Many cultures are built on drinking outside — Italians love drinking on church steps, the French like to picnic in the park with wine, and Germans enjoy a good road beer on their way to the bar.

But most of America is missing out on this prime social outdoor drinking with its pesky container laws.

We've found 21 places in the US where it's legal to drink outdoors.

SEE ALSO: 32 massive parties everyone should go to in their lifetime

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Las Vegas, Nevada: Seeing as what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, it's only natural that it would encourage debauchery by allowing people to imbibe anywhere. The only exceptions to public drinking are within 1,000 feet of a church, synagogue, school, hospital, or homeless shelter.

New Orleans, Louisiana: Home of Mardi Gras and daiquiri shops. Obviously, open containers are not an issue here.

Sonoma, California: With over 400 wineries, it's really in the wine country's best interest to allow public drinking. Wouldn't want to cheapen fancy wine with brown bags, would we?

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NOW WATCH: Watch this guy attempt to eat 9,000 calories in one sitting for this over-the-top British food challenge

Pinterest is a magical place, where DIY reupholstering projects always turn out flawlessly and advanced-level baking looks perfectly easy. It's also a place where women have been known to trawl endlessly in search of ideas for their perfect wedding. From the ring to the dress to the flowers, Pinterest provides a seemingly infinite trove of possibilities for any bride-to-be.

Even if the to-be part is way off in the future. Even if the Pinterest user in question isn't engaged ... or in a relationship. And with the addition of private boards that only its owner can access, anything goes and there's no risk of being shamed.

Meet the Pinterest Bride: a woman planning her wedding pre-engagement, even pre-relationship, and feeling somewhat ashamed of it, though they don't really know why.

Business Insider talked to three Pinterest Brides — all separately asked to be referred to by first name only — about their secret Pinterest wedding habits.

The Washington Post reports 38 million boards are dedicated to wedding planning, and out of all of the secret boards on Pinterest, 30% of those are for "dream" weddings. 

Amanda

30-year-old Amanda says she has one secret board, and it's centered around diamonds. "It's called 'Rings & Things,'" she tells Business Insider. Amanda has a boyfriend but tells us she's not "officially engaged" yet. She also doesn't want anyone to see what her wedding ideas are.

"Weddings are really personal since there are so many ways to do things and the particular ways you can highlight your personality and relationship," she told Business Insider. "I'd only want my closest friends to be able to see what my ideas/hopes/styles are before I decide what to actually do and put forth on the day I get married."

Amanda says she and her boyfriend have discussed their future wedding plans at length, and that Pinterest has been able to help keep her thoughts and ideas privately organized.

"There's so much planning involved in a wedding and I think you need to discuss all of this stuff with your potential partner in advance," she explains. "I know people who have gotten engaged and then fought for 9 months about which city their wedding should take place, because they never talked about it before."

Chelsea

And it's not just weddings — Pinterest users (mostly women) are planning the decor for their dream homes, or the sights they'll see on their dream vacations.

"Sometimes it's just enough to pin it," 27-year-old Chelsea said. "And especially if it's public, it says to people 'I have good taste.' It's not like the majority of people who follow you on Pinterest are ever going to actually see what your future apartment or your house end up looking like."

The reality check can be hard for some brides who have invested time and effort into dreaming up the perfect Pinterest wedding only to find out the dream reception is way beyond budget when the time comes to actually start planning. 

Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington tells The Washington Post's Julia Carpenter that "... 99 percent of them cannot afford — even 99.5 of them can not afford what they’re looking at. But they think about it.” 

Wedding planner Sara Fields tells The Post's Carpenter that she tells her brides to "stop pinning at a certain point in the wedding planning process."

Chelsea, who was married in early 2015, says she loved using Pinterest to wedding plan ... until she actually got engaged. 

"Planning and paying for a wedding, budgeting everything, making sure stuff is done and checked off the list, making sure everyone's happy, it's like a job," Chelsea said. "Planning my 'dream' wedding was no longer something that de-stressed me."

Kaitlynn

Kaitlynn, 27, has not one, but two secret wedding boards.

"'Wed' is the private Pinterest board that encompasses more of the decorating details ​of [my] wedding whereas 'goin' to the chapel' is the one that mostly houses different dress options," Kaitlynn said.

"My thought was it's much harder to exactly copy a wedding dress than decorations," she says, then echoes Amanda's sentiments by adding that in her "quest to always have an air of originality I wanted to keep a lot of my painstakingly curated ideas and visions under wraps from 'All of The Other Twenty-Somethings.'" 

But mum's not just the word when it comes to weddings.

Kaitlynn's other secret boards are about losing weight and applying to grad school. "They're things I'm sensitive about," she explains. "I don't want people to know I'm applying to grad school because I don't want to explain myself if I don't end up getting in or end up going."

All three women agree that there are probably way more people with secret wedding boards out there who wouldn't dare cop to it. But when asked how friends and family would react if their private Pinterest activity was ever uncovered, they all had a similar answer.

"I think they'd wonder why I thought it was such a big deal that I needed to keep it private," Kaitlynn concluded.

Amanda agreed.

"I actually think it's strange when brides say they haven't thought about their wedding at all until they get engaged."

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NOW WATCH: How much sex you should be having in a healthy relationship

LEGO devotees will probably make a pilgrimage to Billund, Denmark next year.

That's where the world's largest toy company, which had its humble beginnings in Billund, is constructing a full-sized LEGO House designed entirely in the brick-by-brick aesthetic. 

LEGO has partnered with architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group to maximize the miniature world.

At nearly 82,000 square feet, the building serves a variety of functions.

It's part public art piece, tourist attraction, LEGO store, cafe, and, with roughly 20,000 square feet set aside for open space, just somewhere people can hang out, says LEGO marketing manager Hans Peter Folmann.

"We hope it will be a natural gathering point for people living in Billund as well as visitors," Folmann said in 2013, when the initial designs were released.

LEGO broke ground on the structure in June of 2014. One year later, construction has progressed from the basement to ground level. Earlier this June, the keystone — the "brick" that joins the entire structure together at the top — started construction.

While the actual structure only looks like it was built with oversized LEGO bricks, architects used the real thing in designing it.

The House began as a 1:100 scale model built entirely with LEGOs.

(So it's a LEGO house that isn't actually made of LEGOs but whose model isn't a real building but was made using real LEGOs? Got it.)

First, designers had to generate mock ups of the house using computer software.

Only then could the team begin the fun part of building.

According to LEGO, the scale model had to be built in layers, not sections. This ensured that the replica was structurally sound.

Piece by piece, the various rooms began to take shape, including the dual staircases leading to the building's rooftop gardens.

Unlike the real LEGO House, the scale model doesn't need its keystone installed first.

Still, the layered building process guarantees the entire small-scale house is built to last. 

The final product is currently on tour in exhibitions around the world. It has already made stops in France and Switzerland, and will be visiting the BrickFair in Chantilly, Virginia, in a few weeks and BrickCon in Seattle later this fall.

Once the full-scale version is completed, it will measure nearly 100 feet high and cover a ground area of more than 26,000 square feet. 

SEE ALSO: LEGO is slipping a feminist message into its newest line of characters

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Two divorces and three marriages seems par for the course if you're Donald Trump, a man who freely admits that he's married to his business. 

Settled down (maritally speaking) for now, Trump has two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, and a daughter, Ivanka, with first wife Ivana; a college-age daughter, Tiffany, with second wife Marla Maples; and a 9-year-old son, Barron, with current wife Melania. 

Having grown up in the spotlight, his three eldest children manged to find success and happiness while sidestepping the usual celebrity kid drama. Meanwhile, 21-year-old Tiffany, an aspiring pop star who was raised in LA, is attending business school on the East Coast and hitting the town with Manhattan's so-called "Rich Kids of Instagram." And young Barron is busy just being a fourth-grader.

Here's everything you need to know about each of the Trump heirs. 

DONALD JR., 37, son of Ivana 

A father of five, Donald Jr. was 12 years old when Ivana and Donald Sr. divorced. Unlike his younger siblings, he was old enough to understand what the nasty divorce headlines meant — his classmates were, too. 

As a child he was extremely close to his maternal grandfather, Milos, who passed away in 1990. The two would spend a couple of weeks every summer hunting and fishing in a town outside of Prague (Ivana is Czechoslovakian). The fast-talking Donald Jr. is fluent in Czech and named one of his sons Tristan Milos, after his grandfather. 

After boarding school (Pennsylvania's prestigious Hill School), he followed in his father's footsteps — as most of the Trump kids have — to The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and real estate.

A 2004 New York magazine profile noted Donald Jr.'s propensity for drinking and getting into "do-you-have-any-idea-who-I-am? fights" in college, but he later told Forbes that his love of hunting kept him on the straight and narrow. "[While] other people I knew were getting into trouble, I was somewhere in a deer stand or going to bed early so I could be up before dawn to hunt turkeys," he said.

In 2001, a year after he graduated from college, Donald Jr. went to work for his dad for the second time. (The first time was when he was 13 and earning minimum wage plus tips as a dock attendant at Trump Castle.) Now an executive vice president at The Trump Organization, he cut his teeth with the development of Trump Place at West Side Yards and has gone on to spearhead projects in Chicago, Las Vegas, Scotland, and India. 

Thanks to a fix-up from his dad, he met his wife, Vanessa, at a fashion show. He caught a lot of heat for proposing to her in front of a jewelry store with a bunch of photographers standing by. The rumor-mill called it a publicity stunt and claimed he'd gotten the $100,000 ring on trade. But as the happy couple has welcomed five children in the past seven years, that news story has long since been buried.  

IVANKA, 33, daughter of Ivana

Ivanka is the breakout success of the family. The same year that she and brothers Donald Jr. and Eric founded the Trump Hotel Collections, Ivanka launched a jewelry brand that has spawned clothing, shoe, and accessories lines carried by the likes of Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and Zappos. 

An avid runner and former runway model, Ivanka is an executive vice president of acquisitions and development for The Trump Organization. But she didn't go straight from The Wharton School to an office at Trump Tower. She worked for real estate developer Bruce Ratner for a year after college. And a 2013 Forbes profile indicates that she politely declined a job offer from Vogue's Anna Wintour. 

Specializing in deal-making and design, Ivanka joined her dad's company in 2005. She was the lead negotiator on the purchase of Trump National Doral Miami, a $1 billion property that she scooped up for $150 million. 

Ivanka is stealthily private about her personal life, but before tying the knot with real estate and publishing scion Jared Kushner she was linked to Greg Hersch (now a wealth management SVP at UBS) and is said to have gone on a date with "That '70s Show" star Topher Grace. 

She met her match in Kushner. The two live in a $16 million penthouse atop Trump Park Avenue with their two children, Arabella Rose and Joseph Frederick Kushner. Ivanka converted to Orthodox Judaism before her 2009 wedding and the family keeps kosher and observes the Sabbath. “From Friday to Saturday we don’t do anything but hang out with one another. We don’t make phone calls,” she told Vogue.

ERIC, 31, son of Ivana

For a long time, Eric was the six-foot-five, media-shy baby of the family. He told New York magazine that his brother Donald Jr. is like his mentor and Ivanka is like his second mother. "She took me under her wing and raised me, took me shopping, tried to make me cool,” he said. 

Unlike his brother and sister, he chose Georgetown over Wharton and went straight to work for his father after he graduated. He has the same EVP of acquisitions and development title as his sister, but his niche is said to be in construction. 

In 2012, he proposed to his then-girlfriend of five years, Lara Yunaska, at Seven Springs, his dad's $19.5 million Westchester estate, with a ring from sister Ivanka's fine jewelry collection. Yunaska is a former personal trainer and TV producer.  

The couple was married in front of 400 guests at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Springs, Florida. Eric's brother-in-law Jared Kushner officiated the wedding, telling Yunaska, “You are not just gaining a family, you are getting six million Twitter followers.”

Eric also owns and operates Trump Winery, Virginia's largest vineyard, and has pledged nearly $28 million to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital through his Eric Trump Foundation.   

He and Lara split their time between Westchester and Manhattan, where Eric owns a three-bedroom apartment at Trump Parc East that he bought from his father in 2007 for $2 million.  

TIFFANY, 21, daughter of Marla Maples 

Tiffany Trump is so new to the scene that she doesn't even have a Wikipedia page yet!  

Unlike her half-siblings, she didn't grow up playing in her father's office — nor did she spend her summers helping him fix up the grounds of Seven Springs. Tiffany was raised by mother Marla Maples outside of LA. There, she attended Calabasas' $31,205-a-year Viewpoint School. 

In an interview with Oprah.com, Maples remarked that a then-17-year-old Tiffany was "getting to an age where she is studying business" and that soon she would "be able to look to her father to guide her."

Fast-forward to today and Tiffany is studying at The Wharton School and hoping to break into either fashion or music. Her sister Ivanka reportedly helped her snag an internship at Vogue, and last year she dropped the single for her debut song, "Like a Bird."

Last October the bubbly California Trump celebrated her 21st birthday bash with a pack of young socialites dubbed "The Rich Kids of Instagram." This summer she's been popping up on the Hamptons party circuit. Some of her friends are Harry Brant (son of media mogul Peter Brant), Gaia Matisse (Henri Matisse's great-great-granddaughter), and EJ Johnson (Magic Johnson's son), star of E!'s "Rich Kids of Beverly Hills" show. 

She loves to travel and her father's private jet comes in handy when she wants a change of scenery. We're sure her Wikipedia page will arise and fill up fast soon. 

BARRON, 9, son of Melania 

From the way Melania describes her 9-year-old son, he may be the more like his father than any of his siblings. "He loves to build something and tear it down and build something else ... Sometimes I call him little Donald," she told Parenting.com. 

The young heir is said to prefer suits to sweatpants and has an entire floor to himself at his parents' Trump Tower penthouse. Melania famously told ABC News that she slathers Barron in caviar moisturizer (from her skin care line, priced at $50-$150 per product) every night. 

He celebrated his fourth birthday with his entire preschool class at Manhattan’s Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, where the kids ate a cake shaped like Donald's private jet and went on submarine and airplane tours. 

Melania says he plays baseball and tennis, but has a proclivity for his dad's favorite sport: golf. His parents keep him out of the public eye as much as possible, but he regularly attends the Trump Invitational Grand Prix at Mar-a-Lago and, when he was younger, Melania always took him to the Upper East Side's hottest children's social of the year, the Memorial-Sloan Kettering Bunny Hop.  

SEE ALSO: How 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump spends his billions

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NOW WATCH: Here are all the best moments from Donald Trump's presidential announcement

In 2007, BI Video Producer Eames Yates interviewed His Holiness the Dalai Lama. During the interview His Holiness made it clear that he loves to laugh. To celebrate his 80th birthday we wanted to release this delightful and infectious video. 

Produced by Eames Yates

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It can be easy to forget how vast America's landscape is.

The country is home to several national parks that offer everything from caves to petrified forests.

Inspirock.com created an infographic that highlights some of America's lesser-known national parks.

From Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park to Utah's Canyonlands National Park, here are 5 underrated US national parks. 

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

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NOW WATCH: This guy absolutely loses it as he bungee jumps off a tower in China's beautiful Qing Long Canyon

Quality dress shoes are expensive, but they can last for decades, especially if they are cared for properly.

That's where shoe trees come in. Some men look at the wooden shoe inserts as an unnecessary purchase, but shoe trees are crucial to keeping shoes in amazing shape as they age.

WHY DO I NEED SHOE TREES?

Our feet sweat throughout the day, and the leather and lining of our shoes absorb all that moisture. This can cause the lining to rot, your shoes to stink, and the leather to crack over time, thereby ruining expensive footwear.

A shoe tree holds a shoe in its proper shape so it dries out correctly, and keeps the leather from cracking by wicking away moisture. The absorbent wood also helps dry out the lining of shoes so that they don't rot from the inside out.

Long story short: Shoe trees are a whole lot cheaper than a new pair of nice shoes, and will keep your current pair in excellent condition for years.

SHOULD I SPLURGE ON SHOE TREES?

Not all shoe trees are created equal. There are three tiers of shoe trees, as well as travel shoe trees.

Cheap Shoe Trees ($15-$30)

These are the bare minimum for those who want a shoe tree but don't want to spend too much money. If your shoes cost less than $200, this is a fine option.

Cheaper shoe trees generally don’t have full wooden heels. Instead, a nob or a piece of thin wood helps stretch out the shoe. These will help with odor and leather cracking, but they won’t hold the shoe shape quite as nicely as more expensive options.

Also, don’t buy a varnished shoe tree. They look nice, but they don't properly draw moisture and sweat from the leather and lining, which is the point of the product. A rough cedar version should work well.

(Pro tip: When the smell of the cedar starts to fade, you can lightly sand the shoe tree to bring it back.)

Quality Shoe Trees ($25-$50)

Shell out for nicer trees if your shoes cost more than $200. Quality shoe trees will have ventilation slots at the toe to help dissipate moisture, a longer, crafted heel, and contain more wood for better drying and odor control. They will also ensure the closest possible fit between the shoe and tree.

As with the cheaper versions, top marks go to unfinished cedar models and those with knobs or handles for maintaining your shoes' shape during polishing.

Lasted Shoe Trees (bespoke, costs will vary)

If your shoes cost more than $700, chances are they will come with their own lasted (specially crafted) shoe trees. Brands like Prada and Gucci sometimes sell their own with high-end shoes, or they come as a perk for splurging on fine footwear.

These are the best of the best when it comes to shoe trees, because they are essentially an entire cedar foot that draws out moisture and maintains the natural shape of the shoe.

Travel Shoe Trees ($10-$20)

Perfect for business travelers or jetsetters, travel shoe trees are typically plastic (although there are cedar versions) that are lightweight and great for keeping your shoes’ shape in a suitcase without them getting smooshed.

DO I NEED A SHOE TREE IN EVERY PAIR OF SHOES?

This is the most common question about shoe trees, and something shoe bloggers and experts find controversial.

It would be ideal to have a shoe tree in every nice pair of shoes you own — no, you don’t need them in your sneakers — but it's not absolutely necessary, as long as you rotate your shoes and shoe trees throughout the week.

Shoes need a full 24 hours to dry before the next wearing, and the best way to properly dry them is to insert a shoe tree. If you have a few pairs of nice shoes that you rotate, ostensibly you need only one or two shoes trees to keep in your most recently worn pair of shoes.

The vital time for using shoe trees is the hour or two after you’ve removed your shoes from your feet to best draw out moisture and help the shoe return to its natural shape. After that, the shoe trees merely retain shape and help with odor control.

But if you’re a huge fan of all your shoes and have a vast collection of expensive footwear, then buy a shoe tree for every pair. Some shoe collectors swear by them. But most men can get away with using a single set of shoe trees on their most recently worn shoes.

SEE ALSO: Here's why you shouldn't wear the same pair of shoes every day

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NOW WATCH: 6 scientifically proven features men find attractive in women

The reclusive co-founder of Burt's Bees whose face adorns every tube of balm and salve sold by the natural cosmetics company, died Sunday at 80.

The Associated Press reported that Burt Shavitz died of respiratory complications in Bangor, Maine, surrounded by friends and family. He lived in a cluttered house with no running water, while a converted turkey coop that once served as his house rested on the property. 

“Burt was an enigma; my mentor and my muse. I am deeply saddened,” said partner, ex-lover former CEO Roxanne Quimby to The Associated Press in an email. They started the company together in the 1980s as a beekeeper and a passing single mother and back-to-the-lander.

Shavitz said he was forced out of the company in 1994 after having an affair with an employee. He sold his shares to Quimby in 1999 for $130,000, the Washington Post reported.

In 2007, Clorox bought the company for more than $900 million. Quimby gave Shavitz just $4 million of the cut, the Post reported, with 37 acres in an isolated part of Maine.

He would later tell the Associated Press: "What I have in this situation is no regret."

When asked about his severance from the company, Shavitz told the documentary makers of Burt's Buzz: "In the long run, I got land, and land is everything."

In his final days, Shavitz spent his time watching wildlife.

"Burt was a complex man who sought a simple life in pace with the seasons of nature on his land," the company said in a statement. "If there is one thing we will remember from Burt's life, in our fast-paced, high-tech culture, it's to never lose sight of our relationship with nature."

SEE ALSO: Burt's Buzz reveals the drama between the founders of Burt's Bees

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

Business Insider recently sent three reporters to Havana, Cuba to experience the city as tourists. We decided to visit one of the largest supermarkets in the city. Located inside a shopping mall, the supermarket had shelves stocked with both products made in Cuba and imported ones like Pringles and Lays potato chips.

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

Produced by Graham Flanagan. Additional camera by Amanda Macias and Tyler Greenfield.

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Last month, Business Insider released a list of the most powerful person at every age. We looked at four criteria: command, past influence, future influence, and net worth, to determine the most powerful people ages 1-100. The list includes politicians, celebrities, CEOs, the children of notable figures, and more. 

Read the full article, or watch the video here. Below, you can scroll through to see the names and faces of every person on our list. 

Thanks to Melissa Stanger and Emmie Martin, who wrote the original list, and to the BI video team, who created the video.

SEE ALSO:  The most powerful person in the world at every age

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Memorial Day Weekend may be the kickoff to Hamptons season, the time when New Yorkers flee the city and run wild on Long Island's South Fork, but July 4th is when the East End party circuit really starts to grind. 

From an upper crust art fête to a PR maven's yacht party, here's an inside look at the Hamptons Fourth of July celebrations that made waves this weekend.  

The most fashionable party of the long weekend was definitely the Revolve kickoff at this gorgeous house in Sagaponack.

All the cool girls were there, including model/"Gone Girl" star Emily Ratajkowski and girl about town/DJ Leigh Lezark.

British DJ Chelsea Leyland made friends with the camera — and the gigantic chess board.

Though most people dream about a white sand beach, that's not the only color beaches come in.

Across the world are beaches filled with bright purple, pink, red, green, black, orange, and white sands. 

Whether it's years of volcanic activity that give the sand its ashy black color or miniature coral fragments that mix with white sand to form a lovely pink hue, the results are breathtaking. 

From the Red Beach in Santorini, Greece, to the olive green shores of Papakōlea Beach in Hawaii, here are 15 of the most colorful beaches in the world.

SEE ALSO: The 23 best beaches in America

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Sink your feet into the red sands of Red Beach in Santorini, Greece. Iron-rich black and red lava rocks led to the colorful red sand.

Another beach nicknamed Red Sand Beach is Kaihululu in Maui, Hawaii. There is a volcanic cinder cone surrounding the beach, which is where the red sand comes from.

Papakōlea Beach, located on the southern tip of Hawaii's Big Island, is nicknamed Green Sand Beach. The green sands come from olivine crystals from surrounding lava rocks in the Pu'u Mahana cinder cone of Mahana Bay.

On Monday, the Dalai Lama turned 80.

"Emotional Intelligence" author Daniel Goleman has been a friend of the leader of Tibetan Buddhism for 30 years.

He met him through Buddhist scholar Bob Thurman, and Goleman — then a science writer for the New York Times — helped arrange meetings between His Holiness and leading scientists. 

Goleman drew on a series of conversations with the Dalai Lama for their new book, "A Force For Good: The Dalai Lama's Vision For Our World."

In a recent interview with Business Insider, Goleman recalled the biggest thing he's learned from knowing the religious icon for decades. 

Here's his anecdote in full: 

I think, bottom line, what I learned from the Dalai Lama is the potential of what a human being can be. He's my role model.

He teaches by his being and what he does.

[I remember] he was meeting with 20 CEOs in Vancouver. They met for two hours. They asked him questions, he gave them advice.

They'd hired a photographer to document the meeting. He's going around shooting from every angle, and at one point he ends up lying on the floor by the Dalai Lama, facing up at him with a big telephoto lens, and the Dalai Lama stops what he's saying, looks down, very amused, and says, "Oh, why don't you just take a nap while you're down there!"

At the end, the photographer posed everybody for a formal picture. As it starts breaking up, the Dalai Lama says to him, "Come over here." He hugs him close and they take a picture together

I've seen this time and again with him. He does not make distinctions based on power, role, status, fame, wealth. He doesn't care. He says we're all the same human beings. He really lives it.

That compassion in action that he's demonstrating — I think it's made me a little kinder in how I am with people.

"A Force for Good" is now available for purchase. 

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NOW WATCH: The Dalai Lama reveals the most interesting man he's ever met

The New York Times' effort to get us all to add green peas to our guacamole may have backfired, but it got me thinking about obscure ways to upgrade my foolproof guacamole recipe that I've been using for well over a decade.

After discovering I had leftovers of the classic guac I made this past weekend at my family's BBQ, I decided to do something crazy with them: I added blueberries.

It was totally life-changing. The blueberries added a refreshing and sweet explosion to each bite without overpowering the strong flavors of jalapeño and lime in the guacamole. 

I wasn't going to go the pea route. Frankly, I've eaten Jean-Georges Vongerichten's pea guac — the one that inspired the Times' recipe and subsequently caused the Internet to freak out — and I wasn't impressed. Who needs more green mush in a sea of green mush?

If anything, I wanted to add fruit. Tons of great fruit is in season right now, and it's one of my favorite things to snack on when I'm lounging outside on a hot summer day. Fruit in guacamole is nothing new; I've been served mango guac in restaurants, but the mango becomes a substitute for avocado, as opposed to a complement. Pomegranate seeds are another common addition, but I find the taste overpowering. 

This led me to experiment with blueberries. I didn't choose blueberries as much as they chose me — we had a plentiful supply in the fridge.

I didn't mix the fruit in with the guacamole but left them on top as a garnish instead. I can't speak for what guac with blueberries mixed in would taste like, but if you try it, let us know!

So here it is, a recipe for blueberry guac. If blueberries aren't available, try blackberries — they're also in season.

Blueberry Guacamole

Ingredients:

2 ripe avocados, seeded, peeled and cut into large chunks

1-2 limes, depending on how juicy they are

2 cloves fresh garlic, chopped

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1 jalapeño, minced

1/2 cup fresh tomatoes, chopped

1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Directions

1. In a bowl, squeeze lime juice over the avocado chunks.

2. Add garlic, red onion, and jalapeno, then smash the ingredients together using a large fork.

3. Add tomatoes, cilantro, salt, and pepper, stirring them into the mix using a wooden spoon.

4. Garnish with fresh blueberries and serve!

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NOW WATCH: Your favorite bar is ripping you off — here are the drinks that are worth spending money on

Countries around Europe have been experiencing record temperatures since the end of June.

According to USA Today, Kitzingen — a small town in southern Germany — broke the German heat record set in 1983 and 2003 at a stifling 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit.  

Meanwhile, The Telegraph warns that Britain could face record-high temperatures (read: over 101 degrees Fahrenheit) at the end of July.

From Spain to Zurich, citizens and visitors are being advised to take necessary precautions against the dangerous heat. 

Here's how people (and animals) are staying cooling in the blistering heat. 

SEE ALSO: The 10 best beaches in Europe

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A crowd in central Brussels, Belgium busted out their super soakers for a huge water gun fight.

People flooded the shores of the Silbersee lake in Haltern, Germany to keep cool.

A young woman fanned herself while waiting for the tube on Britain's hottest July day in nine yeas.

What do you do when all the young, capable airport staff disappear and no one can help you with your luggage?

Give the aging employees artificial super strength, Japan says.

Tokyo's Haneda Airport has partnered with robotics company Cyberdyne to equip its staff with robotic exoskeletons that can assist with the grueling practice of lifting luggage.

Normally, those duties would be assigned to younger staff members. But Japan is running out of those.

A country with one of the highest rates of people living past their 100th birthday has stopped having kids almost altogether.

Last year, the country welcomed just 1 million new infants (Japan's total population: 127.3 million). It was a record-low birth rate and led experts to project a population decline of more than 20 million people by 2040.

That has enormous impacts on the labor force, which Cyberdyne is hoping to buffer with science.

The company's solution is a smaller version of the full-body robotic suit HAL (hybrid assisted limb) that was introduced worldwide in 2013.

The new apparatus, known as HAL for Labor Support, sits on the user's waist and picks up bioelectric signals from his or her muscles to aid movement.

"The main purpose of this type of robot is to prevent back pain," Cyberdyne CFO Shinji Uga told Motherboard's Emiko Jozuka.

A person weighing roughly 110 lbs. could pick up a 45-lb. suitcase with ease, Uga adds, although the device can be ramped up even higher for added strength.

HAL for Labor Support comes with a battery that can last a few hours and a price tag of $1,109 per month. It will also work in tandem with floor robots that can cart loads upward of 400 lbs. and clean the airport terminals.

Cyberdyne has set its sights beyond just Japan. 

In many developed countries where the birth rate has fallen below replacement fertility rate— the number of kids people need to have to keep the population stable — demographers fear declines in output.

"As the devices are designed so light that female or elderly workers can wear," Cyberdyne states on its website, "they will encourage participation of those various people into a society with a low birthrate and aging population."

Though not as dire, the US is part of that group. Women are foregoing relationships to grow their careers, and increasingly people are living alone.

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What can better determine the cost of a city than the price of a nice cold beer?

Go Euro recently released its 2015 Beer Price Index, which combined data from 75 cities around the world, using the cost of the most popular local beer and top five most commonly imported ones.

Just like you want to avoid eating a club sandwich in Geneva, Switzerland, a beer there will set you back the most, clocking in at $6.32. Where $10 will get you just over six beers in Krakow, it will barely get you two in Geneva.

The second-most expensive place to knock back a few is Hong Kong ($6.16), closely followed by Tel Aviv ($5.79)

As for the US, not surprisingly the most expensive place to get a beer is in New York (5th place overall), where a cold one will cost you around $5.20.

Eastern Europe seems to be a safe bet in terms of savings, as Krakow and Kiev are tied with an average cost of $1.66 per beer, with Bratislava hot on their heels with an average of $1.69 per beer. Eastern Europe also sets the tone in terms of highest annual beer consumption per capita, as Bucharest dominates with 133 liters, closely followed by Prague at 130 liters, and Krakow and Warsaw tied at 127 liters each.

Check out the full list below.

SEE ALSO: The 28 most expensive cities to eat in around the world

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Fitness membership program ClassPass became a $400 million company by offering a unique proposition — for $99 a month, you can take as many fitness classes as you like, without committing to a gym.

There are a few caveats. 

You're limited to studios that partner with ClassPass, you can only take three classes at each studio per month, and you have to cancel at least 24 hours in advance, or else you'll be charged $20. 

Business Insider's Alyson Shontell tested out ClassPass and concluded that the strict cancellation policy was the hardest thing about the service. She also found that classes tended to book up quickly, making it difficult to get a spot if you don't plan far in advance.

So is the $99 a month worth it?

That depends on how often you work out — and where.

If you're a fan of trendy fitness studios with sparkling lobbies, great music, and perks like free hair elastics, it will only take four visits for your ClassPass membership to pay off. With classes costing $20 to $40 on average, you only have to go once a week to make your $99 membership worth it. And if you work out more frequently than that, joining ClassPass could save you a considerable amount of money.

For instance, I could go to:

• Flywheel on Monday ($34)
• Dharma Yoga on Tuesday ($22)
• Pure Barre on Wednesday ($33)
• Warrior Fitness Boot Camp on Thursday ($38)

Without a membership, that would cost me $127 for just four days of workouts. If I paid $99 for a ClassPass membership instead, I'd save $28, and I'd be ahead even if I didn't work out again for the rest of the month.

Of course, you could get a discount at a particular studio by buying a package deal — for instance, at Pure Barre, you can get 20 classes for $500, bringing the price down to $25 per class (which would still take four classes to break even with a ClassPass membership, although you wouldn't be permitted to take four classes at one studio in a single month). 

If you take a boutique gym class four times a month, your ClassPass membership would be worth it.

However, let's say you typically look for the cheapest possible class option, and limit yourself to $5 classes at your neighborhood community center or nonprofit yoga collaborative. In that case, you'd pay the equivalent of 20 classes for your monthly membership. If you aren't attending 20 classes a month now and don't plan to start — or an average of five classes a week — you'd be paying more for ClassPass than you do for your current workout, with less flexibility than you currently have.

CLASSPASS, $99/month

Worth it: If you like popular (and pricey) workouts like barre class and spinning, and take four or more classes a month.

Not worth it: If you're on a tight budget, happy sticking with a no-frills workout, and take fewer than three boutique gym classes per month.

SEE ALSO: 5 signs your gym membership is a complete waste of money

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Gallup recently published its Gallup-Healthways State of Global Well-Being: "2014 Country Well-Being Rankings" report.

For the second year in a row, Panama came out on top of the rankings, with the highest score overall.

"The Global Well-Being Index measures well-being across five elements (purpose, social, financial, community and physical) and individual responses are categorized as thriving, struggling or suffering....," the report's authors wrote. "Our analysis ranks countries based on the percentage of the population that is thriving in three or more elements of well-being."

Panama "leads all other countries in well-being, with 53% of its residents thriving in three or more elements," Gallup reported. "Panama is also the highest country for purpose (60%) and physical well-being (52%)."

But Panama's repeat isn't the whole story. In fact, seven of the ten "highest well-being countries," as defined by Gallup, are in Latin America. 

For perspective, the US dropped to 23rd place in 2014, from 12th in 2013. Afghanistan ranked last in the report, at 145.

We were curious about why Latin Americans fared so well in terms of their well-being, so we checked in with Dan Witters, Gallup-Healthways Research Director, to get some insight.

"It's a culture of positive outlook," he said. "It permeates Latin America."

He added: "There are some pretty poor countries there, characterized by many decades of civil strife, human rights abuses, and outright civil war — yet people maintain pretty impressive levels of objective well-being. For those of us who spend all of time in well-being measurement, it was no surprise to see Latin American countries in there."

For all of 2014, Gallup's researchers interviewed 146,000 adults in 145 countries to obtain its data. 

"Our research shows that people with higher well-being have higher productivity, lower healthcare costs, are more resilient in the face of challenges and are more likely to contribute to the success of their organizations and communities," the authors wrote. 

Money is a factor in well-being, but as Witters noted, it's only important up to a point. This is backed up by a significant amount of research that has been conducted over the past fours decades, under the rubric of "happiness economics," a field that has gained increasing respect in the academic world after being pioneered in the 1970s by Richard Easterlin, who is now at the University of Southern California. 

In the US for example, happiness peaks at about $75,000 in annual income and then doesn't climb higher. And if you're already rich, you have to get much, much richer to move up the happiness scale.

According to Witter, "negative affect," or the tendency to view one's well-being as limited, bottoms out at $75,000. And unfortunately, stress can start to increase again if you move beyond that income bracket.

In Panama, the ability to be optimistic about finding employment also moves the needle of well-being. Witter said that in the happiest country in the happiest overall region, Latin America, people report that it's a good time to find a job.

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