Remember those pre-iPhone days when Motorola made the hottest phone on the planet?

It may feel like yesterday, but it was longer ago than you think. Same goes for a bunch of other insanely popular gadgets and apps.

Take a look at these old relics and try to remember what it was like being a kid.

1989: Sega Genesis

Sega debuted in 1989 in North America and retailed for $189.99. The system went on to become one of the most popular game systems ever.

Fun Fact: In 1989, the unemployment rate was 5.3% and the cost of a first-class stamp was $0.25.

1989: Nintendo Game Boy

The Game Boy was released in 1989.

Three years after its initial release, the Game Boy had sold over 32 million units. The device paved the way for hand held games.

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide.

Source: Wikipedia

1990: Super Nintendo

Super Nintendo (SNES) was an instant success. Nintendo's initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out within hours in Japan, and the resulting social disturbance led the Japanese government to ask video game manufacturers to schedule future console releases on weekends.

Source: Wikipedia

Fun Fact: In 1990 the World Wide Web/Internet protocol (HTTP) and WWW language (HTML) was created by Tim Berners-Lee. The average cost of a Superbowl ad was $700,000.

Most people know that a Tom Collins is a type of gin cocktail made with lemon juice, soda water, and sugar.

But you probably never knew that it's named after a really lame joke from 1874.

Here's how it went: A man would approach his friend and ask, "Have you seen Tom Collins?"

"Why no!" the second man would say. "I have never made his acquaintance."

"Perhaps you had better do so, and as quick as you can, for he is talking about you in a very rough manner — calling you hard names, and convincing people there is nothing you wouldn't steal short of a red-hot stove."

This would upset the second man, who would stomp off to go looking for this rascal Tom Collins, but — twist! — he didn't actually exist.

It's a pretty lame joke, but it went viral and became all the rage in New York and Philadelphia. It was so popular, in fact, that it was dubbed "The Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874."

Seriously — some newspapers at the time even printed stories containing false sightings of Tom Collins, and several songs were written that memorialized the joke.

Eventually, one intrepid bartender caught on and named a drink "Tom Collins" so that if anyone came rushing into his bar seeking revenge and asking for Tom Collins, they would unknowingly have ordered a tall gin drink instead.

Oh, and just to remind you what people looked like in 1874, this was the height of fashion:

They were hilarious.

SEE ALSO: 12 American Bars To Drink At Before You Die

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CGTrader, a marketplace for 3D artists, modelers, and engineers, has rounded up a collection of stunning computer-generated imagery.

These are pictures created by professionals in the field, and the end results nearly look like actual photographs.

But nothing you're about to see is real.

The attention to detail is staggering.

But it's not all about making pictures of people.

Notice the subtle motion blur on the tires.

Quantum computers aren't for browsing the Internet, checking email, or running standard software.

Instead, they rely on the underpinnings of quantum mechanics, a branch of physics that's defied conventional understanding for about 100 years, to manipulate individual particles and solve previously unsolvable problems.

If you wanted to say that a quantum computer runs on magic, you wouldn't be too far off. Science fiction daydreams like time travel and teleportation are run of the mill when we're dealing with objects this tiny (think: smaller than an individual atom). The "rules" don't apply.

This opens up some exciting possibilities, especially in a branch of mathematics known as optimization, which is pretty much what it sounds like: finding the best answer from a large set of potential answers. For such a specific slice of math, this field addresses some of the most tangible problems in the real world. What's the best route for a UPS truck to make its deliveries? How do you schedule flights at an airport to keep things running smoothly?

Conventional computers are ill-equipped to handle certain optimization calculations. Professor Daniel Lidar, scientific director at the USC Lockheed-Martin Center for Quantum Computing, says that "it would take many times the age of the universe to try to identify the folded states of a protein, and yet nature can do this in seconds, maybe minutes. It's had billions of years to think about it."

In a way, quantum computing taps into nature's ability to interact with the world. That might be a tough thought to comprehend, but it's only the tip of the iceberg.

Quantum computers rely on quantum mechanics to work, and quantum mechanics is CRAZY.

The rules for the microscopic particles that make up atoms are drastically different from the rules for macroscopic objects that we can see with the naked eye.

For example, quantum particles can exist in two places at once, move forwards or backwards in time, and even "teleport" by way of what physicists call "quantum tunneling."

This is the stuff of science fiction to us, but in the quantum world it's business as usual. And scientists can't really explain it.

No one knows for sure what happens inside a quantum computer.

A widely-known tenet of quantum mechanics (and science in general) is that the simple act of observation changes the outcome of an event. We are limited by the precision of our instruments, and this is especially true of a scientist's inquisitive eyeballs. A quantum particle observed or otherwise measured is a quantum particle changed forever.

Forget the digital bits of ones and zeroes – quantum computers use qubits, and these things are wild.

At your personal computer's core, it is manipulating bits – digital representations of zero and one, nothing else.

A quantum computer uses quantum bits, called qubits, to crunch through its operations. Just like bits, qubits can represent either a zero or one, but the real juice is in their third state, called the "superposition"– they can represent both one and zero at the same time.

This quirky ability means that the same string of qubits can represent lots of different things simultaneously. For example, a set of two qubits in superposition represents four possible situations at the same time– [0, 0]; [0, 1]; [1, 0]; or [1, 1].

Is this starting to get hard to follow? It's okay! Some of the very intelligent people who study it for a living are just as perplexed.

Android and iPhone are the two most popular smartphone platforms right now.

Each have their own benefits and drawbacks, but there are a few exclusive Android features that iPhone owners simply can't take advantage of right now.

And Android owners love to show them off.

My screen is bigger.

I can add more storage with a SD card.

I can swap out my battery whenever I want to.

Hurricane season is upon us, and weather experts are predicting that 2013 is going to be a doozy.

But even if you can’t stop extreme weather from happening, at least you can protect yourself on your vacation — provided you pick a vacation destination that is reliably hurricane-free.

Here are some top-notch options, as well as great places to stay while you’re there.

Lake Tahoe, California

Though Lake Tahoe may sometimes get serious snowstorms, the cold waters along the California coast mean that hurricanes almost never make landfall in the state (only two have hit in the last 100 years). When they do hit, it’s typically Southern California that is most affected instead.

Lake Tahoe safely sits in northern California, where it has 300 days of sun a year and plenty of great year-round vacation activities — swimming, boating, and hiking in the summer, and skiing in the winter.

Oyster.com Hotel Pick: Franciscan Lakeside Lodge

This cluster of cabins right on the lake makes a great value pick. While some rooms are tucked across the street from the lake in a darker, tree-covered area, the lakefront cottages have excellent views and open to the sandy beach and a private pier where guests can swim and play in privacy. Kitchenettes make dining in (and saving money) easy. And the heated outdoor pool (open seasonally) is said to be the largest in North Lake Tahoe.

Paris, France

Though France’s western coast does get storms, no true hurricanes have hit France in recorded history — and Paris, being an inland city, is hurricane-free. The City of Light is world-famous for its romantic ambiance, museums, and charming cafes.

Oyster.com Hotel Pick: Hidden Hotel

The Hidden Hotel — as its name suggests — is tucked away on a quaint side street, and is within walking distance to L’Arc de Triomphe and the Charles de Gualle metro station. The intimate hotel has only 23 rooms, and incorporates handmade craftsmanship and natural materials that give it a contemporary and Zen-like vibe.

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas may get high desert temperatures and occasional thunderstorms, but it is not prone to hurricanes. You can gamble as much money as you want here, but you won’t have to gamble on Mother Nature sending a hurricane to ruin your stay.

Oyster.com Hotel Pick: Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas

A new breed of Las Vegas luxury, with 392 elegant rooms and some of Vegas’ best service, the Mandarin Oriental is a quiet haven on the glitzy Strip. The hotel lacks the characteristic excess that many people come to Vegas for (including a casino), opting instead for a more restrained approach: a beautiful spa, two fine dining restaurants, a peaceful pool, meeting space, and the rarest of Las Vegas features — serenity. But the convenient City Center location means easy access to all the excess you want.

Real estate investors are getting back in the flipping game, netting an average gross profit of nearly $20,000 on single family home flips in the first half of 2013.

Home flips are up 19% from a year ago and 74% from the first half of 2011, according to a new report from Realtytrac.

"While flipping continues to be profitable in most markets, particularly those where the home price recovery is still nascent and a recent rebound in foreclosure activity allows investors to find distressed inventory at a discount, home flipping is tapering off in markets where fewer of those distressed bargains are available," Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said in the statement.

"Flipping was on the rise in more than two-thirds of the markets, including New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and several Florida metros," he said.

The average flipper in the following 15 metro areas earned 10% to 82% flipping their homes.

15) Orlando-Kissimmee, FL: 10% Gross Profit

Single Family Flips (first half 2013): 2,417

YoY change: 75%

Average purchase price: $141,192

Average gross profit: $14,394

Gross profit percentage: 10%

Source: Realtytrac

14) New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA: 10% Gross Profit

Single Family Flips (first half 2013): 5,485

YoY change: 437%

Average purchase price: $376,224

Average gross profit: $39,458

Gross profit percentage: 10%

Source: Realtytrac

13) Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN: 11% Gross Profit

Single Family Flips (first half 2013): 1,191

YoY change: 85%

Average purchase price: $123,938

Average gross profit: $13,996

Gross profit percentage: 11%

Source: Realtytrac

Sea level is for suckers. And sailors. But mostly, suckers.

Leave it far behind with these epic climbs, starting with inspiring close-to-homers, and escalating to terrifying closer-to-god-ers.

Read the original version of this post at Thrillist.

THE DEVIL'S PATH, NEW YORK STATE - Covering nearly 25 miles and well over 15,000 feet of elevation gain and loss, this Catskills climb is the second-toughest trek in the East, right behind The Devil's PATH train to Newark.

PRECIPICE TRAIL, MAINE - Easily one of the East Coast's most scenic stretches, Acadia National Park doesn’t necessarily have a reputation for stomach-turning trails. Precipice on Champlain Mountain is the exception, climbing more than 1,000 feet in elevation in under two miles. If heights and rock ledges freak you out, prepare for your freaking.

SPANISH TRAIL, PHILIPPINES - You could ride a donkey up this peak on Taal Lake’s Volcano Island, but hiking the dusty path gives you 100% more invigoration, and 100% less donkey. Once you top this active magma storage unit (hence "Volcano Island"), you can peer over its rim into a lake within a lake. Or, if you're the luckiest/least lucky person ever, lava.

Skinny-dipping was once an activity associated with summer camp and youthful rebellion, but these days, adults are also finding that it's a great way to blow off steam — even on New York City's crowded shores.

We asked Lauren Christianson and her colleagues at The Skinny Dipping Report to share some advice on when, where, and how to bare it all in one of the busiest cities in the world.

Here are their tips, in their own words:

1. Wear your swimsuit into the water, then stealthily take it off once you're neck-deep. Hold onto it (tightly — be careful of powerful waves if you're in the ocean!) or wrap it around your wrist. You can put your suit back on when you're swim is finished and walk out of the water like nothing happened.

2. Make your own spot — set up a blow up or above ground pool. New York City is filled with rooftops, backyards, lofts and warehouses where you can skinny-dip with fewer people to worry about around. Just don't let it tip over or spill out — you may have a lawsuit on your hands.

3. Go late at night. The darkness can provide some coverage and privacy for your dip — but be careful of the moon! The Skinny Dipping Report includes a lunar calendar so you can plan your skinny dipping session according to how much darkness or light you desire.

4. Go with your friends or significant other. Skinny-dipping just isn't as exhilarating alone. Skinny-dipping with other people also takes away from any fear of being seen because you're all doing it together. The act will bond your group and create a fun, beautiful memory with those you care about.

5. We're aware that even the most spontaneous skinny dipper may need a libation to whip off that final piece of clothing. Make or bring something specific to your skinny dip, the next time you drink it you will be reminded of your adventure.

6. Don't care! Part of the fun of skinny dipping is the excitement that you could get caught. Suck it up, strip down, and surrender to the spontaneity of the experience. The amazing feeling of freedom you will get far exceeds the risk. Plus, it's New York. The police have bigger fish to fry.

Have a skinny-dipping story to share? You can submit your tale and photos at www.theskinnydippingreport.com for a chance to be featured in The Skinny Dipping Report 2014.

DON'T MISS: The 10 Best Beaches In America

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The University of Alabama recently spent $9 million renovating its football facility.

Last week, they unveiled it in a video tour on the school athletic department website.

It's spectacularly over the top. There are arcade games, pool tables, 30-foot-long hot tubs, and much more.

In big-time college football, having shiny new facilities is a huge recruiting tool. And it's clear that Alabama included every bell and whistle they could find in order to woo the best high school players in the country. The school pulled in $82 million in football revenue last year, so it can afford it.

This thing is nuts.

The players lounge is basically a game room.

There are pool tables.

And an arcade.

Apple is notoriously known as one of the most secretive, tight-lipped companies in tech.

It has become infamous for its secrecy around new product announcements and launches. 

Apple accomplishes this by closely monitoring work spaces, making developers chain products to desks, and even requiring employees to cover up devices with black cloaks while working on them.

Everything is on a need-to-know basis and employees suspected of leaking information will likely be heavily investigated. 

The wife of an Apple employee claimed that she was told her to "forget everything."

One woman recently wrote on Quora about how Apple keeps secrets so well.

"Fear? I've been meaning to tell this story for a while," she writes.

Kim Scheinberg was told to forget everything she knew about her husband's project to make PCs run Mac OS. Their house was even totally reconfigured to meet Apple's security standards.

Apple provided very little details regarding the health of Steve Jobs.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs battled pancreatic cancer and had a liver transplant while on a leave of absence.

Apple's representatives declined to comment for quite a while on the state of Steve Jobs' health. Obviously, this was a very sensitive topic, but also one that was relevant to Apple shareholders.

The way Apple handled the news of the health of Steve Jobs was unparalleled, The New York Times reported at the time.

In order to keep the iPad secret, Apple required developers to chain the device to their desks.

"The criteria was that we had to have a room with no windows,"an iPad developer told us back in 2011. "They changed the locks on the door. 

Three developers and I were the only people allowed to go in the room. Apple needed the names and social security numbers of the people who had access.

Apple needed to be able to drill a hole in the desk and chain the devices to desk. They used those bicycle cables.

They had these custom frames built around them so we couldn't even tell what the iPads looked like. We could plug into them so we could code to them and we could touch the screen and play with that, but we couldn't see the form factor."

Then they took pictures of the wood grain. If any pictures leaked out, they could trace it back to which desk they came from.

I wasn't allowed to tell our CEO. I wasn't allowed to tell anybody anything about what we were doing. I couldn't even tell my wife. She was like, "You're going to get fired if this doesn't work."

I hadn't thought about that but she was probably right."

Olivier Sarkozy, a managing director at the Carlyle Group who dates 27-year-old actress Mary-Kate Olsen, is selling his East Village "love nest" townhouse, Curbed reports.

The 147-year-old home is being listed by Douglas Elliman for $6,995,000.

The 44-year-old private equity exec, who is also the half brother of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, bought the historic home last August for $6.25 million.

Now let's check out their digs. 

Here's the facade of the gorgeous five story townhouse. The home features a cast iron 'Juliet' balcony.

There's a charming garden in the back, too.

The home was designed by famous architect James Renwick Jr. He also designed St. Patrick's Cathedral and Grace Church.

New York Restaurant Week starts today, with 300 acclaimed restaurants serving three-course prix-fixe lunches for $25 and dinners for $38 throughout the city.

Google Maps made a handy map of participating restaurants so you can see what deals are closest to your neighborhood.

Google's Lat Long blog notes that over half of the participating restaurants also hired private photographers to show off what their interiors look like, so check them out before you make a reservation.

Here's the map. NY Restaurant Week will end on August 16th.

View New York City Restaurant Week 2013 Restaurants in a larger map

SEE ALSO: 14 Ways To Enjoy New York City's Swankiest Spots For Free (Or Cheap)

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When it was revealed last week that the person who wrongly confirmed racist names for the pilots of the crashed Asiana flight to a TV station was a National Transportation Safety Board intern, the unnamed summer hire was fired, raising the genuinely plausible question: Was he the worst intern ever?

The short answer is "maybe ... but he's got some pretty good competition."

From interns who embarrassed their boss to interns who just embarrassed themselves, there have been many entry-level workers who were quickly shown the door.

We've rounded up some of the best — or worst? — examples of bad interns for entertainment and education. Enjoy.

The intern who fabricated sources for her articles

Liane Membis had a lot of things going for her as a recent Yale grad who had scored an internship with The Wall Street Journal, but made headlines in the summer of 2012 for all the wrong reasons.

After her editors discovered she had been fabricating sources and quotes for her stories, Membis was fired from her internship.

The intern who allegedly wrote about startups in exchange for MacBooks

Daniel Brusilovsky, a 17-year-old TechCrunch intern, was fired from the website in 2010 after it was alleged that he had asked a startup for a MacBook Air in exchange for writing a post about the company.

The company later confirmed that Brusilovsky also received at least one other computer from a company he wrote about.

The intern who threw glitter at Mitt Romney

University of Colorado Denver student Peter Smith was fired from his 2012 internship with Colorado Senate Democrats after he attempted to "glitter bomb" Mitt Romney by throwing glitter at the then-presidential hopeful.

From sea to sea, America is jam-packed with amazing foods.

We searched for the top foods you should chow down on wherever you find yourself across the country. 

Some dishes evolved from early immigrants and others were inspired by celebrities, but each contributes to the character of the state. 

Did we get your state right? Click here to see a full, annotated version of the above map.

ALABAMA: Smother your chicken with white barbecue sauce, a northern Alabama specialty. This creamy, tangy concoction consists of four main ingredients: mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, and coarsely ground black pepper.

ALASKA: Try the freshest, pinkest wild salmon on the coasts of Alaska. It's great on the grill.

ARIZONA: Chow down on a crispy chimichanga, a deep-fried tortilla filled with meat, cheese, and other ingredients, in Tuscon.

President Barack Obama's month of June had a heavy international-relations feel, as he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping and took a pair of trips overseas. 

The month began with Obama hosting Jinping in California for a two-day summit. He also went overseas high-profile trips to the G8 summit in Northern Ireland and Africa, which served as the President's first extended trip to the continent.

As always, White House photographer Pete Souza documented Obama's every step along the way. We've pulled 23 of Souza's best photos from the June set. (Captions are Souza's.)

Obama jokes with members of the Chilean delegation as President Sebastián Piñera of Chile sits at the Resolute Desk following a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on June 4.

Obama talks with, from left: Samantha Power, former Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; and Susan Rice, the National Security Adviser.

Obama talks with students from William R. Harper High School in Chicago, Ill., in the Oval Office.

Business school costs a lot of money. Period.

But when you're factoring in the cost of business school, it's not the tuition alone—which costs more than $60,000 an average—that you have to consider.

You also have to think about everything from the cost of health insurance to books, a computer, and other supplies. Then there are the hidden fees that you probably don't factor in, like loan fees, transportation, business attire, and networking costs (taking people out to lunch, attending conferences, and more).

Add in the cost of living (which can be quite high in a city like New York), and you've got yourself a lot of debt.

We looked at each school's total cost estimate for the first year of business school—most of which assume that students are living a very modest lifestyle. We didn't even include extras like study abroad costs—which are popular add-ons in business school—or miscellaneous fees like club dues. Schools that provided tuition costs for the entire duration of the program were excluded.

We found that the cost of tuition pales in comparison to the total cost of these MBA programs—in fact, the true cost of a MBA is often double the cost of tuition.

#11 McDonough School of Business, Georgetown

Tuition: $53,600

Room & Board: $20,100

Health Insurance: $2,325

Books, Supplies, Computer: $2,620

Miscellaneous Fees (including program fees, clothing, transportation, loan fees, networking costs): $2,580

Total: $81,225

#10 Yale School of Management

Tuition: $57,200

Room & Board: $14,800

Health Insurance: $2,000

Books, Supplies, Computer: $2,005

Miscellaneous Fees (including program fees, clothing, transportation, loan fees, networking costs): $8,000

Total: $84,005

#9 Kellogg, Northwestern University

Tuition: $59,085

Room & Board: $15,711

Health Insurance: $3,067

Books, Supplies, Computer: $2,847

Miscellaneous Fees (including program fees, clothing, transportation, loan fees, networking costs): $6,480

Total: $87,190

An MBA from a top school can cost almost $100,000—a huge expense.

But is it really worth it?

Top HR recruiters, CEOs, and startup innovators disagree about the value of MBAs, depending on the situation and person.

Attaching the MBA to your name can affect your hiring chances, your networking abilities, and your innovation skills. 

While none of the recruiters think to waste your time at a less-than-prestigious graduate program, they do debate whether the top ones deliver on the promise of producing better business leaders. 

MBAs are absolutely essential—but you've got to find the right program for you

Christine Ricci believes that an MBA is crucial for success in the business world.

"An MBA or some advanced degree is almost a must-have right now," she said. "It's expected now."

Ricci handles marketing and public relations for B.E. Smith, an interim leadership recruiting firm that focuses mainly on health care industries.

"I'm even seeing senior leaders that are very seasoned go back and get one just because their organization is putting the pressure on to go back and get one," she said.

However, Ricci cautions, not all MBAs are created equally.

"I think it's more important to find the program that's a good fit for you," she said.

If you're fresh out of undergraduate studies, a business school that focuses on seasoned professionals probably is not the best fit, Ricci said.

You should only consider going to a top-tier business school

A MBA can be an asset, but only if you're getting it at the right time in your life and from the right school, according to Jonathan Guidi, the president of HealthCare Recruiters International. 

Guidi emphasized that a MBA is only valuable if it's issued by a respected school.

"I don't think, from a hiring point of view, that anyone cares if you have a MBA from the University of Phoenix," he said, adding that MBAs from top-tier schools are the only ones that matter.

"But you get below that, into just regional schools, I don't think anyone cares," he said.

In the same vein, Guidi said he doesn't think returning to school once you've begun your career is the best move.

Professionals who choose to leave the workforce to return to school will only be hurting their careers, he said, adding that his clients want someone who has been focused and on an upward trajectory--not someone who has moved back and forth.

Startups aren't necessarily looking to hire candidates with MBAs

Entrepreneur Jay Bhatti, who co-founded people search engine Spock.com and also worked as a product manager for Microsoft, said that many startups don't want to hire people with MBAs.

"The MBA program is designed to teach people to look at prior data and patterns in order to identify future outcomes," Bhatti wrote in a Quartz article."In the real world, this just does not work when it comes to new markets or innovation."

Bhatti, who holds an MBA from the Wharton school, believes that successful people have certain characteristics that make them successful—and an MBA is not one of them.

"While there have been recent MBA startup successes like BirchBox (Harvard) and Warby Parker (Wharton), the founders of these companies were already high-achieving individuals who got into top programs and probably could have succeeded without their MBAs," Bhatti wrote in Quartz.

Bhatti recognizes the quantitative skills that an MBA delivers, but says that innovation is created or it is not. 

While startups might question the relevance of the MBA, it's hard to argue with the salary bump you get after graduating from a top school, or the fact that nearly 40% of Fortune 100 CEOs have the degree. Clearly, there's something that companies value about the degree.

One of the core teaching methods, pioneered by Harvard Business School, is the case method. Some of the most difficult situations in business history are laid out for students, and they're expected to come up with a rigorous and well reasoned solution all on their own. It's the tried and true way to train students expected to be the top executives of the future. 

We reached out to some of the country's top business professors and asked them to tell us which case studies they think are the most essential for future business leaders, and have broken out the key lessons here. 

Thanks to Professor Jennifer Chatman of UC Berkeley's Haas School Of Business, Professor Aaron Chatterji of Duke's Fuqua School of Business, Professor Timothy Vogus of Vanderbilt's Owen School of Management, Professor Gautam Ahuja of Michigan's Ross School of Business, and Professor Laurence Capron of INSEAD for their input. 

How Lululemon kept its cult

Case: Leadership, Culture, and Transition at lululemon

Key takeaway: Figure out how to bring the founders into a strategy rather than alienating them. 

What happened? In mid-2008 new CEO Christine Day took over from founder Dennis "Chip" Wilson. The decision came as the company wanted to expand and become more corporate. At the same time, Wilson was concerned about maintaining the culture and values of the company.

Day faced entrenched problems like outperforming stores, a poor real estate strategy, and barriers between various parts of the company. She used her experience from helping expand Starbucks worldwide to align the whole company with a strategic plan. She even convinced the founders to attend advanced management programs at Harvard and Stanford so they could better understand how the company must change. Worth around $350 million at the start of her tenure, Lululemon is now a $10.59 billion dollar company.

Thanks to Dr. Jennifer Chatman, the Paul J. Cortese Distinguished Professor of Management Chair at UC Berkeley's Haas Management of Organizations Group for her suggestion

How Ryanair beat two giants of the industry

Case: Dogfight Over Europe: Ryanair

Key takeaway: Lean organizations focused on a single business can lead on cost and challenge established competitors. 

What happened?: In 1986, the two Ryan brothers announced that their young airline will take on giants like British Airways and Aer Lingus for the first time on the route between Dublin and London. It significantly undercut those two airlines on price, bringing in people who had previously preferred rail or ferry tickets. 

How USA Today reinvented itself

Case: USA Today: Pursuing The Network Strategy

Key takeaway: Sometimes the old guard can't handle a new reality.

What happened? Facing falling circulation of the daily newspaper and the rise of digital news, USA Today CEO Tom Curley saw the need to better integrate his businesses, to leverage and share content across the company's internet, television and print platforms. His management team and staff were resistant, claiming insurmountable divides in culture and work style. Curley had to make the case that this was essential for the future of the business, and eventually replaced 5 of 7 senior managers as part of the change.    

Thanks to Dr. Jennifer Chatman, the Paul J. Cortese Distinguished Professor of Management Chair at UC Berkeley's Haas Management of Organizations Group for her suggestion

While New Yorkers are getting used to their new bike share program, Parisians have long since moved on to the next level: electric car sharing.

Inaugurated in December 2011, Autolib' offers its more than 65,000 members a fleet of nearly 2,000 electric Bolloré cars, for an affordable price.

And now the system is coming to the United States: The Bolloré Group announced in June it will bring 500 electric cars (likely the Ford Focus Electric or Nissan Leaf) to Indianapolis, starting next spring.

Autolib' works like most bike share programs. Users pay for a membership, with an additional cost depending on how much they drive. Autolib' memberships can last a day (10€), a week (15€), a month (30€), or a year (144€).

Once you've signed up, you can drive as often as you like. Just find an available car at a nearby station, drop it off wherever you find an open spot, and plug it in to charge.

You pay extra for each half hour you use a car (7€ for day members, 6€ for week and month-long members, and €5 for annual users).

We tried out the system with a company rep when we were in town for the Paris Air Show last month. While the cars themselves are far from amazing and have the limited range that's common in electric rides, they do the trick for getting around the city.

We're officially jealous of Indianapolitans.

Some stations have kiosks where you can sign up for the service (or hide from the rain).

Make sure you have a credit card, ID, and a driver's license (International or European only) with you, then choose your language (French or English).

You sign up via video conference. The quality isn't great, but it does the job. You can start the sign-up process online, but need to complete it at a kiosk.