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These Healthier Versions Of Your Favorite Candies Taste Pretty Great

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This is the UNREAL Candy line of healthier sweets.

Why We Love It: With endorsements from the likes of Tom Brady, John Legend, and Jillian Michaels, this line of candy uses natural ingredients instead of hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, and anything artificial — including colors, flavors, and preservatives. UNREAL candy is made instead with less sugar and more peanuts, fiber, and caramel.

The father-son team who started the company figured out how to reduce the amount of sugar in their five candies by over 40 percent per serving, on average. All ingredients they use are now non-GMO. Their website even lets you directly compare the ingredients with those of major brands.

The line includes Chocolate Candy Shell Peanuts, Chocolate Candy Shells, Chocolate Caramel Nougat, Chocolate Caramel Peanuts and Nougat, and Chocolate Peanut Butter candies. 

unreal candy

Where To Buy: Available at Target, CVS, and participating stores.

Cost: Individual bars range from $.89 to $1.29, and family-sized bags are $4.99.

Want to nominate a cool product for Stuff We Love? Send an email to Megan Willett at mwillett@businessinsider.com

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Buick's New Performance Sedan May Actually Appeal To Young People

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2014 buick regal gs

Buick revealed three new sedans today in New York, two of which induced little excitement.

The third, however, was more interesting.

The heyday of Buick on American roads is gone. The big market for the brand is now in China (where the Verano, sold as the Excelle, was the number one passenger car in 2011).

But General Motors isn't ready to let Buick give up on the US just yet, and the brand is doing pretty well lately.

It was named Best Value Luxury Brand for 2013 by Kelley Blue Book. Sales are trending upward, with three consecutive years of growth, close to matching pre-2008 levels.

At today's reveal, ahead of the New York Auto Show, which opens to the press Wednesday, Buick rolled out the 2014 Lacrosse, Regal, and Regal GS.

The LaCrosse held no surprises: It's a simple, low-end luxury car, built to be comfortable and quiet. "Library quiet," said Jeanne Merchant, the sedan's chief engineer.

It will come with the various newfangled safety and entertainment features that are the minimum for any new car, especially one billed as luxury. It seems like a fine, unexciting car.

The second car, the Regal, was also relatively unexciting. Phil Zak, exterior director of design, called it "the athlete of the family," but it didn't stand out.

Then Buick brought out its third new car.

2014 buick regal gsThe Regal GS (Gran Sport) is the performance version of the somewhat sporty sedan, and was the most impressive of the three.

Tony DiSalle, vice president of marketing for Buick and GMC, brought up the terms "responsiveness" and "dynamics" — a welcome break from the "quiet and comfort" mantra used to describe the LaCrosse.

With 259 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of peak torque, it's more powerful than any four cylinder midsize sedan.

Like Cadillac and Lincoln, Buick has long been a brand enjoyed by elderly Americans. To generate growth, those brands have reinvented themselves, offering sporty, high-performance sedans.

Buick is bolstered by the huge Chinese market, and so doesn't need to rely on coaxing the shrinking numbers of young American car buyers to dealerships. But if it does want to grow here, especially among young buyers, the GS is a solid horse to bet on.

We drove the 2013 Regal GS last year, and declared it a car that "might actually be a Buick for young people." Even without anything ground-breaking to put it as the top of its class, the new GS could generate pretty decent sales.

Now Watch– It's Official: The Aston Martin Virage Is The Sexiest Car On The Planet

SEE ALSO: 15 New Cars We Can't Wait To See At The New York Auto Show

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Finland's New Passport Doubles As A Flip Book Of A Walking Moose

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A YouTube video of the most recent Finnish passport is circulating, and it shows that the new design doubles as a flip book of a walking moose.

The passports were originally released back in 2012, but are now just hitting the spotlight thanks to the short clip of the drawing of a moose walking across the embellished blue background.

It was first pointed out on the blog arbroath.blogspot.com and then circulated on Daily of the Day.

Check it out below.

SEE ALSO: The Most Elaborate Ice Hotels Around The World

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Billionaires Don't Have Financial Planners –– They Have Personal Financial Officers

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conciergeAmerica may be adding millionaires at a rapid clip, but currently there are only 400 people who've achieved the ever-elusive billionaire status. 

We couldn't help but ask ourselves –– what does someone do with that much cash?

"If you had a million dollars of investable assets, you're concerned with making the money last," said Tom Orrechio, a principal at Modera Wealth Management in Westwood, N.J.

"If you have a billion, that's not an issue."

Orrechio has been working in wealth management for more than 20 years and served a year as chairman of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. His main clients are millionaires and the firm serves about 500 families. But Modera handles more than $1 billion in total assets and Orrechio is familiar with the process many billionaires use to manage their 10-figure sums.

Turns out a few zeroes make a huge difference. Bllionaires require a fleet of financial specialists to make sure their finances are up to snuff. 

They don't just hire financial planners. They hire financial officers.

A millionaire might start by hiring a wealth management firm to handle their investments and sticky issues like estate planning and taxes, but billionaires need help deciding how they'll pass on their fortune to their children, how to skirt around taxes, shelter their assets from creditors, orchestrate their charitable contributions, and help diversify their property and other investments.

Hiring a financial management officer is top priority. A billionaire often hires several people to work directly for them in a "home office," doing everything from paying monthly bills to handling travel expenses, Orrechio said. It's like a mini-corporation and one-stop concierge service all in one. 

"If you're a billionaire, you might be making large gifts. You have more sophisticated estate/tax planning, [and might manage] multiple legal entities," he added. "You have different individuals to handle those entities."

People who fall in the middle of the millionaire and billionaire range often hire a financial team to cover several families in their income bracket.

"The Rockefellers are a good example," Orecchio said. "What a lot of these wealthy families decide to do, they have the scale and infrastructure costs covered, so they can open up to multi-family office."

SEE ALSO: 21 U.S. cities that are dominated by rich people >

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15 Rich And Famous People Who Destroyed Their Expensive Toys

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steve wynnThe Picasso painting that hotel mogul Steve Wynn famously ripped is back in the news after billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen bought it for a whopping $155 million, The New York Post reports.

The painting, "Le Rêve," wound up with a 6-inch tear after Wynn accidentally put his elbow through it while showing it off to friends at his Las Vegas office.

But he's not the only mogul who has destroyed a very expensive toy.

These gaffes, some of which cost their owners millions of dollars, include crashing a spaceship, high-priced car accidents, and homes that are no longer standing.

Soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo totaled his Ferrari

In 2009, soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo crashed his Ferrari into a roadside barrier in a tunnel near Manchester airport, The Guardian reported.

Ronaldo, who played for Manchester United at the time, was unhurt.

The vehicle, which is still damaged, is supposed to be auctioned off on eBay.



Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' spaceship project crashed during a test fight

A spaceship funded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos crashed during a test flight in early September 2011. People on the ground lost contact with the craft and were unable to control it during the flight.

Bezos' big dream is to develop a practical means of space tourism. Seems his first venture didn't go so well.



An Australian billionaire nearly sank his own yacht

Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer, who became famous when he announced plans to build an exact replica of the Titanic, nearly sank his own private yacht.

The $5.3 million "Maximus" reportedly lost power and came close to colliding with a rock wall off the coast of Queensland, according to the Daily Telegraph.

After a flare was fired, the passengers put on life jackets and the yacht was towed to a nearby marina.



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MAP OF THE DAY: Boston Gets Gentrified

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Author's Note: This is the 10th of a series of posts that explore the class divides across America's largest cities and metros. Using data from the American Community Survey, each post explores the geography of class within a large city and metro area. For a detailed description of methodology, see the first post in the series.

Boston census map

The map above charts the geography of class for the urban core of the Boston area, including Cambridge and Brookline as well as the city of Boston. The creative class lives in the areas that are shaded in purple, the red areas are primarily service class, and the blue are working class. Each colored space on the map is a Census tract, a small area within a city or county that can be even smaller than a neighborhood.

As the map shows, the city of Boston is quite polarized by class. The creative class (about 42.5 percent of the city's workforce) is clustered in and around downtown and in several other pockets across the city. The rest of the city is red.

The creative class's downtown cluster is mostly found in the central business district and the Financial District. This area is home to headquarters and offices of banks and insurance companies as well as major government offices. It is heavily concentrated in Beacon Hill and Back Bay, which have always been fairly upscale; they haven't revived so much as intensified. Both have an abundance of preserved historic homes, shops, and restaurants, are in close proximity to Boston's great public amenities, and are well served by transit. The creative class is also concentrated in the South End, heart of the city's gay community, which has been the site of more recent gentrification.

Along with a vast population of students (the ones who work make some of these tracts look redder than they really are), the creative class is also concentrated in the Fenway-Kenmore area, home to major cultural and education institutions. Some major health care centers of are nearby too.

Other neighborhoods with a significant creative class presence are the North End, Boston's Little Italy. Across the water to the north is Charlestown, traditionally a working class area, which now has a large population of professionals.

The area of creative class purple that hooks out from the main body of the city to the west is Brighton, which has a significant student and creative class presence. The area of service class red adjoining is Allston, a diverse area of immigrants and student neighborhood also home to Harvard Business School. Town-gown relations there have been especially fractious. Further to the south and east, Jamaica Plain has experienced its own gentrification story and has also attracted a large LGBT population.

Cambridge has been transformed from an industrial city with two college town islands to a largely creative class cluster.

Boston's creative class follows and is organized around its main transit lines, especially the MBTA's Red and Green lines. Cambridge, home to Harvard and MIT, is connected via the Red Line. Cambridge has been transformed from an industrial city with two college town islands to a largely creative class cluster, with 67.5 percent of its residents in the creative class. Cambridge has a number of creative class districts, including Harvard Square, Kendall Square around MIT and Davis and Porter squares. Cambridge is also home to numerous high-tech offices and labs, many in close proximity to MIT in Kendall Square. The expanding corporate footprint has provoked some pushback from locals.

Brookline is an affluent close-in suburb that abuts the city along the Green line. (I lived there in 1979-80, while I was a student at MIT.) As the Harvard sociologist, Robert Sampson, who lives in Brookline, points out, "Brookline is really a slice of Boston—it was artificially 'removed' long ago for political reasons. But much of Brookline is closer to downtown Boston than a large swath of Boston, accounting for its creative class appeal. I live about 200 yards from the city line and can walk to Fenway, the Museum, and even downtown in about 45 minutes." He adds that Brookline is not really a classic "suburb, either ecologically or in terms of its housing stock: it has a huge rental market and multi-unit structures are common in eastern half. For example, Brookline has Coolidge Corner and Longwood district (I live near where they meet), which are very professional with medical, students, and some subsidized housing — an interesting mix."

The development of both the city and metro, as well as their class divides, have been powerfully shaped by transit infrastructure, following a pattern identified a half century or ago by the historian Sam Bass Warner, in his classic book Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston 1870-1900. "With the exception of the expensive houses of the Back Bay," he wrote, Boston in 1900 "was an inner city of work and low-income housing, and an outer city of middle- and upper-income residences. The wide extent of settlement in the outer residential zone was made possible by the elaboration of the new street railway transportation system and a parallel extension of city services."

The Green Line runs up Commonwealth Avenue passing through Back Bay, Kenmore, Allston, Brighton, and Brookline and ultimately ends in the wealthy suburb of Newton. The Red Line runs along Massachusetts Avenue in Dorchester and the Financial District, crosses into Cambridge, where it runs past MIT and Harvard, and continues out through Somerville's Davis Square into the suburb of Arlington. 

The much larger service class areas begin at the peripheries of the city's creative class districts. Most of them lie beyond the city's main rail transit lines and are serviced by bus and roads. Sampson notes that this "will likely change big time with a new rail line running from South Station down through Dorchester," which is backed by the city and will spur lots of development around its nodes.

South of Fenway–Kenmore is Mission Hill; to the east is the largely African American neighborhood of Roxbury. The massive Dudley Square Municipal Office Facility, an ambitious repurposing of the iconic Ferdinand's Blue Store building, is the first major construction project in this area since Thomas Menino was elected mayor 20 years ago.

North of Roxbury and near Logan Airport are South Boston and then, across the harbor, East Boston, which are both immigrant centers. South Boston or "Southie" has been undergoing a transition in recent years, as young professionals and creatives have begun to colonize the area. It is growing a start-up district near the water. Further south is Dorchester, Boston's largest neighborhood, which has a significant Asian population.

There are two notable features in the map. One is how physically small Boston's footprint is. Its neighborhoods are small too. In places like the South End and Jamaica Plain, gentrification hits a tipping point very quickly. The city has a tremendous shortage of affordable housing. The second is what's missing from it: there is a near complete absence of working-class blue. Boston, the veritable birthplace of America's industrial revolution, the hardscrabble working-class town where Whitey Bulger held sway for so long, hometown of the archetypal juvie-turned-rapper-turned-movie star Mark Wahlberg, is now completely post industrial. There is not a single Census tract in the city where the working class makes up as much as half of the residents.

•       •       •       •       •

bostonmetroWEBThe second map to the right (click for larger image) shows the class geography for the entire Boston metropolitan region, which extends to Plymouth to the south, Framingham and Concord to the west, and north into Rochester, New Hampshire. The metro is America's 10th largest, home to roughly 4.6 million people with economic output of roughly $326 billion [PDF].

It's not just the city of Boston that's post-industrial. Purple dominates the center of the metro, surrounded by red.

As in Boston, development in the metro follows transportation. Driven by sky-high housing prices in Boston and Cambridge, the surrounding communities of Somerville and Arlington have seen significant gentrification and revitalization. Somerville's Assembly Square project, a large-scale, mixed-use redevelopment project of 2,100 residential units, more than 2.5 million square feet of retail and office space, and a 200-room hotel next to a new Orange line station, is scheduled for completion next year.

To the west lies Belmont, an historically affluent suburb where Mitt Romney keeps his Massachusetts residence and which Charles Murray used as a proxy for an upper crust creative class location in his study Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. Further west, the historic colonial towns of Lexington and Concord, as well as Newton, Wellesley, and Sudbury, are historically wealthy places filled with old mansions. The suburbs with greatest concentrations of the creative class are mostly to the north and the west. All of them have excellent school systems and easy access to the city via rail and highways. Boston's Route 128 corridor, dubbed "America's Technology Highway," the birthplace of companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Data General, Bose, and countless others, runs through Newton, Framingham, and Waltham.

There are considerable creative class concentrations in the affluent communities that line the north shore, like Manchester-by-the-Sea, Swampscott, and Marblehead.

The service class largely surrounds the metro's creative class clusters in the north; there are bigger swathes of it directly to the south. Along the North Shore right outside of the city, Everett, Lynn, and Beverly have large concentrations of service sector workers.

The next map is an interactive map of the metro's class geography: Click on any tract to see the percentages of each of the three major classes.

The creative class includes people who work in science and technology, business and management, arts, culture media and entertainment, and law and healthcare professions. All told its ranks make up 41.6 percent of the metro's workforce, substantially higher than the national average of 32.6 percent and the ninth highest share in the nation. These are high-skilled, high-paying positions which average $84,403 per year in wages and salaries, substantially above the national average of $70,890. The creative class makes up more than 50 percent of residents in roughly one in five of the metro's Census tracts.

Top 10 Creative Class Locations in the Boston Metro
Neighborhood (Census Tract #)Creative Class Share
MIT, Cambridge (3531.02)91.0%
Newton, MA (3737)83.8%
Harvard Square, Cambridge (3540)82.6%
Central Square, Cambridge (3538)82.1%
Back Bay, Boston (108.02)81.7%
Fenway-Kenmore, Boston (104.08)81.5%
Kendall Square, Cambridge (3542)81.2%
Financial District, Boston (203.03)80.9%
Newton, MA (3744)80.2%
Newton, MA (3743)79.8%
Metro Average41.6%

 

The creative class makes up between 80 and 90 percent of residents in the metro's top 10 creative class tracts. Three of the top 10 tracts are in Boston proper. Four of the top 10 tracts are in Cambridge, around Harvard and MIT — reflecting the pattern of high creative class concentration around universities that we have seen in metros throughout this series. The remaining three are in suburban Newton, which sits on the Green line close to Boston College.

The service class entails low-wage, low-skill work in routine jobs such as food service and preparation, retail sales, and clerical and administrative positions. This is the largest class of workers in Boston, making up 43.4 percent of the region's work force, slightly less than the national average of 46.6 percent. Service workers in the metro average $33,738 in wages and salaries, better than the national average of $30,597 but just 40 percent of the average creative class salary in the region. The service class makes up more than half of all residents in roughly one in five of the metro's Census tracts.

Top 10 Service Class Locations in Boston Metro
Neighborhood (Census Tract #)Service Class Share
South Boston (607)92.6%
Roxbury – Dudley Square, Boston (903)84.4%
South Boston (611.01)77.2%
Bridgewater, MA (5612)75.8%
Fenway-Kenmore, Boston (103)75.6%
Roxbury, Boston (804.01)73.8%
East Boston (509.01)73.8%
Roslindale, Boston (1401.06)72.5%
East Boston (504)71.7%
East Boston (506)70.8%
Metro Average43.4%


Nine of the tracts are in Boston, mainly in South and East Boston (near Logan airport) and Roxbury. Fenway makes the list because of Fenway Park and the high population of students that live in the area.

Members of the working class are employed in factory jobs as well as transportation, maintenance, transportation, and construction. The working class comprises just 14.9 percent of the region's workers, well below the national average of 20.5 percent — a surprising, if not shockingly low percentage for those who remember the Boston metro's blue collar past as a port and a center of textile and shoe manufacturing. The metro's blue-collar workers average $42,765 per year in wages and salaries, substantially better than the national average of $34,015 but just half of what the region's creative class workers make.

Top 10 Working Class Locations in the Boston Metro
Neighborhood (Census Tract #)Working Class Share
Chelsea, MA (1604)45.1%
Lawrence, MA (2503)45.1%
Lowell, MA (3112)44.6%
Lawrence, MA (2513)42.8%
Lawrence, MA (2504)42.1%
Lawrence, MA (2505)41.8%
Lowell, MA (3117)40.4%
Lowell, MA (3111)40.0%
Lawrence, MA (2507)39.8%
Lawrence, MA (2511)39.7%
Metro Average14.9%

 

The chart above shows the top 10 working class tracts in the metro. None of them are in the city. The vast majority are in the traditional blue-collar cities of Lowell and Lawrence, the cradle of the American industrial revolution and the largest industrial center in America in the 1850s. Both cities are both part of the MassINC Gateway Cities initiative and have been the subjects of intensive place-making efforts; Lowell's downtown is currently undergoing an $800 million transformation. Chelsea, where roughly one in five people live below the poverty line, is just across the Mystic River from Charlestown.

My next post in this series will look at Detroit.

Prior posts in this series:

All maps by MPI's Zara Matheson.

Richard Florida is Co-Founder and Editor at Large at The Atlantic Cities. He's also a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, and Global Research Professor at New York University. He is a frequent speaker to communities, business and professional organizations, and founder of the Creative Class Group, whose current client list can be found here. All posts »

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These Victoria's Secret Panties Have Parents Freaking Out

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call me thong pantiesParents protesting the Victoria's Secret's Pink line and its marketing toward teens have taken over the internet.

While most of Pink's merchandise includes sweatpants, t-shirts, and hoodies, one item of clothing in particular has parents incensed. 

The culprit? A pair of thong panties that say "Call Me." 

This petition asking Victoria's Secret to pull its recent  "Bright Young Things" marketing campaign has more than 1,500 comments and cites the panties. A father wrote a letter to the brand about why it shouldn't be marketing to young people and also mentioned the garment.

The underwear are much more suggestive than anything else currently featured in the Pink line. The bulk of the collection is made up of sweats. Backpacks and major league baseball fan gear are also prominently featured. 

"Shame on you for your underwear line that has messages like 'call me' and 'feeling lucky,'" one mother wrote on the company's Facebook page. "This is blatant objectification of women, and sadly, younger girls will want to have these items, because they think VS stuff is cool." 

Victoria's Secret introduced its college-themed Pink line on the runways in 2006. 

Pink was so popular that Victoria's Secret began marketing to a generally younger audience. Justin Bieber performed at its annual fashion show last year, and the brand plans to open standalone stores with only Pink merchandise. 

In a statement, Victoria's Secret told us that "Bright Young Things" was marketed toward college spring breaks. The company recently started a Hawaii-themed promotion.

The petition mistakenly calls the marketing campaign a "line," but in reality, it's just a series of ads, according to the company.  In keeping with its Hawaii-themed promotion, the panties now read "Aloha." 

"Victoria’s Secret PINK is a brand for college-aged women," the company said. "Despite rumors, we have no plans to introduce a collection for younger women."

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The 25 Least Visited Countries In The World

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Tropical beach in Tuvalu

Are you up for going on that unique trip that almost no one has done before you?

The problem might just be finding the right destination. The least visited country in the world may not be the one you would think.

Click here to go straight to the destinations >



I am currently conducting research through visits to all 198 countries of the world.

The reason? To figure out where I eventually want to go on proper holiday. I have been to 190 countries so far and I often wondered which countries are the very least visited ones. Remoteness, visa regulations, governments, available travel information and how many visitors I see on my travels give me a certain idea, but what do the statistics say? If they even exist? And where can I find such official statistics?

UNWTO, World Tourism Organization has a pretty good overview. Some countries, especially some of which are likely to receive very few visitors per year, are still left out, which means that the information must be found elsewhere. I have found info on the remaining ones from various sources, such as newspaper articles or independent travel reports. Do also note that such statistics will never be entirely accurate. Some countries only measure tourists arriving by air, others only track boat arrivals, yet others base their info on information from hotels. And some people on business still say that they are in a country as a tourist to avoid extra bureaucracy.

Of the 25 least visited countries in the world, the most visited country only has 73,000 foreign tourists in a year, and the least visited has less than 200. That is way behind number one, France, with 79.5 million annual foreign visitors.

A version of this post originally appeared on Garfors.com, and is republished here with permission.

25. Dominica: 73,000 tourists (2011, UNWTO)

Why so few?
The island nation is rather small without too many tourist facilities. The only commercial airport cannot handle big aircraft, so the nation is served by propeller planes only.

Why you may still want to visit
The jungle provides refuge for a great number of birds and animals. And the rural feel of the island nation makes it feel anything but touristy, exactly what you may be looking for.

What else
Do not confuse Dominica with Dominican Republic. Both countries are in the Caribbean, but they are very different. Buy coconuts from salesmen by the road and eliminate your thirst. Just know how to haggle or you will be ripped off.



24. Chad: 71,000 tourists (2010, UNWTO)

Why so few?
There's political instability and unrest in this landlocked and dry country. Rebels make large parts of the country less than safe.

Why you may still want to visit
You find the biggest rocks in the world in Chad, although you should hire armed guards in 4WD vehicles to go there due to robbers that sometimes go violent. It's amazing for climbing! The capital N'Djamena is a big market town with some impressive governmental buildings.

What else
Mastercard is not accepted in Chad, so bring cash or a Visa card.



23. Central African Republic: 54,000 tourists (2010, UNWTO)

Why so few?
The landlocked country isn't really famous for much. It is one of the poorest in Africa.

Why you may still want to visit
Do go by boat on one of the many rivers in the countries. And relax in semi-modern Bangui where you'll find French cuisine and a bakery.

What else
Do not take photos of locals unless they give you permission to do so. Or risk facing a threatening mob.



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There's No Reason Americans Should Be Wasting So Much Cash At The Grocery Store

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walmart grocery shoppersOne in three Americans could be wasting $2,600 a year at the grocery store, a new survey by recipe kit company HelloFresh found.

That's $50 per week thrown away on items that are either tossed out or never used. 

Married couples are more likely to walk away with unnecessary items in their cart, the survey found. Twelve percent of singles said they never overspend compared to 7 percent of married couples.

Although the numbers are striking, Americans spend less of their annual income on food than any other country. A recent Bloomberg Businessweek chart shows the average consumer's food expenses fell from 16.8 percent of annual income in 1984 to 11.2 percent in 2011.

Even so, $2,600 isn't something most people can afford to throw away. 

Here are a few ways to shave down some of your excess spending at the grocery store:

1. Shy away from brand names. The products with the grocery store's own label are often just as good and usually come for a cheaper price. 

2. Buy ingredients, rather than prepared products. If you have time to make your own pasta salad at home, you can save money compared to buying the finished product at the store. 

3. Purchase produce when it's in season. Apples cost the least during fall harvest season and berries are more of a bargain in the summer than the winter.

4. Don't shop on an empty stomach. You're more likely to overfill your cart to make up for your stomach's rumblings.

5. Skip the bottled water. At a dollar per bottle, the costs add up fast, and you can always buy a filter for your tap water, which flows for a fraction of the cost.

6. Make a list. It takes a few minutes of advance preparation, but it will save you from wandering aimlessly down the pasta aisle, debating possibilities for your Sunday night meal.

7. Learn to love bulk. Buying larger boxes of cereals and crackers can typically save you a few cents on per unit cost, and your snacks will stick around your cupboards for longer.

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These Are The Sexy Victoria's Secret Items For Teens That Parents Are Furious About

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take me to paradise t shirt

Parents are angry that Victoria's Secret customers keep getting younger. 

While the brand insists that its Pink line markets to college students 18 and older, comments from a Limited Brands executive suggested that even younger girls were shopping there. 

After that parents protested on blogs and petitions. 

"I don’t want my daughter to ever think that to be popular or even attractive she has to have emblazon words on her bottom," wrote Evan Dolive, a father whose letter to the brand went viral.

We took a look at some of Pink's offerings to see what all the fuss was about. 

This suggestive t-shirt reads "Enjoy the view."



Another one says "Take me to paradise."



Parents aren't happy about this thong that reads "Surf's Up."



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HOUSE OF THE DAY: Chloë Sevigny Sells East Village Apartment For $1.85 Million

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chloe sevigny apartment

It looks like actress Chloë Sevigny has finally sold her farmhouse-chic apartment in NYC's East Village.

The apartment is in contract for $1.85 million, according to StreetEasy.

We first heard that the home had been sold in July of last year, when The New York Post reported that the actress had found a buyer after listing the place for $1.7 million.

But neighborhood blog EV Grieve says the buyer dropped out due to a death in the family, and the home was re-listed for $1.995 million.

Hopefully, this time it sticks. The apartment was designed by David Cafiero and has a wood-burning fireplace, beamed ceilings, a fountain in the backyard, and exposed brick walls.

The co-op is on East 10th Street.



But it doesn't feel like a city apartment. Check out those wide-plank floors.



There are built-in bookshelves and even a working fireplace.



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Here's The New Sedan Audi Made To Conquer The American Luxury Market

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audi s3 2014 sedan

On the eve of the New York Auto Show Tuesday night, Audi revealed the new A3.

Available for the first time as a sedan, rather than a hatchback wagon, the A3 is built to appeal to American buyers looking for luxury, technology, power, and fuel economy.

At under 3,000 pounds, it will be the lightest car of its kind.

It will come with an Audi infotainment system that outpaces the already impressive system present in the 2013 models.

"We believe in modern technology," Scott Keogh, President of Audi of America, said at the event. He showed off the screen itself, which rises out of the dashboard, as an example of how the technology is integrated into the car, not added at the last minute. "No one else does this stuff."

In fact, Keogh ranked connectivity as the second most important feature for prospective buyers, after performance.

For that, Audi put a 2.0 TDI engine under the hood, which produces 150 horsepower, enough to go from 0 to 62 mph in 8.7 seconds. That's hardly breathtaking, but for customers who want more power, there's the S3, also revealed at the event.

The high-performance variant of the sedan offers 300 horsepower, cutting the 0 to 62mph time down to a much more impressive 4.9 seconds.

The sedan is built to please customers in the US, where hatchback wagons are not nearly as popular as they are in Europe. The sedan body is also a big plus in the Chinese market, a nice upside for Audi, which is among the many automakers fighting for a bigger piece of the growing luxury market in Asia.

 Here are photos from the New York debut. The A3 is in white, the S3 in red:

2014 Audi A3 sport


2014 Audi A3 sport

2014 Audi A3


2014 Audi A3 sport

SEE ALSO: 15 New Cars We Can't Wait To See At The New York Auto Show

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Chinese Woman Buys Toddler $6.5M NYC Condo For When She's In College

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one57 view from 86th floor

China's rapidly growing upper class often sends its kids overseas to earn a college degree from one of the prestigious universities of the U.S. or Europe. One mother's move to secure decent accommodation for her daughter's college years has set Chinese tongues wagging.

The woman, who has not been identified, reportedly dropped $6.5 million on a condo in Manhattan which hasn't even been built yet for her daughter to live in while she studies. 

According to a top executive from the real estate agency which sold it to her, the intended future inhabitant was just two years old at the time of the transaction.

Read the rest at CBS MoneyWatch >

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Tour The Beautiful 177-Foot Yacht Billionaire Carl Icahn Got 'Bored' Of Spending Time On

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Here's another view.Forbeshas a cover story on billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn who is sporting a more relaxed look these days complete with facial hair.

One of the things Forbes reported was that "Icahn sold his 177-foot yacht because he got bored spending time on it; the investor has discovered that, for him, happiness means pursuing his activism actively." 

That's right, he got bored of a ship with amenities such a as a helicopter pad, jacuzzi, gym and staff of twelve including a personal chef. 

Back in 2008, Icahn put his yacht "Starfire" up for sale for $37.5 million, the New York Post reported.

It's definitely a dream ship and now we're going to take a photo tour. 

Welcome aboard the Starfire.



This is the main salon. There's plenty of sitting room and it's a great place to relax and watch a movie.



Here's the main deck dining room.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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People Started Partying Hard For Spring Break Thousands Of Years Ago

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cancun friends sun beach

Like Western democracy, Socratic philosophy, written histories, epic poetry, and every other foundational pillar of high culture, spring break began in ancient Greece.

Called "Anthestreria" by the local teens, and their parents, it was a festival dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine and whoopee and just about every excuse to party. For three days, people would dance, singers would perform, women would deck themselves with flowers, and Greek men would compete to see who could be the fastest to drain a cup of red wine.

Two thousand years later, practically nothing has changed except our taste in chugging alcohol. While Anthestreria is immortalized in terracotta wine vessels in world-class museums (below), you might think today's spring break rituals are as easily forgotten by history as they are by memory-blighted college students. But for the American cities that host students, the impact is not so brief, as John Laurie explained in his fascinating economic study Spring Break: The Economic, Socio-Cultural and Public Governance Impacts of College Students on Spring Break Host Locations.

The paper begins, as spring break did, in Greece, before the rise of Christianity put an end to kylix head-stands and other childish things for two thousand years. It wasn't until the mid-twentieth century that modern spring break emerged. In 1934, Sam Ingram, a Colgate College swim coach, was looking for a warm place to keep his swimmers in shape. He chose the small, quiet town of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. More swimming instructors followed. During World War II, rich Ivy League students, who occasionally visited Bermuda during their spring breaks, were suddenly spooked by rumors of German U-Boats roaming the Caribbean. The best intracontinental alternative was to meet up with the swimmer co-eds in Florida. And so, Ft. Lauderdale became the first official home of the American Anthestreria tradition.

The Spring Break Effect
Fast-forward six decades and, by the early 2000s, nearly 40 percent of college students travel en masse for spring break, spending "nearly $1 billion" in Florida and Texas alone, according to Laurie. In addition to the peculiar joy of reading a paper with these sort of topic sentences -- "Spring Break has a temporal as well as descriptive definition" -- it makes a substantive point about the economic benefits of spring break to the cities receiving hoards of boozing college students.

The spring break effect is, in a word, meh.

But how exactly do you measure "the spring break effect"? Laurie graphs sales taxes and hotel development taxes for various undergrad hotspots in Florida, Texas, and Arizona. His overall conclusions are:

(1) Spring break can be great for some small businesses and bars that make their money selling cheap rooms and liquor on volume; BUT ...

(2) It's not a dependable revenue generator for the counties at large, which suggests the economic benefits of the event are overrated, even for the most popular destinations; AND ...

(3) The only local industry that is clearly and consistently stimulated by spring break is law enforcement.

What Hath Spring Break Wrought? The Panama City Story
Just inside the armpit of Florida's panhandle, looking into the Gulf of Mexico, sits Panama City Beach, the "spring break capital of the world." Every year, the area draws up to 500,000 college students -- that's 42 co-eds for every city resident counted in the 2010 Census. For many years, Panama City has been MTV's home base for spring break coverage, and partiers spend $170 million during six-week period, according to a 2004 study.

Sounds like quite the stimulus. But Laurie's research in Bay County (home to Panama City) found that "the sales tax collected in Bay County during the month of March is actually the lowest of any month" before ticking up in April. Here's the chart:

Screen Shot 2013-03-25 at 2.44.38 PM.png

What about hotel taxes (i.e.: tourist development receipts)? It's a similar story. July is the year's clear winner. March and April, while a huge improvement over February, are hardly better than May or September.

Screen Shot 2013-03-25 at 2.44.50 PM.png

 

How is spring break so economically tame? Here are two conclusions, besides the possibility that Laurie's data simply does not properly reflect the benefits of spring break. First, college students are cheap and poor. They buy bad booze in bulk, they sleep five to a room, they lie out under the sun with nothing but alcohol and tanning lotion, and they hunt around for the best deals for dinner and accommodation, even if it means staying in a different city and driving to the beach every morning.

Second, although the spring break effect is weak, it's still there. March and April are considerably more lucrative for Bay County than January and February. In defense of college students, maybe they don't spend as much money as the four-person families who fill out Florida over summer vacation, but they might pull forward the spring vacation season by a few weeks.

If you're wondering how half a million people leave so little a mark, however, the proper response is that they do leave an unmistakable mark on local crime and non-criminal citations. March is by far the year's worst month for public safety in Panama City Beach.

Screen Shot 2013-03-26 at 11.00.47 AM.png

Screen Shot 2013-03-26 at 11.00.15 AM.png

The Spring Break Legacy
"More crime than tax receipts" would be the five-word summary of the Panama City experience, as painted by Laurie's research. America's most famous spring break city is hardly an outlier. "The overall trend between cities regarding both average business sales tax and average hotel tax is that during Spring Break, [Florida, Arizona, and Texas] counties show low levels of sales tax collected," Laurie concluded. "In fact, the month of March is very poor for all three counties."

It is notable that almost all of the cities in the paper saw extraordinary business and income growth in the mid-2000s. But since these years coincided with the heyday of the housing boom rolling through the sunbelt, it's reasonable to suggest that spring breakers might not have been the first (or 100th) most important factor in Florida's economic development.

Perhaps the only conclusion to draw from the paper is one you could have guessed even if you knew nothing about Anthestreria, Bay County, or MTV. Spring break might be a boon to certain hotels and bars looking for late-winter pick-up. But it's hardly a metropolitan stimulus. It's hot, cheap, mid-semester jaunt for poor indebted college students living off bad beer, cheap grain alcohol, and hormones. These things are timeless. But upon them, great cities are not built.

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The Luxury Real Estate Market In Downtown Manhattan Is Booming

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$60,000 a month penthouse gehry building new york

It’s conventional wisdom that “blue chip” apartments surrounding Central Park command the highest prices in New York City, beating out trendier Downtown towers on a price per square foot basis.

For the first time in a decade, however, the asking prices for luxury Downtown apartments have outpaced those in Midtown and Uptown, new data show, as developments in Tribeca, Soho and Chelsea demand in excess of $7,000 per square foot.

The average asking price for a Downtown luxury apartment rose to $2,777 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2012, surpassing comparable units in Midtown and Uptown, where the collective average price was $2,685 per square foot, according to data from Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group provided to The Real Deal.

The data, which the new development marketing firm has been tracking for 10 years, is based on a survey of 140 Manhattan luxury condominium and co-op buildings that have asking prices averaging more than $1,700 per square foot. The collective Uptown and Midtown neighborhood is defined by the firm as north of 34th Street and south of 110th Street, while the Downtown neighborhood is defined as south of 34th Street not including the Financial District or Battery Park City.

The growth in the market is the result of a bevy of new luxury towers hitting the market Downtown in recent years, as well as buyers’ willingness — and even preference — to seek out homes far afield of Central Park. And while this trend has been on the rise for years, the pace has escalated in the last 12 months.

In fact, prices for Downtown units have risen a dramatic 28 percent compared to the same period in 2011, marking a 30 percent jump over the previous peak in the fourth quarter of 2007, the data show. Uptown prices have not seen the same dramatic uptick, despite the introduction of luxury towers such as Extell Development’s One57.

“Uptown is tried and true — if you list something pre-war Uptown, you’re going to sell — but Downtown really has the buzz right now,” said Michele Kleier, a luxury broker whose brokerage Kleier Residential is based on the Upper East Side. “People are much more open about location now in general. It used to be they would have a 10-block radius in which they wanted to live [on the Upper East Side]. Now, it’s a lot more about the apartment for a lot of people. They’re flexible on location. That fabulous apartment with a terrace and a view is worth moving for.”

The evolution of the Downtown market has been in the making since the mid-1990s, said Jonathan Miller, an appraiser at Miller Samuel, as neighborhoods such as Soho and Tribeca became popular with celebrities and Wall Streeters. The influx of moneyed buyers began with the rise of the dot com boom, he said, when Park Avenue-qualified buyers started looking at similarly sized spaces in raw, Tribeca loft buildings.

More recently, the debut of several luxury Downtown skyscrapers — which have pushed the envelope in the last 18 months with asking prices in excess of $6,000 and $7,000 per square foot — are shifting the market even further. Recent examples include 56 Leonard, a 60-story condominium tower in Tribeca developed by the Alexico Group, Dune Real Estate Partners, Goldman Sachs and Hines, and the Witkoff Group’s 150 Charles Street in the West Village.

Last year, sales also launched at pricey new developments such as Chelsea’s Walker Tower, a condominium project by JDS Development and Property Markets Group, and 18 Gramercy Park South, the new project from the Zeckendorf brothers, who developed 15 Central Park West.

While sales at these developments have not yet closed, the eye-popping asking prices and rapidity of contract signings have reinforced the desirability of Downtown homes.

At the same time, while Corcoran Sunshine’s data provides an insight into the luxury market through the lens of particular buildings, it may not be conclusive for the luxury market as a whole, said Kirk Henckels, chairman and director of private brokerage at Stribling & Associates.

For one thing, there are many fewer new luxury residential developments on Fifth Avenue and Central Park West than Downtown, Henckels noted. (New developments tend to command higher prices than resales, and condos are often pricier than co-ops.)

For another, the Upper East Side and Upper West Side can still command top dollar—literally. Last year, the city’s priciest home sales all took place in Midtown and Uptown, including the largest co-op deal (the $54 million sale of media mogul David Geffen’s apartment at 785 Fifth Avenue), the largest townhouse deal (the $49 million sale of the Stanford White Mansion at 973 Fifth Avenue), and the largest condo deal (the $88 million sale of a penthouse at 15 Central Park West), according to a market report prepared by Henckels.

But buyers are also seeking trophy homes Downtown, and increasingly finding towers that come heaped with amenities, including swimming pools, gyms, roof decks and screening rooms. Properties with access to those facilities have not historically been available in Downtown neighborhoods.

“The Uptown people tend to want these newer buildings with views. Downtown properties historically haven’t offered that,” said Mara Flash Blum, a luxury Downtown broker at Sotheby’s International Realty. “Most areas are landmarked so you can’t build these huge tall towers there.”

The building under construction at 56 Leonard, which stalled for several years during the financial crisis, was permitted to rise to 830 feet thanks to its location between the Tribeca East and Tribeca West Historic Districts. A penthouse there is asking $6,400 a square foot, while at 150 Charles Street, one of the priciest units has a price tag topping $7,592 per square foot.

Kelly Kennedy Mack, head of Corcoran Sunshine, which is marketing 56 Leonard, told The Real Deal that the property is commanding interest from a range of different kinds of buyers, including some who previously may have opted to live in a trophy tower Uptown. If it hadn’t been for the introduction of properties such as 56 Leonard, many buyers would never have considered looking southward, said Mack, who noted that the building has been hit so far with local buyers more so than international purchasers.

“We had always suspected that 56 Leonard would compete with luxury high-end properties in the Midtown market, particularly for the international buying community and for the penthouses,” she said. “This is the first time that a product is being introduced to the Downtown market that has ticked all of the boxes historically only checked in prime Midtown.”

And it’s not just condos that are seeing price hikes.

“I’m seeing record numbers in co-ops Downtown,” Blum said. “The average price in the co-op market Downtown has been somewhere between $1,200 and $1,300 a square foot. When you start to see $1,500 to $1,900 a square foot, as we’re seeing now, that’s pretty outrageous.”

These are not the first Downtown properties to achieve record numbers. Last year, for instance, a pair of penthouses at Superior Ink on West 12th Street sold separately for $16.9 million and $10.5 million. Several years ago, a penthouse co-op at 40 Fifth Avenue sold for $11 million.

“If that came on the market right now, would it come on at $25 million?” Blum wondered.

To that end, brokers who have traditionally stuck to selling pre-war Upper East Side co-ops to well-heeled Manhattanites may need to learn mobility as demand for properties further south ramps up, Kleier said.

“We need to be in a car or on roller skates [to keep up],” she joked.

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Insane Demand For Kate Middleton's Engagement Dress Almost Destroyed The Brand

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Kate Middleton engagement

Kate Middleton wore a royal blue Issa dress when she and Prince William announced their engagement. 

Soon after her appearance, the dress sold out and requests began flooding in. 

But instead of being good for the brand, insane demand for the dress almost destroyed it, Issa chairwoman Camilla Al Fayed told Vogue UK.

"It absolutely sky-rocketed the brand on a global scale, but it was too much," Al Fayed told the magazine. "Demand was so huge the business couldn't cope. If Kate wears a Zara dress, these huge companies have the backing to follow through. Issa was basically run by interns, students and Daniella [Helayel, the label's founder and designer]. There was no business model."

But the company made it over the bump and just opened its first store in Japan. 

Middleton's influence on the fashion world is a polarizing topic. While some designers say that her garments result in crazy sales increases, others claim that stars like Kim Kardashianare more influential

SEE ALSO: These Are The Victoria's Secret Items For Teens That Parents Are Furious About >

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Diners Are Flocking To A Queens Restaurant That Serves Kangaroo Burgers

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kangaroo

DITMARS — Australian-inspired Queens eatery The Thirsty Koala just added a little bounce to its burgers.

The Astoria restaurant, which opened in December at 35-12 Ditmars Blvd., started serving kangaroo burgers, sliders and steaks last month — and the marsupial meat is so popular chef and co-owner Katherine Fuchs said she sells more of it than regular beef.

"I think it's popular because people are craving different experiences with food," she said, adding the food scene is trending towards novelty meats.

"There's a lot of other meat out there. People are eating elk, they’re eating emu, they’re eating ostrich," she said. "So why not kangaroo?"

The new 'roo offerings include a $15 8-ounce burger with "the lot" — Australian slang for all-the-fixings — that comes topped with bacon, beet root slaw, grilled pineapple, caramelized onions, house-made goat cheese and a fried egg, all squeezed into a brioche bun.

The kangaroo sliders are served with a cucumber pineapple salsa, sautéed shallots and a chipotle sauce. The kangaroo filet — a cut of meat that's a cross between a strip steak and a tenderloin — comes with a side of kumara mash, a type of yam that’s grown in New Zealand.

"It's a very good meat and it's very good for you," Fuchs said. "It's much leaner than beef, and it's got omega-three fatty acids."

They order the kangaroo meat from a ranch in Queensland, Australia, by way of the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx.

The Thirsty Koala also uses lamb sourced from Australia for its herb-crusted double lamb lollies, and the menu also incorporates a number of Oz-based herbs and spices that co-owner Christine Chellos — a Sydney native — brought back from a recent trip home.

The restaurant is a labor of love for Fuchs, Chellos and another co-owner, Alex Styponias — longtime friends and Astoria residents.

Styponias said his first kangaroo-eating experience was his own restaurant's dishes. He said he "got hooked" on the meat after trying the burger last month.

"It's really, really yummy," he said. "I would say it tastes like a filet mignon. It's really sweet and tender, and it's not as gamey as one would think.

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How To Find The Perfect Pair Of Glasses For Your Face

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Warby Parker Glasses

Despite what we've been told, finding the perfect pair of glasses doesn't depend on face shape alone.

Someone with a rounder visage can rock a round frame just as well as someone with a square-shaped face. It's just a matter of choosing the glasses that complement you the best.

But if that seems overwhelming, don't worry — it doesn't mean you have to try on every pair in the store to know which frames you want to take home with you.

Looking for answers, we visited the SoHo showroom of Warby Parker, an online retailer of glasses, where the company's style experts gave us some foolproof guidelines for finding the perfect pair of glasses.

First decide if you have a smaller or larger face. Smaller faces look better with smaller frames, and vice versa.

Left: Thatcher, Right: Neville



Decide how thick you want your glasses to be. Thinner frames won't detract from your features, but thicker frames are a bold and trendy choice.

Left: Edison, Right: Huxley



Next decide if you want wide or narrow sides. Sometimes bold fronts can be accompanied by thin sides, which can change the look entirely.

Left: Neville, Right: Huxley



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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An Idaho Biology Teacher Is Being Investigated Over His Lesson On Human Reproduction

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Biology text book

Tim McDaniel, a tenth grade biology teacher in Dietrich, Idaho, could face dismissal after a complaint was filed by four parents who objected to his use of the word "vagina" during a lesson on the human reproductive system, according to Idaho news website MagicValley.com (via Jezebel).

The complaint also reportedly references McDaniel teaching his class the biology of an orgasm.

The issue is currently being investigated by the state's professional standards commission, and will be brought before the Dietrich school board, MagicValley's Kimberlee Kruesi writes.

“I teach straight out of the textbook, I don’t include anything that the textbook doesn’t mention,” McDaniel told MagicValley. “But I give every student the option not attend this class when I teach on the reproductive system if they don’t feel comfortable with the material.”

Dietrich Superintendent Neil Hollingshead believes a dismissal would be highly unlikely, and that McDaniel may instead receive a letter of reprimand from the school board.

But McDaniel remains adamant that he should not be made to sign the letter for teaching his students standard material that he has taught for the past 18 years.

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” McDaniel told MagicValley. “I told them I won’t sign it.”

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