"Cloud Atlas" is an almost-impossible-to-describe tale that spans continents, genres, and centuries. Hanks says he was a convert as soon as he read the script, which he likens to "a hug that gets tighter and tighter."

According to Tibetan tradition, a tulku is the reincarnation of a recently deceased high lama, "recognized" as a young boy through a mystical process. But some cosmopolitan tulkus -- Tibetan Buddhism's brightest stars and greatest hopes -- are skeptical of the notion that they're deceased lamas, aren't sure they want the job.

Even when you must close a business, you can leave people with dignity, pride, and a bank balance intact, or you can deny what's happening and leave everyone in disarray.

In celebration of Bond's 50th birthday this year, we pay tribute to villains who have gone on to become pop-culture icons.

Cellular phones have made life easier, better, more secure, and more interesting for millions of Africans.

At close to 500 oversized pages, "Information Graphics" is a coffee table book that's more solidly constructed than most coffee tables. Its pages are filled with beautiful, meticulous, and, at their best, revelatory visualizations of worldwide oil consumption, the most frequent causes of death, household spending, wealth distribution, etc.

It's impossible to rid your home of every possible inhalant that a teenager can abuse. But there are ways you can help prevent abuse at your house.

Cindy Gallop's new web site plans to change adult entertainment by paying real people to post videos of themselves getting it on.

Can meme theory explain the sometimes fatal desire to impersonate a piece of wood.

Websites abound to help candidates find eco-jobs.

How algae and mushrooms (but not sunflowers) can help clean up Fukushima.

Can the fourth-term president reconcile a deeply divided Venezuela?

The president of NTD-TV hopes to recreate the Jewish model for Chinese living in China and living in the Chinese Diaspora.

Wasteful federal spending on overpaid executives is wrong, whether it's for planet-murdering energy corporations, or on a network that airs free educational TV.

Is the time-honored gesture of the V-sign on its last legs?

A new search engine enables users to safely browse adult entertainment sites, preventing partners or parents from knowing exactly what's going on.

Considering the past and the future of the AK-47, which has caused more human death and misery than J Robert Oppenheimer's work on the atomic bomb.

Proponents of a macrobiotic lifestyle claim it can prevent and cure many diseases, but it can be fairly limiting. It can be hard to supply adequate amounts of minerals like calcium, iron and zinc, and omega-3 acids.

Technology is more reasonable than ever, and advice easier than ever to get, so people are innovating all the time, every day. This could transform how you treat employees.

Natural-cure advocates have long promoted a regimen meant to increase alkaline in the body--heavy on fruits and vegetables, light on meat, dairy, sugar, and grains--but this way of eating showed up on the radar only after a recent explosion of interest among A-list celebrities.