FORT BLISS, Texas — During my first couple days at Fort Bliss, I had heard smatterings from soldiers about a non-indigenous species of African antelope population that somehow inhabited the training grounds.

But no one really quite knew how the animals, known as the oryx, got there.

Many of the soldiers told me different theories that they'd heard. Some told me that they didn't even believe these antelope-looking animals were out there.

But on my last day at the post, as I was hanging out with a bunch of artillerymen waiting to see an M109 Paladin test fire, one of the creatures appeared before us.

Here's the true story about how the animal arrived in the US, and what I saw that day:

SEE ALSO: We got up-close with the US Army's M109 Paladin — armed with a machine gun, a grenade launcher, and a massive cannon

The artillerymen, combat photographers and I were waiting to watch the Paladin fire, when, suddenly ...

An oryx appeared out of nowhere — like something out of an M. Night Shyamalan movie.

For about 15-20 minutes, the oryx stood about 20 yards away, periodically nibbling on foliage and curiously looking at us. 

The oryx is an African antelope that is non-indigenous to the US.

On average, oryx weigh about 450 pounds and stand about 4 feet tall (not including their 34-inch horns). 

Source: National Park Service

• The Beekman, A Thompson Hotel, was ranked the No. 1 hotel in New York City by U.S. News & World Report.
• We stayed at The Beekman recently to see if it lives up to the hype.
• While the hotel is architecturally stunning, has a dynamite cocktail bar, and in-room Chromecast, a few lapses by the hospitality team took away from my experience.

Step into The Beekman in New York City's Financial District and you will no doubt feel transported to a different era.

First opened in 1881, the Temple Court building that houses The Beekman was one of the city's first skyscrapers. The stunning atrium that centers the building housed offices for lawyers, publishers, advertising agencies, and architects for decades.

Prior to the building of Temple Court, the location was home to the Chapel Street Theater, which held the first performance of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in New York in 1761, and Clinton Hall, a literary salon of sorts where poet Edgar Allan Poe worked.

That history rings through the building, embedded in the carpeting, the architectural design, and the art on the walls. It feels both old and new, a trendy location in a neighborhood that has long been known more for its brigades of suited financiers than its nightlife.

The hotel was recently named the No. 1 hotel in New York City by U.S. News & World Report, no doubt due to the chic Old World design and the high-end food and cocktails served at chef Tom Colicchio's on-site restaurant, Temple Court.  

Keep reading to check out our stay at The Beekman:

The Beekman is tucked down one of the winding alley-like streets of the Financial District. Its location feels very old New York. I'm talking 1800s old. It'd be easy to miss if it wasn't for the black Beekman Lexus parked out front. One of the hotel's advertised amenities is a courtesy house car service.

Look up and you can see the original landmarked building that has been on this location since 1881. That taller 10-story building next to it is a new addition that is also part of the hotel.

The lobby sets the scene of old meets new immediately. The tiling was chosen based on bits and pieces of the originals found throughout the development process. The carpeting on the lobby desk is from 1881, the same year the building was first constructed.

Strategists at Bank of America have compiled a projection of the biggest, world-transforming themes over the next two to five years and companies they believe will most benefit.

"The future is arriving sooner than investors expect," Beijia Ma, an equity strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said in a recent note.

"By 2020E, we see electric and autonomous vehicles, the Internet of Things (IoT), AI and other hyperbolic technologies impacting lives on Main Street. 2023E serves as an inflection point for tectonic shifts including peak labour, the maturing of Gen Y & Z, and grid parity for renewables — while many moonshots [like animal-free meat] come closer to reality."

The team put together a list of stocks they believe will be the biggest beneficiaries of these trends. All the companies are "buy" rated by Bank of America's equity strategists and have "material exposure" to the themes.

SEE ALSO: Obama made one of history's greatest stock market calls 9 years ago

Alphabet

Ticker: GOOG

Market Cap: $763.64 billion 

Themes: Big data, education, future mobility, robots, millennials, smart cities, and virtual reality/augmented reality/mixed reality.

Description: "Seven 1bn+ user platforms, AI leader Deepmind and Google Brain, Waymo self-driving car, online learning (Google Apps, YouTube for MOOCs), moonshots (Google X)."

Alibaba

Ticker: BABA

Market Cap: $465.11 billion 

Themes: Big data, bottom billions, robots, millennials, and smart cities.

Description: "#1 China eCommerce retail marketplaces (Taobao, TMail), leading B2B sites (Alibaba.com, 1688.com); monetization driving revenue growth; Largest China retail marketplaces (Taobao, TMall) and leading B2B sties (Alibaba.com, 1688.com), Alibaba Pay (mobile payments)."

Amazon

Ticker: AMZN

Market Cap: $774.80 billion 

Themes: Big data, climate change, education, energy efficiency, robots, millennials, and smart cities.

Description: "Leading eCommerce co, leader in cloud and machine learning analytics (AWS), Amazon Alexa (#1 AI-enabled smart speaker), Amazon Prime / drone deliveries (logistics)."

With the Oscars done, it's time to start the discussion: Who are the best actors in Hollywood working today?

There's a massively long list of contenders, but we've sized it down to 50.

Some of these luminaries can carry a movie to box-office glory in their sleep, while others bring the acting talent that makes a good movie great.

Here are the 50 best, broken down into four categories.

Did your favorite make the cut?

SEE ALSO: The 100 best movies on Amazon Prime right now

THE LEGENDS

Glenn Close

She hasn't been attached to any major titles of late, but she's still one of the most talented actors. It seems like the six-time Oscar nominee will be in the conversation at next year's Oscars when Sony Picture Classics releases "The Wife," which wowed audiences at last year's Toronto International Film Festival.

Judi Dench

If any movie has Dame Judi in it you know, despite what you think of the film, she's going to be one of the most memorable things about it. With her regal swagger, if a story needs some class, she's still the top one to call.

• There are 7,000 languages currently spoken around the world but many have already gone extinct— and some are endangered.
• Several of the languages at risk for extinction are spoken by Native Americans, and indigenous populations in Australia. 
• Ainu, a language spoken by the Ainu people of Japan's Hokkaido island, only has an estimated two to 15 speakers left. 

There are more than 7,000 living languages in the world, but UNESCO predicts more than half will be extinct by the end of the century. Will these be among the first to go?

SEE ALSO: These are the 10 most confusing words in the English language

DON'T MISS: Alcohol could improve your ability to speak another language, according to new research

Resígaro

In 2016, Rosa Andrade Ocagane, the last female speaker of the Amazonian language was murdered in Peru at age 67.

She and her brother, Pablo — now Resígaro’s last known speaker, making it one of the most endangered languages — were the children of a Resígaro mother and Ocaina father. They spoke their mother's language to honor her and were also among the last 40 speakers of Ocaina.

Don't miss the secret to learning new languages.

Chulym

Russia's 2010 census revealed just 44 speakers of the Chulym Turks' language. Residents of the people's Siberian villages call themselves and their language Ös. They were dropped as a government-recognized ethnic group in 1959, then regained their status back in 1999.

(Find out which three languages could make your child a future CEO.)

Mudburra

This aboriginal Australian Northern Territory language might actually be growing, or at least better documented. Australia’s 2006 Census estimated there were 47 speakers left, but the 2016 report increased to 92 speaking Mudburra at home.

On the last day in February, hundreds of worshippers took to a small Pennsylvania village with their AR-15 rifles for a bizarre ceremony that simultaneously blessed their marriages and celebrated each member's "rod of iron."

The ceremony was held at Newfoundland's World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, where Rev. Sean Moon prayed for "a kingdom of peace police and peace militia where the citizens, through the right given to them by almighty God to keep and bear arms, will be able to protect one another and protect human flourishing."

This particular church is a "breakaway faction" of South Korea's Unification Church, which is widely regarded as a cult, according to the Associated Press.

Here's how the mass blessing went down:

SEE ALSO: 21 photos of North Korea that Kim Jong Un wouldn't want you to see

DON'T MISS: Tactical units spent weeks trying to breach and climb Trump's border wall prototypes — and they're nearly impossible to scale

Couples traveled to Newfoundland, Pennsylvania from across the country and around the world to attend the ceremony. People came from as far away as Japan, South Korea, and Europe.

Source: NPR

The church recently adopted the belief that the AR-15 rifle, which was recently used in a mass shooting at a Florida high school, symbolizes the "rod of iron" in the New Testament's Book of Revelation.

Sources: NPR, Associated Press

The church was anxious to convey to media that the ceremony was meant to bless couples, not "inanimate objects." Tim Elder, the church's director of world missions, said the AR-15 is merely a "religious accoutrement."

Source: Associated Press

• The American breakfast biscuit sandwich renaissance is here, with more and more chains embracing the typically Southern breakfast meal. 
• Even national chains like McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King are offering them across the country. 
• We tried them all and found that Wendy's makes the absolute best, despite its limited breakfast menu. 

American tastes are changing, and fast-food chains are trying to keep up with the trends.

The biscuit, a classic cornerstone of Southern American cuisine, has long been a regional option at restaurants like McDonald's, Wendy's, and others of the fast-food ilk.

But now the biscuit is being embraced across the US as an integral breakfast item, even being folded into the myriad breakfast sandwich options.

We tried biscuit sandwiches from major fast-food chains to see which makes the best biscuit breakfast for your on-the-go morning meal.

SEE ALSO: What the FDA-recommended daily intake of 2,000 calories looks like at every major fast-food chain

ALSO READ: We tried the regional burger chain many people say is the best in America to see if it lives up to the hype

Burger King's bacon, sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit: a greasy, soggy, bland horror. The bacon is crispy, but the gelatinous square of sadness masquerading as an egg squelches any advances on the meat front.

Burger King's sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit: just as greasy, just as sad, but with the underwhelming and salty sausage patty sans bacon. The biscuit is thick and heavy, made all the more so by the viscous cheese.

McDonald's bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit: a tad soggy, but nowhere near the boggy marsh of Burger King's. The bacon is satisfyingly crispy — a rarity in fast-food breakfasts. But where is the real egg that makes the McMuffin so irresistible? Why must McDonald's use floppy egg squares for everything but the McMuffin?

• Some of the most pivotal moments in American political history — from social movements to war — are best retold in dramatic cinematic accounts. 
• Here are four of Netflix's best offerings. 

If you're looking for reprieve from the constant barrage of political news, you may consider diving into a fictional version of events.

Check out these political movies on Netflix:

SEE ALSO: The 22 best political movies ever, ranked

"Milk"

Sean Penn earned an Oscar for his 2008 performance as Harvey Milk, California's first openly gay politician to be elected to public office. The movie chronicles Milk's struggle as a gay activist in San Francisco in the late 1970s and ends with his shocking assassination.

Jason Guerrasio contributed reporting. 

"War Machine"

In this satirical take on the real story of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's political downfall, Brad Pitt depicts a charismatic four-star general and his attempt to lead NATO troops in Afghanistan before being brought down by a media exposé. 

"Barry"

This 2016 film documents a year in the life of Barack Obama during his junior year at Columbia University, where he transferred in 1981. Actor Devon Terrell depicts 20-year-old Obama's struggle to navigate the mostly white world of Columbia and the black community he wishes to be part of. 

• It's easy to believe that your relationship is different from everyone else's. It's probably not.
• Relationships take effort to maintain, and you won't always be happy with your partner.
• Even if you love each other, if you have fundamentally different values, a breakup may be the best option.

Everyone knows relationships are hard, and take effort to maintain, and sometimes disappoint you.

Except, of course, your relationship. That's different. Or so everyone likes to believe.

Below, we've listed some of the truest but hardest-to-accept insights about modern romance. If you can get past these somewhat unsettling ideas, you'll be more likely to have a happy and fulfilling partnership.

SEE ALSO: Dr. Ruth has interviewed thousands of people about their sex lives — and she's found the biggest threat to a relationship happens outside the bedroom

We're often attracted to people who will later drive us crazy

While researching habits and personality for her book "The Four Tendencies," Gretchen Rubin noticed a curious phenomenon. People she'd labeled "rebels" often paired up romantically with people she'd labeled "obligers."

Rebels resist both inner and outer expectations; if you ask a rebel to do something, they'll likely resist. Obligers meet outer expectations but don't always meet inner ones; they usually need some form of external accountability.

Rubin told Business Insider:

"If you're an upholder, you live life according to a schedule. [For example] you never miss your daily run, and you always eat fewer than 30 grams of carbs a day, and you always go to bed by 11. It could be exciting be swept off your feet by somebody who feels very free and not confined."

But over time, the novelty may wear off and these two different approaches can come into conflict. To be sure, rebels and obligers — and any two types of people — can be happy together. But it's worth keeping this pattern in mind.

There's probably no such thing as 'the one'

Out of the thousands of eligible singles just waiting for a swipe right, how do you know who's the right one for you?

Trick question: There isn't a right one.

That's according to Esther Perel, who is a couples therapist as well as the author of "Mating in Captivity" and "The State of Affairs." Perel previously told Business Insider: "There is a one that you choose and with whom you decide that you want to build something. But in my opinion, there could also have been others — you just chose this one."

Once you've chosen someone, you work to make that person a better fit.

You may be less likely to break up with your partner if you have a pet or a joint bank account

Psychologists call them "material constraints": Think a house you co-own, a joint bank account, or a pet you both take care of.

Research suggests that material constraints make a breakup a lot less likely. In fact, according to a 2011 study of unmarried men and women in heterosexual relationships, adding just one additional material constraint is linked to a 10% increase in a couple's chances of staying together.

Presumably, that's because it's harder to disentangle yourself from the relationship when it's not just the two of you. So it's wise — if slightly uncomfortable — to think in advance about what you'd do if the relationship dissolved.

• Xennials are a 'micro-generation' born between 1977 and 1985.
• This group has also been called the 'Oregon Trail Generation.'
• Xennials may have been hit hardest by the recession, because of a combination of student loan debt, job losses, and other factors.

It's hard not fitting in.

If you feel sort-of-but-not-quite like a millennial, and sort-of-but-not-quite like a Gen X-er, take heart: You might just be a Xennial. That's a term for the "micro-generation" born between 1977 and 1985.

The term was coined in 2014, by Sarah Stankorb in Good Magazine. Recently, people have started talking about Xennials again, with self-proclaimed members of this demographic waxing (read: tweeting) nostalgic about Oregon Trail and flip phones. Merriam-Webster even labeled "xennial" one of its "words we're watching."

Below, Business Insider has outlined the defining characteristics of Xennials, and how they're different from the generations that came before and after them.

SEE ALSO: There's a term for people born in the early 80's who don't feel like a millennial or Gen Xer

Xennials are a 'micro-generation,' born between 1977 and 1985.

Source: Business Insider

This group has also been called the 'Oregon Trail Generation,' in reference to a popular computer game when they were growing up.

Source: Social Media Week

Xennials were the first generation to grow up with household computers and have internet access. ('You've got mail!')

Source: Social Media Week

We are still more than a month from the 2018 NFL Draft, but the combine is now history, players and teams are jockeying for position, and experts have weighed in on who they think will be drafted by each team in the first round.

We surveyed 14 NFL Draft experts who have released mock drafts recently to get a consensus prediction for which players teams might be considering with all 32 first-round picks. Under this format, it is possible for the same player to appear in multiple spots and for some players with first-round talent to not appear at all if there is no consensus on where they might land.

The experts: ESPN's Mel Kiper, ESPN's Todd McShay, CBS Sports' Will Brinson, CBS Sports' Pete Prisco, NFL.com's Daniel Jeremiah, NFL.com's Bucky Brooks, The Ringer's Danny Kelly, NFL.com's Charles Davis, NFL.com's Charley Casserly, Walter Football, USA Today's Luke Easterling, Rotoworld's Josh Norris, The Sports Xchange's Rob Rang, and DraftTek (Half of these have been updated since the combine. We will update this list as more of the experts update their mocks).

1. Cleveland Browns — Sam Darnold, QB

Experts: 10 out of 14

School: USC

Other notable possibilities: Josh Allen (2), Saquon Barkley (2)

Key expert quote: McShay: "After the combine this past week, it's sounding as if this pick could come down to him or Saquon Barkley. Darnold is the best QB in this class, in my opinion. However, I also could see Josh Allen as the choice here, since he has more experience in the cold, the big arm and the hand size (10⅛ inches) to diminish fumbling concerns in bad AFC North weather. If Cleveland addresses its quarterback situation in free agency (AJ McCarron?), then I think Barkley is the pick here."

2. New York Giants — Saquon Barkley, RB

Experts: 6 out of 14

School: Penn State

Other notable possibilities: Josh Rosen (4), Baker Mayfield (1), Quenton Nelson (1), Sam Darnold (1), Josh Allen (1)

Key expert quote: McShay: "The Giants could go a lot of different directions here. If they are really looking to win now with Eli Manning at QB, then they should take the best player in the draft, Barkley. Give Manning a running game and a little more pass protection (via free agency or later in the draft) and Giants fans would argue they are a playoff team. Bradley Chubb and Quenton Nelson are in play here as well."

3. Indianapolis Colts — Bradley Chubb, DE

Experts: 11 out of 14

School: North Carolina State

Other notable possibilities: Saquon Barkley (2), Sam Darnold (1)

Key expert quote: Kiper: "The Colts don't need a quarterback and can grab the draft's best pass-rusher. They ranked 31st in the NFL in sacks (25) last season. Chubb had 46.5 tackles for loss over the past two seasons. New defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus came over from Dallas, where Rod Marinelli and the Cowboys ran a 4-3 defense. Chubb is a great fit in a 4-3 as an edge rusher."

With global interest rates on the rise, led by an ongoing tightening cycle from the US Federal Reserve, the era of ultra cheap money looks to be coming to an end.

Since the 2008 crisis, many companies have taken advantage of low rates, borrowing aggressively to fuel expansion.

Now though, with rates starting to rise, many companies have left themselves exposed to bigger interest repayments.

Some firms are more at risk than others, with companies on both sides of the Atlantic vulnerable to rising rates.

To examine which companies are exposed analysts at Deutsche Bank created what they call a "non-exhaustive list of firms with significant debt refinancing risks over the next few years." 

Measuring using the companies with the highest ratios of debt to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation — a key measure of balance sheet strength) Business Insider took a look at those firms most open to damage from rising rates.

Take a look below (charts show the companies' stock performance over the last 12 months):

SEE ALSO: UBS: Buy these 10 undervalued stocks to cash in on market volatility

11. Freenet

Ticker: FNTN

Industry: Telecoms

Net debt to EBITDA: 3.4x

Freenet's debt to EBITDA rate is among the lowest on Deutsche Bank's list, but is still elevated. The company has around €600 million maturing in the 2020-21 financial year.

10. JD Wetherspoon

Ticker: JDW

Industry: Hospitality and leisure

Net debt to EBITDA: 3.7x

British high street pub icon Wetherspoons — whose founder Tim Martin is a big Brexit backer — has produced solid results in the two years since the vote, but needs to replace all its debt before the end of February 2020.

9. Cemex

Ticker: CX

Industry: Building & Construction

Net debt to EBITDA: 4.1x

Cemex, the world's second largest seller of building materials needs to refinance at least 1/3 of its debt in next three years, with an average rate of 6%.

Liu Wen is a woman of many firsts. She's the first East Asian model to work for Victoria's Secret, first Chinese woman to grace American Vogue's cover, and first Asian to ever make Forbes' list of highest-paid supermodels

While Liu success can be attributed to the fashion industry's growing focus on Chinese consumers, she also works insanely hard for it.

The model, now based between New York and Beijing, told Business Insider how she did it. Scroll on to learn more.

SEE ALSO: Kendall Jenner and Gisele Bündchen earn millions — but most models make less than $50,000 a year

READ MORE: There's a huge difference between a Victoria's Secret model and an Angel — here's what it takes to get Angel status

Meet Liu Wen: The first East Asian model to walk the Victoria's Secret runway, first Chinese model to grace American Vogue's cover, and first Asian model to ever make Forbes' annual list of highest-paid models.

She was born in Yongzhou, a city in southern China. At 5-foot-10, she towered over her classmates while growing up. "I developed a habit of bending down when speaking to others, as if my back was permanently hunched," she said in 2014.

Source: CNN, Vogue

She never planned on being a model — her first foray into the industry was when she won a modelling contest in 2008, aged around 17, to win a new computer. "I didn't have a clear goal [at the time] — I just wanted something that would allow me to travel around the world," she told Business Insider.

Source: CNN

It's getting easier and easier to stick with last year's model than upgrading to the latest one. 

New smartphones are only getting incremental updates over their predecessors these days, and that's the case with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S9. 

That's not to say the Galaxy S9 isn't a superb smartphone. It's absolutely one of the best smartphones you can buy at the moment. But if you have a Galaxy S8, you have one of the best smartphones of 2017. And the features and power that makes the Galaxy S8 one of the best phones of 2017 go a long way.

Check out why you don't need to upgrade to the Galaxy S9 if you already own the Galaxy S8: 

SEE ALSO: Samsung's Galaxy S9 is proof that you don't need to spend $1,000 for a great smartphone

1. The S9's design is pretty much the same as the S8.

Pictured above is the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S8. They share pretty much the exact same design, save for slightly narrower bezels on the Galaxy S9.

2. You're not missing out on any features.

The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S9 share most of the same hardware features, including:

• Wireless charging.

• Fast charging (no separate accessories required — it comes included with the phone).

• Facial recognition.

• Iris recognition.

• A fingerprint scanner.

• A headphone jack.

• A heart-rate monitor.

• Water resistance.

3. The Galaxy S8's screen looks just as good as the Galaxy S9.

Samsung brought no major improvements to the Galaxy S9's screen compared to the Galaxy S8. Both phones have the best screens in the business. 

• Billionaires don't always come from moneyed backgrounds.

• In fact, many famous billionaires actually grew up poor.

• From George Soros to Larry Ellison to Oprah Winfrey, here's a look at how some of the wealthiest people on the planet came up from nothing.

Billionaires aren't all born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

In fact, many came from nothing at all.

The "rags-to-riches" trope may be a cliché, but it's one that's definitely grounded in reality for some famous billionaires.

Through extraordinary grit and perseverance, individuals across the globe have beat the odds and achieved their own rags-to-riches stories.

Here are 19 people who started off life poor and went on to become billionaires:

SEE ALSO: From fry-cook at McDonalds to waitress at Hooters, here are the unglamorous first jobs of 24 highly successful people

DON'T MISS: What Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and 23 other highly successful people were doing at age 25

Guy Laliberté was a fire-eater before founding Cirque du Soleil

Net worth: $1.19 billion

At the beginning of his career, Laliberté had fire in his belly — literally. The Canadian-born circus busker played the accordion, walked on stilts, and ate fire.

Later on, as Business Insider previously reported, he took a chance and flew a troupe from Quebec to Los Angeles without purchasing a return fair. The circus troup traveled to Las Vegas and became Cirque du Soleil.

Laliberté is now the CEO of Cirque de Soleil.

Kenny Troutt, the founder of Excel Communications, paid his way through college by selling life insurance.

Net worth: $1.41 billion

Troutt grew up with a bartender dad and paid for his own tuition at Southern Illinois University by selling life insurance. He made most of his money from phone company Excel Communications, which he founded in 1988 and took public in 1996. Two years later, Troutt merged his company with Teleglobe in a $3.5 billion deal.

He's now retired and invests heavily in racehorses.

Montpellier rugby club president and Entrepreneur of the Year Mohed Altrad survived on one meal a day when he moved to France

Net worth: $2.7 billion

Born into a nomadic tribe in the Syrian dessert to a poor mother who was raped by his father and died when he was young, Altrad was raised by his grandmother. She banned him from attending school in Raqqa, the city that is now capital of ISIS.

Altrad attended school anyway, and when he moved to France to attend university, he knew no French and lived off of one meal a day. Still, he earned a PhD in computer science, worked for some leading French companies, and eventually bought a failing scaffolding company, which he transformed into one of the world's leading manufacturers of scaffolding and cement mixers, Altrad Group.

He has previously been named French Entrepreneur of the Year and World Entrepreneur of the Year.

• The McLaren 570S Spider walks a fine line between English sports car and a no-holds-barred exotic supercar.
• The 570S is powered by a 562 horsepower, 3.8-liter, twin-turbocharged V8.
• It can do 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds and reach a top speed of 204 mph.
• In the marketplace, the 570S Spider competes against the Audi R8 V10 Spyder and the Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet. 

The McLaren 570S Spider is a supercar. Sort of.

The 570S is a mainstay of McLaren's entry-level Sports Series, and the company openly calls the stylish mid-engined speed machine a sports car. 

But step on the gas, and the 570S will quickly convince you of its European supercar credentials complete with supercar power, speed, and charisma. 

Last fall, Business Insider spent a week with a brand-new McLaren 570S Spider in an eye-catching Sicilian Yellow paint job. 

The 570S Spider starts at $208,800, but our test car came packed with nearly $44,000 in options. That gave it an as-tested price of around $253,000. 

That's certainly a pretty penny. 

So is this McLaren a sports car or a supercar — and is it worth its hefty price? Let's find out:

SEE ALSO: These are the 24 coolest cars at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show

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

Here it is. The new McLaren 570S Spider.

It's the convertible counterpart to the 570S Coupe we tested in 2016.

It's also the little brother to the 720S and...

• McDonald's is leaving its longtime headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, this spring.
• The fast-food giant's more than 100 acres of land in the Chicago suburb is one site that has been proposed for Amazon's second headquarters project, called HQ2.
• Business Insider visited the headquarters and saw why McDonald's soon-to-be-abandoned campus could be a good fit for Amazon. 

Amazon has a long list of demands for its new headquarters. Beyond finding the perfect city, the e-commerce giant needs to find a site with up to eight million square feet of space, a good quality of life, and easy access to an international airport.  

Fortunately for Amazon, there's another industry giant abandoning its headquarters just as Amazon is searching for a second home: McDonald's. 

The fast-food chain is moving its headquarters from Chicago suburb Oak Brook, Illinois, to the city proper in the first half of 2018. And, it wants Amazon to take over its soon-to-be abandoned campus. 

I recently had a chance to visit McDonald's headquarters — and saw why the property could be the perfect fit for Amazon. 

SEE ALSO: McDonald's is flipping its iconic arches upside down in an unprecedented statement

McDonald's headquarters are located in a suburb of Chicago called Oak Brook.

McDonald's campus is located about 20 minutes from Chicago O'Hare International Airport and roughly half an hour from downtown Chicago. 

McDonald's campus is located in a woodsy area with two ponds, boxed in by a country club and sports fields.

McDonald's actually owns some of the sports fields, with a youth soccer league using it for practices and games, according to The Chicago Tribune.

McDonald's campus is roughly 74 acres. It's a sizable patch of land containing two small lakes, a walking path, hotel, office buildings, and employee-training site Hamburger University.

In sum, McDonald's owns about 150 acres of land in Oak Brook, which could be packaged together in a deal for another super-sized company like Amazon. 

Tropical storms are becoming more common along the Dutch Coast When winds are particularly strong, they can wreak havoc on homes and other structures.

In preparation for future storms, local firm Borren Staalenhoef Architecten BV bna designed a house that can resist Category 3 hurricanes. The firm's cofounder, André Staalenhoef, told Business Insider that the home's rounded roof and sturdy materials help it withstand powerful wind speeds. The house was constructed above sea level as well, helping it avoid the risk of flooding.

Once the parts were all on-site, a construction crew assembled the prefab house in just two days in Vlieland, Netherlands.

Take a look below.

SEE ALSO: These $2 million floating homes are designed to withstand Category 4 hurricanes

The wooden vacation home was built for a family who lives on the remote Dutch island of Vlieland.

The bottom floor of the two-story house tucks into the hilly landscape.

Natural sunlight fills the space.

• Dollar Tree and Dollar General are the two largest dollar stores in the US. 
• The stores are neck-and-neck in terms of store count and annual sales.
• But, there are some big differences in the shopping experiences you'll have at these stores. 

Bargain-hunting has been the flavor of the past decade.

In the wake of the recession, cost-conscious consumers have flocked to off-price, thrift, and dollar stores in search of good deals. As a result, these stores have seen a surge in sales. 

From 2010 to 2015, dollar store sales grew from $30.4 billion to $45.3 billion in the US, and hundreds of stores have opened. Credit-rating agency Moody's said in a report on Dollar Tree that it is expecting 8% growth for the dollar-store segment in 2018. For US retail in general, it is expecting 3.5% to 4.5% growth in 2018.

Dollar General and Dollar Tree are the two largest dollar stores in the US. Based on numbers alone, these stores are almost identical.

Dollar Tree, which bought rival chain Family Dollar in 2015, has a slightly larger store count than Dollar General, but both sit around the 14,000-to-15,000-store mark. In terms of sales, Dollar Tree is a close second, generating $21.5 billion annually compared to $23.3 billion at Dollar General, according to Moody's. 

But there is a massive difference in shopping at these no-frills stores. First and foremost, Dollar Tree sells only products that are $1 or under, whereas Dollar General, which once did the same, is now more like discount retailer. 

We visited both to see how they compared:

SEE ALSO: We compared grocery shopping at stores in the US and the UK — and it was shockingly clear which country does it better

We visited a Dollar General and a Dollar Tree store that were a 15-minute walk away from each other in Brooklyn.

Our first stop was at Dollar General. The chain has 14,321 stores in the US, most of which are located in rural areas. In February, it announced it would be opening 900 more locations in 2018.

Dollar General was initially rolled out to areas that were not already served by a Walmart. As these stores are generally in rural markets, they cost less to operate.

Walmart launched a series of mini express stores in 2014 with the aim of winning back the midweek shopper from Dollar General. The strategy was not successful, and Walmart ended up closing these stores and selling 41 of the locations to Dollar General.

Source: Dollar General and Business Insider

On first impression, the store looked great. It was modern and bright.

"Star Wars" is literally about war in the sky, which means that a lot of lives have been lost along the way.

But somehow, General Hux is still alive.

Some of the characters lost throughout the "Star Wars" films have been in our lives for decades, like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. And some had small but powerful roles in just one movie that made us shed a lot of tears despite their brevity, like Amilyn Holdo in "The Last Jedi."

But with some characters, we couldn't wait for them to die. So when they did, we were cheering (Jabba the Hutt, Palpatine).

We ranked 38 notable deaths from the movies, from the porg Chewie cooked to Obi Wan Kenobi. We chose the deaths of characters who had names, had more than a few lines, and/or had some kind of impact on a major plot point or a major character.

Here's the Star Wars deaths ranked, from least tragic to most tragic:

SEE ALSO: The 50 best superhero movies of all time, ranked

38. Jabba the Hutt

When: "Return of the Jedi"

Cause of death: Leia chokes him with the chains he bound her in. 

Jabba was awful, and we're glad Leia was the one who got to end his days. 

37. Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious

When: "Return of the Jedi"

Cause of death: Falls down the reactor shaft of the second Death Star when Darth Vader turns on him to save Luke's life.

Finally! It was about time Palpatine fell down a reactor shaft. His death was not sad, but it was an emotional moment for the Skywalker boys. 

36. Grand Moff Tarkin

When: "A New Hope"

Cause of death: He's inside the Death Star when the Rebel Alliance destroys it. 

Tarkin served his purpose. He was an example of an evil person within the Empire that isn't Vader or the Emperor. His death was karma getting back at him for destroying Alderaan with such enthusiasm.