A different view on current affairs & history
For me the inscription on the granite statue, “The greatness of a nation consists not so much in the number of its people or in the extent of its territory as in the extent and justice of its compassion” is apt. That Port Elizabeth chose to honour our equestrian friends who were slaughtered during the Boer War epitomises that humanity.
Main picture: Horses being offloaded at the Port Elizabeth harbour during the Anglo Boer War using the sling-hoist method.
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Due to the Baakens River Valley, Port Elizabeth is effectively cleaved into two. Instead of having to take a circuitous route around via South End or use a track from Gubb’s Location, during 1896 it was decided at a Town Council meeting that the Divisional Council’s proposed plan to build a road through Target Kloof from Port Elizabeth to Walmer be approved.
This blog covers the history of the various tracks and roads linking these two towns.
Main picture: The original proper road across the Baakens River was merely called New Road. Also note the footbridge on the left of the road. It was probably used by pedestrian traffic when the river was in spate and water flowed over the road. The hill in the background is where Wellington Park is situated today. Wellington Park is a small Municipal open space on the edge of the Baakens Valley at the corner of Main Road and 5th Avenue. It used to consist of two sports fields that were voluntarily maintained by the nearby Clarendon Primary School.
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This, the oldest unaltered house in Port Elizabeth, bears a specific significance in my life. The original owner of that house – the Reverend Francis McCleland – was my great-great-grandfather. In 1962 the house was declared a National Monument. In order to restore the parsonage house from a place of ill-repute back to its former glory, all members of the McCleland clan in Port Elizabeth were requested to contribute financially to this process.
This blog chronicles how this parsonage came to be erected in Port Elizabeth, its fall from grace, and then how it achieved its current status as a treasured museum
Main picture: This must be the earliest view of Number 7 Castle Hill – a lithograph by W.J. Huggins showing whaling in Algoa Bay in 1832. The recently completed house of Francis McCleland stands alone at the top of Castle Hill, midway between Fort Frederick and the memorial pyramid to Lady Donkin, after whom the town of Port Elizabeth was named
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Having changed the Insurer on my daughter’s car this week, the epiphany struck me yet again: The ease and convenience of dealing with Private Sector companies versus having to deal with the Civil Service. Part but not all of the ease of use relates the fact of how technology is used. The rest is attitude.
Main picture: Wildlife photographer Hannes Lochner spent 750 days in the harsh surroundings of the Kalahari Desert to chronicle the life of a female leopard and in doing so delved into a dark and fascinating nocturnal world of big cats and other predators. Filming Luna with her cubs was the highlight of Mr Lochner’s two-year project immersed in the Kalahari Desert
Imagine sailing through the ocean and suddenly land rises in the middle of the sea with a plume of smoke arising from an underwater volcano. These unsuspecting sailors were witnessing the birth of an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in March 2016.
This is the incredible story of the crew of the yacht Maiken which was sailing through the south Pacific near the Vava’u Islands in Tonga. Oot the blue they noticed that the water in the distance had turned a strange colour. Then, as they approached it, the sea mysteriously turned to stone.
Main picture: The eruption occurred at an underwater seamount called Home Reef near the Vava’u Islands in Tonga
In short, not very safe. After having my AutoBank Card cloned about five years ago, I know the stabbing numbing fear when one discovers amounts being surreptitiously drawn out of one’s account. In my case I suspect that the culprit was an ATM at Hillfox. I was suspicious of the machine but in a rush, I used it anyway. Last week it happened to friends but in a restaurant.
So how safe is one’s money and what steps can one take to prevent the illegal cloning of one’s cards?
Main picture: How does one know whether this ATM has been tampered with?
Once smoking bore the cachet of cool, elegance and sporting. Viewing the adverts of half a century ago they are so utterly laughable that it strains one’s credulity to believe that adverts would tout smoking as an elixir. Yet they did. Much like latter day adverts proclaiming miracle cures for obesity, their continued message is believed when manufacturers and human belief coincide.
Main picture: Amongst the many supposed benefits of smoking was weight loss
Contrary to received wisdom, more vitamins are not better for one. Far from it. Mae West might have stated that more is better, but she was referring to sex and not to vitamins. The overconsumption of vitamins could be benign as in the case of vitamin C where the excess is merely excreted or it can be toxic in the case of vitamin A. Is the unregulated vitamin supplement industry unscrupulously opportunistic and is science able to substantiate definitely what levels are required?
Main picture: Is this the way that nature intend us to take our vitamins?
The ultimate litmus test of experimental drugs and technology is the human acting as a surrogate guinea pig. This is the gold standard. The recent fatality of a driver using an experimental Automated Driving System called Autopilot has brought this issue to the forefront of what constitutes ethical testing once again.
Should testing standards ever be relaxed in order to fast track development such as occurred with this self-driving Tesla and what, if any, controls need to be implemented to ensure that humans do not perforce become the 21st century guinea pigs.
Main picture: The remains of the Tesla S which is at the centre of the self-driving vehicle controversy
It is one thing to predict that a breakthrough is imminent but it quite another to actual effect that leap forward. After researchers with cheery optimism had cried wolf on numerous occasions, the scientists & technologists have finally found an inexpensive and undemanding method of editing DNA.
How is this feat performed and will it be the panacea as predicted?
Main picture: CRISPR will be the game changer. The die is now cast and genetic engineering will now be a reality