Beware That New Credit-Card Offer

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

Wall Street Journal

Amid all the junk mail pouring into your house in recent months, you might have noticed a solicitation or two for a "professional card," otherwise known as a small-business or corporate credit card.

If so, watch out. While Capital One Financial Corp.'s World MasterCard, Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Mastercard and the others might look like typical plastic, they are anything but.

Professional cards aren't covered under the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, or Card Act for short. Among other things, the law prohibits issuers from controversial billing practices such as hair-trigger interest rate increases, shortened payment cycles and inactivity fees—but it doesn't apply to professional cards (see table).

Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love

Chopin's Small Miracles

Despite their brevity, the Preludes loom large musically

By DAVID DUBAL

Wall Street Journal

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), whose 200th anniversary it is this year, is the overwhelming favorite composer for the piano. He possessed the most subtle intuitions and fathomed the mysteries of the world. Oscar Wilde once said of him, "After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed and mourning over tragedies that were not my own." [Article includes audio music clips]

HURRICANE KATRINA: THE FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

The Insurance Information Institute

The 2010 MetLife Study of the American Dream

MetLife

The results of the most recent MetLife Study of the American Dreamsuggest a country slow to rebound from economic troubles. While most Americans believe the U.S. economy will be the same or better this year than last, most see a long road to personal recovery—due in part to the deep financial hole that many Americans were in before the recession began. Yet even as they struggle to make ends meet by working harder, saving more and spending less, many believe the bar is still rising in terms of the basic necessities in life.

When It Comes to Butter Carving, There's No Margarine for Error

By JILIAN MINCER

Wall Street Journal

Linda Christensen didn't start as a sculptor, but the more than 500 busts she's churned out have built her a solid reputation.

She'll be carving this week at the Minnesota State Fair, where her career began almost 40 years ago. Thousands will watch as she molds a 90-pound block of butter into the likeness of the Midwest Dairy Association's newly crowned "Princess Kay of the Milky Way." Then she'll carve busts of the 11 finalists. Slideshow

Rumor to Fact in Tales of Post-Katrina Violence

By TRYMAINE LEE

New York Times

NEW ORLEANS — In the days after Hurricane Katrina left much of New Orleans in flooded ruins, the city was awash in tales of violence and bloodshed.

Heading Off to College? Don’t Forget to Properly Insure Everything You Bring to School

I.I.I. Offers Tips For Insuring College Students’ Possessions, Including a “Dorm Inventory”INSURANCE INFORMATION INSTITUTE

NEW YORK, August 24, 2010 - As college students and their parents begin planning for the new academic year, “check insurance” should be on their “to do” lists, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). For students who live in an on-campus dormitory, most of their personal possessions are covered under either their parents’ homeowners or renters insurance policy, although the issue gets more complicated if the student resides off-campus or owns a very expensive computer or sophisticated electronic equipment.

'Fire devil' tornado blazes trail near road in Sao Paulo state of Brazil

Tom Bonnett
Sky News Online

A fire tornado caused by brush fires and strong winds has stopped motorway traffic as drivers in Brazil gawped at the rare phenomenon.

The whirlwind of flames burned through fields beside the road in the northwest city of Aracatuba in Sao Paulo state.

Does Hope Have a Dark Side?

Some see yearning for a cure for a chronic illness as counterproductive.
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay

healthfinger.gov

U. S. Department of Health and Human Services

THURSDAY, Aug. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Imagine suffering from a chronic illness that challenges you every single day. You have aches and pains, difficulty getting around and sometimes suffer from surprising decreases in energy. You take fistfuls of medication for relief and endure countless medical procedures to keep the illness from progressing.

Google Shakes It Up Again With Free Phone Calls

By David Pogue
New York Times

Google just loves upsetting the apple cart. It shook up Web searching and advertising. It shook up free, Web-based e-mail services when Gmail offered gigabytes of free storage rather than a few megabytes. It shook up the way companies go public.

Ancient Sport of India Touts Ties to Buddha, and Male Cheerleaders

Kabaddi, Cross Between Tag and Yoga, Has Global Ambitions; Do Hold Your Breath

By AMOL SHARMA
Wall Street Journal

BHOPAL, India—Star players in the ancient Indian sport of kabaddi share a few key characteristics. They're strong. They're quick on their feet. And, most importantly, they can hold their breath for two minutes while chanting the word "kabaddi" over and over.

Toyota's Corolla is the people's car in Afghanistan

By David Nakamura

Washington Post

If this war-torn nation of 29 million is a magnet for foreign occupying forces that never seem to leave, it is also the land where old Corollas from across the globe come to die.

U.S. Rejected Hen Vaccine Despite British Success

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

New York Times

Faced with a crisis more than a decade ago in which thousands of people were sickened from salmonella in infected eggs, farmers in Britain began vaccinating their hens against the bacteria. That simple but decisive step virtually wiped out the health threat.

But when American regulators created new egg safety rules that went into effect last month, they declared that there was not enough evidence to conclude that vaccinating hens against salmonella would prevent people from getting sick. The Food and Drug Administration decided not to mandate vaccination of hens — a precaution that would cost less than a penny per a dozen eggs.

Share of Popular Bottled Water from Municipal Supplies Up 50 Percent

Food & Water Watch Analysis Reveals Uptick in Sourcing from Taxpayer-Supported Water Supplies

food&waterwatch.org

Washington, D.C.—New analysis of industry data released today by the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch finds that almost half of all bottled water sold in U.S. retail outlets in PET plastic bottles now comes from municipal tap water supplies. Bottling Our Cities’ Tap Water shows that between 2000 and 2009 the share of retail-sold PET bottled water that is actually tap water grew from 32.7 percent to 47.8 percent.

Legal requirements to provide your Social Security number.

Social Security Administration

Must I provide a Social Security number (SSN) to any business or government agency that asks?

The SSN was originally devised to keep an accurate record of each individual’s earnings, and to subsequently monitor benefits paid under the Social Security program. However, use of the Social Security number as a general identifier has grown to the point where it is the most commonly used and convenient identifier for all types of record-keeping systems in the United States.

Specific laws require a person to provide his or her SSN for certain purposes. While we cannot give you a comprehensive list of all situations where an SSN might be required or requested, an SSN is required or requested by the following organizations:

Call Phones From Gmail

The Official Google Blog
8/25/2010 09:40:00 AM(Cross-posted from the Gmail Blog)

Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer’s microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?”

A Forgotten Fight for Suffrage

By CHRISTINE STANSELL
New York Times

LOOKING back on the adoption of the 19th Amendment 90 years ago Thursday — the largest act of enfranchisement in our history — it can be hard to see what the fuss was about. We’re inclined to assume that the passage of women’s suffrage (even the term is old-fashioned) was inevitable, a change whose time had come. After all, voting is now business as usual for women. And although women are still poorly represented in Congress, there are influential female senators and representatives, and prominent women occupy governors’ and mayors’ offices and legislative seats in every part of the United States.

Are E-Books Worth the Money?

By Brett Arends
Wall Street Journal

If you walk out of the cinema this week with a burning desire to read Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love," you can download it onto your Amazon Kindle electronic book reader–if you have one–for $12.99.

Then again you could just walk into your local Borders bookstore with a coupon and get the paperback for $10.

Defense official discloses cyberattack

By Ellen NakashimaTuesday

Washington Post

Now it is official: The most significant breach of U.S. military computers was caused by a flash drive inserted into a U.S. military laptop on a post in the Middle East in 2008.

Overuse of Digital Devices May Lead to Brain Fatigue

By MATT RICHTEL
New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s 1 p.m. on a Thursday and Dianne Bates, 40, juggles three screens. She listens to a few songs on her iPod, then taps out a quick e-mail on her iPhone and turns her attention to the high-definition television.

Wind Power Won't Cool Down the Planet

Often enough it leads to higher carbon emissions.
By ROBERT BRYCE

Wall Street Journal

The wind industry has achieved remarkable growth largely due to the claim that it will provide major reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. There's just one problem: It's not true. A slew of recent studies show that wind-generated electricity likely won't result in any reduction in carbon emissions—or that they'll be so small as to be almost meaningless.

Venezuela, More Deadly Than Iraq, Wonders Why

By SIMON ROMERO
New York Times

CARACAS, Venezuela — Some here joke that they might be safer if they lived in Baghdad. The numbers bear them out.

In Iraq, a country with about the same population as Venezuela, there were 4,644 civilian deaths from violence in 2009, according to Iraq Body Count; in Venezuela that year, the number of murders climbed above 16,000. Slide Show

Inside Neurosurgery’s Rise

By RANDI HUTTER EPSTEIN, M.D.
New York Times

NEW HAVEN — Two floors below the main level of Yale’s medical school library is a room full of brains. No, not the students. These brains, more than 500 of them, are in glass jars. They are part of an extraordinary collection that might never have come to light if not for a curious medical student and an encouraging and persistent doctor.

Online ranters increasingly pay a price

By David G. Savage
Tribune Washington bureau

Seattle Times

WASHINGTON — The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

Digital diversions leave teens, parents sleep-deprived

By Donna St. George

Washington Post

There are nights when Jane Hopkins feels like a sleep cop.

She will climb out of her bed in the wee hours to see whether her teenage sons are really asleep. If she spies them still awake, playing on the computer or the PlayStation3 in the basement of their College Park home, she will insist: It's time for bed. It was timehours ago.

The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility

The idea that companies have a duty to address social ills is not just flawed, argues Aneel Karnani. It also makes it more likely that we'll ignore the real solutions to these problems.
By ANEEL KARNANI

Wall Street Journal

Can companies do well by doing good? Yes—sometimes.

But the idea that companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is fundamentally flawed.

Spy novels by real spies: Anthony Burgess, John le Carré and others

By Mary Ann Gwinn
Seattle Times

Early this summer I asked an idle question of Seattle Times readers: What are the great spy novels written by authors who were actual spies?

High-tech carts will tell on Cleveland residents who don't recycle ... and they face $100 fine

By Mark Gillispie, The Plain Dealer
Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It would be a stretch to say that Big Brother will hang out in Clevelanders' trash cans, but the city plans to sort through curbside trash to make sure residents are recycling -- and fine them $100 if they don't.

Housing Fades as a Means to Build Wealth, Analysts Say

By DAVID STREITFELD

New York Times

Housing will eventually recover from its great swoon. But many real estate experts now believe that home ownership will never again yield rewards like those enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century, when houses not only provided shelter but also a plump nest egg.

Know Your Options -- A New Web Site by Fannie Mae

Peace of Mind: The Battle Can we 'choose' happiness or is it a matter of circumstance and genes?

By Paul Beston
Wall Street Journal

New parents are sometimes asked whimsically what they want for their children when they grow up. The safest reply, and most common one today, is: "I just want them to be happy." Another possible reply, often unspoken but certainly part of most parents' thoughts about their children's future, might be: "I just want them to be good."

How 13 dog breeds got their names

By Ethan Trex
Mental Floss

(Mental Floss) -- Every dog owner knows why they gave their dog its name, but how well do you know the story behind their breed names? Let's take a look at where a handful of common breeds found their monikers.

How I (Almost) Saved the Earth

No one said it would be easy to build the greenest house on the block. Scott Adams on perplexing energy bills, ugly lawns and the true meaning of 'green'
By Scott Adams
Wall Street Journal

Let's say you love the Earth. You see an article in a magazine about a guy who built a "green" house using mostly twigs, pinecones and abandoned bird nests. You want to build a green home, too. So you find an architect, show him the magazine and say, "Give me one just like this."

What You Need to Know: New Rules for Gift Cards

By Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

What Spreads Faster Than Bedbugs? Stigma

By Emily B. Hager

New York Times

Jeremy Sparig spent months fighting bedbugs. Now, to some people, he is like a mattress left on the street, something best avoided in these times.

“They don’t want to hug you anymore; they don’t want you coming over,” said Mr. Sparig, of East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “You’re like a leper.”

U.S. Inaction Lets Look-Alike Tubes Kill Patients

By Gardiner Harris

New York Times

Thirty-five weeks pregnant, Robin Rodgers was vomiting and losing weight, so her doctor hospitalized her and ordered that she be fed through a tube until the birth of her daughter.

DOD Releases Final Fort Hood Review

The United States Department of Defense


The Department of Defense (DoD) released today the final review of the recommendations from the independent report “Protecting the Force: Lessons Learned from Fort Hood.”

History of the Internet

Via: MBA Online

A Design Campaign for Bananas

By Rob Walker

New York Times

If you’ve ever wondered why it seems impossible to fill a grocery cart without adding at least one item whose packaging has been redesigned, the answer to your question is the fact that you’ve asked it. “New look! Same great taste!” openly confesses the blatant goal of catching your eye for no substantial reason. Humans have always noticed novelty, but it’s harder to get our attention in the multicolored and abundant context of a megamart, where one heap of bananas looks much like another.

Math Lessons for Locavores

By Stephen Budiansky
New York Times

IT’S 42 steps from my back door to the garden that keeps my family supplied nine months of the year with a modest cornucopia of lettuce, beets, spinach, beans, tomatoes, basil, corn, squash, brussels sprouts, the occasional celeriac and, once when I was feeling particularly energetic, a couple of small but undeniable artichokes. You’ll get no argument from me about the pleasures and advantages to the palate and the spirit of eating what’s local, fresh and in season.

But the local food movement now threatens to devolve into another one of those self-indulgent — and self-defeating — do-gooder dogmas.

Shaping the Values of Youth: Sunday School Books in 19th Century America

Tips to Reduce Your Risk of Salmonella from Eggs

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

A bacterium, Salmonella Enteritidis, can be on both the outside and inside of eggs that appear to be normal, and if the eggs are eaten raw or undercooked, the bacterium can cause illness.

[Egg] Recall -- Affected Brands and Descriptions

Egg Safety Center

Watermelons Get Small

By Kim Severson

New York Times

IN this dusty field filled with experimental watermelons off Highway 174, there is but one sound that matters.

It’s a deep, soft pop, like a cork slipping free from a wine bottle. You hear it when a pocket knife cracks the green rind on a watermelon so full of wet fruit that the outside can barely contain the inside. Also: How to Choose a Watermelon

Summaries for Patients: Does Admitting Mistakes to Patients Lead to More Lawsuits?

By Annals of Internal Medicine

Simplifying the Lives of Web Users

By David Pogue
New York Times


I’m about to make your life better. No need to thank me.


But first, a warning: On the way to understanding how your life will get better, you’ll have to read about some technical, fairly arcane topics. Trust me: it’ll be worth it.

The Six-Figure Fish Tank Catches On

By Jennifer A. Kingson

New York Times

KARIN WILZIG has a hard time choosing a favorite color from among the 64 that she and her husband can use to illuminate the 14 1/2- foot, 450-gallon aquarium in their TriBeCa town house. The default is fuchsia, which turns the dozen koi a deep pink. Slide Show

New Words in the ODE

By Time Magazine

Web Connection Raises Chances of Romance

Study found having Internet access helps those having tough time finding a mate
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay

Healthfinder.gov

United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

MONDAY, Aug. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Folks with Internet connections are more likely to be in a romantic relationship than folks without access to the Web, a new study shows.

Gun-toting soccer moms a scary thought in D.C. area, but not out west

By Fredrick Kunkle

Washington Post

PHOENIX -- In the red rock and sand of the Arizona desert, just past the retirement villages and golf greens that have made this sun-worshipping city famous, sits the biggest public shooting range in the United States.

eBrary Cyber Bullying Searchable Information Center

The World's Best Countries

Newsweek

CONSUMER ALERT: EPA Advises Care When Selecting Pesticides for Bedbug Control

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to alert consumers that there has been an increase of individuals or companies who offer to control bedbugs with unrealistic promises of effectiveness or low cost. Because bed bug infestations are so difficult to control, there have been situations where pesticides that are not intended for indoor residential applications have been improperly used or applied at greater rates than the label allows. While controlling bedbugs is challenging, consumers should never use, or allow anyone else to use, a pesticide indoors that is intended for outdoor use, as indicated on the label. Using the wrong pesticide or using it incorrectly to treat for bedbugs can make you, your family, and your pets sick. It can also make your home unsafe to live in – and may not solve the bedbug problem.

Bankruptcy Filings Up 20 Percent in June

United States Federal Courts

Bankruptcy filings rose 20 percent in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2010, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. A total of 1,572,597 bankruptcy cases were filed in federal courts in that period, compared to 1,306,315 bankruptcy cases filed in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2009. This is the highest number of bankruptcy filings for any period since many of the provisions of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 took effect.

UK archivist says uncovers real-life Quasimodo

Reuters

(Reuters Life!) - A British archivist believes he has uncovered the real-life inspiration for French novelist Victor Hugo's mysterious character Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

High in the Andes, Keeping an Incan Mystery Alive

By Simon Romero
New York Times

AN CRISTÓBAL DE RAPAZ, Peru — The route to this village 13,000 feet above sea level runs from the desert coast up hairpin bends, delivering the mix of exhilaration and terror that Andean roads often provide. Condors soar above mist-shrouded crags. Quechua-speaking herders squint at strangers who arrive gasping in the thin air.

Study: Surgery May Reduce Diabetics' Need for Drugs

By Jennifer Corbett Dooren
Wall Street Journal

The majority of people with diabetes who had bariatric surgery to lose weight were able to stop taking their diabetes medications, which led to a significant decline in health-care costs, according to a study released Monday.

Beloit College Mindset List

Beloit, Wis. – Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his marriage, members of this fall’s entering college class of 2014 have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital world is routine and technology is just too slow.

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. The Mindset List website at www.beloit.edu/mindset, the Mediasite webcast and its Facebook page receive more than 400,000 hits annually.

Becoming a Squinter Nation

Glasses Can Correct Near and Far, but What About Those Screens in Between?

By Melinda Beck
Wall Street Journal

There isn't a name for it and few eye doctors test for it. But many people are having trouble seeing in the middle distance that demands so much of our focus.

Some 80% of us use computers, staring intently on screens set well between typical distance and reading range, often for many hours each day. Add in laptops, pagers, e-readers, smartphones, personal-digital assistants and hand-held video games, each with its own optimum distance and tiny flickering screen, and the demands on human eyes today would baffle even Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the bifocal in the late 18th century.

Start-Ups on a Shoestring

The tales of three entrepreneurs who launched companies—for less than $150
By Colleen Debaise, Sarah E. Needleman and Emily Maltby
Wall Street Journal

You don't have to break the bank to start a business.

For many would-be entrepreneurs, money is the insurmountable hurdle. They hunger to strike out on their own, but don't have a big pile of cash to invest in a start-up that might not churn a profit for years to come. And they're reluctant to stake what cash they do have while the economy is still shaky.

Another Threat to Economy: Boomers Cutting Back

By Mark Whitehouse
Wall Street Journal

America's baby boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—face a problem that could weigh on the economy for years to come: The longer it takes for the economy to recover, the less money they'll have to spend in retirement.

Rise of the Ratfish in Puget Sound

By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times

ASK A NORTHWESTERNER to pick the creature that epitomizes Puget Sound, and odds are the answer will be orcas or salmon.

Ask Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Wayne Palsson, and he'll tell you the ugly truth: Ratfish rule.

Moose Offer Trail of Clues on Arthritis

By Pam Belluck

New York Times

In the 100 years since the first moose swam into Lake Superior and set up shop on an island, they have mostly minded their moosely business, munching balsam fir and trying to evade hungry gray wolves.

But now the moose of Isle Royale have something to say — well, their bones do. Many of the moose, it turns out, have arthritis. And scientists believe their condition’s origin can help explain human osteoarthritis — by far the most common type of arthritis, affecting one of every seven adults 25 and older and becoming increasingly prevalent.

Your Card Has Been Declined, Just as You Wanted

By Ron Lieber

New York Times

Coming soon: credit and debit cards that cut you off when you disregard your own monthly budget.

In the next couple of days, MasterCardis expected to announce that Citigroupwill be the first company in the United States to issue MasterCards with special features intended to protect consumers not only from thieves but also from themselves.

Medical treatment carries possible side effect of limiting homosexuality

A prenatal pill for congenital adrenal hyperplasia to prevent ambiguous genitalia may reduce the chance that a female with the disorder will be gay. Critics call it engineering for sexual orientation.
By Shari Roan

Los Angeles Times

Each year in the United States, perhaps a few dozen pregnantwomen learn they are carrying a fetus at risk for a rare disorder known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The condition causes an accumulation of male hormones and can, in females, lead to genitals so masculinized that it can be difficult at birth to determine the baby's gender.

Same-Sex Marriage Debate Has Roots Going Back Centuries

By Stephanie Pappas

Live Science

In the late 1700s, something disturbing happened to marriage in Western societies: It began to change. Young people had revolutionary new ideas about the institution and what it meant to them.

Japan, Checking on Its Oldest, Finds Many Gone

By Martin Fackler
New York Times

TOKYO — Japan has long boasted of having many of the world’s oldest people — testament, many here say, to a society with a superior diet and a commitment to its elderly that is unrivaled in the West.

That was before the police found the body of a man thought to be one of Japan’s oldest, at 111 years, mummified in his bed, dead for more than three decades. His daughter, now 81, hid his death to continue collecting his monthly pension payments, the police said.

Amish settle in Colorado's San Luis Valley, diversifying to support families

By Ann Schrader
The Denver Post

MONTE VISTA — Faced with challenges to their traditional agricultural lifestyle, the Amish are adapting to vastly different economic opportunities in their new Colorado settlements. Graphic: Amish Population Changes

Back-to-school PCs cheaper, show more pizazz

By Peter Svensson
(The Associated Press)

Seattle Times

Looking at getting a new PC for the fall semester? Here's a jolt of cheer in these uncertain times: PCs are not only cheaper than ever, there's real innovation going on, yielding interesting new choices.

This is a rundown of options in several price categories.

The Perils of 'Wannabe Cool' Christianity

By Brett McCracken
Wall Street Journal

'How can we stop the oil gusher?" may have been the question of the summer for most Americans. Yet for many evangelical pastors and leaders, the leaking well is nothing compared to the threat posed by an ongoing gusher of a different sort: Young people pouring out of their churches, never to return.

A Global Graveyard for Dead Computers in Ghana

Packing for College, 2010 Style

Hidden financial traps are snaring even the best and brightest on campus—and their parents. Here is how to make sure you don't flunk Money 101.
By Karen Blumenthal
Wall Street Journal

As you help pack up the minifridge, laptop and extra-long twin sheets for your college freshman, you might consider a few other last-minute chores:

The Power Trip

Contrary to the Machiavellian cliché, nice people are more likely to rise to power. Then something strange happens: Authority atrophies the very talents that got them there.
By Jonah Lehrer

Wall Street Journal

When CEO Mark Hurd resigned from Hewlett-Packard last week in light of ethics violations, many people expressed surprise. Mr. Hurd, after all, was known as an unusually effective and straight-laced executive.

Who's a Pirate? In Court, A Duel Over Definitions

By Keith Johnson
Wall Street Journal

NORFOLK, Va.—Not since Lt. Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy sailed back triumphantly to nearby Hampton Roads in 1718 with the severed head of Blackbeard swinging from his bowsprit has this Navy town been so embroiled in the fight against piracy. Interactive Graphic