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Someone is selling their New Jersey house for $2.3 million in bitcoin — and it's a growing trend

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BitcoinRealEstateNJ 1

  • A $2.3 million house in Middletown, New Jersey, is accepting bitcoin as a form of payment.
  • Bitcoin is becoming increasingly accepted in the real estate market with hundreds of listings accepting the cryptocurrency over the last six months.
  • There are a lot of risks to using bitcoin for payment due to the cryptocurrency's volatility, but buyers and sellers are finding creative ways to deal with it.

 

A house for sale in one of America's most desirable places to live is accepting bitcoin as payment, a growing trend in the real estate market.

The Middletown, New Jersey, house was nominally listed for $2.15 million on Zillow in late January. The listing, however, stipulates that seller will accept bitcoin as payment based upon a "non-negotiable" sale price of $2.3 million.

Far from Silicon Valley and other tech hubs, the listing in Middletown, often ranked one of the best places to live in the US, shows just how far cryptocurrency and bitcoin have reached into the national conversation. 

The listing is far from the only one in the US to accept bitcoin.

Over the last six months, an increasing number of real estate listings have begun accepting or requesting cryptocurrency for payment. There have even been some that only accept bitcoin as payment.

Bitcoin Real Estate, a website specializing in real estate listings that accept cryptocurrency, told Mercury News in late January that it has nearly 400 homes listed on its website.

Real estate website Trulia told Mashable last week that it had around 80 listings that mentioned cryptocurrency in some way, while Redfin said it had seen the number of listings accepting cryptocurrency rise from 75 in December to 134 in January.

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Meanwhile, Ben Shaoul, the president of New York-based Magnum Real Estate Group, told CNBC in October that he plans to accept bitcoin as payment for condominiums in a building he is currently redeveloping in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Should a buyer pay in bitcoin for an apartment, which range in price from $700,000 to $1.5 million, Shaoul said he would hold the bitcoins as an investment.

A 1.4 acre home in Lake Tahoe, California, was the first home to be sold with bitcoin in 2014. It sold for 2,739 bitcoins, which were converted to $1.4 million cash by BitPay, a global bitcoin payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta.

Most real estate sales involving cryptocurrency have operated similarly. The parties agree on a fixed price in dollars and then decide on a fair exchange rate at closing. The bitcoins are then converted to cash by a third party, like BitPay, which are then given to the seller. Buyers therefore assume all the risk.

The problem with buying or selling real estate with bitcoin currently — or any other cryptocurrency — are the massive fluctuations in value on a day-to-day, and even hour-to-hour, basis. What seems like a fair exchange rate at the time, can seem like a steal or ripoff months later.

The first known real estate purchase using exclusively bitcoin (i.e. not bitcoin-to-cash conversion) occurred late last December.

Bitcoin aficionado Ivan "Paychecks" Pacheco paid 17.741 bitcoin to Frank Mainade Jr. for a two-bedroom condo in Miami's Upper East Side, reported The Real Deal. At closing, that was equivalent to $275,000 with an exchange rate of about $15,500 per bitcoin.

As of publish time on Thursday, those 17.741 bitcoins were worth $159,577

SEE ALSO: Paying taxes on bitcoin isn't nearly as hard as it sounds

DON'T MISS: Bitcoin just hit an all-time high — here's how you buy and sell it

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here’s your year-long guide to financial stability


We compared Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to find out who's the more successful visionary — here's the verdict

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BI Graphics Jeff Bezos vs Elon Musk

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, are huge names in the world of business.

• Their work has attracted a lot of attention from both the public and the media.

• They also have a lot in common, including a net worth in the billions and a keen interest in space.

• We compared them head-to-head to see who comes out on top.



Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are two of the biggest names in business today.

Bezos founded his Seattle-based online retailer in 1994, to sell books. Now, Amazon is on track to become the world's first trillion-dollar company.

Musk is currently running two high-profile companies, which seek to revolutionize transportation on earth and in space.

Both have accomplished much in their respective fields, capturing the attention of the public in the process. And both have shared extraordinary visions of what the future holds.

Business Insider compared the two across a number of categories, including the health of their companies, their leadership approval ratings, their philanthropic giving habits, their net worths, and their visions for the future, to get a sense of which visionary is more successful.

Here's our verdict:

SEE ALSO: Facebook and Google are both amazing places to work, but one dominates in a head-to-head comparison

Tesla and SpaceX may ultimately prove to be juggernauts, but Amazon already has already taken over the world

Amazon may be one of most powerful tech giants out there today, but it actually got off to a pretty rocky start, according to Markets Insider. The retailer had a ton of competitors among traditional booksellers, and perplexed Wall Street by favoring growth over profits. Over the years, it's seen some tumultuous years.

But Amazon's now "juggernaut" stock price has since multiplied nearly 500 times since 1997. The company currently has a market cap of $689.93 billion, and employs over 541,900 people worldwide, according to CNN.

Just this past year, Amazon has made major moves in the retail space, acquiring Whole Foods and gearing up to establish a second headquarters in a yet-to-be-determined city in North America.

Tesla's also seen some volatile years since it went public in 2010. The automaker currently has market cap of $58.4 billion. Over the years, some people, including Musk himself, have called its stock overvalued, Markets Insider reported. But recently, the stock has rallied and is now trading at over $300 a share.

Tesla was left with somewhere around 32,300 people, after it fired about 700 people in November, according to Fortune.

USA Today reported Musk has vowed to make SpaceX public when it begins embarking on flights to Mars.

The winner: Bezos.



A majority of employees Amazon, SpaceX, and Tesla approve of their CEOs

Musk and Bezos are a hit with their employees, for the most part.

Musk's ratings actually vary somewhat between SpaceX and Tesla. While 96% of SpaceX employees approve of their CEO, that drops to a still sizable 84% at Tesla. Averaging the approval ratings at SpaceX and Tesla gives Musk an overall approval rating of 90%.

Meanwhile, 87% of Amazon employees approve of Bezos. If we averaged the approval ratings at Amazon and Blue Origin, the private spaceflight and aerospace company Bezos founded, that would give Bezos an overall rating of 90%, just like Musk. There's only one problem with that method — Bezos isn't the CEO of Blue Origin.

The winner: Musk.



Both Musk and Bezos have given to a range of philanthropic causes, including disaster relief, AI, cancer research, and scholarships

When it comes to philanthropy, both Bezos and Musk are affiliated with namesake foundations.

The Musk Foundation provides grants to support STEM education, renewable energy, and pediatric medicine. Inside Philosophy reported that, in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011, the foundation donated $250,000 to help the Japanese prefecture set up a solar power system.

And in 2015, Musk donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute, which is dedicated to ensuring that AI benefits humanity. Tesla subsidiary Solar City also donated solar power systems to Coden, Alabama.

According to Inside Philanthropy, the Bezos Family Foundation was actually founded by the CEO's parents. Bezos and his wife MacKenzie sit on the foundation's board, "which is funded with gifts of Amazon stock." The couple has given in several different areas, including $33 million to a scholarship fund for "dreamers," $10 million to immunotherapy cancer research, $15 million to their alma mater Princeton for the study neural connectivity.

The winner: Both men have made considerable philanthropic efforts. We're going to give this one to Bezos, just based on the amount of money he's donated.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Olive Garden is now serving 'Italian nachos' — and people are freaking out

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  • Olive Garden just debuted an unorthodox take on nachos.
  • The chain is now serving fried lasagna sheets topped with cheese, ragu, and alfredo sauce.
  • Reactions have been mixed. 

 
Olive Garden, the fabled chain sworn to uphold Italian tradition in a casual-dining setting, is now serving nachos.

The dish, appetizingly named "loaded pasta chips," is essentially fried lasagna sheets topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese, a three-meat ragu sauce, cherry peppers, and alfredo sauce.

The nachos debuted on the menu last week to the tune of $6.99 a plate. They'll be available at Olive Garden until April 1, according to Foodbeast.

This doesn't sound all that Italian, but for a chain that doesn't even salt its pasta water, it seems par the course.

Many Twitter users have sounded off on this rather unorthodox menu item.

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Other users appear to be taking the Italian-Tex-Mex franken-dish in stride.

olive garden nachos tweetsolive garden nachos tweets

 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The healthiest things you can get at McDonald's

What Donald Trump and other US presidents looked like when they were young

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barack obama with his grandparents stanley armour dunham and madelyn dunham in new york in the 1980s

It's hard to picture what American presidents were like before they left their marks on domestic and foreign policy.

Here we've collected old photos of US presidents to give a little taste of who they once were.

Not every president is listed since photography wasn't widely used during the United States' earlier history. The photos are shown in reverse chronological order — starting with current US President, Donald Trump.

SEE ALSO: The restaurant at the center of a celebrity chef's bizarre feud with Ivanka Trump is a secretive Washington, DC go-to that's been a favorite of politicians since the '90s

US President Donald Trump as a child.

The photo caption reads: "Who knew this innocent kid would grow into a monster? #TBT #Trump"



Barack Obama with his grandparents, Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Dunham, in New York in the 1980s.



George W. Bush sits between his parents George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush in Rye, NY, 1955.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Meet the former advertising creative who has built a career out of writing positive post-it notes to strangers around London

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  • Andy Leek leaves notes with positive messages around London for strangers to find.
  • He started the project 3 years ago after a career in advertising.
  • At the bottom of each note, Andy signs off with his Instagram handle and now has abig following on the platform.
  • He now makes, posters, paintings, and picture frames. Prices can go from £14 to just under £1,000.

 

Artist Andy Leek leaves notes to strangers around London to brighten up their day.

He started the project 3 years ago after a career in advertising and after recovering from a mental health problem.

"I had a very long commute and I realised that was probably my only chance to make art," he told Business Insider. "So I started off trying to make a difference for one person every day by leaving cards with positive notes to strangers on them in copies of the Metro and leaving them on seats for random people to find."

At the bottom of each note, Andy signs off with his Instagram handle. He gained such a big following that 9 months later making notes became his full-time job.

That’s when he started making posters to stick around London.

"I didn’t make any money from it for a long time and I didn’t want to, to be honest," he said. "But then I realised that if I want to be an artist, money is a raw material. I need to think like a businessman to be able to make good art."

He now makes, posters, paintings, and picture frames. Prices can go from £14 to just under £1,000.

Notes come from songs, books, films, or just Andy’s thoughts.

"I would take the idea and spin it so it becomes mine."

Andy is now also working with brands and other companies, but he wants to keep the positive intentions of his original project.

Follow Andy on Instagram @notestostrangers

Produced and filmed by Claudia Romeo.

Join the conversation about this story »

People are committing violent crimes after suffering brain damage — and researchers are trying to figure out why

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  • Chelsea started physically attacking her parents after suffering brain damage in an accident at college.
  • She is not alone. There are well-documented cases of people with brain injuries, tumours, and lesions behaving out of character.
  • Studies show that criminals are more likely to have suffered a brain injury than the rest of the population.
  • In severe cases, brain injuries are a line of defence in court, but the science is not strong enough to link all criminal behaviour with brain damage.


Four years ago, Chelsea fell head first onto the hardwood floor at her college. She had a seizure and stopped breathing, causing an anoxic injury — when the brain is damaged from not receiving enough oxygen.

Before the accident, Chelsea experienced a level of anger similar to any other person. She had certainly never been aggressive. But ever since, she has grappled with mood swings and can't contain her rage or impulses.

"I have really bad anger problems now. I can be fine one second and when the slightest inconvenience happens I'd be throwing and breaking things," said Chelsea, a pseudonym we are using to protect her identity.

"One time was that I was really pissed off about not being able to go back to school. I really wanted to go and try and get my old life back... I was screaming, throwing things. My mom was yelling and I start getting physical with her, and then my dad stepped in and out of nowhere I punched him in the face."

Chelsea's story is not unique. Behaviour changes after brain injuries have been well documented for many years. There are cases of people recovering from a brain damage with a new talent, or even in some cases, an accent from a foreign country, like this woman who survived a stroke only to acquire a Chinese accent.

Sometimes, brain damage can create a criminal.

On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman infamously became the "Texas Tower Sniper." He killed his mother and wife with knives, then climbed up the tower at the University of Texas and started randomly shooting at people for 96 minutes. He killed 14 and injured 31 others, before he gunned down.

During his autopsy, doctors found a tumour on his brain. It is indeterminable whether the tumour caused Whitman to act the way he did, but the autopsy report concluded it was certainly a possibility.

Injuries can be linked to areas of the brain that control morals

Charles_Whitman_(1963)Whitman's story, and others like it, intrigued Ryan Darby, a professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

"Cases like this raise a question," he told Business Insider. "What is it about brain lesions in different areas that could lead to this behaviour?"

In a recent study, Darby and his team looked at 17 cases where people appeared to behave normally, then started committing crimes after changes to their brain like a tumour or an injury.

They wanted to see if lesions in certain areas of the brain were associated with criminal behaviour, but the results were inconsistent. However, when they looked at whether lesions were connected to the same area of the brain, they started to see a pattern.

"Even though all the brain lesions were in different parts of the brain, they were all connected to the same brain network," Darby said. "Our idea is that after an injury in one location, other parts of the brain become dysfunctional."

Areas they saw the lesions in were the anterior temporal lobe, the ventromedial frontal cortex, the amygdala, and the nucleus accumbens. These are all areas connected to moral, value decision making, reward and punishment.

"Those were the processes we thought would be important for what keeps a normal person from committing crimes," Darby said.

There are studies linking brain damage to crime

Brain injuries typically result in having problems with "executive skills," explained Huw Williams, a professor of clinical neuropsychology and co-director of the Centre for Clinical Neuropsychology Research at Exeter University in Britain. These skills include planning ahead, thinking things through, managing impulses, and memory.

When you're dealing with such a complicated organ like the brain, it takes decades of research to pinpoint what exactly might be happening. There still isn't strong research to suggest you can completely determine the way someone will behave depending on what their brain scans look like.

What is certain is that in a community sample of the UK population, analysed by Williams, about 10% will have had some kind of brain injury at some point. In the prison population, this number jumps dramatically to somewhere between 50 and 70%. This trend is echoed in the US and South Africa

"This doesn't mean necessarily that head injury equals crime," Williams pointed out. "It might, but also it might be coincidental, because if you've got a violent life, and you crash cars, you're likely to get a head injury at some point."

A team at Oxford University tried to shed some light on this question in a 35-year population study in Sweden led by Psychiatrist Seena Fazel.

Results showed that overall, Swedes had a 2.5% chance of becoming violent offenders. If they had a head injury on their records, that rose to 9%. To make allowances for the fact brain injuries could be a result of upbringing, the researchers also looked at the siblings of those with brain damage — they had a 4.5% chance of becoming offenders too.

In other words, the Oxford research shows that people have nearly double the chance of becoming violent offenders if they something in their upbringing, genetics, or environment predisposes it. Add a head injury on top of that, then the risk is doubled again.

Criminals might not be getting the right rehabilitation

Brain injuries are not easy to recover from. If memory is damaged, for example, patients will easily forget everything they've learned about how to behave. Or they might struggle to contain their outbursts of anger, like Chelsea does.

This is more pronounced among criminals, Williams said, partly because they are not getting the right rehabilitation.

When he switched to academia from clinical work, he was asked to supervise a student's work looking into whether prisoners had post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I gave a workshop in a local prison, to get an idea of the nature of the environment... and one of the prisoners had an area of skull missing," Williams said. "This was probably because he'd had a head injury and hadn't had follow up surgery to put in a titanium plate to replace the missing part of his skull probably removed to release pressure on the brain.

"He asked me why he had these funny feelings in his body that were quite nice, when he pressed himself on that area — and it was because he was pressing on the sensory motor strip. He was told he needed more surgery, and to take care with the area."

After that, Williams became aware that the medical and neurological needs of the prison population probably weren't being met.

"A lot of people who are in the system seem to have head injuries," he said. "That complicates their rehabilitation, which means there is a lot of re-offending. That may be because the present system isn't necessarily well geared towards rehabilitation yet, especially neuro-rehabilitation where you have to remind people when to do things, and how to do them."

Williams and his team started projects where they helped prison staff work with young people with brain injuries. So far the outcomes have been very promising because young people are more able to participate in their own improvement.

For example, for those with injuries to the left side of the brain, who have trouble remembering what they've been told, were given visual cues instead. "It's about trying to find a way of helping and working with the population more effectively," Williams said.

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Neurology can be used in someone's defence

When the law comes into it, things get even more complicated. Defence attorneys have a duty to defend their clients with rigour, and so they keep up with the latest research to help minimise their punishment.

In some cases, this means zealously claiming their client was neurologically predisposed to acting the way they did. It isn't their fault, they may claim, because their brains are just wired that way.

Judith Edersheim is the co-founder and co-director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Centre for Law, Brain and Behaviour. It's an organisation that is helping bring science into the courtroom, by separating the fringe ideas from the theories that are a lot more established.

"It's very hard to tell [the difference] when neuroscience itself is so new," Edersheim told Business Insider. "And there are some features of brain science that make it perhaps more alluring and look more probative than it should be."

It's important to make the distinction because law and science behave in conflicting ways. Science is evolutionary like "building blocks," where you make assumptions and test them, then talk about the limitations of your studies and invite other scientists to do the same.

Law is not like that. In a courtroom, the outcome is final, and somebody's life is going to change. So you have to be pretty certain of your evidence. But when applied sparingly, looking carefully at the condition of an individual rather a collective, neuroscientific evidence can be a useful defence tool.

If a person is accused of a violent crime, there may be attributes of that person's brain which would explain abhorrent violent behaviour, like a tumour in the brain's frontal lobe. That would be a well-founded reason that somebody's neurology could contribute to their defence.

One of the most successful defences along these lines was a case of an obstetrician in New York, Dr Allan Zarkin, who started behaving peculiarly at work. He became unusually angry, and was short and provocative with the nursing staff.

Zarkin performed a cesarean section on a patient, delivering a healthy baby. He then carved his initials "AZ" into her abdomen. When asked about it, he simply said he thought he should sign it because he did such a good job.

After an investigation, doctors discovered that Zarkin had progressive Pick's disease, a frontal lobe dementia similar to Alzheimer's, which catastrophically disrupted his ability to plan, contain himself, and behave socially appropriately. Zarkin wasn't convicted, due to the medical diagnosis, but his licence was revoked.

In another case, a 40-year-old man who began looking at child pornography and propositioning prostitutes at massage parlours — behaviour that was completely out of character. He was eventually kicked out by his wife and found guilty of child molestation.

But while awaiting jail, he complained of a terrible headache and was admitted to hospital. That's when a large, egg-sized tumour was detected in the right lobe of the orbitofrontal cortex in his brain. Surgeons immediately removed it, and after that the pedophilic urges disappeared.

He successfully completed a Sexaholics Anonymous programme and was allowed to return home.

But it's not possible to defend everyone

These two cases are extreme, and the cause and effect are easily identifiable. But when brain damage is less severe, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about how it can impact behaviour. This becomes even more complicated when you look group data.

Research may show certain brain patterns or injuries that are loosely associated with certain types of behaviour, but then the lawyer has to correlate that with the defendant's characteristics.

For example, you may have a whole set of brain scans of people who have committed violent crimes, and a pattern has been detected by researchers. You then have to show where the defendant fits into that group data.

"Crime is about behaviour, and the trial is about the mental state of the person who is sitting in front of you," Edersheim explained. "If you say someone has a propensity for violence, someone who has killed his wife for example, why is your propensity for violence only towards your wife? The individuated questions will dominate."

Without the specifics, the behaviour is explained by motive. For now, at least, there are too many vulnerabilities in the neurological evidence for it to be used effectively.

Neuroscience's contribution to criminal behaviour is still in its infancy, Edersheim said. Researchers are building on what they have to try and map out what makes a criminal mind, but there is still a lot they do not know. Only when the science is a lot more concrete can it be used with confidence as a defence.

Researchers are still piecing the puzzle together

With Chelsea, she doesn't know the next time she will lose control. Last time the police were called but no charges were brought against her. If she ever commits a violent crime, though, it looks unlikely that the evidence of her post-injury behavioural changes will be strong enough to help her.

A neurologist and psychiatrist have both said her behaviour is a result of her brain damage, but she isn't convinced of any of the treatment they offer her.

"When I get angry like that I literally have no control. It's almost like the fight or flight response turns on and I choose to fight for no reason. It's not even like I enjoy attacking people or getting worked up like that... it just happens," she said.

"They put me on mood medication, but I don't see the point in taking it. I see it as my brain is physically damaged, not chemically imbalanced. Then again, I could just misunderstand all of this."

Of course, not everyone with a brain injury will become a criminal. As Darby explained, brain lesions may predispose someone to criminal behaviour, but that certainly doesn't mean everyone becomes an offender.

As for those who suddenly acquire a propensity for violence from less serious injuries, like Chelsea, they are still awaiting answers.

SEE ALSO: Our brains sometimes create 'false memories' — but science suggests we could be better off this way

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NOW WATCH: I quit social media for a month — and it was the best choice I've ever made

Groundhog Day is one big party — here's what it's like to experience in person

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There are few traditions more distinctly American than Groundhog Day.

Although most people hear of the infamous groundhog Phil's weather prediction via a quick blurb in their morning news on February 2, the event is a very real pilgrimage to Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where tens of thousands gather to watch the little guy come out of his hole and pray that he doesn't see his shadow.

This is where my adventure begins.

SEE ALSO: A look inside the marriage of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who are worth $540 million, planned their wedding in 10 days, and have spoken every day for 11 years

Groundhog Day, despite being celebrated nationwide in America, stems from European legend. A groundhog comes out of its hole. If it sees its shadow and retreats back into its hole, it's considered a bad omen, and there will be six more weeks of winter. No shadow seen? Early spring. It's celebrated on February 2 every year in multiple cities and towns across America.

But no celebration is as grand as the one held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. This small town fills with thousands of travelers who are there to see the most important man of that day predict the weather. Punxsutawney Phil emerges in the wee hours of the morning of February 2. But the celebrating starts many hours before …



I was attending Clarion University of Pennsylvania in 2012 when I decided to meet a friend in Punxsutawney. Having grown up in Pennsylvania, I'd always heard that it was a great party. As the photo editor for our campus paper at the time, I brought along a camera.



As I drove into town on the night of February 1, I was surprised to see very little signage telling me where to go. Thousands of people? Where was everyone?

I pulled into a Walmart parking lot and rolled down my window as I approached the first person I saw. "Where's the party?" I asked. "Right here," he said, and subsequently handed me an adult beverage.



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The biggest box-office hit the year you were born

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Back to the Future

Moviegoing has been one of America's favorite ways to kill time for about a century now, and box-office earnings have been a reliable predictor of what we love and, sometimes, continue to love.

Using lists of the highest-grossing films by year from IMDbBox Office Mojo, and The Numbers, Business Insider has compiled a chronology of the biggest box-office hits every year since 1930*.

We adjusted global box-office receipts for inflation through 2017 using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator. We've also included critic ratings from Metacritic (on a scale of 1 to 100) and fan ratings from IMDb (on a scale of 1 to 10) for each film where available.

However, we used 1975 as the cutoff for global box office because worldwide figures before then were spotty and inconsistent. For films prior to 1975, we've provided adjusted and unadjusted domestic box office instead.

Several franchises are represented — "Star Wars," "Terminator," "Harry Potter" — as are Academy Award winners and classics like "The Sound of Music" and "Rocky."

Read on to find out the highest-grossing movie released the year you were born:

*Note: A couple years in the 1930s are missing due to lack of information. Movies before 1930 were not included due to unreliable box-office data.

This post has been updated and expanded from its original version.

DON'T MISS: The 30 most expensive movies ever made

AND: RANKED: The 10 movies most likely to dominate this summer

2017: "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

Adjusted gross: $1.3 billion

Unadjusted gross: $1.3 billion

Critic rating: 85

Fan rating: 7.5

Plot summary: "Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares for battle with the First Order." 



2016: "Captain America: Civil War"

Adjusted gross: $1.17 billion

Unadjusted gross: $1.15 billion

Critic rating:75

Fan rating: 7.8

Plot summary"Political involvement in the Avengers' activities causes a rift between Captain America and Iron Man.



2015: "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens"

Adjusted gross: $2.15 billion

Unadjusted gross: $2.07 billion

Critic rating: 81

Fan rating: 8.3

Plot summary"Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a ragtag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance." 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

These are the 19 most popular YouTube stars in the world — and some are making millions

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yuya

YouTube is the new TV.

Since 2005, YouTube has become the de facto launchpad for the next generation of celebrities.

Stars like PewDiePie, Jenna Marbles, and Yuya have racked up millions of subscribers over the years through a direct relationship with their fans.

From comedians to gamers to vloggers of all kinds, YouTubers have generally built their followings outside of the control of media giants, even if they are now signing big deals with those companies. And there is power and independence in having that huge fan base.

To get a closer look into which stars rule YouTube, we looked at the SocialBlade rankings to see who had the most subscribers. We focused on independent YouTube stars, disregarding YouTube channels like mainstream music artists.

Here's how the new generation of YouTube stars stacks up in 2018:

Nina Godlewski, Harrison Jacobs, Maya Kosoff, and Nathan McAlone contributed to earlier versions of this post.

SEE ALSO: MEET THE YOUTUBE MILLIONAIRES: These are the 10 highest-paid YouTube stars of 2017

No. 19: Fine Brothers Entertainment (FBE) — 16.7 million subscribers

Subscribers: 16.7 million

Brooklyn natives Benny and Rafi Fine are the two online producers/writers/directors who created the successful React video series. In React's various iterations — Kids React, Teens React, Elders React, and YouTubers React — the brothers show viral videos to people and film their reactions. In 2016, they were involved in a controversy over trying to copyright the React video form that drew widespread backlash and led to a campaign to unsubscribe from the duo's channel.



No. 18: KSI — 17.5 million subscribers

Subscribers: 17.5 million

As a teenager, Olajide Olatunji would play EA Sports' line of FIFA video games for hours on end in his parents' home. In 2009, he began uploading footage of himself playing and commentating to YouTube, under the username KSIOlajidebt: a combination of a "Halo" franchise clan, his first name, and British Telecom. His boisterous, goofy nature captured fans around the world.



No. 17: DanTDM — 17.7 million subscribers

Subscribers: 17.7 million

2017 estimated salary: $16.5 million

26-year-old Daniel Middleton, known as TheDiamondMinecart, is a popular YouTuber focused on the game Minecraft. Middleton posts daily reviews and gameplay videos. Last year, he had a world tour that included four sold-out nights at the Sydney Opera House. He was also 2017's highest-paid YouTube star, according to Forbes.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Netflix's sci-fi epic 'Altered Carbon' has a great concept, but its compelling narrative gets lost in violence and overindulgence

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  • Netflix's new sci-fi original series "Altered Carbon" has an interesting concept, but it gets caught up in excessive violence and terrible dialogue.
  • It's heavily influenced by existing sci-fi, especially "Blade Runner," and it's distracting.
  • It also depicts a lot of violence and mistreatment of women, a sci-fi trope that feels outdated in 2018.

 

The marketing for "Altered Carbon" (out Friday), has been bigger than any other freshman Netflix series in recent memory.

Last month, Netflix announced that in 2018, it will increase its marketing budget by 50%, to $2 billion. And "Altered Carbon" is setting the tone. For most shows it has put out, including "Stranger Things," Netflix's marketing has been either non-existent or incredibly subtle, allowing its viewers to determine what becomes a hit. Now, Netflix is deciding what it thinks will be the next big show. 

Set more than 300 years in the future, "Altered Carbon" is based on the 2002 novel of the same name, written by  Richard K. Morgan. In this future, human beings can live well past their natural death through technology that allows their consciousness to transfer to new body after they die. These bodies are called "sleeves." Think that sounds cool and amazing for everyone? There's a catch: the richer you are, the better sleeves you get.

The mind of criminal Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman, "House of Cards") was frozen for centuries until Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy, "Rome"), a very wealthy man, brings him back in a new sleeve. In exchange, Kovacs has to help Bancroft solve a case: Bancroft's murder. Kovacs' investigation, as expected, leads to a grander conspiracy that could affect the entire world. 

The heavy marketing for this first-season original means that Netflix really believes in "Altered Carbon." And it probably will be a hit. It looks cool, it's well cast, the sets are stunning, and the story is easy to follow even for casual viewers, especially considering it's a sci-fi series. 

Unfortunately, "Altered Carbon" suffers from issues that make it rather unremarkable compared to other Netflix originals, other television shows with massive fictional worlds, and other sci-fi. It's not a waste of time, but you will probably be disappointed, especially if you find the premise intriguing.

Excessive violence toward women

The 10-episode series is a very direct adaptation of the novel by showrunner Laeta Kalogridis. Though Kalogridis made some alterations from the book — including a bigger role for a female character. But a more prominent role for a woman doesn’t give the show the feminist update that might suggest.

For a show that’s trying to be subtle — to balance its outlandish atmosphere and premise — "Altered Carbon" is rather ham-fisted, from clunky exposition and cliche dialogue to violence, particularly against women. There are dozens of mutilated bodies in “Altered Carbon,” and the majority of them are young women. 

altered carbon

Shows like "Game of Thrones" depict brutal violence, too. And against young women.  But "Game of Thrones" eventually realized that it had already established the brutal world, and began to trust that viewers "got it." The show didn't need to keep reminding us. And that made the moments of violence that were still there more powerful, and helped them serve the story.

In establishing the world of "Altered Carbon," the violence didn't have to be toward young, attractive women — over and over again. But it is, and feels gratuitous. At first, the excessive violence toward the human form reinforces the fact that death isn't final. But to drive this point home to the audience, the show could use some variety in victims. "Altered Carbon" also shows this casual violence so much that it feels like the series doesn't trust its audience, further taking away from the mystery the show is trying to unfold. 

Too many distractions, and too much inspiration

The depictions of violence in "Altered Carbon" take away from the mystery that's unfolding, which is the best part of the show. Unlike 2017's "Blade Runner 2049," which allowed its mystery to unfold inside its world, "Altered Carbon" lets its world swallow the narrative. 

Altered Carbon

"Blade Runner" is also one of the crutches that brings down "Altered Carbon." From the set and the costumes to the cinematography and a dark, rainy California setting, it's way more than reminiscent of “Blade Runner." Scenes that aren't as dark, that take place in facilities and other kinds of buildings also feel a little too familiar, like "Westworld" and "The Hunger Games." Inspiration is understandable, and inevitable. Art inspires art, but “Altered Carbon” takes more than it reinvents. 

"Altered Carbon" is available now on Netflix, and you can watch the trailer below:

SEE ALSO: Actor Robert Wagner is now a 'person of interest' in the mysterious drowning death of Oscar-nominated actress Natalie Wood in 1981

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NOW WATCH: An exercise scientist explains what everyone gets wrong about stretching

Standing up at work may help burn calories — but there's a better way to avoid the harms of sitting all day

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Woman Sitting in Apartment

  • Sitting all day is terrible for you, and even working out regularly isn't enough to counteract the harm it causes.
  • Standing desks have been portrayed as a way to counteract the risks of sitting, and a new study suggests standing at your desk could help you lose weight.
  • The real solution, however, is moving around every hour.


Sitting all day is terrible for you. So terrible, studies have found, that regular exercise isn't enough to counteract the many harms of sedentary routine.

So what's someone with an office job to do?

A new study suggests a standing desk could help. Being on your feet all day at work, the researchers found, would burn more calories than sitting.

But if you're looking to lose weight and improve your overall health, a standing desk may not be the answer. Instead, regularly moving around — at least a couple of minutes every hour — is the better option. Only this practice, as opposed to simply standing all day, has been linked with a lower risk of premature death and a significant calorie burn. Walking around is best, but simply getting up to stretch every so often is helpful, too.

Standing all day burns fewer calories than half a slice of bread

Several studies show what many of us may have already assumed: We burn far fewer calories standing than we do walking.

toast

The latest paper, a review of nearly 50 studies on standing desks, was published this week in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Standing for roughly six hours a day instead of sitting, the researchers found, resulted in burning about 54 extra calories — roughly the equivalent of half a piece of bread.

"When you put all the available scientific evidence together, standing accounts for more calories burned than sitting," Farzane Saeidifard, the lead author on the paper and a cardiology fellow at the Mayo Clinic, said in a press release.

Saeidifard's paper isn't the first to calculate the total caloric burn of a day of standing. A 2016 study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh came to the same conclusion, even down to the number of calories burned each hour. Compared with sitting, standing burned roughly nine additional calories an hour, the researchers concluded, or 54 extra calories in a six-hour work day.

The new paper reinforces this finding: overall, standing desks' benefits are minimal, but they can add up over time. The calories in half a piece of toast doesn't sound like a lot, but if you use a standing desk all the time — and don't change your diet — you could end up losing 5 1/2 pounds over the course of a year.

Regular movement is the best weapon against the harms of sitting

If you're looking to make a healthy change to your daily sedentary regimen, there are a handful of studies that suggest that moving around regularly is your best bet.

man checking phone walking holding coffee

Walking is ideal, but simply getting up and stretching every hour is helpful as well.

To come to this conclusion, researchers in Utah and Colorado looked at more than 3,600 adults to get a better sense of how movement affected people's risk of dying prematurely. The participants agreed to wear movement trackers all day for at least four days. Three years later, the researchers checked records to see how many of the participants had died.

The results were published in 2015 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Compared with the people who sat all day, those who moved around for two minutes — just two! — every hour had a roughly 33% lower risk of dying prematurely than the people who stayed seated the whole time.

Standing all day was not linked with these benefits.

Still, the study was observational, which means that while moving around is strongly linked with a reduced risk of dying, it can't be said for sure that movement caused that reduction.

The 2016 study mentioned earlier, in which researchers calculated the number of extra calories burned standing versus sitting, found that walking burned far more calories than either sitting or standing. Participants in that study, published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, burned three times as many calories walking as standing, even when they ambled around at a leisurely pace.

The overall takeaway here is that it's a good idea to move around more and break up periods of sitting with something — anything — else.

That advice is echoed by a consensus statement published in 2015 by a group of physicians and sports medicine specialists in the British Journal of Sports Medicine: Spend a total of two hours out of your seat each day, they said, and move around as much as you can.

SEE ALSO: You're probably sitting all wrong — here's the simplest way to correct your posture

DON'T MISS: I tried a viral app that 'pays you' to walk outside — here's how it went

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Trainers love this simple exercise that improves your balance

Here's how much a Super Bowl LII ticket costs right now

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Patriots Fans Drinking

  • Super Bowl 52 will air on NBC on February 4 as the Philadelphia Eagles face the New England Patriots.
  • The cost of a Super Bowl 52 ticket is $3,245 on Ticketmaster right now.
  • The most expensive Super Bowl 52 ticket on Ticketmaster costs over $15,300.

 

Super Bowl 52 will air on NBC on February 4 as the Philadelphia Eagles face the New England Patriots at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

The cost of Super Bowl tickets can be mind-numbing, and Super Bowl LII is no different. The cheapest Super Bowl ticket on Ticketmaster right now costs $3,245. That puts you at row 19 in section 337.

There's also a Super Bowl ticket package from PrimeSport and On Location Experiences that starts at $3,047 per person and includes access to a pregame party.

That alone may feel like a small fortune, but it's nothing compared to the most expensive Super Bowl ticket you can buy on Ticketmaster right now, which costs $15,336. Those tickets only come in pairs, bringing the grand total to over $30,600.

In the past, ticket prices usually drop as the game approaches. This year is different and prices are rising instead of falling as the Super Bowl nears, according to Bloomberg. It's reportedly the result of a more regulated, managed, and secure ticket market, which protects buyers and seizes control from resalers.

Ticket prices may also be higher due to increased demand from Eagles fans. The team is playing in their first Super Bowl since 2005.

TicketIQ said this year's average ticket price could be the second-most expensive for the Super Bowl since the site started tracking ticket sales in 2010, according to Bloomberg

StubHub and Ticketmaster are popular resale sites for tickets, but you can also check out SeatGeek, TicketIQ, or Vivid Seats for tickets.

If you're watching from home, NBC coverage of the Super Bowl begins at 6:30 pm EST.

SEE ALSO: Your definitive guide to all of the commercials airing during the Super Bowl

DON'T MISS: The price of a 30-second Super Bowl ad has exploded — but it may be worth it for companies

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NOW WATCH: Here’s your year-long guide to financial stability

Inside the $28,000-a-year private school where children of tech workers learn to become the next Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk

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In a school inside a former IBM office building in San Jose, California, students in grades five through 12 take on some of the most rigorous classes offered at any American grade school.

Each student at Basis Independent Silicon Valley takes a minimum of six Advanced Placement courses and completes their graduation requirements before senior year, when they embark on capstone classes and independent research. Many go onto top colleges like Stanford and Cornell.

In class, kids develop a mastery of all things STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. And for some students, the school could be just a stepping stone on their way to becoming the next Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg.

Founded in 2014, Basis Independent Silicon Valley belongs to a network of private and charter schools with 31 outposts around the world.

Basis was built by a pair of economists, Michael and Olga Block, who struggled to find a school that would provide a rigorous education for their daughter. They opened a charter school in Tucson, Arizona, in 1998 with the belief that the goal of a great education should be to provide students with limitless opportunities.

Business Insider spent a day at BISV to see what it's like to attend.

SEE ALSO: Inside the best public school in America — a charter school that feeds prodigies into the Ivy League

When students at Basis Independent Silicon Valley tell their friends from other schools where they attend, the most common refrain is "Why would you do that to yourself?"



BISV is known for holding students to high standards. Most classes are based on the AP curriculum, and there are few honors and no lower-level classes offered.



The school's founders believed that they could cherry-pick "the best practices from the best education systems around the world" and the result would be a generation of students who could compete at the international level, said Basis Independent's CEO, Ian Block.

Tuition at BISV is $27,800 a year for grades five through 12.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Danny McBride says John Carpenter has been involved in 'every step' of the new 'Halloween' movie — and may even do its score

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halloween 2018 blumhouse

  • "Halloween" creator John Carpenter has been involved in all facets of the making of the latest movie in the franchise.
  • Carpenter is very interested in doing the movie's score.
  • Danny McBride, who cowrote the script with director David Gordon Green, gives an update from the set.


Danny McBride has quite a full plate at the moment.

He recently was at the Sundance Film Festival to promote his new movie, the dark comedy "Arizona." And you've probably seen those "trailers" that turned out to be for a fake movie where he plays the son of Crocodile Dundee— that's actually all part of an elaborate commercial for Australia tourism that will play during the Super Bowl.

But perhaps the biggest thing taking up his time is his involvement in the next "Halloween" movie, which he cowrote with its director David Gordon Green, and is currently in production.  

"It's coming together really nicely," McBride told Business Insider on Friday from the set in Charleston, South Carolina.

John Carpenter Alberto E Rodriguez GettyMcBride said that on set Friday they will have Jamie Lee Curtis, the star of the original movie who has a role in this one; Nick Castle, who played the franchise's villain Michael Meyers in the original; and the creator of it all, legendary horror director John Carpenter. 

Though it may seem intimidating to have the person who came up with "Halloween" on set, McBride said they have wanted his involvement since the beginning.

"Every step of the way — casting or script — we've gotten his blessing on all these things to make sure it's all in line," McBride said.

Though Carpenter has been involved in all facets of the movie, McBride said he hasn't tried to take control of the project. 

"He's been really respectful of David and his process," he said. "He doesn't want to get in there and meddle and mess around."

Carpenter is executive producer on the movie — which is being produced by Blumhouse ("Get Out," "Split") and McBride and Green's company Rough House ("Eastbound & Down," "Vice Principals") — and it's looking more and more likely that this master of horror will also be doing the movie's score. 

Jason Blum Malek Akkad David Gordon Green Danny McBride jason_blum twitter

A big reason for the iconic status of "Halloween" is its creepy theme, which Carpenter came up with (he also composed the music for many of his other movies, like "Escape from New York," "Big Trouble in Little China," and "They Live"). 

Carpenter has teased doing the score for the current "Halloween" since he announced he was involved in the project back in February 2017. This is his first involvement in a "Halloween" movie since 1998's "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later." On Friday, McBride still sounded confident that it's going to happen.

"Yeah, he still does," he said of Carpenter wanting to do the score. "I listen to his music all the time, it would be amazing to have him do it."

"Halloween" will open in theaters October 19, 2018.

SEE ALSO: The 100 best movies on Amazon Prime right now

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NOW WATCH: Here's what losing weight does to your body and brain

Facebook shut down a group that was planning to tank the 'Black Panther' Rotten Tomatoes audience score

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black panther

  • Facebook has removed an anti-Disney Facebook group that planned to sabotage the Rotten Tomatoes audience score for Marvel's upcoming film "Black Panther."
  • In December, the same group took credit for driving down the Rotten Tomatoes audience score for "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."
  • Rotten Tomatoes also denounced the group in a statement on Thursday.

 

Facebook has removed an anti-Disney Facebook group that planned to tank the Rotten Tomatoes audience score for Marvel's upcoming film "Black Panther." The same group took credit for sabotaging the Rotten Tomatoes audience score for "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" in December.

The group, titled "Down With Disney's Treatment of Franchises and its Fanboys," described itself as an advocate for the DC Extended Universe films and opposer of Marvel and Disney franchises. Earlier this week, a member of the group created an event labeled, "Give Black Panther a Rotten Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes," that drew over 3,700 participants, as The Hollywood Reporter notes.

Marvel Studio News on Friday posted a screenshot that showed Facebook had removed the group for violating the social network's "community standards." The link for the group's page is currently down.

Rotten Tomatoes previously denounced the group on Thursday with the following statement:

"We at Rotten Tomatoes are proud to have become a platform for passionate fans to debate and discuss entertainment and we take that responsibility seriously. While we respect our fans’ diverse opinions, we do not condone hate speech. Our team of security, network and social experts continue to closely monitor our platforms and any users who engage in such activities will be blocked from our site and their comments removed as quickly as possible." 

"Black Panther," which opens February 16 nationwide, set a pre-sale ticket record for all superhero movies this week while receiving laudatory advance reviews from critics, ahead of the film's February 6 critical embargo. 

SEE ALSO: These are the 19 most popular YouTube stars in the world — and some are making millions

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NOW WATCH: SpaceX is about to launch its monster Mars rocket for the first time — here's how it stacks up against other rockets


Here’s how to play HQ Trivia, the smartphone game from a red-hot startup rumored to be worth $100 million

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  • Vine's creators are behind HQ Trivia, a unique trivia-style app that around 60,000 people play twice a day.
  • HQ Trivia is run like a game show, with two live game sessions each day at 3pm ET and 6pm ET. Winners are allotted real cash prizes, and it's free to participate.
  • The company behind the app is reportedly raising $15 million at a $100 million valuation from Peter Thiel's VC firm, Founders Fund.

HQ Trivia is quickly becoming one of the most buzz-worthy gaming apps on the market: a trivia-styled, fast-paced mashup of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and 'Jeopardy' for the internet age. On Friday, Recode reported that the company behind the app was raising $15 million at a $100 million valuation from Peter Thiel's venture capital firm, Founders Fund.

HQ Trivia doesn't work like other gaming apps you might have played: it's free to play, but hands out real cash prizes if you win. Another big difference from its competition is that you can't play whenever you'd like: You can only play HQ Trivia twice a day, when the app streams a video with a live game show host who rattles off questions in real time against a swirling polka-dot background 

firstimageThe app sends push notifications when the game is about to start; everyday at 3 p.m. ET and 9 p.m ET. There's a countdown, and then the round begins with a series of multiple-choice questions that draw from historical events, literary devices, celebrity knowledge, and more. The few times I played, I wasn't able to get beyond the fifth question, but other players were luckier: one game divvied up $1,000 between 8 winners (that's $125 per person), and the app's co-founder, Rus Yusupov, has plans to up the ante. "I'd love to give away a million dollars someday," Yusupov told Business Insider.

This isn't Yusupov's first foray into video apps ―  he was a key player in the development of Vine in 2012. One of Vine's co-founders, Colin Kroll, also joined Yusupov's venture into gaming, and Yusupov says the hype surrounding HQ Trivia is similar to the success Vine experienced early on. 

You'll typically find about 60,000 players tuning into a single game on HQ Trivia, with varying cash prizes awarded. 

Here's how HQ Trivia works:

All you'll need to sign up for HQ Trivia is a unique username and your phone number. The app will prompt you to allow notifications when you sign up, which is recommended if you don't want to miss out on future games.



Each day at 3pm ET and 9pm ET, there's a notification and a countdown begins. Players can participate in the strolling chat at the bottom of the screen while they wait for the game to begin.



You'll find the number of participants indicated in the upper left of the screen. When the game is about to start, the host welcomes the players Wheel of Fortune-style.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

9 habits of unsuccessful people

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upset man sad stress

• Nobody's perfect — most of us have picked up a bad habit or two at some point.

• Most of the time, a bad habit won't wreck your whole life.

• Still, it's probably best to avoid these success-sabotaging tendencies.



Bad habits may not seem like a big deal on their own, but sometimes they can seriously drag you down in your life and career.

Of course, no one is perfect. In most cases, bad habits only result in relatively minor problems. So if you recognize one of these compulsions as your own, you probably have nothing to worry about.

However, in more extreme cases, certain tendencies can actually thwart you dreams of success.

Here are the top nine habits of unsuccessful people:

SEE ALSO: I spent a week skipping breakfast and working out for 2 hours a day just like Gwyneth Paltrow — and it helped me break some of my worst habits

1. You're always tardy

Sure, things happen, but consistent tardiness is typically unacceptable in a professional setting. Showing up late makes you look careless and unreliable.

As Laura Schocker wrote for the Huffington Post, one San Francisco State University study linked " chronic lateness and certain personality characteristics, including anxiety, low self-control and a tendency toward thrill-seeking."



2. You hold grudges

You don't need to walk around singing kumbaya. It's fine and normal to dislike and distrust certain people in your life.

But holding intense grudges is just a waste of your valuable time and energy. In an article for Web MD, Mike Fillon cited one Hope College study that found that holding a grudge can even have negative health effects.

So learn to let things go.



3. You conform

Conforming was a survival tactic in middle school, but you're an adult with a career now. Stop caring intently about what others think and falling in line just for the sake of getting along. Do what works for you.

If you devote all your time to blending in, you'll never stand out.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

We tried the alcohol diet Tom Brady put Rob Gronkowski on, and it was a lot harder than we imagined

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Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski

Rob Gronkowski, in an effort to extend his NFL career, spent this past offseason working on a new training program.

To do that, he turned to two people who know a thing or two about a long NFL career — Tom Brady and his fitness guru, Alex Guerrero.

In addition to resistance bands to strengthen Gronk's core, and deep-tissue massages to help with blood flow, Gronk incorporated elements of Brady's strict diet, according to Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald.

One of the key elements for the famous party boy was an alcohol diet that lets you keep drinking, but with a big catch.

We tried the plan, and it worked. But it was also a lot harder than we ever imagined.

Here's how it works:

Guerrero runs Brady's "TB12 Sports Therapy Center at Patriot Place" and the pair are behind Brady's new book, "The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance," a book that is being described "the athletes' bible."

READ MORE: Tom Brady's first book is being described as 'The athletes' Bible' and is expected to outline Brady's formula for success



While Gronk incorporated elements of Brady's strict diet, he was not quite to Brady's level. So no avocado ice cream yet.

Source: Boston Herald



One twist to the regimen was that Brady does not drink alcohol, so they had to come up with a plan that would allow Gronk to keep drinking.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

I scheduled my days like Donald Trump for a week — and it gave me new respect for his energy

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Donald Trump Salute Salutes

On Wednesday, January 17, 2018, I officially became the president of the United States.

Well, not officially. That day marked the first in a one-week experiment in which I tried out Donald Trump's daily routine.

Axios and The New York Times had reported on different aspects of Trump's schedule. I scoured the articles for details about what time he wakes up and goes to bed, what time he starts work, and how he spends the time when he's not in meetings — then tried to copy everything for five workdays.

Now that it's all over, I'm left wondering how Trump has so much energy — both physically, because he reportedly only sleeps four hours a night, and mentally, because he reportedly watches at least four hours of cable news every day.

Here's how my week went:

SEE ALSO: I tried Trump's daily routine for a week — and I don't know how he does it

The experiment

Trump's daily schedule breaks down into a few different components.

  • Sleep: Trump reportedly rises at 5:30 a.m. after sleeping about four to five hours, meaning he goes to bed after midnight.
  • Starting the workday: He's said to take his first meeting of the day at 11 a.m.
  • "Executive time": Trump reportedly starts his day with executive time, which includes watching cable news (either "Fox and Friends" or MSNBC's "Morning Joe"), making phone calls, and tweeting.
  • Watching the news: After dinner at 6:30 p.m., Trump may watch another few hours of cable news, meaning he consumes at least four hours a day.

It didn't seem like such a taxing routine. But it was.



Wednesday

I woke up like a champ to a 5:30 a.m. alarm and promptly set myself up with my laptop on the couch. Unlike the president, I don't have cable TV, so I'd planned to watch the news online. CBS has a livestream, so that was my first stop.

About an hour later, I woke up again. Apparently I'd fallen asleep again while watching the news. Fail. I brewed a big cup of black tea and returned to my presidential duties.

Though I wasn't technically due at the office until 11 a.m., I had a call at 10:40, so I scurried in just before.

A recurring theme throughout this experiment was guilt — specifically, about coming in later and leaving earlier than all my coworkers. On the first day of the experiment, I didn't leave the office until about 6:30 p.m., partly because I still had work to do and partly because most of my teammates were still working.

After dinner with a friend, I returned home and set myself up on the couch for another few hours of news-watching. This time, I tuned into Fox. Somewhere around 11:30 p.m., I drifted off with my computer still on my lap.

 



Thursday

I sprung out of bed when my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. and immediately went to make tea. Falling asleep on the job is for slackers, right?

The dose of caffeine was, it turns out, just the kick in the pants I needed. For the next few hours, I toggled between watching "Fox and Friends," preparing a to-do list for the workday ahead, and reading The New York Times.

Call me a stereotypical millennial, but I found it difficult to resist multitasking while the news was on. Maybe if Ainsley Earhardt had been talking about me instead of Trump, I would have paid closer attention.

The workday went surprisingly smoothly. I cranked out a few articles, transcribed an interview, and had a phone call with a source.

At 6 p.m. I really did need to leave — not only was I on Trump time, but I had to make a 6:30 p.m. appointment in midtown. Panic struck. I frantically messaged my editor asking if it was OK for me to head out — to which she replied "of course."

By the time I got home, I was exhausted, so I watched about 30 minutes of Fox and went to sleep, feeling guilty about that, too.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

I tried Tom Brady's vegan meal-kit delivery service and learned I don't have what it takes to cook for the greatest quarterback

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Tom Brady

Tom Brady, 40, is the greatest quarterback in football history, according to the NFL, sports bloggers, and this New England-bred sports fan. The five-time Super Bowl champ didn't reach peak condition at an age when most players have already retired by eating chips and dip.

Brady owes his longevity to an intense diet and workout plan, which the GOAT touts in his new book, "The TB12 Method." Vegetables make up 80% of what he and his supermodel-wife Gisele Bündchen eat, along with whole grains, nuts, and lean meats.

In 2016, Purple Carrot, a meal-kit delivery service that serves 100% plant-based foods, partnered with Brady to bring meals based on the way he eats to customers. Using the guidelines laid out in his book, TB12 Performance Meals deliver aim to "help athletes and active individuals stay at their peak" — just like the GOAT. (Though Brady is not a vegan.)

For $78 a week, subscribers receive three meals with two servings of each. I recently tried the TB12 Performance Meals for two weeks. Here's what it was like.

SEE ALSO: We tried the clothes Tom Brady uses to help him sleep better and recover faster after games — and they work surprisingly well

SEE ALSO: We tried the alcohol diet Tom Brady put Rob Gronkowski on, and it was a lot harder than we imagined

My first delivery from Purple Carrot and TB12 came with its own locker-room pep talk plastered on the side of the box.

"What we get out of our bodies is a direct result of what we put in. Food is your fuel, and we believe that food can help you achieve and sustain your peak performance," the box read.



When I opened it up, I found this "hand-written" note from the Super Bowl champ himself.



I was feeling jazzed. I'm a carnivore, but I've been wanting to cut down on my meat consumption for animal welfare-related reasons. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

While Brady eats lean red meat and chicken in limited quantities, Purple Carrot offers only plant-based, vegan meals. Andy Levitt, CEO and founder of Purple Carrot, hopes that the partnership with the football player turns more everyday consumers on to plant-based diets.

"Tom has shown the world what is possible by being a part-time plant-based eater," Levitt said.

I was about to find out.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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