"I got bored of writing research papers for academic journals, " he says.

FORBES: On The Cover/Top Stories

Sir Michael said the secret to boosting children's reading and writing abilities - and their overall academic performance - lay in getting things right when they were young.

BBC: Education & Family

These are life skills, not just academic skills, and it is the quality of writing and thinking that separates employees with identical technical skill sets.

FORBES: Colleges Shouldn't Be Jittery About Students Who Are Twittery

One such policy suggests that colleges reform their academic employment policies by replacing tenure with one of a number of alternatives that would preserve the holy grail of higher education, academic freedom, which is necessary to prevent faculty from being arbitrarily dismissed for saying or writing things that administrators or influential outsiders consider wrong or offensive.

FORBES: Attacking Higher Ed Cost Inflation: Reform Academic Employment Policies

Mrs Jacobs, for all her academic-looking fringe and glasses, had no credentials save her high-school diploma, a vivid way of writing and a passion that twice got her arrested, once for incitement to riot, as she fought her victorious campaign to keep the Lower Midtown Expressway at bay.

ECONOMIST: Jane Jacobs