It's truly incredible what human beings can do when they are pushed to their limits.

And no other genre of literature proves this quite like non-fiction survival books.

The following eight stories are all true accounts from survivors of natural disasters and tragic accidents that illustrate just how enduring the human spirit can be.

"Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors" by Piers Paul Read

On October 13, 1972, an Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a team of rugby players and their families crashed in the Andes. For ten weeks, the 45 people on the plane lived in the shelter of the wreckage without food and waiting to be rescued.

Eventually, after an avalanche and with more than half of their party dead, two of the young men hiked for 10 days across the mountains to alert authorities. Author Piers Paul Read interviewed the 16 survivors for this harrowing tale.

"Touching The Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival" by Joe Simpson

This is the story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, two climbing partners who had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. A blizzard began, and Yates was forced to cut the rope that bound him and Simpson so that he would not be pulled to his own death.

Yet Simpson survived, and managed to crawl his way back to base camp to Yates before he climbed down the mountain. The book follows both men's feelings of abandonment, guilt, and ultimately their enduring friendship.

"Left for Dead: Surviving the Deadliest Storm in Modern Sailing History" by Nick Ward

Nick Ward set off on the 600-mile course of the UK's Fastnet sailboat race in August 1979 with perfect weather. But within 48 hours, the deadliest storm in the history of modern sailing had thrown the race into chaos and claimed the lives of fifteen sailors.

Ward was left for dead by his crewmates after he was injured and fell unconscious. After awaking to find the life raft gone and his crew either dead or deserted, Ward was forced to survive the night on the boat alone as the storm raged on until his legendary rescue.

"Ten Degrees of Reckoning: The True Story of a Family's Love and the Will to Survive" by Hester Rumberg

In 1993, Judith and Michael Sleavin and their two children set out to sail around the world. But a freighter off the coast of New Zealand altered its course by ten degrees and collided with the family's boat, killing everyone but Judith.

Somehow, after forty-four hours in the water with a broken back and paralyzed below the waist, Judith survived. This book follows the painful and gripping true story of the night of the fatal crash, as well as the aftermath as Judith confronts her PTSD and the tragedy of losing her family.

"The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition" by Caroline Alexander

In August 1914, explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men set sail for the South Atlantic to try to set foot on the Antarctic continent. They had come within 85 miles of their destination when their ship, Endurance, was trapped in an ice pack and crushed, leaving them stranded on the ice floes.

For twenty months they were marooned, and would attempt two near-fatal escape plans before their final rescue.

The book is accompanied by the original glass plate negatives from the journey that were stored in hermetically sealed canisters and somehow survived months on the ice floes.

"Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Writer Jon Krakauer describes his own experience of climbing Mount Everest during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, when eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a "rogue storm."

In the book, Krakauer recounts the events that lead up to his decision to participate in the Everest expedition, as well as the actual expedition where eight climbers died, including Krakauer's own guides Rob Hall and Andy Harris.

"Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival" by Yossi Ghinsberg

Author Yossi Ghinsberg met three other backpackers in Bolivia, and they journeyed into the  Amazon rainforest together.

But after a freak rafting accident, Ghinsberg was separated from his travel buddies, and forced to survive with only a knife, a map, and his survival training. With his feet rotting due to the intense storms and insects and animals to contend with, this is his personal account of how he stayed alive in the rainforest.

"Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea" by Steven Callahan

Steven Callahan endured a staggering 76 days alone at sea. He was living on an inflatable raft after his sloop capsized, somehow managing to stay hydrated, spear fish, and keep his deteriorating raft afloat.

"Adrift" was on The New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks, and still remains one of the best survival books of all time.

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The next time you enter a hotel room, peek at the back of a mirror, under a desk drawer, or inside a bible, and you may find a hilarious note saying something like "This hotel wasn't half bad. It was all the way bad."

For the past seven years, British comedian and graffiti artist David Bussell has been surreptitiously leaving irreverent notes in hotel rooms around the world.

Bussell said that he started doodling because a hotel he was staying in didn't have a working TV, and it has since turned into somewhat of a tradition.

"I tend to just write whatever seems funny in the moment but certain objects have been known to inspire ideas: bathroom fittings, kitchen appliances, Gideon's bibles," Bussell said. "Mostly I just write in places that will only be searched out by the extremely curious though - nosey people like me."

He said that he hasn't seen any backlash from hotel owners yet—but jokes that he'll be checking into hotels using his wife's name from here on out.

Bussell's very candid thoughts on a hotel in Oxford, England.

This note seems like something you'd find in a bar bathroom, rather than a Denver hotel bathroom.

Here's Bussell's take on the Sistine Chapel, scrawled inside a toilet lid in a Denver hotel.

Three of Larry Ellison's racing sailboats placed a five-pound weight in the wrong spot, a rule violation that has caused them to give back two previous seasons of championship trophies, reports the San Francisco's Chronicle's Tom Fitzgerald.

Oracle Team USA made the confession on Friday that it did break the rules. The company is voluntarily giving up its championships, it said.

The overall weight of each boat was correct, but the rules governing weights are fanatically detailed. Where teams place weights is as important as how much overall weight they add to a boat because the placement of the weights can affect how a boat handles, reports FitzGerald.

Just to give you an idea, we're talking about the misplacement of 5 pounds on a boat that weighs about 12,500 pounds.

The boats involved were the previous racing sailboats, known as AC45s, a class of 45-foot yachts. The current boats are the AC72. AC45s are now only used for training, according to a statement by the Oracle team. But until this year, they were the boats being used in the America's Cup World Series regattas.

The Oracle teams says that it's not a bunch of cheaters and that it didn't deliberately put the 5-pound weights in the wrong spot. Team employees moved the weight over a year ago "without the knowledge of management or the skippers," the statement says.

Still, it's another black eye to Ellison's team in a racing season marred with setbacks. The Oracle team was also fined three practice days earlier this year over a spying violation in New Zealand. A sailor for the Artemis team, Andrew "Bart" Simpson, died in the San Francisco Bay this summer after a practice session with Oracle. Last fall, during a practice season, Ellison's team wrecked one of the boats, too.

SEE ALSO: Larry Ellison's Wrecked $8 Million Yacht Is Reborn As An Airplane

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McDonald's breakfast notoriously ends at 10:30 AM at most locations. 

After years of public outcry, the brand has started offering some items after midnight. CEO Don Thompson also said that the fast food giant was flirting with the idea of all-day breakfast.

We reached out to an expert, Scott Hume at BurgerBusiness.com, to find out why McDonald's hasn't fully capitalized on the breakfast menu's popularity. 

Limitations in the kitchen hold the brand back, Hume told Business Insider. 

"It's a shock to hear, but McDonald's doesn't do made-to-order breakfast," Hume said. "Its customer traffic is too great for that. So eggs and sausage are pre-cooked and held for breakfast sandwich assembly."

At 10:30, McDonald's needs to start using its toasters and grills for burgers, chicken nuggets, and sandwich buns instead, Hume said. 

J.M. Owens, a McDonald's operator in Atlanta, explained more about the process to BurgerBusiness.com earlier this year: "First, there are some capacity issues. We only have so much toaster space and so much grill space. Unlike a lot of breakfast QSRs, we still cook our product on a grill. Many of the pretenders are doing a ton of prep in microwaves. For instance, go into a Dunkin’ Donuts or a Starbucks, who are chasing breakfast, and you don’t find a grill, or oven, or fryer. We prefer to be a restaurant rather than processing everything through a microwave."

The "McDonald's After Midnight" menu works when customer traffic is light," Hume told us. "But it wouldn't work all day because it requires streamlining both breakfast and burger menus to a few all-star items."

So, it could take a long time for McDonald's to figure out a way to do breakfast and burgers together. 

We reached out to McDonald's for comment, but didn't hear back by deadline. 

SEE ALSO: 19 Fast Food Hacks That Will Change The Way You Order

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TripAdvisor just came out with a list of America's top 10 cities for pizza, and even though New York fell to the number four spot, one of the NYC pizza joints still at the top is the legendary Di Fara pizzeria.

When Dom DeMarco started making pizza 47 years ago, he never dreamed he'd be so successful that customers would wait hours for his pies.

But the now-famous Brooklyn pizza maestro says he always had confidence in himself.

Today, New Yorkers and tourists alike continue to flock to his Midwood, Brooklyn pizza mecca, Di Fara. And they do so despite the $5 per slice price, the 2 hour waits, the 1 hour commute from midtown Manhattan and some run-ins with the Health Department.

Why do they do it? Many say it's the finely calibrated combination of imported ingredients, a super-hot oven and an old-school approach—a formula DeMarco has personally perfected over the years, since no one else has ever made a pie at Di Fara.

Nonetheless, some still question if it lives up to the hype. Watch the video below and decide for yourself if it's worth the trip:

 Produced By Robert Libetti

Music: "Demain je change de vie" By Löhstana David

SEE ALSO: We Ate Balut — The Absolute Strangest Food You Can Find In New York City

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Amazon launched it's new Fine Art and Collectibles section earlier this week, and it's getting a lot of buzz in the art world.

Most of the media (including us) has focused on the more expensive pieces of art on Amazon — like the $4.85 million Norman Rockwell painting— and the negative and hilarious comments that quickly piled up.

But with an estimated 150 art dealers and 4,500 artists, these expensive works of art are the minority. Out of some 40,000 items — including thousands of original works — 18,000 are under $1,000 and 29,000 are under $5,000. There's even a $10 work of art for sale. 

"If I go to a big box retailer, they're selling mass quality prints for $100, stuff everyone has in their dorm rooms," said Allen Terrell, the Art Director of Downtown Art Center (DAC) Gallery. "Now I can go online and find original art or limited edition art for the same price. Who wouldn't want to have that hanging in their house rather than a Monet print that everybody has across the country?"

These original and affordable works of art from smaller galleries are the real meat of the Amazon Art section. Galleries are excited because the online retailer will help them broaden their reach and tap into a new clientele. And its good for Amazon because they company gets a 5-20% commission — which is typical for all Amazon vendors, according to the New York Times— on works that could sell for tens of thousands of dollars. 

The real upside of shopping on Amazon for art though is how user friendly it is: You can search by color, size, price, and even subject. Other art vendor websites like Artsy and Artnet on the other hand may have sleek website designs, but they are not as inherently easy to navigate or familiar to prospective buyers.

Buyers are also moving away from the idea that art needs to be experienced in person before it's purchased. "Young collectors are a lot more comfortable buying things online," Matthew Glasser, the Director of Marketing and Communications for Exception Children's Foundation at DAC Gallery, told us. "So when they go through new artwork, they're willing to purchase the work based on the image alone."

Plus, there are plenty of people who are uncomfortable with the typical brick and mortar gallery experience who would actually prefer to buy art online. There's less judgement about what you like, less pressure in choosing what to buy, and customers can rely on Amazon's return and shipping policies, so there's extra reliability.

Even the higher-end galleries on Amazon's new section are hopeful that their more expensive pieces will find buyers. Bill Rau of M. S. Rau Antiques— the vendor selling the $4.85 million Rockwell — is confident that Amazon can move expensive art. "We have sold things of great value in the seven figure range online before. I'm always surprised when it happens, but it does happen," he said.

And though time will tell just how much of a success Amazon's Fine Art and Collectibles section will be, works of art are already selling: "We sold a piece of art to Germany this morning and another one to California," Stephen Tanenbaum, Co-Founder of UGallery, told us. "As word starts to get out, I think people are giving it a shot."

SEE ALSO: Detroit May Have To Sell These 11 Masterpieces To Ease Its Debt Problem

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I was 18 the first time I ventured outside of the U.S. on my own. 

I only needed eight weeks' worth of clothing, but I packed two huge suitcases, a carry-on bag, an extra backpack and at least half a dozen handbags. 

When I landed in the dead of winter in Salta, Argentina carting 100 lbs of summer dresses behind me, it was a wake up call I've never forgotten. 

I've been learning to travel the hard way ever since – and tripping myself up plenty of times along the way.

I let a local talk me into a $500 bike rental.

I had the chance to check out a public bike share in Montreal for the first time last year.  But since I couldn't read the instructions in French, I asked a local to explain the process.

It was free for the first 45 minutes, he said, and I would be charged a couple of extra bucks every hour after that. 

Unfortunately for me, he forgot to mention the $250 security deposit the company applied to my credit card for each bike. I rented two.

Good thing I had used a credit and not my debit card, because it took well over a week for the temporary charge to disappear. 

I forgot to tell my bank about a D.C. road trip.

After President Obama was elected in 2008, I hatched a plan for the ultimate 48-hour road trip–– from Athens, Ga. to D.C. for his Inaugural address.

I just forgot to tell my bank about it. 

Apparently, swiping my debit card at a slew of gas stations up and down the East coast in such a short period of time spelled "FRAUD" to them. They froze my account and I wound up stranded at a North Carolina pit stop until I could get a representative on the phone to correct the mistake.

If I had been overseas, it would have been an even bigger nightmare. 

I lost some serious haggling potential by not learning the native tongue.

Although I can count the number of Portuguese words I know on two hands, I hoped my decent Spanish skills would help me get by on a recent trip to Brazil. 

I was dead wrong. I could read signs well enough, but anything spoken sounded like pure gibberish.

Learning the language would have made haggling so much easier––especially when ordering at restaurants. 

Professional social situations can be awkward.

The rules are slightly different from standard social settings, yet business schools rarely discuss professional etiquette topics.

In her new book "The Essentials Of Business Etiquette," Barbara Pachter writes about the specific skills professionals need to understand when presenting themselves in a business setting.

From how to introduce yourself to what to order at restaurants, these are the social rules you need to know when establishing relationships.

Pachter has given us permission to use these excerpts from her book.

Always say your full name.

In a business situation, you should use your full name, but you should also pay attention to how others want to be introduced.

If your name is too long or difficult to pronounce, Pachter says you should consider changing or shortening it. Or you should consider writing down the pronunciation of your name on a business card and giving it to others.

Source: "The Essentials Of Business Etiquette"

Always stand when you're being introduced to someone.

"Standing helps establish your presence. You make it easy for others to ignore you if you don’t stand. If you are caught off guard and cannot rise, you should lean forward to indicate that you would stand, if you could."

Source: "The Essentials Of Business Etiquette"

Only say "thank you" once or twice during a conversation.

"You need to say it only once or twice within a conversation. Otherwise, you may dilute its impact and possibly make yourself seem somewhat helpless and needy."

Source: "The Essentials Of Business Etiquette"

Wal-Mart is quietly becoming a popular destination for buying beer, according to Renee Dudley at Bloomberg, who writes that the company aims to double sales by 2016. 

The company is well on the way to success, Cameron Smith, who owns an executive search firm that works with Wal-Mart's suppliers, told Dudley. 

“They’re getting there quick," Smith told Bloomberg. "Everyone in the supplier community is on cloud nine, riding high and adding to their staff.”

The company is driving sales with discounts on more than 50 brands. 

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Today, Wong Ulrich is a respected author, TV and print journalist, and the president of ALTA Wealth Management. She shared with us the biggest mistakes Gen Xers make on the road to retirement.

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There's a saying:

"The only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys."

A few tech moguls have some very big, floating toys. Mark Cuban, Larry Ellison, and Paul Allen are just a few who own some of the largest yachts in the world.

Others vacation on yachts with models. Others zip around with friends.

Eric Schmidt was selling his 255-foot tugboat yacht in April. It was once valued at $48 million. He also bought a yacht that was bigger than Larry Page's.

Eric Schmidt has owned multiple yachts. In 2011, New York Post reported that Schmidt had purchased a yacht larger than Google CEO Larry Page's. The 195-foot yacht was purchased in 2009 for a reported $72.3 million.

In addition to the mega-yacht, Schmidt and his wife Wendy "accumulated some $60-odd million in assets for 'ocean studies,'" according to The ODP. That $60 million included two boats, one which was priced at $48 million.

There are pictures of the large tugboat yacht here.

Steve Jobs designed a 250-foot yacht run by 27 MacBooks that's now owned by his family.

One year after his death, the yacht Steve Jobs personally designed was completed.

It's a 250-foot yacht with a large sun deck designed by Philippe Starc. It was built in the Netherlands by shipbuilder Koninklijke De Vries.

There are more photos of the yacht, here.

Amazon's star engineer James Hamilton lives on a boat and often works remotely from Hawaii.

James Hamilton, a star Amazon engineer who makes sure its Web services business is always up and running, lives on a boat with his family.

His boat, The Dirona, is a custom-built, 52-foot Nordhavn yacht.

Pictures of the yacht can be found here.

Looking back at my career, the most important decision I've made so far – the one that would set me up for practically every job I've held over the last five years – was to turn down a job offer after college. 

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This week, Taco Bell sent us its newest Doritos Locos Tacos to try, but refused to tell us what the mystery flavor is.

So, using our expert knowledge of Doritos, we tried to guess which chip the new taco shells are made out of, and then ranked the latest version against the current line of Doritos Locos Tacos.

Take a first look at the newest Doritos Locos Taco from Taco Bell below:

Produced by William Wei

SEE ALSO: We Ate Balut — The Absolute Strangest Food You Can Find In New York City

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Last month, the world's distilleries did battle at the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

The event, now in its 44th year, aims to "promote the quality and excellence of the world’s best wines, spirits and liqueurs," according to its website.

The judging process at the competition is rigorous. Wines and liquors are subject to both professional blind tasting and chemical and microbiological analysis.

The best bottles score between 90-100 on the judges' scale, but a few receive special recognition: Gold Outstanding.

And as a result, they received elegantly-written endorsements such as: "A treasure chest of liquid gold!"

From blends to single malts to single barrels, 18 Scotches took home a Gold Outstanding award at last month's competition.

Laphroaig Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky 18 YO

"Incredible nose with amazing rich floral notes followed by smoke, rich barley, liquorice, treacle and then a wave of sea spray. Full powered entry into the mouth with immediate distribution of flavours to every taste bud. Big rich sensation as multi layers of flavour descend and smother the palate. Wonderful and sensational. A comment: 'a conquest of fresh cut flowers ready to drink with delight!'"

Source: IWSC

Ben Nevis Single Cask Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky 15 YO

"Nose leads with fragrant rose wood followed by lavender, violets and honey. Hints of caramel and toasty oak. Well edged by vanilla, cinnamon and black pepper. In the mouth dried fruit adds to the complexity along with fig and peach. Good balance and fine texture. Smooth flow leads to fine, well modulated finish."

Source: IWSC

The Glenlivet 21 Year Old Archive

"Fascinating nose that seems to offer just about everything! Rich chocolate, full malt, citrus, sherry and light smoky note. Even a hint of rum? Gracious entry into the mouth with smooth, velvet flow across the palate. Repeat of everything the nose had while extra flavours of ripe fruit, honey and some dark sugar develop. Rich spice where vanilla is dominant. Great balance and super oak support. Elegant, rich and warming. Pure perfection."

Source: IWSC

Herbalife has been in the news a lot lately because its stock is in the the middle of a heated hedge fund battle between Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn.

Late last year, Ackman, who runs $12 billion Pershing Square Capital Management, publicly declared that he's shorting $1 billion worth of Herbalife stock.

Ackman believes that the company is a "pyramid scheme" that targets lower income individuals.  As a result, he thinks regulators, specifically the Federal Trade Commission, will be persuaded to investigate it and shut it down. 

His rival, Carl Icahn, purchased a massive stake in the company and said that he thinks Ackman will be the victim of the "mother of all short squeezes."

Herbalife is a multi-level marketing firm that sells nutritional products such as weight loss shakes and vitamins.  We decided to try Herbalife's Formula 1 shake, the company's best selling product.  

Watch the video below:

Produced by William Wei

SEE ALSO: We Ate Balut — The Absolute Strangest Food You Can Find In New York City

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Most world records are pretty standard — the world's smallest man (21.5 inches tall), the world's oldest twin sisters (103 years old), or the world's highest standing jump (4 feet 10 inches onto a platform) are all interesting factoids to know.

But other records are totally wacky, like the biggest jigsaw puzzle made of tents or the largest gathering in Sumo wrestler suits (seriously).

These categories are often completely invented and submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records. Sometimes, they even make it into the official book itself.

So in honor of the release of the Guinness Book of World Records 2013, here are the 15 weirdest records broken by people around the world.

On July 28, 2013, 1,213 people broke a Guinness World Record by applying facial masks for 10 minutes at the same time in Taipei.

Source: Reuters

Chris "The Duchess" Walton is the current Guinness World Record holder for longest fingernails. Seen here in NYC back in 2011, her nails (which she's been growing for 18 years) measured 10 feet 2 inches on her left hand and 9 feet 7 inches on her right at the time.

Source: Reuters

In February 2013, 4,483 people hula-hooped for seven minutes, setting the Guinness World Record for most number of people simultaneously hula-hooping. The event took place at the Thammasat University stadium on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Source: Reuters

Whether you're watching zebras frolic in an African plain while being served fresh-baked pastries or swimming with sea turtles right outside your private over-water bungalow in Bora Bora, world travelers know that a luxury hotel can easily make for a dream vacation.

We've created the ultimate list of the best hotels in the world by aggregating four notable hotel rankings made by elite travel publications and websites.

The rankings we used were Travel + Leisure's World's Best Hotel Awards, Conde Nast Traveler's Top 100 Hotels & Resorts (part of its annual Reader's Choice Awards), TripAdvisor's Top 25 Hotels In The World (part of its annual Travelers' Choice Awards), and the Fodor's 100 Hotel Awards.

#25 Jumby Bay (Rosewood), Antigua

Score: 0.98

Location: Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda

Laying claim to its own private island and three white sand beaches, Jumby Bay is the ultimate escape from reality. Sweeping views of the Caribbean make this former sugar plantation a haven of relaxation and natural beauty.

It ranked #28 on Conde Nast's list and Fodor's named it a "Best All-Inclusive" hotel. 

Rooms start at about $1,000 per night.

To compile this list, we aggregated four notable hotel rankings: Travel + Leisure's World's Best Hotel Awards, Conde Nast Traveler's Top 100 Hotels & Resorts, TripAdvisor's Top 25 Hotels In The World, and the Fodor's 100 Hotel Awards. We gave each hotel a numerical rating based on how many lists it appeared on and how high it appeared on the lists that were ranked. Hotels that appeared on all four lists ranked higher on our list, while hotels that ranked on only one of these lists ended up closer to the bottom.

#24 Casello di Casole

Score: 0.98

Location: Casole d'Elsa, Italy

Castello di Casole is a sprawling Tuscan estate dating back to the 10th century. Surrounded by vineyards and orchards, the getaway is a wine-lover's dream.

It ranked #2 on T+L's list. 

Rooms start at about $585 per night.

To compile this list, we aggregated four notable hotel rankings: Travel + Leisure's World's Best Hotel Awards, Conde Nast Traveler's Top 100 Hotels & Resorts, TripAdvisor's Top 25 Hotels In The World, and the Fodor's 100 Hotel Awards. We gave each hotel a numerical rating based on how many lists it appeared on and how high it appeared on the lists that were ranked.

#23 Taj Exotica Resort and Spa

Score: 0.99

Location: Maldives, Maldives

Take a true blue lagoon vacation at Taj Exotica Resort and Spa, a collection of rustic villas running along the white sand beaches of the Maldives. Hammock lounging and dolphin watching are musts at this tropical paradise. 

It ranked #2 on Conde Nast's list. 

Rooms start at around $1,720 per night. 

To compile this list, we aggregated four notable hotel rankings: Travel + Leisure's World's Best Hotel Awards, Conde Nast Traveler's Top 100 Hotels & Resorts, TripAdvisor's Top 25 Hotels In The World, and the Fodor's 100 Hotel Awards. We gave each hotel a numerical rating based on how many lists it appeared on and how high it appeared on the lists that were ranked.

An eccentric Beijing resident has built a huge house among what looks like a pile of rocks dotted with trees on top of a 26-storey apartment block in the capital, reports said Monday.

Neighbours have complained about China's latest architectural oddity, which covers more than 1,000 square meters (10,000 square feet), saying they fear it could cause the structure to collapse on top of them, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

The rocks, said to be imitation shells rather than solid stone, have trees and bushes growing among them, as in classical Chinese landscape painting.

Poking out from between them, sections of the house underneath can be seen -- a blue-framed window here, a balcony under a curved roof there.

At least two neighbours have moved out because of the construction work, which has been going on for years, the paper said.

Others complained about damage to pipes and walls in their units, it said.

"We feel this is extremely unsafe. What if the top collapses in rain and wind storms? What if our ceiling collapses?" the paper cited an unnamed 26th floor resident as saying.

Authorities have posted notices that the villa in the Haidian area in the west of the city is illegal, it added.

Houses standing on top of multi-storey buildings are not unknown in China, where a rising property market is making land more and more expensive.

A developer in central China built 25 luxury villas on top of a shopping mall, which became migrant workers' residences after authorities declared them illegal, Chinese media reported earlier this month.

The fate of the rockery building remains unclear, and law enforcement is often applied selectively in China.

Land disputes have become more frequent as officials and developers seek to cash in on the property boom, so that the government has reportedly forbidden housing demolitions without the owners' consent.

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Each year, home goods giant Bed, Bath & Beyond releases its "Campus Checklist," sending soon-to-be college freshmen and their parents into a frenzy of overspending. 

In the worried haze of preparing for the first year of college, it's easy to forget that some of the items on the list are not only unnecessary; they are a downright waste of money.

This year's Campus Checklist has an astounding 92 items, many of which will just take up space in a tiny dorm room: Consider the "laptop desk," which, as it turns out, is just a tiny rolling desk that BB&B wants you to spend $80 on.

We polled recent college grads and current students at Business Insider, and came up with a few items college shoppers should definitely pass on:

• Alarm clocks: It's 2013. Use your smartphone.

• Lap desks: If you think you're going to get any work done while reclining on your bed, think again.

• Laptop locks: It's hard to remember to bring them with you everywhere you go. An easier solution is to just not leave your laptop unattended. 

• Ethernet cables: The vast majority of universities have WiFi these days, and if a particular building doesn't, the school will often provide an Ethernet cable.

• Back rests: These are nothing more than overpriced pillows.

• Room fragrances: They run out almost immediately and aren't very effective.

• Bean bag chairs: A fantasy. Most freshman dorm rooms are barely big enough to hold the furniture they come with, let alone a big, sprawling bean bag chair.

• Area rugs: Usually make it through one semester before they have to be thrown away.

• Body pillows: Twin extra long beds are narrow enough as it is, without a pillow the size of a human taking up space.

• Ironing boards: Invest in a (much cheaper and less space-hogging) ironing blanket, or layer two towels on top of your desk and iron there.

• Extension cords: Likely to be confiscated and thrown away. Most schools don't allow them anymore and encourage you to bring a power strip with surge protection instead.

• Laundry Basket & Laundry Hamper: You do not need both! Get a flexible mesh hamper that you can carry down to the laundry room when necessary.

BB&B does have a helpful tool on their site that allows students to view a comprehensive list of what's included in the freshman dorm rooms at thousands of colleges around the U.S., so look to see what your particular dorm requires before you go crazy at the store.

Remember: in the unlikely event that you forget something really indispensable, you can always buy it later.

SEE ALSO: 13 Items College Students ACTUALLY Need

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After selling her gorgeous townhouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn, back in March 2012, the fashion world was eagerly waiting to see where J. Crew's president and creative director Jenna Lyons would live next.

And now, nearly two years after first listing the home, Lyons has won a bidding war on a 3,500-square-foot loft in Manhattan's trendy SoHo neighborhood, according to Curbed.

Real estate listing website StreetEasy says that the fashion designer paid $500,000 over the asking price. And judging by the property photos, she'll probably spend even more renovating the space to attain her former Park Slope townhouse's splendor.

But Lyons — one of the most influential people in America— won't be hemorrhaging money, especially because monthly maintenance for the home is only $200, which the listing says is due to income from the building's ground floor retail space (which is sadly not a J. Crew store).

Jenna Lyons's new $6 million loft is in this co-op building in SoHo.

Source: StreetEasy

It's on quiet Mercer Street in the trendy downtown Manhattan neighborhood.

Source: StreetEasy

The co-op has been owned by the same family for the past 36 years.

Source: StreetEasy