December might seem far away but now is the perfect time to plan for Business Insider's annual IGNITIONconference.

Don't miss your chance to hear from industry leaders such as Airbnb's Nathan Blecharczyk, AT&T's Randall Stephenson, and Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes. Book by Friday, June 10, and you'll save $1,500.

But wait — there's more.

Want an even better deal? Get two of your colleagues to join you and save an extra 20% on tickets. That’s more than 50% off the full price. Just be sure to take advantage of this offer before it expires on June 10.

Speakers include:

• James Murdoch, CEO, 21st Century Fox
• Nathan Blecharczyk, cofounder and CTO, Airbnb
• Randall Stephenson, CEO, AT&T
• Tim Armstrong, CEO, AOL
• Jeff Bewkes, CEO, Time Warner
• Mathias Döpfner, CEO, Axel Springer
• Miguel McKelvey and Adam Neumann, cofounders, WeWork
• Susan Jurevics, CEO, Pottermore
• David Kenny, IBM Watson
• Raja Rajamannar, global CMO, MasterCard
• Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive, IAC, Expedia
• Joey Levin, CEO, IAC
• And more!

Don't wait — get your tickets today with our extra-early-bird rate.

Stay in the know by following @BI_Events on Twitter and liking it on Facebook.

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Books can be incredibly powerful. They have the ability to suck us in, take us on adventures, and influence the way we think.

They can teach us, move us, give us new perspectives, and help shape us. And the most powerful ones change our lives forever.

I asked my Business Insider colleagues to share the one book that has significantly influenced them. Here's what they said:

SEE ALSO: 24 books that will make you a more well-rounded person

'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy

"This book gave me a real sense of my own mortality. I'm usually grateful for this, but not always! It also made me appreciate fatherhood more." —Nicholas Carlson, editor-in-chief of INSIDER

Amazon synopsis: A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food — and each other.

"'The Road' is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation."

BUY IT HERE »

'The Tao of Pooh' by Benjamin Hoff

"I read this book in college, and it completely changed my perspective on the world. It's a fun primer on the Eastern philosophy of Taoism, and eye-opening for people (like me) who sometimes try too hard and would be better off just relaxing and going with the flow. I still remind myself that nothing's really good or bad; it's just another interesting thing on another day that we should all be grateful for." —Jenna Goudreau, deputy editor

"This book introduced me to the idea that simplicity isn't the enemy of satisfaction; it's the essence of it. The inclusion of such familiar and beloved characters also helped the ideas stick in my mind." —Christina Sterbenz, weekend editor

Amazon synopsis: The how of Pooh? The Tao of who? The Tao of Pooh!?! In which it is revealed that one of the world's great Taoist masters isn't Chinese — or a venerable philosopher — but is in fact none other than that effortlessly calm, still, reflective bear. A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh! While Eeyore frets, and Piglet hesitates, and Rabbit calculates, and Owl pontificates, Pooh just is.

"And that's a clue to the secret wisdom of the Taoists."

BUY IT HERE »

'Anna Karenina' by Leo Tolstoy

"It was the rare work of fiction that actually changed how I saw the world. It made me want to be a more moral and better person." —Paul Schrodt, entertainment editor

Amazon synopsis: "Considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, 'Anna Karenina' is Tolstoy's classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

"A rich and complex masterpiece, the novel charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together the lives of dozens of characters, and in doing so captures a breathtaking tapestry of late-nineteenth-century Russian society. As Matthew Arnold wrote in his celebrated essay on Tolstoy, 'We are not to take 'Anna Karenina' as a work of art; we are to take it as a piece of life.'"

BUY IT HERE »

In 2016, the official Tech Insider company line has been that the Wii U, Nintendo's current home console, isn't so hot. One editor said now is the best time to sell your Wii U, while another called it the worst purchase of his life. 

I can't, in good conscience, say either of them are wrong. The Wii U has been something of a hot mess ever since its launch in 2012, with its bulky tablet controller, underpowered graphics capability and complete lack of huge games like "Call of Duty" and "Grand Theft Auto." In fact, you could be forgiven if you didn't even know that it's a new console; I still regularly clarify to non-gaming-minded folks that it isn't just an add-on to Nintendo's previous console, the immensely successful Wii.

But the games Nintendo makes for their consoles are still some of the best around. This has been a constant throughout the lifetimes of the Nintendo 64, GameCube and Wii, which all had goofy hardware limitations like the Wii U. If you've ever had any affection for franchises like "Super Smash Bros." and "Mario Kart," the Wii U is the only place to play the latest (and arguably best) games in those series. There are also some genuinely fantastic original games like "Splatoon" that you can't find anywhere else.

With the console starting as low as $199.99 at GameStop and Nintendo permanently dropping the price on great games like "Super Mario 3D World" to $20, it's the best option for anyone who wants to play friendly, accessible games with their kids without waiting and springing for the new Xbox One and Playstation 4 updates.

Let's start with "Splatoon." It's the best (okay, second best) online multiplayer shooter in years, and it's totally kid-friendly. Two teams of cartoon squids square off in gorgeous, varied arenas as each team tries to cover more of the ground in their ink color than the opposition. While it'll occasionally be necessary to "splat" enemy players in your quest for colorful glory, that isn't the goal. There is also no voice chat, meaning you or your kids will never have to hear vulgar comments from other players over the game's amazing soundtrack. It's a delightfully non-violent take on multiplayer shooting.

As an added bonus, your squid is fully customizable, meaning you can dress them up in all kinds of hip snapbacks, flannel shirts and sneakers. It's pretty great, and it still has an active community more than a year after its release.

If you'd rather foster your child's creativity than introduce them to competitive mayhem, "Super Mario Maker" is the way to go. As the title implies, you can make your own "Super Mario Bros." levels using a grid-based creation tool that makes fantastic use of the Wii U GamePad, moreso than any other game. It's a breeze to whip up a level, upload it to the game's servers and share it with the world. If you just want to check out some of rad levels people are making, you never have to touch the level creation tools. What could be better than an endless supply of "Super Mario Bros." levels?

My biggest concern about recommending the Wii U right now is the NX, Nintendo's mysterious new console. The company hasn't said a word about price, functionality or whether or not it can play Wii U games. All we know at the moment is that it will be revealed later this year and released in early 2017. 

With that in mind, it might be best to at least wait until we know more about the NX. If it can play Wii U games and it's relatively affordable, there's no reason to get a Wii U. If not, however, the Wii U is the little console that almost could. Its price will only drop from here on out and it has a host of great games that parents and kids can enjoy together, despite its well-earned status as an industry punch-line.

SEE ALSO: Nintendo is getting into the movie business

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here’s why your jeans have that tiny front pocket

Pixar director Andrew Stanton isn't afraid to fail.

In the 2014 book "Creativity, Inc.," Pixar Animation and Disney Animation president Ed Catmull explains that Stanton has a unique perspective on failure — and in fact, he gets anxious when things go right.

"It's gotten to the point that we get worried if a film is not a problem child right away," Stanton tells Catmull. "It makes us nervous.

We've come to recognize the signs of invention — of dealing with originality. We have begun to welcome the feeling of, 'Oh, we've never had this exact problem — and it's incredibly recalcitrant and won't do what we want it to do.' That's familiar territory — in a good way."

Catmull explains that Stanton, who won Academy Awards for his direction of the film "Wall-E" in 2008 as well as for "Finding Nemo" in 2004, both expects some degree of failure and embraces it. Catmull writes:

Andrew is fond of saying that people need to be wrong as fast as they can. In a battle, if you're faced with two hills and you're unsure which one to attack, he says, the right course of action is to hurry up and choose. If you find out it's the wrong hill, turn around and attack the other one. In that scenario, the only unacceptable course of action is running between the hills.

Stanton isn't the only successful person who finds a degree of failure integral to success. Google's SVP of people operations Laszlo Bock said managers at the tech giant are trained to spend just as much time discussing employees' failures as their successes. "By making conversation about misses normal, you end up actually driving lots of improvement in the organization" he told Kris Duggan, CEO of software company BetterWorks.

"Failure is not the opposite of success; it's a stepping stone to success," Huffington Post CEO Arianna Huffington told Business Insider's Rachel Gillett her mother often counseled her. "I think our resilience is dramatically improved when we trust that often out of the biggest heartbreaks come the best things in our lives."

As Stanton tells Catmull, "You wouldn't say to somebody who is first learning to play the guitar, 'You better think really hard about where you put your fingers on the guitar neck before you strum, because you only get to strum once, and that's it. And if you get that wrong, we're going to move on.' That's no way to learn, is it?"

SEE ALSO: A former Disney exec explains how to bounce back from failure

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NOW WATCH: James Altucher rants about why setting personal goals isn't actually helpful

In today's music industry, an artist needs to tour if they hope to keep themselves afloat.

Summer is prime time for touring. Many fans go to StubHub, the largest ticket-resale market, in search of cheaper tickets or passes to shows that have sold out.

StubHub has analyzed the top-selling performers this summer, looking at sales on its site for dates ranging from Memorial Day to Labor Day 2016.

It looks like Adele is taking the top perch, which Taylor Swift had in 2015 with her "1989" tour.

Rock 'n' roll is surprisingly durable this year, taking up half of the list, and fetching high ticket prices for legacy acts.

"Looking at highest average sales per show, there's a trend among rock acts performing well with Metallica, Pearl Jam, and Radiohead in the top three spots," StubHub spokesperson Jessica Erskine told Business Insider. "These acts all have large catalogues of work and especially dedicated fan bases who are willing to show up and pay more, which is what makes each of these shows stand out."

Here's the full list of top-selling artists this summer that StubHub sent to Business Insider:

SEE ALSO: Here are the actors vying to be the next James Bond, and who should get it

10. Billy Joel

9. Paul McCartney

8. Kenny Chesney

Shaquille O'Neal is apparently less noticeable than we realized all these years.

The NBA legend went undercover as a Lyft driver in a video for the car service. He drives around Atlanta, donning different names, disguises (beret, beard), occupations (bracelet making), and accents (including a hilarious Jamaican).

A lot fewer people recognize him than probably should, given that he's a seven-foot giant who looks a lot like Shaq.

He's not the best as masking himself. He brings up basketball with his rides and even shows one woman how to practice free throws. He tells another rider his favorite movie is "Kazaam."

"I want to play ball, but I run funny," he feigns at one point. "My pants get stuck in my butt."

In the end, he rips off his various disguises and outs hismelf. A couple riders suspected it, but they freak out all the same.

Lyft has done other "undercover" videos, but this is by far the best. Watch below.

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NOW WATCH: Watch Christie beg to be Trump’s vice president on 'Saturday Night Live'

Though Marvel Studios has had huge success in adapting classic comic-book characters into huge blockbuster movies, it hasn't given much attention to the comics' female heroes. 

But that's about to change. 

The long-awaited big-screen adaptation of Captain Marvel is eyeing recent Oscar winner Brie Larson ("Room") to play the role, according to Variety. 

The trade says it's unknown where negotiations are currently, but Larson is the first choice and a source says she's leaning toward taking the part. 

The movie follows Air Force pilot Carol Danvers, who is fused with alien DNA after an accident, giving her superpowers. Screenwriters Meg LaFauve ("Inside Out") and Nicole Perlman ("Guardians of the Galaxy") are attached, and The Hollywood Reporter stoked rumors that directors Niki Caro ("Whale Rider") and Jennifer Kent ("The Babadook") are contenders to helm the project. 

Larson will next be seen in the latest King Kong big-budget spectacle, "Kong: Skull Island," coming out in 2017. 

It's going to be a couple of years before we see a Captain Marvel movie. But it's very likely that Larson, or whoever plays the lead, will show up in a cameo first in another Marvel movie (like Spider-Man in "Captain America: Civil War").

SEE ALSO: Here are the actors vying to be the next James Bond, and who should get it

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Sacha Baron Cohen recounts his 2003 Trump interview: 'I was the first person actually to realize that he’s a d---'

The "Game of Thrones" cocreators pranked Alfie Allen into believing his character, Theon Greyjoy, was being killed off.

Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are known to play pranks on the HBO drama's cast. In this trick, they preyed on Allen's fear that he wouldn't be returning to the show after Theon lost control of Winterfell toward the end of the second season.

The actor told Entertainment Weekly that he actually got a fake season-finale episode script that had Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) reclaiming the castle with the words, "This is my Winterfell, not yours," before stabbing Theon in the heart.

Allen was convinced he was done, but actually loved the story twist.

"I thought it was cool," Allen told EW. "I went on a holiday, and David and Dan were all thinking I was going to call up going, 'Hold on a minute whoa-whoa-whoa!' But I just got on with it. Then they had to make it clear to me later on it was all a joke."

Hard times awaited Theon as Ramsay Bolton's (Iwan Rheon) prisoner on later seasons, but at least he's still alive.

SEE ALSO: 'Game of Thrones' videos are huge on Pornhub, and HBO is trying to take them down

DON'T MISS: The 5 most talked-about moments from this week's 'Game of Thrones'

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NOW WATCH: 4 things you might have missed on this week’s 'Game of Thrones'

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos loves Prime Video, and the reason should scare Netflix.

This week at Vox's Code Conference, Bezos outlined why he thinks Prime Video is a good business for Amazon. Having a subscription video section of Amazon Prime makes people more likely to both become a paying Prime member and to renew their Prime subscription when it ends, Bezos said.

In short, subscription video means more Prime users. And Prime users are more valuable customers for Amazon.

"We get to monetize [our subscription video] in a very unusual way," Bezos said. "When we win a Golden Globe, it helps us sell more shoes. And it does that in a very direct way. Because if you look at Prime members, they buy more on Amazon than non-Prime members, and one of the reasons they do that is once they pay their annual fee, they're looking around to see, 'How can I get more value out of the program?' And so they look across more categories — they shop more. A lot of their behaviors change in ways that are very attractive to us as a business. And the customers utilize more of our services."

This fact gives Amazon an advantage over competitors like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO, who are trying to use premium video to make money directly — not by using it to sell more shoes. They are bidding against Amazon for the same shows and chasing the same customers, but Amazon doesn't have to sweat the margins.

"Because we have this unusual way to monetize the premium content, we can charge less for the premium content than we would otherwise have to charge, if we didn't have the flywheel spinning to help sell more shoes," Bezos said.

And Amazon isn't going to take its foot off the gas pedal when it comes to premium video. Bezos said Amazon Studios, the company's original video arm, could be the "fourth pillar" of its entire business (after retail, Prime as a whole, and Amazon Web Services). Analysts at Bernstein estimate that Amazon spent $2 billion on video content for Prime in 2015.

Bezos, for his part, doesn't believe that Netflix and Amazon are competitors. "I think people are going to subscribe to both," he said (and there is some evidence he is right). But even he acknowledges that the different services compete on the "supply side" by bidding on the same shows and movies.

And even if you believe that there is enough room in the world for Amazon and Netflix, and Hulu, and HBO Now, and Starz, and Showtime, and Seeso, and whichever other streaming service will be announced tomorrow, Bezos' obvious enthusiasm for the side benefits of subscription video cannot be welcome news for his competitors.

SEE ALSO: The man behind HBO's virtual reality bet says these new glasses could replace going to a movie theater

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The incredible life of the world's youngest billionaire, who's only 19

Not since Walt Disney has there been a figure in the animation world who has transcended the medium like John Lasseter and the studio he oversees, Pixar.

Yes, Jeffrey Katzenberg and DreamWorks Animation have had their time, but for over 20 years, Lasseter's Pixar has consistently not just put out box-office hits (the company has earned, to date, close to $10 billion worldwide) but created stories that affect us on an emotional level that we can't wait to experience again and again.

From the "you got a friend" tale of the "Toy Story" movies to a commentary on how we need to protect our planet in the multilayered "WALL-E," Pixar movies are much more than kids movies or cartoons. Which is exactly how ol' Walt went about it.

As we get ready for Pixar's latest, the sequel "Finding Dory" (out June 17), we've take on the gargantuan task of ranking all 16 Pixar releases — scroll down to find out the best.

SEE ALSO: 18 movies that never got a sequel but deserve one

16. “Cars 2” (2011)

Taking Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) away from Radiator Springs and going international (plus, making Mater a spy) didn't grab critics. This sequel became the first "rotten" Pixar movie on Rotten Tomatoes. Deservedly.

15. “A Bug’s Life” (1998)

In the second movie ever released by Pixar, an ant named Flink (voiced by Dave Foley) sets out to find others to help save his colony against grasshoppers, and ends up recruiting a unique group of allies. 

Though the movie was successful at the box office, with the release of DreamWorks' "Antz" a month earlier, you're more likely to remember the Lasseter-Katzenberg feud than the films. 

14. “The Good Dinosaur” (2015)

Perhaps one of the more serious stories in the Pixar canon, this coming-of-age tale about an Apatosaurus and his human friend Spot as they try to return home didn't catch on nearly as much as Pixar's other release in 2015, "Inside Out."

Burnout may have been in play here, but mostly Pixar challenged its core audience with a darker story than they are used to.

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21st Century Fox has announced it led an $8 million funding round for theSkimm, a multi-platform company that publishes news aimed at millennials.

theSkimm launched in 2012 to deliver news toward young female professionals in a simple and clean format. In April of this year, the company launched Skimm Ahead, an iOS app priced at $2.99 per month that integrates right into the reader's iPhone calendar and provides relevant information about future events such as concert ticket releases, Netflix premiere dates, and presidential debates.

The company plans to use the funds for original video content, which would be distributed and produced under Skimm Studios.

21st Century Fox. which owns several cable networks such as FX and Fox News, wants to capitalize on theSkimm's global audience of 3.5 million readers at a time when many millennials are cutting the cord and abandoning traditional pay-TV.

The median age of Fox News viewers, for example, is 67, so a partnership with theSkimm would let 21st Century Fox use its power to build brands and engage audiences to create content for a much younger demographic.

Fox has made several investments in digital media recently. In March, the company poured $6 million in FuboTV, a startup that streams soccer games and focuses on millennial males who are not traditional pay-TV customers. The company has more than 40,000 U.S. subscribers since it debuted in January 2015 and is available on connected devices such as Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.

And last summer, Fox Sports invested approximately $150 million for an 11% stake in fantasy sports company DraftKings. The company made the deal in order to develop content with DraftKings across several platforms in an effort to reach those who do not subscribe to traditional pay-TV.

Margaret Boland, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on subscription video on-demand services that examines how the growth of SVOD is coming at the expense of the pay-TV industry. The report analyzes the state of the pay-TV industry and maps out which demographics are more likely to stop buying traditional TV packages.

The report also discusses the user base, original content offerings, and subscription models of the major subscription streaming services available today, including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video. Finally, it looks at how traditional pay-TV companies and premium channels like HBO and Showtime are addressing the shift to digital viewing, as well as the implications of their response for advertisers.

Those abandoning pay-TV packages fall into three main groups: cord-nevers, cord-cutters, and cord-shavers. Whereas video streaming services have found favor with younger viewers in particular, an increasing portion of older subscribers also are leaving behind their pay-TV packages. Still, younger viewers watch four times as much video content online than older viewers.

• Netflix is the largest SVOD service and will continue to dominate the industry with an impressive original content lineup and aggressive expansion plans.
• Amazon is trying to compete with Netflix by investing significant resources in original content.
• Hulu is the third-largest SVOD service, but the only one to offer ad-supported membership tiers. Hulu has been the slowest to roll out original and exclusive content, but it has inked numerous deals in the past year to boost its content library.
• Pay-TV companies are responding to the rise of SVOD services by offering subscribers "skinny bundles" and their own streaming services.

In full, the report:

• Illustrates the fall of the traditional TV package and the rise of broadband only cable subscriptions.
• Lays out the different types of viewers that are leaving behind pay-TV: cord-cutters, cord-shavers, and cord-nevers.
• Examines the leading SVOD services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and premium channel offerings from HBO and Showtime.
• Explains the various ways that pay-TV companies are responding to the rise of SVOD services, notably skinny bundles and standalone streaming services.
• Considers what the migration to SVOD services means to marketers.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of subscription video on-demand services.

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"Trekonomics" author, Manu Saadia, gives "Star Trek" fans 10 reasons to defend themselves against that other franchise.

1. "Star Trek" is TV, "Star Wars" is primarily feature films

TV has a built-in advantage over movies: there’s just more of it. That doesn’t mean TV is necessarily better. For instance, special effects for cannot be as good as in feature films for budget reasons. But TV, especially scifi TV, allows for a considerably more detailed look at fictional universes.A movie has only two hours to wow the theater-going audience. It must pack a real punch. The action must move at a brisk pace. The special effects and space battles must be perfect and incredible - production value in other words. The main characters, good and bad, must be clearly defined and immediately recognizable.

TV is different. TV thrives on habit and familiarity.  In TV you can take your time to fully explore not only the characters but also the finer details of a particular universe. You do not achieve the same production quality (sets and special effects are expensive) but you have more latitude to develop a more complex world.

 Incidentally, that is why a lot of what we know of the Star Wars universe comes out of supplemental material (books, movie novelizations). For instance, bounty hunter villain (and fan favorite) Boba Fett is never even named in the original trilogy. Much more of Star Trek’s canon, as fans call it, appears on the screen.

2. "Star Trek" has better aliens

More TV episodes allow us, the audience and the fans, to get more fully acquainted with the various alien civilizations of Star Trek. The Vulcans, the Klingons, The Romulans, the Ferengis, the Bajorans - all the great Trek aliens - become much more than actors in funny makeup. Their respective beliefs and cultures are stories onto themselves. More than a few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space 9 go far into the lives and struggles of the Klingons. It’s a real springboard for Trek writers’ imagination and  virtuosity (special mention to Ron Moore, Trek’s resident Klingon specialist, who went on to create and produce the reboot of Battlestar Galactica).

This is what is referred as “world-building” among scifi and fantasy fans. The depth and quality of Star Trek’s fictional alien civilizations is such that people in the real world have created a full Klingon dictionary and turned it into a living language. You can for instance find a performance of "Hamlet" in Klingon (on Youtube, where else?). Klingons claim it is better than the Bard’s original.

Star Wars has many more aliens but somehow fails to treat them as much more than props or comic relief. I really love Chewbacca - who doesn’t - but the fact that he doesn’t have actual lines of intelligible dialogue make it difficult to know more about him and to understand his people’s culture and his psychology (and no, the infamous Star Wars Christmas wookiee special will not help you one bit). Come to think of it, we are not even sure whether Chewbacca is a male or a female wookiee.

That is an important point: alien characters in Star Wars do not have the same psychological depth than their Trek counterparts. Their ‘otherness’ so to speak is only skin-deep. And rightly so: movies are desperately short, one doesn’t have the time to delve into the secret lives of Wookiees or Jar Jar Binks’ philosophical beliefs.

Star Wars has this:

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And this:

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And this:

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And this:

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3. Resistance is futile: "Star Trek" has better villains

The bad guys in Star Trek are much more interesting than the bad guys in Star Wars. Their culture, their motivations, their politics are deeper and more complex. At times they even come across as not universally bad. We get to know them better and to understand them.  This is a direct consequence of TV vs. feature films.

The perfect example is the Cardassians - the former occupiers of planet Bajor in Deep Space 9. Cardassians are authoritarian and militaristic, and share many traits with the Soviet Union. Yet, we encounter Cardassians who are actually torn about their crimes and who are good and decent people.

This is very similar with the fearsome Klingons and the disgusting Ferengis: both alien civilizations change in the course of the show. They improve. They become more complex. We care about them in a way we never get a chance to care about Star Wars’ stormtroopers.

Compare this complexity with the almost cardboard-like quality of the villains in Star Wars. Darth Vader, despite his internal struggle, is very much of a piece. He is the archetype of the movie villain. The Emperor in both trilogies is a conniving, power-hungry maniac while their troops are either hapless robots or mindless clones. Star Wars’ villains are essentially caricatures. This is done for a purpose: it ratchets up the danger and the emotional stakes of the movies.  

Even Star Trek’s Borg collective is more complicated and intriguing than the Empire and the Dark Side. The Borg assimilates entire people and outfits them with prosthetic appendages. The Borg drones become connected to the collective consciousness. The Borg is in fact an incredibly complex model for a villain.

A law-enforcement official says tests show Prince died of an opioid overdose, according to the Associated Press.

The musician was found dead in his home in Minnesota on April 21, at the age of 57.

It was previously reported that the drug, a painkiller, was found in Prince's system as well as on him.

No official cause of death has yet been given, however. The Associated Press says its source is "close to the investigation" but spoke anonymously because he wasn't authorized to talk to media.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Sacha Baron Cohen recounts his 2003 Trump interview: 'I was the first person actually to realize that he’s a d---'

The face of Broadway's hit hip-hop historical musical "Hamilton" is about to change, literally.

Creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda's last day in the title role of Alexander Hamilton is about a month away. And there could be some other changes in the musical's original Broadway cast, according to several reports.

Miranda — who wrote the book, script, and song lyrics for "Hamilton" — is set to leave the role when his one-year contract is up. His last performance will be July 9, a representative for Miranda told TheWrap.

He will be moving on to work on other opportunities. Miranda appears in the movie "Speech & Debate" out later this year; he wrote the music for Disney's "Moana," which hits theaters on November 13; he's set to star in "Mary Poppins Returns" opposite Emily Blunt; and The Weinstein Co. bought the movie rights to his first musical, "In the Heights."

Miranda's departure is a sure thing, but other original cast members are also coming up on the end of their one-year contracts, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

They're all expected to be in negotiations to renew their contracts. THR's sources say they want big raises and to share in the profit from the show's $1.6 million ticket sales each week. And they're prepared to walk if they don't get what they want.

A ticket for the show can go as high as $3,000 from a reseller on Ticketmaster.

With Miranda definitely leaving and other cast members up in the air, you can expect demand for tickets to shows with the original cast to go up, and prices, too.

And for everyone else seeing it beyond July 9, it will surely be different. The real question is how different?

SEE ALSO: Tech billionaire Chris Sacca denies report that he threw a tantrum when he couldn't get into 'Hamilton'

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"Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success" author Michael D'Antonio stopped by Business Insider to discuss his book on the life of the presidential candidate. 

We asked D'Antonio to talk about Trump's decades-spanning relationship with World Wrestling Entertainment and the company's CEO Vince McMahon. 

Produced by Graham Flanagan

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21st Century Fox has announced it led an $8 million funding round for theSkimm, a multi-platform company that publishes news aimed at millennials.

theSkimm launched in 2012 to deliver news toward young female professionals in a simple and clean format. In April of this year, the company launched Skimm Ahead, an iOS app priced at $2.99 per month that integrates right into the reader's iPhone calendar and provides relevant information about future events such as concert ticket releases, Netflix premiere dates, and presidential debates.

The company plans to use the funds for original video content, which would be distributed and produced under Skimm Studios.

21st Century Fox. which owns several cable networks such as FX and Fox News, wants to capitalize on theSkimm's global audience of 3.5 million readers at a time when many millennials are cutting the cord and abandoning traditional pay-TV.

The median age of Fox News viewers, for example, is 67, so a partnership with theSkimm would let 21st Century Fox use its power to build brands and engage audiences to create content for a much younger demographic.

Fox has made several investments in digital media recently. In March, the company poured $6 million in FuboTV, a startup that streams soccer games and focuses on millennial males who are not traditional pay-TV customers. The company has more than 40,000 U.S. subscribers since it debuted in January 2015 and is available on connected devices such as Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.

And last summer, Fox Sports invested approximately $150 million for an 11% stake in fantasy sports company DraftKings. The company made the deal in order to develop content with DraftKings across several platforms in an effort to reach those who do not subscribe to traditional pay-TV.

For more, see the detailed report on subscription video on-demand services from BI Intelligence.Click here to learn more about how you can gain risk-free access today.

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For a time, Kit Harington believed he'd have to play a disfigured and bald Jon Snow on "Game of Thrones."

Known for being pranksters, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss told Entertainment Weekly that they made the Jon Snow star believe that his character would suffer horrible burns, destroying his hair and disfiguring his face.

According to "Thrones" writer and producer Bryan Cogman's book, "Inside HBO's Game of Thrones: Seasons 1 & 2," the prank occurred while shooting the eighth episode of season one. In the real, aired version, Snow sets a wight on fire at Castle Black while protecting Lord Commander Mormont (James Cosmo). But Harington didn't initially get that version of the scene.

The producers sent Harington a script with a fake version of the scene. In it, Jon Snow pulls burning drapes from a fire and throws them at the wight. The fire, though, engulfs the both of them. In the end, Mormont exclaims, "Gods, boy. I was wrong about you. You’re a ranger, through and through!"

The scene ends with: “Jon smiles, his teeth shining brightly in his destroyed face. Mormont, sickened, has to look away.”

Harington was prepared to shoot the fire scene, which Weiss told him was the result of HBO being "worried the Jon Snow storyline was too Harry Potter, and they wanted to do something to make it darker."

Harington, who has said that his looks have made him a victim of sexism against men in Hollywood, may have relished the idea of playing a disfigured Jon Snow. At any rate, he seemed up for the challenge.

"We kept this up until we started laughing," Weiss told EW. "He was a remarkably good sport about the whole thing."

SEE ALSO: The 'Game of Thrones' creators pranked this star into thinking he was being killed off

DON'T MISS: 'Game of Thrones' videos are huge on Pornhub, and HBO is trying to take them down

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NOW WATCH: 4 things you might have missed on this week’s 'Game of Thrones'

This weekend is the annual Governors Ball music festival on Randall's Island in New York City.

Throughout the three-day festival, over 60 musicians will perform, with headliners like Kanye West, The Strokes, The Killers, and Beck leading the weekend. 

While those names might be recognizable to any casual music fan, we decided to pick out some lesser-known acts performing that are worth checking out.

Years & Years

For a lot of attendees, festivals are a time to dance your heart out. There's probably no better act on the Governors Ball bill to provide that soundtrack than dance-pop trio Years & Years, whose anthemic music locates the sweet spot that Passion Pit has been riding for nearly a decade.

If you're looking for a reason to skip out on work early on Friday, Years & Years is it.

Friday June 3 - Honda Stage - 3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.

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Jamie XX

Jamie XX burst out of the shadow of his popular indie outfit The XX last year with the catchy and emotional dance/electronic album "In Colour."

Between that excellent collection of songs and his frequently updated Spotify playlist of music played during his concerts, it's clear the DJ/producer knows how to put on a killer set. 

Friday June 3 - Bacardi House Stage - 8:00 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.

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Jon Bellion

Jon Bellion is multitalented. The musician writes, produces, and sings all of his own music, which brings a hip-hop swagger to a unique blend of R&B and indie-pop.

He cites influences as disparate as Kanye West, John Mayer, and Andre 3000. Amazingly, the mix works. 

Saturday June 4 - Big Apple Stage - 2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. 

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A Miami mansion that musician Lenny Kravitz once called home has hit the market for $25 million, the Wall Street Journal has reported. 

Kravitz purchased the Sunset Islands home for $8.95 million back in 2001, when it was built. He then sold the house in 2005 to the property's current owner, Stephen Muss, who bought it for $14.5 million. Muss is a real estate mogul who is famous for purchasing and redeveloping the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami.

The estate, located on a private beachfront, features a movie theater, pool, gym, meditation garden, and elevator. At almost 12,000 square feet, this Mediterranean-style home has six bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and a three-car garage.

Coldwell Banker's Jill Hertzberg and Jill Eber have the listing. 

SEE ALSO: See inside the $5.3 million Washington, DC, home that the Obamas will reportedly move into after they leave the White House

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Gated for privacy, the home is located in the exclusive Sunset Islands neighborhood.

The outside reflects the Mediterranean style and keeps with the neighborhood's beachy feel.

Make a major entrance on this impressive stairway.

This was unexpected. AMC is experimenting with Facebook Live Thursday afternoon by streaming the pilot episode of its new series "Preacher," based on the graphic novel of the same name.

As of this posting, 18,000 people are watching and are commenting live on the episode. It's an interesting experiment for the network which premiered the series Sunday, May 22. AMC skipped out on airing a new episode over Memorial Day Weekend so the second episode of the series won't premiere until Sunday, June 5.

It's also something I've never seen another network or movie studio do. For AMC, a subsequent Facebook live stream of "Preacher" could help remind viewers to tune in to the second episode. 

For other networks and movie studios, Facebook Live could present an opportunity to debut teasers or trailers exclusively to the social network. Or, who knows? Maybe this is the future of TV.

SEE ALSO: Facebook will start measuring 'people' instead of 'users'

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