marketing since 2013.

This presented quite a conundrum for my client. He'd been so excited about the opportunity, and flattered to be this far along in the interview process. But discovering the revolving door of leadership going on stopped him in his tracks. And it should have. That kind of turnover is a sure sign that something's up, probably starting at the top of the organization.

This client didn't ask during the early interview stages why the position was open. But he should have. It's a completely fair question and, even if it's not answered in depth, you can almost always tell by the "squirm factor" of the interviewer if there's more to the story or not.

He did get the offer, by the way. And ultimately declined. Today, he heads up sales for a smaller firm with amazing, supportive, and inclusive leaders. And the organization's turnover? It's almost non-existent.

2. What is the turnover rate on the team (or, at this organization)?

Speaking of turnover. It's fair for you to ask about this. If you ask it in a confident and non-accusatory manner, it's also going to demonstrate that you are one who makes decisions strategically, and with care. And any good employer will respect that about you.

If, when you ask, you learn that turnover is uncomfortably or unusually high, you should then ask (again, in a way that doesn't make the interviewer feel like you're attacking), "To what do you attribute this number?" and "Does the organization have any plans or strategies in place to help alleviate this?"

High turnover, even in industries that commonly have a decent amount of churn, could point to issues with management, a super stressful work environment, a lack of employee recognition, crappy raises, or all of the above.

3. Do team members typically go out for lunch, or do they eat at their desks?

This isn't a weird question, and you can ask it in a way that comes across as you trying to get a feel for how friendly and connected your team is (or isn't), or how relaxed the environment is (or isn't). But, assuming the interviewer is up front with his or her answer, here's what else you'll be able to ascertain: Are these people overworked to the point that they can't keep up without working through lunch hours? (And, will your future manager expect you to follow suit?)

Teams whose members never take breaks are typically tired, unhappy teams. Sleuth this one out, especially if you're not one who enjoys being chained to your desk for several hours straight every day.

In early 2008, after having lost custody of her children, Britney Spears suffered a public breakdown that led to the collapse of her career.

Following days of odd behavior in the spotlight — including reckless driving, shaving her own head, and attacking paparazzi with an umbrella — Spears was admitted to UCLA Medical Center's psychiatric hospital in January 2008. 

While Spears was in the hospital, her father, Jamie, was granted a "temporary conservatorship" that allowed him to control her treatment and daily life. The legal judgment stabilized Spears' career at the time, and it still controls her personal life and finances to this day. 

Since 2008, however, Spears has signed a lucrative Las Vegas performance contract and released three albums to varying degrees of success.

On Friday, Spears will release her ninth LP, "Glory," which many are deeming yet another comeback for the singer, following the relative failure of 2013's "Britney Jean," which was the lowest-selling album of her career.

The story of Britney Spears is, essentially, a series of comebacks.

Read on to see how Britney Spears made an impressive return to form from her low point:

SEE ALSO: Britney Spears hasn't been in control of her career or personal life for more than 8 years

In late 2007, around the time her album "Blackout" came out, Britney Spears was embroiled in a custody battle with her ex-husband, Kevin Federline. After a judge found that she engaged in "habitual, frequent, and continuous use of controlled substances and alcohol," Spears temporarily lost custody of her children.

Source: CNN

In January 2008, following an infamous public breakdown, Spears was admitted to the UCLA Medical Center for emergency psychiatric treatment. Her father was then granted a legal conservatorship over her personal life and finances.

Source: The New York Times

Spears largely retreated from the spotlight, doing very little promotion for "Blackout." There was never a tour for the album.

US Patent and Trademark Office approved an application last June from Boeing's Robert Budica, James Herzberg, and Frank Chandler for a laser- and nuclear-driven airplane engine.

With airplane makers constantly on the lookout for new and more efficient ways to power their products, this laser engine is the latest idea cooked up by the engineers at Boeing.

Modern airliners such as the Boeing Dreamliner are powered by multiple turbofan engines. These engines deploy a series of fans and turbines to compress air and ignite fuel to produce thrust.

Boeing's patented engine provides thrust in a very different and rather novel manner. According to the patent filing, the laser engine may also be used to power rockets, missiles, and even spacecraft.

As of now, the engine lives only in patent documents. The technology is so out-there that it is unclear whether anyone will ever build it.

Here's a look at the inner workings of Boeing's futuristic engine with the help of some illustrations from PatentYogi. 

SEE ALSO: This feature in the Rolls-Royce Phantom blew us away

Boeing's new jet engine works by firing high-power lasers at radioactive material, such as deuterium and tritium.

The lasers vaporize the radioactive material and cause a fusion reaction — in effect a small thermonuclear explosion.

Hydrogen or helium are the exhaust byproducts, which exit the back of the engine under high pressure. Thrust is produced.

ClassPass just released data about the biggest fitness trends from around the US.

ClassPass is a monthly membership program that allows its users to take certain fitness classes at gyms and studios. It claims to have had 21 million class reservations and is partnered with 8,500 studios in 29 cities across the country.

Using data it generated, ClassPass was able to determine certain fitness trends — like Tuesday being the most popular day to work out and strength training being the most popular type of exercise.

It also measured regional trends, determining things like which city is the most adventurous and which travels the most.

Here are the results:

SEE ALSO: How Lyft turned carpooling into a business — and beat Uber to the punch

Most adventurous city: New York

This is based on how many types of classes people took. On average, New Yorkers take 35 different classes per year.

Most last-minute bookings: Miami

ClassPass calls Miami the most "spontaneous" city. About 57% of Miami's classes were booked the day of.

Cities that love to cycle: Boston and New York

While cycling is a popular type of exercise, these two cities do it most often.

If you're a Wall Street intern about halfway through your first stint in finance, you've probably got tons of questions.

Of course, you might be worried about asking them without seeming naive or underqualified.

Morgan Stanley went ahead and did the dirty work for you — collected questions from current interns and brought them to a group of managing directors and recruiters.

It shared the answers on its website.

We've got the nine most frequently asked questions and answers for you below.

SEE ALSO: A step-by-step guide on making a critical career move to land the Wall Street job of your dreams

How do I differentiate myself from equally qualified summer analysts?

"A key differentiator is how well you work in a team, as teamwork is an integral part of our firm's culture.

"Another is how much of a self-starter you are. It's important to complete an assigned task thoroughly, but it's differentiating if you go the extra mile.

"For example, do more analysis than your manager expects for the project and an additional task no one asked you to do but that you think could help the team.

"This demonstrates your interest, understanding of the product, how you can fit into the team, and how useful you can be."

Is there a fine line between being helpful and being overly eager and annoying? How can you know if you've crossed that line?

"Yes, there is a fine line, but not to worry — there are ways to help keep it in balance.

"Firstly, be mindful of other people's time. Email and ask your manager if you can chat at some point about an idea you think might add value, or pick a time when he or she doesn't look too busy.

"Another tip is to prep yourself before you talk to a manager. For example, write down the points you want to get across ahead of time so you know what you want to get out of that meeting."

When should I speak up at a meeting and when is it just better to pull my manager to the side and quietly ask a question or offer an idea?

"Tough question — the answer differs very much from business to business and group to group.

"The best thing is to spend the first few weeks of your internship observing and getting a feel for how the team works. Many of our businesses actively seek out summer analysts' views because they benefit from having a fresh set of eyes looking at a process, or coming from a totally different angle.

"But if you're just not sure, then err on the side of caution and pull your manager aside after the meeting to offer up an idea."

Over the past eight months, I've had fun being the obnoxious guy who tells everyone he meditates every day. 

Ever since I decided to try out the guided-meditation app Headspace last December after hearing about it on Tim Ferriss' podcast, I've been much more aware of my thoughts and emotions, and with a few exceptions (including a rough day at the airport) I've been much calmer and more collected in times of stress.

I've dealt with occasionally intense anxiety since I was 11 years old, so that's an accomplishment.

Headspace isn't a hippy-dippy placebo; it's a straightforward teacher that helps you learn the basics of breathing and visualization associated with secular meditation.

The company reports it has 8.5 million active users, and this includes Wall Streeters, Olympic athletes, and celebrity executives like Arianna Huffington and Richard Branson. Companies like Goldman Sachs and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have bought package subscriptions for employees. The app is free to download, but a subscription unlocks full access to all of its lessons.

After using it for so long, I've gotten to a point where it's become an essential part of my daily routine. Below, I'll break down what it's like to use.

SEE ALSO: I followed Barack Obama's morning routine for a week, and it taught me a valuable lesson about mental toughness

Headspace was founded by Rich Pierson, left, and Andy Puddicombe in 2012. Puddicombe was formally trained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk during a 10-year excursion in his 20s. Headspace's lessons are secularized versions of exercises Puddicombe studied.

Puddicombe is your Headspace teacher. He appears periodically in video tutorials to give you a bit of extra insight. I've become very familiar with his English-accented voice!

When you begin Headspace, you have access to the 30-day Foundation pack, which introduces you to the basics of guided meditation.

After going through the first 30 days, you can access the rest of the exercises through a subscription.

I signed up for the year subscription, which now goes for $96, though you may find some promo codes floating around for a discount.

It's certainly not cheap, but if you take it as $8 a month, it's worth it for a daily user.

As video game consoles get more and more powerful, the line between what's real and what isn't in sports games gets increasingly blurry. We're at the point where each stadium is lovingly realized, each uniform's cloth moves in the wind, and each athlete's sweat drips realistically. 

"Madden NFL 17" is no different. Here's how this year's game looks on the newest hardware:

SEE ALSO: The best new feature in 'Madden 17' has nothing to do with playing football

The newly-relocated Los Angeles Rams are heavily featured in "Madden NFL 17," as is their star running back Todd Gurley. Here's how he looks in the game:

As a bonus, here's Gurley hurdling over Super Bowl MVP Von Miller. An unstoppable force meets an immovable object.

Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers is one of the biggest playmakers in the NFL. Here's his virtual counterpart stiff-arming Von Miller, who we swear is one of the best defensive players in the league:

China is a large country that's home to many rich, flavorful dishes.

Although there are staples that can be found throughout the country, the cuisine varies greatly from region to region.

Shanghai boasts xiao long bao (soup dumplings), while Beijing has Peking duck.

Keep scrolling for 24 delicious dishes to try on your next trip to China.

To make cong or tsong you bing — a savory pancake — chopped scallions are baked into a doughy flatbread.

The combination of tender duck meat and crispy skin makes Peking duck one of Beijing's tastiest dishes. If you're looking for the authentic experience, eat your duck wrapped in a pancake with scallions, cucumbers, and hoisin sauce.

Yu xiang rou si features shredded pork doused in hot garlic sauce with sauteed vegetables like mushrooms and peppers. The dish originated in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

Honesty is the best policy in the workplace — but like any rule, this one has a few exceptions.

"It's important to be cautious with what you say to your boss, as even the slightest slip up could make or break your career," says Ryan Kahn, a career coach, founder of The Hired Group, and author of "Hired! The Guide for the Recent Grad."

"There are the obvious things to hold back from saying to your boss, but the key is to dissect the little things in your interactions."

Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and the author of "Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job," agrees. "There are certain comments and questions based on negative perspectives that can set you back with your boss," she says. "If they continue unabated, these phrases can sabotage an otherwise great job."

A good practice is to first pause before blurting out something you might regret and examine what you're trying to achieve, and the likely reaction you'll get from your boss.

"If you think you may regret it, you probably will," she says. "Better to err on the side of waiting until you can crystallize your thoughts into a more palatable and professional dialogue."

Aside from the obvious — like profanity and insults — here are the words and phrases you should never utter to your boss:

SEE ALSO: 17 things you should never say on your first day at work

'You're wrong'

"Openly criticizing or pointing out your boss's mistake is a sure way to be excluded from future meetings or ignored the next time you raise your hand to speak," says Rosalinda Oropeza Randall, an etiquette and civility expert and author of "Don't Burp in the Boardroom."

If you feel your boss has made an error, there are better ways of addressing this, she explains.

You might say, "I may be misinformed on this one, but I was under the impression that ..." This prompts them to reconsider and correct the information if necessary without putting up their defenses. "Whatever phrase you use, say it with a helpful and cordial tone," Randall says.

'I can't'

A "can-do" attitude is always a valued trait. "I can't" shows both a lack of confidence and unwillingness to take chances — neither of which will endear you to management, says Taylor.

'That's not part of my job'

No job description is ever set in stone. "As cross-functional teams remain the order of the day, you're expected to be flexible and make your boss' life easier," Taylor explains. "As a side note, the more skill sets you accumulate, the more indispensable you are."

Saying that you're not willing to go beyond your role shows that you are also not willing to pitch in for the success of the company, Kahn adds.

When, exactly, do you officially become an "adult"?

TBH, we are still figuring it out. But if you have more than half of these basic "adult" life skills, consider yourself well on the road to being a certified grown-up.

You know how to use a corkscrew.

You pay your own cell phone bill.

You wake up before noon at least one day on the weekend.

Howard Moskowitz is famous for inventing extra-chunky Prego spaghetti sauce and creating or optimizing dozens of other products.

Now Moskowitz says he has a plan for Donald Trump to win over African-American voters and save his campaign.

Moskowitz’s method, called Mind Genomics, asks people to rate dozens of combinations of variables and then crunches the numbers to see what variables matter to different groups.

The marketing legend started focusing on politics around 15 years ago but says neither Republicans nor Democrats appreciated his methods. This year, he said, he decided to fund a series of studies with the goal of defeating what he thinks would be a disastrous Hillary Clinton presidency.

“This is a pretty serious election,” Moskowitz told Business Insider. “I decided there’s no way I’m going to get to Trump at all to help him because he’s covered tightly, but I might just do these studies and fund them myself and write up the result and just push it out there and send it to his people with a note: ‘Dear Mr. Trump, I’m trying to get you elected. Here’s what you should say to the black population. Here’s what you shouldn’t say.’”

Moskowitz analyzed the political views of 102 black Americans recruited through TurkPrime and participating via his website, IdeaMap.net.

His report (featured below) found that black voters care most about lowering taxes in their community, having a strong leader, creating jobs, changing the tax code to help workers and small businesses, making college affordable, and improving the financial health of the US.

Moskowitz says Trump should aim to alter current perception among black voters about which candidate will keep the nation safe (45% say Clinton, 5% say Trump) and create jobs for their families (45% say Clinton, 6% say Trump), as well as whether each candidate is corrupt (23% say Clinton is, while 47% say Trump is).

He recommends that Trump avoid talking about repealing Obamacare, raising taxes, or nominating pro-life Supreme Court candidates.

Trump has been actively reaching out to black voters, following polling data that suggests dismal support among the group. His message — calling Clinton a "bigot" and suggesting that black communities are in such plight that they might as well try something new — doesn’t seem to be working.

Crafting a political campaign is, of course, trickier than developing consumer products. You can’t release three different Trumps to appeal to different segments.

“In a polarized country, how does one candidate satisfy all the different objectives? I don’t know that,” Moskowitz says.

Moskowitz said he wishes some politician would openly embrace Mind Genomics and use it to define policy.

“I would put out these kinds of studies of thousands of people and figure out my policy based on making the maximum number of people happy," he said.

The Trump campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Check out the full report — the first of several — below.

An Israeli company named NSO Group is reportedly behind the hacking tool for iPhones that forced Apple to issue a critical software update on Thursday.

The tool was apparently discovered in a hacking attempt on a human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates, but details on the ultra-secretive company are hard to come by.

That's because NSO Group sells sophisticated hacking tools to governments, militaries, and intelligence agencies — and it tries to keep such a low profile it even changes its name on a regular basis.

Its profile is likely to be raised in the wake of in-depth research by Lookout Security and Citizen Lab's Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton, who exposed a major iOS security flaw that allows an attacker to take full control of an iPhone using nothing more than a text message.

NSO Group cofounders Omri Lavie and Shalev Hulio did not respond to a request for comment.

Here's what we know so far.

SEE ALSO: The NSA hack proves Apple was right to fight the FBI

NSO Group was founded in late 2009 by serial entrepreneurs with ties to the Israeli government.

Headquartered in Herzelia, Israel, NSO Group was founded in Dec. 2009 by Omri Lavie and Shalev Hulio, according to both cofounders' LinkedIn profiles, which show they are both serial entrepreneurs who had previously started a number of other companies in Israel. A third founder, Niv Carmi, left the company shortly after its inception and left Lavie and Hulio as majority shareholders.

The San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners acquired a majority stake in NSO for $120 million in 2014, though its operations remain in Israel. 

Hulio says on his LinkedIn profile he was a company commander with the Israel Defense Forces, while Lavie says he was an employee of the Israeli government.

At least three of its current employees claim to have worked in Unit 8200, Israel's version of the US National Security Agency.

It's hard to figure out what the company actually does.

The company describes itself in vague terms on its LinkedIn, saying it is "a unique company in the field of Internet security software solutions and security research. It is responsible for many unique developments on both mobile and PC environments. The company also specializes in creating highly sought solutions in the mobile and PC controlled environments."

Though that description offers little of substance, the profile's listed specialties of internet security, mobile security, cyber threats, and penetration testing give a better idea of the high-tech spying tools it develops.

NSO currently employs more than 120 people, according to its numbers on LinkedIn. That's more than double the head count it had two years ago.

But clearly, the company's specialty is the field of 'cyber warfare.'

A brochure uploaded online by Privacy International from the company gives more insight into what it really does, which is to offer mobile hacking solutions for a variety of phones exclusively for the use of governments, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies.

NSO Group says it is "a leader in the field of cyber warfare" that utilizes its proprietary monitoring tool it calls "Pegasus," which can monitor and extract all data from a target "via untraceable commands" which allow "remote and stealth."

A woman in navy cargo pants approaches the walk-through metal detector ahead of me. As she tries to covertly slip a switchblade knife into one of her many pants pockets, she fumbles, and the knife drops to the floor.

Only I and one other person see this, and after picking up the knife, she grins at us and places a finger to her lips.

"Shh," she whispers, before successfully slipping the knife into her pocket.

I say nothing and watch anxiously as she approaches the metal detector, hopeful that the officer manning the machine catches her. Alarms sound and the resulting pat down reveals that her pockets are full of knives.

If we were in a major American airport, this officer would have just saved the day.

This scene didn't play out in an airport, however, and I wasn't complicit in any crime. I was observing the mock checkpoint training that all new transportation-security officers, or TSOs, must complete at the TSA Academy, which was created this year.

The mock checkpoint training is just one piece of the US Transportation Safety Administration's newest strategy to help TSOs complete their mission.

SEE ALSO: The TSA showed us the explosions created by different improvised devices

Protecting America's skies

What is TSA's mission? Academy students should know — they recite it every morning before classes begin: "To protect the nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce."

Last summer, TSA was failing this mission.

During a number of covert audits on passenger and baggage-screening operations, airport TSA screeners failed to detect banned weapons in 67 of 70 tests at dozens of airport checkpoints around the country. John Roth, inspector general of the US Department of Homeland Security, described these findings as"troubling and disappointing" and called for a major overhaul of how TSA operates.

The DHS responded by bringing in Peter Neffenger as the new TSA administrator, and he soon set about improving the training for TSA's frontline officers, among other things.

In January 2016, the TSA began sending its newly hired officers from airports around the country to a consolidated basic training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, where students collectively learn about TSA's mission and operations as a counterterrorism organization.

"Training is the foundation of mission success and a powerful tool in galvanizing and leading change,"Neffenger said during a speech at the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan forum and think tank in Washington, DC, in July. "It provides consistency, develops a common culture, instills core values, improves morale, and it raises performance."

And it couldn't have come at a better time for the agency.

TSA ramped up its hiring efforts this year in response to reports of long lines wrapping around the nation's busiest airports, wait times of sometimes more than an hour, and hundreds of stranded passengers. Now the 5,400 new hires who are expected to have completed their training between January and September 2016 get the same standard of training.

The program, which costs the federal government $2,400 a student when factoring in travel and lodging, lasts nine days. Students hired to work in various airports across the country live together on the center's campus in dormitories and must abide by certain rules, like quiet hours after 10 p.m.

Eight classes begin each start week, and each class has 24 students and three instructors. To graduate, students must receive passing grades on an image-interpretation test and a job-knowledge test. After graduation, they may begin new hire on-the-job training at their home airports. TSA estimates that about 4,500 TSOs have gone through the academy so far.

"We're actually noticing that in airports that have had many people come to our training, the culture changes," says Jason Pockett, an instructor who moved from Orange County, California, last year to join the TSA Academy team in Georgia. "It's getting a more positive spin out there. People are starting to follow the procedures and do the things that they're being trained to do here on a more consistent basis."

Before the TSA Academy, TSO training was delivered locally at airports.

"The training was a little bit different because, yes, we had classrooms and we had our computers, but we never had a place where we could truly practice and truly get the hands-on experience," Pockett says.

"It was more, 'Here's the lesson, let's just talk about it for a while, maybe pat down each other or do a bag check real quick in the classroom,' and then it was, 'Go out to the floor, work with the lab passengers, and just try to figure it out while you're out there,'" he says.

With the newly consolidated training, Pockett says that students can hit the ground running with a much deeper understanding of the job.

"The reason we consolidated training was to get the one message across," he says. "We can ensure that everybody's pretty much in the same place, they get their one strong message, understand truly what the mission of TSA is, and ensure that everybody's getting one set of standard operating procedures, and that way we can keep that continuity once they get to the airports and have everybody screening the exact same way."

And that means they're catching more threats. Last year, the TSA found 2,653 firearms. By midway through this year, the TSA had already found 1,827 firearms.

The 'main threat'

Leaving one class about improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, after less than an hour, I feel like I've learned more about bombs than I'd ever cared to know.

The TSA considers IEDs the "main threat" and one of the most important things that officers have to find when screening passengers and baggage. IEDs are particularly scary because they're so hard to find — they could be made from some of the most common items, even toilet paper.

"An IED is limited only by the imagination of the bomber and the materials readily at hand," Bill Morgan, an explosives specialist and TSA Academy instructor, tells the class.

And thanks to the internet, which is full of "how to" articles about bomb-making, terrorists don't even need to have an imagination anymore.

"Not only are IEDs constantly evolving, but the enemy is constantly looking to attack us," he adds.

When you put it like that, it must be overwhelming for TSOs to think about just how important and challenging their job is. Loading these trainees' brains full of information about recognizing explosives and initiators may seem like a lot to handle, but Morgan says that preparation is crucial in making TSOs comfortable about doing their jobs. His goal is to go over the material until they're "sick of ever hearing about it."

"If an IED can look like anything and be made out of anything, how can we find it?" he asks the class. "By knowing which components we need to look for."

"Because no matter how wild they get, how imaginative, how inventive they get, it's got to have certain components. And that's what we're going to talk about today," he says.

We learn about nitroglycerin, which people with heart conditions can take to widen their blood vessels and treat symptoms like chest pain. It's also the first modern high explosive, which was discovered by Alfred Nobel. And it was used in the Bojinka plot, a failed plan in 1995 to blow up 11 airliners, potentially killing thousands of passengers and shutting down air travel around the world.

Terrorists planned to put nitroglycerin in its liquid form in contact-lens-solution containers, carry them on board, leave them under seats, and get off the planes before detonation.

New York City is a giant, strange place.

Spread across four major landmasses and dozens of little islands, the metropolis is home to far more diverse natural landscapes than many people, including some of those who live there, may realize.

I visited one such place on a warm Sunday back in June: Dead Horse Bay, probably the filthiest, nastiest, and weirdest National Park Service land in America.

On the 100th anniversary of the NPS, we're revisiting images of this strange wasteland at the tip of Brooklyn that's managed by an agency more famous for pristine jewels like Yellowstone.

Take a moment and turn that name over in your mouth: Dead Horse Bay.

This place is home to the only beaches in New York City that lie vacant on a hot summer Sunday.

Shattered glass saturates its sand so thoroughly that when waves crash in they tinkle like wind chimes. Scroll down to hear that spooky noise.

The bay is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, a series of campsites, wetlands, and monuments scattered across eastern Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey and run by the National Park Service.

But it's hardly a normal place for a weekend excursion, and in the trash-filled waters lurk some uncomfortable lessons about the future of human civilization.

Here's what it's like there and what you need to know about it:

SEE ALSO: 10 breathtaking photos of America's national parks

The bay sits in far southeast Brooklyn, with only a thin strip of land separating it from the Atlantic Ocean.

Zooming in, you can see that it's on the south side of a landmass called Barren Island. This just keeps getting better and not freaky at all, right?

To enter the bay, you first walk through some of the lushest, greenest paths found anywhere in New York.

Eurostat, Europe's statistical agency, has published detailed data on where the most educated places are in Europe and regions in Britain hit some of the highest spots.

The EU's data agency looked at what percentage of the population in each region, county, and municipality in Europe obtained a "tertiary education"— have a degree or higher education equivalent — for the ages 25-64.

What is significant is how many places in Britain claim the top spots so Business Insider decided to take a look at the most highly educated regions across the UK.

The data is quite detailed, drilling down to specific regions. We've followed the Eurostat grouping of regions in the data, with original language names appearing in brackets where applicable.

Eurostat uses NUTS (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) which is "a hierarchical system for dividing up the economic territory of the EU for the purpose of  socio-economic analyses of the regions." For this part of the data, Eurostat looked at NUTS 2 regions, which fall under the category of "basic regions for the application of regional policies."

Here's the map to show the detail:

13. Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire — 43.6%. The leafy counties are home to affluent London commuters and boast historic Roman towns like St. Albans.

12. Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire — 44%. The counties in the West Midlands have some of the country's most sought after universities, including Warwick Business School, which produces some of the most highly paid graduates across Europe.

11. South western Scotland — 44.4%. The region is a lot sleepier than more cosmopolitan areas in other areas in Scotland, but it has some of the highest concentration of people with degrees or equivalent across the country.

US sovereign debt is one of the safest assets in finance.

And, this month at least, also one of the most boring. 

Bloomberg News had a chart that showed"that the monthly trading range in 10 year US Treasuries is so far in August the lowest for 10 years."

But this year is US election year and the low levels of volatility could change.

US presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested earlier in his campaign that the US could negotiate with creditors and wouldn't need to pay the whole $13 trillion back.

And the US Treasury, for the first time since the 1970s, published more detailed data on who owns that debt, giving a breakdown of Saudi Arabia's holding.

The report gave details on specific countries that were previously lumped together in groups such as "oil exporting nations" and "Caribbean banking centers," according to the Associated Press.

The Treasury showed that Saudi Arabia held $116.8 billion of US debt in March, down 2.5% from February.

Here's how the rest of the world's US debt holders measure up, as of March:

23. Mexico — $51.4 billion (£34.13 billion).

22. France — $53 billion (£35.64 billion).

21. Turkey — $58.6 billion (£38.87 billion).

‘Tis the season – to eat goose and get presents from an old woman on a broomstick? Depending on where you live, both of those things could be true. Here are some of the craziest and most fun holiday traditions from across Europe.

1. Guy Fawkes Night, November 5 – United Kingdom

What occasion is more worth celebrating than the day when a plot to blow up the parliament building failed? Every year on November 5, Brits celebrate Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night, to commemorate the day in 1605 when government forces uncovered the Gunpowder Plot and arrested Guy Fawkes, one of the plotters attempting to kill King James I. Nowadays, people gather around bonfires to celebrate and set off fireworks all over the country. Although November 5 has been and gone for this year, you can prepare yourself for the 2016 edition with our handy guide to Guy Fawkes Night.

2. St. Martin’s Day, November 11 – throughout Europe

While each country celebrates St. Martin’s Day a little differently, it is at its heart a harvest celebration, and it’s not just about food. By November 11, the young wines are ready to drink, and the farm animals are fattened and ready to eat – whether it’s the cattle, which provide the Martinmas beef in the UK, or the goose that graces the tables of people across Europe, from Sweden to Croatia. People seem to disagree about the weather connected with St. Martin’s Day, however. In Sicily and the UK, the day is associated with a period of late-autumn warm weather that Americans would generally refer to as the Indian summer. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, however, St. Martin “arrives on a white horse”, traditionally bringing in the first snow of the season.

3. St. Catherine’s Day, November 25 – France

In the countries where it is recognized, St. Catherine’s Day acts as a sort of female equivalent to St. Martin’s Day. It happens only weeks afterwards, on November 25. Women, however, take the spotlight this time, and in France, this means specifically women who are 25 and unmarried. While the celebration has certainly started to fade out in today’s society, these women traditionally wear spectacular green and yellow hats made for them especially for this occasion and parade them around. Paris even has a runway show to honor the “Catherinettes”.