Bamako: The Court

"Some men sit outside the compound of a family house in the Malian village of Bamako. An ancient bullhorn-style speaker is draped over the wall by its wires, so people outside can listen to the trial within.A witness says that, difficult as they are, the problems the people are facing can be overcome. They just need to organize themselves. One of the men outside then saunters over and disconnects the speaker's wires so he can drink his tea in peace.

"This trial," he says to the fellow next to him, "is becoming annoying."

The moment comes well over halfway through "Bamako" ("The Court"), written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako. It's a self-conscious gesture, the aesthetic equivalent of having the rock star Bono stop during one of his mid-concert sermons to apologize for "bugging" his audience with the politics of African debt relief, or what have you."

[The Daily Star: Sissako's 'Bamako' gives in to the rage]

Jesse James Days

Watch the video

Every year, the residents of Northfield Minnesota get together and celebrate the defeat of Jesse James. There is a bike race, parade, carnival, and robbery re-enactment. This years festivies took place on September 6-10, 2006. This video shows the re-enactment and carnival. The re-enactment scene was put together for the Northfield Historical Society as part of a video to highlight events that took place last year to celebrate Northfield's sesquicentennial. The carnival shots are from Friday evening.

Mats for Matriculation

This photo from MSNBC shows "parents of freshman [asleep] on mats laid out on the floor of a gymnazium on a university campus in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Monday, Sept. 4th. The university set out about 300 mats for parents accompanying freshman on their first day of school, local media reported."

The Fat Belly

"Chris Anderson in his book, The Long Tail (read Chris’ book), divides the power law distribution curve into only two segments… the hit-driven head (Big Head) and, obviously, the long tail. What’s missing is actually the most important part… the section in the middle of the curve The Fat Belly. It has implications for social networks, and other communities...." (GigaOM)

Free 'Wiki' Textbooks for Developing Nations

"A US-based initiative plans to make new textbooks available for free on the Internet for university students in developing nations. If the Global Text Project's first book -- due in January 2007 -- is a success, the project aims to produce 999 more titles covering biology, physics, mathematics and chemistry..."

From All Africa dot com Africa: Free 'Wiki' Textbooks Planned for Developing Nations