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It's now cheaper to travel to Europe than it has been in years

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Istanbul mosque

Europe is known as one of the most expensive places to travel, but a strong dollar and weaker euro mean that international travelers can find some great deals on travel to the continent this summer. 

TripAdvisor just released its TripIndex Europe report, which analyzes hotel prices and airfare to several European cities. The report found that the cost of a one-week summer trip to Europe has declined by an average of 11%.

Istanbul is the cheapest European city to visit this summer, with a one-week trip costing an average of $1,877 — 25% cheaper than it would have cost to travel there last year. The average nightly hotel rate in Istanbul is only $97 and the average cost of airfare is $1,197. Over the last several years, Istanbul has been gaining popularity as one of the most popular travel destinations in the world, and now is an incredibly affordable time to travel there.

Other affordable destinations in Europe are Bucharest, Romania, where a one-week trip costs an average of $1,894, and Krakow, Poland, where a one-week trip costs an average of $1,938. The most expensive destinations in Europe are Edinburgh, Scotland; Reykjavik, Iceland; London, and Zurich.

See the chart below for more information on the cost of European travel this summer.

TripIndex

SEE ALSO: 35 Places To Visit While The Euro Is At An 11-Year Low

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NOW WATCH: 10 fashion mistakes men make over and over at the office









An entire Connecticut ghost town is back on the market for $2.4 million after the winning bidder disappeared

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Village Of Johnsonville 8

The village of Johnsonville, Connecticut is back on the market for $2.4 million after a potential deal fell through and the buyer disappeared, according to Curbed.

Though the bidder won the property's auction for $1.9 million, the deal wasn't able to close for an unspecified reason, according to The Hartford Courant.

Johnsonville has been a theme park, a textile mill, a movie set, and a ghost town. 

Johnsonville's founding dates back to the 1830s, when it was a mill town for the twine industry in Connecticut. Fast forward to 1960, when, according to Curbedaerospace millionaire Ray Schmitt bought up all the buildings in town. He also brought his own buildings to Johnsonville, including a Victorian-era stable and a chapel from Massachusetts, opening a quaint theme park. 

By 1994, after a fight with local officials and a few fires, the park closed. Save for the movie "Freedom" being filmed there as well as a Billy Joel music video, the 62 acres have been left abandoned ever since. 

A hotel developer did purchase the property in 2008, and tried to unload it in 2013 for $2.9 million.

Many of the original buildings from the 1800s are still standing, though they are in terrible shape.



The structures, though dilapidated, feature authentic and original colonial and Victorian design.



Fires destroyed some of the original structures, but at least eight still remain on the property.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






The 10 funniest Dilbert comic strips about idiot bosses

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dt090712comb_ht

It should be comforting that no matter how much you hate your boss, they can't possibly be as bad as the Pointy-Haired Boss.

The idiot middle manager is central to the popular Dilbert comic series, which was the first syndicated comic that focused primarily on the workplace when it launched in 1989. The character embodies the time-wasting, circular-reasoning, and ignorant mentality of bad bosses that many workers are all too familiar with.

"If you've ever had a boss, this probably hits home for you," Dilbert creator Scott Adams tells Business Insider.

To celebrate National Boss Day on Oct. 16, Adams shared his 10 favorite Pointy-Haired Boss strips from the archives of Dilbert.com

August 2001



July 2009



August 2009



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






These are the best 3 printers you can get for less than $100 right now

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Finding the right printer can be a daunting task.

There are hundreds of models, they all sort of do the same thing, and sometimes they're too expensive.

But Insider Picks put together a list of our three favorite printers under $100. Check them out.


If you're looking for a solid wireless printer, scanner, copier and fax all in one...

printerThis printer comes with a fully-integrated, 35-sheet Duplex Auto Document feeder to easily copy, scan and fax multiple documents without having to load them one page at a time.

Plus, you'll be able to print wirelessly from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

"Setup was easy and it connected to my wireless network no problem," one reviewer wrote.

Canon PIXMA MX922 wireless printer: $199.99$99.99[50% off]


If you need a printer for your office...

Screen Shot 2015 04 06 at 10.50.07 AM

This printer is a fast, reliable monochrome laser printer that's designed for the Small Office and Home Office (SOHO) user.

It's ideal for printing business documents, multi page reports, spreadsheets and invoices because of its fast print speed of up to 27 ppm and automatic duplex printing.

Brother HL-L2340DW compact laser printer: $139.99$89.99[36% off] 


If you need something that prints great quality photos...

Screen Shot 2015 04 06 at 3.28.47 PMA regular office printer isn't going to print quality photographs — but this one will.

You'll be able to wirelessly print great color photos — even straight from your smartphone and tablet.

"It was so easy to install on my computer and set u the wireless connection," one reviewer wrote.

"For the average home user, this printer will be a great choice," another wrote.

Epson XP-310 wireless color photo printer with scanner and copier: $99.00 $59.99[39% off]


Not what you're looking for? Check out other great printers under $100 here.


 

SEE ALSO: 6 shampoos to use if you're worried about hair loss

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SEE ALSO: Turn your iPad into a floating screen with the HoverBar

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NOW WATCH: Animated map of what Earth would look like if all the ice melted








The 10 best cities for recent college grads to live

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smartphone washington us capitol walking

The most important thing to do after graduating from college, aside from finding gainful employment, is finding a place to live.

Rent.com polled 1,000 renting millennials to find out the best cities in the US for postgrads. Washington, DC, was the top city for postgraduate-aged people to settle.

The survey found that increased job potential was the biggest factor in deciding where to live. Rent.com also took into account cities with high concentrations of like-minded millennials, and cities with great nightlife options.

Here are the 10 best cities for college grads:

1. Washington, DC

2. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota

3. Denver, Colorado

4. San Francisco, California

5. Boston, Massachusetts

6. Austin, Texas

7. Seattle, Washington

8. Raleigh, North Carolina

9. Baltimore, Maryland

10. Cincinnati, Ohio

DON'T FORGET: Nominate the most impressive kids graduating from high school this year

FOLLOW US: Business Insider Lists is on Twitter!

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NOW WATCH: This College In Michigan Will Pay Off The Loans Of Graduates Who Can't Find A Job








The best beer from every state

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It's National Beer Day, the perfect excuse to break out a frosty mug of your favorite brew. Because everyone's tastes and preferences for beer differ so significantly, it can be hard to objectively decide which ones are the cream of the crop.

That's why we enlisted the help of the experts at RateBeer.com to come out with a list of the best beer from every state.

Take a look at the map below to see if your favorite local beer made the list, or read the full feature for more information on the best brews.

US Beer Map Best Beer In Each Sate

 

SEE THE LIST IN FULL: The best beer from every state

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NOW WATCH: Is draft beer better than bottled beer?








Here's what your clothes REALLY say about you at work

This instant wine refresher cools red wines without altering the taste [40% off]

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Screen Shot 2015 04 06 at 4.13.02 PMThis nifty gadget will let you serve wine at the perfect cellar temperature.

All you have to do is keep this instant red wine refresher stored in the freezer. Then, when you're ready to serve the wine, just insert the wine refresher onto the bottle neck and pour.

Best of all, the red wine refresher won't alter the flavor, aroma and bouquet of the wine.

The red wine chiller is 7" long and must be hand-washed.

Ravi solution instant wine refresher:$39.98 $23.98 [40% off]


 

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NOW WATCH: This is what happens to your brain and body when you check your phone before bed









This handy chart will help you decide which beer to order

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April 7 marks National Beer Day, which commemorates the legalization of beer sales in the US following the end of prohibition. 

These days, there are dozens upon dozens of different styles of beer out there, from pale ales to stouts to bocks.

There are so many styles, and so many exceptions to the rules, that it's incredibly difficult (not to mention time-consuming) to get to know them all, but having an idea of your favorites will make drinking a lot more enjoyable.

We've created a taxonomy of most major beer styles to help you put your favorite cold ones into context. Start in the center and see where each style of beer falls.

BI_graphics_Beer Taxonomy

 

SEE ALSO: 12 craft alternatives to the beer you always order

DON'T BE ANTISOCIAL: Follow @BI_Life on Twitter!

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NOW WATCH: Is draft beer better than bottled beer?








The 10 least happy metro areas in America

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9536970459_93d39601a8_kResearchers have found that your level of well-being is closely correlated with where you live.

After interviewing 177,000 Americans from the 100 most populous communities in the US, researchers at Gallup concluded that residents living in the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman metropolitan area of Northeast Ohio are highly unsatisfied with how well their community serves their social, financial, and physical needs.

Five of the 10 least-satisfied communities are in Ohio. Also ranking in the bottom 10 are the communities of Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, New Haven-Milford, and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville.

Screen Shot 2015 04 07 at 2.59.57 PMScreen Shot 2015 04 07 at 2.59.22 PM

The ranking reflects residents' responses to survey questions asking how well their communities fulfilled their financial, emotional, social, safety, and physical needs. Residents were also asked to describe how their community had strengthened or diminished their sense of purpose.

Youngstown-Warren-Boardman has the lowest well-being in two elements, with its residents feeling they lack both purpose and social well-being, according to the report.

15632056661_d9b2eef408_kResidents of the communities with the lowest well-being are 68% more likely to smoke and 58% more likely not to feel pride in their community. 

Residents of high well-being communities, on the other hand, are 12% more likely to learn new and interesting things, 6% more likely to get positive energy from family and friends, 16% less likely to worry about money, and 25% less likely to suffer from depression over their lifetime, according to the report.

SEE ALSO: The 20 happiest metro areas in America

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It's National Beer Day — science says this is the best way to pour and drink it

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Craft beer

It's National Beer Day, a perfect occasion to indulge in one of the many delightful creations of the rapidly-growing craft beer scene.

It's an excellent time for a local spring saison, white IPA, or whatever else strikes your fancy (and palate).

So why not step up your beer drinking game?

Instead of just swigging from the bottle or can, do what beer experts recommend and pour your beer into the perfect tasting vessel to savor all the hoppy and malty goodness in each brew.

Beer flavor is incredibly complex — beers actually incorporate more ingredients, styles, and flavors than wines do.

There are more than 100 different styles and sub-categories of beer, with flavors that range from smoky to salty to sour and everywhere else imaginable. People who study to become a "Certified Cicerone," the beer industry's version of a sommelier, learn to distinguish not only these varieties and the different types of hops and malts used to make them, they learn the proper way to serve and describe the unique factors of each.

And while not everyone needs that level of knowledge, once you realize there's that much to know about beer out there, don't you want to learn as much it as possible?

If you're drinking good beer (craft, preferably local) in the first place, you're already doing it right, but here's how to take your beer game to the next level.

How to serve it

Much of what we taste is due to what we smell, and it's hard to catch a whiff of what's inside a bottle or can while you drink it.

A nice wide top on a glass will help you get a big whiff of the beer before you drink it.

The head on your beer — that inch or so of foam at the top of your glass is very important. It helps enhance the flavor of your beer by capturing many of the compounds in beer that create its aroma, and through that, its flavor. For that reason, different styles of beer work best with different glasses.

As this Cicerone-recommended Beer Advocate article explains, most styles of beer are best drank from one (or more) of ten basic styles of glassware. This infographic details this full line of glassware, and the beers that go with them, but we'll include a few basic choices here.

1. The classic pint glass

This glass usually comes in either a 16 (standard US) or 20 ounce (imperial or "nonic") size and is the most versatile of glasses. It's a great option for dozens of beer styles, including American lagers and pale ales, saisons, and most stouts. It's a great glass for beers you're going to drink in large quantities and for beers that need a large head on top.

beer glasses info2. The stemmed tulip glass 

This one you might frequently see in your local craft beer bar. It's a great option for rich, flavorful beers like double IPAs, Belgian strong ales, some saisons, and lambics. The stem makes it easy for a drinker to hold without warming the beer too much. The wide mouth creates a thick foamy head that enhances those already rich aromas.

beer glasses info3. The snifter

Originally designed for brandy, turns out to be a great vessel for some other strong ales like barleywines, tripels, and imperial stouts. It's a smaller volume glass, which is great for beers that'll knock you out with their alcohol levels often being in the 10% range, and its shape makes it easy to swirl and agitate the aroma enhancing particles known as "volatiles" in those brews.

beer glasses infoEven if you don't have these exact glasses in your home, re-think the glassware you have available — a lot of things that work in a snifter also would fit well in a big wine glass.

How to pour it

pouring beer

Once you've got your brew and your glassware, you want to pour it to create the perfect head on that beverage.

When pouring from a bottle hold your glass at a 45 degree angle until it's about half full. At that point, gently tilting it upright and pouring into the center should create the perfect inch of head (certain beers, like weizens and Belgian ales, usually get a bigger head, from two to four inches).

Many interesting unfiltered beers will have a small amount of yeast in the bottom of the bottle. Whether you drink this or not is up to you — it'll generally make the beer a bit cloudier and can add some good flavor. If you don't want any extra yeast, watch carefully and don't pour out the dregs of the bottle.

If you are pouring from a tap, hold the glass at a 45 degree angle about an inch away from the spigot. Open the tap fully and fill to about halfway, making sure the tap never touches the glass or the beer. At the halfway point, tilt the glass upright and continue letting beer flow into the center, moving the glass down to make sure there's a little space between the tap and the brew.

How to taste it

As Beer Advocate explains, "When analyzing a beer, you can't just swill it down, burp and say 'it's great' or 'it's crap.'" Or, you can, but we're trying to drink like a pro now, remember? This way you'll be able to describe your beer better than any wine snob.

Take a look at the beer itself. Notice the color, the head, the bubbles.

If it's in a glass that won't overflow like a snifter, swirl it lightly, like you would a nice whiskey. This pulls out the aroma.

Take a whiff. Do if first through your nose, then through your nose with your mouth open, and then through your mouth. The way your nose and mouth are connected mean that you'll catch slightly different variations depending on how you smell something.

Take a decent sized sip and hold it in your mouth for a moment. See how your tastebuds react, what flavors come to mind. Notice the consistency and mouthfeel of the beverage. Afterwards, see if you notice any new flavors as you breathe out.

Continue, and enjoy.

Cheers.

FEEL LIKE A COCKTAIL INSTEAD? In 1974, the US Forest Service created an incredibly detailed bartending guide

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NOW WATCH: This one ingredient is making a lot of Americans fat








It was the Ford GT vs. the Acura NSX at the New York Auto Show

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2016 FORD GTWe should declare 2015 the year of the supercar. It almost seems that nary a month goes by without a car maker pulling the cover of a brand-new, ultra-flashy, mega-horsepower design.

Two of the most recent examples pulled in to the New York Auto Show, which kicked off at the Javits Center in Manhattan last week. Both have history. However, they couldn't be more different – although they have one critical quality in common. 

The Ford GT was the undisputed hit of the Detroit Auto Show back in January. This glorious, stonking, 600-horsepower beast astonished in Motown. "We kept it pretty secret" was the grinning, satisfied refrain we heard while making our media rounds in New York. Ford brought a GT, in dashing silver, to New York and let everyone just stand and gawk. It's dazzling in photos. But in the flesh, it fills a spot in you brain that's reserved for special stuff, cherished playthings from childhood and fantasies that you sketched on your notebook cover when you were 15 and bored but full of dreams.

Then there's the history. Back in 1966, the GT's ancestors finished 1-2-3 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, settling a spat between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari and settling it good. Enzo had at the last minute rebuffed Henry II's desire to buy the storied Italian automaker – so Henry II took out his disappointment on the track.

Ford GT40

The GT that Ford unveiled in Detroit is – there's consensus about this in the automotive world – destined to restore Ford to glory at Le Mans in 2016, just in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the epic win in '66.

Meanwhile, about a hundred yards away from the GT on the show floor in New York, Acura's new NSX supercar turned lazily on a rotating platform. It was a deep red, almost a sanguine tone (not the signature rosso corsa, it should be noted, of Ferrari). What it lacked in GT-style ferocity it more than made up for with an animé-inflected sense of daring, angular purpose. 

Acura NSX

Like the GT, what makes it go is a turbocharged V-6. But unlike the GT, the engine has been hybridized through the addition of three electric motors. Bottom line: 550 total horsepower. Yeek.

The NSX also comes with history – but history of a decidedly different flavor. The original NSX was forged out of Acura parent Honda's Formula One experience. The late, legendary F1 champion Ayrton Senna contributed to the car's development. The NSX doesn't quite match the GT's racing legacy, although it also competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It performed admirably in the 1990s, but never won in its divisions.

Of course, you could argue that the Le Mans of the '60s and the Le Mans of the '90s wasn't the same race, and you'd be right – the comparison is sort of unfair.

1995 Acura NSX T

The vibe from each machine is unique. The GT is effectively a race car whose current incarnation has been adapted to more-or-less street-legalness. The message is, "Just wait until you see this thing on the track."

The NSX, on the other hand, evolved a cult following over its production run – it's Larry Ellison's favorite supercar, for instance – but it occupies a space between sports cars and supercars. It's ostensibly a supercar, with its mid-engine design and exotic bodywork. But it's not necessarily in the same conversation as supercars from the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini, much less McLaren and Pagani. It is, after all, an Acura. 

There are other weirdnesses that attach to both the GT and the NSX. The GT will be build in Canada, by a company that has worked on Ford's racing program and can handle the demands of the GT's carbon-fiber construction.

The NSX, meanwhile, will be built in ... Ohio.

Yes. It's a supercar. From Ohio. Really. From Ohio.

(The previous generation of the NSX was built in Japan.)

This all just goes to show you that as we enter what I'm now calling "Peak Supercar," our definitions for this most intense of automotive genres are changing. Heck, the whole idea of a mere supercar is becoming antiquated, as "hypercars" and even "mega-cars" up the ante on power, performance, and flagrantly over-the-top design.

So in the year of the supercar, two qualified new examples eyed each other across the NY Auto Show floor. One is a pre-emptively domesticated race car. The other could very well be the finest Honda ever built by human hands on planet Earth. Or at any rate in Ohio.

They're also symbols of their era – a time, maybe a twilight phase, when supercars still prowled our roadways, before we all start riding around in one of these:

google selfdrivingcar 

SEE ALSO: Here are the 27 must-see cars at the New York Auto Show

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Inside the abandoned mansion Mike Tyson was forced to sell

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mike tyson mansion

Mike Tyson seems to be enjoying something of a comeback these days. With his acting career and popular one-man show that tours the country, the former boxing champ finally seems to be getting some positive press.

Of course things were not always so good for Iron Mike, who was jailed in 1992 for rape and went to jail again in 1999 on assault charges, after which he was broke and struggling. Because of his financial problems, Tyson was forced to sell his 19,500-square-foot mansion on 58 acres in Southington, Ohio, where he'd lived since the 1980s. It was purchased by a TV marketer for $1.3 million, but the guy never moved into it (he's in jail for money laundering). The house sat vacant for years.

Photographer and urban explorer Johnny Joo tells Business Insider he knew about the estate for years, but it wasn't until 2013 that he attempted to venture inside. First stopped by police, Joo later obtained permission from the new owners who purchased the mansion last year.

What Joo (pronounced "yoo") found when he finally got inside the house was striking. Tyson's grand estate lay in disrepair, a shadow of its former '80s glitz and glamour. Still, it was impressive, and Joo shared his images with us. You can see more on his site or on his Facebook page. A new book of his urban-exploring photography is out now.

The first time Joo attempted to enter Tyson's abandoned mansion, he and a friend were arrested and given fines before they even got inside.



The second time around they got permission to explore the place.



The mansion, which Tyson lived in in the 1980s and '90s, sat vacant since 1999, until late last year when it was finally sold. "I had obtained permission from the current owner to document restoration progress," Joo says. "It's still in very good shape."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






Celebrity trainer Tony Horton says this is the one thing people trying to lose weight mess up

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Tony Horton

Tony Horton is one of the most visible people — if not the most visible person — in all of American fitness.

The credit for that goes to his work creating P90X, the most successful home fitness program of all time.

Perhaps the biggest reason that millions upon millions of people begin fitness programs is to lose weight. And of course most programs, including P90X, come with a comprehensive diet regimen to accompany the fitness portion.

It was natural then, when we spoke to Tony recently, to ask him what he's noticed is the toughest thing for people who are starting a program to lose weight.

To him, it's all about inflated expectations and not living in the now.

Here is what he told us:

"The discipline of it. Being consistent with it. The expectations of how quickly things are gong to change for them. That's the reason why most people stop in the first or second week, because it didn’t happen overnight.

I created the program to be 90 days — they’re all 90-day programs because sometimes, for a lot of people, they have a different starting point. If you have 125 pounds to lose and you’re 42 years old, you’re at a really different starting point than a 27-year-old ex-gymnast who has 9 pounds to lose.

So you have to kind of be ok with the process. Being ok having to modify, being ok with not being able to do a lot of the exercises initially. It’s not like anybody says ‘I want to climb Mt Everest’ and just straps on their gear and goes, you know, there’s a lot of steps between that thought and ending up on the summit, and losing weight and getting fit is the same thing."

We also asked Tony what he would advise people to focus on instead of getting fixated on the result of the weight loss and how they would look:

"… My advice to people would be — take it slow. It’s an ebb and flow, you’re going to have good days and you’re going to have bad days, you’re going to feel strong, you’re going to feel weak. Pass your expectations, stop thinking about how you hope to look in the future and just kind of stay present.

My expression is ‘do your best and forget the rest. I’ve said it about 18 trillion times, and that’s what that is, that’s all that really is. Doing your best means showing up, being in the room and seeing what happens and not expecting the same performance that you did 20 years ago or that somebody else you know has done. It’s ever changing and being ok with reality. Reality is that thing that’s actually happening to you and if you can’t deal with that you’re always going to struggle."

 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The Simple Science Behind Weight Loss








7 things the Samsung Galaxy S6 can do that the iPhone 6 can't


We did the math: Is Uber really cheaper than a taxi?

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Uber cars offer a better price than taxis in many cities, but they don't always charge the same rate in each location. In times of high demand Uber initiates surge pricing – you are charged the normal fare times a surge multiplier. We figured out the break-even point for each city. This is the level of surge pricing at which the Uber car becomes more expensive than a taxi.

Produced by Sara Silverstein

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This gravity-defying iPhone charging dock is the coolest smartphone accessory [28% off]

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Screen Shot 2015 04 07 at 8.35.58 AMThe "Bobine" is the coolest iPhone accessory out there.

This gadget is a two-in-one charger and docking station for your iPhone. It works almost like a paper clip, bending in any direction so you can stare at your phone screen head-on as it charges.

The bendable wire is 24 inches long. You can fix it in any position, and adjust the height and angle.

Plus, you'll be able to use your iPhone hands-free (and even use it as a tripod to take the perfect selfie!).

"Bobine" Flexible iPhone Charging Dock: $35.00 $24.99 [28% off]


 

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Don't buy the Apple Watch – buy a real watch instead (AAPL)

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apple watch 19

The reviews of the Apple Watch are in – and they're brutal.

The gadget goes on sale on Friday. Mainly, it's the tech folks who've checked out what was expected to be the finest smartwatch of them all. And the most fashionable. We'll have to wait for the high-end watch world to offer up its views.

However, if the Apple Watch is less than thrilling, hard to use, flawed – well, that would make it a typical first-generation gadget. Even from Apple. 

But whatever. If you must have one, you will. But you could also put your money into a real watch. 

"Real watch" – I know it's a provocative and snooty concept. The Apple Watch is a toy! The Patek Philippe Calatrava is a true timepiece, an shimmering example of Swiss horological skill and tradition!

Ugh. But let's say you now have some reservations about dropping $650 on the same stainless-steel Apple Watch with a Milanese loop band that the New York Times' Farhad Manjoo spent time with before writing his fairly ambivalent review. Here's what you should do with the money instead.

Use it for a down payment on an Omega Seamaster. You can get a certified pre-owned version for about $3,000. Make payments for a year or so and then own it free and clear. Forever. Because it will last ... forever, if serviced and cared for properly. It's easily the best value there is in high-end Swiss automatic watches. No, it's not a Rolex Submariner. But it's basically the same watch, and it's thousands less.

Omega Seamaster

You could hang onto your $650 first-gen Apple Watch for 30 or 4o or 50 years and it might retain some historic value, but its actual value will be effectively zero. Heck, its actual value will pretty much be zero when the next gen appears in a year or so. This isn't news. Everyone has offered this observation.

Meanwhile, in 30 or 40 or 50 years, assuming the Swiss watch industry doesn't vanish from the Earth, your Omega Seamaster will still tell time and still enable you to go swimming with it on. You kids or grandkids may very well be eyeing it. And you will be able to sell it for at the very least a few hundred and maybe even a few thousands dollars. Over 30 years, it will have cost you $100 a year and served up decades of pleasure. 

Or you could just keep buying Apple Watches. 

All right, so maybe you don't want to spend $650 to start owning a fine Swiss sport watch.

You can buy a very nice Seiko dive watch that will also last forever for about $400 (before online discounts and markdowns). Not Swiss. But rock-solid Japanese, from a watchmaker that's been around for ages. Not as likely to hold its value as the Omega. But not a watch that you'll ever have anything to complain about.

Seiko Diver

So there you have it. Don't spend your money on this awful Apple Watch. Buy a real watch instead.

SEE ALSO: I'm going to buy an Apple Watch — in 3 years

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 things the Samsung Galaxy S6 can do that the iPhone 6 can't








One of Thrillist's first employees got $2 million to launch a new parenting site for guys

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mike rothman fatherlyToday's new moms have a vast network of blogs full of helpful tips for each stage of parenting. 

But what about new dads? 

Meet Fatherly, a brand-new site created by early Thrillist employee Mike Rothman and marketing exec Simon Isaacs. The site officially launches today after several months in beta.

The goal, according to Rothman, is to provide parenting advice for guys who are on their first or second kid and looking for content geared towards them specifically.

"There’s been an interesting shift, where fathers are more involved in terms of time commitment and purchasing decisions," he said to Business Insider. "But there was a complete dearth of content for this up-and-coming demographic. They’re not signing up for print magazines because they’re not really tailored to them."

With stories like "The Longboard Stroller Is Exactly What It Sounds Like" and "A Navy SEAL's Tips On How To Dominate Hide-And-Seek," you could think of Fatherly as a grown-up version of Thrillist.

It's a guide, he says, for guys who also happen to be dads. 

"After seven years of marketing to young, single guys [at Thrillist], we realized they were not as young or single anymore," Rothman said. "We were kind of aging out of the demographic."

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Fatherly recently raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by SoftTech. Lerer Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Gary Vaynerchuk, the Knight Foundation, and the founders of the Bleacher Report and Elite Daily also contributed to the round. 

"They understand we’re going in this inevitable direction, where people are coming online as parents to see what's there," Rothman said.

In addition to Rothman and Isaacs, Fatherly currently has two full-time editors in its New York City office. Much of their content, however, comes from a vast network of contributors. 

One series called "Why is the sky blue?" will have experts give simple explanations to the questions kids might ask. They might have a Harvard psychology professor, for example, explain where dreams come from.

Among the experts they've recruited are therapist and author Esther Perel, Wharton School of Business Professor Stewart Friedman, and home improvement expert Timothy Dahl. There will also be advice from neuroscientists, the Centers for Disease Control, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. 

They even did an interview with Malala Yousafzai's father, who provided some insight on what it's like to raise a Nobel Prize winner.

"We take this expert-driven guidance because we realize there’s not one uber dad who knows the answer to everything," Rothman said. "And it's not the people who usually blog about these kinds of things. It's a lot of general interest content." 

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When you sign up for Fatherly, you have the option to enter your child's age, which will help the site tailor its content for the challenges you might face at any given stage. 

There's also an ecommerce component, where you can get age-specific product recommendations sent to your inbox — ranging from the things you need when you're preparing to have a child to the baby monitors you should try once you have one.fatherly

Rothman isn't a father just yet, but Isaacs welcomed a new baby to his family just a few weeks ago, and Fatherly's editorial director is also a new dad.

"It’s been an interesting experience to do this with guys who just had kids," Rothman said. "We keep the time flexible." 

SEE ALSO: How to use Lumoid, the startup that will lend you a bunch of gadgets for a week

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Food startup Munchery has hired a bunch of gourmet chefs to answer the most popular question in your household

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munchery

Tri Tran got the idea for Munchery back in 2010. He was tasked with cooking for his family — himself, his wife and his two sons — and found himself constantly looking for an answer to the question:

"What's for dinner?"

"I had a neighbor who was a personal chef," Tran tells Business Insider. "He goes into people's homes, cooks up a storm, 6 or 10 dishes, and put it in their fridge, and the client can go home and enjoy the food over the next few days."

But a personal chef like Tran's neighbor charges a lot for that kind of service — $700 or $800 per engagement, Tran says. "I was like, gee, that's a lot of food, but there's no way I can afford that kind of service," he says. "So I put on my engineering hat and decided, what does it take to make it work for me?" 

From there, Munchery was born. For about the same as you'd pay for a Seamless order (roughly $10-15), Munchery serves up a number of fresh-food entrees, sides, desserts, drinks, and kids' meals made by chefs. Munchery does everything in-house, so it's a full-stack operation; instead of outsourcing to third-parties, like restaurants or contracted chefs, the chefs work right inside Munchery's facilities. 

Munchery, which was founded in 2011, has raised $39.9 million in venture funding, mostly recently raising a $28 million Series B round last April from investors including Menlo Ventures, Tinder cofounder Justin Mateen, and Sherpa Ventures.

The chefs Munchery has recruited for its New York operation have worked for Daniel Boulud, at Blue Smoke with Danny Meyer, and at Tavern on The Greene. The average Munchery chef has 17 to 20 years of culinary experience.

"These chefs basically decided that when they cook at these famous restaurants, their own parents cannot afford to go there," Tran says. "So if they want to have a bigger impact, reach more people with their food, it needs to be at a price point that is an everyday use price point. We have huge respect for those restaurants — they are fantastic. But they are not for every day. They're for special occasions."

munchery foundersEvery time you order a meal on Munchery, the startup gives an equivalent donation to a local charity (in New York, that's City Harvest). The one downside to Munchery, which surprised me when I first tried to place an order, is that if you're looking for lunch, you're going to find that it's not quite on-demand. For now in New York, Munchery is only available for dinner (between about 4 pm and 10 pm). 

That said, the process works pretty well within its current limitations in New York, where Munchery just launched last month (it's been operating in San Francisco for a while now). You open up Munchery's app and can look at all the offerings for that day (or schedule an order for the next day by looking at the menu).

Each dish shows the name of the chef who prepared the food, along with a photo and a description of what's inside each dish. You can also look at reviews other customers have left about each meal. "The chefs we recruit for San Francisco and obviously for Seattle, New York — these are chefs who have extensive experience at fine dining facilities," Tran tells us.

Once you've picked the food you want, you select an hour-long delivery window. I chose between 6:00 and 7:00 PM.

muncheryMy food arrived promptly at 6:07 pm. I got a text and a phone call from my delivery guy, Mohammed, who said he was in the lobby of Business Insider's office building. He had my meal ready for me in a Munchery-branded bag when I met him.

Part of what makes Munchery different from most food delivery startups is that your food arrives cold intentionally. When you're ready to heat it up, you can put it in the microwave or the oven. Everything you order comes with heating and serving instructions, and they're pretty hard to mess up.

As for the food itself, it's really good. I ordered honey-roasted brussels sprouts along with steak. Everything was cooked perfectly — and it cost roughly the same as what I'd otherwise spend if I used Seamless or Grubhub to order dinner.

The startup's limitations are what makes Munchery interesting and different. You have a limited number of options, a handful of meals each day. And when a certain item is sold out, that's it — you can't order it that day. But if you're tired of the restaurants around your office or your apartment on Seamless, Munchery might be perfect for you.

muncheryInitially, Tran and his co-founder, Conrad Chu set up Munchery sort of like eBay: the chefs were the sellers, and people would go online and look at the menus and buy the food. But there was a lot of room for error with that model. "The chefs even did delivery, which is horrible, as we found out," Tran says. "They're not good at delivery. They took poor pictures." 

Today, chefs cook their food in Munchery's kitchen facilities, and the company has its own photography team to make the food pictures look appealing.

Munchery's chefs are able to hand-make large, scalable batches of food in Munchery's kitchens. "Instead of a typical oven that might make 20 pieces of salmon at once, we have one that can make a couple hundred pieces at once," Tran says. "There's technology we have that allows us to do this very efficiently, but the quality is better than if a company did it one by one, by hand."

These days, there are a lot of online food services to choose from. There's Blue Apron and Plated, which deliver recipes and ingredients to your door. Instacart is a billion-dollar company that does grocery shopping for you. Seamless and Grubhub send you meals from local restaurants. KitchenSurfing lets you rent an on-demand chef for a night. Then there's Munchery an its closest competitor, Sprig, which have chefs make home-cooked meals for you.  

It's still unclear if these are "UNI" businesses — startups with business models that make a lot of sense for users, but aren't sustainable enough for investors. 

Unlike Sprig, which typically offers a couple entrees, desserts and sides, Munchery emphasizes that it caters to families and offers a variety of kids' meals too. Munchery aims to be a service people can use daily to get food for themselves and their families — which, Tran says, sets Munchery apart. "We have tons of respect for those guys, but their issue is different. They serve the individual person who maybe doesn't care as much about variety. For us, that's hard to serve a family with."

SEE ALSO: Uber's co-founder just launched a new app to make your commute cheaper, easier and better for the environment

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