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A Yale psychologist asked people to give strangers electric shocks and the results were largely disturbing

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experimenter sarsgaard and rider couch tv

Each of us is programmed to obey authority, even if that authority commands us to do evil.

That was the controversial finding of a series of psychological experiments done in the 1960s, now known collectively as the Milgram Experiment. While Milgram watched from afar, one of his assistants, dressed up in a light grey lab coat, asked people who'd volunteered for the experiment to quiz a complete stranger. Each time the stranger got a wrong answer, the quizzer was told to shock them with an increasing amount of electricity.

A new film called "Experimenter," which premieres Friday, explores Milgram's now-famous work. But it also sheds light on some crucial parts of the experiment that Milgram ignored.

And those missing parts tell another story about human nature that's more complex than the one Milgram chose to tell.

The experiment

As the film shows, even when the person getting shocked shouted out in pain, the people giving the shocks continued to deliver them — just as they were told to do.

But some people didn't go through with it. They refused and left.

And many others paused, hesitated, or protested before they carried out their orders. That's a crucial part of the experiment that Milgram left out, according to dozens of psychologists who've since critiqued Milgram's work.

experimenter

Because while many people did simply follow orders — even when what they were doing appeared to be causing direct harm to an innocent stranger — many people did not. Across the studies as a whole, in fact, a majority of participants chose not to see the experiment through to the end. They objected and flat-out refused, contrary to their orders.

Psychologists are by no means unified on what the actions of those objectors mean for the experiment as a whole. But they have some ideas.

For one thing, it’s possible that what ultimately drove people to either go through with the experiment or not wasn't whether they felt the experiment was right or wrong, per se, but which side of it they identified with more strongly. Did they identify with the person giving them the orders, the “cause” of the experiment itself, or did they identify with the person getting shocked, the random sufferer?

experimenter shock

"The Milgram studies seem to be less about people blindly conforming to orders than about getting people to believe in the importance of what they are doing," writes Alex Haslam, a psychology professor at the University of Queensland in Australia and co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Social Issues which focuses on Milgram's legacy.

"Considerable anguish"

For another, the decision is by no means an easy one for any of the participants.

"They are torn between two voices confronting them with irreconcilable moral imperatives, and the fact that they have to choose between them is a source of considerable anguish," Haslam writes.

Before they decide to either continue with the shocks or refuse, the participants get incredibly tense, as the film captures well:

experimenter sweating

But even though most of them resist at first, especially when the lab assistant says, "The experiment requires that you continue," many stop altogether, in particular when he says, "You have no other choice, you must go on."

Here's Haslam describing the situation the participants went through in detail in his paper:

"They sweat, they laugh, they try to talk and argue their way out of the situation. But the experimental set-up does not allow them to do so. Ultimately, they tend to go along with the Experimenter if he justifies their actions in terms of the scientific benefits of the study (as he does with the prod "The experiment requires that you continue"). But if he gives them a direct order ("You have no other choice, you must go on") participants typically refuse."

During his first sets of experiments, carried out in a tiny room at Yale, almost all of the subjects carried out the shocks from start to finish — despite the sounds of pain from the person they were shocking (which they later found out were prerecorded and played as part of the experimental hoax.)

But in later iterations of those experiments, where Milgram and his team played with the setting of the lab by making it seem less official (i.e. changing the setting of the office from a neat office at Yale to a room in a decrepit building on the periphery of the city), the results were much more varied. Rather than 100% of the participants completing the experiment from start to finish, close to no one did. Everyone who had been asked to administer the shocks protested, gave up, or simply refused to continue.

So no, not everyone Milgram subjected to his experiment simply give into following directions, even when those directions were clearly causing an innocent person harm.

Instead, most of them put up a fight, and many deserted.

SEE ALSO: A Stanford professor asked 24 volunteers to spend 2 weeks in prison and the results were catastrophic

DON'T MISS: A single gene has been linked with being a psychopath — and it’s very controversial

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‘Homeland’ paid artists to graffiti the set but didn’t notice they were actually criticizing the show

Jay Z's visit to Samsung could hint at the future of Tidal

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Jay Z

Rapper and music mogul Jay Z has stirred up some commotion in Silicon Valley after he was spotted leaving Samsung's offices this week.

Jay Z, who co-owns the music-streaming service, Tidal, reportedly met with executives at the offices of Samsung Research America, Variety reports.

The tech company's content strategy division is also housed there, according to the entertainment industry trade magazine.

While it is unclear why Jay Z was at Samsung or what, if anything, the millionaire mogul and the tech giant might be cooking up, it has prompted whispers about a potential deal between the two.

Samsung has a flailing content-streaming platform called Milk Video that's about to shut down next month. And Samsung's supposed "Spotify-killer," Milk Music, has also fallen on hard times.

Tidal has had its own challenges since it launched earlier this year. Several high-level executives have come and gone, the company was hit with a $50 million lawsuit, and the streaming service has been lambasted by critics and some artists.

Jay Z himself has clapped back at naysayers both during performances and on social media, suggesting he has no intention to give up on Tidal.

According to people familiar with Jay Z's Samsung visit who were cited by Variety, Jay Z reportedly met with the company's SVP of content and services — Daren Tsui — who is also responsible for Milk Music.

Rumblings of a potential Tidal shakeup began this past summer, but indications from inside the company have suggested Tidal was staying its course. Madonna, who is a co-owner, said in an interview with the Associated Press in July: "It's just the beginning, so we're working out a lot of kinks ... we're going to build something unique and amazing that's going to attract a lot of people."

We have reached out to Tidal and Samsung for comment. We'll update this post when we learn more.

SEE ALSO: Jay Z forgot that he owns music-streaming service Tidal

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This chart shows how good Netflix is at making shows compared to TV networks (NFLX)

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reed hastings netflix ceoSince Netflix dove into original content in 2013, it has artfully spread the legend of its own data advantage.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has called Netflix a data machine, one that crunches every second of Netflix you have ever watched, and then crafts TV shows exactly the way you want them.

That’s one reason Netflix doesn’t need pilots, the story goes — it just knows what will be a hit.

This thinking has recently been questioned by Wall Street analysts, who don’t buy that Netflix is any better at picking shows than traditional networks.

“Netflix is like any other network, with hits and misses, and we do not expect its data advantage to provide it with a better batting average,” analysts from Morgan Stanley wrote in a note.

But is that true?

Exstreamist’s Rob Toledo looked at data from the show reviews website Rotten Tomatoes, from 2013 to present, to see how Netflix stacked up against more established players.

Here is what he found:

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The king of content picking, at least in terms of quality, is HBO by a wide margin. But Netflix sits considerably higher than the major networks. Floundering NBC, which has had well-documented troubles picking hit shows in recent years, is particularly far behind.

Of course, Netflix has much different constraints on its production compared to major networks. And, like HBO, it doesn’t have to worry about not being able to sell advertising space next to a controversial show.

But it's also important to note that Netflix has only been producing original content since 2013. It is a young player in this market, and this chart shows just how much success it has already found.

SEE ALSO: Netflix subscribers want it to become HBO on steroids

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If Taylor Swift hadn't become a major pop star, she says she would've had a career in marketing

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Taylor Swift

If Taylor Swift wasn't busy writing you catchy pop songs, she'd be busy writing you marketing copy, the singer told GQ for its November cover story.

GQ's Chuck Klosterman asked Swift about a ton of things, including what she'd be doing if she wasn't famous.

Swift replied that she'd be doing something with words, and noted that she wrote a book when she was 14 titled "A Girl Named Girl." She also thinks she'd be in marketing if she was just a normal 25-year-old.

"I would still be involved with music in my spare time," Swift told Klosterman. "But I would have gone to college, and I would probably be involved with a form of business where words and ideas are at the forefront. Such as marketing."

SEE ALSO: Taylor Swift strongly suggests her smash hit 'Bad Blood' isn't about Katy Perry

MORE: This guy tricked the internet into helping him meet Taylor Swift in person

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The utopian future of 'Star Trek' doesn't work without extreme inequality and some slavery

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Star Trek Enterprise

The 10th edition of New York Comic Con boldly went where no one has gone before by hosting a panel discussion on the economic issues of "Star Trek."

Held Sunday, October 11, "The Amazing Economics of Star Trek" panel examined the concepts of scarcity and post-scarcity as portrayed in the classic science-fiction franchise.

The physics and political and religious themes of "Trek" have already been tackled in books, but not the universe's economic aspects.

The main talking point in the panel was whether or not the post-scarcity universe of "Trek" is as Utopian as it's portrayed on TV and in film.

The panel consisted of "Trek" writer Chris Black; Manu Saadia, author of the book "Trekonomics"; Annalee Newitz, founding editor of the culture site io9; moderator Felix Salmon, of Fusion; Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist; and Brad DeLong, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

"Star Trek" is a sci-fi universe with a positive outlook of Earth's future. The United Federation of Planets uses its Starfleet armada of spaceships for humanitarian and peace-keeping missions. Many of the storylines are allegories of contemporary culture.

Some of the main talking points were the portrayals of scarcity and post-scarcity in "Trek," whether or not the concept of economics makes sense in "Trek," and whether or not a post-scarcity society is Utopian.

"Gene Roddenberry tried to paint our future," said DeLong, noting that we've gone far down that road. "We're now, in fact, approaching post-scarcity in food and products."

But as Newitz pointed out, because "Trek" is a future where money no longer exists, people work because they want to but are therefore supported by other economies. To prove her point, she cited as an example "Measure of a Man," an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that centered on the character of Lt. Cmdr. Data, an android.

Even though Data is a crewmember of the starship "Enterprise," unlike his fellow crewmates, he's a robot. But does that make him a person or Starfleet property?

"We're constantly being reminded that slavery and low wages support the comfortable, 'Enterprise' living," Newitz said.

Krugman said that the replicator machines in "Trek" can make objects appear out of thin air, but there's a difference between goods and services. This is especially true when, currently, people use 30% of goods but 70% of services.

And if that's the case, then something — or someone — else is going to have to be put to work.

paul krugman"The replicators can't help with that," he said. "The actual issue is to tell the difference between servitors and slaves."

In fact, the meritocracy of "Trek" was even compared to academia.

"The world of meritocracy and academia is very harsh," said Saadia. "What you see on the show are the 1%. You barely see the other side."

The 1%, in this case, would be the Starfleet officers, who live lives of abundance and work hard for their reputations. But does this mean that the 99% are happy?

"I look at it more through the lens of writing for a show," said Black. "These 1% are at the top of their game. Starfleet officers ... are very collaborative, which immediately took 95% of the drama out of the show."

And because of that, any conflict had to be external.

Salmon, the panel's moderator, pointed out that in 2016, "Star Trek" will turn 50 and Thomas More's book "Utopia" will turn 500. He then asked the panel if there is anything Utopian about "Trek."

"We are problem-solving, puzzle-solving, status-seeking creatures," DeLong said.

Krugman responded by saying: "People have an amazing ability to be unhappy. The problem with Utopia is not the lack of scarcity — it's people."

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Bernie Sanders danced to 'Disco Inferno' during his Ellen DeGeneres interview

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bernie sanders ellen

Presidential candidate and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) shed his gruff exterior to do a little dancing while walking onto Thursday's set of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

The song playing as Sanders did some dance moves: The Trammps's ​"Disco Inferno," with its signature "burn, baby, burn" chorus.

"You came out here dancing, Bernie! That's fantastic. That's wonderful," DeGeneres told him.

"And thank you for the very positive energy you provide to the American people," Sanders replied.

They then discussed issues like income inequality, campaign-finance reform, and Sanders' defense of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during Tuesday's presidential debate. (Clinton herself did a little dancing on DeGeneres' show last month.)

Here's a GIF of Sanders:

bernie sanders dancing

 And here's his interview:

 

SEE ALSO: 'Why keep going?': Wolf Blitzer had a brutal interview with a third-tier presidential candidate

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Ryan Murphy was supposed to make 'Orange Is the New Black' but he blew the opportunity

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How different would "Orange Is the New Black" have been if Ryan Murphy produced it? That was a very real possibility.

Apparently, the "American Horror Story" co-creator originally owned the rights to Piper Kerman's memoir before the Netflix show's current creator, Jenji Kohan.

"I just could never figure out how to do it," Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter. "And then the option lapsed, and it became this great big thing …"

What brought the producer and writer to admit to such a loss?

Orange Is The New BlackIn the THR cover interview, Murphy recounted the 2008 FX pilot that never got made, "Pretty/Handsome," which told the story of a married man's gender transition. It, of course, sounds very much like the hit series from Amazon, "Transparent."

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life because I thought the story was so beautiful, just like I think [Amazon's] 'Transparent' is beautiful," he said. "And then I get a call from John Landgraf: 'It's not going.' "

Landgraf, FX's president and GM, said that the show needed more nudity than the network would have been able to air.

Well, clearly, "OITNB" ended up where it needed to land. And Murphy is making the kinds of shows he's excels at: Fox's "Scream Queens," FX's "American Horror Story: Hotel," and the upcoming "American Crime Story: The People Vs. O.J. Simpson.

SEE ALSO: Here's how 'Scream Queens' gets around Lea Michele and Ariana Grande's refusal to scream

MORE: Meet TV's new 'It' girl Emma Roberts — she's Hollywood royalty who plays a nightmare sorority girl on Fox's 'Scream Queens'

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Robert Redford explains why Hollywood has stopped making dramatic movies

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Robert Redford Dimitrios Kambouris Getty

Robert Redford has never been shy about speaking his mind, whether the topic is politics, the environment, or the state of the movie industry.

Although the actor still shows up occasionally in the big-budget Hollywood movie — most recently "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" — for the most part he has been dedicated to helping filmmakers tell important stories that the Hollywood system won't touch.

Redford created the Sundance Film Festival, which has become the preeminent American film festival for independent filmmakers. He also stars in works by burgeoning talents.

His latest role in the movie "Truth" is a perfect example. In it, Redford plays Dan Rather during his controversial "60 Minutes" report on President George W. Bush's military record, which led to Rather stepping down as the anchor of "CBS Evening News."

Truth5 Lisa Tomasetti Sony Pictures Classics

Directed by first-time filmmaker James Vanderbilt — known best for his screenplays "Zodiac" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" — the independently financed movie, which also stars Cate Blanchett, is one that a studio would have nothing to do with now.

But in the 1970s, studios weren't shy to do button-pushing dramas. Redford starred in a few of them, like "Three Days of the Condor" and "All the President's Men."

Washington Post All The President's Men
What happened?

"Through the '60s and '70s, I enjoyed being able to do a large film and also at the same banner do a small film that I wanted to make," Redford told Business Insider during a press day for "Truth."

"I was very happy to do a larger film — either it was something that I liked or the larger films were good. But something changed in 1980. Hollywood became centralized and [the studios] were going to follow the youth market because that's where the money was. They weren't going to make these films that were more humanistic in nature and that's what made me want to start Sundance, to keep that alive."

Movies like "Jaws" and "Star Wars" made Hollywood completely change how it looked at the business. With "The Empire Strikes Back," and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" on the horizon, the modestly budgeted drama would no longer have a place at the studio level.

Today, dramas at studios are mostly extinct — outside of a story that has awards-bait and a major star attached — with the focus firmly on big-budget blockbusters and, most recently, comic-book adaptations.

To Redford, it's simple.

"They're following the money," he said.

"Truth" opens in select theaters Friday.

SEE ALSO: Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle reveal how they made 'Steve Jobs'

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We spoke with the astronomers who discovered the 'alien' megastructure to find out if it's fact or fiction

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star explosion, supernova

The award for strangest star in the universe just went to KIC 8462852.

And while someare saying that this star could be harboring a giant structure built by an advanced alien civilization, the scientists behind the hype are saying otherwise.

Business Insider recently spoke with two of these astronomers to find out what's really going on and if this structure really is proof of alien intelligence or a complete hoax. 

For some background: A postdoctoral graduate at Yale, Tabby Boyajian, and Penn State astronomer Jason Wright, recently discovered a bizarre and mysteriously giant structure orbiting the star that's unlike anything they've ever seen.

And now they're doing what scientists do best: weighing all of the possible explanations until more data comes in that can rule out the wrong reasons in favor of the right one.

Right now, there are many options on the table, including a giant swarm of comets, left-over chunks from a broken-up planet, and last but certainly not least an alien-built megastructure. But we won't know for sure until more data is collected.

Is it aliens?

As Penn State astronomer Kimberly Cartier told Business Insider about the coverage: "It's gotten a bit out of hand." What's more, she said that the probability of this exciting, yet wildly confusing, observation being aliens is "very low."

She also emphasized: "Just to clarify, neither [my colleague] Jason [Wright] or myself ... are advocating that it is an alien megastructure, but we also can't completely rule it out."

Aliens Cartier works with Wright who is spearheading the search for these megastructures as a way to enhance the SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) project. The two collaborated on a scientific paper about how to go about finding these structures back in 2009.

Moreover, Wright recently blogged about his work with KIC 8462852.

His post does an excellent job of presenting the data in a straight-forward, non-hyped way. But as he recently told Atlantic reporter Ross Andersen, "Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider, but this looked like something you would expect an alien civilization to build."

We asked Wright how he felt about the hype his quote has since spawned.

"I think the star is really inexplicable, but I would put the probability that [aliens] is what it is as very low."

What's really going on

Right now, the only scientific information astronomers have for star KIC 8462852 is its light curves, which is an estimate of how much light Earth receives from the star over a given period of time.

Arecibo_Observatory_Aerial_ViewThese light curves reveal that something giant, about half the width of the star, is blocking the light but in bizarre bursts that are anything but periodic. If the obstruction were a planet eclipsing the star, it would block the light with a predictable pattern as the planet orbited the star.

But "the eclipses have very strange shapes in the sense that whatever is blocking it is not a circular object," Wright told Business Insider. "And there's lots of them — lots of things blocking the star. When you put all that together, there's nothing like that [anywhere else] in the sky. It's unique and very very strange."

These light curves were first collected by a post doctoral fellow at Yale, Tabby Boyajian. After Boyajian presented them at Penn State, Wright took an immediate interest and soon after contacted Andrew Siemion, who works at the Berkeley SETI Research Center. The two submitted a telescope proposal to study the star in more detail that is still pending.

What wright would like to do next is take what are called spectra of the star. Spectra are a critical tool in astronomy that allows researchers to essentially take a chemical fingerprint of an object that tells them what it's made of.

"I want to see spectra when its dim and spectra when its bright and compare the two," Wright said. "And the difference should tell us what the light is passing through and tell us whatever is blocking it, what that's made of. That will be very diagnostic."

Is Earth doomed?

In the mean time, as we wait for Wright and Siemion to collect more information, it is worth addressing the possibility that if (and that's a very big if) this structure were made by an alien civilization, is Earth doomed?

AsteroidTo that, Cartier said absolutely not.

If the structure were artificial, it would be what Cartier and Wright describe as a Dyson sphere, which is a type of energy generating device and was first described by theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson in a 1960 paper in Science.

"The structure itself is not meant to support life, Cartier told Business Insider. "It's something called a Dyson sphere, which is essentially a large porous series of solar panels ... that's meant to capture some of the starlight and convert it into usable energy for a civilization that's orbiting farther out in a region that would be more habitable."

While constructing a Dyson sphere would require a tremendous amount of resources, it does not take technology that is vastly advanced to our own to build. That means, these potential alien beings have not likely invented warp drives to skip across the galaxy just yet.

"Certainly to build a structure that big requires a lot more resources and potentially more advanced technology than we currently have available to us," Cartier told Business Insider. "However that doesn't imply that they have the capabilities to travel all the way here to Earth."

Moreover, if this, in fact, were a Dyson sphere, it would be a work in progress because of its apparent shape, Cartier later told Business Insider in an email.

The star KIC 8462852 is over 1,400 light years from Earth. So, don't worry, the world won't be coming to an end due to an alien invasion any time soon.

LEARN MORE: The 12 most compelling scientific findings that suggest aliens are real

SEE ALSO: Hubble's sharpest photos of Jupiter ever taken reveal a rare feature that hasn't been seen for over 36 years

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Larry David hilariously parodied Bernie Sanders for 'Saturday Night Live'

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) was parodied by actor Larry David on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend.

The "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star portrayed Sanders as both easily-distracted and revolutionary during the cold-open skit that mocked last week's CNN presidential debate.

Actor Alec Baldwin also played former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Vermont), but he was overshadowed by David, who hails from the same corner of Brooklyn as Sanders.

"Eh, not a fan of the banks. They trample on the middle class. They control Washington. And why do they chain all their pens to the desks? Who's trying to steal a pen from a bank? It makes no sense!" David exclaimed at one point.

After the actor playing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton informed David that there's no "golden goose" to fix the economy, David interpreted her comment literally.

"I can find the goose! I've found geese before and I can find them again! They congregate near ponds! It's not rocket science!" he declared.

The "Saturday Night Live" skit also pilloried Sanders for his prominent defense of Clinton during the debate. Sanders famously declared that the American people are sick of hearing about her "damn" email scandal.

"This may not be great politics, but I think the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails!" David said. "And hey, what's the deal with emails anyway? I forgot my password the other day, so they say, 'We'll email you a new one.' But I can't get into my email to get the password!"

David further contrasted himself with his "billionaire" opponents by announcing that he doesn't have a super PAC.

"I don't even have a backpack," he added. "I carry around my stuff loose in my arms like a professor between classes."

Watch the full segment below:

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Taylor Swift claims she was totally unpopular in school and told a depressing story about being snubbed by friends to prove it

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These days, Taylor Swift is constantly surrounded by an army of gorgeous girl friends including models Kendall Jenner and Karlie Kloss.

taylor swift

But growing up, Swift says she didn't have many female friends despite desperately wanting some. Back then, she looked like a lot of other middle schoolers:

taylor swift middle school age 12

Life as a middle schooler is hard. And for Swift it was no better. She tells GQ's Chuck Klosterman a sad story about her "friends" blowing her off on a trip to the mall. Only when she showed up there with her mom, all her friends were on a shopping trip already and had excluded her.

Klosterman writes about the sad tale, which sounds like it's straight out of the movie "Mean Girls":

She tells a story about middle school, when she called several of her peers on the phone and asked if they wanted to go shopping. Every girl had a different excuse for why she couldn’t go. Eventually, Swift’s mother agreed to take her to the local mall. When they arrived, Swift saw all of the girls she had called on the phone, goofing around in Victoria’s Secret.

"I just remember my mom looking at me and saying, We’re going to King of Prussia Mall. Which is the big, big mall in Pennsylvania, 45 minutes away. So we left and went to the better mall. My mom let me escape from certain things that were too painful to deal with. And we talked about it the whole ride there, and we had a good time shopping."

Swift says that lonely feeling probably drives her to keep her female friends close now. She's never had them before, and she doesn't want to lose them.

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Netflix just told us the reason you'll probably have to keep paying them more and more money (NFLX)

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frank underwood house of cardsOn its earnings call Wednesday, Netflix’s top executives laid out a vision for its future that can be summed up in one word: “originals.”

CEO Reed Hastings said original shows like "House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black" are what actually creates "desire," and presumably loyalty, in Netflix subscribers — not licensed content.

Originals get you addicted, and addicted to the point where you might be willing to pay a few extra dollars a month.

While Hastings refused to make predictions about the future pricing of Netflix, he said it was inherently tied to value. 

"The more we have incredible value, the more we have amazing originals, then we are going to be able to ask consumers for more to be able to invest more," he said. In plain English, original content is expensive, and you are probably going to have to pay more for it as Netflix doubles down on original content moving forward.

Research has shown that Hastings isn’t just blowing smoke about original content — subscribers love it. And it certainly does provide tremendous value to viewers. Whether they will appreciate repeated price hikes over the next few years is less certain.

Netflix recently raised the price of its most popular subscription plan in the US from $8.99 to $9.99, and will spend $5 billion on content next year. Hastings recently said that Netflix only has around $2 billion in the bank, though it's set to raise capital.

Netflix is betting heavily that a shift to original content, and toward exclusive licensing in general, will allow the company to maximize its profitability. Netflix’s head of content, Ted Sarandos, characterized originals as a sounder investment because they give full exclusivity and global rights in perpetuity — which will be particularly useful as Netflix expands internationally.

“We have gone into [original content] very conservative relative to licensing, and found it has been much more impactful,” CFO David Wells said. Hastings used one word: "better."

Hastings also argued that the value of Netflix’s original content grows dramatically as shows enter their third and fourth seasons, and become recognizable franchises. This theory will be tested in the coming years.

What we know now is that the development of original content is accelerating at a much higher rate than licensed content — and you’ll most likely have to pay for that on your plan.

SEE ALSO: Netflix raised its prices because you were sharing your password too much

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Meet Staz Nair, the model and 'X Factor' alum who just became a secret new 'Game of Thrones' cast member

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Model, actor, and singer Staz Nair has joined the sixth season of HBO's "Game of Thrones," an HBO representative confirmed to Business Insider.

The pay cable network wouldn't reveal any information on Nair's character, though.

So what's the deal with Nair?

He will be part of the scenes shot in Spain for Season 6, which returns in Spring 2015.

In the mean time, here's more about him. He's a Gemini, singer, model and self-proclaimed nice person.

SEE ALSO: This favorite 'Game of Thrones' couple reunited for a very touching photo

MORE: 'Game of Thrones' star Maisie Williams says 'sorry' but she knows Jon Snow's fate

Meet Staz Nair. He plays the piano, writes and sings and is a self-proclaimed "nice guy!" Below, he is posing with a fan on Instagram.

SOURCE: Watchers on the Wall



Apparently, the news of his casting was broken in September in a press release for a film Nair stars in titled "Bazodee." It's directed by Todd Kessler, the co-creator of Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues." Nair plays a man whose fiancee is falling in love with another man. Watch the trailer below.

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Clearly a man of many talents, Nair competed as part of a boy band called Times Red on UK's "X Factor" in 2012. During that time he was very fond of showing off his abs. Who can blame him?



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'Goosebumps' tops the weekend box office with $23.5 million

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It looks like everyone is in the Halloween spirit as Sony's "Goosebumps" tops the domestic box office this weekend with an estimated $23.5 million, according to BoxOffice.com.

Starring Jack Black as a wicked version of legendary author R.L. Stine, the film features the author and a group of kids trying to save their town after Stine's demons — from his famous "Goosebumps" horror novellas — are set free.

Though some projected that "The Martian" would top the box office for a third consecutive week, the impressive Friday tally for "Goosebumps" estimated $7.35 million and proved that wouldn't be the case. The horror/comedy geared to the young adult crowd familiar with the novellas then spiked 31% in ticket sales on Saturday, according to Deadline

It's a good rebound for Sony after the lackluster turnout for its previous release, "The Walk."

Tom Hanks Bridge of SpiesThe weekend releases were one of the strongest so far this year with a mix of titles coming out at the same time: "Bridge of Spies," starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Spielberg; "Beasts of No Nation," Netflix's first theatrical release that could also be seen on Netflix streaming; and another horror tale, "Crimson Peak," by Guillermo del Toro (with films like "Room" and "Truth" in limited release).

"The Martian," however, topped them all, taking the second spot this weekend with an estimated $21.5 million, according to Exhibitor Relations.

"Bridge of Spies" came in third with $15.38 million, according to BoxOffice.com, which Disney/DreamWorks should be happy with as the Cold War drama was geared for the adult crowd.

SEE ALSO: 5 awesome movies have come out — drop everything and see one of them this weekend

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Jennifer Lawrence hit on a disturbing workplace trend in her recent open letter

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Jennifer Lawrence speaks out

If Martin Luther King, Jr. were a "woman in a meeting," jokes the Washington Post's Alexandra Petri, she'd hedge her "I have a dream" speech with rhetoric like, "I'm sorry, I just had this idea — it's probably crazy, but — look, just as long as we're throwing things out here — I had sort of an idea or vision about maybe the future?"

Petri is satirizing the all-too-real tradeoff women make daily between sounding smart, confident, and assertive and appearing warm and likeable. She writes in response to the essay Jennifer Lawrence recently wrote for Lena Dunham's newsletter, Lenny.

In her essay, Lawrence attributes not negotiating for more money for her role in "American Hustle" — she and costar Amy Adams were only offered 7% of proceeds from the film, while male actors Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper were offered 9% — to her fear that she might appear "difficult" or "spoiled."

"At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn't worry about being 'difficult' or 'spoiled,'" she writes.

"I don't think I'm the only woman with this issue," Lawrence says. "Are we socially conditioned to behave this way? ... Could there still be a lingering habit of trying to express our opinions in a certain way that doesn't 'offend' or 'scare' men?"

The answer to her question, sadly, is a resounding yes. And they have every reason to.

According to research conducted by NYU psychology professor Madeline Heilman, women's career advancements are often impeded by two kinds of gender stereotypes:

  • Descriptive stereotypes attribute certain characteristics to women, like "caring," "warm," "modest," and "emotional." This creates problems, Heilman says, when there's a disconnect between what women are perceived to be like and what attributes are necessary to successfully perform in male gender-typed roles.
  • Prescriptive gender stereotypes designate what women and men should be like. With this kind of stereotyping, women are disapproved of and punished socially when they directly or seemingly violate the prescribed ways they should act.

Numerous studies have shown the disturbing role prescriptive gender stereotypes play in the workplace.

Another study conducted by Heilman showed that successful women working in "male domains" are penalized when they are perceived to be less nurturing or sensitive, since they violate gender-stereotypical prescriptions.

Women who violate prescriptions of modesty by promoting themselves at work were found to be less hireable in a Rutgers University study, and a study conducted by Harvard's Hannah Riley Bowles showed women were penalized by evaluators more often than men for initiating negotiations, thus violating the prescription that women be passive. 

After analyzing more than 248 performance reviews last year, Kieran Snyder wrote in Fortune, "negative personality criticism — watch your tone! step back! stop being so judgmental! — shows up twice in the 83 critical reviews received by men. It shows up in 71 of the 94 critical reviews received by women."

Women's reviews included gems like, "You can come across as abrasive sometimes. I know you don't mean to, but you need to pay attention to your tone," and, "You would have had an easier time if you had been less judgmental about R—'s contributions from the beginning." 

Somewhat surprisingly, the more a woman climbs the career ladder, the more she clams up, write Katty Kay and Claire Shipman in their book, "The Confidence Code."

"The more a woman succeeds, the worse the vitriol gets," Kay and Shipman write. "All too often the very fear of this kind of abuse is enough to make women pull too far back and become overly deferential."  

We continue to see this kind of gender bias play out in today's headlines.

ellen paoAs The Verge's Nitasha Tiku noted about the Ellen Pao trial, feedback given to Pao at Kleiner Perkins included criticism that she was too negative, too resentful, and too concerned with being "personally credited for the work she did."

Feedback given to Wen Hsieh, who Pao hired and trained to share her chief of staff duties at the time, included notes that Hsieh should stop being "too optimistic," that he's "spread too thin," and that he gets "undue credit" for successes that are not his.

"Pao's territoriality makes sense if her male coworker is automatically handed more credit than he deserves," Tiku wrote. Pao had to choose between standing up for her work and being chastised for the immodesty of it all. 

"I don't think I've ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard," Lawrence says. "It's just heard."

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Here's how 'Scream Queens' gets around Lea Michele and Ariana Grande's refusal to scream

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When a show is titled "Scream Queens," it would seem that screaming would be part of the job description.

Well, Lea Michele got a pass on that one. "I refuse to scream on the show," Michele told Women's Health.

The former "Glee" star paired up with producer Ryan Murphy once again for Fox's "Scream Queens," which follows a sorority that's being targeted by a serial killer. She plays Hester, an awkward freshman with very morbid tastes

So, how does "Scream Queens" work around Michele's refusal to scream?

fox Scream Queens ariana grande"Ryan [Murphy] got me in a booth one day," she said "And I told him, 'I'm screaming like twice and then you're going to have to use it the whole season,' because I'm a singer."

Ariana Grande's voice was also saved by pretaping.

"I was there with Ariana Grande and we were like, 'We can't scream, this is our gift.' So I don't scream, they just dub it in," Michele said. "But, they say I do a really good scream face without having to scream."

"Scream Queens" airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.

SEE ALSO: Meet TV's new 'It' girl Emma Roberts — she's Hollywood royalty who plays a nightmare sorority girl on Fox's 'Scream Queens'

MORE: 'Wait whaaat???!' The ridiculous way a major star got killed off in the first episode of Fox's new dramedy, 'Scream Queens'

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The incredibly successful life of Drake — the most polarizing figure in music who made a whopping $40 million last year

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There are few figures in music more polarizing than Drake.

The "So Far Gone" rapper hasn't wasted any time lapping his industry counterparts, reaching the top of the mainstream music world. 

Just six years into his illustrious career, Drake has hit the kind of milestones most artists can only dream of.

And he keeps winning.

In fact, 2015 might be his best year to date.

From reaching 100 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 to winning the biggest rap beef in recent memory, "The Boy" has had quite a year. After releasing two albums since February, one solo and one with hip-hop counterpart Future, Drake still has the ball in his court.

Drake's on top of the music scene and seems to be fastened in. If he releases his highly anticipated "Views From The 6" album anytime soon, he'll seal 2015 as "The year of Drake."

Accolades aside, Drake's success has come from hard work. He started from the bottom and worked his way up.

Keep scrolling to see how a biracial Jewish kid from Toronto became the biggest name in music.

SEE ALSO: The surprise album that Drake released was never supposed to happen

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THEN: Drake may have released the first single from his upcoming album — and it features Beyonce

AND: Drake just did something only 4 artists have done in history

Born in 1986 and given the name Aubrey Drake Graham, Drake was brought up in Toronto, Canada.

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He was raised Jewish by his mother in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood.

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Drake's dad moved to Memphis when Drake was very young. They had a distant relationship for a while but have since gotten close.

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The most famous movie set in every state

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We recently set out to name the most famous movie set in every state, a challenging and subjective endeavor. In order to pick, we evaluated the state's prominence in the movie and leaned toward movies that were filmed in that location, as well.

The film's lifetime gross, its critical acclaim, and testimonials by our geographically diverse staff also influenced our decision.

How many have you seen? Check out the annotated map below, and read more about the movies here.

BI_graphics_moviesMap_2

SEE ALSO: The most famous movie set in every state

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Tickets for the new 'Star Wars' go on sale Monday night; official poster revealed

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On Sunday, Disney and Lucasfilm released the official poster for "The Force Awakens," the next film in the "Star Wars" saga, and announced that advance tickets for the film go on sale Monday night.

The full trailer for the film will air during ESPN's "Monday Night Football," and immediately after the trailer ends, tickets will go on sale at theaters and online movie ticket sellers.

Here's confirmation from a Lucasfilm publicist:

Here's the official poster:

The football game, between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles, kicks off at 8:15 pm EST.

"The Force Awakens" will be released in theaters December 18.

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