My Favourite Superhero

On Father’s Day, what better than this set of… erm… photo-drawings from Italian… erm… photo-drawer Giulia Pex?

She took photos of her dad doing mundane tasks and then jazzed them up because her dad is her favourite superhero.

superh

Even at age [quite old] my Dad can regularly still be found on the roof (although not if he remembers to take his medication). I’ve never seen him opt for the pose above though: he’d probably be painting the chimney.

Anyway, this goes out to my Dad and any other father’s out there who are their kids’ favourite superheroes.

Happy Father’s Day.

Quota Instagram photo

Taken earlier this week in Claremont.
Winter sunrise in Cape Town. Gorgeous.

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I’m out in the sticks again this long weekend, ahead of a hectic week in the lab, so some relaxation is not a bad idea. Braai done, beer done and brandy in hand, I’m uploading this and then I’m going to hit the sack.

And why not?

Lego Tube maps are great

To celebrate the 150th birthday of the London Underground, they (whoever “they” are), have commissioned five Tube maps made from Lego.

2020-Kings-Cross-high-res

They (the maps, not “they”) are being displayed at various Tube stations throughout the network. They range from the system in 1927 through to the future. The one above shows the Tube as it will be in 2020.

Brilliantly, the maps were made by Duncan Titmarsh, who is described as:

the UK’s only certified LEGO professional

yet another job that must pay better than science.

The recovery continues…

Not the Rand. That’s buggered.
No, I’m taking about my ankle.

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Here is the result of my first run, “just” 4 months, 11 days and 5 hours after that fateful pothole related incident in January.

Slow and short, sure, but with no fitness and absolutely no confidence whatsoever, and on the wet, slippery, uneven pavements of Wynberg; yeah, I’ll settle for that.

The ankle seems fine, but pretty much everything else is stiff and sore.
Tomorrow is going to bring a world of pain. But I really don’t care. 😉

Sunset won’t get any earlier

We’re in the grips of midwinter here in Cape Town. It’s hell. Almost, anyway.

But the good news is that the shortening of the days is almost over and we are nearly able to look forward to SUMMER!
This week, the sun has been setting at 17:44, but despite the fact that the shortest day (our winter solstice this year is at 07:04 on Friday, 21 June) is actually still a couple of weeks away, the sunset won’t be getting any earlier now, 17:44 is the earliest it’s going to get this year.

The time of sunset in most major cities around the world used to be calculated by astronomers using complicated algorithms, but for Cape Town these days, a guy in a white coat just pops down to Green Point Promenade and counts the number of Instagrammers, before calling the results back in to HQ.

Because of the tilt of the earth on its axis, the sunrise does continue to get a little later until the end of the month, but by that time we’ve already gained another 4 minutes of light in the evening, so I think that we can basically say that summer is pretty much already here.

Some few facts for you:

Cape Town’s shortest day this year is 21st June, with 9h 53m 35s of daylight.
The longest day will be the 21st December, when the sun will rise at 05:32 and set at 19:57, giving us 14h 25m 03s of daylight. If you really think that you can do a lot more with those 4½ hours of light, you might want to consider using artificial light sources to lengthen the useful time each day during winter.

However, the latest sunset next summer will be on the 3rd January 2014, at 20:01. On this day, the sun will be “just” 147,098,000 km from Cape Town, compared with 152,094,000 km on 5th July 2013.

That’s a difference of about 5 million km. Wow. No wonder it gets warmer.

Data from here.