The S&P500 continues to hit new all-time highs, extending an epic five-year bullish run for stocks.
But some market commentators believe we must be heading for a top.
The signs are there if you want to look for them. As of Friday, the Dow had erased all of 2014's gains. Forward price-to-earnings ratios are well above both their five- and 10-year averages. Even Alan Greenspan has said a correction is inevitable given that the rally is now well into its fifth year.
There are other, less technical signs. We're talking about the signs of that make you think twice and wonder if irrational exuberance has taken over and investors are investing in things recklessly.
We've pinpointed the 15 most ridiculous moments in finance of the year so far that might lead one to believe that this bull market has seen its top.
Marketwatch profiles "the Oracle of San Quentin."
Since his conviction 15 years ago on murder charges, Curtis Carroll, now 35, has gained a reputation among inmates at the infamous California penitentiary as an investing wizard. Marketwatch's Catey Hill says that while it's impossible to judge his track record, his advice "some quite good, some risky and speculative, and most of it brand-new territory for a clientele that lives behind prison walls."
Burrito Bonds
A U.K. Chipotle-esque chain is looking to raise funds from mainstream investors by offering"burrito bonds" that come with an 8% coupon, and of course free burritos for a year.
Uber for Underwear.
OK, technically FlyCleaners.com, backed by Union Square's Fred Wilson, will also deliver the rest of your laundry at a moment's notice. Through your phone you just tell them exactly where you need your clothes picked up, and they come to you.
There's no shortage of things that should be fixed in the U.S. There's the "crumbling" physical infrastructure, the never-ending bipartisan arguments in D.C., the inadequate public school systems ... and list goes on.
But there are also things that are going right in the U.S.
U.S. Trust's Joseph Quinlan identifies these in his "What's Right With America" thesis.
"From our vantage point, America needs to leverage its strengths to correct for its weaknesses," he wrote.
1. The U.S. is the largest and most productive economy in the world.
The U.S. is one of the only developed economies whose GDP is higher today than before the economic crisis.
Plus, the U.S. economy accounts for almost 1/5th of the global GDP, even though it only has 4.5% of the population.
Source: U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management
2. The U.S. remains a global leader in manufactured goods.
In nominal terms, U.S. manufacturing output was upt to $2.1. trillion in 2013. That's a 21% increase from the low 2009 numbers.
Since February 2010, the manufacturing industry has added approximately 700,000 workers.
Source: U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management
3. The U.S. is among the largest exporters of goods and services in the world.
Today, exports are up to $196 billion per month, after they dropped to $124 billion per month in April 2009.
The U.S. remains one of the major global exporters . In fact, the U.S.'s monthly exports are greater than most countries' yearly exports.
Source: U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management
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.
Animals face many natural threats, including changing temperatures, predators, and unexpected disasters. But no external stresses have proved more destructive to the survival of other living things than people.
The following gallery includes other animals that have gone extinct almost directly by the hands of humans.
Tasmanian tiger (Extinct since 1936)
The Tasmanian tiger, also called the thylacine, was a marsupial native to Australia and the island of Tasmania.
The carnivore was seen by farmers as a threat to sheep and therefore hunted, trapped and poisoned for government bounties.
"Many people, however, believe that bounty hunting alone could not have driven the thylacine extinct and therefore claim that an unknown disease epidemic must have been responsible," researcher Thomas Prowse, of Australia's University of Adelaide, said in a statement.
Using population models to simulate the direct effects of bounty hunting and habitat loss, the new study found that humans alone were responsible for the animal's doom.
The last wild Tasmanian tiger was captured in 1933 and taken to the Hobart Zoo, where it died three years later.
Woolly Mammoth (Extinct for ~10,000 years)
The woolly mammoth disappeared about 10,000 years ago, after roaming Siberia and North America for around 250,000 years.
Although there's been some disagreement about what delivered the final blow, a recent study found that hunting by humans, on top of environmental stresses like climate and habitat change, spelled the end for the furry beast.
Dodo Bird (Extinct since ~1681)
For centuries, the flightless Dodo bird lived undisturbed on the island of Mauritius off the coast of Africa. Because they had no enemies on the island, the wingless birds were easy prey when humans arrived in the early 16th century.
Although the exact date is uncertain, people believe the last dodo bird was killed in 1681.
If you're considering going to Wall Street, you should really know what you're getting into.
Yes, you will get paid better than average people all over the world. Yes, you will get to learn new things constantly, and yes, you will be involved in important transactions (well, hopefully) and meet interesting clients.
However, there is a downside, and it's generally all in your head.
A Wall Street veteran, who will remain anonymous, gave us a laundry list of ways working on the Street can actually ruin your life.
Wall Streeters have to deal with a distorted sense of money, questions about self-worth, arrested development and most importantly, the fact that they never ever have enough time. They can try and pay for it, but that only gets you so much.
The point is — you better love finance if you're getting into this business, because it's going to take over your life.
You'll be working 80-plus hours a week, so it's going to be hard to date.
"You will work insane hours in your first five years meaning stable relationships are a no go."
Expect to always be on your work BlackBerry.
"And it will be a huge problem with any significant other."
And you'll be so tired you can't even go out when you're still young and single.
"You won't have the energy to go out on Friday nights by 30 even if you're still single."
Each city is ranked according to its potential for earthquakes, storms, storm surges, tsunamis, and river floods. For each type of disaster, Swiss Re devised an extreme weather scenario in which defenses fail and the human and economic toll can be enormous.
Further, each city was ranked based on the effect each scenario would have on its residents by combining population-distribution data and vulnerability estimates for each disaster. The scenarios consider fatalities, injuries, evacuations, those whose homes would be damaged or destroyed, and those who would be unable to access their workplace.
10. Tehran, Iran
15.6 million people potentially affected.
Tehran sits on one of the most dangerous fault lines in the world — the North Anatolian fault. The entire population of the city is heavily exposed to earthquakes.
9. Los Angeles, U.S.
16.4 million people potentially affected.
Los Angeles, like much of California, sits along the San Andreas Fault, making it one of the most earthquake-prone places in the world; 14.7 million people are at risk directly of earthquakes at any given time in the city.
8. Shanghai, China
16.7 million people potentially affected.
Shanghai, China's most populated city, is located on the Yangtze River Delta, making it vulnerable to serious flooding from storms and typhoons. Its long coastline and the large volume of water flowing through the city make it especially at risk.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and the Williams sisters have dominated tennis in the last decade.
But not too long ago the world was obsessed with another crop of leading men and women that set unrivaled Grand Slam records and left a lasting impression with their style and determination.
Many of the stars of the 70s, 80s, and 90s — John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Martina Hingis, Martina Navratilova — are still a part of the tennis world today.
Jennifer Capriati, 38, is the youngest ever player to break into the top 10 at age 14 (1990-2004).
Björn Borg, 58, of Sweden, won 11 Grand Slam singles titles (1973-1984).
Pete Sampras, 43, won 14 Grand Slam singles titles (1988-2002).
Labor Day weekend — the unofficial end of summer, and your last chance to wear white — is upon us.
We typically associate the holiday with family barbeques, weekend getaways, and mega-deals at the mall, but it's really about celebrating the American labor movement and workers' contributions to their country.
So this year, in honor of Labor Day, SpareFoot, an Austin-based self-storage marketplace, crunched numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau to find the 12 metro areas where the hardest-working Americans live.
To compile the ranking, SpareFoot analyzed the number of hours worked (plus commuting time) per person, the percent of the population that worked between 40 and 52 weeks a year (minus the percent of the population that did not work), the average total hours worked per week, the percentage of families where all parents worked, the number of residents that hold multiple jobs, and the number of people who work part-time for economic reasons, in each of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas.
"We wanted to dig into the numbers to determine which towns in America really put the 'labor' in Labor Day," says John Egan, editor-in-chief of SpareFoot.com. "Our list is a salute to the folks in places like Minneapolis-St. Paul and Denver who truly exemplify the American work ethic."
Certified life and executive coachMegan Walls has noticed a recurring weak spot among the otherwise intelligent, capable professionals she works with: money.
"For some reason or another, these clients aren't as mindful or deliberate as they'd like to be. Some are business owners, lawyers, or in education," Walls tells Business Insider.
When these clients started asking Walls to help them master their finances, she got right down to their core beliefs about money.
"A belief is a thought you think over and over again," she says. "And then that belief gets buried in your subconscious, and causes an emotion — anything from contentment to fear — which then causes you to take action and produce some sort of result. That's the chain: emotion, action, result."
If these core beliefs are self-sabotaging, you can imagine how that chain progresses.
Here, Walls shares some of the more damaging financial thought patterns she's observed in her practice, among the most impressive professionals.
'Money magically appears.'
Walls remembers a client who inherited money while in grad school and thought he'd be set for years.
Instead, he ran out halfway through school — and later in life he ran out of funds again. After some discussion, they found that his core belief was that money magically appears.
"As a kid, whenever he needed money, he'd ask his dad, who would hold out a $10 or a $20 bill," Walls says.
"We had him replace that money thought with a new one, something to the effect of 'I am in control of my money and can make good financial decisions for me and my family,'" she says. "He started meeting with a financial advisor and using Quicken to track his spending."
'Credit card debt is normal and acceptable.'
The average American household owes over $7,000 on their credit cards, and among indebted households, it's an average of nearly $15,500. It's no wonder we think debt is a normal part of life.
Walls says that while consumers know they have to pay the credit-card companies back, there's a lack of fear or immediacy surrounding the debt. Especially among younger cardholders, she finds, the need for immediate gratification outweighs any reservations about spending money on the cards.
'Spending will make me feel better.'
"I think what's surfacing is people operating with these beliefs about money are spending in unhealthy emotional states," muses Walls.
"They're saying, 'I'm going to go buy something to avoid feeling sorry for myself; I'm going to buy whatever I want,' when they don't really have the budget for it," she explains. "When the bill comes, they're absolutely panicked."
We all need to get from point A to point B. Some just do it in better style — mainly because they have millions or billions of dollars from their innovative startups.
We all know these tech moguls can be humble, but we thought it'd be fun to round up what tech cofounders and CEOs are driving these days, which range from extremely modest to ridiculously expensive.
Some of the wealthiest living in Silicon Valley own flashy $100,000 sports cars, while others are totally happy cruising around in everyday roadsters.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly owns several cars including an Acura TSX and a Volkswagen Golf GTI, but Zuckerberg reportedly put money down on a Pagani Huayra. The Italian hypercar starts at a modest $1.3 million.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos still drives his 1996 Honda Accord. That model today costs around $4,000.
Snapchat founder and CEO Evan Spiegel enjoyed several luxury cars growing up, but after a Series B funding round last June, Spiegel immediately bought himself a Ferrari. Ferraris range from $188,000 to $400,000 and up.
Mexican food is regionally diverse and flavorful, with origins dating back to the Aztec Empire.
Yet Americans are more likely to mention Chipotle and Taco Bell when they think of “Mexican” cuisine.
Many of the so-called Mexican foods we love — like hardshell tacos, burritos, and nachos — are Tex-Mex inventions. Though they have their own interesting history (and are obviously tasty), calling them Mexican is as accurate as saying General Tsao's chicken is Chinese.
Here are nine real Mexican dishes you should try instead of the American knock-offs.
Instead of hardshell tacos, make soft-shell tacos:
The hardshell tacos we make in the U.S. have spiced-beef, shopped tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and “Mexican” cheese — but these are purely an American invention.
Mexican tacos are small and soft, and the tortillas are either lightly grilled or streamed. A taco can be made with a variety of meat, including beef, pork, chicken, or seafood.
Vegetables like avocados, home-made salsa, and chopped onions are added, and garnished with fresh lime juice and cilantro. If cheese is used, it won’t be the shredded “Mexican” cheese commonly found at U.S. grocery stores, but fresh white cheese.
And don't add a dollop of sour cream on top. Instead, try crema, which is less sour and runnier than sour cream (similar to authentic French crème fraîche).
Instead of a burrito, order tacos de harina (wheat flour tacos):
The burrito as we know it today is an obese foodstuff, stretched to its limits with rice, veggies, beans, cheese, sour cream, and almost anything else we can imagine.
But America's burrito is not authentic. Tacos de harina (wheat flour tacos), which hail from provinces in southern Mexico, are much thinner and smaller than the American version, and usually only include two or three ingredients such as a meat or seafood base with rice, beans, white cheese, or chiles.
Instead of buying “Mexican” cheese, try an authentic Mexican white cheese:
The “Mexican" cheese that you see in grocery stores are what most Americans use to top their tacos and nachos. But it could not be more different from the white, nuanced, tangy cheeses of Mexico that help balance the heat of the peppers.
There are many types of authentic Mexican white cheese, each with its own unique flavor profile. They include queso blanco, queso Oaxaca, queso panela, añejo, chihuahua, cotija, and many others, and range in taste from mild to strong-flavored and aged.
Just as string cheese is different from Monterey Jack, so too is queso de Oaxaca (the “mozzarella of Mexico”) different from añejo.
Instead of nachos, order chilaquiles (Mexican breakfast nachos):
Though nachos are technically a Mexican dish in the sense that they come Mexico, they don’t really count since they were invented for the American wives of U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan. The dish soon became a Tex-Mex staple.
If you want a more traditional Mexican dish, try chilaquiles. They are made with quartered corn tortillas that are lightly fried and simmered with salsa (green, red or mole), and then topped with eggs (scrambled or fried) and sometimes pulled chicken.
Add some queso fresco and crema, and serve with refried beans. Though this is a morning dish, who cares? — it’s delicious.
Instead of buying jars of salsa, make your own pico de gallo:
The store-bought, jarred salsa we all eat with Tostitos chips pales in comparison to spicy, fresh, and flavorful Mexican salsas.
The most common Mexican salsas are salsa roja, salsa verde, and pico de gallo. Though all three are fantastic, we recommend trying pico de gallo — it’s a raw, salad-like tomato salsa with diced and chopped vegetables mixed with cilantro that will be the biggest change from your prepackaged salsa.
Instead of fajitas, try cochinita pibil (slow-roasted pork):
That sizzling plate of fajitas is another American invention. Fajita basically means “little strip,” referring to the pieces of chicken or beef that arrive on the hot skillet to your table.
If you’re craving a meat-rich dish, try cochinita pibil instead. It's a traditional Mexican slow-roasted pork dish that involves marinating the meat in citrus juice, coloring it with annatto seed, and roasting it while it’s wrapped in a a banana leaf.
Just like fajitas, cochinita pibil is then eaten with corn tortillas and sides like pickled red onion, refried black beans, and habanero chiles.
Instead of Tex-Mex enchiladas, make some easy Mexican enchiladas:
The Tex-Mex enchiladas that most Americans are familiar with are tortillas wrapped around ground beef and cheese, and doused with enchilada sauce or gravy. These are then topped with even more cheese and baked in an oven.
Mexican enchiladas vary widely, but are typically tortillas that have been fried and dipped in spicy enchilada sauce and then rolled up with a small amount of meat, vegetables, and/or cheese. These are then garnished lightly with white cheese and served immediately.
Though both versions are admittedly delicious, it’s very easy to make your own authentic Mexican enchiladas at home.
Instead of chili con queso, order queso flameado (cheese fondue with meat sauce):
Chili con queso is yet another Tex-Mex invention with processed cheese, garlic, cumin, onion, and chopped jalapeños.
It’s likely a descend ent of the native dish in El Paso, queso flameado. It’s basically a cheese fondue with a meat sauce and chorizo, tomato, onion, chile, and spices.
Queso flameado is flambé, which means that liquor (rum, brandy, or tequila) is poured on the cheese and ignited. The server then folds in the meat sauce as the dish burns, and you eat it by spooning the queso flameado onto small tortillas for individual servings
Instead of eating churros for dessert, try paletas:
Churros are actually descended from an ancient Chinese salty dish called youtiao. The Portuguese took it and introduced it to Europeans, who promptly replaced the salt with sugar. Eventually, the Spaniards introduced the churro to Mexico during the Conquistador era.
A more authentically Mexican dessert is a paleta, or Latin American ice pop made with fresh fruits and usually sold at kiosks and carts. They’re basically fresher and healthier popsicles with fruit inside, and are the perfect way to end your meal.
We remain convinced that the best way to explain anything is through maps. They combine the frenzy over data with an instantly recognizable visualization for how all that data fits.
With that in mind, we've put together a new edition of the 27 maps that explain America.
You'll find pretty much everything in here: eating and drinking habits, pet ownership, ethnicity, language, and more.
Check it out.
Predilection for passports, by % ownership. Mississippians don't get out too much.
The most overrepresented job in every state. About what you'd expect. Illinois has an inordinate number of groundskeepers.
The most educated states in America. Denver stands out in the West.
The natural world is full of beautiful moments and interactions, but we don't always have the full context for what we see.
While many photographers capture beautiful images of animals out in the wild, few know exactly what's happening in the scene as well as a researcher does — unless that photographer happens to also be a scientist.
The BMC Ecology Image Competition is a contest designed to show both the beauty of what's happening in nature as well as highlight the researchers that help us understand it.
The journal just announced their 2014 winners and 22 additional "commended" images.
First, the commended photos: These Eastern Swallowtails frequently gather along riversides in the Eastern U.S. to feed on mineral deposits, according to photographer J.P. Lawrence.
Justin Havird photographed researchers Stephanie Irvin and Kiley Seitz gathering samples at this landlocked pond. It's named Skippy’s Pond and is a unique coastal habitat found at the ‘Ahihi-Kina’u Natural Area Reserve on South Maui in Hawaii.
In the Ethiopian Highlands, these gelada monkeys scurry to safety as the light changes and predators come out, according to photographer Ryan J. Burke.
From household author names like George R. R. Martin and Jodi Picoult to famous faces like Amy Poehler and Neil Patrick Harris, these are the 20 books everyone should pick up this fall.
They are listed here in order of release date.
"The Long Way Home" by Louise Penny
When we last saw Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, he had retired to a small town in Canada. And that's where readers will find him in "The Long Way Home"— that is, until his neighbor Clara begs the ex-homicide detective to come out of retirement and find her missing husband.
Retired military cop Jack Reacher is back in "Personal," this time working for the State Department and the CIA after the French President is assassinated. Teamed with CIA analyst Casey Nice, together they must stop the assassin before he murders another world leader at an upcoming G-8 summit.
The much-anticipated finale to "The Century Trilogy," Follett's readers once again delve into the realm of historical fiction, this time in the 1960s through the '80s. American, German, English, Russian, and Welsh characters all struggle with Civil Rights, the Cold War, and world politics in this gripping, truly epic novel.
Nathan Fielder, the 31-year-old Canadian comedian behind stunts like the "Dumb Starbucks" prank, just wrapped up Season 2 of his Comedy Central show, "Nathan For You."
In the show, a deadpan Fielder offers outrageous advice to business owners, trying to help them increase revenue, but through the most extreme means.
In the show's intro, Fielder explains: "I graduated from one of Canada's top business schools with really good grades. Now, I'm using my knowledge to help struggling small-business owners make it in this competitive world."
We broke down one segment from last week's Season 2 finale to show just how far Fielder's comedic business and marketing strategies can go in the real world.
Nathan Fielder is a 31-year-old comedian from Canada whose Comedy Central show "Nathan For You" offers outlandish advice to struggling small-business owners.
In the Season 2 finale, we meet Mark Rappaport, owner of Marky Sparky Toys.
In a voice-over, Nathan says: "Of all the products Mark has invented ... "
Job description: They perform eye exams and make just a fraction as much as some medical professionals. For comparison, the average physician earns $191,880 a year, and dentists, who undergo a similar amount of training, earn $168,870.
Educational requirements: A bachelor's degree is required, followed by a four-year stint in optometry school to earn an O.D. A residency sometimes follows that for those who want to pursue a particular specialty.
Biomedical engineers
Average annual earnings: $93,960
Job description: These engineers work on building solutions for problems in biology and medicine.
Educational requirements: Some undergraduate programs offer degrees in biomedical or biomechanical engineering, but other paths include a more general engineering degree and a master's focusing on biomedical applications.
Chemists
Average annual earnings: $77,740
Job description: Chemists study the properties, structures, and reactions of substances and develop new products or processes for making them.
Educational requirements: A bachelor's is the minimum, but research jobs require a master's or Ph.D.
Jane Fonda is selling her very, very large Santa Fe ranch for $19.5 million.
The actress' 'Forked Lightening Ranch' includes 2,300-deeded acres with over three miles of The Pecos River (one of the "finest trout fisheries in the state") Rocky Mountain terrain, and American ruins.
Meanwhile, the 9,585-square-foot home itself, which is referred to as 'River House,' was personally designed by the former aerobics queen with six beds, five baths, a galleria, and a bell tower.
Fonda incorporated the modern Spanish colonial style home with energy-efficient resources, while still making it look like it's over 100 years old, according to the actress in a promotional video.
The ranch bordered by the Santa Fe National Forest and is located within 25 minutes of the city of Santa Fe and is being listed by Swan Land Company.
Welcome to Forked Lightening Ranch, aka the 2,300-acre customized ranch of celebrity activist Jane Fonda.
The property includes 3.5 private miles of the Pecos River, allowing for plenty of fly fishing for rainbow and brown trout.
The river is surrounded by sedimentary-rock formations, Rocky Mountain wildlife, and stone cliffs.
Hyperlapse allows you to take time-lapse videos, without the need for fancy, expensive equipment. It's really easy to use, and has a beautiful interface. You push one button to record the video, and then speed it up to various degrees using a separate button.
You can then upload the video you made to Instagram and Facebook at the touch of yet one other button.
Sound simple? That's because it is. And people are using it to make some awesome-looking, creative videos.
You can watch the sun set in just a few seconds. And you can use other apps to add some music.
Some people are using Hyperlapse to quickly tour a city, such as this one in Holland.
People and regions all around the world have unique phrases and slang that only they would understand, and the intelligence community of spies, analysts, and cryptography specialists is no different.
For people working in the shadows of the intelligence community, "illegal" holds a much different meaning than what most view as a violation of law. The same goes for "assets" or "eyewash."
These are terms that shed light on the secret world of spycraft, and they help professionals at CIA, NSA, or intelligence services of the military talk to one another in a common language and present information to decision-makers.
The website Public Intelligence obtained an unclassified glossary of terms and definitions for counterintelligence professionals created by the Defense Department a couple of months back. At 359 pages, it's a hefty read, so we pulled out some of the most interesting and unique terms here.
"Asset"
No, we're not talking about a stock. In intel-speak, an asset is anything that holds intelligence value. This can be technical — a hacked phone for example — or a human asset: A person working for a foreign intelligence agency who has agreed to share secrets a spy is looking for.
"Asset validation"
Not every source is going to be a meaningful one. Just as a journalist may test a source or press for other information to confirm what he or she is being told, an intelligence asset needs to be "validated"— meaning there is a process to make sure the asset is authentic, reliable, and useful.
"Walk-in"
While spies often have to go out and look for people to turn against their homeland and spill secrets, sometimes a potential asset just shows up at the embassy door. These are referred to as "walk-ins" or "volunteers," although they don't have to literally go to a location.
Former CIA officer Aldrich Ames and former FBI agent Robert Hanssen were both "volunteers" to the Soviet KGB.
"Backstop"
This is an arrangement made to make sure a spy's cover isn't blown. It's the spy's version of an alibi if the spy were to be picked up by the bad guys. If a spy is inside Iran posing as a businessman, then his backstop would be documents, financial records, and a phone number back to his office that would vouch for him, as one example.
"Cover within a cover"
If the backstop may not hold up, a spy may revert to this "Inception"-like phrase. In going to his or her cover within a cover, a spy would admit to doing something less serious than espionage, which would hopefully explain away the suspicious activities the spy was observed to be doing.
"Oh no sir, I'm just a tourist taking pictures."
"Eyewash"
Let's say a CIA officer successfully recruits a member of Russia's intelligence service, the FSB. Because both sides have had problems with their files being given away to the other side, the CIA officer may make an "eyewash" entry to protect the new source.
When writing about the recruitment effort, he or she might write that an attempt was made to get information, but the FSB agent balked at the idea. It's like lying to your personal diary.
"False-Flag Recruitment"
A common piece of trade craft involves a spy's effort to recruit assets by deceiving them into believing the spy is from a different country.
In his book "A Spy for All Seasons," former CIA officer Duane Clarridge writes that "Israelis have often used this technique by impersonating CIA officers when trying to recruit Arabs."
"Illegal"
Illegals are the spies operating in deep cover. They have no overt relationship with their intelligence service, nor do they operate out of an embassy or have diplomatic cover. They are operating in a country illegally and alone.
Sometimes this means they will simply burrow in and pose as just an average person in the neighborhood.
As recently as 2010, the U.S. uncovered a ring of 11 "illegals" from Russia who had assumed stolen identities and reported back to Moscow since at least the 1990s. These types of spies could also be referred to as "sleepers" if they are just there, waiting to be told what to do next.
"Agent"
To intelligence personnel, an agent more often refers to an asset or source from a foreign entity. While movies and media often refer to "CIA agents," the correct term is actually CIA officer. A CIA agent would better describe a mole inside the agency that is under the control of a foreign intelligence service who is throwing secrets its way.
"Confusion agent"
This is a spy who has the goal of screwing up the opposition's intelligence service, rather than gaining any information.
Here's an example: At an embassy function sure to be teeming with military leaders, diplomats, and spies alike, it would be the confusion agent's job to keep the other side's spies occupied with boring chit-chat so he or she can't listen to what the diplomat nearby is saying.
Former NSA analyst John Schindler wrote about one such operation recently, in which Cuban intelligence was able to influence The Daily Caller website to publish scandalous allegations that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) was engaging with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.
"Brush contact"
You've seen it in spy movies, of course. Also known as the "brush pass," it's a brief encounter between friendly spies to share a few words or documents. These are risky maneuvers, and there are better and safer ways to pass messages, like having a pre-arranged site that is accessed by each side at different times.
"In the gap"
If it's absolutely necessary that two spies meet up for a quick conversation, they would want to be "in the gap" of surveillance. This means they have no eyeballs, cameras, or microphones pointed in their direction for at least a few seconds, but not any longer than a minute.
"Jack in the Box"
Besides being a restaurant home to always-great waffle fries, "Jack in the Box" refers to a dummy placed in a vehicle to deceive the other side into thinking there are more people inside. If a spy wants to make it seem like he or she is not alone, the spy might put a blow-up doll in the passenger seat.
"Ghost surveillance"
Spies are taught to watch for when they are being watched.
In a vehicle, this might mean taking frequent turns or heading out into the country to see if there's a tail. On the street, a spy's eyes would be looking for people who look as if they might be a little too interested in what they are doing.
But it's much harder to spot "ghost surveillance"— the "extremely discreet and seemingly omnipresent" type of surveillance, according to the manual, which watches the target from out of view.
"Spy dust"
Also known as Metka, spy dust was a chemical compound used by the Soviet KGB that could be applied to a target to mark that person for surveillance. Once applied to clothing, shoes, or elsewhere, the invisible compound could be picked up on infrared by people following, according to Intelligence Reference.
"Rabbit"
Instead of a target, a rabbit is what intel folks would call the person they are watching and/or following.
"Black-bag job"
Think of this as the spy's version of breaking and entering, but instead of burglary, the intention is to enter a target's residence to discreetly learn more about him or her. Also known as "surreptitious entry," the manual says this type of operation is often carried out by FBI agents against foreign intelligence agents operating inside the United States.
"Cover stop"
Spies are usually working "under cover" but still know they are most likely under surveillance. To go where they need to go, and ultimately to steal secrets without getting caught, they may make cover stops, which give what appear to be innocent reasons for going out.
This could be as simple as a trip to the grocery store where a spy makes a brush pass with a friend in aisle nine.
"Rolling car pickup"
This term is fairly self-explanatory. It's a move in which someone is picked up so smoothly, the car hardly stops or seems as if it's moving forward normally.
While not exactly the same, closed-circuit footage from February showed a CIA and Delta Force team capturing a terror suspect off the street in Libya and putting him in a van. The entire sequence took only 40 seconds.
"Hello number"
If a spy is dialing a hello number, it usually means he or she is in trouble. This trade craft term refers to a phone call in which the person on the other end doesn't identify who or where he or she is, giving only a codeword or some other signal the spy would know the meaning to.
Random example: Spy calls the hello number and the person on the other end says "it's raining in Florida right now." To anyone else listening, it could mean the weather is terrible in the Sunshine state, but the real meaning could be that the spy needs to get on a plane and get out of the country immediately.
"Shape"
This refers to activities that try to change the behavior, perceptions, and capabilities of an adversary. Similar to "active measures," this bit of jargon deals with preparation that often happens before people may enter a foreign land.
Military commanders will say they are "shaping the battlespace" by dropping leaflets in a village for instance, before they send in troops to try to gain intelligence.
"Motivation"
Motivation holds the same meaning as you probably think, but it's an important term in the intelligence community for when a spy is trying to recruit a source. An asset's motivation for giving away secrets could boil down to ideological, financial, sexual, ego, coercion, or a combination. If a spy wants to recruit a source, he or she needs to understand the "why" first.
Historically for American spies, the manual says, the motivation has been money. One of the worst intelligence leaks in U.S. history came from former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who sold secrets to the Soviet Union, and later Russia, for $1.4 million over 22 years.
"Pharming/Phishing"
While some hackers break into computers just out of curiosity or in an effort to score some cash, there are plenty of others who are working in the intelligence community. In the U.S., most are in a special NSA unit called TAO, or Tailored Access Operations (Many other countries have their own versions of this unit).
Put simply, TAO is the unit of hackers trying to break into foreign computers, and one technique they can use is pharming. In a pharming attack, a user is redirected to a website other than what he or she was trying to go to, but the person doesn't know it. For example, TAO could duplicate a bank's website where the target enters in all his or her account information and logs in successfully, but in the process, the data also gets captured by the hackers.
Pharming can be used in conjunction with, or in an independent "phishing attack"— usually in the form of an email that looks friendly but contains links to very unfriendly places.
"SCIF"
The SCIF, as it's referred to by intelligence professionals, is the acronym for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. It's the room or building where the really sensitive and secret information is held and processed, which has physical and procedural methods to keep those secrets in.
Before entering a SCIF, intel analysts usually have to give up their phones, thumb drives, and other media that could potentially be used to take out information. The procedures aren't always followed, as the U.S. Army learned soon after former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning started spilling secrets to the Wikileaks website.
"Triple agent"
You may have heard of a double agent, which is a spy playing for both sides.
Well, there's also a triple agent. Like the double, this person may "wittingly or unwittingly" withhold significant information from two intelligence services at the urging of a third service.
"Clean phone"
A clean phone is a brand-new — usually pre-paid — mobile phone a spy can use that won't be traced. These are burners taken out of the box that ensure more secure communications.
Of course, that doesn't mean a call couldn't be picked up as it travels over the air, but a spy can at least be safe in knowing the purchase or user probably won't be traced.
Labor Day weekend — the unofficial end of summer, and your last chance to wear white — is upon us.
The hardshell tacos we make in the U.S. have spiced-beef, shopped tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and “Mexican” cheese — but these are purely 
The burrito as we know it today is an obese foodstuff, stretched to its limits with rice, veggies, beans, cheese, sour cream, and almost anything else we can imagine.
The “Mexican" cheese that you see in grocery stores are what most Americans use to top their tacos and nachos. But it could not be more different from the white, nuanced, tangy cheeses of Mexico that help balance the heat of the peppers. 
Though nachos are technically a Mexican dish in the sense that they come Mexico, they don’t really count since they were 
The store-bought, jarred salsa we all eat with Tostitos chips pales in comparison to spicy, fresh, and flavorful Mexican salsas.
That sizzling plate of fajitas is another American invention. Fajita basically means “little strip,” referring to the pieces of chicken or beef that arrive on the hot skillet to your table.
The Tex-Mex enchiladas that most Americans are familiar with are tortillas wrapped around ground beef and cheese, and doused with enchilada sauce or gravy. These are then topped with even more cheese and baked in an oven.
Chili con queso is yet another Tex-Mex invention with processed cheese, garlic, cumin, onion, and chopped jalapeños.
Churros are actually descended from an ancient Chinese salty dish called 
Jane Fonda is selling her very, very large Santa Fe ranch for $19.5 million.
People and regions 
"Backstop"
"Illegal"
"Ghost surveillance"
"Hello number"
"Pharming/Phishing"
"Triple agent"
