>> general motors, navigating change. healed carmaker is trying to become the new technology company. >> this is a transformational time in the transportation industry. david: gm leadership wants to change the company from the bottom up and from the top down. >> resistance will pull down pretty quickly. >> they want to be held accountable. mary: if you see me something that is doing a consistent focus talked about,. call me out david: gm is trying to change his mission, its product, even change the nature of what it needs to be in the transportation business. the question is, where is gm

driving? ♪ david: hello, gm. for more than a century into the heart of american business. it was a dominant force, the number one car company in the world, the largest u.s. employer. number one in the s&p 500. but then came a host of problems. foreign competition, inferior products, all leading to gm going bankrupt in 2009. it emerged a much different, leaner company. we traveled to detroit to see for cells where gm is now and where it's going tomorrow. we wanted to learn from ceo mary barra about the changes they are making and whether they are the right changes. mary: one of the things we are most proud of is the crossovers we are putting on the roads. they are the best we've ever produced. and continue to build brands.

both chevrolet and cadillac and gmc, and then our brands in china as well. segment we compete again, we want to win that segment. are looking say we at ways to continue to grow the core business. , after sales,ial that is two ways to grow the business. is is a transformational time in the transportation industry, in the auto industry. we all know that people, whether five years from now or 50, left figure out how to get from point a to point the. you can see journal -- general motors taking measures to make sure we are in that space. whether it's connectivity, autonomous, products like the tv for the volt. we are not only making sure the core business is doing exceptionally well but we are

branching into areas because we want to find the future of transportation. david: where will the growth for gm? mary: with the foundational element we have with onstar, we are at the infancy of putting on technology and applications and services into the vehicle. it will improve customers lives. that is a huge area to grow. china is another huge area. it's more volatile that we see german's growth between now and 2020. we have over 60 new models coming between now and then. emergingin a typical market it's going to be a little bit more volatile but we still see tremendous growth opportunity. david: it must frustrate you that as successful as general motors has been in the bottom line, the stock price has not kept up. why is that? what does the street not understand about gm? mary: there is a big concern if we are at peak or headed to a trough.

is the the other area transformation and what is happening with sharing and autonomous -- people say, ok, it's a cyclical business. as we come out of the cycle what will be different? we are really starting to change perception because we are really disciplined. we've been talking to investors to make sure they understand we are well prepared. is a different general motors and the fundamentals are strong with the company where we understand we are a simple -- cyclical business and we are prepared for it. get rid of the bottom of the cycle by having businesses like gm an onstar that have a different revenue and profit generation model. it's not necessarily the core business that fluctuates with the industry. david: is a difficult being at the top of business and not having the stock price where you would like it to be? when it comes down it will put more pressure on the stock price. mary: we are focused on what we

can control. if we are running the fundamentals and making it better, we have committed to take out $5.5 billion in cost between 2014 and 2018. we've seen dramatic improvements in our material cost performance and getting that strong material cost performance while making sure that we are improving our relationship with the suppliers. david: why do investors like tesla so much? mary: it's one of the reasons we are working to lead an autonomous and make sure people understand conductivity. it's about the future. it's where you are going and how you are going to create value. we are working hard to make sure we are going to create substantial shareholder value. i spent an incredible amount of time on how we deploy capital, making sure we do it in the best interest of our investors. we have a core business that allows us to fund that. people see general motors is a

tech company that is leading with a multitude of technologies, i think the story will change. i look at it as what we need to do to prove the value we are treating. that is where i stay focused. david: is a realistic for youral motors to increase multiple as people become used to the idea that you are a tech company, autonomous driving. mary: we think we are undervalued right now. we are going to continue to work to keep making sure people understand exactly the mission of general motors and what we are working towards. and the capabilities and the strengths we have. i believe i come to work every day that as we continue to do that, that is something that will take care of itself. david: next, the new world of electric vehicles, ridesharing and self driving cars. >> we believe we will see more change in our business in the next five years and we have seen

in the last 50. ♪

mary: and is affordable and that is what distinguishes it. inside, it's a big car. it's a really a b car segment a c car interior. david: transportation is changing. , they postw bolt ev great risk for automobile manufacturers. that fantasy great opportunities. one of the big questions is housing these radical changes are coming to a street or a highway near you. looking forward, let's assume

lyft is wildly successful and we have lyft car sharing across the country. who will own the cars? mary: that has not been defined yet. it's very exciting. i believe they will be owned that are participating in sharing. but individuals may of their own economist -- autonomous vehicles. there is a lot to be defined. and to be a part of the definition and that is what we are working on. but in a is exciting, world where there is a lot of sharing going on a car could become more of a service you rent rather than a product you own. what might that mean for the overall level of purchasing for automobiles in the future? mary: there has been so much work going on. is the car going to get your or smaller? many reports say it will get smaller. i can show you want is going to say bigger. we don't know. for general motors, one of the

areas where he know sharing will happen first is an urban areas. and the area where we are not as strong as we are in middle america. when you look at the strength of our business in the u.s. for example, trucks and suvs, and for many people that is there work -- part of their work. we can strengthen our position in the urban areas while maintaining the core strength of our business, which is trucks and suvs across middle america and across the globe. david: the theory of investing in technology for general motors? >> we believe we will see more change in our business in the next five years than in the last 50 years. what i mean is that we cannot receive customer preferences are changing in urban environments where customers want the convenience of availability from getting from a to b, but they are saying they don't all the hassles that come with ownership and the costs of

ownership in an urban environment. we see transportation as a service emerging quite quickly. you see that through ridesharing, lyft is growing rapidly as an example. we fundamentally believe the changes now selling that is going to happen, it is something that's already happening. we want to participate in that change and we want to do more than that. we want to be at the forefront of that change. we need to have a presence in certain types of business. when you to add some technical capabilities that we don't have today. we are looking to build the complete vehicle capability we need to lead and transportation as a service in the longer term. david: would you be making the big push you are making an autonomous vehicles that there was not ridesharing? >> right here in autonomous on the other, beaches interesting. it only gets interesting when you put those two things together. we believe that driverless technology, autonomous technology will fundamentally

transform lowly article the traditional ridesharing business. david: that move to autonomous and sharing, is that a defense of our offense and move? >> we see it as an opportunity for us. we still make a significant majority of our profits outside of urban centers. we make a lot of money selling pickup trucks and selling suvs. businessparts of the that generate most of our profits today we think will be some of the last places we see this kind of disruption. where the disruption begins and the opportunity is therefore the early stages will certainly be much more in the urban environment. therefore, for general motors it's a good opportunity. david: a substantial number of people were sharing cars instead of owning. that would reduce the total demand by cars, wouldn't it? >> in my reduce the total number of vehicles sold. it will increase the number of miles traveled. if you think about the business

on the scale of the business, of miles traveled the business grows. . if you think about how many units of volume, it might go down or stay flat. we don't know. that's why we think it's important to put ourselves in a position where we are focused on a number -- the number of miles traveled. david: this is fascinating. in that world where we now have g.m. make how this sure it participates in the more miles traveled? it may not be selling as many cars, that is a prescription -- subscription service? sharing and ride businesses like lyft our growing. that is a mile traveled kind of business. we thought it was important for us to make an investment so we can begin to understand that kind of business since it's a different model from our traditional model. david: the bottom line, whatever

the future holds, how can general motors make sure it's business is a viable and profitable right now? >> we will manage supply and demand to ensure we don't create the same issues that we saw leading to the restructuring. ♪

david: the year before the financial crisis struck, general motors sold more than 9 million cars but it lost $38.7 billion. last year, g.m. also sold 9 million cars but it may $9.7 billion in profit. this is g.m. driving the future. general motors is making and selling more cars and suspending -- spending less money. share price is down to the 30% from its high in 2013. one of the biggest questions from wall street is how g.m. executives can manage the business to make sure it doesn't end up right where it started.

have you anticipated the possibility of a downturn and what are you doing to make sure g.m. can weather the storm? mary: we have made sure we are maintaining breaking heating and 810-11 unit market. when you look at what is happened in the last recession, making sure we have a breakeven point at that level i think is very important. david: you're prepared to break even at 10 million or 11 million vehicles a year north america. what would you do? that's a 30%-40% reduction. in 2010 only did our initial public offering we made a commitment that we were going to maintain our breaking point in the u.s. at an industry level of 1011 -- 10 million or 11 million units. we were going to manage supply and demand to ensure we did not create the same issues that we saw leading to the restructuring . we've been very focused on that over the last number of years.

focused on continuing efficiency. focus on ensuring we spend an industry levels and we have done that. --uring that we can to continue to launch in investing great products. we want the business model not only in north america but globally what we can ensure we perform well in a downturn, investor the cycle so you don't the ups and downs of investment through the cycle. and so we have an investment-grade balance sheet. restructure the business and run it accordingly to ensure that. it is doing collective downturn planning. its actions like reducing dealer inventories, and as you have seen over the last year, or focusing on retail sales. it is having a game plan on what costs you can take out in the event of a downturn. where you have the opportunity

to pull the lever. we have other -- a very well for related plan. david: how quickly can you cut back on production? chuck: berry quickly. david: that would be closing plants, presumably. chuck: it depends on the downturn. the first thing you want to do is supply and demand. we would slow down the plants. maybe take some shifts off. we have not added any fixed capacity since the last restructuring. we added shifts. we would slow the line rates. those of the kind of adjustments you can make. today, 25% of our workforce is truly variable. they are really short-term workers. that will increase over the next number of years where in the event of a downturn we would be able to reduce the workforce relatively quickly. david: let's dig into the general motors stories with jamie butters in detroit it was

covering the auto industry for nearly two decades. as wall street believe the story g.m. is telling? jamie: there is a fair amount of skepticism about g.m. a lot of investors are not convinced they can bring the cost down as quickly as chuck stevens says they could. even if they can, there is a sense this is as good as a gift and will just get tougher from here. is thehave important autonomous vehicles in the ridesharing and electric vehicles? how important are they to the valuation at general motors? they have to invest all this money that doesn't have returns and lowers her profits. and ear competing with tech startups for capital. these companies that lose money but are richly valued. it's tough but it's what they have to do for the long run. secretmary barra's formerly -- formula for delivering with you promised. -- if you see me

doing something inconsistent with what we talked about, call me out. ♪

david: since the beginning of the industry, have an enormous changes to the cars we drive. electric starters to self driving cars. g.m. says one of the biggest innovations is brand-new and you can see it. is called platform engineering, building the basic architecture of a car for the global market, not just one part of it. i took a ride with mark royce, global head of product developer. he calls one of the most profound differences between the g.m. up-to-date and when his father in nearly 30 years ago. one of the things that is changed about general motors is the platform engineering. how many other vehicles around the world will be built off of the platform similar to this? >> that's a great question. it will be sold all over the world. if you chemical card you are driving today. and you look at delta

things like crossovers in suv's. we are never able to do that before. we do it in every market in the world. we have really brought our global scale to their -- bare. this is one of our biggest global architectures. david: will that be to cost savings? shared bybut it is the supplier and durham motors because -- general motors because what our suppliers to be successful. moneyhey make with our and a quality standpoint. have thed he still variation market to market and consumer to consumer? >> great question. we went to a really interesting time here in the 2000s of people talked about global engineering. we didn't internally and

publicly. the problem is you have different architectures and the variation is almost guaranteed because you don't of central control over it. the core architecture is architected and our engineering activity, we have now consolidated that of the less couple of years into one. of these global architectures after this scale. day he stepped into the job of ceo you sent money your goals was to change the culture at general motors. what part of the culture did you need to leave behind and which ones did you want to hold onto? mary: i talk about it as behaviors. i can't come in today and say i will work on this part of the culture. what i can do right now is change the way i behave. one of the things we did is we had a top 300 meters around the globe together and said one of the most important behaviors we have to happen this company to move forward?

is about transparency and being candid and owning each other's problems and really creating a relentless desire to win. the ecb giving something that is inconsistent with what we had just talked about, call me out. that the way we have been moving forward. as we change those i say it's permeated the organization very quickly. all those things are starting to change the dialogue about general motors. yes, we are -- we understand we are a cyclical businesses and prepared for and taking steps and being disciplined about it. we are at the same time investing in the future. this is a company that is going to be around not for five years but for the next 50 and 100. david: the general motors we found in detroit was determined to deliver value, to its shareholders, employees and most important to its customers. much more, is determined to drive major change in the future of transportation. is a tall order of many hurdles.

maybe, general motors can reclaim its place of the top of american business. for bloomberg in new york, i'm david westin. ♪

♪ narrator: the challenges facing our world are growing all the time. how do we build stronger economies with equal opportunities for all? how do we build a sustainable world for generations to come? how do we protect our cities and harness the power of technology for our common benefit? in this series, using the latest bloomberg research and analysis, we will make sense of the problems of tomorrow. inequality, sustainability, artificial intelligence, the

gender gap, and the demographic time bomb. and in this film, how we manage our megacities. millions of people every year swell the planet's cities. can we harness economic potential of these hubs, or are we creating centers of poverty, inequality, and violence? ♪ narrator: this is the age of the city. for the first time in human history, more people live in urban than rural settlements. the world's urban population is growing by 70 million people each year. 301 cities account for 50% of global gdp. this will rise to 66% by 2025.

so if we don't get things right in our cities than the consequences for humanity are profound. james hertling: cities are critically important to the global economy and to progress in the global economy. cities can be sources of chaos, as well as development. narrator: this makes them so alluring and so vital. they can be dangerous places. but cities are where fortunes can be made. >> one of the primary factors driving urbanization is opportunity. you live on a farm, and you are growing crops -- you don't have a lot of opportunity. you see a growing, bustling city, your friends are moving there, they are getting jobs in offices, maybe jobs in a manufacturing center, there are restaurants, culture, life. this is attractive, something

you want to be a part of. james hertling: everything is relative. they will have greater access to schools, greater access to employment, greater access to health care and a less vulnerable economic life. ♪ narrator: in 1900, 12 of the world's biggest cities were in north america or europe. 100 years later, this number had fallen to just 2. most of the biggest cities in the future will be in the developing economies of asia and africa. >> most of the growth in cities will be in china, india, and nigeria. those three countries alone will account for 37% of the world's population. staggering numbers. here is an example -- lagos, the biggest city in nigeria. its population every year it is adding the equivalent of boston.

>> the urbanization rate in the u.s., japan is over 70%. in china, it is 50%. so china may have a lot megacities, they may have larger cities, but they are going to get bigger or there is going to be more of them. that is going to be a trend. a lot of emerging markets are going to experience trends like that in the next 50 years, especially with a large population. narrator: this incredible rate of growth makes the challenges of managing a large city more difficult. james hertling: the biggest risks facing cities are the same risks that challenge all of us, politically governing, climate change, economic inequality, productivity, economic growth, employment, education, transportation. those issues that face cities are the same that face everyone, except in a much more

concentrated way. narrator: one city battling with many of these problems is rio de janeiro in brazil. alessandra orofino is on the front lines, trying to solve them. she believes the world's biggest cities are in danger of sinking under a tide of poverty, decrepit infrastructure, and citizen apathy. and unless we do something about it, billions will suffer the consequences. alessandra orofino: the kind of urbanization we have today can only go so far. if we do not change the way we design our cities and make cities change with us, we will have serious limits to urbanization. they will become impossible to manage, impossible to live in, and miserable places to be. if we change that process, those limits could change and possibly be nonexistent.

we have to think about the environment and how we can better build them together. ♪

narrator: managing megacities is one of the great challenges facing the world. this is rio de janeiro, brazil. nearly 12 million people crowd into its metro area. it is beautiful and vibrant. but it also has its problems. crime, inequality, and poverty. alessandra orofino is an urban activist and thinker who has lived and worked in megacities on three different continents. she has worked with united nations on sustainable developing goals and founded, meu rio, an ngo that uses data gathered from citizens to raise campaigns and solve issues posed by the rapid growth of the cities. meu rio has 170,000 activists. alessandra hopes it can be a model for other rapidly growing cities around the globe.

alessandra orofino: we build on a rich tradition of activists and try to bring it to the world that make sense to people. i was born in this city. in rio de janeiro. my family has a mixed background. my father comes from a neighborhood in rio that was quite dangerous in the 1990's, quite poor, or lower middle class. and my mom comes from a wealthy background, one of the best neighborhoods in rio. it taught me the city can be amazing, but it can be very rough and unequal. that is not just a characteristic of this city. it is something we are increasingly seeing in cities around the world. narrator: rio de janeiro is similar to many emerging megacities. some neighborhoods are as wealthy as any other on the planet. others remain impoverished and cut off.

bridging this gap will, alessandra believes, have profound benefits for us all. alessandra orofino: cities bring people closer. they have the density in them. they are the places where most innovation will naturally happen. it's hard to innovate when you are always talking to the same people and hearing the same thoughts. cities are the exact contrary of that. they are natural hubs for innovation, natural hubs for economic growth, and they tend to be the engines of growth in most countries. narrator: but when the growth is rapid and unplanned, the results are gridlocked streets, poisoned air, and an infrastructure that simply cannot cope. alessandra orofino: i come from a city that expanded too rapidly for sure. how do you create sidewalks, schools, mobility systems to cater to a growing population? if that rapid urban expansion is

happening in environments where inequality is paramount, the challenges are even bigger. narrator: in a megacity, one of the biggest challenges can be simply getting from a to b. alessandra orofino: our mobility systems, in general -- very few exceptions -- suck. when you have a poor mobility system, you preclude entire segments of the city from living the city. from actually accessing the opportunity and the beauty and the amazingness that city has. because it is hard for them to get around. you also preclude the rich people in the city from getting to know other areas of the city, which can be exciting and fulfilling experience in itself. so you are creating a city in which everyone is living in their own territory, which is terrible. narrator: at the forefront of

these infrastructure problems are the city's poor. they can become physically cut off from the economic opportunities living in a city provides. alessandra orofino: it includes rapid expansion of cities. the fact that in the developing world, one third of the population is living in slums, something none of us should accept as we grow and think about a planet in which we want to live. narrator: slums are a result of rapid, unplanned expansion. today, an estimated 863 million people live in slums. if the 104 million slum dwellers in india were a separate nation, they would be the 13th most populous country in the world. but slums are not always hopeless places. alessandra orofino: the poor are not just sitting and waiting for the government to do something for them, they are creating their own environment. in rio, most of that infrastructure was built by

them. so there is a level of do-it-yourself that you see in more poor neighborhoods than neighborhoods precisely because the government wasn't there. narrator: this means slums must be handled delicately by urban planners. alessandra orofino: what do we do with areas that were developed by communities but lack infrastructure? even if we are assuming goodwill, in terms of how we handle them, if the only thing we want to do is provide those areas with quality public services, there are choices that have to be made. which pieces do we leave, which pieces do we change? if we don't handle that process in a way that is human and intelligent and is aimed at protecting the interest of the poorer communities, we can end up with massive rates of dislocation and destroying an urban fabric and social fabric that is so important and so vital.

here in rio, we have santa teresa, a neighborhood with a tram. it is beautiful. most trams in rio were destroyed earlier in the 20th century. this is something that the neighbors organize and kept their trams. it was a forgotten neighborhood for a while. it became a lot poorer. in the past five to six years, it has been gentrifying. the government decided to turn the tram, one of the remaining in the city, into a tourist attraction. but the only reason why the tram still exists is because we organized and kept it here. they created the value. narrator: alessandra believes cities often ignore creativity. the result is a democratic

deficit which erodes faith in the city government and alienates already vulnerable communities. alessandra believes cities must take their citizens with them if they are to expand successfully. alessandra orofino: what we definitely have not got right is the process by which we involve citizens. i have not seen one case of a city that has used the collective intelligence of its citizens and distributed power to make it possible. when we get that right, we see a lot of other issues we see. narrator: but for us to truly harness the power of our cities, we need to heal the divisions within them first. alessandra orofino: if we keep building unequal cities, these cities are not very good to live in for most of their population, i don't think we can hope to be happy in these urban spaces. the worst-case scenario would be cities that do not have a soul and become less and less

attractive to entrepreneurs, for people who want to create new economic activity, and ultimately become less wealthy. narrator: across the ocean from rio, another giant city is growing. lagos is now the most economically important city in africa, but its growing pains that are excruciating. and threatening the futures of 21 million people.

♪ narrator: more people live in cities than ever before. but many of the world's biggest cities are struggling to cope. lagos, on nigeria's atlantic coast, is the largest city in the world without a citywide rail system. meaning everyone has to travel by road. for workers like abraham cole,

his daily commute takes over his life. >> what time did you wake up? >> this morning, i woke up like 3:00, 3:30. i usually do not do breakfast. narrator: in three years, the population of lagos has nearly doubled from 11 million to 21 million. but this staggering expansion has overwhelmed the city's impoverished infrastructure. >> how long will it take? abraham: it should take me for 45 minutes to get to the office. >> in full rush-hour, how long does it take? abraham: 6, 7 hours in traffic. three hours going, three hours coming back. it is much worse coming back. coming back is something else. i don't think i want to waste

seven hours of my every day time for the rest of my life. narrator: lagos is currently ranked in the top five least livable cities in the world. but although the city's economy is bigger than kenya's, simply getting to their desks is a daily ordeal for millions of workers. >> when do you see your children? abraham: weekends. weekends only. sometimes i see them during the week, if they really want to see me. and they came to see me. sometimes, they miss me that much. >> it must be quite difficult. abraham: yes, it is. but it's that we have to do. for now. ♪

narrator: like millions of lagosian workers, abraham's first act after getting to work in the morning is to take a nap. abraham: welcome to my office. >> what are you going to do now? abraham: i think i've -- it is 7:10. so i took a nap for 30 minutes. and get ready for work. narrator: 2,000 people migrate permanently to lagos every day. straining the city's infrastructure further and expanding the city from the land to the sea. the result is slums like makoko. a floating settlement on the city's lagoon. ♪

james hertling: infrastructure has not kept pace with the population growth. so basic measures of quality of life, access clean water, for example, access to electricity are limited. so before you even get to issues related to growth and developing, lagos and nigeria have to sort out more basic issues of infrastructure. narrator: makoko is the oldest slum in lagos. 80,000 people live here in buildings sitting on stilts connected by a complex system of canals. james hertling: successful cities find ways to deliver services to even the most deprived. that is the challenge, especially in the developing world where resources are at a premium. narrator: in makoko, residents have developed their own infrastructure, including fresh water and electricity.

and this three-story floating school, which doubles at a community center, is the latest addition to this unique environment. the school was completed in 2013. it is cheap and easy to build. its designers hope it will be a template for future buildings in makoko. james hertling: makoko in nigeria raises interesting questions of government and control. it has been a long ignored area. and the local residents took charge and tried to improve their own lot with schools and their own locally initiated deveen howerver, the central government has decided it wants that area for its own development reasons. narrator: only a few kilometers away lies an alternative vision of how lagos may develop. not a grassroots community vision, but a grand project of incredible scale. eko atlantic. david frame: where we are

standing, we are in the alignment of the financial district. what we call "eko boulevard." this is where all the major financial institutions will establish their headquarters and offices. narrator: eko atlantic is a multibillion-dollar residential and business district built on 10 square kilometers of reclaimed land. it is, in effect, a new city -- or it will be soon. its backers hope a quarter of a million people will one day live here, with 150,000 workers commuting from the old city across the water. david frame: when we initially thought about building eko atlantis, we looked at an area in london, we looked at dubai, and we looked at the heart of london, heart of paris, heart of new york.

obviously, the vast majority are wealthy people. i could not afford to live in the heart of london. but, in creating the residence for these people, you are also creating job opportunities. and it is the norm, here in nigeria, that if you create residential apartments, you also create quarters for the domestic staff working for that family. you have to take into context that this is a city development. it is not a low income settlement. it is a business sanctum. primarily. this is the future. the first commercial development of lagos. there is no doubt of that. narrator: david hopes the firs residential units will be open by the end of 2016, with the infrastructure of the whole site in place by 2022. >> projects like eko atlantic

raise as many questions as they answer. especially from where local residents are aware that they may be getting the short end of the stick. on the other hand, they really do lend themselves to starting from scratch and being able to build structures where there are schools, hospitals, offices, transportation facilities. and they give gigantic cities like lagos an opportunity to create a model of what can be, presuming they are planned and executed correctly. narrator: the future paths of megacities like lagos remain uncertain. organic, citizen-led growth like makoko, or large-scale planned developments like eko atlantic. what is clear is that left unchecked, growth could destroy city's immense potential. james hertling: i am an optimist when it comes to cities. i grew up in new york in the

1970's when we were on the edge of bankruptcy. here we are in the 21st century, and new york is booming and thriving. it is a tremendous place. you can see with proper planning and a diverse and vibrant population what is possible. alessandra orofino: i hope those little cities will be interconnected, in the sense they will have solidarity networks, there will be resiliancy networks, and the citizens will feel like they're cities where they want to be. a project they want to build and they can move, visit each other, they can learn from each other at a global stage. ♪ ♪

ashlee: one of the basic truths of the human condition is that people love to float, and there's no better place to float than here at the dead sea in israel, where, without any effort at all, large mammals can achieve buoyancy. there is a ritual to doing it the right way. you need to fall into some mud, lather up, and relax with a good read.