Street art

We made a fire and a braai on sunday to celebrate the coming spring, and while i busied myself with the cooking and enjoyed the company of our friends, i had a little girl sitting very quietly with her chalk on the paving. Humble beginnings, but i really do like her style, and really enjoy watching her be free and creative.

Shameless begging

Everybody else does it (sorta) so now it's my turn.

I've highlighted Theo Jansen's "Strandbeeste" on this blog before, and i watch the videos over and over, truly remarkable. And then i find this:

http://webshop.strandbeest.com/index.php?route=common/home

 

If there is ever another model that i build (i made many as a kid) i want it to be one of these. There is nothing else that would be even remotely as satisfying on my wall.

I look really good on my knees hey ;-)

Life is a question ...

Life is a question of nerves, and fibres, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams. You may fancy yourself safe and think yourself strong. But a chance tone of colour in a room or a morning sky, a particular perfume that you had once loved and that brings subtle memories with it, a line from a forgotten poem that you had come across again, a cadence from a piece of music that you had ceased to play… I tell you, that it is on things like these that our lives depend.
~
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Consciousness means living with a witness; unconsciousness means living without a witness. When you are walking on the road, you can walk consciously — that’s what Buddha says one should do — you are alert, deep down you are aware that you are walking; you are conscious of each movement. You are conscious of the birds singing in the trees, the early morning sun coming through the trees, the rays touching you, the warmth, the fresh air, the fragrance of newly opening flowers. A dog starts barking, a train passes by, you are breathing… you are watching everything. You are not excluding anything out of your alertness; you are taking everything in. The breath goes in, the breath goes out… you are watching everything that is happening.
 ~
Osho

Thank you nemebatocabe.tumblr

Eat these words slowly, and chew them well. Let the flavour linger and fill your hunger. Drink in deep the fresh dew mist in the air, and smell the sweetness of spring. Then time for a slow walk perhaps, alongside a river.

Biker RANT

I typed stuff and in a fit of sanity deleted it. Let me try again.

FUCK YOU think bike
FUCK YOU jmpd

And if you're some retarded car driver who thinks riding to work is a good idea and you should try it too, DON'T. Stay in your fucking car please.

My motivations were twofold,

1) to educate those who were ignorant
2) to do something before jmpd started trolling that stretch

Thanks hey. Ignorance wins again.

Life

Click on it so it's full page, leaves a really good feeling.

Death Self, 1977

Marina Abramovic and Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen)

This performance consisted of the two artists seated in front of each other, connected at the mouth. They took in each other’s breaths until all of their available oxygen had been used up. The performance lasted only 17 minutes, resulting in both artists collapsing unconscious to the floor, having filled their lungs with carbon dioxide. This personal piece explored the idea of an individual’s ability to absorb the life of another person, exchanging and destroying it.

Wikipedia

Welcome Mr Armstrong

No words needed

Flying bikes

Not as pretty as the Malloy Hoverbike, but fully functional, which is better !

www.livescience.com

The big problem is "rollover" which is a self evident problem, they claim to have made a simple advance which helps prevent that, simple in the sense of not overly electronic. This is great because it means that if it can work conceptually, any tech added on will only improve a good idea, and not replace it.

For the children

Maybe this is appropriate:

Peace and love

Weep

IOL


IOL


_____________________________________________

I can't breathe ... i can't feel ... can't even think about this.



i had quotes from the stories here, i had to delete it.

Lonmin

Why is the rape of rock and men easier to achieve than say, small scale farming?

Those miners don't need that 4000 rand per month. They need food, transport, shelter, education, and a means of production, by which they can fill up their days and provide extra for themselves and their families.

But it's actually easier to die for a salary than to live with your family.

Bowie cigarettes

*sigh* 

http://bowiescigarette.tumblr.com/

Ladybird books

When i received this last night, the first thing my mind came up with was the smell of ladybird books in the library at Timour Hall Primary, where i later became a library helper. That smell and the excitement inside when a new book was opened to explore ... always new stories, so many stories, i marveled even then.

Thank you K

Growing Gold

“Without weed, we would be starving,”

“If you grow corn or cabbages, the baboons steal them,”

“I put the seeds in the ground, watered them, and it grew,” she said of her first crop. “I was able to feed my children.”

“Weeds are very bad for weed,”

A good harvest can yield as much as 25 pounds of marijuana. But they sell to middlemen who come through the villages at harvest time, and have little bargaining power. Most make less than $400 per crop.

School fees for her two remaining grandchildren at home would be nearly $400 next school year, she said, and she had no other way to earn the money.

“The men come from South Africa to buy, but they cheat us,” Ms. Nkosi said. “What can we do? If you sit with it the police can come and arrest you.”

New York Times

Supercop needs help

A note from Andre Snyman, the founder of eblockwatch

Do you remember our Super Cop Stroppie Groblerlaar? The guy who helped look for Leigh Matthews, The guy who caught the person who murdered the girl from Britz, the guy who got into his own car and drove to Durban to find a missing child. The guy who made us build a house for an old lady in Soweto. Well now he needs us.

This guy Stroppie is the most amazing human being. In the ten years that I have known him, he has done so much to keep many South Africans safe. Take a look at our Facebook page see what I mean. Now he needs our help.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/groups/333412310083983/permalink/333847493373798/?notif_t=like

EBlockwatch members were shocked to learn of the misfortune of Super Cop Stroppie who lost his house and belongings in a fire recently. Several members have offered their assistance by donating items and money. We are still in need of help with the following and members who can assist must please advise us how they can assist.
_________________________________________________

Go see, maybe you know of a way to help.

It is estimated that it will take about six months for the house to be rebuild. Please advise us on ebwinformation@mweb.co.za should you be able to assist in any way.

Hesse-ism

“Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.” — Herman Hesse

Sea blue

TT

I had embedded the video, but it's playing automatically each time i refresh, which is annoying, i thing you'd agree. So please click the link, and enjoy something that really got my pulse racing.


Axis of Oversteer

The warmongers

Arb thoughts

The first thing i noticed this morning was the light, soft and pink and gentle. Joburg has a peculiar secret, it's light. You have days where the african sun glares at you with a million watts of pure heat, and other days where it seems almost invisible behind transluscent clouds ... and the light comes at you from all directions at once. I look out the window and there are no shadows ...

Typical winter morning, dry and cold and noisy, but i'm grateful for the rise in temperature over yesterday, which very, very cold. The air is still clear from the strong winds of the week, the smog hasn't had time to settle in yet, but the wind cleared out the dust that was bedevilling us all.

The traffic situation has gone from bad to worse, it's just in a natural decline, with the only funtioning part of the system the brave medics who pick up the pieces afterwards. I past 2 sets of metro pigs on the way to work, both sets produced horrendous results in the morning traffic. They messed up the highway for miles, by sitting at the offramp and creating a bottleneck, exactly at the worst possible place to create a bottleneck. The roadblock in rivonia was just another power trip, already reports of bribe seeking are coming in, and the traffic is just worse than ever, gridlock. It's too stupid for words, but nothing is done against the hundreds of people who are being murdered by public transport each month.

I've been thinking so deeply about this for so long, i'm astonished to have had a new insight. I know i know how the mind works, but it's the part about ruminating that we have trouble with. Waiting for your mind to tell you what it knows. So, i am of course patient in that respect, and then i realised: patience.

The lack of patience is the single biggest cause of accidents in South Africa. Since nobody has any intelligent data, i can't prove anything, but i'll say that over 95% of accidents are preceded by someone deciding to "not wait". Impatience is what is killing us, hurry up and get there before anyone else.

This attitude is countrywide, and deeply entrenched. It's worse in joburg of course, and is sadly a symptom only, it's a reaction, but one that is spiralling out of control. It's not speed, it's not always breaking a road rule, and it's not even bad driving, as such. But when you add any of the above to someone in a hurry, it becomes an accident ... like sex = babies. Not 100% of the time, just enough to make you careless, and of course when the baby arrives, everyone acts all surprised.

This is the message that must be used nationwide, and it will take print, radio, tv and billboards to achieve, but it it the only way to reduce the death tolls. Other things must happen too, jmpd must be fired, all of them, and an entirely new set of rules drafted for them, and entirely different modus operandi. But until we can do that, it's up to us. Government will do nothing except tax us, time for us to refuse them that too.

Accesories to murder

Shame on you Zuma and Mantashe

July 31 2012 at 04:23pm  By Max du Preez

...
But I would prefer to move away from allegations and newspaper reports and tell you about evidence accepted by a court of law that shows clearly how casually the ANC leadership treats corruption.
...
In December 2008 Motsi and Phakoe travelled to Nkandla, where they had an appointment with Zuma. They explained their dossier and pleaded for action.
A month or two later they took their evidence to a meeting in Potchefstroom with Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa and North West Premier Thandi Modise.
The two then handed their dossier to the minister then in charge of local government, Sicelo Shiceka, during a meeting in Rustenburg which mayor Wolmarans also attended.
According to court evidence, Phakoe looked at Wolmarans across the table and said to him: “Hurt me, but don’t kill me.” Phakoe afterwards told Motsi: “This might be my last day.”
Two days later the mayor’s bodyguard, Enoch Matshaba, shot Phakoe in his parked car at his Rustenburg home as he returned from putting up ANC election posters.
Phakoe died on the spot.
Motsi’s crusade led to his suspension as chairman of the MK Veterans Association – he abused his position, it was found.
Wolmarans was the obvious suspect in the case, but the officer in charge of the investigation accused Motsi of the murder.
Only last year when the Hawks raided crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli’s office did they find the dossier and charged Wolmarans and his bodyguard.
Two weeks ago, Judge Ronnie Hendricks found that Motsi was a truthful and reliable witness. He sentenced Wolmarans to 20 years and Matshaba to life in prison.
Shame on you, Jacob Zuma. Shame on you, Gwede Mantashe.

The internet

http://internet-map.net/

Hello. My name is Ruslan Enikeev. I am the author of The Internet map. This is my personal non-commercial project. It returns no money.

Many people want to see the Map and it leads to huge bills from the hosting company.

Please donate some money if you can. Without your help I will have to pay thousands of dollars and will have to close the Map.

You can do it now or later, after browsing the Map (click About, the button will be at the end of the text).