Estate Agent Photos

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House prices are going up. I think. Sales have likely recovered from the 2008 slump and are (possibly, at least) breaking records. Estate agents are probably doing ok – more than ok – financially. [did you research this post at all? – Ed.]
And, in other news, technology is getting better, cheaper, easier to use and more accessible.
For estate agents and house buyers alike.

At least, oooh, at least a percentage of people looking to buy a house now look online. And with reading skills at an all time low and a picture infamously worth a thousand words, you’d be daft as an estate agency not to be exploiting the power of digital photography and modern web design to sell more property.

If only… if only they could do it better.

tumblr_nxma6czvoO1rrqskho1_1280Beautiful garden (may need some slight attention).

tumblr_nuqgpvtO6o1rrqskho1_1280Some rooms are more difficult to get a clean picture of than others.

 

But it’s not always the estate agents fault. I mean… what exactly is going on here?

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I have it on very good authority that at least one of our local estate agencies are clamping down on dodgy photos making it as far as the pages of their esteemed website. And that sort of approach will worry the guys from Terrible Real Estate Photos dot com, whose business model is based almost entirely around sharing such imagery.

Get there while you can.

Superbugs

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While the events of the past few days may make the apocalypse seem to be coming via other means, I still feel that climate change and the terrorists won’t knock us off quickly enough for us to avoid death by the scourge of antibiotic resistance.

Here’s a Cape Talk interview with the WHO’s Dr Marc Sprenger on the pisspoor Kieno Kammies show this morning.

But it seems that a lot of people simply don’t understand what antibiotic resistance and superbugs are. Research has shown that there are two main categories of misunderstanding here. Both are bad, but you can completely understand the confusion of the 20% of people who have simply misheard the word and believe that it’s actually a “Superb Hug”. That wouldn’t be bad at all. It would be… well… superb. And a hug. Everyone loves hugs. Especially superb ones.

That’s not going to kill you.

The other 80% of those who don’t get what antibiotic resistance is, think that it’s the patient who becomes resistant to the antibiotic:

The researchers asked them about it and got blank faces in response. When probed—and here’s the bit that really shocked me—almost everyone assumed that it’s the person who becomes resistant to antibiotics, not the microbes. You take enough of something, they reasoned, and your body gets used to it and builds up a tolerance. It’s such an intuitive idea that even after they read simple descriptions that explained how bacteria become resistant, they reverted to the resistant-patient idea.

I hope his probe was properly sterilised between interviews.
The implication of this misconception is:

…a pretty serious one, because some people reasoned that if they don’t finish their courses, they’re less likely to become “resistant.” Ironically, that decision could increase the odds of developing an actual drug-resistant infection by leaving a pool of surviving microbes that have experienced and withstood the antibiotics.

Even the term “Superbugs” was described as misleading. Oh dear. I’ve buggered up the title of my post. Properly.

The issues here seem to be much greater than merely the apparent apathy over the dangers of antibiotic resistance, or, as we’re now suggested to describe it: “drug-resistant infection”.

If you change the noun to infections or germs, and make resistant the adjective, you make a huge difference to people’s ability to work out what’s going on. It’s opened my eyes to how much more research we need to be doing on public-health communication.

The problem is that people don’t even understand the concept of what they supposed to be apathetic about. And if we’re ever going to get them to be apathetic about it (and don’t worry, yes, this is merely the first step of my master plan), then we, as microbiologists and healthcare professionals, need to remedy that.

Even though, soon, we’re not going to be able to remedy anything else.

Hybrids

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A bit of light-hearted relief. I think we need it.

So please step forward, well-known and much-respected masters of frivolity, Monsanto™.

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Actually, Monsanto™ weren’t involved here. These are entirely photoshopped hybrid animals. This one is a penguitten. Known for its innate ability play with balls of wool in sub-zero Antarctic temperatures, the penguitten cannot fly, but is an excellent swimmer from the neck down.

There are more to see on this link, but see if you can guess which species the Searex, the Labradorca and the Towl are comprised of before you click through.

This weekend: observations

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Social media hasn’t been a pleasant place to be this weekend. That’s why I’ve pretty much avoided it, dipping in only occasionally to get the latest updates and to see what other people have been saying; sitting on my hands, merely observing. I don’t have the answers to the sort of thing we saw happen in Paris on Friday evening: I’m actually pretty sure that no-one else does either. But social media, with its instant, apparently consequence-free soundbites is hardly the best place for sensible discussion on big matters like these. It has, however, proven to be an interesting social experiment and a wonderful indication of people’s humanity, or lack of it. Some of the stuff I’ve seen has been fairly repugnant – it’s made me reconsider some people’s previous statements on many other things, and it has given me some insight on how I should view their future viewpoints as well.

Specifically, I’ve seen that France, as an example of “The West”, “deserved it”.
I’ve watched as people have suggested that it would be right to use nuclear weapons against IS.
I’ve seen, countless times, that the media only concentrate on violence in “The West” – ignoring the events that occurred in Baghdad and Beirut. On that, perhaps stop watching Western media, in much the same way that I stopped watching Look North when I got fed up just hearing what was happening in Leeds. I’m quite sure that Iraqi, Lebanese and Middle Eastern media generally have disproportionate reporting as well. Go watch them for some of the time. But honestly, don’t watch Western TV news and use Western-based social media the day after the biggest attack on France since World War 2 and expect to hear about much else.
I noted, with some dark amusement, the suggestion that Britain should “ban the burqa”, citing examples of the Netherlands and France as leaders in this policy. Yes, and that’s worked really well in at least 50% of those nations.
I’ve been told, over and over again, from every side, how I should react, what I must and must not say, what’s acceptable to think and what is not. No, thank you.
I’ve seen incredulity that a passport could have apparently survived a suicide bomb. People seem to think that everything nearby simply ceases to exist. Science says otherwise.
I’ve watched as the traditional conspiracy theorists theorise conspiratorially: it was a false flag, it was Israel, it was merely a government plot to push for more control in their homelands, more bombing abroad, more restrictions on immigration.
I’ve seen people say “don’t blame religion”. No. Of course, don’t blame every individual from one one specific religion, but please don’t insult me by telling me that I must pretend that religion has nothing to do with this.

As I have said, I don’t have the answers. But, importantly, neither do any of those other people who have been sharing their differing opinions. That’s not to say that they can’t do so. I’m lucky enough to come from and to live in countries which allow their citizens to speak freely. But after watching the hateful exchanges on Facebook and (more so) Twitter this weekend, I’m reminded of the old adage: Speak Only if You Can Improve Upon the Silence.

I didn’t believe I could, and so I chose to keep quiet. I wish a lot of others had done so too.

On the beach

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On a morning when nothing actually really mattered, I took the boy to do some karate on the beach.

The karate class organise a couple of these Gashikus each year. This time it was on Fishhoek beach, and the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves again. If you’re here from the karate class, you need to head to their Facebook page for more pics. You know where it is. If you want to see some photos of other stuff, then head to my Flickr.