Nobel Prize winner Al Gore did an excellent job publicizing the dangers of climate change.

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The most modest recognition of a sitting justice is Columbia Law School's Ruth Bader Ginsburg Prize, which goes to students who got excellent grades in all three years of law school.

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The prize rewards projects and activities of individuals, institutions or non-governmental organisations for excellent models, best practice and the creative use of ICT to enhance learning, teaching and overall educational performance.

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He opens with an excellent thumbnail life of Alfred Nobel himself and a briskly critical history of the sometimes wayward administration of the prize.

ECONOMIST: Nobel prizes