Some of the world’s most baffling social problems, says Peter Eigen, can be traced to systematic, pervasive government corruption, hand-in-glove with global companies. At TEDxBerlin, Eigen describes the thrilling counter-attack led by his organization Transparency International.

As a director of the World Bank in Nairobi, Peter Eigen saw firsthand how devastating corruption can be. He’s the founder of Transparency International, an NGO that works to persuade international companies not to bribe or play with corrupt governments. And it’s working.

Popular Science has partnered with Google to offer their entire 137-year archive for free browsing. Each issue appears just as it did at its original time of publication, complete with period advertisements. It’s an amazing resource that beautifully encapsulates our ongoing fascination with the future, and science and technology’s incredible potential to improve our lives. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Republicans want Hawaiians to know that their 40 years of government-run health care will not work.

In a demo that drew gasps at TED2010, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft.

Try your hand at this addictive and fun geography game which donates 10 cups of water to poverty stricken people for every right answer. In the same vein as freerice.com (previously). Play @ freepoverty.com.

FreePoverty.com allows everyone to contribute in donating water to people from all over the world who live in extreme poverty. By letting users locate places on the map, their accuracy will determine how many cups of water will be donated on their behalf. Therefore, FreePoverty aims to:

- Provide clean drinking water to those in need
- Make users realize that they can make a difference
- Let users learn something about geography that they may have not known before

Please take a few minutes of your time to do this, because not only will it expand your knowledge but you will be providing water to people in need as well.

TOXMAP uses maps of the United States to help users visually explore data from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and Superfund Program.

15 Of The Worst Experimental Deaths Of All Time

Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study

So, you have a prison in Illinois 1940s, and a medical department, Army and State Department who want to run a controlled study of malaria—a.k.a the disease that has killed the most human beings, ever. Oddly enough, they even got the prisoner’s consent, including infamous murderer Nathan Leopold. 441 inmates volunteered, I assume for extra cigarettes or something similar, and were bitten by 10 disease carrying mosquitos each. Only one died, from a heart attack after battling a number of rounds with the fever. The interesting thing about this situation, is the defence team of the Nazis during the Nuremberg Medical Trials claimed there was no difference between the prison experiments, and the forced experimentation in the concentration camp. It was during this trial that the concept of “informed consent” was cemented, into the form we know and love today.

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New Tool Kit: Poverty Elimination Strategies that Work

We are proud to announce the release of the Poverty Elimination Strategies that Work. The report, which highlights programs that work to reduce poverty in transportation, housing, health care, food and nutrition, affordable child care, sustainable work, and income supports was written with two goals in mind.

One goal is to detail how each of the eight areas mentioned can specifically impede an individual experiencing extreme poverty. Poverty is an all-encompassing word that can take on many different meanings for different people. The report details how poverty can impact these eight different issues of a person’s life, providing a more holistic view of how local programs address extreme poverty.

The second goal is to provide a resource guide for policymakers, community groups, foundations, service providers, advocates, and faith-based agencies who want to address poverty within their neighborhoods. By separating the programs into these eight categories, individuals can easily pick and choose which programs can best address poverty in their own community. All of the programs highlighted in the report are not only proven effective, but replicable as well. Each program should be seen as a reasonable blueprint for implementing programs within your own community.

Here at the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign we spend a lot of time discussing poverty. We write about its root causes, its detriment to society and how it should be addressed. Unfortunately, given the rising poverty rates all across the country, this discussion tends to be prescriptive rather than descriptive. It is easier to point the finger and bemoan the failures of others rather than offering alternative solutions. This is not to say that being a skeptical critic is not important. The threat of criticism keeps everybody honest. It pushes us to be better. Yet criticism that is not balanced with the offer of effective, alternative solutions is akin to a spinning wheel that does not move. It was with this sentiment in mind that we framed the report.

So please take some time to read the report, and ask yourself: what are the biggest obstacles that those experiencing extreme poverty face in MY community? Once that question is answered, this report may prove very useful in alleviating these barriers.

Joshua Klein: The amazing intelligence of crows

5 of the World’s Weirdest Musical Instruments