Anyone who loves and appreciates the game of golf has created a bucket list of courses they want to play. Many have courses like Pebble Beach, Augusta, or Pinehurst #2, but here are some unconventionally awesome courses to add to the list.

25. Bay Harbor (Quarry)— Michigan, USA

One of three courses at Bay Harbor, Quarry’s 40 foot gorges and stone cliffs, makes this one of the world’s most unique 9-hole courses. Golfweek Magazine says, “Bay Harbor Golf Club is one of the most picturesque golf sites in the country … it may be America’s most diverse collection of holes.”

24. Chambers Bay Golf Course — Washington, USA

Primed to be the venue for the 2015 US Open, this course is filled with many distinct features including the shared fairway between 1 & 18. Definitely want to try “Free Fall”, the par 4 with a 80 foot drop that offers two possible greens. Finally, the 18th that plays along a wall of concrete structures, which remain from its time as a gravel mine.

23. Whistling Straits — Wisconsin, USA

Designed to look like Ireland, Pete Dye had quite the project considering the canvas he had to work with – a former army base. Dye had to remove concrete bunkers, an airstrip as well as underground fuel storage tanks to make the course playable. Boom goes the dynamite! Since then, the course successfully hosted two PGA Championships and one US Senior Open. It is set to host the PGA Championship in 2015 and Ryder Cup in 2020.

22. Shadow Creek Golf Course — Nevada, USA

One of the most luxurious golfing experiences available, this is a highly rated course designed by Tom Fazio. This course is unconventional because it started out as a desert wasteland. At the time Shadow Creek was built, it was the most expensive course ever built. To make this possible, over 20,000 mature trees had to be transplanted, elevation had to be changed by over 200 feet and streams and other water features needed to be created.

21. El Camaleón at the Fairmont Mayakoba — Quintana Roo, Mexico

Time to take a drop if your ball goes in there. This course gets its name from the chameleon because of its ever-changing challenges. This course is filled with hazards like sand dunes and mangroves that line the fairways, cenotes(subterranean caves) with names like “The Devil’s Mouth”, and beautiful lagoons.

20. Streamsong — Florida, USA

Forget your typical Florida golf course. Streamsong was built on an old phosphate mining operation that produced a 2,000 acre pile of sand. Over time, dunes were formed and grass began to grow, making this course feel like a piece of the Scottish coast.

19. Old Works Golf Club — Montana, USA

The track is built on the old Anaconda Copper Mine, which was one of the EPA’s largest Superfund cleanup sites. Jack Nicklaus incorporated elements from the mine. He used a byproduct of copper smelting to frame the bunkers and included the smelter, oven, and flue into the design.

18. Fossil Trace — Colorado, USA

Make sure you can clear those boulders. Designer Jim Engh left old rusty pieces of equipment alongside many of the holes. Footprints left by dinosaurs on holes 11 through 15, make this former clay mine quite unusual.

17. Coeur D’Alene Golf Resort — Idaho, USA

Pack extra balls for this one. Overall, this course has a pretty traditional park-like feel. That is until you get to the par-3 14th hole, which is one of the most unforgettable par-3s on the planet. It is an actual island green that can be moved as far as 218 yards through a system of cables and winches. Golfers head over to the 15,000 square-foot putting surface by ferry.

16. Le Touessrok Golf Course — Port Louis District, Mauritius

If you have ever dreamed of playing in paradise, Le Touessrok is probably exactly what you pictured. Golf World Magazine calls it “A Top 10 Golf Course in the World”. Le Touessrok is an 18-hole course on its own island, across the water from the mainland resort.

15. La Jenny — Aquitaine, France

Naturist golfers can feel free with a round at La Jenny. Said to be the only place in Europe where the sport is practiced in a naturist setting, golfers play the 6-hole course (4 par 3, 2 par 4). Would be concerned about a full body sun burn.

14. Furnace Creek Golf Course — California, USA

Located in Death Valley, Furnace Creek is 214 feet below sea level, making it the lowest altitude golf course in the world. In the peak of summer, temperatures can reach 130 degrees. A course to be played in winter, unless you want the full experience of dangerously hot temperatures.

13. Royal Colombo Golf Club — Western Province, Sri Lanka

For the most part, this is a typical golf course located in a beautiful suburb outside the city of Colombo. This course is unique in the fact that it has train tracks that cross over four holes. Some golfers may not enjoy loud trains, packed with a screaming audience, as they try and make an important putt.

12. Palmetto Hall Plantation (Robert Cupp Course) — South Carolina, USA

The first geometric golf course of its kind, featuring trapezoidal-based bunkers and fairways, along with square/rectangular tees and greens. Originally designed on the computer, the results make a unique golfing experience.

11. Brickyard Crossing — Indiana, USA

Nothing can be said other than that this course plays in and around the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500. ‘Murica!

10. Don Mueang International Airport Golf Course — Bangkok, Thailand

Noise canceling headphones? Check. The owners of this airport decided to capitalize on the extra space and place an 18-hole course right beside the tarmac. Can only imagine how loud it would be to play on this course, but guests seem to love the unique placement.

9. Prison View Golf Club — Louisiana, USA

This is probably the only golf course where a background check is needed in order to book a tee time. The Louisiana State Penitentiary Employee Recreation Committee operates this 9-hole golf course. Before starting a round, it should be noted that play may be suspended at any time, due to institutional need or at the Warden’s discretion. Confusion arises when you talk about “shanking” with the guards.

8. The Opal Fields Golf Club — South Australia, Australia

Well, this course doesn’t have the outrageous costs one would expect to have to keep a desert course green. That is because they don’t keep it green. This famous 18-hole par-72 course is one big sand trap. The grassless fairways create a lot of roll and the oiled sand greens create a surprisingly smooth putt.

7. Nullarbor Links — Western Australia to South Australia

Golf for days! Meet the world’s longest golf course. An average round of golf on your typical course will last about four hours, a round on Nullarbor lasts about four days. Measured to be 848 miles long, the course spans two time zones with plenty of service stations and accommodations along the way.

6. Himalayan Golf Club — Western Nepal

One of the most unique golf courses based on its mountainous view. Along with that golfers can expect plenty of wildlife as they play off 70 foot elevated hillside tees, an island fairway, and a canyon amphitheater layout.

5. Firestone Overseas Golf Club — Montserrado County, Liberia

This 9-hole course is on the Firestone Rubber Plantation, just outside Monrovia, Liberia. It costs way too much to maintain a course you’d find in North America, so their fairways are treated like roughs and they do not have greens. The greens are actually called “browns” at this course, a combination of sand, oil and iron ore.

4. Merapi Golf Course — Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia

Ever dream of playing a round at the base of an active volcano? Well now you can! Smoke can be seen emerging from Mount Merapi three hundred plus days a year. Smaller eruptions happen approximately every two to three years, and larger ones about ten to fifteen years. With eruptions happening in 2006 and 2010, we won’t be visiting very soon.

3. Uummannaq Greenland — Qaasuitsup, Greenland

If you find yourself getting a lot of back sweat from the heat on the course, playing on a giant iceberg with an orange ball could be better suited for you. Uummannaq is actually the home of the World Ice Golf Championships, it's a thing. The rules are pretty much the same as your standard game of golf, except you the holes are a little shorter, the cups are larger, and everything is frozen.

2. Camp Bonifas — Between North & South Korea

The most dangerous course on the planet has to be Camp Bonifas. This single-hole course, near a military base in North Korea, is a 192 yard par-3 beside one of the most fortified borders in the world. Did we mention that the green is surrounded on three sides by minefields?

1. Extreme 19th at Legend Golf & Safari Resort — Limpopo, South Africa

The picture says it all. Accessible by helicopter, the tee shot 400m above the ground on Hanglip Mountain is breathtaking. Pro golfers and celebrities come from around the world for a chance at making the toughest par-3 on the planet. Padraig Harrington was the first to get par, many others have since followed.

SEE ALSO: 10 Awesome Ski Resorts In Unexpected Places

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Jack Macdonald, an elderly man known for cutting coupons and wearing holey sweaters, has left a staggering donation of $188 million to three Seattle institutions. 

The trust, the largest donation made in Washington state this year, went to Seattle Children’s Research Institute, the University of Washington School of Law, and the Salvation Army, according to The Seattle Times.

Macdonald maintained an image of a man of little means. He frequently rode the bus and stocked up on bargain-priced food at the supermarket. Only a handful of people knew that he had amassed a fortune investing in the stock market over a 60-year period. 

"He was amazing," his stepdaughter, Regen Dennis, said to The Seattle Times. "He didn’t trust a lot of other people to do his research; he directed what he wanted bought, and he really knew what he wanted."

Macdonald, who died in September at the age of 98, donated to many different causes throughout his lifetime, including an anonymous gift of $150,000 to the Canadian town of Elora, where his father immigrated from Scotland. 

This particular gift, however, is setting state and national records. 

Forty percent of the $188 million is going to Seattle Children's, though Macdonald had no children of his own. It is the largest single gift ever made to pediatric research in the entire country. 

Another 30% of the trust will go to the UW School of Law, the largest gift to the law school in history, and the largest estate gift to the university as a whole. 

The remaining 30% will go the Salvation Army, which Macdonald chose because his father, Frederick, worked with many blue-collar workers. 

"He felt really good about what he was doing with his money,” Dennis said, “and our family feels good about what he’s doing with his money."

SEE ALSO: 25 Billionaires Who Are Giving Away Their Fortunes

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Truly fresh coffee is hard to come by, since it takes the average bean six months from when its harvested to reach your cup.

The Bonaverde Coffee Changers company in Berlin is trying to change that and cut out the coffee middleman with a new machine that not only grinds and brews coffee beans, but roasts them as well.

The machine has a rotary system in a stainless-steal container that heats up and roasts the raw beans at the desired setting. After 3-4 minutes, the beans are cooled, and then ground and brewed with pre-heated water. 

The entire process from roasting to brewing takes roughly 12-14 minutes, depending on your selected roast profile (there are six options available), and can brew between 2 and 12 cups.

The project has been in development for the past two years after founder Hans Stier had a vision to put farmers more in control of their beans. The company currently has relationships with farmers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, India and Brazil that sell their beans directly through Bonaverde, thereby cutting out the "roasting middleman" and giving the farmer more control over — and money for — his beans. 

Now after testing four earlier prototypes, Bonaverde Coffee Changers has finally reached the final step of its two-year-long project. The team of German engineers currently has a Kickstarter campaign to create working machines for serial production with early-bird delivery expected in October of next year. 

There are still 9 days left to go, and the all-in-one coffee machine has already earned $459,740 dollars, well above their Kickstarter goal of $135,000. Find out more about the coffee machine or order your own (with raw beans included) over at Kickstarter for $300.

SEE ALSO: The 10 Best Coffee Shops In San Francisco

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The holiday season is upon us, but don't freak out — there's still time to get your mom something other than a card.

Whether it's your mother, grandma, step-mom, wife, sister, or daughter, it's nice to make all the moms in our lives feel special.

Here are our picks for the best holiday gifts for moms this season, from gifts that pamper to accessories for the tech-obsessed.

A fitness tracker will help active moms keep tabs on their stats.

For the mom who loves to go running and exercise, the Pear Pro Training Intelligence System lets her keep track of her heart rate and calories burned on the go. It even has a personal trainer component that tells her how far she's gone.

Buy it through Pear Sports for $200

Keep her iPad safe in the kitchen with a cover and stand.

If your mom uses an iPad to look up recipes, consider getting her a sleeve to protect her device from spillage like these disposable Chef Sleeves. The same brand also has stands and cutting boards that will prop up her device so she can read the recipe.

Buy a disposable pack of 25 here for $20

Yogi moms will appreciate this yoga accessories set.

For the seasoned yogi or the mom who just wants to give it a try, this Breathe, Bind & Align package is perfect. It has all the yoga props your mom might need, from a cork block for balance to a wool blanket for her back.

Buy it here for $136

Since September, an anonymous patron has been leaving mysterious tips of huge proportions in restaurants and bars across the country. 

Employees from Ann Arbor, Mich. to Los Angeles were lucky enough to be at the receiving end of some amazingly large tips, all over $1,000.  

The tipper is claiming credit for the gifts by posting photos of receipts on the Instagram page @tipsforjesus, though as of now it is still unclear whether it is one person or a group behind the scheme. 

Here's a shot of a receipt from the Legends of Notre Dame, a restaurant on the University of Notre Dame's campus. The mysterious tipper paid a visit before the football team took on USC, which could explain the "Fight On!" message left on the receipt.  The photo shows an unbelievable $5,000 was tacked on to the total. 

According to The South Bend Tribune, the mystery tipper returned to the restaurant again after the game, racking up a $164.50 bill and leaving another $5,000 tip. 

"We were all looking at this like, is this a joke?" Ashley Rust, a former bartender at Legends, said to the South Bend Tribune. "We were all super shocked and we didn't want to get too excited because we hadn't ever seen a tip like this."

Rust said that the bill was paid by three men, one of whom was wearing a USC jersey, though all three said they were from California. 

Several other tips were left in the alleged tippers' home state of California. 

They stopped in Chicago, too.

The anonymous tipper even had enough cash on hand to pay this Chicago-area golf caddy.

The mystery of the anonymous tipper first began back in August, when employees in an Ogden, Utah bar said they received a $1,000 tip from a young man using a black American Express "Centurion" card. The black card is very exclusive, available by invitation only to those who fit strict qualifications. 

The person or people behind the @tipsforjesus account are now claiming responsibility for extravagant tips left in two different Ogden establishments, though those receipts were not labeled "tips for Jesus" as the others were. 

SEE ALSO: Many US Waiters Haven't Had A Pay Raise In 22 Years

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For many, the actual act of holiday shopping is the scourge of an otherwise cheerful season.

A good gift is hard to find for anyone, but if you've got an investor in your life, it can prove especially difficult.

Not to fear, because we've got a bunch of great options for you.

Whether it's a desktop essential, a must-have book, or a premium item, we have you covered this year.

Prices may vary, but these are sure to keep any investor risk-on for 2014.

Dow Jones stock ticker floor case

In the years before Yahoo Finance, people actually got their quotes from ticker tape machines. Any investor will love this Dow Jones stock ticker floor case, perfect for the home office.

Price: Estimated $500 – $800 at auction

The Intelligent Investor

Benjamin Graham is considered the father of value investing. At Columbia, he taught a young Warren Buffett everything he knows today. Grab this "definitive book on value investing" on Amazon.

Price: $16

Edison stock ticker with glass dome

Here's another antique, but this one will set you back a bit more."There are dual pairs of electrodes on either side for connection to a telegraphic signal that relayed stock information from Western Union and for a storage battery. It is fairly heavy and includes a wooden base and glass dome." Feel like Jay Gould or J.P. Morgan with this baby.

Price: Estimated $5,000 – $7,000 at auction

Just like a traditional school, the courses now available online run the full spectrum from extremely practical to completely ridiculous and fun. 

Anyone who missed the chance in high school or college to explore a subject they're fascinated with can now take an online course from some of the top universities in the world. Online learning platforms offer more than you might imagine, including classes on the plausibility of life on other planets and how to survive the zombie apocalypse portrayed in TV show "The Walking Dead." 

They're also a reminder that education doesn't always need to be career-oriented, and can be something you simply want to know more about.  

Society, Science, Survival: Lessons from AMC’s "The Walking Dead"

Platform: Canvas Network

Affiliated university: The University of California at Irvine

Description: "From understanding social identities to modeling the spread of disease, this eight-week course will span key science and survival themes using AMC’s 'The Walking Dead' as its basis."

Topics include:

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Is survival just about being alive?
• Social order and structures, from the farm and the prison to Woodbury
• Social identity, roles, and stereotyping, as shown through leaders like Rick and the Governor
• The spread of infectious disease and population modeling
• The role of energy and momentum in damage control: How can you best protect yourself?
• Nutrition in a post-apocalyptic world: Are squirrels really good for you?

Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science

Platform: edX

Affiliated university: Harvard University

Description: "During each week of the course, you will watch as chefs reveal the secrets behind some of their most famous culinary creations — often right in their own restaurants. Inspired by such cooking mastery, the Harvard team will then explain, in simple and sophisticated ways, the science behind the recipe.

"Topics include: soft matter materials, such as emulsions, illustrated by aioli; elasticity, exemplified by the done-ness of a steak; and diffusion, revealed by the phenomenon of spherification, the culinary technique pioneered by Ferran Adrià."

Imagining Other Earths

Platform: Coursera

Affiliated university: Princeton University

Description: "Over the past two decades, astronomers have discovered over a thousand planets around nearby stars. Based on our current knowledge, it seems likely that there are millions of stars in the Galaxy that host Earth-sized planets in Earth-like orbits. What is the range of conditions for these planets to host life? In this course, students will engage with a wide range of concepts in astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology and physics with a focus on developing the background they will use need to think further about this profound question."

Every reader knows that a book can change your life.

But what about the lives of an entire generation? Can a book change the future?

Miriam Tuliao, assistant director of central collection development at the New York Public Library, helped us come up with a list of 25 books that changed the course of history.

From the Torah to Orwell's "1984," these 25 titles have had a major impact (listed here in alphabetical order). 

Do you think another book belongs on this list? Let us know in the comments.

"Aesop’s Fables" by Aesop

Believed to have originated between 620 and 560 BCE

"Aesop's Fables" is a collection of stories that are meant to teach the listener a life lesson. The fables themselves are often credited to an ancient Greek slave and story teller named Aesop (though the origin of the fables remains disputed).

The stories themselves are still important moral lessons and have had a far-reaching impact on literature and common sayings, including "wolf in sheep's clothing,""boy who cried wolf,""goose that laid the golden eggs," and many others.

Buy the book here >

"The Analects of Confucius" by Confucius

Believed to have been written sometime between 475 and 221 BCE

Also known as simply "Analects" or "Lunyu," this book is the collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius on how to live a virtuous life and be kind — what he referred to as ren.

Today, "The Analects" continues to have a profound influence on Eastern philosophy and ethics, especially in China.

Buy an English translation of the book here >

"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank

Published in 1947

The book is a compilation of the diary writings of Anne Frank, a young woman who hid with her family for two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was discovered and taken in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Since its publication, "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" has been translated into more than 60 languages and remains one of the most famous and influential primary documents from Europe in WWII.

Buy the book here >

The sites and sounds of the NYC subway are well known to the 4.3 million people who ride it every day.

The sleepy commuters, crowded cars, conductor's voice, and train doors opening and closing are just a part of traveling around New York City.

And though the subway system has only gotten larger and more punctual since the first line was opened, the subway commuters themselves have not changed all that much.

Photographer Enrico Natali  moved to New York City to become a photographer's apprentice in the 1950s. He started taking his own candid shots of people on his commute to work on trains or waiting in the underground stations in 1960.

"Since I lived in the depths of Brooklyn and rode the subway to where I worked in Manhattan, it seemed reasonable to make the subway my first project," Natali said. "I became so involved in the work that for a time I all but lived in the subway."

In his recently published photography book, "New York City Subway, 1960," Natali's 53-year-old photographs have finally come to light. The pictures show a past era, but those same sleepy commuters, busy cars, and subway conductors.

New York's first official subway system opened in Manhattan in October of 1904.

Source: MTA

At the time, there were 28 stations from City Hall to 145th Street and Broadway.

Source: MTA

Subway customers bought tickets to pay their fare until May 10, 1920.

Source: MTA

The most successful people know how important it is to have interests and hobbies outside of their work lives.

Some of these hobbies are useful and considered important networking tools, while others are more focused on personal development and pushing themselves. Some are purely thrill-seeking and allow people in high-stress jobs to forget about their day-to-day responsibilities.

George W. Bush, for example, is an avid painter. The adventurous Richard Branson's favorite sport is kite boarding, and investor Warren Buffett plays online bridge.

Here are the hobbies of 9 highly successful people.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is an aggressive golfer.

Since golf is such a popular sport in the business world, women can miss out on important networking opportunities if they don't play. Rice knows this and started playing golf when she was working as Secretary of State and even often played with former President George W. Bush. 

Six years later, Rice is a member at the Augusta National Golf Club, one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, and continues to play golf regularly. Rice and business executive Darla Moore were the first women granted memberships to Augusta.

"I'm very aggressive," Rice told John Barton at Golf Digest. "My inner Phil Mickelson comes out quite frequently."

Indian billionaire Anil Ambani is a serial marathon runner.

India's fourth-richest billionaire and chairman of Reliance ADA Group, Anil Ambani often runs the streets of Mumbai before dawn with his bodyguards. He first trained for the Boston Marathon in 2003 after someone questioned his weight at an investor's conference in New York. Since then, Ambani has pushed himself and is now a serial marathon runner.

"At a deeper level, running is about pushing the limits, of realizing one's possibilities," he told Businessweek.

Investor Warren Buffett regularly plays the ukulele and online bridge to keep his mind sharp.

The oracle of Omaha is a man of many talents. Buffett's been playing the ukulele for decades, but he also told CNN Money that he plays online bridge most Mondays with three other partners, sometimes including Bill Gates.

In a report titled "Why Warren Buffett Plays Bridge," economist John P. Hussman reasoned that Buffett's love of the game could be because it places emphasis on "playing a hand right rather than on playing it successfully":

"It seems to me (and it has certainly been my experience) that it takes an enormous amount of restraint to focus on playing every investment hand 'right,' according to an established discipline, allowing the law of averages to work in your favor, rather than trying to win every hand. I would guess that this is exactly what appeals to Warren Buffett's temperament. Over the long-term, good investing requires it."

Your smartphone could be encouraging you to cheat.

A survey conducted in November by affairs and dating site Victoria Milan revealed that 45% of people have either cheated — or contemplated cheating — on their partner because the other person pays too much attention to their phone.

And that's not the only way that our smartphones goad our unfaithful tendencies. The App Store and Google Play are both crawling with skeezy apps designed to help you get away with cheating. 

Obviously, we're not condoning deceitful behavior — but it is interesting to see how so many apps have popped up to facilitate the process and keep perpetrators from getting caught. 

Vaulty Stocks lets you disguise your foul-play with financials.

App: Vaulty Stocks looks like an app for checking the stock market, but it can become a cheater's treasure trove of naughty pictures and videos. Use it to store things that don't belong in your phone's built in photo album. The app placates snoopers by providing a fully-functional financial interface to anyone who doesn't have the right PIN.

Availability: Vaulty Stocks is $4.99 in the Google Play Store 

User Review Highlight: One Google user wrote, "If ur looking for slick and sly way to keep prying eyes out of ur device then this is the app for u....I use it for porn....that's what u want it for anyway."

Call And Text Eraser does pretty much what you would expect based on the name.

App: You can only open (or even see) Call And Text Eraser, called CATE, if you know the secret code. The app lets you communicate with privacy by hiding calls, filtering flirtatious text messages, and allowing you to clear all the app's contents quickly and easily. 

Availability: CATE is available for Android and costs $4.99.

User Review Highlight: One Google user wrote, "This is the very best app on the android market. This marks the dawn of a new day. A new day where you sneaky women no longer can snoop."

You can't talk about cheating without mentioning the app for Ashley Madison, the infamous affairs website.

App: Ashley Madison's slogan is "Life's short. Have an affair." The app for this salacious site requires a PIN for entry, can provide a private phone line for explicit, untraceable chats, and lets users log out of it remotely.

Availability: This app is technically free to download for iOS or Android but requires you to make in-app purchases to have any functionality. 

Every time you enter a movie theater you're asked to accept the unreal as real for the purpose of the story you're about to watch.

It's called suspension of disbelief, and for the most part this tacit agreement between you and the filmmaker works quite well.

However, there are some times when filmmakers make it impossible for you to lose yourself in the worlds they've created by casting the wrong actor in a principle role.

Think of John Wayne as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror or Sofia Coppola as Mary Corleone in The Godfather III.

The very presence of these actors is so jarring that it draws you out of the movie and reminds you that you're surrounded by strangers in a germ-filled room that may or may not be crawling with bedbugs.

It's an unsettling experience and it happens more often than you may think.

Here are 11 instances in which a horribly miscast actor nearly ruined the movie they appeared in. 

See who was clearly miscast >

Topher Grace as Venom in "Spider-Man 3"

We have nothing against Topher Grace. We enjoyed him in That '70s Show and even found ourselves laughing out loud at his antics in Take Me Home Tonight.

However, just because he can pull off goofy good-guy roles doesn't mean he can convincingly play a supervillain.

That became abundantly clear in 2007 when this spindly smart aleck was cast as Eddie Brock and his deadly alter ego, Venom, in Spider-Man 3. Grace was convincing enough as the underhanded Brock, but his turn as Marvel's toothsome Symbiote was nothing short of a disaster.

The New York native lacked the imposing size and presence to play Venom, and his ridiculous snarls and facial contortions turned an otherwise menacing character into a walking punchline. 

Colin Farrell as Alexander in "Alexander"

We don't remember much of what we learned in our high school history classes, but we're reasonably certain that Alexander the Great was Greek.

So, you can imagine our surprise when Oliver Stone cast Colin Farrell in the central role of his 2004 biopic.

The Dublin native did nothing to disguise his Irish brogue and played Alexander as if he were a lifelong Liffeysiders fan who feasted on shamrocks and gargled with Guinness.

To make matters worse, Farrell's refusal to dump his accent forced supporting actors Val Kilmer and Jared Leto to adopt Irish accents of their own to cover any anomaly.

The result was a sonic mess that made the film feel far more like fantasy than the glorious history it promised to convey. 

Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones in "The World Is Not Enough"

We're willing to believe Denise Richards could be a stripper with a heart of gold or a promiscuous high school student, but asking us to believe that anyone dumb enough to have children with Charlie Sheen could be a nuclear physicist is demanding too much.

That was just one of many issues we had with The World Is Not Enough, the nineteenth (and weakest) film in the James Bond series.

Much like Denise Richards herself, this big-budget movie looked amazing, but had absolutely no depth. 

The City of Angels is home to some of the hippest people in the country.

So when it comes to cool businesses, they probably know what they're doing.

We found the 22 coolest small businesses in L.A., from a speakeasy-style bubble tea bar to a specialty hot sauce shop.

Amelia Acosta contributed to this story.

Backwards Beekeepers

Wherever the bees in LA are

What it is: An organic beekeeper and no-kill bee removal service.

Why it's cool: Started by a group of organic, treatment-free beekeepers in Los Angeles, the Backwards Beekeepers say they're "backwards" because they don't rely on pesticides or chemicals to help their bees thrive. Instead, they let them do their own thing and produce honey, which is then sold to the public.

The Backwards Beekeepers also remove unwanted bees from people's properties without killing the bees.

Badmaash

108 West 2nd Street #104

What it is: An "Indian gastropub" in downtown LA.

Why it's cool: Badmaash serves traditional Indian cuisine in a casual environment with a healthy dose of "DTLA (Downtown LA) swag." At any old gastropub you'd find a burger and fries, but at Badmaash there are Indian-inspired dishes like an outrageous lamb burger and chicken tikka poutine.

Badmaash is also home to the ghost chili vindaloo, a curry made with one of the hottest chili peppers on the Scoville scale.

BeachMint

Online, based in LA

What it is: A social commerce site that gives you style recommendations from celebs.

Why it's cool: Located in movie star central, BeachMint is a social commerce site for the next generation. It's composed of six different factions—jewelry, style, beauty, shoes, home, and intimates—which, when subscribed to, provide you with personalized product recommendations from celebrities in the business.

You can also share your style with other users, and get free shipping when you shop your recommendations.

If you've ever taken a New York City public bus, you know it can be an anxious experience. When's the bus coming? Did I just miss it? How many stops until mine?

Add to this the relative complexity of the city's bus routes (I'm looking at you, outer boroughs) and it often becomes easier to avoid the bus entirely.

I know that was the case for me, at least, but that's changing as of today thanks to one incredibly well-done app. Don't be fooled by the narrow-sounding name – Bus New York City, by London-based Electric Labs, is the most fully-featured transit app for this place that I've ever used. It puts together subway, rail, bus, and bridge & tunnel statuses, providing handy maps for navigating each.

But it's the bus portion of the app that's really captured my attention. The app takes the MTA's intimidating, congested bus map and turns it into a gorgeous, user-friendly utility with access to timetables for all bus lines and real-time GPS location data for most.

It has changed the way I interact with the city after using it just one day. It seems like the subway gets all the credit for moving New Yorkers around, so let's take a look at how easy it can be to take the bus instead.

Bus New York City costs $2.99 in the App Store.

Tap the icon to start the app

The home screen discusses app updates and the like, but we're here for bus maps.

For comparison's sake, here's a small selection of the official MTA bus map for Brooklyn. Thankfully Bus NYC takes a much more user-friendly approach.

The University of Michigan is ranked No. 28 on U.S. News & World Report's list of best national universities.

But the fact of the matter is, the home of the Big House admits some exceptional students the likes of Harvard, Yale, and Stanford have never seen.

We rounded up 17 incredibly impressive undergrads at U of M.

Go Blue!

Ashley Shipley conducts biomedical research that improves the lives of patients with cancer and cerebral aneurysms.

Class of 2014

Ashley Shipley contributes life-altering research that aims to preserve reproductive fertility in women undergoing cancer treatment in the University's Biomedical Engineering Department.

Cancer treatment can deplete many or all of a female patient's ovarian follicles, resulting in premature infertility, Shipley explained. Her lab hopes to offer patients the option to remove the ovaries before treatment, and perform in vitro fertilization after the follicles have matured in a culture. The process has been successful in mice so far.

Shipley has also designed and built a device that tests neurovascular coils used to treat cerebral aneurysms for stroke prevention during an internship at Stryker Neurovascular. These coils are implanted into a cerebral aneurysm via minimally invasive surgery to obstruct blood blow in the aneurysm and prevent it from rupturing — one of the major causes of a stroke.

Next semester Shipley will continue her research, and begin a master's program in Biomedical Engineering at Michigan.

Brian Garcia starred in an off-Broadway play in New York City.

Class of 2016

Earlier this year Garcia enrolled in playwright Holly Hughes' production course, the goal of which was staging, costuming, and touring "The Well of Horniness," a 60-minute play that tells the story of Vicki, a closeted lesbian who escapes from an evil lesbian sorority by hooking up with a man. Garcia starred in drag as Vicki and performed on stages in New York City and Chicago.

He furthers his commitment to entertaining and engaging audiences with ideas of social change. He mentors incoming Latino freshmen through an orientation program called ALMA, and fosters dialogue through the Coalition for Queer People of Color.

This past summer, the Los Banos, Calif., transplant returned to his current home in Charlotte, N.C. and became involved with Don't H8, a non-profit organization that operates a national pageantry system for queer performers and supports its communities. Garcia was named The Ultimate Teen of Don't H8 2013, and represents the organization at pageantry events and speaking out against bullying at high schools and youth centers.

Garcia is in the early stages of planning an Ann Arbor drag ball, and hopes to one day establish a venue for queer performers in the area. Eventually he would like to be an academic of the arts.

Cathy Huang was an elite gymnast before an injury turned her into an entrepreneurial curator.

Class of 2015

Cathy Huang started doing gymnastics when she was seven and by 16 she was an elite All-American Gymnast, practicing 20 hours a week, until a torn ACL and meniscus suddenly ended her promising career as a gymnast.

But rather than let herself be beat, Huang joined MPowered, Michigan's umbrella organization for student entrepreneurship, where she is now the CFO. The people and ideas she encountered at MPowered inspired her to create VEX, an on-campus storefront where student entrepreneurs can sell the things they make. Huang runs the enterprise and curates the items sold in the space. Her venture is backed with both moral and financial support directly from the University.

Huang is also a part of the True Ventures TEC Fellowship, a prestigious immersion program for college students from all over the country to learn firsthand what it’s like to work for a startup, and receive advice and mentorship from some of the best minds of Silicon Valley.

Huang hopes to pursue an internship with the Google BOLD program, which provides students who are historically under-represented in the tech industry with exposure to this field.

There are between six and nine good teams in the NFL this year.

That's it.

Every other team can lose to any other team without rhyme or reason, as we saw this week.

Detroit and Philly were the big raisers, while the Jets once again fell hard.

32. Houston Texans (previously 32nd)

Record: 2-10

Result: 34-31 loss to New England

Biggest thing we learned this week: A year after finishing in the top-10 in scoring defense, Houston has fallen to 27th.

Week-by-week ranking: 1-3-4-13-13-18-22-26-27-28-30-30-32-32

31. Washington Redskins (previously 29th)

Record: 3-9

Result: 24-17 loss to New York Giants

Biggest thing we learned this week: They got screwed by a botched first down call. Nothing is going right.

Week-by-week ranking: 6-10-15-21-20-22-28-25-29-25-28-28-29-31

30. Oakland Raiders (previously 28th)

Record: 4-8

Result: 31-24 loss to Dallas

Biggest thing we learned this week: The Raiders have a ton of cash to spend this offseason.

Week-by-week ranking: 24-27-27-28-29-26-27-28-22-24-27-26-28-30

Goodreads is out with its 2013 Goodreads Choice Awards.

Every year, the book recommendation site asks its users to vote for the best new book across 20 genres, from historical fiction to horror.

Goodreads editors first analyze statistics from the 250 million titles that were added, rated, and reviewed on the site in 2013 to nominate 15 books in each category. Readers are also encouraged to write-in nominations if their favorite didn't make the cut.

The final winners this year were then based on almost 2 million reader votes. See if your favorite book is on the list below.

FICTION:"And the Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hosseini. From the author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" comes the tale of an Afghanistan family separated by dire circumstances who struggle over half a century to find one another from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to Greece.

MYSTERY/THRILLER:"Inferno" by Dan Brown. Robert Langdon is back again with more riddles, secret passageways, and classic art as he sets out to reveal the mystery behind Dante's epic poem.

HISTORICAL FICTION:"Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson. What if you could die and be reborn again? That's the question in this brilliant, multi-layered novel set in 20th century London that is as funny as it is philosophical.

FANTASY:"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman. An adult fairy tale at its finest, a middle-aged man remembers his magical childhood, proving that sometimes stories are able to shelter us from the harsh realities of life.

PARANORMAL FANTASY:"Cold Days" by Jim Butcher. The 14th in the Dresden Files series, Dresden is back from the dead, but beset by magical enemies both old and new as he is forced to do the impossible: Assassinate an immortal.

SCIENCE FICTION:"MaddAddam" by Margaret Atwood. The third of her MaddAddam series, only a small group of humans survive after a man-made plague sweeps the earth. Now they must work together when the planet is attacked.

ROMANCE:"Lover At Last" by J.R. Ward. Long-time fans of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series are finally rewarded for their patience when the unrequited love of two of Ward's best characters is finally realized.

HORROR:"Doctor Sleep" by Stephen King. Dan Torrance from "The Shining" is now a middle-aged man who must protect a 12-year-old girl against a quasi-immortal tribe that feed off the children with the "shining" in King's latest thriller.

MEMOIR/AUTOBIOGRAPHY:"I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai. The highly acclaimed memoir of the young Pakistani girl who stood up to the Taliban for every girls' right to an education, was shot at point-blank range — and miraculously survived.

HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY:"Jim Henson: The Biography" by Brian Jay Jones. Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy, Big Bird. Jim Henson was the man behind The Muppets, but Jay Jones proves he was also much more in this comprehensive biography.

NONFICTION:"The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum" by Temple Grandin. From a scientist on the forefront of the "autism revolution," Grandin weaves together her own experiences with new theories on what causes autism and how we can best diagnose and treat it.

FOOD/COOKBOOKS:"Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist" by Tim Federle. A cocktail book for the literary obsessed, Federle combines witty names and classic books with 65 cocktails, such as the Vermouth the Bell Tolls.

HUMOR:"Hyperbole and a Half" by Allie Brosh. Out of her viral blog comes Brosh's first book that make use of her deceptively simple illustrations to tell stories that belie a dark humor and striking wit, with topics ranging from dogs to depression.

GRAPHIC NOVELS/COMICS:"Beautiful Creatures: The Graphic Novel" by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Based on the young adult novel of the name name, the manga version of "Beautiful Creatures" is filled with stark black and white images that will satisfy and intrigue fans.

POETRY:"The Fall of Arthur" by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is the world's first publication of a previously unknown work by Tolkien from the '30s which tells of the final days of King Arthur in verse alongside essays from his son Christopher.

DEBUT AUTHOR:"Tangled" by Emma Chase. This is a romance novel that revolves around New York's elite who strive for both success and love in the hilarious premier book from author Emma Chase.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION:"Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell. This novel about two misfit teenagers who fall in love on a bus is sweet without being saccharine. It’s also a story adults can love, too.

YOUNG ADULT FANTASY/SCI FI:"Allegiant" by Veronica Roth. The third in the dystopian Divergent series comes "Allegiant," the most outward-looking of the books that battles to comprehend the complexities of human nature in the ultimate finale for fans.

CHILDREN'S:"The House of Hades" by Rick Riodan. Filled with Olympian gods and folklore, this book follows Percy Jackson in his latest — and most dangerous — quest in The Heroes of Olympus series.

PICTURE BOOKS:"The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt. This delightful and imaginative story about crayons who have had enough will make children both laugh and color in a whole new way.

See the runners up in each category over at Goodreads.

SEE ALSO: 25 Books That Changed The Course Of History

Join the conversation about this story »

Facebook's news feed is about to change.

Yesterday, the company revealed they would be rolling out a "Unfollow" feature which was first reported by TechCrunch.

This is in conjunction with the other update that launched that allows users to arrange the type of content that appears on their page.

This tool would enable users to remove any obnoxious content from their news feeds. This can range from news stories to pesky ads. 

Ultimately, the goal is to have a news feed engineered towards your specific needs. The Unfollow feature wants to create a page of content that you'd actually care about. 

However, Mashable writes that this Unfollow button will operate the same way as the current "Hide All" feature that you can use if you no longer want to see posts from a certain person or brand page in your feed.

This section of Facebook allows you to block content from a person without un-friending them. The feature will roll out to all users in a few weeks.

Join the conversation about this story »

This post originally appeared on Golf Digest.

It wasn't a boom, but it wasn't a bust either.

The year in golf design started with a Streamsong splash and finishes with a Trump two-step.

Along the way, several courses with, shall we say, long gestation periods finally opened for play.

Quantity is still down, but quality has never been better.

See which great golf courses just opened >

More From Golf Digest:

The Best Golf Courses in all 50 States
Kate Upton Learns How to Golf (from Arnold Palmer!)
Do Women Need to Take Up Golf to Get Ahead in Business?
Hilariously Ridiculous Golf Stock Images

STREAMSONG RESORT (RED COURSE), STREAMSONG, FLA.

Public course, 7,148 yards par 72 | Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw, designers

Streamsong is the golf destination of the year, maybe the decade, and as the site is a reclaimed phosphate strip mine, a great example of how golf can also serve a higher purpose. The Red is practically the Best of Coore/Crenshaw, with the chasm-like bunkers of Sand Hills, the edgy water hazards of Cuscowilla and the diabolic angles of Talking Stick.

STREAMSONG RESORT (BLUE COURSE), STREAMSONG, FLA.

Public course, 7,176 yards par 72 | Tom Doak, designer

Bill Coore and Tom Doak routed 36 holes together, then Coore gave Doak first pick of which 18 to build. He took the land where all mining had been completed, so the Blue was finished first. There's more elevation change on the Blue than Red (the first tee is atop an 80-foot dune) and more water in play, but the architecture of both is so complimentary as to provide a practically seamless 36.  

DISMAL RIVER CLUB (RED COURSE), MULLEN, NEBRASKA

Private course, 6,994 yards par 71 | Tom Doak, designer

Different than all other courses in the sandhills, including its sister Nicklaus-designed White Course, nearby Sand Hills Golf Club and Doak's Ballyneal in Colorado. More like Doak's Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, with fairways on plateaus between gulches. Closing holes, in the valley formed by the narrow, serpentine, artesian-fed Dismal River, are outstanding.

Being a successful entrepreneur frequently involves a series of missteps and mistakes before finally nailing the right idea or business.

The difference, for many, between giving up and persisting through the toughest times can be getting advice from people who have done it before — and being smart enough to listen. 

From investor Mark Cuban's dad telling him that there are no shortcuts to Lululemon founder Chip Wilson's realization that people actually enjoy helping others, we asked 12 successful entrepreneurs to share the best advice they ever got, discovering the lessons that stick with them to this day. 

Restaurateur Jon Taffer: See every detail of your business.

"Years ago when I was very young," recalls Taffer, the host of TV show "Bar Rescue" and a former business owner, in a recent interview with Business Insider, "a VP of Hyatt looked at me and said, 'You look, but you don’t see.'" Taffer learned to look not just at the big picture, but also at every place setting, light fixture, and customer exchange. "See every crack, every detail. I learned to really see and not just look at my business," he says. 

Dilbert creator Scott Adams: Don’t give up.

"The best advice I got was before I was a syndicated cartoonist,"Adams tells Business Insider. "I asked advice of a professional cartoonist, Jack Cassady, who had a TV show called 'Funny Business' years ago on PBS. I wrote to him, and he gave me this advice: 'It’s a competitive business, but don’t give up.'"

"That sounds very non-profound, but let me fast forward the story," Adams continues. "I put some comics together and sent them to magazines — The New Yorker, Playboy — but they rejected them. So I said, 'Oh well, I tried.' A year later, I get a second letter from Cassady. He’d been cleaning his office and came across my original samples. He said he was just writing to me to make sure that I hadn’t given up. And I had. So I took out my art supplies, and I decided to raise my sights."

"I had to do one more thing for luck to find me," he says. "As it turns out, one of the perhaps six people on planet Earth who could have looked at my cartoon and said 'yes' was a woman married to a guy who was the spitting image of, and had the same job as, Dilbert. It required that one extra attempt, and that wouldn’t have happened without the best advice anybody ever gave me, which is don’t give up."

Advertising entrepreneur Sara Rotman: Being comfortable is the enemy.

"The best advice I ever received was from my first accountant when I was discussing the launch of my company," says Rotman, founder of ad agency MODCo, which has clients like Vera Wang, True Religion, and Tory Burch. "We were speaking about my business plan and how much money to borrow to launch. She wisely said, 'Only have enough cash on hand to barely survive; never so much that you are comfortable. It's important to stay scared in the beginning.'"

"While I prefer to describe that feeling as staying hungry rather than scared, I thought it was indeed great advice," she says. "I have found this hunger to be an incredibly important motivator during my entire career. Being comfortable is the enemy. Staying hungry forces you to push yourself to continue to survive, grow, and evolve."