Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
David Keith, a professor of applied physics at Harvard, has been described as “perhaps the foremost proponent of geoengineering,” a characterization that he bristles at. “I’m a proponent of reality,” he wrote in a letter to the editor of The New York Times in 2015. Keith founded the university’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program in 2017, and he
... See moreElizabeth Kolbert • Under a White Sky
So in August 1885, Kennedy arranged the sale of twenty thousand shares of Manitoba stock to the firm of Lee, Higginson, and Company, as agents for the Bostonians. The four associates—Hill, Kennedy, Smith, and Stephen—put up the stock for sale; soon after, Hill and Kennedy made similar purchases of Burlington stock. Marshall Field, who had never bee
... See moreMichael P. Malone • James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest (The Oklahoma Western Biographies Book 12)
In the last analysis, it seems certain that Kennedy, Stephen, Hill, and Kittson did offer Farley a substantial reward—maybe even hinting at a full partnership—in return for his cooperation and betrayal of his trust.
Michael P. Malone • James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest (The Oklahoma Western Biographies Book 12)

Morgan made his specialty the refinancing, reorganization, and rationalization of America’s badly overextended and overcapitalized railroads; his “clients” included some of the largest, such as the Erie, the New York Central, and the Pennsylvania.
Michael P. Malone • James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest (The Oklahoma Western Biographies Book 12)
Pratt hired Gould to survey a tanning site, but was sufficiently impressed that he made him a partner and manager of the projected new tannery. So the pint-sized Gould, barely out of his teens, led fifty workmen into the woods and built virtually a full-scale town, including living and food service quarters, a mule-powered bark crushing plant and c
... See moreCharles R. Morris • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
Harriman was a truly remarkable man, one of the most brilliant railroaders and formidable capitalists in American history, whose genius has been somewhat masked behind a partially deserved reputation for shady dealing.
Michael P. Malone • James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest (The Oklahoma Western Biographies Book 12)
Mervin Kelly, Jim Fisk, William Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and William Baker.
Jon Gertner • The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
The measure that gave Marshall the authority to circumvent it was concealed as a rider to the Army’s annual appropriation bill.32