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The notorious 'King of Instagram' is feuding with an Australian playboy over a controversial photo

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Dan Bilzerian

Dan Bilzerian has made headlines for allegedly DIYing his own bombs, throwing a model off a roof, and kicking someone in the face in a bar fight.

But apparently, there's one Instagram-famous playboy named Travers Beynon who's managed to shock even Bilzerian — by walking his wife and another woman like dogs. Now there's an apparent rivalry brewing between the two.

Beynon has an Instagram feed just like that of Bilzerian. He posts photos of his beautiful wife and his 11-or-so girlfriends, as well as incredibly lavish parties in his mansion on the Australian Gold Coast.

Earlier this week, he posted a photo of himself pulling his wife and another woman by their bikini straps while they walked on all fours. The post has since been deleted, but the Daily Mail grabbed a screenshot.

This photo on Beynon's page appears to have been taken shortly after the original. The caption reads, "I lost my leashes (bikini straps)? '50 Shades of Grey' is a nursery thyme... I'm more like a '1000 Shades of Black.'"

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After the post was made public, the Daily Mail Australia received a statement from Bilzerian.

"I don't know this guy personally and I'm not usually one to judge without knowing, but I will say I don't think you should have a wife and children living in a house with naked girls and partying," Bilzerian said.

Indeed, Beynon has posted photos of his four children inside the mansion, which he calls the Candyshop.

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Bilzerian didn't stop there.

"I also am respectful to women who treat me respectfully," he said, "and would never put my wife on a leash in the driveway for an Instagram pic... I'm all about living however you want, but if you make the decision to get married and have children, then you have an obligation to raise them in an environment that isn't going to ruin them, warp their perception of the world, or close doors for them."

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"When you are single and have no dependents, you should be able to do whatever you want as long as it doesn't adversely effect other people," Bilzerian continued. "I've always stood for one thing, and that is having freedom, and part of that is the freedom to unapologetically be yourself."

After Bilzerian's comments were made public, Beynon went on an Instagram rampage, posting several photos that were apparently meant to respond to Bilzerian's statements.

"The Candyman and his biggest supporter," he wrote under the photo of him and his wife embedded below. "Haters only wish their wife [sic] back their husband 100% like my [sic] does."

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He also blamed "tall poppy syndrome" for the hate he's been getting, while advising "anyone who has ever been bullied" to "stay strong, keep moving forward and you will overcome the adversity."

He also posted a screengrab of an email that he said was from Bilzerian, asking Beynon to come party with him in LA. Bilzerian said he never wrote it, according to the Daily Mail, and it's since been deleted.

By this point, though, Beynon appears to have gotten over it. Yesterday, he posted a series of videos that showed him arriving at a party via helicopter with bikini-clad women and Grecian-inspired soldiers surrounding him.

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Despite Beynon's alpha-male appeal, he only has 238,000 followers to Bilzerian's 9 million — but with a few more strategic Instagram beefs, he could come closer to snatching Bilzerian's crown.

SEE ALSO: There's a new 'King of Instagram' and he makes Dan Bilzerian's lifestyle look PG-13

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NOW WATCH: Forget Kim Kardashian — the 'butt selfie' queen of Instagram is a 21-year-old from Long Island









32 massive parties everyone should go to in their lifetime

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montreal jazz festival

Most people dream about hitting one epic party in their lifetime, whether it's Oktoberfest in Germany, Carnaval in Brazil, or Mardi Gras in New Orleans, USA.

We've found the biggest and wildest parties around the globe. 

From dancing in a whirlwind of colors at India's Holi festival to throwing tomatos in La Tomatina, Spain's massive food fight, these are the parties that are worth traveling around the world for. 

For 16 days, you can enjoy barrels of German beer among the 6 million people who typically don their Bavarian dresses and Liederhosen for Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.

Learn more about Oktoberfest. 

 



Over 100,000 people gather in outlandish costumes to participate in Bay to Breakers, a debaucherous city-wide race in San Francisco, California.

Learn more about Bay to Breakers.



Thailand's wildest Full Moon Party takes place in Koh Pha Ngan every night before or after the full moon. Partiers gather on the beach to drink, dance, and test their fire-jumping skills.

 

 

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






Your favorite bar is ripping you off — here are the drinks that are worth spending money on

The Lexus RC F has a lot going for it, but there was one thing that really bugged me

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Lexus RC F

Since Lexus came on the scene 25 years ago, the Japanese luxury brand has crafted a sterling reputation for producing refined yet relatively docile cars.

Unfortunately, this means that Lexus has a boring image, although no shortage of repeat customers.

The Lexus RC F is supposed to change that. Our test car, painted in a tone called "ultrasonic blue mica," is the most aggressive and exciting Lexus since the short-lived LFA supercar and the ISF sports sedan, which was retired a few years back. 

It has a 5.0-liter V8 that bellows intoxicatingly. It looks aggressive, even menacing. It's simply unlike any other car Lexus produces these days.

Outside

First, the outside. Lexus has been carrying on an inexplicable love affair with large front grilles. The brand's latest generation of cars has taken the company's "spindle" design to new levels of excess. The RC F is no exception. It's a polarizing feature, but for me, it works here.

Why? Because, for Lexus, cars such as the RC F are all about peacocking. The big grille might look out of place on a vehicle like as the RX crossover, here the objective is to go over the top. So that gaping spindle makes sense.

The rest of the bodywork is angular and dynamic. There are enough creases, curves, and gills to confuse military radar. This is a car that doesn't have much patience with flat surfaces. 

Lexus RC F

Tucked below the rear bumper are the quad exhausts that serve as a signature element for Lexus "F" performance lineup (it's the brand's equivalent of BMW's "M" division). There's also a retractable spoiler that activates at 50 mph. Because why not? An active spoiler is de rigeur these days for cars in this category.

The RC F is far from what you would call "classically beautiful" – think Jaguar F-Type or an Aston Martin Vanquish – but it does make you look twice. By that criteria, it's a success, although its gets there via slightly unconventional means.

Inside

Now the inside. Lexus' interior designers were far less adventurous than their exterior counterparts — and we're completely cool with that. The RC line shares much of its interior with the Lexus IS sedan, which Business Insider reviewed last year. We loved the way the interior looked then, and we like it even more here. 

Lexus RC F 2015

The RC F's interior quality is textbook Lexus — although if your last Lexus was an easygoing sedan, some of the options might be bit jarring. The red leather seats, for example (our test car's were a more subdued tan). Regardless, they're baby-bottom soft and offer great lateral support when driving aggressively. The carbon fiber accents successfully add an extra hint of sportiness without becoming overblown or gaudy. 

Although, the dash was a bit more plasticky than I would have liked to see in a $73,000 sports coupe, the petrochemical-derived interior trim doesn't diminish the luxurious aura of the car. 

And the RC F's 835-watt, 17- speaker Mark Levinson sound system is fantastic, the best I've ever experienced in a car.

Lexus RC F

Thankfully, with the RC F, Lexus has abandoned its "puck"-style infotainment control system. In it place is a new trackpad-style setup. Although the puck worked fairly well, the new haptic trackpad is a significant improvement.

As you guide the onscreen cursor from icon to icon, the pad vibrates reassuringly beneath your fingertips. This makes on-the-fly-operation less of a chore. 

Lexus RC F

That's all the good stuff about this car. Now the bad. 

The bad

There's just one significant problem. At the end of the day, a high-performance sports car is defined by its engine. This is where RC F falls down. Sure, the free-revving V8 produces an impressive 467 horsepower and makes a truly enjoyable sound. But it stumbles where it should thrive — acceleration. 

An engine of this type should deliver power and speed on demand. Blip the throttle, and the speed shall come. But with the RC F, it doesn't. At least not right away.

The RC F is is capable of 0-60mph runs in 4.4 seconds. But in actual driving, the car feels like its taking its time to serve up the speed you'd like it to provide. The 8-speed automatic transmission has a desire to go high, obviously to optimize fuel economy. But that means performance suffers.

You can somewhat remedy this by putting the car into one of its two sport modes and change gears yourself. But some might argue that the car should be able to live up to its billing. And modern automatic gearboxes are supposed to be smart enough to make effective use of a lot of horsepower.

None of this is helped by the RC F's weight. At more than 4,000 pounds, the car is notably heavier than its competitors from Jaguar and BMW. 

With the RC F, it seems that Lexus tried to please multiple sets of customers at same time. The car looks aggressive and its exhaust roars in a way that would please someone searching for a high end sports GT (BMW 6-Series or Audi RS5). But it feels like Lexus may have sightly tempered the raw performance of the car to satisfy the more luxury minded clients the company is accustomed to dealing with.

Lexus RC F 2015

At the end of the day, the RC F has a bothersome problem with its fundamentals. It looks good, sounds goods, but doesn't always come through when it matters.

Over time, as fun as the car is to look at, listen to, and ride in, this critical issue might bug you. When you spend over $70,000, you're buying a lot more than an engine and a transmission. But with this particular car, the ability of those components to satisfy your expectations of excitement and exhilaration is where the conversation begins and ends. 

SEE ALSO: Porsche's incredible $100 million US headquarters is an amusement park for adults

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NOW WATCH: Here's what happens when you get bitten by a black widow








The best Instagram accounts to follow if you're obsessed with luxury and vintage watches

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To some, a watch simply tells time. To others, it is a work of art worth discussing and collecting.

If you nodded in agreement on the latter, you should absolutely be following these seven watch connoisseurs on Instagram. It's a great way to keep up with all the best new and vintage timepieces to source for your collection. 

Atom Moore: @atommoore

Atom Moore is the photographer for analog/shifta group of guys in New York City that appreciate luxury and vintage watches. A self-proclaimed watch nerd, Moore's feed is full of detail shots that leave you wishing for more. 

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David Bredan: @abtw_david

This watch enthusiast is based in Budapest, Hungary and is the managing editor of aBlogToWatch. All of the photos on his Instagram — a mix of detail and wide shots — are original.  

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Isaac J. Wingold: @isaacwin

Wingold's Instagram bio says it all: "Watch enthusiast, collector, and lead contributor to Wound For Life." If you're a fan of Rolex and Panerai, you won't be disappointed. 

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QueueCumber: @_queuecumber_

His name may be a mystery, but his watch collection is no secret. Check out a variety of watches and see which pieces he has available for purchase. Fun fact: his first watch was a manual-wind Ingersoll Mickey Mouse watch.

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Su Jia Xian: @watchesbysjx

If you're looking for a watch expert trusted by watch companies, auction houses, and collectors, SJX is your man. Based in Singapore, this freelance journalist runs his own blog and made Chronos Japan magazine's list of "Who's Who of the World's Watch Persons" in 2014.

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Chester Lau: @ponderingsteward  

As a watch collector and writer for Deployant, Lau reviews luxury watches and covers horological lifestyle. His tastes range from vintage Art Deco Jeager-LeCoultre to jaw-dropping skeleton watches. He also posts photos from launch parties and major watch world events. 

 

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Frank T: @frankswatches

Frank takes a more artsy, creative approach to sharing his obsession with luxury timepieces. He likes to photograph watches in interesting settings — in the snow, next to booze, on a bed of wood chips. He posts just about every day, sometimes twice a day. 

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SEE ALSO: Don't buy the Apple Watch – buy a real watch instead

FOLLOW US: Business Insider is on Instagram too!

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NOW WATCH: 3 Watches You Should Wear If You Want To Impress People








Mercedes-Benz and Lufthansa are designing the ultimate luxury private-jet interior

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Lufthansa Mercedes Airplane Interior

For more than a century, Mercedes-Benz has the been the go-to purveyor of fine luxury automobiles. Now, the German automaker is stepping to another kind of luxury by teaming up with Lufthansa Technik — the aviation engineer arm of the Lufthansa Group — to design a ultra-posh cabin for private jets.

The concept created by the two companies eliminates the traditional delineation between ceiling, wall, and floor designs. Instead, the interior concept deploys what the companies refer to as a "spiral layout," which melds the three design elements into a continuous, flowing feature.

On board, "black panels" float in front of the window and are meant to evoke the screen-design of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan. The concept interior is also equipped with Mercedes-Benz Magic Sky technology that can turn the "black panels" from dark to transparent.

Announced this week in Geneva at the 2015 European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE), Mercedes-Benz Style — the company's non-automotive design firm — and Lufthansa Technik will use the concept to gauge interest from their "discerning customers."

Which means, don't expect to see this interior installed in some lucky guy's Boeing BBJ or Airbus ACJ anytime soon. 

"It was an inspiring challenge to transfer our design philosophy of sensual purity into the area of aeronautical engineering," Daimler AG vice president Gorden Wagener said in a statement. "The spectacular architecture of the interior shows creativity and modernity. Sensual surfaces and clear forms, combined with intelligent high-tech features and perfectly shaped modern luxury are the characteristic features of Mercedes-Benz design." 

Have a closer look at Mercedes and Lufthansa's venture into the wonderful world of private jet interiors:

Here, the spiral layout blends the ceiling, wall, and floor of the cabin.

Lufthansa Mercedes Airplane Interior

Check out the lounge seats with smart screens.

Lufthansa Mercedes Airplane Interior

There's a fish tank!

Lufthansa Mercedes Airplane Interior

Here's a view of the interior from one of the lounge chairs.

Lufthansa Mercedes Airplane Interior

Its got a bed.

Lufthansa Mercedes Airplane Interior

The overall design layout flows effortlessly from one feature to another.

Lufthansa Mercedes Airplane Interior

SEE ALSO: Here are the 10 best airports in Europe

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NOW WATCH: We gave kids an old cassette player and here's what they did next








Incredible before-and-after photos show how much New York City has changed since the 1800s

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new york before and after west villageThere's a new map that will help you chart exactly how much Manhattan has changed over the years. 

This week, the New York Public Library released an interactive website that allows users to travel back in time using the Library's historical photography database. 

The site, called OldNYC, features a digital map where users can view photos of the island dating as far back as the early 19th century.

There are photos for almost every intersection in the city, so you can see the evolution of historical landmarks and even your own address.

Here's a look at the lights of Times Square in 1920.



And here is Times Square today.



This is an intersection on 8th Avenue in 1925, 25 years before it would become home to one of the city's major transportation hubs.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider






Taking one year to teach English in South Korea completely changed my life

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drake in koreaThere's nothing quite like a one-way ticket. 

Mine was to Prague.

It was 2009. I was about to graduate college. I had a journalism degree on the way and a ton of wanderlust, so I figured I'd go to Prague — a cheapish place to get an English teaching certification — and use teaching as a way to support myself while I explored Europe.

The economic crisis arrived in the Czech Republic at the same time I did. No matter how much I hustled, I couldn't patch together a living with part-time work. 

But one place did have lots of jobs for English teachers.

It was time to go to Seoul, the hyperfuturistic capital of South Korea. About 6,500 miles from my native Rockford, Illinois, the city of 10 million was literally a quarter of the way around the world from where I grew up. 

I got there in January 2010 and left in January 2011

Along the way I learned about kids, courage, and strikingly enough, America's place in the world. 

That the countries of the West have way more in common than I ever expected. 

jay

When I was in high school I had the privilege of visiting Europe. To me, Germany, France, Italy — they all felt like they were the moon, because the cultures were so different. Ice cream was gelato! Coffee was kaffee! There were buildings older than than my country! In Prague, people were making out everywhere: you couldn't go up an escalator from the subway without spotting some soon-to-be-NSFW scene. 

Then there's Asia.

Spending time there made me realize that while Western countries have their differences, they're all starkly different from East Asia. 

For one, there's the homogeneity. Major cities in the US and Europe have people of many ethnicities, but that's not the case in East Asia. Recent headlines make it startlingly obvious: when a half-Japanese woman was crowned Miss Universe Japan earlier this year, Japanese conservatives flipped out, saying she's not really Japanese. South Korea is going through a population crisis — partly because nobody wants to marry foreigners

But it's more than skin deep. Western thought springs from Ancient Greece and Eastern thought springs from Ancient China.  So the two cultures have totally different takes on the concept of truth. In the West, it's assumed that only one side of a debate can be correct; in the East, it's assumed that right and wrong will be on both sides. 

That having friends from another culture will teach you an insane amount. 

One of my best friends in Seoul was an advertising guy and a fellow photography nerd Jay. We both had Fridays off, so we'd hop on the subway and get off at some yet-to-be-explored section of Seoul, checking out traditional hanok houses, hopping around art galleries, and eating insanely spicy food. 

From Jay I learned a bit of what it was like to grow up in Seoul — and how to feel at home in a megacity. 

drake santa

That kids are great. 

When I was in Prague I was teaching adults. In Seoul, I taught students from age 4 to 17. The little ones were super cute and super eager (and only sometimes a terror to keep in line). The teenagers were amazing. I had one group that I would meet on Saturdays; I called it the "critical thinking seminar." We'd pick some issue in the news — from plastic surgery to smartphones — and write about how they shaped life in Korea.

They dropped some serious insight on me; one student, Teddy, said that "art was the exit of our mind's freedom."

Never going to forget that.  

That you can actually move somewhere new and survive. 

Here's the big one: moving quarter-way across the world was super hard. I felt a ton of separation anxiety. I missed my family and friends like hell. After my girlfriend and I broke up (and she took most our mutual friends), I didn't really have any close relationships on the entire continent. 

So I just started talking to people. Getting drinks and dinner with colleagues. Worked on my "relationship with myself," as all the books on meditation I was reading kept encouraging me to do. Journaling. Going on — gasp — dates. By the time I left Seoul, I made friends that I will keep for the rest of my life. Beyond that, I had the confidence that I could move somewhere and make a life for myself, no matter how foreign it felt. 

Like, say, New York City. 

SEE ALSO: 5 American habits I had to give up when I traveled for 22 months straight

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Scientists discovered how to grill a steak using lava









Science proves that the trendy 'dad bod' that girls are going crazy over is for real

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the interview seth rogen james franco

Girls might fantasize over devilishly handsome, diamond-cut bodies like Brad Pitt's in Troy, but what they really want is a man who's more "human, natural, and attractive," according to Clemson University sophomore Mackenzie Pearson, who introduced the world to what she calls the "dad bod" last March in her premiere article "Why Girls Love the Dad Bod."

The dad bod applies to any man — father or bachelor — with a physique that's a "nice balance between a beer gut and working out," Pearson writes.

While Pearson's description gives some idea of what she's referring to,

That meant they had to take the term "dad bod" more literally:

They looked at men between the age of 18 and 45 whose weight and gut size (among other physical traits) are detailed in the latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey released last May— a survey taken every few years by the National Center for Health Statistics to examine the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the US.

Then they compared the weight and gut size of men with children (under the age of 18) and men without children. Sure enough, they found a clear-cut difference between the two groups. 

They report their findings in The Upshot stating: 

"On average, dads are 10 pounds heavier than non-dads; they’re carrying nearly an extra two inches on their waist; and their bellies stick out an extra half-inch."

They also found that dads adopt more of a "dad bod" as their children age. Recent fathers with toddlers barely show any signs of the dad bod, Barro and Wolfers report, while fathers with older children and teens are the ones with the wider waistline. 

Of course, these extra pounds might not necessarily be a direct consequence of fatherhood. 

"After all, if the Internet is right that men with an extra layer of cushioning really are more attractive, perhaps they’re more likely to reproduce," they write.

SEE ALSO: Everyone's obsessed with the 'dad bod,' a specific male physique that's suddenly sweeping the nation

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 6 Scientifically Proven Things Men Can Do To Be More Attractive








The unlikely story of a 23-year-old Venezuelan who makes 6 figures playing video games in America

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0104_quasquizTwo years ago, 21-year-old Diego “Quas” Ruiz flew from Venezuela to Los Angeles for a job playing video games. It was a drastic move. Ruiz had no friends or family in LA, and he didn’t know how long his newly formed team would last. But for him America promised more stability than his native country.

“Back in Venezuela, you worry every day about what you are going to do, what job you will get, how you are going to keep yourself going,” Ruiz recently told Business Insider.

“I thought life in the United States would be easier, more advanced, less stressful.”

These days, Ruiz gets paid to play "League of Legends," the world’s most popular competitive video game. He’s a star on Team Liquid, a professional team in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). He earns about $100,000 a year from salary, sponsorships, and revenue from the streaming website Twitch.

Like all of his teammates, Ruiz practices 10 hours or more a day with few breaks. He spends his little off-time browsing Reddit, binge-watching Netflix, hanging out with his girlfriend, or video-chatting his family in Venezuela.

On a recent Monday, Ruiz sat hunched on an air mattress in his team’s cramped duplex in Santa Monica. Dressed in athletic shorts, a T-shirt with Team Liquid’s stenciled horse logo, and rimless glasses, Ruiz looked more like a studious athlete than the slacker-gamer stereotype.

As he fidgeted with his hands and rubbed his knees, the quiet gamer recounted his improbable journey to the US. It started with a game.

Obsessed with games from the start

maracaibo
Ruiz grew up in Maracaibo, a colorful coastal city in Venezuela. Like much of the country, his hometown struggled with crime and poverty. Ruiz, who never knew his father, grew up comfortably middle-class by Venezuelan standards. His mother supported the family with a pharmacy she owned in the heart of the city, where she also managed several apartments.

As a child, games fascinated him. The first one he ever owned was the classic Nintendo 64 game, "Super Mario 64." He was 5 years old.

“Every day after school I would play it — I would sit there for hours,” Ruiz says.

Ruiz associated gaming with the US because most of the games he played — including “Super Mario 64” — were in English. He taught himself to understand English so that he could know “what the hell was going on” in the games.

Age of Empires 2As Ruiz got older, he desperately wanted to try computer games. There was one problem: Computers were expensive and rare in Venezuela. Luckily, Ruiz’s mother had purchased an internet café adjacent to the pharmacy. He persuaded her to bring one of the older units home.

“I told my mom, ‘Every kid has one at school. It’s important for your grades,’” Ruiz says with a smile.

The computer was a hand-me-down Pentium IV. He was amazed and hooked it up to the internet. The first thing he did was download a popular strategy game, “Age of Empires 2.” The 47-megabyte file took a week to download.

“I didn’t realize how slow the computer was until we got another one years later. I just thought that was how all computers were,” Ruiz says.

Finding a community of gamers

Being one of the first kids on the block with a computer was exciting, but the real thrill came when the soft-spoken teenager started visiting his mother’s internet café. There he found a community of gamers who shared his enthusiasm. The kids stayed for hours playing games he hadn’t heard of. The commute to the café was an hour long, but Ruiz began making it every day after school. For a kid very much in his shell, the café gave Ruiz a social outlet.

The most popular games at the café were multiplayer online battle arena games, or MOBAs, like “Defense of the Ancients” and “Heroes of Newerth.” Unlike most games of that time, MOBAs were free and downloadable.

When Ruiz was 17, the café gamers introduced him to "League of Legends," a new MOBA that became the next game of choice at the café. He hated the game at first. While League was similar to the other MOBAs, Ruiz thought it wasn't as freeform as other MOBAs, and required strategies he didn’t like using. Ruiz is an impatient person, he says, and if he doesn’t get a game at first, he quits.

It wasn’t until a year later that Ruiz started playing "League of Legends" seriously. He began by exploiting a loophole.

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The game’s ranking system is designed to match players with others with equivalent skills, by progressing them through a ladder of leagues ranging from Bronze to Challenger. Rather than climb the ladder, Ruiz played multiple accounts. He’d practice on an account until he reached a difficult level where the game forces players to fight at a disadvantage against much higher-level players. Instead of battling through, he’d abandon the account. He preferred crushing players below his skill level.

“I liked being able to outplay people and to abuse the mistakes that people make,” Ruiz says.

As Ruiz got better, he began competing in online tournaments but had a tough time because of his shoddy internet connection, a constant problem in Venezuela. Often, on the day of the tournament, his internet connection slowed and delayed his actions mid-game. For a game relying on speed and reaction time, it was a huge disadvantage. Sometimes, his slow connection prevented him from playing at all.

Around the same time, Ruiz began attending college to study engineering. He took to the new environment with vigor and stopped playing games for his first semester. For a time it looked as if he might put games behind him.

“I was getting good grades. I socialized a lot. I was excited about the career,” Ruiz says.

After the semester ended, he received a dose of reality about the job market in Venezuela. Former engineering students told him that, if he was lucky, he would get a low-paying government job and, if he wasn’t, he’d end up driving a taxi.

“Why would I spend six years studying engineering just to become a taxi driver?” Ruiz says.

A 'cheat code' for life

elo boostingThe realization killed Ruiz’s enthusiasm for school. While he didn’t drop out, Ruiz returned his attention to gaming. He’d heard about a lucrative side job for skilled "League of Legends" players called ELO-Boosting. Top gamers could earn a fee by playing on other people’s accounts to help them attain high ranks. Ruiz was exceptional at the game. He figured he could make a lot of money as a booster.

His reputation as a top player created a lot of demand for his services. Before long, he was making $2,000 a month boosting accounts for Americans who paid in US dollars. This was a big deal in a country as dollar-hungry as Venezuela. When he sold the dollars to locals for bolivars, he made three or four times what he would make in an engineering job.

“It felt like a cheat code,” Ruiz says.

At first, Ruiz would boost for a couple of hours a day in between classes. As he gained more clients, he played more and more. His grades slipped. He was making so much money that he decided college wasn’t worth it anymore.

“My mom wasn’t OK with it. She told me I was crazy and didn’t understand what I was doing. When I started supporting the family [with my earnings] she understood,” Ruiz says.

Ruiz quickly ascended the game’s ranks when he was playing on his own account. It didn’t take long for the pros to notice him.

A riskLOL (46 of 138)

In 2013, Ruiz was approached by ex-gamer Kevin “Aries” Gao, who was starting a team called New World Eclipse for the Challenger Circuit, a training ground for young players.

Gao asked Ruiz to get on a plane to Los Angeles to join the team and take a shot at winning Challenger and eventually playing in the more prestigious League Championship Series.

Ruiz had already quit the university and gamed full time with his “boosting” business and a few side gigs as a coach for new players. In his mind, he had already committed to the new gaming industry. Going pro was the next step. Venezuela had sunk further into an economic crisis, and that was making life difficult.

“It was ridiculous. There were massive lines in the supermarkets for people to get basic necessities like milk or chicken. The supermarkets would run out, and you wouldn’t be able to buy anything,” Ruiz says. “Not even toilet paper.”

While Ruiz knew many new teams could be short-lived, the US never looked more attractive.

A generous investor flew Ruiz to LA on a tourist visa. With the rest of the team he moved into a small house in the suburbs that was decked out with the most elite computers Ruiz had ever seen. For a kid used to playing on hand-me-down internet-café desktops, the new equipment was a revelation.

When asked to describe the difference between playing in Venezuela and playing in LA, he directed me to a scene from '90s anime “Dragon Ball Z.” In the video, the main character Goku trains for a martial arts tournament with giant weights attached to his body. When he takes them off for the actual battle, he’s faster, more agile, and stronger than he ever could have imagined.


At first the team dominated, beating many of the top Challenger teams and taking a game or two off of an LCS team
. The hot start didn't last. The players began blaming one another after they started losing, and new recruits were replacing the original members.

The team lost its investor funding and, without the investor paying rent, were evicted from the house. Gao secured new investors and a small apartment in a nearby area, but the damage was already done. The team got steamrolled at the big qualifying tournaments for the LCS.

“We got destroyed. We hit a brick wall, and the team disbanded,” Ruiz says.

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Finding his way in the promised land

At that point, Ruiz wasn’t sure he had the skills to make it in the competitive circuit. He did know one thing — he wanted to stay in the US. He had a few months left on his tourist visa and was determined to make it work.

“I liked being in the US more. All I wanted was to qualify for the LCS and find a way to stay here for good,” Ruiz says.

In September, Gao arranged a deal that put Ruiz on Gold Gaming LA, an underperforming Challenger team that was turning over its roster. However, Ruiz didn’t think they were good enough to make it to the LCS. He knew what happened to teams that don’t perform.

Just weeks after Ruiz joined Gold Gaming, Team Curse, a pro team in the LCS, posted a video calling for tryouts. Ruiz posted on the forum even though his contract forbade him from joining another team. The team’s owner, Steve “Liquid112” Arhancet, contacted him but was initially put off by his contract and expiring visa. A few weeks later, Arhancet reconsidered. Ruiz was too good to pass up.

A skilled businessman, Arhancet helped Ruiz get out of his contract and apply for a P1 athletic visa, which had just been extended to gamers. Ruiz joined Curse just days before Gold Gaming was set to compete in a major qualifying tournament. It left the team scrambling.

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“It was a tough decision. I still feel bad about the position I put my teammates in,” Ruiz says. “It was the better decision for me.”

He was right. Gold Gaming lost the tournament and disbanded soon after. Now, over a year later, Ruiz is one of the longest tenured players on third-place Team Liquid (Team Curse was renamed to Liquid in December). He’s also solidified his place as one of the top players at his position in North America.

Life in the fast lane

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"League of Legends" has given Ruiz a lot. It was his ticket into the US and got him a job with a lavish salary many times what he would earn in Venezuela. As the economic crisis in Venezuela has deepened, his earnings have also helped support his family. He met his girlfriend through the game and has become friends with tons of players and fans.

There have been drawbacks. Ruiz hasn’t been home since leaving Venezuela two years ago. He still talks to his family often, but there’s a huge gulf between the comfortable life he leads now and the world he left behind in Venezuela.

“You forget about your life. There’s always something going on here,” Ruiz says. “When I think about it, it’s hard to remember how life was back home.”

Ruiz may not have many years left in the fast lane. Now, at 23, he is approaching the age that most pro gamers retire: 25. As he begins to think about life post-gaming, he’s set on staying in the US.

He’s looking into going back to college for programming or video-game design. He’s ready to make video games instead of playing them for a living.

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This YouTuber reclaimed the word 'fat' by writing the catchiest body empowerment song ever

The cheapest way to see all the blockbusters coming out this summer

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The prevalence of video-on-demand is causing box office profits to decrease, especially in North America. One company is giving consumers an incentive to keep going to the multiplex.

MoviePass is a subscription service that, for a $30 to $35 monthly fee, offers unlimited trips to the movie theater. We took it for a test drive and found that the service makes a lot of economic sense for people who venture to the theater frequently enough to cover the subscription cost.

Produced by Graham Flanagan. Camera by Jason Gaines and Will Wei.

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I just went to Wegmans for the first time ever — now I get what all the fuss is about

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Photo May 22, 4 57 15 PM (1)

It seems every time someone mentions Wegmans, the insanely popular grocery-store chain prevalent in upstate New York (as well as parts of New England, Virginia, and Maryland), people go absolutely nuts.

Wegmans has 85 locations, and tens of thousands of enthusiastically loyal customers at each one. It's even opening a store in Brooklyn, New York (rumored to take up an entire city block), and people are ecstatic.

I grew up 60 minutes north of Manhattan. I frequented Stew Leonard's for my supermarket experience (and the A&P), and up until this weekend, I had never been to a Wegmans. I also definitely didn't buy into the hype that surrounded it.

That all changed.

I asked to visit Wegmans this weekend, on a trip to the Pennsylvania Main Line. It's located off of Route 29 in Malvern, in a big shopping center.



I was not prepared to be won over by Wegmans.



I grew up close to Stew Leonard's in Danbury, Connecticut.



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The only 3 knives you need in your kitchen

Omaha just dramatically improved its public transportation without spending any money

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It's tough for mass transit to compete with the fast country roads and wide open spaces of America's heartland. Take Omaha, Nebraska. Population and job densities are super low, the suburbs are super sprawled, parking is super cheap, and pedestrian infrastructure is anything but super. The city's Metro bus system averages just 18 boardings per revenue-hour, and only two of its 34 lines run every 15 minutes—the minimum threshold for show-up-and-go service.

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"There's areas where we still don't stand a chance against cars," says Evan Schweitz, a planner with the city's Metro transit agency.

But demand for better transit is ticking slowly upward in Omaha—especially downtown. Population in the core was up 5.5 percent in 2010 over 2000. Metro ridership has been on a steady rise and eclipsed 4.2 million trips in 2012. A microtransit start-up just launched a bar shuttle. Residential developments without on-site parking are no longer out of the question. "We're seeing more people live downtown and prefer to not own a car," says Schweitz.

A car-free lifestyle is about to get easier in Omaha. At the end of May, Metro will debut its FORWARD plan: a fully reconfigured bus network that emphasizes more frequency, better night and weekend service, direct lines through high-ridership corridors, and grid-style access to many parts of the city. The top five routes will now all get 15-minute peak service, and there's a new max wait time of an hour across the system—down from 90-to-120 minutes.

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So Metro scaled back on the fringes of the city—discontinuing five routes—and poured those resources into improving its more popular lines. Take the No. 24 as an example. Currently, travelers that start their trip on this bus from North Omaha have to get off downtown and transfer, because that's where the line ends. In the new 24 route, that transfer still exists for those who need it, but the route continues south of downtown, so riders can more easily access that part of the city.

Metro also bought itself some extra service by eliminating inefficient route designs. In the current system, for instance, several routes pull off onto a side street near the Crossroads Mall to drop off passengers. That turnabout added five minutes to every bus that used it. Getting rid of the loop added up to enough service hours that it bought Metro a whole other route. You can see the clear pile-up around Crossroads Mall in the old map:

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And the lack of route clutter in the new one:

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For riders these types of changes mean a farther walk to and from a stop. That's evidently a tough sell in Omaha. ("That's a little hard for people around here," says Schweitz. "They don't like that idea so much.") So Metro has included a walking and biking key (below) to its new route map in the hopes that people will recognize they might be closer to a higher-frequency route than they realized.

"If there's a way to make it easy to see, 'hey, I'm only 10 minutes away from this line that runs every 15 minutes,' that becomes an easier sell than just taking away a route and giving them no other option," says Schweitz.

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Setting the Stage for BRT

By focusing on high-ridership corridors, Metro knows it must sacrifice some transit coverage. But it says the new routes provide an 11 percent increase in overall service to low-income and minority neighborhoods. And Schweitz says there were "several cases" where consultants recommended removing a low-ridership route—including one that gave access to a homeless shelter—but Metro kept the service based on community concerns, though it meant less frequent buses elsewhere.

The new design also means Omaha residents get all-day (or, at least, more-of-the-day) transit access where they once had a system that operated mostly for the peak period. Nine routes will now have extended service hours past midnight. And all weekend routes will run at least every hour—down in some cases from two hours in the current system.

omahaThe changes also set the stage, farther ahead, for the city to adopt bus-rapid transit. Last September, Metro was awarded a $15 million TIGER grant from the U.S. DOT to go toward an 8-mile BRT line that's expected to launch by 2018. Schweitz says the service will replace the new No. 2 route, that it will have 10-minute frequencies, and that current plans call for it to operate in an exclusive lane for some segments.

Metro has no illusions that it can accomplish its goals alone. Transit will remain a tough sell in Omaha in the absence of denser, transit-friendly development patterns, as well as a more pedestrian-friendly system of sidewalks and crossings. But Schweitz believes the FORWARD plan can serve as proof that strong transit isn't just "a Portland thing or a New York thing"—that it can work in Omaha, too.

"It's pretty hard here to argue based on ideas rather than fact, so we need to be able to point to one success story," he says. "We're hoping these route changes do that."

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Science proves that the trendy 'dad bod' that girls are going crazy over is for real

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Girls might fantasize over devilishly handsome, diamond-cut bodies like Brad Pitt's in Troy, but what they really want is a man who's more "human, natural, and attractive," according to Clemson University sophomore Mackenzie Pearson, who introduced the world to what she calls the "dad bod" last March in her premiere article "Why Girls Love the Dad Bod."

The dad bod applies to any man — father or bachelor — with a physique that's a "nice balance between a beer gut and working out," Pearson writes.

While Pearson's description gives some idea of what she's referring to,

That meant they had to take the term "dad bod" more literally:

They looked at men between the age of 18 and 45 whose weight and gut size (among other physical traits) are detailed in the latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey released last May— a survey taken every few years by the National Center for Health Statistics to examine the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the US.

Then they compared the weight and gut size of men with children (under the age of 18) and men without children. Sure enough, they found a clear-cut difference between the two groups. 

They report their findings in The Upshot stating: 

"On average, dads are 10 pounds heavier than non-dads; they’re carrying nearly an extra two inches on their waist; and their bellies stick out an extra half-inch."

They also found that dads adopt more of a "dad bod" as their children age. Recent fathers with toddlers barely show any signs of the dad bod, Barro and Wolfers report, while fathers with older children and teens are the ones with the wider waistline. 

Of course, these extra pounds might not necessarily be a direct consequence of fatherhood. 

"After all, if the Internet is right that men with an extra layer of cushioning really are more attractive, perhaps they’re more likely to reproduce," they write.

SEE ALSO: Everyone's obsessed with the 'dad bod,' a specific male physique that's suddenly sweeping the nation

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NOW WATCH: 6 Scientifically Proven Things Men Can Do To Be More Attractive








A brief history of the 'original American whiskey' and the cocktail that brought it back from the dead

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