Celtic Music Compilation - Beautiful!

Firelands - lyrics

You cant believe the historys real
Come with me to the firelands
You make me feel
The risk of the night
Stay with me in the firelands

Can you tell me
If you love me
Do you light fairies along the sky
Can you give me
Storms and sunshines
Stay with me in the firelands

You make me feel
My historys real
Stay with me in the firelands
You cant believe the risk of the night
Come with me to the firelands

Can you tell me
If you love me
Do you light fairies along the skies?
Can you give me
Storms and sunshines
Stay with me in the firelands













Fairies - lyrics

We're walking in the air
We're floating in the moonlit sky
The people far below are sleeping as we fly

We're holding very tight
I'm rising in the midnight blue
And finding I can fly so high above with you

All across the world
The villages go by like dreams
The rivers and the hills, the forests and the streams

Children gaze, open mouthed
Taken by surprise
Nobody down below believes thier eyes

We're surfing in the air
we're swimming in the frozen sky
We're drifting over icy mountains floating by

Suddenly swooping low
On an ocean deep
Rousing up a mighty monster from his sleep

We're walking in the air
We're dancing in the midnight sky
And everyone who sees us greets us as we fly

Hurricane Isaac Storm Track + Satellite Image [ALERT]

LOCATION:

ABOUT 40 MI...65 KM SW OF KEY WEST FLORIDA
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...60 MPH...95 KM/H
PRESENT MOVEMENT...WNW OR 295 DEGREES AT 16 MPH...26 KM/H
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...992 MB...29.29 INCHES

THE HURRICANE WATCH IS CHANGED TO A HURRICANE WARNING FOR THE
NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO COAST FROM EAST OF MORGAN CITY LOUSIANA TO
DESTIN FLORIDA...INCLUDING METROPOLITAN NEW ORLEANS...LAKE
PONTCHARTRAIN...AND LAKE MAUREPAS. 

THE HURRICANE WARNING FOR THE WEST COAST OF FLORIDA FROM BONITA
BEACH SOUTHWARD TO OCEAN REEF IS CHANGED TO A TROPICAL STORM
WARNING.

PLUS: What Isaac Could Mean for Central Ga. 

TS Isaac: Current Conditions

Why Us vs Them is perfectly Natural

Words: Nick van der Leek

The problem with that Nando’s Diversity ad isn’t our inability to deal with foreigners as much as it’s our shame, embarrassment or awkwardness at reaching par with one another. What do I mean? Have you ever found yourself bumping into a primary school teacher, one that perhaps painted your fingernails because they were too long (when you were a small boy) or caught you smoking in your bra and panties outside the classroom so your clothes didn’t smell (if you were a girl)?

As a child at school we go through a phase where we’re in awe of our teachers, for they are giants, with a gigantic intellect, and a power that seems godlike. When we encounter these mere mortals a few decades later (if they’re still alive), we find the tables have turned. They’ve grown wrinkly and frail (and forgetful), and now it’s our turn to play gods. It’s hard to be reverential towards someone who can’t even remember your name. The ruse is gone, there’s no longer a clear role of teacher and student. The same Awkwardness manifests whenever the apprentice accedes to the role of master. But then, what becomes of the master?

Awkwardness

In South Africa, as some parity is achieved between the races, awkwardness arises on both sides.  And when we get frustrated, it's easy to want to jump ship, or wish our competitors (who are different to us) would do the same.

The thing we need to acknowledge is that none of us like being equal, and in world where life is seldom fair, it’s a rat race to the pound seats. Once you’ve arrived, the clock starts counting down to your departure. It’s the way of the world. Whenever there is a play for parity, there’s tension, whether it’s teenagers trying to grow up at the expense of their parents, atheist scientists claiming to know more than God, computers or robots beating us at chess, or beautiful princesses arriving to dethrone the older, slightly less beautiful queen. It’s the reason the rich elites instituted taxes – to enslave and profit from a class of people and thus prevent a power struggle – and why wicked witches (aka mother in laws) take to bathing in milk, poisoning apples and plastic surgery. It’s all like the super series everyone is talking about: Game of Thrones.  Why?  That game still isn't over.

From the Cradle to the Stromatolyte

Yes, the idea behind the Nando's ad resonates becomes, in the race for parity, we sometimes wish that our rivals would just go back to where they came from. But if you took that psychology to its logical conclusion, the results would be pretty funny, especially in South Africa.  Think about it.  If everyone here went back to where we came from, that would mean all of us South Africans would eventually end up back where we started, at the Cradle of Mankind just down the road in Maropeng.If you stopped at some point along the way and said, okay you're now out of South Africa in a different country, exactly the same tensions would exist, because the claims to every other territory differ (in terms of time, might and right).

If we went back even further from Maropeng, way back in time, all of us would end up either as mushrooms, or adding another billion year leap, squatting in ankle deep seawater.  That was the lot for all life for three billion years: building turd shaped rocks called stromatolites. All living things were  in the rocky turd building business. Go back to where you came from?  Oh you mean this saltwater puddle right here that's an exact duplicate of this one? 

Contempt

On the other hand, putting a forward spin on these sentiments takes us into the realm of science fiction.When HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a highly capable computer beats one of the crew members in chess (whilst orbiting Jupiter), the machine begins to feel a sense of reaching par with (and thus contempt for) its human colleagues. This upsets the applecart, and leads to a deathmatch in space, between man and machine. It’s Us vs Them all over again.
Now imagine if we came face to face with God? We could ask Him why He tried to drown us all in the flood (why let us live after all that?) And where He’s been for the past two millennia. And will shares in Facebook eventually go up?

This, incidentally, forms the central premise in the Ridley Scott film Prometheus. Imagine if South Africa’s foreigners did indeed make a pilgrimage to Sterkfontein Caves and one of us chanced upon an invitation engraved on its dolomitic limestone innards. If it was a summons, it bore the signature of godlike beings that apparently taught us everything we know. Imagine if we built a spaceship, flew a trillion miles and roused one of them in a chamber. The very tall, very smart, very white (and oddly alien) God turns out to resent our presence. He’s sorry he made us. But why? Parity.

And we’re about to be sorry we made our robot (with its Pinocchio-wanting-to-be-a-real-boy syndrome). Built by us, in our own image, “David” has also come to realise bugger trying to be human: David is smarter and better than we are. And so, David introduces us to God as follows: “Hi, these bozos reckon you’re God, and they’ve come to say nice to meet you and want some answers, and whatever else you can give them. And urgently please.” Of course no one takes kindly to being roused from a peaceful sleep, even less so by a bunch of precocious ingrates. So what does God do? He bashes everyone back to kingdom come.

Why would God choose to destroy his creation? It’s the reason marriages are full of conflict, the reason superheroes are always fighting, why bosses bully their drones. No one wants to be equal. No wants to share if they don’t have to. Everyone wants to be on top, and once we are, preserve the status quo at all costs. Being a stromatolite for three billion years taught us that, and we’ve never forgotten.

This is one of the most amazing photographs I've ever seen...

A Supermoon photographed in March 2011 over the North Pole. But is it real? My intuition says no, because the size of the moon and the sun in the image are totally disproportional (in nature the sun and moon appear almost the same size). Here there is a mismatch that is simply too great to be credible. If it is an undoctored image,and the reflection of the moon in the water suggests that it might be genuine, then this is INCREDIBLE.

But sure enough...doing a google search [sunset at North Pole hoax] it turns out to be the digital craft of a 22 year old German astrophysics student - Inga Nielsen.

Here's more.

Ryan Sandes - The Beauty of the Irrational

Human beings don’t always make rational decisions. But making irrational decisions is precisely what makes us human. These decisions, based on an impulse or a feeling, often lead us to those perfect moments when it feels great to be alive.
"The Beauty of the Irrational" follows Ryan Sandes, a South African Ultra-Runner, as he returns to the Fish River Canyon to run the 5 day, 84km, Fish River Canyon Hiking Trail in the fastest time possible.
He completed the run, self-supported, in amazing time of 6h57min!

Directed by Dean Leslie
Produced by Greg Fell
Cinematography by Dean Leslie & Dale Hunt
Edited by Dean Leslie
Original music by Signpost Sound

Additional Footage
Greg Fell
Craig Kolesky

Supported by Salomon, Suunto and Velocity Sports Lab

Special thanks
Alu-Cab - www.alu-cab.co.za
Signpost Sound - www.signpostsound.co.za
African Extreme Promotions - www.africanextremepromotions.com
Vanessa Haywood
Ryan Sandes

Bombshell Butt Workout + Kissable Abs Workout

The Creative Process

This is my favorite song right now...

Some nights, I stay up cashing in my bad luck
Some nights, I call it a draw
Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle
Some nights, I wish they'd just fall off

But I still wake up, I still see your ghost
Oh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for oh
What do I stand for? What do I stand for?
Most nights, I don't know anymore...
Oh woah, oh woah, oh woah oh oh
Oh woah, oh woah, oh woah oh oh

This is it, boys, this is war - what are we waiting for?
Why don't we break the rules already?
I was never one to believe the hype - save that for the black and white
I try twice as hard and I'm half as liked, but here they come again to jack my style

And that's alright; I found a martyr in my bed tonight
She stops my bones from wondering just who I am, who I am, who I am
Oh, who am I? Oh, who am I? mmm... mmm...

Well, Some nights, I wish that this all would end
Cause I could use some friends for a change
And some nights, I'm scared you'll forget me again
Some nights, I always win, I always win...

But I still wake up, I still see your ghost
Oh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for, oh
What do I stand for? What do I stand for?
Most nights, I don't know... (come on)

So this is it? I sold my soul for this?
Washed my hands of that for this?
I miss my mom and dad for this?

No. When I see stars, when I see stars, that's all they are
When I hear songs, they sound like a swan, so come on
Oh, come on. Oh, come on, OH COME ON!

That is it, guys, that is all - five minutes in and I'm bored again
Ten years of this, I'm not sure if anybody understands
This is not one for the folks at home; I'm sorry to leave, mom, I had to go
Who the fuck wants to die alone all dried up in the desert sun?

My heart is breaking for my sister and the con that she called "love"
But when I look into my nephew's eyes...
Man, you wouldn't believe the most amazing things that can come from...
Some terrible nights...ahhh...

Oh woah, oh woah, oh woah, oh oh
Oh woah, oh woah, oh woah, oh oh

The other night, you wouldn't believe the dream I just had about you and me
I called you up, but we'd both agree
It's for the best you didn't listen
It's for the best we get our distance... oh...
It's for the best you didn't listen
It's for the best we get our distance... oh...

Marikana Miners Shot First [VIDEO]

What's that saying about living by the sword and dying by the sword? These guys must be crazy if they thought they could lead an assault with one or two hand guns.

Elephant-like creatures photographed by Mars Rover - this is INCREDIBLE!

 

 

Chad Le Clos on Carte Blanche [Part 1 and 2]

I'm impressed with the mileage - 10km per day x 6 days a week. 60km a week of swimming, that's more than I run. And they max out at 100km a week, that's almost 20km per day.

I am going to challenge myself and see if I can swim 10km per day, for 6 consecutive days, before the end of this year. Just to feel what an Olympic quality session feels like. Right now I'm at 1km per day. Watch this space.

They never forget: The strange gift of perfect memory

Snowboarding in Japan [GOPRO]

Japan snowboarding vacation solely shot on a GoPro

The Art of the Insult

People are not just people. They are an awful lot of microbes, too

POLITICAL revolutionaries turn the world upside down. Scientific ones more often turn it inside out. And that, almost literally, is happening to the idea of what, biologically speaking, a human being is.
The traditional view is that a human body is a collection of 10 trillion cells which are themselves the products of 23,000 genes. If the revolutionaries are correct, these numbers radically underestimate the truth. For in the nooks and crannies of every human being, and especially in his or her guts, dwells the microbiome: 100 trillion bacteria of several hundred species bearing 3m non-human genes. The biological Robespierres believe these should count, too; that humans are not single organisms, but superorganisms made up of lots of smaller organisms working together.

It might sound perverse to claim bacterial cells and genes as part of the body, but the revolutionary case is a good one. For the bugs are neither parasites nor passengers. They are, rather, fully paid-up members of a community of which the human “host” is but a single (if dominating) member.

Read the rest here.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Extreme conditions can be found at any given time in about 8% of the world

Apocalypse Not: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Worry About End Times

Photo: Garry Mcleod; Alamy; Yva Momatiuk & John Eastcott/Getty

This is the question posed by the website 2012apocalypse.net. “super volcanos? pestilence and disease? asteroids? comets? antichrist? global warming? nuclear war?” the site’s authors are impressively open-minded about the cause of the catastrophe that is coming at 11:11 pm on december 21 this year. but they have no doubt it will happen. after all, not only does the mayan long count calendar end that day, but “the sun will be aligned with the center of the milky way for the first time in about 26,000 years.”

Case closed: sell your possessions and live for today.

When the sun rises on December 22, as it surely will, do not expect apologies or even a rethink. No matter how often apocalyptic predictions fail to come true, another one soon arrives. And the prophets of apocalypse always draw a following—from the 100,000 Millerites who took to the hills in 1843, awaiting the end of the world, to the thousands who believed in Harold Camping, the Christian radio broadcaster who forecast the final rapture in both 1994 and 2011.

Religious zealots hardly have a monopoly on apocalyptic thinking. Consider some of the environmental cataclysms that so many experts promised were inevitable. Best-selling economist Robert Heilbroner in 1974: “The outlook for man, I believe, is painful, difficult, perhaps desperate, and the hope that can be held out for his future prospects seem to be very slim indeed.” Or best-selling ecologist Paul Ehrlich in 1968: “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s ["and 1980s" was added in a later edition] the world will undergo famines—hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked on now … nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate.” Or Jimmy Carter in a televised speech in 1977: “We could use up all of the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade.”

Read the rest here.

Curiosity Rover's Color and B/W photos of Mars

Police open fire on striking miners in South Africa [VIDEO + PHOTOS]

Want to be on the cover of Fitness Magazine? Yes? Then contact me to arrange a shoot.

YOUR ENTRY
We require the following for a complete entry:
•    Completed entry form (click the download button above)
•    Physique photographs: We require a close-up, full length and then a series of poses of your choice. STAGE PHOTOS ARE NOT ALLOWED, photos should be studio / home photos.
•    Entry form and photos to be emailed to usnmodel@fitnessmag.co.za or mailed to Postnet Suite 99, Private bag x8, Northriding 2162
Entries close 30 September 2012
THE SELECTION PROCESS
It’s not an easy task to choose candidates for cover models, so the judges decisions will be based on the following criteria:
•    A fitness physique – shapely muscles and an acceptable body fat level
•    An entrant should display a lean athletic physique with subtle muscle tone and lines in the mid-section and arms. We’ve received many entries from various gorgeous and gracious ladies, but unfortunately their physiques are still that of mainstream models.
•    Your overall look and smile. Here at Fitness mag we’re a friendly bunch, and we like smiles! We like to see happy fitness girls that show they have a passion for training and a healthy lifestyle.
•    Well groomed ladies who take care and pride in their presentation.
•    How photogenic you are is important. While physique and presentation are the two most important factors when deciding on a good entry, when every girl has an exceptional physique we have to bring in more categories and criteria to judge entrants. One key area that we look at is how photogenic candidates appear on their entries. This is, after all, a photographic competition and our fitness cover girl has to catch that lens in a magical way.
Who will be the winner...
Our top entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges from USN and Fitness magazine. The judges’ votes will count 70% towards the final result, with the remaining 30% coming from web-based votes from our readers. From this we will narrow down the field to our top finalists.
A shoot for all the top finalists will give them all an equal chance to win the competition and appear on the Jan/Feb 2012 cover of Fitness Magazine, and become a spokesperson for USN.

Contact me to arrange a shoot by clicking here.