The US auto market continued its hot streak in 2016 with more than 17.4 million cars and trucks sold. As expected, pickup trucks and SUVs accounted for much of the growth. While sedans remain popular, their influence — in terms of sales volume — on the US auto market has atrophied over the past few years. Compact-car sales fell 6.1% last year. At the same time, its mid-size counterpart saw sales plummet 11.2%.

In its place, the dominant force in the marketplace is the compact and mid-size crossover SUV. Combined, these two segments account for 35% of all cars and trucks sold in the United States. At the same time, America's insatiable appetite for full-size pickup trucks is alive and well. Even though the segment is made up of just six models, total sales topped 2.2 million.

Here's a rundown of the 20 best-selling cars and trucks of 2016.

SEE ALSO: Here's your guide to all 22 versions of the Porsche 911

20. Hyundai Elantra: 208,319 sold during 2016. -13.8% over 2015.

19. Jeep Grand Cherokee: 212,273. +8.1%.

18. Nissan Sentra: 214,709. +5.5%.

Three years before Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of the world's largest tourist resort, located on a beachfront property on the island of Rügen.

The Nazis called it Prora.

Capable of holding more than 20,000 residents, Prora was meant to comfort the weary German worker who toiled away in a factory without respite.

According to historian and tour guide Roger Moorhouse, it was also meant to serve as the carrot to the stick of the Gestapo — a pacifying gesture to get the German people on Hitler's side.

But then World War II began, and Prora's construction stalled — until now.

SEE ALSO: A renegade photographer got inside this lawless Hong Kong community that was 119 times as dense as New York City

In 1936, Germany was still enmeshed in the concept of "people's community," or volksgemeinschaft, from World War I. It was a sense that Germans stood united, no matter what.

While the Nazi police state was in development, the overarching German vision was a hopeful one, Moorhouse told Business Insider. "And this," he said, "is where something like Prora comes in."

Over the next three years, more than 9,000 workers erected a 2.7-mile-long building out of brick and concrete. Its practicality was dwarfed by its grandness. Moorhouse calls it "megalomania in stone."

The INSIDER Summary:

• England's Lake District was just named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• The district is England's most popular national park and sees around 18 million visitors per year.
• The park is home to the country's tallest peak and longest and deepest lakes.
  

The Lake District is a national park in Cumbria, a region in the northwest of England.

The park is by far the most popular in the country, and it was just added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

This is the area's third bid to become a World Heritage Site; this time it won the cultural landscape category. It was recognized for its beauty, farming, and the fact that it has served as inspiration for many famous writers.

Keep scrolling to see photos and learn more about the Lake District.

The Lake District's many valleys were carved out by glaciers during the Ice Age.

Since then, farmers have helped to conserve and shape the area through a method that involves enclosing fields within walls.

The region is also characterized by its mountains and clear waters.

Lucid Motors, a startup going after Tesla's grip on the luxury electric car market, said Monday that a prototype of its Lucid Air sedan hit a top speed of 235 mph, crushing the top speed of a Model S (155 mph).

That's not exactly a fair comparison considering the Lucid prototype was adjusted to go as fast as possible. An actual production version of the car will be electronically limited to hit a more manageable top speed. It will also be heavier, reducing its overall speed capabilities.

But the test, conducted in Ohio with the Transportation Research Center, shows Lucid Motors' engineers are set on competing with Tesla on speed.

Lucid Motors’ all-electric car was built by the same minds behind the Model S.

Peter Rawlinson, the chief engineer behind the Model S, is the leading force behind the car as Lucid Motors' CTO. But Rawlinson is flanked by other former Model S engineers as well, like Eric Bach, Tesla's former director of engineering

In April, I got a ride in the startup's very first prototype, the Lucid Air. Here's what it was like:

SEE ALSO: Startup Lucid Motors insists it is defying the electric car curse and will challenge Tesla in China

The Lucid Air starts at $52,500, but the prototype we saw at Classic Car Club was fully optioned to include the company’s more luxurious touches: a panoramic sunroof, two rear seats that can recline 55 degrees, and a 29-speaker audio system.

The car I took a ride in has a range of 315 miles and can produce 1,000 horsepower, Lucid Motors says. It will cost over $100,000, just like the Tesla Model S P100D.

Lucid Air's less-expensive base vehicle can produce 400 horsepower and has a range of 240 miles. That means it will compete with the Tesla Model S 75 that starts at $74,500 before tax incentives.

Lucid Motors didn't let us get behind the wheel because the car is still a prototype. But the startup did take us for a brief ride, albeit in very heavy New York traffic that made it impossible to rev the engine.

While Planned Parenthood has become the go-to poster child for the abortion debate in the US over the past year, the organization has weathered political turmoil for the last 101 years.

In 1916, three women in New York were arrested for handing out birth control information and, after going to court, opened the first branch of what is now Planned Parenthood today.

Even though abortions are just one of many services offered at the nonprofit's health centers, Planned Parenthood has often caught ire from antiabortion activists and conservative politicians.

Here's how Planned Parenthood went from a small group of women's rights activists in a Brooklyn brownstone to one of the largest reproductive healthcare providers in the world today:

SEE ALSO: How the GOP healthcare plan could affect Planned Parenthood

DON'T MISS: The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade isn't the biggest threat to abortion rights

In 1916, early women's rights activists Margaret Sanger, Ethyl Byrne, and Fania Mindell were thrown in jail for 30 days for handing out birth control and pregnancy information from a Brooklyn brownstone.

Source: Planned Parenthood

Back then, obscenity laws made it illegal for anyone — even doctors — to distribute contraception or information on it. The most popular forms of birth control those days were condoms and diaphragms.

Sources: Planned Parenthood, Our Bodies Ourselves

After a lengthy court battle, a district judge in New York struck down the federal law banning contraception, legalizing birth control prescribed by a doctor in 1936. But it would take years for most women to gain access.

Source: Margaret Sanger

The first ever Con of Thrones came to Nashville in June 2017, bringing together "Game of Thrones" and "A Song of Ice and Fire" fans from around the world. One of the highlights from the weekend was the huge number of cosplayers who attended the con, showing off their elaborate (and often homemade) "Game of Thrones" costumes. 

Keep scrolling for a look at the best cosplayers spotted by INSIDER.

Were you cosplaying at Con of Thrones and want to be included in our round up? Email pictures to krenfro@thisisinsider.com

This "Exploding Sept of Baelor" cosplay (complete with a glowing seven-pointed star) blew everyone away.

Cosplayer Morgan Drase came up with the creative take on Cersei's deadly season six plan. Check out more pictures and videos of her outfit on Instagram.

One of the most popular Con of Thrones cosplays was Jon Snow, but Zak McIntosh really nailed the King in the North's brooding look.

McIntosh goes by the cosplayer name "Con Snow" on social media.

I mean, seriously, this is uncanny.

McIntosh had a different Jon Snow outfit for each day, from Lord Commander of the Night's Watch to a perfect "Battle of the Bastards" Jon (complete with a shield).

We’re currently living in another golden age of television — there’s so much good TV right now that you could remove yourself from society, hole up in a bunker (à la Andy Samberg in his opening bit to the 2015 Emmys), keep yourself glued to the small screen for months on end and you still might not get completely caught up.

So it’s no shocker that the first half of 2017 has welcomed some compelling new series, emotionally wrenching finales and more than a few Emmy-worthy performances. In short, it’s been a great year for TV lovers — and we haven’t even seen the newest season of Game of Thrones yet.

Now that we’re at 2017’s halfway point, we figured it’s a fitting time to take stock of all the TV that’s aired. So we’ve rounded up and ranked the 13 best episodes of 2017 so far.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The best TV of 2017 so far

13. "Legion,""Chapter 6" (Season 1, Episode 6)

This episode of creator Noah Hawley’s psychedelic, X-Men-adjacent series technically goes nowhere; the main characters are literally frozen in time. But it’s in the midst of this narrative stasis that Aubrey Plaza puts in her finest work as the show’s villain, Lenny, aka the Devil With Yellow Eyes, aka the Shadow King, aka the psychic parasite that’s been haunting protagonist David Haller since his childhood.

In a performance that feels like it’s actually a dozen different roles, Plaza is at her most terrifying while tormenting the other characters in a faux reality, posing as a therapist. She revels in their sorrow and confusion, and in a scene sure to garner Emmy consideration, gyrates around David’s body as she reveals her true, parasitic self. It’s terrific, terrifying stuff. (The hour gets bonus points for a set piece, in which Plaza dances to a remix of Nina Simone’s classic “Feeling Good.”)

12. "The Young Pope,""Episode 9" (Season 1, Episode 9)

While I enjoy trolling HBO’s "The Young Pope" and luxuriating myself in the show’s memes, I will admit it produced some powerful episodes of television in the second half of the season.

None were better than the penultimate episode, which sees the culmination of Monsignor Gutierrez’s investigation into a child abuse scandal in New York and the death of Pope Pius XIII’s mentor, Cardinal Spencer. Gutierrez overcomes his own shortcomings as a lonely, depressed alcoholic to bring justice to the children abused by a powerful archbishop, while Pius shares a tender farewell with the mentor who scorned him most of the season for being vindictive and petty. Gutierrez and Pius, both afflicted by profound alienation, become better versions of themselves by season’s end.

The memes were plentiful and the bizarre story flourishes — the kangaroo hopping through the Vatican, the LMFAO-soundtracked changing montage — are truly bizarre, but ultimately "The Young Pope" proved itself to be a series with a lot of heart. God bless this show.

11. "The Americans,""Dyatkovo" (Season 5, Episode 11)

"The Americans," the spy drama critics will harass you about incessantly for not watching, underwhelmed in a fifth season that was exceptionally sluggish considering this series will be heading into its final stretch in 2018. But it still produced powerful, resonant and incredibly depressing moments, reaching its apex in “Dyatkovo.” The Jennings are tasked with assassinating a Russian war criminal (just another day at the office), but the target reveals a far more disturbing truth behind her crimes — that she was liquored up, threatened and assaulted by soldiers and forced to shoot her countrymen in order to stay alive herself. After hearing her explanation, and once her innocent husband returns home in the middle of the assassination attempt, Philip hits a wall and refuses to pull the trigger. Elizabeth eventually does on both, but with a rare instance of anguish.

It’s a devastating turning point for the Jennings, who enter season six with dwindling faith for their cause. This past season may have been a bit of a letdown, but make no mistake: "The Americans" is still one of TV’s best dramas.

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.

Whether you're ready to start your smart home or like the idea of an always-listening digital assistant, the best option is one of Amazon's Echo devices.

They're more mature and powerful than their current competition, but deciding which one to you should get can be difficult.

To help you figure out which, if any, might work best for you, we’ve broken down the entire line below.

SEE ALSO: This off-brand MacBook charger is a lot cheaper than Apple's and slightly more powerful

The original Echo

As an all-in-one solution, the original Amazon Echo is still one of the best options you can get.

It doesn't have the portability of the Echo Tap, affordability of the Echo Dot, screen of the Echo Show, or camera of the Echo Look, but it's still the one I rely on every day. It's still the best audio-only Echo in terms of sound quality, which is important if you're looking to use it as a Bluetooth speaker.

While it doesn’t sound as nice as a speaker this expensive should — a recurring theme here — the big black cylinder is still louder and richer-sounding than the Dot or Tap. 

The Echo needs to be plugged into an outlet to work, but the seven microphones on its top give it a consistently strong range for hearing your commands. Since Alexa requires a steady Wi-Fi connection to work in the first place, the Echo’s relative lack of mobility isn’t as big of a weakness as it may seem.

The Echo was made to showcase Alexa, so, unsurprisingly, it can do everything the virtual assistant is capable of doing. Whether you want to hear the forecast, start up a radio stream, control your smart lights, access one of its many Skills, suffer a dad joke, whatever — if Alexa can do it, you can access it through the Echo.

The phone app you use to manage Alexa is messy and dull, but once you have your setup down, the whole thing is a breeze to use: You talk, and, since it’s always listening, it responds. There’s a slight feeling-out period for learning exactly how to speak to Alexa, but you get past that soon enough.

Generally speaking, the Echo is the preferred Alexa device if you live in a larger space, or you don’t want to pay for a separate speaker. It probably won’t sound bad to the casual crowd at which it’s aimed, and its boosted volume makes it better for bigger homes.

Buy the original Echo smart speaker for $179.99

Echo Dot

The Echo Dot is more or less a miniature version of the Echo, with all the good and bad that entails. It lets Alexa do all the same things, and it has the same impressive, always-listening array of built-in mics, but it sounds tinnier and more feeble; and its lack of a built-in battery means it still has to be plugged in all day.

It makes up for that in a couple of ways, though. Notably, the Dot can hook up to external speakers, both through Bluetooth and a 3.5mm cable. This makes it something of a "Chromecast for Alexa," adding the assistant to otherwise "dumb" devices, most of which are better sounding and/or easier to move than the Echo itself. In my experience, pairing different devices and getting them to work smoothly hasn't been an issue.

Beyond that, the Dot takes up far less space than the normal Echo — it looks as if someone chopped off the top of that device — and, perhaps most significantly, costs $120 less.

If you live in a smaller apartment, or you have a speaker setup you already enjoy, it's a much better value.

Buy the Echo Dot for $49.99

Amazon Tap

The Amazon Tap isn’t a bad choice for the right person, but it’s a better idea on paper than it is in practice. It’s the portable option in Amazon’s Alexa family, closer to something like a JBL Flip 3 or UE Boom 2 than one of the Echo devices above.

Like those devices, it’s a handsome, cylindrical, lightweight Bluetooth speaker with a built-in battery, which here lasts around 8-9 hours just playing music. You can bring it to the beach, and it’ll still work. (Though it’s not water-resistant.)

The issues here are twofold. First, audio performance is once again lacking. The Flip 3 goes for about $50 less these days, and still proves superior in terms of overall clarity and detail. The Tap’s sound isn't awful by any means, but for $130, it could do better. You'll also need to enable its "hands free" mode to be able to trigger Alexa without touching a button on the device.

The Tap needs to be on a Wi-Fi network for Alexa to work, so you’ll have to be connected to some sort of hotspot if you want to use it on the road. Otherwise, you’re left with a portable speaker that’s just okay.

Still, if you're determined to take an Echo on the road with you, the Tap is your only choice.

Buy the Amazon Tap for $129.99

Warren Buffett is worth $77 billion, but you wouldn't know it from the way he lives.

The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the world's most famous investors still lives in the same house that he bought for $31,500 in 1958. 

And his eating habits are just as low-key. 

The 86-year-old begins each day with a McDonald's breakfast sandwich, and depending on how the markets are doing, he'll opt to be more or less frugal with his choice. On bad days he gets a Sausage McMuffin with egg and cheese for $2.95, and on the good days it's a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit for $3.17. 

Throughout his career, Buffett has also remained loyal to his favorite steakhouse in his hometown of Omaha. 

Business Insider's video team traveled to Gorat's to see what it's like: 

SEE ALSO: Warren Buffett lives in a modest house that's worth .001% of his total wealth — here's what it looks like

Gorat's in Omaha, Nebraska, opened in 1944. From the outside, it doesn't look like much.

A neon sign outside proclaims that it services the "finest steaks in the world."

The steakhouse is about a 7-minute drive from Berkshire Hathaway's HQ.

Although it can seem scary at first, traveling alone has a lot of advantages.

You get to see the sights you want to see, immerse yourself in the culture more heavily, and even feel a greater sense of independence.

With more and more travelers going solo, Airbnb released a list of the top ten cities for solo travel based on growth in single-person home bookings over 2016.

Here are the top 10 trending destinations for solo travelers starting from greatest growth.

Cancun, Mexico – 170% growth

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – 146% growth

Cologne, Germany – 142% growth

In this great compromise called democracy, sacrifices must be made.

On Monday, Chipotle did just that: debuting a menu item it had said it would never serve.

Despite years of customers begging the burrito chain to add queso to the menu, Chipotle has stubbornly denied their demands for the goopy Tex-Mex dip.

"Queso has to be made with artificial stabilizers to keep its shiny liquid form. Ever heard of all-natural goopy cheese? Do you think there's a magical cow that squirts queso out of its udders?" Chipotle said in a snarky video explaining the cheesy elixir's absence.

Chipotle's now singing a different tune. Queso is finally being tested in the company's first public test kitchen in New York City, which opened Monday, Eater first reported. Apparently, the company found a way to crack the enigma of the all-natural queso code.

Eager for answers and liquid cheese, we dashed to the nearby test kitchen, which also serves other test items, including new salads and margaritas.

SEE ALSO: Costco's food court is testing a burger that's been called a Shake Shack ripoff — here's everything we know about it

DON'T MISS: We tried grilled-chicken sandwiches from several major fast-food chains — and the winner is obvious

The test kitchen, called Chipotle Next Kitchen, is in Manhattan on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 13th Street.

Wandering in, you'd think it's just a run-of-the-mill Chipotle, complete with the standard fast-casual decor and the lunchtime rush.

But there's one thing that you won't find at any other Chipotle in the world: queso.

The long-brewing "summer of hell" has kicked off in the New York metro area.

As parts of Penn Station, the US's busiest train hub, have shut down for extensive track repairs, commuters are already complaining about crowded, standing-room-only trains, the New York Post reports.

And experts warn that it's just the beginning — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has already called a state of emergency in New York City's subways, the New York Times reports.

The breakdown of the New York metro area's public transit system is sure to cause a city-wide headache, leaving roughly 600,000 commuters scrambling.

But it also may have a long-term affect on the commuters.

Unsurprisingly, suffering through a public transit system that jams travelers into packed cars, features surprise stampedes and mysterious, foul-smelling leaks, and involves trains that show up incredibly late, when they're not derailing and catching fire, may slowly worsen your health. In some severe cases, it might even increase your risk of premature death.

DNAInfo's Nicole Levy previously reported that "the toll our daily commute takes on us has long-term implications on our mental and physical health."

She looked at research conducted by people like Richard Wener, a professor of environmental psychology at New York University and a longtime commuter, to find out how our daily commutes are affecting our health.

Here are three of the most insidious ways your commute can hurt you in the long run:

DON'T MISS: How to keep your job during New York City's commuter 'summer of hell'

SEE ALSO: 12 things you should do on your commute every day

1. Commuting may raise your cortisol levels

Levy reported that in a 2004 study of suburban rail commuters taking the train from New Jersey to Manhattan, "Wener and his coauthor Gary Evans found that the longer their test subjects' journey was, the higher the levels of cortisol (the primary stress hormone) in their saliva, and the more difficult they found to focus on the task of proofreading assigned them at the end of their commute."

Invasions of personal space — something many more commuters will have to deal with this summer — "had an affect on cortisol levels, too, Wener and Evans concluded in a follow-up paper," she says.

"Chronic stress and overexposure to cortisol — which increases sugars in your bloodstream, alters your immune system responses, suppresses your digestive and reproductive systems, and communicates with that part of your brain that controls mood, motivation and fear — puts you at risk for mental health problems like anxiety and depression, and a whole host of physical health issues,"writes Levy.

If an overly long commute can spike cortisol levels, then waiting around for delayed trains — and even getting trapped in a steamy subway car for an hour— can't be doing wonders for anyone's health.

2. People with long commutes tend to get less sleep and exercise, and have higher cholesterol and BMI

Levy cites a 2009 study based on data from the American Time Use survey, which found that each minute spent commuting translates into a 0.22 minute sleep time reduction. "If you commute an hour each way, you're losing 26.5 minutes of sleep each day and 2.2 hours a week," she says. And, as we know, a lack of sleep can lead to many different health problems.

Employees with lengthy commutes were also more likely to report a diagnosis of high cholesterol and a body mass index (BMI) that categorized them as obese, according to the 2010 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

"That's in part because the time we spend on the subway or the road is time we aren't using to exercise or prepare food at home," Levy writes.

To top it all off, "the stresses of commuting are also associated — surprise, surprise! — with elevated blood pressure levels," she says.

3. Having to make transfers during your commutes may raise stress levels even more

The Journal News reports that Amtrak is shifting some trains to Grand Central in order to deal with track problems at Penn Station. And New Jersey Transit commuters are being redirected to Hoboken Terminal in New Jersey, where they'll have to transfer to ferries, buses, or PATH trains to get into New York City, the New York Times reports.

The process has seemingly gone relatively smoothly so far, but any solutions that involve adding more transfers can take a toll on individual travelers.

Wener and Evans' research also supported the theory that the more transfers a commuter has, and the more difficult they are, the more stressed he or she becomes, reported Levy. "That's because transfers add an element of unpredictability to our travels."

She added: "Waiting for subways and buses is particularly exasperating when we have no idea how long the delay will be."

Research has linked elevated stress levels with an increased risk of serious health problems like heart disease, diabetes, asthma, depression, and even — in some rare cases when the problem is consistent and severe — premature death.

Jacquelyn Smith contributed to a previous version of this article. Read the full DNAInfo article here.

The INSIDER Summary:

• A Quora thread asked locals about reasons why people shouldn't visit their countries.
• Norwegians say that the people there are not very friendly.
• In Australia, everything from the animals to the sun is trying to kill you.

---

Generally, people like to brag about how their hometowns and countries are the best.

However, a recent Quora thread urged people for some real talk, asking "Why should I not visit your country?"

Here are some reasons that might make you want to think twice about your next vacation.

Norwegians say that they aren't very friendly

Norwegians are aloof

According to Petter Brenna Rian,"Don’t visit if you expect to befriend lots of Norwegians. They tend to be quite aloof and cold. We have a saying in Norway: 'If a stranger smiles at you on the street, he or she is either a crazy person or American.' Norwegians only talk to people they know (unless they’re drunk)."

Norway is pricey

Rian also says that in Norway, "Everything is expensive." He cites the "Big Mac Index," according to which a Big Mac in Norway costs $5.67, making it the second most expensive Big Mac in the world. According to him, "Unless you’re the 1%, Norway will annihilate your wallet."

The weather sucks

"If you like sunny and warm weather, Norway is not for you," Rian says. "During winter it’s cold, snowy, and dark. And, there have been summers with continuous rain. Bergen is known for massive amounts of rain. In 2015, it rained on 279 out of 365 days!"

The animals and environment in Australia is trying to kill you

The US is really expensive for foreign travelers

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.

We live in an age where you can make purchases at the click of button without ever stepping foot inside of a store, and eBay is the perfect place to do just that.

With an immense marketplace, eBay has just about anything that you could possibly be looking for. Whether you're shopping for something as simple as new dress socks or on the hunt for something as specific as a vintage jacket from your favorite brand, eBay is the perfect place to look. 

Despite the convenience of being able to get everything you need and want from the comfort of your home — or wherever you may be — online shopping can still prove to be a bit daunting, especially when it comes to eBay. Being wary about how to navigate the website, distinguishing reputable sellers, and making safe and secure purchases might've caused you to stay away in the past, but now you can shop with confidence. 

As an avid user, I've bought everything from car parts to clothes, shoes, and electronics on eBay and you can, too. You probably already have an item in mind that you're planning to buy soon, so instead of going to the store,make your next purchase on eBay.

Check out seven easy steps to shopping with confidence on eBay, below:

SEE ALSO: 16 ways to get free money from Amazon right now

Find the perfect item.

eBay's home page has specific categories, as well as suggestions that will help you find the items you're looking for. No matter what you're looking for, you'll be able to narrow your search by filtering a plethora of applicable fields. If you know exactly what you're looking for, use the search bar to enter keywords such as the year, size, color, or even SKU of the item. 

Keep looking for the right deal.

Shop around! You don't have to jump on the first thing you see. eBay is a huge marketplace, so it’s very likely that you’ll find more than one of what you’re looking for. Some items might be cheaper, in better condition, or take less time to be delivered, so it’s worth checking out everything listed before making a purchase.

Be a smart shopper. If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is!

That’s not to say truly amazing deals can’t be found on eBay all the time, but if you run across an item that’s drastically underpriced, be alarmed. For example, a $50 MacBook or a $20 iPhone 7 Plus are items you should probably avoid. Also, read the listing carefully. You might actually be buying a picture of the item like this guy did. 

The "Miniatur Wunderland" exhibition, located in Hamburg, Germany, is the world's largest model railway. If you've never seen it before, it's one of the cutest, most detailed miniature models you'll ever see in your life.

To bring new perspective to the massive model railway, Google last year built a miniature version of its Street View car and placed it in the Miniatur Wunderland, capturing footage thanks to tiny mounted cameras. You can actually see all the various worlds within the Miniatur Wunderland on Google Street View.

The results are stunning. Take a look.

SEE ALSO: 13 things everyone is going to love about iOS 11

Google and mapping software company Unilabs built a tiny Street View car with a tiny mounted camera to capture the sprawling model world.

Google also built other mini camera-mounted devices to cruise the streets...

...and railways of Miniatur Wunderland. Keep in mind, this model railway features over 8 miles of track.

A writing-heavy career isn't ideal for everyone.

While most forms of communication are important in many occupations, there are still plenty of careers that don't require prodigious writing abilities.

We checked out the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), a US Department of Labor database that compiles detailed information on hundreds of jobs, and looked at salary data on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' website to find positions that don't place an emphasis of writing and come with a median annual salary of more than $50,000.

O*NET ranks how important "the ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand" is in any job, assigning each a "writing importance level" between 1 and 100, where a lower score indicates less writing skills are required. It also breaks down each occupation's projected growth from 2014 to 2024.

Here are seven well-paying positions with a writing-importance level of 44 or lower and a projected growth of at least 2%:

SEE ALSO: 16 high-paying jobs for people who love history

DON'T MISS: The 25 highest-paying jobs you can get without a bachelor's degree

7. Electricians

Writing importance level: 44

Median annual salary: $52,720

Projected growth from 2014 to 2024: 14% or higher

Electricians install, maintain, and repair electrical wiring, equipment, and fixtures.

6. Wind turbine service technicians

Writing importance level: 44

Median annual salary: $52,260

Projected growth from 2014 to 2024: 14% or higher

Wind turbine service technicians inspect, diagnose, adjust, or repair wind turbines.

5. Subway and streetcar operators

Writing importance level: 44

Median annual salary: $64,680

Projected growth from 2014 to 2024: 5% to 8%

Subway and streetcar operators operate subway or elevated suburban trains with no separate locomotive, or electric-powered streetcar, to transport passengers.

Hawaii is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States, and it's no surprise why.

The state offers beautiful beaches, rainforests, and rich local culture. It may be easy to fall into tourist traps, but there's plenty to see and do if you explore beyond your hotel.

Here are eight tourist traps on the Hawaiian Islands according to Quora users, and where you should go instead.  

Instead of staying in Waikiki, try venturing outside of traditionally touristy areas.

"Waikiki is basically the Times Square of Hawaii," Quora user Bradley Ryan said. "It's a fun place to visit, but it doesn't represent Hawaii at all. Renting a car is a must if you want to explore the islands."

Instead of staying in touristy areas, Ryan suggested visiting an orchid nursery or getting certified and going scuba diving. "There's a lot more to Hawaii than hotels and staged luaus," he added.

Instead of battling crowds for a Dole Pineapple Whip, try some Hawaiian shave ice.

Skip the lines at the Dole Plantation and enjoy a classic Hawaiian dessert without the hassle.

"Shave ice is practically a native Hawaiian dessert itself — I've never had such good shave ice in my life,"Quora user Kat Li said. 

Instead of spending every day at crowded beaches, take some time to explore Hawaii's diverse natural terrain.

Quora user Trenton Van Ooteghem recommended the Big Island for the most diverse landscapes among the Hawaiian islands.

"You want rainforest? Go east. You want sunny beaches? Go west. You want gorgeous valleys? Go northeast. You want volcanoes? Go south, or central. You want beautiful giant rolling hills and ranch land? Go central. You want hikes? They’re everywhere, whether you want to hike to a waterfall or along the coastline," he said.

The photos we see of beaches often depict a secluded oasis with bright white sand and glittering waters.

Sadly, though, that's not always what those beaches look like in reality.

The photos below show that while these beaches are undoubtedly beautiful, they're often less perfect than certain images make them seem.

Hawaii's iconic Waikiki Beach looks irresistible when it's lit up and empty at night.

During the day, though, it's hard to find a speck of sand to yourself among the sea of sunbathing tourists.

The grass that surrounds Bondi Beach looks very green and lush.

In the article “Malcolm Gladwell got us wrong,” the researchers behind the 10,000-hour rule set the record straight: Different fields require different amounts of deliberate practice in order to become world class.

If 10,000 hours isn’t an absolute rule that applies across fields, what does it really take to become world class in the world of work?

Over the last year, I’ve explored the personal history of many widely-admired business leaders like Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg in order to understand how they apply the principles of deliberate practice.

What I’ve done does not qualify as an academic study, but it does reveal a surprising pattern.

Many of these leaders, despite being extremely busy, set aside at least an hour a day (or five hours a week) over their entire career for activities that could be classified as deliberate practice or learning.

I call this phenomenon the 5-hour rule.

How the best leaders follow the 5-hour rule

For the leaders I tracked, the 5-hour rule often fell into three buckets: reading, reflection, and experimentation.

1. Read

According to an HBR article, “Nike founder Phil Knight so reveres his library that in it you have to take off your shoes and bow.”

Oprah Winfrey credits books with much of her success: “Books were my pass to personal freedom.” She has shared her reading habit with the world via her book club.

These two are not alone. Consider the extreme reading habits of other billionaire entrepreneurs:

• Warren Buffett spends five to six hours per day reading five newspapers and 500 pages of corporate reports.

• Bill Gates reads 50 books per year.

• Mark Zuckerberg reads at least one book every two weeks.

• Elon Musk grew up reading two books a day, according to his brother.

• Mark Cuban reads more than 3 hours every day.

• Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot, reads two hours a day.

• Billionaire entrepreneur David Rubenstein reads six books a week.

• Dan Gilbert, self-made billionaire and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, reads one to two hours a day. 

2. Reflect

Other times, the 5-hour rule takes the form of reflection and thinking time.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong makes his senior team spend four hours per week just thinking. Jack Dorsey is a serial wanderer. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner schedules two hours of thinking time per day. Brian Scudamore, the founder of the 250 million-dollar company, O2E Brands, spends 10 hours a week just thinking.

When Reid Hoffman needs help thinking through an idea, he calls one of his pals: Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, or Elon Musk. When billionaire Ray Dalio makes a mistake, he logs it into a system that is public to all employees at his company. Then, he schedules time with his team to find the root cause. Billionaire entrepreneur Sara Blakely is a long-time journaler. In one interview, she shared that she has over 20 notebooks where she logged the terrible things that happened to her and the gifts that have unfolded as a result.

If you want to be in to company of others who reflect on what they’re learning with each other, join this Facebook group.

3. Experiment

Finally, the 5-hour rule takes the form of rapid experimentation.

Throughout his life, Ben Franklin set aside time for experimentation, masterminding with like-minded individuals, and tracking his virtues. Google famously allowed employees to experiment with new projects with 20% of their work time. Facebook encourages experimentation through Hack-A-Months.

The largest example of experimentation might be Thomas Edison. Even though he was a genius, Edison approached new inventions with humility. He would identify every possible solution and then systematically test each one of them. According to one of his biographers, “Although he understood the theories of his day, he found them useless in solving unknown problems.”

He took the approach to such an extreme that his competitor, Nikola Tesla, had this to say about the trial-and-error approach: “If [Edison] had a needle to find in a haystack, he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, he would proceed at once with the feverish diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search.”

Amazon's Prime Day event is nearly here, which means it's time for the online shopping giant to bombard Prime members — and coax other shoppers into becoming Prime members — with the promise of widespread discounts and special offers.

The event is expected to generate lots of sales for Amazon. The last Prime Day was a success, and the company has gained millions more Prime members in the year since. 

The urge to shop on Prime Day makes sense: Amazon sells a ton of products and makes it very easy to buy them. Many times, its products are less expensive than they are elsewhere.

But that's not always the case. Though Amazon's shopping experience is largely straightforward, certain aspects of it can still be misleading.

Thankfully, there are tried-and-true ways to ensure you're getting a good deal. Let's talk about two: using a price tracking tool like Camelcamelcamel, and trying a user-reviews analyzer like Fakespot.

SEE ALSO: Amazon’s new $50 Fire tablet is one of the only Android tablets worth buying

Finding a good deal

The first tool is pretty straightforward. Camelcamelcamel is one of many product price trackers floating around the web, but it has been popular and reliable for the better part of a decade.

To use it, simply copy and paste the URL of whatever item you're considering into the bar at the top of Camelcamelcamel's site. The tool will then bring up a chart of how that item's price has fluctuated over time.

For instance, Amazon is promoting this Anker battery pack for $35 as of this writing. Anker is a trusted name, and Amazon's listing says this is a $45 savings off of the battery's usual list price. Looks like a no-brainer, right?

Not necessarily.

Throw the link into CCC and you'll see the battery has been around the $35 mark many times in the past. At some points, it's been a few bucks cheaper. Typically, Amazon sells it around $40. So you're maybe saving about $5, not $45.

That's not terrible, but on a day like Prime Day, when Amazon tries to overwhelm shoppers with purported savings, it probably isn't the impulse buy it first appears to be.

There are more egregious examples. To be clear, Amazon is home to many legitimate bargains, and that will extend to Prime Day to an extent. But the company's status as the best place to shop can sometimes be overblown.

As with any other retailer, the vast majority of its "deals" aren't exactly deals. Last Prime Day, for instance, buying guide site The Wirecutter scanned nearly 8,000 advertised deals and found only 64 to be worth buying. (Dedicated curation sites like that or Slickdeals are another good resource during an event like Prime Day.)

This is all to remind you that retailers aren't charities. While it's not perfect — Amazon has prevented certain products from being price-tracked in the past — a tool like CCC or the browser extension Keepa provides the context that Amazon often withholds. That they let you create price watch lists only helps.