Aaron BurrThe nation’s third vice president had his strengths: he has been hailed as “one of the best presiding officers the Senate has ever seen.” Unfortunately, his political gifts were dwarfed by his role in two of the biggest scandals ever to strike the office. In an 1804 duel in Weehawken, N.J., Burr shot and killed former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, a Founding Father and Federalist Papers author held in sufficiently high regard that his image graces the $10 bill.

On a hot, summer day, artist Tan Swie Hian, 60, stands poised before a four-story-high canvas in the middle of St. Marcos Square, surrounded by Venice’s celestial domes. Suddenly, Tan leaps toward the immense sheet, wielding his brush like a swordsman as he swiftly inscribes an immense poem; inky Chinese characters that tell of sleeping pillows and dreamy, butterfly wings. Singapore’s most famous artist is doing at the Venice Biennale what he has long done back home in East Asia: combining East and West, through multiple disciplines, with the explosive precision of a bombmaker.

Last month, Patrick Braxton-Andrew, a school teacher from North Carolina, went missing while in Mexico. On Thursday, authorities told his family that he died in October, according to a Facebook post. ADVERTISEMENT Braxton-Andrew was last seen in Urique, Mexico, on October 28. He'd gone there to hike the Copper Canyon, and was heading to Mexico City to meet up with his brother to attend Day of the Dead celebrations.

July 25, 2014 1:04 PM EDT President Obama sent Prince George a handmade rocking horse with the presidential seal on the saddle for his first birthday on July 22. Obama also sent a polo mallet carved from an oak tree on the White House’s South Lawn to the boy who would be king. Oh, and a alpaca wool blanket for when he gets cold from horseback riding or polo-playing. But Obama’s present isn’t as cool as some of the other gifts to royal kids on display in the Royal Childhood Exhibit in Buckingham Palace this summer.

Finally, a Tool for Taking the Perfect Puppy Selfie Pooch Selfie, for dog lovers everywhere By Ben Geier / Fortune September 29, 2015 ncG1vNJzZmismaKyb6%2FOpmaaraSdvLN7wZ6lZp%2BVnrKzew%3D%3D