New Vodacom Ad (IDEA)

So you've seen the ad where Schalk Burger misses the ball, it flies out the door and KOK KWAS on a Bushman's head? (Actually it just makes a fairly soft 'doep!')

So here's a follow up ad.

The camera lifts over a chugging generator, following the electric cable to the back of a flat screen TV, lifts over it... A bunch of Bushmen are sitting in the sand, watching the world cup final.(Don't ask me how it got there, I mean, it's like how did the rugby ball get there...?)

It's the scene where Toby Flood pushes Percy. Just before he Bok-springs over the advertising board, the ball TUNKS him on the head. Remember?

Cut to the Bushmen laughing. The one who suffered the original injury picks up the ball, and demonstrates, 'KOK KWAH'

Scene cuts to the Boks raising Mbeki on their shoulders, Bushmen raise their arms, cheering and laughing, showing Bok horns and starting to dance in the sun-filled late afternoon dust.

Go here for more background.

Vodacom Rugby Ad
Agency: FCB Johannesburg

Background: This television commercial is loosely based on the plot of one of the original South African comedies, Jamie Uys' ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy' and features, in various musical guises, the classic Afrikaans folk tune, ‘Ver in die ou Kalahari'. It was flighted for the first time during the test match against Samoa. The commercial opens on a light aircraft flying over the Kalahari. In it, are three Springboks - Breyten Paulse, Chiliboy Ralepelle and a fast asleep Schalk Burger, who wakes abruptly to fumble the rugby ball that Paulse tosses at him. The ball falls through the window to earth where it lands on a bushman's head.

Craig: "Another charming ad to go into the Vodacom stable of likeable ads. But I think this one I will remember for is subtle feel good factor which I think people look for now days. I think the thing to remember about Vodacom ads is that the majority of people out there like them. That is what counts.

Mixed reactions to rugby ads

Adding Appeal Through SA 'Pop Culture' Icons

RUGBY: Stofile Regains Sanity on Quotas

Mr. Stofile has calmed nerves by assuring the SA public - who were threatening to mutiny - that transformation will not be a clean sweep at Bok level, but be implemented (sensibly) at school level.

"Quotas are out," Stofile told a parliamentary sports committee. "Let us put our resources into the development of talent."

A R200 million investment is apparently on the cards in order to bring about this transformation process. This represent quite a turnaround from his previous position (see the links below). Sigh with relif, for sanity has (somehow) prevailed.

Stofile unhappy with Springbok squad
Stofile rules out race quotas for national sport teams

Meanwhile the SA Award sponsored by ABSA for the Player of the Year is tonight in the ABSA convention centre. Who else could win it but Bryan Habana? Percy perhaps. Jake White, speaking at Standard Bank on Friday said Percy was the most professional of the Boks. Training hard, always practicing his kicks, and very focussed and quiet on the bus, listening to musics.

Remember Jake White personally went to fetch Monty who had ditched SA then for England (or had SA ditched him), and that investment and trust paid dividends.

White says despite the golden locks and shiny boots, Monty is actually a very humble, hard working guy.

Kulala.com's Crazy Christmas Specials (BARGAINS)

Durbs to Johannesburg: From R199

Cape Town - Jo’burg (Lanseria and OR Tambo Airport)PE - Jo’burg (Lanseria and OR Tambo Airport)Cape Town - DurbsGeorge - Jo’burg: R299.

These special offers were launched today at 6am, and ends at midnight or until tickets are sold out. If you want to make use of them, better get cracking HERE now.

Ex Head of Saudi Aramco: Oil price will increase $12 per year for next 5 years

In an exclusive interview with David Strahan of lastoilshock.com, al-Huseini said that oil production had reached a structural ceiling determined by geology rather than geopolitics, and that as a result the technical floor for the oil price will rise by $12 annually for the next 4 to 5 years. The market price for crude could hit $125 by 2010.

Al-Huseini said that Saudi Arabia's plans to raise production capacity to 12 million barrels per day by 2012 represented "an achievable number", but disparaged Western expectations that the Kingdom would produce significantly more. It was unfair, he said, to expect Saudi to "pull everybody's chestnuts out of the fire".

To listen to the interview, go here.
From GlobalPublicMedia.com

Virtue is...(COMIC ART)

"So our virtues Lie in the interpretation of the time”
- William Shakespeare

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
- Marcus Aurelius

“As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.”
- Albert Einstein

Is the case for Climate Change Overstated?

Some that it was, tut this was before the summer Arctic ice melt of 2007.

This year, Arctic ice reached a minimum extent of 4.13 million square kilometers, compared to the previous record low of 5.32 million square kilometers in 2005. This represented a decline of 22 per cent in just two years; the difference amounted to an expanse of ice roughly the size of Texas and California [or the size of South Africa, or 5 X the United Kingdom] combined.

Between 1979 and 2005, the rate of Arctic ice retreat had averaged 7 percent per decade; in the two years from September 2005 to September 2007 that rate increased to more than 20 percent. Moreover, the average thickness of the ice has declined by about half since 2001.

Altogether, taking into account both geographic extent and thickness, summer Arctic sea ice has lost more than 80 per cent of its volume in four decades. While sea levels will not be directly affected by the total melting of the northern icecap since it floats on and thus displaces ocean water, that event will severely destabilize Greenland's ice pack - whose disappearance would cause sea levels to rise by several meters, inundating coastal cities home to hundreds of millions.

The organization Carbon Equity issued a report last month, "The Big Melt: Lessons from the Arctic Summer of 2007" (www.carbonequity.info/PDFs/Arctic.pdf), which draws conclusions from this disturbing new information:

The data surveyed suggests strongly that in many key areas the IPCC process has been so deficient as to be an unreliable and indeed a misleading basis for policy-making. . . . Take just one example: the most fundamental and widely supported tenet - that 2°C represents a reasonable maximum target if we are to avoid dangerous climate change - can no longer be defended. Today at less than a 1°C rise the Arctic sea ice is headed for very rapid disintegration, in all likelihood triggering the irreversible loss of the Greenland ice sheet and catastrophic sea level increases. Many species are on the precipice, climatechange- induced drought or changing monsoon patterns are sweeping every continent, the carbon sinks are losing capacity and the seas are acidifying. . . .

The Arctic began to lose volume at least 20 years ago when the global temperature was about 0.5°C over the pre-industrial level. So we can now see that to protect the Arctic the average global temperature rise should be under 0.5°C.

According to the report, if this suggested 0.5°C precautionary warming cap were adopted, the target for allowable concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases would have to be about 320 ppm CO2 equivalents, a level that was passed more than 50 years ago.

Another report published this month, this one in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/23/climatechange.carbonemissions), documents that carbon is accumulating in the atmosphere much faster than previously thought, and only adds weight to the Carbon Equity recommendations. While global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning rose annually by 0.7 percent in the 1990s, the new study shows they have increased by an average 2.9 percent each year since 2000.

What would targets of 0.5 degrees warming over pre-industrial levels, and 320 ppm CO2e, mean in terms of policy?

While the Carbon Equity report doesn't say so, if all nations were to bear the brunt of equal emissions cuts the latter would have to be huge - well over 90 percent in just three or four decades. But if international equity is also targeted, this means that for the wealthy nations more than 100 percent reduction would be needed. In other words, leaving aside the notion of carbon capture and storage (discussed below), not only would wealthy nations have to transform their economies to run entirely without fossil fuels (which currently supply 85 percent of world energy), but they would need to spend considerable capital on efforts to capture and sequester existing atmospheric carbon - for example, through massive reforestation projects.

One has to wonder: With all the energy and investment that would be needed to de-carbonize industrial economies (by developing renewable energy sources, building public transportation infrastructure, and so on) and store carbon, what money and energy would be left to run existing economies, much less to fuel growth in goods and services to the population?

Politics: An Alternate Reality

Climate science exists in a different world from the one peopled by politicians. Inhabitants of both worlds think of themselves as realists: while scientists study the real physical world, politicians are arbiters of what can and will get done in the real human socio-economic world.
In general, any policy that means voluntary economic contraction of any noticeable magnitude doesn't stand much of a chance in the real world of politics. At least in the current political climate, absent a massive public education effort, voters will not support it and no politician will stake her career on it.

This in itself constitutes an enormous roadblock to the achievement even of the IPCC recommendations, much less the far more stringent targets (but more "realistic" ones in the scientific sense) that Carbon Equity is proposing. Faced with this roadblock, climate activists typically respond by minimizing the estimated cost of de-carbonizing economies, and by assuring one and all that economic growth can continue into the indefinite future while industrial nations radically reduce their consumption of the very fuels that made the industrial revolution possible. But if this sanguine, politically acceptable notion is at least arguable in the case of the IPCC reduction targets, it is hardly credible when it comes to the emissions reduction trajectory suggested by Carbon Equity.

Take the US as an atypical but essential example. One can realistically calculate a possible 50 percent reduction in fossil fuel consumption for the country through conservation (though that will be an enormous job, requiring extensive new electrified public transport infrastructure, new housing codes, subsidized energy retrofit programs, and so on). Another 25 percent of current fossil fuel consumption could be offset with renewable energy sources. All of this would take a few decades, and during that time we have to assume no population growth and no economic growth. That gets us to 75 percent reduction from current levels. Beyond that, it is difficult to see how more could be achieved - unless America continues burning fossil fuels but captures and stores the carbon. Suddenly with that possibility a relief valve is opened: coal-based electricity could flow in to fill the void.

Extract from Richard Heinberg's Museletter.

NVDL: Is the case for Climate Change overstated? Unfortunately, far from it. We all wish it was.

Cooey: Virtue and the World

NVDL: There is so much noise to distract us from the drip, drip, drip and now the streaming of the world's ice reservoirs. A large part of that is our fault. There is just so much stuff being trasnmitted across so many platforms, and since money is made out of the most popular stuff, these platforms pander to the drivel that the public wants. It's like a teenager that should be told to buck up, but instead is pandered to: "Wanna watch TV, here's a footstool."

I would argue that one of the reasons our world is facing a dearth of nasties, is because the internal organism that is the human being is now fundamentally lacking in basic virtues. Greed has taken the place of peace, and our common ambitions bites the nails of our ultimate success. Right now our fingers are being gnawed.

Oil Likely at $100 This Week

By Gillian Wong, Associated Press Writer

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices rose Tuesday on expectations of further declines in U.S. crude oil stocks, fueling concerns that supplies may be inadequate going into the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Market participants expect the U.S. Energy Department on Wednesday to report that oil inventories fell last week, in part because of a suspension of output at Mexico's state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, a major crude exporter to the United States.

Last week, crude futures jumped more than US$4 after figures showed a sharp, unexpected drop in U.S. crude inventories for the second week in a row.

"The oil market is really supported by the tight inventories in the U.S. market and the general expectations for the inventory report this week are that the crude inventories will likely fall," said Victor Shum of Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

Analysts think some traders and investors will try to push oil prices to the psychologically important US$100 level this week. Crude prices are within the range of inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. Depending on the how the adjustment is calculated, US$38 a barrel then would be worth US$96 to US$103 or more today.

NVDL: Matt Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert, and one time advisor to President Bush says the following:
If I was redoing Twilight in the Desert today, I'd sharpen the severity of the warning quite significantly.

Why Blog?

Right now, the 4th 'Most Popular' blog on Amatomu's aggregator is Hot Gossip.
In the Life column, there's the following feature: Hello, my name is Tertia and I am a whiner.
The 11th most popular News and Politics blog is Poes.com, with posts by a chap called Masterbeer. Charming.

Do I really want to be associated with such mindless drivel?

If all was well with the world, perhaps being drivel (driven) to such purile destraction would be entertaining, even funny. Given some of the urgent issues of this era, it's fair to describe our attention spans as suffering from schizophrenia, AAD, and general craziness.

But then I return to something a colleague said: "We're fucked. But why worry, when it's so obvious just how totally fucked we all are."

Ok then: Why worry? Why blog?

Even more worrying is that the top content of this blog is some of the most inane stuff possible. In first position is a Rugby World Cup joke, 2nd is a description for a sex position, then something on a serial killer. People don't apparently care about what's worth caring about. The internet unfortunately proves what the state of our collective mindrot is. So if I put 75% of intelligent constructive content up on this site, but the masses gravitate to the fraction that is negative ranting, or otherwise titillating garbage, am not essentially reinforcing the cycle of mental vacuousness? Sadly, this apparently hopeless malaise once again confirms why our species is due for a massive KLAP.

Here's the top content for this site, measured for the last 3 months. Sad, but true.
1. 2007/10/van-at-rugby-world-cup-joke.html
2. /2007/10/italian-chandelier.html
3. /2007/10/chaval-caveman-cometh-pictures.html
4. /2007/10/chabal-human-wrecking-ball-video.html
5. /2007/10/mask-tv.html
6. /2007/10/worlds-worst-serial-killer-richard.html
7. /2007/10/radiohead-releases-in-rainbows-free.html
8. /2007/10/gee-die-bal-vir-bryan-habana-music.html
9. /2007/10/nz-choker-picture.html
10. /2007/10/report-rotten-neighbors-at-rotten.html

So why bother blogging at all?

Bloem-Skilder volg in oupagrootjie se spore

Elretha Britz

As die Suid-Afrikaanse meesterskilder Thinus de Jongh jou oupagrootjie was, het jy ’n goeie kans om ook kunstig te wees. Casey van der Leek het meer as net ’n “goeie” deel van sy oupagrootjie se talent geërf – hy ontwikkel self in ’n meester en maak ’n lewe uit kuns, ondanks twee ingenieursgrade.

Dié Bloemfonteiner van dertig-plus hou sy eerste openbare uitstalling van Donderdag in die Crouse-galery.

Casey, ’n oudleerling van Grey-kollege, was van jongs af gefassineer deur kuns, maar toe hy op 13 ’n TV-dokumentêr van Thinus de Jongh sien, het hy dit sy werk gemaak om meer daaroor te leer. Só doelgerig was hy dat hy sy skoolwerk verwaarloos het.

Hy het onophoudelik met kleur en vorm geëksperimenteer en boeke oor die groot meesters soos Rembrandt, Turner, Goya, Monet, Renoir en Vincent van Gogh verslind.

Sy sielsgenoot, sê hy, is Van Gogh omdat hy met brutale eerlikheid en eenvoud uitdrukking aan homself op doek gegee het.

Toe dit tyd word dat Casey op ’n loopbaan moet besluit, het hy nie kuns gekies nie, maar ingenieurswese. Die wetenskappe het hom ook gefassineer.
Hy het aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad gaan studeer wat ’n nuwe kunswêreld aan hom openbaar het.

Daar was hy na aan die natuur, aan plekke soos Franschhoek, die wind verwaaide Kommetjie en Kaappunt, die Boland se wingerde. Hy het naweek ná naweek die omgewing verken en dit met heelwat subjektiwiteit in skilderye vasgelê.

Die inkomste uit die verkoop van dié skilderye het vir sy twee grade betaal – siviele en elektroniese ingenieurswese.

Sy kuns het egter dringend geroep al was hy hoe goed gekwalifiseer. Ná sy studie in 2001 het hy teruggekeer Bloemfontein toe waar hy heeltyds skilder.

Sy werke vind voortdurend hul pad na kunsliefhebbers oorsee, daarom dat hy nou eers genoeg voorraad vir ’n uitstalling het.

Die grootste deel van sy versameling bestaan uit olieverfwerke, maar daar is ook sketse en ’n waterverf. Die tonele is land- en seeskappe van Kaapse plekke soos Franschhoek, die Seweweekspoort en Slanghoekvallei.

Casey deel die uitstalling met Elmarie Weich, wat kunsskeppings van glaskrale en leer maak.

NVDL: Casey's first exhibition is Thursday this week in Bloemfontein. Thanks J for this piece.

All I Want For Christmas... (#2 and 3)

I like the design of the classic watch faces, except, being a Generation Xer, I can't be bothered spending an extra 3 seconds working out what the time is. This elegant design offers both. This is Smart Sport, as opposed to Smart Casual, which ought to be THE trend for this millenium. Sport implies efficiency, health, diet, cutting the wasteline, effort etc.


There's a cheaper version of this aero frame that retails for about R12000. Since Heartland has reneged for 387568739 time on paying me this month, I'm not holding my breath that I'll be buying this sort of extravagance any time soon. It starts to boil down to the absurd: what do you want, an awesome racing frame or put down a deposit for a house?

Oil Drum: Peak Is Now

"PEAK oil is now", proclaims a hard-hitting study of global resources by the German-based Energy Watch Group.

Its predictions are dire: global oil output peaked in 2006 at 81 million barrels per day, will slide to 58 million bpd by 2020 and 39 million bpd by 2030.

NVDL: That's a chronic slide, a crash, and the world is unlikely to decelarate gently. It's likely to include stalling, sputtering, and the lobbing of the occasional nuclear warhead.

This is in sharp contrast to the International Energy Agency, which predicts 105 million bpd by 2020 and 116million by 2030, though offline, there is a growing view at the IEA that its projections are too optimistic.

50/50 Chance of War with Iran

Well the pundits are saying it's 50/50, but we already know where all this is going. Soon America - the beleaguered superpower, will feel it is unavoidable, it is not an option to simply diminish.

The Infinite War is the War for Finite Resources, and this has already begun. The grim reality is most intelligent people still believe there is a way out, that 'technology will save us'. That might have been possible if the global human population was about 60% of what it is now.

We've breached the planet's carrying capacity, so it's a matter of time before we face a visceral correction. We'll see this reflected in stock markets, weather, energy system, disease... The End of the World? No, just the end of Easy Motoring, Suburbia and McDonald's. For some though, perhaps, that IS the world.

Johncom Name Removed From Building

At 4 Biermann Avenue, the home of the countries largest newspaper, the Sunday Times, and the HQ of Johhncom, workers were seen last night removing the Johncom nomenclature off the side of the building.

One set of signage remains, an arc that wraps around the second floor balcony which is where the Sunday Times itself is originated.

It makes sense, with the Presidential Race about to go into full swing, that a major influencer of public opinion be itself influenced - if possible - by the major political party of the day. The question is, should such a powerful newspaper be allowed to be become fundamentally biased?

Petrol: Up 3 cents Wednesday, 50 cents (or more) in December

Although early in the accounting period, the under-recovery of petrol is already 51.5 cents a litre.

NVDL: Naturally as far as South Africans are concerned, the worst time for a major increase is during our summer driving season, shortly before Christmas.

Is There A Point To Blogging?

I tend to agree with David Bullard: "Who can afford to blog?" We live in a world without much free time, hence fast food, drive thru and all the rest; time is a precious resource, and let's face it, blogging wastes time.

I've been doing a rethink recently about whether to blog at all, or to do a once-a-week update. The thing is when you attempt to combine exercise with work, you start finding your leisure time being stripped down to a minimum. And blogging tends to pick the slack, all those little moments you might otherwise be refreshing...

So going to sleep on this for a while longer and then see.
Speaking of sleep, I got up just after 4am this morning for a cycle.

Time: 1:19:44
HR ave: 132
Distance: 32.7km
Average speed: 27.6km/h
Temperature: 12/13/24
Ascent: 365m
KCal: 1069

I am hunting for a Infra-Red Device with a driver. So far I've visted Incredible Connection and come up short.
Meanwhile this morning was the 4th morning in a row that I've been up early, at around 6am. Going to go out tomorrow again and then rest on Thursday. Despite not finishing the OFM, my legs were still tired from Sunday's climbs today.

Springboks: How To Tackle The Bullshitters

It would be wonderful if we could pretend that the Nation Building that the Springbok World Cup Win brought about was ever going to last. That failure is not, I believe, thanks to the people on the ground, but those on their pedestals. They rubbed their hands, these political hijackers, smelling money, smelling another opportunity to play the race card, and to surf it for all its worth.

This is about hijacking rugby's Money & Power Pot. It's an ego trip. And why not? Why shouldn't they hijack SA rugby? Why shouldn't they annex the Boks, install their own coaches, and go waltzing around the world, wearing their green rugby jerseys, high fives all the way. Why not? because it's not going to happen boet, and it's not going to happen because we the Real Rugby Loving Masses aren't going to LET it happen. Who gave them permission to ride rough shod over our team, to cash in our winners and trade them in for a sort of experimental Red Rover Red Rover. This is still our game, it belongs to the people, it belongs to us, not to a bunch of scratching, spiteful politicians and their handful of moth eaten union puppets.

If you've been to any of the Currie Cup games you'll know what I'm talking about when I say black people in South Africa don't watch rugby. They watch soccer. Until the Boks won the world cup and it became part of the national zeitgeist, they really didn't care about the game. If they do care about the sport - and I'm sure some do - they don't do it in the grandstands, and they certainly didn't before the Boks won the rugby world cup. But did they ever?

Many newspapers make the subtle claim that suddenly when the Boks had captured what might be called a worldwide audience, certain influential black men donned springbok jerseys. Very very interesting Peterrr.

I am sure there are exceptions. I'm sure a few chaps in the Eastern Cape dig the sport, always did, and always will. In the same way I am sure there are a few (maybe four) white people who go to the PSL games wearing Kaizer Chiefs or Pirates shirts. I dunno. I don't. SA soccer's not my thing. It may or may not change closer to the world cup. The people who do go to those soccer games, did you ever see whities in the stadium? Cos I specifically looked when I was in Bloem and I swear I didn't see a single black face in the orange crowd (but a few on the field). And that's fine. We like Kabamba. He has a good attitude. He's a workhorse. Is he a Bok? No, like Jake said, he's not heavy enough. And that's how it works. You earn your place. That said, Floors is a damn fine Cheetah.

Moving right along...if we're going to play Quota Quota I actually like the idea of a Barbarian side, an All White South Africa team to test our own All Black team. See the argument from some black South Africans is that we're intentionally blocking the way forward for wannabe black springboks. People who love the game know that is crap. If this were true, the likes of Bryan Habana would not be in the team. Anyone can see that everyone wants the Boks to win, no matter who is wearing the jersey.

But the powers insist that they want a Black Bok team, with a Black Victor Matfield, and a black Os, so let's keep a 'White' team on standby. We can have both teams play each other from time to time, and then choose the best players from both teams (that's really code for still choosing all the black players).
Okay so since that remains a futile experiment, let's take a leaf out of a couple of expats and other hardcore supporters' books in New Zealand (I mean, you keep hearing those two words, don't you, All Blacks...).

The Big Idea

The idea is based on historical precedent. Once upon a time, the Springboks were banned for being a racist team from a racist country. I think that needs to happen again. The new All Black Springboks can start their training etc, but then I'd like to call all lovers of rugby to effectively ban them.

How this blacklisting would work is, effectively, South African supporters would simply stop going to the stadiums, stop buying tickets. Stay at home, and when the Boks (aka The Losers) jog onto the field, let's tune into Survivor or Idols. That's as close to Reality Rugby as we're gonna get. A ticket-buying public is the bread and butter of SARU, and if they want a representative side, then let those this side represent, pitch up at the stadiums, win or lose as they say, and pay for a fine display of political scrummaging (I suppose you could watch Parliament TV for more exciting passing of the Bucks).

We can leave it to the rest of the world to entertain the charade that the Springboks will eventually become, but I'd suggest a blanket ban. Fair's fair. Perhaps in time, the shame and humiliation will be enough for the game to be given back to itself. I fear though, from here on out, it will never be the same again. Perhaps if those who take over get burnt and embarassed quickly and severely, there will be a u-turn. Once again, common sense has never been a strong point in South African politics, whether in sport or anywhere else. Isn't it a tremendous pity to lose the winning momentum that took so many years for the guys to develop?

More on this topic:
Those little White lies
Meyer looks set to leave Bulls for Boks

"God is too vague a concept to be meaningful"

'For if God’s greatness entails being invisible, intangible and inscrutable, then he can’t be disproved — but nor can he be proved.'

For the rest of this New York Times article, go here.

OFM: Punish Him For Arrogance

During the drive down to Bloem I was telling my buddy that he should expect a top 10 finish (but stopped short of saying with all his training how couldn't he). At the same time he asked me where he thought my 1 session a week would put me - timewise. I arrogantly claimed I'd do a good ride, under 3 hours for 105km, 3:10 for 110km.

As it turned out, I suffered a flat at about 70km, and a lot else besides. I had a decent start, got over the 3 hard climbs at 30km okay. But after that my heart rate monitor was picking up and then losing the signal, with the result that there was a near constant annoying 'beeping' going on. The result was that I was distracted and irritated. There was also an odd TIK-TIK-TIKKING sound going on.

And then it happened at 70km. I didn't ride over a stone, I just felt my wheel suddenly went flat. perhaps the valve - which jammed and didn't allow me to pump the wheel harder than 80% - finally gave up and broke (I did squirt in some Wynn lubricant). I tried to seal the puncture with foamy stuff, but the jammed valve was still no good. I was out of the race, sorry. So I needed a drive back. I didn't feel incredibly depressed. Although I was riding okay, I started the day sore and exhausted in several respects, with sleep deprivation the main culprit undermining all the other energy streams.

I would have liked to have finished and seen what time I'd come up with. I did regret the fact that I was robbed of the opportunity to push those last, hard 40km, but there was also nothing more that I could have done.

On the upside, it was beautiful on the airport road, in the crisp early morning, seeing the vivid cyclopedes streaming along with a train-like SSSSSHHHHRRRRR.

Ja so if I am going to suffer a flat - that day - when things were looking pretty shabby overall, wasn't going to send me into terminal depression. On the other hand, I did feel my arrogance was punished. I SHOULD be training more, I should be training harder, and from now on, I will be. Of course, the fact that Alex was in the winning breakaway, and finished 5th, is also not an incidental inspiration.

Bullard: Shame on White

Shame on White for snubbing the vast pool of black rugby talent

Some things never change. Way back in 1998 I wrote about the government’s paranoia about transformation in sport and commented that perhaps other countries would eventually follow our shining example.

Maybe the Harlem Globetrotters would start hiring short, fat white men to better reflect the demographics and preferred body shape of the average American. It hasn’t happened yet and for good reason.

Watching a wheezing Danny de Vito lookalike running around a basketball court doesn’t make for good TV and, besides, small, fat white men can’t shoot baskets nearly as well as tall, athletic black men. As far as I am aware nobody in the US complains about this. Down here on the southern tip we like to do things differently, though.

I should have thought that our recent rugby World Cup victory would have sent a clear message to the political meddlers; if you select the best men for the job, irrespective of colour, then you will have a winning team.

Apparently this is not enough. While our fickle politicians were quite happy to slip on green Springbok jerseys and bask in the reflected glory of the winning national side, they were secretly seething that Jake White had deliberately ignored the enormous pool of black rugby talent in favour of men with Dutch-and English-sounding names.

So now we need to get more blacks into rugby, irrespective of whether they deserve a place in the team.
Our future squad must apparently reflect the demographics of the country come hell or high water.
That’s all very well if black people want to play rugby, but suppose the supply of good black players doesn’t meet the demand.

What does the government propose to do? Send press gangs into the informal settlements and persuade skinny black youths to climb down from the top of moving trains and take up the relatively safe game of rugby?

Let’s suppose for a moment that the government is right and that there are tens of thousands of frustrated aspirant black rugby players who simply haven’t been given a chance to showcase their talents because of the game’s alleged racial bias.

Let’s further suppose that the time comes to select a national team and the selectors still opt for large white men because they think they might be better in the scrum and the line-out.
Will some nosy politician interfere and give them the Henry Ford response: you can have any colour you like so long as it’s black? What then will be the point of whites playing rugby? Why even have selectors if the ultimate decision comes down to some government lackey?

A solution has already been offered and that is to develop black and white rugby separately. Since the argument is all about race anyway I can’t see how anyone could object to this. Then the all-whites could play the all-blacks and the best players could make up the national side. Unless, of course, the all-whites proved the stronger side in which case we would have to select from the surviving members of the all-black team.

The common-sense solution is to select the best but you can’t expect our politicians to understand the concept of excellence. They are hardly the crème de la crème, are they?

NVDL: It does make sense to select the best, but when was our government (or any other for that matter) ever accused of using common sense?

Kunstler: Ignoring the Obvious

NVDL: This weekend I was chatting to a friend of mine who has brokered deals with the likes of SASOL. So he is fully aware of their expectations for the oil price. I asked him and my dad:
'So, with oil now at $91, is it too early to say - I told you so?'
Both of them said it was. I felt that were well...see the title of this post for details, and the body of text below from Jim Kunstler for background:

One of the biggest laughs of the season came out of a New York Times business section story last Tuesday by reporter Michael Grynbaum, who wrote, "Oil is on a steady march toward toppling the inflation-adjusted high of $101.70 it set in April 1980, analysts said, though many are at a loss as to what keeps driving the price." (Italics mine.) Actually, lots of people know what is driving up the price -- just not anybody who works at that once-august and now-clueless newspaper. It can be stated simply -- the demand line has crossed the supply line -- though that simple fact has many curious ramifications. Among the most subtle is a theory out of Doug Noland's latest Credit Bubble Bulletin (published every Friday).

"There are literally trillions of dollars of liquidity sloshing around the world keen to hold “things” of value. Liquidity sources include the massive central bank reserve holdings as well as funds at the disposal of the sovereign wealth funds. Importantly, the more apparent becomes U.S. financial fragility, the keener they are to stockpile real 'things'. . . . Indeed, it should be noted that this is the Federal Reserve’s first attempt at reflation where U.S. securities are not the speculators’ or foreign central banks’ asset class of choice . . . . Not only is the pool of potential global buying power unparalleled in scope.

It is fervidly attracted to tangible assets -- as opposed to U.S. securities -- and is highly speculative in character. At the same time, an unwieldy global boom is stoking unprecedented demand in China, India, Asia generally, and the other “emerging” markets including Russia and Brazil. Throw in various weather related issues and energy production constraints and the prospect for some very serious bottlenecks and shortages has developed."

In short, foreigners stuck holding dollars that are hemorrhaging value would rather spend them on something other than dollar-denominated financial paper, and nothing is more crucial to the maintenance of industrial economies than oil. Noland's theory comes on the heels of reported oil and gasoline shortages in China, bad enough to have caused some civil unrest -- and bad enough for China's leadership to want to spend some of its vast US dollar reserves bidding up oil prices in the open markets to quell that unrest.

This is nothing more complicated than hoarding behavior on a global scale, a mounting crisis of frightened self-interest that has already been well-described by investment banker Matthew Simmons. Simmons was only one of many analysts who spoke at the mid-October Houston conference put on by ASPO-USA (the Association for Study of Peak Oil) -- to which The New York Times failed to send a reporter. Simmons has also said that the American public (and its leaders) will probably not "get" the fundamental problem with oil until rising prices are joined by spot shortages -- i.e. gas station lines, which will represent hoarding behavior on the basis of individual motorists.

Behind the hoarding dynamics are several clear circumstances.

One biggie is the growing export crisis, described by geologist Jeffrey Brown. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Mexico that sell oil to importing nations like The USA and Japan are using more of their own oil and producing less. Mexico's trajectory is so steep (due to the severe depletion of its giant Cantarell oil field) that it could easily go from being America's Number 3 source of imports to zero in less than five years. The anticipated yearly growth in worldwide oil demand next year will equal 80 percent of the USA's entire oil production.

The export crisis is only an additional layer on top of the general peak oil situation, but it illustrates the way that complex systems we depend on -- and oil markets are one -- are liable to wobble and fail just as the world comes off the all-time oil production peak for good. Finance is another complex system and it, too, is entering a stage of robust instability. Food production is yet another, with a grain scarcity that has driven wheat prices to all-time highs. The roster of complex systems entering phase change is long and gruesome.

Another big element behind rising oil prices is oil nationalism. The old "major" oil companies -- Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, et cet -- now only account for about five percent of world oil production. The other 95 percent comes from nationalized oil industries like Saudi Aramco, Mexico's Pemex, Petroleos de Venezuela, and Brazil's Petrobras. Russia's Lukoil and Rosneft are effectively state-controlled. Not only is worldwide oil in depletion (past peak) generally, but most of the remaining oil is controlled by entities that are inclined to both withhold (hoard) some remaining oil for their own future use and to direct whatever oil they do sell into places other than open auctions on the futures markets. Selling oil to favored customers will be an extremely potent instrument of geopolitics in the decade ahead, and is only one aspect of a desperate global resource contest that could turn ugly and violent. For the moment, though, its meaning for the US is that the two-thirds of our daily oil supply composed of imports is in jeopardy.

Another big element of the oil price story is the condition of the equipment used all over the world for getting it out of the ground, moving it around the globe, and refining it into useful byproducts like gasoline and aviation fuel. The world is woefully short of drilling rigs, and the cost of steel is way up. The demand for new equipment is out-of-sight. The existing worldwide inventory of equipment can be fairly described as decrepit. As Simmons points out, there is a frightening gap between the need for investment in new rigs, tankers, and refineries and the money available to just keep production at current levels.

The outlook is grim.

In fact, the worldwide lack of will to invest in oil industry equipment is itself a symptom of the crack-up of global finance as a complex system under stress. On top of the equipment problem is a human resource problem: the world us not producing enough oil technicians and engineers to keep up with production, let alone increase it, and every year another wave of senior specialists retires out of the system.

Beyond these parts of the oil price story are even more sub-plots, like the political strife in Nigeria that effectively holds its oil industry hostage, not to mention the fragile state-of-affairs throughout the Middle East, and dare we leave out the insane habits of America's Happy Motoring utopia.

There is really no excuse for The New York Times and the rest of the mainstream news media to not understand what is going on out there. The pervasive cluelessness is a symptom of another complex system out of whack. Meanwhile, the danger mounts. The heating season is underway and the furnaces are clanking. Many Americans will have to start choosing whether to pay their mortgage, fill the tank of the Chevy Suburban, buy that brick of Velveeta, or pay the heating oil guy. It looks like China will be spending more of its accumulated dollars bidding up the price of oil (or making favorable contracts with foreign suppliers) instead of buying Freddie Mac bonds. The USA could not find itself in a less favorable position among all these forces roiling the scene. It certainly can't afford to continue its pathetic pose of cluelessness.

NVDL: 'Pervasive cluelessness'.

Oil Now

Brent Crude Oil: $91.46

The ptrol price goes up by 3 cents on Wednesday. Fortunately we're in a position right now to say: "Is that all." This is due in large part to the R/$ moving in our favour. Let's hope it stays that way.

Unfortunately November also spells the beginning of the winter (heating oil) season, or in layman's terms, the Northern hemisphere winter. Global warming - bizarrely - can actually help in this context by offsetting the ordinary effects of Northern Hemisphere winter chill and lowering the tab (for heating) in this respect. But the misconception is that global warming is 'warming everywhere'. One exception is the United Kingdom, which is likely to experience increasingly cold winters with the warm Gulf Stream conveyor belt (bringing them warm air and milder temperatures) being cut off by melted (this cold and low saline), arctic inflows swimming into the Atlantic currents.

A R456 Blapse

So I went down to Bloem this weekend. I went down with friends so thought I would save on the R600 odd the trip costs (including toll fares there and back) etc.

I got home quite late last night and it was remiss of me to forget my cars in the midnight gloom of a car. Yes, I forgot about car keys whilst unpacking bicycle, pump, kit bags, bedding and all the new OFM goodies. As it turned out I'd forgotten my car keys.

No problem, for that oversight all you need is have Dawnwing Courier them back to you, for a small fee. R456.

ZZZZZ

Was awake at 3am and went cycling at 4:30am this morning. Probably got 2 half decent hours of sleep.

The cycle was good...
Time:1h43mon
Distance: 48km

Also ran yesterday with J, and then rushed home to change for a Black Tie Cocktail party. Quickly drove back to Rosebank, missed the person I was supposed to meet (by two minutes), then went home and cooked up a delicious tin of beans in tomato sauce.

Going to step out of the cozy office and buy an Infra-Red device and then I have a very impzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hurricane Noel Toll Now at 115

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Hurricane Noel, the deadliest storm to hit the Atlantic this year, is not expected to gain strength in the next 24 hours as it tracks northward toward the U.S. but it may grow in size, forecasters said Friday.

By JESSICA ROBERTSON – 4 hours ago

Noel slammed the Caribbean earlier this week with heavy rains that caused flooding and mudslides, leaving 115 dead, officials said.

After drenching the Bahamas and Cuba on Thursday, the Category 1 hurricane continued along its path between the southeastern coast of the U.S. and the Bahamas.

Its sustained winds were at 80 mph early Friday and its center was about 470 miles south of Cape Hatteras, N.C., the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Noel is moving to the north-northeast at about 18 mph.

Jack Beven, a hurricane specialist at the center, said Friday that "we don't expect the center to cross the U.S. coast. The track would take the center of the system over Nova Scotia."

But Beven also noted that the storm "is going to increase rather significantly in size" and that its effects could be felt in the U.S. Forecasters say 2 to 4 inches of rain could fall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, while isolated areas of New England might see 6 inches.

On Thursday, muddy rain-swollen waters overflowed a dam in Cuba, washing into hundreds of homes, over highways and knocking out electricity and telephone service. Dozens of small communities were cut off.

Cuban soldiers went door-to-door in low-lying areas and evacuated about 24,000 people, according to state radio and television reports. At least 2,000 homes were damaged by flood waters, but there was no official word of deaths.

In Ciego de Avila province in central Cuba, flooding wiped out nearly 2,000 tons of corn, potato, banana, cucumber and tomato harvests, said Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, a vice president.

The storm brought a record 15 inches of rain to the Bahamas, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said. Flooding killed at least one man in the Bahamas and forced the evacuation of almost 400 people. Ingraham said the majority of the evacuees were from the northeast Bahamian island of Abaco.

Residents of Andros Island, one of the least-developed in the Bahamas, hunkered down as Noel's winds howled and rain pelted windowpanes.

"The walls were rattling, but we rode it out pretty well," said Angela Newton, who was waiting Thursday for the power to come back on.

Rescuers in Dominican Republic took off in helicopters and boats to reach isolated residents for the first time in three days. Hundreds of volunteers joined Dominican civil defense forces to help stranded residents, as rescue teams left at dawn Thursday — many in boats loaned by private owners.

More than three days of heavy rain caused an estimated $30 million in damages to the Dominican Republic's rice, plantain and cacao plantations, said Minister of Economy Juan Temistocles Montas. Government officials will request loans from the Inter-American Development Bank to help with the recovery.

Rescuers in Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, found a rising toll of death and damage: at least 73 dead in the Dominican Republic and 40 in Haiti, where the majority of bodies were found in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince. One person was killed in Jamaica.

Associated Press writers Ramon Almanzar in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Jonathan M. Katz in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.
On the Net:
U.S. National Hurricane Center

Alert: Oil

Brent Crude Oil: US$91.46

NVDL: The 3 cents rise in the petrol pump price is likely to lull us into a false sense of complacency.
"Oh, the oil price is $91. And we're paying 3 cents more at the pump? No problem."

Friday Hilarity (VIDEO)

Changing Tyres Can Be Most Dangerous - Funny video clips are a click away

NVDL: This is EXCELLLLLLLLLLLLLENT.

Oil Marches Toward $100 (ECONOMIC ANALYSIS)

Right now, Brent Crude is:
Brent Crude Oil :91.46
Rand - US Dollar: 6.6100

Oil prices breached the $96 before retreating marginally. Analysts are now saying that $100 is an 'easy target'.

Meanwhile, from South Africa's point of view, the prices of Brent Crude are less of a concern given that the dollar has depreciated down to around 6.50. Had the dollar been at around 7.50, we'd have been in big trouble.

The question is, why has the Rand strengthened so much, and is it good for the country. The $5.5 billion deal - the largest ever overseas investment in South Africa - between the world's largest bank (based on China) and Standard Bank, represents a massive capital injection into the relatively small pool of South African capital. This is the main reason behind our stronger currency. The deal was timed very fortuitously indeed.

Meanwhile the strengthening Rand is bad news for exporters. Since South Africa derives plenty of its income from exports - especially minerals - the currency fluctuation remains a concern.

Today decision makers will come together to decide whether there will be a fuel increase for motorists, and if so, how much it is likely to be.

Habana Gives Jones His Blazer

Despite all the nitpicking going down at SARU, at least the players themselves have their heads and hearts in the right place.

This echoes an earlier gesture made by Jake Whike, who offered up his tie for President Mbeki on the morning of the first parade this time last week.

One does have to wonder if you have a world class tea, voted best coach, best player and team in the world, if the President supports the Boks and their coach, and the whole country too, can SARU be held legally in contempt. SARU vs The People of South Africa. I'd go for that.

Meanwhile, for the Habana story, go here.

My Virtual World (PHOTO)

Portrait of my home PC...

Future Shock: A World Filled With Batteries (L)

South Africans have been told to expect load shedding and power outages for the next few years, with the next winter season projected to have more blackouts than the last. I've personally experiened a number of surges and the like in suburban Johannesburg, resulting in computer failures and all the rest.

One useful resource to at least save your data during a possible power failure is a UPS: uninterrupted power supply. Basically you route all your electricity through this box - about the size of a shoebox, sometimes bigger - and when the power goes out, the charger in the your UPS kicks in and gives you a chance to shutdown your computer at your leisure. I think it gives you up to 4 hours additional computing time. But this is the sort of thing all Jozi residents should have.

In the wider context of the world - South Africa is not the only country with aging electrical infrastructure and a looming energy capacity/supply crisis - batteries are likely to make a comeback. Unfortunately, the laws of the universe once again demonstrate just what a wonderful and magical resource oil actually is. Despite great minds working on the issue, it turns out that the electrical car's batteries are not only extremely expensive, but the limits to the power storage are not easily extended. Smaller batteries like the lithium batteries in cellphones and notebooks unforunately do not extend much further, certainly not porportionally, as we expect the same sort of power (energy) output motoring through suburbia over the next era.

Jim Kunstler says it best: No combination of alternatives is going to allow us to use the highway systems and continue our easy motoring culture as we are doing now.

View From the Couch (LITERALLY)

Ja so I am still sleeping on the couch. From the futon sleep remains slippery. I'm not sure if it is the blue glare from the 'sleep mode' Telefunken that induces insomnia. Or it could be the proximity to the floor. Perhaps it is my destiny to spend a large fraction of time unconscious of the couch.

This week has been dominated by the quest for a new driver for my Infra Red Device. I use it to load up my workouts. I have spent so much time scouring the internet, and installing possible drivers, that I've had precious time for sleep, and even less energy for exercise.

It's an incredibly draining procedure, this virtual battle to get your software actually working. It amounts to several hours spent struggling with cobwebs, and amounting to a great primal scream in space.

Last night I did extricate myself out of this virtual web, and went for a run.

26 Minutes.
Kcal: 302
Weight: 86.00 kilograms.

Due to my minimal access on Facebook, I notice some friends have withdrawn in a huff, while others - that I don't even know - have extended their hands. My Facebook profile is currently a questionable image involving a nearly naked female. I'd change it of course, except I installed it at work while we still have access. Such is life.

While my fitness appears to be on the upswing, the financial walls have become less solid, and more like a trampoline. A law firm emailed me that they would pay me some pocket money this month, but I've been waiting 18 months for what's due, so I fear this last gesture is like offering me a small handful of very special nothing.

It's interesting to note how Climate Change is beginning to dominate the Zeitgeist. I foresee an intensification of this trend.

The story I sent in to Paul Ash is still in his inbox (it has been for 5 weeks now). I am now reminded why I elected to spend (waste?) so much time writing for citizen journalism. At least there's a quick and easy response, at least your material sees the light of day. In the world of magazine and newspaper editors, there are the stars, and the beggars, and then those out to lunch or on the couch.

Laugh Compilation (VIDEO)

Laughs Compilation 1 - For more funny movies, click here

NVDL: The baby and the man in the mask - hilarious!

The Road To A Home Ends Here (PHOTOS)

NVDL: This blog has been known by other name's, including 'The Road To A Home'. The story below from the New York Times presents what must be one of the ultimate living arrangements anywhere.

By EDWARD WYATT
PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Oct. 30 — The Kaufmann House, a 1946 glass, steel and stone landmark built on the edge of this desert town by the architect Richard Neutra, has twice been at the vanguard of new movements in architecture — helping to shape postwar Modernism and later, as a result of a painstaking restoration in the mid-1990s, spurring a revived interest in mid-20th-century homes.

The Kaufmann House Now the California homeowners who undertook that restoration hope Neutra’s masterpiece will play a role in a third movement: promoting architecture as a collectible art worthy of the same consideration as painting and sculpture.

Those owners, Brent Harris, an investment manager, and Beth Edwards Harris, an architectural historian, are finalizing their divorce, and plan to auction the Kaufmann House at Christie’s in New York in May. The building, with a presale estimate of $15 million to $25 million, will be part of Christie’s high-profile evening sale of postwar and contemporary art.

For the rest of this New York Times article, go here.

Important Message From SA Rugby Crowd (HUMOR)

Message reads: To Thabo and his boys...

Don't FUCK UP our game.

NVDL: Amen brother.

Thanks for this picture C.

SKY NEWS: Dolphin Slaughter Underway in Japan

It's a grim picture. Beautiful dolphins being shepherded into a bay, the backdoor closed by nets, and the bay filling up with blood. Click here for Sky News video page.

Global Surf News has a story on a bunch of surfers who are getting involved, trying to protest the slaughter, which conventionally starts now and ends in December. Sky News footage showed a young blond surfer in tears.

Actress Hayden Panettiere has been involved in a violent confrontation with Japanese fishermen as she tried to disrupt their annual dolphin slaughter.

Click here for that story.
Fishermen defend dolphin cull.

NVDL: It's an emotional rather than a logical reaction. Should we not eat certain animals just because they are more or less like us? So no dolphins, chimps or monkeys, but pigs, cows and chickens are fine?

It does make sense to me to consume lower down the food chain, especially from the point of view that vegetarian foods suit the human gut better than meat. Have we become flesh eating chimps, and as such, aggressive, insatiable, at times suffering a kind of carnivorous blood lust not just for food...?

Chimpanzees do fight to death when tribes encounter other tribes, and bizarrely, the winners eat their victims. This cannibalisation may be to instill a terrible fear in their opponents, as human cannibals did once upon a time. But this trend can sometimes be modified into a more generalised love of meat. I've seen cockatiels that start to enjoy eating the yokes of eggs that they crack open accidentally, and then they become involuntarily addicted to the taste.

Meanwhile, back to the story at hand. When I was in Korea for the Fifa World Cup there was a domestic sense of putting aside dog meat - at least until the visitors left. The Asians tend to eat everything fishy, from jellyfish, to eels, seaweed, to those poisonous spiky blow fish (despite a fair amount of people who die every year for the privilege) and so it's no surprise that dolphin is part of the menu.

I'd expect the Japanese to get a LOT of flack once again over this. It's a big PR blow to that country. Then again, the Asians think we are sick in the head to be drinking a white liquid that cows feed to their calves - that we put that stuff over our cornflakes, and put a rotten form of the stuff into our salads and sandwiches.

To each his own...?

Bullard on growing up, his earliest memory, his next book, and ‘God is not Great’ (INTERVIEW 6)

RP:Where did you grow up?

Bullard: London. Yeah I was born in Londin, I grew up basically in London…
NVDL: What part of London?
Bullard: [Speaking in a cockney Michael Caine accent] South London, just south of the Thames; place called Sutton. Sutton Surrey.
[Laughter]
Bullard: What was then known as the commuter/stockbroker belt. Because a lot of stockbrokers [and] commuters lived there. It was about 12 miles away from central London. So I was born there, grew up there, went to school in Sussex, and then moved up to London and sort’ve started working there. You know, flats around some of the swankier areas when it was affordable.
NVDL: Did you ever see Diana?
Bullard: I didn’t. I didn’t. I did keep inviting her to parties but she NEVER turned up.
[Laughter]
Bullard: But I did play cricket with [garbled] her brother.

RP: What’s your earliest memory?

Bullard: Earliest memory?
RP: I hope not fighting with any kids at school!
Bullard: I think, I think oddly enough my earliest memory is probably riding in a car, a model car, in a roundabout, on a family holiday. I’ve even got a photograph of it.
Sort’ve, you know, getting into this car… …and going round and round on this carousel. So that was early stages of motoring enthusiasm there.
RP: Yeah [Laughs]
Bullard: Fortunately I couldn’t drive the car off the carousel, it just went round and round and round. So it was a family holiday; so I think I was about 6 or 7.

NVDL: Tell us about your book.

Bullard: Richard Branson appears on the cover of my book, in cartoon form, but so does Jacob Zuma; but I appear bigger than both of them, because it’d my book. [In an American accent]: Why the hell not.
[Laughter]
Bullard: It had advanced sales of four and a half thousand.
NVDL: How many books have you written so far?
Bullard: [Garbled] three. This one is the third. The first one was a compilation of the Out to Lunch column, Jonathan Ball; the second was Out To Lunch Again which wasn’t very well marketed, and this one is with Pan MacMillan and they’ve done it with [garbled] more excitement. And they’ve got a bit more [vim] going. But you know it’s one of those books you want to sell by Christmas, because people want to buy it for their Christmas stocking. But they do sell it at the airport after that; you get little royalty cheques dribbling in. But it’s really got to hit the Christmas stocking market.
RP: So it’s not launched yet?
Bullard: No, it is. Actually it came out – it is printed now – and is being launched next week [currently last week], and I’m going to the launch on Wednesday in Cape Town; staying at the Mount Nelson. Then doing something at Kalk Bay Books. There about ten launches. Jenny Cryws Williams – for her book club – we’ll do something on November 18th. It should be good. It’s on ‘Publisher’s Choice’ which is a good thing, with Exclusive Books, so it’ll be prominent. And then it will fade away.

NVDL: Is it divided into politics…?

Bullard: Nah it’s just literally, chronologically [the column] over the last two years.
NVDL: All the articles.
Bullard: Yeah. It’s the weekly column. But the nice thing is when you follow it through, because you don’t need any sort of explanation as to what’s happening, it’s quite clear in the articles. But if you follow through from number one, I think written in 1994, and I think the first article in the book is 1995 or 1996, you actually follow through what was happening in the country. You know, your emotional high points and low points, and the gossip, and it’s very interesting going back. You see so and so was arrested for that. That was 1998. God Lord he still hasn’t gone to jail. And the articles – and obviously I would say that this – but they do bear reading again. You can sit down and read a few articles, have a chuckle and it’s quite a good read. And if I add my signature to the book [he adds with a wry smile] it adds about another hundred rand to the value, even more.
RP: Well when I buy the book I’m going to ask you to sign it. When is the official launch.
Bullard: On the 10th (of October), two days ago. But it’ll be in the bookshops probably from the middle of next week.
RP: What would the retail price be?
Bullard: About 120.

RP: What book are you reading right now?

Bullard: I’m reading ‘God is not Great’, by Christopher Hitchens.
RP: is that your favorite author or-
Bullard: [Exclaiming] No, Hitchens writes for Vanity Fair; writes very very well. I tend to read a lot of magazines. I read books at Christmas time because I have more time to do it. And it takes me about two weeks to read a book during the year.
NVDL: Didn’t he also write something about religion being poisonous? I remember reading-
Bullard: Yes, yes. I think he’s written another book as well. Richard Dawkins wrote the book uh-
NVDL: The God Delusion.
Bullard: The God Delusion.
NVDL: Did you read that?
Bullard: I did. Yeah. And then Hitchens wrote ‘God is not Great’ and he’s been promoting that recently, and it’s a very interesting book. It’s obviously going to upset a lot of people-
NVDL and RP: [Chuckling]
Bullard: But I actually quite like that style of writing. And it makes you think. And it’d quite good to have your views or…beliefs…challenged. And he’s intellectual. It’s well written. But otherwise: novels. Trashy novels when they come out, and classics. I reread people like PG Woodhouse, who I still think is the best, one of the best comedy writers…
NVDL: Have you heard about Doris Lessing?
Bullard: Yeah. And Evelyn Waugh, and…
NVDL: Virginia Woolf?
Bullard: [Absent mindedly repeating…] Virgina Woolf…[Pauses]. Not really.
NVDL: It’s more feminist.
Bullard: Not really; it didn’t really work for me.
NVDL: I’ve also struggled to read…because she’s so important I’ve tried to read her.
Bullard: I know this sounds terrible but I actually do really enjoy reading Shakespeare’s plays. Every so often. Because I think there’s tremendous wisdom in those…
RP: Although I wouldn’t read it now, I really enjoyed it at school.
Bullard: I’ve got a nice leather bound volume now, which I found at a second hand bookstore. You sit down and read Hamlet or…
NVDL: What’s your favorite Shakespeare play?
Bullard: I like the tragedies. I’ve been in quite a few Shakespeare plays; in fact I was in Hamlet at the Civic theatre before-
NVDL: Were you Hamlet?
Bullard: I was Laertes. I was banished on page 19-
[Laughter]
Bullard: I came back on page 70 for a swordfight. But I was a very convincing Laertes. And it was in 1987 at the Civic Theatre. Freezing cold; during June. Two week run. And I’ve got photographs of me in tights, um, on the battlements…having a swordfight with a guy called Cole Cameron.
RP: I think we need those photos.
NVDL: Ja I think we need the car photo and this one.
Bullard: Frightening. Frightening.
RP: Maybe [people will] see the other side of you.
NVDL: [Holding up both hands] David Bullard: A Retrospective.
Bullard: What you didn’t know. Actually, what you didn’t know is-

This interview continues next week under the title:
Bullard: Behind the Scenes With Helen Mirren (And Other Stories)
For other interviews click on the following tag below: The Bullard Tapes

Online Election (POLL)

Vote now for a new president, and let's get South Africa back on track...

NVDL: The poll is at top right of this page. You're allowed only one vote, so make it count.

State of the Nation

“I am also angry because we have lost another golden opportunity to build on success.” - Jake White.

“We are, however, concerned about the apparent lack of consultation between Saru and Jake White. It is important for Sasol [NVDL: and South Africa] that the current level of performance of our national rugby team is maintained.’’ - Bheki Khumalo, group general manager of Bok sponsor Sasol,

NVDL: At the same time the headline on Business Day today decry South Africa's sliding on a global competitiveness scale. No wonder.

I Want This For Christmas (WISHLIST#1)

NVDL: This is just B.E.A Yewtiful!

With its jaw-dropping hi-def picture, the HV20 can make even the cheesiest cat video look like it belongs on Discovery's HD Theater. This 1080i HD video powerhouse has a trim, 1.2-pound body that's comfortable to tote casually. What's more, it's relatively easy on the wallet. If the HV20 has one notable flaw, it's that it records footage to old-school tape instead of nonlinear media such as DVDs, hard drives, and memory cards. We had hoped to leave tape behind in 2007, but if it's tape the HV20 needs, then it's tape the HV20 gets.

Heavenly 1080i

Even though it records the same number of pixels (1,920 x 1,080) as other HD camcorders, the HV20's picture looks sharper. Its colors are also dead-on — vibrant, but without that oversaturated, radioactive look.

Stirring, not shaken

The HV20 has the best optical image stabilization of any camera we tested, keeping handheld shots smooth and steady. Autofocus is near-instantaneous, too, so you capture everything as it happens.

Awesome audio

Most onboard camcorder microphones are mediocre at best, but the HV20 is one of the few consumer cams that let you attach a better mic, along with a pair of headphones to monitor audio as you record.

Scorsese style

A special mode captures video at a film-quality rate of 24 frames per second. This doesn't mean your footage will look just like Taxi Driver, but it can give it a richer, more cinematic feel.
Cut and run

The HV20 records in the HDV format, which many video-editing programs support right out of the box. That's not always the case: Some camera formats need conversion before editing, while others aren't editable at all, depending on your software.
$1,099 = R6900
From WIRED.com

What's Worse: Burping or Doing Nothing (SURVIVOR COOK ISLANDS UPDATE)

So on Survivor last night, Candice got booted off. I think her throwing a tantrum was a fatal flaw. Poor girl went to exile island like 4 times or something.

It was interesting seeing the animosity build up against Jonathan though. This guy is a bit insecure, and perhaps a little too direct (obvious is another word). He's not quite as bad as some of them made him out to be. If you selfishly want something and that conflicts with someone elses selfish desire for the same thing, does that make the person who succeeds in getting something (at the expense of another) wrong? No, it's the nature of the game, and often, life.

Maybe he was a bit cocky with his beer, hot dog and pizza (he burped in front of his starving companions), but he also got off his butt and went fishing, while the other 3 in the tribe played wait-and-see (or wait-and-whine, or wait-and-blame).

How can you blame Jonathan for not sharing his catch with people that were glaring at him, resorting to kindergarten name calling and all the rest.

Meanwhile, Yule turns out to be tremendously intelligent. He has made two immensely strong decisions strategically.

1) Turning Jonathan - a swing vote - during a crucial vote just after the merge. This led Yule's group to switch from inferior numbers at tribal council, to a majority. He was able to secure Jonathan's vote by showing that he had the hidden immunity necklace, another coup. Yule was able to find it on Exile Island, those who went before him - could not.

2) Not voting Jonathan off was also a clever vote, because 3 members within the tribe is still a fairly large unknown quantity (who might win immunity for themselves).

It goes to show though that in the game of survivor, the most indecent thing of all is - not burping - but freeloading.

It's Worrying What We Worry About (And What We Don't)

No surprise, the majority of people voted that they worry most about their appearance. Why not? The media emphasise this continually, print media demonstrate what beautiful men and women must be on a daily basis and so we unhappily spend much of our lives consciously attempting to aspire to these meretricious idols. And that's what it is - a form of idolatry. People worshipping other people.

It's gratifying that a significant portion think about their significant others (if if not quite as often as they think about themselves).
Then, what concerns us most: money and crime. In fact, certainly in this country, these are interlinked. I suppose you could argue that money is linked to everthing. Money determines how good we could look (pays for a gym membership, good clothes, plenty of pedicures). I would argue though that we worry least about what we ought to worry most about.

I had a conversation recently where my companion said: "You're wasting your time talking to people about this; we're already fucked. We're fucked."
To be honest I was quite shocked that he was probably even more certain that we were 'fucked' than I was.

Fossil fuels underpin everything we do. It's like the air we breath in the sense that once not there, very little else is possible. And energy is becoming more expensive and rare by the day. Why wouldn't it? Don't you see more and more consumers every day, more shopping malls. Aren't you spending more and more? The energy for all this excess has to come from somewhere. And it has to stop somewhere. There's a book that discusses this: The Limits To Growth. That's where we are now. Bumping our heads against a capacity ceiling.

In an ideal world I'd suggest that we do worry the most about ourselves, but not so much our appearance, but what sort people we are. Once on the right track, love another, and then have concerns about those things that impact ourselves and loved one's the most. Crime is what's wrong with this picture right now, and the lack of foresight to appreciate the conundrums of climate change and fossil fuels. In the scheme of things, in terms of absolute survival, how things look are less important than the true nature of what they are. And that begs the question:

Who are you, and what (good) are you capable of? Are you capable of resurrecting all that was once decent in human beings? Right now we are a vulgar and self indulgent bunch of animals. Our greed and our capacity to collect things, in addition to our aggression, has caused our species to fill the consciousness of this Earth with the equivalent of a crippling, splitting migraine headache. Right now, what is worrying this planet most, is us. We are the problem.