Quantcast
Channel: Business Insider
Viewing all 116740 articles
Browse latest View live

Here are the new features coming to the Apple Watch


All of the must-see things at Burning Man this year

4 Japanese laws that shock most foreigners

$
0
0

Geishas in front of shrine in Kyoto

Japan has a number of customs that are unfamiliar to the average foreigner.

Besides customs though, the country also has several laws that differ from other countries.

We took a look at a Reddit thread that asked, "What laws are foreigners most unaware of in Japan?" and did some of our own research to identify some of the country's most surprising laws.

1. Foreigners must have their passport on them at all times

According to the US Department of State, Japanese law allows police to stop anyone at any time on the street to see identification.

Because of this, foreigners should always carry their passport, so they can prove their identity. If you're caught without your passport, you can be arrested.

2. Certain over-the-counter medications that are legal in the US are illegal in Japan

While Japanese law allows Americans to bring up to a two-month supply of certain over-the-counter medications that are considered legal in Japan, there are a fair amount of OTC medications common in the US that are considered illegal in Japan, the US Department of State says. Any product that contains a stimulant (pseudoephedrine) is illegal in the country — this includes inhalers as well as sinus and allergy medications such as Sudafed.

It can be tough to figure out which medications are legal in Japan, since the Japanese consulate and embassy in the US don't have a full list of the medications that are legal and illegal in Japan. If you're bringing any kind of medicine into the country, be sure to also bring a prescription from your doctor and a letter explaining the purpose of the medication.

3. Smoking is allowed in most restaurants and bars, but not everywhere outdoors

Woman Smoking Japan

Until recently, smokers had the luxury of smoking pretty much anywhere in Japan — inside and outside — and since tobacco is cheaper there than in most other countries, smoking has always been pretty prevalent. However, according to The Japan Times, recent laws have made it illegal to light up in certain urban public spaces. This includes not only on the street, but also in restaurants and bars, which now have designated areas for smokers and nonsmokers.

4. Drinking on the street is legal in Japan

Hanami Picnic Japan

Unlike in the US, open-container laws do not exist in the majority of places in Japan. While it is generally frowned upon to drink or eat in public outdoor spaces in the country, it is legal. There are even vending machines that offer beer and sake, and traditional festivals that involve drinking outside, such as Hanami where participants enjoy a picnic under blooming cherry blossoms.

However, if you are drinking on the streets, in a park, or on the beach, it's always a good idea to act respectfully and not draw too much attention yourself. 

SEE ALSO: 11 Japanese customs that are shocking to foreign travelers

FOLLOW US: BI Travel is on Twitter!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Japan has a new hotel operated almost entirely by robots










The biggest mistake Apple made with the new iPhone

The life of the tallest man who ever lived is utterly fascinating

$
0
0

robert wadlow

The world's tallest man was 3 feet tall as a toddler, could carry his father at age 9, and stretched to a fantastic height of 8 feet 11 inches.

This is the incredible life of Robert Wadlow, whose hands measured a foot long and whose arms spanned 9 feet 5 inches.

Robert Pershing Wadlow was born February 22, 1918, and weighed a healthy 8 pounds 6 ounces. Soon after his birth, he began to grow at an astounding rate. In this photo, 6-month-old Wadlow weighed 30 pounds, about twice the normal weight for his age.

Source: YouTube/Top Trending



As a kindergartner, 5-year-old Wadlow wore clothes intended for a 17-year-old. Three years later, Wadlow towered at a height of 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed nearly 200 pounds. Here's Wadlow's height and weight plotted alongside the CDC's growth chart for healthy males aged 2 to 20 years old.



By the time he was 10 years old, Wadlow weighed 210 pounds, was more than 6 feet tall, and wore a size 17.5 shoe.

Source: YouTube/Top Trending



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: What Adderall is actually doing to your body










This video of an acid attack survivor showing how to apply lipstick is intensely moving

$
0
0

Still from the lipstick tutorial video by Reshma Quershi.

Beauty Tips by Reshma. The video starts off like thousands of other make-up tutorials on Youtube. Her "last tip," though, is not found in many make-up tutorials. 

Reshma Quereshi, who is now 18, urges her viewers to help end the sale of acid.

"You'll find a red lipstick easily in the market ... just like concentrated acid," Quereshi said.

She was attacked last year by her estranged brother-in-law and some other men. They held her down and poured sulfuric acid on her face, The New York Times reports

In the attack, Quereshi lost her left eye, and most of her face was really badly scarred. 

At the end of the video, she urges viewers to sign a petition that has been set up to push the government in India to enforce bans on the sale of acid. The petition has gathered 219,535 signatures. 

Quereshi also has videos on how to apply eyeliner and how to get rid of dark spots, as part of a series of videos to raise awareness on how easily and cheaply acid is available. The video on how to apply lipstick has already gathered nearly 1 million views and led to the petition being shared on social media with the #endacidsale hashtag. 

According to The New York Times, Bharat Nayak, a representative for Make Love Not Scars, the group that produced the video, wrote in an email that he estimates the number of acid attacks to be around 1,000 a year. 

Although India's Supreme Court ordered in 2013 that the open sale of acid be stopped, activists say some kinds of acid are still easily available, The New York Times reports. The campaign also aims to improve medical treatment and legal aid to victims. 

In an interview with People last week, Quereshi said Make Love Not Scars helped her launch a fundraising page to pay for her surgery after the government failed to fund the operation.

"I was only 17 at the time and my offenders are walking free today, while I have to go through life without a face," Quereshi told People. Her brother-in-law was arrested, but Quereshi's family told The New York Times that two of the other men were never caught. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Afghanistan's first lady explains why she doesn't do politics










A former National Geographic photographer shows what America was like in the 1970s and 1980s

$
0
0

Nathan Benn - Nat GeoNathan Benn spent nearly twenty years as a photographer for National Geographic, beginning as an intern in 1972. 

He traveled the world during his two decades with the magazine, though the vast majority of the photos he took never made it into print.

Luckily, National Geographic's Washington D.C. lab held on to all of his unpublished negatives, and when Benn quit working for the magazine in 1991, he transferred them to a storage space.

He didn't look at them again until twelve years later.

In 1993 he founded the world's first online commercial photo library, the Picture Network International, which he sold to Eastman Kodak in 1998. Then, in 2000, he started his three-year tenure as the director of the world-renowned Magnum Photos.

Benn finally started digging through his archives in 2003, curating a selection of work for his book, "Kodachrome Memory," which was published in 2013. The book, a collection of outtakes from his National Geographic days, depicts the United States between the 1970s and 1990s. 

Keep scrolling to read Benn's story, as well as the back stories of some of his favorite shooting assignments.

SEE ALSO: Here's why the city that houses Disneyland is not 'The Happiest Place on Earth'

When Benn was growing up in Miami, he was one of the very few who had a camera. "This was not when everyone had a camera on their iPhone," he said to Business Insider.



The summer after he graduated high school, Benn gained experience by interning with the Miami News for four consecutive summers, and another with the Palm Beach Times.



In 1971, Benn drove to New York City to show his portfolio to a number of photo editors. It was an editor at Time magazine who suggested Benn go see Robert Gilka, the director of photography at National Geographic who would hire him full-time the following year.

 

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: More trouble for Subway's Jared Fogle...










The fabulous life of Anna Wintour

$
0
0

anna wintour

The semi-annual chaos that is New York Fashion Week begins Thursday, and designers and fashionistas are deep in preparation mode. 

Perhaps no one knows the ins and outs of Fashion Week better than Anna Wintour, longtime editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine and artistic director at Conde Nast. 

Donning her trademark black Chanel sunglasses and perfectly styled bob, Wintour has been a fashion-show fixture for decades. 

With an estimated annual salary of $2 million, Wintour leads the kind of lifestyle any fashionista would envy.  

SEE ALSO: Meet the 93-year-old 'rare bird' who models for Kate Spade and makes Kanye West blush

Wintour is originally from the UK and moved to New York in her 20s. After stints at Harper's & Queen, Harper's Bazaar, and Viva, Wintour took the helm at Vogue in 1988. At the time, the storied fashion magazine had lost some market share to rival Elle, and its focus had shifted slightly to include lifestyle coverage.



Under Wintour, Vogue reestablished itself as the dominant American fashion magazine.



Wintour has now attended more than 3,000 fashion shows on behalf of Vogue. She has an annual clothing budget that's rumored to be as much as $200,000.

Source: T Magazine



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: This fisherman caught a massive 400-pound fish while straddling a paddleboard











The 50 best private colleges in America

$
0
0

Princeton students with umbrellaFor our seventh annual ranking of the best colleges in America, we asked over 1,000 Business Insider readers to choose the colleges that best prepare their students for success after graduation.

We then combined those results with each school's average SAT score from College Board and the median starting salary from PayScale to come up with the final ranking. You can read the full methodology here.

Here, we've narrowed down our results to look at the best private colleges in the country.

SEE THE MAIN LIST: The 50 best colleges in America

SEE ALSO: The 24 best public colleges in America

50. Fordham University

Average SAT score: 1880

Median starting salary: $50,200

"The Jesuit University of New York" has two undergraduate campuses serving 8,633 students at Rose Hill in the Bronx and Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Fordham emphasizes giving and community service with over 1.2 million hours served by students in 2013. 



49. Brigham Young University

Average SAT score: 1890

Median starting salary: $51,800

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sponsors Brigham Young University and seeks to cultivate individuals of faith, intellect, and character. Last year, US News ranked Utah's BYU in the top 10 best-value schools. The most popular colleges where students study at BYU are Life Sciences and The School of Management. 



48. George Washington University

Average SAT score: 1950

Median starting salary: $47,700

Located in the nation's capital, GW established the world's first political communications major. This month, The Princeton Review named GW students the most politically active in the country. The most popular majors are social sciences, business and marketing, and healthcare – GW reportedly provides the second-highest number of service professionals among national universities.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: 5 signs you're going to be extraordinarily successful










The 17 most dangerous foods in the world

$
0
0

There's being an adventurous eater, and there's being an adventurous eater.

Mr Gamez compiled an infographic on the world's 17 deadliest foods. In addition to naming the foods, the infographic also features tips on how to eat each dish; where the food is from, and some facts about how deadly it can be.  

From fugu (pufferfish) from Japan to raw cassava (manioc) from South America, here are the deadliest foods in the world.

Dangerous Food Infographic

SEE ALSO: We definitively solved the debate over whether you can still eat cheese with mold on it

FOLLOW US: BI Travel is on Twitter!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Most expiration dates are bogus — here's how long your food actually lasts










Here's how long you can keep food and drinks in your fridge

$
0
0

refrigerator, fridge, full, food, tumblr, january 2012, bi, dng

That bacon you opened last weekend won't stay fresh in your fridge forever. 

In fact, there are some guidelines for how long you should keep food and drinks before they go bad. 

First, make sure your refrigerator is set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, which is the temperature recommended by the USDA.

If the label has a "sell by" date, consume the food item accordingly.

It's worth noting, though, that a label's "sell by" date only indicates when the product will be of "optimal quality," according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. You can probably still safely eat something that's just past its expiration date. 

We consulted StillTasty, an online guide to shelf life, to create a list of common fridge items and their lifespan. StillTasty uses government sources like the USDA, the FDA, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in addition to food manufacturers.

Here's how long your favorite foods can survive in your fridge after you open them.

Alcohol

wine

Beer: 1 day if kept tightly covered

Champagne: 3-5 days (The champagne may go flat before then, but it will still be safe to consume.)

Wine, red and white: 3-5 days (Take red wines out of the fridge an hour before serving to bring it back to room temperature.)

Condiments

condiments

Barbecue sauce: 4 months

Hummus: 1 week

Ketchup: 6 months

Maple syrup: indefinite 

Mayonnaise: 2-3 months after the "sell by" date

Mustard: 1 year

Dairy

Cheese

Brie cheese, sold in wrapped wedge: 1 week

Cheddar cheese, shredded or sliced, commercially packaged: 5-7 days

Dip, dairy-based: 1 week

Eggs: 3-5 weeks

Milk: 1 week after the "sell by" date

Mozzarella cheese, fresh, high moisture: 2 weeks

Parmesan cheese, commercially grated and packaged: 3 months after the "sell by" date

Yogurt: 7-10 days after the "sell by" date

Fruits and Vegetables

Blueberries and blackberries for sale at the Westmoreland Berry Farm stand at the Arlington Farmers' Market in Arlington, Virginia in this picture taken June 28, 2008. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Apples: 3-4 weeks

Avocados, cut: 2-3 days (To avoid browning, squeeze a few drops of lemon or lime into the flesh and tightly wrap in plastic wrap or aluminum foil.)

Blueberries: 1-2 weeks

Broccoli: 3-5 days

Carrots: 2-3 weeks

Celery: 1-2 weeks

Grapes: 5-7 days (To avoid added moisture, don't wash the grapes until you're ready to consume them.)

Lettuce, pre-washed salad mix in bag: 3-5 days

Orange juice: 7-10 days

Peaches: 3-5 days once ripe

Raspberries and strawberries: 2-3 days

Meat and Poultry

ground beef

Bacon: 1 week

Beef, lamb, pork, and veal: 3-5 days

Ground beef and ground turkey, fresh, cooked: 3-4 days

Ground beef and ground turkey, fresh, raw: 1-2 days

Lunch meat and ham: 3-5 days

Poultry, cooked: 3-4 days

Poultry, raw: 1-2 days

Seafood

Raw Salmon

Salmon, shrimp and Tuna (including yellow fin), fresh, cooked: 3-4 days

Salmon, shrimp and Tuna (including yellow fin), fresh, raw: 1-2 days

Sushi: 1 day

SEE ALSO: 9 ways you're cooking your steak wrong, according to the chef of Wall Street's oldest steakhouse

FOLLOW US: Business Insider is on Instagram

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Most expiration dates are bogus — here's how long your food actually lasts










14 things every modern woman should carry in her purse

$
0
0

Angela & Roi handbags

Magazine editors love to preach which mascara or lipstick women should pack in their purse, but honestly, that kind of advice never helped anyone. If you wear makeup, you know what cosmetics you need when you're on the go.

So this is the anti-fashion magazine guide to the essentials of a well-packed purse — things that will keep you organized, fix a wardrobe malfunction, or save you from the pains of new shoes. 

Keep scrolling for the 14 things that will prepare you for just about anything.

 

1. Safety pins

These are a lifesaver if you pop a button or a seam. Also, a small one can pinch-hit for a necklace clasp if yours suddenly breaks.



2. Band-Aids

Not just for cuts and scrapes, Band-Aids will save your heels from painful new shoes. You can also use them to hide a nail with chipped polish. 

 

 



3. Extra earring backs

There's no hack for a lost earring back. You either have a spare, or you don't. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: New aerial footage shows aftermath of explosion in China










Fuku, a hot NYC restaurant that makes oversized fried chicken sandwiches, just opened a new location and there's a $400 menu item

$
0
0

Chef David Chang

Back in June, ramen king David Chang of Momofuku fame opened a brand new restaurant dedicated to fried chicken. 

Named Fuku, the restaurant drew long lines its opening weekend.

The main attraction is the $8 spicy fried chicken sandwich, which comes on a potato roll with pickles and butter. 

Now, to the surprise of many in the food community, Chang has quietly opened an outpost of Fuku, dubbed Fuku+, in the Chambers Hotel in Midtown New York City. 

Starting Thursday, Fuku+ will be open for lunch between noon and 4 p.m. each day. It will reopen for dinner between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. 

This isn't the first time Chang has done a surprise opening. The first Fuku opened to very little fanfare or advance warning. 

Chang has expanded the menu, adding several salads, a salt and pepper shrimp dish, pork flatbread, and fuku bites to the Fuku+ menu for walk-in diners. 

fuku chicken sandwich

You can also make reservations a week in advance if you have a party of between two and six people. If you reserve a table, you can choose between two meal packages

The Fuku XL is priced at $25 per person and comes with a spicy fried chicken sandwich, Fuku+ salad, daikon slaw, french fries, biscuits, and Milk Bar confetti cookies.

The Fuku XXL, however, is where it gets really interesting. The package is priced at a whopping $400 and is meant to serve between four and eight people. In addition to the chicken sandwich, shrimp, salad, slaw, fries, biscuits, and cookies, the package also comes with a plate of slow-roasted pork butt, fried short ribs, and sichuan pork bread balls. 

We'd recommend going hungry.

SEE ALSO: This enormous, $8 fried chicken sandwich could launch a major fast-food brand

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How to properly cut up a chicken










I drank kava — the trendy, non-alcoholic beverage that's supposed to make you feel high — but it just made me sick

$
0
0

kava tea

New York City has been buzzing about a new bar that only serves kava — a medicinal plant extract meant to "relax and sedate" the drinker.

My colleague tried kava during a recent trip to Hawaii and enjoyed herself. She said it made her feel "incredibly relaxed" and put her in a "fantastic mood" so I was intrigued.

Kava is classified as psychotropic or psychoactive, meaning it alters your state of mind or body. The benefits include reduced anxietyan increase of sleep quality, and boosted mental focus. Kava sounded like an interesting alternative to alcohol (or cannabis, another popular pyschotropic plant) and I was excited to have a relaxing evening and try something new. 

My coworker Madison and I went to the bar, aptly named Kavasutra, to experience the drink for ourselves.

When we arrived at Kavasutra, we were greeted with this sign:

Kava tea kavasutra

Inside, the bar was dimly lit, with wood paneling and tiki-themed decor paired oddly with bright flat screens playing nature videos on loop without sound. 

The bartender, Chopper, launched into his spiel, similar to the fine print on the bar's menu: "Kava is a natural anti-anxiety and anti-depressant. Kava has a reverse tolerance, meaning you start with a high tolerance to kava and need to drink a higher dose your first few times."

This meant we would maybe need to drink four cups, while a regular customer would only need one or two for the same effect. Kavasutra's site says this on the drink: "Kava is a healthy, safe alternative to alcohol and can provide some of the same relaxing and sedative effects without altering a person’s mind or elevating their emotions."

Chopper recommended the "Ed Shell" for newbies, the first drink on the menu below:

Kava Kavasutra MenuArchie Kava is defined as "top-shelf" kava from the Solomon Islands. According the the menu, it's "strong, smooth, and longer lasting than any other." Archie Kava is traditionally prepared, meaning the kava root is crushed to release liquid, and that liquid is then mixed with water and served as quickly as possible. 

This gif is low-quality but you can see the roughly chopped piece of kava go through a grinder and become a paste.

The kava paste is put into a mesh bag, and strained into water through kneading.

Powdered kava is simply the dehydrated root ground into a concentrated "instant" powder. The Ed Shell combines both of theses preparations for a stronger drink.

The last thing Chopper asked before serving up the kava was whether or not we had been drinking alcohol. Since kava is processed through the liver, Chopper told us mixing it with any sort of alcohol can make you dizzy. Kavasutra strongly advises against consuming kava even after just one glass of wine.

Our kava was served up in small dark bowls, with a bright slice of pineapple on the side. The sandy-colored liquid was a bit frothy and cloudy and we were told to chug the drinks as quickly as we could.

IMG_0096.JPG

The purpose of the pineapple was immediately clear — it provided relief from what can only be described as the taste of medicinal dirt. 

In under a minute both Madison and I noticed a numb, tingly sensation creeping across our mouths, similar to the feeling of having a Novocaine shot at the dentist. The obvious effects stopped there, however, because about 30 minutes later, we told Chopper neither of us felt much different. 

Thinking back to the "reverse tolerance" rule, Chopper verified our previous order (one Ed Shell for me, and a triple shot for Madison) before suggesting we swap drink orders for our second round and we agreed. The bill came to about $50.

During my bus ride home, my stomach began to feel dull and achy. By the time I got home and onto my couch, the sensation was full-blown nausea. Minutes later, I became — without getting too graphic — physically ill.

I later learned Eater reporter Marguerite Preston did her own kava experiment in July, when Kavasutra first opened. She describes a similar first-time experience to ours: 

...waiting on the subway platform, I learn something else important about kava: it's not a good idea to drink (especially for the first time) on an empty stomach. I throw up a little in a garbage can. But the rubbery feeling follows me all the way back to Brooklyn.

I called Kavasutra a few days later to inquire.

I told Chopper I had been drinking on an empty stomach and he informed me that wasn't the best mix, especially for first-timers, but that my reaction was not indicative of an average kava drinker's night.

He encouraged me and Madison to return to Kavasutra, recommending we show up with full stomachs, and downsizing our orders to weaker double shots and only having one cup every hour or so. 

Kavasutra Interior shotWe returned, and after I chugged the drink and quickly ate the pineapple slice, I hoped deep breaths and water would quell my stomach's reflexive nausea. The memory of my first experience was too strong, and whether it was a placebo effect or not, I felt uncomfortable. 

We waited an hour before ordering two kava “margaritas," described as a training wheels beverage that packed less of an earthy punch than other drinks. Though the margarita was definitely more pleasant, I still had that familiar aftertaste of kava in my mouth.

Both Madison and I were only able to finish a third of the glass before giving up.

After my second visit to Kavasutra, I was able to observe more of the expected sensations — a loose, relaxed feeling in my body along with slight tingling. Sinking back into my subway seat on the ride home felt calm and comfortable.

But the fear of being ill was lingering in the back of my mind, preventing true relaxation.  

A photo posted by @thechalkboardmag on

My biggest problem with kava? First timers only have bartenders’ recommendations to go on if they are unfamiliar with kava and its uses. I strongly believe that in addition to asking whether it's a person's first time drinking kava and if they were drinking alcohol prior, servers at any kava bar should ask customers if they've eaten recently.

My verdict — I will never drink kava again because my first experience has soured my system against the taste. But newcomers to the natural beverage should keep an open mind, and a full stomach. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Scientists explain why avocados are the best food in the world










Seven countries that are surprisingly hard to visit

$
0
0

tigers nest monastery bhutanSome countries launch extravagant, expensive campaigns to lure in tourists.

Others seem entirely uninterested in tourism dollars, making it extremely difficult for foreign visitors to enter.

We've found seven countries that make it incredibly difficult to obtain tourist visas.

Note that this list is not comprehensive: We've excluded countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Somalia because the US has issued advisories against all travel to those countries, although you should note that Angola, Eritrea, Iran, and Saudi Arabia may also be dangerous for visiting Westerners.

Bhutan

This tiny Himalayan kingdom is hard enough to access physically (its only international airport sits 7,333 feet above sea level and only a handful of pilots are qualified to fly there), but just getting the visa is also tough.

Forget visiting as an independent traveler. You'll need the help of a travel agent who must organize everything for you, and will have to pay for the whole thing — transport, visa fees, meals, housing — in advance. Basically, Bhutan is like an all-inclusive country, where you have to pay for everything in one go. Be prepared to spend between $200 to $300 a day depending on the season, which is the government-mandated minimum. 

Russia

Red square, St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow, RussiaRussia is shockingly difficult to visit, especially for Americans, who often have to answer twice the amount of insanely specific questions (countries visited in the last 10 years, for example) than people from the rest of the world. Generally, needless paper pushing, busywork and bureaucracy make the wait for a Russian visa take weeks, if not months, and requires a Letter of Invitation, though often this can be provided by a hotel. Once you've gotten a visa, you can only stay for 30 days.

Saudi Arabia

The Desert Kingdom is a wealthy country, so it's not particularly concerned with tourism, and especially reluctant to let westerners in. Consequently, tourist visas are notoriously difficult to obtain, especially for non-Muslims. If you have Israeli stamps in your passports, you might be refused outright; unmarried couples need to travel in a group; and women must be accompanied by a male relative, or, should they be traveling alone, met by a male sponsor or relative. Anyone overstaying their visit will be fined almost $3,000. 

Eritrea

Eritrea, camelsThis former Italian colony in Africa ranks last on the press freedom index, even below North Korea. It's not exactly interested in having foreigners around, and consequently doesn't make getting a visa easy. Apparently, visas take around eight weeks to process, and can often be rejected willy nilly. Once there though, you'll be stunned by incredible architectural gems, many of which were commissioned by Mussolini himself.

Nauru

The world's smallest republic is almost impossible to get to — there's essentially one flight per week from Australia — but good luck finding a Nauru consulate or embassy at which to get a visa, as there are maybe 9 in the world.

Iran

mosque in iran Iran, which is full of rarely seen cultural treasures like the ruins of Persepolisjust might become the next tourism hotspot following the nuclear deal. Currently, visas are pretty tough to get though. Apparently, every single visa needs to be approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran, which can take a while (some people suggest applying three months in advance). US citizens will get fingerprinted on entry, and must travel with a private guide or group tour. Having an Israeli stamp in your passport basically makes a visit to Iran a no-go. However, President Hassan Rouhani’s government is now taking steps to ease or abolish visa requirements for most foreign visitors in order to make the country more tourism friendly. 

Angola

Rich in oil and diamonds, the country makes it purposefully difficult to obtain visas in an effort to thwart job hunters. Allegedly, visas take around eight weeks to process, and require a small library of supporting documents, a Letter of Invitation from a local person or organization, a certificate proving you've been vaccinated against Yellow Fever, and proof that you have sufficient funds to stay, requiring at least $200 a day for the duration of your stay. 

SEE ALSO: 9 countries that ceased to exist in the 20th century

FOLLOW US: BI Travel is on Twitter!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This abandoned Chinese island shows what the world might look like without humans











23 pictures that show why travelers voted St. Petersburg the best destination in Europe

$
0
0

St. Petersburg Savior of Spilt Blood Chruch

St. Petersburg, Russia, was just named the best destination in Europe by the World Travel Awards.

To determine the World Travel Awards winners, thousands of travelers and people working in the travel industry vote on certain categories in regions around the world.

St. Petersburg won as the Leading Destination in Europe. The city's ornate palaces and churches and the rich history behind them make it an ideal destination for travelers.

Keep scrolling to see why St. Petersburg took the number one spot.

 

 

SEE ALSO: I lived in Europe for 5 years — these are the places I tell all my friends to visit

FOLLOW US: BI Travel is on Twitter!

The uniquely colorful Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood marks the spot where Alexander II was attacked in an assassination attempt in 1881 (hence the church's name).

To learn more about the Church of Our Savior on Spilt Blood, click here >



As if its exterior isn't breathtaking enough, the interior is covered in bright mosaics.



The Winter Palace is also known as the Hermitage Museum. The palace was completed in 1762, the same year that Catherine II rose to power.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: The most breathtaking natural wonders in the US










How a huge, abandoned New York City Post Office turned into Fashion Week headquarters

$
0
0

moynihan station post office

New York Fashion Week is associated with upscale, glamorous places like Bryant Park and Lincoln Center. But this year, the event is turning over a new leaf by centering around what used to be one of the city's most mundane structures: the Post Office.

That's right — after years of acting as the cooler, more offbeat alternative to Lincoln Center and Bryant Park, the James A. Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue and 31st Street is now officially New York Fashion Week's central hub.

That means what while the most discerning style icons in the world are shuffling in and out the back doors on their way to fashion shows, the rest of the city will be using the front of the building to mail packages.

Here's how the massive structure across the street from Penn Station went from communication hub to fashion mecca.

Then known as the New Post Office, the James A. Farley Post Office was built from 1910 to 1913 at a cost of $5.275 million.

Source



The architecture firm McKim, Mead & White built it as a companion to the original New York Penn Station, which was originally built in 1910 and demolished in 1963.

Source



The Post Office was open 365 days a year until 1990, when the mail business started to dwindle. Now, most of the actual letter-mailing action is confined to the building's front entryway.

Source



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: 'Zoolander 2' has an epically funny trailer










Apple's new partnership with Hermès makes it clear the tech company has no idea what the Apple Watch is supposed to be (aapl)

$
0
0

Apple Hermes DoubleTour

At Apple's big event in San Francisco Wednesday, the company announced a partnership with luxury-goods company Hermès to provide three new leather straps for the Apple Watch.

Imaginatively, Apple is calling it the "Apple Watch Hermès Collection." It consists of a stainless-steel Apple Watch, in 38- and 42-millimeter sizes, paired with one of three Hermès leather straps, ranging in price from $1,100 to $1,500.

The marquee strap is the $1,250 Double Tour, available only on the 38-mm Apple Watch. Anyone familiar with Hermès will recognize this now-legendary strap, first introduced in the late 1990s when the Belgian designer Martin Margiela was working for the French fashion house. It came as a package with the Cape Cod watch and it's still available — for $2,900.

And this is the problem. Apple seems to be trying hard to pitch the Apple Watch as a tech product and luxury good. Hermès is a global luxury firm, so on its face, the partnership makes sense.

But if you look closer, it's actually baffling.

Messing up a great watch

For starters, putting the famous Double Tour — with its kinky equestrian subtext, the strap looping twice around the wrist — on an Apple Watch undermines what made the Cape Cod an important arrival on the watch scene in 1998.

Back then, women who wanted a nice watch were limited. The classiest option was the iconic Cartier Tank. If you wanted something sportier, you could go with the Cartier Santos, but really it was the Tank and not much else. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso was still somewhat exotic in those days. The basic design of this watch hadn't changed in decades, and it still hasn't. It was timeless in a good and bad way.

In the late 1990s, mechanical watches hadn't yet staged their big renaissance, so nobody much cared if you wore a high-quality Swiss quartz timepiece. The Cartier Tank, for the most part, was just that.

Enter the Cape Cod and the Double Tour, which provided an much-needed option, with a style that was fresher and looser, without sacrificing class. It was a great watch with an interesting strap, capitalizing on Hermès' extreme skill at crafting leather goods, and it looked fantastic on a woman's wrist — substantial without being chunky or overwhelming. The Cartier Tank also looks great, but of course it isn't a youthful watch.

Hermes Cape Cod Double Tour

Now back to Apple. Kudos to the company for connecting with a classic, but let's be honest: Hermès is a stuffy old luxury company, very French and oozing Old World conservatism.

Its scarves are beautiful but matronly. Its whimsical print neckties are favored by the Wall Street old guard. Its two best-known bags — the Birkin and the Kelly — were inspired by celebrities from the the 1950s and '60s.

So that's one major issue: Apple, one of the biggest brands in the world, supplicating at the altar of ancien régime luxury — and I say this as a big Hermès fan. Apple doesn't need this credibility. If it wanted to do a Double Tour, it could have done so on its own.

But it appears to think that hooking up with Hermès will add credibility.

On another front, taking the Hermès Double Tour off the Cape Cod watch messes up the satisfying unity of that innovative design. The Cape Cod Double Tour is a watch of its time. Seeing one now on a wrist, the strap weathered with age, the case scuffed, sends a quiet signal — rather pointedly, it says that you like watches but aren't preoccupied with the minutiae of automatic movements or elaborate complications. Taking the watch itself out of the picture ruins the cohesiveness of this small story.

Apple has tried to emulate the Cape Cod's face, but it just doesn't look right, especially in black.

A lot for a strip of leather

And if you decide to get the Apple Watch with the Double Tour, you really are committing to spending a lot for a strap. It is, of course, a stupendous strap. In fact, the whole purchase is less about the watch than the strap because the watches will come and go, but you're going to want to hang on to that Double Tour.

The bottom line here is that Apple is trying to please two constituencies with the Apple Watch and doing an iffy job with both. The techy buyership has been somewhat meh about the Apple Watch because it isn't a fully evolved device — it's more of an iPhone satellite than a gadget that stands on its own merits. The luxury buyer doesn't think the Apple Watch is a real watch.

Apple Watch Hermes on Wrist

From my perspective — as someone who was more excited about the Apple Watch than any other Apple product ever, but could now care less about the device — Apple is struggling to figure out what the Apple Watch is.

And it's also now clear that internally Apple believes the Apple Watch has luxury cred, which suggests to me that what a lot of Apple observers believe about Apple is true: Cupertino thinks it's selling an elevated lifestyle, not technological solutions to live a better or more fulfilled life.

For now, Apple has moved beyond the gold $17,000 Apple Watch Edition and made a play for another part of the paleo-luxury market. It doesn't feel right, and it suggests that Apple is moving farther away from its carefully nurtured brand DNA.

SEE ALSO: I have 3 major problems with the Apple Watch

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Forget the Apple Watch — here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants










There's a startlingly simple reason that Americans dress so casually, according to a historian

$
0
0

Casual Dress

It's common knowledge among everyone who pays attention to such things that Americans frequently dress super casually — and have for quite a while now.

Whether it's Silicon Valley CEOs or college students on their way to class, American loves their jeans and T-shirts.

But why?

"We dress more casually because we can," according to cultural historian Deirdre Clemente from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, who was interviewed by The Washington Post.

Americans gravitate toward casual without even realizing it. Casual clothing doesn't obviously signal wealth or social status, but it instead proves that Americans can freely express their individuality.

It wasn't always this way. For much of the 20th century, Americans didn't dress casually all the time. There were dress codes and customs. Men wore suits and hats; women wore dresses. Jeans and T-shirts were for laborers, not professionals.

"Casual is the sweet spot between looking like every middle-class American and being an individual in the massive wash of options," Clemente told The Post.

She says we now find meaning in the way we dress in a way we didn't in the early 20th century, when people dressed more aspirationally. They wanted to look as though they had higher social status than they actually did.

As it turns out, historians can point to two major periods in the 20th century that changed the way we dress today: The 1920s, when women started breaking away from dresses and fewer men attending college wore full suits, and World War II, when women cared more about their work in the factories and the victory gardens than what they were wearing on the particular day.

Since those times, the long slide to where we are today was inevitable. (The 1960s and '70s hastened things along.) So where does Clemente say we are now, in terms of fashion and dress?

In a word: individualization.

"There are so many different kinds of social and cultural personas that we can put on, and our clothes have become extremely emblematic of that," Clemente told The Post.

It used to be that everyone wore some kind of uniform: military, professional, or domestic. Now no one does.

SEE ALSO: These are the 5 trendiest sneakers guys can wear to the office

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how to get away with wearing jeans at the office










The 'Uber of seaplanes' is taking elite New Yorkers to the beach

$
0
0

Beach weekends are a staple for any New Yorker's summer schedule. However, weary urbanites must factor in the extra hours in traffic or on the train to get to their seaside escape.

But for upper crust Manhattanites (okay, and Park Slope dwellers as well), transportation stresses don't exist — they can hop in a seaplane and arrive at one of various quintessential beach locations.

Produced by Eames Yates

Follow BI Video: On Facebook



Join the conversation about this story »










Viewing all 116740 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images