The second Sunday of NFL football is in the books.

It was way more eventful than the predictable and boring Week One, with the Patriots, Saints, and Ravens all getting upset.

And although we didn't get a Hall of Fame-level GIF like we did last week with Rob Gronkowski's spike fail, there were plenty of great moments that you may have missed.

They include an incomprehensible TD dance (right), a supposed "cheap shot" on Eli Manning, and an NFL owner staring flabbergastedly at the field after his team suffered a shocking upset.

1. Patriots owner Robert Craft is dumbfounded after the Cardinals beat the Pats

2. Eagles TE Brent Celek high-hurdles Ed Reed

3. Jacoby Jones does a dance

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It's the World Financial Center New York Motorexpo and that means a bunch of car makers have their latest models on display all this week in lower Manhattan.

Wall Street firms housed in the World Financial Center, which includes RBC Capital Markets, Nomura and Merrill Lynch, are lucky because the annual auto show is right outside their offices. Goldman Sachs is just steps away, too. 

The show kicked off yesterday and it ends on September 21st.  

So just in case you can't get out of the office today, Clusterstock headed down there to check out the scene and we've included a sneak peak of some of the sick rides for you here. 

This is the Range Rover Evoque Coup, which costs about $44,995*. It's 'the lightest and most fuel efficient Range Rover ever produced - stays true to the core values of Range Rover; providing premium levels of craftsmanship, luxury, performance and Land Rover multi-terrain capability while embodied in a more compact package,' according to a description.

Source: MotorExpo

Here's Jaguar's 2012 XK Convertible. The retail price is about $90,500.

This is the 2012 Range Rover Supercharged, which retails at about $95,670.

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We have analyzed the likely impact of Mitt Romney's economic plan on the country's national debt and deficit.

Our analysis suggests that the Romney Plan will radically increase America's debt and deficits over the next 10 years.

Importantly, this is not to say that the Romney plan will be bad for the economy.

By providing additional stimulus in the form of massive government deficit spending, the plan may well reduce the unemployment rate and accelerate GDP growth faster than current law (which calls for "Fiscal Cliff" spending cuts and "Taxmageddon" tax increases early next year). If the country is to incur this much additional debt, we would prefer that such deficit spending include a major infrastructure investment and rebuilding program. But the debt growth itself may not be bad.

Based on our analysis, though, the idea that the Romney plan will ease our debt and deficit problem is laughable. Under almost any realistic scenario, it will make the problem worse.

Let's go to the charts >

To conduct our analysis, we started with the Congressional Budget Office's official 10-year budget projections and then made assumptions about the impact of the Romney Plan.

We ran two scenarios:

• "Best Case" scenario, in which the Romney Plan sharply accelerates economic growth, and
• "More Likely" scenario, in which the Romney Plan modestly accelerates growth

We did not run a "Worst Case" scenario (too depressing).

Importantly, our goal was to determine what is actually likely to happen under the Romney Plan, as opposed to what the Romney campaign vaguely says will happen. For example, we did not accept Romney's premise that he will eliminate enough loopholes to make his tax cuts revenue neutral. Romney has not identified one single tax loophole he is willing to cut, and he has suggested he will protect some popular ones. So we think it is highly unlikely that Romney will eliminate enough tax loopholes to make his plan revenue neutral.

We also did not accept Romney's premise that he will cut federal spending to 20% of GDP by 2016 from the current 24%. Again, Romney has not identified a single government program that he wants to cut (other than general non-defense discretionary spending, which is already at an all-time low as a percent of GDP). We assumed instead that Romney will reduce government spending to about 22% of GDP, not all the way to 20%.

Importantly, we made several assumptions that are very much in Romney's favor. We did not include the negative revenue impact of all of Romney's proposed tax cuts, for example (e.g., eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax). We also assumed that Romney's plan will significantly accelerate growth. In fact, we assumed a strong economy for the next 10 years with no recessions—a streak of uninterrupted economic growth that has rarely happened in U.S. history. A recession during Romney's term, which is highly likely, would reduce government revenue and increase the debt and deficit beyond what we have shown here.

Our analysis concludes that Romney's plan will radically increase the country's debt, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP.

Let's go to the charts >

ASSUMPTIONS

Projecting the economic impact of tax and spending policy changes is a subjective exercise. The conclusion depends on assumptions about GDP growth, consumer behavior, tax revenue, government spending, global trade (economic climate), and many other factors. As a result, all forecasts like these should be viewed as directional approximations rather than precise estimates.

That said, we have tried to be very reasonable in our assumptions. And, in many cases, we believe we have given the Romney plan a significant benefit of the doubt.

For example, Romney's defense of the plan is based on his belief that it will accelerate America's economic growth. We believe Romney's confidence about this is based on a misdiagnosis about what is wrong with the economy: Contrary to Romney's assertions, we don't not believe the economy is choking under "regulatory uncertainty" or a lack of incentives for investors and entrepreneurs. Rather, we believe the economy is suffering from a lack of demand: Consumers don't have enough money to spend. Nevertheless, to give Romney's plan the benefit of some doubt, we have assumed that Romney's plan will radically accelerate economic growth.

We have also assumed that there will be no recessions or economic slowdowns for the next 10 years. Adding to the last three years of economic growth, this would produce a streak of 13 years of straight economic growth. We think there is an extremely low likelihood that this will occur. Rather, we think there will be at least one and possibly two recessions in this period. But, again, to give Romney's plan the benefit of the doubt, we have assumed steady and strong economic growth throughout the 10 years.

Also, we have not included the negative revenue impact of all of Romney's proposed tax cuts in our revenue analysis. For example, we have not included the impact of Romney's plan to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax or further reduce today's low taxes on dividends and capital gains. Instead, we have focused on the personal income tax cuts and corporate tax cuts. We have also given Romney credit for eliminating some loopholes, which will reduce the revenue impact of these cuts.

In short, we have made many assumptions that are very favorable to the Romney plan.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Part of the problem with Romney's plan is that it provides so few specifics. For example, the Romney campaign insists that the plan will be "revenue neutral" and will accelerate economic growth, but it offers no numbers or assumptions or specifics to back this up. If the campaign actually has numbers and assumptions to back up its claims, we would be eager to analyze them. If we find the campaign's logic persuasive, we will revise our conclusions. Similarly, if readers make persuasive points about why we should change our assumptions, we will change them. So please weigh in.

(But please don't try to persuade us by yelling that we're obviously "in the tank" for Obama just because we're trying to figure out what Romney's plan will do to the debt and deficit. The debt and deficit are big problems for the country. For everyone's sake, we need to take an objective look at them, not immediately descend into partisan rooting.)

Here are the basic assumptions in our two scenarios:

BEST-CASE ROMNEY PLAN SCENARIO ASSUMPTIONS:

• We assume Romney will cut income tax rates by 20% across the board and cut the statutory corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% (a 28.5% cut).
• We assume Romney will eliminate some loopholes to reduce the impact of the income tax cuts, resulting in an effective income tax cut of 17.5%.
• We assume no revenue loss from Romney's planned elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax and reduced taxes on capital gains and dividends (there will almost certainly be some revenue loss).
• We assume economic growth for the next 5 years (2013-2017) accelerates to 8.4% annually (nominal). This is more than 1 point above the CBO's "Alternative Scenario," which calls for 7.1% annual growth. It is also an enormous acceleration over current economic growth, which is about 4% nominal.
• We assume economic growth of 6.5% per year from 2018-2022 (nominal). This is a more normal rate of growth and inflation than we've seen in the past few years, but one that still represents a significant acceleration over the CBO's forecast (5.5%) and current economic growth (~4%).
• We assume no recessions or slowdowns for the entire 10 year period (highly unlikely).

MORE-LIKELY ROMNEY PLAN SCENARIO ASSUMPTIONS:

• We assume Romney cuts income tax rates by 20% across the board and cuts the statutory corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% (a 28.5% cut). [SAME]
• We assume Romney eliminates some loopholes to reduce the impact of the income tax cuts, resulting in an effective income tax cut of 17.5%. [SAME]
  
• We assume no revenue loss from Romney's planned elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax and reduced taxes on capital gains and dividends (there will almost certainly be some revenue loss). [SAME]
• We assume economic growth for the next 5 years (2013-2017) accelerates to 6.6% annually (nominal). This is slightly below the CBO's "Alternative Scenario," which calls for 7.1% annual growth. It still represents an enormous acceleration over current economic growth, which is about 4% nominal. [SLOWER THAN "BEST CASE"]
• We assume economic growth of 5.5% per year from 2018-2022 (nominal). This is in line with the CBO's forecast (5.5%) and comfortably ahead of current economic growth (~4%). [SLOWER THAN "BEST CASE"]
• We assume no recessions or slowdowns for the entire 10 year period (highly unlikely). [SAME]

First, some long-term context. Here's a chart showing GDP (blue) and Debt-To-GDP (red) for the last 70 years. We're already at a level of debt-to-GDP that we haven't seen since the immediate post-World War 2 aftermath. Importantly, though, we did recover from that.

Let's start with GDP growth. Here are the CBO's projections for GDP growth over the next 10 years under current law (i.e., implementing the full "Taxmageddon" and "Fiscal Cliff")

And here are the CBO's assumptions for GDP growth under its "Alternative Scenario," which calls for the extension of most of the Bush tax cuts and the postponement of government spending cuts.

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Yammer is a fun, funky place to work and Microsoft won't change that, cofounder and CEO David Sacks told Business Insider.

And he's got the pictures to prove it.

Take a look at life at Yammer as part of Microsoft >

 Microsoft bought Yammer for $1.2 billion—both for its hot social-enterprise software, which helps employees communicate internally, and for its unique sales and product-development techniques. 

Sacks has said repeatedly that Microsoft is letting him run Yammer as an independent company.  He shared with us a few more details on how that works: Microsoft gives him an operating budget. That covers everything from food to salaries. 

As for salaries, Microsoft is known for paying well. This has been helpful in retaining the 450 people hat Yammer employed when Microsoft acquired it, now that they can't get equity stakes in a hot up-and-coming startup.

"Microsoft is intent on keeping Yammer's talent," Sacks said. "They want to maintain our innovation. Microsoft pays quite well. So far retention has been very good. We've had to make sure the compensation picture is right and there are multiple currencies we can use now."

For instance, Microsoft routinely grants employees stock awards—grants of shares which vest over time. (These are less subject to the ups and downs of the stock market than stock options: For example, stock awards can't go "underwater" and lose all their value as options can.)

Sacks also insisted that Yammer is still a really fun place to work, which is just as important for attracting top talent and keeping them. He was wiling to prove it, sharing photos with us of Yammer's most recent Hack Day.

Hack Days happen about every three months or so. It's a big 24-hour coding party where people come up with new features or idea for the business, and then present them to the crowd. This one was held on September 5, a month and a half after Microsoft completed the acquisition. It included 115 participants across 65 teams, including a group of engineers from Microsoft.

A Yammer employee joins the Hack Day party. Appropriate dress includes face paint.

Burritos, beer, a big 'fro, and an even bigger belt buckle helps these employees get into the hacking groove.

Yammer's mascot, Yammy, gets down with Godzilla during halftime.

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No matter where a student is sitting in a classroom at the Stephen Gaynor School on New York's Upper West Side, he will hear the teacher's voice in the same tone.

Teachers at the school for students with learning disabilities wear a special device that distributes their voice through speakers around the classroom, so that every student feels like he is in an intimate conversation with his instructor.

It's just one of the many pieces of technology the Stephen Gaynor School implements to help its students.

Click here to tour the school >

The school recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and completed a $40 million renovation on a former Carriage House that now houses its preschool and middle school. It's around the corner from the elementary school on West 90th Street.

The school started with five students in 1962, and has now ballooned to 300. The staff has also grown to about 120 employees. Tuition is $49,600 a year for middle schoolers, although financial aid is available.

"Our main objective is to make sure the culture of our school, giving students individualized help, stays," said school head Dr. Scott Gaynor, who recently took us on a tour of the facilities. Gaynor's grandmother, Mimi Michael, along with Yvette Siegel founded the school.

There are around 11 students in each classroom, with a head teacher and an assistant teacher instructing. The hallways were noticeably quiet, and everyone seemed hard at work.

The curriculum at the school is heavily infused with exercise, art, and photography to help stimulate self-confidence, and to use the parts of the students' brains that are normally overactive in children with disabilities, Gaynor said.

Unlike in mainstream schools, where art and gym time are often kept to a minimum, at the Stephen Gaynor School they are a priority, Gaynor said.

"Exercise helps the students focus in the classroom by expending energy," Gaynor said. "Massive amounts of studies have been done showing that even a quick walk around the block can help a student concentrate in the classroom."

By the time all of the renovations are done, the school will have a glass-enclosed rooftop playground, a four-story glass enclosed bridge connecting the two buildings, and a research center with a librarian and writing coach.

Here's what the building on 89th Street looked like when it was the Claremont Riding Academy.

Welcome to the new Stephen Gaynor School, founded in 1962. This year, the school moved into new facilities in a former carriage house on 89th Street.

These barn doors may look big, but they're light enough for the middle school students to open. The building is considered a landmark, which means its exterior had to be preserved.

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Looking for the perfect relationship has a lot in common with searching for the perfect career.

So says career expert Nicole Williams, LinkedIn's Connection Director and author of "Girl On Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success."

She says that the best rules for dating, sex, love, or long-term relationships are also useful for career success.

With Williams' help, we picked out the most useful tips that your love life can teach you about your career.

1. Play the field

"You have to experience the wrong relationship to know what you're looking for in the right one," Williams writes.

Don't be in a rush to find your passion. If you're unhappy at your company, or with your career, that's a good thing. It's a signal to yourself that you need to find something that suits you better.

Source: Girl On Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success

2. Your friends can help

Ask your most trusted friends their opinions about what you should do with your career. Listen with an open mind. This isn't about doing what other people tell you to do, but about trying to get some outside perspective.

Source: Girl On Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success

3. Desperation is a major turn off

"The more desperate you are to find 'the one' more likely you are to repel it," Williams writes.

Relax and be confident in your ability to find the right job. If you don't really feel this way, start by pretending that you do. You'll be surprised how that leads to actual confidence.

Source: Girl On Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success

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In 2005, indie film screenwriter Kenny Golde's finances were in nothing short of mint condition.

"I had less than $10,000 in credit card debt, more than $100,000 in unused lines of credit, a FICO score over 800, and about $100,000 in savings even after the downpayment on my home," he says. "I even adopted a dog." 

Then the bottom fell out. Within a year, a perfect storm of financial and professional mishaps would carry him down a seemingly never-ending rabbit's hole of debt. 

By his fortieth birthday, he had amassed a staggering $220,000 in credit debt and spent his days sparring with debt collectors, dodging lawsuits and doing all he could to keep bankruptcy at bay. 

That was until an attorney steered him toward a path he never thought he'd travel: Debt settlement––essentially negotiating his debt directly with lenders. 

"The journey took me about a year and a half," Golde writes in his book,
"The Do-It-Yourself Bailout." Now "I have reduced my debt ... to zero.  I have done this legally, at a fraction of the cost of the debt itself, and I saved just under $150,000." 

Screenwriter Kenny Golde paid $170,000 in 2008 to finance a movie

Golde struggled for 11 years to secure financing for an independent film, he found his savior in a 70-year-old investor named Gabe. 

Gabe pumped $560,000 into the project, but "it quickly became clear that we were under-financed," Golde writes. "I called Gabe in Los Angeles to gain his support in going [$170,000] over budget, only to learn that he had been hospitalized." 

Within weeks, Gabe passed away. Golde was left to foot the bill himself. 

Meanwhile the Writers Guild strike left him out of a job

To cover the project, Golde took out seven new lines of business and personal credit at six different banks. 

"I was carrying around $3,600 per month in minimum credit card payments in addition to my mortgage and regular monthly expenses," he writes. "I was scared."

He was also out of work. The Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild were both in the thick of wage strikes at the time and the job market in film had tanked. Within six months, his savings would be depleted. 

It was such a sudden and drastic lifestyle change that Golde says it was all he could do not to succumb to depression.

"In addition to my sense of failure, I was self-judgmental," he writes. "How could I be 40 years old and looking at bankruptcy?" 

$220,000 in debt, Golde had two options: filing bankruptcy or fighting off the lenders himself

His personal life in tatters––Golde blames his financial funk on the demise of his love life at the time––he took his family and friends' advice to meet with a bankruptcy attorney.

"I call it a context change," he writes. "I changed my context from depressed and emotional to 'This is the mountain I'm on and I'm going to ski it as best I can.'"

He was ready to file bankruptcy, but the attorney had another idea: debt settlement. As Golde learned, banks were willing to settle debts for a fraction of their total value if consumers are unable to make payments.That's because it's more lucrative to them than selling the account off to debt collectors, which pay as little as 5 percent of the balance. 

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This week NASA's space shuttle Endeavour will leave Kennedy Space Center in Florida and be flown to its new permanent home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on the back of a specially modified Boeing 747, known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).

Since Endeavour is the final orbiter of NASA's fleet to be relocated and put on public display following the space shuttle program's end in 2011, this will also be the SCA's final flight.

National Geographic's Jon Brack shot incredible panoramic views of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft's cockpit and fuselage before it's put out of service forever.

Check out our slideshow version. Then go play with the 360 degree interactive versions at GigaPan.

NASA has two modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircrafts that it used to ferry space shuttle orbiters from landing sites back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Boeing 747-100, or NASA 905, was the first SCA purchased by NASA in 1974. Before its role at NASA, the plane was a commercial jet owned by American Airlines.

Following retirement of the space shuttle program, NASA 905A has been busy transporting space shuttles to the cities of their final display sites.

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VLC Media Player is a free, open-source application that does one thing very well: It plays nearly any media file you can imagine.

Initially released in 2001, the app has been continually developed and improved ever since. It's now indispensable for people who watch videos and listen to audio on their computers. That's pretty much everyone.

If you're not already using it, download it here and see what you've been missing.

It works on all kinds of platforms

VLC is compatible with Windows, OS X, Linux, and even a discontinued operating system called BeOS. Pretty much no matter what hardware you use, you'll be able to run this powerful app.

It plays nearly any media file you throw at it

This is VLC's killer feature – it's nearly bulletproof when it comes to playing weird or obscure media formats. QuickTime and Windows Media Player are anemic weaklings by comparison.

Transcoding

Not only can the app make sense of all these disparate file formats, it can export them as newer, more compatible versions with its built-in transcoding tool.

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Apple revealed last week that it has more than 700,000 apps in its App Store. Google isn't far behind with 650,000 in the Google Play store.

With this huge amount of apps, it's easy for some to get lost in the mix. There are 400,000 iPhone apps, for example, which have never been downloaded. Not even once.

Between the hits and the duds are solid apps which make your day better. We're highlighting a dozen that we think are amazing, but don't get enough recognition.

Check these out and play around with them. You might discover a new favorite.

Gliph: Safe, private messaging across platforms

Gliph allows you to send private messages to anyone you choose.

Besides private messaging, Gliph also takes advantage of cloaked email. This means you can protect your privacy when responding to an email on Craigslist and other public sites.

Other features include encrypted texting and data storage, permanent two-way message deletion, and locking the app using a PIN.

Price: Free

Available on: Android and iOS

Facebook Messenger: Helps you connect with friends when you can't reach them by text or phone

Facebook Messenger used to seem redundant—isn't that what the Facebook app is for? But then we tried it out. It's a much easier way to contact your Facebook friends than the regular Facebook app.

Messenger makes it easy to quickly send a photo to a friend and know exactly who's seen your message and who hasn't.

It also supports group messaging and push notifications. It's very speedy and smooth. It's a great way to stay in touch with someone when you can't reach them via text or phone.

Price: Free

Available on: Android and iOS

Wolfram Alpha: An incredibly smart app in your pocket

Wolfram Alpha, the so-called "knowledge engine" that helps power Siri on the iPhone, also has its own smartphone app.

The Wolfram Alpha app essentially takes the entire Wolfram Alpha website and crams it into your iPhone, iPad or Android device, giving you intelligent answers to your questions on the go. 

Price: $1.99 (iOS) $3.99 (Android)

Available on: Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, Nook

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Richard Branson founded Virgin in 1970 at the age of 20, and he hasn’t looked back.

He’s the only entrepreneur to have built eight separate billion-dollar companies in eight different industries — and he did it all without a degree in business.

"Had I pursued my education long enough to learn all the conventional dos and don'ts of starting a business I often wonder how different my life and career might have been," he writes in his new book, Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School. 

We’ve compiled some of the best tips from his book here.

Don't do it if you don't enjoy it.

Running a business takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and caffeine). But at the end of the day, you should be building something you will be proud of.

Branson says, "When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn't set out to build a business empire ... For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that's going to make a real difference to other people's lives."

Source: "Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School."

Be visible.

Branson received some timeless advice when building Virgin Airlines from Sir Freddie Laker, a British airline “tycoon.”

“Make sure you appear on the front page and not the back pages,” said Laker. “You are going to have to get out there and sell yourself. Make a fool of yourself, whatever it takes. Otherwise you won’t survive”.

Branson always makes a point of traveling often and meeting as many people as he can. This, he says, is how he came by some of the best suggestions and ideas for his business.

Source: "Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School."

Choose your name wisely.

The unique name and brand that Virgin employs is one of the things that has made the company a success. Branson makes sure that the name ‘Virgin’ represents added value, improved service, and a fresh, sexy approach.

Branson says that he is asked all the time about the origin of the Virgin name, back when Virgin was just starting. "One night, I was chatting with a group of sixteen-year-old girls over a few drinks about a name for the record store," he says. "A bunch of ideas were bounced around, then, as we were all new to business, someone suggested Virgin. It smacked of new and fresh and at the time the word was still slightly risqué, so, thinking it would be an attention-grabber, we went with it."

Source: "Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School."

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According to a new report from the Commerce Department, exports from America's metropolitan areas increased by 16 percent from 2010 to total $1.31 trillion in 2011.

206 of the 367 metropolitan areas with available data saw record-high merchandise exports in 2011.

And cities that have recently been devastated by  hurricanes are leading the way.

We put together a list of 12 metros that saw the biggest increases in 2011.  We also included their top exports and the top destination for those goods.

Providence, Rhode Island

2010-2011 growth: 23.2 percent

Top sector: Manufactured metal products ($2.7 bn; 38.5 percent share of total exports)

Top destination: United Kingdom

Source: Trade.gov

New York, New York

2010-2011 growth: 23.5 percent

Top sector: Miscellaneous manufactured commodities ($20.5 billion; 19.5 percent share of total exports)

Top destination: Canada

Source: Trade.gov

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

2010-2011 growth: 24.7 percent

Top sector: Mining ($6.1 billion; 40.1 percent share of total exports)

Top destination: Canada

Source: Trade.gov

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One of the most striking characteristics of the 2012 election is the role that a small number of relatively unknown megadonors, via new Super PAC groups, are playing in determining the outcome of the presidential, Senate, and House races.

These organizations — funded by an exclusive group of entrepreneurs, industrialists, and heiresses — have thrown the Moneyball of elections out the window. Super PACs are unaffiliated with any candidate and may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in federal elections. The only caveat is that they cannot under any circumstances (wink, nudge, et al.) coordinate with a campaign.

We looked through the Center for Responsive Politics' database to find the heaviest hitters, and figure out which candidates they support. 

American Crossroads will make the single largest dent for Republicans this year

American Crossroads, the brainchild of George W. Bush's strategy guru Karl Rove, is probably the biggest threat Democrats this year. The Super PAC has spent $18.6 million already, and has more cash on hand for this election than almost any other Super PAC out there, with $29.5 million ready to go before November 6th.  

They've hit Barack Obama with $15.9 million worth of negative advertising. Other targets include Democrat Tim Kaine, running for Senate in Virginia, Republican Jack Davis, who ran in a complicated election in New York's 26th District, and Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley who is running for Senate in Nevada. 

Top donors to American Crossroads include:

• $13 million from Harold Simmons, the inventor of the leveraged buyout.
• $4.5 million form Bob Perry, Republican mega donor and owner of Perry Homes.
• $2 million from Jerry Perenchio, the billionaire former CEO of Univision.
• $1.25 million from Joe Craft, a Kentucky businessman who obviously authored his own wikipedia entry. 

Restore Our Future is Romney's powerhouse Super PAC

Restore Our Future has spent a whopping $82 million to support Mitt Romney's presidential campaign this cycle, and played a crucial role in helping Romney take out his primary rivals. 

Here's the breakdown of the group's spending so far: 

• $18.7 million against Newt Gingrich
• $21.3 million against Rick Santorum
• $28.5 million against Barack Obama
• $14 million in support of Mitt Romney

Significantly, Restore Our Future has $20.5 million in the bank at this point. Expect every dime to be spent against Obama. 

Here are the biggest donors to the PAC:

• $10 million from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, the Casino magnate and his wife. 
• $7 million from Bob Perry, the Texas Real Estate developer behind Perry Homes
• $1 million each from:
• Oxbow Carbon LLC, owned by the Koch Brothers
• John W. Childs, the buyout investor
• Huron Carbon LLC, owned by the Koch Brothers
• John Kleinheinz, a hedge fund manager
• The Renco Group, a holding group controlled by Ira Rennert
• Paul Singer of Elliot Management Corp, a hedge fund
• Robert Mercer of Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund
• Julian Robertson of Tiger Management, a hedge fund
• Edward Conard, a former Managing Director at Bain Capital
• ELI Publishing, which is somewhat unknown
• F8 LLC, which is likewise unknown
• John Paulson of Paulson & Co

Priorities USA Action is Obama's mediocre Super PAC

The only major pro-Obama Super PAC, Priorities USA Action has taken the lead in attacking the Romney campaign. The only expenditures Priorities USA Action has made are $27.1 million against the Republican presidential candidate, and the organization hasn't spent anything to promote Obama. 

Here are the donors who have given more than $1 million to the PAC

• $2 million from Irwin Mark Jacobs, the co-founder of Qualcomm
• $2 million from Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Dreamworks Animation
• $1.5 million from Jon Stryker, the billionaire heir to the medical supply Stryker Corporation
• $1.5 million from Fred Eychaner, the founder of Newsweb and an LGBT donor
• $1 million each from the following donors:
• Mel Heifetz, an LGBT activist and entrepreneur
• Morgan Freeman, the actor
• The National Air Traffic Controllers Association
• Kareem Ahmed, CEO of Landmark Medical Management
• The Service Employee International Union Committee on Political Education
• Steve Mostyn, a Houston Lawyer
• Franklin Haney, owner of the Franklin L. Haney Company, a real estate group
• Barbara Stiefel, a Democratic fundraiser
• Bill Maher, comedian
• Amy Goldman, a gardener and real estate heiress

Despite these big-dollar donations, however, Priorities USA Action only has $4.2 million in the bank. 

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The best food trucks in New York rolled onto Governor's Island this weekend where local foodies and attendees voted on the 2012 Vendy Awards.

The event, organized by the Street Vendor Project (SVP), drew nearly 10,000 attendees at $100 a ticket. SVP holds similar events in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Attendees enjoyed unlimited food ranging from wine slushies, braised pork shoulder sandwiches, red velvet ice cream sandwiches, Filipino inspired spring rolls, beer from Brooklyn Brewery, and more.

Awards were given in five categories, ranging from Best Dessert, Best Market Vendor, Rookie of the Year, People's Taste Award and the ultimate Vendy Cup. 

The 2012 Vendy Awards were held from noon to 5 PM on Governor's Island.

On hand were some of the best of New York City's more than 20,000 food trucks.

Attendees gorged themselves on all-you-cat eat samples

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Thankfully, many of the food trends I feared at the beginning of 2012 have not come to pass.

However, even in eight months, there have been some very noticeable developments in both the food we are served in restaurants and the way we cook at home.

Some of them are welcome and some less far less so, but it won’t be long before everyone is jumping aboard the latest food fads of 2012.

Doing Things To Bacon That Should Never Be Done To Bacon

It would appear that the fact that bacon is proof that God exists and that he is a good god is not enough for some people. Now it is being candied, put into cocktails, covered in chocolate and used to top ice cream.

While some of these ideas might have merit, most are an abomination against an ingredient that is perfectly fine just as it is, thank you very much. I suspect that the next time I go into a restaurant and someone just serves me fried bacon, I may hug them so hard they’ll pass out.

No-Substitution Menus

During a recent visit to an L.A. hot spot for lunch, the server pointed forcefully at the menu’s small print, which read, “All requests for substitutions or modifications will be politely declined.”

I live in L.A., so trust me when I say that I know just how high maintenance some diners can be. Being asked to totally rework a dish to fit in with someone’s latest diet fad is both impractical and irritating.

That said, the recent trend of restaurants denying diners the right to modify their dishes in any way indicates that too many chefs and owners are now viewing customers as a nuisance and have forgotten the very notion of hospitality itself. Hopefully 2013 will bring back some balance to the diner-restaurateur power struggle.

Sustainable Supply

Now that the words “seasonal” and “local” have been used so much they have lost almost all meaning, it’s time for “sustainability” to take a bow. Restaurants are clamoring to tell the world how little carbon they emit into the atmosphere. They recycle as a matter of course, create urban rooftop gardens from which to harvest produce  and even have guidelines to make sure there is a consistent standard.

All of this is laudable enough and should be encouraged as long as they don’t forget that, above all that, they need to be serving good food in a hospitable atmosphere.

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Reese Witherspoon has listed her $10 million Ojai, California home, just weeks after it appeared on the cover of Elle Decor.

Witherspoon purchased the home in 2008 from designer Kathryn Ireland, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Witherspoon is asking $4.2 million more than what she paid for it. 

The home has nine bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

Welcome to Libbey Ranch. The home was built in 1923.

The home is Mediterranean-style, designed by the famed Wallace Neff.

Actor/director Harold Ramis of "Ghostbusters" owned the home before Ireland and Witherspoon, respectively.

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The ILA Berlin Air Show, which wrapped up yesterday, featured 1,243 exhibitors from 46 countries.

On display was the newest aviation technology, from high-speed helicopters, huge passenger jets, to the unmanned drones that will play a major role in future military engagements.

But for the 125,000 visitors, the real highlights were the test flights of brand new aircraft and spectacular demonstrations by some of the world's best pilots.

The air show's opening marked the first event held at the newly built Berlin ExpoCenter Airport.

Europe's most powerful woman, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, officially opened the air show.

Test pilot Herve Jammayrac and test engineer Dominique Fournier flew the Eurocopter X3, a high-speed helicopter concept with no tail rotor.

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Tensions between Iran and the rest of the civilized world are progressing as steadily as Iran's own controversial nuclear program. In response to any military threat, Iranian diplomats say they'll mine the Strait of Hormuz—a bottle-necked waterway upon which the world's oil trade depends.

Seems like the perfect time for a 30-nation, U.S. led mine clearing exercise in the water off the coast of Bahrain.

The 12th International Mine Countermeasures Exercise, which kicked off Sept. 17, features some of the Coalition Force's cutting edge mine interdiction technology. According to an official statement of the U.S. Navy, the exercise "focuses on interoperability among navies and also among the triad of air, ship and undersea platforms that deliver full-spectrum mine countermeasures capability."

Business Insider's own Robert Johnson just touched down to cover the two-week long exercise, so expect exclusive coverage as the training progresses.

First of all, the U.S. has lots of friends: Here we see the British Victoria refueling the USS Porter. A total of 30 nations are joining this naval exercise.

The Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB) is quick to deploy and quick to recover. But the strength isn't in the speed, it's in the personnel it carries.

Upward of a half dozen of the Navy's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) sailors can shoot off the deck of U.S. Naval ships to interdict mine activity.

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As stocks sit near new multi-year highs, many investors regret ever heeding the warnings of the skeptics, bears, and outright doomsayers.

Nevertheless, Wall Street's most well-known naysayers continue to warn that we are only increasingly exposing ourselves to risks as the U.S. national debt passes $16 trillion and the Federal Reserve's unconventional monetary policy takes us into uncharted waters.

We compiled a list of the most notorious bears who relentlessly pound the table with their warnings as the markets continue to soar.

One characteristic that seems universal among the bears is their use of colorful language.

RICHARD RUSSELL: Something Evil And Bearish Is Bubbling In The Guts Of This Market

Title: Author of the Dow Theory Letters

Notable call: Back in May, Russell warned that Dow Theory – a popular stock market technical indicator – was confirming a "primary bear market signal."  Russell favors hard assets like gold and collectibles.  And he has stood by the his calls even as risk assets continue to rally.  Recently, he warned "Something evil and bearish is bubbling in the guts of this market."

Read more about Russell here >

FELIX ZULAUF: We Will Probably See 1,000 In The S&P Again

Title: Manager, Zulauf Asset Management

Notable call: Like many, Zulauf is concerned about the impact of easy monetary policy around the world and that all of it will lead to the end of fiat money.  In a recent interview, he warned that the Government bond bull market was over and that the S&P 500 would see 1,000 within the next two years.

Read more about Zulauf here >

ALBERT EDWARDS: The Vice-Like Grip Of The Bear Will Soon Squeeze The Hope From Their Gasping, Broken Bodies

Title: Strategist, Societe Generale

Notable call: Edwards thinks that the U.S. is already in recession and that China is heading for a hard landing.  He recently told a French newspaper that the S&P 500 could reach its lowest level seen in March 2009: 666.

Read more about Edwards here >

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People usually don't have high expectations from fast food restaurants. Hot and delicious will do. 

But some chain restaurant foods are bad enough for employees to warn you to stay away. 

A recent Reddit thread explored the worst ordering decisions at restaurants including McDonald's, Subway and KFC. 

Some of the foods are very high-calorie, while others are made under allegedly unsanitary conditions. 

Employees also gave tips on which foods are fresh and which aren't. 

Their opinions might sway your next fast food order.

"Seafood salad" at Subway.

"By seafood they meant imitation crab and the rest was just mayo, a lot of mayo. The killer was when people got extra mayo on their mayo and fake crab sandwich."

Source: Reddit

Wendy's chili.

"The meat comes from hamburger patties that sat on the grill too long to serve to customers. They take them and put them in a bin and then throw them in the fridge. When the chili is made they take it out, boil it, chop it up, and dump them in the chili. It's all safe, but a lot of people seemed upset when I told them about it."

Source: Reddit

Arby's Roast Beef

"I can't eat the roast beef after working at Arby's. If you touch it while it's raw you'll never get it off your fingers." 

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