New York isn't known as a melting pot for nothing.

It's one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world, boasting dozens of under the radar ethnic enclaves that go far beyond a basic Chinatown.

From Brooklyn's Little Odessa to Queens' Little Guyana, here are our favorite ethnic neighborhoods in NYC.

SEE ALSO: The most unusual ethnic neighborhoods in different cities around the US

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Little Guyana, Richmond Hill, Queens

You might not be able to place Guyana on a map, but it's taken over Richmond Hill. The small country on South America's Caribbean coast, east of Venezuela, has a population that's a colorful mix of South Asian (mostly from east India) and Afro-Caribbean.

New York is home to around 140,000 Guyanese, making them the fifth-largest group of immigrants in the city.

Liberty Avenue is Little Guyana's nucleus, featuring saris and spices, roti and rum, as well as businesses like the Little Guyana Bake Shop and The Hibiscus Restaurant & Bar.

Koreatown, West 32nd Street, Manhattan

K-Town, a highly concentrated strip along Manhattan's West 32nd street, between Broadway and 5th Avenue, is a slice of Seoul in the city, and officially known as "Korea Way."

It features dozens of Korean restaurants, karaoke clubs, and even 24 hour spas, most of them stacked on top of each other thanks to the narrow borders of the area.

New York is home to over 140,000 Korean residents — the second largest Korean population in the US — and while they may not all live in Koreatown (many live in Flushing, Queens, another Korean hotspot), they do frequent it enthusiastically, giving the area a super local and authentic vibe.

While there's always a debate as to where the food is better, Flushing or Manhattan, K-Town is steadily gaining a stellar foodie rep.

Little India, Jackson Heights, Queens

Jackson Heights is incredibly diverse, and it can make you feel like you've been transported to a different country with every block.

However, India (and Bangladesh and Pakistan) has staked its claim on 74th Street between Roosevelt and 37th Avenue, where women will shop for jewelry and rich fabrics while wearing colorful saris, and stores are full of Bollywood films and incense.

Like an open air market, the air is thick with the smell of curries and spices, and the streets are lined with sweet shops, curry houses, and eateries selling fresh curry leaves and chutneys.

Nostalgia for retro video games is popular today, but spending $500 on a game console might seem a bit overboard. Especially when that system is designed to play 30-year-old Nintendo video games. However, the Analogue Nt is more than just retro gaming — from the aluminum body to the original Nintendo hardware, this console is more than just a retro gaming machine. 

Produced by Darren Weaver

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Warner Bros. and DC Comics showed off a lot of merchandise for its upcoming "Batman v Superman" movie at Comic-Con this year. 

Not only could fans check out costumes and props from the movie up close, but they could also get a sneak peek at a lot of the toys from Mattel that will be out next year in conjunction with the film.

There will be a lot of versions of the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel on shelves come next year.

If you missed out on the Con, here's a look at everything we saw:

This Superman toy makes Supes' cape look like he has wings. For some reason, it also has his Superman logo on both the left and right sides of his cape. The strangest bit; however, are the lines which rupture through his suit.

The lines are there because you'll be able to light Superman up to show off his laser vision. This looks a little terrifying.

Similarly, there will be a Batman figure released that also lights up. It looks like Batman is wearing his suit to go up against Superman here.

You'll be able to get your hands on a few different versions of the duo next year.

You'll also be able to play as Wonder Woman. She will also be available January 1.

Lurking in the background you can see another smaller Batman in battle armor wielding a weapon:

This is probably one of our favorite Batman figures.

Here's another look at him:

You’ll be able to get both 6” and 12” figures for the Man of Steel. The 6: figure comes with a shield.

​

The 6" Wonder Woman figure also comes with a shield. Behind her is another variation of Batman in his battle armor.

This larger version of Wonder Woman will also come with a shield.

Yet another Battle Armor version of Batman.

You'll also be able to get a few different versions of the Batmobile. Here's Mattel's Speed Strike Batmobile, also available January 2016.

This version of the Batmobile looks like it may be able to shoot kryptonite.

Let's not forget about the Batjet, which, if the trailers have been any indication, will be seen in the film.

A Batman Deluxe Blaster also appears to shoot kryptonite bullets.

Curiously, on either side of the Deluxe Blaster there were also two Batman and Superman figures which looked like Rock'em Sock'em Robots, but they weren't accompanied by any tag. Since we were at the Mattel booth, and Mattel releases Rock'em Sock'em robots, it appears that that's exactly what these are. Pretty cool.

Want to be the Batman? Kids will be able to get a Bat mask helmet that will allow themselves to change their voice to sound more like the Caped Crusader.

All of the above toys will be available from Mattel in January 2016. "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" is in theaters March 25, 2016.

SEE ALSO: The "Star Wars" stormtrooper everyone went nuts for at Comic-Con

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Whether web development is your calling or web developers' six-figure salaries are, coding is an undeniably great skill to have on your resume. Individuals who can speak computer languages fluently are in high demand in today's job market.

Take Python, for example: It is the programming language of choice at Google, Dropbox and Pinterest. It's also very beginner-friendly if you're considering switching careers. 

The Pure Python Hacker Bundle teaches you Python from the ground up and takes you step-by-step through topics, like building geolocators to find local restaurants and writing automated scripts to test the functionality of a software system.

The six courses are the real world, hands-on experience you'll need to create your own user-friendly apps. Right now, the bundle's over 45 hours of in-depth instruction is just $49. 

Pure Python Hacker Bundle, $49 (originally $454), available at Stack Commerce.[89% off]

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In Chinese, the word computer translates directly as electric brain.

In Icelandic, a compass is a direction-shower, and a microscope a small-watcher.

In Lakota, horse is literally dog of wonder.

These neologisms demonstrate the cumulative quality of language, in which we use the known to describe the unknown.

“It is by metaphor that language grows,” writes the psychologist Julian Jaynes. “The common reply to the question ‘What is it?’ is, when the reply is difficult or the experience unique, ‘Well, it is like —.’”

That metaphorical process is at the heart of Toki Pona, the world’s smallest language. While the Oxford English Dictionary contains a quarter of a million entries, and even Koko the gorilla communicates with over 1,000 gestures in American Sign Language, the total vocabulary of Toki Pona is a mere 123 words.

Yet, as the creator Sonja Lang and many other Toki Pona speakers insist, it is enough to express almost any idea. This economy of form is accomplished by reducing symbolic thought to its most basic elements, merging related concepts, and having single words perform multiple functions of speech.

In contrast to the hundreds or thousands of study hours required to attain fluency in other languages, a general consensus among Toki Pona speakers is that it takes about 30 hours to master. That ease of acquisition, many of them believe, makes it an ideal international auxiliary language—the realization of an ancient dream to return humanity to a pre-Babel unity. Toki Pona serves that function already for hundreds of enthusiasts connected via online communities in countries as diverse as Japan, Belgium, New Zealand, and Argentina.

In addition to making Toki Pona simple to learn, the language’s minimalist approach is also designed to change how its speakers think. The paucity of terms provokes a kind of creative circumlocution that requires careful attention to detail. An avoidance of set phrases keeps the process fluid. The result, according to Lang, is to immerse the speaker in the moment, in a state reminiscent of what Zen Buddhists call mindfulness.

“What is a car?” Lang mused recently via phone from her home in Toronto.

“You might say that a car is a space that's used for movement,” she proposed. “That would be tomo tawa. If you’re struck by a car though, it might be a hard object that’s hitting me. That’s kiwen utala.”

The real question is: What is a car to you?

As with most things in Toki Pona, the answer is relative.

“We wear many hats in life,” Lang continued, “One moment I might be a sister, the next moment a worker, or a writer. Things change and we have to adapt.”

The language’s dependence on subjectivity and context is also an exercise in perspective-taking. “You have to consider your interlocutor’s way of understanding the world, or situation,” the Polish citizen Marta Krzeminska stated. “For that reason, I think it has great potential for bringing people together.”

To create her new language, Lang worked backwards—against the trend of a natural lexicon. She began by reducing and consolidating the specific into the general.

“I think colors are a good example,” she offered. “You have millions of shades that are slightly different from one another, and at some point someone says, ‘Well, from here to here is blue, and from here to here is green.’ There are these arbitrary lines that people agree on.”

Toki Pona has a five-color palette: loje (red), laso (blue), jelo (yellow), pimeja (black), and walo (white). Like a painter, the speaker can combine them to achieve any hue on the spectrum. Loje walo for pink. Laso jelo for green.

Numbers are also minimal. Lang initially only had words for one (wan), two (tu), and several (mute). Many Toki Pona speakers have expanded the word luka (hand or arm) to mean five, and mute to mean 10. The terms are repeated additively until the desired number is reached.

“There are some mathematician-like people who insist that they want to be able to say 7,422.7,” Lang laughed. “I say, ‘That's not exactly the point.’”

“What would it have been like to be a person in nature, interacting with things in a primitive way?”
The point is simplicity. And in Toki Pona, simple is literally good. Both concepts are combined in a single word: pona.

“If you can express yourself in a simple way,” Lang explained, “then you really understand what you're talking about, and that's good. If something is too complicated, that's bad. You’re putting too much noise into the equation. That belief is kind of hardwired into the language.”

The polyglot Christopher Huff agreed, noting that Toki Pona had made him more honest. “I’m more comfortable now with the things I don’t know.”

“I didn’t realize how complex other languages are until I started speaking Toki Pona,” Krzeminska added. “There are so many different things you have to say before you actually get to say what you want, and there are so many things you're not allowed to say even though you mean them.

Take politeness markers for instance: If it’s not too much of an inconvenience, would you please consider possibly bringing me a cup of coffee? In Toki Pona you would just say: Give me coffee. Either do it or don’t do it. There’s no word for please or thank you. I mean, maybe if you really wanted, you could say pona, but then why would you overuse a word that’s so big and powerful?”

Ultimately though, as many Toki Pona users discover, powerful cultural conventions are not so easily discarded. Speakers are often quick to find clever substitutes, especially in the realm of the non-verbal. "I definitely find myself relying more on body language," Krzeminska admitted. "We're so used to saying please and thank you that we tend to do a little Japanese-style nod now instead. It's so weird not to say anything at all."

Despite compromises in etiquette, Toki Pona still manages to convey a culture of its own. Through omission and inclusion, the vocabulary itself is rooted in the basic material of life. “I was inspired by hunter-gatherers,” Lang noted. “I thought, what would it have been like to just be a person in nature, interacting with things in a primitive way?”

Accordingly, there are several words denoting different living organisms, and none for specific modern technologies. All technology is essentially subsumed by the general term for tool (ilo) and augmented, if desired, by other words describing distinct functions. Addressing this choice, Huff spoke of a divide in the Toki Pona community. “There is one spirit that says Toki Pona is able to talk about these things, so we should talk about these things. There is another spirit that says maybe there are things we just don’t need to talk about.”

Along with the previously noted biases, the lexicon also exhibits an acknowledged propensity for positivity. Krzeminska, who speaks the language with her best friend, noted that they tend to slip into Toki Pona for pleasant conversations. “That's one of Sonja's principles. It's a language for cute and nice things. It’s also great for talking about feelings. There are limited concepts, so one word can mean everything. The word pona is everything that's good in the world: pineapples, bananas, cute kittens. If I call my friend a jan pona, I’m calling him a good person. Often, if we’re both tired and everything is too much, we just say, everything will be pona. You’re a beautiful person, and everything is beautiful, and everything will be beautiful. And then, everything is better.”

For a different perspective, I spoke with John Quijada, the creator of Ithkuil. The former DMV employee spent three decades perfecting what he calls, “an idealized language whose aim is the highest possible degree of logic, efficiency, detail, and accuracy in cognitive expression.” By combining 58 phonemes within an exacting grammatical framework, Ithkuil is designed to precisely express all possible human thoughts. It is so complex that even its creator often requires 10 minutes or more to assemble a single word.

Aistlaţervièllîmļ, for example, is the term for “a situation where one lets a normally unavailable opportunity pass by because it is not seen as being the optimal instance or form of that opportunity, despite the likelihood that such an optimal instance/form of the opportunity will likely never come (e.g., letting a bottle of expensive wine go past its prime because one can never decide when would be the optimal time to drink it; or letting slip by an opportunity for true love because one hopes someone even ‘better’ may come along.)”

“I have a great deal of respect for ambiguity. That’s why I tried to defeat it.”One student of the language claimed that it allowed her to “see things that exist but don’t have names, in the same way that Mendeleyev’s periodic table showed gaps where we knew elements should be that had yet to be discovered.” Tweak a single phoneme and arrive at a strange new variation of a thought. Tweak by tweak, a speaker could wander forever through an endless landscape of unique thoughts in a kind of linguistic dérive.

I was curious about what a man who had dedicated his life to accuracy thought about a language in which a word for floor (anpa) also means defeat, and the noun for head (lawa) is also the verb for control.

“I've always been so fascinated by ambiguity,” Quijada admitted. “I have a great deal of respect for it. That’s one of the reasons why I tried to defeat it—to see if it could be defeated.”

As for the disparity between Toki Pona and Ithkuil, the music-lover was predictably succinct. “It’s the difference between John Cage’s 4’33” and a Beethoven symphony.”

SEE ALSO: 4 skills you need to master to become a great public speaker

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One of the best visualizations of race in America might be called pointillist. By mapping one dot for every Census-registered human in the country, color-coded for race, a team at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center of Public Service rendered abstract social data painfully personal.

Robert Manduca, a Harvard PhD student in sociology and a mapmaker, has brought the power of the dot to a new dataset: Jobs. Using 2010 LEHD Census data, and much of the code that brought the racial dot map to life, Manduca created an interactive map of one dot for every job location in America.

Red dots represent manufacturing and trade. Blue dots are professional services. Green represents healthcare, education, and government. Yellow is retail, hospitality, and other services.

New York City

“These kinds of maps are great when you’re talking about individuals,” says Manduca, “Especially when you’re talking about jobs, because jobs are more concentrated than people. It gets across how tightly packed they are in many U.S. cities.”

Manduca’s point hits homes when you look at a map of New York City. Higher-income professionals are heavily concentrated in ultra-expensive Manhattan. Meanwhile, a fair amount of industrial activity can still be seen throughout parts of north Brooklyn, while Queens has a wide diversity of employment—reflecting the record job growth that borough has recently enjoyed.

San Francisco/Oakland

Meanwhile, San Francisco and Oakland have just a sprinkle of manufacturing and trade labor left. To the south, electronics heavy-hitter San Jose is relatively loaded.

San Jose

Though he studies urban economic development, Manduca was still somewhat surprised to see how important downtowns remain as employment concentrators. By a significant measure, most jobs are still outside urban cores, “the result of a retreat from America’s cities that has been going on for decades,” as the New York Times has written. But in some cities, employment—particularly highly skilled and high-paying employment—is growing in downtowns, and declining in the suburbs.

Manduca was also curious to see how concentrated jobs are in the suburbs, too. “I thought they’d be more evenly spread,” he says.

As with any kind of map, some nuance is inherently lost in the quest for clarity. In this case, all American jobs are reduced to four main categories. Plus, the LEHD lacks data for Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, so those places are just plain missing. And there are certain jobs that aren’t counted in this particular Census data set, or that aren’t available to the public. “There are a lot of federal government jobs that aren’t in the data set for security reasons,” Manduca says. “There are parts of D.C. that appear to be very empty.”

Explore the full interactive map, “Where Are the Jobs?,” here.

Los Angeles

New Orleans

Washington, D.C.

Detroit

Las Vegas

Chicago

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For the last month and a half, I've been running 4-5 times a week in 20-25 minute increments. My initial goal was to slim down, but my scale number hasn't budged.

At first, this frustrated me, but many people started to comment on how toned I became, with some of them asking if I'd dropped any pounds. The scale says no, but I feel great and have been continuously breaking my mile time record.

Though I weigh twenty plus pounds more than I did in high school, I'm a stronger runner with true stamina now.

That's one of the reasons I was so happy to see plus-size model Erica Schenk on the cover of Women's Running magazine's August issue. There are plenty of people who run regularly but aren't stick thin, and it's nice to see a fitness publication acknowledge this on its front cover. Schenk has been a dedicated runner for ten years and enjoys going for runs in Central Park.

Editor-in-chief Jessica Sebor said in an interview with TODAY.com that the issue includes a piece on athletic companies moving to manufacture running clothes for all sizes.

"We were shooting her for that story, so we thought, let's put her on the cover, too," Sebor told the publication.

"There's a stereotype that all runners are skinny, and that's just not the case," Sebor said. "Runners come in all shapes and sizes. You can go [to] any race finish line, from a 5K to a marathon, and see that. It was important for us to celebrate that. I think that every woman goes to the magazine rack sometimes and feels like she can't see herself in the cover images. We wanted our readers to feel like they could see themselves in our cover."

"Some women believe that since they have curves they can’t run or shouldn’t run," she told Women's Running. "Running is for every body anytime."

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After more than five decades of cold relations, the US and Cuba have restored full diplomatic relations.

July 20 marks the opening of the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., for the first time in 54 years.

Cuba's embassy is located in an elegant mansion on 16th Street in the US capital.

With gilded moldings, columns, arches, and statues, the building feels very grand inside.

There are elegant stained glass windows.

And grand marble balconies.

It will begin functioning as an embassy today.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez was on hand to raise the Cuban flag over the new embassy.

This is the first time that the Cuban flag has been raised in Washington, D.C., since 1961.

A large crowd gathered outside the embassy.

Most signs outside the embassy seem to welcome the return of Cuba in the US.

SEE ALSO: We sent 3 reporters to Cuba for a week, and it was a wild adventure from the moment they arrived

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One of Maui's most incredible private estates just got a $4 million price cut.

Called "Hale Ali'i," the now-$19.95 million property is one of only four beachfront estates in West Maui — and it's housed within the area's only privately gated community. 

According to the listing, Hale Ali'i has served as a vacation home for several "A-list celebs." It also features a meticulous feng shui design and a backyard that opens to the peaceful shores of Oneola Bay. Damien Zanolini of Coldwell Banker Island Properties holds the listing. 

Keep scrolling for an inside-out tour of this dreamy Hawaiian paradise.  

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The two-story home sits on .7 acres and has 7,475 square-foot of living area, with tons of outdoor lounging space. Its Oneloa Bay location affords fabulous snorkeling.

Since the estate is part of a resort community, there's a complimentary shuttle that runs to local five-star restaurants, beaches, shops, and hiking trails.

Pocket sliding doors in the living room let in all that glorious bay breeze.

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A Peruvian company has taken adventure tourism — and hotel design — to new heights.

For about $300 a night per person, Natura Vive houses intrepid travelers in Skylodge, a series of three sleeping pods that jut out on a mountainside in the Peruvian Andes.

But there's a hitch if you want to visit: the pods are accessible only after hiking or zip-lining over 1,000 feet to the four-bed suites, which each have six windows, a bathroom and a dining area.

Natura Vive was founded in 2008 by Ario Ferri, a mountain climbing guide who designed the hanging suites. The adventure tourism company also conducts rock-climbing and zip-lining tours.    

Here's what the cliff-side hotel has to offer.   

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Visitors climb 1,400 iron rungs to reach the two-year-old Skylodge, with a steel cable tied around the body for protection.

You could also zip-line all the way to the cliffside suites.

Guests enter the pods through submarine-style roof hatches.

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Travel + Leisure recently released its World's Best Awards for 2015.

The awards are based on a survey that includes responses from thousands of experienced travelers.

Charleston, South Carolina, was voted the second-best city in the world and the best city in America and Canada. (Kyoto, Japan, was ranked the No. 1 city in the world.)

With its rich history, impeccably landscaped gardens, and stunning waterfront views, it's no wonder travelers ranked this city so high up.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best cities in the world, according to travelers

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Charleston's location along the water makes for beautiful scenery. Waterfront Park stretches along the Cooper River and is a favorite for both locals and visitors.

Click here for more information on Waterfront Park >

The park has multiple fountains, all of which light up at night. One of the most popular is the pineapple fountain.

There are also multiple walkways that are perfect for taking leisurely strolls.

NOW WATCH: The 10 best cities in the world, according to travelers

Miami Heat basketball player Dwyane Wade has stepped into the wine industry with the launch of his own wine label — Wade.

The Miami shooting guard posted a photo of his new range on Instagram while on a tour of China, showing several wine bottles with “Wade” on their labels.

“Last night I finished the first part of my China tour ... which was me launching my very first Wade Wine ... Both Shanghai and Beijing events [were] great and we are looking forward to more in the future,” the sports star wrote.

Wade is yet to reveal from which varieties and where his wines have been produced, or where the range will be available.

The three-time NBA champion recently signed a one-year deal worth $20 million to remain with Miami Heat.

He is one of a number of US basketball players to have made their love of wine public, including team mate Amar'e Stoudemire, who is known to take regular soaks in red wine, believing it to increase circulation in his red blood cells.

SEE ALSO: Two tricks Europeans use to find great, everyday wines for cheap

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Golf superstar Jordan Spieth already holds two major championships. Check out these facts about the young phenom who has taken over the world of golf.

Produced by Graham Flanagan

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It can be challenging to remember to stand tall and sit strong when you're hunched over a computer screen all day at work.

But, it is important that you do so for a numbers of reasons.

Great posture helps prevent back pain, lower stress, and increase energy and productivity. It also conveys a lot about you to the people around you.

If you have a case of persistently slouched shoulders, for example, you're not communicating confidence, presence, or openness to your coworkers. This, in turn, will hinder you in commanding their attention during team meetings. 

Unless you are hyper-aware of your body throughout the day, tracking your posture on your own probably won't yield the best results. Supplementing an activity tracker, like Lumo Lift, will help you nix the bad habit entirely.

Here's how it works: You wear the appearance booster and activity tracker near your collarbone — on your clothes or hidden beneath them — and it tracks your body positions and movements. It also records your steps, distance, and calories burned.

"When you slouch or close off your body, Lumo Lift provides a gentle vibration to remind you to keep your shoulder down and back and head lifted. Lift also connects to an app that tracks your posture, giving you gentle nudges to improve your posture over time," according to the company's informational video below. 

It might take some getting used to Lift's controls and functions, but after that you'll be fast on your way to improving your posture — and, ultimately, improving how to present yourself to others.

Lumo Lift Posture Coach and Activity Tracker, $79.99 (originally $99.99), available at Amazon. [20% off]

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Vallauris (France) (AFP) - Beach lovers on the French Riviera expressed their anger Sunday over the imminent arrival of the Saudi royal family, who have ordered a long stretch of beach to be closed off to the public.

"Looking after their security is fine, but they should at least let us go for a swim," said Mohamed, a disgruntled fishing enthusiast. 

Nestled in the rocks between the coastal railway and the translucent waters of the Mediterranean, the grounds of the royal family's immense villa stretches across a kilometre of Riviera coastline between Antibes and Marseille. 

Local authorities confirmed that King Salman is due to arrive at some point this week, and that access to the entire kilometre stretch will be cut off, including the public beach at Vallauris, which can only be reached through a tunnel under the railway line.

"Access to the coast will be prohibited by police officers for the duration of the king's holiday," said local official Philippe Castanet. 

Coastguards will also stop anyone coming within 300 metres of the villa by sea. 

Beach users swung between disappointment and anger over the news.

"They take the decision and there's nothing we can say," said Mohamed, rinsing off his fishing rod on the beachfront. 

"It's a good fishing spot and blocking access is not acceptable."

Beach-to-villa elevator

Fatima, a local nurse, had come with her two daughters for a swim. 

"Whether it's him or another billionaire, they always have priority over ordinary people. On the other hand, they are good for business, coming here with 400 people in their entourage. I heard they might even fix the roads."

Her boyfriend Didier recalls a time when Salman's predecessor King Fahd was visiting and the police had to forcibly remove swimmers who refused to clear out. 

Workers hired by the Saudis had last week already started building the fence that will close off access to the beach, but were ordered to stop until the royal family arrives. 

They had also generated a great deal of anger by starting work on an elevator from the beach to the villa, which involved pouring a huge slab of cement directly on to the sand. 

The local authorities have allowed work on the elevator to continue on condition that it is dismantled when the family vacation ends. 

The villa itself has become a hive of activity, with one local, Christian, saying there were dozens of people decking it out with rose bushes and other plants over the weekend.

"You can see they've replaced the balcony windows, no doubt to put in some bullet-proof glass," he said. 

He also pointed out what appeared to be a golden throne, positioned to soak up the sun -- and a view unspoiled by the general public -- on the villa's terrace. 

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Gluten-free bread. Gluten-free cupcakes. Gluten-free cereal.

With all of the new options to avoid gluten, there's got to be something about the ingredient that's bad for you, right?

Wrong.

As Alan Levinovitz points out in "The Gluten Lie," the scary-sounding ingredient is not to be feared.

Far from a dangerous toxin, gluten is a type of protein found in wheat and other similar grains, from hearty barley to bitter-tasting rye. It's what makes bagels chewy and lets fresh-baked bread rise. 

While gluten isn't dangerous to most people, those who give it up may often feel better because they make other positive changes like cooking at home more. 

People who give up gluten may also feel healthier because they think gluten is making them feel awful — a so-called "nocebo" effect.

Only about 1% of Americans actually have celiac disease, a genetic, autoimmune disorder that causes people who eat gluten to experience damage to their small intestine.

Another 0.63% to 6% of people may be sensitive to gluten without having celiac disease, meaning that when they eat gluten, they experience some or all of the symptoms that people with celiac do. (This condition, called non-celiac gluten sensitivity, is a bit controversial, however, with several studies suggesting it's either overblown or doesn't exist.)

In other words, in a room of 100 people, chances are one has celiac. A few more could be sensitive. That's not a whole lot of people.

Big business

Nevertheless, gluten-free diets have caught on like wildfire. And lots of people— far more than a few in 100 — say they've experienced benefits from abandoning the ingredient, from losing weight to being in a better mood. Even celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga say they've gone gluten-free. 

Gluten-free alternatives have become a big industry: 30% of people want to eat less gluten. Sales of gluten-free products estimated to hit $15 billion by next year.

So what gives?

When people go on a diet or stop eating a certain thing — be it fatty foods, processed carbohydrates, or sugar — they often make a whole host of other lifestyle changes as well, Levinovitz writes.

So while cutting gluten may seem like it causes weight loss or clearer skin, in reality, something else is probably the real cause, like swapping fast food for cooking at home. Peter Gibson, Monash University Australia's Director of Gastroenterology who's led multiple studies on gluten, tells Levinovitz: 

"I've noticed [this] lots of times, even with family members. They've decided they're eating a lot of takeaway foods, quick foods, not eating well at all. They read this thing about gluten-free, and then they're buying fresh vegetables, cooking well, and eating a lot better. Blaming the gluten is easy, but you could point to about a hundred things they're doing better."

All in their heads?

Gibson is also the author of a recent study that found that, out of 37 people with self-identified gluten sensitivity that wasn't celiac disease, a total of 0 people were actually sensitive to gluten.

The study revealed what's called a "nocebo" effect — when self-diagnosed gluten sensitive people thought they'd feel worse when given gluten, they actually felt worse (even if what they ate didn't actually contain gluten).

In other words, it was all in their heads. 

But this can be a tough pill to swallow. "When it comes to food sensitivities, people are incredibly unwilling to question self-diagnoses," Levinovitz writes. "No one wants to think that the benefits they experienced from going gluten-free ... might be psychological."

On top of that, connecting what we've eaten to physical symptoms is incredibly difficult. Not only have studies shown that we have trouble remembering what we ate when we ate it, we're also poor judges of what's healthy and what's not.

So rather than jumping to self-diagnose, see a doctor. And stick to the science.

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You have way too many charging cords plugged into the surge protector under your desk.

What you need is a single station that can re-juice your smartphone, tablet, laptop, and more simultaneously.

The Speedy 50W 5-Port USB Charger is compatible with any USB-powered gadget, and it comes equipped with intelligent detection that automatically recognizes your devices and delivers the fastest possible charging speed for each. It charges up to 5 devices at the same time and in one place.

The design is light and durable enough to carry with you to and from work. Although, we would more likely buy one for the office and one for home. For just $21.99 per charger, the price of convenience is perfectly reasonable. 

AOK Group Speedy 5-Port USB Charger, $21.99 (originally $30), available at Stack Social.[26% off]

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A billionaire's massive and secluded estate on Georgica Pond in Wainscott, New York, is on the market for $95 million.

Pharmaceutical billionaire Stewart Rahr, the self-proclaimed "No. 1 King of All Fun," told The New York Times that he's selling "Burnt Point" because he now summers in Europe.

The 25-acre piece of land was originally purchased by commodities trader David Campbell in 1996 for $10 million, according to Forbes.

Campbell had architect Francis Fleetwood design the sprawling 18,000-square-foot eight-bedroom house. In 2004, the estate was sold to Rahr for $45 million, which was the most expensive home ever sold in the state of New York at the time.

Rahr recently transferred ownership of the property to his charitable foundation, The New York Times report said. Corcoran has the listing. It's definitely a dreamy summer home. Now, we're going to take a tour.

This is Stewart Rahr, aka Stewie Rah Rah and the No. 1 King of All Fun, as he refers to himself.

Welcome to the Burnt Point Estate at Wainscott, built in 1997.

If you're flying in from the nearby East Hampton Airport, this would be your view. The two-floor, 18,000-sq.-ft. estate rests on a 24-acre property with many amenities.

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In January, climbers Kevin Jorgeson and Tommy Caldwell set a record by being the first to free-climb the 3,000-foot walls of El Capitan, a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park in California. 

It's considered to be one of the hardest climbs in the world.

The climbers documented their climb with incredible photos that show just how hard their journey was.

Here is the Dawn Wall on El Capitan, where we get a glimpse of the wall's height and the beautiful scenery of Yosemite in the background.

From afar, it's difficult to see just what the climbers went through in order to set their record, but when you look closer, you can see that the two used tiny cracks in the walls to help them with their ascent.

Finally, after 19 days of the difficult endeavor, the two celebrated their record-breaking journey to the top of the Dawn Wall.

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