• Many people dream of packing it all in and relocating to warmer climes or simply to discover a new city, culture, or language. 
• UBS has ranked global cities in terms of what it would cost expats to live there as a family for one month. 
• If you can't quite afford the price tag of Geneva, then why not consider Buenos Aires or Santiago, where living costs are a fraction of the price — Spanish lessons included. 

Many people dream of packing it all in and relocating to warmer climes or simply to a new city to discover another culture or language. If you're curious as to how much it would cost you to move abroad, then you're in luck, as UBS recently published a ranking of the cost of living in cities around the world.

The report estimated how much a family with kids would spend over a month in each city, taking into account the average cost of local "basic expenses," such as food, household goods, and clothing, and local "expat extras," including rent for a two-bed furnished apartment, international school fees, language lessons, and — in case you're feeling flush — even household help twice a month.

So from Buenos Aires, to Sydney, Dubai, and Amsterdam scroll down to find out the average living cost for an expat in each city, ranked from cheapest to most expensive. 

SEE ALSO: The 19 coolest places for a European holiday in 2018, according to travel experts

11. Buenos Aires, Argentina — $3,230.90 (£2,428.07).

Basic expenses: $1,125.16

Expat extras: $2,105.74

10. Bangkok, Thailand — $3,443.51 (£2,587.85).

Basic expenses: $1,480.25

Expat extras: $1,963.26

9. Santiago de Chile, Chile — $3,960.56 (£2,976.42).

Basic expenses: $1,232.55

Expat extras: $2,728.01

• The official Harry Potter tour is in London's Warner Bros. studio. 
• You can visit iconic sets that have featured in the popular films.
• Visitors can try on some of the costumes from the films in the "Behind the Seams" workshop.

Take a step into the world of Harry Potter in the official Warner Bros. studio tour. 

The tour opened in 2012 and offers visitors the chance to step onto the iconic sets found in the films, such as the Great Hall, Diagon Alley and the Forbidden Forest. 

You can also get the famous Butterbeer, learn wizard moves at wand choreography, and visit the"Behind the Seams" workshop, where you can try on clothes that were worn in the films.

Produced and Filmed by David Ibekwe.  

SEE ALSO: London's abandoned warehouses are being turned into massive living spaces that can be rented for just £500 a month

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On a foggy day in San Francisco last week, politicians and tech moguls gathered outside Salesforce Tower, the tallest office building west of the Mississippi, to celebrate the skyscraper's grand opening. This was peak San Francisco — a display of power and influence topped off by Marc Benioff holding hands with the mayor of San Francisco as a blessing was said over the cone-shaped, vaguely phallic 61-story tower.

San Francisco is, for better or worse, a tech city. The tech sector creates tens of thousands of jobs annually in the nine-county Bay Area, making it the single biggest engine of the local economy, though that job growth is starting to slow.

As startups blossom, attracting a wave of entrepreneurs and investment dollars, the tech industry has achieved significant clout in local politics. We rounded up the tech and business luminaries who emerged as political power players in San Francisco.

SEE ALSO: Salesforce moved into a new $1 billion skyscraper in San Francisco, and the offices are unlike anything we've seen

Airbnb's Brian Chesky tangled with city officials and hotel unions to keep Airbnb alive in San Francisco.

Title: CEO of Airbnb

Biggest power play: In 2015, Airbnb spent more than $8 million to defeat a San Francisco ballot measure that would have severely restricted short-term home rentals, including those listed through other services such as Craigslist and Vrbo.

Employees of the San Francisco startup have given Gavin Newsom— the politician who helped beat the measure, and who is now running for California governor — $228,000 in donations.

Ron Conway, known as the "Godfather of Silicon Valley," has funneled money into hundreds of startups as well as political campaigns for moderate and tech-friendly candidates.

Title: Angel investor and founder of SV Angel

Biggest power play: Conway, one of the tech industry's most prominent and powerful startup investors, also backs political hopefuls. He's poured reported millions of dollars into local elections, including $275,000 in 2012 to pass a ballot measure that lowered tax rates for tech companies that he invested in such as Airbnb, Twitter, and Zynga.

Conway was a longtime friend and advisor to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, whose death from a heart attack in December catapulted Supervisor London Breed — a fellow recipient of Conway's political contributions over the years — into the hot seat. Her colleagues on the Board of Supervisors moved swiftly to replace her as interim mayor, saying publicly that they did so to send a message to Conway that "San Francisco can't be bought."

Conway has denied making any attempts to sway the Board of Supervisors' vote.

Salesforce's Marc Benioff has been spreading his billions over several causes near and dear to San Francisco residents.

Title: Cofounder and CEO of Salesforce

Biggest power play: Benioff and his wife, Lynne, want to end family homelessness in San Francisco by 2019, and have donated $11.5 million to Hamilton Families, an organization that puts families on the streets into permanent housing, to do just that.

The San Francisco power couple has contributed millions of dollars to causes from schools to hospitals, writing two $100 million checks to UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland. In 2018, Benioff gave big to sponsor a San Francisco ballot measure that, if passed, will go toward raising teacher salaries.

• The egg sandwich is an integral part of any fast-food breakfast menu.
• Every chain has their own special takes on it, especially the "Big Three" chains: McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's. 
• We taste-tested each chain's egg breakfast sandwiches to find out which is the best — and in the end, we were surprised by what we found. 

Egg, cheese, and bacon or sausage: the classic breakfast sandwich. It's ubiquitous, yet the simple breakfast sandwich enjoys eternal popularity.

And with breakfast habits changing, breakfast sandwiches on-the-go have become all the more popular. 

But of all the national chains, who makes the best classic sandwich?

I tried the egg, cheese, and meat iterations from three major fast-food chains — Burger King, McDonald's, and Wendy's — to see which one comes out on top. At the end of the test, the winner surprised us all — and it gives a huge incentive for a huge chain to step up its breakfast game. 

SEE ALSO: We compared McDonald's premium burgers with Shake Shack's and Five Guys' — and the winner surprised us

ALSO READ: A Mediterranean fast-casual chain that people are obsessed with is planning to take over America — here's what it's like

The Big Three all serve some version of the sandwich; at first glance, the only difference seems to be the bread.

Let's dive into Burger King's Supreme breakfast sandwich. It's a breakfast limousine wreck of two eggs, two sausages, and two servings of bacon topped with cheese and served in a "toasted hoagie bun," which appears to be crushed in a car compactor before serving.

Source: Burger King

If this is a toasted hoagie bun, I don't know what a hoagie is. It's an elongated hamburger bun with all the sogginess and disappointment that buns are heir to — a bun to be wished away. The sickly yellow egg is gelatinous and tastes of complete nothingness. With fast-food sausage and bacon all in one sandwich, the entire thing comes off as incredibly salty. I didn't finish this one.

• Social isolation, which happens when a person has little or no contact with others, is a dangerous condition.
• The form of extreme self-exile has been linked to a host of debilitating health problems, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking. 
• New research suggests social isolation can make heart failure patients three and a half times more likely to die than their well-connected peers.
• There's growing evidence that a simple, intuitive way to combat social isolation could also make just about anyone happier.

Going without human contact for too long can literally break your heart. 

That's according to a new study of social isolation published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in May, which tracked more than 1,600 people living with heart failure. 

We've known for a while that being alone is a deadly dangerous condition. Other scholars have estimated that regardless of your heart health, social isolation can increase risk of death anywhere from 50-90%. Being socially disconnected can also up your risk of developing high blood pressure or inflammation, and make people more aggressive. 

But for the new study, researchers looked at a group of patients from rural parts of Minnesota, all dealing with heart failure. They found that those Minnesotans who described their lives as highly socially isolated, seeing virtually no one else on a daily basis, were three and a half times more likely to die than people who were suffering from some of the exact same heart problems, but who reported having enough social support and connections to others.

People who didn't have any regular human contact were also more likely to be hospitalized, made more frequent visits to their doctors, and were more likely to be rushed to the emergency room than their peers.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that socially isolated people face serious health risks," NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg, who was not affiliated with the new study, told Business Insider. 

"We need to take their situation seriously," he said, though he cautioned there's no evidence yet that the sheer volume of socially isolated people in the US is going up.

"Americans are just about as isolated as we've always been," he said.

His own research suggests that in the US, elderly people and adult men are the two most at-risk populations for social isolation, in part, because they tend to have smaller social networks to begin with.

In addition to being more at-risk physically, there's also budding evidence that socially isolated people are changing their brain chemistry in dangerous ways. One recent study in mice found that just two weeks of "social isolation stress" caused negative behavioral changes and shifts in their brain chemistry. The finding hasn't been replicated in humans yet, but it made the mouse-studying scientists wonder if they might be able to some day use drugs to help human patients cope with the mental aspects of social isolation, and decrease their isolation-fueled aggression chemically. 

Loneliness is not the same as social isolation, but it's dangerous too

Being alone (social isolation) and feeling alone (loneliness) are not the same issue. Besides, generally speaking, people who live alone, whether they be 20 years old or 80, tend to have more social connections with others, not less, as Klinenberg has reported in the past. Loneliness isn't about how physically close we are to other people, and a person can be surrounded by others, and still feel completely alone in the world; that's loneliness at work. Like social isolation, long-term feelings of this emotional going-it-alone can make people more likely to die an early death, and research suggests the risks are on par with smoking. 

The rural Minnesotan study also measured some aspects of loneliness in socially isolated heart failure patients, by asking them how often they identified with statements like "I feel left out," and "I feel that people are around me, but not with me."

Coping with loneliness and social isolation

Klinenberg says it's important to remember that not all these feelings of loneliness are necessarily bad. Unlike a chemically-disturbed state of social isolation, or a debilitating loneliness that can last for weeks on end, a short bout of temporary loneliness won't kill you. In fact, he says it "can be a productive and healthy thing."

"It's your body's signal that you need to get off your couch and get into the world and try to build better, more meaningful social ties," he said. 

That's isolation-busting advice more scientists are getting behind.

In May a group of German researchers revealed that connecting more with others can boost how people rate their own satisfaction with life. In a study, people who spent a year making a renewed effort to help others, or spent more time with friends and family, were the only participants who measurably increased how they rated their own life satisfaction.

Other participants who focused on more self-centered life-improvement hacks, like quitting their own bad habits, showed no major change in how happy they rated their lives after a year, suggesting that adding in more time with others might be a kind of secret sauce for improving happiness.

To break out of social isolation, you have to be healthy enough to get out more in the first place — a tricky paradox for patients dealing with conditions like heart failure. Researchers in the new study suggest doctors can also be first responders in the fight against social isolation, looking for tell-tale signs by reaching out and asking a few simple questions of patients when they visit.

SEE ALSO: Scientists are figuring out why fasting helps people live longer — and they say a pill may one day trigger the same benefits

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NOW WATCH: How to know if you're actually depressed

• WalletHub recently revealed the most fun states in America.
• To determine the rankings, they compared all 50 states against two key categories: entertainment and recreation, and nightlife.
• From New York to California, see which states made the cut.

You probably don't need to travel far for a fun summer vacation.

WalletHub recently revealed the most fun states in America by comparing all 50 states against two key categories: entertainment and recreation, and nightlife.

From weather and movie costs, to the number of restaurants and amusement parks per capita, WalletHub looked at 26 metrics in these two categories, grading each on a 100-point scale. The greatest number and variety of fun and affordable options was indicated by 100 points. Some metrics, like number of attractions, were weighted more heavily than other metrics, such as number of fitness centers per capita.

WalletHub then calculated each state's weighted average across all factors for its overall score.

From New York to California, scroll through below to see the top 25 most fun states in America.

SEE ALSO: How much it costs to spend a day at America's most popular theme parks, ranked

DON'T MISS: The 10 best places to go on vacation this summer in the US, according to TripAdvisor

25. Oklahoma — Oklahoma ranked first for number of casinos per capita.

24. South Dakota — This Midwestern state ranked first for state and local direct spending on parks and recreation per capita and fourth for best access to national parks.

23. Tennessee — Home to country music, this southern state ranked fifth for highest variety of arts, entertainment, and recreation establishments.

• Marriage and relationships can be challenging.
• Therapist Hal Runkel shared three surprising insights about modern marriage, from the importance of displaying vulnerability to the importance of being able to live independently.
• This post is part of Relationships 101, a series which aims to help us all be happier and healthier in love — and to stop fighting over who should take out the trash.

There were multiple moments while listening to Hal Runkel where I could easily have shouted, "Preach, Hal!" but instead scribbled furiously in my notebook.

Runkel, a marriage and family therapist based in Atlanta, Georgia, visited the Business Insider office for a video interview in May 2017. 

He'd made appearances on TV and radio before, so it's no surprise he was easy to follow — but more than that, it was obvious he'd thought deeply about every relationship issue I brought up, both in the context of his own quarter-century-long marriage and in the context of relationships more generally.

Since that interview, I've been thinking about a few novel insights Runkel shared:

To stop a conflict from spiraling out of control, let your partner know they've hurt you

Inevitably, conflicts between romantic partners get out of hand when one person says something that cuts deep and the other person responds with something equally hurtful.

Runkel said there's one word that can stop an argument like this in its tracks: "Ouch." As in: "Ouch. That one hurt. I don't know if you were meaning to hurt me; I don't know if that's what you were going for; but that's what you did."

According to Runkel, "ouch" is a word that doesn't get used nearly enough in marriage. That's because displaying vulnerability — while key to a successful relationship — can also be incredibly difficult.

Ideally, once you let your partner know they've wounded you, the two of you will be able to take a step back and talk about what's really bothering you.

There's no such thing as 'getting' your partner to help out with chores

I asked Runkel about an issue too many modern couples face —how to encourage one partner to pick up the slack around the house — and he responded immediately:

"Whenever we start off a question with, 'How can I get someone to do more of this?' we've started off on the wrong foot," he said. "Because already, we're trying to get manipulative, literally trying to manipulate this other person to do what we actually need them to do. And it will always backfire."

No adult wants to be told to do the dishes — and anyway, what you really desire is for your partner to want to do the dishes.

So Runkel shared specific language you can use instead (note the display of vulnerability again): "It hurts me when it seems like I do more than you do. I don't know if you've noticed that, and I don't know if this is some unspoken arrangement, but I'm not going to do more than my share anymore. What you do after that is up to you."

Your partner will never complete you

Yes, it's something people say in movies and in social media posts announcing their engagement. But Runkel thinks the idea that you need your partner, or that your partner makes you a whole person, is incredibly misguided.

For one thing, Runkel said, "When was the last time you actually respected a needy person, much less found them attractive?"

What's more, each partner should want the other, and should always be making the choice to stay with the person. The relationship shouldn't be a necessity, in that you should each be able to function independently.

Of his own marriage, Runkel said, "I don't need my wife, which frees me up to want her."

If you want to attract the other person, he added, what you should be saying (at least to yourself) is: "I could live without you, but that's the last thing I want to do."

SEE ALSO: I asked a top couples therapist for 3 things people don't realize about strong relationships

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A relationship psychologist reveals what you should ask yourself before getting married

• Succulent poachers are a growing problem in Northern California seaside communities.
• Thieves are unearthing a succulent commonly known as "bluff lettuce" from its native habitat and shipping it in bulk overseas, where the plant is seen as a luxury.
• In South Korea and China, one plant will sell for up to $50 on the black market.
• Poachers who are caught can be fined at least $1,000 and sentenced to up to six months in jail.

A houseplant hyped by the Instagram generation is becoming an exciting black market buy for Asia's growing middle class.

The Dudleya Farinosa, a wild succulent more commonly called "bluff lettuce" or "powdery liveforever" grows only on the California and Oregon coasts, where temperatures are moderate and sunlight is generous. 

This specific, mature succulent is hard to come by in the humid climates of China, Japan, and South Korea, and plant poachers have capitalized on the void.

In the last several months, a growing number of plant thieves have been spotted unearthing the succulents on remote bluffs in Monterey, Mendocino, and Humboldt counties, according to NPR, and allegedly shipping them to Asia, where they sell for up to $50 a pop on the black market.

NPR's Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi said the succulents are "popular among Korean housewives — desperate, if you will, for the same things that have made them a hit in the US — they're collectible, neglectable, and instantly grammable." 

Indeed, they require "very low" to "extremely low" water to thrive. In other words, the houseplant version is hard to kill.

"As succulents have become the darling of designers and a staple for home and garden décor, so has the desire grown to possess rare species — and an illegal trade in pilfered plants is growing exponentially," reported Kathryn McKenzie for Voices of Monterey Bay.

Small-scale plant poaching has been an issue along the California coast for some time, Stephen McCabe, a dudleya expert and emeritus director of research for the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, told Voices of Monterey Bay.

"It's on a much bigger scale [now]," he said. "It's really multiplied in the past few years." 

After a growing number of poacher sightings from Northern California residents, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is cracking down. Poaching plants is considered a misdemeanor and carries a $1,000 fine per incident and a maximum penalty of six months of jail time. A game warden for the department told NPR that they've seized thousands of plants worth more than $700,000 since December.

One man who was caught on a post office security camera mailing the plants to China was fined $5,000, and sentenced to three years probation and 240 hours of community service. 

Mercury News dubbed one recent succulent poaching bust "an international plant heist."

"Wild Dudleya seems to be especially profitable for thieves since it can be harvested from remote areas where intruders may go unnoticed," McKenzie wrote. Thousands of plants have been recovered in the last several months and replanted, and authorities remain on high alert. 

SEE ALSO: Forget Louis Vuitton and Hermès — this luxury brand is the status symbol for the world's richest people

DON'T MISS: Chinese consumers don't idealize American products the way they used to — and that's bad news for Apple and Tesla

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NOW WATCH: You can climb a 'book mountain' in this gigantic library in China

Not all major cities are created equal, with some places around the world holding more influence over global business, culture, and politics than others. But what are the world's most influential cities?

That's a question that the management consultancy firm A.T. Kearney tries to answer with its annual Global Cities Report. The report looks at which global cities "are improving in their competitiveness and what factors are driving that success."

It examines dozens of variables, which are then subdivided into five categories: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement. Scores in these categories are then added together to create a holistic ranking.

New York and London top the list, with both cities miles ahead of their nearest rivals. The top 21 are spread around the world, though Europe dominates the list.

Check out the world's most influential cities below:

SEE ALSO: The 28 major global cities where workers have the highest salaries — earning more than $2,000 a month

21. Vienna

Austria may be a relatively small nation globally speaking, but its capital city punches well above its weight. Vienna is home to the headquarters of OPEC, the cartel of oil-producing nations that has a dramatic effect on global oil prices.

20. San Francisco

Technology lives in San Francisco, which is just a stone's throw from the headquarters of Facebook, Google, and many other tech giants.

19. Shanghai

Home to the Chinese mainland's main financial center, Shanghai is also the world's busiest container port, making it a global hub for all kinds of trade.

Business Insider is looking for the 100 coolest people in food and drink in North America and Europe — and the deadline for nominations has been extended.

The Business Insider Food 100 will rank the most innovative, trend-setting, impactful, and influential people in the fantastic worlds of food and drink.

It will include, but is not limited to, the likes of...

• Chefs
• Bartenders and mixologists
• Sommeliers
• CEOs and teams behind new product launches
• Bloggers
• Nutritionists and dietitians
• Anyone doing something "cool" within the wider world of food and drink

Do you know someone with a quirky job or role who has had an impact on the industry in the past year? Did they invent a product, a drink, or a dish that has become famous? Did they open a restaurant or bar that's the first of its kind?

If so, we want to hear from you — and you can fill out a nomination form here.

Extended Deadline: Sunday June 17 by 11.59 p.m. EST.

SEE ALSO: The 25 best restaurants in the world, according to millionaire private jet owners

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NOW WATCH: Why so many fast food logos are red

• A new study has found sex can improve people's performance in short-term memory tests.
• It adds to the existing research that has suggested sex can improve cognitive function in a number of ways.
• Some researchers conclude it is because sex boosts brain cell growth in areas of the brain associated with memory.
• Others suggest it's because of the sexual "afterglow" that pumps us full of dopamine and oxytocin.
• Either way, sex is probably good for the brain — not that you needed an excuse to have it.

Human memories are imperfect. Our brains can create false memories, and we find it harder to remember everything as we get older.

Normally we get by without it being too much of an issue — unless we develop a brain disease like Alzheimer's. But losing your memory can be alarming, and people sometimes worry as it can be a sign of something more serious. That's why there's such an emphasis on memory improvement and brain training in scientific research— people are keen to keep their minds fresh for as long as possible.

According to new research, sex could be one of the ways you can reduce memory loss. The study, published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, was led by Mark Allen from the University of Wollongong in Australia.

Allen looked at data from more than 6,000 adults over the age of 50, and analysed information about their diet, health, well-being, and socio-economic status. They had all also completed a memory task and a questionnaire where they reported how much sex they had. After two years, they completed another memory test.

Results showed that more frequent sexual activity, including kissing and greater emotional closeness, were associated with better memory performance — and this link was stronger among older participants.

Overall, people's memory performance worsened over the two years, and sexual activity only seemed to help with short-term memory tasks. There was no evidence to suggest sex helped declining memory in the long run.

Allen concluded that intimacy may boost memory by stimulating areas of the brain that are associated with memory, like the hippocampus.

Other research supports this idea. For instance, in 2010, a study published in PLOS One found sexual activity could promote the growth of cells in the hippocampus.

Also, a survey of 1,700 people aged 58 to 98, conducted by Manchester University, found people had better brain power if they were still sexually active.

In 2016, results of a study suggested sex could help women to remember abstract words— which is perhaps useful in reducing those tip-of-the-tongue moments. Just last year, more frequent sexual activity was linked to improved brain function in older adults, according to a study by Coventry and Oxford universities.

The Oxford and Coventry study also found that sex improved results of a whole range of tests, including verbal fluency, ability to visually perceive objects, and judging the space between objects.

The researchers said this could be because the "sexual afterglow" produced by the release of hormones dopamine and oxytocin can influence people's perceptions and performance.

While several studies have shown cognitive benefits of sex, both in the long and short term, some results are more solid than others. But the evidence is there that sex has its benefits — just in case you needed an excuse.

SEE ALSO: You shouldn't completely write off brain training — not yet, at least

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NOW WATCH: What humans will look like on Mars

• Not all nights out are born equal.
• Data from UBS reveals which cities in the world will hurt your wallets the most — and the least.
• Scroll down to see who made the list.

There are many variables that can make or break the bank when you hit the town: who you're with, what you're drinking and even what city you're in.

Not all nights out are born equal and, fortunately, recent stats from Swiss bank UBS have revealed where you'll find the most expensive (and the cheapest) places to paint the town red.

UBS used four quantifiers to determine the average cost of a night out in 13 major cities around the world: the price of a taxi, a Big Mac, club entry, and two long drinks.

Unsurprisingly, some cities were much more expensive than others for a night out — in Sweden, for example, club entry will set you back about $27 (£20); meanwhile, in Mexico City, you can grab a couple of drinks for $12 (£9).

Scroll down to see where you'll get the most bang for your buck around the world, ranked by the average cost of a night out from most expensive to cheapest.

SEE ALSO: 15 maps that show how much things cost around the world

13. Zurich, Switzerland — $93.79 (£70.15).

12. Miami, USA — $87.18 (£65.21).

11. Stockholm, Sweden — $86.97 (£65.05).

• "Päntsdrunk" is the latest Scandi lifestyle philosophy to know about. 
• It's called "kalsarikänni" in Finland, a special word that denotes "drinking at home, alone, in your underwear."
• Finnish journalist Miska Rantanen explains the philosophy in his new book of the same name. 
• It also involves bingeing on Netflix, scrolling mindlessly on your phone, spending time on the sofa, and eating sweet and salty snacks. 

There's a new Scandi lifestyle trend doing the rounds — and this one involves drinking at home, alone, and in your underwear.

First came "hygge," the Danish word for cosy. Next, albeit briefly, it was all about "lagom," a Swedish word meaning "just the right amount, following by "friluftsliv," a philosophy that encourages people to spend time outdoors, enjoying nature, and indulging in wholesome activities such as mushroom-picking and drinking birch sap. 

Now, "päntsdrunk" has been brought into the mainstream by Finnish journalist Miska Rantanen, who describes the trend of "drinking at home, alone, in your underwear" in his new book Päntsdrunk (Kalsarikanni): The Finnish Path to Relaxation— and the key really is in the title.

Päntsdrunk is an anglified version of the special Finnish word "kalsarikänni," which got some air time in 2017. The concept was created to help people deal with the cold and dark winter months in the Nordics, according to MailOnline. 

It is such a common practice, The Times reports, that Finland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs designed two emojis to help explain Finnish culture to foreigners — one of a man and one of a woman, both drinking alcohol in their underwear, sat on armchairs. It describes kalsarikänni as "the feeling when you are going to get drunk home alone in your underwear — with no intention of going out," as per below:

"It is no coincidence Finland consistently rates in the top five in happiness ranking," publisher Penguin writes of the book. "In Finland, Päntsdrunk is considered a path to recovery and self-empowerment to help you face your future challenges, much like the 'lagom' or 'hygge' of their other Scandi neighbours.

"The Päntsdrunk method also includes bingeing on Netflix, scrolling mindlessly on your phone, sweet and salty snacks, sofa time, and blocking all work communications. It will lead you to a healthier, more energising and relaxing life – wherever, whenever," the publisher added.

"Päntsdrunk (Kalsarikanni): The Finnish Path to Relaxation" comes out on June 5. 

SEE ALSO: A Nordic nutritionist tells us how eating pickled fish, drinking birch sap, and mushroom picking will make you healthier and happier

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A Nobel Prize-winning economist explains what Milton Friedman got wrong

• About 10% of the population is left-handed.
• There have been several theories over the years about why some people favor their left hand.
• A study published last year found that right- or left-handedness may have nothing to do with the brain — instead, it could be determined by gene activity in the spinal cord while you are in the womb.

Left-handed people haven't always been treated well throughout history. They've been persecuted for their disposition, being been labeled as evil — or even as witches — despite making up about 10% of the population. In fact, the word "sinister" comes from "left" or "left hand."

There have been a few theories over the decades about why some people are left-handed, including an outdated idea that it has something to do with mothers who are stressed while pregnant.

It's down to the spinal cord — not the brain

Research since the 1980s has found that our preference for our left or right hand is most likely determined before we are born — ultrasound screenings suggest as early as the eighth week of pregnancy. From the 13th week in the womb, babies tend to suck either their right or their left thumb.

It was previously thought that the genetic differences between the left and right hemispheres of the brain determine whether someone is left- or right-handed. But a study published last year in the journal eLife found that the answer could lie in the spinal cord.

The research — by Sebastian Ocklenburg, Judith Schmitz, and Onur Gunturkun from Ruhr University Bochum, along with other colleagues from the Netherlands and South Africa — found that gene activity in the spinal cord was asymmetrical in the womb and could be what causes a person to be left- or right-handed.

Arm and hand movements start in the brain, in an area called the motor cortex, which sends a signal to the spinal cord that's translated into a motion. The researchers found that while the fetus is growing in the womb, up until about 15 weeks, the motor cortex and the spinal cord are not yet connected, but right- or left-handedness has already been determined.

In other words, the fetus can already start movements and chooses a favorite hand before the brain starts controlling the body.

To study this, the researchers analyzed gene expression in the spinal cord in the eighth through the 12th week of pregnancy. They found significant differences in the left and right segments of the spinal cord that control arm and leg movement.

They concluded that the asymmetrical nature of the spinal cord could be down to something called epigenetics, or how organisms are affected by changes in their gene expression rather than in the genes themselves. These changes are often brought about by environmental influences and can affect how a baby grows.

These gene-expression differences could affect the right and left parts of the spinal cord differently, resulting in lefties and righties.

So why are lefties so rare?

Scientists have long tried to answer this.

In 2012, researchers at Northwestern University developed a mathematical model to show that the percentage of left-handed people was a result of human evolution — specifically, a balance of cooperation and competition.

In other words, they thought that, though the basis for right- or left-handedness may be genetic, there could be a social factor that explains why the ratio is so high.

"The more social the animal — where cooperation is highly valued — the more the general population will trend toward one side," Daniel Abrams, an assistant professor at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science who helped develop the model, told LiveScience.

"The most important factor for an efficient society is a high degree of cooperation," he added. "In humans, this has resulted in a right-handed majority."

In other words, we may have, for some reason, evolved to favor right-handedness, so anyone deviating from this may have been conditioned to use that hand primarily despite their genetic predisposition.

In fact, Judith Schmitz, one of the authors of the new study, told Business Insider that twin studies have shown the contribution of genetics for handedness is about 25%.

The new study couldn't explain the majority of right-handedness, but Schmitz explained how bird research can show how genetics and environment can be the cause.

"In chicken and pigeons, a genetic factor determines the position in the egg before hatch — the embryo is curled such that the right eye is turned to the semi-translucent eggshell, while the left eye is covered by the embryo's own body," she said.

"Thus, the right eye is stimulated by light before hatch, whereas the left one is mostly light deprived. This combination of genetic and environmental factors (light) induces a visual asymmetry — pigeons and chicken are better in visual discrimination, categorization, and memorization of visual patterns with their right eye than with their left eye. If chicken or pigeon eggs are incubated in darkness, the development of this asymmetry is prevented."

Why exactly people are left-handed is still a bit of a mystery — partly because left-handed people are often excluded from scientific research, experts say — and it's hard to predict whether a child will be left or right-handed once they are born.

One thing we do know, though, is that the neurological differences between left- and right-handed people are small, and supposed behavioral or psychological distinctions have largely been debunked.

SEE ALSO: Our brains sometimes create 'false memories' — but science suggests we could be better off this way

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• Singapore's Changi International Airport has been ranked the top airport in the world by Skytrax for six years running.
• It has impressive amenities like a free movie theater, a butterfly garden, a rooftop swimming pool, and 24-hour spas, but it's the airport's cleanliness and efficiency that the average traveler will notice most.
• On a recent visit, I went from check-in through security to my boarding gate in 15 minutes and found the airport's new Terminal 4 to be thoughtful, pleasant, and relaxed.
• I'm the kind of person who usually hates spending any unnecessary time in an airport, but I'd happily get to Changi early on a future flight.

For six years in a row, Singapore's Changi Airport has been rated the top airport in the world by Skytrax, a UK-based customer-service reviewer that has been ranking airports since 1999.

That lofty ranking was most recently based on 13.73 million questionnaires completed by customers over a roughly six-month period. Skytrax ranked more than 500 airports.

But while traveling around the world as Business Insider's international correspondent, I was left wondering: What exactly does "world's best airport" mean to the average traveler?

In Changi's case, there are a lot of flashy amenities — a free movie theater, a butterfly garden, a rooftop swimming pool, and 24-hour spas are just a few. Still, I wasn't sure what to expect. In general, airports are hellish, frustrating places. Tolerable, at best.

But over the course of three trips to Changi Airport, I found that the airport lived up to the hype. The amenities dazzle if you have the time to enjoy them (as someone who is perpetually late, I barely did), but it's the airport's cleanliness, efficiency, and customer-centric approach that sets it apart from nearly every other airport I've been to.

At Changi's Terminal 4, which opened last October, it took me 15 minutes to go from my taxi drop-off to the boarding gate. For someone used to loitering in interminable security lines at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Changi was a revelation.

Here's what it was like:

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Singapore's Changi Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world, serving 62.2 million passengers last year. It is a major hub for flights through Asia. I recently flew through Changi on three occasions. I had heard was rated the world's top airport, but I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Source: Changi Airport

The airport has a ton of eye-popping amenities. There are the free movie theaters that play first-run movies in Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. While I was in town, "Justice League," "The Post," and "Despicable Me 3" were in the rotation.

Terminal 1 has a rooftop swimming pool that travelers can access for 17 Singapore dollars, or about $13. It also has a Jacuzzi, showers, and a bar.

• We visited Dr. Martens' only UK factory on Cobbs Lane in Wollaston, Northamptonshire.
• The iconic 1460 boots were made here for the first time in 1960.
• This is where Dr. Martens makes it's iconic Made in England collection.
• The production process happens in four rooms: the Clicking Room, the Closing Room, the Lasting Track, and the Shoe Room.
• Only 50 people work at the Cobbs Lane factory.
• They make about 100,000 pairs of boots and shoes per year, which is only 1% of what the brand makes as a whole.

Dr. Martens is one of those brands that needs no introduction. 

Before acquiring worldwide fame and becoming a staple in British culture, the iconic shoes with yellow-threaded soles were made in a single factory building in Cobbs Lane in Wollaston, Northamptonshire. The Griggs family, who owned the building, progressively expanded the site, and later on, the brand started to open factories outside of England. 

The original Cobbs Lane site is still in place and this is where the Made in England collection is made, as well as vintage Dr. Martens and collaboration shoes with other brands.

"This factory is ground zero for Dr. Martens," Production Manager Steve Bent told Business Insider. "The main product that Dr. Martens make is the 1460 boot, the eight eyelet boot that everybody recognizes as a Doc. That was made in this factory floor on the first of the fourth 1960."

The production process happens in four rooms.

The first one is the Clicking Room, where leather is assessed, cut, and embossed.

The leather then moves to the Closing Room, where all the pieces are stitched together using different sewing machines, the eyelets are punched in, and a toe puff is added.

The Lasting Track is where the shoe starts to get its shape. The name of the room comes from the last, which is the mould that goes inside the shoe. This is also where the famous yellow thread is stitched.

Once the leather is pulled tight around the last and the excess is cut off, the thread is used to stitch a PVC well to the leather. 

"PVC well is the stage where things start to become uniquely Dr. Martens," said Bent. "All other last stitching factories will use something along the lines of a leather well and they'll stitch the sole onto the well once the well is stitched onto the upper.

"We do things differently. We stitch a PVC well all the way around the upper."

The well and the sole are then melted together using hot blades are rollers, making it one whole piece of PVC.

The final part of the process happens in the Shoe Room, where shoes are going to be cleaned, laced, tagged, inspected, and finally boxed.

As of today, only 50 people work at the Cobbs Lane factory making about 100,000 pairs of boots and shoes per year, which is only 1% of what the brand makes as a whole.

 Produced by Claudia Romeo. Filmed by Claudia Romeo and Leon Siciliano.

SEE ALSO: LUSH bath bombs are all made by hand — we went to its biggest factory to see how it produced 18 million in 2017

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• Choosing a suit is tough.
• The owners of Jack Davison Bespoke, Jack Stammers and Will Davison, told Business Insider about the suit you should build your wardrobe around.
• The tailors have attracted VIP clients, including Rio Ferdinand and the vlogger Jim Chapman.
• Davison said: "Your first suit needs to be one that's transferable for a lot of occasions." 

Buying a suit can be an arduous task for anyone. With the countless styles, patterns, and fabrics offered, it's easy to get lost in the myriad options available.

Fortunately, two tailors from London have divulged what they believe to be the perfect suit to build your wardrobe around.

Jack Stammers and Will Davison are attempting to bring the flair of Savile Row to the City of London, London's historic financial district.

"We both worked at a well-known tailor in Mayfair," Davison said. "The more we got into it, the more we had visions of what we'd like to do. Then we just noticed there was a big gap in the market."

The duo opened Jack Davison Bespoke in the heart of the City of London, with the intention of getting professionals "dressing a bit more excitingly."

Just over a year and a half later, they've attracted celebrity fans, including Rio Ferdinand and the vlogger Jim Chapman.

The key to looking good all the time, they say, is to start with a classic gray or navy suit.

"I say to my clients, unless they've got something very clear in their heads that they want for their first suit, I'd always encourage someone to go for a classic gray or a classic navy, because that way you're going to get the most wear out of it," Stammers said.

"The beauty of that is they'll go with most shirts too — whites, blues, stripes," he said, adding that the suits are "really versatile" and look "nice with brown or black shoes."

Davison added: "When you're building your wardrobe, your first suit needs to be one that's transferable for a lot of occasions and just looks really good all the time."

So if you're heading to the tailor for the first time — or even buying off the peg — starting your look in navy or gray will set you on the path to sartorial success.

SEE ALSO: This is everything men do wrong when buying and wearing a suit, according to the oldest tailor on Savile Row

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• A break-up doesn't mean a relationship has failed. 
• Unnecessary fights and monotonous conversations are common signs that a break-up is overdue.
• When there are more negatives than positives in your relationship, both you and your partner deserve more.

Instagrammer and sex educator Zoe Ligon recently shared some important wisdom (gleaned from her time attending a sex-positive conference) with her 128,000 followers: "Relationships are NOT more important than the individuals within it," she wrote. "Ended relationships are not failed relationships. You can have all the relationships you want, or don't want."

Breakups often do seem like a failure — to yourself, your partner, and others' expectations of you — and avoiding that feeling is often why we stay in relationships for far longer than they serve us.

But if we can start to think of a breakup as something other than failure, that leaves an important question: How do we know when it's time to walk away?

To find out, I talked to two people who know more about this than I do: Shannon Smith, resident dating expert at Plenty of Fish and relationship expert and divorce attorney Vikki Ziegler, who also starred on BRAVO's show "Untying the Knot."

Here are a few signs that your relationship isn't working anymore.

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1. The future doesn't look so bright

Smith and Ziegler agreed that while it's perfectly normal to be with someone who has different long-term goals than you, you've also got to be realistic about whether "your lives are going in completely different directions," as Ziegler said.

"If you find yourselves picturing a future that's quite different, sometimes breaking up can be a compassionate act that can save everyone some significant pain and resentment down the road," Smith wrote.

2. You don't recognize who you've become

True of any partnership, romantic or otherwise, we often change our habits, mannerisms, and even personality based on who we're spending time with. But while a little of that is fine, Smith told me, "If you no longer recognize yourself, and don't like who you've become, it's time to seriously shake up your routine and take a hard look at your relationship."

Importantly, if your partner "doesn't see the value in investing in yourselves to be better, it's probably time to break up," added Smith.

3. You're over them

This one might seem obvious, but it might be more difficult to recognize than it seems. It could look like choosing to hang out with your friends over your partner, Ziegler told me.

But that could become more serious, Smith said, to the extent that "you're beginning to disregard their feelings because you're exhausted by them, or finding it difficult to care."

That's a pretty good sign it's time to break up, especially if you "no longer want to support your partner emotionally or have sex with them," Smith added.

After Foster Huntington left his corporate job in Manhattan, he spent three years living in a van.

He traveled the US, backpacking, surfing, and connecting with a nomadic community who'd left their own stationary lives behind for something different.

In his fourth book, "Van Life: Your Home on the Road," Huntington gathers photos from the community, and interviews some of its members to learn more about their lives — and their vans.

Here, see 12 of the photos featured in Huntington's dreamy depiction of van life, a world unto itself.

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Foster Huntington is credited with creating the viral hashtag #vanlife, which people use to showcase minimalist lives based in vans, constantly on the move.

The pictures generally depict a lifestyle punctuated by dawn yoga on the beach and clear desert nights stargazing through the sunroof.

"I knew that I wanted to have this book be really authentic stories," Huntington told Business Insider. "I wanted it to be an expanded perspective that wasn't just mine."

• A new airline — Air Italy — made its maiden voyage on Friday between its hub in Milan and New York's JFK airport.
• The airline aims to reposition Milan's Malpensa airport as a major international hub, while creating a high-quality service and experience-focused product.
• The airline is 49% owned by Qatar Airways, which was ranked 2017's best airline in the world, and built its product around Qatar's model.

A new Italian airline launched its first long-haul route on Friday, with its maiden flight from New York's JFK airport to Milan's Malpensa airport. As Air Italy's Airbus A330 received the traditional "water cannon salute" upon landing at JFK, the airline's stakeholders and leadership celebrated the beginning of what many hope will be a swift and effective expansion of routes throughout the world.

The flight represents a major milestone for the airline, which aims to grow from a small niche carrier to major international airline over the next several years, starting with six long-haul routes in 2018. The airline has more than 50 aircraft on order.

Air Italy is actually a rebranding of legacy Italian regional carrier Meridiana, which was itself the product of mergers with several other small Italian carriers. While the airline had flown successfully, promoting its brand and launching new routes as recently as 2014, the airline faced financial difficulties.

In late-2017, Qatar Airways — the top-ranked airline in the world in 2017— announced that it was acquiring a 49% stake in Meridiana, which it planned to overhaul and rebrand as Air Italy. The other 51% is held by the previous sole shareholder Alisarda, which is in turn owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, as reported by aviation news website The Points Guy. The two companies — Qatar Airways and Alisarda — have formed a new holding company for Air Italy, AQA.

According to Marco Rigotti, Air Italy's Executive Deputy Chairman, the airline is poised to grow quickly. It recently took possession of the first of 20 new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft for intra-Italy flights from the Milan hub, and has 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners on order — the first will be delivered in Spring 2019 — to operate its long-haul network. Until the Dreamliners are ready, Air Italy is flying Airbus A330 aircraft from Qatar for its long-haul flights.

In addition to the Milan–JFK route, Air Italy is launching a nonstop flight between Milan and Miami on June 8th. Flights to Bangkok and Mumbai will launch this fall, and two more long-haul destinations will launch in 2018 — these have not yet been announced.

Air Italy's launch and ownership by Qatar represents a unique opportunity. Current Italian flagship carrier Alitalia has been in financial straits for several years and is currently in bankruptcy, despite a 2014 move by Qatar competitor Etihad Airways to invest in the airline. As Alitalia continues to struggle, Qatar Airways and Air Italy's leadership see an opportunity to rise as a new Italian long-haul standard bearer.

In an interview with Business Insider and several other outlets, Rigotti said that the investment by Qatar provides Air Italy the framework, inspiration, and impetus to build the new airline around service, style, and passenger experience.

"Without [Qatar Airways and their chief executive Akbar Al Baker], this project would not exist," he said. "Not in just in terms of the financial aspects; they have been fundamental inspiration in terms of how to create a high-quality product."

The onboard experience

Air Italy's long-haul economy class seats will all be equipped with personal in-flight entertainment screens, at a time when airlines have been eliminating those monitors in favor of a "bring your own device" system, sometimes with streaming available from an onboard entertainment server. Flights will be equipped with Wi-Fi, and all passengers will have access to live satellite TV — including matches during the World Cup this summer. Economy seats, which are laid out in a 2-4-2 configuration, have 31" of pitch — comparable to most full-service long-haul carriers — and are equipped with USB charging ports.

Economy class meal service, meanwhile, will feature Italian wines and dishes, with meals like gnocchi and lasagna, and snacks including pizza and focaccia with aubergines.

Business class cabins feature lie-flat seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. With 78" of pitch, they can be turned into beds for overnight flights. All business class passengers get amenity kits stocked with comfort products for the flight, as well as a turn-down service with mattress pads for "bed mode," as well as a more robust catering service throughout the flight. 

A hub in Milan

Air Italy's launch and use of Milan as its hub provides an opportunity to draw tourism and business traffic to the city and northern Italy. And it also serves international business travelers traveling anywhere in the country.

"We chose Milan for a couple of reasons," said Rigotti. "Notably, Alitalia used it as a hub until several years ago, but the airline abandoned it due to financial difficulties. We see the city as an opportunity."

"More then that, we're creating a hub from today because we are feeding connections on to Rome, Naples, and Palermo, and more. The passengers on the first flight are not just heading to Milan — they're going on to other destinations."

The two goals — building a new, customer-centric, service-focused airline, and building Milan as a hub for the entire country, go hand-in-hand, according to Rigotti. 

"These goals are coherent with what Milan represents in Italy," he said. "Milan is truly the most modern, contemporary town in Italy between fashion, its financial district, its activity, and its design. We have the same values, and that's how we'll operate."

While early reception has been positive — reporters from Airways Magazine on board the first flight from JFK gave the airline's business class a rave review — one thing is clear for travelers: competition for the Milanese and Italian markets seems to be a good thing.

As of publication, flight searches found that Air Italy currently offers the least-expensive service to Milan and Rome for this summer and fall.

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