Construction on the tallest skyscraper in the world is underway. 

On October 10, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of Dubai, broke ground on the new building, called the Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour.

The proposed 3,045-foot building will beat the city's current record-holding skyscraper, the 2717-foot-tall Burj Khalifa, by 328 feet.

The building is designed by famed Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava, who was also behind the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York and the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro. The tower is being built next to the Dubai Creek in Downtown Dubai, a mere six miles away from the Dubai International Airport. It will cost $1 billion to construct.

Renderings of the building show it as a minaret-like spire held down by a thick web of cables. According to Inhabitat, the building is part of the Dubai Creek Harbor development, a real estate project led by developer Emaar Properties that is expected to double the size of Dubai's downtown.

Much like the Burj Khalifa, the new tower will contain a mixture of luxury residences and commercial spaces catering to travelers and businesspeople. The building will also feature garden terraces reminiscent of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and observation decks that will encircle the building, giving a 360-degree view of the city's skyline.

To ensure the building's safety, Emaar Properties commissioned 12 wind-engineering tests and seismic studies to make sure the building will be stable under different conditions. Because the building will be the first cable-tethered structure of its height, the wind tests had to be tailored to accommodate the tower's unprecedented size and shape.

"From the materials selection to the technology used, every aspect of The Tower has been designed and developed according to the strictest international safety standards," Santiago Calatrava said in a statement after the ground breaking.

Emaar expects the building to be completed in 2020.

You can see video renderings of the tower below.

SEE ALSO: The new tallest building in Thailand looks like a pixelated image in mid-download

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NOW WATCH: Watch this eagle with a camera take off from the top of the world's tallest building

Since its premiere in the Spring of 2014, HGTV's "Fixer Upper" has become one of the highest-rated shows in the network's history.

Watch just one episode and it's easy to see why: The show's stars, Chip and Joanna Gaines, are fun loving, witty, and bona fide experts at renovating run-down homes for families in the Waco, Texas, area.

Though "Fixer Upper" transformed the Gaines into a household name, the husband-and-wife pair have been true small-business owners for more than a decade.

In a recent interview with Business Insider, the Gaines — who live on a refurbished farm with their four children and dozens of animals — said their businesses wouldn't be as successful as they are today without the guidance and feedback of "good counsel."

"You’ve got to build relationships with your vendors, so when times get tough, you have this relationship with them where it's a mutual relationship where you can trust each other, but it's also a community of friends and counsel that can speak into your business," Joanna said.

When they married in 2003, Chip — a self-proclaimed "serial entrepreneur" — had begun flipping houses and renting them out to Baylor University students in Waco. He brought Joanna on board and she quickly discovered a hidden passion for home decor, opening a small boutique to sell her vintage finds, which would become the flagship of their ever-expanding brand.

"[E]ven when things are bad and you can't see over the bills, you've got this counsel that comes in and says, 'This is what we need to do.'" Joanna advises "just surrounding yourself with good, sound people that can help you see the big picture."

"I think of bankers, I think of attorneys, I think about both of our parents, who were always quick to give us a bit of advice," Chip added. "That, coupled with just great employees early on who were willing to stick it out and fight with us through thick and thin, were certainly the keys to our success."

They now own Magnolia Homes, a real estate, renovation, and design business, in addition to several small businesses under the Magnolia brand, including a retail shop, bakery, furniture line, paint collection, and a "Fixer Upper"-style bed and breakfast. The Gaines' book, "The Magnolia Story," debuted October 18 and chronicles the growth of their small business empire.

Watch Chip and Joanna share their advice in the video below:

DON'T MISS:  2 inexpensive tricks that could help your home sell for more money, from HGTV stars the 'Property Brothers'

SEE ALSO: 6 renovations that can hurt your home's resale value, according to HGTV's 'Property Brothers'

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NOW WATCH: The 'Property Brothers' raced to see who could build IKEA furniture fastest — it wasn't pretty

The marijuana retail industry has been disrupted again and again.

Years ago, glass bongs, pipes, and joints dominated the pot paraphernalia space. Those devices gave way to clunky desktop vaporizers used for inhaling marijuana vapor. They gained in popularity through the mid-2000s by delivering heavy, cough-free hits with consistency.

But as computers and phones shrunk, consumers craved smaller, more discreet devices for lighting up. This demand paved the way for the next generation of vaporizers, the Pax 3 among them.

Made by San Francisco-based startup Pax Labs, the Pax 3 is a marijuana vape that weighs less than an iPhone and features a slick design. Business Insider recently named it the best vaporizer for techies.

I recently had the chance to test it out. Here's how the Pax 3 holds up.

SEE ALSO: The CEO of the 'Apple of vaping' explains why the comparison makes sense

The Pax 3 is a lightweight, portable vaporizer unlike anything on the market. It's the first "dual-use" vape we've seen from Pax Labs.

The Pax 2 handled loose-leaf material such as tobacco and weed. The Pax 3 answers a call from consumers wanting more options, according to CEO Tyler Goldman.

"What we saw when talking to our customers was that a number of them are starting to use other types of materials beyond [marijuana] flower," Goldman told Business Insider in September. "And so now, Pax 3 will have three oven types."

Users will be able to pop out the insert that holds the loose-leaf material and swap it with an insert made for concentrates, which are waxy or butter-like substances derived from pot.

On August 1, 2016, Brandon — the blogger behind the Mad Fientist, a financial independence blog — retired at 34.

My colleague Libby Kane talked to Brandon— who doesn't use his last name online for privacy reasons — about his journey to early retirement; he revealed that he saved and invested around 70% of his take-home income in order to reach his goal.

After hearing Brandon's story — and so manyotherslike it— I decided to try my hand at saving the majority of my earnings as well.

While I have no plans to retire early, I wanted to see firsthand how attainable that lifestyle is. After crunching the numbers with my editor for a solid half-hour, we concluded there was no way I could put away 70% of my total income for a month and still afford both rent and food, so I aimed to save 50% of my disposable income instead.

Because I live in New York City, my rent is higher than it would be in most places in the country. And since I wasn't going to move out of NYC just for a monthlong experiment, to make the project more realistic I decided to count disposable income as everything after rent. So after paying rent, I put half of what remained of my monthly paycheck in savings and lived off the other half for the entirety of September.

While I'm lucky to have more than enough to continue to live comfortably, it was immediately challenging to adapt to a much lower budget than I was used to. But it didn't prove impossible.

SEE ALSO: Here’s how I spent a weekend eating and sightseeing in New York City for less than $50

DON'T MISS: I moved to New York City 2 years ago — here’s what I tell my friends who say they can’t afford to

With 50% of my income in savings, my budget came down to around $550 for the month — after taking out some fixed costs.

After determining how much disposable income I'd have for the month — calculated by subtracting my rent from my monthly take-home income and then dividing by two — I immediately accounted for nonnegotiable expenses. This included $116 toward an unlimited monthly subway pass and $60 dues for a leadership class I'm enrolled in, as well as utilities and tithe.

I'm still on my parents' health insurance, and my gym membership and 401(k) are automatically deducted from my paycheck.

With my fixed costs taken out, I was left with around $550 for the month for everything else, including groceries, laundry, and entertainment.

WEEK 1: I went into the challenge expecting it to be unbelievably hard — especially in New York City.

I'm frugal by nature, but I still love to indulge in everything New York has to offer. While I monitor my spending, I'm quick to say yes to dinners out, ice cream dates, and spontaneous adventures.

I also knew going in that I needed to save up for a bachelorette party I was attending in Nashville at the end of the month. I considered pushing the challenge back a month, since I knew the party would be hard on my budget. But the thing is, there's always something. If it wasn't the bachelorette party this month, it would be attending two weddings in October, going out of town for Thanksgiving in November, or holiday shopping in December.

But once I mentally committed to the challenge — and didn't allow myself any leeway for failure — it became much easier to pare down my spending.

September 1 fell on a Friday, so I started the challenge by tackling weekend spending temptations head-on.

While it's relatively straightforward to curb my spending during the week — pack a lunch every day and hit the gym instead of the bar after work — weekends tend to be full of expensive activities, from late-night cab rides and mozzarella stick deliveries to $18 eggs at brunch the next morning.

I started Labor Day weekend off with breakfast with a friend at an oatmeal bar in the West Village. I was more than ready to fork over $5 for a bowl of hearty oats, but my friend graciously bought mine as a belated birthday gift — before I even had a chance to tell her about my new savings goal. Win!

Besides catching up over breakfast instead of dinner, a few more key decisions kept the three-day weekend under budget. For one, I stayed in town instead of heading out of NYC, as several of my friends did. Because of multiple other trips and weddings lined up for the fall, I opted in June to save money and stay home for Labor Day.

Chef Chris Cosentino is a meat purist.

Over the years, he's crafted some of the most adventurous, meaty menus in the food industry. His nose-to-tail philosophy involves serving the whole animal, from lamb's necks to pig feet.

Needless to say, his San Francisco restaurant and oyster bar, Cockscomb, might be the last place you would expect to find a veggie burger on the menu.

But last week, Cosentino and two other California-based chefs announced they would start serving the meatless hamburger from Silicon Valley startup Impossible Foods. The plant-based burger has garnered buzz for its unmistakably meaty quality, from the rich caramelization to the juices it bleeds. It's made from wheat protein, coconut oil, potatoes, and a secret ingredient, heme.

Cosentino likens existing veggie burgers you buy in the grocery store to "hockey pucks."

The first time he tried the Impossible Burger was in the company of Chef Traci Des Jardins, owner of Jardinière (another San Francisco restaurant that will serve the burger) and Cosentino's former boss. He remembers the way it browned on the grill and produced a sizzling sound.

"My senses just became overloaded. I could smell meat," Cosentino said at a recent Impossible Foods press event in San Francisco.

Cosentino, who won season four of "Top Chef Masters" in 2012, is now serving the Impossible Burger as a "smash burger" at Cockscomb. It's seared in a cast-iron skilled and topped with caramelized onions, lettuce, gruyere, dijon mustard, and his great-grandmother's famous pickles.

The meat-loving chef told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this week that the restaurant sells 100 to 125 of the burgers daily.

"This is a craveable product," Cosentino tells Business Insider. "This is not 'BS.' It's honest."

SEE ALSO: The secret ingredient in the Bill Gates-backed veggie burger is 'plant blood'

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NOW WATCH: Watch millennials try a McDonald's Big Mac for the first time

Yves Béhar is a design maverick.

He's the brains behind some of the most iconic industrial designs of our time, from the Jambox wireless speaker to the XO Laptop, a super cheap personal computer that has "made such an impact on the developing world that it's featured on Rwandan money."

Now the designer, entrepreneur, and founder of industrial design firm Fuseproject aims to disrupt the workplace.

This week, Béhar opened the doors to Canopy, a new San Francisco coworking space where freelancers, remote employees, and budding small businesses can get stuff done. Unlike many shared workspaces, Canopy is tailored to people in their 30's and 40's.

Members pay a monthly rent ranging from $650 to $5,500 in exchange for a desk, access to conference rooms, and amenities including on-demand coffee delivery and messenger service.

Until now, one company has ruled the shared-office kingdom: WeWork. Founded in 2010, the coworking startup operates over 100 locations around the world and is worth a reported $16 billion.

Béhar likens Canopy to a WeWork for "mature" professionals. In lieu of foosball tables and beer taps, cozy reading nooks and a $700 mess-free juice-making machine (designed by Béhar) give the office a sense of sophistication. It's intimate and refined. Plus, its location in the residential neighborhood of Pacific Heights offers convenience for members with families.

Béhar tells Business Insider there are two more Canopy locations in Bay Area neighborhoods in the works, set to open in 2017. But the company has no intention of stopping there.

Canopy aims to give WeWork a run for its money — and its 65,000-plus members in 11 countries.

"We want to identify and own the segment of boutique coworking, the premium end of the market," says Steve Mohebi, cofounder of Canopy and a longtime Silicon Valley investor.

It's unclear how quickly Canopy plans to scale up, though the cofounders painted a picture of the company as a major WeWork competitor, with future locations in the Bay Area, New York, and Los Angeles. 

Someday, Mohebi predicts young entrepreneurs who hack hardware together will Google search "WeWork" or one of its lesser-known equivalents when they need a central base. People in their 30's and 40's will search "Canopy."

"It's people who have a lot that they can look to in their rearview mirror, and yet, they have a lot they still want to do," Mohebi says.

SEE ALSO: Take a look inside the anti-WeWork coworking space from Yves Béhar

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NOW WATCH: Ergonomics expert explains how to choose the best office lighting for employees

A cafe in Brooklyn is trying out a different kind of payment structure: It's charging per minute rather than per drink.

The cafe, named Glass Hour, opened in Williamsburg on August 26. Customers can consume all the drinks and snacks they want for free, and play the cafe's video games, board games, and foosball. The catch is that they're paying for the time they spend. 

Glass Hour customers check in when they enter, and check out and pay before leaving. The full first hour is fixed at $6 — whether you spend two minutes or 55 — to ensure that grab-and-go customers don't run off with super-cheap coffee. If you just want a quick cup of joe, it's cheaper to go elsewhere; but if you're staying longer than an hour, the unlimited granola bars, candy, tea, and coffee you can grab make that $6 worth it.

After the first hour, you're charged 10 cents a minute, and if you stay longer than four hours ($24), the rest of the time you spend there is free.

If you're hoping to plant yourself in a coffee shop and work all day, it's obviously cheaper to sit in a Starbucks and just order one coffee. But you wouldn't have access to board games or video games, and Starbucks locations in New York City can get congested at certain points in the day. 

If you're a full-time freelancer looking for working space, renting a spot in a coworking space in New York would also be cheaper on a monthly basis. Many cost $250-275 a month, and come with free coffee and storage space. But as a cafe, the pricing model is similar to the daily rates of some coworking spaces, which usually cost around $20-30 to use.

The metered pricing model isn't unique to Glass Hour. Ziferblat, a Russian coffee chain that runs on the same payment structure, launched in Moscow in 2010. The chain now operates in 14 locations across Europe —it opened opened a London branch in 2014, a Manchester one in 2015, and two cafes in Liverpool in 2016 — so there's obviously a market for it.

But will it catch on in New York? Allow me the tired, but appropriate cliche here: Only time will tell.

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

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NOW WATCH: A cafe in London serves an incredible bread bowl for breakfast

We recently ranked the 50 smartest colleges in America based on average standardized test scores.

Jonathan Wai, a Duke University Talent Identification Program research scientist, created the ranking exclusively for Business Insider using the schools' average SAT and ACT scores. (ACT scores were converted to the SAT scale for the purposes of this analysis).

While these tests are often criticized, research shows that both the SAT and ACT are good measures of general cognitive ability, since they rely on a person's ability to reason. Therefore, these scores give a reasonable snapshot of a school’s overall smarts.

We've further broken that list down to highlight the smartest colleges and universities in the South within. Take a look below to see which schools made the cut.

6. College of William and Mary — Average SAT: 1373

5. Washington and Lee University — Average SAT: 1395

4. Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus — Average SAT: 1400

3. Duke University — Average SAT: 1454

2. Rice University — Average SAT: 1460

1. Vanderbilt University — Average SAT: 1481

SEE ALSO: The 50 smartest colleges in America

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NOW WATCH: Former Navy SEAL commanders: When things get tough, forget motivation — you need discipline

Do you suffer from 'Tech Neck'? NYU Langone Spine Center Co-Director Dr. Anthony Frempong-Boadu explains the lasting effects of being glued to your smartphone.

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Few web services will break you like Craigslist.

It's the go-to classified ads site for people looking to find an apartment, and yet, Craigslist's visual clutter and chaos leaves most users dazed. Day one of my apartment hunt in San Francisco, I wanted to cry looking at the purple-and-white mess of listings.

Then I tried searching Yelp on a whim. It's the most tried-and-true recommendation site on the web, though typically reserved for restaurants and other retail operations. 

But using Yelp, I found a new apartment in less than two weeks. Here's how I did it.

SEE ALSO: This couple couldn't afford to live in San Francisco, so they're building tiny homes made from shipping containers

For the last year I've lived in Oakland, a 35-minute commute from Business Insider's office in San Francisco. It has a hopping downtown and quiet residential centers.

But my boyfriend's commute to Silicon Valley proper cost him three to four hours a day. We decided to move to San Francisco to make both our lives easier.

We didn't need a Victorian. We enjoy the amenities a new development brings, which, in San Francisco, usually means a fitness center, a mail room, and parking.

At Business Insider, we believe capitalism can and should be a force for good. With this inaugural edition of Business Insider 100: The Creators, we are celebrating leaders who embody this spirit.

Many rankings focus only on those who have achieved great financial success. Our CEO Henry Blodget sums up the drawbacks of such a focus:

"The more money you make, the implication is, the better and more successful you are. We believe this cheapens the mission and sense of purpose that many great business leaders bring to their companies and products. And it certainly undersells their inspiring accomplishments."

Over the course of several months, we scoured the business landscape for inventive leaders making bold moves to create value for four constituencies: shareholders, employees, consumers, and society.

We scoured the business landscape for inventive leaders making bold moves.

We found companies from around the world, both public and private, across many industries. We considered not only what they have created, but how. We consulted a variety of databases, including Glassdoor to gauge employee sentiment and Wealth-X to chart noteworthy philanthropic missions.

Not every company is a standout in each criteria. Companies with a questionable record with their employees, for example, weren't necessarily eliminated, but they rank lower than similar companies that make employee welfare a priority. Size wasn't a deciding factor. Small companies adding great value to the world, like Toms, outranked many multinational conglomerates, such as IKEA. Other entrants, such as Uber and Snapchat, make the list primarily because they have created dramatic economic or cultural impact, attracting millions of customers daily.

To celebrate many of these inspiring people and success stories, we're pleased to present Business Insider 100: The Creators.

The Creators: Ranked 1 to 100

The Creators: Sorted A to Z by company

More stories about these 100 business visionaries

Edited by Alex Morrell. 

Additional editing and reporting by Matthew DeBord, Diane Galligan, Mo Hadi, Ashley Lutz, Lydia Ramsey, Matt Rosoff, Sara Silverstein, Dave Smith, and Matthew Turner. 

100. Andras Forgacs

Cofounder and CEO, Modern Meadow

 Modern Meadow’s cofounder and CEO, Andras Forgacs, believes that as our population grows to 10 billion people in the next few decades we will need 100 billion animals to sustain our meat, dairy, and leather needs. Modern Meadow has found a way to grow meat and leather in its lab using biofabrication — a process that initially involved taking small biopsies from animals, leaving them unharmed. The company now claims that in its leather process it uses no animals whatsoever.

Modern Meadow says its solution will mean 99% less land required for animals, 96% less water to create the meat, 96% fewer greenhouse gases emitted, and 45% less energy needed to produce the biofabricated animal materials.

Forgacs, who also cofounded the 3-D organ printing company Organovo, says the leather takes less than two weeks to produce, and the meat takes less than a week. Compared to the years it takes to raise animals, that’s almost like no time at all, Modern Meadow just needs to figure out how to commercialize it first. Forgacs told Crain’s he sees the products hitting the market in 2018.

99. Jessica Alba

Cofounder, The Honest Company

In 2011, Jessica Alba pivoted from entertainment to entrepreneurship, launching The Honest Company — a startup dedicated to producing eco-friendly household and beauty products. The idea came to her years before, when she was starting a family and tested a baby detergent that caused her to break out in a rash. Alba was frustrated to find dubious ingredients and safety records for many other household products, so she took matters into her own hands, starting The Honest Company with entrepreneur Brian Lee.

Though it began as an online shopping site, The Honest Company’s products eventually hit the shelves in stores like Costco, Nordstrom, and Whole Foods. As it has expanded, its dedication to creating sustainable products and making a social difference hasn’t wavered, earning it B Corporation certification in 2012. Alba also takes care of her more than 500 employees, announcing this year a benefit of up to 16 weeks paid parental leave for new parents, up from 10 weeks.

But the brand has hit a few bumps in the road. It has faced a spate of lawsuits alleging its products — including baby formula, shampoo, detergent, and sunscreen — contain the same nonorganic, unsafe ingredients the company was created to avoid. The Honest Company has denied the accusations and is fighting the lawsuits.

Alba hasn’t let the flap slow it down. The budding retail operation, which has raised over $200 million in funding and is estimated to be worth $1.7 billion, has been flirting with an IPO this year.

98. David Reis

CEO, Stratasys

The world’s largest 3-D printing company, Stratasys develops and manufactures professional printers and materials capable of building everything from factory parts to dental equipment to personal projects. The company also encompasses smaller ventures such as MakerBot, known for leading the charge in desktop 3-D printing.

In 2012, Stratasys merged with Objet, another leader in the 3-D printing space, to become a dominant firm worth an approximate $3 billion at the time. Objet CEO David Reis also came over with the acquisition, taking over as chief executive of the new, larger company.

Under the leadership of Reis, who will step down as CEO this summer, the two companies’ histories abound with milestones for the industry, including introducing the first 3-D printer available for under $30,000 in 2002, launching the world’s first multimaterial 3-D printer in 2007, and building the first printer to combine more than 100 materials in 2012.

In April, Stratasys added one more milestone to that list. It debuted a new printer than can seamlessly switch between 360,0000 colors and up to six materials. To put the technology into perspective, an OtterBox phone case would previously take three full days to prototype, but using the new printer, it can be made in a mere 30 minutes. The technology will help cut down production time — and cost — on everything from stop-motion animation to airplane parts.

Despite year-over-year revenue losses and a slowdown in the 3-D printing industry at large, Stratasys beat Wall Street expectations for its fourth-quarter earnings, and its stock surged nearly 30% in March.

Sneakers are a $55 billion global industry. According to sneakerhead data website StockX, the secondary market for rare and limited-release sneakers is estimated to be worth over $1 billion. 

To understand the world of sneaker collectors — better known as "sneakerheads" — we spoke with those who know it best, including collector Lex Sadler and dealer Jae Tips, top New York City resellers Flight Club and Stadium Goods, as well as SOLEcial Studies teacher Fresco Wilson. 

Produced by Josh Wolff and Sam Rega

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The extra eyelet at the top of running sneakers has puzzled us for years — what is it for?!

Turns out that extra hole helps runners tie their shoes extra tight with a "lace lock" or "heel lock" method.

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Bottled water comes in two varieties. There's purified water, which is water from local sources (a.k.a. tap water) that has been filtered, and there's natural spring water, which is sourced from springs across the United States. So the bottled water that costs you several dollars may be sourced from the earth in Florida or it's just from the local water supply in New York.

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We recently ranked the 50 smartest colleges in Americabased on average standardized test scores.

Jonathan Wai, a Duke University Talent Identification Program research scientist, created the ranking exclusively for Business Insider using the schools' average SAT and ACT scores. (ACT scores were converted to the SAT scale for the purposes of this analysis).

While these tests are often criticized, research shows that both the SAT and ACT are good measures of general cognitive ability, since they rely on a person's ability to reason. Therefore, these scores give a reasonable snapshot of a school’s overall smarts.

We've further broken that list down to highlight the smartest colleges and universities in the Midwest. Take a look below to see which schools made the cut.

8. Case Western Reserve University — Average SAT: 1375

7. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor — Average SAT: 1380

6. Grinnell College — Average SAT: 1398

5. Carleton College — Average SAT: 1408

4. University of Notre Dame — Average SAT: 1450

3. Northwestern University — Average SAT: 1461

2. Washington University in St Louis — Average SAT: 1478 

1. University of Chicago — Average SAT: 1505

SEE ALSO: The 50 smartest colleges in America

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: You've been washing your hair all wrong — here's the right way to do it

Whether you're in the mood for fresh-baked bread, a warm slice of pie, or the perfect chocolate chip cookie, a great bakery is always a hometown favorite.

So we turned to location intelligence company Foursquare to help us find the best bakery in every state. 

Because the city-guide app allows users to save and favorite venues they love, Foursquare was able to track down which bakeries locals are raving about across the country and compile a list of America's most scrumptious bakeries.

From traditional French pastries in Pennsylvania to creative doughnuts in New Mexico, here's where to find the best baked goods in every state you visit.

Did we get your state right? Let us know in the comments.

Sarah Schmalbruch contributed to an earlier version of this post. 

SEE ALSO: America's 25 best restaurants for tasting menus

DON'T MISS: The 25 best restaurants in America, according to travelers

ALABAMA: Fairhope's Warehouse Bakery & Donuts specializes in cheddar biscuits — including those you can customize with different proteins, cheeses, and sauces — as well as doughnuts that are constantly rotating in flavor.

Find Warehouse Bakery & Donuts »

ALASKA: As its name suggests, the Great Harvest Bread Company in Anchorage is known for its freshly baked "phenomenal" bread. Their 100% whole-grain flour is milled fresh every day, and they make all kinds of breads that you won't find elsewhere, like their bacon ale bread, made with both bacon and IPA beer.

Find Great Harvest Bread Company on Foursquare »

ARIZONA: The Coffee Shop is a favorite of residents of Agritopia, an urban agricultural development in Gilbert. Their cupcakes even took home top honors in an episode of Food Network's Cupcake Wars."

Find The Coffee Shop at Agritopia on Foursquare »

There was a lot of discussion of the US border during Wednesday night's final presidential debate. While Republican nominee Donald Trump reiterated his plans to build a wall between the border of the US and Mexico, stating, "We have no country if we have no border," Hillary Clinton pressed back with her own plans for immigration reform. 

History, politics, and demographics have helped to shape the international borders that separate countries around the world. 

Here, we've collected 24 photos of what borders between various countries across the world actually look like — from walls, to rivers, to barbed wire fences, to simple road markings. 

Talia Avakian contributed reporting on a previous version of this article. 

SEE ALSO: Incredible colorized photographs show the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island 100 years ago

DON'T MISS: 23 fascinating photos that show how presidential elections have changed since the 1960s

This NASA satellite image depicts the border between Haiti, which is much more arid, on the left, and the Dominican Republic, which is greener, on the right.

This photo of the border between Israel and Egypt was taken by the International Space Station. The border is said to be one of the few that is so visible from space.

The Bering Strait separates the Seward Peninsula of Alaska to the east and Chukotskiy Poluostrov of Siberia to the west. The boundary between the US and Russia lies between the Big and Little Diomede Islands, visible in the middle of the photo here.

This month, Chip and Joanna Gaines, the stars of HGTV's hit home-renovation show "Fixer Upper," celebrated the first anniversary of the opening of Magnolia Market at the Silos, the Waco, Texas, headquarters for their growing retail brand.

The 2.5-acre space built around a pair of rusted cotton-oil mill silos is a large-scale model of what the Gaines — as renovators, business owners, and community advocates — are capable of. They're masters at transforming dilapidated properties while preserving history and character. They told Business Insider in a recent interview that this project, in particular, is the smartest investment they've made.

"At first when we looked at [the silos], it had been abandoned for years," Joanna said. "When we first drove up, we saw the land and there wasn't a lot of life to it, but just imagining what it could be ..."

Prompted by the reopening of Joanna's quaint retail shop in 2015 — which was drawing about 1,000 customers daily, in part due to the popularity of "Fixer Upper" — the Gaines decided to re-establish their growing business at the silos, they explain in their new book "The Magnolia Story." Joanna often admired the silos in downtown Waco and dreamt of reviving the property as a center for their community.

But the road to renovation wasn't easy. Joanna shares in their book that Chip had to negotiate with the property's owners, who were tied to the history of the silos and hesitant to sell.

"I think a lot of people liked seeing them [downtown], whether they thought about it consciously or not," Joanna wrote. "So when we came along and said we wanted to preserve the silos as the landmark they are and to turn this property into something that could serve as a vibrant centerpiece for the whole community, he was interested."

The property at the silos now covers 16,000 square-feet of floor space housing the Magnolia retail shop and Silos Baking Co., a garden designed by Joanna, a large outdoor space for concerts and gatherings, and a collection of local food trucks. About 15,000 people visit the location weekly, according to HGTV, and Joanna writes that "it's also providing jobs to dozens upon dozens of new and long-time Magnolia employees."

"Now when we look at it, it's like, we're investing in our town, we're investing in downtown Waco, and I think that's definitely one of my favorite investments, by far," Joanna told Business Insider.

Watch more from the Gaines' interview with Business Insider below:

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Just a couple of months before The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog took the top spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list from Drinks International magazine, owners Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry unveiled their newest venture: BlackTail.

While only less than a mile away from its award-winning sister bar, BlackTail's atmosphere and cocktail recipes are world's apart from The Dead Rabbit. BlackTail transports you to 1920s Havana, Cuba, serving up colorful, punchy, and, at times, fruity cocktails.

We met with BlackTail's bar manager and cocktail aficionado, Jesse Vida, to get the full story behind this beautiful new bar, located at the very southern tip of Manhattan in Battery Park. 

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BlackTail is partially inspired by the Highball Express, a fleet of private planes that transported wealthy New Yorkers right off the Hudson River to Havana, Cuba, during the Prohibition era. The second they were over international waters, they could drink freely.

"We're telling the story of an American-style bar in Havana during Prohibition," Vida told Business Insider. "Havana became not only a place to go have fun, but a place to be seen."

From the decor to the menu, BlackTail pays homage to that time period, but with a modern twist. "We're putting a modern flair [on our cocktails] so we're using modern ingredients, and bringing the cocktails to what the palate level is now compared to what it was," he said.

On May 7, 2014, after eight hours of hiking and swimming — while wearing insulated dry suits — polar explorers Eric Larsen and Ryan Waters reached the North Pole. 

They'd traveled 3.5 nautical miles that day, the last leg of an almost 500 mile journey that took 53 days from start to finish. 

As Larsen recently explained to Business Insider and describes in his book, "On Thin Ice: An Epic Final Quest into the Melting Arctic," written with Hudson Lindenberger, many expect their trek to be the last unsupported, unaided expedition across the frozen Arctic to the North Pole. 

Here's what that journey looked like.

The team packed two sleds full of gear, each weighing 317 pounds. The shotgun saved their lives on day five when they used it to scare off a mother and cub pair of polar bears.

The going was so rough at the start that they covered less than seven miles in those first five days.

Broken up sheets of ice crash into each other, forming massive hard to cross obstacles.