• The English language has a lot of weird spelling, grammar, and pronunciation rules.
• Words that sound and are spelled the same can have two different or even opposite meanings.
• Tricks like "I before E except after C" don't always work.

Even if you grew up speaking English, chances are you haven't mastered all of its spelling, grammar, and pronunciation rules. Oftentimes, English breaks its own "rules" anyway.

Words that look the same can be pronounced differently, and words that sounds the same can be spelled differently. Some letters are silent altogether. And tricks like "I before E except after C" don't always apply.

Here are 11 weird anomalies of the English language that make it difficult to learn.

English is full of contronyms — words that have two opposite meanings.

If you clip something, are you cutting it or attaching it together? If something is transparent, is it invisible or obvious? The answer, confusingly, could be either one.

A "contronym" is a word that has two contradictory meanings, and the English language is full of them.

It is also full of homographs — words that are spelled the same, and even often pronounced the same, but mean different things.

There's tear (to rip) and tear (as in crying), bass (a type of fish) and bass (a low sound), bat (a piece of sports equipment and bat (an animal) bow (a type of knot) and bow (to incline) to name a few.

The English language is full of homographs.

Idioms often make no sense.

Why does "it's raining cats and dogs" mean that it's raining hard? Why is an easy thing considered "a piece of cake?" The English language is full of phrases that confuse foreigners.

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

If you've been waiting for a reason to redecorate your home, there's no better excuse than the new year. January is a fresh start, making it a great time to rethink your space — whether you just want to swap out the paintings on your walls, or are considering a serious remodel. 

Houzz is a great place to start. Not only can you shop its large selection of home goods products, you can also find home improvement professionals in your area or get remodeling inspiration and advice from the Houzz community. Whatever your decorating style and budget, you're sure to find some fun inspiration on the site.

To help you start off 2019 in style, Houzz is slashing the prices on some of their best-selling pieces from 2018. Now through January 13, you can save up to 75% on top 2018 best-sellers from Houzz. You'll find everything from furniture to small pieces of decor and large kitchen appliances. For some inspiration, we rounded up some of our favorites from the sale that you can check out below. 

Keep reading for 20 great products from the Houzz 2018 best sellers sale:

A vintage-inspired rug that adds a rich pop of color to any room

Safavieh Satin Turquoise Vintage-Inspired Rug, 5'3" x 7'6", $162.99 (Originally $187.99) [You save $25]

A velvet sectional that's equally modern and comfortable

Nesta Gray Velvet Sectional, $1,299 (Originally $1,999) [You save $700]

A vibrant, abstract painting to brighten up a bland wall

Alexa Wall Art with Frame, $94.99 (Originally $100.80) [You save $5.81]

• "House," also known as "House M.D." is a popular medical drama starring Hugh Laurie.  
• The show featured guest appearances from a wide range of celebrities.
• Michael B. Jordan, Leighton Meester, and Cynthia Nixon are just a few. 

"House" is an unconventional medical drama which at one point was the most watched show on television.

The show's popularity was due in part to the protagonist, Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie) — a brilliant but irascible infectious disease specialist who solved the most impossible cases. 

The Emmy-award winning series ended in 2012, but not before a slew of celebs made guest appearances during its eight-year run.

Here's a list of stars you may have forgotten made their way through the halls of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.  

Skylar Astin suffered a mysterious nosebleed in season eight.

Before breaking through as Jesse Swanson in the "Pitch Perfect" films, Astin appeared as a cheerleader who attempts suicide as his condition worsens.

Brandy was a hopeful recording artist in season one.

In a case of life imitating art, the singer played an up and coming recording artist anticipating a studio session with a famous jazz musician, John Henry Giles. He eventually arrives but her excitement is doused when Giles collapses.

Andre Braugher was Dr. Daryl Nolan in season six

In a departure from his comedic role as the deadpan captain Raymond Holt on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," Braugher was House's physician at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital throughout season six.

• Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, both progressive Democrats, are self-described "BFFs."
• Their friendship began when the two met at a small fundraiser in a Manhattan apartment before either had won their primary races.
• "Our relationship is not static, it is not one-dimensional, it is dynamic, it is deep, it is meaningful, it is real, and it grows by the day," Pressley told INSIDER. 

Boston city councilwoman Ayanna Pressley was on an Amtrak to New York in early June 2018 when she asked her campaign manager, Sarah Groh, to text a friend of Groh's from college.

The friend was then a little-known New York congressional candidate running a similarly insurgent Democratic primary bid. Groh asked her old friend, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to stop by a fundraiser that evening being held for Pressley in a friend's Manhattan apartment.

Ocasio-Cortez said she'd be happy to.

"I was in the middle of giving my stump and Alex walked in," Pressley told INSIDER. "She's diminutive in size, but large in presence. She's luminous. I felt literally the air shift and I looked to my left and it was her entering into the event space."

After Pressley's speech, Ocasio-Cortez joined the Massachusetts congressional candidate in a small clearing in the living room. 

Standing in front of a TV set, the then-28-year-old Bronx native declared, "This is not just a blue wave, this is a movement that’s coming to Congress this year."

"Absolutely," Pressley jumped in. "We called their bluff. When we had the Women's March, they thought it was a moment. We knew we were ushering in a movement."

Pressley added that she found commonalities between herself and Ocasio-Cortez. 

"I think we both embody something that I fundamentally believe, which is that the people closest to the pain should be closest to the power," the Bostonian said, referring to one of her campaign slogans. 

Ocasio-Cortez later tweeted about the meeting, "Our BFF applications are already in."

"That was some 'herstory' right there," Erika Soto Lamb, who hosted the Manhattan fundraiser, told INSIDER. "I don't mean to be too saccharine, but there was magic in these two amazing, smart, young women of color talking about the progressive fight that needed to be taken on."

Two weeks later, Pressley sent one of her field organizers to New York to help get out the vote for the last days of Ocasio-Cortez's campaign.

When the New Yorker stunned the political world by beating 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary that month, she asked her legions of new supporters to turn their attention to Pressley's race.

Pressley, now her state's first black congresswoman, says the friendship between the two new lawmakers goes much deeper than their social media shout-outs. The two new Democratic Party rising stars have bonded over both being alums of Boston University and former service industry workers, as well as the shared experience of losing a parent. 

"You know how there are people who have Instagram relationships? This is not an Instagram relationship," Pressley told INSIDER. "Our relationship is not static, it is not one-dimensional, it is dynamic, it is deep, it is meaningful, it is real, and it grows by the day."

SEE ALSO: THE TRUTH ABOUT ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: The inside story of how, in just one year, Sandy the bartender became a lawmaker who triggers both parties

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Anthony Scaramucci claims Trump isn't a nationalist: 'He likes saying that because it irks these intellectual elitists'

• The drug giant Eli Lilly announced on Monday that it was acquiring the cancer-focused biotech Loxo Oncology for about $8 billion.
• Loxo focuses on gene mutations in treating cancers, which is a unique approach.
• The deal is "bigger than what we've done before," Lilly CEO David Ricks said, but "isn't out of range to do again."

The pharma giant Eli Lilly & Co. on Monday said it planned to buy the biotech Loxo Oncology for $8 billion in cash.

It's an unusually large acquisition for Eli Lilly that also represents a massive bet on Loxo's genetically based approach to treating cancer.

Most cancer drugs treat a specific type of the disease, such as breast cancer or lung cancer, but Loxo's medicines target gene mutations in cancers instead.

As a result, its drugs are intended to treat more than one type of cancer — like Loxo's Vitrakvi, which was first approved in the US in late November and has been tested in people with cancers of the lung, colon, breast, and thyroid.

Eli Lilly already has a presence in oncology. Notably, the chemotherapy Alimta is one of its most valuable products, bringing in more than $2 billion in revenue in 2017, but the drug has been losing patent protection in other countries and could also lose it in the US soon.

That said, the drugmaker's cancer focus hasn't been in this type of "targeted" oncology before, the Stifel analyst Stephen Willey said. Drugmakers including Pfizer, Novartis, and AstraZeneca would appear more obvious acquirers for Loxo, he said. 

"The emergence of LLY is a little surprising, but LLY's existing commercial presence in [non-small cell lung cancer] and expiring Alimta exclusivity makes sense," Willey said. 

Read more:The FDA just approved a drug that targets cancers based on DNA, rather than where the tumor is in your body

The deal values Loxo at $235 a share, a premium of roughly 68% over the company's Friday closing price, Eli Lilly said. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019. If it doesn't go through, Loxo could owe Eli Lilly a breakup fee of $265 million, according to a new financial filing. 

The roughly $8 billion deal is Eli Lilly's largest acquisition by far since at least 2015, according to financial filings.

On a Monday-morning conference call, Lilly CEO David Ricks said that the acquisition was "bigger than what we've done before" but that Loxo also notably had four in-development or recently approved medicines. "I would say going forward it isn't out of range to do again," Ricks added.

Eli Lilly will keep looking for other deals in cancer and other areas, Ricks said, adding that there were "many more opportunities" in cancer because of recent scientific advances.

See:Here's why Bristol-Myers Squibb's record-breaking $74 billion biotech deal is facing investor backlash

Loxo already has a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug, Vitrakvi, which came out of a partnership with the drugmaker Bayer.

Eli Lilly noted that in its explanation of the deal, but it especially emphasized the company's experimental drug Loxo-292, along with two other drugs in development.

Termed a "RET inhibitor" for the types of genetic alterations that it focuses on, Loxo-292 has promise in multiple cancer types.

The medication has received a special "breakthrough therapy" designation from the FDA for lung cancer and two types of thyroid cancer, and it could start being sold as early as 2020.

Read more:

• Here's why Bristol-Myers Squibb's record-breaking $74 billion biotech deal is facing investor backlash
• Pfizer has a new strategy for fighting cancer that could generate $5 billion a year. We got a look inside.
• A Yale scientist who pioneered a cutting-edge approach to cancer treatment is warning that the field is going off-course — and that drug giants could be making it worse

Join the conversation about this story »

Warning: This post includes major spoilers for the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" book series and the third season of the Netflix show.

• Netflix's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" hides details and Easter eggs in each episode.
• Some are references to the book series, while others are references to real things in pop culture.
• Some details are hidden in the background. 

The third season of Netflix's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is full of Easter eggs and references for viewers to catch. Like the first and second seasons, the show slips these details in through character lines and hides them in the background of scenes. 

The show is adapted by Daniel Handler, who wrote all 13 books the show is based on under the pen name "Lemony Snicket." Snicket also serves as the narrator of the Baudelaire orphans' lives. The third and final season adapts the final four books in the series: "The Slippery Slope,""The Grim Grotto,""The Penultimate Peril," and "The End." 

Here are 39 Easter eggs and references you may have missed on the third season of "A Series of Unfortunate Events," streaming on Netflix now.

Kit escapes from the Woman With Hair But No Beard and the Man With a Beard But No Hair using dragonfly wings.

Kit most likely got those wings from Beatrice, who was seen wearing them at the VFD party when Olaf pushed her off the building. We know Beatrice didn't die in the fall because she is the Baudelaires' mother, so those wings have proven to be helpful for both Beatrice and Kit. 

Olaf references Nickelback when giving his henchpeople an acting "lesson."

Nickelback is a real band, which is often considered one of the worst bands.   

Scoutmaster Brucie leads Troop 113 of the Snow Scouts.

In the books, the Scoutmaster is Carmelita's Uncle Bruce. 

Hype around artificial intelligence has never been higher — and one industry where it has a chance to make a major impact on profits is retail.

Business Insider Intelligence projects that AI will boost profitability in retail and wholesale by nearly 60% by 2035, setting off a wave of excitement and investment among companies.

The areas where AI will have its biggest impact are personalization, search and chatbots.

But as hype and misunderstanding continue to build, it’s become harder than ever to keep sight of the true disruptive potential of AI.

Find out how AI is being implemented in these three areas and how each one can impact revenue in this new FREE slide deck from Business Insider Intelligence.

In this third and final installment of the three-part Future of Retail 2018 series, Business Insider Intelligence takes a hard look at the retail use cases where AI can make an impact, explores noteworthy examples of retailers implementing the technology, and weighs the benefits of investing in AI today.

As an added bonus, you will gain immediate access to our exclusive Business Insider Intelligence Daily newsletter.

To get your copy of the third part of this FREE slide deck, simply click here.

Join the conversation about this story »

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

• The Colugo Compact Stroller weighs only 60 pounds yet can support a kid weighing as much as 55 pounds, so you can use it for years as your child grows.
• The stroller folds down with just one hand and packs away into a backpack for easy transport or storage.
• Colugo offers a 100-day, risk-free trial during which any of their products can be returned for a full refund.

Shopping for a stroller kind of... how should I put this... it kind of sucks.

There are so many options on the market these days that the process is easily overwhelming, and most halfway decent strollers cost hundreds of dollars. Your baby stroller is no place to go cheap; you'll depend on the thing during travel, shopping, outings, visits to friends and family, and as a tool to give yourself a few minutes of sanity as your child sleeps and you stroll.

Even if you have identified a trusted brand and you're ready to shell out a few hundred bucks on your new baby conveyance device, which type of stroller should you choose? An umbrella stroller? A jogger? A convertible car seat thingy? Ah, if only there was a stroller small enough for use in the city or during travel, sturdy enough for years of use with growing kids, and affordable enough to prevent sticker shock.

Ok, I set things up painfully obviously, so this is no big reveal, but guess what? There is. And if you haven't heard of it yet, that's because it's the new kid on the block.

The Colugo brand was launched by a dad named Ted Iobst who found himself entirely frustrated during the gear-shopping process when his first kid was born. It being the 21st century, shopping for things from eyeglasses to meal kits to mattresses is only supposed to take a few quick clicks, and the goods delivered are supposed to be, well, good. Ted found that the process of researching and procuring baby gear was, by and large, anything but quick or efficient, and that was especially true when it came to finding a stroller.

Like a damn fine American should, instead of complaining then rolling over and hitting the proverbial snooze button, instead Ted formed a new company dedicated to selling affordable, reliable baby gear. And with a painless, simple shopping process, too.

Colugo sells one stroller (that comes in a few different colorways), one baby carrier (same deal), and a few accessories. Pick the look you like, buy a product, and it shows up in the mail. If you're unhappy with said product for any reason, send it back within 100 days for a full refund. End of story, commerce wise.

While the Colugo lineup will expand in coming years and the backpack, carrier, and accessories are all high quality and worthy of coverage in their own right, it's the Colugo Compact Stroller that takes center stage. At $285 this Compact isn't cheap, but when you use the stroller in person, you'll quickly agree that nothing about its construction is cheap, either.

Despite weighing in at a mere 16 pounds, the stroller feels solid and handles itself well, whether deftly navigating the aisles of the grocery store or trundling down a city sidewalk. A decent-sized storage area underneath the seat can hold a diaper bag, some groceries, or the makings of a picnic lunch, while the seat itself can hold a baby six months or older, or a kid who weighs as much as 55 pounds — a size most kids don't hit until well after their fifth birthday.

But the real highlight here is how amazingly compact this stroller becomes when folded down — a process that you can complete with one hand in about two seconds, by the way.

Once collapsed, you can tuck the Colugo Compact Stroller into a backpack (which comes included) that is comfortable enough for hours of wear and that will fit in the overhead bin of an airplane, into the trunk of any car, and that won't have fellow subway or bus passengers looking askance at you as you lumber your way down an aisle.

Long story short: This ultra-compact and -lightweight stroller could well be the only stroller many families need. That's worth my $285 any day.

Buy The Compact Stroller for $285 from Colugo

Join the conversation about this story »

Many companies use the term artificial intelligence, or AI, as a way to generate excitement for their products and to present themselves as on the cutting edge of tech development.

But what exactly is artificial intelligence? What does it involve? And how will it help the development of future generations?

Find out the answers to these questions and more in AI 101, a brand new FREE report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, that describes how AI works and looks at its present and potential future applications.

To get your copy of the FREE slide deck, simply click here.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Red Lobster is no longer advertising on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, the chain told Business Insider Monday. 
• The seafood chain follows at least 19 other advertisers that have cut advertising on the show since December, including IHOP, Minted, and the jobs site Indeed. 
• The Fox News host sparked backlash recently for blaming high-earning women for "men in decline." He also said that allowing immigrants from impoverished countries to come to the US would make it “poorer and dirtier.”

Red Lobster is joining a wave of advertisers that have cut ties with conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson's show.

The chain confirmed to Business Insider on Monday that it is no longer advertising during "Tucker Carlson Tonight." This comes after critics pointed out that the seafood chain was one of the few brands that continued to advertise on the prime time opinion show after recent controversies. 

At least 19 brands have stopped advertising on the show since December. 

Read more:IHOP will no longer advertise on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show after he says immigrants are making the US 'poorer and dirtier'

A wave of backlash began last month when Carlson said in a segment that the US needed more "scientists and engineers," as the country seeks to fill automated and tech-centered jobs.

"Instead we're getting waves of people with high school educations or less. Nice people, no one doubts that, but as an economic matter this is insane. It's indefensible, so no one even tries to defend it," he said.

"Instead our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world's poor, they tell us, even if it makes our country poorer and dirtier and more divided."

More recently, the provocative host sparked backlash when he argued that high-earning women are to blame for "men in decline." He premised his argument on the generalization that women consider men who earn less than them undesirable as life partners.  

"In many areas, women suddenly made more than men. Now, before you applaud that as a victory for feminism, consider some of the effects,"he said. "Study after study has shown that when men make less than women, women generally don't want to marry them. Now maybe they should want to marry them, but they don't." 

Carlson was slammed for the comments. Critics pointed to research that shows that when women's wages increase, men and children benefit. 

In mid-December, insurance company Pacific Life was the first of the most recent wave of advertisers to come out in disagreement with Carlson, saying the company would "not be advertising on Mr. Carlson's show in the coming weeks as we reevaluate our relationship with his program."

Brands including online-design marketplace IHOP, Minted, and jobs site Indeed were among those that followed suit in cutting ties in the following days.

Read more:Advertisers are fleeing in droves after Tucker Carlson's comments about immigrants on Fox News — here's the list

Fox News did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. In December, the news organization issued a statement saying: "We cannot and will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the likes of Moveon.org, Media Matters and Sleeping Giants."

"Attempts were made last month to bully and terrorize Tucker and his family at their home. He is now once again being threatened via Twitter by far left activist groups with deeply political motives. While we do not advocate boycotts, these same groups never target other broadcasters and operate under a grossly hypocritical double standard given their intolerance to all opposing points of view."

SEE ALSO: People are saying the Tucker Carlson boycotts are a betrayal of free speech. They're wrong.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Almost 80% of the textbook industry is dominated by 5 publishing companies that make books so expensive most students skip buying them

• Companies that advertised during Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News have begun fleeing in droves following his anti-immigrant comments.
• People were outraged and threatened to boycott companies advertising on Carlson's show.
• Here are the businesses that have pulled their advertisements so far.

Companies that advertised during Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News have begun fleeing in droves following his anti-immigrant comments made in December.

During his show, the "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host expressed concern with the state of US immigration policy and immigrants' educational backgrounds. He urged more "scientists and skilled engineers" to come to the US and said that allowing immigrants from impoverished countries to come to the US would make it "poorer and dirtier."

"Instead, we're getting waves of people with high-school educations or less," he said on his show. "Nice people — no one doubts that. But as an economic matter, this is insane. It's indefensible, so nobody even tries to defend it.

"Instead, our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world's poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided."

Carlson's comments were widely rebuked, and several people threatened to boycott his advertisers, which began cutting ties.

Carlson reiterated his claims and likened the effect of the US's immigration policy to a city in Mexico.

"The left says we have a moral obligation to admit the world's poor," Carlson said, "even if it makes our own country more like Tijuana is now, which is to say poorer and dirtier and more divided."

Fox News expressed supported for its host's opinions, saying it was "a shame that left-wing advocacy groups, under the guise of being supposed 'media watchdogs' weaponize social media against companies in an effort to stifle free speech."

The company also described the advertisers' moves as "unfortunate and unnecessary distractions," and accused progressive media watchdogs with "deeply political motives" of threatening Carlson on Twitter.

"While we do not advocate boycotts, these same groups never target other broadcasters and operate under a grossly hypocritical double standard given their intolerance to all opposing points of view," Fox News said.

Here's the full list of companies that have pulled their ads from Carlson's show:

SEE ALSO: IHOP will no longer advertise on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show after he says immigrants are making the US 'poorer and dirtier'

Red Lobster

Source: Business Insider

IHOP

Source: Business Insider

Samsung

Source: Hollywood Reporter

• At least nine Democratic Congressmembers, including members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, toured the US Border Patrol facility where 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo died in December.
• The group, led by CHC Chairman Joaquín Castro and New Mexico Representative Xotchil Torres Small, were there to investigate the circumstances of the young boy's death.
• Their visit comes days before President Donald Trump is set to visit the border this week.

At least nine Democratic members of Congress visited the New Mexico border patrol facility where 8-year-old Felipe Goméz Alonzo, a Guatemalan migrant, died last month to investigate the circumstances of his death.

Led by Congressional Hispanic Caucus Joaquin Castro and New Mexico's newly-elected 2nd District Rep. Xochtil Torres Small, the members of Congress went down to the facility in Alamogordo. Torres Small told Politico that the visit was made to ensure that "another tragedy does not happen again."

Goméz Alonzo was detained on December 18 with his father at this Border Patrol facility. He was transferred to the hospital six days later, on Christmas Eve, because he was exhibiting flu-like symptoms, according to Department of Homeland Security officials. He was diagnosed with a cold and sent back to the detention center. Later that night, he was rushed again to the hospital by Border Patrol agents, where he died.

His death came less than a month after 7-year-old Jakelin Caal, another Guatemalan migrant, died under similar circumstances.

“The deaths of Felipe and Jakelin are inexcusable,” Torres Small told Politico. “Their deaths have highlighted a new reality on the border, and DHS hasn’t adapted quick enough to the changing circumstances on the border to keep children and families, agents, and our communities safe.”

Read more:Jimmy Carter slaps down Trump's claim that past presidents privately supported a border wall

NBC News reported that, during the visit, Castro said the Trump Administration's policies are exacerbating a humanitarian crisis.

“If you go into CBP processing centers or detention centers, no American would be proud," he said, referring to the way migrants are being treated there.

Castro said Border Patrol facilities at the border need the necessary supplies, staff and safety measures to secure the lives of migrants.

“We spoke to CBP officers who patrol areas that don’t have radio communication or cell phone service where they are,” Castro said.

The visit by the congressional delegation comes the same day President Donald Trump announced his own intentions to visit the southern border. No details about his trip have been announced, but Trump is expected to visit the US-Mexico border on Thursday.

The government is currently still under partial shutdown due to Trump's demands for $5.7 billion to fund his proposed border wall.

SEE ALSO: Trump will visit the southern border on Thursday amid government shutdown

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Anthony Scaramucci claims Trump isn't a nationalist: 'He likes saying that because it irks these intellectual elitists'

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

Amazon's Movers and Shakers page tracks the biggest gainers in sales ranking over the last 24 hours, providing interesting and sometimes surprising insights into what's trending among shoppers.

We previously looked at the section as a whole and beauty products to see what people were excited to buy. This time, we wanted to know about the tech gadgets people are interested in.

Generally, it looks like shoppers care about entertainment and making their tech more efficient. However, if you're more interested gaming, music, and photography, there are also some interesting and surprising products trending in those categories, too. 

See the 10 most useful tech gadgets from Amazon below. 

SEE ALSO: Jet.com is often compared to Amazon — here’s how the startup is different

A waterproof action camera

Ectreme 4K Waterproof HD Action Camera, $80

This sports action camera uses 4K ultra HD for crisp, clear images. It's waterproof up to 30 meters (98 feet), so you can take it with you to capture moments while surfing, diving, swimming, and more. There's also built-in WiFi, so you can get all of your images and videos straight to your smartphone.

A Bluetooth MP3 player

Valoin MP3 Player, $36.99

It makes sense that people are loving this budget-friendly MP3 player. It has 8 GB of memory built-in, up to 50 hours of music playback, and bluetooth connectivity — all for under $40. 

An LED monitor

HP LED Monitor (Certified Refurbished), $149.99

This monitor provides serious high definition resolution with over 2 million pixels, meaning all of your content looks noticeably sharp. The thin display allows for an ultra-wide viewing experience. Plus, these models are certified refurbished, so they look and work like new, but you can get them for less than their market price. 

• Life insurance is fundamentally hard to sell; it’s morbid to think about, promises no immediate rewards, and often requires a lengthy paper application with minimal guidance.
• Despite the popularity of personalized products in other areas of finance and fintech, life insurance largely remains unchanged.
• A small, but growing pocket of insurtech startups are shaking up the status quo by finding ways to digitize life insurance and increase its appeal.

Life insurance is a fundamentally difficult product to sell; it requires people to think about their deaths without promising any immediate returns.

And, despite tech innovations and the development of personalized services in other areas of finance, life insurance remains largely unchanged.

Luckily, there is a small but growing pocket of insurtech startups looking to modernize it. These companies are finding ways to digitize life insurance to  appeal to consumers — and they’re giving incumbents the opportunity to revamp traditional offerings, either by partnering with them or using their technology.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has forecasted the shifting landscape of life insurance in the The Future of Life Insurance report. Here are the key problems insurtechs are tackling:

• Lack of education: Forty percent of US consumers told the Life Insurance and Market Research Association (LIMRA) that they feel intimidated by the life insurance application process, often drastically overestimating its cost and facing uncertainty about how much or which type of coverage to buy.
• Inconvenient application process: It can take weeks or months for coverage to take effect because of the sheer number of meetings and parties combing through paperwork in each round of the application process. The risk for the insurer often warrants reviews from the carrier, a team of underwriters, a broker, and even a medical examiner.
• Low customer loyalty: Life insurance tends to be a “set it and forget it” type of purchase, with very few people revisiting it after buying. Insurers and consumers therefore have limited contact for most of the relationship — with the exception of an annual bill, of course.
• Inefficient data management and processing: The aggregate data life insurers rely on is typically fed into algorithms that make broad assumptions about particular populations, and often incorporate outdated medical documentation — all of which can delay applications and result in unnecessary rejections.

Want to learn more?

The need for modernization in life insurance is clear: Overall sales are slowing and policy ownership is hitting record lows. And because it’s such a tightly-regulated space, innovation from incumbents has stagnated — but they’re not helpless. Consumer-focused and insurer-focused startups have emerged to offer new technologies and process improvements.

The Future of Life Insurance report from Business Insider Intelligence looks at the two main strategies life insurtechs are adopting to drive change in this market, for the benefit of both buyers and sellers. In full, the report discusses best practices incumbents and startups should adopt to steer clear of the risks attached to applying emerging technologies to such a tightly regulated product.

Insurtech startups will soon set new industry standards and consumer expectations around this complex product. That, in turn will serve as a catalyst for innovation among legacy players.

Companies included in this report: Ladder, Haven Life, Getsurance, Tomorrow, Fabric, Atidot, AllLife, Royal London, Polly, Life.io, Legal & General, Vitality, Discovery, John Hancock, Dai-ichi Life.

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• Tidelift, founded by former Red Hat employees, announced on Monday $25 million in new funding to try to create a new business model for open source software.
• The open source industry is in the middle of great change, as some software companies make defensive moves against Amazon and other cloud providers reselling their open source software projects for a profit. 
• Tidelift helps connect software developers with the people who make open source software — the developers get better service and support, while the developers get financial support for their open source work. 

Back in the early 2000s, people would balk at the notion of using free, open source software to run a serious business — companies like Red Hat, which bet its business model on the concept, were seen as oddities. But times have changed: Open source software is key to most modern computing infrastructures. And over a decade later, IBM plans to acquire Red Hat for a colossal $34 billion.

Now, a group of former Red Hat employees have co-founded Tidelift, a startup that wants to repeat the trick and pioneer a new business model for open source software. To that end, Tidelift announced on Monday $25 million in new funding from General Catalyst, Foundry Group, and former Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik.

What Tidelift is trying to do, says Donald Fischer, co-founder and CEO of Tidelift, is connect the users of open source software directly with the people who make it.

"It only makes sense that it should be in our self-interest to pay the maintainers of [open source] software. If we don't do that, it's going to be a rough 2019. We need to set ourselves up with decades of more success," Fischer told Business Insider.

Often, open source projects are maintained by enthusiasts in their spare time as an act of altruism towards the developer community. But those maintainers often have day jobs, or otherwise don't have the time or financial resources to work on the project full-time. Open source software is always free, and free doesn't pay the bills.

This results in under-maintained open source software, says Fischer, where security holes and other bugs go unhatched in even reasonably popular projects. That, in turn, makes it harder for businesses to rely on open source software — and sometimes drives them to pricier, but better-supported, commercial products from the likes of Oracle or Microsoft. 

That's where Tidelift comes in, says Fischer. If you're a development team using open source software, you can subscribe to Tidelift. Your subscription fee gets disbursed to the maintainers of the open source projects you're using — provided those maintainers themselves have signed up for Tidelift. In return, those maintainers provide Tidelift subscribers with the tech support and fixes they need to put open source to work. 

"We observed that there's a two-sided marketplace at work around open source software," Fischer said. "There's various individuals and teams creating software for different reasons. There's been a missed opportunity where organizations consuming that software would be interested in paying for additional assurances, and many people who would be interested in getting paid for those services."

'Cracks' in the open source business

The founders of Tidelift have been working together in open source for the last 20 years, including at Red Hat.  Fischer recalls that with IBM announced it would acquire Red Hat, it was "both gratifying and a little saddening."

The new funding comes after a tumultuous year in open source, which brought the industry's traditional business model under fresh scrutiny. 

"It was sort of an amazing year for open source. At the same time, there are cracks forming around open source," said Fischer. 

Open source companies like Elastic went public, while high-profile companies in the space like GitHub and Red Hat navigated to big-money acquisitions.

The traditional open source business model is called "open core"— companies like MongoDB, Elastic, and even Red Hat offer free, open source software that anyone can download and use as they wish. They make their money by charging for tech support and extra features that make the software more suitable for businesses. 

The rise of cloud computing has thrown an interesting wrinkle in that formula: Cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure take the free open source software created by the open source community, package it up into a paid service, and offer it to their own customers for a profit. It's all perfectly legal, but it's sparked some backlash from smaller open source companies, which have been making defensive moves against the practice.

Read more: After Amazon’s cloud encroaches on its turf, a startup is taking a stand: Open source can’t be ‘free and unsustainable R&D’ for tech giants

Tidelift believes that its subscription solution can thread that needle, offering a way for open source developers to make money without having to worry about a major cloud platform — or anybody else — eating your lunch. 

The Tidelift solution

From Fischer's perspective, it's crucial that maintainers get the financial support to continue their open source work.  With the funding, Tidelift plans to expand its coverage and bring more open source projects into the fold, at a time when it sees good open source maintenance as more vital than ever.

Back in November, the world got an object lesson in the value of good open source maintenance when an open-source Javascript package called "event-stream," with over 100 million downloads a year and used by the BBC and Microsoft, was found to have bitcoin-stealing malware that was snuck in by a malicious third party. 

While things don't always get that dramatic, Fischer says that a Tidelift subscription can give developers peace of mind that their open source software is getting timely updates and security fixes. That's something that you just don't get if you download open source software from the internet and just get started using it.

"Open source software hasn't traditionally come with those guarantees," Fischer said. "It does come with the guarantee that you can make a copy of it. Just because you can make a copy and download it from GitHub doesn't mean anyone's ready to keep it working and keeping it well-maintained."

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NOW WATCH: 7 things you shouldn't buy on Black Friday

• Apple has a big — and misleading — ad on display in Las Vegas during this year's CES convention.
• The ad states, "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone."
• The ad is literally untrue; much of what users do on their iPhones and the data they generate doesn't stay on their devices.
• IPhones leak data to wireless carriers, websites, app developers — and to Apple's own servers and services.
• Apple benefits directly and indirectly from the information that can be gleaned off of users' iPhones.

Give me a break, Apple.

That's a cute ad you have in Las Vegas for the CES tech convention. "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone" is both a good dig at your rivals and a clever restating of Sin City's popular catch phrase.

But it's literally a lie. What happens on customers' iPhones doesn't stay on them — and you know it.

All kinds of data leaks off of iPhones, much of it with user permission to the numerous software developers who offer the apps that make your devices so useful. But plenty of it also goes to your own servers and services. That's something you both encourage and make money off of — in some cases in ways that aren't all that different from the companies your ad is implicitly deriding.

Read this: Apple trolled Google with a massive billboard at the world's biggest tech show, which it's not even attending

Paul Manafort knows what's on iPhones doesn't stay there

To cite one prominent example of how data on iPhones doesn't actually stay on them, take the case of Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign manager who was recently convicted of multiple federal crimes. Part of what got him in trouble were some WhatsApp messages he sent from his iPhone.

That may seem strange at first. WhatsApp is renowned for offering a secure messaging service with end-to-end encryption, which blocks anyone but the sending and receiving parties from reading messages. iPhones are also renowned for their own security — and everything stays on an iPhone, right?

Wrong. Manafort backed up his WhatsApp messages to your iCloud service, a common practice. What he apparently didn't realize is those backups aren't secure, that you have the keys to them and can access them when federal prosecutors ask you to.

Other companies do the same thing, of course. Businesses are legally obliged to hand over customer information when they receive a subpoena from law enforcement (unless they choose to legally challenge the subpoena, as Apple and others do from time to time). 

Manafort's case may also be the one of the more extreme, and justified, examples of how the things people do on their iPhones don't actually stay on them. But it's certainly not an isolated one.

iPhones regularly leak all kinds of information

Even at a very basic level, iPhones leak information. It's not a bad thing, it's just the nature of phones and networked computers. When users make a call or access the internet, they are providing information via the cell towers or wireless routers they are connecting through to carriers or website operators about where they are and, in many cases, who they are connecting with. That kind of metadata absolutely doesn't stay on users' iPhones.

But you as a company also get all kinds of data off iPhones. Your Maps app and its real-time traffic conditions service relies on data you glean from iPhone users. Many iPhones are customized to automatically send you diagnostic and other data, so you can identify bugs in your operating system. When iPhone users asks questions of Siri, their devices submit those queries to your servers, and you use that information to get a better idea of the kind of information users are looking for.

You've made a big deal about how the iPhone has built-in encryption and advanced authentication technology, such as your Face ID facial recognition system, to protect the data stored on users' devices. And for the most part, the iPhone's built in security technology is pretty robust.

But as the Manafort case illustrates, the locks you've put on people's devices are irrelevant when you've left open a huge back door in the form of your iCloud service.

iCloud is a big back door to users' iPhones

It used to be that most customers backed up their phones to their home computers via your iTunes software, assuming they backed them up at all. Now, the default is to back up to iCloud — something you've been pushing customers to do. It's true that the iCloud backup service is a lot easier and user friendly than iTunes. But you make money off it; you charge customers who want more than the pittance of storage you offer.

All that data — including sensitive things like chat and email messages — is copied to your computers through iCloud. While your policy may be to not access user data, it's factually incorrect to claim that the data "stays" on a customer's iPhone.

It's a particularly dangerous illusion to perpetuate for people who may not be technically savvy enough to know any better and who are foolish enough to take you at your word. 

Just look at what happened to Jennifer Lawrence. 

Like many people, Lawrence used your iClould Photos service, which stores on your servers the pictures users take on their iPhones. The service is great; I use it to backup all my digital photos and to access them on my numerous Apple devices.

The downside of iCloud Photos, though, is that photos are no longer just on users' devices, and they too can leak out. That's something that Lawrence and several other celebrities found out to their dismay several years ago when malicious actors were able to figure out their iCloud passwords, gain access to their photo libraries, and post on the public web some of the risque pictures they found there.

Apple benefits from Google searches and Facebook's app

In recent years, as your iPhone sales have started to stagnate and even fall, you've been touting your services business. According to analysts, one of the biggest and most profitable money makers in that business is your deal with Google. That deal ensures that Google is the default search engine in the iPhone's Safari web browser, a position which ends up sending likely billions of search requests to the company every year.

That's a significant data leak in and of itself; Google uses those searches to glean lots of information about iPhone users and to precisely target them with ads. That's the core of Google's business — a business you implicitly are deriding in your ad — and you help enable it for a huge chunk of change. How exactly are you better than Google, again?

Besides Google, the other big target of your pro-privacy campaign has been Facebook. But users must have a device of some kind to access Facebook. Most of them these days get to the service using their phones, and in the United States and many other countries, a large portion of those mobile users are getting to Facebook via their iPhones. Another way of saying that is that what users do on Facebook on their iPhone isn't staying on their iPhones.

Sure, you're not collecting the data. But you benefit from Facebook's app being available for the iPhone and, indirectly, from the data it collects. After all, Facebook's app has long been one of the most popular apps in the iPhone App Store. It's quite possible that if it weren't available for the iPhone at all or only offered a fraction of the features as the Android version — features, after all, that are often enabled or powered by the data Facebook collects — a significant portion of your user base would buy an Android phone instead.

But it's not just Facebook's app that leaks data off of users' iPhones. A huge portion of apps in your store do that. And you know that, because you designed iOS, the operating system underlying the iPhone, to do just that. You built in hooks that allow developers to access and use all kinds of information off users' phones, including their location, their photos, their contacts in their address books, even their health and fitness information.

Yes, there are good reasons to allow that access. And you do offer some relatively good settings in iOS to give users some measure of control over who has access to that information and how it's used. But it's absolutely false to suggest to users that such information stays on their device.

iPhone apps are finely tracking users' locations

What's more, even with the tools you offer, users still sometimes have little control or even knowledge of how data collected from their iPhones is being used. In a report last month, the New York Times found dozens of companies that collect consumers' location data via their mobile phones, including iPhones. Although the data was collected anonymously, the companies' databases often contained enough information about the comings and goings of particular phones to identify individuals and their patterns of behavior.

What's more, the report found that at least some affected consumers were unaware that their location information was being used for purposes other than the explicit features of the apps that gleaned it. Some were also unaware that, in many cases, their location information — such as what stores they visited — was being sold or passed along to other companies, including hedge funds.

Look, Apple, I appreciate your commitment to privacy. As a consumer, one of the things I like about being a customer of yours is that your business isn't dependent on tracking my every move so that you can sell ads. I understand and appreciate that you make efforts to anonymize the data I and other users send to you. I also like the fact that in many cases you have given me choices about what data I share and with whom.

But iPhones aren't closed boxes. Much that happens on them — sometimes all of it — definitely doesn't stay on them. And to suggest that it does is dishonest and a disservice to your customers.

• Read more about Apple:
• Longtime Apple analyst Gene Munster thinks the company should be valued less like a tech company and more like Coca-Cola. Here's why that could be good for shareholders.
• Longtime Apple analyst Gene Munster thinks the iPhone maker will reclaim its crown as the best tech stock in 2019. Here's why.
• These 5 charts show why Apple's big bet on services just doesn't make any sense
• Apple fans are betting the booming 'services' business will take the sting out of an iPhone slowdown — here's why they might get a painful surprise

SEE ALSO: Hey Tim Cook, there's a simple solution to your iPhone sales problem

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• Google's massive 18,000 square foot booth at CES 2019 will include a ride similar to Disney's “It’s a Small World,” according to reports. 
• The ride will showcase different ways to use the Google Assistant. 
• "By hopping aboard the ride, attendees experience how the Assistant can be helpful in the face of life's twists and turns," a Google spokesman said.
• Google also announced that there are almost one billion devices running the Google Assistant. 

At only its second official appearance, Google is determined to win this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the largest tech trade event on the planet. 

Google's booth will include a ride similar to Disney's “It’s a Small World,” showcasing different ways to use the Google Assistant — its AI-powered rival to Amazon Alexa and Apple's Siri. 

"By hopping aboard the ride, attendees experience how the Assistant can be helpful in the face of life's twists and turns — at home, in the car, and on-the-go, by following the day in the life of a small family," a Google spokesperson told Business Insider. 

Ahead of CES' official opening on Tuesday, Google also announced that there are now almost a billion devices running the Google Assistant. 

Google hinted at the ride in a tweet earlier today:

Google's CES ride was reported earlier on Monday by Marketwatch.

Read more: Here's all the major tech we're expecting at CES 2019, the biggest tech convention of the year

Last year, Google set up a "playground" for CES attendees, equipped with a blue swirly slide and giant gumball machine that gave away prizes like Google Home devices and Nest security cameras. After rainstorms on opening day, however, the massive Google booth flooded and had to be bailed out before reopening. 

The company's massive 18,000 square foot space this year will be three times larger than its set-up in 2018. This year, the ride will be reportedly be protected by a roof in case the weather turns. 

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NOW WATCH: China made an artificial star that's 6 times as hot as the sun, and it could be the future of energy

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Regtech solutions seemed to offer the solution to financial institutions' (FIs) compliance woes when they first came to prominence around 24 months ago, gaining support from regulators and investors alike. 

However, many of the companies offering these solutions haven't scaled as might have been expected from the initial hype, and have failed to follow the trajectory of firms in other segments of fintech.

This unexpected inertia in the regtech industry is likely to resolve over the next 12-18 months as other factors come into play that shift FIs' approach to regtech solutions, and as the companies offering them evolve. External factors driving this change include regulatory support of regtech solutions, and consultancies offering more help to FIs wanting to sift through solutions. Startups offering regtech solutions will also play a part by partnering with each other, forming industry organizations, and taking advantage of new opportunities.

This report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, provides a brief overview of the current global financial regulatory compliance landscape, and the regtech industry's position within it. It then details the major drivers that will shift the dial on FIs' adoption of regtech over the next 12-18 months, as well as those that will propel startups offering regtech solutions to new heights. Finally, it outlines what impact these drivers will have, and gives insight into what the global regtech industry will look like by 2020.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Regulatory compliance is still a significant issue faced by global FIs. In 2018 alone, EU regulations MiFID II and PSD2 have come into effect, bringing with them huge handbooks and gigantic reporting requirements. 
• Regtech startups boast solutions that can ease FIs' compliance burden — but they are struggling to scale. 
• Some changes expected to drive greater adoption of these solutions in the next 12 to 18 months are: the ongoing evolution of startups' business models, increasing numbers of partnerships, regulators' promotion of regtech, changing attitudes to the segment among FIs, and consultancies helping to facilitate adoption.
• FIs will actively be using solutions from regtech startups by 2020, and startups will be collaborating in an organized fashion with each other and with FIs. Global regulators will have adopted regtech themselves, while continuing to act as advocates for the industry.

In full, the report:

• Reviews the major changes expected to hit the regtech segment in the next 12 to 18 months.
• Examines the drivers behind these changes, and how the proliferation of regtech will improve compliance for FIs.
• Provides our view on what the future of the regtech industry looks like through 2020.
  Get The Regtech Revisited Report
  

   

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• A new device named the "BreadBot" is said to have a staggering bread production capability: six loaves per hour, and nearly 250 per day, with barely any human intervention, according to the company behind it.
• Unless you're feeding hundreds of people, the BreadBot probably isn't for you — it's aimed at disrupting the supermarket bread model.
• The company behind the BreadBot, Wilkinson Baking Company, debuted the device on Sunday at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Fresh bread, as we all know, is delicious.

But what's even better than fresh bread? Loaves of bread produced magically by a robot, over and over, every six minutes. The only input required: Maintaining a steady supply of flour, yeast, and water.

This is the promise of the "BreadBot"— a newly unveiled creation from Wilkinson Baking Company, which debuted this past weekend ahead of the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 

As you might suspect, the BreadBot isn't for the casual home baker. Here's how it works:

SEE ALSO: Samsung's absurd 219-inch TV takes up an entire wall — thus its name, 'The Wall'

First, some numbers — here's what BreadBot can do:

The BreadBot is an all-in-one, automated solution for bread production. It's intended to automate the process of baking fresh bread, and to keep it going all day. 

To that end, the BreadBot can purportedly produce 10 loaves of fresh bread every hour, with about 90 minutes of start time required before the first fresh loaf comes out.

With a 30 minute rest (for cleaning) and the occasional ingredient re-supply, Wilkinson Baking Company estimates BreadBot's production capacity at approximately 235 loaves of fresh bread every day.

That's a serious amount of bread!

Loaves are deposited into what is essentially a large vending machine, albeit one full of fresh loaves of bread.

After bread is mixed, kneaded, proofed, and baked, it's sent to the final holding area where customers can walk up and select fresh bread by hand.

It wouldn't be a modern piece of tech without a touchscreen, and BreadBot is no slouch in this regard. A touchscreen display offers detailed information about each loaf, including how fresh it is and what type of bread it is.

In one example given, customers can grab loaves of bread directly from the machine:

• Intel's Mobileye has joined with Ordnance Survey, Britain's national mapping agency.
• Mobileye and Ordnance Survey will combine geospatial maps of the island nation with Mobileye's self-driving data.
• The results will be extremely detailed maps that can be used by clients such as utilities and telecommunications firms.

On Monday, Mobileye chose CES in Las Vegas to announce a partnership in Great Britain. 

Characterizing the deal as an "agreement to bring high-precision location data to UK agencies and businesses," Mobileye demonstrated how the huge amounts of data collected by self-driving technologies can be applied to unexpected challenges.

The partnership is between Mobileye, an Israel-based startup acquired by Intel in 2017, and Ordnance Survey, a British government agency that has been around since 1745 and has responsibility for detailed mapping of the island nation.

"The deal demonstrates the utility of mapping innovation beyond future autonomous vehicles," Mobileye said in a statement.

"It is a prime example of how Mobileye's unique mapping capabilities can extend the value of location data to businesses in new market segments, such as smart cities. The key lies in making such data available to businesses and governments in a way that is anonymized for privacy."

Read more: Waymo, Cruise, Mobileye, and Tesla are all tackling self-driving cars in different ways — here's the breakdown

As various business models develop around self-driving vehicles, companies have begun to realize that the data they gather could be as valuable as operating autonomous taxi or delivery services — and maybe more so. The data has become a new commodity that can be refined in ways that are useful.

In the case of the Mobileye-Ordnance partnership, maps of extreme precision can be created and offered to customers such as utilities and telecoms; these clients need to know exactly where underground and above-ground infrastructure overlap. 

"They've never had high-level-enough, above-ground maps, relative to what's underground,"Jack Weast, a Mobileye vice-president, told Business Insider.

He added that the partnership opens up new lines of revenue and provides a means to make money off data being captured by vehicles equipped with Mobileye tech.

The deal goes beyond monetization, however. Ultimately, Mobileye and Intel want to create a better urban experience and improve safety.

"Using maps to improve operations between businesses and cities will help bring us closer to the realization of smart cities and safer roads," Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua said in a statement.

SEE ALSO: The 11 coolest cars we can't wait to see at CES

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