Hurricane Tom Jones

… is actually not unusual.

Everyone is talking about Hurricane Sandy today, which is unsurprising, but as ever, things should be kept in perspective.

As we enter the “new” age of social media, it’s sometimes important to remember that just because we see more news about these sort of things doesn’t actually mean that they are particularly unusual or even that they are occurring more regularly than previously.

And just as one swallow does not a summer make, neither is one hurricane proof for global warming, despite what any CNN weatherman might say.

Because New York has had many, many hurricanes hit it before. For example, Wikipedia has a list of 84 of them, dating back as far as the thirteenth century. And yes, Sandy may turn out to be a record breaker, but then so were many of those previous storms – the “Long Island Express” of 1938 is a particularly good example.

So just because this will probably be the most recorded, most shared, most tweeted hurricane in history, doesn’t mean that climate change is real.
Cherry-picking facts to suit one’s hypotheses has never been a valid method of conducting science and thus, conclusions based on that partial information will near invariably be false. Something you might like to remember when the green brigade trots out their post-Sandy propaganda.

Did you?

Here’s an interesting one. Have you shared, tweeted, retweeted or emailed any of these photos around?

Yes, it’s Buzzfeed’s list of 9 viral photos that AREN’T Hurricane Sandy.
And I’ve seen these two in the last 10 minutes alone.

This is a photoshop job. As if you couldn’t see that from the way the flag is blowing.

And this was from a wet day in September. Dedication, sure, but no hurricane here folks.

There will undoubtedly be some remarkable photos from Sandy’s visit to NYC and surrounds, so go have a look at the others so that you don’t get fooled. Oh, and if you shared any of the last three on that list, you need psychiatric help.

This should be good…

Incoming yesterday afternoon, this:

And what was PopLeveson?
Well, Peter reminds us here:

#PopLeveson was the Twitter hashtag game played, initially, amongst the extra-mural audience to the Leveson Inquiry as they enjoyed the spectacle of ex-News International chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, jousting with Robert Jay QC, purveyor of exquisitely turned questions.

It being a Friday afternoon, not every boy in the Remove was centred fully on legal nuance. Wags compared Mrs Brooks’ eye-catching locks and those of the singer Mick Hucknall. From down under, a tweet wondered if “Rebekah Hucknall” mightn’t yet sing a verse or two of Simply Red’s Holding Back The Years.

Soon hundreds, then thousands more questions were picking legal holes in lovingly-regarded rock and pop lyrics. In Court 73, Lord Justice Leveson broke for the weekend … without effect. #PopLeveson was trending and enthusiastic tweets urged followers to “Stop whatever you’re doing and follow #PopLeveson”.

The game wound down and ended on Monday morning. By then over 25,000 unique tweets had been posted along with almost innumerable re-tweets.

Looking back to May (via google) I can find two efforts of mine:

and

The former works best for me, but whatever – permission granted!

Peter plans to publish on Kindle, with, he hopes “a paperback to follow”.
I’m really looking forward to enjoying #PopLeveson again.

Cape Town is Africa’s Most Liveable City

Africa.com has declared – after strenuous research – that Cape Town is Africa’s Most Liveable City, stating:

Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, let alone Africa, having already won a number of prestigious international travel awards. It’s where most people in South Africa wish they lived. It possesses all of the amenities and sophistication of a urban area, yet the pace is decidedly relaxed, with the city being nestled between the ocean and the mountains, creating an ideal mix of work and play. A short drive away and you can find yourself in one of the hundreds of vineyards that produce some of the world’s top wines.

I’d agree with all of that, although that second sentence is going to grate with Joburg residents (Joburg came in fourth behind Accra and Nairobi).

The authors of the report didn’t mention the high quality blogging that comes out of the Mother City, but they did manage to get in the ocean and the mountain – something I’m only too happy to remind our Gautenger neighbours about.

So – the take away message seems to be that if you’re planning to come and live in Africa, come and live in Cape Town.

Been there, done that.

Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concerts 2012/13

Download your PDF programme here

The line up for the Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concert series for 2012/13 has been released and it’s a case of the usual suspects and a few new faces. Here’s what we’re looking at this year:

  • 25 Nov 2012 – Daniel Bedingfield (R80-R110)
  • 02 Dec 2012 – Mango Groove (R80-R110)
  • 09 Dec 2012 – Zebra & Giraffe (R80-R110)
  • 13-16 Dec 2012 – Carols by Candlelight (R60)
  • 23 Dec 2012 – Prime Circle (R80-R110)
  • 30 Dec 2012 – Yoav & Tailor (R60-R85)
  • 31 Dec 2012 (NYE) – Hugh Masekela & Hot Water (R275)
  • 06 Jan 2013 – Arno Carstens (R80-R110)
  • 13 Jan 2013 – The Parlotones (R110-135) (K)
  • 20 Jan 2013 – Jimmy Dludlu (R80-R110) (K)
  • 27 Jan 2013 – Toya Delazy & Lindiwe Suttle (R80-R110)
  • 03 Feb 2013 – Freshlyground (R80-R110) (K)
  • 10 Feb 2013 – Cape Town Folk n Acoustic Music Festival (R65-R80)
  • 17 Feb 2013 – Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse (R80-R110) (K)
  • 24 Feb 2013 – The Cape Philharmonic Orchestra(R80-R110) (K)
  • 03 Mar 2013 – Goldfish (R80-R110)
  • 10 Mar 2013 – Jeremy Loops (R60-R85) (K)
  • 17 Mar 2013 – Ringo Madlingozi (R80-R110) (K)
  • 24 Mar 2013 – Shadowclub & Gangs of Ballet (R60-R85)
  • 31 Mar 2013 – Mi Casa & Natasha Meister (R80-R110) (K)
  • 07 Apr 2013 – Johnny Clegg (R80-R110) (K)

Ticket prices are for 6-21 year olds and adults. BotSoc members are somewhere in between and (K) indicates there’s a Kids Zone at the concert in question.

You’ve gotta get through the international act Daniel Bedingfield who kicks things off (see what I did there?), before the highlights (for me) of Zebra & Giraffe, Arno Carstens and the much underrated Gangs of Ballet in March.

Mango Groove, Goldfish, Freshlyground and (once you’ve remortgaged your house) The Parlotones will obviously be popular, so book early.

Tickets for all concerts are available now from Webtickets.co.za and additional tickets will be available at Kirstenbosch (021 761 2866), from the Tuesday before each concert, when online tickets are sold out.

Download your PDF programme here