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Jon Bon Jovi Just Listed His Manhattan Duplex For A Whopping $42 Million

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bon jovi soho apartment

Want to live like a rockstar? Well if you have $42 million, now you can live like Jon Bon Jovi.

After more than a year of speculation that it would hit the market, the rockstar has listed his duplex apartment in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood for a sky-high price, celebrity real estate blogger The Real Estalker reports.

The duplex, listed with Corcoran, has a massive great room, five bedrooms, and 5.5 bathrooms. Even better, the apartment comes fully furnished, and as you can see from the listing photos, the crooner has great taste.

Bon Jovi bought the place for $24 million back in 2007, according to Curbed NY: if he sells for anywhere near the current asking price, he'll make a tidy profit.

The apartment is located on Mercer Street, in NYC's trendy SoHo neighborhood.



It has 11 rooms in total, including a great room with 11-foot ceilings.



Floor-to-ceiling windows mean every corner of the apartment is filled with light.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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15 Awesome Free Office Spaces For Freelancers, From Singapore To Brazil

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sagmeister walsh

London-based web site Open Studio Club has created a sort of Couchsurfing.org for creative freelancers: Ad and design agencies with a vacant desk can offer their workspace free of charge on the Free Desk Here site, and as long as freelance creative types follow a few standard rules — they can use the bathrooms but not the conference rooms — they can work at the agency for free on their own projects.

Creatives get an "official" place to work every day; agencies get the benefit of new and interesting itinerant talent walking through the door.

The best part, however, is that to list a desk space on the site, agencies must submit a photo of the space. And agencies being agencies, some of them have spent a LOT of time constructing their images, like this one (above) from the design firm Sagmeister & Walsh in New York.

Here's the desk available at Design Studio Maurice Redmond in Berlin. Note the signs that say, "Please don't touch the stuff!"



This is Jennifer Walsh of Sagmeister & Walsh in New York. We're presuming she won't be sitting there the whole time.



If you want to work at Snask in Stockholm, you might want to wear white.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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$3 Garage Sale Bowl Sells For $2.2 Million At Auction

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sothebys china bowl

Talk about a lucky find.

A small bowl that a New York family bought at a garage sale for just a few bucks back in 2007 turned out to be an extremely valuable, 1,000-year-old "Ding" bowl from China's Song dynasty.

The pottery bowl sold earlier this week at a Sotheby's auction for $2.23 million dollars, according to Reuters.

The unnamed family had reportedly displayed the bowl on their mantel, but recently decided to have it appraised.

It was purchased by London dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi, who paid 10 times the pre-sale estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.

SEE ALSO: The 50 Coolest Things Rich People Bought This Year

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Hedge Funder Is Selling A Shelter Island Mansion Equipped With Stripper Pole For $28.5 Million

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shelter island

Curbed's Rob Bear's pick for "House of the Day" is this beautiful Shelter Island mansion with a stripper pole in the basement that is on the market for $28.5 million. 

The home belongs to Marco Birch, a portfolio manager at Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management

Birch's stunning Shelter Island home features 40 rooms and 23,000 square feet of living space.

The real gem, Curbed points out, is hidden in the the basement where there's a stripper pole, illuminated dance floor, bar and curtained off VIP area. Who would have guessed that was in there? 

Anyway, it's definitely a sick home and now we're going to take a photo tour. 

The 23,000 square foot home was built in 2007.

Source: Zillow



It has magnificent views of Coecles Harbor.

Source: Zillow



The home sits on 7.5 acres of property.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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ANSWERED: How Often Should You Wash Your Clothing?

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guy shopping dressing room self pic

We all wash our clothes to keep ourselves and our clothes smelling so fresh and oh-so-clean, but there is such a thing as too much washing and too little.

There are downsides to both extremes: laundering your clothes more than you need to can shorten their lifespan and wear them out quickly, but washing too rarely can be unhygienic and cause a lot of icky bacteria growth.

Here's a general guide to follow:

  1. Bras: After three to four wears.

  2. Underwear: After every wear.

  3. Socks and stockings: One to two wears.

  4. Sportswear and swimwear: After every wear.

  5. Jeans: Five to six wears. Although there are some that advocate washing as little as possible. In fact, the director of brand concepts and special projects for Levi Strauss & Co. washes his once every six months.

  6. Tops: One to two wears.

  7. Dresses: One to two wears.

  8. Leggings: One to two wears.

  9. Pants, skirts, and shorts: Three to four wears.

  10. Jackets and blazers: Five to six wears.

  11. Coats: Once every two months of wear.

  12. PJs: Three to four wears.

Of course, this guide doesn't apply to the days when excessive sweating or accidental spills happen, and to those who have different hygiene preferences.

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The Story Of How Prince Alwaleed Made His Fortune Is Rather Controversial

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prince alwaleed in 1994

The controversy surrounding Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed's fortune isn't limited to his current wealth, it also extends to questions about how he made his fortune.

So let's get to them.

Columnist William D. Cohan sat down with the Prince in Paris for Vanity Fair. After describing the Prince's quirky habits and fast-paced lifestyle he settles into the most important question — how he started out as a businessman. The feature is, after all, called "The Creation Myth of Prince Alwaleed."

From Vanity Fair:

The official story of how Alwaleed got his start in business is where, many people believe, the myths about him originate. Alwaleed claims his father gave him $30,000. Within a year, he had lost the money. He went back to his father, who gave him $300,000. This time, it took him three years to lose it. He went back to his father again, who refused to give him more money and instead gave him the deed to a house he was building for Alwaleed in Riyadh. “Go work for yourself,” his father admonished. Alwaleed got a $600,000 mortgage on the house from a branch of Citibank in Riyadh. In pictures, the house looks like little more than a ramshackle structure and certainly not one that would serve as collateral for a large mortgage. To raise additional money, Alwaleed says, he sold a $200,000 necklace that his father had given his first wife, Dalal bint Saud, a daughter of King Saud. “She sold it for me and no one knows about this,” he says. As a grandson of the king, he also received a monthly stipend of $15,000.

That's when Alwaleed started doing deals in Saudi Arabia. Forbes estimated his wealth at about $1 billion at that point (1988), but he wasn't known in the U.S. until the New York Times reported that he saved Citigroup by investing $590 million in a preferred-stock issue.

He ultimate built a 10% stake in the bank.

In 1999, though, The Economist wrote a story saying that all this was bunk — “you could barely clothe a Saudi prince for such sums, let alone furnish him with a multi-million-dollar empire...he has not earned enough from his investments to pay for all he has spent in the 1990s.”

Of course, Alwaleed has an answer for that (Vanity Fair):

“That’s their problem. There’s no myth.” He insists that his wealth is self-made. “If I had access to oil, why would I borrow $30,000 from my father, or from Citigroup?” he asked me, incredulously. “I’d just begin from the beginning with $10 million. Why would I do that? Why would I do it twice and go bankrupt? And, by the way, strange enough, the first loan I got from Citigroup, I still have the loan paper. . . . If I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, why would I have a tin spoon in my mouth?”

Kerry A. Dolan, the senior editor at Forbes who wrote an epic takedown on Alwaleed's wealth earlier this month told Business Insider Alwaleed is "quite serious about investing" and that he reads everything and works hard — so this isn't a game to him.

Alwaleed isn't playing at business and investing, he just hasn't always been winning at it either.

Read the full piece at Vanity Fair>

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The Richest Person In Cyprus Is Actually Norwegian (SDRL)

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john fredriksen

It's a lot colder where Cyprus' richest person was actually born.

John Fredriksen, the Norwegian tanker magnate and 87th-richest person in the world — appended his citizenship in 1996 mostly for tax reasons — Cyprus doesn’t tax dividend-based income.   

Named of the Bloomberg's 50 most influential people in markets last year, Fredriksen is said to own a 6,000 square foot penthouse condominium — an alleged image of which you can see here— in Limassol on Cyprus' southwest coast. 

According to a statement from Fredriksen's spokesman cited by the Economic Times, the mogul's Cyprus-based firms actually have less than $1 million exposed to Cyprus' current financial turmoil.

Fredriksen's story is sort of amazing. Per his Bloomberg profile, he dropped out of high school at 16 and moved to Beirut to trade oil. He later leased boats to the U.S. army as it sent supplies to troops in Vietnam. During the Iran-Iraq war, he organized crude oil shipments for Iran.

He now owns Seadrill — market cap $17.14 billion — and a host of other major shippers.

Just as interesting, perhaps, is that the country's second-wealthiest individual is ethnically Turkish. 

Suat Günsel owns Cyprus' Near East University in Northern Cyprus. According to Forbes, business at the private institution is booming. But Günsel's main wealth is tied up in land, Forbes says.  

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Lululemon CEO Says There's Only One Way To Tell If Your Yoga-Pants Are See-Through

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Lululemon had to recall 17 percent of its black luon yoga pants this week after complaints that they were too sheer.

Now, CEO Christine Day shared the only way to identify whether your yoga pants are affected. 

Do the downward dog.

"The only way to test for the problem is to put the pants on and bend over," Day said in an earnings conference call this morning. "It wasn't till we got it in store and started putting it on people that we actually saw the issue."

On the call, Day said that the company is still determining exactly what went wrong with the pants, but said it's she believes its a one-time issue. 

The recall could lead to a shortage in stores, leaving room for competitors like Gap's Athleta, Under Armour, and Nike to grow. 

Here's a picture of a group of people doing the downward dog: 

Fashion Week Yoga

SEE ALSO: 15 Hot Brands Vying To Be The Next Lululemon >

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There's Finally Proof That Energy-Efficient Homes Are Less At Risk Of Defaulting

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solar panel, energy efficient, green housing

Green builders and environmental advocates have long suspected it to be true that families living in energy-efficient homes might be less likely to get in trouble making their monthly mortgage payments.

Their energy bills are lower and more predictable, without those wild swings between summer’s air conditioning costs and winter’s heating oil delivery. It also seems plausible that a homeowner who has weighed the up-front costs of energy improvements over the long-term payoff in lower utility bills might be equally conscientious in sizing up the risks of a 30-year mortgage.

But there’s never been hard data to support any of this – let alone to help make the case that energy efficiency should be baked into how we underwrite mortgages.

new study released today attempts for the first time to quantify the connection between energy efficiency and default risk. The research, funded by the Institute for Market Transformation and led by University of North Carolina researcher Nikhil Kaza, looked at 71,000 nationally representative owner-occupied single-family homes, 21,000 of them with Energy Star certifications. And it turns out the energy-efficient houses were 32 percent less likely to go into default when sized up against comparable homes without that rating.

The study looked at loans that originated between 2002 and 2012, spanning the mortgage crisis. And it also found that the more energy-efficient the house, the lower the default risk.

The researchers controlled for the size and age of the houses, neighborhood income, climate, home value, local unemployment rates, utility prices and borrower credit scores, among other variables. And so this is not a snapshot of pricey solar-powered homes compared to 1950s-era bungalows.

“We’re going to similar homes in the same neighborhoods, with the same price, with the same credit scores of the borrowers,” says Robert Sahidi, a co-author of the report’s executive summary and the director of the Energy Efficiency Finance Policy program at IMT. “It’s not like were picking somebody making $100,000 and comparing it to somebody making $50,000 with a lower credit score and a lower home price.”

The average sale price of the non-Energy Star homes in the study was $218,461 (for 2,183 square feet), and $221,919 for the Energy Star homes (for 2,283 square feet). The homes also came from fairly prosperous zipcodes with average income of about $73,000 and an unemployment rate of 6.4 percent. On this map, the Energy-Star homes studied in the paper are noted in red and the control homes in blue (data was unavailable for states like California that aren’t represented):

energy star

As best as the researchers can tell in their data, there’s little visible difference between the two groups that might explain their varying default rates, other than the efficiency of their homes.

“There’s always going to be some portion of unobserved variables that might explain some of this result,” says Kaza, who’s a researcher with the UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Community Capital. “But we tried as much as we can to make sure control and treatment groups are roughly similar.”

He can’t say, though, exactly why the default rates are significantly different. Does the added cost of all those utility bills really add up to the difference between defaulting on a mortgage or staying on top of it? Or is there some other explanation at play – that, for instance, the owners of energy-efficient homes are happier with where they live and more likely to try hard to stay there? Green homes can also be healthier ones, meaning that the families who live there may have lower medical expenses tugging at the family budget from another direction.

“But under certain circumstances,” says Cliff Majersik, the executive director of IMT, “you can act on data like this without knowing which portion comes from lower utility bills, which portion comes from healthier homes, which portion comes from happier homeowners.”

This evidence is enough, he argues, to justify adjusting federal mortgage guidelines to take into account the fact that would-be owners of energy-efficient homes pose a lower risk of default. A similar argument has been made about “location-efficient” homes, where homeowners arguably have more money to spend on housing as a result of their lower transportation costs. One day, it’s possible that federal mortgage guidelines could pursue these two ideas in tandem, weighting the benefits of housing that comes with both lower utility and transportation costs – and, in the process, increasing market demand for it.

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There's Finally Proof That Energy-Efficient Homes Are Less At Risk Of Defaulting

0
0

solar panel, energy efficient, green housing

Green builders and environmental advocates have long suspected it to be true that families living in energy-efficient homes might be less likely to get in trouble making their monthly mortgage payments.

Their energy bills are lower and more predictable, without those wild swings between summer’s air conditioning costs and winter’s heating oil delivery. It also seems plausible that a homeowner who has weighed the up-front costs of energy improvements over the long-term payoff in lower utility bills might be equally conscientious in sizing up the risks of a 30-year mortgage.

But there’s never been hard data to support any of this – let alone to help make the case that energy efficiency should be baked into how we underwrite mortgages.

new study released today attempts for the first time to quantify the connection between energy efficiency and default risk. The research, funded by the Institute for Market Transformation and led by University of North Carolina researcher Nikhil Kaza, looked at 71,000 nationally representative owner-occupied single-family homes, 21,000 of them with Energy Star certifications. And it turns out the energy-efficient houses were 32 percent less likely to go into default when sized up against comparable homes without that rating.

The study looked at loans that originated between 2002 and 2012, spanning the mortgage crisis. And it also found that the more energy-efficient the house, the lower the default risk.

The researchers controlled for the size and age of the houses, neighborhood income, climate, home value, local unemployment rates, utility prices and borrower credit scores, among other variables. And so this is not a snapshot of pricey solar-powered homes compared to 1950s-era bungalows.

“We’re going to similar homes in the same neighborhoods, with the same price, with the same credit scores of the borrowers,” says Robert Sahidi, a co-author of the report’s executive summary and the director of the Energy Efficiency Finance Policy program at IMT. “It’s not like were picking somebody making $100,000 and comparing it to somebody making $50,000 with a lower credit score and a lower home price.”

The average sale price of the non-Energy Star homes in the study was $218,461 (for 2,183 square feet), and $221,919 for the Energy Star homes (for 2,283 square feet). The homes also came from fairly prosperous zipcodes with average income of about $73,000 and an unemployment rate of 6.4 percent. On this map, the Energy-Star homes studied in the paper are noted in red and the control homes in blue (data was unavailable for states like California that aren’t represented):

energy star

As best as the researchers can tell in their data, there’s little visible difference between the two groups that might explain their varying default rates, other than the efficiency of their homes.

“There’s always going to be some portion of unobserved variables that might explain some of this result,” says Kaza, who’s a researcher with the UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Community Capital. “But we tried as much as we can to make sure control and treatment groups are roughly similar.”

He can’t say, though, exactly why the default rates are significantly different. Does the added cost of all those utility bills really add up to the difference between defaulting on a mortgage or staying on top of it? Or is there some other explanation at play – that, for instance, the owners of energy-efficient homes are happier with where they live and more likely to try hard to stay there? Green homes can also be healthier ones, meaning that the families who live there may have lower medical expenses tugging at the family budget from another direction.

“But under certain circumstances,” says Cliff Majersik, the executive director of IMT, “you can act on data like this without knowing which portion comes from lower utility bills, which portion comes from healthier homes, which portion comes from happier homeowners.”

This evidence is enough, he argues, to justify adjusting federal mortgage guidelines to take into account the fact that would-be owners of energy-efficient homes pose a lower risk of default. A similar argument has been made about “location-efficient” homes, where homeowners arguably have more money to spend on housing as a result of their lower transportation costs. One day, it’s possible that federal mortgage guidelines could pursue these two ideas in tandem, weighting the benefits of housing that comes with both lower utility and transportation costs – and, in the process, increasing market demand for it.

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Actress Refuses To Leave Her Late Husband's $25 Million Southampton Estate

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tara kulukindis

UPPER EAST SIDE — A Manhattan stage actress won't let the curtains fall on her late shipping-magnate husband's $25 million Southampton estate.

Tara Tyson Kulukundis, 51, has illegally locked herself inside the breathtaking beachfront property and refuses to leave — even though the home is in contract with a buyer and scheduled to close on Friday, new court papers charge.

The executors of her hubby's estate claim in the filing that for the past six weeks she has allegedly blocked movers, cleaners and real estate agents from entering the home, jeopardizing the $25 million sale.

Kulukundis, who has performed in New York theater and played bit roles in the '70s TV classics "Charlie's Angels" and "Starsky and Hutch," was married to M. Michael Kulukundis, the heir to a Greek shipping fortune who died in 2010. His will provided for his widow financially, but it didn't leave his properties to her.

At the time of his death, M. Michael Kulukundis' properties had a total value of $70 million and included another Southampton home, a swanky apartment in Fifth Avenue's Pierre Hotel and a five-story townhouse on East 67th Street.

The will's executors, Albert Sigal and Barbara De Mare, are selling the Southampton home at 320 Murray Place to raise cash to pay off the estate's $30.5 million mortgage debt and to support Tara Tyson Kulukundis' "extravagant lifestyle," the filing says.

In Monday's filing in Manhattan Surrogate's Court, they requested a court order to force her out of the five-bedroom, five-bathroom East End pad because she has "locked herself in" and turned away movers on four separate occasions in the past month.

On March 7, Tara Tyson Kulukundis' son, Eric, even offered to move his belongings from the home and persuade his mom to leave. The son cleared out antler chandeliers, a Cadillac Allante and three motorcycles, but he couldn't change his mom's mind, court papers say.

"Mrs. Kulukundis appears to be very resistant to the idea of moving out, and Eric is reluctant to do things which upset her," Eric's attorney wrote to the executors, according to the court papers.

The executors fear that if Friday's closing collapses, then the estate will pile up mortgage payments at $2,174 a day, plus additional charges of $20,000 a month, the documents show. The estate is also shelling out for a gardener, chauffeur, two housekeepers and other staff at both the Southampton home and the Pierre residence.

The executors have brought legal action in the past to get Mrs. Kulukundis to cooperate.

De Mare and Sigal got a court order in October to pry away the keys to the Southampton home from her. They then contracted with Sotheby's International Realty to find a buyer for the estate, which comes with an Olympic-size pool and two waterfall spas.

The executors' victory was short-lived because Mrs. Kulukundis later changed the locks on the home.

In 2011, she also refused to allow appraisers to assess the Southampton property's artwork for the preparation of a federal estate tax return, according to the filing. 

The executors also claim that in 2012, they informed Mrs. Kulukundis that they needed to sell the estate's sizeable art collection, which includes impressionist and modern paintings, to raise cash. So far, she has stalled on allowing Sotheby's agents from appraising them, court papers say. 

De Mare did not return a call for comment.

Mrs. Kulukundis' lawyer declined to comment.

In the 1970s, the actress performed in the Off-Broadway plays "Foreplay" and "Porno Stars at Home," according to movie database IMDB.com.

She was gossip fodder in a 1979 issue of New York magazine when she threatened to sue Elaine Kaufman, the late proprietor of Upper East Side eatery Elaine's, after a dust-up inside the literary hangout.

Kulukundis claimed Kaufman scratched her face as she tried to leave. Kaufman told the magazine that the actress' lit cigarette caused her dress to go up in flames.

More on DNAInfo.com:

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The Most Outstanding Looks Of The Year

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jessica chastain Oscars 2013

Awards season has come to an end, and celebrities have put away their designer gowns and tuxes.

Meanwhile, the fashion world has seen the newest styles strut down runways in Paris, New York, London, and Milan.

And some amazing looks have come out of this year. 

Whether they're on the streets, runways, or red carpets, these people know how to look good.

Michelle Obama stole the spotlight at the Inaugural Ball in an elegant red Jason Wu gown.



We love this detailed laser-cut leather dress by Giles, which debuted during the Spring 2013 London Fashion Week.



Jessica Chastain defied fashion rules by wearing a nude Armani gown that almost matched her skin tone to the Oscars — and she looked stunning.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed Has Some Crazy Toys

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Princess Ameera Prince Alwaleed

Vanity Fair's William D. Cohan is out with a big new profile of Saudi prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the royal who Business Insider called a "dwarf-throwing billionaire" last year.

The story takes a close look at Alwaleed's relationship with the Murdoch family, how he made his $27 billion fortune, and his recent kerfuffle with Forbes over the way the magazine valued his holdings for its billionaires' list.

It also has some great revelations about how Alwaleed spends his immense wealth.

According to Cohan, these are just some of the crazy things the prince owns:

  • A $130 million, 460,000-square-foot complex in Riyadh with 371 rooms and 500 televisions. It's filled with fresh flowers flown in weekly from Holland.

  • The George V hotel in Paris, which he calls "the ultimate toy" (he bought it for $175 million and spent another $125 million on renovations). He's also a partial owner of other 5-star hotels around the world.

  • A 250-acre "country resort" outside Riyadh with a private zoo.

  • An army of chefs: "At every meal, his chefs prepare vast banquets of many different culinary treats, including roasted camel," writes Cohan.

  • More than 300 cars, including Rolls Royces, Porsches, and Lamborghinis. "... many of the cars are carbon copies of one another so when he travels around town, one car can be a decoy," according to Cohan.

  • A 280-foot yacht, currently docked in Cannes.

  • A Boeing 747 outfitted with a gold throne, as well as a Hawker Siddeley 125.

  • He was the only private person to buy an Airbus A380, the largest commercial plane on the market, which start at around $300 million. But he reportedly sold it last year.

You can read the full profile at Vanity Fair >

SEE ALSO: Here's How Prince Alwaleed Spends His '$29.6 Billion' Fortune

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These Water Hammocks Are A Pool Toy For Grown-Ups

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This is the Kai Water Hammock from Brookstone.

Why We Love It: Most pool floaties are for kids, but these hammocks are for grown ups who want to laze around in the water. The provide support for your head and legs, while allowing your body to be submerged in pool. It requires minimal inflation too, which means easy storage and use.

The hammocks measure 28'' x 58'', with a soft mesh middle. It's made of Sunbrella marine fabric which resists stains, mold, and mildew.

Kai Hammock Pool

Where To Buy: Through Brookstone's website.

Cost: $79.99.

Want to nominate a cool product for Stuff We Love? Send an email to Megan Willett at mwillett@businessinsider.com with "Stuff We Love" in the subject line.

DON'T MISS: This Fitness Storage Belt Is The Perfect Accessory For Runners

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Roman Abramovich's 19-Year-Old Son And Heir Made His First Big Investment At $46 Million

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Arkadiy and Roman Abramovich

Billionaires probably don't have too many cares in the world. But raising well-grounded children is one of them, it seems. In 2011, Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One magnate, spoke to the Guardian about his socialite daughter, Tamara: "Yes, for sure, she goes and buys loads of shoes and bloody clothes. Unnecessary. Completely unnecessary. I suppose it's because … one wonders ... and this is not in her defence – how many other girls her age would do the same if they could?"

Nowhere is the density of super-wealthy offspring greater than in Russia. Many oligarchs keep a tight lid on the lives of their children, but, occasionally, the public gain an insight. This week, for example, it was reported that Arkadiy Abramovich, the 19-year-old son of Roman Abramovich, had bought a stake in an oilfield in Siberia for $46m. Arkadiy, who is currently working as an intern at the London office of a Russian investment bank, acquired the oilfield in a complex deal via a shell company of which he owns 45%. That a 19-year-old even knows what a shell company is, let alone controls one, tells you something about the life of a billionaire's child

In true "like father, like son" style, not only has Arkadiy developed a taste for his father's investments in Russian oil fields, but in 2010 he was linked to an unsuccessful attempt to take over the Danish football club FC Copenhagen. It doesn't seem to be wildly speculative to suggest that Arkadiy might one day pick up the reins at his father's beloved Chelsea FC.

Ekaterina Rybolovleva, the 23-year-old daughter of fertiliser billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, has a similar taste for multi-million-dollar purchases. Last year, she bought New York's most expensive apartment for $88m– to live in while she completes her university studies in the US. Ekaterina's representative – yes, she has a spokesperson – confirmed to the press that she had acquired an apartment at 15 Central Park West. Press reports said the property boasted "10 rooms including four bedrooms, a wraparound terrace of more than 2,000 square feet, four bedrooms and two wood burning fireplaces". But it later emerged that the apartment had become the subject of a legal tussle as part of a bitter divorce between her father and his estranged wife.

Kira Plastinina, the 20-year-old daughter of Russian dairy magnate Sergei Plastinin, is also a busy student. While attending a university in Dallas, she also finds time to be an international fashion designer. Her retail chain filed for bankruptcy in the US in 2009 – when she was aged just 16 – but she now owns clothing stores in Russia. When she launched her label in 2007, her father reportedly paid $2m for Paris Hilton to attend the party in Moscow.

But not all oligarchs hand their wealth to their heirs. Anastasia Potanina, the daughter of metals-and-media billionaire Vladmir Potanin and a former aquabiking world champion, said in 2010 that she supported his decision to give away all his fortune to charity.

And earlier this year, oil billionaire Vagit Alekperov announced that he had placed strict conditions on how his son Yusuf, who works as an oil technologist in Siberia, would be able to manage his company once his father had died. "My son won't have the right to split and sell [the company]," he said. "Let him choose his fate for himself."

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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19 Works Of Art Made With Food

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hong yi food art

"Red" Hong Yi is a fan of playing with her food.

The Malaysia- and Shanghai-based artist gave herself a challenge for the month of March: Create a new work of art every day, using only food and a white plate as a backdrop.

 "My 'creativity with food' series has helped me push the limits of my creativity, and has taught me to work within the confines of a very small area," she told design blog designboom. "My previous works range from 1 x 2 to 3 x 4 meters. I've learned to slice, dice, stir, boil ... who would have thought I'd need that to do art!"

Red has been posting the works on her Instagram feed and so far, the results are gorgeous. It's hard to believe that some of them are made with items commonly found in the fridge.

We can't wait to see what she comes up with the rest of the month.

An edible take on Banksy.



The iconic Campbell's can, made of ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, and oyster sauce.



The Arctic melting, reflected in a melting popsicle.



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Convicted Fraudster Hassan Nemazee's Super Opulent Park Avenue Apartment Sold For $18 Million

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hassan nemazee

The house of convicted fraudster Hassan Nemazee just sold for $18 million, reports The Real Deal.

It was on sale for $19.5 million.

Namazee, Iranian-American investment banker, plead guilty to a $292 million bank fraud and used the cash to finance his lavish lifestyle including this luxury duplex at 770 Park Avenue. 

According to the Real Estalker, the traditionally-decorated palace includes three exposures, 28 windows, and two terraces. It was originally listed at $28 million in March 2011.

Michael Kaplan also contributed to the reporting of this story.







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The Lamest Fortune Cookies Ever

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fortune cookie, Chinese food, Chinese takeout, Seamless

Once in awhile, the messages in a fortune cookies are right on target.

But more often than not, they are just plain baffling.

Here are some of the lamest, stupidest, and most confusing fortune cookie fortunes floating around the internet.

(Thanks to @andylancaster for the inspiration).







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Google Is Quietly Pulling The Plug On Frommer’s Print Travel Guidebooks

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Frommers Paris guidebook cover

Google has ceased production and publication of printed guidebooks bearing the Frommer’s brand name, Skift has learned.

The last two Frommer’s books to roll off the presses were guides in the all-color Day-by-Day series devoted to Napa and Sonoma and Banff and the Rockies, and went on sale in early February. The last book in the traditional complete guide series was Frommer’s Florida in late December.

Starting with Frommer’s New York City With Kidswhich can still be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and in other bookstore inventories and was supposed to publish on February 19, the entire future list of Frommer’s titles will not see the light of day. Many of the authors attached to these 29 titles told Skift that they were informed by editors now working at Google that the books would not publish. Some authors were told that the books would merely be delayed before new contracts were signed. None of the authors contacted reported that their titles would appear in print.

Google purchased Frommer’s Travel and Unofficial Guides from Wiley in August 2012 for $22 million. The search giant would not comment on the present or future of the travel brand name, print series, or digital assets.

We tweeted this from the New York Times Travel show earlier this year:

Tweet from Skift about Frommers

Typically at this time of year the Frommer’s catalog contains over a hundred titles in multiple series, including the perennial best-sellers and big European titles that publish in the fall, such as Paris, Rome, and London. Those titles have not been issued ISBN numbers or been assigned to past authors. Competitor Fodor’s already has its covers and pre-orders available on online bookstores.

Soon after the Frommer’s guidebook team moved from Wiley to Google, editors began contacting book authors to cancel forthcoming titles or tell them there would be delays, according to authors Skift spoke to. Google removed the bookstore from Frommers.com in September of last year.

One bright spot for print?

Google also purchased the Unofficial Guide series from Wiley and the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World is one of the best-selling guidebooks in the U.S. According to people Skift spoke with, the series will continue in print.

Unofficial publisher and founder Bob Sehlinger told Skift today, “The Unofficial Guides will continue to be published in print and also be available as eBooks. The creators of the Unofficial Guides, Menasha Ridge Press, will enjoy greater autonomy and editorial control than under Wiley.”

Disclosure: The author was previously the editor of Frommers.com.

Now read: Lonely Planet’s new boss on the future of the travel brand >

A version of this post originally appeared on Skift and is republished with permission.

SEE ALSO:  The BBC Just Confirmed That A Cigarette Billionaire From Kentucky Bought Lonely Planet >

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The 10 Most Luxurious Lawyer Homes

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Brantley Estate

Lawyers across the country often earn enough money to buy some pretty sweet real estate. 

Attorneys have paid $40 million for a Manhattan penthouse or a little bit less for a family-friendly mansion in suburban Virginia.

A former Homeland Security advisor to George W. Bush and a key member of O.J. Simpson's defense team are just a couple lawyers who have done well enough to buy enviable homes.

If you live in a cramped studio apartment, prepare to feel a little jealous when looking at these beautiful homes. Everybody else can simply enjoy awe-inspiring real estate porn.

Lawyer and Confederate general William F. Brantley built this amazing Savannah mansion.

Some of our lawyer homes are historical.

Brantley built this incredible 9,700-square-foot home in 1857 in Savannah's Forsyth Park neighborhood, according to its listing. It was renovated in 2007 and is selling for a whopping $4.75 million.

The beautiful mansion has five bedrooms, eight baths, and (maybe) the ghost of a Confederate general who was murdered in a family feud, Curbed reports. 



Florida lawyer Jim Ferraro built this outrageously large estate on Martha's Vineyard.

University of Miami football player-turned-trial lawyer Jim Ferraro began building this 23,000-square-foot estate on Martha's Vineyard in 2003, and his neighbors weren't too happy

He reportedly had to pacify them at board meetings by showing them plans for the 61-room complex, which was completed in 2009. It has 14 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, a pool, a basketball court, a tennis court, a bocci ball court, and a putting green, according to the Wall Street Journal, which also has some really cool pictures

He told WSJ that it took $27 million and 80 workers to finish the estate, which has hosted up to 50 of his relatives at once. 

Ferraro, who runs his own law firm specializing in mass tort law, made his name suing drug manufacturers, chemical makers, and asbestos companies.  



Former DNC finance chair Marvin Rosen lives in this swank building on Central Park West.

Former Greenberg Traurig partner Marvin Rosen lives in this upscale pre-war coop, the Beresford, at 211 Central Park West.

He bought an apartment there late last year from journalist Kati Marton, who lived there with her third husband, the late diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the New York Observer reported. Marton originally bought the apartment in the mid-'90s with her second husband, fellow reporter Peter Jennings, according to the Observer. 

Rosen and his wife Janet snagged the four-bedroom apartment for the "bargain price" of $11 million, according to the New York Observer. 

Rosen was the finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee from 1995 to 1997 and helped raise $120 million for Bill Clinton's re-election campaign, the New York Times reported. He joined Greenberg Traurig as a partner specializing in corporate securities in 1983 and remained a practicing lawyer until 2000, his Forbes bio says. 



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