Google has officially opened their redesigned headquarters in Amsterdam, and the company has not failed to deliver on the quirky aesthetic they've come to be known for. 

Like the other headquarters Google maintains overseas, this office incorporates plenty of local elements into its design. From communal bikes to stroopwafels that hang from the ceiling, this office has many things that are typical of Dutch culture.  

The interior was designed by the Amsterdam-based firm D/DOCK, who say their concept was inspired by the garage where Larry Page and Sergey Brin first started Google. 

Faux brick walls pave the way to the entrance. An emblem on the reception desk is a play on the Dutch royal family's coat of arms, while the bikes are a nod to Amsterdam's cyclist-centric culture.

There's more royal symbolism on this logo.

Here, sliding doors open to an auditorium with exposed ceilings and a 70-person capacity.

For most schools, the football and men's basketball teams are the only profitable teams in the athletic department.

But to make money, those schools must also spend money.

Using data collected by the Office of Postsecondary Education from 2012, we determined the 20 schools that spend the most money on their men's basketball teams.

The disparity, even among the top teams, is quite large as is the success on the court. The 20 top spenders include two of this year's top seeds in the NCAA Tournament as well as four schools that didn't even make the big dance.

#1 Louisville — $15.7 million

Gameday Expenses: $2.0 million

Men's Basketball Revenue: $42.4 million

Men's Basketball Profit: $26.7 million

2013-14 record: 29-5

2014 NCAA Tournament: 4-seed (midwest)

#2 Duke — $15.2 million

Gameday Expenses: $2.3 million

Men's Basketball Revenue: $25.7 million

Men's Basketball Profit: $10.5 million

2013-14 record: 26-8

2014 NCAA Tournament: 3-seed (midwest)

#3 Syracuse — $13.8 million

Gameday Expenses: $1.8 million

Men's Basketball Revenue: $26.0 million

Men's Basketball Profit: $12.2 million

2013-14 record: 27-5

2014 NCAA Tournament: 3-seed (south)

The Freemasons, a fraternal organization developed from the stonemasons, include more than 6 million members worldwide.

Despite nearing 300 years of activity, the Freemasons remain mysterious, with many of their records destroyed naturally by time. But a few member lists survived — and they name some of the most influential people throughout history.

Click here to meet the Masons »

Anyone can petition to become a member, but prospects must put their faith in a Supreme Being. The members believe in "truth, tolerance, respect, and freedom." Once limited to white men, now any nationality or race can join. However,African-American freemaons have split into their own sect called the Prince Hall Freemasons. And women technically still can't join, but many modern lodges allow them.

Although somewhat secret, most scholars agree the hierarchy of Freemasonry includes 33 degrees. Freemasons begin as Entered Apprentices and can work their way all the way to Sovereign Grand Inspector General.

We listed 17 members, living and dead, who took the solemn vow.

Eric Goldschein contributed research to this article.

Benjamin Franklin — Saint John's Lodge, Philadelphia; 1730

Benjamin Franklin became a member of Saint John's Lodge in Philadelphia in 1730, a few years after starting his own society, the Leather Apron Club.

He remained active in the group for more than 50 years, serving as Grand Master of Pennsylvania in 1734. He also printed the first Masonic publication, "The Constitutions of the Free-Masons," in the colonies. The book remains one of the rarest in the world, with only 20 verified copies currently. 

While in Paris during the American Revolution, Franklin served as Venerable Master from 1779 to 1781. His membership in the order didn't interfere with his role as a Founding Father and American inventor.

George Washington — Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia; 1752

Initiated in 1752 at the Fredericksburg Lodge in Virginia, the first President of the United States had a strong relationship with the Masons.Washington performed Masonic rites at the laying of the U.S. Capitol's cornerstone on September 18, 1793.

He remained a member until death and recieved a masonic funeral at the request of his widow. Over the years, many Masons, as well as members of the Knights Templar, have taken pilgrimages to Mount Vernon, the location of Washington's tomb.

A statue of Washington commissioned by the state of Virginia greets visitors at the Scottish Rite Museum and Library in Lexington, Mass.

Paul Revere — St. Andrew's Lodge, Massachusetts, 1760

After his initiation in 1760, Paul Revere served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts from 1795 to 1797.

He contributed to the creation of many lodges within his home state and instituted new positions and traditions. His son also became a Freemason.

To this day, no one really knows who started the Boston Tea Party, but many historians speculate early members of the colonial Freemasons may have contributed.

Venture capitalists and investors are continuing to pour money into startups.

Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal released a report of more than 30 startups from the U.S., China, and Europe that are valued at $1 billion or more.

These companies range from familiar firms like Pinterest and Uber, to more-recent billion-dollar startups like messaging app Tango and events platform Eventbrite. 

Note: This slideshow only includes companies that are privately held, have raised money in the last three years and have at least one venture capital firm as an investor. 

39. Productivity app Evernote is worth about $1 billion.

Evernote first entered the billion-dollar club in May 2012 when it raised a $70 million D round. At the time, the company was valued at $1 billion. 

To date, Evernote has raised over $240 million from Allen & Co., China Broadband Capital Partners, DoCoMo Capital, Harbor Pacific Capital, m8 Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, m8 Capital, Morgenthaler Ventures, Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Valiant Capital Partners.

38. Eventbrite joined the billion-dollar club earlier this month.

Event ticketing platform Eventbrite is one of the newest members of the billion-dollar club. Earlier this month, Eventbrite raised $60 million at a $1 billion valuation.

Founded in 2006, Eventbrite has raised $197 million to date.

37. Hot enterprise startup Nutanix raised $100 million earlier this year.

Nutanix, an enterprise startup that provides server and storage appliances so that businesses can better manage and scale their data centers, is currently worth $1 billion.

To date, Nutanix has raised $1 billion. 

Photographer Randy Scott Slavin first showed off his alternative perspectives on the world— 360-degree panoramas of cityscapes and landscapes — at a jewelry boutique in New York City two years ago. Since then he's been hard at work scouting locations for his second collection of "Alternate Perspectives" photos, which he released this month.

Slavin considers himself a New Aesthetic photographer based on his digital medium. He often "stitches" together hundreds of photos to create the final image.  

He took photos in some of New York City's most iconic locations, like Times Square.Here's a skyward shot in Tribeca.

And Dumbo and the Manhattan Bridge.He also captured the North Cove Marina near the World Trade Center.And Central Park in autumn.

Slavin traveled upstate to Ulster County, N.Y., following the Hudson River watershed. 

He also photographed Miami.And captured the beaches of Puerto Rico......and beyond. Here are a few more works in the series.

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The severe winter has weighed on the U.S. economy in the past few months.

Economists expect GDP for the January-March quarter to fall below 2%, but pick up again later this year.

The Philly Fed's coincident indexes combine different state-level indicators to give us a picture of current economic conditions for that state.

And the Philly Fed's latest coincident indexes were up for 48 states and were stable in two.

Every month, the Philly Fed publishes a color-coded map tracking economic activity across the country. Red shows economic contraction while blue or green show expansion.

The maps start in 2005 when the economy was booming and get really ugly through the recession.

January 2005

February 2005

March 2005

When you're competing with the iPad, you've got to make something that isn't just good enough — you have to make the user fall in love with the product.

When I first saw Lenovo's ThinkPad 8 in this year's CES coverage, I was intrigued.

It's a tablet that's about the same size as an iPad Mini, but it's running a full version of Windows 8 and has specs that can keep up with many laptops on the market.

With its HDMI port and Bluetooth, you could easily use it as a desktop running all the software you need for work. You're basically getting a full PC and a tablet together for $399.

While we haven't spent enough time with the device to give it a full review, we do have some initial thoughts after unboxing and setting up the tablet. 

Here's the box my review unit came in.

There are stickers all over the thing.

The packaging is very simple — there's no fancy cardboard cradling your tablet like when you unbox an iPad.

It was an exciting year for tech in Silicon Valley, so we've decided to highlight a few women who we think have had particularly awesome achievements.

They've created interesting startups, snagged new positions at great companies, and have had major milestones at their own.

Aarthi Ramamurthy

Founder, Lumoid

Aarthi Ramamurthy is one of the most notable female entrepreneurs out there today. She spent six years at Microsoft working on its popular Visual Studio software development tool and on Xbox Live. 

Before founding Y Combinator-backed Lumoid, a startup for letting people test-drive electronics before buying them, she co-founded a bra-fitting company called True&Co.

Grace Garey

Co-founder and marketing, Watsi

This year, Watsi became the first charitable company to raise over $1 million in funding from traditional angel investors in Silicon Valley.

It is also the first Y-Combinator company to nab investor Paul Graham for its board of directors. Watsi allows anyone to give as little as $5 to fund someone's medical care, and 100% of the money is donated. The mission of this startup is so beautiful, you just have to root for its success.

Before joining Watsi, Garey did refugee research in Ghana, worked at a hospital in India, and did humanitarian advocacy in D.C. 

Erin Teague

Director of product management, Yahoo

Erin Teague worked as the growth product manager for the mobile-only social network Path for two years and is responsible for the company's astounding user growth in 2013. In the spring, the app was growing by 1 million new users per week. It hit the 10-million-user mark in April. She worked on the product team at Twitter for two years before joining the Path team. 

Last fall, she joined Yahoo as a director of product management.

When you think of awesome CEOs, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg likely comes to mind. 

That's not all that surprising given that Glassdoor crowned Zuckerberg as the highest-rated chief executive of 2013. 

But that changed this year. 

Glassdoor just released its annual ranking of the 50 highest rated CEOs.

Zuckerberg dropped down to No. 9 overall, with a 93% approval rating, down 6 percentage points from last year. 

Out of all the industries featured on the list, the tech industry had the most representation with 14 CEOs.

13. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo

2014 approval rating: 79%

Overall rank: 49

What employees think:

"Company is constantly working on exciting, innovative projects and engages employees across the company to make meaningful contributions and execute quickly." - Senior manager (Burbank, CA)

"Smart people, fun, excellent benefits, interesting work and interesting times. Willingness under Marissa Mayer to fail fast and break some eggs." - Senior engineering manager (Sunnyvale, CA)

13. Jeff Bezos, Amazon

2014 approval rating: 86%

Overall rank: 32

What employees think:

"Great place to grow your career, lots of intelligent people to work with, and managers are usually very reasonable and considering. Not much politics at all. And of course CEO is the top notch one with great vision." - Software engineer (Seattle) 

12. Tom Georgens, NetApp

2014 approval rating: 86%

Overall rank: 31

What employees think: 

"Great People, nice place to work overall, but that is about it. Company is not well balance between Sales and rest of the organisation, if you are outside sales be prepare to work 12 to 14 hour days, daily." - Recruiter (London)

"Smart People. Great Technology. Lots to Learn. No shortage of work. Nice surrounding living area. Relaxed work environment. Flexible Hours. Decent compensation. Free beer." - Member of technical staff (Triangle Park, NC)

Can’t stand the big boss at work? Try getting a job at LinkedIn, Facebook, or Starbucks. Employees at these companies claim to have three of America’s most beloved CEOs.

That’s according to a new report by Glassdoor, an online jobs and careers community. The 2014 Highest-Rated CEOs report relied solely on the input of employees who elected to participate anonymously in an online company review survey. Respondents were asked to rate their CEO and say whether or not they approve of the way he or she is leading the company.

To be eligible for the final ranking, each CEO had to have at least 100 approval ratings, senior management ratings, and company ratings between February 2013 and February 2014. 

“There are some common traits that these highest-rated CEOs share,” says Scott Dobroski, Glassdoor’s community expert. “For instance, we see that employees say these CEOs communicate clearly on where the company is headed, how it’s going to get there, and how each employee plays a vital role on this path, along with being accessible, personable, and transparent to employees. These CEOs also know how to motivate their employees and rally the troops to get the job done.”

Dobroski says there’s a strong correlation between highly rated CEOs and high employment satisfaction at their respective companies. “This isn’t necessarily a surprise because leadership and company culture comes from the top down, starting with the CEO. When employees approve of the way their CEO is leading the company, it tends to mean that they respect them, appreciate them, and want to work hard for them, which can lead to business success and growth.”

No. 20: Bob Iger

Company: The Walt Disney Company 

CEO Approval Rating: 91%

Employee Testimonial: “Stable company, strong leadership, strong vision, strong values.” —Disney Marketing Manager (Lake Buena Vista, Fla.)

No. 19: John Donahoe

Company: eBay

CEO Approval Rating: 91%

Employee Testimonial: “The CEO of the company is smart, passionate and sincere. John Donahoe is the real deal and a great leader. He may be the most approachable CEO I've ever met.” —eBay Inc. Director (San Jose, Calif.)

No. 18: Fred Smith

Company: FedEx

CEO Approval Rating: 92%

Employee Testimonial: “One of the most admired companies with global reputation and strong C-level leadership.” —FedEx EB2 (Dallas, Texas)

Hollywood's next big franchise hopeful "Divergent" is heading to theaters this weekend.

You may not know much about it, but the adaptation of the best-selling series is what teens will be heading out to see.

The film stars Shailene Woodley ("The Descendants"), Theo James ("Underworld: Awakening"), and Kate Winslet in a dystopian future.

After "The Hunger Games," it's Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment's latest Young Adult adaptation to the big screen.

While it's not expected to duplicate Jennifer Lawrence's break-out hit opening weekend, "Divergent" is expected to make upwards of $65 million falling in line with 2008's "Twilight" debut.

If you're not sure what all of the fuss is about, here's what you should know about Hollywood's next big film.

Meet Beatrice Prior, played by actress Shailene Woodley.

She lives in a future dystopian version of Chicago.

It's broken down and completely enclosed from the outside world.

Graham Hill, founder of minimalist design firm LifeEdited, made headlines last year when he transformed a tiny, 420-square-foot apartment in Manhattan's trendy SoHo neighborhood into a livable — and fashionable — home.

Now he's put the apartment on the market for $995,000 — that's $2,369 per square foot, according to Curbed New York.

The idea for the apartment was to fit 700 square feet into 420 square feet with the creative use of space. The result is a home that doubles as a treasure trove of storage space, featuring fold-up beds, hidden cabinets, removable walls and more. It can be transformed from a living room to bedroom, workspace, dining room and entertainment space.

"A simpler life is a happier life," Hill told Business Insider in an interview last year. 

Hill spent around $300,000 buying the space, plus an extra $250,000 to $300,000 in renovations. He walked us through the stunning space last year. It's being sold with all furniture, and is listed with Corcoran.

Megan Durisin contributed to this story.

Here's the floor plan of Hill's apartment. At 420 sq. feet, it could fit inside the average American home about four times.

Here's what the space usually looks like as a bedroom. Hill says it can transform into five different spaces — including a living room, bedroom, dining room, entertainment center and workspace.

This is the view from the opposite angle. Hill said he loves the apartment and it hasn't been very difficult getting used to living in the small space, although he had lived in some other small spaces previously.

A digital advertising group called ThinkLA was kind enough to ask me to speak at a massive event in Los Angeles yesterday. (Same stage as the Golden Globes!)

The topic was an overview of the mobile industry.

Analyst Tony Danova and the BI Intelligence team put together an excellent deck for the event, using data from the BI Intelligence archive.

A link to the deck is below. Hope you enjoy it.

BI Intelligence is a research and analysis service focused on mobile computing, digital media, payments, and e-commerce. BII members can download the PowerPoint and PDF versions of this deck, and download all the charts and data in Excel. Please sign up for a free trial here.

The Upper East Side has long been associated with high-end shops, hoity-toity residential buildings, and ladies who lunch at overpriced restaurants. However, there was a dearth of affordable, cool, high-quality restaurants. 

All that has changed as rents in the area have become increasingly affordable, luring in young people who are priced out of the more trendy neighborhoods downtown.

And with the young people come more innovative and affordable restaurants. When I moved to the Upper East Side last year, I was surprised to see how many cool new restaurants have made their home there. 

For the purpose of this list, we're defining the Upper East Side as the area between 70th and 96th Street and between 5th Avenue and the East River. 

Here are 25 UES restaurants and bars that are hip, affordable, and excellent.

Best Brasserie: Cafe D'Alsace

1695 2nd Ave.

Sample stinky cheese, mussels Provencale, steak frites, and other classic Alsatian dishes at Cafe D'Alsace, a quaint brasserie. Sit at the long, open bar or in one of the cozy banquettes while enjoying your meal. 

Best Date Spot: Felice 83

1593 1st Ave.

With its ambient lighting, cozy banquettes, and vintage vibe, Felice 83 is a great spot for a date. There's an extensive wine and cocktail list, and a nice array of Italian bar snacks, like veal meatballs, fried artichokes, and gooey burrata. There are also heartier mains. 

Best Mediterranean: Beyoglu

1431 3rd Ave.

Named after one of the hippest neighborhoods in Istanbul, Beyoglu serves delicious Turkish food that's meant to be shared. Order a bunch of different meze and some Turkish wine. 

The restaurant has been around for awhile, but still feels buzzy and cool.

Scientists have long explored the inner lives of animals. Primates, in particular, have inspired research suggesting they have human-like emotions.

In an effort to document some of these emotions, photographer Anne Berry has spent several years traveling to small zoos from Germany to South Africa to capture intimate portraits of primates living in captivity. 

Berry shared a number of the photos with us here, but you can check out the rest at her website or in her upcoming book for Northlight Press.

Berry traveled to small zoos, primarily in Germany and Belgium to photograph the primates.

Most small towns have their own zoos, which aren't crowded.

Each zoo has its own "monkey hut" that houses the primates. In addition to the monkey hut, there is usually a large outdoor habitat where primates are free to go.

Facial symmetry is often pointed to as one of the chief indicators of attractiveness in males and females. But how true is that hypothesis?

Fashion photographer Alex John Beck recently decided to test the symmetrical theory of attractiveness by photographing regular people and then making symmetrical versions of each person's face, by using first the left and then the right side. 

Beck's results are definitely odd and a little disconcerting. He shared a few with us below, but you can check out the rest of his work at his website:

Beck took a portrait of each person and then divided it into the left and right side of the face. Then he mirrored each to create symmetrical portraits from each side.

For people with more naturally symmetrical faces, the effect is far more subtle.For each portrait session, he made the symmetrical version immediately so that he could show his subjects.Those with more symmetrical faces were pleased with the results.

According to Beck, in most cases, subjects looked more like a long-lost sibling than a version of him or herself.People with less symmetrical faces were less enthusiastic, even if one of the portraits looked flattering.The effect was disturbing for some.Certain features get pronounced in each portrait. This man's face and neck looks thin from his left side, but far more thick and full on the right.Beck says that they tried to maintain the structural integrity of each face because they wanted each one to look realistic.Beck declined to include the original portrait of each person because then people would focus on finding the differences between the faces. Instead, he wanted viewers to look critically at each face by itself.

NOW WATCH: Scientists Discovered What Makes Someone A Good Dancer

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Extreme sports provide for some of the most jaw-dropping photography in all of sports.

The world's largest action sports and adventure photography contest, Red Bull Illume, recently selected ten action and adventure photo finalists from nearly 30,000 entrants.

The pictures include several different kinds of extreme sports. 

Red Bull Illume sent us the top 10 photos from this year's contest.

Category Finalist 2013: Close Up

Category Finalist 2013: New Creativity

Category Finalist 2013: Energy

Airbnb is reportedly raising a round of financing that will value the company at $10 billion and make each of its three young founders billionaires.

But things weren't always easy for the company. Airbnb stumbled throughout its first year and was rejected by investors like Union Square Ventures. 

The founders shared their first pitch deck with an MBA student, back when it wanted to be an air mattress rental company.

We gathered all the slides for you, here.

Airbnb used to be called "Air Bed & Breakfast."

The startup's goal was to keep costs down for travelers in need of rooms.

The site would be a win-win for hosts and guests: hosts make money, guests pay less.

Here's our comprehensive list of the most shocking science "facts" that are actually wrong.

These myths, old wives tales, and misconceptions have been passed down through the ages, but we are here to put an end to that.

For the list we used Wikipedia's great list of "Common Misconceptions" and this great reddit.com thread, along with our own brains. You can find the source of our facts under the images.

Have some we missed? Send them along to Science (at) businessinsider.com.

Most diamonds aren't formed from compressed coal. Rather they are compressed and heated 90 miles below the surface of the Earth, while Coal is found about 2 miles below the Earth's surface.

(SOURCE: Geology.com)

Being "blind as a bat" means not being blind at all. While many use echolocation to navigate, all of them can see.

(SOURCE: USA Today)

Poinsettias won't kill you or your pets, though you still shouldn't eat them. The flowers might make you a bit sick with some gastrointestinal issues.

(SOURCE: The New York Botanical Garden)

In the late 1990s, New York-based photographer Frédéric Lagrange became obsessed with traveling to Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor after reading "A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush," English writer Eric Newby’s travelogue of his adventures in the area.

He made plans to visit, but then 9/11 happened, and the American invasion quashed any plans. The trip was too dangerous.

In 2012, with the war cooling down, Lagrange finally made the trip he had been dreaming about.

The Wakhan Corridor is a narrow strip of land in the far northeast of Afghanistan, bordering Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Western China. The harsh, beautiful landscape, bounded by the Hindu Kush mountains on the south, was once used as a major trading route for those traveling the Silk Road to China.

For three weeks, Lagrange and a team of locals made their way up the Hindu Kush mountains to the shores of Lake Chaqmaqtin. Along the way, Lagrange photographed the local peoples, who survive on the edge of civilization by raising and herding cattle.

He shared some photos from his journey with us, but you can check out the rest at his website. 

Lagrange began by flying into Dushanbe, Tajikistan, crossing into the Wakhan Corridor by Afghanistan's northeast border. If he traveled from Kabul, he would have had to pass through numerous Taliban-controlled areas.

After three days of driving with a guide, Lagrange reached the border. The army officer at the border told him that he was the first foreigner to cross that year.

He was greeted by his guide Adab (left, with Lagrange), a 23-year-old Afghani boy. Adab warned him of the dangerous reality of his life, saying that "If the Taliban ever comes to power [in Wakhan], I will probably be one of the first to be executed, having been around Westerners."