In 15 Years, The 9-5 Workday Will Be A Thing Of The Past. Here's Why.

As millennials begin to join the work force in larger and larger numbers, the values that they hold will cease to be novel requests and will quite simply become the way of doing things. And one of the things to go will be the ubiquity of the 9-5 workday. Long a tenet of most any professional job, advancements in technology, and a cultural breach from traditional work values have made for a generation of workers that hold flexible work schedules near and dear to their hearts.

According to this study by Bentley University, 77% of millennials believe that a flexible work schedule will make their workday more productive, and that says nothing about the personal values that a flexible workday serves better than the static 9-5 schedule.

To that end, a flexible schedule better accommodates work-family balance that millennials have shown to value more than previous generations. Getting kids to school and even picking them up means that hours would need to be made up either earlier in the morning or later at night, which means not only will work hours change, but telecommuting will become a standard practice in even the most traditional industries.

Millennials have also proven to value continuing education and new career experiences more than those before them. Two years ago, corporate training grew by 15%, and that number is likely to continue to rise as workers seek a more diverse array of responsibilities and opportunities. More of the 9-5 workday could be consumed with programs like these, leaving many work tasks to be done outside of those hours.

Offices are expensive. And increasingly less essential. Rented spaces housing data analysts or sales people with low degrees of interaction with other internal groups is a luxury that many companies are dispensing with. By 2030, it’s imagined that most (yes, MOST) employees will work at home with superfast data connections, allowing for video conferencing, desktop sharing, and collaboration the likes of which we’re just beginning to see. The notion of "office hours" becomes quaint when there’s no office to speak of.

If those three reasons don’t serve as a tipping point, then it’s extremely likely that the fourth will. Those 77% of millennials were right. Flexible work hours DO make employees more productive. Removing the time spent traveling to the office and the distractions that the group dynamic provides made tele-commuting workers 13% more productive in one study of a Chinese firm.

Of course, all the data and studies in the world won’t convince managers the same way observed results do, but as these practices get rolled out incrementally, there will be plenty of practical data points for companies to draw from, which in turn will create a level of trust that sees the traditional 9-5 workday become the exception, not the rule.

In 15 Years, The 9-5 Workday Will Be A Thing Of The Past. Here’s Why.

It's already on its way out, many of us just haven't realized it yet.

Flexible work hours allow employees to be more productive, also data may allow businesses to circumvent renting offices almost all together with employees working from home. #StopClickBait


I sat on the actual Iron Throne from 'Game of Thrones' — here's what it was like

For a moment, I won the game of thrones.

I sat in the Iron Throne, looking down at all of my constituents — or rather, the other people waiting in line to take their turn to sit in the replica of the famous "Game of Thrones" prop.

Until June 28, the Iron Throne is housed in the Gilt concept shop in Saks Off Fifth in New York City and is ready to be your new profile picture. Gilt partnered with HBO Now to create "Game of Thrones"-inspired fashion and "Girls" and "Sex and the City" experiences. Gilt curated draped dresses, gladiator sandals, and more to resemble the Westeros style.

HBO loaned the shop a replica of the Iron Throne along with replicas of the Hound's Helm, Daenerys' three dragon eggs, and famed swords, such as Arya Stark's Needle and Brienne of Tarth's Oathkeeper.

Taejha Richardson, who is president of the "Game of Thrones" fan club among her colleagues at ExpandED Schools, was just as geeked out to be there as I was.

"I didn't know that I was a nerd, but now I do," she said. "Someone sent the article to me as a joke... and I was like, 'Oh I'm too cool to do that.' And then I'm here, so obviously I'm not that cool, but I'm still happy."

Take a look at the experience on the Iron Throne and the other props from "Game of Thrones":

See the Iron Throne in all its glory. "Game of Thrones" fan Neha Joy said the throne felt smaller than it seemed on the show, though of course it doesn't need to fit Wun Wun. Still, she and her friend Caroline Aimetti joyously snapped away.

It doesn't seem as thrilling until you sit down. Then you feel the power of those 1,000 swords beneath you, and you realize why Cersei set fire to the Great Sept to have it. My arms rested on the hilts of the surrendered swords, and the power rushed to my head. I felt like royalty — even if I was just looking out to an escalator and a sea of shoeboxes.

Then a young direwolf decided to ascend the Iron Throne, and it was possibly the cutest thing I have ever witnessed.

The replicas of the show's famous swords seemed smaller in person — no wonder Arya is so spry with Needle — but the detail of their hilts was all the more impressive when viewed so closely.

Look at how awesome Longclaw and Oathkeeper are.

Equally as impressive was The Hound's Helm.

I sat on the Iron Throne from 'Game of Thrones' — here's what it was like

The Iron Throne from "Game of Thrones" made a visit to New York City and we took it for a spin.

It was actually a replica inside a department store.


Here are 13 useless things to stop wasting your money on

A simple way to up your savings and build more wealth is to spend less. And chances are, you can find areas to cut back in.

Start by considering these 13 money sucks.

It'll cost you a record high of $4.57 to withdraw money from an out-of-network ATM. There's no reason to continue paying these fees, which can add up significantly over time.

A simple solution: If your bank's logo isn't on the ATM, don't use it.

If you use one of the traditional, bigger banks, there should be ATM options in your area. Simply look up the locations online and put in the extra effort to get to one of your bank's ATMs. If there aren't any convenient ATM options in your city or town, you may want to consider opening a checking account with a more accessible bank.

Like ATM fees, late fees are a pointless money suck. And there's more to late payments than simply paying a fee. Missing payments can also lower your credit score , which affects your ability to borrow money for bigger purchases, like a home or car, in the near future.

Never miss a bill again by setting up automatic payments online for fixed costs such as cable, internet, and insurance. For expenses that can't be paid online, such as rent, set up calendar reminders and pay them at the same time each month so it becomes routine.

"Nothing makes a company happier than getting its customers to sign up for subscriptions," writes Yahoo tech columnist David Pogue in his 2016 book, "Pogue's Basics: Money."

"Millions of people sign up for 30-day free trials of things, intending to cancel within 30 days — and then they forget. Or they sign up for certain services but have long since stopped using them."

Look over your last couple of credit card statements and figure out exactly what you're paying for, whether it be subscriptions to magazines, software, or online services. Next, ask yourself which you can eliminate, and cancel them on the spot to save a couple hundred dollars a year.

You could also use Trim, which automatically finds and cancels your subscriptions with a text.

Eating out can add up quickly. The more food you can prepare at home, the better off your food budget will be. Plus, packing lunch also tends to be better for your waistline.

Of course, it's OK to treat yourself and buy the occasional meal out, but keep in mind that going homemade is one of the simplest ways to cut back without making dramatic sacrifices.

While you're getting into the habit of packing your lunch, start filling up a water bottle too.

"Most people who buy water in bottles do it for convenience," notes Pogue. "If you carry a water bottle with you, you spend nothing. (And lose weight. And live longer.)"

If you're a gym rat, power to you — but if you can't remember the last time you stepped foot inside the facilities, it may be time to cancel your membership.

Plus, if you're ever itching to work out, there are plenty of ways to do it without a gym. Try following free YouTube workouts at home, walking, biking, or hiking outside, making the most of training apps, or joining a running club.

Like eating out, the occasional latte is fine, but one-a-day can add up.

Rather than stopping by Starbucks every morning, consider investing in a French press or coffee pot. It'll save you in the long run.

"The average American cable-TV bill is $100 a month," writes Pogue. That's a large sum to pay for a service that people often don't take full advantage of.

Consider cutting the cord and getting your TV from the internet, through services like Netfilx ($8 a month), Hulu ($8 a month), or HBO Now ($15 a month).

If you decide you simply can't live without your cable, at least buy your own cable box and modem.

"As though the cable companies weren't already milking you dry with the cost of the TV service, they're also charging you about $235 a year to rent the cable box," writes Pogue. "You can buy your own replacement cable box for $120 (pays for itself in eight months)."

The same goes for the cable modem. "The damage is about $10 a month, forever," Pogue says, of the renting option. "Buy your own cable modem for $100, return the one you've been renting, and boom: a $120-a-year savings."

"The cell phone carriers hope you'll go over your monthly allotment [of data]," says Pogue. "If you do, they slap absurd overage charges onto your bill."

To never pay an overage charge again, install a "fuel gauge" app, like DataMan or My Data Manger, which will monitor the data you use and warn you if you're approaching your monthly limit. Pogue also suggests identifying the "gas-guzzlers": "Different apps use different amounts of data, and you might be astonished to see which ones are the guilty parties."

Finally, use Wi-Fi whenever you possibly can. When you're connected to Wi-Fi, you're not using any of your data allowance.

Collectively, we waste a lot of food. Every time you throw away excess groceries, that's money down the drain.

Before you grocery shop, think about the meals you're going to make for the week and write down exactly what ingredients you'll need to prepare those meals. When you actually go to the store, stick to just the ingredients on your list.

Going generic — for groceries, toiletries, or pet supplies — is an easy way to save money over time. As Pogue reports, "store brands cost around 30 percent less than national brands."

You don't have to buy generic for everything. Identify what's really important to you and what you're willing to sacrifice — then, buy brand-name for the stuff you care about and go generic for everything else.

From grocery stores to department stores, retailers have a way of tricking you into spending money mindlessly. One tactic is loading the checkout aisle with tempting products: cold sodas, candy bars, and 99-cent knick knacks. After all, your self-control is likely spent by the time you're done shopping, and stores bank on you giving into that pack of gum.

Skip the candy or magazine and redirect that $5 toward your savings goals or retirement account, where it could grow significantly over time.

ATM fees
Late fees
Underused subscriptions
Buying lunch every day
Bottled water


The moon is now known to have water, but could it one day have plants, too? That's a possibility in 2015, if NASA has its way.

The space agency recently revealed plans to grow a moon garden, lush with Arabidopsis plants, basil, and turnips. This "greenhouse" experiment would determine whether seedlings can germinate and grow on the moon under lunar sunlight.

Researchers with the Lunar Plant Growth Habitat team also plan to test how plants respond to the moon's high radiation levels.

The idea to start such a garden isn't new. Why do it now? NASA says a moon garden is the first step in testing whether humans could one day live on the moon for extended periods of time:

If we send plants and they thrive, then we probably can. Thriving plants are needed for life support (food, air, water) for colonists. And plants provide psychological comfort, as the popularity of the greenhouses in Antarctica and on the Space Station show.

NASA may launch the essentials for the lunar greenhouse during Google's unmanned Lunar X-Prize mission in 2015.

Seedlings are to be housed in specially designed containers -- which NASA is calling for students to create -- that will contain water and air. Once on the moon, the plants will be monitored using cameras and sensors over a period of five to 10 days. Researchers will then compare the plants to control samples of plants on Earth.

NASA planetary scientist Chris McKay said the entire moon garden project is expected to cost less than $2 million, Forbes reported.

Moon Garden May Show Whether Humans Can Live On Lunar Surface, NASA Says (VIDEO)

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Lots of people have trouble deciding what to name a new baby, but they’ve got nothing on Yonat Zwebner, a new mother with especially good reason to agonize: Her own research suggests that people come to look like their names.

In a series of intriguing experiments, Ms. Zwebner and colleagues at Israel’s Hebrew University and IDC Herzliya and France’s HEC Paris found that volunteers shown a headshot of a person and four or five possible names can pick the correct name at a significantly higher rate than chance.

Researchers in Israel and France found that volunteers shown a headshot of a person and several possible names picked the right one at a significantly higher rate than chance

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The @nyknicks are astoundingly bad. But how bad are they compared to the worst teams in New York sports history?

We know the 2014-15 Knicks are unimaginably terrible at the moment — losers on two continents now, not just one. But how bad are they, really, compared to some of the worst sports teams in the history of New York? Here, subjectively, is a list of the bottom 10 sports disgraces of our not-so-proud metropolitan area (worst is appropriately listed last, ranked No. 1):

10. The 1972-73 Islanders, 12-60-6. These guys were very bad indeed, but then they were an expansion franchise and had a good alibi. The NHL needed a team for the new Nassau Coliseum before the upstart WHA put one there, so the Isles paid the Rangers $4 million in territorial rights and two former Rangers, Phil Goyette and Earl Ingarfield, ended up coaching them and living through a long season.

General manager Bill Torrey stuck with a relatively young roster — despite the presence of ex-Bruin Ed Westfall — and some of these guys, like Billy Smith and Bob Nystrom, would prove to be part of the team’s successful future. In their first-ever meeting with the Rangers on Oct. 21, 1972, the Isles hung close to lose only 2-1. There were more one-sided defeats to come, however, like a 9-2 lashing from the Kings, a 9-1 loss to the Penguins. In a February home-and-home series with the Rangers, the Isles dropped both games by the same humiliating score of 6-0.

9. The 1983-84 Devils, 17-56-7. During their second season in Jersey, the Devils were a defensive nightmare. Goalies Glenn Resch and Ron Low combined for a 4.26 GAA, and there were 15 times during the season in which one or the other was pulled during a game.

The Devils started the season with a 6-2 loss to the Rangers and finished the season on an eight-game losing streak. There were some terrible defeats along the way, none worse than the 13-4 loss in Edmonton on Nov. 19, 1983. Wayne Gretzky registered eight points that night (mostly against former teammate Low) and then called the Devils "Mickey Mouse." "It got to the point where it wasn’t even funny," Gretzky said.

Giants fans serenading Allie Sherman in 1966.

8. The 1966 New York Giants, 1-12-1. These Giants made Perry Fewell’s defense look like an iron wall. They gave up a record 501 points in 14 games, 35.8 points per game. Opponents scored more than 50 points in three different games, and on Nov. 27 brought bad defense to unprecedented heights during a 72-41 loss at Washington.

The defense on this team was clearly aging, and skill position stars like Y.A. Tittle and Frank Gifford were gone from the glory years. Allie Sherman was just starting to hear the "Goodbye Allie" song that would haunt him in his final years with the club.

The Giants started the season innocuously enough, with a 34-34 tie at Pittsburgh. The next week in Dallas, however, the Giants lost 52-7. In that infamous Washington game, Giants’ quarterbacks Tom Kennedy and Gary Wood combined for three touchdown passes longer than 80 yards, but they also threw five interceptions, the difference. Sonny Jurgenson, Washington’s QB, had three TD passes and zero picks.

Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee and Yi Jianlian suffering through 2009-10 Nets’ disaster. (BRENT SMITH/Reuters)

7. The 2009-2010 New Jersey Nets, 12-70. The Nets’ early season was historically bad. They dropped their first 18 games, before Brook Lopez finally scored 31 points with 14 rebounds to beat Charlotte. They lost 28 of their first 30; 40 of their first 42; 46 of their first 50.

The Nets went through three coaches this season: Lawrence Frank, Tom Barrise and Kiki Vandeweghe. Vandeweghe, who had reluctantly assumed the coaching post in addition to his role as GM, was fired when the season ended — while he was talking to a local sports radio station about the team’s future.

Salt in the wound: The Nets lost the lottery and a chance to draft John Wall. With the third pick, the Nets chose Derrick Favors, who averaged 6.3 points per game the next season.

6. The 1943-44 Rangers, 6-39-5. The Rangers had been a league powerhouse until they were decimated by the war-time draft, more so than other NHL teams. Things got so desperate that Hall of Famer and coach Frank Boucher came out of retirement at age 42 to play in 15 games.

These Rangers started the season 0-14-1. They were 0-for-October, November, February, March and April. In fact, they only won games in December and January. The worst loss, though, was a 15-0 defeat in Detroit on Jan. 23, 1944.

Goalie Ken McAuley, a former truant officer from Saskatchewan, made 43 saves in that game, while the Rangers managed only nine shots on goal. The score might have been 16-0, but yet another Red Wings’ goal was ruled to have been scored just after the final horn sounded. Ten different players scored for Detroit. The Rangers finished in last place, 26 points behind Boston.

Jets fans asking for quick end to 1996 catastrophe. (Albans, Mike)

5. The 1996 Jets, 1-15. Leon Hess had shown a typical lack of insight, firing Pete Carroll after just one season in 1994 and hiring Rich Kotite, who was coming off a seven-game losing streak with the Eagles.

Kotite’s first season in 1995 with the Jets already had been very bad, a last-place finish with a 3-13 record. His organizational skills seemed to be limited to lining up his players in numerical order for the national anthem. After that disappointing year, the team cut Boomer Esiason, signed Super Bowl quarterback Neil O’Donnell and spent $70 million on draft and free-agent signings.

O’Donnell was a bust, then was knocked out for the season with a shoulder injury and replaced by Frank Reich. The Jets dropped their first eight games — many of them surprisingly close, somehow beat Arizona, and then went right back to losing. From Nov. 24 to Dec. 8, they were beaten by 25, 25 and 24 points. When the season ended, Kotite resigned and Bill Parcells came to the rescue.

Mike Jarvis’ scandalous season at St. John’s in 2003-04. (Tracy, John, Freelance/Tracy, John, Freelance)

4. The 2003-04 St. John’s basketball team, 6-21 (which became 2-21). This is your No. 1, feel-bad team on this list, representing rock bottom for the university’s basketball program. Not only was the Red Storm season very bad, it was scandalous. After a February loss in Pittsburgh, six players reportedly went to Club Erotica, a suburban strip club, and brought back a woman patron to their hotel. She untruthfully claimed rape, as proved by a tape the players produced in which she could be heard shaking them down for money. In any case, three players were thrown off the team.

Along the way, coach Mike Jarvis became the first Big East coach to be fired in midseason and his program was cited for under-the-table payments to Abe Keita, a player from the Ivory Coast. Four of the team’s very few victories were vacated by the NCAA (they were 1-15 in Big East play, even before that). The season ended with a 27-point loss to Notre Dame before a near-empty Garden.

Lovable Casey Stengel and the 1962 Amazin’ Mets.

3. The 1962 Mets, 40-120. We are now truly in the nether regions. But the difference between the expansion ’62 Mets and every other team on this list is that they had a rollicking good time while losing. Little was expected of them, and they had the right comedic frontman in Casey Stengel. "When you’re losing," Stengel said. "You commence to play stupid." When was the last time Derek Fisher had a quote like that?

The Mets also had the right, wrong player at first base, Marv Throneberry. As Jimmy Breslin wrote, "Marvelous Marv was holding down first base. This is like saying Willie Sutton works at your bank." He committed 17 errors in just 97 games, yet Throneberry became so popular, he inspired a large fan club of his own: VRAM, or Marv spelled backwards.

Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks’ spiraling season right now. (Howard Simmons/New York Daily News)

2. The 2014-15 Knicks, 5-36. This is a miserable work in progress — Phil Jackson’s dump job, if not a tank job. After another unwatchable basketball game in London, the Knicks are riding a 16-game losing streak that could well grow considerably longer. If Carmelo Anthony is shut down after the All-Star Game as expected, the Knicks may even challenge the worst 82-game record in NBA history: the Sixers’ 9-73 mark in 1973.

This complete collapse may yet lead to the biggest turnaround in league history next season if the Knicks land a top pick and sign a couple of free agents. The biggest turnaround so far was achieved by the 1997-98 Spurs, with the arrival of Tim Duncan (plus-36 games).

Columbia football snaps its 44-game losing streak in 1988. (Ed Bailey/AP)

1. The 1983-88 Columbia football team. Admittedly, this is cheating a bit, since the 44-game losing streak encompassed more than one season. But any one of these seasons could top the list. The only team that has a chance at approaching such a mark is the current Lions’ team, which enters the 2015 season on an 0-21 roll, with no coach and a lame-duck athletic director.

The streak of the 80s included some infamous moments. Jason Garrett’s father, Jim, was the team’s coach in 1985 during an 0-10 season in which he called his players "drug-addicted losers."

"One adversity comes and bang! They’re right back in the sewer again," Garrett said.

The student paper, The Spectator, ran a story detailing the relatively low (by Columbia standards) SAT scores of the players, naming names and printing numbers. The team finally broke the streak with an upset over Princeton, but a coordinator for coach Larry McElreavy reported that McElreavy was carrying on an affair with a member of the athletics staff. McElreavy denied this, but resigned at the end of 1988.

ROTTEN APPLE: The top 10 worst sports seasons in NY history


You read that right. Real estate data company RealtyTrac reported last week that 40% of all home sales in July were purchased by buyers with cash upfront. On the surface, this looks like a sign that our economy could be improving. But MarketWatch reports that this trend is largely unsustainable, due to the driving forces behind these all-cash deals: Investors, retirees and the wealthy.

This stat also represents yet another barrier for first-time home buyers, who are already feeling the pressure of tight mortgage lending requirements plus rising interest rates. At this rate, the American dream of home ownership will become a luxury item.

Rising Trend Of All-Cash Buyers Is Bad News For First-Time Homebuyers, Real Estate Market (VIDEO)

Sign #3,485 that we might be in another real estate bubble: In July, almost half of all home sales were all-cash deals.

You read that right. Real est...

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40% of all home sales in July were all-cash deals


Why BuzzFeed doesn't do clickbait, by me

Jon Stewart was asked about BuzzFeed and Vice the other day, and had this to say:

"I scroll around, but when I look at the internet, I feel the same as when I’m walking through Coney Island," Stewart told New York magazine. "It’s like carnival barkers, and they all sit out there and go, ‘Come on in here and see a three-legged man!’ So you walk in and it’s a guy with a crutch."

That may be the best definition I’ve ever heard of what’s referred to as "clickbait." But it suggests that Stewart, like many people in the media industry, confuses what we do with true clickbait. We have admittedly (and at times deliberately) not done a great job of explaining why we have always avoided clickbait at BuzzFeed.

In fact — and here is a trade secret I’d decided a few years ago we’d be better off not revealing — clickbait stopped working around 2009.

I avoided talking about it because, well, a lot of our rivals hadn’t yet figured it out and were becoming addicted to and deeply reliant on misleading headlines; since we weren’t, there seemed to be no harm (to us) in letting others focus on the short-term. But last winter saw a particularly virulent strain of hyper-optimized clickbait take root: the tempting, vacuous "curiosity gap" headline. Meanwhile, the many publisher Twitter accounts that auto-tweeted dozens of misleading, over-torqued headlines became Twitter’s favorite joke — and spawned a set of fairly useful "spoiler" accounts.

Now it’s no longer much of a secret that clickbait doesn’t work. BuzzFeed News’ Charlie Warzel wrote a nuanced history of the topic not long ago. The Verge’s Nilay Patel probably described our position better than we ever have in an interview with Poynter:

"Most clickbait is disappointing because it’s a promise of value that isn’t met — the payoff isn’t nearly as good as what the reader imagines," Patel said. "BuzzFeed headlines pay off particularly well because they actually make fairly small promises and then overdeliver."

In a blog post in August, Facebook engineer Khalid El-Arini made clear what we all know: that readers don’t want to be tricked by headlines; instead, they want to be informed by them.

Clickbait actually has its origins in old media, not the web, and specifically in the don’t-touch-that-dial antics of television and radio. Because you won’t believe what happens next...after the break. It’s a pretty rough consumer experience to demand your audience sit through an ad, online or off. The banner ad, whose decline Farhad Manjoo recently celebrated, was also born during this era and created a business model in which clicks are tied directly to dollars — something many people assume is still how all online publishers make their money. But BuzzFeed has never sold a banner, and I couldn’t even tell you how many monthly page views we get. And so our business model at least moderates that incentive to drag every last click out of our audience.

The worst form of this online is on a pennies-per-click business model in the transactional netherworld of outsourced sponsored content sitting at the bottom of articles around the web. All that matters in that space is the snappy headline. Grab the reader’s attention, get the click — even if this isn’t the craziest thing Ted Cruz has said yet; even if "Paris Hilton – topless" is in fact demurely dressed and riding in a convertible; if this one easy trick won’t actually lose you weight; and if you actually can believe what happens next.

You can trick someone to click, but you can’t trick someone to share

If your goal — as is ours at BuzzFeed — is to deliver the reader something so new, funny, revelatory, or delightful that they feel compelled to share it, you have to do work that delivers on the headline’s promise, and more. This is a very high bar. It’s one thing to enjoy reading something, and quite another to make the active choice to share it with your friends. This is a core fact of sharing and the social web of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other platforms.

The best way to ensure your readers won’t choose to share a story or a post is to trick them. Anyone who has spent the last 20 years online knows the specific disgust that comes with a headline that doesn’t deliver on its promise. It’s the kind of taste you get in your mouth from a glistening but spoiled peach. The publisher got the page view, and ComScore doesn’t record your flash of anger. But you’re hardly going to subject your friends to this experience. (Maybe your enemies.)

In fact, the only real trick is that the work has to be good. And the only thing, other than mediocrity, that can really sabotage this strategy is writing a headline that overpromises and a story that underdelivers.

Great headlines, meanwhile, tell you a lot about what you’re going to read, and persuade you to click because you know you’ll find a story that will satisfy your interest. The lists that BuzzFeed has long been known for are, as list titles tend to be, extremely direct; "31 Genius Hacks For Your Elementary School Art Class" is just that. As my colleague Ryan Broderick puts it, the goal is often, in fact, to "blow away the curiosity gap." One of his recent headlines: "A 5-Year-Old Girl Raised Enough Money To Take Her Father Who Has Terminal Cancer To Disney World."

The web’s new allergy to clickbait applies, I should add, to those of us who are also working to build great front pages in addition to content for the social web. Most people don’t click on most headlines, but a good front page will inform you without forcing you to click. Vice’s incredible 2014 series "The Islamic State" was, if anything, underhyped. And you may not be among the many people who read Jina Moore’s recent dispatch headline, "In Liberia, Everyone Says Ebola Cases Are Dropping" — but if you saw the headline, you still learned something. A headline like "You won’t believe what happened to this Ebola hospital" might (maybe) get more clicks — but the reader who scans it gets nothing at all. It’s a form of pollution wherever it lives, whether on your homepage or your Twitter or Facebook feed.

Different people use the term "clickbait" differently, and it’s sometimes thrown our direction to characterize entertaining web culture content that the author doesn’t like. That is something different, a matter of taste. But whatever your taste, nobody likes being tricked. And whatever your goals as a publisher, there’s no longer any argument for breaking promises to your readers.

You won't believe this one weird trick...


'Biggest Loser' Host Thinks Contestants Should Try This Trend Diet

A recent study on past contestants on the weight loss reality show "The Biggest Loser" revealed that due to metabolic and hormonal changes that persist after massive weight loss, participants were burning hundreds of calories less than would be expected for someone their age and body composition -- making weight re-gain almost inevitable.

Of the 14 former participants who were profiled in the study, all but one had re-gained at least some weight, and five of them were back within one percent of their starting weight from before the televised competition.

Bob Harper, a personal trainer who hosts "The Biggest Loser," addressed the study's disturbing findings during a segment on the "Today" show last Friday (both shows air on NBC). He proposed there might be one effective way to address the slowed metabolism that can result from dramatic weight loss: intermittent fasting.

For people who have lost weight in general, Harper advised them to continue on the diet that helped them lose weight in the first place. For example, if a person cut added sugars or highly-processed carbs, they should continue to do so in order to maintain the new weight.

But for the severely obese people described in the "Biggest Loser" study, or anyone whose metabolism has slowed dramatically, Harper also suggests intermittent fasting, which he actually follows himself. He suggested that skipping breakfast, or about 400 calories, could help them make up for the fact that their bodies are now burning hundreds of calories less than would be expected.

The increasingly popular diet could be one way to help maintain massive weight loss, he said.

There are many different versions of intermittent fasting, but the basic principle behind this eating pattern is that alternating days of "feast" and "famine" can help your body shed fat, restore healthy insulin levels and perhaps even extend your life.

One popular intermittent fasting strategy is called the 5:2 fast diet. Followers eat however they like for five days, with little regard to calories or macronutrients, and then eat only 500 to 600 calories per day for two days, depending on whether they are a woman or a man. Any day can be a fast day, though the two fast days should not be successive.

Harper’s personal plan restricts all consumption to a 10-hour window. First, he fasts for 14 hours (yes, sleeping counts as fasting), and then he eats two substantial meals within the next ten hours. For those two meals of the day, Harper focuses on vegetables, healthy fats, and protein. It essentially boils down to him just skipping breakfast, he told "Today" host Savannah Guthrie.

"Our bodies want to be the weight we have been for such a long time," said Harper. "That’s why it’s such a battle; if you’ve been overweight for a long period of time, your body is going to fight you tooth and nail to get back."

"That’s why you have to be so diligent," he continued. "You have to watch every single thing that you are doing, no matter if you’ve lost weight on 'The Biggest Loser,' Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig -- however you’ve lost the weight."

If book sales and celebrity endorsements are any indication, intermittent fasting is experiencing a surge in popularity -- especially in the U.K., where the 5:2 fast was invented. And emerging research on intermittent fasting is encouraging. A 2015 meta-analysis of six studies that took place from 1975 to 2014 found that participants were able to lose an average of 8.9 percent of their weight after six months of intermittent fasting (this is across all types of intermittent fasting regimens). Three studies that also focused on keeping weight off found that participants were able to sustain a weight loss of 8.2 percent after one month of maintenance. Perhaps most importantly, the 20 percent participant dropout rate for those six studies was much lower than the attrition rates that usually plague weight loss studies, which can range from 10 to 80 percent.

Harper’s suggestion that people maintain weight loss with intermittent fasting is intriguing, but there is currently no scientific evidence to suggest that it would be effective in the long term, says Stephen Anton, chief of the clinical research division at the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research at the University of Florida. Anton, an expert on intermittent fasting, is not involved in "The Biggest Loser," but he did review the "Today" show's report.

"[Intermittent fasting] seems to be effective in producing some weight loss, because people do not compensate on their feasting days for the amount of calories that they did not eat on their fasting days," Anton told HuffPost. "But those studies have been relatively short term, and it’s unknown what happens after the intervention is over."

Not everyone should try intermittent fasting. Those who are hypoglycemic, diabetic or on certain medications should not fast, as prolonged periods of starvation can be uniquely damaging to them.

And like all diets, this eating pattern only works if a person can commit to following it for the rest of their life. Going off any diet can result in regained weight -- and most of it in the form of body fat -- so people should be cautious about embarking on diets that may be unsustainable in the long term, as Dr. Scott Isaacs of the Emory School of Medicine previously pointed out.

Bob Harper On That 'Biggest Loser' Study And Intermittent Fasting

The celebrity trainer has a proposal for the metabolism slowdown.

intermittent fasting,Biggest Loser,bob harper,metabolism,leptin


It’s probably not something you think about every day, whether or not the foods you are eating could contain carcinogens, but with almost 1.5 million people diagnosed with some type of cancer just last year, perhaps it’s time to look at what is in our foods that could be causing such a huge number of new cancer patients. Here is a list of the top 16 foods that you most likely consume every day that may contain carcinogens or be suspected of causing cancer.

While fresh tomatoes are actually considered to be the cancer fighting foods, those canned ones are nothing like that. Actually, most canned foods are a concern because of what the can is lined with. The lining of almost all canned foods are made with a chemical called bisphenol-A, or BPA.

A study published in May of 2013 by the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences showed that BPA actually affects the way genes work inside the brain of rats. Even the FDA agrees that there is a problem with BPA as it is supporting efforts to either replace or at the very least, to minimize the amounts found in canned foods. You know it must be bad when even the very lax FDA is concerned!

Tomatoes are believed to be exceptionally dangerous due to their high acidity, which seems to cause BPA to leech from the lining of the can into the tomatoes themselves. The level of BPA can be so high in fact

you should seriously consider not feeding them to children. Due to FDA laws, there are no standards for labeling BPA so simply because a can does not say it has it does not mean that it does not contain BPA. Be safe and avoid cans. Cook fresh or buy glass bottles.

Perhaps you heard about the recent study that was published in May in the American Journal of Nutrition? It found that people who consumed more than one soda per day had a higher risk of stroke than people who did not drink sodas.

Loaded with sugar, sodas are an empty source of calories that cause weight gain and contribute to the nationwide epidemic of obesity. Drinking large amounts of this rapidly digested sugar causes your blood sugar to spike which can lead to both inflammation and insulin resistance. Soda is often the root cause of gastro-esophageal reflux disease, which is when the contents of the stomach leak into the esophagus causing not only pain but an actual burning of the esophagus from stomach acid.

Although sodas are not a direct cause of ulcers, they are known to irritate and make those with ulcers have more pain. Sodas also contain artificial colorings and food chemicals like derivative 4-methylimidazole (4-MI)

no wonder soda pop has been shown to cause cancer.

Although fish sounds like one of the healthiest foods possible, farmed salmon is one you should avoid. Unfortunately, more than 60 percent of the salmon consumed in the USA is farm raised.

These fish are fed unnatural diets and are contaminated with chemicals, antibiotics, pesticides, and other known carcinogens. They live in very crowded conditions which results in these fish having 30 times the number of sea lice than wild salmon. Farmed salmon are fed chemicals to make their meat that reddish pink color that should occur naturally but doesn’t because of the diet of chicken litter that they are fed.

Also, due to their diet, they have less of the healthy omega-3 that we think we are getting when we consume fish. Studies have also shown that farmed salmon contain high levels of PCB’s, mercury, and cancer causing dioxins. Avoid farmed salmon and buy it canned or look for labels in your market that state the fish you are buying is wild sockeye salmon. "Can you write my essay for me?" – Yes! We offer essays from scratch across 20+ disciplines.

What exactly are processed meats? This is a long list that includes, but is not limited to, sausages, hot dogs, bacon, most lunch meats like bologna or pimento loaf.

Researchers who wrote in the journal of BMC Medicine said that the excessive salts and chemicals that are used when making processed meats are damaging to your health. The study showed that 1 in every 17 people who were involved in the study died and those who ate 160 grams or more of processed meats increased their risk of early death as much as 44 percent within 12 years as opposed to those who ate 20 grams or less. This study involved people from 10 European countries and went on for almost 13 years.

All these processed meats contain numerous chemicals and preservatives, including sodium nitrates, which make them, look appealing and fresh but are well known carcinogens. Smoking meats seem to be particularly bad as the meat picks up tar from the smoking process. Yes, tar, the same deadly ingredient that cigarette smoke contains

Those little bags of popcorn are so convenient to just stick in the microwave, you wouldn’t think for a minute that they could be dangerous to your health, but they are.

First, let’s talk about the bag itself. According to Wikipedia, conventional microwave popcorn bags are lined with a chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid ( PFOA). This is a toxin you can find in Teflon also. According to a recent study at the University of California, PFOA is linked to infertility in women. Numerous studies in lab animals and humans show that exposure to PFOA significantly increases the risk of kidney, bladder, liver, pancreas and testicular cancers.

Now, let’s talk about the contents. Although every manufacturer uses slightly different ingredients, most of them use soybean oil (a GMO product) as well as various preservatives such as propyl gallate, a chemical that is causes stomach problems and skin rashes. Now they don’t actually say they are using GMO corn kernels, but that’s because the government says they don’t have to. Even if they don’t use GMO corn, you can bet they aren’t using organic corn!

Yes, we know, potato chips are cheap, great tasting, quick snack, however, the negative effects they have on your body may not be worth the little bit of pleasure you derive from these crispy snacks.

Potato chips are high in both fat and calories, which are sure to bring on weight gain. A study done in the New England Journal of medicine found that eating just 1 once of potato chips per day caused an average 2 pound weight gain in one year. Besides being full of trans-fats which can cause high cholesterol in most people, they have excessive sodium levels which, for many people, cause high blood pressure.

Potato chips have artificial flavors, numerous preservatives, and colors as well, which is something else your body doesn’t need. Potato chips are fried in high temperatures to make them crispy but this also causes them to make a material called acrylamide, a known carcinogen that is also found in cigarettes.

It’s hard to say no to your kids demands for chips sometimes, therefore, as a sneaky alternative, buy them baked potato chips or tortilla chips which are at least lower in both fat and calories. Air popped popcorn and whole wheat pretzels are another healthier option. Or try baked apple chips or banana chips which are dehydrated. Both are crispy and are far healthier than regular potato chips.

Let’s start from the point that all hydrogenated oils are vegetable oils. Vegetable oils cannot be extracted naturally like butter is, vegetable oils must be chemically removed from their source, and then they are changed to be more acceptable to consumers. They are frequently deodorized and colored to look appealing.

All vegetable oils contain high levels of Omega–6 fatty acids. An excess of Omega- 6 fatty acids cause health problems, such as heart disease and in increase in various cancers, especially skin cancer. You need a good balance of both Omega 3 and Omega 6. Try to get plenty of Omega 3 every day. You can do this in the form of supplements and grass fed meats, also fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel are a very good source of Omega 3.

Hydrogenated oils are used to preserve processed foods and keep them looking appealing for a long as possible. Hydrogenated oils influence our cell membranes’ structure and flexibility, which is linked to cancer.

8. Foods that are highly salted, pickled, or smoked

Foods that are cured by use of nitrates or nitrites act as preservatives as well as adding color to the meat. Although nitrates do not cause cancer in and of themselves, under certain conditions these chemicals change once they are inside the body into N-nitroso composites. It’s this N-nitroso that is associated with a greater increase the risk of developing cancers.

Smoking foods such as meat or nuts causes these food items to absorb considerable amounts of the tar that smoke produces. Tar is a known carcinogen. Meats such as bacon, sausage, bologna, and salami are high in fat and salt. Pickled foods are also very high in salts.

There is overwhelming evidence that eating these types of foods greatly increases the risk of colorectal cancer and higher rates of stomach cancer. The rates of stomach cancer are much greater in places such as Japan where a traditional diet contains many foods that are highly salted, and/or smoked.

Most of you have already heard by now that white flour is not a good thing, but you most likely have no idea just how bad it really is for your health. Refining grains destroys its natural nutrients. Mills are no longer content with waiting for their flour to whiten with time

mills now bleach flour with a chemical called chlorine gas.

The EPA states that chlorine gas is a dangerous irritant that is not safe to inhale and in large quantities can be lethal. White flour lurks in many processed foods. White processed flour has a very high glycemic rate which quickly raises the blood sugar level and insulin levels, which can be a direct cause of diabetes, not to mention it is believed that it spreads cancer cells by feeding the cells directly.

Cancerous tumors feed mostly on the sugars in your bloodstream. By avoiding refined grains such as white flour, you can avoid, or at the very least, starve tumors.

Genetically modified organisms, more commonly called GMO’s, are foods that have been modified by chemicals and grown with chemicals.

In a study done by Dr. Pusztai at the Rowett Institute in Scotland, rats were fed GMO foods, especially potatoes. ALL rats showed damaged immune systems, pre-cancerous cell growths, along with smaller brains and livers, in just the first 10 days of the project. American consumers believe that the FDA has approved these GMO foods and this is simply not the case.

The FDA has NO testing procedures for GMO foods, NONE. The only human study ever published showed that those foreign genes that are present in GM food transfer to the DNA in the bacteria in our digestive systems. We, the American consumer, are the guinea pig (or rat) in this case. Unfortunately, almost all grains, including soybeans, wheat, and corn, have been grown via GMO’s.

GMO’s do not have to be listed on food labels, so read carefully and look for labels that state the food is GMO free.

Refined sugars are not only known to spike insulin levels, but also to be the most preferable food for cancer cells, thus promoting their growth.

Cancers seem to have a sweet tooth. This is a known fact that has been around for many years. The Nobel laureate in medicine, German Otto Warburg, back in 1931, first discovered that tumors and cancers both use sugars to "feed" themselves and/or to increase in size. In order to proliferate, cancer cells seem to prefer feeding on fructose-rich sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)

the reason is that HFCS is being metabolized by cancer cells most quickly and easily.

Now it is clear why high-fructose corn syrup is considered the worst offender. And since cakes, pies, cookies, sodas, juices, sauces, cereals, and many other extremely popular, mostly processed, food items are loaded with refined sugars and HFCS in particular, this helps explain why cancer rates are on the rise these days.

16 Cancer Causing Foods You Probably Eat Every Day

Dubious- never eat anything fun again, full list in comments

1. Canned Tomatoes
2. Soda Pop
3. Farmed Salmon
4. Processed Meats
5. Microwave Popcorn


Useful life tip: Before you accept *any* invitation ask yourself this question:

What an honor! You have been asked to appear on a panel, to keynote a conference, to advise a celebrity, to be publicly acclaimed. Perhaps you have been offered a plump check. Perhaps you’ve even been promised a prize! Of course you’re flattered. Of course you accept, because you have so much time to prepare. After all, this thing isn’t happening until October. It’s next year. It’s in 2018. It's so far in the future, you’ll probably be dead by then.

Here’s what will happen. Though the engagement seems infinitely far away today, it will eventually, inevitably, be a week away. Then it’s a day away. And you still haven’t written the speech you need to write. You still have to make a hotel reservation and buy a train ticket and find a baby sitter and apologize to your sister for missing her birthday dinner and beg Dan to cover for you in a meeting. (Sorry, Dan.) The opportunity that sparkled so brightly when they flattered you into it six months ago isn’t gleaming anymore. It’s just a gigantic hassle.

But I have the miracle solution. (To give credit where it’s due, this tidbit was passed along to me by my wife, Hanna Rosin, and her friend, New Yorker staff writer Margaret Talbot.) Anytime anyone invites you to do anything, ask yourself this question before you accept: Would I do it tomorrow?

That’s it—those five words. Not: Would I do it on some theoretical day in the future? This is the crucial question: Would I upend whatever I am doing tomorrow so that I can go there and do that?

Are they paying you enough to skip your daughter’s soccer game tomorrow? Is the panel interesting enough that you don’t mind asking your colleague to cover for you, tomorrow? Is the conference important enough to your career that you would blow off your college roommate’s visit, which is tomorrow. When you get the invitation, pay no attention at all to its far-flung date: Move it mentally to tomorrow.

Tomorrow makes decisions simple. Meeting the president? Of course I would do that tomorrow! You’re proposing to pay me that much? Then I would speak to your annual meeting of anesthesiologists tomorrow. Driving to North Carolina to give a speech? Not tomorrow. Serve on that important-sounding committee? If I have to do it tomorrow, no way.

The One Question You Must Ask Yourself Before You Accept Any Invitation

What an honor! You have been asked to appear on a panel, to keynote a conference, to advise a celebrity, to be publicly acclaimed. Perhaps you have bee ...

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Drake is dominating the charts by doing something no other artist has ever done

Drake's album "Views" has topped the Billboard 200 album chart for its ninth straight week — the longest consecutive streak for an album since Adele's "21" dominated the charts for 10 straight weeks in 2012, according to The New York Times.

Drake's album began its run on the charts with an explosive first week that tallied 852,000 physical album sales, but since then, "Views" has stuck around largely on the strength of its streaming.

This past week, Drake topped the chart with 110,000 album equivalent sales, according to Nielsen Music, but streaming comprised the vast majority of this figure.

Since "Views" only sold 25,000 physical copies in the last week, close to 77% of its "sales" came from the album's nearly 100 million streams across services like Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal, according to Billboard.

With its nine-week streak at the top of the chart, "Views" is the first album to make such a consecutive run with streaming as a significant percentage of its sales since Billboard changed its charts to include streaming figures in November 2014. Taylor Swift notably kept her blockbuster album "1989" off of streaming services upon its release that year, and Adele did the same with last year's "25" until several weeks ago.

As Billboard notes, Drake is also the first male artist to top the charts for nine consecutive weeks in over 10 years. The last male artist to tally even nine nonconsecutive weeks atop the chart was Usher with his 2004 album "Confessions."

Drake has the chance to make history next week, as another consecutive week at No. 1 would tie Adele's behemoth "21" for 10 straight weeks atop the chart.

Either way, Drake has set a new precedent for what it means to be a blockbuster album in the age of streaming.

Drake's album "Views" has topped the Billboard 200 album chart for a ninth straight week, the longest consecutive streak since Adele's "21" went for 10 weeks.


This Will Shock You – The Juice That Kills Cancer Cells, Treat Diabetes, Gastritis and Lower Blood Pressure !

Raw potatoes have been used for centuries to cater for several ailments and effectively too.

Blending this crop to extract it’s juice is a known traditional remedy. It helps in combating several ailments such as gastritis, diabetes, it will lower your blood pressure and it can even destroy cancer cells.

Leading researchers advice that you consume 1 tablespoon of potato juice mix with some water and you should drink this solution 30 minutes before any meal and that includes breakfast, lunch and dinner to take care of gastritis.

Studies have been conducted on the health benefits of potato juice and one was done by a professor of Medicine from the University of Akita, Japan – Dr. Kagamine.

He was able to extract a compound from raw potatoes that had a tremendous effect on tumors, reducing it effectively.

When you drink raw potato juice you will boost your immune system and avoid infectious diseases easier. It will also give you a jolt in energy.

Here are some health benefits of raw potato juice.

It helps cater for liver and kidney ailments.

It helps to combat cardiovascular disease.

It will combat gastritis and other stomach issues.

Potato peels are rich in zinc, potassium, protein, carbohydrates, iron, vitamin C and B6. They also help to detoxify your body of harmful toxins,it is also great for treating blackheads, acne and in giving your bright and glowing skin.

Using raw potato juice in making a homemade facial mask will help to cleanse your pores and also tighten it.

Wash the potatoes and take out the the seeds and any green part from the crust.

Use a cloth fabric to wrap the chopped pieces and then squeeze the juice out.

You can use a juicer to blend the chopped potatoes.

Consume your raw potato juice fresh and you can drink it with other veggies and fruits as well such as lemon, carrots and apples.


World predicted to end in 2017 thanks to a total solar eclipse hitting America and the UK

Christian group claim scripture suggests August 21 will bring on an apocalypse

A GROUP of hardcore Christians has claimed a solar eclipse due to hit the UK and America next year, will bring about an apocalypse.

The eclipse will plunge countries into darkness and spark the end of the world, doomsayers from Christian website Unsealed have alleged.

Reuters 5 A Christian website has claimed that next year’s eclipse will bring about the end of the world

Getty Images 5 The website has claimed that scripture from the Book of Revelation supports its theory

A total eclipse is expected to spread across America on August 21 2017, with western Europe experiencing a partial eclipse.

It will be the first total eclipse to travel from one coast of America to the other, for almost a century.

Conspiracy theorists have pointed to passages from The Book of Revelation to support their predictions, the Daily Star reported.

They have highlighted passages describing a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon at her feet.

Scripture says the woman will be hunted by a Satanic seven-headed dragon looking to eat her unborn child.

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It is said the child will be born and taken unto god, before an army of angels defeats the dragon.

Conspiracy theorists have also pointed to the birth of Israel as a state, which began in 1947, to support the theory.

They give significance to mention of this in accounts of the end of the world and say that next year will mark a biblical generation – 70 years – since it happened.

Reuters 5 The doomsayers have cast some doubt over their predictions saying no one knows when the apocalypse will come

NASA 5 The total eclipse will be seen across America, while a partial eclipse will be seen in Western Europe

Getty Images 5 Next years event will be the first total eclipse to travel from one coast of America to the other, for almost a century

Unsealed also highlights predictions of twelfth-century Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel, who reportedly said the end of the world would come in 2017.

But, the doomsayers do hint at some uncertainty in their predictions as they've also said that scripture warns "no one knows" the hour of the apocalypse.

eclipse, end of the world, 2017, Christian


This guy pulled a really weird karaoke prank and no one noticed

Anyone who likes karaoke has a go-to song. At first glance, it appears the guy in this video going viral on Reddit is going to sing Smash Mouth's "All Star" whether anyone wants to hear it or not — even if the sound system is blasting John Lennon's "Imagine." The crowd does not seem to care though, as people are cheering and singing along to the chorus even as the words on the overhead screen are displaying the lyrics to the late Beatle's classic.

Artists Who Have Never Won A Grammy VIEW GALLERY | 23 PHOTOS Queen John Rodgers—Redferns/Getty Images Queen

John Rodgers—Redferns/Getty Images 1 of 23

This Guy Just Pulled a Really Weird Karaoke Prank and No One Noticed

Guy at karaoke bar sings All Star by Smash Mouth even though lyrics to Imagine by John Lennon are on the screen


You won't believe how much money EA makes off extra content each year.

EA makes $1.3 billion a year off of extra content, according to chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen.

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference, Jorgensen detailed the success of the extra content category, which includes things like season passes, map packs, and other microtransactions.

"The extra content business is a billion-three [$1.3 billion] a year," Jorgensen said. "Half of that is roughly our Ultimate Team business."

Ultimate Team, the largest contributor to the earnings of the extra content category, is key to the FIFA, Madden, and NHL franchises and allows players to buy, trade, and sell player cards for real or in-game money.

The reason for Ultimate Team’s monetary success is due to human nature, according to Jorgensen.

Citing people's desires to collect and trade, Jorgenson said players will "typically pay money to beat their friends."

The other categories for digital revenue include mobile ($650 million), subscription services ($300-400 million) and digital downloads, which account for 25 percent of game copies sold overall.

The $1.3 billion figure for extra content is essential to EA’s digital revenue, which was responsible for over half of the company’s overall net revenue in Q4 of EA’s last fiscal year. In that same period extra content saw earnings of $265 million.

Michael Passalacqua is a freelance writer for IGN. Chat with him about the New York Giants' poor offseason moves on Twitter @mikepass20.

This Is How Much Money EA Makes on Extra Content

EA CFO Blake Jorgensen detailed how successful the company is in the digital market.


Northwestern MutualVoice: Don't make this common investing mistake

As another year draws to an end, it's time to reflect upon the past and look toward the future. Many investors spend their time fixating solely on the recent past to inform their view about what's yet to come. While historical analysis can be a helpful investing tool, eventually all trends end. Unfortunately, this often occurs right about the time investors fully embrace yesterday's news and are compelled to take aggressive actions.

I worry that we have again arrived at a time when investors are becoming convinced that recent short-term trends are morphing into actionable long-term performance-enhancing truisms. I encourage investors to make a New Year's resolution to avoid using past performance as an excuse to abandon diversification and concentrate their portfolios on recent winners.

Diversification is a buzz word that investors have been taught they should desire. When I'm speaking to a group of investors and I ask for a show of hands in favor of diversification, every arm goes skyward. But the reality is that when investors actually have diversification, they often hate it. Why? Because diversification means you own assets that provide sub-par performance, perhaps for years. Eventually human nature drives investors to wrongly rid their portfolios of these perennial laggards in an attempt to improve their future returns.

I am not suggesting that you shouldn't sell underperformers or change your allocations. But overweights and underweights to asset classes should be done within a context of a long-term, focused, broadly diversified asset allocation.

Predictions can be fallible. Yes, one could say I am beating up on my own profession, but extreme trend calls often fall flat. I recently had a good chuckle that peak oil demand the idea that demand for oil has peaked and will only fall in the future is morphing into the new wisdom in the oil market to justify lower future oil prices. Is peak oil demand real? Only time will tell.

But history suggests that bold predictions don't always hold true. In the late 1990s a barrel of oil was priced in the low teens and, according to many expert predictions, was headed to the single digits because the U.S. had become energy efficient. This trend ended after China (remember this old investment favorite?) burst on the scene in the early part of the century and stretched oil's existing infrastructure to its limits. The result was that oil skyrocketed to a per-barrel cost near $150, causing many to point to peak oil supplythe idea that world could not continue to increase daily production of oil to meet demandas justification for the rally to continue into the $300s. The collapse to a low of $26 per barrel earlier this year shows how trends come and go.

While the oil narrative is interesting, I have bigger concerns with regard to the current time period. Notably, today's international versus U.S. equities trend reminds me of another known wisdom that captivated many investors in the late ʼ90s. Much like today, U.S. stocks had outperformed other asset classes for an extended period of time, thus convincing many investors that their path to future success was incumbent upon removing the other asset classes and avoiding diversification for diversification's sake.

In late 2000, the S&P 500 (U.S. Large Cap Stocks) completed a strong period of returns relative to other markets. From June 30, 1994, until Aug. 31, 2000, the S&P 500 returned a cumulative 213 percent more than International Developed stocks and 283 percent more than Emerging-Market equities. By the year 2000, to say that many investors had tired of hearing the old-fashioned diversification theme as a reason to stay in international equities was an understatement.

What happened next? From Aug. 31, 2000, to Oct. 31, 2007, the S&P 500 returned 1.99 percent per year, while International Developed advanced 8.26 percent per year and Emerging Markets roared ahead by 20.56 percent annually. Not surprisingly, this caused investors who missed the first trend change to finally return to international markets (especially China and Emerging Markets) around 2006-2007, right about the time this trend ended.

Here we sit, many years later, and once again the U.S. equity markets are outperforming. Questions about the wisdom of diversification are once again filling my inbox. I've heard claims from individual investors that they outperform professional investors. Without satisfying my natural desire for an audit, my response is yes, this is absolutely possible, especially in the short term. After all, those who concentrated their money in U.S. tech stocks back in the late 1990s had an exhilarating run for a few years. Unfortunately those years of returns melted away very abruptly for individual investors who decided to abandon diversification and concentrate in U.S. tech stocks. Professional investors often win longer term simply because their investment process keeps them from making big mistakes like abandoning diversification.

As we look ahead to 2017, we worry that the fear of rising interest rates may cause many investors to contemplate abandoning bonds. Please remind yourselves of the reason you own this asset class for income and a hedge against other parts of your portfolio before making that decision.

Twenty-plus years of watching market trends and vast sentiment shifts have taught me that remaining centered is a strong foundation for long-term success. Diversification doesn't matter until it does, and then you'll be thankful that you have it. In other words, its payment stream is not constant; but when it pays, it often more than makes up for its past shortfalls. So if you make a New Year's resolution, let it be to resist the temptation of trends over the proven merits of diversification.

Northwestern MutualVoice: Don't Make This Common Investing Mistake

Brent Schutte is the chief investment strategist of Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company. As another year draws to an end, it’s time to reflect upon the past and look toward the future. Many investors spend their time fixating solely on the recent past to inform their view about what’s yet to [...]


California and New York top plenty of lists. This isn't one of them:

iStock Thumbtack ranked Texas as the most small-business-friendly state. .

The best state for small business owners is Texas and the worst is Rhode Island, according to an annual survey revealed Tuesday.

The survey, conducted by technology marketplace Thumbtack, contends that the friendliest states and towns for small businesses offer easier or non-existent licensing requirements. On a city basis, the report called Manchester, N.H., the best and Hartford, Conn., the worst for small-business climate.

Best Climates for Small Business States Cities 1. Texas 1. Manchester, N.H. 2. New Hampshire 2. Dallas, Tex. 3. Utah 3. Richmond, Va. 4. Louisiana 4. Austin, Texas 5. Colorado 5. Knoxville, Tenn. Source: Thumbtack

Thumbtack used survey responses from 17,633 small businesses across the United States. Most of the businesses were small service businesses with five or fewer employees.

Startup hotspots California and New York ranked as the fourth and fifth worst states for small business, according to the survey. That’s because the climate for small businesses in both states is "very difficult due to burden of regulations, state government and tax climate," Thumbtack Chief Economist Jon Lieber said.

In both states and cities, training that helped small-business owners learn how to run a business and adhere to policies was most important in determining whether the location was small-business-friendly.

"These small businesses, because they’re so small, really value direct support from a city or a state," Lieber said.

Worst Climates for Small Business States Cities 1. Rhode Island 1. Hartford, Conn. 2. Illinois 2. Albuquerque, New Mexico 3. Connecticut 3. Buffalo, N.Y. 4. California 4. New Haven, Conn. 5. New York 5. Providence, R.I. Source: Thumbtack

Tax regulations and labor regulations were also important drivers on a state basis. For cities, licensing requirements that were either effective or non-existent and website experience, meaning the city has an easy-to-use website, were weighted highly.

Whether or not a city or state is viewed as friendly to small businesses is important for its economic welfare, Lieber said. A friendly city will not only attract more small businesses, but in the event of an economic downturn, more of its local workers will be able to make money by starting a small business.

Less-friendly cities are more dependent on large employers and could suffer more in an economic downturn, he said.

"That can hurt the city in the long run," Lieber said.

The best state and city for small business are ...

According to a survey from Thumbtack, Texas is the most friendly state for small businesses and Rhode Island is the least friendly, and two New England cities bookend another list.


Former Employee Warns Of 12 Fast Food Items You Should NEVER Order, #8 Is HORRIFYING

Twelve former fast food employees were asked "What one menu item should customers NEVER order?" Their candid answers left me speechless. Every American needs to read this!

Most American lifestyles make it difficult to bake a home-cooked meal 7 days a week. Because of this, the fast food industry is booming.

But have you ever wondered what goes on behind the front counter at your favorite fast foot joint? Now, thanks to thirteen former employees, you can avoid the most questionable fast food menu items. Every American needs to see this!

12 Fast Food Items You Should NEVER Order, According To Former Employees

Pasta: "It’s all microwaved, this includes mac and cheese."

Smoothes / Frozen Drinks: "Nasty base crap that smells and it’s sticky."

Coffee Cakes / Cupcakes: "All come frozen."

"Best items are the real sandwiches / salads. Real ingredients and are usually fresh."

Steak and Beans: "I worked at Taco Bell a bit ago and warn everyone to stay away from both the beans, and the steak. The beans start out looking like cat food, and the directions are, ‘Add water and stir until you can’t see white anymore.’ The steak was just the worst on dish duty. If it would sit too long it would become like hair gel. It was the worst."

‘Secret Menu’ Items: "Former Starbucks worker here. Please don’t order anything off the ‘Secret Menu’. It doesn’t exist. If you want a snickerdoodle, Nutella, or Captain Crunch Frappuchino (or whatever other overly sugary thing someone has since come out with), know the base drink and the modifications, and order that. If you just say the name, it’s up to the barista to come up with what’s in the drink, and it may not be what the last barista you ordered from put in there."

Popcorn: "I worked at a theater, don’t get popcorn for the first showing- that’s all just last night’s popcorn put into giant garbage bags and then reheated in the warmers in the morning. Oh yea and remember that sticky floor in the aisle of the theater? Well what do you think would happen if you had that at your house? YES THAT’S HOW YOU GET ANTS... and cockroaches, and everything else. Plus it’s in the dark most of the time. It’s like a bug buffet once the lights go out and the movie starts."

Chicken McNuggets: "I used to work at McDonald’s. If you order, especially chicken nuggets, just ask for them fresh. Otherwise they’ve been just sitting in their container in the heat. They have a timer, but 9/10 times when that timer goes off, people just reset the timer instead of making new ones. This could go on until all the nuggets are sold."

‘McCafe’ Drinks: "I work for McDonald’s and make sure everyone that matters to me never orders anything that comes out of the ‘McCafe’ machine as these are routinely neglected, in practically all the McDonald’s. Not only are staff not properly trained in it’s cleaning and maintenance, at almost every McDonald’s I’ve had experience with, the managers in charge of training don’t know fu** all either... All McCafe beverages run through a horrifically dirty machine — we’re talking 5+ inches of uncleaned, liquid bullshi** making up it’s inside parts."

Hot Dogs: "I used to work in a baseball park concession stand. The short answer is not to order anything, but if you absolutely have to buy something, don’t buy the hot dogs. Do not. Buy. The Hot Dogs. They made it out of the package okay, and might even have been edible after we finished grilling them — and then they went into the water.

We kept three pans of water at the back of the grill that held the hot dogs. Any hot dogs left at the end of the day went back into the fridge, and came out again the next day. Me and the other cook put our feet down on throwing out the water and old hot dogs after two full days, but the management didn’t want to let us."

Beans: "Taco John’s reporting for all you midwesterners. I would steer clear of the beans, at least outside of peak hours, because they sit on the hot table for a long time and when they dry out, they just add water. Everything else is pretty solid though. Worked there a couple years back in 2007-2009 and still love going back to get my fix."

BBQ Sandwiches: "Worked at KFC for 4 years. The BBQ sandwhich is actually made from chicken too old and stale to give to the homeless shelters, so they soak it in BBQ sauce until it can be bulled and then they keep it on the heater for a month. I still order it though."

Quesarito: "It backs up the line like no other. If it’s not busy, you’re fine but PLEASE do not order a quesarito during peak hours. Employees will hate you. The people behind you in line will hate you. Everyone will hate you. There’s nothing wrong with it health/sanitation wise, but too few people order it for our da**ed managers to rearrange and optimize our food line for quesarito production."

Eggs: "I worked at Einstein’s bagel place which is basically fast food. Don’t order anything with eggs, they aren’t real eggs and if business is slowo they could have been sitting in a container for hours after they are microwaved."

Chili: "I used to work at Wendy’s. The meat used in the chili, yea that comes from the meat on the grill top that expires and dries up that’s put into a warming drawer until you have enough for a batch of chili, which we first freeze and then thaw the next day. Also if the chili sitting in the warmer doesn’t sell fast enough we just added hot water to it to mix it up."

Slurpees: "The amount of mold in those machines would crush your childhood to a pulp."

#8 is KFC, the whole list is just fast food chains. Panera, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Wendy's...

1. Panera Pasta
2. Taco Bell Steak and Beans
3. Starbucks ‘Secret Menu’ Items
4. Your Local Movie Theater Popcorn
8. KFC BBQ Sandwiches


The one word Tom Hanks says made him successful

I was only 10 years old the first time I watched it. In the film, Tom Hanks plays a young boy who makes a wish "to be big," and then ages to adulthood overnight. Hanks’s brilliant performance is exemplified in that two-minute scene, as he demonstrates the power of a great actor to bring an imaginary character to life–and in turn inspire an entire generation to love the movies.

That role in Big earned Hanks his first Oscar nomination for best actor, but it wouldn’t be his last. In fact, Hanks has gone on to become one of the most recognized and honored actors of all time.

But it wasn’t always that way. There was a time when Hanks was better known for his roles in more forgettable movies like Turner & Hooch and Joe Versus the Volcano. (Although, admittedly, I love both films.)

So how did Hanks go from making box office bombs to critically acclaimed hits? In a recent interview with John Oliver at the Tribeca Film Festival, the accomplished actor talked about the pivotal change he had to make.

Speaking about the variety of film roles he was being offered, Hanks had this to say (as reported by Business Insider):

I realized...that I had to start saying a very, very difficult word to people, which was "no." The odd lesson for that is, I figured out that’s how you end up making the favorable work you do.... Saying yes, then you just work. But saying no means you made the choice of the type of story you wanted to tell and the type of character you want to play.

There’s a lot of wisdom in these words—and not just for actors.

When I started my business some years ago, I literally took whatever work I could get my hands on. Living in a foreign country with a family to feed, I had no choice. But as time went on, I established my brand and gained more freedom–especially in deciding which clients and jobs I wanted to focus my efforts on.

And let me tell you, there’s no better feeling than having that freedom. But you have to take advantage of it.

Others have touted the remarkable power of that two-letter-word. For example, Jony Ive, Apple’s design chief and the man Steve Jobs once called his "spiritual partner," said that Jobs would ask him the same question almost every day:

It’s that ability to decide when to say no, says Ive, that made Jobs "the most remarkably focused person I’ve ever met in my life."

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a manager or team lead, or even an employee, you’re faced with choices about your work on a daily basis. Should I take that meeting? Do I really want to take on this client or project? Should I focus on this task at the expense of the other?

From time to time, it pays to take a moment to think about what you really want to accomplish. Not just today but over the next weeks, months, and years. Allow that focused thinking to guide your decision making.

Every time you say yes to something you don’t really want, you’re actually saying no to the things you do.

The One Word Tom Hanks Says Made Him Successful

"Every time you say yes to something you don't really want, you're actually saying no to the things you do."

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Dermatologists Explain How To Solve Man's Stinky Balls Problem

Every man knows about one of summertime’s worst problems. And if you hang around a guy when it’s hot out, you probably know about it, too. It’s stinky balls syndrome.

You may also know it as sweaty balls, swamp balls, swamp crotch, swamp ass. You get the idea. It’s bad news. Any guy who sweats is susceptible to SBS, especially when the temperature and humidity rises.

And you can thank your foldy balls for it. Folds in your skin are the biggest factor that contributes to a testicular scent, according to Dr. Janellen Smith, a professor of dermatology at the University of California, Irvine.

When the folds of your skin rub against each other, "little pieces of dead skin cells fall off," Smith told HuffPost, and that leads to odor-causing bacteria and yeast. "If you’re a little piece of yeast, you like dead skin cells and moisture" to grow," she said.

On top of that, your sweat and smell also stem from the two types of sweat glands that are highly dense in the groin, said Dr. Marie Jhin, a San Francisco dermatologist and author of the book Asian Beauty Secrets. While the eccrine and apocrine glands produce sweat, the apocrine glands produce your musky smell; mix in all that yeast and bacteria, and you’ve got yourself a top shelf mix for SBS.

Think of it as one of nature’s many ways of sending your unique pheromonal vibes out into the world ― much like how beards on your face also produce a smell.

So what do you do to combat stinky balls?

Regularly wash and thoroughly dry your balls in the morning and keep them dry throughout the day. "We try to make an environment that [bacteria] do not like," Smith said.

She says it’s best to keep your balls unconstricted. Wear boxers rather than briefs, she advises, and wear cotton, which "wicks away moisture so that it doesn’t stay on the skin so much."

She also advises her patients to use an antifungal powder on the groin, such as Zeasorb, which you can get at your drugstore for about $10. Alternatively, she recommends a gel, such as Monistat’s Complete Care Chafing Relief Powder Gel (about $9), that allows your folded skin layers to glide over each other with less friction.

There are also natural ways to keep SBS at bay, using ingredients you can find in your kitchen: Smith says a teaspoon of white vinegar applied to the skin with a small towel will kill off any bacteria (but don’t use more than a teaspoon, or else you’ll "end up smelling like a salad," she advised).

Jhin said regular baking corn starch is a good powder to use if you want to steer clear of talcs or aluminum-based powders.

There you have it ― may your swamp crotch be gone for good!

How To Prevent Your Stinky Balls Problem, According To Experts

Wash, keep dry, stay unconstricted, use an antifungal powder. If you want, use vinegar or cornstarch. #StopClickBait


Where you'll heard @OfficialAdele's voice soon

Born Cameron Jibril Thomaz, Wiz spoke about the project in a recent interview with Fuse TV, revealing that he recorded songs with two major female artists.

"I've got songs with Miley," the rapper explained. "I've got songs with Adele."

"I've got a lot of guest appearances that I've already done but none of them have been cleared for the album yet," Wiz added.

Called "Blacc Hollywood," Wiz's album is hyped to hit stores later this year. The 25-year-old rapper, who released his last album, "O.N.I.F.C.," in 2012, has already dropped the first single off of the forthcoming project, "Look Into My Eyes."

"Blacc Hollywood," which also features a collaboration with The Weeknd, is named as such because "it just represents the lifestyle," Wiz told Vibe in June. "Not really like ‘black people in Hollywood’ but just like a black attitude, not giving a [f--k] about anything. [It’s like] just really blacking out on the world. We bringing that to Hollywood."

Wiz Khalifa & Adele Reportedly Recorded Together In Rapper's 'Blacc Hollywood' Sessions

Rapper Wiz Khalifa has recruited some surprising collaborators for his upcoming fifth studio album.

Born Cameron Jibril Thomaz, Wiz spoke about the p...

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On @WizKhalifa's upcoming fifth studio album


Skyrim Remastered: Bethesda shares terrible news for PS4 and Xbox One Users

Bethesda shares terrible news about Skyrim: Remastered edition for PS4 and Xbox One Users

There is bad news for Skyrim players who played the game on Xbox 360 or PS3, as opposed to current gen consoles. The game which is expected to release very soon has really made role playing game fans have something to look forward to this year.

The version promises improved visuals and full 4K support. What’s more Bethesda has also announced that the game will support mods on both the Xbox One and PS4 versions.

Although Xbox One users would be able to make mods using third-party assets, PS4 users won’t be able to use any third-party assets to create mods. This means you nude mods, etc on PS4.

However, this isn’t the bad news we’re talking about. Pete Hines, Bethesda’s Vice President confirmed something a bit more harrowing during one of his usual Twitter QnA sessions recently that might not go down too well with fans.

The upcoming remastered version of the bestselling Bethesda RPG which is titled as The Elder Scrolls Skyrim: Special Edition, will not support the older save files in present gen consoles.

Pete Hines, Vice President of Bethesda, confirmed while answering to fan’s question on Twitter that cross platform transfer of saved files will not be possible for the remastered version of the game.

One of the fans also inquired whether the saved files can be transferred from PC to Xbox One via the official Bethesda website, to which Hines replied with a straight ‘No’.

Although this news might be disappointing for players who have spent hundreds of hours playing Skyrim, we have to understand the fact that the current gen consoles (Xbox One and PlayStation 4) and the previous gen consoles (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) have entirely different data structures which makes it impossible to transfer saved files.

The Elder Scrolls Skyrim: Special Edition will release on October 28 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Bethesda's shared some bad news for Xbox One and PS4 users regarding its upcoming Skyrim: Special Edition

PS3 and xbox360 saves cannot be transferred to PS4 and Xbox one. #StopClickBait


The unnoticed trend that worries Europe’s counterterrorism agencies

LONDON — Germany is on edge once again as investigators try to stitch together the motive of a driver who plowed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, killing 12 people in what German authorities described as a likely "act of terrorism."

But new data shows that European authorities aren't just guarding against terror plots using weapons like trucks or bombs. They are also concerned about a more conventional threat: illegal firearms that may be increasingly easy for suspected terror networks to obtain.

According to the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at King's College London, criminals-turned-terrorist suspects are becoming a more common problem. The research center collected extensive data on 79 recent European militants with criminal pasts. About 80 percent of those involved in recent terrorism plots had criminal convictions.

The researchers fear that extremists with criminal pasts could plan large-scale attacks more easily because of underworld contacts and previous experience dodging the law. "Because of the changing profiles of terrorists, it is easier and cheaper for them to obtain firearms," said Nils Duquet, senior weapons researcher at the Flemish Peace Institute.

The growing market for firearms has led to an increase in supply. The number of seized illicit firearms in Europe has been on the rise for years.

A research project funded by the European Commission also laid out Europe's vast weapons trafficking network. The "Fire Project" documents all firearms that were seized in the European Union between 2010 and early 2015.

One country in Western Europe stands out among the rest: Belgium. Across the country, thousands of firearms were seized over the last few years — many more than in other Western European countries.

Many of the recent major terror attacks in Europe were planned in Belgium's capital, Brussels, where police have raided dozens of homes belonging to suspected Islamic State sympathizers or other militants. Experts, however, say that only a fraction of all illicit firearms which circulate in the small European country were found.

"What authorities focus on is gaining some time," said Duquet. "The aim is to make sure that terrorists need extra steps to obtain a gun — for instance, one week. Every additional day you win is an extra day for authorities to intervene."

Most trafficking takes place on land routes, rather than on ships or planes. Criminals involved in the trafficking business enter the European Union's Schengen area, where there are few border checks, through E.U. members Slovenia or Croatia.

So how easy is it to cross the border into the Schengen area? A look at the chart below helps explain the answer: very easy, in most cases. So far, few E.U. citizens are thoroughly screened while entering the Schengen zone from outside. While non-E. U. citizens are frequently asked to stop and have their vehicles searched, E.U. citizens are mostly allowed to pass.

This explains why the vast majority of those involved in firearms trafficking on European Union soil are citizens of the union. Many come from Southern Europe.

Although the vast majority of weapons smugglers are young, between 20 and 34, there is also a surprising number of older criminals who earn money from the business.

The mixed profiles of those offering illicit firearms in Europe is matched by an increasingly diverse demand for the weapons on offer.

"Ten years ago you wouldn't have found Kalashnikovs in Western Europe," said Duquet, referring to an assault rifle developed in the Soviet Union and now widely copied around the world. Tens of thousands of those weapons still circulate in the Balkans, where war still raged two decades ago. Many of those weapons are now making their way to Western Europe, often smuggled in small quantities.

"For criminals, Kalashnikovs are not that interesting. You can't really rob a store with it," said Duquet. "But for terrorists, Kalashnikovs are ideal. They kill many people in a short time frame."

In Europe, limited border checks also mean a potential pipeline for weapons.

Berlin; Christmas market, Terrorism; attack; suspected; Berlin attack


5 potential names for Las Vegas' new NHL franchise

Breaking down five potential franchise names for the NHL’s Las Vegas expansion.

NHL hockey appears to be officially headed to Las Vegas as Sin City has been approved to become the league’s 31st franchise according to the Associated Press. This landmark decision gives Las Vegas its first major professional sports franchise after years of trying to break through the stigma associated with the city in order to land a pro sports team to add to the lengthy list of entertainment options in the tourist capital of the United States.

Now that Vegas has an NHL team to call their own, it will need a team name. Something that will create plenty of fun debate as to what would be the most fitting name for a team playing in the Sin City. Should they make a tongue in cheek ode to their gambling reputation? Or should they go with a new identity with a name that distances itself from the reputation of Vegas as being the city of vices?

There are plenty of directions in which the NHL’s newest franchise could go with when it comes to a team name, but on the day of the news that Vegas will be the newest home of pro hockey we have five names that should be considered for the league’s 31st team.

With the NHL adding more corporate sponsorship than ever, there is an opportunity for the league to sell the naming rights of a franchise that will have to pay a $500 million expansion fee. With T-Mobile looking like the perfect fit to be the first company to own naming rights to a sports franchise to play in the already named T-Mobile Arena.

The telecom giants already have a long history of corporate sponsorship in sports as Bundesliga champions FC Bayern have their kits sponsored by T-Mobile so the opportunity to have the naming rights for an entire team would be an opportunity that would definitely interest the company.

The only question is if the NHL are willing to upset the traditionalist in order to create an instant revenue stream for its newest franchise.

Basketball and hockey teams in Europe being named after corporate sponsors is nothing new as T-Mobile own the naming rights to the Basketball Bundesliga team in Bonn, Germany, but with the backlash surrounding ads on NBA and NHL jerseys this idea could be a hard sell even if it would be a nice cash injection to get the Vegas franchise going in terms of creating revenue.

That being said, there is already an American team doing this and it hasn’t hurt them at all... the New York Red Bulls, as in the energy drink.

Don’t expect the naming rights of the NHL franchise to be sold, but if the league is open to the idea there would be no better fit than T-Mobile to step in.

This name would be a direct tie-in to UNLV, which is the city’s most famous non-gambling institution and will be a key demographic that the NHL will be trying to lure to the T-Mobile Arena once the team opens up operations in the coming years.

The Runnin’ Rebels are Vegas’ team as without pro sports, the UNLV basketball program in the 80s and 90s brought the city their only major championship in 1990 when they won the National Championship. Since then, the Rebels have been the toast of the town even if their football and basketball programs haven’t found the same success. A built-in fanbase that the NHL could associate with by making a nod to the university with the Ice Rebels name.

There could be objections made by the university for infringing upon their school’s marketing, but with Vegas sports being so closely associated with UNLV it would be fitting that the first major pro sports franchise in the city would also carry the Rebels name proudly onto the ice.

There is a bit of precedent here as well, the University of Texas at Arlington lent their Mavericks mascot to an NBA expansion franchise in nearby Dallas.

Another ode to former sports franchises, the Outlaws existed briefly in Las Vegas as both an XFL as well as Arena Football franchise. Both times only lasting a single season in Vegas before folding in 2001 with Vince McMahon’s failed XFL league and the AFL Outlaws folding due to poor attendance after their lone season in 2015.

While the Outlaws name is most recently associated with former Motley Crüe frontman Vince Neil’s failed AFL franchise, the XFL Outlaws managed to draw 22,000 fans per game and most notably had "He Hate Me" Rod Smart on their roster during that one fateful summer where the XFL existed briefly on NBC.

Naming the team the Outlaws would be a good way to tie in the identity of Las Vegas as well as to touch on its sporting history without directly associating with a current franchise or with gambling. The only real drawback would be naming a franchise after two teams that only managed to last a single season in Las Vegas before ultimately folding.

This name will be a big favorite as it seems like a natural way to tie-in Vegas casinos with the new NHL franchise. Something that the NHL may or may not want to do as Gary Bettman has been on the record stating that he does not approve of sports betting on his league, something that may or may not also extend to his league being associated with casino gaming.

Now that the NHL is in Vegas, Bettman is likely to be singing a different tune when it comes to legal gambling when he will be looking for corporate sponsorships so the Aces name should definitely be on the table if it is floated around. And it should be floated around as it seems to be a no-brainer to name the team after something related to its poker/blackjack playing history.

We will have to see if the NHL approves of such associations with Vegas’ casinos, but with the aforementioned need to draw sponsorship money from them an easy way to build an early relationship would be by directly tying the casinos to the team with a name like the Aces.

This name is a straight ode to Vegas’ professional hockey history as the former Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL were in existence from 2003-2014, bringing minor hockey to the Sin City in the third tier league to the NHL/AHL.

A former ECHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames and the Phoenix Coyotes, the Wranglers did successful business in the city for over a decade before their lease at the Orleans Arena forced the franchise to fold. Their Wikipedia page citing that they were given the "Best Local Sports Team" award by the Las Vegas Review-Journal on three separate occasions during their run in Vegas. Producing a handful of NHL role players along the way as a team that was always a fixture in the ECHL Playoffs.

Naming a team after a now defunct minor league team might be a tough sell, but the Wranglers are one of few historic names that could be considered for the new NHL franchise and is a name that has little ties to the gambling presence that commissioner Gary Bettman has historically had a problem with. Based on the Wranglers mostly successful run in the city before recently folding, it would be a nice homage to a team that brought hockey to the Sin City first by naming the new team after the former ECHL franchise.

5 potential names for Las Vegas’ new NHL franchise

Breaking down five potential franchise names for the NHL's Las Vegas expansion.
 NHL hockey appears to be <a href=" " tar...

"T-Mobile Las Vegas", or Las Vegas Ice Rebels, Outlaws, Aces, Wranglers

5. T-Mobile Las Vegas
4. Las Vegas Ice Rebels
3. Las Vegas Outlaws
2. Las Vegas Aces
1. Las Vegas Wranglers


"Glee" star added to cast of new teen movie

"Glee" star Alex Newell is among the young stars in "Geography Club," an adaptation of Brent Hartinger's popular novel of the same name. Newell joins Marin Hinkle, Meaghan Martin, Cameron Deane Stewart, Allie Gonino, Justin Deely, Nikki Blonsky, Scott Bakula and Ana Gasteyer in the "Geography Club" cast. (The film, from Huffington Pictures, is produced by Michael Huffington and Anthony Bretti; Huffington is the former husband of this site's Editor-in-Chief.)

"When I first read the script, I was like, 'Wow, this is going to open a lot of eyes," Newell, who stars on "Glee" as Wade "Unique" Adams, a transgender member of the show's glee club, said in an interview with ETOnline.com. "It really appealed to me because I wanted to open more eyes about it and show people this is what we go through."

'Geography Club' Adds 'Glee' Star Alex Newell To Cast

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