Новости за 30.12.2015

ABC/Disney

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" introduces the New Republic, the Resistance (basically the new Rebels), and the First Order (basically the new Empire), but between all the battle scenes, it never exactly explains the relationship between the three organizations.

For those wondering about the new galactic politics, the film's novelization, written by Alan Dean Foster, offers some insight. We read it and this is what we found.

The New Republic formed in the wake of... Читать дальше...

Yogurt containers, junk food wrappers and part of an old shoe were just some of the things scientists found riddling the insides of an orca who washed up dead on a South African shore earlier this month.

Sony

2016 will be filled with lots of streaming viewing options.

Highlights include new releases like "Goosebumps" and "Black Mass;" titles that never get old like "Dazed and Confused," and "Serpico;" as well as new seasons of TV shows like "Workaholics," "New Girl," "The Bachelor," and the premiere of the final season of "American Idol."

All the new movie and TV titles are below. We've highlighted in bold some titles we think are worth checking out.

iTunes

BI Intelligence

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been called the next Industrial Revolution — it will change the way all businesses, governments, and consumers interact with the physical world.

For more than two years, BI Intelligence has closely tracked the growth of the IoT. Specifically, we've analyzed how the IoT ecosystem enables entities (i.e. consumers, businesses, and governments) to connect to, and control, their IoT devices in 16 environments, including manufacturing, the connected home... Читать дальше...

US PTO

Uber isn't only about booking cars. It looks like it's thinking of becoming a travel agent.

On December 24, Uber secured a new patent that could be used to plan trips.

Called "Uber Travel" in the images, it looks like a normal flight search like you would see on Expedia, but it adds Uber cars to the mix.

A traveler could input their start location, date, and time alongside a destination, and Uber would recommend an itinerary for them. The "magic," as Uber calls it in the diagram... Читать дальше...

Danielle Nelson

If you’re single, you can have up to $5.45 million in assets before your heirs have to worry about paying a penny in estate taxes.

Knowing that, you might assume only the super wealthy need to worry about estate planning. However, financial planners say you’d be wrong to think planning is only necessary for the 1 percent.

“The bigger issue in estate planning for the majority of people is managing the step-up in basis on inherited assets and income taxes,” says Matt Anderson... Читать дальше...

AP Photo/Dwight Nale, Pool

Popularity is swelling over Netflix’s latest true-crime documentary “Making a Murderer,” which took 10 years to film and follows the murder investigation and trial of Teresa Halbach in rural Wisconsin.

If you’ve watched the series, the convictions of Steven Avery and his then-16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey in Manitowoc County may still be haunting you due to allegations and insinuations of corruption, conspiracy, and even jury tampering. Certainly writers... Читать дальше...

David Moir/Reuters

In 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a major survey of more than 70,000 Americans to find out exactly how bad our sleeping habits are.

The results were discouraging.

More than a third of respondents said they got less than seven hours of sleep a night, and 38% admitted they had accidentally dozed off during the day at least once during the past month. About a tenth of Americans struggle with chronic insomnia, and millions more suffer from a litany of sleep disorders. Читать дальше...

AP

Ken Kratz, the prosecutor who helped put Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey away for murder, says crucial parts of their trials were left out of Netflix's documentary, "Making a Murderer."

"You don't want to muddy up a perfectly good conspiracy movie with what actually happened, and certainly not provide the audience with the evidence the jury considered to reject that claim," Kratz told People magazine via email.

The former Calumet County prosecutor has been under fire from viewers of the Netflix series... Читать дальше...

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we may get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

Facebook

Facebook programmers had a problem.

They were working on developing games and experiences for virtual reality, by way of Facebook's own Oculus Rift VR headset.

But having to put the Rift goggles on every ten seconds to see the effects of the changes they made to the code, and then taking them off again to get back to work on a computer monitor, was slowing down work.

The solution, as put together by two engineers during one of Facebook's famous hackathons, was simple... Читать дальше...

Chick-fil-A on Facebook

Chick-fil-A is cutting cole slaw from its menu in January, and some customers are furious about the change.

To appease angry customers, Chick-fil-A has decided to share the recipe for its slaw, which has been kept private for more than 70 years.

"Removing cole slaw from the menu was a difficult decision," the company wrote on Facebook in response to one upset customer. "We know many of our customers loved our cole slaw, yet we have also heard from our... Читать дальше...

REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

It looks like the massive hacking scandal that exposed millions of user accounts from adultery site Ashley Madison hasn't hurt the company's growth. 

According to Ashley Madison, the dating site for cheaters now has 43.4 million anonymous members, roughly 4 million more than the 39 million members it had back in August when the data breach happened.

Given Ashley Madison has been adding roughly 4 million to 5 million new users annually, the growth spurt in the past 4 months is pretty impressive. Читать дальше...

DishNation

Stephen Carbone is known by hardcore fans of "The Bachelor" franchise as "Reality Steve."

Reality Steve has become the go-to blogger of the dating shows, and public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of the shows' producers and network ABC, who have sued him twice.

Why? Reality Steve has been spoiling "The Bachelor" and its spin-offs for the past four years with amazing accuracy. He's become so infamous, The New York Times' Jon Caramanica just wrote a long profile about how he's turned his intel into a full-time... Читать дальше...

BI Intelligence

Digital advertising revenue surpassed $12 billion in the US during the third quarter of 2014, according to data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. That's a 17% increase over the same quarter last year, and a 6.5% increase over the second quarter of 2014.

We estimate total US digital advertising revenue will top $49.7 billion annually by the end of this year.

Thomson Reuters

Nigerian authorities have seen documents suggesting the proceeds from past crude oil sales were diverted to personal accounts rather than reaching government coffers, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Wednesday.

Buhari, who took office in May after being elected on an anti-corruption ticket, said funds were "looted illegally". He could not provide more details, since various cases were being taken to court, he told journalists in a televised interview.

(Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram... Читать дальше...

Compound Interest

With New Year's Eve upcoming, a large number of people will celebrate by popping open a bottle of champagne.

The bubbles in your glass may seem simple enough, but there's actually a wealth of interesting chemistry behind them – chemistry that's vital for the perceived taste and aroma of the wine. There's a lot more to the bubbles than you might think, and this post picks apart some of the chemical compounds involved.

The obvious chemical contributor that... Читать дальше...

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Heading into 2016, it's been somewhat of an unpredictable start to the NBA season.

While the Warriors, Spurs, Cavs, and Thunder have all gotten off to strong starts, there have been shake-ups elsewhere in the NBA.

Nobody is sure what to make of the weakened West Conference, and whether teams like the Clippers and Rockets will kick into another gear. Meanwhile, the East is suddenly a mosh pit of competitive teams, where one win or one loss can poll-vault a team several spots in the conference. Читать дальше...

Faraday Future

The secretive electric car startup Faraday Future is building the suspense for its concept car ahead of its big reveal next week.

The company published a video on Wednesday teasing its first vehicle, which is expected to be chalk full of high-tech features. Faraday plans to reveal the car on Monday evening at CES, the annual technology conference in Las Vegas. 

The video doesn't show much, just the front wheel of the vehicle as it drives fast down an empty track... Читать дальше...

Stephen Lam/Getty Images

Speculation is mounting that 2015 was the year of "peak iPhone." 

More and more analysts think that — for the first time ever — sales of the iPhone will drop in 2016, based on signs of weakness in Apple's Asian supply chain.

But even if it's true, the Cupertino company will still shift tens of millions of units — and launch at least one entirely new smartphone in the year ahead.

It may only be three months since the iPhone 6S came out, but there... Читать дальше...

REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

After years of turning down potential offers, Yahoo has reportedly changed its mind and is quietly looking to sell a huge parcel of land in the Valley, Silicon Valley Journal's Nathan Donato-Weinstein reports.

This is a huge 48+-acre site in Santa Clara that Yahoo bought back in 2006 for $106 million, according to Donato-Weinstein.

Yahoo had planned to use the land to host a corporate expansion.

Meanwhile that area, not far from the new home of the San Francisco Giants' Levi's Stadium... Читать дальше...

Factorydesign

The "Twister" seat rotates with the passenger to follow the movements of the human spine in an attempt to make long flights more bearable

Fourteen hours on a long-haul flight to Japan inspired an aviation expert to design an economy class seat that twists to protect fliers' backs.

The "Twister" design takes up no more room than a normal seat but is fitted with ribs connected to a central position that mimics a human spine and moves with the passenger’s weight. Читать дальше...

AP / Mary Cybulski

It pays to work at a US investment bank.

US banks earned $35.6 billion of the $72.7 billion in fees paid out by corporations and governments for equity and debt deals, syndicated loans, and mergers and acquisitions in the year to December 17, according to Dealogic.

That equates to almost half — or 49% — of global investment-banking fees over the period. That is the highest share since 2002.

Six of the top 10 banks in the world by investment-banking fees are US-based institutions... Читать дальше...

Esther Perel is a couples therapist based in New York and the author of the international best seller "Mating in Captivity."

Adam Zyglis/The Buffalo News/Courtesy of Pulitzer Prizes

The following 20 award-winning editorial cartoons come from the portfolio of Adam Zyglis of The Buffalo News.

Staff cartoonist Zyglis, 33, won the "Editorial Cartooning" 2015 Pulitzer Prize.

"His editorial cartoons take on Republicans and Democrats, John Boehner and Barack Obama," wrote Mike Connelly, editor and vice president of The Buffalo News, in his cover letter to the panel of Pulitzer judges.

"With cartoons such as his take on the data mining and CNN... Читать дальше...