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10 etiquette mistakes no one should ever make at a dinner party

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Dinner party

Dinner party etiquette, like most etiquette rules, is often lost or misunderstood.

Which — we think — is a shame, since it's so vitally important to all involved. After all, no one wants to make a fool of themselves.

Dinner parties also aren't just social occasions, as a boss or client may hold one unexpectedly and request your attendance on short notice.

Don't panic — it's a lot easier than it may seem to play the part.

Here are 10 things you must avoid doing if you're going to any kind of dinner party.

SEE ALSO: 10 men's style essentials that look expensive — but aren't

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Not responding to an invite until the last minute.

Not responding until the last minute says, "I was waiting for something better to come up, but since there isn't anything, I guess I can go." 

Don't send that message — if you're not already busy, say yes immediately.



Show up empty-handed.

Even if nothing is said, it is expected when showing up to someone's house for an event that you not come empty-handed.

A bottle of wine will almost certainly do the trick, no matter the occasion.



Show up underdressed.

Don't think that just because you're among friends you can ignore the dress code. Show respect for the event's hosts and look the part expected of you.



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'Help! I'm interviewing for jobs and don't know how to leave work without lying'

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ashley lutz ask the insiderAsk The Insider columnist Ashley Lutz answers all your work-related questions, including the awkward, sensitive, and real-world ones. Have a question? Email asktheinsider@businessinsider.com.

Dear Insider,

What is the etiquette of leaving the office to interview for a new job? After more than a year in my position, I'm not being challenged anymore. I'm also frustrated with my boss.

I work in a small office with about 25 people. My coworkers do not know that I'm looking for another job, and I'd like to keep it that way.

My coworkers notice when I leave. We all sit right next to one another, and my boss often likes to call impromptu meetings.

I know everybody does it, but I always feel bad making up fake doctors' appointments or taking sick days to go to interviews.

I don't like to lie, but how can I excuse myself from the office to interview for other opportunities?

Sincerely,

Guilty Conscience

***

Dear Guilty,

Interviewing for a new job is not a reason to feel remorse.

The sources of your restlessness at work — being bored, not growing your skill set, and having the boss from hell — are all well-known signs you should quit your job.

Once your position isn't serving you, it's time to look for better opportunities. When it comes to calling off work, less is more.

I'd recommend being as vague as possible with your boss. Sure, you don't want them to suspect that you're interviewing, but being vague ensures you won't be caught in a lie.

Simply say you have an appointment at X time and ask if it's OK for the time off. If he or she presses you for details, say it's personal. You don't owe a detailed explanation.

You should use the same language regardless of what the appointment is or whether you're interviewing for a new job. There's no need to specify whether you're going to the dentist, doctor, or another company.

If you establish this language for any appointment, it won't stick out when you're going to interview.

As for your coworkers, I wouldn't bring your absence to their attention at all. If you must (or if they ask) tell them you have to leave for an appointment. I doubt they're going to notice or care.

And remember that in many offices, getting another offer gives you leverage. Many of my qualified, intelligent friends have gotten raises simply because their boss suspected they were interviewing somewhere else.

Getting off work for interviews is the easy part, and you shouldn't spend too much time worrying about it.

Instead, I would recommend spending more time reflecting on why your company isn't serving you.

What do you hope to achieve in your career? What are your long-term goals? What kind of salary do you think you deserve?

Once you figure out what you want, you can work toward a happier tomorrow.

***

Ashley Lutz is a senior editor at Business Insider answering all your questions about the workplace. Send your queries to asktheinsider@businessinsider.com for publication on Business Insider. Requests for anonymity will be granted, and questions may be edited.

SEE ALSO: 'Help! My coworkers' eating habits are driving me insane'

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New Jersey has to rethink its budget because one guy moved

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David Tepper

If you move away from your home state, some friends might throw you a party. Maybe you'll get a happy-hour discount at your local bar.

If you're really a big deal, you might get to throw out the first pitch at your local minor-league baseball team's next game.

Other than that, everything will be pretty much the same after you're gone.

That is, of course, unless you're billionaire David Tepper.

If you are him, then when you move away you have the potential to send your whole state ( in this case New Jersey) into red-alert mode.

Tepper, the founder of the hedge fund Appaloosa Management, moved to Florida last fall. This, according to Bloomberg, has leaders of his former state very concerned.

From Bloomberg:

"We may be facing an unusual degree of income-tax forecast risk," Frank Haines, budget and finance officer with the Office of Legislative Services told a Senate committee Tuesday in Trenton.

New Jersey relies on personal income taxes for about 40 percent of its revenue, and less than 1 percent of taxpayers contribute about a third of those collections, according to the legislative services office. A one percent forecasting error in the income-tax estimate can mean a $140 million gap, Haines said.

Tepper, who founded his hedge fund in 1993 after working at Goldman Sachs, is worth $10.6 billion to $11.6 billion, depending on whom you ask (Forbes or Bloomberg).

New Jersey probably has some precise numbers on that too.

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Arianna Huffington is offering the chance to stay in her gorgeous home for free through Airbnb

There's a Chinese restaurant in Chicago that serves rainbow dumplings

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It's not uncommon to find xialongbao — soup dumplings — at Chinese restaurants.

But Chicago restaurant Imperial Lamian serves the dumplings with a twist: they're rainbow colored.

Story by Sarah Schmalbruch and editing by Stephen Parkhurst

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From napping at work to clearing your mind before bed, Arianna Huffington just answered all our questions about sleep

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arianna huffington

If you ask Huffington Post founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington about the key to success, she'll tell you it all comes down to sleep.

She should know; she learned this lesson the hard way.

In 2007, exhausted from getting only a few hours' sleep a night and running on fumes, Huffington's body finally surrendered to her sleep deprivation. She awoke from her inevitable and unplanned slumber in a pool of blood after hitting her head on the way down.

This was the wake-up call the media mogul needed to finally prioritize sleep, and now, with the release of her sleep manifesto, "The Sleep Revolution," she wants to help everyone, from world leaders to the everyday worker, to get a better night's sleep.

Huffington admits that she's no sleep scientist, but in researching her book, she's spoken with enough of them and delved into enough research to be considered an expert on the topic.

In her book she brings to light jarring data that includes what she calls "our current sleep crisis" (about 70% of American workers describe their sleep as "insufficient") and the cost of not sleeping, like irreversible brain damage and erectile dysfunction.

Business Insider recently spoke with Huffington about the importance of sleep, its elusiveness in our modern society, and some best practices to get more of it.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

SEE ALSO: Arianna Huffington destroys the macho ‘no sleep’ mentality

DON'T MISS: Arianna Huffington says these are the things you should never do before bed

Rachel Gillett: Why is sleep so important?

Arianna Huffington: Let's start with our brain. We used to think that sleep was a time of inactivity, and now we actually know that sleep is a time of frenetic activity. That's the time when the planning system of the brain — what they call the lymphatic system — is actually activated and cleans up all of the accumulated toxins from the day. And if that doesn't happen, the results are really tragic, including leading to Alzheimer's disease.

The brain has two functions: Either it's alert and awake, or asleep and cleaning up. That's why we are now reevaluating as a culture the importance of something we thought we could get away without doing.

The health aspects are a little more obvious. We all know that when we've been sleep-deprived for a little while, we are more likely to catch a cold because our immune system is suppressed. But sleep is much more important than that, because every disease, whether it's heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, is connected to sleep deprivation.



Gillett: What are some of the most surprising or counterintuitive research findings you came across about the importance of sleep?

Huffington: One of the most counterintuitive findings has to do with weight. We think that in order to lose weight, we need to hit the gym early in the morning, even if it means that we don't get all of the sleep that we need.

Well, no. If you want to lose weight, stay in bed until you've had enough sleep. We now have all of this scientific evidence that shows that if you are sleep-deprived, your body actually craves the very foods that are going to put on weight like carbs and sweets. Also the hormone that regulates hunger is suppressed, and as a result, you're more likely to be hungry all of the time.

We've all been there, you know, in the middle of the afternoon, we get really, really tired, we're dragging ourselves through our meetings, and we go for that doughnut or that sugary pick-me-up. That is the worst thing that we can do for weight. So sleep if you want to lose weight.



Gillett: What's the business case for getting more sleep?

Huffington:McKinsey recently put out a study that makes very clear in scientific terms the connection between business leadership and getting more sleep. At first I thought it was an Onion headline actually, to have McKinsey consultants writing in the Harvard Business Review about the importance of sleep for business leadership, especially because one of the consultants was identified as a McKinsey sleep specialist. But no, it's not an Onion headline; it's the truth.

The science shows that the prefrontal cortex, where the executive functions that are part of leadership — the problem-solving functions, the team-building functions — are housed, is degraded if we don't get enough sleep. So all of the things we value in business are going to be affected in a negative way if we don't get enough sleep.

If you think about it, it's kind of amazing how we've all been living under the delusion that the most successful people in business are people who are working 24/7. In fact, leaders and executives have regularly congratulated people for working 24/7, which we now know is the cognitive equivalent of coming to work drunk.

And from the point of view of the bottom line, there's a direct correlation between sleep deprivation and an increase in stress and negative health effects. Therefore healthcare costs go up and productivity is impaired.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

We drove the car that Ferrari is counting on for its future (RACE, FCAU)

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Ferrari Race 2015

In 2014, my son, James, and I drove up to Watkins Glen International, a storied racetrack, to watch a Ferrari race. We did not, however, make the drive in a Ferrari.

Last year, Ferrari kindly lent us a California T, the company's "entry-level" car — its base price is $198,000 — to make a sort of return visit. The Cali T is now an important vehicle for the prancing stallion now that it's a public company and needs to grow beyond its current 7,000-cars-a-year in sales.

At the New York Stock Exchange in 2015, when Ferrari — ticker symbol RACE — began trading, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO and Ferrari Chairman Sergio Marchionne said that many of the 9,000 cars the Italian sports-car maker will sell in 2019 will be Cali Ts.

Ferrari shares have endured a slide since the IPO, down 30% since last October.

But of course there is Ferrari the stock and Ferrari the cars. So what is the California T like to drive?

When James and I went to the Glen in 2014, we watched a Ferrari Challenge race in which the contestants run in Ferrari 458s. In 2015, we attended the Six Hours of the Glen, an endurance race featuring teams from a variety of automakers — Porches, BMW, Aston Martin, Mazda, and Corvette — alongside Ferrari.

It was an interesting weekend with a long drive in a cool car and a race that was heavily affected by the weather. Mixed in was a jaunt around the original Watkins Glen road course, where after World War II racers battled it out and before the now famous raceway was built.

We had a lot of fun — check it out.

In 2014, James and I checked out a race series organized by Ferrari and featuring teams running only Ferrari 458 cars.



James had a blast ...



... because for an 8-year-old what's cooler than Ferraris?



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The science behind why you shouldn't pop your pimples

Victoria’s Secret models are obsessed with this food delivery service

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Sakara Life founders Whitney Tingle and Danielle DuBoise believe in nourishing yourself from the inside out.

With its plant-enriched diet, it's no surprise the food delivery service has gained celebrity devotees like Lily Aldridge, Chrissy Teigen, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many more. 

Story by Aly Weisman and video by Adam Banicki

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This guy has tracked every meal he's eaten for the last 4 years — and he was shocked to see just how much he spends on food

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my terrible diet screenshot

Jamie Welsted is just a normal guy — except that he has diligently tracked every meal (and beverage) that he's consumed over the past four years. 

But make no mistake: This is not Weight Watchers.

The 41-year-old graphic designer from Buffalo, New York, started the project when his coworkers were confused about how much food he was able to eat without seeming to gain any weight.

"I've been blessed with a fast metabolism," Welsted told Business Insider. "I'm a skinny guy — I eat whatever I want."

So he started chronicling his daily intake, including the location, dishes, and cost of each of his meals and beverages. Originally just a simple Google Doc, the project quickly morphed into a Tumblr page that he updates each day, and sometimes even on the go; it takes him about 30 minutes to an hour.

Over the years, he's collected over 5,500 followers of his culinary journey, along with an impressive data log of his (highly) caloric intake and expenses.

He calls his blog "My Terrible Diet." We talked to him to see what he's learned from the project.

SEE ALSO: 11 of the wackiest street foods from around the world

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"I really love eating, and I love food," Welsted said. He eats at restaurants "about 98% of the time." His first foray into documenting his eating was a "Tour de Sub" of a local sub-sandwich shop. He tried all 34 options on the menu.



Then he turned to daily diet-tracking. Because of his habit of eating out — and eating a lot — Welsted's diet isn't for the cost-conscious, or those trying to slim down. Here's a look at a random week in his food diary.



"One of the most remarkable things is that this is the single most expensive thing I do in my life — more expensive than my house mortgage, insurance, car," Welsted said.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Something we have no control over could be playing a huge role in weight gain

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4x3_bi_graphics_food portions then and now

America's waistlines are getting thicker, and it's not simply because we're choosing to pile our plates with more food.

Rather, the baseline portion sizes of our snacks and meals have ballooned — and so have the plates and cups we serve them on.

The average size of many of our foods, be they from fast-food chains, sit-down restaurants, or even the grocery store, has grown by as much as 138% since the 1970s, according to data from the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Nutrition, and the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Take a look:

NEXT UP: 13 ‘health’ foods you’re better off avoiding

CHECK OUT: Here's what the maximum amount of caffeine you should be drinking in a day looks like

The staple city breakfast



A standard cheeseburger



The perfect salty snack



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11 words and phrases you should know if you want to talk like a millennial

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budweiser millennials beer

Language is constantly evolving, what's considered "groovy" yesterday may be "dope" tomorrow. If you'd like to communicate effectively with millennials you'll need to understand the way they speak. 

This primer on popular millennial terms and phrases will let you know what it means to throw shade, be thirsty, or have a bae. If you're wondering whether "bad" means bad or good, the jury's still out.

On fleek

Definition: On point, excellent. 

Origin: The term "on fleek" was coined in 2014 by teenage Vine user Kayla Newman. On her way to a party she referred to her eyebrows as "on fleek." Newman insists that the term wasn't pre-meditated and simply came out of her mouth.

The original Vine video can still be seen (some NSFW language).



Bae

Definition: An acronym for Before Anyone Else.

Origin: While its absolute origin is unknown, the first entry of "Bae" showed up on the popular user-submitted dictionary Urban Dictionary back on August 11, 2006. Urban Dictionary user bubbies claimed it stood for “a lover or significant other,” and at that point "bae" was likely just another way to say babe or baby.

The first instance of "bae" being used with its contemporary definition was a tweet from 2011.

 



G.O.A.T

Definition: An acronym standing for "Greatest of All Time"

Origin: G.O.A.T was originally used as the album title for LL Cool J's 2000 album.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This photographer captures images of the real food people eat around the world — and it's not very glamorous


The best school district in every state

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Aspen School District

There are nearly 100,000 elementary, middle, and high schools in the US, which combine to form an array of school districts of varying size and quality. The best districts are coveted, and a high-caliber school system can be a key factor when a family decides to relocate to one city over another. 

Niche, a company that researches and compiles information on schools, provides a ranking of the best school districts in America— that is, the collective quality of all the schools in a district determined by a grade of overall experience. The ranking includes key factors such as the strength of academics, health and safety, student culture and diversity, and the quality of teachers. Read more about the methodology here.

At the time of calculation, Niche's database contained records for 12,153 school districts. Business Insider searched the ranking to find the best in each state. Sufficient data wasn't available for Hawaii, so it does not appear on this list.

Below is the best school district in each US state.

SEE ALSO: The 25 best school districts in America

AND: The best public high school in every state

ALABAMA: Mountain Brook City Schools

No. of schools: 6

No. of students: 4,477

Academics: A+

Health & safety: A

Student culture & diversity: C-

Teachers: A+

 

 



ALASKA: Unalaska City School District

No. of schools: 2

No. of students: 408

Academics: A

Health & safety: A+

Student culture & diversity: A

Teachers: A+



ARIZONA: Chandler Preparatory Academy

No. of schools: 1

No. of students: 679

Academics: A+

Health & safety: A-

Student culture & diversity: A

Teachers: A+



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The only kind of hair product men should use when their hair is thinning

Thanks to this brain-sensing meditation device, I'm calmer and sleeping great

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Muse

I've written before about my struggles to get a good night's sleep. Like most people, I have times where I can't fall or stay asleep. 

I've tried lots of things: Giving up caffeine (that was hard!), giving up alcohol (even harder), and getting up at 5:30 a.m. to work out (brutally, insanely hard).

My latest trick has been easy, fun, and unbelievably effective: I've been using a brain-sensing device called Muse to meditate for 12 minutes a night right before I go to sleep.

Mediating is when you turn off your thoughts — stop worrying about the future or fretting about the past — and concentrate on the real world around you, such as how your breath feels as it enters and exits your body.

While there are lots of documented health benefits to reducing stress through meditation, Muse isn't making claims as insomnia-curing device. I started using it for this by accident. I tried it before bed one day, and was so relaxed that I fell right to sleep. For the past three weeks of using it, I've slept great.

Read on for how I made Muse work for me ...

SEE ALSO: The Hexoskin workout shirt is (almost) the workout buddy of my dreams

Muse is a device that measures electroencephalogram (EEG) brain waves. It can't "read your thoughts," but it can detect the electrical activity in your brain through sensors.



You put the device on your head and it listens for brainwaves. It can detect five types of brainwaves: delta waves of deep sleep; theta waves during drowsiness, light sleep, and visualization; alpha waves during wakeful relaxation; beta waves during alert activity and problem-solving; gamma waves during higher mental activity like consolidating information.

Source: Muse



Muse must have good contact with the skin to work. It took me five minutes or so to set it up, and you have to set up it every time you use it.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Scientists just embarked on an ambitious $10 million project to study the catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs

The most affordable time to book a hotel in 25 popular cities around the world

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