Way back in 1889, the inventor Thomas Edison and the financier J.P. Morgan put their heads together to create the Edison General Electric Company. Just seven years later, it was one of the original twelve companies listed on the new Dow Jones Industrial Average....
Centuries ago, medieval alchemists used all the technology at their disposal to try to transform base elements like lead into precious substances like gold. Occasionally they even succeeded! Alas, in most cases, transmutations that seemed too good to be true turned...
Golf courses may be some of the most beautiful manmade environments on earth. Millions of Americans actually hate the game itself, but tolerate topping their drives, shanking their wedges, and losing $2 Nassau bets by missing three-foot putts just because they get to...
Back in the Gilded Age, an ambitious social climber and noted toady named Ward McAllister coined the phrase "the Four Hundred," named for the number of people that Manhattan heiress Caroline Astor could fit in her Fifth Avenue ballroom. In 1982, Forbes magazine...
The 2016 presidential election is almost here. Are you excited yet? (Some cynics would say the campaign actually started as long ago as November 7, 2012 — the day after the last election!) In just a few weeks, voters in Iowa and New Hampshire will gather to cast the...
"Bar Rafaeli" sounds like a happening watering hole in a trendy part of Brooklyn — the kind of place where bearded hipsters rocking flannel shirts and man-buns tip back craft beers and artisanal cocktails with their tattooed girlfriends. But Bar Rafaeli is actually a...
The holiday season is in full swing, and we expect you're on your best behavior to make Santa's nice list. But there's one famous guy who works harder than anyone else to be naughty this time of year, and that's everyone's favorite Dr. Seuss anti-hero, the Grinch. We...
Back in 2002, Steve Epstein, the director of the Pentagon's Standards of Conduct Office, faced a common dilemma among ethics officials: how to keep his training sessions fresh and relevant? His answer was to avoid discussing dry statutes like 18 U.S.C. § 205, and...
Turn the dial on the Way-Back Machine to the days of the Great Depression. Millions of Americans are jobless, struggling just to eke out a living. But one man named Willie Sutton has discovered unlimited opportunities in a truly recession-proof field: robbing banks....
Last month, millions of fans across America sat down in front of their televisions to watch the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets, 4 games to 1 in baseball's World Series. But few of those fans would ever dream they could suit up and join the players in the...
