If you were to guess how long your best friend would live, how accurate do you think you'd be?

Chances are you'd be pretty on-point, at least according to a new study from a team of psychologists and medical researchers.

As it turns out, decades of research have linked specific personality traits — from conscientiousness to extroversion — to a longer life expectancy.

And close friends are surprisingly good at identifying these characteristics.

For their paper, the researchers used data from a 75-year study of 600 people (300 engaged couples) who began taking part in the study between 1935 and 1938 (when they were in their mid-20s) and continued participating until 2013.

When they joined the study in the 1930s, each participant picked three to eight close eight friends to rate their personality using a 36-question scale created by psychologist E. Lowell Kelly in 1940. To make sure the scale was still an accurate measure of personality types, the researchers compared it with several other personality tests created by psychologists within the past decade.

Questions in the scale ranged from general queries like "Is he physically energetic and peppy?" to more personal questions like "How does he meet his appointments?" and "Is he nervous and 'flies off the handle' easily?"

Using the questionnaire, the researchers ended up with four key traits that emerged as key measures of longevity — two for women and two for men. Of the men in the study, those who were seen by their friends as more conscientious (meaning they were less likely to take risks and also tended to be more thorough and efficient) and open (to new and different ideas, feelings, and concepts) lived longer. Of the women, those who were seen as more emotionally stable and agreeable (or friendly) lived longer.

While the study's gender differences likely reflect the time period in which the original research began, the findings are still significant. People who are more conscientious (regardless of their gender) are less likely to do things that put their lives at risk, like driving under the influence or speeding, and more likely to pay attention to their health by doing things like exercising and taking time to relax. 

The research squares with previous research on aging and personality, which has linked several of the same traits — some of which may be genetic— with longer life.

A 2007 study, for example, followed 1,253 men and women from California between 1930 and 2000 found that people (regardless of their gender) who were conscientious as children and as adults lived longer than their peers who were not conscientious during either phase of their lives. This trait — more than any of the other characteristics the researchers studied — was found to be a strong predictor of life expectancy.

Another more recent study of 243 people between the ages of 95 and 100 (75% of whom were women) found that all of them were, on average, not only more conscientious than the average person but more optimistic, easy-going, and extroverted as well.

That study's participants also tended to laugh frequently and express their emotions openly with one another (as opposed to bottling them up). Since that study looked only at people who'd already made it into ripe old age, however, it's impossible to say whether or not the study participants developed these characteristics as a result of old age or if the traits helped them to live as long as they had.

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DON'T MISS: Science says the smartest teams share these 3 traits

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Instructure, the Salt Lake company providing cloud services to educators, has raised a $40 million round from a group of investors led by Insight Venture Partners, Business Insider has learned. 

Other investors in the round include OpenView Venture Partners, based in Massachusetts, and EPIC Ventures, a Utah investor. The $40 million round brings the total capital behind Instructure to about $90 million, and, according to a source, Instructure will use its new round to push the company toward an IPO. 

Earlier, TechCrunch reported the news, without specifying the size of the round or the investors. 

With the new round, Instructure will launch Bridge, a source said, a cloud-based corporate learning platform. Moving into the enterprise market signifies the pursuit of a new vertical for the company. 

Instructure has built its Canvas learning management system since 2011, attracting 18 million students and teachers across more than 1,200 institutions. 

Instructure’s primary competition is Blackboard, which was acquired by private equity Providence Equity Partners in a $1.64 billion deal in 2011. 

The company did not respond to a request for comment. 

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 The Chinese Lunar New Year couldn't come sooner for mobile app users in China.

In a battle for supremacy IN China's mobile payments industry, internet giants Alibaba and Tencent are giving out money in bunches this year.

Typically, relatives and friends hand each other red envelopes filled with cash during the Lunar New Year. Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, is taking this tradition to the next level. He posted on Weibo that he plans on handing out 1 million virtual red envelopes on Chinese New Year's Eve.

But unlike in past years, company employees will not be receiving any red envelopes, since they have "not had exceptional results and not had any special surprises."

Alibaba will be handing out around $100 million in virtual red envelopes to users of its mobile payment app —Alipay — through the popular social media channels Weibo and Laiwang. I

n the spirit of competition, Tencent will be doling out over $125 million during the same period to users of its WeChat and QQ messaging apps. Each virtual envelope will contain anywhere from a few cents to $800. 

Some people are concerned that these virtual red envelopes will lead to an increase of bribery in China, since it is harder to track who purchases and receives each gift. Others have expressed their skepticism about the deals, on Weibo, leading to Alibaba promising additional drawings. 

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

Buenos Aires (AFP) - More than 400,000 people demanding justice marched in symbolic silence Wednesday in soaking Buenos Aires to mark a month since the suspicious death of a prosecutor who was ready to accuse the Argentine president of a massive cover-up.

"I am here because I want to see justice done for someone who gave his life for the truth," said teacher Marta Canepa, 65, among those walking the 1.7 kilometers (just over a mile) under the banner "Homage for Prosecutor Alberto Nisman."

Drenched in driving rain and led by prosecutors and opposition figures, the rally is the first major public show of defiance in a murky case that has ignited a political firestorm in Argentina and piled the pressure on President Cristina Kirchner, 61, in her last year in office.

Among those who braved the deluge were Nisman's two young daughters and his ex-wife, Judge Sandra Arroyo Delgado. 

"The march itself is a reflection of society's underlying demand for an end to impunity. Tension between the justice system and executive were there before, but the Nisman case has exacerbated them," said sociologist Rosendo Fraga with pollsters Nueva Mayoria.

Nisman was found in his Buenos Aires apartment with a bullet through his head on January 18, the day before he was to go before a congressional hearing to air his finding that Kirchner and her foreign minister plotted to shield Iranian officials implicated in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish-Argentine charity federation.

Eighty-five people were killed and more than 300 injured in the attack, the deadliest in Argentina's history -- and one that has yet to be solved 21 years later.

- Protest seeks to destabilize? -

Kirchner -- Argentina's first democratically elected woman president and who is not seeking reelection -- left the city with her cabinet ahead of the march, delivering a speech from the city of Zarate after inaugurating a nuclear power plant.

Her government slammed the rally as "golpista" -- seeking to destabilize the government.

In a televised speech just hours before the march began, Kirchner also suggested that unnamed outside interests were somehow behind the scandal.

"I ask you to open wide your eyes," she said. "I am not talking about conspiracies. It is a world of interests that want to subordinate others, and they are confronting governments like this one that let no one set limits for us." 

Her top aides suggested that the United States and Israel were trying to drag Argentina into the Middle East conflict.

- Iranian suspects -

Investigators initially said the death of the 51-year-old Nisman appeared to be suicide, but homicide has not been ruled out.

Nisman was found sprawled in his bathroom, with his back blocking the door and a .22-caliber pistol next to him. He was killed with a single shot to his temple. 

In Argentina, the suicide theory is widely disbelieved -- even by Kirchner, who has suggested that he was killed by former intelligence agents in an elaborate plot to smear her.

Nisman had accused Kirchner four days before his death of obstructing his investigation by cutting a secret deal with Iran in exchange for oil.

In 2006, with the support of former president Nestor Kirchner, the current president's late husband, Nisman charged that the bombing was carried out by Hezbollah with the involvement of top Iranian officials, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

In 2013, Cristina Kirchner reached a deal with Iran that would have allowed Iranian suspects to be questioned at home, but that agreement never materialized.

Nisman and Argentina's large Jewish community were vehemently opposed, arguing that Tehran could not be trusted.

In his accusation against Kirchner, which was reaffirmed on Friday by his replacement, Gerardo Pollicita, Nisman said the Argentine leader was working behind the scenes to protect the Iranians in return for oil, at a time when the South American country was in the midst of an energy crisis.

He also alleged that Kirchner asked Interpol to lift outstanding "red notices" against the Iranians -- a request that Interpol's former director denied had been made.

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Last year, Google led a $542 million investment into Magic Leap, a Florida company working on a technology that overlays computer-generated images on top of your normal field of vision.

The term for this technology is "augmented reality," and Microsoft is doing something similar with its HoloLens goggles, which it demonstrated last month.

Magic Leap's founder Rony Abovitz is quite a character.

One of his hobbies is playing guitar and bass in a rock band called Sparkydog and Friends.

In an interview with the MIT Technology Review, Abovitz explains that he wanted to take the band on the road and play rooftops like U2 did in its famous video for "Where the Streets Have No Name" (which itself was inspired by The Beatles).

But he wanted to be able to play a thousand rooftops at once. He imagined building a projector that would show 3D holographic images, but was discouraged because the technology was so low-quality and expensive.

Then he thought about it in a different way. Instead of projecting images out in front of people, he'd build a head-mounted display that would beam the images directly into people's eyes from a few inches away.

That's the main difference between Magic Leap and a lot of other "virtual reality" technology, which immerses people in a computer-generated world.

Most VR headsets like Oculus Rift (owned by Facebook) trick the eyes by projecting two slightly different images, which can cause headaches and nausea in some people. Magic Leap is apparently beaming images through a tiny lens directly into the wearer's retina, where they blend in with images from the real world.

The result? Amazingly realistic 3D images that appear to be right next to the real thing and don't make people feel ill.

Aronson didn't say when the first Magic Leap product would be out, except that it's "not far away." They're aiming for it to cost around the same amount as today's smartphones.

SEE ALSO: Meet Google's $500 million man, who is trying to build a new computing platform

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Boko Haram, the jihadist group that's terrorized northern Nigeria, killed over 6,000 people in 2014 and ransacked over a dozen communities along the Nigerian side of Lake Chad in mid-January. The group's violence is the ostensible reason for the delay of Nigeria's upcoming presidential election and Boko Haram threatens to plunge Africa's most populous country and largest economy— as well as some of its neighbors — into violent chaos.

But Boko Haram is hardly a static organization. Its area of operation has shifted over the past few years, and it declared a caliphate in the territory it controls in August of 2014.

Considering the group killed as few as 110 people in 2010 and once seemed to harbor few specific ambitions to declare its own Islamic state, it's difficult to predict how the organization will proceed in the future – especially if Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's incumbent president, is replaced when a presidential vote is held as early as March.

Davin O'Regan, a researcher at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies and a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland, created the following map for the Zurich-based International Relations and Security Network to show where the group might be headed. He established the geographic mean center of Boko Haram's attacks for a given year, then weighted that mean based on the locations of the deadliest attacks (the math behind all of this can be found here).

Each triangle on the map represents the physical center of Boko Haram's activities based on both the frequency and severity of its attacks.  The ovals represent one standard deviation 's worth of distance from this geographic mean, giving a sense of where Boko Haram was operating in a given year (2012: blue; 2013: red; 2014: yellow).

This method of analysis and the resulting map makes it possible to visualize where and how the group is shifting its deadliest activities — information which may provide a glimpse into its future tactics.

In 2012, Boko Haram committed most of its attacks over a wider area than in subsequent years, and was deadliest in an area well to the west of where it now operates most frequently.

In 2013 and 2014, the geographic mean is appreciably closer to Maiduguri, a major city that Boko Haram attempted to take earlier this month. And in 2014, the oval reaches deep into neighboring Cameroon.

Today, "a big proportion of the spike in fatalities in Boko Haram attacks is found in a relatively small region along the Cameroon-Nigeria border," O'Regan told Business Insider by email. Boko Haram also "seems to 'hug' borders in general for the operational advantages they provide."

This actually goes against some conventional wisdom, as O'Regan explains, running "contrary to many claims about Boko Haram expanding its control over vast stretches of territory and dramatically increasing its capabilities." That's not exactly what they're doing. Instead, the group is moving towards the border.

"Despite Boko Haram’s growing lethality and tactical sophistication, the group appears to be concentrating larger proportions of its resources in Nigeria’s more remote border areas,"O'Regan wrote.

The group's activities are shifting east, towards the border with Cameroon, which is increasingly involved in the fight against the group. Boko Haram operating in a more remote and perhaps more limited area. But it's also turning into a trans-national threat, posing a problem that isn't confined just to Nigeria.

SEE ALSO: The industry behind the world's 9th-largest proven oil reserves has all but collapsed

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Turkey's notoriously lax border policies are starting to catch up with Ankara and its allies who are trying to counter ISIS, Yaroslav Trofimov of The Wall Street Journal reports.

“Turkey’s policy from 2011 and until mid-2014 was that anyone and everyone who wanted to fight [Syrian President Bashar] Assad was welcome to go to Syria and do so,” Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The Journal.

“That policy has ended now — but it’s very hard to go back to a nonporous border because you have already allowed all these smuggling networks to be established.”

Throughout the Syrian civil war, Turkey's southern border has served as a transit point for cheap oil, weapons, foreign fighters, and pillaged antiquities. As the conflict progressed, the fighters taking advantage of this loose border enforcement were more and more radical.

Turkey cracked down last year and now regularly deports or bars people suspected of wanting to join insurgents in Syria and Iraq. But Western officials told The Journal that "more vigorous efforts to seal the border would expose Turkey to retaliation" from ISIS (aka Islamic State, IS, ISIL, or Daesh).

“Turkey is trapped now — it created a monster and doesn’t know how to deal with it,” one Western diplomat told The Journal.

The November report "Bordering on Terrorism: Turkey’s Syria Policy and the Rise of the Islamic State" details Turkey's apparent willingness to allow extremists — including militants from ISIS — and their enablers to thrive on the 565-mile border with Syria, part of Ankara's ongoing attempts to trigger the downfall of Assad's regime.

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy and a coauthor of the report, described Turkey's predicament to Business Insider in November.

"They've inadvertently created a mechanism that can yield blowback for them that could be extremely painful,"Schanzer, a former counterterrorism analyst for the US Treasury Department, told Business Insider.

"You have a lot of people now that are invested in the business of extremism in Turkey. If you start to challenge that, it raises significant questions of whether" the militants, their benefactors, and other war profiteers would tolerate a big crackdown.

The "Bordering on Terrorism" report cites an email from Turkey-based BuzzFeed reporter Mike Giglio that highlighted his concern about the "level of ISIS support among the 1 million-plus Syrians living in Turkey. I don't see how they can successfully weed out ISIS supporters from among these refugees."

Consequently, Turkey has fueled an enemy that Ankara and its allies are struggling to contain or aggressively counteract.

“ISIS has many spies here in Turkey, and not just spies but killers. They have points where they can cross the border anytime they want,” a smuggler and former fighter with the US-backed Free Syrian told The Journal. “The Turks are afraid of ISIS, and so they don’t want to make problems for ISIS.”

SEE ALSO: US Is On Collision Course With An 'Absolutely Indispensable' Ally

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For 10 years, Alex has lived in a 60 square-foot cell 22 hours a day. He's just one of 6,564 Texas prisoners in solitary confinement.

In letters obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Alex sketched heartbreaking depictions of his life within four bare, concrete walls.

Alex can cross his length of cell, shown at the right, in six paces. When he spreads his arms, his fingertips almost graze the outside walls.

Solitary cells don't include showers, making prisoners sacrifice a portion of their precious two hours of "freedom" to bathe. If they miss a shower, guards could find them in violation of prison policy for various reasons, like having "scruff." The ACLU report found 22% of Texas' solitary prisoners said they were denied showers altogether.

Alex sleeps on a thin plastic mattress on a steel platform next to the wall. That's also where he eats if he's not eating on the floor. He goes to the bathroom in the corner of his room, which smells like "mold and urine and feces and filth," he writes.

An anonymous hand slides his food through a slot in his cell door, shown in the drawing below.

Sometimes, that's his only contact with another human for weeks. Since Alex's cell has no window, he hasn't seen the stars or the sun in years. He has to settle for a Plexiglas pane, nothing more than a slit, that allows him to peek across the hall to another prisoner's cell door. 

"One time I was going to the hospital ... and we were riding the ferry and the sun was coming up and it was the only one I'd seen in years," he writes. "I'm a pretty tough guy, but it brought tears to my eyes."

Alex's cell does have light — a fluorescent fixture that hangs from the ceiling and stays on all night, he says. That and the constant screaming and clanking of other prisoners keeps him up at night.

Numerous studies have shown the negative effects of solitary confinement on prisoners' physical and emotional states.

Prolonged solitary confinement may lead to depression, which has been tied to the shrinking of the hippocampus — the part of the brain that controls emotions and spacial orientation, CNN noted last year. Other effects tied to solitary include anger, hallucinations, paranoia and psychosis, and self-harm. 

"It destroys one's capacity to relate socially, to work, to play, to hold a job or enjoy life," psychologist and longtime critic of solitary confinement Terry Kupers told Wired. 

Prison officials started experimenting with solitary confinement in the 1820s. Many inmates went insane or killed themselves, and the practice was slowly abandoned for decades. In 1983 a US prison officially instituted isolation for 23 hours a day and the practice became more common again. Several other states adopted similar methods, and solitary confinement took off again. 

Many lawyers, activists, and scientists have since deemed solitary confinement "cruel and unusual" and claim it violates the Constitution. The Supreme Court has yet to reach the same conclusion. 

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

Michael Dell announced this week that his eponymous company will start accepting payment in Bitcoin internationally.

The company will accept digital currency in the US, Canada, and the UK. This makes Dell the largest company to accept Bitcoin internationally. 

Here's what it won't do, though: put any skin in the game when it comes to bitcoin. From Jonathan Marino's earlier post:

Just because Dell is taking payment in Bitcoin, it doesn't mean he's technically investing in the product. Other companies, including Overstock.com, that also accept virtual currency as payment often immediately swap it for cash, via exchanges like Coinbase, aimed at reducing exposure to a volatile investment product.

Accepting but not holding it means, essentially, that Dell wants people to be able to pay with Bitcoin technology if they want, but isn't necessarily yet ready to trust Bitcoin as a currency. In other words, Dell is not suggesting you run out and convert all of you dollars into Bitcoin. Which means this isn't huge news on the digital currency front, yet. 

SEE ALSO: It's time to break up with American Express

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Samsung is buying mobile payments company LoopPay, which lets people pay for goods using their phones instead of their credit cards. Unlike Apple's payments solution Apple Pay, which requires near-field communication (NFC) pads to work, LoopPay works with traditional magnetic credit card readers. The technology is supposedly compatible with 90% of all point-of-sale terminals. This could help sales of Samsung’s next smartphones, especially in the U.S. where traditional credit card readers are still widely used.

Based on comScore data charted for us by BI Intelligence, Samsung had a 30% share of the U.S. smartphone vendor market as of December, but Apple was ahead with 35% share. Those numbers haven't really shifted in the last couple years.

One of the biggest new reasons to buy an iPhone 6 is to use Apple Pay. Having a payment system that's useful in more places could help Samsung blunt that advantage. LoopPay’s technology is currently embedded in separate physical phone cases, but LoopPay’s CEO confirmed to Business Insider that LoopPay would be integrated in a major new smartphone in 2015, and we're assuming that Samsung’s Galaxy S6 will be the one. We’ll know for sure on March 1 when the phone is unveiled.

SEE ALSO: Most people have no idea what a connected car is or what it can do

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The iPhone's default keyboard is great, but thanks to iOS 8 you can now swap it out for a third-party keyboard that does something a little different.

We've collected the 10 best keyboard apps for you to choose from. Whether you're looking to type faster or send GIFs and stickers to your friends, you're bound to find something that fits your communication style.

SwiftKey learns from your writing style.

SwiftKey is smart keyboard that's designed to learn how you type in order to speed things along. The autocorrect feature gets increasingly accurate over time, and it does a good job at predicting what words you're typing before you've finished tapping. If you want to slide between letters, you can also turn on SwiftKey Flow.

Price:Free

Fill in forms faster with TextExpander 3.

TextExpander 3 turns your shorthand phrases like "tyvm" into "thank you very much." You can set up shorthand letter combinations for quickly filling in your email, salutations, or even customized notes for situations when you need to fire off a quick response.

Price:$4.99

Send GIFs to your friends in a flash with GIF keyboard.

GIF keyboard makes it easy to message your friend funny GIFs. You can browse its library of millions of GIFs with sections devoted to reactions like #Want or #DealWithIt, or search by using a specific keyword like "Harry Potter." The best part, however, is that the GIFs display inline within iMessage.

Price:Free

Despite drastic punishments for drug dealing, up to and including death in many countries, the worldwide illegal drug trade continues to flourish. While governments invest vast sums of taxpayers' money in fighting a so-called "war" on drugs, one glance at the size and scope of the drug business suggests it may always be unwinnable.

The drug trade accounts for almost 1% of the world's financial revenue, with the cocaine trade alone boasting an annual turnover of around $85 billion — all tax free.

Republished with permission from Around the World: An Atlas for Today, this graph charts the path from production to consumer of cocaine, heroin, and Amphetamine-type stimulants — though it excludes the biggest of all: the cannabis business, whose dimensions would require a global graphic all to itself. 

The following text is reprinted from the infographic:

Distribution

Hard drugs are especially popular in the USA, Europe, and Asia. Crossing all borders, consumers are supplied with these illegal products by truck, ship, or small plane.

Opium originates primarily in Afghanistan or Myanmar, while cocaine comes mostly from Colombia, Peru, or Bolivia.

North America

• Consumption: Worldwide largest cocaine consumption, Amphetamine-type stimulants use increasing.
• Trade: Mexican mafias are increasingly involved in smuggling drugs across the US border or via the Pacific. 
• Production: Amphetamine-type stimulants are produced for the home market.  

Central America/Mexico/Caribbean

• Consumption: Tendency on the rise.
• Trade: One of the axes of the South American cocaine trade supplying Europe; small planes, couriers, and cargo ships transport the products.
• Production: Opium for North America.

South America

• Consumption: Increasing amounts of cocaine and Amphetamine-type stimulants.
• Trade: In almost all the countries in the region; Venezuela and Brazil are stopovers before delivery on to Africa or Europe.
• Production: Almost all of the world's cocaine comes from Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.

Western and Central Europe

• Consumption: Cocaine consumption remains at a high level, consumption of opiates and Amphetamine-type stimulants on the rise.
• Trade: Destination for thousand of tonnes of drugs; extensive inner-European smuggling; significant points of control in Amsterdam, Madrid, and along the German borders.
• Production: Large market for amphetamines, methamphetamines are mostly produced in small laboratories in the Czech Republic and less frequently in Slovakia and Germany.

Eastern and South-Eastern Europe

• Consumption: Greater consumption of opiates due to proximity to the trade routes.
• Trade: Delivery of opiates to Western Europe: cocaine is smuggled in from Africa to Central Europe via this region.
• Production: Amphetamine-type stimulants are produced in most countries. 

Near and Middle East

• Consumption: High consumption of opiates due to proximity to source, consumption of Amphetamine-type stimulants on the rise.
• Trade: Main trade route for opium and heroin, cartels from almost 20 countries are involved.
• Production: Opium production primarily in Afghanistan; heroin is manufactured in almost all countries to meet European demand.

Asia

• Consumption: Largest worldwide consumption of Amphetamine-type stimulants and opium.
• Trade: Large internal Amphetamine-type stimulants market; some opiates from Myanmar and Laos are shipped over the Pacific.
• Production: Amphetamine-type stimulants are produced almost everywhere, Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of opiates.

Oceania

• Consumption: Increasing consumption of Amphetamine-type stimulants.
• Trade: Insignificant.
• Production: Amphetamine-type stimulants for the internal market.

Africa 

• Consumption: Increasing consumption of Amphetamine-type stimulants.
• Trade: Transport route to Europe, becoming however less relevant due to strengthened controls; powerful cartels in Nigeria regulate sale in the region and further trade to Europe.
• Production: Insignificant.

Production

Farmers and chemists form the basis of the drug business as producers. They operate in the underground. The dealers work hand in hand with pilots, accountants, legal advisors, and financial experts.

Opium and Heroin

When the latex of the opium poppy dries, raw opium is produced. Further extensive chemical processing then yields opium, which can be smoked.

This is then partially further processed into the very powerful substance diamorphine (heroin), which can be smoked, sniffed, or injected.

Cocaine and Crack

The leaves of the lightly narcotic coca plant are processed into a white powder in illegal laboratories.

This cocaine hydrochloride can be sniffed in either pure or diluted form. When mixed with sodium bicarbonate and water and then heated, crack is produced, the vapors of which can be inhaled. 

Amphetamine-type stimulants

Synthetic stimulants such as amphetamines like "speed," methamphetamines "crystal," and MDMA like "ecstasy" are produced globally, often in kitchen laboratories.

Production is simple, the profits huge. Amphetamines and methamphetamines are colorless oils, which are processed into pastes or salts, often diluted and mixed. They appear in the market in the form of powders, pill, or liquids.  

Infographic republished with permission from Around the World: An Atlas for Today published by Gestalten.

Alongside classic facts about nature, history, population, culture, and politics, Around the World’s compelling information graphics thoroughly explain complex processes that impact our lives such as global trade and changing demographics. 

The book gives added insight into our modern world through its visual exploration of subjects such as eating habits, overfishing, and internet providers, as well as events that have left indelible marks on our collective conscience including September 11, the Olympic Games, Japan’s Fukushima disaster, and the sinking of the Titanic.

SEE ALSO: The 50 Most Violent Cities In The World

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On Thursday, Wal-Mart announced that it would raise its minimum hourly wage for 500,000 employees.

This chart is why.

This chart, first flagged by Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal, comes from the monthly JOLTS report — which shows the number of job openings in the economy — and shows the quits rate for workers in the retail trade industry. 

On Thursday we noted that as labor market slack diminishes and the balance of power swings towards employees from employers, companies would be pressured to either compensate their staff better or see people leave for better paying jobs. 

On a conference call with the media following Wal-Mart's announcement, Doug McMillon, Wal-Mart CEO, said:

"But on the wage decision, I think it’s important to remember that we react one store at a time to whatever wage rates we need to attract and retain the talent that is required to run our business. So today, there’s some discussion, obviously, around minimums. But as you think about cities, individual stores, certainly states, we have higher wage rates to make sure that we’re competitive in the marketplace, and of course we’ll continue to do that."

And so while Wal-Mart's decision on Thursday is its broad initiative on wages, McMillon makes clear that the company is prepared to do more to retain employees. 

And this is great news for the economy for one big reason: the labor market right now requires that you pay employees better, or see them walk out the door. 

SEE ALSO: Wal-Mart just gave the economy what its been waiting for

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Businessman Donald Trump once called the White House and offered to help with one of the biggest disasters during President Barack Obama's time in office: the 2010 BP oil spill. 

Trump told Business Insider on Thursday that the spill was not the main reason he reached out to top Obama adviser David Axelrod. Trump, who has said he's considering running for president in 2016, was mostly interested in building a grand ballroom for the US to host foreign leaders. 

"I saw that the United States, when they host a dignitary, such as the head of China, head of India, they put up a cheap tent by the White House and I thought that was inappropriate," said Trump. "The purpose of the call was to offer the United States, free of charge, a $100-million-plus ballroom for the White House so they could host dignitaries." 

According to Trump, the BP spill, in which millions of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico after a rig exploded, came up as a side issue. 

"I may have mentioned, 'If you need help with the oil spill, I will get my people involved,'" he said.

In Axelrod's account, however, Trump was much more direct in his offer to get involved. 

"That admiral you have down there running this leak operation seems like a nice guy, but he doesn't know what he's doing," Trump told Axelrod, according to the Obama adviser's new book, "Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.""I know how to run big projects. Put me in charge of this thing, and I'll get that leak shut down and the damage repaired.'"

In the book, Axelrod wrote that he told Trump the administration was close to plugging the hole, and by the time the two next talked, the problem was already fixed. Axelrod said the ballroom idea came up in that subsequent conversation. 

"Yeah, yeah, it looks like you have that one under control," Trump allegedly acknowledged a few weeks later, according to Axelrod. "But I've got another thing for you. I build ballrooms. Beautiful ballrooms. You can go to Tampa and check one of them out for yourself. ... I see you have these state dinners on the lawn there in these s---ty little tents. Let me build you a ballroom you can assemble and take apart. Trust me. It'll look great.'" 

Trump told Business Insider that it was "amazing" the White House didn't ultimately take him up on the ballroom idea.

"Frankly, they should have picked me up on the offer," he said, "because I would have built  a magnificent ballroom."

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Shoshone County authorities in north Idaho say an inmate escaped from the county jail by working his way through a utility room ceiling crawl space to reach the lobby. The man had been jailed since December on charges of burglary, malicious injury to property and petty theft.  A nationwide warrant has been issued for his arrest. 

Produced by Devan Joseph. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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Australia is on the verge of being pummeled by not one, but two powerful cyclones in a rare double-whammy by Mother Nature.

Cyclone Lam made landfall in the Northern Territory as a Category 4 storm around 2 a.m. Friday morning local time. And Cyclone Marcia — now ranked at a catastrophic Category 5 — hit several hours later Friday morning.

NASA captured the above image of Lam making landfall in the Northern Territory on Friday, and other sources have taken to Twitter to document the two storms with photos and satellite images.

Here are the two cyclones simultaneously approaching the northern and eastern coasts:

Feast your eyes, as you'll never see this again: 2 Cat-4 cyclones hitting Oz at same time. #CycloneLam#CycloneMarciapic.twitter.com/ZP7uB9781y

— Josh Morgerman (@iCyclone) February 19, 2015

And here's another view of the two cyclones by satellite:

#CycloneMarcia makes landfall at Shoalwater. http://t.co/0y7f5RnyYD

— The Australian (@australian) February 19, 2015

Here's Cyclone Marcia approaching Australia's eastern shore:

VIIRS infrared imagery from @NASANPP of Tropical Cyclone #Marcia as it approaches the eastern coast of Australia. pic.twitter.com/6CBhxzuntA

— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) February 19, 2015

 A view of Marcia's impending storm clouds from the Brisbane airport:

#CycloneMarcia to hit QLD at 8am as a category 5. #CycloneLam already at #NThttp://t.co/1dM9gXG7VVpic.twitter.com/bVxb5uGcmr

— news.com.au (@newscomauHQ) February 19, 2015

 In order to qualify as a Category 4 hurricane, a storm must sustain winds of at least 130 miles per hour, and a Category 5 storm carries winds of at least 157 miles per hour.

Local news outlets are reporting that Cyclone Lam has since downgraded to a Category 3 storm. The storm is expected to continue to weaken as it moves inland. Marcia, in the meantime, is expected to pummel with winds up to 177 miles per hour.

SEE ALSO: Massive cyclone hits Australia's east coast — 'this will be a harrowing and terrifying experience'

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Apple plans to start producing electric cars as soon as 2020, according to a new report by Bloomberg.

It's just the latest in a recent string of reports about Apple's plans to enter the automotive industry.

What seemed like a crazy rumor a couple weeks ago, when an Apple employee first emailed Business Insider about it, has now been confirmed by multiple news outlets.

Bloomberg says that Apple has 200 people working on the project, which matches earlier reports that say "hundreds" of people are on the team. Apple may also scrap the project if it's not working, as the company has done with other secret projects.

The project is being led by Steve Zadesky, who ran iPhone and iPod development at the company and started his career as an engineer at Ford.

SEE ALSO: Here's everything we know so far about Apple's secret electric car project

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NOW WATCH: Here's what everyone gets wrong about being creative at work

With the glut of advertising targeted at consumers every day, marketers often attempt to be controversial — it can benefit in earning attention and buzz, but risks alienating or offending some viewers.

Each year the UK's advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), reveals which ads sparked the most complaints. This year's list is a mixed bunch, featuring well-known supermarkets, a bookmaker/troublemaker, and a charity, among other brands.

Not all were investigated on the grounds of offense — the majority of complaints the ASA receives are in relation to misleading claims made by the advertiser. If some of the complaint numbers seem a little low, that's because the ASA recently began to place a hold on taking incoming complaints once it has identified a big, controversial issue.

10. Passport-UK.co.uk (177 complaints) — The passport renewal services company misleadingly implied it was a government website, and its terms and conditions were not clearly visible.

9. Flora Buttery (183 complaints) — Viewers complained this TV and YouTube ad was offensive and unsuitable for children because it depicted two children walking in on their parents "wrestling." The ASA did not uphold the complaints, saying it was unlikely to cause undue fear or distress.

8. UK-Passport.net (188 complaints) — Another "copycat" government website.

"Saturday Night Live"celebrated its 40th anniversary on Sunday with a live show featuring many of former cast members and hosts.

But let's face it: a three-hour live show isn't long enough to cover all the classic skits.

If you're still craving the old-school SNL shows, we recommend picking up the original five seasons of SNL featuring the greats such as Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and Bill Murray.

(And, sorry, they're not on Netflix.)

Season 1

Here's to the original season starring Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase.

Famous guest appearances include Simon and Garfunkel, ABBA, and Raquel Welch.

Amazon Instant Video: from $1.99 to $9.99

DVD: $39.98$12.99

Season 2

Bill Murray joins SNL after the mid-season departure of Chevy Chase.

Episode-wise, there's the incredibly famous, Emmy-winning episode starring Sissy Spacek and Richard Baskin.

And, yup, season 2 was the birth of Coneheads.

Amazon Instant Video: from $1.99 to $9.99

DVD: $39.98 $12.99

Season 3

SNL had an "Anyone Can Host" contest during season 3. The winner — 80-year old Miskel Spillman — remains the first and only non-celebrity to host SNL.

Fun fact: Hugh Hefner hosted in season 3.

Amazon Instant Video: from $1.99 to $9.99

DVD: $39.98 $14.99

Season 4

The Rolling Stones hosted and performed in the fourth season premiere. 

And even former mayor Ed Koch stopped by for the show.

Amazon Instant Video: from $1.99 to $9.99

DVD: $39.98 $16.99

Season 5

This was the first season without John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. And this was also the final season for everyone in the cast.

Amazon Instant Video: from $1.99 to $9.99

DVD: $39.98 $12.96

WANT MORE? Click Here To See Our Other Insider Picks

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In an outpouring on Thursday, leading thinkers, writers, and fans reacted to an essay published in The New York Times by neurologist and bestselling author Oliver Sacks.

Sacks, 81, whose lifelong work has explored the essence of what it means to be alive, wrote an op-ed titled "My Own Life," in which he revealed that he's dying of liver cancer:

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

Sacks, a professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine and the author of dozens of books and essays, has been described by The Times as a "poet laureate of contemporary medicine," though in the eyes of some critics, he is more artist than scientist.

Sacks' breakthrough book, "Awakenings," drew portraits of his patients as they emerged from a deep, postencephalitic haze. It was adapted into the 1990 movie by the same name starring Robin Williams as Sacks. It was also the inspiration for a play, "A Kind of Alaska," by Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter. 

As seen through Sacks's writing, his patients' disorders often revealed as much about the human condition as the human brain.

Here are some of the reactions to the news Thursday:

SEE ALSO: Neurologist writes beautiful essay about learning he's about to die

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NOW WATCH: NASA has released images of the other side of the Moon that we've never seen before