| | | |  | | | | The Other Side of the Coin | | The Secret History of the Company Behind the Super Bowl Coin Toss | | For all the attention paid to the flip, the story of Highland Mint is mostly unknown. For 23 years, the company has made the coin—and for $99.99 will sell you a limited-edition replica encased in acrylic, along with a certificate of authenticity. At first glance, Highland Mint is an exemplary small business. Dig deeper, and it has ties to Jordan "Wolf of Wall Street" Belfort and car bombs in Canada. | | | | | | | | |  | If you want to keep a secret account for compulsively buying vintage Japanese tea kettles or you just don't want that special someone to know when you've bought him or her a present on Amazon, that's fine by us. Whatever the reasons, about 13 million Americans have squirreled away a checking, savings, or credit-card account from live-in partners, according to a new study by CreditCards.com. Interestingly, young people were more likely than their elders to keep secrets—or at least they were more likely to admit it when a stranger calls to conduct a survey. | | | | |  | At Zillow, new moms travelling for work can have their breast milk shipped on the company's dime. Accenture will pay for employees to have gender reassignment surgery. The working elite have never enjoyed so many benefits and perks, but what's happening at the top isn't trickling down to all. While the top companies routinely offer three months of paid maternity leave, only 21 percent of companies surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management offer paid maternity leave at all. Airbnb gives employees a $2,000 stipend to go on vacation, but 25 percent of the workforce gets no paid vacation time at all. Not only is there a wage gap in America, there's a perk gap as well. | | | | |  | When we talk about climate change, people tend to focus on the price of things that go round and round, like fossil fuel-powered engines. But growing food is the source of about one-third of carbon dioxide pollution, according to a new paper published in the journal BMC Public Health. Those emissions are—pardon the pun—ripe for taxation, especially because the food items most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions are often the least healthy, particularly red meat. By taxing things like burgers and sugary drinks, we can have a big effect on national health and the environment. | | | | | | |  | In New York City, you can't buy a walk in closet for less than $500,000, but if you're willing to invest in a foreign fixer-upper, there are plenty of opportunities to be had in the Czech Republic. Due to its turbulent history of feudal lords, royal dynasties, and minor aristocrats, the country has more than 2,000 castles and chateaux. Prices start at just $13,000. | | | | | | | | Can You Feel That? | | The Man Who Made Virtual Reality 'Feel' More Real | | As a college student, Tom Carter became obsessed with a seemingly impossible notion: letting people feel and manipulate virtual objects. A professor turned him on to an esoteric concept—using ultrasound to simulate tactile sensations—that was floated and abandoned in the 1970s. The rest, as they say, is history. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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