Raising the World’s I.Q. by Nicholas Kristof

(I'm hungover and tired as balls today, so I'm not planning to post besides this)

Nicholas Kristof had an interesting column this morning on the benefits of salt for I.Q.:

Almost one-third of the world’s people don’t get enough iodine from food and water. The result in extreme cases is large goiters that swell their necks, or other obvious impairments such as dwarfism or cretinism. But far more common is mental slowness.

When a pregnant woman doesn’t have enough iodine in her body, her child may suffer irreversible brain damage and could have an I.Q. that is 10 to 15 points lower than it would otherwise be. An educated guess is that iodine deficiency results in a needless loss of more than 1 billion I.Q. points around the world.

It's worth reading the rest as well, as Kristof discusses how cheap salt is and how much it can improve people's lives. He also points out that investing in things like education are important, but there is no investment like salt in terms of bang for your buck.

The end of anti-intellectualism ? Nicholas Kristof on "Obama and the War on Brains"

Nicholas Kristof wrote an interesting little column in today's New York Times. Americans, as he rightly points out, prefer politicians who are similar to themselves. It's one of the major reasons George W. Bush beat John Kerry in 2004. Most Americans wanted to get a beer with W. so they voted for him.

But this time it seems they have rejected anti-intellectualism in favor of the very intellectual Barack Obama:

Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.

Maybe, just maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either.

It will nice to see a very smart guy in the White House. But an intellectual suffers from the same risks anyone in power must avoid, mainly arrogance. It is easy to believe that one's way is the right way, that keeping an open mind is unnecessary. But from everything I have seen of Barack Obama, he has easygoing, humble nature that allows him to hear contradictory viewpoints. It will serve him well as our president.