Interesting Reads - 3/24/11

There was a pretty interesting set of posts by two well known startup investors that speaks to the importance of the right team/execution vs the business idea:
HERE
And HERE

Another great quote from Matt Ridley mentioned on Kevin Kelly's blog: "If the world continues as it is, it will end in disaster for all humanity. If all transport depends on oil, and oil runs out, then transport will cease. If agriculture continues to depend on irrigation and aquifers are depleted, then starvation will ensue. But notice the conditional: if. The world will not continue as it is. That is the whole point of human progress, the whole message of cultural evolution."

A great point made by energy expert Robert Rapier, which is along the same lines as Ridley's belief that our society will adapt to cope with resource shortages (crude oil in particular): On Modes of Transport

Kotaku has a post about ranking the top 10 video games of all time. They started with the top 10 on GameRankings.com and then let developers add and remove games. Link is HERE but here's my top 10:
1 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2 Halo
3 Starcraft
4 Super Mario 64
5 Goldeneye
6 Donkey Kong 64
7 Mario Kart 64
8 GTA III
9 Mortal Kombat
10 Tie: Contra and Super Mario World

Honorable mention: Street Fighter, Mega Man X, Castlevania, Bioshock, Final Fantasy X, Madden, NBA Jam, Crystalis, Killer Instinct, Illusion of Gaia, F-Zero, Starfox, Battlefield 1942, all the other Zeldas, Sonic, Banjo-Kazooie, Ken Griffey baseball, Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, and many others I have long forgotten I'm sure!)

I've been following the progress of Khan Academy for awhile now and I think they are doing some really interesting things in education. This TED talk is a must see:

Salman Khan TED talk