Neil Patrick Harris opened the 87th Academy Awards with a big opening musical celebrating movies over the years.

But before diving into his song and dance with "Into the Woods" star Anna Kendrick, he started the show with a jab at the Oscar's mostly white nominees.

"Today we honor Hollywood's best and whitest. Sorry, brightest," said Harris.

From there, Harris jumped into song and dance highlighting memorable movies like "Back to the Future" and "Indiana Jones."

Kendrick soon joined him on stage to honor and poke fun at her role as Cinderella in Disney's live-action film. 

Jack Black interrupted the show to awkwardly take the stage and snap a photo of himself before giving the stage back to the two.

Check out the performance below:

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Despite what appears to be a healthy pace of job creation in the US, questions remain about the health of the labor market as the labor force participation rate remains low and wage growth remains tepid.

High Frequency Economics' Jim O'Sullivan believes the underlying job market is much stronger than what most people give it credit for.

In a new research note to clients, he relates job growth to the growth of the potential labor force.

...After adjusting for breaks in the data relating to new population assumptions, the labor force is up 0.9% in the past 12 months. The unadjusted series is up 1.1%. Payrolls are up 2.3% in the past 12 months - 260k per month.

A 2%-plus pace for employment is far from booming by past standards, but it is exceptionally strong after allowing for demographic trends. The CBO's estimated potential labor force series, used for potential growth calculations, rose just 0.5% in 2014. Gains in that series averaged 1.3% in the 1990s, 1.6% in the 1980s and 2.8% in the 1970s. The roughly four-to-one between payrolls growth and potential labor force growth in 2014 was stronger than in any year since the 1950s! Nor is there any sign of payrolls gains slowing in either jobless claims or employment-based tax receipts. Even Fed officials themselves do not appear to appreciate how extraordinarily accommodative monetary policy has become.

Check it out:

An economy that's creating more jobs than there are people coming into the labor force means that there may be more better opportunities for those who already have jobs.

Just last week, Wal-Mart may have proved this by announcing an unprecedented pay raise for 500,000 employees.

"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," CEO Doug McMillon said. "We have higher wage rates to make sure that we’re competitive in the marketplace, and of course we’ll continue to do that."

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Before Neil Patrick Harris kicked off the 87th Academy Awards with a big musical number, the Oscar host opened the ceremony with a jab at the award's mostly white nominees.

"Welcome to the 87th Oscars. Tonight, we honor Hollywood's best and whitest. Sorry, brightest," said Harris.

After the Oscar nominations were announced in January, many were outraged by the lack of African American actors nominated.

All of the best supporting actor and actress along with the best actor and best actress nominees are noticeably white.

The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite quickly became a trending topic on Twitter.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 2015 nominations are the second time in nearly 20 years where the acting nominees haven't included an actor of color.

Watch the clip of Harris below via THR.

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Patricia Arquette has won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in "Boyhood." 

This is her first Oscar win and first nomination.

Arquette was the favorite to win beating out nominees Meryl Streep ("Into The Woods"), Laura Dern ("Wild"), Keira Knightley ("The Imitation Game"), and Emma Stone ("Birdman").

The 46-year-old actress has swept award season winning a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award for her role in the Oscar-nominated picture.

Arquette's performance is the product of 12 years of hard work.

"Boyhood," which was directed by Richard Linklater, follows the trajectory of one young boy as he grows up. Arquette stars as his mother, who suffers through multiple failed marriages while trying to raise her two children.

SEE ALSO: Patricia Arquette was paid surprisingly little for "Boyhood"

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"Big Hero 6" takes home the Oscar for best animated feature film.

This marks Disney's seventh win in the past eight years for best animated picture.

Walt Disney Animation was responsible for last year's massive Oscar-winning hit "Frozen."

"Big Hero 6," which follows Hiro (voiced by Ryan Potter) and his robot cohort Baymax (voiced by Scott Adsit), was a big hit for the studio, grossing $521.2 million worldwide. 

Earlier this year, fans and much of Hollywood were surprised by the snub of Warner Bros.' "The Lego Movie" from the animated category, leaving a clear path for "Big Hero 6" to take home the award.

The picture beat out "How to Train Your Dragon 2,""The Boxtrolls,""Song of The Sea," and "The Tale of Princess Kaguya."

The film was directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams.

SEE ALSO: The success of Disney's 'Big Hero 6' lays in the hands of a cuddly, white robot

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Before "Fifty Shades of Grey"star Dakota Johnson presented at Sunday's Academy Awards...

The 25-year-old walked the red carpet with her actress-mom, Melanie Griffith.

But the two had an incredibly awkward exchange during an ABC pre-show interview with host, Lara Spencer.

When Spencer asked Griffith if she has seen the R-rated "Fifty Shades of Grey," Griffith surprisingly responded that she had not.

"No," Griffith replied, while her daughter, who plays lead character Anastasia Steele in the film, responded, "Maybe one day."

Griffith then assured she has no desire to watch her daughter in action. "I don’t think I can, I think it would be strange. She’s a really good actress, I don’t need to see that to know how good she is."

"No, I don't think so, I think it's fine," said Johnson during the live interview. "I think that one day you can see it, I think so."

Clearly a point of contention between the two, Johnson responds: "Alright! You don’t have to see it. Jeez. I'm like, 'you can see it' and you're just like, 'no.'"

"If she tells me to see it, I'll see it," a flustered Griffith replied.

A classic mother/daughter eye-roll ensued.

Watch the full, incredibly uncomfortable exchange below:

To learn more about Dakota Johnson's A-list roots, click here.

SEE ALSO: MEET DAKOTA JOHNSON, the 25-year-old Hollywood royalty at the center of the 'Fifty Shades' phenomenon

MORE: Here's what celebrities are wearing on the Oscars red carpet

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A US jury on Monday ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority to pay more than $218 million for providing material support to terrorists, a victory for Americans suing over attacks in the Jerusalem area more than a decade ago, according to Reuters.

The attacks occurred during the Second Intifada, the 2000-2005 uprising in which nearly 800 civilians were killed in terror attacks carried out by Palestinian militant groups.

The verdict in the politically sensitive trial in Manhattan federal court added a new dimension to the long-running Middle East conflict, as American victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict sought to use US courts to seek damages.

Jurors found in favor of 10 American families suing over six attacks attributed to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas. The award could be tripled under the US Anti-Terrorism Act.

Victims and their families had requested more than $350 million, or over $1 billion after tripling, over shootings and bombings from 2002 to 2004 that killed 33 people and injured over 450.

The PLO and Palestinian Authority are expected to appeal, and it is unclear whether victims would be able to collect if the award were upheld. Given the current crisis within the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, it's unlikely that it's capable of paying out the reward if the PA could somehow be coerced into doing so.

The decision comes at a sensitive point in relations between the US, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. In December 2014, the PA, which is led by president Mahmoud Abbas, joined the International Criminal Court, raising the possibility that the Palestinian leadership could charge Israeli officials over alleged war crimes. The PA officially becomes an ICC member on April 1st.

Israel deemed this to be a unilateral decision that violated a series of previous agreements, including the 1993 Oslo Accords, which launched the current Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The June 2014 formation of a unity government between Fatah, which runs the Abbas-led PA, and Hamas, an Islamist militia which both Israel and US consider a terrorist organization, already resulted in Israel withholding reimbursements of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA.

This cratered the PA's budget, forcing it to cut staff and salaries. On February 23rd, Israel temporarily cut power to the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin to press for payment of what it said was $492 million owed by the Palestinian government, according to Reuters.

Today's decision exposes the PA's legal vulnerabilities over its members' and constituent groups' connection to terrorism against Israelis. This ruling, along with its ongoing financial instability means that the PA will have to proceed cautiously in potential ICC cases against Israel, according to Grant Rumley, a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 

"If Abbas is responsible for even the most loosely affiliated foot soldiers during the Second Intifada over a decade ago, what do you think his level of responsibility is for Hamas rockets after having signed a reconciliation agreement and forming a unity government with them?," Rumley explained to Business Insider. "That's the question that's going to rack the Palestinian leadership."

The decision restrains Abbas's range of options at a time when the Palestinian president is facing fiancial shortfalls and pressure from a number of would-be successors, including Hamas, and the exiled former Gaza security chief Mohammad Dahlan. 

This isn't the only notable recent US court decision related to Palestinian terrorism. In September, a federal court held the Jordan-based Arab Bank liable for terrorist attacks against US citizens, since it had hosted the finances of Hamas-linked organizations and individuals.

SEE ALSO: Turkey may have revealed an important change in its approach to ISIS

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Lenovo's chief technology officer has apologized for shipping PCs installed with Superfish, a product that acted like malware and created serious security risks.

In a blog post, Lenovo CTO Peter Hortensius apologized promised that Superfish will not be included on any Lenovo PCs in the future.

He also pointed out that Lenovo shipped an automated tool to remove Superfish, and worked with antivirus partners Microsoft, McAfee, and Symantec, to make sure their tools could also remove Superfish easily.

More important, Hortensius said the company's working out a plan to make sure it doesn't preload similarly suspect software in the future.

Superfish advertises itself as a tool for helping people identify products visually. But it actually superimposed unwanted ads on web sites, and in the process used technology that let it bypass an important security tool used by e-commerce and banking web sites. 

MORE DETAILS:  Here's what you need to know about the Lenovo-Superfish debacle

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At least 10 students at Wesleyan University and two visitors to the school were hospitalized this weekend after reportedly overdosing on "Molly," a party drug users often consider to be the purest form of Ecstasy.

Both Ecstasy and Molly usually contain MDMA, 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine, a psychedelic drug associated with euphoria. They're typically ingested in different forms, though. Ecstasy, most often associated with nightclub culture in the 1980s and 90s, is taken as a pill, while Molly is commonly used as a powder.

In the last decade, Ecstasy came back to clubs in a rebranded form known as Molly that was pushed as a "gentler, more approachable drug,"as The New York Times reported. However, the common understanding of Molly as somehow safer than Ecstasy is likely baseless.

"You're fooling yourself if you think it's somehow safer because it's sold in powdered form," Harvard University psychiatrist John Halpern, who has conducted several MDMA studies, told The Times.

Molly gained notoriety in 2013 as it grew in popularity, culminating in the deaths of two concert attendees at the Electric Zoo music festival that were attributed to the drug.

The drug known as Molly is particularly dangerous because it often doesn't contain any MDMA at all and instead contains "a toxic mixture of lab-created chemicals," as CNN reported in 2013. These chemicals are designed to mimic how MDMA effects the body, according to CNN, and produce "euphoric highs" for users.

"Molly is dangerous because of the toxic mix of unknown chemicals; users have no idea what they're taking or at what dose. Unlike MDMA and other illegal drugs that have known effects on the body, the formulas for these synthetic drugs keep changing, and they're manufactured with no regard to how they affect the user," CNN reported.

The drug's synthetic makeup has become potentially life threatening for people taking Molly, especially if they believe they're receiving an unfiltered version of MDMA.

"You're playing Russian roulette if you take these compounds because we're seeing significant batch-to-batch variances," a Drug Enforcement Administration administrator told CNN.

At Wesleyan, for example, the local Middletown, Connecticut police chief described the Molly on campus as a "bad batch," the Associated Press reports. The students would likely have no way of knowing what exactly they were putting into their bodies.

As of Monday, eight remained hospitalized, the university said. Mark Neavyn, chief of toxicology at Hartford Hospital, where several students are being treated, told the Associated Press they are testing the Wesleyan students to determine what drugs they actually ingested.

"When we see these people in the emergency department and they claim to have taken Molly, we don't pay attention to that word anymore. It's so commonly not MDMA, we just start from square one and say it's some sort of drug abuse," Neavyn said.

The doctor's process echoes the years-long controversy surrounding how drug users view Molly.

"Anyone can call something Molly to try to make sound less harmful," one DEA agent told The Times in 2013. "But it can be anything."

SEE ALSO: A dangerous drug being passed off as Ecstasy is killing people

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Mobile payments — the use of phones to complete transactions in stores instead of cash and physical card swipes — are going to grow much more quickly than many observers believe. In no small part, this will be thanks to the growing popularity of Apple's new Apple Pay system. 

In a new in-depth report on mobile payments from BI Intelligence, we explain how a few US retailers account for the vast majority of over $4.7 trillion in aggregate payment volume. Many of these retailers have already adopted the technology necessary to accept mobile payments from Apple Pay and similar apps, or plan to. It only takes a handful of these large retailers to drive an explosion in mobile payment volume and that's precisely what we think is going to happen. 

Access the Full Report By Signing Up For A Risk-Free Trial Membership Today >>

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Explosive mobile payments growth: We forecast US mobile payment volume to grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 172%. Volume will rise to $818 billion by 2019, or just under 15% of total US payment volume. 
• Apple Pay is showing early signs of success: Payments made through Apple Pay accounted for between 0.1%-1.6% of transactions at five top retailers in the month following the launch of the feature. Considering that the feature can only be used on the new iPhones we think that's indicative of exceptional momentum. 
• CurrentC isn't dead on arrival: Despite a firestorm of bad press for the yet-to-be launched mobile wallet from the MCX retail consortium, which includes Wal-Mart, there is still a chance it could have some success. CurrentC retailers account for over $1 trillion in annual volume and we think these retailers are going to push it aggressively to their customers. Even with mediocre results, that adds up to a lot of payment volume in aggregate. 
• Android mobile wallets are benefiting from Apple Pay: Multiple sources confirm that Google Wallet saw a jump in payment volume following the launch of Apple Pay. Softcard (formerly Isis), a mobile wallet backed by big wireless carriers including Verizon, also struck a number of new deals that were likely a result of retailers attempting to give their customers an Android-based alternative to Apple Pay. 

In full, the report:

• Forecasts US mobile payment volume from 2014-2019 and provides an in-depth explanation of the assumptions and data behind the forecast.
• Analyzes the latest adoption statistics on Apple Pay and why the fledgling mobile payments feature is sure to be a success. 
• Provides a quarterly update on the mobile payments industry including analysis of Softcard, Google Wallet, CurrentC, PayPal, and LoopPay. 

For full access to all our charts, data, and analysis on the payments industry — including downloadable Excel files — sign up for a trial membership.

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Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu swept the 2015 Academy Awards. He and his producers took home golden statues for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture for his film "Birdman."

But more than a decade before his Oscar-winning turn,"González Iñárritu made a 10-minute long short film for BMW's "BMW Films" advertising campaign.

In 2001, the German automaker recruited a series of big-name filmmakers — such as González Iñárritu, Ang Lee, Tony Scott, and John Woo — to make a series of short vignettes staring actor Clive Owen as "the driver," along with a slew of BMW cars. 

In González Iñárritu's contribution, "Powder Keg," a veteran war photographer named Harvey Jacobs (played by Stellan Skarsgaard) witnesses a brutal massacre by Latin American military forces. The United Nations dispatches a BMW X5 SUV, driven by Owen, to smuggle the photographer out of the country. 

As the Driver and Jacobs flee towards to the border, the photographer recounts the many horrors of war he has encountered over the course of his career while expressing deep regret over his inability to stop the atrocities. As they speak, the photographer, who was shot during the massacre, instructs the driver to give his film and dog tags to his mother.

Soon, the military is alerted and pursues the BMW. Eventually, the car does make it to border — only to be confronted by border guards. As a guard interrogates the Driver, a wounded Jacobs takes pictures. Startled by the camera, the guard points a gun at the Driver's head. 

After a few tense moments, the Driver pushes the gun away before backing the silver BMW into the army truck behind it. Gunfire rings out as the SUV flees towards the safety. 

They reach safety, but it's too late. The photographer had died. We later learn that the Jacobs' photos of the massacre earned him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.

Overall, BMW Films' series of eight vignettes proved to be very received and remain popular on YouTube even a decade later.

See the complete film here:

SEE ALSO: Here's why you should never run from the police in Dubai

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You're never too old for a great book.

We've put together a list of our 16 favorite stories on growing up and what it means to be a man. They cover everything from how to live to how to be a leader to how people should handle crises.

Check them out.

How about a drone? The Sleek Panther Drone Is The Perfect Way To Start Flying [55% Off]

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In case you're behind on Greek debt bailout negotiations, here's a crude summary of what's going on in rap form. Later in the video, both Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin make appearances:

SEE ALSO: Neo-Marxist philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek offers a hot take on Greek bailout negotiations

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Samsung announced the acquisition of Magna Steyr's battery business in a press release on Monday.

This comes a few days after reportes emerged that Apple was in talks with Magna Steyr in relation to producing an electric car.

Magna Steyr is an Austrian-based manufacturer that assembles cars for companies like Audi, Fiat, GM, and Volkswagen. It also has other businesses that design and build car parts, including battery systems for electric and hybrid vehicles.

The Samsung deal includes only Magna's battery pack business, not the manufacturing business. So Apple could still work with Magna Steyr to build the cars it designs if in fact it follows through with the project.

The acquisition comes as Apple has tried to hire away Samsung's battery experts and engineers. 

Samsung didn't say how much it paid for Magna's battery business. Samsung SDI already makes batteries for BMW's electric cars. 

SEE ALSO: Apple is reportedly poaching Samsung's top battery experts to help build its electric car

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As Greece's new Syriza government negotiates the terms of its debt repayment, Spain is pushing Greece to drop its anti-austerity ambitions and accept Europe's terms.

Spain's keen interest in Greece likely stems from the rise of Podemos, a wildly popular left-wing Greek party that's closely aligned with Syriza, as Bloomberg Businessweek noted this weekend.

Less than a year after it became an official political party, Podemos — whose name translates to "We can"— has become the second largest party in Spain with over 350,000 members.

One Podemos supporter attributes the party's unprecedented rise to the incompetence of Spain's politicians. 

"Spain's ruling political class is completely out of touch with what goes on in the streets, in people's everyday lives," Manuel Rivadulla, an engineer from Galicia, told Business Insider. "That, combined with the widespread corruption, is Spain's biggest problem right now."

Founded by a 36-year-old political science professor in 2014, Podemos won a whopping 1.2 million votes and five seats in last year's European Parliament elections. At the time, the party was only four months old.

European officials were initially taken aback by the party's success. After all, there was a time when these coalitions of the radical left didn't stand a chance in national elections. But the success of Greece's most notorious anti-establishment party, Syriza — which won control over the Hellenic Parliament in January — shows just how much the tide has turned against Europe's political mainstream.

Like so many of Spain's millennials looking for work at the height of Spain's financial crisis between 2010-2012, Rivadulla, the engineer who supports Podemos, had to leave Madrid for Bristol to find a job. As youth unemployment continues to hover above 50%, Podemos' pony-tailed leader, Pablo Iglesias, has riled up the masses by blaming the country's political woes on EU bureaucrats and bankers.

"When Podemos is in government, JPMorgan is not going to be able to pick up the phone and tell us what to do," Iglesias told the TV channel Cuatro in an interview last November. "The people vote for governments, not investment banks."

Active in politics from a young age, Iglesias was a well-known political pundit, journalist, and political science professor at the Complutense University in Madrid before he decided to take the anger of Spain's indignados and turn it into an organized movement for change. Iglesias registered Podemos as a political party in January 2014 and ran in the European elections — with great success — four months later. 

Podemos' supporters are passionate and proactive, even from abroad. For Spaniards such as Rivadulla who are forced to leave their country in search of work, the best way to support the party from afar — and bond with other Spanish expats — has been to form circulos, small groups of activists who meet periodically to campaign on local issues and raise awareness for a new establishment in Spain that crosses political boundaries.

"Podemos is not a party of the left or of the right," Rivadulla said. "It is simply a party that wants to govern on behalf of the masses. The major political parties have been entrenched in power for so long, they've forgotten who they represent."

While Podemos' supporters are predicting the kind of success for the party that Syriza had in Greece, others aren't so sure. "Pablo Iglesias is articulate, shrewd, and charismatic, and his party has had unprecedented success so far," Diego Hidalgo, founder and president of FRIDE and Club de Madrid — two prominent political think tanks in Spain — told Business Insider. "But Podemos' momentum will ultimately stall because it is still a radical leftist party, and many people don't identify with their policies and programs — many of which remain unclear."

Hidalgo argues that Syriza's win will ultimately have a negative effect on Podemos' image. Most likely, Syriza will either fail or have to give in to the EU's economic conditions, neither of which will set a particularly good precedent for the staying power of radical leftist parties in the years to come.

For many Spaniards, however, Podemos' power lies less in its immediate political influence than in its power to counteract civic apathy. "There is a new common sense, a social majority, and that is what is driving Podemos," Jorge Moruno, Podemos speech-writer and strategist, told Newsweek in October. "Our role is to transform the social indignation into political energy.”

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Oil prices have been volatile of late, but a number of banks and commenters have said that oil prices are going lower. 

In its half-year earnings release on Monday, Australian mining giant told the market exactly why:

In response to weaker prices, [BHP] will reduce its Onshore US operated rig count from 26 at period end to 16 by the end of the 2015 financial year. The majority of the revised drilling program will be focused on our liquids rich Black Hawk acreage with activity in the Permian and Hawkville limited to the retention of core acreage. The Company’s dry gas development program will be reduced to one operated rig in the Haynesville, with a focus on continued drilling and completions optimisation ahead of full field development. The reduction in drilling activity will not impact 2015 financial year production guidance and we remain confident that shale liquids volumes will rise by approximately 50 per cent in the period.

So what BHP is saying here is that while it is going to shut down a number of its oil rigs this year, production isn't going to decline, doing little to change the market dynamics that have led to the oil price crash.

The general thesis for lower prices is basically this: lower prices have resulted from an oversupply of the oil market. Meanwhile, oil production from OPEC and the US shale markets hasn't slowed down at all.

And so even with US rig counts plummeting in the US over the last few months, production figures haven't been tempered, as BHP's announcement makes clear.

In its earnings announcement, BHP also said that it expects to reduce its capital expenses in its US oil drilling program by 15% to $3.4 billion in 2015, with these expenses expected to fall further to $2.2 billion in 2016. 

Back in January, BHP said it would shut down 40% of its US shale oil rigs by the end of its fiscal year. 

SEE ALSO: 'Oil at $50 per barrel is painful'

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Every year, the Chinese New Year is celebrated for more than two weeks in January or February, with many festivals and celebrations commemorating the occasion. On the first day of the New Year, the festival kicks off with the Firecracker Ceremony, during which locals light nearly 600,000 rounds of fireworks.

Last Thursday, we headed down to New York City’s Chinatown to see the community’s 16th annual Firecracker Ceremony. The community was celebrating the beginning of the Year of the Goat.

It is a tradition for Chinese people to light bamboo sticks filled with gunpowder on the first day of the year to create as large as commotion as possible. The practice is thought to ward off evil spirits. In more recent years, the tradition is carried on with firecrackers and fireworks. Thousands of firecrackers are strung up with red ribbon on the rope in the background.

The community performs the elaborate Firecracker Ceremony because fireworks are illegal in New York City. There were plenty of police on hand to make sure everything went smoothly.

The ceremony began with a speech by a community leader, who wished spectators "Gong Xi Fa Cai," or Happy New Year in Mandarin.

There was a huge crowd for the ceremony despite the temperatures. It was a frigid 20 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the ceremony.

After the opening speech, the emcee introduced the Brooklyn United Drumline marching band. They provided an energetic performance to start off the festivities.

Next came the traditional Chinese ribbon dance. Dancers perform by whirling long strips of silk attached to short sticks through the air.

The woman on the right was keeping time for the dancers with her cymbals.

The dance dates to China's Han Dynasty in 206 BCE. It is thought that the dance originates from a man who saved an emperor from assassination by blocking a sword with the silk on his sleeve.

Next came the dragon dance. While not as elaborate or large as the dragons displayed during the Chinese New Year's parade, these two were very acrobatic.

The two dragons dueled for a long time. It was an impressive dance.

No Chinese holiday would be complete without food. Volunteers gave out copious amounts of Chinese food to those willing to wait in line.

Many prominent community members were wearing red sashes. Red symbolizes good fortune and joy in Chinese culture. It is seen everywhere during New Year's celebrations.

Many city politicians were in attendance to celebrate the New Year. On the left is a man dressed as Cai Shen, the Chinese god of wealth and prosperity.

A group of schoolchildren took turns singing the American national anthem and the Chinese national anthem.

A lion dance troupe performed a symbolic ritual next to celebrate the new year.

During the "cai qing," or plucking the greens, ritual, the lions attempt to eat lettuce hung on a pole in front of them. The custom comes from the similar sounds of the words pluck (cǎi), vegetable (cài ), and fortune (cái). The lion "eats" the lettuce and spits it out in favor of the red envelope attached. During New Year's celebrations, red envelopes are filled with money.

At the same time, the crowd shoots off large amounts of confetti in celebration.

There was a lot of confetti on the ground after the dance.

Finally, it was time for the actual firecrackers. The team in charge used this pyrotechnic firing system to start the festivities from a safe distance.

This is what it looked like when it started. The ribbons and ornaments at the top were lined with firecrackers.

The sound was deafening for those who were closest.

And here's what it looked like near the end.

SEE ALSO: 18 Chinese expressions with bizarre literal translations

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You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars to get a great pair of headphones.

We've found 7 great pairs that will be on sale for less than $20 this week.

Check them out.

Sony extra bass smartphone headset with mic (black)

These headphones have incredible sound quality considering that they're only $20. The sound is clear and the bass is the real deal.

Plus, the ear-cups have a swivel function, which makes them easy to store.

Price:$29.99$19.86[34% off]

Sony extra bass smartphone headset with mic (white)

If you're looking for something more stylish than your basic black headphones, check out the white version of the previous Sony pair.

They'll be a cool standalone accessory.

Price: $29.99 $19.74 [34% off]

JLab Core Hi-Fi Noise Isolation earbuds

The best part about these headphones is that they're super comfortable. You'll barely feel them in your ears.

These are a great option for athletes who don't need bulky headphones.

Price: $19.99

AmazonBasics On-Ear Headphones

These headphones are the coolest looking in the bunch because of their sleek ear-cups.

"Loved it. The price is just right. ... The sound quality is superb," one reviewer wrote.

Price: $14.99

AmazonBasics in-ear headphones

"Very nice and comfortable. Crystal clear audio. It has built-in mic so it's convenient to use it while walking, sitting, or driving," one reviewer wrote.

Price: $6.99 

WANT MORE? Click Here To See Our Other Insider Picks

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The president of OPEC, Diezani Alison-Madueke, proposed international cooperation in setting oil prices, according to Izabella Kaminska of the FT.

According to Kaminska, in a sit down with the FT, the OPEC president and Nigerian oil minister proposed what Kaminska calls a "Bretton Woods-style framework on energy prices" as the United States becomes a major producer threatening the hegemony of the cartel. 

"We need to formalise the discussions so we reach some agreements to keep supply at certain levels to ensure stabilisation. I think going forward we do have to sit round the table with people like Russia and the United States," said Alison-Madueke, according to Kaminska. 

This was the same meeting with the FT where Alison-Madueke floated the idea of an OPEC emergency meeting sometime soon over the falling price of oil (later refuted by another OPEC member). 

SEE ALSO: OPEC might have an emergency meeting over low oil prices

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A handful of payments companies including Square and PayPal are moving beyond their core market in payments to take advantage of an opportunity to help small businesses grow.

Following the 2008 financial crisis, banks severely restricted access to capital, disproportionately affecting fledgling and medium-sized businesses. Annual loan originations to businesses with $1 million or less in revenue fell dramatically between 2007 and 2013. 

For payments companies like Square and PayPal this created an opportunity. They are now offering loans and advances to their small-business clients and charging a fixed fee for the capital advance. It's a way to develop a new revenue stream and help their merchants grow (which in turn, means more money from credit card transaction fees). In a new BI Intelligence report, we explain how these digital-lending programs work, how they stack up to alternatives, and why banks should be worried about these programs taking off. 

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Here are some of the key points from the report: 

• Small businesses are often in need of quick capital that can't be accessed through traditional bank loans or credit cards. The 2008 financial crisis left hundreds of thousands of small businesses with pent-up demand for working capital to grow their businesses. Only 2.4 million traditional loans were originated to businesses with $1 million or less in revenue in 2013, down 54% from 2007.
• To fill this niche, a handful of start-ups and payments companies are now offering small businesses a financing opportunity that works like an advance on sales. In this report, we focus on two examples: Square Capital and PayPal Working Capital. These programs offer merchants financing in exchange for a fixed fee which is paid back as a percentage of the merchant's daily sales. If merchants have no sales on a particular day they pay nothing.
• The programs are most competitive with credit cards and banks loans. Though the equivalent annual percentage rate (APR) of these programs tends to be higher, they help merchants save time, the terms are clear, and repayment is automated. Merchants often value these features enough to pay what equates to a premium.
• Square, PayPal, and others are offering these lending programs because they can meet an existing demand among merchants they have already acquired as clients. The payments business depends on the number and value of purchases made at merchants since payments companies typically take a cut of each transaction as revenue. Logically, then, payments companies want to serve merchants with growing businesses. But without access to capital, it's difficult for a business to grow. Both companies are seeing more pressure on their primary card-processing businesses as new entrants such as Stripe gain market share. Capital lending offers a high return without extensive startup costs. 
• Banks should be worried. These programs compete with existing banking products, including credit cards and bank loans. Even though these programs tend to be more expensive than loans and lines of credit, a large group of merchants turn to them because they can gain access to financing more quickly and easily and because the repayment schedule tracks their business performance. 

In full, the report:

• Analyzes the market for small business lending and which business are most likely to use digital lending programs. 
• Explains how these new lending programs work using Square and PayPal as case studies. 
• Details the advantages that payments companies and other businesses see in small-business lending.
• Investigates why banks should be worried about these new lending initiatives and how they might push back. 

For full access to all BI Intelligence's charts and data on the Payments Industry, sign up for a risk-free trial.

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