• US News created a list of every state ranked by opportunity, as measured by economic opportunity, equality, and affordability.
• States from southern America were low on the list and four of the top six states border Canada.
• California, Texas, and New York — the three largest states by population — all ranked in the bottom 10, meaning the American Dream is not as strong there.

The American Dream is dead. Or maybe it's thriving.

It probably depends who you ask and where they live. The American Dream — and what it means to have 'made it' it in the US — has transformed over time.

In some states, the American Dream is much more alive than in others. At least, that is the conclusion reached by US News ranking of states by opportunity with data from McKinsey & Company. 

Opportunity is one of the eight factors that went into figuring out US News rankings for best states. In fact, survey participants considered opportunity the fourth most important measurement in the methodology of the rankings. 

To determine the ranking, each state was measured on numerous metrics that matched three criteria: economic opportunity, equality, and affordability. The latter two were both given a 40% weight, while affordability was weighed at 20%.

Income inequality, median household income, poverty rates, and food insecurity rates all went in to finding the level of economic opportunity for each state. Equality was measured through education, employment, and income gaps based on gender, race, and disability. Cost of living and housing affordability were considered in the affordability ranking. 

Southern states — in both the Deep South and the Southwest — fared poorly on the opportunity ranking. The state that came in first overall did so despite being relatively unaffordable. The most affordable state came in the middle of the pack — 25th for overall opportunity.

Below, see where your state ranks for opportunities to achieve the American Dream.

SEE ALSO: The states where Americans have the best quality of life, ranked

DON'T MISS: All 50 states ranked for retirement from worst to best

50. Louisiana

Economic opportunity: 49

Equality: 42

Affordability: 19

49. Mississippi

Economic opportunity: 50

Equality: 27

Affordability: 13

48. Alabama

Economic opportunity: 48

Equality: 39

Affordability: 17

Sometimes it makes more sense for a big company to break itself up. 

It's especially true when one segment of the business is underperforming. And when managements reach this decision — or are forced by activist shareholders — they provide an opening for investors to increase the valuation of the spun-off entities. 

"Spin-offs are good news for shareholders," Robert Buckland, an equity strategist at Citi, said in a note on Wednesday.

"Buying shares in companies that spin-off assets has been a highly effective strategy. Citi analysis shows that historically, both the parent and the spun-off company outperform in the year after the announcement."

Many spin-off candidates start outperforming before the announcements, Buckland said, as investors speculate on the news. 

Citi's analysts identified 14 US companies that could unlock more value in a spin-off, mostly in the industrials and information technology sectors. Here are the stocks to keep an eye on, ranked in ascending order by market cap. 

SEE ALSO: Global stocks end a winning streak that's never been seen before

NuStar GP Holdings

Ticker: NSH

Market Cap: $500 million

Sector: Energy

Comment:"The NuStar complex is expected to merge the two publicly traded vehicles, cut their distributions materially, and divest less core assets to raise capital to fund their capital expenditure requirements in 2018."

SemGroup

Ticker: SEMG

Market Cap: $1.8 billion

Sector: Energy

Comment:"After a series of large strategic acquisitions and divestitures in the last year, SemGroup is evaluating the sale of SemGas and SemLogistics in the near term and may consider the spin-off of their Canadian subsidiary named SemCAMS in the future after it grows further."

Orascom Construction

Ticker: ORSCY

Market Cap: $1.9 billion

Sector: Industrials

Comment:"The company has a valuable, overlooked 50% stake in a Belgium-based contractor which has a diversified business model with consistent dividend stream. While Orascom’s management explored the sale of this stake in the past, we believe it is still deeply undervalued."

Glenn Weiss has made a career directing some of the most nerve-wracking live television shows ever created.

Working on the Emmy Awards, Tony Awards, American Music Awards, BET Awards, Super Bowl halftime show, and New Year's Rockin' Eve, Weiss thought he'd seen it all over a 30-year career.

But then came last year's Academy Awards.

It was the second time he had directed the epic show, and everything was running smoothly until the final award of the night: best picture.

You know the rest.

The presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope, they incorrectly said "La La Land" won, and the cast and crew came onstage, setting up one of the most incredible live moments in TV history. A "La La Land" producer, Jordan Horowitz, realizing his movie did not win, held up the card revealing that the real best-picture winner was "Moonlight."

A year later, Weiss is preparing to direct another Oscars telecast (airing Sunday), but he still can't shake those infamous few minutes of live television.

"I had no idea that one shot of a card that says 'Moonlight' will probably define my career for the rest of my life," Weiss told Business Insider over the phone.

Here Weiss breaks down how his team captured the best-picture win at the 89th Academy Awards.

SEE ALSO: MoviePass' CEO explains why a 'small percentage' of accounts were terminated and how to make sure it won't happen again

"I really thought he was just being funny"

In retrospect, Warren Beatty's reaction to seeing what was inside the envelope he and Faye Dunaway were given spoke volumes. But at the time, Weiss just thought Beatty was putting on the same act he was doing during rehearsals.

"Warren and Faye were very playful with each other during rehearsals," Weiss said. "So when he started doing that I really thought he was just being funny."

Once "La La Land" was announced as the winner, Weiss said, he and his team were getting ready to present the host Jimmy Kimmel's closing bit and the end credits.

"It didn't feel like anything was wrong — looking back, Warren was looking for help," Weiss said.

Still on the live broadcast, Beatty eventually told the audience that he had been given not the card for best picture but a duplicate of the card announcing Emma Stone as the winner of best actress for "La La Land."

"All my years of training at that moment went 180 degrees"

Weiss said he wasn't notified that something was wrong until a minute and a half after "La La Land" was announced. By that time, the producers of the movie had begun giving their acceptance speeches.

"I hear in the headset from my lead stage manager, 'The accountant just said he thinks we gave the wrong winner,'" Weiss recalled. "I said, 'Get out there and get this fixed.'"

The broadcast showed a person with a headset walking into the camera frame onstage. Weiss said he allowed that to be seen because he decided instantly to show what was unfolding, which goes against everything he was taught.

"When you direct live television, your training says if something is going so wrong that your stage manager has to go out there, you're going to do a wide shot," Weiss said. "That's just what we do when we try to keep shows clean. All my years of training at that moment went 180 degrees. I basically thought, something really bad just happened — I don't want the headline tomorrow to be we tried to cover it up."

Weiss showed all the whispering and scurrying onstage as producers gave their acceptance speeches and members of the crew tried to obtain the correct envelope.

Weiss was "obsessed" with getting a shot of the card that named the real best-picture winner

Weiss said he became "instantly obsessed" with finding someone holding the correct winning card.

"I basically told one of our camera operators who didn't have an assignment at that moment to just go tight on the card if anyone holds it up," Weiss said.

The director said all he was trying to do in the moment was show the audience watching at home what they all were seeing. And then the "La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz lifted up the card that said "Moonlight" was the winner.

"When that card was held up and we took the shot, honestly, I was just doing what my gut told me to do," Weiss said. "Now, it's the most talked about thing. It's crazy."

Weiss said the significance of that shot didn't hit him until the next day when he began seeing the shot in newspapers and on TV. He acknowledges that didn't make him that pleased.

"I felt really good about that television show I made," he said. "The next morning reading about this one shot of the card was weird because I really thought the show was beautiful."

• Wide-reaching corporate tax cuts have stock investors wondering which companies will benefit most.
• Goldman Sachs has singled out 16 companies as offering the most reinvestment growth, a characteristic of companies that have historically outperformed the market.

How does an investor decide which companies are poised to benefit most from sweeping tax cuts that affect nearly everyone? Listen to Goldman Sachs, of course.

The firm has developed an index of stocks called the High Growth Investment Ratio Basket, which is designed to include companies whose share price is most likely to get a boost from the new tax law, given their past use of excess capital.

Goldman's basket includes not just the companies that have most heavily reinvested money into capital expenditures and research and development, but also those set to generate the highest return on it.

For context, the median stock in the index has reinvested 81% of its trailing three years of cash flow from operations, compared with just 13% for the average S&P 500 company, according to Goldman. The firm also forecasts that basket members will offer 18% cash return on capital invested, compared with just 12% for the broader benchmark.

Without further ado, here are the 16 stocks that best fit the bill, arranged in increasing order of three-year growth investment ratio:

16. Wynn Resorts

Ticker: WYNN

Industry: Consumer discretionary

Year-to-date return: -2%

Three-year growth investment ratio: 101%

15. CF Industries

Ticker: CF

Industry: Materials

Year-to-date return: +2%

Three-year growth investment ratio: 104%

14. Amazon

Ticker: AMZN

Industry: Consumer discretionary

Year-to-date return: +27%

Three-year growth investment ratio: 104%

• Various studies show that your siblings can have a lasting impact on your life. 
• There's a link between having more siblings and having a lower rate of divorce. 
• Having a sibling of the opposite sex could increase an individual's confidence level while dating. 
• Being bullied by siblings can leave a lasting impact, and increase the chances for depression. 

SEE ALSO: The 15 biggest differences between French and American parenting

1. Having many siblings lowers your divorce risk

If you come from a big family, you may be less likely to get divorced. Ohio State University researchers analyzed data from 57,000 Americans over a 40-year period and found that those with siblings are more likely to stay married than only children. Each sibling decreases a person’s divorce risk by about 2 percent. (There are diminishing returns: After about seven siblings, there’s not much additional payoff.)

Bigger families may allow more opportunities to practice good communication, empathy, and negotiation, skills that may fortify marriage. Learn more about why your siblings are some of the most important people in your life.

2. Being mom’s favorite could impact depression

Were you the golden child? It may not make you happy. Purdue University and Iowa State University researchers found that depressive symptoms were most common in adult children who claimed to be closer to their mothers than their siblings were.

Sibling rivalry may play a role (a mother’s attention may not nullify negative attention from jealous siblings), or favorites may be likelier to care for an aging mother, which can take an emotional toll. Why do adult siblings stop speaking? Take a look at the psychology behind sibling estrangement.

3. An opposite-sex sibling could boost your dating skills

Growing up with a sibling of the opposite sex could increase an individual’s confidence in romance. Pennsylvania State University researchers analyzed five years of yearly interviews with nearly 400 children. Participants (ages 12 to 20) were asked about their perceived romantic competence, such as if they would be fun on a date or if others would find them attractive.

At age 12, perceived romantic competence was significantly higher among same-sex siblings. But by age 20, opposite-sex siblings perceived themselves significantly more skilled than the same-sex siblings. The findings suggest opposite-sex siblings have natural opportunities to practice relating to the opposite sex, and may better realize the challenges in doing so (while same-sex siblings may not be aware of how little they know).

The earliest aircraft carriers in history looked nothing like they do today.

They were known as "seaplane tenders" because they could only carry and support seaplanes.

These ships, like France's Foudre and Britain's HMS Ark Royal didn't even have large flat decks, because seaplanes could only take off from the surface of the ocean after being placed on the water. 

Over a century later, almost everything has changed. Affectionately nicknamed "flattops," aircraft carriers have become one of the most important weapons in the arsenals of navies around the world.

There are currently 20 aircraft carriers in service with nine different countries around the world today. Five of those countries are currently building new aircraft carriers, which are expected to take to the seas in the next few decades. 

The US, UK, China, India and Italy are all either in the process of building new flattops, or are in the final stages of planning. Aircraft carriers that support fixed-wing, smaller helicopter carriers are being built, and may be upgraded to carry aircraft like the F-35b, which has vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities. 

See the newest aircraft carriers here:

USS Gerald R. Ford

The USS Gerald R. Ford was laid down in November 2009, completed in October 2013, and commissioned in July 2017. It is the lead ship of its class, and is planned to be the first of 10 new aircraft carriers.

The ship has a number of new technologies, like the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, which is intended to replace the steam-powered launch system on current aircraft carriers.

With a length of 1,106 feet, Ford is expected to carry over 75 individual aircraft, with most of them planned to be F-35 variants. However, due to technical and delivery issues, Ford will likely not see F-35s on her deck until late 2018 at the earliest.

Ford recently tested launching F/A-18F Super Hornets off of its deck. It is expected to be fully operational and integrated and into the US Navy by 2022.

USS John F. Kennedy

USS John F. Kennedy is the second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier to be built for the US Navy. The ship was reportedly 50% structurally complete as of June 2017. 

Kennedy is currently under construction at a Huntington Ingalls Industries facility in Newport News, Virginia. The carrier was originally supposed to be completed in 2018, but it ran into a number of problems during construction. 

Most of the problems stem from cost issues relating to the Gerald R. Ford. Ford had a cost increase of 22%, topping $12.8 billion in 2008. 

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended delaying the commissioning of the ship in 2013. It is now expected to be commissioned in 2020. 

USS Enterprise

USS Enterprise is the third Gerald R. Ford-class carrier currently being built. The first cut of steel was cut in a ceremony last August by the ship's sponsors, Olympians Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles.

Enterprise will the be ninth vessel in the US Navy to have the name. The previous ship was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier ever built, and was decommissioned last February.

Like the Ford and the Kennedy, Enterprise expected to carry over 75 aircraft.

India's Ganges River is a paradox: The mighty river's tributaries are cool, Himalayan-glacier fed springs. But where the river meets Indian subcontinent's highly populated cities, and pours out into the Bay of Bengal, the water goes from crystal clear to trash-and sewage-infested sludge.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed $3 billion in 2015 to clean up the waterway that provides drinking water for 400 million people — and is revered as a place of worship for over a billion Hindus — but a recent audit found that less than a quarter of those funds have actually been used to help the situation, according to Reuters. 

And the Ganges, or the Ganga Mata (Mother Ganges) as it's called by India's devout, is in bad shape. Untreated sewage flows directly into the river where people cook, bathe, and perform burial rites for the recently-deceased. Factories and farms from industries as varied as leather tanning to shipbuilding line the river's banks, dumping dangerous chemicals into the river.

Modi's government set a target to improve the river's water quality by the beginning of 2018 — but it looks like that goal won't be met. 

We've rounded up some of the most startling images of the river's pollution below: 

SEE ALSO: An oil spill off China's coast is the world's biggest since Deepwater Horizon — and it more than tripled in size over the weekend

The Ganges begins in the Himalayas as a crystal clear river high in the mountains, but pollution and excessive usage transforms it into toxic sludge on its journey through cities and industrial hubs.

As the rivers flows into more populated areas, it gets filled with runoff and sediment from the surrounding cities. Here, the river takes on a muddy hue in Kanpur, in India's northernmost Uttar Pradesh state.

Untreated sewage flows directly from drain pipes into the river.

The United Nations recently published its annual Human Development Report, which ranks where people live long, healthy lives —in other words, the countries that are best to live in.

The UN looked at nearly 200 countries across a number of categories, including life expectancy, education, gender equality, and financial wealth.

Here are the countries that scored the highest.

SEE ALSO: Norway was just ranked the happiest country in the world

15. Liechtenstein — Many residents of this German-speaking country enjoy high incomes, with a $78,000 yearly income as the average.

14. Sweden — On average, people in Sweden live to be 82.3 years old.

13. New Zealand — Students attain a high level of education here, and go to school for at least 19 years.

• Being a crab fishermen on Alaska's Bering Sea is a very dangerous job with back-breaking labor and 20-hour work days.
• In 2002, photographer Corey Arnold decided to give it a try. He ended up doing it for nearly a decade and brought his camera along for the many weeks at sea.
• The Bering Sea is constantly suffering storms which make the work even more difficult and dangerous.

In 2002, photographer Corey Arnold left behind a poor economy in San Francisco and headed up to Alaska to try his luck at his longtime passion of fishing.

Arnold, who had worked summers during college on a salmon boat in Alaska, signed on to the f/v Rollo, a crabbing boat that fishes in the dangerous Bering Sea.

While working long, strenuous hours on the Rollo, Arnold often stole away with the captain’s permission to grab his camera and photograph the crew and the ship. Arnold eventually put together "Fish Work: Bering Sea," a documentation of his seven adventurous and dicey crab seasons aboard the Rollo.

Arnold shared a selection of the photos with us here, and you can check out the rest in the book or on his website.

SEE ALSO: The midwest has some of the most extreme weather in the US and these are the photos to prove it

There are two annual crabbing seasons in the Bering Sea, King crab and Opilio crab. During each one- to two-month season, Arnold went on numerous trips crabbing. He went on one or two trips during King season, and three to five during Opilio season.

The Bering Sea, located between far east Russia and Alaska, has a unique interaction of strong currents, sea ice, and powerful weather patterns. It is one of the most dangerous places to fish in the world. Arnold calls the sea "a continuous storm."

The 107-foot f/v Rollo is equipped to handle tumultuous seas. Average seas in the Bering Sea have around 10- to 20-foot waves, but Arnold has witnessed massive 50-foot waves and the Rollo's captain, Eric Nyhammer, has witnessed 80-foot waves. Arnold rarely saw his captain get nervous, but when he does, the crew knows it's time to worry.

• For Business Insider's "Real Money" series, a 23-year-old journalist shares a week of spending on a $35,000 salary on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
• She usually eats at home and loves a good (free) workout, but this week spent money on bills and plane tickets to visit family.
• Want to share a week of your spending? Email yourmoney@businessinsider.com.

My dad taught me to live within my means.

I take that lesson pretty seriously and never spend more than I can afford. This can be challenging on my budget— I make $35,000 a year — but by spending carefully I make it work.

I live a pretty thrifty lifestyle and while my income doesn't allow for a lot of saving, I still try to save a couple hundred dollars and contribute to my 401k every month. I love traveling, so I also try to put aside some cash every month so I can buy plane tickets to go visit my friends and family and explore new cities. 

My boyfriend and I share the expense of living at our resort apartment on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, which keeps my rent affordable. The resort is extremely quiet in the winter and we get to enjoy the vacation amenities like hot tubs and tennis courts regularly, especially during the off season for tourism. On days when I don't spend any money, I'm still able to enjoy indoor workouts, swimming, or a friendly game of tennis, which is an added bonus.

Here's a closer look at what I spent over the course of a recent week: 

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley is so expensive that people who make $400,000 think they're middle-class — here's what the middle class actually is in the 25 largest US cities

My boyfriend and I split our $1,150 rent evenly, and every month I pay gas, car insurance, and a gym membership.

It's hard to save money on my budget, but I try my best.

I take home $479 a week from my $35,000 salary, and I keep my spending within what I can afford.

Some days I don't spend any money at all. Other days, my purchases just seem to add up. Grocery shopping on Saturday, for example, took a toll on my budget, and my electric bill set me back $46 on Thursday.

On Friday, I woke up to a notification that $29.95 was charged to my Discover card by Blue Apron.

I've recently jumped on the meal subscription bandwagon and am loving it. Tip for all you frugal people out there: Try a company once to get their intro deal, which is usually $30 off your first box. So far I've tried Blue Apron, Home Chef, and HelloFresh.

After a quiet night with my boyfriend listening to records, I make a mental note: Tomorrow morning will have to start with a trip to the grocery store. I can only have so many pieces of toast and bowls of Cheerios in a single day.

• Fortune 500 companies are massively influential — especially when it comes to funding both Republican and Democratic politicians.

• Career site Zippia looked into how much money Fortune 500 employees gave to politicians and political causes between 2007 and 2017.

• The results also indicate which companies tend to lean more left or right.

Fortune 500 companies are some of the most powerful organizations in the world.

So it makes sense that some of their employees are the biggest donors when it comes to politics.

Career site Zippia recently ran a comprehensive breakdown of where companies fall on the political spectrum, based on their employees' political donations between the years 2007 and 2017.

Zippia looked into 250,000 of the largest public and private companies in the US with at least 150 political donors. They identified top donors through the Federal Election Committee's 32,000,000 political donation records, which date back to 2007.

Whether or not the donor contributed to the Republican or Democratic parties came down to looking into what or who they were writing checks for. Candidates were pretty to easy to figure out. Zippia only looked at PACs that gave over 60% of their funds to a specific political party.

Here's a look into the Fortune 500 companies where employees pumped the most money into politics:

SEE ALSO: Trump insisted on hanging bright gold drapes in the Oval Office — here are past presidents' offices for comparison

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Altria Group

Based in Henrico County, Virginia, the Altria Group is a corporation that produces tobacco and cigarettes.

Total donations: $1,664,536

Percentage donated to Republicans: 61.9%

Percentage donated to Democrats: 38.1%

Intel

Intel is a tech giant based in Silicon Valley.

Total donations: $1,690,496

Percentage donated to Republicans: 25.4%

Percentage donated to Democrats: 73.2%

General Electric

Based in Boston, General Electric is a conglomerate made up of companies spanning a number of industries.

Total donations: $1,753,871

Percentage donated to Republicans: 43.2%

Percentage donated to Democrats: 56.0%

• Nestpick ranked 110 cities on 17 factors that it considers important to millennials.
• These included immigration tolerance, gender equality, whether or not its LGBTQ+ friendly, the state of the startup scene, in addition to its nightlife and festival status.
• Amsterdam, 2017's best city for under 30s, was knocked off the top spot this year.

These days most millennials will consider a broad range of factors when considering a city to reside in, including living costs, how liberal a city is, the employment opportunities, as well as more fun aspects, such as what the nightlife's like.

Recognising this, apartment hunting website Nestpick analysed 110 cities, taking four main concerns into consideration: Is there work available? Can you afford to live a good life? Is the city open and tolerant? And finally, can you have fun?

In its ranking, the company assigned a score for each city based on 17 "micro factors," including its immigration tolerance, gender equality, whether or not its LGBTQ+ friendly, the state of the startup scene, as well as its beer and festival ranking. 

Amsterdam took the top spot in Nestpick's 2017 ranking, but this year it crowned a new best city for millennials, so keep scrolling for the 13 cities where under 30s want to live most right now.

SEE ALSO: 26 real places and landmarks that look like they're straight out of a Wes Anderson film

13. San Francisco, US. The global tech hub naturally scored high in the startup stakes.

12. Bristol, UK. Bristol benefits from a lively nightlife and scored highly for its LGBTQ+ friendly environment.

11. Hamburg, Germany. The city may sometimes get overlooked for better known German cities but it also has a buzzing nightlife scene.

• The 2018 Chevy Colorado ZR2 is a highly capable off-roader, with a robust 4WD system.
• But the pickup can still do everyday duty.
• For the price, you're getting a lot of truck for the money.

I've always been a big fan of the Chevy Colorado, the compact (really, mid-sized) pickup truck that Chevy rolled out a few years ago to invigorate the small-pickup segment.

The Chevy Colorado has been a big hit, compelling Ford to revive its own Ranger pickup in the US. So in addition to a pickup-truck war among the big guys — the Ford F-150 full-size, along with the forthcoming all-new Chevy Silverado and the Ram 1500 — we have a skirmish shaping up in the smaller-pickup segment, between Chevy and Ford.

Adding to the fun is the bevy of high-performance variants we now have in the market. We just put the Chevy Silverado Z71 up against the might Ford Raptor, and recently I got to check out the 2018 Chevy Colorado ZR2, the oomphier sibling of the regular truck.

Our $43,475 tester was well-equipped and ready for off-road action, but sadly I spent most of my time driving around suburban New Jersey. That's a shame, as fans of the ZR2 know that it's a capable rock-buster and really made to haul dirt bikes out the desert for dusty thrills.

Anyway, here's what I thought:

SEE ALSO: We drove a $63,000 Ford Raptor and a $58,000 Chevy Silverado Z71 to see which pickup truck we liked better — here's the verdict

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"Cajun Red Tintcoat!" What a great color! I want all my cars to look like this in the future.

Our test truck was $43,475 — the Colorado ZR2 is already a lot pricier then the $20,000 basic Colorado, but out tester came well-optioned out of the box before a few extras added about $700

Our ZR2 came with a crew cab and a "short box" bed. Some folks don't much like short boxes, but I think for the uses that most owners would put the Colorado to, the short box is ideal.

Home Depot runs, gardening, maybe some light brush-clearing and log-hauling duty — none would over stress the short box. I figure you could get two mountain bikes in there. Our tester also came with an installed roof rack for skis.

The Colorado ZR2 kind of blends aggression with sporty sleekness. Personally, I don't think the various fascia elements — grille, badge, headlights — are in good balance.

Sports is often seen as a playground for the rich and famous.

And that is certainly true when it comes to the NHL, where the wealthiest 23 men and women have a combined fortune of $89.92 billion.

Using data from Forbes, Canadian Business, The Richest, and NHL salary information previously published on Business Insider, we have put together this list of the 23 richest billionaire NHL franchise owners in the United States and Canada.

Here they are in ascending order.

SEE ALSO: The 15 richest billionaire football club owners in England — and how they made their fortunes

20: Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis — net worth $1 billion

Ted Leonsis began his first business venture in 1981, when he was 25. He raised $1 million in seed capital for LIST, a technology magazine which he sold to Thomson Reuters for $40 million in 1984.

In 1987 he formed Redgate Communications Corporation, which was acquired by AOL in 1994. He worked his way up to vice chairman at AOL.

As the CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, Leonsis owns a number of sports teams including NBA club Washington Wizards and NHL franchise Washington Capitals.

Stanley Cups won during Leonsis' tenure: Zero.

Highest-paid player: Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin and center Evgeny Kuznetsov are both on $10 million a year.

Source: The Richest.

19: Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk — $1.15 billion

Eugene Melnyk has worked in medical publishing and the pharmaceutical industry.

He founded Biovail Corporation in 1989. He left three years before its merger with multinational pharmaceutical giant Valeant, in 2010. In the same year Melnyk made $157.6 million when he sold the vast majority of his Biovail stock.

He is the sole owner of the Ottawa Senators.

Stanley Cups won during Melny's tenure: Zero.

Highest-paid player: Senators left wing Bobby Ryan is paid $7.3 million a year.

Source: Canadian Business.

=18: New York Rangers owner James Dolan — $1.5 billion

James L. Dolan is a prominent businessman in New York.

He serves as the Executive Chairman of regional cable, satellite, and radio firm MSG Networks, and The Madison Square Garden Company, which owns five sports franchises, three sports venues, and an eSports organisation.

Dolan has owned the New York Rangers since 1997.

Stanley Cups won during Dolan's tenure: Zero.

Highest-paid player: Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist is paid $9 million a year.

Source: The Richest.

To qualify as a country worthy of investment, certain standards must be met.

A World Bank Group report highlighted four factors — the country's people, environment, relationships, and framework — that propel both individuals and corporations to invest in a given country's natural resources, markets, technologies, or brands.

Guided by the report from the World Bank Group, U.S. News identified the best countries to invest in for 2018.

Last month, U.S. News released their 2018 Best Countries ranking. To determine the overall list, U.S. News surveyed over 21,000 people worldwide about 80 different countries, measuring them on 65 different attributes, including cultural influence, entrepreneurship, and quality of life.

For the best countries to invest in ranking, U.S. News focused on just eight of the 65 attributes: entrepreneurship, economic stability, favorable tax environment, innovation, skilled labor, technological expertise, dynamism, and corruption. Responses from over 6,000 survey participants — who act as decision makers in business around the globe — were then used to determine the ranking.

See below for the rankings, which includes the country's population, GDP, and the GDP growth percentage in 2016.

20. Chile

Population: 17.9 million

Total GDP: $247 billion

GDP growth: 1.6%

19. France

Population: 66.9 million

Total GDP: $2.5 trillion

GDP growth: 1.2%

18. Brazil

Population: 207.7 million

Total GDP: $1.8 trillion

GDP growth:  -3.6%

• Lent lasts 40 days and 40 nights. For 2018, that's February 14 to March 29.

• The Black Fast is a medieval religious fast meant to be practiced during Lent that bars meat, alcohol, and dairy, and limits you to one meal a day, eaten after sundown.

• As a practicing Roman Catholic, I decided to try it out for nine days. I failed miserably.

Fasting seems to be having a moment.

It's huge in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, and celebrities like Beyonce, Terry Crews, Hugh Jackman, and Tim Ferriss have adopted intermittent fasting. This practice calls for you to eat whatever you want in an eight hour block, and then follow that up with a 16-hour fast. You can also just give up one meal a day.

The science is still up in the air, but early studies have indicated that fasting could boost weight loss, slow aging, and even sharpen your focus.

While it might seem like a hot new trend, fasting — specifically religious fasting — dates back centuries. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism all have their own fasting traditions.

I decided to try one particularly ominous-sounding medieval fast. The Black Fast is a grueling Catholic Lenten fast, which still survives among some Eastern Orthodox Catholics.

Here are the rules:

• You can eat one meal a day during Lent.

• The meal must be consumed after sunset — which is currently about 5:40 p.m. in New York.

• The meal cannot include meat, dairy, eggs, or alcohol.

• During Holy Week — the week leading up to Easter Sunday — you can only eat one meal consisting of bread, salt, herbs, and water. I skipped this part.

To get a better sense of the fast and its historical context, I spoke with Barbara Newman, professor of Latin, English, religious studies, and classics at Northwestern University and author of "Making Love in the Twelfth Century: 'Letters of Two Lovers' in Context" and "Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred."

"Fasting has nothing to do with any desire to lose weight or to get thin or to be beautiful," she told Business Insider. "You fast to show repentance for your sins and to humble yourself."

I'm a practicing Roman Catholic, so I was curious to see whether this fast would improve my spiritual life. What I did discover was that St. Jerome was spot on when he wrote, "When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting."

Here's what happened when I tried this intense medieval fast for nine days:

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Before I embarked on the fast, I checked to see if it was okay to drink liquids throughout the day. I found an article on CatholicCulture.org that indicated beverages were fine, as long as they adhered to "the spirit of fasting." So giant smoothies packed with fruits and other toppings were out, but Cokes and Snapples from the office kitchen were fine.

Source: Catholic Culture

I also asked my good friend who observes Ramadan every year for advice. She recommended trying vitamin-rich dates (which, I confess, I never got around to buying) and sticking to nutritionally-balanced evening meals (which I definitely stuck to, aside from two notable detours involving calamari and Filet-O-Fish).

I also asked Newman if she had any recommendations. She reminded me to not forget about the spiritual aspects of the fast: "If you are Catholic and you're doing this as a religious exercise, the idea is it's always accompanied by prayer. It's not something you would do just for its own sake."

Step inside the Financial Gym's second-story suite overlooking a bustling midtown Manhattan enclave, and you'll be greeted by a perky trainer before being offered a glass of wine and a seat at the Money Bar.

Brace yourself, because in a few moments, you'll be asked to get naked — financially, that is. 

The Financial Gym isn't a gym, per se, and the workout you're about to endure isn't for your glutes. Rather, the Financial Gym offers an exercise regimen tailored to another integral aspect of your life: your budget.

Your first workout at the gym, which founder Shannon McLay has cheekily dubbed the "financially naked session," might involve a glass of wine, a box of Kleenex, and a radical re-envisioning of your finances. You'll be asked a number of questions. How much money do you make? Are you in debt? What kind of credit cards do you use? Do you want to own a house? Do you want to travel the world? Are you getting married? Are you planning on having a baby?

From there, you'll be assigned a trainer and a finance fitness plan that's customized to your specific finance goals. Or, as McLay puts it: "A diet regimen that's like Weight Watchers, but for your budget."

The Financial Gym, which opened its new headquarters on 25th Street in early February, is the fruition of an idea envisioned by McLay four years ago, when she was working as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. As a financial advisor with over a decade of experience in investment banking, McLay repeatedly received requests from friends and colleagues to help them sort out their finances.

"People were constantly coming up to me who didn't have $250,000 in assets and asking, 'Hey, can you help me with my money?'" she said. "I realized that they wanted to talk to someone about how to manage their money. They wanted to go to a place. And I realized that most people don't have a place that exists where they can talk about their finances."

But creating a financial advisory company in New York that provided a physical location as its primary offering was an uphill battle for McLay, who received pushback from investors from the very start. As she attempted to acquire funding for her first investment round, she was repeatedly dogged with the questions of, "Why can't this be an app? Why does this need to be a place?"

For McLay, the answer to these inquiries was obvious. The Financial Gym could only ever be a place, she felt, because in order to effect positive change in people's lives, they needed not only a human connection, but an environment where they felt comfortable talking about their finances.

"The majority of our client meetings start out with people talking about fear and shame —  these are the two words that always come out," she said. "People are walking around, totally overwhelmed by feelings of fear and shame when it comes to their finances, and it's like, what, you're going to go to an app to figure that out?"

McLay is determined to offer everything that an app can't: a holistic approach to finances tailor-made to each client's life goals.

"We plan finances around our clients' lives and what they want out of life," she said. "We ask them if they want kids, if they want to retire earlier, if they want to backpack around the world for a year, and we try to find a financial path that fits their aspirations."

At the gym, each trainer's goal for their clients is to offer a path to financial independence.  McLay describes this as "the ability to work when you want to work, and not because you have to work."

In keeping with its app-free ethos, the plans offered by the Financial Gym are surprisingly devoid of technology. You won't be offered resources in the form of an app or a website. Instead, you'll receive a folder of paperwork outlining a detailed to-do list, which includes the types of credit cards you should apply for, the amount of debt you need to pay off in a month, and the amount of money you'll need to save. 

Each month, clients are graded on their financial fitness. Get straight As, and you'll be awarded a badge. Slip up on your budget goals and you might be demoted to a "D."  "Our clients are obsessed with their quarterly review," said McLay. "People really respond to grade-based feedback."

McLay's clients are from a mix of different backgrounds. Some of her clients command triple-figure salaries but struggle to pay off student debt, while others are blue-collar families saddled with punishing mortgages who dream of financial independence. Regardless, the Financial Gym prices its advisory plans at exactly the same rate: $85 a month for a monthly meeting, an on-call financial advisor, and a financial fitness plan suited to their life goals. For couples, monthly rates start at $145, and for students, it's $35 a month. 

"I wanted to price it like a regular gym," said McLay. "I wanted to create something that real people could afford."

Take a look inside the first Financial Gym:

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McLay designed the gym to feel like a home away from home. "I don't want this to feel like a workspace," she said. "Most people work on money in their home. We want this to be like their second home."

The gym is equipped with cozy workspaces that double as private meeting rooms with sliding barn doors.

People get emotional around money, says McLay, and the Money Bar's beverage selection is intended to help clients take the edge off. "We say we go through wine and Kleenex here, that's our inventory," she said.

• Until recently, scientists had trouble answering the question: why do we sleep?
• Now we know that sleep restores the immune system, body, and cleanses the brain.
• But there's still a lot we get wrong and don't understand about sleep. The longstanding lack of knowledge has created a lot of sleep myths.

For something so fundamental to our lives, there's a lot that we don't get right about sleep.

Until recently, we didn't even have good answers to the question of "why" we sleep, as UC Berkeley neuroscience and psychology professor Matthew Walker explains in his recent book, "Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams."

We're better at answering that question now. We know that sleep restores the immune system, balances hormone levels, lowers blood pressure, cleanses toxins from the brain, and more.

"[W]e no longer have to ask what sleep is good for," wrote Walker. "Instead, we are now forced to wonder whether there are any biological functions that do not benefit by a good night's sleep. So far, the results of thousands of studies insist that no, there aren't."

But while we know far more about sleep now than we used to, there are a huge number of myths about sleep that persist. Many of these stem from not understanding the full importance of sleep; other myths have been created by people trying to sell products to improve nightly rest.

These are some of the most prominent myths — and the facts.

SEE ALSO: 11 things you’re doing that are setting you up for a terrible night’s sleep

Myth: You can become a morning person.

Spend enough time online and you'll certainly encounter some version of the "you can accomplish so much if you start waking up a 4:30 a.m. every day"blog post.

But the truth is more complex.

There are a number of factors that influence your chronotype — that is, whether you're a morning person, a night owl, or whether you fall somewhere in between. Your body clock changes throughout life and is influenced by factors like sunlight and genetics.

Researchers say that while most people can regulate their body clock to some degree (if you want to feel awake earlier, try getting morning sunlight), there's a limit to how much it can be changed. And for some people, becoming a morning person (or switching to become a night owl) is basically impossible. 

Myth: You can get by on less than seven hours a night.

If you need a cup of coffee in the morning to feel awake, you didn't get enough sleep.

Scientists like Walker say that if you want to figure out how much sleep you actually need, you should spend about a week letting yourself fall asleep when you are tired and then waking up naturally, without an alarm. 

As it turns out, the vast majority of people need between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. There are a few people out there who for biological reasons either need more sleep or can get by with less, but statistically, you're probably not one of them.

People tend to think they can get by with less sleep because after a few days or weeks of 5 or 6 hours, that just starts to feel like "normal." But even though people assume they've adjusted, tests show that they are performing in an impaired state.

Myth: The only long-term consequence of not getting enough sleep is that you'll be tired.

So you're tired. No big deal, right?

Unfortunately, that's not the case. As Walker wrote, sleep has a huge variety of benefits for your health.

Not getting enough sleep is associated with a laundry list of negative health effects, including memory problems, increased cancer risk, depression and anxiety, heart disease, and Alzheimer's linked buildups in the brain.

• Millennials are increasingly buying clothing that's characterized by durability and utility. 
• This has led to a surge of interest in brands like The North Face and Patagonia. 
• With durable fashion in vogue, fast-fashion retailers, like H&M and Forever 21, that have been known for creating cheaper, more disposable clothing are likely to suffer.

These days, you're as likely to spot a Patagonia fleece on the back of an explorer clambering their way up the side of a mountain face as you are to see it on a hipster sipping coffee in Brooklyn. 

Practical fashion is in vogue, and it's being driven by millennial customers' desire to shop at brands that sell clothes that last longer and seem to have a purpose.

Outdoorsy labels like Patagonia and The North Face are surging in popularity. These brands have won over the hearts of customers who were psychologically scarred by the recession and have become more considered with their spending habits.

Historically, during times of economic uncertainty and social unrest, consumers will dress in more practical clothing. 

"Economical or ideological climates definitely influence designers and consumers in the way they interact with fashion," Kate Nelson Best, an expert in fashion culture and author of the 2017 book "The History of Fashion Journalism" told Quartz. "For example, after the relative freedom of style in the 1920s, the 1930s [during the Great Depression] saw a return to a more conservative style of dressing: long dresses for evening, and suits for daywear. There was a more inward-looking consciousness."

This shift towards practical, sustainable fashion and away from the culture of buying cheap clothing from stores that jump on trends poses a big threat to fast-fashion retailers, such as H&M and Forever 21, which may offer lower prices than these brands but fall short on quality by comparison. 

Here are some of the most popular utility-focused brands:

SEE ALSO: Shoppers are dropping hundreds of dollars on 'ugly' clothes — here are some of the worst examples

Patagonia

Patagonia started out in 1973 as a company that made tools for rock-climbing. As consumers increasingly crave "authentic" brands and the image of leading an outdoors lifestyle, Patagonia has exploded in popularity to become a billion-dollar business with 103 stores globally. 

A spokesperson for the brand told Business Insider that sales have quadrupled in the past 10 years, but they wouldn't divulge exact figures as it's a private company. According to The Guardian, the company had sales of $800 million in 2016, which was twice as much as in 2010.

Part of Patagonia's success has stemmed from its marketing itself as being anti-consumerist and encouraging customers to only buy products that last. In 2011, it ran an ad campaign that showed its R2 fleece with the words "Don’t Buy This Jacket," explaining the environmental costs of making the fleece. The attention this ad received helped to drive an increase in sales in 2012.

"We can't control whether or not our brand is deemed cool or uncool, and we really don't care," Mark Little, Patagonia's director of men's sportswear and surf apparel, told GQ in 2017.

The North Face

The North Face started off in 1966 as a mountaineering and backpacking equipment company in San Francisco. It's since grown to offer all things you need to prepare yourself for the great outdoors, from skiwear to hiking and camping equipment. 

The image of The North Face has transitioned from being a purely practical brand to one that makes a fashion statement. 

"Their mainline products are seemingly so unassuming, so banal, so practical that each owner or subculture have been able to project their own identity onto those three simple curved lines and sans-serif text," the British culture magazine Dazed wrote in 2016. 

The North Face has taken off in Europe in recent years — in its parent company's most recent quarterly results, released in February, it reported that same-store sales were up by 32% in Europe compared to the previous year. Overall, they were up by 23% in Europe in 2017.

The North Face is owned by VF Corp, the parent company of Lee, Wrangler, and Vans. 

Fjällräven

Swedish brand Fjällräven started out making backpacks for schoolchildren. Today, its well-known bags are loved by millennials across the globe. The store launched in the US in 2012 and has become one of the fastest-growing names in outdoor and lifestyle wear here.

Fjällräven prides itself on creating long-lasting products. "We're not interested in short-lived trends," Thomas Gröger, a member of the company's executive board, told ISPO.com. 

It has a limited turnover of clothing with two seasons a year and no collection in between. On average, a product will stay available for 14 seasons.

"Our approach to product and how it works at retail is a bit different from the industry standards. We have products that have been in the line not just for multiple seasons, but for multiple decades,” Steve Stout, vice president of retail at Fjallraven North America, told Business Insider.

The Greenland jacket has been in the collection for 50 years.

Once the butt-end of rocket industry jokes, SpaceX has completely disrupted the world's market for launches with high-performance, increasingly low-cost, and ever-more-reusable rockets.

Founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2002, SpaceX did not have an easy start — it was bordering on bankruptcy in 2008 after three failed launches.

Today the aerospace company has about $10 billion worth of launches booked, built the world's most powerful operational rocket, and touts an ambitious goal to colonize Mars.

Its success has so far relied on its workhorse launcher: the 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket. But continued industry dominance is anything but guaranteed.

In the near future, Musk and SpaceX will face competition from a number of companies, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, that are developing reusable, next-generation rocket engines and boosters.

Here's how the competition in the new space race stacks up.

SEE ALSO: $2,000 per orange? Here's how much money it costs to launch stuff into space

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United Launch Alliance

Aerospace industry titans Boeing and Lockheed Martin formed ULA in 2005, and the company currently relies on its Delta IV Heavy launcher to get the biggest payloads into space. But that rocket costs at least $350 million per launch — several times more expensive than SpaceX's new and reusable $90 million Falcon Heavy system. Plus, Delta IV Heavy can only lift half as much payload as the Falcon Heavy.

As an answer to SpaceX's new rocket, ULA is working on a more powerful and partly reusable launcher called Vulcan. That rocket will recycle the engines of its booster, which is the biggest and most costly part of a rocket. (And the engines make up about two-thirds of a booster's cost.)

According to ULA's plan, a system called SMART will pop the engines off, guide them through Earth's atmosphere behind an aeroshell, and parachute them toward the ground. A helicopter will then grab the parachute and engines.

A forthcoming system called ACES will also make the upper stage of the rocket reusable and refuel-able in orbit.

Tory Bruno, ULA's CEO, told Business Insider that a Vulcan launch will cost below $100 million to start.

ArianeGroup

One of SpaceX's lowest-cost and biggest competitors is ArianeGroup, which is often known by its launch-focused subsidiary, Arianespace.

The company is working on a follow-up to its highly successful Ariane 5 rocket, dubbed Ariane 6. It may launch as soon as 2020. The most powerful variant of Ariane 6 could potentially carry about twice as much payload as SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket into orbit some 22,236 miles above Earth.

At first, Ariane 6 won't have reusable engines. But SpaceNews reports that the rockets may eventually get equipped with reusable Prometheus engines — expensive parts that a winged, pop-off machine called Adeline might fly back to a runway. 

In the end, Ariane 6's makers expect the rocket to achieve lower ounce-for-ounce launch prices that what SpaceX currently offers.

Blue Origin

One of SpaceX's biggest looming rivals is also the most secretive.

Founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin has been most public about its smaller space tourism rocket system, New Shepard. But in September 2016, Blue Origin announced its plans for the enormous, reusable, and orbit-capable New Glenn rocket system.

Reusable rocket engines, called BE-4s, will power that launcher. Its biggest future iteration will stand about 313 feet tall, have three rocket stages, and possibly make voyages to the moon or Mars routine.

Bezos is planning to debut the first New Glenn rocket in 2020. Blue Origin has begun that work in a 750,000-square-foot hangar in Cape Canaveral, Florida (Business Insider asked to visit, but the company declined).

It's not certain how much a New Glenn launch will cost, though the booster will take off and land like SpaceX's, allowing it to get reused for future launches. That would save Blue Origin tens of millions of dollars in the process.

As of March 2017, Blue Origin had at least one customer signed up to launch a payload.