With the Academy Awards comes Hollywood's most glamorous night of the year.

While the show celebrates the best of the year in cinema, the biggest star of the Oscars? The red carpet, of course!

Leading ladies strut down the red carpet wearing gorgeous and unique outfits, and as style evolves, the dresses (or suits, if you're Diane Keaton) evolve, too.

So what does a winner look like? 

Let's take a look at what the best actress winners have worn for the past 42 years.

In 1972, Jane Fonda dressed conservatively in an Yves Saint Laurent suit for her big win for "Klute."

In 1973, Liza Minnelli dressed bright in Halston for her big win for "Cabaret."

Here she is accepting her award. You can see her long flowing yellow dress — pretty much the opposite of what her character, Sally Bowles, wore in "Cabaret."

Suppose you were just offered a new job and the company is fairly flexible with your start date. How much time should you take, if any, between gigs? And what should you do with that time?

Career and workplace experts suggest taking at least one week off to allow yourself to mentally prepare for this next big chapter in your life, and to give your brain a break.

1. Get organized.

Minimize the stress of your first week in a new job by taking time to organize your personal life. "Any projects around the house that have been nagging at the back of your mind? Now's the time to get them done," says Ryan Kahn, founder of The Hired Group, star of MTV's "Hired," and author of "Hired! The Guide for the Recent Grad."

2. Schedule appointments and run errands.

Miriam Salpeter, job search coach and author of "Social Networking for Career Success" and "100 Conversations for Career Success," says your break between jobs is the perfect time to schedule doctor appointments and deliveries that require you to be home, and to run any errands that may be difficult to get done once you start your new job. 

3. Disconnect for a while.

"Take advantage of not having to be reachable during the day, and stop checking your email or looking at Facebook for an afternoon or two," says Sara Sutton Fell, CEO and founder of FlexJobs. "This gives you a chance to reset your brain."

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The James Beard Foundation just released the semifinalists for its 2015 restaurant and chef awards, to be announced May 4.

One of the most coveted awards given by the culinary association is for "best new restaurant," given to a restaurant opened within the calendar year "that already displays excellence in food, beverage, and service, and that is likely to make a significant impact in years to come."

The 25 semifinalists were selected from more than 38,000 entries by a panel of top food critics. Given that thousands of restaurants open in the US each year, these 25 are truly the best of the best. They are listed in alphabetical order.

42 Grams, Chicago

(Left) House tofu w/ bamboo rice shoyu koji and crispy seasoned konbu - (right) passion fruit green tea steamed eggplant, miso, dulse seaweed, sprouted hericot shoot

A photo posted by 42 Grams (@42_grams) on Jan 24, 2015 at 3:04pm PST

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Abe Fisher, Philadelphia

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Alden & Harlow, Cambridge, MA

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When you get caught up in the billion- dollar success stories of tech entrepreneurs, it's easy to overlook some of the adversities they had to overcome.

But some of the most successful tech leaders have faced a reading disorder called dyslexia. It’s a form of learning disability that hampers your ability to read or write.

About 10% to 15% of the US population are dyslexic, but only a small portion of them recognize it and receive treatment.

These 8 tech entrepreneurs and CEOs didn’t let their reading disabilities to slow them down.

Apple’s Steve Jobs

Title: Founder and ex-CEO of Apple

Net worth: $10.2 billion (as of 2011)

Jobs grew up with dyslexia, but that didn’t stop him from building one of the most innovative tech companies ever. Jobs didn’t show any signs of a reading disorder in his career. And it didn't hamper his public speaking either. He's still considered one of the all-time greats.

Virgin’s Richard Branson

Title: Founder of Virgin Group

Net worth: $4.8 billion

Branson was also dyslexic, which made him fail school exams and get terrible IQ scores. But he was still able to launch Virgin Group in 1970 and turn it into a massive conglomerate making over $24 billion in annual sales.

Cisco’s John Chambers

Title: CEO of Cisco

Net worth: $1 billion

Chambers says having dyslexia affected his self-esteem, and even to this day, his hands sweat when he talks about it. But he says it’s also helped think faster, as he told Business Insider,“I can go A, B … Z with speed.”

Whether you're buying a car, renting a home, or even paying a medical bill, sometimes the sticker price just isn't going to cut it.

That's when you need to do some haggling.

You don't have to actually fight, of course, but a little resistance from your end could mean a big discount from the other.

There's a tactful way to go about it, but the bottom line is, you can't be afraid to ask.

1. Maintaining electronics and computers

According to Dina Gachman, author of "Brokenomics: 50 Ways to Live the Dream on a Dime," people don't bargain nearly as much as they should.

Gachman recalls a time in which she was laid off, unemployed, and had run into some issues with her laptop. After she was told it would cost $250 just to have her laptop checked out by someone, she called the company's 1-800-number and used what she calls "trigger words" to lower the repair cost. These words include "inconvenience,""corporate responsibility,""loyal customer," and "please."

2. College tuition

If you're a member of one of those families in which all the siblings end up attending the same school, personal-finance blogger Len Penzo points out that some colleges are known to give discounted tuition or financial aid when multiple family members attend. No siblings? Forbes suggests leveraging a high GPA for more scholarship money instead.

3. Mortgage rates

Mortgage rates are fair game for bargaining — with a little legwork. "Shop around, get quotes, make sure your credit score is stellar, and you should be able to talk about lowering things like processing fees," Gachman writes.

The 87th Academy Awards show is Sunday.

After the Oscar statuettes are handed out, don't feel bad for the losers. They still get to go home with a gift bag worth $167,586.76.

For the past 13 years, Distinctive Assets has put together the "Everyone Wins at the Oscars Nominee Gift Bag."

Twenty-one gift bags will go out to the host and losing nominees in the categories of best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, and best director.

This year's swag bag is the most expensive ever, costing nearly more than double last year's then-record-breaking $85,000 Oscar bag.

In addition to lip gloss and lollipops, the list of luxury items in this year's gift bag includes a $12,500 camping trip and unlimited Audi car rentals for a year valued at $20,000.

A $5.49 bottle of Dove Dry Spray antiperspirant and another bottle of Dove Men+Care antiperspirant.

$24.99 for a 5-pack of assorted fabric cloth pieces from The Tie Thing which help hold ties in place.

Visit their website here.

$36 non-sticky, Vegan-friendly lip gloss from Flickable.

Visit their website here.

When the 87th Academy Awards air on Sunday, you’ll tune in to watch presenters tear open 24 little envelopes to deliver the night’s trophies.  

While we only get to see the outside of a golden envelope, presenters get to see much more than just a winner's name.

The envelope and inside nominee card were simply cream up until five years ago when the Academy hired Marc Friedland, CEO of Couture Communications, to liven up the stationery.

Since then, the winner's names are housed inside a golden envelope.

We've previously spoken with Friedland to find out more about the creation of the envelopes.

Three sets of 24 envelopes and 121 nominee cards have been made for this year’s Academy Awards.

Last year, four sets were made since it wasn't known first lady Michelle Obama would open the best picture envelope.

Here's how we'll see the envelope Oscar night.

And here are what this year's award envelopes will look like from presenters' points-of-view:

When Under Armour was founded in 1996 it made $17,000 in annual revenue. In 2014 it made over $3 billion with a market cap that's swelled to $15 billion.

Founder and CEO Kevin Plank has used breakthrough technology, celebrity endorsements, and clever product placement to make Under Armour a force in the athletic-apparel industry.

When Kevin Plank was a captain on the University of Maryland football team, he grew frustrated with the cotton T-shirts that bunched up under his gear. So he sought to find a fabric that wouldn't get gross, and to build a company around it.

In 1996, Plank founded Under Armour. The first product was a synthetic base layer made to wick away sweat.

He sent prototypes to contacts in the NFL, like former Tennessee Titans tight end Frank Wycheck.

Slightly north of Hong Kong Island there once stood one of the most densely populated places on earth.

From the 1950s until 1994, over 33,000 people lived and worked in Kowloon Walled City, a massive complex of 300 interconnected buildings that took up a city block.

Caught between China and the British-run Hong Kong government, the city was essentially lawless, equally known for its opium dens and organized crime as its dentists' offices. 

Photographer Greg Girard spent years investigating and documenting the strange place before it was demolished. Girard collaborated with Ian Lambot, another photographer, on a book about Kowloon, titled "City of Darkness Revisited," available here.

Girard has shared a number of photos from the project here, and you can check out the rest at the book's website.

Kowloon Walled City was a densely populated, ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, an area north of Hong Kong Island. What began as a Chinese military fort evolved into a squatters' village comprising a mass of 300 interconnected high-rise buildings.

The city began as a low-rise squatter village during the early 20th century. After World War II, Hong Kong experienced a massive influx of Chinese immigrants. This led to a lack of housing in the city. In response, entrepreneurs and those with "squatter's rights" in Kowloon built high rise buildings on the space to capitalize on the housing demand.

At its peak, more than 33,000 people lived in the 6.4-acre city. It was considered by many to be the most densely populated place on earth.

Smartphone cameras have gotten so good that many people don't see the need for traditional cameras — and the truth is that for many people there is no need. But devoted cameras have to have some advantages, right?

We matched an iPhone 6 camera against the DSLR Canon 5D Mark II ($3,000 for the body alone) and the point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot SD1400-IS ($169).

We tested the cameras in various situations, including bright sunny day, moving objects, close up, etc. Don't expect techie jargon or focus charts here. We're just considering what looks best.

Here are the contenders. Starting from the left is the iPhone 6, the Canon 5D Mark II, and the Canon PowerShot SD1400-IS.

We started with a shot inside the office. Fluorescent light can be tricky for cameras to read. On a DSLR, you can change settings depending what kind of light a shot has, and we were able to produce this picture.

The point and shoot camera sees the fluorescent lighting more yellow.

The 87th annual Academy Awards are underway at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Reese Witherspoon, Emma Stone, Bradley Cooper, Michael Keaton, and the rest of this year's nominees will all be making appearances.

See who brought the glitz and glamour, and who maybe should have stayed off the red carpet.

Lady Gaga in custom Azzedine Alaïa (which took 25 people and 10 weeks to make) with pregnant "The Imitation Game" best supporting actress nominee Keira Knightley in Valentino.

"Wild" best actress nominee Reese Witherspoon in Tom Ford.

Best supporting actress nominee Emma Stone in an Elie Saab dress.

Two decades ago today, 27 year old Nick Leeson fled Singapore after he was no longer able to suppress the ultimate collapse of Barings Bank.

He had made unauthorized derivatives transactions in the futures trading pits of the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX), and those trades ultimately brought Barings to its knees.

The Barings scandal remains the one of the most significant episodes in financial history and 20 years later it’s still fascinating to review how it all happened.

Barings Bank was one of the most storied global financial firms in history.

Barings Bank was founded in 1762 and had a storied history, which most notably included financing the Louisiana Purchase by the United States from France, the largest land transaction in history.

Throughout it’s history, Barings had an active role in international finance and continued to underwrite many sovereign issues and provide trade finance in what were then emerging markets such as the Canada, Argentina and the USA amongst others.

Domestically, Barings held an esteemed pedigree by serving banker to the Queen of England which made the bank’s bankruptcy caused in remote Singapore all the more shocking.

Leeson was promoted from settlements clerk to broker at Barings in 1992.

In July 1992, Nick Leeson was promoted from a settlements clerk at Barings to establish a brokering operation on the SIMEX trading floor although he lacked any previous trading floor experience.

The role of Barings’ operation in SIMEX was intended to be limited to order execution and facilitating arbitrage between the SIMEX trading pit and an electronic market in Osaka, Japan which listed similar futures contracts.

His operation started losing money, though, and he skillfully hid those losses in account no. 88888.

Leeson’s understanding and oversight of back office settlements in addition to also managing the trading floor operation allowed him to perpetuate accounting fraud to hide losses.

The infamous account 88888 was initially established as an error account to place trades into when mistakes were made by clerks or brokers of Baring’s trading floor operation.

The number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese culture but in this instance it certainly wasn’t so. Rather than net the losses of the error account against revenue, Leeson would speculatively trade in an effort of recouping them.

Eventually Leeson was stuck with an error from his clerk and instead of trading the 88888 account back positive, it snowballed into uncontrollable losses.

Many American cities were named after English locations.

Using Google street view, we put together a slideshow of British and American towns and cities that share the same name. 

You'll notice that just because these places share a moniker, doesn't mean they look alike.

First up is London, England.

London, Ohio, has a very different vibe.

There are some beautiful canals in York, England.

In her new book "The Art of War Visualized," cartoonist Jessica Hagy brings the ancient wisdom of Sun Tzu to a new generation.

The creator of Indexed has updated Tzu's famous Chinese military book "The Art of War" with original illustrations to explain how to apply his advice to the modern business world.

Business Insider asked Hagy to annotate a few of her favorite pages from the book.

Continue reading to find out how to harness "The Art of War" in your life.

It's that time in New York where power-mongering retail buyers and high-end designers decide what we'll be craving for the rest of the year, while editors jockey for front row seats.

Not Fashion Week, Toy Fair.

While there are plenty of new "Frozen" products for the younger set, we also found cool goodies that are either specifically designed for us, or at least get away with setting on your desk without claiming that "some kid must have put it in my bag."

Robert Haynes-Peterson covers wine, spirits, cocktails and luxury lifestyle topics. Including toys. He lives and drinks in New York City.

Building Bricks

No one's going to fault you for coveting the latest Lego Star Wars kit (there's a huge new Boba Fett Slave 1 ship out!). But the age range on the box still tops out at 14.

Enter Todd McFarlane Toys. McFarlane (creator of the "Spawn" comic books) set about creating a grown-up building block set with a more finished look. Super detailed components, like Daryl on his bike, the Governor's zombie-head room or modular prison cells run between about $10 and $70. It also means you can display a small build on your desk, or turn the entire basement into a postapocalyptic nightmare.

Not a zombie fan? McFarlane says more themes are coming up. We're rooting for "Breaking Bad's" SuperLab.  

Find it here.

Race Tracks

The new, non-slotted Anki race system is seriously cool in a way Hot Wheels never could be.

Taking a cue from the "toys to life" category (think Disney Infinity), Anki is a radically different sort of track: Your smartphone controls the car, which can traverse any part of the track, accelerate, and even battle other cars (for points, achievements and to unlock upgrades). There's an entire virtual story arc, but the action happens in the real world. Race or battle against friends (iOS and Android) or NPCs with AI capability.

"We like to bring out the little kid in everybody," says Joby Otero, chief creative officer at Anki. Generation 2—Anki Overdrive, previewed at Toy Fair—consists of flexible, interchangable segments, allowing you to design endless tracks.

$150 for a starter set with two cars, chargers, 10 track components and the downloadable app.

Find it here. 

Power Trikes

Remember Big Wheel? Plastic tricycles with giant wheels that (on TV at least) power-slid around corners years before "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift."

Designer Matt Arbruster decided it was time to up the ante with a full-sized ride. The "High Roller" features the bright yellow seat from your childhood on a metallic red steel frame. 14-inch rear wheels provide maximum slide and drift, and the whole thing can be accessorized and customized.

At $650 - $800, nostalgia doesn't come cheap, but it does come fully loaded with fun. 

Find it here.

Since LinkedIn launched in 2003, its cofounder and chairman Reid Hoffman has watched the professional networking site grow to 300 million users around the world.

It's safe to call him an expert in the career-advancing power of networking.

In his latest book "The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age,"cowritten with entrepreneurs Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh, Hoffman explains the benefits of having employees who are active networkers both internally and externally.

Hoffman and Casnocha created a new presentation detailing their thoughts on "network intelligence," which they've allowed us to share here. 

Wandsworth Council invited developers and architects to submit ideas for a new bridge in London's Battersea that will connect Nine Elms to Pimlico as part of a multi-million pound project.

The "NEP Bridge Competition" received submissions from 74 professional teams around the world. A shortlist will be announced in March after the first round of judging. The winner will get a budget of more than £26 million, if the bridge gets through planning.

To begin, here's an overview of south-west London, where the bridge will be built.

It would connect upmarket Pimlico with Nine Elms, a part of London undergoing huge development at the moment. This bridge has mini forests at each end.

West London is home to the famous West End. This one is basically just an open theatre.

Hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, who runs Kase Capital, wrote in a group email on Monday that he thinks SodaStream's shares are about to "skyrocket." 

"...mark my words. I wouldn’t change a word of my presentation on SODA at the Robin Hood Investors Conference last [October]." 

Tilson is long the stock. Shares of SodaStream have tumbled more than 14% since Tilson gave his presentation.

On Sunday, the New York Times published an article about how sales have fallen at SodaStream. The article also pointed out that it's a hassle to replace the SodaStream canister when you can just buy a ready-to-drink soda.   

"A) The article focuses on what a hassle it is to replace the SodaStream canister, but I’ve found it to be really easy – just bring it in to any one of 60,000+ stores and walk out with a new one. And what about the hassle of schlepping a bulky, heavy container of soda water bottles through the supermarket, to the car, to your home/apartment, and putting it away?" Tilson wrote in his email. 

He continued: "B) Sure, you can buy a liter of sparkling water for 89 cents – but that’s more than TRIPLE the 23-27 cents per liter if you have a SodaStream machine." 

It sounds like Tilson is a big fan of the product, too.

We've included his slide deck from the Robin Hood Conference, which was closed to the media, in the slides that follow. 

The winning design of a 2013 micro apartment design competition is finally being built in New York City.

Called My Micro NY, the 55 affordable units are being assembled in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and will be stacked this spring in Manhattan’s Kips Bay, according to The New York Times.

The apartments will be perfect for New York’s large small-family renting population. And one of the biggest draws is that the apartments will also have awesome amenities. 

“Amenities have become much more important to people as apartments have gotten smaller,” the executive vice president of new development at Douglas Elliman Cliff Finn told The Times. 

The 55 rental apartments will only be 260- to 360-square-feet, but they’ll have big windows, Juliet balconies, and lots of storage space — something anyone living in a small space will tell you is imperative.

Plus, the “micro” building itself will have lots of public spaces for residents looking to get out of their tiny pad, including a public meeting space, café, common rooftop garden, as well as a laundry room, residential storage space, bike room, and fitness room.

Essentially, these new micro apartments are like college dorm rooms for adults.

The amenities also make the units much nicer places to live. Instead of feeling cramped in a small living space, renters can make use of the rest of the building which will foster a community and make the apartments “livable, safe, healthy,” as Mayor de Blasio’s new housing plan puts it.

Read more about New York’s coming micro-apartments here.

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