New Year's Eve is the time for champagne toasts, resolutions, and celebrations with family and friends.

And one of the most epic places to usher in the New Year is in New York City's Times Square.

The six-hour-long bash — which has live music performances, celebrity guests, and free schwag — culminates with the famous ball drop at midnight.

And while the event happens overnight, the planning certainly doesn't.

The New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square is co-produced annually between the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, the firm that represents One Times Square. We spoke to Jeff Straus, President of Countdown Entertainment, and Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance, to find out exactly how much planning goes into this spectacular annual event. We learned some surprising facts on the side.

The first New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square New Year's Eve took place in 1904.

In 1904, the city decided to throw a New Year's Eve party at One Times Square to commemorate the opening of both the New York Times office building and the city’s first subway line.

Prior to 1904, the New Year's Eve celebration was held at Trinity Church, where revelers would throw bricks in the air to celebrate the New Year.

Source: Times Square Alliance

The first ball dropped on New Year's Eve in Times Square in 1907.

In 1907, the first New Year's Eve ball was dropped from the flagpole at One Times Square.

The iron-and-wood ball was five feet in diameter, weighed 700 pounds, and was adorned with one hundred 25-watt bulbs — measly compared with today's ball.

Source: Times Square Alliance

The ball today is very different than the one used in 1907.

Today, the ball measures 12 feet in diameter and weighs 11,875 pounds. It's covered with 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles of different sizes and lit with 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LED light bulbs.

Source: Times Square Alliance

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You gobble up celebrity blogs and magazines. You can recite all the names and ages of Angelina and Brad’s kids. You knew right away which ex Taylor Swift is so subtlety referencing in her latest revenge anthem.

See the best places for celeb spottings >

You’re a pop culture connoisseur.

A vacation is the perfect opportunity to catch a glimpse of your favorite stars in the flesh. While trekking to LA or New York City and setting up camp outside of Chateau Marmont or the Bowery Hotel is always one (very sketchy) option, here a 10 amazing vacation spots that will maximize your fun and offer a greater chance of running into an A-lister.

See the best places for celeb spottings >

More from Hopper Travel:

2013 Golden Globes: Awards Season Travel Tips

Kardashian 'Vakation' Hot Spots

Celebrities Who Spend Less Than You'd Expect On Vacation

Hawaii

Hawaii is a top celebrity vacation destination (and the home state of President Obama).

In 2012, the island teemed with stars. Katy Perry relaxed in Kauai, while Kanye West and Kim Kardashian showed off their love in Honolulu. Britney Spears, Charlize Theron, Will Smith and Cameron Diaz have all paid visits to the Aloha state recently.

But with 8 different islands spread out over 6,423 square miles, it’s not easy to guarantee that you’ll be sharing a beach with Beyonce.

We suggest aiming your stays at Kauai. At 533 square miles, Kauai is 33 miles long and 25 miles across at its widest point. Kauai is Hawaii’s 4th largest island and known for heavy celebrity foot traffic. You can maximize your celebrity spotting potential by booking a room (like Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck and Alicia Keys did) at an impeccable 5 star resort like the St. Regis Princeville overlooking Hanalei Bay (rooms start at $360 a night).

Nestled among verdant sea cliffs, the resort caters to the restful and the restless: boasting everything from an 11,000 square foot spa to a working cattle ranch where you can horseback ride, zip line through the trees, or hike to an 80 foot waterfall. With 19 dining options, there’s little reason to step foot outside of the resort’s grounds—making it the perfect protected celebrity hideaway.

Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan is a must-stop destination for celebrities promoting their films. But with a population of 8,731,000, spotting a celebrity in the city is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Our suggestion for celeb spotting in Japan? Head to the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Jessica Alba (family in tow!) have all visited the Magic Kingdom also known as Tokyo Disneyland Park. At 115 acres, it’s bigger than Florida’s Disney World or Disneyland and offers unique cultural offerings like soy sauce flavored popcorn. Love “It’s a Small World After All”? You’ll love it more in Japanese!

To stay like a celebrity in Tokyo check in at the Park Hyatt or Ritz Carlton and get psyched for major pampering. Japanese hotels are known for their impeccable service, regardless of your rank on IMDB.  A few requests you might consider making: have them book you an English speaking tour guide (essential!), ask them to snag you a table at the hip Code Kurkku in Yoyogi Village (a tranquil urban retreat in the heart of Tokyo) or arrange for a total holistic body massage—2 hours of intensive treatment designed to reset your internal clock and rejuvenate the body.

If the Ritz’s price point is outside your budget, consider stopping by for a bite at one of their 8 restaurants like contemporary Japanese cuisine Hinokizaka, recipient of a 2010 Michelin star. If the food doesn’t tempt you, its prime celeb spotting location (next to the lobby) should be lure enough.

Bedford, New York

If you must pay a visit to NYC to indulge your celebrity sighting needs, consider a side trip on the Metro-North to Westchester, specifically Bedford.

Just 48 minutes from NYC, this tony (and tiny) town, is home to many an A list celeb. Most recently, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds bought a home here and have been seen visiting their local gym. Glenn Close, Martha Stewart, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones have homes in town.  At 39.3 square miles, Bedford is 1/10th the size of New York (468.5 square miles) with only 17,335 people.

Center your visit around the picturesque town green in the heart of the historic district (listed in the National Register of Historic Places). Soak in the colonial glory of the clapboard homes, 17th century cemetery, and old one room schoolhouse. Richard Gere owns the quaint Bedford Post Inn, making it the ideal launching point for a Fall weekend of celeb spotting, leaf peeping, and apple picking in New York State.

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What does the average Mac user look like?

BlueStacks, a company whose technology allows people to run apps designed for smartphones on Mac and Windows desktops, pulled together a quick study on the average Mac user's physical appearance.

It pulled data from Nielsen and asked its 1.1 million Facebook fans to take a survey. The results aren't exactly scientific, but they paint a good picture of common Mac-user characteristics.

And they're not what you'd expect.

Most of them, BlueStacks says, are females under the age of 20, who have freckles. They wear jeans, T-shirts. and ponytails frequently.

After going through the findings, we're a little skeptical—the findings suggest most of the freckle-faced Mac users also have black hair, attributes that don't often go together. Also keep in mind that BlueStacks' Facebook users likely skew younger. You'd have to do some adjustments to match the findings to the general population. Consider the following with a grain of salt, produced more for your enjoyment than as a scientific conclusion.

They have long hair.

According to BlueStacks. 27% of Mac users have long hair and 22% have shoulder-length hair.

15% wear their hair in a ponytail. 11% have very short hair, and another 11% have curly hair.

Their hair is usually black. More blondes use Macs than brunettes.

BlueStacks claims 38% of Mac users have black hair. A surprising amount—36%—have blonde hair, followed by 18% who have brown hair, 4% with red hair, and 2% who have "other."

Despite the stereotypes, most Mac users don't have big heads.

Most Mac users have normal-size heads: 72%. 18% have "unusually large heads." The rest are smaller than usual.

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Every company has been bracing for the fiscal cliff in their own ways.

Some have been delaying capital expenditures until uncertainty clears up, while others have been dumping cash on their shareholders in the forms of special or accelerated dividends.

But the companies significantly exposed to government spending can do little but lobby as they wait to see how sequestration will unfold.

Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs compiled a list of stocks that generate the significant amounts of business from the government. 

We've pulled the 44 companies that have 50 percent or more of their business exposed.

It's worth noting that defense stocks, which are almost completely reliant on government spending, are near their highs of the year.

Health Net Inc.

Ticker: HNT

Sales exposure to government: 50%

Description: Health care providers and services

Source: Goldman Sachs Research

Waste Management

Ticker: WM

Sales exposure to government: 50%

Description: Waste management services

Source: Goldman Sachs Research

Waste Connections

Ticker: WCN

Sales exposure to government: 50%

Description: Waste management services

Source: Goldman Sachs Research

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Instagram just posted a list of the ten most popular places around the world its users are posting photos.

We've assembled it into a slideshow here. The funny thing about the list is that it reveals how young Instagram is, still.

Despite being bought for $1 billion, the service just broke into the mainstream about mid-way through the year, which means some of the most popular places to take photos aren't places you would necessarily think of. (We're looking at you, Dodger Stadium.)

#10: Santa Monica Pier

#9: The Staples Center in Los Angeles (where the Lakers and Clippers play)

#8: Eiffel Tower

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What did people want to learn about the most this year?

Wikipedia has gathered data on its most viewed articles of 2012. It has created different lists for each language, but the most popular articles by far are in English.

The data shows we care a lot about movies, teenage pop stars, and tech companies.

10. The Hunger Games

What it is: The first book of a trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It takes place in future America, where 24 children are chosen to fight to the death in a computer-controlled arena for a reality TV show. It was released as a movie this year starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Number of views: Its Wikipedia page was viewed 18,431,626 times this year.

Excerpt from the page:

The Hunger Games is a 2008 young adult novel by American writer Suzanne Collins. It is written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, where the countries of North America once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death.

The book received mostly positive feedback from major reviewers and authors, including author Stephen King. It was praised for its storyline and character development, though some reviewers have noted similarities between Collins' book and the Japanese novel Battle Royale (1999), as well as other works. In writing The Hunger Games, Collins drew upon Greek mythology and contemporary reality television for thematic content. The novel won many awards, including the California Young Reader Medal, and was named one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of the Year" in 2008.

9. Google

What it is: The giant search engine company created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Number of views: Its Wikipedia page received 18,508,719 views this year

Excerpt from the page:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is an American multinational corporation which provides Internet-related products and services, including internet search, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies.^[6] Advertising revenues from AdWords generate almost all of the company's profits.^[7][8]

The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while both attended Stanford University. Together, Brin and Page own about 16 percent of the company's stake. Google was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and its initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. The company's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"^[9] and the company's unofficial slogan is "Don't be evil".^[10][11] In 2006, the company moved to its current headquarters in Mountain View, California.

8. The Dark Knight Rises

What it is: The third batman movie, starring Christian Bale, which was released this year.

Number of views: Its Wikipedia page received 18,882,885 views this year

Excerpt from the page:

The Dark Knight Rises is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan and the story with David S. Goyer. Featuring the DC Comics character Batman, the film is the final installment in Nolan's Batman film trilogy, and it is the sequel to Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). Christian Bale reprises the lead role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, with a returning cast of his allies: Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. The film introduces the characters of Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a cunning cat burglar in search of a way to escape her past, and Bane (Tom Hardy), a militant revolutionary out to destroy Gotham City. The film deals with a Batman who has retired, but is drawn back into action by new threats to the city.

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As 2012 comes to a close, it's time to look back at another crazy year in sports.

The Olympics came into our lives for three weeks and completely took over, NBA fashion was incredible, and LeBron James finally won a championship.

We created a timeline with images of the best moments of 2012.

Trent Richardson celebrates with fellow Alabama teammates after beating LSU in the National Championship game

Eli Manning led the Giants to his second Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots

Gisele rips her husband's receivers for not being able to catch the ball during the Super Bowl

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What better time than late December to pause for a retrospective look at the ideas that mattered over the past year?

In this era of specialization, no one person is qualified to offer a definitive list of this kind. So think of what follows as a proposition to ponder: all that follows is either going to reshape our world, or would reshape it if only the idea in question were given its due.

Take to the comments section to offer ideas that ought to appear on lists like this one.

1. Anyone can own a 3D printer.

It wasn't so long ago that 3-D printing sounded like science-fiction: a device that was fed code and printed out three-dimensional objects?!

Nowadays, 3-D printers are widely known to exist. And in 2012, they began the who-knows-how-long transition from tech-geek luxury item to common consumer good. The first retail stores selling 3-D printers opened in New York and Los Angeles.

"People can come in, look at a variety of printed objects, and buy 3-D printed knickknacks like watch bands and little plastic squirrels for their friends," Ashlee Vance wrote this autumn. "They can also check out the just-released Replicator 2 printer from MakerBot that costs $2,199 and lets people build larger, more precise objects than its predecessors could."

Expensive, sure, but prices are falling fast, with one online company selling its consumer model, The Portabee , for $500. At this rate, it isn't difficult for anyone to imagine that one day in the not so distant future, they'll be hooking up their own 3-D printer in a home office.

2. The NFL starts to understand the deadliness of repeat head injuries.

Strange as it may seem, American sports historians may one day look back on 2012 as the beginning of the end for NFL football, at least in its present-day, helmeted, blocking-and-tackling-intensive incarnation.

Thousands of former players are embroiled in a lawsuit against the league, alleging that it hid information about the danger of repeated head trauma. Present and former NFL insurers are also fighting the league over who is owed what.

Every new concussion a current player suffers—and especially any suicide, violent crime or debilitating medical condition involving a former player—only brings the issue to broader public attention. And the cultural impact is trickling down to young kids whose parents are thinking twice about letting them join Pop Warner or attend tryouts during their freshmen year of high school.

3. Trial-and-error experiments could improve public policy.

That's the case Jim Manzi made in a 2012 release, Uncontrolled , that received far less attention than it deserved.

As David Brooks put it in a column that doubled as its most prominent review, "Businesses conduct hundreds of thousands of randomized trials each year. Pharmaceutical companies conduct thousands more. But government? Hardly any. Government agencies conduct only a smattering of controlled experiments to test policies in the justice system, education, welfare and so on. Why doesn't government want to learn?"

It is Manzi's belief that some in government do want to learn, and that a new federal agency dedicated to learning by experiment would serve as a useful injection of empiricism into policy-making.

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Back in the 1980's, Jim Chanos made a name for himself by shorting Baldwin United.

He now runs his own hedge fund, Kynikos Associates, where he famously shorted Enron before its collapse. 

We've put together some of Chanos' most brilliant quotes on investing, being a short seller, China, the U.S. financial meltdown and the European debt crisis.

"In investing, you can be really right but temporarily quite wrong."

One of the first stocks Chanos looked at for Gilford Securities was Baldwin-United. He noticed that at a time when regulators of Baldwin's insurance subsidiaries were threatening to declare them insolvent, brokerages across the board were recommending the stock. 

"I recommended a short position in Baldwin-United at $24 based on language in the 10-K and 10-Qs, uneconomic annuities, leverage issues and a host of other concerns. The stock promptly doubled on me. This was a good introduction to the fact that in investing, you can be really right but temporarily quite wrong. 

I put another report out in early December of 1982 with the stock at $50 and reiterated my thesis while pointing to additional evidence that had come out in the interim. I went home to visit my parents for Christmas and received a phone call from Bob Holmes telling me that I was getting a great Christmas present – the state insurance regulator had seized Baldwin-United’s insurance subsidiaries. Baldwin filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter.

Source: Graham & Doddsville

"There’s a big difference between a long-focused value investor and a good short-seller."

"I used to think that good short-sellers could be trained like long-focused value investors because it should be the same skill set; you’re tearing into the numbers, you’re valuing the businesses, you’re assigning a consolidated value, and hopefully you’re seeing something the market doesn’t see.

But now I’ve learned that there’s a big difference between a long-focused value investor and a good short-seller. That difference is psychological and I think it falls into the realm of behavioral finance."

Source: Graham & Doddsville

"'Mr. Chanos has never been to mainland China.' Well hell, I didn't work at Enron either."

Chanos' response to continued criticism that he has bearish views on China without ever having visited the country. He had famously shorted Enron before its collapse.

Source: Business Insider

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"Louie" is still TV's best comedy. The final season of "30 Rock" is filled with everything we love about the show. "Homeland" has some magnificent acting, and who are we to argue with all those Emmy wins?

But none of them made our list of the five best shows of 2012. Neither did very good shows like "Girls,""Modern Family,""Veep" or "Justified."

"Nashville" is our favorite new drama -- and maybe the best network drama overall -- but it didn't make the list either, despite an engaging mix of soapy stories, engaging stories and gorgeous songs.

Maybe next year.

The word "best" is subjective. But these are the five shows I never, ever miss. I didn't choose them for the list. They chose me. I can't miss them. I can't go to sleep without thinking about them. I can't believe the time is near that one of them will end.

Here they are.

5. "The Walking Dead"

We hear a lot about mindless hordes making hits of terrible shows. But maybe the masses aren't so mindless after all.

"The Walking Dead" began its best season this year even as millions of new viewers discovered the show, making it television's top-rated drama. (The AMC series also has a legitimate shot at becoming the top-rated scripted show.)The show has finally lived up to the compulsively readable comics that inspired it -- and it hasn't hurt that their writer, Robert Kirkman, is one of its executive producers. 

Everything about "The Walking Dead" came together in season 3: The acting is top-notch. The pacing is ferocious. And the zombies have never looked so revolting.  Of course, nothing good ever lasts forever. Showrunner Glen Mazzara, who has worked hard to achieve the show's fast pace, is leaving at the end of the season. Whoever takes over will have a very hard act to follow.

Also read: 4 Things Networks Can Learn From 'The Walking Dead'

4. "Mad Men"

We're grateful that the show's fifth season even happened.

Creator Matthew Weiner threatened to walk in a contract dispute with AMC, leading to a 17-month break between seasons. But Weiner and his team seem to have used every spare second coming up with mesmerizing moments, from Jessica Pare's performance of "Zou Bisou Bisou" to the British-to-the-end tragedy of Lane Pryce (Jared Harris.) "Mad Men" was exquisite this season.

Even the rare missteps (we still don't believe Joan would sleep with a client like that) were welcome, because they helped us recognize the perfection of nearly every other scene.

Why is an almost-perfect show only at No. 4? Because we're spoiled by four past brilliant seasons of "Mad Men." The wow factor has worn off, and now "Mad Men" is only coasting on its excellence.

3. "Game of Thrones"

No show does better spectacles. Actually, no anything does better spectacles. This was the year "Game of Thrones" sank an armada with green fire. But the show has also created a new world that feels vivid, fantastical and authentic enough to be terrifying.

It's a great series if you like dragons and swordplay, but an even better one if you like cutting dialogue and politics. Every second Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) appears on screen feels like a gift. Novelist George R.R. Martin's thousands of pages gave showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff plenty to work with, but also handed the show scads of information to convey. The writers have made a wonderful game of it, giving us backstory through sex scenes, sword fights -- anything but voice-overs.

Also read: 'Game of Thrones' Gets Expanded Episodes for Season 3

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Almost everyone loves to hate on Goldman Sachs, a.k.a the "Vampire Squid".

Goldman's image and that of its CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, have been bruised by the criticism they have received over the bank's role in the financial crisis as well as the hefty compensation packages.

It's been a rough last three years.

However, we've noticed that Goldman and Blankfein have made quite a comeback in the last year in terms of boosting their public image.  

Click to see Goldman's best moments >

While other big banks that have seen the whale trade, the LIBOR and money laundering scandals, Goldman has avoided all of that making them look much better by comparison.

At one point back in May, following the London Whale trading loss, JPMorgan's brand perception dipped making it the most negatively viewed bank on Wall Street -- a spot normally held by Goldman, according to YouGov BrandIndex.  

Of course, we'll get a more accurate read in January on how Goldman's brand perception did in 2012 when YouGov releases that data. 

It appears to us, though, that Goldman has had several bright spots in 2012.  

Of course, that's not to say the bank isn't dealing with legal issues.  It still is.  And the bank has only delivered an 8.8% return on common shareholder equity in the first three quarters of 2012 compared to 19.2% in the same period in 2009, according to Bloomberg News. 

All that aside, the bank is still making steps in the right direction. 

It's been an awful year for the financial industry in terms of scandals.

We've had the London Whale, the LIBOR scandal, insider trading and money laundering. 

Goldman has avoided all this and looks much better by comparison.  

A lot of other big banks on the Street had to pay big fines and settlements this year. Not Goldman.

Reuters' Ben Walsh, formerly a writer for Clusterstock, put together a massive rundown of investigations, lawsuits and fines the big banks faced this year.    

Scanning this list, it's clear that Goldman wasn't really singled out for being the worst on the Street.

Goldman is facing an ongoing FHFA fraud case and a class action lawsuit over MBS going forward, the list shows.  

We also have to point out that Goldman was also ordered to pay $1.5 million civil penalty by the CFTC earlier this month for failing to supervise a trader who hid a $8.3 billion position in 2007.

In 2012, Goldman hired a new PR chief with a major Washington, D.C. pedigree.

On March 13, Goldman said it had hired Jake Siewert, a former Tim Geithner aide and Clinton administration press secretary, as its new PR chief. 

He's been tasked with turning around Goldman's image. 

Source: DealBook

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Before Mike Heller created Talent Resources — a global strategic marketing firm based in New York— he was an entertainment lawyer who also briefly acted as Lindsay Lohan's manager.

With Lohan, Heller used his law degree and connections from past event planning to help the then-20-year-old actress plan a Malibu birthday bash and later score deals to be the face of brands such as Jil Stuart and Louis Vuitton. 

That was 2006.

Fast forward to today and Heller is no longer tied to the actress (although his attorney father did bail her out of her most recent stint in jail) and Heller is running Talent Resources, a company that is pairing celebrities with brands and brands with events.

Heller and his team work with brands such as Dove, Sean John, Playboy, Vibe magazine, Kia and Chapstick.

But Heller tells Business Insider"It's not just about pairing brands with a celebrity anymore, it's pairing them with what lifestyle they're looking for, what demographic they are trying to hit."

For example, when Kia wanted to promote their summer car, Talent Resources rented out a house on the beach in Malibu and threw a party that celebrities such as Lauren Conrad showed up to, and then organically tweeted pictures from the event.

Tour the office space frequented by celebs >

As for how Talent Resources profits from the event, Heller explains, "On the Kia deal, it's not to get a percentage, we're there paying to buy a title sponsorship. And that could be in the six figures."

"But it wasn't about pairing with a specific celebrity," Heller says of promoting the brands he works with. "It was about pairing it with a specific integration and activation that we were working on. For Sundance, we do a big gifting suite every year and so Dove is doing a wet station, so women are going to be able to come and use the Dove product and be able to experience it. Sean John is coming back. They have the best snow jackets."

In addition to the Sundance Film Festival, Talent Resources also coordinates big events at the Super Bowl, Fashion Week, the Kentucky Derby, among others.

"For Superbowl, we took over the biggest space in the French quarter on the Mississippi River called Jack's Brewery. And then what I'm doing there is now I'm a producer like I am at Sundance," explains Heller. "I'm putting the money up front before I have any content whatsoever. And then putting a deck together and going out to different sponsors that are in my wheelhouse, in my network, saying this is an opportunity you can buy into."

One brand that bought in is Playboy.

"So Playboy comes in and they say 'I want to do a Playboy party Friday night' and we'll put that whole thing together in our space that I own for the three nights. They now can choose to use our company or not use our company to find them celebrities, to find them a performance, to do the PR, to do the social media, to do the digital."

Digital can be an aspect all its own, as Talent Resources was in charge of just the digital for this year's big Lacoste party during Coachella.

"We usually augment other things that are going on, or you can buy into our overall program," explains Heller. "So the mentality no more is looked at us an agency that's brokering a deal between a celebrity and a brand. That's the small part and that's the catalyst, but they're coming to us for expertise in consulting of what direction the brand should go in, what their budget should be allocated towards (PR, lifestyle, marketing, and celebrity), should they just attach themselves to one celebrity or should they attach themselves to a bunch of events that make sense."

"Basically we take the risk that a brand has doing its own activations and say 'listen, you don't have to take a risk anymore. We'll do everything for you.' It's a turn-key situation," explains Heller. "We have the space, we have the event PR, celebrities, celebrity hosts."

And other than small offices in Los Angeles and Brazil, the 21-person Talent Resources team does all of their wheeling and dealing from a four-story townhouse in Manhattan.

Rumor has it that celebrities like Avril Lavigne, Rachel Hunter, Lindsay Lohan, Kris Humphries and Stephen Dorff have all visited or stayed at Heller's home-turned-office space.

Talent Resources, a lifestyle marketing company matching brands and events with celebrities, was started by Mike Heller and he currently runs the company alongside his friend David Spencer.

The two are childhood friends from New York and have the photographic evidence to prove it.

The Talent Resources office is located at 36th Street and Park Avenue. The townhouse was originally Heller's home before he turned it into his office.

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The experience at most restaurants is as important as the food, and LA eateries are no exception to the rule.

So the editors at Zagat went back to their 2013 Los Angeles and Southern California Restaurants guide to find the eateries with the best servers in town.

The top 10 restaurants are as well-known for their service as they are for their fare. And while some of these restaurants have famous names, a few surprise underdogs made the cut as well.

#10 Alfredo's

2372 Pacific Coast Hwy.

Making it into the top 10 is this favorite Mexican food mecca. The dishes here are cheap, the decor typical, but the service is fast and prompt with perfectly cooked traditional fare.

#9 Sam's by the Beach

108 W. Channel Rd.

This Santa Monica joint is a delicious restaurant with inventive dishes and without the standard LA-attitude. The service is always fast and friendly, and guests say they'd eat here everyday if it wasn't for the expensive price tag.

#8 Lawry's The Prime Rib

100 N. La Cienega Blvd.

Fans of Lawry's say there's no place in LA with such delicious prime ribs. The all-American steakhouse boasts some of the best cuts of meat in town, and the service is superbly attentive with cool table-side experiences such as the spinning salads made right in front of you.

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The Obama campaign's digital operations proved to be a crucial point of success that led to the re-election of President Barack Obama in November. 

Based on a sophisticated effort and larger emphasis on digital and new media, the Obama campaign engaged supporters and raised an unprecedented amount of money through its digital efforts.

How did the Obama campaign become so effective in the digital realm? Engage, an interactive digital political agency in Washington, D.C., recently published a report entitled "Inside the Cave." It features a 93-page, step-by-step in-depth look at the secrets to the Obama digital team's success.

We've collected 15 of the report's key topics and published them here.

(Note: A special thanks to Engage president Patrick Ruffini for permission to republish parts of the report.)

"The Cave" was the site of the Obama analytics team in Chicago where a group of programmers revolutionized the way that campaigns are run.

Right off the bat, it's clear that the Obama organization lapped Romney when it came to employee presence online, the number of donors, and the size of the email list of supporters.

While Romney's campaign beefed up staff, it was still far from enough to compete with the Obama digital and analytics staff.

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Many sea animals (and at least one land walker) seem to have lost their way this year, winding up on sandy shores instead of their native ocean home. 

For the majority of these critters, the story did not end well. 

Here's a look back at all the bizarre creatures, and parts of creatures, that have been discovered on beaches in 2012. 

Thousands of Humboldt squid committed mass "suicide" in December. The cause of these mass standings is still a mystery, but some scientists think that a toxic chemical released by red tides messes with the squids' brain chemicals and results in them becoming disoriented.

Thousands Of Drunk Squid Have Beached Themselves On California's Shores >

A malnourished finback whale, which are endangered, beached itself on a Breezy Point beach in Queens, New York this week. Rescue workers were unable to save the sickly whale and it died a day later.

Beached New York Whale Is Dead >

A mangled, hairless creature, dubbed the 'East River monster," caused quite a stir in April when it was spotted under the Brooklyn Bridge. The bloated carcass, which was disposed of by the New York City parks department before it could be positively identified, is thought to have been a raccoon.

Zoologist Helps Identify The 'Manhattan Monster' >

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Atlantic contributors and staffers pick their favorite moments on Mad Men, Louie, New Girl, and more from the past year in TV.

Check out the best of TV in 2012 >

Girls: "All Adventurous Women Do"

There was so much groaning over the line from Girls’s pilot episode, in which Lena Dunham’s Hannah says, “I think I may be the voice of my generation. Or at least a voice of a generation.”

Some thought the warts-and-all approach Dunham used to portray the often ugly lives of four broke post-grads living in New York was refreshing, modern, and, yes, generation-defining. Others thought her to be crass, delusional, and unoriginal. Yet in “All Adventurous Women Do,” Girls comes closest to fulfilling that pilot-episode prophecy. Or, at least, it comes closest to being that Next Great Comedy Series that the month of hype leading up to its premiere promised it would be.

When Hannah discovers she has HPV, it serves as the impetus for all of the show’s women to examine their relationship with sex. Hannah cringe-inducingly Googles “stuff that gets around the sides of condoms,” coming to terms with her own embarrassing ignorance that—despite being a modern, sexual woman in the age of information—she’s still not certain how STDs are transmitted.

Marnie faces her inability to be frank about sex when, instead of being repulsed by a sexually forward colleague, she’s turned on by it. Upon learning that Hannah has HPV, Shoshana is unabashedly jealous because, as a virgin, she’s not exciting enough to have such drama in her life.

Finally, Jessa shrugs at the whole hullabaloo over having a STD: “All adventurous women do.”

There are brilliantly blunt cultural observations here, some exceptional one-liners throughout the episode, and perhaps the clearest window yet into Dunham’s “generation” and how they think. As Hannah stews for minutes, editing and rewriting a tweet, the camera zooms in to reveal her number of Twitter followers: a mere 24.

Where to watch it: HBO Go

—Kevin Fallon, contributor

Mad Men: "Far Away Places"

Mad Men’s fifth season was probably the series' most polarizing, but I’m in the camp that thinks it was the show's all-time best.

That’s due in no small part to rich, satisfying episodes like “Far Away Places.” It divides its time evenly between Peggy, Roger, and Don, as each character spends an eventful day away from the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office. (Series creator Matt Weiner said that the episode was inspired by “anthologized French films” that tell several disconnected stories.)

Peggy fights with her boyfriend and endures a terrible pitch meeting before bonding with strange new coworker Ginsberg; Roger takes LSD for the first time, which leads him to reevaluate his marriage to Jane; and Don takes Megan on an ill-fated trip to a Howard Johnson’s motel, where a fight over sherbet brings the simmering tensions of their marriage to a boil.

The formal audacity “Far Away Places,” is impressive on its own, and ample credit also belongs to director Scott Hornbacher, who brings an assured touch to potentially tricky scenes like Roger’s LSD trip. But the bulk of the praise belongs to writers Semi Chellas and Matt Weiner, who managed to write three stories that pack enormous emotional punch individually—and become even more powerful when taken together.

Where you can watch: Amazon

—Scott Meslow, contributor

Homeland: "Q&A"

To endure its half-baked plot twists and crimes against plausibility, some viewers have come to watch Homeland as a soap opera: self-consciously overblown, and all about impossible romance.

That works well enough. By midway through the second season, the audience has come to consider the greatest sin committed by Nicholas Brody, a soldier of questionable loyalties and certainly no regard for the law, to be his gas-lighting of CIA agent Carrie Mathison. His deception landed her in electroshock therapy. But she still loves him. Previously, on As the World Turns…

But you can also think of the show as a high-minded, reality-be-damned test of abstract principles taken to their extreme. Trauma transforms people; terrorism is personal; lies require more lies; war is really about innocence—these are the big arguments Homeland wants to make. Even when a character is dispatched on an improbable mission (involving, say, the remote control for a national leader's pacemaker), the shows' guiding ideas stay in the frame long after sanity leaves it.

"Q&A" is a tour de force as seen through both these prisms. Its centerpiece is Mathison's interrogation of Brody, during which Claire Danes and Damien Lewis get a chance to prove their worthiness for best-acting Emmys. We'd seen Danes's mercurial, electrifying vulnerability before, but we'd never seen Lewis melt convincingly from defiant deceiver to abject confessor like this.

More impressive, though, is that the argument Mathison makes in the interrogation room works—not just on Brody, but on us. She says things no one has said to him before: That his personal vendetta won't be solved by violence. That he knows the difference between war and terrorism. That Abu Nazir has screwed up his mind. And that, most of all, it would be nice to just stop lying.

Go ahead and roll your eyes at the other big moments of the episode: Peter Quinn's impulsive black-room move and the two teenagers' hapless nighttime drive. But think about what those events have to do with Mathison's questions to Brody about guilt and innocence, and they become, at least, a little more interesting.

Where to watch it: On Demand or on Showtime Anytime

–Spencer Kornhaber, associate editor

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When you spend millions of dollars on a luxury yacht, you do not want to be confined to a single region. With the "Streamline," you won't be: Its 85,000-liter fuel tanks provide a range of more than 4,000 miles.

That's more than enough to cross the Atlantic, or spend an entire vacation on the open water.

The yacht, built in 2009, has a lap pool, an elevator, and enough room for 10 guests. There's a large master stateroom and guest accommodations that can be arranged to feature three, four, or five cabins.

It is listed for sale by International Yacht Collection for €15.9 million ($21 million).

The 161'8" yacht was custom built in 2009.

For those who don't want to swim in the ocean, there's a lap pool on board.

There's a sofa just a few steps away from the lap pool for post-workout relaxation.

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I know that as red-blooded human beings, we're allowed to make a few mistakes every once in a while.

I just wish mine didn't cost so much. 

About two years ago, I turned what should have been a wholesome New Year's celebration into a nightmare –– one bad money decision after the next. 

When all was said and done, I managed to blow close to $700 over the course of six topsy-turvy hours that, in retrospect, weren't really that fun at all. 

It may sound trivial to some, but it's cautionary tales like these I wish people were more transparent about. When it comes to spending, we all give in to temptation (and yes, a little peer pressure) from time to time –– no matter how old or wise we become. 

Like many poor choices, it all started with a cocktail.

A pair of long-time friends were in town, so I met them at the swanky W hotel in the lower Manhattan's financial district for a pre-party drink.

I was broke at the time and usually would have tucked a mini bottle of something serious in my clutch and been done with it. But my girlfriends had flown across the country to have a good time, and I knew toasting with a couple of cheep beers my apartment wouldn't cut it. 

So, naturally, we decided to order a $75 bottle of champagne.

Then I blew $20 on a cab I never needed.

Feeling festive, we left the hotel and made our way to a cab to head uptown.

Here's where I could have saved serious cash. Not only do I live in New York, the land of public transportation, but the city was actually giving away $30,000 worth of FREE cab fare and metro cards to party-goers at the time. 

"Whatever. I've earned this!"

As we lacked both a publicist and a hit reality TV show, we weren't able to get into any of the super exclusive parties going on throughout the city that night. 

I did a little search on the web and found a great-looking party at an East Village venue with four floors, unlimited drinks, and a balloon drop at midnight. 

It also cost $150 for the smallest "VIP Package" available. I'd just gotten a small Christmas bonus, so I justified the price with any shopaholic's go-to mantra:

"Whatever. I've earned this!" 

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The move has been in the works for a few years now, but come the turn of 2013, Barack Obama's presidential fleet of Marine helicopters, "Marine One," is due to add 14 V-22 Ospreys.

Now, manufacturers added few modifications to the V-22s in preparation for the transition: a removable "VIP kit" which basically hides all that unseemly industrial interior, along with some snazzy floor carpeting.

Beneath those mods though, lurks the same hardcore baby the Marine Corps has been boasting about over the years — and in case you're wondering, yes, it's a hell of a ride.

Regardless, they aren't for Obama to fly in personally. Reports say the helos will carry "supplies" and the "White House Press Corps"— which inspires images of white knuckled journalists at the whim of hot shot Marine aviation officers.

The Osprey took its first flight in 1989 and despite accidents that have killed dozens of troops — it's billed by some top ranking officers as one of the safest aircraft in the fleet

One of the problems with the plane is that the rotor can slip too deeply into its downwash — lose lift on one side and flip — the Osprey now has indicators alerting pilots when this situation develops

Aside from its vertical and traditional flight capabilities the aircraft can haul 8,600 gallons of fuel and fly twice as fast as the Sea Knight helicopter

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This post originally appeared at Oyster.com.

The way we travel is always changing, and 2012 provided ample proof of that.

To help you prep for your 2013 vacay, Oyster honed in on the top trends currently rocking the travel world, from the royal travel craze to the rise of the pod hotel. Here’s what’s hot — and what’s not!

Celeb Hotel Designers

Celebrities and fashion icons — Kelly Wearstler, Oscar de La Renta, and Ralph Lauren, to name a few — have been designing hotel interiors for a while, but 2012 proved this trend certainly isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

This year we’ve seen tennis star Venus Williams design two presidential suites for the Intercontinental Miami, Diane Von Furstenburg design a two-bedroom penthouse for the Australian Hayman Island Resort, and Lenny Kravitz contribute to yet another Miami hotel design project — the SLS Hotel South Beach, coming soon to Oyster.com!

Tablets

Not only are tablets an increasingly common accessory for travelers, they’re used more and more by the hotels themselves. The Andaz chain, for example, uses tablets to check in hotel guests individually, rather than making them wait in a typical check-in line.

Other hotels offer loaner iPads for guests to use during their stays, or in-room tablets that operate as “digital concierges” for requesting hotel services.At the new Eden Roc in Cap Cana in the D.R., in-room iPads are used to control the lighting, sound system, and TVs.

Several airports are adding tablets to their restaurants, as well, for travelers to use to both order food and surf the web.

Pod Hotels

Space in hotel rooms comes at a premium in the world’s most popular cities, and we’re seeing teensy rooms (and rooms with bunk beds) not only on the rise, but becoming, well, cool.

In New York City, for example, Yotel (opened in 2011) has tiny cabin rooms clocking in at just 170 square feet, while the Out NYC and Wythe Hotel, both opened this year, offer rooms with bunk bed accommodations for bigger groups.

These aren’t hostels — these are some of the city’s hottest new hotels.

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