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Vodka martinis are okay, but gin martinis are the best.

That’s because each gin has its own distinct flavor, since different brands use different botanicals. This makes each gin martini much more interesting — and perfect for drinking on World Gin Day.

Below is the recipe for making a delicious dry martini (a dry martini has less vermouth, whereas a wet martini means more vermouth). If you’re celebrating at a bar, here’s how to expertly order the martini of your choice.

Want to learn how to make more classic cocktails? Click here.

SEE ALSO: 26 Vintage Cocktails We Should Bring Back

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In addition to the beautiful views, the luxury accommodations and the tasty cocktails, guests of Sir Richard Branson's extremely upscale, private island can enjoy, there is perhaps one aspect of the experience that tops it all – the food.

On a visit to Necker Island, we were treated to many delicious meals by the Michelin-trained culinary staff, but there was one that was especially impressive – the Necker Island sushi lunch.

We spoke to Head Chef Gareth Zachary about how it all comes together.

Produced by Kamelia Angelova & Robert Libetti. Originally pubslished in October 2012.

Music: "Quand je serai grand" by By Löhstana David

Disclosure: We were flown out to Necker Island, BVI by Virgin Limited Edition, which covered our travel and lodging expenses.

NOW WATCH: Here's What The Daily Calorie Intake Of 2,000 Calories Looks Like In Pizza Slices

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Everyone should know how to make a proper Old-Fashioned.

The bourbon cocktail, sweetened with muddled sugar and two dashes of bitters, is perfect for celebrating National Bourbon Day. It’s also one of the most classic, classy drinks you can order at a bar.

Plus, with only four ingredients (not including the garnish), it’s also very easy to make.

Want to learn how to make more classic cocktails? Click here.

SEE ALSO: 26 Vintage Cocktails We Should Bring Back

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In the past, we've posted some incredible views of Earth's most breathtaking natural features from the European Space Agency (ESA), which has been observing the Earth with satellites for decades.

It turns out that natural features aren't the only thing that the ESA has seen from space — they've turned their lenses on some of Earth's most iconic cities as well.

The ESA has launched some of the most advanced Earth-observation satellites ever, including the Envistat, which circled the Earth from 2002 until 2012.

Every week, the ESA releases a new image — plucked from the huge pool of Envistat and other satellite images — on their website.

This photo of Dubai, United Arab Emirates was taken in 2012. The blue mass at the center is the man-made Burj Khalifa "Lake." To its right is the Burj Khalifa tower, the tallest man-made structure in the world.

This image was taken by the French Pleiades satellite.

In this photo, this was taken by Envisat in 2005, you can see Manhattan nearly whited out by light pollution. It is the photo is colorized to show different terrains.

In this photo of the San Francisco Bay Area, you can see San Francisco on the peninsula in the center-left. The Golden Gate Bridge is just barely visible connecting the opening of the bay. The straight diagonal line running down the peninsula is the San Andreas Fault, responsible for the numerous earthquakes in the area.

This photo was taken by American satellite Landsat-7 in January. Landsat's goal is take cloud-free images of the Earth.

See the pricey NYC pads here >>

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Alice Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune and the 14th wealthiest person in the world, just purchased a $25 million condo in New York City, reports the New York Post.

The condo, which is located on the 30th and 31st floors of 515 Park Avenue, had been owned by late financier Christopher H. Browne. Browne's East Hamptons estate recently sold for $147 million, making it the most expensive home sale to date in the U.S.

Walton's new condo is wonderfully luxurious, with 52 oversized windows offering both city and park views. It boasts 6,286 square feet of space and many special features, including a large media room, a brightly-lit library, and a one bedroom guest apartment that could easily serve as two separate staff suites.

The condo offers sweeping views of the city and Central Park.

This massive corner living room features modern furnishings and a wood-burning fireplace.

You could cook a feast in this spacious state-of-the-art kitchen.

Click here to see all the amazing experiences >>

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In 2009, Donald Trump completed his first major tower in Chicago. The Chicago Tribune's Pulitzer Prize-winning architect Blair Kamin called it "dazzlingly luminous," and praised its public plaza as "vibrant."

Two years later, Kamin said the tower was the greatest example of how skyscraper architecture had triumphed over terror, since at 1,362 it is the tallest building built after the 9/11 attacks (as well as the tallest in the U.S. since the Willis/Sears Tower). 

But Donald Trump has never been one to leave well enough alone.

This month, he decided to literally stamp his name on the building, installing a giant "Trump" sign on its riverfront facade. Here's what it looks like while riding up the Chicago River:

What do you think of the new Trump sign in Chicago? Weigh in here: http://t.co/Awa8p5A0dFpic.twitter.com/oXFZppmJtf

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 13, 2014

You may have seen the view looking up the Chicago River looks like elsewhere. It's pretty great. Here's a "before" photo, showing pre-be-signed Trump Tower on the right:

So we're talking about a major alteration to a city that is highly protective of its architectural legacy. 

Thus, Chicago is rebelling. Kamin blasted the new addition earlier last week, and again on Saturday:

As brash as a cowboy's belt buckle, the freshly installed sign flaunts stainless steel letters that reach more than 20 feet high and stretch 141 feet across, or nearly half a football field. It's a self-disfiguring act that blights Trump's refined, 96-story hotel-condominium skyscraper — and threatens the riverfront's dignity and beauty.

 The building's architect himself, Adrian Smith, said the sign lacks taste, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mayor Rahm Emanuel also called it "tasteless", adding that it “scars the architecture, beauty and taste” of Smith's tower.

Of course, Trump is not sitting idly by. He immediately went ad hominem at Kamin, Tweeting that he was "the worst architectural critic in the business" (again, Kamin won a Pulitzer prize and recently finished a residency at Harvard). He also noted that for decades the Chicago Sun-Times' logo besmirched the riverfront just where Trump Tower stands today.

Kamin doesn't dispute this, and agreed that it was ugly. But two wrongs don't make a right, he said— "...as if the absence of the old bad sign rationalized the presence of the new bad sign."

Emanuel has not discussed what if anything can be done to get the sign removed, only that his administration is looking into rezoning the riverfront so prevent similar signs from springing up. 

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Pinterest launched Place Pins six months ago to help users discover new places and track their travels.

The company recently announced that since then, users have created 4 million Place Boards and uploaded over 1 billion Place pins into the system.

Now that summer is officially here, hopefully we'll all find time for a weekend trip or two.

Pinterest put together a list of the top tips, tricks, and hacks posted by Pinterest users to make sure your summer plans — whether you're traveling or just enjoying your home turf — are as seamless as possible. 

Check it out:

1. Use cleaned-out Tic-Tac boxes to store spices if you're going camping and want to be able to cook, so you don't have to waste space by bringing a bunch of half empty, hard-to-pack containers. 

2. Instead of lugging around a lopsided black trash bag to clean up your mess, bust out your collapsible laundry bin to use as a garbage bag holder. It's easier to carry out to a campsite or the beach, and it will help you keep your trash from spilling. 

3. Skip the bags of ice at your next outdoor soiree. Freeze a bunch of colorful water balloons for a more festive way to keep your drinks cold. 

4. If you hate the smell of bug spray, try keeping insects at bay by cutting a lemon in half and putting a bunch of cloves on top. 

5. Next time you want to make a fruit salad, simplify the process of removing the stems from strawberries by doing it with a straw.

6. Popsicles on a balmy day are great, but sticky hands are not.  Stop yourself from getting dripped on by using cupcake liners as popsicle drip catchers.

7. Always lather on sunscreen, but if you still end up getting a little burnt, keeping a tray of frozen aloe vera in your freezer can provide the sweetest relief. 

SEE ALSO:  We Were Blown Away By The Miracle Berry That Let Us Down Shots Of Vinegar

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Aniruddh Chaturvedi came from Mumbai to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn., where he is majoring in computer science. This past summer he interned at a tech company in Silicon Valley.

During two years in the U.S., Chaturvedi has been surprised by various aspects of society, as he explained last year in a post on Quora.

Chaturvedi offered his latest thoughts on America in an email to Business Insider.

The most surprising things about America:

• Nobody talks about grades here. 
• Everyone is highly private about their accomplishments and failures. Someone's performance in any field is their performance alone. This is different compared to India where people flaunt their riches and share their accomplishments with everybody else.
• The retail experience is nowhere near as fun/nice as it is in India. Because labor is cheap in India, there is always someone who will act as a "personal shopper" to assist you with holding your clothes, giving suggestions, etc. In America, on the other hand, even if you go to a Nordstrom or Bloomingdales, there is almost nobody to help you out while you're shopping. Shopping in America is more of a commodity / chore than it is a pleasurable activity 
• This may be biased/wrong because I was an intern, but at least in the tech world, nobody wants to put you under the bus for something that you didn't do correctly or didn't understand how to do. People will sit with you patiently till you get it. If you aren't able to finish something within the stipulated deadline, a person on your team would graciously offer to take it off your plate.
• The same applies to school. Before I came to the United States, I heard stories about how students at Johns Hopkins were so competitive with each other that they used to tear important pages from books in the library just so other students didn't have access to it. In reality, I experienced the complete opposite. Students were highly collaborative, formed study groups, and studied / did assignments till everyone in the group "got it". I think the reason for this is that the classes are / material is so hard that it makes sense to work collaboratively to the point that students learn from each other. 
• Strong ethics — everyone has a lot of integrity. If someone cannot submit their completed assignment in time, they will turn in the assignment incomplete rather than asking for answers at the last minute. People take pride in their hard work and usually do not cheat. This is different from students from India and China as well as back home in India, where everyone collaborates to the extent that it can be categorized as cheating.
• Rich people are thin/ well maintained, poor people are fat. This stems from the fact that cheap food is fatty, rich people don't eat cheap food — they tend to eat either home-cooked food which is expensive or eat at expensive / healthy places. Unfortunately, it is expensive to be healthy in America.
• Fat people are not respected much in society. Being fat often has the same connotations as being irresponsible towards your body. If you're thin (and tall, but not as much), people will respect you a lot more and treat you better. You will also receive better customer service if you're well maintained. This extends my previous point which mentioned that if you're thin, you're statistically likely to be rich. Reason why I know this is that I went down from being 210lbs to 148-150lbs. The way people started treating me when I was thin was generally way better than the way I was treated when I was fat. As a small example, the Starbucks baristas were much nicer to me and made me drinks with more care / love. 
• Girls are not very promiscuous, contrary to most Hollywood films
• Almost every single person in America has access to basic food, clothing, water and sanitation. I haven't been to states like Louisiana and cities like Detroit, but from what I can tell, nobody is scrambling for the basic necessities required for sustenance. 
• Dearth of African Americans in technical fields. This probably stems from the fact that they aren't given enough opportunity, broken families, etc. I'm pretty sure you can extend upon this if you'd like.
• It's expensive to have brick houses in America, contrary to India where brick houses are the norm
• Emphasis on physical fitness / being outdoorsy — this is more of a California thing but I noticed families going on biking trips, boat trips, hiking, camping, barbecuing, etc. Americans take pride in the natural beauty of their surroundings and tend to make the most of it
• Americans waste a lot of food. It is very easy to buy in bulk because it's so much cheaper and as a result a lot of wastage occurs. 
• Obsession with coffee — Starbucks, Dunkin' etc is crowded with office-goers and students every morning. I don't understand why they can't drink or make coffee before leaving for work. Such a waste of money! ($5/day * 5days / week * 52weeks/year)!
• Split families, not having married parents, etc is not seen differently than the contrary. 
• Support towards the LGBT community — it's fairly normal to be part of the LGBT community; it's not considered a mortal sin if you like someone in your own gender or if you aren't comfortable being male/female/etc. Proof of this is the LGBT Pride Day held in every city etc. 
• Smoking weed is seen the same as smoking cigarettes. 

And here are some more things he found surprising about America, excerpted from his post last summer on Quora :

The way that stores price their products makes no apparent economic sense, and is not linear at all.

For example, at a typical store: 
 - 1 can of coke : $1.00
 - 12 cans of coke : $3.00
 - 1 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar : $3.00
 - 12 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars : $7.00

The return policy on almost everything: None of my friends back in India believed me when I told them that you can literally buy anything, including food, and return it within ninety days for a full refund even if you don't have a specific reason for doing so (most stores actually have a "Buyer's Remorse" category under Reason for Return options while returning the product).

The pervasiveness of fast food and the sheer variety of products available: The typical supermarket has at least a hundred varieties of frozen pizza, 50 brands of trail mix, etc. I was just astounded by the different kinds of products available even at small gas station convenience stores. 

Soda being cheaper than bottled water: It makes no sense that carbonated and flavored water with HFCS are cheaper than regular water, but hey, that's just how it is.

The fact that there are full service rest stops with decent chain restaurants and big supermarkets every couple of miles on interstate highways 

Fruit and vegetable prices, as compared to fast food prices:

- Bag of grapes : $6.00
 - Box of strawberries : $5.00
 - 1 lb tomatoes : $3.00

 - McChicken : $1.00
 - [McDouble] : $1.00

Unlimited soda refills:

The first time (and one of the last times...) I visited McDonalds in 2007, the cashier gave me an empty cup when I ordered soda. The concept of virtually unlimited soda refills was alien to me, and I thought there was a catch to it, but apparently not. 

Slightly digressing, I've noticed that the typical fountain machine has a huge selection, including Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Hi-C, Powerade, Lemonade, Raspberry Lemonade (and/or their coca-cola counterparts)... The list goes on. This may not seem like much, but it is actually a lot more compared to the 3-4 options (coca-cola, sprite, fanta, limca) that most Indian soda fountain machines have. 

Serving Sizes: American serving sizes are HUGE! I've noticed that entree sizes are huge as well. I am by no means a small eater, but it usually takes me at least 1.5 meals to finish the entree. 

US Flag displayed everywhere: I was surprised to see that the US flag is displayed in schools, on rooftops of houses, etc. India has very strict rules governing the display and use of the national flag. Also, something that struck out to me was how it was completely normal to wear the US flag or a US flag-like pattern as a bikini. 

Over-commercialization of festivals: I'm not denying that festivals like Diwali and Eid aren't extremely commercialized in India, but America takes it to a whole new level.  Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc., and an almost year-round sale of Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc. items.

An almost-classless society: I've noticed that most Americans roughly have the same standard of living.  Everybody has access to ample food, everybody shops at the same supermarkets, malls, stores, etc. I've seen plumbers, construction workers and janitors driving their own sedans, which was quite difficult for me to digest at first since I came from a country where construction workers and plumbers lived hand to mouth. 

Also, (almost) all sections of society are roughly equal. You'll see service professionals owning iPhones, etc. as well. This may be wrong but part of it has to do with the fact that obtaining credit in this country is extremely easy. Anybody can buy anything, for the most part, except for something like a Maserati, obviously. As a result, most monetary possessions aren't really status symbols. I believe that the only status symbol in America is your job, and possibly your educational qualifications.

Chaturvedi ended his post with a link to a video of "America F--- Yeah" from the movie "Team America." 

SEE ALSO: 17 crazy things that only happen in India

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When most of us hear "gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free," or "vegan," we can practically taste the dollar signs.

But according to Lily Kunin, the voice behind the New York City-based food blog "Clean Food Dirty City" and its accompanying 34,000-follower strong Instagram, clean eating doesn't have to mean a clean wallet.

Kunin recommends bananas, carrots, broccoli, legumes, sweet potatoes, and kale for maximum nutrients at a low price point, and says that not every ingredient needs to be organic — focusing on the dirty dozen should be enough. "And while superfoods are great, you don't need to buy them," she explains. "Whole foods are superfoods in and of themselves!"

Here, Kunin offers up seven of her original, four-serving recipes that a healthy eater could put together for $10 or less, from arugula salad with roasted beets (pictured above) to lemon-chia almond cookies.

Banana Raspberry Baked Oatmeal

Prep time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

Rolled oats 
Unsweetened vanilla almond milk
Chia seeds 
Organic raspberries 
Banana 

Total price: $9.98

See the full recipe at Clean Food Dirty City.

Kiwi Breakfast Bowl

Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Banana
Kiwis
Spinach
Coconut water
Unsweetened coconut flakes 

Total price: $10

See the full recipe at Clean Food Dirty City.

Toasted Sesame Kale Salad

Prep time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

Organic kale 
Organic tofu
Sesame seeds
Scallions
Cilantro

Total price: $8.73

See the full recipe at Clean Food Dirty City.

"Satan himself lives here in San Pedro," a mortician from the second largest city in Honduras told The Guardian. "People here kill people like they're nothing more than chickens."

With a murder rate of 169 per 100,000 people in 2011, San Pedro Sula was named the world's most violent city in a study by Mexico's Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice.

Over the last few years, homicides in Honduras have risen, even while violence falls in neighboring countries like El Salvador and Guatemala.

Arms and drug trafficking have flooded the country, contributing to high gang violence. Lax gun laws (civilians can own up to five personal firearms), corruption, and poverty make life in San Pedro Sula even worse.

What's more, inmates have controlled Honduras' 24 prisons since the state gave up on rehabilitating convicts, according to a recent report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

In 2008, the mounting number of murders forced San Pedro Sula to store bodies in refrigerated trucks before transporting them to mass-burial sites.

A military coup ousted former president Manuel Zelaya in 2009, and the tense political environment only caused more problems. Here, one of his supporters holds his photo during a protest in San Pedro Sula, many of which turned violent.

Source: New York Times

A shocking incident in 2010 saw 18 people massacred in a shoe shop as part of a gang war. This photo shows police searching for weapons the very next day.

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Bill Cosby has sometimes been called "America's dad," having transformed himself from a riotous young comedian, to put-upon TV father Cliff  Huxtable, and on to an outspoken if not occasionally hectoring voice on raising children.

But in a Father's Day reddit AMA Sunday, Cosby admitted that at the end of the day, there's only so much parents can do. Here's his response to a question from user "lneutral" about whether he felt optimistic about young people in 2014.   

...One of the most interesting situations in parenting is to give instructions to your child that you feel are very very important, pertaining to behavior, manners, pertaining to having work finished before time so you can go back over, believing in the importance of learning and hopefully not being afraid of math, science, etcetera, and then to visit a teacher and have the teacher describe your child in a way that you will say to the teacher "That can't be my child. I didn't bring him or her up that way." Well, with a smile , I say - this is True! for the parent. You probably have given instructions counter to the problem the teacher is showing about the behavior of your child. But we must all remember the time when we were children, and mother or father would give us instructions - how to behave- and we wouldn't tell them the truth. So even as an adult, you do your best job, you think, there's always that counter-behavior. So that when you say to the teacher "That's not my child, I didn't bring them up that way" you have to remember that there's also a possibility after that kid leaves the house, the kid's on their own. And we've all done things similar to that.

Who are we, when our parents are not around?

Click here to read the full AMA »

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Lionel Messi signed a new contract last week that will make him the highest-paid soccer player in the world at $27 million per year.

Going into the 2014 World Cup at age 26, Messi is already considered one of the best players ever and is already making more than $40 million with endorsements.

Despite that wealth and advertising exposure, he's is one of the most private people in the sport.

He drives a $200,000 car and lives in a nice house, but there may not be a more unknowable athlete in the world than Messi.

He made $41.3 million last year, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo among active players.

Source: Forbes

He'll pass Ronaldo next year. He just signed a new deal that will pay him $27 million per year.

Source: Reuters

He makes just as much off the field, earning $21.5 million in endorsements.

Source: Forbes