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Meet Gal Gadot — the Wonder Woman actress who steals the show in 'Batman v Superman'

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gal gadot

Gal Gadot is Wonder Woman, and she's stealing the show.

For those unfamiliar with her name, the 30-year-old actress is best known for her roles in four "Fast and Furious" films.

But before she was in action films, she was Miss Israel and served two years in the Israeli army.

She's bringing the comic-book Amazonian princess to life alongside Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," out March 25 and she's a fan favorite. 

Many critics are saying Gal Gadot is the best part of the movie.

She'll also star in the standalone "Wonder Woman" film scheduled for 2017 and (at least) two "Justice League" movies.

Get to know the scene-stealing Wonder Woman below:

Gal Gadot was born in Israel on April 30, 1985. Her mom was a teacher, and her father was an engineer.

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Source: Glamour



Growing up, Gadot wanted to be a choreographer before switching her sights to law, but her plans changed after she met a pageant scout.

Source: Glamour



She participated in the 2004 Miss Israel contest and won, which launched her into a modeling career.

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Source: Glamour



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

6 reasons your best employees are secretly looking for new jobs

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businessmen

Some of your best employees are secretly looking for another job. How do I know this? Because I'm helping them.

As a career coach, I spend my days helping people make career changes, which means I'm verrrrry familiar with the reasons why people are moving on to greener pastures.

Here's why your best employees are quitting and what you can do to avoid losing more of them:

SEE ALSO: Netflix just stepped up its leave policy — again

1. The hiring process was misleading.

The job looked amazing on paper, and I was psyched about it when we talked about it in the job interview, but the actual job is nothing like they advertised. I didn't sign up for this.

If the job is mostly data entry, don't focus on the little bit that is creative work. If the job is 90% admin, say so. Mostly report writing? Say so. Has a crazy travel schedule? Say so.

Don't be misleading when you woo job candidates. They'll leave you faster than a jilted lover once the jig is up, and crappy retention costs you time and money.



2. They're drowning in unreasonable amounts of work.

I'm up for a challenge, but the amount of work I'm expected to do is straight-up impossible. I bring work home every evening and on weekends. I'm this close to just saying f*ck it and quitting.

An ideal workload is one that is challenging, lets people use their skills, and is achievable. Just don't forget the achievable part. You don't want to push people past a threshold of what's reasonable.

Not sure why your people are burning out? Ask them. Have them take you through their workload, including the nitty gritty administrative stuff, which always takes way more time than you think it does. It may be time to redistribute some work or make an additional hire.



3. They feel unappreciated.

I'm a hard worker. I don't even mind staying late. But would it kill him to say thank you?! Why do I even bother.

But you show your appreciation in the form of a big fat paycheck, right? Shouldn't that be enough? It isn't. Those two little words — thank you — mean a lot to people. When you take the time to say thank you, you're saying, I see you. I notice all of the good work you're putting in, and I appreciate it.

People just want to feel seen and understood and appreciated. I know you're busy and you probably don't get the appreciation you deserve either, but carve out some time to express genuine thanks for your team and you'll find it pays in spades.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

7 side-by-side photos that show how dramatically London has changed in the last 100 years

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piccadilly circusIf you've often wondered what London was like in the past, you can now find out – thanks to a new interactive map that shows users what parts of the city looked like up to over a century ago. 

The Historic London graphic from Expedia UK allows users to explore the history of 14 areas in the British capital, including Whitehall, Clapham, Stockwell, Cheapside, and Brixton.

Photos of tourist spots like Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, and Oxford Street, as well as landmarks such as Westminster Abbey, and Harrods are also featured.

The graphic was created using Google Street View technology, which provides modern-day footage of the city, overlaid with photos of London from over 100 years ago.

Expedia worked on the project "in order to show just how many glimpses of untouched, historic beauty are still visible today," according to a press release from the travel booking site. 

Check out a series of side-by-side photos from the graphic that show parts of London as they look today compared to how they did in the past.

Oxford Circus is just as busy today as it was in 1904, but the buildings and the vehicles on Oxford Street look vastly different.



The area surrounding Harrods is now full of shops like Carphone Warehouse; back in 1904, there appears to have been a bakery shop in its place.



Hyde Park doesn't look as elegant as it used to in the 1920s.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

19 failed soda brands you'll never taste again

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orbitz soda

Some soda brands just don't resonate consumers, so they get taken off supermarket shelves, never to return.

The most memorable ones have worked their way into soda lore, refusing to be forgotten. Some have lingering fans desperately trying to bring them back.

Which of these sodas would you like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, or others to bring back? Sound off in the comments. 

Kim Bhasin contributed to an earlier version of this post.

NOW SEE: IBM quietly built the world's largest digital agency — here's how it got there

Pepsi Blue

Pepsi Blue was introduced in 2002 to compete with Coca-Cola's Vanilla Coke brand. It was berry-flavored and very sugary. The brand drew fire for being colored with Blue 1, a controversial food-coloring agent banned in some countries.

Years after it was discontinued in 2004, the infamous drink is still being searched for by some, but it's extremely difficult to find.



Orbitz

Orbitz is the only drink on this list that contained floating lumps of solid food. It was made by the Clearly Canadian Beverage Corporation, which called it a "texturally enhanced alternative beverage," when it was released in 1997.

Not enough consumers went for the gimmick and the lava-lamp-resembling drink was discontinued within one year, according to Time.

In July 2013, Clearly Canadian announced on Facebook that it was considering bringing back the semi-solid-soda drink in small batches each year. However, the drinks company's website states that it is still researching whether this is possible.

"Have you seen a bottle from 1997? The balls are still floating! NO JOKE," the website says.



Sprite Remix

Coca-Cola's Sprite Remix popped up in 2003, and it quickly developed a rabid fanbase. Coke would expand its Spirte Remix flavors twice in the next two years, adding Berryclear and Aruba Jam to its portfolio following the original Tropical.

However, in 2005, Coca-Cola decided it wasn't performing well enough and killed the brand — at least in the American market.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

12 of the most impressive students at Stanford right now

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Aashna Shroff

In 2015, Stanford University accepted just 5% of applicants, fortifying its 125-year history as one of thebest colleges in the nation.

With esteemed alumni who include the founders of Snapchat, Google, Instagram, and Netflix, the Silicon Valley feeder school is a breeding ground for top talent.

We've tracked down 12 of the school's most impressive students to check out what America's next generation of inventors, innovators, advocates, coders, engineers, and leaders are up to.

Scroll through to meet some of Stanford's incredibly impressive students.

NOW CHECK OUT: 15 impressive students at MIT

Aashna Mago is a virtual-reality aficionado who's interning at Oculus this summer.

Class of 2017

Major: computer science

By the time she entered her freshman year at Stanford, Aashna Mago was a budding molecular biologist who'd spent several years doing research in cancer treatments at Princeton. But Mago had a change of heart when she got to Stanford and set out to learn about programming and technology and teach herself how to code.

She landed a summer internship with virtual-reality expert Mark Bolas in the Mixed Reality Lab at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, where she honed skills in programming, 3D modeling and printing, and design.

Halfway through her sophomore year, Mago took a leave of absence from Stanford to accept a full-time position at Rothenberg Ventures, where she helped launch an in-house production studio and run the first batch of River, the world's first VR/AR accelerator.

Since returning to campus last fall, Mago has earned a Women in VR scholarship from Oculus and VR Girls; cohosted a large-scale Women in VR event in San Francisco to encourage women from diverse industries to get involved in VR; and founded Rabbit Hole VRa group at Stanford focused on bringing more diversity to the VR community through innovative storytelling. This summer, she'll be a software engineer at Facebook-owned Oculus.



Aashna Shroff founded a coding camp for girls in India.

Class of 2017

Major: computer science 

Growing up in India, Aashna Shroff was one of two girls in her high-school computer-science class. When she arrived at Stanford, Shrof was impressed by the initiatives to get women involved in computing fields, so she decided to take those ideas back to India by founding Girls Code Camp (GCC).

Last summer, Shroff led the GCC team of Stanford students to India to teach computer-science workshops to more than 500 middle- and high-school girls. The subsequent "GCC Hack Day" produced projects ranging from medical-emergency apps to educational games.

Shroff is also championing gender diversity on campus. This quarter, she'll be doing research with Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research to help detect unconscious bias in job descriptions. And she's a mentor for Girls Teaching Girls To Code, a program that teaches Bay Area high-school girls how to code.

Shroff also contributed to research at Stanford's Bio-Robotics lab on a project that allows surgeons to practice brain surgery on virtual patients. She used cutting-edge technology to create a program where sights, sounds, and forces of the virtual surgery replicate that of the operating room.



Brandon Hill is the student body vice president and a former White House intern.

Class of 2016

Major: political science, African/African-American studies 

The summer before he was set to start at Stanford, Brandon Hill was de-accepted by the university for a bad grade in physics. He decided to take a year off — something he later dubbed "Year On" during a TEDx talk — to travel more than 30,000 miles across the world on a full scholarship through Semester at Sea.

He made it to Stanford and is now vice president of the school's more than 16,000 undergraduate and graduate students. 

Hill is passionate about helping youths of color maximize their creative potential through his startup, Enza Academy. Over the last two years, Enza has trained more than 150 kids nationwide at its innovation, tech, and entrepreneurship "hack-camps," which have been sponsored by Google, Stanford, Columbia University, and Facebook. Last December, Hill and his cofounder spoke about Enza Academy at the White House, where Hill interned the summer after his freshman year at Stanford.

He's also interned at Google on the YouTube star-management team, at UNICEF in Tanzania, and for the US Department of Education. When he graduates in June, Hill plans to work full-time on his "TED meets Twitter" idea-sharing platform.

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

I moved to San Francisco right when the startup craze began — here's what it's been like

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Silicon Valley

This week, I'm celebrating my five-year anniversary of living in San Francisco. 

It's been a weird half-decade around these parts: When I arrived in 2011, Facebook's IPO wasn't even a rumor, Uber was a hot young startup with an unproven business model, and people were really upset about "New Twitter." 

In other words, it was the early days of what we now recognize as the current Silicon Valley startup craze.

Since then, I've gone to some amazing parties (and even more terrible ones), met lots of interesting people, and witnessed massive changes throughout the city. My girlfriend and I even bought a house.

And while people smarter than I ruminate over whether this is a bubble now deflating, all I can do is tell you what it's been like living in San Francisco during this time of huge transition. 

SEE ALSO: Here's what it's like to buy a first home in San Francisco, one of the world's most competitive real-estate markets

I grew up in the suburbs of New York City, went to college in another suburb of New York City, and then moved to Queens in New York City. By early 2011, my apartment's lease was up and I was itching for a change.



I drastically underestimated how hard it is to get an apartment in San Francisco: A few weeks before I officially moved, I flew in just to go to open houses. Over a dozen apartment viewings later, I had been rejected every time.



I finally found a place, sight unseen, on Craigslist. Turns out it was in San Francisco's upscale-ish Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood, with all utilities included for a very reasonable rate.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

PRESENTING: Wall Street's brightest minds reveal the most important charts in the world (SPY, SPX, DJI, IXIC, IWIM, QQQ, USD, DXY, TLT, TLO, WTI, OIL, VDE, BNO)

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Presenting: the most important charts in the world.

We last brought you this feature in October, before the Federal Reserve raised rates and while stocks were rebounding from their longest correction in four years.

Obviously, a lot has changed since then.

Stocks have stormed all the way back from the worst start to a year ever.

Meanwhile, some are still debating whether the US economy is on the brink of recession, and the Fed is no longer as hawkish about its rate-hike plans.

Once again, we asked some of the sharpest strategists and reporters on Wall Street for one chart that's at the top of their mind right now.

Here they are:

Jack Bogle, Vanguard Group



Gary Shilling, A. Gary Shilling & Co.



Dave Rosenberg, Gluskin Sheff



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here's what life in McDonalds looks like as an anime TV series (MCD)

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McDonald's anime

McDonald's wants to hire more Millennials as part-time staff in Japan, so it created an anime mini-series to help drum up interest.

The first ad to be released is a classic coming-of-age drama, showing one young woman's journey from nervous novice to confident burger merchant.

The fast food company invested heavily in the recruitment drive. It has created eight anime videos with the help of Studio Colorido, according to The Drum.

The voice acting in the ads comes from the massive Japanese pop group AKB48 (there are more than 140 members).

See a scene-by-scene GIF guide to the first ad below.

SEE ALSO: Beyoncé chose a model with muscular dystrophy to front her fashion line

A teenager arrives at McDonalds. She pauses to take it all in.



She spots a job ad on the window, but looks inexplicably terrified when the manager offers her a shift.



Things get worse when a customer asks her to smile.

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

I'm obsessed with this app that has a robot read me any article I want

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london commuterPocket, which lets you easily save articles for offline (or just convenient) reading, is one of the most useful apps I have on my phone.

But lately I’ve become obsessed with a feature many Pocket users have probably never even heard of: having a robot read articles to me.

This feature is called “Listen TTS” (text-to-speech), and has been available since last year on both iOS and Android.

The basic premise is that Pocket will scan the article you saved and read it out loud to you. Let’s get this out of the way first: it’s not perfect. The robot’s voice isn’t the quality of your latest premium audio book, and there are going to be times when it sounds awkward.

But I found that, after about the first 30 seconds, it was easy to understand. None of stories I was trying to absorb were getting lost in translation. This feature is particularly useful for my commute, which switches from “times I can stare at my phone” to “times I really shouldn’t stare at my phone.” Since Pocket tracks where you are in the narrative, you can toggle start listening and then finish by reading, or vice versa.

If you want the robot to speak faster or slower, you can also toggle that.

Here’s how you turn on the feature if you are interested in trying it out:

You can save articles to the Pocket app from places like Twitter or your desktop. They are compiled into an easy-to-read format.



To access the feature, first you click on the "three-dot" icon at the bottom of the screen.



Then you select the "Listen (TTS)" button.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

6 things to do when you first meet someone if you want them to remember you forever

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happy couple friends smiling

We all strive to be memorable. But leaving a lasting impression on someone we've just met isn't always easy.

It also isn't impossible.

As it turns out, with the right words and actions almost anyone can create a captivating presence.

To help you figure out how to do this, we looked at the answers posted on Quora in response to the question,"How do I become more memorable when meeting someone for the first time?

Here were some of our favorite tips for making yourself memorable when you first meet someone new:

SEE ALSO: A Harvard psychologist says people judge you based on 2 criteria when they first meet you

DON'T MISS: The 27 jobs that are most damaging to your health

1. Put on your talking hat.

It's easy to stand there and let other people carry on the conversation, but you will never stick out in people's minds if you just listen, writes Julian Reisinger, dating expert and founder of Lovelifesolved.com.

Don't let the fear of looking like a fool keep you from speaking up and asking questions, telling your own stories, and sharing your own opinions. Go for it, and make a lasting impression. 

 

 



2. Be blunt, slightly controversial, and completely honest.

Most people avoid saying anything controversial — especially when meeting someone for the first time — because they want to play it safe to ensure everyone likes them.

But if you really want to be memorable, you may want to make a statement ... without insulting anyone or saying something offensive, of course.

"People remember extremes, not mediocrity," writes Reisinger.

He recommends speaking up and stating your opinion firmly and clearly, even if it makes some people slightly uncomfortable or mad. This will make you more interesting — and thus more memorable.



3. Be a little bit unusual.

Breaking out of the cultural norm is an easy way to stick out, Reisinger writes, but try to stick out in a positive way. 

For example, he suggests coming up with humorous and unusual answers to the typical introductory questions such as, "How are you?" or "What do you do?"

While coming up with scripted answers may seem like a pain, he points out that you will have to answer these questions thousands of times throughout your life anyway, so it's well worth the effort.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The definitive ranking of Wall Street investment banks in every business line

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Dog sled race

We have new data on how Wall Street banks stack up in every business line, and there is one clear winner.

JPMorgan led the pack in 2015 for revenue across fixed income, equities, and banking, according to data-analytics company Coalition.

That bank made $22.7 billion.

It ranked No. 1 by revenues in investment banking, and within that equity-capital markets. It also placed first in fixed income, currencies, and commodities, and within that G10 rates, G10 foreign exchange, and securitization.

Goldman Sachs ranked second overall for the year, placing first in commodities, within the fixed-income, currencies, and commodities division. It also ranked first in cash equities and futures and options, within equities, and in mergers and acquisitions and equity-capital markets, within investment banking.

Citigroup and Bank of America Merrill Lynch tied for third place.

Here's the global ranking, plus the rankings broken down by region:

SEE ALSO: Wall Street deal makers are back in the darkest days of the crisis

DON'T FORGET: Follow BI Finance on Facebook!

JPMorgan is the clear winner in the global ranking, with a top score in traditional investment banking and fixed income, currencies, and commodities.



Broken down by region, JPMorgan led the pack in the Americas and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with $13 billion and $7 billion in revenues in each region, respectively. In Asia-Pacific, Deutsche Bank ranked first, with $3.3 billion.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This man built a bedroom 'pod' because San Francisco housing was too expensive

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Peter BerkowitzAs home and apartment prices in San Francisco have skyrocketed, finding an affordable place to live isn't easy.

That's why 25-year-old illustrator Peter Berkowitz decided to get a little creative with his living situation, constructing an 8-by-3.5-by-4.5 "bedroom pod" that costs about $500 a month to live in.

He originally planned to split a two-bedroom apartment with a friend, but he quickly realized that, price-wise, he couldn't make it work.

"I was far too optimistic at first that we could find a place that wouldn't cost a fortune," Berkowitz tells Business Insider. "It didn't take long to realize that that wasn't a feasible plan though."

That's when Berkowitz decided that he'd construct a pod so that he and his friend could split a one-bedroom instead.

"Two people looking for a one-bedroom apartment makes the city a lot less scary," he says.

Though he didn't end up living with that friend, he did move ahead with his pod plan in the living room of another apartment.

Take a peek inside Berkowitz's interesting digs:

SEE ALSO: Is your iPhone acting weird after the latest update? You're not the only one

Here's how Berkowitz's pod looks like from the outside. About three weeks ago he enlisted a few friends who were handy with power tools to help him construct it:

When we talked to him, he said he was working on putting cork board on the outside to help make it more soundproof. 



It cost $1,300 to build. Add that to the $400 a month in rent he pays to live in an apartment near San Francisco's Ocean Beach, and he's out about $508 a month.

Not bad considering the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $3,460 a month, according to the most recent analysis by the real-estate marketplace Zumper



The pod comes with a fold-down desk, a slanted backboard, and pretty LED lights he can use to read:



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 3 best sci-fi movies ever according to an expert

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midnight special wb

With his latest film, "Midnight Special," director Jeff Nichols takes his first step into the studio system after hits in the indie-film world ("Mud,""Take Shelter").

Resembling early Steven Spielberg movies, "Midnight Special" follows a father and his son, who has special powers, as they race from authorities.

Along with strong performances from Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, and Adam Driver, the movie is a unique science-fiction tale that brings to mind numerous classics of the genre.

Business Insider spoke to Nichols about the sci-fi movies that inspire him.

"Midnight Special" is currently playing in theaters.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: Every actor who's played Batman, from best to worst

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977)

Following the sensation of "Jaws," Steven Spielberg made one of the most memorable sci-fi movies of all time, stretching what we thought could be done with visual effects along with providing a touching story front-and-center. It was a movie experience that Nichols has never forgotten.

"The first experience, you're swept up in the moment of the aliens and spaceships," Nichols said. "But then you go back and you look at the film again and you see how Spielberg looks at suburban life in America in the '70s and it was incredible. The accurate representation of the kid's bedrooms and the den, it made the mystery more immediate for me as a kid."



"Starman" (1984)

John Carpenter is known best for his classic films like "Halloween" and "Escape from New York," but one of his lesser-known titles is this intimate tale starring Jeff Bridges as an alien who takes the form of a widow's husband. He and the widow travel to where the Starman will be picked up by his people, though the government attempts to intervene.

"A big experience growing up was trolling through late-night television and that's where I came across 'Starman,'" Nichols said. "I can distinctly remember the first time I saw it. It was in letterbox and just didn't look like anything else on television. The tone of the film, the sincerity of it. I was really struck by it."



"Cloak & Dagger" (1984)

Not all science fiction has to include aliens from another world. Made on the cusp of the home video game craze, "Cloak & Dagger" stars Henry Thomas as Davey, a young boy who loves the world of espionage and whose imaginary friend (played by Dabney Coleman) is the main character of his favorite video game. But he finds himself really on the run from bad guys when he realizes the video game he's carrying is in fact filled with top secrets that could be dangerous if in the wrong hands.

"A big inspiration for 'Midnight Special' was the energy of being a kid in the '80s," Nichols said. "And this movie was so great because I remember carrying a backpack just like Davey, and I would have things in the bag just in case I would have to encounter a group of bad guys like he did. For me that was so much fun."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 13 cheapest European cities for a weekend break

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Vilnius

The latest City Costs Barometer from Post Office Travel Money has been released, showing the most affordable cities to travel in Europe for a weekend break.

The eighth-annual study ranked 35 European cities according to the total amount of 12 holiday items, such as a three-course meal with a bottle of wine for two, two nights' accommodation in a three-star hotel, travel and sightseeing costs, a cup of coffee, bottle of beer, and more.

The Post Office crunched numbers for each city using currency exchange rates from March 10.

Prices for holiday items were provided by tourist offices and researched online. Accommodation prices were sourced from Hotels.com, using the cheapest available double/twin en-suite room in a city centre location for the travel dates of 15 to 18 April.

Post Office Travel Money has also released a handy online tool where users can calculate how much they should expect to pay on items in the European city of their choice. Travellers can even compare the cost of essential items, travel, and accommodation between cities and against the global average.

Check out the 13 cheapest cities for a two-night trip in Europe, along with a list of key expenses, below:

No. 13. Lille, France — £170 ($245)

Two-night stay for two adults in a three-star hotel:£72 ($103.66)

Return bus/train transfer (from airport to city centre):£7.88 ($11.35)

48-hour travel card:£6.86 ($9.88)

Top tourist heritage attraction: Grand Place/Vieille Bourse (The Old Stock Exchange) — Free

Three-course meal for two with a bottle of wine:£51.15 ($73.64)

Coffee:£2.13 ($3.07)

Beer:£4.02 ($5.79)

Cola:£2.44 ($3.51)

Wine:£3.15 ($4.54)



No. 12. Strasbourg, France — £169 ($243)

Two-night stay for two adults in a three-star hotel:£71 ($102.22)

Return bus/train transfer (from airport to city centre):£6.78 ($9.76)

48-hour travel card:£6.78 ($9.76)

Top tourist heritage attraction: Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg — Free

Three-course meal for two with a bottle of wine:£52.81 ($76.03)

Coffee:£2.13 ($3.07)

Beer:£2.60 ($3.74)

Cola:£2.76 ($3.97)

Wine:£3.47 ($5)



No. 11. Tallinn, Estonia — £160 ($230)

Two-night stay for two adults in a three-star hotel:£68 ($97.90)

Return bus/train transfer (from airport to city centre):£3.15 ($4.54)

48-hour travel card:£3.94 ($5.67)

Top tourist heritage attraction: Tallinn Town Hall — £3.94 ($5.67)

Three-course meal for two with a bottle of wine:£46.50 ($66.95)

Coffee:£1.97 ($2.84)

Beer:£2.76 ($3.97)

Cola:£1.97 ($2.84)

Wine:£3.74 ($5.38)



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Inside the London house where the Sex Pistols used to live, record music, and graffiti

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John Lydon self portrait

The London house where the Sex Pistols once lived and recorded music was on Tuesday given special protection by government agency Historic England. 

The Pistols lived in an outbuilding at the back of two 17th-century properties at Soho's 6-7 Denmark Street. The Grade II* listing, which recognises well-preserved architectural features that are considered to be of national importance, means that there is extra control over what changes can be made to the building.

"Listing doesn’t mean that it will be open to the public, the building is privately owned," Katharine Grice, Senior Corporate Communications Manager of Historic England, told Business Insider. "It means that any changes need to be given listed building consent through the planning system."

Punk icon Johnny Rotten's graffiti in the upstairs room portrays his bandmates Steve Jones, Sid Vicious, Sid's girlfriend Nancy Spungen, and manager Malcolm McLaren, as well as his own self-portrait.

"We visited the building and felt that due to the well-preserved architectural detail they should be upgraded to Grade II* and that the graffiti should be included in the listing," Grice said.

Take a look inside the Pistols' former residence below. 

Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren rented the outbuilding between 1975-1977 early in the band's career, according to a press release from Historic England. The downstairs space was used as a recording studio, where the band produced its early demos, while the upstairs was home to band members Glen Matlock and Steve Jones, according to the statement.



The houses are two of eight properties that were originally built between 1686-1691 on the street, made famous as Tin Pan Alley, where the Rolling Stones recorded its first album (at Regent Sound Studios, at no. 4), and Elton John worked at a music publishing company and wrote "Your Song," according to the press release.



As well as celebrity graffiti, the properties boast notable architectural features including a mid-18th-century staircase, historic panelling, and cornices. This is an upstairs room at 6-7 Denmark Street.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

These are the 5 biggest risks to a breakup of the European Union

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european union eu flag barbed wire

The European Union was a noble dream, but as happens with most dreams, reality eventually sets in. 

It is simply not possible to maintain economic unity and a single monetary policy among a collection of states, each of which sets its own fiscal policies. 

Europe's sovereign-debt crisis was the first sign that something was structurally wrong. Germany spent years loaning euros to poorer eurozone countries so they could buy German-made goods.

Other exporting nations within the EU did the same. The resulting trade imbalance had to show itself somewhere. It did — in the government debts of countries like Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland.

Now add the political tensions stemming from the migrant crisis and the risk of Brexit, and Europe's collapse becomes increasingly real.

Here I outline the five biggest internal risks the European Union faces right now. How it handles them will make or break the entire union — and possibly the global economy.

Risk No. 1: Italy's banking crisis

Italy will probably be Europe's main headache. Its banking system is already breaking down as nonperforming loans proliferate. Nonperforming loans make up almost 20% of the Italian banking system's assets. Some southern banks hold nearly 40% nonperforming loans.

(By contrast, you should be thankful that nonperforming loans of US banks are down to a somewhat manageable 1%. During the worst of our banking crisis, US nonperforming loans never rose above 3.5%. Italy's level is almost six times as large, and there is not an economic crisis yet.)

A collapse of the Italian banking system is a systemic risk for all of Europe. Italy has the eighth-largest economy in the world, only slightly smaller than India's. Its economic impact on Europe and thus on the global economy is critical.



Risk No. 2: Unmanageable Greece

Compared with Italy, Greece will seem quite manageable. Greece remains important for another reason, though. It is the main gate through which fleeing Syrians, Iraqis, and others try to enter Europe.

The wealthier states need Greece's cooperation to keep the flow of refugees manageable.

Greece is ground zero for the two greatest challenges to afflict Europe in recent years: the debt crisis and Germany's insistence on austerity as the only cure, and the backlash against the wave of human migration from war-torn and impoverished countries.

The migrant crisis is already a humanitarian disaster, and the situation is getting worse. The European Union, however, is all but paralyzed.



Risk No. 3: The end of Schengen

The Paris terrorist attacks in November resulted in the reimposition of border controls through most of the previously open "Schengen" area. The attacks also convinced many Europeans that migrating Muslims are a security threat. 

An initial welcome turned into fear. One of the key leaders in Europe, Angelina Merkel of Germany, finds herself under intense political pressure because of an anti-immigrant backlash from voters.

That brings me to the fourth risk.



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11 European destinations everyone should travel to alone

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Travelling alone can be a hugely rewarding experience, especially in a place that's bursting with enough culture, attractions, and scenery to keep you occupied.

To help you figure out where to go next, the European travel website RoutePerfect.com has released a list of the best destinations in Europe for solo travellers. 

The ranking is based on data from over 100,000 trips saved and booked by solo travellers from around the world through the site.  

From grand European capitals steeped in historic architecture and art, to cities with hip neighbourhoods and cheap beer, there's something for every type of traveller. 

Check out the top 11 destinations for solo travellers below.

11. Munich, Germany — This Bavarian city attracts visitors with its picturesque architecture, art galleries, and beer halls. It's especially busy in the autumn during Oktoberfest.



10. Vienna, Austria — World-famous opera, ornate buildings, and fancy desserts make this city popular with solo travellers looking to take in some culture.



9. London, UK — Free cultural attractions like the British Museum and the Tate Modern make the British capital a popular choice.



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The future is coming and it's full squishy, unsettling robots

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Hard robots are typically awkward and clunky.

Ones built like humans with two legs, for example, like to fall down — a lot.

But gleaming mechanoids aren't the only kind of robots. Engineers are also crafting a new generation of highly capable and very flexible machines, called soft robots.

The best of these squishy creations will compete at the RoboSoft Grand Challenge in Italy at the end of April, which we first heard about from Popular Science.

A soft tentacle reaching out to help you might sound unsettling, but one day such a device just might save your life. Here's what soft robots are all about.

Soft robots are typically made of silicone and have a softer touch, allowing them to do things harder, shinier robots can't.

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Many of them draw inspiration from the common octopus, which has no bones and can squeeze into the darnedest places.

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See the similarity?

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CREDIT SUISSE: Everyone else on Wall Street is dead wrong about these 23 stocks (AGIO, ADSK, BOX, CAT, DNKN, K, MTW, NSM, PDCO, SYY, X, ABAX, AXP, BIG, BWLD, DLTR, EXPD, F, OVAS, POT, VMI)

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It's usually easier to move with the crowd, even on Wall Street.

But counterintuitive behavior is often what rakes in the big returns.

The equity research team at Credit Suisse recently published its latest list of contrarian stocks, or companies it thinks Wall Street is reading wrong.

Andrew St Pierre and his team wrote in the client note: "We screened our current US coverage universe to identify companies where our analysts' views diverged from that of the Street, focusing on both rating as well as earnings projections.

"To further strengthen the list of stocks, we worked closely with the research analysts to select stories in which our conviction level is high. The result is a list of 11 Outperform-rated names and 12 Underperform-rated stocks."

Here they are:

First, the outperformers:



Agios Pharmaceuticals

Ticker: AGIO

Target Price: $66

Company Description: Agios makes treatments for patients with cancer and rare genetic disorders of metabolism.

Why Credit Suisse sees it differently: "We view AGIO as an Outperform based on the potential for AG-348/519 to gain approval for pyruvate kinase deficiency (PKD). We see the Street overtly discounting their market opportunity, and see the stock set up well into data at the European Hematology Association (EHA) conference in June. We view PKD as a disease area exhibiting high unmet medical need, and anticipate the market may be significantly larger than Street estimates based on the discovery of new causal mutations and currently low screening rates."



Autodesk

Ticker: ADSK

Target Price: $100

Company Description: The company makes architecture and engineering software.

Why Credit Suisse sees it differently: "We had previously expected Autodesk's business model transition to result in meaningful long-term upside to revenue (at limited incremental cost) versus consensus estimates, driving "normalized" earnings power of at least $8.00 per share in FY2023. However, Autodesk's increased focus on expenses provides further operating leverage to the company's post-transition business model. As such, we now estimate post-transition earnings power of over $10.00 per share and FCF per share of nearly $11.00 in FY2023."



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A photographer captured these dismal photos of life in North Korea on her phone

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Xiaolu Chu, life in north korea, train ride, photography

The North Korean government is notoriously secretive. Upon entry to the country, visitors are instructed on what they can and cannot take pictures of. Customs agents inspect your cell phone and other digital devices, including cameras, tablets, and storage cards, for banned content.

These restrictions prompted Getty photographer Xiaolu Chu to travel by train through the country in August 2015, documenting everyday life through her phone lens. She explained to Tech Insider that whipping out her DSLR camera was too risky in some of the villages, where the locals reported sightings to the police.

While some images were deleted during run-ins with the police, Chu shared the remainder of her trip with us. Here's what it was like.

Chu took the long way around during her visit to North Korea.



Most Chinese tourists enter by train through Sinjiju or by plane through Pyongyang. She instead traveled to Russia so she could access the port at Tumangang.



The train ride from Tumangang to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, lasts a day. It was canceled because of a dispute between North Korea and South Korea.



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