Above, Djimon Hounsou reads excerpts from Binyavanga Wainana's article "How (not) to write about Africa," in which he exposes the cliches and stereotypes often propulgated by careless and thoughtless media.

Throughout the book, adopt a sotto voice, in conspiracy with the reader, and a sad I-expected-so-much tone. Establish early on that your liberalism is impeccable, and mention near the beginning how much you love Africa, how you fell in love with the place and can't live without her. Africa is the only continent you can love - take advantage of this. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset. Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed.

Photographer Duncan McNicholl has a project he titled "Perspectives of Poverty" in which he portrays his photo subjects in their best and worst attire and in their best and worst moments. Photographs are, after all, born liars, and it's a shame that Westerners too often only get to see rural Africans be depicted as broken and malnourished husks of persons in desperate need of whatever pennies you can spare.

I remember reading about this in one of Malcolm Gladwell's books, so it's at least couple years old, but scientists and economists (as if economists aren't scientists) have discovered that, when it comes to tasks that require a degree of creativity or ingenuity, money is a bad motivator. The more money you pay a person to do something creative, they worse result you get back. The best thing is to pay that creative person just enough so that it gets money off the table, and the creative person doesn't even have to think about money, and then you can motivate him or her by allowing them to master their skills, follow new ideas, do their own thing. This is where Google's "20% time" came from. And damn if it ain't spot on. That is, not to say, I wouldn't like more money, but more time to do what I want and get paid for it. That is far better, I think.

Guy, Sean Stiegemeier, took about 4 days of traveling to get to the erupting Iceland volcano. Amid four days of bad weather, managed to get a couple good days of time-lapse video using a motorized dolly. Very cool.