--- title: Five Best Ideas of the Day: August 26 description: Health infrastructure & Ebola, elite schools failing to bring in poorer students, & battling social media propaganda w/ #ISISmediablackout. canonical: https://time.com/3181994/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-august-26/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-26T16:29:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:43:05.056Z article:section: Ideas og:title: These Are the Best Ideas of the Day og:description: Learn about: Partners In Health co-founder Paul Farmer’s thoughts on the Ebola epidemic, elite schools failing to bring in poorer students, how to fight against ISIS on social media, and more. og:url: https://time.com/3181994/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-august-26/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Are the Best Ideas of the Day twitter:description: Learn about: Partners In Health co-founder Paul Farmer’s thoughts on the Ebola epidemic, elite schools failing to bring in poorer students, how to fight against ISIS on social media, and more. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: August 26 by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 26, 2014 4:29 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 26, 2014 4:29 PM UTC **1\.** [**“This is a reflection of long-standing and growing inequalities of access to basic systems of healthcare delivery.” –Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer on the Ebola outbreak.**](http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/22/dr%5Fpaul%5Ffarmer%5Fon%5Fafrican%5Febola) By Democracy Now! **2\.** [**Despite commitments to the contrary, elite colleges are still failing to bring poorer students into the fold.**](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/education/despite-promises-little-progress-in-drawing-poor-to-elite-colleges.html?smid=tw-share) By Richard Pérez-Peña in the New York Times **3\.** [**#ISISMediaBlackout: Tuning out Islamist rhetoric and taking out their powerful propaganda weapon.**](http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/shut-up-isis) By Nancy Messieh at the Atlantic Council **4\.** [**What makes income inequality so pernicious? The shocking odds against moving up the income ladder for some Americans.**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2XFh%5FtD2RA&list=PLrI3Iy0dqgpQxTGty-LiMFTvVR3GCjzry) By Richard Reeves at the Brookings Institution **5\.** [**The specter of Iraq’s looming collapse is inflaming concerns about Afghanistan’s electoral crisis. But the two countries are very different.**](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-08-25/afghanistan-isn-t-iraq) By The Editors of Bloomberg View  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3181994/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-august-26/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3181994/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-august-26/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: August 26","datePublished":"2014-08-26T16:29:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:43:05.056Z","description":"Health infrastructure & Ebola, elite schools failing to bring in poorer students, & battling social media propaganda w/ #ISISmediablackout.","url":"https://time.com/3181994/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-august-26/","keywords":["Innovation","Afghanistan","College","Iraq","low-income","Media","activism","democracy","ebola","epidemic","rich","hashtag","blackout"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3181994/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-august-26/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: August 26"}}]}] ```