The Great Model Train Robbery
Although much less popular than in years past, model trains are still highly sought after collectibles. Is that why someone robbed Kent, England’s Gravesend Model Marine & Engineering Society of theirs?
The Wealth Detective Who Finds the Hidden Money of the Super Rich
“Thirty-two-year-old French economist Gabriel Zucman scours spreadsheets to find secret offshore accounts.”
How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
This is what happens when a company concerns itself more with marketing than with retail service.
Facebook’s Crisis Management Algorithm Runs on Outrage
The lucrative social media platform claims that it has improved the way it handles dangerous, harmful content, but its reliance on personal data harvesting has made it unwilling to effectively police its 2.7 billion users.
The Coffin Business Is Booming in Central America Due to Gang Violence
How the Pacheco family business pivoted from bread baking to burying bodies in El Salvador, which has the highest murder rate per capita on the planet, “enough for the World Health Organization to classify it as an epidemic.”
‘I Hereby Confess Judgement’
Small business owners across the U.S. are being driven into bankruptcy by usurious loans advanced by predatory lenders that are making a lot of other people very, very rich. It’s perfectly horrifying, and perfectly legal.
Cancer-linked Chemicals Manufactured by 3M Are Turning Up in Drinking Water
Studies have shown that 3M-made “per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (or PFAS, pronounced ‘PEE-fas’)” found in Teflon, Scotchgard, and fire-fighting foam have been linked to a weakened immune response and cancer. The chemicals contaminate the ground water around the 3M plant in Cotton Grove, Minnesota creating an “underground plume” of pollution that’s 100 square miles in size. The biggest problem? 3M knew of the dangers and has been covering it up for decades.
The Unsolved Murder of an Unusual Billionaire
Everyone in Canadian high society knew the Shermans, who owned a lucrative generic drug company and were some of the country’s most active philanthropists. But Barry Sherman also sued a lot of people, battled his cousins, made questionable business relationships, didn’t use a bodyguard, and kept their one home security camera off.
Dying Alone in Japan: The Industry Devoted to What’s Left Behind
Companies that deal with the belongings left behind after you die are in demand in Japan, “where each year more people die with no one to mourn them.”
The New Startup South
Greenville, South Carolina has discovered a way to revitalize its postindustrial spaces: by incubating start-ups and joining the knowledge economy. Can other mid-size Southern cities do the same?
