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These days women have a new choice when it comes to birth control: their smartphones.

Using a fertility-tracking app like Kindara can help a couple get pregnant or avoid pregnancy. Kindara has helped more than 30,000 women get pregnant so far. CEO William Sacks says the company recently got curious about the thing that makes them pregnant: sex.

So he and his team analyzed 1.5 million bits of data that app users collected about their sexual activity over the last 22 months and discovered some surprising insights.

The most popular time of the year for sex is right now. The winter holidays.

This also explains why Sept. 16 is the most common day for babies to be born, Kindara says.

The weeks around Christmas and the New Year are by far the most popular time of year to have sex...

This was a huge year for video games.

It was the first full year the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were on the market, and we also saw Nintendo’s Wii U console mature thanks to some quality first-party titles.

There were plenty of incredible games this year, but these were the cream of the crop.

14. South Park: The Stick of Truth

As the "New Kid" who moves to South Park, you're thrust into an epic role-playing game between all sorts of fantasy creatures to obtain the "Stick of Truth." The game is not only enjoyable to play, but it retains the inherent heart and humor of "South Park"— and it looks just like the TV show.

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Buy it here.

13. Grand Theft Auto V

After its initial release last November, Rockstar remastered and re-released "Grand Theft Auto V" last month for the next-generation consoles, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The main addition was a comprehensive first-person perspective mode that lets you see the game in a whole new way. Thanks to this single change, the "Grand Theft Auto" series will never be the same.

Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Buy it here.

12. Dark Souls II

The sequel to "Dark Souls" is one of the most difficult, punishing games ever made — but it's also one of the most rewarding. As you traverse various open worlds, fighting off hordes of impossibly strong monsters with very few items at your disposal, you'll be killed again and again. But that means your victories will taste all too sweet.

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Buy it here.

The relentless pace of technology requires companies to either find ways to keep up or face extinction.

We've collected thoughts on leadership from some of the most influential CEOs in the tech world to see how they approach business, develop elite teams, and push people to their full potential.

Elon Musk, Tesla/SpaceX, on why he mistrusts process

"When I interview a potential employee and he or she says that 'it's all about the process,' I see that as a bad sign.

"The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren't that smart, who aren't that creative."

[Wired, October 2012]

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo, on pushing yourself

"I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow. When there's that moment of 'Wow, I'm not really sure I can do this,' and you push through those moments, that's when you have a breakthrough. Sometimes that's a sign that something really good is about to happen. You're about to grow and learn a lot about yourself."

[CNN, April 2012]

Jeff Bezos, Amazon, on focus

"If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering."

[US News, November 2008]

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

First-time buyers will make a comeback into the housing market next year.

That's according to Realtor.com, which forecasts strength in the US housing market in 2015.

"The residual financial effects of recession-driven job losses and subsequent unemployment have impeded millennials' entry into the home-owning market," writes Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Realtor.com. "In 2015, increases in employment opportunities will empower younger buyers to return to the market and fuel the continued housing recovery."

Realtor.com recently released its list of "Top 10 Markets for Housing Growth in 2015." These cities have a great deal of new construction, and their job markets are attractive to young professionals. They range from large metros like Los Angeles, forecast to see increased home sales, to small and affordable cities like Des Moines, Iowa.

Atlanta-Sandy Springs, Georgia.

Local Metrics: Household growth formation ranks seventh in forecast household growth over the next five years. Home sales are expected to grow 11%.

Comment: The Atlanta metropolitan area has the eighth-largest economy in the US and the 17th-largest in the world.

Source: Realtor.com

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas

Local Metrics: Household formation ranks first in forecast household growth over the next five years. The volume of home sales is expected to be up 7%.

Comment: Dallas has more shopping centers per capita than any city in the US.

Source: Realtor.com

Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, Colorado

Local Metrics: Growth in home sales is expected to be up 14%. Housing supply is tight.

Comment: Denver is the second-best city in which to launch a startup among the 50 most populated cities, according to a Forbes ranking.

Source: Realtor.com

19 Gifts The Modern Gentleman Should Buy For Everyone In His Life »

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Iceland is a place of surreal beauty. 

The incredible landscape of the island is staggering. Most of the country is an uninhabited moonscape of craters, bright green moss, towering glaciers, volcanoes, hot springs, and fields of lava rock. 

It is so other-worldly that it is often the backdrop in sci-fi films. Iceland was the inspiration for Tolkien’s stories and is sometimes even used as practice for moon-landings. 

Plus, the people are really, really nice — and I should know since I'm from there.

Here are just a few reasons why Iceland is the most wonderful country on Earth.

1. Because in the mid-1970s Iceland built a geothermal power plant, and accidentally created one of the most visited places in the world: the Blue Lagoon. 

Spillover water from the geothermal power plant created pools in the surrounding lava fields, and when people began to swim in those waters they found that it would heal skin ailments, so they opened it to the public.

2. Because “The Journey To The Center Of The Earth” begins in Iceland. It might be a fictional Jules Verne novel, but you can go to the actual place — it’s called Snæfellsjökull. 

3. Because Icelandic children save Puffins. 

Every August, millions of newborn puffins leave the cliffs of the Westman Island to fly over the north Atlantic. But many will get distracted by the lights of the town of Heimaey and wind up on the streets, so people of the town will scoop them up and take them to the seashore to put them back on the right track. Over the years, it has become a special activity for children.

4. Because Icelanders believe in “hidden people” that live underneath rocks.

It is said that the often-harsh landscape of Iceland inspired the stories of hidden people. While this may seem like a strange belief, it is actually used most often to halt new construction developments, which helps to conserve the natural landscape of the country (seriously!).

5. Because there are thousands of waterfalls throughout the country. Iceland is home to the most powerful waterfall and the largest waterfall complex in Europe. 

6. Because the most famous restaurant in the country is a small hot dog stand in downtown Reykjavik. 

Hot dogs from Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur are basically the national dish of Iceland — not fermented shark. 

7. Because it is the land of the midnight sun. 

To celebrate the summer’s midnight sun, Iceland holds a music festival in Reykjavik called Secret Solstice. The sun doesn’t set during the three day festival. 

8. Because downtown Reykjavik looks like a wonderland of different candy-colored houses. 

9. Because Iceland is ranked as one of “the happiest places on earth,” by the World Happiness Report. It is also ranked as the world's friendliest country. 

10. Because it is so safe that the Icelandic police publicly apologized last year for killing someone for the first time in its history.

11. Because the Icelandic police also have a great sense of humor and a very silly Instagram account.

A photo posted by Lögreglan á höfuðborgarsvæðinu (@logreglan) on Oct 10, 2014 at 1:03pm PDT

12. Because Iceland is a volcanic island that is constantly growing.

13. Because the terrain of Iceland is so different and vast that it also has the largest desert in Europe. 

14. Because they still speak Icelandic, which is a language that has been largely unchanged for over a thousand years. In fact, Icelanders today can still read the ancient Sagas. 

15. Because it is called the best country in the world for women. For six years in a row, Iceland has been rated as the country with the world's smallest gender gap. 

16. Because this is the only traffic you will run into. 

17. Because Iceland is the only place in the world where you can take an elevator directly into a volcano’s magma chamber.

18. Because Iceland has never had a military, or entered into a conflict (expect for a brief conflict that was literally called the “Cod War,” and yes it was about fish). 

19.Because it is one of the best places to catch the Northern Lights. 

20. Because comedian Jon Gnarr ran for Mayor of Reykjavik, the capital city, on a joke campaign called the “Best Party” — and actually won. One of his promises was to put a polar bear in the local zoo. 

Plus, he dresses in drag to support the pride parade in Iceland:

21. Because nearly all of the homes are heated by geothermal energy. 

22. Because Iceland has a higher percentage of writers in its population than any other country in the world. Icelanders also published the most books per capita. In 2011, Reykjavik became a UNESCO City of Literature.

23. Because Icelanders understand that their country is dark and cold for a lot of the year, so they have outdoor geothermal heated pools open all year round, regardless of the weather. 

The custom of bathing in hot springs dates back to the Vikings, but today you can find heated outdoor pools scattered all throughout the cities. Icelanders basically treat the outdoor pools like bars — a place where people meet and gossip after work.

24. Because the landscape of Iceland is so lunar-like that both Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong practiced for the moon landing there. 

(Recognize this place? You may have seen it in Interstellar). 

SEE ALSO: 24 Reasons Sweden Is The Most Delightful Country On Earth

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VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a technology that allows you to connect to any private network from whenever you have internet access, from corporate networks to public or hotel WiFi. Connecting through a VPN automatically encrypts your data, hiding it from hackers or identity thieves.

It works by creating a secured group of devices that can communicate anonymously across a public network (the Internet). They're a must-have if you use public WiFi, where you are most vulnerable to attack. Check out this article on Medium to see why.

Use the tools below (thanks to our friends at Stack Commerce) to protect yourself from hackers looking for your information and identity online. 

VPN Unlimited

This 3-year plan of VPN Unlimited means you can surf the web with peace of mind. This plan has unlimited tat usage and works with a high speed connection. It's got severs around the world, too.

Get 70% off the VPN Unlimited Premium Plan for 3 Years ($19)

TigerVPN

Similar to VPN Unlimited is TigerVPN. You can use it to anonymously browse on nearly any device. It's more expensive than VPN Unlimited, at $49 for 2 years, but it boasts a 256-bit encryption and no data cap, plus it works in 40 countries.

Get 72% off 2 Years of TigerVPN ($49) 

BolehVPN

BolehVPN is one of the top VPN providers on the market, using a super secure AES algorithm. Lifehacker praises BolehVPN for the people working behind the scenes, on top of the great technology.

To use BolehVPN you need to have an iOS device with OS 6.1 or later, Androids with 4.0 or later, a Mac with 10.6 or above, or a Windows computer that has XP or above.

Get 31% off BolehVPN for 2 years ($110).

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"Home" can mean a wide array of things. Far more than four walls and a roof, home is a sanctuary and a shelter. No two are the same.

And some are more unique than others.

From domes to caves, treehouses to igloos, people across the globe live in unconventional dwellings.

Here are some of the strangest.

This house in Abuja, Nigeria, is partially built in the shape of an airplane. The house was built by Said Jammal for his wife, Liza, to commemorate her love for travel.

Source

The Heliodome, a bio-climatic solar house near Strasbourg, Eastern France, is designed as a giant three-dimensional sundial, set on a fixed angle in relationship to the sun's movements. It is built to provide shade during the summer months, keeping the inside temperature cool. During Fall, Winter and Spring, sunlight enters the large windows as the sun's position is lower in the sky, thus warming the living space.

Liu Lingchao, 38, carries his makeshift dwelling as he walks along a road in Liuzhou, China in 2013. Five years ago, Liu decided to walk back to his hometown Rongan county in Guangxi from Shenzhen, some 462 miles away, where he once worked as a migrant worker. With bamboo, plastic bags and bed sheets, Liu made himself a five feet wide, six and a half feet high "portable room," weighing about 132 lb, to carry with him as he walked more than 12 miles a day.

15 Gifts For Any Kind Of Dad »

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With the recent mergers of American Airlines and US Airways, Delta and Northwest, as well as United and Continental, there are just three major international airlines left in America.

As the once great variety of names and brands withered away, so did their iconic paint jobs. Although some of these airlines have gone extinct, others have simply been merged into larger companies. All of them make great candidates for a special edition "retro" paint job to remind the airlines' passengers of its heritage.

Here are a collection 16 from America and abroad that we would love to see taking to the skies once again.

Pacific Southwest Airlines was famous for it's "smiling" paint job. Flyers were treated to this paint job until 1988, when the airline became part of US Airways. Prior to its merger with American Airlines, US Airways actually flew an Airbus A319 with the old PSA design.

For more than 75 years, Trans World Airlines and its iconic red and white airplanes were among the most recognizable in world. The airline, made famous by billionaire Howard Hughes, managed to stay aloft until 2001, when it was swallowed up American Airlines.

As for American Airlines itself, its shimmering unpainted airliners have become a common sight at airports around the world. American Airlines' venerable Massimo Vignelli "AA" logo and corresponding paint scheme went virtually unchanged from 1967 to 2013.

2014 gave us lots of reasons to smile, from the infamous Oscar selfie to the inescapable Ice Bucket Challenge.

It was a year for standing up for what you believe in, setting records, and making a meme of everything.

Before we "Let It Go," let's take a look at the year's highlights in entertainment, tech, business, science, and world news.

Gay marriage became legal in 18 more US states.

Nevada State Sen. Kelvin Atkinson (left) and Sherwood Howard tie the knot, becoming the first same-sex couple married in Las Vegas.

READ MORE: Court Ruling On Gay Marriage Causes Euphoria And Dismay »

Dennis Rodman struck up an unlikely friendship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

In February 2013, Dennis Rodman traveled to North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters for a documentary for media company Vice. He returned this year for a goodwill game with former NBA players.

READ MORE: Dennis Rodman Talks About His Controversial Trips To North Korea And Hanging Out With Kim Jong-Un »

American Eagle stopped Photoshopping images of its lingerie models.

READ MORE: American Eagle Stopped Airbrushing Lingerie Models And Sales Are Soaring »

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14 Gifts Teens Will Actually Want »

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The end of December is near and as we look back on the last 12 months, it felt fitting to roundup our favorite selfies of 2014.

BuzzFeed completed a list of 25 selfies and from there, we chose some of the best from their picks and added some of our own. You can see their full roster of front-facing camera shots here.

From Ellen and pals at the Oscars to the guy who survived a plane crash, these are some of the best, most hilarious, and popular selfies of 2014.

This guy who tried to take a selfie as a train was passing by. We thought it was a hoax at first, but it ended up being real.

Read that story here.

Ellen took a selfie with her famous friends at the Oscars.

This guy survived a plane crash, then took a selfie while floating in the ocean.

Read the full story here.

You are what you read, and if your goal is to build a massively successful company where you call the shots, you might want to start with the following books.

We asked wildly successful entrepreneurs and VCs, including Mark Cuban and Peter Thiel, for their top book recommendation. Here's what they said. 

Bianca Male, Aimee Groth, and Alison Griswold contributed to this article.

"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand

Self-made billionaire Mark Cuban tells Business Insider that this book is required reading for every entrepreneur.

It's also a favorite of Charlie O'Donnell, a partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. He says, "I don't know any book that sums up the entrepreneurial passion and spirit better than 'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand: 'The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.'"

Get it here >>

"The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker

This is one of the three books that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had his senior managers read for a series of all-day book clubs. Drucker helped popularize now commonplace ideas about management. For example, that managers and employees should work toward a common set of goals.

"The Effective Executive" explores the time-management and decision-making habits that best equip an executive to be productive and valuable in an organization.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

Get it here >>

"The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen

Jeff Bezos also had his executives read "The Innovator's Dilemma," one of the all-time most influential business books and a top pick of several other founders and VCs, whose reviews are below.

Steve Blank, a former serial entrepreneur who now teaches at U.C. Berkeley and other schools, says of the book: "Why do large companies seem and act like dinosaurs? Christensen finally was able to diagnose why and propose solutions. Entrepreneurs should read these books as 'how to books' to beat large companies in their own markets."

Chris Dixon, an investor at Andreessen Horowitz and a former cofounder and CEO of Hunch, notes: "'The Innovator's Dilemma' popularized the (often misused) phrase 'disruptive technology,' but there's a lot more than that one big idea. Great insights into the 'dynamics' (changes over time) of markets."

Get it here >>

Everyone's heard about North Korea, the hermit kingdom that hangs off the east coast of China.

Condoleezza Rice called it an "outpost of tyranny." George W. Bush said it was one-third of the "axis of evil." And now James Franco and Seth Rogen are releasing a comedy about it, much to Pyongyang's disapproval.

Despite all of that, we really don't know that much about North Korea. But what we do know is rather mindblowing.

If North Korea's capital were a US city, it would be the 4th-most populous.

The population of Pyongyang is 2.843 million.

The fourth-most populous U.S. city is Houston, Texas. Its population is 2.195 million.

Source: CIA

North Korea has a 100% literacy rate.

The CIA defines literacy as "age 15 and over can read and write."

According to that definition, the literacy rate is 100%.

Source: CIA

There are 28 state-approved haircuts.

According to Time, "Women are allowed to choose one of 14 styles; married women are instructed to keep their tresses short, while the single ladies are allowed let loose with longer, curlier locks."

Men are "prohibited from growing their hair longer than 5 cm — less than 2 inches — while older men can get away with up to 7 cm (3 inches)."

Source: Time

Being an Amazon top reviewer is highly-competitive and kind of surreal. 

"I get hate mail. I’ve had death threats. But then I also have fans who seem to follow everything I do," Mandy Payne, Amazon's #10 top reviewer, told The Boston Globe's Billy Baker. "It’s bizarre."

Payne is part of the company's elite, invitation-only Vine program, which means that she gets boatloads of new products sent to her for free.

Amazon started the Vine program seven years ago to help increase its number of useful reviews. Its only stipulations are that participants need to write reviews of the objects they receive and they can't resell the products afterwards. Companies pay a fee to Amazon to participate. 

The system used to be that Vine Voices would receive a list of goods to choose from every month, but now, they constantly have a queue of new products that they can browse and ask for.

However, prolific top reviewers also often catch the eye of companies desperate for reviews who will send their products over unbidden. Payne told The Globe that every day she receives 15 to 30 boxes of free products (she has received so many Bluetooth speakers, she gave them out on Halloween).

Joanna Daneman, Amazon's #1 Hall Of Fame reviewer, told Business Insider in October that the trove of stuff Amazon sends her each month is "almost an embarrassment of riches."

Like Payne and her hate mail, Daneman admits the Vine program has kindled jealousy in reviewers who aren't part of it. Other Amazon reviewers will sometimes ding a review just because a Vine Voice wrote it. Daneman insists that free items doesn't necessarily equate to a glowing review. 

Daneman receives a wide range of free products through Vine, from the super-expensive to the strange, including strobe lights, green tea powder, a "zombie dissection kit," memory cards, knives, a printer, a soldering iron, baby toys, and a Japanese kitty litter system. Often they're things that Daneman never would have thought to purchase herself otherwise.

When Daneman spoke to Business Insider she had just received a welder, which she planned to test out on a friend's farm over the weekend.

Right now, Amazon's current #1 reviewer is a woman name Ali Julia. Julia has written 2,867 reviews. Payne has penned 2,529. Daneman, 3,067. Amazon won't give away exactly how it determines its rankings, but users speculate it's a combination of frequency and how often a reviewers posts are marked as helpful by customers. 

Daneman told The Globe that she knows from experience that the rankings can be competitive.

"There is definitely targeting. It’s well known," she told The Globe. "You just have to keep calm and keep reviewing."

But there's also a strong community aspect. 

Daneman's fast-paced review-writing habit started in the early 2000s. She was living in Germany at the time and fell in love with Amazon because it was the easiest way for her to get her hands on English books. Daneman is a voracious reader — whipping through 30 or 40 books a month — and since shipping costs so much, she'd carefully pick through reviews before ordering a book.

Daneman started posting reviews in earnest in the early 2000s, when she was living in Germany and used Amazon to feed her reading addiction. After she read each book she had ordered and recieved, she'd write a fun, thorough review. Her insights attracted a following, and when she came back to the states, she actually had several people come visit her. She's still friends with several other reviewers. 

"Amazon created a community," Daneman says. "Wherever else you might buy things online, you're not talking to anybody. On Amazon, you're yakking away to a bunch of people."

SEE ALSO: Amazon Has A Key Weakness

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Many on Wall Street are confident that the rally in equities will continue through 2015.

And when investors bet that certain stocks will fall, it can be hard to tell because they are not required to disclose their short positions.

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