1. Education, ISIS, Syria, Northern Iraq

“With no established camps for them to move into, more than 130,000 people took up residence in 650 schools in this Kurdish province in northern Iraq, carving out homes in the offices and classrooms of the buildings while posing a problem for the government this academic year.”

This puts American education reform into perspective.

2. Were we happier in the stone age?

“If happiness really is determined by our biochemical system, then further economic growth, social reforms and political revolutions will not make our world a much happier place. The only way dramatically to raise global happiness levels is by psychiatric drugs, genetic engineering and other direct manipulations of our biochemical infrastructure.”

This puts how you’re feeling today into perspective.

3. Sam Harris on consciousness 

“The same is true about the conventional sense of self — the feeling of being a subject inside your head, a locus of consciousness behind your eyes, a thinker in addition to the flow of thoughts. This form of subjectivity does not survive scrutiny.”

This may put your existence into perspective.