stray bullets

Five Steps to Sustainable Governance in Africa Paul Collier, a professor of economics at Oxford University and the author of The Bottom Billion, discusses policy options for helping the poorest countries in Africa.

Tons of Scrap Metal Removed from Chernobyl Zone Daily New reports indicate that up to 100 tons of scrap metal are removed from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone every day. Approximately half this amount is legally removed by the government, but the other half is smuggled out to the rest of the world.

Brazil's pigeon drug mules Brazilian prison authorities have discovered carrier pigeons being used to deliver drugs and mobile phones to inmates. (via)

also: How To Survive Without Air-Conditioning; 9 Extraordinary Human Abilities; Dogs Acting Human (temptation from the fluffy side)

Lagniappe: PostPanic + Postman Returns (watch, cool visuals, booming sound) (via)

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. - Hanlon's Razor (not to be confused with Heinlein's corollary to Murphy's Law - Things will go wrong, even if they can't. Murphy was an optimist.*)

*see