Dreamfoundry

http://www.dreamfoundry.co.za/

Dysfunkt

Cool website i found. Enjoy.

http://dysfunkt.com/

Cycling to Cape Town

Yesterday morning was an education for me. It started innocuously enough, a request to help mashall a charity cycle ride, somthing i'm always game for, as it's usually a nice ride and a great "vibe" for the day.

We were starting at about 8h30 in Jo'burg central for a guy who was about to cycle to Cape Town. Ray Chaplin is his name. Not only that, but it's an old fashioned bicycle too, no brakes, well, you push the pedals back ... only a single gear, and very strange hadle bars. The bike is called Johnny Loco.

Anyhow, a nice guy, quite a big bloke. And so you assume he's done training for this. Oh yes, he just finished walking from Cape Town .... to Beit Bridge!! So this is his way of getting home, RESPECT!!!

I'm really jealous,  spent a bit of time on the roads in my youth, and the wanderlust hit me hard! But good for him, his daily life involves moving, at his own pace, to his own destination. The Sign-Up safety campign was also new to me. Shaun who's heading it up i've met before. There is a huge gaping hole where safety applies to the roads in this country. And the cyclists especially are on the lowest rung when it comes to ability to bounce off anything else. 

The problem is, most weekend cyclists are office monkeys who are usually to be found in 4x4's, so the concept of humility is a bit foreign to them. While they're being killed weekly (another guy was found dead next to his bicycle in Boksburg this weekend, no driver found), the cyclists themselves see an entitlement to tarspace. While technically they are correct, they need to be referred to the bouncing rule (above). Paying road tax does not keep you safe around here. 

So i wish them all well, both the adventurer and the cycle safety drive. Certainly we need more of both, and i can honestly say it was a pleasure playing a small part in this.

EDIT: I see he's been mentioned on IOL.

Wikileaks breaking news

WIKILEAKS

Some of the new interest is related to a film exposing a U.S. massacre we will release at the U.S. National Press Club on April 5.

Our plans to release the video on April 5 proceed. 

We have asked relevant authorities in the Unites States and Iceland to explain. If these countries are to be treated as legitimate states, they need to start obeying the rule of law. Now. 

  —Julian Assange (editor@wikileaks.org)

Real Politic

News 24

What do the national prosecuting head, the ancyl head, and a failed tv star and race car driver have in common?

I got no fucking idea either. However, when you read the article posted, you see that indeed, there IS a connection. The story is along these lines:

One day before Jub Jub's bail application was set to begin, he received a visit in detention from Julius Malema, president of the ANC Youth League.

the orders of Menzi Simelane, head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
The orders were that he should not contest bail for the musician Jub Jub.

Lambrecht refused to execute the order unless he received it in writing, which he did not receive. Lambrecht didn't respond to Simelane's verbal order, and the State did oppose Jub Jub's bail application.

Maema gave Lambrecht a letter on Tuesday in which he was relieved of his managerial duties and told to work as a prosecutor in court. No reasons were given.
Lambrecht has been chief State prosecutor of the West Rand for the past ten years. The prosecutors of Krugersdorp, Soweto, Randfontein and Roodepoort, among others, fall under him.

When Maema was approached for comment, he said Lambrecht's "move" had nothing to do with the Jub Jub case.

Yes right. So the ancyl have the npa in their pocket. They are giving away immunity from responsibility to selected individuals ... no wonder julie is so fucking cocksure ... HE CAN BE!!

I could say much about the role of the YOUTH league, in encouraging children to go to school, in assuring children that justice shall be served. But no, even these dumb children in Soweto know better than to leave the justice system to itself. Hell, this bail gift was decided over nandos, apparently. All very legal of course, to take food to your friends in prison, unless you're just taking food to your wife, in which case it's against the rules. Personal experience, trust me.

So the new elite is very obvious. If you're just a poor kid who watched his friends get driven over, fuck you. If you're a bastion of legal strength who has done his duties admirably for over 10 years, fuck you. f you're a dumbfuck drug addict and child killer .. .then WELCOME, you're one of us.

Black and white people, take notes.

Walking With The Comrades

Gandhians with a Gun? Arundhati Roy plunges into the sea of Gondi people to find some answers...

I implore you all to read this. Not only a devastingly beautiful account, but also a very important statement, about news, politics, money and the earth.

The stories portrayed are tragic, bestial almost, yet the indomitable spirit of man shines through. And women, who for the first time are equals amongst their peers. 

These fearless fighters, who really have nothing to lose, lead the way with community, mutual assistance, and dancing. I get a sense ofhumanity at large here, where the corporate machines continue to turn over greased by the blood of poor people. And the poor people themselves, fighting what seems to be a hopeless fight, and doing rather well.

peace and love

ANCYL vs FREE PRESS

A call by Sipho Hlongwane for bloggers to join in the protest against the jackboot tactics the ANC Youth League are employing to try and destroy the freedom of the press.

I’m sure you’re aware by now of the slander campaign launched by the ANC Youth League’s spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu against journalists they perceive to be against the Youth League. This campaign is especially directed against City Press journalist Dumisani Lubisi. You’ll remember that he was instrumental in exposing Julius Malema’s interests in various companies.

The move taken by the ANCYL is disturbing, especially their response to the letter written by 19 of the country’s most influential political journalists, asking the ANC to distance itself from the actions of the Youth League and Floyd Shivambu, where they basically told these journalists to sod off. More than that, Shivambu then threatened the journalists who refused to run his slanderous story.

This is a definite step towards dictatorial rule. I for one, am not willing to sit idly by as people in our ruling party flagrantly infringe on media freedom and other Constitutional rights.

I’ve invited a number of South African bloggers to publish a message to the ANC and the Youth League on Wednesday, condemning the actions of Shivambu and calling on them to distance themselves from such practices. We also reminds the ANC of the vital role played by the the press in the liberation struggle.

Read the letter from journalists, and the ANCYL's amazingly mature response

Magpul Ronin

*drool* be still my beating heart. Such beauty, raw, passion, power ... i have goosebumps!!!

I WANT .. that simple really. It combines everything that IMHO is beautiful in motorcycles. Strength, neatness, simplicity in design. Ok, i'm rambling a little but by the gods LOOK AT IT.

Thanks to The Kneeslider

EDIT: for some reason the images didn't show. Fixing. Go see the article, lots more to it there :)

Reading list

It was a long weekend, much needed too. Just time to chill and be. Let my mind catch up to reality again, i think. So i have started reading again, still not sure where i'm getting time, and it cannot be when kids or pets are around. Yesterday sitting in the lounge, the bird came over and was nibling at my toes, you have a hard time concentrating while thats happening, you know?

But i've had some rather good books to keep me company, thought i'd share this year's so far.

This year started with a christmas present from my folks, i don't recall the title exactly, but a rehash of the pied piper story. A father and son author team, it's not really my cup of tea. I suppose i enjoyed the fantasy land for a bit, but on the whole it was dull, entireley predictable and utterly safe. I guess the kids can have it to enjoy soon.

Anyhow once i'd cleared that out, i moved on to what i really wanted to read: "Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest" by Gerard Degroot. He looks at the American Apollo missions and writes them off as a mistake, an egotiostical mistake of staggering proportions. I think the best line is along these lines: " The apollo missions were a $30 bilion happy pill for the american nation."(i think the number was 30). The book is obviously historical, and digs down deep into the fraud that is nasa. Curiously it dovetailed perfectly with another book i have, "Our ancestors came from outer space" by Maurice Chatelain. Now i re-read that last year, and in Dark Side he refrences the Chatelain book, adding that it's both highy valuable in terms of information, and very rare. It's not only necessary to know the history, it's also important to understand the motivations.Sadly, these insider views show clearly what a "front" nasa really is. A PR spin machine designed to trick people. As incredible as landing on the moon may be, so far our exploits have mostly been hollow, as the goals were not fro the greater good, but more personal, highly specific, short term goals. 

The next book was "Both Sides of the Moon", by Alan Duff. A story of a Maori/white half caste boy, growing up between "civilisation" and the brutality of the Maori past. A very brutal read, base, primitive and violent. It was almost hard reading it was so graphic. However, huge insight into ancient and forgotten times and places. The author is very good at conveying emotion, and the book itself is very compelling. I have the video of "Once Were Warriors" by the same author, violence is also a mark of this story i believe, but highly regarded nevertheless. Huge insight into human behaviour, and also pleasing  to see ourselves, the white invaders, from a native perspective, not as inherently evil, just more powerful. 

What i've just started again, i've read it before, twice, is "The Magician Within" by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette. The book is really very powerful. Exploring Jungian concepts, archetypes and balance within the male phsyche, it really is hard to keep up with. What makes it easier is of course the obvious reality of the observations presented. In chapter 1 already the profound statement is made: "initiation is but the removal of the ego as the centre of the universe". Following through you understand how all initiations place the individual child ego aside in relation to a greater good, be it church, tribe or club. There is much i still don't understand in life, but certain insights do help you marshall your own thoughts, especially in the noted lack of "elders" in today's society. One thing that is certainly absent from yesteryear's world is simplicity. And while we are more complex than before, the same underlying rules apply. Our complexity often gets in the way of seeing things for the simple concepts that they are. And hence cannot begin to solve what we cannot understand, causing stress, and fustration.

The other item that i'm very intrigued with from the book is the concept of sacred space (and time) and how to navigate these in real life. It's a long way from Carlos Castenada to here and now, but surely even i can figure it out, if the universe rubs my nose in the truth for a bit. Well, we can hope.

Last but certainly not least, is the Bible. Not something you read for fun, as such. But worth reading most definitely. I'm in John at the moment, i'd forgotten how much of that book i'd memorised for primary school SCA. Certainly compelling, reading the life and times of Jesus is hard, almost. Each story gives just the basic facts, very little else, just enough to get a single idea across, nice and clear. 

Anika Smit

Lotto BILLIONS

Lotto charity unspent

The National Lottery Board has admitted that it is sitting on R6 billion meant for NGOs and charities across the country.

The admission was made in the Cape High Court on Wednesday during an application lodged by two local NGOs after their funding requests had been turned down by the board's distributing agencies.

6 fucking billion rand, meant for poor, elderly, disabled people. And it's just sitting there, in the bank, making interest. Yes, you fucking moronic stupid boneheaded lotto buying wankers, they're buying your dreams with the INTEREST of what they SHOULD give away. Let me be excruciatingly clear on this: They are not only making a lot of money, the interest alone on 6bill is enough to drive a small economy. They are making millions and millions every single fucking day. That is the cream, that is not the "profit" calculated on "business models", which i can assure is lucrative to begin with.

And everybody i know buys a lotto ticket, because we all know that working honestly in this country does not work. You'll never drive a nice car, have a nice house, or a decent meal unless you win the lotto. 

But for flying fuck sakes, each and every single person who buys a lotto ticket participates in this crime against our fellow humans, making the dogs at the top even richer that the highly publicised lotto winners, and the poor people of this country even more destitute.

This high court application only came about because they are not giving any away, under any circumstances. Especially not to those who need it.

They're coming ...

SA a magnet for trafficking - UN

Since when? Human trafficking that is. 

South Africa's "open, cosmopolitan" society was being used to facilitate human trafficking ... Johan Kruger said.

"I'm absolutely convinced that it is a real problem with South Africa." ... UNODC international law enforcement advisor Patrik Engstrom concurred ...

"In the whole of the SADC region there has not been a single conviction for human trafficking," Lucas told reporters.

The lack of information had also affected how the scale of the problem was perceived in South Africa.

Engstrom said his office had recently launched a 36-month project to improve human trafficking detection at borders and international airports.

So there isn't any evidence to suggest a problem, but on a hunch, let's just watch REALLY CLOSELY and i'm sure we'll find what we're looking for. At AIRPORTS for fuck sakes. Newsflash: if there is any human traffiking going, it's all the fucking children crossing the border illegally anyway. At border posts or not! You can speak to a mr robert mcbride who is currently the supended east rand metro thuginchief who was was guilty of accepting bribes to allow people over the Mozambican border post. Yes, they come into the country to act as child labour and prostitutes. but this whole news article and UNODC thing is bizarre in the extreme. 

windows

I sit and stare through the window. Lace curtains breathing slowly .... cigarette smoke curling up lazily. I stare at the massive tree standing so tall and strong. I stare at the wall, facebrick patterns and colours swirling and playing. I stare at the litter of the yard, cars, toys, broken trampoline. 

*suck*    *blow*

Stare at the glass, the faint marks left by the rains. Close eyes. Cigarette burns fingers ... drop in ashtray. 

Stare out the glass ... the world ... the wind, clouds. Water. Feel the air caress. Deep breath. Close eyes. Watch the leaves swish in the breeze. Hear the gentle rattle ... 

Reach out mindlessly. Tobacco rizla pinch spread roll lick tidy light.

*suck*    *blow*

Stare out the window.

The world rolls by ... it does. You know it's happening, on the other side of that wall. The rushing of traffic. The wind blowing people from one side of the land to the other. The same wind that fils your lungs, the same wind that your curtains are breathing. The same wind blows the cars along, as they happily make wind too.

I look through the window, and i'm glad i'm inside. Too horrible to go outside. It sucks there. Stuff happens. Breaks. Falls. Decays. Gets lost .... somewhere .... out there.

I was gonna .... do something ... i'm sure. There was that thing .... um ... garage ... ... tools ... fix ... oh yes, i need to buy that. Never mind. 

At work now. Stare at laptop screen. Stare. Glazed eyes hungrily searching for clues. Clues. What to do, what to see, what to think, what to think about. Bad stuff. All over. So many things. He killed. They dead. She screams. All over. 

Close window. Open another, prettier. Fantasy reaches in and blinds ones sensibilities.Breathe. 

Can't think about that ... other ... thing. That soul rending story on the news. It hurts. Look away quick. It Hurts.

My box. I'm in it. And i like it here. I look out the window. But everyone knows you're safe indoors from lightning, aren't you? Or will you blink and it's worse again? 

Still, deathly still i look up ... and around. Move ... speak, smile, nod. Animated me. 

Reading matter

Ok, i hit the motherlode, sort of.

The Free Info Society has many documents on their server for download, most in pdf format, which is great for everything except printing.

From classics to electronics and woodwork, many of the books that you should read, that actually make a positive contribution to your life.

You can find the media directory here, like a real libruary, only without that silence :)

Oh look, Attack Helicopter Operations ....  ooooooooooooooooooooo

peace!!

They will find you

A short quote from a news report. Mercenary who had been in iraq, shot ex wife and killed her friend.

The police tracked him down 24 hours later - by means of his cellphone signals - at a guesthouse in Rocky's Drift outside White River. 

Now we'll all celebrate the arrest of this particular dog, pity we can't put it down.

This was an armed and trained soldier on the run. They can and will find you! 24 hours, anywhere in SA. 

Blood Falls

Roughly 2 million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of "primordial ooze."

Getting close

Durban Deep is less than 10km from my house. 

Paramedics too scared to serve in Durban Deep

On Friday night, two women paramedics from Hodgson Street station in Roodepoort responded to a desperate call from a mother who said her two-year-old son had been burnt. The incident happened in Durban Deep, a mishmash of informal housing and low-cost flats, with near impassable roads.

The ambulance was driven to a pick-up point along Main Reef Road, where residents are often asked to bring patients.

The two paramedics were met by the woman, her injured toddler and two men. The boy needed to be hospitalised, so the mother went home to fetch a jersey for him. 

"While they (paramedics) were busy with the child in the ambulance, three armed men appeared from the bushes, threatened the two men and told them to run away, otherwise they would shoot them. 

"The two men ran down the road and the suspects took the women into the bushes," Senior Superintendent Noxolo Kweza said.

"They raped one woman and attempted to rape the other one," she added.

The two men, who were forced to flee, alerted police and accompanied them to the scene of the incident, helping them to search the bushes. Disturbed by the police presence, the three armed men fled while attempting to rape the second paramedic.

Breathe

Breathe, breathe in the air
Don't be afraid to care
Leave but don't leave me
Look around and chose your own ground
For long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be
Run, run rabbit run
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down, it's time to dig another one
For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race toward an early grave.

Pink Floyd

8 Metre high wave

So with all the fuss about possible tsunamis in the Pacific ocean, i found this report just a little bizarre. 

An eight-metre high wave smashed into a cruise ship carrying nearly 2,000 people in the Mediterranean, smashing glass windshields and killing two passengers, according to officials.

From The Times.

But the French newspaper Le Figaro and Spanish news reports said the accident happened off Capo de Begur, off the coast of Spain about 80 miles northeast of Barcelona.

This just does not make sense. If there was an 8 metre high wave IN the Mediterranean Sea, surely there would have been a lot more news/sightings/damage/etc?

8 metres high is about 3 stories up, high enough to obliterate almost any seaside village nearby?

Phobos flyby

I wasn't aware of this, but today there will be a flyby of Mars' moon Phobos by the Mars Express craft. This will get as close as 67km above the surface, and radio tracking will allow them to virtually peer inside the strange moon.

Phobos has long believed to be both a new addition to our solar system, and an oddity in itself. Its irregular shape and orbit have been subject of much speculation. 

You can follow the flyby in realtime on the blog they have created here.

R.I.P. Belinda du Plessis

Last night a special light was snuffed out. Belinda was shot dead in her home by her husband peter, who then turned the gun on himself. In front of Belinda's 2 youngest children.

Belinda was my wife's best friend, and was much loved by our family. 

So much to say, so little can be said. Such a stupid stupid waste, and tragedy. They'd only been married 3 years, both had kids from previous marriages, some already grown up. Shannon is the youngest, my daughters friend too. Her father died a few years ago, i'm not sure how. She will need all the love that this world can share with her. Her brother Donovan apparently wrestled with peter over the gun, he too will have scars for life.

This whole tagedy has played out over the last few weeks, with the revelation that peter had been fucking around, lying, and just not being what he professed to be. The fight i believe was over a car, hers, that he wanted to take with. My wife had spent much time recently, just being a friend. I guess i'm relieved that she wasn't there at the time, something that was quite likely.

Jody-fae love auntiy Belinda so much, i bumped into her at the spar a few weeks back, and this little girl just run and jumped to embrace Belinda in the parking lot. I'm not really grieving as such, i knew peter, and we'd had quite a few long conversations, but i wouldn't say we were friends, just aquaintences. The other thing of course is that this all happened within a church community, where people were there, just helping where they could, providing support and so on. Men and women who are trained in various aspects of councelling, as was peter. We  knew that things had turned sour, but nothing suggested this.

Belinda was a soft soul, a good mother and friend, who will be terribly missed by those who knew and loved her. 

Death has been close these last few weeks. And the part that hurts the most is that both Belinda and Lance were so deeply loved by my little girl. Both brought out huge smiles and massive tight hugs from Jody, who truly deeply loved the people that they were. I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that i can't even tell her. She'll never really know, i wonder if she'll remember them. We will.

I am hesitant to read anything deeper into these apparently seperate events, both quite different, but i implore you, LOVE, goddamit LOVE today with everything you have. 

UPDATE: 

The funerals will be held this Friday at the Church of the Nazarene Horison in Mouton street, Roodepoort. Peter's funeral will be at 9am, with Belinda's at 12.

Please contact me if you need directions or further info.

Gotcha!!

News 24

Transport officials will look into reports that several newly-built bridges and roads in Limpopo have been washed away ..

The City Press newspaper reported on Sunday that several multi-million rand bridges and roads in Limpopo, built by SGL Engineering Projects in which Malema has the majority shareholding, had been washed away within weeks of their completion.

City Press visited several SGL projects in the past week.

"At Kgapane Township, about 120km east of Polokwane, only a portion of one of the two bridges constructed last year [is] still in place," the newspaper reported.

"A bridge built at the township’s Meloding Section is effectively a hill of soil covered with pavement. It has no concrete layers.

"Residents said heavy rains in January swept it away just a few weeks after it was finished."
__________________________________________________

Yes, THIS is where is stops being fun and games, and becomes a fuck you to the communities he keeps trying to identify with. And ther will be no stupid denials or finger pointing, he is 70% shareholder, and this is going to be taken further.

Your sins will find you out.

Older than the Pyramids

From Newsweek. Standing on the hill at dawn, overseeing a team of 40 Kurdish diggers, the German-born archeologist waves a hand over his discovery here, a revolution in the story of human origins. Schmidt has uncovered a vast and beautiful temple complex, a structure so ancient that it may be the very first thing human beings ever built. The site isn't just old, it redefines old: the temple was built 11,500 years ago—a staggering 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid, and more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge first took shape. The ruins are so early that they predate villages, pottery, domesticated animals, and even agriculture—the first embers of civilization. In fact, Schmidt thinks the temple itself, built after the end of the last Ice Age by hunter-gatherers, became that ember—the spark that launched mankind toward farming, urban life, and all that followed.

Göbekli Tepe—the name in Turkish for "potbelly hill"—lays art and religion squarely at the start of that journey. After a dozen years of patient work, Schmidt has uncovered what he thinks is definitive proof that a huge ceremonial site flourished here, a "Rome of the Ice Age," as he puts it, where hunter-gatherers met to build a complex religious community. Across the hill, he has found carved and polished circles of stone, with terrazzo flooring and double benches. All the circles feature massive T-shaped pillars that evoke the monoliths of Easter Island.

_______________________________________________________

This is an awesome find, one wonders how it escaped notice until now. I love that stone though, carved with a lizard on the front. It has to mean SOMETHING.

But an old story comes to mind, where strange new archeological digs will redefine our understandings of ancient times. Which is good. The problem is, i think, that "they" will be using those to plant certain bits of evidence, which then make us as a whole believe, untruths.

Either way, an insight into days gone by, when hunter gatherers needs to meet, compare inventions and stories, and probably get drunk.