Last week, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie confirmed that he had lap band stomach surgery in February to lose weight.

Christie is not alone in his struggle to lose weight through diet and exercise.

So he, and many others, have turned to surgical options. The lap band is one of the fastest-growing weight-loss surgeries, in large part because it is one of the least invasive.

Lap band involves placing a plastic band around the upper part of the stomach to make it smaller, which both reduces appetite and limits the amount of food you can eat.

As with any medical procedure, patients should be aware of the risks associated with lap band surgery before getting on the operating table.

Lap Band Talk forum gives patients who have undergone the life-changing surgery a way to connect and share their stories.

A section devoted to before-and-after pictures allows men and women to post their progress. According to the manufacturer of LAP-BAND, after surgery patients can lose 1.5 to 2 pounds per week and drop about half of their excess weight within the first year.

Many forum users have lost more than 100 pounds in the years after surgery.

Weight lost: 135 pounds

Weight lost: 147

Weight lost: 92 pounds

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

I'm fully aware that writing an article about how "Star Wars" is better than "Star Trek" is flame bait. Especially with "Star Trek Into Darkness" hitting theaters this week. You understand this as well as I do. 

But damn it, it's true. Last night, I caught a 9:45 p.m. IMAX 3D showing of "Star Trek Into Darkness" and it just reminded me how much more I enjoy watching the "Star Wars" movies. It kills me that I have to include Episodes I through III. Those aren't "Star Wars" movies, they're abominations. But in the spirit of fairness, I'll count them. 

Even counting the newer "Star Wars" installments, the franchise is still better than the "Star Trek" universe. Fightin' words. 

The irony here is that new Trek-helmer J.J. Abrams will be taking the reins for the new "Star Wars," so this fight might dwindle in the next few years as "Star Wars" gets Abramified and lens-flared into the next decade. 

So let's just enjoy the discussion for now because really, I know you get as much of a kick out of this "debate" as I do.

Here are 19 reasons why "Star Wars" is better than "Star Trek." There are more, but I have some actual work to attend to, so please feel free to sound off in the comments below. 

19. Carrie Fisher in a gold bikini chained to a fat alien.

This could conceivably be higher up on the list, but the choice is obviously driven by my male brain, and the fact that my male brain was influenced by this scene when I was but a wee lad of 6 years old. 

18. "Star Wars" video games put "Star Trek" games to shame.

While we may not be getting "Star Wars 1313" (RIP LucasArts), "Star Wars" has given us one of the best role-playing games ever in "Knights of the Old Republic" and more than double the game titles of any "Star Trek" adaptations.

We have no idea what EA has in store for Disney's next lineup of "Star Wars" games, but it can't be any worse than the latest attempt at a video game tie-in for "Star Trek":  

"Playing Star Trek: The Game felt like playing an unfinished version of a game that, even when finished, still wouldn't be very good."

17. A star ship captain of the Enterprise doesn't know how to put sentences together or run a crew.

Who doesn't love the way William Shatner talks? "Bones ... Spock! BonesSpock! I ... can't ... believe we just got shot. I ... hope ... that this is ... over." But come on, seriously? This guy is trusted to command a star ship?

Sure, Han Solo takes some serious risks with his crew and Millenium Falcon, but Kirk is kind of a moron, new Kirk included. Leading away-crews himself with his most important staffers? Right, this is dramatic. They are the main characters, understood. But for a series that gets touted for it's realism based on science, this just takes me way out of it.  

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Warner Brothers spent 10 years in Leavesden, U.K., filming eight "Harry Potter" films.

The studios are massive and reveal how the movies were made using the most incredible special effects in the film industry.

Over the course of filming, five warehouses full of props were used. There was an Animal Department, a Creatures Department, a Visual and Special Effects Department, and more, which made each detail of J.K. Rowling's magical wizarding world come to life.

We visited the studios last month and learned the secrets. Here's how the producers did it.

The floating candles in the great hall were originally hundreds of real candles suspended by wires, which were digitally removed. But while the first movie was being filmed, there was a problem. The heat from the flames burned through the wires and caused candles to drop onto the tables. Afterward, all the floating candles were created digitally.

During the epic feast in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," tons of desserts covered the tables in the Great Hall. While most of it was made from painted resin, some of it was edible and the cast got to indulge.

In Harry's Gryffindor dorm room, props changed from movie to movie. Producers lined bedside tables and walls with things the characters would be interested in, like sports posters and pennants. But the beds were never upgraded. By the time the final movies were filmed, Daniel Radcliff and the other boys had to curl up in balls to keep from hanging over the edge of the bed during shoots.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Advertising is hardly ever the right answer to building a sustainable, profitable startup.

Yet so many do it.

Instead, startup founders and CEOs need to focus on what they could charge for that people would actually pay for.

The Board of Innovation — a startup consultancy — recently posted a great deck detailing 17 money-making techniques every startup should know.

The common theme is that companies need to understand the emotional context of their customers. 

Any smart, digital revenue model will combine at least few of the forthcoming techniques, according to the Board of Innovation.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Today, we all know Taiwan as a Pacific powerhouse that provides the world with everything from PCs to basic metals to cameras.

But for decades after World War II, the country remained something of a backwater, having been founded by refugees from the Chinese Civil War who subsequently imposed de facto martial law for 40 years.

Public transit expert Leroy W. Demery Jr. journeyed to Taiwan in 1980 to examine how the country's investments in its rail sector was progressing, and took photos of his visit. We've shown you Demery's work from his visits to Asia previously.

These photos show the country in the early stages of its modernization and industrialization campaign — no longer an obscure, undeveloped island, but still not quite the gleaming, skyscraper-boasting megalopolis we know today.  

Click here to see the photos >>

For hardcore Taiwan and/or public transit geeks, here is Leroy's introduction to his photo set:

I arrived at Táibĕi airport from Hong Kong on 1980 July 18, a Friday afternoon. My primary interest was the then-new electrification of the (臺北 / 台北) Táibĕi - (高雄) Gāoxióng railway. Timetable information was scarce, but it appeared that I could circle the island and visit the Alishan Forestry Railway "over the weekend," as we say.

Today, Taiwan is a world beater in every category of development, with GDP per capita rivaling Germany's.

Source: IMF

It has its own stock exchange.

It hosts international fashion shows.

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Everyone loves a good book on investing, economics, or a fresh take on finance.

With all of the titles floating around out there, though, it can be hard to sort through the pile.

"Doug Kass has a terrific reading list," says Blackstone Vice Chairman Byron Wien.

Kass, the widely-followed portfolio manager who is president and founder of Seabreeze Partners Management, gave us a list of his 31 favorite titles he recommends investors should read.

The Most Important Thing

By Howard Marks

"Informed by a lifetime of experience and study, The Most Important Thing explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilizing passages from his memos to illustrate his ideas, Marks teaches by example, detailing the development of an investment philosophy that fully acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world. Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with a number of broad takeaways."

Click here for more info >

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

By Charles Mackay

"Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into hare-brained speculative frenzies--only to jump broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic--first published in 1841--shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds."

Click here for more info >

The Money Game

By Adam Smith

"The Money Game, written by one who signs himself 'Adam Smith' (and who some believe is Harvard-and-Oxford-trained George J. W. Goodman), is a modern-day classic. Like many modern paintings, the book looks simple. But as W. Somerset Maugham said about an unforgettable Mondrian abstraction: 'It looks as though you had only to take a ruler, a tube of black paint and a tube of red, and you could do the thing yourself. Try!' "—Professor Paul A. Samuelson, First American Nobel Prize Winner in Economics."

Click here for more info >

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

On June 1, thousands of Wall Streeters will take the Charted Financial Analyst (CFA) exam and many of them are probably freaking out right about now.   

Consisting of three levels, the CFA is considered to be the most difficult test on the Street with fewer than 20 percent of candidates passing all three on the first try. 

What's more is the average test-taker spends a solid five to six months preparing for the CFA.

There are several formulas a candidate must know to pass.  However, there are way too many formulas to be included in one small slideshow.

That being said, we've included 9 formulas candidates are likely to need on any of the three levels of the CFA exam.

Best of luck to all the test takers out there!

Reporter Ben Duronio contributed to this feature. 

DISCLAIMER: We don't claim to be experts in offering exam advice.

Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM): Attempts to explain the relationship excess market risk and expected return.

Source: CFA Institute, Wikipedia

Black-Scholes Model: Applies theoretical physics when pricing options.

Source: Investopedia, Wikipedia

Duration With Convexity Adjustment: Duration is the average time until all cash flows from a bond are delivered. The convexity adjustment helps determine the change in price that is not explained by duration.

Source: Investopedia, My Swiss Company

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

There's a major revolution going on right now in enterprise technology. 

Apps, devices, cloud computing, big data, networks, software are all being overhauled.

There are lots of well-known people leading the charge like Cisco's CEO John Chambers, Salesforce.com's CEO Marc Benioff and Box's CEO Aaron Levie.

But they aren't working alone. Behind the big names are thousands of people doing their part to change the IT world.

Among them, some stand out for handing critical areas for their respective companies.

Fred Luddy, founder and chief product officer, ServiceNow

Fred Luddy describes himself as "just a programmer" but he's known as the quiet genius behind ServiceNow, a super successful enterprise cloud company that helped cure the IPO market after the Facebook disaster.

ServiceNow is a cloud tool that let's IT departments manage their help desk and other technology projects.

Luddy started the company out of near desperation, he told Business Insider. He had been the CTO of Peregrine Systems when it filed for bankruptcy in 2002. His net worth "dropped to zero" overnight. So he figured he had nothing to lose by starting his own gig.

His net worth is fine now. ServiceNow has a $5 billion market cap and he was paid $11 million (stock plus salary) in 2012 alone.

Partha Ranganathan, Fellow, HP Labs

Partha Ranganathan led the research team for what is perhaps HP’s biggest breakout enterprise product of 2013, the Moonshot server. 

This is a server that uses low-power chips that power mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. These servers use 89 percent less energy, and cost about half as much, as traditional servers.

Low-power servers are set to revolutionize the data center industry and thanks to Ranganathan's work, HP could become a power-player here.

At 40, he's also the youngest HP Fellow on staff.

Amy Parnell, Principal Designer, LinkedIn

LinkedIn has forever changed the way businesses hire employees.

It also created new ways for business folk to meet, connect, conduct business.

Amy Parnell lead LinkedIn's redesigns for the uber important Homepage and Profile pages. She's known for being a wiz at all things tech: engineering, web development and data science and is a rising star to watch within the company.

Please follow SAI: Enterprise on Twitter and Facebook.

When you travel the world, like it or not, you are a representative of your country, and your behavior—good or bad—can reflect on your nation as a whole.

That’s why, while we’re all for spontaneity, sometimes it’s a good idea to stop and think before you chug that eighth beer and start dancing in the streets.

Recently, we at Triposoconducted a survey to learn more about bad tourist behavior abroad. We asked respondents to confess to their own travel sins—which included everything from stealing to public urination—and also to report on the misbehavior of others.

We also asked them which countries they thought behaved the worst while traveling. The answers might surprise you...

10. Brazil: A significant percentage of respondents felt that Brazilians were the most naughty of all world travelers. We’re betting that number spikes come World Cup season...

9. Italy: At number nine, Italy demonstrated a solid reputation for exporting tourists who are among the rudest and lewdest of all world travelers.

8. France: France tied Italy, with several respondents declaring their tourists the most likely to engage in rude or scandalous behaviors. Well, c’est la vie!

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Have you ever been to a place where you didn’t know the language?

Have you ever wanted to learn a language, but thought the process is too difficult, or takes too long?

Sometimes it seems as if there are as many language learning methods as there are language learners, or conversely that there is only “One True Way” to learn a language.

The reality lies somewhere in the middle.

Let’s examine the 5 ways people generally learn languages.

The vocabulary-based approach stresses repetition.

The major players:

Rosetta Stone and similar language-learning software.

The method:

This method of learning claims to emulate the way we learned language as children – by associating words in the target language (the language you want to learn) with pictures or the objects they represent. Think, for example, of a three-year-old with a “see-and-say.”

It stresses vocabulary acquisition by presenting the user with vocabulary words and associated pictures, and encouraging repetition of that vocabulary. Grammar rules are not generally taught as such, but are picked up by osmosis.

The advantages:

Vocabulary acquisition is generally rapid, at least at first. Pictures help visual learners memorize the vocabulary. Repetition is stressed.

The disadvantages:

Vocabulary taught is oftentimes not useful for travelers. Leaves students prone to Tarzan Disease (“Me Tarzan, you…”) because of the lack of emphasis on grammar.

Double translation will have you befriending your dictionary.

The major players:

Just about anyone who learned a language before 1900.

The method:

Step 1: Acquire a book in the target language.

Step 2: Acquire an English-target language dictionary.

Step 3: Use the dictionary to decipher the book. Write down your translation.

Step 4: Use the dictionary to translate your translation back into the target language. (Hence the term “double translation.”)

Step 5: Check the re-translated translation against the original book, rinse, repeat.

The advantages:

Useful for languages (e.g. Latin) that the student is only ever going to read, not speak. Introduces student to real texts in the target language.

The disadvantages:

Very difficult and ponderous way to learn. Doesn’t teach listening, speaking, or writing. Reliant on the accuracy of the student’s dictionary.

The grammar-based approach requires diligence.

The major players:

Most “teach yourself” books. Older textbooks.

The method:

These books combine a small amount of vocabulary at the beginning of the lesson with a heaping dose of grammar rules, which must be memorized. The vocabulary is re-combined in several different ways to highlight the grammar points.

Subsequent lessons build on the vocabulary learned in previous lessons and introduce new grammar. Emphasis is placed on reading and writing in the target language.

The advantages:

Once the rules of grammar are learned, it becomes quite easy to integrate and correctly use new vocabulary.

The disadvantages:

Requires lots of rote memorization of grammar rules. Can be frustrating, especially at first. Student is left with very little vocabulary that he or she can begin using straight away.

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Update:Yahoo has purchased Tumblr for $1.1 billion in an all-cash deal. Traffic numbers have been updated to reflect the press release.

In 2007, David Karp started a creative blogging platform, Tumblr.

Now it's a behemoth, home to more than 105 million blogs, with more than 300 million monthly uniques. Recent reports state that Facebook and Yahoo are both interested in acquiring Karp's company for $1 billion.

For a 26-year-old who's already worth more than $200 million on paper, Karp lives a modest life. He prefers a night in with his girlfriend to a crazy night out. Most days, he rides a Vespa or walks to Tumblr's headquarters.

But he's also traveled the world and enjoys taking fancy cars for weekend getaways.

What's it like being the 26-year-old founder of Tumblr? Here's a look into Karp's life as depicted (how else?) in his Tumblr blog.

David Karp was born and raised in Manhattan. He dropped out of high school with his parent's blessing at the age of 15, was home-schooled for three years, and joined the work force.

By the time Karp's friends were off to college, he was Head of Product at UrbanBaby, a site CNET acquired in 2006.

Karp used the money from the sale to create Davidville, a consulting company, and to launch his own products. One of them was Tumblr, a simpler way to blog and share things online. More than 105 million blogs have been made on Tumblr and the site pulls in 300 million monthly uniques.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

While dining out for Japanese food in NYC doesn't often require grilling up a whole cow like at West Village trailblazer Takashi, there's no shortage of solid options offering some adventurous takes on sushi and more.

Check out NYC's 12 best Japanese restaurants.

No. 12: Blue Ribbon Sushi

119 Sullivan St.

Food: 26
Decor: 20
Service: 23
Cost: $59

Long a “standard bearer of cool” in SoHo, this Bromberg brothers Japanese slices “top-flight”, “work-of-art” sushi along with a “wonderful array” of cooked items; “proactive service” and “cozy”, “denlike” digs offset “pretty-penny” price tags and that “frustrating” no-rez thing.

No. 11: Morimoto

88 10th Ave.

Food: 26
Decor: 27
Service: 24
Cost: $86

Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s “phenomenal” Japanese cuisine at this Chelsea destination is as “beautiful and creative” as the “must-see” “modern” duplex space; “excellent”, “almost-psychic” service is part of the “unforgettable” experience, as are “eye-popping prices” – especially for the “oh my” omakase; P.S. don’t miss the “cool” downstairs bar and “ultra-high-tech bathrooms.”

No. 10: Sushi Zen

108 W. 44th St.

Food: 26
Decor: 21
Service: 23
Cost: $68

It’s “less touted” than some, but supporters say this Japanese “island of calm” is “one of the Theater District’s best” thanks to its “pristine”, “beautifully presented” sushi; “excellent” service and “small” but “Zen”-like digs help justify the tab.

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Graphic designer Nickolay Lamm, who previously showed us what America would like under 25 feet of seawater, has a new project that imagines New York City with the atmospheres of different planets in our solar system. 

The illustrations, commissioned by StorageFront.com, were made with the help of Astrobiologist M. Browning Vogel, who worked at NASA Ames Research Center for a five years, and gave Lamm the descriptions for each planet.  

In an artist's statement, Lamm said the images were inspired by photographs of Mount Sharp, a 3.4-mile-high peak at the center of Mars' Gale crater. 

The drawings should serve as a wake-up call to people who take Earth's life-giving resources for granted.

Lamm compares humans to ants living on an enclosed farm. "If these ants ventured outside their ant farm, they'd realize just how uninhabitable other places are and appreciate their own home much more," he told us via email.  

Meanwhile, scientists continue to shop for Earth replacements while developing a plan to send the first humans Mars.  

This is Earth. Everything looks normal around the NYC skyline so far.

Here is New York City with the thin layer of gas, mostly consisting of hydrogen, that makes up Mercury's atmosphere. The transparent atmosphere shows the darkness of space and the radiance of the nearby sun.

Here is New York City with the atmosphere of Venus. Carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid clouds create an envelope of yellowish, hot air that blocks the NYC skyline and sun. The landscape is covered by craters, lava, sulfurous dust and other feature created by Venus' volcanoes.

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.

Marissa Mayer is known for her poise as a leader, formerly at Google and now as CEO of Yahoo!

But she's also known for her fashion sense.

She's has made appearances at New York Fashion Week, for instance, and at Glamor magazine's Woman of the Year event.

We gleaned a fair amount of Mayer's fashion preferences from Vogue's 2009 profile on Mayer. We pieced together the rest from posts on Twitter and Instagram.

Mayer is a self-proclaimed Oscar de la Renta addict. She owned four of these cardigans in various colors as of 2009.

Here, Mayer is rocking some Oscar de la Renta at Glamour's 2009 Women of the Year Awards

Mayer wore a Reem Acra gown to her wedding in 2009.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

We've all made professional decisions that, with the help of hindsight, we wish we could take back, and this is true even for Hollywood's finest.

Many actor's résumés are not without a few projects they wish they could erase from their work history.

Let's take a look at some of Hollywood's biggest stars and the movies they want to forget.

George Clooney and "Batman & Robin"

Joel Schumacher's contribution to the "Batman" franchise has become an ongoing joke within film circles, and George Clooney is happy to get in on the mocking, saying, "It was a difficult film to be good in. With hindsight it’s easy to look back at this and go ‘Woah, that was really shit and I was really bad in it.’"

Halle Berry and "Dark Tide"

Halle Berry isn't shy about the bombs on her resume. While on "Chelsea Lately," Berry told the host, "You don't expect [a movie] to be as bad as it is sometimes. Then it comes out, and you think, 'F--k. That's what I did?'" 

But it's not all bad: "Even when a movie ends up crappy, other good things can come out of it," Handler argued. "You met your fiance on a movie."

"On a s--t movie," Berry responded, referring to 2012's dreadful "Dark Tide." Hilarious.

Charlize Theron and "Reindeer Games"

Even as one of the most beautiful women in the world, and even with an Oscar on the mantle, Charlize Theron still wishes she could take back 2000's "Reindeer Games" with Ben Affleck. When asked about the schlocky thriller, Theron simply stated, "That was a bad, bad, bad movie."

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Texting while driving has become the No.1 cause of road-related deaths among teens.

According to the Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York, texting has surpassed drinking as the most dangerous thing we can do while driving. 

Why? 

Because pretty much everyone is likely to do it. Drunk driving has very obvious consequences. Currently, texting while driving doesn't seem like as big a deal to most people (especially teens).

But advertisers — from local police departments to car companies to mobile phone providers — are spending a lot of dollars to change this.

We've rounded up 15 of the most jarring ads. While most of these ads are relatively tame in appearance, they feature thematic elements that some viewers may find disturbing. Proceed with caution.

It will take you a couple of seconds to figure out what's missing from this ad by the Bucharest City Police Department.

This Mercedes ad makes use of a single letter and a disturbing allusion to an autopsy.

Metuna is a road safety organization in Israel.

Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.

As America salivates over the $590 million Powerball prize  won by a Floridian, we're reminded that winning the lottery will not solve all problems.

In fact many people's lives became notably worse after they got super rich, and they managed to lose it all in no time.

The Griffiths bought their dream home then life fell apart

Before they won a $2.76 million lottery jackpot, Lara and Robert Griffith hardly ever argued.

They bought a million-dollar house and a Porsche.

But 18 months ago, six years after their win, Robert drove away in the Porsche after Lara confronted him over emails suggesting he was interested in another woman.

Their 14-year marriage was over, a freak fire gutted their house, and every penny of their fortune was gone.

Tirabassi is back in the working class after winning $10 million nine years ago

In 2004, Sharon Tirabassi, a single mother who had been on welfare, cashed a check from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. for $10,569,00.10 (Canadian).

She subsequently spent her winnings on a "big house, fancy cars, designer clothes, lavish parties, exotic trips, handouts to family, loans to friends" and in less than a decade she's back riding the bus, working part-time, and living in a rented house.

Luckily Tirabassi put some of her windfall in trusts for her six children, who can claim the money when they turn 26.

Tonda Lynn Dickerson was forced to pay gift tax

A former Waffle House waitress named Tonda Lynn Dickerson got served a big plate of karma when she refused to split her winnings with ex-colleagues and was forced to pay the tax man $1,119,347.90. 

How did it happen? Dickerson placed her winnings in a corporation and granted her family 51 percent of the stock — qualifying her for the tax. 

Please follow Your Money on Twitter and Facebook.

Someone at Virgin Airlines had the foresight to install seat-to-seat chat capabilities to let passengers write messages to each other while in flight.

Imgur user MangoMuffinz posted screenshots of some of the funnier conversations that passengers have had with each other.

We can't confirm that these are genuine, and it's likely most if not all of them were made in Photoshop, so take these for what they're worth –– an innocent chuckle.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

When David Bakke visits Savannah, he loves dining at the upscale Olde Pink House.

But Bakke, a writer for personal finance site MoneyCrashers, has figured out how to avoid the high price tag—he sits in the restaurant’s basement section, the Planters Tavern.

“By taking the trip downstairs,” he says, “you get extraordinary ambiance and affordable food.”

See the most affordable cities for weekend getaways >

It’s a good example of why the quaint, accessible Georgian city made the top 10 for affordable getaways, according to Travel + Leisure readers. In this year’s America’s Favorite Cities survey, readers ranked 35 metropolitan areas in qualities such as fine dining and cultural offerings, which become especially enticing when offered in a lower price range.

Even as the economy shows some signs of improvement, plenty of travelers still want to maximize value. According to the Traveler Sentiment Index, from marketing firm MMGY Global, 57 percent of Americans are planning a vacation sometime within the next six months—but high gas prices worry 51 percent of them. Hotel rates have also ticked up about 7 percent since summer 2012, according to Kayak.com.

Daunting gas prices may be another reason that pedestrian-friendly cities such as Savannah and Portland, OR, won over T+L readers for their affordability. Another influential factor: free-admissionmuseums and historical attractions, such as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park in Atlanta, or Baltimore’s Museum of Art, which has the largest Matisse collection in the world. 

But freebies aren’t enough: Washington, D.C., won the survey’s free attractions category, yet ranked as one of the least affordable cities overall, perhaps due to high hotel and restaurant prices. For cheap eats, look to Kansas City (rated No. 1 most affordable getaway), as well as Nashville and Providence, which delivered some of voters’ favorite barbecue, burgers, and pizza.

Low-impact bar prices don’t hurt, either. “Maybe it’s our Yankee frugality, but well drinks start at $3.50 in some places,” says Portland, ME, local Kelsey Goldsmith. “My friends who come in from out of town laugh when they get their bar tabs.”

They’re laughing all the way to the bank, that is. Bakke says his Savannah foodie trick is just another valuable lesson from the recession: “I’ve learned how to fly for cheaper, and I’ve found ways to enjoy entertainment activities while on vacation at a cheaper price.”

See the most affordable cities >

No. 1 Kansas City, Missouri

It’s one of the few cities where hotel prices have stayed the same or even dropped in the past year (the average summer rate is $137, according to Kayak). Sightseeing also remains a great value: you’ll get in free at three of Kansas City’s main art museums, as well as two fun factory-style tours (the Hallmark Visitors Center and the Boulevard Brewing Company). The savings continue at dinnertime. KC won the survey for its budget-minded, slow-smoked barbecue: a classic “burnt ends” sandwich at Danny Edwards’ Boulevard BBQ is just $5.99.

No. 2 Nashville, Tennessee

Voters increasingly love affable Nashville for its locavore-friendly food scene, ranking the city highly for burgers, cafés, and microbrews. At East Nashville’s Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden—where toppings include wasabi aioli, stroganoff béchamel, and “beer gravy”—the local-beef burgers start at $7. Meanwhile, you can see early shows for free at the legendary Bluebird Café (where a kid named Garth Brooks once played open mikes). To boost your odds of getting in, reserve your seat online.

No. 3 San Antonio,Texas

The Texas city inched two spots closer to No. 1 this year and ranked near the top for its free attractions—such as all five of the city’s historic missions, including the Alamo. The city has become more eco-friendly. Along the Mission Reach section of the Riverwalk, a 15-mile stretch of urban ecosystem restoration, you can rent bicycles (through B-Cycles) for $10 a day. Voters preferred San Antonio during cooler months, particularly around Christmas, when the city is full of luminarias and one of the holiday’s best cheap eats, tamales.

Please follow Your Money on Twitter and Facebook.

Boy was I surprised when a Reddit User with the twitter handle RaptorClause got back to me about these images to say that they were all "public domain."

They were public domain, he explained, because they had all been taken on a government camera, by a government-trained photographer.

As a fellow (former) combat photographer, I can relate to wanting to get your images out there for people to see — and wow does the Air Force know imagery.

You can check out some more of their work at Airman Magazine, but you certainly don't want to miss out on these sick images ... so go ahead, click that little link right there ... do it.

First of all ... wow ...

The sounds these jets make when they take off can be heard anywhere on base.

The base, in this case, is Bagram Airbase, in northeast Afghanistan.

Please follow Military & Defense on Twitter and Facebook.