Lionel Messi is now a blonde

Athletes changing their image is a commonplace thing in the world of sports. Sometimes they just want to have a fresh start, as FC Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has shown with his new BLEACH BLONDE HAIR.

Here is a photo posted to Instagram by his hair stylist.

Simply put, the jury's out on this one. Some people like it, some people hate it. But really, this is kind of like Messi pushing the "reset" button. To summarize he has:

• Watched his rival Cristiano Ronaldo win the Champions League
• Hurt his back
• Lost his third consecutive (and fourth overall) major tournament final as the captain of the Argentinian National team — and then watched Cristiano Ronaldo win the European Championship for Portugal
• Was convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to 21 months in jail (he won't serve the sentence because Spanish law allows sentences under two years to not be served in prison)

Messi's had a rough summer. Let him live a little with his new 'do.

I followed Jack Dorsey's morning routine for a week and was surprised by the difference it made in my day

As CEO of both Twitter and Square, 18-hour days are regular occurrences for Jack Dorsey.

According to a 2015 Product Hunt Q&A, Dorsey keeps balanced by following a uniform schedule.

"I look to build a lot of consistent routine," he said. "Same thing every day."

Dorsey said in the Q&A that this routine enables him to maintain a state that allows him to be effective when he has to deal with situations that get out of hand.

One of these "consistent routines" is his morning ritual, which, he told Product Hunt, consists of waking up at 5 a.m., meditating for 30 minutes, and a doing a seven-minute workout three times — all before getting his caffeine fix. Dorsey reportedly ends his day at 11 p.m.

Jack Dorsey is a successful guy, so he must be doing something right. If it's his daily routine that makes the difference, I was going to find out. I followed his routine for an entire work week, from Monday to Friday, to see what it did for my energy levels, mood, and productivity.

8 reasons living in a city is terrible for you

Over half the world's population lives in cities — and that share of the population is growing. With more people come more traffic, pollution, and noise, all of which take a toll on our health and well-being.

Here are different ways living in a city is a terrible decision.

Malcolm Gladwell tells us about his beef with billionaires, police violence, and how his new hit podcast lets him explores issues in ways his books can't

Malcolm Gladwell is angry, and he wants you to know why.

That's not to say that the bestselling author walks around in a rage all day — he's actually quite collected and soft-spoken most of the time, and ready to make a joke. But in his new hit podcast "Revisionist History," he explores certain topics in a way that readers of his books "The Tipping Point" and "Outliers" may find surprising.

Take, for example, the way he devotes three episodes to ways he considers the United States' education system is failing low-income students. To him, it's a subject worthy of nothing less than moral outrage.

We recently sat down with Gladwell to discuss what he wants to achieve with his podcast — which he confirmed has been approved for a second season — and how his worldview has evolved since the massive success of "The Tipping Point" launched him into pop culture 16 years ago.

We also discussed two of the biggest stories in America today, the presidential election and the public's relationship with the police.

When he got mad about a perceived injustice he was talking about, he'd raise his voice and throw up his hands, but often before cracking a smile, enjoying the energy of the discussion.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Richard Feloni: With "Revisionist History," what are you finding that you can do with the podcast medium that you can't do with a book?

Malcolm Gladwell: There's an immediacy to it. I went on my Twitter this morning. The latest episode dropped last night at midnight and by 7:30 a.m. this morning there's already a long stream of people commenting on it on Twitter. That's very different from a book, which takes a long time to kind of gain traction.

Also, there's more freedom in the medium, more freedom to use emotion, to be outraged. A lot of these episodes are angry — or even funny — in a way that my books are rarely. My podcast unleashes my id.

Feloni: There are recurring topics that you keep coming back to in your career and that you have really strong feelings about. How do you pick your battles?

Gladwell: When it comes to battle picking, you ask yourself two questions: What is something that not enough people are talking about, and what is something that I believe I have something unique to say about?

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So the battles I've chosen are not the most important ones facing humanity. There are lots of issues more important than where billionaires donate their money, to use the example I discuss in the latest episode of the podcast. But I do think it's something we don't talk about enough, and I think that after 15 years of writing books and 20 years at The New Yorker, I now have a kind of platform that allows me to be heard when I sound off on these subjects. And I think it would be a crime not to use that platform.

And I think as a Canadian I do have something unique to say about America's educational system, which to an outsider is completely absurd. I mean, it's so nuts, that you kind of have to be from a different place to sort of speak to its inherent absurdity.

So I chose to dedicate three episodes of "Revisionist History" to what's wrong with the American educational system because it fits my two criteria for battles.

I like to go back and forth between my tried and true hobby horses and new things. I don't want to be like the angry old guy in the corner who is always ranting and raving about the same things — but I don't mind doing that just a little bit!

Feloni: You reach conclusions in your work in a way that prompts your audience to either do something or see the world in a different light. Do you find that always shaping these theses affects how you live your own life?

Gladwell: Since becoming a journalist, each time I engage with subjects I become more radicalized.

If you met me as a 21 year old, I was actually conservative. And I would describe my politics back then as quite complacent. I am now substantially to the left of my 21-year-old self. But it's not so much about political positioning as it is that I'm now substantially more outspoken than I was back then.

Writing about these various things has made me a little bit angrier, and it's certainly fueled my passion about things.

Feloni: Can you give me an instance where a certain topic has made you angrier?

Gladwell: I did a piece for The New Yorker in 2009 about concussions in football, and I am a serious football fan. I had watched football for 25 years without ever entertaining the notion that I was morally complicit in what the game was doing to people. And then I wrote that article, which made me think about, "Well, wait a minute. What does it mean for me to sit and watch and give my implicit consent to the economic enterprise that is football when the game itself is harming a huge number of its participants?" That's a very uncomfortable thought. It's not a thought that sports fans normally have to ask themselves.

I continue to watch football but now I'm conflicted about it! I think I am in the process of divorcing myself from the game. It's hard because I'm a serious fan. But every year I watch less and every year I feel guiltier about the football that I do watch, and the delight I take in people harming themselves. It's just crazy.

There are a million other sports you can watch that do not involve the physical destruction of the participants, right? I actually find myself watching a lot more basketball and a lot less football. So I am finding more productive outlets for my sports fanaticism.

That's a small example. But also, I give money to things that I think are worthy causes, and my definition of a worthy cause has been profoundly shaped by a lot of my writing.

Feloni: There's a section in your book "David and Goliath" where you mention that your views on affirmative action have evolved since you first publicly explored them in "Blink" eight years earlier. What's an idea commonly associated with you that your readers may be surprised to hear you no longer believe in?

Gladwell: In "Tipping Point," there's a chapter trying to explain the fall of crime in New York City. I talk quite positively about the broken windows theory [which states that cracking down on small crimes prevents larger crimes]. And that was written at a time, the late 1990s, where that idea was very much en vogue. I think that it had a place in New York's transformation, but I do think that in New York, and other places as well, that idea was taken too far. It led to a kind of punitive policing, which I think has clearly become a big problem.

By "David and Goliath," published three years ago, I was talking about the opposite, about a woman in the NYPD who has had extraordinary results in reducing juvenile crime rates in Brownsville, Brooklyn by reaching out to the community, building relationships with the families of young offenders, and winning them over.

That's a case where my views have evolved substantially, and I hope that people don't take that chapter in "The Tipping Point" too seriously, because I just don't think it's relevant to 2016.

Feloni: I would assume that these ideas about the relationship between authority and the people it is intended to protect has been front of mind when we have a week of violence in Minneapolis, Baton Rouge, and Dallas.

Gladwell: A theme of "David and Goliath" is this idea of legitimacy, that civil societies work when the citizenry perceives their governing institutions to be legitimate, and that is based on three principles: fairness — that everyone is treated the same; transparency — that you know exactly what the consequences of certain actions are; and responsiveness — when you feel that you can stand up and complain and that you will be heard.

What the police do doesn't work unless the population believes in what the police are doing and believes in the legitimacy of the institution of the police force.

So the first task of a police force is not to fight crime and enforce the law. It is to establish legitimacy with the law-abiding citizenry and then fight crime and enforce the law. I think that's the issue.

When we look at the events in Ferguson and those that follow, the sad fact is that in many places in this country, the police have lost their legitimacy. They're no longer perceived to be transparent, predictable, open, and listening to the population, particularly in the African-American community.

At the same time, I think it's important to understand that we are talking about a small percentage of the police in this country and the populations in this country. By and large I think the policing of this country is done in a really good way. I think that we have a lot to be proud of, but I think we've gone awry a bit in the last couple of years.

The militarization of police, and the particular defensiveness of the police has led to these really troubling incidents and I don't think it's a trivial issue. I think that restoring the legitimacy of law enforcement has got to be one of the single most important tasks facing the country.

Feloni: From what you've seen and researchers you've spoken with, what are some things you think could be done to restore legitimacy?

Gladwell: One of the things I think the police have to do is to stop behaving like armies. There's a really brilliant writer named Radley Balkowho's been writing a lot about this.

FBI says it will investigate DNC hack

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday that it was investigating the nature and scope of a cyber intrusion at the Democratic National Committee disclosed last month.

"A compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously, and the FBI will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace," the FBI said in a statement.

The hack, which has been linked to Russian groups, led to the publication of thousands of internal DNC emails. The leak revealed that several key members of the organization had unfavorable attitudes towards the campaign of Bernie Sanders.

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned Sunday over her role in the incident, effective after the Democratic National Convention concludes later this week. 

Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, has suggested that the Russians behind the hack were working to promote Donald Trump's candidacy by undermining the Democratic Party. Trump has expressed positive views toward Russia and President Vladimir Putin multiple times throughout his campaign. 

THE SILICON VALLEY 100: From A to Z

There's a misconception that Silicon Valley is all about creating frivolous apps and getting paid buckets of money to do it while working in a frat house. Some of the brogrammer culture does exist in pockets, but it doesn't define the cradle of innovation where thousands work and create in Silicon Valley.

Instead, after months of research and debate, Business Insider is proud to present the Silicon Valley 100, our annual list of the people who matter most and define what it means to be in Silicon Valley.

This isn't another who's who list based on long-standing reputation; rather it is a look at who made a difference in the past year. These are the star executives breaking new ground at companies, the venture capitalists who did more than make big bets on the future, and the companies that want to change industries and your life.

Here is the list of the Silicon Valley 100 of 2016, from A to Z: 

Angela Ahrendts of Apple (No. 68)

Sam Altman of Y Combinator (No. 18)

Adam Bain of Twitter (No. 38)

Manny Bamfo of Recharge (No. 96)

Marc Benioff of Salesforce (No. 8)

Nathan Blecharczyk, Brian Chesky, and Joe Gebbia of Airbnb (No. 28)

Keith Block of Salesforce (No. 31)

David Boies of Theranos (No. 100)

Patrick Brown of Impossible Foods (No. 55)

Stacy Brown-Philpot of TaskRabbit (No. 86)

Diane Bryant of Intel (No. 32)

Stewart Butterfield of Slack (No. 19)

Mike Cagney, Dan Macklin, Ian Brady, and James Finnigan of SoFi (No. 35)

Garrett Camp of Uber, StumbleUpon, and Expa (No. 44)

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy of JOYUS and theBoardlist (No. 75)

Safra Catz, Larry Ellison, and Mark Hurd of Oracle (No. 82)

Greg Clark of Blue Coat (No. 37)

John and Patrick Collison of Stripe (No. 33)

Tim Cook of Apple (No. 7)

Dick Costolo of Chorus and Index Ventures (No. 66)

Chris Cox of Facebook (No. 47)

Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine of Apple (No. 42)

Scott Dietzen of Pure Storage (No. 71)

Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz (No. 45)

Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Square (No. 6)

Andrew Dreskin of Ticketfly (No. 40)

David Drummond of Alphabet (No. 98)

Regina Dugan of Facebook (No. 29)

Scott Dylla, Daniel Reiner, and Brian Slingerland of Stemcentrx (No. 10)

Doug Evans of Juicero (No. 52)

Marwan Fawaz of Nest (No. 89)

Phil Fernandez of Marketo (No. 81)

Nat Friedman of Xamarin (No. 48)

Kris Gale and Vivek Garipalli of Clover Health (No. 73)

Ali Ghodsi of Databricks (No. 78)

Logan Green and John Zimmer of Lyft (No. 22)

Diane Greene of Bebop and Google (No. 15)

Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital (No. 23)

Reed Hastings of Netflix (No. 16)

Orion Hindawi of Tanium (No. 36)

Ben Hindman of Mesosphere (No. 58)

Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn (No. 5)

Ryan Hoover of Product Hunt (No. 91)

George Hotz of Comma.ai (No. 39)

Steve Huffman of Reddit (No. 60)

Andre Iguodala (No. 99 )

Brendan Iribe and Palmer Luckey of Oculus VR (No. 25)

Talia Jane of Yelp (No. 84)

Bozoma Saint John of Apple (No. 51)

Travis Kalanick of Uber (No. 3)

Tim Kentley-Klay and Jesse Levinson of Zoox (No. 79)

Dag Kittlaus of Viv and Siri (No. 67)

Jeff Lawson of Twilio (No. 21)

Jess Lee of Polyvore (No. 87)

Chris Lehane of Airbnb (No. 54)

Max Levchin of Affirm (No. 62) 

Joe Lonsdale of 8VC (No. 85)

David Marcus of Facebook (No. 9)

Marissa Mayer of Yahoo (No. 49)

Brian McClendon of Uber (No. 46)

Todd McKinnon of Okta (No. 63)

Rob Mee of Pivotal (No. 30)

Mårten Mickos of HackerOne (No. 65)

Dustin Moskovitz of Asana (No. 77)

Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX (No. 4)

Divya Nag of Apple (No. 72)

Xavier Niel of 42 (No. 92)

Rick Osterloh of Google (No. 59)

Larry Page of Alphabet (No. 2)

Chamath Palihapitiya of Social Capital (No. 24)

Sundar Pichai of Google (No. 11)

Shervin Pishevar of Sherpa Capital (No. 80)

Matthew Prince, Lee Holloway, and Michelle Zatlyn of CloudFlare (No. 93)

Joshua Reeves of Gusto (No. 56)

Tom Reilly of Cloudera (No. 95)

Venkata "Murthy" Renduchintala of Intel (No. 57)

Chuck Robbins of Cisco (No. 26)

Martin Roscheisen of Diamond Foundry (No. 69)

Ali Rowghani of Y Combinator (No. 74)

Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital (No. 20)

David Sacks of Zenefits (No. 27)

Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook (No. 34)

Dan Schulman of PayPal (No. 12)

Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp of Pinterest (No. 61)

Javier Soltero of Microsoft (No. 90)

Peter Szulczewski of Wish (No. 43)

Peter Thiel of Founders Fund, Palantir, and Thiel Fellowship (No. 14)

Nirav Tolia of Nextdoor (No. 94)

Chris Urmson of Google (No. 53)

Kyle Vogt of Cruise (No. 17)

Chris Wanstrath of Github (No. 83)

Nick Weaver of Eero (No. 76)

Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard (No. 13)

Ev Williams of Medium and Obvious Ventures(No. 41)  

Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe (No. 70)

Susan Wojcicki of Youtube (No. 50)

Susan Wu, Laura I. Gómez, Erica Baker, Ellen Pao, Tracy Chou, Y-Vonne Hutchinson, Bethanye McKinney Blount, Freada Kapor Klein of Project Include (No. 64)

Tony Xu of DoorDash (No. 97)

Marco Zappacosta of Thumbtack (No. 88)

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook (No. 1)

NATE SILVER: Donald Trump would most likely win the election if it were held today

If the election were held Monday, Donald Trump would likely win.

That's what renowned statistician Nate Silver projected on Mondayfor his data journalism outlet FiveThirtyEight.

In his "Now-cast" election model for who would win if ballots were cast Monday, Silver gave the Republican nominee a 57.5% chance of winning the presidency.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had a 42.5% chance of securing the nation's highest office if voters were to take to the polls Monday.

Silver's model had Trump winning in the swing states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire. He would win 285 electoral votes in Silver's model.

It's the first time in Silver's "Now-cast" forecast that Trump has been projected to win.

However, in Silver's polls-only forecast and in his polls-plus forecast, Clinton was still favored to come out on top. In the polls-only model, Clinton had a 53.7% chance of winning, while in the polls-plus model, Silver gave Clinton a 58.2% chance of winning in November. But those numbers are a drastic drop-off from where they recently were — hovering around 80%.

Silver raised eyebrows Friday on Twitter when he pointed out "how plausible it is that Trump could become president."

Trump has received a bump in the polls since the Republican National Convention in Cleveland wrapped up last week. He jumped ahead of Clinton in a set of new surveys released Monday.

In the RealClearPolitics average of several polls, Trump pulled ahead of Clinton by 0.2 points on the back of four consecutive polls showing him ahead of the former secretary of state. It's the second time in the entire election cycle that Trump has led Clinton in the coveted polling average.

Former Yahoo CEO Ross Levinsohn says he'd be 'excited' if he were a Yahoo employee right now

In 2012, Ross Levinsohn was Yahoo's interim CEO and in the running to take on the job permanently, having run its sales organization for a number of years.

Yahoo gave the job to former Googler Marissa Mayer, who on Monday announced the company was being sold to Verizon for $4.83 billion.

Business Insider asked Levinsohn shortly after the acquisition was announced whether four years ago he could have ever imagined it would end up this way.

"No," he said. "I think the company tried many different paths — not just over the last four years, but certainly over the last decade — and I don't think there's a single person, or article, or company, or analyst who thought this company would sell for less than 1X revenue. If you looked at analysts reports in 2010, 2011, and 2011 you'd see something significantly higher."

Yahoo reported $4.97 billion in revenue in 2015, down 7.6% year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) fell from $1.34 billion in 2014 to $952 million.

Yahoo Market Capitalization Over Time | FindTheCompany

Levinsohn said ultimately the strategy the company took under Mayer just didn't take off.

"Just look at Tim Armstrong at AOL and how he was able to focus this business on monetizing its assets in the best way possible. He has done a remarkable job with AOL, which frankly was a quarter of the size of Yahoo in 2012, and now it's buying the company," Levinsohn said.

AOL boss Tim Armstrong. Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch

"Hats off to Tim for being really pragmatic about what the AOL business is and focusing it and growing it — now he's the acquirer."

Levinsohn and Mayer had two differing battle plans when they laid out their strategies to the Yahoo board in 2012 as they competed for the top job at the company.

Mayer wanted to focus on new products, mobile, and taking on Google in mobile search.Levinsohn's turnaround plan involved trimming costs, divesting business units, and signing partnership deals with companies like Microsoft and CNBC, rather than trying to battle Google and other digital media businesses alone.

Marissa Mayer. Rueben Sprich/Reuters

Levinsohn said: "Marissa clearly focused on mobile, which nobody would quibble with, but mobile is not monetizing — unless you're Facebook — at the rate desktop was. So I think that was a challenge. It let the other parts of the business [decline] — if you look at the erosion of Yahoo Sport and Finance in terms of traffic and monetization as an example — that probably was a detour from where the company would have been."

Yahoo also spent a lot of time acquiring search revenue, partnerships, and acquisitions, which drove down the margin on the business, according to Levinsohn.

"Competing with Google in search is a really tough task and I know Marissa knew that well. Certainly, search done right is a high margin business, but I think she made a lot of bad decisions in acquiring companies and people versus accretive revenue," he said.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) Revenue Breakdown | FindTheCompany

Despite the mistakes of the past, Levinsohn said current employees should feel positive about the future that lies ahead of them.

Levinsohn said: "If I was an employee at the company right now, I would be excited. They have found a great acquirer in Verizon and AOL: They know the business and they've got the resource, capital, and knowledge, more importantly. Tim [Armstrong] really knows how to run this business. Marni Walden [Verizon executive vice president and president of product innovation and new businesses] has done a remarkable job at making Verizon a real player in the digital world — I'd be excited if I was an employee."

That said, many Yahoo employees will be facing the real possibility of job cuts as Verizon will look for "synergies" in the combined AOL/Yahoo entity. "Synergies" is often used as shorthand for layoffs.

But, according to Levinsohn, those remaining are likely to have a brighter future.

"Look, the discussion as far back as 2012 was that the company needed to get smaller and more focused. All the last four years did was delay it," Levinsohn said. "It's a tough pill to swallow for any company, but it allows the company to live, breathe, and expand in the future."

After exiting Yahoo in 2012, Levinsohn went on to become the CEO of Guggenheim Digital Media, an investor in media properties such as Billboard Magazine and The Hollywood Reporter. He left Guggenheim in 2014 and now sits on the board of The Tribune Company and video identification company ZEFR.

This woman has been given the job of merging Yahoo with AOL

When Verizon announced its$4.83 billion deal to acquire Yahoo on Monday, it also highlighted one of its longtime executives.

Marni Walden has taken on the job of merging Yahoo with AOL,which Verizon bought for $4.4 billion last year.

As Verizon's executive vice president and president of product innovation, Walden is in charge of evolving Verizon from an analog business into a firm that can battle with the digital media giants and explore new technology like the Internet of Things and telematics.

By acquiring Yahoo, Verizon has doubled the size of its internet advertising business. In the US it is poised to hold an estimated 4.5% share of the US digital ad market, behind Facebook (17%) and Google (36%).

Now the job is to work out which parts of Yahoo to keep to grow the business even further. Both Yahoo and AOL own content and advertising technology businesses, and Walden's task will be to select the right mix of components to ensure that the merged entity works efficiently.

Tim Armstrong, AOL's CEO, said in a statement Monday that the transaction was about "unleashing Yahoo's full potential, building upon our collective synergies, and strengthening and accelerating that growth."

With Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announcing that she intends to stay at the company once the deal closes, working out how Armstrong and Mayer can work together — or on who will replace Mayer — will be one of Walden's first tasks. It comes just two years after Armstrong proposed a merger with Yahoo that Mayer rejected.

So far, Walden has allowed Armstrong to run the business fairly independently, but it remains to be seen what will change now that Verizon has Yahoo in its portfolio.

Who is Marni Walden?

Verizon

Bloomberg published a profile of Walden earlier this month detailing her lifelong career in the wireless industry.

The 49-year-old executive was named into her current position in February 2015. Before that she was Verizon's executive vice president and chief operating officer. She previously served as the company's vice president and chief marketing officer. Earlier in her career she worked at companies including AT&T Wireless and McCaw Cellular.

Walden has spent her entire career in the mobile business in some way. In 1991, in her first job after graduating from California State University at Chico, she sold briefcase phones for General Cellular inside a home-improvement store, Bloomberg reported.

In an interview with Recode late last year, when asked about the speculation that Verizon might buy Yahoo, Walden explained Verizon's media aspirations:

"What I would tell you is, we didn't get into the media company business just to be a single-digit market share player. That's not why we did the deal with AOL. We have much bigger aspirations of how we want to grow that business. Some can happen because of the scale Verizon brings but we will continue to look at how we scale and be a meaningful player from a double-digit market share, and by market share I think about revenue. We definitely will look to build this business."

As well as helping lead the Yahoo and AOL deals, Walden has overseen the launch of Verizon's mobile video streaming service Go90, which has reportedly gotten off to a slow start. Verizon has not released numbers on how the service is performing, but it has signed up content partners including the NFL, the NBA, and Vice Media.

Bloomberg described Walden's management style as efficient but with a "playful" style:

"If someone shows up late to one of her meetings, she fires up a karaoke machine and requires the laggard to sing as punishment. The punctuality rule applies to everyone, including AOL's Armstrong, who recalls having to sing John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' as penance. Walden remembers it as the soft-rock standard 'Feelings.'"

Walden is on a short list of candidates to replace Lowell McAdam as Verizon's CEO, according to Bloomberg. Her success in handling the integration of Yahoo could well see Walden become Verizon's first female CEO.

Business leaders in Texas can't find workers who can follow directions and do simple math

The Dallas Federal Reserve just announced that its business-activity index figure rose to -1.3 in July.

Economists had expected the general business activity index to improve to -10.0 from the previous month's -18.3, according to the Bloomberg consensus. The headline activity index has not turned positive since December 2014.

The report also includes comments from respondents' completed surveys, edited slightly for publication.

And many in the July report pointed to the shortage of quality labor.

"Entry-level candidates cannot read or follow instructions. Most cannot do simple math problems. What is wrong with the educational system?" one respondent in chemical manufacturing said.

"The ability to find qualified employees is our largest problem at this time," a respondent in fabricated metal product manufacturing said. A respondent in textile product mills expressed a similar sentiment.

Theoretically speaking, the idea of labor quality becoming a pressing issue for employers suggests that economic concerns are shifting from weak demand to tight supply. And that — again, theoretically — points to higher wages for workers. The basic thinking here is that when employers have a hard time finding quality workers, they end up having to shell out more money to attract them.

The Dallas Fed noted, however, that the wages and benefits index posted a double-digit decline — down to 10.5 in July from 21.6 in June — which suggests a slower rise in compensation. Moreover, more than 85% of manufacturers noted no change in compensation costs this month.

Still, some respondents did touch on labor costs. One person in nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing said labor costs were up by more than 10%.

Another person in fabricated metal product manufacturing said: "There is a shortage in both skilled and unskilled labor. With labor costs increasing, we may be forced to drop healthcare, which is increasing in cost also."

The report also said the production index, an important gauge of manufacturing conditions,came in near zero after two months of negative readings. This suggests that output stopped falling this month.

The employment index came in at -2.6, up from last month's 11.5 — its lowest level since 2009. Fourteen percent of firms noted net hiring, while 17% indicated net layoffs.

Welcome to Digital Industry Insider, our collaboration with GE to cover the 'Industrial Internet'

The future of industry is digital. GE and BI Studios have co-created Digital Industry Insider, dedicated to bringing you what you need to know about digital industrial news and events.

Getty Images

Today we're excited to launch Digital Industry Insider, a new section of Business Insider built by our Studios team in collaboration with GE.

Digital Industry Insider will bring you ongoing coverage of the biggest events in the "Industrial Internet," a term for the integration of complex machinery with networked sensors and software. It's also known as Industry 4.0, shorthand for the fourth industrial revolution.

These networked technologies allow industrial machines to talk to each other and to their operators with the goal of increasing efficiency, reducing downtime, and monitoring quality. Industrial Internet is the Internet of Things on a massive, industrial scale, with real consequences for the bottom lines of manufacturing and transportation companies. 

To bring this concept to life, we'll be joining GE at notable industry events through the rest of the year, including:

• Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, England, July 11–17
• World Energy Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, October 9–13
• GE's own "Minds + Machines" event in San Francisco, California, November 15–16

We'll present coverage of the events, interviews with the key newsmakers, and the perspective you need to understand where things are heading. BI's Studios team, our journalists dedicated to branded content, will travel to each event and work closely with GE on finding the best stories. We'll publish them on BI, in real-time, and distribute them through our social channels. Plus we'll give our readers a chance to interact with the team on the ground.

We're kicking it off with a Facebook Live interview with GE's Linda Boff and BI's Henry Blodget. Tune in to that and then keep watching BI for cover of Farnborough, the aviation industry's version of CES, attracting more than 200,000 people each July.

Thanks to GE for making this collaboration possible.

7 Tricks To Learn Any Language In 7 Days

Do you really have to travel to another country to learn the language? The 10-language twins undertook the challenge of learning a language in a week in Berlin, their city of residence. What can we learn from how they learned?

What’s possible in a week? If you dedicated seven days to the achievement of one goal, how ambitious could you make this goal? These were the questions that the multilingual twins Matthew and Michael Youlden posed themselves when they determined to learn Turkish in one week. They would attempt to liberate themselves from the distractions and responsibilities of modern-day life in order to cram eight hours of study time into their daily routine. Here are the seven things that I learned by observing some of the world’s most capable language learners.

1. Get To Know Why

Lesson learned: Clearly define your goal at the very beginning and then plot a route towards this goal’s achievement.

The twins set themselves the challenge of learning a language in a week in order to stretch themselves, and then it was a question of choosing which language to learn. Turkish presented itself as a natural option; there are nigh on 300,000 Turkish speakers in Germany’s capital, and the areas of Kreuzberg and Neukölln are dotted with stores adorned with signs in Turkish. Truly understanding one’s environment in these neighbourhoods requires one to first understand Turkish.

2. Get Sticky

Lesson learned: Map and label your immediate environment in the new language from the very first moment. You’ll build and reinforce associations passively while going about your daily life.

The first operational step in the twins’ learning process was to decorate the entire apartment with sticky notes. This had an almost ceremonial touch to it as the twins delved into dictionaries and proceeded to label everything with its corresponding Turkish name. Within the space of about an hour it was impossible to carry out any menial task, be it making a coffee or flicking off a light switch, without first being presented with at least three different words related to this action.

3. Get A Partner

Lesson learned: There are few better motivations than a peer with the same goal. Whether you’re motivated by competition or a sense of mutual responsibility, the mere presence of a learning partner is likely to exert just the right amount of pressure to keep you on track.

The importance of the other twin’s presence became immediately apparent as Matthew and Michael delegated responsibilities for rooms to decorate with sticky notes. This simple task was augmented by continuous little tests that they would spring on one another, and the fact that they split up their day slightly differently and studied different topics meant that each twin became a source of knowledge for the other; the question how do you say that again? was met surprisingly often with an answer. The most extraordinary moment came towards the end of the week when the twins simply switched their everyday conversations to Turkish, asking one another if they wanted tea or coffee, were ready to cook dinner or when they were going to leave the house the next day.

4. Prepare Mini-Motivations

Lesson learned: You need landmarks on your route towards your goal. These landmarks can consist of small challenges - real life interactions in the language, for example - which force you to prepare areas of vocabulary to overcome them. The gratification that will come with their completion will serve to spur you on to ever greater heights.

Matthew and Michael had numerous micro-challenges throughout the week. On the first day they were visited by a Turkish friend who greeted them in Turkish and complimented them on how quickly they’d picked up their first words and phrases. They then learned the names of fruits and the numbers from one to a billion so that they could visit the Turkish market in Kreuzberg (although they refrained from purchasing nine hundred thousand kumquats). Displaying their haul after their first functional exchange in Turkish, they beamed with pride and a palpable sense of accomplishment before marching back home to study further.

5. Eat The Language

Lesson learned: Find a way to tie everything you do to learning. Surround yourself with the food, the music and the films, so that even in your downtime you can prime your mind towards the language and perhaps trigger further areas of interest and motivation.

On our second visit to the brothers’ apartment 24 hours into the week, we found them sampling dozens of different kinds of Turkish snacks. Like kids staring at the backs of cereal packs before heading to school, the nutritional information and various special offers and competitions on the packaging were analysed during snack breaks. There was no moment of complete removal from the language learning process during the eight hours that the twins had allotted to it. The intensity ebbed and flowed, but it never dissipated entirely.

6. Use What You Already Know

Lesson learned: The greater the depth of processing, the more likely the information will be remembered. Find pleasure in drawing parallels and making comparisons between the language(s) you already know and your new language.

One of the twins’ most common phrases was, “ah, that’s a bit like in … ?” They were constantly using their existing knowledge to support the ever-growing knowledge of Turkish. Not only did this spark some energetic exchanges regarding the etymology of various words, but it also ensured new words would never be forgotten once woven into their web of associations. Even if you are learning your second language, you will likely come across words that share common origins with words in your native tongue.

7. Variation is the spice of life

Lesson learned: So you have your route plotted and an idea of your favored methods, but do remember to try new things; your new language has just as many sources as your native language.

The twins spent a lot of time engrossed in books or on their computers and apps, flicking and swiping their way through exercises eagerly, but at other times they were to be found searching busily for Turkish radio stations and write-ups of Turkish football games on the web. There is no definitive method to learn a language, nor any tool or teacher that will single-handedly deliver you to the holy grail of fluency. Language is written, spoken, read and heard. Each of these areas is considered a core skill within which there are myriad potential inputs; would you restrict yourself to one in your native language? All too often, people enter their weekly language class to converse with their teacher, but then barely have any contact with other native speakers or the media being broadcast in their target language. Try something new every day. Listen to a cheesy song, read a newspaper article from a newspaper whose politics differ from your own, write a story for kids, attempt some improvised theatre and talk to yourself while cooking. Spice it up and add some flavour to your language learning!