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The reason Apple needs a music streaming service explained in one chart (AAPL)

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Apple revealed its new music streaming app, Apple Music, at its annual developers conference on Monday. Apple Music will let you stream "millions and millions" of songs from iTunes, alongside curated playlists and music videos. The app also comes with a 24/7 radio service called Beats 1, and Connect, a social platform where artists can share back stage photos or new track materials with their fans.

Today's announcement comes at an interesting time for Apple's music business. According to data from Bank of America, charted for us by BI Intelligence, music download revenue from Apple's music store has been in a steady decline over the past three years. In 2012 and early 2013, music downloads accounted for as much as 88% of Apple's revenue from its online music store - but in the second quarter of 2015, it's down to 62% of total revenue.

"We attribute a part of this decline in music downloads to the growing popularity of streaming audio," Bank of America wrote in a report.

It remains to be seen how Apple Music will do in the market. But Apple is marketing it aggressively — the first three months of the service will be offered for free once it launches on June 30. After the first three months, it will cost $9.99 a month, or $14.99 a month for a family package of up to six people.

bii_itunesappstorerevenue_6_8_15

SEE ALSO: Apple could miss out on a $2.4 billion opportunity next year by delaying its new TV service

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Cleveland weatherman goes nuts on live TV about the Warriors fouling LeBron James in the Finals

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mark johnson

Though the Cleveland Cavaliers pulled out a 95-93 overtime Game 2 win over the Golden State Warriors Sunday night, some Cleveland fans are still upset about a no-call on a clear foul on LeBron James.

On a crucial possession in overtime, James was hacked by Andre Iguodala, but the refs didn't call a foul, instead calling a 24-second violation on the Cavs.

It was clearly a foul, but the refs missed it:

Lebron hacked

Had the Cavs lost the game, this would have been an egregious no-call that could have drastically affected the whole series. However, the Cavs won, so the no-call it didn't affect the outcome

To meteorologist Mark Johnson of Cleveland's ABC5, the no-call was unacceptable.

Before giving a weather report, Johnson went on a mini-rant griping about the non-call on live TV. Johnson gave a demonstration of "new NBA rules," saying, "This is no longer a foul":

Mark Johnson foul

He continued, "That's no longer a foul. We learned that tonight in the Golden State game... Actually you should've come down and hacked me a little harder. You should've taken a saw and sawed off my arm!"

Johnson can take solace in the series going back to Cleveland for Games 3, 4, and 5, where James might get some more favorable calls.

Here's the full video:

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Check out the amazing armored trains of World War I and World War II

Hungary and China signed an accord on new Silk Road trade network

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china hungary

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary and China have signed an accord to cooperate on the creation of a new Silk Road network, a Chinese plan to boost trade with Europe.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who signed the deal with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, says cooperation between the two countries "has never been as good or as effective as now" and that Hungary seeks to become the regional hub for China's activities in Europe.

China Silk Road map graphicSzijjarto said Saturday the Chinese project officially known as "One Belt, One Road," was "one of the most significant concepts in world trade." It includes a project financed by China to upgrade the 370-kilometer (230-mile) railroad link between Budapest and Serbia's capital, Belgrade.

Wang called Hungary an "important partner" of China's in efforts to speed up relations with the West.

SEE ALSO: What the new Silk Road means for the gold market

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It took 3-and-a-half hours to transform Paul Bettany every day into the Vision for 'The Avengers' sequel

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paul bettany avengers age of ultron world premiere

Hands down the best character in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," the followup to the 2012 hit, was the introduction of a new character, The Vision.

Played by Paul Bettany, who up until this point has solely voiced Tony Stark's A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S., Vision is a human android who fights alongside the Avengers.

During press for the film, Business Insider spoke with Bettany on playing the character.

While Bettany had a great time as the superhero, he says it took three-and-a-half hours each day to do the makeup for the film, and it wasn't always a thrill ride.

"Mainly the pain in the ass was the prosthetics and stuff that you know is as uncomfortable as getting paid a lot of money to be uncomfortable is, which is not really that uncomfortable," Bettany recalled.

"It wasn’t even the putting it on – it was the sitting in it, you know," he added. "The putting it on — which took about three-and-a-half hours — with prosthetics, makeup, and all of that, and then the suit ... It was the sitting in it. The first day was okay, and it wasn’t even the second day really, but the third day in a row and the fourth and the fifth day was … you had to really get kind of zen about it, and meditate on the line of 1,000 actors behind you that would like to be in your position, you know?"

vision avengers age of ultronSpecial effects makeup artist Shaune Harrison, who worked on the character for about five months, tells Business Insider the actual Vision makeup is a combination of prosthetics and digital makeup.

"Most of the lines on the front part of his face are added digitally," Harrison wrote in an email.

the visionBettany described the effort of the makeup team transforming him each day.

"The makeup on my face, which, you know, they’re huge prosthetic pieces that go from below my eyebrows all the way down to the mid-shoulder blade. And same thing around my neck. The only part of your skin of your entire body that’s open to the air is a sort of … part of your face the size of maybe your hand.

Once he was in the getup, what was the experience like?

"You can’t hear very well," Bettany continued. "You can imagine it’s quite isolating and you have a cooling mechanism which is a suit beneath it that pumps a sort of ice cold water around you like racing car drivers use, and there’s a lot of sitting down, reading, and just trying to focus on how very fortunate you are."

There aren't any images available yet of Bettany making his transformation into the superhero.

We'd be surprised if we don't see some when the film is eventually released on Blu-ray.

SEE ALSO: Moments after Paul Bettany was told his career was dead, he was asked to play the Vision

AND: Marvel broke its own movie rule to let Paul Bettany play a new superhero in "Avengers: Age of Ultron"

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Pandora stock plunges 4% after Apple introduces its new music service (P, AAPL)

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Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews

Pandora's stock fell more than 4% Monday afternoon after Apple announced its new music streaming service

After an initial plunge of 4.3% as Apple streamed its product launch, the stock is now hovering out at around 3.75% down. 

Apple Music comes with a 24/7 online radio station called Beats 1, which will be free, unlike the rest of the product, which costs $9.99 a month for a single user, or $14.99 a month for a  family plan with up to 6 users.

Besides radio, the full service has curated playlists and recommendations made by real people, not just algorithms. Pandora's premium product, which lets users get rid of advertising and skip more songs, costs $4.99 a month.

Here's a look at how Pandora's stock has moved:Pandora

SEE ALSO: Apple announces Apple Music, its new music streaming app

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The Navy's premier airstrike platform could be sidelined from the Middle East for a month or two

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USS Theodor Roosevelt aircraft carrier

In a bid to give sailors some much needed rest and perform routine maintenance, the Navy plans on pulling back its aircraft carrier from the Persian Gulf, David Lartner reports for Navy Times. 

After the recall of the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, there will be a month or two gap in presence before the USS Truman aircraft carrier arrives in the Gulf and undertakes the Roosevelt's role. 

This gap in operations will occur in the midst of Operation Inherent Resolve and the continuing air strikes against ISIS throughout Syria and Iraq.

If there is a gap in coverage, aerial operations against ISIS will have to be retooled by relying on ground based aircraft. The US would also have to place a larger focus on launching sorties from US airbases throughout the region. 

Naval officials told the Navy Times on background that although the absence of an aircraft carrier in the region will be a setback, it is necessary for the Navy to continue to operate with a decreased budget. 

"As a result of meeting increased [combatant commander] demand in previous years, sequestration's impact on our shipyards, and having a force structure of 10 (rather than 11) carriers, the Navy is not scheduled to provide a continuous carrier presence in some operating regions in fiscal year 2016," Navy spokesman Commander William Marks told the Navy Times. 

The recall of the USS Theodore Roosevelt is not guaranteed, however, and Central Command and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter could still request that there be no gap in carrier coverage in the Persian Gulf. 

The US fields more aircraft carriers than any other nation earth, with 10 commissioned nuclear powered fleet carriers. Each of these carriers can function as a mobile mini-American air base, which allow the US to project power far away from its own shores. 

aircraft carriers

However, the value of aircraft carriers in the future of war has comes under question. Retired Navy Capt. Jerry Hendrix, writing in the National Review, has made the case that the US should ultimately stop investing in carriers and begin looking for alternatives. 

"At $14 billion apiece, one of them can cost the equivalent of nearly an entire year’s shipbuilding budget," Hendrix notes. "Each carrier holds the population of a small town. Americans are willing to risk their lives for important reasons, but they have also become increasingly averse to casualties."

As the after effects of sequestration and a declining Naval budget are continued to be felt, the cost-benefit of fielding a constant carrier presence in multiple parts of the world may become a more open question. 

SEE ALSO: A former Navy captain just identified the biggest flaw in the US aircraft-carrier strategy

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Dunkin' Donuts is planning a massive delivery service

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dunkin donuts doughnut sprinklesDunkin' Donuts thinks delivery is the future of its business. 

The company plans to test delivery of its coffee, donuts, and food to customers, CEO Nigel Travis said in an interview with CNBC

"We're now developing mobile ordering. We're doing a private test. We'll move to a more public test later this year," Travis said.

The news of Dunkin's delivery plans comes at a time when many other large companies are venturing into delivery services.

Delivery app Postmates has partnered with major fast food chains including McDonald's, Starbucks, and Chipotle. 

Fans seem thrilled about the development. 

As for when to expect this delivery service? Travis shared that mobile ordering could be launched sometime next year, but the service is still very much in the development phase.

"The key thing is we have to make sure we can operationalize all these procedures. That's why I've slowed up mobile ordering to make sure it's operationally simple at the store level," said Travis. 

SEE ALSO: Pizza Hut made one mistake that sabotaged its turnaround

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The cost of one year living on a 40-foot boat

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sam francecsa

Three years ago, Sam Train, a naval officer stationed in Newport, Rhode Island, asked his wife, Francesca Spidalieri, if she'd be willing to live on a boat. 

"She said 'Sure,'" he recalls. "I was flabbergasted."

But it made perfect sense to Francesca, since the couple would be moving every few years.

"At least this way, we get to own something and bring our home with us," she explains. 

They ended up buying a pre-owned 40' Catalina cruiser for $150,000, with mortgage payments of about $800 a month. 

For two years, they lived on board during the summer, then moved to a rental apartment in winter.

But at the end of 2013, they found out that they'd be moving to San Diego, where the climate would be mild enough to live on the boat year round. 

"I did the math and figured out that we'd save $50,000 over three years, if we lived on board instead of renting an apartment in San Diego and leaving the boat on the East Coast," Sam says.

So they used the Navy's relocation allowance to cover the cost of having the boat shipped from Rhode Island to California. 

dolce vita

A year later, they still think that it was the right choice. In an average month, it costs  them around $2,200 to live on the boat.  By comparison, they would spend $2,500 to $3,000 to rent an apartment in a similar area of San Diego, and still be paying the boat's mortgage on top of that.

sam francescaTheir largest expense is paying to keep the boat at a marina, which costs $1,050 a month, including the $250 "live aboard" fee.  

That covers utilities such as water and electricity, and also allows them to keep their cars in the parking lot, use the pool and laundry facilities, and receive mail and packages there.

Though there are other expenses that they wouldn't have if they lived in an apartment, the costs are minimal.

For $25, a pumpout boat empties their sewage tank, which usually needs to be done once a week.

Sam maintains the boat's mechanical systems himself, but the couple hires a professional to wash and wax the boat's exterior once a month, which costs $80. Every six months, they pay a diver $50 to clean the bottom. 

Since they're living in approximately 300 square feet of space, renting a storage unit for $100 a month is a non-negotiable expense. In addition to the extra bedding and towels that they use when guests come, it also holds the majority of their clothing, serving as a giant walk-in closet. 

The couple also budgets $1,000 a year for any unexpected maintenance costs that may come up. "It's like a car, where you don’t spend anything for a while and then you spend a ton of money," Sam explains.

sam william

Sam and Francesca had their first child in August, and they admit that sharing an already-tiny space with a baby has been a learning process.

But they're better suited to it than most.

Francesca grew up in Italy, and says that the boat is much more luxurious then any of the tiny apartments that she rented there as a student.

And Sam has gotten used to living in a small space on board a ship while he's been in the Navy. 

sam william

The experience has forced them to limit the number of things that they own, and taught them that they can deal with minor inconveniences like not having their own laundry machines. 

"You can't take the American dream of a big house, big yard, and picket fence, and easily wrap it into a small space like a boat," Sam says.

"You have to give up a lot of stuff."

"The idea of making do with less is something that I hope we can take with us, wherever we go next," Francesca adds. "Even if it is a house."

SEE ALSO: Here's the salary you have to earn to buy a home in 15 major US cities

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We need a 'third class of worker' for people like Lyft and Uber drivers, says investor

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instacart delivery guy

There's a war brewing over what to call the Uber and Lyft drivers in this world, and "employee" might not be the answer. 

"I think it's not 1099 versus W-2. I think the right answer is a third class of worker," said Simon Rothman, a partner at Greylock and an investor in Sprig, which uses 1099 employees. "People are now becoming one-person companies, and they're not even working for one entity."

The new economic model championed by the on-demand economy relies on a steady stream of 1099 contract workers. They are called 1099 workers because of the IRS tax form "1099 MISC" that they fill out when hired, compared to the traditional W2 that full-time employees complete.

It's a business model that's being contested in court after Boston labor rights attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan sued Uber and Lyft.

While Rothman acknowledged that it is likely going to be the W-2 that wins out, it is still "fundamentally wrong," he said on a panel at the grand opening of Shift's new offices.

Rothman's argument centered around the fact that many of the 1099 contractors don't have loyalty to a singular company and are instead becoming one-person companies by working for several platforms.

The 2015 1099 Economy Workforce Report found that 38 percent of the on-demand workers are signed on to multiple companies at once while 13 percent said they switched companies to try to leverage the sign-up bonuses. uber lyft

If you unbundle benefits from companies or substitute them on a pro-rata basis, that's when you can create a new flexible labor class that matches how the delivery drivers or house cleaners of the on-demand economy see their jobs, Rothman said. He would love to see companies start personalized healthcare that travels with you and not dependent on your employer. 

"I think this new class of worker has to reflect this new type of work that's being done," Rothman said. "If you decouple the benefits, if you decouple the pension so it's not tied with you, think about the control you can have, going out of the networks as you wish, controlling the what and when of your job."

Rothman is not the only person thinking about the third labor class either. In Germany, as Shift's founder George Arison noted on the panel, there is already a third class of "dependent contractors". 

Even in the Lyft case, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said in a March decision that he's not sure if Lyft drivers fit in either category of California's "outdated" employment codes.

“The jury in this case will be handed a square peg and asked to choose between two round holes,” he wrote. “The test the California courts have developed over the 20th Century for classifying workers isn’t very helpful in addressing this 21st Century problem.”

Rothman also saw it as an evolution of the labor system.

"What's happened over the last generation is that you no longer have one career with one employer, but you expect to have one employer at a time," Rothman said. "Why can't you work for 5 platforms, or 50 platforms at a time?"

SEE ALSO: This lawyer fought for FedEx drivers and strippers. Now she's standing up for Uber drivers

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Investors are pulling their money from Bill Gross

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Bill Gross

FA Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that delivers the top news and commentary for financial advisors.

Money is exiting Bill Gross' Janus Global Unconstrained Bond (Reuters)

Bill Gross' Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund saw $11.7 million in outflows during May. The outflows have dropped the fund's assets under management to $1.5 billion, almost half of which is Bill Gross' personal investment. Reuters reports, "So far this year, the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, which Gross started managing in October, is posting returns of negative 0.63 percent. That's trailing 95 percent of its peer category and underperforming them by 1.93 percentage points." 

Advisors should just say no to investing in marijuana (Think Advisor)

Advisors should be wary of telling their clients to invest in the marijuana industry. Despite sales of $2.7 billion in 2014, and projected sales of $11 billion by 2019, marijuana is still illegal at the federal level. "I don’t believe there’s a financial advisor who under their duties can actually suggest that their client invest in the medical marijuana business,” said David Welch, a lawyer at D|R Welch Attorneys at Law in Los Angeles. He continued, “It’s something that has to be done outside of the realm of the financial planner, just because of the risk involved.”

A look at China's stock market surge (Charles Schwab)

While China's Shenzhen Composite has surged 186% this year, the MSCI China Index, which is how US investors gain access to the Chinese mainland, has only gained 32%. The price-to-earnings ratio for the Shenzhen Composite is north of 60, but the PE for the China MSCI Index is less than 13. So what does it mean? Schwab's Jeffrey Kleintop says, "We still find the Hong Kong-traded Chinese (Historically, when referring to the Chinese stock market we meant the Hong Kong market) stocks attractive on a longer-term basis. Hong Kong-traded shares offer attractive valuations, rising earnings, and improving economic fundamentals."

Pimco's Balls says the Fed is likely to raise interest rates despite the stronger dollar (Bloomberg)

Pimco's chief investment officer for global fixed income, Andrew Balls, thinks the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this year despite the strength of the dollar. "We don’t see any reason why the gradual grind higher of the dollar will worry the Fed excessively as long as it’s consistent with the fundamentals,” Balls noted. He continued, “The dollar’s long-term valuation on a trade-weighted basis is not completely out of whack.” As for how high the Fed Funds rate will go, Balls thinks somewhere in the 2 to 2.5% area.

Advisor beats the SEC (Investment News)

A financial advice firm has scored a rare victory over the US Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Administrative Law Judge James E. Grimes ruled in favor of The Robare Group, and two of its owners, saying, "In listening to Mr. Robare and Mr. Jones testify and observing their demeanor under cross-examination, it is difficult to imagine them trying to defraud anyone, let alone their investment clients.” Robare and Jones failed to disclose The Robare Group receives revenue from Fidelity for selling some of their funds. 

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Argentinian FIFA suspect hands himself in

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A member of Interpol is seen speaking with staff at the headquarters of Torneos y Competencias during a raid in Buenos Aires on May 29, 2015

Rome (AFP) - Argentinian sports marketing executive Alejandro Burzaco, who has been indicted by US authorities in the FIFA corruption scandal, turned himself into police in Italy on Tuesday.

Burzaco, 50, was held in Bolzano, near Italy's northern border with Switzerland after "turning up spontaneously" at a police station with his two lawyers, police said in a statement.

Burzaco was briefly detained in a cell and was then allowed to leave the police station but placed under house arrest, Italian news agency AGI reported.

The Argentinian, who also has Italian citizenship, had already rented a house near Bolzano in expectation of being placed under house arrest, reports said.

Burzaco's whereabouts had been a mystery since seven FIFA executives were arrested in the Swiss city of Zurich on May 27, the eve of a FIFA Congress.

According to reports, Burzaco was in the hotel where the executives were cuffed and promptly disappeared in the knowledge he was likely to be on the indicted list.

It is believed he was not in his hotel room at the time because he was having breakfast.

He is one of 14 current or former FIFA officials and sports marketing executives indicted over the scandal. He had been placed under an Interpol "red notice".

The 14 are accused by US prosecutors of taking part in a sweeping kickbacks scheme going back 20 years involving a total of $150 million (133 million euros) in bribes.

 

- 'Bribes for TV rights' -

 

Burzaco is wanted by the US Department of Justice authorities in connection with his role as president of sports marketing company Torneos y Competencias.

The US authorities suspect him of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to win and retain the media rights contracts for football tournaments in Latin America.

The Torneos y Competencias company held the television rights for the Argentinian league between 1992-2009 and in association with Aaron Davidson, president of Traffic Sports USA who was arrested in Zurich, and another company, Full Play, hold the rights for the Copa America tournament which kicks off in Chile next month.

The whereabouts of Full Play owners, Argentinian father and son Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, are unknown.

The revelations have thrown the world of football into turmoil and led to the resignation of long-serving FIFA president Sepp Blatter last week, just four days after his re-election for a fifth successive term.

USA head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, a World Cup-winning striker for West Germany in 1990, said Tuesday he expects there to be more revelations in the scandal.

"If there is one thing I know for sure, when the American authorities have evidence, then they see things through and more things will come out," Klinsmann said in Cologne ahead of a friendly match against Germany.

"The whole world is wishing that FIFA will be cleaned up and those who comply will do things differently in the long term."

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There's a cool new thing tech billionaires are spending millions on instead of Ferraris and private islands

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Pablo Picasso's "Les femmes d'Alger

On May 11, an anonymous buyer at Christie's in New York set a record when they placed a bid for $179.4 million for "Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O')," a vibrant canvas painted by Pablo Picasso in 1955.

It was the most anyone had ever paid for a single work of art at an auction. 

Though we don't know who the buyer was, only a select group of people could reasonably afford such a splurge. As a recent New York Times article points out, if you assume no one would spend more than 1% of their net worth on a piece of art, the buyer would need to have a fortune of at least $17.9 billion.

bill gates

Many of today's wealthiest people have made their fortunes in tech. Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Paul Allen are all tech moguls ranking in the top 50 of Forbes' billionaire list. They are also all known to have extensive art collections worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Ellison, for example, has a collection of Japanese art and artifacts that reportedly contains as many as 500 pieces. 

Gates, on the other hand, paid $36 million for Winslow Homer's "Lost on the Grand Banks" in 1998. The painting hangs on a wall outside of his library, near another piece of art, Childe Hassam's "Room of Flowers," that's worth at least $20 million.

lost on the grand banks winslow homer

Getting a new generation involved

Local galleries are hoping that the new, younger generation of tech executives follow in the footsteps of Gates and Ellison and turn their attention toward the fine arts. 

recent Wealth-X report showed that California has more ultra high net worth individuals — defined as people who have more than $30 million in assets — than any other state in the country. 5,460 of those people live in the San Francisco city limits.

Jessica Silverman first opened her own gallery in San Francisco in 2007. In 2013, she moved the gallery to a 3,000-square-foot space in the Tenderloin, near tech companies like Twitter, Zendesk, and One Kings Lane. 

"We didn’t necessarily choose the Tenderloin for its proximity to companies like that, but both technology and art are extremely entrepreneurial. Both are looking for competitive real estate," Silverman told Business Insider. "San Francisco is filled with venture capitalists who are known for having both personal and company collections." 

Ppening nights at Silverman's gallery have drawn big tech figures like Instagram cofounder Mike Krieger and Jawbone creator Yves Behar. She hopes people start looking at art collecting as a form of philanthropy instead of as a status symbol.

"We’re going to see people who are not only buying art because they have bigger houses to fill, but because they're thinking ahead to having a collection to donate," Silverman said. "They’re really intelligent people, outside-of-the-box thinkers."

jessica silverman gallery

Zlot Buell + Associates is an art advisory firm that has worked with a number of high-powered executives in the Bay Area, including those who work in tech. Part of the firm's job is to research the art market and keep clients informed on the artists they should be adding to their collection. It also helps clients buy pieces that aren't available on the primary art markets or in gallery shows. 

Sabrina Buell, an advisor at the firm who is also married to Jawbone's Behar, says she encourages clients to expose themselves to a wide variety of artists, ranging from those whose careers are just emerging to those who have been popular for decades. 

"So much of contemporary art is about engaging with ideas at a given moment," Buell said. "Tech is expressing what is contemporary. There’s real resonance in the business world."

Art's high-tech backers

Some tech execs have already caught on to the trend. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Path founder Dave Morin, and VC Jim Breyer all sit on the board at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, currently closed for renovations until 2016. 

In the meantime, a group of organizers have put on the FOG Design + Art Fair, a weekend of exhibits and workshops to benefit the SFMOMA. 

According to Allison Speer, a member of the festival's steering committee, one of the event's explicit goals was to get people in tech acquainted with art. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, One Kings Lane CEO Ali Pincus, Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman, and Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman are among those who have served on FOG's committee.

This year, the committee will be honoring Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger during a special innovators' luncheon. 

"The idea was to engage the new tech community, to draw in their demographic and get them involved," Speer said. "There are people who are very interested in art, but they're doing it quietly."  

Even some of the youngest tech moguls are beginning to see the value in collecting art. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel recently hired high school friend and artist Wyatt Mills to paint a mural outside the company's new headquarters in Venice, California. 

"I took a tour of Snapchat and I noticed they had a lot of empty walls. Evan told me to pick one," Mills told Business Insider. "Snapchat is an app that captures a moment in time. This mural also captures a moment abstractly."

snapchat muralSpiegel ended up buying some of Mills' pieces for himself, including an abstract painting of a lion and another of a woman applying lipstick.

"I usually do shows, but I do commissions for people every once in awhile," Mills said. "Evan refers a lot of people to me."

wyatt mills wyatt mills art

Snapchat also hired Los Angeles-based street artist ThankYouX to do 13 pieces for the company's headquarters. Each of the bright blue, red, and yellow paintings shows a public figure through a cellphone screen, as if they were taking a selfie. He's also done a graffiti-style portrait of Steve Jobs as a gift for Spiegel.

ThankYouX, whose given name is Ryan Wilson, met Spiegel through Paramount's Amy Powell. 

evan spiegel thankyoux

"Evan gave me a tour of the place and we just hung out for about an hour talking about art, tech, music, etc.," Wilson said. "A few months later they moved to bigger offices and Evan asked if I would want to do art for the offices. From there they started growing more and getting more offices."

"It's insane to see how much this company has grown, and I'm honored to be a small piece of the story."

For some artists who work closely with startups, there's a lot of money to be made.

Wilson declined to say how Snapchat compensated him for his work, but it's possible he received stock options. If he did, those early Snapchat options would likely be worth millions today. 

Facebook famously compensated graffiti artist David Choe with about 3.77 million shares after he painted a set of murals at the company's first offices in Palo Alto. He made about $200 million when Facebook went public in 2012.

Picassos, Ferraris or both?

Despite the efforts of gallery owners like Silverman and festivals like FOG, some are skeptical that newly-minted tech billionaires will choose art collecting over a vacation home or a sports car.

Former Apple exec Jeff Dauber is known for his extensive art collection. Several times a year, he invites groups of people over to his San Francisco home, which has become a sort of art museum in itself. 

"I consider it a success if I convert one person to art collecting a year," Dauber said to Business Insider. "The tech boom has brought a lot of money in, but if you didn’t grow up seeing art, spending $10,000 to half a million dollars on one piece can be really intimidating."

jeff dauber collection

Part of the problem is that the San Francisco gallery scene has been forced to stay relatively small, due in park to skyrocketing real estate costs. 

"Many local galleries have had to close their doors due to the higher rents directly associated with the tech boom," Micah Lebrun, curator at 111 Minna Gallery, said to Business Insider. "And many tech companies are literally the new occupants to the galleries being pushed out."

Dauber added, "You're less likely to stumble in and discover art here."

An even bigger problem, though, may be the way the arts are taught in school. Most engineering students never have to take a single art class growing up. 

"People who know great design don't necessarily collect art. I know more people who have Ferraris than collect art — what they do to award themselves is buy a sports car," Dauber said. "Art is beautiful, but it has no use. Many people in tech are more interested in the functionality of things." 

For some wealthy tech executives, there's no choice to make. Apple's senior vice president Eddy Cue sits on the board of Ferrari.

And for people like Spiegel, there's room for both art and a Ferrari at his pad.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley matchmaker gets 6-figure bonuses for matching the tech elite with their future spouse

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The physics of Doctor Who's awesome time-traveling ship aren't exactly science fiction

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doctor who the tardis

The time-traveling box in "Doctor Who," called the TARDIS, is easily the coolest part of the show. It's capable of traveling any direction through space and time — so it can visit any planet at any point in history.

Characters in "Doctor Who" are always amazed by its unassuming appearance (it looks like a blue police box from the 1960s) and that it's much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

But what we really want to know is how does it work, and when can we have one?

Physicists Ben Tippett and Dave Tsang actually wrote a paper about how TARDIS time travel might be possible. Tippet and Tsang propose that the TARDIS moves as a bubble of space-time back and forth along a loop of time.

If you connect a bunch of those loops, then the TARDIS could move to any point in space and time, just like it does in the TV show.

The paper is called "Traversable Achronal Retrograde Domains in Spacetime." Yes, the acronym spells out "TARDIS," and yes, they named their proposed space-time bubble that on purpose.

Tsang and Tippet also claim they work at the Gallifrey Polytechnic Institute and Gallifrey Institute of Technology (Doctor Who is from a place called Gallifrey). But in real life they're physics professors at McGill University and the University of British Columbia respectively. Basically, they are awesome Doctor Who fanboys.

How would it work?

Einstein's theory of general relativity tells us that space and time are not separate — they're wrapped up in four dimensions. There are three dimensions of space (up-down, left-right, and forward-backward) and the dimension of time (future-past). Together they combine to create the fabric of space-time in which all the matter in the universe exists.

Massive objects, like stars and galaxies, stretch and curve this fabric into themselves. Physicists don't really know how space-time warps, but it's theoretically possible to fold one of those curves back on itself, creating what's called a closed time-like curve (CTC).

It's basically a loop:

tardis doctor who time travel

The objects inside the loop in the graphic are called light cones. Light cones mark the boundaries of space-time that any one event (like the burst of light from a supernova explosion) can reach.

For example, imagine you're standing at the red dot in the diagram below. Time is on the y-axis (left) and space is on the x-axis (bottom):

light cone graphic

The area enclosed by the white lines is everything you can see without traveling at the speed of light. If a star exploded 10 light-years away from you (orange dot), then it would take 10 years for light from that event to reach you.

The only way to get outside of a light cone is by traveling faster than the speed of light. Normally light cones are arranged in a straight line, because time moves in a straight line like the right side of the diagram below. But CTCs tip light cones, making it possible to travel backward and forward in time, like the left side of the diagram:

tardis doctor who time travel

If the TARDIS/bubble of space-time entered into one of those loops, it would be possible to travel backward and forward through space and time.

It would look kind of like the following graphic from Tippet and Tsang's paper. (It's obviously the TARDIS and Amy Pond from seasons five, six, and seven.)

tardis doctor who time travel

No world-saving space traveler would be very effective just traveling in a circle. So Tippet and Tsang outlined a mathematical formula to chop up different space-time curves and splice them back together; basically, a way to form tunnels that could transport you to any time and place.

tardis time travel

The opening sequence of Doctor Who episodes shows the TARDIS moving through space-time in a motion that actually kind of mimics these proposed tunnels, minus the clouds and lightning:

tardis tunnel

In later episodes, where the Doctor travels into the future, the space-time vortex in the opening credits appears red instead of blue.

Fans speculate that's because light emitted by an object moving away from a viewer (perhaps into the future) shifts toward longer wavelengths. I.e. As the object moves away, the wavelengths of its light stretch out, making it appear more red:

In episodes where the Doctor goes to the past, the tunnel appears blue, since as the opposite happens: When and object moves toward us in space-time, the wavelength of light compresses toward the blue end of the spectrum.

When can I have a TARDIS?

You can't. At least until we figure out a way to create CTCs and invent a material that can repel gravity and somehow travel faster than the speed of light, then use it to build a blue telephone booth.

Time travel is tricky and full of risky paradoxes — like the grandfather paradox, where you accidentally stop your own birth. And again, physicists still aren't sure about how the geometry of space-time works. (We're also waiting for the scientific papers that explain why the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside and how it can instantaneously appear and disappear.)

The consensus seems to be that time travel into the future is possible, but time travel into the past is much trickier and may not be possible at all.

So for now maybe we should just follow the Doctor's lead and call it a "big ball of wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff" and just enjoy the show:

SEE ALSO: Physicists have built a time machine simulator

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It looks like Target just pulled a press release announcing higher dividends and share buybacks (TGT)

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Screen Shot 2015 06 09 at 4.19.46 PM

Target has apparently removed a press release from its website that announced a dividend increase and updates to its share buyback program.

Earlier on Tuesday, reports crossed that the company was raising its quarterly dividend by 7.7% to $0.56, and extending its share buybacks by $5 billion.

But according to CNBC, the press release (originally linked with this URL) has now been removed from Target's website.

Bloomberg reported that Target's Chief Financial Officer, John Mulligan, said in the statement: “Today’s announcements reinforce Target’s long history of thoughtfully returning cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchase.”

Target's share price rose slightly and entered positive territory in late afternoon trading after the news broke. The stock was little changed in after hours trading.

We've reached out to Target and will update if we hear back.

CNBC has a screengrab of the release here.

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Blue Apron, a startup that's a godsend for lazy cooks, is now worth $2 billion

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Blue Apron Co FoundersFeeling lazy and strapped for time, but still want a home cooked meal? There's a number of startups to help you make dinner, but only one is now worth $2 billion.

Blue Apron, a company that makes cooking easy by sending you perfect portions of ingredients in a box with a recipe, announced Tuesday that it has raised a $135 million Series D round. The funding values the company at a whopping $2 billion, a company spokesperson said.

The new funding was led by Fidelity Management and Research Company with participation from existing investors.

This makes Blue Apron the latest member of a growing number of  companies called "unicorns"— privately held companies with valuations of $1 billion or more. They're called unicorns because they used to be rare, but today there's more than 100 of them. 

With Blue Apron, you can elect to receive 3 meals a week, in portions designed to serve 2, 4, or 6 people. Once a week, you receive your big box of premeasured ingredients, along with a recipe card that tells you how to make each meal. 

Blue Apron charges about $10 a meal, and CEO Matt Salzberg tells Business Insider that Blue Apron is selling more than 3 million meals every month. In the past six months, Blue Apron says, it's tripled in size. Salzberg says Blue Apron has over 1800 employees and "hundreds of thousands" of customers.

Since its 2012 founding, Blue Apron has raised nearly $200 million from investors including BoxGroup, Bessemer Venture Partners, Stripes Group, and First Round. The new funding, Salzberg tells us, will be used for investing in Blue Apron's supply chain and farming and fulfillment relationships.

Blue Apron WillettBlue Apron took on the new investment money "to continue to scale what we do and help people get farm-fresh produce at better prices than is available anywhere else," he says. "We're still a young company but we've seen extremely strong demand for what we do."

Blue Apron works directly and exclusively with farmers. These farmers plant items in the ground just for Blue Apron, which "allows us to get access to specialty ingredients that aren't otherwise commercially available, and it allows us to work with farmers in a way that's really appealing to them because we're reliable demand," Salzberg says. "Right now we have literally over a million pounds of produce that's been planted in the ground for us by farmers all over the country, that we'll be harvesting over the course of the summer."

Blue Apron is a subscription service, so the company knows exactly how much food it needs to order every week. This lets the company minimize waste and keep costs down. Salzberg says Blue Apron is different from other services because its supply chain is the most efficient. "We're the only company in the US doing what we do at scale," he says. "We have a real focus on supply chain and on working deeply with our suppliers."

SEE ALSO: What it's like to use the amazing meal-delivery service that just raised $135 million

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The 16 best CEOs in tech, according to their employees

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linkedin ceo jeff weiner

There are a lot of ways to rate the performance of a CEO.

But the people who understand the CEO best are the company's employees that work under the person's leadership every day.

So job-hunting site Glassdoor sifted through its massive stores of company reviews to create a list of the Top 50 Best CEOs. All of the CEOs on this list received at least 100 reviews from employees during the past year.

Tech CEOs made up a little under half the list, but they dominated the Top 5, including one surprise CEO you may not know.

No. 16: Airbnb’s Brian Chesky

CEO: Brian Chesky

Company: Airbnb

Approval rating: 89% approval

Overall ranking on Top 50 list: #48

"Tons of energy, very smart and friendly people, incredible food program. The founders are good guys, well-meaning, even if their lack of experience comes through (which it does frequently). For a Silicon Valley company, Airbnb is about as diverse as you'll find, which is a huge plus."– Marketing in San Francisco, CA



No. 15: Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen

CEO: Shantanu Narayen

Company: Adobe

Approval rating: 89% approval

Overall ranking on Top 50 list:#47

"Great culture awesome innovation, adobe does a few things really well and avoids the things they don't do well."– Director in Washington, DC



No. 14: Intel's Brian Krzanich

CEO: Brian Krzanich

Company: Intel

Approval rating: 90% approval

Overall ranking on Top 50 list: #39

"Intel management is generally open about why any decision, from why a project is kicking off to why Intel is exiting a business." – Software Engineer in Chandler, AZ



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The sketchy reason fast food companies are bringing back mascots

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kfc ad 2015

Fast food companies like KFC, McDonald's, and Burger King have all brought back their mascots in a big way. 

KFC resurrected Colonel Sanders, the brand's founder and mascot, after a 21-year hiatus. McDonald's has revamped the "Hamburglar" character after more than a decade. And Burger King reportedly paid $1 million to get its mascot in Floyd Mayweather's entourage.

There's an unsettling reason behind why companies are using the mascots, writes Claire Suddath at Bloomberg Business. 

"How do you advertise enormous hamburgers and buckets of fried chicken when that's just going to remind people that they're not supposed to eat enormous hamburgers and buckets of fried chicken?" Suddath asks. "You get a funny mascot to do it for you."

Fast food companies are grappling with the perception that their products are unhealthy and dangerous. Classic fare like burgers, fries, and soda are being blamed for the global obesity epidemic, and consumers increasingly say they want fresh, healthy options.

The companies have also been criticized for marketing to children and irresponsibly selling high-calorie meals and sodas. 

Hamburglar ad

While McDonald's is still the most-visited fast food chain among millennials, Morgan Stanley says many young people are embarrassed to admit they eat there. 

Fast food brands are trying to use the mascots to get people to connect with the brand on a more personal level. 

And they're spending a lot of money to do it. 

KFC hired Saturday Night Live alumnus Darrell Hammond to create a funny version of Colonel Sanders, while Burger King's mascot just popped up at the Belmont Stakes.

burger king mascot belmont

These maneuvers could make customers feel that the brands are funny and non-threatening, rather than dangerous. 

Using a fictional character also helps these companies avoid direct criticism, such as when McDonald's tried to convince parents its food was healthy. 

It's unclear whether the fast food mascots will be able to resurrect declining sales in the industry. 

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Elon Musk coded a video game when he was only 12 that you can now play for the first time

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Elon Musk video game

When Elon Musk was only 12, he wrote the code for a video game called "Blastar" while he was living in South Africa.

Musk's code never made it into an official game, but in 1984 the source code for "Blastar" was published by a trade publication called PC and Office Technology.

In his new book, "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future," Bloomberg technology reporter Ashlee Vance published a photo of the page from the magazine which featured the code. 

Now, more than 30 years later, Google software engineer Tomas Lloret decided to turn that source code into a playable game after reading Vance's book. Bloomberg Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel noticed the game and shared the link to it via Twitter. 

The result is a simple sci-fi arcade game not unlike "Space Invaders" where you pilot a ship as you fire lasers at enemy alien spacecraft.
 
"Blastar" starts you off with five ships, which represent the number of lives you have in the game. The goal is to survive as long as possible shooting at the alien space freighters, which will try to eliminate you with what Musk calls "Status Beam Machines."

Elon Musk Blastar game GIF

While Musk was enthusiastic about "Blastar," it's still very much a primitive game compared to the popular arcade games like "Space Invaders,""Asteroid," and "Galaga," that all employed similar gameplay mechanics. It's a far more impressive feat, however, when you take into account how young Musk was back then.

You can play "Blastar" for yourself by clicking here.

SEE ALSO: 13 cool things you didn't know Siri could do

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A former Vanderbilt mansion on the Upper East Side being sold as an 'empty white box' just got its price cut by $17 million

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Gloria Vanderbilt Mansion

A former Vanderbilt mansion in Manhattan's Upper East Side neighborhood has just had its price chopped to $42 million from $59 million, according to Curbed.

The white edifice once belonged to the Vanderbilt family — and subsequently to heiress Gloria Vanderbilt

Built as a one-family, five-story mansion way back in 1881, the building was later subdivided into five separate rental units.

The property was purchased last year for $19 million by a pair of developers. It's been turned back into a single-family mansion – and given a few additional floors, for a total of seven.

It now sits as an "empty white box," waiting for a buyer to "create a custom masterpiece, selecting all appliances and finishes to perfectly suit their taste, to be installed at cost," according to the listing, as noted by Curbed.

Gloria Vanderbilt, however, likely hasn't lived in the home since she was a child. Many of the home's original touches from its Gilded Age construction have been covered up or removed, but the Vanderbilt influence is still visible in the gigantic "V" carved into the stone of the main parlor's fireplace.

Gloria Vanderbilt Mansion

SEE ALSO: The 70 coolest new buildings in the world, according to architecture fans and experts

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