• Every activity has a value called a "MET value" which calculates the energy required for that activity.
• Multiplying MET value by weight in kilograms tells you calories burned per hour.
• You can look up research-backed MET values on the Compendium of Physical Activities website.

Throughout the day, everything we do burns calories.

Some things — like sitting — keep us at our resting rate. Vigorous activity can burn more than ten times as much energy.

And while calorie-counting isn't necessarily the best way to lose weight, it can be useful or just plain fun to know whether that post-work soccer game is enough to burn off the donuts your co-worker brought in this morning.

Fortunately, there's a science-backed way to calculate how many calories you burn doing almost anything. Sure, there are apps out there that will help you calculate how many calories you burn on your run or your bike ride, but this goes deeper than that.

Want to know how many calories you burn backpacking, milking a cow (manually), cleaning a church, or engaging in an hour of vigorous sex? There's data that will help you calculate that — along with calories burned while engaging in all kinds of different sports.

Researchers have assessed the amount of energy required to engage in all kinds of activities over the years. In order to make it easier for other scientists to conduct large scale studies, researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Arizona State University have compiled updated versions of that data on a website, the Compendium of Physical Activities. And anyone can go to that website, look up an activity, and calculate how many calories they'll burn doing something. It just takes some simple math.

Here's how it works:

This calculation relies on a key value known as a MET, which stands for metabolic equivalent. One "MET" is "roughly equivalent to the energy cost of sitting quietly," according to the Compendium, and can be considered 1 kcal/kg/hour. Since sitting quietly is one MET, a 70 kg person would burn 70 calories (kcal) if they sat quietly for an hour.

If an activity's MET value was two, that same person would burn 140 calories in an hour.

On the Compendium's website, you can look up a huge number of activities. We've included calorie counts for some of the most popular activities in another article, but if you want to make the calculation for yourself, here's how it works.

First, calculate your weight in kilograms — 1 kg is 2.2 lbs, but you can always type "X pounds to kg" into Google, with X being your weight, to get a number.

Second, look up your activity on the Compendium. There's a dropdown menu on the site labeled "Activity Categories." Under that menu, you'll see a long list of categories, starting with bicycling and finishing with volunteer activities. If you open up a category, you can see the activities that fall under it.

If you open up sports (category 15) you can then select an activity. There are many listings for some activities — there's a difference between boxing in a ring and boxing by hitting a punching bag, for example. Look for the MET value from the 2011 Compendium, as it's the most up to date. If the MET value is blue, there are published studies supporting that value. If it's red, it's an estimate.

Here's your equation: MET value multiplied by weight in kilograms tells you calories burned per hour (MET*weight in kg=calories/hour). If you only want to know how many calories you burned in a half hour, divide that number by two. If you want to know about 15 minutes, divide that number by four.

So if a 175-pound person like myself were to play competitive soccer (MET value of 10) for one hour, the equation for calories burned would be: 79.38 kg*10=793.8 calories/hour.

There are a few caveats. Everyone's resting metabolic rate differs slightly — some people of the same weight naturally burn more or fewer calories, depending on a number of factors, and these differences can be significant. As the Compendium website explains, this sort of calculation doesn't take into account differences caused by body mass, body fat, age, sex, efficiency of movement, and conditions like high altitude that may have an impact on the energy required for an activity. Also, these calculations are calculated based only on time spent in movement — so if half of my "competitive soccer" game was really just standing around, I'd have to divide that number in half and then add in the amount of calories I burned standing around to know how much energy I actually used in that hour.

That said, this is the easiest way to get a science-backed estimate of calories burned in an activity. And when you look through activities, there are all kinds of fun things that make the list — it's worth taking some time to explore.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best everyday exercises for burning calories

DON'T MISS: The 39 best ways to burn the most calories in an hour

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NOW WATCH: Here's the best way to watch the solar eclipse if you don't have special glasses

What if you could make a living doing things like playing video games, drinking beer, or watching TV?

That'd be the dream, right?

Well, it turns out that there are jobs out there just like that.

Here are a few roles that definitely sound too good to be true:

SEE ALSO: A CEO and former Googler explains how to turn your post-college gig into your dream job

DON'T MISS: 15 high-paying jobs everyone wants but hardly anyone gets

1. Chocolate scientists

This job will leave you blinded by science — and chocolate!

Back in 2014, the University fo Cambridge posted an opening for a "chocolate scientist." According to Fast Company, the goal of the research was to determine "what would allow chocolate to remain solid and delicious in warm climates."

Sure, it essentially amounts to a multidisciplinary PhD program — but you get to play with chocolate all day.

For scientists with a sweet tooth, it's not a bad idea to keep an eye out for similar opportunities going forward.

2. Traveling beer-drinkers

What if you could get paid to travel and drink beer? Sounds like a fantasy, right?

Well, it's a real position that Smithsonian hired for in 2016, Caroline Praderio reported for INSIDER.

The catch? Candidates had to be professional historians and scholars.

Still, it certainly seemed like a great opportunity for booze-loving historians looking to make $64,650 a year for drinking beer.

3. Water slide testers

If you're looking for a new job to dive into, see if any water parks are hiring.

According to Fast Company, one lucky college student received $30,000 and free travel to journey around Turkey and Egypt testing water slides for SplashWorld resorts back in 2013.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's tragic death.

She was first propelled into the national spotlight at the age of 20, when she wedded England's Prince Charles at the age of 20.

Their troubled marriage ultimately imploded, turning the couple in tabloid fodder.

However, Diana went on to become an international icon in her own right. Her sophisticated style dictated fashion trends. Her dedication to charitable causes won her admiration and accolades.

And, in the wake of her death in Paris, then-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair famously referred to her as "the people's princess." The mass, global outpouring of grief that her death sparked proved it an apt observation.

Here's a look at the life of Diana, Princess of Wales:

SEE ALSO: An inside look at how J.K. Rowling, one of the most influential people alive, turned rejection into unprecedented success

Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961 to a British noble family. Her brother, the Earl Spencer, reminisced that she was 'incredibly brave,' even as a young girl.

Source: Royal.uk, USA Today

In school, the future princess failed all her O-levels — twice. However, Diana had a sense that she was destined for something important. "I knew that something profound was coming my way," she said in the documentary "Diana: In Her Own Words." "I was just treading water, waiting for it."

Source: The Independent, Diana: In Her Own Words

Before her marriage, Diana reportedly shared a flat with three roommates and worked as a part-time kindergarten teacher in London’s Pimlico district.

Source: People

Picture this. You and your partner get into an argument: Whose job is it to pick up the kids from school today? Your partner says it's your responsibility — she's got an important work thing. You insist it's her turn — you've picked them up every day this week.

Then, out of nowhere, your partner blurts out, "And you were an hour late to date night last month!"

Wait, what?

Psychologists call this strategy "kitchen sinking" — i.e. you throw "everything but the kitchen sink" at your partner. It's generally an unproductive tactic.

More recently, psychologists learned that "kitchen thinking" — i.e. simply thinking about past, unrelated slights during a conflict, even if you don't verbalize them — can be unproductive, too.

The study on kitchen thinking was published in 2016, in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. One key finding was that anxiously attached people— those who want close relationships but fear abandonment and have some trust issues — are more likely to kitchen think.

The study authors — Kassandra Cortes and Anne E. Wilson at the University of Waterloo — conducted four experiments on kitchen thinking and anxious attachment.

A conclusion from the first three experiments is that anxiously attached participants saw negative relationship experiences as more recent — and therefore easier to mentally retrieve — than other participants did.

The fourth experiment tested the effects of kitchen thinking in real relationship conflicts. About 200 adults in romantic relationships were asked to remember a past argument with their partner, when their partner did something wrong or hurtful.

Then, researchers asked the participants to respond to prompts such as, "During the conflict, I remembered other hurtful things my partner has done in the past." Participants also indicated how severe the conflict was, how constructively or destructively they responded to the conflict, and how often they fight with their partner.

The researchers write: "People who reported thinking about other unrelated past slights during their conflict also reported reacting to the conflict at hand more destructively — they reported having more conflict as a result of kitchen thinking, having less healthy conflict, and feeling worse about their relationships."

Anxiously attached people were more likely to kitchen think, and also reacted more destructively to the conflict.

The most pressing question here is how to help anxiously attached people — or really, anyone — minimize kitchen thinking and improve their relationships. Interestingly, Cortes told Broadly: "We can't say with certainty that telling people not to think about past negative memories during conflicts is the right approach. In fact, that could backfire."

So more research on this topic is necessary. In the meantime, it could be helpful to simply notice your tendency to kitchen think.

Sometimes our thoughts spiral out of control so quickly that we're angry or upset before we realize it. Awareness of potentially counterproductive habits is a good first step toward healthier conflict management.

SEE ALSO: A relationship expert says one word can defuse a fight with your partner — but most people don't use it enough

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NOW WATCH: A relationship expert shares the 4-letter word that can diminish conflict with your partner — and it does not get said enough

If you've ever been to an airport, you've most likely spent some time very bored.

A familiar scene: You're through security and have nothing to do before your plane boards, except go to one of the overpriced restaurants, or bars, and watch a bunch of TVs showing sports. Or, instead, you can sit at your gate and watch the TVs hanging from the ceilings, which likely are only showing CNN.

ReachMe.TV thinks it's figured out how to make waiting at the airport more tolerable.

The startup is an in-airport mobile entertainment network that provides thousands of hours of content — including original programming, local news, sports, and weather — to the top 50 airports in the US and Canada (and 750,000 hotel rooms). But it's not just regular TV.

If you come across a ReachMe.TV screen at the airport, it could be playing anything from a brief recap of last night's sports highlights, to a three-minute profile about a fashion blogger. It's programming designed to be watched in short bursts.

And here's the best part: ReachMe.TV allows people in airports to sync their phones or tablets with airport screens, so they can take the content they were just watching with them.

Here's how it works.

If the airport you're at has ReachMe.TV, and you're enjoying the content on it, but have to walk away from the screen, just go to ReachMe.TV on your mobile device or tablet and type in the channel you're watching (which is shown on the screen) and it will show up. For free. No need to download an app. That's it.

The spark

The company is the brainchild of entrepreneur Ron Bloom, who a few years ago saw the importance personalizing televisions in public places. What started as a dongle he made and attached to TVs at some beauty parlors has now turned into a company that reaches more than 100 million viewers a month.

"Imagine being a producer and discovering that if you make something it will be seen by 100 million people a month guaranteed? This is really exciting," Bloom, who is the cofounder and CCO of the company, told Business Insider.

After signing up around 20 airports last year, ReachMe.TV went to market earlier this year and quickly grabbed the attention of the networks. In June, CBS signed a 10 year exclusive partnership with the company to provide local news, weather, and sports from its CBS TV stations, as well as other programs under the CBS umbrella like "Entertainment Tonight," and a newly created news package called "CBS On The Go."

But what is the programming on ReachMe.TV like?

Brevity is one of the keys to the network. Most of the content on ReachMe.TV is short and concise, ranging from a minute or two for news segments, to six to 12 minutes for documentaries or a scripted comedy.

"I love 'Law & Order,' but if I have to catch my plane and I only have 40 minutes, I can't watch that because I know I won't be able to see the end of the episode," cofounder and CEO Lynnwood Bibbens told Business Insider. "So by creating content that's six to ten minutes, now I can consume two to three different episodes."

It's a viewing habit younger, digital-native people have already been doing for years, and Bloom and Bibbens believe that it's perfect for the traveling adult.

The demographic of the ReachMe.TV viewer is someone in their mid-30s to mid-50s, an on-the-go executive who spends a lot of time either at airports or hotels. Their time is precious, and Bloom and Bibbens believe they have reworked how a TV network can find that audience.

"We took the same programming zeitgeist that the major networks use, but broke the format barrier: the length of content," Bloom said. "Let's not have the 22 minutes of content for eight minutes of advertising, let's take any length we want."

Bibbens had experience on the hardware side, including deploying over 200,000 screens in retail spaces and over 100,000 screens in hotels, so he knew how to make them all talk on one network. And Bloom had decades of experience on the content side. He is the creator and executive producer of "Hollywood Today Live," and produced the first webcast of the Grammys in 1995. Bloom built the original content for ReachMe.TV, which currently has a broadcast studio in the heart of Hollywood. There the company is producing its own news programs and even reality shows. ReachMe.TV also has a closed-circuit rights agreement to acquire content (like the Super Bowl).

The company recently landed a deal with HMS Hosts, the premier airport food-service company that handles all the major restaurants and bars at US airports. So if you haven't seen ReachMe.TV when you travel, you will soon.

"We took an aging, rusted concept of slapping a TV in a public place, and we put a new dress on it and took it back to the prom," Bloom said. "Doing that we got companies to not think about it not just as a screen, but as a gateway to their customers."

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 21 best heist movies of all time

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Marvel dropped another trailer for 'Thor: Ragnarok' — and it looks incredible

Thousands of people are about to be treated to the show of the century — all they have to do is look up.

On Monday, people in several parts of the US will have the chance to view the total solar eclipse, where the moon crosses between the Earth and the sun and temporarily blocks the sun.

This will be the first time first time in 99 years that a solar eclipse crosses the country from coast to coast.

How to watch it

Most Americans will be able to catch a glimpse of the event — weather permitting— but those lucky enough to be in the 2,800-mile-long, 70-mile-wide path of totality will see the moon completely choke out the sun's golden glare.

Outdoors

If you plan to watch the event outdoors, please do so safely.

We recommend a pinhole camera, especially if you don't have eclipse glasses with special solar filters designed to protect your eyes from the powerful solar rays.

Online

If you don't live in one of the 14 states in the path of totality, don't worry — there are plenty of online resources to choose from to sneak a peek.

Our recommendation: rely on NASA, whose live feed we've embedded below. It'll have two live feeds of the solar eclipse via NASA TV and NASA Edge, and they'll be streamed across half a dozen popular streaming-video services.

When to watch it

NASA's first feed goes live at 8:45 a.m. PT/11:45 a.m. ET, about an hour before the moon's darkest shadow kisses Oregon.

From there, the eclipse will move southeast quickly at speeds between 1,440 and 2,370 mph. After 93 minutes, the event will finish up in South Carolina. This map shows where and when the eclipse will cast its shadow across the US:

What you'll see

If you're in the path of totality, the sky will go dark for a few minutes in the afternoon. With the sun's rays and warmth temporarily blocked, it'll also get a bit chilly.

The best places in the US to catch it will be near Salem, Oregon; Nashville, Tennessee; Kansas City, Missouri; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina.

As far as what it'll look like, no one knows exactly what to expect. Nevertheless, a research company called Predictive Science has made it its mission to guess. Using knowledge about the sun and its movement plus mathematical models and the help of several supercomputers, the company has created some very cool illustrations to predict what we will see. Here's our favorite image:

Why you should see it

Aside from being the first to slice across the US in 99 years, Monday's solar eclipse will illustrate a rare and unusual scientific phenomenon.

The Earth experiences solar eclipses because the moon occasionally covers the sun in its path across the sky. During a solar eclipse, two events occur simultaneously. First, the moon, which is in its "new" phase, crosses the plane of the Earth's orbit. Second, the moon comes to its closest point to Earth in its orbit.

The result? The Earth, sun, and moon align. And from where we stand, the moon appears roughly the same size as the sun and blots it out.

Still, Monday's event is far from the only one in recent history. In the past three decades, there have been five solar eclipses in the US. The latest one, in 2012, was only an annular— as opposed to a total— eclipse, meaning the edge of the sun remained visible as a bright ring around the moon. There have been 33 since 2000.

When the next one is happening

If you miss Monday's shenanigans, don't worry too much. You'll have another opportunity in less than a decade— and some say it'll be a better show.

On April 8, 2024, the moon will once again blot out the sun and cast its shadow across the US in a pattern somewhat similar to the eclipse on Monday. Cities in the path of the action will include Dallas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Indianapolis; Cleveland; and Buffalo, New York. Parts of eastern Canada and Mexico will see the totality as well. Plus, 2024's eclipse will also last more than six minutes, more than twice as long as Monday's.

SEE ALSO: Here's how to tell if your solar eclipse glasses are safe

DON'T MISS: Here's what time the solar eclipse will start where you live

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the best way to watch the solar eclipse if you don't have special glasses

Dutch Bros. Coffee is recalling the solar eclipse glasses it handed out to customers.

Late on Sunday night, the drive-thru coffee chain — which has close to 200 locations, primarily in the Northwest — posted on Facebook that it was recalling the solar eclipse glasses it had been handing out at its locations. 

"If you received a pair of these glasses, DO NOT USE THEM TO VIEW THE ECLIPSE," Dutch Bros. wrote on Facebook. "Please return these glasses to the Dutch Bros. Coffee location where you received them for a FREE DRINK of your choice — any drink, any size."

According to Dutch Bros., the eclipse glasses had received certification of ISO compliance from the manufacturer. However, further investigation led Dutch Bros. to "question this certification" and decide to issue a voluntary recall. 

Some customers — many of whom showed up early and waited in long lines to get their hands on the free eclipse glasses — were not pleased with the news of the recall.  

"Well that's annoying considering it's 10:30 pm and this was the one thing my daughter (14) was looking forward to," one Facebook user wrote. "I got up at the a-- crack of dawn to get them for her and then work all day." 

However, another Facebook user defended Dutch Bros., writing: "Better then them letting you use them and your daughter goes blind."

If you don't have eclipse glasses as time is running out, there are a few solutions.

You can contact local libraries and NASA viewing events and see if they have any glasses left. And, if you simply can't find glasses before the eclipse, don't worry — you can view the event safely using a pinhole camera, leaves, or even your fist.

SEE ALSO: Scammers are flooding the market with dangerous fake eclipse glasses — here's what brands are safe to buy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the best way to watch the solar eclipse if you don't have special glasses

The competition between Nike and Adidas is getting crazier. 

The largest sportswear maker was downgraded from "buy" to "hold" by Jefferies analysts in light of "intensifying US competition" from main competitor Adidas.

"The athletic footwear cycle and Nike brand power are strong, but the competitive landscape should make share gains and margin expansion elusive," CNBC reports, citing Jefferies research. 

Adidas has successfully avoided downward trends in the athletic shoe and apparel markets. The brand's innovation and redesign efforts are now hurting Nike. 

"Adidas has been successful in leveraging the spark from its fashion retro footwear resurgence into other categories like running and athletic apparel," the note reads.

As of May, Adidas sales were up 74% year over year, while Nike sales declined in the mid-single digits, according to NPD. Adidas has been rapidly gaining market share, and Nike and its Jordan brand were both donors.

The two brands are locked in a bitter battle over a category that has seen soft sales in recent months.

SEE ALSO: Under Armour cheated on Dick's Sporting Goods with Kohl's — and it massively backfired

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Riddled with crime, and on the brink of bankruptcy, New York City was a very different place 40 years ago. Unlike most New Yorkers, photographer Langdon Clay spent much of the 1970s walking around Manhattan alone in the middle of the night.

It certainly wasn't the safest way to spend his time, but "being young and foolish can have its advantages," Clay told Business Insider.

While roaming the streets, Clay documented the city's cars, peacefully parked and left for the night, reflecting the neon signs and street lights. Though the photographic focus is on the cars, it's hard to ignore the fact that there are very rarely any other people in the shot. Clay's book, "Cars — New York City 1974-1976," is a collection of photos of a New York City that will probably never be that eerily quiet again.  

SEE ALSO: One of the most famous photographers in history just made her Instagram public — here are the best photos

Clay moved to New York City in 1971. 1,691 murders were reported in the city the following year.

Source: The Village Voice

By 1975, the city had to agree to deep budget cuts to avoid bankruptcy.

In those days, the city was "mostly broke," Clay said. He referenced a New York Daily News headline that read "(President) Ford to City: Drop Dead!" after city officials had gone to Washington "hat in hand." "But I didn't notice much of that," Clay said.

When you think of a summer home, you probably think of sandy hallways, shady porches, and bitter battles over who inherits the place when Grandma and Grandpa are dead.

No?

In The New York Times, Paul Sullivan writes that wealthy families who once turned to their lawyers over matters of inheritance are now pursuing a different method of conflict resolution: transformative mediation.

He describes transformative mediation as "an ambitious but often lengthy process with a single goal: to get the people involved to think differently."

Sullivan, who is also the author of "The Thin Green Line: Money Secrets of the Super Wealthy," continues: "If siblings are successful in changing their thoughts about each other, practitioners say, the present conflict will be resolved and the relationships that the siblings have with each other will be altered."

Interestingly, squabbles over summer homes run counter to another trend profiled in the Times: grown children's resistance to inheriting their parents' stuff, to the point that Goodwill is "overrun" with donations and aging parents are paying thousands for help downsizing.

Apparently, four bedrooms on Nantucket doesn't count as "stuff."

But before wealthy families started using transformative mediation to change their minds about each other and the beach access up for grabs, Sullivan points out, the US Postal Service incorporated it as an "accepted method of conflict resolution."

This started in 1994. Robert A. Baruch Bush, a law professor at Hofstra University, and Joseph P. Folger, a communications professor at Temple University, helped the USPS develop a program to "solve underlying conflicts between workers so that they could return to their jobs and work together," Sullivan writes.

While staying out of court is probably a good thing for families at odds, the transformative mediation process can be long and expensive, writes Sullivan — and in that way, at least, perhaps not all that different from the legal channels families might have pursued in the past.

Read the full article at The New York Times »

SEE ALSO: 7 ways super-wealthy people think about their money

DON'T MISS: Goodwill is 'overrun' with stuff millennials and gen-Xers refuse to take from their parents, who pay up to $5,000 to get rid of it

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The total solar eclipse has earned its own Burning Man-like festival.

About 30,000 eclipse-chasers descended on Big Summit Prairie, Oregon, this week to camp, dance, and make cosmic connections at the Oregon Eclipse Festival, a weeklong tribute to the August 21 eclipse. It's possibly the biggest and most remote of eclipse gatherings in the US.

Thirteen festival promoters from around the world joined forces to organize the festival, which takes on a Burning Man flavor with its art installations, workshops, and seven concern stages. Tickets are sold out, but all-week passes are reselling on StubHub for $285 per person.

We scoured Instagram for the best photos inside Oregon Eclipse Festival.

SEE ALSO: Solar eclipse 2017: When, where, and how to watch the eclipse

DON'T MISS: Whatever you do, don't take a selfie with the solar eclipse

Oregonians will be treated to one of the best viewings of the total solar eclipse — when the moon crosses between the Earth and the sun and blocks out the sun's light — on August 21.

Big Summit Prairie, a giant, privately owned clearing in the crown of the Ochoco Mountains, is the perfect setting for the country's biggest and most remote eclipse gathering. Festival organizers chose the idyllic spot for its high likelihood of clear skies.

These states will have the best views of the solar eclipse »

The first-ever Oregon Eclipse Festival is the result of a perfect storm: speakers, artists, and over 400 musical acts (mostly electronica) will come together in the path of the eclipse.

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The property owner agreed to rent 300 acres of land and provide much of the machinery used to move earth, widen roads, and build the seven stages for the weeklong event.

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There's nothing like a rare astronomical event to bring Americans together.

Eclipse-chasers came out in droves on August 21 to witness a total solar eclipse— when the moon crosses between the Earth and the sun and blocks out the sun's light — at countless gatherings across the country.

Total solar eclipses happen about every one to three years, but Monday's event was special. It was the first time since 1918 that the path of totality, where day briefly turns to night, cut diagonally across the entire US.

We rounded up the best photos of people watching the eclipse from Portland, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina. We will continue to update this post throughout the day.

SEE ALSO: 30,000 people are descending on Oregon for a festival that's like Burning Man for eclipse-chasers — here are the photos

DON'T MISS: Here's what the total solar eclipse looks like in 15 cities across the US

Eclipse-watchers came early to a beach in Isle of Palms, South Carolina. It's been 99 years since a total solar eclipse crossed the country from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

The city hosted a beach party, titled "Get Eclipsed on IOP [Isle of Palms]."

In Casper, Wyoming, people came prepared with telescopes for a better look.

First, I have to confess that I am a huge "Dirty Dancing" fan. Despite being born seven years after the movie's premiere on this day in 1987, I have loved the movie for as long as I can remember. 

Thanks to my mom, I know most of the classic lines ("I carried a watermelon"), can sing all of the songs ("She's Like the Wind" and "Hungry Eyes") and have even re-enacted the iconic lift. 

On a recent road trip through Virginia with my family, my mom and I decided to stop at the Mountain Lake Lodge, the Pembroke hotel where the movie was filmed. 

Mountain Lake Lodge is proud of its 15 minutes of fame as Kellerman's, from the spot where "nobody puts Baby in a corner" to the specific cabin where Baby and her family stay. But one pivotal part of that fame is now missing: the lake. Due to a naturally occurring phenomenon, the lake is now completely dry.

Mountain Lake Lodge still has several "Dirty Dancing"-themed weekends throughout the year. The next one is August 25-27, the weekend of its 30-year anniversary. The weekend includes a walking movie tour (like the one my family and I did), dancing lessons, a scavenger hunt, and a Saturday night party. Thousands of fans make a pilgrimage to the set to see remnants of the '80s movie that became a cult classic.

Despite our excitement on the seven-mile drive up the side of a mountain, the "Dirty Dancing" set was something of a letdown. Here's what it was like to walk back in time to the "Dirty Dancing" set:

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At first glance on the drive in, Mountain Lake Lodge makes you feel like you're back in 1987, pulling up to the Kellerman's of "Dirty Dancing."

Aside from having fewer people and the addition of a screen around the porch, Mountain Lake Lodge looks almost exactly the same as it did for filming. 

Next to the visitor parking lot, a small cabin is filled with newspaper clippings, memorabilia, and a guided map for "Dirty Dancing" fans to take a walking tour of the grounds.

The first stop was the front of the hotel, which we saw as we drove in — the same view the Houseman family sees from their car in the movie. By the second stop, it already felt like Mountain Lake Lodge was scrounging for memories.

For the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse will grace the continental US from coast to coast.

Tens of thousands of people traveled to view the historic eclipse across the US, and one of the biggest destinations was Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is along the 70-mile wide path of totality, meaning the moon completely covered the sun.

Given the historic magnitude of the eclipse, we decided to head down to Nashville to take in this once in a lifetime event on the ground.

We headed just outside of town to a party in the Tennessee woods.

With 300 other people, a bluegrass band, and a lot of amazing Southern cooking, it was the ideal way to take in the phenomenon.

Here's what it was like.

The party took place at Hachland Hill, a wedding venue, vineyard, and retreat center about 20 miles from downtown Nashville.

Hachland Hill was founded by Southern cooking legend Phila Hach, an author of cookbooks and host of one of the first cooking shows on TV.

Hach hosted "Kitchen Kollege" from 1950 to 1956, becoming the first female host of a television show. She also published 17 cookbooks while running Hachland Hill Inn. 

(Full disclosure: I know the grandson of Phila Hach, whose family owns Hachland Hill and that was the reason I was able to gain access to the event.)

Travel to Nashville, one of the largest cities in the path of totality, was expected to be heavy with plane tickets running over $1000 to fly in for the weekend.

The drive to the venue wasn't particularly terrible, but as many as 1.4 million people were expected to visit Tennessee for the eclipse, so locals were bracing for a crush of visitors. Also along the drive were a multitude of warning signs on the roads telling people when the eclipse was occurring and warning drivers not to stop or pull over during the eclipse.

Hawaii became the final state to join the union 58 years ago, when President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Admission Act on August 21, 1959.

The youngest state is known for its island cuisine, beautiful state parks, distinct cultural traditions, and thriving tourism industry.

These 21 vintage photos will make you want to hop on the next flight to Honolulu.

An earlier version of this story was reported by Liz O'Connor.

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January 1890: Locals mill outside 'Iolani Palace, the royal residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Early 1900s: Two local men in their raft rest by the beach at Waikiki Bay.

1901: Vendors sell beautiful lei garlands.

• Younger adult generations won't take their aging parents' stuff, The New York Times reports.
• Some of these parents are paying thousands of dollars for professional help downsizing.
• The resistance among grown children could be financial — or ideological.

No one wants the family china.

At least not the generations set to inherit it.

Tom Verde writes in The New York Times that millennials and Gen Xers are uniquely resistant to the influx of furniture, kitchenware, and general stuff that comes with their parents' downsizing.

They can't even donate it.

"We are definitely getting overrun with furniture and about 20% more donations of everything than in previous years," Michael Frohm, the chief operating officer of Goodwill of Greater Washington, told The Times.

An entire industry has sprung up around figuring out where the stuff will go. Professional move managers help seniors downsize and dispose of the belongings their grown children won't take, charging about $50 to $150. The full cost of the service, which may include an estate sale, can reach $5,000 or more, The Times reports.

It's not all that surprising when you think about it. For one thing, younger generations might not have the space to store table service for 12. The average age of homeownership has been pushed back, and the number of millennials who own homes is at a record low.

Experts say it's partly economic — 20- and 30-somethings buckling under student-loan debt and having trouble securing work right out of school don't have the disposable income for many of the traditional life markers, like buying a home or getting married — but these grown kids may also have different value systems.

Consider some of the movements of the past few years:

Tiny houses. Tiny houses are cheap, mobile, and have extremely limited storage. But that's not deterring the people flocking to more-limited living space. Even the multimillionaire CEO of Zappos lives in a Las Vegas trailer park.

Minimalism and capsule wardrobes. Marie Kondo famously jettisoned everything that didn't "spark joy" in her best-selling book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up." And one of the hottest trends in the fashion blogosphere in the past few years is the capsule wardrobe, in which you wear only a fraction of the clothes you own, ultimately aiming to isolate those you no longer need.

Early retirement. The way people retire is changing, and some people are doing it earlier than ever through a combination of aggressive frugality and extreme saving. As one example among many, take Brandon, who retired at 34 after years of extreme frugality. He told Business Insider he could hardly find ways to spend his money.

Renting everything. Many younger adults see the appeal of renting everything, including homes, phones, clothes, and cars. And companies are happy to help them do it.

Experiences over things. Psychological research has repeatedly found that spending money on experiences rather than tangible things makes people happier, an ethos embraced by 20- and 30-somethings, some of whom even cast aside traditional jobs and lifestyles to travel the world for years at a time.

In fact, Business Insider's Kate Taylor put together a list of the industries struggling most in the shadow of millennials' disfavor, like casual-dining chains, napkins, cereal, and golf.

The younger adult generations want something different from their parents — and apparently, it starts with heirlooms.

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For two minutes you understood what the hype was about, and then it was gone and you were left to go about your day.

That's pretty much the summation of my experience traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, for Monday's historic solar eclipse: a sublime two minutes that felt like exactly what you wanted but still impossibly short.

I was sent by my editors to chase the eclipse in Nashville predominately because it was the most convenient locale in the path of totality (the 70-mile wide stretch in which the moon completely covers the sun) logistically, but conveniently it also may have been the liveliest major city along the path.

Not only was it solar eclipse weekend, but it was move-in for the 12,000-plus students at Vanderbilt University and their families and the first preseason home game for the Tennessee Titans.

Based on conversations with locals, it seemed like most of them were excited for the Titans game than the solar eclipse. Most businesses had signs saying they would be closed for a 20-minute period around when the totality was occurring, but it didn't seem like anything was shutting down for much longer than that.

The traffic I experienced was heavy, but not crippling as some expected for such a big event. It probably helped that the path was so wide and many out-of-town travelers were able to stay in exurbs of Nashville proper.

Those out-of-towners I talked to were, perhaps obviously, more excited.

Nashville mayor Megan Barry told the local Tennessean newspaper that close to a million people came to the area for the eclipse. On the day of, I headed to a farm just northwest of downtown in the small town of Joelton for a better viewing experience and met a larger number of those travelers like me.

There were people that traveled from Minnesota, hauling specialty camera equipment in order to capture the phenomenon. There was a young couple from San Jose, California, who decided to come to Nashville to avoid the California crowds that went to the path of totality in Oregon.

I was even told by the owners of Hachland Hill retreat, where I watched the eclipse, that a group of Canadians showed up at the front gate that morning asking to watch despite not buying a ticket for the event in advance (after some negotiation, I was told they were welcomed to the party).

But most of the people in attendance were simply locals from Nashville who took the day off of work to view the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

While the build up wasn't perhaps the moon mania I had expected, the two minutes of pure darkness themselves certainly lived up to the hype.

The feeling of being surrounded by sunset like purples and pinks instead of the one side like a typical dusk was beautiful but disconcerting. The insects increased their chorus to dusk levels almost immediately and lightning bugs emerged from the trees around the field.

While you understand on a higher level what's going on, everyone I talked to afterward said they did feel a bit destabilized on some instinctual level by the sudden disappearing of the sun. As if your internal clock just got thrown for a loop.

For those two minutes you understood why people chase these kinds of events around the world.

But then, it was kind of just... over.

I mean, clearly it's not as if the sun was going to be trapped behind the moon forever, but the crowd of more than 300 people around me breathed a palpable "what now."

There was, at the event I attended, an after-party with eclipse-themed foods, a band, and a live painting of the eclipse that was later auctioned. But many people that came for the viewing slipped out soon after.

I even heard that the Canadians slipped away to make it a few miles along their long trip home.

In the end, I understood why the event was so special — those two minutes are something I will remember for the rest of my life — but I also understood why for most of the travelers I talked to this was part of a bigger trip. To experience Nashville, to go on a late summer road trip with the family, it seemed the eclipse was the focal point of the travel but not the singular reason.

But hey, if there's a better excuse to get to a part of the country you've never visited before (and I highly recommend visiting Nashville), than a historic scientific phenomenon, I don't know one.

SEE ALSO: I went to a Nashville solar eclipse party in the 93% 'path of totality' — here's what it was like

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For Americans vacationing to London and other parts of the UK, it's easy to overspend if you're not careful. Though the exchange rate is more favorable to Americans than it was pre-Brexit vote, money can still evaporate quickly.

That makes staying somewhere like an Airbnb appealing, as you'll usually have a kitchen at your disposal to cook meals cheaply whenever you want.

When planning a trip to London this summer, I didn't have enough time to scope out Airbnbs, so I chose to stay in an "aparthotel" by Marlin Hotels, a British chain that specializes in such rooms.

I stayed in the hotel that had just opened a few months prior in London's Waterloo neighborhood. Prices range, but I paid an average of $165 a night for seven nights. 

"Aparthotel" rooms aren't much different from normal hotel rooms, except that they have a (nearly) full kitchen in addition to the usual sleeping arrangements. I say "nearly full" kitchen because the rooms have a range, microwave, sink, dishwasher, toaster, refrigerator, electric kettle, and a full range of cookware and utensils, but they don't have an oven.

That means no frozen pizzas. Still, you can easily make a wide variety of meals with the available options. During my stay, I made salads, toast, grilled cheeses (or "toasties," in local parlance), and omelets with the cookwear provided in my room. I was also able to make use of the utensils and tableware to eat cereal, yogurt, and other breakfast items.

I was able to save quite a bit of money by shopping at the nearby food stores instead of eating out for every meal. I paid about $33 for a week's worth of groceries, including things for breakfast, fruit for in-between-meals snacking, and even some food to make for dinner. That comes out to less than $5 a day, significantly reducing the amount of money I was spending for food. It may not seem like a ton of money to save, but in a city where even the simplest wrap from a street vendor can top $12 and a muffin from a cafe can cost $4, it adds up.

I ate breakfast at the hotel every morning of the seven days I stayed in the hotel, and I felt full of energy and ready to take on the city of London and all it had to offer. Some nights, we also made dinner at the hotel after a long day of museum-hopping or taking the expensive-but-worth-it transportation options.

I felt more like I was a local, as I imagine it would have felt if I were staying in an Airbnb. I was able to sample the groceries that you would buy if you lived in the area, which made me feel more connected to the city. To be honest, I became a bit jealous of the quality of produce and food that is readily available for low prices in London. 

The hotel rooms are also fully serviced, meaning cleanup is simple: just put what you used in the dishwasher, and let the room's cleaner start it. On the second day, I placed dishes in the sink to deal with later, but I came back to find them in the dishwasher with the washer running, which was a great feeling.

Always having food in the hotel took a lot of the stress out of searching and buying food while roaming the city, and always returning to a clean kitchen made it still feel like a vacation from normalcy. I wasn't stuck doing dishes.

Staying in an Aparthotel wasn't outrageously more expensive when compared to similar hotels in the area, which range from $100 to $200 a night. I would call it mid-range, price-wise. You can certainly find cheaper hotels, but you will get what you pay for. 

For medium to long stays, I would absolutely choose to stay in an "aparthotel" again wherever I travel. It takes the worry out of traveling — and leaving your worries behind is really what going on vacation is all about.

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Just before her divorce from Prince Charles was finalized in 1996, Princess Diana stunned the world with another big announcement.

The Princess of Wales resigned as patron or president of nearly 100 charities, a move that The Independent reported at the time "devastated" these groups.

Diana chose to remain involved with just six organizations, including charities that supported the homeless, individuals with HIV, and cancer research.

So what made Diana decide to cut ties with so many philanthropic organizations?

In the princess's case, being slightly involved in so many charities prevented her from being able to truly delve deeply into any of them.

"She wanted to avoid situations where she was just a letterhead," Tina Brown writes in "The Diana Chronicles." "'If I'm going to talk on behalf of any cause, I want to go and see the problem for myself and learn about it,' she told the chairman of the Washington Post Company, the late Katharine 'Kay' Graham."

It turns out, science was on the princess's side. Multi-tasking is rarely found to be a good idea.

"The problem with trying to multi-task is all that shifting back and forth between tasks isn't all that efficient because, each time we do it, it takes our brain some time to refocus," Lisa Quast wrote in Forbes.

The Princess of Wales's choice allowed her to become a far more effective philanthropist. She was even able to take on another cause to champion — the banning of landmines.

Today, Diana's legacy is in part defined by the work she did for those charities, because she was able to hone her focus on those projects.

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Eleven-year-old Barron Trump, the youngest son of President Donald Trump, has found himself at the center of a clothing controversy.

A recent post from the conservative blog The Daily Caller called out Barron for what the author said was his too-casual style.

The op-ed, titled "It's High Time Barron Trump Starts Dressing Like He's In the White House," says: "His dad is always looking dapper and his mom has become a worldwide fashion icon since becoming first lady. The youngest Trump doesn't have any responsibilities as the president's son, but the least he could do is dress the part when he steps out in public."

Barron is semi-frequently photographed walking across the White House's South Lawn with his family as they return from trips around the country. He's usually seen in a shirt from J. Crew's kid's line, and he has even been pictured with a fidget spinner and a backpack.

Most would read this behavior as a kid being a kid. Chelsea Clinton, who was only a few years older than Barron when her father, Bill Clinton, was president, tweeted in support of the youngest Trump:

Still, it's hard to believe, considering how orchestrated politics in the US is today, that no thought would go into the outfits Barron wears when he steps off Marine One. It's more likely his clothes are picked to make him seem like a normal, everyday kid with accessible clothing, and make him less of a focus of op-eds such as the one from The Daily Caller.

Using clothes to drive a narrative isn't a new political tactic, but it may be a sign that the Trumps are getting more accustomed to being under such a bright national spotlight under which nearly all their moves are scrutinized. Fairly or not, the clothing items that political figures wear are often dissected and evaluated for meaning.

Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter and one of his advisers, was photographed earlier this year leaving her house in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, DC, in a dress easily identified as a $35 number from Target's Victoria Beckham collection.

The Obamas, especially Michelle, often employed this tactic and received positive press for wearing a wide variety of affordable clothing, including pieces from Target and J. Crew. Michelle also wore Oscar de la Renta, Gucci, and many lesser-known designers to more-formal events.

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