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38 enterprise startups that will boom in 2017, according to VC investors

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 Jay Srinivasan

2017 is almost here and it's once again time to predict which startups will take the tech industry by storm.

Who better to ask than the startup experts, the VCs that watch the industry, guide the startups, hear their pitches, and invest in them?

So we reached out to a handful of top VCs and asked them which young or growth-stage startups will boom in 2017.

We asked them to particularly focus on enterprise startups — those that sell services to businesses, as opposed to selling to consumers. Enterprise IT is a $3 trillion industry and startups are the ones that are turning it on its head.

They gave us this list that includes everything from technology that brings artificial intelligence to salespeople, to tech that is changing agriculture, financial, cyber security, and international shipping industries.

SEE ALSO: How Amazon snatched huge customer Motorola away from Microsoft

Exabeam: rooting out internal hacker spies

Company name:Exabeam

VC: Sequoia's Carl Eschenbach

Relationship: No relation. VC just thinks it's cool.

Funding:$35 million

What it does: This is a security product that watches human behavior on the network to discover who is trying to hack or sabotage it. It can also be used in forensics after an attack.

Why it's hot:"The simplicity and user interface of Exabeam’s User Entity Behavior Analytics is a serious differentiator compared to the rest of the market. It’s amazing how easy it is to use. They have the ability to cut incident investigations down from what would be days or weeks to literally minutes because of their data science approach to finding the threats. 2017 will be a year where I expect Exabeam to really accelerate growth," Eschenbach says.



Viptela: a better way to manage networks

Company name:Viptela 

VC: Sequoia's Carl Eschenbach

Relationship: VC is an investor.

Funding:$108.5 million

What it does: This is cloud software that helps companies manage their wide-area computer networks, the part that connects remote offices together via telecom providers.

Why it's hot:"Corporations spend upwards of 10% of their IT budgets on telecom costs. With Viptela’s software-defined WAN you can see upwards of 50% savings by replacing operationally complex MPLS networks. It’s not a matter of if people will deploy SD-WAN’s, it’s when and how fast. 2017 will be the year we see this acceleration," Eschenbach says.



Domino Data Lab: The Github for data science

Company name:Domino Data Lab

VC: Sequoia's Pat Grady

Relationship: VC is an investor.

Funding:$10.5 million

What it does: This is cloud software that helps data science teams collaborate, even across industries, share the analysis tools they create. 

Why it's hot: "Domino is to data science as GitHub is to coding; it's a collaborative system of record. Over the last ten years, with the rise of software, GitHub became a household name. Over the next ten years, as data science makes software intelligent, Domino will become a household name," Grady says.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A small hedge fund manager threw shade at Tesla's Elon Musk at a private conference and said the stock was going to zero (TSLA)

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Elon Musk and Tesla

A hedge fund manager dissed Tesla at a private investor confab in New York earlier this week.

Mark Spiegel of Stanphyl Capital, a small fund based in New York, pitched a bet against the carmaker at the Robin Hood Investors Conference.

In the 152-slide presentation below, Spiegel says the company faces a rough future, including increased competition from other electric-car makers and doubts about whether competitors will come in to move Tesla out of the market for its battery cells and superchargers.

"Over the next few years, a massive number of long-range electric cars will be on the market, often at prices subsidized by profits from their makers' conventional vehicles, an option Tesla doesn't have," the presentation says. "So pricing pressure on Tesla will be intense."

Spiegel also threw shade on Tesla CEO Elon Musk with a series of comments Musk has made, followed by rebuttals.

For instance:

"Elon Musk, February 2016: 'We do not discount our cars for anyone, including me.'

"Fact: Since July 2015, Tesla has continually run a $1,000 per car discount referral program open to anyone."

Stanphyl is small – it manages about $9 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Still, an invitation to speak at the event is seen as a coup. The conference brings together top investors to present their best ideas. Speakers at this year's event included Bridgewater's Ray Dalio, Stan Druckenmiller, Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn, Blackstone's Jonathan Gray, Saba Capital's Boaz Weinstein, and Paul Tudor Jones.

Stanphyl is having a stellar year — it's up 34.7% through November, according to a performance document viewed by Business Insider.

Stanphyl also isn't the only manager to criticize Tesla or Musk.

"Elon Musk's ability to spin a yarn and keep a story going seems to mesmerize his investors, blinding them to the challenges the company is facing,"Einhorn wrote in his most recent letter to investors.

Check out Stanphyl's full presentation:

SEE ALSO: EINHORN SLAMS TESLA: 'Years of over-promising and under-delivering from a promotional CEO'

DON'T MISS: A hot new hedge fund is making a big bet on Disney







See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here’s what legendary Marine General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis is really like, from people who served with him

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Mattis

President-elect Donald Trump just tapped Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis for Defense Secretary, so it's worth asking what kind of leadership the Pentagon is in for.

As it turns out, according to a number of those who served with him, the more than 3 million civilian and military personnel of DoD can expect a well-read history buff with a strategic mind, a senior man who is not above talking to even the most junior personnel, and a sometimes gruff, opinionated leader who isn't afraid to tell it like it is.

Business Insider spoke with a number of people who served with Mattis, and gathered up other anecdotes, to understand what the former four-star general is really like when he's in charge.

Here's what we learned.

SEE ALSO: 19 unforgettable quotes from legendary Marine Gen. James 'Mad Dog' Mattis

Mattis has often been praised by senior leaders at the Pentagon as both a strategic thinker with an encyclopedic knowledge of history, and an incredible leader.



That reputation was earned over a 44-year career in the Marine Corps, where he rose to the highest rank of four-star general, eventually retiring as the top leader of US Central Command in 2013.



Before he took that job, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates praised him as one of the most formidable "warrior-scholars" of his generation. "General Mattis is one of our military’s foremost strategic thinkers and combat leaders," he said.

Source: Stripes



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

11 psychological tricks to save more and spend less over the holidays

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holiday shopping clothes

Between decorations, holiday feasts, Secret Santa exchanges at the office, and gifts for your family and friends, it's easy to blow through your paycheck during the holiday season.

It doesn't help that most supermarkets and department stores trick you into spending more. But you can play that game, too. 

To help keep more cash in your wallet this holiday season, we rounded up 12 simple strategies to keep you spending less and saving more.

Kathleen Elkins contributed to an earlier version of this post.

SEE ALSO: 13 tricks stores use to get you to spend more during the holiday season

Master the '10-second' rule.

"Whenever you're in a store and you pick up an item, hold it for ten seconds," writes founder of The Simple Dollar Trent Hamm, in his book, "365 Ways to Live Cheap." 

"During those ten seconds, ask yourself if you really need it and also if that money wouldn't be better used somewhere else. You'll almost always find yourself putting that unnecessary item back on the shelf and walking away, quite proud that you didn't waste your money on something so unnecessary."

Put this strategy to test when you're shopping for stocking stuffers — it's easy to get carried away with small, relatively inexpensive presents, but a bunch of little purchases can add up over the course of the gift-giving season. 



Practice the 'stranger test.'

Another quick and easy in-store trick: When deciding whether or not to make a purchase, imagine a stranger offering your would-be purchase in one hand and the cash it would take to buy it in the other. If you'd rather accept the cash, you might as well keep that money in your pocket.



Procrastinate on non-essential purchases.

There are times when procrastinating does have value. When it comes to discretionary spending, A. Noonan Moose from Frugal Fringe recommends putting off your purchase to give yourself time to find better prices and make better decisions. We highlighted a few of our favorite examples here.

This strategy translates well to buying gifts online: If you're deciding between a few choices, put all of them in your cart, and leave them for a few days without checking out (as long as you'll still have time for delivery before they're needed). In that time, an item might go out of stock and make your choice for you, you might be offered a retailer coupon by email, or the price might drop.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A look inside Kickstarter's Brooklyn office, where employees enjoy perks like a secret rooftop garden, coffee on tap, and plenty of dogs

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Kickstarter Office 25

So far, 10 million people around the world have helped fund 116,258 projects using Kickstarter.

Founded in 2009, the crowdfunding company helps connect filmmakers, musicians, and artists with backers.

With such incredible creative resources, we figured that the Ole Sondresen-designed workspace would be quite a unique office. As it turns out, we were right.

Here's what we saw and learned during our tour of the Greenpoint, Brooklyn-based office:

SEE ALSO: A look inside Facebook's New York office, where employees of the $280 billion company enjoy virtual reality games and an in-house pastry chef

Getting from our Flatiron office to Greenpoint, Brooklyn was a bit of an adventure. We ended up taking an AquaTaxi across the East River on a very cold and windy November morning. The entrance to the building was nondescript, but inside was quite striking. We immediately noticed the abundance of natural light and the delicious smells coming from the kitchen.



We quickly met up with our tour guides, director of HQ Charlie Mirisola, office manager Holly Ryan, and Charlie's dog Jelly. Kickstarter is a dog-friendly office. Jelly and her canine companions have free run of the building, but she'll always come running when Mirisola whistles.



Mirisola told us that the building was originally an old pencil factory, and was essentially a "leaky box" when Kickstarter bought it. The company moved into the space in 2014.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here's every actress who's played Jackie Kennedy in movies and TV

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NataliePortman Jackie TIFFPlaying America’s most popular First Lady has been a regular job for many of Hollywood’s leading ladies. Natalie Portman is the latest actress to try on one of Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hats in the critically acclaimed new biopic “Jackie,” out Friday — and she certainly won’t be the last. 

From Jaclyn Smith and Ginnifer Goodwin to Katie Holmes, here are all the women who have played the classy Jackie O on the screen:

SEE ALSO: The 30 best movie endings of all time, ranked

Jaclyn Smith in "Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy"

In 1981 Smith fashioned Kennedy's famous pink attire in the Golden Globe-nominated biopic. The TV movie follows Jackie O's years working at a DC newspaper to her life in the White House with JFK. 



Sarah Michelle Gellar in "A Woman Named Jackie"

Long before she slayed vampires on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Gellar played a young Jacqueline Bouvier in the 1991 award-winning TV movie. 



Jill Hennessy in "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot"

Nominated for three Emmys, "The Women of Camelot" set out to expose what really went on in the private lives of the Kennedy women. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Maserati's new Levante luxury SUV combines beauty and performance (FCAU)

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Maserati Levante

It would be hard to overestimate the importance of the Levante SUV for Maserati. The brand came back to the US over a decade and and half ago, but since the financial crisis and amid an SUV boom, it's been selling only stylish luxury sedans and sexy GT sports car.

That will all now change, and it couldn't happen at a more important time for the Italian automaker, part of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire. It's down at the bottom of the luxury sales hierarchy in the US, with a puny 0.1% overall market share (Porsche sells five times as many vehicles annually).

The Quattroporte and Ghibli sedans have their fans (me, for example). But in the US and increasingly China, you really need a strong crossover offering. Porsche established the template for an automaker that had never built an SUV crossing that river in the early 2000s when it created the Cayenne, a hugely successful vehicle.

Now Maserati has taken the same plunge.

We first saw the Levante when it was revealed at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show and later in the flesh at the New York auto show. Now we've actually spent some time behind the wheel. It was a relatively brief, two-hour run from a working farm and restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, about an hour north of New York to Bear Mountain, under pleasant Northeastern skies.

This wasn't enough time to fully evaluate the vehicle — we'll get a crack at that later — but we formed some early impressions. And those impressions were good.

Read on:

SEE ALSO: The Levante is Maserati's first SUV — here's what it's like to drive

I arrive at the driving site. It's the rustic Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, home to the well-known and highly regarded Blue Hill restaurant.



The scenery is spectacular. This is a working farm. There are cows and sheep in the fields, a beekeeping area, and lots of farming plots and pastures.



Gorgeous. A fine day to drive an Italian luxury SUV.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

14 photos from the upcoming, 90-minute 'Walking Dead' mid-season finale

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negan shave amc

Warning: Speculation and spoilers ahead for "The Walking Dead."

"The Walking Dead" mid-season finale airs Sunday, December 11. 

If you're still thinking about Sunday's episode featuring Negan and his new adopted kids Carl and Judith, AMC released a bunch of new photos to get you pumped for next week. 

The photos don't reveal too much — seriously, some of the photos are of random side characters who will probably die at some point by the end of the season — but they do give us an idea of the many locations we can expect to see. I also included a few stills from the episode's teaser released from AMC because there are a few more revealing shots in there as well. 

All right, let's get going!

We know Rosita has been begging Eugene to make her a bullet for that gun she found. From the teaser, it looks like she's getting exactly what she wanted.



What's the problem then? Maybe Rosita's just missing her old flame Abraham.



Maybe Eugene said he'd only make her one bullet.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The story behind 'Krampus,' Santa's demonic helper who exists to scare children into being good

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Krampus AustriaThe INSIDER Summary:

• Countries like Austria and Germany celebrate "St. Nicholaus" on December 6th, and have a Krampuslauf, or Krampus Run, the night before.
• Krampus is  Saint Nich's helper, but he is unbelievably scary: so scary that he was actually banned a few times — alternatively by the Catholic Church and the Austrian government.



I have a vivid memory of my friend hanging off a door horizontally, her nails digging into the wooden frame as a giant, fur-covered beast with demonic red eyes and giant fangs pulled her into the cold December night.

A few feet away, a girl was sobbing while a horned monster whipped her with branches.

Kids everywhere were screaming and crying, desperately seeking safety.

We were eight years old, and the whole thing was arranged by our parents.

Krampusnacht, or Krampus Night, is an ancient Austrian tradition that is also celebrated in Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. Basically, Santa, or Sankt Nikolaus (St. Nicholas), comes around with his devils (or Krampuses) in tow.

He is there to determine whether kids have been naughty or nice — but in this case, being naughty has severe consequences: a run-in with his demon assistants.

Let's take a look at this insane tradition.

This is Krampus. Santa's little helper is a terrifying demonic beast that helps him deal with naughty kids. He literally exists to scare children straight.



Most Krampuses have thick fur, sharp horns, cloven hooves, fangs, and a long, pointy tongue. They usually wear loud bells and chains, which they thrash around for effect, and carry a whip or birch branches to beat kids with.



They also often brandish a basket or sack of some sort, meant to transport kids to hell (or the nearest river).



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 20 most common hobbies of the richest people in the world

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donald trump golfing

When billionaires have free time, they have the means for extravagant hobbies, whether it's collecting classic cars or jet-setting across the globe. But the most common hobby billionaires pursue isn't a display of wealth — it's philanthropy. 

Wealth-X, a company that conducts research on the ultra-wealthy, recently released its annual billionaire census, which explores the trends and habits of the world's richest people. The census tracked billionaires' passions, interests, and hobbies, providing us with a peek into how the super wealthy spend their free time.

Philanthropy proved the most popular hobby, with more than half of all billionaires pursuing charitable activities. This generosity comes as no surprise, though, thanks to the rise in recognition of endeavors such as The Giving Pledge, a promise started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to commit more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes during their lifetime. 

"The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Giving Pledge have instilled a sense of humanitarian responsibility in billionaires to use their vast wealth to make a difference in the world," Wealth-X notes. 

From art and fashion to hunting and fishing, read on to see the 20 most common hobbies and passions of the world's richest people, as well as the percentage of billionaires who participate in each.

SEE ALSO: 13 hobbies highly successful people practice in their spare time

DON'T MISS: The 50 richest people on earth

20. Skiing — 7.2%



19. Watches — 7.7%



18. Fishing — 7.8%



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

All the looks from tonight's Victoria's Secret 2016 Fashion Show

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victoria's secret fashion show 2016 models

The annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is airing tonight on CBS at 10/9 p.m. central.

The show is featuring Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, and the Weeknd this year as its headline musicians, and includes quite a few celebrity faces including Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid.

If you can't watch it tonight or simply want to get a preview of the stunning show, keep reading to see 83 gorgeous outfits from this year's runway.

This year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was headlined by Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, and The Weeknd.



There were some very interesting looks this year.



Here's veteran Victoria's Secret Angel Adriana Lima strutting her stuff.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 6 best cities for street food

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Traditional food from Sicliy: Arancino.

The INSIDER Summary:

• Street food is the best way to immerse yourself in a destination.
• Rio has Nutella-filled tapioca crêpes, Sydney has beachfront burgers, and Cartagena serves up chicharron-topped bollos. 


You haven't experienced New York City 'til you've wolfed down a curbside hot dog doused in ketchup, mustard, and relish. Similarly, a trip to Bangkok isn't complete without slurping a bowl of spicy boat noodles, dished out by a hawker on Boat Noodle Alley. Street food isn't just a fast, cheap, and delicious way to fill your stomach—it's a way of truly experiencing and immersing yourself in a destination.

Though almost every city in the world offers its own unique kind of street food, a handful of cities simply take it to the next level. We're talking about the kind of deliciousness you feel at your core with each bite—the feeling you get when tucking into a soulful Moroccan tagine, for example, or a freshly made banh mi—and with so many available options that you could go an entire trip without ever setting foot inside a restaurant.

Classic street food cities like New York and Singapore immediately come to mind, with their established street food culture and centralized hawker and food truck areas. But then there are those under-the-radar foodie cities that are slowly becoming the world's next street food capitals: Rio with its Nutella-filled tapioca crêpes, Sydney with its beachfront burgers, and Cartagena with its chicharron-topped bollos. Who needs Michelin stars when you have street eats this good?

Here, we've put together a list of where to find the world's most delicious street food, with insider tips on where to eat, what to order, and what to avoid.

Singapore

The Scene: Singapore is one of the safest street food cities in the world thanks to strictly enforced regulations and centralized hawker areas—so don’t be afraid to experiment. Added bonus: stalls are required to display cleanliness grades (“A”-“D”), so you know exactly which ones to avoid.

Where to Go: Maxwell Food Center, a stone’s throw away from Chinatown, is one of Singapore’s most popular hawker centers—here you’ll find long queues for Hainanese chicken rice and congee. The nearby Hong Lim Food Centre is great for spicy, delicious laksa and seafood-based noodle dishes. For something a little different, head over to Lagoon Food Village, which sits right by the beach and boasts an entire row of satay stalls. 

What to Order: Hainanese chicken rice; bak chor mee (pork noodles); sup tulang (bone marrow soup); min chiang kueh(peanut pancake).



Sydney

The Scene: Whether it’s Vietnamese banh mi or Wagyu beef burgers you’re after, Sydney’s diverse food scene has you covered. Variety aside, the city’s street stalls and food trucks are some the world’s cleanest thanks to the city’s strict food safety guidelines and regular cleanliness inspections, so the biggest danger here is that you’ll eat too much.

Where to Go: Unlike Singapore’s hawker centers, Sydney’s food trucks are scattered all across the city and are constantly moving. The best way to keep track of them? Download the city’s Sydney Food Trucks app, which tells you exactly which trucks are where.

Insider tip: if you’re looking for ramen or pho, Hyde Park’s Night Noodle Markets every October are worth the trek; any other time of year, you’ll find the best Asian street food at Cabramatta or Marrickville, in Sydney’s Western suburbs.

What to Order: Fatboy burger and truffle fries at Mister Gee Burger Truck; gnocchi with lamb ragu at Urban Pasta food truck; banh mi at Marrickville Pork Roll.



Istanbul

The Scene: Street food in Istanbul is a way of life—you can barely turn a corner without coming across a street vendor or büfe (a deli-like shop where you can grab a sandwich, hot dog, and a cold beer on-the-go). The city’s streets are a goldmine of culinary variety; you’ll find everything from bagels (simit) to Turkish pizza (lahmacun). Though eating on the streets is generally very safe, err on the safe side and try to stick with cooked foods and away from raw meats and seafood. 

Where to Go: Street vendors can be found on almost every block in Istanbul, but you can’t go wrong perusing the stalls around the Spice Market in Eminönü and Küçük Pazar. The Istanbul Eats blog offers updated commentary on where to find the city’s best street eats.

What to Order: Lahmacun (Turkish-style pizza covered in ground meat, onions and spices), mısır (grilled corn on the cob); kokoreç (lamb intestines wrapped around skewered sweetbreads and grilled over charcoal); börek (flaky pastry often with vegetable or cheese filling).



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

These charts help explain Trump's massive election upset in the traditionally deep blue Rust Belt

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trump supporters ohio

President-elect Donald Trump won a stunning electoral victory thanks to triumphs in several states that had long swung Democratic, like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, as well as swing states, like Ohio and Florida.

Since the election, Shannon Monnat, a rural sociologist and demographer at Pennsylvania State University, has dug into the voting data to try to figure out why Trump "overperformed" in certain counties.

Through her research, which was released in a brief Monday, Monnat found a possible answer: Counties that voted more heavily for Trump than expected were closely correlated with counties that experienced high rates of death caused by drugs, alcohol, and suicide.

Monnat wasn't surprised by the correlation.

"I expected to see it because when you think about the underlying factors that lead to overdose or suicide, it's depression, despair, distress, and anxiety," she told Business Insider in November. "That was the message that Trump was appealing to."

That wasn't the only correlation Monnat found. Here's what else she saw:

Trump outperformed 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney in counties across the US that experienced higher rates of mortality related to drugs, alcohol, or suicide.

Trump's overperformance was more pronounced in the industrial Midwest — which consists of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — and New England.

In the industrial Midwest, Trump did better than Romney by an average of 16.7 percentage points, compared with only 8.1 points in counties with the lowest mortality rates, according to Monnat.

In New England, Trump did worse than Romney by 3.1 points in the counties with the lowest mortality rates, compared with doing better by nearly 10 points in the counties with the highest mortality rates.

Many of those counties with high drug-, alcohol-, and suicide-related mortality rates have been hard hit by the opioid crisis in recent years. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia are considered to be some of the states hardest hit by heroin- and opioid-related overdose deaths.



Monnat noted that counties that were more "economically distressed" swung more heavily to Trump than expected, as well.

A major correlation Monnat discovered was that counties ranked highly on her "economic distress index" had a high number of working-class people who voted more heavily for Trump than they did for Romney in 2012.

The index, which Monnat has used in her research for years, combines the percentages of people who are in poverty, unemployed, disabled, in single-parent families, living on public assistance, or living without health insurance.

Though Monnat said she expected this correlation in the industrial Midwest, which has been hard hit by globalization and losses in manufacturing jobs, the correlation was strong in New England as well.

 



Monnat told Business Insider in November that high mortality rates were not enough to explain why people voted for Trump but were "reflective of the structural problem."

In Monnat's most recent research, she found a strong link between counties affected by economic distress, high numbers of working-class people, and high rates of drug-, alcohol-, and suicide-related mortality.

Counties with high rates of drug-, alcohol-, and suicide-related mortality invariably correlated with counties of high economic distress, whether that county was located in a metropolitan area or not. The same held true for high numbers of working-class people, though that correlation was not as pronounced, she said.

"These findings reflect larger systemic economic and social problems that go far beyond drug and alcohol abuse and suicide," Monnat wrote. "In many of the counties where Trump did the best, economic precarity has been building and social and family networks have been breaking down for several decades."

 

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 10 most popular Christmas ads on YouTube in 2016 (GOOG)

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wes anderson adrien brody hm christmas commercial

Christmas ads are becoming as much of a British cultural export as the Super Bowl is in the US, according to YouTube.

Globally, the most popular Christmas ad this year came from British department store John Lewis, which has become a brand synonymous with festive marketing.

In fact, six of the top 10 Christmas ads watched on YouTube were for British companies, or global ads, made by a British ad agency. (Adam&EveDDB created three of the spots in the top 10).

"The excitement, buzz and creativity around Christmas adverts shows that this 'ads as entertainment' moment is quickly becoming a great British cultural export, much like America's Superbowl," David Black, managing director of branding at Google UK, said in a statement: "Not only are users around the world turning to YouTube to watch and engage with the ads, but more and more brands are tapping into this opportunity to share emotional stories."

Scroll down to see the global top 10 most popular Christmas ads of 2016 ↓↓↓

Methodology: This ranking was based on an algorithm that includes paid views, organic views, and how much of a video people watched. YouTube applied a filter to capture the ads referring to Christmas.

SEE ALSO: The 5 most-liked holiday TV ads of 2016

10. Heathrow Airport — "Coming Home for Christmas" (4.3 million views). The tale of two elderly teddy bears making their way through the airport to be reunited with their family.

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/oq1r_M5a6uI
Width: 560px
Height: 315px

 



9. Temptations — "Keep Them Busy" (5.1 million views). An Adam&EveDDB-created spot showing cats wreaking havoc on a room filled with holiday decorations.

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/lGiTQ-LdUos
Width: 560px
Height: 315px

 



8. H&M — "Come Together" (6.8 million). A Wes Anderson-directed spot, starring Adrien Brody as a train conductor who saves Christmas for the despondent passengers on their delayed journey.

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/VDinoNRC49c
Width: 560px
Height: 315px

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

7 things in your daily life that you didn't know were based on NASA innovations

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Some everyday innovations as varied as a solid golf club and a high-quality selfie owe their existence to NASA technologies.

NASA published its 2017 edition of "Spinoff"— a profile of 50 commercial technologies originally designed for NASA missions and research.

Since 1976, NASA has published an annual document introducing run-of-the-mill items inspired by NASA innovations.

Here are seven of the most common objects on this year's list.

1. Crash-test cameras

NASA needed high-speed, rugged cameras to record parachute testing for its landing systems.

The agency reached out to the California-based company Integrated Design Tools, which built a camera that could record 1,000 frames a second and immediately store the data.

That same technology is used in cameras that record vehicle crash tests.



2. Laser imaging: from space to underneath soil

NASA uses laser-imaging technology, known as LIDAR, on missions in outer space. LIDAR, which measures distances using laser light, can be used to develop high-resolution maps, among many other things.

NASA helped design smaller versions that are used on the ground. Archaeologists use them to help unearth artifacts. LIDAR is also being used in autonomous-driving technology.



3. From a screw thread to golf clubs

It turns out that spacecraft design and golf-club engineering have some similarities.

An innovation called the "Spiralock" is an advanced screw thread designed by the Holmes Tool Company. NASA sought the company out because it needed an advanced screw that could withstand the rigors of a space launch.

It is being used in golf clubs, too.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

9 startups Apple bought in 2016, and what they do (AAPL)

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Tim Cook

Apple buys a lot of companies, but it doesn't talk much about them, making it hard to keep track. So we put together nine of its acquisitions reported this year.

This list is not exhaustive, we know for sure some purchases have never been revealed.

As expected, artificial intelligence companies remain the dominant category, but the list also includes a TV series spinoff and an education-tech startup.

Apple regularly confirms the purchases with a standard non-denial: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time-to-time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

Here they are:

Flyby Media: computer vision augmented reality startup

What it does: Develops augmented reality that lets mobile devices “see” the world around them through "spatial recognition" connecting the physical world with the digital

Price: Undisclosed

Acquired: January 2016

Founded: 2010

HQ: New York

Flyby Media's tech has applications for everything from indoor mapping to driverless cars.

Business Insider actually published a slideshow looking at what its technology can do.

Its tech is all about tracking the 3D motion of an object.

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Emotient: artificially intelligent facial recognition

What it does: Uses artificial intelligence to scan a person's face and read their emotions

Price: Undisclosed

Acquired: January 2016

Founded: 2012

HQ: San Diego

Emotient can recognise a person's emotions at any given moment, in real-time, just by analysing their facial patterns. Marian Bartlett, a founder of Emotient and the company's lead scientist, explains how it works:

"It takes an image as input, and it scans that image for faces," she says. "And as soon as it finds those faces, it then does pattern recognition techniques in order to measure and detect the facial expressions in those faces."

One of Emotient's first wearable applications was a Google Glass add-on that the company hoped salespeople could use to judge whether a person really loves a product or not, according to TechCrunch.

One of the keys to Emotient's technology is being able to scan a person's face for emotions, but not store any personally identifiable information about them in the process. The use of face-scanning technology has been a privacy concern for many startups, although it's unclear what Apple intends to do with the company now that it can scan anonymously.



LearnSprout: education-tech startup

What it does: Builds software for teachers and school administrators to analyze data on students' performance

Price: Undisclosed

Acquired: January 2016

Founded: 2012

HQ: San Francisco

When Bloomberg first reported the acquisition, it said more than 2,500 school districts in 42 US states use LearnSprout’s software, according to its website.

The ed-tech company had raised $4.7 million in venture capital funding before it was acquired from firms such as Andreesen Horowitz, Formation 8, and Samsung Ventures, according to Crunchbase.

In recent years, Apple's traditional stronghold in the U.S. educational market has been eroded by low-cost laptops running Google's Chrome operating system.

In December, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Google's Chromebook laptops are mere "test machines." According to data from Futuresource Consulting, a research firm that studies the educational market, over half of all devices sold to schools are now Chromebooks.



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The 15 countries where developers get paid the most in Europe

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Facebook employee

Europe's technology industry is gaining momentum and companies of all shapes and sizes are hiring developers across the continent, according to a report from venture capital firm Balderton Capital.

The London-based technology investor released a report on Monday outlining where Europe's tech talent is, who they are, and what they're earning.

Expensive Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway appear high on the list but developers can also command high salaries in countries like Ireland and the UK.

Using data provided by Stack Overflow, an online community for programmers, Balderton found that salaries range from $22,549 (£17,674) at the bottom end right up to $90,524 (£70,958) at the top, meaning it's possible for developers to earn almost four times as much in some European countries as they can in others.

15. Portugal ($22,549; £17,674)



14. Greece ($24,805; £19,440)



13. Spain ($34,229; £26,826)



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The skills everyone should have on their CV in the wake of Brexit

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The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

boss meeting job interviewBrexit has instilled a certain amount of uncertainty in the British job market.

Back in February, more than 40% of British employers were already fearing that Brexit would make it harder for them to employ the right people to work for their companies

In the United Kingdom, we have a huge shortage of skills, which is why hiring managers tend to prefer hiring from outside of Britain.

After all, European nationals are more likely to have a masters, or post-doctoral degree, and can generally speak more than one language.  

That being said, the skill gap in the United Kingdom also means that there are opportunities available for those willing to update their skillset. Not only will learning these skills make you catch the eye of hiring managers, but it will also put you ahead of the competition. 

From coding to learning new languages, or simply knowing how to improve your CV in a way which will catch the eye of potential employers, we've rounded up the skills everyone should have on their CV post-Brexit. 

Now through January 2, 2017, you can take 75% off thousands of Udemy's classes when you enter the code "UDEMY1275" at checkout.

"Career Hacking: Resume, LinkedIn®, Interviewing + More"

Hiring managers only spend five to seven seconds looking at your CV, and they know in the first 90 seconds of an interview whether they'll hire you or not. This means that your CV needs to be close to perfect, and you need to ace the subsequent interview. 

David Jones' best-selling Udemy course is there to help anyone who struggles to build their CV, or to feel confident in an interview. The course currently has more than 9,800 students enrolled, with 898 reviews, and a 4.5 star rating. Needless to say, it will help any job hunter get ahead of the competition. 

"Career Hacking: Resume, LinkedIn, Interviewing + More,"£18 (originally £75)[75% off using code "UDEMY1275"]



"The Complete Ruby on Rails Developer Course"

Not only is Ruby on Rails sought after in the tech industry, it's also easy to learn. "The Complete Ruby on Rails Developer Course" will help anyone go from novice to expert at creating beautiful, fully-functional websites. In other words, learning Ruby On Rails might be the easiest way to set you apart from the crowd in the job market post-Brexit. 

"The Complete Ruby on Rails Developer Course,"£48 (originally £195)[75% off using code "UDEMY1275"]



"An Entire MBA in 1 Course"

We've lauded this course before, and we stand by it. For those who don't have the cash to splurge on a time-consuming MBA, this course is the perfect option. Professor Haroun is the highest rated Udemy lecturer, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible education. 

"An Entire MBA in 1 Course,"£50 (originally £200)[75% off using code "UDEMY1275"]



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51 enterprise startups to bet your career on in 2017

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With the 2016 holiday in full swing and the year drawing to a close, our thoughts will soon drift to our hopes and goals for 2017.

For those who are dreaming of a new job at an up-and-coming young company, we've compiled this list to help.

All of these companies are "enterprise" startups, meaning they specialize in making tech for work and business use, which is a $3.4 trillion worldwide market.

All of them had a spectacular 2016, launching great new technology, getting a boatload of funding, or landing big partnerships, and generally setting themselves up for a successful 2017 and beyond.

Skymind: Silicon Valley's bet on artificial intelligence

Company name: Skymind
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding to date: $3.32 million in three rounds

Skymind is an early-stage company, but it's quickly establishing itself as one of Silicon Valley's premier sources of expertise on artificial intelligence in the enterprise.

For instance, Skymind cofounder Adam Gibson and top engineer Josh Patterson were tapped by famed tech publisher O'Reilly to write its guide to "deep learning," a core technology in building AI.

Skymind sells software and services based on Deeplearning4j, a popular tool that enterprise programmers are using to build systems to detect fraud and recognize images for business.

In September, Skymind raised $3 million from Y Combinator and the Chinese internet giant Tencent.



Pivotal: Helping big companies act like little companies

Company name: Pivotal
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding to date: $1.7 billion in three rounds

Pivotal is a startup spun off from the IT heavyweight EMC that now stands on its own.

While it sells the Pivotal Cloud Foundry application development platform, this startup's main product is education: It teaches making more software faster, so teams at big companies can deliver code at the same breakneck pace as those like Google or Facebook.

This year, Ford and Microsoft invested $253 million in Pivotal at a $2.8 billion valuation, even as a former Morgan Stanley banker came on as CFO.



GitLab: A programmer's secret weapon

Company name: GitLab
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding to date:$25.62 million in four rounds

While high-profile competitors like GitHub may get all the attention, GitLab has been quietly infiltrating the Fortune 500 via teams of customers at companies such as AT&T and IBM.

Like its competitors, GitLab helps teams of programmers manage their code and work together. But GitLab's focus on the enterprise market has set it apart.

GitLab has investors such as Ashton Kutcher and Joe Montana. In 2016, it raised a $20 million round of funding to work on getting its name out there in the ever growing software industry.



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A photographer captured retro album covers in front of their real life London locations

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London has been the backdrop for countless films and television programs over the years, but the lesser known pop culture locations are those that grace the front of album covers.

In "Covers: Retracing Reggae Record Sleeves in London," Brixton-based photographer Alex Bartsch has plotted the locations of 42 retro reggae album covers photographed in London between 1967 and 1987 and rephotographed them in situ.

He began the project in 2014.

"The idea first came to me when I bought the Brixton Cat LP by Joe's All Stars (Trojan Records, 1969)," Bartsch states on his website.

"I live in Brixton and took the record down to the market where the cover photo was shot, holding it up and rephotographing it at arms length, matching up the LP to the background. The second cover was Smiley Culture's Cockney Translation 12", which was photographed in Battersea. From then on, I was hooked."

He added that some of the images took "months of detective work," including cycling around the city, hitching a boat ride across Regents Canal, climbing on top of an Old Street roof, and asking to enter a stranger's front room in Hampstead.

Kickstarter campaign running until December 6 to release the photos into a book had already raised £27,472, ahead of the £15,000 goal, at time of publishing this article, and a selection of images were exhibited at Art Basel Miami earlier this month.

"The image on a record cover usually remains within defined borders, instantly recognisable as a record cover, but not so much as a location," Bartsch said in a press release."Approaching the scene from a wider angle and revealing the cover’s surroundings brought me, and will hopefully bring others, closer to the time and place of the original photo shoot.”

See a selection of images from "Covers" below:

John Holt, 2000 Volts of Holt (Trojan Records, 1976), rephotographed in Holland Park, London W14, 39 years later.



Peter Tosh, Buk-In-Hamm-Palace (Rolling Stones, 1979), rephotographed at Buckingham Palace, London SW1, 36 years later.



Smiley Culture, Cockney Translation (Fashion Records, 1984), rephotographed on Plough Road, London SW11, 32 years later.



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