What I Call Progress

Hans Rosling, the creator of "Gapminder", has given us another superb stats-based presentation. This time, Mr. Rosling shows us how life expectancy and income per person have improved steadily, albeit unevenly, across the entire world in the last 200 years. The presentation is a wonderful reminder that we, the people of the 21st century, are an extremely lucky lot. What's more, Rosling's presentation is a hopeful stand against gloomy forecasts that see only misery ahead for the human race. Quite the opposite, if the last 200 years of history tell us something is that human ingenuity will give us a bright future.  

The Economist's Global Debt Clock

For those of us that sport a healthy dose of masochism in our everyday life The Economist magazine brings us the Global Debt Clock. The interactive clock is a handy tool to assess your country of residence’s debt levels and its prospects and compare them to other countries. It also lets you know how much public debt per person there is in each country. Of course, this number is just an average but is frightening enough if you live in one of the map’s bright red countries. At any rate, The Global Debt Clock is a debt-free tool that will give you a free lunch before your government forces you to pay back some more public debt.

Annoying Book Reviewer Cliches

An oldie but goodie piece of advice from The Examiner's Michelle Kerns. Her advice is a compelling tour de force that describes with nuanced insights those cliches that makes us all hate book reviewers. The article passes the R&R test: readable and riveting!

FiveBooks

This post is a sort of follow up to the previous one. Just like with BigThink, the idea behind FiveBooks is to have experts/specialists talk about (you know it!) books that for whatever reason they think are relevant and worth reading. All the different recommendations are neatly organized in two broad categories, "sections" and "regions" that include nine and ten subjects, respectively. The beauty of FiveBooks is its unique capacity to bring together past and present, using timely book recommendations to shed light on current affairs. Although most of FiveBooks’ content is fairly wonkish, it aims to please a wide range of tastes (“From Einstein to Keynes, Iraq to the Andes, Communism to Empire”).

Big Think

Experts are a bit chastised these days, particularly those in the economics profession. However, who does not want to learn what experts have to say about any subject every now and then? It does not matter whether you want so score points at a cocktail party, impress your boss or simply suffer from a persistent need for knowledge, it is good to have expert advice. Even better, it is great to have free expert advice.  Although I am not an expert on expert advice, I can appreciate sheer magnitude. And loads of expert advice is what Big Think delivers. With justified confidence Big Think pledges to put us, “in contact with the ideas of very smart people.” Big Think has conducted more than 1,000 interviews with experts who have their say on sixteen categories, ranging from “Politics and Policy” to “Love, Sex, and Happiness.” On average, Bit Think’s expert interviews last five minutes, a big plus if you are not ready to put up with lengthy lectures by stuffy intellectuals.

Money @ PBS

Money remains a complex subject, that is the least we can say. After more than 5,000 years of usage, money continues to drive humans crazy. Alas, we are a decade into the 21^st century, and we are still trying to figure out a way to control it, optimize it, manage it, manipulate it, distribute it, you mention it. Paradoxically, we can learn about money’s modern complexity for free. To start understanding why we cannot understand money, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has made available on-line an informative documentary that tells the history of money. “The Ascent of Money” was written and hosted by renowned Harvard historian Niall Ferguson and consists of four enlightening episodes. Mr. Ferguson’s thick British accent brings further gravity to money’s ascent. Do not waste this opportunity to bring in profitable knowledge.

Books for Free!

Some time ago, former U.S. senator Ted Stevens described Internet as, "a series of tubes." Mr. Stevens' definition illustrates the generational gap between those that see Internet as a static machine and those that see it as a dynamic and open-ended platform. Significantly, for us run-of-the-mill-consumers, Internet is an unlimited source of free stuff. Take for example YalePressWiki, a Wikipedia-style website that offers free scholarly books to everyone willing to experiment the tubes. The site is a platform to read, comment, write summaries, and share links with scores of strangers. It is also a clear sign that the "series of tubes" continue to evolve, leaving behind archaic characterizations.

Deirdre McCloskey on Good Writing

Bad writing is a democratic problem in that it affects both the uneducated person and the over-educated one. The latter, In particular, over-educated fellows such as Ivory Tower members, who* have a hard time explaining their research in clear prose. Undoubtedly, failing to describe or defend ideas just because they are buried under poor writing is a disservice to humanity. Praise thy Web because She gives us Deirdre McCloskey, who has taken upon herself to teach some basic writing rules to theoretical minds and liberate humanity from illegible words. Her 15 rules of economic writing are a gift that every human being interested in clear prose should read. If you do not want to help yourself by spending 30 minutes on these rules, you can read a one-page summary. If you, however, want to go the whole nine yards you can read Professor McCloskey’s book, “Economical Writing.”

* See rule # 15.

Intelligence Square

One of the best ways of learning about any topic is to watch a debate. Nothing like a lively debate to grasp counterintuitive arguments, detect flawed ideas, or simply test long-held beliefs. When it comes to debates, the "Oxford" style offers the most fulfilling experience. These debates consist of one side proposing a claim and the other side opposing it, usually through straight-forward argumentation. In addition, the debates include an audience and a moderator that provide pre and post debate judgments. You can see excellent Oxford-style debates for free thanks to Intelligence Square, a multimedia forum that seeks to “raise the level of public discourse on our most challenging issues.” Intelligence Square’s debates are unique in the sense that they include more than one guest on each opposing side. Moreover, typically Intelligence Square’s guests are not only experts on the day’s topic but also engaging provocative debaters. You can start experiencing Intelligence Square by watching the health care, financial crisis, and foreign policy debates.

Da Hayek-Keynes Rap

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has said that we are witnessing a “dark age” of macroeconomics. His point is that in the last 70 years there has been a lack of new knowledge and insights in the field. In other words, since the methodological debates between economists John Maynard Keynes and Friederich Hayek in the 1930s and 1940s nobody has really advanced what economists knew back then. Gratefully, economist Russ Roberts and producer John Papola got together to create one of the best educative video-clips on economics ever. Using a rap song and professional acting, the authors brilliantly illustrate the Hayek-Keynes debate. The clip’s seven minutes and 32 seconds are jam-packed with both general knowledge and subtle lessons.