Favorite Internet Links

TED: Ideas worth spreading - TED is a great nonprofit conference with amazing lectures and performances. All material is filmed and shown on this website. It's like a free education by the world's best teachers. Most are 20 minutes long or less.

Gapminder.org - An amazing tool for graphing United Nations statistics for any country in any year.

OurWorldinData.org - Curated and reviewed research, data, and graphs on poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, inequality, and other big issues. 

Earthweek - A Diary of the Planet - A weekly summary of major natural disasters and weather events worldwide.

Ecological Footprint Calculator - Interested to know what a terrible burden you are to the planet? ;-)

World's Smallest Political Quiz - Are you a liberal, a libertarian, or an arch-conservative? This quick quiz will let you know.

The World - A great radio news program with good international coverage. Airs daily on 89.3 FM KPCC and on 89.9 FM KCRW. Also airs as a podcast at the website.

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) - a non-profit group that works to protect resources and the environment. Great web page with thematic links to various issues.

Effective Altruism - Effective altruism is an intellectual project using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible.

The Five-Minute University - "Father" Guido Sarducci imagines a more efficient university system.

Michael Shermer's Bullshit Detection Kit. His lecture to the TED Conference about junk science is also excellent. Of course too many students think all media is "bullshit" and are too skeptical for their own good. There is more and more useful information available to each of us today, if we know where to find it. Another large group of my students seems to believe almost anything they see on the the Internet. Science is the method for how we navigate this mess and Shermer is good at explaining the basics. Good solid journalism from the best sources can also help you make sense of the complexity of information in the world.

Landscape Photography by Matt Carroll - lovely landscape photography by my graduate school buddy and fellow geographer Matt Carroll. 

Surfline.com - surf's up somewhere right now, Dude.