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These 19 Insanely Successful College Dropouts Prove You Don't Need A Degree

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Danielle Morrill

As the school year starts up again, the class of 2017 is heading off to college for the first time, and a whole crop of high-school seniors is beginning to consider where they'll go next year — or whether they should go at all.

College still pays off in the long run, but as tuition prices continue to climb, debt loads are higher than ever. And the first years out of school are extremely tough.

Some, like PayPal Co-Founder Peter Thiel, claim that college just isn't worth it in the age of startups. He's giving 20 bright young people $100,000 each to start a company instead.

Despite the fact that Thiel himself is a Stanford graduate, people who choose to follow his advice and drop out find themselves in pretty good company. Beyond Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, some of today's most successful businesspeople didn't graduate from college. Here are a few that prove a college degree isn't the only path to success.

Matt Mullenweg started WordPress, which now powers 16% of the web.

Mullenweg dropped out of the University of Houston in 2004. Even then, he was so precocious that he didn't bother with their computer classes. At 20, he had already developed the beginnings of WordPress and was fielding job offers from tech companies. He dropped out to work for CNET in San Francisco, with a promise that he could continue developing his side project 15% of the time. 

He left to found Automattic, the company behind WordPress. WordPress alone gets 140 million visits a year with a staff of just 140, and all of Automattic’s sites see nearly half a billion visitors.



Arash Ferdowsi is a co-founder of DropBox, which is now worth an estimated $4 billion.

Ferdowsi dropped out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007 after three years at the school. He left to found DropBox, which quickly grew from a tiny startup to a service used by hundreds of millions of people.

He's currently the company's Chief Technology Officer and became a multi-millionaire at the age of 27.



Aaron Levie started enterprise software company Box, which could IPO at a valuation as much as $3 billion.

When Levie was a sophomore at the University of Southern California, he was bouncing ideas back and forth with Dylan Smith, a friend at Duke. A marketing class helped Levie come up with the idea that became Box.net, a cloud content management system.

An unsolicited email to Mark Cuban got them $350,000 in funding, and they haven't looked back since. The company has its eye on an IPO some time this year. 



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How Kate Upton Transformed From Swimsuit Model To 'Vogue' Cover Girl

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kate upton

Kate Upton was just named Model Of The Year at the Style Awards.

The honor puts her in the ranks of other fashion favorites like Christie Brinkley and Joan Smalls. 

But just one year ago, Upton's future as a model seemed uncertain. 

The industry speculated that Upton would be stuck with the identity of a swimsuit model forever. 

She moved beyond her Sports Illustrated cover and has since been courted by Vogue and major fashion labels. 

Upton hit the modeling scene in the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. She was featured in body paint.



The next year, she appeared on the magazine's cover. Her spread was seen as instantly iconic.



She also walked the runway for a swimwear line. It seemed Upton had found her calling as a swimsuit model.



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Gorgeous Aerial Photos Show Paris Like You've Never Seen It Before

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Sacre Couer in Paris

When you're on the ground, Paris's monuments sparkle in their classic glory, but even from above, these sites still awe.

Take a tour of Paris's best attractions from a view you probably haven't seen before: the air.

The 12 streets radiating out from the Arc de Triomphe on the Place Charles de Gaulle look a whole lot more peaceful from above. (Try crossing them on foot and you take your life into your own hands.)



Even from above, it's clear that the Hotel des Invalides is a fittingly grand setting for Napoleon's tomb.



The line for the Louvre wraps around the iconic pyramid, which marks the entrance to the famed art museum.



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Gorgeous Photos Of McLaren Testing Its New Supercar In The Desert

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McLaren P1 supercar Extreme Heat Test

Nearly a year after McLaren revealed the concept version of its new supercar, deliveries to the first, incredibly lucky customers are about to begin.

To make sure the P1 lives up to its estimated $1.1 million price tag, McLaren has been busy this summer putting it through a rigorous testing program.

That included sending the car to the desert for extreme heat driving to see how it performs in temperatures topping 125° F.

The result? Some of the best car photos we've seen in a long time.

To put the P1 to the test, McLaren headed to the desert of California, Nevada, and Arizona.



Temperatures hit a smoldering 126°F.



This is the first time the carbon black P1 has been shown undisguised and on the road.



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17 Breakout Stars Of The Fall TV Season

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brenda song dads fox

It wasn't so long ago that you'd never heard of some of the stars anchoring TV shows this season. Before they were old hands, Robin Williams was a weirdo with a girl's name and James Spader was the jerk in "Pretty in Pink."

But every star comes from somewhere, and we have a few guesses who the TV veterans of the future may be. Here are 17 actors we suggest keeping your eye on this fall season.

Nicole Beharie: "Sleepy Hollow"

Why: Beharie, who also starred in this year's Jackie Robinson biopic "42," nicely grounds a fantastical tale of Ichabod Crane coming out of a long sleep to stave off the apocalypse. Just when we've settled into the idea that she's the constant to his man out of time, we find out that she has almost as wild a backstory as he does.

Premiere: Monday, September 16 at 9/8C



Chloe Bennet: "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Why: Bennet is the freshest of the fresh faces in this "Avengers" offshot — she has only a few credits and Chinese/English pop single to her name. But as an outsider to the espionage team, her character is the closest we have to an audience surrogate, and she brings a mix of innocence and unflappable cool to the show.

Premiere: Tuesday, September 24 at 8/7C



The Birthday Boys: "The Birthday Boys"

Why: Because Bob Odenkirk and Ben Stiller think they're funny. The two comedic icons are executive producing the IFC show starring the seven members of the sketch comedy group: Jefferson Dutton, Dave Ferguson, Mike Hanford, Tim Kalpakis, Matt Kowalick, Mike Mitchell and Chris VanArtsdalen. Odenkirk, on a well-deserved hot streak thanks to "Breaking Bad," is an honorary eighth member. We have such high hopes they'll be the next sketch comedy heroes that we feel guilty about listing them all as one entity.

Premiere: Friday,October 18 at 10:30/9:30C



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The Most Sculpted Bodies At The US Open

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ana ivanovic 2013 us open quarterfinals

Tennis players might be in better physical shape than any other group of athletes.

They need speed to chase down shots, stamina to play marathon five-hour matches, and power to move their opponents around the court.

The days of the teenage phenom are over on both the men's and women's sides, and getting to the top requires some extreme training methods.

As a result, some of these players are absolutely ripped.

David Ferrer



Ana Ivanovic



Tommy Haas



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MAPS: Where Every Ancestry Group In America Lives

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german ancestry mapThe United States may be a melting pot, but many ancestry groups still stick together.

Take German Americans, the country's largest ancestry group with 49 million members. While they make up more than 30% of the population in the Midwest, they account for less than 10% of the population in the Deep South and California.

Irish Americans are everywhere in the North East, but almost nowhere in the South West. Meanwhile, there are hardly any Mexican Americans in New England.

Maps of the largest ancestry and racial groups in America based on the American Community Survey can be found in a book called "Ancestry & Ethnicity in America." With permission from Grey House Publishing, we're posting them here.

49,840,035 Germans live mostly in the Midwest

From "Ancestry & Ethnicity in America" based on the American Community Survey (2006–2010 Five Year Estimate). Respondents could name more than one ancestry group or race.



35,751,251 Irish are strongest in the North East

From "Ancestry & Ethnicity in America" based on the American Community Survey (2006–2010 Five Year Estimate). Respondents could name more than one ancestry group or race.



31,798,258 Mexicans are strongest west of the Mississippi

From "Ancestry & Ethnicity in America" based on the American Community Survey (2006–2010 Five Year Estimate). Respondents could name more than one ancestry group or race.



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Moscow's Stunning Metro System Feels Like A Trip Back In Time [PHOTOS]

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moscow metro photos chandelier

In 1935, the first part of Moscow's metro, or Moskovsky metropoliten, opened to the public. For nearly 80 years, the system has been ferrying visitors and locals around the Russian capital.

What's more impressive is that the system is still decorated with the work of the Soviet artists who created murals, mosaics, and stained glass panels to make spending time underground a more pleasant experience.

Riding the metro is Moscow isn't just a quick way to get around a city known for long, cold winters. It's like a trip back in time. 

Construction of the system was started in the 1930s, under Stalin.



The above ground part of the Arbatskaya station, built in 1953, is more impressive than what you get in most cities: uncovered stairways that lead underground.



The stations double as air raid shelters, and most are deep underground.



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The 10 Best Barber Shops In London

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Murdock, London barbershopMen who look their best often do so because they had a great barber to help them.

We've put together a list of the top 10 barber shops in London, thanks to our friends at Yelp.

Murdock's Shoreditch location came out on top, but their Covent Gardens location also made the list.

In a city as stylish as London, the barbers at any of these shops are guaranteed to make you look good.

#10 Geo. F. Trumper

9 Curzon Street
Mayfair

Trumper is known for its wide array of high-quality grooming products, which they use during cuts and shaves, and which customers can buy to pamper themselves at home.

Yelp user Tom B. says that"gentlemen come to Trumper for the sheer luxury of being shaved by an expert; to have their face swathed in hot towels, lathered and shaved, then moisturized and massaged is a truly pleasurable experience."

Note: Yelp's search results are based on an algorithm that is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviews. Because several factors are taken into account, this is why you may see a 3.5-star restaurant with 500 reviews showing above a 4-star one with 15 reviews.



#9 Nicholas Barber Shop

38 Goodge Street
Fitzrovia

Sandwiched between a jewelry store and an Italian restaurant, Nicholas Barber Shop has been on Goodge Street for more than 40 years. And in 40 years they've amassed a following of loyal customers who like the reliable service.

"I've been going to Nicholas for about two years,"writes Joseph T. "I get a standard back and sides cut which they do quickly and well for a cheap price. The last time I got my hair cut somewhere proper they told me I had difficult hair to cut, so I imagine the guys here are pretty good."

Note: Yelp's search results are based on an algorithm that is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviews. Because several factors are taken into account, this is why you may see a 3.5-star restaurant with 500 reviews showing above a 4-star one with 15 reviews.



#8 Sharps Barber & Shop

1-1A Camden Walk
Angel/Islington

Ben Sherman was a British shirtmaker whose brand grew into a means of looking good in every way possible. Sharps is run out of their Camden Walk store, so men can find everything they need to look their best from top to bottom.

"I had my first close shave there, and it was definitely a great experience,"says Thibault M. "I also had my hair cut, where great attention to details was given. I'm really happy with the results."

Note: Yelp's search results are based on an algorithm that is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviews. Because several factors are taken into account, this is why you may see a 3.5-star restaurant with 500 reviews showing above a 4-star one with 15 reviews.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

22 Stunning Side-By-Side Images That Demonstrate China's Huge Wealth Gap

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china wealth gap

At 122 billionaires, China has the second-largest concentration of billionaires in the world, according to Forbes. Yet 13% of China's population lives on less than $1.25 a day. 

China has a high Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality. In fact, during his outgoing speech at the 2012 National People's Congress, then president Hu Jintao said China should try and double its 2010 per capita income for urban and rural residents by 2020.

The Communist Party is weary of the growing wealth gap because of the risk it poses in the form of social unrest. To show just how disparate the lifestyle of wealthy Chinese is from China's poor, we drew on 22 images from Reuters photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon.

(L) Residents of an area for migrant workers watch a traveling circus troupe holding a show in Beijing and (R) celebrities and other guests attend a reception prior to a fashion show held at the Ming Dynasty City Wall Relics Park in Beijing.



(L) Residents gambling under streetlights in an alley of a residential area for migrant workers and (R) guests drinking Champagne as they wait for the start of a fashion show in Beijing.



"A combination photograph shows (L) a man carrying family members as passengers on his electric tricycle cart in Beijing and (R) visitors look around Rolls-Royce's vintage car during the Rolls-Royce's Concours d'Elegance event for celebrating its ten years business in China."



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The 50 Best Brands To Follow On Twitter

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double stuff original oreo cookie side by side 3Nearly every major brand is on Twitter.

With thousands of major brands on the social network, it can be difficult to drown out the noise and figure out who to follow. 

We chose some of the best brands to follow on Twitter. 

Some are useful because they offer deals and customer service. Others are just plain entertaining. 

Delta Air Lines has more than a dozen employees responding to customers on Twitter

Handle: @deltaassist

Why it's worth following: Delta Assist has a team of more than a dozen employees responding to customers via Twitter. If you have a question about a delay, cancellation or a lost bag this beats waiting in a customer service line.



Victoria's Secret gives followers access to models with Q&A's

Handle: @VictoriasSecret

Why it's worth following: Victoria's Secret tweets news related to the brand, holds question and answer sessions with them via Twitter and notifies followers of deals and Angel Card perks.



McDonald's motivates followers with prizes

Handle: @McDonalds

Why it's worth following:  The company frequently tweets to promote new products and let followers know about upcoming events like the McDonald's Monopoly game. McDonald's also gives away prizes to encourage followers interaction.



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Marissa Mayer Denies Rumors She's Buying This $30 Million Mansion In San Francisco

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Marissa Mayer's house

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer took to Twitter today to deny rumors and reports that she and her husband, Zack Bogue, bought a $30 million Tudor-style mansion in San Francisco. ("@zackbogue and I did not buy this house," she wrote.) The purchase had been rumored in the city's real estate circles. But Huffington Post went a step too far and said the sale had actually taken place.

The "Billionaire's Row" house's neighbors include Oracle's Larry Ellison, Apple's Jonathan Ive, and Zynga's Mark Pincus.

Mayer's her current house in Palo Alto features a giant model of a local diner in the backyard. She also owns a penthouse at the Four Seasons in San Francisco.

Take a look at the house in these marketing photos published by realtor Steven Gothelf of Pacific Union International.

It recently sold for about $29.5 million.



It was designed in 1922 by the San Francisco architect Frederick H. Meyer for Stetson G. Hindes.



It has six bedrooms, five full baths, and two half-baths.



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15 Movies You Need To See Before The End Of The Year

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catching fire katniss jennifer lawrenceAfter a sluggish August at the box office, the fall will be jam-packed with superheroes, sequels, and films that take you to the center of space. 

November and December will be two of the busiest months of the year with big releases out every weekend and the return of Jennifer Lawrence in two anticipated films.

From epics in space and sea to historical adaptations and buzzed-about sequels and comedies there's a little bit of something for everyone.

Not sure what to see? We have you covered.

We figure it's senseless to do a fall preview for films and leave December off the list, so we've compiled the best movies you should see for the rest of the year.

"Rush"

Release Date: September 13

Why to see it: We weren't completely sold on Ron Howard and Chris Hemsworth's Formula One-inspired film at first considering Nascar is more popular in the U.S. However, the film has received high praise at the Toronto Film Festival. Variety calls it one of the "great racing movies of all time."

Based on the rivalry between two Formula One drivers during the 1976 season, Howard recently told HuffPostUK that he considered canceling the project because he didn't think he would find the right person to play Hunt.

Watch the trailer



"Gravity"

Release Date: October 4

Why to see it: The movie about an astronaut and engineer (George Clooney and Sandra Bullock) getting lost in space comes from the director of "Children of Men" (2006) and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004).

If the dynamictrailers haven't won you over, critics are calling it the must-see movie of the fall after its debut at the Venice Film Festival.

Watch the trailer



"Captain Phillips"

Release Date: October 11

Why to see it: It's been a long time since we've seen Tom Hanks shine in a big role ("Catch Me If You Can"). According to early reviews, his return portraying Captain Richard Phillips during the 2009 hijacking of an American cargo ship by Somali pirates is worth the wait.

Watch the trailer



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Everything You Need To Know About The iPhone 5S (AAPL)

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Jony Ive Craig Federighi

We're just about a week away from Apple revealing its next iPhone.

It's been almost a year since Apple released a new hardware product, so this event will be an even bigger deal than usual. 

If you like surprises, stop reading! If you don't care, then read on. 

We've rounded up all the major rumors about Apple's next big product release.

Apple will announce the next iPhones on September 10

As of this writing, it's not officially official, but it's pretty darn close to official. We expect Apple will send out official invitations to an event in the next day or two. 



The new iPhone is expected to be called the iPhone 5S, and it probably look just like the iPhone 5 on the outside.



The only cosmetic change to the outside? We'll get a light-gold version of the phone.



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Stunning Time-Lapse Photos Show A Day Passing In Singapore

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Time is a Dimension Fong Qi Wei

Photographs freeze the world around us — unless they're by Singapore-based photographer Fong Qi Wei.

Intrigued by photographing time, Wei created single, composite pictures from a sequence of images spanning 2-4 hours. He concentrated on capturing sunrises and sunsets as they evolved over different landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes.

He then digitally stitched the images together to get a snapshot of time passing over the scene for his series "Time is a Dimension."

"Most paintings and photographs are an instance of time," Wei explained in his artist's statement. "That’s not the way the world works. We experience a sequence of time, and that’s why a video is somehow more compelling than a freeze frame."

A plane flies over the Changi Beach dock in Singapore in the early morning.

Source: Fong Qi Wei/Thoughtful Photography



People walk along the Changi Beach as the sun sets.

Source: Fong Qi Wei/Thoughtful Photography



The Fullerton Bay Hotel comes alive at night in Wei's compilation photograph.

Source: Fong Qi Wei/Thoughtful Photography



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35 Books Everyone Should Read At Least Once In Their Lifetime

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stacks of books

Books have the profound capacity to stay with us for the rest of our lives.

Whether they're written for children, sci-fi lovers, mathematicians, or fiction aficionados, certain stories transcend their genre and should be read by everyone.

In a recent Reddit thread, users were asked what is a book that everyone needs to read at least once in their life?

Here are the top 35 books based on Reddit responses.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig

The story of a father and son's summer motorcycle trip across America from Minnesota to California, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is at its heart a philosophical journey.

The travel narrative is filled with fundamental questions on how to live your life and conversations between the father and his son: “The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”

Buy the book here >

Submitted by Reddit user Exit_Smiling.



"Watership Down" by Richard Adams

First told to his daughters as a bedtime story, Richard Adams weaves the tale of a band of rabbits who abandon their comfy holes in the English downs after one of the rabbits has a vision of it being destroyed by tractors.

"Watership Down" follows them as they encounter evil rabbits, crows, a fox, rivers, and countless other dangers as they journey to find a new home.

Buy the book here >

Submitted by Reddit user joeallenrealty.



"The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow

An American professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, Pausch became famous after giving an upbeat lecture titled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" after learning he had pancreatic cancer and had three to six months of good health left.

After the success of his lecture, he co-authored the book "The Last Lecture" on the same theme of enjoying every moment in your life. 

Buy the book here >

Submitted by Reddit user kkup.



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Here's Everything You Need To Know About The Huge Apple Event Tomorrow (AAPL)

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Tim Cook at WWDC

Apple will announce its new smartphone, which the rumor sites the iPhone 5S, tomorrow at a big press event at its Cupertino, California headquarters.

While it's certainly the standout giant in terms of anticipation, that's far from the only thing we're expecting to hear announced.

Here's everything we're expecting Apple to announce tomorrow, from new iPhones to new software for the Apple TV.

A brand-new revamped mobile operating system, iOS 7.

It's bright and colorful and it'll be quite a change from the old default wallpaper of gray bubbles.

iOS 7 brings a new and improved take on the iPhone's foundation software. It's the biggest change to the iPhone software since the original iPhone launched in 2007. All the apps and menus have been completely redesigned with a more modern look.

Apple will give us a final release date for iOS 7 tomorrow.



New Apple TV software.

Apple is likely to announce an update to the Apple TV software next week. 

Tech blogger Om Malik writes that that Apple is due for a refresh to the Apple TV. This is especially true in light of the new iOS 7, as Apple TVs run on a version of iOS. However, AllThingsD's Peter Kafka says Apple will only announce a software update for the Apple TV that will let you play content you buy through iTunes on other Apple TVs using AirPlay.



Apple's iTunes Radio will be a streaming music service similar to Pandora.

Apple's streaming music service is go for launch. iTunes Radio is a free service that will be built into 



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How Google Made That Giant Kit Kat Android Statue In Front Of Its HQ (GOOG)

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android kit katWhenever Google pushes out a new version of Android, it erects a new statue commemorating the sweet dessert that serves as the current codename.

We've seen Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich, Honeycomb, and Gingerbread, and they're all produced by a New Jersey company called Themendous. 

Last week, Google announced it would name its next version of Android Kit Kat, after the candy bar.

Here's a behind the scenes look at the making of the statue.

They start with a model of the Android.



Then they take a scaled photo for client review.



The logo goes on next.



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New York's East Harlem: Neighborhood Fighting To Keep Its Culture In The Face Of Gentrification

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An iconic and now almost ironic mural sits nearby.

With a controversial plan to develop NYCHA property, mayoral hopefuls spending an evening in one of the neighborhoods public housing developments, and the continually skyrocketing price of real estate, East Harlem (or Spanish Harlem( is one of the neighborhoods at the center of the gentrification debate in New York. 

One of the city's poorest districts, East Harlem has a median household income around $30,000, compared to around $55,000 for all of New York City, according to U.S. census data from 2010. But the area is also just north of Yorkville, one of Manhattan's wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods, making it a prime spot for development.

Spending time in the area and talking to the people who live there you can see the changes taking place in this dynamic neighborhood.

East Harlem, Spanish Harlem or "El Barrio,"— from 96th St. to 125th St. (some say 146th St.) and Fifth Ave. and the East River.



Spanish Harlem is changing. Dark purple real estate is selling at prices that are much higher than the median income of the block ... i.e., rich people are moving in.



The new Spanish Harlem.



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The Company That Sets Color Trends Thinks Men Will Be Wearing 'Samba,' 'Koi,' And 'Acai' This Fall

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The Pantone Color Institute, known for choosing The Color of the Year, has just released its Fall 2013 men's fashion colors.

Men this season can expect to wear a lot more Deep Lichen Green, Mykonos Blue, Carafe, Acai, Samba, Emerald, Linden Green, Beaujolais, Turbulence, and Koi.

Confused? Translated, you'll be wearing a lot more greenish-gray, blue, brown, purple, red, emerald, pea green, maroon, gray, and orange:

men's fall fashion colors pantone

Here's what Pantone had to say about its choices and how to wear them:

Luxurious Emerald, a sophisticated and vivid green, should be paired with Mykonos Blue or Linden Green for a clean and classic look.

Acai adds exotic mystery when paired with bold statement colors like Samba, while Koi remains decorative and dynamic, adding a pop of orange to a neutral wardrobe. Deep Lichen Green acts as the cornerstone color for the men's palette as well; however, pair the shaded mossy green with Beaujolais, a full-bodied red, for an elegantly masculine, quintessential fall look.

Unpredictable Turbulence and warm, rich Carafe, also play vital roles in men's fashion trends, serving as strong staple hues for outerwear throughout the cooler months. Create a well-balanced look by combining either neutral with Beaujolais or Koi.

Pantone chose these colors based on surveys sent to designers at New York Fashion Week and by noticing which hues were the most-used on the runway and in the new fall collections.

To learn more about how Pantone picks the "Color of the Year" and other color trends, click here.

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