The trees will be glad...

to hear that the print media is heading for extinction and so will I. Kate's blog about the gnashing of teeth over at the New York Times made add my comment thus;
The print media used to give out the news of the day with an editorial comment... then they started putting their view on each news item and that was when truth left journalism. From there it was a downward slide and the Internet was the edge of the precipice. I do not see a way back up for them, neither is it a big loss, unless you like wrapping your fish and chips in the paper.
Kate's comment "It's not a war, Mr. Sulzberger. It's a revolt." is probably the epitaph of modern newspapers as we know them. Personally I don't give a damn if they recover from this slump or not. History will show that the media failed their prime directive and paid the price...

Fireworks panorama

Awesome! For more from Atti go to the site!

Todays quote brings things of nature into perspective as well...

"You think Nature is some Disney movie? Nature is a killer. Nature is a bitch. It's feeding time out there 24 hours a day, every step that you take is a gamble with death. If it isn't getting hit with lightning today, it's an earthquake tomorrow or some deer tick carrying Lime disease. Either way, you're ending up on the wrong end of the food chain."
Jeff Melvoin, Northern Exposure, Bolt from the Blue, 1994

Adeu

This has been a terrible week for us... Ouma, we will miss you.
There are really no words to describe the loss nor are there ways to say how sorry I am that you are no longer with us on earth.
All I know is that in times like this we can only turn to the One that holds us in the palm of His hand and be glad that she is now with You in Heaven where we will all meet again one day.

Tuesday Twit

Microsoft, for the copy protection implemented in Vista... this is going to be a deal breaker in my humble opinion.
Many people have legitimate copies of media in their possession and now the Lords of Redmond want to dictate what I may or may not see on MY PC with their software?

Two weeks of survival course has this effect...

Would you survive in the wild? Your Result: Yesiree!.... You could live in the wild if you wanted to! You know what to eat, do, and stay away from! You could get shelter, food, water fast and easy-and the right treatments to injuries, snake bites etc...You know the outdoors like the back of your hand!!
Most likely you'll survive....
Not to sure...
Wouldn't last 2 minutes!.....
Maybe........
Would you survive in the wild? Quizzes for MySpace

"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival." W. Edwards Deming (1900 - 1993)

No show

Today's thunderstorm put paid to any possible comet shots but I did get a rainbow and...

a great shot of the conjunction of the Crecent Moon and Venus dipping behind clouds.

"Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star." Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)

FDA - Dr. Heidi Cullen, Climate Expert...

my ass! She wants all critics of the so called Global Warming to be called heretics or "Climate Change Deniers". Raving moonbat! I see she is a so called expert on drought.
I have my own theory why the Middle East is desert... it involves goats... many, many millions of the nefarious creatures because only goats climb trees to denude them of all vestiges of anything green. I am not talking about the Argan tree either, I have seen with my own eyes what goats can do to a patch of land, they have this uncanny ability to turn it into desert within months.

Goddit!

At long last I had the time and the sky was clear, all was set for the big Comet Catching Caper... alas Murphy had other ideas... I had forgotten to charge my camera batteries from my last expedition... so all I got was the start of tonight's show!
Which by the way is just awesome! Batteries are being charged as we speak for tomorrow night...
My mini tripod worked a treat and I was able to get some pretty cool sunset pics, so all was not in vain...

Kids must see this as well, I saw Halley's comet in '86 but McNaught is way better... truly the Great Comet of 2007!
"With a tale, for sooth, he comet unto you; with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner." Philip Sidney

McNaught Caught!

Faintly starting to glow right at the top, in the centre, at last! Comet McNaught caught 19/01/2007... then the camera battery's died! I will be back again tomorrow if the horizon is clear.

Shame on you Vodacom!

This is SPAM in my book... oh and by the way the frikkenMeercat sucks... and I am not alone.
"Though conventional wisdom has it that spamming is illegal, Leon Perlman, chairperson of the Wireless Applications Service Provider Association (Waspa), says current legislation is weak concerning the issue. "The legislation doesn't define spam clearly. It only refers to unsolicited commercial communications," Perlman says.
According to section 45 of the ECT Act, anyone who sends unsolicited commercial communications to consumers must provide the consumer with the option to cancel his/her subscription to the mailing list. (pretty plain and clear meaning to me.) The sender must also disclose the source from which they obtained the consumer's personal information if requested by the consumer."
What is not clear? Unsolicited is unsolicited i.e. SPAM you dunces! And then to have the temerity to charge the customer to unsubscribe from something they did not ask for is CRIMINAL!
If MTN does that too me they will be in court the next day. So far they have not gone down the slippery slope that Vodacom has.