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).

A hand

My right hand has written many poems that I compose and my left hand has not written any poems. None the less, my right hand doesn't think, left hand you are useless. My right hand doesn't have any superiority complex and because of this is very happy.My left hand doesn't have any inferiority complex. That being so, in my hands exist a type of wisdom otherwise known as non discriminatory wisdom. I remember one day I was hammering a nail and my right hand was not very steady and instead of hitting the nail I hit a finger. My right hand let go of the hammer to help the left hand. It did this very tenderly, as if it was looking after itself. However it did not say “ You know what left hand, me the right hand has looked after you and you must not forget that”. Not only that you have to return me the favour in the future. My hands don't think like that and my left hand does not think “ right hand you have hurt me, give me the hammer I want justice”. Because both hands are aware that they are united and the same.

Spoken by Thich Nhat Hahn

Wealth

www.guardian.co.uk

In total, 10 million individuals around the world hold assets offshore, according to Henry's analysis; but almost half of the minimum estimate of $21tn – $9.8tn – is owned by just 92,000 people. And that does not include the non-financial assets – art, yachts, mansions in Kensington – that many of the world's movers and shakers like to use as homes for their immense riches.

In many cases, , the total worth of these assets far exceeds the value of the overseas debts of the countries they came from.

The surveys that are used to compile the Gini coefficient "simply don't touch the super-rich," he says. "You don't pick up the multimillionaires and billionaires, and even if you do, you can't pick it up properly."

In fact, some experts believe the amount of assets being held offshore is so large that accounting for it fully would radically alter the balance of financial power between countries.

___________________________________________

No comment really, but this news is certainly going to shake up a lot of "establishment" ideas. Wealth doesn't trickle down, the lie we've been told and believed for years. It escapes into someone's back pocket.

Celestial light - Amazing Blondel

Verse 1

Sparkling dew soaks the dawn grass,

Announcing the nightime's decay

Morning larks on the lawns massed

Signify a new born day

Welcomed rays that the sun casts.

Gleam brighter in every single way.

Chorus:

Now from the dismal gloom

Of nights incarcerate tomb

Shines your celestial light

Heavenly, sacred sight,

Shine on celestial light

A year's full cycle

Are dead and gone long ago

Lambs are playing Sherwood's arraying

Her leafy splendour for to show

Verse 2

You're as fresh as the daybreak

As radiant as the early morning sun

All the weathering of the years make

Your splendour a sight second to none

And mortals from their sleep will wake

To view you for a thousand years on.

Chorus

Middle 8

Cathedral's spark set light to dark

I have to thank Zeegrooves for this summary and video:

The band consisted of John Gladwin, Eddie Baird, and Terry Wincott. Wincott is the individual playing the unique wind instruments. He starts with a tenor recorder, moves to a crumhorn, and finishes off with what appears to be a bass recorder.

Arctic ready

The single most brilliant campaign i've ever seen, very well done to Greenpeace.

http://arcticready.com/

Steinbeck on success

"It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. " - John Steinbeck

My yacht

Paddling Home is a 4’x’4’x 4’ minimal dwelling loaded with Hong Kong style architectural details such as pink tiling, protruded bay window, exposed sewage pipes and air conditioning, stainless steel gate, local deities (earth god), etc. It is sitting on top of 4 blue barrels as floatation system often seen from local fish farms.


Really go see the other pictures, all very fun :)
I love it, perfect for the Vaal!
But look in this pic, at the boat behind it .... o_O

Mandela day?

Fuck that. If one more moron comes up to me with the stupid smile and gushing lies about one of the many hideous men history has known, i will punch them in the face ... for mandela day of course.
He planted a bomb in a train station, and preferred to sit in prison rather than renounce violence. He then sold out to the st johns cabal and was richly rewarded for his efforts. I still cannot grasp what he has done to warrant such subservience? Forgiven "us"? Don't be stupid, he neither forgave nor needed to. You don't have to forgive your captives.
I've posted images before on this blog of thabo and nelson and frederick and a few others all in their pretty little dresses. You know the black one with white crosses and all that other esoteric crap thrown in for measure? South Africa was worked over solidly, again by britain. Traitors in the ranks keep undermining the boere, and sadly the bantu don't even care about values, raw power and luxury for them please.
Funny, old mango was actually a man of principal, and couldn't  be bought. Cost him the presidency and all the glory and power that followed.
If nelson is so cool why has he NEVER spoken out against anything done in the name of the anc, even when they fragrantly disregarded any of his so called values? He has no values, an empty eggshell painted pretty, and every single retard in the world loves him.
My hatred for the phenomenon has only increased over time, mostly  because; it's obviously a psyop , everybody i know fell for it, and everybody i know is still controlled by it. Yes controlled, like a pavlovian dog that drools at the sound of a bell, south africans have a similar control loss when nelson's name is mentioned.
It is such a phenomenal mindfuck that 18 years of torture and plunder and rape of the country still produces starry eyed wonder at the architects. It's such a clear example of how messed up our thinking is, not only messed, but opposing, and to me clear evidence of external factors influencing our collective unconscious.  That we have nothing but "love" for this man who led the decay that now leaves matrics unable to read or count, and our hospitals as death traps, and our country in ruins. Thanks madiba for your wonderful leadership of criminals and fakes, and for letting them do whatever they pleased. Not really a good father to his "kids", more like an absent businessman. Always buying great presents, but never there.
Now, forget 67 minutes you lazy fucks, go out there put in a little bit more effort than that ok? There's real problems out there thanks to this egg.


EDIT: Yeah this is one of my issues ok? But then i read this statement here:
"Nelson Mandela, on the other hand, spent 27 years in jail for our freedom –"
Written by none other than Jay Naidooo. All very sweet and all that, but no he fucking didn't. He spent 27 years in prison for planting a bomb in a train station. There's a vast fucking difference between "our freedom" and "our safety", and if you don't know the difference you're a fucking retard. Why i get so angry is this isn't a small lie, it's a massive inter-generation wives tale that completely dismisses the real history of the "struggle". The struggle was NOT won militarily, nor single handedly, NOR even by the bloody anc. It was won partly by the personal decisions of many millions of people, as well as a confidence trick half way through. The ONLY reason the anc was selected was because they were considered trustworthy to the international community. And you only have to view our voting record at the UN to understand that the money poured into the anc has been a very good investment.

We must do away with ...

Brilliance in society is born directly from leasure time. How much do you have?

Mechanomotor

VroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooM!!!

That's my little boy's handiwork :D
I'll take better pics tonight if i can, light is awful for this one, but i had to share :D

In case you were wondering

This is why we're so cold :)

Give SAWDOS a visit for the latest and bestest weather related information. Also on twitter as: @SAWDOS1

Credit to News24 for some pics too.

A week

I realised i hadn't posted anything this week ... at all. Guess my mind has been in neutral to some degree, but so much going at the moment, i'm just focusing on keeping everything in perspective. Too many things i can't do anything about, and those i can do something about seem ... unduly difficult. But we're used to that of course.
Bikes bikes bikes bikes bikes ... is about all i actually want to think about, and about the only thing i can share right now. So many things laying half open in my mind ... but we can't discuss them yet.

Motobi

Smokey - Suzuki GP125

And something i found which is going to get a lot more attention is this fantastic webpage on how engines work:

http://www.animatedengines.com/  <----For geeks only ;-)

EDIT: I forgot to thank the good folks at: http://garageprojectmotorcycles.tumblr.com/ for their inspiring collection!

My peace

What an unbelievable morning!

That's how i feel today. I think i'm calm now, purged the clinging smell of death. This is a seriously faktap place we live in though. Cape Town was known by the Xhoisan as "The place where clouds gather" ... joburg should be christened "The place of grey death".

Keep it safe out there all of you.

http://blog.er24.co.za/2012/07/for-bikers-written-by-a-biker/

peace and love

Friday morning memorial ride

After some thought, i've come to the conclusion that something, anything must be done to address this ongoing suicidal insanity masquerading as commuting to work safely.

Friday monring at 7, i'll be leaving BP Beyers Naude for a clockwise rush hour lane split around the N1 / N3 around Joburg. It's partly memorial run, partly an attention seeking exercise aimed at those bikers who continue to use the emergency lane, as well as the cars who still don't clearly understand a damn thing.

I'm inviting everyone, although typically expecting none ... so great is the apathy. Think Bike just ignored my suggestion, preferring to whinge about how nice it would be to have a large corporate sponsorship. The irony flows like the rivers of babylon.

So, got 2 wheels? Come ride with. It's seriously overdue that someone does something ... and if i'm the only damn person left standing so be it. I'll do it alone ... as i've ridden that route alone for over 4 years now.


Why am i so damned bitter about this? So bitter about the BIKERS in SA? Despite all the effort i put in to just ... help keep guys safe, they don't want it. They don't want anything except a bottle and a throttle ...

My body is made of sunshine

Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics. You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded. Because the elements, the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars. And the only way they could get into your body is if the stars were kind enough to explode.

That's me

http://bodhisattvaextraordinaire.tumblr.com

Biker down

After spending time at the 1000 bikes show this weekend, which was a huge success, this morning brought a brutal reminder of the other side of biking.

N1 North, just before 8, a black vmax was heading along the emergency lane (white-next to fast lane) when he struck a car that was being pushed after breaking down. I stopped and cleared some of the debris out the road, while other bikers were doing cpr ... after a while they stopped and covered him.

I never saw his face thankfully, white guy, 30's, he had a big bunch of keys and remotes.

I have to write this, so if you're feeling squeamish just .... look the other way.

The silver polo was stopped in the right hand lane, its right front wheel had been smashed in, and was lying askew, the corner of the car had also been smashed off. marks against the concrete barrier showed that the bike had hit the car and the barrier in close order, a lot of plastic debris littered the area.

The rider was about 30m past that, on his back, in the fast lane, with the bike on it's side about 20m past that. The bike was broken, and had slid along the tar so hard that it had ground away the engine casing, dropping oil and gears and metal parts covering the 2 right hand lanes. Along the tar lay plastic and metal and shoes and gloves and helmets. I can still feel the explosion of plastic and metal that must have occurred, i could almost hear the sickening crunch and scream of metal ... it was just ... that obvious.

Dead. They guy was lying there dead. One of the brave and few, dead. I'm stuck on that word, dead, it's just ... like a full stop. It carries with it the weight of silence. Stupid dead .. which carries the weight of my anger. He killed himself through reckless arrogance and thoughtlessness. Too fast ... way too fast ... wrong place ... he shouldn't have been there ... his helmet come off ... his shoes, gloves, helmet, keys, socks ... i've seen it before in accidents ... where the "victim" is sitting there in bare feet or torn socks, and looking utterly ridiculous. A grown man lying dead on the highway with no shoes on.

And pulling away after, the impatient cagers, irritated at their own pathetic weakness and inability to get where they're going ..... my anger nearly boiled over at their ignorance stupidity and arrogance. I have to go back to the scene ... i don't know why ... settle my own restless mind i think. Maybe it's time for me to put some A3 posters up like i've been threatening to ... suicide lane, emergency ONLY, whatever it takes to get these people's attention.

Sadly before i arrived at the scene i was fuming about those guys riding down the emergency lane, they're scaring the cars over into the biker lane again, narrowing the biker lane, and slowing me down even more, while they fly along at STUPIDLY inappropriate speeds ... years of work on my part (and others) is being undone ... and people are dying for lack of knowledge.

Infinity Imagined

I've found a new blog to follow, and highlight.

http://infinity-imagined.tumblr.com/

A recent series posted, on sea temperature flows. But go see, and enjoy, and hopefully you will be led to the world of imagination and wonder.

Leaping seconds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second

Bikers

The old saying goes:

There are 2 types of biker, those that have fallen and those that will fall.

Another old saying says you aren't a biker until you've fallen.

I follow the first more than the second, but the second allows me to underscore an important moment for my eldest. She fell off the GN yesterday ... all by herself. No real damage to her or the bike, count one bruise, one indicator lens, and the mirror.

Of course it was her own fault, of course it was because she was going too fast, of course she had all her gear on, and of course she fault like an idiot afterwards. Moving on, she won't do that again.

That being: she climbed on, and gunned it quite a bit harder than she should have. I gestured for her to slow down, and um, she didn't. To be fair she did, just not enough. The fall happened under 5km/h, as the finest falls do.

We live and learn, and now the young rider has a decent amount of respect for the machine and speeds involved. Be grateful for gear, helmets and gloves and thick jackets ... dad is an **** when it comes to gear but he's right, even slow falls can get you hurt.

Welcome to bikerhood bikermouse ... no more of this falling business ok?

;-)

Two Classics, One Car

A 101 year old lady driving an 81 year old car. She changes the spark plugs herself.

Beach at night

4000 Years of Medicine

2000bc: Here, eat this root.
1000ad: That root is heathen! Here, say this prayer.
1865ad: That prayer is superstition! Here, drink this potion.
1935ad: That potion is snakeoil! Here, take this pill.
1975ad: That pill is ineffective! Here, take this antibiotic.
2000ad: That antibiotic is poison! Here, eat this root.

Syrian media war.

June the 15th: Member States of NATO and the GCC are preparing a coup d’état and a sectarian genocide in Syria.

Nowadays the media do not only support a war, they produce it themselves.

This procedure violates the principles of International Law, first of all Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights relating to the fact of receiving and imparting information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Above all, the procedure violates the United Nations General Assembly resolution, adopted after the end of World War II, to prevent further wars. Resolutions 110, 381 and 819 forbid “to set obstacles to free exchange of information and ideas” (like cutting off Syrian TV channels) and “all propaganda provoking or encouraging threats to peace, breaking peace, and all acts of aggression”. By law, war propaganda is a crime against peace, the worst of crimes, because it facilitates war crimes and genocide.

Thierry Meyssan

Art should ...

Weather

The weather report was right ...

Hard and soft

“Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.”
― Lao Tzu

This echoes so nicely with the recent posts "Censors", and "Art and Politics". You have life and death, and we all choose one to serve.

Minature Traffic Jam

Yesterday while most of us were at work, some people were out playing with their toys. Dinkie toys, 13 243 dinkie cars to be precise.

The now famous Vilikazi st hosted World's Largest Miniature Traffic Jam .

I can't seem to embed the pictures, the link is to facebook, and it was sponsored by TomTom. I hope those cars were donated to one of the many orphanages in the area.

Very nicely done!

Venus in transit

Awesome.


Then someone tapped me on the shoulder and said no you're wrong. That's not Venus in transit, this is venus in transit. So my apologies.

Bloggees, may i present: Venus in Transit.

Good for everyone

The Telegraph

I seem to recall having seen this photo before, it's a fazer of course :) And it's not often something really can positively impact others by accident, or not. As a by product that is. Awesome article, i'll repost a few of the highlights.
__________________________________

The study’s aim was to look at the effect on traffic flow and congestion of some commuters changing from cars to motorcycles. Interestingly, some of the consequences were dramatic for all road users, not just the commuters who made the switch to two wheels.

Satisfied that the model reflected the real world accurately and the PCE value for motorcycles was accurate, TML next looked at the consequences on traffic flow of one in 10 car drivers switching to motorcycles. The results were astonishing. The travel time for the remaining 90 per cent of car drivers at the 7.50am peak increased by just six minutes instead of 14, while the queues started later and dissipated sooner.


With a tenth of car drivers now using motorcycles, the main queue is gone by 8.30am instead of 9.10am, while the number of “lost vehicle hours” decreases by 63 per cent to 706.

In other words, car emissions fell because they were not stuck in traffic jams for so long.

Art and politics

The Soweton

The late Eugene Terreblanche, reading the bible to his murderer, Chris Mahlangu, seated on his lap.

The piece was created in February for an exhibition -The State of Chakra - that will take place in August.

________________________________

Some comment is necessary i think, i repost these contentious issues because i can, literally. I can also speak my thoughts on the matter, so excuse me if i practice awhile. We may not have this privilege for long, and since it's about art, i'll call this waxing lyrical, only i can't sing here, for which you should be grateful.

Art, that picture is art. It can only be, because it's not really anything else? Not something i'd want to own to be honest, especially with the political overtones, but if i were in an art gallery, this is what i would be seeing right? The artist had a feeling, a thought, an impression, and instead of tying it all up in words, like we do, he painted an image. A single image that can convey quite a lot of different, sometimes opposing messages.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The creation of Zuma as Lenin in the typical Soviet style, of course with the invocation of patriarchy and naked emperors, did the same thing.  It was an idea, presented in a single helping. No sentences and paragraphs to wade through first. BANG. You are now thinking about something the artist wanted you to think about. An art gallery is where you go to be imbued with the artistic expressions of others.

And it should be provocative, in many different ways. And if a simple painting can inspire action in others, so much the better. Brett Murray can never be a poor man now, his creations have authority in the art world. The personal expression of one man made a nation talk, that is more power than Zuma has ever had. Other works of art are forgotten by the next piece in the gallery, they may be nice, but they do not inspire one with passion.

I am enjoying this re-awakening of art. The South African story has inspired many people to express themselves in many ways. I learned recently that former minister of defense Adriaan Vlok was so remorseful over his actions that he began washing the feet of his victims, as penance. That too is art. Creating something unique and beautiful even for a moment in time, is art. It is the act of living itself that is artistic, merging creativity and experience to further the boundaries of one's own world.

We live in the land of Afrika Burns, where art is created with the sole purpose of destroying it, and immortalising it at the same time. How can the same place and time co exist with the madness of the last few days? Art reflects life, it comes out of life. What we saw this week with the destruction of art, and newspapers, is death, and by extension, murder. It is the opposite of life, and art, and is the mud from whence the lotus flowers bloom.

This painting is the answer to the other. They mirror each other ... a white artist painting a black man, and a black artist painting a white man. Both show South African leaders in a context seen by the painter, and both highly relevant not only to the artist, but to all of us, the viewers. Both are emotive, possibly insulting, and open to a fair amount of personal interpretation, and both are intentionally provocative. Curious that seen from the position of their "opposites", one is remembered for his lesser known male bits, and the other in a context of a religion.

So go paint something today, or someone, which is usually more interesting!

Censors

Censors are dead men
set up to judge between life and death.
For no live, sunny man would be a censor,
he’d just laugh.
But censors, being dead men,
have a stern eye on life.
—That thing’s alive! It’s dangerous.
Make away with it!—
And when the execution is performed
you hear the stertorous, self-righteous heavy
breathing of the dead men,
the censors, breathing with relief.
 
 
DH Lawrence, “Censors”

DaggaCouple - History of Dagga

http://daggacouple.co.za/

Teeheeheeheeheeheehee

Zuma in perspective.

The crucial connection comes through an evolutionary phenomenon that began as our ancestors encountered inequality in wealth, power, and reproductive opportunities, and which disposes some men to behave in reckless, risky, and violent ways. You might call it "the problem with men," and though it's not something that manifests in all males, it is endemically masculine, and at its most extreme it can poison societies. But, much as we have dealt with obesity epidemics not by blaming obesity sufferers but by understanding the ways that evolved human physiology and psychology can create innate vulnerabilities, so too can a better understanding this evolutionary phenomenon help us to deter its damage.

(...)

Despite a few significant holdouts, polygamy continues to dwindle. There are still Jacob Zumas in the world who use "tradition" to shield their polygamist privilege, much as the mega-rich can usually be counted on to venerate wealth and promote inequality. But millennia of evolution ensure that polygyny and inequality will always stir violent competition and risky behavior among men and the oppression of women. Fortunately, our sense of fairness also has evolutionary roots, as does our ability to cooperate for the greater good. And those better angels of our nature will consign polygyny and entrenched inequality -- and men like Jacob Zuma -- to the wrong side of history.

Zuma's Wives: How Humans Evolved a Link Between Inequality and Misogyny

Hat tip to Gus Silber ‏@gussilber

Do not ...

... pick the flowers.

Ok

Information Aesthetics

I like that phrase, say it with me: Information Aesthetics. Not only data, but attractive data, visually at least. I think it's a kind of design holy grail, merging form and function seamlessly into something that anyone can understand.

Your common pie chart is an example of visually presenting information, anyone can do it, and thankfully, it still looks better than the spreadsheet. But of course we're talking about the lowest levels. On the higher levels of intelligent data visualisations, where you're being highly selective about colours and shapes and the associations people have, it stops being an infographic, and becomes .. almost a book, with stories to tell.

Enter Moritz Stefaner, who holds a B.Sc. in Cognitive Science and an M.A. in Interface Design. Right.

Notabilia:

Quote: "I came up with a tree visualization, where Article for Deletion discussion is represented by a thread starting at the bottom center. Each time a user recommends to keep, merge, or redirect the article a green segment leaning towards the left is added. Each time a user recommends to delete the article a red segment leaning towards the right is added. As the discussion progresses, the length of the segments as well as the angle slowly decay."

I have to point out this is example number 1, i did not select this topic:

But you get the idea, a thread runs along with users arguing for deleting or keeping as a Wiki page. Clearly "Unusual sex acts" was dropped, but the single thread shows perfectly how the discussion went, arguments from keep, to delete, to keep, but clearly bending towards deletion. 

Now this next graphic is what excited me, to quite a silly degree in fact.

Commissioned for Citibank *spit* the whole interactive bit is unfortunately not available, only screenshots. But my oh my, what an interesting story it tells. Who, how much, where to, and from, all with a single glance. 

I'm not going to talk about the content, but if only all information was this easy to grasp. 

http://moritz.stefaner.eu/

Global Popularity 2012

Hat Tip to Gilad Atzmon Via Moonofalabama Comments.

Every year the BBC holds a worldwide opinion poll on the how several countries are perceived around the world. Each country is ranked either "positively" or "negatively" in terms of influence, essentially how much do they matter, and is their contribution good or bad?

The loser is obviously Iran with an average negative rating of 55%, and a positive of 16%. Pakistan came an unsurprising second last place at 51%, and North Korea and Isreal tying for third place at 50% of most negatively influential countries. Telling stuff.

I noted that South Africa was not in the list of respondent countries, so i was very surprised on page 26 to find that opinions on South Africa had been solicited. The global average view of South Africa's influence in the world? 37% positive and 25% negative, various regions displaying varying degrees of bias, Russia providing the highest percentage for the survey with 67% of them saying they have no opinion on us. Japan also shares their disdain.

We're a lot less popular than we were a year ago, clearly all the bad press is getting out to the international press. Unsurprising but clearly not ideal. Nigeria thinks we're great, but they like Isreal too, i truly wonder how a Nigerian perceives countries? SA = $? Likewise then for Isreal? Why does Nigeria like Isreal? It doesn't make sense. Mexico decided last year to hate us, going from 48% to 24% positive, in 1 year. I know of nothing to cause that, i (naively) thought Mexico had bigger problems?

http://www.deliberation.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/2012_bbc_country-rating-final-080512.pdf

Go read the full document, it's very enlightening, and while it doesn't address specifics of what has happened in the last year, it compares with the previous year's results, and seems to be a good reflection of how people see politics and world influence.

Perspective

You are here. There. With every single known organism that has ever existed. And the sum total of all our efforts to impact the universe. All the money, time, energy, everything. Just a little blue dot. The dot displayed here is 200 million light years across, and includes the probable radius of radiowaves emitted over the last hundred odd years. The outer ring of this dot is composed of the static ramblings of simple folk who had discovered a new toy. Slightly inside the outer ring, aliens will be introduced to the radio chatter of WW1, WW2, and everything else before they hear our SETI calls. 

I truly wonder if they'll bother to stick around long enough to reply??

A day in the life

So i tell people that when i'm riding along, my head is full of ... stuff. Music, thoughts, insights, commentaries and all sorts. And then i read THIS, and realised i really am not alone.

Following on from that article was another LINK, even better than the first.

So a few highlights:

Thought One: "I wonder how much those wing mirrors cost to replace?"

Thought Two: "Should I tear them off, punch them or just boot that mirror as I ride past?"

Through Three: "That meathead should really get new tires, driving around with them completely bald must be pretty dangerous."

Thought Four: "Oh look, he's getting out of his car. Do you think he realizes I'm wearing head-to-toe body armor and the carbon fiber equivalent of brass knuckles?"

Thought Five: "Man, car drivers are an angry people. They sure do shout into their phones a lot."

Thought Six: "It's not my fault you have to sit in traffic. In fact, by not contributing to congestion, I'm making your wait incrementally shorter. You should be thanking me."

Thought Seven: "If you like that phone so much, then why'd you make me take it from you and throw it over that barbwire fence?"

Thought Eight: "Are red lights and stop signs really that hard to see?

Thought Nine: "I wonder if there's a correspondence between road rage and Clear Channel listening?"

Thought Ten: "Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise."

Thought Eleven: [just making the sound a sheep makes inside your helmet]

Thought Twelve: "This would all be a lot easier if people just looked where they were going."

Thought Thirteen: "Good job, accelerating wildly like that netted you one place in traffic and cost you about $10 in gas."

Thought Fourteen: "You know, you don't have to sit in traffic either. Learning to ride isn't that hard."

Thought Fifteen: "Did your dad never teach you how to drive in the rain? Following that close is a really bad idea."

Thought Sixteen: "You realize that if I tear off your door/mirror/aerial/headlight/whatever, it's a matter for the insurance companies, but if you hit me, you're going to jail, right?"

Thought Seventeen: "Man, it's nice out today."

Thought Eighteen: "Let's see. 100 HP and 400 Lbs or 160 HP and 4,000 Lbs. Who's going to win this race?"

Thought Nineteen: "Wouldn't it be nice if cops wrote tickets for bad driving instead of just speeding? That way, the roads might actually be safe and stuff."

Thought Twenty: "Screw this, I'm outta here."

Tree in a bottle

Now i know what i'm doing soon!

Yay

SO my silence has been part quietness, but a bigger part blogger not letting me log in. So yay, somebody fixed something. I have had many experiences since i last posted here, and many thoughts and ideas ... and thankfully, many many moments of intense beauty.

Life has been abundant, and i am sated with good foods, good company, and travels and adventures too. Tomorrow is back to the daily grind, i may actually survive it for the next ... however long till holidays again :-D

I have many photos, and thanks to OneStonedCrow and others sharing their travels, i feel obliged to overload your bandwidth. My only disappointment is that i never get to use a camera anymore, 2 cameras and 3 kids ... well you see the problem :) Photography remains my passion, and i'm delighted to find children experimenting with light, although this "take a picture and look at it" still confounds me.

Ok, i can't upload a pic :/

Watch this space .....

peace and love and laughter and light

Laws and morals

“ I live by morals, I don’t live by laws,” he went on. “Laws are something made by assholes. ”

- George Hotz, Sony, and the Anonymous Hacker Wars