Flying cars have long been a staple of futuristic fantasies, but the mainstream auto industry has made a lot more progress toward vehicles that drive themselves than those that can take to the skies.

Fortunately for those who don't want to be confined to the road, one American company has made impressive progress toward that dream.

Terrafugia, based in Boston, has already started taking orders for its FAA-approved Transition "flying car," which takes off and lands like a plane, with wings that fold up for trips on land.

Now Terrafugia has introduced a new vehicle with significant improvements. The TF-X model takes off and lands vertically (like a helicopter) so it doesn't need a runway.

The plug-in hybrid vehicle exists only in renderings for now, but given how far Terrafugia has taken its first model, it's not crazy to expect to see this on our roads someday.

This is the Terrafugia Transition, the "street-legal airplane." It needs a runway to take off and land.

For driving, its wings fold up.

The TF-X uses two 600 horsepower electric propellers to take off and land vertically, so it does not need a long runway.

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McDonald's is the world's largest restaurant brand.

And it doesn't hesitate to throw up its chains everywhere — whether its in the middle of a desert or inside a decommissioned plane.

Here are 13 of the fast food chain's most bizarre locations. Some are quaint, and some are just crazy.

Near the Palace of Versailles in France

Maybe what Marie Antoinette meant was, "Let them eat cake... and a Big Mac, too." 

This location is situated right next to the train station that brings in visitors from Paris. The restaurant looks pretty plain. But it's a convenient place for tourists to get a snack even a peasant could afford before touring a destination that was once home to some of the most lavish royalty in the world. 

Close to the Guantanamo Bay Prison

This one may win the award for the bleakest McDonald's location. And if Obama's newest push to close the high-security prison is successful, it might not last much longer.

The restaurant is one of the few dining options near Guantanamo. And there have been reports that detainees are rewarded with Happy Meals if they cooperate during interrogation sessions.

Next to ancient sites in China

McDonald's invasion of China is nothing new. But the international chain has started targeting some of the countries more exotic locations, and it has chains springing up everywhere from scenic Chinese pagodas to historical temples.

The location pictured here is in the mountains near Yangshuo, China, one of the country's most beautiful outdoor locations and a tourist haven.

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New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world. It's costly to live here and to visit. Hotel rooms are astronomically expensive, with an average room rate of $277 in 2011. 

NewYorkHotels.org compiled a list of the most expensive luxury hotels in New York City. 

They looked at about 150 4- and 5-star luxury hotels in New York City, and calculated the average room rate for the most affordable double room in each hotel from May 2012 to April 2013.

Guests paid an average of $765 per night at the Four Seasons (the third-most expensive hotel) and $814 per night at the Mandarin Oriental (the second-most expensive hotel), but neither of those wase the most expensive hotel in the city.

The hotels that made this list are all equipped with luxury amenities, stellar service and fine dining options, but are they worth the cost?

20. The Pearl (233 West 49th Street ): $479

19. The Mark (Madison Ave at 77th Street): $563

18. The Towers at The New York Palace (455 Madison Avenue): $574

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Graphic designer Nickolay Lamm, who previously showed us what America would like under 25 feet of seawater, has a new project that imagines New York City with the atmospheres of different planets in our solar system. 

The illustrations, commissioned by StorageFront.com, were made with the help of Astrobiologist M. Browning Vogel, who worked at NASA Ames Research Center for a five years, and gave Lamm the descriptions for each planet.  

In an artist's statement, Lamm said the images were inspired by photographs of Mount Sharp, a 3.4-mile-high peak at the center of Mars' Gale crater. 

The drawings should serve as a wake-up call to people who take Earth's life-giving resources for granted.

Lamm compares humans to ants living on an enclosed farm. "If these ants ventured outside their ant farm, they'd realize just how uninhabitable other places are and appreciate their own home much more," he told Business Insider via email.  

Since it is likely that we will continue to destroy our planet, scientists continue to shop for Earth replacements while developing a plan to send the first humans Mars.  

This is Earth. Everything looks normal around the NYC skyline so far.

Here is New York City with the thin layer of gas, mostly consisting of hydrogen, that makes up Mercury's atmosphere. The transparent atmosphere shows the darkness of space and the radiance of the nearby sun.

Here is New York City with the atmosphere of Venus. Carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid clouds create an envelop of yellowish, hot air that blocks the NYC skyline and sun. The landscape is covered by craters, lava, sulfurous dust and other feature created by Venus' volcanoes.

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Fan violence marred the championship parade for French soccer league champions Paris St. Germain today.

21 people were arrested, 30 people were injured, and 800 riot police were deployed when a group of fans became unruly and started lighting flares, breaking car windows, and otherwise clashing with police, the AP reports.

Star players like David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were shuttled to safety before the situation escalated. It was the club's first title in 19 years.

PSG has been working hard to end its reputation for hooliganism. But the stunning images from the streets of Paris today will be a stain on the club.

A fan throws debris at riot police

Fans shoot off flares and fireworks in the streets

A fan throws a tear gas can back at police

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International Space Station (ISS) Commander Chris Hadfield has become one of the world's most recognizable astronauts since Neil Armstrong.

He has 850,000 twitter followers and his YouTube videos of life in space have millions of views.

He, and two other ISS residents, return to Earth on Monday night in the Soyuz capsule. Here are his biggest hits from his five months away from Earth, which — we think — went way too fast.

Our favorite Canadian astronaut first got himself on the public's radar when he did a Reddit "ask me anything" (AMA) in December. We loved his description of blast-off: "Magic. Like a gorilla was squishing you and then threw you off a cliff. Quite a ride :)."

See more from Hadfield's AMA.

Hadfield launched into space in the Soyuz capsule on December 19, 2012. He arrived at the space station on December 21. This was his third visit to space. He is the astronaut at the top of the stairs in this image.

He immediately started tweeting from orbit. Here's his first picture, of him floating in the weightlessness of the ISS's microgravity.

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We've written about our experiences with Google Glass. We've posted big, beautiful images of what the device can do. And we've even recorded video of Business Insider reporters trying Glass for the first time.

But now it's time to reveal what it looks like to actually see through Glass. 

Google Glass and Android game developer Laura Ockel recently recorded a video of the user interface shown through the Glass device. Ockel and her company, Tesseract Mobile, are also the developers behind the unofficial Glass to Facebook app.

When you first put on Glass, you'll see the welcome screen.

Say "Ok, Glass" to search the Internet, take a picture, record a video, etc.

If you want to search the Web, say "Ok, Glass, Google..."

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Last month, we traveled to London to check out its startup scene. The trip was courtesy of London & Partners, a not-for-profit funded by the city's mayor.

Part of the tour included a trip to Mind Candy, one of Europe's biggest and buzziest startups. It's a game company and social network for children, founded by Michael Acton Smith. Investors think Mind Candy and its rapidly growing Moshi Monster franchise is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mind Candy just moved into its new headquarters a few months ago to accommodate the 200 person team. Office perks include: a Friday happy hour started by Acton Smith called Beer o'clock, a chef who comes in monthly to cook lunches, ping pong matches, and a slide. 

One thing that's unusual, besides all the vines tangled in ceiling vents and astro turf carpeting, are all the kids running through the headquarters. It's like being in a magical day-care center, where parents drop off their children to play games and, conveniently, user test Mind Candy products.

Mind Candy is one of the biggest, buzziest tech companies in London. It's located on 15 Bonhill Street in Greater London.

When the elevator doors open, you feel like you're on the set of a kid's movie, with ivy hanging from ceilings, astro turf and plants galore. Daisy Houghton, Mind Candy's receptionist, greets you behind a desk that looks like a giant log.

The green AstroTurf carpeting lines much of the multi-floor headquarters.

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In June, Microsoft will release its next big update to Windows 8 called Windows Blue.

With this update, Microsoft will hopefully fix a lot of things that have annoyed people about Microsoft's new touch-friendly operating system.

A lot is riding on this. Windows 8 has been widely criticized as being too hard to learn. One report after another has shown that initial demand has not been good for new Windows 8 devices, including Microsoft's own Surface tablets.

But Microsoft still has a chance to bounce back, just like it bounced back from the poorly recieved Vista version of Windows when it launched Windows 7.

To do that, it needs to fix a lot of important, and sometimes basic, things with Windows 8.

SEE ALSO: Everything We Know About Microsoft's Next Version Of Windows, 'Windows Blue'

Boot to desktop mode on laptops and regular desktop computers

Windows 8 should be able to detect if the software is running on a tablet with a touchscreen or a laptop/desktop without one.

If there's no touchscreen, it should default to the Desktop Mode, which looks like Windows 7.

Plus, it should allow everyone to choose which mode to boot into by default, Windows 8 (Start Screen) or Desktop (Windows 7).

Bring back the Start button

Really, Microsoft, why fight this anymore?

Desktop mode is basically a faster version of Windows 7 without the Start button, and users have been grumbling about its loss the whole time.

Why make people relearn things like how to turn the computer off?

Of course, if Microsoft doesn't bring back the Start button, people can still add it from a third-party tool like Classic Shell.

Adjustable Charm bar

The Charm Bar is a menu in Windows 8 that lets you perform basic tasks for every app like searching or sharing. It swipes over from the right side of your screen.

We hope Microsoft will let users be able to move the Charm bar around and dock it in another spot or make it permanently visible, and pin the Search, Share, or other Charms to their Start menus if they want to.

By parking the Charms menu on the right side, Windows 8 eliminates common sense gestures like being able to swipe both directions to get to open apps.

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Last year, everyone was talking about Angelina Jolie's leg, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise's divorce, the Olympics, and PSY's "Gangnam Style."

So far this year, Robert Downey Jr., Justin Timberlake, and J.J. Abrams have taken the spotlight with new films and the release of a new album.

Which celebrities aren't people talking about this year?

E-Poll crunched the numbers based on responses to 1,100 surveys to tell us which stars lost the most likeability.

15. Wiz Khalifa

Khalifa revealed spending nearly $10,000 on weed every month last year.

The singer just welcomed a son, Sebastian, in February and released a new EP in April.

14. Simon Baker

Baker is losing popularity, despite his CBS series "The Mentalist" being renewed for a sixth season.

13. Russell Brand

Brand was completely in the spotlight until his divorce from superstar ex-wife Katy Perry after two years together.

The comedian later said he and Perry were incompatible. 

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Everyone wants their kid to be good at math, right?

Math — and the technology, finance, and engineering careers the follow from it — can be lucrative and interesting, but getting a child interested in math isn't easy. 

Luckily, on Reddit, there's been a string of great discussions about what made devotees interested or skilled at math.

We went through some of the most popular submissions from real life math pros about what got them interested or hooked on mathematics at an early age. 

If you're looking for a place to start, here's list of easy, cheap, or abundant things that got these people hooked early.

However, results are not guaranteed. As your future mathematician might tell you, correlation does not imply causation. 

Buy your children legos.

Lots of Redditors cited Legos as being particularly crucial to their upbringing and thinking. Legos will help your kid conceptualize big, complex abstractions from small basic parts.

Source: pureathiesttroll on Reddit.

Buy them the card game Set.

Give them the card game Set. First published in 1991, Set was cited by multiple mathematicians as particularly inspiring. The game provokes the ideas of permutations, combinations and  probability.

For what it's worth, there's also a very good App for it.

Source: BlueDoorFour on Reddit

Tech your children Origami.

One mathematician noted that origami conditioned them to love geometry. Plus, it has the added benefit of appealing to tactile learners. 

One of the coolest things with origami and geometry is that it is proven impossible to trisect an angle with ruler and compass (via Galois theory), but very easy to do through origami. 

Source: th3p4rchit3ct on Reddit.

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"The Scientific 7-Minute Workout" appeared in the New York Times this Sunday, and now a developer named Will Wilson has turned it into a web app.

The workout has you doing a series of 12 exercises that will last just over seven minutes. The idea is to do the workout aggressively.

Chris Jordan, director of exercise physiology at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, says there’s "very good evidence" that high-intensity interval training provides "many of the fitness benefits of prolonged endurance training but in much less time."

So check out Wilson's web app– it keeps track of your time and which exercise you should be doing at a given moment. But be warned – if you have a fun, relaxed workout, you're probably doing it wrong.

It starts, simply enough, with jumping jacks.

Then find a wall to sit against.

Transition into some push-ups.

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The Minnesota Vikings have unveiled designs for their new stadium which is expected to be completed in time for the 2016 season.

The $975 million dome was designed by HKS Sports and Entertainment Group.

The Metrodome is slated to be demolished next year. The Vikings will play at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium during the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

The stadium, which was unanimously approved by the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, must still be approved by the city of Minneapolis.

The new stadium will seat 65,000

The design has been compared to the sandcrawler vehicle in Star Wars

And while it is a dome, much of the structure is see-through

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After Facebook acquired Instagram in September, one of its first major policy changes was to drop support for photo-sharing on Twitter— ostensibly a rival to Instagram for photo-sharing.

That had a pronounced effect, according to data from Simply Measured, the social media analytics company. It reduced the amount of sharing and engagement with followers that brands used to see on Twitter, and boosted those factors in Instagram and Facebook.

In February, Instagram finally changed its privacy policy to allow advertising on the service at some point in the future 100 million users

Simply Measured looked at the top 100 most valuable brands (as measured by Interbrand) and rated their Instagram activity. Here's what the company found.

Among the top 100 brands, Facebook and Twitter have maxed out their market share. But there is still new adoption on Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

67% of brands have signed up for Instagram, but only a minority of all brands (65% of the 67% registered, or 43% of the total) are actually active on Instagram. Few brands have large follower bases.

Since Instagram stopped supporting Twitter's photo display function, the rate of sharing has declined on Twitter but increased on Facebook and Instagram.

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Don't mistake these colorful gentlemen for anything less than trained killers.

In fact, they're part of a 500-year line of mercenaries who "took part in brief but glorious wars and then returned home with the "pay" and the booty."

New recruits in the Papal company of these Swiss mercs recently swore in last week — an annual ritual — and added a batch of 35 warriors to their ranks.

As Swiss troops, trained in Switzerland, they have a firm grasp of modern combat, small arms, and counter terrorism. The Vatican outfit numbers around 150 to 200.

They're on a paid contract to the Papacy ... one that's lasted 500 years.

The Swiss Guard started around the mid 1400s, when a village in the heart of the Alps was impoverished and in need of work.

The cluster of villages got together 15,000 men, trained them, and put them on loan to anyone who needed warriors.

Many of these warriors would do this during the winter, so they could farm during the summer.

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College graduates these days face an average debt of $25,000 and a shaky job market.

It may seem like a finance or medical degree is the only good option in this scenario, but we're a little more optimistic.

Even if you have a degree in one of PayScale's lowest-paying college majors, it is possible to find a career that pays surprisingly well. In most cases, these aren't careers that happen over night, and many will require years of experience and working your way up through the ranks. The point is that a low-starting salary alone shouldn't deter you from pursuing a certain degree or career path –– it's what you do with it that counts. 

Note: Each job listed requires a bachelor’s degree. Salaries noted are mid-career estimates. 

Journalism

Journalism graduates barely scrape by to begin with, earning a median salary of $35,600 and typically only reaching $64,700 halfway through their career, according to PayScale.

Here are three journalism jobs that pay more: 

VP, Communications: $139,000

Corporate Communications Director: $103,000 

Public Relations Director: $80,000

Religion

Religion majors certainly aren't in it for the money –– it's the second-lowest earning major out there, starting at $34,100 per year and $58,400 by mid-career, according to PayScale. 

Here are two religion-focused jobs that earn more: 

Executive Director, Non-Profit Organization: $67,800

Senior Pastor: $58,900

Education

Education degree-holders start out making a median salary of  $34,900 and only get bumped up to $55,0000 by mid-career. 

Here are three education jobs that pay more down the road: 

Employee / Human Resources: $75,600

Instructional Designer: $63,000

Executive Director, Non-Profit Organization: $62,600

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When Jonathan Mayers started interning at Jazzfest he didn't exactly know he would one day helm a company responsible for putting on some of the biggest and best music festivals in the United States. But that is exactly what happened.

While living in New Orleans, in addition to interning he was booking a club called Tipitina's where he met Rick Farman and through him Kerry Black. The three of them started thinking about doing their own events and Mayers brought in Richard Goodstone, a friend from high school who moved down to New Orleans. And Superfly was born.

They started with concerts and concert series around special events like Jazzfest and Mardi Gras. The four focused on creating unique one off events, "thinking about it almost like an art project," as Mayers told Business Insider, putting extra effort into getting cool art for the posters and creating engaging environments at the concerts.

With their expertise growing the four decided to launch Bonnaroo in 2002 and it quickly blossomed into one of the premier summer festivals. As that event has grown over the years the group has added more festival and more staff.

The 4-man team has grown to around 60 full time employees in offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. And on top of festivals they've also moved into brand marketing programs, creating unique experiences around brands and companies.

To stay grounded and continue the fun, family feel they started with, Superfly has created an open and relaxed office environment. This keeps it easy for people to work together and collaborate and come up with the new and exciting ideas that keep their events fresh.The occasional late night karaoke session helps too.

But at the end it is about the music and show and when we stopped by their office they were gearing up for this year's the Great Googa Mooga which will take over Prospect Park on May 17-18.

Welcome to Superfly!

The company has a fun entrance that can also serve as a workspace. Julie Daly, seated at the desk, has been an administrative assistant at the company for a year and a half. She enjoys the "family vibe" around the office and loves the company's music festivals. For Googa Mooga she is looking forward to seeing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

A souvenir from last year's Great Googa Mooga, a fun way to kill time if you have to wait in the waiting area.

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Models, actors, beauty queens and pro-athletes are taking over the trading floors of BTIG's offices world-wide today. 

That's because the brokerage firm is hosting it's 11th annual "Commissions for Charity Day." 

During this event, BTIG traders and stars answer client calls to raise money for children's charities.

The charities include, March of Dimes, Project Sunshine, Alliance for Lupus Research, The Guardsmen, Capital for Kids, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and Solving Kids Cancer, just to name a few.  

"Our annual Charity Day has become an event that the celebrities, clients and employees look forward to each year," Steve Starker, co-founder of BTIG said in a statement.  

"Over the years we have seen this event grow with many celebrity traders returning year after year to represent their charitable foundations. We look forward to this year's event being even bigger and better than before."

This is definitely one of those win-win type of events and it's a great business idea, too.  The celebs and traders get to have fun on the trading floor together. The clients get the amazing opportunity to chat with stars on the phone.  BTIG's name and brand gets out there and for a good reason. And all the charities benefit from the funds and awareness raised.  

So far, the annual charity event has raised nearly $25 million for over 350 nonprofit organizations.  

Now let's check out the action on the trading floor.  

Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, Miss USA Nana Meriwether and Miss Teen USA Logan West at BTIG's New York offices for Project Sunshine.

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning

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A handful of rich Manhattan mothers are hiring disabled people to pose as family members so their children can jump to the front of the lines at Disney World, The New York Post reports today.

The paper points its finger at Dream Tours, a company that helps organize vacations for people with special needs.

The company — and clients who are willing to pay — allegedly take advantage of a Disney rule that allows guests who need a wheelchair or motorized scooter to bring up to six guests to a “more convenient entrance,” the Post's Tara Palmeri reports.

The company reportedly provides a disabled "escort," who accompanies the family around the park and to the front of the line at busy rides.

According to The Post:

“You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,’’ [one mom] sniffed. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney."

The woman said she hired a Dream Tours guide to escort her, her husband and their 1-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter through the park in a motorized scooter with a “handicapped” sign on it. The group was sent straight to an auxiliary entrance at the front of each attraction.

The "black-market" guides run $130 for an hour, and $1,040 for an eight-hour day, The Post reports. 

Disney did not return The Post's requests for comment. You can read the full story at The Post.

SEE ALSO: What It's Like To Hang Out At Disneyland's Super Exclusive, $10,000-A-Year Private Club

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In 1977, George Lucas took us to the desert planet of Tatooine in "Star Wars."

36 years later, the planet's structures remain intact in the deserts of Tunisia.

Visual artist and filmmaker, Ra di Martino has photographed the film set in two series called "No More Stars" and "Every World's A Stage."

Di Martino told Business Insider she found out about the "Star Wars" ruins through a Google Earth tourist photo.  

This inspired her to head to Tunisia and take pictures as part of research on abandoned movie sets in North Africa.  

She imagines they were left there because they are literally in the middle of nowhere and no one complained. 

Di Martino gave us permission to run some of her photos. 

Here they are along with how the set of "Star Wars" originally looked.

You can view all of her photos here.

THEN: This was Luke Skywalker's home on the planet of Tatooine.

NOW: Here it is today in the middle of Tunisia.

Visual artist and filmmaker, Ra di Martino traveled there to photograph the location of the "Star Wars" scenes filmed during the '70s.

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