Many of us use keyboards all the time – on our computers at work, typing out a text or email on our phones. But why does the common QWERTY keyboard, named for the first six letters in the top left corner, even exist?
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When traveling abroad, it's easy not to think twice about behaving just as you would at home. However, not all American gestures and customs are acceptable abroad: some are considered offensive and will not only out you as a tourist, but could even get you in a bit of trouble.
Inspired by this Quora thread, we've rounded up some of the most common American customs that are seen as offensive elsewhere.
SEE ALSO: 16 things Europeans find strange about America
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NOW WATCH: Simple etiquette rules to remember the next time you fly
After two decades away from the US market, Alfa Romeo returned in 2014 with the 4C sports car. A year later, the company followed up with the 4C Spider. The return of Alfa Romeo is a key component in Fiat Chrysler's strategy to incorporate its European holdings in its US offerings.
Although Alfa Romeo is a brand steeped in history with a reputation for building stylish sports cars, it's probably best known for its appearance in the 1967 film "The Graduate." The decision to pair Dustin Hoffman's character up with an Alfa Spider instantly propelled the car and the company into pop-culture-icon status.
The car sits in an odd place in the market. It's a small, stripped down, turbocharged, carbon-fiber two-seater priced below $100,000. About the only thing you can compare it to is a Ferrari — except that a mid-engine 488 GTB will set you back $300,000. Coincidentally, the Alfa 4C is built in Ferrari's hometown of Modena, Italy.
Recently, Alfa dropped off a red 4C Spider for Business Insider to check out. The open-top 4C starts at $64,000, but our option-laden test car left the showroom with a $74,000 price tag.
Photos by Hollis Johnson.
SEE ALSO: The 25 coolest cars in Jay Leno's garage
One of the best parts about traveling is getting the chance to indulge in regional delicacies from around the world.
We combed through a recent Quora thread on the top cities for foodies and pulled out the very best of them, where you'll find everything from high-end Michelin-starred restaurants to scrumptious street food.
From Mexico City to Tel Aviv, here are 30 cities that all foodies should cross off their bucket list.
SEE ALSO: The 10 cheapest US destinations to visit this summer
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Source: Travel Channel, CNN Travel
Source: Frommer's
See the best places for foodies to eat in Barcelona »
Source: National Geographic
Expecting parents have plenty to worry about and very little time to spend worrying about it. Nine months can go by fast when there's so much to do and buy before your baby arrives.
So Joel Johnson and his sister Rachel Fracassa, who is a mother and Dula, created the NightLight, a website dedicated to extensively reviewing all the products parents need for their new babies, from nail clippers to car seats.
The team does extensive research and talks to experts to help them decide which products to recommend to new parents.
As new products come on the market, the team goes back and re-reviews products they've already spent hours researching and testing to make sure they're suggesting the best possible product, Matt Lee, an editor and writer for the site, explains to TI.
Here are some of their recommendations that all new parents should have:
SEE ALSO: AOL's Tim Armstrong used a word that should have Yahoo employees shaking in their boots
To choose the best convertible car seat, the NightLight team went through 19 car seats and spent 38 hours testing in three different vehicles. Lee explains to Tech Insider that the team really does their research to find the best product possible.
They eventually chose the Chicco Nexfit 65 for its easy installation and because it protects babies whether they're facing forwards or backwards.
Buy it here:$300
NightLight decided that solid wood was the best and most durable material for a crib.
After 20 hours of testing — that involved using dummies, real children (safely), and a myriad of objects to inflict damage — they decided the Oeuf Rhea crib was the best of 24 options for its sturdiness, price, and design.
Buy it here:$670
To test this mattress, Lee said the team actually put urine on it. They did this "to make sure that it was easy to clean and that it was actually waterproof, so that was a lengthy process," Lee tells TI.
A crib mattress was one of the first products the team ever reviewed about three years ago. The Moonlight Slumber All Foam Littler Dreamer is their current top pick.
Buy it here:$197
Verizon announced Monday morning that it would be acquiring Yahoo for about $4.83 billion in cash.
Yahoo will be merged with Verizon's AOL unit, and the deal will see Verizon scoop up Yahoo's search, mail, content, and ad-tech businesses.
There was no official word in the company announcement about what role Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer would take in the future of the company, though Mayer wrote in an email to Yahoo employees that she would be staying on.
It's no secret the former Google executive and self-professed nerd leads a pretty interesting life, filled with high fashion, luxurious apartments, and exclusive parties.
Mayer made a fortune when Google went public in 2004 — and her lifestyle choices certainly show that.
SEE ALSO: There is some confusion over whether Marissa Mayer is staying at Yahoo
Source: Business Insider
Source: Business Insider
Source: Business Insider
If you're tired of your traditional urban landscape, these 18 cities across the globe will offer plenty of color to brighten your view.
From Thailand to Peru, these are some of the most colorful cities around the world. You'll want to grab your passport and jet off to these destinations immediately, and who could blame you? These cities are stunning.
SEE ALSO: The 18 hottest honeymoon destinations right now
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Now that dating digitally has become so common, companies are constantly collecting information about our human mating behavior.
It turns out it's seasonal.
For example, there's a big spike of activity on the first Sunday of every year — after people have gotten over their New Year's hangover and have had some time to collect themselves.
"It's like a magical jump that continues through Valentine's Day, and then there's a spike after Valentine's Day, because the day didn't go as planned," Amarnath Thombre, the chief strategy officer of Match.com, told Business Insider.
Match owns 45 dating platforms, including massive apps and websites like Tinder and OK Cupid and smaller niche services like Black People Meet and Plenty of Fish, which it purchased for $575 million in July of last year. In the first quarter of 2016, the company brought in $285 million in revenue, up 21% from the same period a year before.
Dating's Busiest Season (yes, they call it that) is from December 26 to January 14. During that time, there's a 60% spike in new singles registering on Match platforms. Fifteen million new photos are uploaded, one million dates take place, and 50 million messages are sent.
This contrasts sharply with the time right before Thanksgiving into Christmas, when Match experiences a pretty dramatic drop-off in activity. There's a short spike on December 26 and then another lull until the new year.
There's also a small drop-off at the end of the school year. Because kids are at home more, single parents tend to put dating on the back burner.
Thombre's charge is to constantly reimagine the future of online dating. He has been at Match since 2008 and has seen how its business has evolved from something for lonely singles in their late 30s to a bunch of niche platforms for every kind of person you can imagine to what is now essentially a fun game for young people.
People's behavior has also changed during that time. From 2013 to 2015, for example, Match saw its users shift to mobile platforms at an accelerated rate, and the company had to rush to move all of its platforms along with them.
But more important is that the line between real life and app life is blurring almost beyond recognition.
"Before you enter a bar you may have already made an introduction," he said.
Match is now working on a way to attack the holdouts — the people who still count on in-person chemistry rather than a photo and a profile to decide whether to date someone.
"Increasingly, users are attending Match events like cooking classes and rock climbing, settings that foster that type of interaction," Thombre said.
The company is also working on incorporating video — anything that gives you more about people before you actually have to meet them.
In the future, the internet will vet anyone you see before you even buy the person a drink.
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NOW WATCH: We tested an economic theory by trying to buy people's lottery tickets for much more than they paid
Jerry Rosengarten just put his Southampton home on the market for $5.15 million.
The exquisitely designed house combines modern and antique details.
"I built this house for sale, not for everyone, because it is a truly custom home," said Rosengarten, a real-estate entrepreneur who owns the famed Bowery Hotel.
Let's take a look at this elegant residence, courtesy of the listing by Douglas Elliman.
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The "#Sprayathon" Fourth of July event in the Hamptons was a party to remember — but not in the way that host Brett Barna might have hoped.
With news outlets — including this one — picking up the story of "thousands" of guests packing a lavish Sag Harbor estate, an outraged owner claiming that he intends to sue after an alleged $1 million in damages, and Barna losing his portfolio-manager position at Moore Capital Management, the situation has turned into a bona fide Wall Street scandal.
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Though Barna stayed pretty mum in the wake of the news — because of shock, he said — he's now finally given his side of the story to The New York Times. And it stands in stark contrast to what the owner, Omar Amanat, claimed previously.
"We raised money for charity," Barna told The Times. "Nothing illegal happened, and no one complained."
Barna, in his interview, accuses Amanat of misleading him when booking his five-day rental of the mansion through Airbnb for his fundraiser in support of Last Chance Animal Rescue, and then threatening him when he didn't meet demands for more cash before and after the fact.
Amanat, who was arrested by the FBI on unrelated fraud charges on July 13, declined to comment to The Times.
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According to Barna, Amanat originally asked that the transaction be paid for in cash. Instead, Barna used Airbnb because he didn't have the $27,000 on hand.
When he came to the property on July 2, he found out that another group of renters were already staying there. The party went on, however, kept to the exterior of the house, he says.
Then, Barna claims, he received demands for additional money. Barna refused to pay and disputed the Airbnb credit-card transaction because of the double booking with the other tenants.
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Though Page Six said that Amanat — who was anonymous in the original report — intended to sue Barna for breaking into the house, trashing furniture, and destroying artwork, Barna claims that not a single guest even entered the home, and showed The Times images of before and after the party, proving that no damage was done to the house.
Barna also says that he hasn't been served a lawsuit yet and still has not received any kind of formal complaint of alleged damages.
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NOW WATCH: Hedge fund manager explains why America does not need to be uneasy about a Trump presidency
People form impressions of your personality in a matter of seconds.
It's not necessarily fair, but it's reality.
Especially in a professional setting, one thing you'll want to immediately appear is competent: knowledgeable, skilled, and capable.
Fortunately, there are ways to make yourself seem competent as soon as you meet an interviewer, coworker, client, or boss (and sometimes even as soon as they see your photograph).
Here are seven easy and sneaky strategies for appearing as competent as possible:
In one study, Brigham Young University researchers had 28 university students listen to recordings of six people whose voices had been manipulated to sound slower or faster than normal.
The student volunteers rated the speakers most competent when their voices had been sped up and least competent when their voices had been slowed down.
In 2011, Nancy Etcoff at Harvard University led a study in which more than 250 adults looked at photographs of 25 women with different types of makeup.
One-quarter of them wore no makeup; one quarter were made to look "natural" (some makeup); one quarter were made to look "professional" (a bit more makeup than the "natural" group); and one quarter were made look "glamorous" (the most makeup).
As it turns out, judges rated the "glamorous" women the most competent and the barefaced women the least competent.
Recent research from Harvard Business School suggests that asking for advice can make you seem more competent.
In one experiment, 170 university students worked on a series of computer tasks and were told they'd be matched with a partner who would complete the same tasks. (The partner was really a computer simulation.) When they'd finished the tasks, the "partner" either said, "I hope it went well" or "I hope it went well. Do you have any advice?"
As it turns out, students who'd been asked for advice rated their "partner" more competent than those who hadn't been asked for advice.
The researchers explain that when you ask for advice, you're validating the person's intelligence and experience, so they feel good about you in turn.
Not having to wait in long lines makes all the difference when it comes to quickly navigating your way through the airport.
That's where Clear comes in. Clear is a company that's using biometric scanning technology to help customers speed through security at the airport. Clear uses your fingerprints and iris images to confirm your identity, allowing you to go straight to the physical screening portion of TSA with the tap of a finger or blink of an eye.
Here's how it works: when you sign up, Clear will digitally authenticate your driver's license or passport and ask you a few personalized data questions. Next, it will link your fingerprints, iris images, and face to your identity.
Instead of lining up to have TSA check your identification, Clear members can head directly to a branded pod and quickly have their iris or fingerprints scanned, then head straight to the metal detectors and bag scans.
Travelers can already take advantage of the service at San Francisco International Airport and San Jose International Airport, in addition to 13 other airports and several professional sports facilities. According to CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker, Clear members typically get through airport security in just five minutes.
The company is also experimenting with biometric boarding passes (which are already available at the San Jose International Airport), biometric bag tags, biometric lounge access, and biometric payment options, to truly create a seamless curb-to-gate experience for travelers.
"We want people to use the service like an ecosystem," Seidman-Becker said. "Biometrics is going mainstream ... six years ago, it used to just be used in the defense space, but now consumers are getting more and more comfortable with them. This is where the world is going, and we want us to be leading the way with it."
Clear is certified as an anti-terrorism technology by the Department of Homeland Security. Besides airports, it is also available in major sports stadiums like Yankee Stadium, Coors Field, Marlins Park, American Airlines Arena, and AT&T Park. Not only can members use Clear to navigate through long stadium entrance lines, but they can take advantage of services like touch-to-pay concessions.
Clear has raised at least $20 million in venture capital from an investment group that includes T. Rowe Price and former executives of the Priceline Group. In April of this year, Clear announced a partnership with Delta to bring the technology to more airports across America.
SEE ALSO: 14 unbelievable concert venues from around the world
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Melinda Gates is best known as Bill's other half. Some may even say she's his better half.
Melinda — who shares an estimated fortune of $89.4 billion with her husband — has become one of the most powerful female philanthropists in the world as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which she helmed virtually on her own for the first six years of operation.
In addition to the pair's education and healthcare initiatives, Melinda takes a personal interest in women's issues around the world. At the forefront of her agenda is expanding the availability of contraception and, most recently,bringing awareness to the concept of time poverty — the notion that hours of daily unpaid work like household chores end up "robbing women of their potential."
"When you invest in women, you invest in the people who invest in everybody else," she wrote in a Fortune article last year outlining the benefits of hiring women in business. "And if you gradually start to take action, it won’t be long before you realize that investing in women is good for your mind, good for your soul, and good for your business."
On International Women's Day, a celebration of women's progress and achievements, here's a look at the incredible force that is Melinda Gates.
DON'T MISS: The Bill Gates Interview
Source: Telegraph
Source: Fortune
Source: Ursuline Dallas, Marie Claire
If you play football, September is the most likely time you'll end up in the emergency room with an injury from the sport.
In February, the odds of you landing in the ER with a sprained ankle from a game of pick-up isn't as likely.
Looking at data from the 2014 US Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System— and the mesmerizing visual compiled by FlowingData — we decided to map out the wackiest things that sent an abnormal number of people to the emergency room every month. We also compared those spikes to the number of ER visits that related to each activity over the rest of the year.
SEE ALSO: There's a huge spike in emergency room visits related to fireworks every July
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The Four Seasons Restaurant has closed after over 50 years of welcoming New York's elite into its ethereal dining room.
So now, after weeks of parties in which people jumped into the restaurant's famed pool, dined on food prepared by celebrity chefs, and generally mourned the passing of a legend, one thing remains: You still have to go somewhere to power lunch.
While we cannot bring back The Four Seasons, we can make a few suggestions as to where you might sit in a space that has something of the same transcendental quality.
They also happen to be spots where power lunchers already make reservations. Those are just going to be a little harder to get now.
SEE ALSO: People keep jumping into the pool in one of NYC's fanciest restaurants
Vaucluse is fairly new in the New York City dining scene, having opened in fall 2015. A French restaurant from Chef Michael White, who is better known for Italian fare, boasts the added draw of a perfectly reimagined, two-dining-room space.
The location used to house another restaurant on this list, Park Avenue Summer, but White changed the tone into something bright and classic. Plus, the private dining space is killer.
A Tribeca hit, American Cut heads uptown. The Midtown dining room has been appropriately kicked up a notch for the power-dining set. The furniture says classic Gotham, but look at the art on the walls and you'll notice a grittier touch.
Milos is known for being out of reach for most at dinnertime. At midday, though, the restaurant serves the lunch set with a reasonable prix fixe, which means you get to hang out in this epic dining room with all its natural light and high ceilings.
Just off the coast of Japan there is an island called Aoshima, which is also known as "Cat Island." The tiny fishing village is home to more than 140 cats, which roam around napping, playing, and snagging snacks from residents and tourists. They outnumber humans 8 to 1.
The cats were originally brought to the island to kill mice that hung around fishing boats. But as the human population dwindled from over 1,000 to 16, the cats stayed on and multiplied, as they continued to be fed by the remaining locals.
The island has become a bit of a tourist destination, though the residents don't seem to mind, as long as it remains peaceful. And people donate cat food from all over Japan.
"If people coming to the island find the cats healing, then I think it's a good thing," 65-year-old fisherman Hidenori Kamimoto told Reuters last year. "I just hope that it's done in a way that doesn't become a burden on the people who live here."
This is what life on Cat Island is like:
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If there's one thing New Yorkers agree on, it's that New York City has the best bagels in the world.
But that's where the agreement stops. It's a city of a thousand bagel shops, and everyone believes their favorite is No. 1. So who does it best?
We partnered with city-guide app Foursquare to compile a list of the top bagels shops in NYC. Because the app allows users to save and favorite the venues they love, Foursquare was able to track down which bagels are getting the most praise, based on user ratings and comments.
One thing's for sure: If you're looking for a great bagel, you can't go wrong in New York. Read on to see where to score the best the city has to offer.
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Location: Stuyvesant Town, Manhattan
Foursquare rating:8.68
If you're at David's Bagels, you're probably here for a classic BEC: bacon, egg, and cheese.
"There's no contest when it comes to bacon, egg, and cheeses, for David's is the superior sandwich, and that's all there is to it," Gothamist declared on Foursquare. "Hot egg and melted cheese wrapped around thick slices of bacon."
Location: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Foursquare rating:8.73
Though customers complain that the line can get long, the menu at Bagel Pub Park Slope can't be beat. From a plethora of bagel and cream cheese options to smoothies and pastries, this place has you covered for breakfast.
Location: Upper West Side, Manhattan
Foursquare rating:8.74
Renowned for its smoked fish, which comes in lox, sturgeon, and whitefish varieties, Barney Greengrass serves up some of the freshest bagels in the city. Stop by for a quick bite or a casual brunch reminiscent of old New York. But remember to bring cash — it doesn't accept credit cards.
As the top creative mind of what remains one of America's most important fashion magazines, Elle editor-in-chief Robbie Myers lives a fairly glamorous life.
But Myers is no Miranda Priestly, whom you probably remember as the terrifying editor character played by Meryl Streep in the 2006 movie "The Devil Wears Prada." Myers is instead a soft-spoken and kind leader who prefers to stay out of the spotlight and instead focus on honing her craft.
Myers recently brought Business Insider along on a typical day in her work life. Though no two days are alike for this busy editor, what follows is a peek into her fascinating world.
SEE ALSO: Go inside the chic Brooklyn loft owned by an entrepreneur who wants to make it easier to buy art
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