Whether you're taking a client to dinner, grabbing lunch with a new friend, or sharing a meal with your in-laws, awkwardness can immediately settle in when the bill comes and everyone stares, silently wondering, "Who pays?"

Several potential scenarios can play out: Should you split the check evenly? Should everyone pay for their own meal? Is it expected that your father-in-law will pick up the check?

Every dining situation, from a birthday dinner to a double date, commands its own nuances when it comes to handling the check. We spoke with three experts — Diane Gottsman, national etiquette expert and the owner of The Protocol School of Texas, David Weliver, founder of financial advice website Money Under 30, and Patricia Napier-Fitzpatrick, founder and president of The Etiquette School of New York— to definitively decide how to handle the bill in 10 common situations.

"Other than business meals, there are no hard and fast rules for splitting the check," Napier-Fitzpatrick told Business Insider. "In business, it's protocol for the person extending the invitation to pay. In terms of all other different scenarios, I would say there are certain guidelines, things one would do to make sure they didn't feel taken advantage of and that they're being considerate when it comes to paying for meals."

Read on to check out who's turn it is to pick up the bill when, and avoid those awkward "How do you wanna do this?" conversations for good.

SEE ALSO: 13 smart 10-minute money decisions our coworkers wish they'd made sooner

DON'T MISS: A financial planner reveals the best money habit for 30-somethings

The retail industry is on the cusp of a fundamental transformation driven by digital technologies. And as retailers adapt to the digital age, the line between physical and digital commerce is becoming increasingly blurred.

BI Intelligence has created a slide deck exploring the most disruptive trends in e-commerce.  Access the full deck now for free by clicking here.

Some of the topics covered include:

• The size of the retail and e-commerce markets.
• The breakdown of e-commerce sales by product category.
• How legacy retailers are adapting to digital.
• Which e-commerce companies are leading the way.
• What omnichannel strategies retail companies are adopting.
• And much more.

The companies mentioned in this year's presentation include:  Sports Authority, Amazon, Best Buy, Apple, Wayfair, Target, Dollar Shave Club, Instacart, Walmart, CVS, and Sam's Club.

Below are 8 sample slides from the 65-page deck.  Want the full deck? Access it here for FREE >>

Want the full 65-page slide deck?  Access it Here - FREE >>

Want the full 65-page slide deck?  Access it Here - FREE >>

Want the full 65-page slide deck?  Access it Here - FREE >>

When you head to a restaurant, you might have your heart — or stomach — set on a particular dish.

Or, you might be a little more open to suggestion.

That's the opportunity menu engineers and consultants are looking for. Behind the scenes, before you're even thinking of dinner, they put careful thought into the way you choose what foods you eat.

Here are 11 of the sneakiest psychological tricks restaurants use to make you spend more money:

SEE ALSO: 9 tips to save money on food, from the woman who wrote the book on eating for $4 a day

1. They don't use dollar signs

A dollar sign is one of the top things restaurants should avoid including on a menu, because it immediately reminds the customers that they're spending money.

According to research from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, guests given a menu without dollar signs spent significantly more than those who received a menu with them. Guests spent less even when the prices were written out with words instead of numbers, such as "ten dollars," which still triggered the negative feelings associated with paying.

2. They are tricky with their numbers

Menu designers recognize that prices that end in 9, such as $9.99, tend to signify value but not quality. In addition, prices that end in .95 instead of .99 are more effective because they feel "friendlier" to customers. Most restaurants just leave the price without any cents at all because it makes their menu cleaner, simpler, and to the point.

3. They use extremely descriptive language

Research from Cornell University revealed that items described in a more beautiful way are more appealing to and popular with customers. According to further research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, descriptive menu labels raised sales by 27%, compared with food items without descriptors.

On an NBC "Today" show interview, menu engineer Gregg Rapp poses an example of Maryland-style crab cakes. They are described as "made by hand, with sweet jumbo crab meat, a touch of mayonnaise, our secret blend of seasonings, and golden cracker crumbs for a rich, tender crab cake." This brings the ultimate sensory experience to the reader, and the descriptive labeling will make customers more likely to be satisfied at the end of the meal.

Interestingly, brand names in menu descriptions also help sales, which is why chain restaurants such as T.G.I. Friday's use Jack Daniel's sauce or Minute Maid orange juice on their menus. The more adjectives, the better.

Salary potential isn't necessarily the most important consideration to make when deciding on a college major — but it's certainly important to think about when you're pondering your future, especially considering the rising cost of a college education.

To find the majors that are least likely to pay you back (at least in a financial sense), we looked at this year's College Salary Report from PayScale,which was compiled using data from more than a million college grads who successfully completed PayScale's employee survey.

Here are the 21 college majors that see the lowest salaries for workers with at least 10 years of experience, as well as common jobs associated with each major.

SEE ALSO: The 20 college majors that lead to the most satisfying careers

SEE ALSO: 20 college majors where the pay goes nowhere

21. Athletic training

Common jobs: Athletic trainer, assistant athletic trainer, physical therapist assistant

Starting median pay: $36,000

Mid-career median pay: $51,900

20. Parks and recreation management

Common jobs: Parks and recreation director, program coordinator of a nonprofit organization, recreation supervisor

Starting median pay: $38,200

Mid-career median pay: $51,700

19. (tie) Health services administration

Common jobs: Medical office manager, office coordinator, administrative coordinator

Starting median pay: $36,300

Mid-career median pay: $51,500

The magic of a food chain is that you can get the same food anywhere — and that formula largely hasn't changed in years.

We reached out to the major US-founded food chains and got a look at what their stores looked like in the early days, then compared them to what their stores look like now. While their food offerings have grown, their physical locations have evolved as well.

The first Wendy's was founded in 1969 in Columbus, Ohio. They're famous for not cutting corners.

Here's what one of their 6,500 looks like in 2016

Subway started out as Pete's Super Submarines in 1965.

Most people learn time management the hard way: by trial and error.

Étienne Garbugli, a Montreal-based product and marketing consultant and the author of "Lean B2B: Build Products Businesses Want," distilled the lessons he wishes he'd known when he was 20.

He created the following presentation, posted to SlideShare, which we've shared here with his permission.

This is an update of an article originally posted by Max Nisen and Jenna Goudreau.

SEE ALSO: 6 subtle things highly productive people do every day

DON'T MISS: 25 daily habits that will make you smarter

The INSIDER Summary:

• Libraries are a book lover's paradise, and can feature beautiful and creative architecture.
• In the digital age, they're also increasingly becoming important community centers.
• Every book lover needs to visit these libraries.

If you love books, libraries are some of the most spectacular buildings in the world.

To celebrate these monumentally important buildings, we’ve compiled a list of the most magnificent libraries on the planet.

From a library hidden in the forests of Beijing to one in Egypt that was designed like a sundial, these are the libraries that all book lovers should visit in their lifetime.

Asta Thrastardottir contributed reporting on a previous version of this post.

Strahav Library in Prague, Czech Republic

The most beautiful library in the world, Prague's Strahav Library is housed in the city's Clementium castle complex. It has two halls: the Theological Hall and the Philisophical Hall, both built around the turn of the 18th century. And they're both gorgeous.

In addition to tens of thousands of old, rare manuscripts, they have detailed frescoes on the ceilings and antique globes and statues in the rooms. They're a monument to knowledge itself.

Stuttgart City Library in Stuttgart, Germany

This cube-shaped, nine-story library takes its design from the Pantheon of ancient Rome, according to Designboom. 

The aim of the library was to create a continuum inside of the room, so the entire room is painted in uniform pure-white. The only color in the building comes from the books themselves. 

Royal Portuguese Reading Room in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Built in the 19th century, this gorgeous room is home to over 350,000 works — and the largest collection of Portuguese works outside of Portugal. 

The library is known for its Neo-Manueline design, which “evokes the Gothic-Renaissance style that flourished during the time of the Portuguese Discoveries,” according to My Modern Met. 

The room is completely covered in books, many of them rare works dating back to the 16th century. It's the perfect destination for anyone who loves to be surrounded by beautiful books. 

When it released in 1997, "Starship Troopers" had pretty much everything you could want from a satirical science-fiction action flick.

There's the over-the-top action and the cheesy dialogue with gems like, "The only good bug is a dead bug!"

Now it seems that Hollywood is looking to recapture that magic by rebooting the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The original studio has selected the writing pair behind the new Baywatch movie, Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, to write the script. The Hollywood Reporter says this could "relaunch a potential franchise."

But what would a new Starship Troopers movie look like?

One thing that's good to note is that some of the technology that appeared in the original film is actually we have today — though other things, like faster-than-light space travel, still elude us. And "Starship Troopers" predicted it all the way back in 1997, before the internet changed our lives.

Read on to see what "Starship Troopers" totally nailed about today's tech:

All of the students in Starship Troopers use tablet computers (though they're still as thick as tech from the '90s).

Based on the stylus, it looks like the Surface Pro beats the iPad in the Starship Troopers universe — though Apple has come around to the stylus with the its Apple Pencil.

With fingerprint scanners becoming the standard on phones, it's pretty clear that Starship Troopers was right when it assumed we wouldn't be using passwords to sign into our computers in the future.

There's no shortage of castles in Germany. Customs houses and fortresses known as Burg line the riverbanks and crown nearly every hilltop.

Scattered throughout the countryside are the more ornate homes of landed gentry and archbishops, or Schloss. While gorgeous to look at from the outside, many castles also are unique overnight lodgings.

Here are 10 of our favorite places to sleep like a king or queen in Germany — places you can afford even if you're not royalty.

SEE ALSO: The best 5-star hotels in Europe

Burg Hotel Hornberg

In the Neckar Valley, this charming castle is a former home to knights, and their portraits and armor provide nice aesthetic touches throughout. Located amid sloping vineyards, the hotel couldn't be in a more romantic location. A panoramic view overlooking the Neckar Valley makes for an awesome dinner backdrop. The rooms are comfortable and the exterior authentic. 

Plan Your Trip: Visit Fodor’s Germany Guide

Burg Rabenstein

In the Neckar Valley, this charming castle is a former home to knights, and their portraits and armor provide nice aesthetic touches throughout. Located amid sloping vineyards, the hotel couldn't be in a more romantic location. A panoramic view overlooking the Neckar Valley makes for an awesome dinner backdrop. The rooms are comfortable and the exterior authentic. 

Plan Your Trip: Visit Fodor’s Germany Guide

Schlosshotel Münchhausen

Set in the countryside just an hour's drive from Hanover, the estate near Munchhausen was seen on televisions around the world when President Obama visited in 2015. More than 440 years old, the castle has been renovated several times, creating large, modern rooms of a five-star standard. Recall the medieval days in the knight's hall where you can take afternoon tea while seated beside a roaring fire. Stroll through acres of English gardens or swim in the pool overlooking the moat before dining in the Michelin-starred restaurant.

Plan Your Trip: Visit Fodor’s Germany Guide

The Chicago Cubs are the World Series champions for the first time since 1908, beating the Cleveland Indians in seven games.

While the most recent championship drought may be the most epic in sports history, the next drought is not expected to be nearly as long as this Cubs roster is built to be great for years to come.

Below we take a look at how the Cubs built a model franchise with an usual strategy: by targeting young hitting prospects and acquiring veteran pitchers (without trading their top hitting prospects), the exact opposite model of most teams. So far it has worked to perfection.

Theo Epstein, president of baseball operations

When acquired: Prior to the 2012 season

How acquired: The Cubs sent a prospect and two relievers to the Red Sox as compensation for Boston letting Epstein out of the final year of his contract with that team.

2016 salary: ~$3.7 million

Contract: Epstein is in the final year of the five-year, $18.5 million contract that he signed with the Cubs after he was released by the Red Sox. He signed an extension earlier this year that kicks in next year. That deal is reportedly five years and worth something in the neighborhood of $50 million. 

One thing to know: It all starts with Epstein, who has now helped two franchises end curses and long championship droughts. However, despite growing up a Red Sox fan in Boston and becoming baseball's youngest general manager at 28, Epstein had a falling out with the Red Sox. He tried to resign once in 2006, leaving the Red Sox for 80 days (sneaking out in a gorilla suit!) only to return later as if everything was fine. He reportedly wanted to run an entire baseball operation, without oversight. He found that with the Cubs, where he was essentially "traded" and became president of baseball operations. 

Joe Maddon, manager

When acquired: Prior to the 2015 season.

How acquired: Signed with the Cubs after opting out of his contract with the Tampa Bay Rays.

2016 salary: $5.0 million

Contract: 5 years, $25 million

One thing to know: Maddon might not be manager of the Cubs if a "ballsy" demand he made to the Rays had backfired prior to receiving his first managerial job. Maddon didn't say yes to the Rays until they said it was OK for him to miss a couple of games to attend his then-girlfriend's law school graduation. Later, Maddon exercised an opt-out clause he didn't even know he had with the Rays. It said he could opt-out of his contract if executive vice president Andrew Friedman left the organization. When Friedman went to the Dodgers, Maddon left for the Cubs.

Ben Zobrist, do-it-all fielder

When acquired: Prior to the 2016 season.

How acquired: Free agent.

2016 salary: $10.0 million salary plus a $2.0 million signing bonus.

Contract: 4 years, $56.0 million.

One thing to know: The World Series MVP signed with the Cubs as a free agent, reuniting with his former Rays manager, Joe Maddon. Zobrist also won the World Series with the Royals a year ago and is one of the most underrated player in baseball.

I can't stop thinking about that game. 

This is a football column, yes, and one that nominally has to do with making picks against the spread, either for (legal!) monetary reasons or just for sheer fun ... and we'll get to that. 

But first, Game 7.

If you spend even a little bit of time each week consuming sports, maybe you've experienced that moment where you wonder why, really, you have chosen to spend your time caring about the result of a game in which a ball is hit with a bat, or thrown through a ring, or kicked into a net. The result is ultimately meaningless, more often than not your team disappoints you, and there are countless other ways you might more productively or more intelligently or at the very least more healthily spend your time. 

Maybe you've especially felt that way during the election — as I admittedly have. The election, for better and for worse, has given us both the entertainment that sports provides and that feeling of greater importance, of stakes, that sports necessarily lacks. It's hard, I think, to really care about the Thursday night, or Sunday night, or Monday night football games right now. 

And then something like Game 7 happens, something so thrillingly incomprehensible and so damn fun, and all of a sudden you remember why it is you have chosen to spend your free time glued to the TV late into the night. 

Here's Roger Angell, the legendary New Yorker sportswriter, on this feeling exactly but in slightly more eloquent words:

"It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitive as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look — I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring — caring deeply and passionately, really caring — which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives.

And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete — the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the hap hazardous flight of a distant ball — seems a small price to pay for such a gift."

Angell wrote that about the 1975 World Series. It couldn't possibly feel more relevant today. 

Anyway, I went 6-6 last week in my picks against the spread. Below are my picks for Week 9. 

LAST WEEK: 6-6

SEASON: 60-58-3

Atlanta Falcons (-2) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Thursday, 8:25 p.m. ET)

Tampa Bay remains winless at home, so I'll take the Falcons here. 

The pick: Falcons -2

Jacksonville Jaguars (+7.5) at Kansas City Chiefs (Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET)

Gus Bradley's record as the head coach of the Jaguars is now 14-41. Why on earth would I bet on him last week? 

The pick: Chiefs -7.5

Detroit Lions (+5.5) at Minnesota Vikings (Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET)

I can't figure out Norv Turner's resignation. Two consecutive losses is not ideal, but the Vikings are a playoff team. Unless they aren't, and the problems are worse than we know. Are we about to witness a free-fall? 

The pick: Lions +5.5

The Chicago Cubs are World Series champions for the first time in 108 years — and they did it in dramatic fashion, beating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in extra innings of Game 7.

The game had everything: home runs, strikeouts, celebrations, anguish, sheer joy, and the ultimate pain. These led to a number of memorable images from one of the best World Series in a long time.

Here are the best photos from Getty Image, the Associated Press, and Reuters.

A young Cubs fan watches batting practice before the game.

Fireworks go off in the background during the National Anthem.

Kyle Hendricks delivers a pitch in the first inning.

The INSIDER Summary:

• A certified health coach says healthy eating is achieved through daily steps.
• Fatigue, bloating, and moodiness can indicate a change might be necessary.
• Working out and sleeping well are important for overall health.

Deciding what to eat can be tricky, as it's hard to know if what you're eating is nutritious and wholesome or is sucking away your energy. Knowing if it's time to change eating habits can be a blessing, as you can then take the proper measures to switch up your grocery store purchases and menu orders to make better, healthier changes and boost energy, mood, and productivity. Taking diet into account and how it influences your lifestyle is so important, as it's really true when they say, "you are what you eat."

As a certified health coach, I work with clients on eating nutritious meals that boost wellbeing and happiness and understanding how and when the body is not responding to the foods you're eating, in an effective and positive way. Certain things should be off about your body and your ability to be productive during the day if eating habits are not where they should be. Being mindful about what you're consuming will help you get in touch with your body and make better choices moving forward. Greater longterm health will be achieved through daily steps towards a healthier eating pattern. Here are 10 ways to know if you need to change your eating habits.

You're tired — even with adequate sleep

Over phone with Bustle, running coach and personal trainer Susie Lemmer says that if you notice you wake up feeling chronically tired on most days, even with adequate sleep of between 7-9 hours nightly, then it might mean that your eating habits are messed up and draining you of energy. Eating foods high in energy-boosting nutrients, like iron and magnesium, can help.

You have trouble sleeping

Lemmer also notes that if you have trouble falling or staying asleep in the night, your hormones might be out of whack due to the food choice and poor eating habits. You should also be careful eating prior to bed, and to avoid caffeine, sugars, and other stimulants that might mess with your digestion before bedtime.

You can't workout as well

Lemmer explains that if you notice you're not able to carry through your workouts as efficiently and as powerfully as you're used to, then you might not be fueling yourself properly. Lemmer recommends eating healthy fats, protein, and complex carbs for a great ratio, and to specifically make sure that you're eating enough overall in the day to repair sore muscles.

As the holiday season rolls around, our nation's airports will once again kick into high gear to handle the swell of Americans jetting home to see loved ones.

Unfortunately, not all airports are created equal. This week, consumer aviation website, The Points Guy released a study featuring the 30 busiest airports in America. In the process, the website — best known for offering sage advice on how to master frequent flyer programs and airline credit cards— ranked the 10 best among those 30 airports.

To generate the rankings, TPG evaluated each airport on three criteria— timeliness, accessibility, and amenities. In terms of timeliness, the website's staff looked at the number flight cancellations, delays, and the length of security checkpoint wait times. For accessibility, TPG evaluated each airport's ease of access in terms of public transit and by car. Finally, amenities were evaluated based on the number of restaurants, lounges, availability and cost of Wi-Fi as well as the cost of parking. TPG staff gathered data from several sources including The Bureau of Transportation Statistics and J.D. Power. 

Ultimately, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport found itself at the top of the list.

"Though Phoenix didn’t take the top spot in any single category, it was consistently among the best scorers in almost all categories, with excellent flight delay and flight cancellation scores, a convenient light rail, a high number of restaurants and bars for its level of passenger traffic and free Wi-Fi," The Points Guy's Michael Y. Park wrote.

TPG found Salt Lake City and Honolulu tied for the fewest delays. Portland scored well in all categories, but could not take the top spot because it takes longer to access from city center than Phoenix. According to the site, San Diego International was a contender as well, but its flight cancellation rate was less than ideal. Philadelphia International scored high in the amenities section of the study due its excellent restaurant to passenger ratio. However, it struggled in terms of timeliness. Conversely, Charlotte Douglas International did really well in regards to timeliness, but TPG found that it has the worst restaurant to passenger ratio in the study.

Click here to see The Points Guy's full evaluation of the 30 busiest airports in America.

SEE ALSO: Delta's new cabin is adding a touch of luxury to economy flying

10. Minneapolis- St. Paul International Airport.

9. Las Vegas McCarron International

8. Charlotte Douglas International

These days, if you are in the market for a fully electric, long-range vehicle, your options are pretty limited. 

In fact, Tesla vehicles are currently the only battery electric cars you can buy in the that have an official range of more than 200 miles per charge. 

But that is quickly changing. 

Most major automakers, including GM and Volkswagen, have vowed to roll out more than one fully electric car by 2020. 

Here's a look at some of the vehicles coming to market in the next few years.  

SEE ALSO: 7 killer features in Chevrolet's new $30,000 electric car

Tesla unveiled its Model 3 this year and aims to begin production by the end of 2017.

Tesla revealed its first mass market, long-range vehicle on March 31, but the car won't go into production until late 2017, possibly 2018. 

The car has a starting range of more than 200 miles per charge and can go form zero to 60 miles per hour in just six seconds. 

The car will cost $35,000 before incentives and will be about 20% smaller than the company's Model S. However, it can still seat five people pretty comfortably. 

Tesla has previously said it will introduce a next-generation Roadster in 2019.

Tesla will reveal a new Roadster in 2019, according to a statement by CEO Elon Musk in July of last year. 

Almost no details have been revealed about the new car, except for the fact that it will be built for speed. Musk said in the statement that the new car will be capable of going from zero to 60 in less than 2.8 seconds, which is faster than its cars can go in "Ludicrous Mode."

The Chevy Bolt EV is going into production this year.

General Motors revealed the production model of its first affordable, long-range car called the Chevrolet Bolt EV. The car is currently in production and will have a range of 238 miles per charge, and will cost about $30,000 after a federal tax credit of $7,500. 

Chinese architecture has always been loud, from the ornate pagodas that once housed family dynasties to the unusually shaped skyscrapers that inspired a ban on "weird buildings."

In recent years, contemporary buildings have cropped up on the glittering skylines of Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, and as far as the remote provinces south of Mongolia. These new developments add elegance and simplicity to the country's architectural portfolio.

We rounded up the most striking new buildings across China.

SEE ALSO: China put a ban on what it calls 'bizarre architecture' — here are 14 of the strangest examples

Step aside, Sydney. The Harbin Opera House rises from the wetlands of the Heilongjiang province as though it were sculpted by wind. It blends seamlessly with the environment.

Architect: MAD

Year completed: 2015

Source: Forbes

When not obscured by fog, the Shanghai Tower stands out as one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in the world. The 127-story glass pillar appears to twist toward the sky.

Architect: Marshall Strabala

Year completed: 2015

Source: Business Insider

The Han Show Theater's squat, paper-lantern shape is made beautiful by an intricate, red mesh. The building's LED bulbs reflect on the lake at night, lighting up Wuhan, Hubei.

Architect: Stufish Entertainment Architects

Year completed: 2014

Source: Housely

A whopping 467 million people in over 200 countries use LinkedIn to make professional connections and scout out new opportunities. In many ways, the company— which Microsoft purchased for $26.2 billion over the summer — has become an integral part of everyone's careers.

But what is it like to actually work at LinkedIn — the 9,200-person company with a market capitalization of $23 billion?

We decided to to find out by visiting LinkedIn's Manhattan office, which is located in the iconic Empire State Building in the heart of New York City.

Here's what we saw and learned:

SEE ALSO: A look inside the New York office of Yelp, a $3 billion company that offers its 4,000 employees around the world some of the most incredible perks

DON'T MISS: The most surprising perk for the 900 New York-based employees at Yelp costs the $2.4 billion company nothing

DON'T FORGET: A look inside Uber's Manhattan office, where employees of the $66 billion company have wine on tap and can bring their dogs to work

When we arrived at the office on a rainy Friday morning in October, we took one of the building's famous Art Deco elevators up to the 25th floor. Though LinkedIn is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company has 30 offices around the world. In total, 700 employees work in their Empire State Building location.

We waited for our tour guides in LinkedIn's colorful reception area, which has books and a coffee station for employees and visitors.

The company first moved into the Empire State Building in 2011. They've since taken over five floors of the building.

These pictures are worth more than a thousand words.

Based in Siena, Italy, the Siena International Photo Awards garner submissions from photographers in over 100 countries around the world. The winner receives €1,500 (about $1,666 USD) as well as the coveted Pangea Prize.

The subject matters range from landscapes to subtle portraits to dramatic encounters in the animal kingdom, with categories such as nature, sport, travel, architecture, and a student division for up-and-coming photographers under the age of 20. 

Here are the first, second, and third place winners across 11 categories.

Photo of the Year: "Sardine Run" by Greg Lecoeur

Location: South Africa

"During the sardines' migration along the coast of South Africa, all marine predators are looking for sardines! I was lucky to be at the right place at the right time to photograph their capture."

First place in Travel: "Strawberry Greenhouses" by Leyla Emektar

Location: Nazilli (Aydin), Turkey

"To take this shot, I had to climb a relief, which allowed me to include interesting, colored greenhouses located near Nazilli. To make the picture more interesting, I waited for the moment when a Turkish peasant who was working with the strawberries entered the frame."

Second place in Travel: "Boys Trainers" by Matjaz Krivic

Location: Diafarabe, Mali

"When we met, the boy was carrying his shoes in his hands as he couldn't use them anymore. Traveling prepared makes a difference, and with my sewing needle and dental floss, we patched them up, so that he could follow his herd."

Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlon are known as superbrokers when it comes to the luxury real estate market in New York City. With $1.5 billion in residential sales under their belts, the two have gained recognition for their innovative marketing tactics and for starring on HGTV's "Selling New York." 

One of their most valuable tactics for selling a property quickly and at its estimated market value is staging, which involves arranging furniture in a home to help potential buyers envision what it might look like if they were to move in. Working with a professional stager, Postilio and Conlon make the once-empty properties come alive by either using temporary furniture or arranging the owner's existing furniture in a more aesthetically appealing way.

"We put the pieces together in order to give [potential buyers] an idea of how glamorous it could be to live here," Conlon told Business Insider.

We visited the two at one of their latest properties (which has yet to go on the market) to find out about the art of staging and the effect it can have on market value. 

SEE ALSO: Take a look inside the Brooklyn loft of a Wall Streeter turned fragrance entrepreneur

DON'T MISS: This entrepreneurial power couple run 4 businesses together out of their West Village home — here's their best advice for making it work

Just one block away from Midtown Manhattan's "Billionaire's Row," this three-bedroom apartment has a distinct interior style. Both Conlon and Postilio immediately knew they were going to have to stage this apartment, which is expected to list for around $4 million.

"In this case, because [the apartment has] such specific decor — heavy dark wood and stone floors — we want to accentuate these special design features rather than just have someone walk in and go, 'Wow this [decor] is too much,'" Postilio said.

The two were careful to note the differences between staging and interior design. "Too much of a design element can turn off buyers. [With staging] you want to neutralize the space in a way that suggests how one might live there," Conlon said.

While Marvel media includes multiple universes across TV and film, one thing unites them all: the Stan Lee cameo.

Lee is an unrivaled legend in the comics world and the former President and Chairman of Marvel Comics. His creative work began in 1939 and includes hugely recognizable characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and the X-Men.

The 93-year-old icon has subtly appeared in all manner of Marvel media, from narrating "The Incredible Hulk" TV series in 1982 to briefly appearing in movies including "Deadpool."

"Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn had the pleasure of filming Lee's next few Marvel cameos starting with "Doctor Strange." In honor of his most recent cameo, we've compiled a list of all of his live-action (and one very special animated) cameos in Marvel projects. Keep reading to see if you can remember them all.

Sidney Fussell originally contributed to an earlier version of this post.

Stan Lee's first live-action cameo was as a jury member in the TV movie "The Trial of the Incredible Hulk" (1989).

His first cinematic Marvel cameo was as a hot dog vendor in "X-Men" (2000).

He showed up as a surprised bystander who saved a little girl from debris in "Spider-Man" (2002).