Back in 1789, British sailors in the Pacific mutinied on the HMS Bounty and settled on Tahiti and Pitcairn Island. While the mutineers on Tahiti were later arrested by the British, those on Pitcairn were able to start a community with Tahitian companions. In 1838, the Pitcairn Islands officially became a British territory.

Today there are 48 people living on the tiny island, all said to be descendants of the Bounty mutineers.

As the population dwindles, the once stiff residency requirements are becoming increasingly lax in order to attract more residents. Those looking to live permanently on Pitcairn without prior family ties to the island are required to submit an application to the Island Council and the Governor. Your best shot is to offer "skills which will be beneficial to the Pitcairn community," according to their government website. 

You can also visit — but getting there isn't easy.

One frequent visitor is Scottish-born Tony Probst, 54, who has been an avid explorer since he was a child, spent almost 15 years sailing around the world with his parents.

"I find that I like to go to places that most people have never heard of or care about," he said.

Probst, who has visited four times since 2011, has been dubbed the island's ambassador by the natives. With his permission, we are publishing some of his favorite pictures of Pitcairn.

The British Pitcairn Islands includes four small volcanic islands in the Pacific. Only Pitcairn is inhabited, with around 50 residents.

Much of the Pitcairn terrain is rocky ...

... but that doesn't keep islanders like Brenda from exploring.

When WhatsApp was acquired a few days ago for $19 billion, it had a fairly small team. 

55 people work for WhatsApp; 32 of them are engineers. The rest mostly handle customer support.

We rounded up some of the earliest WhatsApp's employees on LinkedIn. These people are responsible for creating the fastest growing social network ever. 450 million people use WhatsApp every month.

Many of the early employees were former Yahooers, just like WhatsApp co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton.

Which employees did we miss? Leave the names in the comments.

Jan Koum is the co-founder of WhatsApp. He's now a billionaire.

Co-founded WhatsApp in February 2009

Role: CEO and "Senior Tweet Manager"

Previous Job: Infrastructure Engineering for Yahoo

Igor Solomennikov was one of the first employees. He joined the same month WhatsApp launched.

Joined WhatsApp: February 2009 – Present

Role: Software Engineer 

Previous Job: iPhone developer at Injoit

Julia Reznikov was only at WhatsApp for a handful of months so she might not have gotten WhatsApp stock. She joined Federated Media then Google

Joined WhatsApp: March 2009 – August 2009

Role: Marketing/PR Coordinator

Current Job: Platform Account Manager at Google

While watching a movie at home or in theaters, sometimes we forget the special effects that go into bringing a film to life.

This year, "Gravity,""The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,""Iron Man 3," and "Star Trek Into Darkness" are all nominated for visual effects Oscars.

Would you recognize any of those films without their added special effects?

We've gathered together images from visual effects studios Industrial Light & Magic, Framestore, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Rhythm & Hues along with visual effects software company Imagineer Systems to show what popular movies would look like without added effects.

From Oscar-nominated films to box-office successes see what popular movies would look like without effects.

Visual Effects crew Rhythm & Hues helped make Oscar winner "Life of Pi" go from this ...

... to a boat lost out in the Pacific Ocean with a giant Bengal tiger.

Visual effects helped take Sandra Bullock from earth ...

Lonely Planet has published a new book, "Beautiful World," an image collection of the most stunning places on Earth. 

The book showcases 200 photos taken by travelers everywhere from Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah to terraced rice fields in China.

You can see a selection of photos here, and purchase the book for $39.33 at Lonely Planet.

Towering ponderosa pines are seen in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Chasms in the rock are formed when water freezes and expands, gradually pushing the rocks apart and creating alleys up to 200 feet deep.

Thousands of lanterns float to the night sky at the Thai festival Loi Krathong, which takes place during a full moon in November.

A panoramic view of The London Parliament, Big Ben, and the Westminster Bridge viewed from across the Thames river at dusk.

If you're attending South by Southwest in March, you may be wondering which restaurants you should be hitting up during your time in Austin.

From classic Texas BBQ to some out-of-this-world sushi, there's plenty of food worth trying. 

Inspired by Zagat's lists of the most popular and best overall places to eat in Austin, we've compiled a list of the restaurants you shouldn't miss. 

Restaurants were rated on a 30-point scale, in the categories of Food, Decor, and Service. Scores between 26 and 30 are typically reserved for restaurants that are "extraordinary to perfection."

Prices are estimates, reflecting what diners should expect to spend on a single dinner with a drink and tip.

The Salt Lick

18300 FM 1826, Driftwood

3350 Palm Valley Boulevard, Round Rock

3600 Presidential Boulevard, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

Food: 25

Decor: 19

Service: 20

Cost: $24

You can't go to Texas without getting BBQ, and the Salt Lick is arguably one of the most fun places to do it. Residents and visitors to Austin are crazy about their brisket and ribs, and it's all cooked on the most insane pit you'll ever see. The original location is about 20 miles outside of Austin, in Driftwood, in addition to locations in Round Rock and the airport.  

Uchi

801 South Lamar Boulevard

Food: 29

Decor: 25

Service: 27

Cost: $56

Zagat ranked this longtime sushi favorite as the best overall restaurant in Austin, giving top marks in food quality and popularity with residents.

Uchiko

4200 North Lamar Boulevard

Food: 28

Decor: 26

Service: 27

Cost: $59

Owned by the same group behind Uchi, Uchiko offers some of the same creative dishes that Austin locals have come to love. 

The American Dream is alive and well.

Facebook's recent announcement that it would buy messaging app WhatsApp for a staggering $19 billion minted new billionaires, including co-founder and CEO Jan Koum who was once dirt poor. Koum's family immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine two decades ago and lived on food stamps. Today, he's worth an estimated $6.8 billion.

All from humble beginnings, these 16 people not only climbed to the top of their industries but also became some of the richest people in the world.

These rags-to-riches stories remind us that through determination, grit, and a bit of luck anyone can overcome their circumstances and achieve extraordinary success.

Jan Koum, the CEO and co-founder of WhatsApp, once lived on food stamps before Facebook made him a billionaire.

Net worth: $6.8 billion (according to Forbes)

Koum, 37, came to the U.S. from Ukraine when he was 16 years old. His family, struggling to make ends meet, lived on food stamps that they picked up a couple blocks away from Koum's future WhatsApp offices in Mountain View, Calif. In 2009, he and co-founder Brian Acton launched the real-time messaging app with an aim to connect people around the world. It essentially replaces text messaging.  

Now with 450 million global users, WhatsApp recently agreed to a $19 billion buyout from Facebook. Koum is expected to make the most from the deal. Forbes estimates he has a 45% stake in the company, giving him a net worth of $6.8 billion. He's come a long way from his modest beginnings.

Kenny Troutt, the founder of Excel Communications, paid his way through college by selling life insurance.

Net worth:$1.7 billion (as of Sept. 2013)

Troutt grew up with a bartender dad and paid for his own tuition at Southern Illinois University by selling life insurance. He made most of his money from phone company Excel Communications, which he founded in 1988 and took public in 1996. Two years later, Troutt merged his company with Teleglobe in a $3.5 billion deal.

He's now retired and invests heavily in racehorses.

Starbucks' Howard Schultz grew up in a housing complex for the poor.

Net worth:$2 billion (as of Sept. 2013)

In an interview with British tabloid Mirror, Schultz says: "Growing up I always felt like I was living on the other side of the tracks. I knew the people on the other side had more resources, more money, happier families. And for some reason, I don’t know why or how, I wanted to climb over that fence and achieve something beyond what people were saying was possible. I may have a suit and tie on now but I know where I’m from and I know what it’s like."

Schultz ended up winning a football scholarship to the University of Northern Michigan and went to work for Xerox after graduation. Shortly after, he took over a coffee shop called Starbucks, which at the time had only 60 shops. Schultz became the company's CEO in 1987 and grew the coffee chain to more than 16,000 outlets worldwide.

It's no secret that Hollywood is filled with attractive people.

But some of today's top actors and actresses are so "ridiculously good looking," as Zoolander would say, that before they were on screen, they were walking catwalks or posing for major brands in magazines and commercials.

While a surprising number of Hollywood stars got their start as Abercrombie & Fitch models, others honed their chops in couture.

Can you recognize these catwalk-turned-Hollywood stars? 

By the age of 10, Katherine Heigl was working with Wilhelmina Models posing on the covers of magazines and for Sears and Lord & Taylor catalogs.

A 14-year-old Heigl hit Hollywood in 1992, going on to star in "Grey's Anatomy,""27 Dresses," and "The Ugly Truth."

A 25-year-old Josh Duhamel was named Male Model of the Year at an International Model and Talent Association competition in 1997.

Check out video of Duhamel strutting his stuff here >

Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych fled from Kiev on Saturday as the protest movement against his government continued to gain ground. His departure follows a deal signed yesterday with opposition leaders that dilutes his power, establishes a transitional government, and moves toward early elections, according to Washington Post.

It also left his presidential residence just 12 miles from the city unoccupied, but not for very long.

Thousands of protesters and journalists entered his incredible compound to find that Yanukovych was living in the lap of luxury. Besides his huge mansion, the president had his own private zoo, golf course, helipad, and even a massive boat.

Washington Post has more:

The crowds of ordinary Ukrainians getting their first glimpse of the luxurious estate wandered the grounds taking photos. An elderly pensioner shouted, “What a thief!” as he took in the marble statuary.

There was no looting, no one was allowed to enter the houses or outbuildings, and opposition protesters who had manned the barricades in Independence Square, the epicenter of the anti-government demonstrations, warned visitors to keep off the grass.

Here's what protesters are seeing on the grounds:

SEE ALSO: 26 Unbelievable Photos From The Battered Heart Of Ukraine

Join the conversation about this story »

Once the news broke that Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion, the app skyrocketed to #7 on the app store charts.

450 million people use it to send photos, videos, and texts to people all over the world free of charge.

If you're interested in downloading it, you'll need to know these top 10 tips for using the insanely popular messaging app.

This is the main screen of the app for an iPhone 4s. Tap each icon on the bottom to use different features for WhatsApp.

The first thing you need to do is change your status. WhatsApp will give you a selection to choose from or tap the plus icon in the upper right corner to make your own.

If you want to talk with a friend, tap the icon in the right corner to write a message. Broadcast Lists lets you send messages to multiple people at once. New Group lets you customize a group chat with people in your contacts list.

Starting with Herbert Hoover, every American president has established libraries and museums to preserve their legacies — and to tell their side of the story.

Richard Nixon is no exception. Just a few miles south of Los Angeles sits the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and museum, a sprawling complex created by his foundation and administered by the National Archives.

During a recent trip out west, we stopped by to see how America's most controversial president asked to be remembered.

Click here to take the tour >

After the trip, we spoke with Bob Bostock, a consultant to the foundation and co-author of most of the museum's exhibits.

The other author was Nixon himself, he told us.

Bostock says no presidential museum is designed to be impartial, but is rather an opportunity to tell a president's story from his own perspective. 

One could argue that the distinction is not quite so clear cut. There are no disclaimers saying where the foundation ends and the National Archives begins.

Bostock says the Watergate section of the museum, produced by the National Archives and not the foundation, is arguably too anti-Nixon. The foundation ceded control of that section when the Archives took control of the museum in 2007, he says, though he wanted us to emphasize that the relationship between the Archives and the foundation is otherwise cordial.

"I don't think anyone goes in to see exhibits that are harshly critical of that particular president," he said, noting there are plenty of other places to look to find critical voices.

No one, he argued, should go in to a presidential library with the assumption that they are getting an official history.

"We don't have that in this country," he said.

SEE ALSO: The US 20: 20 Megatrends Reshaping The Country

The first thing you notice is that the place is huge and sort of beautiful. There's a large reflecting pool capped by an outdoor ceremony area.

The nine acre-site also houses the helicopter Nixon used for Marine 1...

As well as his birth home.

The names Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, and Steven Spielberg aren't usually associated with failure.

But before these super successful stars made it big in Hollywood, they first failed, were fired, or heard the word "no" countless times.

But they never gave up.

See what 13 game changers had to overcome before becoming famous.

Beyoncé lost on "Star Search" in 1993.

Before people bowed down to Queen Bey, Beyoncé and her Houston, Texas-based hip hop group Girl's Tyme weren't considered winners on popular talent show "Star Search."

The group, who would later become known as Destiny's Child, appeared on a 1993 episode of "Star Search"— but lost to the Skeleton Crew.

Now 20 years later and one half of the most powerful couple in the music industry, Beyoncé included the "Star Search" footage in her new "Flawless" music video off her record-breaking visual album.

Walt Disney was told a mouse would never work.

Before Walt Disney built the empire he has today, he was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas."

In 1921, Disney formed his first animation company in Kansas City, where he made a deal with a distribution company in New York, in which he would ship them his cartoons and get paid six months down the road. He was forced to dissolve his company and at one point could not pay his rent. He reportedly survived by eating dog food.

Also, When Walt first tried to get MGM studios to distribute Mickey Mouse in 1927, he was told that the idea would never work because a giant mouse on the screen would terrify women.

Entrepreneur Walt had a whole slew of bad ideas before coming up with good ones, read about them here.

J.K. Rowling was on welfare.

Before J.K. Rowling had any "Harry Potter" success, the writer was a divorced singled mother on welfare struggling to get by while also attending school and writing a novel.

Luckily, that novel turned into the "Harry Potter" franchise, which has since made Rowling a billionaire as of April 2012.

Snippit is an app and social network that lets you share small samples of music ("snips") with friends.

If you've got the perfect song for the perfect moment and you want other people to know about it, Snippit makes it happen. Imagine another version of Twitter in which every tweet is an audio sample for you to listen to.

Song clips can be between 4 and 10 seconds long, and if you don't have any digital music, the app connects with iTunes to download free 30-second samples. Check out the video below for more, or click here to take a screenshot tour of the app. Snippit is available for free in the App Store right here.

The first time you start the app, instructions will walk you through how to use it.

You can use music that's already on your phone or grab a free 30-second song preview from iTunes.

I don't have any music on my phone, so let's visit iTunes to get a sample.

There are thousands of Wal-Marts across the U.S. that allow overnight parking for cars RVs. In some cases this had led to the development of whole communities.

Brooklyn writer and photographer Nolan Conway got to know some of these people while living out of his car for 3 weeks in Wal-Mart parking lots across Arizona.

"Within a week of being surrounded by these people I became lonely and unhappy. It’s one thing to stay in the Walmart parking lot, but it’s an entirely different experience living there. You can also feel quite vulnerable sleeping in your vehicle," Nolan wrote via email. 

Nolan plans on showing his series, "Waking Up At Walmart," in galleries soon. We've got the highlights here.

“My wife threw me out, because I’m a drunk," Sal said. “I drink too much vodka.” He currently works odd jobs and lives out of his pickup truck.

This is Caleb Gooker-Craig from Austin, Texas. He is a painter on an 11,000-mile solo bike trip. “I was riding through to check out Walmart, and I met an older guy who invited me for a glass of wine. He let me sleep between the truck and his R.V.," Caleb said.

For the last 7 years, Joe Torpey has lived between Walmart parking lots and the woods. He has had a hard time finding work due to a back injury. “This car saved my life,” he said inside his 1998 Ford Taurus station wagon. His worst fear is that he will have to live on the street if his car breaks down.

Facebook is starting to move into its new office in the historic Astor Place neighborhood in New York. 

The move marks the start of Facebook's growth plans for 2014, the year when recruiting top engineering talent is one of Facebook New York's top priorities, it just announced on its blog.

Facebook currently has more than 100 engineers in New York working on products like Pages, Location News Feed, mobile, and AI.

Three years ago, there were about 80 people working out of Facebook New York. Today, there are four times that number of employees.

As of today, all of those employees will start working in its new office. Even though the move starts today, the office will "officially" open in the spring. Once that happens, Facebook will host tech meetups, open up its doors to the general NYC tech community, and "even throw a party now and then."

The new space was designed by Frank Gehry, famous for his curvilinear architectural designs like the Guggenheim Bilbao.

770 Broadway is the historic home of John Wanamaker’s department store and currently also houses AOL, Adweek, Backstage, and Billboard.

Facebook's new New York office is located at 770 Broadway at Astor Place.

The building itself has a very special place in the history of advertising and media.

It started as John Wanamaker's department store.

Two sisters hold hands on the medal podium, an NBC host appears on TV with shockingly red eyes, a huge piece of machinery malfunctions during the Opening Ceremony.

These are the images that caught the world's attention during the Winter Olympics.

When taken together, they give you a solid overview of how the Sochi Olympics will be remembered.

The Olympic rings malfunction during the Opening Ceremony.

The Dufour-Lapointe sisters hold hands after winning gold and silver in moguls.

Bob Costas's eye infection spreads to his other eye.

The Sochi Olympics came to an end with the closing ceremony, and much like the opening ceremony, it was visually stunning.

The ceremony was a celebration of Russian culture and ended with the ceremonial hand-off to South Korea and the city of Pyeongchang for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

While many people will remember Sochi's failures, this was just the latest example of the many things Sochi did great.

The ceremony started with a boat flying through the sky to symbolize a trip through Russian history.

Here is a close-up of the boat being piloted by two clowns.

The organizers poked fun at themselves by recreating the malfunctioning Olympic rings from the opening ceremony.

Social media mastermind Gary Vaynerchuk has a new slideshow explaining how marketers are wasting money by acting like it's still 2004.

Vaynerchuk — who came to prominence by promoting his New Jersey wine store with his "Wine Library TV" video podcast — says marketers spend too much time trying to reach customers via television, outdoor media, and email.

Instead, Vaynerchuk says marketers need to understand the era of "ADD at scale" and try to capture the attention of easily distracted customers by providing them with real value. To do this, he says marketers need to understand what makes each social media platform special and should favor one-on-one interactions over blasting consumers with impersonal marketing messages.

In this slideshow, Vaynerchuk reveals his core strategy for digital marketing in 2014, which he crafted through VaynerMedia, a brand consultancy he founded that leverages social media to help brands make connections with prospective customers.

For many Americans, gas is a major expense. So knowing how prices will fluctuate — and whether it's better to fill up today or tomorrow — could make a big difference when every penny matters.

Esurance is now offering that information for anyone with an internet connection. The service is called Fuelcaster— punch in your zip code, and it tells you whether prices will rise or drop in the next 24 hours.

The Fuelcaster's info comes from "gas stations across the country along with a mix of pricing signals to estimate whether the price of gas will rise or fall tomorrow."

On Friday, I put in my Brooklyn zip code, and was told it was a good time to gas up: "We predict gas prices will rise tomorrow." Good to know.

The site also pulled up gas prices at stations in the area, sortable by price or location. It turned out I could find gas for just $3.18 a gallon — but I'd have to drive 4.9 miles to New Jersey to get it. No one in their right mind would drive from Brooklyn, through Manhattan, into New Jersey to save on gas, so the "cheapest" option would be more helpful if you could constrain the search area to a mile or so, or see all the suggested stations on a map.

Esurance isn't the first to offer this service (see the Gas Predictor!), and it's easy to see the Fuelcaster is a promotional tool. But if drivers get good information from it, I don't think any will care. Maybe some will be so impressed they'll switch their car insurance over.

SEE ALSO: Top Auto Execs Reveal The First Car They Ever Owned

Join the conversation about this story »

Florida and Hawaii are neck and neck as the states that have the best islands in America, according to a new list from travel site TripAdvisor.

"There is something transporting about an island vacation, and these Travelers’ Choice Islands winners will help travelers find their next escape," TripAdvisor's chief marketing officer Barbara Messing said in a statement.

The site ranked islands based on the quality and quantity of the most highly-rated hotels, restaurants, and attractions listed for each location on TripAdvisor during a 12-month period.

10. Key West in the Florida Keys is known as the “Winter White House” because of its appeal to visiting U.S. presidents. The island has also played home to literary greats like Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams.

Source: TripAdvisor

9. Hilton Head, south of Charleston in South Carolina, has become known as a golfer's paradise. In fact, the island hosts many championship athletic events throughout the year, including for tennis, volleyball and polo.

Source: TripAdvisor

8. Nantucket in Massachusetts has a designation as a National Historic District for having been the world's top whaling port. Now you can explore the old whaling cabins and captains' mansions or go for a swim or surf.

Source: TripAdvisor

Miami is attracting the LeBron James of Wall Street, the Dwyane Wade of Greenwich equity, and the Chris Bosh of Boston — financial titans who are relocating to pay less in taxes and maintain a luxury lifestyle with a glittering social scene. 

It's already the 2nd most popular financial hub in the country after NYC, and The Miami Downtown Development Authority is doing everything it can to make itself attractive to bankers through an initiative called the DWNTWN campaign.

Lloyd Blankfein and Leon Black are rumored to have bought Miami condos recently, and the latest hotshot to move his business there is Mark Spitznagel, founder of hedge fund Universa Investments.

“Florida’s business-friendly policies ... offer the perfect environment for us as we expand,” said Spitznagel. “I would expect to see more firms like Universa voting with their feet and relocating to a more hospitable business and tax environment, especially as many local governments are trying to tighten their grip on businesses.”

The nightlife and beaches don't hurt either.

Miami is a financial gateway to the Americas.

While New York remains the undisputed center of the hedge-fund universe, there are approximately 70 hedge and private equity funds now headquartered in Florida.

Everest Capital, which manages an estimated $2.3 billion, is headquartered in Miami along with private-equity companies like Trivest and HIG Capital.

And with the growing Latino market, setting up shop in Miami means capitalizing on a growing Latin American client base.

Lower taxes mean more cash in your pocket for what matters.

In Florida, there are no individual income taxes, no estate taxes and no capital gains taxes.

So if you think about it, a hedge fund manager reporting $1 million in income can expect to pay only the federal government, whereas his counterparts living in New York City and Connecticut will fork over an extra $104,300 and $67,000 respectively.

Like taking advantage of Miami's many luxury shops.

Leading the nation in luxury car sales, Miami is an epicenter for extravagent and exotic cars.

Almost 14% of all cars sold in Florida are from luxury brands compared to 11% in New York.

Even more interesting, the 2013 median household income in Florida is less than New York, at $42,751 and $60,663 respectively.