Boring heroism

By 6000 | 6000 | January 7, 2010

As Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell display boring heroism and continue to frustrate the South Africans just down the road at Newlands, I have better things to be doing than blogging. And not that I want SA to succeed in winning this game, but maybe they’d do better if they had a little help.

You know, like the help that the Sharks use – the cheerleading help:

Give me an H!   Ohhhh K!   Give me an S!

Might be a bit warm at Newlands for those trenchcoats, though.

2 Comments | Tagged , | Posted in sport, this is south africa

How Great is China?

By 6000 | 6000 | January 6, 2010

Following on from yesterday’s KVLY Mast post, 6000 miles… got this comment from Wu Li Wong:

These Burj Tower, not so impress me. Great China plan build most biggest grandest powerful tower in world. Man who give us New South China Mall plan build the New South China Tower. These New South China Tower is 2km big and make Burj look to be small Tibetan dwarf dog.

Pride in one’s nation is all very well – especially if that country happens to be building the “most biggest grandest powerful tower in world”. But could such a tower really reduce the Burj Dubai to the proportions of a small Himalayan canine?

       

I googled all over the place but could find no mention of this huge 2km tower. I did find out that despite being the World’s Biggest Mall – it’s also one of the world’s emptiest:

The building includes nearly 7 million sq. ft. of space and is complete with 8,000 parking spots. It also features amusement park rides, themed outdoor areas, an indoor rain forest, and an artificial canal system.
But there is one thing missing … people.

Hmm. With 1,500 store spaces vacant and no sign of economical turnaround any time soon, Wu Li Wong’s claims that it is soon to build to the sky - in his words - not so impress me.

EDIT: Wu is back! (and still connecting via Jo’burg)…

4 Comments | Tagged , , , | Posted in from your comments

The Soccer Festival @ Cape Town Stadium

By 6000 | 6000 | January 6, 2010

I hate it when people call football “soccer”, but even I won’t let that put me off the first official sporting event at the stunning Cape Town Stadium:

The Soccer Festival on Saturday January 23 2010.

The attendance is limited to 20,000 for this match between two local sides Santos and Ajax Cape Town as part of the build-up to test the stadium readiness for the rather larger tasks which follow later this year.
A larger crowd will be allowed for the next warm up event:

The second Cape Town Stadium test event, planned for February 6, 2010, will launch the Cape Town Stadium Rugby Festival.  A Boland Invitational 15 side will play the Vodacom Stormers. The SA 10s Legends vs International 10s Legends promises to be an exciting curtain-raiser to the main match.

Who knows, maybe the Stormers will like it there so much that WPRU will abandon Newlands.
OK – I think we all know.

Tickets for the January 23rd event are available via Computicket while stocks last (obviously).
Event flyer.

EDIT: Just spoken to Jessica from Cape Town Tourism.
She’s just come out of a meeting with SAIL StadeFrance and they have said that CAMERAS WILL BE ALLOWED in the stadium on the 23rd.

She was at pains to say that the ban still remains on other items (firearms, ammunition, fireworks, pointy things, the old South  African flag etc.).
Which is nice.

15 Comments | Tagged , , | Posted in positive thoughts, sport, this is south africa, world cup 2010

The KVLY Mast – soon to be forgotten

By 6000 | 6000 | January 5, 2010

Yesterday, the Burj Khalifa (or Burj Dubai, depending on who you’re reading) was officially opened in Dubai, breaking records all over the place. Stuff to do with elevators and concrete pumping, having lots of floors and a really high mosque.

Oh, and at 828m, it’s also the tallest man-made structure in the world, of course. 828m is a whole lot of height – the Burj would stand over 150m above the 669m Lion’s Head in Cape Town if it were built alongside it, although I’m pretty sure planning permission would be refused. 

And before the Burj came along, that record belonged to the  HUGE Taipei 101, the MASSIVE World Trade Center or the REALLY TALL CN Tower in Toronto. Or did it?

No.

Since the collapse of the Warsaw Radio Mast on 8 August 1991, the KVLY TV Mast in North Dakota, USA has been the tallest extant man-made structure. That was its claim to fame. That and the fact that it transmitted TV signals, but then other shorter masts do that as well.

And now that claim to fame has gone.

Still, at 628.8m high, the KVLY Mast is still tall enough to warrant lots of space filling if you decide to put a picture of it down the side of a blog post.

Lots of space filling. Loads. Big amounts.

More top class blogging tomorrow, then?

*ahem*

(…are you still here?)

7 Comments | Tagged , | Posted in learning curve, that's a bit mad

Quick Change

By 6000 | 6000 | January 5, 2010

I hate shows like America’s Got Talent. I (accidentally) saw one of the semi-finals last week and was amazed that out of nation of 300 million people, these were in the top 20 most talented.
What utter rubbish. 
But then I got emailed this clip.

I haven’t actually worked out how they do it, but they certainly do it well. And I’m not sure that I actually want to know the secret.
I do have to say that it would be a hugely useful thing to be able to do in a bank robbery though.

Not that I’m planning that either.

6 Comments | Tagged , , | Posted in that's a bit mad
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