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10 Hotels Where You Can Party On The Cheap

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la roca pool viva wyndham dominicus beachSpring break is just the kick-off to a season of partying till dawn.

You may or may not want to go as crazy as these girls, but either way you’ll want to check out these ten party hotels that won’t bust your budget.

Clevelander Hotel, Miami

Built in 1938, the Clevelander has been a South Beach landmark for more than 70 years, known as much for its come-one, come-all parties as for its official duties as a hotel. A 60-room crash pad for fraternity-types, the Clevelander features nonstop parties raging at its three bars and two rooftop terraces all day and all night. The drinks are never watered down and clothing often tends to be optional — or at least, articles have been known to go missing after a few rum runners.



Iberostar Rose Hall Beach, Jamaica

For an upbeat, all-you-can-drink mega-resort, this Iberostar destroys the competition — better food, liquor, service, and activities for less cash. The energetic Star Friends team leads daily games at the beach andpool, knowledgeable bartenders make strong drinks with recognizable liquor brands, and water sports, including kayaking, parasailing, and even Scuba tours, are free. The beach has long stretches of soft, white sand, shade from low-lying palms, and full oceanside drink service. The Montego Bay airport, and the bars and clubs on Montego Bay’s hip strip, are about a 20-minute cab ride away.



Bahia Principe San Juan, Dominican Republic

Attracting party-focused youngsters in search of pre-noon cocktails (it’s five o-clock somewhere!), the Bahia Pricipe San Juan is one of the liveliest (i.e., loudest) all-inclusives in the D.R. It’s in the middle of nowhere, so guests mostly stay on-site; drinking begins early at the swim-up bar and ends at the disco or the karaoke bar. The live music performances are among the best in the D.R. and the beach is gorgeous. The rooms are worn, but they’ll do — especially if you’re a few drinks in.



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QUIZ: Find Out If You And Your Partner Are Financially Compatible

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Old Couple

You’ve heard time and again that money is the number one source of strain in romantic relationships, but just how problematic are finances for couples?

A 2013 study by TD Ameritrade found couples fight about money five times per year, on average. Interestingly, 40 percent of survey respondents said they do not trust partners to manage their combined finances fully, yet only 5 percent stated money was an important factor when choosing a partner.

There’s an apparent disconnect between what couples expect from each other financially, and how those expectations are communicated. Undoubtedly, much of this arguing and distrust could be eliminated if couples would test their financial compatibility during the early stages of their relationships, rather than ignoring the subject of money until it becomes a source of tension.

That’s why we put together this simple financial compatibility test for couples. Find out if you and your partner are a financial match made in heaven — or a money mess waiting to happen.

Money Quiz: Financial Compatibility Test for Couples

Answer the questions below and keep track of which numbers you select (1-5) for each. The answer key on the next page will explain what your choices say about your financial compatibility.

How often do the two of you talk about your finances?

  1. Never – Only one of us is in charge of the household finances so we don’t need to talk about them.
  2. Rarely – We only talk about money if there’s a problem — and so far, so good.
  3. Regularly – We maintain a budget and check in to keep each other accountable for sticking to it.
  4. Constantly – Money is either tight, or one of us is not sticking to our budget — either way, finances are a constant topic of conversation.
  5. Not applicable – We maintain separate finances, so there’s nothing to discuss.

I’m comfortable with how much money my partner spends.

  1. True, I think – He/she has ups and downs that can mess up our budget every now and then, but overall I think my partner’s spending is okay.
  2. False – I’d like it if my partner spent less on non-essentials.
  3. True – When reviewing our finances, it’s clear he/she is responsible with money.
  4. False – He/she is a shopaholic and spends way too much!
  5. Not applicable – It is his/her money to spend — I stay out of it.

Have you set financial goals for the future and are working as a team to reach them?

  1. Yes, maybe – We have goals to save for and I’m on track; hopefully, my partner is, too.
  2. Not really – We set a few goals together, the only problem is one of us is holding us back from reaching them due to overspending or excessive debt.
  3. Yes, definitely – We decided as a couple what we want to work jointly toward accomplishing financially, and are contributing and tracking progress together.
  4. No – We never have any money leftover to save, so we haven’t bothered setting any goals yet.
  5. Not applicable – We spend and save our own money as we see fit — my partner and I don’t share any financial goals.

Do you have any financial secrets that you’re hiding from your partner?

  1. No – I don’t have any secrets — it’s my partner I’m worried about.
  2. Yes – Sometimes I hide receipts or lie about how much something cost, but nothing huge.
  3. No – We talk openly and honestly about money, and consult each other before making any big decisions that could affect us both.
  4. Yes – I have a load of debt I’m hoping my partner won’t find out about.
  5. Yes – I have my own bank accounts that my partner doesn’t know about — and they don’t need to know.

Have you saved an emergency fund together?

  1. I’m not really sure what an emergency fund is — I hope we have one though!
  2. Yes – We’re working on saving up the first $1,000.
  3. Yes – We have about three months’ worth of expenses saved in case of a financial emergency.
  4. No -  Between overspending and debt payments, we haven’t come close to starting an emergency fund.
  5. No – I have plenty of savings in case I need it, but it’s up to my partner to save for their own emergencies.

Overall, I trust my partner to make smart financial decisions.

  1. Yes – As far as I know, he/she has been making good decisions so far.
  2. Not Really – I don’t think I’d be comfortable handing over the finances 100 percent.
  3. Yes, Definitely – We are on the same page when it comes to our money, so I trust my partner’s judgement.
  4. No Way – My partner is a disaster when it comes to managing money.
  5. No – We keep our finances separate so we don’t have to worry about these things in the first place.

And my partner trusts me, too.

  1. I’m not sure – I’ve never asked.
  2. For the most part – I’m pretty good with our money and we rarely argue, so I assume my partner trusts me.
  3. Yes – Our open communication lets me know my partner trusts me as much as I trust him/her.
  4. Probably not – Considering how much we argue about money, I doubt my partner would trust me with the finances.
  5. Doesn’t matter – It’s not my partner’s concern what I do with my money.

Answer Key

Which number did you chose most often?

Mostly #1: Clueless

Are you financially compatible? Who knows!? You take the “ignorance is bliss” approach to your finances.

If you want to ensure you are a fit financially, it’s time to sit down and get on the same page about money. Discuss how you both approach money management, your strengths and weaknesses, your goals and concerns, then devise a budget and individual responsibilities.

Mostly #2: Room for Improvement

There aren’t any big, glaring money issues between the two of you, but there could be potential problems down the road. Remember, conversations about money don’t have to happen only when something’s wrong; set aside time to review your financial situation with your partner on a regular basis. This will ensure you are both happy with where the household finances stand, and give you the chance to talk about areas for improvement before they blow up into major issues.

Mostly #3: A Perfect Match

You two understand and share each other’s goals and values when it comes to money. Communication is open and you both take responsibility for your finances.

Mostly #4: Financial Disaster

Your financial situation is a mess, and you’re both responsible. Whether you’re the one with spending problems or simply don’t speak up when your partner’s actions upset you, things can only get worse from here.

Don’t let them — it may be a good idea to see a financial planner or marriage counselor who can help you two sort things out and get on the right track with your money.

Mostly #5: Financially Uncommitted

The two of you lead financially independent lives. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially for couples who are not married, though some married couples choose to keep separate finances as well.

However, it’s important to at least talk about money and understand each other’s financial habits and goals, just in case you someday choose get married or merge finances, or face a situation that requires a joint financial decision (such as a home purchase or medical emergency) and can handle it with ease.

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Even If Your 4-Year-Old Gets Into NYC's Gifted & Talented Program, There Might Not Be A Spot For Her

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preschool happy kids

NEW YORK CITY —  Many parents exhaled this weekend when they learned their children qualified for the city’s sought-after gifted and talented programs.

But many will hold their breath again for the next stressful steps: visiting schools, ranking their choices and submitting applications to the Department of Education by April 19.

Even if a 4-year-old made the grade on the new, harder standardized gifted tests — scoring in the top 10 percent — they are not guaranteed a coveted seat, especially as the number of gifted and talented programs is in flux in local school districts.

Radmilla Gordon, a Coney Island resident whose daughter, Alisa, scored in the 94th percentile, said her school district had three G&T programs slated for next school year compared to four this year. 

She worried she might not find a slot for Alisa.

“I’m very proud of my daughter,” said Gordon, whose 4-year-old spent more than a year preparing for the exam. “She did her part. Now her parents have to do ours.... I didn’t really think about placement issues.”

Gordon, a lawyer, visited one of the programs in her district and plans to see the other two as well.

“I’m pretty upset with the [limited] choices,” she said. “We’ll still keep our fingers crossed. I want to keep positive.”

More than 36,000 kids going into kindergarten through third grade applied for gifted and talented programs this year. Nearly 16 percent of them scored between the 90th and 96th percentile, qualifying them for a gifted program in their local district. 

Another 9 percent of the kids scored between the 97th and 99th percentile, qualifying them for the elite of the elite — the five citywide gifted programs: New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math (NEST+m) on the Lower East Side; The Anderson School on the Upper West Side; TAG Young Scholars in East Harlem; the Brooklyn School of Inquiry in Bensonhurst; and the STEM Academy in Astoria.

Michael McCurdy, co-founder of TestingMom.com, a test preparation website that also helps guide parents through the selection process, urged all parents of high-scoring kids to visit schools.

“Don’t choose a school based on reputation or what other parents say,” he advised. “You have to make sure the school is a good fit for your child. Parents are really surprised that there’s no standardization of the gifted and talented curriculum in the city. We really tell parents when they go on these tours to ask about the curriculum.”

When Teresa Maher, of Whitestone, called P.S. 214, one of the schools in her district listed as offering a G&T program, the school wasn’t even aware it was supposed to have such a class, Maher said.

“They didn’t even know they were given the program,” said Maher. “They’re scrambling. So, there’s nothing to see on the tour.”

Maher’s 5-year-old Hannah scored in the 99th percentile, Maher said. She would have preferred to send Hannah to P.S. 209, the school where her older daughter Brianna, 10, is a fourthgrader in a gifted and talented program. But Maher said that school was discontinuing its G&T program. 

Maher did not want to send Hannah to the one citywide G&T program in Queens since the family lives more than 5 miles away from Astoria. And Maher didn’t want Hannah to go to a Manhattan school.

“It’s too far. There’s no way for me to pick her up and drop her off,” said Maher, an occupational therapist who works in Queens and whose husband works on Long Island. 

Although it won’t be easy for her to take her kids to two different schools in Queens, she said of Hannah’s score, “She made it so I want to give her that opportunity to at least be with other children who are of her ability. You do what you can.”

Once families submit their applications by April 19, the Department of Education is expected to inform families of G&T offers the week of May 20. Families will have until the week of June 3 to accept or decline offers.

But the list of programs is not yet finalized, and the Department of Education could not confirm which existing programs were closing and which new programs were opening.

“We’re continuing to work with schools to site programs based on the applicants we get,” a DOE spokesman said.

Younger siblings of current students in gifted programs have first priority in the admissions process, and then the remaining seats are distributed by lottery, first to children in the 99th percentile, then those in the 98th percentile, and so on, until all seats are filled.

Robin Aronow, founder of School Search NYC, advised parents only to apply to schools that they would actually consider attending and to list their choices in order of preference, not prestige.

"There's no gaming this," Aronow told DNAinfo.com.

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Here's The Weird Sculpture Of A Bald Man In Steve Cohen's Living Room

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Cohen penthouse

Looking at the listing photos for Steve A. Cohen's $115 million Manhattan penthouse, one thing caught our eye: a sculpture of a short, bald man with raised arms standing in a prime spot in the living room.

Cohen's a well-known collector of contemporary art. He famously owns Damien Hirst's sculpture of a shark in a tank of formaldehyde, and spent $137.5 million on Willem de Kooning's "Woman."

But we didn't recognize the bald-man sculpture, which appears over and over again in the listing photos.

picasso by maurizio cattelanSo we did some digging, and it appears that the work is by Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian artist known for his satirical sculptures. It's a depiction of Pablo Picasso, which makes sense given the hedge funder's love of the artist  he recently bought Picasso's "Le Reve" from Steven Wynn for $155 million.

The work first appeared at the Museum of Modern Art in 1998, as part of an exhibit where Cattelan looked at the concept of "art as mascot," according to The Guggenheim's education center. The Guggenheim explains:

For the run of the show, an actor dressed as Picasso in a large molded head mask and the artist’s striped boatneck shirt occupied the galleries. This Picasso behaved like an amusement-park mascot, greeting crowds, posing for photographs, and signing autographs ...

The presence of Cattelan’s Picasso as a friendly face, an inviting host, resembled those cartoon characters come-to life at Disneyland, an emblem for lowbrow, wholesome amusement.

We couldn't find any record that Cohen himself bought the work, but a version (there are two) last sold at a Christie's auction in London in 2007 for $487,000.

Here's a close-up, from when the 7-foot-tall sculpture appeared at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 2006. 

picasso by maurizio cattelan

SEE ALSO: Steve Cohen's Jaw-Dropping Penthouse Just Hit The Market For $115 Million

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Hiker Explores The Beautiful Side Of North Korea [PHOTOS]

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DSC04942 copy_1.JPGEven as North Korea cuts ties with South Korea, the two nations share a common history and geography, notably the Baekdu Daegan mountain range.

A foreign hiker named Roger Shepard looks to this ancient mountain culture as a source of unity for Korea.

The 46-year-old New Zealander has had "unprecedented access" to the mountains on the North Korea side and looks to bring other people with him through his company, Hike Korea. So far he has spent nearly three months in North Korea (DPRK) over four visits.

He got this access by remaining as apolitical as possible.

"I was there to take photos of the mountains and that's what I did," Shepard told David Slatter of NK News.

Shepard shared some pictures and commentary (edited for clarity) with Business Insider.

The sacred peak of Paektusan is the highest mountain on the peninsula and where the Baekdu Daegan ridge — known as the energy life-line of the Korean people — begins.

Pictures and commentary courtesy of Roger Shepard.



The Baekdu Daegan ridge begins at Cheonji lake on Paektusan mountain in DPRK and contorting its way south for 1050-miles to the sacred peak of Jirisan in central South Korea.

Pictures and commentary courtesy of Roger Shepard.



The main core of my team consisted of three members of the NZ- Korea Friendship society that helped me obtain permissions to go to these remote zones of the Baekdu Daegan Mountains.

Pictures and commentary courtesy of Roger Shepard.



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Buying A Knockoff Purse Could Soon Cost You More Than The Real Thing

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chanel bagFaux-fashion fans beware: The next time you head down to Chinatown for a knockoff Louis Vuitton (a.k.a. a Louis Vuitton), you could be fined more than the cost of the real deal.

New York councilwoman Margaret Chin has thrown her 2011 proposal calling for more strict law enforcement on the sale of designer bootlegs back on the table. 

Currently, it's not illegal to buy knockoff designer goods, but Chin wants to make the purchasing of these items just as punishable as it is to produce and distribute them. Canal Street shoppers believing they scored a deal on a $30 Céline bootleg could be faced with a $1,000 fine.

In fact, that bag could even earn them a stint in the slammer. Fashion's black market is huge in the US, and is a considerable source of revenue across the globe.

In a comment to WWD, Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University School of Law said, "As long as some consumers consider fakes fashionable, counterfeiters will make them available." 

While a double-digit price tag for a LV-covered bag is tempting, the satisfaction of breaking into your designer digs savings, going to the store, purchasing the real thing, and then keeping it for life can't be beat — not to mention, you won't have to worry about going through the tedious process of authenticating your new tote. (WWD)

SEE ALSO: An Undercover Look At The Billion-Dollar Fake Goods Market Of Chinatown

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Enter To Win A Kindle Fire From Business Insider

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ipadmini

We're giving you a chance to win a Kindle Fire HD.  Become a newsletter subscriber now to enter.  If you're the lucky winner you will have a host of features at your fingertips.  

Entry deadline is May 31.

As a newsletter subscriber, you'll get daily updates and alerts on topics that matter most to you. You must subscribe to at least one newsletter to be eligible, so if you haven't already, be sure to choose one or more before submitting your entry.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER >

On or after May 31, 2013, we'll announce the lucky winner.

You must be a legal resident of the U.S. and a newsletter subscriber to win.

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How Bombardier's Customizable Private Jets Get Built [PHOTOS]

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bombardier factory montreal tour how build global 6000 private jet

The wealthy individuals and big corporations willing to spend tens of millions of dollars on a private jet tend to know what they want and expect to get it.

Bombardier, like all successful companies catering to luxury buyers, is happy to comply.

That means offering virtually endless choices of seating arrangements, leather, cloth, and china, and just about anything else the customer wants. They do draw the line at installing exercise bikes — for weight considerations.

New planes arrive without any interior to speak of at Bombardier's Global Completion Center in Montreal, and are outfitted to their future owner's exact specifications.

From beginning to end, the process takes 18 months. The final price tag for the Bombardier Global 6000 jet, the company's standard model with room for 14: around $50 million.

Bombardier gave us a private tour of the factory, and showed us how they make their private jets.

Full disclosure: Private jet charter company VistaJet paid for our trip to Montreal to try out its service and visit the Bombardier Completion Center.

Customers start by selecting the design they want for their jet, including all the materials that will be used. The process of designing a customized jet takes two to four months.



Some customers want to match the look of their jet to that of their yacht. Here are some of the leather samples they can select from.



The combinations of choices are endless, Bombardier says. The only requirements are that materials be nonflammable, and relatively lightweight.



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21 Photos Of Vladimir Putin That Will Melt Your Heart

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Vladimir Putin Russia

Vladimir Putin has been at the highest echelons of Russian power since 1999.

In that time, he's become known as an incredible powerful person, perhaps the (second) most important in the world. He's also something of a macho man — some would even say he's a badass.

However, he also appears to have a gentler side — one that he loved to show off in publicity shots. This gentler Putin loves children, animals and fun.

Which is the real Putin?

He has time for young fans ...



... greeting them in the street ...



... and enjoying tea with them.



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There's A Lamborghini Cop Car On The Streets Of Dubai

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Dubai is well known for being a wealthy city where residents love their supercars.

But it's not only the rich and famous who drive top-of-the-line vehicles: The city's police force has a Lamborghini.

Dubai's fleet of cop cars is getting a makeover, according to Vocative, and it's certainly a big step up for any police officers who need to chase down a criminal.

One question: In a two-seat car, where do you put someone you've arrested?

Here's one photo, from Twitter user @iCorazonMessi:

And another, from @sheikboflaseh:

This isn't the only fancy cop car we've seen in Asia: One police department in northeast China has its own Porsche Cayenne.

SEE ALSO: A New Generation Of Supercars Was Born At The Geneva Motor Show

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The Senior Women Of Yale Feel 'Washed Up' At 21

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Harkness Tower at Yale UniversityYale's senior women have a nickname to describe themselves: SWUG. A Senior Washed-Up Girl.

The term isn't exactly new, and it's not exclusive to New Haven. But it gained major media attention today after New York Magazine picked up a story about SWUGs by Yale Daily News writer Raisa Bruner.

SWUGs, in short, are senior girls who are jaded, especially when it comes to senior boys.

They have a "'don’t-give-a-f***' or 'DGAF' attitude," writes Bruner, a self-identified SWUG, adding, "Welcome to the world of the ladies who have given up on boys because they don’t so much empower as frustrate, satisfy as agitate."

The definition of SWUG has been debated at Yale since last September, when a series of articles were published in the Yale Daily News.

The feature to start it all was written by senior Chloe Drimal. Titled Profile of a SWUG, Drimal described a girl who is an insider in the college frat and bar scene, the last one at every party ("because hey—who is she going home with?"), and who hooks up with younger men.

Another Yale senior, Michelle Taylor, followed up, writing that the SWUG was a "Dionysian response to the cruel brevity of our bright college years" for all seniors, and not just the women.

But the largely-pejorative term is by definition about senior girls, and SWUB, senior washed-up boys, has not caught on.

Yale is not the only Ivy to make the news recently concerning the romantic lives of its female students. Back in March, Princeton alumna Susan A. Patton controversially advised women at the school to find a husband while they were still attending the prestigious college.

You can read #SWUGNATION over at the Yale Daily News >

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TOO HOT FOR VICTORIA'S SECRET: The Miranda Kerr Story

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victoria secret fashion show 2012, armory, bi, dng, lingerie, models, cute, attractive, hot, beautiful, sexy, underwear, modelMiranda Kerr's 3-year, $1M Angel contract with Victoria's Secretwon't be renewed, according to a report by Us Weekly. 

It's possible that Kerr, 30, simply became too hot for Victoria's Secret. The brand goes out of its way to hire models whom its customers can relate to, and the stunning wife of actor Orlando Bloom might not fit the bill.

In short, Kerr is so hot that female customers are threatened by her.  

Kerr's "difficult reputation" made the brand hesitant to keep her on board as one of its ten Angels, according to the report. It's also rumored that she didn't sell as much lingerie as other big names at the company.

Miranda Kerr has been modeling since she was 13, appearing in television advertisements. Her most prolific campaign before Victoria's Secret was for Maybelline Cosmetics.



In 2007, she signed a contract with Victoria's Secret to replace Gisele Bundchen as an Angel.



She also began dating her now-husband, actor Orlando Bloom. The two have a child, Flynn, together.



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A Community Of Ohio Campers Are Getting Kicked Out To Make Way For New Condos

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Trailer camping Grand Canyon National Park

Long-term residents of an Ohio campground were told they have until May to pack up and move on down the road, the Sun News' Bruce Geiselman reports.

North Ridgeville's city council approved a deal with Ridgeville Three LLC to expand a nearby luxury apartment complex. Residents were served a notice earlier this month that they had three days to leave the property. That has since been extended to one month. 

“Most of us are on fixed or zero income,” a 10-year resident of the campgrounds told Sun News. “It’s difficult to give somebody three days notice.”

To add insult to injury, some of the camp-dwellers were so desperate for more time that they were reportedly scammed into paying a man who claimed to work with the property owner's management company and promised them an extension.

Redwood later sent residents a letter saying they "were never advised" of the person's role.

Many residents of the campground have trailer homes and live there all year. 

The residents said they didn't have formal leases, but did pay monthly rent to the campground. According to the Ohio Landlord-Tenant Act, a landlord can end a month-to-month lease that is not in writing by giving the tenant 30-days notice. That likely explains why the new property owners backpedaled and extended their deadline to a month.

Previous stories in the Sun News indicate that the mayor had threatened to close down the park for at least eight years before the development deal was finalized and had criticized it for being poorly maintained. But the campground's owner and city officials feared the dozen or so permanent residents wouldn't have a place to go.

“Redwood Management and the mayor say our campground is an ‘eyesore’ … to us, those [apartments] are an eyesore,” a resident told The Chronicle-Telegram.  “Variety is the spice of life.”

SEE ALSO: This stunning upstate NY wedding cost $9,000 >

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This Futuristic London Hotel Is Controlled Entirely By Tablets

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citizenmLondon is starting to get serious about building a startup scene, so it gathered a bunch of reporters to promote "Tech City" this week.

Tech City, originally dubbed Silicon Roundabout, is a section of East London where startups are cropping up. Google Campus is in the heart of it, and companies like MindCandy and Yammer have offices nearby.

As part of the Tech City experience, the reporters stayed in a new, high-tech boutique hotel called CitizenM.

The hotel, located in Bankside, doesn't have a concierge. Instead, guests check themselves in and out on touch computer screens. In each room, a personalized Samsung Galaxy tablet greets guests and lets them control everything from the blinds to the lights on the tablet. Internet access is free and there's no password. Netflix movies can be watched on the TV from the tablet for no charge. CitizenM says it wants to make guests feel like they're at home.

The chain was started four years ago in Amersterdam. CitizenM will be coming to the United States later this year when it launches a Times Square branch in New York City.

We were blown away by the tablet-controlled room. We don't know how we'll go back to a room where you actually have to get up to do things.

Full Disclosure: London & Partners, a not-for-profit funded by the city's mayor, paid for our flight and hotel to London this week to cover London's startup scene. It paid the full price (about 400 pounds for three nights) at the CitizenM.

This is the checkin desk at CitizenM Hotel in Bankside, London.



When you turn left, there are desks and chairs where people can work. It's a popular spot because the WiFi is quick and free, even for non-guests.



There's also a bar and a kitchen with food that's served until all hours, from breakfast buffet through dinner.



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There's A New York City Bar That Lets You Pay Your Tab With Bitcoins

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Don Draper BarBitcoins are all the rage this week.

The digital currency has gained so much attention that normal retailers are starting to accept it.

One particular New York City bar called EVR just opened a few months ago and is reportedly the first in NYC to accept Bitcoins.

The bar's owner Charlie Shrem told CNNMoney he accepts Bitcoins because the transactions are cheaper than regular credit cards. The bar uses an iPad app called BitPay to accept the payments.

Read more on CNNMoney >

SEE ALSO: Bitcoin Is Crashing

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NYU Stern Professor's Advice To Student: Get Your S--- Together

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Scott Galloway NYU Stern Professor Scott Galloway gave some valuable life advice to a student via email that's now gone viral.

When the student arrived an hour late to the professor's brand management class, Galloway told him to leave. Later the student emailed Galloway, explaining that he was shopping around for classes, which is why he was late: "It was more probable that my tardiness was due to my desire to sample different classes rather than sheer complacency."

Galloway eviscerated the student in his reply, which he forwarded to his TA to share with the rest of the class (keeping the student anonymous). Deadspin originally published the full email exchange in 2010; we've reached out to Galloway, who gave us permission to run his response and shared that currently "I'm getting an email about every 3 minutes from people (all over the world) voicing support/anger (about an 8:1 ratio)":

—— Forwarded Message ——-
From: scott@stern.nyu.edu
To: "xxxx"
Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 9:34:02 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Brand Strategy Feedback

xxxx:

Thanks for the feedback. I, too, would like to offer some feedback.

Just so I've got this straight...you started in one class, left 15-20 minutes into it (stood up, walked out mid-lecture), went to another class (walked in 20 minutes late), left that class (again, presumably, in the middle of the lecture), and then came to my class. At that point (walking in an hour late) I asked you to come to the next class which "bothered" you.

Correct?

You state that, having not taken my class, it would be impossible to know our policy of not allowing people to walk in an hour late. Most risk analysis offers that in the face of substantial uncertainty, you opt for the more conservative path or hedge your bet (e.g., do not show up an hour late until you know the professor has an explicit policy for tolerating disrespectful behavior, check with the TA before class, etc.). I hope the lottery winner that is your recently crowned Monday evening Professor is teaching Judgement and Decision Making or Critical Thinking.

In addition, your logic effectively means you cannot be held accountable for any code of conduct before taking a class. For the record, we also have no stated policy against bursting into show tunes in the middle of class, urinating on desks or taking that revolutionary hair removal system for a spin. However, xxxx, there is a baseline level of decorum (i.e., manners) that we expect of grown men and women who the admissions department have deemed tomorrow's business leaders.

xxxx, let me be more serious for a moment. I do not know you, will not know you and have no real affinity or animosity for you. You are an anonymous student who is now regretting the send button on his laptop. It's with this context I hope you register pause...REAL pause xxxx and take to heart what I am about to tell you:

xxxx, get your shit together.

Getting a good job, working long hours, keeping your skills relevant, navigating the politics of an organization, finding a live/work balance...these are all really hard, xxxx. In contrast, respecting institutions, having manners, demonstrating a level of humility...these are all (relatively) easy. Get the easy stuff right xxxx. In and of themselves they will not make you successful. However, not possessing them will hold you back and you will not achieve your potential which, by virtue of you being admitted to Stern, you must have in spades. It's not too late xxxx...

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Professor Galloway

SEE ALSO:  15 Things Overachievers Do

AND MORE: The Exorbitant Cost Of An MBA Has To Go Down

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Airbus Is Installing Special Big Seats For Fat People — And Shrinking All Other Seats

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fat couple at airport obese

Airbus will offer airlines the option of extra-wide seats on its A320 jets to keep up with "trends in demographics" and accommodate large passengers, it announced this week at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg.

The extra-wide seats will measure 20 inches across instead of the standard 18 inches, and will likely be installed only as aisle seats.

The window and middle seats will each lose an inch of width to generate the extra space.

Airbus sells the idea as an innovative way to "meet passenger needs," even though two-thirds of its customers will lose out.

The planemaker first floated the idea in 2012, and not everyone loved it: A July poll by Skyscanner found 80 percent of Brits opposed losing an inch of seating to accommodate their larger neighbors, according to AOL UK.

The real winners will be airlines, who will be able to charge extra for the extra-wide seats.

"Passengers in the window seat are already happy and those in the centre seat might not be willing to pay as much for the extra width," Airbus aircraft interiors marketing manager Stefanie Von Linstow told Flightglobal.

"The aisle seat seems the most attractive for the concept."

The issue of how to accommodate large passengers while maintaining already thin profit margins is a difficult one for airlines, which need to minimize the weight of their aircraft to save money on fuel.

The idea of a "fat tax" — charging heavy customers an extra fee— is untenable in the U.S. for the time being. Charging extra money for a slightly wider seat is a small step in that direction.

SEE ALSO: How Long Until All Airlines Charge More For Fat People?

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The New Yorker Is Wrong About Stanford And Silicon Valley

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Stanford University CampusStanford students and alumni joined in a collective sigh upon reading a recent New Yorker blog post which essentially claimed that since the school's students routinely dominate in Silicon Valley, and very occasionally drop out with the financial backing of their professors, Stanford is no longer a university.

Yes, the first line of the ominously titled, "The End of Stanford?" literally reads, "Is Stanford still a university?"

As a 2010 alumna with a few friends tearing up the startup scene, but who personally took approximately 30 minutes of a computer science class during my own college tenure (only to learn that, no, I don't secretly speak Python or HTML and was better off sticking with Shakespeare), I'm going to take it upon myself to provide an answer to that alarmist question with a "yes."

Yes, Stanford is still a university. A pretty good one, in fact, with arts, sciences, engineering, and an irreverent "marching" band that is known for getting banned from various stadiums and the state of Oregon.

stanford studentsGet Rich And Drop Out Trying

The New Yorker's Nicholas Thompson, who graduated from Stanford in the nineties and went on to work for a startup himself, pegs his article on recent news that a dozen graduate and undergrad students reportedly left school to work on a start-up called Clinkle.

He writes, "what’s the point of having a great university among the palm trees if students feel like they have to treat their professors as potential investors, found companies before they can legally drink, and drop out in an effort to get rich fast?"

Another student subset that can drop out of college before turning 21 to rake in boatloads of cash? Athletes. And yet Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck — who will forever be the quintessential poster boy for student athletes — eschewed his shot at being the number one pick for the NFL draft his junior year to finish his degree in architectural design. Don't worry, he was number one the next year, too

A disgruntled student on The Unofficial Stanford Blog rebuts that with "6,999 undergraduates and  8,871 graduate students, 12 students dropping out to form a company is hardly statistically significant."

Stanford's retention rate is at a whopping 98 percent.

Sometimes students do choose to leave, or perhaps defer, but it isn't only start-up folks. Tiger Woods and Reese Witherspoon left Stanford for careers that had nothing to do with the tech industry.

A handful of students, most notably Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, dropped out of Harvard to start a couple of little known tech companies, but the school is still going strong. And I suspect Stanford will live on as a university, too.

sergey brin larry pageWhile Stanford students have recently made headlines for their work in tech, the university has dominated Silicon Valley for decades. Hewlett-Packard, Netflix, Firefox, Yahoo, Cisco Systems, Sun, Electronic Arts, and LinkedIn were all founded by Stanford alumni, to name a few.

And while professors investing in students' start-ups might complicate their relationship, that isn't a seismic shift either. Professor David Cheriton cut Larry Page and Sergey Brin a check for $100K to found Google in 1998, an investment that has grown to be worth more than $1 billion over the past 15 years. During that time, Stanford has continued to produce scholars in the arts, social sciences, and humanities. Stanford is a tech powerhouse, but that's not all it is.

Techies And Fuzzies Unite

Thompson writes that Stanford has merely become "a giant tech incubator with a football team."

On the bright side, at least people finally recognize we're good at football.

The problem with the statement, however, is its blanket assumption that the experiences of Stanford's startup-bound population are those of the student population as a whole.

In fact, during Fall recruitment my senior year, I'd say that the number of students I saw in suits on their way to McKinsey or Bain interviews almost rivaled those I saw programming in hoodies.

Only 14 percent of undergraduates are engineering majors.

Certainly non-engineers pursue startups, particularly if they want to stay in the Bay Area, and many engineering majors pursue completely different careers. But it's unfair to say that all, or even most, Stanford students are on the path to Silicon Valley. 

While I have many friends and friendly acquaintances who work at companies including Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Stripe, Google, Uber, Box, etc., my randomly assigned quad sophomore year was composed of women who went on to pursue journalism, medicine, and visual arts.

Stanford students identify themselves as "fuzzies," meaning they study humanities, and "techies." There's also the grey zone of econ majors who probably wouldn't like the "fuzzy" title but aren't quite in the sciences.

Stanford BandStill, fuzzy or techie paths are not mutually exclusive. Programmers are forced to take humanities requirements; English majors must fulfill an engineering credit. Since I was interested in political science and nuclear nonproliferation, I filled my "techie" requirement with a small seminar taught by Siegfried Hecker, the renowned scientist who was invited to North Korea to inspect its plutonium supply, which was kept in a glass jar.

But many techies explore other subjects because they're multifaceted people with many interests. My roommate senior year is a successful programmer who regularly took creative writing classes. That's no anomaly.

PayPal CEO Peter Thiel studied philosophy at Stanford; ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina was a medieval history major at the university.

Still A Community

Thompson wonders, "Shouldn't Stanford be a place to drift, to think, to read, to meet new people, and to work at whatever inspires you?" He notes that "the center of gravity at the university appears to have shifted."

Maybe it's just me, but I missed this shift, and it's hard to believe anything so drastic has happened in the two and a half years since I graduated.

Sure, there has been a slew of recent headlines about young alumni helming successful startups including recent darlings Instagram and Snapchat, but that's no doubt sexier to write about and share than the founders' classmates' Classics PhD progress, teaching endeavors, and NGO work.

I didn't pursue start-ups and felt no pressure to do so, although after Instagram was bought for a billion dollars, I did have a pang of regret for not having had the foresight to seek out its founders and get involved early so I could have bought (or at least rented) a small island by now.

Stanford students costumes - SINGLE ONCEStill, I feel proud of my Silicon Valley tycoon classmates' successes, just as I feel proud whenever Stanford students excel in any field. Because Stanford is a community.

And that is why there is no question in my mind that not only has Stanford succeeded as a university — enabling academic, extracurricular, and interpersonal enrichment — but there is no chance whatsoever that it will cease to do so any time soon. 

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Lance Armstrong Sold His Home In Austin For Much Less Than The $10 Million Asking Price

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Suzanne Halliburton and Shonda Novak of the Austin American-Statesmanare reporting that disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has sold his home in Austin, Texas.

According to local real estate agents, the house was listed at $10 million. However, the new owner told the Statesman that he "didn't pay anything close" to the listed price. The house, which was featured in Architectural Digest, is an 8,000 square-foot Spanish colonial-style house in central Austin.

The most famous room in house is the upstairs media and game room, which Armstrong ironically described for Architectural Digest as a room where "very few venture." It was that room where Armstrong kept his seven yellow jerseys from the Tour de France framed on the walls. And it was last November, when the still-defiant Armstrong released a picture of himself lounging in the room underneath the jerseys.

Here are some images of the home from Google Maps (click on images for a larger view). You can see at a slideshow of the home at Architectural Digest...

Lance Armstrong home

Lance Armstrong home

Lance Armstrong, yellow jerseys

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Russian Billionaire Buys Greece's Most Famous Private Island For $153 Million

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skorpios greece

Skorpios, a private island off the coast of Greece that for decades belonged to Greek shipping billionaire Aristotle Onassis, has been sold to an anonymous Russian billionaire for $153 million, Erin Burnett at CNN reports.

The island, which Onassis bought in 1962 for $15,000, was made famous as the location of Onassis' wedding to former First Lady Jackie Kennedy in 1968.

The island was sold by Athina Onassis Roussel, Onassis's granddaughter and only surviving heir, according to The Daily Mail.

She had reportedly struck a deal to sell the island to the Emir of Qatar, but the sale fell through when she refused to come down from the initial $260 million price, The Telegraph reported last month. The Emir bought a group of six nearby islands for a reported $11 million instead.

There's no word on which Russian billionaire picked up the island. It's located in the Ionian Sea and is heavily forested, with sandy beaches.

An aerial shot and a photo of the dock at Skorpios are below:

skorpios island

skorpios greece

SEE ALSO: The Private Island Escapes Of The Rich And Famous

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