1. I thought this Ross Douthat piece on Charlie Hebdo was terrific
2. What we learn about infrastructure investment from the history of African railroads
3. Morten Jerven makes some great points on the IMF-and-Ebola debate, and I comment
4. I just learned that some kind soul (with apparently a lot of time on their hands) made me a Wikipedia page. (No it wasn’t me, though I confess I could not resist editing it a little.) Since the hive mind should probably be doing this, and not me, I encourage my favorite hive people (you) to do your damage. You may be relieved to know that it is flagged for “possibly not a notable academic”, so I’ll enjoy the page while it lasts…
5. I’m guessing that Finnish people have a different opinion of America that you expected:

Our ambassador to Finland seems like… an interesting dude. RT @PeterAlexander: Our man in Finland, Amb. Bruce Oreck pic.twitter.com/j3hFYxo3mj

— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) January 8, 2015