Being in an airport during the busy holiday travel season can be stressful, but some of the biggest and best airports around the world embrace transform themselves to bring joy to your journeys.

With twinkling lights, pine-scented air, and the sound of sleigh bells, these terminals stand out with their impressive holiday cheer.

From London to Singapore, these airports outdo themselves every year with awe-inspiring displays.

No matter where you're going this season, a trip through one of these airports is certain to put you in the holiday mood.

SEE ALSO: Take a look inside a Virgin Atlantic clubhouse, where first-class passengers are spoiled rotten before they even leave the ground

O'Hare International Airport

Where: Chicago, Illinois

Expect dazzling lights and terminals filled with boughs of holly at O'Hare International Airport this season, as the airport continues its annual tradition of celebrating the holidays in style. The nation’s third-busiest airport transforms into a winter wonderland, first visible on the road leading to the terminals, where bright, LED-wrapped trees and giant stars and spheres dot the perimeter of the grounds, forming a wintry landscape. Bright wreaths are adorned on many of the overhead signs throughout the airport roads, while oversize ornaments and lights are placed throughout the arrival and departure terminals. Be sure not to miss Terminal 3, where O'Hare’s signature globe is brought to life with the help of hundreds of LED lights, garland accents, and bright doves that float overhead. Aside from the decorations, O’Hare will host school choirs, jazz and blues bands, barbershop quartets and strolling carolers on select days throughout December.

Plan Your Trip: Visit Fodor’s Chicago Travel Guide

Changi Airport

Where: Singapore

In addition to its normal holiday decorations, the force is strong at Changi Airport this holiday season thanks to a partnership with Disney in anticipation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Testing the limits of intergalactic travel, Terminal 3 welcomes a life-size X-wing Fighter, offering visitors the chance to don costumes and hop inside the iconic aircraft for a photo opportunity in the cockpit. Plan your trip accordingly: Imperial Stormtroopers and X-wing Fighter pilots make appearance at the jet Saturdays at 4 pm throughout December. Look for dozens of other fun surprises throughout the terminals, including Star Wars’ humanoid protocol droid C-3PO which teaches Star Wars phrases in ten languages, a life-sized TIE fighter, and an obstacle course for the BB-8 droid.

Plan Your Trip: Visit Fodor’s Singapore Travel Guide

Heathrow Airport

Where: London, England

With an extensive roster of musicians and festive décor, Heathrow Airport welcomes visitors this holiday season with daily events that are guaranteed to spread joy. Carolers, a string quartet, and a brass band are just some of the rotating acts set to entertain travelers this season throughout the airport’s four terminals. Heathrow offers travelers the great benefit of free gift wrapping, available in all terminals. And most helpful of all, Heathrow’s friendly “gift helpers” are on hand in all terminals, expert in finding the perfect gifts for your friends and loved ones. 

Plan Your Trip: Visit Fodor’s London Travel Guide

The ecocapsule may look like a giant ostrich egg, but it comes with enough high-tech features to support you living entirely off the grid for up to a year.

The ecocapsule is both solar-powered and wind-powered. It fits up to two people and comes with enough amenities to live comfortably from just about anywhere.

Here's a closer look at the ecocapsule:

SEE ALSO: 8 Off-Grid Gadgets You'll Need To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse

The ecocapsule enables off-the-grid living because it doesn't need to be plugged into a traditional power source. The roof is equipped with high-efficiency solar cells that can capture 600 Watts of energy.

It also comes with a wind turbine that can deliver up to 750 Watts of energy during day or night.

But in case both those energy options fail, the ecocapsule comes with a battery. When fully charged, the battery will provide energy for at least four days.

One man's trash is apparently this teen's robot.

17-year-old Esteban Quispe built a WALL-E replica using garbage from a landfill near his hometown in Bolivia.

The working model looks just like the Disney character.

SEE ALSO: A startup inspiring kids to code with DIY computer kits has been backed by top VCs

Quispe made his robot completely from recycled garbage. It's fitting for WALL-E, who worked tirelessly to tidy up the planet in the film of the same name. "Fantasy is the key to creativity," Quispe told AJ+.

Source: Al Jazeera

Quispe first ventured to a trash dump in Patacamaya, a small Bolivian town in the Andean highland region. He gathered metal, screws, and rubber to build the robot.

The high schooler then went home to his makeshift lab to build and program WALL-E.

Historically, Apple products have been the black sheep of the corporate-employee world, hidden behind Microsoft's powerful shadow.

Then employees started bringing their iPhones and iPads to work.

Still, it wasn't until mid 2014 — when Tim Cook cuddled up to IBM to announce a new partnership to focus on selling more iOS devices to businesses — that Apple woke up and smelled a big new market.

And it was in 2015 that the partnership, and Apple's bigger efforts, really flowered.

For instance, earlier this week, IBM announced the duo has now created 100 iOS apps for all sorts of business needs.

And that was just one of the many breakout moments Apple had in the enterprise market in 2015. From the looks of it, 2016 could be even better.

SEE ALSO: The 27 best apps of 2015 for doing your job

Apple's sales to enterprise markets "accounted for about $25 billion in annual Apple revenue in the last 12 months, up 40% over the prior year," Tim Cook said in October. And he thinks its enterprise sales will grow a lot in the future.

Source: Tim Cook quarterly analysts call.

That $25 billion makes Apple one of the 15 largest enterprise-tech firms, ZDNet's Robin Harris calculates.

Source: ZDNet.

"To put that $25 billion in perspective, that is larger than the sales of EMC," Harris writes. Dell is trying to buy ECM for $65 billion and EMC earned $24.4 billion in 2014.

Source: Google Finance.

To help single adults see if they are paying too high a premium to live in their city, GOBankingRates surveyed 89 major U.S. cities to compare the local costs that affect singles the most: the prices of wardrobe staples, gym memberships, date night expenses and rent. 

Singlehood is often lauded as the perfect time to save and work toward money goals because it doesn't carry the same financial obligations and considerations that come with marriage and family. But singles' financial situations aren't so simple, and the investments required to stay attractive and dateable while trying to find one's mate can quickly add up, especially in high-cost cities where even everyday necessities carry luxury-level prices. 

Keep scrolling to see if your city is among the 15 most expensive cities for singles in the U.S.

Related: 15 Most Affordable Cities for Singles

SEE ALSO: The 10 best states to buy your first home

15. Madison, Wisconsin.

Madison rounds out this list at No. 15. This city has high costs in all four categories assessed in this survey, but its clothing price puts the city in the top 20 for that category, and the city comes in at No. 9 for average date cost. A date in Madison costs around $132, while an average wardrobe staple will set a single shopper back $69. 

Read: The Most and Least Affordable Dating Sites for Finding Your Soulmate

14. Oakland, California.

At No. 14, Oakland offers a slightly more balanced cost of living for a single lifestyle. Its average clothing cost is actually lower than the median. But a high average rent price of $1.94 per square foot will easily offset those savings. Gym and date expenses are also high in Oakland.

13. San Diego, California.

San Diego singles pay a high premium to live in Southern California. San Diego has costs above the median in every category in this study, with its average clothing and rent prices both coming in at No. 13 in the nation.

You might find that almost any video you didn't buy from iTunes isn't compatible with your iPhone. 

To be more accurate, most videos aren't compatible with the video player app on iPhone and iPad.

That's why it's best to use a different video player, like VLC, which lets you watch almost any video in almost any format. You can download VLC here.

Check out the best, quickest, and easiest way to transfer any video from any computer onto any iOS device:

SEE ALSO: This brave movie shot entirely on an iPhone shows a raw side of LA

This is the screen you might get when you try to click and drag a movie onto your iPhone or iPad through iTunes. My videos are never compatible, like this video that's in the .MKV format.

To transfer that video onto your iPhone or iPad, download the "VLC" app from the App Store.

Then plug your iOS device into any computer with the video file you want to transfer, open iTunes, and click on the iPhone symbol.

"Train as if someone’s life depends on it, because it does."— Department of Defense Fire Academy

In the military, firefighters face unique challenges of needing to quickly and effectively respond to the risks posed by fires that could affect planes, machinery, and munitions. 

Each year 2,500 students from the sister service branches train at the Louis F. Garland Fire Academy, located at Goodfellow Air Force Base, in order to become certified Department of Defense firefighters.

SEE ALSO: What it's like at the training school where US troops learn to survive in the Arctic

Every year, nearly 2,500 students attend the Louis F. Garland Department of Defense Fire Academy.

The students come from across the military, and firefighters of different military branches train alongside each other.

The training program at the academy follows the standards of the National Fire Protection Association, with additional information tailored towards military needs.

The Saudi Arabia-led oil cartel, OPEC, decided to maintain production earlier this month, but remained divided over its production ceiling and failed to reach an agreement.

And that could mean dark times ahead for about half of the cartel's members.

But Saudi Arabia is also looking at its own set of problems, as budget pressures continue to worsen and rumors of internal political divisions continue to proliferate.

As such, it's worth taking a closer look at the economic, demographic, and cultural factors that drive the oil-rich kingdom.

Check them out below:

About 100 camels are sold in the capital of Saudi Arabia every day.

The capital, Riyadh, has a large camel market.

Source: Random History

On average, one person has been executed every other day in Saudi Arabia in 2015.

"At least 151 people have been put to death in Saudi Arabia so far this year — the highest recorded figure since 1995 — in an unprecedented wave of executions marking a grim new milestone in the Saudi Arabian authorities' use of the death penalty,"according to Amnesty International.

"Annual execution tolls for Saudi Arabia in recent years have rarely exceeded 90 for the entire year," they added.

Source: Ahram Online

The kingdom's Ghawar oil field has enough reserves to fill 4,770,897 Olympic swimming pools.

The kingdom's oil reserves are huge. Saudi Arabia's Ghawar field is the largest in the world. It has an estimated 75 billion barrels of oil left.

An Olympic-size swimming pool can hold 660,253.09 gallons of liquid.

Source: US Energy Information Administration

Dzenad Bicic — better known as Geno — is one of New York's most talented and respected barbers. But if you talk to him, you might think he's also an amateur philosopher or village elder, dispensing hard-earned wisdom with the greatest of ease.

He has cut the hair of everyone from Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey to actor Daniel Day-Lewis, but if you ask him how he became so successful, he'll respond with just one piece of advice.

"If you're patient, everything will come," Geno tells me as we sit in his barbershop on Greenwich Avenue in New York City's West Village. Looking around at everything he's built for himself, it's hard not to believe him.

We spoke with the Montenegrin owner, operator, and (still) full-time barber of Geno's Barberia to see what it takes to cut the hair of New York's elite. (Hint: it's a lot of skill and a super-positive attitude).

SEE ALSO: 4 things every guy should tell his barber when he gets a haircut

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

To call this neighborhood a hair-cutting hot spot would be an understatement. Greenwich Avenue is lined with high-end barbershops, as well as restaurants and boutiques that are frequented by a moneyed clientele. If you're a barber, you dream of setting up shop in the West Village.

After 10 years cutting hair in a shop owned by friend Franco di Maggio (and 27 years of barbering total), Geno decided to strike it out on his own. He leased a space down the street from where he had previously worked, and, with the help of Franco, opened Geno's Barberia in 2010.

At the time, all Geno had was a client list, a lease, and a dream. A New York Times mention soon followed, and Geno was forced to add a fourth chair. The rest, as is so commonly said, is history.

Geno says he has a two-week backlog of appointments, which can sometimes affect his business.

"Guys don't want to wait," he told us.

Oftentimes, guys will book their next appointment immediately after getting their hair cut, as if it were a doctor's office. Geno now employs four other barbers at his shop, but the man himself is still the one in the highest demand. 

"I think I cut everybody," Geno says before rattling off a long list of Broadway actors, photographers, musicians, sportsmen, magazine editors, and stylists. Geno says he cuts the hair of legendary stylist Nick Wooster, former Rangers left wing Sean Avery, and even actor Daniel Day-Lewis.

But Geno will make exceptions for some of his most loyal and dedicated — not to mention famous — clients. He often opens the shop early for Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, so he can squeeze him in before his other appointments. 

And boast Geno should. Geno's shop's reputation is built entirely by referral and word of mouth. Dorsey frequently plugs Geno's shop on his social-media accounts, which Geno says he has nothing to do with. 

"Jack does it himself, believe it or not," Geno told us. "I don't even have a website."

As for next steps, Geno says he used to want to stay small, avoiding the complications of expanding. 

"That was before," Geno told us. "Now I have three kids." 

Now he's considering launching a line of hair products, and even expanding to a newer, bigger shop when his lease is up. 

I needed to see Geno in action. Even though it was his day off, Geno sat me down in the chair. 

There's never been a better time to buy Nintendo's latest game console, the Wii U.

The console is the cheapest it's ever been at just $250, which includes a great game (like "Mario Kart 8," for instance). And in 2015, some of the best games ever created by Nintendo landed exclusively on the Wii U: from "Splatoon" (our favorite shooter of 2015) to "Super Mario Maker." And that's to say nothing of the excellent back catalog!

Head below for our top 15 reasons you should buy a Wii U right now.

SEE ALSO: The best video games you should be playing this holiday season

1. The Wii U is the least expensive console you can buy

At just $250 (including a game, remember), the Wii U is the least expensive game console you can buy, brand new, today. It's a solid $50 cheaper than the least expensive Xbox One or PlayStation 4 bundle, and it's far more kid-friendly than the competition.

2. It's the only game console that's truly kid-friendly

From the games to the hardware itself, the Wii U is the only console aimed at both kids and adults. The gamepad is far tougher than something like Apple's iPad, and feels intended for use by kids (rubberized thumbsticks and a touchscreen that's just as happy being used with a stylus as it is being jabbed by sticky little fingers). Moreover, there are many more multiplayer games for Wii U that can be played on a single television with multiple people — something that many games have moved away from on other platforms with the rise of online multiplayer gaming.

3. "Splatoon"

"Splatoon" is the first major new game series from Nintendo in quite some time. And it's totally unique! It's a shooting game, but you're shooting paint instead of bullets in an attempt to cover as much of the world as you can in your team's color. If that doesn't do it for you, the fact that you're also a squid who can dive into the paint and swim around should — it's a frantic, fast-paced, thrilling game that takes traditional, stodgy shooting games and turns them into a colorful delight. Don't sleep on "Splatoon," y'all.

Last weekend, I found myself in a familiar situation: It was after midnight, I was far from my apartment, and I wanted to go home and go to sleep.

I was in an area of Brooklyn where I couldn't just walk outside and hail a cab, so I opened Lyft to try to get a ride home. But demand for cars was off the charts, so "Primetime" pricing was in effect, meaning prices were exorbitantly high.

I opened Uber, and it was surging to nearly twice the normal rate.

I thought I'd have to suck it up and pay a ridiculous amount of money to get home. But a friend I was with suggested I try the app Way2Ride, which I'd never heard of until then.

So I downloaded it, signed up, and got home by paying a normal cab fair. No surge pricing.

And because of Way2Ride, I don't think I'll ever pay for surge pricing again.

SEE ALSO: Uber's rivals are banding together, and just added India to their coalition

After you download the app, you'll have to create an account and enter your payment information.

Way2Ride is basically the traditional taxi industry's answer to Uber and Lyft — it's a way to hail taxis and then pay for the ride through your smartphone. 

There's currently no fee for using the app, so you just pay the cab's metered fair.

For now, it's only available in New York, but the service is coming to major cities in the US early next year. There are 14,000 New York cabs that work with Way2Ride.

The app is made by Verifone, the company that makes the payment technology and video screens you see in many taxis.

After you sign up, simply tap "hail" to get a cab.

You're then asked to confirm where you want to be picked up.

The app uses your phone's GPS to find you, but you can also type in your address. There are 23 cabs around me!

Anyone who's found themselves in Punxsutawney, PA on Groundhog Day knows that small towns can be pret-ty weird. But if you think a place that venerates a prognosticating woodchuck is as out-there as it gets, prepare to have your illusions shattered: from an underground town in Australia to an "Austrian" town in China, these little localities give new meaning to the term "Weirdoville." Or at least they would, if that was an actual term people used.

SEE ALSO: The 22 best small towns to visit in your lifetime

Nagoro

Japan
Population: 35 humans, 350 human-sized dolls
Why it's weird: See above
Upon returning to her hometown and discovering that the population of hundreds had dwindled to a meager 37, 64-year-old artist Ayano Tsukimi had the brilliant/depressing idea of creating life-sized doll replacements for each of the people who once lived there. The dolls are propped up and arranged throughout the town, doing whatever their living counterparts used to do, which presumably was creeping out everyone who passed through town. Tsukimi's up to about 350 dolls these days, and continues to make a new one each time someone dies or leaves town. It's just a matter of time before there's nobody left here but lifeless, freaky dolls. Doesn't it just warm your heart?

Tangier, Virginia

USA
Population: 720
Why it's weird: Everyone speaks in a unique, semi-English accent
This island town's main claim to weird fame is the fascinating brogue its approx. 700 residents speak. Between extreme isolation and the fact that its founding by Cornish settlers in the 1600s, Tangier's a petri dish for the development of a dialect that sounds more like an English accent than an American accent, but not quite like either one. On top of the funky accent, though, Tangier's isolation has also resulted in many of its residents having a unique genetic disorder known as Tangier disease -- which has nothing to do with fallout from Malcolm Forbes' 70th birthday party.

Coober Pedy

Australia
Population: Approx. 3,500
Why it's weird: Pretty much everyone lives underground
This tiny Aussie town is the world's primary source of high-quality opal gemstones, earning it the nickname "The Opal Capital of the World." Sounds tame enough. But decades ago, when miners first started pulling shimmering gems out of the ground here, they decided to beat the oppressive Outback by building their living quarters underground. These days, the methods for extracting opal may have improved, but the majority of Coober Pedy's roughly 1,600 residents still live like mole people, since the insulation provided by the rock walls save on AC bills in the summer and heating bills in the winter. Is this the next wave of design in New York City? Only time will tell.

Oscar Isaac is one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood right now and he's only about to get bigger. 

Often compared to 1970s movie stars like Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, Isaac has become known in the past few years for churning out dark, brilliant performances in "Drive,""Inside Llewyn Davis," and 2014's "A Most Violent Year".

2015 has already been a stellar year for 36-year-old actor.

After an excellent performance in sci-fi indie "Ex Machina" and a lead role in HBO miniseries "Show Me a Hero," Isaac has his first blockbuster role in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

With an upcoming role in next year's "X-Men" sequel on the horizon, it looks Isaac is truly about to become a huge movie star. 

See how Oscar Isaac went from class troublemaker to future blockbuster star.

Oscar Isaac Hernandez was born in 1979 in Guatemala. His family left and moved all around the United States before finally settling in Miami.

Source: Details

Isaac shortened his name as a young actor in Miami to avoid being cast as the "Latino Gangster.""Being called Oscar Hernández in Miami is like being called John Smith; there are 15 pages of us in the phone book." said Isaac in 2014.

Source: The Telegraph

As a kid, he frequently got into trouble. In the seventh grade, Isaac was expelled from private school for many reasons, one of them being that he broke into somebody's ranch who bordered his school, and pet the animals.

Isaac liked to cause trouble at his private grade school when he was growing up. “I set off a fire extinguisher in the gym, defaced a mural, just stupid stuff,” he told The Globe And Mail in an interview.

Source: Details

Making money while you sleep.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

After reading books like "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "4 Hour Work Week," I became interested obsessed with making passive income.

Whenever someone needs additional income, the stereotypical suggestion offered is to “get a part-time job.”

But what if you don't have the time or energy to put in all those extra hours?

I know I didn't. Plus that wasn't as appealing as making money while I was trading time for money.

For that, you may need some passive income ideas — ways to make money with little investment of time and effort on your part.

Here's a list of quite a few passive income ideas, so it's likely that you'll be able to find at least two or three that will work in your situation.

SEE ALSO: This woman quit her job, paid her debts, and bought a house thanks to a side job that earns $9,000 a month

1. Try out index funds.

Index funds provide you with a way to invest in the stock market that is completely passive. For example, if you invest money in an index fund that is based on the S&P 500 Index, you will be invested in the general market, without having to concern yourself with choosing investments, rebalancing your portfolio, or knowing when to sell or buy individual companies. All that will be handled by the fund which will base the fund portfolio on the makeup of the underlying index.

You are also free to choose a fund that is based on any index that you want. For example, there are index funds set up for just about every market sector there is — energy, precious metals, banking, emerging markets — you name it. All you have to do is decide that you want to participate, then contribute money and sit back and relax. Your stock portfolio will then be on automatic pilot.

2. Make YouTube videos.

This is a venture that is growing rapidly. You can create videos in just about any area that you like — music, tutorials, opinions, comedy, movie reviews — anything you want . . . then put them on YouTube. You can then attach Google AdSense to the videos, which will overlay your videos with automatic ads. When viewers click on those ads, you will earn money from AdSense.

The keys will be to create compelling videos, to promote those videos on social media websites, and to create enough of them that your income will be coming from multiple sources. There's a good bit of work that goes into creating videos, but once a video is done it can become a completely passive cash flow source for a very long time.

Don't think you can find success with YouTube? You sure can. Emily Eddington used her love for makeup and YouTube to quit her full-time job. She has received over 66 million views on YouTube. This former morning news anchor took her passion — makeup — and turned it into a phenomenal success.

3. Try affiliate marketing and make sales.

This is a passive income technique that is better suited to people who have blogs and active websites. You can sign up to promote certain products or services on your site, for which you will be paid either a flat fee or a percentage of the amount of the sale completed.

This isn't as hard to do as you might think, since there are thousands of companies in the world who want to sell their products in as many places as they can.

You can find affiliate offers either by contacting vendors directly, or on dedicated websites, such as ClickBank. It's always best if the product or service is one that you are either very interested in or is highly relevant to your website.

4. Put your photography to work on the web.

Do you like photography? If you do, you may be able to convert it into a passive income source. Photography websites such as Shutterstock and iStockphoto can provide you with platforms to sell your photos. They may offer either a percentage or a flat fee of each photo that is sold to a site client.

In this way, a single photo could represent a cash flow source since it can be sold again and again. You simply need to create your photo portfolio, put it on one or more photo platforms, and then the activity becomes completely passive. All the technicalities of the photo sales are handled through the web platform.

And yes, that's me in a stock photo you can purchase from iStockPhoto.com.  My good is a photographer and has uploaded a few hundred photos to their platform and makes a good residual income from it.

5. Purchase high dividend stocks.

By building a portfolio of high dividend stocks, you can create regular passive income at an annual rate that is much higher than what you get on bank investments.

Just as important, since high dividend stocks are stocks, there is always the potential for capital appreciation.

In that way, you can earn passive income from two sources — dividends and capital gains.

You will need a brokerage account to purchase these stocks and complete the research needed.

CIA operatives may not use jetpacks or laser-powered watches, but they do have a few tricks up their sleeves.

At the CIA Museum in Washington, DC, you can get a glimpse of the gadgets used in past spy missions.

The agency has declassified 600 out of some 20,000 objects used by CIA operatives throughout history, museum director Toni Hiley tells Tech Insider. Current operatives are constantly looking to old gadgets to build new ones.

"Revisiting technology is something we always do in the world of espionage," Hiley says. "There's no such thing as technology that's too old for operations."

From concealed cameras to flies on the wall, here are the 11 most fascinating gadgets from the collection.

SEE ALSO: 17 tech toys and gadgets from the 90s that we want back

A pipe that conceals a radio.

This men's pipe from the 1960s hides a radio receiver. Sound travels from the pipe through the jaw bone to the ear canal.

A camera that fits in a cigarette pack.

A miniature 35-mm Tessina film camera fits inside this pack of Parliaments. Hiley says the CIA chose a Tessina because it was one of the smallest and quietest cameras in the 1960s.

A carrier pigeon.

During WWII, operatives would strap these lightweight cameras to pigeons. As the bird flew over a target, the camera took hundreds of photos. These images were more detailed than those from airplanes, because pigeons can fly hundreds of feet lower.

Unfortunately, the pigeon photos are still classified.

Futurists say that our destiny will be shaped by the Singularity, the moment when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence. 

Scholars don't agree on the details, but they say it will happen between 30 and 1000 years from today, with most predicting it will emerge in the next century.

It will almost certainly have profoundly scary — and deeply exciting — consequences. 

SEE ALSO: 8 robots that have already entered the workforce in a big way

Everything is going to change.

The term 'Singularity' was first used in the technological sense (as opposed to its definition within physics) by Hungarian American mathematician John von Neumann.  

In 1958, he said"ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, can not continue."

An 'intelligence explosion' will allow machines to make better machines.

In a 1965 essay [PDF], mathematician I. J. Good predicted that machines will eventually be able to create better machines.

His full quote:

Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the
intellectual activities of any man however clever.

Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an “intelligence explosion”, and the intelligence of man would be left far behind.

Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.

No less a mind than Stephen Hawking is freaked out by it. 

If AI becomes better at designing AI than humans, we'll hit an intelligence explosion that  "ultimately results in machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails," Hawking said in a recent Reddit AMA.

The machines are (maybe) going to take over.

Alan Turing, the visionary British mathematician played by Benedict Cumberbatch in "The Imitation Game," took a grim view of the singularity. 

Not only would machines out-think us, he said, but they'd have no use for us. 

"One the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers,"he wrote in a 1951 paper.

"There would be no question of the machines dying, and they would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits," he wrote. "At some stage therefore we should have to expect the machines to take control."

The stars of AMC's "Into the Badlands" look like martial arts professionals on TV, which took some intense work making use of their unique strengths and a team of actual pros.

"That was a big challenge. These actors had no martial arts experience and we had to make them look badass," star and executive producer Daniel Wu, who's a veteran of martial arts movies, told Business Insider.

On "Into the Badlands," the highest-rated series debut of the fall, Wu plays Sunny, a warrior who meets a young boy named M.K. (Aramis Knight). They must travel across the Badlands controlled by seven barons in a post-apocalyptic America.

"We knew we had to have strong actors," Wu said. "We couldn’t have great martial artists and crappy actors, because that would just ruin the plotline. And so the priority was getting the good actors first and then making them look good onscreen."

First the producers brought on martial arts choreographer Master Dee Dee Ku. His packed resume includes working with Keanu Reeves for "The Matrix," Uma Thurman for "Kill Bill," and Zhang Ziyi for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Master Dee Dee had the actors attend a six-week intensive training camp. For about six hours a day, they worked on basic kung fu, weapons, choreography, and working with wires.

"He would send them through these phases on a daily basis and then pick and choose what was great or what they were naturally good at, and then use that for their ability," Wu explained.

As "Into the Badlands" heads into its first season finale, here's how the creators worked with the cast to nail those moves:

SEE ALSO: What it's like seeing 'Star Wars' during the madness of opening night

The Widow (Emily Beecham)

"Emily has a very graceful way of moving, and so he decided to make that her style," Wu said of Emily Beecham, who plays the Widow. "The way she slips and ducks and dives around attacks, as well as attacking in a crazy, very violent, but beautiful way, was all based on qualities [Master Dee Dee] saw in her while we were doing the training."

Wu also explained why the Widow uses weapons in both hands:

"Double-weapons traditionally in Chinese martial arts, especially daggers and swords and that stuff, have a very strong feminine quality to it, and she has a very strong feminine quality to her," he said. "Her weapons are a little more dainty, a little more elegant than Sunny’s more brutal sword, but the way she masters them or the way she uses them is a little more intricate. Instead of using brute force, she’s like a snake. Her weapons match that."

M.K. (Aramis Knight)

"He’s a really good athlete for a 15-year-old kid," Wu said of Aramis Knight, who plays M.K.

At this point in the show, M.K. is still early in his training. As Sunny's colt, he trains under the seasoned warrior. But he holds a mighty power inside him that's unleashed when he bleeds, and which makes him an important weapon for anyone who controls him.

"I think Aramis is a mine that we can pull from," Wu said. "And so he was really good at doing flips and twists and all the wire work stuff. And so that’s why when you see the dark chi stuff, the dark energy stuff, that happens with him, we use those kinds of moves."

Tilda (Ally Ioannides)

Ally Ioannides seems perfectly cast as the Widow's daughter, Tilda. Although she's young, her mother would've started training her in martial arts at a very young age. Tilda is fast, quiet, and a pro with ninja stars.

“Emily is very good with daggers, I’m very good at hand-to-hand combat, and Ally is very good all around," Aramis Knight told io9.

Of course, because of the magic of Hollywood, the cast's natural talent gets some help from the crew.

"There are also very skillful doubles," Wu said. "They definitely have people that fight for them at certain points, especially the dangerous stuff, and so the integration of all that really has to do with Master Dee Dee’s skill and experience."

The "Into the Badlands" season finale airs Sunday at 10 p.m. 

Do you feel like your ability to focus and your supply of discipline and willpower are always dwindling by 2 p.m.?

You're not alone.

Almost everyone experiences a mid-afternoon lull: a dip in energy levels, alertness, and concentration as part of your natural circadian rhythm, explains Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of "You Can't Be Serious! Putting Humor to Work."

"The timing, extent, and intensity of the afternoon lull varies from person to person, and although our lunch diet can affect it, the No. 1 influencer is how well you slept the night before," he explains.

Other factors, such as sitting for too long or spending too much time on the computer, can also contribute to a decline in energy. And, perhaps one of the most surprising causes of afternoon fatigue is having too little work to do. "If you don't have a clear plan of action and don't set priorities for your day, and especially for the afternoon, it's that much easier to lose steam and feel a dip in energy," he says.

Here are seven things successful people do to deal with, or avoid, the dreaded afternoon lull: 

SEE ALSO: 15 things successful people do on Monday mornings

SEE ALSO: The 27 jobs that are most damaging to your health

They schedule meetings for the afternoon.

Some people make the mistake of planning meetings in the morning, and then working on projects that require individual focus in the afternoon.

"This is a mistake, since you'll show up to the meeting regardless, and the stimulus of getting there and talking to people will help you focus," says Laura Vanderkam, author of "What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast.""Better to plan meetings and phone calls for the afternoon, and individual work for the morning, when you're more focused."

They take a break.

"If you don't take an intentional break, your body will take an unintentional one for you," Vanderkam says. "Go for a walk. Get some fresh air."

Kerr says numerous health experts are "warning of the dangers of people sitting too long, some even calling it 'the new smoking' in terms of its potential health threat."

Taking a walk will get your muscles moving and the oxygen flowing, and it also allows you to clear your head. "Plus, getting some fresh air will not only help wake you up, but if you've been working on a computer, focusing your eyes on longer distance objects can help minimize eyestrain — and getting some sunlight can help reset your clock," Kerr adds.

They eat.

When the energy boost you get from lunch starts wearing off, you tend to experience a wave of sleepiness, Vanderkam explains.

To avoid that, successful people eat something healthy to perk them up a bit. "Snack on something that isn't too high in sugar, like cheese or fruit," she says. "You don't want to crash again 20 minutes later." 

Warning: There are massive spoilers ahead. Do not read on if you have not seen "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

The day has finally come! "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is finally out in theaters. 

Fans who headed out on premiere night to see the film are undoubtedly left with more questions than answers about Rey, Kylo Ren, and Luke Skywalker.

These are the biggest questions we have after seeing "The Force Awakens."

Let's get to it!

Who is Rey?

We made it through the whole movie and still only know Rey's first name.

We know she's force sensitive and that she's a great pilot. Anakin's lightsaber called to her and she was able to overpower Kylo. The current theory is that she's Luke's daughter, but could she be Kylo's secret sister? Maybe she's someone unconnected to the Skywalker clan all together.

Why does Kylo harbor so much anger towards his father?

He senses that Rey sees Han as a father figure and then tells her she'd be disappointed by him. What did he do that was so bad in Kylo's eyes? 

Maybe Han never invited him for trips on the Millennium Falcon.

Who is Supreme Leader Snoke?

Is the new Sith lord someone we already know or is he a completely new character. Leia appeared to make it seem as if she may have been familiar with him.

The other thought is that he may be Darth Plagueis, a Sith lord referenced in "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith." Though Plageuis died years ago he was apparently so knowledgable in the dark side he could prevent people from dying. Could he have found a way to bring himself back to life or is he just someone entirely different?

Most of the time, you get a gut feeling right before the demise of a relationship.

But sometimes, breakups come out of the blue, or at least faster than expected.

There's no sure way to ever know if your relationship will last, but researchers at USC have created a computer algorithm that can analyze certain aspects of what a couple says and does and determine the healthiness of a relationship. Shrikanth Narayanan, one of the lead researchers on the project, has also determined other factors he's found that can hint whether or not a relationship is doomed to fail.

Here's what he found:

Couples whose movements aren't in synch may be falling out of synch.

If you and your significant other have similar movements when you're together, that's a sign of a healthy relationship.

"A more positive interaction will show increased coordination (also often called behavior synchrony or entrainment) and vice versa," Narayanan, a USC professor of computer science, linguistics, and psychology, told Tech Insider.

"So a friendly interaction would show more coordination than one with conflict." 

How you and your partner move your heads while talking can speak to your relationship's healthiness.

Narayanan and his research team took their research into relationships and coordinated movements a step further when looking at head movement.

"How people move their heads together tells us something about the richness of their interactions," Narayanan explained in an interview with Tech Insider.

A study Narayanan was a co-author of found that"the more animated the couple, the more likely they are to exhibit similar motion events."

The study looked at how wives and husbands moved their heads when one was discussing an issue in therapy. 

The researchers assigned four codes that measured the emotional component of the relationship — acceptance, blame, positive, and negative. It found that similar head movements between couples were correlated with healthier relationship codes, like positive and acceptance.

Couples in positive relationships tend to speak similarly.

Turns out there's some merit to the idea that people who jive well together tend to speak similarly.

Couples exhibiting positive interactions tend to speak with the same intonation and rhythm, according to another USC study.

"When applied to married couple interactions, it was shown that interactions rated by experts to be more positive had greater similarity than ones rated to be negative," Narayanan, an author on the study, said.