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The best restaurants in London if you don't want to spend a lot of money

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Pizza

London is an expensive city, especially if you like to eat out at restaurants.

Thankfully, the restaurant reservation and review site OpenTable has put together a list of the best value restaurants in the British capital to help you decide where to eat on a budget. 

OpenTable analysed over 400,000 reviews from diners on its website, ranking the city's restaurants according to price and quality.

From a hearty Italian joint serving mozzarella-loaded pizzas, to a French/Korean fusion restaurant combining Asian flavours with European cooking techniques, the list is full of delicious offerings dotted all over London.

Of the top 10, here are 9 London restaurants that won't break the bank:

Rossella

103 Highgate Road, NW5 1TR

Price range: £26 - £40

The menu at this family-run Italian joint in Kentish Town includes calamari fritti and avocado gratinato for starters, classic pizza and pasta options for the main meal, and tiramisu and a creamy chocolate and mascarpone cake for dessert.

"I had walked by many times and was curious, so decided to give it a go when my family were down," one reviewer wrote. "Can't fault it, it was just right for what we were after — great food and service, friendly and relaxed. We'll be back."



Meza - Tooting Bec

34 Trinity Road, SW17 7RE

Price range: £25 and under

A tiny restaurant in southwest London, Meza serves authentic Lebanese food in a "quirky" environment with "a great atmosphere," according to one review.

"We had a selection of starters including wonderfully fresh hummus and a tasty pureed aubergine with flat breads, quickly followed by a mixed grill that was moist and succulent and a marvellous grilled sea-bass," the user wrote. "All this and excellent value for money too."



Buoni Amici

170 Goldhawk Road, W12 8HT

Price range:£25 and under

This Shepherds Bush restaurant specialises in delicious Tuscan cuisine, offering a variety of affordable pasta, meat, and seafood dishes. 

"This is a superb restaurant. The food is wonderful from a really excellent menu selection," one OpenTable user wrote in a review. "At around £40 a head with plenty of drink, this is one not to miss."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Check out London's abandoned Tube stations — including Churchill's secret war bunker — before they open to the public

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Hidden London

New tours of London's ghost Tube stations and tunnels will allow visitors to explore forgotten parts of the city's underground system. 

This year's season of tours, held by Hidden London, will offer Londoners the chance to step inside Down Street — a former station on the Piccadilly line that was famously used by Winston Churchill as a secret bomb shelter during the Blitz.

Visitors can also tour Clapham South (another station that was used as a wartime shelter), Euston station's "lost tunnels," and 55 Broadway, the city's first skyscraper and the old London Underground headquarters.

Tours will be held on different dates at each location, with the season beginning in May 2016 and ending in March 2017, according to the Evening Standard.

Tickets will go on sale on April 20 or you can get priority booking by signing up for London Transport Museum's newsletter before April 19. 

Until then, you can take a look inside the tour locations below.

Down Street station, which is between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner on the Piccadilly Line, closed in 1932. The first tours will start in August.

Source: Evening Standard



Visitors are warned that there's no step-free access on any tours, including Down Street, pictured below. They may have to climb and descend up to 180 steps.

Source: London Transport Museum

 



Hidden London tour guide Siddy Holloway, pictured below, shows visitors around the station's telephone exchange with a flashlight.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

'What's it worth?': Read the Bloomberg chats that got a former RBS Libor trader banned for life

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The most beautiful sushi roll in the world

Former RBS Libor submitter Paul White was banned from "any regulated financial activity" by the UK's markets watchdog for attempting to manipulate the Libor rate to benefit traders.

White avoided being slapped with a £250,000 ($358,000) fine on Tuesday due to his "serious financial hardship."

White was the main RBS submitter for Japanese Yen and Swiss franc Libor – benchmarks that tracks how much it costs banks to borrow from one another in different currencies – between 2007 and 2010.

He received "68 documented requests" from traders to alter his submissions to benefit their trading positions, according to the FCA.

Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA said: “By allowing his submissions to be set, in effect, by those with collateral financial interests in the outcome, Mr White recklessly disregarded the risk – the obvious risk - that his LIBOR submission might corrupt LIBOR’s integrity."

While a lot of the requests were spoken because he sat next to a Swiss franc trader for a time, some made it onto the Bloomberg messaging system and were used as evidence by the FCA to support the ban.

Here is a choice selection.

White "routinely took the trading positions of derivatives traders into account when making CHF and JPY LIBOR submissions," according to the FCA. This example occurred at 10:33:19 on December 4, 2008:



The mysterious "Trader A" made a lot of the requests because he would "generally benefit from a narrowing of the gap between three month CHF LIBOR and six month CHF LIBOR." At 10:13:50 on March 17, 2009, the following exchange took place:



At 07:44:16 on September 15, 2009, the following Bloomberg exchange took place between Derivatives Trader B and White:

September 15, 2009



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Former State Department adviser says 6 forces will change the way we live and work over the next 20 years

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alec ross

As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's senior adviser for innovation and subsequently a senior fellow at Columbia, Alec Ross has logged "well over a million miles" in his travels across 41 countries.

He's studied the development of emerging technologies and their applications around the world, and his book "The Industries of the Future" is an exploration of the six fundamental forces he is confident will transform the way we live and work over the next 20 years.

Business Insider recently spoke with Ross to hear more about these forces, and what we should expect.

SEE ALSO: LinkedIn's HR chief shares her best career advice for 20-somethings

We'll become increasingly reliant on robots

Advances in cloud computing is one of the main factors behind the dramatic rise of automated technology that will only continue to expand.

For example, in the United States, companies like Google and General Motors are investing in driverless car technology; in Japan, robots are serving as personal caregivers to the elderly.

As has happened before in history, automation will both kill and create jobs.

"Overall, robots can be a boon, freeing up humans to do more productive things — but only so long as humans create the systems to adapt their workforces, economies, and societies to the inevitable disruption," Ross writes.

Ross predicts that this will be a net positive for the entire global population, but will hurt the most among manual laborers in the Western world and low-skilled workers in countries like China.



Genomics will become the next trillion-dollar industry

"The size of the genomics market was estimated at a little more than $11 billion in 2013 and is going to grow faster than anyone could imagine," Ross writes.

Ronald W. Davis, director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center, "likens the state of genomics today to that of e-commerce in 1994, the year Amazon was founded and before the founders of Google had even begun working, as students, on internet search," Ross continues.

He predicts that the American genomics industry will boom over the next two decades, and that we will be able to predict a tremendous amount about both our health and the health of our unborn children — which will bring with it some heavy ethical questions. China will be on the United States' heels in this industry, he says.

 

 



The technology behind digital currency will eliminate middle men and empower developing nations

"I think the most significant outgrowth of Bitcoin has not been the creation of a viable digital currency, because I think that there is little evidence that Bitcoin is either a store of value or a medium of exchange," Ross told Business Insider. "What's significant is this computer science breakthrough in the blockchain," the public ledger that tracks Bitcoin transactions.

For example, we will be less reliant on people like accountants to guide us through forms, since blockchain technology will be able to power "smart contracts" that can be embedded in the financial transactions for things like real estate.

Ross compared Bitcoin to an early web search tool like Web Crawler, and said that while it won't become a widely used digital currency, it will serve as the foundation for ones that will.

"That is going to help accelerate globalization because a cryptocurrency will make it much easier to connect developing and developed markets," he said. "The Bangladeshi construction worker in the United Arab Emirates is no longer going to have to spend 8% of their wages on transfer payments. They can spend .008% transferring the money to Bangladesh."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

RANKED: The 23 best CGI-enhanced movies ever

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Jungle Book

Since the late 1970s, computer-generated imagery, or CGI, has become one of Hollywood's most indispensable tools — particularly in the kind of enormous, spectacle-driven franchise film on which the industry increasingly relies.

Today, CGI can be found in almost everything you see on the big screen. A great example is "The Jungle Book," out this weekend, a live-action retelling of the classic 1967 Disney animated feature. It features eye-popping, realistic CGI animals that "man-cub" Mowgli encounters deep in the jungle. 

But before "Jungle Book," there were movies that changed the way the whole medium was understood and wielded with CGI, and expanded the kinds of stories Hollywood can tell.

Here we rank the 23 best movies ever to use CGI (limited to live-action, rather than animated, movies).

 

SEE ALSO: Here's what "Game of Thrones" stars look like in real life, from the new season premiere

23. “The Black Hole” (1979)

This dark sci-fi fantasy scared the pants off kids in the late '70s, who thought they were going to a typical family-friendly Disney movie. Instead, this look at a mad scientist in charge of a spacecraft heading straight to a black hole was not just a thriller, but displayed a lot of never-before-seen computer-generated sights.



22. “The Perfect Storm” (2000)

Wolfgang Petersen's adaptation of Sebastian Junger's book about the doomed voyage of commercial fishing vessel the "Andrea Gail" during the real-life Perfect Storm of 1991 follows the crew (played by, among others, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg) as they find themselves taking on massive storm conditions. Thanks to CGI, we see what it would be like to battle monstrous waves.



21. “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006)

Though there were many practical effects and costumes that made up the incredible fantasy world of this classic by Guillermo del Toro, the film also used CGI to heighten the unique setting explored by a young girl.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The Cadillac CTS-V puts the 'V' in 'Vroom!' (gm)

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Cadillac CTS-V

Cadillac is General Motors' luxury brand and has been for over 100 years — and it's undergoing a major reinvention. Sales and marketing operations were moved to New York City in 2014 in order to make Caddy seem hip and fresh and of the global-luxury conversation.

But Cadillac has been in the throes of transformation for more than a decade. For much of its history, it sat at the peak of GM's famous-brand ladder: You entered your automotive life with a Chevy and closed it with one. Back then, during the US auto industry's golden age and even into its crisis years in the 1970s and '80s, Cadillac produced big, comfortable cars that were designed to surround passengers in swaths of soft leather and ample ashtrays.

Taking one hard turn into a corner wasn't something that entered any Cadillac owner's mind, as he or she piloted the barge down a freeway with Sinatra flowing from the FM radio. The invasion of German sports sedans disrupted this settled arrangement. "Luxury" now had to include "performance." And to up the ante, BMW in particular began to advance its "ultimate driving machine" pitch with street-legal competition-derived cars from its M Sport division. This was German performance — plus!

Even after Cadillac revolutionized its styling to be more aggressive, it had to tackle the impression that the Germans were better at going fast. This led to a synthesis of Cadillac and Corvette. Posh met performance, and "performance" was a big V8 engine with enough horsepower to make you think you're not just driving — you're being propelled forward at alarming velocity by a thick column of fire. The V-Series was born.

Caddy has been refining this formula for about a decade now, and Johan de Nysschen, the brand's boss, recently stressed to Business Insider how important the V-cars are to the future of the the brand. "[They're] very stunning and are exciting people around the brand," he said. "They draw people into showrooms who would never consider Cadillac."

A Caddy with the heart of a Corvette? Sounds pretty tasty, and maybe just a little bit rude. So we sampled the core of the V lineup: the 2016 CTS-V sedan.

The Caddy landed in my driveway at Business Insider car-test HQ. The "Red Obsession" paint brightened things up.



I know the CTS-V doesn't look anything like its ferocious GM stablemate, the Corvette Z06 supercar, which serves up 650 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque from the most powerful engine GM has built.



But the Cadillac actually has ... THE SAME ENGINE as the Vette, a 6.2-liter supercharged widow-maker. It's just been toned down to crank out a mere 640 hp.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The best school district in every state

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Aspen School District

There are nearly 100,000 elementary, middle, and high schools in the US, which combine to form an array of school districts of varying size and quality. The best districts are coveted, and a high-caliber school system can be a key factor when a family decides to relocate to one city over another. 

Niche, a company that researches and compiles information on schools, provides a ranking of the best school districts in America— that is, the collective quality of all the schools in a district determined by a grade of overall experience. The ranking includes key factors such as the strength of academics, health and safety, student culture and diversity, and the quality of teachers. Read more about the methodology here.

At the time of calculation, Niche's database contained records for 12,153 school districts. Business Insider searched the ranking to find the best in each state. Sufficient data wasn't available for Hawaii, so it does not appear on this list.

Below is the best school district in each US state.

SEE ALSO: The 25 best school districts in America

AND: The best public high school in every state

ALABAMA: Mountain Brook City Schools

No. of schools: 6

No. of students: 4,477

Academics: A+

Health & safety: A

Student culture & diversity: C-

Teachers: A+

 

 



ALASKA: Unalaska City School District

No. of schools: 2

No. of students: 408

Academics: A

Health & safety: A+

Student culture & diversity: A

Teachers: A+



ARIZONA: Chandler Preparatory Academy

No. of schools: 1

No. of students: 679

Academics: A+

Health & safety: A-

Student culture & diversity: A

Teachers: A+



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The most famous book that takes place in every state

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book map 4x3

Whether you come from the California coastline or the snowy forests of Maine, reading a book set in your home state can make you feel a warm nostalgia for that beloved place.

After scouring the internet and surveying our colleagues on their picks, we rounded up the most famous book set in every state in America. 

Did we get your state right? Let us know in the comments if you have another pick.

An earlier version of this article was co-authored by Melissa Stanger.

SEE ALSO: 24 books that will change your life forever, according to my coworkers

ALABAMA: "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

When a local attorney is asked to defend an African American man accused of rape, he has to decide between doing what's right and doing what society expects of him, launching his children right in the middle of the conflict.

This Pulitzer Prize winner is set in Maycomb, a community divided by racism and inspired by Lee's hometown of Monroeville. 

Buy the book here »



ALASKA: "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

A young man from a family of money donates all of his savings to charity and abandons his possessions before hitchhiking into the Alaskan wilderness to reinvent himself.

This true story survival-drama was made into a movie of the same name in 2007, directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch, shedding light on McCandless' idealism of a life unburdened by material possessions, as well as the harsh realities of the Alaskan wild.

Buy the book here »



ARIZONA: "The Bean Trees" by Barbara Kingsolver

Taylor is well on her way to escaping small-town life. But shortly into her journey to Tucson, where she hopes to start over, a stranger leaves her with a Native American toddler with a traumatic past.

Kingsolver's story of finding salvation in a barren situation is appropriately set in the Arizona backdrop, and is packed with real places and events.

Buy the book here »



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The Miss Universe competition reflects our changing beauty ideals — see how the pageant has evolved over 63 years

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miss universe 2006

The Miss Universe beauty pageant is now 63 years old, and it can tell us a lot about how our perception of beauty has evolved over the years.

In a recent study, UK-based Superdrug Online Doctor tracked the evolution of Miss Universe winner’s body types since the contest started in 1952 by gathering all of the publicly available pictures, height, and weight measurements the team could find and then comparing the data with the average height and weight of women in the United States aged 20 to 29 (based on Center for Disease Control data).

"We chose to examine Miss Universe because it's such a long-standing tradition around the world," Adina Antonucci, one of the study's team members, tells Tech Insider in an email."In recent years, we've seen an increase in body image awareness that has sparked important conversations about the unrealistic standards of beauty."

They found that while the average American woman has gotten heavier, Miss Universe has only gotten thinner and taller.

Keep scrolling to see how the competition and its winners have evolved over six decades.

Miss Universe started in 1952 as a marketing stunt by a California clothing company, Pacific Knitting Mills, after the winner of rival pageant Miss America refused to wear one of its swimsuits.

Only 30 contestants competed for the crown.



At first, the pageant was combined with the Miss USA pageant. It wasn't broadcast until 1955. Here are some contestants in 1956 at a department store for the bathing suit competition.



In those early years, Miss USA was essentially a preliminary phase in the Miss Universe contest. Here's the Miss USA 1957 winner, Leona Gage, who lost to Gladys Zender from Peru in Miss Universe.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 22-year-old whiz kid who runs Apple's Twitter account shares his social media tips (AAPL)

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Tai Tran

Apple launched its first major customer service social media account, @AppleSupport, earlier this year, and it already has 282,000 Twitter followers. 

One of the main people behind it is 22-year-old Tai Tran. Apple offered him a full-time job running social media before he even graduated. He's been named to Forbes' 30 under 30 list for marketing, and when he accepted a job at Apple, it was covered by Apple blogs

Tran is sharing his social media expertise with undergraduates at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, where he's teaching two classes for course credit, and he puts most of his course materials online.

Here are some highlights:

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new Twitter account has already helped thousands of users in its first day

One class session this spring broke down the differences between various social media platforms. Although Facebook has the most users overall...



Snapchat is the most used by millennials.



Here's how he breaks it down: Facebook and Twitter are for communicating with customers, Snapchat and Instagram are for reaching millennials, and Google+ is for SEO.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

14 vintage photos of the massive earthquake that would forever change the face of San Francisco

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San Francisco earthquake 1906

The biggest earthquake to ever hit San Francisco took place more than a century ago, on April 18, 1906.

With a 7.8 magnitude, it's still one of the most devastating earthquakes to hit California to this day. The earthquake was not the only disaster that struck — it also caused many fires that destroyed even more of the city.

It is still considered one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States.

Below, see images of the damages caused by the massive earthquake.

SEE ALSO: 30 years after the Chernobyl disaster, no people can live in the area — but the animal population is thriving

The earthquake killed over 3,000 people and destroyed more than 28,000 buildings. Some streets were split right down the middle.

Source: history.com



It was the first natural disaster to be documented through photographs.

Source: The Culture Trip



The quake shook a total of 296 miles along the San Andreas fault.

Source: history.com



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

17 psychological tricks to make people like you immediately

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laughing women cornish

Most friendships develop so naturally that you don't even realize how or when they started.

Sometimes, though, you want to make an effort to befriend a new acquaintance or become a better friend to existing pals.

To help you out on that front, we scoured the psychological research to find science-backed strategies to get people to like you.

Read on to find out how to develop better relationships faster.

This is an update of an article originally written by Maggie Zhang.

SEE ALSO: 12 things you're doing that make people dislike you immediately

1. Copy them

This strategy is called mirroring, and involves subtly mimicking the other person's behavior. When talking to someone, try copying their body language, gestures, and facial expressions.

In 1999, New York University researchers documented the "chameleon effect," which occurs when people unconsciously mimic each other's behavior, and that mimicry facilitates liking.

Researchers had 78 men and women work on a task with a partner, who was really a confederate working for the researchers. The partners engaged in different levels of mimicry, while researchers secretly videotaped the interactions. At the end of the interaction, the researchers had participants indicate how much they liked those partners.

Sure enough, participants were more likely to say that they liked their partner when their partner had mimicked their behavior.



2. Spend more time around them

According to the mere-exposure effect, people tend to like things that are familiar to them.

Knowledge of this phenomenon dates back to the 1950s, when MIT researchers discovered that college students who lived closer together in housing projects were more likely to be friends than students who lived farther apart.

This could be because students who live close by can experience more passive, day-to-day interactions with each other, such as greeting each other in the common room or kitchen. Under certain circumstances, those interactions can develop into full-fledged friendships.

More recently, psychologists at the University of Pittsburgh had four women pose as students in a university psychology class. Each woman showed up in class a different number of times. When experimenters showed male students pictures of the four women, the men demonstrated a greater affinity for those women they'd seen more often in class — even though they hadn't interacted with any of them.

Taken together, these findings suggest that simply spending more time with people can make them like you more. Even if you don't live near your friends, try sticking to a steady routine with them, such as going out for coffee every week or taking a class together.



3. Compliment other people

People will associate the adjectives you use to describe other people with your personality. This phenomenon is called spontaneous trait transference.

One study found that this effect occurred even when people knew certain traits didn't describe the people who had talked about them.

According to Gretchen Rubin, author of books including "The Happiness Project,""whatever you say about other people influences how people see you."

If you describe someone else as genuine and kind, people will also associate you with those qualities. The reverse is also true: If you are constantly trashing people behind their backs, your friends will start to associate the negative qualities with you as well.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

4 easy things that make life disproportionately better

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dog and man on dock

Lots of the things we spend our energy on are worthwhile, but some are a better deal than others.

The benefits of my weight routine, for example, are worth much more than the effort it takes, but that effort is still pretty significant.

You have to lift a two-hundred pound barbell quite a few times for anything good to happen.

There are a few things I do (and sometimes still fail to do) that take almost no effort, and somehow make my life significantly better.

As far as I can tell, these four small things are the best deal going.

SEE ALSO: 15 daily habits that are easy to practice and can significantly improve your life

1. Shining the sink before bed

I don’t know where or when, but I remember reading about someone who swore that her habit of shining her sink before bed was the linchpin of her productivity and well-being. I have tried it and can corroborate her ridiculous claim. [Readers have since pointed out this is from the FlyLady].

Making your morning coffee beside a shiny sink is an empowering, self-affirming experience. Making coffee beside a dull sink, containing even a single dirty fork sitting in a puddle, is comparatively draining and dehumanizing. Add a stray, bloated noodle or two and it becomes strangely life-destroying.

In my experience, one of two different people emerge from that coffee-making process, depending on the condition of the sink. One of them is sharp and ready for life. The other must fight his way to his desk from under some great existential weight, some grimy psychic debris that’s inseparable from the marooned soup remnants that greeted him this morning. The Sun is his enemy, not his ally, and all his work will be uphill today.

Different sinks probably need different techniques. Mine is stainless steel, and I use one of those magic white pads with a bit of Comet and water. Wipe down the rim and any chrome fixtures with spray and a dry cloth. Takes 40 seconds. Might change your life. 



2. Going outside with absolutely no plan

At some point in my adult life I developed a strange, seemingly self-defeating habit at the supermarket. I wouldn’t bother crossing the store to get the last item on my list. Part of me knew that leaving that one thing would make it necessary to walk six blocks to the corner store the next day.

This was my subconscious screaming for help. The quiet, wise part of my mind sabotaged my efficient supermarket routine in order to create an excuse to travel somewhere by foot.

I now see outdoor walking as an essential nutrient; it shouldn’t require an excuse. What we need to excuse ourselves from is the kind of perverse, post-industrial arrangement where it is even possible to spend a whole day without traveling any significant distance outside on foot.

Fresh air and bodily movement are always healthy, of course, but to get the full, disproportionately worthwhile benefits of neighborhood walking, it is essential that you don’t know where you’re going. If you have a destination, or even a regular walking route, then you risk making the walking itself into a task: something to be done with, rather than something to do.

When I step out of the building, I don’t know if I’m going to turn left or right until I’m doing it. I’ve gone on hundreds of these destinationless walks, and a regular route has not emerged. It turns out my body knows how to create a closed polygon without my mind having to think about it.

There’s something life-affirming about any enterprise in which you rely on moment-to-moment intuition instead of planning — and it’s just a walk, so you can’t muck anything up too badly. At every corner, you just turn whichever way you feel like, or maybe continue straight ahead. Let your feet decide. You will end up at home, somehow.



3. Sitting on the floor and doing nothing for a little while

Blaise Pascal famously said that all human miseries arise from our inability to do this. But I think it’s really just an unwillingness. He’s right about the arising miseries though — not knowing how to deliberately do nothing is a crippling disease that leads to bizarre, self-defeating phenomena like workaholism, cigarette smoking, rude smartphone behavior (see below) and eventually war and pestilence.

Sitting on the floor and doing nothing isn’t exactly difficult, but it feels very foreign at first. We are so attuned to being constantly doing, acting, evaluating and improving, that to fully stop in this way feels almost as radical as turning off your ignition at a red light and putting your feet up (although it’s a lot less disruptive to society).

I am sneakily suggesting some kind of meditation here, but the point is you can make your non-doing as formal or informal as you like. You can do it Zen-style, with a prescribed posture and technique, or you can just lean back and listen to the birds and the hum of the fridge for eight minutes.

I do this for 20 minutes a day, sometimes less, sometimes more. But even five minutes a day of being on the floor is more than worthwhile. Even one minute. Any amount of stopping, settling and noticing that we can offer our goal-addled minds goes a long way.

There’s no reason to make it into a self-serious mystical activity — non-doing is very practical and simple, and often it’s this assumed hyper-seriousness that drives people away from all forms of meditation. (This let’s-not-be-uptight-about-it perspective is the basis for Camp Calm, which of course I think you should look into.)

You’re just sitting on the floor, noticing what it’s like to be sitting on the floor, maybe using a technique to further simplify it. After you do it for a week or two, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without any dedicated floor time.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

25 pressing questions we still need answered on 'Game of Thrones'

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jon snowWarning: There are spoilers ahead for "Game of Thrones," as well as speculation regarding potential future events based on theories from the show and books.

"Game of Thrones" still manages to shock each season, leaving viewers unsure of what's to come.

Even readers of the book series can't answer some of the questions left from the last season.

The show returns April 24, and while some questions — Is Jon Snow alive? Will he be brought back from the dead? — will be answered sometime during the sixth season, others can't be answered until the end of the series and some might never be answered.

Here are 25 loose ends and general questions "Game of Thrones" has yet to answer:

SEE ALSO: A breakdown of everything in the new 'Game of Thrones' season 6 trailer

Who are Jon Snow's real parents?

Jon Snow is the bastard son of Eddard Stark, or at least that's how the story goes. One name thrown around as Snow's possible mother is Ashara Dayne, an early love interest for Eddard. But during a conversation with King Robert Baratheon about Snow's mom, Eddard mentions Wylla, who was a wet nurse to the Dayne family. But even with these names, an extremely popular fan theory says Snow is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, Eddard's sister. It's an extensive theory that may be proven true (or false) this year.



Is Jon Snow alive/will he be brought back from the dead?

Both season five and book five left Snow's fate hanging in the balance after he was stabbed repeatedly by members of the Night's Watch. While absolutely everyone involved in "Game of Thrones" has said Snow is deader than dead, fans think that's not truly the case. He might be dead for now, but we've seen characters brought back from the dead before. All men must die, but we don't think Snow's time is up just yet.



What do the Dothraki intend on doing with Daenerys?

Daenerys was found by the Dothraki at the end of season five and season six will see her as a captive. After Khal Drogo died, she was supposed to join the other widowed khaleesis in Vaes Dothrak, the only Dothraki city, but instead left. Now that they have found her, will she be punished for leaving? Will she be forced to stay? Will Drogon come to her rescue? Will she escape on her own?



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

12 of the best stretches to stay flexible and fit at any age

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BI_Graphic_Everyday stretches to stay flexible and fit_4x3

When it comes to stretching out your muscles, there are a lot of options to choose from.

To boil it down, we turned to Marilyn Moffat, a professor of physical therapy at New York University and the author of "Age Defying Fitness." She took us through the best basic stretches that work for practically everyone.

Use these illustrations as your guide and try some of the stretches that'll help keep you flexible and fit at any age.

Remember: Don't do these stretches if they make you uncomfortable or if you have existing muscle problems. Instead, consult a physical therapist.

SEE ALSO: The 12 best everyday stretches to keep you flexible and fit

DON'T MISS: Americans are eating less of one fruit, and it could signal a bigger problem in our diets

First things first: Get seated with good posture. Having that will help you do these stretches correctly.

posture



To start, we'll go through some neck rotations. Be sure to hold each side for 30 to 60 seconds. This applies to all stretches.

neck rotation



For the neck tilt, be sure to pull your left arm down toward the floor, either holding onto the chair or just pulling down.

neck tilt



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13 online courses that could help you get rich

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The wealthiest, most successful people appreciate the power of learning long after college or any formal education is over.

Today, it's easier than ever to continue your education with the chance to take online courses from some of the best universities in the world.

From learning personal finance basics to developing negotiation skills, we've picked out some of the best classes for anyone who is looking to expand their knowledge and grow their wealth. All are free, but some have paid versions that offer more extensive experiences.

Antonia Farzan contributed to an earlier version of this article.

SEE ALSO: 19 books to read if you want to get rich

Trick yourself into making smarter choices

"Behavioral Economics in Action," University of Toronto

Behavioral economics answers questions like, "How can we get people to save more money?"

But this class doesn't just teach you about theory.

It also gives you practical methods to apply in real life, which could come in handy if you know that you should be handling your money better, but can't seem to follow through.

Next session:Always available



Figure out how to decode the books

"Introduction to Financial Accounting," University of Pennsylvania Wharton School

After learning how to read the three most common financial statements — income statements, balance sheets, and cash-flow statements — you'll develop an understanding of how to make smart decisions based on what those reports tell you.

Next session: April 18 — May 22



Build a productive relationship with your money

"Love Your Money," University of Tennessee and FINRA

If you want to make better decisions about managing your money but don't know where to start, the Love Your Money program is for you.

It covers topics like building wealth, settling goals, budgets, credit cards, debt, 401(k) programs, and identity theft.

Next session:Always available



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We tried Five Guys next to its biggest competitor — here's who does it best

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Five Guys Burgers 13

The hamburger: It's the greasy, delicious, unabashedly all-American meal.

Within the past decade, burgers have experienced a renaissance.

No longer the derided fast-food staple, an entire better-burger industry has blossomed around the humble hamburger.

But there appears to be a divide in the field.

There are chains aiming to elevate the burger experience to the next level of dining, and those looking to serve big, no-fuss, quality burgers.

We've visited two fast-casual chains that exemplify both approaches — Smashburger and Five Guys, respectively. Here's what we've found:

Smashburger, with locations in 32 states and seven countries, is known for its wide array of interesting and high-quality burgers that go beyond the basic patty, cheese, lettuce, and tomato.



The menu is daunting. Premium ingredients like avocado and truffle oil make appearances, as do options other than burgers, like chicken sandwiches and salads. Everything hovers around the typical fast-casual price point, with burgers typically $7 to $9.



You order at the counter, then wait at a table for servers to bring your food. The system falls in comfortably between counter and table service, and the staff is incredibly friendly.



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Why Pinterest let its employees stop working for two days to teach each other their secret skills

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Earlier this week, more than 700 Pinterest employees came together from all around the world for a two-day celebration of each other's talents. 

Dubbed Knit Con, the internal conference included employee-led sessions on a wide range of topics — think sitcom writing, intersectional feminism, cheese plating, and workout hacks — as well as talks by luminaries like Momofuku founder David Chang, Apple's Lisa Jackson, and Adam Steltzner, a NASA engineer who worked on the "Curiosity" Mars rover. 

The image-centric discovery site, which has $1.3 billion in funding under its belt and was most recently valued at $11 billion, aims to be the world's best "catalog of ideas." In its second year, Knit Con gives the company a chance to put its mission to work in a very real way, cofounder Evan Sharp tells Business Insider. 

"Think of it as an analog version of Pinterest," he says. 

He believes that for Pinterest to achieve its full potential, the way the company works should reflect how its product works for users. 

Pinterest wanted to give people a chance to discover new hobbies or ideas while embodying one of the company's core values: "Knitting."

"'Knitting' is really when two ways of seeing meet and something new happens," Sharp says. "That's where the best ideas occur." 

Take a peek inside Knit Con: 

SEE ALSO: The folks we spoke to at Facebook's conference this week had 5 complaints about the company's big plan

Employees from completely different divisions who may not interact on a daily basis got to come together through classes on creative coding or making cereal treats. Here's engineer Dan Frankowski leading a jazz appreciation class.



Although throwing the event and stopping operations for two days was expensive, Sharp says that Knit Con is an important part of codifying Pinterest's culture.



Any employee could apply to lead a session and the schedule was kept completely under wraps until the conference commenced.



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7 hard truths about money, in cartoons that will make you smile

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Confused student

Managing your money doesn't have to be complex.

New York Times columnist, author, and financial planner Carl Richards boils down everything you need to know about personal finance into simple, black-and-white "napkin sketches." University of Chicago professor and author Harold Pollack claims that the best money advice fits on a three-by-five inch index card.

To further prove that you don't need to be an expert to understand personal finance, we've rounded up seven hard truths about money in cartoon form, courtesy of Albert, an upcoming app that provides simple financial advice and lets you act on it from your phone.

SEE ALSO: Learn everything you need to know about personal finance from 11 simple sketches

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One of the best things you can do for your investments is leave them alone.

When it comes to money, our choices are often clouded by fear, greed, and nervousness. These emotions tempt us to constantly move our investments around — into what seem at the time like safer positions or more conservative investments — and can ultimately wreck even the most sound investment portfolio.

That's because one of the best things you can do for your investments is leave them alone.

"Avoid impulsively selling an underperforming investment and stay the course with a diversified portfolio that is able to withstand inevitable short-term rises and dips in the market,"certified financial planner Shelly-Ann Eweka writes on Business Insider.

To help focus on your long-term investment plan, avoid the temptation to check a stock ticker or your account on a daily or weekly basis. Markets go up and down every day, and so do individual stocks — if you're investing for the long term, you don't need the anxiety of constant updates.



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Credit card rewards don't matter if you're carrying a balance.

Sure, credit cards can offer some sweet rewards.

But the cash back or airline miles you earn will become negligible if you don't keep your credit card balance at $0. Paying the minimum every month isn't enough.

Interest rates vary depending on the card, but credit cards charge an average of 15% on unpaid balances. To get an idea of how costly this can be, check out this chart showing how charging $100 per year and paying the minimum would result in you paying thousands of dollars in interest over time.



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If you want to save big, ditch your plastic.

You don't have to lose your debit or credit card to save $200 each month. Try leaving your plastic at home and going with all cash for a couple of weeks. Research shows that people spend significantly more when using credit cards instead of cash, and several people have used this strategy to get out of deep debt.

Rather than blindly swiping your credit card, you may find yourself thinking over purchases more thoughtfully — it's harder to part ways with your money when you're handing over physical cash and watching it disappear.



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This gorgeous new PlayStation 4 game looks like a Pixar film

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Games look better and better every year. Take this as exhibit A:

Ratchet and Clank (PlayStation 4)

Not bad, right? This is the new "Ratchet & Clank" game, which arrived on the PlayStation 4 this past week. 

This is Ratchet. He's a "lombax"— a cat-like biped with a penchant for technology and heroism.



And here's his buddy Clank. He's a robot who usually rides on Ratchet's back.



Like so:



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