Since taking a 9.2% stake in Sotheby's last August, Dan Loeb has agitated for changes to the company's business that would "return capital to shareholders" optimize "the Company’s balance sheet."

To do that, Loeb argued that he and two others supported by his hedge fund, Third Point should be appointed to the board.

On Tuesday, Sotheby's released an investor presentation saying, in short, 'no way.' The company sees Loeb as a smash and grab investor who joins boards, enriches himself and his investors, and then moves on to his next company.

Sotheby's not only defends its own performance — which Loeb attacked, saying that its "competitive position" was deteriorating — but it also lambastes Loeb's board nominees with most of the focus on Loeb himself.

To get a sense of how brutal it is, you really only need to see four slides.

Where Loeb has said that his nominees have experience in "Sotheby’s key business building block: luxury customer relationship development," the company disagrees. In fact, it argues that one of the nominees, Harry Wilson, has no experience whatsoever in any part of the auction house's business.

Then there's the attack on Loeb himself. In two slides the presentation goes over Loeb's history on company boards. On this next slide, check out what the company says about his two year tenures on Ligand and Biofuel Energy Corp.

Basically, the two companies didn't do so hot while Loeb was around.

And then there's Yahoo, and the deal under which Loeb left the board (the company repurchased $1.16 billion of his shares.

When the Yahoo deal went down, there was a lot of talk about Loeb's payout. Some said that it smacked of greenmail — a deal a company makes to get a particularly thorny investor off its board. The New York Times also pointed out that Loeb got in and out of Yahoo as the company was riding the wave of Alibaba's success.

Then when the going got tough at Yahoo, Loeb left. At least that's how the NYT told it in the story excerpted in the slide below.

Obviously, none of this is very flattering. Most investors do not want to be accused of going after quick $600 million hits — boards especially do not want to welcome those kinds of investors to their companies.

So we'll see if Loeb and his nominees make it onto Sotheby's board after this.

For the full Sotheby's presentation, click here.

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Graphic designer Paul Sahner has been taking pictures of New York's streets since he moved to the city nine years ago. He loves the feeling of capturing an ever-shifting urban landscape for posterity on his blog NYC Grid.

Inspired by the changing shops and street corners he saw while walking around, Sahner started a before-and after-series on NYC Grid. The photographer would match his own photos of New York City with old pictures from the Library of Congress or Flickr to showcase the transformation of the city's landmarks and streets.

"I don't share the hopeless sense of loss that many other NY bloggers and writers express," Sahner writes. "I don't dislike modern architecture, I don't fear gentrification, I enjoy change and relish new ideas. But I do feel there's something special about the time we're experiencing here. Once this time, this moment, has passed it will never return."

Over at NYC Grid, readers can use a toggle function to compare the old and new photos interactively. We've presented them here back-to-back in slideshow format so you can get the full effect of each image.

1900: Mott Street has been the center of New York's Chinatown for more than 100 years.

2013: Even today, the buildings remain largely unchanged, with the exception of modern conveniences and signs.

1907: Bowling Green is the oldest public park in NYC, built in 1733.

Pear is the new avocado. 

The fruit is one of the hottest ingredients in the restaurant industry right now, writes Bret Thorn at Nation's Restaurant News. 

Thorn identifies which ingredients will start popping up on restaurant menus this spring. 

Brie. 

Brie, a soft, mild, cheese is found on a flatbread at chain Bar Louie, according to NRN. Caribou Coffee is using brie on a new French baguette sandwich. 

Pear. 

The sweet fruit is being featured in fruit-and-cheese platters at many restaurant chains. BD's Mongolian Grill recently started offering a Pear margarita. NRN says to expect more pear incorporation in the future. 

Ciabatta and Brioche. 

The pretzel bun is so last year. Chains like Wendy's, McDonald's, and Jack In The Box are experimenting with Brioche, a French-inspired buttery roll. 

Ciabatta bread is also popular. The chewy Italian bread is featured on sandwiches at Sonic and Applebee's. 

Mint. 

The fresh herb is becoming increasingly popular in New York and Washington restaurants. BD's is also offering a mint julep cocktail. Mint is expected to grow in popularity. 

SEE ALSO: KFC Parent Company Is Quietly Opening A KFC Rival In Texas

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Kelly Porter, a managing partner at investment bank Woodside Capital Partners, spent seven years and millions of dollars renovating his Tudor-style home in Los Altos Hills, Calif. And now, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, he's put it back on the market for $27 million. 

Porter originally listed the property for $45 million in 2008, then later chopped the price down to $36 million before listing it at its current price. 

The 30,000-square-foot house received landmark status when it was completed by former Stanford University trustee Percy Morgan in 1914. It has seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, and decadent gold-leafed ceilings and marble statues can be found throughout the property.

There's even a speakeasy hidden behind a false shelf in the library. 

The house sits on a 7.5-acre lot in Los Altos Hills, part of Silicon Valley.

It's a gated property, with an ultra-private driveway leading up to the front entry.

There are lots of classical details both inside and outside the home, including this statue by the entryway.

Word meanings can shift radically, just like pronunciation.

Called semantic change, a shift in a word's meaning occurs when frequent misuse becomes standard, or when metaphoric use becomes literal.

Interestingly enough, people now often say "literally" when they mean "figuratively," though it's still only valid for informal use.

Sometimes, the original definition of words is all but forgotten. 

We've pulled some of the best examples.

1. prestigious

Coined in the 1540s, "prestigious" used to mean "practicing illusion or magic" or "deceptive." The word was derogatory until the 19th century. But now, of course, it means "inspiring respect or admiration."

The older meaning comes from the Latin noun prestigiae meaning "juggler's tricks."

In linguistics, this is called amelioration — when a word takes on a more favorable meaning.

2. fun

This noun, formerly a verb, used to mean "to cheat or hoax" in the 17th century. The new meaning, "amusement," appeared around 1727. 

The original version likely stems from the a variant of Middle English fonnen, meaning "to befool."

Because sometimes lying to people is fun, right?

3. awful

Originally, "awful" meant exactly what it sounds like: "full of awe." People used it in the 13th century to describe something "worthy of reverence." It comes from Old English aghe, an earlier form of "awe" meaning "fright, terror," plus the suffix -ful.

While something "awful" might scare you, the more common meaning today, "very bad," began in 1809. 

4. broadcast

In the 18th century, the term "broadcast" referred to farming. The adjective "broad," meaning "wide," combined with the verb "cast," to figuratively mean "flinging seed." 

Modern media adopted the term in 1921 with the radio.  

How English went from the natural and tangible, like seeds, to radio waves, well, the world may never know.

5. decimate

Today, this verb means "to destroy a large portion of." But historically, it has a much more specific meaning: to kill one-tenth. 

It stems from the Latin word, decimatus, the past participle of decimare, literally meaning "to kill one-in-ten." (Think of how the word "decimal" relates to 10.) 

The Roman army dealt with either mutinous soldiers or enemies by dividing them into groups of 10. One was likely selected to die at the hands of his groupmates by lottery.

The new meaning appeared in the 1660s.

6. bless

Originally, the word "bless" (well, blodison in Proto-Germanic) meant to consecrate with blood in pagan times, like sprinkling some on altars. 

When monks translated Bibles from Latin and Greek, they chose "bless" to represent both benedicere and eulogein, both invoking "to praise" (likely from its unrelated similarity to "bliss").

In Hebrew Scriptures, the word translated brk, meaning "to bend the knee" in combination with "praise."

We doubt most practitioners today would consider throwing blood during a religious ceremony as holy.

7. defecate

"Defecate" comes from Latin defaecatus, the past participle of dafaecare, meaning "cleanse from dregs; purify." The Latin verb  is a variant of the phrase "de faece," meaning "from dregs." 

"Dregs" refers to any liquid left in a container with other sediment — like leftover coffee with coffee grounds. Originally, "defecate" meant to remove the undrinkable pieces from a liquid. 

There's a clear relationship, but the excretory sense was first recorded in 1830. 

8. dapper

While "dapper" took on its current meaning rather early (mid-15th century), the word comes from the same spelling in Middle Low German, which meant "strong" or "stout." 

If we trace the etymology back even further, the meaning changes more. The Middle Low German version likely stems from the Proto-Indo-Euro peon root dheb-, "dense, firm." 

We usually think of George Clooney, the epitome of dapper, in a tuxedo and slicked-back hair — not as a stout, dense man.

9. inmate

Historically, "inmate" has been synonymous with "roommate." It's technically a compound word of "in" (inside) and "mate" (companion), first appearing in English in the 1580s. 

The meaning of someone confined to an institution came about in 1834. 

10. bully

Believe it or not, "bully" first meant "sweetheart" for both genders. It comes from Dutch boel, meaning "lover, brother," likely a diminutive of Middle Dutch broeder, which means "brother."

The meaning deteriorated to a pejorative term in the 17th century. The connection between the positive and negative meaning could stem from a tweaked version of "bully" from 1708: "protector of a prostitute."

11. artificial

"Artificial" clearly contains a part of its earlier meaning — "art." In the early 14th century, the word described works of art, but the meaning switched in the 15th century to roughly "fake" or "made-made."

It stems from Latin artificialis, meaning "of or belonging to art." 

12. egregious

In the 1530s, "egregious" meant "distinguished, eminent, excellent" from Latin ex grege, a phrase meaning "out of the flock."

The modern sense, "shockingly bad," arose in the late 16th century as irony.

SEE ALSO: 11 Words You're Probably Mispronouncing

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Brooklyn's Barclays Center is going green. Developer Forest City Ratner Cos. is planning to cover the arena's blue and white roof with 130,000 square feet of "small plants and a soil-like cover," according to The Wall Street Journal. 

The reasons for the greenification are two-fold: it will make the view for the nearby Atlantic Yards residential tower a whole lot nicer, and it will help muffle loud noise from concerts.

Construction on the first tower of Atlantic Yards' 6,400-apartment complex has already started, and Forest City is banking on the view of the new, aesthetic roof as a selling point. Three of the 15 residential buildings will be right next to the Brooklyn venue.

SEE ALSO: 30 Amazing Before-And-After Snapshots That Show How New York Has Transformed Over Time

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Despite talk of frantic infrastructure renovations ahead of the 2014 World Cup, I found landing at São Paulo, Brazil's Guarulhos International Airport to be very smooth.My experience with international travel is that customs is a bit of a hassle with security checks and various lines. Not so at GRU. I showed my tourist visa, and not having any checked bags or anything to declare, strolled right through without a question asked.The currency exchange is the first thing upon entering the terminal.The rate is a little more than 200 Brazilian Reis for $100.That was it. The terminal, used for international and domestic flights, contains a row of ATMs and three stories of food and boutiques.The most prominent vendor sold spices.The most crowded place was the loterias, where they sell bus cards and lottery tickets.The only problem I had was finding power outlets, which I would discover is a problem in much of the city.In any case, I could have been outside in about 10 minutes after getting off the plane.And after a half-hour bus ride, I was dropped off in the center of Sao Paulo.

Michael Kelley will be exploring Brazil for the next two weeks and posting the highlights at Business Insider.

SEE ALSO: Rio looks like a war zone as troops raid slums

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Pop Chart Lab created a taxonomy of our favorite amber drink: whiskey. 

The chart reveals the classification of this alcohol all across the globe. For example, the top shows American whiskeys, like Kentucky Bourbon, while the bottom focuses on Irish, Scottish, and Canadian varieties.

And no, the creators didn't make any typos. Canada and Scotland don't include the "e" in their versions of the "water of life" — whiskey's literal translation in Gaelic, where the name originates. Neither do the Japanese, but unfortunately, they didn't make the visualization.

You can purchase an 18" x 24" print here for $23. ($29 after tonight.)

Take a look below. We embedded a zoomable image. If you're using mobile, click here.

SEE ALSO: How Jack Daniels Makes So Much Whiskey In Such An Old Distillery

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SEE ALSO: Ferrari Employees Are Getting A Record Bonus After A Stellar 2013

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A Florida woman can recall American bombing raids over Japan in World War II more vividly than most people, even the pilots themselves — because she was on the ground.

After we ran a story about the Doolittle Raid over Japan, the daughter of that Florida woman connected us with her mother, 89-year-old Helga Hofmeier Edmonds, who saw that raid and other U.S. bombings in Japan.

Hofmeier, a native of Germany, happened to be living in Japan during the raids because her stepdad had moved the family there in 1934 so he could sell German-made cars and later work for the German embassy.

Doolittle Raid

On April 18, 1942, air-raid sirens blared by Hofmeier’s school for German children near Tokyo. That was the day of the Doolittle Raid, the Americans' act of retaliation for the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor.

The school staff dismissed the students and urged them to hurry home as low-flying planes approached. As Hofmeier waited for the train to take her home, American bombers came into view. Nobody had warned the students American planes were nearby, so the kids were "terribly surprised," Hofmeier said.

“We saw three planes approaching us and one of the kids with us, a German boy, said, ‘That doesn’t look like a Japanese plane’ … and one of the other boys who was Japanese said, ‘That’s American,’” Hofmeier told Business Insider. “And we said, ‘What are they doing here?’”

The planes were flying so low that Hofmeier saw the foreign insignia and even the figures of men inside them. “They could see us. I’m sure,” said Hofmeier, who was 17 at the time.

Hofmeier and her classmates left the railroad station and took shelter in a nearby ice cream parlor to separate themselves from Japanese civilians who occasionally criticized them for looking like Americans. “You stand out because you have blonde hair and you’re tall,” she said.

As they fled the railroad station, an anti-aircraft gun fired from the roof of a nearby building. “At first you were a little shocked of course to hear shooting. It was the first time I ever heard something like this,” Hofmeier said.

She did not witness any damage caused by the planes, which was very little compared to later bombings. Although every plane in the Doolittle Raid was eventually destroyed far behind enemy lines after running out of gas, the attack succeeded in boosting American morale.

After the Doolittle Raid, American air attacks became more frequent and deadly, and Hofmeier’s family eventually moved to the mountains to escape.

Firebombing

Her most horrible memory of the war came in March of 1945, when her family returned to their Tokyo house to transfer belongings to their new home in the mountains. 

Dozens of B-29 bombers flew overhead, dropping incendiary bombs that whistled as they fell before exploding in tremendous streams of flame that spread quickly in the windy night.

The shooting flames in the night sky looked like Christmas trees to Hofmeier, but the reality was far more ominous as they burned homes and people all around her. She compared the experience to being inside a gigantic bonfire.

”These were little explosions all over the place and they came in masses, and because of all this fire it made a storm,” Hofmeier recalled. “It was so windy that you could hardly stand up straight and these little fire things flew through the air. It was like if you’re in a snow storm and you have all these flakes flying around, and at that time all those flakes were fire.”

Hofmeier recalls at least one incendiary bomb landed on her property. While her house was engulfed by the advancing fire, she became separated from her parents.

After retrieving her cat and some belongings from the house, Hofmeier jumped into the pool in her yard to cool off from the excessive heat. She escaped the flames by staying close to the pool, until morning, which happened to be her 20th birthday.

“I was there alone with the burning house and the wet cat and the planes flying, and that’s all I remember," she said. "It was very scary.”

In a 48-hour period beginning March 9, American planes dropped 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs over Tokyo. The resulting firestorm incinerated approximately 16 square miles around the city, killing between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians.

By the morning after the firebombing, many victims had been reduced to ash scattering in the wind. “We saw men crying. We saw some people dead, some people still moving while they were dying … you feel you must help, but sometimes nothing can be done,” recalled Hofmeier in a memoir about her life, available on Amazon.

“The whole thing seems like a bad dream,” she told Business Insider. 

After the war, Hofmeier married Jesse Edmonds, a U.S. Army Air Forces staff sergeant. They moved to the United States, where she became a citizen and started a family. “I've had a good life here in this country,” says Hofmeier, who lives in Pensacola, Fla. now.

Hofmeier looks back on the bombings without bitterness toward the Americans.

“It was part of war. … The populations are always involved,” she recalled in her memoir. “Soldiers cannot tell who is civilian and who is a soldier, so they just shoot everything, and if you are lucky you get away. I was lucky."

SEE ALSO: 98-Year-Old Veteran Describes Legendary Mission In Heartwarming Reddit AMA

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The artist who created a super-helpful explainer on the differences among England, the UK, and the British Isles is back, this time with a primer on China.

If you’ve ever traveled from Macau to Hong Kong to mainland China, you’ll notice that your passport gets stamped every time. Each one has its own government, money, police force, schools, and even languages.

But Hong Kong and Macau are not their own countries, despite the fact that Hong Kong had its own team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Check out the video below for the quick, correct, and funny explainer, which will make you feel a lot more confident about any future Macau, Hong Kong, or China references.

SEE ALSO: The Biggest, Most Ridiculous Casinos On The Planet Are In Macau — Not Vegas

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The Insadong neighborhood in Seoul, South Korea is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city.

It's packed with a bunch of tea shops, markets, dozens of carts selling various kinds of street food with everything from grilled octopus on a stick to delicious custard cakes. 

I spent an afternoon stuffing my face with as much of it as possible. Here's what I saw.

Disclosure: Samsung paid for a portion of our trip to South Korea for a separate series of stories about the company. It paid for the flight and some meals. Business Insider paid for lodging and all other expenses.

This is a twist potato. The chefs put an entire potato in a special machine that cuts it into this twisty shape. They then put it on a skewer and fry it up.

You can sprinkle it with cheese or chili powder. This was the first thing I ate. It was greasy and delicious.

A lot of stands sell a variety of different foods.

After sifting through more than 50,000 entries, Smithsonian Magazine has announced the 60 finalists for its 2014 Annual Photo Contest. The photos fall into six different categories: Natural World, Travel, People, Americana, Altered Images, and Mobile.

Voting is now open for the public to select the Readers' Choice winner, and will continue through May 6th. The winners will be announced May 15.

We selected 10 of our favorite images from the finalists, which came from 132 countries. See the full gallery at Smithsonian Magazine.

NATURAL WORLD: "Absolute Head Scratcher" is a photo of a blue macaw, taken in Quebec City, Canada. NATURAL WORLD: Photographer Graham McGeorge spent 6 hours waiting to get the perfect image of this eastern screech owl out of its nest in Georgia.NATURAL WORLD: After finishing off a springbok, these two cheetah cubs began chasing each other for who got to hold onto the "prize," a piece of skin left over from the kill. NATURAL WORLD: During their annual migration, wildebeests are forced to find new river crossings in the Serengeti-Mara region. In this picture, the currents were so strong that the animals had to struggle desperately to get to the other side.TRAVEL: This photographer caught Vietnam's famous terraced fields during harvest season.TRAVEL: As part of a show called "Well of Death," this Bangladeshi biker performs a stunt at a fair to celebrate Rath Jatra, a Hindu festival.PEOPLE: Mourners cover themselves in mud while beating their chests and standing around a fire during Ashura, a religious commemoration of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali.PEOPLE: Photographer Candy Feng's son is dwarfed by the majesty of a glacier at Fjallsárlón.AMERICANA: Dust swirls around citizens of Black Rock City as they peek into the "Black Rock Bijou Theatre," an art installation at the 2013 Burning Man Festival.AMERICANA: A champion bronco bucks a champion rider at the Helmville Rodeo.

SEE ALSO: 37 Breathtaking Winners From Sony's World Photography Awards

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The United Nations is conducting a massive, worldwide survey to determine what people's top priorities are and help set the agenda for new developments around the world.

The survey, which is being conducted both online and offline, asks people which six of 16 possible issues would make the most different in their lives.

Education is the big winner across all demographics, while climate change was the lowest scoring.

Check it out:

There were some interesting variances across demographics.

The top priorities of males and females don't differ much, but males are more likely to prioritize transport and roads, while women make protecting rivers, forests, and oceans more of a priority.

Older people care much less about job opportunities than younger people.

People who live in countries with lower Human Development Index ratings — a statistic that measures life expectancy, education, and income — are more likely to prioritize job opportunities. People in higher HDI countries are more likely to prioritize an honest and responsive government. People in very high HDI countries care less about health care and much more about protecting forests, rivers, and oceans.

More than 1.5 million people have voted so far, and the survey is ongoing.

Another view of the data shows that more than one million people listed "a good education" in their top six priorities:

SEE ALSO: 12 Charts That Show How Tobacco Is Destroying The World

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Last week, we hopped a plane to South Carolina to test out the 2015 Cadillac Escalade, the latest version of the luxury SUV that was a star in the early 2000s.

In recent years, changing tastes and stricter fuel economy standards have pushed the industry away from the big and boxy toward sleeker, smaller crossover vehicles.

We drove pre-production versions of the Premium Escalade and Premium Escalade ESV (extended wheelbase), worth roughly $86,000 and $89,000, respectively.

Both are powerful, surprisingly efficient, luxurious, and full of thoughtful touches.

And Cadillac isn't worried about the declining popularity of huge SUVs. While no longer the height of style, the segment is "still healthy and it's still important," communications manager David Caldwell said. There are still wealthy drivers out there who have a taste for luxury and lots of stuff to carry.

Based on what we saw down South, a lot of them will be bringing home a new Escalade in the next year.

Disclosure: Cadillac paid for travel and accommodations for our trip to South Carolina to test the Escalade.

The Escalade is important for Cadillac. The extended wheelbase version of the SUV brings in the brand's youngest, wealthiest, and best educated buyers (on average 51 years old, with a $320,000 income).

If you're into the big SUV look, you should like the Escalade. It's imposing.

We're not fans of the super tall tail lights — lit up at night, they look like floating parentheses.

After failing to sell her 11-acre estate in the Hollywood Hills for $16 million, singer Sheryl Crow has relisted the sprawling property for a discounted $12 million, according to Trulia.

Crow first listed the house a year and half ago, then pulled it from the market in December 2013.

The gated estate has three homes. The main house is a Spanish Revival built in 1924, with four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms.

The listing agent for the Los Angeles estate is Myra Nourmand of Nourmand & Associates.

Meredith Galante contributed to this story.

Welcome to Vista Canyon Estate, Sheryl Crow's Hollywood Hills compound.

Crow purchased the main home in 1997, according to a 2012 spread in Architectural Digest.

The two-story entry features a wrought iron staircase, Spanish tiles, and beamed ceilings.

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Land Rover has come up with an awesome experimental technology that turns an SUV into something akin to Wonder Woman's invisible plane.

Using cameras placed under the hood, and projecting that live video feed onto the windshield, it creates an effect it calls the "Transparent Bonnet." (Bonnet is the British term for a car's hood.) This is part of something it calls "invisible car technology."

While the hood doesn't really disappear, or even become truly invisible, the tech lets you see right through it, so you can see the road under the car as you drive.

This tech will be in a concept car that Land Rover will show off at the New York International Auto Show later this month.

Words don't do it justice. Check out this video to get the idea.

SEE ALSO: Oculus founder Palmer Luckey dropped out of college — and so did all these other tech superstars

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It's the kind of story you'd think could only be found in books; a message in a bottle returns home after a century of floating out at sea.

But last month, a fisherman pulled the beer bottle out of the Baltic sea near the city of Kiel. Inside, a postcard, dated 1913 by a man named Richard Platz, complete with two German stamps and one simple request. He asked the finder to send it on to his address in Berlin when found. 

He returned it to the International Maritime Museum in Hamburg, who was able to track down 62-year-old Angela Erdmann, Platz's granddaughter.

Erdmann visited the museum on April 7 and was able to hold the brown bottle once held by her believed maternal grandfather.

“It was almost unbelievable,” Erdmann told the German news agency DPA.

Experts will try deciphering the rest of the message, which was hard to read due to time and water damage.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, this drift bottle will bypass the original record holder that was found in the United Kingdom after spending nearly 98 years at sea.

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