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This fried chicken restaurant has just 3 menu items — and San Franciscans are going nuts for it

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A fried chicken restaurant has captured the hearts of San Franciscans. The Bird landed in the city's SoMa neighborhood in October, and has been drawing lines out the door since.

The counter-service restaurant is part of restauranteur Adriano Paganini's growing empire, which includes Super Duper Burger, Unos Dos Tacos, and about 20 other Bay Area restaurants. Like the popular burger chain, The Bird features a limited menu of just two entrées and fries.

We stopped by The Bird on a recent afternoon to see if it's worth the wait.

SEE ALSO: This fast-food chain you've probably never heard of is making a killing selling $8 burgers

San Franciscans are lining up to try the city's hottest new fast-casual venture, The Bird.



Somehow I drummed up the willpower to hold off on lunch till about 1:30. When I arrived at The Bird, there was no line. My colleagues tell me they usually wait about 20 minutes.



Check out that line!

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here is the stunning $1.5 billion stadium being built for the Atlanta Falcons

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When the Atlanta Falcons face the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game it will be the last NFL game ever in the 25-year-old Georgia Dome.

The Falcons will move into Mercedes-Benz Stadium next season, a stunning $1.5 billion stadium with a retractable roof. It is like nothing else ever seen in the NFL and looks from the outside like a gigantic metal origami structure.

While construction is not expected to be completed until June, the Falcons released a video showing what the stadium will look like. Here are some of the features.

Here is the outside of the stadium and the area surrounding it, which includes a fan plaza, solar panels, and electric-vehicle charging stations in the parking lot.

 



One side of the stadium is a ground-to-roof window.



The stadium will have a retractable roof unlike any other, opening up like a flower and inspired by the Oculus in the Pantheon of ancient Rome.

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A social network for money managers had a competition for trade ideas — here are the winners

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traders celebrate

Everyone on Wall Street wants to get ahead. 

Investors use algorithms, mathematical models, research, and their gut to come up with investment ideas that will deliver outsized returns.

SumZero, a professional network for investors, has recognized the crème de la crème of those ideas in its 2017 Top Stock Challenge.

According to SumZero, the contest represents the best of the best of forward-looking research from SumZero's community of money management professionals. 

The winners were picked out of 150 entrees by a panel of 25 experts. Contestants were judged on their thesis, strength of their argument, feasibility of the trade, and originality. 

The 5 winning ideas are featured in a report out January 18 by SumZero and were broken up by 5 categories:

  • Special Situations: Event-triggered idea
  • Shorts: idea bets against a company's stock
  • Ex-US: idea associated with companies that are based on a non-American country
  • Small Caps: idea related to companies with market caps lower than $2 billion
  • Mid/Large Caps: idea related to companies with market caps higher than $2 billion

The winners have earned a free ticket to a global 2017 Sohn Investment Conference event of their choosing, and a free, one-year subscriptions to the Canalyst Equity Model Database. Read on to see the 5 winning ideas:

Winner: Best Special Situation

Long on Liberty Media Corp Braves Grp

Winner: Willis Manley of Mitotic Investments

Symbol: BATRK

Expected Return: 109.2%

Rationale:"High-growth monopoly trading at 50% NAV. Unique tax shielding benefits + mixed-asset security + underestimated impact from new facilities + company errors in their own valuation."



Winner: Best Short

Short on Wingstop

Winner: Adam Patinkin of David Capital Partners, LLC.

Symbol: WING

Expected Return: 65.4%

Rationale: "We think richly-valued Wingstop Inc has 70% downside to fair value as (i) same-store sales growth goes from positive to negative and (ii) unit expansion misses expectations."



Winner: Best Ex-US

Long on Bollore

Winner: Steven Wood of GreenWood Investors

Symbol: BOL

Expected Return: 236.1%

Rationale: "World class assets trading at 60% discount at the exact moment when multiple segments are poised to show substantial improvements in '17. Run by an outsider in a very attractive market."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

I drove a lot of cars in 2016 — and this VW wagon is the one I disliked the most

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VW Golf SportWagen

I test drive around 50 to 60 cars, pickups, and SUVs every year. The contrast in overall quality between what consumers can buy now and what they could buy when I was growing up is astounding. 

It's fair to say that there are almost no bad cars anymore.

Almost.

Every so often, I get behind the wheel of one that doesn't do it for me. This happened last year with the 2016 Volkswagen Golf SportWagen TSI S.

I didn't out-and-out hate the car. It's a wagon after all. Car writers have a soft spot for wagons.

But the VW didn't compare favorably with other vehicles in its general price range and with its configuration I've sampled in 2016 (and in the years before that). To be honest, it ultimately soured me on basic wagons a bit and got me thinking that automakers are correct to focus on smaller crossovers and SUVs to serve the needs of what in the past might have been wagon aficionados.

It has some pluses, of course. And I had, when I tried the SportWagen out, just finished driving a VW Dune Beetle that I really enjoyed. Also, let me say at the outset that my $22,445 test vehicle served as quite capable basic, versatile transportation. I wasn't expecting a Ferrari FF.

 

SEE ALSO: 3 different convertibles for 3 different personality types

The awful, dreadful, unspeakable clutch.

Let's get right to it. I may not be the best driver in the world — far from it — but I pride myself on never stalling stick-shifts. The SportWagen TSI S, with a Silver Metallic exterior and Titan Black interior, came with a five-speed manual. Not a six-speed, pretty much the industry standard these days, but a throwback five. To be honest, I was sort of thrilled. Sixth gear has always annoyed me, although it makes sense for fuel-economy reasons.

Anyway, I stalled the SportWagen about a half-dozen times in stop-and-go driving from my office in Manhattan's Flatiron District to the Lincoln Tunnel. BI's Ben Zhang was riding shotgun and can vouch for the entire embarrassing spectacle.

The clutch on the SportWagen was horrible. It felt like I was depressing a child's toy. It didn't even feel like a clutch. It felt like a $1 spring. Sproing! Sproing! Sproing! I couldn't figure out how to finesse it to keep the engine running. Well, I did eventually, but yikes! A man of my age and experience shouldn't have to go through this.

That was beginning of my unhappy journey.



Now, I MIGHT buy it ...

Now, I have to admit that if I were going to buy a car, I might still go for the SportWagen, given its price, utility, and relative lack of attention-getting looks. It's reasonably well designed for what it costs, it drives OK beyond the miserable clutch, the little 1.8-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine doesn't give the impression that the car is powered by hyperventilating hamsters, and the no-muss-no-fuss interior would be good to motor around my kids, who tend to mess up cars.

But I would then be buying a car that gives me very little joy past being able to accommodate my beloved ironing board (I love to iron). Yes, you can drop the rear seats and create good cargo space. And yes, the SportWagen was able to handle two kids in the back seat on a rather long drive to the East End of Long Island from suburban New Jersey, although they weren't comfortable.



Basic. Basic. Basic.

The SportWagen is a decent-looking car. Emphasis on "decent." Which could be translated as "rather boring, in a sort of el-cheapo German stately Euro-austere way."

The more time I spent with it, with that dour gray exterior and the black interior, the more depressed I got.

It started. It was ever-so-slightly spirited in corners. It didn't beat me to death on the highway. The infotainment and audio systems were ... adequate. The AC blew. It got quite good gas mileage: 25 city/36 highway/29 combined.

But seriously, it was a gray rectangle of basic-ness. It wasn't ever trying to be more. 

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This list of every 'Word of the Year' is like taking a trip through time

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Hashtag. Metrosexual. Occupy.

Those three words have one thing in common — they've all been named "Word of the Year."

Every year since 1990, members of the American Dialect Society have gathered at their annual convention — once called "the Super Bowl of linguistics"— to crown the word that defined the year. The linguists and lexicographers vote on words based on their predominance in headlines and widespread use throughout the country.

Anything considered a "lexical item" can be nominated, meaning multi-word phrases like "dumpster fire"— named 2016's Word of the Year earlier this month — are fair game. The same goes for hashtags, prefixes, and even emoji.

Because each Word of the Year is closely tied with the era that spawned it, looking back at the list of every winner is like flipping through a yearbook of the past quarter-century. There's the surge of Internet-related words like "cyber" and "information superhighway" in the early 1990s and a string of political words like "chad" and "weapons of mass destruction" that reflected the climate of the early 2000s. 

More recently, tech words like "tweet" and "app" have dominated the vote, demonstrating how much the internet has influenced our language.

Take a look at every Word of the Year, and take a trip through time.

SEE ALSO: It's official — the 2016 Word of the Year is 'dumpster fire'

2016 — dumpster fire

The American Dialect Society chose "dumpster fire," a metaphor suggesting a poorly-handled or out-of-control situation, as 2016's Word of the Year on Friday.

The phrase saw a surge in popularity on social media to describe one of the most chaotic years in recent memory, which featured a bitterly contested US election, a stunning Brexit vote, and numerous high-profile deaths.



2015 — they

The word "they" has existed in English for nearly a millennium, but it wasn't until last year that it started to gain traction as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun. The flexible pronoun can be used when "he" or "she" doesn't suffice for people who identify outside the traditional gender binary.



2014 — #blacklivesmatter

2014 marked the first time a hashtag was named Word of the Year.

With the vote, linguists acknowledged the power of hashtags to convey social and political messages, as #blacklivesmatter did in addressing the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of police.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The 6 quarterbacks drafted before Tom Brady in the infamous 2000 NFL Draft

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Tom Brady

Tom Brady is now 39 years old and in his 17th season as a quarterback for the New England Patriots.

Despite his age, Brady is still one of the top quarterbacks in the league and continues to add to his legacy as one of the top quarterbacks in the history of the game.

Brady's amazing career began in April, 2000, when the Patriots famously rolled the dice and drafted the Michigan quarterback in the sixth round with the 199th pick overall. New England made the move despite Brady being thoroughly unimpressive at the NFL Combine.

Just as famously, six other teams drafted quarterbacks before Brady. Below we take a look at what happened to those other quarterbacks.

SEE ALSO: 

The Jets used the 18th pick on Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington.



Pennington played 11 seasons in the NFL with the Jets and Dolphins, earning $51 million in his career. He now runs the 1st and 10 Foundation with his wife and coaches middle-school football in Lexington, Kentucky.

Source: Kentucky.com, 1st and 10 Foundation



The 49ers drafted Hofstra's Giovanni Carmazzi in the third round with the 65th pick overall.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here's everything we know about the Super Bowl ads so far

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Super Bowl 51 is set to air on Fox on February 5 and, as usual, the big game's broadcast will be stuffed to the brim with big-money ads, reportedly costing $5 million for a 30-second slot.

Unlike last year, as Marketing Land pointed out, many brands are keeping unusually quiet so far about their Super Bowl activity. But expect to see more teasers as the Super Bowl draws closer.

We'll be keeping you up to date with all the latest commercials, teasers, and other Super Bowl ads news.

Scroll down to see what we know so far about the Super Bowl ads (we've organized all the news in alphabetical order, by brand.

84 Lumber

Construction-supply company 84 Lumber has splashed out an estimated $15 million on a 90-second ad — its debut Super Bowl spot, AdAge reported. The ad, created by Brunner, will air in the second quarter, before half-time and aims to recruit new employees. 

However, the first cut of the ad has had to be scrapped after Fox rejected it for being "too political,"Campaign first reported. The creative had featured a wall blocking people looking for work in the US.

Here's a recent 84 Lumber ad, celebrating its 60th year:

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/S9PhSJ2wp-c
Width: 560px
Height: 315px


Audi

The automaker is returning to the Super Bowl for the ninth time, with an ad created by agency Venables Bell & Partners, according to Adweek.

Last year's spot featured David Bowie's "Starman":

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/yB8tgVqmKzw
Width: 560px
Height: 315px


Avocados from Mexico

Avocados from Mexico told Business Insider in December it was coming back to the Super Bowl in 2017. It's the third year in a row the brand has advertised in the big game.

This year's ad will be focused on promoting the fact that avocados are healthy, something the company was not explicitly permitted to do so in the past due to old FDA rules.

Here's last year's spot:

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/1ndPEQCoSzk
Width: 560px
Height: 315px


See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Take a look inside London's underground Fort Knox – where the wealthy go to store their valuables

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London Fort Knox1LONDON – The world is becoming less certain and those with wealth are focused on safeguarding it.

With that in mind, London developer Amazon Property (no relation to the online retailer) opened the £30-million Armitage Vaults 40 feet below the city's West End.

The vaults have 10,000 square feet of storage space encased in one metre thick ferrous-concrete, and insurance to cover items worth up to £10 million. 

Both businesses and private clients have signed up to use the facilities.

Tom Archer, operations Director of Amazon Property said: “The facility is new, however we have already had significant interest and the vaults are already 20% let, with 75% of users being from the UK, the remainder are international. Around 50% of the tenants are wealthy private clients, the balance are businesses.”

Take a look inside.

The “secret entrance” off Bolsover Street, has ground-level special video-entry security doors, monitored by security, which lead into a manned security room, cameras and loading bay.



The bay opens into a special goods lift which goes down to the underground facility. Clients can store anything from tourist luggage and valuables to luxury items such as high-value artworks, jewellery, antiques and wine.



There are 135 steel lined, climate controlled, storage units ranging from 6 to 100 square feet in size. The site’s insurance facility covers stored items valued from £50,000 to £150,000.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 10 most expensive cities to live in around the world in 2017

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Los Angeles

LONDON — The most expensive cities to live in around the world in 2017 have been revealed in the 13th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2017.

The study analysed 406 metropolitan housing markets in nine countries — Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States — in the third quarter of 2016.

Using the "mean multiple" approach — the median house price divided by the median household income — the data shows that the most "severely unaffordable major housing markets" are in Australia, New Zealand, Chia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Oliver Hartwich, executive director of the think tank behind the research, The New Zealand Initiative, said: "The number of severely unaffordable major housing markets rose from 26 to 29. We need to tackle housing affordability urgently because the effects of unaffordable housing on society are becoming more visible by the day... We should not accept extreme price levels in our housing markets. High house prices are not a sign of city's success but a sign of failure to deliver the housing that its citizens need."

Scroll down to see the 10 most expensive cities to live in around the world in 2017.

10. Bournemouth & Dorset, UK: A "severely unaffordable" market in previous surveys, the area of Bournemouth & Dorset is the 10th most expensive place to live around the world.



9. San Francisco, US: The California city came in 9th, with a median multiple — median house price divided by median household income — of 9.2.



8. Los Angeles, US: In LA, house prices rose the equivalent of 14 months in household income in only 12 months, giving it a median multiple of 9.3 and putting it in 8th place.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Sonos with Tidal is the best high-end, user-friendly wireless audio setup I've ever used

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Sonos Tidal Review

I spent almost two years researching a new audio setup for my house. By way of background, I don't own any TVs and although we pay for a variety of video-steaming services, I don't watch them all that much (everybody else does, on laptops, tablets, and iPhones).

However, I do listen to a lot of music. Before I moved from Los Angeles a couple of years ago, I had a kind of evolving hybrid old-school/new-school audio setup. At any given time, there was a component hi-fi stereo plus a Wi-Fi streaming rig and of course the car radio. There were CDs and even some survivors from my once-vast vinyl record collection. There were cassette tapes. There were iTunes libraries and a stray iPod or two.

When I came back to New York, I decided to commit to a simple Bluetooth setup. So for a while, it was iPhone + Bluetooth speaker. But it wasn't a very good Bluetooth speaker. I missed the old component configuration I had lugged around for two decades, in the 1980s and 1990s. I realized that I wanted to listen to music and have it sound good.

So began the quest. Fortunately, I wasn't in a hurry. And I had reference points. It boiled down to whether I had in mind a static or dynamic listening experience. Or perhaps better stated as stationary or ambient. 

A key point of reference was my father-in-law's budget audiophile arrangement, with NAD components mated to a pair of excellent Ohm speakers. Good sounds!

But to really enjoy that setup — which I was familiar with from my own systems — you have to commit to sitting in a chair or on a couch, figuring out how to best position the speakers, and in this day and age go for an amplifier-turntable-speakers rig and start rebuilding the vinyl. It's also a wired system, so there are, you know ... wires.

The listening experience is unparalleled, of course. But as I worked through my options, I realized that I don't listen to music that way anymore — unless I'm in a car, where I get to sample no end of multi-speaker, high-end audio systems.

We listen to music holistically, and we want to fill our house with it. So you can probably guess where I'm heading here.

Yep, we took the Sonos plunge. But what an odyssey it was before we finally made that decision!

SEE ALSO: The best audio system I've ever heard in a car also sounds amazing at home

We have a kind of medium-sized, three-story house, with small and medium-sized rooms. Acoustically, the living room or family room is quite good, but it's also not an ideal place in which to locate an elaborate audio system.



We had been making do with a group of Bluetooth speakers. We had some old component systems and some refugee speakers, but they weren't going to work as the main rig.



I used to own about 500 vinyl records. But I sold them and made the switch to digital, not always with great results, audio-wise. So I explored setting up a new, vinyl-centric system.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

4 signs a relationship has long-term potential

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couple

These points are all broad principles. However, if your new relationship ticks the four boxes below, it's reasonable to assume it has the potential to be a nurturing, cohesive long-term partnership.

If your relationship doesn't tick these boxes, you may need to be more aware of whether your current feelings might change in the future.

SEE ALSO: Relationship experts reveal 6 secrets that help power couples stay together

1. You like each other's extreme traits

Which is more often true: "Opposites attract," or "Birds of a feather flock together?"

In general, it's the latter. People really do tend to partner with others who are similar to them and who share their values.  

Of course, this is a generalization. It's easy enough for us to think of relationships that work despite differences (e.g., Democrats and Republicans, vegetarians and meat-lovers, extroverts and introverts). Where shared inclinations and values tend to be most important, though, is if one or both partners is very extreme in a certain area.

For example, my spouse and I are both extremely frugal. We drive most other people nuts with our resistance to spending money. Most other potential partners would find either of us difficult to live with because we're on the extreme end of the normal curve in this regard.

Extreme opposite traits can initially attract you to someone — for example, a shy, quiet person attracted to someone who has hundreds of friends and is an expert social networker.

However, the more extreme the other person is in a particular regard, the more likely it is that you'll find your differences annoying in the future. Non-narcissists initially attracted to a narcissist's charm is one particularly common example of this pattern. 

When your partner has any extreme traits, you don't need to be as extreme as they are, but it's easier going forward if you're not the complete opposite.



2. Your partner is warm, trustworthy, and dependable

Everyone has their priorities for what they want in a partner. Some people value looks more than money or status, while for others, it's the reverse. But despite differences in people's particular ideals and priorities, almost everyone — both men and women — wants a partner who is warm, trustworthy, dependable, and reliable. 

If your partner is warm towards you and other people, that's a good sign. Likewise, if they're emotionally stable and dependable, that's also a good sign. If they're aloof or narcissistic towards others, but nice to you, that's a potential warning sign: Their treatment of others may be more revealing of their true colors.



3. You and your partner have roughly equal 'mate value'

Research shows that love isn't particularly subjective: Even relative strangers are usually fairly reliable in rating someone's "mate value," i.e., desirability. People also usually have a rough idea of their own mate value.

Problems can occur in relationships when the partners have vastly different objective mate value. We've all seen celebrity marriages in which an attractive, wealthy individual marries someone who doesn't appear to even have a job. Having a partner with lower mate value than yours may be initially attractive, but the sheen typically wears off after time (as we see when such celebrity couples break up).

The reality is that wealthy or attractive people tend to marry other wealthy or attractive people. One might imagine that everyone would want a partner with "10/10" mate value, but this is often stressful due to what evolutionary psychologists call fear of "mate poaching"— if your partner is, say, Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams, chances are you're going to be worried about losing your lover to a poacher. 

In general, then, having a partner who has roughly equal mate value to you typically makes for the smoothest, most enduring relationship.  

[Note: These are principles of evolutionary psychology. They can seem a bit crass in the modern world, but research shows that they are generally true.]



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Tesla just began rolling out its new and improved Autopilot — here's what you need to know

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Tesla AutopilotNew

It's official: if you own a new Tesla, you can start trying out improved Autopilot features.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced over the weekend that new and improved Autopilot features were rolling out to all vehicles equipped with Tesla's second-generation hardware suite, which the automaker began installing in cars in October.

Here are five quick facts you need to know about the new update:

SEE ALSO: Tesla's Autopilot has slashed crash rates for its cars by 40%, according to a government report

1. Tesla is only rolling out the first phase of Enhanced Autopilot.

Owners now have access to Traffic Aware Cruise Control, Forward Collision Warning, and Autosteer. The Autosteer feature, which helps keep the car in its lane, is limited to 45 mph, Musk tweeted Sunday.

Autosteer works with Traffic Aware Cruise Control so the car can drive on highways in stop-and-go traffic. Forward Collision Warning will alert drivers of a potential impact with an upcoming obstacle, but there is no emergency braking to actually stop the car, so the onus is on the driver.



2. Tesla will continue rolling out updates to Autopilot every two to six weeks.

If the first wave of features seem fairly lacking, don't worry too much, as Tesla will continue to improve Autopilot throughout 2017 via over-the-air updates, Musk said Sunday on Twitter. For example, Musk has said Autosteer will eventually operate over 45 mph.



3. Enhanced Autopilot will eventually be able to change lanes without driver input, merge on and off highways, and park itself. Tesla will also improve the Summon feature so the car can maneuver around a more complex environment to find you.

All of those features are enabled by Tesla's second-generation hardware suite, which consists of 8 cameras, a radar sensor, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and Nvidia's Titan GPU, an onboard computing system. However, Autopilot will only rely on 4 of the 8 cameras.

You can get a more technical breakdown of the new Autopilot system here.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The meteoric rise of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in photos (GOOG, GOOGL)

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Sundar Pichai Google

More than a year ago, Sundar Pichai took the helm at Google.

While Larry Page is still CEO of Google's parent company, Alphabet, Pichai has the incredibly important job of making sure that the company's core businesses and cash cow stay strong.

So who is Pichai and how did he scale the ranks to get one of the most important jobs at one of the most important companies in the world?

Here's his story.

Jillian D'Onfro contributed to an earlier version of this article.

SEE ALSO: The fascinating life of Google founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page

Pichai, whose full name is actually Pichai Sundararajan, grew up in Chennai, India. His father was as an electrical engineer and his mother a stenographer before having him and his younger brother. The family wasn't wealthy, and the boys slept together in the living room of their two-room apartment.

Source: Bloomberg, Inc.



Early on, Pichai had a talent for remembering numbers, which his family realized when he could recall every phone number he had ever dialed on their rotary phone. He will still sometimes show off his memorization skills at meetings, to colleagues' awe.

Source: Bloomberg



After becoming interested in computers — the first software program he wrote was a chess game — Pichai studied metallurgical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. His success there won him a scholarship to Stanford.

Source: YouTube



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

17 tricks to get fit without paying for a gym pass

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fitness class

While an expensive personal trainer or membership at a plush health club may seem like the easiest way to get fit, there are a number of things you can do at minimal cost — or for free — to hit your fitness goals.

We've put together a list of effective ways to work out without splurging on a gym pass.

From a community that burns calories while doing good deeds to live yoga classes with an online instructor, here are some cheap tricks to better your body.

1. Do free yoga with an online instructor.

Yoga is a great way to strengthen your entire body, but classes at a studio can be extremely pricey. Practice yoga in the comfort of your living room with an online program like Yogaia, which offers video classes for free, and live classes for a fee (membership is around £15 a month). 



2. Follow a free YouTube workout.

Popular personal trainers and fitness stars like "The Body Coach" Joe Wicks offer easy-to-follow workout videos tailored for different goals all for free on YouTube. Just grab some water, put on some workout gear and get ready to sweat.



3. Sign up for a free fitness class.

Make the most of the impressive range of classes available across the UK that won't cost a thing. Fitness brands like Sweaty Betty, Lululemon, Nike, and Reebok all offer free sessions, either in their stores or out and about around the city.

 

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Pictures of London carpeted in fog as mayor issues unprecedented air pollution alert

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London fog

LONDON — Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has issued a "very high" air pollution alert for the first time after the city was carpeted in thick fog on Monday.

The air quality index stands at 10 out of 10, which means pollution is higher than ever under Khan's new measurement system, according to an announcement from the mayor's office.

The pollution is being caused by cold and settled weather. City Hall said low wind speeds are leading to the "poor dispersal of local pollutants" meaning that they have built up over the course of several days.

"Today the shameful state of London’s toxic air has meant that I am forced to trigger the first ‘very high’ air pollution alert under my new comprehensive alert system," Khan said.

"This is the highest level of alert and everyone — from the most vulnerable to the physically fit — may need to take precautions to protect themselves from the filthy air."

Freezing fog covered most of southern England on Monday, contributing to the high pollution levels in London. Scroll on to see dramatic images of the fog, which has shrouded London landmarks and grounded flights from airports.

The Houses of Parliament.



The Shard.



St. Paul's Cathedral.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here are the 12 business leaders Trump hosted for his first big White House meeting

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trump business leaders meeting

President Donald Trump, in his first big meeting, sat down with 12 CEOs of the United States' largest companies.

He told the group — which included SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Ford CEO Mark Fields, and Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson — that his administration would prioritize corporate tax cuts and decrease regulation, following up on his "America First" campaign promise.

He also repeated his threat to impose a "border tax" on companies that move production outside the US.

"There will be advantages to companies that do indeed make their products here," Trump said.

Here's who sat at the table in the Roosevelt Room on Monday morning.

SEE ALSO: TRUMP: We're going to 'cut regulation by 75%' and impose a 'very major border tax'

Elon Musk — CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla Motors, chairman of Solar City, co-chairman of OpenAI

Trump is a big fan of Musk, the tireless head of some of the most ambitious renewable-energy companies in the US, naming Musk to his Strategic and Policy Forum and inviting him to a meeting with tech leaders in December.

"The president-elect has a strong emphasis on US manufacturing and so do we,"Musk told Tesla investors in November, referring to Tesla's upcoming Gigafactory. "We are building the biggest factory in the world right here, creating US jobs. ... I think we may see some surprising things from the next administration. We don't think they will be negative on fossil fuels ... but they may also be positive on renewables."



Mark Fields — President and CEO of Ford Motor Company

Earlier this month, Fields announced that Ford would not pursue a proposed $1.6 billion production facility in Mexico that Trump had criticized during his campaign. Fields clarified that the move was because of the market and not Trump's remarks, but he also said, "We are encouraged by the pro-growth plans that President-elect Trump and the new Congress indicate they will pursue."

Ford plans to invest $4.5 billion in electric and self-driving vehicles over the next five years.



Marillyn Hewson — Chairwoman, president, and CEO of Lockheed Martin

Hewson was the only female executive in attendance on Monday.

Trump called out Lockheed Martin on Twitter in December for what he said was excessive spending on the development of the advanced fighter jet, the F-35. Hewson then met with Trump to discuss.

In a statement after their meeting, she said that she promised Trump she would aggressively cut costs on the F-35. "I know that President-elect Trump wants the very best capability for our military at the lowest cost for taxpayers, and we're ready to deliver," she said.



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A couple who saved $50,000 to travel the world talks earning, spending, and working their way through nearly 50 countries

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The World Pursuit_Hiking in the Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa

Two weeks before graduating college and leaving for a months-long backpacking trip through Europe, Natasha Alden met someone.

And after two dates, they decided he would go with her.

More than three years later, Alden and Cameron Seagle are still traveling together. They've backpacked Europe, Southeast Asia, and now, they're spending a year driving across Africa.

In all, the 20-somethings have been to about 50 countries. You can follow their adventures through their site, The World Pursuit, and their Instagram.

Below, they told Business Insider how they saved up about $50,000 to fund their travels, why they're driving across a continent, and what it's like to travel the world together.

SEE ALSO: A 31-year-old who's been traveling the world for 5 years explains how she affords it

On that first post-graduation trip abroad, Alden and Seagle met in Norway and traveled together for two months, using money they'd saved from weekend and summer jobs throughout college.

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In Norway. 



Then, Seagle returned home to the US as Alden kept at it. After six months at home, he flew back out to meet her again in Southeast Asia.

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Backpacking through Bangkok, Thailand.



They spent two months together in Asia, then moved to New York City to fill their coffers for longer-term travel.

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At Storm King sculpture park in New York. 



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7 red flags not to overlook at an open house

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real estate agent

When you're on the hunt for a new home, weekends spent touring open houses can quickly veer from fun to daunting by house No. 3. Keeping track of which home had that great kitchen (but terrible master bath) versus the home with a terrible backyard but a great floor plan can be tough. And while no house is likely to be perfect, when it comes to your budget, some updates are harder to swallow than others.

Unfortunate paint colors, though hard to see past, shouldn't sway your decision because they are easily changed. But other issues should give you pause because they will require costly repairs or indicate larger, underlying problems that simply can't be fixed.

SEE ALSO: 10 renovations that can increase your home's resale value, according to the HGTV's 'Property Brothers'

1. How old is the roof?

"You really need to look beyond the new kitchen and bathroom and consider the bones of the home,"Adam Waggoner of Generator Real Estate in Denver says. One of the biggest "bones" of a house? The roof.

The typical life span of a roof is up to about 20 years, but the average cost to replace one runs into five figures, averaging about $12,000 but sometimes passing $25,000. That's why Omaha, Nebraska, real-estate agent Robert Jensen suggests paying close attention to the age and condition of the roof before making an offer.

 



2. Are there issues with the home's foundation?

This is what everything is resting on — literally. While superficial blemishes might not matter enough to affect a sale, if there are wide cracks in the foundation, Waggoner says, it's most likely not worth the time and anguish that can come with fixing it.



3. What is the state of the sewer system?

When it comes to sewer and septic systems, many people are in the dark on a few elements. First off, their level of responsibility: If something goes wrong, it's the homeowner, not the city, who must cover damages (frequently through homeowner's insurance).

The condition of the sewer lines is also not part of a regular home inspection, so a few hundred dollars for a dedicated sewer inspection could prove to be a worthy investment.



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15 crazy facts about the outrageous LA mansion that just listed for $250 million

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$250 million bel air house

A new home built on speculation in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles is asking an earth-shattering $250 million.

And it's a doozy. Full of splashy art and high-end furniture, the home is truly unlike any other property on the market. It was built by the luxury developer Bruce Makowsky, whom the release refers to as the "spec king." He was also the mastermind behind the $70 million Beverly Hills house sold to Minecraft founder Markus "Notch" Persson in 2014.

Here are some of the most outrageous facts about the home that, according to a press release from the developer, is the most expensive to ever be listed in the US.

 

SEE ALSO: This outrageous $250 million mansion in LA comes with a 4-lane bowling alley and an entire collection of cars

DON'T MISS: See inside the $5.3 million Washington, DC, home that the Obamas will move into after they leave the White House

1. At $250 million, the home is the most expensive ever offered for sale in the US, according to a press release announcing its listing.



2. It took four years and 250 people to build.



3. It covers 38,000 square feet — that's over 14 times larger than the average new home constructed in the US in 2015.

Source: AEI



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The 10 hairstyles you'll be seeing everywhere this year

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Braided Top Knot

The right hairdo can complete any look.

We asked Pinterest to help us identify the most popular hairstyles that are trending right now.

Natural looks are in, as are balayage and messy buns.

Keep scrolling for more hair inspiration.

This rock chick chic 'do is known as the shag, and searches for it are up 37%.



Natural, no-heat hairstyles are up 40%.



Long hairstyles are up 40% and are continuing to grow.



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