The Africa Cup of Nations got off to an awful start last week when Togo had to withdraw from the tournament after their bus was ambushed near Cabinda, in northern Angola. But two days later, Africa’s biggest soccer tournament kicked off to a packed stadium in Luanda. Angola took on Mali in the opening match. Twelve minutes before the final whistle, celebrations were fully underway in bars and homes across Angola as the home team was comfortably in command, 4-0. What happened next defied wholly expectations. Mali managed to score four goals in 11 minutes to end the game in a draw. Angolans were still in a daze the following day, as no one turned up to see Malawi’s crushing disappoint over World Cup qualifier Algeria. The Flames surprised everyone by beating Algeria 3-0 in an empty stadium.

More drama to follow as Burkina Faso managed a draw against the Ivory Coast, who are favorites to win the tournament with their superstar, Drogba, at the helm. Gabon continued to upset the balance and confounded everyone by beating Cameroon.

By the the latter part of the week nevertheless, everything seemed to calm down and the pecking order was restored.

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This week belonged to the geek.

First up was Scouting NY’s blog post on that 1980s classic Ghostbusters and to what degree New York has changed – a shot-by-shot comparison. Yes, we all miss the nuclear accelerators, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and the unforgettable theme song. You’re humming it right now, aren’t you?

Bookworms united at the start of the week – debating over the world’s best bookshop. New York City’s Strand Bookstore is a favourite, but the bibliophiles are still slugging it out.

Word nerds perked up this week at the mention of the annual New Yorker Festival. Hurry: a few tickets are however available!

Do you take your mobile phone on holiday? Tech geeks offered a compelling argument with a view to bringing along the mobile this week in the Thorn Tree Forum.

Norwegians can be proud: the UN considers them to have the best quality of life on the planet. Not all of you were so sure, since many of the top 10 countries are known as being having cold climates (Canada, Iceland, Sweden). Talk then turned to life in cold countries and why exactly people choose it.

As for me, I’ll pass on the parka.

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The “Blog of the Week” will be a new feature on the site. Every week I’ll highlight a blog that I like. Of course the common theme will be Africa. This week I came across AfriGadget. It’s a blog about “Solving everyday problems with African solutions”. Truly fascinating stuff.

I’ve learned about a solar paneled vest that is being marketed to boda-bodas. These are cyclists in East Africa, who transport people from border post to border post, traversing no-man’s land. There are estimated to be more than a million boda-bodas. The cyclists spend at least 12 hours in the sun, pedaling for many of them, and wearing this vest enables them to keep their cell phones charged. They can even charge their client’s cell phone and make a little extra money. The vest can also produce sufficiency governor to keep an emergency light going in their home.

Other AfriGadget blog entries for September include a re-used plastic bottle to stop a calf from feeding in Kenya – in that place’s a horrid drought right now in East Africa, so this is extremely helpful. There are bird feeders made from plastic bottles, bellows made from connect bags.

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