Push back the desert!

Here's some hope for humanity right here. In this TED talk, Dr Allen Savory explains his ideas on reversing desertification, learnt in the African bushveld.

While his views have not gone unchallenged, (not least by Ralph Maughan here) they do make sense at first blush. Savory maintains that far from exhausting a land's nutrients, intensive livestock farming actually helps to preserve the moisture and nutrients in the soil until the next rainy season.

"I won a lottery..."

Fashion model Cameron Russell's fascinating TED talk on the power of image, the role of race in perceptions of beauty and the advantages and disadvantages of being deemed attractive.

Also, is it worth becoming a model?

Ms Russell has a degree in politics and economics from Columbia University. She has appeared in American, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Japanese Vogue and in campaigns for Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Armani, Oscar de la Renta and Yves St Laurent.