This satellite footage from NOAA shows the enormous amount of lightning within Hurricane Harvey, one of the most devastating hurricanes to hit the US in over a decade.

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The number of McDonald's locations selling pizza in the US just dropped from three to one.

Two McDonald's locations  — one in Pomeroy, Ohio, and the other in Spencer, West Virginia — that have kept pizza on the menu since the '90s were forced to take the item off the menu in late August, West Virginia Illustrated reported.

The Pomeroy location told customers the decision to ditch pizza "was made by McDonald’s Corporate office," according to Grub Street. 

That means that pizza is now only on the menu at one McDonald's location in the US — a restaurant in Florida that actually added pizza to the menu in 2016. 

To mourn the loss of the only two McDonald's that have remained dedicated to pizza since the McPizza's glory days, here's a walk down memory lane at the pizza-slinging fast-food locations. 

SEE ALSO: Why McDonald's ice cream machines are seemingly always broken

DON'T MISS: There are a handful of remaining Blockbusters in the US — here's a look inside

The McDonald's in Pomeroy, Ohio had it all: burger and fries, 24-hour drive thru service, and, of course, pizza.

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The location served both personal and family-sized pies.

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Business Insider is hiring an intern to work with our military and defense news team immediately. 

We're looking for applicants who are news-obsessed, quick to learn, cool under pressure, careful, and appreciative of our approach to journalism.

This is an important internship that will involve working closely with top editors and journalists across our team.

Responsibilities will include spotting and covering important breaking news stories as they unfold, curating interesting photographic slideshows, and assisting with syndicating posts on geopolitics.

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APPLY HEREwith your resume, a cover letter, and links to several clips. 

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NOW WATCH: 7 smart questions to ask at the end of every job interview

• Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, after the Pullman strike.

• The bloody strike led to 30 deaths and millions of dollars in damage.

• The strike prompted Congress and US President Grover Cleveland to establish the holiday.

Labor Day tends to be a pretty low-key US holiday.

Workers across the country typically receive a Monday off to enjoy the unofficial end of summer and shop the sales.

But the history behind the day is far more dramatic and charged than this modern day observance suggests. US President Grover Cleveland signed the holiday into law just days after federal troops brought down the bloody Pullman strike in 1894.

Indiana state professor and labor historian Richard Schneirov, who edited "The Pullman Strike and the Crisis of the 1890s," told Business Insider that this particular strike proved to be a sort of "culmination" of the fraught debate over labor, capital, and unions in the 19th century.

The setting for the strike was the company town of Pullman, Chicago. The Pullman Company hawked an aspirational product: luxury rail cars.

Engineer and industrialist George Pullman's workers all lived in company-owned buildings. The town was highly stratified. Pullman himself lived in a mansion, managers resided in houses, skilled workers lived in small apartments, and laborers stayed in barracks-style dormitories. The housing conditions were cramped by modern standards, but the town was sanitary and safe, and even included paved streets and stores.

Then the disastrous economic depression of the 1890s struck. Pullman made a decision to cut costs — by lowering wages.

In a sense, workers throughout Chicago, and the country at large, were in the same boat as the Pullman employees. Wages dropped across the board, and prices fell. However, after cutting pay by nearly 30%, Pullman refused to lower the rent on the company-owned buildings and the prices in the company-owned stores accordingly.

Schneirov said it became more and more difficult for the Pullman workers to support their families.

Sympathy for the Pullman workers' plight spread throughout the city — even the Chicago police took up collections for those affected.

The workers ultimately launched a strike on May 11, 1894, receiving support from the American Railway Union.

Immediately, different groups stepped in to intervene, including The Chicago Civic Foundations and the US Conference of Mayors.

But Pullman was unmoved. He refused to even meet with the strikers.

"He just wouldn't talk," Schneirov said. "He refused. Until the age of Reagan, this is the last great situation where a leading capitalist could get away with that."

Pullman's stance earned him widespread rebuke. Fellow business mogul and Republican politician Mark Hanna called him a "damn fool" for refusing to "talk with his men." Chicago mayor John Hopkins loathed Pullman, having previously owned a business in the rail car magnate's Arcade Building. As a result, the local police did little to quell the growing unrest.

The tension then escalated when Eugene Debs, president of the nationwide American Railroad Union (ARU), declared that ARU members would no longer work on trains that included Pullman cars. The move would be widely criticized by other labor groups and the press, and the boycott would end up bringing the railroads west of Chicago to a standstill. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, 125,000 workers across 29 railroad companies quit their jobs rather than break the boycott.

When the railroad companies hired strikebreakers as replacements, strikers also took action.

Schneirov said it was common for working class communities to come together to support striking workers.

"When they began running the trains, crowds of railroad workers would form to try to stop them from running," Schneirov said. "There was a lot of sympathy from people. They'd come out and try to help the railroad workers stop the trains. They might even be initiators of standing in front of the tracks and chucking pieces of coal and rocks and pieces of wood. Then there would be lots of kids, lots of teenagers, out of work or just hanging around and looking to join in for the fun."

Things escalated from there.

The General Managers Association, a group which represented 26 Chicago railroad companies, began to plan a counterattack. It asked attorney general Richard Olney, a former railroad attorney, to intervene. Indianapolis federal courts granted him an injunction against the strike, on the grounds that law and order had broken down in Chicago.

Pro-labor Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld refused to authorize President Cleveland to send in federal troops, asserting that allegations of societal breakdown had been grossly exaggerated. But the federal government ultimately sent in soldiers to enforce the injunction. Meanwhile, the General Managers Association was able to deputize federal marshals to help put down the strike.

"The whole thing is the most one-sided, biased action on the part of the federal government in a labor dispute that you could think of," Schneirov said.

Violence raged as Chicago swelled with soldiers and strikers clashed with troops on railroads across the west. Federal forces went city by city to break the strikes and get the trains running again. In the end, 30 people died in the chaos. The riots and sabotage caused by the strike ultimately cost $80 million in damages.

Schneirov said Cleveland's decision to declare Labor Day as a holiday for workers was likely a move meant to please his constituents after the controversial handling of the strike. The president was a Democrat, and most urban laborers at the time were Catholic Democrats.

"It's also part of the growing legitimacy of labor unions in the country," he said. "Unions were becoming very popular with working people. Even if they couldn't join a union, the idea of the union was popular."

Labor Day wasn't the only product of the strike. Debs was arrested and jailed for six months. The ARU, one of the biggest unions of its time, fell apart. Pullman died of a heart attack three years after the riots. Investigations were launched over the incident and found that Pullman was partly to blame for what happened. These reports helped to warm public opinion to the idea of unions.

However, Schneirov said the positive view of unions the Pullman strike ultimately brought about has faded in recent years.

"This idea that free competition and the self-regulating market are sufficient, and that working people shouldn't have the right to combine and form unions, this idea has become dominant again since the 1980s," Schneirov said. "But most people would still join a union if it wasn't so damn hard."

SEE ALSO: The ancient story behind Valentine's Day is more brutal than romantic

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NOW WATCH: This is why American workers burn out faster than others

Target's private labels have been called a "bright spot" in the retailer's business.

Private brands in general are hot right now, as customers are realizing that they can often get quality products for a lower price point when buying outside of a major brand name. 

Target has capitalized on the trend by revamping its house products into more exciting brands to get shoppers back in stores. It's already done so with its children's clothing brand, Cat & Jack, and yielded impressive results.

Now it's turning its attention to men's clothing, women's clothing, and home decor. The women's line — A New Day — and men's line — Goodfellow — have launched recently in Target stores across the country.

Whenever a stylish but relatively cheap new line becomes available, a certain fashion-forward section of the internet becomes abuzz with people posting pictures, fit reviews, and commentary. Seeing previews, some commenters on Reddit's men's fashion forum expressed excitement for specific pieces — one even called the collection's styling "FIRE."

A particular point of excitement was that Goodfellow would offer a jean made out of a special kind of fabric, called selvedge denim, for only $40.

I figured it was time to judge this Goodfellow for myself. I visited a local Target in New York City to see if the retailer could lure in budget-oriented shoppers with the promise of cheap, on-trend fashion — and maybe convince them to pick up a pepper mill or package of muffins on the way out. 

SEE ALSO: Target is reportedly abandoning Amazon's cloud services as the web giant takes over retail

After wandering around the store for an embarrassing length of time, I finally found it: the men's clothing section, all decked out with its new Goodfellow line.

The assortment, quite frankly, surprised me. It seems Target has done its market research here, and it's crammed in everything that could be considered a current trend. There are T-shirts, jackets, casual pants, dress pants, outerwear, and a whole assortment of accessories.

There's also an assortment of shoes, which I made the decision to ignore completely. Though the designs looked nice, cheap shoes are generally best avoided, in my opinion.

People travel from far and wide to experience all that Napa Valley has to offer — namely, the award-winning wineries rooted in the area for decades. A lesser known indulgence is its English muffins.

Model Bakery, a longtime fixture of Napa's Main Street in St. Helena, went from small-town gem to international sensation last spring when Oprah Winfrey told People magazine that her biggest luxury is having their English muffins flown in.

"My greatest extravagance is flying in English muffins from Napa Valley," Oprah told People. "There's a specific English muffin made by these two women at this wonderful bakery in Napa Valley. I know it's not a good carbon footprint to fly in your English muffins but ..."

On a recent trip to Napa, I stopped by two locations of Model Bakery to try the English muffins. The first location in Yountville, California, had sold out before 11 a.m.

"Everyone asks if they can have the 'Oprah special,'" one employee told me.

When I finally got my hands on a muffin at the original location in St. Helena, it was love at first bite. I tried mine toasted, buttered, and topped with raspberry jam. It fell apart in my mouth and left sticky crumbs on my hands that I couldn't help but lick. 

Model Bakery is owned by mother-daughter duo Karen Mitchell and Sarah Mitchell Hansen. The pair specializes in artisan breads made with organic stone ground flours.

Oprah named the carb-filled treat to her Favorite Things list in 2016 — an honor that Model Bakery proudly displays on a chalkboard at its location in Yountville, California.

"I don't have to tell you all how much I love bread. These English muffins are my current carb of choice: crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and scrumptious all over," Winfrey wrote for the list in "O, The Oprah Magazine."

The muffins cost $40 for a dozen muffins and a jar of preserves. They're available on Amazon.

SEE ALSO: We tried the high-fat, buttered coffee drink that's taken Silicon Valley by storm — here's the verdict

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The best wines under $25 according to a top sommelier

Whether it's to keep their jobs or to maintain the peace, there are some things that airline workers just can't tell travelers.

But sharing some of these things, while perhaps controversial, could be to their, your, and other passengers' benefit, if only someone would say something.

So Business Insider asked more than 80 airline workers including flight attendants, gate agents, ticket agents, and other airport customer service reps to weigh in on what they'd love to tell passengers but can't.

We've anonymously included some of the more constructive insights here:

SEE ALSO: Airline workers share some of the most bizarre things they've seen in their line of duty

DON'T MISS: Airline workers share their 22 best tips for making travel less painful

'I'm not talking to hear myself speak'

"I'm tasked with carrying out the rules and regulations set forth by FAA. I risk a possible fine if I don't do what I am tasked to do. There is always a reason we say the things we say." — A flight attendant

'No, we can't just give you a free upgrade'

"Different airlines have different rules, but a change or upgrade can get you fired these days. And it's not worth our jobs. The airline computer system tracks everything, and big brother can be watching us." — An airline customer service agent

'Griping to crew about things they can't control changes nothing'

"You're venting, which is fine. But it won't change anything. Speak to the folks who make the decisions and the big bucks. We didn't choose the wifi system. We didn't choose the leg room. We didn't choose to charge for certain things. I'd love to have it all free and roomy and completely reliable!" — A flight attendant

Rachel Hoffman's "Unf*ck Your Habitat" is as much about self-empowerment as it is about taking care of your home.

As in: Your bedroom doesn't have to look like your most neurotically organized friend's bedroom. You don't have to spend every weekend vacuuming to be a successful adult. You do you!

But — and this is important — you can still feel good about inviting people over; you can still eat dinner without the stench of overflowing trash wafting over you. Hoffman shows you how to get there without losing your sanity.

Below, we've rounded up six of our favorite tips from the book, all of which you can use in the next 20 minutes.

SEE ALSO: 15 minutes talking to a professional organizer made me realize I've been going about decluttering all wrong

Use 20/10s

This strategy is simple: You clean for 20 minutes and then take a 10-minute break. Hoffman says you can tweak the exact times, so you clean for 45 minutes and take a 15-minute break, for example.

That's enough time to put away a clean load of laundry or take the level of grossness down a notch in your bathroom.

The idea is to avoid what Hoffman calls "marathon cleaning" — i.e., you let your home get messier and messier (and messier) until it reaches the point where you can barely breathe. Then you spend a few days "cleaning like a maniac until it's livable again."

By using your version of 20/10s, you'll see cleaning as a more manageable project — as Hoffman writes, "a series of smaller chunks of time that each has a definite beginning and a definite end."

'Gamify' the tasks

Hoffman's book features several "challenges" that make cleaning more like a game than a chore. For example: "Look around. Find ten things that aren't where they belong. Put them away."

Or: "Take ten minutes and reset as much as you can back to clean. Put items away, throw trash out, and hang up or put away your clothes until the timer goes off." 

Consider it the Mary Poppins version of being a responsible adult.

Take before and after photos

Hoffman shares an insight about cleaning that applies just as well to life in general: "The trouble with cleaning up your own mess is that sometimes when you're in the middle of it, it's really difficult to see any progress that you've made." Deep, right?

Here's the practical solution: Take a picture right before you start, at different stages throughout the cleaning process, and then once you've finished. Seeing how far you've come will likely motivate you to do even better.

A Filipino fast-food behemoth is gearing up to take over the US. 

It seems there's a Jollibee on every corner in the Philippines — in fact, it's one of the few chains that has successfully maintained market dominance over McDonald's in its home country. Even as McDonald's ramps up its Asian expansion, Jollibee has held its own with 978 locations compared to McDonald's 521. 

Now, Jollibee's is coming for McDonald's on its home turf. The chain currently has 36 locations in the US and is opening new restaurants in states like Illinois and Florida this year. 

The brand holds a special place in the heart of many Filipino expats. As Jian DeLeon wrote in First We Feast, "For the millions of Filipinos abroad, what Jollibee offers [is] a nostalgic taste of home at a price most of us can swallow."

We, on the other hand, go in not as Filipino food experts, but as two fast-food loving New Yorkers eager to see how the growing chain compares to the competition. 

SEE ALSO: We tried Cracker Barrel to see if it's better than Waffle House — and the winner is clear

DON'T MISS: Here's what it's like to eat at the Southern fried-chicken chain whose diehard fans say is better than KFC and Popeyes

Jollibee has 36 locations across the US, mostly in California. Luckily, there's one in Woodside, Queens, right off the subway.

The place was packed when we arrived around 1 p.m. The lunch rush was in full swing, and scouting for a seat proved to be quite the task. Fortunately, an employee alerted us as soon as two spots became available.

Ordering was a breeze, though we were a bit thrown by the menu's breadth of options. While we are fast-food connoisseurs, we don't typically see spaghetti served alongside fried chicken and burgers at American chains. The cashier was extremely friendly and accommodating, even when we came back twice to order more items we previously forgot.

Tensions between North Korea and the US continue to rise, and the US State Department's ban on travel to North Korea is being implemented this weekend. Still, there are signs that cultural changes are slowly starting to take root in the hermit kingdom. 

There are only three billboards up in the capital city of Pyongyang, and there are no advertisements on television or in the newspapers. But supermarkets there are beginning to show signs of branding, and customer-driven sales like "buy-two-get-one-free" discounts are becoming more common.

The Associated Press recently photographed Potonggang, a state-run department store. Take a look, below.

All captions are by AP. 

SEE ALSO: A photographer captured these dismal photos of life in North Korea on his phone

The North Korean consumer landscape has evolved dramatically under Kim Jong Un.

Under a five-year plan for the economy Kim Jong Un announced last May, North Korean factories are putting a new priority on making more and better daily-life products.

At stores such as Potonggang, customers can pay with either cash or bank debit cards.

Sometimes, the best way to spend a long weekend is to curl up on the couch and enjoy a film.

If you're looking for something entertaining and beautiful that'll also make you knowledgeable, there's an incredible variety of science- and nature-focused documentaries and TV shows on Netflix right now.

You can stream compelling documentaries that'll captivate you with the beauty of the planet, you can delve into the details of how food arrives on your plate, or you can explore the mysterious and alien world that exists in oceans around the globe.

But there's a downside to all of those options: It's a lot to choose from. So to make it easier, we've asked our colleagues to pick out some of their favorites from the Netflix documentary selection.

Films come and go from Netflix every month, but as of the date of publication, all these films should be available. We'll update this list periodically to reflect currently available documentaries.

Here are our favorites, listed in no particular order:

SEE ALSO: 24 health 'facts' that are actually wrong

"Cooked" (2016)

What it's about: In this four-part docu-series, journalist and food expert Michael Pollan explores the evolutionary history of food and its preparation through the lens of the four essential elements: fire, water, air, and earth. 

Why you should see it: Americans as a whole are cooking less and relying more on unhealthy, processed, and prepared foods. Pollan aims to bring viewers back to the kitchen by forging a meaningful connection to food and the joys of cooking. [Click to watch]

"Blackfish" (2013)

What it's about: This film highlights abuses in the sea park industry through the tale of Tilikum, an orca in captivity at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. Tilikum has killed or been involved in the deaths of three people while living in the park. 

Why you should see it: This documentary opens your eyes to the troubles of keeping wild animals in captivity through shocking footage and emotional interviews. It highlights the potential issues of animal cruelty and abuse involved with using highly intelligent animals as entertainment. Sea parks have historically made billions of dollars by keeping animals captive, often at the expense of the health and well-being of animals. This documentary played a huge role in convincing SeaWorld to stop their theatrical "Shamu" killer whale shows. [Click to watch]

"Chasing Coral" (2017)

What it's about: Step into the alien world that teems with life beneath the sea. This film, by the team behind the film "Chasing Ice," is an attempt to document the transformation and loss of coral reefs around the globe. The filmmakers face rough oceans as they dive underwater to plant cameras and document the changes to reefs. What they reveal is both fascinating and tragic.

Why you should see it: Coral reefs cover less than 2% of the sea floor, but a quarter of marine life depends on them to exist. Without these fascinating and complicated creatures, much of the ocean as we know it wouldn't exist. The filmmakers reveal the otherworldly beauty of these underwater creatures, and capture just how fragile their existence is at this point. [Click to watch]

We visited Del Frisco's, a steakhouse with locations across the country whose NYC location is considered a favorite among Wall Street employees. Del Frisco's executive chef Brian Christman tells us how to cook a steak at home using just a skillet.

Join the conversation about this story »

Los Angeles is one of the priciest housing markets in the country.

With a current median listing price of $748,000, homes in the sunny Southern California metropolis are more than double the national asking price.

And then there are the over-the-top mansions and hilltop estates, like Beyoncé and Jay-Z's new $88 million Bel Air pad, where expensive takes on an entirely new meaning.

Below, check out the 10 priciest Los Angeles real estate listings, gathered by Curbed.

SEE ALSO: Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought an $88 million house — here's why their $52 million mortgage might be a smart business decision

DON'T MISS: The salary you need to earn to buy a home right now in 23 of the most expensive US housing markets

10. 33218 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu

Price: $60 million

Size: 5,254 square feet

Features: Ocean views, floor-to-ceiling sliding doors, wraparound deck with a fire pit.

9. 143 S. Mapleton Drive, Holmbly Hills

Price: $66.65 million

Size: 10,907 square feet

Features: Swimming pool, tennis court, wood-paneled den.

8. 10697 Somma Way, Bel Air

Price: $75 million

Size: 40,000 square feet

Features: Two swimming pools, recording studio, wine cellar and tasting room, giant outdoor video screen, wellness spa and fitness center, movie theater.

Delmonico's, located just a few blocks away from the New York Stock Exchange in downtown Manhattan, opened in 1837 as one of the first sit-down restaurants in America. 

But while the restaurant is perhaps best known for its steaks, it also has a selection of food items you won't find on the menu. Called the "Secret Billionaire's Menu," these dishes will set you back quite a bit — there's a grilled cheese sandwich for $100, for example, and a golden twist on the classic black-and-white cookie for $50. 

"We have a lot of Wall Street guys down here and they're always looking to outdo one another," Executive Chef Billy Oliva told Business Insider.

We recently got to try out the menu in person — here's what it was like. 

SEE ALSO: We visited the new pizzeria that people are saying could be the next Shake Shack — here's why it won't follow in the burger chain's footsteps

Currently celebrating its 180th anniversary, Delmonico's is one of the oldest restaurants in America. Mark Twain (bottom left) and Abraham Lincoln both dined here in their day.

Here, you'll see Chef Charles Ranhofer, who headed up kitchen operations there for much of the late 1800s. Delmonico's credits Ranhofer with inventing Eggs Benedict, Baked Alaska, Lobster Newburg and Chicken A la Keene, all of which are still on the restaurant's menu today.

It's still a favorite with the Wall Street crowd.

Whether you're writing the great American novel or taking a romantic getaway, a scenic train ride is one of the best ways to get around.

The August/September issue of National Geographic Traveler rounds up images of the best train trips in the world, according to one seasoned rail rider. It's available on newsstands now.

Here are 12 of our favorites.

SEE ALSO: California's lesser-known wine hotspot was named best small town to visit in America — take a look

The Belgrade to Bar railway takes passengers over 435 bridges and through 254 tunnels from Serbia's capital to the shores of the Adriatic in Montenegro, in about 10 hours.

Source: The Guardian

There's no better way to see the heartland of America than the California Zephyr, a railway that climbs the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada before descending to the Pacific Coast.

Passengers of the Canadian spend three days watching golden prairie fields, rugged lake country, and picturesque towns pass by their dome cars from Toronto to Vancouver.

Source: VIA Rail Canada

It's time for the last gasp of summer: Labor Day weekend. 

As the first leaves begin to fall, plumes of savory smoke will surely dot the nation — and many will be heading to a warehouse store like Costco to buy barbecue and party supplies in bulk beforehand. 

Racks of ribs and five-pound packs of hot dogs will be flying off the shelves in a celebratory bulk-buying frenzy.

Yet so many shopping for dogs to grill will likely breeze right past perhaps the best hot dogs in the country: Costco's.

I'm no hot-dog connoisseur, but of all I've tried in my life thus far, Costco's is the best yet. 

How is the nation's best hot dog from such a bare-bones place as the Costco cafeteria?  

First of all, it's a great value. You can order a hot dog and a drink for $1.50 — that's it. And considering how large the hot dog is, it's definitely an outrageous deal. 

But a deal alone isn't enough to sway most. The expectations are understandably low for a Costco meal. But on that first bite, it's abundantly clear that this is no run-of-the-mill hot dog. 

The dog is unexpectedly flavorful. Gone is the bland, hollow taste of the average hot dog; instead, a delightful smoky taste pervades, similar to a kielbasa sausage, but not as fatty or rich. There's a slight charred taste to it that isn't overpowering. It's juicy, and there's a satisfying snap with every bite.

This is not the lifeless frankfurter that one microwaves for 30 seconds before chopping up and throwing in some ill-conceived mac-and-cheese dinner. Nay — this dog has vitality. The condiments aren't needed to mask the soul-crushing saltiness that they normally would, but simply to complement the already-delicious hot dog. 

Speaking of condiments: Ketchup, mustard, relish, onions, and sauerkraut — if you're into that — are all at your disposal at Costco's commissary. Such freedom is truly a national treasure worthy of our patronage. 

The bun is deceptively simple — what's in a bun, after all? It's seen as the vehicle, not the cargo. Yet the bun is the unsung hero of this hot dog.

It's soft and pliant, and tastes lightly sweet, which complements the dog itself perfectly. But the real magic happens when the condiments are dumped on the dog with wild abandon — precisely because nothing happens. The bun is immune to shabby sogginess or untimely breakage. It's truly miraculous. 

By all means, grill your own hot dogs in the backyard — char them if you must. But if you find yourself heading to Costco to stock up on huge amounts of paper napkins, meat for the grill, etc., do yourself a favor and grab a hot dog on the way out. You'll be surprised. 

SEE ALSO: We visited the controversial, award-winning Trump Winery in Charlottesville— and it was completely different from what we expected

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here are the 8 food items you should only get from Costco

What do you picture when you imagine a hedge-fund office? A noisy trading floor full of hedge-fund guys in fleece vests?

Two Sigma, a $45 billion hedge-fund firm that uses advanced technologies to find investment opportunities, is a little different. The firm, which says it has seen head count grow by more than 400% in the past seven years, is as much a technology company as it is a finance company, analyzing over 10,000 data sources to find patterns in markets.

That approach seems to have paid off. Two Sigma ranked as the fifth-biggest hedge fund in the world in Institutional Investor's Alpha's 2017 Hedge Fund 100 list, while cofounders David Siegel and John Overdeck each made $750 million last year, according to the magazine's list of the top-earning hedge-fund managers. The firm also runs an insurance business, Two Sigma Insurance Quantified, a market-making arm called Two Sigma Securities, and a venture-capital arm.

In August, Business Insider took a tour of the firm's two New York offices, which are across the road from each other in the SoHo neighborhood. The offices are stashed with arcade games, computing memorabilia, gyms, a hacker space, and a music room.

SEE ALSO: These before-and-after photos show tech billionaires' dramatic transformations

There was a teach-in on Python for Research when we visited 101 Avenue of the Americas, one of three talks the firm hosts weekly.

The kitchen was well stocked.

You may be able to see a Juicero machine on the left side. Two Sigma Ventures, the venture arm of Two Sigma, is an investor in Juicero, which recently announced a price cut and layoffs.

Across the road at 100 Avenue of the Americas, there's another kitchen, with staff taking time out to play games.

Allbirds is taking flight.

The company known for its super-soft sneakers — made out of a proprietary Merino wool blend and dubbed the most comfortable in the world — announced a $17.5 million Series B funding round on Tuesday, led by investment firm Tiger Global.

That brings the total raised by the company to $27.5 million since its founding in 2015.

The sneakers caught on as the shoe du jour in Silicon Valley in 2016, and fans praised their comfort and accessible price.

The wool blend is soft to the touch. Allbirds encourages customers to wear the shoes without socks and throw them in the washing machine. The company currently sells two wool shoes: a version with laces, called the runner, and a slip-on, known as the lounger, released earlier this year.

Allbirds cofounder Tim Brown told Business Insider the company will use the cash to open new physical store locations. Allbirds currently has one store under the company's headquarters in San Francisco, and another is opening this month in another undisclosed city in the US. Brown says others are planned.

"Retail is a big part of our future," Brown said. "We think there's a really great opportunity to rethink retail and rethink how shoes are tried on, and just think through every step of that process."

Allbirds currently only ships shoes to the US and New Zealand, but Brown said the cash will also be used to help the company offer its products online in more countries around the world.

Brown says the company hasn't lost sight of its original mission, which is something he calls "natural material innovation": creating "better" shoes from sustainable materials, like wool, that aren't traditionally used in footwear and are more environmentally friendly to boot.

The funding will help that research into new materials, according to Brown, and will eventually help solve other problems in footwear.

"We think there's a pipeline of other materials, many of which we've already been working on, and this funding will really allow us to double down on that innovation that will really fuel the growth of the business going forward," Brown said.

In the future, he said, that "natural material innovation" may extend to other products, but the focus is just on shoes for now. 

"The idea that underpins Allbirds is larger than just shoes, but at the moment we're laser-focused on it," Brown said.

SEE ALSO: Millennials have a new shopping preference that should terrify Lululemon and Athleta

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• Many supplements are advertised as a healthy addition to any diet.
• Some supplements, however, can interfere with medications including antibiotics and birth control.
• St. John's wort is an herbal supplement advertised for depression and inflammation relief, but studies suggest it can be dangerous.

They're colorful, chewable, and more affordable than a doctor's visit. And if you believe some of their claims, supplements can do everything from giving you an energy boost to helping you lose weight. At the very worst, your daily tablet can't do any harm — right?

Not so fast. A growing body of research suggests that some supplements can carry real health risks that range from vomiting to negative interactions with existing medications and even an increased risk of cancer and death.

St. John's wort, an herbal supplement sold widely in the US and advertised for everything from helping with depression to relieving inflammation, can severely curb the effectiveness of several important pharmaceutical drugs— including antibiotics, birth control, and antiretrovirals for infections like HIV. The herb speeds up their breakdown in the body, potentially rendering the medications useless.

'Most people don't consider it a medication'

When Pouya Jamshidi, a resident at Weill Cornell Medical College, delivered his first baby, he had to quarantine the child after it was discovered that the mother had been taking St. John's wort and re-contracted a highly contagious infection as a result.

"The trouble is most people don't consider it a medication because you don't need a prescription for it, and so she didn't tell us," Jamshidi told Business Insider.

Although the pregnant woman had been incredibly cooperative with Jamshidi and his team throughout her pregnancy, she didn't realize that the herbal supplement was counteracting the effects of the antibiotics she was taking to prevent the tuberculosis from coming back.

"It basically over-metabolized the antibiotics so they weren't in her system in the correct dose," Jamshidi said.

In 2000, the National Institutes of Health published a study showing that St. John's wort could severely curb the effectiveness of several important pharmaceutical drugs by speeding up their breakdown in the body. The findings prompted the US Food and Drug Administration to warn doctors about the herbal remedy, but that did little to stem public sale or consumption of it.

Over the past two decades, US poison-control centers have gotten about 275,000 reports — roughly one every 24 minutes— of people who reacted badly to supplements; a third of the reports were about herbal remedies like St. John's wort.

When Jamshidi and his team realized the pregnant woman's tuberculosis had returned, they asked her if she had started any new medications. She said no, but the next day she arrived at the clinic with a small bottle of St. John's wort.

She said she had been taking the herbal remedy for the feelings of depression she experienced after her last pregnancy. Although some small studies initially suggested St. John's wort could have benefits for people with depressive symptoms, the NIH researchers failed to find enough evidence to support that.

As a result of her tuberculosis, Jamshidi's patient had to be isolated to ensure the infection didn't spread. She spent the last three months of her pregnancy alone.

"It was miserable — she was isolated for all that time, and then she couldn't even hold the baby," said Jamshidi.

He believes one of the reasons many people end up in emergency rooms after taking supplements is that the quantities of active ingredients in them can vary dramatically. A 2013 study published in the journal BMC Medicine found that doses of ingredients in supplements could even vary from pill to pill — which poses a significant hurdle for doctors trying to treat a negative reaction.

"There are other medications that can have side effects, but patients come in and tell you the dose, and you can reverse it," Jamshidi said. "But with supplements, you don't know what you're dealing with."

Steve Mister, the president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a Washington, DC-based trade organization representing more than 150 supplement and other companies, disagreed. He told Business Insider that the vast majority of supplements are safe and consumers should feel confident taking them.

"Supplements are products that are intended to supplement the diet," said Mister. "Consumers should expect that these are things that’ll help with their overall well-being and their overall health."

SEE ALSO: The $37 billion supplement industry is barely regulated — and it's allowing dangerous products to slip through the cracks

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There are roughly 1,500 skyscrapers dotting the Hong Kong skyline, but few have been seen quite like this.

In 2013, Australian-born photographer Peter Stewart set out to capture the city's residential high-rises from the ground looking up. His signature point-of-view shows the beauty and interesting geometric patterns of buildings that wouldn't otherwise receive a second glance.

Stewart shared some of his images with us. You can check out more on his website.

SEE ALSO: A photographer captured these dismal photos of life in North Korea on his phone

Photographer Peter Stewart fell in love with Hong Kong almost as soon as he arrived.

"There is so much to see here that keeps me active as a photographer," Stewart told Business Insider in 2015, "and continually inspires me for new ideas and projects."

His series "Stacked" captures Hong Kong's high-rises like you've never seen them before.