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For those bored with the traditional white picket fence, why not try something a bit more bizarre?
In celebration of everything that is wonderful and weird, our friends at property search site Estately rounded up some of the most unusual homes in the US.
From a modern-day treehouse atop the Hollywood Hills to a circular home in the middle of the Arizona desert, these 13 truly unconventional homes are available for purchase right now.
Live inside a Hobbit-like mushroom home in Maryland.
Known as the Mushroom House, this 3,700-square-foot home became a bizarre landmark to the town of Bethesda when it was featured in the book Weird Maryland.
The strange home is covered in polyurethane foam coating, has large oval windows, and 30-foot-tall ceilings to all give the effect of a mushroom shape.
This modern-day treehouse blends into its surroundings.
The Wolff House was built by John Lautern in 1961. The Hollywood Hills home is basically a contemporary treehouse — and is made of wood, stone, and glass.
The 9,795-square-foot home was built as a tribute to Lautern's mentor, Frank Lloyd Wright, on a steep hill and designed to seamlessly integrate into the natural environment.
It also has towering 16-foot, floor-to-ceiling windows, a guest house, a pool overlooking Los Angeles, and even a Eucalyptus tree growing inside.
This home in Jacksonville has a series of underground tunnels that were used for smuggling whiskey.
Called “The Bootlegger’s House,” this home was a crucial part of the underground whisky trade since it has a series of tunnels that lead from the garage of the home to the river.
Inspired by the Klutho ‘Prairie School” style, this 3,169-square-foot home has six bedrooms and five bathrooms.
These hotels are devoted to preserving the local environment and culture while still offering top-notch service and amenities to guests.
Each of the 24 hotels included on this list were selected from a rigorous vetting process.
From a lodge built on a hillside where two oceans collide to a bungalow retreat in the rain forests of Costa Rica, these are some of the most remarkable places to stay in the world.
Hard work and smarts do get you ahead. But not everybody plays fair.
People frequently bend or break the rules to their advantage and don't get caught. A recent Reddit thread asked for unethical life hacks people use to save money or get ahead. We've picked some of the most fascinating and devious examples.
These hacks are uniformly unethical. Some veer into fraud. They should be regarded as informational and for entertainment purposes rather than as actual suggestions. You shouldn't do them.
Get cheap movie tickets.
"Whenever I go to a big chain movie theater, I get my tickets from those electronic kiosks they have at the front, and I buy the child's price tickets. They're way cheaper. I'm always prepared to say, 'Oops, did I buy a kid's ticket by accident? Sorry!' if I ever get caught, but I've done this at least a dozen times and have never been called on it." — Reddit user the_girl
Pay less for wedding vendors.
"Never tell vendors for your wedding that you're hiring them for a wedding. It's an event or reunion. Big price difference." — Reddit user Norwegian_Blue
Skip the line at the DMV.
"Make an appointment for the DMV for two weeks from today online (or whenever its available). Save the confirmation page as PDF or HTML or JPG. Modify the date to today's date and the time to right now with Photoshop or edit the HTML with a text editor or whatever you're most comfortable with.
"Walk into the DMV past all the sorry people waiting hours directly to the 'appointment line'. Get served in under 5 minutes.
"Done this multiple time, it works. Sometimes they say 'oh, you're not in the computer, weird. Doesn't matter - our system always screws up. Go ahead.'" — Reddit user Cysurflex
Get a real customer service rep on the phone.
"When you are calling a utility/customer service number, and you need to speak to someone but receive an automated menu prompt, choose the Spanish option, then press "0".
"Multiple benefits here. More often than not, they do not hire reps that only speak Spanish - they will most likely be bilingual, and will handle overflow calls in English anyway. Second, Spanish speakers are less common in India, so the Spanish speaking call-centers are usually located in the US - so when you get the rep, you will not have to deal with language barriers often encountered with the Indian reps. In addition, the wait is usually not as long." — Reddit user SovietShooter
Dine for free at a hotel.
"If you're hungry and it's between 6am-8am you can get free continental breakfast from pretty much any hotel you walk into. It helps if it's busy." — Reddit user sailorJery
Claim the arm rest on your next flight.
"If someone is battling you for the arm rest on an airplane cough into that arm then put it back. I fly a lot and have yet to see this fail." — Reddit user xSCWx.
Steal coins for laundry.
"A plastic coffee stir stick can fool any push in coin acceptor that loads the coins on edge. Just insert stir stick, push the mechanism forward until you feel the stick hit a bump, push the bump down with the stick and push the mech all the way in.
"I did my laundry for free all throughout school, and great for free pool at the bar." — Reddit user Fixalated
Outsmart your opponents in rock-paper-scissors.
"I always pick rock in rock paper scissors against my sister or in front of my sister. I end up doing dishes more, ect. but the odd time I really need something I pick scissors.
"She's always going on about how I'm sooo dumb for always picking rock but I know what's up." — Reddit user Snark_Industries
Look like you know what you're doing.
"If you look like you know what you're doing, no one will bother you. To prove this in college, a friend and I walked into the student union holding a clipboard, walked straight over to a table, picked it up and walked out with it without anyone saying anything." — Via Reddit user sammysausage
Save on textbooks.
"When I was in college, I used to take all of my textbooks to the 2¢ self-copy place and photocopy them. All of them. Then I'd return them before the deadline for a full refund.
"It takes time, but a 500-page book will only end up costing you $10. When the new version is often $100 or more.
"Nowadays, you can usually find a PDF online. But if not, hey, there's this." — Via Reddit user heidismiles
Lie like a pro.
"When lying, always include something slightly embarrassing, or something that makes you look bad, as part of your story. It's not only going to disarm their skepticism (admitting to something embarrassing gives an impression of humility), but even if they remain skeptical, they'll be left wondering why you would make something up that you'd rather keep secret if it were true." — Via Reddit user Tomf1sh
Skip the parking garage fee.
"Car in longterm parking? Walk up to the ticket machine and grab a new ticket to present on your way out." — Via Reddit user iloveyouocean
Get better seats at a ball game.
"Buy the cheapest ticket you can find for a sporting event you want to attend. 1 hour before it starts, log into Stubhub to see which nice (but not heavily secured) seats are still available at a price point higher than the competition. Write a few of them down and chances are you can sit there all game without any issue. — Via Reddit user El_Apostrophe
Get free TV channels.
"Call up your TV provider, and tell them you want to stop using them. To keep your business they will offer extra channels. When the channels run out, repeat the process. I have had NFL Sunday Ticket on Directv for 3 years straight now for free." — Via Reddit user NinthFlow
Extend the warranty on electronics.
"Using Clorox or any bleach will turn the red/pink liquid detection dot on electronic devices back to white so they replace them under warranty." — Via Reddit user iamrot
Apple has attracted a cult following across the globe for its high-quality design and the attention to detail apparent in the products it creates.
Now Apple is highlighting the more artistic aspects of its brand with "Start Something New," a campaign bringing work created on Apple products to retail locations worldwide.
Pieces created by select artists have already been installed in Apple stores in major cities across the globe. Online, pictures of Apple products are being substituted with photos of the incredible artwork people have created with them.
Travel photographer Austin Mann took this amazing shot with his iPhone 6 Plus while traveling in Iceland.
"We had driven by this same spot earlier, but as we were coming back around, the fog had lifted and we saw this giant glacier," Mann told Business Insider. "The shot presented itself, and I captured it."
Mann was able to take the picture, edit it, and share it with his followers within 30 minutes. That same process would take hours with more traditional photography gear.
"A lot of the time, planning and setting up photos is sort of contrived. Inspiration is something that’s so spontaneous and kind of comes and goes," he said. "Being able to do it on my phone keeps it a continuous process, keeps the inspiration flowing."
Mann says that he may use other cameras for situations that require more technical equipment — low lighting, for example — but that nothing compares to the iPhone's flexibility.
"Because I have so much power in my pocket, it really conforms to the lifestyle of a curious photographer," he said.
Chad Riley is a similarly curious photographer, having traveled all over the world for his work with Apple and other major brands. Last year, he used only an iPhone and an underwater housing unit to shoot a national ad campaign for Target.
But it was a series of photos he took using the burst mode on the iPad Air 2 that were selected for the "Start Something New" campaign.
(Click the arrow on the right to scroll through all of the photos).
Riley shot the photos in Amalfi, Italy, while on location for a project he was working on with Apple. He has collaborated with Apple several times in the past.
"It was kind of fun to frame up with the shot with the iPad, since the screen was so big," Riley said.
Riley primarily uses the editing software already built in to the iPad, but he also uses the Photoshop app to edit his shots. As a photographer who's constantly traveling for both work and play, it's important for him to have his creative process streamlined.
"The quality has gotten so that I can take a shot, send it to my printer over Wi-Fi, then immediately send it to a client," Riley said. "Plus I have my Mac at home — it's all integrated so seamlessly."
Artist Roz Hall graduated with a degree in video art from the U.K.'s University of Chichester in 2003, but it wasn't until 2010 that he really started to play around with digital art. His first experiment was with the Brushes app on his iPhone.
He has since upgraded to the iPad and now creates amazing portraits on the Procreate app for the iPad Air 2. The art looks just like it was painted with real acrylic paint.
Hall says that creating art digitally has one especially great benefit: instant feedback.
"The community plays a big role. I have acrylic paintings which have probably been seen by 4 or 5 people. Whereas on the iPad I can paint something and immediately post it online where you'll get feedback and learn others' processes," Hall said, adding that anyone with an iPad can do what he does. "It makes people, who have never painted before, pick it up and have a try. That is something very special."
Hall says that he was shocked to be picked by Apple for the campaign — he was so surprised in fact, that he was convinced it was a prank until he saw his work on Apple's web site.
"This sets a strong message to their creative community, making it clear that Apple takes them very seriously and is dedicated to them," Hall said.
A new menswear company is creating a line of suits, shirts, and ties that are all water-repellent and spill-resistant.
Called Vardama, the company has been developing for the past two years as Jorge Vega Umana and Kaustubh Varma worked to perfect a special compound that would not only allow their designs to be water-repellent, but also make them feel breathable and soft for customers.
“The idea came to me while on a family trip in India,” Varma explained to Business Insider. “I was stuck in my hotel room due to the rain. Looking out of the window I was admiring the way the leaves on a nearby plant were keeping itself dry and clean. I thought to myself — what if my clothes were self-cleaning?”
After over 100 different prototypes, experiments, and products, Varma and Umana finally discovered the answer. They call their invention Equa-Tek™ and say that it treats the individual fibers at a “microscopic level” to make them water-resistant — whether the fabric is silk, Egyptian cotton, or wool.
This allows things like coffee, wine, and water to be repelled from the fabric (you can see videos of it on their YouTube channel). It also makes the fabric less susceptible to visible staining due to perspiration, according to Vardama.
Washing isn’t an issue either — the shirts can be machine washed or dry cleaned, and suits and neckties are dry clean only, much like your regular work wear.
“We researched several different compounds and many types of application processes to find the best solution for our customer and for the brand,” Varma explained to Business Insider. “Part of the amazing journey of Vardama has been the travel and great partners we have made through developing Equa-Tek including researchers, manufacturers, scientists and other fashion brands across the globe.”
The brand was also featured in Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week during the Fall, and hope to expand into womenswear, kids clothing, work wear, and more.
My first day walking the show floor at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was going just fine until I past something that made me stop short.
Dozens of people were sprawled on their backs on top of massage chairs, eyes closed, trying to seek some relaxation from the show's hectic atmosphere.
If it was just one instance, I might have shaken the whole thing off, but these clusters of massage chair circles are all over CES.
Now I've tried the usual Brookstone and Sharper Image massage chairs at malls before, and while they're usually better than nothing, I'm usually left wincing as the knobs dug into my back.
Curious to see what the massage chairs of 2015 are capable of, I finally decided to wait in two of the lines to see what all the fuss was about.
It should be no surprise that the lines didn't move very quickly (it's almost like people aren't in a rush to get from a massage chair), but finally I got to try Luraco's $65,000 massage chair and then Panasonic's new $8,000 chair.
Climbing into the things felt more like I lying down on Darth Vader's operating table, as everything from my feet to my arms and hands were slotted into some massage compartment.
The massage lasted somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes and was...alright.
Both chairs I tried came with a remote that lets you customize every aspect of your massage, but I preferred Panasonic's chair to Luraco's.
Panasonic's massage chair did this cool back and neck stretching move that actually felt like it was stretching my body for me, and I only found myself wincing once as a rogue roller dug into my lower back.
All in all, I guess $8,000 in 2015 buys you a decent massage, but I couldn't help but wonder who actually pays for these things. I think most people trying them out just wanted a place to lie down before continuing their exploration of the show floor.
Russia has banned people with "gender identity disorders" from driving, which was first reported by BBC.
A new decree signed on December 29 by Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev delineates the conditions that disqualify people from driving, which implicitly includes people with "gender identity disorders" — a category which includes transgender and transsexual people.
For the most part, the conditions that disqualify people from driving listed in the decree are straightforward, including a long list of medical issues such as foot deformities.
But there is also an iffy section on "Mental and Behavioral disorders," which explicitly includes disorders such as schizophrenia, and implicitly bans people with "gender identity disorders" from driving.
Under that classification is "gender identity disorders" which includes the following:
Transsexualism
Dual-role transvestism
Gender identity disorder of childhood
Other gender identity disorders
As well as "disorders of sexual preference" which includes:
Fetishism
Exhibitionism
Voyeurism
Pedophilia
Sadomasochism
and much more.
One person familiar with the matter told Business Insider that the decree is "vague," but others are more concerned.
"The Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights called the new law 'discriminatory.' It said it would demand clarifications from the Russian Constitutional Court and seek support from international human rights organisations," reports the BBC.
Additionally, Valery Evtushenko at the Russian Psychiatric Association told the BBC that he's worried that people will avoid seeking psychiatric help so that they can still drive, in light of this decree.
Although fewer young people are getting married today than ever before, research suggests that getting and staying married is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
As The New York Times recently concluded, "being married makes people happier and more satisfied with their lives than those who remain single — particularly during the most stressful periods, like midlife crises."
But how do you know if you should get hitched in the first place?
We asked Peter Pearson, couples therapist and cofounder of the Couples Institute of Menlo Park, California.
Chemistry was his first answer.
"Chemistry is not everything," he said, "but if the chemistry is not there, that's a tough thing to overcome. If the chemistry is more there for one person than the other, that's tough to overcome. It's hard to build passion if it's low at the beginning. If I could find a way to build passion where passion was low, I'd be richer than Bill Gates."
But it's not just sexual chemistry, Pearson said. What you might call social chemistry plays a crucial role — the way you feel when you're with the other person. In his experience, when people have affairs, it's more than simple lust — it's also about the way they feel when they're around the other person.
That sense of "how I feel" can be investigated further by looking at the work of Canadian psychologist Eric Berne. Back in the 1950s and '60s, Berne developed "transactional analysis," a model that tried to provide an account of how two people in a relationship interact, or transact.
His popular books about the model became bestsellers, namely "The Games People Play." Drawing somewhat on Sigmund Freud, his theory argued that every person has three "ego states":
• The parent: What you've been taught
• The child: What you have felt
• The adult: What you have learned
When two people are really compatible, they connect along each tier. Pearson gave us a few questions for figuring out compatibility at each level:
• The parent: Do you have similar values and beliefs about the world?
• The child: Do you have fun together? Can you be spontaneous? Do you think your partner's hot? Do you like to travel together?
• The adult: Does each person think the other is bright? Are you good at solving problems together?
While having symmetry across all three is ideal, Pearson said that people often "get together to balance each other." One person might identify as fun-loving and adventurous, while the other takes on the role of nurturing and responsible.
While that divvying-up of roles makes for good odd-couple romantic comedies, it's not ultimately sustainable.
"That works until someone gets tired," Pearson said — until one partner is shouting, "I'm tired of being the responsible person here!"
When that happens (or ideally, before that happens), a couple has to go through the "differentiation" process.
In another interview, Pearson's wife and Couples Institute cofounder Ellyn Bader described how the high-tension phase of differentiation works:
People have to come to terms with the reality that "we really are different people. You are different from who I thought you were or wanted you to be. We have different ideas, different feelings, different interests."
Differentiation has two components. There is self-differentiation: "This is who I am and what I want." This refers to the development of an independent sense of self: to know what I want, think, feel, desire...
The second involves differentiation from the other. When this is successful, the members of the couple have the capacity to be separate from each other and involved at the same time.
For couples to survive that differentiation process and maintain their compatibility, the real secret sauce is effort.
But despite all these theoretical models, Pearson said the clues about what predicts true compatibility are much more of a felt sense than something you reason out.
He provided a litmus test. "If you're living together and your partner is away for a couple days and you see a favorite scarf, a pair of shoes, or another article of clothing that's important to them, how do you feel?" Pearson asked. "Do you feel annoyed that you have to pick up the clutter, or does it bring up happy memories?"
The answer can tell you a lot about how your parent, child, and adult are getting along with theirs.
Sometimes, realizing your full potential is all about making the time.
Podio, an online working platform, created an interactive infographic that outlines the time of day some of the world's greatest thinkers accomplished their creative goals.
Based on academic studies, diary entries, and letters from the likes of Ben Franklin and Maya Angelou, it's a good reminder that structuring your day can be an important factor in your success.
Check it out below.
Want to develop a better work routine? Discover how some of the world's greatest minds organized their days. Click image to see the interactive version (via Podio).
He had gone to meet the region's contemplative traditions — Hinduism, Buddhism — and the Indian sun had darkened his skin a few shades.
The trip changed him in less obvious ways, too.
Although you couldn't predict it then, his travels would end up changing the business world.
Back in the Bay Area, Jobs continued to cultivate his meditation practice. He was in the right place at the right time; 1970s San Francisco was where Zen Buddhism first began to flourish on American soil. He met Shunryu Suzuki, author of the groundbreaking "Zen Mind, Beginners Mind," and sought the teaching of one of Suzuki's students, Kobun Otogawa.
Jobs met with Otogawa almost every day, Walter Isaacson reported in his biography of Jobs. Every few months, they'd go on a meditation retreat together.
Zen Buddhism, and the practice of meditation it encouraged, were shaping Jobs' understanding of his own mental processes.
"If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is," Jobs told Isaacson. "If you try to calm it, it only makes things worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things — that's when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It's a discipline; you have to practice it."
Jobs felt such resonance with Zen that he considered moving to Japan to deepen his practice. But Otogawa told him he had work to do in California.
Evidently, Otogawa was a pretty insightful guy.
When you look back at Jobs' career, it's easy to spot the influence of Zen. For 1300 years, Zen has instilled in its practitioners a commitment to courage, resoluteness, and austerity — as well as rigorous simplicity.
Or, to put it into Apple argot, insane simplicity.
Zen is everywhere in the company's design.
Take, for instance, the evolution of the signature mouse:
It's the industrial design equivalent of the enso, or hand-drawn circle, the most fundamental form of Zen visual art.
But Zen didn't just inform the aesthetic that Jobs had an intense commitment to, it shaped the way he understood his customers. He famously said that his task wasn't to give people what they said they wanted; it was to give them what they didn't know they needed.
"Instead of relying on market research, [Jobs] honed his version of empathy — an intimate intuition about the desires of his customers," Isaacson said.
What's the quickest way to train your empathy muscles? As centuries of practitioners and an increasingly tall stack of studies suggest, it's meditation.
When you take that into account, it's easy to see that for Jobs, growing his business and cultivating his awareness weren't opposing endeavors.
When he died, the New York Times ran a stirring quoteabout what he did for society: "You touched an ugly world of technology and made it beautiful."
"MythBusters" host Adam Savage has learned his fair share of science in over 200 episodes of the Discovery show. But he says this one scientific fact blows his mind.
Knowing how to code has become a life skill, but it is also a skill in demand. Startups need talent, and are willing to pay top dollar for it — the average salary of a US programmer is now over $100,000. Likewise, if you’re thinking of going it alone in the world of business, being able to build your own product is invaluable.
To help get you started, here’s a list of great e-learning courses (and bundles of courses) at major discounts.
Pay What You Want Learn-to-Code Bundle
It can be daunting trying to pick out a single language to specialize in, so this bundle is great for beginners — it covers web design and development, native OSX, iOS and Android programming, and fresh multi-purpose languages like Python. Best of all, you pay whatever you like for Programming Java for Beginners and PSD to HTML5/CSS3, but beat the average price paid, and you get the other six courses, too.
Pretty much every major site and platform stores data in a relational database, so learning how to maintain a healthy one is a good idea. MySQL is a particularly popular database system, and this course shows you the ropes, from the basics of programming in SQL to building your own database from scratch. It also has 80% off via the link below.
Python is a programming language on the up, with major companies like Google, Dropbox and Pinterest utilizing it in their products. This bundle teaches the language from the ground up, including real-world projects, and it also covers Django, the popular web framework for Python builds. Check out the link for a 91% discount.
As one of the three fundamentals of front-end web development, JavaScript is a must-know for anyone thinking about designing websites from scratch. It is covered from beginner to advanced skill levels in this bundle, including how to use JS to kickstart entrepreneurial ideas, and how to use the language for full-on programming. Grab the 91% discount via the link.
One other language that is quickly spreading around the web is the versatile Ruby, partly thanks to the much loved Ruby on Rails framework. You get a comprehensive education with this bundle, which includes courses on developing and launching web apps, getting started with Heroku, and moving on to advanced Ruby programming. Visit the link for the 92% discount.
The infamous Central Village triplex penthouse at 704 Broadway has just hit the market for $37 million, Curbed reports.
The massive residence was once an event space called Sky Studios that could be rented for private parties, weddings, Sex and the City episodes, and other glamorous New York events.
When Billionaire investor Ron Burkle purchased the famous space in 2007 he paid $17 million in cash — he then spent the next two years renovating the place to make it the dreamy loft that it is today.
The penthouse has three floors, six bedrooms, a rooftop garden, soaring 17-foot-tall ceilings, skylights, and a fully equipped home theater.
Plus, it has heated rooftop pool that has incredible views of the city.
The entire penthouse is filled with elegant details and classic furnishings. The inviting great room is a 19-century style loft space that has cast-iron columns, custom wood-coffered ceilings, and a working 17-century Dutch Tudor fireplace.
The spacious French Country-inspired chef's kitchen has a barrel vaulted exposed brick ceiling and antique blue marble tiles that were recovered from a convent in France.
The Master Suite sits behind a library and hand-carved Moroccan French doors. The room has a basket weave vaulted ceiling, wood paneled walls, and a massive bed.
Marriage has always been a gamble, but the modern game is harder — with higher stakes than ever before.
Struggling marriages make people more unhappy today than in the past, while healthy marriages have some of the happiest couples in history, according to a comprehensive analysis published in 2007 regarding marital quality and personal well-being.
When Eli Finkel sought to understand why marriage is more extreme at both ends today than in the past, he discovered something intriguing yet discouraging: Marriages in the US are more challenging today than at any other time in our country's history.
Finkel is a professor of social psychology at Northwestern University and is known for developing a surprisingly simple marriage-saving procedure, which takes 21 minutes a year. (The procedure involves three seven-minute online writing sessions, where couples describe their most recent disagreement from the perspective of a hypothetical neutral bystander — something they are also encouraged to try out in future arguments.)
Finkel, together with his colleagues of the Relationships and Motivation LAB at Northwestern, have gone on to publish several papers on what they call "the suffocation model of marriage in America."
In their latest paper on this front, they explain why — compared to previous generations — some of the defining qualities of today's marriages make it harder for couples to cultivate a flourishing relationship. The simple answer is that people today expect more out of their marriage. If these higher expectations are not met, it can suffocate a marriage to the point of destroying it.
Finkel, in an Opinion article in The New York Times summarizing their latest paper on this model, discusses the three distinct models of marriage that relationship psychologists refer to:
institutional marriage (from the nation's founding until 1850)
companionate marriage (from 1851 to 1965)
self-expressive marriage (from 1965 onward)
Before 1850, people were hardly walking down the aisle for love. In fact, American couples at this time, who wed for food production, shelter, and protection from violence, were satisfied if they felt an emotional connection with their spouse, Finkel wrote. (Of course, old-fashioned, peaceful-seeming marriages may have been especially problematic for women, and there were an "array of cruelties that this kind of marriage could entail," Rebecca Onion wrote recently in Aeon.)
Those norms changed quickly when an increasing number of people left the farm to live and work in the city for higher pay and fewer hours. With the luxury of more free time, Americans focused on what they wanted in a lifelong partner, namely companionship and love. But the counter-cultural attitude of the 1960s led Americans to think of marriage as an option instead of an essential step in life.
This leads us to today's model, self-expressive marriage, wherein the average modern, married American is looking not only for love from their spouse but for a sense of personal fulfillment. Finkel writes that this era's marriage ideal can be expressed in the simple quote "You make me want to be a better man," from James L. Brooks' 1997 film "As Good as It Gets."
These changes to marital expectations have been a mixed bag, Finkel argues.
"As Americans have increasingly looked to their marriage to help them meet idiosyncratic, self-expressive needs, the proportion of marriages that fall short of their expectations has grown, which has increased rates of marital dissatisfaction," Finkel's team writes, in their latest paper. On the other hand, "those marriages that succeed in meeting these needs are particularly fulfilling, more so than the best marriages in earlier eras."
The key to a successful, flourishing marriage? Finkel and his colleagues describe three general options:
Don't look to your marriage alone for personal fulfillment. In addition to your spouse, use all resources available to you including friends, hobbies, and work.
If you want a lot from your marriage, then you have to give a lot, meaning that in order to meet their high expectations, couples must invest more time and psychological resources into their marriage.
And if neither of those options sound good, perhaps it's time to ask less of the marriage and adjust high expectations for personal fulfillment and self discovery.
Other researchers, like sociologist Jeffrey Dew, support the notion that time is a crucial factor in sustaining a successful marriage.
Dew, who is a professor at the University of Virginia, found that Americans in 1975 spent, on average, 35 hours a week alone with their spouse while couples in 2003 spent 26 hours together. Child-rearing couples in 1975 spent 13 hours a week together, alone, compared to couples in 2003 who spent 9 hours a week together. The divorce rate in America was 32.8% in 1970 and rose to 49.1% by 2000.
While that doesn't necessarily mean less time together led to divorce or that the people who stayed together were happy, Finkel's research suggests that higher expectations and less investment in the relationship may be a toxic brew.
Marriage has become as tricky but also as potentially rewarding as climbing Mt. Everest: Obtaining a sense of personal fulfillment from your partner is as hard as achieving the summit. This is both good and bad because it means that you are reaching for the pinnacle of what marriage has to offer — which explains why couples in healthy marriages are happier now than in the past — but it also means that meeting those expectations and feeling satisfied in marriage is harder than ever.
"The good news is that our marriages can flourish today like never before," Finkel writes for The New York Times. "They just can't do it on their own."
While every minor cigar fan is hooting and hollering about the possible return of Cuban cigars to the US, real cigar experts know the truth: There really isn't all that much to cheer about.
According to Michael Herklots, vice president for retail and brand development for Nat Sherman cigar brand, Cubans are not the greatest in the world anymore.
Too many fantastic cigars have cropped up from other countries around the world, including Honduras, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua — places Cigar experts flocked to after the US embargoed Cuban exports.
The cigars from these countries are just as good — or even much better — than Cubans, and they've always been available in American markets.
Even industry publications have picked up on this trend. The Washington Post notes that only 3 of the top 25 cigars in the world, as ranked by Cigar Aficionado, were Cubans.
And in the quality control department, Cubans fare even worse. There is a high chance of a few cigars in a Cuban box being "total dogs," according to Herklots. They don't draw properly, are rolled too tightly, or are otherwise made without the care of an artisan craftsman.
"There is certainly a risk in investing in a Cuban product, because you are not guaranteed the best," Herklots says. He hypothesizes that it may be the state ownership of cigar manufacturing and lack of entrepreneurship in Cuba that may be to blame for this quality control problem.
Cuban cigars aren't highly regarded in countries apart from the US, where they've always been available. In fact, in places like Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Cubans are the most common cigar around. It's merely their rarity in the US that excites the US cigar smoker, says Herklots.
"In every hobby, we always want the thing that is hardest to get," Herklots says, noting that the same scarcity phenomenon occurs with small-scale American brands in European countries where they're hard to find.
Cuba's reputation for great cigars isn't unearned, of course. They were a pioneer in cigar manufacturing very early on and, for a long time, Cuban cigars were the undisputed best in the world.
Still, if you really must have the taste of a Cuban-made cigar with 100% Cuban tobacco, there's only one place to get it: Cuba.
The 2015 Governors Ball lineup has just been announced, with Drake, The Black Keys, and DeadMau5 as headliners.
Check out the full list of musical acts below:
Tickets are on sale now, with the cheapest options going for $260 for the full weekend. Pricier VIP options for $595 and $2000 include special VIP viewing areas, lounges, a backstage open bar, and a merchandise pack.
Tucked in the mountains of Massachusetts, the Rowe Center sleep-away camp is every teenager's dream. Each summer, the camp enrolls hundreds of campers between 12 and 18 and affords them nearly unlimited freedom.
From the activities they do to whether or not they go to sleep, teenagers are empowered to make their own decisions and exercise their independence. Adult supervision is practically nonexistent.
Photographer Jennifer Loeber attended the camp during her teenage years and recently went back to document the camp and the many characters who attend. The resulting project is called “Cruel Story of Youth,” which Loeber says refers to the world that the campers must return to after leaving the camp.
Loeber shared a number of photos with us here, but you can check out the rest at her website and follow her on Instagram.
Rowe Camp was founded in 1924 in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts by members of the Unitarian Universalist Church. For 90 years, the camp has sought to make kids of all different types and creeds feel at home. In the 1960s, the camp found its place as a haven for the countercultural, which it has continued to be ever since.
Loeber first visited the camp in the 1980s, when her father enrolled her at the suggestion of a friend who was the camp’s director in the 1970s. Despite Loeber’s protests, she attended the camp that year and continued to attend every summer from 12 to 17. She calls her experience “life-changing."
The camp operates today in nearly the same way it did during Loeber’s time. There is no schedule, no curfew, and minimal adult presence. Campers make up their own schedules and arrange their own activities with other campers, whether that’s going swimming or making arts and crafts. “It’s like ‘Lord of the Flies,’ but not dangerous,” says Loeber.
"Get a McDouble without ketchup and mustard. Instead, ask for lettuce and big mac sauce on it. You almost have a Big Mac for $1.39," recommends Merge_And_Acquire.
3. Get a real egg with your McDonald's breakfast.
"McDonald's uses three different kinds of eggs for their breakfast. If you want a REAL egg ask for the egg off the McMuffin," ex-employee Shadhahvar said.
4. Ask for hot fudge in your McDonald's mocha instead of syrup.
"They will probably charge you for the fudge but it's worth it," according to Shadhahvar.
5. Order half-portions of two different meats on your Chipotle burrito to get bigger portions.
The technique is key to getting a ton of food for your money, writes quint-z.
6. Customize your Burger King sandwich.
Even the smallest customization, such as adding an extra tomato, will ensure that your sandwich is made fresh. Otherwise, it could be hours old, writes Moderator-Admin.
7. Order McDonald's burgers with a steamed bun.
"They make it on the spot and you get it fresh, plus it tastes a million times better when it's steamed," writes aahole65.
8. Order two junior roast beef sandwiches instead of one regular roast beef at Arby's.
Employee slowbutgaining insists this is a good way to get more meat for less money.
9. Order a Venti water at Starbucks.
It's free, while a bottle of water costs about $2, notes Chream.
10. Order a grilled cheese at McDonald's.
Even though it's not on the menu, employees know how to make it. Two buns, turned inside out, with cheese in the middle, writes lalkapolski.
11. Ask for pickles on the side at Chick-Fil-A.
"When I go to Chick-Fil-A, I order my sandwich with pickles on the side," writes Snizza. "No soggy bun mess, and often a fresh, crispy chicken breast."
12. Customize your Jamba Juice.
Employee Rabid_Chocobo says that you can order a smoothie with "light" or "extra" of an ingredient. You can also substitute any ingredient, and employees have to honor it.
13. Ask for your Starbucks order in a cup one size larger.
This gives you plenty of room for cream without the beverage overflowing or spilling on you, writes gabrielle1106.
14. Get more for less at Subway.
"Instead of ordering a Philly Cheese Steak at Subway, ask them for a 'Double Steak and Cheese,'" one savvy customer writes. "It's the exact same sandwich with more meat than a Philly and it costs like $1.50 less as well."
15. Order two $1 bacon cheeseburgers from Jack In The Box.
"Instead of ordering the double bacon cheeseburger for like $4, get 2 of the $1 Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers. Take off one of the buns and stick them together. You are rewarded with $2 savings and an extra bun," former employee punchingbabies wrote.
16. Order multiple four-piece nuggets at McDonald's.
The four-piece nuggets are the best value, and you won't get a discount for buying in bulk. Plus, you'll get more sauces this way, writes employee McBurger.