| 'Pokémon GO' is about to surpass Twitter on Android: Here are 5 ways the gaming app is actually good for you | | |
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| Walk around any neighborhood in America, and it’s clear that Pokémon Go is enormously popular and having a massive social impact. How massive, though? Data published Sunday by SimilarWeb indicates that the mobile game may be poised to surpass Twitter in daily active users on Android. |
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| Aside from the obvious addictive fun of Pokémon Go (Go Team Mystique!), there are some very tangible physical and mental health benefits to gain from the game. Let’s review a few. Lots of walking: It’s pretty much impossible to get very far in the game without moving around—a lot. You get some fresh air and sunlight: It sounds clichéd, but a wide range of studies suggest that breathing outside air—as long as it’s not polluted—may improve your mood and health. One study found that simply being outdoors was “associated with greater vitality,” and a Yale study found that students’ test scores increased when they spent more time outside – a difference that appeared to be related to better air quality. It’s educational: To catch Pokémon, you use Pokéballs, which you can get when you visit Pokéstops. And Pokéstops just happen to include many landmarks and historical markers, including those hidden ones in your own neighborhood. Brings people together: Setting out a lure at a Pokéstop at a park, for example, literally brings people together. Especially right now, with the violence and division we’re seeing in the news, it’s important to get to know our communities better and discover our neighbors. It offers mini mental breaks without getting too far off track: The problem is, a “quick” check of Facebook or Twitter or the news or even a Solitaire game can end up eating more time than you planned. The beauty of Pokémon Go is that you can take a sincerely quick break, catch a critter or two, and then get back to work. |
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| Want to be a billionaire? These colleges could give you the best shot | | |
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| Many factors play into deciding which school is right for you: courses offered, prestige, price and social life. Here's one more to add to the list: schools that mint the most billionaire alumni. Here’s the top five: University of Pennsylvania - 21 billionaires: With the ranks of Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Laurene Powell Jobs, the Philadelphia school educated 5% of last year’s Forbes 400 list. Harvard University - 14 billionaires: The iconic Cambridge mainstay hosted one of the nation’s youngest billionaires, 32-year-old Airbnb cofounder Nathan Blecharczyk. Notable dropouts include Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and the world’s richest man, Bill Gates. Yale University - 14 billionaires: Tied with Harvard, bank-rolling alumni include FedEx founder Fred Smith and Blackstone Group cofounder Stephen Schwarzman. Our lips are sealed, Scull and Bones. Stanford University - 13 billionaires: The university’s proximity to Silicon Valley is apparent: tech billionaires include Snapchat cofounders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, WhatsApp’s Brian Acton, and LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman. University of Southern California - 11 billionaires: All 11 members of USC made The Forbes 400 list, including Star Wars creator George Lucas and Marc Benioff, who cofounded cloud computing firm Salesforce. |
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'Work hard, play hard' lifestyle is a real thing, according to science
You've heard the phrase before. You may have even described your own lifestyle in those words as you push yourself in your career and your hobbies or hangouts. But now we know work hard, play hard is actually a real thing, scientifically proven.
“There are a lot of things that people know are probably true, but no one’s bothered to actually collect any empirical data with statistics,” Lonnie Aarssen, biologist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, said. This prompted him and his student Laura Crimi to test the work hard, play hard hypothesis.
“People who work hard really do play hard,” says Aarssen.
His results reveal a strong correlation between those attracted to accomplishment and those attracted to leisure.
His study also found that those who are more religious are less likely to work hard, play hard. |
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| You can still travel first class on a shoestring budget with these 4 tips | | |
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| Having trouble scraping together the cash for your next journey? “Travel hacker” Ben Schlappig is able to gallivant in luxury for 5% of the price tag, and here’s how you can too. Find credit card deals: “At any given point, I typically have about 30 to 40 credit cards,” said Schalppig. Many credit companies have deals for opening cards that include points for free flights or accommodations, “What you would do is you apply for two cards and spend the minimal amount of about $1,000, usually, within a few months.” Strategize your travel itinerary: “Rather than having my tickets originate from the US, I have them start elsewhere. For example, tickets are much cheaper if you are originating in Cairo, Egypt, or Colombo, Sri Lanka, or Casablanca, Morocco, or Cape Town, South Africa.” As for flying to these locales from the United States, Schalppig suggests to “fly an airline out of the city where they don't have much of a presence” (i.e. avoid primary hubs). Timing is everything: “I would say usually I book about 60 days out for flights. That's generally the cheapest time to book,” adding the best time to secure award ticket miles flights is “literally the day of departure,” Schalppig says. Look to diversify your airlines: “There are so many low-cost carriers globally that the cost of flying from continent to continent is often the same price as the cost of your taxi to the airport.” He suggests using sites like Orbitz or Expedia, but warns that many of these websites omit bargain airlines like Southwest or Allegiant. |
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Peek inside a self-made billionaire’s $47.5M penthouse
Leslie Alexander’s skill as a trader turned him from an impoverished dropout into the billionaire owner of the Houston Rockets. Wonder what that buys you? Well, Alexander’s fabulous apartment recently hit the market, complete with rooftop pools. Yes, that’s a plural.
The penthouse in Manhattan’s upscale Gramercy Park neighborhood has four beds, five baths and a stunning total of 63 windows. The living room overlooks Gramercy Park itself and comes with a coveted key to the private park. The apartment’s signature feature is a private, heated infinity pool and hot tub, where you can soak up views of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. |
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