Via Science Daily
A study done by ICIPE (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology) Nairobi shows that Tilapia in ponds significantly controls malaria causing anopheles mosquitoes.
After 15 weeks the fish reduced both Anopheles gambiae s.l. and Anopheles funestus, the region’s primary malaria vectors, by over 94 percent. The fish also decimated three quarters of the culicine mosquito population.
The findings present a win-win situation for Kenyans, who can use the fish to limit mosquito populations and gain food and income from them too. “O. niloticus fish were so effective in reducing immature mosquito populations that there is likely to be a noticeable effect on the adult mosquito population in the area,” Howard says. This control method is apparently sustainable, as the fish breed and provide a continuous population.
Basically if you’ve got a pond put some Tilapia in there to eat the mosquitoes. Good news, though stagnant pools of water are still breeding grounds… still an interesting study and a great suggestion for controlling malaria.
Disclaimer: Temporary departure from my typical topics, just had to get this out.
will be back to the other semi serious stuff after this.
Cool
Comics at a bus stop.From Kenya no less!

From BBC: Humphrey Barasa has been drawing satirical cartoons at a bus stop along Jogoo Road for the past 6 years. I had never heard of him till today, i would love to see his work. Would be cool to give him a camera phone and have him post them to a blog if he doesn’t mind… Sort of like Accra Daily Photo blog.
Via Ethan Z: The Chess Drum A pan African Chess site.
Via Cirdan:
The decision flowchart.

Depending on your point of view, Camillo Villegas may be cool or uncool. For me, he belongs in the cool category just for this: [30 seconds]
Ninja Warrior on G4 channel. Hilarious, intriguing and just plain incredible tv!
Goodness gracious i finally watched Blades of Glory. If you enjoyed Zoolander, this movie is a must see.
“hey MacElroy, was that your routine or a performance of Cirque du so’lame?” - Chaz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell)
Uncool
According to a Helio ad insert in Wired mag ‘The mobile User’s Guide to Social Etiquette’.
- The “Cool” emoticon with the sunglasses, its the virtual equivalent of the fanny pack. - totally uncool.
Via boing boing: The flowchart of Gangsta rap

I have a love hate relationship with rap, including the song ‘party like a rockstar‘. If its a cross between crunk and rock, would that make it a crock? - 1:30 mark is a bit funny though.
WTH
Via African Path:
An amnesty provision passed by parliament, basically letting the looters of Kenya walk scott free, without even a demand for repatriation of the cash?
Blogs that suck all your content and masquerade it as theirs… very annoying. And bogus trackbacks to sites set up for ads. They typically do not have a contact form. Not nice.
| Monday, 10 September 2007 |
| By Bosco Hitimana KIGALI, RWANDA – The Kigali City Council is seeking investors to change the face of the city through modern housing schemes. If achieved, this is hoped to melt away slums and associated problems. About 75% of households in Kigali city live in unplanned plots, according to the Mayor of Kigali city Ms. Aisa Kirabo Kacyira. Addressing journalists at a press conference recently, Kacyira said due to a poor and disorganized housing system in the city, last year 31 people perished in incidents related to poorly built structures. Kigali city covers 730 square kilometres and accommodates 900,000 people. She said that some of the households in slums will be expropriated in favour of modern constructed houses, which will be developed according to the master plan of the city. “The slums will be developed into a modern housing system as proposed by the Kigali city master plan,” the mayor told the media. Kirabo, who is optimistic of transforming the nation's capital into an organized and healthy place to live, said Kigali city has partnered with the Social Security Fund of Rwanda (SSFR) and Rwanda Housing Bank (RHB) to construct 250 medium houses at Batsinda site in Kigali where some of the 250 selected and expropriated households will be re-located.
According to the Kigali City master plan, Batsinda houses will be given to 250 homes that have been part of the slums of Ubumwe cell in Muhima sector, Nyarugenge district in Kigali city. The remaining will be sold to other households with similar slum related housing problems. Ubumwe cell and the area around it in lower Kiyovu will be given to SSFR to develop into a modern residential area. It is expected that biogas plants will be established for the households and four house units will share one plant. Each plant is expected to yield 1,500 cubic litres of a gas per day. |

Ken Banks of Kiwanja.net is a mobile expert as it relates to the developing countries. He sends in a picture from his most recent trip to Uganda. 200 Ugandan Shillings per unit is equivalent to about $0.11.
Ken on the BodaPhone:
I met this phone operator off Kampala Road this afternoon, who was riding round on this bike. Luckily he was a fellow Liverpool supporter so we hit it off straight away – and he let me take a photo of his BodaPhone setup. Pretty neat, and with a spare battery to allow him to stay on the road longer. Uganda is really hotting up on the mobile front, with two new operators about to enter the market towards the end of the year.

Ken is quite active in this space and runs the very popular Social Mobile Group, found on both Facebook and on his site. He has also been interviewed in a story today on BBC that talks about the mobiles in Africa.
I just realized that Andrew Mwenda’s talk from TED Global has been made public. This was the talk that started all of the “aid vs trade” debates and the one that got some friendly heckling from Bono (look for it at the 6:27 mark).
Mwenda on wealth creation:
“Sending somebody to school and giving them medicines does not create wealth for them. Wealth is a function of income, and income comes from you finding a profitable trading opportunity or a well paying job.”
It would be safe to say that George Ayittey’s and Andrew Mwenda’s talks set a lot of the tone for the whole conference. More excellent coverage of this particular talk by Ethan Zuckerman.

Kenyans seem to have taken this phrase to heart and they are trying to get rich in the most unscrupulous ways. They are even taking it to neighboring countries. Like the recent shooting of 15 Kenyans in an attempted bank robbery in Moshi, Tanzania and the numerous robberies in Southern Sudan by Kenyans {Including the Ksh.100 million theft from KCB}. These has left me wondering are we all Kenyans a rotten society? Is there anybody who does clean business in Kenya and gets rich just doing that?