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10 things you're doing on your phone that could undermine your success at work

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smartphone

  • The smartphone has given us instantaneous connection, access to limitless information, and can help keep our lives in order.
  • However, spending too much time on social media, constantly receiving notifications, and sleeping near your smartphone could be hurting your productivity more than you think.
  • Here are 10 smartphone habits that are ruining your productivity, according to experts.

 

It's hard to imagine a time where our phones weren't permanently attached to our hands. Many of us take these miniature computers pretty much everywhere and rely heavily on them for day-to-day tasks. But with so much opportunity to explore the internet and stay connected to loved ones 24/7, it's easy to get distracted, resulting in a loss of productivity.

"Productivity is often at its apex during a flow state," when a person is fully immersed in an activity, NYC-based psychotherapist Jordana Jacobs told Business Insider.

According to Jacobs, while phones are great for the technology they provide, they also feed into our natural distracted state. Cell phones take us out of the flow state, "which is so fundamental to productivity," she said. "Essentially, we are consistently interrupting our own thought process," she said. To put it simply, our phones "take us away from 'the now,'" she said.

It's probably not plausible for you to get rid of your phone completely, but you can still take steps to keep it from getting in the way of your goals.

The first step to being more productive is identifying all the ways our phones keep us from staying focused. Jacobs andJonathan Alpert, psychotherapist and author of "Be Fearless: Change Your Life in 28 Days," broke down the phone habits are ruining our productivity:

SEE ALSO: 12 ways your smartphone is making your life worse

1. Reading, answering, and deleting emails

According to Jacobs, smartphones take us out of being in the present. When we're constantly checking those work and personal emails, she said it puts us in the mindset of, "I'm doing this rather than just being where I am now."

Mindlessly checking email can easily take us out of the flow state productivity requires.



2. Taking pictures

One of the perks of today's smartphones is that they double as high-quality cameras.

While it's great to want to take a picture here and there to have a keepsake of a particular moment, Jacobs said that playing paparazzi in our own lives is another way of taking us from living in the now.



3. Checking social media

Social media can feed our obsession with other people's lives, but Jacobs said it's also a platform for us to brag to our followers about what we are doing or have done.

She said that by constantly checking social media, we become obsessed with what everyone else is doing and with showing everyone else what we're doing at the expense of the actual task in front of us.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 6 smartest things I did before I had my second child

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Having a second kid

  • Having a second kid can bring new challenges in comparison to your first.
  • Though you’ve been through the process, having a second kid can compromise your time, energy, and sense of balance in new ways.
  • There are certain things you can do, like rereading baby books and starting projects like nurseries, before having a second kid that can best prepare you for his or her arrival.

 

In the months before we had our first child, Benjamin, in 2013, life was generally manageable — despite the fact that my wife and I were having major construction work done at our house, working full time, attending Lamaze birthing classes, setting up a nursery, reading baby books, buying baby stuff, and also maintaining our adult-only social lives for the last time.

When our second child, Scarlett, was born in 2018, there were no renovations to attend to, and my wife had taken a few years off from teaching, but there was a precocious, energetic four-year-old who demanded about 94.6% of his parents' attention during all waking hours. Life felt busier than ever, and it was sometimes hard to imagine how we would ever get anything done with yet another human being in the house.

Yes, the raising of multiple kids has been done before, but it's still unnerving to face a major life change like the birth of a second child. In fact, in some ways, the days and weeks before Scarlett's birth were more daunting than those before Ben was born.

Why? Because the second time around, we actually knew how much work a kid can be.

Fortunately, we also knew that planning ahead was critical. Here are some of the smartest things we did to prepare for our second child:

SEE ALSO: 15 things I wish I knew before becoming a dad

1. We started projects early

As soon as my wife and I learned we were expecting a second child, we started rearranging the house to accommodate her. My upstairs office would become her nursery, so we had to wall off an area in the basement to create a new space for me.

We finished that project and had Scarlett's nursery fully set up and decorated weeks before she would be born, and months before she would sleep in her room, knowing that once she arrived, our already scant free time would go down to almost nil. Case in point: Though that new basement wall and door were installed long before Scarlett was born, I didn't get around to painting them until she was more than three months old.



2. I reread my baby books

Oddly, in some ways I felt more prepared for the birth of my first kid than my second. Before Benjamin, I had more free time to devote to reading lots of baby books and articles, watching videos, going to classes, and so forth.

Once I realized that all the information wasn't popping back into my head, I reread my favorite baby book, “Expectant Father: The Ultimate Guide for Dads-to-Be,” and went through many materials I'd studied the first time around, re-educating myself on what to expect from the birth and newborn days.



3. We made our son a part of the process

Once we were far enough into the pregnancy to feel confident that the growing baby was healthy, Kristin and I began to talk to Ben about what was happening on a daily basis. He got to look at our baby app that showed the size of the fetus at each stage (lentil, grape, plum, avocado, etc.).

He also helped decorate the baby's room and attended several doctor visits with us, where he listened to Scarlett's heart and saw her on the sonogram. In fact, he even chose her name. We whittled the list down to two choices, then let Ben pick the winner.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A 13-year-old Boy Scout with Asperger's syndrome survived for 37 hours in the wilderness by eating bugs and bark after being separated from his troop

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Garrett Hunter 2

  • Garrett Hunter of Draper, Utah, was separated from his Boy Scout troop in the Wyoming wilderness on Saturday.
  • The 13-year-old, who has Asperger's syndrome, became separated from the group when he went off a trail to go to the bathroom.
  • Searchers found him in good health about 10:15 p.m. Sunday after happening to camp near him for the night and calling out his name.

A 13-year-old boy who became separated from his Boy Scout group during a hiking trip in the Wyoming wilderness survived partly on bugs and tree bark for the nearly 37 hours he was alone.

Searchers found Garrett Hunter of Draper, Utah, in good health about 10:15 p.m. Sunday after happening to camp near him for the night and calling out his name, according to Sublette County sheriff's Sgt. Travis Bingham.

Rough terrain and darkness forced the group to camp overnight and wait until Monday morning to take the boy out of the mountainous Bridger Wilderness.

Garrett Hunter 1

Garrett, who has Asperger's syndrome, became separated from other Boy Scouts and their leaders around 9:30 a.m. Saturday when he went off a trail to go to the bathroom, Bingham said.

When he returned, the group was gone.

The group of about 20 boys and adults were on the way out from a weeklong, 50-mile backcountry hiking trip near Pinedale, Wyoming.

Police said they were concerned that Garrett's Asperger's syndrome could have kept him from approaching anyone for help, according to ABC.

Garrett had a sleeping bag, a water filtration device, a little food, and part of a tent. Not sure how long he might be lost, the boy ate ants and bark to preserve what little food he had.

"Of course I panicked," Garrett told KSL. "I had some weight on me, so I ditched my tent and some trash and went up the mountain."

He kept his backpack and sleeping bag and used his water filter to drink stream water until he was located.

As time went on, Garrett feared that he would never see his family again.

"He didn't like bark so much, but the bugs weren't too bad," Bingham said after interviewing Garrett Monday. "He had trouble starting a fire with the fire starters staying lit. He improvised, using bug spray with his lighter even though his mom told him not to and did get a fire that one night."

Searchers, aided by dogs and a helicopter, scoured the rugged terrain Saturday afternoon and Sunday. The search was suspended about 7 p.m. Sunday, but one group of volunteers decided to camp near a lake that night.

Garrett Hunter 3

When one of the volunteers yelled out Garrett's name, they heard a reply: "Help," Bingham said.

The volunteers who found Garrett were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ward Garrett belonged to, KSL reported.

The boy was found on a ledge overlooking the lake where he had stopped to wait for rescuers, Bingham said.

"It was really great," Garrett told KSL of the rescue. "Like, hallelujah, I’m home free! … They were so happy to see me, like they said it was a miracle that they found me."

Authorities said he did everything right to survive, including staying in one place after initially hiking about a mile.

When asked if he had tips for anyone who might get lost in the future, Garrett said: "Have a map with you and a knife in case you get stuck."

Join the conversation about this story »

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A religious site in the most contested city in Israel with a complicated, bloody history is the center of gravity for the Israel-Palestine conflict

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IsraelPalestine News Hebron (1 of 43)

  • Hebron is the biggest city in the Palestinian West Bank with a population of 200,000 Palestinians and around 1,000 Israeli settlers. 
  • The city is home to the most important religious site for Jews and Muslims outside of Jerusalem: a 2,000 year-old building known as the Cave of the Patriarchs to Jews and Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims.
  • The history of the religious site and the tense situation around it today illuminate much about the persistence of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
  • I recently visited Hebron on a "dual narrative" tour. Half the tour was guided by an Israeli Jew and the other half was guided by a Palestinian from Hebron. Each told their side of what has happened at the Cave of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque.

It's not an exaggeration to say that if you want to understand the Israel-Palestine conflict, go to Hebron.

But, more specifically, if you want to understand how history and conflicting narratives collide into a tense and tenuous present, visit one of the region's most important and contested religious sites: the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

Referred to as Ibrahimi Mosque by Muslims and Palestinians and the Tomb of the Patriarchs by Jews and Israelis, the structure is said to be the tombs of the biblical figures of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah. The 2,000-year-old building was built by King Herod the Great, and is considered to be the oldest continuously used prayer structure in the world.

As both Muslims and Jews revere Abraham and his descendants, the site is immeasurably important to both cultures. And it has a contentious and bloody history over the centuries and even today. 

It has passed hands from Jews to Christians to Muslims throughout that time. The building holds a series of cenotaphs, or commemorative tombs, for the biblical figures, though some believe they are actually buried beneath the building.

On a recent trip to Israel — my first — I decided to visit the religious site to better understand the conflict. 

I decided to take a tour led by Eliyahu McLean, an Orthodox Jew who moved from the US to Israel 20 years ago, and Mohammed Al-Mohtaseb, a 27-year-old Palestinian.

Here's what it's like:

SEE ALSO: I visited the most contested city in the Middle East, where Israelis and Palestinians are separated by a gauntlet of military checkpoints — and the harsh, complicated truth of the conflict was immediately clear

Hebron is located 20 miles south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. With a population of more than 200,000 Palestinians and around 1,000 Israeli settlers, Hebron is the biggest city in the Palestinian territory. Its name in both Hebrew (Hevron) and Arabic (Al-Khalil) translates to "friend."



Hebron is divided in two sectors: H1, controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and H2, controlled by the Israeli military. One of the key dividing points is the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs. The majestic building can be seen here.



The presence of the site has drawn the devout of all Abrahamic religions to the city for centuries. In the Byzantine period, the building was turned into a church. When the city was conquered by Arab Muslims, it was turned into a mosque. It was turned back into a church during the Crusader period and then back into a mosque under the Mamluks and finally the Ottomans.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Cayenne pepper ginger shots, homemade lemon tarts, and Michelin-starred chefs — here's what employees at Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies are offered for free

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Facebook snacks food meal

Silicon Valley's tech giants have taken workplace dining to the next level, with themed restaurants, gourmet menus, and stunning designs — and at many companies, it's all free. 

But employers seeking to offer their staff subsidized meals won't have that option if the city of San Francisco follows through with a policy that would ban new construction of workplace cafeterias. The proposal is an effort to encourage tech employees to stimulate the local economy by eating at restaurants within the community.

The nearby city of Mountain View, California, already enforces the restriction, which will forbid Facebook from building an on-site cafeteria when it opens its offices there this fall. However, the proposal won't affect companies with existing cafeterias, like Google, Apple, and Facebook's main offices in Menlo Park, California.

Here are the gourmet perks currently afforded to the employees of Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies.

SEE ALSO: Free food may become a thing of the past in Silicon Valley — but there are plenty of other incredible perks companies like Facebook and Google offer their employees

Facebook has an on-site Philz Coffee.

The social media giant offers employees free unlimited food spanning healthy and guilty-pleasure options. Many of the on-campus cafeterias at the Menlo Park headquarters are more like specialized restaurants, from barbecue joints and burger shacks to smoothie stands and ice cream shops. There's even an outpost of the uber-hip Philz Coffee on campus. 

As one Menlo Park employee on Glassdoor put it, the meal benefits have its upsides and downsides — "pros: free food; cons: got fat."

Employees at Facebook's new Mountain View offices won't have that problem. When the location opens this fall, free food won't be offered to employees there as part of a city restriction forbidding tech companies in the region from supplying fully subsidized meals to staff.

 



Apple employees don't get free food — but they do get subsidized cafes.

Apple is one of the tech giants that does not offer its employees free food (with the exception of free dinner for iOS or OS X team members) but there are multiple subsidized cafes.

The new "Spaceship" headquarters in Cupertino, California, has a cafe that's four stories high, with a massive glass door and the capacity for 4,000 hungry employees, according to a 2017 Wired profile. 

The cafes subsidize everything except ingredient cost, and allow employees to pay using a payroll deduction plan. This means that although meals aren't, free employees are able to get a nice tax break. 

The menu isn't too shabby either: Employees can have a custom-made burrito, salad, pasta, or  pizza, and there's a juice bar that gives out ginger, cayenne pepper, and beat juice combo shots.

And though food isn't completely free like the company's tech neighbors, at least the apples are.



Twitter has free snacks on every floor.

Twitter's HQ in San Francisco offers employees free breakfast and lunch. There are lots of fresh options and a kitchen with snacks on every floor.

Source: Glassdoor



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Prosecutors say Paul Manafort once spent $15,000 on an ostrich jacket

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Paul Manafort

  • Prosecutors detailed new information about Paul Manafort’s income and spending in opening statements on Tuesday.
  • The former Trump campaign chairman's trial is the first to stem from the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
  • The indictment against Manafort detailed his "lavish" spending. He has pleaded not guilty, and stands charged with 18 counts, including tax fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.

Paul Manafort spent thousands on his menswear collection, including a $15,000 purchase of a jacket "made from an ostrich," prosecutors revealed in opening statements in his high-profile trial on Tuesday.

Assistant US Attorney Uzo Asonye told a jury of six men and six women that Manafort funneled tens of millions of dollars into offshore accounts in a multi-million-dollar conspiracy to evade US tax and banking laws.

Asonye detailed new information about Manafort's income and spending, saying that he used his offshore accounts to pay for personal purchases — including a $21,000 watch and a $15,000 jacket made of ostrich.

Manafort also spent $6 million cash on real estate, the Associated Press reported, including a $2 million property a "stone’s throw" away from the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, Asonye said, according to MailOnline.

"A man in this courtroom believed the law did not apply to him — not tax law, not banking law," Asonye told the jury.

Prosecutors intend to argue that Manafort moved more than $60 million from Ukrainian political consulting into offshore bank accounts. The government claims that Manafort hid a "significant" amount of the funds from the IRS.

Manafort's attorney has argued that his client never intended to deceive US authorities about his income or bank accounts. Manafort is pleading not guilty in the case.

President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman's trial is the first to stem from the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

Asonye's comments were the first made in the bank fraud and tax evasion trial, which kicked off Tuesday and is expected to last several weeks.

SEE ALSO: Paul Manfort's blockbuster trial won't be televised Paul Manafort's blockbuster trial won't be televised — along with any other Mueller trials — because it's illegal

SEE ALSO: Meet the judge presiding over Paul Manafort's trial Meet T.S. Ellis, the judge presiding over Paul Manafort's trial, who has challenged Mueller's intentions and earned Trump's praise

Join the conversation about this story »

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See the real estate properties in New York and LA that prosecutors are accusing Paul Manafort of funneling millions through

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Paul Manafort

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort appeared in court on Tuesday to defend against charges that include money laundering and tax fraud.

The indictment, which the special counsel Robert Mueller filed in October, says Manafort enjoyed a "lavish" lifestyle and bought many multimillion-dollar properties and "personal items" like Range Rovers, rugs, and even a $15,000 ostrich jacket.

"Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income," the indictment said. Manafort has pleaded not guilty.

Here's a look at some of the properties prosecutors are accusing Manafort of funneling money through, according to the indictment, other public records, and media reports:

SEE ALSO: The indictment of Paul Manafort shows he spent over $12 million on Range Rovers, men's clothing, and home improvements in the Hamptons

SEE ALSO: Paul Manafort's high-stakes trial started Tuesday. Here's what you need to know about the prosecution's roadmap and Manafort's risky gamble

The indictment says Manafort wired $6.4 million from an offshore account to purchase three different properties, one of which is this brownstone in Brooklyn.

Source: Business Insider



Manafort's ownership of the house became public after a community blogger who was taking pictures of the house was tipped off that it belonged to him.

Source: The New York Times



Manafort allegedly bought the house through a holding company, but never lived there. Instead, his daughter and son-in-law apparently planned to renovate it and move in.

Source: The New York Times



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Larry Page and Sergey Brin's Google Camp is as star studded as ever and most definitely not an 'actual summer camp' (GOOG, GOOGL)

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stromboli sicily italy

 

  • Celebrities from entertainment and sports are guests of Google Camp 2018
  • The annual event, organized by Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, is taking place in Sicily.
  • Basketball legend Michael Jordan is rumored to be attending this year. 


The “conference” known as Google Camp is not your typical sleep away.
This is not the Catskills.

Few campers are likely to careen down any ziplines or go tubing.

This is an ultra-exclusive, super-secret, three-day gathering in Sicily of elite actors, fashion designers, media tycoons, models, pop stars and athletes hosted by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Certainly, the name can be misleading.

“My dumbass thought it was an actual summer camp sponsored by Google for really, really smart kids,” one person posted to Twitter on Tuesday.

Larry PageWhat actually is accomplished at these annual events, typically held in sunny and sandy locals, is not altogether clear. In past years, attendees have toured local ruins, enjoyed sumptuous meals and attended discussions on various topics. 

It’s fun to imagine attendees laughing derisively at the plebeians who frequent other conferences, like the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Financial Times identified the guests at Google's event as the ".0001 percent."

This year's event is being held at the Verdura Resort in Sicily. According to some tabloids and British newspapers, Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, Matthew McConaughey Bradley Cooper, and Leo DiCaprio are all in attendance this year. Former Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan is rumored to be on his way.

Last year, campers included Snapchat cofounder Evan Spiegel, Pharrell Williams and Prince Harry.

SEE ALSO: Forget the sex, the hot new book about Google is an important reminder of what Sergey and Larry are really after

Join the conversation about this story »

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Inside Solovair’s shoe factory where it helped make the first ever pair of Dr. Martens

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  • Solovair has been making shoes since 1881.
  • In 1959 it helped to create the first pair of Dr Martens boots. 
  • The company made Dr. Martens shoes under licence for over 30 years.
  • All Solovair shoes are made in this one factory in Northamptonshire, England.

Solovair is a British shoe manufacturer, originally founded as a co-operative in 1881. Over its long history Solovair has made boots for the British army and in 1959 it helped to create the first pair of Dr. Martens boots.

Solovair made Dr. Martens shoes under licence for over 30 years but now it now only makes its own footwear.

Northamptonshire is famous for its shoe production but many shoemakers have been forced to close or have outsourced their shoemaking over the years.

Solovair makes 10,000 shoes and boots each year. Workers begin making the boots by cutting sheets of leather into the correct shapes, a process known as clicking.

These leather pieces are then sewn together to form a basic shape.  The boots use traditional Puritan sewing machines, these machines provide a triple width, heavy duty stitch and are over 120 years old. 

To shape the boot the leather is stretched over a nylon last. Once stretched it is stapled and the loose edges trimmed. 

Once trimmed a welt is stitched to each boot with a silver thread. This welt is fused to a sole with heat, this method means that no glue is required. 

Solovair makes over 400 unique styles, you can find them all in the online store. 

 

Produced by Charlie Floyd

SEE ALSO: This real-life Iron Man jet suit is now available to buy — but it will cost you $443,000

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This is everything NBA star LeBron James eats and drinks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

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LeBron James LA Lakers uniform

LeBron James may be 33 years old and set to start his 16th season later in the year, but the NBA veteran remains a force to be reckoned with.

James joined the LA Lakers in July after a four-year spell with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and is currently making headlines because he recently opened the I Promise education facility for 240 at-risk children, and also hinted that he could be tempted to run for president one day.

But James remains an incredible athlete. He is renowned for the dedication to his craft, for his basketball intelligence, and has even been described as a "freak athlete" by the NBA coach who knows him better than most.

But what sort of food does this "freak" eat?

Here's everything James likes to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

SEE ALSO: This is what makes LeBron James a 'freak athlete' according to the NBA coach who knows him better than most

DON'T MISS: LEBRON JAMES: How the king of the NBA spends his millions

UP NEXT: This photo of a very upset LeBron James sums up the brutal way the Cleveland Cavaliers blew the win in the final seconds

This is LeBron James. Considered the greatest NBA player of all time, James has extraordinary career averages including 27.2 points per game, 7.4 rebounds, and 7.2 assists. James is a three-time NBA champion and will be hoping for more success at the LA Lakers.

Source: Fox Sports.



James apparently spends seven-figure sums per year just looking after his body — but his favourite cereal is Fruity Pebbles, which he probably eats for breakfast on occasion.

Sources:Business InsiderInstagram.



He even has his own pair of Nike shoes — the LeBron XV — in colours that honour the cereal.

Instagram Embed:
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People use cannabis products for health problems like Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and acne — but misinformation and out-of-date regulations are stopping most from benefitting

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  • Jonas Duclos has devoted the last two decades to cannabis products.
  • With two business partners, he set up CBD420, a website that legally sells products containing THC and CBD — molecules found in cannabis.
  • Testimonials from customers say his products have helped a range of conditions from epilepsy to Parkinson's, pain, and acne.
  • But to really help people, Duclos says legislation and regulation of cannabis have a way to go.
  • Many people use products from the black market, which aren't always safe.
  • If the industry was regulated, everyone would have access to products that could be proven to help.
  • But it's going to take a long time to get there.


When he was 15 years old, Jonas Duclos started to have some health issues. It took a while to work out what was wrong, but his doctors finally told him he was suffering from a rare genetic disease called PRP, which was attacking his skin and blood.

For the past 17 years, Duclos has been trying to manage the excruciating pain the condition brings. 

"Suffering from constant pain... it is a real nightmare on a daily basis, and many people cannot understand that struggle because it's really hard to grasp how terrible it is," he told Business Insider.

As a teenager, he found the most effective painkiller available to him was cannabis — and he realised it was helping his pain more than all of the pills doctors were trying to give him.

"I've been able to help myself with cannabis, of course for many years illegally... My disease doesn't fit the sheet of the pharmaceutical industry — so I had to figure out how to treat myself on my own somehow."

He said this discovery led him to become curious about the "therapeutic or the helpful side of cannabis, not only the recreational."

The journey to CBD420

After dropping out of school due to his health, Duclous dedicated the next two decades of his life to the science and economics around cannabis.

Despite having no high school diploma or degree, he managed to impress Swiss investment bank UBS, who took him in for an apprenticeship in wealth management. He was there eight years before shifting his attention entirely to the cannabis industry.

He used his new financial education to look further into the legislation of cannabis, its issues, and the health benefits — always coming from a personal angle of trying to find new ways to help people through this misunderstood plant.

In 2016, Duclos met Bruno Studer and Kevin Goetelen, who shared his view of how much good the cannabis industry could do for people. In 2017, they started JKB Research together, which manufactures and sells CBD-based products under the brand name CBD420.

cannabis

CBD is one of hundreds of compounds in the cannabis plant. At the International Cannabis Business Conference last April in Berlin, Duclos listened to presentations from medical professionals which essentially said we don't know anything about most of them.

"We know already there are more than 500 compounds in the plant of cannabis, and so far, we haven't identified half of those," he said. "So how can we pretend we know everything at this point? It's impossible."

The best way to introduce cannabis to skeptics

CBD doesn't make you high, and the only known side effect is that it can make you feel sleepy. As for the benefits, they appear to be endless.

"There's no scientific proof at this point," Duclos said. "It's only that there are some obvious observations we've been able to notice from many people doing tests on their own."

In testimonials from his customers, for example, Duclos has heard CBD can help with the spasms that come with epilepsy, the shaking associated with Parkinson's, and CBD balms can even help with skin problems. But without scientific data, these experiences are merely anecdotal.

"It's very important to explain to [customers] how we can't promise anything," he said.

But the research is building up. For example, an article published in the journal Oncogene this week found that CBD could boost pancreatic cancer treatments — although the tests were in human cells and in mice. CBD is also being used in a number of trials to try and treat psychosis.

Duclos has a passion for skateboarding — he founded and leads OG Skate, Switzerland's largest skateboarding association — so he also has a lot of contact with professional athletes who use CBD for their muscle problems.

"If they get hit, or if they twist an ankle, if their knee hurts, they've been giving us amazing feedback of how CBD seems to help them," he said.

"So far, no studies have been able to prove that CBD could be psychoactive or addictive.... So this molecule is a very interesting one to start introducing cannabis to people."

There are also compounds called terpenes, which can enhance or activate the potential of CBD, but according to Duclos, nobody knows how they work.

"The human body is actually full of what we call CB [cannabinoid] receptors," said Duclos. "Somehow there seems to be a matching molecule in this cannabis plant."

He said it's like there are puzzle pieces in the body, and the matching pieces are found in the cannabis plant, "but so far the picture on it is too blurry to see how they are really matched together."

THC is more risky

Another well-known compound in cannabis is THC, which is what makes you feel high. It is also associated with anxiety if the product is too potent, or is simply made with too many bad chemicals. Duclos said a lot of these problems come down to the fact cannabis is mostly bought and sold on the black market.

With the right regulations and education around it, cannabis could be safe for everyone, he said. He compared it to how people would make moonshine during prohibition in the US, and were dying from drinking a bad, unregulated product.

"I think it's pretty unfair to make [cannabis] evil at this point," he said. "We didn't make alcohol evil for that matter. We are in a period of marijuana prohibition. The product coming from the black market cannot be controlled and clean, and we cannot work with full transparency with a client in the black market."

For instance, some dealers lace their cannabis products with chemicals to boost the levels of THC. Unless you know the product really well, it's unlikely you'll be able to tell exactly what you're smoking or ingesting until you take it.

Not everyone who uses cannabis wants to get really high. As Duclos said, if you were making a fine wine, you wouldn't be marketing to the students who want to get drunk all the time. There are those who buy strong spirits for exactly that reason, but there are also people who want a more mellow effect.

"For the industry to be able to educate, we need to have a better understanding, and regulations that enable the industry to sell clean products with full transparency," Duclos said. "And it's just impossible today to do it perfectly, as we're evolving in those grey areas in all those different countries."

CBD 420

There are a lot of grey areas

In Switzerland, for instance, there was a slight change to the law in 2011 to increase the tolerance level of THC in products from 0.2% to 1%.

One of the main reasons for this adjustment was because hemp farmers, who make textiles from the fibre of the cannabis plant, would end up with products with a THC level naturally higher than 0.2%, so they would be breaking the law by selling rope, strong fabrics, and paper.

"Those very simple farmers would end up in an illegal situation because of a bad understanding of cannabis," said Duclos. "That's why the Swiss authorities increased the level — because that obviously wouldn't make sense."

So CBD420 products with a THC level of less than 1% can be sold in Switzerland, which is essentially a loophole. But all cannabis products are also listed as a tobacco substitute, so it's heavily taxed, and everything CBD420 sells has to have a "smoking kills" label.

"Which is a shame when you know how some of my clients are just old ladies making tea with it," said Duclos. "It seems to be, from their feedback, very helpful for their arthritis."

Other countries have their own regulations, which complicate things even further.

In June, Canada became the second country in the world, behind Uruguay, to legalise marijuana. In the US, it's a grey area, because laws differ from state to state. In nine states, including California, cannabis is legal for both medical and recreational use. In 31 states, it is legal for medicinal use only.

In the UK, Duclos said Brexit could bring about an interesting opportunity to start over with a blank sheet on cannabis regulation. And the country does appear to be opening its mind on the topic. In July, UK home secretary Sajid Javid said doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis-derived medicines.

In countries like France and Germany, there's confusion over whether authorities should rely on EU or local law. In France, for example, CBD420 products are totally legal under EU law, but they're illegal under French law.

"Right now, the governments, they're not educated well enough," Duclos said. "It's pretty obvious today that prohibition is a failure on every level: on the understanding of the products, the protection, the use, everything that's been done so far. We can tell criminalising people for using drugs is not a solution, that's pretty obvious."

cannabis products

Black market products vary in quality

If recreational cannabis use was decriminalised everywhere, Duclos argued patients like those who buy his products could be as healthy as possible. Having a good regulation for cannabis is the only way to ensure people get a clean product, he said, and we would actually be able to learn what the positive effects really are.

"A lot of people are using cannabis for medical purposes, but they're hiding," he said. "They're scared, because cannabis has a very bad image. There has a been an impressive brainwashing about the negatives of cannabis over the past 50 years, and of course it's very difficult to change people's mentalities at this point."

Paypal and Google, for instance, have made their problems with doing business with cannabis-related operations clear.

All the murky legislature, the bad public image, and the lack of data to support how CBD can be used means Duclos can never honestly recommend his products to the hundreds of people who come to him looking for solutions to their problems.

"As of today we don't have enough information to do that, when someone asks me: 'How much cannabis should I take?'" he said.

But he doesn't have a problem introducing people to CBD, "because no matter the situation, to my knowledge, the worst case scenario is that it makes them tired and it doesn't fix their problem. But it won't make anything worse."

Changing the public image of cannabis

It's going to take a long time, Duclos said, but he is clear CBD420 has always played by the rules. They do their books and accounting, pay their taxes, and work with the health authorities and customs. They use organic products such as beeswax, coconut butter, and herbs, and there's no dodgy chemicals to be wary of.

"That's pretty much our strategy today, to start by showcasing a good image of cannabis through a brand," he said.

But the problems don't start and stop with legislation. In Canada, for example, the authorities are going to have to start regulating an industry that comes from the black market.

"It's like parents and teenagers," Duclos said. "As of today, a lot of people have been using cannabis illegally for medical purposes, including edibles and concentrates, and they've been working with people from the black market, and doing an amazing job helping those patients. But now what is it going to be? Are they going to get a licence? They don't know."

The major problem, he said, is that governments are so far behind in innovation and research, they won't know the best people to work with. When there's a massive unregulated black market out there, it takes experience to know who's legitimate and who isn't.

Jonas 2

Duclos said people in the industry do not want to see regulations that look like they're written for the pharmaceutical industry. From day one, he has wanted to research cannabis for how it can help people, both recreationally and medically.

The pharmaceutical industry will never care about their patients as much as CBD420, he said, because the companies work for shareholders. For Duclos, the journey has been personal right from the start. He's not just investing his career and livelihood into cannabis, but his health too — which he wouldn't be doing unless he truly believed in what it can do for people.

The future is bright

Every step of Duclos life — from his illness, to his banking career, to finding his personalised health plan — has led him to the cannabis industry, which he says is a "blessing."

"I feel like I've been really lucky to gather the knowledge and skills over the years," he said. "My life has been pointing in that direction, and it feels amazing and I'm looking forward to everything that happens next."

It's going to take decades to fully start to grasp how cannabis really works, and authorities will have to adapt along with the research. Duclos hopes things go the right way, rather than sending the trade underground all over again.

Either way, he said his business will always be legal, and if that means he has to give it up, so be it. But until then, he'll keep playing his part in spreading education about cannabis.

"Any farmer thinks they can be a cannabis grower, but it actually takes a lot of science, so you need to be better educated, and it takes time," he said. "It's going to be a long process... but if somehow we have a positive impact on it, I'll be the happiest person on earth."

SEE ALSO: What marijuana really does to your body and brain

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NOW WATCH: What would happen if you could skydive off the International Space Station

19 questions you should never ask in an interview — and what you should ask instead

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woman question boss talking work

  • Job interviews provide job seekers with an excellent opportunity to learn more about the organization and role they're going for.
  • But asking certain questions during an interview might hurt your chances of landing the gig.
  • Business Insider compiled some questions to cross off your list, and some good replacements you can ask instead.


Job interviews can get pretty stressful.

Not only do you have to answer the interviewer's questions, but you have to come up with a bunch of questions yourself.

Do yourself a favor and prepare some questions to ask beforehand. And think about what other queries you're better off avoiding.

Here are some awkward or off-putting questions you should steering clear, along with some decent replacement questions you can ask instead.

SEE ALSO: 16 interview questions that are designed to trick you

DON'T MISS: Bringing up negative company reviews in your interview could actually help you land the job

SEE ALSO: 11 job interview tricks that are hard to master, but will pay off forever

Don't ask: 'What does your company do?'

Questions like this will make you look unprepared. To avoid that, never ask anything that can easily be answered with a Google search.



Ask: 'How would you describe the company's culture?'

Talent Zoo EVP Amy Hoover said this question gives you a broad view on the corporate philosophy of a company and on whether it prioritizes employee happiness and development.



Or ask: 'Who do you consider your major competitors? How are you better?'

This question is not for the faint of heart, but it shows that you are already thinking about how you can help the company rise to meet some of its bigger goals, said Peter Harrison, CEO of Snagajob.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

An ad writer on Trump's legendary Pizza Hut stuffed crust commercial was not at all surprised to see him become president

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trump pizza hut commercial ad writer

  • Janet Lyons, an ad writer for the Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust Pizza commercial that featured Donald and Ivana Trump in 1995, was not surprised to see Trump get elected president in 2016.
  • Lyons said her experience of working with and seeing Trump on the set gave her a different perspective of him as a presidential candidate.
  • To hear the full story, SUBSCRIBE for free to Business Insider's new podcast, "Household Name".

Janet Lyons, an ad writer for the legendary Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust Pizza commercial that featured Donald and Ivana Trump in 1995, was not surprised to see Trump get elected president in 2016.

Appearing on Business Insider's "Household Name" podcast, Lyons said her experience of working with and seeing Trump on the set gave her a different perspective of him as a presidential candidate during the election.

"If I just saw the man that was running for president, I probably would have been in the same head as everyone else," Lyons said. "But a part of me thought 'This guy is just so freaking smart. Like he just gets things that so many other people do not get and so instinctually."

She continued:

"He says a lot of crazy braggadocios things. But I also saw the man at the shoot. I saw the guy who could make a smart decision fast. I saw the guy that could take in everything that was going on around him in the room. I saw the guy that said hello to every single person on the set and remembered their names. I saw the guy who was on time. I saw the guy who could make the deal quickly. I saw a lot of things that were not just the boob that everybody was talking about."

Neither Lyons nor Michael Campbell, a fellow ad writer on the commercial, voted for Trump in 2016. But Lyons said her reaction to Trump's victory was very different from Campbell's or her husband's.

"I definitely did not feel like this is just some wacko who's running and this whole thing is a big joke," she said. "I did not at 3 o'clock in the morning sit there like my husband did just in complete shock and awe. I was completely feeling like 'No, I kinda get this.'"

Lyons' account is featured on the second episode of Business Insider's "Household Name" podcast. Subscribe and listen here.

You can watch the original commercial below:

SEE ALSO: Introducing 'Household Name', Business Insider's new podcast

DON'T MISS: On the first episode of 'Household Name': How TGI Fridays helped your parents' generation get it on

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NOW WATCH: North Korean defector: Kim Jong Un 'is a terrorist'

Aston Martin has unveiled a flying car concept — and it hinted that we might see James Bond flying one soon

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Aston Martin Volante Vision Concept

  • Aston Martin recently unveiled a flying car concept.
  • The Volante Vision Concept is autonomous, hybrid-electric, and capable of vertical take-off and landing.
  • Aston Martin President and CEO Dr Andy Palmer said that growing urbanisation and overpopulation was at the heart of the concept's design.
  • Aston Martin said it did not have pricing for the vehicle yet, but the figure is expected to be around £7 million ($9.2 million).
  • Speaking to Business Insider, an Aston Martin spokesperson teased a possible appearance in a James Bond film one day.


Aston Martin is entering the race to the skies.

The British luxury car manufacturer unveiled an autonomous, hybrid-electric, personal aircraft concept at the 2018 Farnborough Air Show— and it hinted that the flying car might soon be the vehicle of choice for James Bond.

The Volante Vision Concept is capable of vertical take-off and landing and features plenty of high-spec details that the Aston Martin brand is famous for.

Aston Martin Volante Vision Concept

The Volante, which is named after the Italian word for "flying," was produced in partnership with Cranfield University and is powered by Rolls-Royce with the aim of bringing "luxury personal transportation to the sky."

A spokesperson for Aston Martin told Business Insider that there was no exact pricing for the vehicle yet, but the figure is expected to be around £7 million ($9.2 million).

Buyers will have some time to wait, though. The spokesperson said that the company is currently conducting customer research and analysing feedback — "should it go into production, it will be around the mid-2020s."

Aston Martin Volante Vision Concept

Aston Martin President and CEO Dr Andy Palmer said that growing urbanisation and overpopulation was at the heart of the concept's design: "We need to look at alternative solutions to reduce congestion, cut pollution and improve mobility," he said.

"Humans have always spent on average, one hour commuting to and from work. The distance we live from our workplace has been determined by the methods of transportation available.

He went on: "The Volante Vision Concept will enable us to travel further with our hourly commute, meaning we are able to live further away from where we work. Cities will grow, and towns that are today too far away from cities to be commutable will become suburban."

Aston Martin EVP and Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman said we are at "the beginning of a new generation of urban transportation.

"Vertical mobility is no longer a fantasy," he said. "We have a unique chance to create a luxury concept aircraft that will represent the ultimate fusion of art and technology."

Although the Volante is designed with an autonomous future in mind, Aston Martin aims to keep the driving experience at the centre of its craft.

"True to our DNA, the VVC is very much a vehicle that could be fun and engaging to 'drive,'" the brand's spokesperson said.

A long-standing relationship with 007

More importantly, though, when asked about whether we could see James Bond flying one of the cars soon, the spokesperson said: "We have a long-standing and special relationship with EON [the production company behind the James Bond films] and we hope to work together again in the future."

If that's not enough to get martinis shaking in anticipation, then we don't know what is.

SEE ALSO: Inside the world's largest aircraft, which is set to have glass floors and take wealthy travellers on luxury 3-day expeditions

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NOW WATCH: An NYC car club houses more 40 classic cars that members can take for a ride

106 skydives with a broken ankle: Inside how Tom Cruise pulled off the thrilling HALO jump in 'Mission: Impossible — Fallout'

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Mission Impossible Fallout Paramount

Tom Cruise does a lot of amazing stunts in "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," but the one that took the most work to pull off was the HALO jump over Paris at the beginning of the movie.

To get into Paris undetected, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and CIA tagalong August Walker (Henry Cavill) decide to do a HALO jump — a high-altitude, low-open skydive, in which you open your parachute at a low altitude after free-falling for a period of time — at dusk out of a giant C-17 plane.

But things get dangerous when Walker insists on jumping out of the plane even though there's a lightning storm brewing below them. Walker is so determined to do so that he disconnects Hunt's oxygen line to his mask and jumps. Hunt scrambles to reattach his line and jumps after Walker.

Before the audience knows it, they're free-falling with Hunt. The camera follows as Hunt catches up to Walker just before lightning strikes them both.

If you have seen any movie in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, this next fact won't surprise you: Cruise did the entire HALO sequence without a stuntman. But pulling off the sequence — which included 106 total jumps to get three scenes and was all done after Cruise broke his ankle earlier in production — was as epic as what is on the screen.

Business Insider spoke to the key members of the HALO-jump sequence, including the director Christopher McQuarrie, to break down its yearlong planning and execution.

SEE ALSO: All 42 Tom Cruise movies, ranked from worst to best

Finding a unique way to get into Paris

Generally, a movie is born from a screenwriter's pen, but it turns out the recent "Mission: Impossible" movies are done a little differently.

McQuarrie said the script is actually the last thing to be developed in the making of the movies. The movie is first fueled by the stunts that Cruise, McQuarrie, and others close to the franchise come up with.

"The script is more or less the instruction manual for this thing we all discussed at length," McQuarrie said.

In the case of the HALO jump, they had developed a lot of action to take place in Paris, but the question remained: How does Hunt get to the City of Lights?

"A HALO jump came up, and we started talking about what that would take — this many jumps, learning this and that," said Wade Eastwood, the "Fallout" stunt coordinator. "Everyone thought that kind of time didn't fit in the film schedule, but we made it fit, even though on paper it didn't."

With the stunt decided, the hard part started: how to fit Cruise's HALO training in a schedule already filled with training for driving motorcycles, fighting, and flying helicopters. (Yes, he flew that helicopter himself in the movie.)

More on that later.



Creating a helmet so we could see Cruise's face

If you were to do a HALO jump in real life, you wouldn't need a clear helmet showing your whole face. But this is Tom Cruise we're talking about.

When Cruise and the "Fallout" team learned that the proper gear for a HALO jump is an oxygen mask covering most of the face and a helmet leaving just the eyes to be seen, there was a rush to come up with something better for Cruise to wear.

"We created a helmet that had a good look and the oxygen sustained," Eastwood said.

But the mask also had to have lights in it so that we, the audience, could see that it is in fact Cruise doing the jump. That brought another set of concerns.

"It took extensive pressure testing and altitude testing to get the lighting system consistently safe," Eastwood said. "We didn't want them to explode. A fiery Tom Cruise head, that's very bad."



Building the largest wind tunnel in the world

Before getting in a plane and jumping enough times to get a certified skydiver license, Cruise started his HALO training in a wind tunnel at Leavesden Studios in the UK. And as you can probably guess, a normal wind tunnel just wouldn't do.

"I suggested we get a vertical wind tunnel; they said that was a good idea," said Neil Corbould, the "Fallout" special-effects supervisor. "We found a portable wind tunnel and brought it to England but found out very quickly that it was too small."

The wind tunnel would be used to learn the choreography for the HALO-jump sequence devised by Eastwood, but to train properly there would need to be six people in the wind tunnel at the same time (including actors, stunt specialists, and camera operators). The wind tunnel Corbould provided could have only two people in it.

"Tom said, 'Can we make a bigger one?' and I asked, 'How big?' And he said, 'As big as you can make it,'" Corbould said.

So Corbould found a company to build in 12 weeks what would turn out to be one of the biggest wind tunnels ever created.

Housed in an empty exterior water tank at Leavesden, the wind tunnel was 20 feet wide by 10 feet high. Powered by four 1-megawatt generators — enough to power a small town, Corbould noted — it would have blades that could spin at 150 mph and raise the people in the tunnel 7 feet.

The size of the wind tunnel also helped Cruise, who wanted to keep from bumping into the sides, as he was still trying to heal his broken ankle while training.

"He had to be rolled into the wind tunnel and then would lay there flat until the power went on, and then he would take off," said Allan Hewitt, the "Fallout" skydiving coordinator. "We put some orange tape around his foot so we knew which was the bad foot. We didn't want to touch the wrong one."



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A natural yellow chemical compound you can find in any grocery store could help fight cancer, diabetes, and even Alzheimer's

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turmeric in food, curry

  • Turmeric and the chemical compound derived from it, called curcumin, have some amazing health benefits.
  • In addition to being an anti-inflammatory that helps boost circulation, turmeric may also be an anti-cancer, antioxidant therapy that can fight off brain plaques, possibly helping prevent diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and more.
  • And unlike a lot of other vitamins and supplements, it's cheap. 

Doctors are increasingly embracing the idea that the food we eat may be as good as any disease-fighting, immunity-boosting drug.

This isn't a new strategy. The cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee recently told Business Insider that "for centuries, diet was the only kind of medicine."

Lately, Mukherjee and other doctors have started leaning into using more targeted diets as medicine for everything from improving longevity to developing better cancer care.

It turns out that one such healthful food comes from a root we pull right out of the ground.

It's a bright yellow, inexpensive plant called turmeric. You could probably it buy in the grocery store right now, either ground up, in the spice aisle, or whole, near the onions, garlic, and ginger.

Turmeric has been consumed by massive swaths of people for centuries around the world. It's baked inside many curry dishes and slurped down in turmeric teas and creamy, golden milks. But it's not just a spicy flavoring.

turmeric

"It's probably, to the best of my knowledge, the most potent naturally occurring anti-inflammatory," Ajay Goel, a biophysicist who researches cancer, told Business Insider.

Goel, who grew up in India but started his research in the US over two decades ago, wondered why, in the medical-research capital of the world, cancer and disease rates were so much higher than in his home country. His research here over the past two decades suggests that curcumin, the bright yellow chemical that gives turmeric its characteristic hue, has serious health-promoting properties that can play a key role in keeping people disease-free.

Turmeric has been found to reduce inflammation and nix free radicals in the body that can damage our cells. But that's not all.

What turmeric does for your body and your brain

The curcumin compound found in turmeric is powerful enough that it can help relieve arthritis pain, break up tumors, and control diabetes. It promotes good blood flow, which helps protect against heart disease. The plant may even keep some brain plaques from forming, though more research on that front is needed.

Some of Goel's studies, in both animals and humans, suggest that curcumin can also help kill stubborn treatment-resistant cancer cells and might make some cancers less resistant to chemotherapy in the first place. In some instances, patients can reduce their toxic chemotherapy doses as much as tenfold simply by coupling their treatment with curcumin, Goel said. In one 2008 study, he even suggested we start calling it "cure-cumin" for its wide-ranging health benefits, promoting healing and improving conditions as diverse as osteoporosis, chronic kidney diseases, and Alzheimer's.

Goel isn't the only one who's picked up on the medical effectiveness of the spice. The National Institutes of Health says research on the chemical compound is "limited" but acknowledges that turmeric and the curcumin inside "may help with certain digestive disorders and arthritis."

In 2016, a team of scientists from North Carolina and South Korea (not including Goel) completed a systematic review of evidence to date and found that a 1-gram dose a day of turmeric could help treat arthritis. That's the same dosage Goel recommends to his patients.

It's a much better track record than other popular supplements on the market today, including multivitamins, which many recent scientific studies suggest are essentially useless.

"Show me a single study ever done saying people who took a multivitamin pill ... did better? There's no study," Goel said.

Still, many Americans pop non-herbal supplement pills like multivitamins and fish oils. The unregulated US market for these non-herbal supplements is roughly $11.3 billion a year, according to Euromonitor International, while the herbal-supplement market in the US, largely composed of botanical ingredients (including roots like turmeric) is much smaller, at about $3.8 billion.

There is growing evidence that people are starting to come around to turmeric's benefits. Today, BioSchwartz's 1/2-gram turmeric-curcumin pill is the No. 2 bestseller among vitamins and supplements on Amazon (behind collagen but more popular than probiotics, fish oil, or multivitamins).

Supplements will never be as good as the real thing

Taking supplements won't ever be as good as eating whole foods. Studies have found that whole turmeric provides an extra anti-inflammatory boost over curcumin alone. But Goel says that taking a 1-gram supplement is a lot better than nothing, and he's a realist — he knows Americans won't ever eat yellow curries every single day. That's not the case in India.

Turmeric

"Every meal is yellow," Goel said. It's simply part of the traditional Indian diet, as ubiquitous as salt and pepper.

"They don't even recognize," he said, "but it's protecting them from a lot of disease."

The yellow root is also in many other foods across Asia. The Chinese call it jiang huang, and it's in tons of Thai dishes too, from chicken soups to fried fish.

Goel suggests that every adult could probably stand to get a little daily dose of turmeric or a curcumin supplement, after consulting their physician. It's an even more important ingredient for aging populations as a potent antioxidant that helps protect cells. It's anti-microbial too.

At home, Goel gives it to his 13- and 15-year-old boys. He says he doesn't want to sound like a turmeric salesman — "I am not!" he emphasized — but he acknowledges that the health benefits of the yellow-orange stuff cannot be denied.

"Its super safe. There's no toxicity," Goel said. "It's dirt cheap. It comes from food. So why not?"

SEE ALSO: Gluten-free foods marketed to children reveal an ugly truth about the trend, but there's an easy fix

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NOW WATCH: This lobster curry is some of the best seafood we've ever had

53 members of a family who lost 9 relatives in the Missouri duck boat capsize file a second lawsuit against owners of the deadly tourist attraction

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Tia Coleman

  • The Coleman family, which lost nine members when a duck boat capsized in Branson, Missouri, last month, filed a second lawsuit against the owners and operators of the tourist attraction. 
  • The mother of a 15-year-old girl who survived the sinking also filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Ripley Entertainment.

Fifty-three members of an Indiana family who lost nine relatives when a duck boat sank in Missouri described their pain and unfathomable loss Tuesday while calling for a ban on the amphibious tourist boats that their attorney likened to "coffins and death traps."

Each member of the extended Coleman family, including in-laws, introduced themselves and described who they had lost during a tear-filled news conference hours after their attorneys filed a second federal lawsuit against the owners and operators of the duck boat that capsized and sank during a storm July 19.

The disaster on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri, killed 17 people, including nine of 11 Coleman family members who boarded the boat during a vacation trip. The other people killed were from Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri.

The mother of a 15-year-old girl who survived the sinking also filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Ripley Entertainment, according to the Springfield News-Leader. Mandi Keller’s daughter, Gillian, was one of the 31 people aboard the duck boat when it capsized in stormy weather on July 19.

The second suit filed by the Coleman family was on behalf of the estates of Angela Coleman, 45, and Belinda Coleman, 69.

The complaint, which seeks unspecified damages, echoes arguments made in a lawsuit filed Sunday seeking $100 million on behalf of the estates of 76-year-old Ervin Coleman and 2-year-old Maxwell Ly.

Belinda Coleman's sister, Lisa D. Berry, tearfully recalled each of the lost members of her family, saying that "everyone who lost their lives, they do have a face."

She said the family is united in their belief that duck boats are dangerous and that they should be banned so that no other family endures the grief she and her relatives now face.

"The duck boat industry doesn't seem to consider that lives are at stake, and it's more than a ticket," she said. "It's people's children, their moms, their dads, their grandparents and we just want them to be held accountable."

Both Coleman lawsuits name Ripley Entertainment Inc., Ride the Ducks International, Ride the Ducks of Branson, the Herschend Family Entertainment Corp., and Amphibious Vehicle Manufacturing.

They allege that the owners and operators of the Ride the Ducks boat put profits over people's safety when they decided to put the boat on a lake despite severe weather warnings and design problems.

A Ripley spokeswoman said in a statement Monday that the company remains "deeply saddened" by the accident.

She said the company would not comment further because a National Transportation Safety Board investigation is ongoing and no conclusions have been reached.

Robert Mongeluzzi, an attorney for the Indianapolis-area family, said additional lawsuits are expected on behalf of other members of the Coleman and Rose families who died.

He said duck boats' canopies trap people when the boats sink and the duck boat industry was warned about that hazard more than a decade and a half ago.

"They are coffins and death traps and rather than doing anything about it they continued to just sell more tickets," Mongeluzzi said. "And this family has paid for that ticket with precious life and blood, and enough is enough."

Mongeluzzi said that despite their call for a ban, the family supports legislation introduced Tuesday by Missouri U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill that would require that duck boats be better equipped to stay afloat or that canopies are removed to allow passengers to escape.

McCaskill's legislation would enshrine recommendations made by federal regulators after another duck boat sank in Arkansas in 1999, killing 13 people.

The Indiana family's suits allege that the companies ignored warnings the National Transportation Safety Board in 2000 that the vehicles, which are designed to operate on land and water, should be upgraded to ensure they remain upright and floating in bad weather.

The federal agency's recommendation was issued after an Arkansas duck boat sank in 1999, killing 13 people. The two federal suits say that 42 deaths have been associated with duck boats since 1999.

Kyrie Rose, a 41-year-old Coleman cousin, described during Tuesday's news conference the fear, uncertainty and ultimate horror after she received a telephone call alerting her that the duck boat her relatives were on sank during a storm.

"There's nothing like getting a call that you wouldn't expect to hear that there's been an accident, and hoping and praying all day that somebody, anybody's going to be OK," she said.

The NTSB said Friday that a preliminary review of video and audio recordings from the boat showed that the lake changed from calm to dangerous in a matter of minutes. The agency emphasized it had not drawn any conclusions on what caused the boat to sink.

The captain, who operated the boat on the water, survived and has acknowledged he was aware of the weather warnings before the trip, according to the NTSB. Another crew member who operated the boat on land was among those who died.

Duck boats were originally designed for the military, specifically to transport troops and supplies in World War II. They were later modified for use as sightseeing vehicles.

__

Associated Press reporters Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Rick Callahan contributed to this report.

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A collaboration between Google’s secretive life-extension spinoff and popular genetics company Ancestry has quietly ended

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Helix DNA 6

  • Genetics testing company 23andMe made headlines last week when it announced it would share consumers' anonymized genetic data with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline.
  • Companies like 23andMe frequently share customer DNA data with other institutions, also known as "third parties."
  • Ancestry, another popular company like 23andMe, had a partnership with Google's stealthy life extension spinoff Calico to study the genetics of longevity. That partnership has now ended.

As is often the case in the world of scientific research partnerships, almost as quickly as a new deal begins, another ends.

Popular spit-in-a-tube genetics-testing company 23andMe made a splash last week when it announced a plan to share the anonymized genetic data of millions of consumers with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to help the company develop new drugs.

Ancestry, which maintains a database of genetic information built on the spit samples of more than 5 million consumers, had been partnering with Google's stealthy life extension spinoff Calico to study aging and longevity. The agreement, which was finalized almost exactly three years ago, recently ended, an Ancestry spokesperson told Business Insider.

Apart from a 2015 press release announcing the agreement, neither company has said much about what the research partnership did.

Genetic testing companies frequently share customer DNA data with other institutions. These can include public research groups like state universities or private drug makers like GSK.

Looking at genetic data for clues to a long life

Calico was ostensibly interested in sorting through Ancestry's treasure trove of genetic data to identify commonalities among people who live a long time. Data on individuals who live longer-than-expected lives compared to their shorter-lived family members might be especially useful. This could reveal common genetic traits among those longer-lived folks that might play a role in helping them outlast their peers.

"The Calico science team decided, what if we used a data set like what Ancestry.com has to identify people who have a longer-than-expected lifespan in their family?" Ken Chahine, the senior vice president and general manager of Ancestry, told Business Insider back in 2015.

Since then, neither company has published any research from the collaboration, but that doesn't mean none was produced, someone familiar with Calico's work told Business Insider.

"Ancestry previously had a relationship with Calico which focused on understanding human longevity and developing ways that all of us can lead longer and healthier lives," an Ancestry spokesperson told Business Insider, adding, "This relationship has now ended."

According to Calico, some of the results of its research with Ancestry will be published in a peer-reviewed journal soon.

Ancestry can share your anonymized genetic data with third parties like Calico if you opt-in to what the company calls an "informed consent to research." This option comes up after you submit your spit sample during the online registration process. (If you decline the opt-in, your data will not be shared with third parties, the company says.)

Those third party groups can include for-profit private companies like Calico as well as nonprofit research groups like the University of Utah and the American Society of Human Genetics — both of which still have active partnerships with Ancestry.

How to delete your DNA data

If you choose to share your genetic data with a company like Ancestry or 23andMe, it can be a difficult decision to undo. Once you opt-in, the company will not wipe your genetic information from any "active or completed research projects," according to its latest privacy statement.

However, if you'd like to stop your DNA data from being used for new research, you can.

Use the navigation bar at the top of the homepage to select "DNA." On the page with your name at the top, scroll to the upper right corner, select "settings," then go to "delete test results" on the column on the right side. Doing this will result in Ancestry deleting the following within 30 days: "All genetic information, including any derivative genetic information (ethnicity estimates, genetic relative matches, etc.) from our production, development, analytics, and research systems."

If you want to take the additional step of having the company discard your physical spit sample, you must call member services.

SEE ALSO: DNA-testing company 23andMe has signed a $300 million deal with a drug giant. Here's how to delete your data if that freaks you out.

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The Obamas toured the world in the months after they left the White House. Here's where they went.

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The Obamas white water rafting in Indonesia, summer 2017

  • After they left the White House in January 2017, the Obamas visited some of the most exotic locations imaginable. 
  • After spending a few days on American soil in Palm Springs, they crisscrossed the globe, visiting Richard Branson's Necker Island and exclusive island resort The Brando in French Polynesia.
  • Take a look at their photos below.

After leaving the White House in January 2017, the Obamas made the most of their vacation time, hitting up some of the most exotic destinations imaginable.

After spending a few days on American soil in Palm Springs, Barack and Michelle Obama jetted off on a tropical tour that started at entrepreneur Richard Branson's private Necker Island.

They then headed to French Polynesia to check in to The Brando, an exclusive island resort that can be reached only by boat or by two-engined Air Tetiaroa planes.

In May 2017, the Obamas took a six-day vacation in Tuscany, Italy, where they stayed at a luxurious villa and sampled the food of one of the world's best chefs. Then the entire family was spotted whitewater rafting and visiting a temple in Bali, Indonesia before heading to Java to visit the city where Obama's mother lived and worked for years.

Take a look at the incredible places they visited:

Sarah Jacobs contributed reporting to an earlier version of this article. 

SEE ALSO: These are the most unhealthy meals in America, ranked

After eight years in office, the Obamas headed off on a well-deserved break in January 2017.



The first stop (after a very brief stint in Palm Springs) was Necker Island.



This 72-acre island — located in the British Virgin Islands — is owned by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

We visited a Tesla store and a Mercedes-Benz dealership — here are the biggest differences between the two (TSLA)

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tesla showroom nyc

  • In April, I visited a Tesla showroom and Mercedes-Benz dealership in New York City to observe the differences between their sales models.
  • Tesla's store used innovative design strategies and revealed an eagerness to sell a vision of the brand beyond its vehicles.
  • The Mercedes-Benz dealership took a more traditional, less expansive approach to selling cars and its brand.

As established automakers move toward electrification, Tesla will compete more directly with traditional luxury brands like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. 

Until now, Tesla has had limited competition in the fully-electric luxury space, but that will change in the next decade as auto companies plan to electrify a larger percentage of their offerings. As that happens, Tesla will have new challenges to face, and the viability of its unique sales model will become clearer.

Unlike most auto companies, Tesla sells its cars to consumers directly, rather than licensing its brand to independent dealerships. That gives Tesla more control over how it presents its vehicles and interacts with customers, but that model makes it more difficult and costly to achieve the kind of scale some of its competitors have. And Tesla has fought legal battles for the right to sell its vehicles directly to consumers in some states, like Connecticut and New Mexico, where it's currently prohibited from doing so. 

Tesla's stores also look different than traditional car dealerships, designed with a minimalist philosophy that echoes innovative retail companies like Apple and Warby Parker. Tesla's stores could end up influencing how other auto companies sell their cars — or remain high-profile outliers.

In April, I visited a Tesla showroom and Mercedes-Benz dealership in New York City to see the differences between how a relatively new and established luxury brand sell their cars. My time in each revealed contrasting sales models that spoke to the fundamental differences between Tesla and some of its competitors.

Here's what I saw.

SEE ALSO: Traders keep finding new ways to bet against Tesla ahead of the company's hotly anticipated earnings report

I started at Tesla's store in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.



The first thing I noticed was the store's minimalist design philosophy. Like Tesla's cars, the store seemed to emphasize the removal of non-essential features.



Because Tesla sells its vehicles directly to customers instead of using independent dealerships, the company has more control over its stores and the way they present the brand to consumers than other automakers do.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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