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Google's most ambitious new product isn't its fancy new phone (GOOGL, GOOG)

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It's a big week for Google.

The search giant unveiled a slew of new products: a phone, a virtual reality headset, updates to its Chromecast line of products, a new type of wireless router. There was even a big to-do event with press invited to Google's Mountain View, California campus. 

While the new phone — the Pixel— is nice, and the new VR headset — Daydream View— is a look to the future, Google's most ambitious new product announced on Tuesday was actually a small speaker with a bizarre, slanted top.

Google Home

It's called Google Home, and it's an in-home personal assistant/multidirectional speaker. You speak — "Okay, Google" — and it listens. "How do I get from here to Roosevelt Island on the subway?" Google Home has an answer, using Google Maps and up-to-date MTA route information pulled from Google, and it's going to tell you.

All you have to do is ask.

Google Home

Like Amazon's Echo, it's meant to serve a role previously occupied only by fictional AI characters: to perform casual tasks by voice alone. But Google Home has some fascinating new additions to the concept, and a price point $50 below the Echo.

Here's everything we know about Google Home thus far:

SEE ALSO: Google unveils its newest major product: the Google Home speaker

DON'T MISS: I bought Google Home instead of Amazon's Echo — here's why

Let's be real: Price matters so much when it comes to new types of technology. Thankfully, Google Home is an affordable $129.



Google Home is meant to fit seamlessly into your life. Simply say, "Okay, Google," and your wish is its command.

Here's just a short list of the stuff Google Home can do:

-Set calendar events, timers, and dinner reservations.
-Play your music (from a variety of services) out of its multi-directional speaker setup.
-Use Google/Google Maps to answer questions and give you directions.
-Control various connected home devices, like Phillips Hue light bulbs and Nest thermostats.



It listens for the command "Okay, Google," which it can hear using the top-mounted microphones.



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The 25 cheapest cities in Europe to rent an Airbnb

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Palermo, Sicily

While Europe can be expensive, it is full of affordable holiday destinations, and Airbnb is a popular way for travellers to get cheap accommodation deals.

Since millions of Europeans have opened their homes to strangers on the website, we've teamed up with Airbnb to find out the European cities with the cheapest rates.

Looking at cities with at least 200 listings, Airbnb found bargains all over the continent in the likes of Slovakia and Poland, as well as some unexpected cheap deals in France and Germany.

From Toulouse to Tbilisi, here are the cheapest cities to rent an Airbnb in Europe, judged by the average cost of a one night stay.

Note: Some images of Airbnb listings do not reflect the average price of a one-night stay in that city.

25. Nantes, France — £36.90 per night

Surprisingy, two French cities are among the cheapest in Europe to rent an Airbnb. This two-floor apartment in Nantes— which sleeps up to three people and has its own balcony — starts at £47.10 per night.



=24. Palermo, Sicily — £35.40 per night

Two cities on the Italian island of Sicily feature in our list. This luxury room is priced at £54.20 per night — around £20 over the average rate in Palermo — and has breathtaking views of the surrounding hills.



=24. Ljubljana, Slovenia — £35.40 per night

Apartments in Ljubljana cost around £35 per night to rent. This one, located in the historic Old Town, is slightly more expensive at £58.90 per night, but comes with its own terrace and private garden in the city centre.



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A short quiz can reveal if you're secretly a Canadian citizen

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Justin Trudeau

Most people aren't Canadian.

But if you want to become Canadian — perhaps to escape the results of a certain presidential election — you'll need to go through a pretty complex and time-consuming process to get awarded citizenship.

But some people are actually Canadian without knowing it.

The Government of Canada has those people covered. On the country's official immigration website, users can take a short quiz to determine if any Canadian relatives have bestowed citizenship upon them.

By Canadian law, you might be a citizen if your parent or grandparent was a Crown Servant. Crown servants can be members of the armed forces or federal public administration officials. Even if your parent was adopted by a Crown servant, you'll be considered Canadian.

If one of your parents was born in Canada before 1947 or in Newfoundland before 1949, you might also be a citizen. The quiz asks about that as well:

canadian citizenship quiz

From there, the quiz can take you in several different directions depending on when you were born and when your parents were granted citizenship. Depending on your answers to the quiz questions, you're also likely to encounter even more possibilities than can be listed here.

If you find out that you're eligible, you'll still need to apply for proof of citizenship, which comes with an application fee

Of course, the most obvious way you can be a Canadian citizen is if you were born in Canada. (You can also be a citizen if you've ever gone through the naturalization process or been granted citizenship, though you'd probably know about that).

So before you threaten to move to Canada if your presidential candidate doesn't win, you might as well take the test. You might just have maple syrup in your veins.

SEE ALSO: How to move to Canada and become a Canadian citizen

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NOW WATCH: A Canadian captured this spectacular view of an iceberg on his first drone flight

What happens to your body and brain when you sleep — and when you don't

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Most Americans aren't getting enough sleep.

That can be a problem, since sleep has a big impact on your health. While you may not feel it after one night of poor sleep, sleep deprivation can contribute to some pretty serious health conditions when it is chronic and consistent. 

But it doesn't have to be this way. Column Five, in collaboration with Concordia University, St. Paul, created this graphic to lay out what we know about how we sleep, why we all need some shut-eye, as well as some tips on how to sleep better.

Learning House_D2 1

SEE ALSO: What too little sleep does to your brain and body

DON'T MISS: How to have perfect hygiene — according to science

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NOW WATCH: The last harvest moon eclipse of the decade has come and gone — here’s what a harvest moon actually is

These are the 5 most addictive substances on the planet

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Ranking drugs based on how addictive they are is tough work, since we all react differently to distinct substances. Nevertheless, a group of addiction experts including specialists from the Royal College of Psychiatrists as well as chemists, forensic scientists, and pharmacologists recently took a stab. Their ranking is published in the journal The Lancet. The results might surprise you:

BI_Graphics_The 5 most addictive substances_02

SEE ALSO: The opioids of the future won't get you high

RELATED: One type of legal drug is killing far more people than heroin — and deaths just hit record numbers

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NOW WATCH: Astronomers discovered a second ‘alien megastructure’ star that’s even stranger than the first one

These 15 dog breeds are the most likely to run away from home

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mischievous dog pokes head through fence shutterstock_203455780

Dogs are a mischievous bunch.

Leave the backyard gate open, miss that hole they've been digging, or don't hold a leash tightly enough, and you could have a furry escaped convict.

But some canines are more adventurous than others: While one dog psyches himself out of his chance to run away, another will bound toward it like a freight train.

whistle gps collar pit bull dog labeled dave mosherTo find out if some dog breeds may be more prone to getting lost than others, Business Insider asked Whistle— a company that makes a GPS and activity-tracking dog collar— for help, and it looked at data gathered from the roughly 150,000 Americans who've used its products. (Like all data, this set has limitations — see our notes at the end.)

Their lost-dog data comes from the Whistle app's option to start a "tracking event" — a feature that's purpose-built to help locate lost dogs with real-time GPS signal.

Here are the 15 dog breeds most likely to run away from their owners in the US, ranked by median tracking events per month. (When the median was identical, we used the mean as a secondary ranking method.)

And don't miss our lists of the 43 most active and 42 laziest dog breeds, too.

SEE ALSO: 16 ridiculous 'facts' about animals you should really stop repeating

#15: Australian Shepherd

Australian shepherd owners typically lose their dog about 0.9 times a month.



#14: Bernese Mountain Dog

Bernes mountain dog owners typically lose their dog about 0.9 times a month.



#13: Treeing Walker Coonhound

Treeing walker coonhound owners typically lose their dog about 0.9 times a month.



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An up-and-coming restaurant chain is offering a glimpse into a future where humans and robots work side-by-side

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Bruno is a tall, gangly robot that works in the kitchen at Zume Pizza, a Silicon Valley-based pizza startup that delivers to Mountain View, California (home of the Googleplex).

From 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Bruno uses his mechanical limb and tray to sweep uncooked pies off the conveyor belt and lift them to the oven door. It's a pretty cool sight to see.

zume pizza robot 0335

Bruno has yet to mess up a customer's order. He's never spit on a customer's pizza or taken an extra minute because he was checking Facebook. He's (it's?) a robot.

Robots like the ones working in Zume Pizza's kitchen are coming for fast food workers' jobs in the next few years. Some restaurants, including San Francisco's modern automat Eatsa and the upcoming Momentum Machines storefront (where a robot cranks out 400 hamburgers an hour), are turning to automation so they can fill orders quickly and accurately.

Zume leads by example for those who are fearful of the robot revolution, applying automation in conjunction with human work.

"We're aco-botenvironment," Julia Collins, cofounder and co-CEO of Zume Pizza, says of the worklplace. Humans and robots work together, rather than try to replace each other.

zume pizza robot

Collins and her business partner, Alex Garden, teamed up with industrial robotics company ABB Robotics to develop a Rube Goldberg-like contraption that is capable of churning out 288 pizzas an hour. But the machines don't complete pies start to finish yet.

Zume and ABB Robotics prioritized automating the parts of the pizza-making process that humans are bad at, like spreading sauce evenly or removing uncooked pies from a pizza peel. The company expects to reach full automation by March of 2017.

When that happens, Zume says the transition will free up pizza chefs to learn new skills and take on different roles in technical support, engineering, or web design.

Zume isn't the only company putting robots to work.

momentum machines real burger

In 2012, robotics startup Momentum Machines debuted a fully autonomous robot that can can slice toppings, grill a patty, and assemble and bag the burger. It allows every part of the burger to be customized, without any help from humans. Tech Insider reported in June that the company appeared to be opening a storefront this fall.

Like Zume, the company thinks its can actually promote job growth by letting robots fill in for humans in the kitchen. Momentum Machines may, for example, have to hire new employees to grow their technology and to staff new restaurant locations.

Eatsa

San Franciscans, at least, are already warming up to the idea of a restaurant experience with minimal human interactions. In 2015, an automated vegetarian food chain called Eatsa opened, The restaurant, which specializes in quinoa bowls, uses tablets to automate the ordering process. Food is delivered through a cubby in the wall, but chefs prepare food behind the scenes.

Some 3.7 million Americans work in the fast food industry, which provides income for young people and workers with little formal education. Robotics won't replace them overnight.

Zume aims to serve all of the Bay Area with new kitchen hubs by 2018. The company currently employs about 30 people on its kitchen and delivery teams, and Collins promises no one will lose their job to a robot.

"Since the industrial revolution, the American workforce has been adapting to the advent of new technologies," Collins says. "The important thing is — for those who've chosen to be at the leading edge of automation, as we have — how can we think responsibly about our obligation to the people that come work for us?"

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the robot's name, Bruno. Because it's 2016 and robots have names.

SEE ALSO: This robot-made pizza in Silicon Valley should terrify Domino's and Pizza Hut

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NOW WATCH: Robots are invading big box stores and want to help you shop

49 incredible public-space transformations captured by Google Street View

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urb-i public space transformations; Place du Palais, Bordeaux, France

Cities are built for humans.

But if you look at the layout of most of them, it looks like they're made for cars.

Seeing that, a Brazilian urban planning collective called Urb-i (shorthand for Urban Ideas) set out to show examples of people-friendly spaces with a before-and-after gallery of Google Street View images revealing the most stunning public space transformations from around the world.

The results give us hope that our cities are becoming better places to live.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley's dream of a floating, isolated city might actually happen

We are a society "addicted to cars," according to the four young founders of Urb-i.

Yuval Fogelson, Carolina Guido, Fernanda Mercês, and Rodolfo Macedo founded Urb-i in 2015.



Traffic lanes and parking take precedent over green spaces and outdoor seating. People traveling on foot are quarantined to tiny sidewalks.



It just doesn't seem fair. Fortunately, the founders of Urb-i have an addiction of their own ...



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 10 best cities for people who work from home

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These days, the workplace is wherever you find an internet connection and a wall plug.

More than a third of American workers say they've tried telecommuting, according to a 2015 poll from Gallup, and most say they get just as much done from home as they do in the office.

Real-estate search site Estately set out to find the US cities that cater best to today's "urban hermits." Estatelyscored each of the 100 largest cities from 1 to 100 on five sets of criteria, including housing affordability, internet speeds, and access to on-demand food and alcohol delivery. The percentage of the city's residents who work from home was also considered.

Did your city make the cut? You can see the whole list here.

BI Graphics_Best cities to be an urban hermit 1

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley's dream of a floating, isolated city might actually happen

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NOW WATCH: The 7 most impressive buildings that are going to completely change New York City's skyline

The internet can’t decide whether this purse is white or blue

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A new online color controversy has Twitter users in a heated debate, but this time it involves a purse instead of a dress. A woman named Taylor Corso uploaded a picture of her new Kate Spade bag and it quickly erupted into a battle over whether it was actually white or blue. She eventually confirmed the color in a separate tweet, but that doesn't seem to have convinced people of the truth. Take a look and decide for yourself.

Follow TI: On Facebook

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17 things that people driven to do risky things have in common

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Rock climbing

Many people are driven to do things that excite them, no matter how risky or terrifying those activities might seem to others.

If you heard about a chance to ski down a steep backcountry slope, would you jump on that opportunity? Does wandering through an unknown city where you don't speak the language sound fun? Do you get restless or bored doing the same thing day after day?

Then you may score highly on measures of a personality trait that psychologists call "sensation-seeking."

"It's an overall behavior tendency to really seek out rewarding experiences despite the risk involved," Jane Joseph, a Professor in the Department of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, tells Business Insider.

In other words, she says it's not about the risk. It's about the reward. But the desire for that rewarding sensation overpowers concerns about risk, according to Joseph.

Here are 17 of the ways that behavioral tendency is expressed and things that sensation-seekers have in common.

SEE ALSO: 10 survival myths that might get you killed

Everyone falls somewhere on the sensation-seeking spectrum, but some people are more likely to ignore risks and instead seek rewards than others, to the point they may seem attracted to risk.

Source: Pizam et al., Journal of Travel Research, 2004



There are four subcategories to sensation seeking: experience seeking (wanting new sensory or mental experiences), thrill and adventure seeking, susceptibility to boredom, and disinhibition (enjoying things like "wild parties").

Source: Zuckerman, Sensation Seeking and Risky Behavior



Not all sensation-seeking activities are risky (and not everyone who takes risks does so because of this behavior trait).



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

10 of the best American cities to live comfortably on $40,000 a year

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Canon City, Colorado

Much of America's charm is predicated on small-town life. It's community oriented, nostalgic, and generally more affordable than living in a big city.

In its October/November print issue, AARP The Magazine highlights 10 great hometowns for anyone on a modest budget of $40,000 per year. (Check out the shorter online version here).

To create the list, the magazine partnered with Sperling's Best Places, which focuses on quality of life research, to determine a livability index, factoring in metrics on housing affordability, access to work and recreation, transportation, healthcare, and safety. Each city on the list has a score above the average livability index score of 50.

Read on to check out 10 US cities where life is robust and affordable.

DON'T MISS: 15 of the most fun American cities that are actually affordable

SEE ALSO: The 25 cities with the best quality of life in the US

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Livability index: 65

Population: 115,300

Median housing price: $127,300

Sunny days per year: 188

Just one hour North of Milwaukee you'll find this distinctly Midwestern town on the shores of Lake Michigan at the opening of the Sheboygan River, the area's main draw and a hotspot for surfing and sailing. Residents laud Sheboygan's free and affordable events and activities, including the annual Brat Days festival, a celebration of the city's most famous culinary export.



Eugene, Oregon

Livability index: 59

Population: 358,300

Median housing price: $222,000

Sunny days per year: 155

Nestled in the lush Willamette Valley, Eugene has "carefully cultivated its image as an outdoor-lover's paradise," according to AARP The Magazine. Its high concentration of nature mavens — including both the area's college students and retirees — frequent farmer's markets, vineyards, hiking and biking trails, museums, and galleries.



Cleveland, Ohio

Livability index: 56

Population: 2 million

Median housing price: $124,000

Sunny days per year: 166

Situated on the shores of Lake Erie, Cleveland has experienced a cultural renaissance of late, led by growing populations of baby boomers and millennials alike. The city's robust art and music scene is complemented by lively nightlife and award-winning restaurants, not to mention a renewed excitement among NBA fans with the return of hometown hero LeBron James.



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50 meals everyone should eat in their lifetime

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crepe paris

Sometimes one meal is all it takes to make your vacation one to remember forever. 

From incredibly fresh ceviche in Peru to the modern Spanish cuisine at Girona's award-winning El Celler de Can Roca, we've put together a list of 50 meals you have to try at least once. While some are incredibly memorable restaurants, others are specialty food items you can only get when traveling to a certain place. 

Whether you plan to travel to these destinations or already happen to live there, don't miss out on these mouthwatering foods. 

Talia Avakian, Jennifer Polland, and Melissa Stanger wrote an earlier version of this post. 

SEE ALSO: The best coffee shop in 45 big cities across America

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

Try Rome's famed cacio e pepe, a simple pasta with pepper flakes and gooey melted cheese. Anthony Bourdain recommends trying it at Roma Sparita in Trastevere.



Sample Berlin's iconic street food, currywurst, which is a pork sausage that's cut into slices and doused with curry ketchup. Berliners love Konnopke Imbiss, located in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood.



Head to La Banquise in Montreal for a scrumptious plate of poutine: crisp french fries that have been smothered in brown gravy and cheese curds.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Ramen master Ivan Orkin shares his secrets to the perfect bowl of ramen

A 4-year-old who overdosed on vitamins reveals why we should never have told people to start taking them

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vitamins

A 4-year-old boy in England was recently taken to the emergency room after he'd spent weeks vomiting and losing weight.

After tests revealed the boy had extraordinarily high calcium and vitamin D levels, one of the boy's parents told doctors that they'd been feeding him 12 different dietary supplements, including a mixture of vitamins, oils, and minerals.

The boy's blood calcium level was almost twice the range considered normal for someone his age, and his vitamin D level was more than 20 times the normal level, according to a detailed case report published Thursday in the BMJ. The boy had autism but no previous health issues, according to the report.

These vitamin levels can be dangerous and toxic. Most children don't need to be given supplements (if you're considering feeding them to your child, talk with your doctor first). "Multivitamins aren't necessary for most healthy children who are growing normally," Dr. Jay Hoecker, an emeritus member of the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, writes on the Mayo Clinic website.

And it turns out, most adults don't either.

We should be getting most of our nutrition from the food we eat, not from powders or pills.

Decades of research into people of many ages have failed to find any substantial evidence that vitamins and supplements do any significant good. In adults, several supplements have been linked with an increase in certain cancers, while others have been associated with a rise in the risk of kidney stones. Others have been tied to an overall higher risk of death from any cause.

"We use vitamins as insurance policies against whatever else we might (or might not) be eating, as if by atoning for our other nutritional sins, vitamins can save us from ourselves," science writer Catherine Price writes in the book "Vitamania."

Unfortunately, they can't.

Instead of vitamins, focus on eating less red meat, fewer sweets, and more fruits and vegetables.

New USDA guidelines announced in January echo these recommendations. In addition, several leading nutritionists and public health experts recommend incorporating more healthy fats — like those from avocados, oily fish, and nuts — into your diet.

eating healthyThese basics are a good place to start:

  • Keep vegetables as the cornerstone of your meals. Or, in the words of the famous journalist and food writer Michael Pollan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
  • Snack on nuts. Since they're high in protein, nuts can help stabilize blood-sugar levels — which, if they plummet, can make healthy people feel "hangry" (hungry and angry) and is especially dangerous for people with diabetes. Nuts are also a good source of fiber, a key nutrient that helps aid digestion and keeps us feeling full.
  • Cut back on added sugar and refined carbs. Diets that are high in sugar and refined carbs (white rice, sweet snack foods, white bread) and low in whole grains (brown rice, whole wheat) have been linked with health problems, while diets high in whole grains and low in refined carbs tend to be linked with more positive outcomes.
  • Incorporate oily fish, like salmon, into your diet. Salmon is rich in omega-3 fats, which help protect our cell membranes, the structure protecting the inner components from their outside environment. They're also the building blocks of the hormones that regulate blood clotting and inflammation.
  • Eat avocados. While they're high in fat and calories — just half of one packs 120 calories, about the equivalent of a slice of bread — avocados are low in sugar and rich in fiber. So add a few slices to your next meal.

As it turns out, all of the above foods are rich in various vitamins and minerals. Most green, leafy veggies are high in vitamins A, C, and E; colorful peppers and carrots are rich in vitamin A; fish and nuts are high in omega-3s; and avocados are a great source of potassium and vitamins C and E.

With this knowledge, writes Price, "we might rediscover something both surprising and empowering: that, while nutrition itself is amazingly complex, the healthiest, most scientific, and most pleasurable way to eat is not that complicated at all."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Most expiration dates are bogus — here's how long your food actually lasts


8 ways dating and relationships may look different by 2040

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BI_Graphics_The future of dating copy_3x4_03Dates in the future may not happen in coffee shops — instead, you might just sit in your living room with a virtual reality headset, according to a recent report from Imperial College London and eHarmony.

Released in late 2015, the report predicts how relationships will change over the next 25 years (and discusses how they've already changed in recent years) using eHarmony's user data; historical accounts; and interviews with anthropology, technology, and biomedicine experts. 

"People want to be matched — and ultimately form relationships with — like-minded people in the most efficient way possible," eHarmony's UK director Romain Betrand tells Business Insider. "What’s different is how people will go about it, redefined by advances in science and everyday consumer technology."

Here's how dating and relationships could look by 2040.

Dates in virtual reality.

Forget swiping right on Tinder — dates in VR could make things a whole lot easier.

In 2016, people have already popped the question in VR. By 2040, you may be able to hold someone's hand before you actually "meet" them IRL, according to the report.

With new VR technology, we might not only be able to see and hear other people, but touch and smell them too.

"Nobody would be really too far away to have a relationship with," Betrand says. "It would be like your partner is in the room with you when you want them around."



The ability to see how our partners feel.

In the future, we may be able to physically see a person's emotions, the report says.

New Deal Design, the designers behind Fitbit's trackers, are working to create a "tattoo" embedded under the skin that visualizes health and emotions.

When someone touches or feels something, the tattoo, called UnderSkin, will glow a personalized pattern. For example, when a person holds their partner's hand, the tattoo may glow in the shape of a pentagon to express love.

The designers believe they could build UnderSkin by 2021.



Relationships with robots.

When we're feeling introverted, we could one day turn to robots instead of humans.

Interacting with a robot, rather than a partner, could create less emotional pressure, says managing director of Silicon Valley Robotics Andrea Keay. By 2029, the report predicts we could have two soul mates: one human and one robot.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

This haunted house takes photos of people's reactions to getting scared — and it's hilarious

A posture expert reveals the best way to sleep on a flight

12 cooking tools everyone should have in their kitchen by age 30

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dutch oven

Turning 30 means you've survived the beginning of adulthood. You might even want a kitchen that matches your level of maturity.

To figure out what every adult kitchen needs (besides the basics, like silverware, cups, and plates), Business Insider consulted America's Test Kitchen, which is home to 50 food experts and the popular cooking show of the same name.

Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison, two culinary scientists at America's Test Kitchen and hosts of the TV show's 2017 season, told me the tools everyone needs in their kitchen by age 30.

"If I only knew then what I know now ... I would have bought more core kitchen equipment and fewer single-use gadgets," Lancaster says.

Check them out below.

SEE ALSO: This is the best coffee machine you can buy, according to the founder of a popular coffee chain

An 8-inch chef's knife.

A quality knife that's easy to hold and keeps a sharp blade will make kitchen work fast and easy, Lancaster says.

Lancaster recommends:The Victorinox Fibrox 8-inch chef's knife ($44.99) 



A manual or electric knife sharpener.

Whether you choose to invest in a manual or electric knife sharpener, you need one to keep your knives working properly, Lancaster says.

We recommend:The Presto EverSharp Electric Knife Sharpener ($22.35)



A quality cutting board.

Wood — not granite — is the best material for a cutting board, because it won't dull your knives, Lancaster says. Plastic is also a good option, though a University of Michigan study found it's harder to fully sanitize a plastic board.

We recommend:Michigan Maple Block Cutting Board ($39.50)



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here's how much you should tip a barista, according to the founder of San Francisco's favorite coffee chain

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blue bottle coffee company

Most mornings, the only person standing between you and happiness might be your coffee barista. According to one coffee expert, you're probably tipping her way too little.

James Freeman is the founder of Blue Bottle Coffee, a venture-capital backed coffee chain that's beloved in the Bay Area and beyond. 

"I don't think you should ever tip less than a dollar," Freeman says.

Freeman says most people don't think twice about leaving a $10 bill on the bar when they order a beer, which takes seconds to pour. Yet baristas are often overlooked.

That can be especially frustrating when they're dealing with people who haven't drunk their morning coffee yet. They greet hundreds of grumpy customers a day, Freeman says.

He encourages customers to consider "spending a day in the shoes of a barista."

"Two dollars doesn't seem like that much" anymore, Freeman says.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley's favorite coffee chain is taking over the US with an east coast expansion

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NOW WATCH: Starbucks is hoping this new fall drink will be their next Pumpkin Spice Latte

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