Today, Sphero unveiled its BB-8, the $149.99 take-home version of the droid that's poised to take the world by storm when "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" hits theaters in December.

Sphero chief creative officer Rob Maigret told Business Insider that BB-8 is the most "droid-like" home robot ever.

Part of what makes a droid a droid, Maigret says, is that they have a job and a purpose — C-3PO is a translator, R2-D2 is an astromech navigator for X-Wing fighters, and so on.

To put that to the test, BI decided to put BB-8 to work as our new intern in our San Francisco office.

BB-8 doesn't have a lot of journalism experience, and he's a little behind on the news, given that his last adventure was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But he's got a lot of personality.

Here's how it went — and remember, if you want to work with BB-8 and the rest of the crew, Business Insider is hiring.

Special thanks to Biz Carson, who helped take these photos.

SEE ALSO: Google's stylish new Wi-Fi router is amazing — but not worth $199

BB-8 came to us in this box, made to look like a droid shipping container from across the galaxy.

Inside the box, BB-8 looks like he's sleeping. But enough naptime, little guy. Time to get to work!

Like a lot of interns, BB-8 needs a little direction. Fortunately, he has an iPhone/Android app that lets you steer him the right way.

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Young professionals with student debt may want to consider moving out west.

That's what personal finance social network WalletHub found in a recent student debt study, revealing that borrowers living in Utah, Wyoming, and North Dakota are doing the best job of paying off their loans.

The site looked at seven metrics across all 50 states to determine which states' residents are best positioned to pay off their loans (read the full methodology on WalletHub), including the average student debt per borrower, the proportion of students with debt, and the unemployment rate of millennials (defined as age 25 to 34).

Here, we've highlighted the 10 states that make it easiest for residents to pay off student debt. 

For reference, compare the state-specific data to these national statistics:

• Average student debt per borrower: $28,400
• Percentage of students in the US who graduate with debt: 69%
• Millennial unemployment rate (25 to 34): 5.5%

Of course, there's no guarantee that relocating is a quick fix for getting out of debt, but the student-loan borrowers in the states below are faring better than the rest. We also included WalletHub's interactive map showing the rankings of all 50 states.

SEE ALSO: Why I'm grateful to have $70,000 of student loan debt

10. South Dakota

Average student debt per borrower: $25,750

Percentage of residents who graduated with debt: 72%

Millennial unemployment rate: 3.2%

9. Colorado

Average student debt per borrower: $24,520

Percentage of residents who graduated with debt: 55%

Millennial unemployment rate: 4.7%

8. Minnesota

Average student debt per borrower: $30,894

Percentage of residents who graduated with debt: 70%

Millennial unemployment rate: 3.5%

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There’s a growing trend of people quitting their jobs and selling their possessions to travel around the world, constantly posting gorgeous photos of the food, scenery and themselves.

The pictures look glamorous, but how easy is it really to save up for such a massive trip?

In a new blog post, South African couple Chanel Cartell and Stevo Dirnberger reveal the dirty side of their sabbatical — they're often cleaning toilets, shoveling rocks, and even spreading cow dung, first spotted by the AdWeek's Tim Nudd who had previously interviewed the couple.

Keep reading to see their story, as well as their amazing travel Instagram pics.

Dirbirger wrote an entry called “Why We Quit Our Jobs in Advertising to Scrub Toilets” that said while the couple’s experience has been amazing, that doesn’t mean they’re not working hard along the way to make ends meet.

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You can read the whole blog post here

“So far, I think we’ve tallied 135 toilets scrubbed, 250 kilos of cow dung spread, 2 tons of rocks shovelled, 60 metres of pathway laid, 57 beds made, and I cannot even remember how many wine glasses we’ve polished,” he wrote on their website How Far From Home.

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When Dirnberger and Cartell first decided to take a year off from their advertising job, they told AdWeek that they started saving and researching straight away. They were well aware it would not be easy.

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While traveling alone might seem scary, it doesn't have to be.

In fact, there are many reasons to travel alone. Solo travel allows for more self-reflection, and chances are, you'll take in more of the culture.

We've put together a list of 30 places that are ideal for traveling alone, from an adventure in New Zealand to a relaxing getaway in Cinque Terre, Italy.

Because the majority of the US is safe for solo travel, we decided to focus more on international destinations.

SEE ALSO: Here's why I think everyone should travel alone at some point in their life

FOLLOW US: BI Travel is on Twitter!

New Zealand offers plenty of adventure for the single traveler. There's everything from bungee jumping and boat cruises to bike rides and hikes to take up your travel time — chances are you won't even think about the fact that you're solo.

Norway's fjords make for beautiful sightseeing. Plus, the country is very safe for solo travelers — the OECD Better Life Index gave Norway a particularly high safety rating and reported that the country has low crime and homicide rates.

Click here to see more of Norway's fjords >

Click here to learn more about Norway's safety >

Switzerland's landscapes are breathtaking, and the country is small and public transportation is incredibly clean and efficient, making it an easy and accessible place to explore on your own. Charming cities such as Zurich and Lucerne are both on the water and great for walking around, shopping, and enjoying some delicious food.

To learn more about Switzerland, click here >

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Throughout the summer, droughts have ravaged California and Brazil. Wildfires raged and burned in the American West, Europe, and Asia. A heat wave in the Middle East brought temperatures over 120 degrees Fahrenheit to Iraq — and it felt like 164 F in Iran.

July was the hottest month ever recorded.

Scientists are trying to figure out if super-hot summers exacerbated by climate change are just the new normal.

Scroll through for a look at the way people around the globe sweated through a sweltering month.

Greece dealt with extreme heat along with a debt crisis. This man tried to stay cool at a beach outside of Athens.

About 500 km away, in another part of Greece, local residents near the town of Neapoli struggled to extinguish this wildfire.

Such fires raised alarm around the world this summer. Firefighters in the West worked to contain blazes like this one in Lake County, California.

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Your 20s come with a bunch of firsts: your first apartment, first job, and of course, your first consistent paycheck.

While it can be tempting to start spending your newly earned money in all the same places, that may not be the best option for your financial future.

We spoke to Jonathan Meaney, a certified financial planner and wealth manager at Carter Financial, about the smartest things 20-somethings who are just starting out their careers can do with their money.

Consider these important purchases and investments before hitting the town or shopping on Fifth Avenue:

SEE ALSO: The 9 worst money mistakes to make in your 20s

1. Pay off student debt.

In 2013, a full 70% of college students graduated with debt, averaging $30,000 in student loans.

Student loan debt in particular is often blamed for preventing young people from buying homes and growing their wealth, so the sooner you can start living debt-free, the better.

If you have debt, it's usually in your best interest to pay more than your minimum payment, thereby reducing the length of your loan and the amount you pay in interest. If you aren't sure where to start, consider the advice from 13 real people who paid off thousands.

2. Enroll in your company's 401(k) plan.

"Pay yourself first," says Meaney. "It's one of the smartest pieces of advice you can get." This means, first and foremost, contribute to your 401(k) if your employer offers one, and take full advantage of your company's 401(k) match program — which is essentially free money — if it has one.

Also, get in the habit of upping your contribution on a consistent basis — just 0.5% of an increase can make a difference — either once a year or every time you get a raise. Check online to see if you can set up "auto-increase," which will automatically increase your contributions every year.

3. Contribute to a Roth IRA.

Another retirement account worth investing in is a Roth IRA, says Meaney. Contributions to this type of fund are taxed when they're made, so you can withdraw the contributions and earnings tax-free once you reach age 59 1/2.

There's an income cap ($116,000 a year or less for individuals; $183,000 or less for married couples filing jointly), so they're particularly well-suited to younger people.

"Typically, when you're starting off in the workforce, you have an income level that would not disqualify you from doing a Roth IRA, which is a very attractive retirement savings vehicle," explains Meaney.

Disney unveiled its huge product line centered around "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" midnight Friday.

Among the new toys and merchandise are a bunch of new LEGO sets.

We headed down to the LEGO store in NYC to check out all of the new products first hand.

From TIE fighters to a new X-Wing, check them out below.

The majority of new LEGO sets are easily identifiable. The new "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" villain, Kylo Ren, is featured along the top of the packaging.

The Millennium Falcon is back and looks better than ever. The $149.99 set comes with 1,329 pieces including a detachable cockpit, a rotating top, and laser turrets with a hatch.

You can buy it here.

Here's the back of the box. It opens up to reveal the inside along with a secret compartment.

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The US has an enormous economy, and that economy is the sum of the economies of 50 states and the District of Columbia.

We noted previously that those state economies are big enough and complex enough to compare with those of entire countries, and so we are once again taking a closer look at what makes those economies work.

We ranked the economies of these states, and DC's, on seven measures: unemployment rates, gross domestic product per capita, average weekly wages, and recent growth rates for nonfarm payroll jobs, GDP, house prices, and wages.

While we didn't factor them into the ranking, we also looked at the Fortune 1000 companies that have their headquarters in each state and which industries were disproportionately important in each state. This helped us get a little more insight into what makes each state economy tick.

For more details on methodology and sources, click here.

SEE ALSO: 16 charts that illustrate America's global dominance

51. Mississippi

Mississippi came in last in our ranking of state economies. Chicken, soybean, cotton, and rice farming are among the state's most disproportionately large employers.

Mississippi had the lowest 2014 GDP per capita of any of the states, at just $35,019, and the lowest Q4 2014 weekly wage, at $747. The rate at which both of those measures was changing were also weak: Mississippi had the second-lowest GDP growth rate, with state GDP shrinking by 1.2%. The average weekly wage grew just 2.3% between Q4 2013 and Q4 2014.

50. West Virginia

West Virginia's economy revolves around the coal industry, with underground and surface coal mining coming in as the most disproportionately important industries in the state.

West Virginia was one of just two states in which fewer people were working in June 2015 than in June 2014, with a drop of 1.2% in nonfarm payrolls over the year. The Appalachian state was also one of only three states where housing prices dropped between Q1 2014 and Q1 2015, and had the biggest drop in the state housing price index, falling 3.90%. One bright spot was that GDP grew by 5.1% in 2014, higher than the national rate of 2.2%.

49. Alabama

Alabama has several manufacturing industries, including textile mills, logging operations, and poultry hatcheries.

Alabama's 2014 per capita GDP of $41,127 was far lower than the US per capita GDP of $54,307. GDP growth was also slower than in other states, increasing just 0.7% in 2014. Alabama's housing market remains lackluster, with housing prices rising just 1.8% between Q1 2014 and Q1 2015.

I just had a dining experience straight out of "The Jetsons."

Futuristic fast-food chain Eatsa opened today near San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center. The vegetarian restaurant, which specializes in quinoa bowls that cost about $7, uses technology to automate the ordering and pick-up processes.

Customers can dine in or out without interacting with a single human. Yes, it's a little scary.

Eatsa is backed by techie David Friedberg, who sold his big-data weather-prediction startup The Climate Corporation for about $1 billion in 2013.

For those expecting Rosie, the Jetson family's robot maid, to roll out from behind the kitchen doors and deliver a quinoa bowl to your table — prepare to be disappointed. There are some smoke and mirrors at play.

But still, Eatsa is worth a visit for the sheer awe of its automation and quality of its food.

I arrived at Eatsa, located near San Francisco's bustling Embarcadero, shortly before noon, and there was already a line out the door.

Almost immediately, the illusion was shattered. A very human employee greeted me and my coworker Jillian to introduce us to the restaurant's app.

It was very intuitive. The menu is split into quinoa bowls, sides, and beverages. There's a build-your-own bowl option for folks with specific tastes.

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Nothing suggests the height of human achievement and economic prowess quite like a skyscraper.

The newly completed 2,073-foot-tall Shanghai Tower is officially the second-tallest building in the world (behind Dubai's Burj Khalifa) and the tallest in China.

And taller skyscrapers are planned, such as China's Sky City and Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Tower.

But as "cool" as all of these buildings are, glitzy construction booms have historically coincided with the beginnings of economic downturns, according to Barclays' "Skyscraper Index." (For all you economics wonks out there, basically, skyscrapers can be considered a sentiment indicator.)

Using Barclays' index, we pulled together 10 skyscrapers whose constructions overlapped with financial crises.

Equitable Life Building (1873)

The Long Depression, 1873–1878

The Long Depression, a pervasive US economic recession with bank failures, coincided with the construction of the Equitable Life Building in New York City in 1873.

The 142-foot building was the world's first skyscraper. (You could stack 14 of these on top of one another, and they still wouldn't be taller than China's new Shanghai Tower.) 

Source: Barclays

Auditorium (1889) and New York World (1890)

British banking crisis, 1890

Chicago's 269-foot-tall Auditorium, completed in 1889, and New York's 309-foot-tall New York World, completed in 1890, coincided with the British banking crisis of 1890 and a world recession.

Source: Barclays

Masonic Temple, Manhattan Life Building, and Milwaukee City Hall (1893)

US panic marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding, 1893

Chicago's 302-foot-tall Masonic Temple, the 348-foot-tall Manhattan Life Building, and the 353-foot-tall Milwaukee City Hall coincided with the US panic of 1893 marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding.

It also overlapped with a string of bank failures and a run on gold.

Source: Barclays

Natalie Massenet created high-fashion retailer Net-a-Porter at her kitchen table in her flat in Chelsea in 2000. Now, its flagship website has six million unique visitors per month and sells 390 labels in 170 countries. The group runs hugely successful sports, menswear and discounted fashion sites too.

Massenet announced this week that she is leaving the fashion giant, shortly after confirming a merger between Net-a-Porter and Italian online fashion retailer Yoox.

The news came as a surprise to many people, both inside and out of the company, as Massenet had repeatedly made it clear that she intended to stay at Net-a-Porter for a long time. According to Bloomberg, she will leave the Net-a-Porter group with over £100 million ($153 million) following the sale of shares in her company.

During the 15 years since founding Net-a-Porter, Massenet has become a fixture of the fashion industry, and can be counted on to be in the front row of every big catwalk show in the company of countless celebs.

But money and influence aside, Massenet is described as a fun-loving friend and boss who loves her family and has an uncanny ability to recite lines from "When Harry Met Sally" from memory. 

Massenet was born in LA to former journalist and film publicist Bob. L Rooney and British model Barbara Jones, who was also a movie stand-in for Sophia Loren.

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She spent her early childhood in Paris and moved back to LA at age 12 when her parents divorced. She spent a year in Tokyo as a fashion model and stylist, and was also a receptionist at Universal Studios.

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The idea for Net-a-Porter was inspired by Massenet's journalism career. She started out as a fashion journalist at Women's Wear Daily in 1991.

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Google is quite possibly the best place to work in the world.

The tech giant headquartered in Mountain View, California, frequently ranks top tier on Business Insider's Best Companies To Work For In America list, landing in the No. 2 spot this year. Google was also judged to be the World's Most Attractive Employer this year by global research and advisory firm Universum, and employee ratings on Glassdoor earned the company the No. 1 spot on Glassdoor's Employees' Choice Awards, Best Places to Work 2015.

Google's more than 57,000 employees love everything the "Googleplex" has to offer, including free Wi-Fi-enabled shuttles to and from work, free healthy meals, laundry and fitness facilities, 18 weeks of fully-paid maternity leave for birth moms and on-site childcare, and competitive pay — they report 84% high job satisfaction and earn a median salary of $133,000 after five years, according to survey data from PayScale.

Laszlo Bock, Google's HR boss, explains in his book, "Work Rules!," that the key to a successful workplace is constantly innovating, experimenting, and keeping things fun.

"What's beautiful about this approach is that a great environment is a self-reinforcing one: All of these efforts support one another, and together create an organization that is creative, fun, hardworking, and highly productive," he writes.

Google has over 70 offices in more than 40 countries around the world. Mayra Felix, a strategic program manager for the Americas with Google's Global Account Management team, works in the company's California headquarters.

She started her career at Google in 2013 as a regional account manager, and prior to that moved to the US from Ecuador to attend Georgetown University.

We spoke to Felix to find out what it's really like to work for one of the world's top employers. 

Here's what she said:

SEE ALSO: Here's what it's REALLY like to work in an Apple store

Current role

As a program manager, I manage and oversee projects across many areas of the business. A typical day for me consists of working cross-functionally with marketing, data, and sales teams, keeping track of performance, identifying challenges, and planning the next initiative that will move the needle in our business.

As a Googler, I start my day by taking the shuttle from San Francisco to Mountain View (which has Wi-Fi so I can work if I'm awake enough!). Once at the office, I get freshly made breakfast and coffee to kick off the day. I then go to my desk, reply to urgent emails, and attend meetings.

I get lunch at one of the three cafés on my side of the campus and will venture to new ones across campus if I have time. I try to take breaks by walking my coworkers' dog, getting a snack in the microkitchen, or working out at the gym if I'm feeling energetic.

Hiring process

Google's hiring process is holistic and focuses on looking for a person who's a great fit for the job, for Google, and for other things outside their core role. Each interview focuses on discovering a different aspect of a candidate's strengths.

In my case, I went through five interviews focused on leadership, role-related knowledge, problem solving, and "Googleyness."I was asked a series of analytical and sales-related "fire drills" based on real business cases. It was challenging, but they were really the type of questions I deal with on a daily basis, so I think it was great preparation for my current role.

Advice for applying to Google

Do your homework. Make sure you understand our vision, know our products, and are aware of how your unique story contributes to making Google such a special place.

Also, make sure you understand the role you're applying for, the impact it brings to Google, and how your skills make you a great candidate for it.

Before applying to Google I spent days watching videos on Google's culture and early days, read articles on tech trends and Google's big bets, dove deep into product research, and reached out to my network for advice and feedback.

My second piece of advice: Don't be afraid to ask questions. Asking the right questions is the key to gaining more insights, putting your curiosity to the test, and showing that you are eager to learn — that is at the core of being a Googler.

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Doug Battenhausen thinks all our advances in cell phone cameras and photo-sharing technology haven’t made our pictures better, but rather more sterile. We all know how to get the perfect selfie now, with just the right filter — but to him, that’s boring.

What Battenhausen is interested in, and has been collecting since 2010 on his blog “Internet History,” are photos that are beautifully amateurish, and capture strange moments.

To find these types of photos, Battenhausen mines the forgotten reaches of the internet, particularly defunct photo accounts on sites like the (now-deleted) Webshots, Flickr, or Photobucket.

“If there's one rule I try to keep to all the time,” Battenhausen says. “It's that I try to find pictures that have been abandoned. If you're still actively using your photosharing website, I don't want to encroach on that. Through 'Internet history,' I think I'm giving a second life to orphans.”

But Battenhausen doesn’t just take any old photo. He has a remarkable eye for finding ones that can evoke some emotion. He describes them as sometimes funny, sometimes bad, but usually photos that give him a feeling of “comforting sadness.”

The photos on his site, which were once featured in an exhibit at the Rhode Island School of Design, are both bizarre and everyday at the time. Perhaps the best word to describe them is wistful.

See the photos below, which have a meditative quality when you scroll through them:

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Whether you prefer a straight shot of tangy espresso or a few sweet sips of a blended coffee drink, chances are you love coffee.

Not only is this bittersweet drink one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, its active ingredient — caffeine — is the most popular psychoactive drug.

We recently visited a coffee farm in Costa Rica, one of the world's most desirable locations for growing and harvesting the crop.

The coffee plants here, just like those across the globe, face a big challenge: All of them are sourced from just a handful of original Ethiopian plants, meaning they're genetically similar and highly vulnerable to climate change.

Take a walk through a Costa Rican coffee farm and see how the threatened but valued crop goes from berry to brew:

UP NEXT: What caffeine does to your body and brain

SEE ALSO: 11 health benefits of caffeine, the most commonly used psychoactive drug in the world

Our drive to a coffee farm called Cafe Monteverde took us up a mountain on a dirt road for about an hour and a half. On our way, we got some breathtaking views of the area's rugged, hilly terrain and gorgeous forest cover.

The region of Monteverde, where a lot of Costa Rica's coffee is grown, is a misty, cloud-enshrined area about three hours from San Jose, the capital. The humid, shady climate is ideal for growing coffee plants, but the drive to reach it can be a challenge if you're not familiar with the roads.

My partner (right) and I were introduced to the farm by Felix Salazar (left), a nature photographer born and raised in Monteverde who also works on the farm and gives tours in his free time. Felix walked us through the rolling green fields where the coffee for Cafe Monteverde is grown.

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We recently released our seventh annual list of the best colleges in America, which included schools from all over the US.

We decided to narrow that list down to take a closer look at the top colleges in the Northeast region.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology still occupied the No. 1 spot. Harvard slid up one notch to take Stanford's place at No. 2, and Princeton moved up a spot to round out the top three.

To determine the rankings, we asked over 1,000 Business Insider readers to choose the colleges that best prepare their students for success after graduation. We then combined those results with each school's average SAT score from the college-data website College Board and the median starting salary from the employer-information website PayScale to come up with the final ranking. You can read the full methodology here.

Read on to see the top schools in the Northeast. 

SEE ALSO: The 50 best colleges in America

SEE ALSO: The 50 best colleges where students earn high starting salaries

48. Yeshiva University

Average SAT score: 1845

Median starting salary: Unavailable

Located across four campuses in New York City, Yeshiva University offers majors in three undergraduate colleges and 22 academic departments. The Jewish university also sponsors the Joint Israel Program, which partners students with other Jewish universities and seminaries while they study in Israel.

47. Sarah Lawrence College

Average SAT score: 1915

Median starting salary: $39,000

At Sarah Lawrence in Bronxville, New York, the curriculum is based around small seminars, studios, and workshops, allowing students to deeply engage with the material and each other. The school also gives students immense flexibility in choosing their courses, so each each student can personalize their studies according to their own interests and passions. 

46. Bryn Mawr College

Average SAT score: 1995

Median starting salary: $44,600

Located just outside Philadelphia in a town of the same name, Bryn Mawr College partners with other Pennsylvania schools, including Haverford and Swarthmore, allowing students to greatly expand their areas of study. The women's college also has partnerships with more than 70 different study abroad programs, so students can choose the experience that best suits them.

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If you've been labeled a "bad boss," you'll probably be the last to know.

"Your staff will be very adept at making it a well-kept secret because they will do everything to keep their job security intact," says Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and the author of "Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job.""But if you decide to boost your emotional intelligence radar and look for subtle signs that your team may be unhappy, you'll uncover a wealth of actionable feedback."

Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of "The Humor Advantage," agrees that it's important to know how your employees feel about you. When they don't like you, there are consequences, he says. For instance, they'll be less happy and more stressed (which affects things like their productivity and creativity); they may quit on you (which will cost you and your company time and money); they may give you bad reviews or complain to HR (which puts your job in jeopardy); and you'll have trouble earning their respect, being viewed as credible, and getting them to listen to your opinions.

"Your goal as a manager is not to be liked by everyone; if it is, you won't be making the best decisions for the company," says Taylor. "But if you're an insensitive manager, no amount of intelligence or business skills will ever take you far in your own career advancement. You will always need a strong team and following to thrive in your career." 

So, to avoid having to deal with those consequences, among many others, you'll need to recognize the signs and make changes to your behaviors, attitude, and approach to leading.

Here are 14 subtle signs your employees may secretly hate you: 

SEE ALSO: The 6 Most Common Personality Traits Of Horrible Bosses

You've got a (bad) gut feeling.

"The very first sign that things are going awry in your relationships with employees is a general gnawing feeling that you can't put your finger on," Taylor says. "No manager can be liked by everyone, but there are far too many bosses who are not respected by enough of their staff." If you've got that gut feeling something is off, be aware and start looking for other signs.

They can't maintain eye contact with you (but can with everyone else).

It's difficult for an employee who is angry to look you straight in the eye, says Taylor. "They're afraid that you may be able to detect hostility, so the path of least resistance is for them to look away or avoid being around you wherever possible."

They avoid you like the proverbial plague.

If you notice they take the stairs every time you're waiting for the elevator, or they manage their schedules in such a way that they rarely overlap with your primary work hours, that's a good sign they're avoiding you. And employees typically only avoid people who intimidate them or who they don't like, says Kerr. 

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Last week, the Food and Drug Administration told Hampton Creek that the company couldn't call its eggless mayonnaise"Just Mayo" anymore.

Behind the controversy is a complicated set of rules the FDA calls the "Standards of Identity," which set the bar for what foods can and cannot be called.

But Just Mayo isn't alone in calling itself something other than what it actually is — lots of other everyday foods either leave out the basic ingredients they purport to contain or are stuffed with things a consumer would never expect based on the name.

Find out whether the food you're eating is what you think it is.

CHECK OUT: 7 everyday items that wouldn’t exist as we know them without GMOs

UP NEXT: Scientists just determined that fat is a taste — but it's nothing like what you’d expect

Soy "milk"

Soy milk, and similar variations such as almond and rice milk, are technically supposed to be called "soy beverages" because they don't contain any lactose, the staple ingredient of your standard cow's milk.

Back in 2000, the National Milk Producers Federation got into it with the Soyfoods Association of North America and the FDA, claiming that because soy milk wasn't actually animal-produced milk, it couldn't take on that name. So far, however, the FDA hasn't taken any steps to stop milk substitutes from using "milk" in its labeling. So drink up.

Velveeta "cheese"

As you may have expected, processed cheeses such as Velveeta and Cheez Whiz aren't made with real cheese. Instead they're made with something called cheese cultures, the bacteria that are used to turn milk into cheese. As a result, the FDA says these items can be classified as "cheese products" but not plain old cheese.

"Bacon" bits

In case their lack of resemblance to actual bacon wasn't already a dead giveaway, bacon bits (or Bac'n Pieces, as they are marketed) don't contain any bacon.

Instead, the crunchy red flakes are made of soy flour and canola oil with some added colors and bacon flavoring tossed in.

To avoid any legal fallout, the crumbly bits are are labeled as such: They go by "bac'n" instead of bacon (duh) and make sure their label includes the wording "bacon flavored." Bac'n Pieces are meat- and dairy-free, so they're pretty much vegan, though it's hard to know for sure, depending on where the "natural flavors" come from.

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Rich people think and act differently than the rest of us. They aren't born with this "rich mentality"— they learn how and then choose to think and act this way.

It's a concept that has been in print for nearly a century — thanks to a journalist's research of more than 500 self-made millionaires in the early 20th century — and continues to gain relevance today.

In T. Harv Eker's bestselling book, "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind," the self-made millionaire identifies specific choices the wealthiest people make on a daily basis that most of us fail to emulate.

Here are 11 of them, with commentary from Eker's bestseller:

SEE ALSO: 17 things keeping you from getting rich, according to a journalist who spent his career studying millionaires

Rich people choose to be in control of their success.

"Rich people believe, 'I create my life,'" writes Eker, "while average people think, 'Life happens to me.'"

You have to be in control of your financial life, he emphasizes: "You have to believe that you are the one who creates your success, that you are the one who creates your mediocrity, and that you are the one creating your struggles around money and success. Consciously or unconsciously, it's still you."

Rich people choose to think big.

If not you, then who? That's how rich people think, Eker writes: "Big thinking and big actions lead to having both money and meaning."

"Most people choose to play small," he continues. "Why? First, because of fear. They're scared to death of failure and they're even more frightened of success. Second, people play small because they feel small. They feel unworthy. They don't feel they're good enough or important enough to make a real difference in people's lives."

Rich people choose to commit to attaining wealth.

Rather than wanting to be rich, wealthy people consciously commit to being rich.

"Getting rich takes focus, courage, knowledge, expertise, 100% of your effort, a never-give-up attitude, and of course a rich mindset," writes Eker. "If you are not fully, totally, and truly committed to creating wealth, chances are you won't."

They are able to fully commit because they have precise goals and a clear vision.

"The number one reason most people don't get what they want is that they don't know what they want," he continues. "Rich people are totally clear that they want wealth. They are unwavering in their desire ... As long as it's legal, moral, and ethical, they will do whatever it takes to have wealth."

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As we approach fall, just about every company is getting a jump on the holidays to announce new phones.

Here's our ranking of the best phones you can buy right now in the US based on factors including design, software and hardware features, content selection, carrier availability, and price. We've included the approximate unsubsidized cost for each.

#17 BlackBerry Passport

The BlackBerry Passport is a funky-looking phone. It's almost perfectly square with a narrow physical keyboard at the bottom.

A lot of people like to scoff at the Passport, but BlackBerry fans seem to love it.

Price: Around $550

#16 BlackBerry Classic

The BlackBerry Classic looks a lot like the BlackBerry Bold from a few years ago. It has a physical keyboard, trackpad, and larger touchscreen. If you want a phone with a keyboard, the Classic is the best phone to buy.

Price: Around $330

#15 Nokia Lumia 830

The Nokia Lumia 830 is one of the most recent phones from Microsoft. It runs the Windows Phone 8 operating system and has a sharp 5-inch screen.

Price: Around $400

US investment banks are dominating their European rivals.

American banks are beginning to increase their global-investment banking market share for a number of reasons, according to a note from Morgan Stanley's Huw Van Steenis.

It's partly a result of the US having relatively larger, deeper, and faster-growing markets than rivals in places like Europe, according to the note.

It's also because US banks have a relative capital advantage to those rivals, and because they have "strong and improving credit ratings, which help gain more share, particularly in FICC [fixed income, currencies and commodities trading]."

Their European counterparts, in contrast, are struggling.

Regulators in that part of the world continue to crack down on banks and push for changes, like limiting the ratio of a bank's total exposure to how much capital it holds in case of system-wide shocks.

European banks are also making lower returns than their American counterparts, according to the note. And a handful of those banks — including HSBC, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, BNP, and Standard Chartered — are expected to shrink in size and start focusing more on their most profitable parts.

That can only mean good things for the US banks, which are expected to step in to the gaps their rivals leave behind.

Here's how that will look:

US firms are already gaining share in equities and investment banking this year.

US banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan are gaining market share in equity sales and trading at the expense of European rivals.

US banks are taking over in traditional investment banking activities like mergers and acquisitions and equity and debt capital markets, too. They've seen a 3.5% jump in investment banking market share, while major European banks have seen a similarly sized drop.

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