Are you a bread baking blogger who wants to make the world a better place? Sign on up for Breadline Africa's Blogger Bakeoff, a year-long campaign (October 15, 2008-October 15, 2009) to raise 1 million dollars for Breadline Africa's projects by, "baking bread and giving dough." 

There is nothing as infuriating as dangerous public policy made on circular logic. The latest example of irrational policies coming out of the Bush administration is the decision to withhold condoms, birth control pills, and other contraceptives paid for by the United States from Marie Stopes International, a British non-governmental organization that operates family planning and reproductive health clinics in impoverished nations.

Ory Okolloh blogs at KenyaPundit, and also is a co-founder of political sites Ushahidi and Mzalendo. I heard her speak this morning at Global Voices Citizen Media summit on her blogging experiences. Throughout the Kenyan elections and the political violence there, she updated her blog very actively, sometimes every hour. Her blog became the center of controversy.

I am only weeks out from a life-changing trip to Rwanda. This is a country where 5% of the population is on the grid for electricity. A place where the gift of ball point pens are received like deposits of pure gold. I tried to explain everywhere I went that I am an artist, but this word received little to no recognition. Even toting my books via motorbike over vast kilometers of dark red dirt and hot bright sun, the real attraction was the words on the page, not my illustrations.