Arresting Development

Dear Friends (of Friends),

A few weeks ago I decided to end Morning Links on its two-year anniversary, and that day is today. While compiling ML is still enjoyable, I’ve come to believe the effort I put into them is taking away from my creative energy to do something more, uh, remunerative. There’s also the slightly bizarre fact ML has been America-based for 70 percent of its existence, meaning I’m close to being The New Times’ top international reader. That’s an honor I’m happy to relinquish.

The good news is that I still plan to spend an inordinate amount of time each day reading and sharing internet content. You can follow me on Twitter or on Google Reader, from which much of ML came in the first place. I am on but have yet to use Google+; nonetheless some of you are already in a Rwanda circle and that may become a way I share more Rwanda-specific stuff, so feel free to add me. All of this and more can be found at my personal site as well.

I’ve also bumped up all of the podcasts to the front page for your easier listening pleasure.
It’s been fun putting these together for the past two years; just below you’ll find the last edition compiled just as the others have been, with any profundity being entirely coincidental.

Enjoy,

Jeff

• If these shadows remain unaltered, the Rwandan population will double by 2035…and the boy will die. (New Times)
• Elise Mukamuganga implies that she was heretofore unqualified for her job. (New Times)
• Home businesses being shut down for not changing to suit KCC. (New Times)
• Bill Easterly mentions Rwanda’s coffee success at the beginning of this video; he told me via Twitter the coffee entrepreneur he speaks of is Gilbert Gatali. (Policy Innovations)
• Who did people commonly use as the worst person in history before Hitler? (Slate)
• The bacon pickle. (Unbound Pickle)
• Facebook has more users now than the internet did in 2004. (Royal Pingdom)

And finally, Russia, land of the free:

• The prosecution of Ingabire does not rest. (New Times)
• Exports are up–hurrah! (New Times)
• Hurrah as well, for a new coffee roasting plant, and, as per the last sentence, commas. (New Times)
• This article required about as much effort as the typical expat puts into umuganda. (Guardian)
• Celebrities aren’t afraid to say the ‘F’ word: FFFFFAAAAMINE! (YouTube)
• I like the French version better on account of me not understanding French. (Le YouTube)
• Competitive vegetable growing. (Smithsonian)
• Five reasons why it’s OK to like the American South. (Smoking Jacket)

And finally, the pixel down effect:

• Jeanette Kagame opens a conference where kids get beat up I guess. (New Times)
• Several dollars of the One Dollar Campaign are still outstanding. (New Times)
• Motodrivers are practical in their opposition to sanitary headgear, while the chairman of the mototaxi cooperative waxes philosophical. (New Times)
• The same company who owns Tusker also owns Johnnie Walker, and would prefer more Africans drink the latter. (Economist)
• A lesson for three-year-olds from 1818. (Boing Boing)
• A lesson from chemists on how to hide Nobel Prizes from Nazis. (NPR)

And finally, flavor profiles:

• The continued debate on decriminalizing abortion. (New Times)
• Using Excel to learn about rain. (New Times)
• Some government buildings are insured, some ain’t. (New Times)
• Watch a slightly unattractive woman be transformed into a less attractive one. (NYT)
• The most lifelike dead animals anywhere. Period. (YouTube)
• The history of violence is perhaps not what you think. (Edge)

And finally, why not?

• Packs of vicious hounds nightly roam the Rwamagana streets. (New Times)
• RIM is mum on when it plans to allow full-featured Blackberry service through MTN. (New Times)
• “I have always compared coffee to engine oil.” (New Times)
• Did Kagame really outlaw being barefoot? (WaPo)
• “Hence it’s the only library in the U.S. with no books, the only opera house in the U.S. with no stage, and the only library in Canada with no entrance.” (Futility Closet)
• The Korean ‘paparazzi’ fights crime. (NYT)
• The six habits of highly annoying speakers. (Cracked)

And finally, the spectacle:

• If you ask me, I say RDB should start a campaign called “Tourism: it Begins with Expats.” (New Times)
• Ingabire trial delayed after defense claims the charges are both outside the court’s jurisdiction and are based on laws that didn’t exist when the crimes were committed-snap! (New Times)
• If I were still in Kigali–yeah I’d go here. (New Times)
• Athletes have coaches; why not surgeons? (New Yorker)
• So maybe junk food isn’t cheaper than healthy food…dammit. (NYT)
• How the refrigerator got its hum. (Through the Looking Glass)

• Highway vendors like where they are, deadly cars be damned. (New Times)
• If you read the first two sentences in this article, you’ve also read two paragraphs and 122 words. (New Times)
• Facts about teen sex, parental responsibility, and comas. (New Times)
• The female orgasm as described by a twelfth-century nun. (Mind Hacks)
• Vladimir Putin, a man who is no doubt familiar with the above. (Atlantic)
• Facts about black porn. (Good Men Project)

And finally, other computer-based movie viewing:

• E-ticketing for some ‘upcountry buses.’ (New Times)
• Bad roads one example of a non-tariff barrier. (New Times)
• “Kingston who performed favourites like 911, Me Love, Face Drop, Dirty Love, Beautiful Girls and Shorty I Could Take You There, did not quite meet the expectations of his fans.” (Rwanda Focus)
• The bad opinion generator. (Week)
• The average font. (Moritz Resl)
• The six most horrifying lies the food industry is feeding you. (Cracked)

And finally, a new take on the plate:

• Young people are thought leaders even right now, says Kagame to the UN. (New Times)
• Bralirwa sees a 40 percent surge in year over year quarterly earnings. (New Times)
• The Rwandan Housing Authority wants 90 percent of the urban population in apartment; no word yet if Ikea plans on opening a Kigali branch any time soon. (New Times)
• Life in a small town. (New Yorker)
• Subtle Butt, the gas neutralizer. (The Frisky)
• A Tumblr. (The Art of Google Books)

And finally, change change change: