The emoluments clause, also called the foreign emoluments clause, is a provision of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8) that generally prohibits federal officeholders from receiving any gift, payment, or other object or service of value from a foreign state or its rulers,

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is a U.S. government agency created by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA). Its main role is to provide oversight of mortgage and housing credit government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), specifically the Federal National Mortgage Association

Have you heard of the Financial Independence/Retire Early (FIRE) movement? It’s certainly an alluring pitch. Imagine checking out early from the soul-crushing day job to live on your terms while you’re still young. Hike the mountains, see the world, and spend time with your family. All you have to

On January 1, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, United States President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The document ostensibly freed all enslaved people in the Confederacy, the former U.S. states that had taken the election of an antislavery president as reason to secede

It’s a popular myth that manufacturing no longer matters in the U.S. economy. Although China is the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter, U.S. manufacturing and mining aren’t dormant by any means, producing a hefty 18% of all the stuff the world consumes. And Wall Street keeps close tabs on

The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of the Internet Protocol (IP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which together provide the standards and rules for devices to connect to the Internet and to each other. The TCP/IP (as the protocols are collectively known) enable the seamless exchange of

The largest animal on Earth is the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). It is also the largest animal to have ever existed. These marine giants can weigh approximately 150 metric tons and stretch over 30 meters (98 feet) in length. There are reports of blue whales reaching lengths of 33 meters and

By the time ABBA quietly disbanded in 1982 due to rising interpersonal tensions, they had already secured a legendary spot for themselves in the history of popular music and were set to remain a fixture in global pop culture at large. Longtime fans of ABBA, British synth-pop group Erasure covered

The sperm whale is the loudest animal on Earth. These majestic creatures can produce sounds that reach an astonishing 230 decibels. To put that into perspective, a jet engine, which is loud enough to cause hearing damage, produces about 150 decibels. The sperm whale’s vocalizations (called clicks)

The metaverse is a network of immersive digital “worlds” that are interconnected so users can move between them, interact with other users, exchange various goods and services, and transact items for virtual or real-world ownership. As the metaverse approaches mainstream adoption—as many expect it

Aerodynamics is a branch of physics that examines the forces acting on bodies (cars, rocks, animals, etc.) passing through air and other gaseous fluids, and it’s used to explain the principles of flight. When it comes to the most aerodynamic animal—which could be taken to mean "the fastest

The Australian box jellyfish, scientifically named Chironex fleckeri, is widely considered the world’s most venomous jellyfish. Its highly potent venom can induce intense pain, paralysis, cardiac arrest, and death within minutes of a sting. Immediate medical attention is often required to prevent

The world’s primary religions fall into two categories: Abrahamic religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam; and Indian religions, which include Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and others. Of the world’s major religions, Christianity is the largest, with more than two billion followers.

New countries don’t pop up every day. And even if a territorial entity does declare itself to be an independent country, it is not always recognized as such by the rest of the world. The newest internationally recognized country in the world is the African country of South Sudan, which declared

In the sport of tennis the term open era refers to the period—beginning in 1968 and continuing to the present day—in which both amateurs and professionals are allowed to compete in all tournaments. Before the open era the sport was divided between amateurs, who played in the prestigious Grand Slams

From the late 1870s until the triumphs of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s, regimented racial segregation blighted America’s water fountains, restrooms, restaurants, lodging, and transportation, along with “separate but equal” schools. All of these were legally sanctioned by the U.S.

Human history has few tragedies that rival the magnitude and moral bankruptcy of the Holocaust, the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. For the anti-Semitic Nazis who met

The word Mafia refers to an organized criminal association and often evokes images of mobsters, secret crime families, and major scandals such as the 2025 NBA betting and gambling case. Although scholars agree that the word originated in Sicily, its exact roots remain a mystery. In modern usage

Determining the rarest dog breed in the world is a challenging task because of the difficulty of obtaining and analyzing reliable data. Different sources give differing information. According to the American Kennel Club, which tracks some 200 breeds, the rarest breed, ranking 197 out of 197 in

When a stock is rallying, we assume there’s an influx of buyers willing to pay higher prices for the shares. Similarly, when a stock’s price is falling, we assume the opposite, that sellers are trying to unload assets onto buyers who are willing to pay only lower prices. But amid the bidding-up or

The Second Letter of John in the New Testament is arguably the shortest book in the Christian Bible, with just 13 verses in a single chapter. However, the Third Letter of John, with 15 verses, sometimes has fewer words, depending on the source and translation. Both are shorter than the shortest

The shortest verse in the Christian Bible is from the Gospel According to John in the New Testament. In the New Revised Standard Version, John 11:35 reads simply, “Jesus began to weep.” Other versions are even shorter, with the King James Version and the New International Version stating, “Jesus

Twitter user and activist April Reign first tweeted “#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair” on January 15, 2015, in immediate response to all 20 acting nominations for the year’s upcoming Academy Awards being given to white actors. Within that day, the hashtag became viral and was trending on

The Border Collie is widely recognized as the smartest dog breed because of its uncanny ability to learn tasks quickly and perform them exceptionally well. This native intelligence, coupled with extreme agility and herding capabilities, makes the Border Collie singular in its skill set when

Today it’s called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). When it was first piloted during the Great Depression and then formally launched during U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, it was known as the Food Stamp Program (FSP). Regardless of what it is called, the program helps

The Statue of Liberty is constructed of 31 tons of 0.1-inch- (2.4-mm-) thick copper sheets that were hammered into shape by hand and assembled over a framework of iron and steel supports. When combined with its concrete and granite base, the massive statue stands 305 feet (93 meters) tall and is

The Super Bowl era in the National Football League (NFL) refers to the period that started in 1967 and continues to the present day. Before 1967 the sport of American football was divided between two professional leagues, the NFL and the American Football League (AFL). In 1966 the NFL and the AFL

Who’s a tall boy? The Irish Wolfhound is generally recognized as the tallest dog breed. While the tallest individual dog on record was a Great Dane named Zeus, who stood 44 inches (112 cm) tall, the Wolfhound as a breed tops all others. Generally male Wolfhounds stand a minimum of 32 inches (81 cm)

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès: …General, Sieyès issued his pamphlet Qu’est-ce que le tiers état? (January 1789; “What Is the Third Estate?”), in which he identified the unprivileged Third Estate with the French nation and asserted that it alone had the right to draft a new constitution.

Did you buy anything last month, like groceries, clothing, or a knickknack for the shelf in the corner? How about a new smartphone or perhaps even a car? Congratulations. You and your stuff are part of a key monthly statistic: The monthly retail sales report. Each month, the U.S. Census Bureau

Dave Eggers: …books followed Eggers’s memoir, notably What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (2006). The book chronicled the story of a South Sudanese man who had survived the destruction of his family’s village during Sudan’s civil war and made his way to the United States. In 2007 the…

How large an eagle’s wingspan is depends on the species of the eagle. It may be less than 1 meter (3.28 feet) in some species and greater than 2.40 meters (7.87 feet) in others. The smallest known eagle species in the world, the Great Nicobar serpent eagle (Spilornis klossi), has a wingspan of

Vladimir Lenin: Formation of a revolutionary party of Vladimir Lenin: In his What Is To Be Done? (1902), Lenin totally rejected the standpoint that the proletariat was being driven spontaneously to revolutionary Socialism by capitalism and that the party’s role should be to merely coordinate the struggle of the proletariat’s diverse sections on a national and international…

Russian literature: The intelligentsia: …utopian novel Chto delat (1863; What Is to Be Done?). Although appallingly bad from a literary point of view, this novel, which also features a fake suicide, was probably the most widely read work of the 19th century.

Have you ever pondered how the Internet works? And we’re not just talking about Web 2.0—today’s Internet of search engines, corporate websites, social media, and ultra-useful information sites like Encyclopædia Britannica—but tomorrow’s Internet. It’s called Web 3.0 or Web3, and it’s a

You may have heard the terms “unbanked” or “underbanked” before. Unbanked describes people who do not use the services of any banking institution, and underbanked describes those who have insufficient access to financial services. Everyone can benefit from being banked, and the right bank account

children’s literature: Russia/Soviet Union: …finest teenage novels, Vadim Frolov’s Chto k chemu (Eng. trans., What It’s All About, 1965), is quite untouched by dogma of any kind. Soviet children’s literature, and especially its vast body of popularized science and technology for the young, however, was in general governed by the ideals of socialist realism,…

In addition to the time he spent writing, Sir Walter Scott had a variety of occupations during his lifetime. He was appointed sheriff depute to the county of Selkirk in his late 20s, and he was also a partner in a printing firm owned by the Ballantyne brothers. This partnership led to financial

Robert Goulet: …and a hit single, “What Kind of Fool Am I,” and that year he won the Grammy Award for best new artist. He placed 15 more albums on the charts by the end of the decade.

Volatility and uncertainty are part of everyday life. Take the weather, for example. If your local meteorologist forecasts heavy rain, you don’t leave the house without an umbrella. And if the forecast calls for violent weather—a hailstorm or tornado, for example—you might not leave the house at

It is widely agreed among historians that Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic, the common language of Palestine and Syria. By the 6th century bce, Aramaic had largely replaced Hebrew as the everyday language of Jews, while Hebrew remained in use for religious and scholarly purposes. As a Galilean from

On September 5, 1793, a group of Parisian radicals petitioned the National Convention to place “terror on the order of the day.” Seizing that mandate, the Committee of Public Safety in Paris responded with ruthless efficiency to real and perceived threats to its rule. By the time the Reign of

Michelle Pfeiffer: …Innocence (1993), Dangerous Minds (1995), What Lies Beneath (2000), Hairspray (2007), and Dark Shadows (2012). After starring in the crime drama The Family (2013), Pfeiffer took a break from acting, but she returned with a myriad of films in 2017. That year she appeared in The Wizard of Lies, an…

What Maisie Knew, novel by Henry James, published in 1897. Set mostly in England, the novel is related from the perspective of Maisie, a preadolescent whose parents were divorced when she was six years old and who spends six months of the year with each parent. The only emotional constant in

Julianne Moore: Movies of the early 21st century: …Game Change before starring in What Maisie Knew, a modern-day adaptation of the Henry James novel. Her later films included the dramedy The English Teacher (2013); Carrie (2013), a horror film based on Stephen King’s classic novel; Non-Stop (2014), an action thriller set on an airplane; and The Hunger

Over 7,000 species around the world are considered endangered. That number doesn’t even include the plants, animals, and other life-forms that are listed by some scientists as vulnerable, critically endangered, or extinct in the wild—all rankings that mean a species is inching closer and closer to

Many a tall tale has been inspired by the world’s oceans, from stories of mysterious sea monsters to legends about ghost ships like the Flying Dutchman. While all are capable of inducing “ocean aversion” in even the most intrepid terrestrial explorer, no maritime legend strikes fear into the

Say HBCU and many people think of the Bayou Classic, the often nationally televised football matchup between the Southern University Jaguars and the Grambling State University Tigers. Some fans would say that what is more important than the play of the football teams is the performance of the

Budd Schulberg: That work, What Makes Sammy Run? (1941), about an unprincipled motion-picture studio mogul, was a great success.

Taraji P. Henson: …can hear men’s thoughts in What Men Want (2019), a remake of the comedy What Women Want (2000). Later in 2019 she appeared in The Best of Enemies, portraying civil rights activist Ann Atwater, who developed an unlikely friendship with C.P. Ellis, a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Hermann Sudermann: , What Money Cannot Buy), first performed in Berlin on Nov. 27, 1889, was a milestone in the naturalist movement, although to later critics it seemed a rather trite and slick treatment of class conflicts in Berlin. Heimat (performed 1893; Eng. trans., Magda) carried his fame…

Joy Harjo: Poetry, tenure as U.S. poet laureate, and other writing: Harjo’s other poetry collections include What Moon Drove Me to This? (1979); Secrets from the Center of the World (1989), prose poetry, with photographs by Stephen Strom; In Mad Love and War (1990), the winner of a 1991 American Book Award; Fishing (1992); A Map to the Next World: Poetry…

Toni Morrison: Nonfiction works and children’s books: …and speeches were collected in What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction (2008; edited by Carolyn C. Denard) and The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations (2019). She and her son Slade Morrison cowrote a number of children’s books, including the Who’s Got Game? series, The Book of…

Chris Burden: …Burden’s noteworthy public installations included What My Dad Gave Me (2008; displayed at Rockefeller Center, New York City, for about a year), a 65-foot (20-meter) skyscraper he built from Erector set parts, and Urban Light (2008), a permanent—and now iconic—installation of some 200 restored antique lampposts outside the Los Angeles…

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) overhauls federal student aid in ways that will affect how families pay for college and take on debt. The law eliminates Grad PLUS loans, sets new borrowing caps for students and parents, and introduces a Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) to replace most

Mike Nichols: Middle years: Silkwood, Working Girl, and The Birdcage: What Planet Are You From? (2000) was a critical and commercial disappointment. The uneven sci-fi comedy starred Garry Shandling (who coscripted) as an alien who travels to Earth tasked with finding a woman he can impregnate; others in the cast included Bening, Greg Kinnear, Ben…

Maxwell Anderson: …the World War I comedy What Price Glory? (1924), his first hit, a realistically ribald and profane view of World War I. Saturday’s Children (1927), about the marital problems of a young couple, was also very successful. Anderson’s prestige was increased by two ambitious historical dramas in verse—Elizabeth the Queen…

George Cukor: Early life and work: There he made What Price Hollywood? (1932), which established the template for William Wellman’s A Star Is Born (1937) and its remakes (including Cukor’s 1954 version). Constance Bennett starred as a waitress who rises to acting stardom while her alcoholic mentor plummets into disgrace. A Bill of Divorcement…

All of us have experienced this: It’s nighttime, and we’re drifting off to sleep when we think we hear something close by. The sound gets louder, and we know what it is now—the high-pitched hum of a tiny invader’s rapid machinelike wingbeats cutting through the darkness and spiraling toward us. It

German literature: After reunification: …Wolf’s narrative Was bleibt (1990; What Remains) had unleashed a violent controversy about the form and function of reflections on the East German past. The subject of the story was Wolf’s reactions to surveillance by the East German state security police. Some readers saw the tale as a self-serving portrayal…

Washington, D.C. is a territory and not a state, nor is it part of any U.S. state. It is surrounded by the state of Maryland on the northwest, northeast, and southeast and bordered by the state of Virginia, across the Potomac River, on the west and southwest. Companion, washington dc, geography,

Marxism: Lenin: …oni voyuyut protiv Sotsial-Demokratov? (What the “Friends of the People” Are, and How They Fight the Social-Democrats), Lenin took up Marx’s distinction between “material social relations” and “ideological social relations.” In Lenin’s eyes the importance of Das Kapital was that “while explaining the structure and the development of the…

Joe Orton: Sloane (1964), Loot (1965), and What the Butler Saw (produced posthumously, 1969), were outrageous and unconventional black comedies that scandalized audiences with their examination of moral corruption, violence, and sexual rapacity. Orton’s writing was marked by epigrammatic wit and an incongruous polish, his characters reacting with comic propriety to the…

Malcolm Gladwell: Books: …Ron Popeil, into the collection What the Dog Saw, and Other Adventures (2009).

Charles Simic: Simic’s first volume of poetry, What the Grass Says (1967), was well received; critics noted that his imagery drew on rural and European subjects rather than those of his adopted country. Among Simic’s many subsequent poetry collections are Somewhere Among Us a Stone Is Taking Notes (1969), Dismantling the Silence…

Amy Clampitt: What the Light Was Like (1985), also highly praised, contains several poems about death, including two elegies to her brother, who had died in 1981 and to whom the work was dedicated. Literary critics commented on the ease and certainty with which Clampitt employed literary…

Retirement plans aren’t usually associated with “exciting developments,” but the updated SECURE Act introduced changes to help support individuals at different stages of their financial journeys. Younger workers just starting out, older savers planning for retirement, and families juggling

In August of 1971, Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo of Stanford University in California conducted what is widely considered one of the most influential experiments in social psychology to date. Made into a New York Times best seller in 2007 (The Lucifer Effect) and a major motion picture in 2015 (The

Derek Walcott: The essays in What the Twilight Says (1998) are literary criticism. They examine such subjects as the intersection of literature and politics and the art of translation.

Hilary Swank: …progressing dementia in the drama What They Had (2018). In 2019 she appeared in the sci-fi thriller I Am Mother, which centers on a girl who begins to have doubts about the maternal robot raising her, and the following year in The Hunt, a controversial satire in which conservatives are…

History of film: Taiwan: …nei pien chi tien (2001; What Time Is It There?).

Leo Slezak: …American actor, wrote an autobiography, What Time’s the Next Swan? (1962). The title refers to his father’s famous ad-lib in Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin, when the boat drawn by a swan moved offstage without him.

In 1881 National Woman Suffrage Association founders Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage published History of Woman Suffrage. Through newspaper articles, letters, and other related materials, the women endeavored to document the 30-year history of the women’s suffrage

Are you the type who wants the latest and greatest in automobile technology, and price is a secondary consideration? If so, you may have crunched the numbers, weighed the pros and cons of leasing versus buying a car, and opted to lease. Now it’s time to put the pedal to the metal, right? Hold your

Jennifer Lopez: Marriage to Marc Anthony and American Idol: Lopez subsequently appeared in What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012), an ensemble comedy about parenting. In the thrillers Parker (2013) and The Boy Next Door (2015), she played, respectively, a divorced businesswoman who takes part in a heist and a woman who is drawn into a romance with…

Whether you’re excited about artificial intelligence (AI), frightened by it, or a little bit of both—you may be wondering how AI is regulated, and whether regulators are keeping up with the rapid pace of advancement. Regulation matters for all stakeholders of an AI system, whether you’re an

Building a house lets you create a home tailored to your needs, from selecting the floor plan to choosing the finishes. For some homebuyers, that kind of personalization is worth the months construction takes. For others, the time, cost, and possible delays make buying an existing home more

When you’re investing, taking risks can bring rewards—or losses. Inverse and leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are very risky investments that can amplify returns but can compound losses if the markets go against you. Inverse and leveraged ETFs are niche trading vehicles for short-term

Unfortunately, Albert Einstein’s IQ is unknown. There is no evidence that he ever took an IQ test. However, that has not stopped some people from trying to determine how smart he was. According to some sources, Einstein’s IQ was probably about 160, which is commonly considered genius level. This

As king of Wessex, Alfred administered his kingdom very efficiently, organizing his finances and precisely measuring services and payments due from tenants of his burghs. The burghs that he had erected and fortified as a defense against Danish attacks were divided into hides, a form of land

If gangsta rap was the prevailing subgenre of hip-hop from the late 1980s into the 1990s, “G-funk” (“G” as in “Gangsta”) was its even more uniquely West Coast offspring. The G-funk production style has been considered a sub-subgenre of hip-hop. Characterized most distinctly by the sampling of 1970s

In the aftermath of the American Civil War and at the beginnings of the Reconstruction period, communities of abolitionists readily took up the cause of universal suffrage and called for enfranchisement irrespective of race or gender. Frederick Douglass was one such prominent abolitionist and

Although the emperor Hadrian spent little time in Rome itself, he left his mark on the imperial capital in the form of art and architecture. Arguably his most famous achievement was the Pantheon, which he likely completed by 125 CE. It is made of brick and concrete and once displayed a marble

Rome’s relationship with the Jewish population of the Roman Empire had been strained since the destruction of Jerusalem in the 1st century CE, and Hadrian’s focus on Romanizing the province of Judaea greatly exacerbated tensions. He aimed to transform Jerusalem into a Roman metropolis, and in 132

Barbie: Awards: …song, the winner being “What Was I Made For?”—composed by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell and performed by Eilish. The film also won the Golden Globe for cinematic and box office achievement (a new category for the 2024 awards ceremony).

Fitz-James O’Brien: …a drop of water; “What Was It?” in which a man is attacked by a thing he apprehends with every sense but sight; and “The Wondersmith,” in which robots are fashioned only to turn upon their creators. These three stories appeared in periodicals in 1858 and 1859.

“It was the summer of 1880. It was August. It stank to high heaven. The sewers had been uncorked, and all the filth came out in a flood. All manner of waste was on display.” So reads an article in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro. Purporting to be written by novelist and critic Émile Zola

After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941, the U.S. War Department suspected that Japanese Americans might act as saboteurs or espionage agents, despite a lack of hard evidence to support that view. Out of this fear, on February 19, 1942, U.S. President Franklin D.

Soon after the Louvre in Paris unlocked its doors to visitors on Sunday, October 19, 2025, a team of thieves brazenly made off with nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry from the collection. The heist, which involved a truck-mounted electric ladder, power tools, and motorbikes, took less than 10

From 1915 to 1916 hundreds of thousands of Armenians were deported from their homeland in the eastern Ottoman Empire by the Young Turk government, which viewed them as a possible ally of Russia in World War I. Many were murdered or died from disease or starvation; conservative estimates of the

In the history of film, some years have stood out as being especially great for movies. Those years saw an abundance of gems for film lovers, from epic blockbusters to sleeper hits to independent projects that have stood the test of time. Below is a list of six of the best years for film and the

In 1980 The Dick Cavett Show aired an interview with American critic and novelist Mary McCarthy. Cavett asked her to name overrated writers, and on her list was American playwright Lillian Hellman. “Tremendously overrated, a bad writer, and dishonest writer” was McCarthy’s assessment of Hellman.

The earliest surviving written literature is from ancient Mesopotamia. The Epic of Gilgamesh is often cited as the first great composition, although some shorter compositions have survived that are even earlier (notably the “Kesh Temple Hymn” and “The Instructions of Shuruppak”). Apart from its

On February 25, 2020, a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided it was time to level with the U.S. public about the COVID-19 outbreak. At the time, there were just 57 people in the country confirmed to have the infection, all but 14 having been repatriated from Hubei

Alfred’s avid dedication to learning defined the years of his reign as king of Wessex following his victory at Edington in 878, after which he sought to improve his own knowledge and promote educational reform in his kingdom. Although he had displayed a desire for learning in his youth, he was

When most people think of ice ages, or “glacial ages,” they often envision cavemen, woolly mammoths, and vast plains of ice—such as those that occurred during the Pleistocene (about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) or the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods (about 300 million years ago).

“The body of man has in itself blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile,” begins a text attributed to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. Regarded as the father of modern medicine, he is often the subject of legend rather than fact; of the near-60 medical writings that bear his name, it is

It’s 1984. More than 77 million Americans—nearly one-third of the country—are tuned in to their televisions to watch Super Bowl XVIII. The Los Angeles Raiders are down 9 to 28 in the third quarter against the Washington Redskins when the teams pause for a commercial break. Suddenly, a brass

U.S. Pres. Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant’s predecessor, was a hard-line Southern Democrat who handled Reconstruction in the South with leniency. As a result, Southern state and local governments quickly passed a series of black codes that ensured the sociopolitical hegemony of white planters

Ulysses S. Grant became president of the United States less than a year after the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie created, in 1868, what would be an undisturbed reservation for the Lakota Indians in western modern-day South Dakota. Many Lakota moved, but some chiefs chose to live on unceded land. The