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This recent quote from MR:
About 10 percent of infants die in their first year of life in Africa — still shockingly high, but considerably lower than the European average less than 100 years ago, let alone 800 years past. And about two thirds of Africans are literate — a level achieved in Spain only in [...]

This map represents the percentage of land area needed to completely power the world using solar energy in 2030. As it notes, obviously is wouldn’t be in one large chunk as depicted but could be broken up if placed in comparable areas.
This makes me think of a recent Ted talk (if you haven’t checked out [...]

I rarely, if ever, save a copy of an article to my computer as I trust the great benevolent Internet to store and make searchable anything I would ever need in the future. But I simply cannot take a gamble with something so precious and beautiful and this commencement speech given my David Foster Wallace. [...]

Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in extreme poverty in India. At the age of 10 he showed a propensity for mathematics, by 13 he had mastered advanced trigonometry, by 17 he was conducting his own research. He discovered over 3,900 results, some of which are used in string theory today.
Alex Tabarrok asks, in a recent Ted [...]

Alex Tabarrok, in this great Ted talk, points out what optimism might have meant coming out of the great depression, and how we blew those expectations to pieces. Do you think we can do it again coming out of the longest, deepest recession since then? I am hopeful.

You may be aware of the growing neo-atheism movement with the voices being Professor Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Dan Dennett, Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens, etc. I have been listening and watching and have even commented about some of my feelings towards this movement (and I will say, comparing the general kindness of the atheists who [...]

Often cited in the debate about health care are the nightmare stories of the long waits and subpar conditions of the socialized systems in the UK and Canada. For all the attention we give these two parts of the world, are you aware there are a number of private, universal health care models around the [...]

Below is a wonderful Ted talk (if you are not aware of Ted talks, you’ve been missing out on snappy, brilliant presentations by some of the great minds of today) by Alain de Botton. I’d recommend the whole video, but if you jump to 5:20 you’ll find the part I’m blogging about today.
One of my [...]

Amory Lovins at a recent TED talk explains how we can profitably and quickly, reduce our dependence on oil:

We have a lot to be hopeful about: