Topic

Law, Crime & Justice

A collection of 31 issues

The Master's Touch: How One Elderly Painter Drew 97% of China's Counterfeit Currency

An estimated 97% of all counterfeit currency in China originated not from a high-tech lab, but from the hand-drawn templates of a single elderly painter. Peng Daxiang's artistic genius fueled a criminal empire that threatened the nation's economy until his capture.

Law, Crime & Justice Biography & Personal Stories Art, Culture & Design

The Economist Who Broke the Lottery With Brute-Force Math

A Romanian economist devised a legal, brute-force system to guarantee lottery wins by buying every single ticket combination. His success, culminating in a $27 million jackpot, forced lotteries worldwide to rewrite their rules just to stop him.

Business & Economics Biography & Personal Stories Law, Crime & Justice

The Deadly Global War for Ordinary Sand

The world is not running out of sand, but of the *right kind* of sand, sparking a violent, multi-billion dollar black market. Criminal mafias illegally dredge rivers and coasts, causing catastrophic environmental damage and murdering those who stand in their way.

Environment & Climate Law, Crime & Justice Business & Economics

How a Pound of Cocaine and an Informant Deal Created a Comedy Icon

Before he was America's favorite tool-grunting dad, Tim Allen faced a mandatory life sentence for trafficking cocaine. To escape it, he made a deal that erased his past and paved the way for a comedy empire: he gave up the names of other dealers.

Biography & Personal Stories Law, Crime & Justice Entertainment & Media

An Edible Contract: The Surprisingly Strict Legal Life of Bologna

The humble slice of bologna is a masterpiece of federal regulation, bound by a strict "standard of identity" that legally defines its ingredients, water content, and fat percentage more precisely than many other foods in the grocery store.

Food & Lifestyle Law, Crime & Justice History

The Uncracked Code of Clown Copyright

In a world without formal copyright for makeup, clowns developed a brilliantly strange solution to protect their unique identities: painting their faces on eggs. This secret registry, started in 1946, serves as a visual archive and an unbreakable social contract against copycats.

Oddities & Curiosities Art, Culture & Design Law, Crime & Justice

The Victory that Kills: A Tour of the Brand Name Graveyard

Ever asked for a 'Kleenex' or ridden an 'escalator'? You've participated in genericide, the strange process where a brand becomes so popular it loses its trademark forever, joining Aspirin and Thermos in the graveyard of fallen words.

Linguistics & Communication Business & Economics Law, Crime & Justice

Drugged and Watched: The Secret History of the CIA's Sex Experiments

In a paranoid Cold War gambit, the CIA established secret brothels to drug unsuspecting American men with LSD. Behind one-way mirrors, agents watched the effects, creating one of the most disturbing chapters in the history of domestic espionage.

History Politics & Power Law, Crime & Justice

The Accidental Icon: How a Simple Theft Made the Mona Lisa Priceless

Before 1911, the Mona Lisa was just another masterpiece. Its global celebrity was born not from da Vinci's brush, but from a brazen heist when a handyman simply walked out of the Louvre with it, sparking a media frenzy that transformed art into an icon.

Art, Culture & Design History Law, Crime & Justice

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