Scorched

On a wing and a prayer (M&G)

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | rational thought, theism | No Comments

As a head of state, to end up in a slick French hospital on your deathbed has to be the ultimate vote of no confidence in your own country’s healthcare system. Zambia’s Levy Mwanawasa was shipped off to Paris after his stroke in June this year. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s president, also popped over to France for surgery on a stomach ulcer.

At least North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il was suitably taken in by the cult of his own personality to stay at home for treatment after his recent brush with the other side. But rumour has it that a French neurosurgeon was imported to treat him. Pyongyang denies this emphatically, but then they would, wouldn’t they?

What is it about the French and their medical prowess?

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Tags: prayer

Robben Island rabbits on the run (M&G)

Friday, November 14th, 2008 | invasive species, rational thought | 1 Comment

Since it’s matric exam time, here’s a question to pop into the life sciences (formerly known as biology) paper. Problem: there’s an island in a bay, surrounded by cold, rough, possibly shark-infested waters; you’re 8km away on the mainland with a box of tortoises. How do you get those tortoises on to the island without using human technology?

Solution: either Natalie du Toit swims them across for you — but she’d have to do it without shark spotters or a boat for backup, or you could wait for the next ice age. This’d drop the sea level as water gets sucked up into polar ice caps. Your tortoises could simply walk across the new muddy flats and colonise the island themselves. Once the ice age was over, the water would trickle back into the bay, cutting the island off from the mainland once more. Any animals trapped on the island would have the place to themselves. They’d be the true original residents.

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Tags: invasive species, rabbits

Making green cent$ (Extra Virgin)

Saturday, November 1st, 2008 | uncategorized | No Comments

Bloody hell, what a month! I’m not sure what’s more unsettling: watching the ANC two-stepping through a presidential re-shuffle (step-scuff-scuff-step); or seeing my paltry investments deflating like a punctured balloon (fffftthhhhhppppppphhh…).

Still, where there’s life, there’s hope, god damn it (I say, desperately, through another white knuckle day on the markets). But if there’s one lesson to be learned here, it’s that money usually comes top of the modern survival guide, so if we want to go green, it’s going to have to make business sense.

Not necessarily in the money-grabbing, profit-or-be-damned, no-holds-barred, control-free, laissez-faire capitalist growth that got global markets in this mess in the first place, but in a level-headed, smart-business kind of way. › Continue reading