--- title: Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 9 description: 1. A humanitarian intervention for Aleppo could provide a glimmer of hope in Syria. By Ana Palacio in Project Syndicate 2. The U.S. needs a... canonical: https://time.com/3700481/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-9/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-09T17:01:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:46.842Z article:section: Ideas og:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas og:description: A small start in Syria, one way to reform U.S. intelligence gathering, why an African Union fight against Boko Haram is a mistake, and more og:url: https://time.com/3700481/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-9/ 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: A small start in Syria, one way to reform U.S. intelligence gathering, why an African Union fight against Boko Haram is a mistake, and more twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 9 by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 9, 2015 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 9, 2015 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**A humanitarian intervention for Aleppo could provide a glimmer of hope in Syria.**](http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/de-mistura-syria-aleppo-first-by-ana-palacio-2015-02) By Ana Palacio in Project Syndicate **2\.** [**The U.S. needs a new Church Committee to strengthen oversight of our intelligence services.**](https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/us-needs-new-church-committee) By Michael German at the Brennan Center for Justice **3\.** [**A regional force is the wrong approach to fight Boko Haram — and might make things worse.**](http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/2/african-union-forces-may-exacerbate-boko-haram-threat.html) By Hilary Matfess in Al Jazeera America **4\.** [**The mystery of autism might be unlocked by studying the microorganisms in children’s stomachs.**](http://momentumblog.bcm.edu/2015/02/06/a-gut-feeling-unlocking-the-mysteries-of-autism/) By Ruth Ann Luna at the Baylor College of Medicine **5\.** [**Test for HIV and syphilis with an iPhone.**](http://magazine.good.is/articles/phone-device-tests-for-hiv-syphilis) By Tasbeeh Herwees in Good  [_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/3700481/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-9/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3700481/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-9/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 9","datePublished":"2015-02-09T17:01:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:05:46.842Z","description":"1. A humanitarian intervention for Aleppo could provide a glimmer of hope in Syria. By Ana Palacio in Project Syndicate 2. The U.S. needs a...","url":"https://time.com/3700481/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-9/","keywords":["Innovation","Autism","Syria","iPhone","HIV","Niger","Nigeria","Boko Haram","Cameroon","Aleppo","microbiome"],"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/3700481/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-9/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 9"}}]}] ```