The launch of Africa’s first low-cost airline promises to open the continent's skies to first-time fliers and cut costs for tourists currently hit with some of the world’s most expensive air tickets.

Fastjet, part-owned by easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, will take its first scheduled flight in Tanzania this week and plans to expand first across East Africa and then to Ghana and Angola.

If the airline sticks to these plans, British tourists could soon combine safaris in Kenya with gorilla treks in Uganda and time on Zanzibar's beaches in a two-week trip without excessive flight costs.

Such multi-country holidays in Africa have traditionally been restricted to backpackers with time to take cheap transport.

It is the first time the “book early, pay less” model has come to most of Sub-Saharan Africa. Passengers used to full-service airlines may be surprised at charges for checked-in bags or onboard drinks and snacks. But in return for the lack of frills, the firm’s British management promise base fares for hour-long flights from as little £13 before taxes.

“This is something that can revolutionise my work,” said Godfrey Hicheka, a charity director in Tanzania, who regularly travels between Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital, and Kilimanjaro in the north, to visit field projects.

Often he cannot justify the £225 cost for the 50-minute each-way flight. On fastjet, the return ticket will be as low as £33, including taxes.

“That is cheaper than taking the bus, and it means I can go for a meeting in the morning and be back in Dar by evening – it's unbelievable,” he said.

Long-distance road travel is often the only option for most Africans, even those in the booming middle class with salaried jobs.

Mr Hicheka’s 400-mile journey from Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro would take 11 hours on a cramped coach on roads with an awful reputation for accidents. Unlike in India or South-East Asia, there are few passenger trains in Africa.

“African economies are among the fastest growing in the world, and a lot of that growth is happening in the middle classes,” said Ed Winter, fastjet’s CEO and former chief operating officer of both Go and easyJet.

“But they have simply not been properly served with options to fly to business meetings, to fly home to see their relatives at Christmas, to take their families on holidays. We are here to fill that gap.”

Fastjet has three 156-seat Airbus A319s at its first hub in Dar es Salaam, initially serving Kilimanjaro and Mwanza, a major Tanzanian city on Lake Victoria.

Before the end of the year, Mr Winter plans to start the first international flight, to Entebbe in Uganda, and then to Nairobi, Kenya, by Easter, where the airline's second hub will be based. Twelve more leased A319s will be delivered by the end of 2013, he said.

“There will of course be benefits not just to East Africans, but to tourists as well,” he said. Flights already connect to Kilimanjaro, for visitors attempting to reach the summit Africa’s highest mountain.

Future destinations include the Indian Ocean resorts of Mombasa and Zanzibar, and Entebbe and Kigali, which would give tourists cheaper access to treks to see mountain gorillas.

However, the fact that no other airline has yet seriously attempted to bring no-frills flying to Africa points to the significant challenges fastjet faces.

Government regulations can be complex, taxes are high, and airport infrastructure often lags decades behind what passengers in the rest of the world expect.

“We know that improved air services are critical to opening up our economy to development, and we can be sure that infrastructure will be improved,” Charles Tizeba, Tanzania’s deputy transport minister, said at the fastjet launch in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.

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Forget pitching a tent the next time you want to catch some Zzzs outdoors. Setting up your slumber in a suspended, ethereal white ball away from predators and ground moisture is far more preferable — if you can afford it.

The “Cocoon Tree” created by Berni Du Payrat might look and feel luxurious, but it does have the price tag to match. Cost for the little more than 132-pound (without you in it) contraption ranges from more than $4,800 to more than $14,000, according to the Daily Mail.

The round bed is 3-meters in diameter with a custom duvet cover over it. The covered aluminum structure surrounding it is water-proof and has mosquito netting to keep the bugs at bay. If you want to up the luxury, the website states it can be fitted with an air conditioner or heating unit for more extreme conditions.

The Cocoon Tree is suspended by ropes and nets. The structure itself is designed to support up to two tons, with its ropes and fittings supporting more than a ton as well.

Could you truly get your beauty sleep and emerge well-rested and beautiful like a butterfly though? That depends on the birds.

“The only problem is the birds, they’re so noisy when the sun comes up,” Payrat said, according to the Daily Mail.

Watch this video about the Cocoon Tree:

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Nicknamed "Billionaire's Beach," the Carbon Beach section of Malibu is home to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, entertainment mogul David Geffen, former Dodgers CEO Jamie McCourt, and other business tycoons.

Ellison loves Carbon Beach so much that he owns 10 properties there, including one he bought just this week.

What makes Carbon Beach so great — and expensive?

The AP's Jeanne Cooper answered the question in 2006, shortly after Geffen lost a court battle against the construction of a public-access walkway near his home. She wrote:

Locals talk about the breadth and dryness of the sand driving up prices to a minimum of $15 million for a small beachfront lot.

And unlike Malibu Colony homes, the houses tend to be built right on the sand, with no seawall blocking the view of the beach from the patio. For visitors (or paparazzi), that means being able to see the lifestyles of the rich and famous without a telescope while strolling the sand. But really, Carbon Beach's relative exclusivity - in terms of price and public access - is its main selling point.

We decided to see what all the fuss was about.

Welcome to Billionaire's Beach. Malibu has 21 miles of shoreline, but Carbon Beach extends for just one mile along the coast.

"Billionaire's Beach" has its own boutique hotel, called the Malibu Beach Inn. The hotel has 47 rooms.

Source: Malibu Beach Inn

The inn, which was renovated in 2007, is right on the water. So even if you can't afford a multimillion-dollar home there, you can spend a night living like a Billionaire's Beach resident.

Source: Malibu Beach Inn

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This is the iStick Multifunction Desktop Organizer from Cyanics.

Why We Love It: This is a neat and efficient way to organize all of your desktop gear. The iStick comes with a holder for pens, note pads, photos, and your phone, as well as a USB hub and memory card reader.

The model comes in black or white, and even has a cute coffee cup holder to prevent any desktop spillage.

Where To Buy: Available through Amazon.

Cost: $35.99.

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: Retimer Glasses That Can Cure Jet Lag

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Passengers could fly to Australia in as little as four hours after British scientists invented a new cooling system which they described as "the biggest breakthrough in propulsion since the jet engine".

The new technology created by scientists at Reaction Engines can cool air entering an engine from 1,000C to -150C in a hundredth of a second without creating icy blockages.

This would allow a jet engine to run safely at much higher power than is currently possible without overheating, meaning it could reach speeds of more than 2,000mph.

Alan Bond, who led the research, said: "If you wanted to go to Australia, or anywhere else in the antipodal world in four hours or so, then that would be the best way to go and you would pay [the cost of] a first class or business class flight."

Incorporating the "Sabre" engine system into a passenger aircraft would involve redesigning its entire engine, so inventors do not expect it would ever be used for more than 10 per cent of flights.

But they claim it could revolutionize space flight, the purpose it was designed for, by allowing aircraft to fly directly into orbit and back to earth in one clean stage.

Current jet engines are not powerful enough to launch an aircraft into space because they can not operate at a high enough power without overheating.

The breakthrough technology is a cooling system which uses an array of thin pipes, arranged in a "swirl" pattern and filled with condensed helium, to extract heat from air and cool it to minus 150C before it enters the engine.

In normal circumstances, this would cause moisture in the air to freeze, coating the engine with frost, but the company has also developed a method which prevents this from happening.

Having successfully demonstrated the engine and gained formal approval from the European Space Agency, the company hopes to secure £250m to produce a final design, and the services of a manufacturer.

The endgame is an 84m-long aircraft called Skylon which would take off from a runway and operate like a jet engine at low altitude, taking in oxygen from the air, before switching to "rocket mode" and burning its own fuel supply after reaching high speeds.

The "air-breathing" initial phase would allow the vehicle to carry less weight from the outset, meaning it would have more thrust relative to its weight and could fly into orbit in one smooth phase rather than using disposable rockets as it rises.

Having a fully reusable and more efficient engine would dramatically reduce the cost of space flight, researchers claim. They hope their engine will be operational within a decade.

Reaction Engines described the invention as "The biggest breakthrough in propulsion technology since the jet engine".

Tim Hayter, CEO, said: "This means that we can build a hybrid air-breathing rocket engine. What this is going to permit orbital and high-speed propulsion."

Dr Mark Ford, of the ESA, who monitored the testing of the engine, added: "The gateway is now open to move beyond the jet age."

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You've probably heard that buying a lottery ticket is a huge waste of money. People call it the "idiot tax."

Normally, that's harsh but relatively accurate.

The jackpot has to be at least $275 million for it to be considered remotely worthwhile. 

But tonight's Powerball lotto is the exception to that rule.

Because of the high stakes, the expected winnings of buying a $2 ticket is $1.21. In other words, if you spend $2 on tickets, then you will get back $3.21 in winnings on average, for a net gain of $1.21.

Because Powerball publishes the probabilities of winning each prize, we're able to figure out the expected value of a ticket.

Slightly more than 96% of the time, a ticket is a loser, and a player loses $2.

But the remaining 4% of the time, the player enjoys a net financial gain. 2.7% of the time a player gains $2; 0.45% of the time a player gains $5; and so on and so forth. A tiny, tiny fraction of the time, a player gains half a billion dollars.

As a result, if you multiply through the probabilities you get the expected gains and losses of buying a ticket. The average gains of buying a ticket exceed the guaranteed loss of buying a ticket because of the huge jackpot, and the net expected value of playing a ticket turns out to be $1.21.

What's more, there's probably going to be a winner this time.  

Here's the probability of at least one jackpot winner given the number of tickets sold:

Powerball claims that they expect to sell more than 189 million tickets before the drawing tonight. That translates to a 66% probability of at least one winner, so the odds are rather good that there will be at least one new multi-millionaire tomorrow. 

The best way to determine that figure out is 1 minus the probability that there isn't a winner at all, that every single ticket sold is wrong. Since the probability that a single ticket is wrong is 175223509/175223510, that raised to the 189 millionth power is around 34 percent. There's a 34% probability that every ticket is wrong, so there's a 66% probability that at least one ticket is right. 

This brings us to the conclusion that there is a two in three chance that the Powerball lottery won't get any better than it is now. 

Don't miss: 17 lottery winners who blew it all >

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In advertising, everyone always looks perfect. And when they don't, well, that's what Photoshop is for.

But whenever Photoshop is used, there's a chance an art director can make a mistake.

In 2012, publishers and advertisers kept the population plied with a steady stream of atrocious Photoshop fails.

From extra fingers to missing limbs, these are the most epic Photoshop disasters from 2012.

Find out if you can spot the flub, or if you would have approved the photos for publication.

What's wrong with this SimplyBe catalog item?

The hands! The hands! (Fun fact: SimplyBe changed the photo, and wrote "non mutant" in the jpeg name.)

Source: Daily Mail

What's wrong with the February cover of In Style?

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This excerpt from "Debt-Proof Your Christmas" was published with permission from Baker Publishing Group.

It was my worst Christmas ever. I’d been hiding bills from my husband so we would have money for Christmas shopping, but it wasn’t enough. It never was.

Every credit card in my vast collection was maxed to the limit. Back then going over limit was not allowed. If you tried, the card would be rejected at the cash register. There are few things more humiliating than the dreaded words, “You’ll need to go to the credit office.”

With only seven days to go until the big day, I was desperate. Still to come were parties, school events, church pageants, and musicals. The pressure of the season was taking its toll. The stress was nearly unbearable.

I did the only thing I could do: I called the department stores whose cards I had and begged for a credit limit increase. One high-end store agreed. That determined my course of action. I would have to Christmas shop in a big chichi store that specialized in clothing.

The store directory assured me it had toys and electronics too. But just try to find them. When I did find toys and electronics, the selections were limited and the prices outlandish. But by then I didn’t care what the price tags read. There was so little time left, and I was determined to mark the last names off my list and just get this shopping thing finished.

Before I go on, you need to know this was quite a few years ago when VCRs (videocassette recorders) were fairly new technology and quite the buzz. I purchased a VCR from that department store for my husband. It cost more than six hundred dollars—about double what they were going for at the time in discount electronics stores.

But what were my other choices? My only available credit was at this one department store. I tore through that increased credit limit in no time flat. I bought toys and clothes and of course the pricey VCR. The kids weren’t impressed; neither was my husband. He couldn’t quite understand my choice of gifts because we already had a VCR. Not a very good one, I pointed out.

I don’t remember much else from that miserable Christmas.

If there was any joy or satisfaction, it was lost in the shadow of the frantic last-minute shopping and all the debt I added to an already out-ofcontrol situation. Of course, the regular bills couldn’t hide forever, and their reappearance in the New Year did not endear me to my husband.

Add to them the bills for all that Christmas shopping and you’ll have a small idea of the angst and disharmony in the Hunt household. I’m certain we paid for that VCR at least three times by the time we finally got out of debt many years later. The debt lasted far longer than the machine, which has long since gone to the big electronic graveyard in the sky. But it remains for me an important symbol of what not to do.

After that low point of my life, I made a U-turn on the road to financial devastation. It took nearly thirteen years to repay all the horrible debt I had amassed (a story for another day), but the important thing is that we did it.

We paid back a six-figure load of unsecured debt, and in the process, it changed our lives.

"We paid back a six-figure load of unsecured debt, and in the process, it changed our lives."

If there’s one thing I learned from that Christmas so many years ago, it is this: Stuff quickly fades, but debt goes on and on. As you read this now, it may be spring or fall. As I write, it’s summer. The days are long, the grass is green, and the livin’ is easy. Even so, and no matter what time of year it is, there is something we need to talk about.

Relatively speaking, the holidays are just a few short months away. Christmas can creep up on us like a swimsuit that’s a couple of sizes too small.

I don’t know how much credit-card debt has your name on it, but the fact that you’re reading this book suggests there might be some.

Or perhaps you aren’t in debt, but you want to make sure you stay that way. There’s no doubt that relying on credit to pay for holiday shopping can be very tempting. The credit-card companies want us to believe it won’t make any difference—that holiday debt is simple to pay off. But we know better. It’s time to say enough is enough.

Being sick and tired of overspending and starting each New Year with a holiday debt hangover for stuff no one remembers is the catalyst that can make things different for you in the future. You have to say, “Enough! I’m not going to do that anymore.”

What you hold in your hand is not a challenge to stop giving gifts or celebrating Christmas or even spending money. Not at all. Because every situation is different and there is no one-size-fits-all holiday plan, this book is packed with ideas for how to have an all-cash Christmas.

No matter how much or how little cash you have to spend, staying away from credit-card debt is going to change your holiday experience in ways you never dreamed possible. 

Here’s my challenge for you: This Christmas, lock up the credit cards and let me show you how to experience the best Christmas ever with no debt, less stress, and more joy! Prepare yourself for the most meaningful Christmas you and your  family have ever experienced—a very merry, debt-free Christmas.

SEE ALSO: 7 reasons your neighbors might be richer than you > 

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Starbucks' new Costa Rica Finca Palmilera is costing caffeine-addicted customers a whopping $7 a cup.

The beans are part of the chain's "reserve" line and are considered to be the most expensive black coffee Starbucks has ever brewed.  But at the same price as your after-work cocktail, is this cup of joe really worth it?

If you're the guy who nabs K Cups from work, then probably not.  But if you're into rare, complicated brews with fruity aromas, then this $7 cuppa may be for you.

Leslie Wolford a "coffee specialist" described the flavors in a recent taste test: "Lush, tropical, hints of white, not yellow, peach," she told SeattlePI.com . "A little bit of pineapple. Herbal complexity. Super-clean. Vibrant. Sparklingness."

"It's a soft juicy coffee," writes Melanie Overton, a Seattle-based lawyer who keeps a Starbucks-themed blog.

"[The] price is based on rarity, demand, and green coffee prices," a Starbucks spokesperson told Yahoo! Shine. "This coffee is not widely available, so, like an opportunity to try a wine where there is limited production, demand is high."

Only a handful of farms in Costa Rica produce the red-berry-colored beans required for Starbucks' newest variety, which allows distributors to hike the price.  Currently, Starbucks is selling half pound bags of Finca Palmilera bean for $40 both in stores and online.

NOW SEE: 15 Facts About Starbucks That Will Blow Your Mind>

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Powerball talk has reached febrile levels.

With the jackpot north of half a billion dollars, the entire country is playing the numbers  (including Business Insider).

But here's the real question we know is everyone's mind: can the contest be gamed?

Not without extreme difficulty.

Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Office of Inspector General released a report on a group of individuals who had successfully — and legally — outmanuevered the state's lottery to win millions of dollars.

That appears to be the only successful example in modern lotto history, according to Chuck Strutt, the director of the Multi-State Lottery Association which oversees cross-state lottery games. 

But Strutt told us that there have been several notorious instances of illicit lottery rigging over the years, which we reproduce for you here.

Italy's blindfolded tots scandal, 1999

A nationwide scandal erupted after lottery officials were found to have rigged drawings by bribing the blindfolded children who picked numbers.

"Blindfolds were loosened and certain balls covered with a shiny varnish that could be seen beneath the blindfolds. Balls were also heated or frozen so that the children could pick them out by touch. In one case, investigators say, a ball was so hot that a child's hand was burned," CNN reported.

The Pennsylvania 6-6-6 scandal, 1980

Nick Perry, the host of the state's televised lottery drawing, and Edward Plevel, a lottery supervisor, were indicted on fraud charges after it was discovered they were weighing lottery balls so that only 4s and 6s would turn up. One of the major jackpot numbers turned out to be "6-6-6."

Source: New York Times

The Virginia lotto's Australian invasion, 1992

A group of Australian investors bought tickets for 5 million of a possible 7 million combinations, at $1 each, in a lottery with a $27 million jackpot. Virginia officials ultimately ended up paying out the winning ticket.

Source: WDBJ7

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This is the full email that retired Royal Navy officer Nick Crews sent to his son and two daughters in February expressing his and his wife's disappointment in them.

Dear All Three

With last evening's crop of whinges and tidings of more rotten news for which you seem to treat your mother like a cess-pit, I feel it is time to come off my perch.

It is obvious that none of you has the faintest notion of the bitter disappointment each of you has in your own way dished out to us. We are seeing the miserable death throes of the fourth of your collective marriages at the same time we see the advent of a fifth.

We are constantly regaled with chapter and verse of the happy, successful lives of the families of our friends and relatives and being asked of news of our own children and grandchildren. I wonder if you realise how we feel — we have nothing to say which reflects any credit on you or us. We don't ask for your sympathy or understanding — Mum and I have been used to taking our own misfortunes on the chin, and making our own effort to bash our little paths through life without being a burden to others. Having done our best — probably misguidedly — to provide for our children, we naturally hoped to see them in turn take up their own banners and provide happy and stable homes for their own children.

Fulfilling careers based on your educations would have helped — but as yet none of you is what I would confidently term properly self-supporting. Which of you, with or without a spouse, can support your families, finance your home and provide a pension for your old age? Each of you is well able to earn a comfortable living and provide for your children, yet each of you has contrived to avoid even moderate achievement. Far from your children being able to rely on your provision, they are faced with needing to survive their introduction to life with you as parents.

So we witness the introduction to this life of six beautiful children — soon to be seven — none of whose parents have had the maturity and sound judgment to make a reasonable fist at making essential threshold decisions. None of these decisions were made with any pretence to ask for our advice.

In each case we have been expected to acquiesce with mostly hasty, but always in our view, badly judged decisions. None of you has done yourself, or given to us, the basic courtesy to ask us what we think while there was still time finally to think things through. The predictable result has been a decade of deep unhappiness over the fates of our grandchildren. If it wasn't for them, Mum and I would not be too concerned, as each of you consciously, and with eyes wide open, crashes from one cock-up to the next. It makes us weak that so many of these events are copulation-driven, and then helplessly to see these lovely little people being so woefully let down by you, their parents.

I can now tell you that I for one, and I sense Mum feels the same, have had enough of being forced to live through the never-ending bad dream of our children's underachievement and domestic ineptitudes. I want to hear no more from any of you until, if you feel inclined, you have a success or an achievement or a REALISTIC plan for the support and happiness of your children to tell me about. I don't want to see your mother burdened any more with your miserable woes — it's not as if any of the advice she strives to give you has ever been listened to with good grace — far less acted upon. So I ask you to spare her further unhappiness. If you think I have been unfair in what I have said, by all means try to persuade me to change my mind. But you won't do it by simply whingeing and saying you don't like it. You'll have to come up with meaty reasons to demolish my points and build a case for yourself. If that isn't possible, or you simply can't be bothered, then I rest my case.

I am bitterly, bitterly disappointed.

Dad

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Now that the dust has settled from the Black Friday frenzy, it's not hard to see why consumer credit took a major leap in the fall. 

A record 247 million people shopped in stores and online over the four-day weekend, with the average shopper spending $423 –– up from $398 last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

That news is a little frightening.

Ending the holidays steeped in debt is hardly worth the satisfaction of getting everyone in your family the hottest new holiday gadget.

“A lot of families watch their budget very closely throughout the year and spend far beyond their expectations during the holidays,” says Paul Golden of the National Endowment for Financial Education. “This short period of major spending can lead to long-term problems such as credit card debt, which can cause a burden for years to come. Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to gifts you cannot afford. The greatest gift you can give yourself is financial stability.”

Here are five tips NEFE offers to keep debt at bay during the holidays:

Stop at one gift. While shopping, you may come across items that seem like a great fit for someone on your list that you’ve already bought for. Resist the urge. Once you buy for someone, check him or her off your list. If the new gift is even better, be sure to return the previous gift you purchased for him or her.

Don't let guilt rule your spending. Don't be afraid to kick people off your gift list, and don't feel guilty if you have to skip a holiday party or two to stay on track. You'll save by such as wrapping gifts and sending holiday cards can add up too, so avoid expensive wrapping and consider sending a letter rather than store bought cards.

Shop wisely. Consider online shopping to get the best deals, but be sure to figure in shipping costs. Also look for good deals on auction websites. Check sale ads regularly and be selective in your shopping. Don’t wait until the last minute to do your shopping. Set a plan for your time and your spending.

Limit credit card usage. Dig around for extra cash where you can find it (check unused gift cards, cash in rewards points, or even consider doubling up on gifts with a family member or friend). Consider a layaway plan, but be sure you've read all of the fine print and don't agree to a plan riddled with hidden fees. If you are using credit, limit yourself to using one low-interest card and preset a limit that you will not exceed –– and be sure you have enough to pay it off. Keep the rest of your credit cards at home when you go shopping.

Be realistic. Don’t get too carried away with your spending this holiday season just because the economy is showing signs of life. It’s important to stay mindful of your goals and the long-term outlook, and your plan for managing your finances.

SEE ALSO: 7 reasons your neighbors might be richer than you >

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So the bookworm in your life has read everything on The New York Times' best sellers list already.

What do you get her now?

We're here to help with some creative options for book lovers.

Decorate your phone with the cover of your favorite book.

Out Of Print makes canvas and plastic hard shell covers for the iPhone 4 and 4s that depict the cover of classic novels, like "The Great Gatsby," "Moby Dick," "Animal Farm," "Fahrenheit 451," and more.

Price: $35

The invisible book shelf is a sleek way to display your books.

Save space and display your books in a unique and stylish way with the Invisible Floating Bookshelf. The invisible unit grips the cover of one book and turns that book into the base of the bookshelf; you can stack up to 20 pounds on top of each shelf.

Price:$12.95

This book lamp is great for late-night reading.

The "Flex Neck" reading lamp has LED lights and clips on to your book.

Price:$6.47

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There's currently a 170-foot long trampoline in the middle of the Nikola-Lenivets forest in Russia.

It's an art installation by the design team Salto that is currently on display at the art festival Archstoyanie. The trampoline performance piece is called "Fast Track" and was created by designers Maarja Kask, Karli Luik, and Ralf Lõoke. 

The artists' statement says the trampoline is meant "to create intelligent infrastructure that is emotional and corresponds to the local context, giving the user a different experience of moving and perceiving the environment." 

Visitors are welcome to jump the length of the trampoline and experience the bizarre nature trail for themselves at the festival. See images of it in action below.

SEE ALSO: A Proposed Trampoline Bridge Would Let Parisians Bounce Across The Seine

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While men should avoid shopping for suits and attire online, the web is a great place to shop for accessories and one-size-fits-all gear.

We've found some of the coolest accessories for men this holiday season. From a weekend watch to leather touchscreen gloves, here are all of the accessories you didn't know you needed but can't live without.

A weekend watch.

Sure, you have a professional-looking watch that you wear throughout the work week, but what do you wear on your wrist on the weekends?

The weekend calls for different attire, and that's when you need a durable, rugged, sporty-looking watch that you can pair with jeans, loafers, and more casual clothes. It also needs to be water- and shock-resistant if you plan to wear it for a long time.

The Citizen Men's AT2095-07E Eco-Drive Chronograph Watch has a 42-millimeter-wide stainless steel face, black rubber band, and is water-resistant up to 330 feet deep.

Price: $210 on Amazon

A pair of grown-up leather gloves.

Every man needs a pair of nice leather gloves. They're chic, masculine, and warm.

The Men's Touchscreen Casual Leather Gloves from L.L. Bean allow you to use your iPhone while still wearing the gloves. They're also attractive-looking and warm (they're lined with fleece).

Price: $59.95 on L.L. Bean

A pair of killer cufflinks.

Nothing will make you look tougher than cufflinks made from actual bullets.

The .45 Colt Nickel Bullet Cufflinks are made from recycled (fired) bullets from a .45 Colt.

Price: $19.95 from BulletDesigns.com

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For a lot of employees, corporate retreats are dreaded events. And for good reason: At a bad corporate retreat, you might end up singing Kumbaya in the woods with your boss or falling backwards into the arms of a coworker to “build trust.”

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

At Oyster.com, we’ve covered some resorts that provide truly awesome settings for company getaways. The daily schedule may still be in your boss’s hands, but at least the resorts will make the probability of being able to squeeze in some fun much higher.

Best For An AIG-Style Luxury Bash

If you’re in the mood to party like it’s 2008, look no further than the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Orange County. This is the high-end hotel where AIG reportedly spent over $400,000 on an executive retreat — less than a week after the government’s $85 billion bailout of the company. (The bill included over $23,000 in spa treatments; we guess the executives had a lot of de-stressing to do after their company nearly went down the toilet.)

But hey, the times are a changin’ and 2012 has seen the return of luxury corporate retreats. So go on, celebrate the fact that your company is no longer facing imminent disaster (we hope). With a gorgeous 18-hole, ocean-view golf course, eight tennis courts, a renowned spa, an excellent business center with videoconferencing technology, and a high-tech boardroom, it’s the ideal setting for a decadent company getaway.

Best For Team Building (On a Ropes Course, of Course)

You may not be able to avoid team building exercises altogether, but if you’re going to do them, you might as well do them right. Hope Lake Lodge in the Finger Lakes region of New York is located across the road from Greek Peak adventure center, which features a team challenge ropes course specifically geared towards team building. We don’t know about you, but we think zip-lining and bungee jumping sound like more fun than falling backwards into someone’s arms.

Plus, Hope Lake Lodge has two on-site meeting rooms and operates the nearby Acropolis Conference Center, which can fit nearly 1,000 people — so holding meetings will be extremely convenient after the outdoor fun is done.

Best For Health and Wellness

Does your office have weight loss competitions and a kitchen full of Kashi? Or perhaps your company is actually in the health industry (which means your office probably has a kitchen full of Kashi, too). Well if that’s the case, the Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach is a natural choice for your corporate event. (Though we think just about any stressed-out employee can appreciate the resort’s world-renowned spa.)

Corporate retreat packages include the choice of a team building and fitness session or a private wellness workshop, as well as a healthy gourmet breakfast, lunch, and refreshments for the group. This posh, serene spot is best suited for small company events of 30 or fewer.

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This post was originally published on MoneyNing.

You look out the window of your home each night after dinner, staring across the street at your neighbors.

You long for the cars they drive, their weekly manicured lawns, and even the vacations they seem to take several times a year.

You’re not alone.

I often look out my window, too, staring at the gorgeous homes and cars wondering how they manage to pay for them.

After all, we live in the same neighborhood, our kids go to the same schools, and their salaries aren’t that much more than ours.

There are several reasons our neighbors can afford so many of the things we would love to have, but could never fathom splurging on. 

You just think they are

Your perception may be skewed. You see fancy cars in the driveway, and the trim lawns you can almost feel between your toes.

You watch work crews going in and out of the awesome remodeling projects happening inside. Yet, none of that means your neighbors are wealthier than you are.

Just because you see them as more affluent, doesn’t mean they are.

You are only able to see above the surface of their spending, meaning you have no idea what’s happening down below.

They're using excess funds for the fun stuff

While you choose to consistently save money for your kids’ education, and retirement later in life, they are spending what they believe are excess funds on their cars and homes.

They might be making the shallow choice to spend their money on what people can see, while you are spending your money on the life you want to live, both today and tomorrow.

You choose to pay for peace of mind.

It’s how your neighbors allocate their income that makes them seem richer than they are.

Their jobs come with nice perks

While your neighbors’ salaries might be slightly more than yours, it isn’t enough to justify the massive leap in spending.

However, fringe benefits can greatly widen the gap.

Perks such as cars, phones, laptops, and more can give the recipient an amazing leg up when it comes to freeing money for other pleasures.

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The areas around San Francisco and Silicon Alley is by far the most expensive place in the country to buy a home, according to Coldwell Banker's new report on home listing prices around the country.

Of the 19 most expensive markets in the U.S., 11 were in California, and four of the top five were in the San Francisco Bay Area. Los Altos took the top spot with an average listing price of $1.706 million.

For context, the average 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom home in the United States is listed at $292,152.

To come up with the list, Coldwell Banker looked at 72,000 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom properties for sale in 2,500 U.S. markets.

#20 DARIEN, CONN: The average listing price of a home is $1.056 million.

This home is on sale for $1.49 million in Darien, Conn.

Note: To compile its list of the most expensive real estate markets, Coldwell Banker looked at 72,000 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom properties for sale in 2,500 U.S. markets.

#18 MERCER ISLAND, WASH: The average listing price of a home is $1.059 million.

This home is on sale for $998,000 in Mercer Island, Wash.

Note: To compile its list of the most expensive real estate markets, Coldwell Banker looked at 72,000 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom properties for sale in 2,500 U.S. markets.

#17 ORONO, MINN: The average listing price of a home is $1.07 million.

This home is on sale for $1.07 million in Orono, Minn.

Note: To compile its list of the most expensive real estate markets, Coldwell Banker looked at 72,000 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom properties for sale in 2,500 U.S. markets.

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A beautiful home on the beach in Malibu is on sale for $11.75 million.

The house has five bedrooms and five bathrooms, and spans nearly 12,000 square feet.

The home has an impressive 81 feet of beach frontage.

Welcome to Malibu Road.

The house was built in 1990.

The view from the dining room is priceless.

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Miami is known for its hot nights, sexy beaches, and steamy nightclubs — and now it's also known for having the most attractive people in the U.S.

Travel + Leisure recently released its list of the most and least attractive people in America as part of its annual survey of America’s Favorite Cities.

The magazine's readers voted and determined the 36 U.S. cities with the most attractive people. Most of the top cities are large metropolitan areas where residents prize fashion and culture, and many of the cities have great beaches. Miami took the number one spot with San Diego trailing right behind. 

10. The Twin Cities — Minneapolis and St. Paul — have active and intelligent residents who love to spend time outdoors, despite the cold weather.

Source: Travel + Leisure

9. Honolulu, Hawaii, has gorgeous beaches, fresh seafood, and a diverse mix of residents who relish the outdoors.

Source: Travel + Leisure

8. Savannah, Georgia, has a rich history (it was a key port during the Revolutionary War), stunning beaches, and warm, hospitable residents.

Source: Travel + Leisure

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