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...That method "is very good at finding people who are infectious," says Liz Corbett, a clinical researcher from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who works with TB patients in Zimbabwe. But a patient can have active, even lethal, TB without being very infectious. Using the standard smear-microscopy method can be acutely frustrating: sometimes a patient must be tested three, seven, even 10 times before a positive diagnosis can be made. If patients are weak - if, for example, they have HIV - TB can kill them before diagnosis is possible...
...centuries-old debate: how do some nations attain long-term economic growth and an ever higher standard of living while others don't? What determines whether people in your part of the planet live in McMansions, mobile homes or mud huts? In the 18th century, proto-economist Adam Smith pointed to the transformative effect of the division of labor. In the 19th, David Ricardo highlighted the benefits of trade. In the 20th, Harvard University's Michael Porter made the case for industry clusters. Geography, physical capital, technology, worker education--they've all taken a turn as the supposed silver bullet...
...that the data can teach us, keep in mind that the nature of a ranking masks certain economic realities of a globalized world. The ability of countries to raise their citizens' standard of living is not a zero-sum game. Nearly 200 years ago, Ricardo gave a detailed lesson about comparative advantage: when two economies interact, they both can benefit even if one is more advanced across the board. That's why South Korea invests in North Korea, which is in some respects an economic black hole. At the end of the day, both can be winners...
...union shop steward Poul Erik Pedersen tells me. "We aren't against the management. We want to make sure that they make money and we make money." Then, unprompted, he takes the argument a step further: "There are some good things about outsourcing. Where the jobs go, the standard of living is growing, and then they can afford to buy more Legos or other things from the West...
Everyone remembers the Star Wars Kid. How could you not? His wild gesticulating with standard golfing implements transformed him into an Internet celebrity overnight and was no doubt a popular source of laughter when the video made its debut several years ago, even before the advent of YouTube. But does anyone remember his real name? Did anyone even know his real name? And did anyone ever discover how this event changed the life of the Star Wars Kid? Probably not. The Internet stripped the boy of his name, of his very identity, and the danger of losing one?...