A new luxury train that runs from Hungary's capital of Budapest to Iran's capital of Tehran made its first trip on Wednesday, Reuters reports. 

The first branch of the route, connecting Budapest to Istanbul, follows the path of the world famous Orient Express, the early-20th century trip that used to carry Europe's aristocracy to Turkey. 

The new luxury train cars ride on existing railways, leaving from Budapest, heading east toward Turkish Kurdistan and dumping passengers in Iran. A ticket for the two-week trip costs more than $14,000, according to Reuters. 

The route is operated by the private travel agency Golden Eagle, a British company that offers trips on luxury trains across Europe, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. The first train left on Oct. 15, the next one is scheduled for March next year.

The trip covers a total of 4,350 miles across five countries.

The train left Budapest on Wednesday, Oct. 15. Everything from staffs' uniforms to the design of the cars harkens back to the beginning of the 20th century.

When the first convoy left Budapest, there was even a marching band to salute it.

Hard cider is back in a big way, and some people are loving the intersection between beer and wine. This is making cider producers very happy.

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When you look up the Uber rate in your city, it looks fairly familiar. There is a base rate, a charge per mile and a charge per minute. It looks like the pricing structure you know well from all the miles you have logged in cabs.

But Uber's pricing is actually a little deceiving. Taxis charge riders per mile when moving, and per minute when idling. Uber chargers riders per mile AND minute whether they're moving or idling (except in Philadelphia, where Uber charges per minute only when your speed drops below 11 MPH).

Even so, Uber rates do beat cab fares in most cities. We looked at a sample trip and calculated both costs for a number of different cities. For this analysis, we used fares from UberX, the service where drivers use their own cars. Assume the trip is 5 miles and takes 10 minutes. Also, assume there is no waiting time. The car drives 30MPH the whole way there. Table 1 shows what the fares would look like for a taxi and an Uber car in each city.

The column labeled "Taxi/Uber" shows the taxi fare relative to the Uber fare. If the ratio is over 1, as it is everywhere except New York and Philadelphia, that means that Uber is cheaper than a cab — that is, until surge pricing reaches that level. In L.A., an Uber car is cheaper for this sample trip even with surge pricing up to 1.7x.

It's also important to note that you don’t have to tip your Uber driver. And most people do tip their taxi driver. If you add a tip of 20% to the cab fares, Uber looks like an even better deal and beats out taxis in every city we analyzed. See Table 2.

How do the fares change for different kinds of trips? Well, let’s look at the same 5-mile route with no idling and assuming you tip your cab driver 20%. But let’s change the speed of travel. Uber prices drop as speed increases, which makes sense as Uber is charging you for the miles and the driving time. If you are only going 15-20 MPH, then a taxi is cheaper in New York. But as speed increases, Uber becomes a better deal.

Now add some waiting time. This is when cabs start charging you per minute, waiting for lights to change or in stop and go traffic. Assume 5 miles and 20 MPH when you are moving. As idle time increases, the fares of both increase at a similar rate. So idling time doesn’t seem to impact whether you should take a cab or an Uber car. 

VERDICT: Factoring in a tip, if you are in New York City and there is a ton of traffic (meaning you can’t go over 20 MPH), a taxi is best. Otherwise, Uber seems to be cheaper. But watch the surge levels, because 2x is more expensive than a cab in almost any city.

NOW WATCH: We Did The Math — Where Taxis Are The Cheapest

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? What The 'Dude You're Getting A Dell' Guy Is Doing Now

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What is the difference between top shelf whiskey and well-whiskey? Time and oak.

A few whiskey enthusiasts from Portland, Oregon asked what is seemingly a very simple question, and came up with a product that they claim will allow customers to customize their whiskey experience in a mere 24 hours. 

Their Kickstarter campaign, which has already raised $100,000 more than the original goal, is for a product called Whiskey Elements, which is basically a wooden laser etched stick that replicates the effects of aging whiskey for three years in just 24 hours. 

The thing that makes top shelf whiskey have that smooth delicious taste is the process — high quality whiskey is aged in wooden barrels for ten to twenty years, and this aging method allows the whiskey to filter in and out of the wood while removing toxins, adding flavor, and coloring. 

Bottom shelf whiskey, on the other hand, is usually aged for less than three years and has a bunch of artificial flavors and food coloring added. 

The idea is that you put the wooden stick into a decanter of whiskey and through a complicated process that Time and Oak calls “accelerated transpiration through capillary action,” you can rapidly age your whiskey in just 24 hours and have a much smoother drink the next day. 

Whiskey Elements says it can work with any and all whiskey, and you can even customize which flavor you want, including oaky, vanilla, maple, smokey, or peaty. 

Bonus: This all natural process filters out the toxin acetaldehyde, which is responsible for those particularly nasty hangovers that greet you the morning after a regretful night spent drinking bottom shelf whiskey. 

But not everyone is excited about this new product. “If people want to buy a bottle of unambitious whiskey and much around with it, that is obviously their right,” Diageo’s Nick Morgan told The Spirits Business. “But isn’t the danger that you will still end up with a young, one-dimensional drink but one that now just tastes of wood?”

Well, the Kickstarter campaign already has 3,163 backers who are willing to give it a shot.   

For more information check out the Kickstarter page here. 

SEE ALSO: An Aerospace Engineer Has Completely Reinvented The Ice Cream Scoop

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In 1976, Roger Minick was teaching young photographers at the Ansel Adams Workshops in Yosemite National Park when he first encountered a species of people he lovingly refers to as "Sightseer Americanus." 

He recalls wave after wave of tourists coming to Inspiration Point in Yosemite to take snapshots in front of the site to prove that they were there. While he had often viewed tourists as a nuisance, he now saw that they were perhaps the most interesting subject, a representation of a uniquely American phenomenon.

He and his wife headed out on a road trip, not to photograph scenic spots as Ansel Adams would have done, but instead to turn the camera on tourists at top American destinations. Over the decades, he has taken many trips for that specific purpose.

These photos, between 15 and 30 years old, have taken on a time-capsule quality, documenting Americans across generations who make the pilgrimage to have their photo taken in front of the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, and other iconic sites.

Minick shared some of his photos with us here. You can see more at his website or purchase the book here. 

Minick and his wife's first road trip in 1979 sent them through the western United States in a Volkswagen camper.

The photographs during that trip were shot in black and white. Minick says that a lot of the humor intended in his photos was lost in black and white, so he and his wife retraced their steps in 1980. That time he shot in color.

Minick used a medium-format camera with a flash. Using the flash had the effect of flattening the background of the image so that it almost looks like a backdrop.

Minick would often wait for hours at each tourist attraction looking for a person or group that had that "elusive 'something'" that made the photograph particularly compelling.

Sometimes it was their mode of travel or possessions that attracted him. Other times, like here, it was a clothing item.

Over the years, Minick developed theories about tourists based on his observations. His favorite theory was that families that had matching outfits got along the best.

To get people to agree to have their photos taken, Minick would explain his project and then offer to take a professional portrait of them with a Polaroid camera that they could keep.

After road-trips in 1979, 1980, and 1981, Minick did not return to the project until the late 1990s, when he started to visit sites in the Midwest and East coast.

His last road-trip for the project was in 2000. Even those photos have a dated look to them at this point.

SEE ALSO: Here's Why You Shouldn't Trust The Photos On Hotel Websites

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Halloween season is officially here, and some of the craftier people among us are turning to Pinterest for costume ideas you can make at home. 

According to Pinterest, there have been 176 million pins dedicated to Halloween so far this year. The Pinterest team has created a board dedicated to the Halloween costumes that have been pinned the most. 

There's even a board with tips for turning yourself into a zombie, one of the most popular Halloween costumes for 2014. 

We've rounded up some of the top costumes that you can find on Pinterest.

Superheroes and villains are big once again this year. Here's a tutorial on how to do your makeup to look just like Gamora from "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Source: Pinterest

But if you'd rather use makeup to a scarier effect, there's this creepy zombie look.

Source: Pinterest

A bunch of rainbow loofahs makes for an adorable group costume. It's extremely popular, too — this DIY idea has been re-pinned more than 1,100 times.

Source: Pinterest

If someone handed you a peach 6,000 years ago, you might be surprised: the sour, grape-sized lump you'd be holding would hardly resemble the plump, juicy fruit we enjoy today.

Throughout the 12,000 years or so since humans first developed agriculture, the foods we eat have undergone drastic transformations. Farmers have found ways to select for different traits when breeding plants, turning out generations of larger, sweeter, and juicier crops.

Australian chemistry teacher James Kennedy got interested in the topic and started doing some research. His findings inspired him to put together a series of infographics explaining how some of our most beloved snacks have changed over the centuries. With Kennedy's permission we've posted three here: Peach, watermelon, and corn. 

First up is the peach:

Native to China, the original peach was only a fraction of the size we're used to today and tasted "like a lentil," Kennedy writes. "After 6000 years of artificial selection, the resulting peach was 16 times larger, 27% juicier and 4% sweeter than its wild cousin, and had massive increases in nutrients essential for human survival as well."

Next, the watermelon:

Kennedy writes, "I set out to find the least natural fruit in existence, and decided it was probably the modern watermelon.In 5,000 years, the watermelon has expanded from its original six varieties to a staggering 1,200 different kinds. Modern watermelons are available in a handful of different colors and shapes, and can be bought conveniently seedless. Originally native to a small region of southern Africa, the watermelon is now grown in countries around the world. Modern watermelons are about 100 times heavier than their ancient predecessors and much sweeter. "

Finally, corn:

Corn was first domesticated in the area we know today as Mexico and Central America. At the time, an ear of corn was only about a tenth as long as the cobs we're used to today and had just a handful of tough kernels. For the sweet, juicy meal we enjoy today, Kennedy says you can thank the Europeans. "Around half of this artificial selection happened since the fifteenth century, when European settlers placed new selection pressures on the crop to suit their exotic taste buds," he writes.

As you can see, we've come a long way from the days of our ancestors and the small, unappetizing fruits they munched on.

Click here to check out more of Kennedy's work at his blog.

SEE ALSO: What It Would Look Like If Your Banana Came With An Ingredient List

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A study published last week called "The Glass Floor" revealed that nearly all female restaurant workers — an astounding 90% — have been sexually harassed while on the job.

More than half of the women surveyed reported experiencing sexual harassment every single week, according to the study by The Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC). 

“When you live off your tips you must tolerate whatever the customer might do to you — however they may touch you, or treat you, or talk to you — because the customer is always right." Saru Jayaraman, co-founder and co-director of ROC United, said yesterday in the New York City’s ‘Not On The Menu’ rally for One Fair Wage. "The customer pays your bills, not your employer."

ROC United organized the rally that was held in various cities across the US on Tuesday. The New York City rally was held in the midst of public hearings held by the New York Wage Board, which is responsible for determining the future of the state’s minimum wage legislation.

ROC United is hoping to increase the federal tipped minimum wage, which hasn’t changed since 1991 and is a meager $2.31. New York is one of 43 states with a sub minimum wage for tipped workers. 

A minimum wage increase would obviously benefit all hourly workers, but especially women. Of the 11 million employees working in the restaurant industry, more than 70% are women, and because these women are making their living almost entirely off of tips, it makes them incredibly susceptible to sexual harassment, according to the study by ROC United.

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Saru Jayaraman, founder of ROC United, speaking at #notonthemenu rally

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Most of the restaurant workers who experience sexual harassment are too afraid to report the assault out of fear of negative consequences and job termination. This can lead to feelings of depression and anxiety as many workers feel forced to accept sexual harassment as ‘just part of the job,' the report said. 

“We will no longer tolerate that the price of a paycheck for women in the restaurant industry is getting groped, catcalled, or degraded,” said Noreen Farrell, Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates.

One Fair Wage is working towards "the financial insecurity and pressures that perpetuate sexual harassment in the restaurant industry."

“I was a waitress almost 30 years ago for nine years. And here is the tragic story: absolutely nothing has changed,” said Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising, said to the rally. “We cannot end sexual violence against women unless we understand the role of economic violence — which is perpetuated by a sub-minimum wage for tipped, and overwhelmingly female, workers." 

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 For more information about One Fair Wage check out the ROC website here. 

SEE ALSO: Restaurant Owner Has The Perfect Response To Reviewer Who Told Waitresses To Show More Skin

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Apple's OS X Yosemite is now available to the world, and it really is a strong move forward. We put it to the test so you know what to expect.

Produced by Matt Johnston

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Turns out you don't necessarily need to be a millionaire to live in a mansion.

Low real estate prices in older industrial cities like Cleveland and Baltimore can result in some great deals for a whole lot of space and not a lot of money.

"Typically built during manufacturing boom times, many of these properties fell into disrepair as local economies faltered, giving today’s buyers an opportunity to pick up a palatial abode on the cheap," The Wall Street Journal's Adam Bonislawski recently wrote.

The experts at the real estate listing site Estately helped us find 11 grand homes on the market for less than $1 million.

Many of the houses feature classic touches and various iterations of Victorian architecture, which make these bargain buildings truly one-of-a-kind.

A $1 million Georgian-style mansion in Maryland sits on three acres of land.

9900 Timberknoll Ln, Ellicott City, MD

This Maryland estate features a stone facade outside and 18th century charm inside. The fully restored house was built in 1765, and has hardwood floors and spacious rooms.

It's located in the historic town of Ellicott City, which has been ranked as one of the best places to live in the US.

This $999,000 Victorian Romantic mansion in Ohio still features many original 1840s touches.

224 Wheeler Road, Brandon, VT

Sitting on a plot of nearly 40 acres, this huge Victorian Romantic-style mansion was built in 1840 and sports 11 rooms, a European sauna, and stained glass windows.

It's secluded Vermont location is still close enough to the rural charms of the historic town of Brandon so home owners don't feel too cut off.

Southern charm oozes from this giant turn of the century Texas farmhouse on the market for $995,900.

313 Jackson Rd N, Kerrville, TX

Though still a country house at heart, both the exterior and interior of this Texas farmhouse have been completely restored with modern touches.

It has a huge master suite, gourmet kitchen, and ginormous front porch. It's also firmly nestled in Texas Hill Country with beautiful scenery and state parks nearby.

For some restaurant-goers, the wine selection is just as important as the food.

Restaurant reservation site OpenTable just released its latest Diner's Choice Award winners, this time looking at the 100 US restaurants with the best wine lists.

The list is based on more than 5 million reviews submitted for more than 15,000 restaurants around the US.

With wine consumption increasing in the US — which recently surpassed France as the world's biggest market for wine — we only expect the quality of restaurant wine lists to keep getting better and better.

From Napa Valley mainstays to bistros in Maryland, these are the 100 best restaurant wine lists, according to OpenTable:

• 1313 Main - Napa, California
• 20 Brix - Milford, Ohio
• 20nine Restaurant & Wine Bar - San Antonio, Texas
• 360 Bistro - Nashville, Tennessee
• The 3^rd Corner Wine Shop & Bistro - Palm Desert, California
• Acquerello - San Francisco, California
• Addison at The Grand Del Mar - San Diego, California
• AIDA Bistro & Wine Bar - Columbia, Maryland
• Amelie - San Francisco, California
• Arroyo Vino - Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Artisanal Restaurant - Banner Elk, North Carolina
• bacaro - Champaign, Illinois
• Balaban's - Chesterfield, Missouri
• The Barrel Room at City Winery - New York, New York
• Bin 36 - Chicago, Illinois
• Bistro Blanc - Glenelg, Maryland
• Carpe Vino - Auburn, California
• Chandler's a Restaurant - Petoskey, Michigan
• Cinghiale-Enoteca - Baltimore, Maryland
• Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant - Arlington Heights, Illinois
• Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant - Brookfield, Wisconsin
• Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant - Columbus, Ohio
• Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant - Indianapolis, Indiana
• Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant - Merrillville, Illinois
• Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant - Naperville, Illinois
• Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant - Orlando, Florida
• Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant - Orland Park, Illinois
• Copia Restaurant and Wine Garden - Saint Louis, Missouri
• Crush - Sandusky, Ohio
• The Curious Grape - Arlington, Virginia
• Cuvee Wine & Bistro - Ocala, Florida
• DOC Wine Bar - Lombard, Illinois
• Domaine Hudson - Wilmington, Delaware
• Dusty's Wine Bar - Okemos, Michigan
• Elaia - Saint Louis, Missouri
• Eno Vino Wine Bar and Bistro - Madison, Wisconsin
• Everest - Chicago, Illinois
• Fearrington House Restaurant - Pittsboro, North Carolina
• Fleming's Steakhouse - Akron, Ohio
• Fleming's Steakhouse - Birmingham, Alabama
• Frasca Food and Wine - Boulder, Colorado
• Grand Cru Wine Bar & Bistro - Arlington, Virginia
• Griffin Market - Beaufort, South Carolina
• The Hobbit - Orange, California
• Hostaria Piave - Redondo Beach, California
• Iron Bridge Wine Company - Columbia, Maryland
• Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Cafe - Los Olivos, California
• Marcello's - New Orleans, Louisiana
• Marche Bacchus - Las Vegas, Nevada
• Marinus-Bernardus Lodge - Carmel Valley, California
• MAX's Wine Dive - Fort Worth, Texas
• MAX's Wine Dive - San Antonio, Texas
• Mercy Wine Bar - Dallas, Texas
• Morrell Wine Bar & Café - New York, New York
• Morso - Gig Harbor, Washington
• Nosh Restaurant and Wine Lounge - Omaha, Nebraska
• Novita Wine Bar Trattoria - Garden City, New York
• OVINTE - Jacksonville, Florida
• Pairings Bistro - Bel Air, Maryland
• Panorama - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Porter's Steakhouse - Collinsville, Illinois
• Press - Saint Helena, California
• Purple Café and Wine Bar - Seattle, Washington
• Purple Café and Wine Bar - Woodinville, Washington
• Racines NY - New York, New York
• Rare Steakhouse - Madison, Wisconsin
• Red House - Renton, Washington
• Reserve Wine & Food - Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Robust - Webster Groves, Missouri
• SeaBlue Restaurant & Wine Bar - North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
• Soif Wine Bar Restaurant - Santa Cruz, California
• Sonoma Wine Bar & Bistro - Virginia Beach, Virginia
• Spuntino Wine Bar & Italian Tapas - Garden City, New York
• Spuntino Wine Bar and Italian Tapas - Clifton, New Jersey
• St. Vincent - San Francisco, California
• Tannin Wine Bar and Kitchen - Kansas City, Missouri
• The Tasting Room - Houston, Texas
• UPSTAIRS 2 - Los Angeles, California
• V.Mertz - Omaha, Nebraska
• The Vineyard Wine Bar - Havre De Grace, Maryland
• Vino Italian Tapas & Wine Bar - Honolulu, Hawaii
• Vino Vino - Austin, Texas
• Vino Volo - Bethesda, Maryland
• Vinology - Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Vintage 95 - Chandler, Arizona
• Vintage Enoteca - Los Angeles, California
• W.G. Kitchen and Bar - Hamilton, Ohio
• W.G. Kitchen and Bar-River Bank - Cincinnati, Ohio
• W.G. Kitchen and Bar-Rookwood - Cincinnati, Ohio
• The Wine Bistro - Westerville, Ohio
• The Wine Bistro-Clintonville - Columbus, Ohio
• The Wine Bistro-Upper Arlington - Columbus, Ohio
• The Wine Bistro-Worthington - Columbus, Ohio
• Wine Dive - Wichita, Kansas
• Wine Experience Café and World Cellar - Aurora, Colorado
• The Wine Guy Bistro - Gahanna, Ohio
• The Wine Kitchen on the Creek - Frederick, Maryland
• The Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar - Tustin, California
• WK Hearth - Purcellville, Virginia
• Zoes Steak & Seafood - Virginia Beach, Virginia

SEE ALSO: The Best Dessert From Every State

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If you live in New York City or Chicago, you may have seen the enormous YouTube ads adorning some billboards and subway trains. 

The latest YouTube channel to be featured in the campaign is SciShow, an educational program hosted by Hank Green, Michael Aranda, and Caitlin Hofmeister. The team makes six videos a week, with each video answering a question related to a scientific topic, from biology and evolution to astronomy and space travel.

But SciShow isn't Green's first YouTube success. He and brother John (best-selling author of "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Looking for Alaska") started their popular "vlogbrothers" channel in 2007. 

Vlogbrothers became so popular, in fact, that the YouTube team reached out to them and asked them to pitch some ideas for a new channel. 

"The thing I think we did better than anyone on YouTube at that time was in-depth educational stuff. So when YouTube asked us to pitch stuff, we were full of ideas," Hank Green said to Business Insider. "SciShow was one of the two that we pitched."

The other idea was CrashCourse, which teaches eight different courses in a series of short videos. Both were approved by YouTube, and the Greens were given some startup funding to get the projects going, though they didn't disclose how much money they received.

"It was the best possible situation. They gave us the money, and there was no obligation to pay it back. Our ad money went to pay back that money, but they wouldn’t have come knocking if we didn’t," Green said. "At the time it was just the two of us, so we needed the help to kickstart things." 

SciShow and CrashCourse both now have more than two million subscribers.

It turns out the Greens aren't the only creators to get some financial support from YouTube. 

"We first made a series of investments in channels to jumpstart our creator ecosystem," YouTube writes in a September 2014 post on its blog. "Eighty-six of those channels are now among the top 1 percent of YouTube’s most popular, but the real sign of success was the massive global fan base our creators built."

The company also created studios called YouTube Spaces in Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, and New York, where top creators can make use of top-notch production equipment. 

"Now, we feel the time is right to make another important investment in our creators," the blog continues. "That’s why we’ve decided to fund new content from some of our top creators, helping them not only fulfill their creative ambitions but also deliver new material to their millions of fans on YouTube."

SEE ALSO: Meet The Science Nerd Whose Face Is About To Be Plastered On YouTube Ads Everywhere

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We've all been there: sprinting through hordes of people at the airport as you carry your over-packed suitcase in one hand and cling for dear life onto your passport in the other. 

Now imagine that instead of frantically running through the terminal, you can simply glide past everyone on a scooter. 

A Slovenian designer, Bostjan Zagar, has come up with the "Olaf Business," a carry-on approved suitcase that holds up to 220 pounds and doubles as a scooter and trolley. The "smart curving based steering system" makes the scooter able to take extremely sharp turns and easily maneuver crowds. 

It is available for preorder on Kickstarter, and for $316, you can have your very own Olaf Business with a customized aluminum board. 

The Olaf Business is designed for the travelers who are "always on the move." 

They also have the "Olaf Urban" which is geared towards younger customers.

The Olaf Urban is designed with a removable ergonomically shaped backpack, a trolley, a steerable kick scooter, and a skateboard. 

These could be huge for the millennial frequent flyers out there.

For more information about the Olaf Business and the Olaf Urban, check out the Kickstarter project here. 

SEE ALSO: A New Dress Shirt Solves The Annoyance Of A Floppy Collar

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Spreepark opened on the banks of the Spree River in 1969, in what was then East Germany. The amusement park featured rollercoasters, a Ferris wheel, water rides, and multiple dinosaurs. It stayed open, in different incarnations, through reunification, until 2001, when it shut its gates for good. 

Today, the park lays in ruins, its dinosaurs toppled and its Ferris wheel tilting slightly to one side, creaking in the breeze. This August, a set of fires, widely considered to have been arson, further destroyed the park.

But what is one person's wasteland is another's adventure. When urban explorer and photographer, Beto Ruiz Alonso, moved to Berlin two years ago, and heard rumors of an abandoned, GDR-era theme park right near they  city, he knew he had to go. He shared these pictures with us from his explorations.

Alonso says it wasn't very hard to get into the park, as there is plenty of information online about how to enter. "I'm pretty sure that's about to change as the park gets more attention ... people are discovering it," he tells Business Insider.

The park certainly has a lurid history. After closing the park in 2001, the owner attempted to open a new park in Lima, Peru, which failed as well. Later, he was arrested for attempting to smuggle 400 pounds of cocaine back into Germany, tucked into an amusement park ride. 

Rumor has it that after spending time in jail for the offense, the owner now lives in a trailer on the Spreepark property.

For awhile, the owner's wife gave guided tours of the park, explaining its history and allowing visitors to enter the park without trespassing.

But where's the fun in that? Alonso tells us that when he snuck into the park, "I was lucky and didn't run into security but I've heard other stories involving angry guards and violent dogs."

Alonso photographed inside the park in 2013 and early 2014, prior to the fires, which destroyed this faux-English town, among many other structures.

Alonso says his favorite part of the park is the giant Ferris Wheel, which moves slowly in the wind, making a creaking sound. "It's the creepiest sound, like distant screams," he says.

Alonso fears that what remains of Spreepark may not be there for long. The city of Berlin bought the land in March (prior to which, it was for sale on E-Bay). No solid plans for the space have been announced, but Alonso says that "it's only a matter of time before the whole thing disappears for good."

"It's an amazing piece of history and it's such a delight to be in there with the mutilated dinosaurs and the abandoned rides," he says.

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Everyone who's ever used a New York City subway knows that they're teeming with rats, and that said rats are, almost by definition, disgusting. But no one had quantified just how disgusting they are ... until now.

A team of scientists at Columbia University trapped 133 Norway rats — Rattus norvegicus — from five sites in midtown and lower Manhattan, and used DNA sequencing to catalogue the pathogens they carry.

They found an alarming number of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and single-celled organisms called protozoa. At least one of the protozoan and eight of the bacterial species have been linked to gastrointestinal disease in humans.

Even more disconcertingly, they discovered nearly 30 viral species, including almost 20 mammalian viruses, and 18 viruses that were previously unknown to science.

Below is a chart showing some of the known microbial pathogens the researchers found in New York City's rats using targeted polymerase chain reaction screening. (In addition the researchers identified more viruses using a technique called ultra-high throughput screening.) It excludes some common ones like E. coli and Rickiettsia, which they tested for but did not find, even though previous studies have found them in rodents. 

You can see some microbes were in more rats than others, specifically some of the older rats had more pathogens (the correlation with age section of the table all the way to the right: A low P value indicates the finding is real, marked with a + sign):

Among the plethora of viral species they found in the creepy critters, a few stood out, including a new species related to the hepatitis C virus, and Seoul hantavirus, which causes hemorrhagic fever — a dangerous disease that causes excessive bleeding — which had never been found in New York before.

While the hepatitis virus probably isn't good for the rats, its discovery is useful to science, as it could be used as an animal model to test new treatments. They also found a new virus related to enterovirus, which recently infected hundreds of children across the US.

No one knows how many rats there are in NYC's subways, but Rick Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y. told Bloomberg Businessweek that he suspects that there are as many rats as there are people in the city.

Of the 113 rats the researchers analyzed, about 90% were found to carry some type of microbial agent. About 40% of the rats carried more than 2 viruses, and nearly 10% of the rats carried a whopping 5 viruses.

While the novel viruses the researchers identified have not been detected in humans, the authors wrote in the study, published Oct 14 in the journal mBio: 

Many rodent-borne pathogens cause only mild or undifferentiated [i.e. difficult to distinguish from other illnesses] disease in healthy people, and these illnesses are often misdiagnosed and underreported. It is therefore possible that human infection with some of the agents identified here may already be occurring, and the risk of future zoonotic transmission should not be disregarded. Future work should build on the results of this study amd begin to assess the impact of the agents identified here on human health in NYC through continued pathogen surveillance and disease monitoring programs.

In any event, it turns out the subway platform is a lot more crowded than we realized. One silver lining: the researchers did not find the Bubonic plague. So there's that.

SEE ALSO: NYC Has A Revolutionary Plan To Cut The Rat Population

SEE ALSO: Here's What Happened To All The Subway Rats During Hurricane Sandy

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Miami’s new most expensive mansion is a gorgeous historical property selling for $65 million.

Known as La Brisa, the home is in the heart of Coconut Grove, aka “the original Miami,” with a 13,800-square-foot residence, two-bedroom guest house, and 6.9 acres of land.

The nine-bedroom residence also has picturesque views of Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, over 3,000 square feet of outdoor living space, a pool, a spa, and a private port constructed by the current (anonymous) owner that can accommodate a 70-foot yacht.

Coconut Grove has long attracted famous inhabitants, and is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood in Miami. The La Brisa mansion in particular has been owned in the past by Kirk Munroe, an author of children’s novels and books about Florida, and Henry Field, a grand-nephew of the founder of the Marshall Field’s department store chain.

William P.D. Pierce with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate’s Miami Beach office has the listing.

Welcome to La Brisa, Miami's new most expensive mansion at $65 million.

The home is in the heart of Coconut Grove, aka “the original Miami."

It sits on 6.9 acres of meticulously landscaped property.

Billionaire energy mogul T. Boone Pickens didn't earn his fortune without the help of others. Most notably, he finds that some of his best advice came from his father. 

Produced by: Justin Gmoser; Reporter: Julia La Roche

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When you're the son of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, you undoubtedly inherit a unique view of what life is all about. We caught up with Hefner's 23-year-old son Cooper, a recent graduate of Chapman University's film school.

Cooper serves as a brand ambassador for the company his father founded in 1953. He acts as the "face" of the company at official events, but his main responsibility is strategizing to sustain the brand's relevance with Millennials.

We sat down with Hefner at the infamous Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles and asked him about the best business and life advice he's gotten from his famous father.

Produced by Graham Flanagan. Additional camera by Ryan Larkin.

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Museums provide the unique experience of seeing some of the greatest masterpieces of all time close up. Walking the halls of some of the famed museums allow the chance to learn about different societies, ideas, and values. 

To celebrate some of the most incredible museums in the world, we have rounded up the winners of the TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice awards for 2014. 

From Bogota to Chicago, here are the top 25 museums in the world. 

No. 25 The Gold Museum in Bogota, Colombia, has the largest collection of pre-Hispanic gold.

Calle 16 # 588, Bogotá, Colombia

The Museo del Oro in Bogota, Colombia, has more than 33,000 items of gold and emeralds crafted in pre-Hispanic times. 

The collection includes bracelets, earrings, necklaces, breast plates, masks, figurines, and rings created from 500 B.C. until the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. 

No. 24 The Museum of New Zealand is called Te Papa Tongarewa, which means "the place of treasures of this land."

55 Cable St, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

The Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, is located in Wellington. The national museum of New Zealand, Te Papa allows visitors to explore the treasures and stories of New Zealand. It has collections on art, history, Pacific, Māori — the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand — and natural environment.

No. 23 The Inhotim is a giant art gallery set amid 500,000 acres of botanical gardens in southeast Brazil.

Rua B 20, Brumadinho, State of Minas Gerais 35460-000, Brazil

The Inhotim is a contemporary art museum in southeast Brazil. Founded by the mining billionaire Bernardo Paz, the contemporary art museum was once his own personal ranch. Paz converted the garden into a contemporary art space, and it opened to the public in 2006. 

Construction topped out at 432 Park Ave. last week, meaning the tower is officially the tallest residential building in New York City.

The luxury condo stands at 1,396 feet, slightly taller than One World Trade Center, which is 1,362 feet tall (not including its spire, which brings its official height to 1,776 feet). It contains 104 condos, including 10 floors of penthouses. One already sold for $95 million.

The views from the residences, some of the highest homes in the world, are truly astounding. Residents will be able to see to the top of Central Park to the north, One World Trade to the south, and Brooklyn and New Jersey to the east and west. 

Developers CIM Group and Macklowe Properties shared these incredible photos, snapped from the top of 432 Park.

Looking north across Central Park, the George Washington Bridge can be seen in the distance.From this height, the rest of the city looks tiny.To the south, there are views of New York City's iconic skyscrapers, including the Chrysler Building, MetLife Building, and Empire State Building. One World Trade is off in the distance.432 Park has already altered the New York City skyline. It towers above the other new construction on 57th Street, nicknamed "Billionaires' Row" for the abundance of luxury condos cropping up there.The building's 104 apartments start at $7 million.For those prices, we have high expectations for the interiors. And they don't disappoint.Designer Deborah Berke took a geometric approach. The huge windows are in a straight line from the front door, making the most of the apartment's perch above the city. According to Berke, the oak herringbone floors are a take on Park Avenue's more traditional apartment buildings.The kitchens will be outfitted with sleek marble countertops and stainless-steel appliances. But the kitchen's best feature has to be this 10-foot-long marble breakfast bar framed against the window. Just imagine enjoying your morning coffee here, with all of Manhattan sprawled out below you. The master suite's floor plan was designed so that the bed would be perfectly aligned with the window, offering the best views possible first thing in the morning. The master suite has separated his and hers bathrooms. Looking north from the marble-covered shower, you'll get a peek of Central Park and the Upper East Side. And to the south, views of the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and One World Trade can all be enjoyed from this free-standing tub.The building's amenities include a lap pool, with incredible views out double-height windows.

Madeline Stone contributed to this post.

SEE ALSO: THE NEW BILLIONAIRES' ROW: See The Incredible Transformation Of NYC's 57th Street

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