YouTube creators are the kings and queens of the digital world.

They're attracting hordes of screaming teens, signing book deals, and even getting their own primetime TV shows. 

A survey done by Variety last summer showed that that today's teens like YouTube stars even more than they like traditional Hollywood celebrities.

We've rounded up 13 creators whose YouTube follower counts are exploding.

You'll want to pay attention.

21-year-old Lauren is a style guru in the making.

Lauren (LaurDIY on YouTube) is a "lover of all things glittery" and makes helpful fashion and decor how-to videos. She has already worked with a number of big brands, including Target, CoverGirl, Tampax, and Pantene.

Subscribers: 1,365,024

Views: 60,361,434

On Sorted Food, four friends make cooking fun.

Sorted Food, which regularly ranks near the top of YouTube's most popular cooking channels, features four friends who break down recipes in a fun and simple way. The crew recently launched an iOS app that lets users create profiles and upload their own recipes and videos.

Subscribers: 1,103,064

Views: 107,792,339

Brooklyn and Bailey are second-generation YouTube stars.

The teens are the identical twin daughters of Mindy McKnight, the woman behind the wildly successful Cute Girls Hairstyles YouTube channel. Brooklyn and Bailey make fun videos where they share fashion and makeup tips, spell out DIY tutorials, and recommend activities the whole family can enjoy.

Subscribers: 1,080,622

Views: 89,047,448

When we heard Little Caesars was releasing a pizza with 3.5 feet of bacon in the crust, we had to try it. 

The "Bacon Wrapped Crust Deep! Deep! Dish" pizza will be available starting today. 

The item has a thick pan crust with mozzarella and Muenster cheeses, pepperoni, and a bacon perimeter. Each slice has 450 calories. 

Before you consider enjoying this pizza for yourself, it's necessary to get a few things out of the way. 

The top criticisms of this pizza were that the crust was too thick and greasy. 

One reviewer said he couldn't get behind the concept. 

"This suffers from the same problem as the KFC Double Down sandwich: you're supposed to have carbs on the outside and protein and fat on the inside," he said. 

But these qualities are inherent to a deep dish pizza wrapped in bacon.

At $12, we weren't expecting a gourmet pizza, so this menu item exceeded our expectations. 

The main attraction — the bacon — was well-done and crispy, with a smokey flavor. 

"The bacon around the crust added more flavor than I thought it would and really made the crust worth eating," one reviewer said. "I loved it and it would make the perfect hangover cure."

Others said eating the indulgent product was thrilling. 

"You feel bad eating this pizza. But not bad bad," a tester wrote. "The exhilarating kind of bad."

It's important that you don't treat the"Bacon Wrapped Crust Deep! Deep! Dish" pizza like a normal pie and eat several slices.

Most people said they could not manage more than one slice. Our reviewer who had three slices said he was "deeply upset" with himself. 

The "Bacon Wrapped Crust Deep! Deep! Dish" pizza is not healthy or gourmet. 

But if you want a deliciously greasy and indulgent slice, this pizza is definitely for you. 

Tip: one reviewer said she preferred to eat the pizza with a fork and knife to avoid bacon grease.

SEE ALSO: We tried Coca Cola's new milk that costs twice as much as regular

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Most companies live between 40 and 50 years. 

So there must be something about the businesses that have persisted for 300, 500, or 1,300 years.

When we doveinto the data on the world's oldest companies, a few themes became clear — like that people have wanted to eat food, get drunk, learn things, and maybe kill each other once in a while for a really long time. 

Here's a list of companies with timelines that dwarf that of the U.S. itself, because startups have lots to learn from their elders.

705 — Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Yamanashi, Japan

The hot spring hotel has been in operation since 705, making it the oldest running hotel in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The inn has been run by the same family for 52 generations, according to Japan Page, the English-language expat site. The secret to its success is a sense of inter-generational pride, the report says: 

... There are even some staff whose families have held the same post for generations, passing it from parent to child to grandchild. All the same, the staff are committed and courteous, earning wages for themselves and their families. They put their all into offering a spirit of service that stems from a shared desire to protect the inn. This unflagging commitment and hospitality is drawing attention from the hotel industries worldwide.

In management-speak, we call that alignment. Generations of it. 

803 — Stiftskeller St. Peter in Salzburg, Austria

This restaurant inside St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg, Austria, may be the oldest continuously running restaurant in Europe, and perhaps the world. 

Its reputation precedes it. The classy dining spot was written about by Alcuin, a follower of the world-conquering emperor Charlemagne back in 803. According to Atlas Obscura, "the restaurant has also been host to countless dignitaries over its 1,200-year history, including cardinals, kings, and in more modern times Bill Clinton and Clint Eastwood."

900 — Sean's Bar in Athlone, Ireland

Sean's Bar is one of the oldest bars in Ireland and also in Europe. Fun fact: Excavations have revealed mugs and coins from centuries of carousing. 

The secret of its success? Location, location, location From the bar's site: 

... Sean's Bar is located in the very heart of Ireland, on the banks of the beautiful River Shannon at its intersection with the Esker Riada - the ancient route carved by glaciers that allowed travelers safe passage across the bog for thousands of years. You can find us just next to Athlone Castle, a 12th century Norman Castle whose residents may have frequented the pub!

Sarah Lewis became fascinated by the distinction between success and mastery while observing Columbia University's all-female archery team. 

The topic became one of the main themes for her book, "The Rise" where she delves deeper into the history of failure through anecdotes from history's most innovative people. 

Produced by Alana Kakoyiannis and Alex Kuzoian.

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Former FedEx President and CEO Ted Weise is selling his gigantic 50-acre equestrian ranch in South Florida for $22.9 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The massive home spreads out in Jupiter, Florida, roughly half an hour from Palm Beach. Weise and his wife bought the land back in 2004 for $2.7 million, four years after he had retired from FedEx.

The gated ranch comes with horseback riding trails, a guest house, a four-acre lake, eight hours paddocks as well as a 12,000-square-foot mansion. 

Inside the mansion — which Weise and his wife had custom built — is a 1,000 bottle wine cellar, five bedrooms, and a vault that doubles as a panic room.  

Todd Peter of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.

Welcome to gorgeous 50-acre equestrian ranch near Palm Beach, Florida.

The mansion sits on a sprawling amount of land with horse paddocks, a four-acre lake, and plenty of horse-riding trails.

Weise and his wife bought the land for $2.7 million in 2004, according to the WSJ.

City-approved micro apartments are coming to New York this spring in Manhattan’s Kips Bay. 

Known as My Micro NY, the apartments won a design competition back in 2013 and are currently being built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, according to The New York Times.

The units range from 260 to 360 square feet and have some amazing amenities such as big windows, storage space, Juliet balconies, public areas, a café, a rooftop garden, and more. 

Then-mayor Michael Bloomberg allowed the My Micro NY units as an exception to the 1987 zoning laws, which state that “a dwelling unit shall have an area of at least 400 square feet of floor area.”

Yet even though by law New York apartments should be bigger than 400 square feet, thousands of New Yorkers live in apartments much tinier than that since the law did not penalize homes built prior to 1987.

In fact, Jonathan J. Miller, president of real estate appraisal and consulting firm Miller Samuel, told The Times that there are an estimated 3,000 apartments in the city that are below the zoning-mandated square footage.

But some New Yorkers think that the trade off for less square space and greater savings in rent is worth it.

“Sure there are some compromises, but it’s worth it,” author and artist Felice Cohen said to FairCompanies.com in 2010. Cohen lived in a 90-square-foot apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side.  

Her apartment didn't even have a kitchen or a bedroom, but she paid only $700 for rent and lived quite comfortably. The FairCompanies.com video of her apartment went viral and has been viewed by over 6.5 million people.

And she’s not alone. Luke Clark Tyler told SPACEStv in 2012 that he found his 78-square-foot New York apartment on Craigslist. “I think it called it a studio, which I don’t know if it qualifies as a studio,” he laughed.

Almost 1.5 million people have watched the video to see how he lives in such a small space by hiding his bed and sharing a bathroom dorm-style.

Many New Yorkers are willing to live in tiny apartments, a fact proven by the city’s waitlist for the My Micro NY units. Hopefully as the trend catches on and more small apartments are built across New York, the real estate market will become more affordable.

“Coming home to a tiny apartment, I mean, this is what I’ve been doing for at least five years now,” Tyler told SPACEtv. We adapt very easily as people.”

Read more about New York’s coming micro-apartments here.

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You're never too old for a great book.

We've put together a list of our 16 favorite stories on growing up and what it means to be a man. They cover everything from how to live to how to be a leader to how people should handle crises.

Check them out.

How about a drone? The Sleek Panther Drone Is The Perfect Way To Start Flying [55% Off]

Looking for gadgets? Here Are 15 Hi-Tech Timepieces You'll Actually Want On Your Wrist

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NOW WATCH: What Happened When A Bunch Of Young Boys Were Told To Hit A Girl

Every year, the Chinese New Year is celebrated for more than two weeks in January or February, with many festivals and celebrations commemorating the occasion. On the first day of the New Year, the festival kicks off with the Firecracker Ceremony, during which locals light nearly 600,000 rounds of fireworks.

Last Thursday, we headed down to New York City’s Chinatown to see the community’s 16th annual Firecracker Ceremony. The community was celebrating the beginning of the Year of the Goat.

It is a tradition for Chinese people to light bamboo sticks filled with gunpowder on the first day of the year to create as large as commotion as possible. The practice is thought to ward off evil spirits. In more recent years, the tradition is carried on with firecrackers and fireworks. Thousands of firecrackers are strung up with red ribbon on the rope in the background.

The community performs the elaborate Firecracker Ceremony because fireworks are illegal in New York City. There were plenty of police on hand to make sure everything went smoothly.

The ceremony began with a speech by a community leader, who wished spectators "Gong Xi Fa Cai," or Happy New Year in Mandarin.

There was a huge crowd for the ceremony despite the temperatures. It was a frigid 20 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the ceremony.

After the opening speech, the emcee introduced the Brooklyn United Drumline marching band. They provided an energetic performance to start off the festivities.

Next came the traditional Chinese ribbon dance. Dancers perform by whirling long strips of silk attached to short sticks through the air.

The woman on the right was keeping time for the dancers with her cymbals.

The dance dates to China's Han Dynasty in 206 BCE. It is thought that the dance originates from a man who saved an emperor from assassination by blocking a sword with the silk on his sleeve.

Next came the dragon dance. While not as elaborate or large as the dragons displayed during the Chinese New Year's parade, these two were very acrobatic.

The two dragons dueled for a long time. It was an impressive dance.

No Chinese holiday would be complete without food. Volunteers gave out copious amounts of Chinese food to those willing to wait in line.

Many prominent community members were wearing red sashes. Red symbolizes good fortune and joy in Chinese culture. It is seen everywhere during New Year's celebrations.

Many city politicians were in attendance to celebrate the New Year. On the left is a man dressed as Cai Shen, the Chinese god of wealth and prosperity.

A group of schoolchildren took turns singing the American national anthem and the Chinese national anthem.

A lion dance troupe performed a symbolic ritual next to celebrate the new year.

During the "cai qing," or plucking the greens, ritual, the lions attempt to eat lettuce hung on a pole in front of them. The custom comes from the similar sounds of the words pluck (cǎi), vegetable (cài ), and fortune (cái). The lion "eats" the lettuce and spits it out in favor of the red envelope attached. During New Year's celebrations, red envelopes are filled with money.

At the same time, the crowd shoots off large amounts of confetti in celebration.

There was a lot of confetti on the ground after the dance.

Finally, it was time for the actual firecrackers. The team in charge used this pyrotechnic firing system to start the festivities from a safe distance.

This is what it looked like when it started. The ribbons and ornaments at the top were lined with firecrackers.

The sound was deafening for those who were closest.

And here's what it looked like near the end.

SEE ALSO: 18 Chinese expressions with bizarre literal translations

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You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars to get a great pair of headphones.

We've found 7 great pairs that will be on sale for less than $20 this week.

Check them out.

Sony extra bass smartphone headset with mic (black)

These headphones have incredible sound quality considering that they're only $20. The sound is clear and the bass is the real deal.

Plus, the ear-cups have a swivel function, which makes them easy to store.

Price:$29.99$19.86[34% off]

Sony extra bass smartphone headset with mic (white)

If you're looking for something more stylish than your basic black headphones, check out the white version of the previous Sony pair.

They'll be a cool standalone accessory.

Price: $29.99 $19.74 [34% off]

JLab Core Hi-Fi Noise Isolation earbuds

The best part about these headphones is that they're super comfortable. You'll barely feel them in your ears.

These are a great option for athletes who don't need bulky headphones.

Price: $19.99

AmazonBasics On-Ear Headphones

These headphones are the coolest looking in the bunch because of their sleek ear-cups.

"Loved it. The price is just right. ... The sound quality is superb," one reviewer wrote.

Price: $14.99

AmazonBasics in-ear headphones

"Very nice and comfortable. Crystal clear audio. It has built-in mic so it's convenient to use it while walking, sitting, or driving," one reviewer wrote.

Price: $6.99 

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Instead of sitting around and waiting for your wine to breathe, you can just use the Zazzol Wine Aerator Decanter.

This tool might sound like a gimmick, but it will actually aerate your wine within seconds.

"As a lifetime wine drinker I am always sceptical of devices which claim to augment the experience. However, here we have something which, I must admit rather to my surprise, actually works very well. It is an attractive, obviously well made item which feels fairly robust in the hand," one reviewer wrote.

The Zazzol Wine Aerator Decanter: $139.99$29.97 [79% off]

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

Even the most well-read people have a tendency to read the same books as everyone else.

"Classics" are classic for a reason, of course, and are certainly worth reading, but there's a wealth of knowledge to be gained from the titles that rarely appear on school reading lists.

Ryan Holiday, the author of "The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph," is a voracious reader. He's recommended over 1,000 books since launching his reading list newsletter in 2009.

Holiday shared his presentation on 24 great books spanning ancient philosophy, literary nonfiction, and forgotten literature that offer unique and valuable perspectives on life.

Jerome Jarre moved to NYC unable to speak English and with no job prospects. After making Vines every day for about a year, Jarre garnered enough popularity that Gary Vaynerchuk gave him a deal to start a Vine advertising agency. Today he's paid over $25,000 for a sponsored Vine and $35,000 for a Snapchat video.

Produced by Devan Joseph 

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Do you have more ideas than time to execute them?

Are you excited to research the psychology of success, ask powerful people how they organize their days, and investigate the management strategies that companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon use for maximum effectiveness?

Business Insider is hiring a full-time reporter for its Strategy vertical, one of the fastest-growing sections of the world's No. 1 digital business publication.

Candidates should be comfortable writing quick, aggregated stories that highlight the most interesting angles of the day's news, while simultaneously working on reported medium-length and long-form features.

Ideal candidates will have:

• Insatiable curiosity
• A strong voice and the ability to write with authority
• Interest in digital media and how readers consume news on the web
• Previous writing experience, preferably business
• At least a Bachelor's degree
• Journalism degree and/or background preferred
• Copy-editing skills, light HTML and Photoshop experience, and knowledge of social media are also useful

APPLY HERE with a resume and cover letter if interested, and specify why you're interested in working on Strategy. 

Please note that this position requires that you work in our Manhattan office. Business Insider offers competitive compensation packages complete with benefits. 

SEE ALSO: Business Insider Is Hiring Paid Interns For Its Strategy And Careers Sections

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NOW WATCH: Here's How Much Mark Cuban Sleeps To Be On Top Of His Game

Nintendo's Mario series is the best-selling video game franchise in history. And with moves like Mario's, it's no mystery why so many people enjoy navigating the little Italian plumber through his fantasy world of princesses, castles, and magical mushrooms. But there's a fundamental flaw in the game: Based on what we know about our universe, Mario World physically couldn't exist.

This tiny yet surprising flaw in the game was recently discovered by the PBS video series Space Time, which used some simple math and basic physics to determine which kind of planet Mario lives on.

How does Mario jump so high?

You'll notice in the GIF below that Mario has some very impressive jumping skills:

At first you might think Mario can jump so high because he is on a planet that is smaller than Earth and, therefore, has weaker gravity.

The Moon, for example, has about one-sixth Earth's gravity, which means you can jump six times higher on the Moon than on Earth using the same leg power. But that's not the full story.

The crucial detail is not how high Mario jumps but how fast he falls.

Although you can jump six times higher on the Moon, it would take six times as long to fall back to the ground as it would on Earth. If Mario fell that slowly, it would make for some pretty boring gameplay.

Because Mario moves relatively quickly through the air, he must be on a planet that has pretty strong gravity. You can easily calculate how strong the gravity in Mario World is with two simple parameters:

• How high Mario jumps.
• How long it takes Mario to fall to the ground.

By crudely measuring these factors, Gabe from Space Time determined that in the 1990 game "Super Mario World," Mario jumps about 2 1/4 times his own height and takes approximately 0.3 seconds to fall to the ground.

After crunching the numbers, Gabe calculates that Mario is on a world whose gravity is eight times as strong as Earth's. Keep in mind that most humans can't withstand anything stronger than five times Earth's gravity before passing out.

To put this into better perspective: If you weigh 150 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 1,200 pounds on Mario's planet!

So how does Mario jump so high with all of those pounds weighing him down?

Pure leg strength, Gabe concludes. He must do a lot of dead lifts off-screen.

In fact, if Mario were on Earth, his strength would allow him to jump higher than 90 feet. To achieve that kind of height, he would have a liftoff speed of more than 50 mph!

Mario's jumping ability does slightly vary between different games, so gravity's force will also vary. But in general people have found that this value is between five and 10 times as strong as Earth's gravity — stronger than anything we experience on a daily basis. You might reach five g's when you're speeding through a 360-degree loop on a roller coaster.

Which planet is Mario's?

No planet in our solar system even comes close to the kind of gravity on Mario's many worlds. Jupiter, the largest planet orbiting our sun, has about 2 1/2 times Earth's gravity. So if you weighed 150 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 375 pounds on Jupiter. That's not even close to the gravity on Mario World.

Though Mario's planet is not in our solar system, could it be outside of it, in another star system far from Earth? Because of our search for planets outside our solar system, we know there are plenty of weird planets out there. But are they weird enough?

Through NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, humans have found more than 1,800 planets orbiting stars other than the sun, thousands of light years from Earth. Could one of them have conditions similar to those on Mario World?

First, Mario clearly lives on a rocky planet with an atmosphere similar to Earth's. But its gravity is also eight times as strong as Earth's — is such a planet possible?

Unfortunately for Mario, a planet like this doesn't seem likely to exist in our universe because of how we think large planets form. To have a lot of gravity a planet must have a lot of mass, and the planets that are even close to being large enough seem to be gas giants, like Jupiter and Saturn, with no ground to speak of.

The known planet with the strongest gravity checks in at about four g's — about half the gravity that Gabe calculated on Mario World.

So as Earth-like as Mario's world may appear on screen, there is no planet in the universe that would give us moves like Mario's.

Check out the PBS video below:

SEE ALSO: Rosetta just did an extreme maneuver to get closer than we ever have to a comet — and came back with incredible pictures

READ MORE: These high-resolution images of Chris Hadfield's view of Earth from the ISS will boggle your mind

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After the last date I went on ended up being a total let down, I got in a cab and immediately deleted all my dating apps: Tinder, Hinge, Glimpse, JSwipe, Happn and Loveflutter.

Let me explain: It was a Friday night, and I was minutes away from a drink with a woman who I had only seen in Instagram photos through the Glimpse app.

Over the course of the previous five days, I orchestrated this evening with nothing more than a few swipes on my phone and some text messaging.

Welcome to dating in 2015, where dating apps are the new digital matchmakers.

Dating apps, at their best, can connect you with people you'd never meet otherwise. And at their worst, they're completely superficial.

Those of you who've tried your hand with online dating know this to be true: every date has the potential to be absolutely terrible, regardless of how well you think it'll go based on the photos you've seen and the texts you've received.

This particular date was full of awkward silences, even though our text banter was fantastic. She was attractive, but it was obvious she was using photos taken of her years earlier. And who knows? Maybe I wasn't who she was expecting to meet either.

The date lasted one drink, and we went our separate ways. 

My experience finally proved to me everything that’s wrong with dating apps. And that's why I quit cold turkey.

People use their best photos...from 10 years ago 

I remember one woman I had a drink with that clearly curated photos from years prior and possibly used filters and angles to present herself in a better, more attractive light. She was by no means unattractive in person, but she didn't look like the woman she clearly wanted potential dates to think she looked like. 

This is the biggest risk of dating apps. We are presenting ourselves to a stranger based on the five best pictures ever taken of us.

It’s those pictures where the light catches you just right, your good side is in full focus, everything comes together in that magical moment that makes you think, “Wow! I’d date me.”

And this is fine! Of course we’re going to choose the best photos of ourselves. I’m guilty of it too. Why would we choose the worst? But if you’re featuring a photo of you from 2007, chances are you’ve changed in the last eight years. It doesn’t matter if the changes are good or bad; that’s all subjective. If you’re presenting yourself in one light and appear in the flesh in another, you’ve started off on the wrong foot.

“This is not the person I saw in the pictures” is not a good first impression.

Some people are just better at texting

It's always a let down to have incredible texting banter with someone and then go on a date filled with awkward silences and pauses. Maybe we over-texted and used up all of the back-and-forth we would have experienced on the date.

Maybe we should have texted while sitting next to each other.

With texting, we can create the perfect message. We can obsess over every word. We can carefully plan out the time we choose to send a text and the time we wait to respond to a text.

Throw in a few emojis and give yourself a few extra minutes to come up with a real zinger of a comeback and everyone seems to have an amazing digital personality.

Texting also gives us the freedom to interpret language as we so desire, which often leads to serious miscommunication.

There’s no tone, no visible emotion and no telling what a wink face truly means. Throw in the fact that you're texting with someone you've never met, and you have a recipe for creating, very easily, the "idea" of the person you think you're meeting for dinner in a few days.

And usually, in our minds, these people don’t have flaws.

Our anticipation and expectations build, and we put ourselves in this serendipitous, rom-com spirit that often leaves us disappointed.

I was totally addicted

I’m someone who loves meeting women in real life, and I have no problem or fears doing so.

As many people around my age agree, dating apps provide a twenty-four seven outlet to meet people you would otherwise likely never meet, and they provide a streamlined route to a first date. Make the connection, chat in the app, move over to texting and set the first date.

I figured, if technology could increase the range of my dating pool, then God bless technology.

The options for new dating apps seem to grow each week. There’s the original juggernaut, Tinder. There’s JSwipe aka Tinder for Jews, Hinge aka not as creepy as Tinder, Glimpse aka Tinder for Instagram, Happn aka Tinder for people within 5 feet of you and Loveflutter aka the sophisticated Tinder. There are plenty more too. When you search “dating apps” in the Apple Apps Store you yield 3,077 results. I’m not the only one obsessed. 

Opening one of these apps, it quickly becomes clear Las Vegas inspired the designers.

The sounds, the celebration when swiping “yes,” the pop up icons and fanfare after connecting with someone each create the emotional attachment of trying to get that next match.

Swiping “no” comes with the opposite attention: you failed, you're not worthy, this person doesn't like you. The only way one can get out of that shame spiral is to keep swiping “yes” until successfully matching with someone else.

I would wake up and look at Tinder. I would go to bed and look at Tinder.

I became addicted to the game.

I woke up and looked at the apps. Before I went to sleep, I swiped. Walking on the street I browsed.

A free moment at work and I grabbed my phone (sorry, boss.)

It became so bad I actually developed a pain in my right thumb; what I call “carpal-tinder syndrome.”

I found myself relying solely on dating apps to connect with someone. I started thinking, “With enough apps and a little bit of time, I could potentially have a date every night of the week if I wanted!” That seems way more enticing than going out with friends and hoping to connect with at least one stranger. The odds were in my favor when I used my arsenal of dating apps.

Cold turkey and not looking back

I quickly lost sight of the purpose of dating apps which was to increase the possibilities of finding someone who I could forge a serious connection with and give me a reason to never look at Tinder again. 

There's the catch: You'll never find anything meaningful from a dating app if you aren't looking for anything more meaningful than a date. 

It’s been a month since I went cold turkey, and not once have I had the urge to swipe right.

Just because we have technology to find connections for us doesn't mean there aren't any in the real world waiting for us. My parents met on a plane. My mother missed her original flight, gets on the next flight, sits next to my father and 29 years later, here I am today. 

Since going cold turkey, I’ve been on a few dates with women I’ve met in the real world. Coincidence or not, these dates have been more fun and exciting than meeting up with someone I was paired with digitally.

We forget, and I know I forgot, that meeting someone in person and mutually deciding to see each other again already means a connection worth exploring has been established. We find a spark that interests us, and the spark is real.

Not one that is manufactured by swiping right.

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NOW WATCH: How to use math to find the ideal spouse

One of the reasons the world's wealthy love investing in New York City real estate is because of the anonymity.

Thanks to secretive limited liability companies (LLCs) and trusts, it is complicated to know exactly who lives where.

The New York Times ran an in-depth investigation into the influx of foreign wealth into New York's real-estate market. The series focused on Columbus Circle's Time Warner Center, a tall luxury building with 192 condos, nearly 66% of which are owned by secretive entities.

Sifting through more than 200 apartment records, Times reporters identified some of the most notorious people to purchase condos in Time Warner Center. 

Learn more about them.

Andrey Vavilov bought a $37.5 million condo in Time Warner Center in 2009. The former Russian senator and businessman has been tied to a series of crooked deals, including government kickbacks, and accused of masterminding a "media blitz … involving a longtime adversary" and starting programs that accrued him (and his friends) a massive amount of wealth during the foundering first years of the Russian Federation, according to The Times.

Jho Low bought a penthouse formerly owned by Beyoncé and Jay Z for $30.55 million (in cash) at the Time Warner Center. He is well known in the Hollywood and New York nightlife scenes and is close to the nephew of Malaysia's prime minister — a politician who has long dodged claims of corruption.

Where Low gets his funds is a mystery, but Gawker once called him a "big-spending party boy."

Kabul Chawla is the likely owner a $19.4 million, 4,050-square-foot condo with five bedrooms in the Time Warner Center, according to The Times. A New Delhi developer, Chawla is accused of pre-selling homes to residents and failing to finish them. Of the homes his company does finish, many are allegedly shoddily done.

José Murat Casab owns two condos that he bought for $5.44 million in the Time Warner Center through the shell company Nivea Management, according to The Times. He is the former governor of Oaxaca and a well-connected, controversial Mexican politician who is rumored to have staged an assassination attempt on his own life to gain public favor. 

Vitaly Malkin reportedly owns a $15.65 million condo in the Time Warner Center through an LLC. He is a Russian-Israeli businessman and politician who was denied entry into Canada by the Canadian government amid accusations of money laundering and international arms deals (accusations his lawyer vehemently denies).

Dimitrios Contominas owned a condo on the 74th floor of the Time Warner Center until he sold it for $21.4 million 2014. He is the owner of one of Greece's biggest TV stations and is a well-known businessman who was arrested on fraud and corruption charges last year.

Wang Wenliang’s shell company Columbus Skyline LLC owns three condos in Time Warner Center. The Chinese businessman and contractor owns a construction company that was accused of "housing workers in New Jersey in hazardous, unsanitary conditions," according to Times reporters.

Alexander Varshavsky paid cash for a condo in the Time Warner Center. Varshavsky is now a US citizen and owns car dealerships in Russia. He was "charged with failing to report the existence of a foreign bank account," according to The Times, and was surveilled for a time by federal agents. 

Anil Agarwal owns not one but two condos in Time Warner Center through the shell company Amanita Corporation. He is an Indian business magnate who has been fined for dumping chemical waste, poisoning nearby communities as well as the environment in both India and Zambia. 

Former ambassador to the US Prince Bandar bin Sultan and his wife (and daughter of a former Saudi king) Princess Haifa bint Faisal were also tied to a Time Warner Center unit. Princess Haifa was accused in certain press outlets of funding the 9/11 hijackers, though no evidence was found by the United States Commission that linked back to her.

James Nicholson owned an $8.5 million Time Warner condo until it was frozen by law enforcement. He was charged with stealing more than $100 million from investors in one of the worst Ponzi Schemes in American history. He is now in jail.

Pablo Ardila bought a $4 million condo in Time Warner Center back in 2004. According to The Times, the former Colombian official sold it after being arrested for "enriching himself illicitly." He was released in Colombia without being convicted. 

Stewart Ford bought a $6 million condo in the building before eventually transferring it to a shell company, according to the Times report. His firm was under investigation for fraud at the time and was "at the center of one of the biggest financial collapses in Britain with an estimated 30,000 victims," the reporters wrote. 

Read the full, 8,000-word New York Times investigation here. 

Click here for a roundup of the New York Times profiles on shady foreign investors.

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

The "Code Black" HD-camera drone is pretty much a drone-meets-GoPro: it captures video footage mid-flight.

So not only will you fly around a drone, but you'll get some cool video out of it, too.

The palm-sized drone has a 6-axis control system for an extremely stable flight and can flip in four directions (left, right, forward, and backward.)

You can set this drone to both beginner and expert modes, depending on your experience with drones.

And if you pre-order this drone before Thursday, you'll get an additional $10 off — down to $89. After Thursday, it's up to $99 again.

So, pre-order the limited-edition "Code Black" HD-Camera drone:$199$89 until Thursday

Looking for more? Check out the best of the best Insider Picks

Another great deal: TANK military-grade charging power bank

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

We already explained why the perception that the WWE is  "fake" is very misguided. It's an elaborate theatrical production that incorporates the talents of hundreds of skilled performers, producers and technicians. And there's much more to the product than meets the eye.

In the last few years, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has relaxed his stance on maintaining "kayfabe," or the illusion that what happens in the ring is, in fact, "real." Former WWE Superstars like Steve Austin and Chris Jericho (both still on the WWE payroll) host popular podcasts where they dissect the behind-the-scenes aspects of the business.

If you pay attention, you'll pick up a unique style of lingo that comprises many conversations between people who actually work or have worked for WWE. Here are 13 terms that will enlighten you about the inner-workings behind what you see on the screen.

Produced by Graham Flanagan 

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Wearing high heels every day can suck. But we have good news: according to Paul Greenberg, a board-certified podiatric surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital and Belvedere Podiatry Group, "It's a myth that high heels are bad for your feet."

Dr. Greenberg diagnoses and treats a range of foot problems, and the majority of his clients are working professional women. So when it comes to high heels, Greenberg is a realist.

"We’re not going to tell everybody, 'You need to wear a hiking boot or an athletic shoe to work,'" he said. "A corporate executive is not going to dress that way in New York City."

Instead, Greenberg laid out some simple tips to make wearing high heels a better experience. 

1. Aim for a 1-2 inch heel.

Dr. Greenberg said there are a number of foot conditions that can actually be helped by wearing high heels – in fact, he always recommends heels over flats.

"When somebody uses a completely flat shoe, the foot collapses down, the arch collapses down, you stretch the muscles, the tendons, the ligaments, and they develop symptoms," he said. "So I tell them an ideal shoe is an inch to an inch-and-a-half heel – even a two inch heel is fine."

(While any heel is better than a ballet flat, Dr. Greenberg said, finding the right height is ultimately a matter of preference; it's okay to wear 3 or 4 inch heels if you do it regularly and you're comfortable with it.)

2. Pick shoes with stronger soles.

Next time you're considering a new shoe purchase, pay attention to sole firmness under the ball of the foot. The more rigid the sole is, the better.

Dr. Greenberg says you want the whole sole to function as a single unit. Otherwise, he said, "for a very, very flexible sole, when they bend, they’re gonna be putting a lot of stress underneath the metatarsal region, and that can certainly create certain problems."

3. Platforms are a-okay.

One way of ensuring you have firm, rigid sole under the toes is to go for a platform shoe. 

"I like a shoe with a platform because it does give stability," Dr. Greenberg said.

4. Pointy is okay, too.

"It is a cliche, but if the shoe fits, wear it," said Dr. Greenberg. Shoe pointiness is less important from a biomechanical standpoint than sole firmness and general comfort.

5. If you really need to break them in, then maybe skip them.

Dr. Greenberg noted that most shoes will continue to break in over time, but that isn't something you should rely on when making your initial purchase.

"They should be comfortable from the start," he said.

6. Remember to stretch out your calf muscles.

There are of course problems that can arise from constantly wearing high heels – namely, your calf muscles can contract over time. But Greenberg said this is only common among elderly women who've worn heels regularly for decades.

And you can prevent it.

"If I know somebody's going to be living in a high heel shoe most of the time, we usually encourage stretching exercises," Dr. Greenberg said.

The number one exercise he recommends is a calf stretch, like a basic running stretch. So remember to do those after a long day at the office.

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NOW WATCH: 5 Things Women Do Wrong When Asking For A Raise

Why did Apple think different? 

Because, Steve Jobs said while introducing the iPad, the Mac maker was never just a tech company. 

"The reason that Apple is able to create products like the iPad is because we've always tried to be at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts," he said.

Jobs' lifelong interest in the humanities gave Apple a human touch.

By combining tech and the liberal arts, Jobs said that Apple was able to "to make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view, but also have them be intuitive, easy-to-use, fun-to-use, so that they really fit the users." 

Jobs arrived at that perspective through a lifetime of reading, as reviewed in Walter Isaacson's biography and other places. We've put together a list of the books that most affected him. 

'King Lear' by William Shakespeare

Jobs really began his literary bent in the last two years of high school. 

"I started to listen to music a whole lot," he tells Isaacson, "and I started to read more outside of just science and technology — Shakespeare, Plato. I loved 'King Lear.'" 

The tragedy may have provided a cautionary tale to a young Jobs, since it's the story of an aged monarch going crazy trying to divide up his kingdom. 

"'King Lear' offers a vivid depiction of what can go wrong if you lose your grip on your empire, a story surely fascinating to any aspiring CEO," says Daniel Smith, author of "How to Think Like Steve Jobs." 

Buy it here >>

'Moby Dick' by Herman Melville

Another epic story colored Jobs' outlook in his adolescence: "Moby Dick," the deeply American novel by Herman Melville. 

Isaacson draws a connection between Captain Ahab, who's one of the most driven and willful characters in literature, and Jobs. 

Ahab, like Jobs, did lots of his learning from direct experience, rather than relying on institutions. 

"I prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to whaling," the captain writes early in the story, "for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard."

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'The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas' by Dylan Thomas

But the intellectual flowering that Jobs had in late high school wasn't confined to hard-charging megalomaniacs — he also discovered a love for verse, particularly Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. 

"How To Think Like Steve Jobs" author Daniel Smith says that Thomas' poems "drew him in with its striking new forms and unerringly popular touch."

"Do not go gentle" became a reported favorite:  

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

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