As colleges invest in varsity esports, recruits look to a new wave of high-tech arenas to determine who really means business.

Over the Christmas break in 2009, millions of gamers across the country spent hours playing games that were then rated as the best. Games such as Left 4 Dead 2, a first-person shooter set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic zombie pandemic, and New Super Mario Bros., available on the laughably outdated Nintendo Wii. Meanwhile, their parents spent the holiday season begging their children to “come upstairs and read a book. You’re frying your brain!”

How things have changed.

A rapid explosion in esports globally has turned it into a billion-dollar industry that is now fast emerging as a pathway to higher education. At major universities like Marquette, Ohio State and the University of California, campus esports clubs have made way for competitive varsity teams. Nearly 200 U.S. colleges now have active esports programs, and many are offering scholarships totaling roughly $15 million per year. Take that, Mom and Dad.

From James Bond to many of America’s presidents, psychopathic traits have served several successful men well.

How does one go about identifying a psychopath?

It’s not easy, but researchers have made significant headway in answering that question. It’s now common knowledge that men are likelier to have psychopathic tendencies than women. For example, one study on a prison population found 31 percent of men met the criteria, while only 11 percent of women did so.

Psychopathy has a number of higher-order dimensions, including self-centered impulsivity, heartlessness and fearless dominance. The first dimension, self-centered impulsivity, is associated with impetuosity, belligerence and narcissism. Heartlessness is related to an inability to experience important social emotions like love or remorse. Fearless dominance, the third dimension of psychopathy, is associated with impudence and a desire for social influence.

She built a business from scratch, and now Shirley Hayes is sitting on a copper bonanza in a downtrodden patch of South Africa.

After being laid off from her job as a quarry manager in South Africa, Shirley Hayes struck a deal with the owner of the nearby Blesberg mine: She would rehabilitate the abandoned site for free, and he would buy back whatever minerals she was able to extract. With only a temperamental, rented front-end loader and 50 liters (13 gallons) of borrowed diesel to her name, she and her team of eight workers started sifting through the trash heaps in 118-degree heat. “At the end of the first day, we had enough feldspar to buy another 50 liters of diesel,” says Hayes, who is now 51. “And so on.”

Fast-forward 20 years and Hayes’ company, SHiP Copper, is finalizing exploration on an 89,000-acre concession she was granted in 2009. Within two years, she plans to begin production on the first of 10 mines, which SHiP will operate using an innovative cluster mining model, bringing all ore to a central processing plant to reduce costs. The mines — which could generate up to $30 million in annual profits for around 70 years — will breathe new life into a region where centuries of mixed fortunes have been tied to copper.