Chris Blattman

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Links I liked

1. Does the Obama campaign exact retribution for the news it doesn’t like?

2. What’s your Chinese name?

3. The trouble with leaving Pakistan

4. Do lower AIDS drugs equal less research?

5. New technologies and high prices are leading to more crop production, even in arid places. In five years, are we going to see a ‘food price crisis’ in the opposite direction?

6. The new Google Africa blog. And Google jobs in Africa. (via Scarlett Lion)

7. Is Dubya Batman?

8. More universities should behave like Berea College

4 Responses

  1. Flying RC helicopter used to set people back thousands of dollars. People had to buy the rc helicopter kit (which comes in hundred small pieces – unassembled), servos, engine, starter, gyro, receiver, radio controller, a hundred other equipments, and of course – fuel. When everything has been purchased, you still have to assemble it! The exterior is made of anodized aluminum to resist corrosion, impact and scratching. With a brushed aluminum finish, modest styling and sleek form, Micro Flashled flashlight makes a discrete addition to a lady’s handbag, a schoolchild’s backpack, earthquake kits, or as an emergency light stored in a car or an RV glove box. The flashlight fits comfortably in your hand or pocket; to prevent against accidental activation, Micro Flashled features a push-button switch in the back of the unit to operate the led light . It measures 4.5 inches long and just over an inch wide, and without batteries weights only 3.5 oz, with 3 AAA batteries, 4.8 oz. The PlayStation Portable has been around for three years, but the machine you might buy today is far different from the one you’d get in 2005.

  2. Does anybody know how expensive water from desalination plants is? (The Israelis probably know more about that than most, too) If, say, the World Bank was to fund a (solar powered?) desalination plant to supply drip irrigation systems, how much could farmers afford to pay for that water and how far would that go to covering the desalination costs? Is desalination a sensible investment from a aid/development point of view, or are the numbers too far from adding up? Is the pace of technological innovation in desalination technology comparable to that of solar power generation? High food prices and large areas of arid un-farmed land would appear to open up a commercial opportunity, but for all I know the costs involved a prohibitive.

  3. Are there any institutions like Berea that are secular? The article doesn’t seem to mention that aspect.

  4. Hum, I haven’t fully read those two articles, but I’ve mostly heard recently about farmers who don’t have enough money to buy seeds and fertilizers for next year (the price of fertilizer rised a lot, they are made from oil !), so that next year crop would be a disaster despite the current high prices.

Why We Fight - Book Cover
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