Anyone who has traveled to Paris in the summer know that the city — like many other European cities—clears out during the month of August, while the French take their month-long vacations. According to a new study from Expedia, French workers take off 30 full days a year.

Expedia recently unveiled its Vacation Deprivation study, which analyzed the vacation habits of people in multiple countries and continents. Expedia polled thousands of people in 22 countries to find out who takes the most and least amounts of vacation.

The study found that people in Japan take the least amount of vacation; the average Japanese worker gets 13 days off each year but only takes five. South Koreans trailed right behind, getting an average of 19 days off but only taking seven.

Similarly, North American workers seem to be in need of vacation time. Americans, who get 12 days off each year, take 10 days of vacation, while Mexicans get 14 days of vacation, but only take 10 days off.

Europeans, on the other hand, see long vacations as almost mandatory. The study found that most employees in Europe get between 25 and 30 days of vacation time each year. French and Spanish workers said that they take off the full 30 days each year, while Germans take 28 days of vacation. Workers in the U.K., Norway, Sweden, and Denmark all said that they take 25 days of vacation.

Brazilians also reported taking off a full 30 days of vacation time each year.

SEE ALSO:  The 8 Best Islands in the world >

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Christie's and Sotheby's racked up close to a billion dollars this week in just two New York sales of contemporary art, making one small corner of the world appear as if the global financial crisis had never happened.

Late Wednesday, Christie's blew away the records for auction splurges with what it said was the highest-grossing contemporary auction ever, raising $412.24 million dollars.

"This evening's sale set a new record total for any Post-War and Contemporary Art sale. Over the past six years, Christie's has led this market first over the $200 million, then over the $300 million, and now over the $400 million barrier," said Brett Gorvy, head of contemporary art.

Leading the way was a canvas of violent black brushstrokes by abstract expressionist Franz Kline that sold for $40.4 million, four times as much as his previous auction record price.

Christie's had estimated the painting would go for between $20 million and $30 million. The result suddenly thrust Kline into the front ranks of the abstract expressionist market, where the likes of Mark Rothko hold sway.

Andy Warhol's "Statue of Liberty" sold for $43.76 million, while another Warhol, "Marlon," which depicts the actor Marlon Brando in familiar brooding pose, sold for $23.7 million, above the high end of the pre-sale estimate.

Jeff Koons' sculpture "Tulips," featuring his trademark shiny, colored metal, fetched $33.7 million, while a Roy Lichtenstein, "Nude with Red Shirt," sold for $28 million, far above the $18 million high estimate.

Another home-run for Christie's was an untitled Jean-Michel Basquiat work that went for $26.4 million, while Rothko's "Black Stripe (Orange, Gold and Black)," went for $21.4 million, just above the high estimate.

Gerhard Richter's "Abstraktes Bild (779-2)," estimated at $12-18 million, sold for $15.3 million.

The exuberance at Christie's near Manhattan's Rockefeller Center was nearly matched the previous evening at Sotheby's, further uptown.

Total sales on Tuesday reached $375.15 million, "the best auction result in any category in the company's history," Sotheby's said. The combined estimates of all lots had been between $277-374 million.

"This has been an extraordinary year for contemporary art at Sotheby's," said Tobias Meyer, Contemporary Art head at Sotheby's. "Tonight's record results bring our 2012 total to well over $1 billion."

There, the big star was Rothko's "No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue)," which sold for $75.1 million.

The work described by Sotheby's as Rothko's "seminal, large-scale masterpiece" was selected by the artist for his landmark 1954 solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago and had been in the same collection for 30 years before coming to market.

The winning bid, reached after a prolonged bidding battle in New York, was short of the record $86.9 million paid for Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow" at Christie's in May. But it was wildly over the pre-sale $35-50 million estimate.

Also notable was Jackson Pollock's "Number 4, 1951," estimated at $25-35 million and selling for $40.4 million, easily breaking the previous $23 million record for works by the abstract expressionist.

By contrast, the big sales last week of Impressionist art were considered a let-down, with a third of lots failing to sell -- even if Sotheby's did manage to sell Picasso's "Nature morte aux tulipes," painted in 1932, for $41.5 million.

SEE ALSO: Step Inside The German Art Fair That Changed The Way We Look At Art

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This is the MR.BEER Brewmasters Select Beer Kit.

Why We Love It: This kit comes with everything you need to brew and bottle four gallons of all-malt beer. It has reusable 1-liter bottles, pint glasses, a thermometer, a sugar measure, and an instructional DVD. There's also the MR.BEER two-gallon fermenter, which has a built in air-lock and easy pour tap.

You can continue to reuse the kit with Refill Brew Packs, and choose different flavors on the website. The kit comes with enough supplies for two batches.

Where To Buy: Available through MR.BEER.

Cost: $99.95

Want to nominate a cool product for Stuff We Love? Send an email to Megan Willett at mwillett@businessinsider.com with "Stuff We Love" in the subject line.

See Also: Aqua Waterproof Smartphone Case

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Two graphic designers from France have recently begun to generate internet buzz with their burger creations.

What started as a random lunch project one afternoon slowly evolved into the website Fat & Furious Burger. Creators Thomas and Quentin said it was just chance they decided to take a picture of one of their "meals" and put it online, and the rest is history.

Click here to jump right to the burgers >>

"We were so bored of random food at lunch, so we started cooking together," they explained in an email to Business Insider. "It soon became a kind of a ritual: improvising and experimenting new ways of cooking a burger."

The pair are inspired by everyday headlines and recent events, as evidenced by their recent homage to Neil Armstrong after the great astronaut's passing. The all-white burger, in a sesame-seed sky, was topped with coconut shavings. "Though it wasn't exactly tasty, it was the first of our burgers that really looked like something different, and something you wouldn't normally eat," they said.

Most recently, they celebrated the 50th anniversary of the James Bond films by creating a burger for the occasion. "It's name is Bun. James Bun," the pair said of the collaboration with Fricote magazine.

Quentin and Thomas said they planned to team up with many more restaurants and magazines while continuing to imagine — and consume — new, wilder creations. As for where they see the project evolving? "Hopefully not to obesity," they joked.

The list of ingredients for the "Fabulous Flower Cake Burger" includes cream cheese, salmon eggs, and fried onions.

Source: Fat & Furious Burger

The honorary "Neil Armstrong Burger" used mushrooms, pear, cream cheese, and coconut dust to create the moon, and sesame seeds for the surrounding galaxy.

Source: Fat & Furious Burger

The "Yin & Yang Burger" has grilled bacon, steak, and roasted peppers on one side, and grilled chicken, goat cheese, apple slices, and olive oil on the other.

Source: Fat & Furious Burger

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For cruising around Florida, there's no better way to go than a yacht. And as far as luxury sailing is concerned, the D'Natalin is an especially classy mode of transportation.

The yacht, built by Delta Design Group, is 151 feet long. Its two Caterpillar engines are good for a cruising speed of 13 knots (15 mph).

The D'Natalin is on sale for $12.9 million, on International Yacht Collection.

Built in 1996, the D'Natalin has room for ten guests and a crew of ten.

There's room for all the guests on board at the table in the dining room.

Seating in the main salon is centered around a round coffee table.

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With nightly rates upwards of $1,500 and out-of-this-world accommodations, luxury safaris are some of the best vacations out there.

But that doesn't mean that everything about them is luxurious.

During a recent press trip to Tanzania where I spent six nights in four different safari lodges — all of them lovely, unique, and with first-rate service — I quickly learned that safaris are not for everyone. Especially for people who like the convenience of a hotel.

In a hotel, reaching the front desk is as simple as picking up the telephone. In the bush, it's a little more elaborate.

The following story is slightly embarrassing, but it illustrates what I mean.

After returning from an evening game drive, I returned to my room — really a private lodge a dozen yards from my next-door neighbor —and realized that the bag containing my passport, wallet, and cellphone was missing. Since we were at a tiny camp more than a hundred miles from any other people, I hadn't bothered to lock it in the safe (lesson learned!)

There was no phone to call the front desk — or a front desk at all, for that matter. It was after dark, and like all of the safari camps I'd stayed at, I couldn't leave my room without a security escort.

It was an hour and a half before I would be picked up for dinner. I was completely alone, and I totally panicked.

Not knowing what else to do, I picked up the air horn I was told to use in case of an emergency — presumably, some sort of animal encounter — and blew it.

Within a minute, two Maasai warriors with spears tucked into their traditional red robes were sprinting to my door. I later learned that many safari camps and even businesses in cities like Dar es Salaam hire them as security guards.

Since there were no phones, one of the guards left to find a manager, while the other stood silently and watched as I paced the room and fought back tears. Thankfully, he didn't laugh too hard when a bat flew into the room and I shrieked.

Eventually, the first guard returned with the manager, who promised to sort the matter out and left to talk to the head housekeeper. In the meantime, I found my passport bag in a cabinet — the housekeeper must have put it there for safekeeping, and it was the one place I hadn't bothered to check.

But since I couldn't get in touch with the manager after he left, I had to wait 15 minutes for him to return to my room so I could let him know I'd worried him for nothing. He had a good sense of humor about it, but I was pretty mortified.

For what it's worth, it was the low point of an incredible adventure, and something I was able to laugh about by the time I got to dinner.

It was also a good reminder that many of the best safari camps are truly remote and off the grid. And that's what travelers love about them.

But if you like being able to reach the hotel switchboard on speed dial at any hour, you may want to stick with a Caribbean cruise.

Disclosure: Our trip to Tanzania, including travel and lodging expenses, was sponsored by the Tanzania Tourist Board, Africa Adventure Company, Singita Grumeti Group, Coastal Aviation, Qatar Airways, Tanzania National Parks, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and Wildlife Division.

SEE ALSO: What It's Like To Stay At The Best Hotel In The World

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We knew that downtown restaurants took a hit in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, but some new numbers confirm that things were really awful.

According to restaurant industry data firm Avero, downtown restaurants that lost power were hit hardest, losing over 88.3 percent of their average weekly revenue following the storm (via Eater).

Overall, restaurant business in the week following Sandy dropped 54.7 percent compared to the prior three weeks, Avero reported.

Restaurants in areas that didn't lose power fared well, some even making out better than usual. At those restaurants, according to Avero:

• Dinner meal periods saw a 10.3 percent improvement in customer volume, and a 13.9 percent improvement in alcoholic beverage sales, compared to the prior three weeks

• Late night meal periods saw 8.4 percent more traffic and a 9.2 percent increase in alcoholic beverage sales, compared to prior weeks

Once power was restored downtown sales recovered to only 62% of their typical level on Saturday, Avero reported.

SEE ALSO: The 8 Best New Restaurants In New York City

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One of the hardest parts of starting out on your own is furnishing an apartment.

And if you don't have a roommate, things like the couch, TV, and decor can start to add up.

We gave ourselves a $2,500 budget to completely outfit a typical one-bedroom apartment. Our picks come from Amazon, Target, Etsy, and Overstock.com, among other online retailers.

Don't sleep on a mattress on the floor. A simple bed frame is just $99 at Ikea. A full mattress costs $379.

Bed frame: IKEA

Mattress: IKEA

That new bed needs a trendy comforter. For $93.99 buy this unisex comforter from Overstock.com. Yes, it may bring to mind "50 Shades of Gray," but that's great for a bedroom.

Comforter: Overstock

Get a dresser to match your bed. You can grab this six-drawer dresser for $149 at Ikea, but the catch is you'll have to build it yourself.

Dresser: IKEA

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Capital gains tax rates are set to increase at the end of the year, and the impending change has wealthy homeowners scrambling to sell before the Jan. 1 deadline.

"I have clients in contract who, if they close before the end of the year, the home is one price, and if they close after Jan. 1, it's another, because of capital gains," said Jill Hertzberg, a broker associate for The Jills, a luxury real estate firm in Miami.

Come Jan. 1, the Bush Era tax break that put the minimum tax on capital gains taxes at 0 percent will be gone. Instead, there will be a minimum 10 percent federal tax on long-term gains, with the cap raised from 15 percent to 20 percent.

Capital gains tax increases will affect the entire real estate market, not just the luxury niche. Whenever a home is sold, the seller is taxed on the gains or profit he made. The tax rate is based on the amount of time the seller owned, the home, purchase and sale price, and any renovations.

For the owners of million-dollar homes, the difference between the current tax rate and the new rate could mean a significant chunk of money.

"No one really knows what's going to happen next, but some people are looking to sell," said Oren Alexander of The Alexander Group and Prudential Douglas Elliman. "The real estate market has increased in New York City in the past two years, and their properties are worth more than they paid. So people are going to rush to sell property before the year ends."

While realtors we spoke to said they had seen more luxury homeowners get serious about selling their homes since the November election, some have been considering a sale for months.

Teke Wiggin at AOL Real Estate noted in August that average sales of homes priced at $1 million or above were up more than 23 percent from the previous year, and that average sales price in the million-plus category had decreased 12 percent from a year earlier.

"That could be a sign that sellers are becoming more willing to accept lower offers," he wrote.

And CNBC's Robert Frank called it "The Mansion Cliff" in July, explaining:

Real-estate experts say that as more of the wealthy sell out of fear of a tax increase, they could drive up inventory and lower prices in the top of the real estate market, which has been one of the few bright spots in the economy. Any softening at the high end, or a spike in inventory, could ripple through the housing market and add new pressure to prices, although it could also increase sales volume.

Seems like we can still expect to see some blockbuster properties hit the market before New Year's Eve.

SEE ALSO: The Most Expensive Mansions For Sale In Hong Kong

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It's not new that being thin is trendy.

Maybe a little more shocking is that this trend is also true in the real estate market.

Buildings are thinner than ever, especially in places where there isn't much space to build, according to The Wall Street Journal's Eliot Brown.

The trend isn't only being seen in New York. Skinny buildings have been in Hong Kong for years, and are just now popping up in Tel Aviv and Vancouver, Brown notes.

Until recently, architects would design highrises with larger floors that were more stable and spanned around 10,000 square feet.

Now, super-luxury buildings such as the still-under-construction One57, 432 Park Avenue, and One Madison Park are cropping up with skinny bases, at 6,240, 8,250, and 3,300 square feet, respectively.

Thin is in because of advances in architecture and design, Brown notes. But it's also become trendy in places like New York where unused space is scarce, and buyers are willing to pay for the views afforded by higher floors.

Vancouver, British Columbia developer Jon Stovell, who last year finished a 350-foot tower that has 4,850-square-foot floors, told The WSJ, "If you can build more slender and higher, you can get more units with good views—and height is valued."

DON'T MISS: The 25 Coolest New Buildings Of The Year

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Though power is back on in Lower Manhattan and the subways are mostly running smoothly, many New Yorkers are still recovering from the disastrous impact of Hurricane Sandy. Devastated restaurants in "Zone A," the red zones where residents were evacuated and streets flooded, are still reeling from the effects of the storm.

In a city already known for its cutthroat restaurant industry, Sandy was the death knell for many establishments. Restaurant sales for all of Manhattan were down 55 percent in the week immediately following Sandy, and sales were down 88.3 percent on average for restaurants in SoPo—the area that was "South of Power." For some eateries, that was just too big of a hit to take.

And even though the power for most came back on within five days, for many restaurant owners in Manhattan's South Street Seaport or Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood that was the least of their worries. A thick, green mold is now growing on wood and in the concrete of many coast-adjacent restaurants, and owners are contending with lost revenue, an inability to pay their staff, and destroyed inventory in the wake of the biggest storm in recent East Coast history.

Now restaurants are struggling to procure the funds to repair the damage. Most restaurants are suffering through the bureaucratic mess of applying for government compensation and emergency loans, but a few intrepid businesses are taking the fundraising to the internet.

Sites like GoFundMe, Smallknot, and Fundly are hosting websites where patrons can donate money to Zone A restaurant relief.

"Everything in our restaurant was destroyed including pots, pans, furniture and expensive restaurant equipment," says the Smallknot page for South Street Seaport restaurant Donagallo.

"We had five feet of water inside the restaurant," says ACQUA on its Fundly page. "We lost our computers, refrigerators, POS system, and all [our] inventory!"

Many are close to reaching their goals already. At press time, the Good Fork in Red Hook, Brooklyn, had already raised over $40,000 of its $50,000 goal, and Ted & Honey had exceeded its target amount of $10,000 by $1,000.

Restaurateurs Michelle Mannix and Chris "Ted" Jackson own two restaurants in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, both of which were devastated by the storm. So they took to fundraising on Smallknot.com.

"The Smallknot.com campaign was a great resource for us to raise funds and awareness that we were affected," Michelle Mannix, co-owner of Ted & Honey, wrote to Business Insider in an email. "We were able to reach our Smallknot fundraising goal within 4 days, but I would have liked their fundraising ceiling to be a bit higher as the amount we raised covers only about 25% of what we need that will not be covered by insurance."

New Yorkers found other ways to save local restaurants. Liftsall.org paired functioning restaurants with damaged ones to help provide any available assistance (such as throwing fundraising dinners or lending supplies), and Eat Down, Tip Up, urged diners to leave generous tips at downtown establishments.

Some restaurants in hard-hit areas were more fortunate than others. Felice 15 Gold, a new restaurant on Gold street in lower Manhattan, was able to keep its kitchen open with just one emergency light while serving family-style pasta and sandwiches to guests stranded in Gild Hall, a nearby hotel. They also kept the bar open by candlelight to serve the neighborhood in its time of need.

But with entire neighborhoods destroyed, homes totaled, and people killed in New Jersey and Staten Island, critics aren't happy that New York restaurants are getting all the attention.

"Saving restaurants is important, but it's less important than the other needs," Robert Sietsema, food critic at the Village Voice, told the Los Angeles Times. "Although it's nice to see people coming together, let's be honest — New Yorkers don't need to be talked into going out to eat more often."

No one is arguing that Manhattan fared better than its geographical neighbors in the wake of the hurricane. But 300,000 people are employed in restaurants around the NYC area, and owners have lost millions in investments and their sole source of income. Shouldn't we be helping all of those in need as much as we possibly can? 

Don't Miss: A Full On The Ground Look At Hurricane Sandy's Local Devastation

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We love this coastal villa in Sardinia, Italy for $16.6 million.

The home has seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and sits on nearly an acre of land.

The villa was constructed by architect Jacques Savin Couelle and made with stone, wood, and granite.

Welcome to Sardinia.

The home is 6,458 square feet.

The kitchen is decked with shiny stainless steel appliances.

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Come 2017, getting around San Francisco will get a lot easier and more pleasant. The city is in the process of building an enormous transportation terminal in the heart of its downtown.

Designed by architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli, the "Transbay Transit Center," which broke ground in 2010, has a $4.2 billion price tag. According to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA), it will create 125,000 jobs and generate $140 billion in gross regional product and personal income through 2030.

The first phase of the project, to build the terminal, is fully funded and underway. So far, it is on schedule and on budget, and set for completion in 2017. The second phase will extend the commuter rail line, Caltrain, by about a mile, to connect it with the terminal and bring travelers into the heart of downtown San Francisco.

Once completed, the Transbay Transit Center will serve tens of thousands of people every day, and connect 11 different transit systems, including bus, subway, and commuter rail. Eventually, it will serve as the northern terminus for California's high-speed rail network, which is under construction.

The TJPA and Pelli Clarke Pelli call it the "Grand Central Terminal of the West."

It's in the heart of downtown San Francisco, near the Bay Bridge.

The grand entrance is "in the spirit" of NYC's Grand Central and London's Victoria Station.

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If you just don’t get the Oliver Twist-esque street urchin look that defines hipster fashion, or the weird, two-tone hair (it’s called ombre!) that so many celebrities have, you’ll be downright mystified by these trends from around the globe.

Shippo, The Brain-Controlled Tail

All humans have tails. At least we do early on, about 3 to 4 weeks into our embryonic development.

But they evolve no further than that … until now. Japanese company Neurowear has recently unveiled the body-controlled Shippo (translation: tail). This fuzzy little backside duster tells the world if you’re happy or sad, bored or frisky. It does this via an EEG headset and a clip-on heart monitor that are wired to the fluffy appendage.

Shippo also features geotagging and smart phone sharing capability, which allows devotees to find each other and engage in mutual tail wagging.

Bagel-Shaped Forehead Injections

Though it looks like Botox gone wild, it’s saline, not botulinum toxin, that’s being injected into the foreheads of willing subjects.

Part of a Japanese “body modification” art scene, the procedure takes about 2 hours and 400cc of saline, injected via a crochet-sized needle. The resulting forehead-sized blob is then manipulated with the fingers into a bagel-like shape, with an indentation pressed in the middle (the effect brings to mind Worf from Star Trek: TNG) .

Fortunately, these injections aren’t permanent. They’re gone in about 16 hours, after the body absorbs the saline.

Yaeba Teeth

Maybe we’ve taken the ideal of perfectly straight, white teeth as far as it can go. That seems to be the message behind the trend of Yaeba, which means “double tooth” in Japanese.

Many women are choosing dental crowns that elongate their canine teeth and give the effect of dental overcrowding (not to mention a vaguely vampire-ish vibe). Why? Because in Japanese culture, young women with these kind of crooked teeth are considered cute and innocent. One does have to wonder if it makes flossing more difficult.

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Most people who spend more than $200,000 for a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT Roadster are also willing to keep it in great condition.

That's not true of whoever holds the title for this one, which has a flat tire and desperately needs a wash. Reader Bryan C spotted the neglected car by a gas station in the Cherry Creek District of Denver.

Have you spotted a rare or unusual way of getting around? Did you take a photo? Do you like sharing? Let me know via e-mail: adavies@businessinsider.com or on Twitter: @adavies47.

SEE ALSO: Take A Look Inside The New Cadillac ATS That's Giving Luxury Cars A Run For Their Money

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Twinkies may be no more, but a new sweet snack made by the Cracker Jack Company may help fill the empty slot on grocery store shelves.  

Frito-Lay, the company that makes Cracker Jacks, introduced Cracker Jack'D Power Bites this morning. 

The new snack has taken the traditional candy-coated popcorn and injected it with a healthy dose of caffeine in the form of coffee.  

Two flavors, vanilla mocha and cocoa java, will be packed with 70 mg of caffeine, which is equal to a 1-ounce shot of espresso or two 12-ounce cans of cola, says ABCNews. 

Sounds fun!

Unfortunately, not everyone is amped about the java-coated bites. In light of health issues associated with caffeine-pumped products (both Monster Energy and 5-Hour-Energy drinks have recently been cited in deaths linked to their caffeine content), the Center For Science in the Public Interest wrote a letter to the Food and Drug Administration urging the organization to crack down on caffeinated food and drinks. 

"The way things are going, I fear that we'll see caffeine, or coffee, being added to ever-more improbable drinks and snacks, putting children, unsuspecting pregnant women, and others at risk," CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson said in statement. 

The organization is largely concerned that because Cracker Jacks is historically a "kid-friendly food," the new snack will be appealing to children, who are more susceptible to the effects of caffeine. 

According to myhealthnewsdaily, "moderate doses of caffeine, between 200 to 300 mg, aren't harmful for healthy adults, whereas heavy daily use, of more than 500 mg, can cause insomnia, fast heartbeat and muscle tremors." 

Frito-Lay ensures consumers that Cracker Jack'D will be targeted toward adults. 

From ABCNews:

Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo. Inc., said the company's new coffee toffee will be marketed to adults exclusively, with the presence of both coffee and caffeine clearly called out on both the front and back of the package, and the brand's iconic boy-and-dog logo featured against a black background to avoid any confusion with their kid's lines.

Here's the new Cracker Jack line. Some other interesting flavors, including Spicy Pizzeria and Cheddar BBQ, do not contain caffeine. The product will enter supermarkets later this year.  

SEE ALSO: What Marijuana Does To Your Mind And Body 

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Alessandra Ambrosio was born in the small Brazilian town Erechim, to gas station-owning parents.

At the age of 11, Ambrosio fixed her biggest insecurity and had her ears pinned back.

After that, it wasn't long before the Brazlian beauty landed a modeling contract with one of the largest agencies in the world.

One of the first Victoria's Secret models, Ambrosio is still strutting her stuff at age 31 during the retailer's annual holiday show, with her two young children cheering her on from the front row.

Earlier this month, the model donned a $2.5 million bra to strut her stuff down the famed runway.

After being a Victoria's Secret spokeswoman for the past ten years and appearing on over 70 international magazine covers, Ambrosio has earned a spot as the sixth wealthiest model in the world.

April 11, 1981: Alessandra Corine Ambrosio was born in Erechim, Brazil. Her parents, who are of Italian and Polish Brazilian descent, owned a gas station.

1992: Alessandra, who was always insecure about her large ears, had cosmetic surgery at agee 11 to get her ars pinned back.

1993: At age 12, she enrolled in modeling class and by age 14, she was one of 20 finalists for an Elite modeling competition in Brazil.

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Google. Yahoo. Yandex. Some of today's biggest companies are named the strangest things.

Sometimes, it's not the company's fault. There's a running joke that vowels are too expensive in Silicon Valley and founders can't afford normal-sounding domain names.

Others strive to come up with something a little different. "I wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch," one founder said.

One Kings Lane is a made-up address

One Kings Lane is a big home decor shopping site run by Doug Mack, Susan Feldman and Ali Pincus.

The name is a made up address. "It's meant to reflect a blend of Old and New World sensibilities," Fortune writes.

Etsy means "And if" in Latin and "Oh, yes!" in Italian

Robert Kalin sought a meaningless word that he could turn into a brand.

He listened to foreign movies, wrote down what he heard, and turned it into the company's name.

Kalin explains to Reader's Digest, "I was watching Fellini's 8 ½ and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say 'etsi' a lot. It means 'oh, yes.' And in Latin, it means 'and if.'"

Yandex has a double meaning, "Yet Another iNDEXer,' and the Russian word "Я" (Ya") Sounds like "I" In English (Ya-ndex).

The Russian search engine's name is both an acronym and a pun.

According to Wikipedia, ""The name initially stood for "Yet Another iNDEXer." The Russian word "Я" ("Ya") corresponds to English personal pronoun "I", making "Яndex" a bilingual pun on "index"; another pun is based on yin and yang contrast."

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Two things helped propel Francois Payard into becoming a world renowned pastry chef: 1.) his bustling personality, and 2.) his macarons.

We stopped by the Francois Payard Bakery in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, and the chef put on a show as he took us on a step-by-step guide on how he makes his world famous macarons.

Watch below to learn how you can make Chef Francois Payard's macarons:

Produced by William Wei

And Don't Miss:

• Everything You Need To Know About Apple's Rumored TV

• Take A Video Tour Of The Best News App For The iPad

• One Startup Has Figured Out How To Disrupt The $35 Billion Flower Industry

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Can a neighborhood's racial diversity actually mean a healthier housing market?

When Trulia real estate expert Jed Kolko examined the most diverse zip codes in the U.S., he found they not only saw faster population growth in the last year but also saw housing values rise more than others. 

It's becoming more clear that "Americans are moving toward diverse neighborhoods," Kolko writes in "Finding Diversity in America."

There's just one big caveat to consider.

"Growth in those neighborhoods could affect their diversity," he adds. "If prices in diverse neighborhoods rise, lower-income residents may get priced out over time."

Using 2010 Census data and Trulia's results, we've highlighted the top places.

95834: South Natomas, Sacramento

In Trulia's study, California metros nab four spots in the top 10 most diverse large metro areas. That includes Sacramento, home to the South Natomas neighborhood.

The area has seen substantial residential growth since the 1990s.

Racial makeup: 

Hispanic: 27.4%
White: 29.2%
Asian: 20.4%
Black: 15.8%
Multi-racial: 5.2%

96707: Kapolei, Honolulu

Two neighborhoods in tropical Hawaii make the list, including sunny Kapolei. Its population size more than doubled from 1990 to 2010, while residential listings tripled, according to Kapolei.com.

Racial makeup: 

Asian: 29.2%
Multi-racial: 25.7%
White: 19.7%
Hispanic: 12.2%
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 10.5% 

02125: Dorchester, Boston

Despite Dorchester's location within big city Boston, it's not exactly one of the better-known, or even more populous neighborhoods.

Still, it is largely more diverse than the city as a whole, which is 69% white. Black and White residents are pretty much evenly split in Dorchester, followed closely by Hispanics. 

Racial makeup: 

White: 29.1%
Black: 27.5%
Hispanic: 19%
Asian: 11.2%
Multi-racial: 4.7% 

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