• Kissing at midnight on New Year's Eve is a long held tradition.
• It could date back to ancient Rome, where the Romans would hold debaucherous parties every year, full of kissing and alcohol.

A dilemma of single people everywhere is who you're going to kiss when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve.

There's nothing lonelier than standing in a room of couples all bringing in the new year with locked lips, while you're there sadly holding your Champagne and meekly singing along to "Auld Lang Syne."

Like with most traditions, it's meaningless. It's not a sign you'll spend the whole year miserable and alone if you don't find someone who wants to kiss you. But also like other traditions, it does date back a long time.

Some historians trace it back to ancient Rome. The Romans knew how to party, and would throw a big celebration every year called the Festival of Saturnalia. Presumably, a lot of debauchery and kissing would happen, and this tradition filtered down to the rest of Europe.

Saturnalia is also a part of why we kiss under mistletoe. In ancient Greece, to celebrate the festival, people would kiss underneath the parasitic plant because it was associated with fertility. The Romans would reconcile differences with enemies under mistletoe, as it represented peace.

Later on, during the Renaissance, masquerade balls were popular across Europe. Bustle reported that at midnight, people would remove their masks, and kisses were a way of purifying each other from evil. It was a way of starting the new year with a clean slate.

English and German folklore built on this idea, and spread the superstition that a midnight kiss strengthens a budding romance, and avoiding it could mean a loveless year ahead.

Wherever the idea really originated, it's likely not based on anything concrete. It is a fun tradition, though, and it's always nice to have someone around to bring the new year in with.

However, if you're really worried about being kiss-less at the beginning of the new year, then you might want to go to Scotland.

During Hogmanay, the Scottish new year celebration, it is traditional to give a kiss to everyone in the room. The idea is to connect friends and strangers, and it also makes the single people feel a bit better.

SEE ALSO: We share 80 million bacteria when we kiss each other — here's why we enjoy it anyway

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NOW WATCH: A psychologist reveals outstanding traits of the super rich

One of the best things about travel is getting to glimpse into other cultures, lifestyles, and communities.

But it can be hard to look beyond the tourist traps when you've only got a few days in a certain city or region.

Business Insider asked some of the world's top travel experts — from the likes of Lonely Planet and Suitcase Magazine — for the coolest and quirkiest hyper-local neighbourhoods across Europe, a continent renowned for its mix of cultures and lifestyles.

The list offers a glimpse into some of the best places to visit, eat, and shop that you might otherwise oversee completely.

While it includes everything from Turkey to Scotland, one Scandinavian neighbourhood — selected by three different travel buffs — reigned supreme when it comes to super-cool, local culture.

Featuring everything from the repurposed houseboats of Amsterdam Noord to the Neolithic settlements of Scotland, and finishing with the most popular destination chosen by our experts, scroll on to discover Europe's coolest neighbourhoods to visit in 2018:

SEE ALSO: The 27 best under-the-radar places to spend New Year's Eve, according to the world's leading travel experts

Sit on the Spanish steps of Monti, Rome.

India Dowley, Digital Editor of Suitcase Magazine, recommends the eclectic neighbourhood of Monti in Rome for markets, culture, family-run businesses, and a very sociable set of steps.

"Only a few tiny (cobbled) streets a 10 minute walk from the Colosseum, the area is packed with vintage stores and wine bars, attracting young people and locals while remaining relatively undiscovered by tourists despite its location," she said. "Head there in summer to sit and soak up the Roman atmosphere."

Take the ferry to Amsterdam Noord in the Netherlands.

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"Not many tourists know about the area, in part because you need to take a ferry to get there," Dowley said.

"Noord's renaissance began with the redevelopment of De Ceuvel — a sustainable planned workplace on a former shipyard. Old houseboats were placed on heavily polluted soil, restored and filled with independent bars, galleries, workshops and pop-up stores, while nearby warehouses provide cheap accommodation for a hip young crowd who throw techno parties, festivals and fashion shows."

Wander through the Neolithic ruins in Orkney, Scotland.

For Chris Austin, Senior Vice President of luxury cruise company Seabourn, Scotland's Neolithic settlements in Orkney make for one of the coolest "neighbourhoods" in Europe.

"It's incredible to think that some 5,000 years ago, the prehistoric people of the Orkney Islands began building extraordinary monuments out of stone," Austin said.

"When you get the chance to explore each of the four Heart of Neolithic Orkney sites, you realise what a masterpiece of Neolithic design and construction it actually is. Your mind wanders back in time — together they represent one of the richest surviving Neolithic landscapes in western Europe."

This year has been a huge one in the royal calendar — there has been a pregnancy, a proposal, Prince Philip leaving full-time royal duties, Prince William taking them on, and foreign trips and state visits galore.

For people constantly in the public eye, the royals are unsurprisingly great at shaking the right hands, smiling at the right moments, and generally keeping it all together to make sure they get things done.

But every now and again, even watching from a distance, we get a bit more than that. Away from the setpiece events, these are photos of the royals laughing, gawping, eye-rolling, and generally acting like normal folk. Here are the best from 2017.

In January Prince William made a solo venture to Centre Point, a homelessness charity in London. Here he plays a game with a young woman being helped by the charity (he has to guess the name on the note — which says "David Beckham").

It's not all relaxed though — here's all three royals making a run for it at a sports event in east London in February.

Prince William had more fun and games trying to put up a tent blindfolded in Abergevenny, Wales, while launching a children's award scheme.

The holiday party season is in full swing and is set to hit its annual crescendo on December 31. And that means that many of us will enjoy a hearty New Year's Eve celebration with cocktails and Champaign, then spend the first day of the new year hungover. 

In Asia, partiers have been using hangover prevention remedies for years. Some of those remedies that use the same key ingredients have found their way to the U.S. and two Business Insider reporters, both of whom tend to easily get hangovers, bravely decided to put two of these remedies to the test.

We tried Morning Recovery, an herbal drink developed by Sisun Lee, a former Tesla engineer, in conjunction with Dr. Jing Liang, a USC scientist who is studying herbal hangover remedies. He discovered the drinks during a visit to South Korea but when he returned to the US, he couldn't find any that he thought worked as well. So he developed his own.

We also tested Flyby, which are herbal pills that were similarly patterned from the hangover drinks commonly used in Asia. The creation story of Flyby is similar to Morning Recovery. The company's founder Eddie Huai is 24, and a former mobile analyst for IAC. He discovered the remedy on a trip to Tokyo and worked for months to develop his own formula, working with a PhD to perfect it. He also has had nearly $1 million in sales in his first six months.

Herbs to combat alcohol

Both of these remedies use the same basic ingredient, an herbal compound called "Dihydromyricetin" (DHM) which is found in the oriental raisin tree and rattan tea. Herbs that contain DHM are used in Chinese medicine as an anti-inflammatory and used to treat a variety of ailments.

Hangovers occur when we drink alcohol at a faster rate than our bodies can detoxify. Researchers have been studying DHM's properties in helping the body cope with the toxic acid that builds up when too much alcohol is consumed.

Both of the remedies we tried also add a number of other herbs, vitamins and minerals that are supposed to be useful in combating hangovers such as prickly pear (said to boost metabolism), milk thistle (said to support healthy liver function), taurine (also supposed to be good for the liver), Vitamin B (often lost during drinking). 

The key with DHM-based remedies is that they have to be taken while you are drinking. They aren't designed to work after-the-fact, if you wake up with a hangover.

Flyby recommends taking a dose of its pills before the drinking commences and another dose before you go to sleep. Morning Recovery recommends drinking a bottle when you are done drinking before you go to sleep.

Note that these remedies are not official, FDA-approved cures for hangovers at this point, although all of the individual ingredients are FDA approved. They market themselves as herbal supplements.

Feeling good, not sure why

Caroline Cakebread tried Morning Recovery and felt pretty good the next day, but she isn't 100% sure that the remedy was wholly responsible. She explains:

"I typically get bad hangovers even when I consume small amounts of alcohol.

"To truly put the Morning Recovery formula to the test, I consumed four glasses of wine and one hard alcohol drink over the course of four hours. I’m relatively small, and this would typically be enough to make me feel less than great in the morning. I woke up feeling a bit tired but fine overall.

"I can’t conclusively say it was the Morning Recovery that did it though. The night before I also had a large dinner and ended up getting to bed at a pretty reasonable hour. While the mix didn’t seem to do any harm, it’s hard to say if it had any type of magical affect either."

Feeling saved by the herbs

Avery Hartmans tried Flyby to help her celebrate her birthday, and she felt like it really helped her avoid a hangover. She explains:

"I was nervous to try a hangover cure because it didn’t seem possible that some pills could prevent the monstrous headache I’m used to getting. Usually after drinking one or two more drinks than usual, I wake up to a pulsating headache that quickly turns into a migraine and lasts several days. My hangovers are unbearable.

"So when I tried Flyby, a supplement you take before and after you drink alcohol, I wasn’t expecting much. I popped three of the (extremely large) pills before my first drink of the night and tried to drink water occasionally like the directions suggested. I ended up drinking about eight drinks throughout the course of the evening — I was celebrating my birthday. These included both wine and sugary cocktails. Before I headed to bed, I remembered to pop three more of the pills and hoped for the best.

"Shockingly, I woke up feeling almost totally OK. That amount of drinks would normally keep me in bed all of the following day, but I felt normal — especially compared to my boyfriend, who slept later than me and woke up with a headache. My body felt exhausted and a little bit queasy, but my head was clear and headache-free.

"My test of Flyby wasn’t 100% scientific, of course, and there could be other reasons why I avoided a terrible hangover. I drank more water than I normally remember to do while drinking, and I ate a big meal at the start of the night. I also stretched out the number of drinks I had over the course of several hours, which probably gave my body more time to process the alcohol.

"Still, I think I would have woken up in a much worse state if I hadn’t taken the supplement. While I’m not sure I’d take it before every drinking event, I would definitely use the Flyby again.

"On the downside, the pills are enormous and were difficult to swallow, and taking away the consequence of a terrible hangover each time might encourage me to drink more than I should. But for a big event like the birthday, Flyby worked like a charm."

SEE ALSO: The ex-Tesla engineer who created an FDA-compliant hangover cure made $1 million in 3 months

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NOW WATCH: The best phones of 2017 that you can buy right now

• Mark Wahlberg is the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, according to Forbes.
• But three of his recent movies made just $4.40 at the box office for every $1 he earned, making him the most overpaid actor of the last year.
• Christian Bale and Channing Tatum round out the top three on Forbes list of most overpaid actors.

Mark Wahlberg earned $68 million last year, making him the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.

But he may not be worth his salt, according to a new analysis from Forbes.

Together, Wahlberg's three most recent wide release films that debuted prior to June 1, 2017 — "Deepwater Horizon," "Patriots Day," and "Daddy's Home" — brought in $4.40 at the box office for every $1 he earned making them.

Forbes calculated actors' box office earnings to paycheck ratio for its 2017 list of the most overpaid actors. The list, which was all men this year, ranks actors from Forbes' highest-paid celebrity list by how much money their movies earn for every $1 they are paid to star in them.

Wahlberg also starred in "Transformers: The Last Knight," which was released in mid-June, and executive produced his latest film, "Daddy's Home 2," neither of which were included in Forbes' calculation.

British actor Christian Bale came in at No. 2 on the list, largely thanks to his 2016 flop "The Promise." The big-budget film about the Armenian genocide earned back an estimated 11% of its $90 million production costs, according to Forbes. Together, Bale's three most recent movies brought in $6.70 at the box office for every $1 he earned.

And though his paychecks are modest compared to Walhberg and Bale, Channing Tatum earned the No. 3 spot on Forbes' list. His three most recent movies, including 2017's "Logan Lucky," returned $7.60 for every $1 he earned making them.

To determine the ranking, Forbes deducted the estimated production budget from the global box office earnings for an actor's three most recent, non-animated, starring-role movies released before June 1, 2017. Forbes then divided that by the actor's estimated pay for those movies to determine a return on investment figure.

"While these returns sound exceptional to stock or bond investors, Hollywood accounting means they are far worse than they seem," wrote Forbes staffer Natalie Robehmed. "Studios and exhibitors must split global box office totals; add in multi-million dollar publicity and release costs not included in production budgets and films quickly become more expensive."

Rounding out the top five in the ranking are Academy-Award winners Denzel Washington and Brad Pitt, whose latest three movies brought in $10.50 and $11.50 at the box office, respectively, for every $1 they earned.

SEE ALSO: Meet the 20 celebrities who made the most money last year — a combined total of $1.7 billion

DON'T MISS: The best purchase I've made all year costs $10 a month

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NOW WATCH: TONY ROBBINS: 'Trading your expectations for appreciation' will make you more attractive

Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, has always been detail-oriented and business-focused, leaving the spotlight to his father and his sister Ivanka.

"I know the entertainment stuff helps us," he told Forbes in 2006. "But somebody's got to stay here to remind everybody that we build buildings."

Today, Trump is in charge of building those buildings, leading The Trump Organization with his brother Eric.

But his life hasn't been without drama, and he's always been one of his father's staunchest defenders. Now embroiled in the Russia investigation, many are wondering more about Donald Trump Jr. Here's what we know:

SEE ALSO: A 'serious case of amnesia': House Intel Democrat says Trump Jr. was 'pretty non-responsive' in 8-hour interview

DON'T MISS: From rich kid to first daughter: The life of Ivanka Trump

Donald Trump Jr. was born in Manhattan on December 31, 1977, to Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana. As the first-born, he was named after his father.

Trump was whisked off to boarding school with his brother Eric after his parents' divorce. He went to The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, for high school.

Source: Vanity Fair

When he was 12, he didn't speak to his father for a year, after the elder Trump encouraged gossip magazines to chronicle his divorce from Ivana.

Source: The New York Times

• Researchers and other experts have pinpointed some key behaviors of narcissists and psychopaths in conversation.
• Those behaviors include repeating the same false stories and using offensive language.
• Remember though: Even if you recognize some of these signs in a friend or coworker, you should leave the diagnosis to a mental-health professional.

Generally speaking, you shouldn't walk around looking to diagnose your friends and coworkers as psychopaths and narcissists.

If someone looks over your shoulder while you're talking or seems weirdly distant, there's a good chance they're just having an off day and don't have a pathological problem.

That said, if you notice a pattern of unusual behavior, it might very well warrant more attention.

We looked into the scientific literature and some expert insights to find out the most common conversational behaviors associated with psychopathy and narcissism.

Read on to see if you've noticed any of the following in people you know — or in yourself.

SEE ALSO: 5 heartbreaking aspects of dating a narcissist

DON'T MISS: 5 ways narcissism makes people stronger, smarter, and more successful

Psychopaths tend to speak slowly and quietly

A 2016 review of studies, published in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior and highlighted on Inc., found that psychopaths tend to speak slowly and control their speech more so than non-psychopaths.

They also use fewer emotional words, keeping a relatively neutral tone.

Psychopaths tend to use more past-tense verbs

That's according to the 2016 review.

Researchers suspect this is because they're more psychologically and emotionally detached from the conversation topics.

Psychopaths tend to use emotional language without displaying much feeling

Psychopaths' language tends to lack what psychologists call an "emotional dimension," according to the 2016 review.

From the paper: "A psychopath can say, 'I love you,' without feeling anything else than asking for a cup of coffee."

Have a reunion or a wedding coming up, and you'd like to get in top shape before running into your ex? Exercise Scientist Shawn Arent tells us just how long you'll need to lose those pounds.

Shawn Arent is the director of the Center for Health and Human Performance at Rutgers University and a Fellow in the American College of Sports Medicine.

This piece was originally published on January 1, 2017.

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Bubble physicist, Helen Czerski, reveals why you should care about the glass you are drinking your champagne from.

Helen Czerski: One of the things that is very irritating if you ever have to go shopping for things to fill a flat is there seem to be so many different types of wine glass. It's only a thing to drink wine out of, right? It's got sort of a stem, and it's got a flat bit and it's got a cup bit. How complicated does it need to be? And it turns out, in the case of champagne especially, the shape of the glass does matter quite a lot. 

So to understand what shape a champagne glass should be, you, first of all, need to know what the glass is doing. At the bottom of the glass, there's something very important going on because that's the only part of the glass that is rough. If you've got a champagne glass and it's got bubbles coming from everywhere around the inside of the glass, I hate to tell you this but the glass is dirty. Don't tell your host, it won't make you popular. So in a clean champagne glass, there is a rough bit at the bottom. And champagne has dissolved gas in it, carbon dioxide at really high pressure, six or seven atmospheres, which is one of the reasons that champagne bottles are so big and so thick. And that gas would like to come out of solution but it needs a place to start. So that little roughness at the bottom of the pointy bit, those little sort of grooves in the glass, those are really good places for a new bubble. So that's why bubbles rise just from the center of the glass and they rise up in a thin column. It's because that's the place you can make bubbles.

So then you've got to worry about what happens next. And you'll see the bubbles get a little bigger as they rise because more and more gas is joining them. And as the bubbles go, they don't just move through the fluid, they actually drag liquid with it. So that thin column of bubbles sets up a bubble engine so fluid, the champagne, is being dragged up the middle and then the bubbles stay at the top but the wine has to come back down the outside. So you get this bubble engine going and that has two important consequences. The first thing is that it's always bringing new champagne to the top and that means flavors can get out of the champagne and into the air above it. And the reason that matters is because quite often when we think we are tasting things, what we are actually doing is smelling things. So when you lift a glass of champagne to your nose, just as much as what's in the wine, what matters is in the air just above it because that's the bit that goes right up your nose just as you take a sip. So if you got a bubble engine that is going round and round, it's bringing lots of new champagne to the top, so lots of flavor molecules can get released into that little bit of space. The other thing that happens is that when the bubbles come to the top and burst, they actually do the job for you. They spit little particles up your nose and so even more flavor gets delivered upwards. So this little bubble engine is really important for the flavor of the champagne.

Now, different glasses drive that bubble engine in different ways. So if you've got a nice, tall champagne flute, the sort of classic thing you get at parties, the bubble engine is going really fast, comparatively speaking. The problem is that it's spitting all this flavor into the air but your tall glass if you fill it most of the way up, all the flavor molecules just basically escape out of the glass and disappears. So you've wasted them, which is a bit of a shame. 

The other sort of champagne glass you used to see is a coupe, which is a sort of very flat wide one like that. So, in this case, you've got a very shallow depth of champagne, so your bubble engine's going really slowly. So that's really good for allowing lots of complex molecules to stick to the bubbles, so the flavor molecules that the bubbles are delivering to the surface, they got lots of complexity so it's bringing out all the wonderful things that are in your wine. The problem is that, it's the same thing, when your flavor is released into the headspace just above the wine, it basically just blows away. 

So it turns out that the perfect glass to drink champagne out of, if you are really a wine snob is to pick something that's about the shape of a brandy glass, which is the hard bit. Because what happens then is you get this slow bubble engine that delivers lots and lots of complexity into the air, but then it's trapped in all the space you've got up here. So when you lift the glass to your nose, that's when you get the full benefits of the flavor.

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• More than 400,000 immigrants tried to enter the US undocumented through the southwestern border in 2016. The vast majority were from Central America.
• Most Central American immigrants travel along the same dangerous route, known as El Tren de la Muerte ("The Train of Death").
• Photographer Michelle Frankfurter spent years documenting immigrants traveling along the route.

Photographer Michelle Frankfurter had spent years traveling to Mexico and Central America as a photojournalist and human-rights worker. During her travels, she heard about a particular route that immigrants take to reach the US undocumented.

In 2009, she set out to follow it.

Following the path described in Sonia Nazario's award-winning book "Enrique's Journey," Frankfurter headed to southern Mexico and followed the path north.

In six journeys, she rode the treacherous El Tren de la Muerte ("The Train of Death"), came into contact with drug cartels, and befriended numerous migrant families, many of whom never made it to the US.

Frankfurter has shared some of her photos with us here, but you can check out the rest at her website or in her book "Destino," available now.

SEE ALSO: A photographer who spent 5 years at Nevada's brothels found legal prostitution was nothing like what he thought

The first step of the journey is crossing the Suchiate River on rafts made of tractor tires. The river carries migrants between the Guatemalan border town of Tecún Umán and the Mexican town of Hidalgo in the southern state of Chiapas.

After crossing the river, migrants hike 150 miles on foot to avoid Mexican migration checkpoints and reach Arriaga, a city in Chiapas. Here, a Salvadoran woman feeds her 18-month-old son at a migrant shelter in Chiapas after making the trek.

Frankfurter began the most significant part of her journey in Arriaga. Here, most migrants catch a freight train illegally to start their trek north.

• Rachel Sussman is a relationship expert and marriage counselor in New York City.
• She sees many couples who are struggling with differences in their personalities and values.
• Sussman said that opposites may attract initially, but over time it may become more of a problem.

The beginning stages of a relationship are all about guesswork: Is she into me? Was that a flirtatious text, or just a friendly one? Is he still seeing other people?

As the relationship progresses, the guesswork continues, but in a slightly different capacity: Will she still be into me in 20 years? Will I still be into her? And those type of questions are a lot harder to answer.

So hard to answer, in fact, that many couples guess wrong and wind up seeking out professional help for their problems. Some of those couples land in Rachel Sussman's office.

Sussman, a relationship therapist and marriage counselor in New York City, told me that opposites may attract initially — but over time, too much difference can start to wear on a romantic bond. She said:

"Oftentimes the problems that you start to have early on when you're dating that you might not pay attention to, or you might brush them under the rug or say, ‘Oh, that's not so bad; we'll get through that,' then add 10 years of marriage into that, and all of a sudden all those things that were bothering you when you were dating seem to be major deal breakers … where you are considering: Do you want to go forward? Do you still want to be with this person?"

She added: "The way I see it is, opposites attract and with the passage of time, a lot of couples tend to resent the things that are opposite."

Sussman used a hypothetical example of a couple in which one partner is highly social and outgoing and the other is more of a homebody. Initially those tendencies might complement each other, Sussman said; the couple might even say, "we balance each other out."

The problem is, Sussman said, over time "people get more set in their ways" and there's less opportunity for compromise or mutual understanding.

Pay attention to the differences between you and your partner, even when you first start dating

Sussman's observations echo those of Gretchen Rubin, an expert on happiness and habits and the author of, most recently, "The Four Tendencies." When Rubin visited the Business Insider office in September, she explained that people with opposite personalities may initially gravitate toward each other, only to clash later on.

Research on the importance of having similar personalities in a romantic relationship is mixed. One study, for example, of middle-aged and older couples, found that while personality similarity wasn't related to initial marital satisfaction, it predicted a downward trend in marital satisfaction over the next decade.

I asked Sussman if most couples who come to her because of clashes in personality or habits are aware that that's what they're fighting about — if they're aware that the very behaviors that drive them mad today are the same ones that drew them closer a decade earlier.

"Sometimes yes; sometimes no," she said. Sometimes she'll point it out herself and one partner will say, "Yeah, but it's gotten worse over time," while the other partner says, "No, it hasn't."

As is typically the case with romantic relationships, there are no definitive answers or solutions here. But perhaps the greatest takeaway is not to ignore or shrug off your differences, as Sussman said so many couples do. It's not necessarily a sign that you're doomed to divorce, but it's worth paying attention to and having a conversation about.

SEE ALSO: Here's why we're often attracted to people with qualities that will drive us nuts down the road

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NOW WATCH: A relationship psychologist explains why marriage seems harder now than ever before

Tom Brady is a five-time Super Bowl champion and arguably the greatest quarterback of all time.

But that is just one thing that is going well for Brady. He is also the husband of the world's highest-paid supermodel, Gisele Bündchen, and he is the third-highest-paid NFL player of all time.

Brady is now 40 years old and in addition to being an NFL icon, he has become somewhat of a fashion icon off the field. However, Brady's fashion sense had humble beginnings.

Below we take a look at how his style has evolved over the years.

This post originally appeared on Business Insider in August and has been updated.

Brady's fashion decisions certainly had humble beginnings.

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Brady's high school yearbook photo reveals a nice, clean look, especially with his hair which will take on many forms over the years.

Before he was in the NFL, there was a time when Brady's suits weren't always tailored.

"The Last Jedi" has dazzled audiences around the world and introduced us to more characters and creatures in a single movie than ever before in the "Star Wars" saga.

The director Rian Johnson doesn't just push the storyline of Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo Ren forward in unique ways — with help from legends from the original trilogy like Luke Skywalker and General Leia — but also gives us a bunch of newbies to love (or hate).

Here we look back on 36 characters from "The Last Jedi" and rank them from worst to best:

Warning: Spoilers below if you haven't seen "The Last Jedi."

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 11 best movies of 2017

36. BB-9E

The First Order's new droid had a lot of hype when it was first revealed before the movie opened, but it didn't get a lot of screen time. Maybe we'll see more of it in action in deleted scenes, but for now it's one of those cool-looking new things that feels as if it got thrown into the movie for merchandising reasons.

35. Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o)

Maz's appearance in "The Last Jedi" is another thing that feels horseshoed in. She's off fighting someone, somewhere, but has time to take a call? She drops some knowledge on our friends in the Resistance, but it's a random appearance.

34. Bargwill Tomder

This Cloddogran is the mean master of the stable kids who look over the Fathiers (space horses) on Canto Bight at the end of "The Last Jedi." From his looks, I think grown-ups are frightened of him, too.

• It's possible to drive safely in wintry road conditions.
• But a higher lever of attention is imperative.
• And sometimes the safest decision is to not drive at all.

Winter has kicked into high gear across the US. The Northeast is currently ringing in the New Year as the thermometer plunges and the snowstorms start to arrive.

When it comes to driving, few things are more difficult to deal with than snow, much less when a "wintry mix" of precipitation arrives. Ice, it goes without saying, is treacherous.

It is possible, of course, to drive and to drive safely in the white stuff. You just need to prepare yourself properly for the experience.

Here are 14 basic rules and guidelines to follow:

SEE ALSO: 10 things that make changing a tire much, much easier

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1. Know when NOT to even think about driving.

So you've driven in the snow before and you've got a vehicle that can handle bad conditions. Does that mean you can deal with whatever Mother Nature throws at you?

It does not.

No one should be driving in a blizzard — for two main reasons. First, the simple fact that your car is on the road makes it more difficult for the authorities to clear the streets. If you get stuck, that's obviously a problem for the snow plows.

Second, if you do get stuck, you're an immediate distraction from what the emergency services really need to be doing, which is helping people who weren't stupid enough to take to the roads.

In a genuinely major-league snow storm, you should stay put and leave your vehicle alone, unless there's an absolute emergency.

What people in the US Northeast — especially in the New York City area, upstate New York, and New England — are facing is a classic example. It's a mess. Even the best snow drivers are advised to stay away from their cars.

2. Make sure you have a vehicle that CAN handle the snow.

Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to manage a rear-wheel-drive car in the snow. You don't need all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive. You just need to know what you're doing.

That said, if you've never taken your BMW 3-Series out in snow before, it's best to not test your non-existent skills. You would be better of with a front-wheel-drive car, with the weight of the engine over the drive wheels.

AWD and 4WD are better — but they're also no guarantee that you won't get stuck. Again, how much experience you have is important.

The bottom line is that if you know your car and have dealt with snow before — and you're not in the middle of a blizzard — you're OK. If not, it might be best to take your car out for a bit of practice.

3. Two words: SNOW TIRES.

Whether you have a rear-wheel-drive, front-wheel-drive, or AWD or 4WD vehicle, your best hedge against trouble in the snow when driving is snow tires.

You can put all-season tires on your car, but when there's serious snow on the ground, snow tires are your best friend.

They're made of different compounds than summer tires, enabling them to maintain traction in the cold. The treads are also designed to deliver better grip and prevent snow and slush from building up on the tires.

Winter tires aren't a fail-safe; you can still slip and slide and get stuck with them. But they're designed to deal with snow and in the opinion of many experts, are a good call if you live in a region where snows are frequent and heavy.

President Donald Trump did a lot of tweeting in 2017.

On many days, Trump's tweeting provided the headline material for his roller-coaster first year as president.

He attacked everyone from former President Barack Obama to actress Meryl Streep. He tweeted about the Russia investigation, "fake news," 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, his travel ban, television hosts, and often what was airing on the "Fox & Friends" morning show in real time.

In total, Trump smashed the "tweet" button more than 2,500 times in 2017. And he is showing no signs of slowing down.

Here are the 60 most outlandish, eye-popping, and bombastic Trump tweets of 2017:

SEE ALSO: Obama-era ethics chief defends tweet urging people to stock up and 'take the streets' if Trump fires Mueller

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When he chastised "so-called 'Russian hacking'"

When he hit back at Hollywood legend Meryl Streep for calling him out in an acceptance speech

When he asked if we are "living in Nazi Germany?"

Another year is about to end, and as we all praise the movies that we loved (and made billions), it's also a time to look back on the ones that didn't turn out so great.

The list of 2017's worst-reviewed movies has a little bit of everything in it: the colossal box office duds, the movies that became nothing more than a joke on social media, and the one that cost its director a "Star Wars" movie.

Here are the 25 worst-reviewed movies of 2017, as rated by critics' scores on Metacritic:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 11 best movies of 2017

25. “The Book of Henry”

Metacritic score: 31/100 

What a critic said:“‘The Book of Henry’ is the most misguided film since the 2003 Gary Oldman abomination ‘Tiptoes.’ [Director Colin] Trevorrow is slated to helm an upcoming ‘Star Wars’ film, so y’all have fun with that.” — The Austin Chronicle (Editor’s Note: Three months after the release of this movie, Lucasfilm announced it had “mutually chosen to part ways” with Trevorrow on “Star Wars: Episode IX.”)

24. “Absolutely Anything”

Metacritic score: 31/100 

What a critic said:“[A] depressingly inept comedy.” — Screen Daily

23. “Friend Request”

Metacritic score: 31/100

What a critic said:“An utterly idiotic movie that uses social media as a conduit for witchcraft and mayhem.” — The Wrap

• When you're getting to know someone, it is hard to tell what they will end up like.
• High conflict people take advantage of this and trick you into thinking they are perfect for you.
• But when they know you are committed they turn into their true selves.
• There are three warning signs you should be aware of in early stages of relationships, which might indicate your partner is high conflict.

Dating is tough. There are so many different, harsh ways you can be dumped nowadays.

But you also have to be careful about who you date in the first place, because toxic, high conflict people have always been around.

The trouble is, these people are often hard to spot because at first they come across as someone charismatic, attractive, and affectionate.

In a blog post in Psychology Today, therapist Bill Eddy highlights three ways you can suss out whether the person you are dating is high conflict, and will likely cause you trouble later on. Eddy and his colleague Megan Hunter created a survey and asked people who ended up in relationships with high conflict people what red flags they missed in the early stages.

Here were the three warning signs they came up with:

1. Excessive charm

About 80% of the people who responded to the survey said they were swept up by their partner's charm while they were dating. They said there was an "immediate spark," but this evaporated once they had committed to the relationship.

"Charm doesn’t always mean that the person is an HCP, but it’s a surprising warning sign," Eddy wrote. "If the person seems too good to be true, you might look deeper."

2. Fake compatibility

Another way high conflict people seem too good to be true is how compatible they seem. On the surface it looks like they have a lot in common with their partners, when in reality they are probably just mirroring their victim's behaviour in order to reel them in.

Once the victim is committed to the relationship, the high conflict person starts to show their true colours.

3. Intense Sexuality

Nearly 50% of the respondents said their physical relationships developed very quickly and intensely. It is common for narcissists to be sex addicts, or at least claim to be. While they are interested in targeting you, you will be the object of their affection. But once you make it known you are committed, they will seek their thrills elsewhere.

It is important to remember that these are just warning signs, and are in no way conclusive indicators that someone is high conflict, a narcissist, sociopath, or psychopath.

But it is a good idea to keep them in mind when you meet someone new, just because so many people fall for the same tricks and end up in abusive relationships.

"Ask friends and family what they think. Take your time and don’t believe that you can change him or her," Eddy wrote. "The partner you really want to find will let you be yourself, and let you take your time to get to know them."

SEE ALSO: The biggest excuses narcissists spin to keep you hooked — and why this makes them dangerous

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Sales of non-medical marijuana began on Monday, January 1.
• Adults over the age of 21 can buy up to an ounce of marijuana and grow as many as six plants at home without a doctor's letter.
• California has issued temporary licenses to over 40 dispensaries, which allows them to sell non-medical marijuana starting January 1.

The Golden State is about to get a lot greener.

Sales of recreational marijuana began on Monday, January 1, after Californians voted to legalize the drug in the 2016 election. The market's debut brings an end to prohibition in the most populous state, which is now also the biggest legal marijuana market in America.

Adults over the age of 21 can now use, carry, and buy up to an ounce of marijuana for non-medical use, and grow as many as six plants at home, without a doctor's letter.

How can you buy it?

Though it is legal, Golden State tokers won't find marijuana in corner drug stores.

California began issuing temporary licenses to dispensaries — or pot shops — in December that will allow those stores to sell non-medical marijuana. The licenses became valid on January 1.

So far, the state Bureau of Cannabis Control has awarded retail licenses to 42 dispensaries from Eureka to Oakland to San Diego. (There are more than 1,300 dispensaries statewide.) Customers can view a full list of the pot shops that received licenses on the bureau's website.

State rules dictate that marijuana will not be sold between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Not everyone in California is on board with the so-called green rush. A review by the Los Angeles Times found that more than 70% of California's counties and cities, including Fresno, Bakersfield, and Anahaim, have moved to ban the sale or cultivation of marijuana.

How much will it cost?

The nation's going rate for legal, non-medical marijuana is about $11 per gram or $34 for an eighth of an ounce, according to price index site MJCharts.

State law imposes a 15% tax on sales of the drug, which will generate up to $1 billion in new tax revenue annually, according to the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Additional state and local taxes means some Californians could expect to pay an effective tax rate of 45% each time they buy.

Marijuana could get more expensive after a series of massive wildfires in Northern California last fall wiped out as much as a year's supply for some industry growers. BDS Analytics, a marijuana data insights company, told Business Insider that a shortage could causes prices to rise as much as 10 to 20% — roughly $2 more per gram or $7 more per eighth of an ounce.

Where can you smoke it?

It's still illegal to consume marijuana in public, on sidewalks, and in places where smoking tobacco is prohibited, like restaurants and theaters. Lighting up while driving is also off-limits. People busted for smoking weed in public can expect to pay a fine between $100 and $250.

A private home is the safest bet for legal toking, though landlords may prohibit the possession of marijuana on their premises. 

SEE ALSO: What marijuana really does to your body and brain

Join the conversation about this story »

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No one knows more about political drinking than author Mark Will-Weber, whose book "Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt: The Complete History of Presidential Drinking" explores the stories behind each president's favorite alcoholic beverage.

"Presidents drink for the same reasons we all drink," Will-Weber recently told Business Insider. "Sometimes because it's part of the job, sometimes it's because they're lonely or depressed — there's a whole gamut of reasons of why people drink."

For Will-Weber, knowing what the former presidents like to drink brings a "human side" to those who we "normally hold on a pedestal."

Ahead, take a look at the president's favorite alcoholic beverages, rounded up from Will-Weber's book and The New York Post.

SEE ALSO: Stunning vintage photos show how Americans in every state spend their downtime

Our first president, George Washington, was a whiskey drinker, as were Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, and Andrew Johnson. According to Will-Weber, Johnson was so inebriated when he arrived at the 1865 inauguration as Lincoln's vice president that he had to be pulled off the stage.

John Adams reportedly started every morning with a hard cider. William Henry Harrison was also a big fan.

According to Will-Weber, Thomas Jefferson purchased so much wine it put him on the brink of financial ruin.

• Actress and GOOP founder Gwyneth Paltrow spoke to Net-a-Porter about her diet and exercise routine.

• She said she exercised for two hours a day, and usually skips breakfast and eats a low carb lunch.

• I decided to tackle her habits for a week.

I tried to live like Gwyneth Paltrow for a week, and it didn't quite work out the way I'd planned it.

Paltrow famously leads an intense life. In terms of exercise, she used to do an hour of cardio and an hour of weights six days of the week. Her lifestyle brand GOOP also hawks all sorts of hardcore detoxes and cleanses.

But all that doesn't really reflect Paltrow's current reality. She recently told Net-a-Porter that she doesn't have the time or energy to tackle that grueling schedule anymore: "I'm getting old, my back hurts! It's depressing. Some days, the gym gives me this rush of energy and I feel amazing, but then my body's like 'f--- you.'"

She also doesn't stick to any GOOP cleanses for a long amount of time. She told Net-a-Porter she passes on breakfast and eats a low carb lunch "so my energy levels don't peak and valley through the day." Then, for dinner, she typically decides to "loosen the reins."

I decided to follow her diet as best I could, as well as take up her previous exercise routine. Here are the rules I was determined to follow for a week:

• Skip breakfast

• Have a low carb lunch

• Put in an hour of cardio exercise

• Go for an hour of weights-based exercise

• Eat a dinner along the lines of her typical evening meal: "A glass of wine, maybe a baguette dripping in cheese, some fries."

I didn't prepare at all for this. I just jumped into it, sparking concerns among the people I know. "You're going to die," several coworkers told me when I described my plan. Family members predicted I would "seriously injure" myself and expressed concerns about my shambling running style.

All of this just bolstered my determination to rise to the occasion.

The experiment itself left me somewhat surprised. On the one hand, some of Paltrow's dietary habits were easier to tackle than I thought. On the other, I ended up pulling my shoulder.

Here's a look at what happened when I tried to live like Gwyneth Paltrow for a week:

SEE ALSO: I tried productivity 'Hell Week' created by a former Norwegian paratrooper, but all I learned is I'm great at making excuses

I skipped breakfast every day

Before this Gwyneth Paltrow challenge, bagels were my go-to morning meal. I'd often grab one — poppy seed with cream cheese or butter — before heading into the office.

But, like some celebrities, Paltrow skips breakfast altogether. So I had to kick the habit. Instead of stopping by the bagel shop, I'd just hop on the train at head to work.

Truth be told, this wasn't particularly challenging for me. Back in college, I rarely ate breakfast. It may or may not be the most important meal of the day, but I've never had a problem skipping it.

I managed to follow this aspect of Paltrow's schedule for the entire week. To be honest, I think the week-long bagel cleanse worked. I haven't had a bagel since. Health-wise, they're far better as an occasional treat than a breakfast staple.

For lunch, I'd eat a salad at my desk

I didn't have too much trouble with lunch either. Normally, I'd grab a sandwich or a slice of pizza from some place near the office. For the experiment, I needed to spring for low carb choices instead.

I tried to get fancy and even looked up some of Paltrow's salad recipes. There were some tempting options in her cook books. I figured I'd try to make a few, to tide me over for the week. Heck, I even bought a jar of cornichons — which are adorable, tiny pickles.

But, to be honest, I ran out of time before I could snag all the ingredients necessary to throw together some of Paltrow's recipes (what the heck is silken tofu, anyway, and where am I supposed to find it?).

So I ended up improvising. My non-fancy salad was pretty good, though. I'd pack it up in Tupperware and eat it at my desk every day around noon, with a ginger ale.

I enjoyed the salads, but I was bummed to have to decline a ton of delicious offerings throughout the week. In the run up to the holidays, my coworkers seemed to show up to work with chocolates, cookies, and other sweet treats every other day.

By the end of the week, I was getting a bit bored with salad, although I tried to spice things up by switching up the dressings.

In fairness, I probably could've gotten more experimental with my lunches — "low carb" can include a whole range of meals, of course. But I only have so much brain power to devote to planning out and cobbling together what I'm going to eat ahead of time.

Still, I didn't have much of a problem sticking to low carb lunches for the entire experiment.

Once I got home, I'd tackle the weight-lifting portion of the exercise routine first...

Once I got home, I'd hide in the basement, where no one could see me flailing around with a medicine ball and hand weights, looking like a reject from the world's worst workout video.

I was unsurprised to find out that weights aren't my strong suit. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I just switched in between different moves for the hour. It was boring and hard. And I'm sure my technique left much to be desired.

Around Wednesday, my left shoulder began to really hurt. An hour of weights is probably too much if you're clueless about exercise — especially if you're making a leap from couch potato to workout fanatic, like I was. After Wednesday, I had to cut down on the weights a bit.

Overall, I'd say I truly disliked this aspect of the experiment. I'd rather do cardio for an hour than do weights for an hour. At least you can read while walking on the treadmill. The weight exercises just felt repetitive and tedious after about a half an hour.