• Chain stores have arrived in the legal marijuana industry.
• MedMen, a retail company that runs marijuana dispensaries nationwide, was valued at $1 billion in a new funding round.
• Known as the Apple store for pot products, MedMen claims to elevate the marijuana retail experience with high design and excellent customer service.

Chain stores have arrived in the legal marijuana industry — and it could be a billion-dollar idea.

MedMen, a cannabis retail company that operates 11 marijuana dispensaries across California, New York, and Nevada, has sold a minority stake of the company to a Canadian investment firm at a $1 billion valuation, making it the first US cannabis startup to achieve elusive "unicorn" status.

On February 14, MedMen closed a $41 million round of funding, according to Daniel Yi, vice president of corporate communications at MedMen. The Toronto-based firm Captor Capital led the round, buying 2.5% of MedMen for $25 million, in its first marijuana-related investment.

MedMen previously raised $135 million between two private equity funds.

Founded in 2011, MedMen set out with a goal of mainstreaming marijuana in America. Customers shop for marijuana edibles, vaporizers, and flower (the green stuff you smoke) around sleek wooden tables lined with iPads. Sunlight streams through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Sales associates known as "budtenders" walk customers through the retail experience. They have an intimate knowledge of the products and make recommendations based on user preferences, like whether someone wants to get high at a concert or mellow out on the couch.

Yi compares what the company is trying to do for marijuana to what Nordstrom did for luxury brands and what Whole Foods did for organic grocery items. 

"If you asked your average American, 'What is your idea of a pot shop?' they're going to think of this dank place that's not very well managed. Some kid with a tie dye t-shirt behind the counter looks very jaded as you walk into the store," Yi said. "That's the image that a lot of people have."

"That stereotype still exists but is quickly changing," he added.

MedMen is the marijuana industry's original chain store

In seven years, MedMen has grown from one pot shop in West Hollywood to 11 dispensaries nationwide, with another four in the pipeline in Manhattan, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

The company employs about 700 people, with 100 workers based at the headquarters in Culver City, California. The rest work in cultivation, processing, operations, and retail nationwide.

MedMen doesn't actually hold licenses to grow and sell marijuana at all of its 18 properties, which range from dispensaries to farms to processing facilities. Instead it raises capital through private equity and partners with licensed businesses to manage facilities on their behalf.

Typically, a lesser-known dispensary is made over with MedMen branding and the reputation that comes with it. MedMen takes a cut of the revenue. Yi wouldn't reveal the management fee it charges license-holders.

This model allows MedMen to buy into markets, like New York, that issue a limited number of licenses for marijuana cultivation, distribution, and retail. In January 2017, MedMen acquired a financially troubled New York cannabis company — one of five licensed medical marijuana companies in the state at the time — so that it could grow and sell pot in the state.

Yi clarified that not all of MedMen's properties are owned; some are just "managed." Those dispensaries are run by MedMen employees, but the license stays with the original holder.

Investors are betting big on what MedMen is building

According to Captor Capital, the Canadian investment firm that just sunk $25 million into MedMen, the marijuana industry's original chain store is an idea worth $1 billion.

Some observers in the industry have scoffed at MedMen's new valuation.

The Marijuana Business Daily notes that determining the value of a cannabis company is highly subjective because of the newness of the industry, the wide range of regulatory structures from state-to-state, and the lack of major cannabis companies to use as benchmarks.

MedMen now wants to grow faster than traditional methods of raising capital allow. 

In late 2017, the company made the decision to go public. Yi said it plans to list on the Canadian Securities Exchange, an alternative stock exchange in Canada that allows US cannabis companies to list, in the second quarter of this year. 

After it goes public, MadMen will reportedly use the new funding to increase its retail footprint in California, Nevada, and New York.

California began sales of recreational marijuana in January and is now the largest legal market in America. It's expected to generate billions in revenue in 2018.

According to Mashable, a MedMen shop in West Hollywood served over 23,000 customers in January. The company said revenue was up 200% compared to December, and up 500% from the year before. MedMen's Santa Ana shop also doubled its December revenue in January.

Yi said the company's unicorn status is justified by reports that the legal marijuana industry will reach $24.5 billion in sales by 2021 — a 28% annual growth rate — as marijuana legalization continues, markets mature, and the stigma against cannabis dissipates.

"When it all goes legal, people are going to buy their pot from a legal shop," Yi said.

SEE ALSO: A craft marijuana brand is turning a famous California winery into a Wonka Factory for weed

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This power couple helped elect Obama then started a high-end marijuana dispensary

The biggest problem with the Marvel Cinematic Universe is its villains.

"Black Panther" has been praised for having one of the best villains in the universe (and in movie history). Loki, who fluctuates loyalty so often it's hard to keep up, is another great example. 

But many of the other villains aren't exactly compelling. There's not much there in terms of the motives, goals, and overall, a lot of them don't feel like a genuine threat to our heroes. But that doesn't mean that all of these MCU villains are bad: they're just forgettable, even in some of the best movies to date including "Iron Man 3," "Ant-Man," and "Captain America: Civil War."

Still, there are a few gems in there, and we took a look at the top 20 to give you a sense of which were the best.

This list doesn't include all villains in the MCU: just major ones with some very special exceptions (Jeff Goldblum). It also excludes Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes and Nebula, who are good now and it was kind of obvious they would be eventually. 

Here's our ranking of the MCU villains, from worst to best:

SEE ALSO: 'Black Panther' had one of the best opening weekends in movie history — here's how it stacks up against the biggest blockbusters of all time

20. Thanos, “Guardians of the Galaxy” and end credit scenes in "The Avengers" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron"

We still don’t know that much about Thanos, besides the fact he’s had multiple redesigns and has been played by several actors. But so far, he’s been mediocre: he’s not as menacing as character like Red Skull and his connection to the heroes: being Nebula and Gamora’s father - isn’t nearly as powerful as Ego’s connection to Starlord or Thor’s connection to Loki. We’ll know more about whether he’s a good villain or not after “Avengers: Infinity War.”

19. Emil Blonsky/Abomination, “The Incredible Hulk”

Remember when Ed Norton was the Hulk? Tim Roth played the Abomination, and it wasn’t bad, but he was pretty much only there to help Hulk destroy as many buildings as possible.

18. Whiplash, "Iron Man 2"

Mickey Rourke was having quite the moment when “Iron Man 2” came out, being nominated for a best actor Oscar for his role in "The Wrestler." In the marketing and trailers, his character, Whiplash, seemed menacing, creepy, and a major threat. But he was just kind of there. The movie is bad, his character is lame, and Rourke’s lack of enthusiasm didn’t help — especially compared to Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer.

Duncan Jones has wowed us his whole career with movies like “Moon,” “Source Code,” and “Warcraft,” but his latest is his most ambitious work yet — which might explain why it took over a decade to get made.

“Mute” is a futuristic who-done-it set in Berlin starring Alexander Skarsgård as a mute bartender named Leo. In the film, Leo must navigate the shady underworld of the city, filled with unique characters like two ex-pats Cactus (Paul Rudd) and Duck (Justin Theroux), to track down his missing girlfriend. 

With the backing of Netflix (which released the movie on Friday), this movie that is part “Blade Runner,” part David Fincher fever dream, has been let out to the masses.

And if you’ve seen it, you probably want more insight on what you’ve experienced. 

Here Jones chatted with Business Insider about three standout scenes from the movie, and one that’s his favorite.

Warning: Spoilers coming if you haven’t seen “Mute” yet:

SEE ALSO: Here are all the confirmed original shows coming to Netflix in 2018

The Sam Bell clones cameo

Sam Bell is the beloved main character of Jones’ debut feature “Moon,” which follows an astronaut, played by Sam Rockwell, at the end of his three-year stint working on the Moon who realizes he’s a clone. At the end of the movie we see him get off the Moon and head back to Earth (there’s a lot more to this movie, you should really see it if you haven’t yet).

Jones always planned to continue telling the Sam Bell story in future films, and in “Mute” he does that by having the story take place when Bell has landed back on Earth, and is testifying about the misuse of clones by the company that does work on the Moon.

In a scene where Leo walks into a coffeehouse, the TV screen behind him shows a live look-in on the Bell testimony, which is interrupted by other Sam Bells who are in the courtroom. 

And if you look close enough, you can catch “free the Sams” graffiti throughout the movie in shots of the streets of Berlin.      

“I wanted to have some way of not exactly wrapping up ‘Moon’ in this film but at least giving those who are curious about what happened to Sam an answer to that in this film,” Jones said. “But at the same time, ‘Mute’ is its own story and I wanted to see if there was a way that I can do that and at the same time not be too distracting from the film that we're trying to make.”

Jones had Rockwell come in for a day of shooting. Rockwell had numerous wardrobe changes, including beards and wigs put on him to play the Sam Bell clones.

Jones said he hopes to close out the Sam Bell storyline in a third film. 

“For the third film you’ll see Sam again probably in the same way you saw him in ‘Mute’ — him in the universe of the story being told,” he said. “That’s what I’m thinking, but it’s flexible.”

Cactus confronts Duck

In a movie that has a lot of disturbing moments, one of the most chilling is a scene an hour into the movie when Cactus goes to Duck’s office. There he notices Duck’s been secretly videotaping his female teen patients, which enrages Cactus, since he's the father of a little girl, and leads to the two war buddies (which Jones based on the friendship between “Trapper” John McIntyre and “Hawkeye” Pierce in Robert Altman’s “M*A*S*H”) having a heated encounter.  

The scene highlights how dark Rudd and Theroux got in their performances for this movie, which Jones said came from shooting the movie chronologically as much as possible.

“Paul and Justin were able to get some of the fun friendly scenes done earlier, so there was already a rhythm before we allowed them to sort of play with ‘How do I get furious with someone that I’m normally cool with?’” Jones said.

Jones said he also allowed both actors to improvise as much as they wanted on the movie, often doing a few takes of he and Michael Robert Johnson’s screenplay and then letting them do some takes on their own.

The director said the biggest challenge with this scene was getting Rudd to a point where he begins to slap around and shove Theroux.

“I think I did push Paul a little bit to be more physical,” Jones said. “Between the three of us we agreed we’d work our way up to really whacking Justin, but Paul needed to be the psychopath in that moment. We had dropped hints over the course of the film, he needed to be the violent guy at this moment.”

Cactus’ final moments

You get the feeling in "Mute" that sooner or later the bad guys are going to get some kind of gruesome end, and Jones doesn’t disappoint with Cactus. 

Leo’s journey to find his love Naadirah (Seyneb Saleh) leads him to Cactus’ basement at the end of the movie, where he learn her fate. Leo then avenges her by putting Cactus’ trusty knife through his throat. 

The graphic death was how Jones always saw Cactus going out, but he also wanted to give the buildup another darkly twisted feel like the Cactus/Duck confrontation. So he wrote Cactus taunting Leo and cracking jokes before his death.

“I wanted a weird energy and for me it comes out of that excitement Cactus gets out of confrontation,” Jones said. “He carries that in this scene, he doesn’t want this to be the situation, he didn’t want Leo to show up, but he comes down those stairs and he knows he’s going to have this confrontation and Cactus gets off on that.”

And playing off the Trapper/Hawkeye vibe, he also wanted Cactus to have a swagger like he’s going to survive the encounter with Leo. 

“He thinks he’s going to get out of it,” Jones said. “He’s always thought he and Duck are smarter than anyone else around them.”

• Christopher Payne and Rob Barnett are formerly obese economists and the authors of "The Economists' Diet."
• In explaining how to lose weight, hey recommend using "meta-rules," or guidelines that apply on all occasions, to lose weight.
• The idea is to minimize decision-making and save yourself some mental energy.

"Unless it's a special occasion, never have seconds."

"During the week, always have salad for lunch."

These seemingly stifling directives are examples of so-called "meta-rules," and they're designed to help you figure out how to lose weight without losing your mind.

Christopher Payne and Rob Barnett use the term, which they say they borrowed from behavioral economist Dan Ariely, in their book, "The Economists' Diet: The Surprising Formula for Losing Weight and Keeping It Off." Payne and Barnett are economists who worked together at Bloomberg; in their book, they guide readers in applying fundamental economic principles to the process of losing weight, the same way they did.

At different points in time, both Payne and Barnett were obese. Payne lost 45 pounds in 18 months, while Barnett lost 75 pounds in the same amount of time.

Meta-rules work for two reasons, the authors argue. The first reason: They eliminate the amount of choice you have in your daily diet. "The more times you present yourself with a choice, the more possibility there is to do something that you're trying not to do," Payne told me.

The second reason meta-rules work: They make life less exhausting while you're getting healthier. Payne said that if you're trying to lose weight, it's best to just not have whatever you're trying to avoid eating in your home. Otherwise, you'll have to make a decision every night about whether to indulge.

Barnett and Payne are hardly the first people to recognize the power in minimizing decision-making. For example, Max Levchin, a PayPal founder who's now the CEO of the online lending service Affirm, previously told Business Insider's Alyson Shontell about the importance of consistency in his fitness regimen.

"So long as your daily default is 'Be on the bike,' some days you'll miss because you're traveling or you're sick," he said. "But most of the time, you'll just get up, and get on a bike first thing in the morning, which is what I do."

The authors note, however, that meta-rules are not a panacea for anyone struggling with their weight.

In the book, they write: "The oath we make to ourselves doesn't protect us from having to make a decision; it just changes the decision from ‘Shall I have dessert tonight? to ‘Shall I break my oath tonight?' For sure, the latter holds more sway over us than the former, but it's not 100 percent foolproof."

SEE ALSO: 2 formerly obese economists lost a combined 120 pounds in 18 months — here are the best tricks they used

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why you shouldn't rely on counting calories to lose weight

• Luxury real estate "power markets" are the places where rich people spend the most money, says a new report from Coldwell Banker.
• Rich people flock to power markets for the best in luxury real estate, lifestyle, and culture.
• Power markets in the US are places where the top 5% of home sales by price is the highest.

Location is paramount when money is no object, whether a home is steps from the beach, tucked in the mountains, or in the heart of a city.

The world's rich people spent $8 billion on luxury real estate in 2016, according to Wealth-X, and they flock to many of the same cities to buy property.

In a new report on luxury real estate by Coldwell Banker, these places are called "power markets," where the "wealthiest and most powerful players" tend to own homes. 

"Typically, these areas are destinations in their own right, offering high-net-worth individuals a range of lifestyle opportunities, cultural experiences, and educational opportunities," the report says. 

The report defines power markets in the US as places where the top 5% of single-family home sales by price is highest. In the top 17 markets, the median list price for the top 5% of sales is at least $3.5 million.

Below, check out which cities are most popular among wealthy homebuyers. For each place, we've included the median list price for the top 5% of homes currently on the market, the highest sold price from 2017, and the median price per square foot for that market.

All data figures are for single-family homes and were provided by Coldwell Banker and The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.

SEE ALSO: The world's richest people are abandoning London, Rome, and Paris for an unexpected destination

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17. Sarasota, Florida

Median list price: $3.5 million

Highest sold price (2017): $9 million

Median price per square foot: $697

16. Orange County, California

Median list price: $3.76 million

Highest sold price (2017): $39.9 million

Median price per square foot: $867

15. Boston, Massachusetts

Median list price: $3.995 million

Highest sold price (2017): $13 million

Median price per square foot: $1,006

• The Pew Research Center defines the US middle class as those earning 67% to 200% of the median household income.
• Middle-class Americans earned about $39,000 to $118,000 in 2016, according to Pew's definition, but middle-class incomes vary at the state and city levels.
• Some Silicon Valley residents earning $400,000 consider themselves to be in the middle class, a recent survey found.

Some residents of Silicon Valley self-identify as being in the middle class, even though their salaries dwarf those of many Americans.

The Pew Research Center defines the US middle class as those earning two-thirds to twice the median household income, which was $59,039 in 2016, meaning middle-class Americans were earning about $39,000 to $118,000.

But that number shifts as its broken down by state and even by city.

The Palo Alto Weekly, a local paper in Palo Alto, California, asked residents to report their household income and perceived social class. Out of more than 250 respondents, 81 with incomes between $10,000 to $399,999 said they were "middle class."

"Middle class" is a term used broadly — and often incorrectly — even though it can be quantified with US government data. And while the US middle class has been shrinking for decades, most Americans still consider themselves part of it. Many of the high-earning Palo Alto residents noted the high cost of living was one of the reasons they identified as being in the middle class.

But whether you're in the "middle class" varies depending on where you live.

To get a sense of what it looks like in 25 US cities, Business Insider pulled census data from the 2016 American Community Survey for the largest metropolitan statistical areas. For clarity, we listed the largest city in the MSA (some include more than one).

Below, find out how much income you have to earn to be considered in the middle class in 25 metro areas.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley is so expensive that people who make $400,000 a year think they are middle-class

DON'T MISS: How much income you have to earn to be considered middle class in every US state

Tampa, Florida: up to $102,230

• Middle-class range: $34,076 to $102,230

• Median income: $51,115

• Metro-area population: 3 million

Miami, Florida: up to $102,724

• Middle-class range: $34,241 to $102,724

• Median income: $51,362

• Metro-area population: 6.1 million

Orlando, Florida: up to $104,770

• Middle-class range: $34,923 to $104,770

• Median income: $52,385

• Metro-area population: 2.4 million

One of the great things about Netflix is that it has brought thoughtful, compelling documentaries to a much wider audience — something filmmakers could only dream of a decade ago.

And with binge-worthy titles like Netflix original "Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond" and Oscar-nominated "Last Men in Aleppo" a click away, you can get a lot of great nonfiction viewing any night of the week.

You'll learn a lot more about the world, but don't worry — you'll also be entertained.

Here are 47 documentaries we think you should stream right away on Netflix.

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

SEE ALSO: All the 'Avengers' and Marvel fans who nailed their cosplay at Comic-Con

1. "13th"

Director Ava DuVernay looks at the history of the US prison system and how it relates to the nation's history of racial inequality.

2. "Amanda Knox"

The murder trial in Italy of the American exchange student Amanda Knox, who is now free, captivated the world in the early 2000s. This Netflix original looks back at the case and gets the perspective of Knox and others closely involved.

3. "The Battered Bastards of Baseball"

In a fascinating look at one of the more colorful stories in baseball lore, directors Chapman and Maclain Way follow the Portland Mavericks, an independent baseball team owned by the movie star Bing Russell (Kurt Russell's father) who threw out all the conventions of the national pastime to build a regional sensation in the late 1970s.

When it comes to children, the only certain things about them is that they’ll cry, they’ll poop and repeat.

Handling that is the easy part. Everything else is a minefield waiting to be stepped on. 

It doesn’t matter how many books you read, videos you watch, classes you take or parents you talk to, raising your own child and the affects it will have on you will only become known once you’re in the trenches.

While it may sometimes sound like war, having a kid is truly incredible. There are a few things, however, I wish I knew before my son arrived. 

SEE ALSO: 10 hard truths no one tells you about buying a house

SEE ALSO: 9 things I wish I knew before I got married

You're on your own

The baby’s born. Family comes to visit you at the hospital, friends send you text messages and your social media blows up with good wishes from the kid you sat next to in third grade. Then after 48 hours, at which point your insurance company strong-arms the hospital to discharge you, you're figuring out how to install a car seat.

No matter how many books you read, other babies you hold, or advice you half-listen to from your in-laws, when you have your first child, it's the first time you're a parent and you're going to have to figure everything our for yourself. 

We wanted to breast feed, but my wife couldn’t. Our son wasn’t eating. We didn’t wait for the first-week checkup. We were at the pediatrician’s office on day 3 to find out what kind of bombshell news we were going to be hit with. It’s scary. You and your partner need to hang on tight like Thelma & Louise because if you’re not in this together, you will drive each other off a cliff.

They really, really, really like sleeping in your bed

Me, my wife and my newborn son all lived in the same bedroom for the first year of his life.  It wasn't always ideal, but it was easy to roll over and pick him up from his crib and bring him into our bed. He'd call for us, and we'd go get him. 

Eventually when he was in a toddler bed, he could simply get out of bed on his own and climb into ours, parting my wife and I like the Red Sea, sometimes not even feeling he was in between us. Well, I would, because he’d kick mercilessly, which may explain my lower back issues and my affinity for sleeping on couches.

It's incredibly hard to break habits

Once you start letting your child do something it becomes a pattern. Some people may object to welcoming their child into their bed, for example, like we did. Sure, doing so sometimes put a damper on personal time with my wife, but all my son ever wanted when climbing into bed with us was to snuggle and feel comfortable. 

Sharing our bed with my son really allowed my wife and I to build our relationship with him, but to this day he still likes to fall asleep in our bed every night before I pick him up and transfer him to his own bedroom. Although it's not necessarily a bad habit, my wife and I are looking forward to upgrading to a king sized mattress. 

• The Waltons are the richest family in America. 
• They have a combined wealth of $133 billion, according to Bloomberg.
• In public, they live a pretty modest life. This is how they spend their fortune.

The Waltons are the richest family in America, but they're pretty discreet about it. 

According to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, the Walmart heirs have a combined wealth of $133 billion, which is more than Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. In fact, they are worth about $33 billion more than the second richest family in the US, the Kochs. 

Despite their fortune, the Waltons seem to live a pretty modest life, at least in public. 

Here's what we do know about how the wealthy family spends its fortune: 

SEE ALSO: Walmart's Alice Walton is the richest woman in the world — here's how she spends her $43.7 billion fortune

Sam Walton, who died in 1992, opened the first Walmart store in Arkansas in 1962.

He was married to Helen Ronson. Together, they had four children: Rob, John, Jim, and Alice.

The Walton family own 50% of Walmart's total stock between them. 

This is Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton, the oldest Walton son. He served as chairman of Walmart until 2015.

• The power suit is back in vogue with women.
• The look is most commonly associated with the 1980s, a decade marked by an economic boom when women started to command more power in the workplace.
• The power suit has returned as a way to underscore women's empowerment.

After two decades in the darkness, the power suit is back.

Fashion editors swooned over the broad shoulders and stiff lines that took a leading role on the runways of New York Fashion Week this month, appearing in Marc Jacobs', Alexander Wang's, and Tibi's collections.

While women's suits have been creeping their way into fashion over the past few years (Hillary Clinton formed a campaign around hers) what we see now, and what is slowly trickling into our stores, marks the beginning of something decidedly different. 

"It's not as relaxed as it has been. There's much more structure and emphasis on the shoulder and the waist," Lizzy Bowring, catwalks director at trend-forecasting company WGSN, told Business Insider.

Today's style veers away from the so-called "pantsuit" and harks back to the 1980s, a decade when women started to command more power in the workplace and dressed in bright-colored suits with big shoulders. 

The suit is now being used to make a statement for women's empowerment and by high-profile figures to assert their own power.

Ivanka Trump is a good example of the latter. As a woman in a high-profile position in the Trump administration, her style decisions are often viewed as political statements. She's recently been seen swapping trendy dresses for sharp suits to emanate an image of power and credibility in her father's administration.

The power suit has re-emerged during a important cultural moment for women speaking up against sexual harassment and assault with the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns. These movements are not only impacting what is designed but how women choose to dress. 

“A fashion show does not exist in a vacuum, it is reflecting our culture," Conde Nast artistic director Anna Wintour said in a video discussing New York Fashion Week trends. 

She continued: "The biggest cultural shift in the last several months has been women and how they have been treated in the workplace. There is no way this was not on designer’s minds."

In this way, there are two trends existing side-by-side: the suit, and how the suit is being interpreted. 

"Designers manifest cultural moments in their collection — it's an interpretation of that moment," fashion historian Deirdre Clemente told Business Insider.

She added: "When people take fashion and do something cool with it, it has its own meaning. People infuse it with meaning by physically wearing it on their body."

The power suit's ties to the economy

The return of the power suit is also economically significant. Historically, the look has been associated with booming economic times, like the post-war 1940s and the 1980s.

"These are both spending economies," Clemente said.

The resurgence of the suit could now be signaling that the frugal spending habits ingrained in consumers post-recession are beginning to wane as we become more confident in the economy. 

"People have been keeping their hands tied to their pockets, but we are now in an era of enlightenment. People are being freer with spending," Bowring said.

It's also indicative of a shift away from frivolous spending at places that sell fast fashion, as the power suit is considered an investment piece, not a throwaway item. 

Fast-fashion retailer Zara has created its own versions of the power suit, and you should expect to spend a couple of hundred dollars on them. 

This Zara suit pictured at right costs $218 and is an atypical power suit with exaggerated shoulders and a nipped-in waist that gives it a feminine touch. 

And it seems to be resonating with customers. We visited one of Zara's stores in New York's Flatiron District and saw that a large proportion of store space is dominated by these higher-priced items. 

"People are growing tired of fast fashion," Bowring said.

Whether the trend will stick remains to be seen.

"But the pendulum always swings in fashion, from one extreme to another," she said.

SEE ALSO: We went to a Goodwill store and saw how it's 'overrun' with stuff millennials and Gen Xers refuse to take from their parents

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What 'Dilly Dilly' means — and how Bud Light came up with its viral campaign

• Elaine McMillion Sheldon's Oscar-nominated documentary "Heroin(e)" confronts the challenges of the opioid epidemic by depicting those who are fighting the rampant crisis in Huntington, West Virginia. 
• Sheldon spoke to Business Insider about the misconceptions of the drug crisis that she sought to counterbalance, including the reach of opiate addiction, the plight of first responders, and negative perceptions of West Virginia, her home state.

In her Oscar-nominated documentary, "Heroin(e)," director Elaine McMillion Sheldon confronts the national opioid epidemic by depicting those who are fighting the rampant crisis in Huntington, West Virginia — a town that suffers an opioid overdose rate 10 times the national average.

In an interview with Business Insider, Sheldon discussed a number of misconceptions that surround the opioid crisis, many of which she sought to counterbalance in her Netflix original film. 

Sheldon described how the crisis has reached beyond the common perception of heroin and opioid abuse as a "lower-class issue," infiltrating communities of all kinds across the nation.

"People have described it as like an 'addiction of misery,'" Sheldon said of the epidemic. "But the problem with describing it as such is that it seems to say that those who aren't in misery, those with good jobs and a good standing in society are exempt from addiction, which just isn't the case. I think America has pushed addiction off as a largely lower-class or a very racialized issue. And addiction doesn't see color. It doesn't see gender."

Sheldon's film partly follows the Huntington, West Virginia firefighters and first responders who revive overdose victims with the opioid antidote-drug naloxone.

She described how the process of making the film changed her own perception of those fighting the epidemic on the front lines, who also suffer from the difficulty of their selfless work. 

"I think the biggest surprise and the biggest concern for me was learning that the people on the front lines also need care," Sheldon said. "The first responders that are quite exhausted from this, they have this exhaustion from being compassionate and being able to help. And they feel helpless in that they're bringing back the same person several times in one week, and they're not feeling like they're doing their job helping people."

Sheldon added that her effort to depict the "kindness" and "inner-resilience" of those fighting the crisis also served to combat negative perceptions of West Virginia, her home state.

"Especially in a place like West Virginia, in media portrayals you wouldn't think of West Virginia as a place that's leading a progressive way forward and treating people differently, but Huntington was one of the first places in the state to have [naloxone] syringe exchange," she said. "And it was important for us as native West Virginians to show that we're part of the solution, too. Yeah, it's a problem here, but the people here have come together and decided, we're not enabling, but we have to do something because it's a public health crisis."

Watch "Heroin(e)" on Netflix.

SEE ALSO: What Facebook is looking for in the TV-like series it's bankrolling, according to an exec who just got a show renewed

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: You can connect all 9 Best Picture Oscar nominees with actors they have in common — here's how

• Silicon Valley's housing crisis is serious.
• A new report from Open Listings reveals that workers at five major tech companies, including Apple, Facebook, and Google, would have to spend over 28% of their salary to pay a monthly mortgage on a home near work.
• Software engineers at Apple have it worst. They would have to pay an average of $5,211 a month to afford the median-priced home in Cupertino.

Silicon Valley's housing market is so bleak that even tech workers are struggling to buy homes.

A new report from Open Listings reveals that software engineers at five major Bay Area tech companies would need to spend over 28% of their salary to pay a monthly mortgage nearby.

Open Listings, an online home-buying startup, used its data to look at median home sale prices near the headquarters of some of the largest and most high-powered tech companies in Silicon Valley over the last 12 months. It then gathered public salary data from Paysa to get the average income of software engineers working for those companies in the South Bay.

From there, Open Listings calculated what percent of tech workers' monthly income would have to be put towards a mortgage for a home within a 20-minute commute from the office (based on mortgage payments for a 30-year fixed loan with a 4% interest rate).

The results were not pretty.

Apple's software engineers have to shell out the most. With a median home sale price of $1.16 million in Cupertino, Apple workers would have to pay an average of 33% of their monthly income. That comes out to a monthly payment of about $5,211 on mortgage and property taxes.

Living in a median-priced home near the Google campus in Mountain View would cost Google software engineers 32% of their monthly income ($5,619). A home costs about $1.24 million.

With a median home sale price of $1.23 in Menlo Park, Facebook workers would have to shell out 29% of their paycheck ($5,431) to afford a home within a 20-minute drive of the office.

Software engineers at Reddit would have to put 32% of their monthly income towards a mortgage for a home nearby, while Twitter workers would have to part with 30%.

Their chances of signing a mortgage are bleak

Spending 30% of their monthly income on a mortgage payment "may not sound that crazy," said Judd Schoenholtz, cofounder and CEO of Open Listings.

In San Francisco, some desperate renters pay 50% of their income on rent.

But most lenders have a standard rule that a monthly housing payment — including principal, interest, property taxes, and insurance — should not take up more than 28% of income before taxes. Few lenders will approve a mortgage above that threshold because it would strain the buyer's ability to make payments.

"So when we say workers from Google or Apple would need to pay more than 30% of their income for a home nearby work, the reality is many of these workers wouldn't be approved for a mortgage in the areas we analyzed," Schoenholtz told Business Insider.

"Instead they would be forced further away with their home buying efforts. Or, like many others, they may be forced to rent much longer than they would like to," he added.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley is so expensive that people who make $400,000 a year think they are middle-class

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How Silicon Valley's sexist 'bro culture' affects everyone — and how to fix it

• School-ranking company Niche rated the best public high schools in every US state.
• To determine the best public high schools, the company looked at everything from academics to teachers to facilities.
• The best public high school in the US is Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago.

The best public high school in America is Walter Payton College Prep, according to school-ranking company Niche.

Students at Walter Payton, a high school that's part of Chicago Public Schools, earn high standardized test scores and nearly all of them graduate.

But Illinois isn't the only state with great public schools, so Business Insider used Niche's list to find the best high school in every state.

The ranking analyzed 17,867 public high schools and rated schools in areas like academics, teachers, student culture and diversity, and resources and facilities. You can read more about the methodology here.

Below, find the best public high school in every US state and the District of Columbia.

SEE ALSO: How much money you have to earn to be considered rich in 27 major US cities

Alabama: Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School

Location: Montgomery, Alabama

Overall rank: #87

Graduation rate: 5%

AP Enrollment: 73%

Alaska: West High School

Location: Anchorage, Alaska

Overall rank: #1,887

Graduation rate: 86%

AP Enrollment: 10%

Arizona: BASIS Scottsdale

Location: Scottsdale, Arizona

Overall rank: #14

Graduation rate: 90%

AP Enrollment: 93%

• Critics and audiences aren't always on the same page when it comes to movies.
• The Oscars are a great example of this, as there are plenty of films that critics liked way more than audiences.
• We picked 13 Oscar best-picture nominees that have divided critics and moviegoers throughout the years, based on their critics and audience scores on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Critics and audiences don't always see eye-to-eye, and the Oscars put it into focus.

At the Academy Awards, some best-picture nominees are ones that audiences enjoyed more than critics — like "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," which has a 46% critics score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes compared to a 61% audience score.

But there are also plenty of movies nominated that critics loved a lot more than audiences.

We went back in time over four decades to find Oscar best-picture nominees that drew a clear line between critics and general moviegoers.

We picked 13 that had above an 80% critics score, but below a 70% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. A few may come as a shock; the 1997 crowd-pleaser and box office champ "Titanic" doesn't seem to have aged well with the public, at least by Rotten Tomatoes standards. 

Below are 13 Oscar best picture nominees that critics liked a lot more than audiences:

SEE ALSO: All 89 Oscar best-picture winners, ranked from worst to best by movie critics

"Phantom Thread" (2017)

Critics score: 91%

Audience score: 69%

Also nominated for: actor, supporting actress, director, costume design, original score

An acclaimed dress designer played by Daniel Day-Lewis poorly balances work and romance in 1950s London.

"The Tree of Life" (2011)

Critics score: 84%

Audience score: 60%

Also nominated for: director, cinematography

Terrence Malick directed this surreal look at the history of the universe, centered around a young boy's life and relationship with his parents. 

"A Serious Man" (2009)

Critics score: 90%

Audience score: 67%

Also nominated for: original screenplay

Michael Stuhlbarg, who appeared in 2017 best picture nominees "The Shape of Water" and "Call Me by Your Name," plays a professor who experiences one life crisis after the next in this Coen Brothers-directed film. 

• Donald Trump's Oval Office features a hodgepodge of different design elements from previous presidents.

• In modern times, many new presidents have redesigned the room.

• Trump's space features everything from a rug designed by First Lady Nancy Reagan and curtains that hung during the administration of Bill Clinton.

Donald Trump is bipartisan when it comes to the design of the Oval Office.

If you take a close look at photos of the Oval Office over the years, you'll find that Trump has borrowed a number of design elements from his predecessors.

That's nothing new. Dwight Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter both skipped the redecorating phase that typically follows a new president's ascension to the White House. Even Ronald Reagan didn't break out his interior designs until his second term.

Still, most modern presidents have redesigned the space to fit their own tastes — and political allegiances. They've switched out the drapes, rug, chairs, and desk, brought in new artwork, and adopted fresh color schemes.

With that in mind, here's a look at some of the objects Trump's borrowed from previous presidents:

SEE ALSO: Trump insisted on hanging bright gold drapes in the Oval Office — here are past presidents' offices for comparison

Trump reused the golden drapes that hung during the Clinton administration.

Source: House Beautiful

On the other side of the aisle, Trump brought back George W. Bush's pale couches...

Source: Mercury News

... and the sunburst-pattern rug that First Lady Nancy Reagan designed for her husband.

Source: Huffington Post

Tourists can't see everything a city has to offer in just 24 hours. 

But a new set of photos, created by NeoMam Studios for The Big Domain, provides a look into the hectic chaos of cities in a single glimpse. 

Created with multiple exposures and taken in various spots around each city in a single day, the images highlight the people, and places, that make up 10 major cities around the world.

Included with the photos is the city's population and number of tourists that visited during 2017 — data that comes from the United Nation's 2016 city booklet, and from a report by World Travel Market London and Euromonitor International.

See below to take a quick tour around the globe.

SEE ALSO: This photographer captured shots of New Yorkers on their way to work for 10 years — and it shows how repetitive a commute can be

DON'T MISS: A photographer captured these dismal photos of life in North Korea on his phone

New Delhi

Population: 26.5 million

Annual visitors: 10.3 million

Istanbul

Population: 14.4 million

Annual visitors: 8.6 million

London

Population: 10.4 million

Annual visitors: 19.8 million

• "Black Panther" took in an estimated $108 million at the box office its second weekend in theaters.
• That's the second-best performance for a movie ever in its second weekend.
• It's also only the fourth movie ever to have a $100 million second weekend.

"Black Panther" has no signs of slowing down at the domestic box office.

The Disney/Marvel Studios hit scored an estimated $108 million this weekend, according to boxofficepro, making it the second-best performance ever (passing "Jurassic World," $106.5 million) for a movie's second weekend in theaters. Its domestic total is now $400 million.

This marks only the fourth movie ever to score a $100 million second weekend, joining "The Avengers," "Jurassic World," and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." All three of those movies would go to earn lifetime box office returns of over $650 million domestically and over $1 billion worldwide (over $2 billion in the case of "The Force Awakens").

After taking the crown last weekend for best opening weekend ever for the month of February ($202 million) and best Presidents' Day weekend ever ($242 million), Ryan Coogler's "Black Panther" showed it wasn't going to be one of those movies that has a dramatic drop in sales its second weekend in theaters.

The movie took in an impressive $28.8 million on Friday and an incredible $47.6 million on Saturday. That proves that there's still a big audience for the movie and that folks are returning to theaters to see the movie multiple times.

"Black Panther" also didn't have much competition to worry about this weekend.

The comedy "Game Night," starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, came in second place with $16.6 million (on a $37 million budget). The sci-fi thriller "Annihilation," starring Natalie Portman, only earned around $11 million.

SEE ALSO: The top 20 Marvel Cinematic Universe villains, ranked from worst to best

DON'T MISS: The official numbers are in, and 'Black Panther' soared past the latest 'Star Wars' for a historic $242 million opening weekend

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: You can connect all 9 Best Picture Oscar nominees with actors they have in common — here's how

• The Museum of Broken Relationships features random objects people saved from former loves, like a stiletto heel and a piece of belly-button lint.
• It's permanently located in Zagreb, Croatia, and also travels to cities around the world.
• The museum was founded by two exes who were struggling to divide their possessions after they broke up.

The Museum of Broken Relationships is designed to make you cry, laugh, scratch your head, gasp in outrage — essentially to feel all the feels.

Headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia, the museum is also a traveling exhibition that has popped up everywhere from New York City, to Tokyo, to Paris.

As novelist and essayist Leslie Jamison reported in the Virginia Quarterly Review, the museum was founded by Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić, who ended their romantic relationship with each other in 2003.

Flummoxed over how to divide their belongings, they wondered what it would be like to create an exhibit featuring items from breakups like theirs. The first version of that exhibition came to fruition three years later.

Today, the traveling exhibition continues to attract a steady stream of visitors, many of whom have shared snapshots of the items they saw — from the humorous (a stolen toaster) to the tragic (a juvenile court summons). Below, we've collected some of the most moving images from Instagram.

SEE ALSO: Ashton Kutcher says he went into the mountains and fasted for a week after splitting with Demi Moore — and it's an odd but potentially effective way to get over a breakup

"I hate throwing perfectly functional items in landfills but would hate to see someone walking around in my once beautiful but now sadness infused dress."

Instagram Embed:
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"A memento of my grandmother's great love, Karlo, who drowned in a river in 1920."

Instagram Embed:
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"One day, as a gift, he gave me a phone with wires hanging from it. He had ripped it off of a payphone in Echo Park the night before. I was not there."

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• Though H&M's business has been struggling, other H&M group brands have been doing well, according to the company's CEO, Karl-Johan Persson.
• Cos, which launched in 2007, is focused on timeless, minimalist designs sold in a modern setting. Its success is helping to make up for H&M's disappointing 2017.
• Its strategy differs from its sister brand H&M, which tries to follow trends and sells an abundance of styles in stores.
• We went to a Downtown Manhattan Cos store to see what shopping there was like.

H&M may be struggling, but its more high-end sister brand, Cos, is thriving, according to the company. 

Short for Collection of Style, Cos is known for its high-quality, thoughtful, and timeless designs meant to "last beyond the season," according to its website. While the philosophy is similar to that of H&M in terms of creating relatively affordable fashion, the brand has previously stated that "Cos prices start where H&M's finish." 

Beyond a higher price point, where Cos differs from H&M is its focus on minimalist pieces that feel more high-end. The styles earned praise from the likes of Vogue and The New York Times when the store first landed in the US back in 2014. 

To see what Cos is all about and why it's a bright spot for H&M, we went to a Downtown Manhattan location. This is what we found:  

SEE ALSO: We visited an H&M store and saw everything that's wrong with the brand

We immediately noticed a difference between Cos and H&M. Everything in the Cos store seemed very well-organized — similar clothes were paired together, with shoes and accessories that may match put in the same section.

Pairing up similar color schemes with matching accessories made it feel easy to shop there at first ...

... but we soon noticed the formal and casual clothes were all mixed together, which made it harder to find certain styles. Though the website carries children's clothes, swimwear, and a very wide variety of styles, the in-store selection felt more limited.

• President Donald Trump's first year in office has been plagued by parallel Russia investigations — one led by special counsel Robert Mueller and the other led by the House Intelligence Committee.
• Behind both of these investigations stands British spy Christopher Steele, and the dossier he authored during the 2016 election about Trump's ties to Russia.
• The elusive MI6 agent has a fascinating life, from his time uncovering political assassinations to his current role as a defining figure in the Russia probes.

The life of Christopher Steele reads like the script of an international spy thriller.

From the shores of Yemen to MI6 offices in Moscow and London, the British spy amassed an impressive career before he compiled the infamous yet seminal dossier about then-US presidential candidate Donald Trump's ties to Russia in 2016.

The elusive agent's credibility and expertise have come under increasing scrutiny over the last several months.

While the explosive claims about Trump's collusion with Russia that Steele makes in his dossier have yet to be independently corroborated, little by little, investigators are confirming bits and pieces of the document. Now, a second dossier has emerged that reportedly came to many of the same conclusions Steele did.

Although he has been maligned as a political operative who compiled the dossier for partisan gain, it is clear from his activities that over time, the dossier became a deeply personal matter for Steele. He saw its completion as a matter of national security for both his native United Kingdom and the United States.

Here's a look at how Steele became a vital intelligence source on both sides of the Atlantic — and a defining figure in the Russia investigation in the process:

SEE ALSO: Congress just declassified a letter that offers critical clues about the Steele dossier and the Nunes memo

DON'T MISS: Top Democrat offers a simple explanation that undercuts Republicans' central argument that the FBI acted illegally

Steele's story begins in an unlikely location — on a colonial army base in the port of Aden, Yemen, on the Arabian Sea, where he was born in 1964.

Source: The Guardian

Steele's father was a weather forecaster for the British military, which meant that he spent much of his childhood in far-flung locations around the world.

Source: The Guardian

In addition to Yemen, he spent time in Cyprus and in the Shetland Islands of Scotland, where he developed a passion for bird-watching.

Source: The Guardian