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Bonobos just solved a problem every guy has with his gym shorts

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Bonobos Goodsport

If you've ever had trouble finding a pair of perfectly fitting gym short, Bonobos has a solution.

The men's ecommerce retailer recently launched Goodsport, a new line of athletic apparel aimed at the guy who may go to the gym or play pick up games on the weekend, but can't quite be called a serious athlete.

The line features your typical shirts made of sweat-wicking antimicrobial fabric and sweatshirts and pullovers made of soft cottons. Details like thumb holes and reflective logos bring the whole look home.

But where the line really shines is its focus on shorts. While Bonobos focuses on creating "better fitting pants," the Goodsport line is emphasizing its shorts.

Most brands, even expensive ones like Lululemon, only make men's shorts in general sizes like small, medium, large, extra large, and so on. But Bonobos' Core Short is sized numerically, hitting both odd and even waist sizes from 28-40 inches. You can also pick your own length too — either 7 inches or 9 inches — for a pretty wide variety of different, almost custom fits.

It's more expensive to manufacture this many different sizes of the same short, but Bonobos seems to be trying to carve a niche out of being known for specific sizing in athletic wear.

Bonobos GoodsportThe shorts are also four way stretch, so they'll be able to move with you no matter what you're doing. They come with an inner liner, a dedicated pocket for your phone as well as a interior place to safely stash your keys.

Goodsport isn't quite a budget line. Shirts go for $68, long sleeves run $78, the hoodie is $148, and a half-zip will set you back $118. The shorts are a robust $78.

Bonobos has received a total of $128 million in venture capital funding, and as of the beginning of 2016, has over $100 million in revenue.

SEE ALSO: Adidas is launching a new athleisure line to take on Nike

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NOW WATCH: An exercise scientist explains how to lose those last 5 stubborn pounds


The very best restaurants in San Francisco

Here's how much people earn 10 years after attending the 25 best colleges in America

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MIT

Business Insider recently released its annual ranking of the 50 best colleges in America, emphasizing metrics like graduation rate, student-life experience, and post-graduation salary. 

Our top 25 schools feature a lot of familiar institutions — Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT all make the cut. But of the best schools in the country, whose graduates earn the most money after getting established in their careers?

To find out, Business Insider reranked its top 25 colleges by median graduate salary 10 years after enrolling, using data from the Department of Education's College Scorecard.

MIT, the sixth best college in America, grabbed the top spot — its graduates command a median salary of $91,600 a decade after enrolling.

Keep reading to find out how much people earn 10 years after enrolling in the top 25 colleges in America.

SEE ALSO: The 50 best colleges in America

DON'T MISS: Why Princeton is the best college in the US

25. Bowdoin College

Location: Brunswick, Maine

Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $54,800

Ranked 21st best college in America. 

At Bowdoin College, the second-ranked liberal-arts school on our list, first-year students can choose from 35 first-year seminars and are required to take a course in each of five general subject areas. As for postgraduation, Bowdoin's 1,500-member alumni Career Advisory Network helps prepare students for their future careers.



24. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $57,900

Ranked 12th best college in America. 

Known for a stellar undergraduate business school, the University of Michigan counts business, psychology, and economics as its most popular majors. UM also reports that about half of all students who received a bachelor's degree go on to pursue a master's within four years of graduation. The school's notable alumni include New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Google cofounder Larry Page.



23. University of Virginia

Location: Charlottesville, Virginia

Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $58,600

Ranked ninth best college in America. 

The highest-ranked public school on our list, the University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819. UVA first-year students can choose from four undergraduate schools: arts and sciences, architecture, engineering, or nursing. UVA also has a "work hard, play hard" mentality. The university boasts more than 600 student clubs and 25 varsity sports.



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Nobody wants to buy this enormous basket-shaped building for $5 million

The 10 most affordable housing markets in the US

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Huntington Indiana

Buying a four-bedroom home and living in a major city are often considered mutually exclusive. But they don't have to be.

Coldwell Banker recently released its annual Home Listing Report, which tracks the most affordable real estate markets in the US. Each of the top 10 are either in major cities or within commuting distance of a major metropolis, including Detroit and Cleveland at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. 

To determine the most affordable cities, Coldwell Banker analyzed the average listing price of more than 50,000 four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes for the period between January 2016 and June 2016. The ranking covered 2,168 markets across the US, excluding any with fewer than 10 listings.

In Detroit, a four-bed, two-bathroom house only costs around $64,110. And despite the city's notorious decline — which led to it ultimately filing for bankruptcy in 2013 — it's on an upswing. Detroit's small business scene is booming, creating jobs and revitalizing the town.

Keep reading for the cheapest places to purchase a home in the US. 

SEE ALSO: The 25 US cities with the lowest cost of living

DON'T MISS: The best suburb in every state

10. Palatka, Florida

Population: 10,390

Average cost of a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house: $110,655

Median household income: $21,864



9. Augusta, Georgia

Population: 197,182

Average cost of a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house: $106,567

Median household income: $37,593



8. Huntington, Indiana

Population: 17,095

Average cost of a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house: $105,614

Median household income: $39,542



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The most active cities for Tinder users point to an interesting demographic trend

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Happy Couple on Date at Restaurant

It only takes one person to make your online dating experience a runaway success.

But statistically speaking, your chances of meeting that one person go up as the number of potential matches increases.

Business Insider asked Tinder to pull data on its top cities — the locales with the greatest number of active users.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago were the top three.

The reason, however, is a little more intriguing.

Tinder's in-house sociologist, Jess Carbino, told us that it's not just because they're the most populous cities in the country — it's also because they're home to highly educated young professionals.

Carbino explained that highly educated people are generally more likely to use online dating services because they delay marriage and childbearing until they've achieved the "traditional markers of adulthood." Those markers include gaining independence from parents, completing an education, and establishing financial security.

"While you're in school, the opportunity to do that is diminished dramatically," she said. "Most individuals — mainly men — don't consider themselves to be marriageable until they have achieved a certain level of economic stability." (If the idea that Tinder users are thinking about marriage strikes you as weird, note that Tinder found that 80% of its users are looking for a meaningful relationship — presumably something that could lead to marriage.)

Here's the full list of the top cities for Tinder users:

  1. Los Angeles
  2. New York
  3. Chicago
  4. San Francisco/Bay Area
  5. Boston
  6. Phoenix
  7. San Diego
  8. Houston
  9. Seattle
  10. Dallas
  11. Miami
  12. Orlando
  13. Philadelphia
  14. Las Vegas
  15. Austin

What's more, Carbino said, highly educated people are more likely to rapidly adopt new technologies and new ways of meeting people.

But these findings come with a twist: In Provo, Utah, for example (population about 116,000), 51% of single people ages 18-24 have used Tinder. That's not too dissimilar to the 60% of single women and 80% of single men ages 18-24 who have used Tinder in New York City (population about 8 million).

In an email to Business Insider, Carbino said this phenomenon likely has to do with the "higher degree of embeddedness individuals have in their communities, institutions, and social circles" in cities like Provo.

In other words, using online dating is a way to widen the dating pool where it would otherwise be pretty small.

SEE ALSO: There's a key difference in how men and women use Tinder — and it makes the whole experience frustrating for everyone

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A woman who's gone on 150 Tinder dates reveals the worst mistakes men make

THEN AND NOW: How New York City's World Trade Center has changed in the 15 years since the 9/11 terrorist attack

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world trade center

Completed in 1973, the original World Trade Center complex was dubbed a "dream come true" by Governor Nelson Rockefeller at the official ribbon cutting ceremony on April 4.

After the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks left a hole in New York's skyline, ideas started spewing about what and how to rebuild.

Years later, One World Trade stands in its place. It's not just the Western Hemisphere's tallest building — it has also become a symbol of American pride.

See how the original World Trace Center evolved into today's Freedom Tower after the attacks of 9/11. 

SEE ALSO: 17 One World Observatory Instagram shots that will take your breath away

Construction on the original towers began in February 1967 with less than a $500 million budget. Architect Minoru Yamasaki designed two 110-story tall towers that were to be constructed as hollow structures supported by steel columns.

Source: New York State Education Department, History.com



The Port Authority and New Jersey Engineering Department aided in the complex's construction. Over 10,000 workers were involved in the building of the complex, which included both towers and a five-acre outdoor plaza with a 25-foot-tall Fritz Koenig sculpture.

Source: New York State Education DepartmentHistory.com



There were 43,600 windows in the twin towers and over 600,000 square feet of glass. Each building accommodated 50,000 workers and around 200,000 daily visitors.

Source: New York State Education DepartmentHistory.com



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Science says parents of successful kids have these 16 things in common

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Tina Beyonce Knowles

Good parents want their kids to stay out of trouble, do well in school, and go on to do awesome things as adults.

And while there isn't a set recipe for raising successful children, psychology research has pointed to a handful of factors that predict success.

Unsurprisingly, much of it comes down to the parents.

Here's what parents of successful kids have in common:

SEE ALSO: 21 books successful people read to their kids

SEE ALSO: 19 things teachers say parents should do at home to help their kids succeed

They make their kids do chores

"If kids aren't doing the dishes, it means someone else is doing that for them," Julie Lythcott-Haims, former dean of freshmen at Stanford University and author of "How to Raise an Adult" said during aTED Talks Live event. 

"And so they're absolved of not only the work, but of learning that work has to be done and that each one of us must contribute for the betterment of the whole," she said. 

Lythcott-Haims believes kids raised on chores go on to become employees who collaborate well with their coworkers, are more empathetic because they know firsthand what struggling looks like, and are able to take on tasks independently.  

She bases this on the Harvard Grant Study, the longest longitudinal study ever conducted.

"By making them do chores — taking out the garbage, doing their own laundry — they realize I have to do the work of life in order to be part of life," she tells Tech Insider.



They teach their kids social skills

Researchers from Pennsylvania State University and Duke University tracked more than 700 children from across the US between kindergarten and age 25 and found a significant correlation between their social skills as kindergartners and their success as adults two decades later.

The 20-year study showed that socially competent children who could cooperate with their peers without prompting, be helpful to others, understand their feelings, and resolve problems on their own, were far more likely to earn a college degree and have a full-time job by age 25 than those with limited social skills.

Those with limited social skills also had a higher chance of getting arrested, binge drinking, and applying for public housing.

"This study shows that helping children develop social and emotional skills is one of the most important things we can do to prepare them for a healthy future," said Kristin Schubert, program director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the research, in a release.

"From an early age, these skills can determine whether a child goes to college or prison, and whether they end up employed or addicted."

 



They have high expectations

Using data from a national survey of 6,600 children born in 2001, University of California at Los Angeles professor Neal Halfon and his colleagues discovered that the expectations parents hold for their kids have a huge effect on attainment

"Parents who saw college in their child's future seemed to manage their child toward that goal irrespective of their income and other assets," he said in a statement.

The finding came out in standardized tests: 57% of the kids who did the worst were expected to attend college by their parents, while 96% of the kids who did the best were expected to go to college.

That parents should keep their expectations high falls in line with another psych finding — the Pygmalion effect, which states "that what one person expects of another can come to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy" — as well as what some teachers told Business Insider was most important for a child's success.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

How the 'Rich Kids of London' spent their summer holidays

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Screen Shot 2016 09 12 at 12.26.41 (2)

London's rich kids live every day like they're on holiday. But when they're actually on holiday, they travel, party, and relax in even more luxury.

This summer was no different, according to the "Rich Kids of London" Instagram account, where the spoiled offspring of the city's wealthy post photos of their extravagant lives and receive thousands of likes (and hate-likes) from over 150,000 followers.

They travelled to destinations like Mykonos, Koh Samui, and Tokyo, and spent their time partying on yachts, posing with wild animals, and shooting champagne guns. And of course, they captured it all on Instagram.

Here's a selection of photos from their over-the-top travels:

London's rich kids don't fly on any mainstream airlines. Private jet was their preferred mode of transport this summer.

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They spent overnight flights lounging on full, lie-flat beds.

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Sometimes they get to travel with celebrities. Rich kid Maya Chigirinskaya got to fly in a private jet with Roman Abramovich.

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The fabulous life of Renzo Rosso, the 'crazy' billionaire founder of one of the most iconic denim brands in the world

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Renzo Rosso

Diesel founder Renzo Rosso has built a clothing empire.

The "hard-partying, trash-talking billionaire bad boy," as W Magazine called him, went from son of a northern Italian farmer to amassing a small fortune. He refers to himself as "crazy" for his outsized creativity and vision, according to Women's Wear Daily.

He first appeared on the Forbes billionaires list in 2012, and he currently has a net worth of roughly $3.4 billion, which he acquired through provocative advertising, savvy retail acumen, and smart business sense.

Though he's since relinquished the reigns of the company he created, the 60-year-old still serves as president of its holding company, OTB (which stands for Only The Brave, a company motto), and it doesn't seem like he'll slow down any time soon.

Rosso sat down with Business Insider to give us a small peek into what his fabulous life is really like.

SEE ALSO: Bonobos just solved a problem every guy has with his gym shorts

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

Rosso was born in 1955 in the tiny northern Italian town of Brugine, the son of a farmer.



According to an anecdote he recounted to W Magazine, he was once given rice pudding by a group of American soldiers from a nearby army base. "That, for me, was the American Dream," he said.

Source: W Magazine



With that drive, he made his first pair of jeans. It was the '70s, and they had a 42-centimeter leg opening. "My friends were so much in love with these jeans, that they started [asking for them]," Rosso told us.

That first pair spurred him to buy a 40% stake in the company he worked for, Moltex, with money he borrowed from his father in 1978. This company then became Diesel.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 'Chork' is a fork/chopstick hybrid by Panda Express — here's what it's like to use

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You've heard of the spork, but what about the Chork? Panda Express announced that it will soon be offering a new hybrid utensil that combines a fork with a set of chopsticks. Now, whatever your skill level with chopsticks may be, you have the option of scooping, grabbing, or poking your food. We tested them out to see how well this crazy pointed tool works.

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This Lego-style home was built in a few weeks with just a screwdriver

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PopUp House

If you've ever fantasized about living in a real-life Lego home, your dream could finally come true.

In January, French architecture firm Multipod Studio unveiled a prototype for the PopUp House, a customizable home made from stackable blocks. The home takes just one to two weeks to build. And depending on the design you choose, the whole process of designing, ordering, and building can happen in four months.

Multipod and Spanish homebuilders Wilbat House just constructed the first PopUp House in L'Armentera, a town in Catalonia, Spain.

Check out photos of the home, which was completed in June.

SEE ALSO: This tiny minimalist apartment has an 'origami wall' that creates different rooms

The 1,660-square-foot house is located in L'Armentera, a Spanish coastal town near the Gulf of Roses. The construction team built the house in two weeks with only an electric screwdriver, co-founder Corentin Thiercelin tells Business Insider.



The construction process is a lot like building with Legos. The home is made from stacked recyclable wooden panels and insulation blocks, all held together with wood screws.



The construction did end up facing delays because of city housing regulations, like making the structure resistant to fire and earthquakes. The whole process of designing and building the house, swimming pool, and garden took four months.



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What you need to know about the newly crowned Miss America 2017 Savvy Shields

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miss america 2017 savvy shields

Miss America crowned its newest winner, Miss America 2017 Savvy Shields, on Sunday. Shields is just the third Miss America to hail from Arkansas since the pageant began in 1921.

For coming out on top in a competitive field of 52 women, 21-year-old Shields won a $50,000 college scholarship.

The Fayetteville native is a senior at the University of Arkansas and she's a Goodwill Ambassador for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Health is at the top of her concerns, which is reflected in her Miss America platform: "Eat Better, Live Better."

What else does the new Miss America offer? Here are a few more details about Miss America 2017 Savvy Shields:

SEE ALSO: The new Miss America has advice for Trump and Clinton: 'Compromise'

DON'T MISS: The first openly lesbian contestant will take part in this year's Miss America pageant

She's a sorority girl.

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Shields is a member of the University of Arkansas' chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

With her pageant success, she'll no doubt be added to the sorority's list of notable alums. Currently, it includes "One Tree Hill" actress Sophia Bush, former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, actress Ashley Judd, and designer Kate Spade.



She's a huge Beyoncé fan.

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An accomplished dancer, Shields performed a jazz number from the TV show "SMASH" in the Miss America talent category.

During the competition, Shields admitted she has a burning desire to work with Beyoncé.

"I want to be a backup dancer for Beyoncé," she confessed. "I feel like that's every dancer's secret dream is to be a backup dancer for Beyoncé especially with her new tour."



She once battled with unhealthy eating, and is educating others about nutrition.

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It might be hard to think that Shields ever had a problem with eating healthy foods. But she's only human and said she began to make bad food choices in college, which led to bouts with health problems.

That's part of the reason she chose her "Eat Better, Live Better" Miss America platform. She wants to educate others about healthy eating.

"I think sometimes healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle comes with negative connotations and scary connotations,” she told Fayetteville's KSFM. "So my thing in learning about this process, the only thing I need to learn is tactical and tangible ways to do so."



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FAST FOOD WARS: Burger King goes all in with 'Cheetos Chicken Fries'

Cartier's history of innovation told through 5 iconic creations

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“Landmark

The name Cartier is synonymous with luxury and innovation — something that has been evident since the company was founded in 1847. As one of the world’s leading watchmakers with many firsts in the industry, some of Cartier’s iconic designs have even remained popular for more than 100 years. 

Watch the video to take a deeper look at these timeless products.

See all of these watches and more at the Cartier Fifth Avenue Mansion when it returns mid-September.

Check out Cartier watches.

Visit the renovated Cartier Mansion at 653 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

This post is sponsored by Cartier.

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22 maps that explain America

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US satellite map night

At Business Insider, we love maps. There is no better way to convey data about people and places than with a map.

To that end, we've put together 22 maps that explain various economic, social, demographic, and linguistic aspects of the United States of America. Check them out.

Rob Wile contributed to an earlier version of this post.

This map shows jobs that are held at a much higher rate in each state than in the country as a whole.



And here are jobs that pay much more in a state than they do in the country as a whole.



America's population is always dynamic. This map shows overall population change between 2014 and 2015, and the next few maps show the various components of that change.



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How Netflix's new Amanda Knox documentary makes you completely rethink the case

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amanda knox netflix

On November 1, 2007, in Perugia, Italy, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher was found murdered in the bedroom of an apartment she was sharing with two Italian women and a 20-year-old American exchange student named Amanda Knox. Knox and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, said they realized something was wrong when they discovered Kercher's door was locked, drops of blood in the bathroom, and a broken bedroom window. They proceeded to call the police.

What followed is a sensational story that tabloid journalists went crazy over, and which ended with Knox spending four years in an Italian prison following the murder, for which she was convicted, until she was ultimately acquitted.

Five years after being freed from prison because of DNA contamination and a year after Italy's highest court exonerated her, a new documentary, "Amanda Knox," delivers the definitive tell-all of the events.

To be released by Netflix on September 30, the movie had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and received rave reviews for its in-depth investigation of every aspect of the Knox saga told by many of the main players, including Knox.

Directors Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, like most people in the world, couldn't get over how much media made the case a sensation. By 2011, when they started work on the movie, the Knox story dominated headlines once again when she was freed from prison.

"I think that for us we were a little bit confused by why it was so big and also how something that starts as an undeniable tragedy and a terrible act of violence becomes a piece of front-page news and that then becomes entertainment," McGinn told Business Insider at TIFF. "So we thought it would be interesting in looking at how that happens and to try to get really deep inside to the roots of what really causes that kind of story."

"There were so many headlines, and so many stories, and yet people didn't seem to have any further clarity," Blackhurst added.

Amanda Knox Netflix

What "Amanda Knox" reveals is how crucial mistakes in the handling of the crime scene and a false confession by Knox led to complete dysfunction in the case. But it also shows how journalists became obsessed with Knox.

Footage of her kissing Sollecito and showing little remorse for what happened to her roommate by the time news cameras arrived at the crime scene started the narrative. In the weeks and months to follow, Knox was branded as sex-crazed, and as the investigation continued, the theory was that Kercher was a victim in some deviant crime of passion involving Knox and Sollecito.

Though before this film, Knox had done the big TV interviews and a book once back in the US, Blackhurst and McGinn still felt Knox hadn't opened up and given her side of the story, and neither had Sollecito, nor the lead investigator of the murder, Italian detective Giuliano Mignini.

"All of them felt this narrative the media put out there was not representative of who they were and we wanted to understand from a human point of view what it would feel like to have that applied to you and what it felt like to be caught up in these events and circumstances," Blackhurst said.

So the filmmakers began trying to get access to everyone who was involved. But they made it clear that they would not move on the film until their subjects were comfortable.

"We met Amanda and Raffaele when they were acquitted in 2011, but it wasn't until 2013 that she decided, on her own, that she was ready to talk," Blackhurst said. "That was always very important to us to say we're not going to come and dine and dash, we're not trying to steal something out of your mouth and leak it on Twitter as quickly as possible. We want to put in the time to understand you as people."

They shot Knox for the first time in 2014. Once she signed on, Raffaele, Mignini, and others including Nick Pisa, who broke many of the stories about the case for the Daily Mail, also agreed to talk.

But then there was explaining to an audience what likely happened to Kercher, and that meant diving into DNA evidence and deciding how to deliver the information as simply as possible.

The filmmakers used graphics to point out that Knox was never in the room where Kercher died, according to the DNA present in the room. They also showed that DNA evidence linking Knox to the knife thought to be used as the murder weapon was inconclusive.

"Initially we thought the graphics would be more complex," McGinn said, "but what we realized quickly was the only way to keep it a human story and feel empathy for the people involved was to put it in more layman's terms."

Along with the graphics, McGinn and Blackhurst got the DNA experts from the trial to be in the movie. They had never previously done an interview about this case.

The filmmakers are most proud of bringing much-needed context to the moments that were only captured in small news bites around the world when the case was happening.

In "Amanda Knox," we get never-before-heard audio recordings of Amanda and her mother speaking in prison, and some added clarity to the footage everyone remembers of Knox kissing Sollecito outside the murder scene. The documentary explains through interviews with Knox and Sollecito that it was not what it seemed.

"You can feel what it felt like for those people to be caught up at that time," Blackhurst said of the movie. "You're able to give context to this one little bit because you now can see and hear from them."

"Amanda Knox" will be available on Netflix September 30.

SEE ALSO: The 20 most-watched TV episodes ever, ranked

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This popular fan theory perfectly explains 'Stranger Things'

The founder of Shake Shack is backing a startup that delivers home-cooked food — and it looks delicious

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Vegan quinoa umi kitchen

When you order takeout, you're usually paying for the convenience of enjoying a restaurant-cooked meal in the comfort of your own home.

But what if it's actually your mom's home-cooked meals that you crave? 

That's what the founders of Umi Kitchen, a New York-based food delivery app, are banking on. Founded by CEO Khalil Tawil, former Tumblr VP Derek Gottfrid, and Hallie Meyer (daughter of Shake Shack founder and Union Square Hospitality Group CEO Danny Meyer), Umi Kitchen provides a platform for home chefs to cook meals for strangers through an iOS app.

The name "umi," which means "mother" in Arabic, plays into the theme. The name takes inspiration from Tawil's own mother, who immigrated from Lebanon to Missoula, Montana in 1976, and baked dozens of pounds of bread for the local farmer's market.

"My mother would cook dinner every single night, and our dinner table became the center of our social lives," Tawil said.

When Tawil went into the army, his mother would even send him vacuum-sealed meals. After several deployments, Tawil got an internship in finance and then went to Yale Law School, where he would later meet Meyer, who was a second-semester senior there.

umi kitchen"In that first semester of law school, I was eating Chipotle and Shake Shack every day," Tawil said. "I would walk past people's homes and just feel really frustrated that I didn't have access to a home-cooked meal."

He and Meyer decided to post a Craigslist ad looking for someone who might be interested in cooking them a meal. To their surprise, they got more than a dozen responses, and the idea for Umi Kitchen was born. They were later introduced by a friend to Gottfrid, who helped them get their tech infrastructure up and running. 

"I had been doing a bunch of advising at other startups and was thinking of getting into something, but not really," Gottfrid said. "The part that really differentiates [Umi] is the passion that these people bring to their cooking. They're really sharing their souls with you."

"Something that's made with so much love and care and excitement — that's actually in short supply."

Though it's launching as a competitor to delivery services like Seamless, UberEats, and Caviar, Umi Kitchen says that it considers the home-cooked quality to be more central to the concept than the convenience of delivery.

"I think the exciting part is the food, and the delivery is just the clarifier," Gottfrid said. "I don't think anyone is excited that something is delivered in New York — it's kind of expected at this point. In some ways, the delivery is the most unexciting part."

The founders evaluate each application and taste test a sample menu before allowing cooks to open their kitchens up to customers. Their only guidelines are that each chef should have a dish they consider their signature, and that the full meal should be enough to feed a hungry adult. 

umi kitchen

They find that the chefs who sign up for Umi Kitchen do so for very different reasons. 

"Some of them have gone to culinary school, but many of them have not. They're just wonderful cooks with signature dishes they're excited to share with people," Meyer said, adding that each cook who is accepted onto the platform must first pass food safety training — the same training required of restaurant workers. 

Meyer herself is plenty familiar with the food world. Though her father is one of the most successful restaurateurs in the business today, she grew up cooking for her family and guests they had over to the house.

She started her first company — a catering company with the Yale Sustainable Farm — while still an undergrad, and won the school's version of Iron Chef twice. 

"I grew up in a family where food was always about where it came from, and the story behind it. Cooking together was just what we did, it was all we talked about ... I feel totally lucky to have him as a friend and advisor on the sidelines through all this," she said. "Biggest piece of advice: have fun. And don't take yourself too seriously, especially in a business where the business is of making people happy."

umi kitchen cofounders

The service has been available in Brooklyn since April, but launches in Manhattan on September 13. Anyone between 116th Street and Houston, and to the east of 5th Avenue, can order through Umi Kitchen's app, which uses Postmates as a third-party delivery partner. Umi Kitchen is currently available only for dinner (and there's no menu for Fridays or Saturdays) but the founders haven't ruled out eventually offering more meals on the platform. 

Umi Kitchen raised a $1.4 million seed round of funding led by Box Group's David Tisch and Adam Rothenberg. Additional investors include Danny Meyer, Version One Ventures, the Sweetgreen founders, Henrik Werdelin of Bark & Co., Hayley Barna of BirchBox, Yale University's Yale Innovation Fund, and Elizabeth Cutler of SoulCycle.

SEE ALSO: The 15 best restaurants in San Francisco

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