Category: this is south africa

Zeitgeist

Posted on

Well done, South Africa.
The Google Zeitgeist results have been released, detailing exactly what the world was looking for in the 1.2 trillion searches done throughout 2012 and the good news is that you can narrow it down and see exactly what those people who walk amongst us were looking up this year.

You can see the full results for South Africa here, but have a few highlights courtesy of me:

The most searched image was “Lady Gaga”.
The most searched TV programme was “American Idol”.
The most searched person was “Whitney Houston”.
The most searched “How to” term, was “How to kiss”.

Can you say “Shallow”? (Although I have to say that it’s not really much better globally speaking).
And then, just in case you were wondering if things could get any worse, the most searched term overall was “OLX”.

OLX.co.za is a local online classifieds site. And that doesn’t seem so bad as your top searched term until you actually look at what it is you are searching for: “OLX”.

Why on earth would you need to search for “OLX”?

Were you perhaps struggling over the spelling of the company name? Because that spelling would be “O-L-X”, pretty much exactly what you just typed into Google.
Google is hugely useful to find shortcuts and information on a huge range of subjects. However, searching for “OLX” on Google actually just adds an extra and wholly unnecessary step to your web experience. For me, it’s just another sad reminder that people have actually stopped thinking altogether and will just autonomously Google anything rather than actually working it out for themselves.

Oh dear.

Well done, South Africa. Well done.

It’s the end of the world as we know it

Posted on

And I feel fine.

Robert Sefatsa of Soweto feels rather differently though:

T he Constitutional Court has received an “extremely urgent court application” for the appointment of an “investigative task team” to prepare for the end of the world on December 21, according to a report on Wednesday.

Robert Sefatsa, 38, a Soweto resident, also stated in papers handed in at court that the government needed to form a new department to prepare for judgement day next Friday, Beeld reported.

He suggested that the new state department should be called the “department of paranormal and esoteric sciences”.

Sebatsa pointed out that according to the Mayan calendar, judgement day would be on December 21, and it was therefore a matter of extreme urgency that South Africa and other countries make their preparations for the apocalypse.

A commission of inquiry should include geologists, statisticians, astronomists, economists and extra-terrestrial technologists, and should be competent to cope with evacuation procedures, sea and air logistics, and resettlement, he said.

Seriously, Robert? What’s the point of all this expense if the world is going to end next Friday. Then again, I suppose there’s no point in saving any money if the world is going to end next Friday. And if the world is really going to end next Friday, where exactly are you planning to evacuate to and resettle in?

In other news, the rest of the world has known about this whole Mayan Calendar nonsense for years and years now. Has news of our impending doom really only just reached Soweto? Perhaps the most laughable thing about this application is that he expects the Government to actually do something inside a nine day timeframe.

Of course, Mr Sebatsa, as a South African citizen and taxpayer, is completely within his rights to make this court application. Just as the Constitutional Court is completely within their rights to throw it out and then pop down to the Mystic Boer to laugh it off over a few brandies.

However, this is South Africa, and thus I fully expect to be blogging tomorrow about the new DPES which is hastily being set up in Pretoria.

The 6000 miles… UFO post

Posted on

Cape Town is abuzz with news of UFO sightings last night. Now, usually, what I would do at this point is ignore the crazies and get on with my life, but today I find myself in a rather awkward situation.

Cos last night, I saw it too.

Just after footy down at Hellenic in Green Point, so probably just before 8:30, we were having a post game chat when I spotted the thing in the sky, probably over Sea Point kind of area and moving slowly from left to right – notably across the gusty SouthEaster. It was a bit “odd”, and I pointed it out to a few on my mates, and we watched it for probably about 45 seconds.
At first I thought that it was a helicopter in the cloud. We could occasionally see one or two lights, but the majority of the light was a cone shape, like an aircraft light shining into low cloud.

Which is what we thought it was, but there was no cloud. It was a completely clear evening.

And then, after about a minute, it just faded away. The lights we saw simply weren’t there any more. There was still no cloud – you could clearly see the stars, despite the light pollution from the city.

Here is a perfect example of that “cone” light effect from the Life is Savage blog. That’s what I saw. Right there.

And here is a video: check about 12 seconds in for a very clear light and – again – that cone shape.

You know me, Ted. I’m very sceptical.
And I’m in no way suggesting that we’re about to be invaded, kidnapped or probed by aliens.

But I simply can’t explain what I saw last night.

UPDATE: We are not alone! No, I don’t mean that I believe in aliens, I just mean that lots of people saw the UFO last night.

UPDATE 2: And here’s the answer. All man made. Nothing to see here.

Oh, Hello…

Posted on

Hmm. This has crept in under the radar so far (at least it seems to have done), but look what’s just opened:

Not sure quite where 6000 miles… fits into their category list, but I guess Entertainment /Lifestyle is the way forward.

After all, are you not entertained?

I’ve cheekily slipped myself in for Best Religious/Spiritual Blog as a reserve category.
Winning.

Registrations close on the 14th December and voting begins on the 19th – 28th.
What? Did you have plans for those days?

No, Seriously?

Posted on

Quick plug for something you might want to do with a spare evening over the festive period and which we did last night: Alan Committie’s latest show No, Seriously? at Theatre on the Bay (and then later at Pieter Toerien Main Theatre – Johannesburg And Reef).

I was a little reluctant to go along – with seat rights in the middle, right at the front (3rd row, at least) at the intimate TotB, it promised to be totes awkies if he didn’t amuse – but I trusted in Mrs 6k’s judgement and I’m glad I did.

Look, it’s pretty silly humour for much of the time, but there’s no problem with that after a Peroni or two at Primi around the corner.
Without wanting to give too much away, tourists, Red Sightseeing Buses, Diep River and – memorably – Pinelands, come in for some serious ribbing. Committie’s Nokia 5110 carrying alter-ego Johan van der Walt makes an appearance, along with abrasive clairvoyant Trevor Tahor with his nasal “I don’t like you. You’re an unpleasant person with a very negative aura.”

In fact, the interaction with the audience throughout was fantastic – very entertaining.

The second half of the show was especially good, with “a little bit of politics” as Ben Elton would say, as well as a wonderful re-enactment of Dirty Dancing, which has to be seen to be believed.

All in all, some light-hearted fun ahead of the holiday.

Book here

Disclosure: I have nothing to disclose. The tight fisted git completely ignored my request for free tickets and thus this was an evening funded entirely from my wife’s pocket. I’m merely sharing my experience with you so you can go and enjoy it too. Although I doubt that my wife will pay for you as well.