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Chicagoans Can No Longer Tell Where Lake Michigan Ends And The Sky Begins

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Earlier today we posted video of meteorologist Eric Holthaus instantly turning boiling water into snow.

If you want to see that kind of instant vaporization on a much larger scale, check out this photo of Lake Michigan sent in by a BI reader (who also happens to be the brother of the author).

The warm water interacting with the frigid air has now made it impossible to tell where the lake ends and the sky begins.

It is currently -14 degrees Fahrenheit on the lake.

chicago lake

SEE ALSO: 21 Awesome Photos From The Brutally Cold Packers-Niners game

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These Photos Show The Last Days Of Old, Sleazy Times Square

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New York's 42nd Street has transformed in recent decades from a den of drugs and sex shops to a flashy tourist hub filled with chain stores. People have mixed opinions about whether this was good.

French photographer Gregoire Alessandrini shared some photos of the area during the most dramatic transformation, in the 1990s.

"Some of the photos featured here were taken a few months before all the theaters went down ... The strip shows and peep shows, the porn theaters (Show World, Peep Land, The Playpen, etc.) before they were gone and as destruction had just started, as well as the first signs of the total transformation of this great New York area," he writes.

42ndst272BLOGJust down the street from Port Authority on 8th Avenue, the Show World Center was a complete sex facility, with strippers, peep shows, video booths, and a large selection of adult movies, magazines, and novelties. The center stopped showing live girls 1998, closed in 2004, and today is a haunted house known as Times Scare

42ndstThe Playpen 2 1996BLOGAccording to the New York Daily News, Peep-O-Rama was the last pornography emporium to survive on 42nd Street, closing in 2002. Today the site houses the Bank of America Tower, the $1 billion skyscraper that is the third-tallest in New York City.  

 NY42STREET024blog

Previously known as the Adonis (which was closed by city health inspectors in 1994 for "high-risk sexual activities"), the sex shop called the Playpen stood where the 8th Avenue Shake Shack stands today.  the playpen 42nd streetStarting in the 1970s, many classic theaters had turned into seedy cinemas specializing in adult and second-run films, and many were either demolished or relocated during Giuliani's revitalization project. In 1998, the Empire was moved further down 42nd Street to serve as a ticket lobby for a new 25-screen cinema. 

New York. 42nd street Empire Theater.1993_BLOG++

The historic Selwyn Theatre became the American Airlines Theatre after an extensive renovation project was led by the aerospace giant. 

New York. 42nd street Selwyn Theater.1993

With a total seating capacity of 1,702, the New Amsterdam was the largest theatre in the city when it was built in 1903. After falling into disrepair in the late 1930s, it was converted into a movie theatre before being purchased by Disney in 1993. The newly renovated theater brought in other desirable media companies like MTV and ESPN. 

New York. 42nd street Amsterdam Theater.1993 According to USA Today, "Times Square has always lived a double life — even a century ago the 10-block stretch of busy Midtown streets was home to upscale splendor as well as hidden brothels and fetid hotels. With the invention of neon and the rise of Broadway shows, the area slowly became the entertainment center of the city."

NYorkers410TSTouristiqueGiuliani and his team of developers brought in upscale hotels, theme stores, and restaurants to create the neon Times Square we know today. 

Blogimg078

SEE ALSO: Incredible Photos From When New York's Hip Meatpacking District Was A Creepy Industrial Wasteland

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CHART: Here's What Americans Buy At The Grocery Store

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What do you spend money on at the grocery store?

Chips? Chicken? Bread? Cheese?

If so, that aligns you with the average American.

Stanford economist Matthew Harding and Cornell economist Michael Lovenheim have a new paper that examines how successful nutrient taxes are at changing people's nutrition (turns out sugar taxes work very well). To do so, they examined a huge dataset of grocery store purchases - a total of 123 million transactions between 2002 and 2007.

Along the way, they discovered what people actually spend their money on at the grocery store. The results aren't surprising. Households spend nearly 16% of their purchases on snacks and 12.8% on meat.

Here's a full chart of all 14 major product categories:

Food and Drink Products Average Household Budget

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JetBlue Is Getting Crushed By The Weather, Stopping Nearly All Flights From NYC And Boston

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jetblue plane

JetBlue is stopping nearly all service into and out of Boston and New York airports until Tuesday morning, it has announced.

The area has been slammed by bad weather over the past few days: A snowstorm on Thursday and Friday, followed by icing conditions during the weekend, rainy weather today, and the polar vortex that's expected to bring extremely cold temperatures on Tuesday.

JetBlue has been especially hard hit, since New York's JFK International is its home airport.

It has already cancelled nearly half of its flights scheduled for today, according to FlightAware.com.

Now that it's stopping nearly all flights into and out of JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, and Boston until 10 a.m., that number is bound to rise.

Meanwhile, JetBlue hasn't fully recovered from the flights it cancelled over the weekend: It still has customers stuck in Barbados and the Cayman Islands, some of whom may not get home for a week. 

The fact that new FAA rules, limiting the number of consecutive hours pilots can fly, went into effect on Saturday isn't helping — that makes it harder to schedule extra flights to get people home and planes and crew in position.

The nearly 24-hour long stop should give JetBlue a chance to catch up. In a blog post, it said "This plan allows for 17 hours of rest for crews, and time for Tech Ops to service the aircraft," and that it "intend[s] to be fully operational by 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday."

Passengers who had tickets for cancelled flights can rebook or request a refund.

SEE ALSO: -13 Degree Weather Has Brought Chicago's O'Hare Airport To A Near Standstill

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A Very Candid Account Of What It's Like To Be A Western Nanny For A Superrich Chinese Family

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Reddit China Nanny

The dramatic increase in wealth in China over the past few decades has resulted in many new superrich families seeking to introduce the Western world to their children.

Sometimes wealthy Chinese go to the West: For instance, Bo Guagua, the son of ousted Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai was educated at London's Harrow School, Oxford, and Harvard (the man who "fixed" this elite Western education later ended up dead, by the way).

Sometimes Europeans and Americans go to China for jobs in child care and education. For the Western job-seekers, it's a chance to see a different world and get paid while doing it. For the Chinese families, it's a chance to introduce their children to a different language and a different culture.

One British girl who used an agency to work as a nanny for a wealthy family in Hangzhou (rich enough to have five Porsches) recently took to Reddit to answer questions about her experience, and her answers are wonderfully candid.

We've included some of her answers below, lightly edited for clarity. Bear in mind these are just one person's experience, and she's also one person who plans to soon leave China.

The money:

"I get paid s***-all. I have all my food, room and pocket money given to me. I also get some treats now and then because the hostmother is a kept woman so I get some beauty treatments and things for free. I also get free Chinese lessons which is good. They pay in part for my flight there too. The experience has been very interesting but the agency has scammed me in a few ways too."

On her family's Western habits:

"[The family tries to fit in with Western culture] and it's sort of embarrassing, especially with the food. And labels, the obsession with western labels on clothes, even if the clothes don't go or look stupid [...] The first day I arrived at the family's house they took me to a steak house which apparently is a huge deal (I was mostly veggie in England). It was surreal to be served steak and potatoes and have my favorite Chet Baker song in the background. Very weird. Fast food is also popular and before I came there was a Lady Gaga themed steak house."

On the family's routine:

"It seems to vary family by family. [I've other nanny friends] but mine seems to be the father away all the time apart from one day at the weekend, the mother ferrying her son to all his schools and activities and endless parties and lavish dinners. During the day there's very little to do because there's also a housekeeper. They shop, go the movies and watch TV."

On their wealth:

"[They] own many nice cars, luxurious apartment and second home, one kid in boarding school, other privately educated."

"[They live in] a very rich neighborhood, but having been in some other apartments and things they seem slightly richer in comparison. This kid seems more pushed than the other kids, 6 days of school a week and 4 music lessons in the evenings too."

On her own routine:

"I take the kid to school, come back and work on some Chinese or write, and sometimes I sneak off to model here too. On my days off the family go away to a different city so I walk around singing loudly because I can and maybe meet up with another nanny that lives near me. I also play basketball."

What the kids get away with:

"Pick his nose and wipe it on me? Wave his bare ass at me? Oh and a friend who works an hour or so away has seen the kids be allowed to just piss on the living room floor so they don;t have to move from the television. Occasionally they'll bring him a bucket."

How the wife treats her:

"Oh she's generally sweet to me, really. They are very nice, especially the ayi (grandmother) so I've been relatively lucky. However some things remind me of my status sometimes, like not being taken for medical care etc."

The bad side to the job:

"Many things, not being able to fully discipline the kid sometimes, the lack of freedom as a previously quite independent person and actually China is very dirty and polluted, so I feel quite guilty I get to leave and they just have to deal."

[...]

"For example today [the child] came home from the hospital after being in for some kind of very bad cold (when the worlds antibiotics become completely ineffective we will know exactly which country to blame) in his mask and the first thing he did when i knelt down to say hello was wipe his phlegmy coughy mask round my face O_O."

When local guys hit on her:

"[It happens] all the time, but not in a very sleazy way. If I go out they send drinks to my table which I actually don't like and I get people coming up to me in the street but it's not intimidating or anything."

The best and worst things that have happened:

"Hmmm, I kept telling the family here I was sick for about 3 months and they just laughed it off and told me to get over it. Eventually I got a fever and deep pain in my kidneys which was a kidney infection. They wouldn't drive me so I had to walk a few miles to the most vile hospital ever and get examined on a gurney in a room of Chinese people with colds with them thumping me and asking me if it hurt in certain places. I had to pay a buttload and get lots of IV's. Ick."

"The best? The boy can be very sweet and funny and I had a great birthday party here, we went to a Chinese club and I brought twerking to the mainland."

What she'll take away from the experience:

"Meeting young Chinese people and having so much in common with them, even when language was a problem we have had so much fun learning about each others' cultures and helping each other out. I've made amazing friends. How sweet the Chinese are to their kids, watching the grandparents sit by the lake with the young kids is heartwarming. Bonding with a kid who isn't mine and having him give me a kiss goodnight. Lots of good things."

[Please note, the answers have been lightly edited for clarity]

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Two Wall Street Hangouts Quietly Closed Down Over The Holiday Break

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While you were sleeping in or staring blankly at your spreadsheet to put in some face time over the slow holiday season, two well-loved Wall Street hangouts closed down in NYC.

These are not the kinds of stories I like to write, but someone has to do it.

First, famed seasonal restaurant Park Avenue Winter shuts its doors. The restaurant's lease expired and it's unclear when or where the restaurant will reopen (though Alan and Michael Stillman, the father-son duo who own the restaurant say it will).

The duo also closed Hurricane Steak + Sushi (once called The Hurricane Club).

According to Eater, there was word that Park Avenue Winter might open in The Hurricane Club's space, but apparently that's not happening.

You may recall that Park Avenue Fall (same restaurant, remember ...  seasonal) was the official replacement spot for Wall Street's Lowes Regency "Power Breakfast" while the hotel was getting remodeled last year.

The other sad closing that should be noted is the shuttering of SL, the basement nightclub owned by EMM Group (they also own Catch NY and Catch Miami).

EMM is looking into a new concept for the space, which was near-legendary club Lotus before it turned into the Ciroc-fest that was SL.

In fact, the space really hasn't ever reached the popularity it had since Lotus died (think: beautiful, famous people and a weekly DJ set from Questlove).

So let's pour one out for these fallen hangs. Never forget.

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An Artist Produced These Incredibly Realistic Drawings After A Month-Long Expedition To Greenland

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Greenland #62 47x70s

Zaria Forman spent her childhood following her fine art photographer mother and neuro-ophthalmologist father around the globe.

Forman's mother — who called herself "a polar bear in another life" — loved capturing desolate, frozen landscapes. When her work started earning comparisons to photographers who went to the Arctic with American painter William Bradford in 1869, Forman's mother became obsessed with planning a similar trip.

Click here to skip to the drawings >>

She went so far as to lunch with a couple from Belfast, Maine, on their boat to discuss sailing to Greenland, before she passed away from brain cancer.

"It was bigger than anything she'd ever done, so I felt it still needed to happen," Forman told Business Insider of her mother's expedition. "I couldn't let it go because she was so obsessed with it, and it was honestly one of her most exciting adventures."

"I didn't think I could organize it, but now it set me on this path that I'll continue on for the rest of my life."

Forman, a professional artist who draws in pastels, went back to the Belfast couple and secured the boat for a three-week trip in August 2012 along the western coast of Greenland. Artists contributed about $6,000 each, and some backers paid $8,000 to come on board. Forman also ran a Kickstarter campaign, which enabled her to bring a filmmaker along, and held a fundraiser in New York City to help cover costs.

They followed Bradford's path as closely as they could, and even stopped at some of the sites he found, using Bradford's journal and photos of his trip, compiled in a book called "The Arctic Regions," as a guide.

"We would hold his book up to the landscape and compare the rocks and formations to what he saw," Forman said. "Not too much of the land was different, but I really did see a difference in the ice. I wasn't necessarily expecting that."

Now Forman can't help thinking about climate change in her work. She feels a responsibility to document and combat it. A percentage of all Greenland drawing sales go to 350.org, a grassroots organization that seeks to preserve and protect the planet.

She's recently finished a series of huge drawings — some of them up to four feet tall and six feet wide — of Greenland, based on the 10,000 to 13,000 photographs she took and some small charcoal on vellum sketches she made along the way. Her finished pastel-on-paper drawings each took between one and four weeks to complete. 

"My biggest challenge is always to depict the landscape honestly," Forman said. "The landscape there is so otherworldly, I have these moments where it almost doesn't look real and I don't want people to think, 'Oh she made that up.'"

"The real work began after my return to the studio," Forman said.



"The work that I exhibit is way too large to create on site," she said. After three weeks sailing around Greenland, Forman returned to her studio in Brooklyn to make her large-scale pastel drawings of the Arctic landscape.



Her drawings are based on the 10,000 to 13,000 photographs she took in Greenland.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider
    






Here's What All 50 State Names Actually Mean

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If you want to understand a state's history, start by looking at its name.

The map below shows the breakdown of all the states' etymologies. The most names, eight in both cases, stem from Algonquin and Latin. 

 

US state name etymologies

But the etymologies of some names have become muddled over the years. Even alternate theories exist for some, and an author even appears to made one up entirely.

Scroll through the list to find your home state's meaning and how the name originated:

Alabama: From the Choctaw word albah amo meaning "thicket-clearers" or "plant-cutters."

Alaska: From the Aleut word alaxsxaq, from Russian Аляска, meaning "the object toward which the action of the sea is directed."

Arizona: From the O'odham (a Uto-Aztecan language) word ali sona-g via Spanish Arizonac meaning "good oaks."

Arkansas: From a French pronunciation of an Algonquin name for the Quapaw people: akansa. This word, meaning either "downriver people" or “people of the south wind," comes from the Algonquin prefix -a plus the Siouan word kká:ze for a group of tribes including the Quapaw.

California: In his popular novel "Las sergas de Esplandián" published in 1510, writer Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo named an imaginary realm California. Spanish explorers of the New World could have mistaken Baja California as the mythical place. Where Montalvo learned the name and its meaning remain a mystery. 

Colorado: Named for the Rio Colorado (Colorado River), which in Spanish means "ruddy" or "reddish." 

Connecticut: Named for the Connecticut River, which stems from Eastern Algonquian, possibly Mohican, quinnitukqut, meaning "at the long tidal river." 

Delaware: Named for the Delaware Bay, named after Baron De la Warr (Thomas West, 1577 – 1618), the first English governor of Virginia. His surname ultimately comes from de la werre, meaning "of the war" in Old French.

Florida: From Spanish Pascua florida meaning "flowering Easter." Spanish explorers discovered the area on Palm Sunday in 1513. The state name also relates to the English word florid, an adjective meaning "strikingly beautiful," from Latin floridus.

Georgia: Named for King George II of Great Britain. His name originates with Latin Georgius, from Greek Georgos, meaning farmer, from ge (earth) + ergon (work). 

Hawaii: From Hawaiian Hawai'i, from Proto-Polynesian hawaiki, thought to mean "place of the Gods." Originally named the Sandwich Islands by James Cook in the late 1700s.

Idaho: Originally applied to the territory now part of eastern Colorado, from the Kiowa-Apache (Athabaskan) word idaahe, meaning "enemy," a name given by the Comanches. 

Illinois: From the French spelling ilinwe of the Algonquian's name for themselves Inoca, also written Ilinouek, from Old Ottawa for "ordinary speaker." 

Indiana: From the English word Indian + -ana, a Latin suffix, roughly meaning "land of the Indians." Thinking they had reached the South Indes, explorers mistakenly called native inhabitants of the Americas Indians. And India comes from the same Latin word, from the same Greek word, meaning "region of the Indus River." 

Iowa: Named for the natives of the Chiwere branch of the Aiouan family, from Dakota ayuxba, meaning "sleepy ones."

Kansas: Named for the Kansa tribe, natively called kká:ze, meaning "people of the south wind." Despite having the same etymological root as Arkansas, Kansas has a different pronunciation.

Kentucky: Named for the Kentucky River, from Shawnee or Wyandot language, meaning "on the meadow" (also "at the field" in Seneca). 

Louisiana: Named after Louis XIV of France. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory for France in 1682, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis." Louis stems from Old French Loois, from Medieval Latin Ludovicus, a changed version of Old High Germany Hluodwig, meaning "famous in war."

Maine: Uncertain origins, potentially named for the French province of Maine, named for the river of Gaulish, an extinct Celtic language, origin.

Maryland: Named for Henrietta Maria, wife of English King Charles I. Mary originally comes from Hebrew Miryam, the sister of Moses.

Massachusetts: From Algonquian Massachusett, a name for the native people who lived around the bay, meaning "at the large hill," in reference to Great Blue Hill, southwest of Boston.

Michigan: Named for Lake Michigan, which stems from a French spelling of Old Ojibwa (Algonquian) meshi-gami, meaning "big lake."

Minnesota: Named for the river, from Dakota (Siouan) mnisota, meaning "cloudy water, milky water,"

Mississippi: Named for the river, from French variation of Algonquian Ojibwa meshi-ziibi, meaning "big river."

Missouri: Named for a group of native peoples among Chiwere (Siouan) tribes, from an Algonquian word, likely wimihsoorita, meaning "people of the big (or wood) canoes."

Montana: From the Spanish word montaña, meaning "mountain, which stems from Latin mons, montis. U.S. Rep. James H. Ashley of Ohio proposed the name in 1864. 

Nebraska: From a native Siouan name for the Platte River, either Omaha ni braska or Oto ni brathge, both meaning "water flat."

Nevada: Named for the western boundary of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, meaning "snowy mountains" in Spanish.

New Hampshire: Named for the county of Hampshire in England, which was named for city of Southampton. Southampton was known in Old English as Hamtun, meaning "village-town." The surrounding area (or scīr) became known as Hamtunscīr.

New Jersey: Named by one of the state's proprietors, Sir George Carteret, for his home, the Channel island of Jersey, a bastardization of the Latin Caesarea, the Roman name for the island.

New Mexico: From Spanish Nuevo Mexico, from Nahuatl (Aztecan) mexihco, the name of the ancient Aztec capital.

New York: Named in honor of the Duke of York and Albany, the future James II. York comes from Old English Eoforwic, earlier Eborakon, an ancient Celtic name probably meaning "Yew-Tree Estate."

North Carolina: Both Carolinas were named for King Charles II. The proper form of Charles in Latin is Carolus, and the division into north and south originated in 1710. In latin, Carolus is a strong form of the pronoun "he" and translates in many related languages as a "free or strong" man.

North Dakota: Both Dakotas stem from the name of a group of native peoples from the Plains states, from Dakota dakhota, meaning "friendly" (often translated as "allies").

Ohio: Named for the Ohio River, from Seneca (Iroquoian) ohi:yo', meaning "good river." 

Oklahoma: From a Choctaw word, meaning "red people," which breaks down as okla "nation, people" + homma "red." Choctaw scholar Allen Wright, later principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, coined the word. 

Oregon: Uncertain origins, potentially from Algonquin.

Pennsylvania: Named, not for William Penn, the state's proprietor, but for his late father, Admiral William Penn (1621-1670) after suggestion from Charles II. The name  literally means "Penn's Woods," a hybrid formed from the surname Penn and Latin sylvania.

Rhode Island: It is thought that Dutch explorer Adrian Block named modern Block Island (a part of Rhode Island) Roodt Eylandt, meaning "red island" for the cliffs. English settlers later extended the name to the mainland, and the island became Block Island for differentiation. An alternate theory is that Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano gave it the name in 1524 based on an apparent similarity to the island of Rhodes.

South Carolina: See North Carolina.

South Dakota: See North Dakota.

Tennessee: From Cherokee (Iroquoian) village name ta'nasi' of unknown origin.

Texas: From Spanish Tejas, earlier pronounced "ta-shas;" originally an ethnic name, from Caddo (the language of an eastern Texas Indian tribe) taysha meaning "friends, allies."

Utah: From Spanish yuta, name of the indigenous Uto-Aztecan people of the Great Basin; perhaps from Western Apache (Athabaskan) yudah, meaning "high" (in reference to living in the mountains).

Vermont: Based on French words for "Green Mountain," mont vert.

Virginia: A Latinized name for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.

Washington: Named for President George Washington (1732-1799). The surname Washington means "estate of a man named Wassa" in Old English.

West Virginia: See Virginia. West Virginia split from confederate Virginia and officially joined the Union as a seperate state in 1863.

Wisconsin: Uncertain origins but likely from a Miami word Meskonsing, meaning "it lies red"; misspelled Mescousing by the French, and later corrupted to Ouisconsin. Quarries in Wisconsin often contain red flint.

Wyoming: From Munsee Delaware (Algonquian) chwewamink, meaning "at the big river flat."

SEE ALSO: The Most Famous Book In Every State

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Three Minnesota Brothers Spent 95 Hours Building A 10-Foot-Tall Snow Shark

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Record-breaking cold is hitting the Midwest, but that hasn't stopped three Minnesota brothers from creating a truly amazing snow sculpture. 

It took Trevor, Austin, and Connor Bartz a total of 95 hours to build this 10-foot-tall shark out of snow. According to KARE 11, they spent 10 hours sculpting the fins and tail alone, starting at the beginning of December. 

Minnesota snow shark

The New Brighton, Minn. teens are no strangers to large-scale snow sculptures — in fact, it's become an annual tradition. In 2011 they made a giant puffer fish, and in 2012 a snow walrus made its home on their front lawn. 

Here's a video that shows how this year's shark construction progressed.

SEE ALSO: Go Inside China's Ice Village That Was Built With 150,000 Square Meters Of Snow

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'Small Town Shallow Pockets': Here Are The Crude Names Data Companies Use To Describe The Poor

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Last month, a Senate Committee report lambasted "data brokers" for preying on the poor by selling information that highlights which segments of the population are most financially vulnerable.

On the surface this may seem harmless. But these groups are the most easily susceptible to buy risky financial products. The committee comments:

"...precedent underscores the value of such products to unscrupulous businesses that seek to take advantage of consumers. For example, the New York Times has reported on telemarketing criminals that succeeded in raiding the banking account of a 92-year old Army veteran. Data broker InfoUSA sold his name and contact information to a scam artist. As detailed in the Times’ account, InfoUSA advertised lists such as 'Elderly Opportunity Seekers,' described as older people 'looking for ways to make money;' 'Suffering Seniors,' older people with cancer or Alzheimer's disease; and 'Oldies but Goodies,' people described as 'gullible . . . [who] want to believe their luck can change.'

Among the more insulting practices the committee criticizes the brokers for is the epithets they use to describe these at-risk demographics. Here is the full sampling published in the report:

data names

SEE ALSO: The Most Important Charts Of 2013

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JetBlue Has Stranded Passengers In Barbados, And There's Little It Can Do To Get Them Home

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jetblue sign airport

With a string of abysmal weather around its biggest airports during the holiday travel season, JetBlue has been dealt a rotten hand this week.

After canceling hundreds of flights, the airline has passengers stranded all over the place and is struggling to get its crews, planes, and passengers where they should be.

And now, with exceptionally cold weather heading to the Northeast, it has stopped nearly all flights into and out of New York and Boston airports until Tuesday morning.

Despite the bad weather, many of the JetBlue customers stranded in Barbados, some of whom may not make it home until the weekend, blame the airline for mishandling the situation and keeping them in the dark.

New York-based dermatologist Tabasum Mir was supposed to fly out of Barbados at 2:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon, but the plane from New York didn't even arrive until about 9 p.m. in the evening. Passengers had checked in and gone through security, and it was only via the airline's iPhone app that some passengers found out the flight had been cancelled, Mir told Business Insider.

Another traveler, Brookes Moody, said JetBlue "did not give a specific reason [for the cancellation] over the loud speaker, but the staff said it was due to the flight crew clocking out — not because of the weather conditions, or backups at JFK."

A JetBlue spokesperson said its efforts have been complicated by new FAA rules, which limit the number of consecutive hours pilots can fly, that went into effect on Saturday, making it harder to schedule extra flights to get people home and planes and crew in position.

Once the flight was canceled, travelers say JetBlue was unhelpful.

"Staying at the airport wasn't an option. Everyone had to leave the terminal — which took awhile because that time of night there was no immigration officer on duty," Moody said.

Mir said passengers were given back their immigration slips one at a time, forcing some to wait for about an hour.

Things were not much better the next morning. Passengers were told a flight would leave around 10 a.m. in the morning and that they should be at the airport by 8 a.m., Moody said. But no JetBlue employees appeared at the airport until after 8 a.m..

Once everyone had checked in and passed through security, Moody said, they finally got some good information from the pilot, who explained that they were delayed because a plane had skidded off the runway at JFK, shutting down the airport for a few hours.

But "even then," Moody said, "the Jet Blue authorities were unapologetic and seemed reluctant to be held accountable for any of the snafus."

"There was virtually no Jet Blue presence at the airport. And no, they weren't helpful when they were around."

She posted this photo of travelers waiting at the airport on Sunday:

Like most airlines, JetBlue usually doesn't pay for accommodations for passengers stranded by weather events. Mir said JetBlue didn't pay for anything, but "luckily we were staying at a friends [sic] villa."

The airline did cover the $1,700 hotel cost for Moody and her family. Rabia de Lande Long, who has been stuck in Grand Cayman since her Saturday flight was cancelled, told Business Insider her hotel costs were also covered.

At least Mir and Moody made it back to New York by late Sunday afternoon. In an email Sunday evening, Alissa Myrick told Business Insider that she and her 6-year-old daughter were supposed to fly back to on Friday, and hadn't made it home yet. They had been put standby on the Saturday flight that was cancelled.

They are now are confirmed for a trip home on January 10 — a full week late.

Asked about the situation in Barbados, a JetBlue spokesperson said "we are prioritizing adding extra North Bound sections to get customers back from the Caribbean."

But now that JetBlue is stopping nearly all flights into and out of New York and Boston airports until Tuesday morning, the situation isn't getting any better.

"I realize people joke about it not being so bad being stranded in Barbados," Myrick said. "But people have to work and go to school."

SEE ALSO: -13 Degree Weather Has Brought Chicago's O'Hare Airport To A Near Standstill

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11 Untranslatable Words From Other Cultures

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Understanding different languages is hard enough without the elusive feelings or ideas that some cultures are able to compress into one simple word.

These are always the most frustrating to translate as we fumble around for our own lengthy definition, yet they are also wonderful in their simplicity when describing a complex idea.

Originally published on Maptia Blog and found at Visual.ly, the infographic designed by illustrator Ella Frances Sanders shows the definitions for 11 "untranslatable" words, from Italy's "cualacinco" to Japan's "komorebi."

Check it out below.

11 untranslatable words infographic

SEE ALSO: The Historical Origins Of 6 Swear Words

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Tiny Apartment Dwellers Will Love This Coffee Table That Converts To A Kitchen Table In Seconds

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This is the MK1 Transforming Coffee Table from Duffy London.

Why We Love It: This gorgeous, functional table is perfect for anyone with a small apartment (first discovered via Reddit user ameangreenbean). The innovative design transforms in seconds with two simple movements from a 14-inch-tall by 29-inch-wide coffee table to a 2 1/2-foot-tall dining table measuring 4 1/2 feet across.

The handmade table comes in your choice of steel or wood, including solid oak, ash or walnut, and is the perfect space-saving solution for tiny homes.

Here it is in coffee table form.

transforming table duffy londonAnd here it is after being extended into the kitchen table.

transforming table duffy londonIt's incredibly simple to transform.

transforming table duffy london

Watch a GIF of it in action below:

GIF tiny table transforming

Where To Buy: Available through Duffy London.

Cost:$1,300 for a wood version, $1,480 for the steel table.

Want to nominate a cool product for Stuff We Love? Send an email to Megan Willett at mwillett@businessinsider.com with "Stuff We Love" in the subject line.

SEE ALSO: 25 Holiday Party Host Gifts That Will Cost You Less Than $25

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Do You Live Life At 30,000 Feet? Please Take Our Short Survey

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airplane drinking alcohol

Depending on whom you ask, flying is a massive time suck, a temporary escape, or an opportunity to plug in and get some work done.

However you see it, we'd like to hear your thoughts on travel for both business and pleasure. 

Are you the type to fly exclusively first class for business trips? Does your company help you out with the costs? Where do you prefer to stay when you get where you're going, and what goes into that decision (WiFi, fitness center, business center, etc.)? 

Click here to take the survey. All we need is five minutes of your time. 

Thanks in advance for your candid answers.

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Here's A Simple Way To Fold A Shirt In Two Seconds

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Folding laundry doesn't have to be a drag. 

This YouTube video by life-hacking user DaveHax shows an amazingly simple way to fold a dress shirt in a couple of seconds. 

We broke it down to the most important screengrabs. If you want to see how fast this can be, the full video is below. 

1. Draw  an imaginary line about halfway through the shirt: 

shirt how to fold

2. Create a second imaginary line between the collar and the sleeve: 

how to fold dress shirt

3. Imagine point B at the shoulder, A at the intersection of the two lines, and C at the bottom of the shirt: 

how to fold a shirt

4. Use your left hand to pinch point A, and your right hand for B. 

how to fold a shirt

5. Cross point B over to point C: 

how to fold a shirt fast

6. Lift the shirt, folding once back on itself: 

how to fold a shirt

Here's how perfect the shirt will look: 

how to fold a shirt

Check out the full video: 

SEE ALSO: A Professional Chef Reveals The 7 Mistakes Made By Amateur Cooks

NOW WATCH:  How To Pack A Suit

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A Clever New Ad From India Shows Just How Stupid Men Look When They Creep On Unsuspecting Women

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Whistling Woods International Rape Culture Ad India

A Mumbai film institute made a clever ad skewering India's culture of female objectification, and released it one year after the heavily publicized gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student.

Though the incident in December 2012 drew international attention for its gruesomeness — a Delhi woman was raped and bludgeoned by six men while taking the bus home from a movie — the new public service announcement puts a vitriolic spin on the practice of everyday street harassment.

The ad was released by the Whistling Woods International Institute on Dec. 16, the one-year anniversary of the Delhi gang rape.

In it, men are seen leering at women while driving mopeds, riding public transportation, and sitting in cafes. Then, the women flip the switch by showing the men just how silly they look checking out a woman who doesn't want their attention.

See their smarts in action below:

Rape has continued to be a hot-button issue in India in the year since the incident. Another controversy erupted this past New Year's Eve, when a 16-year-old woman in West Bengal was set on fire and killed after charges were filed against two men who had raped her on consecutive days two months prior.  

The atrocity inspired new protests from critics who say the police did not do enough to protect the victim after she reported the rapes and failed to heed the warnings of family members who told authorities they were being harassed by associates of the accused.

SEE ALSO: This Jewelry Ad Might Seem Normal To Americans, But It's Causing A Huge Stir In India

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Sheldon Adelson Is Taking On A Bunch Of America's Billionaires Over The Future Of Gambling

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Sheldon Adelson

Forbes' Nathan Vardi reports that hedge fund superstars George Soros, John Paulson and Leon Cooperman have taken a stake in Caesars Acquisition Co. (the online gambling spinoff of the physical casino that bears the same name).

That puts them squarely against fellow billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the CEO of Las Vegas Sands, over the future of the online gambling industry, which has spread across the country over recent years as states look to capitalize on the tax revenues.

Adelson, a casino magnate who gained national notoriety for a monster $100 million attempt to oust President Obama in 2012, is "working to get state attorneys general to sign a petition against online gambling," Vardi reports. From Forbes:

While Adelson’s limitless money–and his willingness to spend it–may slow the momentum for online gambling by blocking its spread into big states like California and Florida, the odds of him stopping it or bullying his rivals out of the game are slim. He’s got lots of chips, but all the other players at the table do, too.

Now it looks like Adelson's loss would be a major gain for a host of prominent investors.

Read the full report at Forbes »

SEE ALSO: EURASIA GROUP: Here Are The 10 Greatest Risks To Global Stability

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It's So Cold In The South That Fountains Are Freezing

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Record low temperatures are sweeping the U.S. as the result of a "polar vortex," and the South is getting hit with unusually cold weather.

People from North Carolina to Florida have been tweeting pictures of fountains that froze over after the dramatic drop in temperature.

Temperatures plunged to 8 degrees in Atlanta on Tuesday morning, and most parts of the South are below freezing.

Check out some of the photos:

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YACHT OF THE WEEK: The $37 Million 'Apostrophe' Is Overflowing With Art Deco Style

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apostropheA beautiful 130-foot yacht completed by Dutch shipbuilders Hakvoort just last year is now on sale for $37.4 million.

Apostrophe has five staterooms, with classy Art-Deco-inspired furnishings and accommodations for ten guests plus six crew members.

When you're not lounging on luxurious couches inside, you can sip champagne by the pool or do some water sports off the back. 

It's also a finalist for the ShowBoats Design Awards in a number of categories, including Interior Design, Exterior Design & Styling, and Holistic Design. 

Apostrophe is listed for sale by Moran Yachts. Check out Moran's other luxury yachts for sale here.

Apostrophe can reach a maximum speed of 12.7 knots, or about 15 miles per hour.



The interior is very Art Deco, with dark walnut and ebony details.



Clean white tablecloths and crisp settings make the dining room look like a fine restaurant.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider
    






How To Tell If A Diamond Is Real Or Fake

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Cubic Zirconia, better known as "CZ," are lab grown diamond simulates cut to mimic the color and brilliance of diamonds. Brian Driscoll from the Gemological Institute of America explains how they are made and how to tell the difference between these artificial rocks and the real deal.

Produced by Alana Kakoyiannis. Additional Camera by Justin Gmoser.

SEE ALSO: How To Choose The Perfect Diamond

Follow Us: On YouTube

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