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The 17 most expensive skyscrapers built in the last 30 years

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antilia

Over the last few decades, skyscrapers' heights — and thus their costs — have continued to climb.

Business Insider rounded up the most expensive towers built in the last 30 years, defining a skyscraper as a building that measures at least 500 feet tall. As you will see, not all skyscrapers feature a slender design.

Check them out below, in order from lowest to highest construction cost.

SEE ALSO: The 22 most beautiful buildings in the world, according to architects

In Hong Kong, the Bank of China completed its 1,204-foot-tall headquarters in 1990.



The $1 billion building thins toward the peak and features sharp edges.

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The Petronas Twin Towers, located in Malaysia, was constructed in 1999.



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Gisele Bundchen is 'dead serious' about getting Tom Brady to retire — here are 9 jobs he could tackle when he eventually leaves the NFL

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Tom Brady

• Quarterback Tom Brady leads the New England Patriots against the Philadelphia Eagles at the Super Bowl on Sunday.

• So far, he's won five Super Bowl rings with the Patriots.

• But his wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, is reportedly hoping he will retire soon.

• LinkedIn provided Business Insider with some data on the jobs retired NFL players tend to pursue.



New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady goes for his sixth Super Bowl ring on Sunday.

And his lengthy and successful career has prompted many observers to label him "the greatest quarterback of all time."

But that winning streak won't last much longer if Gisele Bundchen has anything to say about it.

Brady's supermodel wife — who frequently appears on lists of the wealthiest and most powerful women in entertainment — is reportedly "dead serious" about getting her husband to retire.

Her concerns aren't surprising, given the dangers of the sport.

And, while Brady has said he wants to play into his mid-forties, according to the Wall Street Journal, the average NFL career length across all positions lasts only 2.66 years.

Last year, LinkedIn analyzed career data from over 3,000 former NFL players to find out what fields most pro football players go into after they put away their helmets for the last time. Obviously, Tom Brady can do whatever he likes in retirement, but it could very well be one of these things:

SEE ALSO: A look inside the marriage of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who are worth $540 million, planned their wedding in 10 days, and have spoken every day for 11 years

Non-profit board member

Percentage of former NFL players who take up this job: 2%



Education

Percentage of former NFL players who take up this job: 3%



Media and sports broadcasting

Percentage of former NFL players who take up this job: 3%



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The Temptations lead singer Dennis Edwards dead at 74

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dennis edwards temptations

Dennis Edwards, the former lead singer of the legendary Motown group The Temptations, has died at the age of 74, his family confirmed to CBS News.

Edwards, a Detroit native, died in Chicago on Friday, though his family did not reveal a cause of death. He would have been 75 on Saturday. 

Edwards joined The Temptations from The Contours, another Motown group, in 1968. He sang on a string of The Temptations' hit songs throughout the '60s and '70s, including "Cloud Nine" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," both of which won Grammy Awards for the group. 

He left and returned to The Temptations numerous times through his career. In 1984, he left the group to launch a solo career with the album "Don’t Look Any Further," which reached No. 2 on the Billboard R&B charts.

Edwards was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of The Temptations in 1989.

SEE ALSO: The 50 best-selling music artists of all time

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NOW WATCH: What happens to your body when you start exercising regularly

The Olympic Village will be stocked with 37 condoms per athlete — and it could be because of Tinder

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Winter Olympics

  • 110,000 condoms will be distributed across the 2018 Winter Olympic grounds.
  • This works out to 37 condoms per athlete for a two-week period.
  • The rise of dating apps like Tinder could be to thank for an anticipated increase of sexual activity in the athletes village.


Organisers of the 2018 Winter Olympics are stockpiling condoms in the athletes village.

Athletes at this year's games will be supplied with 110,000 condoms — that's over 37 per athlete for a two-week period.

CNN says this year's athletes village includes a fitness center, a dining area that is accessible 24 hours a day, and a multifaith area for worship. There is also a large selection of shops.

But it is the sheer volume of condoms that has caught the local media's attention in South Korea, where the games will be held.

According to the Korea Biomedical Review, the condoms have been donated "mostly by domestic developer Convenience" and will be "the biggest amount ever distributed at the Winter Games."

The total cost of Convenience's donation will be $93,370 (£65,649). Organizers will supply each athlete's residence with condoms.

Others will be available in "condom baskets" situated in the towns of Gangneung and Pyeongchang, in the Main Press Centre and Media Village, as well as in the stadia used for events.

Condoms were first publicly distributed at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Since then, the stockpiling has increased. At the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, 100,000 condoms were supplied.

Interestingly, the mass stockpiling of condoms could be in response to the emergence and availability of dating apps.

Tinder, after all, played a role at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janiero, as use of the app "skyrocketed" by 129% during the games, according to the Tinder spokeswoman Rosette Pambakian.

Even athletes confirmed using it. Marcus Nyman, who competed as a judoka in Rio, said: "A lot of athletes [used] the app."

The Winter Olympics begin next Friday.

SEE ALSO: 13 photos that show how Olympic style has evolved since the first Winter Games in 1924

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NOW WATCH: Why Shaq turned down being on the cover of a Wheaties box twice

This Venice bookshop has an ingenious way of keeping books dry when the city floods — take a look inside

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  • This bookshop in Venice has an ingenious way of keeping books dry when the city floods
  • The shop has over 100,000 books stacked into boats, bathtubs, and whatever can float.
  • Business Insider UK visited the Libreria Acqua Alta in Venice and spoke to the owner, Luigi Frizzo.

 

Libreria Acqua Alta bookshop in Venice stacks his books in boats to protect them from getting ruined during high tide.

Books are piled on boats, bathtubs, and whatever can float. There is a giant gondola welcoming visitors at the entrance of the shop, and also a staircase made of old books opening onto a small canal.

"Acqua Alta" is also used to describe Venice’s frequent flooding, and that is where the name of the shop comes from. Its owner, Luigi Frizzo, opened it in 2004 after travelling the world. It took him two years to collect most of the books displayed, which is why he is so keen to keep them protected.

High waters once caused €200,000 worth of damage to books. The bookshop stays open during high tide but sometimes it still has problems with flooding.

"This is especially because of the weather service," Mr Frizzo told Business Insider. "Sometimes they forecast 1.10m of water, but eventually water is 1.50m or 1.60m high. So you get ready for 1.10m, but it’s not enough. Especially if it comes early in the morning or at night."

There are over 100,000 books in the shop coming from all over the world. Most of them are secondhand and some are worth hundreds of euros, like the books about Venice which cost over €500.

Produced and filmed by Claudia Romeo

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A London restaurant is hosting a cheese pulling contest where you could win your weight in cheese — here's what it's like

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  • Rascals restaurant in London is hosting a cheese pulling contest
  • The winner gets their body weight in cheese.
  • Guests also take part in a DIY mozzarella masterclass.
  • Rascals is the sister restaurant of ball pit bar Ballie Ballerson.

 

Rascals restaurant in London is hosting a cheese pulling contest where the winner can get their weight in cheese.

At the event, called Fromage à Trois,. Cheese pulls can reach 2m. 

The evening starts with a DIY mozzarella masterclass where guests learn how to stretch the cheese. They are then seated and served an aligot, a French dish made with potatoes and melted cheese.

Organisers expect 11 kg of cheese to be stretched every night. They have over 50 kg on reserve.

Rascals is the sister restaurant of ball pit bar Ballie Ballerson.

The cheese contest runs every other week until March 2018. Tickets cost £35.

Produced and filmed by Claudia Romeo

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The world's best airline has an amazing new business class — here's what it's like

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Qatar Airways Q Suite

  • Qatar Airways announced its new Qsuite business class last spring, and recently started flying Qsuite equipped planes on two US routes.
  • Qsuites feature an innovative design, and is the first business class product in the world to features seats that can transform into double beds.
  • Skytrax named the new product the best business cabin of 2017, and recognized Qatar as the top airline.


Last March, Doha-based Qatar Airways unveiled its new, industry-leading business class product, "Qsuites," at the ITB Berlin travel trade show.

As Qatar Airways operates most of its fleet in a two-class configuration — only offering first class on its limited fleet of A380s — the airline has invested heavily in its business class product, which is built by B/E Aerospace (now Rockwell Collins) and designed by PriestmanGoode.

In Qsuites, that investment shows. Each seat rests in an individual pod with a closing door, creating a "suite" with an open top. The suites offer storage and table space, as well as a spacious, comfortable chair which can fold flat into a bed, and a large in-flight entertainment screen — all features on-par with the best international business class products, to the point that Qsuites seemed more like "first class lite." To that point, the airline brands it as "first in business."

However, the keynote feature of Qsuites isn't just the personal space, but what you can do if you're traveling in a group. Unique among business class products, several of the Qsuites seats offered in the center of the plane have partitions which could be fully lowered to create open "conference room" type settings.

Beyond that, though, the seats in a few rows can be turned into double beds, when the partition is fully lowered and the chairs are folded into bed mode. While only a few airlines offer true or adapted double beds in first class, Qatar is the first airline to bring that feature to business class.

The airline is installing Qsuites on all newly delivered aircraft and is retrofitting its current fleet — except for the A380, which will eventually get a modified version of the seat due to size constraints. 

However, the airline won't have Qsuite uniformly installed for another two years, Qatar Airways vice president for the Americans Gunter Saurwein told Business Insider. For now, only certain routes will see the top-of-the-line new product.

Business Insider recently got a tour of the Qsuites aboard a 777-300ER in New York as it prepared for its next journey to Doha. The flight crew walked us through a preview of the in-flight service, including catering, the in-flight entertainment, and, of course, the double bed.

Read on below to see what Skytrax calls the world's best business class on the world's best airline:

SEE ALSO: The 7 most luxurious private jets in the world

The Qatar Airways 777-300ER we'd be touring was towed to the general aviation terminal at JFK — it would operate flight QR702 to Doha later that evening.



Qatar Airways features adjustable mood lighting on its planes. As we walked on board, the cabin crew set the lighting to rotate between the different hues.



Qsuite seats are arranged in a 1-2-1 layout, so that every seat has direct aisle access. The middle of the cabin is so spacious that you almost forget you're on an airplane.



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Meghan Markle could get an allowance from the British royal family — but she may have to pay double the taxes

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Meghan Markle

  • Meghan Markle will soon become a member of the British royal family, which commands a fortune over $500 million.
  • Markle will remain a US citizen for at least five years and will still have to pay taxes to the IRS on any income earned.
  • If Markle accepts an allowance or other form of "income" in the UK exceeding $104,100, she will have to pay US taxes on that money.

 

Meghan Markle will soon become the newest member of the British royal family, which commands a fortune over $500 million. But romping in their riches may cost her extra.

Markle is a citizen of the United States and is purportedly living in the UK on a family visa, according to the BBC. As the fiancée of a British citizen — Prince Harry — Markle will have to marry within six months of obtaining the visa to maintain her status.

Markle's family visa will be effective in 2.5-year increments and she won't be granted permanent residency until she's lived in the UK for five years. After that, she can finally apply for UK citizenship and potentially become a dual citizen of the US and the UK.

All the while, the "Suits" actress will be paying taxes to the IRS on any income she makes — regardless of where she earns it.

"US citizens, green card holders, and permanent residents are required to file tax returns with the IRS every year no matter where they reside," Avani Ramnani, director of financial planning and wealth management at Francis Financial, told Business Insider.

"This is a special tax return called the expatriate tax return," she said. "US citizens, including Meghan Markle, get taxed on international income earned outside the US." 

But Markle may qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion, Ramnani said, which in 2018 waives taxes on the first $104,100 of income earned in the residing country. But that doesn't include income from investments.

Meghan Markle Prince Harry

Since the age of 21, Prince Harry and Prince William have been receiving a $450,000 a year investment profit from their late mother's estate, which they pay taxes on to the UK government. They, and Kate Middleton, also receive an annual seven-figure allowance from their father, Prince Charles, which is used to cover expenses like travel and wardrobe.

"The key for Meghan and her advisors would be to figure out what type of income she will be getting," Ramnani said. "Will this income be from the investments of a trust, or 'wages' for any work that she does, or any other type of income? Sometimes, getting one form of income is more advantageous than another."

Markle may also qualify for a foreign tax credit, which allows tax on any income exceeding $104,100 to be reduced depending on the amount of taxes paid in the expat's country of residence. But, Ramnani said, "this credit may not be dollar-for-dollar as there are a lot of factors that come into play."

There's another US tax provision called the foreign housing exclusion, which gives the taxpayer an additional deduction or credit for living expenses abroad. It does not include "expenses that are lavish or extravagant under the circumstances."

Nottingham Cottage, the future homestead of Markle and Prince Harry, is located on the sprawling grounds of Kensington Palace, and would probably be considered lavish.

As the Washington Post first reported back in November, Markle could "cause tax headaches" and create some "mundane hurdles" for the royal family.

If she becomes a dual US/UK citizen, Markle will have to continue filing her taxes each year with the IRS. If she has more than $300,000 in assets at any point during the year, she will have to file a specific form that details foreign assets, which could include foreign trusts, subjecting the royal family "to outside scrutiny," according to the Post.

SEE ALSO: Prince Harry poached Kate Middleton's and Prince William's communications officer to become Meghan Markle's new assistant

DON'T MISS: Meghan Markle has proved her dominance over the 'Kate effect' — and it's worth $677 million

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Kate Middleton fed one of the world's last one-horned rhinos by hand


15 hilariously scathing reviews of movies that won the Oscar for best picture

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Not all best-picture winners are loved by critics.

In the eyes of some critics, the Academy has made some poor decisions throughout the ceremony's history — to put it lightly.

For a fun trip down memory lane, we collected the most scathing reviews of movies that won best picture throughout the years. And they are pretty amazing.

While not all of the movies listed are "bad" best picture winners (in our minds), some critics thought they were either terrible, just mediocre, or in some way undeserving of such a high honor.

For some films — like 2015 winner "Birdman," and 2005 winner "Crash" — it was hard to choose which horrible review to feature. For others, like 2009 winner "Slumdog Millionaire," most reviews were positive, but one bad review stood out.

Here are the most scathing reviews of best picture winners:

SEE ALSO: Here are the 17 biggest Oscar snubs of 2018

"Grievously doting and squeamishly evasive."

The Washington Post on "Gandhi," the 1983 best-picture winner. 



"Not a great film by any standard, this is a western for people who are completely ignorant about the genre."

TV Guide on "Dances With Wolves," the 1991 best-picture winner. 



"So afraid to dredge up debate that when Forrest is handed a mic at an antiwar rally, someone unplugs the speakers so we can't hear him - fitting for a movie with nothing to say."

LA Weekly on "Forrest Gump," the 1995 best-picture winner. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

We compared the calories in popular foods and alcoholic drinks — and it reveals a truth about weight gain

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BI Graphics_How many calories are you drinking

  • Alcoholic drinks can be a significant source of carbohydrates and sugar.
  • A pint of cider has roughly the same number of calories and grams of carbs as a slice of cheese pizza.
  • Several studies have documented a link between heavy drinking and weight gain.


Alcohol is not a low-calorie food.

It's no surprise, then, that researchers have documented links between heavy drinking and weight gain.

Aside from alcohol's high calorie count, several other factors may contribute to the tendency for people to put on weight when they drink regularly — from underestimating how much is going into a glass to eating more food while drinking.

Alcohol can also be a significant source of the carbohydrates and sugar in your diet. Scroll to find out your favorite drinks stack up:

DON'T MISS: I tried the science-backed 7-minute routine that was one of 2017's hottest workouts, and it actually works

SEE ALSO: We took a scientific look at whether weed or alcohol is worse for you — and there appears to be a winner







See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Tom Brady claims an extreme diet and fitness regimen keep him playing at age 40 — but science says it's mostly bogus

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tom brady

  • Tom Brady claims a restrictive diet is a key part of why he's still playing football.
  • He sells diet advice and supplements at high prices through his TB12 web site.
  • Brady's lifestyle does appear to be healthy (if overly restrictive), but there's little to no scientific evidence to back up most his diet advice.

On Sunday, Tom Brady will play in his eighth career Super Bowl as the quarterback for the New England Patriots — at the age of 40. That's insane longevity for an NFL QB, yet Brady still appears to be in excellent health.

It's understandable that people want to know how he does it.

Brady attributes his impressive ability to keep playing to a healthy lifestyle with very particular rules. His extreme diet is a key part of what he refers to as the TB12 Method, an approach consisting of 12 fitness principles that Brady outlines in his book, called "The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance". He also sells a selection of rather expensive products and supplements designed to help adherents live according to his fitness gospel.

In general, Brady seems to eat mostly plants and lean proteins, while avoiding processed food and alcohol, which makes for an extremely healthy diet. But some of the claims he makes about these foods, like the idea that eating a certain way will make your body less acidic, haven't been shown to be true in scientific tests.

In fact, there's little to no scientific evidence to back up many of the claims Brady makes about nutrition and health.

"[T]here is almost no evidence to support this monk-like approach to eating," Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy at the University of Alberta, wrote for the Canadian publication Policy Options."And some of his practices — he will only use Himalayan pink salt, for instance — register as full out kook."

Himalayan Pink Salt

Pseudoscience without actual research

Brady avoids a long list of foods, including tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, caffeine, MSG, white flour, white sugar, dairy, and certain vegetable oils. He's never even touched coffee. But  Caulfield, the author of a book called "Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash," points out that coffee is generally considered healthy (as are many of the foods Brady cuts out).

This restrictive eating regimen is largely based on the idea of an "alkaline" diet, which is supposedly anti-inflammatory. Brady subscribes to the belief that you can control your body's pH (acidity) based on what you eat. So part of his diet rationale is to avoid "acidifying foods."  In his book, Brady argues that doing this improves bone health and energy and fights inflammation.

But most studies indicate this isn't the case. As one review of research on "alkaline diets" points out, most experiments conducted so far have found that you can't alter blood pH in a significant way with diet. In fact, As Mayo Clinic sports performance expert Michael Joyner told Vox, "If you actually eat a bunch of baking soda — even if you do that — you don't change [the pH level] that much."

The review also notes that "there is almost no actual research to either support or disprove" the idea that controlling your body's pH will fight off disease and improve bone health. It even says such diets are often marketed towards cancer patients desperate for a cure, despite the fact that there's no evidence they work. 

There are certain ways to eat that help avoid chronic inflammation, and doing so can be important for certain cancer patients and people with some autoimmune disorders. But these diets don't have to be so restrictive — generally, exercise and weight management can do the trick.

Brady also advocates for drinking what could be a dangerous amount of water, which he claims helps him avoid sunburns. But again, there's no evidence that this is true. Forcing yourself to drink excessive amounts of water has not been shown to lead to any health benefits, and can actually put you at risk for hyponatremia, which can be fatal. 

And then there's the concept of "pliability," the nonscientific physical principle that Brady espouses as key to his peak physical performance. The idea was largely developed by Brady's body coach Alex Guerrero, and involves stretches and deep tissue massage that Brady claims leaves muscles "long" and "soft." But Guerrero has been banned from treating other Patriots players in the locker room and has tried to sell supplements that he said could cure cancer and prevent concussions (these claims are both false and dangerous).

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick

Health doesn't have to be so complicated — or expensive

Following Brady's advice to avoid added sugar, processed food, and alcohol, while eating more vegetables, nuts, and lean proteins, would probably yield good results for your health.

But Brady's TB12 program goes much further. The website sells expensive electrolytes, which are salts and minerals that almost no one needs as a supplement. The expensive snacks sold on Brady's website probably also won't do much for you, and his $200 nutrition manual (which sold out upon release) isn't necessary to get healthier, either.

When it comes to "pliability," there's nothing wrong with stretching and massage, but they aren't magic. And nothing about them requires a $200 foam roller or special "pliability" TB12 coach.

Brady is clearly in great health, and eating well and following a strict exercise regimen surely help. But being healthy doesn't require avoiding so many nutritious foods — and following pseudo-scientific diets that aren't based in reality will likely lead to disappointment. At best such products and regimens can be a waste of money. At worst they can cause real harm.

SEE ALSO: A strange diet is designed to slow aging by mimicking fasting — but you can eat normally most of the time

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I went on the Tom Brady diet and his 'avocado ice cream' was the worst thing about it

A typical day in the life of a person living in Moscow — from what they eat for breakfast to how they spend their free time

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russia fan

For tourists, Moscow is known for sites like the Red Square, St. Basil's Cathedral, and the Kremlin.

But what is it like for people who actually live in Moscow?

For the 12 million or so people who live in Russia's capital, the average day is filled with work, local cuisine, and lots of traffic.

Read on to see what a typical day in Moscow is like:

SEE ALSO: 12 things Europeans think are weird about the US

DON'T MISS: 13 ways other countries are leaving the US in the dust

A typical breakfast in Moscow is a kolbasa sausage on rye bread with cheese.

Source: Understand Russia



Traffic in Moscow is notoriously bad — it's normal to commute for an hour or more to get to work each morning.

Source: Understand Russia



The Moscow Metro is another transportation option. But trains are extremely crowded, and stations are often inconveniently located for many residents.

Source: Understand Russia



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Meet the 30-year-old Manhattanite who works at a hot tech startup all day and sells sweatpant overalls as a side hustle

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BirchBox Side Hustle

• Kyle Bergman is the senior buyer for men's grooming and lifestyle at Birchbox, a beauty subscription service.

• He also runs The Great Fantastic on the side — selling sweatpant overalls, or "swoveralls."

• In the rest of his spare time, Bergman plays lacrosse for the Israeli national team, teaches a class at OrangeTheory Fitness, and attends a part-time MBA program at NYU.



Kyle Bergman's always been a busy person.

He attributes that to his years as a student-athlete in college. He also credits his productive parents, who he said seemed to handle their packed schedules with ease.

"I was kind of already conditioned to juggle a lot," he told Business Insider. "It's really what gives me energy now. It's really what gets me up in the morning and excited."

Today, he's juggling quite a bit. Not only does he have a full-time job at beauty subscription service Birchbox, he also runs The Great Fantastic, his side business that sells sweatpant overalls. He also plays for the Israeli national lacrosse team and is in a part-time MBA program at NYU.

So how does he stay productive while managing so many activities?

"I'm not the most organized person, but I live and die by my calendar, whether it's scheduling to pay rent or doing a strategy presentation for my job at Birchbox," he said. "Everything is on my calendar."

Here's a look inside his jam-packed daily schedule:

SEE ALSO: A day in the life of Birchbox CEO Katia Beauchamp, who swaps coffee for meditation and refuses to let her inbox 'be the boss'

Bergman wakes up around 5:00 a.m. on days when he's going to work out at OrangeTheory Fitness, where he also coaches a weekly class. He said rising early and exercising are "like religion" to him. "Getting up before the sun and getting my body running on endorphins as soon as possible is the number one life hack," he said.



The exercise is also a crucial component of one of his leisure activities. As a member of the Israeli national lacrosse team, he strives to stay in shape. He often travels on weekends to play with the team. He's looking forward to the 2018 World Lacrosse Championships, which will be held this summer in Netanya, Israel.



After the work out, he'll head back home to shower — and potentially test out prospective grooming brands in the process. Breakfast usually consists of coffee and an omelette. When it's not too cold out, he'll cycle to work to avoid the crush of subway riders. He typically arrives at Birchbox between 7:45 and 8:15 a.m.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 100 best movies on Amazon Prime right now

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BI Graphics_The 100 best movies on Amazon Prime_4x3 Samantha Lee

If you aren’t using your Amazon Prime account to sit back and binge some of the best movies ever made, you are really not using it to its full potential.

The library of movie titles that are available for Prime members is vast and has an impressive mix of old classics and current releases.

We get it. You’re busy with your life, it’s kind of tough to scroll through all the titles. So we did it for you.

Here are the 100 best movies available right now on Amazon Prime:

Note: Numerous Amazon Prime titles drop off the streaming service monthly so the availability of titles below may change.

SEE ALSO: The 17 biggest Oscar snubs of 2018

“10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016)

This sneaky sequel to 2008’s “Cloverfield” looks at a whole new set of characters (and isn’t shot as a faux documentary — thankfully!) who have a lot more to worry about than an alien invasion.



“20th Century Women” (2016)

Partly based on director Mike Mills’ childhood, Annette Bening plays a single mom who tries to raise her son into a good man along with the help of two women (Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning).



“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” (2016)

A small financial institution in Chinatown is the only company to be indicted in the wake of the 2008 mortgage crisis. But this Oscar-nominated documentary, directed by Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”), shows that the company wasn’t going to go down without a fight.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A little-known technology that Fitbit and Apple are exploring could be the answer to healthy eating and peak performance

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man wearing sano device

  • Eating well and maintaining a healthy body weight can be challenging for many people, in part because nutrition advice changes so often.
  • Fitbit, Apple, and Google are investing in continuous glucose monitors that let people track their blood sugar and see how food affects their body.
  • Usually used only by diabetics, the devices could provide key insight to other people who want to eat better, lose weight, and even improve athletic performance.
  • Recently, Fitbit gave $6 million to a San Francisco startup called Sano, which is creating a CGM without a needle.


Geoffrey Woo hasn't gone back to Burger King since he saw the numbers.

The trim 30-year-old was at the airport one afternoon when he strayed from his healthy diet and ordered an old-time favorite: a Whopper, fries, and a Coke. Everything seemed fine until a few hours later, when he checked a device usually used only by people with diabetes.

The trend lines on the small square display, which tracked Woo's blood-sugar levels, normally stayed fairly flat. But after the Burger King meal, they spiked to three times their normal levels.

Woo doesn't have diabetes, but he says being without that device, known as a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, feels like losing an organ.

A self-identified "biohacker," Woo ordered his first CGM when he began experimenting with various diets. The tool, he said, gave him a snapshot of the effect different meals had on his body and changed how he thinks about food. Woo is part of a growing community of people without diabetes who are turning to glucose monitors on the heels of a bulk of research pointing to excessive sugar and carbohydrate consumption as the root of many health problems.

"Sure, everyone knows sugar and fast food are bad for you," Woo said. "But you don't see the magnitude. Seeing that really made it real."

For many people with diabetes, tracking blood sugar is critical because levels that dip too low or soar too high could be dangerous and even life-threatening. CGMs — which often require users to wedge a quarter-inch-long needle underneath their skin — have not yet hit the mainstream for those without the disease. But soon, a new, more user-friendly wave of blood-sugar-tracking devices may become available to anyone.

A San Francisco startup called Sano is designing a device that would make tracking our glucose as easy as reading the news or scrolling through Instagram. The company recently received a $6 million paycheck from Fitbit, its first-ever investment in a startup.

Apple, Google, and other big-name tech companies are also scrambling to create blood-sugar trackers as improvements in the technology, coupled with skyrocketing rates of diabetes and obesity, fuel the need for a better tool to improve our health.

Looking at food differently

sano device

Ashwin Pushpala, the founder of Sano, believes his device could eventually provide an instant snapshot of how the food we eat affects our bodies. This kind of feedback could render things like nutrition labels and fad diets unnecessary.

"Ideally, you'd be able to use it to choose a diet based on real data," Pushpala told Business Insider.

The device Sano is working on does not involve a needle and would connect to a smartphone app, letting users could check their blood-sugar levels anytime. For most people, the most important moments to do that would be before and after eating, to see how a particular meal affected their blood sugar.

In someone without diabetes, blood sugar always rises after eating. But the contents of a meal can strongly affect how the body responds. Eat a breakfast of sugary cereal or a bagel, and blood sugar spikes.

After that type of carb-heavy meal, someone might look at their readings, see a dramatic rise, and say, "Whoa! What was that?"'Edward Damiano, a diabetes researcher and professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, told Business Insider. That spike would tell them their food was too high in carbs and too low in other key nutrients like protein, fiber, and fat. On the other hand, if they ate a more balanced meal with protein, fiber, and fat — such as a dinner of grilled salmon, roasted Brussels sprouts, and half of a baked potato — their glucose levels would remain relatively balanced and flat.

"They'll see how that helps keep things steady," Damiano said. "They'll start looking at foods differently."

A 'sixth sense' for health

"When I first started using the CGM and getting my readings, it honestly felt like I got a missing sixth sense," Woo, who cofounded a wellness startup called HVMN, said. "I'd be checking Facebook, checking my phone, and then checking my glucose."

nootrobox continuous glucose monitoring 2011

Damiano reasoned that Woo's experience could be common among people who start watching their blood sugar. If that data inspires changes in behavior and diet, it could lead to dramatic health outcomes.

The authors of a review of 50 studies on diet and weight gain published in the journal Food and Nutrition Research found that, on average, the more refined carbohydrates (such as sugar) that someone ate, the more weight they tended to gain over the study period. Similarly, the researchers behind a large review of 68 studies published in the British Medical Journal found that the more sugar someone consumed, the more they weighed.

In other words, the amount of sugar in a participant's diet could be used to roughly predict their weight, the researchers found. That could be problematic because of the way our bodies prompt us to overdo it on simple carbs or sugar.

When healthy people digest carbs or sugar, the process involves the pancreas. That small, sweet-potato-shaped organ pumps out insulin, a hormone that mops up some of the sugar floating around in our blood stream. If we consume large quantities of carbs or sugar, the pancreas goes into overdrive and pumps out so much insulin that we wind up craving more carbs or sugar.

Damiano calls this "the insulin effect." You eat sugar, then you crave more.

High-carb, high-sugar diets have also been implicated in a higher risk of a handful of diseases, including diabetes itself. In a review of studies published in the journal Obesity Reviews, Ellen Blaak, a professor of fat metabolism and physiology at the Maastricht University in the Netherlands, found links between poorly controlled blood-sugar levels (also known as poor glycemic control) and obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

"Tight glycemic control is necessary to maintain health and to prevent disease," Blaak wrote.

A patch that gives you instant feedback on what you just ate

On a recent afternoon over coffee in San Francisco, Pushpala nudged a prototype of Sano's device toward me. The small, shiny disc was about as thick as a few credit cards. On one side it was smooth and glossy; on the other it felt like sandpaper.

That scratchy surface was studded with an array of 400 tiny "microneedles," as Pushpala called them. The idea is to essentially take the surface area of the single, traditional CGM needle and spread it horizontally, resulting in a patch of barely perceptible prickles.

ashwin pushpala headshot

Wearing it, Pushpala said, would feel "like a stiff Band-Aid."

Like several existing CGMs, Pushpala's device would have three parts: a disposable sensor that users would wear for several days at a time; the coin-shaped tracker, which gets tucked into the sensor; and a smartphone app that connects to the device by Bluetooth.

Pushpala's goals for the product resonate with Adam Pellegrini, the vice president of digital health at Fitbit. Pellegrini sees the $6 million investment in Sano as part of Fitbit's larger pivot to focus on healthcare. The company's other recent moves into the diabetes space include teaming up with diabetes device company Dexcom to make blood-sugar data visible on the Fitbit Ionic smartwatch, and partnering with diabetes startup One Drop to integrate Fitbit activity data into its mobile app.

"What's been elusive in digital health is consumer-health engagement," Pellegrini told Business Insider. "I really feel like we could do so much more for people if we just empower them with information."

It's the sugar, stupid

It isn't just the effect of eating bagels, doughnuts, and cookies that people might notice while wearing a glucose tracker. Sugar lurks in dozens of unsuspecting foods, including ketchup, granola bars, salad dressings, and yogurt. A glass of orange juice has roughly the same amount of sugar as a can of Sprite. Foods such as white rice and white bread may as well be sugar given the effect they have on your body.

Fast Food Sugar 9

"If you go out to fast-food places and you watch them prepare these meals, they'll put on the order of three cups of rice on the plate — so somewhere around 120 grams of carbs — before any real food has hit the plate," Damiano said. "That's massive: That's twice the carb load recommended for one person in a single meal."

It means that even when most people think they're eating healthy, they may be consuming lots of carbohydrates that could send their blood-sugar levels through the roof.

"Of course we know that eating less sugar is good, but [without a device like a CGM], how do you know you're actually doing that?" Pushpala said.

However, not everyone agrees that glucose trackers have a future for the broader population.

"It's a very expensive and relatively elaborate way to get information that we already know," Cara Anselmo, a nutritionist and outpatient dietitian at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, told Business Insider. "Glycemic response to food is not a mystery. We know of course that if you eat a plain bagel your blood sugar is going to spike. Do we need a tracker to tell us that?"

Tech giants are getting into glucose tracking

Apple and Google seem to think the answer to Anselmo's question is yes, as do longtime makers of diabetes devices including Dexcom and Abbott.

fitbit ionic smartwatch

All those companies are working on shrinking and perfecting existing CGMs, which often require users to prick their finger and draw blood to measure their glucose levels. Users place that blood on a test strip and insert it into a device that spits out a value representing their blood-sugar level.

Across subtypes, diabetics, on average, may draw blood between 40,000 and 100,000 times during their lifetimes.

Engineers, scientists, and research leaders at several of these companies told Business Insider that they envision a future in which CGMs are low cost, comfortable, and easy to use — without compromising accuracy or reliability. Some of them see people without diabetes as part of that future, especially those who want to lose weight, improve their health, or boost athletic performance.

"The applications for CGM are kind of endless," Jake Leach, Dexcom's senior vice president of research and development, told Business Insider. Leach doesn't have diabetes but has worn several versions of his company's CGMs while mountain biking.

"It's amazing what you learn. There's so much it tells you about your body," he said.

diabetes fingerprick test strips glucose blood sugar

On long rides, Leach said he used the CGM to avoid bonking, the dreaded phenomenon that strikes marathoners and other endurance athletes when the body runs out of fuel. By periodically peeking at his CGM, Leach could see when his blood-sugar levels started to dip — a sign that he needed more energy — and snack on an energy bar.

Researchers arestudying this use of CGMs in professional athletes as well.

"Ultimately I think it can be an indicator to optimize performance — whether you're trying to lose weight or become a marathon runner," Leach said.

But we're not there yet. In the meantime, Dexcom is streamlining the technology for the populations that need it the most. In addition to working with Fitbit, Dexcom has teamed up with Apple to help diabetics see their glucose data on the company's smartwatch, and partnered with Verily, Google's life-sciences spin-off, to work on a new type of CGM.

Apple has also invested in blood-sugar tracking, but it's unclear whether its focus is purely on diabetics or on healthy populations as well. The company recently poached several top employees from Sano, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has been rumored to be wearing a CGM, though the company has not confirmed this.

The future of glucose tracking

The tracker that Woo chose, called the FreeStyle Libre, is made by multinational pharmaceutical company Abbott, but it is generally unavailable in the US without a prescription. Woo ordered his online from Europe.

Chris Thomas, the director of biosensor technology for Abbott, wouldn't comment on what Woo learned, since using the device as a nondiabetic is considered off-label. But Thomas told Business Insider he was not surprised the technology has been adopted by people without diabetes.

"We love that we've invented a revolutionary product that people want to use outside of what we've anticipated it for," Thomas said.

Across the board, dietitians, clinicians, and researchers agree that most Americans are in need of a health intervention. More than a third of Americans are obese and 10% have diabetes, which is set to become the most expensive disease in the world in the coming decade. Experts say that pattern makes blood sugar an important area for more research.

Most of the best nutrition and health advice is mind-numbingly basic and has remained constant for decades: Eat more vegetables and fewer pastries, walk more and sit less. But this knowledge has not been enough to significantly improve our health.

For a new tool to work, it can't merely increase awareness of unhealthy habits; it has to encourage people to change their behavior. Critics of CGMs for healthy people worry that instead of altering what they eat, people might simply disregard the reminder that their food is unhealthy and abandon the device.

"If it does [change behavior] then wonderful. I'm a fan," Anselmo said. "But I'm skeptical. I'm afraid people may get fixated on the numbers and lose track of the big picture of health."

But advocates of glucose tracking see the tool as fundamentally different from other fitness metrics.

"With a little education, people will use these devices and learn what they can and get this lifelong lesson to change the way they look at food and exercise and meals," Damiano said. "And that's a great outcome."

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

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Inside Hong Kong's lawless 'walled city' — the most crowded place on Earth for 40 years

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Slightly north of Hong Kong Island there once stood one of the most densely populated places on earth.

From the 1950s until 1994, over 33,000 people lived and worked in Kowloon Walled City, a massive complex of 300 interconnected buildings that took up a city block.

Caught between China and the British-run Hong Kong government, the city was essentially lawless, equally known for its opium dens and organized crime as its dentists' offices. 

Photographer Greg Girard spent years investigating and documenting the strange place before it was demolished. Girard collaborated with Ian Lambot, another photographer, on a book about Kowloon, titled "City of Darkness Revisited," available here.

Girard shared a number of photos from the project with us in 2015, and you can check out the rest at the book's website.

SEE ALSO: This is the last generation of Chinese women to endure the painful tradition of foot binding

Kowloon Walled City was a densely populated, ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, an area north of Hong Kong Island. What began as a Chinese military fort evolved into a squatters' village comprising a mass of 300 interconnected high-rise buildings.



The city began as a low-rise squatter village during the early 20th century. After World War II, Hong Kong experienced a massive influx of Chinese immigrants. This led to a lack of housing in the city. In response, entrepreneurs and those with "squatter's rights" in Kowloon built high rise buildings on the space to capitalize on the housing demand.



At its peak, more than 33,000 people lived in the 6.4-acre city. It was considered by many to be the most densely populated place on earth.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

TOM BRADY: How the greatest quarterback of all time makes and spends his millions

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Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen

Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time. 

Brady already has five Super Bowl rings and on Sunday he will go for No. 6. He is also as good as ever at 40 years old, an age when most football players are already retired.

Off the field, Brady's life is pretty fabulous also. He's married to the world's most successful supermodel, has an Aston Martin named for him, and once owned a $20 million house with a moat.

Tony Manfred contributed to this report.

Brady was the fifth-highest-paid player in the NFL last season, making $28.8 million.

Source: Spotrac



Brady recently signed a 2-year, $41 million extension with the Patriots. A big chunk of his earnings last season came in the form of a $28 million signing bonus. This season he made a relatively modest $1 million salary and no bonuses.

Source: Spotrac



Brady is also the third-highest-paid player in NFL history, having already earned $197.2 million in his career.

Read more: The 25 highest-paid players in NFL history



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The biggest mistake people make when drinking wine is choosing the wrong glass — here's exactly how to drink Bordeaux, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and pinot noir

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man comparing two wine glasses

  • Most wine drinkers choose the wrong glass for their grape.
  • Drinking from the wrong glass can have a massive impact on how wine tastes and smells.
  • Matt Knight of glassware company Riedel says your average wine drinker needs four glasses — two whites, and two reds.
  • The company also develops glasses for spirits like gin, beer, and even Cognac, as well as non-alcoholic drinks like tea and coffee.


There are a lot of mistakes people make when they drink wine — but the main one is the shape of the glass they use.

That's according to Matt Knight, UK Business Manager and wine tasting guru at Riedel, a long-running Austrian glassware company.

The company now has 11 different glassware ranges, and, according to Knight, the shape of each one is precisely engineered to enhance the flavour of particular kinds of wine.

Business Insider was skeptical at first. But after we put the theory to the test with four different wines in four different glasses, we found you can definitely smell and taste the difference.

Knight said Riedel develops its glasses by holding a series of workshops where a given wine is tested in 16 different bowl shapes. Experts vote then whittle down the options to work out the best design.

However, for most people who like all types of wine, having four different glasses is the minimum, according to Knight — two whites, and two reds. Here's what they are:

White Wines

Sauvignon blanc

A sauvignon blanc is pungent, with plenty of aromas.

"It's quite a delicate grape variety on the nose, so it does need a shape of glass that will hold the aromas in the glass," Knight said. "On the palate it’s quite acidic, so you want the wine to stay away from the parts of the mouth where you pick up acidity, which tend to be the sides."

This glass, with a narrow aperture, is the perfect one:

Veritas   Riesling Sauvignon Blanc (3)

"When you go to drink it, your tongue forms a U-shape and guides the liquid right down the center of your palate and keeps it away from the sides. It naturally does that, you didn’t feel the wine hit the side at all." 

"This would work with any aromatic white — a riesling, anything that’s light but with nice floral aromas," he added.

However, most people tend to drink Sauvignon Blanc from the type of glass in Knight's hand below:

chardonnay glass

"What happens is all wines, in terms of the aromas, they're made up of different layers. You’ll have the heavier aromas at the bottom up to the lighter aromas.

"You put that wine into a glass with a wide opening, those layers disappear — there’s nothing capturing them. The first glass holds the aromas in there. In the larger glass, whoosh, they’re gone.

"On the palate, straight away you can feel it on the sides, and a lot of people have the face like they’ve been sucking a lemon. It masks that fresh crispness you were getting in the first glass."

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is split into two camps, according to Knight — unoaked, like chablis, for which the bowl shape should be closer to a water glass, and oaked, which is where this glass comes into play.

"You get a lot of people who say, 'Oh, I don’t like chardonnay,' but it’s the oaky style of chardonnay they don’t like," Knight said. "You press them more and realise they drink an oaky chardonnay out of a normal white wine glass — all that’s going to do is accentuate the oak, which is what people don’t necessarily like."

If the bowl shape is too small, like the sauvignon blanc glass above, it doesn't allow the wine to open up, according to Knight, as not as many flavours come through.

Here's the glass you should use instead:

Veritas Oaked Chardonnay

"This glass is designed to balance the wine out and balance the different flavors out," Knight said. "The size of the [opening], allowing the wine to flow from one side of your palate to the other, brings out all those different characteristics in the right sort of quantities so it give you the wine as it should be.

"In terms of the aromas, it’s a much bigger style of white wine, so it does need that larger bowl to allow the heavier layers and aromas to come out as well," Knight said.

By using this glass, Knight said he's converted "so many people" back to drinking chardonnay over the years.

Red wines

Pinot noir

A delicate grape variety which is also ones of the most difficult to work with, pinot noir needs a glass which will hold in its aromas, according to Knight.

"It’s quite acidic, [so you] want to keep the wine away from the sides as well, but there’s a lot of fresh fruit and sweetness we want to bring out as well."

The perfect glass has "a slightly triangular shape of glass to hold the aromas in the bowl itself."

Veritas   New World Pinot Noir (6)

"You pick it up on your palate from the tip of your tongue," Knight explained. "When you drink out of this glass, you poke your tongue out slightly, and the liquid... you pick up that nice sweetness straight away and it rolls over the rest of your palate as well."

Meanwhile, in what most people consider to be a "typical red wine glass," you get a more unpleasant aroma.

bordeux glass

"To me it’s got a slightly burnt aspect," Knight said. "On the palate, it’s pretty bland. There’s not a huge amount to it.

"The reason we’re not picking up anything is the wine goes straight to the back of your palate, doesn’t touch your tongue at all. The wine is very flat, lifeless."

Bordeaux

The best glass for any sort of Bordeaux blend, like a cabernet-merlot, is often considered to be a versatile glass for any red wines — but this isn't the case.

"It really only works for heavier grape varieties like cabernet and merlot," Knight said. "It allows you to pick up the blackcurrant and cassis aromas on there."

Here's what it looks like:

6449 0_veritas_02_grey

"There are a lot more heavy aromas in this, and the shape of the glass allows them to funnel up in that nice equal measure."

With Bordeaux, there are a lot of tanins which Knight said "you don't want to pick up."

"We don’t get too much of them on the palate [with this glass]," he said.

Cognac

cognac

It's not only wine — Riedel also makes specific glasses for beer, and spirits, including Cognac.

"If you went out for a nice meal at a restaurant and after the meal you wanted a nice Cognac, probably nine times out of 10 people would expect a big brandy balloon, but it’s the worst shape you can have your cognac served in," Knight said.

"You get what I tend to call the head jerk motion — all you get is alcohol."

Instead, he said if you go down to Cognac, France, they all use a version of the tulip-shaped glass.

"It suppresses the alcohol so it allows you to get your nose in and the toffee aromas and fruit come through, and it has a slightly curved lip so you pick up the nice flavours as well."

Quality counts, too — and there shouldn't be a rim on your glass

Fatto A Mano Stillife 501

"You want a glass that doesn’t feel top heavy — the most important thing is what’s going in the glass, not the glass itself," Knight said.  

"You need a fine rim to the glass as well. Having a thin, flat, polished rim is very important because it gives you that uninterrupted flow from the glass to hit that precision point in your mouth.

"If you go to some restaurants or bars and you feel the rim — the rolled rim — that’s the sign of a cheap glass. It acts as a barrier — the wine has to hit that then go over top of it."

However, he added that while the quality of the glass "certainly adds something to it," the shape is most important.

"We produce entry level ranges (£12 a glass) all the way up from there, to our hand-blown range for £130 a glass," he said.

"Generally in most places in this country we don’t have bad wines… we have good wines, better wines, and best wines. What we’re looking to do is for the shape of the glass to enhance the wine to be the best it can be. If I give someone two glasses with the same wine, they can then make a more informed decision."

It doesn't just apply to booze

coffee in glass

The principles at play with wine can apply to other beverages as well, and Riedel has also produced coffee and tea glasses.

"Any quality beverage with the right shape will enhance the aromas and the taste of that particular sort of drink as well," Knight said.

SEE ALSO: The 3 mistakes people make when buying, ordering, and drinking whisky — and what to do instead

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Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Charles have different names when they go to Scotland and Ireland — here's what they are

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Prince William Kate St Patrick's Day

  • Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Charles have distinct geographical titles.
  • All three have separate monikers for when they are in Scotland.
  • William and Kate also have a title which is linked to Northern Ireland.
  • Scroll down to find out what they are.


The top members of the British royal family are names we're all familiar with — or so we think.

Though we hear about the likes of William, Kate, Harry, and Charles all the time, they also have alternative monikers most people won't be aware of.

In amongst their crowded collections of titles and honours (Prince Charles's full name is more than three lines long) are some that only really count in certain parts of the UK — and become their main name when they're there.

Senior, married members of the royal family have these regional titles, which at the moment means Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Charles.

Scotland

All three senior royals have different titles in Scotland, which has a completely separate system of nobility to England, and was a distinct country until 1707.

Prince William was given the title Earl of Strathearn when he married Kate in 2011, and in keeping with that, Kate became the Countess of Strathearn, which is their proper title when in Scotland.

Here's a front page of The Daily Telegraph's Scottish edition, which took the chance to use their local titles.

Earl of Strathearn

Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland, also made a point of using those names when it was announced that Kate was pregnant with Princess Charlotte.

Alex Salmon Strathearn

For Prince Charles, his title is Duke of Rothesay. It was the historic title held by the heir to the Scottish throne before the two royal families merged in the early 1600s. His wife, Camilla, is likewise the Duchess of Rothesay.

Here's the Scottish edition of The Times newspaper using the title:

Rothesay The Times

Northern Ireland

William and Kate likewise have a title that only works in Ireland — and only in the six counties that make up Northern Ireland, which remained part of the UK after the rest left.

The Prince is Baron Carrickfergus when in the province, and Kate is Lady Carrickfergus.

Southwest England

The Prince of Wales doesn't have an Irish title, but he is the Duke of Cornwall. When travelling in the southwest of the country (Cornwall is the southwestern tip of the UK) he is often referred to by his ducal title instead of as a prince.

What about Harry and Meghan?

Prince Harry currently doesn't have equivalent geographical titles. But, since William got his extra ones when he married, there is every chance the same thing will happen on the occasion of Harry's wedding.

Royal watchers speculate that Harry will be made Duke of Sussex (with Meghan as Duchess), believing it to be the favourite among several vacant titles. There is scant information about what, if any, Irish or Scottish titles the pair may be granted.

SEE ALSO: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle just got engaged

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There's a subtle trick to tell the difference between intuition and over-thinking, according to a relationship expert

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pensive

  • Being in love can mask our intuition and make us ignore warning signs.
  • But sometimes, we may have a gut instinct something isn't right.
  • It can be tricky to work out when you should listen to your intuition, or dismiss it as irrational.
  • One way to try and work it out is to go for a walk and turn off your rational thoughts altogether.
  • That way, your body might be able to come to a conclusion your mind couldn't.


In the fog of love, it can be easy to get carried away with the feelings of infatuation and ignore warning signs that someone might not be right for you.

Other times, you might have a niggling feeling in the back of your mind that something's amiss.

According to Jonathan Marshall, a relationship expert and psychotherapist, you should always be listening to this intuition.

"It's very easy to be dazzled by the other person's good looks, and charms, and other things," he told Business Insider. "Try to maintain one ear sensitive to your intuition, not necessarily going by that alone, but by simply being aware of it and listening to it. That little hunch — like 'he was a bit cruel just then' — don't just let it go."

One of the first things a narcissist or emotional manipulator will do is try and separate you from your own ability to listen to yourself. They will start to gaslight you, and train you to only take their word as the truth.

But not every relationship you get into will be with an abusive person, so how can you tell the difference between your gut telling you something important, and your mind getting carried away and obsessing over something unimportant?

"I think that's really hard," Marshall said. "I think it is ultimately about knowing yourself, and knowing that there are times when you're spinning your wheels, and sometimes you have a funny feeling."

He added that it's part of growing and learning to discriminate between the neurotic and obsessive thoughts and something you should actually listen to.

"Intuition, for any people, is less verbal and more silent and more textural," he said. "It's more of a sense, like a feeling or a vibe. Whereas the intellectualisation, and the over-analysis, it seems to me, is a lot more chatty. It is a lot more noisy... [Intuition] is not like the waves on the surface, it is more the tide beneath the waves."

Sometimes, if you have a hunch and you don't acknowledge it, this can send you brain in a spin too. In this case, it's usually a good idea to think about why you are obsessing over something, and whether there's something else you're ignoring that your mind is running away with.

Marshall spent some time researching how people make decisions. He spoke to a spectrum of people he considered great decision makers, such as a Fortune 50 vice president with a quarter of a million dollar budget, and a very zen meditation teacher.

One trick he learned was to simply go for a walk. The idea is to distract yourself from your own thoughts, giving your body a chance to come to the conclusion for you.

"I'd go for a walk where I don't think about it at all, and normally by the end of the walk I can feel what the right answer is," Marshall said.

"I think the research is in favor of this. We do have a way of thinking which is the front part of our brains which is word oriented and discussive. And we also have a way of making decisions that is not like that at all — it's much more feeling oriented."

When you step out for a walk, there is no more rational work to be done. Your mind will want to go over and over the facts to come to some sort of logical conclusion, but sometimes that just doesn't work.

It will be hard at first to quieten your mind enough to abandon all rational thought, but once you do, you might just find your intuition shines through.

SEE ALSO: It hurts when someone you're dating doesn't text you back — but it might have as much to do with you as it does them

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