The Epic Rise And Hard Fall Of New York’s Taxi King
The man known as the Taxi King arrived at his 2014 holiday party in a $384,000 Ferrari, wearing a custom Italian suit. Five years later, that man, Evgeny A. Freidman, stood in a mostly empty courtroom in Albany, N.Y., as a judge sentenced him to probation for tax fraud.
Uncatchable: The Story Of Fugitive George Wright
George Wright, America’s most elusive fugitive, ran for forty years. He ran from the cops after escaping from prison. He ran from the feds after the most brazen hijacking in history. He ran from the authorities on three continents, hiding out and blending in wherever he went.
The North Korean Prisoner Who Escaped With Her Guard
Jeon was one of several guards at Onsong Detention Centre in the far north of North Korea. He and his colleagues kept Kim and a few dozen other inmates under surveillance 24 hours a day whilst they awaited trial. Watch how a prison guard and a prisoner made their break together from one of the world’s most secretive states.
Mathematicians Have Solved Traffic Jams, And They’re Begging Cities To Listen
Traffic modeling is a complex branch of applied mathematics, partially because it assumes that drivers are selfish and pursuing their own goals, rather than any predictable or shared efforts.
LEGO Launches Braille Bricks For Children To Learn Braille
At the Sustainable Brands conference in Paris, the LEGO Foundation and LEGO Group announced their new project to help blind and visually impaired children learn braille through custom LEGO Braille Bricks.
How Would Anyone Benefit From Sending Unsolicited Amazon Packages To Random Addresses?
First came a cell phone case that no one had ordered and that didn’t match a phone in the house. The next week brought unusual kitchen supplies. Then a mass of assorted holiday-themed items. All of these deliveries were from Amazon.
Inside Google’s Civil War
With its “Don’t be evil” mantra, Google was a central player in creating the rosy optimism of the tech boom. Some employees say Google is losing touch with that motto. What happens when an empowered tech workforce rebels?
The Price Of Plenty: How Beef Changed America
Exploitation and predatory pricing drove the transformation of the US beef industry – and created the model for modern agribusiness. The industrial slaughterhouse was a triumph of human ingenuity as well as a site of brutal labor exploitation.
How The Killing Of An Abusive Father By His Daughters Fuelled Russia’s Culture Wars
News of the killing of three teenage sisters quickly spread across Russia, and in the months that followed, the country was divided over what drove the sisters to kill their own father. It inspired a campaign for change – and a backlash from the patriarchy.
How Barcelona Is Taking City Streets Back From Cars
The city of Barcelona is testing out an urban design trick that can give cities back to pedestrians. It involves taking nine square city blocks and closing off the inside to through traffic. Buses, big freight trucks — or any vehicles that are trying to get from one part of town to the next — have to drive around the perimeter.
The High-Stakes Data Fight Over The Future Of Transportation
Most transport apps have become walled gardens, each hoping you will choose one brand for all your getting-around needs. The more important battle is raging under the surface: A battle not over how you get from A to B, but over who gets to manage your journey.
How Technology Is Shaping The World Of Footwear
Over the past decade, one of the best examples of where tech has flourished is the footwear industry. From self-lacing tech to cushioning systems made from tiny foam particles, brands like Nike, Adidas and others have gone all out trying to change what footwear design means.
Cryptoqueen: How This Woman Scammed The World, Then Vanished
Ruja Ignatova called herself the Cryptoqueen. She told people she had invented a cryptocurrency to rival Bitcoin, and persuaded them to invest billions. Then, two years ago, she disappeared. Jamie Bartlett spent months investigating how she did it and trying to figure out where she’s hiding.
See How The World’s Most Polluted Air Compares With Your City’s
The New York Times visualized the damaging, tiny particles that wreak havoc on human health. From the Bay Area to New Delhi, see how the world’s worst pollution compares with your local air. The particles are too small for the eye to see but in high concentrations, they cast a haze in the sky.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Urban Visionary
For all his criticisms, America’s most celebrated architect wasn’t intrinsically opposed to cities. Instead, Frank Lloyd Wright urged us to examine what they had become and recognize that none of their failures were inevitable.
Why The Coming Foreclosure Crisis Will Look Nothing Like The Last One
A prominent housing analyst expects hundreds of thousands of defaults next year as mortgage forbearance periods end. At first glance, those projections look bad. On closer inspection, however, this round of foreclosures should be mild in comparison to the financial carnage of 2008 to 2010.
Conman: The Life And Crimes Of Mark Acklom
Watch the full story of the cunning fraudster who posed as an MI6 agent to con his ex-girlfriend out of £800,000. The documentary features the first TV interview with Diana Acklom, his mother. In it, she has an extraordinary theory for her son’s prolific crimes.
New York City Paid McKinsey Millions To Stem Jail Violence. Instead, Violence Soared.
In April 2017, partners from McKinsey sent a confidential report to the New York City corrections commissioner. The report recounted that McKinsey had tested its new anti-violence strategy in what the firm called “Restart” housing units at Rikers. Violence had dropped more than 50% in the Restart facilities. The number was bogus.
How To Spot A Perfect Fake: The World’s Top Art Forgery Detective
The incentive to be a proficient forger has soared; a single, expertly executed old master knockoff can finance a long, comfortable retirement. The technologies available to abet the aspiring forger have also improved. Forgeries have got so good – and so costly – that Sotheby’s has brought in its own in-house fraud-busting expert.
Satan, The FBI, The Mob — And The Forgotten Plot To Kill Ted Kennedy
During the 1980 presidential campaign, a notorious Hollywood satanist was linked to a plot to murder the third Kennedy brother, uncovered documents show. For Kennedy, the LaVey case was just another bizarre subplot in a life full of them, the cost of being a Kennedy and leading a public life.
Why We Shouldn’t Bail Out The Airlines And Cruise Companies
Despite the obvious vulnerability of the sector, boards/CEOs of the six largest airlines have spent 96% of their free cash flow on share buybacks, bolstering the share price and compensation of management… who now want a bailout. They should be allowed to fail.