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  Philly has its cheesesteaks; Chicago has its deep dish pizza; and Waterbury, Connecticut has its buttons. Yup, buttons. And while they are not as tasty as cheesesteaks or deep dish pizza (in fact, to be clear, we DO NOT recommend eating buttons), the Waterbury Button, and the Waterbury Button Company as a whole, is pretty darn special. The Waterbury Button Company is the oldest metal button manufacturer in the United States. The Company was founded in 1812 when the United States went to war with Britain, the U.S.'s exclusive supplier of buttons prior to war. As a result of...

  On October 25, 1854, a Russian army attacked the port city of Balaclava on the Black Sea, in hopes of lifting the siege of the nearby Russian port of Sevastopol, which had been under attack by a combined British, French and Turkish force for over a month. This battle was part of the Crimean War, and while fascinating in its own right (especially with the recent tension in the region), it’s also a way to attempt to date two fashion innovations. The British forces were commanded by Field Marshal FitzRoy Somerset, the 1stRaglan, an accomplished British soldier and an...

                                                 Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple's Senior Vice President of Design, has been called “one of the most inspiring and influential product designers ever.” He is responsible for some of Apple's most revolutionary products like the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, and iPad Mini. Yet, this creative genius is guided by a fairly simple concept: inevitability. In the words of Ive: “So much of what we try to do is get to a point where the solution seems inevitable: you know, you think 'of course it's that way, why would it be any other way?'” Like...

                            The environment. The term, particularly when used in the context of “saving the environment,” often prompts a visceral reaction. And while there are nuances, exceptions, and disagreements on environmental policy, what causes environmental damage, and how best to save the environment, I imagine that one would have to search pretty extensively to find someone who is fundamentally anti-environment. Someone who just hates clean air, trees, bunnies, and wants his or her tombstone to read, “Here lies Mr./Ms./Mrs. “X,” pro-swag yet anti-environment by principle.” The point being, the majority of rational human beings are of the mindset that environment =...