NFL teams are completing passes at an all-time high percentage for this point in the season.

ESPN's Adam Schefter tweeted on Thursday that entering Week 4, the average completion percentage is 64.2%, the highest rate in NFL history after three weeks.

Why the increase in completion percentage this season?

A major reason could be the NFL's increased focus on penalizing defensive contact in the secondary. In the preseason, the NFL said it would call more penalties on contact with receivers five yards out, and they seem to be making good on it through the first three weeks. According to MLive, there were 38 illegal contact penalties called through the regular season and playoffs last year. This year, that number is already up to 28.

The uptick in penalties is frustrating for fans, but the rule has seemingly created more dynamic offenses.

There are other factors at work as well. Teams are borrowing more innovative concepts from college and high school teams to try and throw defenses off. We've already seen several instances of wonky offense this season where teams are using fake plays and using quarterbacks and defensive players as receivers. 

The higher completion rate through three weeks could turn out to be an early-season anomaly that will fall off with more games. However, in the last three years, the completion percentage in the NFL has steadily creeped up. The game is evolving, and one of the primary characteristics of that evolution is greater efficiency in the passing game.

SEE ALSO: The NFL Made A Rule Tweak To Help Offenses, And Fans Are Going To Hate It

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Sooner or later, the Federal Reserve will begin normalizing monetary policy, which means higher interest rates are coming.

This has investors rightfully worried because higher rates mean higher interest costs, which should be bad for profits and ultimately stocks.

Deutsche Bank Chief US Equity Strategist David Bianco examined the history of Fed rate hikes and their impacts on stocks.

"Stocks typically sell-off on the first of a series of rate hikes, but the magnitude and duration of the sell-off depend on conditions," Bianco writes. "During early cycle hikes the initial sell-off was generally small, quickly recovered and further S&P gains came in next three months and longer (like 2004, 1983, 1972). But many sell- offs on late cycle hikes became corrections or even bear markets."

Unfortunately, it's only in hindsight do we know where we are in the cycle.

"Determining whether it’s early or late in the cycle is subjective, but the shape of the curve, inflation measures, years since the last recession can help," Bianco said. "Next year is likely another mid-cycle year and we don’t expect a severe S&P reaction to hikes, but the risk is the Fed hikes too late or too little and inflation accelerates requiring the Fed to hike to levels higher than expected."

Bianco's 27-page research note is riddled with exhibits.

But we thought this one was pretty elegant.

It's the average price move of the S&P 500 during the four months before and the six months after the first rate hike. It's the average of the last seven hikes.

It's not the most helpful chart for people who enjoy obsessing over the details. It does, however, show that the general direction of the stock market tends to be up.

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After numerous spottings of iPhone 6 resales last week, the Chinese market seems to have peaked, reports the South China Morning Post.

The Post reports that an influx of iPhones 6 handsets from Hong Kong Apple stores is driving down the price of phones on the Chinese (mainland) black market.

The market appears to be changing daily. Resellers complained that their iPhones were losing value during the trip from Hong Kong to China.

The post says a 16GB iPhone 6 that was going for 8,000 Chinese yuan ($1,300) on Monday was worth around 6,000 yuan ($978) on Wednesday. That's an incredibly unstable market. 

An unsubsidized 16GB iPhone 6 retails for $649 without a contract in the US.

The Chinese black market for iPhones is being held up by uncertainty over when the smartphone will be sold there. 

In fact, some reports suggest Chinese consumers may have to wait until 2015.

Resellers will still be able to cash in on the iPhone's popularity in China — particularly the iPhone 6 Plus — but their margins will continue getting obliterated until the iPhone's market value approaches $649.

SEE ALSO: LG Foolishly Used An iPhone To Mock Apple's 'BendGate'

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Venice (AFP) - Venice is abuzz, with Hollywood stars and the world's paparazzi arriving by gondola for the event of the year: George Clooney's wedding to Amal Alamuddin, his Lebanon-born British fiancee.

With the exact arrangements being kept strictly under wraps, officials would not confirm whether the ceremony will take place Saturday or Monday, but what's clear is the city of masks is preparing for a weekend of serious partying.

"Clooney's on everyone's lips here in Venice, the girls in particular are all in a tizzy, they'll be lining the banks of the canal to see him," said watertaxi driver Bruno Bartolini, who said it would be "a fantastic party."

"The city's ground to a halt because they're using the grand canal, but what does that matter: there's nothing better than getting married in Venice," Bartolini said.

Guests including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock and Matt Damon are set to stay at the Hotel Cipriano on the island of Giudecca, where they are expected  to dine in style Friday evening with the groom and his glamorous bride-to-be.

The reception is tipped to take place in the exclusive seven-star Aman hotel on the Grand Canal, where guests will be escorted by police boats keen to keep over-excited Clooney admirers and hundreds of photographers at a distance.

Rome's former mayor Walter Veltroni, a long-term friend of Clooney's, will be performing the civil ceremony, which is likely to be held in the town hall, the stunning Ca' Farsetti 14th century palace opposite the Aman hotel. 

The singer Lana Del Rey is then expected to serenade 53-year-old Clooney and Alamuddin, 36, in the garden of the Aman, an oasis sheltered from the bustle of the canal, where speed boats will be banned from stopping to keep goggling to a minimum.

Though the world's most famous waterway will not be closed entirely, there were grumbles in the northern Italian city over the disruption caused by the wedding and such an ostentatious display of wealth in times of economic crisis.

"Clooney's not bringing us bread for our tables, his getting married here will do nothing to better our problems," said 16-year-old Viviana, who slammed him for "coming here with all his nice money while we can't find jobs."

Fellow local resident Silvana agreed, saying: "It would have been better for all of us if he'd gone to get married in some secret countryside location."

But nothing appears able to dampen the spirits of the crowds of tourists eagerly snapping photographs of the town hall and Aman from the water ferries, or the locals staking out the best viewing positions in houses along the canal.

All desperate for a glimpse of the erstwhile world's most eligible bachelor in his Armani suit and Alamuddin in an Alexander McQueen creation designed by Sarah Burton, the woman behind the gown worn by Britain's Kate Middleton at her wedding to Prince William in 2011.

Alamuddin, who moved to Britain with her family as a three-year-old, is a top human rights lawyer who met the Hollywood star through his humanitarian work.

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Want to rub shoulders with a billionaire? Your best bet is to attend one of the cultural, sporting, or business events where the super-rich flock each year.

Wealth-X and UBS included a "billionaires' social calendar" in their recent Billionaire Census. We added a bit more information and created a handy version that you can print and hang on your refrigerator.

Grab your derby hat, ball gown, and checkbook, and mark down these dates.

SEE ALSO: The World's Most Expensive Yachts (And The Billionaires Who Own Them)

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With Attorney General Eric Holder's departure from Washington, critics say Wall Street is losing someone who has essentially given the industry a pass on the excesses that led to the financial crisis. In another potential wrinkle for Wall Street, two of the leading candidates who could follow in Holder's footsteps both have a history of ruffling feathers in the financial industry.

Critics of Wall Street have slammed Holder for not prosecuting top executives during his time leading the Department of Justice. A Democratic operative who spoke to Business Insider about Holder's time as attorney general called his lack of financial industry prosecutions "bizarre," particularly in light of the fact "this administration entered office during the middle of the worst financial crisis since the great depression." 

"He could not have been more of a disappointment in terms of dealing with the issues that led to the collapse of the financial markets and the global economy," the operative said of Holder. "He had an opportunity and, frankly, a responsibility to say there was a whole host of systemically illegal and improper behavior and to go after it." 

Holder, whose office did not respond to a request for comment on this story from Business Insider, attempted to address this criticism at a congressional hearing last year. At the hearing, Holder argued it was dangerous to impose overly harsh penalties on leaders of financial institutions because it could have a negative impact on the economy.

“The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy," Holder said.

However, this explanation has not satisfied those who argue Holder has been far too soft on the financial industry. The Democratic operative who discussed the attorney general with Business Insider argued Holder's comments were a weak excuse for a "dereliction of duty."

"He, for some reason, believed that he was on the board of these banks and their long term stability was part of his job," said the operative. "For some bizarre reason, he said — it was on record — that he was considering the health of those financial institutions and the broader economy when he was considering those cases. And that was totally inappropriate and, frankly, a dereliction of duty."

Critics of Holder's perceived inaction with respect to Wall Street include elected officials of both parties. At a Senate hearing earlier this month Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) both questioned why the crisis led the DOJ to pursue settlements against financial institutions, but not criminal prosecutions against individual executives. 

"No corporation can break the law unless the individual within that corporation broke the law," Warren said. "Not a single senior executive at these banks have been criminally prosecuted."

"Something’s wrong with the Justice Department. People shouldn’t be able to … buy their way out of culpability," Shelby added. 

Holder served throughout President Barack Obama's time in the White House. The Democratic operative argued that, even if Obama chose to take a more gentle approach toward the financial industry, Holder had an obligation to take action.

"I believe the president has failed in this area ... but he is a policy maker the president so ... he does have broader economic considerations to make," the operative said, arguing Obama has a better excuse than Holder for being concerned about the health of financial institutions. "But it is not the Attorney General's job to consider those things when deciding who to prosecute or not or what remedies to pursue."

With Holder set to resign, those who hoped to see the DOJ get tougher on Wall Street might see signs the next attorney general could address their concerns. 

According to many insiders, Labor Secretary Tom Perez is a frontrunner to get the nomination from Obama. In his morning political briefing Friday, analyst Greg Valliere of the Potomac Research Group argued Perez is the "is the logical pick" and noted "he's already been confirmed by the Senate." Another Democratic strategist who spoke to Business Insider said Perez's Dominican heritage was fueling rumors he would be Obama's choice to succeed Holder.

"People in Washington, people in the White House are buzzing that the president is favoring picking a Latino for the position of attorney general and, specifically, favoring picking Tom Perez," the strategist said.

The Democratic operative said Perez was the only potential pick they have heard credible chatter about.

"I'm hearing all Perez," they said.  

These rumors might upset Wall Streeters who were unhappy with efforts Perez spearheaded at the Department of Labor to raise the minimum wage and require fiduciary duty.

"He's proved he's got consumers' back at the DOL and I guess, if you're Wall Street that might be a bad thing," said the strategist. "But if youre 99% of people, that's a good thing."

However, the Democratic strategist argued the financial industry has nothing to fear from Perez. They characterized him as a "consensus builder" who knew it was important to get "business behind him" on these potentially contentious issues. They also suggested he would have a similar approach to Holder.

"Perez is exceptionally close to Eric Holder and would probably adopt the same style," said the strategist. 

Of course, President Obama is already halfway through his second term and polls show Democrat Hillary Clinton leading the 2016 field. And one person who is often discussed as a potential attorney general pick for Clinton is US Attorney Preet Bharara, who has earned a reputation as taking an aggressive approach on corporate crime. In fact, according to the New York Post, some Wall Streeters are already concerned Bharara could also be tapped by Obama to lead the DOJ. 

Both of the Democrats who spoke to Business Insider argued Bharara's habit of ending up with his name in the headlines makes him an unlikely choice for Obama. However, the operative suggested Bharara's past experience as chief counsel to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York), who worked alongside Clinton during her time representing New York in the Senate, could make him her pick. 

"Very clearly he's angling to be her attorney general," the operative said of Bharara and Clinton. "Obviously Chuck is a big fan. Obviously, Hillary is well-versed in doing things to keep Chuck happy rather than be harrassed and irritated, so I'd imagine he could be her choice."

However, despite Bharara's reputation for being tough on Wall Street, multiple Democrats who have previously talked to Business Insider about the possibility he could lead the DOJ under Clinton argued he has only prosecuted small targets rather than leading financial industry executives. The strategist who discussed Perez with Business Insider argued Bharara's record with regard to the Street is largely "superficial." The other operative suggested this might actually add to Bharara's appeal for Clinton. 

"For Hillary, it could make sense," said the operative. "He would give the appearance of reform and aggression against big actors without actually carrying it out."

Overall, many critics on the left seem pessimistic the Department of Justice will ever really get tough on Wall Street.

"I don't think Wall Street has anything to fear from a Hillary Clinton administration," the operative said, adding, "The previous six years should make clear to Wall Street that they have nothing to fear at all."

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With the announcement Thursday that Hamas had given up control of the Gaza Strip to Mahmoud Abbas' unity government, hardline Israelis opposing peace negotiations have lost two big planks in their argument.

Many right-wing politicians have long claimed negotiations with the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority were pointless. Even though Abbas led the official government which had control of the West Bank, rival political group Hamas maintained control over the more volatile Gaza Strip.

Hard-liners can't use that argument now.

Some Israelis have also argued that negotiations shouldn't commence until Palestine is united in recognition of Israel's legitimacy. With the Palestinian Authority regaining control of Gaza from Hamas, this is once again the case.

While the official charter of Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, the Palestinian government has recognized Israel for more than 20 years. Still, many hardliners have since moved the goalposts by demanding Israel be recognized as a specifically Jewish state as a pre-condition to negotiations.

Despite recognizing Israel's legitimacy, Abbas refuses to recognize it as a specifically Jewish state. Doing so would undermine his political standing in Palestine given roughly 20% of Israel's population are Arab Palestinians.

With control over the entirety of the Palestinian, Abbas is now in a stronger position to negotiate a potential peace deal between the nations. Still, nobody will be holding their breath. 

Peace negotiations brokered by the United States collapsed earlier this year, and Israel continues to build settlements on shrinking Palestinian land. It's also unclear how much control the Abbas-led government will have over terror groups operating in the Gaza Strip.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder of the liberal Jewish-American organization J Street, told Business Insider that Gaza's return to the Palestinian Authority was a step in the right direction if they re-committed to a two-state solution and a renunciation of violence.

Ben-Ami, a former advisor to President Clinton, said, "It remains to be seen if such steps will be taken but, if they are, they are a step forward for those who seek peace, security and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

SEE ALSO: 43 Members Of Israel's Elite Spy Unit Slam Israel's Occupation Of Palestine

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Video games are a huge industry and a big part of our society — take a look at Microsoft's recent purchase of a game studio for $2.5 billion — but games get a bad rap.

They're often portrayed as antisocial, violent, and as an addictive waste of time that encourages obesity.  

But that's not necessarily accurate, and it's definitely not the full story. 

Lots of people play video games. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 59% of Americans play games. Despite problems with sexism in the gaming world, 48% of those players are women, and the average player is 31 years old.

It's a big business too. The global gaming industry was worth $67 billion in 2013 and is projected to grow to $82 billion by 2017. Robert Morris University announced this year that they would start giving scholarships to League of Legends players — a game that top competitors make a ton of money playing. 

Contrary to their reputation, many games have educational, physical, and psychological benefits for players. Games that use repetitive actions, such as the swinging of a bat or targeting a moving object, train the brain and muscles to perform better in real-life activities. 

Video game brain training has the same effect as reading a book or riding a bike — when the brain is learning, thousands of new connections are being formed. The addition of a reward system motivates players to continuously improve their skills.

People who play action-based games make accurate decisions 25% faster.

Fast-paced games require quick thinking and fast reactions to avoid being killed. In real-life situations, active gamers have a better sense of what is going around them and are able to make decisions faster, according to scientists from the University of Rochester. 

In the one study, participants aged 18 to 25 were split into two groups. One group played 50 hours of the action-packed first-person shooter games "Call of Duty 2" and "Unreal Tournament," and the other group played 50 hours of the simulator game "The Sims 2." The action game players made decisions 25% faster in a task unrelated to playing video games, without sacrificing accuracy.  

"Action game players make more correct decisions per unit time. If you are a surgeon or you are in the middle of a battlefield, that can make all the difference," study researcher Daphne Bavelier said in a statement.

A driving game improved memory, focus, and multitasking ability in older adults.

According to a study published in the journal Nature, researchers "discovered that swerving around cars while simultaneously picking out road signs in a video game can improve the short-term memory and long-term focus of older adults,"The New York Times reports.

A group of adults between the ages of 60 and 85 were were recruited to play a game called NeuroRacer for 12 hours over a month. Six months after playing the game, the older adults were better at multitasking, retained more information in a short period of time, and had stronger attention skills.

Video games encourage physical activity.

Endless hours parked in front a computer screen generally does not lead to weight loss. But games that pair virtual worlds with exercise could get people who are less inclined to workout to start moving.

Researchers have found that playing games on a Nintendo Wii that force people to get up and move for 20 minutes at a time is a legitimate and potentially more interesting alternative to traditional aerobic exercise.

Another study in the journal Pediatrics found that playing games like Dance Dance Revolution was equivalent to moderate intensity exercise for kids, making it a "a safe, fun, and valuable means of promoting energy expenditure," according to the study.

Video games may also be more effective at changing behavior. In a study from the University of Indiana, people who received workout advice through a game called Second Life reported more positive changes in healthy eating and physical activity than people who went to a traditional gym, even though weight loss was the same in both groups.

A wave of innovation is driving a dramatic shift in the way we make payments.

In this presentation, we highlight the most important trends fueling the changes: the rise of payment apps, mobile registers, e-commerce, and the decline of cash and checks. We also show where the payments industry is headed. Many of the slides are based on charts exclusive to BI Intelligence. 

BI Intelligence is a research and analysis service focused on mobile computing, digital media, payments, and e-commerce. Only subscribers can download the individual charts and datasets in Excel, along with the PowerPoint and PDF versions of this deck. Please sign up for a free trial here.

This deck is downloadable as a PPT for BI Intelligence members. Click below for a free trial.

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Hong Kong (AFP) - Dozens of protesters broke through the gates of Hong Kong's government headquarters late Friday in an ongoing student demonstration against Beijing's refusal to grant the city unfettered democracy.

Six people were arrested for offences ranging from forcibly entering government property and public disorder to assaulting an officer, police said in a statement. 

Around 150 people pushed into the grounds of the complex, some scaling over a tall exterior fence, as others outside yelled "open the gates".

Police repeatedly used pepper spray on the protesters, who used umbrellas, surgical masks and goggles to protect themselves, an AFP reporter at the scene said. 

Officers held up red signs warning people to "stop charging or we use force". Riot police wearing helmets and carrying shields arrived to push back the crowd in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

Student groups are spearheading a civil disobedience campaign along with democracy activists in a days-long protest at Beijing's announcement last month that it would vet who can stand for Hong Kong's top post of chief executive at the next election.

By early Saturday, around 1,000 people were outside the Southern Chinese city's main government complex. Numbers had earlier swelled to more than 2,000 as secondary school pupils, some wearing uniforms, joined the university students.

In a statement police confirmed they had made six arrests of Hong Kong citizens aged 16 to 29, and that around 150 students had entered the government grounds. News footage showed officers taking away prominent student leader, Joshua Wong. 

Early Saturday, a government statement had "expressed regret" that protesters had stormed the complex, saying security personnel, police officers and protesters had suffered injuries but without giving details. 

"We don't care if we get hurt, we don't care if we get arrested, what we care about is getting real democracy," protester Wong Kai-keung said from the front line of the charge. 

Teenage pupils -- many saying they had defied their parents' wishes -- earlier descended on Hong Kong's government headquarters to add their voices to a class boycott kicked off by university students on Monday.

Then on Thursday night, more than 2,000 people took their protest to the residence of Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying with the hope of speaking to him. Leung has so far refused to speak to the students or meet their leaders.

- 'Real not fake elections' -

Protests continued Friday morning with around 900 secondary school students as young as 13 gathering outside the city's main government complex shouting: "I want real elections not fake ones".

Chung Chun-wai, 17, said many of his friends joined the protest in defiance of their parents, highlighting the often sharp generational divide in the former British colony over its political future. 

"I think secondary school students are a part of society and I consider myself a citizen of Hong Kong. That's why I think I need to bear the responsibility to care about society and to voice the real opinions of Hong Kongers," he said.

Organisers said around 3,000 people showed up to the secondary school strike. 

Meanwhile around 300 people, mostly elderly retirees originally from mainland China, staged a counter-protest to support Beijing's decision in neighbouring Tamar Park, replacing students who had gathered there since Tuesday.

Occupy Central, a prominent grassroots pro-democracy group, has vowed to take over the city's Central financial district if its demand that Hong Kongers be allowed to nominate who can stand for leader is not met.

Occupy co-founder Benny Tai has previously hinted the takeover could begin on October 1, a national holiday when much of the district will be empty.

He told reporters at the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club on Friday: "After next week's action we may not be able to change the standing committee's decision immediately, but if we could have that very strong determination shown, I personally have the confidence that one day democracy will come to Hong Kong."

Last month China said Hong Kongers would be allowed to vote for their leader for the first time in 2017, but that only two or three candidates approved by a pro-Beijing committee could stand.

Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" agreement that allows it civil liberties not seen on the mainland, including free speech and the right to protest.

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Pakistan is likely working to create tactical nuclear weapons, which are smaller warheads built for use on battlefields rather than cities or infrastructure. These weapons are diminutive enough to be launched from warships or submarines, which makes them easier to use on short notice than traditional nuclear weapons.

Developing tactical nuclear weapons calls for miniaturization of current weaponry (the "Davy Crockett," developed by the US in the '50s, was designed to launch from a simple tripod). But as The Washington Post reports, analysts are divided on whether Pakistan will be able to make warheads tiny enough for sea-launching.

There's less uncertainty about the military advantage gained with such weapons. A warhead-toting navy would allow Pakistan to stay nuclear-capable regardless of what happens to its homeland, where its nuclear infrastructure is spread out.

The trade-off there, for both Pakistan and the world, is that nuclear missiles become more likely to fall into rogue hands, whether those of a maverick military commander or extremist groups. At a land-based facility, a hijacker would need "to commandeer two separate facilities, with two separate security procedures and local commanders," Jonah Blank, a political scientist with the RAND Corporation, wrote in an email to Business Insider. "For a sea-based nuclear device, a rogue operator would need only to commandeer one asset: A submarine or surface vessel." Other safeguards exist — US submarines, for instance, require complex codes before permitting a nuclear offensive — but faster access still simplifies one factor in a high-stake equation.

Historically, deterrence and the stability it brings is often the salutary result of rivals with equal nuclear capability. It's also Pakistan's stated goal. Last September a statement from a meeting of the National Command Authority (which directs nuclear policy and development) said Pakistan is developing “a full-spectrum deterrence capability to deter all forms of aggression." The meeting was presided by Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

"India has what's called the triad, the ability to launch nuclear weapons form air, land, and now soon by sea. Pakistan is looking for the same," Arif Rafiq, a researcher at the Middle East Institute, told Business Insider. He believes nuclear parity between the countries has achieved deterrence. "Since India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998, there has been a greater level of restraint in terms of the behavior of both countries when it comes to war," Rafiq said. "They've advanced their nuclear arsenal but they've also taken significant steps towards normalizing relations."

While nuclear weapons can be beneficial, Rafiq doesn't exactly applaud them: "Having one nuclear warhead is something that's terrible enough for this world," he said.

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People sure are excited about Ello.

If you haven't heard the hype, Ello is the once-mysterious social network that promises zero ads and a creative layout.

Ello is currently in beta, and is invite-only, which has led to influx of people signing up and requesting invites.

Two days ago, Ello was seeing 4,000 signups per hour, but that number has ballooned in the last 48 hours, as people continue to create accounts and request invites.

"We're up to 38,000 signups per hour recently," Ello founder Paul Budnitz tells Business Insider.

And while the interest in Ello is promising, Budnitz says they're not trying to be the biggest social network out there, even though people continue to characterize Ello as a threat to Facebook.

"It’s not really what we’re about," says Budnitz. "We’re not trying to be the biggest."

To get a sense of what Ello looks like, you can take a look at a preview of Budnitz's Ello profile below or sign up for an invitation here.

SEE ALSO: Here's What Mysterious Invite-Only Social Network Ello Needs To Do In Order To Survive

SEE ALSO: Meet Ello, The Mysterious Invite-Only Social Network With Zero Ads That Everyone Is Obsessing About

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How peanuts are cooked may help explain why they are allergenic.

BROADLY speaking, East Asians and Westerners suffer the same types of food allergies in about the same proportions. But there is an exception. Westerners are roughly twice as likely as East Asians to be allergic to peanuts. This is a puzzle--as is the question of why anyone is allergic to peanuts in the first place.

A paper in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology sheds light on both matters. The study it describes, conducted by Quentin Sattentau of Oxford University and his colleagues, found that mice are more likely to develop a peanut allergy in response to dry-roasted nuts than raw ones. Since dry roasting is more common in the West than in East Asia, that may explain the disparity of incidence. And the chemical changes induced by dry roasting help explain what causes peanut allergy in the first place.

Dr Sattentau and his team injected their mice with proteins derived from raw or dry-roasted peanuts, to prime the animals' immune systems. Then, they fed those animals raw or dry-roasted peanuts.

Mice that had been primed with proteins from the dry-roasted nuts exhibited more robust immune responses to both diets. Their levels of antibodies--specifically of a type called immunoglobulin E (IgE)--rose significantly. High levels of IgE are the hallmark of an allergic reaction. Though the mice primed with raw-peanut protein also produced lots of antibodies, far fewer were IgEs.

The difference, Dr Sattentau thinks, stems from the fact that dry roasting triggers what is known to chemists as the Maillard reaction, and to chefs as "browning". The Maillard reaction is one between sugars and proteins that forms new, complex molecules called advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). These create many of the pleasant aromas associated with cooked foods, but are also suspected of causing certain allergies--including, it would now appear, peanut allergy.

Indeed, Dr Sattentau showed that proteins derived from dry-roasted peanuts bind to dendritic cells, a type important to the immune response. Specifically, these proteins interact with cell receptor-molecules known to bind to AGEs. Dr Sattentau believes this binding is the molecular mechanism which triggers peanut allergy.

Don't go nuts

Why, even so, most people can eat peanuts without ill effect, is probably a quirk of genetics. The genes that regulate the immune system are the most variable in the human genome so, peanutwise, some people are probably just dealt an unlucky hand by the genetic shuffling that created their own genomes out of their parents'.

But for those people--and particularly for those among them for whom even proximity to peanuts risks anaphylactic shock--there is reason for hope. Results of an experiment published earlier this year by researchers at Cambridge University showed that exposing peanut-sensitive children to tiny amounts of the nuts can, over a period, slowly desensitise them. If this finding holds up it could mean that, though those who develop peanut allergy may never enjoy the things in the way that the rest of humanity does, at least effects of peanuts on them will be peanuts.

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Doing a burnout behind the wheel of a muscle car may be one of the most true-blue of American activities.

Ford adores a vast plume of incinerated rubber so much that the company has included a special feature to make it easier on the all-new 2015 Mustang GT. The feature — called "line lock"— freezes up the front brakes of the car while allowing the rear wheels to spin freely.

According to Ford engineers, line lock is designed to help Mustang owners heat up their rear tires so they can grab the asphalt better at drag strips. It's awesomely useless in real life, but still one of the coolest features available in any high-performance cars. Bravo Ford! 

SEE ALSO: Mercedes' Latest High-Powered AMG Sedan Is 100% Attitude

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Germany's Ramstein Air Base, the headquarters of the US Air Force in Europe, is a 24-hour operation with an astounding 17,000 military and civilians on staff. 

The 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs office has released a time-lapse video to highlight the work that goes into maintaining Ramstein as the critical hub that links the US to Europe, Africa, and western Asia.

The video, created from over 700 minutes of video and 7,000 pictures compiled by 30 public affairs personnel, provides an unparalleled view into the daily life of US Air Force Airmen. 

As the video is over 7 minutes long, we have created GIFs of the video highlights below. 

Operations within Ramstein run 24/7. That means pilots must be ready to flight plan at any hour of the day.

The vast majority of planes flying through Ramstein transport cargo, meaning that cargo handlers, load masters, drivers, and mechanics must all be ready to handle any incoming or outgoing aircraft.

Not all operations on Ramstein are dedicated to planes. Here, a specialist practices at explosive ordinance disposal. 

Elsewhere on base, an Air Force dentist inspects a service member's teeth. Ramstein offers everything Airmen and civilians might need right on base.

Physical fitness is critical to the military, and Airmen must pass annual physical fitness tests. 

Of course, while some personnel are on the ground, pilots and loadmasters are constantly carrying out both practice and mission drops throughout the day. 

Despite civilians' focus on the Air Force flying planes, the branch also trains ground forces.

Ramstein's fire brigade is constantly training to provide fire protection both against aircraft fires and those in neighboring German communities.

You can see the full video below.

SEE ALSO: An amazing look inside the US Air Force's headquarters in Europe

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Samsung’s Vice Chairman Jay Lee has made another trip to the US this week, his fifth of the year, but no one seems to know exactly why, ZDNet Korea reported Friday.

Samsung declined to say why Lee has made yet another visit to the US, but the report says it’s for market research and to come up with a strategy that could counter Apple’s iPhone 6 release.

It’s not unusual for a company of Samsung's size to have its executives frequently visit the US, which owns the second-largest smartphone market in the world. 

But even under those standards, five times in less than nine months seems like a lot. 

Lee was in the US in January before the Galaxy S5 launch, and came back in May over Korean holidays to meet with “local customers,” the report says. He also made two trips in July — one for the Allen & Co Sun Valley Conference, and another for what was widely presumed to be a meeting with Apple, which culminated in Apple and Samsung agreeing to drop all patent lawsuits outside the US.

One thing worth noting is the fact that Lee held a meeting with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in Seoul this week, right before his departure to the US. Local reports say the two discussed possible future collaborations and how to improve their business relationship. In August, Microsoft sued Samsung over late royalty payments they agreed to in a 2011 contract.

In fact, according to Chosun Ilbo, the largest Korean daily newspaper, Nadella gave Lee “special treatment” by visiting the Samsung headquarters for their meeting. Nadella held every other meeting, including the ones with LG Electronics and IBM, at his hotel during his stay in Korea, the report says. 

The Korea Herald reports that industry watchers are expecting the two companies to work closely moving forward because they have “no choice but to cooperate” in light of the mounting competition from Chinese competitors.

Lee is the only son of Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee. He’s often called the “Crown Prince of Samsung” because he’s the leading candidate to take over the company once his father decides to step down. 

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Over the last century, American farming has experienced a consolidation towards large agricultural corporations. In 1935, there were approximately 6.8 million farms in the US. By 2000, that number had plummeted to 2.2 million. Today, we're down to 2.1 million. Meanwhile, the highest income bracket for farms now accounts for 66.4% of US agricultural products sold, up from 47.5% in 2002.

In this age of corporate agriculture, family farms that have survived have done so by capitalizing on the local food movement: selling to organic and specialty supermarkets, selling wholesale to restaurants, selling shares of a farm's harvest directly through community-supported agriculture (CSAs), and selling at farmer's markets.

We talked to one local farmer who has managed to adapt and thrive in this challenging environment: Kevin Smith of upstate New York’s Sycamore Farms. Sycamore, like many in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, has turned nearly exclusively to one source for revenue: the New York City Greenmarkets. 

The New York City Greenmarket was founded in 1976 by New York City architect Barry Benepe to support local farms that were too small to sell to wholesalers. What began as a one-day-a-week farmer's market in Union Square supporting seven farmers has exploded. Today, the Greenmarket runs 52 farmer's markets in different locations in the city, supporting 240 farmers in seven states. 

"We cut out the middle man between producers and consumers by providing regional farmers direct access to their customers," Michael Hurtwitz, the director of the Greenmarkets for GrowNYC, told Business Insider. 

Sycamore was one of the first farms at the market, joining up in 1981. Henry Smith, the founder of Sycamore Farms and Kevin’s father, recognized the potential of the Greenmarket early.

"Everyone was bragging about how much money there was in the greenmarkets and so we went down to see if there was any money left," Henry told The Times Herald Record last year.

It turned out there was, not just for Sycamore but for other farms as well. According to Hurwitz, the overwhelming majority of farms that sell at the Greenmarket derive their main source of income from the markets. 85% of the Greenmarket farmers told Hurwitz they would be out of business if it weren't for the markets.

Today, the Union Square market, Greenmarket's flagship market and the only one that Sycamore attends, runs four days a week, year round. On an average September Friday, 360,000 people pass through the market. More pass through on Saturdays. While other Greenmarket locations are equally lucrative, no other market has that kind of foot traffic. 

The Hard Numbers Of Small Farms Today

Sycamore hosts a stand at the Greenmarket three days a week, from June until November. In a typical week, the stand sells approximately 5,100 ears of corn and 5,000 pounds of tomatoes, as well as other produce, baked goods, and preserve, according to Smith. On a single day, Sycamore will sell to about 1,000 customers.

During a good year, Sycamore’s Greenmarket sales come out to about $15,000 to $25,000 per week during the selling season, which comes out to approximately $300,000 to $500,000 income.

That sounds like a lot until you start factoring in costs. Property taxes alone figure to be above $20,000. Operating costs for materials, equipment, and maintenance can be $100,000 to $250,000. Once you add in hourly wages (between $10 to $15/hour) for seven farm employees, liability insurance, farm insurance, employment insurance, and disability insurance, it becomes clear: margins can get very tight depending on the year.

While sales are generally constant year to year, running a farm today is as unpredictable as it ever was. Different weather conditions can wreak havoc on a season in different ways. A rainy season can make crops thrive, but it can also slow traffic at the Greenmarket or even shut the market altogether. Too little rain and some crops will have difficulty growing, but there are more days to sell at the market.

As the national climate for small farms has stiffened, the Greenmarket has expanded its reach. In just the last seven years, the market has increased from 174 farmers to 240 and 44 markets to 52. According to Hurwitz, overall revenue at the markets has increased during that time and a number of farmers have told him that last year was their highest-grossing year ever.

Part of the boom is due to what Hurwitz calls "an explosion in demand for local."

Smith has observed the same trend: “Customers today are more interested, engaged, and knowledgeable. 99% are repeat visitors and I never have to hard-sell the produce."

Even a decade ago, Smith spent countless time at the market trying to explain to customers why his local produce cost more than supermarket produce, often to no avail. Customers were baffled or frustrated and tried to haggle the price down. Today’s urbanites are obsessed with anything locally-sourced, organic, and especially farm-to-table, which Sycamore and other local farms are perfectly positioned to capitalize on. The flood of interest in farm-to-table has its downsides though.

“Because the demand is there, there’s way more competition at the Greenmarket and outside of it,” says Smith.

CSAs, co-ops, food boxes, gourmet grocery stores, Whole Foods, and non-Greenmarket farmer’s markets (some that have "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for where sellers get their produce) have sprung up are all over Brooklyn and Manhattan. Factor in the proliferation of farmers at the Greenmarkets themselves and its clear that local food has become a crowded market.

Nonetheless, no trend lasts forever. The Greenmarket similarly boomed in the early 1990s, when Henry Smith once boasted of selling 14,000 ears of corn in a single day. By the late ‘90s, however, overblown fears about the unhealthiness of carbs killed the corn market in Manhattan.

With that in mind, Smith has kept margins tight by reinvesting Sycamore's profits back into the business — “the Amazon plan,” he calls it. The Greenmarket has been good to Sycamore, but Smith is smart enough to recognize that relying solely on one revenue source is a bad business model.

Building A New Business Model 

Until five years ago, the farm’s income was 100% derived from the Greenmarket. Today, that percentage has been scaled back to 90%.

Towards that effort, Sycamore opened a 4,000-square-foot farm stand on site last year. At the farmstand, Sycamore sells its freshest produce, as well other locally-sourced produce from farms in the area that they trust. In addition, they now sell cooked and processed items made in their own kitchen and bakery, such as jams, jellies, pickles, tomato sauces, fruit pies, breads, and very popular tomato pies.

Smith is also looking to expand Sycamore’s presence at the market to year-round, selling the farm’s processed items during the winter months to stay in front of New Yorkers' faces and promote the farmstand.

Currently, Smith has been organizing events to get people to the farm: chef’s dinners using Sycamore produce, potlucks, and educational events for both young children and adults. He promotes the farmstand on social media and always talks up the farmstand at the Greenmarket. While he’s only in the beginnings of his grassroots efforts, Smith envisions a day when the stand gets enough foot traffic that Sycamore can stop trekking to Manhattan altogether. It will require a redoubled presence at the Greenmarket to get the message out to the people that care.

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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer released a statement Friday afternoon in response to the letter from activist shareholder Starboard Value LP that urged Yahoo to combine its business with AOL’s.

“We have maintained, and will continue to maintain, an open dialogue with all of our shareholders … we will review Starboard’s letter carefully and look forward to discussing it with them,” Mayer said in a statement.

Starboard said Friday morning that it has taken a “significant stake” in Yahoo, and it urged Yahoo management to improve shareholder value. It wants Yahoo to sell its stake in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, cut costs by up to $500 million a year, and combine with AOL, among many other things.

You can read the full statement by Mayer below:

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today acknowledged receipt of a letter from Starboard Value LP.

“We are committed, as an organization, to acting in the best interests of the Company and all of its shareholders. We have maintained, and will continue to maintain, an open dialogue with all of our shareholders. As part of our regular evaluation of Yahoo’s strategic initiatives to drive sustainable shareholder value, we will review Starboard’s letter carefully and look forward to discussing it with them,” said Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer.

“Going forward, we have great confidence in the strength of our business. The management team and the Board of Directors remain committed to building value for all shareholders through the continued execution of our strategy, investing in products that will drive sustainable growth: search, communications, digital magazines and video. We continue to leverage our portfolio of world-class products which include Yahoo Search, Mail, News, Sports, Flickr, Tumblr, and advertising solutions among others. Additionally, we will continue to focus on evaluating various capital allocation initiatives, an update to which we plan to provide on our third quarter earnings call,” concluded Mayer.

The Company remains focused on creating shareholder value through its world-class internet assets, its highly successful investments in leading global internet companies and the increasing traction in transforming Yahoo into a mobile-first company. In the last two years, Yahoo has more than doubled its average monthly mobile users. Since July of 2012, Yahoo! has completed over $6.3bn in share repurchases.

SEE ALSO: DEAR MARISSA MAYER AND YAHOO: Here's What You Now Get To Look Forward To ...

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A few years back, when Ford CEO Alan Mulally was keeping his company out of bankruptcy, shedding luxury brands such as Jaguar and Land Rover, and unifying his far-flung employees around an inspiring "One Ford" message, I argued that it was time to say goodbye to Lincoln.

Lincoln is Ford's luxury division — its counterpoint to General Motors' Cadillac. But the marque has struggled mightily in recent years. It was selling nearly a quarter of a million cars in the early 1990s. But this year, it will do well to sell 80,000. 

There were rumors that the brand was on the chopping block in 2010-11, but Mulally decided against a Lincoln assassination. He reportedly wanted to ditch the brand again last year, when as Automotive News reported"sales fell to a 32-year low." Ford's now-CEO Mark Fields talked Mulally out of it.

THE COMEBACK

Lincoln has mounted a bit of a comeback this year, as historic rival Cadillac has hit a bad patch. But quite honestly, I was still skeptical about the brand's future. As I had been before. And before. And before.

But I recently had a chance to spend a week with the MKZ, Lincoln's midsize sedan (it was actually the hybrid version of the car). I drove it in and around New York City and had at least one notable experience.

After taking some friends home to Brooklyn from Manhattan, I was headed back to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway when, at a stoplight ... a guy knocked on my window.

Now, when somebody knocks on your window in New York, out of nowhere, you don't generally react in a calm manner. But this guy didn't look as if he had any troubling plans — he was wearing construction-worker gear, a yellow safety vest and a hardhat — so I rolled down the window.

"Bee-yoooootiful!" he enthused. "Whadidit run ya?"

He added, gesturing back toward the sidewalk, "Me and my friends were curious."

I wasn't completely sure, as I didn't have the car's sticker handy and hadn't checked pricing before I picked the car up. I threw out a figure, but it was a bit higher than the MKZ Hybrid's slightly-north-of $35,000 list price (which can obviously climb significantly higher as one adds options).

And then we exchanged pleasantries, and I drove away.LESSONS LEARNED

And therein are two lessons about Lincoln's destiny. First, off the top of my head, I priced the car higher than Lincoln has it priced. It feels like a lot of car for the money.

Second, if people are knocking on your window in Brooklyn to tell you how much they like your car and to ask how much it costs, Ford probably made the right decision in saving Lincoln. A motivated potential customer is the finest potential customer of all.

On paper, there are reasons to complain about the MKZ Hybrid. It's essentially an upmarket version of the Ford Fusion, which costs $6,000 less. Although the non-hybrid MKZ is available with all-wheel-drive and an optional turbocharged V6 engine, the hybrid version has only front-wheel drive and is motivated by an engine that generates a modest 188 hp. The core differences from the Fusion are a lusher interior and more distinctive exterior styling.

Good reasons to be cynical, like I said. But then the MKZ Hybrid goes and breaks down your resistance simply by being an utterly soothing thing to drive and sit in. Horsepower is so overrated! Rebadging a mass-market sedan and calling it a luxury car isn't a scurrilous practice — it's perfectly logical! There we were, my family and I, joyfully tooling around New York in our MKZ Hybrid, with the sunroof open to a lovely sunny day in very late summer, jazz station WGBO trickling standards from the speakers, burning dinky amounts of gas and simply having ourselves a grand time.

I was rapidly growing to regret all the bad things I had ever said about Lincoln.

GALLIC FLAIR

The MKZ Hybrid is not a car that's dealing with any existential issues. Some luxury cars want to be BMWs or Mercedes. Some want to be Porsches. Some even want to be Ferraris. A lot want to be Audis. But the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid is content to be the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. Unlikely to empty your wallet at the pump. Unlikely to invite speeding tickets. 

You might conclude that it's a great pseudo-luxury sedan for the retired and those on the road to retirement. But no, not that at all, because then there's the exterior design.

Ever since Lincoln dispensed with the more bold, blocky cues of its previous generation of cars and adopted the current, more sinuous, almost voluptuous, vocabulary, I've found myself ... drawn to the sedans. They don't look like other luxury sedans. They look ...

... sort of ...

... French.

There are no French cars, much less French luxury cars, being sold in the U.S. market, so if you enjoy French cars and French design in general, Lincolns are all you've got. They're the Citroëns of the USA, but American-made Citroëns.These are heretical statements, I know, but also true.

Furthermore, it's not clear that Lincoln is aiming to sell existentially unconflicted luxury cars in the U.S. But hiring Matthew McConaughey to serve as a trippy spokesman for the brand suggests Lincoln at least hopes to put buyers in a reflective mood.

And the bottom line, for me anyway, is that to spend time in the MKZ Hybrid is to inhabit a car that's perfectly at ease in its own skin.

We pass our lives trying to achieve this enlightened state. It's quietly thrilling that a luxury brand whose future was once in grave doubt can help us get there. 

SEE ALSO: You Have To Watch This Trippy Video Matthew McConaughey Made For Lincoln

SEE ALSO: A French Luxury Car Brand Is Growing Surprisingly Fast In China

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In the past year, several major tech companies have announced high-flying ambitions to launch their own drones. 

Google recently revealed it had spent the past two years secretly working on an unmanned aerial vehicle delivery program called "Project Wing." Facebook envisions its unmanned vehicles providing internet to people all over the world. Amazon's Prime Air program hopes to deliver your packages in 30 minutes or less via drones zooming through the air. The Federal Aviation Administration just gave six Hollywood studios permission to use drones in their filming.

Before these — and any other commercial drone efforts — can really lift off, however, there needs to be a safety system in place to make sure that all these new flying vehicles don't crash into buildings, airplanes, or one another. 

Enter: Dr. Parimal Kopardekar, the manager of NASA's NexGen concepts and technology development project. 

Dr. Kopardekar is leading NASA's drone traffic management program, which is trying to develop a separate air traffic control system for low-flying vehicles, like drones.  The small team has been hustling away on this problem for a little over a year, acting almost like a tiny startup inside the large agency. They work out of NASA's Ames research and development center, located in the heart of Silicon Valley and a short drive from the campuses of Google, Yahoo, and Facebook (but will often do air testing elsewhere because of Ames' proximity to the airport and high-density areas).

"Just because you have a ton of sky doesn’t mean you can fly anywhere you want," Dr. Kopardekar told Business Insider. "You will still have to follow the 'rules of the road'; you’ll still have to follow some sort of structure. And that structure is missing right now. We need some kind of structure, and our system is meant to provide it."

Dr. Kopardekar's team wants to create an air traffic control system for drones that would keep track of and deliver important information like which areas drones should avoid (anywhere near an airport, for example), what the weather will be like in a given area (because drones are often so light, strong winds put them at risk), and whether any other vehicles are trying to operate in the same airspace. The team is researching and testing ways to communicate all this data to drones while they're in-flight, like through dynamic geo-fences (picture these as sort of the guardrails of the air). That way, drone owners can have the most updated information as wind forecast changes or other drones enter their airspace.

Here's a picture from one of the team's air tests:

One of the huge challenges of this proposed system is that people have so many potential uses for drones in mind. There are delivery drones like those imagined by Amazon and Google; drones for taking pictures; drones for search and rescue; and drones for monitoring agricultural areas. The FAA currently estimates that the sky will be filled with as many as 7,500 small commercial drones by 2018.

Here's a look at how some of these scenarios may look from one of Dr. Kopardekar's presentations:

"We have to show how all these operations will work simultaneously in the same airspace," Kopardekar says.

One at a time, these vehicles are not an issue, he says, but when there are a bunch of drones that want to do differing things, an organized system is critical to avoid chaos.

Chaos, of course, can often lead to crashes. One worst-case scenario is that a drone flying too high or too close to an airport could interfere with a helicopter or passenger plane, putting many human lives at risk. Over the past two years, there have been 15 cases of drones flying dangerously close to airports or passenger aircrafts, The Washington Post reports, based on complaints filed to the FAA.

Drones have also crashed into buildings and the ground and collided with people: Since 2009, civilian drones flown with FAA permission have had 23 accidents and 236 unsafe incidents, according to The Post. 

Safety is obviously a big priority for any company working on drones, but there are a lot of variables. 

"There will be crashes," Dr. Kopardekar said in an email. "These happen for many reasons — piloting skills, lack of understanding of wind/weather situations, vehicle design itself, etc. What we need is a comprehensive understanding and program."

He adds that cities will have to have action plans to help them identify and deal with rogue drones — including ones that have been hacked. 

Kopardekar would not name specific companies that NASA has been in touch with while working on its drone traffic management program, but he says that he has had conversations and partnerships with drone operators of all sizes. ("We are working with all the partners you can imagine, and more.")

Although the Federal Aviation Agency will have the final call about drone regulations (it hopes to release proposed rules for small drones under 55 pounds later this year, in line with its complete plan for “safe integration” of commercial drones by September 2015), Kopardekar says that NASA has a good relationship with the FAA. The agency knows about the drone traffic management program and supports its experiments. 

SEE ALSO: Why Amazon Needs Drones More Than People Realize

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