Sometimes you need to find a working battery in your junk drawer amongst a sea of dead ones. If you're in a rush and don't have time to find a battery meter, here's how you can quickly see which batteries are good and which ones are duds.
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We recently ranked the 50 best colleges in America based on how well they prepare students for success, focusing on graduation rate and early-career earnings. Next, we wanted to find out which schools enroll the smartest students.
Jonathan Wai, a Duke University Talent Identification Program research scientist, created a ranking exclusively for Business Insider of the smartest US colleges and universities based on the schools' average standardized test scores.
While these tests are often criticized, research shows that both the SAT and ACT are good measures of general cognitive ability, since they rely on a person's ability to reason. Therefore, these scores give a reasonable snapshot of a school’s overall smarts.
Last year, information was taken directly from the US News & World Report. We updated that ranking by including all the schools that report average SAT and ACT scores to the government. ACT scores were converted to the SAT scale for the purposes of this analysis.
See more detail on methods and limitations here.
Once again, the Pasadena-based California Institute of Technology took the top spot on the list, and the University of Chicago, Harvard, Harvey Mudd College, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology rounded out the top five schools.
Keep scrolling to see the 50 smartest colleges in America.
It's back.
Neiman Marcus has released its 2016 Christmas Book, an annual collection of suggested gifts from the storied department store.
One highlight is its famous "Fantasy Gifts" section, which is packed with one-of-a-kind luxury items, travel packages, and experiences that will set you back thousands — and in one case, millions — of dollars.
A portion of the proceeds goes to The Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation, which funds art programs across the US.
We've rounded up all of the Fantasy Gifts here.
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This gift is perfect for the attention-seeker who missed his or her chance in the spotlight. Along with the walk-on role, you'll get the chance to meet the "Waitress" cast and attend a pie-making class put on by the show's baking consultant.
The gift is limited to one person, but you'll get four show tickets.
This collection of books — all of which are either first or early editions — spans 80 years' worth of children's literature.
It includes such illustrated books as 1982's "Jumanji" and 1986's "The Polar Express."
The week kicks off in London, where you and seven guests will depart by helicopter to Alnwick Castle, home to the Duke of Northumberland.
The rest of the week includes meals cooked by a Michelin-starred chef, polo lessons, and a stay at the former home of Winston Churchill.
My colleague Dennis Green is baffled that Californians continue to believe that In-N-Out makes a great burger.
"What is it that would keep me coming back to In-N-Out when there are objectively (in my mind) better options?" Dennis wrote.
"It can come down to only one thing: psychology. Namely, the scarcity effect and the bandwagon effect. And the two are intertwined."
Dennis brilliantly and comprehensively pitted In-N-Out against Shake Shack and thought the Shack won by a considerable margin, so he can back up his view that In-N-Out is overrated.
But as much as he's right about the scarcity and bandwagon effects, the real reason that In-N-Out is so beloved by Californians is that, for them, the burgers and the fries and the shakes — but especially the burgers — represent a state of mind.
I lived in LA for ten years, and during that time, I ate many In-N-Out Double Doubles. My wife also ate many burgers. My children ate many burgers. Our friends and neighbors ate many burgers.
Over time, In-N-Out came to mean far more than a just-OK burger. And Dennis is right, it is merely OK. Objectively, Shake Shack is better — but although the Shack makes a nice burger, very tasty, I can't see it as anything other than a pretentious In-N-Out ripoff. I went once. I have no burning desire to go back.
Shake Shack doesn't put me in a special state of mind. And that matters for the West Coast In-N-Out regulars who grew up with the chain. A lot of Californians who can't get In-N-Out anymore, due to the scarcity effect that Dennis mentions, make the chain their first stop when they get back for a visit.
The plane lands, and as soon as they can, they head for the nearest In-N-Out.
If not, they make sure to grab a burger before they leave. When my daughter, who lived in LA from age 2, missed out on her In-N-Out after a visit — was cheated of her Proustian madeleine, crafted of beef and cheese and bread — she complained for a year. Both my sons are native Californians and for them, not having regular access to In-N-Out is like have a tiny hole carved in their little hearts.
You sometimes hear similar stories about other products that aren't examples of pure excellence. I knew a guy who would always drink a Coke in France whenever he got homesick. Australians can't live without a periodic hit of Vegemite.
So Californians — even adopted ones — aren't at all embarrassed by their allegiance to a burger that can't stack up against the best the fast-food New York culinary-industrial complex has to offer. It doesn't matter if it's any good. Because it tastes like home.
SEE ALSO: Californians should be embarrassed by how much they hype overrated In-N-Out Burger
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The assumption that brown eggs are healthier than white ones probably comes from the fact that they're more expensive. However, that has more to do with the chickens' diet than their eggs.
Produced by Emmanuel Ocbazghi
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Earlier this week, Condé Nast Traveler ranked the 20 best airlines in the world, based on the opinions of travellers.
Over 300,000 people cast votes for the best islands, cities, hotels and airlines on the planet, and some of the most luxurious airlines in the world have made it onto the list.
Many airlines in this year's ranking — such as Etihad, Qatar and Quantas — are well-known for the upscale services and meals they serve to elite passengers.
To get a feel for what it's really like to fly in style on the world's best airlines, we looked at the meals available in first and business class.
From perfect bacon and eggs with Lufthansa to champagne and caviar with Emirates, this is how those willing to dish out dine in the skies.
Dr. Belisa Vranich, psychologist and author of "Breathe," explains a breathing technique that will calm you down, even in the most stressful of situations — like a battlefield.
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It's not what you say, it's how you say it.
It's an old cliché, but it's true. That's why body language is such a crucial part of communicating. The way you act can warp the entire meaning of what you're saying.
That being said, bad body language habits are the often hardest ones to break. We become so accustomed to slouching, averting our eyes, or folding our arms that we barely even notice what we're doing.
Here are several body language mistakes that are going to be tough to ditch. Still, if you're able to quit them, you'll definitely thank yourself later.
If you've gotten into the habit of fidgeting, it can be difficult to snap out of it. However, it's important to take steps to reigning in this nervous habit.
Fidgeting demonstrates nervousness and a lack of power, as body language expert and "The Power of Body Language" author Tonya Reiman previously told Business Insider.
Leave your hair alone. Constantly running your hands across your scalp and twirling your locks is pretty distracting. Plus, as ABC reported, it can damage your hair overtime. It can
be hard to quit, so try playing around a stress ball instead of your hair.
Many people naturally cross their arms or hunch over a bit just because they don't know what to do with their hands.
However, this posture can make you look uncomfortable, defensive, or untrustworthy.
"You should always keep your hands in view when you are talking," Patti Wood, a body language expert and author of " SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions Body Language and Charisma," previously told Business Insider. When a listener can't see your hands, they wonder what you are hiding."
Dr. Mark Hyman, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Functional Medicine, thinks we never should have told people to stop eating fat.
Instead, we should be far more precise about the types of fats we eat, avoiding foods that combine fat and sugar — what Hyman calls "sweet fats" — and replacing red meats with oily fish, he suggests in his recent book, "Eat Fat, Get Thin."
Here's a look at the foods Hyman avoids — along with what the science says about them:
SEE ALSO: 15 products you probably thought were healthier than they actually are
DON'T MISS: Here's the real reason your friend's 'gluten-free' diet is probably making them feel better
"The real danger is sweet fat," Hyman said in an interview with The New York Times. "If you eat fat with sweets — so sugar and fat, or refined carbohydrates and fat — then insulin will rise and it'll make you fat."
This isn't always true — an occasional rise in blood sugar doesn't mean you'll suddenly gain 10 or 20 pounds.
Still, Hyman highlights a point that's been echoed by several nutritionists and public health experts: Sugar, when combined with fat or carbohydrates and eaten consistently in high amounts, has been linked with weight gain. Several studies of low-fat diets that are still high in carbs and sugar have also shown that they are no better than high-fat diets for weight loss.
When it's used to refer to foods like rice, pasta, and bread, "refined" isn't typically a good thing. Essentially, it means that processors take out the whole-grain portion of the food, which cuts out much of its fiber and B vitamins and allows it to be digested faster and more easily.
Diets that are high in refined carbs and low in whole grains have been linked with health problems, while diets that are high in whole grains and low in refined carbs tend to be linked with more positive outcomes.
"About 70 to 80% of your diet should be plant foods," Hyman told The Times. "It should also include good-quality fats like nuts and seeds, olive oil, avocado, coconut oil, and fatty fish."
This doesn't mean you should completely cut out red meat, but limiting your intake of foods like steak and ribs to a few times a month probably wouldn't hurt. Instead, incorporate more oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, and trout into your diet. These are rich in a group of fats called omega-3 fatty acids.
Unlike most fats, which the human body has no trouble making on its own, omega-3 fats are "essential" fats because the body can't make them without a little help from our diet. Plus, studies suggest omega-3s may help prevent heart disease and stroke.
When I moved from New York City to San Francisco a year and a half ago, I traded the best pizza on earth for unbelievably good burritos. Eternal spring took the place of the four seasons.
Some things about moving west weren't quite as sweet.
On a recent visit to the Big Apple, I remembered the things I missed most about living there.
SEE ALSO: Forget Craigslist — I found an amazing apartment in San Francisco using Yelp
The New York Police Department has issued an average of 450 jaywalking summonses a year since 2008, and you know what? Those "criminals" would probably tell you it was worth it.
New Yorkers show little regard for crossing the street at the appointed time or place. San Franciscans, on the other hand, wait on street corners until the light turns. It's the lawful thing to do — but incredibly inconvenient if you're stuck behind a stagnant pack.
The bagel, which the New York Times described in 1960 as "an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis," has outlasted one ridiculous food phenomenon after the next.
No one does it better than New York. While fans say it's something in the city water, the act of boiling the uncooked dough rings is more likely what makes them so chewy and dense.
When culture site SFist rounded up the best bagels San Francisco had to offer in 2013 (which were mostly baked, not boiled), it titled the article, "Bay Area's 5 Most Adequate Bagels."
New Yorkers and San Franciscans have at least one thing in common: We both like to complain about public transit — despite living in the top two US cities for commuters.
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority still beats San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency in my book. In my experience, New York's subway system covers more ground and runs relatively on-time. San Franciscans rely on a network of transport that includes bus, subway (BART), and light-rail. It makes commuting much more complicated.
The City that Never Sleeps also has a subway that runs all night. BART tops out at midnight.
Cartier's New York beauty is shining once again.
The French brand's flagship boutique in New York City reopened in September after two and a half years of extensive renovations.
The building, which dates back to 1905, was originally a six-story mansion home to the Plant family, and is situated on 52nd Street and 5th Avenue. As the area became the commercial corridor we know it as today, the Plants moved uptown and sold the house to Cartier in 1917.
Cartier refurbished the entire building with the help of renowned architect Thierry Despont. Wood paneling was refurbished, new chandeliers modeled after the originals were installed, and the 5th Avenue entrance was moved to the center of the building for symmetry purposes. The total square footage was expanded dramatically, going from 8,600 square feet to a whopping 44,100 square feet.
Cartier gave us a chance to see inside the mansion and take an up-close look at the precious items on display, some of which are worth millions and millions of dollars.
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Napoleon Hill is the grandfather of self-help authors, inspiring the likes of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and performance coach Tony Robbins.
His 1937 book "Think and Grow Rich" is one of the top-selling books of all time, with around 100 million copies sold worldwide. The simple reason it's sold so well is because his practical insights into how successful people carry themselves — primarily based on his many months spent interviewing the industrialist Andrew Carnegie — are timeless, straightforward, and useful
In one of his essays, "Develop a Pleasing Personality," as collected in "The Science of Success," he focuses in on how to have a "million-dollar personality."
Below, we've included Hill's 14 habits of people who are so likable that others go out of their way to help them.
SEE ALSO: What your handwriting says about your personality
It's often easier to give into cynicism, but those who choose to be positive set themselves up for success and have better reputations.
The best communicators speak deliberately and confidently, which gives their voice a pleasing sound.
Using a conversation as an opportunity to lecture someone "may feed the ego, but it never attracts people or makes friends," Hill says.
Tony Robbins, bestselling author of "Money: Master The Game", explains a simple behavioral change that you can make to become more attractive and happier.
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Ralph Lauren’s uncanny rise to the top of the fashion industry came after a lifetime of creative risks, including a radical redesign of the necktie.
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Shortly after the birth of their first child over a decade ago, Chip and Joanna Gaines, now the stars of HGTV's hit home-renovation show "Fixer Upper," experienced a financial wake-up call when Chip was thrown in the county jail for about $2,500 in unpaid tickets.
The tickets were issued after neighbors complained that the couple's dogs were illegally roaming the street in front of their house, they write in their new book "The Magnolia Story." To pay Chip's $800 bail, Joanna had to empty the cash register and safe in her small retail shop. It was then that she realized they "were right on the edge of a real financial struggle." She promised to never let it happen again.
"I have a naturally conservative nature, and Chip and I were supposed to balance each other out, not concede to each other's strengths and weaknesses," Joanna wrote of the ordeal. "My strength is saving and being tight with the money, and I had not exercised that strength recently."
Now, Joanna fully recognizes the importance of an emergency fund — something she credits her parents for teaching her to value.
"I think for me, the best lesson is always having a nest egg on the side," she told Business Insider in a recent interview.
Chip disagrees, however.
"He laughs because I had a nest egg going into our marriage," Joanna said. "And then that nest egg ended up [going] into an investment, and then within six months I was like, 'Well, it would've been nice to have that nest egg right about now.'"
Still, Joanna said she's "always liked the idea of putting money aside." And she advises her clients to do the same when it comes to renovating a home.
"If you have a $20,000 budget, plan on spending $15,000 — $5,000 will be money that just magically appears that you're going to need," Joanna said. "Something’s going to happen, something’s going to go wrong. So I'm always thinking 'Hey if I have this much, I'm always going to want this over here, just in case.' But not Chip."
Chip says his parents taught him the exact opposite.
"They taught me to take that nest egg and throw that thing out the window, and go for it. You only live once — there will be plenty of time to sleep when you're dead," Chip told Business Insider. He then asked Joanna, "Do we have a nest egg?"
"I learned early on that if you have a nest egg, you can’t tell him about it, because it will be gone," Joanna said.
Watch Chip and Joanna discuss their different views on saving money in the video below:
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Jason and Julie Buckley have diligently tracked their pennies for years.
At first, it was part of their strategy to minimize everyday costs, pay off their mortgage, and invest in passive index funds. But eventually, the pair discovered they could afford to take up to two years off work to travel.
In 2011, the Buckleys set off to tour Europe and North Africa in their motor home, earning passive income from renting out their residential properties at home in Nottingham, England.
When their funds ran dry after two years, they returned to work — Jason as an IT project manager and Julie as a marketing manager — and quickly devised a plan to take their lives on the road full time.
Shepherded by meticulous spreadsheet estimates, they retired — both aged 43 — in September 2015 to travel indefinitely. They had about £30,000 (~ $36,800) in cash savings with the remainder of their net worth invested in rented-out residential property, private pensions, and investments including ETFs and bonds, Jason told Business Insider in an email.
"We developed a strategy to avoid living off savings. In theory, and in practice so far, our savings will increase over time," he said. Currently, the couple lives off of cash flow from investments — rental income, dividends, and interest — as well as advertising and book sales on their travel blog, which they spend just two hours a day maintaining.
Thanks to the low costs of living in a motor home, which enables them to visit expensive countries "for a fraction of the cost," their budget is a modest £15,000 (~ $18,400) a year. "We've tracked our spending for so many years it's almost become second nature, knowing how much we can spend, but still we track where the money's going to the nearest cent," Jason said.
The Buckleys have been traveling nonstop for 10 months now, though they keep a room in one of their homes open for intermittent returns.
"Our latest tour ... took us high into the French and Italian Alps for winter, down to the beaches of Croatia, up through the old ex-Soviet countries to Finland, further North to the top of mainland Europe at the North Cape in Norway, down the fjords and over to Sweden then Denmark," Jason said. "We're currently heading home for a short time before turning South for Spain and Morocco for the winter."
Jason said the couple occasionally discusses taking on full-time work, but hopes to continue traveling well into the future.
"The sensation of freedom is intense, once attained, and giving it up again isn't easy!" he said.
Below, Jason and Julie share the spreadsheet models they used for reaching financial independence and planning for their years in retirement. These spreadsheets do not include the Buckley's exact figures, but instead represent the formula they used to achieve early retirement and how they plan to sustain it for decades to come.
Access a test copy of the Buckleys' spreadsheet to follow along, or to make a copy of your own.
SEE ALSO: How one 26-year-old banked nearly $150,000 in savings as part of a plan to retire by age 37
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In this sheet, the Buckleys list their variables, which allows them to adjust for changes in things like cost of living.
Jason's and Julie's assets and income are evenly split between them to make the most of the UK tax-free income threshold. "Since we don't have a high income, tax should be negligible for the first decade or so. After that we'll pay income tax and when we sell assets, some capital gains tax," Jason said.
This spreadsheet, which lists their income and expenses, represents the viability of retiring early, Jason said. The row labeled "variance" at the bottom indicates what should be left from income streams after paying living expenses.
The numbers here are for example purposes only, and don't reflect the Buckleys' own finances.
"On our version of the spreadsheet the numbers are green, but they only turned green once we'd built up enough passive income and reduced our costs," Jason said. For example, last year their expenditures were £7,000 (~ $8,554) below their income, part of which came from "one-offs" like selling a car.
"We could easily get our costs down to less than £10,000 (~ $12,200) a year doing this, but we'd miss out on too much," Jason said.
The Buckleys have 11 years until their private pensions — essentially the UK version of a 401(k) — will start paying out. The amount will increase when they reach age 67, although Jason says they'll only be eligible for partial state pensions, comparable to social security in the US.
To cover expenses prior to that, they've invested in residential property, shares, and roof-mounted solar panels, which generate government-paid feed in tariff payments. To maintain passive income from the rented-out properties, the Buckleys pay local management agents to service their tenants.
Jason and Julie are UK residents, so the national health service will cover any costs related to health, Jason said.
For both this sheet and the next, the Buckleys include estimations through age 85 in the year 2057.
This spreadsheet represents how much the Buckleys would have in cash if they sold everything they own and paid off all liabilities. The model at the bottom shows how many years they could live for if they "liquidate everything and just started burning through the cash."
But, Jason said, for the next decade they plan to restrict themselves to just living on the cash flowing from investments and ignore any capital or market increases in the value of properties, pensions, and shares.
"At some point we'll need to increase our spending rate significantly in order to ensure we die broke, as we have no children to leave money to," Jason said. "In other words, instead of taking a 'pay cut' when we hit 'retirement age,' we'll get a pay increase."
If you're aiming to achieve early retirement, Jason and Julie suggest educating yourself financially and putting your plan on paper, tracking spending and cutting all unnecessary costs, and investing.
"As your costs come down, and income from your investments gets re-invested in more investments, at some point you will experience the bewildering and joyful moment when your wealth starts to spiral upwards," Jason said. "At that point your freedom is all but inevitable."
The American people deserve answers.
From how much Donald Trump has been in the media and out on the campaign trail, most of America has wondered why, exactly, the Republican nominee for president looks like he ate entirely too many carrots?
In fact, Trump has seemingly always given off such an orange hue, though it might be more apparent now given how omnipresent his visage is.
Though no one knows for sure what the source is, many makeup artists and tanning experts have a pretty good guess: a bad artificial tanner.
"I know exactly what he does to himself — the tanning bed, the spray tan, he wears the goggles and you can see the hyper-pigmentation around his eyes," Jason Kelly, a Cleveland-based makeup artist that was hired to work at 2016's Republican National Convention, told Harper's Bazaar in July.
Whether it's a tanning bed or a spray tan is harder to tell, as both require eye protection and would leave the lines he has around his eyes. Most experts agree, though, that it's some kind of bad self-tanning that he's failing to use properly.
"You have to be very skilled when adding makeup on top of self-tanning," Dante Fitzpatrick, director of airbrush design at Beach Bum Tanning, told the NY Daily News in March. "And if you do it wrong, it looks really wrong — especially in high definition."
Fitzpatrick added that Trump is likely not using the correct shade for his skin, and is applying makeup incorrectly on top of it. TV camera lights will change the color of your natural skin and exacerbate the problem as well, Kimberly Kinch, makeup artist at Rouge NY, said to the Daily News.
If you're the tanning type, there are easy ways to avoid looking so orange. Choose a color that better matches your natural skin color, remember to exfoliate your skin to dull the orange, and always go to a professional.
Or stop applying artificial tan altogether and show people your true self.
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Anthony Bourdain spent decades in the restaurant industry, first as an executive chef before becoming a celebrity travel guide 16 years ago.
Over that time, he's seen the American food industry change drastically for the better, but an uptick in snobbery is the other side of the double-edged sword, he said.
"I don't need a 10-minute description of my food," he told Business Insider earlier this year, ahead of Season 7 of his Emmy-winning CNN show "Parts Unknown." It returns for its eighth season on October 16.
As for this emphasis on buzzwords like "artisanal" and "farm to table" and the ensuing descriptions about product sourcing, Bourdain said, "Look, it's annoying but not the worst thing in the world. At least people are interested enough to want to know the details."
He said he's glad chefs want to emphasize fresh ingredients and that customers are savvy enough to embrace them, but he doesn't want snobbery to overtake the restaurant scene to the point where no one is having fun.
"You can't be a great food writer and a snob about food and just want fancy, expensive ingredients," he said. "You have to appreciate the qualities of a properly greasy fast-food burger."
This applies for the grocery store as well. He's also sick of what can seem like people's obsession with overpriced organic food.
"A couple years ago, I'm holding my daughter's hand and I walk into the supermarket in my neighborhood — I live in the Upper East Side," he said of grocery shopping in New York City. "We're there to buy oranges and lemons, right? And there's the organic produce and the nonorganic sections. And I automatically head over to the nonorganic and I look around and there are all these Upper East Side housewives looking at me like I'm a f---ing war criminal and they're about to call child-protective services. It was so bad that I slump over to the organic section just so these ladies wouldn't hate me."
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