Setting rivets, sawing lumber, soldering circuits. Mentors from Maryland to Alaska teach kids skills like these to build robots, homes, and brighter futures.

The vice president on guns, global warming and why he's “the last guy in the room” on every decision Obama makes.

Together, thanks to a dicey blend of extreme isolation, mental health challenges, and conflicts with enemies real and imagined, the Benders had apparently gone mad.

. be the most transformative athlete, role model and voice of a generation. Or ROBERT GRIFFIN III could just be the face of the NFL.

With the third installment imminent, director Todd Phillips, his stars and the execs behind the biggest R-rated comedy franchise of all time tell all about Lindsay Lohan’s meeting, Mel Gibson’s ill-fated cameo, the time Mike Tyson was wasted and just how hard it was to get started. PLUS: Who got the $70 million payday

The Golden Yarn The mountains of Peru hold an Andean treasure—the gossamer wool of the vicuña By Kim MacQuarrie

Russian Refuge Wrangel Island is a haven for wildlife, frozen in space and time By Hampton Sides, Photographs by Sergey Gorshkov

Undercover in an industrial slaughterhouse

Does the most famous man in the world feel the strain of living as the rest of us do? Or are the life choices he makes between one degree of wonderful and another?

Can entrepreneurs save the city? Nothing else seems to be working.

AS AUBURN WAS BARRELING TOWARD THE 2010 NATIONAL TITLE, THE PROGRAM WAS STRUGGLING TO BEAT A PERPLEXING DRUG PROBLEM. THIS IS THE STORY OF HOW SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA INFILTRATED THE TIGERS AND HELPED LEAD TO THE QUICKEST COLLAPSE OF A BCS CHAMP.

Two years ago, Rupert Murdoch was supposed to be finished. Instead, his news corp. is stronger—and more valuable—than ever.

Innovating for a sustainable strategy

Hop aboard the world's wildest culinary cab ride. But heed the warning to pace yourself. We're about to be inundated with roti, doubles, curries, callaloo — 11 hours of Trinidad's best foods — without leaving our seats.

Shame, failure, no groupies: The making of a stand-up genius