Ibrahim Index ~ Econ on African Governance

The Economist spotlights the Ibrahim Index of African governance...

The Fastest Billion ~ Robertson on Africa's Boom

Thanks to Emeka Okafor at Africa Unchained for spotting The Fastest Billion co-author Charles Robertson at TEDGlobal...

Saturn & Apollo ~ All Launches & Lunar Landings!

Robert Sorokanich at Gizmodo spots all 13 Saturn V rocket launches! And here's all six Apollo Lunar landings too!

Adventure Is Calling ~ America's Great Spaces!

Thanks to Alex Santoso at Neatorama for spotting Adventure Is Calling timelapse vista by Shane Black & crew with view of a dozen of America's great National Parks!

Lost Rivers ~ Rediscovering Urban Waterways!

Thanks to Jason King at LandscapeUrbanism for spotting the trailer for Lost Rivers documentary by Caroline Bâcle and Katarina Soukup...

"Once upon a time, in almost every city, many rivers flowed. Why did they disappear? How? And could we see them again? This documentary tries to find answers by meeting visionary urban thinkers, activists and artists from around the world."

Petite Ceinture ~ Wild Little Belt Rail in Paris!

Nice BBC Stop/Start story by Neil Meads with French photographer Thomas Jorion on The wild abandoned railway in the centre of Paris...

"For 32km (almost 20 miles) the tracks of Petite Ceinture snake through bustling Paris, isolated and largely unseen from street level in deep trenches, long tunnels, and bridges. Nature has reclaimed the space and it has become a haven for wild flowers and animals. The line is officially off-limits to the public, but this hasn't stopped many people attempting to explore it. There is now a fierce debate in the French capital about what to do with the tracks and stations of the Petite Ceinture that still remain."

Edge-On Galaxy ~ NASA APOD Spots NGC 891!

NASA APOD spots Edge-On Galaxy NGC 891!

Cyanide Slaughter ~ 300 Zim Elephants Poisoned

Peta Thornycroft and Aislinn Laing of The Telegraph share the horrific news of ecocide in Zimbabwe where poachers have slaughtered over 300 elephants and hundreds of collateral animals by deploying cyanide salt-licks and poisoning watering holes as well...

"The full extent of the devastation wreaked in Hwange, the country's largest national park, has been revealed by legitimate hunters who discovered what conservationists say is the worst single massacre in southern Africa for 25 years. Pictures taken by the hunters, which have been obtained exclusively by The Telegraph, reveal horrific scenes. Parts of the national park, whose more accessible areas are visited by thousands of tourists each year, can be seen from the air to be littered with the deflated corpses of elephants, often with their young calves dead beside them, as well as those of other animals."

P.S. Thanks to George Dvorsky at io9 for spotting this.

Chicago Timelapse ~ Wilson's Windy City Nights!

Thanks to Kuriositas for spotting Max Wilson's lovely Chicago timelapse Windy City Nights!

Rio Timelapse ~ Stunningly Dynamic Cityscape!

Excellent spot by AL of Rio de Janeiro timelapse by Scientifantastic...

Dog Days ~ Frank Docu on Street Food Venturing!

Thanks to food freedom advocate Baylen Linnekin at Reason.com for spotting frank documentary Dog Days on DC street food venturing...

"If you want to see the challenges small food entrepreneurs face on a daily basis -- with long hours of hard work as their only guarantee -- then you’ll love Dog Days. [The Directors say...] we began shooting when there were only a few food trucks on the scene, and we loved Coite’s idea of bringing new food to the streets, but working with existing vendors. We also felt like there was a largely untold story there about an immigrant population of vendors that have been selling food on the streets of DC for over 20 years. [...] We wanted to capture the immigrant story in the film because it’s a community that can easily be overlooked in the course of day-to-day life."

Wiring the City ~ Energy Flows in Hong Kong

Thanks to SankeyDiagrams for spotting Simon Scarr's infographic on Wiring the City illustrating flows of energy in Hong Kong...

Ant Architects ~ Aluminum Casts of Colonies...

ScienceDump spots aluminum cast of underground ant colonies...

Sproot ~ Good Food for Boston's Preschoolers!

Excellent to see MIT Sloan Fellows alumnae Katherine Shamraj and Nicola Dimond ramping up their Sproot.co which delivers tasty nutritious meals to preschoolers in Boston area. Full transparency on ingredients, reusable containers, chock full of goodness! Check out example of their Bento-box package...

Plus follow their saga via blog.

Tactical Urbanism ~ Improving Cities Quickly...

MIT alumna Mariko Davidson will be speaking at Tactical Urbanism Salon at Boston District Hall at end of this week around themes of how to improve places quickly. See Tactical Urbanism Vol 2 guide...

Timelapse Rebuild ~ Engine Takeapart Anime!

Abbas Raza at 3qd spots timelapse engine rebuild!

Remember Sagan ~ Cosmic Inspiration & Ideas!

Just a few nuggets in memory of Carl Sagan... And here's the ultimate tribute -- the 'illions supercut!

Sagrada Família Completa ~ Gaudí Envisioned!

WebUrbanist spots 3D Animation Completes Famous Basilica...

Cycling Groningen ~ Hembrow Spots Streetfilm!

David Hembrow shares his latest View From The Cycle Path by spotting (and being featured in) the new Streetfilm on Groningen: The World's Cycling City. Hembrow notes especially that...

"Groningen was a leader in redesigning itself as a "cycling city" but all other Dutch cities followed similar policies. To achieve the same success as the Dutch have it is necessary to copy from the best examples and don't do anything just because it's "Dutch". It won't work to just try to pick one aspect of what makes cycling work in the Netherlands. The comprehensive network of routes which allow cycling journeys to be direct and subjectively safe requires everything that has been done here."

P.S. As a bonus, David Hembrow just shared another Streetfilm from the Cycling Groningen creator Clarence Eckerson Jr, this time showing elements of Hembrow's cycling study tour and nice details about new real estate developments in Assen, Netherlands...

Country of Cities ~ Chakrabarti's Urban Manifesto

Thanks to UrbanCincy's Randy Simes for spotting Vishaan Chakrabarti's A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America!

“The suburbs are largely a creation of “big government,” an explicitly, policy-driven, subsidized scheme that has guided how we live, work, and play,” Chakrabarti explains. “One of the fundamental premises of the book is not whether people should live in the suburbs or not; I believe in free choice. The question is whether they should be paid to do it.”

Hafu ~ Docu on Being Mixed-Heritage in Japan

Thanks to JT's Kaori Shoji for spotting the Hafu documentary...

"Mixed-race people are no longer that rare, and Japan has become more open about the whole thing. But have things really improved? Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi’s documentary “Hafu” takes the bull by the horns and the results are intriguing. [...] Thoughtful and kindhearted, “Hafu” is never an indictment of Japanese mores and society. But you sense the subjects wishing, in some corner of their minds, that they were a little less 'different'..."

Burke's World ~ BBC Predicting the Long Future...

BBC again asks James Burke for his future thoughts...

WWII Every Day ~ Chronomap of Euro Theatre...

MissC spots EmperorTigerstar's World War II in Europe: Every Day...

Dr Noize Kicks ~ McBoof & Kids @ Symphony!

Yes, the irreverent and ever-creative Doctor Noize is Kickstarting with Phineas McBoof Crashes The Symphony!

"By taking a few minutes to contribute your dollars and spread the word, you'll help produce a fun-filled, star-studded Doctor Noize album of Phineas McBoof Crashes The Symphony that will inspire kids to stretch their minds and explore the adventurous world of classical music -- developing sophisticated critical thinking in the next generation."

GoodGuide ~ UL's Pocket Purchasing Powertool!

GoodGuide's founder Professor Dara O'Rourke summarizes essential benefits of their "pocket PhD" powertool for assessing health, environmental and social performance of products and companies... My colleague Leo Bonanni spotlighted them in our Future Craft class tonight.

CcHUB Vision ~ Bosun Tijani on CNN in Lagos...

CcHUB founder Bosun Tijani interviewed by Errol Barnett of CNN on co-creation and innovation in Nigeria...