Mixed feelings

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Actually, even since I wrote the title, they’re already becoming less mixed.

Because while these guys are very cute, all I can hear is their parents constant honking.

And as my regular reader will know, Egyptian Geese are far from my favourite birds.

Perhaps in an effort to prevent immediate slaughter by means of distraction, their chicks are quite cute. However, Mum and Dad are understandably very protective, which makes them even more unpleasant to be around: now they are noisy and aggressive.

And has it even worked? The neighbourhood Whatsapp group was abuzz with “six ickle chicks” messages earlier, but when I dutifully went out to get some pics, I could only find three. Have the others been sequestered away somewhere for safekeeping, or have they already been eaten by the neighbourhood cats? The one that tries to hang around about under our bird table would be my main suspect, and I would fully support a full-on anserine attack on it, whether or not any accusations of goosecide can be proven.

In the meantime, the next few weeks seem very likely to be full of goose noise.

Joy.

New York film locations map

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Just the other day, I was saying about just how good some of the stuff on Youtube is.
Here’s another example.

I’m not a fan of New York or films. I’ve never been there, and I don’t watch them. But this was just a very clever way of sharing the recent cultural (movie) history of the city, and I even got most of the references.

Beautifully made – the video and the map – again demonstrating the talent and innovation that is out there, even on such a small channel. He got me to click the Subscribe button.
And no surprise to me that one of the first commenters was Casey Neistat: similar vibe right there. And that’s a recommendation if ever there was one.

Filthy out

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Warning: Ramblings ahead.

A properly filthy day out, but because the microwave exploded yesterday afternoon, I had to go and take it to the microwave (see if we can) repair (it) shop, to see if they could repair it.

As a scientist, if ever we wanted to know what something did in a system, we would remove it from that system, and see what happened. That’s how we worked out that humans need oxygen to survive.

Probably, anyway.

The microwave, removed from the household system with what I think might be a transformer issue, is clearly very important in warming drinks, hot sacks and Saturday evening’s takeaway curry. In fact, given how much we’ve missed it already, I’d argue that it is almost as essential as the oxygen in the house. “Almost” because no-one has actually died yet, but given the rising levels of frustration each time someone tries to use the defunct microwave, there’s every chance that someone might.

Thus, when the guys at the repair place get in touch tomorrow, if the prognosis is not good, I will be buying another microwave very shortly after I take the call. I mean, RIP to the microwave and all that, but in the cold light of day, it’s a wholly replaceable kitchen appliance, not a family member – whatever it might think.

There’s no time for emotion here.

I’m heading out to my car park this evening, but such are the miserable conditions out, I might even be pushed into lighting the fire for the first time this year. I have to think of those I leave behind, see?
It’s 14oC out, and it’s been raining fairly consistently all day. 30mm so far, but I’m quite sure that there’s more on the way. It feels dark and grey and wintery, so I think that a nice fire would cheer up the living room a little.

It would also dry the washing, so there’s a practical side to things as well.

I shall do it.

One thing which has been noticeable this afternoon is the reappearance of our Cape Rain Frogs. This is the first big rain of the season, and they are already chirping away with both glee and delight, but where have they been for the 6 months of bakingly dry summer? In their burrows underground, that’s where. Because although they are frogs, they prefer stick to damp ground, because they’re a bit rubbish at anything to do with water: they can’t swim and they can drown if they get out of their depth.

Pathetic.

Right, let me sort some dinner (stove top) and light that fire. We might as well dip our toes into autumn and winter and embrace the atmosphere. Before heading to an unheated car park for 2½ hours.

Data is beautiful, conspiracy theorists are not

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Just a quickie today, but it’s a goodie too.

Rate of occupancy of AirBnb establishments in the USA today (red is high, blue is lower):

Path of solar eclipse across the USA tomorrow:

One of those times where correlation is probably entirely equal to causation.

Of course, there are those who think the solar eclipse is a Masonic/Jewish/Government plot to… do… something:

On Telegram, one well-known conspiracy influencer known as the Health Ranger, who has 75,000 subscribers, wrote that the eclipse “sure would be the perfect cover story if our terrorist government wanted to take down the power grid and cause mass chaos while blocking all citizen communications. Kinda convenient if you want to declare martial law and unleash a dictatorship before Trump can win in November.”

Yeah, we’ve met the Health Ranger before on 6000 miles… He’s a twat.

Sovereign-citizen guru David Straight has also posited a wild conspiracy called Operation Balloon, claiming that the government, using the eclipse blackout as cover, will deploy balloons filled with poisonous gas. Straight didn’t, however, explain why the government wouldn’t just do this at night, when it’s also dark and people are typically not staring at the sky.

You almost lost me at “Sovereign-citizen”, but I’m actually glad that I carried on reading.
David Straight: what an absolute Health Ranger, hey?

As we’ve discussed before (here and here, for example), because a lot of people are pretty stupid, these conspiracy theorists can be quite dangerous. And I wish we could do something about that. But, given that there’s not a huge amount we can do about their access to the internet (and with that, their access to those stupid people), we might as well just laugh at the bullshit, as the world crumbles around us.

INCOMING! (Winter)

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Right. That’s it. Summer ended a couple of weeks or a bit more ago, and Autumn has clearly just been bypassed.

I say this because OMG WTF BBQ have you seen the rain forecast for tomorrow and Monday in the Western Cape?

Bad in Cape Agulhas:

Badder in Cape Town:

I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations, and that’s a lot of rain.
And this is Black South Easter rain, not a cold front. An overflowing shelf of precipitation, pinned against the Cape coast for 48 hours, not going anywhere.

Might be advisable to check your gutters ahead of the winter, like, now. Today.

And then wrap up warmly, grab some red wine, light the fire, and hunker down.