Category: in the news

Off again – and that font?!?

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The issue with our ailing power utility – so we were told – wasn’t the years and years of rampant corruption, but rather the guy who was in charge. He was in the process of stepping down when he gave that bombshell interview about all the corruption and was politely(?) asked to leave immediately.

So, now that he has gone, everything should be ok. Right?

Wrong.

Weirdly, it seems that he wasn’t the issue. So we have no idea what the problem could actually be*, but there clearly is a problem of some sort. Because I’m sitting here for another 10 hours without power today, because of the ongoing demand and supply problem. We want 31.3MW, they can only give us 24.7MW. And if you don’t cut the power to cover that shortfall, everything falls over and it’s a very bad thing.

Those figures come from this tweet from last night:

And I actually love the way that they’ve done their best to cushion the blow by using a whimsical font. Who do we think came up with that idea?

“Not looking great on the grid figures tonight. We’re dangerously short and we need to tell people.”
“OK. Send the twee… no… wait. Do you have a kind of handwritingy font we could use?”
“What?”
“You know. Something a bit fun and disarming.”
“But we’re the official state power utility. Shouldn’t we be using the official state fonts?”
“Well, yes. But let’s show our human side. Just something a bit playful and quirky to take their minds off the awful numbers.”
“Well, I mean, I have got this one…”
“Like, actually Oh Em Gee! It’s So frikkin perfect! Look at the devil-may-care lack of connection on the loops! Observe the mildly curved downstrokes! The capricious overshoot on the Es and Ms! Do it!”
“Er… right. The numbers are still bloody horrendous, though.”
“Who cares? It’s so pretty! Quick, just click SEND before the boss comes back!”

I imagine that’s pretty much how it went, anyway.

Sadly, using my scientific brain, I was able to see through the eccentric and unprofessional choice of typeface, and I’m actually pretty worried about just how bad the situation is. But hey, it’s so easy to get bogged down in bad news. I guess that we should take solace in the fact that they haven’t used Comic Sans yet, so maybe we’re still somewhere just above rock bottom.

* although there is still that years and years of rampant corruption thing, but… surely not?!

Late-night game of Monopoly in Brussels ends with samurai sword fight

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Of course it does.
I mean, we’ve all been there. Not Brussels (although lots of people have also been there).

Are there any more divisive “family” games than Monopoly? And yes, yes, I know that “The Landlord’s Game” as it used to be called, is supposed to be all about the evils of capitalism, and that the fury that regularly ensues from playing Monopoly kind of validates that viewpoint, but it’s entirely possible to fall out over a game of pool and that’s just about hitting balls into one another, so… well – you do the maths.

And anyway, amazingly, this samurai sword “fight” (more on the quote marks below) had nothing to do with the actual gameplay, and far more to do with the fact that the game was actually being played.

The incident began when a group of four people were playing a board game on the pavement in front of a house, disturbing the occupant, who came out in an attempt to move them away from his house.
After an argument ensued, the resident’s son came out to defend his father armed with a concealed samurai sword.

OK, so playing Monopoly on a pavement is a bit weird, but is there a law against playing Monopoly on a pavement? Well, maybe not, but given that this was a 5am on Sunday morning, there probably should be.

And was it actually a “fight”, because that suggests that there were pugilists and protagonists? And in this case, the sheath sheathing the sword got damaged and a couple of people got cut. That’s not supposed to be how you use a samurai sword. I’ve seen Youtube videos of samurai warriors and they chop things up properly. Not a little nick with an exposed blade.

But in an abject lesson of how not to deal with having an early morning kerfuffle involving your dad and some pavement Monopoly players, one of the little nicks with the exposed blade (they are awfully sharp) appears to have effectively located an artery within the sword-wielding son, landing him in intensive care.

And probably requiring some hosepipe action on the pavement. Humans can drain quickly.

Sadly, the story is rather lacking on the reasons behind why the game of Monopoly was taking place on a pavement a couple of hours before sunrise. Although, I’m presuming that because it was dark, a streetlight would have been involved.

And yes, a quick Streetview visit suggests that hypothesis might be a valid one.
Of course, that in itself spawns several more questions, which will also remain frustratingly unanswered.

Anyway, silver linings and all that: if you managed to get a lie-in this last weekend, you did better than at least six people in Belgium.

What are the chances…?

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What are the chances of there being loadshedding over the next year or so?

Well, in this breakdown (no pun intended), Eskom (our state electricity provider) (occasionally, at least) details how much electricity we’re likely to need and how much they’re likely to be able to supply for the next 52 weeks

Green is good, i.e. Supply > Demand = no loadshedding expected.
Red is bad, i.e. Demand > Supply = there will be loadshedding.

Aaand…

Ah. Oh.

ACTUALLY QUITE RED.

To be honest, the red “worse case” blocks “only” stretch as far as Stage 2 (ish). That is, about 2000MW short. And without normalising or excusing the awful situation, I think that – right now – most South Africans would take that as being something of a win.

Especially as we’re sitting at Stage 4 this evening.

But of course there is no redder red than the red on this table. So actually the red means AT LEAST Stage 2, and could mean anything up to Stage 37 (or whatever). I think we need a purple and a burgundy and maybe even (terrifyingly) a black, so that we can really see what’s going on.

On the plus side, Week 13 next year looks brighter – quite literally – well, unless it’s not.

We should have our personal measures to mitigate this nonsense installed by the end of the month, all being well. Roll on that glorious day.

Reuben Ireland

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I mentioned a little while back [checks recent archives] here that I am heading back to Robben Island again this year to help out with the annual Year 6 Tour there.

But it was Facebook that reminded me of this absolute gem from the COPE political party.

President Lekota is Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota, the COPE leader (his nickname coming from his imposing presence on the football field), “Uncle Kathy” is Ahmed Kathrada, a struggle veteran, and I have no idea who Reuben Ireland is.

I actually had to check if COPE are still around, and they are. Just:

0.27% of the votes still gets you two parliamentary seats, hey? Wow.

The COPE website greets you with plenty of colour, and an ill-fitting banner image. And then, there are their four pillars (which actually appear to be eight pillars):

Promoting reposposibility is important. Some people just want to pose twice, but as a modern political party, you need to be able to pose, pose again and then repose. That reposposibility is what the electorate is looking out for. That, and being dependeable. Hugely important.

And… below that is this mystifying non-question:

I clicked Yes & No, because I was confused and I thought that it was actually just a thing for the recruitment department at the party to answer. Both take you to the same screen where there’s a form to fill in to join COPE. Then you email it directly to Shalati Nkhwashu. I can’t imagine that her inbox is very busy. Still as the old saying goes: “Empty inbox, great middle name”:

I’m looking forward to my visit to see Reuben. A very interesting guy.