Category: economic issues

Should have seen it coming

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The Sun newspaper has done an investigation into the £40m Psychic, Medium and Clairvoyant industry in the UK:

There have been numerous reports of people being ripped off by charlatans who claim to have abilities they do not.
All over the country mediums are charging anything between £30 and £200 for a one-hour session.

Of course, having read their damning report on this fraudulent, rip-off industry which preys on the most vulnerable and stupid members of society, if you still wish to contact a psychic, you can do so via, er… The Sun newspaper’s own “Mystic Meg”:

mmeg

And at £1.53 per minute, that’s “just” £91.80 for an hour of complete bullshit psychic insight.

I predict that a lot of people are going to continue being ripped off.

Vote for Brian

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You may remember a few months ago, a request on here to help out a friend with his vertical wind turbine start up project. Although Brian reached his target of R10,000 with that appeal, you may have felt that the amounts he was asking for were a bit much for you to contribute.

Well, now he’s after R5,000,000 but the good news is that you can help him get there for a just the price of an SMS.

That’s because Brian has made it through – from literally thousands of hopefuls – to the final 32 in the SABC entrepreneurs reality series The Big Break Legacy. And the winner of that gets a nice R5 million cash injection to help them achieve their business dream, which in Brian’s case, is set out here:

Future Power Solutions (VWind SA) are the manufactures of The African Turbine and our goal is to offer the control of electrical power generation to individuals & businesses across the country.
The African Turbine is a small vertical turbine; it is silent, inexpensive and can be installed in a practical and easy manner. It is 100% locally produced with a modular design that is aesthetically pleasing, bird friendly and offers advertising opportunities.
We will focus primarily on the manufacture of the turbines and have partnered with a distribution company that is fully BBEEE accredited with strong ties into Govt and industry to take the units to market.
We have had more than 2 years of R&D and prototype testing; we are now the stage of having industrial designers’ setup factory requirements and building the market ready version for SABS approval. Initially we will make use of imported electrical motors with the goal of bringing this process in-house when we go into full production.

I like that local production idea. Supporting local industry and creating local skills and employment is hugely important.

Brian has been working tirelessly on this project for a long time now and, in my opinion, certainly deserves this “big break”. Even if he doesn’t win, the exposure for his product will surely be very helpful in getting him further down the path.

You can help him out by sending his name: BRIAN MAWDSLEY via SMS to 33614. 

You can follow Brian’s progress via twitter: @brianmawdsley.

Not all like that

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And then, amongst all the madness and bad press from the Oscar Pistorious case, (his dad hasn’t helped) a bit of sense from Amanda Willard in the Huffington Post:

On any level this is heartbreaking but what we need to leave behind is the belief, created by a bloodthirsty media on the scent of an emotive story, that this all happened against the backdrop of the most violent country in the world. Quite simply it isn’t.

When it comes to gun-related homicide, South Africa comes in at no.12 with many South American and Caribbean countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, Belize and El Salvador significantly ranking way above it.

Holiday destinations such as Jamaica are much higher up the list. Even the location for the 2016 Olympics and the next FIFA World Cup, Brazil, a country comparable in many ways for the gap between rich and poor in society, is above South Africa in this table.

I have visited this beautiful country roughly ten times and travelled from the tropical heat of the KwaZulu-Natal, to the urban excitement of Johannesburg. From the stunning beaches of the Cape to experiencing sunsets on safari. It’s unbeatable.

Once again, it’s not so much the “revelation” that there are problems here in SA, it’s more the exceptionalism and disproportionate and sensationalist reporting that is doing the harm.

Full text here, including full on Apocalypse predictions in the dramatic comments section.

Enjoy!

Now we’re DOOMed

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LOL. See what I did there?

No, of course not, not yet anyway.

wastesometimem

But:

The widely-used insect repellent Deet appears to be losing its effectiveness against mosquitoes, scientists say.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine say mosquitoes are first deterred by the substance, but then later ignore it.

This explains a lot. Despite my best efforts, I am still regularly attacked in my bedroom late at night (please note that no links to current bail hearings are implied here). And while I’ve tried many different repellents, I’ve never been able to get hold of any N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide. Just as well, it turns out, since, like antibiotics,  it doesn’t work anymore.

But how did it even work in the first place?

For many years, it was not clear exactly how the chemical worked, but recent research suggests that insects simply do not like the smell.

So whoever came up with Deet obviously never had to change a nappy then. Because you have to become resistant and immune to that nasty smell as well. You can overcome it. As can mosquitoes with Deet, it seems.

So we need something else. Some way of “Deet”erring these vicious bloodsuckers. And there’s definitely money to be made here.

I’m still working on my Castle Milk Stout ingestion method. As yet, there appears to be no discernible effect on the insects, but the research has been fun and probably deserves a whole lot more investigation.

Cape Town third most popular with BA customers

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After SAA withdrew their daily Cape Town – London flights last year, citing lack of demand, British Airways has announced that the route is its third most popular, behind New York and Miami, but notably ahead of the international hubs of Dubai and Hong Kong.

Out of 175 destinations worldwide, only New York and Miami attracted more bookings than Cape Town, with Dubai the fourth most popular choice and Hong Kong the fifth.

Yeah – that’s what I just said.

Anyway, the apparent upshot of this news is that Cape Town may well be among the first cities to see BA’s new Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” aircraft, which are due for delivery in May this year.

BA’s Dreamliners will be configured to carry 214 passengers, with 35 seats in business class, 25 in economy plus and 154 in economy.
Not only will they have the latest Thales in-flight entertainment system, with larger screens in all cabins, but they will also allow personal devices, including laptops, to be connected, using in-seat power.

Which is all very nice, but doesn’t really make sense to me, given that this is one of their most popular routes and that the Boeing 747-400s which BA currently uses on the CPT-LHR route can carry almost twice as many passengers as the Dreamliner.

Here’s a really popular route. Let’s immediately halve the capacity of our flights on it.

How very SAA.

And for those of you who are wondering why BA doesn’t go the other ways and use something really huge, like an A380 on the Cape Town run, it’s because BA don’t own any A380s at the moment (they’ll get their first one in August) (yes, I was shocked at this too). And even if they did, Cape Town’s runway is too short to accommodate the big Airbus.

a380787

While Air France and Lufthansa both use A380s on their Joburg routes, the only sight Cape Town gets of them is during ceremonial flyovers.