Further to Christina’s post and my comments therein ….

The Congress of the South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the Western Cape called on city managers yesterday to dismantle Cape Town’s Greenpoint stadium and turn it into low-cost housing, saying that engineers and architects believed it was possible.

The stadium, built for the Soccer World Cup, has been struggling to sustain itself and to host events, largely due to high hiring costs. It has cost the city R44,6m in maintenance each year. The total operating budget was R56,7m in the past financial year, with only R12m expected to be generated by hiring it out.

Concerns have also been growing that a number of other World Cup stadiums around the country such as Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit and Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium could become white elephants, especially given that they are all funded by ratepayers.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=175439

You’ve got to laugh.

 

The renegade swift


                     Jonathan

There once was a nondescript swift
(Try this after several glasses)
Whose antics left other swifts miffed,
In partic’lar the swift upper classes.

Problem was: he didn’t do swooping
Or hanging round roof-eaves or gables.
And nest-boxes left his wings drooping,
Like the corners of cloths on fine tables. Continue reading “The renegade swift”

Another ponder…

If there can be such a a thing as a ‘ponder,’ that is. I have mentioned here before a SciFi story series I have been reading – the first book in the series is ‘1632,’ by Eric Flint and you can get a legitimately free copy here.

The series is about the effects that might happen if a small American town were to be transplanted whole, by a cosmic accident, back in time to the middle of the 17th Century, in Germany. One of the story arcs concerns the effect on music (and the arts…,) when 17th century musicians and composers are exposed to, firstly, 21st century instruments, the piano in particular, and secondly, the canon of great works written in the golden age of classical music which, in 1632, had hardly begun. (By the way, the author does not fall into the error of making people, of all walks of life,) in the 17th Century any less smart or talented.)

The thought that came to mind was this – born out of reading the books, but not, I hasten to add, a theme in the stories. As a confirmed atheist, I wonder what might have been the inspiration for many of the great composers, absent the overriding presence and influence of the Church(es) in Europe? Whence the great Bach Oratorios, The Mozart Agnus Dei, and the foundations that led to the glories of the greatest of them all, Mr B himself?

What’s the past participle of twit?

My close companion Backside has gone and done it. I was recently distracted by cherished colleagues’ voluptuous verses and he went and registered me at Twitter. Oldjanus@Oldjanus, as you might expect.

If you ever feel like following me, you’d better hurry because I can’t deal with more than a few thousand at once. Not that I’m saying much. It’s all very social, innit?

New Pome Competition

Much as I like to see the Wolf avatar in all its glory on the front page, one problem about winning a comp is the duty of setting the next.

There I was, sittimg idly on the terrace, consuming a piece of boar fresh off the barbie with a green salad and a glass of Cave Country wondering what should be the subject of the next competition. Then, out of a clear blue sky, a flock of migratory swifts appeared, diving down in Dambuster fashion to grab a drink from the pool and flying unashanedly within the pillars of the terrace.

So, I thought, SWIFT, noun or adjective, any form from limerick to plain verse to iambic pentameter. All entries to be in by midnight GMT, 15th July, the anniversary of my whelping.

Plase leave any entries here.

OZ

This is amazing!

I have recently discovered the joys of TED. If you do not know the site, do yourself a favour and watch some of the articles.

Here is a video involving ‘flying quadrotors, small, agile robots that swarm, sense each other, and form ad hoc teams — for construction, surveying disasters and far more.’

 

Something I have pondered.

In my more philosophical moments, that is. How can we know whether we see colours in the same way? We can agree that something is red, and we can define the colour ‘red’ as reflected light of a wavelength of so many angstroms, but, since colour perception is not only a matter of physics, but also of interpretation by the brain, so how can we know, even though we both agree that something is ‘red,’ that what you are seeing is the same as what I see?

Now some scientists seem to agree with me 🙂

Here’s an interesting little test.