Traveling can be incredibly stressful, especially during the holidays. 

Getting patted down at security, dealing with flight delays, waiting in endless lines, and fighting over power outlets — sometimes it can be a bit too much to handle. 

Whether traveling for business or pleasure, these fun gifts are sure to make any trip a bit nicer. 

From NASA-designed products made to alleviate jet lag to ingenious packing cubes, these are some of the best things to give your favorite jet-setter. 

Block out the noise on flights with these amazing noise-canceling headphones.

Every traveler needs a good pair of noise-canceling headphones, because they will surely get stuck on a flight with a crying baby from time to time. 

Bowers & Wilkins P3 Headphones aren’t technically noise canceling headphones, but they effectively block out any noises and have exceptional sound quality.  

Plus, they are extremely portable and can fold up easily. 

Price: $159

Help them nap in public with the Ostrich Pillow light.

We've all seen the Ostrich Pillow, that bizarre thing that you slide your head into to help you take nap in public places. 

Well, the team behind the Ostrich Pillow made something called an Ostrich Pillow light, which is actually is actually perfect for travelers stuck in a long flight. 

It isn't much bigger than a sleep mask, but it not only covers your eyes, it also works as a pillow. It blocks out light, but doesn't completely remove you from  your surrounding in the way that the full Ostrich Pillow does. And when you're not wearing it, you can put it around you neck and it looks just like a scarf. 

It's a perfect way to nap on a plane, without feeling too silly. 

Price: $45

Keep them organized with Tummi packing cubes.

Tummi packing cubes are absolutely essential for packing in a small suitcase.

Instead of folding clothes, you can just roll them up and put them into the cubes. It saves a lot of space, keeps your clothes organized, and makes them less wrinkled.  

Pro tip: putting dryer sheets in suitcases while traveling helps keeps clothes static free and makes them smell amazing.  

Price: $45

The 39th floor of the legendary Pierre Hotel has been rented for $500,000 for the month of December, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The half a million dollar price tag makes it the most expensive rental unit in New York City. 

As part of the new Pierre Hotel Residences program, interested tenants can sign a lease for as little as 30 days, or as long as they need. 

“It’s hard to find a six-bedroom apartment with that kind of flexibility,” Therese Bateman of Town Fifth Avenue told The Wall Street Journal. 

But the best part of living in this swanky hotel has to be the many luxury services The Pierre offers. Guests are given complete access to the butler service, pet pampering, twice daily maid service, and the hotel’s chauffeur-driven Jaguar. 

Interested in renting it in the future? Bateman and Andres Perea-Garzon of Town Fifth Avenue have the listing. 

Welcome to the legendary Pierre Hotel, located in New York's Upper East Side. Former permanent residents of The Pierre include Elizabeth Taylor and Yves Saint-Laurent.

The rental offers all of the services of a luxury five-star hotel, including a 24/7 concierge service.

The property consists of the hotel’s two-bedroom Presidential Suite and several other hotel rooms.

Over the past several years, New York has transformed into startup hotbed.

It's home to exciting early-stage companies like Airhelp, Abacus, Glamsquad, and Classpass. 

We compiled our list of 25 Hottest NY Startups by talking to investors, employees, fellow journalists, and active members of the tech scene in New York. 

Though there are some big names out there already, this list includes young startups, some of which you may not have heard of yet. All have only raised Series A funding or below and are based in New York City. 

Bowery allows developers to set up coding environments in 30 seconds flat

What it is:

Programmers waste countless hours setting up redundant coding environments. In order to begin coding a new program, developers need to manually install complicated sets of paramaters. This allows developers to test their products and make sure they work on different types of devices and screens. 

Bowery's cloud-based system removes the pain from the process and lets developers share their environment with co-workers in real time. The three young founders have attracted attention from big name investors such as Google Ventures and First Round Capital.

Founders:

Zachary Hamed, David Byrd, Steve Kaliski

Funding:

Betaworks, Bloomberg Beta, BOLDstart Ventures, Deep Fork Capital, Google Ventures, Homebrew, Magnet Agency, RRE and SV Angel. General Catalyst’s Rough Draft Ventures and First Round Capital’s Dorm Room Fund

Website: 

http://bowery.io

Oscar is a health insurance company for the 21st century

What it is:

Oscar brings simplicity and good design to the archaic world of health insurance. The company launched in October 2013 right as the Affordable Care Act began to allow consumers to pick and choose their own plans, and since then Oscar has enrolled thousands while raking in tens of millions of dollars in annualized revenue. They received a fresh $30 million round of funding in January, and are working toward their long-term goal of expanding out of the state of New York.

Founders:

Josh Kushner, Kevin Nazemi, Mario Schlosser

Funding:

Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Founders Fund, Stanley Druckenmiller, Jim Breyer

Website:

http://hioscar.com

Niche is a talent agency for social media stars

What it is:

Niche works with prominent creators on social media platforms like Vine, Instagram and Tumblr and connects them with brands and marketers looking to beef up their social presence. Though barely more than a year old, Niche has already raked in close to $9 million in revenue and shows no sign of slowing down.

Founders:

Rob Fishman, Darren Lachtman

Funding:

David Tisch, Slow Ventures, BoxGroup, Gary Vaynerchuk, Kevin Colleran, WME Advancit Capital, SV Angel, Lerer Hippeau Ventures

Website:

http://niche.co

Art Basel Miami Beach is an international contemporary art fair held each year in Miami Beach.

But since it began in 2002 as an offshoot of the annual art fair in Basel, Switzerland, Art Basel Miami Beach has become as much about the parties as the art.

This year's fair brought out the likes of Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus, and many more.

While some actually looked at art, most were just there to party — and we have the pictures to prove it.

Miley Cyrus kicked off the Art Basel festivities Wednesday night with a wild, private concert at the Raleigh Hotel.

The event was hosted by Jeffrey Deitch, Tommy Hilfiger, and V Magazine. Miley's performance was complete with blowup rainbows and mushrooms, and the audience was doused with glitter and bubbles.

Kim Kardashian caused quite a crowd at Paper Magazine's 'Break The Internet' issue release party.

Now that the holiday season is underway, you may have noticed lights and decorations going up around your neighborhood. 

But if you'd like to experience the best of the best, Pinterest has come up with a list of the most over-the-top light displays around. 

From a Brooklyn neighborhood to a Belgian market, these lights are sure to put any visitor in the holiday spirit.

"Zoo Lights" at the Houston Zoo features a glittering display of more than 200 million individual lights. There's a lit-up African forest and a snow globe you can walk inside.

Source: Pinterest

In Brussels, Belgium, there's a massive Christmas festival in the town square, complete with a Ferris wheel, ice rink, and markets.

Source: Pinterest

Homes in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn have some of the most impressive light displays you'll see anywhere.

Source: Pinterest

At the beginning of the year, not many predicted the stock market would blast to new highs like they did. Almost no one predicted interest rates would stay this low. And few would've guessed oil prices would rally and crash the way they did.

Looking forward, the analysts at Goldman Sachs have been rolling out their 2015 forecasts through a series of notes. They've already offered their top eight trades for the year while forecasting that the S&P 500 would climb modestly to 2,100.

All of their forecasts fit in the context of their "Top Ten Market Themes For 2015."

In a new 23-page report, analysts led by Dominic Wilson predict there will continue to be divergences in central bank policy as the Fed remains likely to raise rates next year while central banks in Japan and Europe loosen policy to stimulate their economies. Major asset classes will see low returns next year, and currency hedging will become an increasingly important component of investing.

We pulled some nuggets from Goldman's report.

1. A broadening recovery

The US will lead the global economic recovery, while growth in developing markets will be boosted by low oil and commodity prices.

"We also have more confidence in our view that the US expansion has several years to run and in the resilience of the US economy to weak overseas demand," the analysts wrote.

Source: Goldman Sachs

2. Developed market divergence lives on

The disparity between both growth and monetary policy around the developed world will continue into next year, with the Fed likely to begin raising rates while the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan keep easing.

The analysts wrote: "This divergence has both an absolute and a relative dimension. In absolute terms, within DM economies, the continuation of softer growth and lower inflation in much of the non-US DM world will continue to keep the US yield structure lower than it would otherwise be. That force is likely to be less intense than it was in 2014, when Bund yields have helped to drag UST yields lower. But it is one reason to be confident that the rise in US yields will continue to be relatively moderate. On a relative basis, we think there is still scope for front-end rate differentials between the US and many others to widen further, which is a key driver of our view of a stronger USD."

Source: Goldman Sachs

3. The new oil order

Lower oil prices (a 5% - 15% deflation) will linger and provide a boost for consumers' disposable income. But this may be a headwind for energy stocks, and commodities like copper and aluminum that use oil in their production.

"The disinflationary impulse from lower commodity prices sweeping across the world is likely to be manifested first in lower headline inflation rates," the analysts explained. "But, by boosting disposable income, there is also likely to be a positive impact on GDP growth in EM and DM oil importers that should become visible as the year progresses."

Source: Goldman Sachs

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries is stepping down from the teen-clothing retailer following a rocky few years.

It's the latest upheaval for the brand, which started as a store for outdoorsmen and evolved into the epitome of preppy cool in the '90s.

More recently, Abercrombie has been criticized for excluding large women and promoting unrealistic standards of beauty.

The retailer has suffered 11 straight quarters of same-store sales declines as alternative fashion trends have superseded Abercrombie's sporty, logo-heavy look.

Michael Thrasher wrote the original version of this story. Hayley Peterson, Ashley Lutz, and Julie Zeveloff contributed to this story.

A&F started as a store for outdoorsmen.

David T. Abercrombie founded the waterfront company at South Street in Manhattan in 1892. It sold hunting and fishing equipment and was called Abercrombie Co.

A few years later, Ezra Fitch, a high-profile lawyer and regular customer, purchased a large share of the growing company. In 1906, when he was officially named a cofounder, the store was renamed Abercrombie & Fitch. 

Abercrombie wanted to continue to provide outdoor gear while Fitch had a greater interest in general retail, so the two eventually parted ways.

It eventually grew into a department store on NYC's Madison Avenue.

Abercrombie sold his share of the company in 1907, enabling Fitch to achieve his goal of expanding the store's general-retail offerings. A&F started a mail-order catalog and opened a 12-story location on Madison Avenue in New York City.

The department store had a shooting range and golf school in addition to sporting goods and apparel. 

In 1910, it became the first retail store to sell both men's and women's clothing.

In 1939, A&F branded itself "the greatest sporting goods store in the world."

Abercrombie & Fitch was the official outfitter of Charles Lindbergh's historic flight across the Atlantic in 1927.

Ernest Hemingway and Teddy Roosevelt were also patrons of the store.

Google is eating the world. 

It dominates several key tech industries and dwarfs competitors in each of these markets:

• 1. Digital advertising
• 2. Desktop and mobile search
• 3. Digital video
• 4. Smartphone platforms

Google's success has also allowed it to explore new ventures like self-driving cars, health tech, and drones. 

As part of Business Insider's Ignition event, Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget broke down the numbers driving Google's massive growth and global dominance. 

BI Intelligence is a new research and analysis service focused on mobile computing and the Internet. Only subscribers can download the individual charts and datasets in Excel, along with the PowerPoint and PDF versions of this deck. Please sign up for a trial membership here.

The US isn't called "America the Beautiful" for nothing.

Each year, millions of tourists come from home and abroad to see the country's majestic landscape and iconic sites, from the Grand Canyon to Mount Rushmore.

But there are also cool, quirky attractions, like Vermont's Ben & Jerry's Factory and Tennessee's Graceland, the former home of Rock and Roll King Elvis Presley.

From California to New York and everywhere in between, the country is chock-full of incredible attractions that keep luring in visitors. Here are the best tourist attractions in every state.

Did we get your state right? Let us know your picks in the comments. 

Jennifer Polland and Paige Cooperstein contributed to this story.

ALABAMA: Play a round at one of the 11 courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, a collection of championship-level golf courses around the state that bring in more than half a million golfers annually.

ALASKA: Visit Denali National Park to see a stunning array of wildlife and gaze at Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain peak in North America, with an elevation of 20,237 feet.

ARIZONA: Hike, kayak, raft, or horseback ride through the Grand Canyon, an epic 277-mile long canyon that's up to 18 miles wide and over a mile deep.

The Xhibitionist is one of the most over-the-top superyachts we've come across in awhile.

Designed by the team at Gray Design, the renderings show that the adaptable hull has a Steinway piano, rooftop Jacuzzi, and even comes with a Swedish sports car.

Plus, the deck has space for three helicopters on its solar panel-covered roof to provide extra power for the ship. 

You've got to see inside this yacht to believe it.

Meet the Xhibitionist superyacht, a ridiculously ostentatious boat designed to maximize luxury and adaptability.

It was created by Swedish supercar designer Eduard Gray of Gray Design, and its automotive design language is plain to see.

This isn't your typical billionaire's yacht, though. It's made to be used by corporate entities and comes with a fully adaptable 229-foot-wide hull.

Americans sit through some 11 million meetings every day— with the unproductive ones costing companies $37 billion a year. 

We've already learned that meetings fall apart thanks to sloppy agendas, un-articulated ground rules, and other structural mistakes. 

So we decided to look at how some of the most effective executives in history — from GM czar Alfred Sloan to Apple prince Steve Jobs to Facebook queen Sheryl Sandberg — run the meetings that invariably fill their calendars. 

Here's what we found. 

Legendary GM CEO Alfred Sloan said little — then made follow-ups.

Alfred Sloan ran GM from the 1920s to the '50s. During that time he led GM to become the world's largest corporation— in the '50s, GM held 46% of the US auto market and employed over 600,000 Americans. 

Sloan is also credited with inventing modern corporate structure. 

According to leadership guru Peter Drucker, the follow-up memo was one of Sloan's go-to tools. 

After any formal meeting — in which he simply announced the purpose, listened to what people had to say, and then left — Sloan would send a follow-up memo with a plan of action. 

Drucker's take: 

[Sloan] immediately wrote a short memo addressed to one attendee of the meeting. In that note, he summarized the discussion and its conclusions and spelled out any work assignment decided upon in the meeting (including a decision to hold another meeting on the subject or to study an issue). He specified the deadline and the executive who was to be accountable for the assignment. He sent a copy of the memo to everyone who'd been present at the meeting.

These memos made Sloan an "outstandingly effective executive," Drucker argues, and you might say they were a key to GM's dominance of the 20th century. 

Opsware CEO and Andreessen Horowitz cofounder Ben Horowitz likes to have one-to-one meetings.

Back when he was a CEO, Ben Horowitz led Opsware to a $1.6 billion sale to HP in 2007.

Two years later, he cofounded Andreessen Horowitz, probably the most sought-after firm in venture capital. 

Horowitz, who spends much of his time mentoring young leaders, says that most important job for a CEO is to architect the way people communicate in a company. 

The one-to-one meeting is essential to that process, he says, as it's the best place for ideas and critiques to flow up from employees to management.

Here's his take on how to run one: 

If you like structured agendas, then the employee should set the agenda. A good practice is to have the employee send you the agenda in advance.

This will give her a chance to cancel the meeting if nothing is pressing. It also makes clear that it is her meeting and will take as much or as little time as she needs.

During the meeting, since it’s the employee’s meeting, the manager should do 10% of the talking and 90% of the listening. Note that this is the opposite of most one-on-ones. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk demands that people be super prepared.

Musk has incredibly high standards. He has a reputation for firing people if they miss a deadline. So if you're meeting with him at Tesla or SpaceX, you have to be ready.

As one anonymous Musk employee shares on Quora:

When we met with Elon, we were prepared. Because if you weren't, he'd let you know it. If he asked a reasonable follow-up question and you weren't prepared with an answer, well, good luck.

What else would you expect from the most badass CEO in America? 

Shake Shack breakfast sandwiches could be coming to a Shake Shack near you.

Fans of the Danny Meyer chain have known for years that the company’s two JFK Terminal locations serve amazing breakfast sandwiches. 

Now, Shake Shack has revealed that its new location at Grand Central Terminal will start serving breakfast as well.

The menu will have a sausage egg n’ cheese sandwich, an applewood-smoked bacon egg n’ cheese sandwich, and a simple egg n’ cheese sandwich. The meat versions will cost $4.75 while the meatless egg n’ cheese will cost $3.75.

The sandwiches will be served on the chain’s potato rolls with american cheese and will be available from 7 AM to 10:30 AM on weekdays only.

Shack Shack will also have drip and cold brew coffee, as well as hot breakfast teas.

Keep scrolling for more mouth-watering pictures, and here’s hoping all Shake Shack locations will start selling breakfast.

SEE ALSO: 11 Reasons People Are Obsessed With Shake Shack

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Most of the time we see ads as an unavoidable annoyance coming between us and what we actually want to watch. 

But, not all ads.

Google put together a list of the most-viewed ads on YouTube this year, all of which have racked up millions of views.

When the list first launched in 2012, the top ads had 200 million views total — this year they have 600 million views cumulatively.  

10. Heineken: "Routine Interruptions" with 13.8 million views

9. Budweiser: "Global Be(er) Responsible Day" with 19.5 million views

8. P&G: "Thank You, Mom" with 19.7 million views

Google just released its list of the top 10 YouTube videos of the year, highlighting the clips that got the most views, shares, comments, and likes. 

The ranked selection spans from TV show clips to well-thought out pranks.   

10. The video "10 Hours Of Walking In NYC As A Woman" got people talking about street harassment

9. "Goku vs. Superman" is a particularly hilarious episode of Epic Rap Battles Of History

8. Watch people freak out over this terrifying animatronic newborn in "Devil Baby Attack"

We like to think that we're totally logical when we make decisions. 

But over the past few decades, social science has uncovered a staggering number of cognitive biases that shape our behavior — whether we know it or not.

We've collected a list of the most common ones. 

Affect heuristic

The way you feel affects the way you interpret the world. 

For instance, if the words rake, take, and cake blinked on a computer screen for 1/30 of a second, which would you recognize? 

If you're hungry, research suggests that all you see is cake.

Anchoring bias

People are overreliant on the first piece of information they hear. 

In a salary negotiation, for instance, whoever makes the first offer establishes a range of reasonable possibilities in each person's mind.

Any counteroffer will naturally be anchored by that opening offer. 

Availability heuristic

When people overestimate the importance of information that is available to them.

For instance, a person might argue that smoking is not unhealthy on the basis that his grandfather lived to 100 and smoked three packs a day.

YouTube released its list of the most-watched sports advertisements of the year. 

The Winter Olympics and World Cup gave companies the opportunity to create inspiring ads about sports in 2014. 

Soccer, the world's most popular sport, was prevalent in the top ads of the year, but American football and tennis made appearance as well.

And as always, a sentimental Super Bowl made its way on to the list as well.

10. Adidas Football: "House Match"

After losing in a soccer video game, Devid Beckham and Zinedine Zidane decide to take on Gareth Bale and Lucas Moura in a real-life game of soccer. The two-on-two match tears up the inside of Beckham's house, all in the name of competition. 

9. Procter & Gamble: "Thank You, Mom | Pick Them Back Up"

Procter & Gamble took advantage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi by making one of the most creative, inspiring ads of the year. The two-minute ad shows a compilation of babies learning to walk and young children and athletes falling down on the ice, before transitioning into footage of the Olympic athletes performing. A big thank you to the mothers of the athletes who took care of their kids on their way to stardom.

8. Duracell: "Trust Your Power"

Seattle Seahawks' fullback Derrick Coleman is not a household name, but he has an inspiring story. He's the NFL's first and only deaf offensive player, and after going undrafted, got signed by the Vikings before getting picked up by the Seahawks. Duracell uses Coleman as an effective plug for power and toughness, never quitting in the face of adversity. 

Sipping on a well-made cocktail is one of life’s simple pleasures.

But why go to a speakeasy when you can make a perfectly crafted one at home?

Below you'll find five simple, classic recipes for an old-fashioned, a dry martini, a margarita, a mojito, and a Long Island iced tea. Representing a range of liquors and cocktail preferences, these will serve you well at all future parties — just in time for this holiday season.

Drink responsibly.

SEE ALSO: The Coolest Speakeasies In America

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If you're going to get anywhere in business, you need people to take you seriously.

According to the research, you can increase your credibility with the right presentation, knowledge, and people skills.

Let people talk about themselves.

Here's a secret to making a good impression: Let people talk about themselves.

According to Harvard research, talking about yourself stimulates the same brain regions as sex or a good meal. 

"Activation of this system when discussing the self suggests that self-disclosure ... may be inherently pleasurable,"Scientific American reports. 

And when people talk about their experiences, they become more vulnerable to one another, and when they become more vulnerable to one another, they form social bonds and coinvest in one another's welfare. 

Dress the part.

"Appearance is our first filter," says Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of the book "Executive Presence.""And it's happening all the time."

Princeton researchers have found that it takes about 100 milliseconds to register a first impression, or as long as a hummingbird flaps its wings. 

"The really good news here is that it's about polish, grooming, and being put together," Hewlett says. "It's not about the precise shape of your body, texture of your hair, or the designer you wear."

You don't have to wear a gray suit all the time, she says. Instead, pay attention to how the best-dressed people in your organization and industry put themselves together, then pattern after them. 

Master the handshake.

A strong handshake isn't a matter of squeezing somebody's paw. 

It's a matter of presence.

Esquire's Tom Chiarella details how to exude it: 

On the street, in the lobby, square your shoulders to people you meet. Make a handshake matter — eye contact, good grip, elbow erring toward a right angle. Do not pump the hand, unless the other person is insistent on just that. Then pump the hell out of their hand. Smile. If you can't smile, you can't be gracious. You aren't some dopey English butler. You are you.

A handshake like that shows that you're paying respect to the person you're talking to, and as science has confirmed, giving respect gets respect. 

The world's first underground park is coming, and it's scheduled to open in 2018.

It's called the Lowline, and it will be located in a historic trolley station in the Lower East Side of New York City.

The best part about the Lowline is that it will actually include natural sunlight, using reflectors and fiber optics to pipe sunlight below the ground's surface.

No, this isn't science fiction, it's happening, and it looks incredible.

Here's where the 116-year-old abandoned trolley terminal where the Lowline will be built.

Here's what the trolley terminal looked like in the 1930s. The terminal was officially closed in 1948.

When it's finished in 2018, the Lowline will turn that space into an underground park where people can meet and walk around.

From the handyman to your superintendent, the staff in your apartment building should all get tips this holiday season.

We spoke with etiquette expert Patricia Napier-Fitzpatrick of The Etiquette School of New York to find out more about holiday tipping and gifting. 

How much you tip can vary based on how long you've been in the building, how important their service was to you, the frequency of the service, and what you gave last year.

And always remember that with building staff, generosity goes a long way.

NOW WATCH: Hugh Hefner's 23-Year-Old Son Has A Plan To Redefine The Playmate

SEE ALSO: How To Tip Everyone In Your Life This Holiday Season

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