Apple's push into original TV programming is set to explode — at some point in the near future. 

The company had a brief, initial run of shows last summer with the release of the unscripted series "Planet of the Apps" and "Carpool Karaoke." 

But Apple drastically shifted its course in June when it hired former Sony Pictures Television presidents Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg to head its original programming.

Since then, the company has announced the production or development of 12 original, scripted series — including a biographical drama on NBA all-star Kevin Durant's youth, and its first animated show, from the creator of "Bob's Burgers."

None of those 12 upcoming series has a release date yet.

Here are the 14 original shows that Apple is producing in its massive push into TV: 

SEE ALSO: The 50 best TV show seasons of all time, according to critics

UPCOMING:

"Amazing Stories"

The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Apple's first move under its new programming heads, Van Amburg and Erlicht, would be to revive Steven Spielberg's sci-fi and horror anthology series "Amazing Stories," which aired on NBC in the late 1980s. 

WSJ reported that Apple signed a deal with Spielberg's Amblin Television and Universal Television to produce 10 new episodes of the series, with Bryan Fuller (the creator of NBC's "Hannibal") as its showrunner.

Fuller left the series in February, however. A source told Variety that Fuller parted "amicably," and that Fuller's vision for the show did not match the "more family-friendly approach" that Apple reportedly sought.

Untitled Reese Witherspoon/Jennifer Aniston morning show drama series

In November, Apple announced that it ordered two ten-episode seasons of a drama series that is set in the world of morning-TV talk shows and stars Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. 

Variety reported that the series will draw from CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter's 2013 book "Top of the Morning," which recounted the morning-TV rivalry between NBC's "Today" and ABC's "Good Morning America."

Jay Carson ("House of Cards") is writing the pilot and will serve as showrunner. It will be produced by Michael Ellenberg's Media Res studio, Aniston's Echo Films, and Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine production company.

• Costco, Sam's Club, and BJ's Wholesale are similar membership-based warehouse stores that offer a wide variety of products and services.
• The only significant difference between Sam's Club and Costco is the cost of membership — Sam's Club costs $15 less annually.
• BJ's differs from the other two stores in a few ways, including the presence of a self-checkout option and the lack of a food court. BJ's locations used to have food courts, but most are being replaced by Dunkin' Donuts kiosks.
• I went to a Costco and Sam's Club in New York and a BJ's in New Jersey and found that the costs were comparable, but BJ's would rank lowest because it didn't have as much to offer.

Costco, Sam's Club, and BJ's Wholesale are membership-based warehouse stores selling groceries, clothing, furniture, and, well, lots of other stuff.

All three stores offer eye and ear exams, a pharmacy, one-hour photo services, and either a food court or kiosk at affordable prices. Even the return policies are similar, though BJ's stops accepting items after a year, while Costco and Sam's Club will do so for most items at any time.

After visiting all three stores, I found that aside from the cost of membership, Costco and Sam's Club were very similar, while BJ's seemed as if it was struggling to catch up.

Costco's yearly membership is $60, while BJ's comes in second at $55 and Sam's Club is the least expensive at $45. The annual cost of premium memberships ranked similarly, with Costco costing $120, BJ's $110, and Sam's Club $100.

According to a grocery-store ranking from Consumer Reports, the higher membership costs at Costco might be worth it — it ranked higher than Sam's Club and BJ's in cleanliness, meat and produce quality, customer service, store-brand quality, and prices of organic items.

BJ's ranked higher than Sam's Club in just two categories: healthy organic options and checkout speed.

To see for myself which store offered the best deal, I went to a BJ's Wholesale in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Costco and Sam's Club stores in Westchester County, New York. Here's what I found.

SEE ALSO: These were the biggest menu flops in fast food

During my visit to the BJ's store in Jersey City, I found that a membership was $55 a year for the basic plan and $110 a year for premium, falling between Costco's and Sam's Club's prices. No one checked for my membership here — nonmembers can use a guest pass to shop, but they'll have to pay a 20% service fee at most locations.

Tech items were at the front of the store, and prices ranged from $500 to $2,000 for things like TVs.

BJ's snacks were all sold in bulk, but the variety felt relatively small. There was more candy than snacks, and the produce selection was smaller than I would find at a Costco or Sam's Club.

• Meghan Markle is engaged to Prince Harry. 
• Prince Harry said in an interview that Markle and Princess Diana would be "best friends," if his mother were still alive. 
• Markle and the late princess have a number of things in common, from a love of fashion to a dedication to humanitarian work. 

Meghan Markle has more in common with Princess Diana than immediately meets the eye. 

In November, news broke that Prince Harry was engaged to marry American actress Meghan Markle. The prince designed Markle's engagement ring himself, using two diamonds from the jewelry collection of his late mother, Princess Diana. 

When asked what his mother would have thought of Markle, Prince Harry told the BBC that he thought she would have been "best friends with Meghan." 

"Oh, they'd be thick as thieves, without question," Harry said. "I think she would be over the moon, jumping up and down, you know so excited for me."

Taking a closer look at the pair, it's clear why the prince believes they would be best friends. And, since the engagement, Markle has been paying homage to her late mother-in-law. 

SEE ALSO: Meghan Markle just proved her dominance over Kate Middleton — and it could be worth up to $1.4 billion to the British economy

Diana's and Markle's lives started very differently.

Diana was born in 1961, into the Spencer family, a British aristocratic family with royal ancestry. She grew up on the grounds of Queen Elizabeth's private estate, Sandringham, in Norfolk. 

Markle, meanwhile, was born in Los Angeles in 1981.

Markle comes from a more modest background. Her mother, Doria Ragland, is a yoga instructor and clinical therapist, while her father, Thomas W. Markle is a lighting director, the Telegraph reported. Ragland is African-American, and Markle is Caucasian. 

Both Markle and Diana's parents split when their daughters were young. Diana's parents separated in a high-profile case when she was six years old, and Markle's separated when she was just two.

Markle's and Diana's paths to a royal engagement couldn't be more different.

Diana was just 16 when she met Prince Charles. According to The Daily Times, Charles — who was 28 at the time — was visiting the Spencer "ancestral home" and actually dating Diana's elder sister at the time. 

The pair didn't grow close until a few years later. In her late teens, Lady Diana was working low-paying jobs and living relatively simply, despite her aristocratic heritage. Before Charles proposed in 1981, Diana was working as an assistant kindergarten teacher and living in a London apartment with three other women.

• Ikea acquired TaskRabbit, a company that links customers to handymen, in September 2017.
• The service was initially piloted in two of its West Coast stores.
• It will now be rolled out nationwide.

Ikea just made life much easier for DIY novices. 

In September, the Scandinavian furniture chain acquired TaskRabbit, a company that lets users hire temporary workers to deliver purchases, clean homes, and even assemble furniture. The service was first rolled out to customers in two Ikea stores in California, in Emeryville and East Palo Alto.

It's now being rolled out nationwide, CNBC reported Tuesday.

This means that shoppers can hire a "tasker" from the TaskRabbit app and website or through an Ikea employee in-store once they have purchased the products. Customers will be able to select the Ikea products they have bought from a list and get a quote on how much they cost to assemble.

Ikea already has an official partnership with TaskRabbit in the UK. The program offers fixed pricing for customers seeking someone to assemble furniture purchased from Ikea — a famously tricky task. 

The new service enables Ikea stores to compete with furniture-selling rivals such as Wayfair and Amazon. 

"The purchase of TaskRabbit was fueled by Ikea's need to bolster its digital customer service capabilities to better compete with rivals like Amazon, which has stepped up its home goods and installation offerings," Recode reported before the deal had been officially announced last year. "The purchase is Ikea's first step into the on-demand platform space."

The TaskRabbit contractors are vetted by the company. TaskRabbit said it will continue to operate as an independent company and will offer its services to other customers.

SEE ALSO: Amazon is killing these 8 industries

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• The Plaza Hotel in New York is one of the most famous luxury hotels in the world.
• The Beekman was recently named the #1 rated hotel in New York by U.S. News & World Report.
• We stayed at both hotels to see which deserves the title of best hotel in New York City.
• The Plaza offered a more seamless luxury experience for a vacationer, while The Beekman was better suited for business travelers. 

New York City is one of the most popular cities in the world to visit, and it's only becoming more so. In November, NYC & Company, the city's tourism agency, estimated that the number of tourists visiting the city last year had increased to a record 61.8 million people.

It is expected to be the eighth straight year that tourism hits a new high in the city.

As a lifelong New Yorker, it's little surprise. Few other cities conjure the same starry-eyed gaze no matter where you are in the world. As author Joan Didion once wrote, New York is "no mere city. It was instead an infinitely romantic notion, the mysterious nexus of all love and money and power ..."

There are few places in New York that evoke that romantic ideal more than The Plaza Hotel, called when it opened in 1907 "the greatest hotel in the world." Even today, tourists from all over the globe come to stay at The Plaza for a taste of old New York luxury. 

But as the city has developed, so has the hotel scene. In February, U.S. News & World Report announced that The Beekman, a boutique downtown hotel that opened in 2016, was the #1 hotel in the city. 

I recently stayed at both hotels to see how they stacked up. While there are any number of ways these two hotels could be compared, we settled on: location, overall decor and style, architecture, communal spaces, check-in process, bedrooms, bathrooms, shower, bed, hotel bar, dining options, gym + amenities, internet, in-room entertainment, and attention to detail.

Keep reading to see which hotel emerged as the winner.

SEE ALSO: Here's what it's like to stay at New York City's No. 1 ranked hotel, which has a dynamite cocktail bar and beautiful decor

SEE ALSO: I stayed at New York’s most iconic luxury hotel that charges up to $50,000 a night and was once owned by Donald Trump

There are some 250+ hotels in New York City, but The Plaza is by far the most iconic. The unabashedly luxurious hotel has been featured in dozens of movies and books, and was for decades the place in Manhattan to see and be seen if you were rich or famous.

The Beekman opened in 2016 after a multi-year effort to renovate and restore the historic Temple Court building. Since its opening, it has received rave reviews.

The Plaza is adjacent to Central Park in midtown Manhattan. Meanwhile, The Beekman is located in the heart of the Financial District. Business travelers will appreciate The Beekman's proximity to Wall Street, while vacationers will no doubt be taken with The Plaza's view of Central Park. I give a slight edge to The Plaza because Wall Street is a ghost town at night.

It's still winter in most of the United States, but spring television shows are quickly coming our way, which means that no matter how much better the weather gets, you still have plenty of valid reasons to stay inside. 

We put together a list of all the notable new and returning shows coming in the next couple months, and let you know whether or not you should watch them.

The lineup for spring 2018 is pretty promising, but thankfully isn't overwhelming with shows you must watch. Some of the best dramas are starting new seasons including HBO's "Westworld," Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale," and the final season of FX's "The Americans."

Spring 2018 isn't bringing us that many new shows to be excited about, besides  FX's drama "Trust" starring Donald Sutherland, Brendan Fraser, and Hillary Swank. It's a show about the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, but unlike "All the Money in the World," Christopher Plummer will not be replacing anyone in it at the last minute. 

Here are all of the notable shows premiering in Spring 2018, and whether or not you should watch them:

SEE ALSO: 'The Last Jedi' crew set fire to a nearly 60-foot high model tree for that Yoda-Skywalker scene — 30 times

March

"Rise" — NBC

March 13

Should you watch it: If you like musicals and shows that toy with your emotions like "This Is Us," yes. 

"For the People" — ABC

March 13

Should you watch it: Skip it. There's a lot of legal dramas, and this one doesn't stand out. 

Activists lined up 7,000 pairs of empty children's shoes outside the US Capitol on Tuesday.

The stunning display commemorates the estimated amount of children killed by guns since a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

The display comes just one day ahead of a planned nationwide school walkout honoring the victims of last month's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Students across the country plan to walk out of their classrooms for 17 minutes to commemorate the 17 students and staff members who were killed in the February 14 massacre.

The memorial was set up by Avaaz, a group that mobilizes activists largely through online campaigns and petitions. Here's what it looks like on the lawn:

SEE ALSO: 'Please help us': A letter to the business community from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas survivors

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Dozens of activists stood in front of the shoes on Tuesday, holding signs with slogans like "#NOTONEMORE" and "7000 KIDS KILLED"

Source: Reuters

Researchers have estimated that 1,300 children in the US die each year after being shot, and another 5,790 are injured.

Source: Pediatrics

Avaaz came up with the 7,000 figure by multiplying the estimated rate of fatalities by the five years and three months that have passed since the Sandy Hook shooting in December 2012.

Source: NBC 4 Washington

• The burning tree scene in "The Last Jedi" was a practical effect — they really lit a fake tree on fire.
• It took months to build the tree, and close to 25 separate gas lines were rigged to it to have the tree burn to director Rian Johnson's liking.
• Special effects supervisor Chris Corbould explained to Business Insider how the scene was pulled off.

In an era when you assume anything amazing that happens in a movie is courtesy of computer-generated imagery, it’s always exciting to learn when a memorable scene was pulled off by practical effects.

Since the “Star Wars” prequels, in which George Lucas was heavily criticized for using too much CGI to create the worlds and characters, many big-budget movies have tried to find that happy medium of practical and visual effects to give the action on screen a more grounded feel. And the now Disney-owned “Star Wars” saga is leading the way.

A perfect example is in “The Last Jedi” (available on digital release Tuesday, on Blu-ray/DVD March 27) when Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) attempts to burn down the giant tree that holds the sacred Jedi texts. It’s a scene that also features a Force ghost of Yoda.

When Skywalker tells the legendary Jedi master what he’s about to do, Yoda doesn't talk him out of it. But when Skywalker gets to the giant tree, with flame in hand, he can’t go through with it. This leads to Yoda summoning a giant lightening bolt that strikes the tree and engulfs it in flames. He then delivers his famous giddy laugh as Skywalker looks on in complete shock.

Almost all of that scene is done with practical effects. From the puppet of Yoda, voiced by Frank Oz, that Hamill traded lines with, to the enormous tree and giant flames shooting from it.

It was the handiwork of the movie’s special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, and one of the reasons why he recently received a visual effects Oscar nomination for “The Last Jedi.”

Responsible for some of the greatest visual effects pulled off on screen in the last 40 years, he’s done everything from James Bond movies like “Moonraker” and “GoldenEye,” to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and “Inception” (which he won an Oscar for). He’s now hit the effects industry mountain top with getting the “Star Wars” gig (he was also the effects supervisor on “The Force Awakens”) and the Yoda/Skywalker scene for him is one of his favorites.

There’s the nostalgia of seeing Luke and Yoda on screen again, but also the pride of pulling off a practical effect of this size.

“It was a tricky one,” Corbould admitted to Business Insider.

First, there was building the tree and rigging it to burn. Corbould said it took a couple of months for the construction crew on the movie to build the fireproof tree that was almost 60 feet high and close to 50 feet wide. It was so big that the tree could not be built on the set.

“They had to assemble it in various parts,” Corbould said.

So the tree was basically a very large Lego set. A piece of a trunk would be built on set, then another piece of the trunk would be brought in and attached to that. Then the multiple branches were attached one at a time.

After all that, close to 25 separate gas lines were put into the tree, each one with its own valve so Corbould and his team could adjust the flame to his and director Rian Johnson’s liking.

“It’s very easy to have it just burst into flames,” Corbould said. “Rian really wanted it to catch the light a little bit slower. So we had to spent quite a lot of testing time to bring the gas lines to a point where it looked like the flames were slowly creeping up and then totally enveloping the whole tree.”

The tree burning scene was shot over two nights with a crew of 20 people just responsible for the tree catching on fire. Most of the shots pre-fire were completed on the first night. The second night was for the shots after the tree was on fire, which included Hamill, the Yoda puppet, and Oz voicing the character in front of the giant burning tree. And it got hot — to the joy of everyone on set.

“When we shot the scene the nights were incredibly cold,” Corbould said. “I think the whole crew was happy when we lit that up.”

The tree was lit on fire close to 30 times by the time they wrapped on the scene, according to Corbould.

The special effects veteran laughed when he was told that many people probably think the tree fire scene is just another dazzling VFX feat by the wizards at Industrial Light and Magic.

“I think when you do something for real you get a much more convincing performance from the actors,” he said. “I think that’s why a lot of the directors — Chris [Nolan], Rian [Johnson], J.J. [Abrams] — they value those moments where you’ve got a real look of terror, anxiety, excitement on the faces of the actors.”

Corbould added that some of the excitement for him is seeing if a practical effect could even be pulled off.

He said he wasn’t completely confident he could pull off the 18-wheeler truck flip he did in “The Dark Knight.”

“There was a bit of banter between me and Chris Nolan,” he said. “Eventually we pulled it off.”

But in today’s moviemaking landscape, it’s what’s done on the VFX side that has really upped everyone’s game in the special effects profession.

“When CGI was first invented we all thought we're not going to have a job in five years,” Corbould said. “But what it actually did is it allowed films to do even bigger visual effects and we had to enhance what they did — whether it's an asteroid hitting the ground or blowing 10 cars up in the air. It's a great marriage these days. It's a combination of practical and visual effects to make that great film — that's what we're striving to do.”

Corbould's next task: Making our hearts melt for Winnie the Pooh in the upcoming Disney release, "Christopher Robin."

SEE ALSO: The amount of money The Rock gets paid for a single movie is unheard of in Today's movie business

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It seems like simple, obvious advice: Eat your vegetables, get some exercise, and — of course — take your vitamins.

Or not.

Decades of research has failed to find any substantial evidence that vitamins and supplements do any significant good. In fact, recent studies skew in the opposite direction, finding that certain vitamins may be bad for you.

Several supplements have been linked with an increase in certain cancers, for example, while others have been associated with a rise in the risk of kidney stones. Still others have been linked with an overall higher risk of death from any cause.

So here are the vitamins and supplements you should take — and the ones you should avoid:

SEE ALSO: These are the supplements that are the most likely to send you to the emergency room

DON'T MISS: The $37 billion supplement industry is barely regulated — and it's allowing dangerous products to slip through the cracks

Multivitamins: Skip them — you get everything you need with a balanced diet.

For decades, it was assumed that multivitamins were critical to overall health. Vitamin C to "boost your immune system;" vitamin A to protect your vision; vitamin B to keep you energized.

Not only do you already get these ingredients from the food you eat, but studies suggest that consuming them in excess can actually cause harm. A large 2011 study of close to 39,000 older women over 25 years found that women who took them in the long term actually had a higher overall risk of death than those who did not.

Vitamin D: Take it — It helps keep your bones strong and it's hard to get from food.

Vitamin D isn't present in most of the foods we eat, but it's a critical ingredient that keeps our bones strong by helping us absorb calcium. Getting sunlight helps our bodies produce it as well, but it can be tough to get enough in the winter. Several recent study reviews have found that people who took vitamin D supplements daily lived longer, on average, than those who didn't.

Antioxidants: Skip them — an excess of these has been linked to an increased risk of certain cancers, and you can eat berries instead.

Vitamins A, C, and E are antioxidants found in plentiful form in many fruits — especially berries — and veggies, and they've been touted for their alleged ability to protect against cancer.

But studies suggest that when taken in excess, antioxidants can actually be harmful. A large, long-term study of male smokers found that those who regularly took Vitamin A were more likely to get lung cancer than those who didn't. And a 2007 review of trials of several different types of antioxidant supplements put it this way: "Treatment with beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E may increase mortality."

Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are teaming up with Quentin Tarantino for the director's upcoming ninth film, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," Tarantino announced last month.

Pitt and DiCaprio were in talks to star in the film for weeks, but the contract negotiations for it were reportedly so "strenuous" that DiCaprio was ready to walk away from the project in January, sources told The Hollywood Reporter. 

Margot Robbie is currently in negotiations to play the role of actress Sharon Tate in the film, Deadline reported Tuesday.

Pitt previously worked with Tarantino on 2009's "Inglorious Basterds," and DiCaprio appeared in 2013's "Django Unchained."

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is set for release on August 9, 2019.

Here's everything we know about Tarantino's upcoming ninth film:

SEE ALSO: Quentin Tarantino's next film will be released by Sony following the Harvey Weinstein scandal

The film takes place in "Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood."

Tarantino described "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" in a statement on Wednesday, calling it, "a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a Western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don't recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor ... Sharon Tate."

In July 2017, early reports of the film described its script as focused on the murder of actress Sharon Tate by Charles Manson's followers. 

While Tarantino's most recent statement mentions Sharon Tate as a player in the movie, Tarantino previously said that the film would not center on Charles Manson, but on the year 1969.

It has been five years in the making.

Tarantino said on Wednesday that he had been working on the script for the film for half a decade.

"I’ve been working on this script for five years, as well as living in Los Angeles County most of my life, including in 1969, when I was seven years old," he said. "I’m very excited to tell this story of an L.A. and a Hollywood that don't exist anymore. And I couldn't be happier about the dynamic teaming of DiCaprio & Pitt as Rick & Cliff.”

It's a "Pulp Fiction-esque" movie

Deadline reported in January that the Leonardo DiCaprio would play an "aging actor" in a "'Pulp Fiction'-esque movie."

"Pulp Fiction," Tarantino's 1994 classic, told a collection of interconnected stories.

• A passenger's dog died on board a United Airlines flight Monday night.
• Another passenger says a flight attendant had instructed the pet's owner to store the carrier that held the dog in the overhead compartment.
• United has apologized.

United Airlines has apologized after a passenger's dog died Monday evening during a flight from Houston to New York's LaGuardia Airport.

Maggie Gremminger, who says she was a passenger on the flight, said the dog was traveling with a woman and her two children and was being kept in a TSA-approved dog carrier.

But Gremminger said in a photo on Facebook that a flight attendant forced the dog's owner to put the carrier and its occupant in the overhead compartment.

"Tonight I was on a plane where I witnessed a @united flight attendant instruct a passenger to place her dog carrier (with dog) in the overhead compartment," Gremminger said. "The passenger adamantly refused but the flight attendant went on with the instruction.

"At the end of the flight the dog was found dead in the carrier. I am heart broken right now. I didn't question the flight attendant but I could have. I assumed there must be ventilation as surely the flight attendant wouldn't have instructed this otherwise I heard the dog barking a little and we didn't realize it was barking a cry for help."

Gremminger told the travel blog One Mile at a Time: "By the end of the flight, the dog was dead. The woman was crying in the airplane aisle on the floor."

In a statement to Business Insider, United Airlines apologized:

"This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin. We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again."

The airline declined to comment on its in-cabin pet stowage policy and whether the passengers were compensated for their loss.

Last August, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Lulu died in the cargo hold of a United jet. And in May, a 3-foot-long rabbit named Simon was found dead after a United flight.

SEE ALSO: These are the 9 best airlines in America

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• Walmart's headquarters are located in Bentonville, Arkansas.
• The city has become a desirable destination as Walmart executives have relocated there.
• As a result, home values have gone up in recent years. 
• Bentonville has also become home to more trendy restaurants and a boutique hotel.

Since the Waltons first set foot in Bentonville in 1950, the quiet town has grown to become a cosmopolitan city with a modern art gallery, boutique hotel, artisan shops, and fancy restaurants — and the family that founded Walmart is mostly to thank for this. 

The presence of Walmart's headquarters here has driven up property prices in the area as company executives settle in the town and create a demand for luxury real estate. 

The average price for homes in downtown Bentonville has increased from $63 to $192 per square foot up in the past six years, according to a study done by the University of Arkansas and commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

See how the city has evolved as Walmart has grown: 

SEE ALSO: MEET THE WALTONS: How America's wealthiest family spends its Walmart fortune

Bentonville is in the northwest part of Arkansas. It's the ninth-largest city in the state, with a population of just over 47,000 people.

Source: US Census Bureau

The founder of Walmart, Sam Walton, moved to the city in 1950 and set up his Walton's 5 & 10 store. At the time, it was a quiet town, and the surrounding area was once known for its apple, poultry, and dairy production. Walton's original store still stands today and is part of the Walmart Museum, which was set up to educate visitors about the company's history.

Source: Walmart, Bentonville Chamber of Congress 

Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. By 1967, there were 24 locations in Arkansas. Three years later, the company went public.

• This Swiss bank executive left his job to start Tend, a blockchain company which sells partial ownership of luxury collectibles.
• Tend uses ethereum to prove partial ownership of valuable assets like collectible cars, wines, and even vineyards.
• The idea is that it will let people in emerging markets access the wealth made through the appreciation of expensive items, without having to own the entire thing.

Marco Abele believes that the next generation of wealthy people won't want to be tethered down to physical objects like cars and houses. 

That's the idea behind Tend, an ethereum blockchain project that will soon let investors buy a portion of a luxury item without owning the entire thing. 

"It's basically democratizing the access to very high value, precious assets, and making them available to a broader audience of the planet," said Abele, who was head of digital at Credit Suisse before leaving to launch Tend in August 2017. "I just find that a very beautiful purpose."

Among the items Tend plans to list: a classic Porsche, a whiskey collection, and two Italian vineyards. 

These items appreciate in value faster than traditional investments like stocks, Abele said. By splitting ownership among a dozen or so people, Tend lowers the barrier of entry to investors who may not be able to afford an entire luxury item. 

"They want to invest money more purposefully," Abele said. "And owning something like a very beautiful car collection or a watch collection has a lot deeper meaning for people than just owning a financial instrument."

Tend, which is headquartered in the crypto-valley of Zug, Switzerland, launched in August 2017 and held an initial coin offering to raise money in February. An alpha product is set to launch to 100 users in April before hitting the Swiss market in the third quarter of 2018.

Many of Tend's investors will be in emerging markets like Seoul, Mumbai, Sao Paolo and Mexico City, "where they work very hard, achieve a certain wealth but cannot afford to own such a beautiful object" in its entirety, Abele said. However, an international product won't be available until the end of 2019. 

Ethereum digitally proves ownership of Tend's material objects

Abele and his team verify the authenticity of all of the assets traded on the platform through third-party auditors, and they work with insurance companies just in case something terrible happens to one of the luxury goods.

Tend uses the ethereum blockchain to tokenize the luxury assets, making it possible for physical goods like classic cars and fine wines to be owned concurrently by multiple people. The same way someone can digitally hold a bitcoin, an investor could hold a certain number of tokens that represent equity in a certain item. 

If Tend ever goes bankrupt, Abele said, there will still be a legally binding contract publicly available on the blockchain which proves partial ownership of the object. 

Though technically owned by a dozen or so people, most of the goods are physically held by the person or party that decides to liquidate their investment on the Tend platform. 

While investors can't necessarily decide what happens to an object, every item listed on Tend comes with an associated experience. Investors in the 1955 Porsche, for example, can use the car for four days of private use, or to take it for a ride on a Porsche racetrack.

But at the end of the day, Tend is about longterm collectibles. You would never drink the precious wines or the whiskey collection, Abele said, because the point of investing is that the value appreciates over time.

Though blockchain didn't exist when the 1955 Porsche came out, Abele says he envision a future where artists and producers put their rare objects on the blockchain from day one, and create a fully traceable history of that item to prove its authenticity for the rest of time. 

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• Tiger Woods and his ex-wife, former Swedish model Elin Nordegren, divorced in 2010 after six years of marriage.
• In 2011, Nordegren purchased property in North Palm Beach, Florida, and custom built a mansion.
• The 11-bedroom mansion is now listed for $49.5 million.

Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegren, who was married to the pro golfer for six years, has placed her 11-bedroom Florida mansion on the market for $49.5 million. Woods and 38-year-old Nordegren divorced in 2010.

The property was purchased by Nordegren in 2011 for $12.25 million, and the custom-built mansion was completed in 2014.

The 23,176 square-foot oceanfront home is in Seminole Landing — a private, gated community in North Palm Beach, Florida. The property comes with 11 bedrooms, 15 full baths, a guest house, and a four-car garage.

Other perks inside include a wine cellar, theater, fitness center, a catering kitchen, and a three-story Swarovski crystal chandelier. The home is inspired by British West Indies architectural design, and if the beach doesn't impress, there's also a swimming pool equipped with a waterslide and spa, lounge areas with fire pits, a half basketball court, and a putting green.

The listing is held by Cristina Condon and Todd Peter of Sotheby's International Realty.

Keep scrolling for a full tour of the mansion.

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In total the mansion is 25,878 square feet.

The home sits on 1.4 acres of land.

The design was inspired by British West Indies architectural design.

• Saint Patrick was kidnapped from England at the age of 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland.

• He escaped after six years, only to return to convert Ireland to Christianity.

• The medieval saint continued to lead a dangerous life, as he came into conflict with local power-brokers.

• Today, we celebrate his feast day with green milkshakes, green rivers, green beer, green donuts, and binge drinking.

Saint Patrick is ostensibly the reason we wear green and consume 13 million pints of Guinness on March 17 every year.

Of course, typical modern St. Patrick's Day debaucheries don't have much to do with the fifth-century missionary behind the day itself.

In fact, Patrick — or Pádraig — actually led a life filled with problems far bigger than picking a good spot to day drink at a parade.

Patrick hailed from a Romano-British background. His dad was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest, but he wasn't very religious growing up.

As he writes in his "Confession," that changed when he was about 16 years old. Patrick was attacked and kidnapped by Irish pirates who had broken into his family's villa.

He was sold into slavery in Ireland. Patrick credited the experience with renewing his religious faith.

"After I arrived in Ireland, I tended sheep every day, and I prayed frequently during the day," he wrote.

Six years passed by before Patrick said he heard a voice telling him to return home. He escaped and walked 200 miles to a port, where he found a ship preparing to leave for England.

"I said I needed to set sail with them, but the captain was not at all pleased," he wrote. "He replied unpleasantly and angrily: 'Don’t you dare try to come with us.'"

Later on, the captain apparently had a change of heart.

"I began to pray while I was going; and before I even finished the prayer, I heard one of them shout aloud at me: 'Come quickly — those men are calling you!' I turned back right away, and they began to say to me: 'Come — we’ll trust you. Prove you’re our friend in any way you wish.'"

Despite almost starving on the journey, Patrick made it back home, became a cleric in continental Europe, and then headed back to Ireland as a missionary.

His life didn't get less weird from there. As a foreigner, he was not plugged into the land's kinship networks and would therefore receive limited legal protections, according to "The Irish in Early Medieval Europe."

He also clashed with local power-brokers, possibly even writing an open letter chastising one for selling some of his followers into slavery. Patrick reported getting robbed, beaten, accused of financial fraud, arrested, and nearly executed over the course of his career.

Legends have him battling armies of witches and druids, turning his walking stick into a tree, and banishing the snakes from Ireland (although those reptiles were probably just a metaphor for Ireland's polytheistic roots). He supposedly died on March 17, which became his feast day.

Today, Patrick is Ireland's primary patron saint (a role which he shares with St. Brigit of Kildare and St. Columba), and also has a pretty long and random list of patronages, including engineers, paralegals, Nigeria, Montserrat, the Archdioceses of New York, Newark, Missouri, Murcia, Melbourne, and Loíza, and Rolla.

And, of course, he's invoked against snakes.

SEE ALSO: The ancient story behind Valentine's Day is more brutal than romantic

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• Eddie Redmayne has paid tribute to Stephen Hawking, who died at the age of 76 on Wednesday.
• Redmayne won an Oscar for his portrayal of Hawking in the 2014 film "The Theory of Everything."
• He called him an "astonishing scientist" and "the funniest man" he ever met.

Hollywood star Eddie Redmayne, who received an Oscar for his portrayal of scientist Stephen Hawking in the 2014 film "The Theory of Everything," has paid tribute to "the funniest man" he ever met.

Hawking, known for explaining the Big Bang and black holes in his book "A Brief History of Time," died at the age of 76 on Wednesday morning. 

Despite having amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease that impaired his motor functions, confined him to a wheelchair, and made him dependent on a computerised voice system in order to communicate, he went on to become a mathematics professor, and eventually the director of research at the University of Cambridge's Center for Theoretical Cosmology.

According to The Telegraph, Redmayne, who met Hawking while preparing for his Oscar-winning role, said: "We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet.

"My love and thoughts are with his extraordinary family."

Redmayne had previously said that meeting Hawking was "one of the great moments of [his] life."

"When Stephen saw the film, I was rehearsing so I couldn't see him beforehand but I saw him just after he went in and I said 'hey Stephen I'm very nervous, but please do let me know what you think,'" he said.

"He took a while to respond and said in his iconic voice: 'I will let you know what I think, good or otherwise.'"

Luckily, he said Hawking was "so nice" after viewing the film.

In a post on his Facebook page, the scientist even commended the actor.

"I thought Eddie Redmayne portrayed me very well in The Theory of Everything Movie," he wrote. "He spent time with ALS sufferers so he could be authentic. At times, I thought he was me.

"Seeing the film has given me the opportunity to reflect on my life. Although I’m severely disabled, I have been successful in my scientific work. I travel widely and have been to Antarctica and Easter Island, down in a submarine and up on a zero gravity flight. One day I hope to go into space.

He concluded: "I’ve been privileged to gain some understanding of the way the universe operates through my work. But it would be an empty universe indeed without the people that I love."

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Though I was born in Canada and grew up in the Great White North, I was raised by Brits, and having now lived in London for nearly five years, I consider the UK my home.

I've travelled quite a bit and am always up for exploring a new place or way of life, so after Business Insider España launched in December, I jumped at the opportunity to spend two weeks in Madrid getting to know the Spanish team.

While it may only be a two-hour plane ride, the experience was pretty eye-opening.

I'd been to Madrid before, just once a few years ago, but my knowledge was essentially limited to cerveza, tapas, siestas, and sunshine. What I didn't realise was that the laid-back attitude translates into the working world, too.

From late, long, carb-heavy lunches to a sleek alternative to Uber, scroll down to see everything that surprised me about everyday life in Spain.

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The Spaniards take their lunch incredibly late — 2 p.m. at the earliest, but often later. As someone who eats constantly, this was a shock to the system on my first day, when I didn't bring lunch to work.

Most of them eat at the exact same time so they can chat and catch up (for at least an hour), meaning the office was often left empty. Nobody eats lunch al-desko.

There is bread involved in every single meal. At lunch, loaves of broad are often passed around for people to enjoy with their food. Anyone with a gluten-free diet would struggle.

• Tennis ace Maria Sharapova has been attacked on social media after posing with a US flag.
• The 30-year-old posted a photo of herself standing with her mother in front of a an artwork of the flag at an art exhibition.
• Instagram followers criticised Sharapova of "not having the guts to pose with a Russian flag."

Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova has suffered a social media backlash after posing with a US flag.

The five-time tennis major champion posed for a photograph at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, arm-in-arm with her mother and standing in front of an artwork of the Star-Spangled Banner.

After posting the image, Sharapova was subjected to vitriolic abuse as followers accused her, mostly in Russian, of not having the courage to "pose with a Russian flag" and of "only showing patriotism" when it suited her.

One user commented in English: "It's pathetic that you're cheering for 'American' tennis champion who acts under the Russian flag and clothes, listens to the Russian anthem and denies the US passport."

Here's the photograph:

The 30-year-old has been a US resident since 1994, but competes for Russia, even representing the country at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

She was Russia's official flag bearer at the opening ceremony and went on to win a silver medal in the women's singles event.

This is hardly the first time Sharapova has come under fire in recent years.

In 2016, the tennis star was banned from competing for two years after testing positive for meldonium, a banned substance. However, her sentence was reduced on appeal and she returned to the WTA Tour in 2017.

Most recently, Sharapova played at the Indian Wells Open in California but was knocked out of the opening round by Naomi Osaka on March 8.

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This week, "Black Panther" became one of the 33 movies in history to make $1 billion at the global box office.

It also accomplished this feat in under a month, which only 12 other films have ever done. 

"Black Panther" joins several other Marvel films on this list, which we ranked by the days it took each film to gross $1 billion worldwide.

We used each film's gross on the day it passed $1 billion to break any ties. 

Here are the 13 movies that made $1 billion at the global box office in less than a month:

SEE ALSO: Only 33 movies have ever hit $1 billion at the box office — here they are

13. "Beauty and the Beast" — 29 days

Release date: March 17, 2017

Date it crossed $1 billion:April 12, 2017

Box office total: $1,263,521,126

12. "Captain America: Civil War" — 24 days

Release date: April 27, 2016

Date it crossed $1 billion: May 20, 2016

Box office total: $1,153,304,495
 

11. "Black Panther" — 24 days

Release date: February 16, 2018

Date it crossed $1 billion:March 11, 2018

Box office total (so far): $1,079,891,584
 

Every dog owner knows the telltale look of a dog who did something it wasn't supposed to do.

Maybe she pooped on the floor. Maybe she chewed through your favorite couch cushion, or the carpet on the stairs.

You know she did something she shouldn't have done and, seemingly, she does too. Since you're a human being, you see that look and ascribe a common human emotion to it: guilt.

All the logic lines up: Your dog was left alone, did something they weren't supposed to do (that they know better than to do), and when they're called on it, their face says it all. Perhaps you're already saying "No! Bad dog! Bad dog!" or some variation thereof.

The truth is, despite your logical summation, the dog isn't feeling guilt. Instead, they're expressing a much more common, less complex emotion: fear. 

Don't just take my word for it: That assertion is based on a 2009 study conducted by dog cognition scientist Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, author of 2009's "Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know" and 2016's "Being a Dog: Following the Dog Into a World of Smell." 

Dr. Horowitz's 2009 study, "Disambiguating the 'guilty look': salient prompts to a familiar dog behavior," specifically focuses on the concept of how humans interpret dog emotions through the scope of human emotion. More simply: Humans tend to misattribute dog emotions based on human emotions. The "guilty" look is a prime example of this.

"I look at a dog showing the guilty look and it feels guilty to me. It does! We're kind of wired to see it this way, so it's nobody's fault," Dr. Horowitz told Business Insider.  

The look is distinct: The dog cowers, showing the whites of its eyes while looking up at you. Maybe it pins its ears back to its head, yawns, or licks the air. These are all characteristic signs of fear in a dog — signs that us humans tend to misattribute as guilt.

Horowitz's 2009 study is a clear demonstration of how humans tend to anthropomorphize their dogs. Here's how the study went, and what it revealed, based on the abstract:

• "Trials varied the opportunity for dogs to disobey an owner's command to not eat a desirable treat while the owner was out of the room, and varied the owners' knowledge of what their dogs did in their absence."
• "The results revealed no difference in behaviors associated with the guilty look. By contrast, more such behaviors were seen in trials when owners scolded their dogs. The effect of scolding was more pronounced when the dogs were obedient, not disobedient."
• "These results indicate that a better description of the so-called guilty look is that it is a response to owner cues, rather than that it shows an appreciation of a misdeed."

To put that a bit more succinctly, the study found that dogs demonstrating a "guilty" look were actually demonstrating fear of scolding ("owner cues") rather than guilt ("an appreciation of a misdeed"). 

So, do dogs experience guilt? Maybe, maybe not.

"It seems unlikely that they have the same types of thinking about thinking that we do, because of their really different brains, but in most ways dogs brains are more similar to ours than dissimilar," Dr. Horowitz said.

That first bit is especially important — the concept of "thinking about thinking," sometimes known as "executive function" — because it means dogs aren't likely to reflect on their past actions and decide they've done something wrong.

"There is some work showing that some animals are planning for the future and remember specific episodes in the past," Horowitz said. "With dogs, there's not as much evidence yet. Which isn't to say that they don't, but it's to say that it's really hard to design experiments around it."

Dogs have memories, of course, but thinking about those memories in the same way human memories work is likely wrong.

"They're not remembering it in language," Horowitz said. "They don't talk about it. Do they think about it, when they're lying on the couch waiting for you to get home? We don't know. We would love to know that, but we don't know."

Lacking the scientific studies to explain how dogs experience emotion and memory, we instead turn to our own anthropomorphisms.

"When you adopted your dog, and suddenly you're living with a dog, within a week we have opinions about the dog's personality, what they're like and what they're thinking. It's a way to try to predict what's gonna happen next with an organism that we don't really know," Horowitz said. "So we use the language of human explanation, and we just put it on the dog."

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