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The latest news from Life
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    man silhouette alone sunrise sunset

    Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and it can kill. While not the sole cause of suicide, depression is often a contributing factor. And while suicide rates have climbed for nearly 20 years, not a single new drug for depression has emerged.

    Imagine coming to the emergency room "with pain so bad that you can't think," said Cristina Cusin, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard University, and having the doctors give you a drug that takes five weeks to work and has a 40% to 50% chance of not working at all.

    For a person who's suicidal that's "currently the best we can do," Cusin told Business Insider.

    Most treatments for depression and suicidal thinking are limited to a narrow class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, which includes popular drugs like Prozac and Lexapro. While they can help some people, failure rates hover around 50%.

    So researchers are on the hunt for better options.

    While some scientists pursue drugs inspired by ketamine, others are looking hopefully at psychedelics like psilocybin (the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms"). Still others are studying opioid-like drugs and metabolites of key hormones involved in mood regulation like progesterone.

    Ketamine is inspiring novel drugs for some of the hardest-to-treat forms of depression and suicidal thinking

    prescription-pills-medicine-in-hand

    A widely used anesthetic that's also known as a party drug, ketamine, was shown to have benefits as a rapid-fire antidepressant nearly a decade ago. Early studies suggested ketamine could help people who failed to respond to existing medications or were suicidal.

    The authors of one paper called ketamine "the most important discovery in half a century."

    As opposed to existing antidepressants, ketamine acts on a brain mechanism that scientists have only recently begun to explore. Homing in on this channel appears to provide relief from depression that's better, arrives faster, and works in far more people than current drugs.

    After a lack of new drugs for depression spurred scientists to go back to the drawing board, pharmaceutical companies like Allergan and Johnson & Johnson are now in hot pursuit of several new blockbuster depression drugs that take after ketamine.

    Allergan's injectable drug, rapastinel, is in the last phase of clinical trials and has received a key FDA designation designed to speed it through the approval process. The company is also working on an oral-tablet version of rapastinel, but that drug is in an earlier phase of research. Johnson & Johnson presented promising research on its nasal spray drug, esketamine, in May and told Business Insider that it expected to file for FDA approval this year. A third company, VistaGen, is studying a drug that's similar in function to Allergan's but in pill formulation. It expects to see results from an earlier phase of research next year.

    Applying the brakes on the brain could help treat conditions like postpartum depression

    Sage Therapeutics's treatment, brexanolone, acts on GABA, one of the neurotransmitters in the brain. The idea is that by modulating GABA, it may help to treat depression by applying a brake to slow down parts of the brain that could be getting overexcited. To start, Sage is in front of the FDA for approval to treat postpartum depression.

    Norwegian baby sweater sling mother

    In two late-stage, phase-three clinical trials of more than 200 women, researchers found that women who received the injected therapy had a decrease in depressive symptoms over a 30-day compared to the women who were on the placebo control. The FDA is expected to review the drug by December.

    Beyond that, Sage said on Tuesday that it was launching a phase-three trial evaluating the drug in the treatment of major depressive disorder that it would then bring to the FDA for approval as well.

    Existing drugs "don't do fantastic jobs of treating people who suffer," Al Robichaud, the chief scientific officer of Sage Therapeutics, told Business Insider. "We believe we have the opportunity to it better."

    The way opioids work in the brain could lead to new treatments for depression

    At the same time the opioid crisis has been raging in the US, researchers have been looking into whether aspects of the medications could be useful in treating depression. That's the case with a compound from Alkermes, known as ALKS 5461. The drug is being developed to treat major depressive disorder by modulating the opioid system in the brain by combining buprenorphine — a drug often used to treat pain as well as opioid addiction — and samidorphan.

    Unlike a traditional opioid, however, the drug doesn't produce a feeling of euphoria when taken, Alkermes CEO Richard Pops said. "If you're addicted to opioids and you take 5461, you'll go into withdrawal because it's functionally different," he said.

    The drug is in front of the FDA for review, with a decision expected by January.

    A compound in hallucinogenic mushrooms shows promise for depression that develops later in life

    shrooms magic mushrooms psilocybin

    Last year, researchers studying psilocybin, the main psychoactive ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, likened its quick effects on cancer patients with anxiety and depression to a "surgical intervention" for the mental illness.

    Brain-scan studies suggest that depression ramps up the activity in brain circuits linked with negative emotions and weakens the activity in circuits linked with positive ones. Psilocybin appears to restore balance to that system.

    With that in mind, a company called Compass Pathways, which is backed by influential entrepreneur Peter Thiel, has plans to start its own clinical trials of mushrooms for depression later this year.

    That said, no one has yet presented clinical-trial data for a drug formula using psilocybin to the FDA; the compound is still a Schedule 1 substance with "no recognized medical use," according to the Drug Enforcement Administration — a designation that continues to make it difficult to study. That means an FDA-approved psilocybin drug is years away, at best.

    But some researchers still have high hopes that a psilocybin-inspired drug will be approved within a decade. David Nutt, director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit at Imperial College London, told Business Insider last year that he believed psilocybin would become an "accepted treatment" for depression before 2027.

    If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or has had thoughts of harming themselves or taking their own life, get help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) provides free, 24/7, confidential support for people in distress, as well as best practices for professionals and resources to aid in prevention and crisis situations.

    SEE ALSO: 'For a woman to have gotten this in the last 2 years was like winning the Powerball': Sprout is trying to relaunch 'female Viagra' drug

    DON'T MISS: Pharma giants look to ketamine for clues to next blockbuster depression drug, and science says they're onto something big

    Join the conversation about this story »


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    Costco pizza

    • Costco's food court is home to a number of cheap and tasty menu options that members and food critics love.
    • Costco employees themselves have some favorites, too.
    • Business Insider reached out to 47 Costco workers and scoured the web to figure out what meals are considered standout hits with employees.


    Costco food courts are famous for having cheap, yummy grub.

    The food court menus are static in terms of price and offerings. You'll have to travel if you want to find any serious discrepancies between Costco food court menus.

    They're definitely a good option for shoppers looking to grab a quick, post-shopping spree meal. And some Costco employees are fans too.

    "Everything at the food court is a good deal and a favorite of all who stop by to eat," a seasonal Costco employee from New York told Business Insider. "It is a great convenience for everybody, no matter what time of day it is."

    Business Insider recently asked a number of Costco employees to share their favorite food court menu options. We also scoured the internet for employee reviews of the food court items on social media.

    "I eat at the food court more then I would like too," one Ontario-based Costco employee told Business Insider. "It's so good. The cheapest menus I have ever seen."

    Here are the food court menu options Costco employees love:

    SEE ALSO: 30 Costco food court items you'd never guess were on the menu

    DON'T MISS: Costco employees share their best food court secrets and hacks

    DON'T FORGET: 11 insider facts about shopping at Costco only employees know

    Pizza

    "Costco's pizzas are pretty incredible considering the price," Costco worker Stefan Winter wrote on Quora. "Crust is yummy, toppings are good quality, what's not to love?"

    A total of 2o other Costco employees told Business Insider that the pizza was their favorite food court item. Of those, three employees preferred the pepperoni pizza, while three went with the combo pizza.

    "You get sick of the food after awhile, but the combo pizza is always my go-to," one Costco worker in Florida told Business Insider.

    "I love the pepperoni pizza," another employee said. "It's very cheesy with nice and juicy crispy pepperonis."

    The rest just chose "pizza."

    "Fun fact: If you are ordering a whole cheese pizza pie it actually has just over a pound of cheese on it," said one employee who said they ate at the food court on a weekly basis.



    The hot dog-and-soda combo

    "The hot dog soda combo for $1.50 is a classic," one San Diego-based Costco employee told Business Insider.

    Two other Costco employees concurred that the hot dog was their favorite food court item. An Oregon-based employee added that it was the best deal in the whole store.



    Bratwurst

    One Costco employee in Illinois told Business Insider that they liked the bratwurst and felt disappointed when their store got rid of it for chili.

    Another worker who's been at Costco for 12 years told Business Insider that, while they didn't often eat at the food court, when they did, they opted for the bratwurst.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    Gravity blanket

    • The Gravity Blanket is a weighted blanket that's intended to help you feel less stressed and sleep better.
    • The blanket began as a Kickstarter campaign, which raised more than $4.7 million. Now, Gravity says the blanket has netted more than $15 million in sales. 
    • I tested the blanket — along with Gravity's weighted sleep mask — for a few weeks and got some of the best sleep of my life. 
    • The Gravity Blanket helped my mind to stop racing and put me to sleep almost instantly.  

    When first I got a Gravity Blanket to test out, I had big plans for turning it into a scientific experiment. 

    I would wear an Apple Watch, I reasoned, to test how my heart rate responded to a weighted blanket. I planned to take notes about my mood and stress levels to measure whether the blanket could actually relax my central nervous system and calm me down. 

    The problem is, I kept falling asleep. 

    For anyone who hasn't heard of Gravity Blanket or weighted blankets in general, think of it like a Thundershirt for humans. The concept behind weighted blankets is that lying underneath constant and evenly distributed pressure will produce a calming and relaxing effect. Studies have shown that weighted vests or blankets can also help those with autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, high anxiety, or insomnia. 

    But at the most basic level, weighted blankets mostly just feel like a gentle hug. 

    Gravity's version of the weighted blanket began as a Kickstarter project in 2017. Gravity raised more than $4.7 million from nearly 24,000 backers to create a plush, single-person blanket that weighs up to 25 pounds. 

    Now, Gravity says it's sold more than 60,000 weighted blankets, resulting in $15 million in sales. Gravity has now expanded its product lineup to include a weighted sleep mask, a cooling blanket for those who "sleep hot," and a melatonin mist to help you fall asleep. 

    I had the chance to test out the original $250 Gravity Blanket and the $30 weighted mask for a few weeks. I offered them up to friends, coworkers, and anyone who was willing to sit with a 20-pound blanket on top of them. For some people, the experience felt strange and uncomfortable. Others described it as "womb-like."

    Me? I had some of the best naps of my life.

    Gravity blanket

    Size matters

    The first and most important thing you need to know about the Gravity Blanket is that it comes in varying weights. The right blanket for you depends on your size, since it should be equivalent to about 10% of your body weight. 

    Not realizing that, I went with the 20-pound blanket and after a few weeks of testing, found it to be slightly too heavy for me. For most adults, 20 pounds doesn't seem like that much, but it can be overwhelming when you're lying underneath it (or trying to schlep it home on the subway). 

    The other thing to know about the blanket is that it's not the size of a full comforter or duvet, and it's not really meant to be shared. It won't replace your bedding — unless maybe you sleep in a twin bed — and it won't cover both you and a partner at the same time. 

    Plus, at $250, it's one very pricey blanket. 

    Gravity blanket

    'It felt like I was in the womb'

    All that aside, I was curious to see if a seemingly simple — albeit heavy — blanket would have the same effect that is usually found with pharmaceuticals or meditation. Could it really reduce stress and anxiety? Could it help me sleep?

    I decided to offer up the Gravity Blanket to friends, my boyfriend, and coworkers. Let's just say that reactions were ... mixed.

    "It feels like an animal is laying on you," one person said. 

    "I feel relaxed!" another told me. "But maybe it's just a placebo effect?" 

    A friend came over to my house to try it and informed me that the Gravity Blanket made him feel like he "was in the womb." 

    "I ... am .... so ... content," he drowsily told me.

    But for me, testing a Gravity Blanket was like taking a sleeping pill. 

    I'm not someone who typically has a hard time falling or staying asleep — actually, sleeping is one of my favorite pastimes. But I'm not much of a napper, and I have a hard time taking "power naps" or falling asleep when it's still light out. 

    The Gravity Blanket changed all that. 

    Every time I went to go test the blanket, hoping to track how my heart rate changed or at least document how I was feeling, I passed right out. One night, I laid down with the blanket in the early evening and ended up sleeping under it all night. Another night, I used the blanket and sleep mask while in the throes of a migraine, hoping it might alleviate some of my symptoms — I slept for three hours and woke up with a much milder headache. 

    Here's proof, kindly snapped by my boyfriend:

    Gravity blanket

    I haven't been able to try the blanket yet without passing out within moments, but it seems as though I've been reaping the benefits of a weighted blanket, even while asleep. My mind usually races when I'm lying in bed, and I tend to stress about everything from what I'm going to wear the next day, to trips I have planned months from now. The Gravity Blanket seemed to calm my mind enough that I fell asleep instantly, time and again. 

    So while my tests certainly haven't been scientific, I can definitely say the Gravity Blanket helps me feel calm, relaxed — and very, very sleepy. 

    SEE ALSO: The $120 Fire TV Cube might be the smartest Echo device Amazon has ever made — here's what it can do

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: We tried gaming on the Samsung CHG90 ultrawide gaming monitor


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    Beanie Espey (L) with her father James Espey (C) and Rebecca Jago - The Last Drop Distillers

    • Rebecca Jago and Beanie Espey might have the coolest job in the world — they're rare spirit hunters.
    • Their company, The Last Drop Distillers, sells bottles of rare spirits for thousands to high-profile clients and collectors.
    • Business Insider spoke to Jago about how she finds rare liquor and the business she's built around it.


    Rebecca Jago was seven years old when her father, Tom Jago, created the first sample of Bailey's Irish Cream in their family kitchen.

    "We knew that our father worked in a beautiful building and did something quite mysterious," Jago says.

    But it was without the help of consultants and scientists that Jago senior mixed whisky, cream and chocolate Nesquik in a liquidiser to produce what has become a world-famous liqueur. 

    "I remember his excitement vividly: he really felt he was on the verge of something groundbreaking.

    "Even now, I never fail to feel a small thrill of pride and excitement when I say 'my father invented Bailey's Irish Cream'."

    Rebecca Jago and Beanie Espey are businesswomen with a heritage of drinks industry royalty.

    Rebecca Jago (L), Tom Jago (2nd L), Beanie Espey (2nd R) and James Espey (R).

    Jago's father also launched Malibu rum, and Espey's father, James Espey, developed Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Chivas Regal 18-year-old whiskey.

    When the fathers decided to hand down their own small drinks business to their daughters, it was an opportunity they couldn't refuse.

    "We both love what we do but we also love that we're doing it with and for the men that had the original idea," says Jago.

    The company, The Last Drop Distillers, aims "to find, and bottle, for the delectation of friends and connoisseurs alike, the world's finest, rarest and most exclusive spirits," according to their website.

    The job of finding such spirits falls to Jago and Espey — who may just have the best occupations in the world.

    One week they might be cruising through the winding lanes of rural Cognac on the way to an indiscriminate barn filled to the rafters with casks and demijohns of aged brandy. The next they'll be scouring the Douro Valley for a port so old that time (almost) forgot about it.

    Beanie Espey (L) and Rebecca Jago (R), Joint Managing Directors of The Last Drop.

    Rare spirit hunters can't just Google for priceless bottles — rumours reach them through their vast network of contacts, built up over two generations.

    "Initially, they [Tom Jago and James Espey] had to hunt quite hard because nobody knew who they were or what they were doing," Jago says.

    "But the more we go on, the more people are aware of what we're doing and the more we get tip-offs or someone will phone and say there's a cask here of something fabulous and I think it might suit The Last Drop."

    The company likes to keep its offering exclusive, so only introduces new spirits to market one at a time, at a rate of little more than one per year.

    Their next release came about simply as a product of lunch with one of Jago's esteemed contacts, who put her in touch with a man who claimed to have two casks of an extraordinary cognac from 1975.

    So convinced was the owner of his beverage's quality that he served Jago a sample next to Remy Martin's Louis XIII — a bottle of which currently retails at £2,200 ($2,930).

    "He was certain that it was more than good enough — and it was absolutely the best cognac I've ever tasted, so that was a sort of a no-brainer."

    douro valley

    Journeys to find extraordinary spirits don't always work out so well, though.

    Jago recalls being back in Cognac with her father a couple of years ago for what sounded like an excellent opportunity: "We'd been told about a man who had this barn full of amazing cognac dating back to 1906 and beyond."

    "Off we went on this beautiful day and drove with the owner down these lovely lanes in the middle of Cognac and we were really excited. And we got there and there's this barn full of casks and they're all labelled and you're thinking 'this is an amazing treasure trove'. We tasted some of it and thought 'wow this is incredible'."

    But Jago has learnt never to make rash decisions based on one tasting alone — so they took the cognac back to London for the whole team to taste.

    "In the cold light of day, sat in the office in Putney - they were horrible! Which just goes to show how influenced we all are by situations."

    The Last Drop chooses to bottle less than five percent of what they taste. This level of scrutiny is imperative, Jago says, to maintain the reputation of the brand.

    "We are so governed by our reputation that if we were ever to release anything that was below par: that's it. We don't have a 12-year-old mainstream release that keeps the coffers full, this is all we do. So, we have to be completely convinced that we've got a treasure before we bottle it."

    Naturally, this level of rarity and quality comes at a price. The Last Drop's latest release, a 1968 single malt Glenrothes whisky, is currently selling at £5,400 ($6,250) per bottle.

    The Last Drop's latest release, a 1968 Single Malt Glenrothes whisky

    "We would never bottle anything we didn't think was exceptional," says Jago. "The prices we charge are fair for what we're selling and the reason it's expensive is because of the incredibly rigorous process we go through to select what we bottle... and because they're completely irreplaceable. Everything that we bottle is finite and limited."

    "It's got to be old and rare and fresh and delicious — it's got to be all those things."

    So what do people do with their limited edition liquor once they've parted with a significant sum of cash? According to Jago, some people like to collect the releases and store them away — but they'd rather they just drank it.

    "We do not sell The Last Drop as an investment, we sell it as a wonderful experience and an irreplaceable experience. We want people to drink it because it's delicious, rather than buy it and not drink it."

    SEE ALSO: This £13 whisky has been named among the best in the world

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: Prime beef ribs worth £360 are cooked over an indoor fire pit in the middle of this London restaurant


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    tequila

    • Tequila gets a bad rep.
    • While artisan gins and spiced rums are now hugely popular, the evolution of tequila outside Mexico has lagged behind in comparison.
    • But the premium tequila movement is gaining traction.
    • Business Insider spoke to Chris Hare, brand manager of premium tequila brand Cazcabel.
    • Hare shared his tips with Business Insider on how to enjoy it the Mexican way.


    Tequila gets a bad rep. The spirit is too often shot on a sticky dance floor at the end of the night — and it's rarely a refined affair.

    While many bars now boast artisan gin menus, high-end vodkas, and a decent selection of spiced rums, the evolution of tequila outside of Mexico has lagged behind somewhat.

    But the premium tequila movement is gaining traction. And, intriguingly, A-listers have been cashing-in on some of this action.

    Clooney, with his close friend Rande Gerber, founded premium tequila brand Casamigos in 2013 and sold it on to Diageo last year under an agreement for up to $1 billion (£790 million). He was reportedly spotted serving this billion dollar tequila to guests at the royal wedding after party.

    Justin Timberlake also has his own premium tequila brand, Sauza 901, as does P Diddy, with his acquired stake in DeLeón. 

    Business Insider spoke to Chris Hare, brand manager of premium tequila brand Cazcabel. It produces tequila in an independent micro distillery in the town of Arandas, located in the highlands of the Jalisco mountains in Mexico.

    Below is a bottle of Cazcabel's honey-infused tequila.

    Hare said that he believes the reason tequila is one of the last spirits to be premiumised is because people just don't know what to do with it.

    Since there are clearly some fancy tequilas on the market, we asked Hare where we're going wrong ordering, buying, and drinking tequila — and how to do it the Mexican way.

    1. Most of what you've been drinking is probably not made from 100% blue agave, it's a "mixto."

    Agave tequilana used to make tequila

    Hare explained that a good tequila is made 100% from blue agave plants, but said that what most people have been drinking for years is probably a "mixto," which typically only has to contain 51% agave sugars, and the rest can be topped up with added sugars and syrups.

    To know if yours is pure you should look for a sign that says "100% blue agave."

    Most tequila is made in the state of Jalisco, either in the town that is called Tequila or up in the Jaliscan highlands, Los Altos.

    Hare says that there is a microclimate in these mountains, where Cazcabel is also grown, which helps the blue agave plants to grow bigger, at a slower pace, with more flavour.

    2. 'Gold' tequila isn't necessarily better.

    tequila

    Many people claim to prefer prefer "gold" or "brown" tequila, but Hare says the colour doesn't necessarily mean it's better.

    There are many types of tequila. "Blanco," for example, also called "silver" or "white" tequila, is unaged and essentially represents tequila in its purest form. Then there's "reposado," a tequila that has a golden hue and has rested in oak barrels for up to 12 months (the first stage of ageing).

    Anything that has rested over 12 months is known as an "añejo," which typically takes a darker colour than reposados, while anything that's aged over three years is "muy añejo." And they usually go up in price in that order.

    But beware, "mixtos" are also typically golden in colour, this is usually the result of added caramel colourings or flavourings.

    3. Good tequila can be expensive because it takes at least 7 years to grow an agave plant.

    tequila 2It takes between seven and nine years to grow an agave plant, Hare said, sometimes even longer, up to 11 or 12.

    Because it takes so long to grow the plants, there are occasional droughts that disrupt the supply chain and push the price up. "This is especially the case now in terms of supply and demand as demand is very high at the moment," Hare said.

    So Hare advises against scrimping on a bottle, "anything below £20 ($27) is probably a mixto," he said.

    4. Swap salt and lime for a typical Mexican chaser.

    Tequila shots

    Hare says that drinking tequila with salt and lemon is not a thing in Mexico and instead suggests that you try a traditional Mexican chaser with it.

    A "sangrita," is made of juice from tomatoes, pomegranates, spices, and peppers. It's the same ingredients that make up typical salads in Jalisco, Hare said, and at the end of the day, it's customary to drain the leftover juice from the large salad bowls and pour it into a bottle to sip with your tequila as a chaser.

    There's also the "verdita," which consists of pineapple juice, coriander, mint, and jalapeños that can also be enjoyed after your tequila to balance out the acidity.

    5. Sip, don't shot.

    Tequila Shots

    In Mexico, it's all about sipping your tequila and enjoying it throughout the day with food. They use a slightly taller and wider glass than a typical 25ml shot glass you'd normally find in a bar — they call it a "cabellito" (little horse).

    6. Don't serve it too cold.

    While some people do prefer to drink their tequila cold, Hare recommends drinking it at room temperature to get the full range of flavours, just like you would red wine.

    7. Nice tequila cocktails — other than 'margaritas' — do exist.

    Other than the margarita, there aren't that many cocktails that you'd immediately associate with tequila, compared to the vast number of gin, vodka, and rum-based concoctions that are popular with drinkers.

    If you're sticking to the margarita, Hare recommends mixing it up with some pink peppercorn or chipotle salt around the rim "it gives more of a tang," he says, but definitely don't use sugar.

    You could also try a "paloma," which is made with tequila, grapefruit, soda, and sugar. The "matador," an old classic, is another option that consists of tequila, pineapple juice, and lime, according to Hare.

    8. Tequila is said to be an "upper."

    If you're prone to the gin blues, tequila, unlike other other spirits, is said to be an "upper," and many have claimed that it can give feelings of euphoria.

    Even better, while bad tequila is known to be the cause of nightmarish hangovers, Hare claims it is possible to enjoy tequila throughout the night — responsibly of course – and not have a dreadful hangover. But — yes, you guessed it — you first need a decent bottle of tequila, then stick to sipping just that all night.

    couple drinking water fun summer party

    SEE ALSO: The 9 mistakes people make when buying, ordering, and drinking gin — and what to do instead

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: Prime beef ribs worth £360 are cooked over an indoor fire pit in the middle of this London restaurant


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    sidecar cocktail

    From floral touches to smoke and fog, there seems to always be a new trend in the world of booze — but some cocktails simply stand the test of time.

    Drinks International has released its list of the best-selling cocktails around the world in 2018, and it proves that most of today's popular drinks are new takes on the classics.

    The website compiled the list by asking 106 of the best bars in the world — using the results of the World's 50 Best Bars list — to rank their 10 best-selling cocktails.

    From Sidecars to Sazeracs, scroll down to see the 30 best-selling cocktails in the world, ranked in ascending order.

    SEE ALSO: The 25 best-selling cocktails in the world in 2017

    SEE ALSO: The biggest mistake people make when drinking wine is choosing the wrong glass — here's exactly how to drink Bordeaux, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and pinot noir

    30. Gimlet. Down 14 places since last year, this drink is essentially gin and juice — a 75/25 gin-to-lime-cordial ratio is what's most common.



    29. Champagne Cocktail. There are variations of this drink, but they all aim to make fizz even more fancy. To make it, cover a sugar cube with bitters then pour Champagne over that.



    28. French 75. Up two places since last year, this cocktail — made popular in Paris in the 20s — is made with London dry gin, lemon juice, sugar, and Champagne.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    David Gandy attends the Huntsman and The Gentleman's Journal LCM Cocktail Evening on June 11, 2016 in London, England.

    • It's not just the suit that counts, it's how you wear it.
    • "A nice shirt, tie, and pocket square can change the look," tailor Will Davison says.
    • However, a nice suit can be ruined by matching accessories.


    Sometimes, it's not enough just to own a nice suit— it's how you wear it that counts.

    Luckily, this doesn't have to mean spending a fortune at a tailor, and accessorising well can help upgrade a look effortlessly.

    According to tailor Will Davison, "A nice shirt, tie, and pocket square can change the look."

    However, the co-founder of Jack Davison Bespoke told Business Insider that there's one mistake guys often make — and that's matching the pattern of their pocket square exactly to their tie.

    "Lots of people get hung up on having a matching tie and a matching pocket square, but we don't personally like it," Davison says.

    Instead, he suggests: "Pick out a colour from the tie or the suit and have that in the pocket square so they're similar tones to each other but not completely matching."

    Jack Stammers (L) and Will Davison (R) of Jack Davison Bespoke.

    The City of London tailors aren't the only ones to have a distaste for matching accessories.

    "One of the big pocket square no-nos for me is when they directly match the tie like they came together in a set," Dan Rookwood, US Editor at Mr Porter, told FashionBeans. 

    "A pocket square should be used to add some interest in terms of colour and/or pattern," he added.

    how to wear a pocket square graphic

    Pocket square makers Rampley & Co agree.

    "If your pocket square has a pattern or print, for example, then pick a colour from that palette to bring your look together and match it to a primary colour in your ties," they say on their website.

    In short, your pocket square should complement your look — not match or clash with it.

    SEE ALSO: This is the suit you should build your wardrobe around, according to the tailor duo who dress celebrities and City of London bankers

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: This glassblowing master sculpts incredibly realistic animals out of glass


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    lunar lander tiny home diy washington 2

    Tiny homes aren't anything new. Tiny homes that look like spaceships might be, though. 

    Take, for example, one such dwelling in Central Washington, modeled after a lunar lander — a spacecraft used by astronauts to descend onto the moon's surface, most famously during the historic Apollo 11 landing. 

    This one will have a slightly less cosmic purpose. 

    Kurt Hughes took his three decades of boat designing and tried his hand at home building to produce the 250-square-foot white hexagonal hut. He runs a ship design business full-time in Seattle, so the lunar module will be used for weekend trips and creative respites, Hughes told The Seattle Times. He hasn't been to space so far, but who knows what the future holds?

    Take a look inside his intergalactic pied-à-terre.

    SEE ALSO: Designed for a community of tech elites, these tiny homes are 3D printed, run by Tesla batteries, and cost $250,000

    Hughes got the idea to build his lander home 10 years ago, when his daughter attended space camp at Seattle's Museum of Flight. Hughes sketched a lunar lander for her, and she ended up getting it signed by Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise.

    Haise reportedly described the accommodations of the real-life lunar lander as "pretty comfortable." And so the idea was born.

    Source: The Seattle Times



    Hughes wanted to honor that era of wonder and space exploration with his tiny home. Mid-century touches and color schemes are found inside.

    For the house number, Hughes even used a font called American Captain Patrius that mirrors the lettering on the original Apollo vessels.

    Source: The Seattle Times



    He positioned the 3,000-pound, hexagon-shaped home on the Columbia River bank in Central Washington, aiming to make as little impact on the environment as possible.

    A small deck on the upper level overlooks the river bank.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    Tim Cook looking at iMac Retina display

    • A new feature in the iPhone operating system shows how much time you spend on your phone.
    • You'll be able to download it this fall. 
    • People are going to be shocked about the number of hours per day they spend on their phone.

    I've never had a software update cause me to rethink my lifestyle, but the latest version of the iPhone operating system forced me to take a hard look at myself — and my relationship with my iPhone.

    And when everyone gets access to iOS 12 this fall, it's going to surprise millions of people. 

    Tucked into the updated iPhone settings menu is a new collection of features called Screen Time. It collects data on how many times you use your phone and how many times you pick it up. It also includes statistics on which apps you use most, and how many notifications you receive. Apple Screen Time

    Reader, I was shocked. This week, I picked up my phone about 248 times per day on average. I use my phone for so many hours on a daily basis I'm embarrassed to share the exact number, but it's upwards of 5 hours.

    Before I looked at these stats, I didn't think I had a phone problem. I've actively tried to limit notifications, and I try really hard not to check my phone during meetings or conversations, so I'm not being rude to people around me.

    I'm still not sure if I have a phone problem, but I may simply be in denial. The fact is that I'm using my phone for a huge number of my waking hours — a way higher percentage than I would have guessed without these stats. 

    Not alone 

    I'm not alone in being surprised at the statistics in Apple's Screen Time feature. At Apple's annual developer conference, which took place in San Jose, California earlier this month, hundreds of software engineers downloaded and installed the beta version of iOS with Screen Time, and many of them were surprised too.

    The Screen Time feature was a common topic of conversation among the people who had travelled to California to learn how to best make software for Apple computers. But like myself, many attendees who would discuss phone overuse in general were also hesitant to share their official stats, as if they were an embarrassing secret. 

    Even Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, said that the numbers surprised him.  

    "I've been using it and I have to tell you: I thought I was fairly disciplined about this. And I was wrong," Cook said in an interview with CNN. "When I began to get the data, I found I was spending a lot more time than I should."

    Which apps was he using the most? 

    "I don't want to give you all the apps. But too much. And the number of times I picked up the phone were too many," Cook continued. "I also found the number of notifications I was getting just didn't make sense anymore. You know, Notifications started out as something to tell you about something really important happening. And all too often now, it's like everything is important."

    According to Cook, though, Apple isn't worried that giving this information to users could impact Apple's business.

    Screen Time limit"We've never been focused on usage as a key parameter. We want people to be incredibly satisfied, and empowered by our devices that we ship," Cook said in the CNN interview. "But we've never wanted people to spend a lot of time, or all their time, on them. It's a personal thing about how much is too much. "

    Changing standards

    There is some hope that Apple's new features — as well as similar updates from Google— may start changing the focus around digital health and and shifting cultural assumptions and conventions. 

    "This will set a new direction and new race to the top for who cares more about protecting human values," Tristan Harris, a former Google designer who has become a digital health activist, tweeted after Apple announced Screen Time.

    But now, the features seem to be advisory. They're tools to assess your phone usage, not to fix it. They're not going to change people's habits by themselves. 

    I turned on a Screen Time feature called Downtime. By default, after 10 p.m. it locked me out of every app that wasn't a core feature like calls and texts, including all games and all social networks. I couldn't check Twitter or use Safari until the morning. In practice, it's a lot like a stripped-down "essential mode" suggested by several groups, including Stanford Students Against Addictive Devices. 

    For me, it worked — for the most part I didn't use my phone after 10. But I ended up checking Twitter or playing games on my laptop or iPad instead. There was also an option to ignore the time limit and use a blocked app anyway, although I never did.

    "The problem lies more in the social expectations around how we all participate in these behaviors," said Alana Harvey, a co-founder of Flipd, an app that locks people out of distracting apps. "Spending way too much time on social media, caring too much about social media, caring too much responding really quickly to people, Googling things rather that sitting and having a debate."

    "There are going to be all these features, but are they going to assist with helping people actually getting off their phones and do something better with their time?" she asked. "At the end of the day, it's very much in a user's hands to make those decisions."

    In my weeklong experience with Screen Time, I realized that the features by themselves aren't going to reduce a heavy user's daily time, although Apple's Screen Time does let you set time limits (that the user can override.) But just knowing the scope of the problem is the first step. 

    "Empowering people with the facts, will allow them to decide themselves how they want to cut back, or if they want to cut back," Cook said in the CNN interview. 

    For me, the facts have told me that I need to cut back. We'll see if iOS 12 this fall prompts millions of others to do the same. 

    SEE ALSO: Apple is planning 3 new iPhone models this year

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: How Apple can fix HomePod and Siri


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    father daughter son

    It might be time to give your dad some credit.

    Because, according to a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center, chances are he's doing a pretty good job.

    While experiences and cultural standards about fatherhood vary, it's still one of the hardest jobs a man can have in his lifetime. 

    The traditional American family is changing in surprising ways, and the role of the modern father is evolving as well. Today, dads are more involved, more engaged, and less concerned about the "Brady Bunch"-style vision of the American dad.

    In honor of Father's Day, here are 6 ways that fathers have been stepping it up in America in big ways.

    SEE ALSO: A tech CEO's experience as a single dad convinced him to overhaul his $3 billion company’s benefits

    They spend more time with their kids, but still say it's not enough

    According to the report, 46% of fathers say they spend more time with their kids than their parents did with them. That means that just one generation of fatherhood has drastically changed the amount of engagement between father and child.

    And 48% of fathers in the study still thought they didn't spend enough time with their kids in general, suggesting they are more concerned with fostering a healthy relationship through bonding time and shared interests, apparently even enjoying shopping together.



    They are more concerned about work-life balance

    Many working fathers feel the struggle of balancing work and parenting, with 52% of fathers saying it's a challenge to juggle the responsibilities of work and family and 29% saying they always feel rushed to fit it all in. In 1977, only 35% of fathers reported having problems balancing work and family.  

    It's still relatively new for companies to offer decent parental leave for fathers after becoming parents, but some companies are leading the way in providing new dads with some quality time with their newborns. 

     



    They aren't always the sole breadwinner anymore

    About two-thirds of households today are dual-earner families. In 1970, there were about 25% less than that. Having two income earners has allowed parents to more comfortably split their time raising their children and working, allowing dads to spend more time with their kids than 50 years ago.  

    The percentage of working mothers has steadily risen in the past 10 years, challenging the idea that women should stay home and men should be the primary breadwinner. The American Psychological Association found that two-income families can be happier and healthier due to a more balanced lifestyle.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    cofounders of front mathilde collin laurent perrin

    • Raising venture capital for a startup is no cakewalk. There are high stakes, probing questions from investors, and pressure from employees to return to the office with a term sheet.
    • So it's noteworthy that Mathilde Collin, the 28-year-old cofounder and CEO of the shared-inbox app Front, snagged $66 million and 10 investment offers in five days.
    • Collin shared with us her best advice for raising venture capital. 

    When Mathilde Collin, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, was ready to start raising venture capital for her company's series B round, she made a ground rule for herself.

    Collin scheduled all meetings with investors for one week.

    Having a short window creates a little competition among the venture capitalists, who might offer more attractive deals if the company is hot and time is wasting. For Collin, setting a deadline for herself was simply about speeding up the process.

    "I don't necessarily like raising funding," Collin told Business Insider.

    She might not like it, but she's arguably very good at it. In January, her company, the shared-inbox platform Front, raised $66 million in a series B round led by Sequoia Capital. During her five-day fundraising binge, Collin snagged 10 term sheets, or investment offers, from 11 of the investors she pitched — an impressive achievement for a first-time founder.

    Front has raised a total of $79 million to change the way teams get work done. The startup makes an app that lets teams handle messages from email, texts, Slack, and social media, all in one place. More than 3,000 businesses around the world use Front.

    Here's how she did it

    Raising venture capital for a startup is no cakewalk. There are high stakes, probing questions from investors, and pressure from employees to return to the office with a term sheet.

    Collin said that before an entrepreneur takes the plunge, they should think critically about whether they're ready to raise funding.

    Front wasn't strapped for cash. The company managed to burn only $3 million from a $10 million series A round in 2016, and Front is already making money as a paid service for enterprises.

    front app screenshots

    Still, Collin said she wanted to grow Front more quickly and hire a significant number of engineers. She decided she was ready to raise when Front ended three consecutive quarters during which revenue, app usage, and employee headcount all increased and sustained their growth — though Collin admits that part of the decision came down to a feeling.

    She worked with employees on the data and business operations team to put together a pitch deck, a presentation that entrepreneurs give to investors when seeking a round of funding. In about 24 slides, the pitch deck told the complete story of Front. It addressed the pain points that Front aims to solve, the achievements of the company so far, and the long-term vision of how Front wants to reinvent email.

    The pitch deck was also chock-full of data and insights, such as annual recurring revenue, the number of employees who have left Front so far (zero), and its marketing spend.

    According to Collin, the investors she pitched seemed to be most impressed with three key metrics: efficiency, consistency, and net retention rate.

    • Front is building a successful business without blowing through all its cash. Collin's pitch deck demonstrated a track record of capital efficiency by sharing how much money the company had raised to date (about $13 million between seed financing and series A), how much cash it had left ($7 million before the series B), and how long it could survive with 0% growth, also known as runway (18 months).
    • The company is growing and sustaining that growth. Front is seeing explosive growth across revenue, app usage (messages sent and comments written), and the number of large teams using the app. Collin pointed out that there were no major dips across these metrics from one quarter to the next.
    • People like using Front. The pitch deck showed that while revenue is increasing, churn keeps trending down, meaning the rate at which existing customers cancel their Front subscriptions is falling. They also use the app more over time.

    With these facts and figures in mind, Collin wowed several Silicon Valley investors. Participating in the company's series B round was actually so competitive that partners of Sequoia Capital built a custom Lego set to persuade Collin, a known Lego enthusiast, to accept their offer. The top-tier venture firm wound up leading the $66 million round.

    Collin said that ultimately she was successful in fundraising because Front is a good idea.

    "Investors are driven by the fear of missing out — and if Front is successful, then Front will be very successful, because everyone uses email," Collin said. "Everyone needs a tool like this."

    SEE ALSO: 10 new tech trends that VC investors say will completely change life and business in the next 4 years

    Join the conversation about this story »

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    the incredibles 2

    • Disney/Pixar's "Incredible 2" took in an estimated $180 million.
    • That's the best opening ever for an animated release.
    • It passed 2016's "Finding Dory" ($135 million).

    Pixar — and the superhero Parr family — has put Disney back on top.

    Following a little speed bump with the lackluster release of "Solo: A Star Wars Story," the house that Mickey Mouse built has rebounded quite nicely with the record-breaking opening for "Incredibles 2."

    The movie took in an estimated $180 million over the weekend, according to BoxOfficePro.com. That destroys the $135 million opening by the previous record holder, 2016's "Finding Dory."

    And like "Dory," which was released 13 years after its original, "Finding Nemo," the long wait for a sequel to "Incredibles" didn't hurt mass audience interest. Fourteen years after the original "Incredibles," the movie sucked up all the box office this weekend, attracting not just kids (many who weren't around for the opening of the original movie), but their parents as well.

    "Incredibles 2" also beat "Finding Dory" to become the second-biggest opening of all time in the month of June (behind the $208.8 million by 2015's "Jurassic World").

    The movie's $71.5 million opening day tally on Friday (including a record-breaking $18.5 million in Thursday preview screenings) also shattered the best single day at the box office for an animated movie, again passing "Finding Dory" ($54.7 million).

    The summer movie season will potentially continue to bring in more major coin next weekend with Universal's "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" hits theaters domestically. The movie has already had an impressive overseas run, having made $300 million so far, topped by an impressive opening this weekend in China.

    SEE ALSO: The 29 most rewatchable movies of all time

    SEE ALSO: 15 adults who are way too excited to see 'Incredibles 2' this weekend

    Join the conversation about this story »

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    vsco collage 1

    • Photo-editing app VSCO has surpassed one million paid users.
    • It's one of the fastest-growing subscription-based businesses in the world, in spite of fierce competition from lots of free apps and Instagram.
    • The CEO of VSCO says Generation Z is driving the app's explosive growth.

    Every day more than 95 million photos are shared to Instagram. It's a juggernaut in the field of social networks, with more than 800 million monthly active users.

    So it's noteworthy that an Instagram alternative called VSCO has surpassed one million paid users for VSCO X, its subscription service launched in early 2017.

    The app's rapid trajectory makes it one of the fastest growing subscription-based businesses in the world, and has helped grow VSCO's revenue 91% year over year in 2017. It's on track to increase revenue 100% this year, according to the company.

    A subscription to VSCO X, which unlocks exclusive photo-editing tools and tutorials, costs $19.99 a year. That might not sound like much, but consider that there are dozens of free apps like it, and Instagram has its own suite of filters and tools that let users play with their photos and share with family and friends without ever having to leave the app.

    As it turns out, it's Generation Z that's helping VSCO X rocket up the charts.

    People under the age of 25 make up nearly 75% of all VSCO users, with Generation Z accounting for the largest segment of paid customers on VSCO X, according to the company. The fastest growing group of VSCO users are between the ages of 13 and 17.

    vsco collage 2

    There was a period of time when this surprised founder and CEO Joel Flory, a former wedding photographer who started the company in 2011 with an art-director friend.

    "We were building [the product] for ourselves and realized that we no longer were the majority of users on VSCO," Flory told Business Insider at the startup's headquarters in Oakland.

    From the beginning, VSCO set itself apart from rival photo apps and social networks by doing away with "vanity metrics," such as likes, comments, and follower counts. There are no ads or leadersboard, but instead, a feed of carefully curated content.

    "For us, the only thing we wanted to show with the photo is the person who made it. That's really what we wanted it to be about," Flory said.

    vsco iphone 2

    According to Flory, this focus on the creator really resonated with Generation Z. With the launch of a subscription service, VSCO learned that young people were even willing to pay for tools in an app space that let them "be who they are ... try new things," without the pressure and anxiety around building a following and collecting likes.

    Born between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Generation Z is building a reputation as the most socially conscious age group. A recent white paper from MNI Targeted Media Inc., a division of the Meredith Corporation, found that more than half of Generation Z say that knowing a brand has strong values and is "doing their part to make the world a better place" is important to them and directly influences their buying decisions.

    "This generation makes sophisticated choices about identity, purpose, and values," researchers at the firm said. "They've spent their lives surrounded by digital content and they know how to filter anything that lacks the right tone, language, and relevancy."

    vsco collage 5

    VSCO is the fifth most popular photo and video app for iPhones in the US, according to app market data company App Annie, behind YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Google Photos, in that order. Its ranking by monthly active users has been rising over the last year, while Instagram's rank remains stable. Flory has largely Generation Z to thank.

    The team at VSCO is constantly adding new filters, photo-editing tools, and educational content to the VSCO X platform so that the value of their subscription builds all the time.

    "It's really about providing the ultimate experience for that creative," Flory said. "For us, it's not about some other company's way. It's about the VSCO way."

    SEE ALSO: 37 incredible drone photos from across the globe that would be totally illegal today

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: I quit social media for a month — and it was the best choice I've ever made


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    raiders of the lost ark

    These are the movies that you can never escape — and that's not a bad thing.

    They are the movies that you stop everything to watch, can get sucked into even if it's halfway through, and know every single line of.

    These are the best rewatchable movies.

    From Steven Spielberg classics, like "Jaws" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark," to romantic comedies, such as "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and "Hitch," to classics, like "The Godfather" and "Toy Story," these are the titles that keep us in love with movies.

    Here are the 29 most rewatchable movies of all time:

    SEE ALSO: 'The Staircase' is Netflix's latest addictive true-crime series that will keep you guessing

    "A Christmas Story" (1983)

    Perhaps it's because of the 24-hour marathon of the movie on TV every Christmas, but Bob Clark's adaptation of Jean Shepherd's stories is a nostalgic look at the holidays and childhood that never gets old no matter how many times you watch it (even in one sitting during Christmas Day).



    "Back to the Future" (1985)

    From the premise to the performances to the soundtrack, everything about Robert Zemeckis' classic makes it a movie that you can never get tired of.



    "Big" (1988)

    The playfulness of Tom Hanks playing a teenager in an adult's body is the essence of this movie and a joy to watch, even decades later.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    Technology

    • Technology can have serious effects on our health, and Americans consume over 10 hours of media per day.
    • Living technology-free is nearly impossible in this day and age, yet my wife and I decided to raise our son with very limited technology to avoid these risks.
    • Here's how we're raising our son with very little technology.

     

    In today's world, it's nearly impossible for anyone to live technology-free. The more pressing issue is how much time people spend in front of a screen — especially our children.

    I watched way too much television growing up, got sucked into the rabbit hole of AOL chat rooms, and played Heretic online in high school. And now, as a writer and editor, I stare into a screen all day every day.

    When our son was born, my wife and I agreed he would not be exposed to any screens until he was two years old — and even then we were skittish.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests limiting screen time to one hour per day of high-quality programming from ages two through five. Kids ages six and older should have "consistent limits" on time spent with screens, set by parents.

    When our son was approaching age 3, we gradually introduced clips from age-appropriate quality television programming: "Curious George" (which is designed to help kids learn) and "Thomas & Friends." He watched these on my laptop.

    As my son grew older, watching these clips became part of his bedtime routine. Soon, the clips turned into episodes. We would watch an episode of "Curious George," which is two 12-minute episodes in one, with closed captions on. My wife and I would watch with him. To transition him to brushing teeth or reading books, we'd remind him that after the second episode, we'd move on in his routine.

    It wasn't until our son turned five that he started watching movies at home. First up, "Ghostbusters" (the original!). Now, we find ourselves watching one movie every weekend: "Captain Underpants," the "Lego" movies, and "Night at the Museum," to name a few.

    At his sixth-year checkup this year, I asked our pediatrician about watching television and movies. As a "Star Wars" fan himself, he couldn't say no to our letting him watch it.

    He said that healthy viewing habits come down to two questions:

    1. Is the program age-appropriate / do you feel comfortable with him watching it?
    2. Are you watching it with him?

    The latter, co-watching, is helpful because you know what they're viewing and can turn it into a way for your child to learn. (We started playing a series of "Star Wars" trivia games, for example.)

    Moderating tech use in a sea of screens

    As a parent, I watch my own screen time as much as I do my son's.

    When I'm at the playground, I actually play with my child, or if I'm speaking with another parent, I have my eyes locked on his location. As I scan the playground for my son, I often see other parents sitting on benches with their heads down, staring at their phones.

    Schools are a sea of screens, as well. Every classroom at my son's public school has a smartboard, and they're often used to watch videos. What happened to teachers teaching? My wife and I have already committed to sending him to a different school, still in our neighborhood, where not one smartboard exists and children get to interact more freely with one another.  

    Additionally, Cleveland Clinic recently reported that a study found up to 42% of children have access to tablets, which may be contributing to eye strain and nearsightedness in children. "Nearsightedness progression is far more detrimental to children at a young age because this is when they're developing their eyes and their eyes are still growing, especially kids in their teens and preteen years," Dr. Mariana Eisenberg, of Cleveland Clinic, said.

    As parents, we have to understand how detrimental too much screen time can be. American adults are already consuming over 10 hours worth of media a day, CNN reported. It's common to see parents use iPads and other devices to keep their children occupied during dinner at a restaurant. Why can't parents draw with them, read them a book, play I-Spy, or let the kids play with cars?

    There are times, like traveling, when you need to cut yourself and your child some slack and simply give in to temptation. However, as with anything you want your child to do, it's all about modeling the behavior. So, if you want to limit your child's screen time, think about unplugging yourself.

    SEE ALSO: 4 reasons I gave up Facebook — and why I'm not going back

    Join the conversation about this story »

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    Bill Gates

    • Father's Day has arrived in the United States.
    • Dads love to give advice. And, sometimes, it turns out to be pretty great advice.
    • Check out these insights from the fathers of people who went on to succeed in business.


    Father's Day is here in the US. Time to contemplate everything your dad has done for you — and maybe even reflect on his advice and insight.

    You never know. Your dad's classic mantra might turn out to be words to live by. Plenty of famous success stories have had great results with taking such paternal gems to heart.

    In honor of Father's Day, we've collected the best advice super-successful business leaders ever got from their dads.

    Here's the fatherly wisdom:

    SEE ALSO: A tech CEO's experience as a single dad convinced him to overhaul his $3 billion company’s benefits

    Meg Whitman: Be nice

    While "be nice" may sound like a platitude, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO said it's some of the most important advice she ever got. 

    "I'll never forget my father telling me that," Whitman recalled in Fortune in 2005. "I had been mean to someone. He said, 'There is no point in being mean to anyone at any time. You never know who you're going to meet later in life. And by the way, you don't change anything by being mean. Usually you don't get anywhere.'"



    T. Boone Pickens: Have a plan

    The chairman of BP Capital Management was a student at Oklahoma State when his dad arrived on campus for his fraternity initiation — and delivered a life-changing message.

    "A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan any day," he told Pickens. "And your mother and I think we have a fool with no plan. We think you're wasting your time here in Stillwater. You're not getting anywhere."

    His dad was right, Pickens wrote on LinkedIn in 2014. "I had to admit I wasn't burning up the place." But within a month of that visit, everything changed. He picked a track and switched his major. "I got a plan," he says, "and I've had one ever since."



    Bill Gates: Do what you're not good at

    These days, the former Microsoft CEO and his lawyer father give each other advice as cochairs of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but back in the day, the elder Gates was the one doling out counsel to his son. 

    The most important lesson Gates ever learned from his dad? Invest in things — even if you're not good at them.

    In a 2009 conversation with Fortune, he recalled that both his parents encouraged him to "to go out for a lot of different sports like swimming, football, soccer," he says. "At the time I thought it was kind of pointless, but it ended up really exposing me to leadership opportunities and showing me that I wasn't good at a lot of things, instead of sticking to things that I was comfortable with."

    His father agrees that those early forced softball team memberships seem to have worked out okay. "Apparently it turned out to be good advice."



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    father baby

    When it comes to children, the only certain things about them is that they’ll cry, they’ll poop and repeat.

    Handling that is the easy part. Everything else is a minefield waiting to be stepped on. 

    It doesn’t matter how many books you read, videos you watch, classes you take or parents you talk to, raising your own child and the affects it will have on you will only become known once you’re in the trenches.

    While it may sometimes sound like war, having a kid is truly incredible. There are a few things, however, I wish I knew before my son arrived. 

    SEE ALSO: 10 hard truths no one tells you about buying a house

    SEE ALSO: 9 things I wish I knew before I got married

    You're on your own

    The baby’s born. Family comes to visit you at the hospital, friends send you text messages and your social media blows up with good wishes from the kid you sat next to in third grade. Then after 48 hours, at which point your insurance company strong-arms the hospital to discharge you, you're figuring out how to install a car seat.

    No matter how many books you read, other babies you hold, or advice you half-listen to from your in-laws, when you have your first child, it's the first time you're a parent and you're going to have to figure everything our for yourself. 

    We wanted to breast feed, but my wife couldn’t. Our son wasn’t eating. We didn’t wait for the first-week checkup. We were at the pediatrician’s office on day 3 to find out what kind of bombshell news we were going to be hit with. It’s scary. You and your partner need to hang on tight like Thelma & Louise because if you’re not in this together, you will drive each other off a cliff.



    They really, really, really like sleeping in your bed

    Me, my wife and my newborn son all lived in the same bedroom for the first year of his life.  It wasn't always ideal, but it was easy to roll over and pick him up from his crib and bring him into our bed. He'd call for us, and we'd go get him. 

    Eventually when he was in a toddler bed, he could simply get out of bed on his own and climb into ours, parting my wife and I like the Red Sea, sometimes not even feeling he was in between us. Well, I would, because he’d kick mercilessly, which may explain my lower back issues and my affinity for sleeping on couches.



    It's incredibly hard to break habits

    Once you start letting your child do something it becomes a pattern. Some people may object to welcoming their child into their bed, for example, like we did. Sure, doing so sometimes put a damper on personal time with my wife, but all my son ever wanted when climbing into bed with us was to snuggle and feel comfortable. 

    Sharing our bed with my son really allowed my wife and I to build our relationship with him, but to this day he still likes to fall asleep in our bed every night before I pick him up and transfer him to his own bedroom. Although it's not necessarily a bad habit, my wife and I are looking forward to upgrading to a king sized mattress. 



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    Sara Blakely family

    • Spanx founder Sara Blakely is one of the richest self-made women in the world.
    • Blakely said her father encouraged her to always share her failures along with her accomplishments.
    • Blakely told Business Insider that she's passing the lesson onto her four kids: "One of the parenting things I think is so important is not praising the child, but praising the effort."

    From a young age, Spanx founder Sara Blakely was encouraged to take risks.

    In a Business Insider video, Blakely said her dad used to invite her and her brother to share their failures at the dinner table. Instead of being disappointed or upset, he would celebrate their efforts.

    "What it did was reframe my definition of failure," Blakely said of the tradition. "Failure for me became not trying, versus the outcome."

    Eventually, Blakely began to find value in her shortcomings.

    "My dad would encourage me any time something didn't go the way I expected it to, or maybe I got embarrassed by a situation, to write down where the hidden gifts were and what I got out of it," she said. "I started realizing that in everything there was some amazing nugget that I wouldn't have wanted to pass up."

    While Blakely thinks "so many people don't take risks for fear of failure," she isn't one of them. Despite having next to no knowledge about fashion design, retail, or business, she believed in the idea for her now-ubiquitous shape-wear company wholeheartedly. She spent two years — and $5,000 of her own money — diligently patenting the idea, finding a hosiery manufacturer, prototyping the product, and successfully pitching it to Neiman Marcus, all while working a full-time job.

    Business Insider caught up with Blakely at Cosmopolitan and SoFi's Fun Fearless Money event and asked if she's continued her dad's dinner-table tradition with her four kids.

    "I'm already having that conversation with my 7-year-old. I talk to him all about, 'What have you tried to fail at this week?'," Blakely said.

    Though she said it's still a hard concept for him to grasp, she makes a point to celebrate his efforts, whether it be on the soccer field or at school.

    "One of the parenting things I think is so important is not praising the child, but praising the effort," Blakely said. "And if he does things he's not good at, I talk to him about what he gets out of it."

    SEE ALSO: A counterintuitive change to your daily schedule can make you feel happier and less busy

    DON'T MISS: This CEO turned down her dream job to build an email newsletter into a business with $28 million, 25 million fans, and a clothing line at Target

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    NOW WATCH: How Sara Blakely went from door-to-door saleswoman to billionaire philanthropist


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    Stephen Miller

    White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has been identified as the driving force behind the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy that separates immigrant children from their families at the US-Mexico border.

    At 32 years old, he has been a rising star on the far right for years, often making headlines because of his polarizing demeanor and statements long before The New York Times reported June 16 that he was the origin of the controversial policy.

    Miller's stature in Washington, DC, politics has grown as he emerged as a key player in talks to end the government shutdown in January, effectively serving as Trump's surrogate for crafting the White House position on immigration policy.

    One of the few remaining staffers from Trump's 2016 campaign, Miller also writes the president's biggest speeches, including Trump's first State of the Union address.

    His hard-line positions and knack for policy have made him a force to be reckoned with. But before Miller became a major figure in the Trump administration, he was an outspoken, conservative activist in high school and college who worked on congressional campaigns.

    Here's how Miller became Trump's right-hand policy man:

    SEE ALSO: Stephen Miller had to be escorted off CNN's set after his interview with Jake Tapper went off the rails

    DON'T MISS: A far-right darling in the White House was the one who convinced Trump the US should separate parents from their children at the border

    Stephen Miller was born in Santa Monica, California, on August 23, 1985, to a Jewish family whose ancestors fled persecution in what is now Belarus. His family was liberal-leaning, but Miller says he became a stalwart conservative at an early age.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter



    In 2002, at age 16, Miller wrote in a letter to the editor that "Osama Bin Laden would feel very welcome at Santa Monica High School" because of the student body's anti-war attitude after 9/11. Soon enough, Miller began appearing on conservative talk radio in the Los Angeles area.

    Sources: The LookOut, Univision, Politico Magazine



    A video emerged in 2017 of his giving a student-government campaign speech at Santa Monica High in which he argued that students shouldn't have to pick up their own trash because there are "plenty of janitors who are paid to do it" for them. The audience quickly booed him off the stage.

    Sources: The Washington Post, Politico Magazine



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    Stephen Curry NBA Finals Riley Curry

    • Being an active father impacts your success in a number of important ways.
    • Fatherhood can factor into how much you earn, your health and eating habits, and your happiness, among other things.
    • Based on scientific research, we compiled 9 significant ways being a dad impacts success.

    Fatherhood isn't a one-size-fits-all cap you simply slip on once you have a child.

    Working dads wear many hats when they become a parent, and for each father, how and when you wear these hats differs.

    Some fathers split the child-rearing responsibilities with their partner down the middle, while others focus more on breadwinning and others still become primary caregivers at home.

    At the end of the day, active fatherhood will inevitably affect your success, though how is a slightly more complicated issue.

    Hopefully, these studies will begin to unpack the question of how being a dad impacts your success a little and help us better understand the many factors at play:

    SEE ALSO: The science behind why paid parental leave is good for everyone

    DON'T MISS: Science says parents of successful kids have these 13 things in common

    Being a dad could make you more hirable

    A study out of Cornell found that, while employers tend to discriminate against mothers, fatherhood actually provides a boost in opinion from employers.

    As part of the study, researchers sent employers fake, almost identical résumés with one major difference: some résumés indicated that the job applicant was part of a parent-teacher association.

    Male job candidates whose résumés mentioned the parent-teacher association were called back more often than men whose résumés didn't, while women who alluded to parenthood in this way were half as likely to get called back than women who didn't.

    The study participants also rated fathers as more desirable job candidates than mothers and non-fathers and deemed them more competent and committed than mothers or men without kids. At the same time, applicants who were fathers were allowed to be late to work significantly more times than mothers or non-fathers.



    Having a child can help you earn more money if you're a father

    "For most men the fact of fatherhood results in a wage bonus," research group Third Way's president Jonathan Cowan and resident scholar Dr. Elaine C. Kamarck write about "The Fatherhood Bonus and The Motherhood Penalty: Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Pay." 

    In the academic paper, author Michelle J. Budig, a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, writes that, "While the gender pay gap has been decreasing, the pay gap related to parenthood is increasing."

    In her 15 years of research on the topic, Budig found that, on average, men earn 6% more when they have and live with a child, while women earn 4% less for every child they have.

    This jives with the Cornell study finding that employers are willing to offer fathers the greatest salary compared to non-fathers, mothers, and non-mothers. 



    Dads are no less productive than their childless counterparts

    Contrary to the popular belief that parents, who often have more responsibilities than childless workers, are more likely to be distracted at work, research suggests that fathers are not significantly less productive than their childless counterparts. In fact, some fathers' productivity may benefit from parenthood.

    After analyzing the amount of research published by more than 10,000 academic economists, researchers commissioned by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that, over the course of a 30-year career, fathers of at least two children are slightly more productive than fathers of one child and childless men. Fathers become 52% more productive after the birth of twins.

     



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