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Here are the ages you financially peak at everything throughout life — from salary to net worth

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young woman wealthy happy

  • Your financial situation is ever-evolving.
  • But there are certain ages in life when you're most likely to reach a peak related to spending, saving, and earning money.
  • For example, the average American woman earns the most money of her career around age 40.


Your financial situation is ever-evolving — just like your happiness.

But like your state of mind, your finances are bound to peak at certain times in your life.

To find out what that timeline looks like for the average person, we've gathered some research on how Americans spend, save, and earn money.

The graph below pinpoints the age at which you peak at everything in terms of your money.

BI Graphics_the age you peak at everything financially

Keep reading to learn more about the five financial peaks:

SEE ALSO: This is the age when most people become millionaires

DON'T MISS: 8 things you can do today to be richer next year

Age 25: You spend the most money you don't have

Anyone, regardless of age, can be guilty of overspending. But for the average American 20-something, the propensity to do so is often the greatest.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a 25-year-old's average pre-tax income is $31,000, while their annual spending is about $33,000.

That means they're most likely racking up debt — or getting help from Mom and Dad— to cover their expenses.

Living beyond your means is a bad financial habit to adopt, but entry-level salaries, expensive rent, and student loan debt aren't helping millennials spend less and save more.



Age 40: You buy a home

The typical US homebuyer is 40 and purchasing a home for $200,000, according to Zillow Group's 2017 housing report.

But 42% of all homebuyers are part of the millennial generation — people between 18 and 37 — and becoming homeowners for the first time.

And many aren't doing it alone. Nearly 70% of all homebuyers are married or have a partner and earn a median household income of $87,500.



Age 40: Women make the most money of their careers

Women's salary growth outpaces men's up until about 30, when they start having children, then slows down considerably within the next decade, according to research from PayScale cited by CNBC.

College-educated women hit their peak earnings around 40, when their typical salary is about $60,000.

PayScale found that the most common jobs held by American women were registered nurse, elementary school teacher, and human-resources administrator.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here's how to stop procrastinating and finally get work done

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Mark Manson, the author of 'The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck", reveals how anyone can stop procrastinating to finally get some work done. Following is a transcript of the video.

Mark Manson: So there's two ways to approach procrastination like ending procrastination or ending distraction. One is, you need to manipulate your environment. Procrastination is just anxiety. There is something very important in your life and because it's important, it scares you and because it scares you, you naturally find other things to do and focus on. Remove your phone like don't even bring your phone or turn it off. Maybe if you're not working online, disconnect the Internet or download one of those apps that blocks a bunch of websites and social media and things like that. Basically, set up your workspace so that your brain doesn't even have a chance to move somewhere else. 

The next thing to do is, I always advise "bring the scale down." So one thing that people do when they get nervous about something is, they blow it up in their heads. So let's say, I'm nervous about writing a book. If I'm thinking in my head, in terms of like, "Okay, this thing's got to be like 400 pages and it's going to be this massive thing with all the stuff going on and all these cool stories."

Like, if I'm trying to hold all that in my head at the same time, I'm going to drive myself crazy. I'm going to be terrified because I'm basically asking my brain to comprehend and focus on this massive thing, that is probably going to take years. What's actually way more valuable is simply sitting down and being like, "Okay, what's a really good paragraph I can write here?" And just taking it paragraph by paragraph and not worrying about the big picture, actually trying to ignore the big picture a little bit in the short-term.

And when you are able to chunk things down like that, they become —they feel way more manageable like anybody can write a paragraph or anybody can write a sentence. And so, once you start making that your goal, it's much easier to get the momentum going.

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Ivanka Trump opened a store in Trump Tower in defiance of Nordstrom — here's what it's like

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Ivanka Trump

  • Ivanka Trump's fashion brand just opened its first store, and it's in Trump Tower. 
  • The store is shockingly small — just 20 feet long and three feet deep. 
  • The new store opening follows the brand being dropped by retailers, including Nordstrom, earlier this year. 

 

Ivanka Trump's fashion brand opened a new store — its first brick-and-mortar location — in the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday. 

Until now, it sold all its products through wholesale distribution to department stores and websites. 

The store is shockingly small — just 20 feet long and three feet deep, according to the Daily Mail. 

While Ivanka Trump sells clothing, shoes, and handbags, the store seems primarily focused on handbags. 

The new store comes after Nordstrom and several other top retailers suddenly stopped carrying Ivanka Trump products earlier this year.

While Nordstrom said that it dropped the line due to poor sales, some believed that the decision was politically motivated. 

President Trump personally responded to the incident by tweeting, "My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!"

Ivanka Trump stepped down from running her fashion brand in January. Proceeds from the business have been rolled into a trust overseen by Joshua Kushner and Nicole Meyer, her brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

SEE ALSO: Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and one of her biggest critics in the media have made an uneasy truce over pie

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 things you shouldn’t buy on Black Friday

34 of the most bizarre holiday gifts employees have ever received from a coworker

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We've given you some dos and don'ts for exchanging gifts at the office.

But if you're still undecided on what you should get your coworkers this year, perhaps knowing what not to give is a good place to start.

According to a new survey from CareerBuilder, conducted online by Harris Poll among 3,907 employees and 2,257 HR professionals, about a fifth (22%) of employees say they plan to buy holiday gifts for coworkers, and 22% plan to buy a gift for their boss.

As a general rule, it's the thought that counts when it comes to gift-giving, which means gifting something thoughtless doesn't leave a very good impression. You're better off avoiding gifts that are inappropriate, offensive, or that might leave your coworkers scratching their heads.

To help you avoid these gift-giving faux-pas, here are 34 gifts real employees have received from someone in the office during the holiday season, according to CareerBuilder, CooperKatz, and Business Insider survey respondents:

SEE ALSO: 21 of the wildest office holiday party stories we've ever heard

DON'T MISS: The 17 best icebreakers to use at a holiday party where you don't know anyone

Thoughtless gifts

• A bunch of stationery from the stationery cupboard

• A broken ornament

• Expired canned food

• Too-small, company-branded apparel

• A pad of paper

• Saran wrap



Second-hand gifts

• A used Yankee candle

• Used plaid tennis shoe

• Old backpack full of old shoes

• Piece of cake that was already being eaten at the party



Mean gifts

• A bottle of axe and a card that said, "Take a shower."

• Lump of coal



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Eminem recounts how he nearly died from a drug overdose on his new album

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eminem

  • Eminem nearly died from an overdose of the drug methadone in 2007.
  • On his new song, "Arose," he recounts in troubling detail his hospitalization and near-death experience.
  • Listen to the song below.

 

Eminem nearly died from an overdose of the drug methadone in 2007, as he later recounted to Rolling Stone.

On the poignant song "Arose" off his new album "Revival," the 45-year-old rapper recalls in vivid detail his hospitalization and near-death experience that followed the overdose. 

Narrated retrospectively from the perspective of his comatose body, Eminem relays a series of regrets to his children and family, who stand beside his hospital bed as he drifts toward death: "Nurses lean over the bed, pulling tubes out / Then the sheet over my head, shut the room down," he raps.

Eminem previously rapped about his overdose and drug dependency on his "Relapse" song "Déjà Vu" in 2009, but "Arose" goes deeper into his pain and contrition during the incident. 

It's an emotional, standout track on a 19-song album that is otherwise worth skipping.

Listen to "Arose" below:

SEE ALSO: The 25 best songs of 2017, ranked

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The 'Avengers: Infinity War' trailer is finally here

Errol Morris talks about teaming up with Netflix to delve into the LSD-laced mystery of a CIA scientist's death

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Wormwood Eric Olson Netflix final

  • Following audience thirst for true crime, Netflix has teamed with the master of the genre, Errol Morris, to make his latest documentary, "Wormwood."
  • But like all of Morris' work, it's not just a straight doc. "Wormwood" has the most ambitious reenactments the Oscar winner has ever done.
  • Morris teases more "Wormwood" to come.


In a moment when we can’t get enough of true crime stories, director Errol Morris has teamed with Netflix to prove why he’s the master of the genre. 

Morris is known best for having a well-trained eye for compelling true-life stories, and using highly stylized reenactments to tell them. The combination has led to legendary documentaries like 1988’s “The Thin Blue Line,” 2003’s “The Fog of War: Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara" (which earned him a best documentary Oscar), and 2013’s “The Unknown Known,” which looked at the career of former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Now, almost one month from his 70th birthday, Morris is unveiling his most ambitious project yet. 

Netflix’s six-part miniseries “Wormwood” (available on the service Friday) examines the 60-years-past death of Frank Olson. Olson was a US scientist for the CIA who for decades was believed to have died after being slipped LSD as part of the agency’s top secret Cold War program MKUltra, which focused on mind control. Supposedly due to the effects of the drug, Olson jumped out of a New York City hotel room and died. 

But it turned out that wasn't the real story. 

Morris tracked down Frank’s son, Eric, who for the last 60 years has dedicated his life to trying to find out what really happened to his father. Morris conducted interviews with Eric, reporter Seymour Hersh — who broke the story about the LSD link to Olson’s death — and did reenactments of Frank’s nine days from taking the drug to his death (casting actors like Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Blake Nelson, and Bob Balaban to be in the scenes). The resulting series “Wormwood” looks at how unreliable memory really can be, and how far conspiracies can go. Morris does this through a collage of documentary interviews, home video footage, archival news material, reenactments, and a clips from a movie version of “Hamlet” — all told with a psychedelic feel.

A potential cover-up and extraordinary interview subject were too much to pass up 

Morris had been wanting to do something on MKUltra for years, but he never knew how to tell it in a way that would work for the screen. The only thing he knew for sure was he wanted to do it in a grand way. Or as he described it, “an everything bagel.” Following a conversation with Netflix over two years ago, the streaming giant agreed to back the Oscar winner’s new project. 

Wormwood 2 Mark Shafer Netflix final“It’s an incredibly rich story,” Morris told Business Insider while talking at the New York offices of Netflix. “This is a story that has an extraordinary protagonist and the story in of itself is extraordinary. If you asked me in the outset did I realize how rich it was going to be I would have said, ‘No, not really.’”

Morris knew he had something when he had a phone conversation with Eric Olson before making the movie. The director realized instantly Eric was a documentary filmmaker’s dream: a subject who not only could easily lay out all the particulars of the story, but do it in a way that would entertain the audience. 

But Morris' major interest in doing the project was delving into the movie’s reenactments more aggressively than he ever had before — specifically Frank Olson’s last nine days on Earth and what could have led to a CIA cover-up.

“Often the most interesting part of a story is the cover-up,” he said.

An "everything bagel" worth of information 

The reenactments were where Netflix played a vital role. With its deep pockets the streaming giant was able to provide Morris with a budget the director had never been able to work with for any of his feature movies.

Dishing out between $14 million and $15 million to make the movie, according to Morris’ estimate, Netflix matched Morris’ enthusiasm for the reenactments. It shows. Set in the 1950s, the production design and costumes have the look of something out of a studio movie for the fleshed-out scenes. And then there is the CGI mixed in for the Olson death scene. It’s an embarrassment of riches that Morris previously only tapped into while directing commercials for major brands over his career like Nike, Target, Chevy (to just name a few). 

Wormwood Errol Morris Shirin Adhami Netflix finalAnd Morris loved the experience and the story so much that he wants to continue the “Wormwood” story.

“I should be done with it, but I’m not,” he said. “I’m letting it be known that there’s more to come.”

Morris said that he still has many questions for Seymour Hersh regarding what he knows from sources on the CIA involvement in Frank Olson's death, and there were a lot of reenactment scenes he wrote that didn’t end up getting made.

When asked if Netflix knows of his sequel plans he replied, “I don’t know.” Business Insider contacted Netflix for comment about a sequel but did not get a response.

But outside of another season of “Wormwood,” Morris loves the “everything bagel” approach — where all aspects of the story (and storytelling methods) are explored in a single movie on a topic — and he said he has more projects that he wants to explore this way.

“It means you have these layers, and I believe it's far richer as a result,” he said. “Our attempts to know things, how we know what we know, the efforts to prevent us to know things, and the terrible human costs that come with the pursuit of knowledge. That's all in ‘Wormwood,’ and that makes a difference.”

SEE ALSO: All the "Star Wars" movies ranked from worst to best

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Sean Astin describes one thing you probably never knew about 'The Goonies'

11 of the most expensive homes for sale in America's most expensive zip code have an average listing price of over $17 million — here's what you get for your money

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most expensive home atherton california

  • The most expensive zip code in America is 94027, or Atherton, California, according to Forbes.
  • The median price for a home there is $9,686,164.
  • We put together a list of the most expensive homes currently for sale there.

 

If you're looking for luxurious homes, the most expensive zip code in America is a good place to start.

Atherton, California — or 94027 — has been crowned that title in 2017, according to Forbes' annual ranking.

The median price for a home in that area is $9,686,164, and homes spend about 190 days on the market. 

With the help of the team at Point2 Homes, we put together a list of the 11 most expensive homes currently for sale in Atherton.

SEE ALSO: Meet the world's 50 richest billionaires of 2017

11. 65 Selby Lane — $10,800,000



10. 102 Encinal Avenue — $12,900,000



9. 333 Atherton Avenue— $12,980,000



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A formerly homeless man gave us a tour of the gritty San Francisco neighborhood that's been overrun by tech companies

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Over the past several years, the Tenderloin — a San Francisco neighborhood known as an enclave for the city's chronically homeless — has been infiltrated by tech companies. The rent is cheaper than anywhere else downtown, and the city provides tax breaks to companies planting roots in specific low-income areas.

Del Seymour spent 18 years living on the streets of the Tenderloin, where he said he was once "the biggest dope dealer." Today, he leads walking tours of the neighborhood for tech workers, residents, and tourists, to show that the area and its inhabitants have more to offer.

Seymour, 70, is also the founder of Code Tenderloin, a non-profit organization that helps the formerly incarcerated, homeless, and similarly marginalized residents develop job-readiness skills and find work at the same tech companies that have moved into the neighborhood. 

The Tenderloin and the area surrounding is still the epicenter of homelessness in San Francisco, with 49% of the city's homeless denizens living there, according to a 2017 count.

We took the Tenderloin Walking Tour with Seymour. Here's what we learned.

SEE ALSO: Robots are being used to deter homeless people from setting up camp in San Francisco

DON'T MISS: Photos show what it's like for Silicon Valley's 'working homeless' who live down the street from tech giants

Del Seymour is better known around these streets as the mayor of the Tenderloin.



Seymour, a Chicago native, came to the neighborhood more than 30 years ago from Los Angeles, where he worked as a firefighter-paramedic and owned a construction company.



According to him, the Tenderloin looks about the same. "Close my eyes, I wouldn't know what year it is," Seymour said. (He has since moved to the more affordable East Bay.)



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

6 new Netflix original shows got trashed by critics in 2017 — here's the list

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Gypsy Netflix

For the most part, Netflix had an accomplished year in producing a number of great original shows.

But the company also had a handful of new series that critics tore apart. 

From the lackluster Naomi Watts-led series "Gypsy," to the disappointing Marvel show "Iron Fist," six shows that Netflix debuted in 2017 received heaps of negative reviews on their way to earning a "Rotten" score from the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. 

Here are the six worst Netflix original shows that debuted in 2017, ranked from bad to worst, according to critics:

 

 

SEE ALSO: All 26 notable Netflix original shows that debuted in 2017, ranked from worst to best

6. "Girlboss" — 31%

Critic score: 31%

Audience score: 72%

Netflix description: "Rebellious and broke, Sophia stumbles into creating an online business and learns how to be the boss. A comedy inspired by the best-selling memoir."

What critics said: "Watching an ignorant but energetic youngster rebel against adulthood is nothing new, and Girlboss' iteration would be fine if it showed some semblance of self-awareness." — IndieWire



5. "Neo Yokio" — 30%

Critic score: 30%

Audience score: 56%

Netflix description: "Joined by his faithful mecha-butler, Kaz Kaan pursues love, fashion and supernatural forces amid Neo Yokio's sinister high society."

What critics said: "There's a lot of talent involved in Neo Yokio... Yet, somehow, the show has no soul. It's dead on arrival." — The Verge



4. "Gypsy" — 24%

Critic score: 24%

Audience score: 85%

Netflix description: "Therapist Jean Holloway develops dangerous and intimate relationships with the people in her patients' lives in this simmering psychological thriller."

What critics said: "It's all fun and games until you desperately start hoping that your protagonist loses her malpractice suit." — The Village Voice



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Mark Zuckerberg says technology could be a solution for America's broken school system

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mark zuckerberg priscilla chan

  • In a letter posted to Facebook, Zuckerberg outlined his "lessons on philanthropy" in 2017.
  • Zuckerberg asserted that technology is part of the solution to improving education in the US. He wants to build tools that empower teachers.
  • Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have sold more than $900 million worth of Facebook shares this year to fund programs that bolster schools.

 

In a letter posted to Facebook on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg reflected on what he and wife Priscilla Chan have learned about philanthropy in 2017. One of his biggest takeaways was that improving education will be among the biggest challenges that the next generation faces.

Zuckerberg thinks he has a fix for a broken school system: more technology.

A myriad of international math and science assessments show that children of all ages in the US trail their peers in many developed countries, according to the Pew Research Center. There's no consensus on why American children are behind, though experts speculate it has to do with school funding, insufficient teacher training, and unequal opportunities for students of different socio-economic backgrounds.

"A lot of today's debates pit district schools against charter schools, or reformers against unions. But over the long term, we need to build tools to empower every teacher at every school to provide personalized instruction and mentorship to every student," Zuckerberg wrote.

In the letter, Zuckerberg asserted that the best education is one that is tailored to students' individual needs. He believes personalized learning can scale through technology.

Software allows teachers to customize lessons for students of different ability levels. Children might also practice skills in an app, as they do at AltSchool, a startup that develops educational software and runs a network of small schools with four locations in California and New York.

Tech investors, including Zuckerberg, have poured $175 million into AltSchool since 2013.

"Rather than having every student sit in a classroom and listen to a teacher explain the same material at the same pace in the same way," Zuckerberg wrote, "research shows students will perform better if they can learn at their own pace, based on their own interests, and in a style that fits them."

Technology can help deliver this experience, as well as scale it beyond any one classroom, according to Zuckerberg. At AltSchool, teachers share lesson plans across an online network and cherry-pick tasks for students based on the learning strategies that work best for them.

"One challenge we've seen in education is that there are many brilliant teachers and school leaders who create new kinds of schools based on new models of learning — but those schools usually only serve hundreds of students, while most children still do not have access to them," Zuckerberg wrote.

"Our hope is that technology can help with this scaling challenge," he added.

Chan and Zuckerberg sold more than $900 million worth of Facebook shares in 2017 to fund their foundation, which aims to bolster reform in schools, health care, and criminal justice.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative also funds a free private school in the Silicon Valley city of East Palo Alto, where more than half of students in the local school district experience homelessness. The school provides basic health services as part of the schooling experience.

SEE ALSO: Tech billionaires spent $170 million on a new kind of school — now classrooms are shrinking and some parents say their kids are 'guinea pigs'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: LinkedIn's founder explains how Mark Zuckerberg transformed from an awkward kid to one of tech's best CEOs

Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton have surprisingly affordable style — and it's a brilliant political strategy

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Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle

  • Recently engaged to Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and her future sister-in-law Kate Middleton have very different fashion preferences.
  • Though the British royal family has a collective fortune worth millions, their wardrobes can be modest at times.
  • Both Markle and Middleton wear affordable fashion brands on certain occasions. 

 

The British royal family comes from centuries-old money— Queen Elizabeth II has an estimated private wealth of $530 million — but that doesn't mean they flaunt their wealth on every outing.

While both Kate Middleton and the recently-engaged Meghan Markle each have their own unique sense of style — it seems they both agree that sometimes more affordable clothes make for the best outfits.

While Middleton wears a decidedly British-inspired style, and is a fashion icon in her own right, Markle's American fashion sensibility has more recently been placed under the microscope. Below, a look at the lower price point brands that the two have been spotted wearing.

SEE ALSO: Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle's fashion choices reveal how different the two women are

Everlane

Markle has been spotted multiple times wearing the brand Everlane. The direct-to-consumer fashion label, which touts itself on having "radical transparency," uses factories with high ethical standards and has been compared to J.Crew for its simple wardrobe basics.

During the Invictus Games in September, she wore the brand's high-rise skinny jeans— which cost $68 — and carried their $165 brown leather tote with her.



Sarah Flint

As for her shoes, she rocked Sarah Flint's Natalie flats— which run for $345, and currently have a waitlist. She's also been spotted in the brand's Grear shoe, which are $245. 



Artitzia

Often compared to Zara for its price points, Artizia is another brand Markle has been spotted wearing. Here, during the opening ceremony for the Invictus Games, she wore an Aritzia pleated maroon dress, that retails for $185.

This month, she was spotted again wearing the Canadian brand, accenting an outfit with a $45 black dress belt.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Peter Jackson: Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino were not cast in 'Lord of the Rings' after Weinstein 'smear'

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  • Peter Jackson said he did not cast Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino in "Lord of the Rings" on the advice of Harvey Weinstein.
  • The director compared Weinstein and his brother, Bob, to "second-rate Mafia bullies."
  • Weinstein said he had nothing to do with the casting of "Lord of the Rings."
  •  Sorvino said Weinstein  "derailed my career."


Peter Jackson did not cast Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino in "Lord of the Rings" after a "smear" campaign by Harvey Weinstein.

Jackson said he considered the actresses, who have both accused movie mogul Weinstein of sexual misconduct, for roles in his JRR Tolkien mega-franchise, but passed them over on the advice of Miramax.

The Oscar-winning director told stuff.co.nz:

"I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998.

"At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us - but in hindsight, I realise that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing.

"I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women - and as a direct result their names were removed from our casting list."

Jackson and wife Fran Walsh developed the films with Weinstein's Miramax in the 1990s but production was eventually moved to New Line Cinema ahead of their launch in 2001.

Jackson described the Weinstein brothers as "second-rate Mafia bullies," adding: "They weren't the type of guys I wanted to work with — so I haven't."

harvey weinstein 2

In a statement sent to a number of publications, a spokesman for Weinstein denied that he and his brother had any sway over the casting of "Lord of the Rings."

"Mr Weinstein has nothing but the utmost respect for Peter Jackson. However, as Mr Jackson will probably remember, because Disney would not finance the 'Lord of the Rings,' Miramax lost the project and all casting was done by New Line," he said.

Jackson's own comments to stuff.co.nz echoed this. "Although his name had to be on the 'Lord of the Rings' credits for contractual reasons, he was not involved in the movies we ended up making," the director said.

Both Judd and Sorvino thanked Jackson for speaking out against Weinstein. The latter explained that she cried because she realised that the producer "derailed my career."

Judd tweeted:

SEE ALSO: Ashley Judd has accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment as part of a bombshell NYT report

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The 'Avengers: Infinity War' trailer is finally here

We ate dozens of meals at restaurant chains in 2017 — here are the 9 absolute best things to try right now

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best of 2017 food

  • We ate dozens of meals at fast-food restaurants in 2017. 
  • A couple of the big names came through with strange new menu items that were actually good. 
  • A few newcomers wowed us, too, and made our list of the best things we've eaten this year. 

 

A lot happened in 2017.

McDonald's ran out of Schezuan sauce, inspiring riots. Taco Bell served fried chicken. Millions retweeted a teen desperate for free Wendy's chicken nuggets. And some other stuff, too.

As two fast-food reporters and superfans, we've eaten dozens upon dozens of meals at chain restaurants across the country this year. From Filipino fast-food to all-American McDonald's, we've traversed the culinary globe of chain dining. 

Looking back at the year, we wanted to pay tribute to the menu items whose stars shone the brightest. These aren't all new menu items, but they were new to us. Here's the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the crown jewels of quick service in 2017.

SEE ALSO: Walmart and Amazon's long-simmering feud exploded in 2017 — and it's redefining retail

Raising Cane's chicken fingers

We thought we knew chicken. But no man knows chicken until they have tried Raising Cane's chicken fingers

Time for a little Cane's theory: by focusing exclusively on chicken fingers, Raising Cane's is able to perfect the form in a way few competitors can even dream of. They're crispy yet light, perfectly juicy, and tender.  



Waffle House's steak melt

Waffle House is an American icon, but one that Hollis had sadly never visited prior to this year. On a trip to Virginia, we decided to right this egregious wrong. 

The entire menu was fantastic, but the steak melt is a hit more so due to its underdog status. As we said at the time, "the gestalt of its harmoniously greasy, cheesy, perfectly tender, and masterfully toasted creation nearly drove us to tears." 



Taco Bell's Naked Chicken Chalupa

Taco Bell's stunt menu items are hit-or-miss. This year, we had a runaway hit on our hands with the Naked Chicken Chalupa. To be honest, we were initially incredibly suspicious of a chalupa that uses fried chicken as a shell.

But our suspicions were soon allayed. The Naked Chicken Chalupa showcases surprisingly tasty and spicy chicken and classic Taco Bell fillings, balanced against the crux of the very chalupa itself: a smooth avocado ranch sauce. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The business of being Santa involves a lot more than simply wearing a suit

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Santa Jim Boston

Santa Jim understands the value of a top-notch beard — no straggly, wispy nonsense or anything that could easily get pulled off.

Instead, he imports his beard, which ties on in three places, from Switzerland for a whopping $750.

To Santa Jim, it's worth every penny.

According to this professional, private events Santa Claus — Jim Manning when he's out of the red suit — a lot more goes into playing Santa than simply showing up, finding the nearest couch, and letting kids sit on your lap.

Below, Manning shares more about the business of being Santa:

SEE ALSO: What it's really like to be a professional Santa Claus

DON'T MISS: How a professional Santa Claus answers 'Can you bring back Grandma?' and more awkward questions kids ask

First: Create an online presence

In 2004 I grabbed the domain name SantaBoston.com, and that's really been what's sent a lot of the Santa Claus traffic to me. The website presence has been important, and I've added social-media presence over the years. I'm now seeing direct social-media results — people see me on Instagram and they're hiring me from that. But the website is still the No. 1 way people contact me.

And having a mobile-friendly website has been huge. My website wasn't mobile-friendly until about three years ago. Now about 78% of people look at my website on their phones or their iPads.

The content that goes on the website is important, too. There are a lot of Santa Clauses who have websites, and fortunately I've had a lot of them helping me in terms of what the site needs.

People want to see ... Do you look good as Santa? Do you seem trustworthy? And what are your prices? And you don't put your prices on your website, because that's just not something you do. But people want all that information, and they want it quickly, and they're going to decide whether to reach out to you from that.



Then, start booking your gigs a year in advance

The busy season is December, Thanksgiving to Christmas. We start receiving calls and emails in August to book events. Some people will book from the year before. But the real majority of the requests start coming in October and November. And a lot of last-minute requests come in, too. The real season starts to ramp up after Thanksgiving.

The first week of December is more promotional work — a lot of photo shoots. I did a photo shoot for Legal Sea Foods, where they had me as Santa Claus taking photos of their clam chowder or their lobster. Drug stores, car dealerships — they'll bring me in to set the tone for the season and whatnot.

Then toward the middle of December, that's when I start getting into more corporate parties, private parties. And then as we get closer to Christmas Eve, the majority of my events are parties in people's homes.

Christmas Eve is the busiest day. I'll do 10 appearances. This year, my first visit is at 11 a.m. and my last visit is scheduled for 9 p.m.

Most weekdays are two to three visits. Weekends are much busier. Sunday I did eight different visits. I'll have five or six days off somewhere in between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Santa Jim charges $499 for a visit, and does upwards of 80 visits during the season.



Be sure to suit up

I've also got a lot of my own costs. This isn't a part-time thing for me — this is my full-time gig. So I have an operations manager, and a lot of money goes into advertising and promotions.

I spend over a hundred dollars on gloves every year. My dry-cleaning bills are pretty expensive.

The gloves I wear are band gloves that have little grips on them. Why do they have grips on them? Because when I'm turning the pages of "The Night Before Christmas" I don't have to fumble around. To me, details like this are super important.

The wigs and beards and mustaches? A friend of mine imports them from Switzerland. One wig, beard, mustache set costs me about $750, and I have five of them, which I've built up over the course of a few years.

My beard is tied on in three different spots. It's really beautiful, and children under the age of 8 have a tough time distinguishing between my beard and a real beard. 

 The belt cost me $400 — that was handmade from a leather maker in Montana, which a big, gold-brass buckle.

I've got a cooling vest, which law-enforcement officers use to stay cool, because I'm playing Santa Claus for upwards of 10 hours. I've got the fat suit

I spend over $300 a year on dry cleaning with all my suits. I've got five suits that I keep in regular rotation. So pretty much as soon as I wear a suit I'm dropping it off at the dry cleaners and I'm keeping them on a constant rotation because I want to look as fresh as possible.

Driving-wise, this year I'm driving 75 hours, probably over 3,000 miles. So there's gas, tolls, and so forth.

Then there's food. Normally I cook for myself and my wife, but I don't have time for the month of December, so I end up eating out a lot, doing take-out. I tried finding a meal-delivery service. But at the end of the day, it's a lot of grab-and-go.



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TONY ROBBINS: 'Trading your expectations for appreciation' will make you more attractive

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Tony Robbins, best-selling author of "Money: Master the Game," explains a simple behavioral change that you can make to become more attractive — and happier. Following is a transcript of the video.

Tony Robbins: If you want to be more attractive, make a decision to live in a beautiful state. To say, "I’m not going to give up my happiness over little stuff. I’m not going to be obsessed about things I can’t control. I’m going to focus on what I can control and what I can do."

And when people are generous, when they’re playful, when they’re warm, when they’re sincere, when they’re loving, people love to be around them. There’s nothing more attractive. And when somebody is always bitching, they’re a bummer to be around. I mean just pick it out.

So what does it take to be more attractive? What it really takes is appreciating your life. Most people, their upsets are because their expectations aren’t met. You expect people to be a certain way. You expect yourself to be a certain way. You expect the government to be a certain way, and it isn’t. So, I always tell people "Trade your expectations for appreciation, and your whole life changes like that."

If you can just start appreciating the people around you, appreciating this moment, appreciating things that you’re not noticing, you’ll live in a beautiful state and other people will find being around you an attractive or an enjoyable experience. It’s that simple.

Produced by Eames Yates.

This video was originally published October 19, 2016.

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12 stretches you can use every day to stay flexible and fit at any age

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BI Graphics_12 everyday stretches to stay flexible and fit at any age_4x3 thumb

When it comes to stretching, there are a lot of options to choose from.

But what are the best everyday stretches for anyone looking to avoid sore muscles, get more flexible, and protect his or her muscles from injuries?

We turned to Marilyn Moffat, a professor of physical therapy at New York University and author of "Age Defying Fitness," to go over some of the best basic stretches for everyone.

Remember: Don't do these stretches if they make you uncomfortable or if you have existing muscle problems. Instead, consult a physical therapist.

SEE ALSO: Meet the 30 biotech leaders under 40 who are searching for breakthrough treatments and shaping the future of medicine

DON'T MISS: 'Nobody's talking about' 2 medical conditions that affect 8 million women in America — but that could be about to change

First things first: Get seated with good posture. Having that will help you do these stretches correctly.



Start with some neck rotations. Be sure to hold each side for 30 to 60 seconds. This applies to all stretches.



For the neck tilt, be sure to pull your left arm down toward the floor, either holding onto the chair or just pulling down.



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A day in the life of a power real estate broker who sells penthouses worth millions

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Leonard Steinberg Compass

  • Leonard Steinberg is a New York City-based real estate broker and a president at Compass.
  • Working mostly with units inside luxury buildings, Steinberg has been responsible for over $3 billion in transactions throughout his career.
  • We followed Steinberg for a day to find out just what his work entails.

 

Compass President Leonard Steinberg has been responsible for more than $3 billion in transactions in his career as a real estate broker.

Luxury buildings are his specialty. His largest sale to date was on a Tribeca penthouse that sold for $43 million, and in 2009, he worked on the $32 million deal for Dolce & Gabbana designer Domenico Dolce's 11th Avenue penthouse. 

Steinberg's move over to Compass — a real estate company that launched in 2013 and prioritizes data and technology — came as a surprise to many in the the industry. When he left Douglas Elliman, where he was the top agent for Downtown Manhattan, he told The Real Deal, "I like to feel like a bit of a maverick." 

Earlier this month, we followed him around to see what a typical day in his life is like. Between countless meetings, apartment showings, phone calls, and marketing consultations, Steinberg keeps plenty busy.    

SEE ALSO: Facebook was just named the best workplace of 2018 — step inside its New York office, where employees enjoy an in-house pastry chef and tons of celebrity cameos

When I arrived at Steinberg's West Village apartment at 8:30 a.m., it was already an exciting morning. Compass had just announced that it had received the largest real estate tech investment in US history with a $450 million infusion from SoftBank. The investment valued Compass at $2.2 billion. Steinberg rushed over to the TV, where the company's cofounder and CEO, Robert Reffkin, was being interviewed on CNBC.

Source: Business Insider



Before heading into the office, Steinberg sent out his daily company-wide email, one that he's been writing since his first day with Compass. He uses it to deliver company news as well as unique insight into whatever's on his mind. Today's topic? Aging.



Steinberg is originally from South Africa but has lived in Dallas and New York City during his 33 years in the US. Before his days in real estate, Steinberg worked in the fashion industry, and he still designs his own suits. On this day, he wore his very own all-white suite in honor of Compass' office holiday party, which was to be held later in the evening.



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A professor of medicine explains why he hasn't quit diet soda — but never drinks the regular kind

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soda

  • It's impossible to directly compare the health effects of diet and regular soda, since we have far more research on the regular kind.
  • The studies we do have suggest regular soda is linked with obesity and weight gain, while diet soda hasn't been strongly tied to any negative health outcomes.
  • For that reason, Aaron Carroll, a pediatrician and professor of pediatrics, says it's fine to drink diet soda occasionally — but never the regular varieties.

 

Just how bad is your Diet Coke habit?

Probably not as unhealthy as you think. And swapping it for the regular stuff won't do you any favors.

"If I have to choose between diet drinks and those with added sugar, I'll go with the diet," Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, writes in his new book, "The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully."

The existing science on diet soda hasn't gotten the golden seal of approval that comes after extensive studies in humans. The research we do have is mostly in mice, but so far it suggests that the artificial sweeteners in soda are not overwhelmingly bad for our health.

On the other hand, extensive studies about human consumption of regular soda reveal an overwhelming link to two unhealthy outcomes: weight gain and obesity.

Comparing these two scenarios makes the choice between diet soda and regular soda clear, according to Carroll.

"There's a potential — and likely very real — harm from consuming added sugar. There is likely none from artificial sweeteners," he writes.

Still, dozens of seemingly damning scientific studies on diet soda and the artificial sweeteners it contains have been published over the last decade. Research has linked saccharin to cancer, and found evidence that people who regularly consume diet drinks are heavier than people who don't.

But Carroll says every one of those studies was riddled with enough errors not to be taken seriously. The way they were communicated to the public made it look like they were far more conclusive and severe than they really were, he wrote.

Research tying artificial sweeteners to cancer was done in rats who were vulnerable to cancer

lab mouse mice ratIn the 1980s, any product containing saccharin, the zero-calorie sweetener sold under the brand name Sweet'N Low, was required to carry a frightening warning label: "This product contains saccharin, which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals."

Out of roughly 50 studies of rats fed saccharin — in amounts far beyond what a normal person would consume on a daily basis — only one experiment found that it seemed to cause cancer. But the rats in that study were a specific kind of rat that often become infected with a bladder parasite, Carroll explains in his book. The parasite leaves them extra vulnerable to cancer.

Carrol writes that the conclusion people should have drawn from all those studies is: "Rats are more vulnerable to side effects from saccharin than are people, for whom there's no clear evidence of risk."

Instead, artificial sweeteners everywhere have gotten a bad rap. Many were shocked by the recent news that President Donald Trump drinks roughly a dozen Diet Cokes per day. Of course, doing anything to excess is probably not a good idea. But dozens of further studies have failed to find any link between saccharin and cancer in humans, despite lingering skepticism.

"Public perception, once turned against any food, is very hard to change," Carroll writes.

The study linking diet drinks to dementia also found a link between regular soda and dementia

Other recent studies link diet drinks to even scarier-sounding health outcomes, including research published this spring suggesting that diet soda could cause dementia.

woman girl drinking soda coke wearing sunglassesBut that study was only one of a pair of studies looking at beverage consumption and brain issues. The second found a connection between drinking regular soda and brain shrinkage. More importantly, both studies fall into a category of research commonly found in food and beverage science called "observational" research.

Observational studies follow large groups of people over long periods of time and don't control for the variables they are testing. As a result, these kinds of studies can tell us if there's a connection between two things, but they can't tell us if one thing necessarily causes the other. In many cases, a link researchers observe between two things is later found to be caused by an external thing that no one accounted for.

The jury is still out on whether any external factor played a role in the studies about drinks and dementia. For now, there is no definitive research that tells us that sugary drinks cause brain shrinkage or that diet drinks cause dementia.

Plenty of research links regular soda to disease

Plenty of large, well-done studies link sugary drinks like sodaand juice to weight gain, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in human beings.

soda

One of them was a large review of 50 years' worth of studies published in the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. It 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."

Another paper written by seven experts in public health, nutrition, and economics describes the links between sugary drinks and America's obesity problem even more strongly:

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

With this in mind, Carroll appears justified in his choice of diet soda over regular.

"When it comes to sugar and artificial sweeteners, the evidence is as strong as can be: the former is much worse for you than the latter," he wrote.

SEE ALSO: A professor of medicine explains why eating fat won't make you fat — but sugar will

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NOW WATCH: We boiled soda to see how much sugar is inside

The one book every student should read in 2018, according to Harvard professors

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Woman reading book travel madrid read novel tourist

Harvard University professors constantly read and assign texts to their students. So they know a good book when they see one.

With that in mind, Business Insider asked professors at Harvard to share the single book they think every student should read in 2018.

The professors include Nobel laureates, scientists, economists, and Pulitzer Prize winners. The books they chose were as diverse as their professional backgrounds.

Read on to see what professors from Harvard think you should read next year.

SEE ALSO: Harvard just released its early admissions decisions — here's how many students got in

'Anna Karenina,' by Leo Tolstoy

"I'm re-reading 'Anna Karenina.' There is no better novel I know about how women (and I don't mean just Anna) – elite, intelligent, educated – are ignored, oppressed, and have little legal recourse. Women are the caregivers, the empathetic. They hold society together and provide salvation even as the priests take the credit.

"Tolstoy's novel is as relevant today as it ever was. As a sideline, one also learns about technical change in agriculture and how to incentivize laborers to adopt it. And there is more … It is clearly the best novel ever written and worth another close read from us all."

- Claudia Goldin, economic historian and a labor economist, author of the forthcoming "Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages"

Find "Anna Karenina" here »



'The Internationalists,' by Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro

"'The Internationalists,' by the legal scholars Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro, explain a phenomenon you probably didn’t even know existed — the decline of interstate war and conquest — with a historical event you probably think is ridiculous: the Kellogg-Briand Paris Peace Pact of 1928, which declared war illegal.

"But in their gripping and evidence-rich book, they make a plausible case. And like The Clash of Civilizations and The End of History, the book presents a sweeping vision of the international scene, making sense of many developments in the news and recent history."

- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of ten books, including the forthcoming "Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress"

Find "The Internationalists" here »



'Just Mercy,' by Bryan Stevenson

"I suggest Bryan Stevenson's 'Just Mercy.'"

- Stephen Greenblatt, English professor, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve"

Find "Just Mercy" here »



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The mysterious lives of the 3 kids who are believed to be Kim Jong Un's

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Kim Jong Un and wife Ri Sol Ju

  • North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is believed to have three children with his wife Ri Sol-ju.
  • There are few details on the kids, but they're believed to be between the ages of 10 months and 7 years old.
  • The eldest child is believed to be a boy who is expected to one day succeed Kim.


Like much of North Korea, the personal and family life of its dictator Kim Jong Un is shrouded in secrecy.

Little is known about his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and even less is known about the three young children the couple is believed to have.

Most of the currently available information about the family comes from South Korea's National Intelligence Service. But former US basketball star Dennis Rodman has also spoken to media about holding one of Kim's children during one of his controversial visits to the Hermit Kingdom, though the details he provided have not been independently corroborated.

Here's everything we know:

SEE ALSO: The mysterious life of Kim Jong Un's wife, Ri Sol-ju, who probably has 3 children and frequently disappears from the public eye

DON'T MISS: How former basketball star Dennis Rodman became one of the few Americans welcome in Kim Jong Un's North Korea

Most sources agree that Kim and his wife have had three children since their secretive marriage in 2009.

Source: Business Insider



Kim's first child is believed to be a boy, born in 2010, and his second child was likely a daughter born in 2013. The fact that Kim has at least one male heir likely means that he will eventually succeed Kim and continue the family's dictatorship dynasty.

Source: CNN



The gender of Kim's third child, however, remains unknown. The child is believed to have been born in February 2017.

Source: Business Insider



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