Top 5 Things That Recently Blew My Mind

1. North Korea's illegal economy. North Korea needs foreign currency to buy the foreign goods its leaders demand, but it can't even feeds its own people much less produce anything the world wants. So the government resorts to illegal means such as manufacturing drugs, counterfeiting U.S. dollars, and loaning its citizens as cheap labor to South Korea, confiscating their South Korean wages, and paying them in worthless North Korean currency.

2. How software patents are killing technological innovation in the U.S. I had heard of this problem before, but it wasn't until This American Life's recent episode that I appreciated how enormous a problem it is. I am now a more committed abolitionist.

3. The U.S. estimates that 29,000 children under the age of five have starved to death in Somalia in the last three months due to extreme famine and drought. Another 500,000 children are on the brink of starvation. More than 12 million people in East Africa are in need of food aid, with 2.8 million in need of immediate lifesaving assistance. International aid organizations have not been able to provide assistance to the area because of danger from militants such as the Shabab Islamist insurgent group, which has blocked and imprisoned starving people trying to flee the territory, forced Western aid organizations out of the country, and deprived victims of food. Somalia is a failed state which has suffered anarchy since 1992, and the Shabab group controls much of southern Somalia where the drought has taken place. I can't help but feel we are in the middle of another Rwanda which no one is paying attention to.

4. 82% of consumer dollars spent in the U.S. go to China the U.S.

5. Nicholas Kristoff's reflection on the death of John Stott (pictured), which admonished New York Times readers to bridge the "God gulf" and reach out to the many Christians who are on the front lines of humanitarian work around the world. It is not often that a popular columnist in a major news population makes a distinction between evangelical charlatans like Jerry Falwell and humble, brilliant men like Stott who preach service to the poor and the oppressed rather than hate and judgement.

Image: © Langham Partnership International