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Inside an abandoned Hawaii hotel that's sitting on a $260 million piece of real estate

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Molokai Abandoned Hotel Sherry Ott 7304

When travel photographer Sherry Ott was exploring all the Hawaii Islands in 2015, she left the island of Molokai for last.

"I knew Molokai was very special. Unlike the other Hawaiian Islands, there is very little tourism on it. It's for people who want to slow down and experience the old Hawaii and its culture," she told Business Insider.

While staying at the only operating hotel accommodations on the island at the time, she discovered the abandoned Kaluakoi Resort. Its skeletal exterior intrigued her.

"I love photographing abandoned places around the world whenever I can," she said.

Today, the resort is sitting on Molokai Ranch — a 55,575-acre property that's for sale for $260 million. The Ranch's current owner, the investment holding company GL Ltd., has run into numerous issues with the island's 7,000 locals while attempting to build various projects — including the Kaluakoi Resort — since the 1990s, reports Bloomberg.  

SEE ALSO: Inside Emily Blunt and John Krasinski's charming Brooklyn townhouse that's currently on the market for $8 million

The Kaluakoi Resort originally opened in the 1970s, and passed through various owners.



It finally closed in 2001, when the company that was leasing the property, went bankrupt.

Source: Bloomberg



To find the abandoned spots on the island, Ott asked the locals.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Photos show how wildfires are ravaging parts of California's wine country

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tubbs fire santa rosa northern california wildfire 2017

Massive wildfires engulfed huge swaths of Northern California's wine country early on Monday, destroying at least 1500 homes, businesses, and other structures, and sending residents fleeing for their lives.

Thousands of people in the counties of Napa and Sonoma have evacuated the area, which is known for its vineyards and wineries. Six other counties were affected after a series of fires ignited on Sunday and grew as strong, dry winds spread the flames over fields and freeways.

By the time most Californians left for work on Monday, a blaze called the Tubbs Fire had burned more than 35,000 acres in and around the city of Santa Rosa, the Los Angeles Times reported. Nearby schools and hospitals have closed. Power outages are widespread.

The Atlas Fire in Napa has devastated an additional 8,000 to 12,000 acres.

We will continue to update this story throughout the day.

Napa and Sonoma counties are the top winemaking regions in America.



There is the city of Napa and the county of Napa, considered the holy grail of wine country. It's home to more than 400 wineries, with many packed side by side along State Route 29.

We went to Napa and the trendy destination people are ditching it for — and the winner is clear »



Sonoma County stretches across nine cities and is three times the area of Napa County.

California's lesser-known wine destination was named the best small town to visit in America — take a look »



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

McDonald's has a new menu item to replace the Chicken Selects it killed — here's the verdict (MCD)

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McDonald's Tender

When McDonald's ditched Chicken Selects in 2015, many mourned the loss of the dish. 

For the last two years, customers at the fast-food chain haven't had anything but the McNugget for their chicken dipping purposes.

That just changed. 

McDonald's recently launched the Buttermilk Crispy Tenders — a new take on the chicken tender.

For a chain with such an iconic chicken dipper already, that gives the tenders a tall order to live up to.

We decided to try the Buttermilk Crispy Tenders ourselves, in an effort to see how the new menu item stacks up against the ghosts of chicken tenders past. 

SEE ALSO: McDonald's is testing a vegan burger — and some customers are calling it the 'best vegetarian burger' they've ever had

We got a 10-pack of the tenders for $9.10 from a McDonald's in New York City. They come in their own — impressively weighty — box, stuffed with chicken.



As a duo that can easily down 20 McNuggets each in one sitting, we appreciated the heft of the tenders. The look was also pleasing, with a pleasant golden brown color, a crevice-filled breading, and appealing pepper sprinkled throughout. The sizes of the tenders are also not uniform, adding a "natural" homestyle feeling that the McNugget sorely lacks.



Digging in, we found an impressively moist tender enclosed in the nice crunchy exterior. There's a great balance of white meat chicken to breading here, both complimenting each other without distracting from the overall experience. There's no spice as promised by the little dots of pepper in the breading, but the richness of the experience does not demand it.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here’s why Apple’s 'Portrait Mode' feature only works on some iPhones and not others (AAPL)

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Portrait mode

When Apple introduced the iPhone 7 Plus last year, it contained a new camera feature that quickly became one of the most talked about — and copied — in Apple's lineup: Portrait mode. 

Portrait mode uses the phone's dual cameras and Apple's software to mimic the quality you would get from a DSLR camera, which keeps the subject of the photo in focus and slightly blurs out the background. 

The feature originallylaunched in beta as an exclusive for the iPhone 7 Plus. But now, a year later, Portrait Mode is live on the new iPhone 8 Plus (and will be available on the new iPhone X launching this fall). 

Here's how Portrait Mode works, how you can use it, and why it's only available on some iPhones and not others:

SEE ALSO: Here's everything Apple announced at its big iPhone launch event

Portrait Mode is only available on recent "Plus" models of its iPhones — iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, and the upcoming iPhone X — for a simple reason: Apple's version of Portrait Mode requires dual cameras.

Soon after Apple introduced Portrait Mode in 2016, the feature started popping up on other flagship phones like Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 (called Live Focus) and the Google Pixel (called Lens Blur).  

In the case of the Pixel phones, which only have one lens, Google relies on software to achieve that Portrait Mode quality. Apple's iPhones require two lenses to make it happen — at least for now. So if you buy the new iPhone 8, for instance, it will not have the ability to take Portrait Mode photos.  



Apple's Portrait Mode requires two lenses because each lens is different: One is a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, while the other is a 12-megapixel telephoto lens.

When taking a Portrait Mode photo, the two lenses serve different purposes. 

The telephoto lens is what actually captures the image. While it's doing that, the wide-angle lens is busy capturing data about how far away the subject is, which it then uses to create a nine-layer depth map. 



That depth map created by the wide-angle lens is crucial to the end result, because it helps Apple's image signal processor figure out what should be sharp and what should be blurred.

The image above demonstrates what a standard iPhone photo looks like (left) and what a Portrait Mode photo looks like (right). At a quick glance, the image on the right seems like it just has a totally blurry background, but this is where the depth map comes into play. 

In order to make the photo look natural and as close to a real DSLR photo as possible, Apple's image processor goes through the layers one by one and blurs them in varying amounts, an effect known as "bokeh."

The layers closer to the subject will be slightly sharper than than the layers farthest away, and if you look closely at the above photo of my colleague Melia Robinson, you can tell: The stuff that's close to her in the photo — like the long grass and the slab of wood on the ground — is a lot easier to make out than the cliff in the distance, which is just a dark, blurry form. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Meet Erik Prince, former Navy SEAL and founder of the most notorious security contractor who Steve Bannon wants to run for Senate

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Erik Prince

The founder of one of the most controversial US government security contractors is seriously considering running for a Senate seat in Wyoming.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Erik Prince, founder of the security contractor originally known as Blackwater, is eyeing a Republican primary challenge against Sen. John Barrasso, who will be up for reelection in the 2018 midterms.

Steve Bannon, the former White House senior adviser and current chairman of Breitbart News, has pushed Prince to run as part of his effort to replace "establishment" Republicans in Congress with people Bannon believes will support President Donald Trump's legislative agenda.

Prince, 48, has worked for and donated to numerous Republican candidates and causes, including Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California and conservative Christian lobbying groups. He supported Trump's presidential run, contributing $250,000 to his campaign efforts.

Although he has never held public office, Prince's potential candidacy comes with significant baggage. Here's a look at his storied life and career thus far:

SEE ALSO: Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon reportedly pushed for Erik Prince's aggressive Afghanistan war plan

DON'T MISS: Blackwater founder Erik Prince reportedly wants Afghanistan to use his private air force

Prince is from Michigan, but his work has taken him around the globe, from Virginia to the United Arab Emirates. The Princes are power players in the Michigan Republican Party, and prominent GOP donors at the national level.



Prince's sister is Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education and former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party. Her husband, Dick DeVos, the heir to the Amway fortune, ran for governor of Michigan in 2006 and lost.

Sources: Business Insider, Politico



DeVos and Prince come from a wealthy family. Their father, Edgar Prince, founded what would become a $1 billion company, manufacturing a patent that he sold to General Motors.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Top 10 waiver-wire pickups for Week 6 in your fantasy football league

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Nelson Agholor

With Week 5 of the NFL season nearly in the books, it's time for fantasy managers to start looking ahead to next Sunday's matchups.

With bye weeks in full effect and injuries beginning to pile up across the league, your roster might not look as formidable as it did heading into Week 1, but keep in mind that when one door closes, another opens. The Giants, for example, lost a whopping four receivers to injury on Sunday, but that bad luck also elevated two of their other players to sleeper status.

While everyone wants to trade for an every-down back or a marquee receiver, smaller, more opportunistic acquisitions might be the real key to fantasy success. Here are 10 players you should consider adding to your roster for Week 6.

Marlon Mack, RB

Team: Indianapolis Colts

Week 5 stats: 91 rushing yards, 2 receiving yards, 1 reception, 1 touchdown

One thing to know: With veteran Frank Gore off to a slow start, Mack, a popular preseason sleeper pick, appears to have found a meaningful role in Chuck Pagano's offense. He'll have another favorable matchup against the Titans in Week 6.



Elijah McGuire, RB

Team: New York Jets

Week 5 stats: 20 rushing yards, 10 receiving yards, 2 receptions

One thing to know: Both of the Jets' top two running backs, Bilal Powell and Matt Forte, left Sunday's game due to injury, so McGuire should have a huge opportunity against the Patriots in Week 6. While he didn't post good numbers on Sunday, his 93-yard performance from the week before is proof of his potential.



Roger Lewis, WR

Team: New York Giants

Week 5 stats: 29 receiving yards, 1 reception, 1 touchdown

One thing to know: Lewis doesn't have much of a resume to speak of, but Eli Manning's going to have to throw the ball to somebody. Receivers Odell Beckham, Sterling Shepard, Brandon Marshall, and Dwayne Harris all exited Sunday's game with injuries.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Forget the iPhone 8 and iPhone X — here are 7 reasons you should buy the iPhone 7 instead (AAPL)

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iphone 8, 8 plus, iPhone x 1600 wide

There are a ton of great phones you can buy this year. But if you're intent on buying an iPhone in 2017, don't bother with the new iPhone 8 or the high-end iPhone X coming in November.

I've owned an iPhone 7 Plus for over a year, and I've had a chance to try the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus as well. 

Having tried the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, but owned the iPhone 7 Plus for over a year, I can easily say the iPhone 7 is, hands-down, the best bang for your buck iPhone-wise (aside from the excellent but diminutive iPhone SE). I have not yet tried the iPhone X, but unless it truly blows me away, I'm not sure if it's worth spending nearly double the cost of an iPhone 7.

Here's why:

SEE ALSO: 9 reasons you should buy an iPhone 8 instead of an iPhone X

1. The iPhone 7 is more affordable than the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

The first but most important reason you should consider the iPhone 7 is its price tag relative to the other new iPhones.

The iPhone 8 starts at $699 — $150 more than the starting price of the iPhone 7, for a very similar phone. The larger iPhone 8 Plus starts at $799, and the high-end iPhone X, if you can even find one when it becomes available on November 3, will start at $999.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 7 starts at $549 — almost half the price of the iPhone X — and the larger iPhone 7 Plus starts at $669. Don't get me wrong, these phones are still definitely considered "expensive," but they're much more reasonable than the prices of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.



The iPhone 7 comes in more colors than the iPhone X.

The iPhone 8 comes in three colors: silver, gold, and space grey.

The iPhone X comes in just two colors: black and white.

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, meanwhile, come in five different colors: jet black, matte black (the best color), silver, gold, and rose gold.



The iPhone 8 and iPhone X have glass backs, making them more fragile and less resistant to smudges.

Apple added glass to the backs of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X so those phones can support Qi wireless charging — but as a side effect, those glass backs made them more susceptible to smudges and fingerprints, as well as fall damage. With the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X, you'll need to worry about both the front and the back of the phone cracking if you drop it.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 7 has the same aluminum unibody frame as the iPhone 6 line, which means you'll only need to worry about the phone's display cracking if you drop it. The metal backs on the iPhone 7 line are also more resistant to smudges and fingerprints compared to the glass backs of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here are the 5 biggest bubbles in markets today

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bubble burst

Bubbles aren’t new—they’ve been around since Dutch tulips—but it’s only recently that they’ve worked their way into the average investor’s lexicon. That’s probably because bubbles happen much more frequently these days.

We never used to get a giant speculative bubble every 7–8 years. But that has been the case since the new millennia.

In 2000, we had the dot-com bubble.

In 2007, we had the housing bubble.

In 2017, we have the everything bubble.

Why do we call it the everything bubble? Well, there is a bubble in a bunch of asset classes simultaneously (I delve deeper into this topic in my free exclusive special report, Investing in the Age of the Everything Bubble).

Let’s look at some of them.

Real Estate

You can spot real estate bubbles all around the world now. Canada, Australia, Sweden, Hong Kong, China—and California—to name a few.

Home prices in California have risen by 69% since 2010. Meanwhile, Canadian housing has shot up 1040% over the same period.

Why do these bubbles exist? For starters, ultra-loose monetary policy (which is also the reason that the bitcoin bubble exists).

What will be the catalysts that deflate these real estate bubbles? I’m not sure, but usually there isn’t a catalyst. The marginal house price just gets too expensive.

It seems pretty nutty that another real estate bubble is forming just ten years after the last one that nearly wiped out the planet. But real estate has been part of the food fight in asset prices and it appears to be peaking.



Cryptocurrencies

You have probably heard about the madness in cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and ripple. Ethereum is up about 3,600% this year. As for bitcoin, it is old and boring and up only 343% this year. 

Alt-currencies are being launched left and right, in initial coin offerings (ICOs). These ICOs explode on the first day of trading, and everyone gets rich. Free money!

When people are making free money, you are pretty close to the end. These ICOs conjure memories of the IPO craze in 1999. That’s the funny thing about free money—everyone wants in.

Cryptocurrencies are a massive bubble because people are making money all out of proportion to their intelligence or work ethic, which is one of the hallmarks of a bubble.

Of course, you could just buy all these cryptocurrencies and ride the bubble. But I’m a little suspicious of buying just electrons or computer code—I like things with cash flows or that are tangible. Call me crazy.



Stocks

It’s also hard to get excited about companies that are generating cash flows.  I hate to pick on FAANG stocks—at least they more or less make money—but these five stocks account for too much of the market gains.

Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google are responsible for over 30% of the S&P 500 index gain in market capitalization in 2017.

I talked about another rationale behind these stock prices back in June.

Still, investing in FAANG stocks is a fad like the Nifty Fifty was in the 60s. We may still be talking about the Nifty Fifty today, but nobody is investing in those stocks.

FAANG stocks are hard to short, because:

1.They are gifted and talented camps—companies whose sole purpose it is to hire the smartest people and turn them loose to solve hard problems.

2. They are passively engaged in surveillance.

3. CNBC talks about one of the FAANG stocks 90% of the time.

4. It is a frenzy.

But I assure you, the FAANG stocks will turn. These companies might be changing the world, but that’s not the point. They’re overpriced.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

How Harvey Weinstein built the $150 million Hollywood empire that just fired him

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harvey weinstein serious

Harvey Weinstein has been ousted from his own company after a bombshell New York Times report detailed nearly three decades of inappropriate behavior towards women in Hollywood.

The film producer and cofounder of Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company built an empire from scratch out of Buffalo, New York. 

A behemoth in the media industry, he became a major fundraiser to the Democratic party, positioning himself as a liberal lion and champion of feminism.

But these ideals have come up against the reports he harassed women for years, roiling public opinion and leading to his firing Sunday.

Here's a look at Weinstein's career over the past 30 years.

SEE ALSO: The Department of Justice is allegedly investigating Harvard's admissions practices

Weinstein was born in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in 1952 to parents Miriam and Max.

He and his brother Bob grew up in small two-bedroom apartment in "a lower-middle-class housing development called Elechester," Bob wrote in Vanity Fair.

Both Harvey and Bob had a passion for the movie business that started when they were kids in Queens going to the Mayfair movie theater to see foreign films.

Weinstein left Queens to attend college at the University of Buffalo. He stuck around in Buffalo to start a concert promotion business called Harvey and Corky Productions.



He bought the Century Theater in downtown Buffalo, and began showing movies when the theater wasn't being used for concerts.

His younger brother, Bob, moved to Buffalo to join him.



Together, in 1979, they created the small independent film distribution company Miramax, a portmanteau of their parent's names: Miriam and Max.

"Miramax virtually created the art house boom in the 1990s by turning offbeat and inexpensive movies like 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Shakespeare in Love' into mainstream hits," wrote the New York Times.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Photos show Hurricane Nate's destruction in the Gulf Coast and Central America

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hurricane nate

Hurricane Nate flooded the Gulf Coast as it made landfall in the US over the weekend.

The center of the storm first hit land at the mouth of the Mississippi River, then again near Biloxi, Mississippi.

Before that, the storm killed at least 22 and caused heavy flooding in Central America.

Nate was the ninth hurricane of what has already been an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season. There have been 15 named storms in the Atlantic this season, counting the newly formed storm Ophelia, which is likely to become the tenth hurricane — though that one is no threat to land.

Even though Nate didn't hit with the destructive force of storms like Harvey, Irma, and Maria — all of which made landfall as major hurricanes — it still caused heavy devastation, showing just how destructive the forces of nature can be.

Here are a few images that show Hurricane Nate's impact.

SEE ALSO: Here's why hurricane season has been exceptionally disastrous — and why new storms are still showing up

Nate formed as a tropical storm in the western Caribbean, a common location for storms to develop at this time of year.



Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras took the brunt of Nate's initial force.



Heavy rains caused destructive landslides and flash flooding across much of Central America. Nate dropped up to 30 inches of rain in isolated locations.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

First lady feud: Here's the history of Trump's battling wives

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first wives

The "first ladies" are feuding. 

Ivana Trump, President Donald Trump's first wife and the mother of his three eldest children, claimed on Sunday that she's the real "first lady."

Melania Trump, Trump's third and current wife, fired back on Monday.

"There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex," Melania's spokesperson said in a statement. "Unfortunately only attention seeking and self-serving noise."

Ivana is currently promoting her most recently book, "Raising Trump." The author and businesswoman also recently had some harsh words for Trump's second wife, Marla Maples, calling her a "showgirl" and a "nobody" in an interview with Page Six. 

This is far from the first time that Ivana, Maples, and Melania have clashed. Here's the history of the president's wives public disagreements. 

SEE ALSO: Melania Trump's spokesperson blasts the president's ex-wife Ivana for insisting she's the real first lady

Ivana Trump was born Ivana Zelnícková in Czechoslovakia in 1949.

Source: The New York Post



Ivana moved to the US in the early 1970s, when she was working as a model and ski instructor.

Source: The New York Post



She and Donald Trump — then a young real estate developer — were married 1977.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

8 details you may have missed in the new 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' trailer

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kylo ren tlj

Warning: There may be some potential spoilers ahead for "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."

A new trailer for "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" was released Monday night and we finally have more glimpses of Luke Skywalker's long-awaited return and a creepy tease of Supreme Leader Snoke.

We've already broken down the entire trailer, which you can check out here. But there are a few details you may have skimmed over during your first few views of the trailer that aren't so easy to spot. 

Keep reading to see what you may have missed in the new "The Last Jedi" trailer.

SEE ALSO: A breakdown of everything in the new 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' trailer

1. Kylo Ren's scar is in a different place than in "The Force Awakens."

If you thought Kylo Ren's scar looked a bit different, you were right. "The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson said in April he moved the scar because he thought the current placement looked goofy.



2. Kylo Ren has a new ship. Like most of his possessions, it has some ties to his grandpa, Darth Vader.

As StarWars.com points out, Kylo Ren's TIE silencer is similar in design to Darth Vader's TIE advanced. He's also an expert pilot thanks to both his dad (Han Solo, RIP) and his grandpa, Anakin Skywalker.



3. We're almost positively getting a flashback scene to a dark time in Luke's past.

Once again, "The Last Jedi" trailer shows shots of what appears to be a burning temple with Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 at his side. We see a bit more of the scene this time, with Luke digging his way out of rubble and falling at R2's side at the sight of the destruction before him.

We're sure the burning of that building has something to do with Kylo Ren/Ben Solo turning on his uncle and a group of Jedi. An image of the Knights of Ren from "The Force Awakens" appears to show them surrounded by lifeless bodies. Hopefully, we'll get the full story with a giant flashback told from Luke's perspective. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

9 heroic portraits of firefighters across America

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firefighter paul mobley


In Maine, it was lobster. In Chicago, it was chili. In Seattle, it was salmon. At every firehouse that photographer Paul Mobley visited, he was greeted with a hot meal and boundless enthusiasm for his latest project: taking portraits of firefighters across America.

Mobley's new book, "American Firefighter," profiles the brave, selfless men and women he met at around 50 different firehouses.

Keep scrolling for a selection of his stunning photos.

Photographer Paul Mobley traveled to around 50 firehouses to shoot portraits of firefighters for his new book, "American Firefighter."



Firehouses became his studios as he interviewed and photographed subjects across the country about their passion for helping others.



He strived to capture photos that were "powerful, but also honest and full of grace"— just like the firefighters themselves.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

9 surprising health benefits of being in a healthy relationship

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couple

There are tons of practical and emotional benefits to being in a healthy partnership, including having someone to hold your hand through the bad times and marathon your favorite show with you. 

But having a good relationship can also have some profound effects on your physical well-being. Here are the biggest ways that being in love can put you in better health. 

It can make you happier.

Being in a healthy and supportive relationship can actually have a big boost on your happiness level, according to several studies

Being in love has a big effect on your oxytocin level, which promotes bonding and comfort. This is why you love being around your partner, and why just being near them can boost your mood. 



It can help you to live longer.

It's been a long-held theory that married people live longer than their single counterparts. 

Although it's had some studies to the contrary recently, other studies continue to show that being in a healthy relationship allows people to live a longer life. 

But we can all probably agree the truth benefit of a healthy partnership is having someone you're happy to spend those years with. 



It can help you age more gracefully.

If you want to grow old, it helps to have someone to do it with.

A study by the University of Missouri Department of Human Development and Family Studies found that people who were in happy marriages actually rated their heath as higher, even in older age, than those who remained single or were in unhappy relationships. 

 

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

I tried GM's Zipcar competitor that's wildly popular among millennials — here's the verdict (GM)

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Maven

In 2016, General Motors launched its car-sharing service Maven, a Zipcar competitor that highlights an important transition brewing in Detroit.

Automakers are under increasing pressure from Silicon Valley to come up with mobility services that appeal to modern urban dwellers. As millennials opt to live in big cities, their willingness to shell out for a car has fallen by the wayside. Traditional car companies are now tasked with appealing to millennials who aren't in a hurry to purchase a vehicle, but are already tethered to ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber.

A car-sharing service opens up a key opportunity for big automakers to compete in the crowded mobility space. It provides new revenue streams in cities while also exposing millennials to cars they may be interested in buying later in life. 

GM launched Maven with millennials in mind. Of the 75,858 people using Maven, 80% are between the ages of 18 and 34. The average user is 30-year-olds, so it skews a bit closer to Generation X.

GM is far from the only company to launch a Zipcar competitor; Ford has launched GoDrive and BMW operates Reachnow.

As a millennial living in New York City, I decided to test the service to see how it stacks up and see if I could be swayed to become a regular user. Here's my verdict:

SEE ALSO: The MINI Countryman is the most fun you'll have driving a hybrid

FOLLOW US: on Facebook for more car and transportation content!

Maven is a free app you can download on iOS or Android devices. Unlike Zipcar, there's no option to use it as a subscription service. You simply pay an hourly rate per trip, which will vary based on what kind of car you reserve.



If you open the app with Location Services turned on, Maven will automatically show you where you are in relation to its garages. In New York City, there are 24 parking garages scattered throughout Manhattan and two in Brooklyn.

Maven launched in Brooklyn in late September, but plans to continue adding garages to the borough. Right now, the two garages are in Williamsburg.



I found the interface to be a bit confusing at first. I kept pressing the garages to see which vehicle options were inside. Instead, you have to select the "list" button, which I've highlighted below, to see everything.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

10 hot holiday toys to buy before they're impossible to find

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Mother and daughter shopping at Christmas market in GermanyThe INSIDER Summary:

  • Holiday toys are going fast this year, which means you should definitely get your shopping done early. 
  • There are lots of hot toys on the market this season, and there's no telling whether or not they'll still be around come Black Friday. 
  • Here are the 10 hottest toys you need to grab before they're gone.

Since we’re all about single-tasking these days, try this task on for size: Sit down for 20 minutes and bang out holiday shopping for your kids (and nieces, nephews and neighbors) all in one go. Simply click to buy the awesomest toys trending this year—have them gift-wrapped while you're at it. Buh-bye, Black Friday. Hello, To-Do List Tuesday.

 

L.O.L Surprise Tots (Ages 4+)

Anyone with an elementary schooler in her orbit knows L.O.L. dolls are a legit phenomenon. With layers of accessories once you crack open the package pod (stickers, outfits, a surprise when you bathe her), these are next-level L.O.L.

BUY NOW



FurReal Roarin' Tyler, the Playful Tiger (Ages 4+)

If your kids are into Talking Tom (we may even know a few who love making him say potty words), Roarin Tyler is Tom 2.0. With 100-plus possible sound-and-movement combos, he's roughly as communicative as a real cat. Roar at him and he’ll roar right back, nuzzle him and he’ll close his eyes and snuggle in, toss him his toy chicken and he’ll pounce. The holidays just got wild.

BUY NOW



Teddy Ruxpin (Ages 3+)

Ready for a blast from the past? Singing, storytelling, childhood BFF Teddy Ruxpin is back—this time with WiFi so he can access an app and download audiobooks. Meet your new (old) roadtrip companion.

BUY NOW



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

How to make sure you're wearing the right shoes for your suit

19 couples reveal the one thing they wish that they put on their wedding registry

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wedding, married, couple

Making a wedding registry is fun, but it can alo be overwhelming. Whether you scan in the store or add things online, you're inevitably going to forget something. 

We've rounded up the top picks these real couples say are the items that got away from them when making their registry. Learn from their mistakes to create the perfect registry.  

Bathroom supplies

"I know it sounds so incredibly stupid, but I should have registered for bathroom stuff. I would love a neck pillow for the bath, a wooden tray to go across the bath, really plush, thick white Egyptian cotton bath sheets, and stuff like that.

I've always wanted a spa atmosphere in my bath (and the house we are looking at building has the most amazing en-suite I've ever seen) but we went all out with kitchen and dining stuff and forgot the bathroom :(" - Anonymous Reddit user. 

 



Ironing board.

"We registered for an iron, but not an ironing board." - Redditor crazycatlady45



Lots of silverware

"More silverware. We registered for a full boxed set from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but still find ourselves needing to run the dishwasher often because we're out of forks or knives. Something to consider is that sets usually come with big and small forks, and big and small spoons, but only one size of knife, and they don't give you double the amount of knives just because they only come in one size — so you have an inordinately small amount of knives compared to the rest of the silverware." - Redditor camping_is_in-tents

 

 



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Harvey Weinstein's scandal is a massive blow to his fashion-designer wife: 'No star is ever going to want to wear the brand again'

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Harvey Weinstein Georgina Chapman

Sexual-harassment allegations against the film producer Harvey Weinstein have put his wife, Georgina Chapman, a fashion designer, in a difficult position.

Chapman's career as the cofounder of Marchesa is tightly tied to her husband's success. Stars of Weinstein-backed productions, including Renée Zellweger, Cate Blanchett, and Blake Lively, have worn Marchesa on the red carpet, and rumors have floated for years that Weinstein pushed actresses to wear the fashion brand.

But with an increasing number of allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Weinstein, many are wondering whether Marchesa will disappear from the red carpet.

"No star is ever going to want to wear the brand again," The Hollywood Reporter quoted an unnamed New York fashion publicist as saying on Monday, after Weinstein was ousted from The Weinstein Company, the studio he founded.

Here's the story of how Chapman's Marchesa became a red-carpet mainstay — and how her fate became intertwined with her husband's.

SEE ALSO: A top fashion designer is under fire after calling Harvey Weinstein a 'wonderful' person and saying his accusers may have asked for 'trouble'

Georgina Chapman founded Marchesa with Keren Craig in 2004. The same year, Chapman, then a 28-year-old former model from England, began dating Harvey Weinstein.

Source: Jezebel



A 2007 Teen Vogue article — spotted by Jezebel — says Marchesa caught on with Hollywood starlets after Renée Zellweger wore a gown from the line to the premiere of "Bridget Jones.""Bridget Jones" was distributed by Miramax, which Weinstein founded, and Zellweger thanked Weinstein during her Oscar speech in 2004.



"Maybe I helped, but just very, very little, with Renée Zellweger," Weinstein told Vogue in 2013.

Source: Vogue



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Intel just challenged IBM and Google in a type of supercomputing that uses temperatures 250 times colder than deep space (INTC)

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Intel Quantum 17 Qubit 1

  • On Tuesday, Intel delivered something called "a 17-qubit superconducting test chip" to QuTech, Intel’s research partner in the Netherlands. 
  • This is the world's second 17-quantum bits, or qubits, quantum computing chip. The first was introduced by IBM in May.
  • This chip allows Intel to put a stake in the ground in one of the strangest, and potentially game-changing, new forms of computing that researchers are currently developing.

On Tuesday, Intel came out with its state-of-the 17-qubit superconducting test chip, matching the biggest quantum computer chip ever to be produced, by IBM.

Until now, quantum computing has been, in some regards, a two-horse race between IBM and Google. In April, Google showed off its research on a nine qubit computing chip and has advanced other research that could allow it to break some quantum computing records by the end of the year. In May, IBM showed off the first-ever 17 qubit chip.

IBM's work is based on research done at Yale through professor Robert Schoelkopf (the IBM team includes many of his Ph.D. and post-grad students). Google's work is based on research from University of California at Santa Barbara under professor John Martinis, an effort that was backed and absorbed by Google in 2014.

All the researchers from IBM, Intel, Google and elsewhere, like Microsoft, are all in a race to to build a 50 quibit chip. That's the size needed to build a supercomputer which would be vastly more powerful than any of today's supercomputers. No one even knows what kinds of problems a computer that fast and smart could solve.

Quantum entanglement

Quantum computers are different than today's computers, which are digital. A digital computer thinks in two states: zero and one (or off and on). But a quantum computer uses combinations of zeroes and ones to creates multiple states, which can be a zero, a one, both at the same time or (and this is the weird part) something in between, a mysterious zero/one state that's hard to describe or determine.

Bill GatesThese messy states are called "entanglement," and there are already several well-known mathematical formulas (aka algorithms), that can make use of these states to calculate things that traditional computers aren't powerful enough yet to do. For instance, quantum computers can work with billions of variables at the same time, like the interaction between molecules in chemistry.

They are also great for machine-learning tasks. These computers are expected to help find new drugs, create new forms of computer security. It is also believed that this type of computing could lead to computers that can think and reason to create humanoid robots, or deliver medicine that is personalized to each human's own, unique chemistry.

If all this sounds hard to grasp, don't worry, you aren't alone. Microsoft is also betting big on quantum computing and yet Bill Gates admits that, despite all the physics and math he knows, even he doesn't really understand how quantum works. That's how complicated it is.

Colder than space

For now, the challenge is simply to build bigger quantum computers.

LeoDC2As Intel explains, qubits are tremendously fragile. Any noise or unintended distraction can cause them to lose data. They rely on superconducting metals that must be kept unbelievably cold. They must operate in a temperature known as "20 millikelvin – or 250 times colder than deep space," Intel says.

That kind of condition is hard to create and maintain. 

It's not just the cold that's a problem. As a quantum computer grows in size by adding more qubits, it can malfunction in a lot of ways.

But progress is going fast. In May of 2016, IBM launched a five-qubit machine and the world's first cloud service. Flash forward a year and these chips are already more than triple the size.

Google expects that it will have created a test computer so big and powerful by the end of this year, that it will be able to perform certain calculations that traditional supercomputers cannot do, a concept called "quantum supremacy," Martinis told Motherboard. 

In the meantime, Intel just threw itself headlong into the game. Here's a closer look at what it's up to:

SEE ALSO: How a woman took on a Twitter harasser who threatened her with rape — and won

Intel's 7-qubit test chip is about the size of a quarter. The gold connectors allow the chip to be connected to the world outside the quantum computer.



Here's a look at the other side of the chip, as it was packaged in the box. One of the things that Intel is also working on is how to eventually mass produce these chips. Mass production is a much bigger, harder problem than creating a single experimental chip.



There are still lots of variables to be perfected before this technology is ready for the factory floor. These researchers at QuTech's quantum computing lab are focused on just that.



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