When Bill Gates expressed his foundation’s support for giving chickens to people in extreme poverty, he ignited a debate about development programs.…
One Way That the "Poor Beat the Rich"
In just 8 minutes, Hans Rosling shows us that, with child mortality rates, the developing world is making more progress than we might expect. With his captivating “gapminder” approach, he …
US Economic Growth: Buffett and Gates
My story starts yesterday with a Penn Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Explaining that an image of the history of the universe could emerge from two celestial bodies, he added that similarly, …
Economic Disagreement
Astronomy might help us understand US history according to biographer Walter Isaacson. We just need to think about binary systems in which 2 separately orbiting stars “are linked because of thei…
Does Luck Matter?
In Las Vegas, the 2010 World Series of Poker was composed of 32,000 players and 57 separate tournaments. For the final event, $9 million was at stake. Freakonomics economist Steve Levitt and U. of Chi…
Success
In a wonderful NYC Radio Lab podcast about success, Malcolm Gladwell also explains why genius is closely related to love. Recorded at the 92nd Street Y in NYC, writer Malcolm Gladwell…