When Michael Bay wants to play with toys, Brian Goldner brings the toy box. The 47-year-old CEO of Hasbro Inc. has taken his intel on the kiddie consumer market to Hollywood with explosive results: the Transformers franchise--directed by action-film titan Bay and based on the Hasbro line of warring alien robots--has generated more than $1.5 billion at the box office and more than $1 billion in toy sales; a third Transformers movie, Dark of the Moon, is stomping through theaters ...

"Gifted" researcher is punished for faking data "Dr. Darsee is clearly one of the most remarkable young men in American medicine. It is not extravagant to say that he became a legendary figure during his year as chief resident in medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital." With that exuberant commendation, Cardiologist Paul Walter of Emory University endorsed the selection of his former colleague John Darsee for one of the biggest plums in academic medicine: an appointment to the Harvard Medical School ...

We step inside Nyamata church and my guide, Josh Ruxin, points out the wall where babies were smashed up against the brick. "You can still see the blood," he says. More blood, wide dry brown stains, covers the altar cloth. Against a side wall, I find two new-looking closed coffins covered in cloth, a stack of 20 more, empty and expectant, and an open sack scattered with ribs, femurs and broken skulls. "Oh yeah," says Ruxin, looking over. "Thirteen years ...

On Friday morning, walking through the Alberta area of Tuscaloosa, I saw a man sifting through the rubble of what used to be Affordable Mini Storage. He was going through the remains of his storage unit, searching for anything salvageable in the post-apocalyptic landscape of our home town. He picked up a toy from the debris, a still-sealed Ozzy Osbourne action figure and tossed it into his "save" pile. "At least he's in good shape, huh?" the ...

When George Adams lost his job at an Ohio tile factory last October, the most practical thing he did, he thinks, was go to a new church, even though he had to move his wife and four preteen boys to Conroe, a suburb of Houston, to do it. Conroe, you see, is not far from Lakewood, the home church of megapastor and best-selling author Joel Osteen. Osteen's relentlessly upbeat television sermons had helped Adams, 49, get through the hard times, and ...

Silly me. I had naively assumed that when a writer as well known and respected as Lerone Bennett Jr. came out with a provocative book arguing that Abraham Lincoln was a racist who kept more blacks in bondage than he ever emancipated, it would kick up a stir. After all, Bennett, the executive editor of Ebony and the author of such works of black history as Before the Mayflower , has long been one of America's most eloquent voices on ...

Legendary wrestling figure Captain Lou Albano, perhaps best known for his association with pop singer Cyndi Lauper, died Wednesday, according to World Wrestling Entertainment. Albano, 76, was "one of the company's most popular and charismatic legends," the company said in a statement. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed. "Albano began his storied career with Vincent J. McMahon in the 1960s as one half of 'The Sicilians' tag team with his partner Tony Altimore," the WWE said. ...

Huge, scary numbers are lurking everywhere these days: The massive federal bailout (now on the taxpayers' tab)...the unemployment rate, which is now at a 26-year high...that daunting sum you are constantly told you will need if you want to retire comfortably...the six-figure mortgage balance you barely chip away at each month. Listen to me: Stop focusing on the big picture. Given what is going on in the world right now, you'll only fuel your fear and anxiety. Macroeconomics matter, but ...

Former U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be in Hong Kong this week to address about 1,000 investors from around the globe in what is billed as her first speech outside North America. Palin, who recently stepped down as Alaska's governor, will make the keynote speech on Wednesday to the 16th CLSA Investors' Forum. She will cover governance, economics and current events in the United States and Asia, said Simone Wheeler, head of communications for CLSA. "What we ...

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest reigning monarch, has been hospitalized with fever and fatigue, the royal palace said Sunday. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, was admitted to a Bangkok hospital on Saturday night. Doctors are monitoring his condition while administering antibiotics and intravenous fluid, the statement from the Royal Household Bureau said. The statement was carried by Thai News Agency and other local media. The king was formally crowned on May 5, 1950. Thailand abolished absolute ...