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    leurahometour 217 DW

    Laurel & Wolf CEO Leura Fine built a business around helping people design their dream home.

    Launched in 2014, the digital decorating platform aims to make the interior design process easier for clients by moving almost everything online. After being paired with a designer, customers can purchase furniture and decor from hundreds of vendors on the Laurel & Wolf site.

    Fine recently redesigned her own home using personal touches and furniture from vendors that work with her company. Below, get a look inside her Los Angeles home.   

    SEE ALSO: We went to Etsy's luxurious office and saw why it's one of the most celebrated in the world

    Fine redecorated her entire home in just under three months.



    Purchasing items like sofas, rugs, and wallpaper online helped speed up the project's timeline.



    "I believe that as a designer and, especially today in 2017, you have to be able to shop online for your clients. It's just not a good use of time to traipse around and look at things in person," Fine said in a press release about the project.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards sonoma county wineries vineyards 7491

    For many years, Sonoma County was the kid-brother of wine country. Napa County's elite wineries, trendy restaurants, and globally-known brand long overshadowed Sonoma's charms.

    But Sonoma County, which stretches across nine cities and three times the land area of Napa County, is stealing visitors thanks to its laidback atmosphere and affordability. In 2016, travelers spent a total of $1.9 billion in Sonoma County, compared to $1.3 billion in Napa County, according to an annual economic impact report. The area attracts approximately double the three million visitors who come to Napa County every year.

    Comparing the two is like apples and oranges — or Pinot Grigio and Merlot, if you prefer — because they vary so much in size. A wine blogger put it best when he said, "Napa Valley is a wine Disneyland, while Sonoma Valley is a wine region." 

    With the harvest season nearly upon us, I visited Sonoma and Napa to figure out which offers the best experience for first-timers in wine country. In both areas, I visited two to three wineries and tried a Chardonnay and a house specialty at each.

    Here's how it went.

    SEE ALSO: Inside the $600-a-head Silicon Valley restaurant where Google and Apple executives eat gold-flecked steaks

    Full disclosure: I am not a wine connoisseur. But driving from San Francisco to Napa County on a recent weekday, I felt giddy. It's essentially a boozy amusement park for grown-ups.



    There is the city of Napa and the county of Napa, considered the holy grail of wine country. It's home to more than 400 wineries, with many packed side-to-side along State Route 29.



    Napa County rose to the top of wine tourism lists in 1976, when a Chardonnay from local winery Chateau Montelena trounced nine other Chardonnays in a blind tasting in Paris.

    The wine competition, known as the 1976 Judgment of Paris, changed the way connoisseurs around the world perceived the young Napa County region. It suddenly rivaled top-dog France.

    With its rise in the wine industry, Napa County has also become a tourism destination. The region boasts the only three Michelin-starred restaurant in wine country (The French Laundry), golf courses, resorts and spas, and some of the most coveted wine grapes anywhere.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    forgetting sarah marshall

    • It's normal for relationships to have some degree of conflict
    • But psychological research has found behaviors that weaken a partnership over time
    • Below, find nine of the most common — and what to do instead

    Every romantic relationship goes through ups and downs. Even if you just had a massive fight about who stained the living-room couch with coffee (we know: It wasn't you), it's not the end of the world.

    That said, certain behavior patterns can weaken a partnership over time, leaving one or both people wanting out.

    Psychological literature is rife with examples of such behaviors. Below, we've rounded up nine of the most common.

    Note: If you recognize one or more of these patterns in your relationship, that doesn't necessarily mean you're headed for Splitsville. Use this opportunity to take a step back, take a deep breath, and see what you can do to work it out.

    SEE ALSO: A marriage therapist says there are 4 good reasons to leave a relationship — and a really bad one

    Distancing yourself from your partner

    A 2016 study, published in the journal Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, found there's a deadly combination of characteristics that predict relationship dissatisfaction: sensitivity to rejection and the tendency to cut your partner off emotionally.

    People who are really worried about getting hurt might distance themselves from their partners, which ends up making the relationship less satisfying in the long run. In other words, they effectively create what they fear.

    If this sounds like you, try telling your partner about your fears. You might be surprised to learn that they share some of those concerns, and you can work through them together.



    Closing yourself off to new experiences

    A growing body of research suggests that couples who try new things together are happier in their relationship.

    The inverse might be true, too: Writing in Psychology Today, clinical psychologist Lisa Firestone says when you stop being open to developing shared new interests, it can hurt the relationship and create resentment between partners.

    So take up your partner's offer to try a new restaurant or go hiking instead of spending Saturday at the movies — at least once in a while.



    Hiding your finances

    Nearly two in five Americans in one poll for the National Endowment for Financial Education said they've lied to their partner about money (financial infidelity), which can lead to fights, distrust, and in some cases divorce.

    The problem is that money isn't just about numbers — it can symbolize power and love. So insecurity about what your partner's doing with his or her money means insecurity about the relationship in general.

    Before you decide to combine (or even partially combine) finances with your partner, it helps to have a conversation about budgeting and your financial histories, and to come up with guidelines for making big individual purchases.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    Just a few short blocks from the New York Stock Exchange, another Wall Street institution sits at its centuries-long perch at the triangular intersection of William and Beaver streets.

    Delmonico's is widely considered to be one of the very first sit down restaurants in America, born at a time when New York offered little more than taverns and oyster cellars. Culinary mainstays like eggs benedict and baked Alaska were invented in their kitchen.

    While Delmonico's is (rightly) renowned for its steak offerings, Executive Chef Billy Oliva tipped us off to several decadent items that aren't on the printed menu. Skip the dining room and head straight to the bar to ask the bartender for these secret items like a $100 grilled cheese or a $50 cookie.

    Delmonico's is celebrating its 180th anniversary in September in style, offering a 180-day dry aged steak for a whopping $380.

    Join the conversation about this story »


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    The Super Soaker was a game changer when came to squirt guns and summer fun. And you have Lonnie Johnson to thank for it.

    The man behind one of the most popular toys of all time is an engineer who has worked for Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Air Force, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

    Now he's working on a few other inventions that he hopes will change the world. Following is a transcript of the video.

    The whole idea was to be able to shoot a very, very high pressure stream of water a very long distance.

    "Oh Buffy..."

    I'm Lonnie Johnson. I'm an inventor. The invention that most people know me for is the Super Soaker water gun.

    My career started actually when I was in high school. I built a robot that won a regional science fair at the University of Alabama. I went on to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a research engineer on high temperature nuclear reactors. Air Force Weapons Laboratory on advanced spacecraft that used nuclear power sources. Then to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory working on the Galileo spacecraft as a power systems engineer.

    When I was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory back in the early '80s is when I first got the idea. The Super Soaker was based on some engineering principles that I applied. I was actually working on another invention which was a heat pump that would use water as a working fluid instead of Freon.

    And I shot the stream of water across the bathroom using some nozzles that I made, and I thought to myself, "Geez, if I were to develop a new type of water gun, that was a performance water gun,it could really do well.

    "That's not pressure. This is pressure!"

    Initially I wanted to manufacture the gun myself, but when I went to a plastics injection molding manufacturing company and talked to them about the parts that I needed, what I needed to have made it, it turned out it was going to cost about $200,000 to get the first thousand guns produced. And I thought to myself, I was an officer in the military the time, I didn't have $200,000 in cash laying around.

    I decide to come to New York, present my ideas at Toy Fair, try to find a manufacturer that I could work with. And it was there that I met the people at Larami. 

    They invited me to come to their headquarters in Philadelphia. It took 2 weeks to build the gun. And as soon as it was finished, I call the guy up at Laramie, because I didn't want him to forget my conversation. I got my suitcase and went in, and of course I had my prototypes in the suitcase.

    I opened it up, and they ask to see what I had, and showed them the gun. They said, "Well, does it work? How well does it work?" So I pumped it up and shot it across the conference room, and the president of the company said, "Wow!" And that was it.

    I knew I captured their imagination, and the rest is history.

    "Soaking wet!"

    I knew the gun worked well, and I knew it would be successful. I did not realize how successful it would be. It became the number one selling toy in the world.

    Actually, the first year, it was called "Drencher." It was not called a Super Soaker. Someone claimed the name "Drencher" and wanted us to pay royalties on that, and so we changed the name. That's when we came up with the name of Super Soaker.

    The guns were literally blowing off the shelves by word of mouth. We couldn't keep up with the demand.

    People would say, "You know, Johnson, you're really lucky." And I thought, it's just a lot of hard work. It took 10 years from the idea to major success.

    I started my own business, and built my company, my research company, with the proceeds from that invention. I don't really talk about how much money that I made from the invention. But I think it is fair to say that just about all of it is going into the research that I'm conducting. So it's going back into the company to develop some of the energy technology that I'm focused on.

    I am a nuclear engineer. I'm working on advanced energy technology. I have a new type of the engine that converts heat into electricity, and I've also developed a new type of battery that's all ceramic, without liquid electrolyte. 

    The other toy gun that was on the market and enjoying major success was these Nerf dart guns.

    "It's Nerf, or nothing."

    And I wanted to have that part of the market too. So I started developing Nerf dart guns, and I developed guns that outperformed the guns that Hasbro had on the market at the time. And eventually ended up doing a deal with Hasbro to license my dart guns.

    And at that point, I literally was the king of all toy guns.

    So now to have another success in the consumer space would really be cool . So that would mean, if I could pull that off, that would mean that lightning will it struck three times.

    Follow Tech Insider: On Facebook

    Join the conversation about this story »


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    abs situps workout fitness exercise woman gym sit ups

    Probiotics — pricey supplements designed to support the trillions of bacteria blossoming in our guts — have become a big business, with a market that is projected to exceed $57 billion in the next five years.

    "Probiotics are probably the single most important new food category to emerge in the last 20 years," Scott Bass, the head of the Global Life Sciences team at law firm Sidley Austin LLP and an adviser for the FDA on its first dietary supplement website, told Business Insider.

    The idea behind the pills is simple: foster the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut and curb the growth of the bad bacteria to improve digestion, boost the immune system, and even lower rates of certain diseases.

    Putting that idea into practice, however, has proven a bit more complicated than some scientists initially envisioned. So far, the effects of existing probiotic supplements have been all over the map — sometimes they help, but most of the time, they don't. Nevertheless, supplement-makers continue to advertise their pills as beneficial for everything from weight loss to treating lactose intolerance.

    The problem is that while most probiotic formulas contain tens of millions of beneficial bacteria, like Lactobacillus acidophilus, fewer than a hundred or so of those bacteria actually make it into your gut.

    "Thirty billion Lactobacillus sounds good, but after going through the stomach acid, only about 43 of them survive," Ian Orme, a distinguished professor of microbiology and pathology at Colorado State University, told Business Insider.

    These "good" bacteria are supposed to replace the "bad" bacteria (like Bifodobacteria) and help you feel better.

    "In other words these 43 or so bacteria politely ask the million or so anaerobic Bifidobacteria to please leave," said Orme. "Yeah, sure."

    There are some specific incidences where the research suggests that the pills could actually help.

    A rigorous 2014 review of probiotics research concluded that the supplements could be especially helpful for newborns with intensive needs. Adding "good" bacteria to the guts of infants at risk of developing the life-threatening gut disease necrotizing enterocolitis, for example, significantly reduced the chances that they'd come down with the disease.

    More recently, researchers have been experimenting with supplements called synbiotics, which combine a probiotic bacterial strain with what's called a prebiotic — essentially a type of sugar designed to feed the beneficial bacteria and help it thrive in the gut.

    The idea is that the pre- and the pro-biotic work together to provide a combined benefit — while the probiotic settles in and pushes out the "bad" bacteria, the prebiotic hangs around and acts as its food supply, ensuring that the supplement sticks around and does its job.

    Just this month, as part of the first large-scale clinical trial of its kind, researchers working in rural India found that newborns who were given a synbiotic were at a substantially lower risk of developing sepsis, a potentially fatal condition characterized by severe infection.

    Some small studies have suggested that synbiotics could provide benefits to a range of other conditions influenced by the gut microbiome as well, including obesity, diabetes, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, but larger-scale clinical trials focusing on each of those conditions are needed.

    For now though, if you see a probiotic — or a synbiotic — for sale at your local health-foods store, know that the existing research backing up its claims is limited.

    SEE ALSO: The $37 billion supplement industry is barely regulated — and it's allowing dangerous products to slip through the cracks

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: An exercise scientist reveals the exercise regime that will burn the most fat


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    Bean Boots

    Bean Boot mania, it seems, will not abate any time soon.

    This year, however, there is some good news for fans of the unique rubber boot that is celebrated for its weatherproof qualities.

    L.L. Bean last year said they made 3,000 pairs a day and surpassed 600,000 pairs sold — a new record. Over the past two years, the factories in Maine that make the boots have been working nearly 24/7 — three shifts, six days a week — in an attempt to meet holiday demand.

    The waiting list has stretched to the tens of thousands in previous years, but this year all boot models are still on hand as of August. It's still early, but L.L. Bean has produced a greater variety of the boot than in previous seasons, including a number of "small batch" models, so it's possible some boots won't sell out this year.

    L.L. Bean is estimating they'll sell 750,000 bean boots this year, and in 2018 the company is hoping that number balloons to 1 million, according to the AP.

    To ensure demand is met L.L. Bean pulled off the wraps of a third manufacturing facility on Thursday — a 106,000-square-foot facility in Lewiston, Maine. The company will hire 160 new works to man the facility.

    Bean Boots

    Part of the reason for the backlog is the shoe's "it" status, combined with its laborious manufacturing process — which, for many of the boot's components, is still done by hand.

    "We realize we could outsource, but that will never happen," McKeever told Bloomberg two years ago. "The boots have been hand-sewn in Maine by our own skilled boot workers, and they always will be."

     

    So why are the 100-year-old boots so popular? There are a few reasons:

    • Legacy products are hot right now. Consumers — especially millennials — connect to the product's history and bulletproof track record. The Bean Boot dates back to 1911, when brand founder Leon Leonwood Bean sold his Maine Hunting Shoe, which the Bean Boot descended from.
    • A slightly goofy aesthetic is back in style. The all-American boots fall into the still-going-strong "normcore" trend that's popular among young urbanites. It's also a super-distinctive style that everyone can and will recognize on your foot.
    • The boots are an incredible value. The most basic model is only $120, and it comes with L.L. Bean's unconditional satisfaction guarantee, meaning you can return the boots at any time for virtually any reason.
    • Speaking of bulletproof, that's exactly what Bean Boots are. They're known to be completely flawless from a functionality perspective. Many owners see the boots perform for decades without requiring replacement.

    Bean Boots

    After all, the fact that the boots are still hand-sewn in Maine at a reasonable price point is precisely the reason they're in such high demand. Though the scarcity may be sending some customers to less in-demand brands, it certainly hasn't hurt the Bean Boot, NPD Group chief retail analyst Marshal Cohen told the Boston Globe.

    "It adds to the lore and the beauty of getting the boot," Cohen said. "It's the smartest strategy you can possibly employ."

    SEE ALSO: I tested L.L. Bean's legendary return policy by returning 4-year-old shoes

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: Here's why people love these L.L.Bean boots that sell out every winter


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    Brad Stulberg, coauthor of "Peak Performance: Elevate your Game, Avoid Burnout and Thrive with the New Science of Success" shares how you can stop feeling exhausted after work every day. Following is a transcript of the video.

    Sleep is just so important so I'd start there, that to me is the lowest-hanging fruit. If you're not getting between seven to nine hours of sleep, I'd really make that a priority. 

    Second to sleep, I think that particularly if the work that you do involves your mind, not your body, exercise is a wonderful tool. It allows you to get in touch with a more physical sense of yourself, which I think, in it of itself, is very powerful but there is also lots of research that shows that exercise helps with a lot of the things that are driving people crazy about work. So things like anxiety, things like willpower, those can all be boosted by regular exercise.

    Another thing that is very interesting to me is this notion of "social ties" and what I call "social recovery". So just hanging out with a group of people that you enjoy spending time with, not necessarily talking about work and things that are stressing you out, that defeats the purpose, but hanging out, having a good time has actually been shown to change our biochemistry and give us those same hormones that again promote growth and promote recovery. 

    Join the conversation about this story »


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    The End Montauk 4

    In 1975, a young Michael Dweck and his buddy heard the rumor that the Rolling Stones would be recording at Andy Warhol's place in Montauk, a small town on the corner of Long Island farthest from New York City. The two packed up the car and drove out with high hopes of meeting Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

    What Dweck discovered instead was a beautiful surf town that would serve as his muse for years to come. 

    As a professional photographer, it was natural for Dweck to begin documenting the surf culture of Montauk when he officially moved there in 2002. His images, captured in the summer of 2002, were published in the book "The End: Montauk, NY."

    In celebration of its 10th anniversary last year, the book was republished in a box set with a $3,000 price tag.

    Ahead, see a selection of work from the book, as well as Dweck's recounting of the stories behind his favorite place. 

    SEE ALSO: Tinder threw a Hamptons party on 'billionaire's row' that ended when police showed up — here's what it was like

    Dweck grew up on Long Island and visited Montauk often as a teen. His photography has long been inspired by beach culture.



    In the foreword of his book, Dweck described himself as an "outsider" in Montauk. "It wasn't that the locals were mean (although some were)," he wrote. "They just had a good thing going and they weren't keen on sharing it with the whole world."



    Dweck became a true local when he moved there in 2002.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    GettyImages brad pitt angelina jolie 2015 divorce

    • Divorce rates in the US are at an all-time low
    • Everyone's relationship is different, and so is every divorce
    • Research has shown certain factors make a divorce more likely
    • Don't take the findings as a prediction for your own relationship

    In 2015, the US divorce rate hit a 40-year low.

    According to data from Bowling Green State University, there were 16.9 divorces for every 1,000 women that year.

    To determine the factors that make divorce more likely and the effects — positive and negative — of ending your marriage, we dug into years of research on the predictors and consequences of marital dissolution. Below, we've highlighted some of the most intriguing findings.

    Keep in mind that all these studies offer general takeaways about modern relationships — no one can predict with 100% accuracy what will happen to yours.

    SEE ALSO: 7 ways to ruin your relationship for good

    Couples may be most likely to divorce in March and August.

    2016 research from the University of Washington, presented at the American Sociological Association, found that March and August bring spikes in divorce filings.

    The researchers say it's meaningful that March and August follow holiday or vacation periods. In the paper, they suggest that holidays represent something like "optimism cycles" — we see them as a chance to start anew in our relationships, only to find that the same problems exist once they're over.

    The researchers also suspect that oftentimes our holiday experiences can be stressful and disappointing, laying bare the real issues in our marriage. As soon as they're over, we're ready to call it quits.



    Married people who watch porn may be more likely to divorce.

    A 2017 study, published in the Journal of Sex Research, found that married people who start watching pornography are about twice as likely to get divorced as those who don't.

    The study involved about 2,000 participants over the course of nearly a decade. It found that the effect was stronger for women, who were about three times as likely to get divorced if they started watching porn during the study period.

    But, as Elizabeth Nolan Brown points out on Reason, it's possible that taking up a porn habit may signal that something else is going wrong in your relationship. Maybe you're dissatisfied with your sex life or maybe you and your partner aren't communicating well.

    In other words, it might not be the porn, per se, that's causing marital problems. It might be a symptom of other underlying issues.



    Couples who marry in their late 20s may be less likely to divorce.

    Research led by Nicholas Wolfinger, a professor at the University of Utah, found that contrary to a long-held belief, waiting longer to wed doesn't necessarily predict a stronger marriage.

    Instead, as Wolfinger wrote on the Institute for Family Studies blog in 2015, the best time to marry seems to be between the early 20s and early 30s. If you wait until you're older than 32, your chances of divorce start to creep up (though they're still not as high as if you get married in your teens).

    As Wolfinger wrote, "For almost everyone, the late twenties seems to be the best time to tie the knot."



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    crypto castle san francisco 1750

    Jeremy Gardner was returning from a safari in South Africa — where he flew out to attend AfrikaBurn, a regional Burning Man festival — when he came into cell service. He checked Twitter, where he follows other bitcoin watchers, to see how his investments were doing.

    "I saw that bitcoin had broken like $2,500 — all the crypto assets had exploded in value," Gardner told Business Insider. "And all of a sudden, my net worth in five days had doubled in value. That, to me, was nuts."

    Created in 2008, bitcoin is a new kind of payment system that allows people to buy things and send money with anonymity. There are no banks or middlemen. Transactions are recorded on a digital ledger called a blockchain.

    Cryptocurrencies (of which bitcoin is the most popular) have been on a tear in 2017. Bitcoin surged in value from about $200 per coin in 2015 to above $4,000 in August.

    People like Gardner buys assets, called tokens, with the expectation that their value will go higher. At age 25, Gardner is a self-made millionaire.

    "By dedicating my life to crypto assets and blockchain technology, I've made more money than I would have ever expected to make in my entire life — by a long shot," he said.

    He dropped out of college (twice), works part time at a venture-capital firm that invests in cryptocurrency-related companies (for a $0 salary), and travels the world evangelizing bitcoin.

    crypto castle san francisco 1707

    In 2013, a friend offered to buy Gardner some bitcoin in exchange for cash. He'd been following the controversy around Silk Road, an online marketplace that allowed people to use bitcoin mostly for "buying drugs off the internet and speculation," according to Gardner.

    It piqued his curiosity, and he bought in, turning his gains back into cash as fast as he could.

    "There was this realization that I could — with just an internet connection— exchange value with anyone in the world who also has an internet connection," he said. "No longer did I have to rely on a centralized intermediary, a troll under the bridge, such as a bank or a government."

    crypto castle san francisco 1734

    He turned most of his savings and stock holdings into cryptocurrency investments. Over a few months, Gardner became a true believer, branding himself a "bitcoin booster" on Twitter. In 2014, he founded the Blockchain Education Network, a network of cryptocurrency clubs at universities around the world.

    Over the past few years, Gardner has planted himself firmly at the center of the global cryptocurrency community. In 2013, he launched a startup, Augur, a market-forecasting tool that runs on blockchain. The company raised $5.3 million in a crowdfunding campaign in 2015.

    Today, he works a "fairly full-time gig" at Blockchain Capital, helping the firm source new investments in cryptocurrency-related companies and then advising those companies. His role as an entrepreneur-in-residence does not pay, but he receives "carry," a share of the profits that the firm makes on investments. He's also working on another startup in stealth mode.

    As the value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rises, Gardner's net worth has climbed. He declined to share how much money he has made investing in digital currencies.

    "For me, the price increases are kind of like 'told you so' moments. Like, I knew this was going to happen," Gardner said. "It's obviously cool when it happens very quickly, but every time it goes up really quickly, I expect it to go down very quickly ... I'm in this for the long term."

    crypto castle san francisco 1723

    His investment gains subsidize his living in San Francisco, where he shares a three-story house with a half-dozen other tech entrepreneurs. The home, known among tenants as the Crypto Castle, is a landing pad for people working in cryptocurrency-related technologies.

    "Over a half-dozen people in the time they've lived in my house have become millionaires as a result of crypto," Gardner said.

    He travels most weekends in a month to cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Hong Kong. When asked what his biggest living expense is, Gardner said, "Alcohol."

    "As I've seen my wealth grow, it's important to me that I give back to this industry that's given me so much," he added. "So when we go to conferences, I'll bring a bunch of people out and buy bottles at the club, pay for dinner and stuff."

    Gardner said coming into wealth had created a new set of challenges. His investments are split into several cryptocurrencies, so he has to pay closer attention to where his money is and how it's managed, he said. He no longer attends networking events for cryptocurrency entrepreneurs because he will be bombarded with pitches and made uncomfortable.

    There's most likely a bubble in the market for cryptocurrencies, and some speculate it could burst. Gardner is stockpiling cash so he can buy up tokens when that happens.

    Gardner believes mainstream adoption is only a matter of time. He expects bitcoin will reach a value of $10,000 per coin in the next five to 10 years.

    "We've been told that it's going to die so many times. And yet here it is, stronger than ever. I think there's a certain sense of vindication if you were investing in this technology and people were calling you stupid for a long time," Gardner said. "We've gone from a point where the success of blockchain was unlikely or infinitesimally small and is now guaranteed."

    SEE ALSO: Inside the Crypto Castle, where young bitcoin entrepreneurs party and plot the future of money

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: What you need to know about bitcoin after the split


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    reach me tv logo

    If you've ever been to an airport, you've most likely spent some time very bored.

    A familiar scene: You're through security and have nothing to do before your plane boards, except go to one of the overpriced restaurants, or bars, and watch a bunch of TVs showing sports. Or, instead, you can sit at your gate and watch the TVs hanging from the ceilings, which likely are only showing CNN.

    ReachMe.TV thinks it's figured out how to make waiting at the airport more tolerable.

    The startup is an in-airport mobile entertainment network that provides thousands of hours of content — including original programming, local news, sports, and weather — to the top 50 airports in the US and Canada (and 750,000 hotel rooms). But it's not just regular TV.

    If you come across a ReachMe.TV screen at the airport, it could be playing anything from a brief recap of last night's sports highlights, to a three-minute profile about a fashion blogger. It's programming designed to be watched in short bursts.

    And here's the best part: ReachMe.TV allows people in airports to sync their phones or tablets with airport screens, so they can take the content they were just watching with them.

    reachmetvmobileHere's how it works.

    If the airport you're at has ReachMe.TV, and you're enjoying the content on it, but have to walk away from the screen, just go to ReachMe.TV on your mobile device or tablet and type in the channel you're watching (which is shown on the screen) and it will show up. For free. No need to download an app. That's it.

    The spark

    The company is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Ron Bloom and Lynnwood Bibbens, who a few years ago saw the importance personalizing televisions in public places. What started as a dongle Bloom had attached to TVs at some beauty parlors has now turned into a company that reaches more than 100 million viewers a month.

    "Imagine being a producer and discovering that if you make something it will be seen by 100 million people a month guaranteed? This is really exciting," Bloom, who is the cofounder and CCO of the company, told Business Insider.

    After signing up around 20 airports last year, ReachMe.TV went to market earlier this year and quickly grabbed the attention of the networks. In June, CBS signed a 10 year exclusive partnership with the company to provide local news, weather, and sports from its CBS TV stations, as well as other programs under the CBS umbrella like "Entertainment Tonight," and a newly created news package called "CBS On The Go."

    Ron BloomBut what is the programming on ReachMe.TV like?

    Brevity is one of the keys to the network. Most of the content on ReachMe.TV is short and concise, ranging from a minute or two for news segments, to six to 12 minutes for documentaries or a scripted comedy.

    "I love 'Law & Order,' but if I have to catch my plane and I only have 40 minutes, I can't watch that because I know I won't be able to see the end of the episode," cofounder and CEO Bibbens told Business Insider. "So by creating content that's six to ten minutes, now I can consume two to three different episodes."

    It's a viewing habit younger, digital-native people have already been doing for years, and Bloom and Bibbens believe that it's perfect for the traveling adult.

    The demographic of the ReachMe.TV viewer is someone in their mid-30s to mid-50s, an on-the-go executive who spends a lot of time either at airports or hotels. Their time is precious, and Bloom and Bibbens believe they have reworked how a TV network can find that audience.

    "We took the same programming zeitgeist that the major networks use, but broke the format barrier: the length of content," Bloom said. "Let's not have the 22 minutes of content for eight minutes of advertising, let's take any length we want."

    Lynnwood BibbensBibbens had experience on the hardware side, including deploying over 200,000 screens in retail spaces and over 100,000 screens in hotels, so he knew how to make them all talk on one network. And Bloom had decades of experience on the content side. He is the creator and executive producer of "Hollywood Today Live," and produced the first webcast of the Grammys in 1995. Bloom built the original content for ReachMe.TV, which currently has a broadcast studio in the heart of Hollywood. There the company is producing its own news programs and even reality shows. ReachMe.TV also has a closed-circuit rights agreement to acquire content (like the Super Bowl).

    The company recently landed a deal with HMS Hosts, the premier airport food-service company that handles all the major restaurants and bars at US airports. So if you haven't seen ReachMe.TV when you travel, you will soon.

    "We took an aging, rusted concept of slapping a TV in a public place, and we put a new dress on it and took it back to the prom," Bloom said. "Doing that we got companies to not think about it not just as a screen, but as a gateway to their customers."

    SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 21 best heist movies of all time

    Join the conversation about this story »

    NOW WATCH: Here's everyone left on Arya Stark's kill list on 'Game of Thrones'


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    solar eclipse

    Oregonians will be treated to one of the best viewings of the total solar eclipse— when the moon crosses between the Earth and the sun and blocks out the sun's light — on August 21.

    About one million people are expected to visit the state of Oregon in order to see the eclipse. It seems some of them will want to buy legal weed while they're in town.

    Local news stations are reporting that some Oregon marijuana dispensaries have seen a spike in sales ahead of the solar eclipse.

    "Tourism already to Oregon, plus an eclipse, is doubling up. And that means customers are doubling in our doors," Mike Drevecky, an employee at the Little Amsterdam Wellness Center in Portland, Oregon, told The News Review. "I mean, we're swamped this morning alone."

    A dispensary in the city of John Day is reportedly turning away recreational customers, in order to have enough product in stock for medical marijuana patients.

    In Huntington, pot shop Hotbox Farms is expecting 10,000 customers or more through the solar eclipse event, according to WVTV Fox 13. The small railway town has a population of about 400. Steven Meland, co-owner of Hotbox Farms (one of two dispensaries in town), said the company's 21 employees will work around the clock in order to meet customer demand.

    "We have guys out around the state compiling product and purchasing product to make sure we have enough of the different product for people and we don't run out," Meland added.

    Marijuana has been legal for recreational use in Oregon since 2015. People over the age of 21 with a valid ID can buy and carry up to an ounce of weed. It's also legal to give away weed as a gift, so long as it's ingested in private. Driving under the influence of marijuana remains illegal.

    high 5 tours marijuana portland oregon

    Some dispensaries are capitalizing on the moment with special products. Oregon's Finest, a pot shop in Milwaukie, is selling a variety of marijuana called Moon Puppies (a hybrid of Chem Dog and Lemon Skunk strains). It also plans to distribute protective solar eclipse glasses.

    High 5 Tours, a marijuana-tourism company based in Portland, is offering a "Stoner Eclipse Adventure 2017" package that includes transportation from Portland to eastern Oregon, two nights of camping, snacks, and protective glasses. The deal starts at $750 per person.

    Participants will be able to light up while darkness sets in.

    SEE ALSO: These states will have the best views of the solar eclipse

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    NOW WATCH: Here's the best way to watch the solar eclipse if you don't have special glasses


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    contact lens, eye

    When people ask me why I don't wear contacts, I typically come up with some excuse to avoid admitting the truth: Sticking a plastic device directly on the fragile mucous membrane surrounding my cornea terrifies me.

    But it does, and it's the reason I've always felt A-OK just wearing glasses.

    A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes me feel slightly justified in my fear of contacts, despite the fact that they're largely safe and effective — at least when worn correctly.

    Which is precisely where the problem lies. According to the report, six out of every seven people who wore contact lenses last year engaged in at least one habit that put them at risk for a serious eye infection. Based on a survey of roughly 4,500 adults and 1,600 adolescents aged 12–17 years, the study concluded that about 45 million Americans wear contacts, making the figure at risk about 39 million. Across age groups, the most common risky habits included sleeping, napping, or swimming in contacts and failing to replace lenses and lens storage cases when needed. Among adolescents, the most common was failing to see an eye doctor every year.

    The report builds on previous findings from 2015, when the CDC found that more than 99% of the contact lens wearers they surveyed reported at least one behavior that put them at risk for infection.

    Why forgetting to replace your contacts is dangerous

    When you don't replace contact lenses and their cases as often as recommended, it raises the chances of developing an infection for several reasons.

    woman swimming swim underwater poolFirst and foremost, every time you touch your lenses, you're opening up the possibility of introducing microbial life onto the contact. Because the lenses are already moist — just like your eyes — they're already ripe terrain for bacteria to take hold. So long as you always wash your hands and swap your lenses on the regular, these microbes don't have too much time to blossom into veritable forests of bacteria. But when you get sluggish about replacing them and continue using and re-using the same old lenses, you're increasing the chances that all that bacteria will start to proliferate and infect your eyes.

    It's no surprise then that people who don't swap out their lenses frequently report more complications and more eye discomfort.

    Exposing contacts to water — whether it's your gym pool or some tap water — can also heighten your infection risk. Water is home to all kinds of microorganisms, and those can easily be transferred to the eye.

    Last year, roughly 1 in 5 of all of the contact lense-related infections reported to the CDC included someone who had scarred their cornea, needed a corneal transplant, or had reduced vision. The cornea, the eye's clear front dome, plays a key role in vision and has a remarkable capacity to recover from most minor nicks. But an infection — like the ones described in the CDC's report — can damage the cornea's deeper layers, making it tough to completely heal.

    In some cases, corneal damage can also cause scarring, which can distort your vision. When the scarring is severe, you may need a corneal transplant, which involves swapping part of your cornea with tissue from a donor.

    How to keep your eyes healthy

    While these problems sound severe, most of them are potentially preventable.

    "Prevention efforts should focus on encouraging contact lens wearers to replace their contact lens storage case regularly and to avoid sleeping or napping in contact lenses," the authors of the report wrote.

    Here are some other easy ways to keep your contacts — and your eyes — clean and healthy:

    1. Wash your hands before handling your lenses.

    2. Completely replace yesterday's contact solution.

    3. Wear your contacts for only as long as they're prescribed.

    4. Rinse your lens case with contact solution and wipe it out with a clean towel after every use.

    Finally, next time you get up to put on your contacts, remember — you're putting in a medical device. Handle it with care.

    SEE ALSO: Reports of fecal bacteria in iced coffee at chains like Starbucks are a red flag for bigger problems, a scientist explains

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    NOW WATCH: An eye doctor reveals the most dangerous thing you could do to your eyes


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    john malone, bell ranch

    The 10 biggest landowners in the United States collectively own more than 13 million acres across the country — that’s more than 0.5% of America.

    Some of them are heirs who inherited land owned by their ancestors as early as the 1800s. Others are self-made millionaires who ventured into land acquisitions and have been racking up acres for years.

    The Land Report compiled a list of the 100 largest landowners in the country in 2016 — here are the 10 families or individuals who topped the list.

    SEE ALSO: The amazing life of billionaire 'Cable Cowboy' John Malone, the single largest landowner in the US

    10. Pingree Heirs — 830,000 acres

    The Pingree heirs are comprised of the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of the Pingree family, descended from Salem shipping merchant David Pingree. They own landholdings across Maine, which are managed by the Seven Islands Land Company.



    9. King Ranch Heirs — 911,215 acres

    The sprawling King Ranch was first assembled in the 1800s by Henry King, a former indentured servant who went on to earn a fortune as a steamboat captain, according to Forbes. The land now crosses four counties in Texas and Florida, and includes ranching, hunting, farming, and oil and gas operations.



    8. Brad Kelley — 1 million acres

    The famously media-shy Brad Kelley finally confirmed to The Wall Street Journal last year that he owns roughly 1 million acres — mostly in west Texas, but also in Florida, Hawaii, Tennessee, and Kentucky. In 2012, Kelley bought the 800-acre Calumet Farm in Kentucky for $36 million, where he now bases his horse-racing operations.

    "I grew up on a farm and that's about as good an explanation as there is," he told the Journal when asked about his land acquisitions. "Land is something I know. It's something I have an affinity for. It becomes part of your DNA."



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    jule pond

    There's a new most expensive home for sale in the Hamptons, and it has a connection to the Ford family.

    Once part of a larger property called "Fordune," the 42-acre estate has hit the market for $175 million. It was originally built for Henry Ford but has reportedly been owned by portfolio manager Brenda Earl since 2002.

    Cody and Zach Vichinsky of Bespoke Real Estate have the listing, which is now referring to the home as "Jule Pond."

    If it sells at its current price, Jule Pond would be the most expensive home to ever change hands in the US. The current record is held by hedge funder Barry Rosenstein, who bought an East Hampton property for $147 million in 2014. 

    The main house has 20,000 square feet of space, 12 bedrooms, and 12 bathrooms. The property also has tennis and basketball courts as well as a greenhouse and about 1,350 feet of oceanfront.

    Let's take a look around.

    SEE ALSO: A retail CEO is selling his enormous Beverly Hills 'palace' for $80 million — take a look inside

    The estate is set on 42 acres in Southampton.



    It fronts the ocean and several ponds, including Jule Pond.



    The home was built in 1960, and many of its original architectural details have been maintained.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    woman vaping smoking e-cig ecig e-cigarette

    Do e-cigarettes help smokers quit or glorify a potentially unhealthy habit?

    Public health experts are divided on the question, but a new study is the first of its kind to suggest that for some people, the devices could help more than they hurt.

    The paper, published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, looks at how patterns of quitting smoking have changed across America since e-cigarettes — devices that vaporize liquid nicotine rather than burning tobacco and creating tar — were introduced in 2010.

    Researchers at Columbia University and Rutgers University looked at two years of data from an annual, nationwide household survey and homed in on two groups of people: current smokers and former smokers who quit during or before 2010, the year e-cigarettes were introduced.

    Among the roughly 15,500 adults the researchers looked at, those who said they used e-cigs daily were far more likely to have quit regular cigarettes than the people who said they'd never tried e-cigs. In fact, over half of daily e-cigarette users had quit smoking in the past five years, compared to just 28% of those who had never tried them.

    Looked at another way, the single strongest predictor of someone in the survey having quit smoking was daily e-cigarette use.

    "Our findings suggest that frequent e-cigarette use may play an important role in cessation or relapse prevention for some smokers," Daniel Giovenco, an assistant professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the lead study author, said in a statement.

    The study builds on previous observational research suggesting that e-cigs could help smokers quit. A large study of 160,000 people spanning more than 15 years and published in the journal BMJ in July last year suggested that smokers who used e-cigarettes not only tried to stop smoking more frequently but also succeeded (for at least a few months) more often than those who didn’t use them.

    Still, these studies are observational and have limitations. Because observational studies look at groups of people and their behavior over time, it's hard to say for sure that other conflicting factors aren't influencing the outcomes they examine. It's also worth pointing out that the study didn’t address whether e-cigs might appeal to people who would otherwise not smoke or vape at all.

    Plus, e-cigs aren't risk-free: some of the devices have been found to contain ingredients like diethylene glycol (used in antifreeze) as well as formaldehyde, both of which have been linked with cancer. Studies also suggest that frequent e-cig use could raise your risk of heart disease.

    This is why researchers emphasize that more studies are needed — preferably studies that explore details about the kinds of e-cig devices people are using as well as why and how frequently they use them.

    "Uncovering patterns of use at the population level is a critical first step in determining if [e-cigarettes] may present any benefits to public health," said Giovenco.

    SEE ALSO: One of the world's largest tobacco companies has launched an electric cigarette that might be just as bad for you as a normal one

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    Some people, including the president and many celebrities boast about being able to function on as little as hours of sleep. But is it necessarily good for you? Brad Stulberg, coauthor of "Peak Performance: Elevate your Game, Avoid Burnout and Thrive with the New Science of Success" explains why you should sleep more than four hours even if you don't feel tired.. Following is a transcript of the video.

    I used to think of sleep as a very passive process but now I tend to think of sleep as very active. 

    Sleep is one of the most productive things that we can do. We like to think that it's during the day that our minds are growing and that our bodies are getting stronger but it's actually quite the opposite. It's only when we sleep that both our physiology and psychology grows. So from a physiological standpoint, everything you do with your body, so just think about traditional exercise during the day, right? You are breaking your body down. And it's only during sleep that all the good growth-promoting hormones are released that allows your body to build back up.

    What's really interesting is that the mind functions in a very similar manner. So during the day, you might be exposed to all kinds of information, do problem-solving, various types of what I guess would be categorized as "learning". We might think it's during the day when we are doing all the hard work, that we are getting wiser and our minds are growing per se. But much like the body, that also happens when we sleep. So it's when we sleep that our mind consolidates, stores and connects all the information that we've been exposed to during the day. It's a filtering process per se.

    For a short period of time, if you need to get by in a few hours of sleep, let's say that you are a trauma surgeon, right? And you're on call and you have cases. That's totally fine, there's not much else that you can do. I think that where people get into trouble is when for an extended period of time, they try to cheat themselves of sleep. And then what happens is much like, almost like an alcohol addiction, that just becomes your new normal. So you get used to going on four to five hours of sleep and you assume that's just what it should feel like. When in fact, you probably can be a lot more productive a lot higher-performing if you slept more. 

     

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    Chick fil A Hash Brown Scrambles 1

    The breakfast bowl brigade has a new member. 

    Bowls have become a huge trend in food, and now Chick-fil-A has hopped on the bandwagon with its new hash brown scramble breakfast bowls.

    The bowls can also be ordered with the same ingredients — chicken or sausage, eggs, hash brown rounds, and cheese — as breakfast burritos. 

    Combining two of the menu's shining jewels, chicken nuggets and hash browns, is an inspired choice. 

    We grabbed a chicken and a sausage version of both to see if they're worth ordering. 

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    All four versions come with Chick-fil-A's jalapeño salsa on the side. It's actually pretty good as far as fast-food salsas are concerned; it's spicy — you can actually see the red pepper seeds in it — but not crazy hot, and it avoids becoming a watery mess.



    The chicken is as tender as ever. This appears to be Chick-fil-A's chicken nuggets sliced up into smaller, bite-sized pieces. The bowl as a whole is a little disappointing — it doesn’t feel like a cohesive item, merely hash browns, egg, and chicken thrown in the same container with an afterthought of cheese. It needs more cheese, more… something.



    The jalapeño salsa does its best to tie the disparate ingredients together — it’s peppery, but without a scorching heat that upsets your morning.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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    jonah superbad

    Being more likable is within your grasp.

    All it takes is nixing some of your less-than-desirable social quirks.

    With the help of some Quora users and social psychology research, we were able to identify 14 social behaviors that could make you less likable.

    You'd be well-advised to avoid these:

    SEE ALSO: 27 unprofessional habits that make everyone at work hate you

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    Avoiding eye contact

    The very first thing people will try to decide about you when they meet you is if they can trust you — and it's fairly hard to like someone if you don't trust them.

    As Heidi Grant Halvorson explains in her book "No One Understands You And What To Do About It," this decision is made almost entirely unconsciously, and it usually comes down to how well you can balance conveying two things: warmth and competence.

    "People need to feel that they have been heard, even when you can't give them what they are asking for or can't be of particular help," Halvorson writes. One simple way to show you're paying attention is to make eye contact and hold it.

    Halvorson says that making eye contact is also an effective way to convey competence, and studies have shown that those who do so are consistently judged as more intelligent.

    Avoiding eye contact, on the other hand, can convey deceit and untrustworthiness.



    Resting stone face

    Nodding and smiling are other key ways to convey warmth and competence, Halvorson says.

    If you want people to think you're cold, or even angry at them, then doing the opposite and not reacting to what they're saying is certainly a good way to go about that.



    Being contrary

    Showing empathy is an effective way to get people to like and trust you, Halvorson says.

    It requires you to put yourself in the other person's shoes and try to relate to them by finding common interests, dislikes, and experiences. 

    If all you can do is contradict whatever someone says, you're not connecting with them, and you're very likely making them mad.



    See the rest of the story at Business Insider