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8 Outlandish Tech Predictions For 2014 That Will Never Happen

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miley cyrus wrecking ball

It's that time a year again when everyone is looking into their crystal balls and describing 2014.

Most of the humans making these predictions aren't really clairvoyant although some of are pretty good at spotting trends and predicting their trajectories.

The truth is, that the most interesting things that will happen in 2014 will take us all by surprise (that's what makes them interesting.)

With that in mind, we challenged the folks at big data startup Gainsight to give us their best 2014 predictions. Gainsight crunches through big data to help companies predict trends and keep customers happy.

The predictive wizards at Gainsight shrugged their shoulders, looked at the trends from 2013, and came up with this list.

None of them will happen, but it would be cool if some of them did.

  1. Uber will start a self-driving car service. Google and Uber join forces.
  2. Yahoo employees will work from home again. They'll all buy iRobots instead of Teslas.
  3. Tech CEOs are required to wear weird shoes. Weird shoes become the hoodies of 2014.
  4. Grey-haired CEOs become cool again. We'll write a long string of inspiring stories about tech CEOs becoming millionaires at age 80.
  5. The Super Bowl will contract to Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference organizers to create the half-time show. 90's bands and more 90's bands.
  6. A startup that replaces business cards with selfies turns down a $3 billion cash offer from Facebook. Justin Bieber invests.
  7. Miley Cyrus and Sheryl Sandberg do a joint book deal about female entrepreneurship. Don't hate them because they're successful.
  8. Sharknado 3: Silicon Valley. Sci-Fi has a smash hit about a freak hurricane that fills the Facebook campus with sharks.

And, we hope it goes without saying but: just kidding.

SEE ALSO: 9 Tech Trends That Will Make Someone Billions Of Dollars Next Year

Join the conversation about this story »


NFL QUARTERBACK POWER RANKINGS: Where All 32 Starters Stand Right Now

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cam newton panthers

As we head into the last month of the year, Tom Brady, Cam Newton, and Russell Wilson are shooting up the rankings.

New York's QBs, on the other hand, are now trapped in the basement.

Our rating is a composite of three advanced stats: defense-adjusted yards (DYAR), total QB rating (QBR), and win probability added (WPA). Each stat accounts for one-third of the rating.

UNRANKED: Matt Flynn, Green Bay Packers*

Team record: 5-6-1

Thing to know: This could be his last start. Aaron Rodgers is coming back any game now.

*Not enough data to make a ranking.



31. Geno Smith, New York Jets (previously 31st)

Team record: 5-7

DYAR: 44th

QBR: 41st

WPA: 43rd

Thing to know: He got benched at halftime in his last game.



30. Eli Manning, New York Giants (previously 29th)

Team record: 5-7

DYAR: 37th

QBR: 34th

WPA: 42nd

Thing to know: Eli has thrown a pick in nine of 12 games this year.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Unforgettable Photos From The Pearl Harbor Attack, 72 Years Ago Today

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December 7, 1941 began as a perfect Sunday morning for the troops serving the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Under a early morning South Pacific sun, softball teams were lining up on the beach. Pitchers warmed up their arms, while batting rosters were finalized and the wives and kids came over from seaside church services.

They did not know that for hours the Japanese naval fleet and air forces had been speeding across the ocean toward America's Pacific base. There, like a string of pearls draped across the docks and waterfront, was the majority of America's naval might.

The devastating Japanese onslaught began at 7:48 a.m., eventually killing 2,402 Americans and wounding many others, sinking four battleships and damaging many more.

The Pearl Harbor attack spurred America into World War II, leading ultimately to Allied victory over the Japanese in the East and Nazis and other Axis powers in the West. And the country promised never to forget this day of infamy.

Here are photographs from the attack and its immediate aftermath:

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, an attack planned by Admiral Isoroku Yamamotoa was carried out to demobilize the US Navy. This picture shows one of more than 180 planes used in the attack.

torpedo plane takes off from shokaku to attack pearl harbor

At 7:00 a.m., an Army radar alert operator spotted the first wave of the Japanese attack force. The officers to whom those reports were relayed did not consider them significant enough to take action. This photo shows an aerial view of Battleship Row in the opening moments of the raid. 

aerial view of battleship row in the opening moments of the japanese attack on pearl harbor

The Japanese aircrews were able to hit most of the American ships on Oahu shortly before 8:00 a.m. Here a Japanese plane flies over Pearl Harbor while black smoke rises from the area. 

pearl harbor

The Japanese also took the opportunity to attack military airfields while bombing the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of these simultaneous attacks was to destroy American planes before they could defensively respond.aerial view of the initial blows struck against american ships as seen from a japanese plane over pearl harbor

There were more than 90 ships anchored in the area that morning. The primary targets were the 8 battleships sitting at the Battleship Row port in Pearl Harbor. Here is a picture of Battleship Row during the attack.

battleships aflame on battleship row alongside ford island

The USS West Virginia (left) pictured here next to the USS Tennessee, was one of the first battleships to sink during the attack. The Japanese successfully damaged all 8 battleships. 

battleships pearl harbor

At about 8:10 a.m., the USS Arizona explodes as the ship's forward ammunition magazine is ignited by a bomb. About half of the total number of Americans killed that day were on this ship. Here is a picture of the USS Arizona battleship.

pearl harbor

Here is another picture of the USS Arizona ... 

pearl harbor

The USS Shaw destroyer explodes during the 3-hour Japanese attack. 

pearl harbor, december 7, 1941, destroyer shaw

There was a short lull in the attack at about 8:30 a.m. The damaged USS Nevada tried to escape down the channel toward the open sea but became a target during a second wave of 170 Japanese planes, hoping to sink her in the channel and block the narrow entrance to Pearl Harbor. The ship was grounded with 60 killed on board.

uss nevada

A Japanese plane dives into flames after it was hit by American naval antiaircraft fire. Fewer than 30 Japanese planes were lost in the attack. 

pearl harbor

About 188 American planes were destroyed and another 159 were damaged. Here is a picture of some planes left on Hickman Field near Pearl Harbor. 

pearl harbor damage

Sailors at the Naval Air Station in Kaneohe, Hawaii, attempt to salvage a burning PBY Catalina in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 

pearl harbor attack

People in Times Square, New York buy newspapers with headlines saying, "Japs Attack US." American entered the Second World War after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

pearl habor newspapers

Salvage work begins on destroyers USS Casin and the USS Downes. The Japanese failed to damage any American aircraft carriers, which were surprisingly absent from the harbor. 

pearl harbor damage

A Japanese torpedo plane is hoisted from the bottom of the sea. About 10 percent of Japanese planes were lost on December 7th.

pearl harbor damageThe USS Oklahoma, seen in this photo with one of its propellers peeking out of the water, was considered too old to be worth repairing.

battleship oklahoma pearl harbor

A Marine holds a piece of shrapnel removed from his arm following the attack. 

pearl harbor marines

This photo shows sailors participating in a memorial service for the more than 2,400 killed in the attack. 

pearl harbor


SEE ALSO: 'We were lucky': Pearl Harbor vet describes how he survived the infamous attack

Join the conversation about this story »

28 Images Bring You Up Close To A Creepy Abandoned Soviet-Era Circus

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Chisinau circus

Freelance writer and avid adventure-seeker Darmon Richter is well-versed in the art of "urban exploration," or the practice of exploring "derelict, closed and normally inaccessible built environments" (in other words, scaling the fence and ignoring the DO NOT ENTER signs).

His fascination with the road less traveled (usually for legal reasons) has taken him to a Buddhist Hell Garden in Thailand, a stone forest in Bulgaria, and a local market in North Korea where tiny little old ladies happily sold him several large bags of weed.

Richter is now scouring Eastern Europe for its darkest and least hospitable attractions, and recently came across a Soviet-era circus languishing in disrepair in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau (a 15th century town with its own macabre history). Designed in 1981 by Semion Shoikhet and A. Kirichenko, the circus once entertained nearly 2,000 people per show with clowns, trapeze artists, bears, lions and elephants. Today, the arena sits in darkness, its once grand staircase collecting dust while its graying murals are covered in anarchist graffiti and decapitated tigers.

Richter acknowledges that the dilapidated building "may give the impression of a faded monument to a forgotten regime." But a deeper exploration of the building, as seen in these photos, and the circus' history, reveals "that the Chisinau Circus is not as dead as it seems — but rather, merely sleeping."

The circus in Chisinau, Moldova stands derelict — surrounded by a large paved area which had once teemed with life.



Above the entrance to the circus a crest is formed from the figures of two clowns, one of them now missing its head.



The ticket desk, inside the circus building, displays faded posters for past shows and performances.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

GOLDMAN: Here Are Our 6 Best Trades For 2014

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bluefin tuna tokyo tsukiji fish marketGoldman Sachs has unveiled its top six trade recommendations for the year ahead in a series of notes to clients.

The trades aren't for everyone and some of them are pretty technical.

Many of the recommendations are pair trades (buy one thing, sell another) driven by what is perhaps the most important and widely-expected macro development in the year ahead: a winding down of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program.

"The purpose of the Top Trade Recommendation list is, as always, to connect specific and actionable trade ideas to the set of key market themes that are likely to play out over the course of the year and that we expect to form the backbone of our strategic approach to markets for the year to come," says Goldman Sachs managing director Noah Weisberger. "While our initial list will be comprehensive, and connect back to the economic and market forces as we see them currently, we are likely to add to the list of Top Trade Recommendations (along with our usual slate of tactical trade recommendations) as the year progresses, as our views evolve, and as market risks and opportunities shift." 

Go Long the S&P 500 In Aussie Dollar Terms

Originally introduced: November 25

Target return: 13%

The trade: Buy Dec 2014 S&P 500 futures and sell Dec 2014 AUDUSD futures.

The logic: Goldman says "the main case for U.S. equities is that the gap between real bond yields and earnings yields remains unusually high, in an environment where recovery should continue to convince investors that the economic backdrop no longer justifies this." Shorting the Australian dollar is a hedge: if Treasury yields rise too quickly — perhaps the biggest threat to U.S. equities in 2014, according to Goldman — the Aussie dollar should be one of the worst performers among major currencies. In addition, Goldman describes the Aussie as "a currency where we still expect reasonable declines" due to country-specific risks.



Go Long Euro Area 5-Year Rates, Short US 5-Year Rates

Originally introduced: November 26

Target: Yield differential of -130 basis points

The trade: Open long EUR swap (EONIA) 5-year rate and sell 5-year Treasuries.

The logic: Goldman forecasts U.S. growth will outpace euro area growth in 2014. "The choice of Treasuries over OIS or LIBOR on the short leg is motivated by the fact that yields on the former could underperform more than they have already in relative space as the Fed scales down its asset purchase program," says Goldman. "In the Euro area, we are of the view that German bonds may 'cheapen' further relative to EONIA as fixed income portfolios are rebalanced in favour of higher-yielding securities, particularly if the ECB eases further."



Go Long the Dollar Against the Loonie

Originally introduced: November 27

Target return: 8%

The trade: Go long the U.S. dollar-Canadian dollar exchange rate (USDCAD).

The logic: The macro view behind this trade is that the U.S. economy will outperform the Canadian economy in 2014. The Federal Reserve will begin winding down stimulus, while the Bank of Canada is one of the only major central banks with scope to ease further. And with reserve diversification into the loonie by EM central banks slowing, Goldman says Canada has lost a key source of funding of its current account deficit, which stands at 3% of GDP.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The Most Amazing Satellite Images Of The Year

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croatia

DigitalGlobe has compiled the 20 coolest satellite images from 2013, taken by the company's five Earth-imaging satellites.

The company is asking fans to vote for their favorite birds-eye views of Earth on its Facebook page

The top five images with the most "likes" will make it to the final round later this month. The website will announce the winning image in early January 2014.  

Right now, a medieval fortified palace in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, is in the lead with 572 likes. 

Check out all of the images here, then head over to the Facebook album to vote for your favorite. 

The Cambambe Dam on the Cuanza River in southern Africa's Angola. (April 28, 2013)



A false color image of wildfires in the Australian state of Tasmania. Healthy vegetation is colored red. (Jan. 6, 2013)



The Citadel of Aleppo, a medieval fortified palace in Syria. If you rotate the picture 180 degrees, the "hole" becomes a "hill," an interesting optical illusion. (May 26, 2013)



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

These Will Be The 10 Hottest American Housing Markets In 2014

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boston skyline

The housing recovery has been going strong and home prices have been up for the twentieth straight month.

But the pace of home price growth is expected to moderate in 2014.

Zillow expects home prices will increase 3% in 2014.

But drawing on the projected increases in home prices between October 2013-2014, currently low local unemployment rates, and healthy population growth rates, Zillow has identified what are expected to be the 10 hottest housing markets in 2014.

Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Massachusetts

Home price forecast:
2.3%

Two-year population growth:
1.94%

Unemployment:
6.2%

Source: Zillow



Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon-Washington

Home price forecast:
2.5%

Two-year population growth:
2.87%

Unemployment:
7.1%

Source: Zillow



San Diego-Carisbad-San Marcos, California

Home price forecast:
6.3%

Two-year population growth:
2.64%

Unemployment:
7.4%

Source: Zillow



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

7 Spectacular Casino Hotels From Around The World

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Crown Towers Melbourne

There is something unabashedly over-the-top about a casino—even above and beyond it being a place where the brave risk losing a lot of money in hopes of gaining more. And as gaming culture becomes increasingly popular, the casino experience has grown into far more than blackjack and slots, often involving renowned names in the hotel, food and entertainment worlds.

Go straight to the hotels >

While Las Vegas remains the gold standard, there are several international hot spots—both classic and new—that deserve attention. Take the endlessly sophisticated Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo, which is located next to Casino de Monte-Carlo, the grande dame of the gaming world. Elegant galas are hosted often at restaurant La Salle Empire, and chef Alain Ducasse runs his Michelin three-star Louis XV here.

In Singapore the entire Marina Bay Sands entertainment complex, including a casino (among countless other points of interest), is now valued at roughly $8 billion, making it the most expensive stand-alone casino property in the world. And tucked away in the Swiss Alps is the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, with its newly renovated gaming floor, spa, two golf courses and thermal pools. The bucolic mountain setting tempers the traditionally bombastic casino vibe, proving that even when it comes to a casino hotel, you can have it both ways.

More from Departures:

Opulent Hotel Lobbies

Stellar Hotel Wine Programs

Stunning Hotel Plunge Pools

Top New Hotel Spas

First Look: Aman Canal Grande Venice

The Water Club, Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa, Atlantic City, New Jersey

The 2008 addition of the Water Club brought a luxurious arm to the Borgata's already buzzing complex. Its 800 rooms dropped the traditional casino vibe in favor of warm color schemes and glossy furniture. A stay here will still give you access to many of the Borgata's amenities like Fly Borgata (its recently launched 30-seat luxury jet) and all of its restaurants from marquee chefs like Wolfgang Puck and Bobby Flay. (Geoffrey Zakarian is the Water Club’s culinary lifestyle consultant.) Enjoy five pools and the entirely relaxing two-story Immersion Spa, which features incredible views of the Atlantic Ocean. 

Rooms start at $90; 1 Borgata Way; 609-317-1000; theborgata.com.



Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo

It’s hard to find a more iconic hotel than the 150-year-old Hôtel de Paris, which appeared in two James Bond films and is adjacent to the Casino de Monte-Carlo, the inspiration for the casino in Ian Fleming’s first James Bond book,Casino Royale. The 182-room Belle Epoque hotel has a gilded lobby adorned with low-relief sculptures and crystal chandeliers. But even these pale in comparison to what is found elsewhere in the hotel. The Winston Churchill suite, for example, is done up with the former prime minister’s own furniture. (He was a frequent guest.) And down in the half-million-bottle wine cellar sits a prized 1929 bottle of Château Margaux priced at $12,000. 

Rooms start at $490; Place du Casino; 377-98/063-000; hoteldeparismontecarlo.com.



Sofitel Montevideo Casino Carrasco and Spa, Uruguay

The March 2013 rechristening of the Hotel Casino Carrasco, which had been closed since 1997, as the Sofitel Montevideo Casino Carrasco and Spa was no simple task. It took 400 working days to bring the abandoned building back to its former glory, and the taxing refurbishment is most evident on the hotel’s ground floor. Architects and restorers meticulously removed layers of paint to reveal the original plaster-based stucco, tempera painting and 18- and 22-karat gold leaf. The space is now home to three dining venues, including Restaurant 1921, which specializes in French and Uruguayan dishes. To heighten the experience of staying in any of the 116 rooms and suites, guests are invited to choose their own interior fragrance and soaps made exclusively for the hotel and presented in an elegant wooden box.

Rooms start at $340; Rambla República de México 6451; 598/2604-6060; sofitel.com.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 15 Jobs That Are Most Damaging To Your Health

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nurse

Some jobs intrinsically have more health risks than others. A nurse working in a hospital is far more likely to catch an infectious disease than a lawyer working in an office.

To rank the most unhealthy jobs in America, we used data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), a U.S. Department of Labor database full of detailed information on occupations.

In order to analyze jobs by their impact on workers' health, we took O*NET measures of six health risks in each of the 974 occupations in the database: exposure to contaminants; exposure to disease and infection; exposure to hazardous conditions; exposure to radiation; risk of minor burns, cuts, bites, and stings; and time spent sitting, since studies show that frequent inactivity shortens your lifespan. O*NET scores these factors on a scale from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating an increased health risk. 

15. Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors

Overall unhealthiness score: 55.0

What they do: Collect and dump refuse and recyclable materials into trucks.

Top three health risks:

Exposure to contaminants: 97

Time spent sitting: 69

Exposure to disease and infections: 63

The ranking is based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network (O*NET). We averaged each occupation's scores across six categories of health risks — exposure to contaminants, disease and infection, hazardous conditions, radiation, risk of minor injuries, and time spent sitting — for an overall unhealthiness score on a scale from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating an increased health risk.




14. Nuclear Equipment Operation Technicians

Overall unhealthiness score: 55.2

What they do: Operate equipment used for the release, control, or utilization of nuclear energy to assist scientists in laboratory or production activities.

Top three health risks:

Exposure to radiation: 89

Exposure to hazardous conditions: 77

Exposure to contaminants: 65

The ranking is based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network (O*NET). We averaged each occupation's scores across six categories of health risks — exposure to contaminants, disease and infection, hazardous conditions, radiation, risk of minor injuries, and time spent sitting — for an overall unhealthiness score on a scale from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating an increased health risk.




13. Medical, Clinical, and Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians

Overall unhealthiness score: 55.3

What they do: Perform complex medical laboratory tests for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.

Top three health risks:

Exposure to disease and infections: 96

Exposure to hazardous conditions: 69

Exposure to contaminants: 68

The ranking is based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network (O*NET). We averaged each occupation's scores across six categories of health risks — exposure to contaminants, disease and infection, hazardous conditions, radiation, risk of minor injuries, and time spent sitting — for an overall unhealthiness score on a scale from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating an increased health risk.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 18 Best Startups That Launched In 2013

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Anastasia leng and Ryan hayward

It's been a big year in consumer tech. 

Let's take a look at some of the best startups that launched this year.

How do we define best? Well, we kept things in mind like great growth, promise, VC interest, and actual revenue. 

From companies trying to change health care to startups trying to waste your time, we've got quite the list.

Ranku wants to change the way people discover online degree programs.

Back in September, prolific investor and billionaire Mark Cuban led a $500,000 seed round in Kim Taylor's online education startup Ranku. Taylor was a co-star on Bravo's "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley" reality TV show last fall, which got canceled after the first season.

In June, Taylor and her team from Ranku joined the inaugural class of the Kaplan EdTech accelerator, sponsored by TechStars.

Ranku aims to make it simple for curious, knowledge-seeking individuals to find the best online degree program from top-notch universities.

For Ranku, the "best" school isn't necessarily the one with the highest ranking on the U.S. News and World Report list. Instead, the best schools in Ranku's lists are the ones that give students great job outcomes.



Thalmic Labs is taking gesture control to a whole other level.

Thalmic Labs is arguably the most innovative startup that launched out of Y Combinator this year. 

Thalmic Labs positions its MYO armband as the next generation of gesture control, enabling you to control other devices using your movements without a camera.

Many current gesture control technologies like Microsoft's Xbox Kinect, for example, require you to be in front of a camera. It also forces you to use pre-programmed gestures. But with MYO, it can track even the most subtle gestures.

The armband works by sensing the electrical activity in your muscles to control your computer, video games, or even a drone. But Thalmic has opened up its API so developers can come up with more ways to use MYO.

Already, Thalmic has sold 25,000 MYO devices and brought in $3.7 million in revenue. You can pre-order your own MYO for $149 here.



Jolla spun out of Nokia to win over the hearts of Finnish smartphone users.

Jolla, the new Finnish-based smartphone company that spun out of Nokia, started selling its flagship phone in Helsinki late last month. 

Back in June, Jolla secured its first mobile phone carrier. Finland's third largest smartphone carrier, DNA, will be the first to sell Jolla's (pronounced Yo-Lah) flagship phone.

Jolla runs the company's own Sailfish OS, which is based on the MeeGo OS that Nokia smartphones ran before switching to Microsoft's Windows Phone 8. Even though Jolla runs Sailfish, the phone will be compatible with Android apps, which means users could potentially have hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from, assuming the developers submit their apps to the Sailfish app store.

The phone features a 4.5-inch display, dual-core processor, microSD expansion with 16 GB of storage pre-installed, a 4G connection, and a replaceable battery. Jolla has previously said the device would cost about €399.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

PHOTOS: This Is The Quietest Place On Earth (IBM)

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IBM nanolab noisefree

There is a place in Zurich, Switzerland, where sound virtually doesn't exist. That place is known as the "noise-free" labs, part of IBM's $90 million Nanotechnology facility located there.

The rooms dampen sound so thoroughly that if you put an ear close to a wall, your inner ear will "become unbalanced and you’ll feel dizzy and start vomiting," the architect of the room, Dr. Emanuel Loertscher, told the Register's Gavin Clarke.

IBM needs these sound-proof rooms to work with nanotechnology, the smallest tech on earth. The things built on the nanoscale are so impossibly tiny that sound vibrations will jiggle them around, making it hard to work on them.

IBM is doing all kinds of stuff in this noise-free world, from making making computer chips the size of human cells to silly stuff, like making the world's smallest movie starring a bunch of atoms.

This is what the IBM Nano Technology Center looks like from the outside. It's about 21,000 square feet.



Here's a noise-free lab with no equipment. This is the quietest place on earth.



Here is the architect, Dr. Emanuel Lörtscher, in a noise-free lab. That hole is a "portal" to where noise-producing stuff like the air conditioner resides.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

32 Things Every New Yorker Should Do This Winter

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people ice skating in central park new york winter

We know it's cold outside and you want to burrow under the covers.

But winter in New York City is actually one of our favorite times of year, thanks to all the twinkly lights, creative holiday displays, and surplus of delicious hot food and beverages.

Plus, those sub-par temperatures keep the majority of tourists at bay after the Christmas season.

So keep reading to see your seasonal to-do list, from tonight's Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center to indulging at the best steakhouse in the city.

Pile into Rockefeller Center with 250,000 other spectators to watch this year's Norway Spruce light up with a flick of the switch. There will also be performances by Mary J. Blige, the Goo Goo Dolls, Mariah Carey, and Kelly Clarkson.

Find out more information about the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree here



Skip touristy Serendipity 3 and head to Jaques Torres Chocolates in DUMBO for the best hot chocolate in the city. It's so thick and delicious you just might have to share.

Find out more info and directions here



Join drunken revelers around the city and dress up for SantaCon on December 14th. Or stay as far away as possible — certain bars and restaurants in Midtown will be banning Santas for the annual "holiday."

Find out more info about NYC's SantaCon here



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here Are The Salaries For The Highest-Paid College Basketball Coaches

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Mike Krzyzewski

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski received a big pay raise this year to $7.2 million making him the highest-paid coach in college basketball and all of college sports.

While it is no surprise that Coach K is the highest-paid it may be surprising just how much more he makes than the other top-paid coaches. Only seven other college basketball coaches make more than $3 million per year.

Using data from USAToday.com, Forbes.com, and other sources we have collected the annual salary and outside income generated by most of the Division I college basketball coaches (private schools are not obligated to release salary information for employees).

25. Dana Altman, Oregon — $1.8 million

Salary: $1,800,000

Other income: $0

Total Compensation: $1,800,000

data via USAToday.com



24. Jamie Dixon, Pittsburgh — $1.8 million

Salary: $1,830,176

Other income: $0

Total Compensation: $1,830,176

data via USAToday.com



23. Anthony Grant, Alabama — $1.8 million

Salary: $1,840,000

Other income: $0

Total Compensation: $1,840,000

data via AL.com



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

12 Successful Entrepreneurs Share The Best Advice They Ever Got

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Ignition Conference 2011 Mark Cuban

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."



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Candid Photos Of New Yorkers Riding The Subway In 1960

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enrico natali 1960s new york subway

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



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The 20 Best Television Moments Of 2013

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breaking bad finale walter whiteWhat a year for TV – so many moments of audacious creativity, from groundbreaking dramas like Game of Thrones to that VH1 flick about TLC.

From the Red Wedding to "Red Light Special," these were the greatest TV moments of 2013: Russian spies, New Orleans witches, bloody swords, sex doctors, prison, politics, Stephen Colbert getting lucky and Walter White saying goodnight.


Kanye West Vs. Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel Live, ABC

Yeah, nothing happened. But that just made their face-to-face confrontation seem more real. It was a timely reminder of what TV still does better than any other medium – famous people acting crazy in real time. No disrespect to Ben Affleck.



Kevin Spacey Goes to Church

House of Cards, Netflix

As a fabulously corrupt Congressman, Spacey struts through Capitol Hill, cutting one throat after another. Toward the end, he stops into the chapel to light a prayer candle and muse, "There is no solace above or below. Only us, small, solitary, striving. Battling one another. I pray to myself. For myself." And this is how the man talks in church.



The Clone Wars of 'Orphan Black'

Orphan Black, BBC America

This sci-fi oddity got slept on, stranded in the wastelands of BBC America. Sarah, a fugitive grifter, sits alone on a train and makes eye contact with a stranger on the platform who looks exactly like her – then sees her jump in front of an oncoming train.

But when Sarah steals the corpse's purse, she begins to realize she's just one of many clones. With Tatiana Maslany playing all these different clones, it's a mind-warp like no other.



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Here's The Proof That There Is No Tech Bubble

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bubble gum

We recently laid out the case that the tech sector was in a massive 1990s-style bubble, poised to pop.

But at Business Insider's Ignition 2013 conference last month, boutique investment bank Gridley & Co. laid out the case that, in fact, valuations are currently way below the mania we saw in the dot-crom crash of the turn of the century.

Gridley advised parties in DoubleClick's acquisition of Performics and Digitas' buyout of Modem Media.

Here is a condensed version of the deck Gridley presented at Ignition, with a focus on the bubble-icious — or not — nature of the current state of tech.

Here's the overview. Tech stocks have outperformed the general market ...



... And there have been some $1 billion valuations on companies with no revenue ...



... But we are nowhere near the level of deal volume that looks like the last bubble ...



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The 12 Best Jobs In The Booming American Health Care Industry

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doctors

As the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, kicks in and the population ages, hiring in the health care industry is expected to generate the largest number of jobs compared to all other industries by 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That's a total of 5.6 million jobs with an annual growth rate of 3%.

To find out which jobs offer the best opportunities in health care, job search site CareerCast analyzed survey data that weighed stress, physical demands, and both the current and future employment outlook of 200 occupations.

"What's similar for the jobs on this list, with the exception of biomedical engineer, is that they work individually one-on-one with another person," Tony Lee, publisher at CareerCast.com, tells Business Insider. "When you're working with someone else, the job satisfaction is pretty high because you see someone often and they're giving you feedback, as opposed to having very few people thanking you."

Lee predicts that the need for these professionals will last for years to come. "Baby boomers are entering retirement, and as our body ages, the type of medical professionals that are needed to help people deal with that are going to be in greater demand."

The overall score for each job takes into account the pay; hiring outlook; stress; emotional factors, including the level of competitiveness and degree of public contact; and physical demands, such as stamina required and work conditions, that normally come with a job. Once the categories are combined, a lower overall score signals that the job is more desirable to employees.

Much of the data used to evaluate the jobs comes from the BLS, other government agencies, trade associations, and private survey firms.

12. Physician assistant

Overall score: 414

Annual median salary: $90,930

BLS projected growth (through 2020): 30% 

Work environment score: 72

Stress score: 31

What they do: Aid in the performance of essential procedures, which frees physicians to attend to more specialized aspects of their work.

The ranking is based on data that weighted stress, physical demands, and both the current and future employment outlook across 200 occupations from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.



11. Medical records technician

Overall score: 354

Annual median salary: $34,610

BLS projected growth (through 2020): 21% 

Work environment score: 44

Stress score: 7

What they do: Maintain complete, accurate, and up-to-date medical records for use in treatment, billing, and statistical surveys.

The ranking is based on data that weighted stress, physical demands, and both the current and future employment outlook across 200 occupations from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.



10. Respiratory therapist

Overall score: 350

Annual median salary: $55,870

BLS projected growth (through 2020): 28% 

Work environment score: 60

Stress score: 19

What they do: Treat and rehabilitate patients suffering from cardiopulmonary (heart and lung) ailments that interfere with normal breathing.

The ranking is based on data that weighted stress, physical demands, and both the current and future employment outlook across 200 occupations from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.



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The 22 Most Important Finance Books Ever Written

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Extraordinary Popular Delusions

Winter is always a good time to stay in and catch up on a little finance reading.

In case you missed them, we've compiled a list of 22 classic works that every Wall Streeter should read.

These are the books that show up time and again in lists of books recommended by the pros themselves.

Topics covered include everything from the fundamentals of investing to the stories behind some of the Street's most speculative episodes in history.

"The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham

"This classic text is annotated to update Graham's timeless wisdom for today's market conditions... The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham, taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham's philosophy of "value investing" -- which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies -- has made The Intelligent Investor the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949."

Find it on Amazon »



"Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits" by Philip Fisher

"Widely respected and admired, Philip Fisher is among the most influential investors of all time. His investment philosophies, introduced almost forty years ago, are not only studied and applied by today's financiers and investors, but are also regarded by many as gospel. This book is invaluable reading and has been since it was first published in 1958."

Find it on Amazon »



"The Theory of Investment Value" by John Burr Williams

"This book was first printed in 1938, having been written as a Ph.D. thesis at Harvard in 1937. Our good friend, Peter Bernstein mentioned this book several times in his excellent Capital Ideas which was published in 1992. Why the book is interesting today is that it still is important and the most authoritative work on how to value financial assets. As Peter says: "Williams combined original theoretical concepts with enlightening and entertaining commentary based on his own experiences in the rough-and-tumble world of investment." Williams' discovery was to project an estimate that offers intrinsic value and it is called the 'Dividend Discount Model' which is still used today by professional investors on the institutional side of markets."

Find it on Amazon »



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9 Tech Trends That Will Make Someone Billions Of Dollars Next Year

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crystal ball iphone

2014 is right around the corner.

Most of us can look into our crystal balls and see that a handful of tech trends which became big in 2013 will probably get bigger next year: cloud computing, big data, the rise of tablets, the Internet of Things.

But market research firm IDC has gone one better by predicting how these trends will unfold next year — and generate billions of dollars.

People and companies will spend $2.1 trillion on technology

Worldwide IT spending will grow 5% next year to $2.1 trillion, IDC says.

People and companies will buy smartphones and tablets, a market expected to grow by 15% over 2013. Companies will also beef up their data centers with new hardware that works better with mobile devices. They'll need servers, storage, networks, software, and services.

The only thing they won't be buying more of is PCs. Worldwide revenues for PCs will be decline 6% in 2014, IDC predicts.



Countries outside the U.S. and Europe will buy tech like crazy

People and companies in emerging countries will buy new tech at a blinding rate in 2014.

The four hottest emerging markets, Brazil, Russia, India And China (often called BRIC), will up their spending by 13%, IDC predicts, with China leading the way.

IDC also predicts that, for the first time, other emerging countries will collectively start spending big on tech. This includes other countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

All told, tech spending outside of the U.S. and Europe will rise 10% to nearly $740 billion and make up more than 1/3 of all worldwide IT spending. This will be where big IT vendors get most of – over 60% – of their growth.



Business will pour money into the cloud

2013 was the year that companies stopped kicking the tires on cloud computing, and started buying it big time. In 2014 spending on the cloud will be mind boggling.

IDC predicts that the cloud will drive $100 billion worth of spending in 2014, up 25% over 2013. That includes the hardware cloud service providers will need buy to keep up with customer demand.



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