Category: in the news

A few things

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It’s been a while since i did one of these and my Pocket is filling up again. So…

It’s Springtime! (in the UK) and time to switch to BST. But this isn’t the correct way to put your clocks forward:

And this might work, but is also very confusing:

Pro-tip: Use a whiteboard marker and you can simply use a damp cloth to change the clocks back again in October.

Good news for me on this change is that evening football matches now kick off at a more reasonable time and so I can watch them and still get enough sleep (see below).

However, that good news is tempered somewhat by the fact that their Spring means our Autumn. And the weather has been doing its bit to remind us of the changing seasons. We’re losing 2 minutes of daylight a day in Cape Town each day at the moment, and we crossed the 12 hours daylight/12 hours nighttime line yesterday.

I was reminded of this Soy, Ginger and Chili salmon recipe today. I must cook it again. Today is all about the big boneless gammon joint on the hob, though. The whole house smell of cloves and all-spice (coincidentally also the name of the giant robot formed when all the Spice Girls zigazig-arred together like the Power Rangers). Delicious.

The future is bright: Sheffield United win the Professional Development League (North) for the third season running.

A fact made even better when you look at the whole league table:

LOL – mind the gap!

A Long Read about Long Covid here.

tl;dect (didn’t even click through) – risk of developing LC drops after a secondary infection (UK 4.0% to 2.4%), but that’s still not zero!

and just for reference, 2.4% of the UK population is one and a half million people. That’s a lot of potential cases, and a huge burden on individuals, families and the health service.

Covid really is just like the common cold.

I was out on a run earlier this week and was thinking about how I couldn’t even manage a staircase in the aftermath of my acute Covid experience. Things are clearly much, much better now, although it took over a year to get back to normality. That said: three things I have noticed post-Covid: I need more sleep, my lung capacity still isn’t what it was before, and my memory (which use to be very good) really isn’t as good any more. Especially on people’s names. Other random nonsense (phone codes, capital cities, song titles/bands) – generally fine. Names (famous ones or personal acquaintances) – nope.

Weird.

Stop stacking rocks on beaches (and elsewhere), say SANParks.

…The problem is that people are increasingly building rock cairns to leave their mark or symbol of their presence in a natural setting or for posting on social media. Therefore, when engaging in this activity, it is important to be mindful of the potential negative impacts on the environment, wildlife and other people’s experiences.

Moving rocks and stacking them can disturb the natural habitat of tiny creatures. On the rocky shore, these organisms, such as crabs, molluscs, and algae, depend on their environment’s rocks and other structures for shelter and protection. By moving or stacking rocks, we may inadvertently destroy or disrupt their homes, harming their populations. Similarly, rock stacking can also have adverse terrestrial impacts on insects and moss in wilderness areas.

The article has a (terrible) picture of Agulhas National Park in it. So this is a local thing, close to my heart. And when the kids were younger, we did used to do this from time to time, albeit that our towers were built near the low tide mark, ready to be knocked down as the waves came in, and never for social media purposes.

Anyway. No more. Stoppit.

Lastly for today: a new way to filter flights on flightradar24. This is the update that everyone as crying out for. And it works. From being a very cool tool, its now also massively powerful. You can now get it to do whatever you want (and even more if you pay for a subscription). A lot of the features are in the free Beta version at the moment, but it seems to be stable and full rollout isn’t likely to be far away.

MoE statements

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Love him or hate him (or just see him as yet another ANC cadre deployment that will increase the ministerial wage bill while providing absolutely no tangible difference to the issues he is supposed to be fixing), the new Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is certainly making waves.

Yesterday came reports that he had allegedly suggested that the problems at Kusile Power Station were “nothing to do with so-called corruption”, which is ridiculous, but might also be a bit of a misquote. Because he might just have been referring to the issues with the chimneys rather than all the problems with Kusile (Supposed to cost R81bn, now at least R161.4bn; started in 2009, supposed to be fully operational in 6 years, now hopefully ready by 2026).

And then the chimneys broke.

“But, with the issues on the units that have gone out as a result of the structural integrity and design components, they have nothing to do with corruption. This is everything to do with technical designs. There are significant modifications that they are making and I am happy with what they are proposing.”

Yeah, the chimneys fell down because they were made of cardboard and the got wet and soggy. (This is a bit of a joke, but it’s scarily close to the actual truth.)

I say it “might be a bit of a misquote”, because any other reason for this statement would be completely laughable:

The latest quote by the minister shows that he’s right back on track though:

It’s actually amazing that no-one came up with this idea before. Stop loadshedding by having power all the time. This idea was so mind-blowing to me, that I actually tried to apply it elsewhere in my life:

Consistently having lots of money will stop you being poor.

And if you’re more into health than cash:

Consistently being healthy will stop you being ill.

Where has this man been all our lives?

And why can’t he just go back there?

Yes, yes. I know that this is bound to be another misquote, but can’t we enjoy just a bit of fun occasionally?

All about “The Shutdown”

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It was all a bit weird from the start. Populist, vocal, flipflopping political party, known for its publicity stunts and – let’s be honest here – “occasional” forays into violent protest, calls for a day of National Shutdown to end loadshedding and oust the President. But given that their grievances are an ongoing thing, it was odd that they gave us all six or seven weeks notice.

Until you realise that they had chosen the Monday 20th March because it falls in between a weekend and Tuesday 21st March – a public holiday. Schools were closed, many people would have taken one day of leave from work to get an extra long weekend: it would likely be quiet anyway. This did not go unnoticed by some people:

But it did meant that the organisers could easily claim that images of quiet cities and empty streets were down to support for their cause, when actually, a control for their experiment would have yielded much the same result.

And then there were the veiled threats. Shut your business or it might get looted. Shut down your airport – or else:

Hint: Don’t mess with a national keypoint, guys. Silly move.

And many of those businesses (not the airport) won’t be open today Not because they are supporting the protest, but more that that they are terrified of the potential violence that might befall them, should they open. And while the leaders of the party are publicly calling for peaceful protest, the EFF dosen’t have a great record at doing that:

I’m not saying that today’s EFF protests will be/would have been violent. I’m just saying that their history is enough to assume that there’s a fair chance that it won’t all be peaceful. And in the lead up to the protest, over 24,000 tyres (the SA protestors weapon of choice):

were found – many of them sequestered at strategically important localities like major intersections – and removed.

So when journalists report that “street vendors stayed away”, and the EFF supporters claim that shows endorsement for the protest, I’m more willing to believe that it’s just for the vendors’ safety and that of their businesses.

And then there’s the misinformation, because there always is misinformation. Old videos, old pictures, entirely normal traffic jams: the works. Thankfully, all debunked here. But not before they have had millions of impressions on social media.

Oh, and the video of Adderley Street in Cape Town, now supposedly in Pretoria.

Also, it rained in Cape Town this morning. It rained a lot. Now I’ve never been a fan of sports which are stopped by a bit of rain (tennis, padel, cricket etc…). And the rain certainly kept the protest numbers down around here. Much to the amusement of the mayor:

Cheap shot, agreed, but I reckon that he’ll be extremely glad that the weather helped his city out today. And after all the sabre-rattling, intimidation, threats and bravado from the other side, why not push back a little?

It’s 4:30pm now, and there have only been sporadic or unverified (at the time of writing) incidents across the country, thus far. It seemed like a lot of people stayed away from the protests instead of work – there have been a lot of images of tiny groups of red-shirted individuals from various places around the country.

A couple of valid(?) points have been raised though. The sudden availability of police officers to combat any trouble that may arise, when they’re usually nowhere to be found when actual crime happens to actual individuals. That said, I do know that they are working unsustainable shift patterns in many places to have extra numbers on the ground today. Even Struisbaai SAPS has 12 hour shifts going on this weekend, and the EFF only managed 20 votes there in the recent by-election.
And the sudden availability of electricity, as well. Is it really down to hard work and good luck, or can the powers that be actually positively affect loadshedding? And if so, how? Because if so, that’s quite sinister. Why aren’t they doing it all the time? The proof of the pudding here will be what happens tomorrow and the rest of the week.
And finally – why the panic by the government? Lots of police, lots of talk, lots of unnecessary drama:

“Regime change”? “Unconstitutional means”? (Let’s talk about constitutional means after the elections next year.) And the military on standby. Overkill. Sorry – poor choice of words.

All in all, an awful lot of “all mouth, no trousers” again, as it usually is in SA politics.
OK, in worldwide politics, but especially in SA politics.
Still a few hours of the day to go, though. And then the rest of the year.

Anything could happen.

And what’s happening here? Well, I’m going to have a beer, because my fridge hasn’t been shut down.

Microbiological facepalm

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The Health Ombudsman today released his report into complaints about the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital (RMMCH). It doesn’t make for pretty reading. There are many, many problems highlighted, and I’m only really looking at one here, but if you want to read the whole damn(ing) thing, here’s the PDF.

It’s Page 14 that made me weep though.

tl:dr?

They ran out of the antiseptic disinfectant solution that was used to treat the skin pre-operatively on abdominal surgery sites, so instead of sourcing some from any nearby healthcare facilities, the sister in charge made up her own concoction of diluted handwash to use instead.

Not that this is any way safe, effective, legitimate, ethical, acceptable or sensible, but – just out of interest – what sort of amounts of handwash and water did she use?

The quantities of each used could not be explained by Sr. T Goduka, except that she said, “I ensured there was not much foam.” [sic]

Ah yes, “not much foam”. That’s the generally accepted formula for illegitimate, homebrewed pre-op solutions. Too much foam gets in the way and can be quite distracting for the surgeon. That’s why they don’t use Sunlight washing up liquid for these sort of things.

Or diluted handwash.

Anyway, the upshot of Sister Goduka’s efforts was that eleven patients ended up back in surgery because they developed infections.

I am shocked like Cyril.

The report goes on to say:

When patients present at the hospital, they do that because they are assured of safe care because all resources used undergo rigorous scientific testing and scrutiny.

Oh, so not because they want to be guinea pigs for Sr Goduka’s latest potion? Honestly, there would probably have been a better clinical outcome if they’d let Willy Wonka have a pop at it.

Incredibly – and shamefully – this is far from the worst thing that patients had to face at the hospital, but hopefully, some lessons can be – and have been – learned.

So… until next time (which won’t be long)…