--- --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: March 23 by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 23, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 23, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Modern American life — from smartphones to cars and even missiles — depends on rare earth elements. But we’ve let China take over the industry.**](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rare-earth-elements-china-monopoly-60-minutes-lesley-stahl/) By Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes **2\.** [**Men in New York own 2.5 times as many businesses as women. A new program aims to innovate against that gap.**](http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/nyc-is-asking-women-to-upend-the-entrepreneurship-gender-gap) By Alexis Stephens in Next City **3\.** [**In 2014, global violence surged, drawing a sharp contrast between the developed world and everywhere else.**](http://projects21.com/2015/03/23/breaking-a-decades-long-trend-the-world-gets-more-violent/) By Peter Apps in the Project for the Study of the 21st Century **4\.** [**Tunisia’s response to a terrorist attack provides a hopeful model.**](http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2015/0322/Remodeling-the-Muslim-response-to-terror-attacks) By the editorial board of the Christian Science Monitor **5\.** [**Want to change how you see the world? Rewire your brain by learning a second language.**](http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2015/03/speaking-second-language-may-change-how-you-see-world) By Nicholas Weiler in Science Magazine  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ Five Best Ideas of the Day: March 23 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3753718/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-23/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3753718/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-23/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: March 23","datePublished":"2015-03-23T16:01:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:56.478Z","description":"How China took over the world's supply of rare earth elements, how New York is closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship, and more.","url":"https://time.com/3753718/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-23/","keywords":["Innovation","Tunisia","Brain","violence","China","Terrorism","gender gap","entrepreneurship","Boko Haram"],"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/3753718/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-march-23/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: March 23"}}]}] ```