Former Tommy Hilfiger CEO and co-founder Joel Horowitz has a new plan to sell his gargantuan Lake Tahoe estate, which has been on and off the market for the past six years: He will personally finance the purchase for a qualified buyer.

The financing deals would be worked out once a qualified buyer is found, but it's a rare offer from a seller, a representative for the realtor said.

The home was initially listed for $100 million; it was relisted with Sierra Sotheby's International Realty in January with an asking price of $75 million.

The 210-acre estate, called Tranquility, is the largest on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. In addition to a 27,000-square-foot mansion, it has an indoor glass mosaic pool, private lake, two par-3 golf holes and an indoor golf simulator, horse stables, a wine cellar, a cinema, and separate guest and staff residences.

The decor is also impressive, from a replica of the staircase on the Titanic to four Rembrandt paintings. Nearly all of the furnishings are included in the sale price.

As 210 acres, Tranquility is the largest private estate on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.

It's incredibly private -- the perfect getaway for a billionaire.

In addition to a 27,000-square-foot main home, there are guest and staff quarters and a 16-car garage.

Gold has been getting unceremoniously crushed since it entered a bear market in April, with levels falling below the $1,200 mark this week.

At some point, one would expect the rout to swing back in the goldbug's favor, right?

Wrong, according to Crédit Agricole in a new report titled "Gold — No Relief On The Horizon."

"Our new end year 2013 and 2014 forecast is USD 1150 and 1050, respectively," wrote Crédit Agricole's Mitul Kotecha.

High U.S. yields, a firmer dollar, and struggling India/China demand leads Crédit Agricole to believe gold will continue to get crushed.

Kotecha lays all of this out in a brief presentation.

NOTE: Thanks to Crédit Agricole for giving us permission to feature these slides.

Did you spend all your time in your tree house as a kid? Or were you brokenhearted because you never had one?

Well, these nine gorgeous hotels can turn your childish tree house fantasies into grown-up realities. These rustic-luxe (or just luxe) tree-house-style bungalows will let you live among the birds (and, in some cases, monkeys). Who says you have to give up on your childhood dreams?

SEE ALSO: The World's Tiniest Hotel Rooms

Post Ranch Inn, Big Sur

The Post Ranch Inn’s organic architecture is breathtaking, seeming to grow out of the ground beside the hotel’s surrounding redwoods, and the spacious, eco-sensitive rooms have ocean or mountain views, as well as wood-burning fireplaces and private decks. The Tree House rooms, are, as the name implies, elevated into the trees.

Aqua Wellness Resort, Nicaragua

Aqua Wellness Resort is a rustic-luxe retreat with eco-friendly design amid lush vegetation (expect to spot wildlife such as howler monkeys and iguanas). The stilted tree house bungalows are adorned with lots of natural wood; some units include plunge pools and stunning ocean views. The white-sand beach is secluded and beautiful, the restaurant serves simple but tasty local dishes, and group yoga classes on the ocean-facing wooden platform are free.

Sunset at the Palms, Jamaica

Sunset at the Palms has relaxed, Balinese-style decor, and most of the rooms are set within a series of stilted bungalows (referred to as tree houses) across the lush property. Across the street from the beach, the upscale Sunset has a warm, helpful staff, intimate setting, and great food — all of which create a relaxing retreat that’s a far cry from the crowded chaos at most all-inclusives.

(Editor's note: the author grew up in Chicago)

This week, the Chicago Blackhawks won the NHL's Stanley Cup final.

It's the team's second championship in four seasons.

In many ways it was more meaningful than the first: the core of the team has now been together up to six years, and this victory will cement their bond both among themselves and with the city for the rest of their lives.

At the same time, the new guys were extremely new (and can sometimes be hard to distinguish). 

In any event, it was a major cause for celebration for a town that as we recently documented has some issues.

And anyone who could showed up.

Let's go along for the ride.

The route took players, coaches, the front office and their families through the heart of the city.

A not insignificant portion of the city showed up...

To the tune of 200,000 - 300,000. That's how many people Grant Park, where the parade ended and the rally began, can hold.

Source: Brill

A century ago, the Rolls-Royce Ghost entered the Alpine Trial, a week-long endurance rally around Central Europe.

The car did spectacularly, finishing in the top four every day but one, and earning it a well-deserved reputation for reliability.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the feat, the luxury automaker gathered 47 vintage Ghosts, joined by their 21st century descendant, to recreate the rally.

On June 14, 150 participants from 12 countries took off from Vienna on an 1,800 mile trip that would include Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy.

On the gorgeous mountain passes and ocean roads, the classic cars make for a beautiful sight.

Here's a map of the route the cars followed in 1913.

The 2013 route took the cars through Austria, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia.

Before starting out on June 14, the cars lined up in Vienna's Stadtpark.

Calculating the calories in food is not a perfect science. But we took a stab at it.

We put two foods in a head-to-head competition to see if you can spot the meal or snack that is higher in calories.

The results will surprise you.

Since we only looked at calories and not other nutrition factors like fat, fiber, protein, sugar, and vitamins, the lower-calorie food may not necessarily be the healthier option overall. Still, this quiz is particularly eye-opening if you're of the camp that believes "calories in versus calories out" is the most important part of any diet plan.

A muffin or a cupcake?

Answer: A muffin

Medium-sized muffin: > 300 calories
Cupcake: around 200 calories

Think of your morning muffin as cake without a fancy layer of frosting. A medium-sized blueberry muffin — the kind that often looks so tempting in the display case at coffee chains like Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks— will typically cost you more than 300 calories.

Muffins are soft, sweet, and tasty for a reason — the fluffy breads are loaded with sugar and oils, meaning they are also high in saturated fat. Although a standard frosted vanilla cupcake is also high in saturated fat and sugar, the individually-sized cakes will generally only run you around 200 calories.

Steak or soybeans?

Microsoft and Apple have an interesting history that goes back to the early days of personal computing. 

At times, Microsoft and Apple have fought like parents at a Little League game, squabbling over who copied whose tech.

On other occasions—usually behind the scenes—they've worked together on tech projects with mutual benefits. 

Microsoft is still smarting from Apple's devilishly effective "Get A Mac" campaign with John Hodgman and Justin Long. 

But these days, there are signs that Microsoft and Apple are working closely to take on their mutual enemy, Google. 

Here's a look at the twists and turns of this love/hate relationship.  

SEE ALSO: The 7 Biggest Myths Debunked By Tech Companies To Serve Their Own Needs

2013: iPhone app running on Windows Azure

At Microsoft's Build developer conference this week, Microsoft used a Mac for an onstage demo of how Windows Azure cloud services being added to an iOS app. 

Remember, Microsoft is company that pioneered the idea of using its own products, a concept known as "dogfooding." CEO Steve Ballmer is no big fan of Microsoft employees using Apple products, either. 

So this was a big deal. And it shows how Microsoft is more open to working with other vendors, including Apple. 

Box CEO Aaron Levie, who joined Microsoft Server and Tools chief Satya Nadella onstage, joked that Bill Gates was going to descend from the rafters to take away the Mac, as reported by ReadWrite's Owen Thomas. 

2013: Bing integration in iOS

Microsoft and Apple were talking about making Bing the default search engine on the iPhone back in 2010, according to Businessweek. 

Earlier this month at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple made Microsoft Bing the default search engine for Siri in iOS 7.

Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services made the announcement, the audience of developers gasped audibly in disbelief. 

In a blog post, Derrick Connell, Microsoft's VP of Bing, said the deal was "an exciting new chapter in Bing's collaboration with Apple."

Apple did this because of its intensifying animosity towards Google, but still, this sort of partnership would have seemed extremely unlikely five years ago. 

2012: Microsoft and Apple team up to buy Kodak's patents to keep Google from getting them

Microsoft and Apple both feel like Android is ripping them off. Microsoft thinks Android infringes on its Linux patents, while Apple thinks Android is a blatant copy of iOS. 

So, when struggling Kodak put its imaging patents up for sale, Microsoft and Apple teamed up to bid on them. 

Another group of companies bid on Kodak's patents, too. It included Google, Samsung, HTC and LG Electronics, The Wall Street Journal reported last June. 

Eventually, Microsoft, Apple and Google united into one group and paid $525 million for Kodak's patents, with each company getting certain ones they wanted, Bloomberg reported in December. 

Still, you'd have to think Microsoft and Apple would've preferred to keep the patents out of Google's hands. 

Startup Bark & Co. hosted a puppy adoption event last weekend in the hip New York neighborhood of SoHo. 

It rounded up 40 pups from shelters mostly throughout Alabama, where over 100,000 animals are killed in shelters every year.

By the end of the weekend, every pup found a home. 

BarkBox hosted the Pup Up Shop in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City.

It was the startup's spin on an adoption event.

Throughout the weekend, people couldn't help but stop to peer inside the puppy adoption event.

The tech world has produced some brilliant people capable of harnessing computer technology for all kinds of purposes.

They create interesting products, further political interests, or just get bored and cause trouble.

Much to the chagrin of many a music executive, Shawn Fanning created Napster and caused the music industry to drastically change how it operates.

Anonymous, a loosely-associated group of pseudonymous computer hackers, successfully hacked targets like the Church of Scientology, Sarah Palin, and the CIA.

Even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak raised his share of hell as a younger man. The era of the technological troublemaker hasn't just now arrived – it's been here the whole time.

The Pirate Bay Founders: Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij started the popular peer-to-peer sharing site back in 2001, which quickly grew into one of the world's largest torrenting sites, allowing users to download and share both legal and copyrighted content. In 2010, both men were found guilty of facilitating the distribution of copyrighted material by a Swedish court.

Julian Assange of WikiLeaks: The world's number one advocate for information equality, Assange has made a name for himself befriending whistleblowers and leakers. With the distribution platform of WikiLinks, Assange has published classified documents and government secrets, all while staying out of the hands of those after him.

Aaron Swartz of Reddit and numerous other projects: Before he passed away earlier this year, Swartz was arrested for breaking and entering on the MIT campus while downloading academic articles from JSTOR, a collection of academic articles.

Ten years after her death, the spirited actress Katharine Hepburn perseveres as a timeless cultural icon.

Hepburn, star of classics such as "Bringing Up Baby" and "The African Queen," was known for her spunk. And her hatred of skirts.

She once threatened to walk around the set naked when film executives confiscated her pants — which weren't socially appropriate for women to wear in the 1930s — according to the biography, "Katharine Hepburn: Rebel Chic."

"Though she only stripped down as far as her silk underwear before stepping out of her dressing room, she made her point," fashion writer Nancy MacDonnel wrote, "and she got her trousers back."

Hepburn's flair for selecting roles that reflected her headstrong personality landed her top billing spots in "Morning Glory,""A Philadelphia Story," and "On Golden Pond."

She died on June 29, 2003 at the age of 96.

"Morning Glory" (1933): Katharine receives her first Academy Award for Best Actress as Eva Lovelace, a wildly optimistic aspiring actress who goes into a frenzy after tasting fame.

Watch the final scene.

"Alice Adams" (1935): Katharine's popularity declined until her starring role as Alice, a lovesick young woman climbing the social ladder out of the lower-middle class — earning her an Oscar nomination and her fan base back.

Watch a clip.

"Bringing Up Baby" (1938): In a role written for her, Katharine played Susan, a flighty heiress with a pet leopard and a crush on a paleontologist. The film tanked upon its first release, but is today considered a classic screwball comedy.

Watch a clip.

We love a good entrepreneurial success story — entrepreneur as protagonist overcomes obstacles and builds a thriving, successful company (and become wealthy while doing so). We want to hear about, learn from and even replicate what they’ve done.

However, this survivorship bias is problematic. Jason Cohen of Smart Bear Software does a nice job articulating this issue stating:

"The fact that you are learning only from success is a deeper problem than you imagine … drawing conclusions only from data that is available or convenient and thus systematically biasing your results."

Luckily, the startup community often courageously shares their stories — even when things don’t end well.

This list was compiled by ChubbyBrain and was suggested by Founders @Fail.

Failure #1: "I had the Next Big Thing: Condom Key chains"

Article: StoryLog, "How My Startup Failed"

Excerpt:There was no doubt about it: I had discovered The Next Big Thing. Like Edison and the light bulb, like Gates and the pc operating system, I would launch a revolution that would transform society while bringing me wealth and fame. I was about to become the first person in America to sell condom key chains.

Failure #2: "We took on Mint.com and lost"

Article: Marc Hedlund's Blog, Why Wesabe Lost to Mint

Company:  Wesabe

Author:  Marc Hedlund

Excerpt: Even before we launched, we heard about other people working on similar ideas, and a slew of companies soon launched in our wake. None of them really seemed to get very far, though, and we were considered the leader in online personal finance until September 2007, when Mint launched at, and won, the first TechCrunch 40 conference.

From that point forward we were considered in second place at best, and they overshadowed our site and everyone else's, too. Two years later, Mint was acquired by Intuit, makers of Quicken (and after Mint's launch, the makers of Quicken Online) for $170 million. A bit less than a year later, Wesabe shut down.

Failure #3: "We thought, 'We'll attack this problem a few years before Microsoft and Oracle notice it and recognize it as a problem.'"

Article:  ArsDigita – From Start-up to Bust-up

Company:  ArsDigita

Author:  Philip Greenspun

Excerpt: For roughly one year Peter Bloom (General Atlantic), Chip Hazard (Greylock), and Allen Shaheen (CEO) exercised absolute power over ArsDigita Corporation. During this year they

1. Spent $20 million to get back to the same revenue that I had when I was CEO
2. Declined Microsoft’s offer (summer 2000) to be the first enterprise software company with a .NET product (a Microsoft employee came back from a follow-up meeting with Allen and said “He reminds me of a lot of CEOs of companies that we’ve worked with… that have gone bankrupt.”)
3. Deprecated the old feature-complete product (ACS 3.4) before finishing the new product (ACS 4.x); note that this is a well-known way to kill a company among people with software products experience; Informix self-destructed because people couldn’t figure out whether to run the old proven version 7 or the new fancy version 9 so they converted to Oracle instead)
4. Created a vastly higher cost structure; I had 80 people mostly on base salaries under $100,000 and was bringing in revenue at the rate of $20 million annually. The ArsDigita of Greylock, General Atlantic, and Allen had nearly 200 with lots of new executive positions at $200,000 or over, programmers at base salaries of $125,000, etc. Contributing to the high cost structure was the new culture of working 9-5 Monday through Friday. Allen, Greylock, and General Atlantic wouldn’t be in the building on weekends and neither would the employees bother to come in.
5. Surrendered market leadership and thought leadership

When you think of the "World Wide Web," you likely imagine a sprawling network of computers circling the globe, blasting information to each other 24 hours a day.

And you'd be right, though this wasn't always the case.

When he first invented it in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee kept the entire World Wide Web (which was still rather small for a time) on his NeXTcube from NeXT, the company started by Steve Jobs after being ousted from Apple.

This is of course but one example from the Internet's unusual history. We have nine more for you.

Garfield the cartoon cat once offered a free email service at Gmail.com.

Google literally had to buy the Gmail domain from Garfield.

YouTube’s copyright-checking software scans over 100 years of video every day.

Google enlists the help of software to scan the volumes of video footage uploaded to YouTube every day to ensure that intellectual property stays protected. We can only imagine what a timesaver that must be compared to humans doing the same task.

The first-ever webcam was used to watch a pot of coffee.

Because what's worse than walking down the hall to fill your caffeine craving only to discover an empty coffee pot?

Beginning in 1991, Cambridge University successfully implemented the first webcam on its own local network. Its sole purpose was to monitor a coffee pot to see how much coffee was left.

It remained in operation until 2001.

As human beings, there are some traits that we all have in common—two hands, one heart, red blood, and, unfortunately for most of us, a wealth of debt. 

The average American carries a $47,000 debt load, and as a nation, nearly $2 trillion of our collective debt is either delinquent or 90 days past due. 

Part of the problem in figuring out where to begin getting out of the red is knowing who to turn to for help. Maybe you're too embarrassed to fess up to your issues or you can't afford a financial advisor. So you might pick up a $20 self-help book or enroll in a $200 debt makeover course online. 

Save your money. Some of the greatest advice out there can come from the person standing next to you in line at the grocery store. To prove our point, we've rounded up 10 truly inspiring stories of real consumers who faced their debt head-on and managed to come out on the other side. 

Carrie Smith, 28, found herself $14,000 in debt at age 25. She dug her heels in and paid it off in a year.

Who she is: Smith is an ex-small business accountant who dedicates her time to helping entrepreneurs manage and make more money.

Her debt wake-up call: "Three years ago ... I started thinking about what my life would be like as I got old and grey. I just finalized a painful divorce and found myself with a mountain [$14,000] of debt. Not exactly what I pictured for myself at 25 years old," she says. 

How she paid it off: She started by tackling her credit card debt, as it carried the highest interest rates.  For motivation, she made a timeline of her progress and used the free debt payment tool www.readyforzero.com to come up with a payment plan she could handle. Then, there were sacrifices: Giving up cable, a gym membership, tanning/salon visits, vacations, dining out, and going to the movies. To up her income, she freelanced as a writer.

With a Master's degree under her belt, Kari Gordon went into denial about her $30,300 loan balance. It took four years but she finally paid it off.

Who she is: Kari, 30, lives in the greater New York City area and works at a non-profit.

Her debt wake-up call:"When I finished graduate school, I was in student debt denial. When the first bill arrived, I stuck it in my bill basket and pretended it wasn’t there for a week...For several months after I got that first bill, I paid the $350 minimum payment. With each electronic debit from my checking account I hated myself and hated my decision to take out student loans. Being in debt made me miserable!"

How she paid it off: Gordon will be the first to tell you there is no secret to paying down debt.  She broke her debt down into more manageable amounts and made a strict budget. With time, she was promoted at work and took up extra work babysitting, filling out online surveys and freelance writing. She also got a roommate, started cooking meals at home and got rid of her car. 

Grayson Bell, 29, financed $50,000 for his small business with three credit cards and hit rock bottom during the recession. He paid it all off within 4 years.

Who he is: Grayson, 29, lives with his wife in Raleigh, N.C.

His debt wake-up call: "After the economy took a plunge in 2008, I decided to get out of my business.  It was taking a toll on my personal life and my health. ... Though I was done with my business, I was not done with the damage that it left behind.  Four years of personal and business related expenses went onto my credit cards.  My ending balance was hovering around $50,000. Seeing this balance made me sick to my stomach.  I never knew I could accrue so much debt and have so little to show for it."

How he paid it off: Together, Bell and his wife canceled cable and got their Internet with an over-the-air antenna. He worked freelance jobs and kept track of his progress on a white board. Rather than rely on pricey central air conditioning, he bought a window A/C unit, which cut their bill by 40%. To help with his credit card debt, he capitalized on balance transfer offers between credit cards.

When we asked our friends at PeekAnalytics to tell us who the most influential ad execs on Twitter are, we expected to get back a list of the usual suspects. You know, the most famous CEOs at the biggest agencies, plus Seth Godin, Lee Clow's Beard, and perhaps KBS+'s Lori Senecal, who once bought promoted tweets for herself.

In fact, none of the huge names of advertising are influential on Twitter, according to PeekAnalytics. The company ranked our Twitterers by "social pull" as opposed to mere total followers. Social pull is a "metric which takes into account not only the quantity of each audience's connections across 60 social networking sites, but also how active and connected, and therefore influential, those connections are."

One of the names on our list has an amazing 313,000 followers. Most have more than 10,000, with many in the mid five figures.

We learned that to be successful on Twitter as an ad exec, you have to be positive and upbeat. No Debbie Downers here.

The way to get retweeted is to give advice, and offer a lot of aphorisms about success in business.

The medium also lends itself to specialists like John Sonnhalter. He has nearly 14,000 followers on Twitter but few on Madison Avenue will recognize his name — he specializes in ads and sales for the construction business.

25. Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likeable Media, a social media agency that counts GE as a client.

Social Pull: 406

Followers: 55,570

Typical tweet:"Turning A Job That Sucked Into Something Incredible - Business Tips from @Mixergy http://bit.ly/1bios2l" (Kerpen's tweets tend to be career tips.)

24. Jeffrey Zeldman of Happy Cog, a design agency that has MTV and Zappos as a client.

Social Pull: 409

Followers: 313,152

Typical tweet:"What knitting was to our grandmothers, unbuggering iCloud is in our time." (Zeldman's tweets tend to be personal, stream of consciousness stuff.)

23. Bruce Terkel of Turkel Brands, a branding agency for Miami travel and tourism clients.

Social Pull: 416

Followers: 9,794

Typical tweet:"'Advertising doesn't create product advantage. It only conveys it.' Bill Bernbach #brandisms 126/365 "

There are 251 players in Major League Baseball making at least $4.0 million this season and 98 of them are making at least $10 million.

Many of those players are severely overpaid and on the next few pages we will take a look at the most overpaid in baseball.

To do this, we will look at a player's overall production based on Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and translate that to a dollar value. We will then compare that value to what the player is actually making.

In many cases, teams would be better off not playing these guys at all.

#25 B.J. Upton, Atlanta Braves

Position: CF

2013 salary: $12.5 million

Stats: .174, 8 HR, 6 SB, .269 OBP

2013 WAR: -0.1

2013 WAR Value (Projected)*: -$1.4 million

VALUE**: -$13.9 million

* One win in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is valued at $4.8 million which is roughly what a team would have to spend on average in free agency for a win. Players who are worse than a Replacement-Level player will have a negative WAR and a negative WAR Value suggesting the team is actually losing money by having them on the field. For WAR Value we projected each player's WAR over a full season.

** VALUE is equal to WAR Value minus Salary. Think of this as the amount a player is overpaid. In some cases it will actually be greater than the player's salary since that player's production is actually negative.

#24 Martin Prado, Arizona Diamondbacks

Position: 3B

2013 salary: $7.0 million

Stats: .241, 6 HR, .292 OBP

2013 WAR: -0.7

2013 WAR Value (Projected)*: -$7.2 million

VALUE**: -$14.2 million

* One win in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is valued at $4.8 million. For WAR Value we projected each player's WAR over a full season.

** VALUE is equal to WAR Value minus Salary.

#23 Jeff Francoeur, Kansas City Royals

Position: RF

2013 salary: $6.8 million

Stats: .209, 3 HR, .250 OBP

2013 WAR: -0.8

2013 WAR Value (Projected)*: -$7.8 million

VALUE**: -$-14.6 million

* One win in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is valued at $4.8 million. For WAR Value we projected each player's WAR over a full season.

** VALUE is equal to WAR Value minus Salary.

Keep scorching temps from soaking your wardrobe with these sweat-proofing products.

More from GQ:

• The 40 Things Making Us Laugh Right Now
• Emilia Clarke: Queen Of The Throne Age
• Bob Benson: Mad Men's Best Style Newcomer
• The Heroes Of The Boston Marathon

Face Gel

As always, it starts with skincare. "During the warmer months, your skin gets a lot more moisture from the air," explains Ada Polla, skincare expert and CEO of Alchimie Forever. "Look for oil-free products that will help with shine and excess sebum." Her Antioxidant Skin Repair Gel($55) is the perfect all-in-one: aftershave balm, instant cooling effect with rosemary, and it keeps your skin matte all day. Make sure to tap it into the hairline and along the T-Zone for extra protection.

Face Wipes

"If you work out in the mornings, carry face wipes in your gym bag," says Polla. "You'll continue to sweat for about an hour after you workout, so clean up that oil and sweat to prevent odor."

As we all know, sometimes the AM commute can be just as dampening as a gym session. Get two packs of Dermalogica's Skin Purifying Wipes ($17)—one for the gym, one for the office. Your shirt will no longer have that humid, sweaty feeling, and you can clean up oily patches on your face.

Dry Shampoo

Sometimes, the best tips really do come from the ladies. Dry shampoo is essentially hairspray that zaps moisture, so your hair is left dry and refreshed. (Think of it as a shower without water.) Just blast the front areas of your hair where you collect sweat, and reapply product as needed (or not at all). The easiest to use is hands down Oribe's Dry Texturizing Spray ($39).

You have the power to make yourself happier.

That's what we learned from 13 scientific studies that discovered small changes we can all make to improve our outlook on life.

From writing down the good parts of your day to simply smiling, here are a few proactive steps you can take towards becoming a happier you.

Spend money on other people.

Spending money on other people instead of yourself makes you feel happier, a study published in "Psychological Bulletin" found. 

The study concluded that "the happiest people were the biggest givers, no matter what they earned." They always felt better donating to charities and giving to others than splurging on themselves.

Count your blessings.

Literally.

University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman (as well as multiple other independent studies) proved that people who wrote down three good things that happened to them every night were significantly happier than the control group.

They don't even have to be important: Your crush smiling at you or your spouse remembering to buy your favorite dessert count, too.

Try something new.

People who go on adventures, try new experiences, and switch up their routines are generally happier, research has shown.

Trying new things also keeps motor function sharp and stimulates brain waves.

With everything from vast deserts and gorgeous beaches to sprawling mountain ranges, America is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful countries in the world—and nowhere is that more evident than in the national parks.

The National Park Service oversees 401 areas throughout the U.S. and U.S. territories and has nearly 300 million visitors each year.

You don't have to be a hiking fanatic to enjoy these places. You can swim, kayak, bird watch, walk, bike, drive, camp, or just relax in the country's national parks.

We found some spectacular pictures of national parks, monuments, seashores and heritage areas around the country that will make you appreciate how beautiful the U.S. really is.

The volcanic basin of Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, formed nearly 8,000 years ago. At almost 2,000 feet deep, the lake is the deepest in the U.S.

Visitors come to hike the granite peaks, swim on the beaches, and even get married in Acadia National Park, Maine, the first national park east of the Mississippi River.

Nestled within the nearly 1.5 million acres of parkland at Everglades National Park, Florida, are endangered animals such as the manatee, American crocodile, and Florida panther.

Salty breezes. Fresh-caught seafood. Storybook villages.

Just off the southern coast of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard is the ultimate New England summer escape.

More From Travel + Leisure:

• Best Secret Islands On Earth
• America's Best Little Beach Towns
• Best Beaches On Earth
• America's Most Beautiful Coastal Views
• Scenic Views From Airplane Windows

Lay of the Land: At just 100 square miles, the Vineyard is split between down-island and up-island towns.

Down Island

Edgartown: Stately homes of 18th-century whaling captains line the streets of this historic town.

Oak Bluffs: Known for its Victorian cottages and kitschy fudge shops, this is the island’s tourist hub.

Vineyard Haven: Come here for one-off boutiques and the main ferry terminal.

Up Island

Aquinnah: Make the trek to this western town for its colorful clay cliffs and Gay Head Lighthouse.

Chilmark: Islanders escape the summer crowds for the quiet fishing villages along Chilmark’s coastline.

West Tisbury: The most bucolic area has acres of rolling farmland.

Getting Around

Catch a ferry from Massachusetts, New York, or Rhode Island. If you don’t bring your car, rent a bicycle or a moped. Taxis are also plentiful.

Stay: The island has no shortage of charming seaside inns. Here, five that top our list.

Beach Plum Inn: There’s a lot to love about this seven-acre hilltop retreat overlooking Menemsha Harbor, from its clutch of country cottages, where interiors are artful studies in pastels, to the restaurant’s panoramic water views and alpaca pen. Bonus: free passes to the private Lucy Vincent and Squibnocket beaches. Chilmark. $

Charlotte Inn: Towering linden trees frame the clapboard façade of this 1864 merchant’s house. The lobby is full of 19th-century oil paintings and Edwardian objets d’art; upstairs you’ll find 19 intimate rooms done up with plush canopy beds, grandfather clocks, and vintage steamer trunks. $$$

Dockside Inn: At this seaside Victorian Revival, a stone’s throw from the Oak Bluffs ferry terminal, wide wraparound porches are ideal for watching boats sail in and out of the harbor. The backyard garage is stocked with beach necessities, from ice chests to sand toys and loungers, and a 1956 Rolls-Royce is on hand for a spin around the island. Oak Bluffs. $

Hob Knob: Playful elements—dog-shaped lamps; chintz wallpaper—make the Hob Knob ideal for travelers seeking a whimsical alternative to the island’s old-school inns. Take a fishing trip around Vineyard Sound on the hotel’s 27-foot Boston Whaler—and bring back your catch for dinner. Edgartown. $$$

Winnetu Oceanside Resort The 54-suite Winnetu is as close as the Vineyard gets to a mega-resort, with a library, fitness center, and vast lawn outfitted with a nine-hole putting green and a turtle pond. The hotel is just a 250-yard walk from South Beach. $$

Hotel Pricing Key
$ Less than $200
$$ $200 to $350
$$$ $350 to $500
$$$$ $500 to $1,000
$$$$$ More than $1,000

Eat: Martha’s Vineyard is all about farm-fresh ingredients and, of course, plenty of seafood.

Black Dog Tavern: A visit to the Vineyard isn’t complete without a stop at this waterfront landmark, mere steps from the main ferry. The rough-hewn interior is decorated with boat tackle and other seafaring objects, but grab a seat at an outdoor picnic table—if one is free. What to order? A lump crab cake sandwich and a bowl of quahog chowder. Vineyard Haven. $$

Hooked: Opened last year, the sibling to popular island spot Atria quickly became the place for in-the-know locals. Its buck-a-shuck oyster happy hour (in July and August) is a perfect prelude to dinner. Look for seafood classics (grilled salmon; soft-shell crab) and offbeat items such as Asian-style baby back ribs. Oak Bluffs. $$

State Road: Many of the ingredients here are picked from the restaurant’s own gardens. Dig into lemon-ricotta pancakes or the locavore burger, with house-made garlic dill pickles, in a wood-beam dining room outfitted with American antiques. West Tisbury. $$$

Sweet Life Café: An alum of New York City’s Aureole, chef Carlos Montoya turns out Frenchified American classics at this romantic Victorian town house—a favorite of the Obamas. Start with a bottle of Chardonnay from the cellar (it’s one of the island’s largest), then try the grilled rib eye with Parmesan velouté followed by a strawberry terrine. $$$

Faith’s Seafood Shack: The sashimi and lobster rolls alone are worth the trek to this no-frills, cliffside haunt near the Gay Head Lighthouse, complete with knockout ocean views. Aquinnah. $$

By now it's obvious that enterprise is one of the hottest areas in tech these days.

Enterprise tech is undergoing a major transformation with new apps, cloud computing, mobile devices, and many, many changes to the way networks and data centers are built and managed.

Plus, enterprise tech is enriching investors. So far this year we've seen investors gobbling up IPOs from companies like Tableau Software, Marketo, Gigamon, and numerous billion-dollar acquisitions.

So it's time again to shine a spotlight on the people in enterprise tech who are transforming your world.

Oracle's Larry Ellison: Perpetually on top.

Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle.

Year, after year, decade after decade, Ellison's power grows along with Oracle's. He has crafted his most ambitious plan yet for the software giant: to turn it into a hardware and data center giant.

Although Oracle hasn't hit its stride with these new plans yet, it's hard to doubt the man. He's been successful at almost everything he's done, including winning the most prestigious sailing race ever: The America's Cup. He brought the 2013 race to his home base in San Francisco this summer to try and win again.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer: Navigating the iconic company through rough waters.

Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft.

Ballmer has given Microsoft a no-holds-barred makeover, including getting into the PC business with Surface, launching a radically different version of Windows, and revamping its software for the cloud. 

While some of these plans have been off to a rocky start, particularly Windows 8 and Surface, Ballmer's got his eye on Microsoft's long-term future. Enterprises are still likely to slowly buy into his vision.

Cisco's John Chambers: Setting his sights on IBM and HP.

John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco.

Chambers has been CEO of Cisco Systems since 1995. Although he's been talking about his retirement more now than he ever has, he's still running the company with all his might. He's trying to navigate Cisco past its roots as a network equipment company becoming a bigger IT company that competes with IBM and HP.

He needs to succeed because new technologies called software-defined networking threaten the way networks will be built and Cisco's stronghold on that market.