from Foundations Magazine By age sixteen, Washington had copied out by hand, 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. They are based on a set of rules composed by French Jesuits in 1595. Presumably they were copied out as part of an exercise in penmanship assigned by young Washington’s schoolmaster. The […]

BY THE NEW YORK TIMES SEP 15, 2014 Imagining a time without smartphones is as hard as believing that bigger-than-bricks wireless phones ever existed outside of Saved By the Bell. Believe it or not though, even 10 years ago journalists were skeptically analyzing things like “text messengers” and “M-payments” that we now use without thinking. Check out some […]

(By Samantha Mathewson writing for Nature World News) The West Indian manatee, or sea cow, should no longer be considered endangered, as it seems that Florida populations are making a comeback. As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed to downlist the manatee from an endangered to threatened status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). […]

(from the History Channel Website) The 19th century was a period of great change and rapid industrialization. The iron and steel industry spawned new construction materials, the railroads connected the country and the discovery of oil provided a new source of fuel. The discovery of the Spindletop geyser in 1901 drove huge growth in the […]

Advice for instant lottery millionaires — get a lawyer. (from NBC News Website) That’s the new mantra in an age when winners can become not just rich overnight, but fabulously wealthy multimillionaires with all that entails — fame, celebrity, begging letters and scam artists. The latest Powerball jackpot is worth about $400 million, the fourth […]

(from The Pursuit of Happiness Website) Most people who care for others in a selfless manner do so because of a genuine desire to help and improve the world around them. Nonetheless, modern psychological research has shown that caring has benefits for all involved; people who volunteer or care for others on a consistent basis […]

This interview with Christopher Cabrera, founder and C.E.O. ofXactly, which provides employee-incentive software, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Q. What were your early influences? A. I was the fourth of five kids, and I learned that you have to fight for everything, including dinner. Once the food was on the table, if you […]

Lotteries in the Ancient and Medieval World Scholars disagree on who started the ancient tradition of lotteries, but there are references in the Bible. In Chapter 26 in the Book of Numbers, Moses used a lottery to award land west of the River Jordan. c. 100-44 B. C.: Forms of lotteries date back to Caesar. […]

By Lou Solomon for The Harvard Business Review If you’re the kind of boss who fails to make genuine connections with your direct reports, take heed: 91% of employees say communication issues can drag executives down, according to results from our newInteract/Harris Poll, which was conducted online with roughly 1,000 U.S. workers. In the survey, employees called […]

This interview with Ann Cairns, president of international markets at MasterCard, was conducted and condensed byAdam Bryant. Q. What were some early influences for you? A. I grew up in the northeast of England, in a small mining village near Newcastle. My dad was a shoemaker who originally made shoes for miners. I grew up […]