--- --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: April 17 by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 17, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 17, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Your mobile phone — working with everybody else’s — might give you a headstart to brace for an earthquake.**](http://www.fastcoexist.com/3045050/smartphones-can-now-detect-earthquakes-and-give-you-time-to-run) By Jessica Leber in Fast Co.Exist **2\.** [**This is the beginning of the end for oil, gas and coal. The world is adding more new renewable energy than fossil fuel power.**](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-14/fossil-fuels-just-lost-the-race-against-renewables) By Tom Randall in Bloomberg Business **3\.** [**What makes the California drought so special? Not that much. Dozens of states are running out of water.**](http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2015/4/16/californias-drought-grabs-headlines-but-other-states-face-water-woes-too) By Elaine S. Povich at Pew Trusts **4\.** [**The future of war reporting might be data-sleuthing to see how Twitter took on ISIS.**](http://www.littleatoms.com/world/twitter-war-isis-propaganda) By Rohan Jayasekera in Little Atoms **5\.** [**What if you could give change to the homeless from your smartphone?**](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/16/us-google-usa-seattle-idUSKBN0N71BG20150416) By Eric M. Johnson at Reuters  [_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: April 17 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3826684/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-17/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3826684/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-17/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: April 17","datePublished":"2015-04-17T16:01:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:31.333Z","description":"How the GPS in your phone could be a seismograph, when renewables passed fossil fuels, non-California droughts, and more.","url":"https://time.com/3826684/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-17/","keywords":["Innovation","California","GPS","twitter","Donations","Water","Drought","ISIS","earthquakes","Renewable energy","Fossil fuels","homelessness"],"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/3826684/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-april-17/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: April 17"}}]}] ```