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40 courses every golfer should play in their lifetime

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Highlands Links Golf Course

Whether they're looking for lush hilly terrain in Ireland or stunning oceanside courses in California, golfers travel the world to play at elite courses.

Some of these golf courses are famous for their rich history, while others offer breathtaking views and unique locations.

From Scotland's historic Muirfield to the Dominican Republic's challenging Teeth of the Dog, here are 40 golf courses every golfer should play in his or her lifetime.

An earlier version of this post was written by Anmargaret Warner.

Located on the west coast of Ireland, The Old Course at Ballybunion is naturally beautiful with grassy dunes set alongside the ocean. Nearly every hole here is excellent.

Learn more about the Ballybunion Golf Club >



The stunning Ocean course at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, offers incredible views of the Atlantic Ocean at every hole. It has hosted the 1991 Ryder Cup and the 2012 PGA U.S. Championship.

Learn more about golf at Kiawah Island >



The West course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Black Rock is regarded as the finest in Australia. Alister MacKenzie designed it on a huge scale, and the greens are some of the fastest in the world.

Learn more about the Royal Melbourne Golf Club >



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Business Insider is hiring a digital culture reporter!

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business insider newsroom

Business Insider is hiring a digital culture reporter to focus on stories happening on the internet.

If you're addicted to Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit, your phone is filled with apps like Snapchat and Yik Yak, and your friends are always asking you what's trending, you might be the perfect candidate.

Does this sound like you?

You have:

—Excellent writing skills.

—An obsession with viral content. (You thought the "Blue and Black/White and Gold Dress" phenomenon was amazing, not something to scoff at.)

—A passion for social-media platforms and how people use them.

—Familiarity with underground internet communities, such as the Deep Web, and a curiosity to dig for trends and stories.

While this position has regular office hours, the ideal candidate lives and breathes social media and always has an eye out for the next story.

APPLY HERE with your résumé and cover letter explaining in no more than two paragraphs why this role is perfect for you. 

The position is full-time in our New York City headquarters. Business Insider offers competitive compensation packages complete with benefits.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 6 Crazy Things Revealed In HBO's Explosive New Scientology Documentary 'Going Clear'








11 McDonald's menu items that were huge failures

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mcafrika

McDonald's is the classic American fast food chain.

But the business has had a few misses over the years. 

Look no further than the McAfrika, which was essentially a burger on a pita. The item was released during massive famines in Africa and was pulled after public outcry. 

There are also items that are bizarre, out of place, or just plain gross. 

Kim Bhasin contributed to this story.

Hula Burger

The Hula Burger replaced a meat patty with a grilled pineapple slice. It was meant for Catholics who didn't eat meat on Fridays. But the Filet-o-Fish was much more popular, and the Hula burger died. 



McPizza

McDonald's developed new pizza items in the late 1980s but the items took longer to make than the staple items. Consumers would also rather go to McDonald's for burgers and fries. 



McSpaghetti

McDonald's tried offering Italian food. In addition to the McSpaghetti, there was lasagna and fettuccine alfredo. The items failed in the U.S. but are still available in some international markets. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






Airports in America are awful compared to the rest of the world

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airport

Landing at an American airport is a bit like time-traveling into the past. Outdated design, outdated technology, and outdated regulations are crippling many U.S. air hubs.

Aviation was born in the U.S., and very quickly, American airplanes and American-trained pilots formed the backbone of global aviation. North America remains the world’s largest aviation market today, yet U.S. air transport is no longer the envy of other nations.

America ranks a mediocre number 30 in the world for quality of air infrastructure, as measured by a survey of executives—and 127 in ticket taxes and airport charges (meaning they’re too high). The country ranks an even lower (131) in carbon dioxide emissions per capita.

There are greater worries ahead: the American Society of Civil Engineers argues that a failure to invest in aviation could represent an estimated cumulative loss of $313 billion by 2020—translating into 350,000 fewer jobs—and a whopping $1.52 trillion by 2040.

The U.S. system is characterized by crowded skies; price competition among airlines and resulting low profitability; competition among airports, leading to congestion in some places and wasted capacity in others; outdated ground facilities; a dearth of intermodal links such as air-to-train connections; high fuel utilization and air pollution; slow technological uptake; and dependence on outdated intergovernmental agreements for access to foreign markets.

The U.S. is falling short and falling behind. That’s true even on the cargo side: Hong Kong has already replaced Memphis as the world’s number one air cargo hub. Today, international travelers represent 11 percent of total U.S. airline passengers.

They contribute more than $116 billion in direct spending and another billion in indirect spending annually. For all of that, they are being underserved: the World Economic forum ranks the U.S. 121st out of 180 countries in terms of the burden of its visa requirements.

move coverThere are many major airports in the United States, but few are considered good by today’s global standards. In a 2013 survey of the world’s best airports, 12 million passengers ranked more than 400 airports across 39 categories—and no American airport was even in the top 25.

Only four U.S. airports made it into the top 50. Nations in the Middle East and East Asia are building new, efficient, intermodal, technology-enhanced airports, while the U.S. lags behind on basics like core infrastructure. In some U.S. airports, there is no single communication network everyone can use; an emergencies can overload cellphone systems.

Development of airports has been left to cities and regions. Local authorities are often focused on the land rather than landing – the value of retail sales or real-estate near airport facilities, rather than potential throughput, intermodal efficiency, or actual passenger mobility.

As a result, one of the biggest problems with U.S. airports now is reaching them: if you’ve taken a train directly to an airport, it was probably in another country. Our largest cities (New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago) have no means of direct mass-transit from their airports to the population cores, although Atlanta Hartsfield airport is an exception in its light rail connections.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, has brand new high-speed rail that runs every four minutes, complete with fully integrated baggage check-in at their Central railway station downtown.

Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok airportWhile the aviation industry has figured out how to lift millions of pounds of aluminum, fuel, cargo, and passengers 35,000 feet into the air—a technological feat in and of itself—its technology is in desperate need of modernization. Ticket agents are often part-time coders, untangling software written in the early 1960s. Cockpit controls look like museum installations when compared to the iPads passengers are using.

Information empowers. Empowered pilots in empowered aircraft can empower passengers—or at least enlighten them. Real-time decision-making can reduce costs and minimize delays. The FAA estimates, for instance, that two-thirds of weather delays are avoidable.

Superior weather information would make it possible to predict airspace and route availability, as well as delays, diversions, and tarmac risk. With greater forecast accuracy for pilots, control towers, and operations centers, airlines could carry less contingency fuel, and flight planners could better anticipate ground holds, deicing, and capacity changes.

The costs of fuel-burn while taxiing amount to $25 per minute; diversions cost about $15,000 to $100,000 per aircraft; and an FAA tarmac delay penalty runs to about $27,500 per passenger. These numbers can add up to millions of dollars on a full flight

Technological innovations provide new hope for U.S. aviation. The Weather Company is growing a service that helps airlines use weather data to change travel paths to avoid turbulence, delivering a smoother, safer, faster, and more efficient travel experience.

The FAA is allowing trial use of iPads to in the cockpit. Airlines are exploring glide-path landing to reduce fuel use and noise during descents. Yet, the barrier to progress is often the burdensome and bureaucratic process of regulatory approval. Modernized oversight is needed to speed up adoption of newer and better technologies.

denver international airportIndustry associations have called for a national strategy to make America’s air transport system better for everyone who uses it. Imagine flying with pilots empowered by technology to make better decisions for passengers. Imagine next-generation air traffic control generating quintuple wins: greater safety, lower costs, fewer delays, lower carbon emissions, and seamless connections.

America’s air traffic control entity should be made independent—free from the short-term Congressional budget cycle—and the FAA and Department of Transportation should collaborate on moving promising technology forward faster.

Being able to fly with fewer delays won’t be enough if there are also major delays in getting to and from airports with shabby facilities. American institutions operate in silos too often, while airlines fly above them all. If the American public demands an upgraded national air strategy, it can be done.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s latest book is MOVE: Putting America’s Infrastructure Back in the Lead. She is a professor at Harvard Business School.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best airports in Asia

Join the conversation about this story »








6 scientifically proven features men find attractive in women

Inside the 'Be Marlboro' parties Philip Morris throws for teenagers — but doesn't want you to know about

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thai girls be marlboro

Smoking is deadly, but Philip Morris International and Marlboro still want to push its tobacco products onto trendy and attractive teenagers around the world.

The company does so by throwing "Be Marlboro" parties in over 60 countries to promote the brand using sex, fun, and risk-taking, a spokesperson for the non-profit Tobacco-Free Kids tells us.

The parties are not held in the United States.

You can sign a petition to stop Marlboro, and these parties, here.

Smoking is bad for you. This is not news. But tobacco companies like Philip Morris International and its brands like Marlboro still have to find ways to sell to younger markets, especially outside the US where advertising and smoking laws are less stringent.



The answer? "Be Marlboro" parties held in over 60 countries, and marketed specifically to teenagers.



"Be Marlboro" parties are elaborate events aimed at enticing youth to smoke Marlboro cigarettes.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






Inside the beautiful apartment of an executive at one of New York City's hottest startups

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rebekah rombom apartment

Rebekah Rombom, VP of business development at coding education startup The Flatiron School, never saw the need to fully decorate her tiny apartment on New York City's Upper West Side.

"I thought it was out of reach and not really worth it in a rental in New York City," she told Business Insider. "But I was running into the problem of not having a well-defined work space in my home." 

The Flatiron School is a highly selective, full-time program that teaches people how to code and eventually get jobs as engineers.

Rombom met Will Nathan, cofounder of interior design startup Homepolish, when he turned to the Flatiron School to recruit developers. She decided to purchase 10 hours of design time with Homepolish designer Michele Bitter

The result is a colorful, efficiently organized apartment that has made it easier for Rombom to work on her latest Flatiron School projects from home.

One of the main goals Rombom and Bitter had was to define the tiny studio apartment into separate sleeping, working, and living spaces.



Installing a tall bookshelf was one way to accomplish this without blocking too much sunlight.



Growing a startup means working crazy hours, so having an efficient desk space was extremely important. "When all is said and done, having a place that’s cohesive and feels like it’s your own really makes a difference in your productivity," Rombom said.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






SUMMER CHEAT SHEET: How to get from New York City to the Hamptons on every budget

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Summer in NYC means one thing: getting out of town. For most, that means going "out east" to the Hamptons, where the air is cooler, the dress is tonier, and the ritzy parties never stop.  

As once-quiet hamlets like Montauk have become hotspots, the droves of Manhattanites making the Friday afternoon pilgrimage has multiplied, creating insane levels of gridlock on the unavoidable, two-lane Montauk Highway. In truth, the only drag about going to the Hamptons is actually going to the Hamptons.

With Memorial Day weekend — the biggest travel weekend of the entire Hamptons season — upon us, this NYC to East End cheat sheet will help you decide which mode of transit is best for you. 

Hamptons Travel Chart

 

SEE ALSO:  Proposed Hamptons helicopter restrictions 'will be like 'Apocalypse Now' for the summer crowd

SEE ALSO: There's No Better Way To Get To The Hamptons Than In A Seaplane

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Take a fly-over tour of the $110 million Hamptons mansion that's at the center of a huge lawsuit









These powerful photos depict the reality of a generation of 'lost boys'

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LC 14

After three years in New York City's Pratt Institute, photographer Liz Calvi realized she couldn't afford her final semesters.

Calvi was lucky enough that her parents let her move back in with them at home in Hartford, Connecticut, and attend a local art school to finish her education without having to pay the price of room and board. She soon realized she wasn't the only one back in town.

"I noticed quite a few kids had come back home," she remembers. "This group of boys stuck around the longest, which is how I got the idea for lost boys instead of both genders." 

In her photo series "Lost Boys," the name of which was inspired by the use of "Peter Pan generation" to describe a generation that some believe refuses or postpones adulthood, Calvi mixes portraits of Hartford's 18- to 26-year-old "lost boys" with scenes from her hometown to illustrate the effects of a struggling economy on her peers. 

Here, she has allowed us to republish an excerpt of her project. To see the complete series, visit her website. 

In 2013, about a year after graduating, Calvi started her project. She was inspired in part by her younger brother Nick, pictured here as a junior in high school. "Being around him and watching him grow up, especially over the past two years, influenced me to start looking at other boys as well," Calvi says.



Calvi started with her "good group of guy friends" but eventually branched out to look for more subjects in town. Nolan, pictured here, is currently studying graphics in college, and he lives with his parents for the summer.



The project's subjects are all at home for different reasons. Some have graduated college, hold temporary jobs, are paying student loans, thinking about grad school, or are in school and saving on room and board. Kevin was homeschooled by his grandparents and is studying to be a firefighter instead of attending college.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






The US is about to become a chess powerhouse, thanks to this 22-year-old

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Caruana Tata Steel

Chess in the United States is enjoying a resurgence.

It's the most exciting time for the ancient game since Bobby Fischer came back from Iceland in 1972, carrying the title of World Chess Champion.

But it just got a whole lot more exciting. The number three ranked player in the world, Fabiano Caruana, has expressed his intention to change from playing for the Italian Chess Federation to the US Chess Federation (USCF). 

"I'm absolutely thrilled to be representing the United States again," Caruana said in a statement on Tuesday. "I'd like to thank everybody who has made this possible, and I look forward to this exciting new partnership. In addition, I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and gratitude for the support given to me over the past ten years by the Italian Chess Federation. I wish them all the best for the future."

Caruana's move means that the US will now have three players in the world's top ten.

"This is historic," said Jean Hoffman, Executive Director of the USCF, in an interview with Business Insider.

That it is! Caruana will join Hikaru Nakamura, world number 4 and the current US Chess Champion; and Wesley So, world number 7, who recently switched his federation to the US from the Philippines. The US has never had three players in the modern era's top ten.

Hikaru Nakamura

Caruana was born the US, but the Super Grandmaster has been competing for Italy since before he became a teenager. The former chess prodigy crushed the field last year at a major invitational tournament in St. Louis and is frequently discussed as a future challenger to the reigning World Chess Champion and world number 1, Norway's Magnus Carlsen. (India's Vishy Anand, runner-up in last year's World Championship match, is number 2).

Caruana's playing strength has surged in the past two years. Carlsen has admitted that among the field of younger players closing in on his title, Caruana is "the guy." At this point, it's unclear whether Caruaua will qualify for the Candidates Tournament that selects the challenger for the World Championship title. But given his rating – 2803, among the highest ever achieved – he stands a good chance.

Magnus juice

Changing federations isn't frictionless, nor is it cheap. It will cost $61,000 for Caruana to play again for the US, as the New York Times' Dylan Loeb McClain noted. There's ample speculation that the bill is being picked up by Rex Sinquefield, a wealthy chess benefactor who established the Chess Club & Scholastic Center of St. Louis, a veritable chess Mecca in the US – and the host of the Sinquefield Cup, where last year Caruana put on a dominating performance that had everyone comparing him to Fischer and yearning for the young man to return to the nation of his birth.

Caruana's announcement has captivated the US chess scene, but according to Hoffman, the switch isn't quite a done deal.

"A lot depends on Italian Federation," she said. "This is definitely a unique case, and I don’t know what to expect."

If Caruana's change does happen, however, he's planning to spend time in St. Louis, enhancing the city's newfound reputation as the center of chess in the US and, increasingly, the world. The USCF, based in Nashville, relocated some of its operations to St. Louis earlier this year, to be closer to the action. This year's Sinquefield Cup will have new status as one of three elite invitational tournaments, called the Grand Chess Tour, with a total prize money purse of $1 million.

Wesley So

Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov is involved – and seen quite often in St. Louis these days. Nakamura lives in St. Louis. The Chess Club & Scholastic Center is now the home of both the US Championship for men and women and has set a new standard for coverage of competitive chess events, with scintillating online commentary and analysis. With Sinquefield's support and the arrival of a new generation of players, chess is entering an ESPN age that has for decades eluded the game, long consider dull and cerebral.

Magnus Carlsen is the biggest draw. He's the Tiger Woods of professional woodpushers, a youthful, charismatic champion taking chess to heights it hasn't witnessed since the "Fischer Boom" of the 1970s.

"I think he’s done wonderful things for the game," Hoffman said. "He's part of a new generation of players, who are challenging traditional stereotypes and convincing us to finally treat chess players as the world-class athletes they are."

If there's a problem with the 24-year-old Carlsen's ascent, it's the World Champ has so far battled – twice – for the title only with Anand, 45, who has enjoyed a late-career renaissance (he claimed the WCC crown five times, between the Kasparov and Carlsen eras). The chess world is itching for him to have a more youthful rival. And – taking nothing away from Anand, who has proved himself capable of beating the best to get the Championship match – put up a more compelling fight. Carlsen's pair of WCC victories were captured over an Anand who at times didn't bring his best chess to the board. The assumption is that Caruana, with youth on his side, can do better.

And do better as an American, raising the prospect of the first US Champion since Fischer. 

The spotlight will now really be on Caruana. It's worth noting, of course, that both Nakamura and So have also been coming on. Again, due to the unusual (some would say "corrupt") manner in which FIDE, the world chess governing body, runs the qualifying process for the WCC, neither may make it to the Candidates Tournament. Fortunately, the Grand Chess Tour will feature both Caruana and Nakamura, along with Carlsen, in a field of ten top players, eight of whom have already been named. So, who won the inaugural "Millionaire Chess" tournament in las Vegas last year, could get in as a player-to-be-named-later or as a wildcard.

The bottom line is that American chess is now poised, for the first time ever, to become a true powerhouse. Caruana has finally put the game in this country over the top. 

SEE ALSO: The world's top chess players have just formed a new $1 million professional tour

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 6 scientifically proven features men find attractive in women








A 'Shark Tank' investor reveals how to really achieve work-life balance

This young couple was brought to tears after a makeup artist showed them what they would look like growing old together

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kristie tavis age makeovers

Young couples have no way of predicting what their partner will look like over the coming years.

That is unless, like two engaged twenty-somethings named Tavis and Kristie, they sign up to have themselves made over with stage makeup by YouTube channel Field Day.

 

They're getting married in a month, and were excited to see what they would look like at each major life stage.

“My mom thinks this is the coolest thing ever,” Kristie says in the video. “She was like, ‘But what a treat for us, because we will probably be gone when you’re that age and we’ll get to see what you will maybe look like. How cool!’ [It's a] neat way to think about it.”

Seated in front of a black backdrop, both Tavis and Kristie were made over by a team of makeup artists who transformed their hair and faces realistically to what they could look like in their 50s, 70s, and even their 90s.

50s unveiling kristie tavis age makeovers

The first reveal was their 50-year-old selves. Kristie’s hair was partially pulled back and she was given a few gray hairs plus wrinkles around her eyes.

“I hope you look like this,” Tavis told her. “You look fantastic!”

scared 50s kristie tavis age makeovers

“Yeah, I’m going to look just like my mother one day,” Kristie said of her own transformation. 

“Okay, so I need to start using sunscreen,” Tavis said when he saw his newly aged face in the mirror with its wrinkles and age spots. “That’s definitely it.”

kristie tavis age makeovers

Next up were their 70s transformations. Kristie in particular got choked up seeing Tavis. 

70s reveal kristie tavis age makeovers

“I can't help but think about what the potential last 50 years were,” Tavis explained to the camera about what it was like to see Kristie at 70 years old. “To see her look like this makes me just think of where we have gone to be next to each other looking like this. What would have happened in between.”

look like my grandma kristie tavis age makeovers

“We’ll have kids and grandkids and so many stories,” Kristie added. “It’s just a really kind of affecting thing to see someone who you’ve known — since you were, I don’t know, 19? — look [like they're] in their 70s and imagine what life would be like then." 

kristie tavis age makeovers

The final makeover was the couple in their 90s. The transformation was the most intense yet with a whole rubber face and neck makeup application, plus wigs and false eyebrows.

preparing 90s kristie tavis age makeovers

“You look fantastic, you don’t look a day over 75,” Tavis told Kristie upon seeing her.

90s reveal kristie tavis age makeovers

“Really? You do,” Kristie laughed.

looking at face kristie tavis age makeovers

“I don’t know, there’s some strange, comforting feeling seeing him this way,” Kristie told Field Day. “Especially being about to get married and embarking on all of that, I couldn’t be more sure that this is what I want.”

kristie tavis age makeovers

Here are the complete transformations back-to-back:

all together kristie tavis age makeovers

You can see more of Field Day's YouTube channel here.

kissing kristie tavis age makeovers

SEE ALSO: This is what happened when a woman asked 100 random guys on the street if they would sleep with her

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Love may last forever — but that 'being in love' feeling has an expiration date








5 wacky and fun 5K races for people who hate to run

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mudrun

It's time to run, jump, dance, and get dirty.

In case you didn't know, 5K races aren't always about running.

With different themes and obstacles, there's a whole subset of races that attract people of all ages, professions, and athletic abilities. 

A themed 5K fosters teamwork and a sense of community — particularly these five, which are springing up in cities near you throughout the rest of the year. 

Blacklight Run

Designated color blasters set up throughout the course spray UV neon glow powder that illuminates under the high-beam blacklights. Rest assured, the powder is non-toxic and 100% natural. Be sure to wear a white top to get the full effect.

The fun continues post-race at the Blacklight Run After Party, where you'll find more glow powder, LED gifts, and lots of dancing. It's a night to remember. 

Click here for race details and locations >



Electric Run

If you want to do a night race without being covered in neon glow powder, the Electric Run is for you. Depending on the race, you'll run through 4-6 themed Course Lands, which could include any of the following: Rainforest, Candy Lane, Under the Sea, Rainbow Road, Powerhouse Finish Line, 2015 Mystery Land.

Just like the Blacklight Run, the Electric Run throws a finish line celebration complete with bright lights, music, and dancing in the moonlight. 

Click here for race details and locations>



Dirty Girl Mud Run

Sorry, guys: No boys are allowed at this race, the world's largest women's only mud run, which is all about girl power and getting down and dirty. With a course that's full of muddy obstacles, you'll walk, run, jump, climb, and be empowered by the women around you.

Bright Pink, the national non-profit organization for the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer, partners with the race.  

Click here for race details and locations >



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






7 tips to avoid looking like a mess after a long flight

9 things I've found London does much better than New York

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Back in December, I moved to London to work in Business Insider's newly opened UK bureau after living in New York City for a year and a half.

I'm an Ohio native, so these are the two big cities that I know best. While I definitely miss some aspects of New York City life — like custom salads and liquid butter on popcorn— London just does some things better than the Big Apple.

Here's what I like better about life in London:

London Buses

Buses

London is known for its iconic, red double-decker buses, and for good reason. They might get a little rowdy at night, but they're mostly clean and comfortable and get you from point A to point B pretty easily. New York City buses tend to be more crowded, slow, and dingy. The biggest perk of the London buses is getting to sit up top and enjoy the view out of the big window in front. It's like taking a comfortable city tour for £1.50 ($2.37).

london tube

Subway

Speaking of public transportation, the London Underground is miles ahead of the New York City subway in terms of design and cleanliness. The stations are heated and look more modern than the subway stations in New York, and the trains themselves have padded seats instead of the hard plastic found on New York's subway trains. The downside, as you can see above, is that the tube's compact design makes it hard to squeeze onto some trains during rush hour.

zumbura indian food london

Indian food

There's no shortage of good Indian food in London. It's certainly possible to find Indian food in New York, but it's not as prevalent or typically as good. In London, you can find high-end Indian, quick lunch spots for delicious curry, and sit-down restaurants that are more mid-market. It's a nice departure from the Italian and Mexican food that's more common (and better) in New York.

flat white

Coffee

Many people in Britain scoff at the "drip" coffee that Americans drink, and stores have a bigger selection of espresso machines than regular coffee makers. If you ask for coffee at a cafe or lunch spot, the person behind the counter will often assume you mean some sort of espresso-and-milk drink rather than the kind of coffee that slow-drips into a pot.

Espresso drinks typically have a better flavor and texture than regular coffee, so this is a welcome change for me. But American troops who served overseas in World War II didn't seem to agree. They watered down espresso to make it taste more like the coffee they were used to, hence the name of the espresso-and-water drink we know as the "Americano."

Tourists in London

Architecture

New York has some great architecture, but London is older and has fewer skyscrapers and more intricately designed buildings. London is much more spread out than New York, and the winding brick and cobblestone streets in central and western London are incredibly charming.

London housing market

Real estate

I've found London's real-estate market much easier to navigate than New York's.

London apartments still cost a lot of money to rent, but the inventory is better and the apartments are bigger. Most of them also come fully furnished, and the leases are much more flexible. Six-month leases are common here, but in New York nearly every landlord wants to lock you in to a full-year lease.

The Grenadier pub London

Bars

The pubs I've wandered into in London are, on average, far better than your average New York bar. They're incredibly cozy and charming. From the flower boxes that adorn the outside of pubs to the bookshelves and armchairs inside them, London pubs feel more like a living room than a dive.

London Shoreditch Brick Lane Market

Markets

New York has plenty of farmers markets, especially in spring and summer. However, London markets are a more regular installation in many neighborhoods across the city, and they offer a wide variety of goods, produce, and prepared foods.

There's the Columbia Road Flower Market for greenery and flowers, Borough Market for freshly prepared food and local ingredients, and Brick Lane Market for fashion. Going to a market is a regular weekend activity for many people in London.

Expat London

TV News

Television news programs aren't nearly as hyperlocal as they are in the US. I hear a lot more international news on Sky, ITV, and BBC than I did on most news channels back in the US. Some of that probably has to do with the fact that the UK isn't nearly as big and spread out as the US, but I've noticed that in general British people seem to be more interested than Americans in what's going on abroad.

SEE ALSO: 18 Things That Shocked Me When I Moved From New York To London

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 10 fashion mistakes men make over and over at the office









Tech billionaires are paying hundreds of millions for one thing everyone else takes for granted

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zuckerberg chan marriedIn October 2014, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg paid more than $100 million for 750 acres of secluded land on the North Shore of Kauai. 

The purchase included two separate parcels: the Kahu'aina Plantation, a 357-acre former sugarcane plantation, and Pila'a Beach, a 393-acre property with bright white sand.

The property is large enough for a set of villas or even a resort. But Zuckerberg apparently plans to only build one home: an ultra-private island hideaway for himself and his inner circle. 

"When the whole thing is said and done, he might be approaching $200 million on total purchase price," Steve Hunt, a tax manager for Kauai County, said to the Pacific Business News. "This is someone who can afford to buy whatever he wants to buy and he’ll pay the price he needs to get, and privacy is a bigger issue to him than anything else."

zuckerberg hawaii

Zuckerberg's desire to sequester his family is understandable, given Silicon Valley's generally stifling atmosphere, and, more specifically, a recent lawsuit involving his home in Palo Alto.

The suit, filed by developer Mircea Voskerician in May 2014, centers around Zuckerberg's 2013 purchase of four houses adjacent to his home in Palo Alto's Crescent Park neighborhood. 

At the time, it seemed like an odd splurge, and many wondered if Zuckerberg was trying to assemble a compound of sorts.

But there was a reason behind the purchase. Voskerician had reportedly told Zuckerberg that he planned to build a large, 9,600-square-foot house on one of the lots behind his property. The home, Voskerician allegedly said, would have a direct view into the master bedroom shared by Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan. 

Mark ZuckerbergSo Voskerician made Zuckerberg a deal: He would sell Zuckerberg the entire property at a discount if the Facebook billionaire would introduce the developer to his important Silicon Valley contacts. 

Zuckerberg paid Voskerician $1.7 million for the rights to the property, and then bought the lot from its owners for $4.8 million, according to county records.

But Voskerician says his interest in the property was worth far more than $1.7 million, and that he gave Zuckerberg a discount because of the business his referrals would potentially bring in.

Apparently that never happened, hence the lawsuit.

Zuckerberg's lawyers have called Voskerician's tactics "extortive" and say that he is "going out of his way to embarrass Mr. Zuckerberg and pressure those around him at every turn."

"It’s stuff like this that makes me so sad and angry," Chan wrote in an email unearthed in the lawsuit.

Divesh Makan, Zuckerberg's financial adviser, later bought the three other homes around Zuckerberg's house, further guaranteeing his privacy. The homes were purchased for $10.5 million, $14 million, and $14.5 million, according to county records.

zuckerberg house

According to Arthur Sharif, a realtor who specializes in luxury real estate in Silicon Valley, it's not all that uncommon to see wealthy people scooping up multiple lots to assemble a bubble of isolation around their homes.

"That happens all the time," Sharif told Business Insider. "Some people will say to us, 'I don’t care what’s on the market. Just go knock on the neighbor's door, say I like the house, and I’ll pay for the inconvenience of moving.'"

In fact, Sharif said, selling a home just to assemble it as part of larger property is actually somewhat easier than your typical home sale. A home that's meant to serve as a buffer doesn't require as much inspection and maintenance. 

The opportunity can even be attractive to people who are being bought out by wealthier neighbors. 

"Some people feel like they’ve won the lottery if that happens to them. Usually the house sells for over market value, and maybe they’d want to move in a few years anyway," Sharif said. "If someone is trying to do an assemblage, they don’t even need to see the house. They just need the property."

mcdonalds mark zuckerberg priscilla chan honeymoonAcquiring extreme wealth means being able to provide for yourself, but family members usually reap the benefits, too. 

"For people like Mark Zuckerberg, maybe privacy is necessary, but that's not always the main reason for buying the home next door," realtor Eric Boyenga said. "Some do it to have family members close by, maybe so that the in-laws can watch the kids."

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has deployed similar tactics. In October 2013, she paid a reported $11.2 million for the Roller & Hapgood & Tinney funeral home, located just a few doors down from her home in Palo Alto.

Though it's still unclear what exactly Mayer plans to do with the property, the mortuary proved to be the perfect location for her annual Halloween party last year. The former funeral parlor was transformed into a haunted house for the day, much to the chagrin of a neighbor who complained on a local web site.

funeral home marissa mayer

Elon Musk has done a similar thing in Los Angeles. In November 2013, he paid $6.75 million for a teardown across the street from his $17 million Bel-Air mansion.  

Still, it's not as if Mayer and Musk are negotiating these kinds of deals themselves.

Sharif says that it's very common to have his open houses attended by what he calls a "scout," someone hired by a wealthy individual for the sole purpose of scoping out potential real-estate investments. Homes are often bought and sold under LLCs linked to scouts or business managers. 

"This is from the very wealthiest people, like [Microsoft cofounder] Paul Allen, all the way down the spectrum. It's because they don't want people to know what they're buying," Sharif said. "That’s part of how we can tell it’s someone notable who's interested in the property."

Renovating homes 

Many wealthy executives buying luxury real estate have a very clear picture of what they want in a home, from custom-built home-automation systems to environmentally conscious sprinklers and pools. 

Peninsula Custom Homes is a construction firm that specializes in building custom luxury homes in the Bay Area. 

"These clients are very used to dreaming things up and saying, 'That’s how I want it,'" Bryan Murphy, president of Peninsula Custom Homes, said to Business Insider. "For architects, we have to more creative to accomplish what they want. There’s no manual for this."

peninsula custom homes

As far as the company's clientele, Murphy said the company often builds homes for tech executives, many of whom work in biotech, as well as the VCs who fund startups and the bankers who finance the deals.

"Most clients have a Tesla," he said.

Energy efficiency is one thing that PCH is consistently asked to consider by clients. As California suffers through a crippling drought, many clients ask what they can do to improve their irrigation systems.

He couldn't speak more specifically than that, however, which is consistent across the industry. Most people working for the wealthiest in the tech community are asked to sign nondisclosure agreements that bar them from discussing the details of their employment. 

This includes everyone who might be involved with the remodeling of a home: architects, painters, carpenters, gardeners, and cleaners, just to name a few. 

"Privacy has definitely been more of a focus recently, especially with the easy access to information that comes with social media," Murphy said. "Some tech executives are having their own technology used against them in that way."

In addition to his homes in Palo Alto and Kauai, Zuckerberg also has a house in San Francisco.

It's currently undergoing an extensive renovation, including $65,000 worth of renovation work on the kitchen and bathrooms, $750,000 for an addition to the rear and side of the house, and $25,000 to make the fourth floor "habitable." There's an additional $720,000 for an office, media room, half bathroom, mudroom, laundry room, wine room, and wet bar, in addition to a new second-floor half bathroom and remodel of the second, third, and fourth floors.

Each of the construction workers has signed an NDA, according to the New York Times.

zuckerberg house

Parking in Zuckerberg's San Francisco neighborhood is notoriously difficult. To make sure construction workers would have somewhere to park in the morning — and, presumably, to prevent people from snooping around — the Facebook billionaire allegedly hired pairs of people to sit in cars parked near the house at night.

"This is nothing short of a fortress," one disgruntled neighbor told The San Francisco Chronicle in September. 

Managing the properties

Tech billionaires who've accumulated a number of properties will most likely need help managing it. Family offices — companies that help the wealthy manage their money — have become big, secretive businesses.

Google cofounder Sergey Brin has employed as many as 47 people through Bayshore Global Management, a private company that manages his real-estate investments and personal affairs. 

Current and former Bayshore employees contacted by Business Insider declined to comment on their work. 

But a scan of LinkedIn profiles show that Bayshore employs a former Navy SEAL, an ex-Secret Service agent, and a former SWAT team leader for his security detail. 

Brin has a home in New York City's West Village, in addition to the family's Los Altos Hills residence. Each house has a staff managed by Bayshore, which was named for the part of Mountain View, California, where Google is based. He also employs property managers, domestic staff, and a personal shopper.

SEE ALSO: How to buy a private island — even if you're not a tech billionaire

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I'm obsessed with a music streaming service millions of people probably don't know they can use for free

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pretty girl, music, dancing, headphones, gov ball, Governors Ball 2012, Randall's Island, NYC, New York City, Festivals, Music, Live Performance, BI, DNGI held onto my 2008 little yellow iPod for an impressively long time before it finally kicked the bucket late last year. 

It only took a few music-less commutes through the subways of New York City before I realized that I needed a replacement source of tunes. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't just load songs from my iTunes onto my iPhone because of a weird software incompatibility, so I started trying to decide between the wide selection of music streaming services out there today.

Spotify? Pandora? Google Play Music? Rdio? 

Because I wanted to get my music fix underground, I figured that I would have to shell out for a premium version of a service so that I could download songs to my phone for offline listening. 

Amazon Prime Music In the end, I became obsessed with a service that millions of people probably don't know they can use for free: Amazon Prime Music.

As an ecommerce reporter, I've known about Amazon's streaming service since it first launched last summer. It's only available to people who pay $99 a year for Prime, the membership program that most people join because of the two-day free shipping it offers on a ton of products. Although Amazon refuses to lock down an exact number of Prime subscribers, it says there are "tens of millions" in the US alone. 

I had downloaded Amazon Music initially for research purposes, but forgot about it soon after. (Those were the iPod days, remember?)

While stranded in a music desert, though, I decided to give it another try before dropping $10 a month on Spotify Premium.

After all, it was free, since I already pay for Prime for its speedy shipping. 

I quickly fell in love for a few reasons: 

  • Amazon lets me download all the music I want onto my phone, so I can listen underground or without using my cellular data while I'm walking around.
  • I can download a bunch of music for free, but the player also pulls in any music that I've ever digitally purchased from Amazon. (For me, that's about four albums.)
  • The selection is comparatively small — Prime Music has "more than one million songs" versus the more than 30 million on Spotify — but I was quickly able to put together a playlist of more than 450 songs from artists that I love. That number has continued to grow as Amazon adds new music or I discover new bands through its playlists features. 
  • That's another thing that I like about Prime: You can browse a bunch of playlists curated through a combination of Amazon's algorithms and a human editorial team. (My personal favorite is Coffee Shop folk.)

Amazon Prime Music definitely won't be a good fit for everyone. Besides a much, much smaller selection overall, the service doesn't have as much rap and EDM available as other services. And you shouldn't expect to see the latest albums as soon as they drop. (For free at least, you could buy the album on Amazon proper and have it show up in the streaming player.) 

But because I love indie rock bands and folk music and generally don't care about getting new albums (in part because several of the bands I'm in love with haven't released new music in years), I'm constantly using the app and am absolutely a huge, unabashed fan. 

I'm not saying that people should ditch their Spotify, Rdio, or Pandora subscriptions if they're already all signed up and digging it. But if, like me, you're one of the tens of millions of people who already pay for Amazon Prime and you aren't an evangelist for any other service, give it a try. 

Because the key is that if you already pay for Prime anyway, it's free. 

Here are some of the playlists Amazon Prime Music offers:

Prime Music

Here's what the player looks like when you're offline streaming:Prime Music

SEE ALSO: Venmo is the one app I couldn't live without

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