Bike World | 16 March 2013

<div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;"><b>World 3036</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-0SlNH13tdelIcB7zLN6eVvv782Am9AdxkZY8dYY84-iDFJvizUOKQGaFa9RMe44fZgLkkjpnPFKDVKDmE-89LaZF9ZVpaLIyxOW9V2cXNb7lh1i1pY23EPOwTvfmQagO-ntFCWcmips/s1600/20130228_0009.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" heighth="853" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-0SlNH13tdelIcB7zLN6eVvv782Am9AdxkZY8dYY84-iDFJvizUOKQGaFa9RMe44fZgLkkjpnPFKDVKDmE-89LaZF9ZVpaLIyxOW9V2cXNb7lh1i1pY23EPOwTvfmQagO-ntFCWcmips/s1600/20130228_0009.jpg" width="853" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZg0l1przwBgqu6voRgyJlAWSsi3dRySKyAQ2qouAaT_SIyiJGBBMqQPjIzC-Fh6LDVFuWrgArwS_I1-VfvIGTYAP5l8N9OwceLgrAxaIpr-7HO0Hz9VXXdWywQ0c8tlwWWCO6Hgr5evo/s1600/20130314_0014.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="853" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZg0l1przwBgqu6voRgyJlAWSsi3dRySKyAQ2qouAaT_SIyiJGBBMqQPjIzC-Fh6LDVFuWrgArwS_I1-VfvIGTYAP5l8N9OwceLgrAxaIpr-7HO0Hz9VXXdWywQ0c8tlwWWCO6Hgr5evo/s1600/20130314_0014.jpg" width="853" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpaYi6fB1PNj8zPg7JmdBjt0OFcTciIXMBO3TyPKHRuECJNgNk077_GKgmTED15ip0Gwm1m14VEdOAfUXlalbH5RBhQl3ZJpl03WdgEtF13cY2e0i220Txp4k1-CdnrsEi-S6_b7DXyUA/s1600/20130314_0004.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="853" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpaYi6fB1PNj8zPg7JmdBjt0OFcTciIXMBO3TyPKHRuECJNgNk077_GKgmTED15ip0Gwm1m14VEdOAfUXlalbH5RBhQl3ZJpl03WdgEtF13cY2e0i220Txp4k1-CdnrsEi-S6_b7DXyUA/s1600/20130314_0004.jpg" width="853" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3_TtavSgOQjtFq1PiwlVwvO4lC4dwnk9BDLX4OaQTXyUsobX8QuC8MGW3NpgXAvYtSfktYnX9R58crdmacrmm9JJtuLLZyLgwt0n5ai7-O9sOKLeGvLqyQ5w3WCiQQKmN4VDNq6lkf3o/s1600/20130314_0019.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="853" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3_TtavSgOQjtFq1PiwlVwvO4lC4dwnk9BDLX4OaQTXyUsobX8QuC8MGW3NpgXAvYtSfktYnX9R58crdmacrmm9JJtuLLZyLgwt0n5ai7-O9sOKLeGvLqyQ5w3WCiQQKmN4VDNq6lkf3o/s1600/20130314_0019.jpg" width="853" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVfGuRXKofZe-zGLf4tyVtp67iHFKo4krQr2WBYnYTp7TTO_w62m-QaT5Y2wcIgIVaV4B1dGW_JChA-WLukzsYSHsoEh6-SnKAPj3llq29Ygb4wLJznVCs9EGLNNfnsdM6iwkvQl7Ei8/s1600/20130314_0024.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="853" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVfGuRXKofZe-zGLf4tyVtp67iHFKo4krQr2WBYnYTp7TTO_w62m-QaT5Y2wcIgIVaV4B1dGW_JChA-WLukzsYSHsoEh6-SnKAPj3llq29Ygb4wLJznVCs9EGLNNfnsdM6iwkvQl7Ei8/s1600/20130314_0024.jpg" width="853" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9WWYP2voxUSwx3Hk28ZG7omDKCGdbkXnwxLNEWnKD22TEY1_ye8AMU_bvo9RDciu3S5KqHZ1iDiXJc0s8K4mVUbRtJx15IfVdXAucechc5wuW3q-wKLzEoDXGvp7FHKQOLJPgnLX0TJg/s1600/20130314_0033.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="853" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9WWYP2voxUSwx3Hk28ZG7omDKCGdbkXnwxLNEWnKD22TEY1_ye8AMU_bvo9RDciu3S5KqHZ1iDiXJc0s8K4mVUbRtJx15IfVdXAucechc5wuW3q-wKLzEoDXGvp7FHKQOLJPgnLX0TJg/s1600/20130314_0033.jpg" width="853" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPB8hjoLwu4d5X4O3i_T6jGCWEZJrNeyASoTspL7sxK_B5YKUwpQRPXCvEre57gG1OaLLZNnQDVLE9q5dq2bXXT2rIs60tqNmBEo-sLX42fMRCg26uyfEzIPjfvt7s-Q08Nuirah3XqL8/s1600/20130314_0031.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="853" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPB8hjoLwu4d5X4O3i_T6jGCWEZJrNeyASoTspL7sxK_B5YKUwpQRPXCvEre57gG1OaLLZNnQDVLE9q5dq2bXXT2rIs60tqNmBEo-sLX42fMRCg26uyfEzIPjfvt7s-Q08Nuirah3XqL8/s1600/20130314_0031.jpg" width="853" /></a> </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIhPctuzHqpVEYUwRemSu1iIKAYrqxfUIj-aaUiUa_eRLanj_js8OQ5QXeFv0A5VKhyJy5HolIfMO1I6fygximK1Z0leGMvwNsqvj7gucyJp5lXIaHBqzZZ8hPzm45iEezXxzlbgwdw4/s1600/20130228_0018.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="853" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIhPctuzHqpVEYUwRemSu1iIKAYrqxfUIj-aaUiUa_eRLanj_js8OQ5QXeFv0A5VKhyJy5HolIfMO1I6fygximK1Z0leGMvwNsqvj7gucyJp5lXIaHBqzZZ8hPzm45iEezXxzlbgwdw4/s1600/20130228_0018.jpg" width="853" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA141wiZQWOTOsPnu3FgZT6u7fevdKhyphenhyphen5TfZCrqA9ocG3JygbOWnHuVZj_PbCUN0R_YhwZLljZdFvq1C07-aHGuC2OLBcePsM0RN4_NcwEuci50B6F8zclXDzlDpbY6_B65v7CDrglxFU/s1600/20130228_0027.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="853" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA141wiZQWOTOsPnu3FgZT6u7fevdKhyphenhyphen5TfZCrqA9ocG3JygbOWnHuVZj_PbCUN0R_YhwZLljZdFvq1C07-aHGuC2OLBcePsM0RN4_NcwEuci50B6F8zclXDzlDpbY6_B65v7CDrglxFU/s1600/20130228_0027.jpg" width="853" /></a></div>

Bike World | 16 March 2013

World 3036

Read more »

Shave Soap Hoarding

I use shave soap and a badger brush a couple of times a week, usually on weekends when I am not in a rush in the morning. I've tried many different types of shave soap, and the soap from The Art of Shaving ranks very high. A few weeks ago I was thinking about buying a new puck of soap (because I am near the end of my puck of Tabac soap, which, by the way, is another top notch performer even though some say that it smells like an ashtray lurking in your Grandma's linen closet), so of course I browsed over to the Badger & Blade website to see about the latest and greatest trends in shave soap.<br /><br />After spending some time in the "Shaving Soaps" sub-forum, I saw a post about the end of the shave soap universe - The Art of Shaving changed its soap formulation! They will no longer be tallow-based soaps. Zounds! You see, some believe that tallow is a magic ingredient for a proper shave soap, and many feel that The Art of Shaving BLEW IT by making the change. So there you go, I scratched that soap off of my wish list and decided to move on to something else.<br /><br />Fast forward about a week, and I found myself wandering about in my local mall, waiting for the females in my family to complete some trivial and unimportant shopping. I spotted a brick and mortar Art of Shaving store, and the mission was ON. I immediately targeted the shave soap display but my trek across the store was intercepted by the young lady working at the store. "Are you looking for anything in particular?" she asked. At this point, I felt ready to test her knowledge of the product line, and blurted out in a holier-than-thou tone: "Yes. I'm interested in your old tallow-based shave soap formulation because I really liked that product and am disappointed that you changed it." Take that!<br /><br />I was expecting a blank stare from her, but was pleasantly surprised by her response: "We actually do have some old stock left, and you're not the first person to ask about it. We have some of the unscented, lemon, and lavender soap left. You can tell which ones are the old tallow soaps by looking at the packages and [TOP SECRET CONTENT REDACTED]. See, this one is the old soap, and this one is the new stock."<br /><br />Wow, this person knew her stuff, and her unexpected response caught me off guard. "If you like the old soap, you should stock up on them now," she said. I thought to myself: "Damn, she is right. This is a great product and soap has a long shelf life. Whatever." So, although I was really looking for the sandalwood flavor, I convinced myself to load up on some lemon and lavender soaps. After getting home and realizing how idiotic my acquisition was, I did some rationalization and convinced myself that the soap could be considered to be an "investment" (I should be able to break even at the very least by selling them to other like-minded idiots).<br /><br />The sales lady at the store suggested that I keep the soap in a cool, dry, dark place (e.g., Grandma's linen closet). I took the advice of this knowledgeable person, wrapped the boxes in Saran Wrap, and stashed them away in a cabinet.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGuKO6kvZMd2F6ZnP1IGlFA9nJa2rzHbgLIb2pSpWFJhi0AkLD-wIJmSL5Z5_CNvpxD4qd7AjexHTCaEC0NI6h67vkxTYmmlzghXGQ9wpHeLt7UMJQ47H52uMbksnw-6SZAj4wcZGyoM/s1600/IMG_6090.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGuKO6kvZMd2F6ZnP1IGlFA9nJa2rzHbgLIb2pSpWFJhi0AkLD-wIJmSL5Z5_CNvpxD4qd7AjexHTCaEC0NI6h67vkxTYmmlzghXGQ9wpHeLt7UMJQ47H52uMbksnw-6SZAj4wcZGyoM/s200/IMG_6090.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hermetically Sealed AoS Soaps</td></tr></tbody></table>As shown, I bought six pucks. My plan is to save them for a few years to see whether or not they become highly sought after on the seedy shaving goods market. Or I might sell them or trade them for other goods or services. Or I might actually use them. I have options.<br /><br />After the thrill of finding these awesome soap pucks wore off, I realized that I still needed to buy something to actually use. I decided to try the Windsor soap from D.R. Harris, an English brand that claims to be one of London's oldest pharmacies (200+ years in existence). I wonder if they have any 200 year old shave soap lurking somewhere in their stockroom.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDC7AejjfsjARRQ4g9onxCpJJniZMdhizc6I_PNY8rCeEd2oO-7hcZxYVE1crRJi6bNQIWSOgWXzn4ipKbS_pmZB5Um_rLIcwvVNnzACC5_U327Fdbncszxks5GPUyuKt9pclrwdrxpiw/s1600/IMG_6088.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDC7AejjfsjARRQ4g9onxCpJJniZMdhizc6I_PNY8rCeEd2oO-7hcZxYVE1crRJi6bNQIWSOgWXzn4ipKbS_pmZB5Um_rLIcwvVNnzACC5_U327Fdbncszxks5GPUyuKt9pclrwdrxpiw/s200/IMG_6088.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><br />I'm not sure why the box says "Shaving Bowl" on it, because there was nothing but a piece of soap inside. Pleasantly scented, and made with tallow of course!

Shave Soap Hoarding

I use shave soap and a badger brush a couple of times a week, usually on weekends when I am not in a rush in the morning. I've tried man...

Read more »

One Hyde Park | The Most Expensive Residential Development on Earth

<iframe frameborder="0" height="480" scrolling="no" src="http://embed.buto.tv/ZFTfb" width="853"></iframe><br /><br /><div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/society/2013/04/mysterious-residents-one-hyde-park-london" target="blank">Vanity Fair</a></b></span> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.onehydepark.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span></a><b><a href="http://www.onehydepark.com/" target="_blank">ne Hyde Park</a> is the world’s most exclusive address and the most expensive residential development ever built anywhere on earth. With apartments selling for up to $214 million, the building began to smash world per-square-foot price records when sales opened, in 2007.</b><br /><br /><span style="color: black; display: inline; float: left; font-family: museo-1,museo-2,helvetica; font-size: 32px; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: -0.04em; line-height: 1em; margin: 30px 30px 30px -125px ! important; text-align: right; width: 295px;">they can drive their Maybachs into a glass-and-steel elevator</span> From the Hyde Park side, One Hyde Park protrudes aggressively into the skyline like a visiting spaceship, a head above its red-brick and gray-stone Victorian surroundings. Inside, on the ground floor, a large, glassy lobby offers what you’d expect from any luxury intercontinental hotel: gleaming steel statues, thick gray carpets, gray marble, and extravagant chandeliers with radiant sprays of glass. Not that the building’s inhabitants need venture into any of these public spaces: they can drive their Maybachs into a glass-and-steel elevator that takes them down to the basement garage, from which they can zip up to their apartments.<br /><br />The emphasis everywhere is on secrecy and security, provided by advanced-technology panic rooms, bulletproof glass, and bowler-hatted guards trained by British Special Forces. Inhabitants’ mail is X-rayed before being delivered.<br /><br />Investment banker David Charters says, “One Hyde Park is a symbol of the times, a symbol of the disconnect. There is almost a sense of ‘the Martians have landed.’ Who are they? Where are they from? What are they doing?” </div><br /><iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/55i22tOXwGw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br /><div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;">The really curious aspect of One Hyde Park can be appreciated only at night. Walk past the complex then and you notice nearly every window is dark. As John Arlidge wrote in The Sunday Times, “It’s dark. Not just a bit dark—darker, say, than the surrounding buildings—but black dark. Only the odd light is on. . . . Seems like nobody’s home.”<br /><br />That’s not because the apartments haven’t sold. London land-registry records say that 76 had been by January 2013 for a total of $2.7 billion—but, of these, only 12 were registered in the names of warm-blooded humans. The remaining 64 are held in the names of unfamiliar corporations often registered in offshore tax havens.<br /><br /><b>Who are the owners in One Hyde Park?</b><br />One $39.5 million apartment is registered openly in the name of Anar Aitzhanova: this may be a Kazakh singer.<br /><br />Another two, for a combined $49.8 million, are held jointly by Irina Viktorovna Kharitonina and Viktor Kharitonin. The latter is likely to be a co-owner of Russia’s largest domestic drugmaker.<br /><br />Another apartment is registered to Rory Carvill, a British insurance broker; another is held in the name of Bassim Haidar, who appears to be the founder and C.E.O. for Channel IT, a Nigeria-based telecommunications company. A $35.5 million apartment is registered in the name of Karmen Pretel-Martines, who could not be further identified, as is the case with a Beijing-registered buyer named Kin Hung Kei, who paid $11.6 million.<br /><br />The best apartment of all—a triplex on Floors 11, 12, and 13 of Tower C—is owned (via a Cayman company) by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, of Qatar, a partner of Project Grande consortium which is behind One Hyde Park.<br /></div><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9iV3Y_UKLrg" width="853"></iframe><br /><br /><div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;">Another buyer, who bought and merged two apartments for a total of $215.9 million, is Rinat Akhmetov, the Ukraine’s richest man, with an estimated personal net worth of $16 billion. He has interests in coal, mining, power generation, banking, insurance, telecoms, and media, and has been a big beneficiary of privatization auctions in his native country. A spokeswoman for Akhmetov’s holding company, System Capital Management, said last year that the purchase was a “portfolio investment”; U.K. land-registry documents say it is held through a B.V.I. company, Water Property Holdings Ltd.<br /><br />Another owner is Vladimir Kim, who chairs the London-listed Kazakh copper giant Kazakhmys P.L.C. Kim was once a top official in the political party behind Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has often been accused of sanctioning severe abuses of human rights and media freedom. Sheikh Mohammed Saud Sultan Al Qasimi, head of finance for the government of Sharjah, bought an $18.1 million apartment, while at least one more belongs to the Russian real-estate magnate Vladislav Doronin, who is dating model Naomi Campbell.<br /><br />An $11.7 million second-floor apartment is owned by Galina Weber, a significant shareholder in the Russian gas giant Itera. Two apartments, worth a combined $43.7 million, are owned by Professor Wong Wen Young, with London and Taipei addresses. This is presumably the billionaire Taiwan-born entrepreneur Winston Wong Wen Young, who has enjoyed a close business relationship with Jiang Mianheng, the son of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin. A $12 million apartment is held jointly by Desmond Lim Siew Choon and Tan Kewi Yong, a billionaire Malaysian couple with a big property empire. Last September the real-estate company Jones Lang LaSalle estimated that nearly a sixth of all recent buyers of new central-London property were Malaysian—and only 19 percent British. Wealth is currently pouring out of Malaysia ahead of imminent elections, which could see the scandal-ridden ruling coalition ousted for the first time since independence.<br /></div><br /><iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AW8quBdJJ-I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br /><div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;">Less is known about others, but clues can be found. Land-registry documents for four apartments provide contact details for Alastair Tulloch, a British lawyer who Hollingsworth said is known in Russian-oligarch circles as “the new Stephen Curtis”—a reference to the Russians’ go-to London lawyer, who died in a mysterious helicopter crash in 2004. Tulloch has represented the interests of Alexander Lebedev, a banking oligarch who owns London’s Evening Standard and a sizable piece of the Russian airline Aeroflot, among other holdings, and has worked closely with the jailed Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.<br /><br />One apartment was purchased by the Caymans-based Knightsbridge Holdings Ltd., registered in Ugland House—a modest building where some 20,000 companies are registered and which President Obama in a 2009 speech said was “either the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world.”<br /><br />A company called Postlake Ltd.—registered on the Isle of Man—which owns a $5.6 million apartment on the fourth floor. Postlake is in turn registered as owned by Purcey Ltd., a B.V.I. entity, which is registered as held on behalf of an Isle of Man trust set up by the bankrupt Irish property developer Ray Grehan, who has been pursued by Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency to recover more than $350 million it says it is owed. Grehan had argued that the apartment is not really his but belongs to a family trust. Martin Kenney, a B.V.I. lawyer, says B.V.I. companies are frequently owned by foreign trusts from more outlandish jurisdictions, such as Nevis or the Cook Islands, deepening the secrecy. These structures are “debtor-friendly and creditor-unfriendly,” he says, so in cases of fraud it can be very hard to recover assets.</div>

One Hyde Park | The Most Expensive Residential Development on Earth

Vanity Fair O ne Hyde Park is the world’s most exclusive address and the most expensive residential development ever built anywhere on ea...

Read more »

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

<div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwnSmgnRsFVpXU1qqlK0Oa7Vol5HzGVJ62zFucD8iDgOLBPy4NWpdXTJJjyLqgUFouWWkjaK3bvFhD6eSsYbYWGD1ngNn10EYEI9NxVVYQpS-kraqNev7Z3cpT9Zmbgj3BuKIKIABzB7o/s1600/9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwnSmgnRsFVpXU1qqlK0Oa7Vol5HzGVJ62zFucD8iDgOLBPy4NWpdXTJJjyLqgUFouWWkjaK3bvFhD6eSsYbYWGD1ngNn10EYEI9NxVVYQpS-kraqNev7Z3cpT9Zmbgj3BuKIKIABzB7o/s320/9.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/03/13/174021020/a-young-man-gets-filthy-rich-boiling-bottling-tap-water" target="blank">National Public Radio</a></b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span><b>n his new novel, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Filthy-Rich-Rising-Asia-ebook/dp/B008ON449S?ie=UTF8&tag=inforfarm-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="blank">How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia</a></i>, Mohsin Hamid's nameless protagonist is an ambitious young man who moves from the countryside to a megalopolis in search of his fortune.</b><br /><br />“Something like half the world's people now live in cities for the first time in human history, but in the course of the next generation, 25, 30 years, that number’s going to go to 80 or 90 percent, which means that a couple billion people are going to move to cities in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America.”<br /><br /><object data="http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/player.swf" height="24" id="audioplayer525" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="290"> <param name="movie" value="http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/player.swf"><param name="FlashVars" value="playerID=audioplayer525&soundFile=http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2013/03/20130313_fa_01.mp3"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="menu" value="false"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></object> <div><a href="http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2013/03/20130313_fa_01.mp3" target="blank">download mp3</a></div></div>

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

National Public Radio I n his new novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia , Mohsin Hamid's nameless protagonist is an ambitious you...

Read more »

PBS Off Book | The Rise of Webcomics

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6redB3Xev14?rel=0" width="853"></iframe><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://pbsarts.tumblr.com/post/45417715432/web-comics-off-book-the-internet-has-given" target="_blank">PBS Off Book</a></div>

PBS Off Book | The Rise of Webcomics

PBS Off Book

Read more »