Rubicon Project, the programmatic advertising company that went public last year, acquired Toronto-based search and ad regargeting company Chango on Tuesday for approximately $122 million in cash and stock (but primarily stock).

Toronto-based Chango specializes in "intent marketing," mixing information from search queries with behavioral, contextual (the kind of content a web user is consuming), and advertiser data to allow brands to better target their ads.

As AdExchanger points out, Chango gives Rubicon Project (which originally started out as a supply-side-platform - or SSP - to help publishers and app developers monetize their content) more clout on the other side of the market, the buyer-side. Rubicon Project itself says Chango will open up an incremental $35 billion "intent marketing" revenue opportunity.

We spoke to Rubicon Project's founder and CEO Frank Addante over the phone to dig into why Rubicon Project is bolstering up more on the buy-side now, and how its ad tech stack stands up to the likes of Google and Facebook which are rapidly building up (or acquiring) their stacks on both sides of the digital ad market too — serving both publishers and app developers on one side, and the advertisers, agencies, and the other ad-tech companies in the ecosystem (like demand-side-platforms/DSPs) that serve them.

This transcript has been lightly edited for brevity.

BUSINESS INSIDER: Chango is an interesting acquisition for you as it's on the buy-side of the ad market, rather than the sell-side. Is this a pivot for Rubicon Project?

FRANK ADDANTE: It’s actually not a pivot at all. Our mission from day one at the company has been to automate the buying and selling of advertising, and from day one we’ve had technologies that we’ve built for both buyers and sellers. Initially it was about connecting publishers and ad networks through ad network optimization, then we pioneered real time bidding, and that led to the creation of DSPs (demand-side-platforms.)

Then a couple of years ago we launched our direct orders product, which enabled buyers and sellers to transact directly with each other. They also have the ability to use a DSP in that transaction. So we have a history from day one we’ve been developing technologies for both buyers and sellers. so this is very much in line with that vision and that plan.

BI: OK, you've worked on the buy-side before, but most of your revenue is sell side, and that can be a difficult place to make money. SaaS (Software as a Service) can be a difficult place to make money, and, as a you're a public company, you need to show that you’ve a long-term growth strategy, and Wall Street loves high margins as well. There’s one interesting theory that the idea of SaaS in the ad-tech market is a dying breed. Do you any thoughts on that?

FA: [Laughs] There are always conspiracy theorists out there. So, first, our business is obviously very healthy, you can see that very clearly in our financials.

Comments about most of our revenue [coming from the seller side]: We actually haven't disclosed and don’t disclose how much of our revenue comes from the buyer piece and seller piece, they do come from both.

To give a bit of perspective, a few years back, we had acquired a company called Fox Audience Networks a company we acquired from Fox, part of News Corporation. It was a fairly large acquisition at the time, and a lot of people were confused by that because Fox Audience Networks was effectively perceived to be an ad network, for MySpace, and News Corp, and Fox, and a bunch of other companies. But we acquired that company for their technology, scale, and their team. 

Those three things really led to a lot of the success we had introducing products like real time bidding or direct orders into the market. And those were technologies we made available and for all buyers and sellers in our market: Publishers, application developers, the DSPs, the ad networks — we had the technology at the company at the point in marketplace.

Chango is exactly the same. Chango has built incredible technology in intent marketing, and intent marketing dollars today are primarily directed towards search. A lot of people, when they think of search, they think of the ads that show up next to search results, but a large portion of search is actually going to ... keywords on pages, content on the page.

The intent for us is to make those capabilities available to all buyers and all sellers in our marketplace, including the DSPs, ad networks, and the agencies. What this deal does is it gives us the ability to bring this technology from search into premium advertising. We see it as a $35 billion dollar incremental market and it accelerates what we already have in this area, it accelerates our buyer technology by more than a year. There are 150 people in the Chango team, and that accelerates our hires quite a bit, as well as the customer relationships. Sixty of the Fortune 500 advertisers are on their platform today, and they are now part of Rubicon Project marketplace.

BI: How does your ad-tech stack compare to the rest of the market?

FA: I think that its fair to say that we’ve established a leadership position. Us and Google are the two largest exchanges in the market. With Google ... they are starting to try to service themselves: They are a major publisher and app developer.

Whereas we’ve built our technology and our platform for the rest of the market, where we are focused on trying to power an open marketplace. Google has invested billions of dollars in buying DoubleClick, Invite Media, Admeld to try to put together the stack, whereas we’ve built the stack organically ... Our exchange tech is very strong, our seller cloud is very strong, and our buyer cloud is ... an area in which we are accelerating, and that part of the business has got more and more clout.

BI: Facebook is also considerably building up its ad-tech stack. There's the rumor it's launching a DSP, and it's expanding Atlas. Do you credibly think you can stay the number two to Google for long?

FA: By the way, we are not saying we are number two, we are aiming for number one with Google. But there’s certainly room for a couple of winners in this space.

Facebook has built an outstanding business, obviously.  They are trying to generate revenue on their own property and they're doing a good job in doing that. But they have got to solve their monetization needs first before they focus on the rest of the market. I think that’s actually what they’re doing, which makes a lot of sense.

I think for them to try to get into real-time-bidding, or an exchange, or a marketplace for the rest of the market is a huge huge leap for them to make.

If they were to move in that direction, I think they would be more likely to be a buyer like Google. Google is one of our largest customers. I look at Facebook more like a partner or a customer.

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College campuses are known for being gossipy, but the folks working on Capitol Hill may be guilty of the same behavior, at least according to a new app. 

Cloakroom is a new anonymous sharing app à la Yik Yak. It lets anyone whose GPS is within Capital Hill or has @senate.gov and @house.gov emails post whatever they like.

And people in the Washington DC scene have already begun sharing juicy content, IJReview reports. 

The app first launched a little under month ago, and according to its blog, is meant to provide “a place where congressional insiders can slip away from the blind, hungry galore of cameras and speak openly and off the record.” 

Cloakroom is available to download on iOS and says it does not store any information such as email address, location, or any other user stats.

Users who download the app can sign up by showing their location or submitting their email addresses. They can then choose “aliases,” which can post juicy gossip to Cloakroom’s news feed.

Ted Henderson, Cloakroom's creator who chatted with me over Gchat, said he wants to "open new lines of communications between political insiders." He added, "the fact is people on the hill don't talk, especially across ideological divides."

His app is part of his bigger company called Capitol Bells, which is a platform to connect politicians with issues and constituents. The company raised a small round of funding last year.

Cloakroom, though, may become the bread winner for Henderson. He told Business Insider that, without any marketing as well as a very restrictive geofence, the app has already amassed over 1,000 downloads. 

Additionally, scintillating conversations have begun. One user, using the alias “biparticurious,” wrote, “Why are women in R offices hotter than the D’s?” Someone else asked for a definition of the word “skintern.” And many others post topical and/or raunchy jokes about current political events. 

Cloakroom's most obvious competitors are other anonymous sharing apps like Yik Yak and Secret. While both apps did see initial success, they have been called out for spreading lies and bullying.

Cloakroom could be headed in that direction, although politicos may have thicker skin than the average college freshman. Henderson, however, doesn't think it will go in that direction.

What makes Cloakroom users different is that Washington is already a small place. This means they will want to "take ownership" of the content they post. Henderson, in fact, has high hopes for the app; he believes it could make for a better bipartisan dialogue.

"It may sound silly that you can achieve that through low brow humor and snarky comments, but community has to begin somewhere," he wrote. 

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The F-35 has become notorious for its stratospheric price tag, along with the plane's host of mechanical and software problems.

The cost of the US's fifth-generation fighter has already risen to approximately $400 billion with a projected lifetime operating cost of $1.5 trillion. The Marines are still set on launching the F-35 in the near term despite its incomplete software package. 

These problems apply to the F-35's helmet as well. Each F-35 helmet costs over $400,000, the Washington Post reports. And like the F-35, the helmet has had its own run of development setbacks and cost overruns. 

Each visor is designed to function as a heads-up display that will work in conjunction with six high resolution cameras embedded in the skin across the F-35. Ideally, during flight the pilot would be able to see through the walls of the jet as images from the cameras are displayed in real time across the visor surface. 

“When the helmet’s tuned correctly to the pilot’s eyes, you almost step into this other world where all this information comes in. You can look through the jet’s eyeballs to see the world as the jet sees the world," Al Norman, an F-35 test pilot, told The Washington Post.

This enhanced situational awareness would allow the pilot to see enemy aircraft and targets on the ground that the sides of the cockpit might otherwise obscure. The visor also displays critical information about speed and altitude. 

But the helmet, like the rest of the F-35, ran into operational problems.

According to testing from the Department of Defense, turbulence and buffeting of the aircraft could cause significant display issues within the helmet. 

The report stated that during basic offensive and defensive maneuvers the conditions negatively effected the display, a problem that could have "the greatest impact in scenarios where a pilot was maneuvering to defeat a missile shot."

In addition, the Post noted that the helmets suffered from night-vision and streaming issues that caused motion sickness among pilots. Fortunately these problems have largely been resolved, although the green glow associated with the night vision is still a persistent issue. 

SEE ALSO: Pentagon: Here are all the problems with the F-35

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The partnership between Apple and IBM is on track to deliver 100 iOS business apps by the end of the year, as Tim Cook promised it would.

The partners just released 8 more apps and added three more industries, reports 9to5 Mac.

That brings the total number of apps to 22 and the total number of industries to 9: banking, utilities, government, healthcare, manufacturing, insurance, retail, telecommunications and transportation.

This follows the first 10 apps released in December and a promise by Tim Cook in January to roll out those new apps and industries in Q1. That's also when he said the two had "over 100" apps planned and was "on target" to release them this calendar year.

The partnership, which goes by the name IBM Moblefirst for iOS, is meant to help Apple shore up waning iPad sales and give IBM a much-needed presence in a growing mobile market.

The two are hoping to encourage enterprises to buy iPads by writing very specific apps aimed at very specific business users.

For instance, one of the new healthcare apps is called "Hospital RN for iPhone."

It lets nurses tap into hospitals patient records, organize tasks for the patient and use iBeacon technology to locate patient rooms or automatically pull up patient records as a they walk near (should a hospital opt to install iBeacons).

We don't know yet how many enterprises are buying these custom apps to run on new iPads and iPhones, but Cook said in January that IBM had about 150 companies kicking the tires.

We'll likely hear more about that when Apple announces its next earnings later this month.

Should this work out like both companies hope, it could be a big threat to Microsoft's dominance in the enterprise.

In fact, one Wall Street analyst said that Apple was the powerhouse partner in this arrangement and was so influential, it mandated that IBM salespeople use Macs and Apple's Keynote presentation software when they visit enterprises to pitch them.

That's pretty ironic since IBM is often credited for inventing the PC and actually has its own presentation software too, as part of its Lotus Symphony office suite.

SEE ALSO: These 16 startups are worth $22 billion: Here are the deals that made them so valuable

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Microsoft was toying with the idea of making the original Xbox a free giveaway as a Trojan Horse to lure people into the Windows lifestyle when it launched back in 2001, according to GamesIndustry.biz. 

To understand why, we'll need to rewind back to the first half of 2001: Steve Ballmer had just finished his first year as CEO of Microsoft after Bill Gates' departure and Windows XP was still on the horizon — meaning the Windows ME debacle was fresh in everybody's mind.

Microsoft wasn't just uncool, it was a punchline. 

So it might make sense that Microsoft wanted the Xbox, its first-ever TV game console, to be a giveaway. Hook them in with free games, and suddenly people would be clamoring to put a Microsoft machine in their entertainment center. Developers like famed designer Lorne Lanning were seduced over to Microsoft's side from competitors like the Sony PlayStation by the alluring promise of a huge potential audience. 

Later on, once Xbox had people hooked with the games, they could theoretically force more Microsoft products into the device.

"In the early days of Xbox, especially before we had figured out how to get greenlit for the project as a pure game console, everybody and their brother who saw the new project starting tried to come in and say it should be free, say it should be forced to run Windows after some period of time," Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley told GamesIndustry.

Other ideas, very representative of Microsoft's general walled-garden thinking on how it should protect its own property, were floated during the Xbox's development. Things like making it play movies, not games, were suggested, along with only letting Microsoft build games for the Xbox. Some executives suggested not even bothering with the effort and just buying Nintendo.

"Just name it, name a bad idea and it was something we had to deal with," Blackley said.

The actual Xbox, when it came out in the Fall of 2001, did none of these things. It was priced at $299, and launched with games from both Microsoft — like the original "Halo: Combat Evolved"— as well as outside developers like Sega and Tecmo. 

History vindicated Blackley's team: The original Xbox sold 24 million units in its lifetime before being succeeded by Microsoft's second-generation console, the Xbox 360, in 2005. 

Meanwhile, at the Microsoft of today, the Xbox division is a huge area of investment for the company under CEO Satya Nadella, with every Windows 10 machine coming preloaded with an Xbox app. 

SEE ALSO: Microsoft admits 'we've lost our way' on PC games

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"Project Runway" star Tim Gunn wants presidential candidates to make it work fashion-wise in the 2016 race to the White House.

The fashionista weighed in on everything from the mock turtlenecks worn by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), widespread Republican love for cowboy boots, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's oversized suits and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's fashion evolution.

"For me it's everything," he said about candidate style, during an interview Wednesday on Bloomberg Politics.

Here's what Gunn said about the state of the candidates' wardrobes.

Ted Cruz

Gunn lamented the influence of political consultants who advise candidates to choose outfits that eschew flair and controversy, pointing to the bland suit Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wore for the launch of his presidential campaign in March. 

"I believe in authenticity, I believe that the Republicans writ large are all hiding behind a uniform of sorts. I really want to know who that individual is. Who is Ted Cruz when it comes to choosing his own apparel and accessories and even when it comes to grooming?" Gunn said of Cruz.

Gunn went on to encourage all the GOP field to go bolder with their clothing. 

"I look at the clothes, in the current state, is just a matter of a blandness. Where if anything, the political views of the individuals are even more accentuated and in many cases with these Republicans, you don't want that to happen. So distract me with your clothing!"

Rand Paul

Gunn praised Paul's penchant for wearing jeans and mock turtlenecks, an outlier in the D.C. world of suits and khakis.

Paul, he said, wants to convey that he's a “country boy, man of the people, accessibility."

"I believe that that is within his whole bundle of semiotics when it comes to the message that his clothes are sending. And quite frankly, I think it's appropriate," Gunn explained.

Chris Christie

Though Gunn might be physically afraid of the New Jersey governor, admitting "I wouldn't want to be with a dark alley with him, that's for sure," he did advise the Republican to rethink the fit of his clothes.

"He needs suits that fit him better," Gunn said.

Gunn said Christie's size may make fashion "challenging," but he still didn't give the Garden State governor a pass. 

"Whenever anyone talks about a larger man and how it's so challenging, look at James Gandolfini, may he rest in peace, he looked fantastic in his suits."

The coutoure expert concluded with a brutal assessment of Christie's current look. 

"Christie looks as though he could potentially going into Wal-Mart and start shoplifting and no one would be able to tell," said Gunn.

Hillary Clinton

Gunn admitted he has experienced a "180 degree about face" in his opinion of Clinton's style.

"Mrs. Clinton is looking exceptionally presidential and what pleases me so much is that she does understand semiotics. She clearly gets it," Gunn said.

As first lady, Gunn said Clinton started as "frumpy," but underwent an "enormous arch of growth." He said Clinton exited the White House as "an angel of fashion."

Despite this praise, Gunn said Clinton's fashion cred took a dive during her tenure as Senator of New York and Secretary of State. In this period, Gunn said she favored uninspired and ill-fitting pant suits paired with questionable coiffure. 

"I forgave her a lot of her fashion foibles because she was awake 24/7 and constantly flying around and meeting and greeting," Gunn said of Clinton's time at the State Department, adding,  "I'd be surprised if she had time to change her underwear."

Cowboy boots

Gunn had nothing but disdain for any cowboy boot wearing candidates. 

"I think they're too much of a stereotype and I feel it's too forced and contrived and old hat. It doesn't impress me even remotely."

He advised that even those contenders with Texas roots should ditch the accessory, and quipped they could even ditch the United States of America.

"I heard recently that they wanted to succeed from the union, may they please?"

Capitol Hill

Gunn didn't limit his advice to candidates with their eyes on the White House. He also took aim at the legislative branch, wondering "what's wrong with Capitol Hill?"

He praised Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) for being "beautifully dressed and owning her gender," but said her male counterparts in both parties need help.

"When it comes to men, I don't even know what to say. Everything is at least two sizes too big, it's gotta stop."

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While Mark Cuban is a proud and supportive alumni of his collegiate alma mater, he initially chose the school for a very specific reason.

As an undergraduate, Cuban attended Indiana University, graduating in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in business.

Cuban "chose [IU's] Kelley School of Business sight-unseen because it had the least expensive tuition of all the business schools on the top 10 list,"according to a report on the business school's website.

Cuban confirmed to Business Insider that IU's low price was the reason he originally attended the university's well regarded business program.

"It was true," Cuban told BI. "I could barely afford IU."

Once in college, Cuban reportedly found creative ways to pay his bills. The now-billionaire set up a chain letter to pay for one semester at IU, also giving disco lessons to campus sorority members for $25 an hour, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.

Additionally, before starting his senior year at IU in 1980, Cuban and some friends opened a local bar called Motley's Pub. Deadspin has some pictures of Motley's from its glory days— complete with narration from Cuban — and it seems to be a campus hotspot and home to many rowdy rugby parties.

More recently, Cuban has become an outspoken critic of the cost of higher education, describing it as "the college implosion."

Cuban said that the thought process that led him to Indiana is still sound today, and he would give the same advice to someone choosing a college now.

"I tell people all the time to not buy more than they can afford," he said.

SEE ALSO: Mark Cuban shares the most important lesson he learned in his 20s

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Pinterest recently made a landmark move by giving employees much more time to buy any unexercised stock options.

Startup employees often choose to take stock instead of higher salaries. But if they leave the company before all those options have vested, they traditionally only have a few months — often 90 days — to buy the rest. Pinterest has extended that window to seven years for any employee who's worked there for at least two years.

This longer window is rare in the startup world and is a huge boon for any Pinterest employee — and could potentially lead other companies to follow suit. 

Now Pinterest wants everyone to know exactly why it made such a big, potentially risky decision. 

Michael DeAngelo, Pinterest's head of people, writes that it all came down to wanting to remove employees' "golden handcuffs."

The traditional 90 day window forces some employees end up staying at a company longer than they want, he says, because they can't afford to leave. 

"Many companies who face this situation decide not to do anything about it, because they believe 'locking people in' is good for business," DeAngelo writes. "But at Pinterest, we think about things a little differently."

When employees don't have to worry about losing all their stock if they leave, they stay at a company for the right reasons. They're also willing to take bigger, bolder risks.

"If people are worried about getting fired and losing all their stock, they aren’t going to be as willing to make the kind of bets that help a young company like ours succeed," DeAngelo says.

Finally, he acknowledges that even though Pinterest just made it much easier for people to leave in one of the "most competitive recruiting environments of all time," people often have real, big important reasons to leave the company, like the opportunity to go back to school, the need to support an ailing family member, or for their own startup. And they shouldn't be punished for making those decisions. 

"Ultimately we hope the new plan gives our team the flexibility to make the right decisions for wherever their lives take them," DeAngelo writes. "And that it unlocks even more of their passion to help us make Pinterest the kind of historic company that we all know it can be."

In his post DeAngelo also explained some technical details that might be of interest for people working at startups with their own stock options — basically, if employees choose to take the 7-year windows, their options must be changed from incentive stock options (ISOs) to non-qualified stock options (NSOs), which can be worse from a tax perspective. But it's still better than not being able to exercise at all.

You can read the full post here>>

SEE ALSO: Pinterest says more guys are joining the site than ever. Here's what they're doing

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The "Fast and Furious" franchise has evolved from films featuring hot cars and hot babes to having some of the most heart-stopping stunts you'll find at theaters.

One of the men responsible for making those scenes look as realistic as possible is 30-year stunt veteran Spiro Razatos.

"For the fourth film ("Fast & Furious") they kind of relied too much on CGI," Razatos told Business Insider. "So they realized they wanted to do less. That's what I do."

Razatos is responsible for some of the most jaw-dropping sequences from the franchise including when Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker), and the rest of the crew dragged a giant bank vault through the busy streets of Rio de Janeiro in "Fast Five."

He also worked on the duel with a tank in "Fast and Furious 6."

In both sequences, very little CGI was included using real vaults and tanks to pull it off.

With fans starving for more, "Furious 7" director James Wan and the producers once again came to Razatos to take on the franchise's most insane sequence yet.

They called it the "air drop."

The idea was to have a sequence in the film with Dom and company in their souped-up cars drop from a plane high above Colorado and parachute into the mountains below.

"When I first read [the script] it was, 'cars drop and they kidnap this girl and they get away on the road,' that was it," Razatos recalls.

The producers assumed the sequence would have to rely heavily on special effects, but Razatos had other plans.

"I said let's really go for it and make the effort because I want this whole sequence to feel real, that's what the audience expects," he said.

The stunt took months of prep-solving problems. Cameras needed to be mounted onto cars in a way that they wouldn't be destroyed when the cars landed, and the crew needed a safe way to get the cars out of the plane.

"What if one of them gets stuck coming out of the plane?" said Razatos. "How is the plane going to land when you have a car dangling outside of it?"

They finally were able to do a "dry run" with a single car falling out of a plane. But some on the film weren't impressed by the raw footage.

"It was 20 minutes and the cameras weren't placed where they should be," Razatos recalls. "I remember telling the guys, 'ignore this, this is just a test.'"

With a green light, shooting took place in Colorado with two airplane runs, flying at 12,000 feet, that would drop two cars apiece.

Over 10 cameras were used for the sequence. In addition to cameras on the ground, there were cameras remotely operated inside the plane and another three mounted outside each car. Additional cameras were on a helicopter where Razatos was stationed watching monitors and listening to the radio chatter. Three skydivers used in the shoot wore helmet cams.

Sky divers would either jump out before cars or after them.

"I didn't realize how intense it would be," Razatos admits now.

"Sometimes a piece of debris would come off the car, so skydivers had to watch out for that," he added. "I'm in a helicopter and I want to get in close for the shots but you have to watch out because of the helicopter blades."

Regardless of all the safety precautions, accidents can happen. Razatos says in one of the runs a skydiver lost his footing getting out of the plane and bounced off the rear exit hatch on his way out of he plane. Not the most graceful of jumps, but Razatos said he was fine.

When one car landed its parachute caught an air pocket and was carrying the car to the freeway. "I'm hearing on the radio the car is being dragged and it can't stop," said Razatos. "People were on motorcycles to get to the car; jumping on the car with knives to cut the parachute." 

"On the radio you hear people say, 'Skydiver, 200 feet you have a car gaining on your two o'clock,'" he added.

And then there's the one car of the four that didn't make it because its parachute didn't deploy. "That car got demolished," said Razatos. "You got to see what would happen if a car really dropped from that height."

Much of what Razatos and his 2nd unit team did on the day made it into the final cut of the movie. Some of it was enhanced to increase the look of the speed at which cars were diving. Shots of the actors in the cars were put in later, but for the most part Razatos' mission to do the scene as realistically as possible was a success.

"I started doing stunts when I was 10 years old making Super 8 movies. This feels like I'm back in those days," Razatos said about working on the "Fast and Furious" films.

Thinking back on the "air drop" sequence he admits, "That's going to be hard to top."

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how the sequence was done:

 And here's how it looks in the film:

SEE ALSO: Meet the sexy $3 million hypercar featured in 'Fast and Furious 7'

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I  write about the tech industry, but personally, I've never been that into gadgets. I usually wait for a few iterations of a particular product to come out before I'm ready to make a splurge purchase. 

But I care about my health, and being able to track and monitor my exercise with a device seemed appealing. There are a lot of fitness trackers out there, though, and researching them all was a little intimidating.

Enter Lumoid, a Y Combinator-backed startup that sends you a box of five wearables to try at home for a week. 

"Everyone is different, and each gadget is personalized," Lumoid founder and CEO Aarthi Ramamurthy said to Business Insider. "It's not our job to sell you stuff. We say, 'Here's a box — try it out, and you decide.'" 

When you log onto Lumoid's web site, you'll see a collection of gadgets to choose from. 

In addition to its wearables box, Lumoid also offers the ability to check out drones, photography gear, and Google Glass individually. Google Glass costs $18 a day to rent, while drones range from $8 to $45 a day. Lumoid will be renting the Apple Watch for $45. 

If you want to check out wearables, though, you can choose five of them to put in a box that costs $25 for one week. If you end up buying one of the devices, $5 of that initial fee goes toward your purchase.

The Lumoid rental store has pretty much every wearable on the market. 

The site even has a handy chart that compares the features in each device you're considering.

The five I picked: Jawbone UP24, Jawbone UP Move, Misfit Flash, Fitbit One, and Nike Fuelband. Each package listed the device's features, as well as the cords I would need to charge the battery and the apps I would have to download. 

A note on the inside of the box explained exactly what I had to do. There was even a FedEx shipping label ready for me to send them all back at the end of the week.

Over the course of the week, I downloaded each app, wore each device for a day or more, and assessed my options.

Some devices I liked more than others. 

The Nike Fuelband, for example, I knew I wouldn't like as soon as I put it on. The band was way too bulky and tight around my wrist — something I wouldn't have known if I had just bought it after researching it online.

I ended up only wearing it for an hour or so before deciding it wasn't for me.

I really liked the sleep tracker on the Jawbone UP24. It even has a smart alarm that gently wakes you up when you're in a period of light sleep.

Still, like with the Nike Fuelband, I wasn't sure I wanted something so large around my wrist. 

My favorite wearable overall was the Jawbone UP Move. 

It might not be the best looking device out there, but it was small and discreet enough that I could attach it to my clothes and wear it comfortably while I slept. Plus, at a price of $50, it was one of the more affordable options in the wearables box. 

The Jawbone app was also easy to use, with hour-by-hour data on the number of steps I had taken and the hours of light and deep sleep I had gotten each night.

Though the Fitbit One was also small, I thought Jawbone's app was slightly more accurate and efficient.

Ramamurthy said that Lumoid gets smarter when people choose to buy a certain device after the weeklong trial. 

"We're collecting a ton of data, including why you bought something or not, why you picked one over the other," Ramamurthy said. "We can use that to recommend other products in the future, or go back to the manufacturer and share our findings." 

There was one glitch — the Misfit Flash was still paired with the person who had rented it before me, and I couldn't get my phone to match with it. This was the last wearable I was going to try before I had to send the box back the next day. At that point, I was pretty set on the Jawbone UP Move, so it didn't matter too much. 

Overall, I found that Lumoid was a less intimidating way for a wearables novice to pick out a fitness tracker. 

SEE ALSO: Here's how you can rent an Apple Watch for $55 instead of buy it for $1,000

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

US equities closed higher for the first time in three days and crude oil tanked at the end of this four-day trading week for stocks.

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 17,709.49 +11.31 (0.06%)
• S&P 500: 2,066.73 +7.04 (0.34%)
• Nasdaq: 4,885.92 +5.69 (0.12%)

And now, the top stories on Thursday:

1. Oil prices declined after a framework for a deal on Iran's nuclear program was announced. Brent crude fell by as much as 5% to as low as $54.03 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude slipped by as much as 3.5% to below $49 a barrel. If a final deal is reached, US economic sanctions on Iran will be lifted, and the country could flood an already-oversupplied market with up to 1 million barrels of oil per day.
2. The latest data from Baker Hughes (released ahead of Good Friday) showed that US oil rigs fell by 11 to 802 last week– the lowest rig count since the week ending March 4, 2011. The number of combined active gas and oil rigs fell by 20 this week to 1,028, the lowest since October 2009.
3. In other data, factory orders rose 0.2% in February, unexpectedly beating the expectation for a 0.4% decline; January orders were revised lower to -0.7%. And, initial jobless claims fell to 268,000 last week, beating the forecast of 286,000. 
4. The job losses caused by the oil crash slowed in March to 1,279 from 19,000 in February, according to data from staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. However, across the entire first quarter, job losses would have been one of the lowest in a quarter since the mid-90s if energy-related cuts didn't happen, according to CEO John Challenger.
5. Shares of RadioShack (now trading as a penny stock) surged by more than 70% after details of its restructuring plans emerged. Under the ownership of hedge fund Standard General LP and with assistance from Sprint, the company will this month launch a "reimagined version" of the chain, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Shares reached an intraday high of $0.29.
6. Lumber Liquidators may be slowly recovering from the bad publicity related to last month's "60 Minutes" episode on its China-sourced laminate flooring, according to Goldman Sachs. The company announced sales fell 12.8% in March compared to last year, but first quarter sales rose 5.6% to $260 million, beating Goldman Sachs' expectations of $257 million. 
   
7. "This is not a China problem," wrote an MKM Partners analyst on allegations of fraud at Alibaba. With a "Buy" rating and price target of $125 (vs ~$82 today,) the stock is "most compelling large cap growth stories," Rob Anderson wrote in a note. 
8. Wall Street forecasts Friday's jobs report will show the US economy added 250,00 jobs in March, down from 295,000 in February, and that the unemployment rate held steady at 5.5%. Business Insider's Myles Udland has the rundown on what to look for, and economists at Goldman Sachs highlighted four reasons why it could be disappointing, and one why it may be great.

DON'T MISS: I'm Business Insider's math reporter, and these 10 everyday things drive me insane »

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When Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed his state's "religious freedom" bill into law last week, he unwittingly touched off a national firestorm. And the Republican Party — from largely unknown governors to 2016 presidential contenders — has been deeply divided on the issue. 

The protests and condemnations from gay rights advocates were probably expected. What was stunning, however, was the outrage within the GOP ranks and traditionally conservative groups.

The Republican mayor of Indianapolis bashed the bill, for example, and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) went as far as to call his neighboring state's law "un-American." 

"I strongly oppose what Governor Pence did. We should not enshrine bigotry under the cover of religion. It's not just bad practice – it's un-American," Kirk said Wednesday. 

The ongoing debate is fierce. Supporters of Indiana's law, the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, say it simply provides a "balancing test" to determine when religious practice can be subject to government interference. Critics say it opens the door for businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians, such as a baker who refuses to cater a same-sex wedding. 

And those critics were loud. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus called Pence an "asshole" and other performers canceled their upcoming events in the state. Normally apolitical sports groups such as NASCAR and the Indiana-based NCAA also indicated their disappointment. The governors in other municipalities including New York and Connecticut issued state-funded travel bans. 

The most influential reaction, however, came from business leaders, many of whom threatened to withdraw future investments in the state, including Salesforce.com and Yelp. Business titans like Apple CEO Tim Cook and Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon joined in. And, according to Politico, even some of Pence's closest supporters in the business community suddenly turned their backs on him. 

"Pence ally and donor Bill Oesterle, the Republican CEO of Angie's List and former [Indiana] Gov. Mitch Daniels' one-time campaign manager, canceled plans to add up to 1,000 jobs and expand its headquarters in Indianapolis, on account of the religious freedom bill," the outlet reported.

"It passed and [was] signed so quickly by the governor, we suspect the motives behind it," Oesterle said. "We believe that the impact of that bill on our ability to hire — continue to build a high-growth technology company—that they are material, and that they are inconsistent with the state's activity to encourage growth."

Pence ultimately backed down. In a somber but defiant press conference on Tuesday, the visibly pained governor said he was "proud" to sign the bill but would nevertheless look for a legislative fix for what he described as its "perception problem." 

"It's been a tough week in the Hoosier state," he admitted. "This is a bill that in ordinary times would not be controversial. But these are not ordinary times."

A reporter asked Pence if he had anticipated the blowback when he signed the law last week. 

"Was I expecting this kind of backlash? Heavens no," Pence replied.

The following day, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) also backed off his state's "religious freedom" bill after previously indicating he would support it. He asked the state's legislative leaders to recall the law and send him a less controversial measure. 

The GOP field of likely 2016 presidential candidates has also been at least partially divided by the issue. Although only former New York Gov. George Pataki (R), a long shot in the 2016 race, has directly shunned the Indiana law, the various other contenders have had mixed reactions.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), a top-tier presidential contender, attempted to strike a moderate tone on the matter. Bush initially praised Indiana's law but offered more cautious commentary Wednesday night. Speaking at a fundraiser in the LGBT-friendly San Francisco, Bush suggested Indiana's leaders should have included the gay community when crafting their bill, as the state of Utah had done.

"Utah went about this, but what they did is they brought all the constituencies together and this included the leadership of the LDS Church and [LGBT] community and said, 'How can we forge a consensus where we can protect religious freedom and also create an environment where we’re not discriminating against people?' And they figured it out and they passed a law," Bush said.  "There wasn’t a bunch of yelling and screaming. That to me seems like a better approach to dealing with this."

Other likely 2016 candidates offered something less than a full endorsement of the Indiana and Arkansas "religious freedom" bills. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) broadly supported the idea of "religious freedom" legislation but did not offer specific praise for the controversial state laws at hand. And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) backed Pence's efforts to change his state's bill and said he opposed allowing businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

On the opposite side of the issue, most of the other expected Republican candidates have used the Indiana controversy to back the Hoosier state's original law, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania), and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, among others. And it may be to their political benefit: Evangelical voters wary of gay rights make up an outsize portion of the GOP primary electorate, especially in early states like Iowa. 

"I certainly congratulate Gov. Mike Pence for having the courage to stand up for his convictions. And you know, it really is a sad commentary on where we are today that this is viewed as controversial," Cruz said. 

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina issued a lengthy statement criticizing other business leaders who blasted the law, which she said is part of a discussion "of critical importance for our country."

"It is frankly sad to me that politics has become a fact-free zone," Fiorina said. "It is sad that so many people on the left were quick to turn this into a divisive and destructive debate so they could further their own brand of identity politics. It is sad that CEOs took to Twitter before checking their facts, adding to the division instead of helping build tolerance."

Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul (R) has conspicuously remained silent on the "religious freedom" controversy. 

A Paul spokesman told The New Republic on Wednesday, "The Senator is out of pocket with family this week and has not weighed in at this time."

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The New York International Auto Show displays the latest in cutting-edge automotive technology and design. Before the show opens to the public, the press got a sneak peak into the newest fleets from some of the industry's top names. 

Produced by Jason Gaines. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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New York (AFP) - Billie Holiday died with just $50 to her name taped to her thigh, but on the 100th anniversary of her birth the jazz legend is enjoying a renaissance as a trailblazer for generations of singers.

Holiday was broken down by heroin use, police harassment and a husband who would beat her so severely she would tape her ribs before concerts.

When her body gave way at age 44 in 1959, she was under arrest in her hospital bed for narcotics and her savings consisted of the $50 slipped by a reporter who wanted a deathbed interview. 

But ahead of the centennial of her birth on April 7, a more complete picture of Holiday is emerging as artists acknowledge her foibles yet hail her not only for her ineffable voice but for her dignified stance against racism.

Author Lanie Robertson has seen the changes in perceptions first-hand. His play "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill," which depicts Holiday looking back at her life before a meager crowd at one of her final shows, premiered in 1986 but enjoyed a popular revival last year on Broadway starring Audra McDonald that was later turned into an HBO television production.

"In 1986 when the play was produced, Billie Holiday was disparaged by a very large segment of the African American population -- she was a terrible role model, she was a drug addict, she was an alcoholic, she slept around, she was not a 'good woman,'" Robertson said.

"Last year there was a total turnaround in society's view of Billie Holiday. She was a fighter for civil rights, she was someone who put up with the staunchest, meanest kinds of prejudice and racial bigotry, which probably cut her life short by decades," he said.

"I think she is now a symbol of the African American who fights and stands up for her rights, and is seen as a forerunner of that."

- Ultimate protest song -

Holiday -- nicknamed "Lady Day" -- endured racial slights even at home in New York, where a singer with a global reputation would be asked to take service elevators at expensive hotels.

In 1939, Holiday debuted one of musical history's great protest songs, "Strange Fruit," a searing denunciation of the lynchings of African Americans in the South -- land of the "scent of magnolia sweet and fresh / and the sudden smell of burning flesh."

Holiday's label, Columbia, initially refused to release the song out of fear of upsetting the Southern market and the singer quickly came under greater scrutiny from federal narcotics investigators.

"When she sang it, you could pretty much hear a pin drop. The audience was in dead silence," said Mikki Shepard, executive producer of the Apollo Theater where Holiday performed the song.

The Apollo, the celebrated and racially integrated jazz venue in Harlem, was one of the few places where Holiday could perform late in her career along with Carnegie Hall, as a new cabaret licensing system shut her out of most clubs on account of her character.

The Apollo will celebrate the centennial with a series of events including a tribute concert by Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy-winning singer who is also releasing an album of Holiday covers.

Columbia has put out "The Centennial Collection," a CD with 20 of Holiday's most influential songs including "Summertime,""All of Me" and "Strange Fruit."

The pianist Lara Downes in turn has performed "A Billie Holiday Songbook," which takes inspiration not only from Lady Day's music but her capacity for improvisation.

- An authentic voice -

Holiday, born in Philadelphia to a house cleaner mother and an absent father, never had a formal musical education.

In a memoir that was explosive at the time, Holiday said that she learned jazz when she ran errands in brothels as a child.

Holiday had numerous outside influences, notably Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith, but built her reputation as perhaps the greatest-ever jazz singer through her inner passion and a vocal style that was at once emotive and rugged.

A vast array of singers have taken inspiration from Holiday's music and style including Diana Ross -- who played her in the 1972 film "Lady Sings the Blues" -- to Annie Lennox and the late Amy Winehouse.

Ahead of the centennial, fans have flocked to her simple grave in The Bronx where on a recent day an empty bottle of Tanqueray stood as an offering.

But how would Holiday have fared in the 21st century? White audiences are far more accepting of African American artists, but could Holiday have survived a world where an artist's every mishap is shared by social media?

Shepard said that Holiday, unlike modern stars, had few handlers to protect her -- but that her raw power also brought her closer to audiences.

"Here was an artist at the top of her game but who was suffering, just as they were suffering," Shepard said.

"I think she connected with people because she was real. She was authentic."

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Competitors have a way of panicking when Apple enters their market. 

Jean-Claude Biver — head of LVMH's watch group, which makes the well-known Tag Heuer timepieces  — infamously said last year that the Apple Watch has "no sex appeal."

He later backtracked. 

Last October, the Prime Minister of Finland, home to Nokia, blamed Apple for causing Standard & Poor to downgrade the country's credit rating.

Rumors are now rampant that Apple is building a car. Or something that might have something to do with cars.

At the New York Auto Show this week, we asked a bunch of executives what they think about the Apple Car. Nobody had any idea of what Apple is up to, but the execs were for the most part surprisingly welcoming of the idea — although not without their own opinions.

•Scott Keogh, President, Audi of America

"I take it seriously. Even if it doesn't manifest itself in reality, I think we'd be naive not to. ... At this disruptive time, I think the industry needs to be fully engaged."

•Ian Callum, Design Director, Jaguar

"I think I'll phone up Jonny [Ive] and ask if I can help him. I think it will be very exciting and I wish them well."

•Ludwig Willisch, President and CEO, BMW North America

"We take competition very seriously we also look at the latest trends and try to get out ahead of upcoming trends to figure out what the consumers are looking for."

•Jose Guerrero, Product Manager, BMW M and BMW i for BMW North America

"In general it's great, because it raises level of innovation in the automotive space."

•Gerry McGovern, Design Director and Chief Creative Officer, Land Rover

"Good luck to them."

•Eric Shepherd, President, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars North America

"I'm not concerned from the Rolls Royce perspective. Now if I was a mass market automotive brand, then yeah, I'd probably say it's something to watch.

•Marek Reichman, Design Director, Aston Martin

"I can't wait, but they are about mass market, and we are about exclusivity."

•John Norman, Principal Designer Acura Interior Styling Manager, Acura

"I think it's incredibly exciting, I love the competition. I love that people are enthusiastic about the car. ... I would love to see how they can bring innovation to the segment. I would love to see the Apple approach. I've spent a lot of time thinking how they would do it."

•Alan Batey, President, General Motors North America

"We need people to challenge the status quo .... We don't need to feel threatened by anyone."

•Mark Fields, CEO, Ford

"You're probably more informed about that than I am."

SEE ALSO: Bentley's chairman called a doubter's bluff and dazzled the New York Auto Show with his sexy new car

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NOW WATCH: Top Gear cast responds to Jeremy Clarkson's suspension

Since it's release in November 2013, Disney's "Frozen" has become the highest-grossing animated movie of all time.

The kid-friendly flick, which cost $150 million to make, has raked in over $1.2 billion worldwide.

Disney saw record earnings as a result, and announced sales of more than $3 million in "Frozen" dresses, toys, and related merchandise.

But actors who voiced the characters in the film didn't see as much of a return as the film studio.

Josh Gad, who voices fan favorite snowman "Olaf," was a guest on the "Late Show with David Letterman" this week and revealed: "The thing made a couple of billion, I made a couple of thousand."

"No, they actually paid me really well," Gad said sarcastically as he shook his head back and forth to imply he was lying.

"No, I love you Disney, I really do," Gad backtracked. "They actually really took care of us and the luxury of this thing is that now we're all in the theme parks and get to see it all come to fruition."

"It was a blast, Gad added of his time shooting the movie. "They spread it out over the course of two years, so in total I did about ten [voiceover] sessions."

Regardless of any drama, Gad recently told E! Online he is "excited" to return for a "Frozen" sequel, adding, "I have complete faith in the creative team and I'm excited to hear that it's happening at this point."

But Gad isn't the only one not to profit as much as expected off the first film's success.

Actress Spencer Lacey Ganus, the 15-year-old who voiced teenage Elsa, received just a one-day guaranteed payment of $926.20, reports TMZ, who obtained a copy of Ganus' contract because it has to be filed with the courts since she is still a minor.

Ganus will, however, earn a pretty penny thanks to residual checks.

"She's collected more than $10,000 in residuals," the actress' rep told TMZ, adding that the money is being put into a college fund.

But Disney is no stranger to controversy over how much they pay their voice talent.

In 1992, Robin Williams was paid scale of $75,000 for his work on "Aladdin," which went on to gross more than $504 million worldwide.

Williams agreed to the fee "for my children," but told Disney, "I just don't want to sell anything — as in Burger King, as in toys, as in stuff."

After Disney proceeded to use Williams' voice in promo materials leading to a decade-long feud, the actor snarked, "You realize now when you work for Disney why the mouse has only four fingers — because he can't pick up a check." 

Watch Gad discuss his "Frozen" paycheck on Letterman below:

SEE ALSO: There are only 6 Hollywood actors who can command $20 million per film

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Lululemon sees menswear as a huge growth opportunity.  

To ensure that men want to shop there, the company designs products with a muse named Duke in mind. 

Duke is named after Lululemon founder Chip Wilson's son. 

The ideal men's customer at Lululemon is successful and athletic, Felix del Toro, chief men's designer, told Women's Wear Daily. 

"He's style conscious, works hard, has a sense of humor and is witty. He's a multidimensional man, someone you'd want to be friends with and someone you'd want your sister to marry — I know, he's quite a guy," del Toro said. 

Founder Chip Wilson told The New York Times that Duke is 35 and an "athletic opportunist" who enjoys surfing in the summer and snowboarding in the winter.

Duke makes more than $100,000 and is willing to pay up for quality.

The company's strategy is working. 

Sales of men's clothing grew 16% last quarter thanks in part to the "anti-ball crushing" pants. 

SEE ALSO: Men are going crazy for Lululemon's "Anti Ball-Crushing" pants

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

Last year was one of the driest years on record for the sunshine state of California and this year is looking like it might be even worse, according to these charts from the United States Drought Monitor. The drought has already been named the worst in the last 1,200 years for the area:

This time last year a major source of water for millions of Californians — the Tuolumne River Basin in Sierra Nevada — had more than twice the amount of water that it has today, according to a report from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The basin is filled by melting snow that runs down from the Sierra Nevada mountains, but over the last few years, the extreme drought means that snowfall — which makes up 70% of the state's annual precipitation — has been limited, so there's less and less run off from the mountains.

The horrifying GIF below shows just how bad things have become. These pictures of Yosemite Parks' famous 9,000-foot-tall Half Dome were taken from the Yosemite Conservancy Webcam. The first picture, which shows the dome covered in snow, was taken March 19, 2011, the year before California's drought began choking the state. The later images were taken around the same time in 2012, 2013, 2014, and this year.

This high up in the mountains, these snow levels aren't day to day variations but are built up over the season for multiple snowfalls.

Notice how the peaks in the background in the last image, shown below, are almost completely bare.

In a drastic step to defend against Mother Nature's unrelenting wrath, California's governor Jerry Brown, issued mandatory water restrictions on Wednesday, April 1. It's the first such restriction in California history.

Brown called upon the State Water Resources Control Board to cut water supply by a quarter over the next year for 400 locale water supply agencies. These agencies supply water to 90 percent of the state's residents — roughly 35 million people.

"People should realize we are in a new era,"The New York Times reported Brown saying at a news conference on April 1 when he issued the restriction. "The idea of your nice little green lawn getting watered every day, those days are past."

SEE ALSO: California only has about a year of water left

SEE ALSO: California's megadrought has already begun

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NOW WATCH: Animated map of what Earth would look like if all the ice melted

Wal-Mart US CEO Greg Foran has spent a lot of time visiting the company's stores since he took the helm eight months ago. 

With sales in the US lagging, Foran has traveled to Wal-Mart stores across the country in search of ways to improve customers' experiences with the retailer.

Foran shared what he learned during his travels in a meeting with investors on Wednesday. Here's what he said:

1. Many Wal-Mart stores lack cleanliness and tidiness. 

"We want this year to be the year of improving our stores," Foran said, according to a transcript of his remarks. "So by the time we hit holiday season, our stores are clean, tidy, well merchandised and run by engaged associates. Today in the main, we’re not."

2. Stores aren't restocking shelves fast enough. "We’ve got too much inventory in the back rooms and our processes are not where we want them to be and that’s causing some undue shrinkage and some out-of-stocks," Foran said.

The company has already started to implement some changes to fix these issues, such as marking down foods that are nearing their expiration date to reduce the amount of food that goes to waste.

3. Store layout and design compromises customer convenience and space in some cases.

"Both Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets have potential to be better" when it comes to layout, design, lighting, and even store temperature, Foran said.

"Some of the stores recently opened in our opinion are not quite as good as ones that we had opened in previous years," he said.

4. Digital services need to be integrated with physical stores.

For example, Wal-Mart wants to expand its service allowing customers to order groceries online for in-store pickup and delivery.

5. The retailer needs to improve traffic-driving side businesses like gas, care clinics and financial services.

"We have a mindset that we are building scalable profitable businesses whilst driving additional traffic to our stores," he said. "Consider how important pharmacy is to Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets as a traffic driver."

6. Prices aren't always as low as competitors'.

"While we have pockets of leadership [on price], in more competitive markets, our gain is too small," Foran said.

7. The brand needs to offer a wider product assortment in general merchandise, fresh produce, grocery and private label. 

"When we get the assortment right, we know that the customers respond," Foran said. 

8. The Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters needs to be focused on customer service. 

"Our job at the home office in Bentonville is to serve the stores to in turn serve customers. Sam Walton, founder of our business based on this principle," Foran said. "But to be frank, in some recent years, we’ve slipped a little away from this. We’ve recently undertaken some important activities to simplify our organization and empower our stores, our associates in our stores to make decisions, but [there's] more to do."

SEE ALSO: Wal-Mart is making 3 changes so people will want to shop there

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

The Dallas Cowboys announced on Wednesday that they signed a 22-year-old defensive end named Efe Obada from the London Warriors, an amateur football team in England.

Obada was scouted by Warriors' defensive coordinator Aden Durde, who was an intern coach with the Cowboys last season, according to Neil Reynolds of NFL UK.

Obada's journey to the NFL is incredible.

According to Reynolds, Obada and his sister were trafficked from the Netherlands to the U.K. when Obada was 10. Upon arriving in London, they were left alone and homeless. Obada says:

"This lady just left us out on the streets. It was scary and we were lonely. We went to a tower block building and there was a security guard there. We explained our situation and he let us sleep in the foyer of the flats. We spent two or three nights sleeping in the foyer of that building and we only had our jackets to keep us warm. It was freezing."

Obada says he joined gangs as he got older, but eventually steered away from that life when he saw three of his friends get killed.

While studying business at Lamberth College, a friend introduced Obada to the Warriors, which was his first introduction to American football.

Obada told Reynolds:

"I didn’t really know anything about American football but I was told I had the physique and that I should try it. I fell in love with the sport. When I went to the first practice, I was just trying to get my frustration out and release some energy. I was congratulated for hitting somebody and I liked it."

While playing for the Warriors, Obada worked as a warehouse storeman at Grace Foods, working 40 hours per week with shifts starting at 6 a.m. He played five games for the team before getting signed by the Cowboys.

Obada has the raw athleticism to make it in the NFL, according to Reynolds. He ran a 4.67 40-yard dash —which would be second among tight ends in the recent NFL Combine — and a 120-inch broad jump, which would be the highest among tight ends.

Obada lifting a big tire:

Though video of Obada playing is hard to come by, here he is tipping a pass, as spotted by Nick C, a Cowboys writer for Real Sports Entertainment Network:

The Cowboys' own website called him a "long shot" to make the team. NFL teams are allowed to have 90 players on the roster right now, but must cut that to 53 by the start of the regular season.

Still, Obada has a shot.

"This is a dream," Obada told Reynolds. "It’s amazing and life-changing. It’s a major turning point in my life and feels like a movie. This could be it – I can change my life. This is unreal – this doesn’t happen to people like me. I’ve never even been outside of London since I arrived in the UK."

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NOW WATCH: 8th-grade basketball team loses after game-winning shot gets stuck on rim in freakish fashion