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Pictures leaked from Sasha Obama's glamorous Sweet 16 party — here's what it was like

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sasha obama, malia obama, first daughters

Sasha Obama was seven when her father, Barack, became president of the US.  

Fast-forward to today: Obama is out of office and Sasha is now celebrating her 16th birthday.

According to the gossip site YBF, Sasha celebrated her coming of age with a birthday party in May, but photos of the event went viral on Twitter this weekend.

Take a look back at Sasha's life in the spotlight below:

SEE ALSO: The Fabulous Lives Of Malia And Sasha Obama

When Obama was elected Sasha was the youngest child to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr.

Source: Business Insider



She spent her early teens growing up in the White House.



With her older sister, Malia.



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Inside the secret version of Tinder for celebs and other VIPs — here’s what the invite-only 'Tinder Select' is like

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master of none tinder dating apps aziz ansari netflix

For the last few months, I've been testing Tinder Select, a secret version of the popular dating app that my colleague Rob Price once described as Tinder for "celebrities, models, and millionaires."

To be clear, I am none of those three things. But Tinder Select has definitely made it easier for me to match with people, thanks to its supercharged algorithm.

Tinder has never officially acknowledged Tinder Select exists — Tinder declined to comment for this article — and there's a lot of misinformation out there about it. But here is what Tinder Select is actually like, from someone who has used it.

tinder select logo

It's not a VIP section

The way some press reports have described Tinder Select is like a virtual VIP section of the app, where celebs and high rollers can pop metaphorical overpriced bottles, and talk about how this club is "okay, but really only in the VIP."

TinderS3.PNGThat's not really what it is.

The first thing to note about Tinder Select is that it functions more or less the same way regular Tinder does. There is no separate feed where you can swipe only other denizens of Select World.

So when you fire up Tinder Select, what you get is a Tinder feed that looks the same as your normal one except for a few color changes. The most visible difference is that when you run across someone who is also a Tinder Select member, they appear with a blue border around their picture, and a badge that says "Select" along the top.

These people are few and far between, even in New York City, which suggests it's very much still in beta. In fact, there are so few people in Tinder Select, that when putting together this post, I couldn't find the profile of a Tinder Select member to screenshot and blur. That said, most of the Tinder Select members I've seen in the past worked in tech or in PR.

However, there's a supercharged algorithm

But even though you can't filter the feed, there is a huge way that Tinder Select changes your experience: the algorithm. In short, if you are a Tinder Select member, the algorithm is stacked in your favor — and I'm not talking about a little bit. It feels like some giant Cupid is sitting on your side of the scale.

The first evening I got Tinder Select, I swiped a few people, and it didn't seem that different. My feed felt a bit more curated, and front-loaded with people who likely were popular on Tinder. But it wasn't that noticeable. All in all, the experience felt largely the same.

But then I went to bed and woke up with over 20 new matches. I'm certainly not normally that popular, and that hadn't ever happened to me before.

My theory is that Tinder Select pushed my profile toward the front of the feeds of people I had swiped "yes" on, and it was working through my back catalog of swipes. Speaking with other Tinder Select members who wished to remain anonymous, they all said they noticed the same thing. That apparent boost has continued over the last few months using Tinder Select, and I've found that often if I spend some time swiping, a few hours later matches will start to pop up.

But it's not just people I have already swiped right on. I also feel like I run across more people who have "liked" me already as well. But it's hard to tell. One indication that my profile is getting preference in other people's feeds, even those I haven't yet come across, is that more people are "super liking" me than used to before I was in Tinder Select. Other Select members told me they've also noticed an increase in super likes.

In short: Tinder Select makes it easier to get matches, across multiple fronts.

How do I get in?

As to how you get on Tinder Select, there's no way to apply. You have to be invited by either Tinder, or by someone who has invite privileges. I have no insight into how Tinder makes its decisions, but it could have something to do with your "Elo score," or a secret rating of desirability, based on the number of people who swipe right on you and other metrics.

I got in via invite, not from Tinder, and the company might kick me off when they read this. (However I'd appreciate it if you didn't, Tinder, if you're reading this.)

The future of Select

It's hard to say what plans Tinder has for Tinder Select.

Right now, Tinder Select simply seems like a way to make its top users happy, and perhaps more likely to stick around on the app. It could also be a response to private dating apps like Raya, which caters to celebs and prominent Instagram users, and The League.

If Tinder does open up Tinder Select to more people, and gives you the option to browse a Select-only feed, the business possibilities are easy to imagine. The most obvious is that Tinder could sell a higher-priced advertising unit, which would appear only in the Select feed.

But Tinder Select has been around for months in a murky beta, so it doesn't seem like Tinder is in a hurry to get it out the door.

Here's a short walk-through of what it's like:

SEE ALSO: The biggest US banks have backed a new service that lets you pay friends faster than Venmo

On your main menu page, you have a different little button to indicate you're a Tinder Select user.



If you click it you get to a page where you can toggle Tinder Select on and off. Presumably, one day that could get you to two distinct feeds. If you get to "nominate" people to be on Tinder Select, those will appear here. I have 0.



When you're actually in the feed nothing changes all that much, except the new algorithm. There is also a little "S," but that seems purely cosmetic.



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Trump told the mayor of a disappearing island not to worry about sea-level rise — these photos show how grave the situation has become

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map skitch

Twelve miles from either coast of the Chesapeake Bay sits a small island in danger of disappearing.

Tangier Island, Virginia, is one of the most isolated and extraordinary places in the continental US. But the island sits 4 feet or so above sea level, and a 2015 report suggests that little of it will be left 50 years from now.

President Donald Trump, however, disagrees. The Daily Times of Salisbury, Maryland, reports that after Trump saw a CNN report about Tangier Island, the president called Mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge to tell him he shouldn’t worry about a rise in sea levels.

"He said, 'Your island has been there for hundreds of years, and I believe your island will be there for hundreds more,'" Eskridge told The Daily Times.

But Business Insider photographer Christian Storm visited Tangier Island in 2014, and his photos show how serious the problem has become there.

Storm wrote a previous version of this story.

SEE ALSO: The Trump administration is doing everything it can to keep a huge climate lawsuit from going to trial

Tangier Island has been losing ground to erosion for hundreds of years, but the combination of rising sea levels and more severe weather — both augmented by climate change — have increased the rate of land loss.

Records indicate that in the mid-1800s, Tangier Island encompassed about 2,060 acres. It was home to watermelon farms, grazing cows, and a variety of plant life. But since 1850, over 66% of Tangier's landmass has disappeared underwater.



Research suggests Tangier is losing 9 acres of land a year to erosion and rising tides.

"We have a pretty high degree of certainty that things are going to get wetter and wetter," Carlton Hershner Jr., a climate change scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, told The Associated Press in 2013. "Not to be a bearer of bad news for Tangier, but that would suggest that sometime in the next 50 to 100 years the island would basically be underwater."



Just 1.2 square miles, Tangier Island is home to more than 500 full-time residents, down from over 1,000. The total continues to drop every year.

The island is reachable only by boat — it's an hour-and-a-half ferry ride from the coast. That keeps the place mostly closed off from the rest of the world. Some islanders go years without seeing the mainland, getting the supplies from the mail boat that arrives in the harbor every day.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

11 viral diets and the ones that actually work

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jennifer aniston

Eat like a baby. Cook like a caveman. Snack on one color of the rainbow each day of the week.

These habits belong to some of the viral diets that celebrities from Beyoncé to Taylor Swift have sworn by.

Oddly enough, some of these eating plans contain nuggets of wisdom that could help you lose weight. Still, the bigger danger with any diet is that it sets us up for unhealthy habits we can't maintain, says Andy Bellatti, a registered dietitian and the cofounder of Dietitians for Professional Integrity.

"I know many people who’ve gone on some kind of crash diet for a week and lose a bunch of weight and a few months later they’re back to square one."

With that in mind, here's the dirt on the strangest viral diets along with some science-backed wisdom about what actually works if you want to lose weight and keep it off.

SEE ALSO: 11 fitness myths that are doing more harm than good

DON'T MISS: A new show features ‘Biggest Loser’ winners who regained weight — and reveals a deeper truth about weight loss

The Alkaline Diet

The hype: Actresses including Jennifer Aniston, Kirsten Dunst, and Gwyneth Paltrow, have all reportedly done the pH or "Alkaline" diet, which advocates swapping so-called acid-forming foods like meat, fish, dairy, and grains with alkaline ones like fruits, nuts, beans, and vegetables.

The truth: The diet is based on the misleading idea that you can change your blood pH with food. While the pH of the stomach is acidic, the blood is slightly alkaline, something the food you eat can't change. Still, one positive part of the diet is that it advocates eating more fruits and veggies, something most dietitians agree we should all be doing.



The Master Cleanse

The hype: Beyoncé reportedly used the Master Cleanse to slim down before the movie "Dreamgirls." The cleanse involves drinking a lemon juice-based mixture to allegedly clean out the system and speed weight loss.

The truth: Any diet that's based around the idea of detoxing is probably bogus, since our bodies naturally detoxify themselves

 



The Paleo Diet

The hype: Singer Tim McGraw sticks to a paleo diet, a meal plan free of dairy, legumes, refined sugar, alcohol, and grains.

The truth: The US News and World Report ranks the paleo diet 36 out of 38 diets, saying that it can be tough to follow and is somewhat "nutritionally incomplete."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The story behind Eleven Madison Park’s one-of-a-kind carrot tartare

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Daniel Humm is the chef of the best restaurant in the world, Eleven Madison Park. Chef Humm shares the origin story of the restaurant's one-of-a-kind carrot tartare. Following is a transcript of the video.

That was a collaborative idea, you know, between all of us and that was also a dish that was very much about sense of place, the history of New York. It's actually a perfect example of, of sort of what we're trying to do.

I'm Daniel Humm and I'm the chef and co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, The NoMad, and Made Nice. 

We're trying, kind of, to define what is New York cuisine and I think when you think about a cuisine, it's always when, when history and agriculture sort of come together. That is really a cuisine. And so we studied all these restaurants of the past and we realized that they all have their version on, on steak tartare and we wanted to create our own and we tried for so long to create our own steak tartare and, and I was just never satisfied with, with what we came up with.

‘Cause it was too similar to the original or, or not as good as the original and it just didn't have our real fingerprint on it. But then I was spending a day out in Warwick, New York in the Hudson Valley with this farmer Alex Paffenroth who has been farming for over 40 years and he's famous for his carrots. And for an entire day he told me about all the different types of carrots and why this soil is the best soil in the world. And ... and I came back to the restaurant and that night we had a creative meeting and we again were trying yet another version of beef tartare and again it just wasn't satisfying. But then I looked at this meat grinder on the table and I had this crate of all these different colored carrots. And then in my mind, I was like “I think we need to do it with carrots.” And then we worked our way with that and, and that really became an iconic dish for us.

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Mark Zuckerberg's foundation is spending $5 million to keep Silicon Valley teachers from becoming homeless

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Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan

Teachers working in Silicon Valley school districts are some of the best paid educators in the state. That doesn't mean they're not struggling to buy homes.

The median home price tops $1.1 million in San Mateo County, and has risen 5.3% over the past year.

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are trying to help by spending $5 million to help at least 60 teachers in Redwood City and East Palo Alto, California purchase real estate.

Their education and healthcare foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, has partnered with housing startup Landed in an effort to keep public school teachers in the cities where they work.

When a teacher wants to buy a home, Landed pairs them with an investor who can spare funds for the down payment. When the home eventually sells (or 30 years have passed), the investor takes home up to 25% of the property's gains or losses. It's a win for the both of them, assuming real estate prices continue to rise and the house turns a profit.

The San Francisco Business Times reported that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's funding will go to teachers in the Redwood City School District, Ravenswood City School District in Redwood City, and Sequoia Union High School District in East Palo Alto.

The funds will provide up to $120,000 to 60 participating teachers.

The area south of San Francisco has seen skyrocketing real estate prices in recent years because of the proliferation of tech companies in the region. Over the past seven years, San Mateo County added over 54,000 new jobs but only 2,148 new housing units, according to the San Francisco Business Times. Teachers are struggling.

The problem isn't limited to Silicon Valley. In May, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee committed $44 million to spend on the city's first teacher housing development. More than 100 rental units will be built and priced below market rates.

That announcement came days after the San Francisco Chronicle published a profile onEtoria Cheeks, a math teacher at a San Francisco public high school who is homeless. Despite having a master's degree and making about $65,000 a year, Cheeks lost her home in a foreclosure in December and has bounced between hostels, guest rooms, and a homeless shelter since.

Many more Bay Area teachers rent cramped spaces in other people's homes, drive for Uber, or commute from the far reaches of the East Bay, the Chronicle reported.

SEE ALSO: San Francisco is so expensive, the city is spending $44 million so its teachers won't be homeless

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NOW WATCH: This Silicon Valley school shuns technology — yet most of the students are children of tech execs

A 45-year-long study discovered trends in successful hyper-intelligent children

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What does it take to become ultra successful?

An ongoing study suggests that drive and persistence can only take you so far. That's what a team of scientists at Vanderbilt found after a 45-year-long study.

In fact, some of the most influential leaders of our age had what it takes at birth: super intelligence. That means scoring in the top 3% on the SAT by age 13.

Kids who achieved this impressive feat had two main abilities in common: they could solve math problems they'd never been taught and they had exceptional spatial awareness – meaning they could remember spatial relationships between objects exceptionally well.

"When you look at the issues facing society now — whether it's health care, climate change, terrorism, energy — these are the kids who have the most potential to solve these problems." said, David Lubinski, co-director of SMPY, Vanderbilt University.

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How to build an air conditioner in under 15 minutes


A United flight from New Jersey to Italy was canceled after a passenger spotted fuel spewing from the plane's wing

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United Airlines was forced to cancel a Venice, Italy-bound flight after the plane suffered a massive fuel leak while waiting to take off at Newark Liberty International Airport. Video captured by a passenger on board the Boeing 767-300 shows fuel gushing from its left wing.

According to a United Airlines spokesperson, the aircraft has been taken out of service. However, the airline did not disclose the amount of the fuel spilled or the cause of the spill. The incident, which took place Tuesday evening, forced United Flight 170 to return to the gate and its passenger to disembark. Passengers on the flight were provided hotel rooms for the night and rebooked on later flights.

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We drove a brand new Tesla Model X from San Francisco to New York — here’s what happened

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We drove the Tesla Model X from San Francisco to New York in just under a week to see what it's really like to take an all-electric vehicle on an aggressive cross-country road trip. We limited our charging to Tesla's network of Supercharger stations in the United States, of which there are 861 in the United States.

Each day we traveled to a city that was approximately eight hours away from our starting point. In addition to the driving time, we had to add on time spent at the Supercharger stations, which usually took about an hour per full charge. 

In case you were thinking about taking a Tesla on a cross-country road trip this summer, we already did it so you can see what it's really like.

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Trump's childhood home is going up for rent in New York City – take a look inside

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Donald Trump's childhood home

Now's your chance to live like Donald Trump.

Trump's childhood home, that was bought for $2.15 million at auction in January, is going to become available for rent for between $3500 and $4000 per month. 

The two-story, Tudor-style home was sold to a real estate investor whose identity has not been disclosed. 

Jason Friedman, a real estate broker for the Friedman Team of Coldwell Banker is handling the listing. Friedman told Business Insider that the new owner bought the house as a "collector piece," and did not plan to live there. "Instead of leaving it empty they decided to make some money from it," he said.

Since the house was bought in January, it has not been renovated.

Take a look inside:

Donald Trump's childhood home is situated in the neighborhood of Jamaica Estates in Queens, New York.



The petite 40' x 120' suburban lot fits in with the rest of the neighborhood.



The rear of the Tudor-style home includes a sun porch.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A startup wants men to never tuck in their shirts again, and investors think their solution is worth $200 million

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Untuckit

It's a simple idea: a shirt with a shorter hem that is designed to be worn to be untucked.

Untuckit, a startup founded by Aaron Sanandres and Chris Riccobono in 2011 out of an extra bedroom in Riccobono's Hoboken, NJ apartment with just $150,000 from friends and family, has turned that concept into a full-fledged clothing company. 

Untuckit has been profitable since its second year of business. The company recently secured a $30 million boost with its first round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins.

The investment puts the company at a more than $200 million valuation, according to Reuters.

Untuckit has also doubled sales every year since its inception, now offering both signature shorter shirts and a wide range of other clothing categories for both men and women.

The founders are the first to admit they're not the first to create the shorter shirt. It was a chronic problem among men, they discovered.

Untuckit is, however, the first to market itself with the shorter shirt as their signature, as well as the first to do market research to find out what the best place for a shirt hem to fall is — which took almost exactly a full year.

"I joke by saying it's the world's largest study ever undertaken on untucked shirts," founder and CEO Aaron Sanandres  said.

Turns out, the perfect length is mid-fly.

Untuckit

The founders advertised Untuckit on sports radio and in print airline magazines — two captive audiences — to get the word out. They said they almost didn't even need visuals to explain what problem they were solving.

"Guys had a primal knowledge of what this was," Sanandres said. "Guys suffer with it. If you know, no explanation is necessary."

The customer response to the ads was "immediately overwhelming," which buoyed the company into profitability and the success it enjoys today.

The idea, according to the founders, hit at the right time when the casualization of men's wardrobes was reaching fever pitch.

"Can't say we generated that trend, but we certainly hit the trend at the right time," Sanandres said.

It also fits neatly into the demand for "neater" casual clothes that can be worn to work, fancy restaurants, or just to look more put together.

"We stopped using the word versatile because it was in the description of every shirt on our website," Riccobono said.

UntuckitUntuckit has gone broad in its marketing, appealing to men from all over the country in the generous age range of 35-65.

"If you go to our Soho store you'll see a 25-year-old hipster from Brooklyn next to an 85-year-old man from Florida. it's just amazing the range," Riccobono said. "Anybody who's worn their shirt untucked whether it's the old classic brands or the new brands, if you've worn your shirt untucked and put on an Untuckit [shirt], it resonates."

The brand awareness for Untuckit is now such that the founders are no longer worried about other companies coming along and stealing the idea of making shorter shirts.

"I stopped worrying a couple years ago," Sanandres said. "Now I actually see it as a positive. If more people are typing in 'untucked shirts' because more brands are bringing awareness to the issue, that only helps grow the proverbial pie."

UntuckitUntuckit's shirts are premium priced — what the founders call a "thoughtful acquisition" — with an average cost of about $80 a pop. Apart from the shorter, rounder hemline, they also feature a small arrow on the untucked shirttail, indicating the brand with a signature logo.

The brand now has eight stores, but will have 22 stores open by the end of 2017 with locations across America concentrated in larger metro regions. 

Though Untuckit hopes to open as many as 100 stores in the next two years using the new capital, the founders say they will remain in the margin of profitability.

"That is part of our DNA," Sandares said.

SEE ALSO: 17 things every guy needs in his closet for summer

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NOW WATCH: HENRY BLODGET: This chart explains everything that's wrong with the economy today

These 8 billionaires have the combined wealth of half the world's population

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Jeff BezosIt's no secret that the wealth gap is growing.

A recent study released by Oxfam shows that just eight men, with a combined net worth of roughly $426 billion, share the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world.

The study also found since 2015, the top 1% has owned more wealth than the rest of the world's population — and if these top billionaires continue to see returns on their wealth, we could see the world's first trillionaire in as little as 25 years.

Ahead, eight of the world's wealthiest people — according to Forbes' Billionaire List — that own almost as much as half the world's population.

SEE ALSO: A photographer spent 25 years documenting rich people — here's what she learned

8. Bernard Arnault — $54 billion

Bernard Arnault has been the CEO of LVMH, which houses brands such as Louis Vuitton, Sephora, and Dom Perignon, since 1989. Combined, the brands under LVMH sold $40 billion in sales in 2016.    



7. Larry Ellison — $54 billion

In 1977 Larry Ellison co-founded the software company Oracle, which originally was launched with $2,000 of funding, $1,200 of which came out of Ellison's own pocket. Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014, but continues to be involved with the company.



6. Mark Zuckerberg — $61 billion

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg founded the website in his Harvard dormroom 13 years ago and has since grown his net worth to $61 billion. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have committed to give away 99% his wealth before he dies. 



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Tour The Boston Consulting Group's stunning New York office, which has an in-house cafe and workout rooms

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BCG Hudson Yards 6898

When the New York-based staff of The Boston Consulting Group decided to leave the midtown office that had been their home since 2002, they knew they wanted to create a more comfortable, welcoming space.

The global management consulting firm, which was launched in 1963, was third on Glassdoor's list of the best places to work in 2017. But since the old office's interior design and architecture didn't accurately reflect the personality of the company, they wanted to make sure their new office did. 

"The best decision I made was to encourage the designer to push as far as she could go in terms of a non-corporate look and feel," senior partner Ross Love told Business Insider during a recent visit to BCG's new office in the Hudson Yards development of Manhattan. Love was part of the internal team that was tasked with overseeing the design of the new space.

The layout was designed with the "collision coefficient" in mind — an idea that Love got while visiting with Zappos founder Tony Hsieh.

"[Hsieh is] a bit of a guru on design ... I went on a tour of Zappos out in Las Vegas, and he talked about how you could deliberately design an office to maximize the number of collisions [between people]," he said.

This, in theory, could create a more efficient work day, cutting down on the time spent on formal meetings, email replies, and phone calls. Ahead, take a tour of the new, thoughtfully-designed offices, where more than 500 New York-based BCG employees spend their days.

SEE ALSO: Bain & Company was just named the best workplace of 2017 — step inside its New York office

DON'T MISS: A look inside $23 billion LinkedIn's New York office, where employees enjoy perks like free gourmet meals and a speakeasy hidden in the Empire State Building

The BCG New York offices are located on the west side of Manhattan in Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate project in the US. While much of Hudson Yards is still under construction, its 17 million square feet of development are projected to be complete by the mid-2020s.

Source: Business Insider



Guests and clients will find a concierge desk and greeter when they arrive to the BCG office.



Instead of a traditional receptionist, BCG designed a concierge desk that can accommodate various guest requests, like how to get to the closest subway or where to grab lunch. Without the usual barrier of a receptionist desk, the openness immediately creates a welcoming atmosphere.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

We should never have told people they could 'burn off' calories

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in n out burger

Count your steps. Hit the gym. Bike to work. If you've tried to lose weight, you know it's important to get moving. But with all our emphasis on working out to "burn off" what we eat, experts say we've missed the real problem: What we eat.

"There's a persistent myth that you can exercise your calories away," Andy Bellatti, a registered dietitian and the cofounder of Dietitians for Professional Integrity, told Business Insider.

In reality, while getting active is important for your mood and overall wellbeing, it generally does not result in rapid weight loss. On the other hand, successfully changing your diet might.

Dietary changes are especially important at the beginning of any new weight loss plan, Bellatti said, since people who are trying to lose weight by dedicating hours each day to exercise may get discouraged when the pounds don't magically melt off. Instead, it's better to focus on making gradual changes to your diet, such as eating more vegetables and cutting back on refined carbohydrates.

A large recent review of studies involving more than 3,000 obese adults who'd lost weight on a low-calorie diet compared how well they were able to keep it off after they either stuck to a new eating plan or began exercising regularly. While permanently tweaking their diets appeared to help maintain weight loss, "no significant improvements were seen for ... exercise," they wrote.

One reason diet may play such a strong role in weight loss is that exercise burns off far fewer calories than most people think, said Philip Stanforth, a professor of exercise science at the University of Texas and the executive director of the Fitness Institute of Texas. This holds especially true when compared to the high caloric content of many processed and fast foods like burgers, fries, and milkshakes. Many classic fast food meals can add up to thousands of calories, sometimes exceeding the amount most adults need in a day.

"Thinking practically, keep in mind you'd have to walk 35 miles [roughly 2.6 times the length of Manhattan] to burn 3,500 calories," Stanforth said. "That's a lot of walking."

older man elderly man jogging nature running exercise thinking outdoorsThat's not to say exercise is unimportant.

Another large review of studies that included more than 1,000 adults suggested that in the long-term (a year or more), providing people with a weight loss plan that combines a healthy eating regimen and regular exercise helped people lose more weight than either diet or exercise alone.

A wealth of recent research also suggests that when it comes to the brain, aerobic exercise may be the wonder drug we've long been looking for. Not only have sweaty workouts been linked with boosting your mood; they've also been found to protect against age-related decline and may even improve memory.

"While exercise might not be the key to weight loss, it is important for health overall, especially for mental health," Bellatti said.

SEE ALSO: Americans have been making a huge diet mistake for 100 years — here's what they should do instead

DON'T MISS: 13 diet 'truths' that are doing more harm than good

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The pros and cons of drinking protein shakes after a workout


Mega Millions and Powerball are going to ditch Illinois if lawmakers can't pass a budget

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mega millions lottery

Residents of Illinois might soon have to take a drive out of the state in order to play the popular lottery games Mega Millions and Powerball.

The Multi-State Loterry Association said in internal Illinois Lottery communications that if the state does not pass a budget agreement, it will be dropped from the games by the end of June, says the Chicago Sun-Times.

Illinois Lottery spokesman Jason Schaumburg confirmed to the Sun-Times that the games would be dropped from Illinois' offerings without the passing of a new state budget.

Schaumberg said it is “another example of why the General Assembly needs to deliver a balanced budget to the governor.”

The decision comes at a time when Illinois is facing a serious budget crisis with a backlog of $14 billion in unpaid bills.

The state legislature recently missed its deadline to pass a budget during the spring session, sending budget negotiations into June for the second straight year. Last year, Illinois lawmakers opted for a short-term funding plan to keep schools open.

Following this year's failed attempt to pass a budget, the state's credit rating was downgraded by both S&P and Moody's.

In a press release, Moody's said it lowered the rating on Illinois' general obligation bonds "amid a prolonged political impasse that has prevented progress on a growing pension deficit and an increasing backlog of unpaid bills."

SEE ALSO: Illinois has a mountain of unpaid bills — and it'll hurt poor kids the most

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: An economist explains the key issues that Trump needs to address to boost the economy

Overpriced artisanal toast is the San Francisco craze that refuses to die — so we gave it a try

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san francisco the mill artisanal toast 4930

An Australian real estate tycoon set the internet ablaze in May when he suggested that more millennials could afford to buy homes if they gave up their pricey smashed avocado toast.

Like chocolate, cheese, and coffee before it, toast has turned into an artisanal product. In San Francisco, you can find thick-cut slices of doughey goodness slathered in locally-sourced butters, jams, and yes, avocado. At a price of $4 to $8, depending on toppings, this decadence doesn't come cheap.

The trend kicked off in San Francisco in 2014, after a highly publicized profile on Trouble Coffee and Coconut Club — considered the original proprietors of artisanal toast — aired on NPR's "This American Life." The city's obsession with glorified bread shows no sign of slowing.

These days, you can find cafés serving overpriced toast in almost every major city nationwide.

We visited San Francisco's The Mill to see why toast is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

SEE ALSO: Go inside the housing startup that puts millennials up in multimillion-dollar Silicon Valley mansions

The Mill, based in San Francisco's Alamo Square neighborhood, did not invent artisanal toast. But it spread the gospel with its widely popular take on the trend.



Josey Baker, The Mill's co-owner and toastmaster, got his start baking breads in his San Francisco apartment. He delivered loaves to bakeries, pizzerias, and grocers on his bike.

In summer 2011, Baker got an invitation from the founder of a local coffee chain, Four Barrel Coffee, to collaborate on a café near Alamo Square. The Mill was born.

While the café was under construction, Baker ran a pop-up location on site. He wanted to offer customers something to eat with their coffee, but since Baker didn't make cookies, croissants, or muffins, he brought his toaster from home and started selling his homemade bread.



"At that point, it wasn't, like, 'We're going to become known for our toast.' It was my way to eat bread, and people responded strongly to it," Baker told Business Insider in 2015.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Norwegian teens celebrate a bizarre month-long holiday full of drinking, sex, and wild dares — here's what it's like

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The Russ

Forget the "American Pie" movies — American teens can learn a thing or two about partying from their Norwegian counterparts. 

Every year, Norwegian teens on the cusp of graduating from high school celebrate "russefeiring" or "the russ," a month-long celebration centered on drinking, party buses, and wild challenges. 

"In the American movies, we get the impression that they are so crazy. But we have the craziest celebrations here in Norway," Fredrik Helgesen, a student leader of the russ committee, told the Associated Press. "I don’t think anything in the world is like this."

This year, students aggressively documented russefeiring celebrations on social media, giving the rest of the world a look into the wild — and sometimes just bizarre — celebration.

Here's what it's like to experience what is quite possibly the craziest teen rager in the world. 

The russ starts in mid-April and lasts until Norwegian National Day on May 17.

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Revelers are immediately recognizable by their red and blue overalls — or russebukse — a crucial part of russ.

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Russebukse are for sale on the official russ website, but many people choose to personalize their overalls.

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See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Russia denies 'fake news' that Putin is selling a $1 million luxury Swiss watch

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Patek Philippe 5208P

The documentation for the Patek Phillippe watch going up for auction in Monaco next month says that the owner is Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Russia says take that with a grain of salt.

The Russian president's office has denied that Putin's watch is hitting the auction block, as was previously reported. 

Though the certificate for the Patek Philippe 5208P, an very rare watch that retails for $1 million and is only sold by invitation, notes that the owner is Putin, a Kremlin spokesperson says that is "fake news," according to Bloomberg.

According to the auction house, the watch never really necessarily belonged to Putin. Instead, it may have been purchased by a "very important person" to give to Putin.

"If they decided to write Vladimir Vladimirovic Putin on the guarantee card, it means they had all the proof and documentation in order to do so," the auctions director for Monaco Legend told Bloomberg.

Luxury watch retailers are told to write down the receipt's name upon delivery, to minimize the change the watch will be immediately resold. Once the the watch has an owner, it can no longer be considered new and must be sold as used or vintage.

The Kremlin maintains it was never presented to the Russian president. It's no surprise that this story might be true, however. Putin is a known lover of high priced luxury watches, and has been spotted wearing models much pricier than his reported salary of around $150,000.

Vladimir putin's watch

However Putin's name got there, the mystery is likely to boost the resale value of the watch. The high end of the auction estimates it could go for $1.6 million.

The watch in question, the 5208P, is an extremely complicated watch with features like a minute repeater (the watch will chime on demand when a button is pressed), a chronograph (a stopwatch), and a perpetual calendar, which takes leap years into account.

The watch is only sold to trusted clients of Patek (a.k.a. customers who buy a lot of their watches), and retails for 980,000 Swiss Francs ($1 million), making it one of the most expensive watches at retail.

Vladimir putin's watch

SEE ALSO: 13 things guys can buy once and wear forever

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