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9 classic men's style rules that you still have to follow

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Stylish

Sometimes, you really should listen to your elders.

Though there are some men's style rules that you no longer need to follow, others are ironclad — they were passed down from older generations for a reason, and you'd do your best to follow all of them as often as you can.

We rounded up the nine rules we thought were most important so you can make sure you're not forgetting anything. The well-styled men of your grandfather's generation would be proud.

SEE ALSO: 15 things every guy needs to have in his closet this fall

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Match your shoes and belt when dressing formally.

The belt-matching-shoes trope is a little tired, and it's true that its importance is sometimes overstated.

But when it comes to formal events, matching the leathers of your belt and shoes is essential to looking well-dressed. There's no way around it — brown goes with brown, and black with black. Otherwise, you'll just look mismatched.



Don't mix patterns.

Patterns are great, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. What has become known as "power-clashing" — a style move where one wears more than one pattern in an attempt to look garish on purpose — has no place in modern dressing.

It's an attempt to stand out, and it works in casual settings. But when it's time to dress up, follow the rules, and go for an impeccable suit without clashing patterns — it will do so much more for you.



Dress to the specifications required.

If an invitation calls for black tie, that's what you must wear. If it says "formal," a suit is required.

There's no getting away with failing to dress to the specified dress code. You'll look and feel like a fool if you attempt to circumvent it with creative dressing.

You'll be at a social disadvantage at the event, and everyone will know it. Dress according to what is expected.



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9 apps every college student should be using

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students college phone pokemon go app mobile games

As fall approaches, the weather cools off, Pumpkin Spice Lattés make their much anticipated return, and college students head back to campus.

One of the most useful back-to-school supplies might be something students already keep in their back pocket: a smartphone. A well-stocked app suite helps students connect with new friends, keep organized, and stay informed.

Here are the must-have apps for college students this fall:

SEE ALSO: This 38-person commune shows the lengths millennials will go to live in San Francisco

CamScanner brings homework into the 21st century.

Say you write a homework assignment by hand and don't have time to type it up before submitting it on the class website. CamScanner lets users take pictures of their homework (or anything) and order the sequence of shots. It then consolidates the images in a single PDF.

It beats handing in nothing.

Find it here.



Slack reinvents communication for student-run organizations.

Silicon Valley's favorite team communication app has hit campuses nationwide.

At Stanford, the student entrepreneurship association, Bases, relies on Slack to get stuff done. Every team in the organization has a channel, and when a special event arises, administrators create a new channel.

Slack helps to eliminate emails and increase transparency across the group.

Find it here.



Sidewire is a news aggregator that cuts out the noise.

Sidewire is a platform that lets conversations from people whose opinions you actually want to hear float to the surface.

The news aggregator curates political stories and attaches a live feed of insights from newsmakers — like journalists, speechwriters, and pundits — to each link. It's kind of like Twitter for politics.

Find it here.



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Take a tour of the 63-acre Connecticut 'island' that just hit the market for $175 million

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great island connecticut

A 63-acre "island" connected by a land bridge to Darien, Connecticut, is up for sale for a whopping $175 million.

Though it's not currently the country's priciest listing, if sold at the full asking price it could be the most expensive residential property ever sold in the US. That record is currently held by the 2014 sale of a $147 million home in the Hamptons. Dubbed "Great Island," the estate is currently owned by the family of the 19th-century industrialist William Ziegler, who, according to the Wall Street Journal, used it as a summer home.

Let's take a tour of the waterfront estate, which comes complete with the original main house, the Villa Juliette. David Olgivy of David Olgivy & Associates has the listing in partnership with Christie's International Real Estate.

SEE ALSO: We tested the high-tech suitcase meant to make business travel less stressful — here's the verdict

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Great Island is 63 acres of land that juts out into the Long Island Sound, about an hour's drive from New York City.



It's accessible by road from the tony town of Darien, Connecticut.



The original home, the Villa Juliette, has stone walls and a tile roof. The family of William Ziegler acquired it in 1902, according to the listing.



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How to decide where you should retire

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older couple traveling

Let's say you've made all the right financial decisions. You've built up a cushy nest egg, you've managed to pay off the mortgage, and you're ready to kick the 9-to-5 and ease into a very comfortable retirement. Congratulations! You're doing better than most Americans.

But now you face another crucial decision: Where to put down your retirement roots. 

Depending on your passions, health, climate preferences, and family situation, a great city to retire in can take on many forms, says Michael Solari, a certified financial planner with Solari Financial Planning who has expertise in retirement. 

"It’s a personal choice of what’s going to make you happy," Solari told Business Insider. 

How do you know whether a community will make you happy before you get there? Here are the four questions you should ask yourself to discover the perfect place to retire.

1. How do you want to spend your time during the day, now that you're not tied down with work?

It may seem an obvious question, but it's also one of the toughest to answer. "People who are retiring have a very, very hard time visualizing what the heck they're going to do in retirement," Solari says. "[They were] spending 8 to 12 hours a day at work, and now they're trying to fill that void." 

What are your hobbies and interests — what haven't you been able to do that you've always wanted to try? Once you've narrowed this down, finding a place that accommodates your passions will be easier.

For some people that's travel, in which case the precise home location might be less important than proximity to a great airport, like in Denver, Dallas, or San Francisco.

2. How active of a lifestyle do you want to lead?

"I have a lot of clients who are in their late-50s or early-60s, so they're retiring before medicare. They're retirement age, but they're still very active. Look for a community that's going to be active," Solari advises. 

Florida's laid-back vibe works wonders for some, but if you've still got the itch for adrenaline, and a double-black diamond ski slope entices you more than a beach chair and a tiki drink, you may want to look toward the Pacific Northwest — where many of America's most active cities are located.

Solari sang Colorado's praises.

"If you go to Colorado, they have tons of hiking and biking and skiing ... as well as a diverse community you can be involved in."

3. What's your ideal climate?

couple on the beachThe Northeast is a great fit for many retirees, according to Solari, who's based out of New Hampshire. High standards of living are coupled with low crime and access to major metro cities with cultural amenities. But it also means contending with brutal winters, and navigating an icy climate can be a challenge even for the young and spry. 

"People automatically think Florida, but other places that are just as good and offer quite a bit are North and South Carolina," Solari says. "You're not in 80- and 90-degree weather all the time, and it's better than zero degrees up here."

The other benefit to those warm, southern locales: A dollar tends to stretch a lot further, so you can budget more trips to visit your family up North when the frozen tundra has thawed.

"If you're down South, nine times out of 10 you're probably going to be looking at a lower cost of living," Solari says.  

4. How often do you want to see your family?

"Being away from family is an important piece to think about," Solari says.  

Some retirees opt for far-flung homes, expecting to lure children and grandchildren over for frequent visits on the promise of abundant sun and beach access. It doesn't always work out that way, Solari says. He knows from personal experience. 

"My parents are snow birds and they fly to Florida, and they're down in Florida for three or four months. The expectation, at least initially, was that we'd come down a lot. We have one child right now, and as he gets older we'll definitely do the Disney World thing ... but we're not down as often as they had hoped," Solari shared.

If you're the type that doesn't want to miss any seminal family moments — birthdays, graduations, holidays — you may want to take a pass on a permanent home in a far-away state. 

"It's hard and life is busy. So don't have the expectation that [your kids] are going to come twice a year or every year, because sometimes it might just not work out." 

Get out and experiment

This isn't a question, but it's the overarching advice that Solari returns to. A great way to discover the answers to these four questions with certainty is to travel around and test the waters. If you want to spend the hours that you used to spend at work trying out new restaurants and experiencing new food instead, you'll want to give a culturally vibrant place like Portland a visit first to ensure the rainy weather doesn't phase you. 

"I think that's very important: To experience it without jumping all in and putting a down payment on a home," Solari advises. "I tell people to go travel where you've always wanted to be. Feel it out and find a place after a while, once you feel comfortable." 

SEE ALSO: 7 questions to ask yourself before buying a second home

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Jay Z's viral 'War on Drugs' video gets two key things right about the science of addiction

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jay z

In less than five minutes in a new viral video, Jay Z sums up all the ways the US war on drugs has been what he calls an "epic fail."

The musician, who teamed up with visual artist Molly Crabapple to make the 4-minute video, which appeared online at The New York Times, gets two key things right about the science of drugs and addiction.

1. Addiction is not a moral failing.

In his description of the beginnings of the drug war in the 1980s, Jay Z says, "No one wanted to talk about Reaganomics and the ending of social safety nets. The defunding of schools and the loss of jobs in cities across America." Instead, he continues, "Young men like me who hustled became the sole villain and drug addicts lacked moral fortitude."

This perception of drug addiction as a moral failing continues to pervade discussions of addiction, but it's not aligned with the science.

Numerousneuroscientific studies reveal that addiction is a learned behavior — a "disease of learning," as Harvard neurobiologist Steven Hyman has called it — that results in measurable changes to the brain. As such, young people learn to use and abuse drugs and alcohol, perhaps as a coping mechanism, and this results in fundamental brain changes that continue to affect them as they grow and develop. "Repeated drug use leads to long-lasting changes in the brain that undermine voluntary control," write the authors of a 2004 study in the journal Nature.

Addiction "is a form of pathologic learning," Maia Szalavitz, a neuroscience journalist and the author of the book "Unbroken Brain," recently told Business Insider. "With addiction, overwhelming changes occur in the brain region involving areas that evolved for things like love and sex and feeding."

2. Powder cocaine and crack cocaine are the same drug, but they do have slightly different effects.

Towards the middle of the video, Jay Z says "… the Feds made distinctions between people who sold powder cocaine and crack cocaine even though they were the same drug."

"The only difference," he says, "is how you take it.”

cocaine britainThat's largely true. Powder cocaine is usually snorted, but it can also be dissolved in water or melted and injected, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). A powder cocaine "high" from snorting the drug typically hits the user in a matter of minutes, while its effects peak at around 15 minutes. Overall, the high lasts roughly 30 minutes.

Crack cocaine, on the other hand, refers to powder cocaine that's been processed with a base, like baking soda. This allows the body to absorb it very rapidly when it's smoked. A "high" from inhaled crack cocaine can hit the user in seconds, and its effects peak in 3-5 minutes. The high lasts roughly 10 minutes.

Powder cocaine can also be injected, and this method typically "speeds up" the high, making it almost identical to the effects of crack cocaine, the NIDA reports.

In spite of all that, penalties for the possession of crack cocaine were historically much more severe. "The sentencing laws appear to unfairly target the poor," NYU researcher Joseph J. Palamar told Vocativ. "Blacks ultimately [experienced] high incarceration rates as a result."

It's because of these two misconceptions, says Jay Z, that the war on drugs has been what he calls "an epic fail."

SEE ALSO: A new book will change everything you think you know about drugs, alcohol, and addiction

RELATED: The foremost authority on drugs in the US just smashed a huge misconception about addiction

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: EX-DEA AGENT: Trump’s border wall would 'serve no purpose’ in the war on drugs

The vast majority of Tinder users aren't using the app the way you might expect

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tinder profile

Everyone knows someone — even if it's your cousin's coworker's daughter — who met their spouse on Tinder.

Usually these stories are touted as evidence of the fact that Tinder is not, as is commonly believed, solely geared toward hookups and one-night stands.

Unfortunately, happy as your cousin's coworker's daughter may be, her experience seems more like a fluke than the norm. Because we all know multiple people who each met multiple matches on Tinder and never heard from any of them after the first date.

But a recent statistic gives relationship-oriented folks reason to be hopeful and to see those Tinder marriages as less a glitch in the app's normal programming and more a real possibility. According to a Tinder survey, 80% of its users are seeking a meaningful relationship.

Of course, it's possible that these users were simply responding how they thought they were supposed to respond. But assuming that most of them were answering honestly, that's some pretty surprising news.

The real question is: Is it a waste of time for long-term-relationship-minded users to spend their evenings swiping left and right? Even if most people on Tinder want a relationship, is there any chance of actually finding one?

Take a look at recent research and the answers that emerge are: no and probably.

Depending on who you ask, either 12% or 33% of people who got married in the last five years or so met through an online-dating service (including, but not limited to, Tinder).

Interestingly, couples who meet onlinetend to find themselves at the altar sooner than couples who meet in person.

As Stanford researcher Michael Rosenfeld told The Washington Post, one possible reason why is that online-dating services allow you to select beforehand the characteristics you know you prefer in a mate. On Tinder, that might mean swiping left on the profiles that say "football fan" and right on those that say "science nerd" or vice versa.

At the same time, Rosenfeld did say that people looking for longer-term relationships tend to use the dating websites where profiles are longer and more text-heavy. So presumably not Tinder.

What's more, one study found that marriages that started online tend to be more satisfying than marriages that started offline. Again, that's possibly because you can sift through potential matches based on important criteria before you actually fall for someone.

Ultimately, there's no guarantee that you won't meet 10 people interested in hookups only on Tinder. There's definitely no guarantee that you'll wind up exchanging rings with someone you met on Tinder.

But perhaps the greatest takeaway from these findings is that online-dating apps aren't so different from meeting in person. There will always be people looking for flings, marriage, or something in between. It's just a matter of learning to quickly suss out who's looking for what so that no one's heart gets broken.

SEE ALSO: The most active cities for Tinder users reveal something intriguing about who's using the app

Join the conversation about this story »

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

This 18-karat gold toilet that's open to the public is '1% art for the 99%'

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guggenheim toilet

Most museums don't want you to touch the art. But a new sculpture at the Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum really encourages interaction.

Starting September 16, museum visitors can relieve themselves in the Guggenheim's new installation: a fully functional 18-karat gold toilet. 

The modern piece by Maurizio Cattelan is titled "America," and meant to comment on the American dream and the exclusivity in the art world, according to the museum.

Open to anyone who pays admission, it will be on display indefinitely at the museum on New York City's Upper East Side.

Cattelan has referred to the work as "1% art for the 99%," since it makes an extravagant luxury product available to the public. He also hopes people will draw their own conclusions from the piece. 

For the installation, Cattelan replaced a regular toilet in one of the museum's bathroom stalls with the solid gold toilet. A security guard will stand at the restroom's entrance as people wait to use it, and will explain to visitors that it's a piece of artwork before they enter. (The guard will likely also protect the installation from those hoping to walk away with a highly valuable souvenir.)

Once visitors make it into the stall, they can have a nice sit and contemplate the meaning of "America."

SEE ALSO: These stunning glass pipes and bongs for the 1% cost up to $300,000

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This brilliant color-changing toilet light solves a lot of nighttime problems

Here’s what it’s like to attend one of NYC’s most exclusive dinner parties where nearly 5,000 people dress in white

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Dîner en Blanc is the NYC secret dinner party of your dreams. Dressed in white, attendees set up extravagant white tablescapes in an undisclosed location — this year in downtown's Robert F. Wagner Park.

Follow BI Video: On Twitter 

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Marijuana legalization is facing a major challenge from the alcohol industry

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Samuel Adams Boston Lager

Big players in the alcohol business are pushing back on a major marijuana legalization initiative. 

Massachusetts is one of five states with a ballot initiative this year that could legalize recreational use of marijuana, and the alcohol industry is leading the charge to stop the initiative. In Massachusetts, a political action committee that represents 16 of the state's beer distributors is among the top three donors to an anti-legalization group, The Intercept's Lee Fang discovered

Boston Beer Company (the folks behind Sam Adams) are also worried about the potential for Massachusetts cannabis legalization, Fang pointed out. "Certain states are considering or have passed laws and regulations that allow the sale and distribution of marijuana. It is possible that legal marijuana usage could adversely impact the demand for the Company’s products," the company noted in an SEC filing back in February.

There's a crucial difference between the former group and the latter — beer distributors are the middle-men of the beer world, acting as the go-between for brewers and retail. Both distributors and brewers (in the case of Boston Beer) are worried about a negative sales impact, though it's surprising to see the distribution side of the beer industry negative react. 

In other states considering legalization this November, such as California, beer and alcohol distributors are part of the conversation about marijuana legalization.

Surly Brewing Co., Beer, Truck

So the logic goes: After legalization, state government will regulate the marijuana industry similarly to the beer and alcohol industry, with distributors acting as middle-men between brewers/wholesalers and customers. After all, they've already got the trucks, routes, employees, and established systems.

Even more bizarrely, in Colorado, beer and alcohol sales are up alongside marijuana legalization. "Tax records show that alcohol sales have continued to grow in Colorado despite the rapid rise of recreational marijuana," The Guardian wrote in August 2015, roughly one-and-a-half years after it became legal in Colorado. "Even as tax revenues from marijuana nearly tripled between June 2014 through May 2015, alcohol sales continued to steadily increase as well, with alcohol excise taxes rising 2.1%, the same increase as the year prior."

Though the worries from alcohol and beer groups in Massachusetts are inspiring financial pushback, it's not clear that the fears driving that pushback are based in logic.

It's also not clear if the recreational marijuana initiative will even pass in Massachusetts. The latest poll, care of Conservative political action committee Gravis Marketing for Jobs First and The Boston Globe, has 51% of respondents opposed, 41% in favor, and 9% undecided.

SEE ALSO: A pharmaceutical company is fighting marijuana legalization because it would ‘significantly limit’ the commercial success of one of its drugs

DON'T MISS: These are the 9 most popular weed strains in Colorado

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 4 tips for people smoking marijuana for the first time

One in five mothers say they regret the name they chose for their child — here are the most common reasons

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Bridget Jones' Baby

What you name your child can affect their lifetime success, from hireability to spending habits.

So it comes as little surprise, then, that there is a growing trend among parents called "namer's remorse."

According to a recent survey by parenting website Mumsnet, one in five mothers regret the name they chose for their child.

To help you avoid becoming another statistic, we've highlighted some of the most commons causes of regret among the moms surveyed:

'It's too commonly used'

While studies have shown that people with common names are more likable and more likely to be hired, a quarter of the moms surveyed said they regret not giving their kids more unique names. If you're considering naming your child James or Mary, you may have to weigh your future happiness against theirs.

'It just doesn't feel right'

When writer Kelcey Kintner's daughter was a month old, Kitner writes on her blog "The Mama Bird Diaries" that she looked down at her daughter and thought, "This baby is absolutely, definitely not a Presley." Convinced that she and her husband had picked the wrong name, she eventually changed it to "Summer" — and she couldn't be happier about her decision.

Kintner's story of just knowing your kid has the wrong name isn't that uncommon. Of the moms surveyed by Mumsnet, 21% say they regretted their name choice for this very reason.

'I have never liked it — I was pressured into using it'

When it comes to important life decisions, everyone has an opinion. Sadly, outside pressure when it comes to baby naming is a real thing — just look to the scores of parenting forum posts with questions like, "How do I tell my mom we're naming the baby after my mother-in-law?" as proof. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, 20% of moms who regret their child's name say the were pressured into giving it.

Some of the less common reasons — but reasons nonetheless — for baby-name regret include:

"It's not distinctive enough" (11%)

"It causes him/her problems with spelling/pronunciation" (11%)

"Everyone calls him/her by a shortened version of the name, which I don't like" (6%)

"There's been a shift in public perception of the name since my child was born" (3%)

"I worry that he/she won't be taken seriously" (2%)

SEE ALSO: 15 ways your child's name sets them up for success — or failure

DON'T MISS: Teachers share the 12 biggest misconceptions people have about their job

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 4 morning rituals that are hard to adopt but could really pay off

Sweden's famous Ice Hotel will now have hand-carved ice rooms that stay frozen all year

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ice hotel

Sweden's famous Ice Hotel — the one that started the ice hotel trend — will soon start keeping one of its wings frozen all year round. And oddly enough, it'll get help from the sun to make it possible.

In a blog post, Yngve Bergqvist, the owner of the hotel, announced that construction would begin on a part of the hotel containing 20 hand-carved"art rooms" that contain ice sculptures and 2 to 3 beds each. This wing will stay open year-round, while in the winter, the hotel will reconstruct 15 suites — the ones they usually have during the winter.

another animal themed room show me what you got by tjasa gusfors and david andren has an intricate peacock sculpture

To keep thew new wing cool during spring and summer months, the hotel will use solar panels that harness 75 kWh of electricity between April to August. That'll be enough to provide power for the restaurant, guest rooms, and offices. The electricity will also power "chilling tubes" embedded in the ceiling that will keep the temperature at a constant 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

During these months, the sun is almost constant, making it easy for the hotel to gather enough solar power to keep things running. 

The roof of the new wing will be covered in Arctic mountain flowers and grass, aiding with insulation.

The hotel started construction on the wing on September 15, and in mid-October, artists and architects will start designing suites, bars, and galleries in the space.

If you're interested in seeing what the art installations are like, we have plenty of photos here.

SEE ALSO: Go inside Sweden's stunning Ice Hotel, where each year the rooms are hand-carved out of 4,000 tons of ice

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This stunning 'hotel room' in the Swiss Alps has no walls

These 16 truths about adulthood drawn on Post-its will make you laugh before you cringe

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Adulthood is hard.

Chaz Hutton, a 32-year-old Australian based in London, knows this all too well. He illustrates the surprises, disappointments, and hard truths of adulthood in stick-figure form through Post-it notes he then Instagrams.

"They started as just a thing I'd send to friends on a group chat, then after a few months those friends convinced me to start an Instagram, which I assured them was a terrible idea, and that nothing would come of it," Hutton told Business Insider in an email.

His insights have been so popular that he's stopped working as an architect to pursue the project full-time.

"...aaaaaaand repeat"

A photo posted by Insta-Chaz (@instachaaz) on Feb 22, 2016 at 7:02am PST on

"It's been amazing," he said. "The comments are probably the one thing about it, and largely the reason I've bothered keeping it up! Although it's becoming harder to explain to people what exactly it is I do for a living."

Scroll down to check out Hutton's take on everyday life, and see more uncomfortable but funny truths about adulthood on Instagram at @instachaaz. Hutton's first book of illustrations, "A Sticky Note Guide to Life," will be published in November.

SEE ALSO: Learn everything you need to know about personal finance from 11 simple sketches

Instagram Embed:
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Instagram Embed:
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This photographer leans out of a flying helicopter to get these stunning shots of East Coast beaches

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Surfside Beach, Nantucket

Professional photographer Gray Malin has family roots in Martha's Vineyard. "My grandparents owned a house in Edgartown and my dad and his four brothers have endless stories growing up going to The Vineyard," he recently wrote on his blog.

Malin has an impressive portfolio of aerial photographs of beaches all over the world, which he takes from a helicopter. With his talented eye, he creates vibrant images of stunning white sands and crystal-clear waters.

This summer, he was able to combine family time and work, exploring Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard both on land and from the skies. Ahead, see Malin's gorgeous photos and his recommendations for where to eat and stay on the islands.

SEE ALSO: There's a reason foodies are flocking to Portland, Maine, right now

"Aquinnah Beach is famous for the red cliffs and beach, this a must see in [my opinion]," Malin wrote on his blog.

Source: Gray Malin



Aquinnah is on the south side of Martha's Vineyard, and its red-colored clay cliffs are under special environmental protections. Taking a piece of the clay home is prohibited.



When it comes to seafood in Martha's Vineyard, the options are plentiful. Malin suggests The Bite if you're in the mood for clams. "This legendary clam shack has tremendous fried oysters and clams," he wrote on his blog.

Click here to learn more about The Bite »



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here’s the easiest and fastest way to dice an avocado

16 shopping secrets that will save you time and money at Costco

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costco shoppingCostco is a goldmine for bargains.

But the opportunity to save can be overwhelming, as you face seemingly endless free samples and bulk deals.

There are great bargains at Costco — even Morgan Stanley analysts say the retailer offers some of the best deals in the industry. However, to cash in on the deals, you need to know a few secrets.

Here’s how to make shopping at Costco worth the price of membership.

SEE ALSO: Costco is beating Walmart and Amazon with the 'best business model' in retail

Make a beeline to the center of the store.

Many membership stores stick the best bargains in “center court,” the pallets in the middle of the store, Paco Underhill, author of "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping,” told Bankrate.

Flashy displays at the front of the store, on the other hand, are going to be more expensive.



Keep an eye out for the "star."

If there’s an asterisk on a Costco price tag, that means the item can't restocked and what you see is the last in the store, reports Costco Insider.

So if your favorite seasonal product is marked with a star, it’s time to buy enough to last you till next year.



Split bulk items.

You might not have space to store 30 rolls of toilet paper, but your friends would probably be more than happy to split the cost of the $19.50 mega-pack, says Time.

Buying in bulk means major savings, so go big — and split the products up before going home.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This startup has no offices and unlimited vacation, and its founder has lived in more than 30 countries in 5 years

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toptal_cofounders

By the time Breanden Beneschott graduated from Princeton, his startup for placing technical freelance workers with companies, Toptal, was already doing about $1 million a year in revenue. 

Nearly six years later, the company is "flying way past" $100 million annually, has clients ranging from the Cleveland Cavaliers to Airbnb, has hundreds of employees — and not a single office space anywhere in the world. 

Beneschott cofounded Toptal while he was still in school at Princeton University, where he paid his own way. In order to put himself through school, he taught himself to be a software developer and started to do freelance work. Very quickly, he realized the pain of navigating the freelance world, both as a freelancer and someone looking to hire freelancers. 

The idea for Toptal was born out of this realization. There were plenty of talented technical freelancers, and lots of companies who needed short-term help, but there wasn't an efficient way to connect them.

As Toptal grew, Beneschott and his cofounder, Taso Du Val, had a decision to make: go the traditional Silicon Valley startup route or take a different path?

"I asked myself, are we going to do that assumed route of 'I’m going to move to Silicon Valley and raise a $10 million Series A and get a big office and really go with this,' and I didn’t really want to," Beneschott told Business Insider. 

The pair decided to move somewhere that was not only much cheaper than the Bay Area, but also had a wealth of smart people with fewer local job opportunities. They chose Budapest, Hungary. But that was only the beginning of the journey....

remote_team (002)

'No matter where you are in the world...you’re behind'

Toptal's employees live like the freelancers it serves. The company now has hundreds of employees in more than 30 locations around the world, but anybody can work from anywhere. The company also has an unlimited vacation policy an encourages its employees to travel as much as they want. 

"If you’re cut from a certain cloth, you really avoid burn-out with a lifestyle like this," Beneschott said. "Traveling constantly and going to new places and feeling refreshed daily — as opposed to sitting in an office and staring at a clock in a cubicle — your life kind of becomes your work and your work becomes your life."

Toptal travel phototoptal_event_svalbardThis might not sound ideal for people who crave a defined work-life balance, though, and for those new to the company, it can sometimes come as a surprise.

Toptal doesn't schedule meetings. If you need to get ahold of someone, you ping them on Skype and talk right then and there. 

"People can be watching a soccer game or standing in line at a movie theater or even out on the town," Beneschott said. "People are shocked when they first come to the company at just how available people are around the clock. It’s not because they’re chained to their desk, it’s because they’ve figured out how to be available while living a hell of a life."

So how does Toptal keep track of hundreds of employees in multiple time zones?

"We use a lot of time-conversion tools," Beneschott said with a laugh. "But no matter where you are in the world and what time you wake up, you’re behind. Which, for the right person, is a really exhilarating feeling. You wake up and drink a Bulletproof Coffee and you dive right in and it’s just non-stop. It’s constant change and constant problem solving."

Taking a break from travel — for the moment

Beneschott himself has now lived in nearly 35 countries since his big move to Budapest. A self-described "summer chaser," Beneschott stays in countries in Europe and South America for a couple months at a time. This type of lifestyle is ideal for the way he works, he says.

Beneschott travels for another reason: he's an avid polo player, a sport he competes in worldwide. Friends in Budapest first got him into the sport in the early years of Toptal and he plays often, even recruiting fellow Toptal employees to join him. 

"We probably have the highest concentration of computer scientist polo players in the world," Beneschott said. 

Toptal poloBut Beneschott is taking a bit of a break from all the traveling at the moment, but for a very happy reason: he and his wife just welcomed a new baby girl. Right now, Beneschott is living in South Florida, which he described as a great place to raise a family, but not a place he seemed keen on staying for the long haul. For someone whose life is a constant series of new things and new places, he just experienced yet another "first," albeit a more mundane one: signing a lease. 

"I have a one-year lease for actually the first time in my whole life," Beneschott said. "But once [my daughter] is able, actually in the next few months, we’ll start to travel a bit around the US and we’ll see how that goes and play it by ear, but the idea is that she will be with me and so will my wife."

From the sound of it, that one-year lease might be Beneschott's last for a while. 

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It's OK to mess around during your 20s. But your 30s are the ideal time to cement the habits that will help you achieve personal and professional fulfillment for the rest of your life.

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18 teachers share what they wish they knew before they started teaching

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There are quite a few steps you need to take before you become a teacher.

To become an elementary school teacher in a public school, for example, you not only need to hold a bachelor's degree, but you also need to prove you have the skills necessary to teach elementary education and have a certain number of hours of supervised educational experience under your belt.

All this job training can only take you so far, however, and inevitably you enter the teaching world not entirely prepared for what's ahead.

To help prevent aspiring teachers from getting caught by surprise, we asked teachers everywhere what's one thing they wish they knew before becoming a teacher, and more than 50 teachers responded.

We've anonymously included some of their answers here:

Politics play a huge role

"I wish I knew how political education was. I don't think I was prepared for that."

It's a lot of work

"There is a ton of paperwork, and the job is 24/7. During the school year it is very hard to find a balance between being super teacher and finding time to be one's own person."

The job is so rewarding

"I never expected to love teaching as much as I do."

Your days rarely end when the bell rings

"The paperwork never stops, and it's not just grading, which would be fine — it's the district and state mandated paperwork on top of everything else."

Being an extrovert only carries you so far

"The amount of time you spend in front of a group is exhausting. Having a bad day is magnified in direct relation to how long you have to 'be on' and pretend you are not having a bad day. School isn't just about making a fool out of yourself in front of students. A school is an incredibly social environment where you will also have thousands of opportunities to put your foot in your mouth in front of colleagues, administrators, counselors, and maintenance staff."

It's really not about teaching what you love

"It's about managing the classroom beyond everything else."

You're held responsible for things that are completely out of your control

"I had students who were absent about 50% of the time. I had high school students come in and steal my stuff, push me into walls, refuse to do any work, curse at me and say sexual things to me, and run around the classroom screaming, and I got zero — ZERO — support from the administration. And when these kids inevitably were failing, I was told it was my fault, because my lessons weren't engaging enough."

Parent involvement is key

"Build up relationships with adults as much as you do the children."

You can be stretched thin

"I wish I knew that teaching was such an exploitative career. Not only are you responsible for the behavior and performance of almost a hundred other humans, but it's assumed you're available to teach up to five distinct preps per semester, often without any resources provided by the school. The amount of work involved in such an endeavor is immense and results in a lot of stress and hardly any time for the self.

"For example, if this year I teach US history and world history, next year I might be asked to teach geography, economics, and psychology, even if I have little background in these subjects. While a challenge is wonderful, there is a point when a challenge just weighs you down so much that you're like a walking dead person.

"Basically, as a certified social studies secondary-school teacher, I can be required to teach any of the subjects within the broad category of "social studies" any semester. This is like a programmer being asked to program in a different language every year. Sure, it's fun, but it's also a huge investment of time and energy."

There's no job security

"I could be replaced by any other certified teacher. My years of experience, performance, and relationships in the school community are irrelevant. The system is more concerned with how much work can be gotten out of me, not whether the load is sustainable or negatively affecting my teaching and life. If I complain, I'll be replaced. I could seek work at another school of course, but the schools that have the most jobs available are those with the most discipline issues."

You need to be flexible on a daily basis

"Lesson plans can change the hour before class starts, or you only might be able to get through half of a lesson because something unexpected happened in class, or you realize too late that the kids really aren't ready to move on to the next activity. It's easy to get frustrated with that, but part of what I find is helpful to be an effective teacher is to just take a deep breath and realize that the days never really go as you carefully planned."

Don't expect any breaks

"When you need a minute or two to leave the classroom — maybe you don't feel well, the class is full-moon crazy, or you have to use the bathroom — you are not getting it."

Teaching isn't just about teaching

"We spend more time doing things unrelated to helping the children just so we can keep our job."

You can worry a lot about your students

"I was not prepared to hear about the living situations my students were living in, who had custody of them, or what they had witnessed at such a young age."

There is no separation of work and home

"You're always thinking about 'your babies.'"

Your boss matters

"Your happiness and success as a teacher depends to a certain extent on your principal."

You get emotionally invested in your students

"You will never NOT care about the kids."

It can be exhausting and very stressful

"You probably won't have much of a social life, and you'll end up spending a great deal of money on other people's children."

Responses have been edited for clarity.

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