• Last week, two explorers (trekking separately) became the first people ever to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.
• American adventurer Colin O'Brady reached his destination on December 28. British army captain Louis Rudd completed his mission two days later. 
• Each man spent more than 50 days in solitude and traveled over 900 miles.
• During his trek, Rudd mostly survived on freeze-dried meals, porridge, tropical trail mix, and chocolate bars. O'Brady relied on special "Colin Bars" designed for him.

After 56 days of travel, British Army captain Louis Rudd has become the second person ever to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.

Rudd reached the Ross Ice Shelf on Friday, finishing the treacherous crossing just two days after American Colin O'Brady achieved the same feat. 

Both explorers set out in early November, though Rudd told The Observer that he did not think of the trek as a competition. In fact, Rudd said he was unaware of O'Brady's plan to cross the southern continent until a few days before Rudd left the United Kingdom. 

The 49-year-old British adventurer skied more than 900 miles in honor of explorer Henry Worsley, a close friend who died while trying to complete the same journey in 2016. In an interview with The New Yorker, Rudd said Worsley introduced him to polar exploration, teaching him how to move through blinding whiteouts and spot crevasses in the ice.

Both O'Brady and Rudd kept their load light, since neither man got resupplied. That means they had to pull all their food, fuel, and gear behind them on a sled. Each explorer brought only one pair of underwear, but their provisions still weighed a significant amount. O'Brady said he carried about 400 pounds, more than 50% of which was food. 

Rudd told The Observer that in the mornings, he ate porridge with hot chocolate. For dinner, he consumed freeze-dried meals and protein shakes. Before setting off, he said, he also bought 70 bags of tropical trail mix. Rudd snacked on milk chocolate bars, salami, and cheese as well.

O'Brady's diet throughout the trek was more tailored — the American worked with a sponsor to design special high-calorie "Colin Bars" based on his nutrition needs.

Both men said they lost significant amounts of weight as they battled their way across the ice. Rudd estimated that he lost about 33 pounds over the last two months — roughly one-fifth of his weight.

"I’ve got chicken legs, my arms are stick thin," he told The Observer. "I had to sew a tuck into the waistband of my underpants and thermal leggings after I felt them slipping down when I was skiing."

'This is horrific'

In January 2016, Worsley decided to abandon his journey just 30 miles from the finish line. He had been unable to leave his tent for two days, so he called for emergency help and was airlifted to a hospital in Chile.

The 55-year-old explorer underwent surgery for bacterial peritonitis — an infection in the tissue lining his abdomen — but he died due to organ failure. 

To honor Worsley's life, Rudd carried a flag featuring the late explorer's family crest.

But until the end, it was uncertain whether either he or O'Brady would succeed in crossing Antarctica, Rudd said. Every person who had tried before them either gave up or died.

The trek was both the longest distance either man had ever traveled in Antarctica and the longest time spent alone. Even though O'Brady's training included a 400-mile test run in Greenland, the American said nothing could have fully prepared him for more than 50 days of solitude.  

Read more:An American adventurer has become the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided. His training included Buddhist retreats and a 400-mile trek in Greenland.

Rudd said he sometimes found it difficult to keep going.

"I skied through some horrendous conditions,” he told The Observer. "I would be skiing along thinking, 'my God, this is the worst place in the world right now; this is horrific'."

Rudd passed the time listening to audiobooks — including three biographies of Winston Churchill — and music by Pink Floyd and U2, he said.

O'Brady waited for Rudd to finish

Both men began their journey at the Ronne Ice Shelf and reached their destination at the Ross Ice Shelf.

During his trek, Rudd's only contact with other people came during a one-hour stop at a scientific base at the South Pole. About 15 or 20 people cheered him on at the base, though Rudd told The Observer that completing the trek alone and unaided meant he was prohibited from going inside or accepting any supplies.

When the British adventurer completed his journey on Friday, O'Brady was waiting for him. In an Instagram post, the American congratulated Rudd and said the two men now had a "lifelong bond." 

"This has been one of the most profound and meaningful experiences of my entire life, and without a doubt my proudest accomplishment,"O'Brady wrote on Instagram. "This journey has cracked me open to my core and nearly broken me many times."

The men didn't get to return to the comforts of civilization as quickly as they'd hoped, though. On December 29, O'Brady said in an Instagram post that poor weather had prevented pilots from reaching the ice shelf, so the two explorers were still camping out in Antarctica, waiting for a plane.

The forecast initially predicted that the men would not be able to leave until Monday, December 31; O'Brady said he was concerned about running out of food while they waited, since the two men only had enough for 48 more hours.

But a plane managed to pick them up yesterday, and they flew to Union Glacier, Antarctica's main hub for expeditions and research. Both men will then head to South America on their way home.

• Read about Colin O'Brady:
• An American explorer just became the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided, finishing with an 'ultramarathon': Photos show his spectacular 932-mile journey
• 33-year-old Colin O'Brady — the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided — survived on oatmeal, freeze-dried meals, and energy bars
• Before crossing Antarctica, Colin O'Brady's training included Buddhist retreats and a 400-mile trek in Greenland

Join the conversation about this story »

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• My Purple Royal seat cushion has made sitting through the workday a much more pleasant exercise, and thanks to its effect on my posture, it's also improved my time spent standing up.
• The cushion's grid shape collapses into itself to help accommodate your pressure points, and makes sitting comfortable even if you've, say, left your phone in your back pocket.
• Purple makes a variety of seat cushions, from one that's specifically designed for lumbar support to one that's meant for portability. Prices start at $39 for the portable and lumbar-support cushions and go up to $129.

Sitting up straight can feel like an impossible feat. I'm constantly slouching while I work, and it seems like as soon as I correct my posture, I find myself nearing a 45-degree angle again. Constant posture vigilance is impractical when I'm focused on my job (or just scrolling through Twitter), so I continually let myself fall back into slouching. It's my default position — my resting pose. And it leaves me with a perennially sore back.

I've tried a few techniques to help snap me out of this bad habit. I go to yoga classes, I try to keep it so both of my shoulder blades are touching my chair back at all times, and I write reminders to sit up straight on Post-it notes on my desk. So far, none of those strategies have had a lasting effect (though I'm sure the yoga classes could if I went more consistently). Then, I got a Purple seat cushion, and it's never been easier to avoid hunching over my desk.

Perhaps better known for its mattresses, Purple makes a variety of seat cushions, from one that's specifically designed for lumbar support to one that's meant for portability. I opted for the Royal seat cushion. At $79, it falls somewhere in the middle of the Purple seat cushion price range (which starts at $39 for the portable and lumbar-support cushions and goes up to $129 for the “Ultimate” cushion). Besides improving my seating posture, my new cushion has made sitting down all day for my desk job significantly more comfortable.

But first, how does a seat cushion make you sit up straighter?

Purple cushions come in grid patterns — or they look like large, purple waffles, depending on how hungry you are. The grid shape collapses into itself to help accommodate your pressure points, and makes sitting comfortable even if you've, say, left your phone in your back pocket (guilty). This pattern helps distribute your weight evenly across your seat, and lets extraneous pocket items like cell phones sink into the cushion instead of poking into your behind.

I get antsy throughout the workday, especially because I spend so much time sitting down. The cushion also keeps me from constantly shifting around in my seat — instead of stiffly perching on top of it, like I do on my cushion-less chair, I'm relaxing into it. Not only does this accommodate for items left in my pants pockets, but it's also good news for my sit bones. They start to feel pain after balancing throughout the long workday atop a hard surface. The Purple cushion, made of hyper-elastic polymer, means I don't have to balance on those bones.

Plus, the edge of my seat no longer cuts off the circulation in my legs. Because the Purple cushion has give, it doesn't obstruct my blood flow. All of this helps keep my back and hips in line, making it much easier to maintain good posture.

Something to be wary of with this cushion is that it's not exactly light. While the Portable cushion weighs only 2.75 pounds, that's still adds up if you're carrying it around in a bag with your lunch and other work gear. My Royal cushion weighs 5.4 pounds, so the most I move it around is from one hardwood chair to the other in my kitchen (where I did the majority of my sitting when I worked at home for the past year). However, transporting a 2.75-pound cushion in your car is hardly an inconvenience.

I also wish I could mold my cushion to be the exact shape of my chair. As it is, my cushion hangs off the edge — more of an aesthetic issue than anything, but still something that would be nice to be able to tailor. That being said, different Purple cushions come in different dimensions, and the Royal is the third biggest of seven varieties. And admittedly, I didn't measure my chairs before buying.

Different jobs require different amounts of sitting. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent data, people who worked in office jobs (like lawyers, human resource managers, accountants, and software developers) spent somewhere between 75 and 90% of their workdays seated. Professional drivers sat for over 82% of their time on the job.

If you fall into any of these job categories, I fully suggest giving a Purple seat cushion a try. Enduring pain in your sit bones, tail bone, and legs all day while hunching over your laptop (or steering wheel) isn't worth avoiding the relatively small cost of adding daily comfort to your routine. My seat cushion has made sitting through the workday a much more pleasant exercise, and thanks to its effect on my posture, it's also improved my time spent standing up.

Buy the Purple Royal Seat Cushion for $79 — and check out 6 other seat cushion varieties on the Purple website. Also available to buy on Amazon.

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• A US citizen identified as Paul Whelan was arrested in Russia on Friday and charged with espionage, and it's not clear how the Trump administration plans to respond. 
• This appears to be linked to the fact the State Department is one of the agencies impacted by the government shutdown. 
• The State Department was slower to respond to queries on Whelan's arrest and one spokesperson said they could not respond because they've been furloughed. 

A US citizen identified as Paul Whelan was arrested in Russia on Friday and charged with espionage, and it's not clear how the Trump administration plans to respond. 

This appears to be linked to the fact the State Department is one of the agencies impacted by the government shutdown. 

When INSIDER reached out to State for a comment on Whelan's arrest, it initially received an automatic response from a spokesman that stated, "I am not in the office because of the furlough resulting from the lapse in U.S. Government appropriations." 

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the National Security Council told INSIDER to "check [with] State" when asked for a comment on Whelan's arrest. 

The US embassy in Moscow also did not immediately respond to a request for comment from INSIDER.

In a December 26 Facebook post, the embassy made it clear it's not operating at full capacity during the shutdown. 

"At this time, scheduled passport and visas services in the United States and at U.S. Embassies and Consulates overseas will continue during the lapse in appropriations as the situation permits," the embassy said. "We will not update this account until full operations resume, with the exception of urgent safety and security information."

A State Department spokesperson eventually responded to INSIDER and said the agency was aware of Whelan's arrest. 

"We have been formally notified of the detention by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Russia's obligations under the Vienna Convention require them to provide consular access. We have requested this access and expect Russian authorities to provide it," the spokesperson said. 

Read more: A US citizen has been arrested in Russia on spying charges

It's not unusual for a government agency to take some time to respond to queries from reporters, nor is it out of the ordinary for the White House to tell journalists to ask certain agencies about matters they're likely to take point on.

But this situation is still telling in terms of how a government shutdown impacts US diplomatic operations.

A spokesperson for the State Department told INSIDER employees were notified at the start of the shutdown whether they're in a position that qualifies as "excepted" or "non-excepted."  

"As outlined in the Department's guidance, excepted functions include those necessary for emergencies involving 'the safety of human life or the protection of property' and those necessary for activities essential to national security, including the conduct of foreign affairs essential to national security," the spokesperson said. 

"Many of the Department’s bureaus and posts are implementing shutdown procedures, including the furlough of personnel performing non-excepted functions," the spokesperson added. "Approximately 33% of U.S. direct hire overseas employees and approximately 45% of U.S. direct hire domestic employees have been furloughed."

The spokesperson also said that consular operations, including visa and passport services, will continue "as long as there are sufficient fees to support operations." Overseas embassies and consulates are also expected to continue to provide "routine and emergency U.S. citizen services."

Some State Department operations are continuing because of available residual balances, including Diplomatic Security; Defense Trade Controls fee-funded services; Overseas Buildings Operations; Education and Cultural Affairs; International Narcotics and Law Enforcement; Population, Refugees, and Migration; and the Office of Foreign Missions. 

"Those entities with residual balances available for payroll and other specified activities will continue operating until their respective balances are insufficient to continue," the State Department said. 

David Rothkopf, a foreign policy expert and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the State Department's response to Whelan's detention goes beyond the limitations presented by the shutdown. 

"It would certainly seem, based on the response [INSIDER] got, that the State Department's ability to respond has been impacted by the shutdown," Rothkopf told INSIDER. "That said, it is not unheard of for the State Department to be reticent on such matters nor is it unusual for the White House to punt to the State Department. It is more unusual for the Russians to take someone like this into custody rather than expelling them ... and that of course, suggests the individual may be used in a trade, for [Maria] Butina for example."

Read more: Accused Russian agent Maria Butina pleaded guilty to engaging in a conspiracy against the US

Pointing to a New York Times report that said the State Department did not spend any of the millions of dollars it's been allocated to combat Russian election meddling, Rothkopf added that "the issue at the current State Department is not money."

"Even without the furlough they are soft-peddling pressure on Russia — even as Russian attacks on the US continue and further evidence of their plots against US democracy is revealed," Rothkopf said. 

Join the conversation about this story »

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

• Each year, Hollywood comes out with a new crop of gripping, thrilling sports films, and 2018 was no exception.
• Movies like "Creed II" and "Uncle Drew" rocked the box office, while "The Miracle Season" stole viewers' hearts and "Free Solo" took their breath away.
• Check out INSIDER's rankings of the best sports movies and documentaries of 2018.

The same core components that make a great movie — likable and relatable characters, inspiring storylines, remarkable underdogs, and more — are some of the many reasons fans are so drawn to sports. It's no wonder, then, that Hollywood comes out with a new crop of movies centered around sports year after year.

2018 was no exception.

Movies like "Creed II" and "Uncle Drew" rocked the box office, while "The Miracle Season" stole viewers' hearts and "Free Solo" took their breath away. 

We ranked the top sports movies of 2018 according to their IMDb Rating. If two movies had the same IMDb Rating, the movies with more reviews were given the higher ranking. In each slide, we also included the film's Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Score, Audience Score, and Critics' Consensus when they were available.

18 — Alex & Me

IMDb Rating: 5.5

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 71%

Summary: After failing to earn a spot on the soccer team, middle schooler Reagan Willis trains with USWNT superstar Alex Morgan for a chance at redemption.

17 — Uncle Drew

IMDb Rating:5.7

Rotten Tomatoes Score:63%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 51%

Rotten Tomatoes Consensus: "Kyrie Irving's crossover to comedy is amiable enough to score with basketball fans, but Uncle Drew is held back by formulaic plotting and too much product placement."

Summary: Legendary streetballer Uncle Drew — played by NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving — makes a long-awaited return to the Rucker Classic tournament in Harlem alongside his old squad, including Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson, and Lisa Leslie.

16 — Amateur

IMDb Rating: 5.9

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 70%

Summary:A 14-year-old basketball prodigy navigates the dark underbelly of amateur athletics as he is recruited to play for an NCAA prep school.

• The keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet that encourages your body to rely on stored fat as its main energy source.
• The keto diet consists of many high-protein, high-fat, and low-carb foods. 
• As is the case with any diet, not all keto-approved foods are necessarily healthy for you.
• Some of the most popular keto foods that chefs recommend are avocado, coconut, cauliflower, and eggs.

The goal of the keto diet is to keep your body in ketosis, which is when your body uses stored fat instead of the glucose from carbs as its main energy source. With keto diets, there's a focus on foods that are high in fat and protein but are low in carbs. 

Whether you're on the keto diet or are planning to start it, here are a few keto-approved foods chefs recommend adding to your grocery list.

Avocados and coconuts are high in plant-based monounsaturated fat.

Chef Mareya Ibrahim, author of "The Clean Eating Handbook," told INSIDER that because avocados and coconuts are both high in plant-based monounsaturated fat and are extremely versatile, they should be a staple in any keto diet.

"Avocado can help lower cholesterol and is high in fiber, too, so it helps with digestion and ‘moving things along,'" she said. "Meanwhile, coconut helps with healthy brain function, lowering cholesterol, and preventing inflammation and degenerative disease."

Green smoothies and low-sugar juices can be a nice way to add veggies and protein to your diet.

Making sure you're getting enough protein is important on a keto diet, but micronutrient-dense foods, like veggies, should also be actively incorporated throughout the day. Chef Michael of Snap Kitchen told INSIDER that an easy way to sneak in some veggies if you aren't scooping enough onto your plate is through smoothies and fresh juices.

"While meats and cheeses are easy for snacking through the day, it is important to keep lots of vegetables in your diet for fiber, minerals, and water-soluble vitamins," Chef Michael said. "Staying hydrated and maintaining electrolytes is just as important and you can drink water and low-sugar juices and smoothies throughout the day to accomplish this."

Cauliflower is incredibly versatile.

"Personally, my favorite ‘keto ingredient' is by far the humble vegetable cauliflower. It may come as a surprise, it's incredibly versatile and can be used in a number of different ways," Chef Try Silverson told INSIDER.

When it comes to cauliflower, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Silverson said it can be used to make tortillas, pizza crust, mashed cauliflower, or even fried cauliflower.

Read More: 11 surprising foods you can eat on the Keto diet

• NASA's New Horizons probe is about to explore a mysterious object 1 billion miles beyond Pluto.
• The object is known as Ultima Thule, or 2014 MU₆₉, and the flyby will occur at 12:33 a.m. EST on Tuesday (New Year's Day).
• Ultima Thule will be the most distant object humanity has ever visited.
• NASA TV and Johns Hopkins University will host live video feeds about the encounter starting on Monday (New Year's Eve).

NASA is about to fly a nuclear-powered probe past the most distant object humanity has ever dared explore. And you can watch from the comfort of home.

Called Ultima Thule (pronounced "tool-ee"), or 2014 MU₆₉, the object is a total mystery to scientists. Researchers aren't even sure what the space rock looks like, since it's 1 billion miles beyond Pluto. At about the size of a mountain — about 20 miles across — Ultima Thule is much too small and too far for telescopes to see clearly.

"If we knew what to expect, we wouldn't be going to Ultima Thule. It's an object we've never encountered before,"Alan Stern, the leader of the New Horizons mission, previously told Business Insider. "This is what what exploration is about."

Ultima Thule is thought to be a pristine remnant of the solar system's formation. This means photographing and studying it up-close with New Horizons could help explain how planets are built and evolve.

In what Stern calls a "mind-boggling" maneuver, New Horizons will get its closest to Ultima Thule — a distance within 2,200 miles— at 12:33 a.m. EST on Tuesday (New Year's Day). The probe will be moving at a speed of about 32,200 mph. 

Along the way, the spacecraft — which flew past Pluto in July 2015 — will take hundreds of photographs and measurements in a highly coordinated sequence.

The first images should arrive late on Tuesday and be published on Wednesday. You'll be able to see those initial images via live video broadcasts.

But due to the limitations of the 13-year spacecraft (the probe launched in 2006) and 4 billion miles of distance, it could take up to two years for New Horizons to beam all of the flyby data back to Earth.

How to watch live video coverage of the Ultima Thule flyby

Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, which manages the New Horizons mission for NASA, will host a series of live video broadcasts about the encounter.

The segments will be streamed via JHUAPL's YouTube channel from Monday (New Year's Eve) through Thursday, January 3. NASA Live and NASA TV will also broadcast the segments, despite the government shutdown led by President Donald Trump over border wall funding (which has sent many NASA workers home).

"NASA will continue to stun the world with its achievements!" Jim Bridenstine, the administrator of NASA, tweeted on Thursday while announcing NASA TV would stay on the air.

The first Ultima Thule broadcast will be a press conference with Stern and other mission scientists on Monday at 2 p.m. EST.

At 12:02 a.m. on Tuesday, Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brain May will release a song dedicated to the mission. Video coverage will continue through 12:33 a.m. EST — the moment New Horizons flies past Ultima Thule.

Michael Buckley, a JHUAPL spokesperson, said there will be a video feed of the moment scientists learn that the mission succeeded. He said live coverage should begin on Tuesday around 9:30 a.m. EST, and the "ok" signal from New Horizons should arrive around 10 a.m. EST. A press conference will follow at 11:30 a.m. EST.

On Wednesday at 2 p.m. EST and Thursday at 2 p.m. EST, there will be follow-up press conferences to discuss the first close-up photos and scientific results from the historic flyby.

You can watch the main New Horizons events via the NASA Live video player embedded below.

If you wish to see all of JHUAPL's coverage, watch the embedded player below or tune into the lab's YouTube channel.

SEE ALSO: Is it Planet 9 or Planet X? Scientists spar over what to call the solar system's hypothetical missing world

DON'T MISS: Pluto is hiding a gigantic liquid ocean you would never, ever want to swim in

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: NASA has over 100 images of Pluto — and the footage is breathtaking

• Patrick Frazee was formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder in connection to the death of his fiancée Kelsey Berreth.
• The formal charges come 10 days after he was arrested in his home in Teller County, Colorado, on December 21.
• Berreth, Frazee's fiancée, was last seen on Thanksgiving. Her body has not been found.

The fiancé of a Colorado woman who has been missing since Thanksgiving has been formally charged in connection to her death, despite her body not being found.

Patrick Frazee, 32, was formally charged on Monday with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder in connection with the death of Kelsey Berreth, according to KKTV.

The body of Berreth, who was last seen on Thanksgiving, has not been found.

The two charges of first-degree murder relate to two different theories as to what happened to Berreth.

The first charge said Frazee "unlawfully, feleniously, after deliberation, and with the intent to cause the death of a person other than himself, caused the death of Kelsey Berreth," according to court documents seen by KKTV.

The second charge said Frazee "unlawfully and feloniously, acting alone or with one or more persons, committed or attempted to commit Robbery and, in the course of or in furtherance of that crime, or in the immediate flight therefrom, the death of Kelsey Berreth, a person, other than one of the participants, was cause by anyone," the court documents said.

Frazee was arrested at his home in Teller County on December 21, according to a press release from the Woodland Park Police Department.

Read more:Fiancé of missing Colorado woman Kelsey Berreth is arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder

Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said at a December 21 press conference that they found evidence in Berreth's townhouse that suggests she was killed there.

He said Frazee has been the only person arrested in connection to Berreth's disappearance, and he was unsure whether more arrests would be made.

Berreth, a flight instructor and mother of one, was last seen alive on Thanksgiving, when surveillance cameras captured her entering a local Safeway with her infant daughter.

Frazee told authorities that he later picked up his daughter and hadn't seen Berreth since.

The couple were engaged and shared a child, but never lived together, Berreth's mother said at a press conference earlier this month.

INSIDER reporter Ashley Collman contributed to this article.

• Read more about Patrick Frazee and Kelsey Berreth:
• Police are executing a search warrant at the home of a Colorado man whose fiancée went missing on Thanksgiving
• Search intensifies for Colorado mother, 29, who disappeared on Thanksgiving and whose cell phone pinged 3 days later in Idaho

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The reason some men can't grow full beards, according to a dermatologist

• Being a manager requires thinking a little differently.
• If you want to become a manager, it's important to start thinking like your leadership team. 
• Here are four books that senior business leaders read that can help you take your career to the next level and become a manager.

Business leaders think differently, and that's what sets them apart. 

Once you know how your leadership team thinks, you'll be able to unlock doors to the management level. Either your bosses will realize that you have what it takes to move up the ranks, or you will be better situated to advocate for yourself during a salary negotiation with a manager.

Here are four of the most read books among senior business leaders. Since these books have gained notoriety among management teams, it will help you to understand how they approach various business challenges. In turn, you'll be better situated to anticipate their thought processes and become a better manager yourself. 

SEE ALSO: Here's how to answer 5 of the most difficult interview questions

'The Hard Thing About Hard Things' by Ben Horowitz

Ben Horowitz was the cofounder and CEO of Opsware, a B2B software company that was sold to HP for $1.6 billion. Today he is a general partner at the well-known venture fund, Andreesen Horowitz.

Three years ago, Horowitz published "The Hard Thing About Hard Things," a book revered by technology business leaders — everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to Peter Thiel has endorsed it.

In the book, Horowitz drives home the need to minimize politics in the workplace. Office politics can cause rifts within organizations, and distract employees from doing their best work. In order to prevent office politics, each company must create a clear promotion policy that all employees understand.

Horowitz suggests that each position within the company have a clear job description that includes skills required to be successful in the role. Furthermore, he recommends that promotions be reviewed by a special committee to avoid inter department misalignment.

'The Lean Startup' by Eric Ries

"The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else" this is a key takeaway of Eric Ries's bestselling book, "The Lean Startup." Ries is the former cofounder and CTO of IMVU, which hit a $40 million run rate in 2010.

Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Andreesen have both endorsed Ries's book as a revolutionary approach to creating an innovative business.

Ries argues that the best way to develop a product or service is to focus on finding product-market fit as quickly as possible. To do this, he suggests developing a series of minimum viable products (MVPs), which are rough examples of what a more polished version of the product or service could look like. 

The fast production cycle lets them quickly get customer feedback, which prevents them from investing an inordinate amount of time in developing a product or service that customers won't use.

'High Output Management' by Andrew Grove

While he was CEO of Intel, Andy Grove published a seminal work of business management advice, "High Output Management." It has received glowing reviews from the Wall Street Journal and from Peter Drucker, a well-known business writer.

Grove provides ample advice for senior managers. He says that the manager's job is to leverage her business acumen by improving the performance of her subordinates. This is the key difference between an individual contributor and a manager. A manager uses subordinates as a productivity multiplier.

Grove writes expansively about the importance of one-on-one meetings led by the subordinate. The subordinate should come prepared with a meeting outline, and the manager coaches the subordinate through challenging business decisions. In time, the subordinate will require less and less coaching, at which point, the manager will have helped to dramatically improve the productivity of this employee.

• The AP Top 25 Poll saw no movement at the top heading into the new year, but with conference play beginning next week, don't expect the consistency at the top of the poll to last much longer.
• The Big Ten led all conferences with seven teams in the rankings while the Pac-12 fell out of the AP Top 25 Poll entirely for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
• Here are the four biggest winners and losers of Week 9 of the college basketball season.

Winners

▲ No. 1 Duke Blue Devils — Top spot in the AP Top 25 Poll for second consecutive week

Freshman sensation Zion Williamson and the Duke Blue Devils haven't stepped on the hardwood in 11 days, but that hasn't stopped Hall of Fame head coach Mike Krzyzewski and his band of ultra-talented freshmen from maintaining the top spot in the AP Top 25 Poll for the second consecutive week. All credit goes to the second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-ranked teams in the poll, who have collectively taken on the likes of Eastern Michigan, Binghamton, and Tennessee Tech throughout the past week.

▲ No. 13 Kentucky Wildcats — Up 3 spots in the AP Top 25 Poll

A week after picking up a signature win against the North Carolina Tar Heels, John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats continued their success against ACC opponents with a 71-58 win against their in-state rival Louisville Cardinals. The Wildcats now enter SEC play with a three-game win streak under their belts and a good shot at dominating a conference filled with talented rosters.

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider may receive a commission from The Points Guy Affiliate Network.

• The Chase Freedom card offers 5% cash back — or 5x points — in different categories each quarter.
• The categories for the first quarter of 2019 have been announced.
• You can combine your cash back with the points earned from cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, making it even more valuable.

Chase offers two strong cash-back cards — the Chase Freedom, and the Chase Freedom Unlimited— that offer great rewards that you can combine with the points you earn from other cards. While both cards are slightly different, they're both great options and both earn points quickly. I personally have both cards.

DON'T MISS: The best credit card rewards, bonuses, and perks in 2018

SEE ALSO: 5 reasons the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a powerhouse within the increasingly competitive credit card space

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• Maria Hatzistefanis has been rejected hundreds of times in her career since founding the skincare company Rodial in 1999.
• She said she learned to turn a "no" into a "yes" by waiting a day after a rejection and then following up with a pledge to improve her business and try again in the future.
• Young entrepreneurs have a tendency to blame the other party for their rejection, but the ability to take criticism leads to more positive results.

Maria Hatzistefanis has been rejected hundreds of times in her career.

Since founding the skincare company Rodial in 1999, Hatzistefanis has heard "no" from countless stores that didn't want to sell her products.

But 20 years later, Rodial products are available in more than 20,000 stores in 35 countries. They can be found in stores like Ulta Beauty, Nordstrom, Bluemercury, and Bloomingdales. Hatzistefanis has parlayed her success into a book deal and a podcast, and even scored her company a coveted partnership with Kylie Jenner.

Hatzistefanis says she can attribute much of her success to an important skill she's learned over the years: turning a no into a yes.

"I've always been driven by a no," Hatzistefanis told Business Insider.

The key, she said, is the ability to reflect on what made you get rejected in the first place. That's a contrast from earlier in her career, when she'd deal with rejection by blaming the other party and even questioning their judgment. 

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"When you're a young entrepreneur, in the beginning you want to unpack the rejection and say, 'Oh no, my product is the best and you're wrong,'" she said. "But I've learned you shouldn't burn any bridges, even if you don't like what the other party says."

"Just try to learn from it. Try to look at it without emotion and just read and analyze, and see if there is anything with that rejection that I can learn from to improve myself, my product, my company, to take me to a yes."

Hatzistefanis said one rule of thumb she's developed is that after getting rejected by a prospective client, she'll wait a day, then write them an email thanking them for the consideration and pledging to try to earn their business in the future.

"I'll generally say, 'Thank you for your prompt response, I do understand your situation that there's no space right now, but I would love to keep in touch, and I'll be in touch in 12 months. I'll show you progress, and hopefully we can connect at that point,'" she said. 

Read more:A CEO who starts Monday mornings with her most 'boring and difficult' tasks says any chronic procrastinator should do the same

"Time can fix things," she said. "It is hard, but you have to give it a 24-hour window. You should never react there and then."

It's that kind of measured response that landed her products on the shelves of Harvey Nichols, the luxury department store in London that Hatzistefanis called her "dream store."

"It took me seven years of knocking on their door," she said.

"It's all about being persistent," she said. "You're going to get a lot of nos, you're going to get a lot of doors slammed in your face. But you have to be resilient and you have to keep going and believe in yourself."

SEE ALSO: A CEO who starts Monday mornings with her most 'boring and difficult' tasks says any chronic procrastinator should do the same

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• Beyoncé tried "The 22-Day Revolution" diet after she had her first child.
• The plan is a vegan, plant-based diet that eliminates all processed foods.
• Beyoncé wrote the foreword for the book and backed a meal-delivery service based on it.
• Business Insider's Kevin Reilly decided to try "The 22-Day Revolution" for himself, and it turned out better than he'd hoped.

Kevin Reilly: If it worked for Beyoncé, it'll work for me. Right?

My name is Kevin Reilly, and I'm a video producer for Business Insider.

So I tried this vegan-diet challenge out, the 22-Day Revolution. It was an all-vegan, all-plant-based diet, kind of made famous by Beyoncé. She wrote the foreword to the book and actually had gone on it herself after her first child.

I figured if it's going to work for her, it's got to do something for me.

But as a meat eater, just moving away from everything that I was used to, I thought it was going to be daunting. And let me tell you, that first week was rough. I wanted the food that I was used to eating. I was cranky, I actually felt tired on a couple days, and really I just wasn't into it.

It took me an hour and 10 minutes to get my lunch together last night. It's this weird lentil, quinoa thing that I keep having to take a couple bites of and then chug some water, because it's just mealy and kind of nasty. I don't like steak that much, and I miss steak right now.

But guess what? If you want some results, three weeks into this thing, 15 pounds gone. Take a look at the before-and-after. Not bad, right?

But hold on a sec. At times I found myself starving. There was one meal that was only a cucumber, a zucchini, a carrot, and some tahini. And yeah, I cheated. That first week I had a slice of pizza, a slice of meatball. It was good.

But I wanted to complete this thing. Not just for work, but for myself. So I got back on the wagon and went for it. And let me tell you, the second week things started getting better. I felt like I had a lot of energy. I was — I don't know — feeling good about myself. And let me tell you, a few of these meals were really damn good. My favorite by far was the baked eggplant with pico de gallo. That was good. I even tried it out grilled, which might be better than the original recipe.

However, on the flip side, there's the pizza. The dough smelled funny. The cheese was like this gummy, gooey mess made out of cashews, and the end result? No, just no.

So here's the thing: There were a lot of good parts about it. I lost weight; I was feeling good. That was fantastic. But not knowing the calorie counts, the fact that the servings sizes in the actual recipes wasn't really there left me not knowing whether I should keep eating more or if I was just hungry.

My first day back to meat-eating land, my boss brought in this big, giant, good-looking plate of bacon. I didn't touch any of it, not even a bite. For some reason, I just liked the way I felt. I had this somewhat different outlook. I started researching more veggie recipes. I started going to the farmers' market and started craving the veggies that were there. I like this. I want to feel like this a little bit more.

Now, am I changing myself to a vegan? No. That first night I went to my favorite restaurant and had a damn good tuna melt. And I'll be having more of those. But do I feel fabulous like Beyoncé? Sure.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published on September 27, 2017.

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• Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, was the only person in the world in 2018 to amass a net worth that topped $100 billion.
• According to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, Bezos has a net worth of $123 billion, which is $24 billion more than his reported wealth at the end of 2017.
• Bezos is the founder of Amazon and aerospace company Blue Origin, as well as the owner of the Washington Post.

In a year when the biggest names in tech were embroiled in scandal, there's at least one executive who managed to get out of 2018 unscathed — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who saw his net worth increase by more than any his billionaire peers.

Jeff Bezos already claimed the title as the world's richest person at the beginning of the year, and unseated Microsoft founder Bill Gates from his 24-year streak at the top of Forbes' rankings of richest Americans. Now the Amazon CEO can say he increased his wealth in 2018 — by $24 billion, to be exact — by more than any of the richest 500 in Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

Bezos finishes off the year with a net worth of $123 billion, the only person on the list to have a 12-digit net worth. Yet this isn't even Bezos' peak net worth: over the summer, he surpassed a net worth of $150 billion to become the richest man ever in modern history.

To put that in perspective, Bezos makes almost $4.5 million in just a single hour. With that wealth, spending $88,000 to him is similar to an average American spending $1, Business Insider calculated. Bezos hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, if Amazon's rapid expansion in 2018 into cloud computing, pharmaceuticals, and other industries is any indication.

Read more:We did the math to calculate exactly how much money billionaires and celebrities like Jeff Bezos and Kylie Jenner make an hour

But while Bezos saw his worth rise, other billionaires didn't see the same success. Following Facebook's year of data leaks and a rise in public distrust of the company, CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost more money than anyone else on Bloomberg's billionaire rankings. Zuckerberg's net worth took an almost $20 billion hit this year, and is now pegged at a cool $52.9 billion.

Rounding out the top five billionaires, according to Bloomberg's rankings, are Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($90 billion), investor Warren Buffet ($82.9 billion), LVMH's CEO Bernard Arnault ($67.3 billion), and Spanish fashion executive Amancio Ortega ($58.7 billion).

SEE ALSO: These are the 7 crucial tech stories to watch closely in 2019, according to Business Insider's reporters and editors

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• The new supplemental collagen drink Skinade, which was formulated by scientists in the UK, has developed an effective delivery system for bioavailable collagen.
• In addition to collagen peptides, the supplement contains vitamins and minerals that kick-start the body's own collagen production, resulting in firmer, younger-looking skin over time.
• In clinical trials, 100% of participants said their skin felt better after 100 days of Skinade, and you may see improvements in as little as three weeks.

A week after moving to the Joshua Tree desert in Southern California, just outside of the festival-famous Coachella Valley, I knew my skin was in serious trouble. I had relaxed into the peace and quiet of desert living, the dry heat like a constant hug — but my face, to put it mildly, was freaking out.

The moisture-starved air was pulling hydration directly from my skin, it seemed. I looked dry and dull, with wrinkles and fine lines suddenly sketched into my forehead and around my eyes. I guess I should've expected it: Moisture is part of what keeps skin plump and firm, and in the dry air of the desert, signs of aging are all the more obvious. I took it as a sign when an email from Skinade showed up in my inbox: Try a 30 day supply of our new collagen drink and sip your way to younger-looking skin! Yes, please.

For those not in the know, collagen is the protein that gives our skin the firm, plump bounciness of youth.

"Collagen is a vital component of the skin because it provides structural support and elasticity, resulting in youthful and healthy appearing skin,"Dr. Aanand Geria of Geria Dermatology in New Jersey tells INSIDER. After age 20, though, we lose roughly 1% of our body's collagen supply every year. Cue the wrinkles, lines, and sagging skin.

A few years back, supplemental collagen pills and powders were all the rage —  and as a certified skin-care junkie, of course I tried them all. I didn't really notice a difference in my skin at the time, and stopped stirring collagen powder into my morning coffee as soon as I learned that the body can't actually absorb the substance in its usual form.

"Taking collagen supplements has marginal effects on the skin, as these supplements, like food, are primarily broken down in the GI tract," Dr. Geria explains. "Once broken down, the body is left with amino acids, which may make it into the bloodstream and hopefully to the skin as well to help build collagen — but we don't know how much of the amino acids, if any at all, make it to the skin to have a sizable impact."

Skinade acknowledges this — in fact, it's their raison d'être.

"We needed very specific types of ingredients to create a product that actually works,"Louise Marchesin, Skinade's global head of marketing, tells me. "Skinade's main ingredient, collagen peptides, are the smallest on the market today, which is essential to their absorption and bioavailability, and therefore the efficacy and results." In other words, by sourcing collagen peptides instead of standard-issue collagen, Skinade (which was developed by scientists, by the way) makes it possible for the body to absorb these molecules and reap the benefits.

Not only is this collagen supplement more effective than powder or pill versions, it also looks and feels significantly more luxurious. A 30-day supply of the peach-flavored drink arrived on my doorstep in a chic, minimalist white box, and the individual black-and-white bottles added a level of sophistication to my pantry that I never knew was possible. The package also included a handful of travel sachets, perfect for gulping collagen on the go.

It's important to note that this isn't the kind of drink you can reach for every once in a while and expect to see results — you need to be consistent, and consistent I was. I guzzled down the fruity-but-not-too-sweet collagen drink every morning for a month, and began to notice a distinct difference about three weeks in. My skin didn't look as dry; in fact, it looked pretty plump and firm, if I did say so myself. Dr. Geria notes that typical results take a little longer to register. "I presume it could take several months to see any sort of minor improvements in the skin," he speculates.

Perhaps the reason why Skinade's collagen cocktail works so well is because it doesn't rely on collagen alone. It actually helps your body create its own collagen, thanks to MSM (a naturally occurring form of organic sulphur that supports the formation of collagen), B vitamins (to promote healthier skin from the inside out), L-lysine (an essential amino acid that aids in rebuilding collagen on the cellular level), and Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids (to keep skin adequately moisturized).

To be honest, I can't say if my experience is typical. I loved my 30-day run of Skinade, but most of the company's clinical trials are based on a significantly longer three-month timeline. Within that time frame, though, participants noticed 26% less brow furrows and 19% more "suppleness"— and 100% of the study's subjects claimed their skin "felt better" after 100 days.

For all the skeptics out there, Marchesin has a few choice words: "We get it." She knows that many consumers have been put off by previous collagen supplements that promised major results but didn't deliver. "Of course they would be skeptical — a drink for your skin?" she admits. "So I say, try it. And most people say, ‘Ok, that makes sense, I will give it a go!'"

I'm with Marchesin: give it a go. If Skinade can revive my dry, dull, desert-dwelling skin, it can probably give you a boost, too.

Buy a 30-day course of Skinade for $150 here.

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Esports, which is short for electronic sports, refers to competitive video gaming watched by spectators. Esports are not as mainstream as traditional sports in the US, but the number of esports fans globally is still sizable. The worldwide esports audience reached 335 million in 2017, according to Newzoo. 

And there’s still significant room for growth beyond that — we predict that 600 million consumers globally will watch esports in 2023, up 79% from 2017. 

A growing number of brands are acting to capitalize on the growth of esports as the majority of professional gaming fans are millennials and open to brand sponsors. Sixty-two percent of US esports viewers are aged 18-34, according to Activate, while 58% have a positive attitude towards brand involvement in esports, per Nielsen.

Meanwhile, Newzoo anticipates global esports sponsorship revenue to reach $359 million in 2018, up 53% year-over-year. The growing esports audience and brand activity helps explains why high-profile public figures are jumping in to capitalize on the action: In late October, basketball legend Michael Jordan and platinum-selling artist Drake both made investments into separate esports ventures, for example. 

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence will explain the growth of the esports audience and why it presents an attractive advertising opportunity for brands. We'll begin by exploring the key drivers and barriers affecting esports audience growth. Finally, we'll detail the benefits of advertising to esports fans and outline the best practices for implementing a successful esports ad campaign.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Alibaba, Arby's, Audi, Bud Light, Hyundai, Intel, Mastercard, McDonald's, Red Bull, Skillz, and Turner.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• The number of esports fans globally is anticipated to climb 59% over the next five years, but there’s still significant room for growth.
• This expansion will be driven by many factors, including investment from traditional sports leagues, a higher number of broadcast deals, and the expansion of the mobile-based esports scene.
• The majority of esports fans are millennials, while data suggests that Gen Zers are more receptive to nontraditional sports, like esports, than traditional sports.
• Brands can sponsor esports leagues, competitions, and players as well as advertise on digital platforms like Twitch to reach the eyeballs of esports fans.
• Whatever shape a brand's esports ad campaign eventually takes, displaying an authentic commitment to the gaming world is paramount.

 In full, the report:

• Outlines the drivers and potential barriers to esports audience growth.
• Details the various reasons esports fans are a compelling advertising opportunity for brands.
• Discusses the different ways brands can invest spend to reach the eyeballs of esports fans.
• Explains best practices brands advertising to esports fans should adopt in order to make inroads with the gaming community. 

SEE ALSO: The eSports competitive video gaming market continues to grow revenues & attract investors

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• Crows, ravens, and pigeons are all smarter than you may previously have thought — and scientists have proof.
• Chickens and ostriches are thought to be descendants of the Tyrannosaurus rex.
• The average man would need to eat around 285 pounds of meat per day if they had the metabolism of a hummingbird.
• The Bassian thrush releases gas to scare worms out of hiding.

The bird world is a fascinating — and strange — place. From a bird with claws on its wings to another bird's ability to recognize human faces, there's a lot of interesting things to know about various bird species. 

Here are several bizarre bird facts with which to impress your friends and family at trivia nights.

Chickens and ostriches are the closest modern relatives to Tyrannosaurus rex.

Although a link between dinosaurs and modern birds had long been suspected, in 2008 research was published in the journal Science that found molecular evidence, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

It's worth noting that chickens and ostriches aren't that closely related themselves, so there's certainly more information to be discovered.

Baby hoatzins have tiny claws on their wings.

Native to the Amazon, hoatzin babies have tiny claws on their wings — as well as on their feet. Since their nests are in trees that frequently overhang water, it's a safety feature for when predators try to eat the babies. Baby hoatzins can simply hop down into the water, then climb back up the tree when it's safe, according to Audubon.

The wing claws disappear as the birds mature — once they can fly, they no longer need them.

Crows and ravens are extremely intelligent.

According to National Geographic, crows can use tools and solve logic puzzles. Further, scientists believe that ravens may even pre-plan their tasks— a trait previously thought to be exclusively human.

Read more: The smartest bird in the world can use tools like a human, and it's amazing to watch

• "Fortnite" is the world's most popular game, with 80 million players spread across the globe.
• "Fortnite" will feature a ball drop and fireworks at the top of every hour as the New Year reaches all 24 time zones.
• However, as the celebration began on New Year's Eve in some time zones, players rushed to social media to report that the New Year had arrived early in "Fortnite," prompting a response from the game's creators.

"Fortnite" has become well known for its special in-game events, many of which coincide with real world holidays. So of course the game has its own New Year's event going on, complete with a ball drop and fireworks for when the clock strikes midnight.

But "Fortnite" has a global player base with more than 200 million players worldwide; meaning that players in different time zones will see the new year at different times. "Fortnite" creator Epic Games came up with a simple solution, the New Year's ball in "Fortnite" will drop at the top of every hour to account for midnight in all 24 time zones around the world.

However, some players who spent the early hours of New Year's Eve playing "Fortnite" were shocked to see the fireworks arrive early for their own time zone. When the ball drops in "Fortnite" players are forced to dance for a few seconds, making the moment impossible to ignore. Several players rushed to social media to announce that "Fortnite's" New Year celebration had gone off early.

An honest mistake to be sure, but the "Fortnite" community has surged with responses to the "early" event, prompting a response from Epic Games. Co-founder and Vice-President Mark Rein gently chided players who believed the event had been triggered early in error.

"Is it that you don’t really understand how timezones work or you think yours is the only timezone in the world?" Rein tweeted.

Epic spokesman Nick Chester and Rein both later confirmed that the event would occur every hour to account for every time zone.

Hopefully, the event will teach how wide the "Fortnite" community stretches, and remind some that the Earth revolves around the sun, not around them.

SEE ALSO: How big is 'Fortnite'? With more than 200 million players, it's now equal to nearly two-thirds the US population

SEE ALSO: The CEO behind 'Fortnite' is now worth over $7 billion

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• Bill Gates published a blog post in which he reflected on the last 12 months and shared his thoughts about the year to come. 
• In the post, Gates said he believes the US must spend more on nuclear energy research in order to regain its global leadership leadership in that area.
•  Burning fossil fuels causes global temperatures to rise. Renewable energy sources don't emit the same heat-trapping gases, but Gates said breakthroughs in solar and wind energy won't be enough.
• Gates and other billionaires lead a fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures that invests in startups focusing on clean energy.

Bill Gates is urging the United States to invest in nuclear power research.

In his annual year-in-review Gates Notes blog post, Gates noted that, despite the consequences of climate change that people face around the globe, "global emissions of greenhouse gases went up in 2018."

Because burning fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) releases carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, Gates wrote that we need breakthroughs in clean energy in order to curb the rise of global temperatures. Generating energy from sunlight and wind does not emit CO2; the same goes for nuclear energy.

"The world needs to be working on lots of solutions to stop climate change," Gates wrote. "Advanced nuclear is one, and I hope to persuade US leaders to get into the game."

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world will face catastrophic effects of climate change if global temperatures climb to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. We are on track to hit that 1.5-degree threshold by 2040, though the IPCC said a huge shift in global energy and economic systems could still reverse the trend.

Read more:The scariest parts of the new climate change report: The goals the world set are inadequate, and the track we're on is disastrous

Solar and wind energy are becoming much cheaper— which Gates said he was "glad to see"— but he wrote that these energy sources alone are not enough. That's because solar and wind energy are not viable when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow. Nuclear power, on the other hand, is available 24 hours a day.

This is not the first time Gates has sought to improve the world's energy options. Gates, along with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and other billionaires, leads a fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures that invests in startups that focus on renewable energy. In 2018, the group announced the first companies to get that funding.

"The companies we chose are run by brilliant people and show a lot of promise for taking innovative clean-energy ideas out of the lab and getting them to market," Gates wrote in his end-of-year note.

As far as nuclear power is concerned, Gates said he is confident that further innovation can eliminate concerns about the risk of accidents.

"The United States is uniquely suited to create these advances with its world-class scientists, entrepreneurs, and investment capital," he wrote. "Unfortunately, America is no longer the global leader on nuclear energy that it was 50 years ago. To regain this position, it will need to commit new funding, update regulations, and show investors that it’s serious."

As an example of a promising approach to nuclear energy, Gates pointed to the company TerraPower that he started 10 years ago. TerraPower is working on creating a traveling-wave reactor, which Gates said is safe, produces minimal waste, and can't be used in nuclear weapon production.

TerraPower was trying to building a pilot project in China, Gates wrote, but recent moves by the Trump administration have "made that unlikely."

Gates said there may be a chance for the project to move forward in the US. But regardless, he plans to continue drawing more attention to energy issues in 2019.

"Next year I will speak out more about how the US needs to regain its leading role in nuclear power research," Gates wrote.

• Read more about nuclear energy:
• A Bill Gates-backed energy company is developing what could be a game-changing nuclear reactor
• The demise of US nuclear power in 4 charts
• A forgotten war technology could safely power Earth for millions of years. Here's why we aren't using it.

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Outside of the US Postal Service (USPS), FedEx and UPS have dominated the domestic logistics industry — and in particular, the last-mile of the delivery — for decades. On a quarterly earnings call in 2016, FedEx estimated that itself, UPS, and USPS executed a whopping 95% of all e-commerce orders.

But rapidly rising volumes have put the pair of legacy shippers in a bind. E-commerce sales have risen over 50% and are projected to continue their ascent into the next decade. High volumes are already straining shippers' networks — UPS struggled to bring consumers their parcels on time due to higher-than-anticipated package volume, which upset some big-name retail partners, including Macy's, Walmart, and Amazon. As online sales surge further, package volumes will outstrip legacy shippers' capacities, creating space for new entrants. 

Amazon is uniquely well-positioned to dethrone UPS and FedEx's duopoly. It's built up a strong logistics infrastructure, counting hundreds of warehouses and thousands of delivery trucks.

Further, as the leading online retailer in the US, it has a wealth of data on consumers that it can use to craft a personalized delivery experience that's superior to UPS and FedEx's offerings. Amazon must act soon, however, as UPS and FedEx are hard at work fortifying their own networks to handle the expected surge in parcel volume.

The longer the Seattle-based e-tailer delays the launch of a delivery service, the more it runs the risk that these legacy players will be able to defend their territory. 

In a new report, Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, explains how the age of e-commerce is opening up cracks in UPS and FedEx's duopoly. We then outline how Amazon's logistics ambitions began as an effort to more quickly get parcels out the door and fulfill its famous 2-day shipping process and how it'll be a key building block for the company if it builds out a last-mile service. Lastly, we offer concrete steps that the firm must take to maximize the dent it makes in UPS and FedEx's duopoly.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Alibaba, Amazon, FedEx, and UPS.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• While UPS and FedEx have dominated the US last-mile delivery market for the last few decades, the surge in e-commerce is creating more volume than shipping companies can handle.
• Amazon is uniquely well-positioned to put a dent in UPS and FedEx's duopoly due to its strategic position as the leading online retailer in the US.
• Amazon can carry its trust amongst the public, a wealth of consumer data, and its ability to craft a more personalized delivery experience to the last-mile delivery space to ultimately dethrone UPS and FedEx.
• The top priority for Amazon in taking on UPS and FedEx needs to be offering substantially lower shipping rates — one-third of US retailers say they'll switch to an Amazon shipping service if it's at least 20% cheaper than UPS and FedEx. 

In full, the report:

• Outlines Amazon's current shipping and logistics footprint and strengths that it would bring to the last-mile delivery space in the US.
• Lays out concrete steps that Amazon must take if it wants to launch a standalone last-mile delivery service, including how it can offer a more memorable, higher-quality delivery experience than UPS and FedEx.
• Illustrates how Amazon can minimize operating costs for a delivery service to ultimately undercut UPS and FedEx's shipping rates in the last-mile space.

SEE ALSO: Amazon and Walmart are building out delivery capabilities

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

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

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

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

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