On Saturday, August 20, 27-year-old Singaporean lawyer Darren Tay became the Toastmasters International world champion of public speaking. He survived several rounds of a competition that lasted six months and included more than 30,000 competitors from Toastmasters public speaking clubs around the world.

He and nine other finalists competed at the Toastmasters annual convention, held this year at Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C. Tay took home first place for his speech "Outsmart; Outlast," in which he tells the story of how he met a childhood bully as an adult, and how this reformed bully surprisingly taught him a valuable insight about dealing with inner struggles.

You can watch it below.

Business Insider spoke with Tay about his winning speech and what others can learn from it:

SEE ALSO: Tony Robbins shares the best career advice he's ever been given

He immediately disarms the audience

Tay walks onto the stage, takes a beat as he stares into the audience, and then awkwardly steps into a pair of Calvin Klein briefs. He puts his hands on his hips to accentuate the underwear over his tailored suit and then begins telling the story of how his childhood bully once forced him to wear a similar pair of briefs over his pants and walk around school. That story could be told in a painful way, but Tay decided to keep it light.

"That is to get the audience comfortable first," he told Business Insider. "And when audience members laugh they are more open to your message."

When a speaker goes before a receptive audience, the audience is also brimming with energy, hoping that the speaker will succeed. Speakers don't have to crack a joke, but regardless of the context they are tasked with breaking this inherent tension.

He develops a message

Every effective presentation, whether it's on a Toastmasters stage or a conference room, needs to have a thesis that the audience members take with them when they leave, Tay explained.

Tay's full message is that we are all our own worst bullies, and that the best way to deal with that is by acknowledging the presence of negative thoughts rather than fighting or ignoring them, as if we were observing a storm from inside a house. He uses a personal story to illustrate the effect childhood bullying had on him (hence the underwear over his suit) and gradually develops his message before leaving the audience with a clear, actionable takeaway.

He lets that message guide his speech

Tay said that he initially struggled with drafting "Outsmart; Outlast" because he was too focused on telling an amusing story. "That really got my speech message very diluted and disconnected," he said.

His mentor, the 2000 Toastmasters International world champion of public speaking, Ed Tate, told him that he needed to start over and have the message be what guided his writing, and that the entertaining aspects would naturally follow.

Wikipedia may look smooth on the outside, but just below the surface there is an ongoing discussion over how certain people and events are going to be remembered.

This process involves the editing of pages, sometimes over and over again, by the site's most passionate users. If you look at the most-edited pages, you can see the topics that our society is trying to make sense of, or fighting over. Some of these pages have over 45,000 edits, and range from individual entertainers to religions to wars.

Every year Wikipedia releases an official list of the most-edited English language pages for a given year. There are some big ones that often show up: deaths, sports results, music releases, and so on. But there are also topics that are very particular to a given time, and show what our obsessions were that year.

For 2016, there should be no surprise over the one that loomed large: The 2016 US presidential election. Donald Trump took the number two spot, the list of Hillary Clinton's endorsements took the third, and election itself took the fourth. Pop culture events that made it into the top 20 were Kanye West's album "The Life of Pablo,""Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," and painter Vincent van Gough, who was the subject of a big page rewrite this year.

Here is the full list: 

Most-edited Wikipedia pages in 2016

1. Deaths in 2016 (18,230 edits)

2. Donald Trump (8,933)

3. List of Hillary Clinton presidential campaign endorsements (6,527)

4. United States presidential election, 2016 (6,162)

5. Republican Party presidential primaries, 2016 (5,715)

6. 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting (5,540)

7. Bailando 2015 (5,342)

8. Donald Trump presidential campaign endorsements, 2016 (5,328)

9. 2016 in sports (5,277)

10. 2016 in South Korean music (5,074)

11. Beverly Gray (4,957)

12. Statewide opinion polling for the United States presidential election (4,743)

13. Panama Papers (4,659)

14. 2016 in Philippine television (4,600)

15. 2016 Pacific typhoon season (4,244)

16. 2016 Atlantic hurricane season (3,874)

17. Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016 (3,736)

18. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (3,593)

19. The Life of Pablo (3,574)

20. Vincent van Gogh (3,551)

While many of these are constantly updating lists, which makes sense, one of the most fascinating areas of debate in Wikipedia centers around people, and the list of public figures whose legacies are in dispute. We also looked at which people had the all-time most-edited pages.

You have those you might expect, like ex-presidents or dictators, but also a run of professional wrestlers you probably never knew were so disputed.

We have compiled a list of the top 29 most-edited pages of people on Wikipedia, along with a sample edit from each. Edits removing portions of the text are shown in red, and edits adding new text are shown in blue.

Here is the list:

SEE ALSO: George W. Bush has the most controversial Wikipedia page of all time — and the edits are fascinating

29. Bill Clinton

Before edit:

Born and raised in Arkansas,Clinton became a student leader and a skilled musician.

After edit:

Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas.

28. Kelly Clarkson

Before edit:

Her sixth studio album, 'Piece by Piece' was released in March 2015 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, thus collecting her third number one album and tying Carrie Underwood for most number one albums for an American Idol alumni. 

After edit:

In 2015, Clarkson released her seventh studio album, "Piece by Piece", becoming her third number one album on the "Billboard" 200 Chart.

27. Big Show (wrestler)

Before edit:

Big Show at Fort Bragg.

After edit:

Big Show arriving at a hamburger eating contest.

At the end of every year, critics and award groups highlight their picks for the best movies of the year, and movie studios tout their biggest blockbusters in box-office memos.

Those movies are usually pretty great, but there's more out there that's worth watching.

Some of the features on this list were swept under the rug. Some didn't resonate with audiences when they hit theaters, were marketed poorly, aren't part of the Oscar conversation, or are rightly recognized in some circles, but those circles aren't wide enough. While some have been recognized by critics, they may be smaller indies catered toward a smaller niche.

One thing they have in common is that they're all excellent. Here are the 2016 movies you may have missed.

SEE ALSO: The 4 best live music acts you should see, according to NSYNC's Lance Bass

DON'T MISS: 12 TV shows you're not watching that you need to see

"Hail, Caesar!"

What it's about: A Hollywood fixer scampers around the studio and tries to keep all of his stars happy while also keeping his marriage together.

Why you should see it: It's really, really, funny. Josh Brolin is perfectly deadpan as Eddie Mannix as he tries to make sure all of the studio's stars are in line, and it might have the best cast of any movie this year. The Coen brothers flick is filled with colorful characters and absurd subplots that features George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Jonah Hill, and — in a star-making turn — Alden Ehrenreich, who was recently cast as a Young Han Solo.

"Midnight Special"

What it's about: A young boy has uncontrollable supernatural powers. His father pulls him away from a cult that wants to use him, and the FBI tries to track them down.

Why you should see it: 2016 was filled with movies and shows with Spielbergian vibes, like "Pete's Dragon" and "Stranger Things." The best of them was "Midnight Special," which was somewhere between "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "E.T.""Midnight Special" doesn't quite become a full-blown fantasy movie, but director Jeff Nichols knows how to use it to make a well-crafted story and go deep into the emotional connections between parents and children. 13-year-old Jaeden Lieberher also does a great job as the main character, Alton, and the film boasts a stellar supporting cast that includes Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, and Bill Camp.

"The Lobster"

What it's about: In the movie's dystopian world, people are sent to a hotel and need to find love within 45 days or they're turned into an animal. David (played by Colin Farrell) needs to find his match.

Why you should see it: "The Lobster" is one of 2016's strangest movies, and to succeed, it has to run a delicate balance between being a touching story about humans finding emotional fulfillment in a strange world, or failing and becoming merely a weird movie. Luckily, thanks to its game actors (Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, and a few others), it totally works — and it might even make you cry.

Japan has a sex problem. The country's birthrate is shrinking year after year, to the point where deaths are outpacing births.

Simply put, Japan's population is decreasing.

But let's be clear: Population change is a complicated subject affected by many factors.

Western media often correlates the decline in Japan's population size with recent studies of Japanese sexual habits and marriage. A 2016 study by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Japan, for instance, found that "almost 70 percent of unmarried men and 60 percent of unmarried women are not in a relationship."

But just because people aren't in relationships doesn't mean they don't want companionship, of course. And that's where something like Gatebox comes in.

Yes, that is an artificially intelligent character who lives in a glass tube in your home. Her name is Azuma Hikari, and she's the star of Gatebox — a $2,500 Amazon Echo-esque device that acts as a home assistant and companion.

Here's what we know:

SEE ALSO: Japan's sex problem is so bad that people are quitting dating and marrying their friends

DON'T MISS: Japan's huge sex problem is setting up a 'demographic time bomb' for the country

A Japanese company named Vinclu created the Gatebox.

It's about the size of an 8-inch by 11-inch piece of paper, according to Vinclu. And there's a good reason for that: The device is intended to be "big enough for you to be able to put right beside you." You'll understand why you'd want a Gatebox so close soon enough.

The Gatebox is similar to Amazon's Echo — it's a voice-powered home assistant.

The Gatebox has a microphone and a camera because you operate it using your voice.

For now, it will respond only to Japanese; the company making Gatebox says it's exploring other language options. Considering that preorder units are available for both Japan and the US, we'd guess that an English-language option is in the works.

Gatebox does a lot of the same stuff that Echo does — it can automate your home in various ways, including turning on lights and waking you up in the morning.

This year, Business Insider's visual features reporters visited the New York Stock Exchange during an IPO, chatted with two "nuns" who run an online store selling cannabis products, and toured more than a dozen offices to learn about how people work. And those are just the highlights.

Ahead, see 30 of the best photos our team took this year. All photos are by Melia Robinson, Hollis Johnson, and Sarah Jacobs.   

SEE ALSO: HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE: See the presidents' Christmas cards, from Coolidge to Obama

This couple couldn't afford to live in San Francisco, so they're building tiny homes made from shipping containers

We went to the top of New York's latest skyscraper to find out how it's being built

Go inside the family-owned business where big shots like Frank Sinatra and Rudy Giuliani have gotten their cigars for decades

In early 2014, Jarryd Salem and Alesha Bradford left their native Australia to backpack from Thailand to South Africa without taking a single flight.

Since then, they've spent most of their time on the road, traveling everywhere from Mongolia to Vietnam to Tajikistan.

When they spoke with Business Insider in 2015, they were earning $1,500-$2,000 a month as they traveled. In the past year, however, business has taken off, and they now earn between $2,000 and $6,000 a month.

As they've increased their income, they've made it their mission to inspire others who want to lead a similar lifestyle. One way to do that is to be transparent about exactly where the money comes from.

"Whenever we see these articles, now we notice people are happy to say they earn money online — we earn six figures or $5,000 a month or that kind of thing — but when it comes to actual details, it's quite light," Salem told Business Insider. "They say we have a digital product or make money through affiliates, and if you're in the industry, you understand what that means. But if you're not, it can be inspiring in a way ... but there's no kind of direction afterwards."

He went on to explain that travel bloggers — including him and Bradford, who run NOMADasaurus— make their money in nine main ways:

SEE ALSO: A couple traveling from Thailand to South Africa without flying shares what it's like to live and earn on the road

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 In the Czech Republic.

Affiliate partnerships

In an affiliate partnership, a blogger links back to a retail website. When a reader follows the link and makes a purchase, the retailer pays the blogger for the referral.

NOMADasaurus makes anywhere between $100 and $1,000 a month from referrals on products like hotels and travel insurance, but Salem says some bloggers make much more.

"We know people who make $5,000, $6,000, $7,000 a month, and that's just in our industry," he says. "If you break away from that to people who focus on affiliate websites whose entire business is dedicated to one particular niche, they can earn much more."

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 In Thailand.

Press trips

On a press trip, a hotel, tour company, or tourism board pays bloggers to come experience the area, service, or facility, and share it with their readers through stories, videos, and pictures.

NOMADasaurus charges $2,000 for a press trip, which is a pretty typical amount, Salem says. However, some bloggers are able to charge much more. "I've heard of people making $10,000 for a trip, but they're exceptions to the rule," he says. "They're fantastic videographers or photographers, or people who have been in the industry since the beginning."

It's also common to charge a day rate — NOMADasaurus charges $50-$100 a day. "A lot of press trips are unpaid," Salem says. "They're free hotels and tours and flights. You don't get paid, but but you don't pay anything, either. While this isn't physical money, it does keep our personal travel costs down."

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 In Mongolia.

Sponsored campaigns

Sponsored campaigns are similar to traditional advertising. It might include everything from banner ads on the site to blog posts and social media posts featuring the product or service.

"A startup will reach out to us and ask if we'll write a post about what they do," Salem explains. "Those start as low as $50, but our range is $800-$1,500. We usually limit it to one post and maybe a few mentions in other articles. If possible, we always try out the product before we promote it."

SEE ALSO: A couple who ditched their 9-5 jobs years ago to travel the world explain how they afford it »

When you receive almost 150 work emails every day, your inbox can quickly become the bane of your existence.

That suffering increases exponentially when you're the leader of a company.

So how do busy people manage their overwhelming inbox flux?

We looked to top executives like Tim Cook and Bill Gates for some answers:

SEE ALSO: 19 unprofessional email habits that make everyone hate you

DON'T MISS: 21 unprofessional habits that could cost you your job

Apple CEO Tim Cook reads most of his 700-plus emails

Cook wakes up at 3:45 a.m. each day to get a head start on email.

He tells ABC that he receives somewhere between 700 and 800 emails a day, "and I read the majority of those ... Every day, every day. I'm a workaholic."

Ivanka Trump takes email 'offenders' to task

"As with many things in life, you have to manage your inbox, or it will manage you," the executive vice president of development and acquisitions at The Trump Organization and head of the Ivanka Trump lifestyle brand writes on Fortune.

One strategy she employs to manage email inefficiency is to periodically search her inbox for frequent emailers, identifying those people who send "long, meaty emails that really are better discussed through conversation rather than electronically," and then she sets up a weekly check-in meeting with them to discuss ongoing questions or issues.

Going forward, these people can only email Trump if something is urgent.

"I find that a handful of 'offenders' make up the lion's share of my email overload," she says.

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner sends less email to receive less email

The golden rule for email management, according to Weiner, is, if you want less email, send less email.

He writes on LinkedIn that the rule occurred to him at a previous company when, after two email-happy colleagues left the company, his inbox traffic decreased by almost 30%.

"Turns out, it wasn't just their emails that were generating all of that inbox activity — it was my responses to their emails, the responses of the people who were added to those threads, the responses of the people those people subsequently copied, and so on," Weiner writes.

He continues: "After recognizing this dynamic, I decided to conduct an experiment where I wouldn't write an email unless absolutely necessary. End result: Materially fewer emails and a far more navigable inbox. I've tried to stick to the same rule ever since."

You know the feeling: the holidays are almost here, but you're still a few gifts short.

Luckily, if one of the people on your list loves cars, you can easily pick up a little something to keep their motor running.

It can be pricey, or it can be a bargain.

But the variety of gifts is considerable. It ranges from the very useful to the very thoughtful. 

Best of all, car lovers are not that tough to please. Any modest gift is bound to out a smile on their faces.

Here are some of my personal favorite last-minute gifts:

SEE ALSO: 15 car gadgets that will improve your driving experience

A WeatherTech gift card.

WeatherTech is to car floormats what the iPhone is to smartphones: the premier offering.

ANY car lover on your list who lives in a place where the weather can turn nasty in winter will appreciate the change to buy a set of WeatherTech's customized floor mats. 

In fact, get ready to have a true car lover shed a tear when they open this gift. I recommend getting a relatively large-denomination card, because WeatherTech products are fairly expensive.

An actual car.

Okay, I'll admit that this one is sort of nuts, but there's a long tradition of ushering a loved one out to the driveway on a holiday evening or morning to show them ... a brand new car!

Extravagant as it might sound, this is a great time of year to be buying or leasing a new vehicle. Best of all, dealers are open for business. If you head over to the lot or showroom, you can make a deal and drive home the same day.

We don't recommend specific deals, but we do monitor the market. Beyond the usual efforts by automakers to clear out end-of-year inventory, some dealers and car companies are offering especially good choices.

For example, small-cars and mid-size sedans have been selling poorly relative to pickups and SUVs. So have sports cars. With inventory having built up to too-high levels for these vehicles, automakers and dealers want to move the metal, so they're offering excellent prices and financing/leasing terms. 

Additionally, due to the backlash from its Dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen has been offering some unbelievable deals to maintain it already weak market share in the US. VW's lineup of cars and SUVs is quite solid, so now is a good time to check it out.

A portable jump-starter/charger.

The days of carrying jumper cables around in the your car are coming to and end.

A new wave of small jump-starters — compact enough to fit into a glove compartment — has arrived.

They're easy to use and can also be pressed into service to charge smartphones, tablets, and other devices.

They're also relatively inexpensive, at under $100.

You can also give the gift of a much more powerful charger, the type that tow-truck crews carry around. That's a fine option for keeping around the house when a dead battery strikes. 

While you're praying that the TSA doesn't confiscate the bottle of booze you have hidden amongst your stuff, other flyers are much, much bolder.

The TSA just released a video on its blog that outlines the weirdest, wackiest things they kept off planes in 2016.

Here are the 10 strangest things they had to confiscate.

10. Hand grenade trailer hitch cover

9. Hello Kitty firearm

8. Negan's bat “Lucille”

Right now you may be logging hours in a coffee shop or co-working space trying to make your idea a reality, but project yourself a couple of years into the future.

The business is a success, with customers, employees and an office of your own, you've turned a profit and now someone wants to buy your company for a cool million or more.

You're in the position to take a breath and think about your next steps in this new financial bracket. How do you make the most of what you've earned and manage your money in such a way that works for you?

We collected advice from some top wealth management experts about the things that a savvy entrepreneur turned millionaire will never do with his or her money.

Related: 10 Ways to Become a Millionaire in Your 20s

SEE ALSO: A 31-year-old self-made millionaire explains how wealth has changed his view of success

1. Don't take the first deal that comes your way

Millionaires will rarely take the introductory deal offered to them, says Gemma Godfrey, the founder and CEO of digital wealth manager Moo.la. "They are much more likely to negotiate better terms as and when they can," she says.

That mindset of always being on the lookout for the partnerships and ventures that will be of the highest worth to them means that millionaire entrepreneurs aren't going to throw away their time on investments that they don't believe in or lose their fortunes on careless mistakes.

"As Benjamin Franklin said, 'beware small expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.' Millionaires don’t want their wealth to be as easily destroyed," Godfrey says. "Therefore, they will rarely have loose reins over their outgoings and waste money on ‘penalty fees’ for overdue payments."

Related: Mark Cuban's 3 'Smart Money Moves Everyone Should Make'

2. Don't be bowled over by luxury

The millionaires who grow their wealth with a sense of responsibility — whether the money was earned or inherited — are the ones that have the best tools at their disposal to maintain their fortunes and pass them on to the next generation.

Manisha Thakor, director of wealth strategies for women at Buckingham and The BAM Alliance, characterizes this as part of the "millionaires next door" attitude.

"I find that this group generally tends not to drive flashy cars, wear glitzy jewelry and clothes, engage in conspicuous consumption and often values experiences [and] helping others over collecting possessions," Thakor says. "When they do splurge, it tends to be on something — a possession or an experience — that has deep meaning to them personally, not because of what other people will think of them."

Related: What It's Really Like Once You Become A Millionaire

3. Don't speculate

While millionaires won't put their money toward something that they don't believe in, smart millionaires won't put their fortunes into something that they don't understand.

Garrett Gunderson, the founder and chief wealth architect at Wealth Factory, a personal finance firm for entrepreneurs, says business owners will often pursue investments that may seem solid but ultimately don't pan out, citing real estate, IPOs, and energy as some of the common ways that people look to diversify their portfolios without doing the proper research.

"If you're seeing a business owner that is a millionaire, they're not chasing and speculating with the majority of their money," he says. "They're going to keep a lot of it in places they understand and know — whether that's inside of their business, places where they can access the money [or] paying off loans."

Gunderson adds, "They're not going to be chasing the latest, greatest thing, often because they don't have time to worry about those kinds of things. Millionaires stay focused."

Related: 5 Habits of the Wealthy That Helped Them Get Rich

Think that $20 cocktail you're sipping is pricey? Bars and restaurants around the world have upped the ante, offering ridiculous cocktails made with rare, high-end spirits. Consider these your once-in-a-lifetime libations.

Aficionados rarely use top-shelf booze on mixed drinks. If you were lucky enough to score a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 12 Year, chances are you dropped several thousand bucks on the opportunity to sip it neat—maybe with an ice cube or two. But bartenders and beverage directors at upscale restaurants and bars around the world are finding ways to incorporate rare, expensive bottles of whiskey, cognac, rum, and other spirits into astronomically priced cocktails. It's a thrilling indulgence—if you can stomach the pricetag. Starting at about $50 and ranging into the thousands, here are some of the most over-the-top cocktails that (a lot of) money can buy:

Bourgeois Pig at The Rickey ($50)

The Rickey, a new bar on the ground floor of the Dream Midtown hotel in New York City, has a cocktail menu curated by mixologist Johnny Swet. A favorite is the Bourgeois Pig, a $50 truffle martini with vodka, dry vermouth, bacon elixir, rosemary bitters, and the ingredient that sends it over the top: a piece of shaved black truffle. Swet uses the French Perigord truffle, specifically, which he considers the finest.

Balmoral at Beautique ($80)

Celebrity playpen restaurant Beautique, located across from NYC's Plaza Hotel, is often visited by actors, musicians, and models who come for the food and stay for an after-dinner visit to the nightclub tucked in the back. Here they find the Balmoral, an $80 cocktail created by wine director Brett Mendl. This drink is similar to a Manhattan, but it's made with The Macallan Rare Cask, stirred with just a touch of dry and sweet vermouth. "Using a high-end whiskey in a cocktail will always create a smoother drink with less alcohol burn and generally less of a hangover," Mendl says. It will also jack up the price, but the results are pretty impressive—this is a cocktail where you can taste what the quality spirit adds to it.

Jet Set Manhattan at Tavern on 51 ($100)

Tavern on 51 is one of several ritzy drinking establishments in the Lotte New York Palace hotel. (Another? Rarities, where one can order a dram of whiskey for a few thousand dollars.) At Tavern on 51, the Jet Set Manhattan, made with Michter's 20 Year Single Barrel Bourbon and vintage Taylor Fladgate 1985 Port, will only set you back $100. Justin Lorenz, director of wine and beverage for Rarities, sums up the one-percenter appeal nicely: "For someone who has it all, the subtle nuances experienced from the use of these rare [spirits] simply have no substitute."

With just two weeks of regular season football remaining, the playoff picture is finally starting to gain some clarity.

Four teams have already clinched: the Patriots, Raiders, Cowboys, and Seahawks are all in, while the Chiefs and Giants (both with 10 wins) look well-positioned to lock down the first Wild Card in their respective conferences.

After that, though, there's still a lot up in the air.

The Packers are now just one game behind the Lions in the NFC North, and the two teams square off in a Week 17 contest that could be an elimination game. Elsewhere, the Steelers are trying to hold off the Ravens in the AFC North, the Falcons are trying to hold off the Bucs in the NFC South, and in the AFC South the Texans, Titans, and Colts are all still alive. Don't count out the Dolphin or Redskins out of the Wild Card just yet, either. 

All in all, with only two weeks left a loss could completely derail a season.

Happy holidays, and happy football!

32. Cleveland Browns

Record: 0-14

Week 15 result: Lost to the Bills, 33-13

Week 15 star: We'll give it to Robert Griffin III for his 196 passing and 48 rushing yards, plus a rushing touchdown, with no interceptions.

Week 16 opponent: vs. San Diego Chargers

One thing to know: There is currently a GoFundMe to throw the Browns a parade if they go 0-16. 

31. San Francisco 49ers

Record: 1-13

Week 15 result: Lost to the Falcons, 41-13

Week 15 star: Colin Kaepernick had a decent game, all things considered. He posted a 95.9 passer rating, throwing two touchdowns and 183 yards on 20-of-33 passing. 

Week 16 opponent: at Los Angeles Rams

One thing to know: The 49ers haven't won a game since September 13. Luckily, that came against the Rams. Who knows, maybe they'll do it again!

30. Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 2-12

Week 15 result: Lost to the Texans, 21-20

Week 15 starr: Rookie cornerback Jalen Ramsey had his first career interception, plus five other pass defenses.

Week 16 opponent: vs. Tennessee Titans

One thing to know: The Jags fired head coach Gus Bradley after their Week 15 loss. He finished with a 14-48 record. 

If you've ever borrowed money or opened a savings account, then the Federal Reserve matters to you.

The US central bank just raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in a year — to a target of 0.5% to 0.75% — and signaled that there are more increases to come. 

That rate, called the Fed funds rate, serves as a benchmark for basically every interest rate on the planet: Government borrowing rates, mortgage rates, credit-card rates, savings account yields, and so on. 

The Fed uses it as a way to accelerate, or slow, economic growth. The rate is rising because the job market is relatively strong and the central bank doesn't want prices rising too fast. Making it costlier to borrow will eventually slow spending by companies and consumers alike.

So, even if you're not a titan of finance, the Fed's interest rate decision could still affect you if you're planning to buy a house or save for retirement. Here are some of the major ways the Fed can impact the lives of everyday Americans.

SEE ALSO: 28 charts that show how America changed since the Fed gave us 0% rates

The Fed's main monetary policy tool is the Federal Funds Rate.

This is the interest rate banks charge other banks for short-term loans. They borrow from each other to make sure they have enough reserves in house at any given time.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decides on a target rate, and the Fed buys and sells securities like US government debt to maintain that rate.. In the wake of the financial crisis, the Fed lowered the target rate to 0%, where it stayed for nearly 7 years before being increased to 0.25% - 0.50% in December 2015, and to 0.50-0.75% in December 2016.

More on the Fed Funds Rate.

Prime loan rates are established by private banks as a baseline rate for loans to businesses and consumers.

Prime rates tend to closely track the fed funds rate. As we will see, that baseline rate affects interest rates for several other forms of borrowing and saving. Between December 2008 and December 2015, the era when the Fed held the target funds rate near zero, the prime rate among the 25 largest banks stayed steady at 3.25%.

Since the first rate hike in 2015, the prime rate has notched up accordingly to 3.5%. The Fed's decision Wednesday to move the fed funds rate up for the first time in a year is already making its way into the prime rate, with at least a dozen major banks announcing that it has increased to 3.75%.

More on prime loan rate.

Interest rates for major consumer loans tend to move along with the prime rate, and thus the Fed funds rate.

Interest rates for two year auto loans are usually slightly higher than the prime lending rate, so if that begins to rise, consumer loans will likely follow.

The first-ever “Star Wars” standalone movie, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” has finally hit theaters, so it's time to analyze the heck out of it. That includes everything from catching all the references to past movies, TV series, and novels in the franchise to delving into the footage we saw in the trailers but didn’t end up in the finished film. 

Then there’s the characters themselves.

There are a lot of  brand new ones, like the movie’s lead Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones), while others have been brought back through the magic of CGI (and footage not used in “Star Wars: A New Hope”).

Here we analyze and rank all the characters from best to worst.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead

SEE ALSO: All the "Star Wars" movies, ranked from worst to best

30. Senators Vaspar, Jebel, Pamlo

When these three members of the Imperial Senate catch wind that the Empire has constructed the planet-destroying Death Star, they are the loudest voices in the room that the rebels should run and hide. Thankfully, Jyn and her Rogue One mates have other plans.

29. General Dodonna

More prominent in "Star Wars: A New Hope," Dodonna mostly stays in the background in this movie, but it's another piece of detail director Gareth Edwards uses to link this movie to the original "Star Wars." 

28. Saw Gerrera

There's obviously more to Saw Gerrera than what we see in the finished movie (note Forest Whitaker's bald head in some trailers and his character having hair in the movie), but judging on the few scenes with him in the final cut there wasn't much to take in. Frankly, his portion of the movie is where the movie drags.

When you're competing against the best athletes in the world, everyone's in great shape, having spent years crafting the perfect physique to perform at the top of their game.

But physical prowess will only get you so far. Many Olympians will tell you that success is also a product of their mindset and of their ability to not get intimidated by their opponents and crumble under pressure.

Everyone uses a different strategy. Business Insider combed through recent interviews with members of Team USA and highlighted the psychological tactics they find most effective.

The best part? Anyone can use modified versions of these tricks, whether they're trying to stay calm during a tough meeting or pumping themselves up before giving a presentation.

Read on for insight into the minds of legends.

SEE ALSO: 13 things mentally strong people don't do

Allyson Felix tunes out distractions.

The 30-year-old track-and-field star told Sports Illustrated:

"When I am walking out to the blocks, I'm just extremely focused. I'll see all the cameras flashing and I'll just be, like, unaware of it all. I don't hear any noise around me. I'm completely just dialed in to what I have to do."

Michael Phelps visualizes a plan for every scenario.

2016 marks Phelps' fifth Olympics. In 2012, he and his longtime coach, Bob Bowman, spoke to The Washington Post about Phelps' mental preparation.

"He will see exactly the perfect race. And he will see it like he's sitting in the stands, and he'll see it like he's in the water," Bowman said. "And then he will go through scenarios: What if things don't go well?"

"If my suit ripped or if my goggles broke, you know, what would I do?" Phelps said.

"So he has all of this in his database, so that when he swims the race he's already programmed his nervous system to do one of those," Bowman said. "And he'll just pick the one that happens to come up."

Lexi Thompson calms herself with happy thoughts.

Thompson, 21, was the youngest golfer to play in the US Women's Open at age 12. In an interview with ESPN, she said she's been working with a life coach who has helped her boost her mental game while performing:

"When [my life coach and I] get together, he'll hook me up to a monitor to measure my relaxation. If I think about something that gets me hyped, my heartbeat shoots up. When it starts to spike, he has me take a deep breath and think about something that makes me happy.

"I'll think positive thoughts like 'You're blessed' or 'You're talented,' and instantly see changes in my heartbeat.

"I put this breathing technique into my routine out on the golf course. Before I hit a shot, I'll visualize the shot I want to hit to get rid of all negative thoughts. I have to maintain a positive mindset because golf is 80 percent mental."

As airlines around the world search for higher revenues and increased profitability, the effect on the passenger experience has not been overly positive, to say the least. Even though airliners have not been getting any larger, their passenger carrying capacity has been growing steadily. Airlines have achieved this by cutting down the size of lavatories and the amount room between seats. (This is also known as seat pitch.)

Using data from TripAdvisor's SeatGuru as well as from airlines themselves, we've compiled a rundown of the amount of seat pitch offered in the economy-class cabins of America's major airlines. This includes the nation's three major legacy carriers along with boutique airlines such as JetBlue and Virgin America, as well as ultra-low-cost operators such as Spirit and Frontier.

SEE ALSO: The 10 airports in America people disliked the most

American Airlines

American Airlines generally offers 31 to 32 inches of seat pitch in its economy cabin. Although it does operate some of its Airbus A319s and Boeing 757s with 30 inches of pitch. 

Delta Air Lines

Like American, Delta also operates a fleet with 31 to 32 inches of seat pitch on most of its planes. However, the airline does operate some Airbus A319s, A320s, Boeing 757s, and McDonnell-Douglas MD90s with 30 to 31 inches of pitch. 

United Airlines

United Airlines also operates a fleet with mostly 31 to 32 inches of seat pitch. At the same time, it does operate some Boeing 737, Airbus A319, Bombardier CRJ700, and Q400 aircraft with 30 inches of pitch. 

The good thing about getting to read a lot of books for work is that I'm constantly challenged to rethink my conceptions of happiness, productivity, and success.

The bad thing is that one time a stack of said books collapsed on my desk neighbor.

Without a doubt, the books that moved me most this year focused on psychology and behavioral science — and as 2016 draws to a close, I'm reflecting on everything I learned.

Below, I've rounded up the most meaningful insights from all that reading.

SEE ALSO: 11 mind-blowing psychology findings that explain the baffling choices you make every day

Money isn't enough to motivate us to do good work

In "Payoff," Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely argues that human motivation is a lot more complex than we might be inclined to believe. Case in point: Pizza motivates employees to perform better in the long term than money.

Managers especially should look to harness the power of intrinsic motivation — or the desire to do a good job for the sake of doing a good job.

Emotions always matter

Harvard psychologist Susan David wrote "Emotional Agility" to help people reckon with — not suppress or pass judgment on — their most difficult emotions.

Instead of looking askance at feelings as fluffy, David says it's important to recognize that our feelings hold important information about our values and our potential. We can draw on that information to make important decisions related to our career and relationships.

Plain old practice doesn't make perfect

The concept of deliberate practice— working with a teacher on specific goals and constantly pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone — has sparked a ton of controversy within the scientific community.

In "Peak," Florida State University psychologist Anders Ericsson and journalist Robert Pool argue that this process is the only sure path to expertise, whether in chess, ice skating, or anything else. (Some psychologists disagree.)

To be sure, Ericsson says, deliberate practice involves mistakes and failure and pain, but if you truly want to be the best in your field, it's worth it.

Hiring managers look for different things in job candidates.

The traits they're seeking may be determined by the role they are trying to fill, the company they work for, the industry they're in — or just personal preference.

But there is a certain set of characteristics that almost all hiring managers find appealing.

"Managers can usually find job applicants with sufficient technical skills — or at least the capacity to acquire them. But you can't teach, for example, honesty or character," says 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."

So to really impress any hiring manager and land a job, you'll need to show that you possess at least most of the following traits:

SEE ALSO: 25 things you should never say in a job interview

Honest, trustworthy, and reliable

"These are three cornerstones of good character," Taylor says. "You can tell a hiring manager that you are these things, but your demeanor and the conversation will be far more credible. They are critical because trust is at the core of any sustainable relationship."

Enthusiastic

If you can't get excited about the company in the interview, then how motivated can you be once on board?

"This is standard thinking among hiring managers," she says. "My best hires, without exception, have always been those who are genuinely eager, energetic, and upbeat."

Taylor says it can help to keep in mind a personal phrase that keeps you on your game, such as, "Be amazing!""I'll crush this!" or "I love this job!"

"This doesn't mean being giddy, but looking as if your cat died won't help you, either."

Emotionally intelligent

Hiring managers put a lot of weight on your emotional intelligence (EQ), and rightly so.

"Do you know how to calm others and be the voice of reason? Do you tend to understand human nature and bring out the best in people? Are you prone to passive aggressive behavior if an interview gets dicey?" asks Taylor. "EQ isn't taught in school, yet it's so valued today. Explaining how you navigate challenges and bring situations under control can be very persuasive."

The main problem with luxury SUVs is that they're not much good at the "sport utility" part of "sport utility vehicle."

Unless you're talking about purpose-built off-roaders — SUVs from Land Rover or Toyota — the modern premium SUV is a station wagon on steroids. Its core purpose is to haul families, groceries, gear, and pets around the nation's suburban enclaves.

GMC has been around for a century and has long been thought of as an upscale truck-maker, especially under the Denali subbrand. There are no passenger cars in the GMC portfolio, just pickups and SUVs/crossovers, and the division has lately been making an enviable boast: Its average transaction price is stratospheric for a "non-luxury" brand, at $45,000.

Almost a third of all GMCs sold are Denalis, which means that GMC is something of money-printing machine inside General Motors.

Across the board, however, GMC has a lofty brand promise to live up to: upscale utility. These are trucks and SUVs for the discerning contractor or the demanding rancher. If you want to bust up your truck in fields and streams, then look to Chevy. If you want to get cleaned up for a night on the town once the day's labors are done, check out GMC.

This credibility means that GMC SUVs and crossovers in particular can also appeal to Lexus/Acura/BMW/Mercedes/Audi customers who might doubt the ability of, say, a Lexus RX 350 or BMW X3 to get down and dirty.

We got the chance to put this all to the test when we recently borrowed a 2017 GMC Acadia Denali with all-wheel drive. This maxed-out mid-size crossover, which shares a platform with the new Cadillac XT5, is stickered at $52,185, with numerous options. It is possible, however, to get a base Acadia for around $30,000.

Here's what we thought:

SEE ALSO: Maserati has hit a home run with its first SUV

It wasn't raining for the entire time that I tested the Acadia, but it was when I took these photos. Luckily, the snow hadn't hit yet.

But GMCs look good wet — the Acadia Denali wore its 'Iridium Metallic' black paint job quite well.

Exterior details are contemporary without being overly flamboyant.

By late 1944, Allied forces had pushed Nazi Germany back in much of Europe, retaking Paris and Rome.

US Army intelligence determined that the thick evergreen forest of the Ardennes in Belgium would be a good place to rest and reorganize combat units, as enemy forces in the area were largely low-quality troops.

The Nazis, however, were preparing a great counteroffensive, forming up 30 crack divisions that would cut the Allied army in two and push for the Belgian port of Antwerp.

On the morning of December 16, 1944, more than 200,000 German troops and almost 1,000 tanks drove into the Ardennes, across an 85-mile stretch of the front line, running from southern Belgium to the middle of Luxembourg.

Stories abound of German paratroopers dropping behind the lines, of English-speaking Nazi troops impersonating Americans, and of massacres of American prisoners of war at Malmedy.

Bad weather held Allied air power in check, and many American troops were caught off guard. The US 106th Infantry division was encircled in hours, and two out of three soldiers were caught or killed. US forces settled into wholesale retreat, save for a few pockets of soldiers who fought on but were quickly isolated, though they held crucial road junctions.

Allied troops from all over the Western Front rushed to the 50-mile bulge the German offensive pushed into the front lines.

Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army arrived at the end of December, and weather improved, but it took until January 28, 1945, to return the front line to where it was on December 15.

Below, you can see photos from the first weeks of the frigid six-week battle that caused 67,000 American and 100,000 German casualities.

SEE ALSO: It's been 76 years since the Battle of Britain — here are 14 photos of the Nazi onslaught in the skies of England

German soldiers, wearing heavy winter gear, walk past a burning American half-track in the Western Front in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, December 1944. This photo is from a batch of film captured from the Germans by American forces.

German infantrymen pass burning captured American vehicles during the drive into Allied lines on the Western Front in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 during World War II. This photo is from a batch of film captured from the Germans by American forces.

An unidentified young American soldier, captured by German troops during their counterattack in the Belgian Ardennes region, leads a march of prisoners at an unknown location in December 1944.