--- description: NASA emails a wrench to space, tech firms tackle post-secondary education, using tweets to understand mental illness and more. title: These Are Today's Best Ideas image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Innovation](/tag/innovation/) ## Innovation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Five Best Ideas of the Day: December 22 by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 22, 2014 5:01 PM CUT by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 22, 2014 5:01 PM CUT **1\.** [**To meet the growing need for marketable skills in college, technology companies are launching metric-driven accelerated learning programs.**](http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/16/a-wave-crests-silicon-valley-postsecondary-education-and-a-half-trillion-dollars/ "undefined") By Shawn Drost in TechCrunch **2\.** [**NASA just e-mailed a wrench to the International Space Station.**](https://medium.com/backchannel/how-we-email-hardware-to-space-7d46eed00c98 "undefined") By Mike Chen in Medium **3\.** [**By analyzing Twitter content, researchers are gaining a better understanding of mental illness trends.**](http://hub.jhu.edu/2014/12/09/twitter-mental-illness-tracking "undefined") By Phil Sneiderman at Johns Hopkins University **4\.** [**Law schools are struggling to teach students how to deal with rape, and survivors of sexual assault could suffer.**](http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trouble-teaching-rape-law "undefined") By Jeannie Suk in the New Yorker **5\.** [**As USAID is employed around the world to address political crises, the agency’s true mission might lose focus.**](http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/12/12/how-usaid-s-growing-relevance-could-destroy-it/hwoc "undefined") By Nathaniel Myers at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ "undefined") _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3643956/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-22/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3643956/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-22/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: December 22","datePublished":"2014-12-22T17:01:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:32.692Z","description":"NASA emails a wrench to space, tech firms tackle post-secondary education, using tweets to understand mental illness and more.","url":"https://time.com/3643956/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-22/","keywords":["Innovation","Rape","NASA","Education","Technology","twitter","war","crisis","Mental Illness","3D printing","iss","USAID"],"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/3643956/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-22/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: December 22"}}]}] ```