Dozens of tribes around the world have managed to survive outside of the modern world, though their existence is perpetually at risk.

British photographer Jimmy Nelson tried to record them as they exist today, traveling to thirty one tribes from 2009 to 2012.

“My dream had always been to preserve our world’s tribes through my photography,” Nelson told Business Insider. "Their lifestyle is one of much more purity and beauty than ‘ours.’ It is free of corruption and greed. I want the tribes to be proud of their authenticity and defend it in order to preserve it.”

Nelson shared photos of some tribes, from the Tsaatan people of northern Mongolia to the Maasai people of Kenya. For the rest, check out his Web site and his book, "Before They Pass Away."

When Nelson first made contact with the tribes, he left his cameras behind. After staying and talking with the tribe for several days, Nelson would ask about photographing them. The Nenets of Siberia (pictured) hunt and herd reindeer. In order to communicate, Nelson had to use translators. He says that approaching the tribes with respect made it easy for the locals to trust them. Melanesians (pictured) occupy parts of a number of Pacific islands. He says that visiting tribes living in extremely cold climates, like these Kazakh men, was “very intense, because they are surviving on the edge of the planet.” When Nelson took his gloves off to take this photo of three Kazakh men, his hands froze to the camera in the minus-20 degree weather. Nelson was crying in pain and a local woman broke custom, putting his hands under her jacket until he returned feeling. It was an extraordinary example of their kindness. The natives of the Mustang region of Nepal are traditionally animal herders. When Nelson first met the Tsaatan people, they invited him to drink with them. After a night of drinking, Nelson struggled to pee outside the teepee in −40 degree weather. He peed on himself, attracting a stampede of reindeer (who are attracted to salt). The reindeer began licking him and the group started laughing hysterically.Nelson, who used to be an advertising photographer, says that he wanted to make the tribes look "monumental" and "important." The men of New Guinea’s Huli people (pictured) wear elaborate headdresses and ceremonial wigs when they go to war. The Maori people of New Zealand recently received control of large tracts of forested land as redress for breaches by the government from 19^th-century treaty.The Yali people live in Papua, Indonesia. Their territory is isolated from outside civilization due to challenging geography. The Samburu people of Kenya are a gerontocracy, meaning that the elders control the tribe. They have a monopoly on marriages and herds.Himba people live in Northern Namibia and Angola. They are semi-nomadic and pastoral, known for covering themselves in otjize, a mixture of fat and ochre, which gives their skin a reddish tint. The Maasai people of Kenya are well regarded for their ability to farm in deserts and scrublands. "I feel that we must try to let the tribes co-exist in these modern times, by supporting their cause, respecting their habitats, recording their pride and helping them to pass on their traditions to generations to come," Nelson said of the tribes he documented.

SEE ALSO: Meet The Ancient Ethiopian Tribes That Could Soon Disappear [PHOTOS]

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Las Vegas is a lot of fun. But every part of the Vegas Strip is designed to confuse tourists into parting with their cash. The casinos have no windows or clocks, they're designed like mazes so you can't find the exits, and it's difficult to get from one venue to the next without taking a taxi. Even crossing the street sometimes requires a half-mile walk to and from a pedestrian bridge.

Go straight to the photo gallery >

In short, The Strip can make you feel stupid for being there, like you're a sheep getting shorn by the casino resorts.

Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh has created an inspiring shopping and dining experience in Downtown Las Vegas — six miles form The Strip that most tourists stay on — and it's the complete opposite of The Strip. It's small-scale, walkable, neighborhood-y and centered around small business and startups.

Called Downtown Container Park, all the businesses inside it occupy 30 reconstructed shipping containers and 41 modular metal cubes. The center courtyard is dominated by a giant treehouse playground.

We visited it recently and liked it a lot. Take a look.

This giant metal praying mantis greets visitors at the front gate of Container Park. It has a surprise in store ...

Flames shoot out of its antenna at unpredictable moments! Hsieh got it from the Burning Man festival. The BI team ducked and screamed in terror the first time it flamed — you can feel the heat on your eyebrows.

The containers are arranged in a block-long pedestrian mall. It's lovely at night. Hsieh invested $350 million of his own money into the Vegas Tech Fund to make it happen.

Billboard reported this week that vinyl sales were the only format of music experiencing growth — for the first time ever, digital sales declined.

So we wanted to provide a guide for the greatest list of vinyl shops on earth. 

You may have seen some of these lists elsewhere. But with a couple of exceptions, there won't be much overlap. Our list is based on a combination of aesthetics and the exclusivity of their holdings. You won't find L.A.'s Amoeba, Chicago's Reckless Minneapolis' Electric Fetus, and Nashville's Grimey's — everyone knows about those. We also excluded ones from Portland and Austin, as we figured their collections of indie rock could be found throughout the world (though please write if you believe we're mistaken). 

The other thing: many of the record stores that should have been on this list have gone to the great turntable in the sky...

But perhaps that makes the following survivors all the more notable.

Check it out.

1) Spillers Records, Cardiff, Wales

Spillers lays claim to being the oldest record shop in the world, having operated out of one location or another in Cardiff since 1894, when it sold phonographs, wax phonograph cylinders and shellac phonograph discs.

2) Picadilly Records, Manchester, UK

The place that gave the world England's greatest indie bands, from The Smiths to Joy Division and New Order. As Morrissey wrote in his recent autobiography, "It is here that secures the New York Dolls' first LP as the main window of hte shop blazes with thirty Dolls sleeves stapled together in a dramatic traffic-stopping mosaic, 50 million unimpressed shoppers running by with a speed suddenly increased by the sight of Arthur Kane."

3) Wuxtry Records, Athens, Ga.

The shop that launched a thousand indie bands, because it launched America's greatest one: REM. It's here that future guitarist Peter Buck worked after dropping out of Emory, and where he is said to have met singer Michael Stipe (not to mention the band's lawyer).

4) Gramophone Records, Chicago

Some shops gave birth to bands; Gramophone gave birth to an entire genre, Chicago House. The dusty original moved up the block several years ago but remains as vital as ever.

5) Mazeeka Samir Fouad, Cairo

Here's how online music zine The Quietus editor John Doran describes this joint:

"It is packed to the gills with giant reconditioned gramophone players, huge valve radios and other long outdated formats for playing music. The walls are lined with Egyptian film posters and portraits of stars such as Umm Kulthum and Abdul el-Halim Hafez, the Nightingale of the Nile. I buy a (literally) dusty pile of albums by the former and Joost buys some jazz 7"s. I waver dangerously for a second when [the proprietor] offers to sell me one of the many pear-shaped ouds hanging from the ceiling." 

6)  Forever Young Records, Grand Prairie (near Dallas), Texas

Just look at it: 11,000 square feet of wax and platinum:

7)  The Thing, Brooklyn

Everything is $2 and there are possibly a million records. If you like your music shopping to double as a test of will, this is your sport. 

8) OHM, Dubai

According to Time Out Dubai, OHM is "the first store in the Middle East and South Asia to carry vinyl." Presumably they mean modern music on vinyl — Beirut has a long, rich history of incredible east-west crossover productions— but the place seems chill. 

9) Spacehall, Berlin

The coolest record store in the coolest city in the world. Also doubles as a performance space.

10) Tower Records, Tokyo 

The last one left on Earth! 

11) Louisiana Music Factory, New Orleans

Home to the greatest collection of New Orleans jazz, cajun, zydeco and big band music in the world.

12) Shangri-La, Memphis

Generally regarded as the greatest collection of Memphis blues discs in the city.

13) Jazzhole, Lagos, Nigeria

Serving all your Afrobeat and Fela Kuti needs. Also has frequent live in-store performances.

14)  Submerge, Detroit

Home of the Underground Resistance, the politically active wing of Detroit's techno scene. Also home of the greatest collection of Detroit techno and electronic records in the world.

15)  Rotate This, Toronto

This tiny shop helped fuel the careers of Canada's greatest indie bands including Broken Social Scene and F*** Up.

16)  Big Oomp, Atlanta

If you like your hip hop extra dirty, this is where you want to go. 

17) Earnest Tubbs, Nashville

Again, everyone will tell you to go to Grimey's. Where you should really go is Tubbs', the real home of country.

18)   12 Tónar, Rejkavik, Iceland

All of the best classical recordings in the world appear to have been packed up and moved here, to this tiny house at the top of the world. According to classical authority Gramophone, this has probably made it the great classical outlet on the planet.

SEE ALSO: 18 Bookstores Every Book Lover Must Visit At Least Once

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New York-based comedy site Sure Thing Chief creator Jason Messina has released a new video called "NEW! Try 'Not Having Kids,'" and it's going viral.

"Feeling overwhelmed? Feeling stressed and burdened? Is it because everyone you know is having kids?" The video's female voiceover asks a young couple. "Do you find you are not yet ready to obliterate any chance you have left to enjoy life to its fullest? Then try Not Having Kids!"

The minute and half spoof of a drug commercial shows a young couple enjoying not having kids as they take hikes together, eat ice cream while a woman struggles with a stroller, and have brunch with their friends in the middle of the day.

And while the funny video shows all the positives of Not Having Kids, it does come with a warning of possible side effects, including destruction of family lineage, eerily quiet studio apartment, holiday season loneliness, death-bed regret, friends and family questioning your sexual orientation, and having very little to talk about with your procreating friends after the age 30, among many others.

“The video is not meant to take sides,” the video's New York-based creator Messina told the New York Daily News. “You need to take time to make this decision of whether or not you want children. The main thing is this is a big decision and it should not be taken lightly.”

Plus, you can always just get a dog. Watch the video below.

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The eastern U.S.  has been miserable this winter. Relentless snowstorms have left roads and sidewalks cold and slushy.

The iPhone's weather app thankfully lets you tack on a place that's much colder, presumably so you can always remind yourself that someone has it worse than you.

Saskatchewan used to hold that spot on mine.

But not anymore.

I would frequently message my friends and remind them that we had it better than Sasketchewan. One of them, however, suggested Oymyakon, Russia instead. But I thought if I looked hard enough, I might find some place worse. 

Enter: Verkhoyansk, Sakha Republic, Russia.

Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon have been battling it out for title of the coldest inhabited place in the world. Cold tourism might have something to do with it.

But Verkhoyansk is arguably more miserable. Here's why:

On the day I first added  Verkhoyansk to my weather app, it said it felt like -72F. Today, it's -51F, but with wind chill feels like -69F.

The sun rose 10:55 a.m today and it will set at 5:43 p.m. The average temperature is −49.7F in January. In July, it gets to 61.7F.

It turns out Verkhoyansk, with a population of about 1,400, is part of an area dubbed 'Stalin’s Death Ring'. This is where Stalin sent his political exiles and before that the Czars too.

Here are some terrifying excerpts from Michael Specter's 1994 piece in The New York Times:

• On the cold: "All it takes to refrigerate your food is a basement -- anything deeper than a foot or two and it's a solid wall of ice." "I just throw them down here after I kill them," was how Simeon Goronov described the storage of the huge supply of hare and moose he amassed this summer.
• On suicides: "I am leaving this place forever," wrote Pavel T. Shvetsov in an entirely understandable suicide note in 1801 that is on display at the museum, "without thoughts, without hope, without work, alone in the dark of night. The snow will cover my footsteps." Mr. Gorokhov, the Mayor, said that he had no idea what "normal" suicide rates were for Arctic towns, but that a few people killed themselves each winter in Verkhoyansk. He said it as if it were a sensible thing to do.
• On housing: "Houses sometimes snap in two when the ice beneath them weakens and shifts a little."

And this from Walter Mayr in Der Spiegel: 

"The reality in modern-day Verkhoyansk means retirees spending a third of their pensions on firewood, despite already receiving a subsidy for about the same amount from the local government. Drinking water from the Jana River is delivered by tractor in the form of blocks of ice -- in return for cash payment. Local inhabitants are more than likely to sew their own indispensable "Untys," or boots made of reindeer fur, which can cost up to €500 in a retail shop. Old thermal clothing, free during Soviet days, is worn as long as possible.

"With January temperatures corresponding to the average annual temperature on Mars, no one can stay outside for more than 15 minutes. The only way to prevent death from exposure is to wear the pelts and skins of animals that live above the Arctic Circle -- and to keep moving. Wood fires in roadside huts and car engines kept running throughout the day provide respite to anyone forced to spend time outdoors."

A monument called "the pole of cold," greets people entering Verkhoyansk:

If all that wasn't terrible enough, the town was attacked by a "super pack of 400 wolves" in 2012, Roland Oliphant of The Telegraph reported, "forcing locals to mount patrols on snow mobiles until the government could send in extra help." The agriculture ministry claimed that the wolves killed 313 horses and over 16,000 reindeer in 2012.

YouTube user Andre Grisell posted this video of Verkohyansk in December, 2006: 

"What happens physically at and below -40 C is that the air can no longer retain any humidity, and any water vapor will instantly sublime and fall down as ice dust. This is the reason for the fog, which is inevitable below -40 wherever there's human activity. This fog consists of ice. This phenomenon will gradually suck out liquid from your body through your lungs, thus making you constantly thirsty and cause coughing. Bronchitis and pneumonia are common among natives and especially children."

Verkhoyansk, you've got me convinced.

SEE ALSO: Pretty Soon We'll Have To Talk About Russia

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When high school senior Ryan Eichenauer decided he was ready to come out as a gay man last month, he chose to sit down in front of his computer's camera and speak about the feelings he had been keeping in for so long.

In the video, Eichenauer stated,

At first I wasn't comfortable with the image of myself dating guys. I believed if I ran from it long enough and hid it long enough and refused to acknowledge it long enough, I could force myself to be otherwise.

"This is who I am," he states, "and this was the secret that was holding me down."

With one click, he uploaded the video to Facebook, immediately reaching his network of friends and family, classmates, and yes, in some instances, strangers. 

In the last few months, Facebook has been looked at as a social network that's going out of style for the demographic it had been conceived to benefit: young adults. 

Various reports (the author of this post not excluded) claimed that the notion that anyone could join the social network (parents, for example) was keeping the teenagers at bay. Facebook, in a sense, was a place where kids were all of a sudden being chaperoned, and the younger generations were flocking to buzzier apps like Snapchat and Instagram to avoid the watchful eyes of their elders.

But here's the thing: it's not that teenagers were leaving Facebook in the sense that they were deleting their profiles or kicking the apps off their iPhone's homescreen. Maybe they weren't visiting the site every day to upload photos of themselves at parties or to complain about how their parents were annoying them, but the network remained an integral part of their lives. They could not, and would not, and did not want to sever ties.

As they evolved themselves, Facebook was evolving, too — into a different kind of platform that took on new meaning for this young generation of users.

In the beginning of September 2013, high school student Zach Gibson also made the choice to come out on Facebook, using the status update box to share that he was bisexual.

Gibson, like Eichenauer, knew that the post would reach his entire network, including his mother, who saw the post and responded in kind on the social network.

Gibson's mother wrote this letter to her son and uploaded it to her profile:

The story was picked up on various channels, praising the teenager and his mother for being shining examples of bravery and unconditional love.

Of course, with this new modern practice of so publicly announcing your sexual orientation come the skeptics. There will always be people who believe these types of things should be kept private and off the social networks. There will always be people who will accuse these teenagers (and their well-meaning parents) of attempting to create some sort of viral phenomenon to get attention. 

And there will always be bullies. 

Eichenauer, who shared his coming out video last month, is making headlines now for not only his bravery but for the two death threats he received in response, one of which implored him to kill himself.

Now, multiple investigations have been launched by police in Eichenauer's hometown of Blaine, Minn., to find the author or authors of the typed-up notes.

But interestingly enough, as news outlets reported on this story, the fact that Eichenauer had used a public social network to come out was not used as a defense against the bullying. In fact, both threats were presented in anonymous notes left on his classroom chair — not on Facebook. 

On its 10th birthday, it's clearer than ever that the younger generation looks at Facebook in a different light than Snapchat or Instagram. For them, Facebook is seen as a safe haven, and a way to conveniently reach the "friends" that they chose to trust by pressing a button that includes them in their network. 

The fact that teenagers feel comfortable using the platform to come out to their friends and families says more about what Facebook means and will continue to mean to our culture than simple statistics about how many hours high school students log on the site each day. 

Facebook is the default social network; the default place of social representation. If something big changes in your life, whether it be a new job, getting into a certain college, or yes, even your acknowledgment of your sexual orientation, Facebook is where you go first. What you do on other apps is a reflection of the change you've already publicized on Facebook, even if you spend more time on those apps on a day-to-day basis.

Facebook isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and if it's truly the place where people feel the most comfortable sharing, then it absolutely shouldn't.

SEE ALSO: 10 years ago, this woman used Facebook to find a boyfriend.

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The New York Post revealed today that power couple David Lauren and Lauren Bush Lauren bought celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz's West Village home for $28.5 million.

David Lauren is the son of designer Ralph Lauren, while Lauren Bush Lauren is the niece of former President George W. Bush and the granddaughter of former President George H.W. Bush.

The Post also reports Bush Lauren’s mother Sharon Smith Bush — a broker at Corcoran — helped represent the couple in the sale.

Leibovitz had been trying to unload her trio of West Village townhouses for well over a year, and she finally succeeded in January, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The seven-bedroom compound was originally listed for $33 million in 2012 with Brown Harris Stevens. After languishing on the market, it was discounted to $29.9 million and taken over by the Corcoran Real Estate Group, complete with bright new pictures of the home. The 10,200-square-foot property finally sold for $28.5 million in January.

The trio of buildings were combined and renovated by Leibovitz herself, who started buying them in 2002. The compound has a main home, Leibovitz's studio, and a two-story guest home with its own bedroom, kitchen, and two fireplaces.

In the backyard is a slate patio with a private garden area accessible by the street. The photographer sold her home to reportedly move closer to the uptown school of her three daughters.

Leibovitz's old compound is located on the corner of Greenwich Street and occupies more than 10,200 square feet of space.

Source: Corcoran Real Estate Group

The property is comprised of three townhouses that have all been meticulously renovated and restored with all new plumbing and electrical systems.

Source: Corcoran Real Estate Group

The brick buildings originally date back to the 1830s, and altogether have 16 rooms and 13 wood-burning fireplaces.

Source: Corcoran Real Estate Group

If searches for flights between the U.S. and Sochi are any indication, Americans have close to zero interest in heading to Russia for the Winter Olympics.

Travel site Hopper crunched the numbers for October, November, December, and January, and found that the most popular route to Sochi, from New York, was searched only 35 times a day. Overall, Americans look for flights between the U.S. and Sochi as often as they look for flights to Billund, Denmark — home of LEGOLAND.

The lack of demand is not surprising: American officials warn that the Games are a potential target for terrorist attacks, and visitors should "remain alert regarding their personal security at all times." Visitors also need a visa to enter Russia.

Not to mention the fact that Sochi is distant, unknown to many, and expensive to reach.

Hopper found other European cities with similar search demands to Sochi. None of them are top destinations:

SEE ALSO: Nearly 20% Of Seats On US Flights Are Empty

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If your home is your castle, the bathroom undoubtedly holds the throne. 

Since people spend, on average, a year and a half of their lives in the bathroom, it should be a nice place to be, especially if you're plunking down a million or more for your house.

The experts at the real estate listing site Estately helped us find the homes on the market right now with the most luxurious bathrooms you can imagine. We're talking everything from sitting rooms equipped with flatscreen TVs to marble statues and golden fixtures. By far, California plays home to some of the most extravagant loos across the country.

This cool bathroom fits into its Western locale.

Address: 6427 East El Sendero Road, Carefree, Arizona

Price: $2.2 million

As seen on HGTV, this remodeled home takes advantage of its western location. It sits on a totally private 3.6 acre hillside and affords great views of the Black Mountain through its floor-to-ceiling windows.  

Source: Estately

Lounge in this bathroom fit for Southern belles and gents.

Address: 423 Seneca Road, Great Falls, Virginia 

Price: $5.2 million

This stately, 12,000-square-foot manor home is perfect for those who crave the Southern lifestyle. It's full of colonial architectural detail and has a master bathroom equipped with a steam room and steam shower.

Source: Estately

Enjoy a restroom in the style of the Old Masters.

Address: 319 Atlantic Avenue, Sunny Isles Beach, Florida

Price: $7.9 million

Located in the heart of Sunny Isles, this 8,550-square foot home boasts 30-foot fresco ceilings painted by a European artist. The Italianate details carry through the rest of the house with a front entrance that features a courtyard and cypress landscaping. 

Source: Estately

You may drink, and you may party, but do you get My Drunk Kitchen wasted?

Well, it seems that drunk cooking video host Hannah Hart's learned her fair share from her series — she hosted Mental Floss's weekly video list laying out 29 common misconceptions about alcohol.

Here are the 9 biggest alcohol-related myths, and why they are false. Check out the full 29 on Mental Floss or below.

1. Liquor before beer never fear, beer before liquor never sicker. There's no magical order of drinking that will save you from a hangover the next day. The order you drink certain types of alcohol in doesn't matter — even switching between beer, wine, and liquor throughout the night won't make a difference. Bottomline: all that matters is how much you drink, not if you saved the beer for last.

2. Breaking the seal means you'll have to pee more all night. Alcohol is a diuretic, so it's already going to make you pee a lot. "Breaking the seal" the first time will not increase the amount of times you have to go to the bathroom, but drinking lots of alcohol will.

3. Blackouts can eventually be remembered. If you wake up fuzzy on the details from the night before, you probably shouldn't even bother trying to remember: it's impossible. When we drink too much the part of our brain that encodes memories actually switches off. People claiming they remember what happened after they blacked out are probably having what are called false memories.

4. The lines on a solo cup are for measuring alcohol. While the lines on a solo cup do come close to matching up with alcohol measurements (the bottom line is close to one ounce for liquor, the middle line is close to five ounces for wine, etc.) the Solo company has said repeatedly that the lines on the cup do not exist for that purpose. They even went to the trouble of making a graphic on their Facebook page illustrating their point.

5. Mixing energy drinks with alcohol makes you drunker. Turns out it just energizes you. The problem is the extra shot of energy can make you feel less intoxicated than you actually are.

6. Tequila makes you crazy. There is no evidence that a type of alcohol gets you a certain type of drunk. So anyone claiming that wine makes them sad, or whiskey makes them angry, doesn't have much scientific evidence backing them up. The number of drinks and speed of drinking have the biggest impact on your drunk mood.

7. Eating before drinking keeps you sober. Eating before drinking does help your body absorb alcohol, but it only delays the alcohol entering your bloodstream, it doesn't restrict it. Your body absorbs the alcohol slower after a big meal, so eating before drinking can help the severity of your hangover. Eating a lot after drinking won't do anything for your hangover.

8. A night cap helps you sleep. A drink before bed will help you fall asleep faster, but your body will actually spend less time in REM, and the quality of your sleep will suffer.

9. You can cure a hangover by drinking more. A Mimosa or Bloody Mary in the morning won't make you feel better. All you're doing is prolonging the hangover. Same goes for coffee. Like alcohol, coffee is a diuretic, so it will dehydrate your body even more and likely prolong the hangover.

You can check out 20 more alcohol misconceptions in the video below:

SEE ALSO: How 8 Common Medications Interact With Alcohol

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New York Fashion Week is officially under way, and this year's shows and after-parties are bound to be more exclusive than ever. 

Like any high-profile event, it's inevitable that someone will try to crash the front door. 

But crashers be warned: A new crop of apps that act as "virtual guest lists" will make entry more difficult for the uninvited. Apps like Zkipster, Fashion GPS, and Splash use cloud-based guest lists that bouncers and event organizers can access on a tablet or phone.

According to The New York Times, a new addition to Zkipster's app called zFace will be used to control Fashion Week crowds. ZFace uses Microsoft Bing to put a face to a name, making it more likely bouncers will be able to instantly identify wannabes. 

ZFace debuted in December at Art Basel Miami Beach, where mobs of hopefuls lined up outside a Dom Pérignon party.  

"A 20-something girl came up to me claiming she was Marina Abramovic," Laura Ledesma, a publicist who does public relations work for Zkipster with Nadine Johnson and Associates, said to the New York Times. 

Marina Abramovic is a performance artist who was born in 1946. "I showed her the photo on the iPad and said, 'Are you crazy? Get out of here," Ledesma said.

There's also Fashion GPS, which will set up invitations and online guest lists during Made Fashion Week, and Seven Rooms, an online service that helps top nightclubs like Lavo and Marquee accommodate their VIP guests. 

Some crashers could still find a way to make it in, however. 

"I don’t think we can kill gate-crashing 100 percent. We just made a tool to make it much harder in the future," David Becker, a founder of Zkipster, said to the New York Times. "If people are still smart enough to crash the gate with faces on the list, they should go for it. I think it’s a beautiful sport."

SEE ALSO: Zappos' Tony Hsieh Has Created A Shopping And Dining Experience In Las Vegas That Makes The Strip Look Dumb

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Restaurant manager Tony Posnanski was working a busy shift when a customer stopped him to complain about a loud child at a nearby table. 

But as he went to confront the woman, she asked him a question that stopped him in his tracks.

Posnanski wrote an open letter to the family he posted on his blog The Anti-Jared. He shared it with Business Insider: 

"To the woman and child who sat at table 9,

I did not introduce myself to you. My name is Tony Posnanski. I have been a restaurant manager for fifteen years now. My day consists of making sure my restaurant runs well. That could mean washing dishes, cooking and sometimes even serving tables. I have also dealt with every guest complaint you can imagine.

A few weeks back you came into my restaurant. I was very busy that night. I was running around helping the kitchen cook food. I was asked to talk to a table close to yours. I did and they said your child was being very loud. I heard some yelling while I was talking to that table. I heard a very loud beep from a young girl.

I started to walk to your table. You knew what I was going to ask. You saw the table I just spoke to pointing at you. I got to your table and you looked at me. You wanted the first word. You said…

“Do you know what it is like to have a child with Autism?”

You were not rude when you asked the question. In fact, you were quite sincere. Your daughter could not have been more than five years old. She was beautiful and looked scared that I was at the table. She looked like she thought she was in trouble.

In fifteen years I do not have a lot of memorable moments as a restaurant manager. I remember some guests who were mad that their burger was not the way they wanted it. I remember a woman who called corporate on me because she said I gave her a regular Coke instead of a Diet Coke. I remember having to cut people off from drinking alcohol and I remember having to tell tables to have their child be quieter.

However, I do remember everything about the day my son was born. How I cried when I heard him cry. How I stood there and told him I would do anything for him and be the best father possible. I remember the day I married my wife. How I cried and promised to be the best husband possible. I remember the day my daughter was born. I did not cry that day. I was just so relieved because I lost a child two years earlier.

I know what I was supposed to say when I went to your table. I was supposed to politely tell you to please not have your daughter yell. I was supposed to offer to move you to another area. I was supposed to offend you by not offending you…

I did not do any of that.

Instead I just told you I hoped your meal was awesome. I high fived your daughter and then I told you that your meal was on us tonight. It was only sixteen dollars. It meant more to me than that. I do not think the other guests I spoke to were happy about it. At that moment it did not matter to me.

I do not know how you reacted. I had to leave to go cook because the kitchen was not doing very good that night. When the server asked me why I bought the food I just said you did not enjoy your steak. I did not tell anyone what you said to me. I was thankful you did say it to me though.

You asked me a question that I did not answer. The truth is I do not know what it is like to have a child with Autism. I know what it is like to be a father. I know what it is like to be a husband. I know what it is like to not tell his wife how much he loves her enough. I know what it is like to want to spend more time with his children.

You asked me the question right away. You have been through this before in other restaurants. I did not want to be like other managers for one moment. I did not want to tell you what you always heard.

Honestly, I wrote this to you and your beautiful daughter because I wanted to thank you both.

You have given me a great restaurant memory. One that I needed for the last fifteen years.

You also taught me a valuable lesson…

Sometimes doing the right thing does not make everyone happy; just the people who need it the most.

Sincerely,

Tony Posnanski"

To see more of Posnanski's writing, follow him on Facebook. 

SEE ALSO: A Common Misconception Is Cutting Into Pizza Delivery Drivers' Pay

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Reputation is everything. That's especially true in America, a country where tourists spend $166 billion annually, lured by the image of the American lifestyle, according to The Atlantic. 

But what is the image we have of our own biggest cities? Real estate listing site Movoto wanted to find out. They enlisted the help of marketing agency Fractl to conduct an online survey that got more than 13,000 responses from across the nation.

The survey presented people online with one of the 16 biggest cities in America, based on population density, and asked a range of questions about their perceptions of that city — from how clean they thought the city was to how easy they thought it would be to "get laid" there.

Respondents ranked cities on a scale of 1 to 4, and the cities with the highest percentage of 3s and 4s, compared to overall responses to a category, won that superlative. Los Angeles got a lot of love, while people tended to have a poor opinion of Detroit, which lost nearly every category. Below the results, you can check out all the cities that were in the running.     

Most Fashionable 

Winner: Los Angeles (88.5%)

Honorable Mention: New York City (87.9%)

Least Fashionable: Detroit (42.7% thought it was fashionable)

Most LGBT Friendly

Winner: Los Angeles (82.6%)

Honorable Mention: San Francisco (80.2%)

Least LGBT Friendly: Detroit (42.1% thought it was LGBT friendly)

Most Hipster

Winner: Los Angeles (76.3%)

Honorable Mention: New York City (74.2%)

Least Hipster: Detroit (40.5% thought it was hipster)

Best Food

Winner: New York City (87.9%)

Honorable Mention: Chicago (87.3%)

Worst Food: Detroit (55.6% thought it had the best food)

Craziest Sports Fans

Winner: Boston (79.1%)

Honorable Mention: Chicago (78.7%)

Least Crazy Sports Fans: Washington, D.C. (53.9% thought it had crazy sports fans)

Cleanest City

Winner: Seattle (80.6%)

Honorable Mention: Tampa - St. Petersburg (79.8%) 

Dirtiest City: Detroit (30.7% thought it was clean)

Best Personal Hygiene 

Winner: Seattle (78%)

Honorable Mention: Dallas - Fort Worth (75.5%)

Worst Personal Hygiene: Detroit (37.6% thought its population had the best personal hygiene)

Most Intelligent

Winner: Seattle (83%) 

Honorable Mention: New York City (81.6%)

Least Intelligent: Detroit (47.9% thought it was intelligent)

Worst Traffic

Winner: New York City (70%)

Honorable Mention: Chicago (62.9%)

Best Traffic: Seattle (35.9% thought it had the worst traffic)

Friendliest City

Winner: Seattle (77.2%)

Honorable Mention: Minneapolis - St. Paul (74.6%)

Least Friendly City: Detroit (37.6% thought it was friendly)

Most Attractive Women

Winner: Los Angeles (87.6%)

Honorable Mention: Miami (84.3%)

Least Attractive Women: Detroit (47.7% thought it had the most attractive women)

Most Attractive Men

Winner: Miami (78.3%)

Honorable Mention: Los Angeles (78.2%) 

Least Attractive Men: Detroit (43.9% thought it had the most attractive men)

Easiest City For Men To Get Laid

Winner: Detroit (52.3%)

Honorable Mention: Atlanta (48.7%)

Hardest City For Men To Get Laid: Seattle (39.2% thought it was easy for men to get laid here)

Easiest City For Women To Get Laid

Winner: Detroit (53.3%)

Honorable Mention: Chicago (51.7%)

Hardest City For Women To Get Laid: Minneapolis - St. Paul (39.5% thought it was easy for women to get laid here)

Highest Sexual Promiscuity In Men

Winner: Los Angeles (79.2%)

Honorable Mention: New York City (78.2%)

Lowest Sexual Promiscuity In Men: Minneapolis - St. Paul (58.9% thought men here had high sexual promiscuity)

Highest Sexual Promiscuity In Women

Winner: Los Angeles (80.8%)

Honorable Mention: New York City (76%) 

Lowest Sexual Promiscuity In Women: Minneapolis - St. Paul (54.4% thought women here had high sexual promiscuity)

Here's a list of the 16 cities involved in the poll, followed by the number of people who responded to questions about them.

Atlanta - 1,236

Boston - 1,093

Chicago - 654

Dallas-Fort Worth - 884

Detroit - 1,005

Houston - 846

Los Angeles - 795

Miami - 691

Minneapolis-St. Paul - 718

New York City - 1,096

Philadelphia - 700

Phoenix - 658

San Francisco - 700

Seattle - 678

Tampa-St. Petersburg - 696

Washington, D.C. - 614

SEE ALSO: The 28 Best Countries For Healthy Eating

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MONEY can buy many things: luxury, influence, security--and even time. How frustrating, then, to be vastly rich but never quite to get what you want. Such is the dilemma faced by the world's richest family, the Al Sauds of Saudi Arabia.

Their kingdom has sold the rest of the world around $1 trillion-worth of oil in the past three years alone, accumulating a hoard of sovereign assets nearly as big as its GDP of $745 billion. Immense new investments in infrastructure, industry, health care and education are spreading that wealth by the shovelful. A new underground-railway system for the capital, Riyadh, is to be dug, not one line at a time but all at once, with six full lines due to open by 2018. And this is just one rail project among many. The kingdom is to spend around $30 billion on mass transit for the cities of Jeddah and Mecca, as well as $12 billion on a high-speed link running 450km (280 miles) from Mecca to Medina, in addition to billions more on a national freight network.

Yet rather than the ebullience you might expect, the mood among Saudi Arabia's 30m residents (a third of whom are foreign workers and their dependants) is one of nagging unease. Even as shiny new buildings, universities, "financial centres" and entire cities sprout, the machinery of government has remained as creakily top-down and tangled in red tape as ever. And even as Saudis grow ever more sophisticated and worldly--about 160,000 of them are studying abroad on government scholarships, and those left behind are among the world's heaviest internet addicts--social, political and religious strictures remain stifling.

"The government keeps people quiet with money, and in the rare cases where that doesn't work, with threats," says a diplomat in Riyadh. "But this is not a happy place." For one thing, ordinary Saudis have no say in where the money is spent. All too often what they see, following the much-trumpeted princely opening of each new project, is vast empty buildings and unused facilities. What they hear is tales of which privileged courtier or business mogul has pocketed how much.

Despite sharp polarisation between arch-religious conservative Saudis and more progressive types, there is general agreement on two points. One is that this is no time to rock the boat: the violence and unrest provoked elsewhere by the Arab spring have largely spooked Saudis into sullen silence.

The other is that the kingdom's leadership is adrift. King Abdullah, now at least 90, is seen as beholden to a small circle of advisers and sons, with rival courts surrounding the 83-year-old crown prince, Salman, and other contenders for the succession. Amid the intrigue and jockeying, what stands out is a lack of imagination or vision. "At their age, they can't face a curve ball, or a googly, if you prefer the cricket terminology," says a Jeddah businessman.

Saudi Arabia's neighbours and allies, too, are increasingly wary. Their concern is not just about internal strains. In recent years Saudi foreign policy has grown both more assertive and more erratic. It has achieved some modest successes. Long fearful of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose many quiet supporters in the kingdom represent one of the few potential threats to their own control, the Al Sauds strongly backed their removal from government in Egypt. Forceful Saudi intervention in neighbouring Bahrain also bolstered a friendly Sunni ruling family against what the Saudis perceived as a dangerous, Iranian-influenced Shia uprising.

Saudi officials see themselves as having bested such rivals for regional influence as Iran and Qatar in those rounds. Yet Bahrain and Egypt remain both unstable and dependent on continuing Saudi largesse. Meanwhile, Saudi efforts to influence other regional contests, for instance in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, have gone much less smoothly. The kingdom has been unable to match the determination, diplomatic skill or even financial investment that Iran has wielded to bolster its proxies in those fights. Worse yet, many of the clients it has favoured have turned out to be unreliable at best, or murderously fanatical at worst.

"They have too narrow a bandwidth," judges a foreign diplomat. "It's barely enough to run their own country, let alone an ambitious regional agenda." It is not merely against their foes that the Saudis have stumbled of late. An initiative by the kingdom to push the Gulf Co-operation Council, a six-country club of rich Arab monarchies, towards political union was quickly torpedoed by Oman in December, much to the quiet relief of other members.

More bruisingly, the Saudis also felt rejected by their oldest and strongest ally, America, when Barack Obama's administration failed to seize what they viewed as a golden opportunity to clobber Bashar Assad, Syria's ruler, after he used chemical weapons against rebel suburbs of Damascus in August. In apparent anger, the kingdom took the unprecedented step of declining a seat in the UN Security Council. "We used to be known for riyalpolitik," quips the businessman from Jeddah. "But now what we do is piquepolitik."

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Minnesota is probably the last place you would think of surfing, but a group of diehard surfers is making it happen on Lake Superior in the freezing winter, when the waves are biggest.

Photographer and Minnesota-native John Haynes captured the chilly scene last year and shared some photos here.

Most surfers go out to Lake Superior to surf, two and half hours from Minneapolis.

Picking which day to go is the trickiest part. In order for there to be good waves, there needs to be a very specific type of wind blowing, which usually happens around strong weather systems like snowstorms.

The weather can be so unpredictable that surfers will see an ideal wind forecast the night before a trip and then wake up in the morning to find out that the wind changed and everything is calm.

"The Soviet government's passion for mass-organizing is on display in Sochi, where the tumbling green slopes of the Caucasus Mountains meet the Black Sea in a subtropical climate that allows a May-to-October vacation season."

That's how the Chicago Tribune introduced Sochi to Americans in a 1987 travel article.

Before winning the rights to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, Sochi was known as a resort town, if it was known at all.

Over a million people visit the Black Sea city every summer to swim, shop, lay on the beach, and generally relax.

You'll see a lot of cold-looking imagery coming out of Sochi next month. But these photos of Sochi in summer show what the host city typically looks like.

Sochi sits on the Black Sea. It's one of the warmest places in all of Russia.

Kids jump off an old concrete embankment.

Just like any typical Jersey Shore town, there's a water park near the boardwalk.

Larry Ellison has huge, impressive plans for the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which he bought in 2012.

It will become "a laboratory for building the next generation two-way power grid, which will be a mix of photo-tech (solar), with a little bit of wind with a backup of liquefied natural gas," he told attendees at an event in Las Vegas Thursday evening.

The island is a "special case" that can be used "to demonstrate that green energy can be economical," he explained.

Ellison is CEO of Oracle and the event was held to talk about the company's HR cloud software. But in the Q&A session, he invited the audience to ask him "anything," and that was a part of the evening that he clearly relished.

An Oracle employee and Hawaiian native stood up and asked about his long-term plans for Lanai. Since buying the island, Ellison, though his company Lanai Resorts LLC, has also bought two Lanai airlines, refurbished the hotels and invested in everything from wind farms to local businesses.

"I was just looking at the Lanai five-year budget and wow, it's expensive," Ellison joked. He's one of the world's richest men, worth $41 billion, Forbes estimates.

But his true motive has less to do with running a profitable resort than saving the planet.

Ellison says that North America is not running out of fossil fuels, especially a "transitional energy called liquefied natural gas."

In the past five years, North America has found 100 years worth of natural gas, he says, and we're sure to find more. In order to compete, the green energy industry needs someone to show that it can be just as affordable as traditional energy.

He explained his plan in detail:

We think we can demonstrate that green energy can be economical. Right now green energy is considerably more expensive than conventional fossil fuels.  The island of Lanai is small enough, it can serve.

One of the great things about Lanai is that the weather is always fabulous. Always 82 degrees and sunny. The problem is that, like California now, Lanai needs more water. It's in the rain shadow of Maui ...

We're going to use our solar power, our wind power grid to convert sea water to fresh water ... desalination. We think we can do that in a very effective way and use that fresh water to bring back commercial agriculture.

Lanai at one time grew 98% of the world's pineapples. But the world's pineapples are now grown in two places, Costa Rica and Panama, because no one wants to spend $45 for a pineapple from the United States.

We're using computers to distribute the water through drip irrigation. There's sensors in the drip irrigation heads so you know when to turn the head on and off. If part of the field is in shadow, you put less water on that part of the field. If part of the field has higher acidic content, you fertilize that part of the field differently. ...

We think this is what agriculture is going to look like 20-30 years from now. We're trying to model all of that and do it in a way where it can be very cost effective. ...

We're empowering the locals to start their own businesses, [whether that's] in agriculture or a juice bar in Lanai City. We're providing them with the appropriate mentoring and help.

If they are growing all these wonderful organic crops, we'll figure out how to get them to market.

We can fly the products from Lanai to Honolulu and then ship them to Japan. We have an airline that takes people around during the day and an airline that takes produce around in the evening. Fresh produce picked on Thursday can show up in a Japanese or Chinese restaurant on Friday.

We're also improving the schools and free public facilities for the people of Lanai. There are 3,200 people that live on the island. We've done a bunch of things in terms of building community pools, basketball courts and for the first time Lanai has a football field where the high school can have home games.

We think if we do a good job of taking care of the locals, the locals will do a good job of taking care of our visitors.

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Larry Ellison's 28-year-old daughter Megan Ellison has become a big-time movie producer. His son, David, is also a producer but it is Megan's star that is currently skyrocketing in Hollywood now.

Megan is the producer of the "American Hustle" and "Her," two current films wracking up awards.

Ellison, 69, is the CEO of tech company Oracle, a tech visionary who has been running Oracle since he co-founded it in 1977. He's also known as a wild playboy who's been divorced four times.

The event was held to promote company's human resources cloud software. But in the Q&A session, he invited the audience to ask him "anything."

One man asked Ellison what he thought about the role of tech in our modern lives. Ellison said he was "disturbed" by how much time kids play video games, and what that could lead to. Here's what he said:

My daughter produced a movie called "Her." It's about this guy that gets divorced and is having a rough time finding a relationship until he meets this piece of software ... it's an artificially intelligent bot, that takes no physical form.

Here's a guy that's chosen to have a relationship with a piece of software instead of a human being.

That's one way it can go. You can say that's utterly ridiculous. But I am so disturbed by kids who spend all day playing video games. They've chosen a virtual self.

This weird thing where NFL says 60 minutes a day you should go outside? I know I was a kid a long time ago, but if the sun rose, I was outside on my bike and if my parents were lucky, I would be home before dark.

The fact that people have chosen games where there's a virtual ball rather than a real ball ... that's because [games are] easy. It's very hard for me to be LeBron [James]. I was pretty good at basketball, I'm still not bad, but I'm not LeBron. Now everyone gets to be LeBron in virtual reality. But in reality only one guy gets to be LeBron.

Where does it all end? "Her" is kind of the next thing. What about virtual relationships, where your virtual partner just keeps telling you how great you are?

I won't tell you how the movie ends, but it's amazing: Be careful about virtual relationships with artificially intelligent pieces of software, that are gradually getting smarter than you are.

The truth is, the future that Ellison describes is already here. Virtual girlfriend apps are all the rage in Japan right now.

SEE ALSO: I ‘Dated’ A Virtual Girlfriend For A Week To See What All Those Japanese Guys Are So Excited About

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What happens when you pour beer into a hot frying pan?

A video that we first came across on Digg shows how the beer appears to hover over the surface of the pan, whirling around in a solid blob instead of slowly boiling and evaporating.

In physics, this phenomenon is called the "Leidenfrost effect." It can happen with any liquid, not just beer.

Normally, when you pour liquid into a hot pan, the droplets will sizzle and evaporate. But when you crank up the temperature so that the surface is significantly hotter than the liquid's boiling point, the heat is so extreme that it boils the underside of the liquid immediately. The resulting vapor acts like a bed, protecting the liquid above it from touching the hot pan. The droplets will fuse together and evaporate very slowly.

You can see the "vapor cushion" and the droplet floating above it in the diagram below:

This Leidenfrost effect is also what allows liquid nitrogen to skitter across a smooth surface:

And here's the beer again. It looks really cool because of the top layer of foam: 

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In a speech on American infrastructure Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said that compared to airports like Hong Kong International, New York's LaGuardia feels like a "third world country."

In January, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called LaGuardia and JFK "inexcusable," and announced the state would take over responsibility for revamping both.

To give American travelers a look at what they're missing until those renovations are complete, we've put together a list of the world's best airports, based on the 2013 World Airport Awards, announced in April 2013 by leading airline reviewer Skytrax.

The awards, which include categories for best terminal, shopping, security, cleanliness, dining, and more, are determined by public opinion. More than 12 million people responded to this year's survey.

As President Obama noted in a press conference in April, the highest ranked U.S. airport is Cincinnati at #30. Not very impressive.

10. London Heathrow Airport

Yearly passengers: 69.4 million

Why it's awesome: Despite London Mayor Boris Johnson's concern that Heathrow gives visitors "a terrible impression of the U.K.," the overcrowded airport made it into Skytrax's top 10.

The third-busiest airport in the world in 2012, it took home the awards for Best Airport Shopping and Best Airport Terminal, for T5, which opened in 2008 after a $6.2 billion, 19-year design and construction process.

Heathrow's Skytrax review includes four or five out of five star rankings for ease of use, flight information, public transport, security staff efficiency, and more.

Source: Skytrax World Airport Awards. Yearly passenger figure is for 2011, provided by Airports Council International.

9. Tokyo International Airport (Haneda)

Yearly passengers: 62.6 million

Why it's awesome: Haneda moved up five places this year, partly thanks to how clean it is.

With a third international terminal that opened in 2010, Haneda can accommodate 90 million passengers annually.

More construction is already in the works: The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced plans to expand the new terminal with eight more gates, more parking, and a hotel, by March 2014.

The airport won the Skytrax awards for Best Airport Terminal Cleanliness and World's Best Domestic Airport, and took second place for Best Airport Immigration Service.

Source: Skytrax World Airport Awards. Yearly passenger figure is for 2011, provided by Airports Council International.

8. Vancouver International Airport

Yearly passengers: 18 million

Why it's awesome: The least busy airport in the Skytrax top 10, Vancouver International offers visitors a large collection of Pacific Northwest Coast Native art.

Skytrax named Vancouver International the Best Airport in North America for the fourth year in a row in 2013, a streak that justifies the $1.4 billion the airport spent ona  recent expansion.

Volunteers, known as Green Coat Ambassadors, work in the airport to help travelers get where they're going.

Source: Skytrax World Airport Awards. Yearly passenger figures provided by Vancouver International Airport.