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Unbelievable Pictures Of The Dangerous Life Of Fishermen On Alaska's Bering Sea

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Corey_Arnold_FWBS 10In 2002 photographer Corey Arnold left behind a poor economy in San Francisco and headed up to Alaska to try his luck at his longtime passion of fishing.

Arnold, who had worked summers during college on a salmon boat in Alaska, signed onto the f/v Rollo, a crabbing boat that fishes in the dangerous Bering Sea.

While working long, strenuous hours on the Rollo, Arnold often stole away with the captain’s permission to grab his camera and photograph the crew and the ship. Arnold eventually put together "Fish Work: Bering Sea," a documentation of his seven adventurous and dicey crab seasons aboard the Rollo.

Arnold shared a selection of the photos with us here, and you can check out the rest in the book or on his website.

There are two annual crabbing seasons in the Bering Sea, King crab and Opilio crab. During each one- to two-month season, Arnold went on numerous trips crabbing. He went on one or two trips during King season, and three to five during Opilio season.



The Bering Sea, located between the Russian Far East and Alaska, has a unique interaction of strong currents, sea ice, and powerful weather patterns. It is one of the most dangerous places to fish in the world. Arnold calls the sea "a continuous storm."



The 107-foot long f/v Rollo is equipped to handle tumultuous seas. Average seas in the Bering Sea have around 10- to 20-feet waves, but Arnold has witnessed massive 50-foot waves and the Rollo's captain, Eric Nyhammer, has witnessed 80-foot waves. Arnold rarely saw his captain get nervous, but when he does, the crew knows it's time to worry.



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28 Items Every Modern Gentleman Should Have In His Kitchen

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Cooking

Nothing says "I'm not an adult yet" like a fridge that contains nothing but Tabasco, packets of soy sauce, and a carton of milk (probably spoiled, let's be real).

But cooking is hard — it's time-consuming and not every young man has been taught how to do it right, let alone set up a proper kitchen with necessary ingredients and tools for making a quick meal.

Business Insider reached out to Jared Spafford, director of culinary operations at Snow Day, a maple-syrup-themed food truck launched by not-for-profit Drive Change. Drive Change employs previously incarcerated people to better acclimate them to the outside.

They also learn how to cook with limited resources.

Spafford sent Business Insider a list of items — from tools to spices — that should go inside the modern gentleman's kitchen.

If you build it, it will come, and it will be delicious.

Food processor

Food processors are a basic necessity in every kitchen. They can chop up vegetables, grind nuts, and purée potatoes. If you need to shred something, just stick it into this contraption.

Cheaper ones retail for between $24.99 and $39.99; fancier models range from $99.00 to $164.00.



Blender

Blenders require little introduction — every man's got to make a margarita from time to time. They're also useful for making milkshakes and smoothies.

Most blenders range from $14.85 to $38.25, although if you're a heavy-duty blender user you might want to consider the Ninja Professional Blender at $128.95.



Spice grinder

The name is pretty self-explanatory: a spice grinder grinds spices. If you grind them yourself, your food will be significantly more flavorful.

Most spice grinders are about $16.99 and double as coffee-bean grinders. If you're not going to be an huge user, maybe check out the cheaper $8.18 alternative.

You can get one here.



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The First Jobs Of Tech's Biggest Rock Stars

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Tim Cook iPhone

Everyone has to start somewhere. Although some of Silicon Valley's most iconic figures are worth millions and billions today, many of them started out programming software or delivering newspapers.

When you examine the early careers of some of these CEOs and executives, you'll notice one common characteristic.

Many of them stuck with the passion and skills they discovered in college or their first jobs, which eventually led them down a very successful path. 

In some cases, the correlation between an early job and current success may not seem as obvious.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, for example, attempted to start a business during his summer break in high school. The nature of the business was nothing like Amazon, but still shows that he had the desire to be a leader at a young age. 

Here's a look at how some of the biggest people in tech got their start. 

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, taught classes at Stanford before working at Google.

Mayer's leadership skills began to shine during her time at Stanford when she taught a computer science class in symbolic systems. Although she was still an upperclassman at the time, she took to it naturally. Eric Roberts, a computer scientist at Stanford and Mayer's mentor, previously told Business Insider that she was "unusually good at it" and "extremely effective." After graduating with her master's in symbolic systems, Mayer became one of Google's first employees. 



Apple's design genius Jony Ive designed a toilet at one of his early jobs before creating luxury gadgets.

Before joining Apple in 1992, Ive worked at a London-based startup called Tangerine. Ive eventually grew tired of his work at Tangerine, but the final straw came when he was assigned to design a toilet for one of the company's clients, Ideal Standard. When Ive presented his final design, it was criticized for being too expensive to build, according to Time



Sergey Brin, the cofounder of Google, interned at Wolfram Research in the early 1990s.

Before Sergey Brin cofounded one of the most important tech companies in the world, he worked at Wolfram Research. According to an early version of his resume from 1996, he worked as a coder. 



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New Hampshire Is The Best State In The US For Wine Drinkers

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woman sipping drinking wine

America is known for its Californian wines, but it turns out that the best state to be a wine drinker is none other than New Hampshire.

According to new data from the American Wine Consumer Coalition’s 2013 report card (first spotted by Washington Post), New Hampshire tied with six other top-scoring states for the #1 spot, including California, District of Columbia, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

New Hampshire in particular was touted as the best in the nation by the report due to its lenient laws and access to wine. The state allows winery-to-consumer shipping, retailer-to-consumer shipping, Sunday sales of wine, grocery stores wine sales, and BYO/Corkage in restaurants.

The government doesn’t control wine sales either in New Hampshire, which means there is free market competition resulting in lower prices.

The states that scored the lowest on the list were mainly in the South and Midwest. Alabama, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Utah all received F grades and were the least friendly for wine drinkers due to their numerous restrictions and lack of access.

New York received a D+, mainly because it both prohibits wine in grocery stores, and doesn’t let consumers ship their wine from wine retailers.

The report graded the fifty states and the District of Columbia based on consumer access issues. States received points for leniency in wine-availability laws, and earned more points for more important issues, such as allowing direct to consumer shipments of wine to consumers by wineries than by allowing wine sales in grocery stores. You can read more about the methodology here.

Below is a map of all 50 states' grades.

states best for wineAnd here's the full list of every states' grade. You can check out the full wine report here.

states best for wine rankings

SEE ALSO: 10 Wine Tours You Can Take On A Budget

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's Life On Facebook!

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14 Brilliant Insights From Legendary Investor Jim Rogers

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jim rogers

Jim Rogers first made his name when he cofounded the Quantum Fund with George Soros. 

In 2007, he packed up and moved to Singapore where he is essentially shorting the West.

Behind Rogers' quick wit and endless charm are brilliant investing insights he gained during his lengthy and legendary career.

We put together 14 of the best insights that every investor will find helpful.

"Most successful investors, in fact, do nothing most of the time."

Once you've invested in something, done your research, made money, and decide to sell, you need to be careful, Jim Rogers says:

Now that is a very dangerous time. It is dangerous because you think you are really hot. It is the time when you think you know that this investing thing is an easy game. It is the time that you should open the curtains, look out the window, go to the beach, do anything but think about investing. Because now is when you're most vulnerable. You think: I have to find something else. I have to do it again. This is wonderful. This is so easy. Just as I thought after tripling my money with my puts. ... It is the great mistake people make."

Source: Street Smarts



"If you want to make a lot of money, resist diversification."

Brokers will tell you to diversify, but Rogers writes that this is mostly to protect themselves.

"If you buy ten different stocks, chances are some will be good," he writes. "You are not going to go broke, but you are not going to make a lot of money, either. ... The way to get rich is to find what is good, focus on it, and concentrate your resources there. But make very sure you are right. Because it is also a fast way to go broke."

Source: Street Smarts



"It is remarkable how many people mistake a bull market for brains."

"There is nothing quite like a bull market to make people think they are smart," Rogers writes, adding: "All big bull markets, secular bull markets, end in a bubble. Everyone chases the conventional wisdom, following what they read in the press, and that presents the smart investor with opportunities."

Source: Street Smarts 



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11 Of The Most Hilarious Product Reviews On Amazon

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Wolf Shirt

If you're a big Amazon shopper, you've likely spent some time poking through the reviews before you make a big purchase. Generally, the advice and warnings people leave are helpful. 

But sometimes it's just hilarious. 

We found this Quora thread of the most ridiculous Amazon reviews, and picked out our favorite gems. 

(Warning: Some are a little NSFW.)

This titanium watch costs nearly $80,000 — but it's clearly worth it.

Source



Just your average tin of radioactive Uranium ore ...

Source



This three wolves T-shirt has some special powers ...

Source



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15 Huge Summer Box-Office Disasters

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evan almighty morgan freeman steve carrellWe are near the height of the summer movie season right now, and overall it's been a pretty good year for Hollywood.

"Transformers: Age of Extinction" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past" have made an absolute fortune, but it's always more fun to talk about the bombs.

Check out the box office flops >>

Studios are quite willing to spend upwards of $300 million on a movie if it means they might make $1 billion — so when something bellyflops it can hit the ground especially hard.

Many of the biggest summer box office disasters have hit during the past two decades. Here's a look at 15 of them, complete with budget and worldwide box office grosses (per BoxOfficeMojo.com).

More From Rolling Stone:

1. 'The Lone Ranger' (2013)

Budget: $215 million

Box Office: $260 million

For reasons that remain difficult to fathom even a year later, Disney was under the impression that today's kids would flock to a movie based on a character from a 1930s radio show. And with a little prodding from Johnny Depp, they shifted the focus of "The Lone Ranger" toward his sidekick Tonto and away from the masked man himself.

Despite a super aggressive marketing campaign (and even the cover of a certain magazine), "The Lone Ranger" had a domestic gross of $89 million and a budget of $215 million. It made enough overseas to eek out a tiny profit, though that was probably swallowed up by marketing costs. It also put a severe dent in Johnny Depp's career and pretty much destroyed Armie Hammer.



2. 'Speed Racer' (2008)

Budget: $120 million

Box Office: $94 million

Andy and Lana Wachowski haven't had much luck since "The Matrix" trilogy, but they continue to find studios willing to bankroll their huge projects. Take, for example, this woefully misguided "Speed Racer" movie starring Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman. It's based on a fondly-remembered cult cartoon series from the 1970s, but maybe that's not the sort of movie worth a $120 million budget.

All in, the movie lost $26 million and generated scathing reviews. The Wachowskis went on to create "Cloud Atlas" (2012) and the pushed-to-2015 "Jupiter Ascending," but their initial plans for a "Speed Racer" sequel seem unlikely to come to fruition.



3. 'The Adventures of Pluto Nash' (2002)

Budget: $100 million

Box Office: $7 million

It's difficult to pick out the single worst Eddie Murphy movie, but it's pretty easy to pick out the one that lost the most money. Without anything in close second, it's this meandering space opera that cost $100 million and only made $4.4 million domestically.

Sometimes these sorts of movies are saved by overseas grosses, but "Pluto Nash" made just $2.6 million in foreign markets. According to reports, it lost over $95 million, making it one of the biggest disasters in the history of Hollywood.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 10 Craziest Phone Cases We've Ever Seen

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TaskOne iPhone case

Smartphones are more popular than ever, and it's never been easier to find a phone case that matches your personality.

While most people buy cases to protect their devices from falls and scratches, that's old news. Cases nowadays can do far more.

From phone cases that protect you with built-in tasers and pepper spray to creepy cases that make it look like a giant Isopod is latched onto your head, you can now choose between the practical, uncanny, and downright weird when you're picking out a case.

 

Turn your iPhone into a taser with the Yellow Jacket case

The Yellow Jacket case ($149) bundles a detachable stun gun to your iPhone, keeping both you and your phone safe. You don't have to worry about accidental shocks thanks to a swiveling electrode cap, and you need to push both triggers at the same time for the stun gun to work.



If you prefer pepper spray to tasers, check out Spraytect's pepper spray case

The Spraytect pepper spray case ($39.95) features a quick 3-step system for deploying pepper spray from the back of your phone case. You simply slide the cartridge to the side, rotate it so the nozzle is facing outwards, and then you're all set to spray.

[via Laptop]



Turn your phone into a tool box with the Task One G3 case

The Task One G3 ($99) gives you access to 22 stainless steel tools at a moment's notice. There's blades, pliers, Allen wrenches, wire strippers, screwdrivers, and a ruler — just to name a few.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here Are The Brand New Uniforms For All 20 English Premier League Teams

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manchester united home

Unlike American sports leagues, English Premier League teams tweak their uniforms every year.

Some teams change because they have new sponsors or manufacturers. Others make changes for the sake of selling more merchandise.

As a result, all 20 EPL teams have new home and away kits this year.

Our favorite: Chelsea's away shirt.

Our least favorite: Every Liverpool shirt.

The EPL kicks off on Saturday.

Arsenal (home, away, third)



Aston Villa (home, away)



Burnley (home, away)



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8 Real Chinese Dishes You Should Order Instead Of The American Knockoffs

8 Things The iPhone Still Can't Do (AAPL)

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scream

In terms of specs, performance, and features, the iPhone 5S is Apple's best to date.

This doesn't mean it's as good as it could be, however.

There are a few egregious omissions here – features that we not only want in our iPhone, but that we feel are overdue.

SD card support for extra storage

We'd like to be able to extend our device's storage capability beyond the 64 GB maximum. History suggests that external SD card support isn't going to be in a mobile Apple device any time soon. Or ever.



NFC for mobile payments

Instead of building NFC into the iPhone, Apple would rather have you use its Passbook system, which lets lets users store tickets, gift cards, boarding passes, and the like.

It can handle some (but definitely not all) of the tasks that you might use NFC for. NFC also lets you beam content between devices just by tapping them together.



An improved texting solution on the keyboard, like Swype.

Swype is something of a mainstay on Android phones. Instead of tapping out your texts letter by letter, you can drag your finger over them without lifting it. The end result is that you get your message out much more quickly.

Let's implement speedier texting on iPhone!

Some good news: Apple's new iPhone software, iOS 8, will let users install third-party keyboards like Swype. It's coming this fall.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 20 Most Inspiring Companies Of 2014

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Sword & Plough, working

Many companies make it a priority to give back to their communities, whether it's a core part of their missions or not.

This year we've seen many companies go above and beyond to protect the environment, help the less fortunate, and solve some of the world's biggest problems.

We found 20 of the most inspiring companies based on their actions for good this year. These inspiring institutions, listed alphabetically, are role models for their efforts in social responsibility.

Brilliant Earth sells conflict-free diamonds and other precious stones.

Inspired by the owners' struggle to find a conflict-free engagement ring, Brilliant Earth was founded in 2005 in San Francisco to provide those seeking beautiful, ethically sourced jewelry with a place to get it.

Brilliant Earth is dedicated to socially and environmentally responsible sourcing of precious stones. The company makes careful partnerships only with suppliers who adhere to strict labor and environmental standards when it comes to mining gems. Brilliant Earth also donates 5% of profits to benefit communities harmed by dirty practices in the jewelry industry.



Cisco brings the internet to victims of natural disasters.

Cisco's Tactical Operations ("TacOps") team always has one eye on the weather report, ready to re-establish internet and phone connections in areas affected by natural disasters.

The team works globally, not just in the U.S. When Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines last November, Cisco sent in 10 paid and another 300 or so volunteer employees to make sure rescue workers had the technical connections they needed to complete their work. Cisco covers all costs associated with work done by the TacOps team.



Colgate-Palmolive is committed to reducing its carbon footprint.

In 2011, Colgate developed a four-year sustainability strategy that has gained the company worldwide recognition for its commitment to people and the planet.

Colgate has reduced its water use by nearly 33% and its greenhouse gas emissions by about 16% per ton of production. The company also partners with Water for People, an organization that brings clean drinking water to thousands of people in India and Guatemala who would not otherwise have access.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A Changing World Is Creating These Hybrid Animals

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Polar Bear and Grizzly Hybrid Baby

As the Arctic warms and natural habitats are transformed by human activity, strange new hybrid animals are starting to wander the earth.

New animals have started to appear when two similar species have been forced into the same territory.

In 2006, a white bear with brown splotches, believed to be a hybrid of a polar bear and a grizzly, was shot by Arctic hunters. Hunters have killed three similar bears, sometimes called pizzly or grolar bears.

In 2009, a possible hybrid of a right whale and a bowhead was photographed in the Bering Sea.

In some cases hybrid animals are a response to a changing ecosystem. White-tailed deer populations have exploded on the East Coast of the U.S. and a new predator — the coywolf — has appeared that hunts them. It's a combination of Western coyotes and wolves, with some dog in the mix. Also known as the Eastern coyote, these canines are strong and social hunters like wolves, so packs can hunt deer; but they are also adaptable enough to live near humans, like coyotes. 

In other cases, the increased hybridization of animals is a strong indication that our climate is changing. As Arctic sea ice continues to melt at drastic rates, different species of seals, whales, and bears previously blocked by huge slabs of ice will begin mingling in the same regions and possibly mating.

Hybrid animals are generally infertile, and the trend is worrisome because it could drive certain species to extinction since those animals are no longer mating with their own kind.

But genetic tests showed that at least one of the polar-grizzly hybrids was a second-generation animal, and the coywolf is a successful hybrid, which shows that some species might be resilient.

A study published in the journal Nature in 2010 listed 34 species that are at risk of cross-breeding because of a warming climate.

In the case of the coywolf we've used actual photos, but for the rest we asked artist Nickolay Lamm to help us imagine what some of those hybrid animals would like if they came to life. 

Elin Pierce, a writer and editor with a Ph.D. in biology, helped to hypothesize what features the hybrid animals would have, based on dominant features of the original two species, and any descriptions or photos of those hybrids that already exist in the wild.

A beluga whale is on the left and narwhal is on the right.



This is a beluga-narwhal hybrid. In this artist's interpretation, the hybrid has some narwhal coloring and the forehead has less of a bump. In the late 1980s, a whale skull thought to be that of a beluga-narwhal mix was found in west Greenland. Local hunters say they have also spotted the hybrid.



A polar bear is on the left and a grizzly bear is on the right.



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The 20 Best College Campuses In The US

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Best College Campuses 2014

For most students, the college experience is not limited to their time in the classroom. Much of what a school has to offer can be found on its campus — from great libraries to standout career services to, simply, beautiful surroundings.

We looked at 11 campus-related categories from The Princeton Review's 2015 college rankings to determine which colleges offer the best campus experiences.

Click here to read our complete methodology.

There was no discernible connection between the colleges that came out on top, as they represented everything from Ivy League universities to small liberal arts colleges to technical schools. Perhaps more telling of the list's diversity is that each one of our top five schools came from a different area of the country.

Whereas last year's ranking included half of the Ivy League, this year only two members cracked the top 20. Several schools made the list for the first time, and Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, ranked no. 6 last year, earned this year's top spot. Although Olin College didn't rank no. 1 in any individual category, its high placement in several categories — including Best Quality of Life, Best Career Services, and Best Dorms — earned it the outright top spot.

#20 Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts

Northeastern took home the top spot in the career services ranking because of its unique co-op program. The program allows students to work in real world, professional settings during the semester for credit as an undergraduate. 

Located in the heart of downtown Boston, the school also fared well in the City Gets High Marks list.

Source: The Princeton Review. To learn more about our methodology, click here. 



#19 Vassar College

Poughkeepsie, New York

The liberal arts college has a student body under 2,500 total students, but still managed to rank in the top ten of Princeton Review's best college library ranking. 

Founded in 1861 as an all-women's college, Vassar began admitting male students in 1969. Today, approximately 56% of the student body is female.

 Source: The Princeton Review. To learn more about our methodology, click here.



#18 Tulane University

New Orleans, Louisiana

Located in the heart of New Orleans, Tulane ranked second in Princeton Review's City Gets High Marks ranking and sixth on the Quality of Life ranking.

The 110-acre campus sits along the oldest streetcar line in the country, and the historic St. Charles streetcar makes the four mile trip into the downtown and French quarters of New Orleans easily accessible. 

Source: The Princeton Review. To learn more about our methodology, click here.



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10 Reasons Your Best Employees Are Leaving You

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fired layoffs let go box leaving work

You’ve hired a great team of employees. They’re enthusiastic and motivated — and seem passionate about the work they’re doing.

But they’re dropping like flies.

One by one they are giving their two weeks' notice, and you don’t know how to stop it. 

The days of lifetime employment at a single company are long gone, but there are still a few things you can do to help improve your retention rates.

Canadian HR firm Achievers came up with 10 of the most common ways managers alienate their employees and explained how you can avoid the same mistakes.

We've featured Achievers' presentation "How To Lose An Employee In 10 Days" here with its permission.







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5 Captivating Nonfiction Books Everyone Should Read

15 Rich And Famous People Who Were Once Homeless

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halle berry

Before they rose to fame, many of the world's wealthiest and most recognized celebrities struggled for money.

And some weren't just poor — they were homeless. 

Here are 15 incredible stories of famous people who at some point in their lives had nowhere to sleep but the streets. 

They all eventually turned their lives around, becoming an inspiration to anyone who dreams of a professional career, despite starting from nothing.

Jim Carrey once lived out of a VW camper van and in a tent on his sister's front lawn.

Yahoo reported that the comedian dropped out of high school and lived in a VW bus with his family parked in different places throughout Canada. They eventually moved into a tent on his older sister's lawn and parked the van in the driveway.

Carrey said it was during these tough financial times growing up when he developed a sense of humor. 



Oscar winner Halle Berry once stayed in a homeless shelter in her early 20s.

When she first moved to Chicago to become an actress, Berry ran out of money, and her mother decided the best thing would be to not send her daughter more cash. 

During these struggling times, the actress acknowledges, she stayed in a homeless shelter.

In an interview with Star Pulse, Berry said:

It taught me how to take care of myself and that I could live through any situation, even if it meant going to a shelter for a small stint, or living within my means, which were meager. I became a person who knows that I will always make my own way.



America’s most famous psychologist once lived in a car with his father.

According to BusinessPundit.com, when Phil McGraw (Dr. Phil) was 12 years old, he was homeless and living in a car in Kansas City with his father, who was interning as a psychologist.

McGraw later went on to obtain his own bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D., and he joined his father’s psychology practice in Texas.

In the 1990s, Oprah Winfrey invited McGraw to appear on her show. He later became a regular on “Oprah” and eventually launched his own syndicated advice program. 

Today the author and TV personality is worth an estimated $280 million.



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Here Are The Investing Giants That Built The Hedge Fund World As We Know It

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sistine chapel god creation adam ceiling michelangeloThe government has clamped down on Wall Street banks, but that doesn't mean money goes to sleep.

In a shift decades in the making, the hedge fund world has exploded in size, filling the void banks have left open to take finance's biggest risks and reap its greatest rewards.

Sebastian Mallaby's book 'More Money Than God,'documents the rise of hedge funds, from the very first venture in 1949 to the giants that they are now. It also provides insight into how many of today's star hedge fund managers go their starts.

We've gone through Mallaby's book for you, and highlighted the most important people that made hedge funds into the powerful, driving market force it is today.

Alfred Winslow Jones started then first hedge fund when he discovered the benefits of "hedging"— short selling some stocks to offset risks of buying others.

Fund: A.W. Jones & Co. (1947 – Present)

Background: Alfred Winslow Jones was a man in his 40s with almost no experience in finance. He had dabbled in public service, Marxist rebellion, and journalism. But by 1949, Jones had a family and two kids, and needed to make money. Jones raised $60,000 from his friends and threw in $40,000 of his own money.

Strategy: Jones created the hedging strategy, which used short selling to mitigate or "hedge" the risks from buying long. He financially incentivized brokers to provide him with their best stock picks to fill his portfolio. Jones also began the standard of charging a 20% performance fee on top of the flat management fee.

Major wins/losses: In 20 years running, Jones saw a return of almost 5,000%. But leading up to the market crash of 1969, Jones' segment managers started taking too many leveraged risks, and Jones lost 35% of his investors' money.

How they changed the game: Jones' "hedged fund" led to a flood of imitators and the start of a new financial movement. By 1968 there were 40 more hedge funds, and by 1969 there were anywhere between 200 and 500. 



Legendary trader Michael Steinhardt then used the same model, but to bet against conventional wisdom.

Fund:Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Company / Steinhardt Partners (1967 – 1994)

Background: Steinhardt graduated from University of Pennsylvania at age 19, and by 25 had already made a name for himself on Wall Street. Steinhardt known for his temper and contrarian attitude.

Strategy: Steinhardt developed an invaluable relationship with block traders. As investors began to pour money en masse into Wall Street, block traders stepped up to facilitate large trades and provide liquidity. Traders would come to Steinhardt because he controlled big decisions and big trades.

This allowed Steinhardt to take advantage of inefficient prices in the short-term, buying low and selling high. Steinhardt's firm was also the first to utilize monetary analysis and predict interest rates.

Major wins/losses: Steinhardt's firm was the only profitable hedge fund in 1971 because of its massive short positions during the 1969 market crash, with a total return of 361% since it started in 1967.

However, in 1994, Steinhardt lost a fortune in a huge European bond dump. His hedge fund wasn't able to recover, and he left the market shortly afterwards.

How they changed the game: Steinhardt's firm turned hedge funds from a method of controlling market exposure into a method of betting against conventional wisdom. The success of Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Company showed the hedge funds' capacity for contrarianism.



F. Helmut Weymar led one of the first 'quant' hedge funds that used mathematical models to trade commodities.

Fund: Commodities Corporation (1969 – 1997)

Background: Weymar wrote his PhD dissertation on predicting the price of cocoa by using historical data. As a graduate student, he built a mathematical model to evaluate prices of frozen orange juice, which ended up turning him a profit. He cofounded Commodities Corporation with friends, after a stint trading at Nabisco with his cocoa price model.

Strategy: Commodities Corporation focused on econometrics, building models, and forecasting market conditions. The firm built a computer trading system that found price trends in data and traded based on these patterns, which was one of the first automated trading systems used by hedge funds.

Major wins/losses: After a corn catastrophe, Commodities Corporation's capital was decimated from $2.5 million to $900,000 in less than a week. Weymar then turned around the fund with a new approach to risk taking. By the end of the 1970s, Commodities Corporation had risen to $30 million in capital.

How they changed the game: Commodities Corporation was one of the first "quant" hedge funds, using data to guide trades. However, its failure in 1971 also warned against placing too much confidence in mathematical models.



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THE FUTURE OF PAYMENTS: 2014 [SLIDE DECK]

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E commerce

A wave of innovation is driving a dramatic shift in the way we make payments.

In this presentation, we highlight the most important trends fueling the changes: the rise of payment apps, mobile registers, e-commerce, and the decline of cash and checks. We also show where the payments industry is headed. Many of the slides are based on charts exclusive to BI Intelligence. 

BI Intelligence is a research and analysis service focused on mobile computing, digital media, payments, and e-commerce. Only subscribers can download the individual charts and datasets in Excel, along with the PowerPoint and PDF versions of this deck. Please sign up for a free trial here.

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The Highest-Paying Jobs At Google [RANKED] (GOOG)

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google employees

Google loves its engineers. So it's not much of a surprise that software engineers are some of the best-paid employees at the company.

But there are a bunch of other roles at Google — and a lot of them have salaries that are competitive with Google's bread and butter, according to salary data we pulled from Glassdoor.

Salary data on Glassdoor is based on anonymous salary reports that were voluntarily shared by both current and recent employees.

20. Associate, online sales and operations

Salary: $50,200

With engineers in charge at Google, sales and account managers are more or less at the bottom of the ladder. Associates are at the lowest rung, so they have the smallest salary.



19. AdWords associate

Salary: $56,400

Just above the traditional associate role is an AdWords associate — one of Google's largest ad platforms. These salespeople still make half of what most engineers make, though.



18. Account manager

Salary$71,080

Account managers handle sales and marketing relationships with specific, bigger customers. A big chunk of Google's sales staff is based in New York.



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