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Chicken Fries have a permanent place on Burger King's menu. 

Starting today, Chicken Fries will be on menus "nationwide for good, once and for all," the company said in a news release.

Chicken Fries were previously only available for a limited time. 

The brand introduced Chicken Fries to the menu last year after a decade of social media campaigns to bring them back. 

You asked. We answered. #ChickenFriesAreBackpic.twitter.com/dYdwCSEw4P

— Burger King (@BurgerKing) August 8, 2014

Chicken Fries were originally launched in 2005. Despite a cult following, they were discontinued in 2012. 

The company said it decided to bring back the fries after seeing petitions, tweets, and Facebook pages begging for their return. 

Fans of Chicken Fries say they are easier to dip in sauce than traditional nuggets. 

Burger King has posted sales gains after simplifying the menu to include classic products. 

SEE ALSO: The fate of America's dying supercenters

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It's difficult to get a good night's rest nowadays, with increasingly long work hours and technologies that keep us up. But getting enough sleep is important. We all know that more sleep leads to a better overall mood, but it also leads to healthier skin, clearer vision, and better memory.

Made.com put together this infographic that shows how you should design your bedroom to help you get a better night's rest. Turns out, the environment of our rooms has a big effect on the quantity and the quality of our sleep — hard floors, certain lamps, and even some wall decorations can lead to a poor night's rest. 

Check it out below:

SEE ALSO: A chiropractor says we should never sleep on our stomachs

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NOW WATCH: Here's How Much Mark Cuban Sleeps To Be On Top Of His Game

Ever wonder where your favorite animated movies are actually set? 

Designer Martin Vargic of Halcyon Maps created this infographic to show exactly where the 124 most popular animated films of all time took place. 

"All locations were either explicitly stated/shown in the movies, derived from the evidence within the movie, or derived from the original work the movie was based in," Vargic wrote on Halcyon Maps. 

Vargic also noted that movies that took place in a radically different universe — such as "Treasure Planet" and "Wreck-It Ralph" — were not included on the map. 

Check it out below. 

Let's zoom in on the key so it's a bit easier to read:

Many of the movies were set in North America.

A few of the films have obvious settings — "Bee Movie," "Lilo and Stitch," and "The Princess and the Frog"  — but other such as "Bambi" are a bit less clear. "Placing some of the movies on the map was very difficult and required a lot of research (including looking through fan theories or studying where are various animal species geographically distributed)," Vargic wrote.

Most of the films were set in North America and Europe, but there are a few other clusters around the map. All of the Studio Ghibli animated films — "Ponyo," "Spirited Away," "My Neighbor Totoro," "Princess Mononoke," and "The Wind Rises" — were set in Japan. 

The list used the best grossing animated movies, but it was also significantly based upon the top 100 animated movies list from Rotten Tomatoes, according to Vargic.

Here is the full list.

1. 101 Dalmatians — English countryside
2. A Bug's Life — Texas/Mexico border
3. A Goofy Movie — New York City
4. Akira – Tokyo
5. Aladdin – At the Jordan River
6. Alice in Wonderland – English countryside
7. Anastasia – St. Petersburg
8. Antz – New York
9. Arthur Christmas – North Pole
10. Atlantis: The Lost Empire – Atlantic Ocean
11. Bambi – Western US/Canada border
12. Beauty and the Beast – middle France
13. Bee Movie – New York
14. Beowulf – south Sweden (Götaland)
15. Big Hero 6 – San Francisco
16. Bolt – Los Angeles and New York
17. Brave – Scotland
18. Brother Bear – Alaska
19. Cars – Arizona/Nevada
20. Cars 2 – London (and numerous other locations)
21. Cinderella – south France
22. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – Bermuda
23. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – Bermuda
24. Coraline – Ashland, Oregon
25. Corpse Bride – rural France (possibly England)
26. Despicable Me – Albuquerque, New Mexico (and numerous other locations)
27. DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp – north California coast (and numerous other locations)
28. Dumbo – Florida
29. El Dorado – south Mexico
30. The Emperor's New Groove - Peru
31. Epic – Connecticut
32. Ernest and Celestine – Belgium
33. Finding Nemo – Sydney
34. Fantastic Mr. Fox – north England
35. Flushed Away – London
36. From Up on the Poppy Hill – Tokyo
37. Frozen – south Norway
38. Happy Feet – near Adelie Land, Antarctica
39. Happy Feet 2 – near Adelie Land, Antarctica
40. Hercules – Greece
41. Home on the Range – Nevada
42. Hotel Transylvania – Romania (Transylvania)
43. How to Train Your Dragon – Hebrides
44. The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Paris
45. Chicken Little – US Midwest
46. Chicken Run – northwest England
47. Ice Age – Alaska
48. James and the Giant Peach – chiefly New York
49. Kung Fu Panda – rural southern China
50. Kung Fu Panda 2 – southern China coast
51. Lady and the Tramp – New England
52. Lilo and Stitch – Kauai, Hawaii
53. Lion King – East African Rift
54. The Little Mermaid – Danish Virgin Islands
55. Madagascar – New York and Madagascar
56. Madagascar 2 – Near the Nyiragongo volcano
57. Madagascar 3 – Monaco (and other locations)
58. Mary and Max – Melbourne
59. Megamind – Michigan
60. Meet the Robinsons – southern Canada
61. Millenium Actress – southern Japan
62. Monsters vs Aliens – San Francisco
63. Mulan – Beijing
64. My Neighbor Totoro – Tokyo
65. Over the Hedge – eastern Oregon
66. The Owls of Ga’hoole – southern Australia / Tasmania
67. ParaNorman – Massachusetts
68. Persepolis – Tehran, Iran
69. Pinocchio – Collodi, Italy
70. Peter Pan – US Midwest
71. Planes – Ohio
72. Pocahontas – Virginia
73. Polar Express – North Pole
74. Ponyo – Japan
75. Princess and the Frog
76. Prince of Egypt – Sinai peninsula, Egypt
77. Princess Mononoke – northern Japan
78. Puss in Boots – Andalusia, Spain
79. Rango – Nevada
80. Ratatouille – Paris
81. Rio – Rio de Janeiro
82. Rio 2 – Amazon rainforest, Brazil
83. Rise of the Guardians – North Pole
84. Robin Hood – Sherwood Forest, England
85. Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss
86. Shark Bait – near Dominican Republic
87. Shark Tale – the Bahamas
88. Shrek – Germany
89. Sleeping Beauty – middle France
90. Snow White – Germany
91. Song of the Sea – Ireland
92. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut – Colorado
93. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron – Dakota region
94. Spirited Away – Japan
95. Surf's Up – French Polynesia
96. Tangled – Bodensee, Germany
97. Tarzan – Gabon
98. Teacher's Pet – Florida
99. The Adventures of Tintin – Morocco (and other locations)
100. The Incredibles – Chicago
101. The Iron Giant – Maine
102. The Jungle Book – middle India
103. The Great Mouse Detective – London
104. The Illusionist – north Scotland
105. The Rescuers – US southern coast
106. The Rescuers Down Under – Australian outback
107. The Secret World of Arrietty – Japan
108. The Simpsons Movie – Oregon and Alaska
109. The Smurfs – New York
110. The Smurfs 2 – Paris
111. The Wild – New York and Mozambique coast
112. The Wind Rises – Tokyo
113. Tokyo Godfathers – Tokyo
114. Toy Story – Ohio
115. Triplets of Belleville – France and New York (in an alternate universe)
116. Turbo – Los Angeles
117. Up – Angel Falls, Venezuela
118. Yogi Bear – Yellowstone Park, Wyoming
119. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – English countryside
120. Waltz with Bashir – Lebanon
121. Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Los Angeles
122. Winnie the Pooh – southern England

SEE ALSO: Here are the tallest buildings throughout history

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People in Hong Kong love their supercars... and their vanity plates. Just watch this. (This is also one of my favorites.) So why would the employees of Goldman Sachs be any different? Good news, they’re not.

We spent five minutes (literally one lap) last week driving through the parking garage at Cheung Kong Center, home of Goldman Sachs Asia, and here are just a few of the highlights.

The premise is more light-hearted and whimsical than it is literal exposé - I have no idea who these cars actually belong to. Although Goldman Sachs is the largest occupant in Cheung Kong, other tenants include Jefferies, RBS, BlackRock, and of course, Li Ka Shing, who has an indoor pool and private garden on the top floor.

Click here to jump right to the cars>>

The amazing thing is that, as is customary in the region, most senior bankers are chauffeur driven (A Filipino driver costs a mere $1,500 a month), so this isn’t even the most accurate (or ostentatious) reflection of reality.

Just to put this slideshow into perspective, you need to understand how much more expensive luxury cars are in Asia. According to Mercedes Benz, a new S600 sedan that runs $166,900 in the US will set you back $386,000 in Hong Kong– or 21 years of servitude for a Pilipino chauffeur.

Mercedes SLS AMG

Lamborghini Huracan

$450,000

"The tradition of individual philanthropy remains a core tenet of our culture."

"Current and retired senior employees of the firm granted over $400,000 via Goldman Sachs Gives to One Fund Boston to assist victims and families affected by the tragic events at the Boston Marathon."

Goldman Sachs

Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

$250,000

"This is a sensitive time for us, and [the firm] wants to make sure that we're not being seen living high on the hog."

Anonymous Goldman Sachs employee (via New York Post)

Meat lovers.

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Brands are the best way to show off wealth, and there is a flood of new millionaires around the world who like showing off.

"The brands bought are actually more important than the level of money earned," HSBC managing director Erwan Rambourg writes in his recent book, "The Bling Dynasty: Why the Reign of Chinese Luxury Shoppers Has Only Just Begun."

Rambourg created a brand pyramid to show how major brands range in accessibility from everyday luxuries like Starbucks to ultra-high-end luxury like Graff diamonds. This is the luxury power ranking:

Brands or products associated with luxury of any kind can benefit from increasing affluence around the world.

Still, brands that become too accessible are less appealing to superrich buyers. Louis Vuitton, for instance, is considered a "brand for secretaries" by many wealthy Chinese.

"Louis Vuitton has become too ordinary," a billionaire woman told China Market Research Group managing director Shaun Rein in 2011. "Everyone has it. You see it in every restaurant in Beijing. I prefer Chanel or Bottega Veneta now. They are more exclusive."

Gucci is similarly suffering from a reputation problem, while bespoke goods and less-well-known European labels like Bottega Veneta are soaring.

High-net-worth consumers are particularly hungry for obscure luxury brands.

"I buy the brand Maison Ullens in Paris — it's a French brand all made in Italy," Sara Jane Ho, the founder of the elite Chinese etiquette school Institute Sarita, told Business Insider. "When I came back to China all my students were wondering where my clothes were from. Very naturally, my school became Maison Ullens point of sale simply because my students really love buying their stuff."

Of course, bespoke items remain the ultimate luxury good.

"Whether it's a bespoke Louis Vuitton trunk for Scotch and cigar fans or an exceptional stone at Graff, the ultra‐high‐end and bespoke category is a no‐limit segment where all the craziest dreams (and prices) come true," Rambourg writes.

SEE ALSO: An obscure Italian brand is suddenly the hottest name in teen retail

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The Wall Street Journal reports that a gorgeous Bel-Air estate formerly owned by country singer Kenny Rogers has sold for $50 million. 

The hillside mansion went on sale last year for $65 million while it was still under construction, but was taken off the market until the home was finished last December.

Known as Lionsgate, the property was enlarged from its original 9,359 square feet to a whopping 24,000 square feet with a guest house that has an additional two bedrooms and three bathrooms.

The main home has nine bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, as well as a ballroom, saltwater pool, 12-seat home theater, and even a refrigerated wine room. 

With two acres of property, the estate also has a tennis court, gym with a sauna, and an outdoor glass elevator next to the pool.

Rogers purchased the home in the ‘70s, according to the WSJ. He added two lion statues to the main gate and renamed the property “Liongate.”

The current sellers of the home are a mystery, but the listing agent told the WSJ last year that “they are European and purchased the home for personal use,” adding that they put the mansion up for sale because they hadn’t spent enough time in Los Angeles.

The property was sold byHilton & Hyland’s agent Mia Trudeau.

This is Liongate Estate, the 24,000-square-foot property that just sold for $50 million. The home has a tennis court, saltwater swimming pool, and outdoor glass elevator.

The home sits on two acres of property, and both of its Bel-Air entrances are gated. Rogers was the owner to add those lions to the gate (he's a Leo).

Let's go inside the mansion, shall we?

Consumer aviation website Skytrax has published its latest annual World Airport Awards, and for the third consecutive year, Singapore's Changi International Airport took the crown as the world's best airport. It serves as one of Southeast Asia's largest transit hubs and is a major cog in the city-state's bustling economy.

"To win this prestigious award three years in succession is a remarkable achievement for Changi Airport Singapore, and underlines its popularity amongst air travellers as the world's Best Airport," Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted said. "Changi Airport lives up to its reputation as the world's Best Airport and rather than dwell on earlier success, the airport continues to innovate and concentrate on making the customer experience in the airport environment the most enjoyable."

The Skytrax annual rankings are based on the impressions of over 13 million flyers from 112 countries. More than 550 airports were included in the survey, which covers 39 service and performance parameters, including facility comfort, location of bathrooms, and the language skills of the airport staff. 

10. Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)

Yearly passengers: 83.7 million

Previous rank: 7

Why it's awesome: As the second-busiest airport in the world, Beijing's Capital Airport has played a major role in the Chinese capital's explosive growth. 

With this growth, the airport has built new facilities and upgraded its infrastructure. Capital's Terminal 3 was rated as the 10th-best terminal in the world.

Source: Skytrax World Airport Awards. Yearly passenger figure is for 2013, provided by Airports Council International.

9. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS)

Yearly passengers: 52.6 million

Previous rank: 5

Why it's awesome: Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is one of the busiest airports in Europe and serves as the hub for KLM, Transavia, and Delta.

Opened in 1916, Schiphol is noted for its wide variety of leisure activities and has a library in which flyers can cozy up with a good book while waiting for their flights.

Source: Skytrax World Airport Awards. Yearly passenger figure is for 2013, provided by Airports Council International.

8. London Heathrow Airport (LHR)

Yearly passengers: 72.4 million

Previous rank: 10

Why it's awesome: Heathrow is the world's third-busiest airport and the largest of the five primary airports serving London. 

Heathrow is in the midst of a major renovation with the addition of a brand new Terminal 2 building. It's seven-year-old Terminal 5 building was named the best airport terminal in the world by Skytrax.

Heathrow serves as the main hub for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

Source: Skytrax World Airport Awards. Yearly passenger figure is for 2013, provided by Airports Council International.

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Thanks to California's historic four-year drought and hottest winter ever, many Lake Tahoe-area ski resorts have been forced to close early this year.

With little snowfall and over 60-degree temperatures, the few resorts that remain open have little snow left for skiers.

A snowboarder at Lake Tahoe's Squaw Valley Ski Resort had to thread his way through patches of dirt on Saturday, March 21.

Where 16-year-old Jack Feick of Truckee was able to skim over a pond while wearing a T-shirt.

Others attempted to eke out the last days of ski season at Squaw Valley Ski Resort this weekend.

According to Curbed Ski, many nearby resorts have been affected by the drought.

Homewood Ski Resort has been closed since Feb. 23, while Sierra-at-Tahoe just announced it would be closing the lifts until (if) it gets more snow. Sierra, which normally closes at the end of April, hasn't had a March closure since the 1970s.

Other California ski areas, like Donner Ski Ranch, Badger Pass, Dodge Ridge, Mountain High, China Peak, Soda Springs, Mt. Baldy, Mount Shasta, and Tahoe Donner are all closed as well. 

The drought is so bad that Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor at UC Irvine, wrote in an LA Times op-ed that California would run out of water in a year.

While the bold statement isn't exactly accurate, California has recently been forced to take action.

"Last week, Governor Jerry Brown announced a $1 billion plan to aid communities most affected by the drought, and imposed restrictions on some aspects of personal use," according to The Atlantic. "With the state's snowpack at just 12% of normal, Californians figure to struggle more during the traditional dry summer months."

More than 1,000 companies, including more than 100 ski resorts and hundreds of businesses in California, have signed the Climate Declaration, which urges the public, policymakers, and business leaders to tackle climate change.

Aspen Skiing Company's Sustainability Director, Matthew Hamilton, explains why his company signed the declaration: "The outdoor industry contributes $650 billion and 6.1 million jobs to the economy. Of this, snow-based recreation contributes $67 billion and 600,000 jobs. The changing climate has a direct impact on our industry, the economy and the livelihoods of many Americans."

SEE ALSO: The 15 Best Ski Resorts In America

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There are approximately 3 million to 5 million "gifted" students in the US, according to the National Association for Gifted Children.

Since these students are identified as exceptional learners from a young age, the label often becomes a part of their identity.

An accelerated education may set them on the path to a great college and career, but the expectations attached may also become a burden.

In the Reddit thread "Redditors who were labeled as 'gifted' children, do you think the label helped you, or harmed you?", the conversation became an outlet for examples of the latter.

We gathered the top reasons why it can be horrible to grow up gifted.

1. From an early age, you believe it's you against the world.

"You're suddenly looking around at the world and realizing that you're supposed to have some crazy work ethic at everything because YOU'RE gifted and THEY aren't. More is expected of YOU than THEM because of the big giant brain that YOU were given that THEY weren't.

"See a pattern there? There's this exclusivity complex there where it's an 'Us vs. Them' mentality." —RaptarIsTheSh**

2. You develop a superiority complex.

"When you've been told all your life that you're the smartest person in the room, you don't take orders from others very well, especially those who you don't find very bright (which, sadly, is most people)." —RaptarIsTheSh**

3. You become abrasive.

"Harmed me. Made me an arrogant self-righteous prick, because I was taught for years that my classmates and I were smarter than all the rest of the school. I'm still trying to undo all that." —McHaven

4. You develop inflated expectations.

"Being labeled as gifted caused my parents to have inflated expectations of me, which I will never meet. I am quite happy with an undergraduate degree and career in business. My parents think I should be curing cancer while working on my 4th PhD." —Inspector VII

5. You put too much pressure on yourself.

"School has always been the biggest trigger for my anxiety because I'm afraid of not doing well enough, and I never cut myself any slack. I also have other mental illness issues, and my preoccupation with marks expanded into believing my parents won't love me if I don't get the grades I think I should. The pressure comes entirely from within. They have always said as long as I try they will be proud, but I stress myself out anyway." —Goram Doctor

6. Your competitiveness harms friendships.

"Even my best friends in school were also my fiercest competitors. You had to put school completely aside if you wanted to hang out, because you'd end up hating each other otherwise." —indifferentwindmill

7. Your parents can be overbearing.

"My brother and sister were praised for mediocrity, getting extra allowance or other such gifts when they got Bs and Cs. If I brought back anything but top grades I didn't get such treatment. I always thought it was stupid and unfair." —shh_Im_a_Moose

8. Everyone expects more of you.

"I've had a genius-level IQ my whole life, and it's caused my parents (mother in particular) to believe that I should be able to go whole semesters without ever getting a single exam question wrong. Every time I try to explain that that isn't how intelligence works, I get told 'that's just an excuse, you're smart.' Genius does not equal perfection." —JBtheBadguy

9. You're always trying to get approval.

"I think the worst is the constant need for other people's approval, and basing my entire self-worth on what others think. It's led to tons of anxiety, because I can never fail at anything, or let other people down. It's led to a bunch of self-destructive behaviors, where I'll do things that I hate or that harm myself, just to please other people and gain their approval." —BCSteve

10. You're terrified of failure.

"The ease at which I excelled when I was younger made it hard when I DID struggle, as I was terrified of disappointing everyone. I still suffer from severe anxiety because, frankly, I never learned to fail. And I think that's an important lesson for people to learn." —Cheezit624

11. Others are jealous of you.

"I was always an overachiever, despite being told I was extra smarties, until I got to high school and I suddenly started caring what everyone else thought. In elementary school I got perfect grades. In high school, I stopped trying so damn hard, because everyone hated the kid with the perfect grades. I remember taking a bio test once, I think that was the swing point, where the closest grade to mine was a 78%, and I got a 96%, and everyone hated me." —Justice_Man

12. You may be bullied.

"Precocious + bullied, that was probably the formula that made people think I needed the label, really. Adults, rather than dealing with said bullies, just reassured me I was special and that they'd be 'bagging your groceries,' etc. Ironically I only stopped waiting tables and working in supermarkets about two years ago." —TM3Sb

13. It's hard to stay positive.

"I found the hardest part of the expectations was staying positive. Top of the line grades were expected. If you got the best grades, you were doing what you were supposed to do. If you got less than stellar grades, you obviously just weren't applying yourself. It's hard to be positive when the only reactions are neutral and negative." —Griddleman

14. It's easy to feel isolated.

"The idea that I was smarter than everybody meant that I only trusted myself, listened to no one and would only accept advice when it made sense to me. I mostly used my gifted brain to do as little work as possible and I developed bad habits. I believed that I did not need to do well in school ... because I could make up for it later." —-sasnak-

15. If you're not challenged, you become lazy.

"It would of been nice if they had separated us somehow so school was actually challenging, but once everyone in my life was telling me that I was brilliant rather than just my parents, I never did any work or paid attention in classes. ... If I had some work ethic in school I think my life would have turned out loads differently. But as it was, because they knew I was so bright, I never had to do anything." —kvellarcanum

16. There comes a point where you can't coast any longer.

"I excelled in grade school without having to put in any effort. I would show up to finals, asking which exam we were taking that day, and get top scores. I never learned how to do homework or maintain any sort of work ethic, but I became very skilled at coasting through courses and bulls---ting on essay questions (writing what I speculated the teacher wanted to hear, and not something with actual substance). Once I hit university I couldn't get away with not doing any work anymore, so I hit a wall that I'm still trying to overcome." —Gifos

17. You develop a false sense of security.

"I was always put in 'gifted' programs up until grade six. While I learned a lot in those sessions that I would not have had the privilege to otherwise learn, I feel now it lulled me into a false sense of security of my perceived capabilities, and began to coast in school. It eventually caught up to me, and I still kick myself over letting myself get complacent." —Coastty

18. Weaknesses become uncomfortably apparent.

"It put a lot of expectations on myself and made the things I was (and still am) weak at a huge deal. For example, I can't spell or punctuate correctly even now." —ByronicHero56

19. It's hard to ditch the label as you grow older.

"I often feel like a huge failure and I can't look at my transcript without crying. I still consider myself extremely intelligent and capable but I can't push myself to do the work required to make straight A's. Overall it's forced me to set an unreasonably high standard for myself. I have considered myself in a three-year slump (I'm a junior in high school now), but I'm starting to accept that I'm just a B student." —Blooopimafish

20. You aren't necessarily "better" than anyone else.

"It harmed me in the sense that it made me think I was special when I wasn't. I was considered 'gifted' in my small high school in my small hometown, but out in the rest of the world, I'm average at best." —jamiesugah

This is an update of an article originally written by Mariana Simoes and Aimee Groth.

SEE ALSO: Meet the 13-year-old CEO who built a $200,000 business and is mentored by Daymond John

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When Apple employees go to the tech company's super-secretive course on How Apple Does Things, they're treated to this famous series of drawings by Pablo Picasso:

The first drawing is a hooved, horned, and muscled life-like representation of a bull.

The last is just a few lines, though definitely a bull. 

That's the Apple way.

"You go through more iterations until you can simply deliver your message in a very concise way, and that is true to the Apple brand and everything we do," an employee who took the course told the New York Times.

There's a word for the process: abstraction.

You can see it in Apple's 25-year pursuit of making the most simple — and functional — mouse possible.

The thing about abstraction is that it's ridiculously difficult, since it demands that you have a grasp of the underlying principles of what's going on.

In this way, scientific theories — such as those that have made Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking immortal — are abstractions. 

It's helpful to consider abstraction as a tool for understanding, which authors Robert S. Root-Bernstein and Michele M. Root-Bernstein do in their awesome guide to critical thinking, "Sparks of Genius." Here's their rap on abstraction: 

Abstracting, by simplifying, yields the common links, the nexuses, in the fabric of perception and nature...

Picasso began his well-known Bull series with a realistic image of a bull. Then he became interested in the planes defining the bull's form. But as he experimented with these planes, he realized that what defined them were their edges, which he then reduced to simple outlines. Finally, he eliminated most of these lines, leaving a pure outline that still conveys the essence of "bullness."

Picasso said much the same in his own words:  

To arrive at abstraction, it is always necessary to begin with concrete reality … You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. There's no danger then, anyway, because the idea of the object will have left an indelible mark. 

That drive toward simplicity animates Apple. The company's attitude toward simplicity is part of what has allowed it to make technology attractive to people. 

After Steve Jobs died, Guardian tech writer Jonathan Jones wrote that the "exquisite luxury" of the iPad grew "out of a tradition of Apple design that has repeatedly reshaped modern culture" and that "the aesthetic originality of Apple that has reshaped the way we live in the modern world." 

This aesthetic is what made Apple "revolutionary," Jones said, and that stems from simplicity-seeking abstraction. 

Jobs said as much in his own words: 

That's been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

And that's no bull.

NOW WATCH: The Most Important Thing I Learned About Business From Hugh Hefner

SEE ALSO: Here's What Apple Teaches Employees In Its Ultra-Secretive Internal Training Program

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NOW WATCH: What the Chinese saying 'The ugly wife is a treasure at home' actually means

Do you love talking — and writing — about money?

Are you excited to explore the psychology of wealth, the challenges of saving, and the way successful people look at money?

Are you fascinated by people who pay off crushing debt and budget their money to retire early?

Business Insider is hiring a full-time reporter for its Your Money vertical, one of the fastest-growing sections of the world's No. 1 digital business publication.

Candidates should be comfortable writing quick, aggregated stories that highlight the most interesting angles of the day's news, while simultaneously working on reported medium-length and long-form features.

Ideal candidates will have:

• Insatiable curiosity
• A strong voice and the ability to write with authority
• Interest in digital media and how readers consume news on the web
• Previous writing experience, preferably business
• At least a Bachelor's degree
• Journalism degree and/or background preferred
• Copy-editing skills, light HTML and Photoshop experience, and knowledge of social media are also useful

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This amazing time-lapse video of a total solar eclipse was captured in Spitsbergen, Svalbard in the Arctic.

Produced by Jason Gaines. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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One of the most frustrating feelings in the world is struggling to get the last bit of ketchup out of the bottle or the last squirt of toothpaste out of the tube.

Now there's a coating called LiquiGlide that can keep the inside of a container permanently wet and allow its contents to easily slide out. Look how easy it is get to mayonnaise out of a bottle coated in LiquiGlide:

And it's even more impressive when you compare it to something that is not coated in LiquiGlide. In this example, the non LiquiGlide detergent cap is on the left and the LiquiGlide detergent cap is on the right:

LiquiGlide was originally created in 2012 by a professor, Kripa Varanasi and his grad students at MIT. They've formed their own LiquiGlide company, and it's now getting some traction among consumer products.

The reason it's so difficult to get things like glue and condiments out of their containers is because they are viscous liquids that can't flow without a powerful push. When these kinds of liquids flow through a pipe or a bottle, the layer of liquids flow at different speeds and create friction and viscosity. The layer at the very center of the container is flowing fastest and the layer that is closest to the container sticks to its surface.

The idea behind LiquiGlide is to create an extra layer between the container and the liquid that will help the liquid slide out easier. LiquiGlide is a liquid coating that binds much more strongly to textured surfaces than to liquids, so when it's painted onto the inside of a container, the liquid can flow freely over it without creating friction and viscosity.

"We're not defying physics, but effectively, we are," one of the MIT grad students, Dave Smith, told the New York Times.

So what's in LiquiGlide? It depends on the liquid and containers that each batch is made for. For any food containers, the coating is made from edible materials like plants.

Other than solving a universally frustrating problem, LiquiGlide also cuts down on waste. You end up wasting less glue, paint, condiments, etc., because it's much easier to get out the last few stubborn squeezes. According to a consumer report from 2009, some people end up throwing out up to a quarter of the lotion in a bottle, 16% of detergent, and 15% of condiments because it's too much of a pain to coax out the layers that stick to the container.

However, the original intent behind LiquiGlide was not to make it easier to have ketchup with your fries. Varanasi was thinking about industry applications like more efficient oil pumping. For now, the company has found success in consumer products, but it will continue pursuing industry application ideas too.

Elmers Products, Inc. is on board and has already signed a contract with LiquiGlide. An easier to squeeze mayonnaise bottle might be coming out this year, and easier to squeeze toothpaste could be here in 2017. For some reason, ketchup companies have shown little interest. But just look at that flawless pouring:

SEE ALSO: You can make wonder material graphene in your kitchen

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On March 22, the price of a single New York City subway or bus ride increased from $2.50 to $2.75 per ride, reports CBS News.

The New York Post points out that this is the fifth price increase in the past eight years.

ABC News published a fare breakdown by the Associated Press listing every increase in the past 111 years, since the subway opened in 1904.

Here are those 22 increases in chart form, from the original 5-cent fare to the current $2.75.

When you adjust those numbers for inflation, however, they get a little more interesting.

While the above chart shows a steady rise to today's price, the inflation-adjusted chart below shows the fare growing in fits and starts, even dipping in the late '70s. When you're looking at a difference of $2.70 over a century with an average historical 3% rate of inflation every year, it turns out that the fare hasn't risen as much as the unadjusted graph would indicate. The cost of a subway ride has risen from about $1.20 in 2015 dollars in the early 20th century to $2.75 today. 

Note that the adjustments for inflation are imperfect because the first government inflation data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics via the St. Louis Fed's FRED database is from 1913, and because March data isn't yet available (we used January 2015 dollars).

SEE ALSO: The best and worst cities to save money in the US

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Brit Morin, founder of DIY content and ecommerce site Brit + Co., has been called "the Martha Stewart of Silicon Valley" for her unique combination of tech savvy and creativity.

She recently published"Homemakers," a book she calls "a domestic handbook for the digital generation."

Inside you'll find dozens of recipes, DIY projects, and general tips for improving your home.

Morin, a former employee of both Apple and Google, certainly knows a thing or two about tech.

"I’m not sure people fully realize how advanced our homes are becoming," she said to Business Insider. "This is the new reality as of today, and it’s only going to advance more."

We've rounded up some of the gadgets and apps she recommends in "Homemakers."

Egg Minder

Egg Minder is a smart tray that connects with your smart phone to let you know when you're going to run out of eggs. 

LED lights on the tray itself indicate which eggs are the oldest, so you'll never end up using an egg that has gone bad.

Price: $49.99

Foodily

This app has tons of recipes to browse through.

Share things you've made, or collect others' recipes into your own digital recipe box.

Price:Free

iGrill

"I'm the worst at guesstimating how well done my meat is," Morin writes in "Homemakers."

"Enter the iGrill. Stick this thermometer in your chicken or beef while it cooks and as soon as the meat is cooked to perfection you'll be alerted by phone. Yum." 

Price:$75

Wine scares off a lot of people and overwhelms many more.  Decades of tradition, ritual, and a fair amount of snobbery have caused many who enjoy wine to feel like their interest and enjoyment is somehow inferior to that of “real” connoisseurs. 

There is no reason to feel this way. Unless you work in the industry, wine is supposed to be enjoyable — not work. If you enjoy consuming it, that should be enough. But if you're interested in learning more, there's no reason to feel intimidated.

Many people never stray from a small number of wine varieties. If you are one of those people, and you are happy staying in your comfort zone, great!

But if you’re looking to learn more about wine, the first thing I recommend is to move away from the most popular varietals and try different kinds of grapes. This can help you learn more about what you like, and will keep things interesting.  

And as an added bonus, these less common varietals often offer more bang for the buck. 

Here are some of my favorite substitutions for common varietals.

If you love Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, try: 

• Carmenere. The Carmenere grape was once huge in France before it disappeared when a disease destroyed the grape across the region. Many thought it had vanished completely before scientists discovered that some Chilean wines being called Cabernet Sauvignon were actually Carmenere. French winemakers had brought the grape to South America, and thankfully, the disease didn’t follow. It is delicious and rich like a good Cabernet, but often smoother and less powerful. Good options exist at the $15 to $20 price point.
• Bordeaux. Specifically, try “Left Bank” producers (from towns like St. Julien, Pauillac, St. Estephe, and Margaux). You can typically see the towns highlighted on the labels of French wines, or you can ask your wine store to help you find one. Some of the world’s most expensive wines are Bordeaux, but there are plenty of really good Bordeaux for around $20. These wines use the Cabernet grape, but are much more subtle than the typical Napa Cab. Open a Bordeaux and a Napa Cabernet and compare. Yes, there is a "Right Bank" as well, and there are many great wines there too, but if you love Cabernet, start with the Left.  
• Argentinean Malbec. Once a considered a secret, this wine has grown in popularity but is still underappreciated. If you love Cabernet, you will likely love a good Malbec as well. You can find good options near $20, but there are some really good alternatives at lower price points.  Your local wine store will likely have a favorite.
• South African Pinotage. This is the “deep cut” on this substitution list. Many love this grape, but some find it a bit strange. At first, it resembles a Cabernet, but can often smell of bananas or other fruit in a way that some love and others despise.   

If your go-to white is a Pinot Grigio, try:

• Arneis. This super crisp, acidic white is the flagship white from the Piedmont region in Italy. This wine can sometimes be slightly bigger than a Pinot Grigio, but it is great with seafood and many other dishes. 
• Pouilly Fuisse. Made from Chardonnay, this wine ferments in stainless steel rather than the wood barrels typically used in a Napa Chardonnay. It is really crisp and clean, and a nice alternative to your classic Pinot Grigio. 
• Albariño. This light Spanish white is typically very bright and crisp. You can find really tasty producers for less than $15.  
• Verdicchio. Another amazing alternative to Pinot Grigio from Italy. Like Arneis and Albariño, it has suffered from inferior marketing, though the quality of these wines can be every bit as good as a Pinot Grigio. This crisp and acidic white can be found for $15 to $20.  

If your favorite wine is a Pinot Noir, try:

• Gamay. Beaujolais (made from Gamay grapes) provides a fantastic bang for the buck. However (and I realize this makes no sense), avoid Beaujolais Nouveau, as this is a very different wine than the more traditional Beaujolais wines. You should be able to find a good Beaujolais for $15 to $20. I particularly love the wines made in Morgon.       
• Zweigelt. Now we’re off the beaten path! This (typically) Austrian wine is another light red that is extremely delicious and a great way to mix things up. I love Zweigelt with barbecue, and good ones can be had for less than $25. 
• Sangiovese. I especially like Chianti Classico in the lower price ranges, but there are many good Sangiovese offerings worth trying. These wines tend to be a little heavier than a Pinot Noir, but they share many food-friendly characteristics with Pinot Noirs. For a little more money, you can find excellent Sangiovese-based wines. My favorite is Brunello, but that tends to be pricier and has less in common with Pinot Noir due to a heavier body. Something in the middle is Rosso di Montalcino, which is typically $20 to $35 a bottle, and often really tasty. 

Like the Cabernet and Pinot Grigio alternatives above, these wines are often really affordable alternatives, as they are lesser known and don’t have the same demand as Pinot Noir (especially after the success of "Sideways" prompted everyone to ditch Merlot and drink Pinot!)  

The idea here is to explore your favorite wine store and try something new. A good wine store employee will be thrilled to suggest a good Gamay/Verdicchio/etc., and will likely suggest some favorites beyond the list above. 

Enjoy!  

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Ralph W. McGehee is a veteran of two and a half decades with the Central Intelligence Agency. McGehee was recruited in 1952 and stationed in Southeast Asia in the mid-1960s. 

“Dad, what do you do?” my 13-year-old daughter Peggy asked about six months after we had settled into our home in North Thailand.

She had been observing my strange comings and goings, my home office with its safe, map, and cameras, and my frequent hushed conversations with a variety of visitors. She wanted to know what it was all about.

I braced myself. I knew that simple question was inevitable, one that every child asks sooner or later, but I had dreaded it. In earlier years the children were either too young to notice or my activities were less overt, so I had gotten away with a joking, “Oh, I’m just a paper pusher.” As Peggy persisted this time, though, I knew this answer would no longer do.

Norma had felt all along that we should be truthful with the children, that our family trust came before my oath of secrecy to the Agency. This very clear set of priorities had been reinforced in her mind a hundredfold by her personal experience when she arrived in Thailand.

I had flown ahead to North Thailand to make the necessary arrangements for the family to join me. Once I found a house, I wrote to Norma to fly to Bangkok, where I would meet her. But the housing deal fell through, and the next day I had written to Norma not to come yet. She never received the second letter. She had gone ahead, sending me her flight number and arrival date, but that letter had been held at the Thailand station, and I never received it.

After a grueling, sleepless flight of 16 hours with four cranky children, she had arrived to find no one there to meet her. Since we were traveling on unofficial passports and no one had notified the Thai authorities, she had trouble getting past customs and had to talk her way into a two-week visa. Speaking not a word of Thai, she took a taxi to a good hotel, but in one day the expense exhausted the cash she had in her purse.

The next day she went to the American Embassy and asked if they could put her in touch with me. After a lot of hassling in which everyone claimed never to have heard of me, she made contact with an official who explained that I was in the North.

He didn’t understand how I had not known of my family’s arrival, but he promised that I would be contacted immediately. In the meantime Norma explained that she was out of money and had five mouths to feed. She asked if an advance could be made. He made a call, but the finance officer said that she could not be authorized funds because my assignment was in the North.

There is no anger or determination like my wife’s when something threatens her brood. The official ordered her money from his own pocket to tide her over until I could be contacted, but she refused. She said she was so mad that she would sit on the street corner right in front of the American Embassy and beg with her four children if she had to. Fortunately, I had by chance come to Bangkok on Agency business that day and everything straightened out before it came to that.

But to make matters worse, the next day I had to send her and the children to the North on the train while I remained behind a few days on business. When I finally joined her, Norma’s greeting was not the warmest I have ever received. “If you plan to ship us off somewhere,” she raged, as close to divorce as we’d ever been, “it had better be right back to the States.”

She went on to describe three miserable days in a hotel with no shower and nothing for the children to do, with mosquitoes swarming all over, lizards crawling the walls and ceilings, and huge rats scurrying on the floors.

This experience - both the Agency’s utter disregard for the well-being of her and the children and my own cockeyed priorities of putting Agency business above my family - had left Norma enraged and totally disillusioned with the Agency. While she knew that I still had complete faith in the Agency and could not be persuaded to leave it, she was now at least insisting that I not lie to the children any longer.

The Agency had done enough to her and the children, she told me repeatedly; she would not allow its ridiculous secrecy rules to sow distrust in our family.

Now Peggy’s innocent question had brought the matter to a head. Because of all the indoctrination I had received and my gung-ho attitude, something inside me still resisted. I felt I should keep my activities secret - even from my own daughter.

“Daddy, it’s embarrassing,” Peggy was saying, staring up at me. “All my friends know what their fathers do. I’m the only one who doesn’t.”

I could feel Norma’s eyes on me. What was I going to do? If I told Peggy, I would be breaking my oath. But of course people broke that oath all the time. Everyone knew that secret information was bandied about at Agency cocktail parties as if it were a weather report. Sometimes it seemed I was the only one who played it strictly by the rules.

I wondered: would it make any difference to the Agency’s mission if my children knew that I worked for it? Would it hurt the United States? I looked up at Norma, and we silently acknowledged that the time had come.

I breathed deeply and sat both of my daughters down (the boys were still too young to understand).

With the same sense of compelling seriousness that I had used in regard to crossing streets, not going with strangers, and not taking anything that belongs to others, I said, “I work for the Central Intelligence Agency, which protects our country from anyone who might want to do it harm. I could not tell you before, because you were too young and would not have been able to keep it a secret from your friends. But you must do just that. You must promise you will not talk to anyone but your mother and me about where I work.”

Neither daughter seemed particularly excited about the news. They looked at me and said, “Oh.” This was not at all the response I had expected, but I thought that they probably, like myself 10 years earlier, had not the least notion of what the CIA was and did.

Years later when preparing to write this book, I asked each of them what they thought when I told them about my work. Jean said she had been quite impressed and had thought the job must be difficult and exciting because of all the flying around.

Her friends who had observed this activity had pumped her, and she felt frustrated that she could not confide in them.

Peg said she had felt the same frustration at not being able to tell her friends. She was also curious about what I specifically did for the CIA on the various flying trips around North Thailand. I said that I would tell her after I retired - a promise, until now, that I never kept, for by the time I retired I was disillusioned and angry and did not want to lay this negative burden on my children.

I told our elder son, Scott, several years afterwards. Later he admitted that he had been humiliated in a classroom exercise where each child was asked to talk about his father’s job. Scott had to say he did not know. After I told him, he said he had more respect for my lifestyle. But that did not alter the fact that he still could not admit he knew what his father did, or confide in his friends.

Norma told our younger son, Dan, in Bangkok when he was 11 years old. He said later that he had not been too surprised since we so carefully avoided the subject of my work. His reaction at the time, though, was to ask, “Oh, does he carry a gun?”

Excerpted from Deadly Deceits with permission of Open Road Media. Read more books from Open Road's Forbidden Bookshelf series here to discover the darker trends and episodes in US History. Follow Feed Your Need to Read on Facebook and Twitter.

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