• Activision Blizzard will launch the Call of Duty League with 12 teams in January 2020.
• Call of Duty League franchise owners paid $25 million or more to secure their place in the Call of Duty League, according to ESPN.
• "Call of Duty" is a perennial best-seller with yearly releases that draw in millions of players. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" is already the best-selling video game of 2019 less than a month after its release,
• While Call of Duty has a long history of international esports events, Activision's decision to build a franchised league with a limited number of slots offers a higher value to investors who want to monetize esports in a similar fashion to traditional sports leagues.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Activision Blizzard is establishing a professional league around one of the biggest games in the world, and it's an important step forward for the rapidly developing esports industry.

The company is launching Call of Duty League in January 2020 with 12 franchise representing international cities. "Call of Duty" is a perennial best-seller with yearly releases that draw in millions of players. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" is already the best-selling game of 2019 less than a month after its release, and more than 100 million people downloaded the free-to-play "Call of Duty Mobile" in its first month online.

Despite the game's popularity, however, "Call of Duty" esports events haven't seen the same longterm success as popular esports titles like "League of Legends," or even other military games like "CounterStrike." Activision Blizzard has supported "Call of Duty" competitions for years, but the Call of Duty League introduces multi-million-dollar franchises and a structure that parallels the major American sports leagues.

The Call of Duty League is Activision Blizzard's second franchise-based esports organization. Blizzard's Overwatch League completed its second season in September 2019 after expanding the total number of teams from 12 to 20. Several of the franchise owners in the Call of Duty League also own squads in the Overwatch League.

Here's a closer look at how Call of Duty League will work. 

SEE ALSO: We attended one of eSports' biggest events, The Overwatch League Grand Finals, and it was like a wild cross between a cosplay convention and an NBA playoff game

Call of Duty League players will have a minimum salary of $50,000, along with other benefits.

Call of Duty League teams will have between seven and 10 players. Players are guaranteed a base salary of $50,000 and they also have healthcare and retirement benefits. Teams aren't required to provide players with housing, but they must show the league proof that they're helping players find their own housing during the season.

Teams can earn additional prize money during the season, and each franchise is required to split at least 50% of those prizes with players. Activision posted more of the details on the official competitive Call of Duty Reddit page.

The Call of Duty League will launch with 12 teams from four different countries.

The full roster of cities and ownership groups are:

• Atlanta Faze— Atlanta Esports Ventures, a joint venture owned by Cox Enterprises and Province, Inc.
• Chicago Huntsmen— NRG Esports
• Dallas Empire— Envy Gaming, Inc.
• Florida Mutineers– Misfits Gaming
• London Ravens— ReKTGlobal, Inc
• Los Angeles Guerrillas— Immortals Gaming Club (IGC)
• Optic Gaming Los Angeles– Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
• Minnesota Rokkr— WISE Ventures
• New York Subliners— Sterling.VC
• Paris Legion– c0ntact Gaming
• Seattle Surge— The Aquilini Group
• Toronto Ultra— OverActive Media

Call of Duty League teams will play 5-on-5 team matches on the PlayStation 4 version of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare."

Call of Duty League matches will be played on the PlayStation 4 version of "Call of Duty Modern Warfare" in a 5-on-5 team format.

Teams will play best-of-five matches during the regular season and the teams with the best win-loss records will advance to a double elimination playoff bracket to decide the league champion. The regular season will begin in on January 24, 2020 and the Call of Duty League Championships will conclude in August or September 2020.

The Call of Duty League schedule is an international tour with two stops in each city.

During each week of the Call of Duty League season, a different team will play host for multiple league matches in their home city. The schedule is divided into two splits for the spring and summer seasons, with the championship planned for August or September 2020. A midseason event in April will also feature all 12 teams.

Call of Duty League's world tour is an impressive undertaking for its inaugural season. Overwatch League teams spent most of their first two seasons playing matches in Blizzard's Burbank, California, arena, with a handful of special events held in different cities.

Not all of the Call of Duty League teams have confirmed where they'll be hosting their matches, but some have confirmed that they'll be using multiple venues during the season.

The Call of Duty League will kick off on January 24, 2020 at the Armory in Minneapolis — it's a historic venue that fits 8,400 people.

"Call of Duty" has had professional tournaments in the past, and some teams were pushed out by the new league. Franchise owners reportedly paid $25 million or more to secure their spots.

Call of Duty League franchise owners paid $25 million or more to secure their place in the Call of Duty League, according to ESPN's Jacob Wolf. While Call of Duty has a long history of international esports events, Activision's decision to build a franchised league with a limited number of slots offers a higher value to investors who want to monetize esports in a similar fashion to traditional sports leagues.

The Overwatch League negotiated multi-million-dollar media contracts with ESPN and Amazon's Twitch streaming service, and the league secured major sponsors like Coca-Cola, Intel, and Toyota.

Activision's decision to franchise Call of Duty League left lots of esports teams without a place for their "Call of Duty" players to compete. Several organizations that couldn't raise the investment money for a Call of Duty League franchise spot dissolved their "Call of Duty" teams entirely, including 100 Thieves, the team that came in second place at the 2019 Call of Duty World League Championship.

Call of Duty Challengers is an amateur circuit of online and offline competitions that will provide a pipeline for players to enter the Call of Duty League. Players need to be 18 or older to enter.

Call of Duty Challengers will include online ladders, online tournaments, and open tournament event competitions throughout the year starting this month, and Call of Duty League has committed more than $1 million to the prize pool.

The league also says several pro teams will host their own competitions to spur amateur player pipeline in their home cities. You can find more information on Call of Duty Challengers events and future League events on the official Call of Duty League website.

• Sheldon and Miriam Adelson gave more money to political candidates than any other Americans in 2018. They donated over $123 million to Republicans, according to The Center for Responsive Politics.
• Political figures Micheal Bloomberg and Tom Steyer are also top donors to Democrats, according to The Center for Responsive Politics.
• Surprisingly, Charles Koch did not make the list. To be included, his donations would have needed to top $6.5 million.
• Collectively, the 25 billionaires and billionaire couples on the list totaled a whopping $573,892,284 in political donations in 2018, data from The Center for Responsive Politics shows.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A small group of ultra-wealthy Americans pumps a lot of money into politics.

We took a look at the top 25 donors who funded American politics in 2018 and found that the list consists of, among others, an assortment of financiers, heirs, and entrepreneurs.

The contributions of some of the largest donors — such as Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, George Soros and Tom Steyer— are well known, while other donors, like Jeff Bezos, are better known for their careers.

Interestingly, one well-known political donors — Charles Koch— did not make the list. Koch and his now-deceased brother David donated $1,816,650 to Republicans through their company Koch industries in 2018, according to The Center for Responsive Politics. To make this list, their donations would have needed to top $6.5 million.

Business Insider previously reported that public affairs rank as the eighth-most popular cause that billionaires donate to. Only 12.4% of billionaires reported making donations to politics in 2018, according to Wealth-X's 2019 Billionaire Census.

Collectively, the 25 billionaires and billionaire couples on the list totaled a whopping $573,892,284 in political donations in 2018, data from The Center for Responsive Politics shows.

Keep reading to learn more about the country's biggest political donors, ranked in order of their donations during the 2018 election cycle by The Center for Responsive Politics. Each donor's net worth, where available, was sourced from Forbes unless otherwise specified. Their party affiliations are listed according to The Center for Responsive Politics.

SEE ALSO: Meet the 18 ultra-wealthy Americans begging for a wealth tax, from a Facebook cofounder to a Disney heiress

DON'T MISS: Less than 1% of the world's billionaires donate to housing and shelter charities. Here are the top 10 causes the world's richest people give their money to.

25. Billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Singer gave $6.4 million to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Total donations: $6,463,400

Party: Republican

Net worth: $3.5 billion

Singer is the founder of investment firm Elliott Management, according to his biography on the firm's website, but he is better known for his advocacy for conservative causes, Forbes reports. Once a major critic of President Trump, Singer has since met with him at the White House. Singer does break with the President on one important issue, however — Singer is also an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.

24. Former Breitbart News investor Robert Mercer and his wife Diana have given $6,544,024 to conservatives.

Total donations: $6,544,024

Party: Republican

Net worth: Unknown

Robert Mercer, 73, is the former co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund valued at $50 million in 2017, according to The New York Times. Mercer left the hedge fund in 2017 after clients, including the retirement fund for Baltimore's police and firefighters, withdrew their investments from Renaissance over concern about Mercer's political donations and involvement with Breitbart, The Times reported.

The $6.5 million that Robert and his wife Diana donated to Republicans in 2018 was the smallest figure they've given in any election cycle since 2012, CNBC reported. The couple, once among President Trump's biggest supporters, have become fatigued by the resulting media attention, sources told CNBC.

23. CEO of Arkansas-based chicken producer Mountaire Corp, Ronald Cameron, and his wife Nina donated nearly $6.6 million to Republicans.

Total donations: $6,574,352

Party: Republican

Net worth: Unknown

Ronald Cameron is the CEO of the poultry company founded by his grandfather, according to the North Caroline Poultry Foundation. Mountaire Corp is the seventh-largest producer of chicken in the country, the foundation reports. An alum of the University of Arkansas, Ronald and his wife Nina have four children and nine grandchildren, according to the foundation's website.

The Camerons were responsible for 80% of total donations to Mike Huckabee's 2016 presidential run, ABC News reported.

22. Indiana real-estate developer Paul Skjodt and philanthropist Cynthia Simon-Skjodt gave $6.8 million to Democrats through their foundation.

Total donations: $6,750,150

Party: Democrat

Net worth: Unknown

Cindy Simon-Skjodt serves as the chair of the couple's non-profit, the Samerian Foundation, according to its website. The foundation provides grants for education, economic development, and youth sports initiatives, according to its website. Paul Skjodt is a former professional hockey player and real estate developer, according to his biography on the foundation's website.

The Skjodts donated $20 million to create a genocide prevention center at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. in 2015, according to The Indianapolis Business Journal.

21. Jeffrey and Janine Yass donated $7.3 million to conservatives.

Total donations: $7,611,083 ($7,295,833 to conservatives, $250 to liberals)

Party: Republican

Net worth: Unknown

Jeffrey Yass is a cofounder of trading firm Susquehanna International Group, according to the company's website.

The couple also donated $250 to liberals in addition to their support of conservatives, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. 

20. Investor Joshua Bekenstein and philanthropist Anita Bekenstein gave $7.7 million to Democrats.

Total Donations: $7,713,540

Party: Democrat

Net worth: Unknown

Joshua Bekenstein is the co-chairman of Bain Capital, the private equity firm cofounded by Mitt Romney, according to Fortune. 

Anita, Joshua's wife, is a philanthropist who manages the couple's private fund, which supports health, education, arts, and environmental non-profits, in addition to serving on the board of patient advocacy non-profit Upstream USA, according to her biography on the organization's website.

The couple lives in Boston and has five children, according to Anita's biography on the organization's website.

19. Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, former Wall Street Journal reporter Cari Tuna, donated $7.7 million to Democrats.

Total donations: $7,720,230

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: $11.8 billion

After leaving Facebook in 2008, Dustin Moskovitz founded workflow management platform Asana, according to Forbes.

Alongside his wife Cari Tuna, Moskovitz has donated millions to health and LGBTQ+ organizations through their foundation Good Ventures, Forbes reports.

Moskovitz maintains a 3% stake in Facebook, according to Forbes. 

18. Home Depot cofounder Bernard Marcus and his wife, Billi Wilma, gave nearly $8 million to Republicans.

Total donations: $8,000,018 ($7,980,318 to conservatives, $500 to liberals)

Party Affiliation: Republican

Net worth: $6.5 billion

Bernie Marcus cofounded Home Depot in 1978 with Arthur Blank after they were fired from their jobs at another hardware store, according to Forbes. Marcus was the company's first CEO and retired in 2002.

Marcus was a major contributor to President Trump's 2016 presidential bid and will support the President again in 2020, Business Insider previously reported. 

Read more: The billionaire cofounder of Home Depot plans on donating up to 90% of his $5.9 billion fortune, and Trump's 2020 campaign will be one of the beneficiaries

17. Charles Schwab, the founder of the eponymous brokerage firm, and his wife Helen gave $8,531,440 to Republicans.

Total donations: $8,531,440

Party Affiliation: Republican

Net worth: $8.2 billion

Charles Schwab, 81, founded his brokerage firm in 1971 and served as its CEO until 2008, according to Forbes. Schwab's fortune comes from his 11% stake in the firm. 

Helen is a philanthropist and serves as the president of the board of the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, according to the organization's website.

The couple resides in Woodside, California and has 5 children, according to Forbes.

16. LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman donated $9,315,826, mostly to Democrats.

Total donations: $9,315,826 ($433,500 to conservatives, $8,317,326 to liberals)

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: $1.9 billion

Reid Hoffman was an early employee of PayPal and one of the first investors in Facebook, according to Forbes. Hoffman founded Linkedin in 2003. Hoffman sold LinkedIn for $26.2 billion to Microsoft in 2016 and now sits on Microsoft's board, according to Forbes.

Hoffman gave $8,317,326 to Democrats and $433,500 to Republicans in 2018, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. 

15. Investor George Marcus and his wife Judith gave $9,610,125, mostly to Democrats.

Total donations: $9,610,125 ($10,400 to conservatives, $9,579,725 to liberals)

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: $1.5 billion

George Marcus is the founder of real-estate brokerage Marcus & Millichap Company, according to the company's website. Marcus is also the chairman of Essex Property Trust, a multi-family real-estate investment trust, and he serves on the board of California-based commercial bank Greater Bay Bancorp.

The Marcuses gave $10,400 to Republicans in 2018, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The rest went to Democrats.

14. Heiress Deborah Simon donated $9.7 million to Democrats.

Total donations: $9,744,070

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: Unknown

Deborah Simon is the daughter of Indiana shopping mall developer Melvin Simon. Simon inherited a portion of her father's fortune after a bitter legal battle over his estate with her stepmother Bren Simon, according to Forbes. 

Simon's family had a net worth of $6.8 billion in 2014, according to Forbes.

13. Investor Timothy Mellon gave $10 million, mostly to Republicans.

Total donations: $10,061,000 ($10,058,300 to conservatives, $2,700 to liberals)

Party Affiliation: Republican

Net worth: $1 billion 

Timothy Mellon, the grandson of twentieth-century business magnate Andrew Mellon, funded the founding of New Hampshire-based railroad company, Guilford Transportation Industries, according to Forbes.

While most of Mellon's donations were to conservatives, Mellon also gave $2,700 to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, according to The Guardian.

12. Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos donated $10,186,170 in total to candidates of both parties.

Total donations: $10,186,170

Party Affiliation: Non-partisan, lean conservative

Net worth: $107.4 billion, $33.9 billion

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and novelist MacKenzie Bezos made 60% of their donations to Republicans and 40% of their donations to Democrats, according to The Center for Responsive Politics. 

The pair finalized their divorce in July 2019, Business Insider previously reported.

Read more: 25 years after Amazon's launch, Jeff Bezos is the richest person alive. Here's how he makes and spends his billions.

11. California-based psychiatrist Karla Jurvetson donated $12 million to Democrats.

Total donations: $12,431,198 ($5,400 to conservatives, $12,415,726 to liberals)

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: Unknown

Karla Jurvetson is the ex-wife of venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, according to The Guardian. Her largest donation, $5.4 million, was to a Super PAC aimed at elected pro-choice female candidates run by Emily's List, The Guardian reported.

10. Chicago-based newspaper publisher Fred Eychaner gave $12,665,400 to Democrats.

Total donations: $12,665,400

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: $500 million in 2005

Fred Eychaner is the chairman of Newsweb Corp. Eychaner became wealthy after selling a television station to Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp for $425 million in 2002, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

Eychaner is also a major supporter of Hillary Clinton. He financially backed her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

9. Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman and his wife Christine gave $12,882,200 to Republicans.

Total donations: $12,882,200

Party Affiliation: Republican

Net worth: $16.7 billion

Stephen Schwarzman, 72, cofounded the private equity firm in 1985, according to Forbes. 

8. Hedge-fund manager Kenneth Griffin donated $19,225,125 to Republicans.

Total donations: $19,225,125

Party Affiliation: Republican

Net worth: $12.7 billion

Ken Griffin is the founder and CEO of Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel, according to The Guardian. Citadel manages $32 billion in assets, according to Forbes.

Griffin also owns the most expensive apartment ever sold in New York City, Business Insider previously reported.

Read more: Hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin's $238 million NYC apartment shattered the US real estate record — here's a look at his record-setting properties and penthouses

7. Billionaire financier George Soros donated over $20 million to Democrats.

Total donations: $20,135,586

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: $8.3 billion

Soros built his fortune leading Quantum Fund, once the world's largest hedge fund. Since retiring from money managing in 2011, Soros has turned his attention to philanthropy. He started donating to campaigns in 2003 because of his dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq, Business Insider previously reported. 

Soros has also found himself at the center of numerous conspiracy theories about his involvement in governments from the United States to Hungary to Russia, many of which are anti-Semitic and have never been supported by evidence.

Read more: What George Soros' life is really like: How the former hedge-fund manager built his $8.3 billion fortune, purchased a sprawling network of New York homes, and became the topic of international conspiracy theories

6. James and Marilyn Simons gave $22 million to Democrats.

Total donations: $22,165,010

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: $21.6 billion

James Simons, the founder of quantitative hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, was named the highest-paid hedge fund manager of 2019 by Forbes. James and his wife, economist and philanthropist Marilyn Simons, are also major donors to Stony Brook University, where they met, according to Bloomberg.

5. Hedge-fund manager S. Donald Sussman donated over $27 million to Democrats in 2018.

Total donations: $27,545,500

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: Unknown

Donald Sussman is the founder of Paloma Partners. The Fort Lauderdale-based hedge fund was the top donor to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, giving $21.6 million, according to The Guardian. 

4. Uline CEO Richard Uihlein and his wife Elizabeth donated almost $40 million to Republicans.

Total donations: $39,854,296

Party Affiliation: Republican

Net worth: Between $700 million and $2 billion in 2014

Richard Uihlein is the founder of the Wisconsin-based shipping materials company Uline, according to Forbes.

"I'm a conservative Republican, and I'm trying to help people who believe as I do in limited government and free markets," Richard Uihlein said in 2013, according to Forbes. "I'm not one to hide from that."

3. Presidential candidate Tom Steyer and his wife Kathryn Taylor gave $73,819,973 to Democrats.

Total donations: $73,819,973

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: $1.6 billion 

Tom Steyer, 62, ran hedge fund Farallon Capital before becoming a full-time activist in 2012, according to Forbes. 

Read more: Billionaire activist Tom Steyer just jumped into the 2020 Democratic field after previously ruling out a presidential run

2. Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg donated over $95 million, nearly all of it to Democrats.

Total donations: $95,098,168 ($5,400 to conservative, $94,837,766 to liberals)

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Net worth: $52.4 billion

Michael Bloomberg, 77, is the founder and CEO of financial media company Bloomberg LP.

Bloomberg will spend $500 million on the 2020 election in hopes of defeating Trump, Politico reported in February. On November 7, The New York Times reported that he was actively preparing to enter the Democratic primary.

1. Sheldon and Miriam Adelson gave $123,244,400 to Republicans.

Total donations: $123,244,400

Party Affiliation: Republican

Net worth: $33.6 billion

Sheldon Adelson, 86, is the CEO of the Las Vegas Sands casino company, according to Forbes. Adelson is also an avid Trump supporter. Adelson was the largest donor to both Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and his inauguration fund, according to The Guardian.

• I grew up in Houston, Texas, and over the years I've had a lot of delicious food from incredible restaurants. 
• I think one of the best places to visit in the city is The Breakfast Klub, which serves amazing chicken and waffles.
• Some of my other favorite spots include Ninfa's on Navigation, Thai Gourmet, and Kat's BBQ. 
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

I grew up in Houston, Texas, and in the 15 years I spent there I had some amazing food.

Even though I no longer live in the area, I still believe that nothing compares to the city's incredible array of local restaurants. 

Here are some of the best foods you can get in Houston, according to a local. 

The Breakfast Klub serves up the best chicken and waffles in the city.

An always-crowded, no-frills spot, The Breakfast Klub serves up plenty of delicious and filling dishes.

It's known for its giant, crispy Belgian waffle topped with six golden, deep-fried chicken wings, but the menu also includes a full selection of delicious breakfast and lunch items, like catfish and grits or pork chops and eggs. 

Hickory Hollow's chicken-fried steak is not for the faint of heart.

If you're looking for traditional Southern comfort food, visit Hickory Hollow in Northwest Houston.

Bring your appetite since the portions here can be pretty large — for example, The Rancher is 22 to 24 ounces of battered steak topped with special gravy.  If you can finish it by yourself, you'll earn a spot on the restaurant's Wall of Fame.

The chain is also known for its other Southern specialties, like barbecued meats, catfish fillets, steaks, baked potatoes, Southern-style green beans, and deep-fried jalapeno potato puffs.

Kat's BBQ is a must-try for meat lovers.

Recently featured on Yelp's 2019 Top 100 Places to Eat list, Kat's BBQ is worth the drive to the Houston suburb of Santa Fe. 

Kat's serves up classic barbecue dishes like brisket, sausage, pork, beef, ribs, and sides like beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and mac and cheese.

But the best way to try out the spot's offerings is with the classic Kat's Plate, which is $28 worth of pulled pork, ribs, brisket, sausage, and three sides of your choosing.

The restaurant is so popular with the locals that its store hours are listed as, "Open Wednesday-Sunday, 11:00 a.m. until sold out."

Mel's Country Cafe serves up a burger made with 1 1/2 pounds of beef and a full pound of bacon.

Located in the Houston suburb of Tomball, Mel's Country Cafe serves up a burger that's so huge it has become the focus of an eating challenge.

If you can eat the mammoth Mega Mel burger made with 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef, a pound of bacon, and 1/4 pound of cheese in two hours without any help, you'll get a spot on the restaurant's Wall of Fame.

For diners who don't want to take on the challenge, Mel's menu also includes local favorites like Cajun catfish, chicken and dumplings, and chicken-fried steak. 

Niko Niko's is a Houston staple for Greek classics like souvlaki, kebob, soutzoukakia, and, of course, gyros.

The restaurant, which has three locations throughout the city, serves classic American dishes like burgers and Philly cheesesteak as well as trademark Greek dishes based on family recipes. 

The most popular dish is the gyro sandwich, pita bread stuffed with a mix of lamb, beef, Greek spices, tomato, onion, and fresh tzatziki sauce.

Other top picks include homemade hummus, falafel, Greek salads, dolma, and crispy spanakopita. 

Ninfa's is a Houston treasure and the original location on Navigation Boulevard serves great fajitas.

Ninfa's began as a simple taco joint serving up Mama Ninfa's trademark Tacos Al Carbon, made with grilled skirt steak on tortillas from her family's tortilla factory. 

Today, the fajitas at Ninfa's are a must-try dish and they are served with flour tortillas, pico de gallo, guacamole, and chile con queso.

Other top dishes at Ninfa's are traditional Mexican tamales, combination plates, and many varieties of enchiladas. 

House of Pies features a dessert menu so large that it’s impossible to pick just one favorite.

A bonafide Houston institution with four locations, House of Pies is a diner-style restaurant that's open 24 hours.

The chain is most known for its massive dessert menu, which includes specialty pies, cream pies, fruit pies, cheesecakes, traditional cakes, ice cream, and more.

If you have to choose just one dessert, I suggest the Bayou Goo, a pie that's made with pecan crust, sweetened cream cheese, and vanilla custard with chocolate chunks, and then topped with fresh whipped cream with chocolate shavings. 

You shouldn't visit Houston without trying an empanada at The Original Marini's Empanada House.

Although Marini's serves up other items such as sandwiches, salads, and sides, the empanadas are the star of the show at this authentic Argentinian restaurant.

The empanadas at Marini's are made from scratch daily and the crispy pockets come with a variety of sweet and savory fillings like traditional Argentinian chicken diablo, Texas barbecue, cheese, fresh fruit, and more.

Marini's empanadas are so popular that the restaurant is currently working on being able to ship frozen ones to out-of-state fans.  

The pecan pie at Goode Company restaurants is a Houston classic.

A booming restaurant brand in Texas, Goode Company owns multiple locations throughout the city.

Even though each spot has its own unique menu, they all serve the famous Brazos Bottom Pecan Pie, the gooiest and richest pie I've ever had. These pies are so popular that if you want to pre-order an entire one for the holiday season, you must do so months in advance. 

Fortunately for those who can't make it to a Goode Co. restaurant, the chain ships its pies to a number of locations around the US. 

Tony's Italian Delicatessen is the closest you can get to a true Italian deli in the heart of the Lone Star State.

In 2017, Yelp ranked Tony's as the number-one restaurant on its Top 100 Places to Eat list, and after tasting the sandwiches here, you'll see why.

All of its sandwiches are made with top-of-the-line, fresh deli ingredients and crusty Italian bread and are named after Hollywood stars. 

I recommend you try the Lucky Luciano, which features Genoa salami, sweet Italian sausage, pepperoni, Provolone cheese, marinara sauce, and roasted red peppers.

Thai Gourmet's Pad Thai is some of the best in Houston.

Voted as the best Thai restaurant in Houston in 2017, Thai Gourmet is located in an unassuming building off of Richmond Avenue.

Open for over two decades, Thai Gourmet serves a vast selection of appetizers, soups, Thai salads, Thai noodle dishes, meat dishes, and more. 

The must-try dish at Thai Gourmet is for sure the Pad Thai, which can be customized to your liking. 

Barnaby's Cafe serves classic American food with an eclectic twist.

Named after the owner's childhood pet, Barnaby's is known for being extremely dog-friendly, and all of the eatery's locations are filled with colorful pet-themed designs, like paw prints.

Barnaby's serves up a bit of everything from Tex-Mex meals and pasta dishes to sandwiches and seafood, so it's the perfect place to go with a large group or if you're just not sure what you want to eat. 

Diced Poke's custom bowls are fantastic.

Diced Poke has only been open since 2018 but it has already made its mark on Houston's Midtown food fans — and it was on Yelp's Top 100 Places to Eat list for 2019. 

The real highlight of Diced Poke's menu is its build-your-own-bowl option where diners choose their own base, protein, sauce, and toppings to create their perfect poke dish.

In addition, the eatery serves pokkiritos, a poke burrito of sorts similar to sushi rolls, and delicious mochi ice cream for dessert. 

Another thing locals love about Diced Poke is that they validate parking for up to an hour, a rare, hot commodity in Houston's bustling Midtown. 

You can't leave Houston without trying some crawfish from BB's Cafe.

Many Houstonians are seriously passionate about crawfish and many locals like myself love ordering it from BB's Cafe because of its classic take on the popular dish. 

At BB's you order crawfish by the pound and you can enjoy with extra spices, butter, or crawfish sauce on the side. You can also add sausage, potatoes, and corn on the cob to your meal for a classic crawfish boil. 

Read More:

• 10 of the best fast-food sandwich chains across the US
• 10 popular foods you need to try on your next trip to Chicago
• 18 of the best places to eat in Philadelphia, according to a local
• I lived in Austin, Texas, for 12 years. Here are all of the restaurants you should try when you are in the city.

• Not everyone wants to be home for the holidays. In fact, many Americans love to treat the holiday break as the perfect opportunity to travel to new cities and places across the US.
• From decked-out Christmas light festivals to European-inspired holiday markets, these festive locations certainly bring the holiday cheer.
• Here are 20 of the most festive places in America to spend the holidays.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

While there may be no place like home for the holidays, these festive cities and towns come pretty darn close. 

Whether your dream winter vacation involves strolling through a glittering light parade, sipping mulled wine under the stars at a European-style Christmas market, or snowshoeing through the hills of Vermont, these places are perfect for spending the holidays.

Whatever you celebrate — be it Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or New Year's Eve — these are the best places to have on your radar for holiday vacations.

Here are 20 of the most festive places in America to spend the holidays.

Annapolis, Maryland, gives visitors a chance to indulge their sweet tooth this holiday season.

Celebrate the holidays in Maryland's capital city, right along the Chesapeake Bay. With plenty of holiday activities happening every year, Annapolis is the perfect city to visit over your vacation. Satisfy your sweet tooth at the Chocolate Binge Festival, where a dozen local vendors sell everything from chocolate cakes, truffles, fudge, cookies, candies, hot chocolate, and fondue to martinis and more. Be sure to check out the official state Christmas tree at the State House, or take in thousands of colored lights at the Eastport Yacht Club Lights Parade. 

In Asheville, North Carolina, the largest home in America comes alive with 30,000 lights and a 55-foot-tall Christmas tree.

Few things compare to spending the holidays in a beautiful and quaint Southern town overlooking gorgeous mountains. Asheville, North Carolina, is home to tons of adorable coffee shops, boutiques, and great restaurants, making this mountainside escape the perfect place to spend the holidays. Sip a Cold Mountain Winter Ale from Highland Brewing Company, Asheville's oldest brewery, or stroll through Asheville's decorated Main Street, complete with music, horse-and-carriage rides, carolers and children's activities.

The Biltmore House, America's largest home, sparkles with a whopping 30,000 lights around the holidays. Its annual Christmas event allows guests to view a giant 55-foot decorated spruce tree on the front lawn, 60 elaborate hand-decorated trees, wreaths, garlands, lights and more. The estate also hosts Downton Abbey: The Exhibition around the holidays. 

The quaint, snow-covered streets of Aspen, Colorado, will leave any visitor feeling festive.

From skiing to beautiful snow-lined streets, Aspen, Colorado, is a naturally beautiful and festive place to spend the holidays. The quaint ski town is guaranteed to have a white Christmas and is the perfect destination for cozying up by a glowing fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate or a cold-weather cocktails.

Aspen also makes a wonderful destination for Hanukkah celebrations. The St. Regis Aspen holds a daily public Menorah lighting and even serves latkes and other complimentary treats on the last day of Hanukkah. 

In Austin, Texas, the annual "Trail of Lights" brings cheer to the city — with exhilarating rides, food trucks, family fun, and 2 million lights.

Austin has been voted the best place to live in the US— and for good reasons. From the delicious and thriving food scene to the Southern and distinctly Austin culture, this Texas city is a great place to visit any time of year. However, you should definitely consider staying here during the holidays. Between the famous 1.25-mile long Trail of Lights in Zilker Park to 37th Street's annual Christmas spectacle, Austin is a must-visit city during the month of December.

With wreaths and ribbons decorating homes across the city, Boston, Massachusetts, offers a more traditional holiday experience.

There's nothing quite like December in New England, and Boston, Massachusetts, truly goes all out for the holiday season. As a historic American city, the holiday season tends to lean more on the traditional side. Visitors to Boston around the holiday season can view gorgeous lit-up trees at Boston Common and Faneuil Hall Marketplace, sing along with holiday favorites at a Boston Holiday Pops show at Symphony Hall, or wander through the Blink! Holiday Light Show at Faneuil Market.

In Charleston, South Carolina, visitors can marvel at how the holiday decor makes the city even more beautiful.

Stroll through historic Charleston, South Carolina, and seemingly step back in time to the Antebellum South. Buildings across the city are decorated in charming garlands and wreaths, and each year Charleston holds its annual Holiday Market in Marion Square. Take a Charleston Strolls Holiday Walking Tour or revel in the Charleston Holiday Pub Crawl, tasting the city's most delicious holiday cocktails and bites along the way. 

In Chicago, visitors and locals can enjoy a taste of Europe at a huge, open-air festival, like those found in Germany.

Spend the holidays in the windy city this year. Although Chicago, Illinois, gets very cold during the winter months, it's nevertheless a festive place to spend Christmas, Hanukkah, or New Year's Eve. Stroll through the Christkindlmarket Chicago market, inspired by the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, Germany, to truly get in the holiday spirit. The city's largest open-air festival, the Christkindlsmarket offers traditional European seasonal treats like pretzels, sausages, potato pancakes, Strudel, hot spiced wine, and German beer. 

Honolulu, Hawaii, provides a warmer holiday option — but there's no shortage of ways to mark the season.

If having a white Christmas isn't your thing, consider spending the holidays in Honolulu, Hawaii. Must-see attractions in the island city include the 12 Days of Polynesia festival, the New Year's Eve party at Aloha Tower, and the Honolulu City Lights festival. Not only are there multiple festive holiday-themed attractions during the month of December, but the island's beautiful beaches and warm weather makes for a perfect holiday break in the sun. However, tourists should be warned: December is the state's busiest tourist season. 

Start 2020 with a bang at the New Year's Eve celebrations in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The party capital of the United States, Las Vegas, may sound like the perfect place to spend the holidays to some. According to TripSavvy, New Year's Eve on the Las Vegas strip is almost guaranteed to be unforgettable. Not only are there firework shows at Stratosphere Tower, Treasure Island, Venetian, Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood, Aria, and MGM Grand, but the Las Vegas nightlife is sure to keep you partying from dusk until dawn. Aside from NYE, there are a number of Hanukkah events, Christmas-themed shows like The Tournament of Kings, Opportunity Village's Magical Forest, and ice skating at The Cosmopolitan. The city also puts on its annual Santa Run this year on December 7.

Nantucket, Massachusetts, will help any visitor feel festive, with its Christmas tree-lined streets and wreaths around town.

If you want to visit Nantucket, Massachusetts, around the holidays, make sure you go for Christmas Stroll. The island's downtown area is completely decked out in wreaths, ribbons, and trimmings, creating a festive vibe that embodies New England charm. Hundreds of decorated seven-foot Christmas trees line the downtown streets, which are illuminated during a public ceremony with caroling at dusk the day after Thanksgiving. Holiday treats and beverages are offered by many of the small businesses in town, and Santa even visits the island arriving on a festively-decorated Coast Guard Cutter. 

Indulge in a wide, delicious selection of holiday foods in Nashville, Tennessee.

The capital of honky-tonk, Nashville is alive with a culture all its own. From delicious barbecue and signature Nashville hot chicken to more traditional holiday delicacies, this foodie-approved city is perfect for people and families who love to have a little fun over the holidays and fill their bellies with delicious grub.

Be sure to check out the Nashville Christmas Lights Tour while you're in town, and head on over to HQ Beercade for holiday-themed drinks, 3D Christmas tree displays, thousands of ornaments, 2,000 feet of twinkling lights, and a life-size Santa sleigh.

Stroll through the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana, with a mulled wine in hand.

Christmas in the French Quarter is a perfect way to spend the holidays. Enjoy traditional Christmas King Cake, stroll through Royal Street and Chartres Street for the best holiday lights in the city, and don't miss out on the festive Holiday Home Tour conducted by the Preservation Resource Center, on December 14 and 15. Take in a holiday concert at St. Augustine Church in NOLA's Tremé neighborhood, and finish the night off with a beignet or delicious po'boy.

If you're in town for New Year's, take in everything New Orleans nightlife has to offer in terms of incredible bars — plus, you can stroll through the streets with your cocktail or mulled wine in this alcohol-friendly city.

Marvel at the window displays in New York City or watch the Rockettes at their annual Christmas Spectacular.

New York, New York, you're a hell of a town — especially, around the holidays. It's no secret that tourists flock to New York City every year to take in the many lights and giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, catch The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, or gaze into the decorated window displays at Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Not all the fun is in Manhattan, however. Stroll on over to Brooklyn neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens to marvel at beautifully decorated brownstones, or Dyker Heights, which famously goes all-out for the holidays.

Re-live your childhood with a trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

You don't have to hate cold weather to enjoy your holidays in sunny Florida, but it definitely may be a reason to. If you don't want to bundle up for the holidays this year, Disney World or Orlando, Florida, in general, could be right up your alley. Despite the warm weather, visitors can still get in a festive holiday mood by walking down Main Street during "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party" at Walt Disney World or visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, which is always decorated during the holiday months as well. Enjoy a delicious mug of Butterbeer or meet your favorite festively dressed Disney characters at these two Orlando theme parks, or relax on one of Florida's beautiful beaches. 

Portland, Maine, offers cozy corners to enjoy warming cocktails.

Spend the holidays in historic Portland, Maine. The city has no shortage of cozy coffee shops, bars serving up delicious eggnog, and beautiful historic streets and buildings. Attend the Portland Christmas tree lighting or sip on winter cocktails at Vena's Fizz House. Stop by the historic Victoria Mansion, which truly comes alive around the holidays with festive decorations. Embrace either the traditional or the slightly risqué by attending either the Maine Ballet Nutcracker holiday show or a burlesque version of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," put on by the Vivid Motion dancers. 

The National Christmas Tree lights up Washington, DC — but that's just the beginning of the festivities.

Spend the holidays in the nation's capital. Spend days strolling through the historic streets, taking in the lights and decorations in Georgetown and eating delicious food. While in DC, make sure you stop by the National Christmas Tree or shop from the many vendors at the Downtown Holiday Market in front of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. Visitors to DC can also take a candlelight tour of various historic homes to see how Americans of yesteryear decorated their stately homes for the holidays. 

Visitors to San Francisco, California, can ice skate in Union Square and then warm up with tea and scones.

Christmastime in San Francisco is buzzing with activities and sights that will bring joy to the whole family. Go ice skating in Union Square, attend the Union Square Tree Lighting ceremony, take a ride on a vintage trolley car, or experience a delicious holiday high tea complete with English tea sandwiches and freshly baked black currant scones the Westin St. Francis hotel. 

Sturbridge, Massachusetts, allows families to experience the holiday season in the 1830s.

Sturbridge, Massachusetts, is home to Old Sturbridge Village, an outdoor learning museum that depicts a rural New England town of the 1830s, complete with original buildings, explore homes, meetinghouses, a district school, a country store, and various trade shops that will make visitors feel like they've stepped back in time. Holiday events at the village include live musical performances, Christmas storytelling, sleigh rides, delicious holiday treats, roaring bonfires, and a festively-decorated Village Common perfect for enjoying a festive winter evening. A new event this year is the Christmas Tree Trail, but the museum also plans to hold classic winter activities like a nightly tree lighting and gingerbread house contest.

Another town that gives a taste of a more traditional holiday season is Williamsburg, Virginia.

Enjoy a slice of American history this holiday season by visiting Colonial Williamsburg. This historic town was the capital of the Virginia Colony from 1699 to 1780 and played a significant role in the American Revolution. Now, the town is a living history museum where everything from the homes to the land is preserved and accurate to the time. Around the winter holidays, Williamsburg is not only decorated with wreaths, trimmings, and other holiday decorations but the town also puts on a number of festive events.

Or why not head to Woodstock, Vermont, for a white Christmas?

Woodstock, Vermont, is widely regarded as one of the most quintessentially New England towns in the country. Gorgeous in both the fall and the dead of winter, Woodstock has a number of festive attractions and activities the whole family will love. If you're planning to stay in town over the holidays or winter season, try to book a room at the cozy and festive Woodstock Inn. Each guest suite has its own fireplace perfect for cuddling up next to with a cup of hot cocoa and a copy of "'Twas The Night Before Christmas." The inn also holds an annual Holiday Feast, created by the inn's restaurant staff.

• Read more:
• 8 beautiful Airbnbs that can cost you less than $100 per night
• 25 festive places to spend the holidays around the world
• 11 spicy, cold-weather cocktails perfect for entertaining
•  

• Kristallnacht, also called the "Night of Broken Glass," was the start of a violent campaign launched on German Jewish people by Nazis on November 9, 1938. 
• The violence included torching synagogues, vandalizing homes, schools, and graveyards, and destroying thousands of businesses. 
• It continued into November 10, 1938, and culminated with the arrest of 30,0000 Jewish men.
• The night marked a turning point in violence toward Jewish people in Europe, and foreshadowed the Holocaust, in which 6 million people died. 
• 2019 marks the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht, and Insider is taking a look back at images revealing the aftermath from night of terror.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

On November 9, 1938, German Nazis launched a violent campaign against Jewish communities, torching synagogues, vandalizing homes, schools, and graveyards, and destroying 7,500 businesses.

In what would foreshadow the Holocaust in its violence, Kristallnacht, also called the "Night of Broken Glass," left at least 91 Jewish people dead and wreaked havoc on communities.

The violence continued into November 10, 1938, and an estimated 30,000 Jewish men were arrested by Nazis. It marked the first time Nazis arrested Jewish people en masse simply because they were Jewish. Many of the men were taken to concentration camps, and released months later when they promised to leave Germany.

The night signaled a turning point in violence toward Jewish people, and soon after, German Jews were banned from schools and many public places.

In the years that followed, some 6 million European Jews were killed by Germans in a systematic, state-sponsored mass murder that became known as the Holocaust. 

Ahead of what will be the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht, Insider is taking a look back at the dark day in history through photos.

Kristallnacht was a critical turning point in Adolf Hitler's rise to power.

Hitler became the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) — which became known as the Nazi party — in 1921, and just two years later he attempted to stage a coup against the German government. 

The coup failed, and Hitler was tried for treason and sentenced to a short prison stint. When he got out, he took up his leadership post again and pushed for further expansion and adoption of the Nazi agenda. 

The Nazi party spent the 1920s gathering support, and in 1933 they were able to officially come into power.

Hitler was named German chancellor on January 30, 1933 and immediately began pushing an anti-Jewish agenda. 

The party spent the five years leading up to Kristallnacht developing restrictive policies limiting the involvement of Jews in German life. Jews were not allowed to retain civil service jobs; Jews were only allowed a limited number of slots at German schools; and the licenses of  Jewish lawyers and accountants were revoked.

The approach served to ratchet up support for the party.  

Kristallnacht was the apex of anti-Jewish sentiment in 1930s Germany.

Kristallnacht, which literally translates to "night of crystal," marked the beginning of a ramped-up offensive against the Jewish people of Germany.

Source: US Holocaust Memorial Museum

On the night of November 9, 1938, into the next day, anti-Jewish rioters burned or destroyed 267 synagogues and vandalized or looted 7,500 Jewish businesses.

Both Nazi paramilitary forces and German citizens were believed to have participated in the attacks. 

Source: History.com

During the riots, police were told not to intervene on attacks of Jewish people and ordered to stand down during the destruction of synagogues, businesses, and homes.

Instead, they were instructed to arrest looters and confiscate materials recovered from synagogues and Jewish community centers, according to the US Holocaust Museum.

The Nazi party's Security Service (SD) said that all documents that were confiscated would be used for research matters.

In Linz, Austria, Nazis forced Jewish women to wear signs that said they were "excluded from the national community."

Source: Getty, History

This synagogue, which is bearing a sign reading "Germans,do not buy from Jews," was burned in the Kristallnacht attacks.

Nazi officials disguised the organized nature of the riots, describing them instead as spontaneous reactions to the assassination of a German diplomatic official in Paris.

Ernst vom Rath was shot by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Jewish boy from Poland, on November 7, 1938. Van Rath died two days later.

Grynszpan had learned days earlier that his parents had been among thousands of Polish Jews who were expelled from Germany. They had been denied entry to Poland and were forced to live in a refugee camp on the border of the two countries.

In reality, though, the Kristallnacht riots had been suggested by German government officials, with propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels at the forefront, as an anti-Semitic pogrom.

Source: US Museum of the Holocaust

In the weeks that followed, Jewish people are banned from schools and theaters and had restricted access to public transportation.

Kristallnacht gave the world one of its first looks at anti-Semitic terror in Germany and became a turning point in the persecution of Jews.

In the weeks that followed, the German government enacted laws including the "Aryanization" policy, which transferred Jewish-owned businesses to "Aryan" ownership. Further legislation forced Jewish people to have restricted access to employment, public transportation, and schools.

And in the years that followed, Jewish people were essentially removed completely fromGerman economic and social life. It culminated in the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews murdered by the state.

Source: US Museum of the Holocaust

Fearing increased violence, Hugh Wilson, the American ambassador to Germany, was recalled back to the US.

In response, a demonstration protesting his removal — and the pogroms of Jewish and Catholic Germans — was held on the piers of New York City.

In the immediate aftermath of Kristallnacht, the German government claimed Jewish people were responsible for the riots.

The German government ordered the Jewish community to pay an "atonement tax" of 1 billion Reichsmark ($4 million in 1938 currency).

Source: US Museum of the Holocaust

In the years leading up to Kristallnacht, more than 280,000 Jews left the country.

In the ten months following the attacks, an additional 115,000 Jews emigrated from Germany, often leaving their homes and loved ones behind. 

Source: US Museum of the Holocaust

In the years following the end of World War II, Germany struggled to reconcile its violent history.

In 2008, to commemorate Kristallnacht, 80 signs were put up around Berlin noting specific restrictions placed on Jews in the period.

"All Jews older than six years have to wear the yellow star with the inscription 'Jews,'" the placard reads. 

In recent years, as the last survivors of the Holocaust pass away and far-right parties grow in influence across Europe, the commemoration of Kristallnacht has become a day of conflict.

• I can't even begin to count the number of times I've declined travel insurance when booking plane tickets. 
• But when it came to Amtrak, horror stories of delays that I couldn't shake from my head convinced me it might be worth the investment for my cross-country trip this fall. 
• Turns out I was right. The first train of my journey was delayed so long I missed my connection, and spent an unplanned night in Chicago. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As I booked a cross-country Amtrak journey this fall in pursuit of stories for Business Insider, there was a cacophony of horror stories I couldn't get out of my head.

Beyond anecdotal tales of massive delays, like the 183 passengers who were stuck on a train for 36 hours earlier this year, data shows these tales are far from outliers. My first train for this journey, the Lake Shore Limited, was on time just about 42% of the time last year, according to Amtrak's annual report.

So when the railroad's booking website hawked travel insurance for just $17 on my $900 fare, I bit the bullet and bought for the first time what I had long considered to be a scam and didn't think of it again. Here's how it ended up saving me $124. 

SEE ALSO: Amtrak had another record ridership year as it works toward its first-ever profit

That's not entirely true. I started to think about the travel insurance policy again less than 24 hours after leaving New York.

As we sat behind a freight train outside of South Bend, Indiana, already a full three hours after the train should have arrived in Chicago, I started to wonder about my missed connection. My next train was scheduled to depart Chicago at 2:15, but as we creeped slowly into Illinois I knew that wasn't going to happen.

Booking the insurance in the first place was easy. I was hoping the claim would be similar.

Allianz sent me a separate email a few minutes after I received my Amtrak ticket. It had a link to my full policy and other details, which I admittedly did not read until I needed them. 

In the meantime, I started reading Allianz's policy that I admittedly had not read when purchasing. For a "travel delay" my policy said I was entitled up to a daily limit of $150.

To Amtrak's credit, the rebooking line when we finally arrived in Chicago was long, but moved quickly. As I waited, a representative went down the line with new tickets, and hotel and food vouchers for everyone who had missed their connections. I waited maybe 15 minutes in total.

Another important note: Amtrak did offer hotel vouchers for those of us who needed to wait overnight. I had rescheduled meetings for early the next day as a result of the delayed train, and didn't feel like schlepping to The Loop during rush hour from Midway Airport. It also proved a worthwhile moment to put travel insurance to the test.

Sitting in Union Station — while contemplating the plight of this beautiful depot of yesteryear compared to its companion in New York — I found a hotel that fit in Allianz's limit for "travel interruption" accommodations and booked a room.

The only downside to the plan, of course, was having to front the money and not knowing if the travel insurance would actually work.

A day later, and a few dollars shorter, I headed west on the same train as originally planned (and even lucked out with a room). But back in New York four days later, it was time to file a claim.

Filing the claim was easy, all I needed was my email address or policy number, and the date I departed for my trip. The form was simple and quick, all I had to do was upload my hotel receipt. It didn't even ask for proof of my delay.

Six days after my claim was submitted, a check showed up in my mailbox.

Not only was it sooner than I expected, but easier too! I had worried that I would need some way to prove my train was delayed significantly enough to require a hotel stay, but that was not the case.

All things considered, the travel insurance was easily worth $17

Now read:

It took me 96 hours to ride an Amtrak train from coast to coast. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

• Controversial YouTube star Logan Paul purchased a California ranch that used to manufacture LSD in the late 1960s.
• The ranch was once owned by Timothy Leary, a former Harvard professor who believed that psychedelic drugs had therapeutic properties.
• Paul purchased the property for $1 million — plus a single dollar.
• Visit Businessinsider.com for more stories.

A California ranch that used to manufacture LSD has found a new owner who can appreciate its eccentric history: YouTube star Logan Paul. 

Paul is known for his viral videos on social media — some of which are widely controversial. In December 2017, he posted a video of himself in Japan's "suicide forest" with a corpse hanging in the background. A month later, he uploaded footage of him Tasering dead rats. 

The controversies cost him an estimated $5 million worth of business deals, but haven't stripped him of his millionaire status. Paul currently has an income of around $14.5 million. 

Property records show that the YouTuber paid $1 million, plus a single dollar, for the 80-acre ranch in the San Jacinto mountains. The land once hosted a hippie compound led by former Harvard professor Timothy Leary, who manufactured LSD on-site. Here's what it looks like. 

Psychologist Timothy Leary lived on the property, known as Fobes Ranch, in the late 1960s.

As a former Harvard professor, Leary researched whether psychedelic drugs like LSD could be used for psychiatric therapy. He was fired from the university in 1963. 

He shared the property with his followers, a group of Laguna Beach surfers who called themselves the Brotherhood of Eternal Love.

The group manufactured LSD tablets called "Orange Sunshine." Leary is believed to have operated his headquarters out of a tepee. Narcotics agents raided the compound in 1972.

The ranch went on the market last year for nearly $1.5 million. Paul snagged it for cheaper.

The previous owners held onto the property for the last 30 years. 

The main house comes with two bedrooms and one-and-a-half bathrooms.

The ranch is only about 3 hours away from Paul's other property — a $6.6 million mansion in Encino, California, that he bought in 2017.

The ranch comes with additional buildings, including a guesthouse with bunk beds.

There's a barn with horse stalls, a garden, and a chicken coop. There's also a workshop that could become an art studio or exercise room. 

The online listing for the ranch boasts "pure gold" water that's pulled from natural springs nearby.

The property also comes with two solar panel systems.

The ranch is tucked away from civilization. It's the only public property in the heart of the San Jacinto mountains.

The listing says the property is ideal "for those who seek to live or spend their downtime in complete seclusion."

• Texas' population has been growing rapidly for years, and a big part of that growth comes from the millions of people who have moved there from around the US and the rest of the world.
• Using data from the US Census Bureau, we ranked Texas' large metro areas by total net migration between 2010 and 2018, adjusted by 2010 population.
• Texas' largest cities were at the top of the list, as well as Midland, a major hub of the fracking boom.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Texas is one of the fastest-growing parts of the US.

A big factor in the Lone Star State's growth is the millions of people who have moved there from around the country and the rest of the world over the last decade.

Using data from the US Census Bureau, we ranked the metropolitan statistical areas in Texas by total net migration between 2010 and 2018 — the number of people who moved into the metro area during that period from another part of the US or another country, minus people who moved out of the metro area — adjusted by the metro area's 2010 population.

Texas' biggest cities appear at the top of the list, a contrast to the fates of some other large metro areas in the US. Also near the top was Midland, a major hub of the oil and gas boom of the last decade.

Here are the top 12 metro areas in Texas by that metric:

12. San Angelo had net migration of 3,305 between 2010 and 2018 — 3% of the metro's 2010 population of 111,823.

11. Waco had net migration of 7,585 between 2010 and 2018 — 3% of the metro's 2010 population of 252,772.

10. Lubbock had net migration of 13,495 between 2010 and 2018 — 5% of the metro's 2010 population of 290,805.

9. Tyler had net migration of 11,910 between 2010 and 2018 — 6% of the metro's 2010 population of 209,714.

8. Odessa had net migration of 11,351 between 2010 and 2018 — 8% of the metro's 2010 population of 137,130.

7. College Station-Bryan had net migration of 19,042 between 2010 and 2018 — 8% of the metro's 2010 population of 228,660.

6. Sherman-Denison had net migration of 11,842 between 2010 and 2018 — 10% of the metro's 2010 population of 120,877.

5. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land had net migration of 584,110 between 2010 and 2018 — 10% of the metro's 2010 population of 5,920,416.

4. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington had net migration of 641,751 between 2010 and 2018 — 10% of the metro's 2010 population of 6,426,214.

3. San Antonio-New Braunfels had net migration of 239,501 between 2010 and 2018 — 11% of the metro's 2010 population of 2,142,508.

2. Midland had net migration of 22,239 between 2010 and 2018 — 16% of the metro's 2010 population of 141,671.

1. Austin-Round Rock had net migration of 310,931 between 2010 and 2018 — 18% of the metro's 2010 population of 1,716,289.

• There are few things humans collectively like more than pets, and superstar athletes are no exception.
• When the world's most impressive sports stars are not training or competing, we often see them spending time with their furry friends.
• In this day and age, social media makes famous athletes more accessible than ever, and as a result, some of their pets have taken on cult followings of their own.
• Now check out 58 of the best pets of superstar athletes below.

Tiger Woods with Yogi, Bugs, and Taz.

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Golf legend Tiger Woods has three furry friends at home. Their names are Yogi, Bugs, and Taz.

Marosca and Cristiano Ronaldo

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Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo has a yellow labrador named Marosca. The Juventus star is a known dog lover who made news in 2017 for helping 80 pups in a kennel.

Wrigley, Rasta, and Elena Delle Donne

Washington Mystics superstar Elena Delle Donne and her wife, Amanda, have a Great Dane named Wrigley and a mutt named Rasta. Wrigley even has his very own Instagram account.

Lua and Tom Brady

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady often takes his dog, Lua, for walks around Boston.

... and Scooby Brady

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In 2015, Brady adopted Scooby without consulting his wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen. He had he always wanted a Beagle and took Scooby home when no one else wanted him.

... and Fluffy Brady

Bundchen returned the favor a year later, adopting Fluffy without consulting the five-time Super Bowl champion.

Lucy, Leo, Bear, and Lindsey Vonn

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Olympic ski racer Lindsey Vonn has three adopted dogs, Lucy, Leo, and Bear, and they share an epic Instagram account that chronicles their adventures.

Reza and Stephen Curry

Two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry has a very fluffy labradoodle named Reza.

...and Rookie Curry

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Reza got a little brother in March of 2017 when Curry and his wife, Ayesha, brought home Rookie.

Boujee and JuJu Smith-Schuster

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Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster may be the owner of the most fabulous dog in the NFL. Boujee — a French Bulldog with over 170,000 Instagram followers— gets up to all sorts of crazy shenanigans with his dad.

Rocco and Klay Thompson

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The same year that he became one half of the Golden State Warriors' Splash Brothers duo, Klay Thompson adopted his beloved Rocco. The English Bulldog has been with Thompson through his rise to stardom and his three NBA Finals championships, but only Rocco has let the fame get to his head.

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Of course, Klay Thompson’s birthday cake is of Rocco pic.twitter.com/7tNWpxiaSe

Thompson even had a Rocco-inspired birthday cake in 2018.

Atom, Humber, and Alexis Sanchez

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Chilean Manchester United star Alexis Sanchez has golden retrievers named Atom and Humber. They are very famous on Instagram.

Brodie and Russell Westrook

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Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook has a little dog named Brodie. They love to jam out on social media.

Zo and Kevin Durant

Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant brought home an English bulldog puppy back when he played with Westbrook on the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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Westbrook and Durant collaborated to promote The Secret Life of Pets. Zo and Sasha, Westbrook's other dog, were the stars of the commercial.

Chip and Serena Williams

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All-time tennis great Serena Williams takes her beloved Yorkshire Terrier, Chip, everywhere from lunches to matches.

Princess, Naomi, and Russell Wilson

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Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is a huge dog lover, but no pooch holds a spot in his heart quite like his Great Danes, Princess and Naomi.

... and his newest addition

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Wilson and his wife, popstar Ciara, welcomed a grey Great Dane puppy to join their pack in March of 2018. 

Hulk and Lionel Messi

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Barcelona star and five-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi has a giant dog, Hulk, who loves to play soccer.

King and Paul George

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Oklahoma City Thunder star Paul George has a pet Pitbull named King. They love playing basketball together.

... and Kobe George

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George loves Pitbulls so much that he got another and named it after his favorite player, Kobe Bryant.

Lucy and Allyson Felix

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Olympic sprinter Allyson Felix got Lucy shortly after her beloved Yorkshire Terrier, Chloe, passed away in 2016. Lucy is so glamorous that she even takes endorsement shots with Felix.

Juno, Legend, and Michael Phelps

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American swimmer Michael Phelps — who became the most decorated Olympian of all time in 2012 — has two French Bulldogs at home in addition to his two sons. According to the pups' shared Instagram, Juno was "named after the Roman goddess who was an Olympian & Queen of the gods."

Lilo and Simone Biles

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Fellow record-breaking Olympian Simone Biles also has a pet Frenchie. Biles and her boyfriend, Stacey Ervin Jr., took home Lilo when she was just a puppy in February of 2018. She had over 40,000 followers on Instagram before her first birthday.

Harvey and Patty Mills

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San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills has a labradoodle named Harvey who apparently makes a great guard dog.

Maverick, Rosey, and David Backes

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A right wing for the Boston Bruins, David Backes is a huge animal lover and spends much of his free time helping animals in need. He and his wife, Kelly, founded Athletes for Animals in 2013.

Rocky, Drew, and Kyrie Irving

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Boston Celtics star Kyrie Irving has two dogs: Drew, who he named after his alter-ego Uncle Drew, and Rocky.

Siber and Gordon Hayward

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Fellow Celtics star Gordon Hayward has two daughters and is expecting a third in January. He and his German Shepard Siber are the only men in their crowded house.

Lola and Michelle Wie

Michelle Wie became the youngest player to qualify for an amateur USGA championship at 10 years old and has been a staple on the LPGA tour since. Her Pomeranian pup, Lola, comes with Wie wherever she goes.

Chief and Ben Simmons

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Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons has an adorable Cane Corso named Chief.

...and Flash Simmons

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Simmons later got an adorable French Bulldog named Flash.

Gibson and Aly Raisman

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Former gymnast and three-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman adopted her terrier mix, Gibson, after meeting him at an NBC Olympics photo shoot featuring adoptable pups.

"I knew from the moment I saw Gibson that it was meant to be,"Raisman told Us. "My dog Coco recently passed away and my family has been so devastated. Gibson's personality reminded my mom and I so much of Coco. Of course from the second we saw him we asked about adopting Gibson."

Deuce and Lonzo Ball

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Point guard Lonzo Ball got a Rottweiler puppy shortly after he was first drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers. He named the dog Deuce in honor of his No. 2 jersey.

Cash and LiAngelo Ball

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Lonzo's younger brother, LiAngelo, got a Rottweiler puppy of his own. He named her Cash.

Dip and LaMelo Ball

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Of course Melo had to get one, too. His is called Dip.

Pacman and Manny Pacquiao

Boxer Manny Pacquiao and his aptly-named dog, Pacman, know how to stay in shape.

Natty and Jahlil Okafor

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New Orleans Pelicans center Jahlil Okafor has a Rottweiler named Natty in honor of the national championship he won with the Duke Blue Devils in 2015.

Duke and Tyus Jones

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Okafor's college teammate and current Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Tyus Jones also named his puppy in honor of that title run. The Husky Pomeranian mix is called Duke Stones Jones.

Birdie and Gus Kenworthy

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American freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy regularly takes his dog, Birdie, out for walks in New York. 

Blue and Alex Morgan

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USWNT star Alex Morgan and her dog, Blue, starred in a commercial together in 2018.

Jefe, Noah, and Justise Winslow

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Miami Heat forward Justise Winslow has two bulldogs, El Jefe and Noah.

Bentley and Kirk Cousins

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Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has a pup, Bentley, who looks sharp when the occasion demands it. He also made a very special announcement on behalf of Cousins and his wife in 2017.

Koko and Meyers Leonard

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Portland Trail Blazers center Meyers Leonard has a beautiful Husky named Koko. His beloved Husky Bella — who became famous after making an appearance at Leonard's wedding— passed away late in 2017.

Astro and David Price

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Boston Red Sox ace David Price has one of the most lovable pups in the MLB. His French Bulldog, Astro, loves to take trips to the ballpark.

Poker and Neymar

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Brazilian soccer star Neymar has a golden retriever called Poker. Poker's Instagram account has over 60,000 followers.

Muppet and Robin Lopez

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Chicago Bulls big man Robin Lopez and his furry friend, Muppet, look a lot alike.

...and Prince Edward Lopez

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Lopez also has a very fuzzy cat named Prince Edward.

Billie and Sam Kerr

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The backflipping Australian soccer star and her boxer, Billie, are very tight.

Bronco and Tim Tebow

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The college football star turned shortlived NFL quarterback turned professional baseball player has a stoic looking pup named Bronco.

Cassie and Andrew Wiggins

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Minnesota Timberwolves small forward Andrew Wiggins adores his adopted pooch, Cassie.

Brady, Wilson, and Harry Kane

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Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane has two labrador retreivers, Brady and Wilson.

Ace, Deuce, Jack Jack, and Ezekiel Elliot

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Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliot has three dogs, but his Rottweiler, Ace, is his first and most well known.

And now for the exotic pets...

Meek and Anthony Davis

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New Orleans Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis has a pet monkey who reportedly wears a little diaper.

Carmelo Anthony and his camel

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Carmelo Anthony has a pet Camel! pic.twitter.com/vzPkpF42no

NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony has a pet camel. His reasoning for getting one? "Everybody got dogs and cats as pets, I got a camel!"

Sammy and Colin Kaepernick

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Colin Kaepernick owns a pet tortoise named Sammy that weighs over 100 lbs. I am now going for the 49ers this weekend. pic.twitter.com/Hr317mCl

Colin Kaepernick's tortoise, Sammy, is over 10 years old.

Wilma Jean Wrinkles and Rose Lavelle

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Got Wilma new rain boots and she's still ungrateful pic.twitter.com/NI1bfUI97L

Now take a peek into the lavish lifestyle of Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen.

How Tom Brady and Gisele Bunchen make and spend their millions

• Elon Musk might be the world's most extremely online billionaire
  
• The Tesla CEO, worth an estimated $26 billion, has a habit of getting into fights and long-running feuds over the internet.
• Musk is an enthusiastic Twitter user and often jokes around with his followers — but sometimes takes it too far.
• Here are his weirdest fights.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk has a combative streak.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is famously unpredictable as chief executives go, a personality trait which has sometimes landed him in trouble — particularly with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

But Musk's combative side doesn't just express itself in skirmishes with government agencies. The Tesla billionaire has ended up in bizarre spats with a strange array of people — from fellow billionaires to artists to rescue divers — and often via his preferred medium of Twitter.

The twists and turns in the stories of Musk's various battles are no less baffling, and it can be hard to remember all the different ways Musk has squared up to various public figures and regular citizens.

We've catalogued his weirdest fights.

1. When he called a complete stranger "pedo guy"

Vernon Unsworth is the British diver who participated in the rescue of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave system in June 2018. It was a difficult, complex operation and the boys were successfully rescued after being trapped for 17 days by international divers and Thai Navy SEALs. Unsworth, an experienced cave explorer, was asked by Thai officials to aid in the rescue.

He had never met Elon Musk, but would go on to spend most of 2019 locked in a legal battle with the Tesla billionaire.

Musk had inserted himself into the Thai rescue operation and offered to build a mini-submarine to fetch the boys. The idea never materialized.

Unsworth was asked about Musk's submarine in an interview with CNN, and described it in unflattering terms, describing it as a PR stunt. He added that Musk could "stick his submarine where it hurts."

That angered Musk, who subsequently wrote a post on Twitter calling Unsworth a "pedo guy." When a Twitter user challenged him over it, he replied "bet ya a signed dollar it's true."

His remarks immediately triggered headlines around the world, despite the fact he provided no proof for the "pedo" claim.

Musk doubled down on the allegation by emailing BuzzFeed reporter Ryan Mac and calling Vernon Unsworth a "child rapist", with no evidence

Censured by critics for using the slur, Musk deleted his tweet and apologised, but he didn't leave it there. A month later he responded to a Twitter user who criticised him. "You don't think it's strange he hasn't sued me? He was offered free legal services,"Musk tweeted, referring to Unsworth.

Then in September 2018, he doubled down. BuzzFeed reporter Ryan Mac emailed Musk asking for comment on a legal threat made by Unsworth's lawyer. Musk replied, suggesting Unsworth was a "child rapist" and "I hope he fucking sues me." 

Musk prefaced the email to Mac with "off the record," but the journalist had never agreed to go off the record, and published the entire exchange. Documents later revealed Musk called himself a "fucking idiot" for sending the email to Mac in the first place.

A few weeks after Mac's article was published Unsworth sued Musk for defamation.

Musk is now embroiled in a long-running court battle with Unsworth for his defamatory remarks. Court filings revealed Musk hired a detective to investigate Unsworth — but the PI turned out to be a conman

Musk and Unsworth have now been locked in a legal fight for over a year.

The case has thrown up some bizarre findings.

Court filings revealed that Musk paid a man named James Higgins-Howard $50,000 to investigate Unsworth and relay reports to Musk's family office.

Higgins-Howard emailed Musk out of the blue following the initial "pedo guy" tweet to offer his services as a private detective. "You may want to dig deep into Mr. Unsworth['s] past to prepare for his defamation claim," Higgins-Howard wrote, adding "no smoke without fire!"

Higgins-Howard didn't find any evidence, however, and BuzzFeed's Ryan Mac later reported that the would-be PI had previously been convicted of fraud. Musk admitted in a deposition that he later realised Higgins-Howard was "just taking us for a ride."

In depositions Musk has also argued that by calling Unsworth "pedo guy" he wasn't literally accusing him of being a pedophile because the term was used to be synonymous with "creepy old man" when he was growing up in South Africa. He also claimed he was genuinely worried Unsworth could be "another Jeffrey Epstein."

The defamation case is still ongoing, and the trial is due to take place in December.

2. When he took a liking to farting unicorn art, but didn't pay for it

June 2018 saw Musk lock horns with another unlikely member of the public.

Colorado-based potter Tom Edwards caught Musk's attention with a mug. The mug carried a painting of a unicorn farting rainbows to power an electric car. Musk tweeted a picture of a mug in February 2017 calling it "maybe my favorite mug ever." 

Two months later friends of Edwards' told him they had seen the same farting unicorn image used as an icon on Tesla screens, and the image was later used on Tesla's company Christmas cards.

The Christmas card spurred Edwards into action. "I decided to make it my New Year's resolution to pursue getting compensation, because artists are always seeing their work just taken, and it happens all the time," he told Business Insider in June 2018.

In later-deleted tweets Musk attacked Edwards, saying taking legal action would be "kinda lame."

"If anything, this attention increased his mug sales," he said. Musk also claimed (also in subsequently-deleted tweets) to have offered to pay for the work twice. Edwards said he'd had no contact from Musk or Tesla at that point.

Despite Musk's protestations, the two eventually settled

A month after the farting unicorn argument erupted on Twitter, Musk and Edwards came to a settlement. The terms of the settlement were not made public, but Edwards posted on his blog that it "resolves our issues in a way that everyone feels good about."

"It's clear there were some misunderstandings that led to this escalating, but I'm just glad that everything has been cleared up," he added.

Musk for his part tweeted a link to the blog accompanied by three emojis: a unicorn, a gust of wind, and a peace symbol.

3. When Azealia Banks waded into Tesla's regulatory troubles

On August 7, 2018 Elon Musk sent his infamous "funding secured" tweet, in which he claimed to be taking Tesla private at $420 a share.

Tesla did not go private, and Musk landed himself with a $20 million fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the tweet. He lost his position as chairman of Tesla's board, leading to long-running bad blood with the agency.

And it triggered another unlikely feud, with rapper Azealia Banks.

A week after Musk sent his fateful Tweet, Banks wrote on her Instagram that she had been at Musk's house at the time when he'd sent it. She had visited to collaborate with Musk's partner Grimes (real name Claire Boucher), and claimed she had been annoyed when the crisis caused by "funding secured" dominated Grimes' time.

"I waited around all weekend while grimes coddled her boyfriend," Banks wrote, and compared the weekend to the horror film "Get Out."

"I saw him in the kitchen tucking his tail in between his legs scrounging for investors to cover his ass after that tweet," Banks told Business Insider at the time.

Banks accused Musk of taking her phone

On August 20 Banks was back on Instagram, tagging Elon Musk. 

Banks posted "@elonmusk you need to contact me. ASAP." and "I need my phone back now.  @elonmusk," on her Instagram story — she later deleted the posts.

Banks then shared a screenshot with Business Insider that appeared to show a text from Grimes saying the choice of share price ($420) was a weed reference. "He just got into weed cuz of me and he's super entertained by 420 so when he decided to take the stock private he calculated it was worth 419$ so he rounded up to 420 for a laugh and now the sec is investigating him for fraud," the text read.

Musk told the New York Times that he rounded up the price because $420 had better "karma" than $419, and denied using weed.

Musk, usually combative, didn't really respond publicly to Banks except to say he had never met her

Musk told Gizmodo that he hadn't met Banks "or communicated with her in any way," but confirmed to the New York Times that he had seen her at his house.

"I saw her on Friday morning, for two seconds at about a 30-foot distance as she was leaving the house... I'd just finished working out. She was not within hearing range. I didn't even realize who it was. That's literally the only time I've ever laid eyes on her," he told the Times.

The Banks-Musk feud dragged on for months after the story blew up

Banks lashed out at Musk in January of this year after Musk's attorney said Banks had a  "history of making bold and sometimes unverified claims."

"They are still slighting me like I don't have plenty more dirt to spill on Elon," she wrote on Instagram— later deleting the post. "This is going to get extremely ugly… Elon will learn very soon who is more powerful of us two."

In January, a court granted a motion to subpoena Banks, Grimes, and publications including Business Insider.

4. When he was accused of stealing an idea from Pablo Escobar's brother

Musk ended up in a spat with Roberto Escobar, brother of deceased Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, over an accusation of intellectual property theft.

TMZ first reported that Escobar had accused Musk of stealing his idea for a flamethrower when Musk's venture The Boring Company announced its "Not-A-Flamethrower" flamethrower in January 2018, beating Escobar's own flamethrower to market.

Escobar claimed to TMZ that one of Musk's engineers had stolen the idea while visiting an Escobar family compound in 2017.

"It's not a flamethrower, Mr. Escobar."

Elon Musk responded to the story in classic Muskian style — on Twitter.

Musk tweeted a link to the TMZ story accompanied by the words, "It's not a Flamethrower, Mr. Escobar," a tongue-in-cheek reference to the device's name.

In a follow-up tweet he added he stole the idea from the comedy movie "Spaceballs."

6. When he traded jibes with Jeff Bezos about which parts of space to conquer

Jeff Bezos owns a space exploration company called Blue Origin, a rival to Musk's own space exploration company SpaceX.

Bezos and Musk have sporadically interacted about their companies' successes, sometimes applauding each other, but more often locking antlers.

When Blue Origin unveiled its new lunar lander Blue Moon in May 2019 Bezos reportedly took a swipe at SpaceX's plans to colonize Mars during his presentation, saying that the moon was a much more realistic prospect. According to Bloomberg, Bezos showed a slide with a picture of Mars accompanied by the labels "Round-trip on the order of years" and "No real-time communication."

Musk responded by mocking the lander's name.

"Competition is good. Results in a better outcome for all... But putting the word "Blue" on a ball is questionable branding," Musk said in a pair of tweets.

Musk also called Bezos a "copycat" over his plan to launch thousands of satellites

In April 2019 Amazon announced its plan to launch 3,236 satellites with the aim of providing broadband to communities without high-speed internet, nicknamed Project Kuiper.

The project bears some resemblance to a SpaceX project called Starlink, which won FCC approval in November 2018 to launch almost 12,000 satellites into orbit. CNBC also reported that Amazon hired a former SpaceX executive to head up Kuiper.

After news of Project Kuiper broke, Musk tagged Bezos and tweeted the word "copy" followed by a cat emoji.

Bezos did not respond.

7. David Einhorn, the billionaire short seller Musk loves sending short shorts to

Musk has a pretty well-documented hatred for short sellers, once tweeting"what they do should be illegal."

One short seller in particular has drawn Musk's ire. David Einhorn is president of Greenlight Capital, and is typically pretty scathing in his notes about Tesla and Musk.

When Einhorn blamed Tesla's good performance in the first half of 2018 for denting Greenlight's hedge fund, Elon Musk promised to send him a box of "short shorts"— and he followed through.

In November 2019 Musk renewed the offer of short shorts after Einhorn published a damning note on Tesla's Q3 results, drawing attention to a shareholder's lawsuit against Tesla which alleges that Musk acquired his cousin's company SolarCity at an inflated value to bail it out.

Musk posted an incredibly sarcastic note on Twitter following Einhorn's letter, addressing him as "Mr. Unicorn." Einhorn is German for unicorn.

• President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963 while riding in an open-topped Lincoln Continental.
• In the decades since Kennedy's assassination, the president's car has been totally redesigned, prioritizing security.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It is a picture of one of the darkest moments in American history. In it, a US Secret Serviceman climbs onto the back of the open-roofed Lincoln Continental where President John F. Kennedy lies fatally wounded. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is attempting to clamber from the vehicle.

Moments before, as Kennedy was waving at crowds in Dallas, Texas, the fatal shots were fired from a nearby multi-storey book depository. 

The assassination on November 22, 1963, shocked the world — and also led to a total rethink of how the presidential cars are designed. 

The open-roofed Lincoln Continental left the president uniquely exposed, and future models enclosed the president in ever-thicker layers of armor and protection. 

Below, Business Insider looks over the evolution of the presidential limo in the last four decades. 

1961 to 1963: Kennedy's Lincoln Continental

The vehicle that President Kennedy was riding in on the day of his assassination was a 1961 Lincoln Continental. 

Its low-slung elegance was perfectly suited to the forward-looking image Kennedy sought to project. 

After leasing the vehicle from Ford, the Secret Service made some adjustments, including a special phone system and a mechanism to elevate Kennedy's seat to give crowds a better view. 

But the car had no armor or other protective features. Even had its bubble roof been in place that day in Dallas it would have provided no shield against the assassin's bullets.

1963 to 1972: Lyndon B Johnson's armored Continental.

After Kennedy's assassination, the 1961 Lincoln Continental Presidential Limousine model in which he travelled was given a substantial redesign. 

According to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, the vehicle was given a permanent roof, titanium armor plating, an explosion-proof fuel tank, and run-flat tyres. 

At the request of Kennedy's White House successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the color of the car was changed from midnight blue to a more sombre black. 

1972 to 1982: Nixon's Continental, which Reagan inherited and survived 2 assassination attempts.

The next major redesign took place during the presidency of Richard Nixon, with the new model of Lincoln Continental unveiled in 1972. 

Though it wasn't a convertible, the vehicle had opening roof panels if the president wanted to stand and wave to crowds from the vehicle while electioneering or on official visits. An extra quarter inch of armor was added, bringing its weight up to 5,000 pounds. 

The vehicle was put to the test in two presidential assassination attempts, speeding President Gerald Ford from Union Square, San Francisco, after Sara Jane Moore narrowly missed him in a shooting in 1975.

Jimmy Carter also used the same model when he took over in 1977, as did Ronald Reagan from 1981.

That year, one of the six bullets, fired by would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr, hit the right window of the vehicle, and another ricocheted from its roof, seriously wounding the president. He later made a full recovery. 

1982 to 1992: The Reagan administration switches to a Cadillac, with bulletproof glass.

The Secret Service — which is responsonsible for the presidential car — switched to Cadillac for the vehicles used by President Reagan and his successors, George HW Bush and Bill Clinton. 

Reagan's Cadillac had a slightly raised roof and seats, so the president could be seen by crowds.

But unlike the open-roof models previous presidents travelled in, this one was encased by bulletproof glass. 

1992 to 2001: Clinton's Cadillac

Clinton's 1992 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham eschewed the running board and sunroof of the earlier model, for extra security. 

2001: George W Bush's Cadillac DeVille, more tank than car.

George W Bush's Cadillac DeVille was the first to be specially built to the specifications of the Secret Service, and not based on a commercial model. Features added by the Secret Service to previous models added so much weight they caused malfunctions, like break failings. 

With the days when presidents travelled with open roofs long gone, this sealed off vehicle had its own air supply, 5 inch armor, and Popular Mechanics reported, glass so thick "it blocked off part of the color spectrum."

It also boasted  "a big 454 cubic inch truck engine so the 14,000-or-so pound monster could push through any obstacles."

2009 - present: The Beast

Brought into service in 2009 for President Barack Obama's inauguration, the 2009 Cadillac Presidential Limousine weighs in at a massive 10 tons.

Its the kind of vehicle used by Donald Trump, the current president. 

The vehicle comes with a formidable array of weapons and armory.

Its eight-inch walls and five-inch windows make the doors as heavy as those on a commercial jet, and it is sealed against biological attacks. 

"It can put out a smokescreen, fire tear gas, and lay down an oil slick to send vehicles chasing it out of control. Even the door handles can be electrified to shock those who might try to get inside,"reported NBC News.

The vehicle even contains a fridge full of the blood matching the president's blood type, in case an assassination attempt puts him in need of an emergency transfusion.

• Amazon'sTwitch is the most popular livestreaming platform for video games.
• Every month Twitch viewers spend hundreds of millions of hours watching professional gamers compete, connecting with video game publishers, or just hanging out with friends online.
• Twitch's most popular channels can earn tens of thousands of dollars from sponsorships, subscriptions, and viewer donations.
• Many of the most popular Twitch channels focus on just a handful of games, but popularity can swing greatly from month to month.
• Playing the most popular games isn't the only way to build a Twitch following, but it does provide the largest possible audience.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon's streaming service Twitch has become one of the most important platforms in the video game industry.

It's a place where players can build community with each other, celebrate the hottest games, and learn about the newest online trends.

Twitch viewers spend millions of hours watching streams each month, for totally different reasons. Some watch to improve their own play, while others simply enjoy the entertainment that comes from watching their favorite players. Twitch is home to individual players, game publishers, and esports organizations, and every type of creator makes use of the platform in different ways.

Publishers are willing to pay millions of dollars to have their game on top of Twitch for a single day. Streamers who play the most popular games can build a large enough following to earn a living from paid subscriptions and viewer donations.

The most popular games on Twitch are constantly changing based on new releases and special events like esports competitions. However, by tracking the total number of hours watched, it's easier to see which games have amassed a stable, longterm following.

These were the 10 most popular games on Twitch during October, according to StreamElements and SullyGnome.

SEE ALSO: YouTube made a few subtle changes to its homepage that will now give you more control over your recommendations

10. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare"— 2.69 million hours watched

Though "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" didn't officially launch until the last week of October, it's already the best-selling game of the year and players have taken to Twitch to experience the game and learn how to play.

9. "FIFA 20"— 26.6 million hours watched

The most popular sport in the world is also one of the most popular video games on Twitch. "FIFA 20" is the premiere soccer simulation game, and the latest entry was released in late September.

Fans have tuned in to see how the latest game improves the series, and to watch competitive FIFA players duke it out online.

8. "Apex Legends"— 26.68 million hours watched

Electronic Arts' "Apex Legends" is one of the most popular new games of 2019 and one of the few new releases that has managed to stay at the top of the Twitch charts months after its release.

Battle royale shooting games like "Apex" are easy for viewers to digest since each round is 20 minutes or less.

7. "Dota 2"— 30 million hours watched

"Dota 2" is one of the most popular computers games in the world with a popular international esports community. The game has millions of players on a monthly basis and draws a steady audience on Twitch.

6. "World of Warcraft"— 36 million hours watched

"World of Warcraft" was the most popular game on Twitch during September 2019, thanks to the release of "WoW Classic," a throwback version of the game that mirrors how "World of Warcraft" played in 2006.

More than one million concurrent viewers tuned in to see the launch of "WoW Classic" and the game enjoyed a nostalgic wave of popularity to celebrate the 15th anniversary of "World of Warcraft."

5. "Grand Theft Auto V"— 36.89 million hours watched

"Grand Theft Auto V" is one of the best-selling games of all-time with more than 115 million copies sold since 2013. The game's irreverent style and free-wheeling online play make it a popular choice among Twitch viewers, and there's certainly no shortage of players.

4. "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive"— 44.77 million hours watched

Originally released in 2013, "CounterStrike: Global Offensive" is a classic shooting game with a storied history. "CounterStrike: Global Offensive" is free to play so it has a massive audience and esports tournaments help drive even more viewership, despite the game's age.

3. Just Chatting — 68.4 million hours watched

While its obviously not a video game, the steady increase in viewership for channels with casual conversation reflects a growing interest from Twitch's audience. Just chatting channels can include group discussions about current events and media, or feature streamers out in public doing every day activities.

Just Chatting isn't meant to include arts and crafts, cooking, and musical performances — all of which have their own categories.

2. "Fortnite"— 79.1 million hours watched

In October "Fortnite" released a major "Chapter 2" update, overhauling the game's map for the first time since it was released in July 2017.

Interest in the "Chapter 2" update led to a 31% increase in viewership between September and October. While "Fortnite" is still quite popular, it had slid to the fourth spot in terms of overall viewership during September.

1. "League of Legends"— 125.65 million hours watched

Riot Games' League of Legends recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and the League World Championship tournament dominated Twitch during October. League saw a massive 62% increase in viewership from September to October.

The League World Championship finals are scheduled for November 8 and "League of Legends" fans could set a new Twitch viewership record if enough fans are excited about the championship matchup.

• Some of the US's most high-profile professional athletes have also served in the armed forces.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Professional athletes are viewed as heroes both on and off the field. Some throughout history, however, have responded to a higher calling: US military service.

A number of athletes throughout various conflicts were either drafted or volunteered to serve in the midst of their careers, while others honed their talents during their service. In honor of Veterans Month, these are the stories of seven famous athletes who also hold the title of "veteran."

SEE ALSO: The 5 best military academy athletes who made it to the pros

Jackie Robinson.

Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson is famous for many things: winning Rookie of the Year, being the first African American major league baseball player, and being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962. But he was also drafted to serve in a segregated Army cavalry unit in 1942.

He became one of the first black service members to go through Officer Candidate School and was set to join the 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion. A race-related skirmish on what was supposed to be a desegregated bus led to a court-martial that negatively turned the tide for Robinson's military career and instead landed him in the role of Army athletics coach before he was honorably discharged in 1944.

He then played in the Negro League from 1945 until 1947 when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and would go on to play in six World Series throughout his career.

Pat Tillman.

After his fourth season in the NFL, playing at that time for the Arizona Cardinals, defensive back Pat Tillman chose to enlist in the Army in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. He became a Ranger and served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tillman's 2002 death in the latter was caused by friendly fire, and disclosure of its circumstances became a point of major controversy between his family and the Defense Department. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart medals.

In his honor, his family launched the Pat Tillman Foundation, which provides aid, resources and educational scholarships to support veterans, active-duty service members and their spouses.

Joe Louis.

Heavyweight Joe Louis was reigning champion from 1937 to 1949. In the middle of his career, however, he fought a charity match against Buddy Baer on January 9, 1942, which raised $47,000 for the Navy Relief Society.

A day later, he joined the Army. Though he did not see combat, Louis boxed to boost the morale of soldiers worldwide. In his travels, he became an outspoken advocate for African Americans wanting to serve in the military as equals. In 1945, he was awarded the Legion of Merit.

Yogi Berra.

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra enlisted as a gunner's mate in the Navy when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. He interrupted his budding minor league baseball career and stormed the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, firing machine guns and manning rocket launchers.

Berra's service earned him a Purple Heart, and after leaving the Navy, he made his major league debut with the New York Yankees in 1946. After retiring from baseball, he went on to manage the Yankees, Mets and Astros. Berra was entered into the Hall of Fame in 1972.

Joe DiMaggio.

New York Yankees' legend Joe DiMaggio interrupted his baseball career to join the Army in 1943. He was among a number of professional baseball players like Ted Williams and Warren Spahn who vowed to serve their country during World War II.

DiMaggio served as a physical education inspector and spent much of his time in the service playing baseball in a reduced capacity. In 1945, he was medically discharged and went on to become one of the greatest baseball players in the sport's history.

Rocky Marciano.

Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano got his start boxing in the Army. He was drafted in 1943, and served with the 150th Combat Engineers in Europe. As he neared the end of his service in 1947, Marciano was boxing regularly in amateur matches.

After his discharge, he briefly joined the farm team for the Chicago Cubs with hopes of playing major league baseball but was cut after a few short weeks. In 1948, Marciano began his illustrious boxing career, winning all 49 of his matches, making him one of the greatest boxers of all time.

Arnold Palmer.

Legendary golfer, whose namesake became of one of America's most refreshing summertime drinks, Arnold Palmer served in the Coast Guard from 1951 to 1953. While he was a student at Wake Forest, his roommate died in a car accident, and he joined as a means of escaping the pain of losing a friend and to find a meaningful direction for his life.

In the Coast Guard, he served as a photographer, and on the weekends he spent his time golfing — a habit that would lead to his eventual crowning as golf's "king."

• Qantas recently tested the new world's longest flight, a nearly 20-hour nonstop from New York to Sydney, Australia, using the Boeing 787-9 — Business Insider was aboard the test flight.
• The airline uses the same plane on its current longest route, a 17-hour trip from Perth to London.
• We sat in the seats in all three cabins — business class, premium economy, and coach — to see what they were like.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When Qantas ran a test of the world's longest flight, a nonstop from New York to Sydney, Australia, the airline used a brand new 787-9 airplane.

However, the plane only had 40 people on board (including this reporter).

That's because the plane doesn't have the necessary range to make it the 9,950 mile flight with a full load of passengers and crew. Instead, Qantas was using the mostly empty flight to research how pilots, cabin crews, and passengers cope with the long flight time.

Qantas uses the 787-9 for its current longest flight, a 9,000 mile jaunt between Perth and London, currently the third-longest in the world.

The plane has three classes — business, premium economy, and coach — and I spent time sitting in all three. On the flight home, which involved a brief stop at LAX, I was in coach the whole way.

The seats in each cabin have a few features to make ultra-long-haul flights more tolerable. Here's what they're like to fly in.

SEE ALSO: Here's how pilots on the world's new longest flight will stay rested and alert for the 20 hours from New York to Sydney

On a 20-hour flight, business class is obviously the most comfortable, and most expensive, option.

On the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that operated the test flight, the business-class cabin is split into two sections: a larger cabin to the left of the boarding door, and a smaller "mini cabin" with just three rows to the right.

I was in the smaller cabin, further back.

Here's my seat, 11E. Each of Qantas' business-class seats has a small side table and is consequently staggered, meaning some seats have the table between the seat and the aisle, and others, like mine, are directly against the aisle and have the table on the inside. On some planes, this can feel a lot less private and make sleeping a bit harder, though it certainly wasn't an issue on this flight.

Each seat comes with a set of noise-cancelling headphones, which can hang on a hook just under a small reading lamp. There's also a holder for a water bottle.

Under that, just above the side table, there's a power outlet for charging things like laptops, a USB port for charging phones, and a headphone jack for the in-flight entertainment system.

There's a small storage cubby under the side table, where I put a few things like my camera, notebook, and an extra water bottle. On a normal flight, it would be a good spot for things like a book.

Each seat also had an in-flight entertainment screen.

There was also a storage area in a cubby under the seat in front of me. When the seat is turned into bed mode, this serves as the end of the bed. There's plenty of room for your feet.

The tray table is stored within the side table. In business class, you get a tablecloth during meal services.

The biggest perk is that the seat turns into a bed. The flight attendants come by with a fitted mattress pad ...

... And with the push of a button, the seat folds flat, transforming into a bed.

With a blanket and a pillow, you can look forward to a good night's sleep.

Business class is great, but for most of us, it's unaffordable on such a long flight.

If you're looking for something a bit more spacious than coach, but more affordable than business, premium economy presents a great option.

I spent some time during the flight in the premium economy seats and was definitely impressed.

Some airlines' premium-economy products are basically the same as coach, just with slightly larger seats and slightly better food.

These seats, though, were much different from a standard economy seat. One Qantas employee described them as "more of a level below the full business class, rather than a small improvement on coach"— and after actually sitting in it for a while, I think that's a fair assessment.

A crucial aspect is the leg rest, which shockingly few premium-economy products offer.

When it's extended and the seat is reclined, it's actually quite comfortable. There's a net beyond the leg-rest that serves as a comfortable footrest.

There's a decent amount of legroom, or pitch, as well. Even when the seat in front of you is reclined, it does so at an angle where there's still plenty of room for your knees.

The majority of passengers, though, will be in the 3-3-3 economy cabin.

It's closer to the standard product you'd expect, but it has a few little tweaks that help make a long flight more bearable. Twenty hours in one of these seats would certainly be tough, but I felt fine after my 18 hours of flying home (broken up by a short, unpleasant connection at LAX. I was wishing we could have just kept flying to New York!)

Economy seats have about 32 inches of pitch, which is on the higher side of standard for long-haul airplanes.

Economy seats also have an adapted version of the premium-economy footrest. Even though it lacked the leg portion, it was definitely helpful.

While business class is obviously the most comfortable way to travel for a long flight, I was surprised by how comfortable coach on the 787-9 was, at least compared with other long-haul flights I've taken ...

... though even coach on the Airbus A380, which I flew home to the states, was great!

You can read a full review of that flight here »

• Jarvis Khattri, 17, was banned from "Fortnite" for life after he uploaded a video of himself using software to cheat in the game.
• Jarvis, a member of the esports organization FaZe Clan, has earned thousands of dollars playing "Fortnite" and making videos about the game for his YouTube followers. Jarvis used the cheating software to demonstrate how unfair it makes the game for a YouTube video. 
• Jarvis offered an apology in a YouTube video, but "Fortnite" creator Epic Games has a zero tolerance policy for cheating, as outlined in the game's terms of service and community guidelines.
• Epic has ignored appeals for Jarvis to be un-banned, and the situation shows how little control professional gamers have over the games that make their careers.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The esports industry has been celebrated for its ability to turn teenagers into international champions and millionaires through the popularity of video games. But a recent incident shows the relationship between professional gamers and video game publishers is still a delicate arrangement where publishers hold nearly all of the power.

Earlier this month, the creators of "Fortnite," the most popular game in the world, banned a teenager for life after he used software to cheat. Epic Games, the developer of the game, bans hundreds of players for cheating each week — but this was no ordinary teenager.

Meet Jarvis Khattri, a 17-year-old professional gamer who makes "Fortnite" videos for YouTube under the name FaZe Jarvis. As a member of the esports organization FaZe Clan, Jarvis has earned thousands of dollars playing "Fortnite."

The controversy stems from a recent YouTube video, where Jarvis used an automatic-aiming software to demonstrate how unfair it was. He repeatedly warned his two million YouTube subscribers that they could be banned for cheating in "Fortnite," and he started a new account to try and avoid punishment himself — which didn't work.

"Fortnite" creator Epic Games promptly banned Jarvis for life, citing a zero-tolerance policy for anybody using cheating software. Epic Games has repeatedly stated that cheating is one of the biggest problems driving players away from "Fortnite."

"When people use aimbots or other cheat technologies to gain an unfair advantage, they ruin games for people who are playing fairly," Epic Games said in a statement to Business Insider.

Given Jarvis' growing career as a professional gamer and content creator, some people in the esports industry felt the punishment was too harsh. They cited Jarvis's young age and claimed the repeated warnings he gave other players were proof that he didn't want to promote cheating or ruin the game for others.

Others sided with Epic, saying that Jarvis's decision to unfairly undermine other players and tip the competitive balance was worthy of a ban, regardless of his intentions.

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, the world's most popular "Fortnite" player, defends Jarvis as a content creator.

Ninja, the world's most recognizable "Fortnite" player, said that Jarvis shouldn't have been banned from "Fortnite" because his career depends on the game. During a livestream on his own channel, Ninja brought up YouTuber Logan Paul, who was infamously suspended by YouTube after uploading a video with a dead body, but who was ultimately allowed to return after a few weeks.

"There's a difference between a content creator who has millions of subscribers, who then gets banned from what makes him money, and some kid who is just a piece of s*** who has zero followers, zero money from gaming and hacks," Ninja said. "You ban that kid and nothing happens to him. Nothing happens. Oh no! He can't cheat any more. You ban Jarvis – it's different."

Thousands of gamers disagreed on how video game companies should punish players for cheating.

Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1192469583178993664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
How do you feel game companies should handle players who've been proven to have cheated?

"Mortal Kombat" co-creator Ed Boon shared a poll on Twitter asking his followers how video game publishers should deal with known cheaters. Out of more than 32,713 respondants, only 26 percent said an immediate lifetime ban was appropriate — 37 percent said bans should only be temporary, while another 37 percent said three instances of cheating should lead to a permanent ban. This poll is hardly scientific, but is still a good bellwether for the sentiment.

Epic Games and other publishers can enforce their rights and freeze pro players out at any time.

Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1192636444319182848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Faze Jarvis getting banned for cheating in Fortnite is a reminder that no one in content creation or esports has any job security or any recourse and that video game rights holders are unaccountable absolute monarchs imbued with the divine right of intellectual property

Others focused on Epic's immediate and apparently inarguable decision to levy a longterm ban. Jarvis was instantly cut off from a primary source of income, based on the company's decision on how to enforce its terms of service. To many, it illustrated how esports players, organizations, and event organizers alike are completely at the mercy of each game's developers and publishers, whether they like it or not.

Publishers can prevent pro gamers from earning money from their videos and claim ownership years later.

Most video game companies treat streaming and esports as an extension of their marketing, since high-profile competition can draw more attention to the game. However, if the publisher's priorities change, it can mean bad news for gamers who want to monetize their own play sessions.

Sometimes publishers may want to prevent spoilers or control the way their game is shown online. Other times, publishers can slap a copyright claim over videos with lots of traffic — even years after a game is released.

Boon's "Mortal Kombat" has served as a prime example of this. Multiple professional gamers have had videos containing "Mortal Kombat" footage flagged with copyright claims from the publisher on YouTube, preventing the creators from running ads and earning money. Another complication: YouTube's own algorithm occasionally blocks "Mortal Kombat" videos from monetization due to violent content, creating further problems for players who want to try and earn money from their hobby.

More support from publishers often comes with less control for the players.

Even when publishers are trying to provide more career structure for professional gamers, it can cause a ripple effect on a large community of players.

Activision Blizzard's decision to launch a big-ticket Call of Duty League impacted hundreds of players on sponsored esports squads and semi-professional teams, who were suddenly left on the outside.

While Activision's new league guarantees a minimum $50,000 salary for about 100 players, dozens of gamers who were competing in community organized events have been left with nowhere to play. Esports organizations that competed at the game at the highest level in the world were forced to disband their teams when they couldn't afford a $25 million franchise slot in the Call of Duty League.

Video game publishers are still trying to build and support their own esports communities, and the players will have to make the most of the ride.

Of course, Epic Games, Netherrealm Studios, Activision and other publishers have made major contributions to grow their respective esports communities, but the professional gamers who rely on these companies to build their careers are rarely rewarded with control or security as the industry grows.

That said, more gamers than ever are finding opportunities to make a living from a hobby they love, and esports still seems like one of the most interesting (or maybe, the most fun) ways to make a living. But Jarvis' ban should be a stern reminder to everyone in the business that no game is guaranteed.

• Many famous landmarks and iconic natural wonders have been flooded, scorched, or eroded by extreme weather in the last decade.
• In the US, the Statue of Liberty and Glacier National Park have both been affected by climate-related disasters.  
• In some cases, the damage is irreversible. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more.

The effects of climate change have become increasingly visible and pronounced in the last decade. Wildfire season is getting longer as rising temperatures dry out soil and vegetation. The oceans are also heating up, which leads to more intense hurricanes and sea-level rise.

In the future, few places will be immune to these climate threats. Certain areas have already witnessed considerable damage.

In the last 10 years, several famous landmarks have been flooded, scorched, and eroded by climate-related disasters. Take a look at how they fared before and after. 

SEE ALSO: Disturbing before-and-after photos show how US cities — and their famous landmarks — could be underwater in 80 years

The Statue of Liberty rests on a 154-foot-tall pedestal, but it's not entirely safe from flooding.

The statue sits in the middle of the New York Harbor on a land mass called Liberty Island. 

Hurricane Sandy caused significant damage to Liberty Island's pier, railings, and infrastructure.

Before Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012, the statue had only sustained damage from one other event: a munitions explosion during World War I.

Lady Liberty managed to avoid damage from the storm due to her height, but the hurricane flooded around 75% of Liberty Island. By 2100, the average high tide could be 2 feet higher than the flood level caused by Hurricane Sandy, routinely placing the island underwater.

Skara Brae, a stone settlement in Scotland, is older than Stonehenge or the Egyptian Pyramids. It was rediscovered thanks to a storm, but another storm could destroy the site.

Skara Brae hosted its first inhabitants more than 5,000 years ago. It sits on the Orkney Islands, just a few miles from the coast of Scotland.

Researchers believe the settlement was abandoned after the local climate grew colder and wetter around 2500 BC. The site was discovered by archaeologists in 1850, when a storm peeled away a sand dune that had covered it for millennia. 

Skara Brae is exposed to heavy rains and frequent storms. The land is also eroding due to sea-level rise.

Sea levels near the Orkney Islands rose about 3 millimeters per year from 1992 to 2013. The area also witnesses frequent and intense storms. From 1961 and 2004, the number of days with heavy rains rose by about 8%. 

After evaluating these conditions, a coalition of scientists recently determined that climate change poses a "physical threat" to the landmark. They also warned that part of Skara Brae could be destroyed by a single climate-related disaster.

A civil rights memorial in Annapolis, Maryland, has only been around for two decades, but it has already been flooded multiple times.

The memorial opened in 1999. It depicts author Alex Haley reading his novel, "Roots," to three children. The novel's main character, Kunta Kinte, is based on one of Haley's ancestors who was enslaved and brought to America. 

Like Liberty Island, the memorial was inundated by floodwater from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Flooding from the hurricane made the statues appear as if they were floating in water. A local newspaper, the Capital Gazette, called the memorial"the unofficial yardstick for flooding" in Annapolis Harbor.

St. Mark's Square in Venice has seen plenty of flooding over the last century, but the floods have become more frequent.

Since the site rests just above sea level, it's especially vulnerable to flooding during the "acqua alta"— a period of exceptionally high tides in the Adriatic Sea that lasts from autumn to spring. 

Venice now floods more than 60 times per year and is on track to be underwater by 2100.

In 2018, a series of devastating storms toppled trees and flooded tourist attractions like St. Mark's Square. By the end of the storm, at least 11 people were dead and three-quarters of Venice city was submerged.

During the last Ice Age, giant glaciers carved out mountains in Glacier National Park in Montana. But now only a small fraction of the park's glaciers remain.

Around 150 glaciers existed in Glacier National Park in 1870. Only 26 are still there. 

Even the glaciers that do remain in the park have shrunk.

The park's Grinnell Glacier shrunk by 72% from 1850 to 2015. About 8% of this decline in mass occurred from 2005 to 2015. 

Glacier National Park has also been hit by wildfires as fire season grows longer in the western US. In 2018, the Howe Ridge Fire tore through the park's forest.

A thunderstorm on August 11, 2018 ignited the blaze, which burned through 14,5000 acres. 

The Montana's 2017 Climate Assessment found that the state's annual forest fire season is nearly three times longer than it was in the mid-1970s. It now lasts for around 135 days.

Yellowstone was the first national park ever established. But its forests, like those in Glacier National Park, are threatened by wildfires.

The average annual temperature around Yellowstone has risen by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1948. Local winters are also about 10 days shorter than they were then. Warmer, drier conditions make the land more vulnerable to wildfires. 

The park has seen nine wildfires this year alone.

In 2016, it saw a total of 22 wildfires.

Iconic glaciers elsewhere in the world are at risk, too. The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Swiss Alps. But that could change in the coming years.

The glacier stretches about 32 square miles, but it could lose up to 90% of its ice by 2100.  

The glacier's "tongue" has already shrunk by 3,300 feet in the last two decades.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich predict that, if local temperatures increase by between 4 and 8 degrees Celsius by 2100, all that will be left is a patch of ice. (The World Meteorological Organization predicts an average temperature rise of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius globally by 2100. )

The Great Barrier Reef is known for its colorful medley of coral. But in 2016, around 30% of that coral was killed in a bleaching event.

The Great Barrier Reef consists of more than 2,500 individual reefs, all of which are threatened by rising ocean temperatures. 

Coral reefs have microscopic algae living in their tissue, which capture sunlight and turn it into nutrients for the reef. When ocean water gets too warm, algae either leaves the coral tissue or dies inside of it.

Without that algae, coral becomes pale or white (the color of their exoskeletons) — a process known as "bleaching." The coral may eventually attract more algae if water temperatures return to normal, but its likelihood of survival drops as algae leaves the nest.  

Projections suggest that 60% of all coral reefs are likely to be highly or critically threatened by 2030.

A quarter of all fish species spend a portion of their life cycle in reefs, so coral bleaching can leave them without an important source of food and shelter.

Drought conditions have caused the Dead Sea, which borders Jordan, Israel, and Palestine, to shrink and collapse.

The area is known for its warm, dry climate, which causes water to evaporate quickly, making the Dead Sea one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth. As the Dead Sea, it leaves behind salt deposits that can collapse into sinkholes, forming craters in the ground.

The land around the Dead Sea now has around 5,500 sinkholes near the shoreline — all of which have appeared in the last 40 years.

The Dead Sea sits about 1,400 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point on land. The sea's surface level is dropping at a rate of about 4 feet per year. 

• Apple released the iOS 13 software update for iPhones in September.
• The update had some improvements that received a lot of buzz, including a long-awaited dark mode and an updated Photos app.
• After using iOS 13 for about 2 months, three features in particular — headphone audio levels, an update to Tweets sent through Messages, and better screenshots — have proven surprisingly useful.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple released iOS 13 for iPhones in mid-September. Some criticized the software as buggy out of the gate, but I haven't had any major issues, and the minor follow-up updates worked well for me. 

The new software took some getting used to, but over time I noticed some minor features that were slowly making my life easier. I hadn't even thought of them before updating, after using them I couldn't go back.

Here are 3 of my favorite minor updates in iOS 13.

1. Headphone Audio Levels in the Health app lets you look at your average levels over time.

I don't normally use the Health app, but I had it open the other day and noticed that it tracks audio levels from headphones.

You can compare your own levels in the past. Just open Health, and select "browse" in the lower right corner. Then, tap "hearing."

Apple also puts the number in context for you. This is newly useful to me, because I find myself constantly turning up the volume on my AirPods in the subway and other loud places, and I don't want to do longterm damage.

2. Tweets can now show multiple images in iMessage.

This update is so minor I had to double check that it hadn't been released earlier, but it makes sending tweets much better, especially if the joke or context is in the second picture.

3. Screenshots (which I used for this story) got a commonsense upgrade as well.

Now, you have the option to screenshot, or get an image of the full page. This isn't a game-changer, but it definitely makes sharing articles and photos easier.

If you haven't updated to iOS 13 yet, simply back up your phone and then head over to the Settings app, navigate to General, then Software Update, and follow the steps.

• The impending release of "A Warning," an exposé about the inner-workings of President Donald Trump's administration, has reignited discussion over which senior Trump official is the anonymous author behind it and the op-ed published in The New York Times in September 2018.
• Both pieces are written by the same anonymous "senior Trump administration official" who is critical of Trump's presidency and, as they wrote in their Times op-ed, "vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations."
• After the 2018 op-ed was published, most of the main players in the Trump administration denied having written it. A few online sleuths compiled clues pointing toward different people in the White House.
• There are also elements in the Times op-ed and "A Warning" that hint at what type of person wrote it, along with soundbites from past and current White House figures.
• Here are the breadcrumbs left by the author and some of the people identified as possible matches.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The anonymous senior official in President Donald Trump's administration who first penned the explosive "resistance" op-ed for The New York Times has a new book-length exposé, "A Warning," coming out later this month. Still anonymous, the official's representation says they are still working at the White House, fueling speculation as to which member of Trump's team is spilling secrets and profiting off anti-Trump backlash. 

Released excerpts from "A Warning" contain fiery anecdotes from inside the White House, suggesting that Trump's staffers are concerned about his mental capabilities and recalling what almost became a mass midnight resignation of the president's top officials. 

After the initial anonymous op-ed ran in September 2018 attacking Trump's "amorality" and attesting that the writer and other top officials were working "to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations," all of the high-profile members of the Trump administration publicly denied writing it.

There are several clues that point toward the identity of the anonymous author behind "A Warning" and the Times op-ed, but they're all just guesses. Javelin, the literary agency that represents the author, told Business Insider that "We have heard numerous guesses as to the identity of the author of A WARNING - just yesterday it was Barack Obama. Our response is and will always be the same: no comment."

SEE ALSO: Trump staffers worry about the president's mental capacities, according to the anonymous administration official's upcoming book

DON'T MISS: Trump officials considered resigning en masse in 'midnight self-massacre,' according to new anonymous White House exposé

NEXT UP: The new book written by an anonymous White House official claims staff react to Trump's tweets like finding your 'elderly uncle running pantsless across the courtyard'

The anonymous op-ed author makes it clear that they support traditional Republican politicians and principles.

In the initial anonymous op-ed there are quite a few clues as to what type of person in the Trump White House wrote it. 

The piece emphasizes that the author believes strongly in traditional Republican principles like "effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military, and more." Those are the parts of the Trump administration that are championed. In contrast, the author denounces Trump's "amorality."

The content of the Times op-ed has been thoroughly dissected and could point to a number of Republicans under Trump. Blind guesses from Times staffers (who didn't actually have any identifying information besides their own intuition) at the time included Vice President Mike Pence, then-White House Counsel Don McGahn, and then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

Of course, the two latter guesses are no longer at the White House, and Pence added his name, along with all of his staffers, to the list of official denials.

But what's clear from the content of the op-ed is that whoever wrote it stands for the traditional Republican values iterated by the party's top politicians in years past, which the author no longer believes stems from the Oval Office.

The author also name drops John McCain in the op-ed, and quotes Teddy Roosevelt and Cicero in "A Warning."

In line with what the author touted as the accomplishments of Trump's administration so far, the anonymous senior official also uses references that reflect someone who was a huge fan of Republican politicians prior to the Trump era, and is also someone who enjoys history and classics.

In the op-ed the author ends with a reference to Senator John McCain's farewell letter, so McCain is clearly someone the author admires greatly. 

"All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation," the op-ed reads.

They also note their disagreement with Trump's favor toward "autocrats and dictators" like North Korea's Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In "A Warning," according to the review of the book by the Times, the author references quotes from historical and literary figures like Teddy Roosevelt and Cicero, the Roman statesman. They describe themself as a "student of history." 

And there's another key mention of McCain in "A Warning"– the author says one of the last straws for their willingness to give Trump a chance was when he tried to raise the flag above half mast following McCain's death. 

Some of the vocabulary used in the author's writing has given people an idea of who they may be.

Right after the op-ed's publication in September 2018, a prominent theory of its authorship was that Vice President Mike Pence wrote it. Not only would Pence be one of the most dramatic reveals, but there was a word used in the op-ed that rang some alarms.

"Lodestar" was used at the end of the op-ed and made some sleuths think it had to be Pence, who has a history of using the clunky vocabulary term.

This may have been short-sighted, Vox wrote, because a lot of people use the word "lodestar." Also, it's possible that whoever wrote the op-ed specifically threw in vocabulary meant to cast suspicion elsewhere, to avoid being fired from their position in the White House.

Pence, for his part, has denied authorship, along with the author being anyone who works with him.

Omarosa Newman, Trump's former confidante and White House adviser, hinted at the op-ed author's identity in a Twitter poll.

In a Twitter poll, the former Trump adviser included four White House staffers who she said she believed were likely candidates for the piece's authorship.

Newman noted that her best guess would be the person "who is looking to exit the WH soon." She also later said that the author had been quietly removed from the White House, but they still say they're working there, so Newman's poll isn't necessarily reliable. 

The list included Andrew Bremberg, the director of the Domestic Policy Council who was recently confirmed as US ambassador to the Office of the United Nations, and Nick Ayers, though he left the White House in January after serving as Pence's Chief of Staff.

Bremberg has repeatedly been reported as eyeing an exit strategy from the White House.

John DeStefano was also on the list, but the long-serving Trump aide left the White House in May 2019 to advise Juul in its dealing with the Food and Drug Administration. There was also Bill Stepien, who is still currently the White House political director, but multiple people told Politico that Stepien was loyal to Trump as of late 2017.

One line of sleuthing apart from Newman's poll also pointed to Bremberg.

Bremberg doesn't generate a lot of press for himself, but he has deep roots in the traditional Republican party, having worked for former President George W. Bush's administration and under Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. 

As one of the Twitter users behind the blog "Our Bad Media" (which has exposed plagiarism by Fareed Zakaria and Malcolm Gladwell), @blippoblappo, explained on Twitter, Bremberg's role as head of the Domestic Policy Council focuses largely on deregulation, the first thing that was emphasized as a success under Trump in the op-ed. 

The Hill profiled Bremberg in February 2017 and described him as Trump's "details guy." It's the most comprehensive media attention paid to Bremberg thus far. He isn't a very buzzy figure in the Trump administration, and his Google search results and social media mentions are significantly less dense than the oft-suggested candidates for the anonymous authorship.

"Some White House aides know little about Bremberg,"The Hill reported. But behind the scenes, he wrote a harsh memorandum on immigration – the type of traditional Republican policy heralded by the op-ed writer.

The Hill also wrote that those who know Bremberg were "encouraged" by his presence in the administration to defend the party. 

"'It was encouraging to a lot of people who were a little nervous about Trump," one source told the Hill, adding that they thought he could "preserve the peace in the party."

'They knew the traditional principles would be preserved," the source told the outlet. 

The lack of mainstream attention could put Bremberg in a good position to keep publishing material about the "resistance" from within because the work itself is what's getting the headlines and buzz, not him.

Of course, all of these reported suspicions are unconfirmed. But as Republicans slip out of the White House one by one, there aren't too many staunch traditionalists left behind in Trump's White House who ring the anonymous author alarm.

• Automotive research firm iSeeCars.com created a list of the 10 sports cars that boast the lowest depreciation rates.
• The Porsche 911 coupe tops the list; it lost 37.2% of its value, or about $53,595, over a five-year period.  
• The list also includes Nissans, Subarus, and a Ford, a Dodge, Chevrolet, and Mazda.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The automotive research firm iSeeCars.com has compiled a list of 10 sports cars that have the best resale value due to their low depreciation rates.

The average depreciation of cars over their first five years is 49.6%, according to the firm. For sports cars, it's 48%. However, these 10 cars depreciate between 47.2% to 37.2%. 

The cars on this list — with the exception of the two Porsche 911s and the Nissan GT-R — have an MSRP under $40,000.

 "Because of the relative affordability of these vehicles in the sports car segment, they don't depreciate as steeply as their six-figure counterparts," iSeeCars CEO Phong Ly said in a statement.

"These are also popular sports car models, so there is a high demand for them in the used car marketplace."

iSeeCars.com analyzed the prices of over 6.9 million new cars for the study, which also includes pickup trucks, SUVS, and noncategorized cars from the 2014 model year also sold that year. These prices were compared to more than 800,000 used cars from the same model year sold between January to October 2019. The "used" prices were adjusted 7.9% for inflation.

Keep scrolling to see which sports cars depreciate the least:

SEE ALSO: These are the 10 SUVs that have the best resale value 5 years after purchase

10. Mazda MX-5 Miata: 47.2%. Difference: $15,307.

9. Nissan 370Z: 46.7%. Difference: $17,988.

8. Chevrolet Camaro: 45.8%. Difference: $15,765.

7. Subaru BRZ: 45.0%. Difference: $13,905.

6. Dodge Challenger: 44.4%. Difference: $15,337.

5. Ford Mustang: 44.4%. Difference: $14,252.

4. Porsche 911 (Convertible): 42.0%. Difference: $61,430.

3. Subaru Impreza WRX: 40.0%. Difference: $13,659.

2. Nissan GT-R: 39.4%. Difference: $44,476.

1. Porsche 911 (Coupe): 37.2%. Difference: $53,595.

• Zhang Yiming built a $16.2 billion fortune after founding ByteDance, the Chinese software developer behind TikTok.
• Despite being the 13th-wealthiest person in China, Zhang is extremely private and little is known about his personal life.
• TikTok's growing influence in the US has raised questions from US regulators.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The widespread popularity of TikTok has not just created a new generation of social media stars, it's also created a social media billionaire.

Zhang Yiming, the 35-year-old software engineer who founded the app's parent company, now has a net worth of $16.2 billion, Forbes estimates. Despite being the 13th-wealthiest person in China as ranked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhang is extremely private and little is known about his personal life.

Keep reading to learn everything we know about Zhang Yiming.

SEE ALSO: 200 Hong Kong restaurants have permanently shuttered since the protests started 5 months ago — and the city's richest billionaire just pledged $25 million to help local eateries

DON'T MISS: Take a look inside the gala Marc Benioff hosted for USC, where the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed, James Corden emceed, and billionaires dined with Ashton Kutcher

Zhang, 35, lives in Beijing, China.

Zhang was born in 1983 in China's Fujian province, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Zhang's parents worked as civil servants, Bloomberg reported.

His name is based on a Chinese proverb about "surprising everyone with a first attempt," according to the South China Morning Post.

He married his college sweetheart.

Zhang graduated from Nankai University in 2005, where he started off studying microelectronics before switching his major to software engineering, the South China Morning Post reported.

The couple does not have any children, according to the South China Morning Post.

Zhang's first job out of college was at a digital travel booking startup called Kuxun.

"I was one of first employees. And I was an ordinary engineer at the beginning, but in the second year, I was in charge of about 40 to 50 people responsible for back-end technology and other tasks related to products," Zhang told ByteDance employees, according to the South China Morning Post.

Zhang credits that job for teaching him sales skills that he later used to grow ByteDance.

"I remember that at the end of 2007, I went to meet the client with the sales director," Zhang said, according to the Post. "This experience let me know what sales are good sales. When I established Toutiao and recruited staff, these examples helped me a lot."

Zhang also worked at Microsoft before founding ByteDance, the South China Morning Post reported.

Zhang founded TikTok's parent company in 2012.

The company is now worth $75 billion, according to Pitchbook, making it the most valuable privately held company in the world.

The company owns several social networking apps that operate within China, Business Insider previously reported. The company released a WeChat rival called FlipChat, and a video-messaging app called Duoshan in 2019.

Zhang and ByteDance's first product was a news aggregator app called Toutiao.

Zhang wanted to create a news platform whose results were powered by artificial intelligence, separate from China's search engine Baidu, Business Insider's Paige Leskin previously reported.

"We push information, not by queries, by news recommendations," Zhang told Bloomberg in 2017.

Despite its focus on news, Zhang told Bloomberg's Lulu Yilun Chen and Mark Bergen in 2017 that ByteDance does not have any journalists on its staff like many other social networks.

"The most important thing is that we are not a news business," Zhang told Bloomberg. "We are more like a search business or a social media platform. We are doing very innovative work. We are not a copycat of a U.S. company, both in product and technology."

Zhang launched ByteDance's most successful app — TikTok — under the name 'Douyin' in September 2016.

TikTok is now the No. 1 non-gaming iOS app in the U.S, Business Insider reported in September. TikTok is one of the most popular social networks among American teens and has been downloaded more than 1 billion times.

TikTok still goes by the name 'Douyin' in China, Business Insider previously reported. 

Zhang makes his own TikToks — and requires his senior employees to as well.

"For a very long time, I was merely watching TikTok videos without making any of them myself, because it's a product mainly for young people," Zhang said, according to the South China Morning Post. "But later on we made it compulsory for all management team members to make their own TikTok videos, and they must win a certain number of 'likes'. Otherwise, they have to do push-ups. It was a big step for me."

Zhang's leadership style is "soft-spoken yet charismatic, logical yet passionate, young yet wise," according to Time Magazine's Kai-Fu Lee.

TikTok's global reach makes Zhang's life "much more interesting."

Zhang wants the app to continue to grow abroad, saying that he hopes his ByteDance will be "as borderless as Google," according to the South China Morning Post.

"We must work harder, we must also be more perfectionist," Zhang said, according to the Post. "Just like there was an international division of labour in the industrial age, in today's information age there's also an international division of labour. Chinese entrepreneurs must also improve their own capabilities as they go global," he said.

However, TikTok's growing influence in the US has raised questions from US regulators.

TikTok agreed in February to pay a $5.7 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission over allegations the app illegally collected personal information from children under age 13 without parental consent, in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Business Insider previously reported.

The billionaire attributes his success to his work ethic.

Zhang learned the value of pursuing excellence while still in his first job at Kuxun, he told ByteDance employees, according to the South China Morning Post.

"At that time, I was responsible for the technology, but when the product had problems, and I would actively participate in the discussion of [the] product plan," Zhang said, according to the South China Morning Post. "A lot of people say this is not what I should be doing. But I want to say: your sense of responsibility and your desire to do things well, will drive you to do more things and to gain experience."

Zhang's fortune is growing rapidly: He made over $12 billion in 2018 alone.

The majority of Zhang's fortune comes from his 24% stake in ByteDance, according to Forbes.

Forbes first declared Zhang a billionaire in March 2018, estimating that Zhang was worth $4 billion. The magazine now estimates his net worth at $16.2 billion.