The Best of Forbes 2013

Our most talked about stories this year.

Prince Alwaleed And The Curious Case Of Kingdom Holding Stock

Prince Alwaleed says he’s one of the ten richest people in the world. FORBES doesn’t buy it.

Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes Staff

How A 'Deviant' Philosopher Built Palantir, A CIA-Funded Data-Mining Juggernaut

A self-described “deviant” philosopher has turned Palantir into a terrorist tracking, all-seeing, multi-billion dollar data mining machine.

Andy Greenberg, Forbes Staff

Guns, Girls And Sex Tapes: The Saga Of Billionaire Stewart Rahr, 'Number One King Of All Fun'

What happens when a man has more cash than he can ever spend and no rules on how to spend it? Stewart Rahr’s answer: an unhinged, hedonistic bender, filled with girls, guns, sex tapes–and a lesson in whether money really can buy happiness.

Caleb Melby, Forbes Staff

Tumblr: David Karp's $800 Million Art Project

Facebook is the Internet’s phone book. Twitter is its wire service. In Tumblr, 26-year-old Karp has built the Web’s canvas. Now can he shape it into a money machine?

Jeff Bercovici, Forbes Staff

How An African 'Princess' Banked $3 Billion In A Country Living On $2 A Day

Isabel dos Santos is the richest woman in Africa, the continent’s youngest billionaire–and the daughter of Angola’s president. How she accumulated her $3 billion fortune says a lot about the big-money kleptocracy accelerating across the developing world.

Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes Staff

The Wal-Mart Slayer: How Publix's People-First Culture Is Winning The Grocer War

Family-run Publix is both the largest employee-owned company and the most profitable grocer in America. That’s no accident.

Brian Solomon, Forbes Staff

The Mad Billionaire Behind GoPro, The World's Hottest Camera Company

GoPro’s Nick Woodman lived to surf and take photos doing it. It’s a reminder of the most powerful model in business: do what you love.

Ryan Mac, Forbes Staff

Meet The Dread Pirate Roberts, The Man Behind Booming Black Market Drug Website Silk Road

Increasingly sophisticated anonymity tools have created a bustling online narcotics market and everything that goes with it: turf wars, illegal guns, attacks on competitors–and one philosophyspewing, multimillionaire drug lord: the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Andy Greenberg, Forbes Staff

The Challenge Of Being Poor At America's Richest Colleges

A scholarship may get high-achieving, low income students into the Ivies, but life at these schools can be tough when you’re an economic fish out of water

Maggie McGrath, Forbes Staff

21 Things I Learned About Bitcoin From Living On It For A Week

Lesson 1: It is possible to live on Bitcoin in San Francisco for a week.

Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff

This Is The World's First Entirely 3D-Printed Gun

Photos of the 3D-printed gun that creator Cody Wilson calls the “Liberator.”

Andy Greenberg, Forbes Staff

Cash Kings 2013: The World's Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Artists

Diddy tops this year’s list of hip-hop’s top earners, pulling in $50 million over the past 12 months.

Zack O'Malley Greenburg, Forbes Staff

How Michael Jordan Still Earns $80 Million A Year

It’s been 10 years since Michael Jordan last took the court, but the Jordan Brand is bigger than ever.

Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes Staff

Billionaire Bunkers: Beyond The Panic Room, Home Security Goes Sci-Fi

Futuristic security technologies–many developed for the military–have made their way into the home, available to deep-pocketed owners whose peace of mind comes from knowing that their sensors can detect and adjust for, say, a person lurking in the bushes a half-mile away.

Morgan Brennan, Forbes Staff

$8M In Two Weeks: The Inside Story Of The Largest, Crowdfunded Series A Round Of All Time

In a frenzy of offbeat pitching, Web entrepreneur Tom Serres raised $8 million in 12 days.

J.J. Colao, Forbes Staff

How She Lives On Minimum Wage: One McDonald's Worker's Budget

Critics have pounced on an unrealistic budget McDonald’s created for its employees. We talked with one McD’s worker to find out what life is really like on minimum wage.

Laura Shin, Contributor