Five Best Ideas of the Day: April 3

1. With sanctions lifted, is Iran on its way to becoming a Shiite counterweight to Saudi Arabia?

By Bobby Ghosh in Quartz

2. The al-Shabab attack on a college in Kenya is part of a dangerous terrorist trend of targeting schools in Africa.

By David A. Graham in the Atlantic

3. Finally, big data we can use: Precision traffic modeling lets cities program stoplights to reduce delays and carbon emissions.

By David L. Chandler in MIT News

4. You are the first line of defense against identity theft, and you’re doing a terrible job.

By Stewart Rogers in Venture Beat

5. Coding the next generation of mobile apps means planning for self-driving cars and much more.

By Peter Wayner in InfoWorld

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C.