Emily Boutard used to be a corporate lawyer, but she realized she prefers making tiny things instead. So she quit her job and now she's studying architecture and making incredible historically accurate miniature furniture.
Story by Jacob Shamsian and editing by Carl Mueller.
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Fifteen-year-old Hasan and 13-year-old Shireen Zafar started The Street School for homeless kids in Karachi, Pakistan, three months ago.
Story and editing by Alana Yzola
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The Icebergs Pool in Bondi Beach, Australia, floats right above the ocean. Swimmers can relax... until they're pelted by waves from the Tasman Sea.
Story and editing by Jeremy Dreyfuss
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same Google is looking for people with good driving records to become "vehicle operators" for Google's self-driving cars, according to this ad posted on job-hunting site Glassdoor.
Oxymoron anyone?
The self-driving car driver is expected to be on the road 6 to 8 hours a day, five days a week.
A few of the skills for this job involve: The ability to keep a secret ("keep project details confidential") and a good driving record. Clearly Google needs people that can drive well for this job, because the car can't be expected to, what....? Drive itself?
One bummer: The job wouldn't officially turn you into a Googler, with all the benefits Google employees enjoy. It's a short-term contract position.
Another bummer: Those that have tried it say that it's more tedious than a regular driving position.
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Once home to hundreds of soldiers, this floating fort is now a super luxe hotel that can house 18 lucky guests. Spitbank Fort dates back to the late 1800s, and was built to protect Britain from a French invasion led by Napoleon III.
Story by Sophie-Claire Hoeller and editing by Stephen Parkhurst
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Professional cyclist Dan Timmerman always wanted direct access to nature. Sitting around observing it from a distance was never enough. He wanted to be in nature.
Five years ago, Timmerman and his wife, Sam, bought a 10-acre property in rural New York and moved into a cabin. They have lived there ever since.
While the couple hasn't totally rejected modern life — they have no TV, but do own cellphones, laptops, and cars — they lead an unconventional lifestyle that is simple and enlightening. They own their property outright, have no debt, and live on solar power.
DirtWireTV recently profiled Timmerman for a day-in-the-life video, and Business Insider later caught up with him to learn more about what it's like living off the grid.
By living in their cabin off the grid, Timmerman and his wife, who is a caterer, have saved a good deal of money.
"We're on the reduce-your-expenses method," he told Business Insider. "This is an off-the-grid cabin that we bought pretty cheaply, and living this way is cheap. We don't have many expenses, if any, basically just a cellphone bill.
"We have plenty of money in the savings, and I'm able to work as a professional racer mainly because of the way that we live. If I had to pay rent in town it would be a different story."
"Off the grid" can have a lot of meanings. For Timmerman, it means their cabin isn't connected to the electrical grid at all.
"We have our solar power, which is stored in batteries. A lot of people assume that means you're also disconnected, but that's not true in our case. We are connected. We talk on the phone. We have the internet."
Though Timmerman and his wife live in the woods, that doesn't mean they aren't connected to the world. They have cellphones and laptops, using mobile data to go online. While they don't stream movies, they occasionally watch DVDs. He uses the internet to keep up with the bike-racing community and do research for all his projects.
"We're pretty content," he says. "Living in the city or in town, you have the social aspects and the conveniences, but you're surrounded by concrete and motors, you know? For us it's more worth it to be out here, to have access to the natural world, have our place, and do all the projects we want to do."
Timmerman says living off the grid does have drawbacks.
"We end up driving more because my wife works in Ithaca, and we're 18 miles outside of town. And certain times of the year, like winter, you tend to feel a bit isolated. But it's not like we live in the middle of a mountain with nobody around us. We have a pretty hoppin' village eight miles away, and we go in, and we have friends down the hill."
Prisoners at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Indiana spend more time outside than the average child, according to a survey commissioned by washing detergent brand Persil, which wants children to spend more time outside getting their clothes dirty — for obvious reasons.
The ad for Persil's "Dirt is Good" campaign, created by MullenLowe London, films interviews with prisoners under "genuine documentary conditions."
Every inmate explains the importance of their two hours per day outside, before being shocked at the idea of this time being halved.
They are then told that children spend just one hour outside per day, on average.
On behalf of Persil, Edelman Berland surveyed "more than 12,000 parents of children aged between five and 12 in 10 countries around the world," according to Campaign Live.
It found that one third of UK children spend less than 30 minutes outside each day.
In the UK, prisoners can only expect to spend between 30 minutes and one hour outside per day, according to the UK government website.
James Hayhurst, the global equity director for Persil/Omo at Unilever, told Campaign Live: "We were shocked when we discovered that children today were enjoying as little time outside as prisoners."
"That is why Omo/Persil decided to make ‘free the kids’ to bring this issue to life and to start a global conversation about the importance of play for children's learning and development."
SEE ALSO: McDonald's is trying to recruit more Japanese staff with this bizarre anime ad
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The origin of Indo-European languages has long been a topic of debate among scholars and scientists.
In 2012, a team of evolutionary biologists at the University of Auckland led by Dr. Quentin Atkinson released a study that found all modern IE languages could be traced back to a single root: Anatolian — the language of Anatolia, now modern-day Turkey.
Produced by Alex Kuzoian
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Newborn baby photographs have become a must for parents seeking to capture their baby's very first moments. But taking those adorable portraits isn't as easy as it may seem.
We spent a morning with professional newborn photographer Deborah Israeli of Redhead Photography to see how it's done.
Story and editing by Adam Banicki
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New York City's OddFellows Ice Cream Co. is making a new and improved ice cream sandwich.
Instead of a classic cookie outside, OddFellows envelopes its ice cream with a warm brioche bun. It's an unbeatable hot/cold combo.
Story by Aly Weisman, editing by Alana Yzola
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Apple had a big day on Monday. Among other announcements, it introduced a new iPhone and a new iPad, and officially rolled out iOS 9.3 to all iPhones and iPads already out in the wild.
Last night, I downloaded iOS 9.3 to my iPhone 6 Plus, and I got to try the biggest aspect of that update: a new feature called Night Shift, which automatically changes your display's colors to be "warmer," and thus, easier on the eyes.
The idea behind Night Shift is that bright, blue lights can negatively affect your sleeping patterns — making it harder to both fall and stay asleep. With Night Shift, you can schedule when you want your screen's colors to change, and you can also choose how "warm" or "cool" you want your screen to be.
There aren't many other major changes in iOS 9.3, so I was looking forward to trying Night Shift. I was excited but a bit skeptical — sure, this feature might change the color palette of my iPhone screen, but will that make reading and watching videos really annoying? Would I want to turn this feature off?
Thankfully, the answer to both questions is "no, not at all." I totally didn't mind Night Shift — in fact, I quite liked it.
At night, using Night Shift is definitely easier on the eyes. I was worried the color change would affect how I look at photos and videos, but after a short while you don't really notice the change.
Lying in bed last night, I spent some time on my iPhone with Night Shift on. I tend to be a night owl, so I do what I normally do, which is browse Twitter and Reddit until I start feeling tired. But about 10 minutes after some browsing, I turned off my phone and fell asleep pretty immediately.
Of course, this isn't to say Night Shift has already improved my sleeping habits — there's no way for me to know that yet, even though the first night was pretty promising. But even if I can't ever prove Night Shift improves my sleeping habits, to me, it's reassuring just to know the feature is there.
There's plenty of research out there that backs the idea that bright blue lights can be harmful to your sleeping patterns and overall health, so knowing Night Shift is there and on when I need it is helpful for tricking my brain into falling asleep faster.
So far, Night Shift is one of my favorite recent additions to the iPhone. Here's hoping Apple has some more clever life-improving features for iPhones and iPads later this year.
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Most of my cycling friends live in a perpetual state of want, and if you're like them, you always want a new bike, or at least think about owning a new bike, no matter how wonderful your bike may be. You might even find yourself staring at other people's bikes.
How many bikes can you realistically own? Apparently the correct number is n+1, as Velominati notes, with an important caveat: "While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner."
But if you could really own just one bike, which would it be? I'd want a bike that could do just about everything and not be crazy expensive. It wouldn't have to be perfect at anything, except at doing everything well. I like riding on all terrains, often in the same week and sometimes on the same ride, so it would need to be an all-seasons commuter, fast enough for weekend group rides, and something I could confidently take off-road when the trails call. It'd also have to be fun and good-looking.
For me, the Raleigh Roker Comp would probably be that bike. I just rode it for a month, and this is what it's all about:
SEE ALSO: Pro cyclist ditched the rat race for a cabin in the woods and now lives off the grid debt-free
DON'T MISS: The hottest thing in cycling right now is riding your bike someplace far and then taking the train home
This Roker Comp came to me brand new, via a local bike shop, assembled with Shimano 105 components, disc brakes, 700c wheels, and 40mm tires. In size 58cm it weighs 20.4 pounds (claimed, without pedals) and sells for $3,300.
The Nottingham, England-based Raleigh Bicycle Co. is one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world and has built its reputation on steel bikes, but the Roker Comp's frame and fork are made of carbon fiber, the super-stiff and extremely light material used in the vast majority of higher-end performance bikes today. And as is the case with a lot of big bike companies now, Raleigh's bicycles are made in Asia — its carbon and aluminum bikes in China and its steel bikes in Taiwan.
As I rode it home the first day, the bike felt remarkably comfortable, plush even — in contrast to my aluminum cyclocross bike turned commuter — but also immediately responsive when I sprinted.
In all, about half the riding I did was commuting to work, between Brooklyn and Manhattan, a 10-mile ride that brings me down (unavoidable) bone-rattling streets with potholes, uneven surfaces, and sunken manhole covers. None of it was a bother on the Roker Comp, which with its wide tires and relaxed frame geometry smoothed out the bumps.
On weekends I hit dirt trails, gravel and fire roads, and singletrack wherever I could find it, usually in nearby Long Island. While not intended for hardcore mountain biking, on not-too-technical singletrack and fast-and-flowy trails the Roker Comp rose to the occasion. All I wanted to do was bunny-hop and jump stuff and, most of all, keep riding. On one local twisty descent, where you reach 30 mph in a few seconds, the thing was perfectly predictable each time.
I appreciated what it lacked too. It didn't have the harsh rigidity of a road or even cyclocross bike, but it didn't have the heaviness of a sluggish mountain bike either. And that's what made it so fun to ride for hours: the pleasing snappiness of the carbon frame, the tall wheels, the excellent tires, the stability, good for on the road and off. It's a serious bike, and it's a fun bike.
What kind of bike is the Roker Comp exactly? I asked Dave Pearson, the product manager at Raleigh. "It's all road, any road, a go-anywhere, do-anything bike," Pearson told Business Insider. "I like to call it an adventure bike."
So what are those? In short, and as the name implies, they're bikes you can ride almost anywhere. Adventure bikes typically have frames that resemble those of cyclocross bikes, drop handlebars, disc brakes, and extra tire clearance for mud.
Business Insider is looking for a design, innovation, and architecture reporter for INSIDER, a new publication that delivers stories to readers across digital platforms.
The ideal candidate is a multimedia journalist who is obsessed with all things design, from a brilliantly engineered beer pong cup to a giant boulder made of Legos to a hotel made of salt blocks.
The design reporter writes stories, creates photo features, and writes video scripts for INSIDER's website and social media channels. Coverage areas include technology, fashion, architecture, interior design, new and innovative products, hacks for the home, and more.
The ideal candidate is a fastidious reporter and writer with a passion for telling great stories, and thrives in a fast-paced work environment.
Candidates should have 1 to 3 years of experience working in a digital newsroom and writing about design.
At INSIDER, our motto is "Life is an adventure." We tell stories for, about, and by people who seize life. That means they love to travel, try new foods, listen to new music, and love people who do the same. INSIDER is distributed across social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, as well as on the web.
This is a full-time position that's based in our New York City office. Business Insider offers competitive compensation packages complete with benefits.
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Business Insider is looking for interns to write for INSIDER, a new publication that delivers stories to readers across digital platforms.
Specifically, we are looking for fledgling reporters who want to cover food, travel, and design/architecture/innovation.
Editorial interns on INSIDER are true multi-media journalists: They write posts, create gorgeous photo features, and collaborate with our video editors on scripts for short videos. Interns should also be ready to go out in the field to take video and photos, and interview sources.
The ideal candidate is obsessed with his or her chosen vertical. He or she is a home chef who loves to Instagram finished meals; has backpacked around the world and kept a blog about the experience; or devours design websites for the latest in home decor and style.
He or she is a fastidious reporter and writer with a passion for telling great stories. He or she has tons of ideas, and is excited to work on a new publication that's evolving quickly.
At INSIDER, our motto is "Life is an adventure." We tell stories for, about, and by people who seize life. That means they love to travel, try new foods, listen to new music, fight for what’s right, and admire people who do the same. INSIDER is distributed across social media, including Facebook, Twitter, I
Our interns are an integral part of our team, and many of our current writers and editors started in our internship program. We seek out self-starters and people who are enthusiastic about collaborating with reporters, fellow producers, social media editors, and other team members.
This internship position is at our Flatiron headquarters in New York City. The internship will run for six months, and interns are encouraged to work full-time (40 hours a week) if their schedule allows.
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"Ghosting" is a cruel method of breaking up with someone that involves simply cutting off all contact without any explanation, and it is happening to tons of people (millennials, in particular).
A new survey of 800 single US millennials, conducted by the dating service Plenty of Fish, found that 80% had been "ghosted."
But an even more insidious form of ghosting has begun to pop up, one that manages to constantly remind those it affects that they have been dumped.
Let's call it "haunting."
Haunting is when, though you have cut off all direct contact with someone, you still interact indirectly with the person on social media. This means you don't send them messages, but you still "like" the person's Facebook or Instagram posts or, commonly, view his or her stories on Snapchat.
Most of the people I spoke with said Snapchat had become ground zero for this type of ghosting. Why? Because you can see everyone who has viewed your stories or snaps, whereas you have to actively like a post on Facebook for someone to know you were looking. And while liking the Facebook post of someone you ghosted has to feel a bit cheeky, viewing the person's Snapchat story might not seem like such a big deal.
But it hurts. The consensus among the people I talked to was that this method of ghosting definitely stung more — but depending on the amount of emotional distance they had, it could also be amusing.
"Oh, you are alive," one person joked.
Some have argued that one of the horrible parts of ghosting is that it sends mixed signals. "If you go on more than three dates, you've indicated you're interested," Anna Sale, the managing editor and host of a WNYC podcast called Death, Sex & Money, told The New York Times. "To disappear after that is confusing."
What's even more confusing? Having that person retweet your witty commentary as if everything is fine and dandy.
Jezebel has argued that "generally a person worthy of ghosting has really done something really, truly terrible." Haunting seems to undercut that. If someone has done something unforgivably bad, it doesn't really make sense that you are still engaging with the person on social media.
But the explanation might be a simple one.
One "haunter" acknowledged that he did it to leave things open for a future rendezvous. He had begun to casually "like" things on social media a few months after ghosting his former date. So how did it go?
He hadn't had the courage to initiate direct contact yet.
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Five-year-old Ethan Johnson got the ultimate birthday gift — a new sibling. The pregnancy was a shock for his mother Charity, too, as the 33-year-old was diagnosed with life-threatening Addison's disease at age 18, and wasn't expected to live past 25.
Story and editing by Alana Yzola
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Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken is known for its namesake dish, but the New York City restaurant secretly has some of the best French fries the city has to offer.
And these aren't just regular fries. They're "fries with the works," topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, and sour cream.
Story by Aly Weisman, editing by Chelsea Pineda.
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Arizona's Horseshoe Bend is a U-shaped part of the Colorado River. People hike to the Horseshoe Bend Overlook in Page, Arizona, just to admire it from 1,000 feet up.
Story and editing by Jeremy Dreyfuss
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