The UK technology industry has plenty of women in leading roles. It's still a male dominated arena, of course, so we've collected together some of the UK's most interesting women in tech, ranging from VCs, to startup founders, to government advisors.

Many are investors in some of the world's most exciting companies, some are members of the House of Lords, and others are helping fledgling tech companies conquer the world.

25. Robyn Exton

CEO and cofounder, Dattch

Twitter: @robynexton

Dattch is a dating app for lesbian and bisexual women that connects users based on location. Exton created the app after realising that existing lesbian dating sites were simply reskinned versions of other sites. Using her experience of working with a dating site at a branding agency, she set about making a dating app specifically created for lesbians.

Unlike many dating sites and apps, Dattch has been praised for its positive approach to LGBTQ dating, and the app has won countless awards, including the Best Design award at the 2013 LAUNCH conference. The business brought its operations to the US in 2014, and plans on expanding to Android in the near future. 

24. Judith Clegg

Founder, Takeout and Glasshouse

Twitter: @judithclegg

Judith Clegg is the founder of two companies that work closely with the UK's tech industry.

Takeout is a consultancy that connects startups and larger businesses such as Microsoft with academics and new business opportunities. Her other company, Glasshouse, is an events business favoured by big-name tech companies like Craigslist, Index Ventures, Moo and Mind Candy.

23. Emily Brooke

CEO and founder, Blaze

Twitter: @buzzbrooke

The Blaze laser light is a green laser that attaches to the front of a bicycle. The laser then projects the image of the bike several metres in front of the rider. The bright images keeps cyclists safe on the road by helping drivers to see them.

Over 3,000 laser lights have been sold so far, after devices began shipping in early 2014. Blaze has raised £500,000 from Richard Branson's family and Index Ventures.

It's hard easing into the real world, whether you're working for a big corporation or a small startup.

That's why the young men in your life need a bit of guidance, as well as the accessories, gadgets, and tools to help them not only transition, but transition with style.

From a keychain breathalyzer (don't get drunk at the office holiday party!) to a deluxe shaving kit, here are 18 gifts every young professional will thank you for.

Salt shot glasses will kill the taste of tequila — fast.

These fun, unique shot glasses are a huge hit at parties. They're made of salt, but last for awhile (as long as you don't soak them) and instantly kill the taste of tequila with a lick.

Just be warned — they aren't permanent.

Buy it:$30

Buy him a nice gym bag for his workouts.

For hitting the gym, every guy needs a durable and good-looking duffel.

This weekender-style bag from Herschel Supply Co. Tough has a polyester shell and leather straps. It looks nice enough for the office while still being low key enough for all of his dirty, sweaty gym stuff. 

Buy it: $79

Birchbox delivers high-quality grooming samples and accessories.

When it comes to hair and skincare products, some men just don't know what to buy or how to use it.

A subscription to Birchbox will fix that. The subscription service delivers high-end beauty, grooming, and lifestyle samples to the recipient's doorstep every month.

Buy it:starting at $60/3 month subscription

The future of mobile is being redefined. The smartphone and tablet markets are nearing saturation. The days of heady hardware growth are long gone.

Mobile growth is moving into media, advertising, software, and services. Meanwhile, new devices are expanding the meaning of "mobile."

BI Intelligence has created a slideshow that highlights the new markets growing up around the multiscreen consumer.  

1. Mobile Commerce

2. Mobile Advertising

3. Mobile Apps

4. Emerging Devices And Platforms

5. Mobile Payments And Banking

6. Mobile Health 

Only BI Intelligence 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 membership here. BI Intelligence is a research and analysis service focused on mobile computing, digital media, payments, e-commerce, and the Internet of Things. 

As the head of the NYC Preppers Network, New York City firefighter Jason Charles spends his spare time thinking about what would happen in the event of a catastrophe, planning for everything from the weather-related, like a hurricane, to the more sinister, like a mass chemical attack.

It isn’t necessarily fun, but Charles believes it's incredibly important to prepare for every contingency possible. This is the type of “game” that all preppers, a subculture made famous by National Geographic’s TV show Doomsday Preppers, take part in. A game of chess, says Charles, where winning or losing means life or death.

Unlike other preppers, many of whom live in less populated areas, Charles has to contend with one major obstacle to surviving any apocalypse: living on the island of Manhattan. 

“The biggest problem is getting off this rock,” Charles told Business Insider from his Harlem apartment. “People in a town or a landlocked city can just walk out. We can’t. And you can’t swim off the island unless you are an Olympic swimmer.”

The predicament has led Charles and his fellow preppers in the NYC Preppers Network to troubleshoot potential ways of getting out of New York City, which Charles feels is paramount to surviving a disaster. Charles laid out his plan for us.

In the event of a catastrophe, Charles' first move is to grab his wife, kids, and dog, as well as their respective “bug-out bags,” a prepping term for a bag loaded with everything needed to survive for a week or more. Charles keeps these bags stocked at all times and in an accessible area in his apartment.

He would move quickly to his truck, which he parks no more than a couple of blocks from his apartment. If the streets are navigable by car, he will take them in it for as long as possible. His assumption is that he will have to leave it at some point and hike possibly tens of miles. 

“If we can take the car even five or ten blocks, we will take it. On a long haul, you want to save as much energy as you can.” In the event that the streets are congested to the point that driving is impossible, Charles will ditch the car and continue on foot. He and his wife each will carry their own bug-out bag, while their two children will sit in their double stroller and hold their own bags. The dog would carry his own bug-out bag strapped to his back.

The family will then make the hike to the West Side of Manhattan with the intention of crossing on foot over the George Washington Bridge or through the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel.

Charles has a solar and handcrank-powered radio to hear any reports over the airwaves. He also has a solar-panel charger for his cell phone, in case cell reception is still active.

If they hear reports that the bridges and tunnels are already closed, they will head to the water. Charles has two heavy-duty rafts in his pack which they will use to cross the Hudson River.

“We have two rafts that attach: one for us and one for our gear. Our goal is to get across the Hudson River at high tide,” explains Charles. 

Once they land across the river, hopefully as north as possible, Charles and his family will continue hiking as far and as fast as they can into a wilderness area, where they can set up a protected camp for the night to rest. In the following days, they will continue hiking north, with the intention of getting as far from population centers as possible. 

While Charles has thought out this plan a hundred different times, he recognizes that in the heat of the moment, it's unlikely anything will go according to plan. 

“There are so many variables to a ‘bug-out’ situation. You expect things to go from A to B, but instead they go A to Z. It’s a crappy game that you have to play. You have to be smart and resourceful,” says Charles.

To test those different variables, Charles and the NYC Preppers will frequently go on bug-out weekends in the wilderness to test their gear and survival skills, as well doing bug-out walks to test evacuation scenarios. It’s during these tests that Charles has realized a few extra wrinkles to his plan:

1. If you are traveling in a large group, break up into groups of three and space out your evacuation by thirty minutes or so. “Having twenty or thirty people traveling clumped together is dangerous. For looters or marauders, it would be like shooting crabs in a barrel,” says Charles. Instead, if one smaller group is attacked, the others a couple miles behind will be able to see it in the distance and react with a plan.

 2. Test your equipment.“People find out all the time that a backpack didn’t hold up, a sleeping bag wasn’t warm enough, or a pack was too heavy. You’ve got to test to get a feel for what you need,” says Charles.

3. Worry about crime.“We have high crime rates in New York. That rate will go up when society breaks down. All the people who thought about doing crime will start doing crime and that’s on top of the criminals already here,” says Charles.

SEE ALSO: Former CIA Director: 'Two Thirds Of The US' Could Die From An Attack On The Country's Power Grid

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Sometimes it seems like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.

In his book "Extreme Productivity," Harvard lecturer Dr. Robert Pozen outlines the keys to achieving more, and better, results.

Read on to see 18 of Pozen's best tips, so you can learn how to do exactly that.

Thanks to Dr. Pozen for permission to feature his work.

Carolyn Cutrone contributed to this article.

Rank your priorities by importance, and allocate time accordingly.

Pozen says there's a difference between tasks that are high priority and those that are low priority — and how much time you should allocate to each.

Write down all the things you plan to do, and organize them by weekly targets, yearly objectives, and long-term career goals. Then rank each task by relative importance. In the most productive scenario, you should be spending more time on the higher-ranked ones and less time on the lower-ranked ones.

Source: "Extreme Productivity"

Know what results you're looking for, and make a beeline for them.

The number of hours of work you put in doesn't matter nearly as much as achieving the best possible results. If you determine what your final outcome needs to be, it can help you lay out a more efficient plan on how to get there, which frees up time.

Always pause halfway to the end to make sure that you're on track and, if working with others, that you coordinate approaches.

Source: "Extreme Productivity"

Ignore 80% of the emails and requests you receive during the day.

The amount of time you devote to a project has to vary based on the importance of your project. Pozen says that doing B+ work on your low-priority tasks is usually good enough.

There's no need to put in the extra time and effort and focus on all the minute details of these tasks. Pozen even suggests discarding or ignoring 80% of the emails and requests you receive, as they're usually not important anyway, and answering the other 20% right away.

Source: "Extreme Productivity"

Turning 40 is a major milestone. 

You're getting older, but you're still young enough to do something crazy, like bungee jump or take a trip on a whim. There's a good chance that you probably have more money to spend, too.

We've come up with a bucket list of 40 things everyone should do before they turn 40.

Celebrate New Year’s Eve in a foreign city.

Challenge yourself to complete something that seems impossible: compete in the Ironman Triathlon, climb Mt. Everest, or finish a 100 Mile Race.

Splurge on a meal at The French Laundry in California, or another 3-star Michelin restaurant.

The eurozone crisis is without question one of the most critical events to happen in the 21st century so far. 

But it can be hard to navigate. To begin with, there's no clear start date. Some people go with early 2010, when the scale of Greece's public finance disaster became obvious, while others start in 2008, when the financial crisis kicked off. 

There's also some dispute over the end date. To some, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi's "whatever it takes speech" marks a rough ending to the crisis. For others, it concludes with the end of the bloc's second recession in 2013. A few think it's still going on.

But one thing is certain: Veteran German Chancellor Angela Merkel has the range of facial expressions to accurately guide anyone through the ups and downs of the past six years.

JANUARY 2008: In many ways, Europe seemed to be in good shape. Sixteen countries were members of what seemed to be a successful currency union. Europe had seen an extended period of growth, and unemployment was at a modern record low.

AUTUMN 2008: The global financial crisis got into full swing. Several European banks, like Belgium's Dexia, had to be bailed out by their national governments.

EARLY 2009: By the beginning of the next year, things were not looking so great. Europe was hit by the global financial crisis with everyone else, and economies went into recession in 2009.

We have entered the age of the “megatall” skyscraper. 

The first megatall tower — a building that soars over 2,000 feet into the air — opened ten years ago, according to Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). It was the Burj Khalifa, and it set astounding records at 2,722 feet tall or over half a mile high. 

But come 2018, a new building will rise more than 550 feet taller than the Khalifa. 

And the CTBUH predicts that buildings will just keep getting taller. There may even be a kilometer-tall building (that's 3,280 feet) by the end of the next decade.

We rounded up a list of some of the tallest buildings that are currently under construction, according to CTBUH. All of them will be finished by 2020, and four of them are more than 2,000 feet tall. 

Needless to say, the skylines of the future will look a lot different. 

10. Zhongguo Zun, Beijing, China 

Height: 1,732 feet, Floors: 108

Completion: 2018

The name comes from the zun, an ancient Chinese wine vessel that inspired the building design. After completion, the so-called "China Zun" will be Northern China’s second tallest building. 

9. CTF Finance Center, Guangzhou, China

Height: 1,739 feet, Floors: 111

Completion: 2016

CTF Finance Center, is a mixed-use tower under construction in Guangzhou, China. The CTF building will have the fastest elevators in the world at 45 miles per hour. It will take take 43 seconds to go from the first to the 95th floor, according to the BBC. 

8. Nordstrom Tower, New York, New York 

Height: 1,775 feet, Floors: 92

Completion: 2018

225 West 57th Street is a residential project by Extell Development Company. The building will be the second tallest skyscraper in New York City as well as the US when it's finished.

7. Lotte World Tower, Seoul, South Korea 

Height: 1,819 ft, Floors: 123

Completion: 2016

 The Lotte World Tower is estimated to cost $1.25 billion, and will tower over the skyline of Seoul. The skyscraper took 13 years of planning and site preparation before it was approved in 2010 to begin construction.

6. Pearl of the North, Shenyang, China

Height: 1,863 Feet, Floors: 113

Completion: 2018 

The Pearl of the North will cost an estimated $1.6 billion and will be a mixed-used building in Shenyang, China. It will have 34 floors of offices as well as a 320-room five star luxury hotel, according to Architects Journal.

5. Goldin Finance 117, Tianjin, China

Height: 1,957 feet, Floors: 128

Completion: 2016

The Goldin Finance 117, also known as the China 117 Tower, is a skyscraper under construction in Tianjin, China. The building is estimated to cost over $820 million and will (of course) have 117 storeys.

4. Wuhan Greenland Centre, Wuhan, China

Height: 2,087 ft, Floors: 125

Completion: 2017

Wuhan Greenland Centre is an under-construction tower in Wuhan, China. The building is expected to cost around $4.5 billion and has energy-saving features.

3.Ping An Finance Center, Shenzhen, China 

Height: 2,165 feet, Floors: 115

Completion: 2016

Ping An Finance Center is under construction in Shenzhen, China. The tower will cost an estimated $678 million and will be one of the tallest building in the world when it's finished in 2016. 

2. Suzhou Zhongnan Center, Suzhou, China 

Height: 2,392 ft, Floors: 138 

Completion: 2020 

The Suzhous Zhongnan Center is a skyscraper under construction in Suzhou, China. The project will cost an estimated $4.5 billion, and it will be the tallest building in China when it's completed.  

1. Kingdom Tower, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Height:3,281 feet, Floors: 167

Completion: 2018

Expected to cost $1.2 billion to construct, Kingdom Tower will be a mixed-use building with a luxury hotel, office space, serviced apartments, luxury condos, and the world’s highest observatory. 

The Tower will be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and will soar over 550 feet taller than the  United Arab Emirates’ Burj Khalifa. The height of the Kingdom Tower will require the world’s most sophisticated elevator system, and the building will have a total of 59 elevators. 

When finished, it will become the tallest building in the world — but who knows for how long.

SEE ALSO: See The View From The Tops Of The World's Tallest Skyscrapers

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At the end of the day, success in the legal industry still depends heavily on where you go to law school.

SurveyMonkey helped us survey more than 300 American legal professionals to determine the best law school, and this year Yale University replaced Harvard as the No. 1 school.

Click here to read our methodology.

For more on each school, read the full feature of the 50 Best Law Schools In America »

SEE ALSO: The 50 Best Law Schools In America

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On Saturday, New York Times writer Michael Kimmelman made it known that he doesn’t like the design of the new 1 World Trade Center.

Not even a little bit.

In his story “A Soaring Emblem of New York, and Its Upside-Down Priorities,” Kimmelman writes that the David Childs-designed building is “what happens when a commercial developer is pretty much handed the keys to the castle.”

Kimmelman’s major problem with the Financial District’s shiny new tower is that it lacks any soul. Even the symbolic height can’t sway the architecture critic (emphasis ours):

It abruptly stops at 1,368 feet, the height of the former twin towers, achieving its symbolic target number — 1,776 feet — by virtue of a skinny antenna. Counting the antenna is like counting relish at a hot dog eating contest. But it sufficed for the arbitrating Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. So, the building is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, as if that ever meant anything.

He goes on to say that the building doesn’t draw anyone’s eye the way the twin towers once did. “Most New Yorkers hated the twin towers,” Kimmelman says, but at least they “changed, depending on where you stood…as you moved around the city.”

In contrast, the One World Trade center is too symmetrical, too heavy, and too ordinary since it looks the same from every direction. “There’s no mystery, no unraveling of light, no metamorphosis over time, nothing to hold your gaze,” Kimmedlman opines.

Of course, he does acknowledges how hard it must have been to build a skyscraper that not only strived to be the tallest in the Western Hemisphere, but also took on an immense amount of responsibility and symbolism after 9/11. 

And Kimmelman does say that he likes the building’s supersonic elevators and the vaulted, white-washed lobby. He even admits that the architect Childs had a lot of other ideas for the tower, but many of those were vetoed and the final product was not his original vision.

But the good intentions and modern interior are not enough to save the design, which Kimmelman calls a “cautionary tale” as well as “the last thing a young generation of New Yorkers wanted.”

Ouch.

SEE ALSO: The Best New Skyscrapers On The Planet

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As the countdown to Christmas begins, tens of thousands of Amazon workers are getting to work packaging millions of products bought from the giant online retailer. 

Sales show no signs of slowing down after last week's Black Friday when the company sold more than 5.5 million goods. 2014 could even top last year's Christmas sales, which reached a record £13 billion. 

To handle all of this, Amazon has more than 80 massive distribution centres, which put together, comprise more square footage than 700 Madison Square Gardens and could hold more water than 10,000 Olympic swimming pools. The following pictures show what it's like inside five of Amazon's factories, located in the US, the UK, Germany, and Poland. The figures are compiled from statista.com,DMR, and Michael Hyatt. 

These boxes help contribute to Amazon's global net revenue, which is more than £47 billion.

But it wouldn't make anything without its employees, which number well over 100,000.

They help package everything up. Amazon's outbound shipping costs are just over £2 billion.

What makes major tech companies like Apple and Google so successful?

Jan Dawson, founder and chief analyst at independent research firm Jackdaw Research, has a few ideas.

Dawson, who also blogs at Beyond Devices and at Techpinions, put together a slide deck called "Business models in consumer technology" to show what makes the biggest names in tech so successful, and what those companies have in common. 

Here's the intro slide...

This is an abridged version of another deck Dawson has done in the past.

The main things to know about a successful business: it has a profitable core business, and it competes across a number of other categories to create a powerful ecosystem.

Another holiday season, another impossible hunt for that amateur cook in your life who already has all the salt shakers and cook wear they need.

Amateur chefs aren't easy to buy for, especially if you don't know much about the fine art of cooking yourself. Luckily for you, did the hard work for you.

We've rounded up 10 gifts for the food enthusiast in your life that they probably wouldn't buy for themselves. Each item is designed to make a cook's life a little bit easier.

The Vitamix is still one of the best blenders on the market.

It still wows with its double strength motor and specially designed blades that ensure your meal is thoroughly blended.

Buy it here for $480.

A great chef's knife is a must for any serious cook.

Chances are your cook has a chef's knife, but it's probably not as good as this one.

Spoil them with this VMatter knife made out fo a special alloy that doesn't impart a metallic taste, will never rust, and only rarely needs to be sharpened (if ever).

Buy the it here for $250.

The wifikettle by iKettle is a revolution in water heating technology.

No longer must you walk over to your stove and put the kettle on, or even walk over and flip a switch.

Instead, the wifikettle comes with an app on your smartphone so you can boil your kettle from anywhere in the house.

It will alert you when your water is hot and when the water needs to be refilled. It can even be set up to boil on your schedule, saving you precious minutes in the morning.

Buy it here for $157. (Note: It is only available to be imported from the UK, and you must buy a special transformer for it to work with US outlets.)

This year is going to be dominated by personal drones. Why? Because they’re incredibly fun to fly, and becoming increasingly affordable.

Cyber Monday is bringing prices down even further — here’s a roundup of deals not to miss. We and our friends at Stack Commerce put together the ultimate guide for getting a drone, and we've got one for every budget. 

Don't forget to use the code HAPPYCM10 for an extra 10% off. 

UNDER $75: Extreme Microdrone 2.0 [46% Off]

Despite weighing just over an ounce, the Extreme Micro Drone 2.0 (46% off) is impressively equipped with gyro-based stabilization and a camera — in fact, this is the only micro drone in the world with a swiveling lens.

Being so compact means it can fly indoors and out, and it can pull 360º flips. A really nice all-rounder that is forgiving on newbies and ships globally for free.

Get 46% off the Extreme Micro Drone 2.0 ($74.99 incl. global shipping)

Don't forget to use the code HAPPYCM10 for an extra 10% off. 

UNDER $100: Code Black Drone [55% Off]

The Code Black (55% off pre-orders) looks like it emerged from the Batcave, and it has the kind of features the Dark Knight would demand. It is a great out-of-the-box flyer, with a HD camera on board, and it is small enough to fly anywhere.

Plus, it can perform the all-important flips. If you order by Dec. 1, the Code Black will ship in time for Christmas, but the price will rise come mid December.

Get 55% off the Limited Edition Code Black drone + HD Camera ($89 incl. shipping; pre-order)

Don't forget to use the code HAPPYCM10 for an extra 10% off. 

UNDER $125: Panther Spy Drone [55% Off]

At the other end of the scale is the giant Panther Spy drone (55% off), which uses its size for durability. The rotors are surrounded by protective foam, but given that it has gyro stabilization, those guards shouldn’t be needed all that often. It also has a 720p camera, 2.4GHz transmission for good range, and 360º flips in its tricks locker.

Get 55% off the Panther Spy drone with HD camera ($110 incl. shipping)

Don't forget to use the code HAPPYCM10 for an extra 10% off. 

New York's restaurant scene is constantly changing: Even the most hardcore foodies have a hard time keeping up with openings and closings.

We turned to the city's industry insiders to find out what restaurants, chefs, and projects they're most excited about for the coming year.

You may want to mark your calendars with these opening dates: It'll be hard to get a table once they open.

Megan Willett contributed to this post.

The world's most Michelin-starred chef will return to New York.

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon

In October, world-renowned chef Joël Robuchon announced he would reopen his famous L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in New York’s Battery Park City.

The new iteration of NYC's L’Atelier — the more affordable version of Robuchon’s series of eponymous restaurants — will open in March 2015 at Brookfield Place. The new establishment will be 11,000 square feet with both counter and table seating, as well as a bar, lounge, and waterside outdoor area.

"[Famed sushi chef] Jiro Ono himself said that Joël Robuchon has the best palette in the world," said Rachel Sackheim, director of sales at Brooklyn Winery.  "I'm so excited that he'll be re-opening his namesake restaurant in an area that could use the boost.”

A popular Greek spot will open in Williamsburg, along with a beer hall.

MP Taverna

Chef Michael Psilakis serves some of the most inventive and fresh Greek food in the city. He'll open the fourth iteration of his classic Greek taverna, MP Taverna, in a 10,000-square-foot space in Williamsburg in late December 2014 or early 2015.

The space will also house a beer hall and performance art space, set to open in April 2015.

"Top of my NYC hit list right now is the soon-to-be-opened, latest iteration of Michael Psilakis' MP Taverna," said Curtis Stone, celebrity chef and owner of Maude in Los Angeles. "I love the fresh, zippy flavors of Greek food and Psilakis certainly serves up some of the finest in the country; and now in the ultra hip and convenient location of Brooklyn. I can not wait to try this new Greek gem next time I'm out there." 

Gowanus, Brooklyn, will get a Korean barbecue palace/karaoke den.

(No name)

The duo behind popular Red Hook restaurant the Good Fork are expanding their Korean food empire with a Korean barbecue restaurant and karaoke joint in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The still-unnamed project will open in late 2015, according to Eater. 

"It sounds like it's going to be a really fun place to eat great food, get drunk, and embarrass yourself," said Aaron Israel, chef and owner of Shalom Japan.

A luxury villa located on the tip of the Yamu Peninsula on the island of Phuket, Thailand, is on the market for $22.5 million.

The villa was designed by renowned architects Jean-Michel Gathy and Phillipe Starck.

The massive 42,894-square-foot-property has a 10 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms spread across two wings, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The four-level home has sweeping views of the Phang Nga Bay below and all the amenities of a luxury resort: a 24 hour concierge to arrange any excursions, a gourmet chef, a private golf course, a private spa, and gym.

Welcome to Villa Sawarin. The four-level villa sits atop three acres on the on the North Eastern coast of the island of Phuket.

The gorgeous beachfront villa was specifically designed for travelers looking for an escape.

It features a nearly 80-foot infinity swimming pool that overlooks Phang Nga Bay.

After five years on and off the market, former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis has finally sold a beach house he owns in a private community in Spring Island, South Carolina, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The home sold at a loss: Lewis had purchased it in 2002 for $3 million, and wound up selling for "close to" its current asking price of $2.495 million, the listing agent told the Journal.

Lewis, who left the bank at the end of 2009, had slashed the price on the vacation home several times. He co-owned the home along with Dennis Thompson, the founder and CEO of Charlotte, N.C.-based restaurant operator Firebirds International.

The pad has three bedrooms, marsh views, and was once featured in Architectural Digest.

The home exudes southern style. Just look at those columns.

It's located in a private community with a sports complex and equestrian center.

It has a deep-water floating dock on Chechessee Creek.

Your iPhone's display — made of Corning's Gorilla Glass — is incredibly strong and durable. 

To show you just how strong it is, the duo from the MythBusters TV show, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, have conducted a series of torture tests you would never want done on your own smartphone.

The results are astounding.

To demonstrate just how far phone displays have come in a few years, Savage goes to town on this older smartphone by scratching it up with a key.

It didn't fare well.

Next up is a simulated drop test on the same phone.

For consistency's sake the MythBusters drop a weight onto the phone rather than throwing it on the ground. Corning says this simulates a 1 meter drop.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is in a small college town located about 150 miles south of Chicago.

Surrounded by corn and soybean fields, Urbana-Champaign doesn’t strike you at first as a place where future tech leaders would emerge.

It’s why many people fail to realize that UIUC has bred some of the most remarkable tech visionaries in history. They built companies that essentially changed tech history as we know it.

Marc Andreessen - Netscape, Andreessen-Horowitz

Marc Andreessen invented Mosaic, the browser that popularized the web, when he was still at UIUC in 1992. He graduated from UIUC’s computer science program in 1993, and was only 22 years old when he was recruited by the legendary entrepreneur Jim Clark to start Netscape Communications. Together, they created Netscape Navigator, one of the first and most widely used commercial web browsers ever.

Andreessen also co-founded Opsware (formerly Loudcloud) and sold it to HP for $1.6 billion in 2007. He’s now running Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most prominent VC firms in the Valley.

Larry Ellison - Oracle

Oracle’s founder Larry Ellison grew up outside of Chicago and went to UIUC for two years. Although he dropped out after his sophomore year because his adoptive mother had died, Ellison showed signs of brilliance at an early age, even being named the science student of the year at UIUC.

Since its founding in 1977, Oracle went on to become one of the largest enterprise tech companies in the world. Last year, it had over $38 billion in revenue, with more than 122,000 employees worldwide. Ellison is the third richest man on the Forbes List with a net worth of $52.5 billion.

Max Levchin - PayPal

Max Levchin, a computer science grad in 1997, is one of the co-founders of the online money transfer service PayPal. The co-founders of PayPal, widely known as “PayPal Mafia,” include Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. 

Levchin pitched his idea for what had become PayPal to Thiel over breakfast, after meeting for the first time at a Stanford lecture. Thiel wrote the first check for PayPal and Levchin was named the company’s CTO. Eventually, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002.

It's never easy to pick out gifts for the women in your life. Something you think they will absolutely love might turn out to be a terrible idea.

We asked the women of Business Insider what they REALLY want for the holidays and found the perfect places to find those gifts.

So if you have to buy a gift for a special lady in your life, pay attention and take our advice.

"A new hat and gloves—maybe cashmere or something warm."

Keeping warm in winter doesn't mean having to sacrifice style.

Cashmere is soft and warm, and it's an indulgence that one might not buy for themselves. Buy her a cashmere infinity scarf, or cashmere gloves with "Touch Tech," which will keep her hands warm while she texts. 

Price: $89, $42

"A Go Pro (+ Drone)!"

One reporter really wants a Go Pro (and a drone to strap it on!). There are several different models of GoPros, but the company says the HERO is the perfect model for the "entry-level" Go Pro user.

Price: $129.99

"If I got all candles and blankets for Christmas, I'd be so happy."

"I love throw blankets and candles. Candles can be weirdly expensive (especially if they're nice) and I always like to have some nice ones on hand, and a cashmere throw blanket is something that you don't know you need until you have it," a BI-staffer said.

You can't go wrong with a Cashmere throw, and a crisp, fresh smelling candle is the perfect complement.  Go to Bloomingdale's for an Arlotta Cashmere throw, and pick up a Volupsa candle while you're there.

 Price: $279.99, $22.50