it is a very proposed by an author named matt ridley. we will hear more from him, but now gulf shores, alabama. caller: i had to start laughing when i heard this. sounds like typical scientific poppycock mindset combined with absolute euro-centric thinking. i cannot know if your listeners have traveled. you mentioned africa. a quick aside. the suffering we see. traveling much outside the slums of rio, born as ours, squatter communities of manila in the philippines, certainly africa, as you mentioned. it is so euro-centered to say that things are improving for people for a tiny fraction of the wealthy that the united states represents a large portion of. perhaps things from a material standpoint are improving but from a spiritual standpoint, things are tragically wars around the world. now, i can go material with the author. suicide,ploding, exploding, particularly in the west, the collapse of families, genocide, rates of abortion by any measure a failure if anyone has to have abortion, whether you are for it or against it, it is a failur

>> sreenivasan: you can ask questions of matt ridley and watch paul challenge ridley's optimism in a web only video. that's on our making sense page. we look at health problems posed by the pakistan floods. see a slideshow narrated by a unicef official who describes efforts to combat the spread of disease and read more about today's report on the size of an undersea oil plume and find all of our coverage both on-air and online about the gulf disaster. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> lehrer: and again, to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the iraq and afghanistan conflicts. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are eight more. >> brown: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm jeffrey brown. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and michael gerson, among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology,

also there, author matt ridley responded to your emails about why he thinks we should be optimistic about the future. our coverage of the 5th anniversary of hurricane katrina includes a slideshow of images of new orleans 9th ward today and a blog post by betty ann bowser about the levees. on "patchwork nation," we check the economic hardship index for communities around the country. and on "art beat," find out how minnesota artists are taking a business cue from small farmers and selling their work locally. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff? >> lehrer: and again, to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the iraq and afghanistan conflicts. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are 12 more. >> brown: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm jeffrey brown. and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks, among others. thank you and good night. jor funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: anthe william and flora hewlet