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That’s the Big Idea

3 minute read

Great ideas originate in the muscles, Thomas Edison said, and you could argue that they function much the same way, springing history forward. TIME has always placed its faith in the power of good ideas to sharpen debate, drive change, make news. And sometimes, of course, just to entertain.

When we started our search for some of the most intriguing ideas of 2014, we reached out to the guys who came up with D’Jasper Probincrux III, the name of a fictional college football player from Key & Peele. “Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele mix the cerebral and the gut-punchingly funny on a regular basis on their brilliant and boundary-pushing show,” says Ryan Sager, editorial director of TIME Ideas, who conceived and edited the package. “All the better, then, when the idea they offered up was to take everything less seriously–but in a thoughtful way.”

Throughout this issue, that’s what we aimed to do. Yves Béhar gives us serious health help wrapped in touchable, matchable, wearable tiles. Internet scholar danah boyd offers a useful corrective to parental worrying when it comes to children’s digital diets. Chef Dan Barber shows us how to use the whole buffalo (so long as that buffalo is a parsnip) in his argument for a new, more environmentally sustainable cuisine. Trevor Cox sends us on an aural vacation that will make us see–and hear–our world more clearly. And Navid Khonsari offers a glimpse of a future in which we could play history like a video game.

Tweet us your own ideas with the hashtag #TIMEIdeas.

Nancy Gibbs, MANAGING EDITOR

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

In “The Top of America” (March 17), we misstated Dan Tishman’s title at Tishman Construction. He is chairman. In “Red-Hot Town” (March 17), we misidentified the driving force behind what would become Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. It was Phil Bredesen. In “What Putin Wants” (March 17), we incorrectly credited the photograph of Vladimir Putin. It was taken by Mikhail Klimentyev–Itar-Tass/Zuma Press.

CLIP AND SAVE

Ed Terris of Sherwood Forest, Calif., was one of many readers moved by our March 17 panoramic cover photograph from atop One World Trade Center (“One of the most beautiful and inspiring images I have ever seen”), but he was frustrated that his address label partly obscured it. So at the suggestion of Walt Andariese of Berlin, N.J., we’re reprinting that covered patch to scale, above. Just cut it out, paste it over your address label and enjoy. The full glossy print is for sale at shop.gigapan.com.

BEHIND THE STORY

For our feature on the 1989 game that helped save the NCAA basketball tournament (page 50), TIME partnered with Sports Illustrated to interview the legends who took part in it and to obtain archival media (including this image of future NBA star Alonzo Mourning). For the full multimedia version, including footage of the game, visit si.com/longform.

NOW ON TIME.COM

Which city takes the most selfies per capita? That’s the question TIME’s Chris Wilson set out to answer by analyzing more than 40,000 geographically tagged Instagram photos that were marked with #selfie. We’ve highlighted a few results below. To see the full interactive map, go to time.com/selfies.

[The following text appears within a map. Please see your hard copy for actual map.]

1 MAKATI CITY AND PASIG, THE PHILIPPINES

258

2

MANHATTAN

202

3

MIAMI

155

4

ANAHEIM AND SANTA ANA, CALIF.

147

5

PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA

141

6

TEL AVIV

139

selfie takers per 100,000 people

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