A quick round up

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Let’s do a quick recap.

My legs. They still work. And football was a lot of fun, despite the result. I’m giving myself a day off gym and other exercise today, but I’m both happy and mildly surprised to say that I could probably actually possibly do stuff if I wanted to*.

Talking of football, I’ll just repeat myself on this one:

Never bet against Real Madrid in the Champions League*.

An amazing game last night, which I almost ditched in favour of bed with 10 minutes to go, but then (wisely) chose not to. Because you never bet against Real Madrid in the Champions League*.

And, I have to say, VAR even added to the drama. [oi – stop throwing things at me!]
Incredible tension when that second goal went in and was disallowed.
Incredible scenes when that second goal was confirmed…

I added this song to my 2024 Spotify playlist:

Maximo Park meets The Enemy meets The Maccabees, maybe?
Raging, but controlled. Ferociously introspective, but dealing with things. Just.

And a reminder that all my Spotify playlists are here for your enjoyment, free of charge*.

It’s a beautiful day outside, but wow, it’s chilly this morning. It looks like it will be dropping into single figures this weekend after another cold front due tomorrow. The last one didn’t really deliver on its promises, with just 6mm of rain. Still, taking no chances, I have checked all the gutters are clear and I’ve got the firewood ready.
Also, for the first time this year: socks. [Audience gasps]

Anger at Adobe. Anger at James Popsys.

Wow. Photographers can get angry. But it’s justified this time, I think.

Adobe, who charge us many, many Rands for the use of their software (which is obviously fair enough – it’s my choice to subscribe), are embracing AI to the point where they actually use the term “Skip the photoshoot” on their Generative Background menu.

Yeah. Why bother employing a ‘tog?

In a world where AI is replacing many jobs, not least in the creative sector, this feel like a real kick in the teeth.

And photography Youtubers are at it too. James Popsys released a video sponsored by AI photo development tool Luminar Neo. In this video – and I hope you’re sitting down for this revelation – he extolled the virtues of the AI photo development tool Luminar Neo.

This did not go down well with his viewers. There were comments like:

James a couple of weeks ago – embrace imperfections in photos.
James now he’s being paid – use AI to remove power lines.

and:

Yay, a new video from James….. oh, it’s a 12 minute ad for AI 🙁

and:

Why not just sell your camera and start making photos with an AI image generator?

Which is exactly what Adobe seem to be suggesting above.

Look, there’s likely a place for AI in many aspects of our lives*. And there’s definitely a place for it in photography. But to go in this heavy-handed (and I’m looking at you both, Adobe and James Popsys), well, that’s not the way to put it out there.

* T&Cs apply

Right…

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I’m playing football this evening despite a couple of stiff quads.
Mainly on this leg here [indicates leg], and this one here [indicates other leg].

But they’ll soon loosen up once I get out there, right?

Unfortunately, I have to get right across Cape Town CBD at rush hour before they (and I) get the chance to get out anywhere.

Better hit the road.

More tomorrow.

Pass!!!

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Well done to the Boy Wonder, who, having turned a whole 18 late last month, yesterday nailed his driving test at the first attempt:

I like the examiner’s three exclamation marks. All too often, we think of driving examiners as one of those professions who are just out to get us, trying to find ways to fail candidates. But they’re just doing their jobs, and of course they need to be firm and abide by the rules that they are given.

Looking at the mark scheme, this was nowhere near to being a close thing, and looking at the exclamation marks, she was clearly happy to give him the good news.
There was never any need for any punctuation, but she chose to show her human side.

Thank you, indecipherable signature lady.

Is this winter (at last)?

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I don’t want to alarm anyone, but we’re well into May, and we’ve only really had one brief spell of rain so far this year. And that wasn’t even a cold front: it was a cut-off low that wasn’t as bad as anyone really expected it to be. But however the rain fell, it was the only rain we’ve had in over 5 months.

I’m not sure if anyone is getting a bit anxious over this situation, given Cape Town’s recent droughty history. Maybe we’ve all been concentrating too much on the twin disasters of loadshedding and the upcoming election to notice how dry it’s been, but with the dam levels at just 62%, we really could do with a bit of precipitation now, please.

Fortunately, today looks like it might actually deliver. A proper cold front, with a gusty Northwester and anything up to 12mm of rain heading in sometime this afternoon before things thankfully resolve ahead of the footy match I’m playing on Wednesday evening. And then it looks like Friday might chuck a bit more at us, if we’re lucky.

Look, I know that we all wish that summer could go on forever. The sunshine is great for generating electricity, making the decision to braai a lot easier, and encouraging us to get out and about. Not least to the pub. But that’s clearly not practical in even the medium term. You have to take the rough with the smooth when breaking your eggs to make an omelette.

So get your firewood ready, wrap up warmly, and let’s face the 3 months of cold, wet weather so that we can actually enjoy the brighter, warmer stuff when it comes around again. And we can rejoice in not having to use standpipes to get our drinking water.

Polar bear anatomy joke only works until you actually think about it a bit

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Spotted online recently:

I haven’t been living in the UK for 20 years now. And I certainly wasn’t there this April.
But I am aware of several (or more) people who were. Among their number, apparently, were some people working for the Met Office, one of the world’s leading weather services, providing forecasts and climate data for almost 170 years, and Paul Cox, a right-wing comedian of whom I had never heard before seeing his tweet above.

Obviously, Paul wouldn’t want to hear that April had been (just) warmer than average, given that this sort of news doesn’t suit the GB News agenda. But then equally, I doubt that the Met Office really cares about the GB News agenda. And I don’t think that the Met Office would deliberately sully its image by just tossing out incorrect information to make Paul and his opinion-orientated cronies grumpy.

Presumably, Paul thinks it’s been colder than the Met Office data suggests and thus doesn’t agree with the Met Office’s statement, but then he’s likely relying on anecdotal evidence like it feeling a bit chilly when he went to pick up some fags at the Spar that Tuesday morning, rather than their more than 200 weather stations across the UK measuring:

…a large variety of different meteorological parameters, including air temperature; atmospheric pressure; rainfall; wind speed and direction, humidity; cloud height and visibility.

No axe to grind here, but I know whose data I think might be more accurate on how just warm April was.

But then Paul goes weirdly off-message and tries to compare the UK’s average temperature in April to:

A polar bears [sic] ball bag

I presume that by “ball bag”, he is using the colloquial term for scrotum.

The thing is though, the UK’s mean temperature for April was 8.3o, and a polar bear, being a mammal, has a body temperature of around 37o. Even allowing for the slightly cooler temperature required for effective spermatogenesis, the seasonal nature of this biological process in polar bears, their bouts of swimming in icy waters, and their light hibernation during the winter, the average temperature of a polar bear’s ball bag will still comfortably remain somewhere in the mid-30os.

This is clearly way higher than the UK in April – or any other month.
What on earth were you thinking about, Paul?

There is absolutely no chance that the average temperature calculated by the Met Office in April is warmer than a polar bears ball bag.

Now if only he’d suggested the bottom of a penguin’s foot…