--- title: Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 15 description: Decentralizing humanitarian work, tackling taboos in India, a better measure of economic competitiveness, and selling drugs on the Dark Web. canonical: https://time.com/3378593/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-15/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-15T16:05:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:43:03.651Z article:section: Ideas og:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas og:description: Learn about: A safer drug market on the Dark Web, America's competitiveness in manufacturing, fixing humanitarian reform, tackling taboos in India, and more. og:url: https://time.com/3378593/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-15/ 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 Today's Best Ideas twitter:description: Learn about: A safer drug market on the Dark Web, America's competitiveness in manufacturing, fixing humanitarian reform, tackling taboos in India, and more. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 15 > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Sep 15, 2014 4:05 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Sep 15, 2014 4:05 PM UTC **1\.** [**Relief organizations today are dangerously politicized and risk irrelevancy. To survive, they must evolve into decentralized networks for sharing knowledge, aid, and true humanity.**](http://aeon.co/magazine/society/can-humanitarian-agencies-reinvent-themselves-in-a-network-age/) By Paul Currion in Aeon **2\.** [**There is more to measuring economic strength than jobs. For manufacturing, America is one of the most cost-competitive countries in the industrial world.**](https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/lean%5Fmanufacturing%5Fglobalization%5Fshifting%5Feconomics%5Fglobal%5Fmanufacturing/) By Harold L. Sirkin, Michael Zinser, and Justin Rose in BCG Perspectives **3\.** [**Could a secret online marketplace for illegal drugs provide a safer alternative to our modern drug war?**](http://www.substance.com/does-dark-web-drug-dealing-make-the-world-a-better-place/11447/) By Colin Moore in Substance **4\.** [**Marketing to so-called “influencers” is a waste of advertising dollars.**](http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/09/3-reasons-to-kill-influencer-marketing/) By Greg Satell in Harvard Business Review **5\.** [**Technology vs. Tradition:** **_Menstrupedia_** **tackles taboos in India to improve women’s health and lives.**](http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/09/09/menstrupedia-destroying-taboos-and-improving-health-india) By Priti Salian in TakePart  [_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/3378593/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-15/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3378593/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-15/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 15","datePublished":"2014-09-15T16:05:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:43:03.651Z","description":"Decentralizing humanitarian work, tackling taboos in India, a better measure of economic competitiveness, and selling drugs on the Dark Web.","url":"https://time.com/3378593/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-15/","keywords":["Innovation","Economics","Internet","Drugs","India","marketing","Human Rights","Global","development","International","Manufacturing","humanitarian"],"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/3378593/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-15/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 15"}}]}] ```