this & that returns

• Ryan Briggs made a really cool map of NYT coverage of African countries in the last three decades. Not surprisingly, there seems to be a very clear preference for English-speaking countries and place with nasty wars.
• The day I have this cheating student is the day I break down and cry.
• The Atlantic looks at Zuma.
• Via Africa is a Country, a piece on Congo's empty lakes. The reporter is painfully overdramatic, but she gets the story told. And it's one that needs to be heard.
  
• The pressure is on the UN to stop the planned MONUC/FARDC Kimia II offensive in South Kivu - or at least to ensure that civilians are protected in the process. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and predict that the offensive will rout out a few rebels, lead to massive human suffering, and do little to resolve any of the region's problems. Just a guess.
  
• Grant at Mo'dernity, Mo'Problems proposes a unique metric by which to measure governance.
• Oh, I hope my flight won't be like this. Please, please don't let my flight be like this. (HT: Chris Blattman)
• In a tiny bit of good news, the swine flu is not in Kinshasa. Yet.
• Here's a BBC article that's basically on the topic of our pirate paper.
• Via @bloodandmilk, this is even worse than the Belgian clowns.
• People BET on the spelling bee? I just get emotionally involved. And admittedly amused that "caliche" was a word that killed some poor kid's dreams of spelling bee glory. Apparently America's best young spellers don't hail from West Texas.