People expect a lot from Bungie — they created "Halo," one of the best gaming franchises of all-time, and now "Destiny," its new blockbuster franchise that released last fall. "Destiny" is finally beginning to mature after its second major expansion, "The House of Wolves," dropped this week.

One of the biggest aspects of this new expansion is "The Trials of Osiris," a weekly event that begins each Friday and disappears every Tuesday. It went live for the first time at 1 p.m. ET Friday — and players were happy to discover some hidden treasures, while others watched via Twitch and YouTube.

The Trials of Osiris is a competitive multiplayer event where teams of three players fight each other in elimination style rounds: win five rounds and you've won the match. Once your team has won nine matches, or lost three matches, the trials are over. You'll win various prizes if you can rack up five wins, or seven wins, or all nine wins.

But Bungie had a special surprise waiting for players that rack up nine wins without a single loss...

"Ms5oooWatts," a Destiny player who posts her work on Twitch and YouTube, played Trials of Osiris with several other Twitch gamers on Friday afternoon as a "race" to raise money for charity. Here's what she saw once she completed her ninth match.

A completely new area of the map opens up to players, for a limited time: The Lighthouse, a new social space on Mercury.

Players are even treated to a brief cinematic as they land on this new planet.

Marvel's "Daredevil" is the top-rated show on Netflix Instant!

At 4.6 out of 5 stars, it is a tenth of a point higher than "House of Cards," "Breaking Bad," and "Sherlock" (tied only with "Alive Inside," a documentary about Alzheimer's).

If it's not getting more buzz, that may be because it's a superhero show, and some people still think those are for kids. What's more, it's not blowing up box offices like "The Avengers"; it's only on Netflix, and anyway the California company doesn't release ratings.

In fact "Daredevil" is a masterpiece, and it's got a wide appeal.

Created by Drew Goddard, the 13-episode series tells the story of a blind lawyer who fights crime as a vigilante in Hell's Kitchen. Don't let the pulp plot intimidate you: Goddard, who has worked with "Avengers" mastermind Joss Whedon on projects dating back to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," knows how to keep it real.

Every episode I've watched so far is a work of art: beautiful production, tight plotting, sharp dialogue, good acting.

The latest — Ep. 5 "World On Fire" — was my favorite yet. Keep reading to see screenshotted highlights from the episode, which you should be able to appreciate even if you haven't seen the show. There are some spoilers but nothing major.

The opening scene is snappy, as Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) gets to know the vigilante, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox).

"Do you have a job or something to get to or are you one of those billionaire playboys I'm always hearing about?" she asks.

"No, I have a job."

"Damn, I thought I'd lucked out."

In a poetic exchange, the blind man describes his enhanced other senses.

"You just opened one of the cuts on your back," he says.

"How do you know?"

"The taste. Copper in the air."

...

After he touches her:

"The swelling's down. Rib fracture's only a hairline. I couldn't tell before."

"You have X-ray fingers now?"

"I can hear your bones shift when you breathe. No grinding means nothing's broken."

"What does a hairline fracture sound like?"

"An old ship."

"What do you actually see?" she asks.

This week on The CW, “The Flash” wrapped up a stellar first season, ending a string of bright, colorful, and unabashedly fun episodes with an emotional finale and a hell of a cliffhanger. Like it’s titular hero, “The Flash” bolted out of the gate at top speed, with remarkably few stumbles in its freshman year. It also gave viewers a taste of something longtime DC Comics readers have known for years: That while he isn’t a part of the famed trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, The Flash is secretly the most important character in the entire DC Universe. 

It isn’t even really a matter of opinion — sure, personal taste will dictate how much you enjoy any given Flash story, but the character’s importance is about as objective as you can get in comic books. It was The Flash that comics creators used to introduce or popularize a number of ideas that are now integral to the DC Universe, and comics as a whole. It's quite possible to chart the history of DC Comics, and to a lesser extent, mainstream superhero comics, using the Flash as a measuring stick. 

The Flash made his debut in January 1940, the third of DC’s most-recognizable characters to be created in the Golden Age of comics, coming after Batman but just before Green Lantern. He was also an entirely different character than the one you might know from the current main “Flash” comic being published by DC, on the CW TV series, or the upcoming movie set to star Ezra Miller. Those are all about another Flash — Barry Allen. We’ll get to him in a moment. 

The first Flash, however, was a guy named Jay Garrick.

While his origin was different and his costume goofier than his more recognizable successor, the important part is pretty much the same: He’s a superhero who runs really fast. You don’t really have to read his stories unless you’re a die-hard Flash fan and a completist — most Golden Age comics aren’t all that great — but there are two things that are important about him. The first is a fun bit of trivia — he becomes a part of the first superhero team ever, the Justice Society of America. The second, however, is much more interesting.

The first reboot in comics

In 1956, DC Comics did something crazy: They introduced an entirely new Flash in their variety book “Showcase,” issue #4. Created by writers Robert Kanigher and John Broome with legendary artist Carmine Infantino, this new Flash was Barry Allen, a police scientist who gained his powers after getting doused by chemicals that were struck by lightning. This is where the Flash most people are familiar with began, iconic red suit and all. 

No one had ever done this before — it was, essentially, the first real reboot in superhero comics. The Flash’s success was a key part of reviving the then floundering superhero genre, which had been under attack following the publication of Fredric Wertham’s anticomic-book manifesto “The Seduction of the Innocent.” Thanks to The Flash, superheroes began to come back in a big way — and the birth of Barry Allen effectively marked the start of the Silver Age of comics. 

Make sense? Good. Here’s where things get crazy.

Flash meets Flash

When Barry Allen took over as the Flash, he was originally intended to replace Jay Garrick entirely. After his first appearance in “Showcase” was deemed a success and he was placed in his own book, “The Flash,” the new series picked up where the Jay Garrick-starring “Flash Comics” left off — with issue #105. 

Funny story, though — Jay Garrick wasn’t entirely wiped from existence. Instead, he was a comic book character that Barry Allen read, a character that Allen would name himself after. 

And then they meet.

In the seminal story “The Flash of Two Worlds” by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino, Barry Allen, as The Flash, is demonstrating his powers at a community event when he does something he’s never done before. He vibrates straight out of our universe and into another, Earth-2, where his comic-book hero, Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, is real (along with the Golden Age versions of all of DC's characters). That story, which took place in “Flash” #123, marked the birth of the DC multiverse, and — to use an old comics cliché— nothing would ever be the same again. 

The sci-fi plot device of parallel universes would become one of the most well-worn tropes in superhero comics, and it got its start with The Flash. “The Flash of Two Worlds” established Earth-2 as the world where all of DC's Golden Age characters resided, and started a trend where DC creators would introduce new parallel Earths to tell stories that deviated greatly from everything that came before — and some of those stories were weird. 

Eventually, it would all get out of hand, with far too many universes in DC for its fans to keep track of and very little consistency regarding its characters’ backstories. To resolve this, DC would bring the multiverse to an end in 1985’s  “Crisis on Infinite Earths” by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. “Crisis” was a watershed moment in comics history, collapsing all of DC’s multiple universes into one greatest-hits filled version of their entire publishing history. It’s even used as a measuring stick for DC chronology — pre and post “Crisis” became descriptors for discussing DC history.

What does this have to do with The Flash? Everything. Barry Allen plays a crucial role in “Crisis,” one that leads to his heroic death at the beginning of the miniseries’ final act. It’s a bit of a poetic, if not tragic, end for the character: The hero whose origin marked the start of the Silver Age would die at its end. 

In doing so, Allen and his story would solidify the one thing that most differentiates DC from its chief competitor, Marvel. 

It’s all about legacy

During the first few years of Barry Allen’s tenure as The Flash, DC introduced a teenaged sidekick for the Scarlet Speedster: Wally West, AKA Kid Flash. At the end of “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” West would take on the mantle of his former mentor and become the Flash of the Modern Age of Comics in DC’s post "Crisis" universe. 

Once again, The Flash was ground zero for another comic book first: The sidekick who inherited the mantle of his mentor. The graduation of Wally West was a huge comics landmark, the canonization of what’s still perceived as a cornerstone of the DC Universe: legacy. Its heroes are ideas, larger than life and bigger than any one person. They’re all symbols proudly carried by multiple people across generations — and sometimes all at once. Families form around them, bearing Superman’s shield or Batman’s signature Bat symbol like coats of arms, noble banners in a mythic tapestry going back more than 75 years. 

This sort of noble heroism that inspires followers and family is something that’s a huge part of these characters’ DNA, but it struggles to make it to the big screen. The superhero movie zeitgeist on the whole — and the DC movie esthetic in particular — favors a certain hard-edged grimness at odds with all that. The utter bigness and limitless fun inherent to most of DC’s pantheon of heroes has yet to be faithfully portrayed on film, and it’s a shame. 

Which brings us back to “The Flash." While it’s not entirely without fault, the CW’s “Flash” series is bridging this gap, bringing a sense of unbridled joy and heroism to the small-screen adventures of Barry Allen. It is a complete breath of fresh air, and totally embraces it’s often-campy comic-book roots where other superhero adaptations would have played them down. Its first season concluded in a way that every superhero story should end: With the feeling that anything could happen next. 

It’s been a long time since a live-action superhero story has been able to pull that off so effortlessly. Once again, The Flash has heralded a watershed moment for comic books. 

Run, Barry, run. 

SEE ALSO: It's astonishing how far Disney is going to bury the X-Men

SEE ALSO: George Clooney considered playing Marvel's Nick Fury until he saw this unbelievably gory scene

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NOW WATCH: Marvel's new 'Ant-Man' trailer looks even better than 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

Warning: Spoilers ahead

Disney’s latest film “Tomorrowland” is an uplifting story that champions those who believe imagination can better the world.

Though Frank (George Clooney) and Casey (Britt Robertson) are two such dreamers, they are trapped in a world crippled by war and a planet dying due to our own disregard for it.

Their only hope is a far-away place called Tomorrowland. And as we learn through the film, this wondrous utopia was created by some of the greatest thinkers the world has ever known. Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Jules Verne, and Gustave Eiffel joined forces to become the group known as Plus Ultra, which founded Tomorrowland.

But “Tomorrowland” director Brad Bird was planning to give Plus Ultra a much larger origin story if he didn't have to cut it out due to running-time constraints.

According to Eddie Pasquarello, who was the co-visual effects supervisor on the film, animation studio Pixar created a short story for the movie that’s part-Plus Ultra explanation, part-recruitment video for entry into Tomorrowland. Pasquarello’s team was tasked to create a CG-heavy ride in the style of what you'd find at a Disney amusement park for a scene that the Pixar story would be told in.

Pasquarello explains the scene, which would have presumably been in the beginning of the film when young Frank is on the “It’s A Small World” ride at the 1964 World’s Fair:

“It was pitched as a ride under a ride. When Frank drops below the ‘It’s A Small World’ ride instead of going right to the portal to Tomorrowland he would have taken this ride first, like a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' boat ride. Moving set pieces, mist curtains, it would have been literally riding a classic Disney ride and it would have told the backstory of Plus Ultra.”

But animation on the ride portion was shut down after Bird realized he couldn’t fit it in the film.

Instead, last month he tweeted out the Pixar short as backstory.

Including it in the film may have helped crystallize to the audience how Tomorrowland came to be, but as the film’s production designer Scott Chambliss told The New York Times: “It’s a great cartoon, and we all loved doing it, but it stopped the movie dead, according to Brad.”

Pasquarello believes in the future if Bird ever wanted to include the Plus Ultra origin story with the CGI ride portion, it's possible. 

“I think there’s enough done that it could be a Blu-ray extra, for sure,” he said.

Watch the origin of Plus Ultra here.

 “Tomorrowland” is currently playing in theaters.

SEE ALSO: It took 200 people to create the dazzling futuristic world in "Tomorrowland"

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NOW WATCH: Disney's new 'Tomorrowland' trailer is awesome — but we're still not sure what it's about

One of the best parts of the current superhero movie boom is the costume design—all these wonderful, garish things proudly strapped onto super-famous actors in billion-dollar movies.

Thanks to the staggering success of Marvel Studios, we're now getting superhero movies at a pretty steady clip. But it's not until very recently that these adaptations have approached anything as inherently weird as some of the source material for "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

Marvel has a pretty well-established history of remixing and streamlining the best and most iconic of the many looks each of its characters have sported over the years for their big-screen adaptations (in a funny bit of symmetry, the movie designs usually end up influencing how a character will look in the comics afterward).

So before we move on from "Avengers" into the rest of the summer, let's revisit each of the characters' classic looks to see how they transformed to the big screen. 

Chris Hemsworth's Thor has looked mostly the same in every movie appearance.

That's appropriate, since comics Thor stayed consistent for a very long time, too—and doesn't look all that different from Hemsworth.

Iron Man is a tricky one—his armor changes every movie, but the general design is mostly the same. Below are his original suit and one of his suits from the latest film.

One of the best and most beautiful iPhone games of the year, Alto's Adventure, is currently on sale at half price for a limited time, and you can pick it up today for only $0.99.

The game, which lets you play as the mountain man Alto as he snowboards his way down an endless mountain in pursuit of his escaped llamas, features gorgeous artwork and survival-based gameplay that makes it both addictive and delightful to look at.

You're introduced to Alto as his beloved llamas escape down the mountain. It's your job to catch them, and snowboarding past a llama captures it and gives you some points.

It's a little bit absurd to make a point system based on the number of llamas you collect but that's part of what makes Alto's Adventure so much fun. You can also collect coins to purchase new riders and upgrades in the village shops. Alto's Adventure doesn't have any in-app purchases, so you won't be tempted to drop real money.

As you make your way down each mountain, there's also obstacles to jump over, ramps to launch off to perform back flips, and ribboned rails to grind on. It's all physics-based gameplay, which helps you get into the game's rhythm while giving you cues like showing how fast you're going by how long Alto's scarf drags in the wind.

The game's controls keep things simple: Just tap the screen to jump, tap and hold to back flip, and if you can get your snowboarder onto a rail he'll grind it automatically. If you string together a series of jumps, flips, and grinds, you gain more points, which gives the game a bit of a competitive feel like the classic Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or SSX Tricky games of old.

Each level has a different set of objectives that ask you to capture a certain number of llamas, nab a particular number of coins, or successfully jump over a certain number of obstacles.

But the most striking aspect of Alto's Adventure is the game's art style, which combines dynamic lighting and weather effects to create beautiful environments that stand out. The more you play, the more tiny details you notice, and the game's piano-based score makes headphones a must.

At the end of the day, Alto's Adventure feels a bit like a mixture of Tiny Wings, Monument Valley, and SSX Tricky, and the result is gorgeous game that's fun to play too.

Alto's Adventure is currently available as universal app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, you can download it for $0.99 over at the App Store.

SEE ALSO: Netflix is getting a new design next month — here's what it looks like

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On Wednesday, David Letterman hosted the "Late Show" for the very last time.

Out of respect for his idol, Jimmy Kimmel aired a rerun of his competing late-night show.

"I have too much respect for Dave to do anything that would distract viewers from watching his final show," Kimmel recently told The New York Times. "Plus, I’ll probably be crying all day, which makes it hard to work."

Indeed, Kimmel did shed a few tears during his tribute to the veteran late-night host on Tuesday. But Kimmel's obsession with Letterman goes way back.

Kimmel, 47, has idolized Letterman, 68, since the younger late-night host was a quirky kid growing up in Vegas.

"His show was just so weird and different," Kimmel told Rolling Stone back in 2013. "I'd never seen anything like it. I didn't know anyone who had a sense of humor like that."

Kimmel has often joked that the only reason he went into show business was to be friends with Letterman — and wondered why anyone would watch his show instead of Letterman’s.

So when Kimmel was coming off four years as cohost of Comedy Central’s “The Man Show” and about to debut "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on ABC in 2002, naturally he reached out to Letterman to be a guest on the show’s premiere episode.

Letterman’s typed response — on personal stationery — today sits framed on Kimmel’s desk in his studio office, alongside a photo of his late grandparents and a picture of himself covered in whipped cream after popping a fictional zit on Jon Stewart’s forehead.

This is what the letter said. It's from September 23, 2002, and was uncovered by New York Magazine.

Dear Jimmy,

Thanks for asking me to appear on your premiere. Unfortunately, I will be out of the country on business. I’m sure the program will be a success regardless.

Sincerely,

Dave

"His response is hilarious," Kimmel told New York Magazine. "He’s not out of the country on business. He knows you know he’s not out of the country on business and just the words 'on business' — it really makes it a perfect letter for me."

Eleven years later, the two aren’t exactly best buddies. But Letterman did appear on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" for the first time in 2012, when the LA-based show broadcast out of Brooklyn after Hurricane Sandy.

Letterman's appearance gave Kimmel his biggest Wednesday audience in the show's history — about 2.4 million viewers.

Leading up to the visit, Kimmel said he was "terrified" to interview Letterman and tried to justify it by saying, "I’m sure for him it’s nothing more than a nuisance, that he’s just doing it to be nice."

But Letterman was a gracious guest as Kimmel showed him photos of his "Late Night"-themed 18th-birthday cake:

And "L8 Nite" license plate on his first car.

Letterman responded by telling his No. 1 fan, "I’ll be honest with you, it was troubling. I kept saying to people, 'Why is he sucking up to me?' ... When I was persuaded that there was some measure of stability here, then I really realized that it was genuine and I couldn’t appreciate it more."

Letterman added, "In show business, one of the precepts is you're not really supposed to be nice to people, especially if you have the same occupation as another person. Jimmy has broken that precept and has been nothing but generous and courteous and kind to me."

Kimmel told Rolling Stone that, as a kid, he felt like Letterman was doing his show "specifically for [him]." And now, to return the favor, Kimmel won't do his show on Wednesday, specifically for Letterman.

Watch Letterman's ratings-raising 2012 appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

On Tuesday, Kimmel gave an emotional farewell tribute to Letterman, urging viewers to watch Dave's final show on Wednesday instead of his own.

Through tears, Kimmel explained: "Dave is the best and you should see him."

SEE ALSO: Jimmy Kimmel gave the best, teary tribute to his idol David Letterman

MORE: The incredible story of how David Letterman saved Conan O'Brien's career in 1993

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NOW WATCH: How the stars of AMC's blockbuster 'Mad Men' changed over the years

You may not know anything about "Game of War: Fire Age," but you've probably seen its ads featuring supermodel Kate Upton. With $40 million invested in advertising, "Game of War" has become the second-most-profitable game on the iPhone despite being free to play. Like Las Vegas, it's profitable because it's designed from the ground up to take your money.

Produced by Corey Protin

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This could be the biggest fall for television remakes, revivals and spinoffs. That could just be what the major networks really needed to cut through today's very dense TV landscape, because it's working.

Business Insider partnered with Amobee Brand Intelligence— a company that provides marketing insight and measures real-time content consumption across the internet, social, and mobile — to find out which new TV shows are actually breaking through the clutter and getting the most attention.

During the process, Amobee discovered that out of the 10 upcoming fall TV series that generated the most consumption between April 19-May 19, six were based on existing franchises. A whopping 88% of the digital consumption — a measure of how often a term/brand is actually “seen” online (600,000+ websites including mobile) and social media — around those 10 shows were shows based on existing franchises.

CBS's "Supergirl" remake soared above next season's new shows, receiving the most digital consumption and thus setting the bar against which the other shows are compared.

The CW's "Arrow"-"Flash" spinoff "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" came in second at 69% of "Supergirl's" digital consumption.

In the third position, CBS's sequel to Bradley Cooper film "Limitless" came in at 51%.

It was followed by ABC's "The Muppets" revival in fourth place at 31%.

The first original series to break through is Fox's Ryan Murphy series "Scream Queens," which rounds out the Top 5 with 16%.

See Amobee's chart below for the other shows that broke into the internet's Top 10 most "seen" series:

SEE ALSO: The 13 new TV shows we're most excited about

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NOW WATCH: The trailer for the 'Minority Report' TV show looks better than the original movie

The prevalence of video-on-demand is causing box office profits to decrease, especially in North America. One company is giving consumers an incentive to keep going to the multiplex.

MoviePass is a subscription service that, for a $30 to $35 monthly fee, offers unlimited trips to the movie theater. We took it for a test drive and found that the service makes a lot of economic sense for people who venture to the theater frequently enough to cover the subscription cost.

Produced by Graham Flanagan. Camera by Jason Gaines and Will Wei.

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One of the best parts of "Mad Max: Fury Road," aside from the visuals and the non-stop car action, is definitely the man playing a solo rock concert from a flamethrower guitar as he hangs midair from a speeding vehicle. 

Even before "Fury Road" was released in theaters, the guitar man was one of the most exciting parts of the film's trailers.  

People on Twitter are going crazy over him, and he's even managing to steal some of the spotlight away from the leads Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron:

Who's the guy behind the mystery man?

According to the film's production notes, he's called "The Doof Warrior," and is described as a "little drummer boy" for the antagonists.

In real life, he's known as the multi-talented musician and actor iOTA, who's real name is Sean Hape. He formed his first band at age 16 and moved out of home at age 17 to form the hard rock band Loose Goose.

It is no surprise iOTA was hired to play a guitarist, given that he is a well-known, multi-talented musician from director George Miller's home country of Australia.

Here is a sample of one of his songs from the 1999 album "The Hip Bone Connection":

And here he is performing in Melbourne:

In addition, iOTA has five albums under his belt. Before his music and film careers kicked off, iOTA earned much acclaim in theater.

His musical background came in handy when playing the Doof Warrior. According to the film's production notes the artist wrote and recorded war themes to play on the real-working flamethrower guitar.

iOTA might not have made his film debut until 2013 as orchestra leader in "The Great Gatsby," but his acting career goes back much further. 

He played the lead roles in Australian productions "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," and "Smoke and Mirrors" (the last one which he co-created). His newest rock musical, "B-Girl," premieres next month at the world famous Sydney Opera House. 

He hasn't been asked to play Hedwig in Broadway's smash hit revival yet, but here he is playing the character in Sydney back in 2006:

Starring in a "Mad Max" movie was a dream of his, so if this was his last film role ever, he probably wouldn't complain.

“It was just a dream come true,” iOTA told BuzzFeed in an interview. “I’m such a fan of the films and I just dreamed about it for so long. As a kid, I was always thinking, One day, I could be in Mad Max. It was just the time of my life.”

But if he is asked to star in one of the upcoming sequels, his answer will be "of course."

SEE ALSO: A sequel to 'Mad Max: Fury Road' is in the works

AND: Why you won't see Mel Gibson in the new 'Mad Max' movie

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NOW WATCH: The latest 'Mad Max: Fury Road' trailer is a wild ride into madness

Stanley Kubrick's landmark psychological horror film "The Shining" was released 35 years ago on Saturday. 

The movie was met with popular and critical acclaim and remains widely viewed today. 

Kubrick's daughter, Vivian, who was 17 years old when the movie was being made, made a short movie documenting the making of one of her father's signature films.

Vivian's footage captures the prep for one of movie's most chilling scenes (via The Filmstage):

In addition to "The Shining," Kubrick, who died in 1999, directed "Spartacus," "Dr. Strangelove," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A Clockwork Orange," and "Full Metal Jacket."

Kubrick received nearly a dozen Academy Award nominations throughout his career, and he won an Oscar for 1971's "A Clockwork Orange."

The documentary was created for Arena, a BBC television show. You can see the whole thing below.

SEE ALSO:  Here's the 1971 Coca-Cola ad that played during the 'Mad Men' finale

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NOW WATCH: Watch these giant container ships collide near the Suez Canal

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NOW WATCH: 'The Little Prince' trailer looks better than anything Pixar has made in years

Rohan Shah is 22, and he's a software engineer at Google. 

He was offered the job just before his senior year of college at the University of Illinois, but his career with Google started six months prior, in January 2013, when he was 20.

Then, Shah remembers receiving an email from his dream employer. The search giant – the best company to work for in the world! – was interested in interviewing him for one of its coveted internship positions.

It had been weeks since Shah filled out the online application following a career fair at his college, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He had already accepted another summer internship at Qualcomm one month prior.

But this was Google! And Shah couldn't let the opportunity slip by.

A Google spokesperson told Business Insider the company accepts only 1,500 interns out of about 40,000 applicants every year in the United States. Earning a spot at Google is so competitive, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn starred in a movie about it.

Shah went through with the interview process, which spanned more than one month. By the end of January, he was offered an internship position.

Instead of canceling his summer plans with Qualcomm, Shah called his school and took a leave of absence. He flew to Mountain View, California and became one of about 50 interns during the spring of 2013.

What was the interview process like? What's it really like being a Google intern? And how does a Google internship turn into a job? Shah and other interns recount their tales.

Getting The Interview: A Slow And Tedious Process

The Google interview process, whether you're applying for an internship or a full-time position, begins with an online application. The hopeful candidate fills out forms that inquire about his or her grade point average, past experiences, extra curricular activities and more.

Shah didn't do anything fancy with his resume to attract attention. But he can speak three languages, he has received a volunteering medal of honor, and he was on his school's Dean's List. In addition, he was a teaching assistant, he held previous internships and, just for fun, he created Android apps.

Still, it took multiple weeks for Google to respond to his November application. When Google finally did, it sent him an email.

Another intern candidate, Evan Carmi, said he waited a month and a half before hearing from Google HR when he applied in 2010.

The email correspondence between Google HR and the candidate leads to two phone interviews with current Google employees.

That's when the process really begins.

A Series Of 'Highly Technical' 45-Minute Interviews

Google was once infamous for asking tough brainteasers during its interview process. After a bout of negative press, Google forbid its staff from asking candidates questions like "How many cows are in Canada?"

Still, the interviews – even for interns – are highly technical.

"It was essentially applying your knowledge in a very practical situation," Shah explains, which is about as in-depth as Google will let him go. Google has a strict policy against sharing company information, although it allowed our interview with Shah.

"It's figuring out if you can scale a system, or you can make something much more efficient," he says. The best applicants are able to apply those concepts quickly throughout the entire 45-minute process. 

Carmi's interviews were equally technical, and he wrote freely about them in a 2010 blog post. His first of the back-to-back calls was from a Site Reliability Engineer at Google. He asked Carmi questions pertaining to Python, such as "Write a function with the following specification: Input: a list. Output: a copy of the list with duplicates removed."

Carmi's second interview was with a Carnegie Mellon graduate on Google's Webmaster Tools Team who asked him to write actual code. A single question took up the vast majority of the 45-minute slot and caused Carmi to all but break a sweat.

Carmi was asked to do a third technical phone interview and his dreams of becoming a Google intern died there.

Shah was more fortunate. One week after his two phone interviews, he received an email from HR: "You did well in the interviews, we want to continue the process," he was told.

The Google recruiter then helped him figure out which department he'd like to intern for, and more interviews followed.

"I had interviews with around five different teams," he says.

Unlike the phone interviews, the team interviews aren't technical. They help the potential interns get to know the different groups within Google and learn if they'll like working in one over another.

By late January – three months after submitting his application – Shah was officially a Google intern. He'd be joining Google's Android department.

His next stop: Mountain View.

Housing, Roommates, And Commute, All Covered By Google

It may seem impossible to get an internship offer across the country and start working there two weeks later.

But if you're a Google intern, the company solves all of your housing and travel logistics for you. Shah was put up in Google-paid corporate housing, in San Jose's North Park, with fellow Google interns for roommates.

Shah was assigned three roommates, two from Argentina and one from Ukraine.

"I got to meet people from a completely different culture. I got to learn from them and picked up a bit of their languages as well," says Shah. "It was a great housing experience for me."

Shah describes the apartment as "very nice" with a train station close by for easy access to most places in Silicon Valley.

There's no need for a car or a bike when you're a Google intern. Google sends free shuttles throughout the entire Bay Area, including San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto and Berkeley, to take employees to work and home at night.

Bikes are available on Google's campus for long-term rent, or for hopping from office to office around the 'Plex.

A Week And A Half Of Orientation

The intern orientation process goes on for a week and a half. Interns are taught how the data centers work, how the company functions, and what Google's goals are. They also meet all the other new Googlers.

"Just in the first week you feel like you've been an employee for a year," Shah says. "You get acclimated with the company very quickly."

From the moment he stepped onto Google's grassy campus, Shah was in love.

"My first day was amazing," he says.

Making The Money

Google interns get paid more than most full-time employees across the country. According to Glassdoor, the average Google intern makes $5,678 per month, or $68,136 per year.

Shah's pay was slightly more at about $6,100 per month or $80,000 per year.* Take into account all of the perks, including free rent, transportation, gym membership and food, and a Google intern is living large.

"I didn't find myself wasting any money, except on weekends when I went exploring," says Shah. "It was a great semester."

So, What Do Google Interns Do All Day?

A lot of work, and a lot of team building activities.

Shah recalls trips to museums, movies, hiking and biking excursions, as well as several trips to San Francisco, all organized by Google. He was the only intern on his Android team, and there were a lot of team dinners, including one on his 20th birthday.

Unlike most other internships, where the underlings send faxes and grab coffees, Google interns work on real products that will be used by the world.

Each intern is assigned a project within his or her group. They're also assigned a mentor who will chat with them weekly, or as frequently as the intern needs, and give feedback on their progress.

Shah's project involved working with old Gmail code and launching a new, top-secret feature. His favorite memory from the internship is the day he rolled out the Android feature internally. He received tons of feedback from his peers, and then it hit him: The work he had done at Google was going to impact millions of people.

"It was a great sense of satisfaction," Shah recalls.

A current Google software engineer, Kitt Vanderwater, had a similar experience when she interned in the Google+ department.

"I had a lot of responsibility," she says. "It was a little overwhelming because I was doing all these things I had never done before. I was the one who was driving a lot of the decisions we were making, I ended up making the page for signed-out search, which was the first experience anyone got in the new Google+ search. So basically I owned this page that tons of people were going to land on when Search was actually launched."

What Googlers Are Really Like

Googlers aren't a bunch of social misfits, although that's how they're occasionally portrayed. Shah was surprised how normal and non-geeky everyone at Google was, engineers included.

"One thing that really surprised me working at Google was that every single employee is extremely creative and extremely active," Shah says. "There's a very clear divide between work and life. Google engineers are very well-balanced. I have evidence that people really are the best thing at Google."

"I have evidence that people really are the best thing at Google."

Meeting Sergey Brin

Interns aren't all introduced to Google's top executives. Nor are they allowed to test out all of the cool-new devices that Google is building. Shah never zipped around in a driverless car or wore Google Glass while he was there. But he did run into Google co-founder Sergey Brin once.

"The one time I did meet Sergey, three intern friends and I were going bowling," Shah explained. (But not bowling off campus, of course. Google has its own alley.) "Sergey happened to be passing by, showing his friend around the place. That's actually as much as I saw of Sergey."

The Perks: 24 Cafes, Multiple Gyms, A Wellness Center And More

You won't starve working for Google. Like most Googlers, Shah says the food was "probably the biggest perk."

He estimated the Googleplex had 24 cafes with a wide variety of cuisines to choose from: Mexican, American, Indian, salad bars, pizza shops and burger joints. Gyms are located close to cafes for anyone feeling over-fed.

The gyms are well equipped and are often completely full, says Shah.

If you get sick, you just go to Google's wellness center. Feel a knot in your back? Go to the on-campus masseuse. All are available for interns as well as employees.

"Free food and refreshments, free gym membership, laundry, dancing lessons, etc," Paul Baltescu, a two-time Google intern, rattles off perks on Quora. "Intern events are also loads of fun: you may go to paintball, laser tag, watch a SF Giants game and all summer interns go on a luxury boat trip on the San Francisco Bay. Also, depending on your team you may attend other fun events like white river rafting, a three days trip to Lake Tahoe or may get to visit other Google offices."

The Cons of Being A Google Intern? There Are None

If there are any downsides to being a Google intern, Shah can't recall any. His only complaint is more of a frustration with himself.

Shah wasn't as experienced an Android developer as Google's full-time engineers, so it took him some time before he could fully contribute to the team. But he says his co-workers were understanding and his mentor was always there for encouragement.

Like Shah, Baltescu can think of only pros when he recalls his internship experience.

"Both internships helped me develop basic software engineering skills that I wouldn't have otherwise learned from school projects (how to code search efficiently, how to unit test properly, how to use version control systems, etc.)," he writes on Quora. "I also learned some new technologies like python and App Engine and brushed on my JavaScript and C++. I'm very grateful for what I've learned at Google and I strongly recommend their internship program to any student wishing to become a software engineer in the near future."

Life After A Google Internship

For Shah, one internship (Google's) led right into another (Qualcomm's). But at the end of his Google internship, he was able to interview for a full-time job that would be waiting for him when he graduated in 2014. Google interns can interview before their departure, and their mentors can help them prep.

That summer, a few months after the interview, Shah was told he could become an official Googler.

Jenna Wandres, Google's Communications Associate who oversees all things culture, told Business Insider then, "We rely heavily on those interns when we're thinking about hiring."

Shah's advice to other hopeful Google interns?

"Google is really looking for experience," he says. "They want to find engineers who are motivated, so activities outside of school really help. At the same time, you need to know your basics. You need to understand simple algorithms and how to apply them. Google is all about application."

The best piece of advice comes from Shah's Google mentor: Stay calm.

"I know every interviewer says that, But Google interviews are kind of unnerving because they're highly technical. Calming down was what really helped me through."

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NOW WATCH: We did the math: Is Uber really cheaper than a taxi?

Conan O'Brien paid tribute to David Letterman on Tuesday night ahead of the veteran host's final show on Wednesday.

O'Brien said Letterman has "been the north star for me and every comic of my generation" and told a fascinating personal story about how Dave once saved his career.

"What I wanted to talk about tonight, briefly, is something incredible that Dave did for me almost 22 years ago," O'Brien began. "Something that had a profound impact on my life."

"Some of you may be too young to know this, but way back in 1993, I took over David Letterman's iconic 'Late Night' television show."

"I was a complete unknown, with absolutely no experience performing on television. I was utterly and totally unprepared for that enormous job," O'Brien explains. "I don't even think anything like that could happen today. We can check people out on YouTube today, but then, I was a complete unknown and totally unprepared."

"After going on the air in September 1993, I got the s--- kicked out me," he continued. "Critics despised me; the ratings were bad; my skin broke out — which it hadn't done since high school and then again at this crucial time. And my network started to make it clear that I probably wouldn't be around for very long. I honestly have no ill will about that time, because by and large people were right. I'm serious; I was in way over my head."

"The conventional wisdom was that everybody thought I should be cancelled. And then something miraculous happened," says the now 52-year-old. "After four dreary months, out of the blue, we got a message at the show that David Letterman wanted to come on the program as a guest."

"Now understand, Dave wasn't just the biggest late-night star at the time, he was the biggest thing on television. He didn't go on other people's shows. It was like The Beatles asking Maury Povich if they could stop by and sing a couple of tunes."

"It was that absurd! And at the time, I was convinced it was a prank. I didn't think it could be real," said O'Brien.

"But on February 28, 1994, David Letterman walked onto my set and blew the doors off the place. It’s easily one of the happiest nights of my professional life."

"True story, after that one night, that one appearance, everything turned around for me," claims O'Brien, who now has his own TBS late-night show.

"The morale of the staff shot through the ceiling; my producer, writers, Andy, we all thought that if David Letterman can come on our show and say a few kind words, then maybe, just maybe, we can earn the right to be here."

"And we survived."

"So, the point behind all of this is that I just want you to know, that if you have ever liked any silly or stupid thing I’ve done on television over the past 20 years, you must know that it probably never would have happened if it weren’t for Dave."

"At one of the lowest points of my life, when I was a 30-year-old national punch line, Dave, for reasons I still don’t really understand — completely rescued me."

"I still believe that that simple act of kindness turned everything around and made all the difference."

Watch Conan's full farewell tribute below:

SEE ALSO: David Letterman sent this witty rejection letter to Jimmy Kimmel in 2002

MORE: Jimmy Kimmel gave the best, teary tribute to his idol David Letterman

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"Daredevil" is the best superhero adaptation on screen since "The Dark Knight."

It's true.

I just finished watching the entire Netflix series, "Daredevil," and it was quite a ride. I am by no means a comic book aficionado. Before seeing the show I hadn't read any of the comics, and I hadn't even seen Ben Affleck's often-ridiculed film version. I came into "Daredevil" with an open mind, but plenty of doubts.

We know Netflix has a track record of producing good programming with hits like "House of Cards," and "Orange Is The New Black," but adapting a superhero comic for the small screen? That seemed ambitious.

It was, and they absolutely crushed it.

The series, created by Drew Goddard ("The Cabin in the Woods"), follows the story of a man named Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) who suffered a horrible accident as a kid which blinded him. It also gave him extra powers, boosting his remaining senses to a superhuman level. Murdock is a lawyer at a newly formed two-person practice with his best friend, Foggy (Elden Henson). By day, they fight the good legal fight against the baddies of Hell's Kitchen. By night, Murdock puts on a mask, and fights a similar fight, in a much more violent manner.

Incredible grit

What sets "Daredevil" apart from other superhero screen reboots of the past decade is the incredible amount of grit and realism Goddard has built into the fabric of the show, and how successfully it works.

Ever since Christopher Nolan created his now legendary Batman trilogy, darkness has been a superhero hotspot. Nolan's movies were infused with a sort of hyper realism that made Gotham City feel like one gigantic dungeon playground. That darkness was fueled by the deeply investigated psychology of the characters. Nolan went out of his way to provide a lot of backstory and dialogue to create a full story about the deep and dark psychological motivations of each of his characters.

Goddard is clearly standing on Nolan's shoulders with the general tone here. His Hell's Kitchen (the setting for "Daredevil," a neighborhood of New York City) reminds us a lot of Nolan's corrupt, unhinged Gotham City.

But, for the most part, that's where the comparisons end.

Goddard's "Daredevil," is much grittier and realistic, no doubt a nod to the equally dark — both in tone and look — comic series which Frank Miller (yes, the Miller eventually responsible for some of the most iconic Batman series ever told) helped establish.

Our hero doesn't wear his shiny red Kevlar suit until the very final episode in season 1. The many fight sequences are beautiful but sloppy in a way that gives them a hint of gruesome realism rather than stylization. The blood and the pain are rendered with incredible, stomach-turning verisimilitude.

Some of these fight scenes and fight recovery scenes (i.e. patch up a bloodied Matt Murdock scenes) were hard for me to watch. And that's part of their dark charm. I often had to turn away cringing (as I often do during "Game Of Thrones"). It's a visceral show, you feel it, it rocks you a little bit.

It's a visceral show, you feel it, it rocks you a little bit.

The cast is incredible

Goddard really couldn't have done much better with casting his lead than with the choice of Charlie Cox. Cox is both charming and believable as Matt Murdock / Daredevil / The Devil of Hell's Kitchen.

Matt Murdock is not your average superhero alter-ego. He's blind. So any actor who plays him has a very difficult task right from the start. Also, Daredevil's super powers are not the kind of thing you can easily portray with special effects or CGI.

He can't fly, and he doesn't shoot laser beams out of his eyes. He senses things, deeply, everywhere, in every way. The responsibility mostly falls on the actor to make us believe this character is feeling these things at all times and managing it. The superpower is clearly a burden, there's so much noise to sift through that it's clear Murdock has had to spend years and years making his powers a gift and not a curse. Cox does a great job with this.

He's perfect for the part. Strong, serious, but with a zest for life. His Matt Murdock is a good guy with a rough past. It's the story of a man who put his life back together with duct tape after a past that tore him to pieces. He's cracked, imperfect, makes some poor decisions, and often acts before thinking. But the intentions are always pure. This all comes off without a hitch in Cox's portrayal.

Perhaps more impressive is Kingpin, or Wilson Fisk as he's known in the series, portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio. D'Onofrio has created one of my all-time favorite villain characters in a superhero screen adaptation.

This, to me, is creator Drew Goddard's master stroke. He took the time, throughout the series, to show us the true character of Wilson Fisk. What he wants, why he is who he is, and why he does what he does. We see his childhood, we see his private moments, and we see his public ones.

Wilson Fisk is, in many ways, a little boy in a man's body who is just trying to protect mom. Quite literally this is true in a gruesome scene from Fisk's childhood. As a man, that entity he is trying to protect becomes the city he lives in (actually, Hell's Kitchen, which is how the setting is always described in the show, rarely is "New York" uttered). Fisk will stop at nothing to make his horrific, beat up city new and pristine again (What his ideal is, however, remains elusive). Over and over, through murder, corruption, and destruction, he pleads that it's all for the greater good. And the triumph here is — you believe him.

The supporting cast is also quite good. Henson is a solid, if not a little too campy Foggy (Murdock's best friend). And Deborah Ann Woll ("True Blood") takes a fun turn as Karen Page, the woman who comes to work in Matt and Foggy's law offices as well as get sucked into the larger story.

There are many other great supporting performances as well.

One of the best origin story reveals

It occurs to me, since I've seen it done badly so many times, that one of the hardest writing questions to answer when you're tackling a superhero movie adaption of a comic is how to deal with the origin story.

What's great about "Daredevil" is it's not a movie. 

What's great about "Daredevil" is it's not a movie. 

So Goddard and co. made the decision to not spill it all at once.

And what a decision that is.

The entire first season is a meditation on these characters. We're constantly getting non-linear flashbacks and dialogue that reveal both expositional plot information and psychological character development. It's not all thrust at us in episode 1. We get to know these characters deeply over time, and that makes us care about them. As learn more about them, the major arc in the present becomes infused with stronger meaning.

That's a real achievement.

I'm also grateful that the entire season is unabashedly about one story. This is far from always a given. Just look at the most recent season of "Doctor Who," which resets after every episode.

In "Daredevil," Fisk is working towards something big to change Hell's kitchen, and he doggedly pursues that each and every moment of the show. Matt Murdock, on the other hand, finds out Fisk is behind all that badness, and doggedly pursues stopping him at every moment of the show.

Every moment builds off the next. It's one, clear arc with plenty of cliffhangers and crazy twists.

You could probably argue the plot of this arc could, with a few omissions, be done in one hour-long show. This could be just one of Daredevil's stories. But instead, Goddard and his team gave us the time to really dig into the plot over all those episodes, as well as to examine each character thoroughly enough to make us care.

It's just different

It's clear that the details infused into the series that make it stand above it's contemporaries in quality.

For example, a long and intense single-shot fight scene in episode 2, that pits Murdock against loads of Russian bad guys. Decisions to add nuances like a single shot, delicately choreographed and performed scene are the epitome of details that allow "Daredevil" to rise above. Truth be told, there are a number of cinematographic gems throughout the series.

The show also made the nuanced choice to steer away from camp and surrealism, and dive into realism — an unpopular choice in Hollywood these days when it comes to superheroes.

Even the fact that this is a Netflix series is a meaningful departure.

I've racked my brain looking for ways the show could have been improved and I'm coming up empty. I have a hard time finding something I had a negative reaction to, or think was a poor choice under the circumstances. It's difficult.

When all is said and done, this is my favorite bit of Marvel on-screen adaptation for a long time, maybe ever. There will always be a fun place for adaptations like Joss Whedon's "The Avengers," infused with snappy dialogue, a little camp, and tons of CGI. 

"Daredevil" has carved its own little place in my heart — a psychologically-rich superhero story packed with so much careful detail and ambitious realism, that I can't turn away.

SEE ALSO: Stunt coordinator for Netflix's 'Daredevil' describes how he made that mind-blowing single shot fight scene

SEE ALSO: There is one mid-credits scene in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' — Here's what it means for future Marvel movies

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NOW WATCH: Netflix's new 'Daredevil' show looks way better than Ben Affleck's version of the superhero

Famed mathematician John Nash and his wife Alicia Nash were killed Saturday in a taxi crash on the New Jersey Turnpike, NJ.com reports.

Nash, a Princeton University mathematics professor, won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994 for his work in game theory, specifically the "Nash equilibrium." Nash's battle with paranoid schizophrenia was documented in the 2001 Academy Award best picture winning film "A Beautiful Mind."

"For the better part of 20 years, his once supremely rational mind was beset by delusions and hallucinations," The Washington Post reports. "By the time Dr. Nash emerged from his disturbed state, his ideas had influenced economics, foreign affairs, politics, biology — virtually every sphere of life fueled by competition."

John Nash was 86 years old, and Alicia Nash was 82 years old, according to NJ.com. They were first married in 1957.

The couple lived in Princeton, New Jersey and were returning home from a trip to Norway, NJ.com reports, where Nash received the Abel Prize for mathematics for his work on nonlinear partial differential equations.

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NOW WATCH: 70 people were injured while filming this movie with 100 untamed lions

It was the year 2000 — seven years before anyone had even heard of Kim Kardashian or before Beyoncé walked red carpets nearly nude.

Up until this point, red carpets were fairly tame, fully-clothed affairs.

That is, until Jennifer Lopez arrived to the 2000 Grammys in that now infamous green Versace gown with a neckline that plunged down to her naval and was held together simply by fashion tape.

It was even Diddy-approved.

And before Kim Kardashian self-admittedly "broke the internet" with her bare-bottom photos, J.Lo's dress really did.

In an essay published in January on Project Syndicate, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, writes: "At the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen. But we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: J.Lo wearing that dress."

As a result, Schmidt says, "Google Image Search was born."

Schmidt further explained how Google expanded from just text to images:

Our co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin – like all other successful inventors – kept iterating. They started with images. After all, people wanted more than just text. This first became apparent after the 2000 Grammy Awards, where Jennifer Lopez wore a green dress that, well, caught the world’s attention.

E! News recently asked Lopez if she knew she inspired the photo-based search tool, to which she responded, "I heard that, who knew?!" 

But Lopez has yet to receive any compensation for her contribution. "I'm a little bit upset about it," she joked. "I'm sure Versace's in on it as well."

When asked whether or not she wished she had gotten something from it, she teased, "Just a small part of it... a truck full of money."

Today, Google has thousands of options when looking for J.Lo's Grammys dress.

SEE ALSO: Here's The Critical Money Lesson That Shaped Jennifer Lopez's Career

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The Ambrosia "Food of the Gods" challenge, hosted at Huckleberry's American Diner in York, England, tasks competitors with consuming over 9,000 calories in less than 60 minutes. That's almost 14 pounds of food and over three times the recommended daily caloric intake.

The meal includes pulled turkey, pulled pork, sticky bourbon beef, slow cooked beef brisket, BBQ pork ribs, and mashed potatoes.

Someone has yet to complete the gluttonous challenge. 

Produced by Jason Gaines. Video courtesy of Associated Press and Caters News.

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Disney's next big film, "Tomorrowland," starring George Clooney is in theaters Friday.

If you've seen the trailers, it's kind of difficult to decipher what the film is all about. 

A young girl (Britt Robertson) is transported to a mysterious, futuristic world called Tomorrowland, at the touch of a magic pin.

In actuality, the film, named after the futuristic section of the Disneyland theme park, was inspired by Walt Disney's original vision for Epcot.

Check out Disney's original plan for Disney World and Epcot > 

After Disneyland was built in California, Walt had an idea for another Disney project in Florida; however, he passed away in December 1966 before he could see it come to fruition. Before he died, he filmed a video two months earlier expressing these plans in detail. Bits and pieces of it can be seen in trailers and features promoting "Tomorrowland."

Disney produced the nearly half-hour video, found on YouTube, for Florida Legislators to get permission and rights for his project. In it, Disney laid out his big ideas for his massive Florida project. 

Called "Project X," Walt's Florida expansion wasn't about Disney World, though it was a small part of the picture.

Rather, Disney's plan consisted of building his own perfect Utopian city: the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow—Epcot.

While Disney's film brings this vision to life a la Tomorrowland — a place full of hopes and dreams — Disney's original video for Epcot sounded like a scene straight out of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," which envisioned a similar world back in 1932.

Located partly in Orange and Osceola Counties, Disney picked the center of the state for his Florida project on purpose, reasoning it would be easy for tourists and residents to arrive by car.

The land was located between Orlando and Kissimmee, a few miles from the crossing point of Interstate 4 and the Sunshine State Parkway (this was before I95 was finished).

The theme park and all the other tourist facilities—hotels, motels and recreational activities—were meant to fill one small part of Disney's Florida project. This part alone is five times the size of California's Disneyland.