I’m surrounded by men and women all biking to the beat of a fast-paced song, trying to keep up with the ripped female instructor cycling on stage in front of us. 

“What makes you beautiful?” she shouts into her microphone at all 40 of us as we stand up and sit down in unison on our bikes, pedaling with the beat of the music. “Are you beautiful because of your strength? Is your perseverance your beauty?”

Welcome to SoulCycle, the exercise class with a cult-following that is taking over America. Founded in 2006 by Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler, the brand is known for attracting celebrities like Charlize Theron and David Beckham, and has 37 studios across the US in New York, Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester, Massachusetts, California, and Washington DC.

They even plan to go worldwide with a studio in London by 2015.

“It’s way more than an exercise class,” Jaime Gleicher, who’s been going to SoulCycle since 2011 at a rate of roughly 10 times a week, told Business Insider. “It’s equal parts dance party, killer workout, meditation, therapy, and social setting where I know, without fail, I can see my friends and gain a piece of mind.”

For lovers of the high-intensity cycling class, SoulCycle is a lifestyle — and the studios reflect that. Aspirational words like “WARRIOR,” “ROCKSTAR,” and “ATHLETE” are plastered on the walls. Lululemon SoulCycle-branded clothing hangs in the lobby ($42 for a tank top), and you can even buy the grapefruit-scented Jonathan Adler candles they have burning in the studio.

In a typical 45-minute class, students can expect to do choreographed, high-resistance sprints and “climbs” with an arm workout section and a yoga-esque cool down. The lighting in the studio itself is dim with candles at the front of the room and music blaring. 

For riders, it’s not about calories or how many reps they can do, but about letting go — it’s not uncommon to be asked to close your eyes or to cycle through a song completely in the dark.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when a helpful woman strapped me and my cycling shoe loaners into the bike at SoulCycle’s Union Square location. The class excitedly chattered and started peddling at minimal resistance while waiting for our instructor to finish helping newcomers like me adjust our bikes. Some people who knew one another were talking about the Tribeca studio’s recent renovation, while others compared favorite ‘Soul’ instructors.

Then our instructor hit the music and we were riding, increasing our resistance and biking faster and faster to the beat. Sometimes we were standing up and trying to keep as still as possible as our legs cycled beneath us. Other times we were seated and learning forward and doing push ups to the rhythm of the music. After a five minute arm section and cool down, we were stretching and finally unhooking our shoes from the bikes.

I left the class sweaty and with a new understanding of why people pay $34 a pop in New York City for this experience (their best class package deal brings the cost down to $28). The class flew by and I felt motivated to keep going the entire time.

And though the instructor was filled with exultations to keep us pumped, I was especially inspired by the front row of fit men and women who, judging by how hard they pedaled, were obviously SoulCycle adherents. 

For them, $34 is the small price to pay for a community that makes them want to work out and push themselves harder. The expensive classes, gear, and candles are just a way of distinguishing themselves (and each other) as a part of a very cool club. 

“I believe it’s worth every cent,” Gleicher insists. “The price of the class is also a motivating factor: It encourages me to work my absolute hardest and get every cent out of my investment.”

“Whatever mood I am in, whatever kind of day I am having, SoulCycle has never not given me what I needed,” she added. “And that is why I keep going back. 

Interested in trying SoulCycle? Here’s our advice for trying the spinning phenomenon.

1.  For curious first-timers, SoulCycle has a $20 introductory class. Reserve a bike in the second row — the first row is usually filled with the more intense SoulCycle clientele and it can be helpful to watch both them and the instructor when you start out.

2. Wear sweat-wicking clothes that won’t ride up, like leggings and a tank top. Most SoulCycle locations charge $3 to rent shoes.

3. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. You sweat a lot in this class, and will want to be as hydrated as possible before entering the room. Bring a water bottle, too. 

4. Have the staff adjust your bike, but make sure it works for you. Having the seat pushed too far or not far enough forward can make all the difference in your comfort level. Start out with their advice and adjust accordingly.

5. Don’t be intimidated by the sense of community.“It can seem as if everyone knows each other and the instructor, and that is true,” Gleicher told us. “The sense of community at SoulCycle is a huge part of the experience. Make yourself open to becoming a part of it. We want you there!”

6. Go at your own pace and stay in the saddle. Observe the form and pace of the instructor and others around you. Listen to the music, and do the best you can.

SEE ALSO: 6 Truths About Exercising That No One Wants To Hear

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's Life on Facebook!

Join the conversation about this story »

Microsoft gave the world a small glimpse at its next operating system, Windows 10, on Tuesday.

In a way, Windows 10 is a throwback. Whereas Windows 8 was optimized for touchscreen devices like tablets, Windows 10 makes things easier for desktop users. (It'll still adapt to touchscreens, too.) Windows 10 will launch in mid-2015.

Windows 10 isn't finished yet, but here's a quick look at what Microsoft showed us so far.

Here's the desktop. At first glance, it looks a lot like Windows 7 and the "desktop" mode in Windows 8. But the Start menu, which disappeared in Windows 8, is back.

It has all the normal Start menu stuff, but it also incorporates Live Tiles. You probably recognize Live Tiles from the touch-friendly Start screen on Windows 8.

You can resize the Start menu to be tall or wide. You can also pack it with as many Live Tile apps as you want.

As Paris Fashion Week draws to a close, the beauties of the automotive world descend upon the boulevards of the French capitol for the 2014 Paris Motor Show.

The biennial Paris Mondial de l’Automobile will showcase latest concepts and future production vehicles from the world's leading automakers. Although concept cars are traditionally the stars of the show, this year's headliners are mostly hotly anticipated production models.

The 2014 Paris Auto Show will run from October 2-19 at the Parc des Expositions de Versailles.

The Paris motor Show will be the first opportunity for consumers to see upcoming models — such as Jaguar's new BMW 3-Series fighter, the stylish XE sedan.

As expected, Mercedes will be out in force as well with its new AMG GT...

...and its impressive 500hp AMG C63 Wagon.

Some of the sweetest rock ballads were inspired by daddy's girls: Billy Joel's "Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel)," Bruce Springsteen's "When You Need Me," Phil Collins' "You'll Be In My Heart," and other emotional tracks you'd find on a father-daughter dance compilation album.

Even Bono — who came under fire recently when Apple installed the new U2 album on iTunes users' devices without asking — even covered Lady Gaga's "Telephone" at his daughter Eve's 21st birthday party.

From models and DJs to actors and musicians, meet the new crop of muses of the most celebrated rock stars.

Alexa Ray Joel, 28, is the singer-daughter of Billy Joel.

Alexa Ray released an EP, "Sketches," in 2006 and was the face of Prell hair care, which previously employed her supermodel mother, Christie Brinkley, as its spokeswoman. Earlier this year, after her first sold-out performance at the Carlyle in New York, rumors swirled that Alexa Ray had undergone plastic surgery (again).

Jemima Kirke, 29, and Lola Kirke, 23, are the actress-daughters of Free and Bad Company's Simon Kirke.

British-born Jemima was an artist before close friend Lena Dunham convinced her to audition for the role of free-spirit Jessa in HBO's "Girls." She is the older sister of Lola Kirke, who is having a breakout moment of her own after landing a New York Times profile and a small role in "Gone Girl."

Jessica Rae Springsteen, 22, is the horseback-riding daughter of Bruce Springsteen.

Jessica Rae (L) is a senior at Duke University and a champion horseback rider, placing first in her jumping division at the 2013 FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival. Two years ago, she just narrowly missed out on joining the USA Olympic team.

What do you do when you want to travel but can't afford the costs? Spend a lot of time on Google Street View, of course!

That's what the creator of ordinarily named "Street View Photographs" does— but the photos are anything but ordinary.

Paired with a sponsorship from a photo-editing tool called Polarr, the blogger processes beautiful images he finds from Google Street View, and turns them into gorgeous photographs.

"I wanted to travel and I love taking pictures so I decided to just to do virtual tours. I also love to retouch photos to make them more legit, and Polarr is currently sponsoring their tool for me," he writes.

The photos are from all over the world.

From Japan...

to Ireland...

The images are stunning.

The market for precious metals is not as big as you might think.

One year's worth of mined platinum is only the size of a car. But it's worth about $8 billion.

Visual Capitalist took one year's production of eight commodities, lumped each of them into a three-dimensional cubes, and put them next to landmarks around the world.

They also calculated the value of each cube.

Gold

Uranium

Copper

Sinkholes are scarily common, and although some are small and harmless, others open gaping holes in the ground that could swallow entire buildings — or passing cars.

Recently, a sinkhole that formed in the middle of a highway in Crimea killed six people traveling in a car that fell into the hole.

Sinkholes occur when bedrock made of limestone or other carbonate rock is eaten away by acidic groundwater or a surge of pressure caused by heavy rain or burst pipes. Sinkholes happen, sometimes suddenly, all over the US and across the world where the bedrock is susceptible — notably in China, Mexico, and Papua New Guinea.

The most dangerous chasms are the ones that cause parts of cities to collapse abruptly, and we've put together some of the best pictures of sinkholes devouring streets, sidewalks, and buildings all over the world.

In May 1981, a gigantic sinkhole developed over the course of a day in Winter Park, Florida. The city stabilized and sealed the area, converting it into an urban lake.

In 1995, a 60-foot-deep sinkhole made a 200-foot-by-150-foot hole that swallowed two homes in San Francisco's high-end Sea Cliff neighborhood.

In 1998, this enormous chasm — 800 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 70 feet deep — opened up over two days after heavy rain and a drainage pipe burst in San Diego.

Not long ago Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of ad agency holding company WPP, proclaimed creativity was slowly fizzling out in Western nations. Others, such as BBH's Sir John Hegarty, have said the industry has become too obsessed with technology and it has forgotten that creativity is often the driving force of the industry. 

To celebrate creativity around the world, but also to educate creatives and marketers in the US, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has released its first-ever “What Works & Why: IAB Global Insight Report.”

Click here to go straight to the ads

It features 18 of the most effective digital ads from around the world and dives into why those campaigns succeeded. In previous years the IAB has focused its insight reports on ads from the US. This year marks the first year that it has created a global report.

"There’s so much great work from all around the world but because of our own resistance to other cultures we aren’t able to see it because we don’t think about other places," David Doty, EVP and CMO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, tells Business Insider. 

To create this list, the IAB reached out to affiliates across the world (in 43 countries) and asked them to nominate a handful of award-winning campaigns. Then, the IAB spoke with some of the most well respected people across the business, from advertisers to marketers and publishers, to find out what makes these campaigns better than the rest. 

We’ve complied a few of the top innovative digital ads from around the world, but the full report, featuring all 18 ads plus insights, can be found here.

"Push To Add Drama," TNT Belgium

"Push To Add Drama" was deviously created by TNT Belgium to publicize the launch of the US-based TNT network in Falnders, Belgium. TNT took to the streets of Flanders and set up an ominous red button with a big arrow pointing to it reading "Push To Add Drama." The ad focuses in on a few brave souls that decided to push the button, and the events that unfolded after they pushed it.

The ad brought in over 39 million views on YouTube, received 290,000 likes, and had more than 4.1 million shares on Facebook making it the second most shared ad ever, according to the IAB.

Here's a look at TNT Belgium's launch campaign:

Why It Worked

TNT had a big mission to live up to when launching in Belgium. The launch overseas needed to live up to TNT's signature tag line, "We Know Drama," but in a completely new environment. Luckily, the idea of drama seems to transcend easily overseas and as Marcel.li Zuazua, CEO and founder of Herraiz Soto & Co explains, the message in this campaign is simple and to the point.

"The principal ingredient of surprise converts fiction into the best supporter of reality. Living it in the first person is the perfect accompaniment," Zuazua says. "Using spectacle as communication is a great creative route."

By taking the drama we all know and love from our TV sets and bringing that chaotic madness to life, TNT Belgium was able to win over YouTube viewers and got more than 2,100 blogs and news sites across the world talking about the brand.  

"The World's First Really Live Pig Feed," Compassion in World Farming, UK

"The World's First Really Live Pig Feed" connected people living city lives to those in the countryside. More specifically, it gave people a chance to feed some very hungry pigs.

Compassion in World Farming set up a giant billboard in London, which was connected to an actual farm in Buckinghamshire, over 50 miles away. The billboard gave people a chance to hop on their smartphones and donate one pound to feed a pig an apple. The best part was that users could then use their smartphones to throw the apple to the pigs and could look to the billboard to see the apple being thrown. 

People threw over 500 apples in just five days and over 500,000 people saw the interactive billboard.   

Check out the billboard in action:

For this year's list of the "sexiest" Wall Streeters, we decided to go in a bit of a different direction.

Instead of the typical Jamie Dimon, Dan Loeb, and Bill Ackman lineup, we scoured Wall Street for new names. Of course, we still have a few household names on the list, too.  

For the list, our guest judge Stephanie Ruhle, the anchor of Bloomberg TV's "Market Makers," helped come up with some names of the sexiest men in finance. 

If you'd like to nominate someone for a future list, please send a photo and a brief bio to jlaroche@businessinsider.com. 

Bridges King

Firm: Credit Suisse Securities

Education: UC Berkeley

About: King is new to the Credit Suisse mafia. This 6-foot-9 Greenwich, Connecticut, native also rowed crew for UC Berkeley.

Stefano Galiani

Firm: Bluecrest, portfolio manager 

Education: King's College London

About: Galiani is trilingual. He speaks Portuguese and Italian. He's also a sick kite boarder. He previously worked as a trader at Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch.

Liam Goodwin

Firm: Panning Capital Management, trader

Education: University of Pennsylvania 

About: Aside from trading, Goodwin is a part-time singer/songwriter and a part-time yogi. 

Francis Tapon has been traveling through Africa for a year and has already visited 20 countries, but he's just at the start of his journey.

The American adventurer is planning to spend four years traveling through all 54 countries in Africa—and he is documenting his journey with incredible photos and stories on his blog, The Unseen Africa. Tapon is on a mission to "reveal the unseen sides of Africa."

"Our image of Africa is wrong," Tapon wrote to us. "It's either heaven (safaris, primitive tribes, pyramids) or hell (Ebola, wars, famine). 99% of Africans live neither in heaven or hell. I want to capture their everyday lives. I want to encourage people to go beyond Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania, and South Africa; I want them to discover and learn the difference between Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Equatorial Guinea."

Tapon is traveling through every country, by driving in a beat-up old SUV, hitchhiking rides, or trekking on foot. He doesn't have firm travel plans, but he is following a general route that "would have no backtracking and would take me to the tallest peak of every African country."

After his journey concludes, he plans to create a documentary and write a book about his experience. You can follow his journey on his website. 

We've included pictures and captions from his journey.

Have an amazing travel story and photos to share? Send an email to travel@businessinsider.com and we could feature your adventure next.

I drive in difficult conditions (in this photo I'm crossing a creek near the Guinea/Guinea Bissau border). ANY car would struggle with the endless mud, pot holes, sand, and water that I drive in all the time.

I'm glad my car didn't break down in the middle of Sahara (this is in Morocco).

Morocco's Grand Canyon: the Dades Valley.

We've put together the definitive list of the best mobile apps out right now.

There are over 1.3 million apps in Apple's App Store, and another 1.3 million in Google's Play store, so finding your next app can be overwhelming. We live and breathe apps for a living, so we've sifted through them to tell you which are the best.

Click here to jump straight to our list of the world's 100 best apps »

How did we come up with the list?

Just like last year's App 100 list, a lot of these apps are some of our favorites that we use every day. We also took nominations from readers, and had a careful look at some of the best and most popular apps that launched over the past year.

The best apps are eye-catching in their design, intuitive and speedy in their execution, and at the end of the day, they make our lives more enjoyable.

The apps listed here aren't ranked. Instead, we broke everything up by categories. You can click the big link above to view our full list, or jump to one of the following categories below:

Productivity

News/Reading

Social Networking

Entertainment

Games

Fitness/Health/Food

Sports

Photo/Video

Shopping

Travel

Utilities

PRODUCTIVITY

Humin acts like your digital butler.

Humin is an app that remembers all the tiny details about how and where you met someone, so you can focus on the moment instead of remembering. All you need is someone's number, and Humin will do the rest. You'll then be able to search through your contact using familiar phrases like "met last week" or "lives in Brooklyn."

Price: Free

Available on:iOS

Paper by Fifty Three wants to become your virtual sketchbook.

Paper is just as useful as it is beautiful. The app lets you draw out ideas and sketches on your iPad, and you can store them away in various virtual notebooks. It comes packed with a variety of brushes and pens for your ideas, and there's even an official Pencil stylus that responds to the pressure of your input. If you're looking for inspiration, you can check out the Mix ecosystem within the app, which is a creative commons space for remixing ideas.

Price: Free, but you'll have to pay extra for more brushes and tools.

Available on:iPad

Several years ago, Italian photographer Clara Vannucci was hanging out in a bar in TriBeCa, New York when she met a burly, Greek man name Bobby Zouvelos. The two struck up a conversation and Vannucci, who had recently photographed inside the notorious Riker’s Island jail, explained to Zouvelos what she had seen. Zouvelos mentioned that he and his brother George worked at jails too; he was a bail bondsman.

Intrigued by the concept— Italy doesn’t have bail bondsmen — Vannucci asked the man to introduce her to his world, a rarely discussed underworld of bail bondsmen, defendants, and bounty hunters.

After following George and Bobby Zouvelos for the better part of two years, Vannucci collected the work into a recently released book, titled "Bail Bond." Vannucci shares some of her work with Business Insider here, but you can check out the rest at her website or in the book.

Bail bondsmen act as guarantors in the criminal justice system. They are a combination between insurance salesmen, social workers, and private policemen.

This is George Zouvelos, a bail bondsman based in Brooklyn. Vannucci was introduced to Zouvelos by his brother Bobby, who she met in a bar.

Zouvelos is known as the "Bail Boss." When someone is arrested and can’t afford to pay their bail, Zouvelos offers to pay it in exchange for a fee. This fee is non-refundable even if the defendant does everything right, appears in court, and is found innocent.

There are some things you get from a private school that you just can't get from a public school: free iPads, farm-to-table catered lunches, and international study opportunities. It's a world class education, for top dollar.

This is our fourth annual list of the 50 most expensive private high schools in the U.S. — and the schools are getting more and more pricey every year. Many of them appear in New York City, where the cost of living (and learning) is one of the highest in the country.

To create this list, we looked at tuition and mandatory fees (including one-time fees where applicable) to calculate the total cost for the 2014-2015 school year. In instances where the school listed a range of expected expenditures for books and other required materials, we used the average. Special needs schools and boarding-only schools were not taken into consideration for this list.

50. Walnut Hill School for the Arts

Location: Natick, Massachusetts

Tuition and fees: $41,000

Enrollment: 300

Day students can request to "affiliate" with one of the dorms on campus in order to have access to common rooms and resources, and bond with their residential classmates.

Methodology: Rankings are based on tuition and fees for daytime-only students in grades 9 through 12 for the 2014-2015 school year. Boarding-only schools and special-needs high schools were not included.

49. The Taft School

Location: Watertown, Connecticut

Tuition and fees: $41,045

Enrollment: 576

The school's mascot, the rhino, was chosen in honor of a popular student in the late '80s who apparently ran like a rhino when he was playing soccer.

Methodology: Rankings are based on tuition and fees for daytime-only students in grades 9 through 12 for the 2014-2015 school year. Boarding-only schools and special-needs high schools were not included.

48. Brooks School

Location: North Andover, Massachusetts

Tuition and fees: $41,311

Enrollment: 380

Students participate in afternoon programs in the arts, sports, and community service; if they're passionate about another subject or issue, they also have the option of designing their own afternoon programs.

Methodology: Rankings are based on tuition and fees for daytime-only students in grades 9 through 12 for the 2014-2015 school year. Boarding-only schools and special-needs high schools were not included.

Many former athletes struggle with weight gain after their playing careers end. This is especially true among football players.

Some players are luckier and actually lose a ton of weight. In many cases, the players are now nearly unrecognizable.

One common theme among many of these players is the position they played.

Most of the players on the following pages were offensive lineman, suggesting those players do more to push their body weight to an extreme, developing dangerous habits like consuming massive numbers of calories to maintain their playing sizes.

Brad Culpepper (No. 77) was a 275-pound defensive tackle for three different teams and retired after the 2000 season.

Source: @monicaculpepper

Here is Brad Culpepper with his wife on the show "Survivor." He says it was pretty easy to lose 80 pounds because he simply stopped eating all the extra food needed to maintain his playing weight.

Source: sptimes.com

Alan Faneca was a 320-pound offensive lineman for the Steelers, Jets, and Cardinals, and he last played in 2010.

With its iPhone 6 and iOS 8, Apple has introduced a few features that have been available on Android smartphones for quite some time.

For example, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be the company's first smartphones to come with near field communication (NFC) — a technology that lets phones talk to one another via a short-range radio.

This means you can exchange data and make payments by simply tapping your iPhone against another compatible device. 

Still, you can still do a lot of things with Android phones that you can't with the iPhone.

You can add a bigger battery to most Android phones. The iPhone's back isn't removable.

Many Android phones, like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3, come with a removeable back — which means you can take out the battery. This is especially helpful if you find your phone dying quicker than expected. With some Android phones, you can simply pop off the back, take out the battery, and put a new one in when your phone is dead. The iPhone relies on a single rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which can be removed or replaced only by Apple technicians.

With some Android phones, you can open multiple apps at once.

Several Android manufacturers layer their software over the plain version of Android, often adding their own features. On Samsung and LG phones, for example, you can open more than one app at a time and run them alongside one another. On LG phones, you can even move these apps around in separate windows, change the transparency of those windows, and resize them, as shown in the screenshot to the right.

You can charge your Android phone with any micro USB cable.

You can charge most Android phones with any micro USB cable — you don't need the specific cable from that particular phone manufacturer. That's not the case with Apple; you need the company's proprietary iPhone or iPad charger, called Lightning. 

New York City foodies are having a fantastic week. 

Not only did Michelin reveal its 2015 restaurant ratings for the Big Apple on Tuesday, but it was announced Wednesday that world-renowned chef Joël Robuchon is set to reopen his famous L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in New York’s Battery Park City.

Robuchon, whose restaurant empire encompasses Hong Kong, Las Vegas, London, Monaco, Paris, and Tokyo, has more Michelin stars than any other chef in the world — an impressive 28 in total.

He closed the original New York L’Atelier at the Four Seasons in 2012, departing entirely from the New York restaurant scene. But he often told reporters that he would like to come back and try again.

The new iteration of NYC's L’Atelier — the more affordable version of Robuchon’s series of eponymous restaurants— will open in March 2015 at Brookfield Place, formerly the World Financial Center. The new establishment will be 11,000 square feet with both counter and table seating, as well as a bar, lounge, and waterside outdoor area.

Robuchon currently has one other American L’Atelier location in Las Vegas, which offers two prix fixe options ranging from $78 to $105 and items like foie gras ravioli and his famous Le Burger — a beef and foie gras burger with caramelized bell peppers. 

This will be Robuchon’s third restaurant in America, and 23rd in the world. Sometimes called the "chef of the century,” Robuchon became famous thanks to his first Paris restaurant, Jamin, which was regarded as one of the best restaurants in history. 

After retiring from Jamin in the '90s, Robuchon re-emerged with a series of restaurants bearing his name and with his protégées at the helm.

Now that he's coming back to New York City, the Michelin Guide should get ready to make another spot on its list.

DON'T MISS: The Financial District Has An Incredible New Lunch Spot

SEE ALSO: Here's What It's Like To Dine At The Most Remarkable Restaurant In Las Vegas

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's Life on Facebook!

Join the conversation about this story »

While Bill Gates has a schedule that's planned down to the minute, the entrepreneur-turned-billionaire-humanitarian still gobbles up about a book a week. 

Aside from a handful of novels, they're mostly nonfiction books covering his and his foundation's broad range of interests. A lot of them are about transforming systems: how nations can intelligently develop, how to lead an organization, and how social change can fruitfully happen.

We went through the last four years of his book criticism to find the ones that he gave glowing reviews and that changed his perspective.

'Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012' by Carol Loomis

Warren Buffett and Gates have a famously epic bromance, what with their recommending books to each other and spearheading philanthropic campaigns together. 

So it's no surprise that he enjoyed "Tap Dancing To Work," a collection of articles and essays about and by Warren Buffett, compiled by Fortune magazine journalist Carol Loomis. 

Gates says that anyone who reads the book cover-to-cover will walk away with two main impressions: 

First, how Warren's been incredibly consistent in applying his vision and investment principles over the duration of his career;

... [S]econdly, that his analysis and understanding of business and markets remains unparalleled. I wrote in 1996 that I'd never met anyone who thought about business in such a clear way. That is certainly still the case.

Getting into the mind of Buffett is "an extremely worthwhile use of time," Gates concludes.

Buy it here >>

'Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization' by Vaclav Smil

Gates says his favorite author is Vaclav Smil, an environmental sciences professor who writes big histories of things like energy and innovation.

His latest is "Making the Modern World." It got Gates thinking. 

"It might seem mundane, but the issue of materials — how much we use and how much we need — is key to helping the world’s poorest people improve their lives,"he writes."Think of the amazing increase in quality of life that we saw in the United States and other rich countries in the past 100 years. We want most of that miracle to take place for all of humanity over the next 50 years."

To know where we're going, Gates says, we need to know where we've been — and Smil is one of his favorite sources for learning that.

Buy it here >>

'The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History' by Elizabeth Kolbert

It can be easy to forget that our present day is a part of world history. Gates says that New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert's new book "The Sixth Extinction" helps correct that.

"Humans are putting down massive amounts of pavement, moving species around the planet, over-fishing and acidifying the oceans, changing the chemical composition of rivers, and more," Gates writes, echoing a concern that he voices in many of his reviews.  

"Natural scientists posit that there have been five extinction events in the Earth’s history (think of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs)," he continues, "and Kolbert makes a compelling case that human activity is leading to the sixth." 

To get a hint of Kolbert's reporting, check out the series of stories that preceded the book's publication.  

Buy it here >>

First class can be plenty luxurious, but it's nothing like Singapore Airline's iconic Suites Class.

Travel blogger Derek Low recently cashed in his frequent flyer miles to purchase a $18,125.30 round trip ticket in Suites Class, and thankfully he took lots of gorgeous photos of his journey.

From your own personal cabin and full-sized bed to private rooms and classy meals, you've never seen a classier way to fly in style.

Note: All photos used with permission.

Boarding began at the Singapore Changi Airport First Class terminal.

Checking in is a little less crowded in First Class.

The golden ticket.

As protests continue to rage and grow in Hong Kong, images of massive crowds demanding free and open elections are everywhere.

But it's easy to forget that those crowds are made up of individuals, each with their own opinions, passions, and reasons for being there.

Reuters photographer Bobby Yip decided to find more about the people who make up these gigantic demonstrations. What he found was a cross section of modern Hong Kong, individuals who are different on paper but share in common goals.

(All captions by Bobby Yip/REUTERS)

Benny Tai, 50, one of the founders of the "Occupy Central" civil disobedience movement, poses during a rally in Hong Kong September 26, 2014. Tai said, "I hope more people will join and hope it will be peaceful." China rules Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" formula that accords the territory limited democracy.

Auyeung Tung, 36, an artist, also poses for a photograph prior to the main protests. Auyeung said, "Lives of the grassroots will be improved when there is true democracy."

Genie Mak, 19 (L), and Kitz Yu, 21, both university students, are seen here. Mak said, "If I don't come out today I may feel regret."

Joël Robuchon is — without question — one of the best chefs on the planet.

In 1989 he was declared "Chef of the Century" by the well-regarded Gault-Millau guidebook, and since then he has amassed an incredible 28 Michelin stars at his various restaurants around the world.

He has also mentored top chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Eric Ripert, in addition to his various protégées at the helm of his global locations.

That's why foodies across New York City exclaimed in delight when it was announced Robuchon would be bringing his world-renowned L'Atelier restaurant back to NYC.

And while many believe that his fantastic food is the most memorable meal of their lives, I sat down with Robuchon earlier in 2014 at his Las Vegas restaurant location to ask him about his most memorable meal. 

"It's always difficult to answer such a question because the best meal I ever had depends," Robuchon told me in French at his eponymous restaurant at the Las Vegas MGM Mansion. "As an example about 15 years ago, I had lunch on the mountain with another great chef, Guy Savoy. And at 10 AM in the morning, we're eating on top of this mountain with a bottle of Château d'Yquem 1987.

"We were with friends, and people that we enjoy, with great cheese. And that certainly is marked as one of the great moments of my life. It may seem strange that one of my best memories is cheese and a bottle of wine, but it's built by the company that one chooses."

But that was not his only favorite dining experience. In addition to friends and company, Robuchon described what must be one of the most unique and delicious dishes any of us have ever fathomed:

"I was in Tours, and I was with a chef who was the first really to cook his own bread and to have ovens specifically designed for bread," Robuchon explained. "And in the center of this bread, he had actually cooked a chicken, and the chicken itself was infused with the flavor of the bread. You could eat the bread and taste the chicken. And yet the chicken itself tasted almost like cake. It had a golden crustiness to it.

"Anybody can do a roasted chicken, but to do a roasted chicken such as this within the bread — it had taken all the humidity out of the bread and it was so tender. And the skin itself looked like the crust of the bread. Those are the big moments, those are things I will remember."

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