Politics is notoriously brutal, filled with wildly ambitious characters jockeying for influence in a competitive world, where money goes a long way and nobody is safe. 

Incidentally, that summarizes most of the plot of the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, based on a series of popular novels by George R.R. Martin. 

Just like in Washington, competing factions loaded with cash are fighting for their political survival, with all eyes on the top prize. 

Here, we dissect some of the best political lessons from the land of Westeros. 

Note: This slideshow contains spoilers for seasons 1 and 2 only. 

1. Debt-based financing is very risky.

At the start of the show, King Robert Baratheon has run the crown into a vast amount of debt to the richest man in Westeros, Lord Tywin Lannister.

As a result, Baratheon's obligations to the Lannister family make effective management of the seven kingdoms difficult. He's married to a Lannister, protected by Lannisters, advised by Lannisters and eventually killed by particularly ambitious Lannisters. 

The main takeaway from this? Owing a debt to one group — whether it's sovereign debt holders, lobbyists, interest groups or campaign donors — risks both your occupation and ability to govern. 

2. A devoted field operation is crucial for political success.

In one of the final episodes of season two, Tyrion Lannister returns from being held captive to learn that his father Tywin has started a war with the Starks. 

Normally, Tyrion would have been disregarded and removed from the family business, but he returned with a hoard of hill people eager to kill in exchange for superior equipment. 

The main takeaway? One of the best assets for a politician is a wildly energetic base of support — be they Rep. Ron Paul's libertarians, President Obama's Organizing for America, or the crowd of people waiting for the word to run Hilliary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

3. Never trust political consultants.

In season one, Ned Stark is brought to the capitol city of Kings Landing to serve as the Hand of the King. 

Ned quickly placed his trust in Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, the well-connected Master of Coin. This went very badly for Ned, as Baelish was more concerned with his own financial and political stability than advancing Stark's career.

Eventually, Baelish assisted the rival Lannister faction in arresting and eventually killing Stark. 

The situation could hold a lesson for the Republican Party. In the wake of the 2012 election, many conservatives have claimed that the party trusted political consultants too much during the course of the election, and contributed to the GOP's losses. 

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The '80s brought us mullets, crimped looks, and heavy loads of hairspray. 

The bigger the better.

While we may wish to forget some of the do's, some pulled off hair-raising styles. 

Next week, National Geographic is airing a three-night special: "The '80s: The Decade That Made Us."

Narrated by Rob Lowe, the event will take a look back at the political, cultural, and technological moments that defined the generation.

Prepare to relive the rise of Calvin Klein jeans by Brooke Shields, Pac-Man, the Walkman, Jane Fonda's workout videos, and, of course, the hairstyles.

We've compiled some of the best and worst looks of the decade. 

Rewind back to the '80s and see how the stars wore their locks.

Sarah Jessica Parker may wear her long locks with a natural wave now ...

... she showed off a very curly crop in 1985's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

Cyndi Lauper's hair may be short and wavy now ...

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For years, Americans have complained about their jobs being moved overseas where manufacturing costs have been much lower.

But with labor costs now rising overseas and energy costs falling in America, there is now excitement that an American manufacturing renaissance is at hand.

Unfortunately, there is no good evidence to suggest this is happening.  In fact, some data suggest the opposite is happening.

"Evidence for a structural renaissance is scant so far," writes Goldman Sachs' Jan Hatzius.

And even if we could bring manufacturing back, is that what we really want?  When manufacturing comes back, so does pollution. 

Furthermore, the idea of reindustrialization represents the end of a mega-bullish secular trend for earnings.

The idea of an American manufacturing renaissance is a nice one.  But the charts we looked at suggests its actually a combination of fiction and misfortune.

US exports should be growing as a share of global exports if there were a manufacturing renaissance. This is not happening.

"The picture shows that US exporters have only tended to gain share following significant dollar depreciations. There has been no discernible change in this relationship in recent years. If anything, US export performance has tended to fall short of what one would have expected based on currency movements."

Source: Goldman Sachs

US and euro area exports are moving together closely, suggesting no change in competitive advantage.

"...U.S. export performance looks only middling even if we restrict our attention to European trading partners. Exhibit 6 compares real export growth for the U.S. and the Euro area, stripping out intra-Euro area trade in order to avoid contamination by the weakness in Euro area domestic demand. The two series continue to track one another closely, suggesting that both are driven by the global trade cycle as opposed to structural changes on one side of the Atlantic or another."

Source: Goldman Sachs

US manufacturing job growth has decelerated sharply, and it's actually growing much more slowly than the rest of the labor market.

Source: BLS, Marketwatch

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Michigan and Louisville won their final four games on Saturday night setting up a Big Ten versus Big East championship matchup.

But before we get to tonight's game, let's take a look back at the scene in Atlanta both on and off the court.

From Kevin Ware to Floyd Mayweather, and fans going crazy, it was a wild Saturday night in college basketball.

The NCAA tournament is celebrating 75 years

Kevin Ware's presence was the big story of the Final Four

The Final Four is one ticket for both games which makes for an interesting crowd makeup. This was the view of game one. Many of these seats would be empty for game two.

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It's been a year and a half since Apple launched its online storage system, iCloud, to the public.

More recently people have been talking about the storage system's shortcomings, calling it "broken."

Every user with an Apple ID gets 5 GB of storage for free to back up apps and settings from their iPhone, iPad, or iPod. The service also syncs your photos, documents, and email with your Mac and mobile devices. 

The idea behind iCloud is to be able to access all your stuff no matter what Apple device you're using. 

But while iCloud is baked into all Apple products, it can be a bit confusing to use and get the most out of it. Here are some great tips to make sure you're getting the most out of Apple's cloud service.

The first thing you should do is set up two-step verification

Apple's two-step verification process adds an extra layer of security to your iCloud account. It requires you to enter a second unique password every time you log in. It's easy to set up:

1. Head to appleid.apple.com and sign in with the same email address and password you use to download apps.
2. Next, head to the Password & Security section in the bottom left corner.
3. The first option is for two-step verification, click the blue "Get Started" button to begin.

Apple makes you wait approximately three days before you can enable two-step verification.

Make sure iCloud is activated on all of your devices. Here's how to activate it on Mac.

1. Head to System Preferences and select iCloud
2. Sign in with your AppleID and password
3. Check all of the items you would like to sync: photos, contacts, email, etc.

Here's how to activate iCloud on your mobile device (iPhone/iPad/iPod)

1. Tap Settings.
2. Navigate to the iCloud menu and switch it on.
3. Choose what you would like to be saved in the cloud.

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Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died this morning at the age of 87. 

She spent more than a decade ruling Britain, leaving an indelible legacy and shattering the glass ceiling as the country's first female Prime Minister. 

One does not get the nickname "The Iron Lady" for no reason. Thatcher — in her life, actions, and decisions — was a once-in-a-generation kind of badass. 

Then-Conservative Party Leader Margaret Thatcher chats with a gun-toting four-year-old in 1976.

Thatcher meets with members of the British Rhine Army in 1976.

She also rode in a self-propelled howitzer — the FV433 Abbot.

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Moviegoers will be inundated with summer movies beginning next month.  

Which ones will rise to the occasion at the box office, and which ones should distributors be worried over?

Fandango surveyed more than 4,000 moviegoers to find out the five most anticipated movies of the summer.  

You may be surprised by what's left off the list. 

5. May 24: "The Hangover III" (Warner Bros.)

4. May 24: "Fast and the Furious 6" (Universal)

3. May 10: "The Great Gatsby" (Warner Bros.)

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With the Masters happening this week, we're pretty sure some of the TVs on Wall Street will be changing channels to catch the prestigious golf tournament.

Golf is one of the favorite hobbies of the Wall Street crowd.

We recently did a ranking of golf handicaps from some of the biggest names on Wall Street.

Now we have compiled a list of some of the courses where these heavy hitters have played. 

Blind Brook

Wall Streeters Who Have Played There: Lloyd Blankfein, James Gorman, Stanley Druckenmiller, Jimmy Lee and Jimmy Dunne III.

Location: Purchase, New York

About: It's a private, members-only golf club that was established in 1915. The course features 18 holes, 6,385 yards and a par of 72.

Course Designer(s): Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor

Source: GolfLink.com, Source: GHIN.com, Source: Golf Slope

Sebonack Golf Club

Wall Streeters Who Have Played There: Lloyd Blankfein, Feroz Dewan (Tiger Global), Daniel Och, Henry Kravis, Jimmy Dunne III (Sandler O'Neill) and Bob Prince (Bridgewater Associates). 

Location: Southampton, New York

About: The gorgeous 300 acre course, which opened in 2006, is located right on the water in Southampton.  It's close to neighboring golf courses, Shinnecock Hills and National Links. According to a 2006 Bloomberg News article, membership just to golf at Sebonack costs $500,000. The course features holes, 7,286 yards and a par of 72.

Course Designer(s): Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak

Source: GolfLink.com, Source: GHIN

Shinnecock Hills Golf Course

Wall Streeters Who Have Played There: George Herbert Walker IV (Neuberger Berman), Henry Kravis (KKR), Stan Druckenmiller (Duquesne), Eric Gleacher, Jimmy Dunne III and Chase Coleman. 

Location: Southampton, New York

About: The course features 18 holes, 6,996 yards and a par of 70. Shinnecock is scheduled to host the 2018 U.S. open.

Course Designer: William Flynn

Source: GHIN

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HTC's new flagship phone, the One, is easily the most beautiful Android phone we've ever used. It even rivals the iPhone 5's design. 

You can read our full review of the HTC One here, and check out gorgeous photos of the phone in the gallery below.

Here's the HTC One. It's big and beautiful. It has a 4.7-inch display that can show full HD video.

It has what HTC calls an Ultrapixel camera, which is really just a fancy way to say it takes great photos in low light.

It has shiny edges just like the iPhone 5.

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The 48th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards took place Sunday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Taylor Swift was there solo while country golden couple Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert have a few more statues to add to their collection.

From Sheryl Crow and Kelly Clarkson to Dog the Bounty Hunter, see the crazy looks country's finest wore on the Vegas strip.

Welcome to Nash Vegas.

Carrie Underwood arrived on the ACM carpet in a sweet floral gown

But changed into an all black ensemble for her performance during the show.

Sheryl Crow chose a Zac Posen navy bustier jumpsuit for the red carpet.

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Regardless of your feelings about Tiger Woods, it's undeniable that he's one of the hardest-working athletes in the sport.

His marathon practices, frosty relationships, and blunt quotes about why he plays golf have given him a reputation as golf's most fierce competitor.

We pulled out 16 anecdotes that show just how intense Tiger is.

He played with a broken leg and torn ACL at the 2008 US Open and won.

Source: ESPN

He changed his swing in 2002 after winning eight majors because it wasn't perfect enough.

Source: Time

He practices before and after competitive rounds: He was spotted playing in the dark at the 2011 PGA Championship.

Source: Nike Golf

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For some, the biggest attraction at Disney theme parks is meeting the real-life princesses.

Known as "face characters," the princesses not only have to look the part, but they need to know quotes from their movies, stay in character at all times, and know how to sing and dance.

Reddit user doublenn held an AMA a year ago about her time as Snow White at Disneyland — she even posted a picture to prove it — and broke down what it's really like to work at the park as a princess.

NOTE: Answers have been edited for grammar and punctuation. While the woman's identity was verified by Reddit moderators, it can't be verified by Business Insider.

What's the audition process like?

Audition process is LONG. The first is a 'type out' where they look to see if you have similar features, second is usually a dance, then a 'read' to have you act as the character, and an interview.

What are the specific look requirements?

Tink has a specified height requirement, as do all the other princesses. Princesses are usually 5'4''-5'7'', Fairies and Alice or Wendy are all 4'11''-5'2''.

What's the average age range for "face characters"?

Most girls are between 18 and 23, and a few of the girls who have been there awhile are 25-27. Rarely is a girl over 27 who does princesses or fairies.

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A seventh person died in on Sunday from a new strain of deadly bird flu, the H7N9 virus, that has infected at least 24 people in eastern China.

That means about thirty percent of those with severe infections die, which is relatively high, Yanzhong Huang, director of global health studies at Seton Hall University, told Bloomberg News on Monday.  

See China's response to the new bird flu strain >

The strain currently only spreads from bird to human.

The key worry now is that H7N9 could mutate and begin spreading from human to human, though no cases have been reported yet.  

There's is a concern, however, that milder cases of bird flu have been going undetected.

Laurie Garrett, senior editor for the Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out on Twitter that even patients who are seriously ill test "weakly positive." That means people could have the virus, but not know it until they begin showing violent flu-like symptoms. By then, it can be too late.

Additionally, China expert Victor Shih also said that patients are deterred from getting treated because of the outrageous hospital fees.

The world first became aware of the new bird flu strain, previously unknown in humans, when the Chinese government announced at the end of March that two people had died after being infected with the H7N9 virus.

The first victims included an 87-year-old man in Shanghai, who died on March 4, and a 27-year-old man who died on March 10.

A 35-year-old woman in the eastern province of Anhui also became ill on March 9.

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There was a ton of hype over Ron Johnson taking on the CEO job at JCPenney a year and a half ago.

Recruited by hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, Johnson bet his turnaround on making JCPenney look more like Apple, using a genius bar concept to influence how the new JC Penney stores will look.

But as JCPenney sales declined and feedback from customers and employees was relentlessly negative, Johnson ran out of time.

We attended Johnson's big presentation in January 2012, when he officially kicked off his turnaround strategy. He told a packed house that, "We can change a brand overnight. And we're going to do that starting 2.1.12."

Walking into the event reminded us of walking into an Apple store

A view of the stage before the presentation — which felt inspired by an Apple keynote event

The scene also felt somewhat like New York Fashion Week. We sat in front of a JC Penney designer, left, and two women who work in merchandising for Liz Claiborne

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JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson is out of the company, according to CNBC, after just 17 months on the job.

His Q4 2012 was probably the worst quarterly performance ever in the history of major retail: same-store sales were down 32 percent, to $3.8 billion.

By late February, the stock was down 46 percent on the year. It jumped more than 10 percent today on the news of Johnson's departure.

There are rumors of impending mass layoffs at the chain. (And with a sales decline like that, how could there not be layoffs?)

Johnson, the former retail boss at Apple, only became CEO of the department store chain in November 2011. But this week we learned retail insiders were taking bets on when he would leave, and private equity groups were plotting takeover strategies.

Here's how it got so bad, so fast.

Johnson inherits a company that didn't notice a looming cotton crisis.

The company did well in 2010 (increasing profit 36 percent over the year prior). But the cotton market wreaked havoc on the clothing industry in 2011. Flooding and other shortages caused cotton prices to hit an all-time high. Rather than staying conservative with expectations, J.C. Penny raised its earnings expectations at the beginning of the year, as if cotton prices weren't an issue.

Nonetheless, by the end of Q4 2011, sales at JCP were still at $5.4 billion.

November 2011: Ron Johnson arrives and is warmly welcomed.

Then, JCPenney announced Ron Johnson, the man at the helm of Apple retail through the company's epic rise, would be taking over as CEO in November. Stock surged on the announcement and speculation was rampant about what the former Apple guru would bring to JCP. Johnson was formerly a vice president at Target and was lauded for his retail genius.

The stock hit a high of $42.68 in February of 2012.

At the end of 2011, JCP fired its longtime ad agency.

Ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi and JCPenney "mutually decided" to part ways after five years in December of last year. It came only a few weeks after PMK-BNC was brought into replace M Booth & Associates, the company's PR agency for the last six years.

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Radio personality Casey Kasem — former host of the American Top 40 for almost four decades — has listed his Holmby Hills mansion for $42 million, according to the Redfin Blog.

The 1954 estate is 12,000 square feet and includes seven bedrooms, a library, and 11.5 bathrooms decorated with antiques and European-style art.

The property itself is also a massive 2.5 acres with a tennis court and heart-shaped pool.

According to Redfin, Kasem bought the home in 1989 for $1.725 million. So even if he doesn't get the asking price he's looking for, there's bound to be a substantial profit from the sale.

Welcome to Casey Kasem's $42 million Holmby Hills mansion.

The home is 12,000 square feet, and sits on this gorgeous LA property.

The inside, however, is a little wacky.

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We're defining an app as a "sleeper hit" if it's both widely used and not especially talked about.

These are the games and utilities that are often taken for granted. So let's shine a spotlight on them and give them the attention they deserve.

Clear

Everything you need in a to-do list app and nothing you don't. Clear makes it a snap to keep track of the tasks at hand, letting you swipe over completed tasks to register them as complete.

Price:$1.99

Great Little War Game

Fans of hexagon-based war games will fall in love with this app. Take turns waging war against the computer or a friend. Build vehicles and win by defeating all of your opponent's units.

Price:$1.99

Gliph

Every now and then, you might need to send a message to someone securely. Gliph makes this an easy task, cloaking your email, texts, and even requiring a PIN to start the app up.

Your communications will definitely be safe here.

Price:free

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The news that Ron Johnson was out sent JC Penney's stock up nearly 11 percent. Then we found out that Mike Ullman would be his interim replacement hit, and the stock immediately plummeted. 

There's a reason for that. 

While Johnson erred on the side of changing too much too fast. Ullman is on the other, equally bad side of the spectrum. In his 6 years at JC Penney, he failed to make the changes the company desperately needed. 

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman explained his support for Johnson in a 2012 presentation. We've excerpted the parts that explain why Ullman failed.

Ullman's predecessor Allen Questrom helped turn JC Penney around after it nearly collapsed in 2001.

When Ullman took over in 2005, however, there were still fundamental problems.

Under his management, the stock fell.

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The average modern wedding costs more than an astronomical $28,500 — enough to put any couple in debt.

In 2003, Trae Bodge and her then-fiance, Chris, were determined to spend a more modest amount: $9,000 ($11,200 in today's dollars). 

But Bodge, then running a small cosmetics company, and her entrepreneur fiance still wanted an elaborate affair. They had envisioned a three-day event and had more than 100 guests on their list already. 

"We didn't have a lot of money and our parents didn't have a lot of money, so we knew we couldn't spend a lot," says Bodge, now senior retail expert for couponing site Retailmenot.com.

Through careful and creative planning, they were able to trim $18,000 from their budget and still have the wedding of their dreams.

All price estimates were sourced from TheKnot.com's annual Real Weddings Study.

THE ENGAGEMENT RING: $0

Average price: $5,431

Trae's engagement ring was actually her grandmother's wedding ring. 

"I think using a family ring to propose is something that’s really sweet and special," Trae said. "There’s no need to go out and spend $10,000 on a new ring. As a woman, maybe you’re wanting this big rock and maybe you’ve picked one out but ultimately you’re marrying that debt. Why would you want to do that?"

HIS RING: $5

Average cost: $150

Chris was thrilled when Trae showed him his wedding band –– a sterling silver ring she had made by hand in a jewelry-making class. 

"He was so excited to hve a ring I made myself that he totally didn't care that it cost probably all of $5," Trae said. "I wanted to make sure he was cool with that."

REHEARSAL DINNER: $500

Typical cost: $1,135

The couple invited half of their guests over for a barbeque and group breakfast the day before the wedding. 

All of the food and supplies were sourced from Costco. 

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Until March of this year, Scott Sassa was one of the most influential media executives in the U.S.

As president of entertainment and syndication at Hearst (it owns Cosmopolitan, among other titles), he cut deals with ESPN and Lifetime, and received a reported $6 million salary. He was a longtime friend of the Kardashian family.

Sassa's most recent success was "The Bible," a joint project with Survivor's Mark Burnett for The History Channel that got record ratings. He was the executive producer of the show, which was so popular that its audience rivaled that of AMC's The Walking Dead in size.

The two-hour conclusion of The Bible on Easter Sunday should have been Sassa's moment of triumph.

Instead, he found himself unemployed, spending time with his kids on vacation in Hawaii, wondering how he can salvage his career after the boyfriend of an escort sent Hearst's legal department copies of sexy text messages the woman and Sassa had exchanged.

A source sent copies of those texts to Business Insider, along with emails exchanged between the boyfriend and Hearst. The messages have circulated among several Hearst executives. The texts are sexually graphic, and discussed drugs. They are not safe to be read aloud at work.

But they aren't unusual.

Sexting is so common as to be mainstream, and it sometimes seems as if everybody does it. Samsung has even made a funny commercial about sex-texting. While sexting feels intimate and exciting to those exchanging the messages, what is often forgotten is that texts have only limited privacy protections. They can be copied and forwarded any number of ways. Sassa's texts, for instance, were not passed on by himself or the woman to any third party. Rather, they were discovered by her disgruntled boyfriend — a man who may also have been her "business manager"— who became annoyed at the relationship between the two.

This, then, is a cautionary tale about the lack of privacy in the digital age.

The texts do not show that Sassa ever met the woman, an escort going by the name "Kira" who worked for the Friends of Kari Ann web site in the Los Angeles area.

They are simply messages between two consenting adults, conducted in private. Neither Sassa nor the woman have been accused of any wrongdoing. They are both single. In many ways, the messages were none of Hearst's business — it wasn't even a workday when Sassa sent them.

When reached, Sassa told Business Insider, "I just want to put this behind me."

"Kira" did not return a message requesting comment. The boyfriend, who does business under the name Ben Free, declined to talk on the record, although he did confirm the messages were genuine, and that he had an extensive criminal record which includes a conviction for assault. Three other sources familiar with the messages also confirmed to BI that the messages were Sassa's.

Unsurprisingly, few people were willing to talk to us on the record about Sassa's fall.

But speaking privately, those who knew him describe a driven, intense executive who is a great father to his children. Some in the media business have expressed sympathy for him. After all, would anyone want the messages they've sent to lovers exposed to their employers? Expect Sassa, after a brief break, to come back to the business in a big way — we're told his phone is ringing off the hook with future offers.

"He was the smartest, most forward-thinking media executive I ever worked with," said one colleague. "He was taking Hearst into the 20th Century."

Hearst, however, is a conservative company. "Everybody on the top floor is married with a wife and 2.5 kids and a picket fence," a source says. Sassa was single.

Three female sources told us that they had nothing but respect for Sassa, that they felt the texts were an aberration and not reflective of his day-to-day dealings with women. They noted that the texts occurred on Christmas Day, when Sassa — who lives in New York — was stuck in a Los Angeles hotel room without his family. "Here's a guy who was displaced around the holidays, who was kind of lonely," one told us.

By mid-March, The New York Post reported that Sassa was the victim of an extortion plot involving the messages, and on March 13 he resigned his position. Hearst likely gave him a large severance package.

The following slides explain how it happened.

They contain texts that use highly pornographic language and references to illegal drugs. They will likely be offensive to many readers.

It's Christmas Day in 2012, and Sassa texts "Kira," to see if she will meet him. The name "Kari Ann" refers to Friends of Kari Ann, an escort service. Kira sends him a photo of herself. (A colleague of Sassa's tells us he was on his own for the holiday, and was probably feeling sad because of it. "This is not what he does on a regular basis," the source says.)

The photo is Kira's publicity shot from the web site.

Sassa tries to persuade Kira to meet him by promising her "Molly," a reference to an ecstacy-like drug called MDMA. He's willing to pay $1,000 for two hours of her time.

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