Travel + Leisure just released its annual World's Best Awards, which surveys thousands of readers to come up with a comprehensive list of the year's best hotels, islands, airlines, and destinations.

This year, for the second time in a row, travelers voted Kyoto, Japan, to be the best city in the world.

Kyoto — Japan's imperial capital for over 1,000 years — is full of incredible temples, parks, and markets that make it a favorite with travelers.

These photos show why Kyoto was named the world's best city — twice.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best cities in the world, according to travelers

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Kyoto is home to incredible temples, like the Byodo-in Buddhist temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

One of the most breathtaking temples is the 14th-century Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion), which has a shiny gold facade that reflects beautifully in the pond it sits on.

Travelers love the thousands of scarlet colored torii (shrine gates) that lead 2.5 miles up a mountain to the main Inari shrine: Fushimi Inari Taisha. As Inari is considered the patron of business, each gate was donated by a Japanese business.

The 28-year-old son of billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros was injured in a boating accident in the Hamptons over the holiday weekend, The New York Post reports.

Gregory J. Soros was a passenger onboard a 40-foot recreational boat called "Satisfactory" that hit a sandbar in Shinnecock Bay on Sunday evening around 6:30 p.m.

According to Southampton Patch, Gregory lost consciousness when the boat hit land. He was taken to the hospital for possible rib and head injuries, the report said.  

The boat's captain, 34-year-old Gregory Nissen, was also taken to the hospital. 

We've reached out to Southampton Town Police for an update.

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NOW WATCH: Someone figured out the purpose of the extra shoelace hole on your running shoes — and it will blow your mind

When Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin met studying abroad in Rome back in college, neither imagined that within ten years they'd be sending the daily email that's been nicknamed "The Bible" by some of its loyal subscribers.

Weisberg and Zakin started The Skimm, the morning email that tells readers what's going on in the world in terms they understand and in ways that make them want to keep reading. Self-described "news nerds," the women reconnected post-Rome when they interned for NBC following college graduation. It was their job, they told Business Insider, to know what was going on in the world.

But it wasn't their friends' jobs.

"Before [The Skimm], we were realizing all of our friends were really intelligent but they had basic questions about current events. They knew the ins and outs of their industries and their interests, but had questions beyond that."

The women took a huge leap of faith and quit their jobs to start the daily email for your "smart friend." 

The email lands in inboxes around 6am, right when people are waking up and — what else? — grabbing for their phones. The Skimm is chock-full of current events, both international and domestic, pop culture news, and of course, the stuff that's going viral on the internet. But it's not too much news — it is called The Skimm, after all.

The women get their news from tons of places, from top media organizations to niche trade publications, though neither will specify any one brand specifically. 

"We get asked that question all the time," Zakin told Refinery29 in 2014, "and the answer is I have no idea what Danielle reads on a daily basis and she has no idea what I read on a daily basis."

Beyond reading preferences, both Zakin and Weisberg agree on one thing — email isn't dead, regardless of what people say. In the fall of 2014, the women told Refinery29 that the folks who claimed email would fail "would tell us that over email, so that was kind of like, point made!"

The point has definitely been made. This month marks The Skimm's third anniversary, and the last time subscriber numbers were released, the count was at 1.5 million. 

"We've grown a lot since then," Zakin told BI. In addition to their massive subscriber list, the company raised $7.9 million dollars in 2014.

Even Oprah is a fan:

It's not just the subscriber number that's moving upwards; the team has grown from two friends on a couch to fourteen people in an actual office.

"Every day is different," they both agree. Responsibilities have grown; now time is spent managing and hiring people, making sure everyone gets paid, and making sure everyone has benefits.

Back in 2012, as the company was just launching, Zakin and Weisberg explained to Business Insider's Alyson Shontell: "[Readers] might be going to a cocktail party or wedding, where news stories come up in conversation.  We want our readers to be able to start the conversations. The Skimm is meant to be a confidence booster." 

Three years later, the duo is holding on strong to their target demographic, and assures Business Insider this is only the beginning of their success story. 

The best advice they've received? "The only way you're going to fail is if you don't try," Weisberg and Zakin said.

"It's cheesy, but we needed someone to say it to us."

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NOW WATCH: Take a tour of the $367 million jet that will soon be called Air Force One

The most controversial post on Reddit Wednesday morning was a picture of two women in wheelchairs sitting in front of a little boy — also in a wheelchair — watching a basketball game.

At first glance, nothing about it seems too exciting, but the title accompanying the picture that Imgur user Stink3y3 posted was, “Being fat is not a disability.”

My son&#039;s in a wheelchair so this is a common occurrence for us. Get tickets to a fun event for the kids. Load my son in the van, load his wheelchair, unload his wheelchair upon arrival, unload my son, get him seated in the wheelchair, and finally arrive at the &quot;accessible seating&quot; section only to find this. I&#039;m sorry, but being obese is not a disability. The ladies blocking my son&#039;s view (oh and I&#039;m sure they&#039;re SUPER stoked for that front row view of the Harlem Globetrotters /sarcasm) are both rolling around in power chairs that they rented today from the venue. So in the future, when you&#039;re at an event and you see the accessible seating area - just remember that there are probably some kiddos in there who&#039;s parents just want to give them the opportunity to experience live events in much the same fashion the kids without special needs can. Please be considerate and let the smaller kids move toward the front.[edit #1] Of course I don&#039;t know their medical diagnosis. However, note the numbers on the bottom of their power chairs. These were rented the day of the event from the venue. These women didn&#039;t come to the park in a chair, which tells me that their &quot;condition&quot; is not one that requires a more permanent solution for mobility.[edit #2] In most cases, I would simply maneuver my son in front of folks like this as he&#039;s much smaller and wouldn&#039;t impede anyone&#039;s view. In this case though, the accessible seating area was very small and clearly an afterthought at the event. Moving him to the front would have required me to inconvenience/move a lot of folks and just wasn&#039;t worth it. The show, used nearly all of the floor space so luckily the action that was blocked by the women in front of him was limited.[edit #3] Yes, this was at Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO and yes we he had a great time regardless! <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://imgur.com/gallery/gI2tPdr">http://imgur.com/gallery/gI2tPdr</a>

According to Stink3y3, the picture was taken when he took his disabled son to see the Harlem Globetrotters at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri for the park’s Star Spangling Banner Festival. When the pair got to the accessible seating section, two women were already in the front row.

“I'm sorry, but being obese is not a disability,” he wrote on the picture. “The ladies blocking my son's view [...] are both rolling around in power chairs that they rented today from the venue.”

He said he could tell their power chairs were rented because each had a number on the bottom of the chair.

A spokesperson for Silver Dollar City confirmed to Business Insider that the power chairs or electric conveyance vehicles (ECVs) pictured were rented at the festival. "We provide these rentals for the convenience of guests who request them and we do not question the guests regarding the nature of their need for the ECVs," the spokesperson told us.

"Of course I don't know their medical diagnosis," Stink3y3 wrote. "However, note the numbers on the bottom of their power chairs. These were rented the day of the event from the venue. These women didn’t come to the park in a chair, which tells me that their ‘condition’ is not one that requires a more permanent solution for mobility."

The Reddit user said that he just wanted the women to be more considerate and “let the smaller kids move to the front.”

The picture is already gaining a lot of attention after only being posted on Tuesday and at the time of this post has over 8,000 comments on Reddit and 2,000 comments on Imgur. Commenters on Imgur and Reddit are very divided over the image and accompanying commentary.

Many commenters insisted that Stink3y3 should have just asked for the women to move out of his son’s way, while others were saying that people blocking your view is just a part of going to a sporting event.

There were plenty of commenters, however, that took Stink3y3's side.

Still other commenters accused Stink3y3 of fat shaming the women, arguing that it was impossible to know why they needed to be in the scooters in the first place.

“So, in summary: You didn’t talk to them, they didn’t block the view, you don’t know if they’re disabled, but you enjoy internet fat-shaming,” one Imgur commenter also wrote.

Though obesity is currently not recognized as a disability, there is some serious discussion in the medical and legal communities over whether or not it should be. There are "obesity-associated disabilities" that are medical problems asociated with being overweight, and research shows that people who are already disabled are more likely to become obese than the general population.

Stink3y3 later updated his original post to say that he and his son had fun the rest of the day at the festival.

View post on imgur.com

Business Insider had reached out to the Imgur user and will update if we hear back. You can read the full transcribed photo caption from Imgur below (emphasis ours):

My son's in a wheelchair so this is a common occurrence for us. Get tickets to a fun event for the kids. Load my son in the van, load his wheelchair, unload his wheelchair upon arrival, unload my son, get him seated in the wheelchair, and finally arrive at the "accessible seating" section only to find this.

I'm sorry, but being obese is not a disability. The ladies blocking my son's view (oh and I'm sure they're SUPER stoked for that front row view of the Harlem Globetrotters /sarcasm) are both rolling around in power chairs that they rented today from the venue.

So in the future, when you're at an event and you see the accessible seating area - just remember that there are probably some kiddos in there who's parents just want to give them the opportunity to experience live events in much the same fashion the kids without special needs can.

Please be considerate and let the smaller kids move toward the front.

[edit #1] Of course I don't know their medical diagnosis. However, note the numbers on the bottom of their power chairs. These were rented the day of the event from the venue. These women didn't come to the park in a chair, which tells me that their "condition" is not one that requires a more permanent solution for mobility.

[edit #2] In most cases, I would simply maneuver my son in front of folks like this as he's much smaller and wouldn't impede anyone's view. In this case though, the accessible seating area was very small and clearly an afterthought at the event. Moving him to the front would have required me to inconvenience/move a lot of folks and just wasn't worth it. The show, used nearly all of the floor space so luckily the action that was blocked by the women in front of him was limited.

[edit #3] Yes, this was at Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO and yes we he had a great time regardless! http://imgur.com/gallery/gI2tPdr

SEE ALSO: This man pulled a real-life 'UP' stunt when he launched himself into the air using one hundred balloons

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NOW WATCH: What it's really like inside the scariest water park in America

Getting to the airport is always a headache. Will there be traffic? Will I be able to grab a cab? How long will public transportation take? Gotham Air has introduced a new, superfast alternative: helicopters. And it costs a lot less than you think. 

Produced by Eames Yates. Additional camera by Joe Avella and Justin Gmoser. 

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When a man Michelle Thomas met through Tinder passed on a second date because he was looking for "someone slimmer," the blogger penned a sharp-tongued letter that's earned her internet acclaim.

Thomas is a London-based blogger and cafe manager, the Mirror reports. Last month, she went on a date with a man she met through Tinder, the popular location-based dating app. The date, which included drinks, dinner and a walk along the South Bank, went swimmingly. It even ended with a kiss.

But the next day, Thomas received the following message from her date:

"You're cheeky and funny and just the sort of girl I would love to go out with if only my body and mind would let me. But I fear it won't," he wrote. 

He went on to praise Thomas' personality, but then criticized her body. He told her that his "mind gets turned on by someone slimmer," and he would love to marry her, if only she "were a slip of a girl." 

Thomas was on another date when she received the message. Her new date returned from the bathroom to find her in what she described as "a flood of tears."

After a few days, Thomas published a 10 paragraph response on her blog, I Will Pay One Pound for Your Story.

She wrote that the man's letter was "nothing short of sadistic," and "the forensic detail in which you express your disgust at my body is truly grotesque. The only possible objective for writing it is to wound me."

The fiery letter ends with, "P.P.S. You're not 5'11."

Thomas' letter has taken the internet by storm, and she's being praised by many as a feminist hero.

"You go Girl!!  You are beautiful and for him to be judging your body I sure hope his is perfect!" one woman commented on her post.

English comedian Sarah Millican also showed her support for Thomas in an Instagram comment, writing, "All power to you lady."

In just three days, Thomas tweeted that her post received over 30,000 views. Her story was picked up by The Mirror, the Daily Mail, Cosmopolitian, the Huffington Post, and many others. 

However, not all of the feedback Thomas has received has been positive. One commenter on her blog praised the man for giving Thomas "an honest answer as to why he would be cutting your relationship short."

Another said that Thomas' anger was misguided. "He didn't shame you for being fat, all he said was he wasn't attracted to fat women," he wrote. 

Thomas is determined to continue a conversation about body shaming, and doesn't seem to be paying much attention to the negative feedback.

SEE ALSO: This 23-year-old ditched her blog and started writing her memoir on Instagram — now 300,000 people are reading it

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NOW WATCH: What it's really like inside the scariest water park in America

There are plenty of reasons to travel to Taiwan, but one thing any traveler to Taiwan should be most excited about is the food. 

From restaurants with certain specialties to night markets where you can sample a wide array of snacks, delicious food is pretty much all around. 

I recently spent two weeks traveling around the whole island, and sampled as much as I could. These five foods are not to be missed. 

1. Coffin Bread (棺材板) 

Granted not the most appetizing of names, but coffin bread (also called coffin toast or coffin sandwich) was far and away the most interesting and delicious food I tried. 

Coffin bread is a piece of super thick white bread French Toast, that is hollowed out and stuffed with something tasty. Originally invented in the southern city of Tainan, I sampled this snack at the Zhiqiang night market in Hualien. 

You can pick from among a wide range of fillings, including three-cup chicken or pepper beef. The mixture of sweet and savory really hits the spot, and the toast is easy to munch on as you wander through the rest of the market.

Someone needs to make this snack a reality in the States, please.

2. Almond tofu (杏仁豆腐)

Served as a dessert or as a snack, chilled silken tofu comes in many forms and varieties, and the kind I discovered I loved in Taiwan is almond flavored.

I had some at a shopping mall food court that was served cubed over shaved ice. There were plenty of toppings to choose from including fresh fruit, taro balls, and sweet beans. 

You can find tofu-related desserts at most night markets as well. There is an excellent shop near the Luodong night market that specializes in shaved ice balls served over your choice of bases and toppings. I went with silken tofu covered in honey and sesame seeds. 

The weather in Taiwan is pretty hot, so this is a good treat to help cool off and not feel guilty about eating something sweet.  

3. Ice cream dorayaki

I'll admit it: I have a sweet tooth. Which is exactly why I couldn't resist purchasing this treat from a street vendor in Jiufen: two small, fresh pancakes (called dorayaki) with a scoop of ice cream sandwiched between them.

Neither the pancakes nor the ice cream (I chose taro flavor, but other options included red bean, green tea, or hazelnut) are too sweet.

There's another famous vendor who sells ice cream in a rice wrapper with shaved peanut brittle and cilantro, but I preferred this Japanese-inspired treat. 

4. Bei Gang spring roll (北港春捲)

If you find yourself in Hualien at the Zhiqiang night market, and you're not too full already from the Coffin Toast, you should definitely head to the Bei Gang Spring Roll stall. 

The concept is basically an Asian version of Chipotle, where you pick your protein and your toppings, and then they roll it all up in a delicious burrito. Your choices are beef or pork, with flavorings like mustard, garlic, chilli, or curry.  Most people just had them add all the toppings available: bean sprouts, cabbage, hard tofu, scrambled eggs, and crushed peanuts. 

The only downside to this food item was the wait. There's a long line, and they can only prepare so many at a time, so expect to stand for a bit. But it's worth it. 

5. Beef noodle soup (牛肉麵)

This is pretty much a staple at most restaurants, and can be found sold in paper bowls at night markets many stalls. Basically if you see a big vat of dark broth, and spot some freshly pulled noodles on a counter top, you should order yourself some soup.

And the strangest thing I ate in Taiwan was a mysterious fried cube (糕渣)

Some background: my Airbnb host in Yilan was a great guy who has a couple recommendations for stalls that I needed to check out at the Luodong night market there. He helpfully wrote the names of the stalls in Chinese, and told me what to order at the most popular one. 

My theory when traveling abroad is that if the locals like something, it's probably great, so I should at least give it a try. 

As I got to the front of the line at this stall, I still didn't know what to expect. I gauged from the workers that they were dredging something in flour and frying it, but even my handy Chinese dictionary couldn't help me when I tried to look up the characters for what I had ordered. The translation for the characters gao zha was "cake" "dregs". 

When my order arrived and I gamely bit into the hot fried cube, I found it surprisingly soft inside. The taste wasn't offensive, but nor was it indicative of what I was chewing. Still clueless, I assumed I was eating some kind of salty, pulverized vegetable, such as corn. 

When I finally returned to my Airbnb (and to wi-fi), I found the answer: Gaozha is a local specialty in Yilan that consists of chicken soup that gets ground up and mixed with potato starch so it thickens as it cools. When it is the texture of soft tofu, it's placed in the boxes on the left, and when ordered it's cubed and fried. 

I don't regret trying it, but I can't say I'd make a repeat visit.

There are so many other great dishes in Taiwan, so I took this postcard as a reminder to myself of what I still need to try when I go back again.

SEE ALSO:  23 reasons why you should book your next trip to Taiwan

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Business Insider recently sent three reporters to Havana, Cuba to experience the city as tourists. One thing you immediately experience walking the streets of Havana is the overwhelming presence of classic, vintage American cars from the 1940s and 1950s.

When the United States embargo against Cuba was imposed in 1960, all imports from America ceased, forcing Cubans to make due with the American cars they had already imported. Since Cuba cannot import replacement parts for the cars, drivers and mechanics are forced to use parts shipped from countries with whom Cuba still trades.

Just stop on a Havana street corner for one minute and you're almost guaranteed to see a parade of beautiful, vintage American cars — often referred to as "Yank Tanks" — pass by.

We'll have lots of stories about our adventures on the island, which you'll be able to find here.

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We fear boredom — that we might be bored or, even worse, bore others.

One example: In a recent University of Virginia study, participants gave themselves electrical shocks instead of having to sit with their thoughts for 15 minutes.

In a recent Quora thread, users discussed what makes people boring. Here are the highlights, so that you can identify the bores in your life and avoid becoming one yourself. 

1. Boring people have unbalanced conversations. Instead of finding a rhythm between talking and listening, boring people are on either conversational extreme. Quora user Jack Bennett calls it an "asymmetry in the conversational 'give and take' — e.g. all listening and no talking, or all talking and no listening." 

2. Boring people can't tell if people are engaged in the conversation. If you're emphatically boring, you're probably missing the other person's body language. User Garrick Saito argues that what makes a person boring is the "continual blathering and ignoring of signals and body language that say (perhaps not loudly enough) 'I'm not interested in what you're saying, but am nodding every few seconds only to be polite.'" To avoid this, learn how to listen to what people are saying with their bodies. 

3. Boring people can't make people laugh.Humor shows "cognitive flexibility": the ability to assess an idea or an event from a variety of perspectives, and then, naturally, make light of it. Boring people lack it. "I'm an easy sell," admits Will Wister. "I mean come on let's face it — it's not that hard." 

4. Boring people always do the same thing. User Andy Warwick complains of friends who go to the pub every weekend and then subsequently get frustrated when he can't make it out to join them — since he was going to museums, reading books, or hiking around hills. "For me what makes a person boring is living a sedentary life without variety," Warwick says. "Diverse experiences improve one's conversation for those weekends when you do go down the pub. You actually have something to talk about." 

5. Boring people never say anything. A "boor" is somebody who's loud and insensitive to the social situation, but a boring person can also be overly circumspect. Alexa Knowles lays it down: "Where the loud bore believes they are the most interesting person there is, the quiet bore believes it's best to never say anything because who would want to listen to them? These are the ones that reply to every inquiry with some variant of 'I dunno, sort of, I guess.'" 

6. Boring people don't have an opinion. "Someone who says Hitler was a noble soul and believes it vehemently is not a boring person," says Shrindhi Sondur. "Maybe a nutcase, but not boring." So how do you develop an opinion? By knowing both sides of the argument, says legendary investor Charlie Munger. 

7. Boring people don't know how to tell a good story. "To interest someone and to truly engage others, you have to be able to tell a story," says Dave Cheng. "And you have to care about that story. You also have to solicit stories out of others. And you have to care about those stories."

It's a lot like Kurt Vonnegut's advice on writing: "Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about," the "Slaughterhouse Five" author once advised. "It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style." 

8. Boring people can't see things from other people's perspectives. "Boring people are usually those who can't (or won't) understand how the conversation is experienced from the other person's perspective," says Drew Austin. "The ability to place oneself in another person's shoes makes someone interesting to talk to." In this way, emotional intelligence is key to conversationality. 

9. Boring people don't have their own opinions. If you haven't thought critically about what it is you think, you're not going to have much to offer in conversation. "People that do not see past what they were taught to believe" are the boring ones, says Maranda Marvin. "These people can only offer their very localized view on a variety of topics."

10. Boring people don't have anything new to add. Research into our brains reveals that we're basically hard-wired to seek novelty. It's a need that's been rattling around evolution for some 800,000 years. The conversational takeaway: If you don't provide anything new to the listener, they're not going to be stimulated. "To me, a boring person is someone from whom I cannot learn anything new," says Stan Hayward. "Thus, it takes time for me to decide someone is really a boring person, though some people give out cues pretty early in a relationship."

11. Boring people don't include anybody in the conversation. What makes someone boring is "the inability to include the others with interest into the conversation," says Marie Holland, "which I feel usually happens when the 'boring' person just wants their point to be told with too much detail that isn't relevant." This goes along with the empathy thing: If you can't figure out that someone in the circle of conversation is feeling left out, you're boring. 

SEE ALSO: Who You Know Is Even More Important Than You Realize

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NOW WATCH: 5 ways to change your body language to make people like you

It seems like forever since the first episode of "Apprentice" appeared in January of 2008. The show was a hit, catapulting Donald Trump to greater national prominence, and ultimately making a mini-celebrity out of the first season's winner, Bill Rancic.

Rancic went on to become a restauranteur, entrepreneur and co-star of his own reality series, "Giuliana and Bill" with his wife Giuliana Rancic.

Much has happened in the meantime for Donald Trump, as well. In just the last few weeks, he has announced his candidacy for president, fueled ongoing controversy with comments about Mexicans and lost several of his corporate affiliations, including Macy's and NBC, which has aired the "Apprentice" since those founding days.

Despite these setbacks, Trump is disrupting the Republican field, inching up the polls.

And Trump has another person who sings his praises, at least as a businessman: Bill Rancic. Before the latest controversy emerged, Rancic stopped by Business Insider. Rancic shared his 'Aha Moment' when his dreams for making it in business first began. He also gave us the most valuable advice he took away from his time with Donald Trump.

Produced by Alana Kakoyiannis. Edited by David Fang.

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Trying to jam out to Taylor Swift's new album, but your iPhone's speakers just aren't loud enough? Check out this simple trick to amplify your phone's speakers.

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Every city has that destination: the one hotspot where you need to book a room or house at least a year in advance because the entire city transports itself to a more beachy or lakey place to sip rosé and put their boat shoe clad feet up.

These places are famous for a reason, and have been for a long time.

From Hilton Head to Galveston Island, here are some of the top getaways around the US. 

SEE ALSO: 55 awesome things to do in the US this summer

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Atlanta, GA: Chattanooga, TN

Only two hours from Atlanta, Chattanooga is a favorite destination thanks to its prime position among the Appalachian Mountains and by the Tennessee River. Nicknamed the "Scenic City" (so you know you can't go wrong here), Chattanooga is ripe with river cruises — from steamboats to speedboats — as well as relaxed river rafting, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and tons of family-friendly attractions like the Chattanooga Aquarium, the Chattanooga Zoo, the Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center, and the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. 

Boston, MA: Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

This former whaling town, which is full of maritime history, is about as New England as it gets. The most high end of the island's three laid back towns, the swanky resort caters to wealthy Bostonites wearing Vineyard Vines with its high end shops and expensive restaurants, but also draws history buffs who can check out the legions of lighthouses and many stately mansions built by captains during the height of the whaling boom.

Chicago, IL: Lake Geneva, WI

Urbanites from both Chicago and Milwaukee flock to Lake Geneva during the summer, and have been doing so since wealthy barons built their second homes here in the 1850s. Thus, the area is dotted with opulent historic mansions, built by the likes of the prominent Wrigley, Montgomery Ward and Sears families. The popular resort even became the site of Hugh Hefner's first Playboy Resort in 1968, which, though it closed in 1981, continues its legacy as the Grand Geneva Resort.

In the summer, water sports like paddleboarding, kayaking, parasailing, waterskiing and wakeboarding dominate (there's skiing in the winter), but landlubbers can enjoy miles of hiking and biking trails, horseback riding, or staying dry aboard speedboats and paddle wheel steamers.

If you are in Washington, D.C., and fancy a dip in the ocean, look no further. 

You could swim right in the heart of the city — in a pool of nearly one million translucent plastic balls that have been set up as an exhibit in the National Building Museum.

Special thanks to Noah Kalina, who supplied the photos.

The 10,000-square-foot exhibit — called the Beach — spans the hall of the National Building Museum.

The museum collaborated with Snarkitecture — a Brooklyn-based design studio — to build its largest-ever public installation.

It opened on July 4.

New York ranks third in the world for the highest residential real estate prices per square foot, according to a recent report by Savills World Research.

When we asked online real estate and rental marketplace Zillow to comb its database for the most expensive listings across New York's five boroughs, we weren't surprised to learn that the top 10 are clustered on the island of Manhattan, a unique market where condos sell for $100 million and townhouses for as much as $120 million. 

Keep scrolling to see the 10 most outrageously expensive listings in New York City. 

SEE ALSO: 27 of the coolest new buildings on the planet

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10. 23 East 22nd Street PH

Price: $72 million

The penthouse at 23 East 22 Street — also known as One Madison — is the "crowning jewel" of one of the tallest residential towers in downtown Manhattan. The 7,600-square-foot penthouse has 360-degree views of the surrounding city, including the neighboring Madison Square Park. It was put on the market by billionaire Rupert Murdoch earlier this year.

See the listing for more photos and information

9. 145-146 Central Park West #PH26C

Price: $75 million

The penthouse of the San Remo, one of Manhattan's most celebrity-filled buildings, sits atop one of the building's distinctive twin towers. The listing notes that Penthouse 26c is a triplex, rising high over Central Park's green expanses. Owner Demi Moore listed the property earlier this year.

See the listing for more photos and information

8. 10 West Street PH

Price: $75 million

At the height of The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park, this duplex penthouse at 10 West Street looks down on the neighboring Financial District. The listing is actually for two penthouses (one at 7,500 square feet and one at 3,600 square feet) being sold as one. According to the listing they can be "seamlessly" combined.

See the listing for more photos and information

Travel + Leisure just named the Oberoi Udaivilas the best hotel in the world.

Located in Udaipur, in the state of Rajasthan, the Oberoi Udaivilas is a romantic hotel that was built to resemble a traditional Indian palace—and it certainly embodies all the luxury of one.

With luxurious amenities like private pools and butler service, a romantic setting, and over-the-top service, the hotel stands out as an exceptional lodging option in a country filled with incredible luxury—for those who can afford it.

Rates for the Oberoi Udaivilas start at about $350 per night.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best hotels in the world

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Guests arrive at the hotel by a private boat ride across Lake Pichola.

When they reach the entrance, they'll see grand architecture that was inspired by the traditional palaces of Rajasthan.

The hotel has remarkable architectural details, like traditional pavilions and domes.

Parents know how much of a headache bringing the baby for a drive can be. 

Volvo wants to make bringing your kid along for a ride less of a chore by swapping the front passenger seat in favor of a child seat. 

The company unveiled the redesigned seat in its XC90 SUV concept car on July 2 in Shanghai. 

A radically different interior provides a safe place to secure a rear-facing child seat in the front-row seat, which also rotates to allow for easy baby boarding. 

“We started by asking ourselves if we could make life easier for parents and safer for their children when it comes to the child seat experience,” said Tisha Johnson, Chief Designer Interiors at Volvo Cars Concept and Monitoring Centre, in a press release. 

“We focused on three key benefits — making it easier to get the child into and out of the child seat from an ergonomic and comfort perspective, providing the child with a safe rearward facing seating position that enables it to keep eye-contact with either the driver or the rear passenger, and of course including enough storage for those vital child accessories, such as diapers, bottles, wipes, and so on.” 

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that children under the age of 2 sit in rear-facing car seats, which significantly reduce the likelihood of injury or death in case of a crash.

The Swedish carmaker is no stranger to safety innovations. Volvo was among the first adopters of a three-point safety belt and rear-facing child seat. 

“We have always placed a great deal of importance on child safety,” the release continues. “But this takes things to the next level.” 

SEE ALSO: Volvo just revolutionized car seats in a way that parents will love

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The Economic Innovation Group (EIG) recently looked at which states had the highest percentage of their population living in economic distress, and a clear trend appeared.

The Southeast of the US, which has always struggled with poverty, still has the highest concentration of people living in economic distress. 

To assess economic distress, the study examined these seven variables in over 25,000 ZIP codes: educational attainment, housing-vacancy rates, unemployment rates, poverty levels, median-income ratios, percent changes in employment, and percent change in establishments.

The study is based on data from the American Community Survey from the 2009-2013 period.

Based upon those criteria, EIG then ranks the states according to the percentage of population who lives in a ZIP code that falls into the top 15% of distressed ZIP codes in the US. 

A high concentration of states with 15% and more of the population living in distress is clearly visible in the Southeast.

Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia all have at 15% of their population living in economic distress, with Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina all topping the list at 25%.

The northern states generally do better than the South with only Michigan topping the 15% threshold.

The state with the highest percentage of people living in distress is Nevada, where a third of the population is in that situation. Wyoming, on the other hand, has 0% of its almost 600,000 inhabitants living in economic distress.

SEE ALSO: The most distressed large cities in America

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This Martha's Vineyard estate isn't just a study in clean white design, it's the former summer White House of the Obama family. 

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, real estate agent Thomas Wallace of Wallace & Co. Sotheby's rented the Chilmark home to President Obama and his family for their summer vacation in 2013.

Keep scrolling for an inside-out tour of the $22.5 million listing, as well as a fun pic of the Obamas at play. 

SEE ALSO: Andy Warhol's legendary Hamptons mansion is back on the market for $85 million

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Wallace told The Wall Street Journal that the rural town's seclusion was what drew the Obamas to the property.

Sitting on over nine acres of land at 120 feet above the Atlantic, the home affords bountiful ocean views of the South Shore and Chilmark Pond.

A private driveway leads to the estate, which includes a half basketball court, dock, and access to three private beaches.

Minnesota threw its first state fair in 1859, a year after it was granted statehood. It’s been nearly held every year since, and is the second largest fair in the United States.

Residents from across the Midwestern state flock to the fairgrounds, near St. Paul, for many reasons. There are concerts, baby animals, butter sculptures, rides, and games. But perhaps the biggest draw is the food.

“The Great Minnesota Get-Together” has a long tradition of serving strange and delectable foods, and vendors introduce wacky new dishes every year. This year's offerings include Sriracha Dogs and Mac & Cheese Cupcakes — something for everyone (just don't forget your heartburn meds).

The 2015 fair starts August 27th and goes until Labor Day. You'll probably want to book a flight after checking out the insane eats being offered this year.

SEE ALSO: 29 Reasons Why The Minnesota State Fair Is The Best State Fair In America

Buffalo’d Bones: Slow-smoked center cut St. Louis-style spare ribs, fried, tossed in buffalo sauce and served with blue cheese dressing and celery.

Burger Dog: A ground blend of hamburger, hot dog, bacon, cheese and a splash of jalapeño on a hot dog bun.

Butter Chicken Samosas: Pastries filled with chicken in a tomato curry sauce and served with a side of green chutney. Sweet Summer Vegetable Samosas with corn, peas and onions also are available.

In the first study of its kind, a team of scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have upended the common notion that having more sex will make you happier.

In fact, more sex might even generate unhappiness, George Leowenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon, and his colleagues report in their recent paper.

Several studies over the last decade have found evidence to suggest that sex is directly linked with happiness, so that more sex means greater happiness. One study even found that changing the amount of sex you had from once a month to once a week would give you the same amount of happiness as receiving an extra $50,000.

However, what these studies missed and what's causing some misconceptions about sexual frequency and joy, Leowenstein recently told the New York Times, was to determine which element — sex or happiness — was the cause and which was the effect. Not only that, other factors besides sex, such as income, location, or age, could be better gauges of what makes us happy.

"Although it seems plausible that sex could have beneficial effects on happiness, it is equally plausible that happiness affects sex," the team wrote in their paper. " ... or that some third variable, such as health, affects both."

To help settle this riddle, the team carefully designed an experiment that would clearly determine, once and for all, if more sex causes greater happiness.

A straightforward experiment to solve a confusing riddle

The experiment was straightforward: Measure how happy couples were with their current sex schedules. Then, split them into two groups and ask one group to have more sex (twice as much, to be exact) and ask the other group to change nothing about their sex live. Finally, compare their how happy they were afterward. (As part of the experiment, for example, couples having sex three times a week had sex six times a week; those having sex once a month had it twice a month).

A total of 64 adult couples volunteered. Each pair was legally married and heterosexual, and all volunteers were between the ages of 35 and 65.

The team asked half of the couples to double the amount of sex they were having while the other half of couples kept their normal sex schedule.

Throughout the duration of the experiment, which lasted 90 days, both sets of couples completed the same online questionnaire at the end of each day. This questionnaire helped the researchers measure each couple's mood as well as how satisfied they were with each sexual episode — the quality of the sex.

What they found surprised them:

"Contrary to what one would expect if the causal story running from sexual frequency to happiness were true," the team wrote in their paper, "we observed a weak negative impact of inducing people to have more sex on mood."

In general, the researchers found that the couples who doubled the amount of sex didn't enjoy the sex as much and were less happy overall. Although the team can only speculate as to why this was, they did answer their question: More sex does not make us happier.

Moreover, the researchers stipulate that by being forced to have more sex, the selected couples actually developed, over time, less motivation to have sex. That, in turn, is what might have led to an overall downturn in the quality of their sex as well as their overall mood.

What you want to take away from this, Leowenstein told the Times, is that when it comes to sex, concentrate on quality and not quantity if you want to be happy.

CHECK OUT: Surprising science-backed ways to boost your mood

SEE ALSO: The scientists behind 'Inside Out' explain one big thing the movie gets right that most people get wrong

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