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The 5 best states to live in if you're paying off student debt

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University of Washington Seattle

Adjusting to life post-college can be tough — paying rent and bills, financing a social life, and earning an often meager salary is hard enough. 

Slap thousands of dollars in student loan debt on top of that, and it's easy to start feeling helpless.

But choosing the right state to live in could go a long way toward making the transition more manageable. 

But according to new data from student-loan information site Student Loan Hero, repaying your student debt may be more affordable in some US states, thanks to low cost of living and strong earning potential.

Affordability for repayment is defined by the government as loan payments equal to 10% or less of an individual's monthly disposable income. Student Loan Hero found the disposable income of the average worker in every US state (except for North Dakota due to insufficient data) using cost of living data by Coli.org and state mean wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Disposable income for each state was then compared to typical payments on the average student debt balance of a 2014 graduate in each state, based on a 10-year repayment term, assuming a 4% interest rate.

Below, check out the five states where student loan repayment is most affordable. Note that all cost of living figures were adjusted by Coli.org to reflect a national average of 100.

SEE ALSO: A financial planner shares the most common money problem she sees with 20-somethings

DON'T MISS: The 15 US cities where residents have the healthiest finances

5. Colorado

Average student loan balance: $25,840

Average annual wage: $51,180

Ratio of student payments to disposable income: 13.86%

Cost of living index: 98.8



4. Washington

Average student loan balance: $24,600

Average annual wage: $54,010

Ratio of student payments to disposable income: 13.33%

Cost of living index: 103.7



3. Wyoming

Average student loan balance: $22,683

Average annual wage: $45,850

Ratio of student payments to disposable income: 13.31%

Cost of living index: 97.2



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A supermodel-backed music festival where tickets cost up to $12,000 turned into a nightmare — here's what happened

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Fyre

Instead of dancing on the white sand beaches of Great Exuma in the Bahamas, Fyre Festival attendees have found themselves stranded in airports, some without any food or water, unable to get home.

This three-day party, organized by Ja Rule and tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland's company, Fyre Media, was supposed to take place on a private beach in the Bahamas for two weekends, April 28-30 and May 5-7.

But guests, who had spent between $450 and $12,000 on tickets, are describing the festival as a "complete disaster," with half-built tents, delayed flights, and no one around to help.

Take a look:

SEE ALSO: The founder of a private club for elite millennials is behind a supermodel-backed music festival that has descended into chaos

The three-day party was supposed to be on a private beach on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

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A host of supermodels had promoted it on social media, including Hailey Baldwin, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid.

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Major artists were planning to headline the party.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

I made two important changes in my most recent move — and it made the process so much easier

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Moving is the worst. We're all on the same page here, right? Lifting heavy objects is awful, as is moving said objects, as is carefully placing them down once more. 

movers moving truck boxes

The process is tiring and stressful and expensive. Having lived in cities since starting college in 2006, I've moved... too many times in the past 10 years. I moved to Philadelphia, around Philadelphia, to Barcelona, back to Philadelphia, to New York City, and twice during my time here. A lot of moves.

And earlier this year, I did it again.

My wife and I moved from one neighborhood in Brooklyn to another, just 10 or so blocks apart. But this time, we made two crucial changes:

  1. We hired movers (not packers, but movers who would move our boxes and furniture and whatever else from our old place to our new place).
  2. Instead of buying/collecting a bunch of cardboard boxes we'd end up throwing away anyway, we used a rental service that provided strong, re-usable plastic bins in varying sizes. 

The first option isn't viable for everyone, of course. Movers can be expensive (thankfully, ours weren't), and there's always a risk they'll break something (ours totally did).

The second choice we made, however, is viable for most people. And it made a huge difference in how we moved.

We used a service named Gorilla Bins, which came highly recommended by Yelp users.

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Gorilla was suggested by our moving company, and the reviews online were rock-solid. Like this one:

Just completed my 2 weeks stint with Gorilla Bins and I would definitely move with them again. Drop off and pick up is absolutely painless and having no boxes to build/break down/dispose of is such a luxury. From a price perspective, these were actually less expensive than the boxes my moving company offered to provide, and I chose Gorilla over the other reusable packing companies because they offered the 2 sized boxes in their standard package and were still priced competitively against those who were offering fewer total boxes and in just 1 size.



There are other services similar to Gorilla Bins, like Bin-It, which operate in more locations:

Bin-It is a service similar to Gorilla Bins which is offered in New York City, Philadelphia, and Nashville. Here's a video of how it works:

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But something we really loved about Gorilla Bins is the different box sizes. There were medium and large boxes, which helped to break up our stuff into easily movable piles of boxes.

It's easy to overload boxes with heavy stuff, and the smaller boxes helped us to compartmentalize stuff (like heavy books!) into manageable boxes. In so many words: It helped to stop us from overpacking any particular box.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

People paid $12,000 to go to a music festival with beachside barbecues and Champagne brunches — and all they got were these sad cheese sandwiches

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cheese sandwich

Partygoers headed to a music festival in the Bahamas this weekend expected beachside barbecues and Champagne brunches.

Instead, they're getting cheese sandwiches — if they get any food at all.

Fyre Festival was advertised as a three-day party, organized by Ja Rule and tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland's Fyre Media. Tickets for the weekend cost between $450 and $12,000.

So far, the event, which was supposed to take place over two weekends — April 28-30 and May 5-7 — has been described as a "complete disaster," with half-built tents, canceled musical acts, and guests stranded at airports.

According to a cached version of the festival's website, which has since been replaced with an apology from Fyre, the weekend was supposed to include a kickoff beachside barbecue complete with "a stunning sunset, a Bahamian menu and Champagne toast," and a "yacht brunch party" with Champagne and "awesome" views.

But attendees are saying on social media that there's not enough food for festivalgoers. The food there seems to be a far cry from the "culinary experience" they were promised.

The pièce de résistance of the festival's culinary failures so far: a sad cheese sandwich posted on Reddit late Thursday night.

"The dinner that fyrefestival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese, and salad with dressing," said Reddit user Here_Comes_the_Kingz. Starr is a famed restaurateur.

Photos of the sad sandwich quickly spread on Twitter, as people reveled in the schadenfreude of the failed festival.

Soon, the sandwich was a symbol of the Fyre Festival's failure.

We don't know who made this sad sandwich, but it definitely wasn't Starr Catering Group, which originally was booked for the event. The company told Business Insider it terminated its services with Fyre on April 2.

"After careful consideration, Starr Catering Group realized that there were significant business issues that could not be resolved and would not allow them to deliver a premium food and beverage experience that met Starr's exceedingly high standards," the company said in a statement.

SEE ALSO: A supermodel-backed music festival where tickets cost up to $12,000 turned into a nightmare — here's what happened

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We tried Starbucks' new color-changing Unicorn Frappuccino that's taking over Instagram

There were ominous signs the disastrous supermodel-backed Fyre Festival was doomed weeks ago

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fyre festival

Fyre Festival was intended to be a luxurious weekend of music and partying on the white-sand beaches of Great Exuma in the Bahamas. Blink-182, Major Lazer, Migos, Tyga, and Disclosure were among the artists who were slated to perform, according to the festival's promotions.

A host of supermodels had promoted it on social media, including Kendall Jenner, Hailey Baldwin, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid.

What happened instead was a disaster of epic proportions, with attendees c0mplaining of half-built tents, inadequate food and drink, and canceled performances.

Thousands of guests have been stranded as they wait for organizers to arrange flights back to Miami. 

The event organizers issued a statement on their social media channels.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, there had been concerns about whether the event would be taking place for weeks. Its organizers had reportedly missed several payments owed to performers, though they seemed to have caught up recently. Some attendees were becoming nervous that they had few logistical details had been communicated to them. Sources told the WSJ that contractors worried about the organizers' lack of festival experience. 

According to a statement Business Insider received from the Stephen Starr-led Starr Catering Group, which had been contracted to provide food services to the Fyre Festival, agreements with the event's organizers had been terminated earlier in April.

"After careful consideration, Starr Catering Group realized that there were significant business issues that could not be resolved and would not allow them to deliver a premium food and beverage experience that met Starr's exceedingly high standards," the statement reads. 

Starr terminated its contact with Fyre Media, the company behind the event, on April 2. It is unclear whether Fyre Media struck up another agreement with a different catering company prior to the start of Fyre Festival.  

"To resolve any confusion, Starr Catering is not providing any catering services at the Fyre Festival," Starr Catering Group's CEO, Simon Powles, said in a statement. 

Many guests complained on Twitter about the quality of the food and accommodations.

The festival was put on by the rapper Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, a tech entrepreneur. They launched the entertainment startup Fyre Media in 2015. McFarland previously founded Magnises, a social-networking startup that charges members a $250 annual fee for discounted access to exclusive events. After speaking to several current and former Magnises members earlier this year, Business Insider revealed that the startup had not been delivering on the perks it was advertising.

Tickets ranged in cost from $450 to $12,000, but the WSJ reported that they could cost as much as $250,000 depending on the amenities. 

SEE ALSO: A supermodel-backed music festival where tickets cost up to $12,000 turned into a nightmare — here's what happened

Join the conversation about this story »

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

'Heartbroken' Ja Rule says festival disaster that left attendees stranded after spending up to $12,000 is 'NOT MY FAULT'

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Ja Rule

Fyre Festival is an unmitigated disaster, and the rapper Ja Rule does not want to be blamed.

What was supposed to be a three-day all-inclusive luxury music festival in the Bahamas, with tickets up to $12,000, has collapsed under its own weight, with acts and caterers pulling out, a lack of adequate infrastructure on the private beach, and problems with transportation both on and off the island.

Now people who were promised a luxury experience are turning to the festival's owners — Ja Rule and entrepreneur Billy McFarland, the cofounders of Fyre Media — for answers. Fyre is an on-demand booking app.

In a statement on Twitter, Ja Rule said that the incident in the Bahamas was "not my fault."

Twitter Ja Rule

Twitter users asked early Friday morning where Ja Rule had been, via the hashtag #whereisjarule. One user said Ja Rule performed in Chicago on Thursday night, before Fyre Festival was scheduled to begin, fueling speculation he had not even made it to the island festival.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: SCOTT GALLOWAY: Netflix could be the next $300 billion company

The organizer of the doomed Fyre festival was previously accused of scamming millennials with promises of Hamilton tickets and trips to Cuba

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fyre festival

Fyre Festival, a luxury music festival on Great Exuma in the Bahamas this weekend, has reportedly descended into chaos. Attendees have complained on Twitter of disorganization, headliners backing out, and inadequate housing in a "tent city." Thousands of guests who paid between $450 and $12,000 for weekend passes say they're stranded in the Bahamas as organizers arrange flights back to Miami.

A host of supermodels, including Hailey Baldwin and Bella Hadid, had promoted the event on Instagram.

The festival was put on by the singer Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, a tech entrepreneur. They launched the entertainment startup Fyre Media in 2015.

McFarland previously founded Magnises, a social-networking startup that charges members a $250 annual fee for discounted access to exclusive events. After speaking to several current and former Magnises members earlier this year, Business Insider revealed that the startup had not been delivering on the perks it was advertising.

Members recounted similar stories of not receiving tickets on the promised timeline, having to rearrange plans multiple times because of the startup's scheduling snafus, and trips being canceled outright, sometimes the day before they were scheduled to happen.

Several members said they had received unwanted charges on their credit cards from Magnises, which in some cases took more than a month to refund their money, they said.

Since its inception in 2014, the New York-based startup has expanded to Washington, DC, and San Francisco. It now has nearly 40,000 members. The startup has raised $3.1 million in venture capital since its founding, and it has been cash-flow positive for the past year. It has 25 employees.

McFarland did not immediately return Business Insider's request for comment about this year's Fyre Festival.

SEE ALSO: Members of a private club for 'elite' millennials want their money back

Join the conversation about this story »

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

Here's what Fyre Festival attendees thought they were getting when they bought $12,000 tickets — and here's the nightmarish reality

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Fyre

Fyre Festival attendees were expecting the VIP experience when they set off to Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

But the reality was very different: delayed flights, half-built huts to sleep in, and cold cheese sandwiches to eat. And that doesn't even include the disastrous trip home.

This luxury festival, tickets for which cost between $450 and $12,000, was advertised as two weekends in paradise.

It turned into a nightmare.

Take a look at festivalgoers' expectations compared with the reality they encountered.

And here's the full Fyre Festival promo video:

The three-day party was supposed to be on a private beach on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas.



It was supposed to be over two weekends: April 28-30 and May 5-7.



A host of supermodels had promoted it on social media, including Hailey Baldwin, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

'FYRE FESTIVAL ON:' Some attendees of the cursed $12,000 beach weekend have decided to throw an epic party anyway

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Nick Bateman

While Fyre Festival — an extravagant music festival in the Bahamas with tickets costing up to $12,000 — has become a nightmare for most attendees, some partygoers have decided to rage on. 

The festival, which was advertised as a three-day party, was organized by Ja Rule and tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland's Fyre Media. Tickets for the weekend cost between $450 and $12,000. So far, the event, which was supposed to take place over two weekends — April 28-30 and May 5-7 — has been described as a "complete disaster," with half-built tents, canceled musical acts, and guests stranded at airports.

Fyre Festival and Ja Rule have apologized and said that they are working to get everyone off the island safely. 

However, some party goers don't seem to want to leave. At least some of the people who bought tickets have posted photos of themselves on Instagram as they continue to lounge on the beach, drink, and snuggle with the island's famous swimming pigs. 

SEE ALSO: People paid $12,000 to go to a music festival with beachside barbecues and Champagne brunches — and all they got were these sad cheese sandwiches

"FYRE FESTIVAL ON, get here now if you can," wrote one Instagram user.

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"Stranded at #fyrefestival. Send help." another wrote, ending the caption with a smiley face.

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According to one attendee, happiness is all about making the most of your circumstances — and listening to local construction workers.

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"A construction worker stood on a stool in front of 750 drunk revelers yesterday and gave an impassioned speech. He ended with: "One day, you will be able to say... I was at the first Fyre Festival!" Everyone cheered. He was right," jackgashi wrote on Instagram. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

There's a hidden wire stretched above American cities — and few people know what it's for

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Unbeknown to most, there are transparent wires that wrap around over 200 cities in North America — including Manhattan — to mark a religious boundary.

And every week, there is a "secret operation" to check and repair the wire in time for the weekend. We tagged along to see what it's all about.

 

Join the conversation about this story »

Fyre Festival expectations vs. reality — here's what attendees thought they were getting when they bought $12,000 tickets

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Fyre Festival attendees were expecting the VIP experience when they set off to Great Exuma in the Bahamas. But the reality was very different: delayed flights, half-built huts to sleep in, and cold cheese sandwiches to eat. And that doesn't even include the disastrous trip home.

This luxury festival, tickets for which cost between $450 and $12,000, was advertised as two weekends in paradise. It turned into a nightmare. Take a look at festivalgoers' expectations compared with the reality they encountered.

 

Join the conversation about this story »

TRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS: Here's how they compare with Obama's, Bush's, and Clinton's

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Franklin D. Roosevelt got more done in his first 100 days in office than any president before him or any since. He took office in the depths of the Great Depression, enacting a dizzying number of laws and signing executive orders to stabilize the economy with the New Deal.

Roosevelt is the reason people focus on the first 100 days. When presidents take office, they have the most political capital to enact their agenda. Studies have found that it's the most productive time for legislative action.

Of course, presidents don't have total control over their time in office. Ronald Reagan was shot during his first 100 days and spent the last month in the hospital. Bill Clinton's first months were distracted by the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" military policy, then the fatal raid in Waco, Texas. George W. Bush bombed Iraq, and Barack Obama had to save Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates.

Donald Trump's 100th day in office is Saturday. How has his tenure compared with that of the last three presidents?

We looked at how many executive orders they signed, how many laws they enacted, how the economy performed, where they traveled, what their approval ratings were, and, for fun, how often they golfed.

Here's how they stack up:

SEE ALSO: Trump signed 78 executive actions in 100 days — here's what each one does

DON'T MISS: MEET THE NEW EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Here's who Trump has chosen for senior leadership positions

More laws, fewer words

The number of bills signed into law is just part of the story. The vast differences between the number of pages or words those bills contained start to reveal what types of laws they were and what effects they ultimately had.

According to Josh Tauberer, founder of the legislative database GovTrack, bills with more words generally create government programs, and those with fewer are often rolling back regulations or programs. Obama's stimulus package to keep the government funded had 358,113, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act had 294,307.

Trump signed a NASA bill to send humans to Mars, and a resolution to keep the government funded and prevent a shutdown for another week. The bill tied to his effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) failed to get a vote in the House.

"Either way, it helps to keep in mind that neither Trump nor Obama wrote the laws they signed," Tauberer told Business Insider. "They can only sign the bills that Congress gives them, and although presidents like to take lots of credit, they actually have an insignificant role in the passage of most of them."

(The White House's press release touting Trump's accomplishments in 100 days versus those of his predecessors cited the wrong number of laws for Obama and Clinton. It may have relied on a FiveThirtyEight article that used data from a study that measured laws passed during Congress's first 100 days, not the presidents'.)



A heavy use of executive power

Trump said Obama was abusing his power by signing so many executive orders. But in just 100 days, Trump has signed nearly as many as Obama averaged in a year.

Most of Trump's executive actions have reversed Obama-era regulations and efforts to protect the environment.

Scholars have typically used the number of executive orders per term to measure how much presidents have exercised their power. George Washington signed only eight in his entire time in office, according to the American Presidency Project, while FDR penned over 3,700.

Here's a quick guide to every executive order Trump signed in his first 100 days »



A nearly full Cabinet

While Trump complained on Twitter in February that "obstruction by Democrats" had left his Cabinet unfilled, he has more members confirmed than Clinton did at 100 days.

But Trump hasn't nominated 465 of the 556 executive-branch jobs that require Senate confirmation, leaving acting officials in those posts. The Senate can't vote to confirm his officials until Trump appoints them, and experts warn that Trump may not be able to enact his agenda until he has his appointees in place.

Here's who Trump has chosen for senior leadership positions »

See the roles still left unfilled here »



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See inside Trump's New Jersey golf club that's about to become the 'summer White House'

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Trump National Golf Club Bedminster

As Mar-a-Lago closes for the summer, Donald Trump will need to find another destination to meet with world leaders and play golf.

That's likely to be his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to Politico. It's the only one of his golf clubs that he built from the ground up, instead of purchasing and refurbishing, and the president holds a special affinity for it.

Take a look around Bedminster, the club, and history of how it came to be one of Trump's favorite retreats.

SEE ALSO: A New Jersey town is panicking because it's about to become Trump's summer getaway

Bedminster, New Jersey, is small and sparsely populated. This street is the closest thing the town has to a main street. Only 8,165 live in the entire township, according to the 2010 census.



The town is a 40 minute drive from New York City and Newark Airport.



Most of the township looks like this, with wide-open farmland converted to large estates.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

That viral 'diet drinks cause dementia' story reveals a major problem with science reporting

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drinking cocktail dog woman outdoors unsplash

  • Several stories linking diet soda and sugary drinks with dementia have gone viral.
  • While they're based on two well-done scientific studies, they don't tell you the full story.
  • Before you clean out your fridge, you should know that the studies found a link between the two things — they did not find that one thing causes the other.
  • Read on to find out whether diet or regular is better for your health.

If you're reading this, chances are you've heard one or two scary-sounding stories about sweet drinks and brain health.

Either you heard that artificially-sweetened diet drinks cause dementia or that conventionally-sweetened ones shrink your brain. It all comes down to two studies published in two different reputable health journals.

Sounds pretty terrifying, right? Only there's a small problem. It's still too early to say whether any sweet drink— whether it's artificially sweetened diet soda or plain old sugary grape juice — actually causes the brain issues that the researchers observed. Why?

Before you raid the fridge, there are some things you should know about how the studies were done and what the researchers who did them actually found.

First, both studies were done by some of the same researchers, including the lead scientist, Boston University neurologist Matthew Pase. For the first study, published in the beginning of March in a well-regarded Alzheimer’s journal, Pase and his team concluded that sugary drinks were linked with brain shrinkage. For the second, published at the end of April in a different well-regarded heart journal, the team found a link between diet drinks and dementia.

At this point, you might be ready to throw up your hands and decide that all you can safely drink is water. Not so fast.

The problem with observing

If you've ever watched the show "Fringe," you're familiar with a group of characters called The Observers. (If you haven't seen the show, no worries. This will all make sense soon.) The Observers know what's going to happen in the future and what's happened in the past. So, even if they are watching something tragic unfold in real time — like a child dying, for example — they are powerless to change it. They can only watch and observe.

Observer FringeBoth of the studies on sweet drinks and brain health fall into a category of research known as observational studies. Observational studies can tell us if there's a connection between two things— such as smoking marijuana and having anxiety — but they can't tell us if one thing necessarily causes the other.

In many cases, a link that researchers observe between two things is later found to be caused by an external thing that no one was accounting for. In the marijuana example, some researchers have suggested that people who deal with anxiety may simply be more likely to use cannabis than people who don't. So instead of cannabis causing anxiety, what's really going on is that people with anxiety are using more cannabis than people without it. (The science is still out on this one, in case you were wondering.)

For the sweet drinks and brain health research, the scientists drew from a large set of observational data taken from thousands of people from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts who were initially recruited beginning back in the 1940s as part of a study designed to learn more about heart disease called the Framingham Heart Study. Over the past few decades and through multiple generations of people, the researchers have kept tabs on the health of these individuals.

So, for that first study on sugary drinks, the scientists zeroed in on the Framingham community's penchant for soda and juice. They found that on average, the more sweet beverages people drank, the lower their total brain volume and the lower their scores on memory tests. Importantly, brain shrinkage has been tied to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.

For the second study, the researchers looked at the same data again, but this time focused on diet drinks instead. They found a worrisome link here too: People who regularly drank artificially-sweetened sodas (we're talking about 1-2 diet sodas per day) had a higher risk of stroke and dementia than people who didn't.

Neither of these findings are good. And the fact that the research is based on large groups of people lends some additional oomph to their conclusions. But the most important takeaway here is that there is simply no definitive research that tells us that sugary drinks cause brain shrinkage or that diet drinks cause dementia. Plus, out of all the people in the study, the percentage of those who did go on to develop stroke or dementia was small— about 3% for stroke and about 5% for dementia.

So the next time you're at a restaurant and are faced with the question, "Diet or regular?", what should you choose?

Diet or regular?

One thing the two current studies on sweet drinks simply can't tell us is which one is better for your brain. That said, there is plenty of research linking plain old sugary drinks like sodaand juice to weight gain, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. We don't yet have any comparable research on diet drinks.

sodaPase, the lead author on both papers, says holding out on both is the safest option. "We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages," he says in a press release.

A large review of 50 years of studies published in the American Society for Clinical Nutrition found a link between the amount of sugar-sweetened beverages people consumed and weight gain and obesity.

Specifically, the researchers found "strong evidence for the independent role of the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, particularly soda, in the promotion of weight gain and obesity in children and adolescents," they write.

Another recent paper written by seven experts in public health, nutrition, and economics makes the links between sugary drinks and America's obesity problem explicit:

"The science base linking the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to the risk of chronic diseases is clear," the authors write.

Above all else, everything is best in moderation. If you're going to drink either plain old sweet tea or soda, limit yourself to an 8-oz glass every few days, and have it as a snack rather than an accompaniment to one. Similarly, if you're going to drink diet soda, try and have it once a week rather than every day.

SEE ALSO: Juice is the biggest con of your life, whether it's squeezed by hand or a $400 machine

DON'T MISS: Soda is the new tobacco

Join the conversation about this story »

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Trump's wealthy cabinet is driving up luxury-home prices in DC

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Washington DC's housing market is jolted whenever a new president takes office and new members of the administration shop for homes. 

But the impact was aggravated this time, with the wealthiest president in US history appointing other super-rich people to help run the country.

According to the real-estate company Redfin, President Donald Trump's administration contributed to a 32.6% year-over-year jump in luxury home prices in the area, reversing the trend of falling prices in that segment. The price jump outpaced other major housing markets tracked by Redfin.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, a former hedge fund manager, bought a $12.6 million home in Massachusetts Heights. The neighborhood is popular with the uber-rich and is a quick drive to the White House ,according to the Washington Post. Mnuchin's 16,000 square-foot home has nine bedrooms and was sold on Valentine's Day, according to the Washington Business Journal

And then, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a former banker, snagged a $10.75 million mansion not too far from Mnuchin's home, according to Redfin. The Beaux Arts estate includes seven bedrooms, a library, and a theater, according to Curbed

The average sale price of a luxury home in DC in the first quarter was $2.7 million, according to Redfin. 

"We don’t typically see many home sales over $10 million in a year," said Michael Alderfer, a Redfin agent in DC, in a report published on Thursday. "To have two back-to-back is significant. We may see some additional eye-popping purchases from Trump administration officials in the coming months."

Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State who was CEO of Exxon Mobil, reportedly bought a $5.5 million home in Kalorama. President Barack Obama and Ivanka Trump rent in the neighborhood. 

Even outside of DC, luxury-home buyers enjoy more options compared to affordable starter homes where there is an inventory crunch. The glut in luxury housing is encouraging landlords to offer greater concessions and discounts to attract more buyers.  

SEE ALSO: A key part of Trump's tax plan is unlikely to benefit most Americans

Join the conversation about this story »

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Fyre Festival organizer says he was 'naive' about the luxury event that became a nightmare — but he's still planning another one

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billy mcfarland ja rule fyre

The Fyre Festival was supposed to be an escape to an island paradise, where you and your friends could party with super models and indulge in luxury.

What those who spent $450-$12,000 for a ticket actually got, however, was a day spent trapped on an island, allegedly with no plumbing, a processed cheese sandwich, few musicians, and airport officials who reportedly padlocked dehydrated attendees waiting for a plane to escape.

The festival was the brainchild of young entrepreneur Billy McFarland and early 2000s rap star Ja Rule.

After hours of social media postings from attendees who learned shortly upon arrival on the Bahamian island that the festival was canceled and that there were no flights home or hotels to stay at, Ja Rule posted on Twitter, denying the allegation the festival was a scam while also apologizing.

McFarland broke his silence late on Friday with an apology on Rolling Stone, and spoke again on Saturday morning through a video he sent to TMZ.

"We were overwhelmed and just didn't have the foresight to solve all these problems," McFarland told Rolling Stone, adding that he and his team were "a little naive." He said that he would atone for the failure by refunding all attendees this weekend and offering them access to a free festival in the US later this year. He said that the Fyre Festival as it was intended will re-launch in 2018, and that $1.50 of every ticket would go to the Red Cross in the Bahamas (later saying in the TMZ video each donation would be $1.00).

"Next year, we will definitely start earlier," he said.

On Saturday morning, McFarland told TMZ that promoters and artists had already reached out to him, and that he was working with them on next year's festival, to be held at a beach location in the US.

McFarland created Fyre with Ja Rule in 2015, and told the story of how they came together last November at the MusicNotes Conference.

McFarland was interested in putting on a music event of some sort and decided to find the representative of Ja Rule, one of his favorite artists. His first stop was Instagram, where he found a guy going by "Reggie Muscles" who claimed to be the rapper's representative. Reggie Muscles requested $500 for a meeting with Ja Rule.

fyre 4Instead of the rapper, Muscles passed McFarland to "Big Fred," who made the same request. This repeated several times, McFarland said, until he finally found himself on a helicopter with Ja Rule after spending thousands to finally get to him. It was here, he said, that he learned Ja Rule had no idea McFarland had been trying to book him.

And thus Fyre was born, they said, as a way to cut out the middle men and create a festival that dealt with artists directly.

This year's event was supposed to be headlined by Blink-182, who canceled shortly before the event, citing a lack of resources provided by Fyre.

In his Rolling Stone account, McFarland said he and Ja Rule picked the Exumas section of the Bahamas because of its beauty. He said that he later learned that there was no working water or sewage on the island. He told TMZ that he had to ship an ambulance to the island from New Jersey for the event.

McFarland claimed that he didn't cancel the event sooner because things didn't turn so bad until a storm late Wednesday night destroyed much of the event's infrastructure.

This isn't the first time McFarland has faced complaints for failing to deliver. Earlier this year, Business Insider reported that many members of McFarland's Magnises club for millennials said that Magnises regularly canceled events with little notice, and that their Magnises credit cards were frauduently charged.

As for Fyre, McFarland said he's moving forward and will be more prepared next time, assuming that actually happens.

"We underestimated the size of the team we'd need," he told TMZ. "We had 300 full-time festival staff this year ... we would seek to multiply that by a large factor for next year."

SEE ALSO: Here's what Fyre Festival attendees thought they were getting when they bought $12,000 tickets — and here's the nightmarish reality

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NOW WATCH: Fyre Festival expectations vs. reality — here's what attendees thought they were getting when they bought $12,000 tickets

I learned how to mime from a pro — it's a lot more complicated than you think

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Professional mime Bill Bowers gave a lesson on the fundamentals of pantomime, explaining the challenges of bringing imaginary objects into reality for an audience.

Following is a transcript of the video. 

 My name’s Bill Bowers and I am a mime. I live in New York City and perform and teach mime and physical theater.

And just imagine that right in front of us both a wall appears. An imaginary wall. And you’re going to see it with your eyes so that I’m going to see what you see. Yeah. And when you touch the wall, it has energy, too. So when you touch it, it stops your hand. Just like that! Yeah, it’s just like this. It’s like a real wall.

So this is another part of fundamental in pantomime which is called fixed point, something that’s fixed in space. So one part of your body, like your hand, is stuck in space, but the rest of your body is completely free. Look at that! You’re Mr. Mime, there it is.

You have energy and this imaginary world has energy and where the two things come together is an illusion. That’s where the imagination of the audience joins you. Your imagination meets theirs and together you create an object. Everything you create in pantomime, all illusions are basically just dots. They’re just pieces of energy and you put those dots together to form objects from the real world.

You have two points of energy but the space between them is very important as well. And you can move them anywhere you want. And now I’m going to move this dot to there, and move this dot to there. Good! And now I’m going to do it again.

So as we practice this one thing we might look at is now incorporating your wrist. This thing that our wrists have called flexion, you can use that in pantomime to be expressive, you know, and add this idea of two energies, my energy and the energy of the object. Rather than just using my whole arm, I’m trying to just isolate it down to my hands. Yeah, very good! Look at that, very nice, yeah!

So we could, after we’ve practiced this for a while, we could think about like a tug of war, where it’s you versus me, and the object, it’s a shared object. Go ahead, pull me, I’m going to pull you, yeah? So we’re calling it a tug of war, but actually, it’s completely a collaboration, we’re completely watching each other. But then, you have an object and two actors and you can write a story based on that.

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