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India is recognized globally for its premier engineering institutes IITs and IIMs. Students from these colleges are behind some of the world's unicorns. They have a history of producing some wonderful innovations for a better world. <br /><br />From efficient electric cars, autos running on hydrogen to machines for the blind - the diverse innovations inside the campus labs are usually aimed at solving the real pain points of people and making their lives easier. <br /><br />Big or small, their ideas have contributed to our society for years. They are out to revolutionize the world and we are simply proud of their stellar innovations. Let's go over some of them:<br />
<strong><br />An Electric Race Car that participated in Formula Students competition at Silverstone Circuit, UK</strong><br />

	
	
	
	
	
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IIT-B students unveiled EVo1 at the Powai Institute campus, it is India’s first electric race car. A team of 60 students designed this car in 2012. It has a top speed of 115 km per hour and weighs about 320 kgs. It has acceleration from 1 to 100 kmph in 5 seconds and from 0 to 60 kmph in 3.5 seconds. It possesses high efficiency DC motors and Lithium polymer batteries.<br />
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<strong>SmartCane for the easy mobility of those visually-challenged </strong><br />

	
	
	
	
	
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 A group of passionate technologists, an IIT professor and a social entrepreneur joined hands and came up with an innovative product that aims to alleviate the hardships faced by visually challenged people when it comes to independent mobility.SmartCane™ is an aid for the visually impaired that provides safe and independent mobility which eases their integration into the society. It helps its user diagnose any above-the-knee obstruction from a distance of 3 meters. Frugality and resourcefulness have ensured that this product costs only INR 3,000.<br />
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&amp;v=3etHWJL2izs<br />
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<strong>An App which Facebook ended up buying</strong><br />
<br /> Abheek and Soham were inspired to create Tagtile by an incident in a restaurant in San Francisco. The <keyword id="137562" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="IITians">IITians</keyword> heard the restaurant owner complain about the websites and apps offering deals. Thus, Tagtile was launched in March 2011 to satisfy the merchants as well as customers with exciting deals and offers. Tagtile won many acclaims and became one of the widely used apps. It also received an award in October 2011 for Best Startup in a competition among 100-odd start-ups in the Silicon Valley.Initially a partnership deal, ended with Facebook buying the year-old product. The deal brought along an offer for Abheek and Soham to join Facebook as product manager and engineer.<br />
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<strong>Drones which the Indian Army now uses </strong> 
	
	
	
	
	
	<div type="image" msid="51807041" hostid="261"></div> <keyword id="1791200" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="IIT-Bombay-students">IIT Bombay students</keyword> invented NETRA - an autonomous hovering Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), a drone that helps the Indian army with rescue operations during natural calamities.<br />
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<strong>Water rides You can now walk On </strong>Mirik Gogri and Ayush Jain, Two IIT-Bombay alumni formed Humming Whale Product Innovations, a company that innovates path-breaking products and solutions. The team came up with a fun idea of walking on water, which they later gamified into a ride. They are now all set to introduce the product at various gaming zones, amusement parks, events and parties. The duo also came up with rewritable T shirts. 
	
	
	
	
	
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 Write and erase. Cool, isn't is? The t-shirt was a hit on online shopping websites and was worn by a movie cast that appeared on popular TV show Bigg Boss.<br />
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<strong>Hydrogen Autos with less noise and Pollution may take over Delhi roads</strong> 
	
	
	
	
	
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 Professor LM Das of IIT-D conceived the idea of using compressed hydrogen as an automotive fuel with Delhi's air pollution in mind . In the early '80s, it was a bold initiative — an idea ahead of its time. Lay acquaintances thought he was talking about making a hydrogen bomb. Detractors in the scientific community dismissed his research as a freak project. But Das soldiered on alone over the next three decades as associates came and went. He says - Unlike petroleum-derived hydrocarbon fuels, pure hydrogen does not produce toxic carbon monoxide or the heat-trapping carbon dioxide on combustion. There are no oxides of sulphur, nor any particulates. Water vapour and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are the only byproducts. Although NOx is a pollutant, Das claims their engine has been optimized to reduce its emission greatly.<br />
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<strong>Machine that reduces waste and in turn quenches thirst</strong>
	
	
	
	
	
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Designed and developed in just 95 days by two IIT Bombay students - Anurag Meena and Satyendra Meena - is a revolutionary machine which accepts used cans or bottles, and dispenses 300 millilitres of clean (RO and UV treated) drinking water in exchange. It is currently on a pilot test run at the IIT-Bombay boys’ hostel. In the coming months, it will also be installed in several other places in Mumbai and Chandigarh.<br />
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(Image credit: PagalGuy)<br />

10 brilliant innovations by IITians to make India a better place to live in

Secrets of the American Museum of Natural History

<div id="ooyalaplayer" style="width: 800px; height: 450px;"></div><div style="display:none;" id="kalturavideoplaceholder">kalturavideoplaceholder</div><div><div><div class="g-ytsubscribe" data-channelid="UCVLZmDKeT-mV4H3ToYXIFYg" data-layout="full" data-count="&quot;hidden&quot;"></div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The <a href="http://www.amnh.org/">American Museum of Natural History</a> is one of the largest museums in the world. Tucked into its 1.6 million square feet of space are several secrets. Some you can see, some you cannot.</span></p><p><em>Produced by <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/author/kevin-reilly">Kevin Reilly</a>. Additional camera by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/alex-kuzoian">Alex Kuzoian</a>.</em></p><p><strong>Follow <keyword id="72550" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="TI">TI</keyword>:</strong> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/techinsider">On Facebook</a></p>

<ul class="summary-list"><li>World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that there will be more pandemics in the future during a video shared on the first <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2020/12/27/default-calendar/international-day-of-epidemic-preparedness">International Day of Epidemic Preparedness</a> on Sunday.</li><li>Tedros said the world failed "to prepare" for the <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> pandemic, and in the future countries should work to "prevent, detect, and mitigate emergencies of all kinds, whether they be naturally occurring epidemics or deliberate events."</li><li>He said investments in public health and "all-of-government, all-of-society, one health approach" could help countries successfully prepare for future pandemics.</li></ul><p>World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that COVID-19 won't be the world's last pandemic while speaking in a video statement on the first <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2020/12/27/default-calendar/international-day-of-epidemic-preparedness#:~:text=The%20first%20ever%20International%20Day,for%20and%20partnership%20against%20epidemics.">International Day of Epidemic Preparedness</a> on Sunday.</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1343137156399816704">Tedros used his message</a> to encourage countries to prepare better by working to "prevent, detect, and mitigate emergencies of all kinds, whether they be naturally occurring epidemics or deliberate events."</p><p>"History tells us his will not be the last pandemic, and epidemics are a fact of life," he said.</p><p>He said investments in public health and an "all-of-government, all-of-society, one health approach" could help countries successfully react to global health crises in the future.</p><p>"If we fail to prepare, we are preparing to fail. … Last year, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board published its first report, which concluded, the world remains dangerously unprepared for a global pandemic," he said in the video.</p><p>Nearly 1.8 million people across the world have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began and more than 80 million people have tested positive for the virus.</p><p>In the United States alone, more than 332,000 people have died from the virus and more than 19 million have tested positive, according to <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">Johns Hopkins</a>.</p><p>COVID-19 vaccines are currently being given to healthcare workers, and are expected to be given to the general public in 2021.</p>

WHO chief warns that COVID-19 won't be the world's last pandemic as he tells countries to prepare for future emergencies

<ul><li><strong>Business Insider spoke to Mike Martin, a former British Army Officer and conflict expert.</strong></li><li><strong>Martin's new book Why We Fight is about the evolutionary psychology of warfare. </strong></li><li><span><strong>He told us about the two reasons that people fight in wars.</strong></span><span></span><span></span></li></ul><p> </p><p>Read the full transcript below:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Mike Martin: </strong>Hi, my name's Dr. Mike Martin, I'm a former British Army Officer and an expert on conflict, and I've just written a book called Why We Fight, about the evolutionary psychology of warfare. Why is war part of human nature? Well, I think there are a number of reasons for that.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Firstly, and this is the most obvious one, everybody practices warfare. Every society throughout history, almost up to including the current day, practices warfare. Another key reason why war is part of human nature is that humans are part of the animal kingdom and in the animal kingdom, individual animals of every species compete against all the other individuals in that species. And they compete for mates, and for food, and for territory, and for social status.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Humans are just the same, the only difference is that we, as part of the primates, and primates with slightly bigger brains, have got the ability to generate larger social groups. So all that war is is the individual competition that we see throughout the animal kingdom timesed up by our ability to build bigger groups.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">So when we're looking at how to free the world of war, particularly when we've argued that it's part of human nature, you have to look right across human history, so you go back 200,000 years and you come right up to the present day.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Now, if you look across human history at that scale, there are two big trends that come out. One is a massive decline of violence.So from the stone age through to the present day, in some cases violence has fallen up to 500-fold. Today is the safest time, without fail, to be alive.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">The other macro trend over that period of history is ever-increasing group size. When one group is fighting another in a war, effectively it's the outsides of those groups that are fighting, and the bigger the group the larger the peaceful interior of the group.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">So, relatively speaking, the levels of death ie violence, are lower when the groups are bigger, when those groups are fighting a war or having inter-group conflict. But the other reason is this strange statistical relationship that was discovered in the sixties, and that relationship is this: that groups tend to go to war with each other, human groups tend to go to war with each other at the same rate, no matter what the size.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">And if groups are part of security structures, like NATO, that counts as a group, but it effectively means that conflict is minimized, 'cause if you have larger groups, you have less groups by definition. Now, these two trends, ever-decreasing violence and ever-increasing group size, correlate.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">If we want to rid the world of violence then we need to focus on building the biggest social groups possible. And of course that means a global polity.</p><p><em>Produced by <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/author/charlie-floyd">Charlie Floyd</a>.</em></p>

This is how humans could live in a world without war, according to a conflict expert who used to be in the British Army

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 2015 New Year's resolution was to read an important book every two weeks and discuss it with the Facebook community.</p><p>Zuckerberg's book club, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ayearofbooks">A Year of Books</a>, has focused on big ideas that influence society and business. For his 12th pick, he's gone with "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062316095/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0062316095&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=SJMFNTVF6M35EW7J" target="_blank">Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind</a>" by Hebrew University of Jerusalem historian <a href="http://www.ynharari.com/">Yuval Harari</a>.</p><p>First published in 2014, "Sapiens" is a critically acclaimed international best-seller. Harari uses his book to track the evolution of Homo sapiens from hunter-gatherers into self-empowered "gods" of the future.</p><p>"We control the world basically because we are the only animals that can cooperate flexibly in very large numbers," <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/02/07/383276672/from-hunter-gatherers-to-space-explorers-a-70-000-year-story">Harari told NPR in February</a> to promote the book's US publication.</p><p>"And if you examine any large-scale human cooperation, you will always find that it is based on some fiction like the nation, like money, like human rights," he said. "These are all things that do not exist objectively, but they exist only in the stories that we tell and that we spread around. This is something very unique to us, perhaps the most unique feature of our species."</p><p>Zuckerberg explains his latest book-club pick <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102182252999291?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22O%22%7D&amp;pnref=story">on his personal Facebook page</a>:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">This book is a big history narrative of human civilization - from how we developed from hunter-gatherers early on to how we organize our society and economy today.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Following the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691166285/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0691166285&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=EAYIRHQ6QCDU2CPR" target="_blank">Muqaddimah</a>, which was a history from the perspective of an intellectual in the 1300s, Sapiens is a contemporary exploration of many similar questions. I'm looking forward to reading these different perspectives.</p><p>Zuckerberg's book club is growing into an introduction to sociology, with an emphasis on the potential of technology to take humanity into the next stage of its evolution. </p><h3>A Year of Books so far:</h3><ul><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465065694/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0465065694&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=BAOAHH6QEIYELGIN" target="_blank">The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn'?t What It Used to Be</a>" by Moisés Naím</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143122010/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0143122010&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=ZAMR2VFXWUFQ67CH" target="_blank">The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined</a>" by Steven Pinker</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014311493X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=014311493X&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=YIPV4KKBS2IQYE72" target="_blank">Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets</a>" by Sudhir Venkatesh</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555976891/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1555976891&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=VV72DRLDFJDO4IZQ" target="_blank">On Immunity: An Inoculation</a>" by Eula Biss</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812993012/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0812993012&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=Y4R46PORYRQ6DB7N" target="_blank">Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration</a>" by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226458121/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0226458121&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=HMLGFTGHQS5ZPTBM" target="_blank">The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</a>" by Thomas S. Kuhn</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691114714/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0691114714&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=LMQOL65O5PDKN2JN" target="_blank">Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge</a>" by Michael Chwe</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455504211/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1455504211&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=OBZRCXGYLZP5VWAM" target="_blank">Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower</a>" by Henry M. Paulson</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0029153352/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0029153352&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=SLYUNFKV7K2OCRCW" target="_blank">Orwell's Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest</a>" by Peter Huber</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595586431/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1595586431&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=F53EKUXHPJ6WVFXM" target="_blank">The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness</a>" by Michelle Alexander</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691166285/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0691166285&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=EAYIRHQ6QCDU2CPR" target="_blank">The Muqaddimah</a>" by Ibn Khaldun</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062316095/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0062316095&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=SJMFNTVF6M35EW7J" target="_blank">Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind</a>" by Yuval Noah Harari</li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-snapchat-cyber-dust-privacy-2015-5">Mark Cuban explains why downloading Snapchat is a huge mistake</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="FuMzJkdTpvQYH_d3c-8LMnnwzGDr7n8x" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Why Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to read an Israeli historian's book about the human race

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Researchers found what appeared to be pendants made from the now-extinct giant sloth.</li><li>The artifacts are believed to date from around 25,000 to 27,000 years ago.</li></ul><p>Pendants made of bony material from giant sloths suggest humans lived in South America thousands of years earlier than previously thought, researchers say.</p><p>Scientists believe the artifacts date to around 25,000 to 27,000 years ago, according to a new <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2023.0316" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the Royal Society's main biological research journal.</p><p>While it was long thought that humans migrated to the Americas by crossing a land bridge from Siberia into Alaska <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-humans-came-to-americas-180973739/#:~:text=For%20more%20than%20half%20a,corridor%20into%20the%20heart%20of" target="_blank" rel="noopener">around 13,000 years ago</a>, recent research has challenged that view.</p><p>"We now have good evidence — together with other sites from South and North America — that we have to rethink our ideas about the migration of humans to the Americas," Mirian Liza Alves Forancelli Pacheco, study co-author and archaeologist at the Federal University of Sao Carlos in Brazil, told <a href="https://apnews.com/article/giant-sloths-early-people-americas-4c28e6d96f8bd58ede8ac48e0c39b533" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Associated Press.</a></p><p>The remains of the now-extinct giant sloth were discovered at the Santa Elina rock shelter in Brazil, and they included thousands of osteoderms — hard bony deposits that form within the skin of certain animals. </p><div type="image" title="Other giant ground sloth skeletons have been found in places like Daytona Beach, Florida." height="1000" width="1333" msid="101785144" hostid="261" sizebytes="226050"></div><p>According to the study, three of the osteoderms appeared to have been polished and had holes drilled into them, suggesting humans had modified them into what was likely "personal ornaments," researchers said. They added that the holes were not caused by natural abrasion, The AP reported.</p><p>The scientists said that the pendants were made within days or a few years of the animal dying, the report adds.</p><p>Findings across such sites also challenge the idea that humans arrived in the Americas in one wave of migration over the Bering land bridge, according to Briana Pobiner, a co-author and paleoanthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington.</p><p>"It's very likely that multiple waves of people came to Americas," she said, according to The AP.</p><p>Giant ground sloths could reach 13 feet long, weighed more than a thousand pounds and were equivalent in size to an Indian elephant. It walked on all fours and was one of the largest creatures in South America, per the report.</p>

27,000-year-old pendants crafted from the skin of extinct giant sloths could help rewrite the human history of the Americas

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 2015 New Year's resolution was to read an important book every two weeks and discuss it with the Facebook community.</p><p>Zuckerberg's book club, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ayearofbooks">A Year of Books</a>, has focused on big ideas that influence society and business. His selections so far have been mostly contemporary, but for his eleventh pick he's chosen "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691166285/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0691166285&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=MV2TY66WNOKCJWDC" target="_blank">The Muqaddimah</a>," written in 1377 by the Islamic historian Ibn Khaldun.</p><p>"The Muqaddimah," which translates to "the introduction," is an early attempt at stripping away biases of historical records and finding universal elements in the progression of humanity.</p><p><span>Ibn </span>Khaldun's revolutionary scientific approach to history has established him as one of the foundational thinkers of modern <span>sociology and</span> historiography.</p><p>The influential 20th century British historian Arnold J. Toynbee described "The Muqaddimah" as "a philosophy of history, which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place," <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/280788/Ibn-Khaldun/225307/The-Muqaddimah-Ibn-Khalduns-philosophy-of-history">according to the Encyclopedia Britannica</a>.</p><p>Zuckerberg explains his latest book-club pick <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102158767549321">on his personal Facebook page</a>:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">It's a history of the world written by an intellectual who lived in the 1300s. It focuses on how society and culture flow, including the creation of cities, politics, commerce and science.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">While much of what was believed then is now disproven after 700 more years of progress, it's still very interesting to see what was understood at this time and the overall worldview when it's all considered together.</p><p>The majority of <span>Zuckerberg'</span>s book club selections have been explorations of issues through a sociological lens, so it makes sense that he is now reading the book that helped create the field.</p><h3>A Year of Books so far:</h3><ul><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465065694/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0465065694&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=BAOAHH6QEIYELGIN" target="_blank">The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn?t What It Used to Be</a>" by Moisés Naím</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143122010/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0143122010&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=ZAMR2VFXWUFQ67CH" target="_blank">The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined</a>" by Steven Pinker</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014311493X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=014311493X&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=YIPV4KKBS2IQYE72" target="_blank">Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets</a>" by Sud hir Venkatesh</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555976891/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1555976891&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=VV72DRLDFJDO4IZQ" target="_blank">On Immunity: An Inoculation</a>" by Eula Biss</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812993012/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0812993012&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=Y4R46PORYRQ6DB7N" target="_blank">Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration</a>" by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226458121/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0226458121&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=HMLGFTGHQS5ZPTBM" target="_blank">The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</a>" by Thomas S. Kuhn</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691114714/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0691114714&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=LMQOL65O5PDKN2JN" target="_blank">Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge</a>" by Michael Chwe</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455504211/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1455504211&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=OBZRCXGYLZP5VWAM" target="_blank">Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower</a>" by Henry M. Paulson</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0029153352/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0029153352&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=SLYUNFKV7K2OCRCW" target="_blank">Orwell's Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest</a>" by Peter Huber</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595586431/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1595586431&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=F53EKUXHPJ6WVFXM" target="_blank">The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness</a>" by Michelle Alexander</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691166285/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0691166285&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=EAYIRHQ6QCDU2CPR" target="_blank">The Muqaddimah</a>" by Ibn Khaldun</li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/peter-diamandis-elon-musk-success-tesla-spacex-2015-5">Peter Diamandis: Elon Musk deserves his success because he risked everything</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="0zczRqdDovyBtlOAKswjyI0g1HafEXBS" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Why Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to read 14th-century Islamic book 'The Muqaddimah'

<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:618px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/10th-annual/10th-Annual-Photo-Contest-Finalists-Travel-194333031.html?c=y&amp;page=7&amp;navigation=thumb#IMAGES">Photographed by Hai Thinh Hoang/Smithsonian.com</a></p></div>The Smithsonian just released the finalists from its </span><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/10th-annual/10th-Annual-Photo-Contest-Finalists-Natural-World-194333591.html" target="_blank">10th annual photo contest</a>. This <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">year's front runners are absolutely stunning.</span></p>
<p>The <keyword id="6360717" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="contest">contest</keyword> received over 37,600 photo submissions this year from photographers hailing from 112 countries. The pictures are broken down into five categories, including The Natural World, Travel, People, Americana, and Altered Images.</p>
<p>Each category was narrowed down to 10 photographs for a total of 50 finalists. <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/10th-annual/Vote-for-the-10th-Annual-Photo-Contest-Viewers-Choice.html" target="_blank">Voting for the Reader's Choice Award</a> is now open to the public until March 29 at 2 p.m. EST.</p>
<p>All of the submissions are outstanding, but 15 in particular caught our eye.</p>

The Best Entries From Smithsonian's Photo Contest Finalists 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The London <keyword id="11996701" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="natural-history-museum" source="Orion">Natural History Museum</keyword>'s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-wildlife-photos-of-the-year-2020-11">Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest</a> celebrates the diversity and fragility of life. </li><li>This year the <keyword id="11996702" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="contest" source="Orion">contest</keyword> drew a record of more than 50,000 entries from photographers in 95 countries.</li><li>The frontrunners' photos show wild cats overcoming great odds, narwhal shrimps loitering in the coral, and an orphaned bat on the mend.</li></ul><p>The Iberian lynx almost disappeared from the face of the Earth. </p><p>Hunting, poaching, and habitat loss culled the wild cats from the Iberian peninsula. By 2002, fewer than 100 Iberian lynx remained in Spain, and they were completely wiped out in Portugal. </p><p>But conservation efforts have brought them back from the brink of extinction. The elusive <keyword id="11897851" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="animals" source="Orion">animals</keyword> have even started to overlap with humans again.</p><p>The young lynx in the photo above grew up in an abandoned hayloft in Spain's Sierra Morena mountains. Photographer Sergio Marijuán set up his camera amongst the hay and waited for months to get the shot: the lynx poised in the doorway, its back legs outstretched, peering directly into the camera.</p><p>The image is a frontrunner in the prestigious <keyword id="11893490" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="wildlife" source="Orion">Wildlife</keyword> Photographer of the Year contest, which is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London. The competition aims to showcase the diversity and fragility of the planet's wildlife. </p><p>This year, the contest drew more entries than ever before - more than 50,000 photos from photographers in 95 countries. </p><p>"These extraordinary images showcase the rich diversity of life on Earth and spark curiosity and wonder," Doug Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, said in a press release. "Telling the story of a planet under pressure, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition illuminates the urgent challenges we face and the collective action we need to take."</p><p>The museum will announce the winning images in October, but on Tuesday, it released a small sample of its top picks. Below are nine of the "highly commended" frontrunners.</p><h2>Several photos show predators struggling</h2><div type="image" title="four cheetahs grimace swimming against roiling brown waters" height="1373" width="2061" msid="85821050" hostid="261"></div><p>In January 2020, these male cheetahs braved rough waters to reach new hunting grounds on the other side of Kenya's swollen Talek River. Photographer Buddhilini de Soyza followed them along the opposite bank for hours as they chose their crossing point.</p><p>"A couple of times the lead cheetah waded into the river, only to turn back," de Soyza said in a statement about the photo.</p><p>The animals avoided calmer stretches of water, possibly fearing crocodiles, before leaping in and paddling across. De Soyza feared they wouldn't survive the raging river, which was high from unusually heavy rain. But all five cheetahs (one didn't fit into the photo) made it across.</p><h2>This gecko fought for its life but wound up in a death coil</h2><div type="image" title="green snake wrapped around blue gecko with red spots gripping snake's head in its mouth" height="1374" width="1099" msid="85821051" hostid="261"></div><p>Photographer Wei Fu was taking pictures of birds at a park in Bangkok, Thailand when he heard loud croaking and hissing. He followed the ruckus and found a red-spotted tokay gecko perched in a tree, blaring warning sounds at a golden tree snake that was slowly descending towards it from a higher branch.</p><p>The snake launched itself at the gecko, biting it and injecting venom. The lizard clamped its powerful jaws around the serpent's head in self-defense.</p><p>They wrestled, but after a few minutes, the snake had wound itself around the gecko, squeezed its life out, and begun the slow process of swallowing it whole.</p><h2>A clumsy young white-tailed kite bungled a pass</h2><div type="image" title="white bird with wings extended mid-air holds mouse in claw while smaller bird with brown speckles reaches claws up to take the mouse" height="787" width="671" msid="85821052" hostid="261"></div><p>The California bird was trying to take a live mouse from the claws of its father while hovering in mid-air, according to photographer Jack Zhi. This is how the juvenile must eat until it can hunt for itself. The exchange is also practice for future courtship, when a male bird offers prey to a female.</p><p>This gold-speckled youngster had only been flying for two days. It clumsily tried to reach its claws upward to take the mouse, but didn't quite get the prize. It learned quickly, though, and circled around to grab its prey from behind the older bird.</p><h2>Other predators were more successful</h2><div type="image" title="lion dripping with fresh blood stares into camera" height="752" width="564" msid="85821053" hostid="261"></div><p>This young lioness in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park began eating her wildebeest prey while it was still alive. With one paw holding the struggling animal down, and bright red blood dripping from her muzzle, she looked right into photographer Lara Jackson's camera. </p><h2>A 10-year-old photographed this parakeet feeding its young</h2><div type="image" title="bright green parakeet greets three green chicks poking their heads out of a tree" height="786" width="524" msid="85821054" hostid="261"></div><p>Gagana Mendis Wickramasinghe was stuck at home when Sri Lanka went into lockdown in the spring of 2020. So he passed his time sitting on his parents' bedroom balcony with his older brother, watching a pair of rose-ringed parakeets raise their young.</p><p>The parakeets had chosen a dead areca-nut palm tree that Gagana's parents had left standing to attract wildlife. The parakeets' hole was eye-level with their balcony, which gave Gagana and his brother plenty of time to experiment with their cameras and trade lenses to snap pictures of the vibrant green birds.</p><h2>On an island within an island, a red fox scavenged for dead salmon</h2><div type="image" title="fox creeps through dark shallow waters" height="831" width="1248" msid="85821056" hostid="261"></div><p>This animal is one of two foxes living on a small island in Karluk Lake, which is nested in Alaska's Kodiak Island. Photographer Jonny Armstrong followed the fox for several days as she pounced at birds, ate berries, and even nipped at the heels of a young brown bear.</p><p>Then a storm began to roll in, bringing a somber backdrop. As the vixen scanned the shallows for sockeye salmon that had died after spawning, Armstrong laid on his stomach at the water's edge to capture her focused gaze.</p><h2>Narwhal shrimp may communicate via their antennae</h2><div type="image" title="narwhal shrimps drift in feathery blue coral with their antennas touching" height="831" width="1248" msid="85821057" hostid="261"></div><p>When Laurent Ballesta went diving with his camera off France's Mediterranean coast, he stumbled upon a bizarre scene. Thousands of narwhal shrimp were swaying in the coral more than 250 feet below the surface. Their long, wiry antennae were touching - contact that may play a role in social behaviors like mating.</p><h2>Some images depict animals out of their habitats, like this orphaned bat</h2><div type="image" title="baby bat lies on table with baby blanket with a human hand cradling the bat" height="787" width="1136" msid="85821059" hostid="261"></div><p>This grey-headed flying-fox pup was just three weeks old when someone found her on the ground in Melbourne, Australia.</p><p>At a shelter, caretakers fed her special formula and laid her on a "mumma roll," which simulates a mother bat around which she can wrap her legs and wings. They even gave her a dummy to suck on. That's when photographer Douglas Gimesy captured her portrait.</p><p>After a few months, the orphan can be weaned onto fruit and flowering eucalyptus, then released into a nearby wild bat colony.</p><p>Grey-headed flying-foxes only live in eastern Australia. Their numbers are falling in the face of extreme heat, deforestation, and human infrastructure like power lines and barbed wire, where they often get caught.</p><h2>Climate change also threatens the Apollo butterfly</h2><h2><div type="image" title="black and white butterfly settles on white daisy" height="786" width="1180" msid="85821061" hostid="261"></div></h2><p>On a summer vacation in the Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park along the border of France and Switzerland, Emelin Dupieux enjoyed mountain meadows full of flowers and butterflies. One of his favorites, the Apollo, is among Europe's most threatened, since its mountain habitats are getting warmer due to climate change.</p><p>With wings that span up to 3.5 inches, the black-and-white butterfly wasn't hard to follow, but it was difficult to photograph - the oxeye daises it perches on sway easily in the wind. After much fiddling with his camera's settings and focus, Dupieux snapped this peaceful photo, called "Apollo landing." </p>

The best wildlife photos of 2021 capture a rare Iberian lynx, a snake strangling a gecko, and a lion dripping with blood

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Every single Confederate statue in America should come down. <br><br>As soon as possible. <br><br>It's not because of what they are, it's because of <em>why</em> they are.<p>These statues were not erected to depict the truth of the Civil War, but rather to serve as everlasting symbols of white supremacy.&#xa0;<br><br>I spoke on Thursday with&#xa0;one of America's preeminent Civil War&#xa0;<span>historians, Eric Foner, the author of&#xa0;</span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reconstruction-Americas-Unfinished-Revolution-1863/dp/1504739892">'<span>Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863 - 1877.</span></a>'&#xa0;<br><br>Foner explained that&#xa0;<span>"putting up statues is a statement about the present."</span></br></br></br></br></p><p>That is to say two things.</p><p><span>First, that the telling of history is not static - it changes with society and our understanding of ourselves. Second, those historical monuments are less about the period they depict, and more about the society that erects them.</span></p><p><span>The American societies that erected these statues - at the moment in history in which they were erected - did so with a clear purpose in mind, to show that white supremacy was the law of the land. That is something this country can no longer abide. And so they must come down.</span></p><h1>What a statue can do</h1><p>Most of the Confederate monuments in the United States were commissioned and erected during times of racial strife, or by organizations that championed white supremacy.&#xa0;<span>They were built as part of a concerted effort to glorify and sanitize the history of the Confederacy. Think about it this way: If you can sanitize the symbols' ugly history, you can put them everywhere. <br><br>But, that doesn't really change their meaning in the hearts and minds of those who know the truth.</br></br></span></p><p><span></span><span>So white supremacists in the South built a new truth. They said that the Civil War was about tariffs or about state's rights or about any number of things historians have cited aside from racism and slavery. That way, these symbols could be innocuous - just a regular piece of the ebb and flow of history.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>"Now this was all a white point of view," Foner said. "It developed in the 1890s and was a part of white reconciliation in the North and South. Blacks were left out of it."</span></p><p>Part of that reconciliation was allowing the South to be as racist as it wanted to be. In the 1890s statues were erected as the region shook off vestiges of the Reconstruction and reclaimed its space for white supremacists. State after state took voting rights away from black people, segregation took hold, and it was a peak time of terrorism against blacks.</p><p><span>"The Confederacy became a symbol of white supremacy," Foner explained. "The ultimate message is that it's correct for white people to rule in the South. If they wanted inclusive monuments they would've put up statues of black leaders."</span></p><p>During the 1920s and 1930s, another era of Confederate statue mania, the Ku Klux Klan was at one of its most politically powerful points in history. It is no coincidence that rampant racism and xenophobia led to immigration restrictions in 1924.&#xa0;</p><p><span></span>Of course, these statues didn't just erect themselves. Organizations like&#xa0;<span>the Daughters of the Confederacy (sounds innocent enough, right?) worked to put monuments all over the country. That's how, as journalist and historian <a href="https://twitter.com/heroinebook/status/898295767642759169">Erin Blakemore points out,</a> <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/california/la-me-horton-plaza-confederate-20170816-story.html">San Diego ended up</a>&#xa0;with a Jefferson Davis plaque (it was recently removed), and states like Arizona have Jefferson Davis Highways <a href="http://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-news/274398941-story">(it was just tarred and feathered)</a>.</span></p><p><span>And of course, we should note that the Daughters of the Confederacy <a href="http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=162:the-united-daughters-of-the-confederacy-defends-the-ku-klux-klan-in-1936&amp;catid=37:the-nadir-of-race-relations">were in league with the Ku Klux Klan.</a></span></p><h1><span>What a historian can do</span></h1><p>"Half the time when historians are writing, they're writing about the present," Foner told Business Insider. Because of that, the way historians have told the story of the Civil War has changed dramatically over the years.&#xa0;</p><p>Right now we are in a moment where we can, again, try to set the story straight.</p><p>Until the Civil Rights Movement, slavery was taken out of the forefront of America's narrative of the Civil War. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was seen as a symbol of reconciliation and paired with Lincoln as a peacemaker, but of course, that was a narrow view. <br><br>It completely ignored Lee's thoughts about slavery, race, and <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword>. And perhaps more importantly, it ignored the political reality of the Confederacy.</br></br></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The Confederacy was a society that was built on slavery, that sent men to fight and die in the name of white supremacy. Slavery was in the Confederacy's founding documents. In a speech outlining the values of the new nation, Vice President Alexander Stephens repudiated the US Constitution, which claimed all men were created equal. </p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"<span>Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."</span></p><p><span>But Foner has always found that to this day, especially in South, people insist on defending the nature of the Confederacy.</span></p><p><span>"You know I'm not accusing anyone here of anything," he said "There's not a single person here who owned a slave, it's not an affront. Just read what the secession convention said. If you want to honor your ancestors take their words seriously."</span></p><p>As one South Carolina secessionist<span>, Edmund Bryan, said in 1850 - perverting the words of Revolutionary War hero Patrick Henry - "Give me slavery or give me death." <br><br>He wasn't, as many have said of President Donald Trump, to be taken literally not seriously. He wasn't sending an errant tweet.<em> He was saying he'd rather die than give up his slaves.</em></br></br></span></p><h1>What a nation can do&#xa0;</h1><p>During our conversation, Foner asked me: when Trump is talking about saving history and culture, whose culture is it?<br><br>He answered his own question:&#xa0;"Not black people's."</br></br></p><p><span>And, he said, "When these Republicans say 'Oh I'm against bigotry" this is baloney these guys have been playing on bigotry in subtly for years."</span></p><p><span>Republicans have known who they were talking to since the days of Nixon and Goldwater. They were talking to people upset about equality of opportunity for non-whites.</span></p><p>&#xa0;<span>The only way to stop this is to call these symbols what they are - symbols of white dominance and black subjugation. In fact, they're more than that - they're about subjugating anyone who isn't white and Christian, they're about subjugating Jewish people, Muslims, and the new immigrants that have come to this country. They're about giving legitimacy to the white supremacists who claimed these symbols for their own.</span></p><p><span>There is no way to give these statues new meaning until we give them their <em>true</em> meaning. It's time to take them down and put them where they belong, in places where we can contextualize why they were erected, and why they will never be glorified again.</span></p><p class="tagline">This is an <keyword id="6356002" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="opinion">opinion</keyword> column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.</p><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-watch-solar-eclipse-without-special-glasses-tips-tricks-2017-8">Here's the best way to watch the solar eclipse if you don't have special glasses</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div></br></br></br></br>

Every Confederate statue must come down - not because of what they are, because of why they are

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 2015 New Year's resolution was to read an important book every two weeks and discuss it with the Facebook community.</p><p>For the past year, Zuckerberg's book club, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ayearofbooks">A Year of Books</a>, has focused on big ideas that influence global society and business. His 24th and final selection is Oxford physicist David Deutsch's 2011 book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143121359/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0143121359&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=M4GVVMR2HPEL34KO">The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World</a>."</p><p>In it, Deutsch takes a sprawling look at the progress of humanity following the pivotal Scientific Revolution, explaining his worldview that human potential is infinite.</p><p>"It's about everything: art, <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="science">science</keyword>, philosophy, history, politics, evil, death, the future, infinity, bugs, thumbs, what have you," Columbia University philosopher <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/books/review/the-beginning-of-infinity-by-david-deutsch-book-review.html?_r=0">David Albert writes for the New York Times</a>.</p><p>For nearly anyone else, such an ambitious project would result in a mess, <span>Albert says</span>. "But Deutsch ... is so smart, and so strange, and so creative, and so inexhaustibly curious, and so vividly intellectually alive, that it is a distinct privilege, notwithstanding everything, to spend time in his head."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10102562845394081&amp;set=a.529237706231.2034669.4&amp;type=3&amp;theater">explains on his personal Facebook page</a> why he chose "The Beginning of Infinity" to conclude his book club:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Reading has given me more perspective on a number of topics - from science to religion, from poverty to prosperity, from health to energy to social justice, from political philosophy to foreign policy, and from history to futuristic fiction.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">This challenge has been intellectually fulfilling, and I come away with a greater sense of hope and optimism that our society can make greater progress in all of these areas.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">It's fitting to end the year with "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch, about how the way we explain things unlocks greater possibilities.</p><p>And in case you wanted even more reading material, Zuckerberg noted in the comments section of his post that over his holiday break he's also making time for a pair of sci-fi novels, Liu Cixin's "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Forest-Cixin-Liu/dp/076537708X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1451316138&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+dark+forest">The Dark Forest</a>" and Ernest Cline's "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Armada-Novel-Ernest-Cline/dp/0804137250/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1451316054&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=ernest+cline+armada">Armada</a>."</p><p>When a Facebook user asked him if he had to pick his favorite from this year's list, he said that his list was too disparate to pick just one, but he highlighted the following as good places to start: Steven Pinker's "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/1491518243">The Better Angels of Our Nature</a>," Michelle Alexander's "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1595586431/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1451316432&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+new+jim+crow">The New Jim Crow</a>," Yuval Noah Harari's "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0062316095/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1451316449&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=sapiens">Sapiens</a>," Liu Cixin's "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1451316471&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+three+body+problem">The Three-Body Problem</a>," and Iain M. Banks' "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Player-Games-Culture-Iain-Banks/dp/0316005401/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1451316495&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+player+of+games">The Player of Games</a>."</p><h2>A Year of Books:</h2><ul><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465065694/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0465065694&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=BAOAHH6QEIYELGIN">The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being in Charge Isn'?t What It Used to Be</a>" by Moisés Naím</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143122010/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0143122010&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=ZAMR2VFXWUFQ67CH">The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined</a>" by Steven Pinker</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014311493X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=014311493X&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=YIPV4KKBS2IQYE72">Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets</a>" by Sudhir Venkatesh</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555976891/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1555976891&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=VV72DRLDFJDO4IZQ">On Immunity: An Inoculation</a>" by Eula Biss</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812993012/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0812993012&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=Y4R46PORYRQ6DB7N">Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration</a>" by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226458121/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0226458121&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=HMLGFTGHQS5ZPTBM">The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</a>" by Thomas S. Kuhn</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691114714/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0691114714&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=LMQOL65O5PDKN2JN">Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge</a>" by Michael Chwe</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455504211/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1455504211&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=OBZRCXGYLZP5VWAM">Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower</a>" by Henry M. Paulson</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0029153352/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0029153352&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=SLYUNFKV7K2OCRCW">Orwell's Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest</a>" by Peter Huber</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595586431/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1595586431&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=F53EKUXHPJ6WVFXM">The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness</a>" by Michelle Alexander</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691166285/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0691166285&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=EAYIRHQ6QCDU2CPR">The Muqaddimah</a>" by Ibn Khaldun</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062316095/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0062316095&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=SJMFNTVF6M35EW7J">Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind</a>" by Yuval Noah Harari</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316005401/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0316005401&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=QTTUGBH7RX3BL52R">The Player of Games</a>" by Iain M. Banks</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1851684522/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1851684522&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=2GLMTSQ2ZBLPOAE2" target="_blank">Energy: A Beginner's Guide</a>" by Vaclav Smil</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060894083/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0060894083&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=GCHFRNCS5DDMWCLF" target="_blank">Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters</a>" by Matt Ridley</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439297274/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1439297274&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=BH33J3CPEDXBCGSP" target="_blank">The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature</a>" by William James</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691148198/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0691148198&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=MRHUTCFSD4FKXVOJ" target="_blank">Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day</a>" by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlanda Ruthven</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307719227/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0307719227&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=5NLH4U3APH6FYPUG" target="_blank">Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty</a>" by Daren Acemoglu and James Robinson</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061452068/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0061452068&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=R2RP63TPGPKWOIBE" target="_blank">The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves</a>" by Matt Ridley</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765377063/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0765377063&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=YGXPBCZTCMMDLYJ5" target="_blank">The Three-Body Problem</a>" by Liu Cixin</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143122797/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0143122797&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=KI3HSLFRWKHUQDW6" target="_blank">The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation</a>" by Jon Gertner</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143127713/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0143127713&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=L4P6R6OZMZEBR3W2" target="_blank">World Order</a>" by Henry Kissinger</li><li>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143121359/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0143121359&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bizuckbooks-20&amp;linkId=A3T3SVQFSCDEL3GY">The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World</a>" by David Deutsch</li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/impact-mark-zuckerberg-carolyn-everson-facebook-philanthropy-internet-disease-charity-2015-12">Why Mark Zuckerberg will go down as 'one of the most important business leaders of our generation'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="kydmRmeTok-W9VO21Q6G8vNtRQiNH6IM" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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