The Obamas are making the most of their vacation time. Since leaving the White House in January, they have been hitting some of the most exotic destinations imaginable.

After spending a few days in Palm Springs, Barack and Michelle Obama kicked off their tropical tour with a visit to entrepreneur Richard Branson's private Necker Island.

The next stop was The Brando, a luxury island resort on the atoll of Tetiaroa in French Polynesia. The resort is so exclusive, it can only be reached by boat or by two-engined Air Tetiaroa planes, according to People magazine. The former president has been there since March 15, while Michelle only joined her husband last week. 

Take a look at the incredible places they have visited so far. 

SEE ALSO: 20 photos that show where world leaders live

After eight years in office, the Obamas headed off for a well-deserved break in January.

The first stop (after a very brief stint in Palm Springs) was Necker Island.

This 72-acre island, located in the British Virgin Islands, is owned by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.

On Easter Monday the hottest ticket in Washington D.C. is the annual Easter Egg Roll. 

Washingtonian families have spent the day on the South Lawn of the White House rolling and playing with their dyed Easter eggs since President Rutherford B. Hayes opened the gates to the Executive Mansion in 1878.

Since then, the affair has become one of the most high-profile events that takes place at the White House each year. In an interview with The New York Times, Melinda Bates, who organized eight years of Clinton-era Easter Egg Rolls said, "The White House and the first lady are judged on how well they put it on." 

While President Trump still has a few days left to put the finishing touches on his first Egg Roll, Americans across the country are wondering how this year's event will stack up against it's predecessors. Here's a look at White House Egg Rolls past.  

President Hayes started the widely successful White House tradition in 1878 after Congress banned children from rolling their eggs on Capitol Hill. The Evening Star reported, “Driven out of the Capitol grounds, the children advanced on the White House grounds to-day and rolled eggs down the terraces back of the Mansion, and played among the shrubbery to their heart’s content.”

Source: The Evening Star

The children loved rolling their eggs and themselves down the “Jefferson Mounds” on the South Lawn originally landscaped by President Thomas Jefferson himself.

Source: National Archives

In 1887 President Grover Cleveland began inviting children into the East Room of the White House, ruining several rugs in the process. In fact, the Washington Post described the White House floors as “ground full of freshly smashed hard-boiled egg and broken egg shells.”

Source: History.com

If you think you're too busy to meditate, chances are you should start. Studies suggest that people with jam-packed schedules and intimidating to-do lists stand to benefit most from mindfulness meditation, which has can help reduce stress, improve focus, and even increase one's ability to relate to others.

By giving our bustling mind a dedicated break from its day-to-day worries, these studies suggest, we actually empower it to run more efficiently when we're using it. This can come in handy when we're trying to solve a tough problem, focus intently on a task, or search for creative inspiration for a project.

Still, the idea of sitting in a quiet room doing nothing for a few minutes each day can sound absurd unless you understand how meditation works.

SEE ALSO: This psychedelic drug seems to affect the brain in ways that are surprisingly similar to meditation

DON'T MISS: The surprisingly simple way meditation appears to alter the brain

First and foremost, meditation helps us gain perspective.

When we have a thought, be it about what we're going to eat for dinner or the conversation we had with a friend the night before, we almost immediately begin to consider it within the context of other aspects of our lives. This is useful in many ways, but sometimes it can put us on a path towards obsessive thought, especially for people prone to anxiety or depression. Decentering, one of the aims of mindful meditation and a goal of some treatments for depression, involves getting to a state of mind from which you can observe your thoughts and feelings as temporary, objective events.

In one study of people with severe depression, gains in decentering ability were linked with a reduced rate of relapse and better outcomes in terms of life satisfaction and overall feelings of well-being.

Next, it appears to improve our ability to focus by blocking out other disturbances.

When we go into a quiet room and block out a period of time for our minds to go blank, it appears to make it easier for us to enter a state of intense focus later on.

Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, looked into this idea for a long-term study that compared people who had been meditating for years with complete newbies. He found that when he tried to startle two groups of people — one that was meditating and one that was not — with a sudden interruption like a loud noise, the meditators were far less perturbed than the people who weren't meditating, regardless of whether they were new or experienced at the practice.

Meditation can also reduce stress by helping us deal with negative feelings we might otherwise ignore.

Many of us go through the day with a couple worrisome thoughts or concerns whispering at the back of our brains. We often tend to push these thoughts aside rather than deal with the feelings they might bring up.

Something about meditating — whether it's the physical space we set-up for ourselves each day or the mental space we make by regularly clearing the mind — seems to help us deal with these negative thoughts.  

A large review of studies involving close to 3,000 people found that mindfulness meditation was linked with a reduction in feelings of depression, anxiety, and even physical pain. 

Now in its eighth year, the Neon Carnival— one of the most notorious after-parties during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival — raged on in Thermal, California, this past weekend.

While unaffiliated with Coachella, the invite-only event has become popular with both celebrities and fans who are attending the music festival.

This year, celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Drake, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, and Diddy were spotted at the star-studded event. Ahead, take a look inside the party. 

SEE ALSO: We took to the streets of New York City to capture the trend that's killing the traditional fashion market

Neon Carnival is a giant dance party complete with amusement park rides, games, and photo booths.

The party is hosted on a landing strip at the Desert Resorts Regional Airport in Thermal, California.

DJ Ruckus played for the massive crowd.

The White House on Monday hosted the 139th annual Easter Egg Roll, which was expected to include some 18,000 (wooden) eggs and at least 21,000 guests on the South Lawn.

This year's Easter Egg Roll will be smaller than those of past years (35,000 people attended the Obamas' final event). President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and their 11-year-old son, Barron, who lives in New York City with the first lady, hosted kids and costumed characters at the executive mansion.

The event— which has been described as the "Super Bowl of White House social events" — is an early test for Melania Trump, whose office is responsible for organizing the day.

There were signs that planning for it got off to a rocky start when, in February, the wooden-egg manufacturer, Wells Wood Turning, tweeted a reminder of the deadline for ordering the commemorative eggs.

"It's the single most high-profile event that takes place at the White House each year, and the White House and the first lady are judged on how well they put it on," Melinda Bates, who organized all eight White House Easter Egg Rolls under President Bill Clinton, told The New York Times the week before the event.

"I'm really concerned for the Trump people, because they have failed to fill some really vital posts, and this thing is all hands on deck," Bates said.

See how the Trump's Egg Roll turned out:

SEE ALSO: Sean Spicer relives his time as the White House Easter Bunny at the annual Egg Roll

DON'T MISS: Melissa McCarthy returns to 'SNL' as Sean Spicer in an Easter Bunny costume

"Looking forward to hosting the annual Easter Egg Roll at the @WhiteHouse on Monday!" Melania Trump said on Instagram on Friday.

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The first lady addressed the crowd from the Truman balcony on Monday.

President Trump spoke to the crowd alongside the White House Easter Bunny.

Some of the biggest cities in the US are actually quite affordable. But there are other places where a $75,000 salary — that's about $15,000 more than the US median income — won't cut it.

That's according to GOBankingRates' latest report on the income needed to live comfortably in the 50 biggest cities in America. GOBankingRates defined living comfortably as earning an income that allows for 50% necessary spending, 30% discretionary spending, and 20% savings.

To find out where you need a salary higher than $75,000 to live by the 50-30-20 budget, Business Insider filtered GOBankingRates' data on the 50 most populous US cities.

The income needed for each city was determined by monthly expenses — housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, and health insurance — for a single person. GoBankingRates multiplied the total monthly cost of necessities for each city by 12 to get the annual cost. To live by the 50-30-20 rule, a person would need to earn twice as much as their expenses, so GoBankingRates doubled the total cost of necessities to arrive at the total recommended income for each city.

Below, check out the 11 places where you need to make more than $75,000 to live comfortably, including some of the nation's most popular cities like New York, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. For context, we've also included how much the median household actually earns in each location.

SEE ALSO: California may be the most desirable place to live in the US, but employers can't recruit 'high-performers' thanks to insane housing prices

DON'T MISS: How much money you need to make to live comfortably in the 25 biggest cities in America

Seattle

Population: 668,342

Income needed: $75,283

Median income: $70,594

Honolulu

Population: 350,399

Income needed: $75,698

Median income: $74,460

Miami

Population: 430,332

Income needed: $75,891

Median income: $31,051

McMansions — cookie-cutter, suburban homes that typically measure between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet— have long been loathed by many architects.  The homes, meant to exude affluence without costing buyers a fortune, are usually built without much consideration for architectural principles. 

McMansions peaked in in the US following the 2008 recession, and nearly 10 years later they have become symbols of isolation and suburban sprawl.

Architect Keith Krumwiede envisions a different, more urban future for McMansions. In his new book, "Atlas of Another America: An Architectural Fiction," Krumwiede imagines a world made completely of McMansion communities.

Called Freedomland, the imaginary world features 128 clusters of the mega-homes (Krumwiede calls them estates) that resemble 19th century communes or medieval villages.

The McMansion plans come from real house layouts used by homebuilders known for constructing McMansion neighborhoods, like Toll Brothers and Pulte.

Each 10-acre estate site features McMansions that connect to one another, forming mega McMansions. Some of these clusters, which may circle around a park or plaza, have up to 200 bedrooms and 100 bathrooms each. 

Four estate sites make up larger 40-acre parcels, three-quarters of which include farmland.

The goal of the satirical book, which is satirical but also pays homage to McMansions, is to explore how suburbs could come up with new street layouts for huge homes. Krumwiede, an architecture professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, says that Freedomland would promote interaction amongst neighbors, since the estates are closer together than homes in typical McMansion neighborhoods.

"Freedomland is premised on the following irrefutable truths: that local farming is good, being that it provides better food and makes better use of our increasingly limited resources than commercial agriculture; that urban living is also good, improving as it does the health, happiness, and prosperity of the populace; and that the majority of Americans still aspire to the material and spatial luxuries represented by the detached single-family house as it is most resplendently found in the suburbs," he writes.

"Atlas of Another America: An Architectural Fiction" can be purchased online for $49.

SEE ALSO: An architecture expert reveals 19 of the ugliest McMansions in America

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NOW WATCH: People on Twitter are roasting United Airlines after a passenger was forcibly dragged off a plane

The billionaire entertainment mogul David Geffen has set sail on his $590 million luxury yacht, Rising Sun, and as usual, he has a ton of boldface names with him, including the Obamas.

The 74-year-old mogul is known for cruising the high seas with celebrity guests. This time, he was joined by Barack and Michelle Obama, who were vacationing with Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Hanks.

Last year, Karlie Kloss, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mariah Carey were all pictured aboard the 454-foot megayacht.

Aly Weisman contributed reporting to an earlier version of this post.

SEE ALSO: The Obamas have been on a tropical tour since leaving the White House — here's where they've been so far

This is David Geffen. He's a founder of DreamWorks SKG, Asylum Records, Geffen Records, and DGC Records. He's worth $7.4 billion.

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Source: Forbes

Geffen owns Rising Sun, a 454-foot megayacht that was originally built for Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

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Source: Forbes

Geffen bought a half-share in Ellison's yacht in 2007, then another half in 2010, for a total of $590 million.

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Source: Forbes

Half the fun of reading is talking about what books make you think, feel, and learn with friends and coworkers.

But that conversation will be a lot more interesting if you're reading the same thing.

We went through the top 50 Amazon bestsellers and grabbed 10 of the most popular, critically acclaimed books on the site across a variety of genres. We skipped children's books and super-niche reads.

Amazon's list is updated hourly, and every single one also happens to appear on the New York Time bestseller list.

So you can be sure someone will want to talk about it.

SEE ALSO: 10 books Justin Trudeau thinks everyone should read

'Milk and Honey,' by Rupi Kaur

Amazon description: 

"#1 New York Times bestseller Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache.

"Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look."

BUY IT HERE »

'You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life,' by Jen Sincero

Amazon description: 

"In this refreshingly entertaining how-to guide, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and world-traveling success coach, Jen Sincero, serves up 27 bite-sized chapters full of hilariously inspiring stories, sage advice, easy exercises, and the occasional swear word.

"If you're ready to make some serious changes around here, 'You Are a Badass' will help you: Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors that stop you from getting what you want, blast past your fears so you can take big exciting risks, figure out how to make some damn money already, learn to love yourself and others, set big goals and reach them — it will basically show you how to create a life you totally love, and how to create it NOW."

BUY IT HERE»

'Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy,' by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

Amazon description:

"After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. 'I was in 'the void,'' she writes, 'a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.'

"Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build. Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam's eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity."

BUY IT HERE»

Many people think baking powder and baking soda are interchangeable, but they're absolutely not! Although they both help batters and doughs rise, they have different chemical makeups. Baking powder has baking soda in it, but it has additional ingredients that make it react differently when mixed into batters or doughs. 

Baking soda is a base that when mixed with acids bubbles. Baking powder is made of baking soda and a dry acid. It reacts differently depending on what is in your batter or dough. 

It is possible to substitute one for the other. Substitute 2 or 3 tsp of baking powder for 1 tsp baking soda. Substitute 1/2 tsp of baking soda for 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice.

How long do they last? Baking powder has a shelf life of 3-12 months. If you live in a humid climate, it expires more quickly.  To test your baking powder, put a small amount in a bowl and add water. If it bubbles it's still good. Baking soda lasts much longer as long as it's sealed and kept cool. It doesn't have an expiration date. To test your baking soda add a bit of vinegar. If it bubbles, it's still usable. 

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I took my first commercial flight a bit later than a lot of folks nowadays — I think I was about 13 — but since then I've flown on everything from Boeing 747s in South Africa to twin-prop Cessna puddle jumpers between Hyannis and Nantucket. I've crossed the Pacific and the Atlantic. I've soared above flyover country countless times.

United Airlines' debacle with David Dao has highlighted the horrors of air travel. Some kind of barrier was crossed: for more than a decade, with greatly increased security and greatly decreased customer service, passengers have felt figuratively roughed up when they fly. Dao's experience took that to a whole new level. There was blood.

A cry has gone up to reform the airline business and restore some dignity to this once-romantic and exciting form of travel. But it's not going to happen.

The airlines have figured out that they can segregate budget-conscious passengers who just want to get from A to B and will endure any indignity along the way from fliers who will pay extra to avoid leg cramps and get to drink the entire can of Coke. That's a big part of the business now.

But really, the business has irreversibly changed from how it functioned when those first silvery birds took the skies and opened up the world.

Airlines make about $10 per passenger, and although that sounds dire, with cheap fuel costs and some efficient route management, as well as limited competition, the major US airlines have of late translated it into sturdy bottom lines. 

They've also spent decades training the public to expect next to nothing in the way of service, a trend that's been accelerated by online ticket-buying sites that have driven down fares. Spirit Airlines has made this into a core brand value. 

The good old days

I actually saw the way it used to be, back in the good old days before deregulation and ritual disrobement in the security lines. My father traveled about two weeks a month, and my brother and I would often accompany my mother when we took him to the small airport that served the town we grew up in.

The old man would check in, surrender his single suitcase, and then breeze through the metal detector, offloading his keys and loose change in a single practiced move, before ascending the steps to a 727 and zooming off. The entire process consumed about 15 minutes. When he returned, the wait for the suitcase and the baggage claim was usually ten minutes or less.

He could smoke all he wanted on the plane and depending on where he was going, they'd give him dinner. He never flew first class and business didn't really exist yet.

However, even the 1970s were a transitional period, with the glamorous 1960s Jet Set a vanishing memory. But compared with how I typically fly, my dad traveled like a king.

It is possible to do better. I flew to Paris last year on La Compagnie, a new all-business-class airline that's running just one route and charging prices that are miles below the usual business class fare. It was utterly worth it.

I also flew Los Angeles to New York exclusively on JetBlue back in the mid-2000s when the upstart was truly tackling the miserable flying experience. The airline offered comfy leather seats, decent snacks, and individual TVs. Flying JetBlue back then, you could still see a faint glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. 

Get real

But let's be real. Unless you're willing to spend a ton of money, flying is an ordeal. From fighting traffic to getting to the airport right up to the non-reclining seat you're liable to encounter, the whole experience is an ordeal. 

The thing is, it's pretty much always been like this. On the infrequent occasions when I've enjoyed a legit business-class or first-class seat, the contrast with my decades-long experience has been mind-warpingly dramatic. And don't even get me started on flying private, which gives you the sense of having joined a separate species.

Airports are providing some compensation. They now offer better food than anyone imagined in the 1980s, and many have seen whole terminals converted into shopping malls. Various unaffiliated lounges have sprung up, and even the ones connected with the big airlines will often let you hang out, for a daily fee. 

But in watching United's PR mess unfold over the past few weeks, I was struck by how unsurprised I was by the chorus of dismay. Yes, Dr. Dao endured a level of mistreatment that led you to question humanity on several levels. But were we shocked that this happened on an airplane? 

The last time I flew the Friendly Skies (actually, on a Continental plane absorbed with that airlines and United merged) I found that my usually advantageous 5'-7" frame was very spatially challenged in coach; it wasn't legroom so much as a slot into which to wedge my regrettable human limbs. 

I usually fly because I have to. If I can figure out another way to get there, I'll usually take it. That's where my four decades of life with the airlines has led me. Admittedly, I always contrast this urge with my understanding that although air travel is astoundingly unpleasant, it's also astonishingly safe. We can't take this simple truth away from either the plane makers or the airlines. But that doesn't mean we can't be realistic about what boarding an aircraft circa 2017 is all about.

An understandable decline

My point here is that flying has gotten only worse since my maiden voyage. But even back then, it wasn't that great. I once took a long train trip, covering about half the USA in a two-week period. It wasn't like it was back in the glory days of rail travel, but it was magical by contrast with my plane voyages. 

Fundamentally, the airline industry operates according to a pair of rudimentary objectives: get people to where they want to go fast, and get them there cheap. Deviate from this model, as the likes of JetBlue did for about 10 years, and pay the price (JetBlue has revamped it service-centric model to be more like everybody else). So we suffer in safety, for the most part, but we can cross oceans in less than a day and spend a fraction of what it cost when air travel was glorious. 

There is some solace. A few flights back, crammed into my coach seat, wondering if I should ask for another Coke, my plane flew alongside a thunderstorm, miles and miles off the shoulder of the jet. The light show was a wonder to behold, impossible not to look at. I was among a tiny sliver of humans who have ever lived who got to witness this marvel of nature.

It reminded me of why we put up with all the crap.

SEE ALSO: Checkout Gulfstream's next generation $45 million G500 private jet

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Timeline of a crisis: How United's passenger-bumping debacle unfolded

We interviewed "Top Chef" alum Fabio Viviani while he cooked us a meal from his web series "Dinner is Served." He told us about part of a challenge from "Top Chef" Season 5 that never aired. Following is a transcript of the video.

FABIO VIVIANI:The toughest challenge for me on “Top Chef” was to cook a 20-pound turkey into a toaster oven. Literally I had a toaster oven. And it was raining too. It was outdoors, at a Foo Fighters concert, and I have to cook this bird that is time and a half the size of this oven.

VIVIANI: So I got two ovens, I rip the front handle off. I put the turkey in the middle, I put the oven, and I sucked it in. Literally, I suckered the things in. And I fold — and I kind of wrapped it with aluminum. Was very dangerous cause it was raining. There was no door on the oven. So literally there was like two ovens, two like shoe boxes pressed with each other, turned on and it’s pouring raining on these things. It’s like smoke and sizzle everywhere. And the turkey was fantastic. The turkey really turned out good actually.  

JETHRO NEDEDOG: You made it in a toaster oven?

VIVIANI: Yeah, it never made TV though because it was very, very against every logical and commonsense rule of safety. So it couldn’t make it on TV, but it was great.

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Everyone wants a cool pair of sunglasses, but not everyone knows how to go about buying one.

There's lots of confusing information out there about face shapes and frames. We took the six most common face shapes and gave them our professional recommendation.

Most guys fit one of these shapes, so figuring out which one is most like yours should be easy with the help of this graphic.

SEE ALSO: 7 watches that are so classic, they'll never go out of style

Stanford University's acceptance rate remained extremely low for the class of 2021, with 4.7% of applicants accepted into the prestigious California-based school.

That means Stanford is the most selective college in the US, beating out all Ivy League institutions.

But while getting into Stanford might seem like a nearly impossible task, many other achievements in life — like acceptance into some elementary schools — are more difficult than earning a spot within the school's prestigious walls.

Read below to see nine things that are harder to get into than Stanford.

SEE ALSO: This map shows the hardest college to get into in every state

A spot at one of New York City's top elementary schools

The elementary admissions process in New York City is utterly grueling. Among exemplary schools, one stands out as the gold-standard:Hunter College Elementary School.

Each year, Hunter chooses 25 girls and 25 boys from all of Manhattan to be admitted to its incoming kindergarten class.

They're hand-selected from a pool of about 2,200 applicants, according to the website Inside Schools. That makes the acceptance rate for Hunter about 2%. 

A job as an NBC page

Landing an internship-like role in the National Broadcasting Company's page program is competitive to say the least. Famously, the character Kenneth Parcel was a page on the TV show '30 Rock.'

For example, in 2016 there were 2,600 applicants for 120 positions, for a 4.6% acceptance rate.

The NBC page role is a year-long entry-level role where employees perform PR responsibilities among other tasks depending on their department.

A spot at an innovative startup college

College startup Minerva Schools has received 16,000 applications for 306 available places in 2016, the Financial Times reported.

Its model vastly differs from what four years of school at other prestigious colleges resemble. Students don't stay in one place during their four-year education.

They spend time in up to seven residence houses in San Francisco, California; Berlin, Germany; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Seoul, South Korea; Bangalore, India; Istanbul, Turkey; and London, England.

At 1.9%, the acceptance rate for the unconventional college is far lower than at Stanford.

North Korea is back in the headlines amid rising geopolitical risk.

Tensions between North Korea and the new US administration have been rising, and it's unclear what the Hermit Kingdom will do next, or how other countries might respond.

So, Business Insider put together some statistics and facts that lend perspective on the country.

North Koreans born after the Korean War are about 2 inches shorter than South Koreans on average.

"Analysis of escapees from North Korea shows that those born after the Korean War in the late 1950s were on average about 2 inches shorter than South Koreans," USA Today reported in 2013.

Source: USA Today

North Korea created its own time zone: Pyongyang Time.

In 2015, North Korea created its own time zone, called Pyongyang Time, named after the North Korean capital, which is 30 minutes behind South Korea and Japan. 

The country started using Pyongyang Time on August 15, 2015, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan. Pyongyang Time was the time zone used before Japanese rule. 

Source: Business Insider

Kim Jong Un ordered all male citizens to copy his haircut.

"A source from Pyongyang" told South Korea's The Chosun Ilbo that authorities issued an order requiring men to keep their hair no longer than 2 centimeters and requiring women to keep their hair at a bob length.

The men were told to model their hairstyle on Kim Jong Un, whose haircut is known as "ambitious" in North Korea (and terrible everywhere else). Women were advised to copy his wife.

Source: The Chosun Ilbo

The investment firm Wedbush Securities has released its first investment rating of Under Armour, and it's not great news for the sports brand.

Giving Under Armour a "neutral" rating, analyst Christopher Svezia wrote that the company's more technical clothing offerings were out of step with the lifestyle products desired by consumers and that as a result its "ability to return to its former glory is unknown."

Apparel and footwear created with a lifestyle focus make up less than 5% of Under Armour's total sales, according to Svezia, though the company has been taking steps to offer more options in that category.

Svezia also said, however, that missing the trend has Under Armour playing a high-stakes game of catch-up.

"It will take years for the category to have a measurable impact to the company with potential starts and stops along the way as lifestyle requires more trial and error and sample testing than core basic technical gear," he said.

The company has previously acknowledged that it misread the upmarket trend of athleisure, instead relying on copious logos and basic styles of sportswear.

"We need to become more fashion," CEO Kevin Plank said during a call with analysts after the company's latest quarterly earnings report. "The consumer wants it all. They want product that looks great, that wears great, that you can wear at night with a pair of jeans, but that also does perform for them."

Under Armour launched Under Armour Sportswear in 2016 as its effort in the athleisure space, in partnership with designer Tim Coppens. With its $1,500 trench coats, it has failed to make the splash the company was hoping for, and it's likely the company is still missing the medium between mass market and high end that competitors like Nike and Lululemon inhabit.

Nailing athleisure is critical for Under Armour because it is the chief trend in North America, which accounts for 80% of the company's online sales. The athleisure trend isn't going anywhere, industry experts have told Business Insider.

The loss of retail channels like Sports Authority has not been kind to Under Armour, and the shift to discount or midmarket department stores like Kohls will be rocky. Relying on discounts will not be a viable long-term strategy, as it will dilute the brand's halo effect and make the move into athleisure even more difficult, according to Shelly Banjo at Bloomberg.

SEE ALSO: Customers are leaving Gillette in droves — and now the company is taking drastic measures to stop the bleeding

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NOW WATCH: These are the watches worn by the most powerful CEOs in the world

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NOW WATCH: US Customs could require you to open your phone at the border — here's how to protect your privacy

We heard Burger King was adding a new shake to its menu, so we decided to head over and check it out. According to Burger King's website, The Froot Loops Shake is "Velvety Vanilla-flavored Soft Serve. FROOT LOOPS® Cereal pieces and sweet sauce are hand spun to perfection to create our twist on one of America's classic breakfast cereals." Following is a transcript of the video.

I just got back from Burger King. They got this new Froot Loops milkshake and it looks super delicious so I rushed to my nearest Burger King to try one and here's how it went. From what I can tell by glancing at the menu it is a milkshake with bits of Froot Loops in it. There's an assortment of fruit flavors in Froot Loops hence the fruit part of the Froot Loops and they're in little loops hence the loops part of Froot Loops. And they've recently been crushed up and put into Burger King milkshakes. So, of course I had to go try one because, you know.

Believe it or not I have no idea how much a milkshake should actually cost. This one with tax was like over $5. That seems kind of expensive. But it was pretty big. I don't know what is this like a pint? 16 ounces, maybe? I had the option to put whipped cream on top of it which of course I said yes because what maniac wouldn't get the whipped cream?

When I first saw it, it looked a little strange. You could see like the little crumbs of Froot Loops kind of floating in there and sort of starting to regret my decision. But man, when I got that first sip? No regrets baby. This thing is awesome.

I'm not the biggest milkshake guy. I think like chocolate milkshakes are kind of gross and strawberry, vanilla. I'm not really that into it. But, this one was actually pretty good. It was kind of a lot. But overall, yeah I thought it was really great. I definitely recommend it.

Celebrity chef Christina Tosi has a chain of restaurants called “Milk Bar” and they’re famous among other things for having these cereal flavored milks or cereal flavored milkshakes. I don't know if Burger King is aware of these things but their Froot Loops milkshake tasted just like one of those cereal milk milkshakes. I mean almost exactly.

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When the weather starts heating up, there's almost nothing better than grabbing a frozen dessert to help you cool down. But from ice cream and gelato to soft serve and frozen yogurt, there are plenty of icy snacks you can choose from, and you might not know the differences between them. 

To help you pick out which frozen treat to snack on, we've broken down the ingredients and processes behind each. 

From the way soft serve achieves its delectable, fluffy texture to the surprising fact that gelato is actually lower in fat than ice cream, here's what sets your favorite chilled desserts apart. 

Talia Avakian contributed to an earlier version of this article.

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New York City's Hudson Yards — the biggest private real estate project in American history— is getting a massive public centerpiece that looks like it was inspired by M.C. Escher.

The structure — part interconnected stairway, part tower, part art piece — will stand in the heart of the development's outdoor public space. Called Vessel, it is currently being referred to as a "public landmark" by Hudson Yards developer Related Companies.

Hudson Yards is under construction on the far west side of midtown Manhattan. The $25 billion neighborhood will include residential, retail and office space and span a whopping 28 acres.

The project is New York's largest since Rockefeller Center's construction in 1936. And, like Rockefeller Center, which features a public plaza, fountain, and iconic sculpture (not to mention the world-famous ice rink that takes over in the winter), the developers of Hudson Yards are making public space a priority.

Plans for the project’s outdoor area include more than five acres of plazas and gardens designed by landscape architect Thomas Woltz. The space will connect to the top end of the High Line, the popular elevated park on New York’s formerly abandoned train tracks.

But perhaps the most striking part of the plan is the design for Vessel, which will allow visitors to climb nearly 150 feet into the air. It broke ground on April 18, and is expected to open in fall 2018.

Take a look at the renderings.

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Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, founder of London's Heatherwick Studio, the Vessel will include 154 flights of stairs, which intersect to form an Escher-esque lattice of infinite walkways. The structure will have nearly 2,500 steps and 80 landings, totaling a mile of pathway above the plazas and gardens below.

The sculpture will widen from 50 feet across at its base to 150 feet at its top, mirroring the appearance of a hive or tornado. Once it’s full of climbing visitors and tourists, the fullness and movement will add to that motion-filled aesthetic.

A crane installed the first piece of steel on April 18. The first 10 of 75 pieces arrived by ship from Monfalcone, Italy, where they were made in a factory.