60% of world cocoa production, 20% of global gold production and shedloads of shale gas.
What’s not to like?
(apart perhaps for that 3% of global GDP figure…)

Just for the record, I have never asked either of my kids this. The answer would probably be too depressing or would put me (and them) in a very dangerous situation at home.

Safety first…

But I struggled to get my head around this particular bunch of facts about Neutron Stars, which I happened across.
As you do.

A neutron star is so dense that one teaspoon (5 millilitres) of its material would have a mass over 5.5×10¹² kg, (5 500 000 000 000 kg) about 900 times the mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The resulting force of gravity is so strong that if an object were to fall from a height of one meter it would only take one microsecond (0.00001 s) to hit the surface of the neutron star, and would do so at around 2000 kilometers per second, or 7.2 million kilometers per hour (7 200 000 kph).

Always handy to have masses measured in Great Pyramids of Giza, I find.

“Hey – I have’t seen you in weeks! Wow – have you lost weight?”
“Why yes. I’ve exercising more and eating less and I’ve lost about 0.000000001636 Great Pyramids of Giza. I feel great.”

Anyway, to put that into perspective, here on earth 5 ml of water weighs 0.005 kg and an object falling from 1m would take about 0.1 sec to hit the floor and would do so at 35kph. Which you really should survive, depending on your landing position.
Personally, I’d feel less confident about coming out of a collision with the floor at 7.2 million kph unscathed.

Consider yourselves educated.

It’s a pleasure.

One question that did arise, however, was around the difference between a Bistro and a Brasserie, given that Societi Brasserie is the new sister restaurant of Societi Bistro in Gardens.It turns out that aside from spelling and Scrabble scores, there are some minor, but important, differences between the two.

According to wikipedia:

A bistro, sometimes spelled bistrot, is, in its original Parisian incarnation, a small restaurant serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting. Bistros are defined mostly by the foods they serve. Home cooking with robust earthy dishes, and slow-cooked foods like cassoulet are typical. [link]

while:

A brasserie is a type of French restaurant with a relaxed, upscale setting, which serves single dishes and other meals. The word ‘brasserie’ is also French for “brewery” and, by extension, “the brewing business”. A brasserie can be expected to have professional service, printed menus, and, traditionally, white linen — unlike a bistro which may have none of these. [link]

These definitions don’t quite fit with the similar ambience and menu at the two Cape Town Societi businesses, but with food and service like we got last night, I think we’ll happily let them off.

UPDATE: According to their website , the Brasserie I was at last night is in Constantia, not Tokai. If this is the case, Constantia is MUCH bigger than I thought. And it probably includes a golf course and a prison as well. If you stretch it still further, you might get a beach in as well.

@6000 Write a blog post about it. For the sake of our DM inbox.

Most Twitter DM (direct message) spam from your followers or followees comes from someone doing something a bit foolish, like giving their login details to an unscrupulous third party, which then (unsurprisingly) acts unscrupulously, as is the nature of the beast.
Of course, most users would baulk at the suggestion that they would ever willingly share their password with any third party, but that’s actually what you do each and every time you authorise an app to use your login.
Many (most?) apps are completely harmless in this regard, but if you authorise a dodgy app which is phishing for your details, then you only have yourself to blame. And what does a “dodgy app” look like exactly? Well, if you need me to tell you that, you’re probably in trouble already, but thankfully Twitter steps in to spare our blushes:

Be wary of any application that promises to make you money or get you followers. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Beware also of links promising free shopping vouchers, iPods, iPads and weight loss tips. And have a look at Twitter’s SpamWatch account.

So how do you know if your Twitter account has been compromised? There are a few rather obvious signs:

Have you:

• Noticed unexpected Tweets by your account.
• Seen unintended DM’s (direct messages) sent from your account.
• Observed other account behaviors you didn’t make or approve (like following, unfollowing, or blocking).
• Received a notification from us stating that, “You recently changed the email address associated with your Twitter account” (even though you haven’t changed your email address).

If so, then yes, your account has probably been compromised. Incidentally, if you are on the receiving end of such spam, don’t click on any links therein, but do let the sender know that you received it. Then they can prevent the problem from continuing.

Right, so your account has been compromised. How do you uncompromise it?

3 quick and easy steps:

1. Change your password, via the Password Tab in Account Settings.
2. Revoke access to any applications that you don’t use or don’t recognise, via the Applications Tab in Account Settings.
3. Update your password on trusted 3rd party applications.

It might also be a good idea to scan your computer for malware as well, especilly if the problem persists despite taking the steps above.

The best thing to do is not to be silly in the first place. You wouldn’t wander round giving your PIN code to everyone, would you? Guard your login details in the same way, stand back and watch as none of the above applies to you. And limit those dodgy links as well – report spam you receive (using the “Report Spam” button) and let Twitter admin do the rest.

Incidentally, the same rules apply to Facebook as well. You can change your password via this page and revoke dodgy apps here.

Before and even during arrival at school, she was excited and upbeat. I captured this as she lined up for the first time, ready to go into class and, I guess, as the reality of the situation suddenly hit home. But there were no tears. She’s a tough little thing and by Wednesday, we were dropping her off at the front gate and she was making her own way through to the school yard – albeit with her big brother by her side.

I imagine that there will be another little dip in confidence on Monday morning, but all things considered, she’s settled really quickly and we’re proud of them both.

One quick mention for Pammie-Jane who is (health willing) going to be playing with the sharks in the waters of East London (and more!) as she attempts another ridiculous Ironman. Good Luck!

We’ve all heard that the Chilis will be playing in South Africa in 2010 before the World Cup and in 2010 after the World Cup and that they also are playing in South Africa in 2011 and, of course, who could forget those several times in 2012 that the Red Hot Chili Peppers will be playing in South Africa?

However, this new information (much like all the other information), which pushes the potential concerts back still further to 2013 comes (apparently, allegedly) straight from the horse’s mouth. And the particular equine in question is Attie van Wyk, founder of Big Concerts. This demonstrates the sheer desperation of the social media music scene in getting very excited about a band whose biggest hits wowed us just 21 years ago who may or may not play a concert which may or may not be happening in South Africa in the next 23½ months.

If the tour does happen, they will be supported (ever so ably, I’m sure) by The Parlotones. Tickets - to our great surprise and annoyance - will be available from Computicket, whose website – to our great surprise and annoyance – will crash on the morning that sales open.
The concerts will be well attended, the beer will run out after 20 minutes and the sound at the Cape Town Stadium will be a bit crap.

See you there!

It’s a job that has to be done during the summer months, because the lower water table in the drier seasons lessens the risk of your pool literally popping out of the ground. (On first hearing about this possible phenomenon, I was desperate to see it happen – then I saw how much it was going to cost me if it did.)
But the summer months have weeks that are in the mid-20s, which would have been fine. Right now, in an effort to get any sort of comfort, I’m writing this from next door’s pond.

Wow – I said that like it was a good thing. Meh – it was fun evening: good food, good company, crap music.

After yesterday’s near miss when it came to getting up the West Coast, today’s return journey was rather unexciting, tinged with heat, more heat, a lack of sleep, some heat and a mild hangover.

Passing Koeberg

Mrs 6k drove and I looked out of the window at the scenery passing by at *cough* 120kph. This grey one sums up how I’m feeling this evening – distinctly lacking colour.

The bread is made, the uniforms are ironed and it’s back to school for our two tomorrow. Back to some sort of normality here too – but right now, I need my bed.

There are four countries in the world which end in a letter which no other country does. Can you name them?

For clarification, none of them are Canada – that’s because Canada ends in an A and other countries names also end in an A. Botswana, Algeria, India for example (and there are a lot more besides).

OK, so I’ll give you one (ooer!): Iraq.

Iraq ends in a Q and no other country’s name ends in a Q.

So now you have 1 out of 4.

1. Iraq
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Can you name the other three?

Don’t comment here (in fact, I’ll switch them off for this post), rather click here and send me an email.
No prizes, save for maybe getting your name up here if you are one of the first to get it right.

Oh – and no googling either, ok? Think, rather.

UPDATE: Answers now published if you can’t get that brain working!