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| My Blogs | 6 May 2013 |
On this page you'll find links to my blogs - random observations, rants, raves, complaints and sundry other drivel. Click on the date to read the full text of each blog. Please send all feedback (positive and negative) to PKilfoil@Hotmail.com.
| Date | Subject | Contents | RSS Feed  |
| 6 May 2013 | General Relativity passes another test | Observations of a pair of tightly-orbiting stars have been able to provide further evidence for the existence of gravitational waves, one of the hitherto undetected predictions of Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. A neutron star and a white dwarf 7000 light years away ..... more | |
| 5 May 2013 | La Sal Cafe in Fish Hoek | A new restaurant recently opened in Main Road, Fish Hoek. It is called La Sal (Spanish for "The Salt") and boasts the somewhat intriguing signage "The Salt of Life" and "Meet. Eat. Drink". The interior is light and airy ..... more | |
| 4 May 2013 | Sun Valley Eco Watch (SVEW) | I live in a suburb of Cape Town in South Africa that is surrounded by a fantastic natural environment, including mountains, oceans, dunes, rivers and wetlands. Unfortunately the area has become degraded due to urban sprawl - rivers are polluted, public open spaces such as parks are full of litter and graffiti is making its ominous presence felt ..... more | |
| 3 Mar 2013 | Julius Malema - Hero, Villain or Joke? | For several years Julius Malema headed up the official youth wing of South Africa's governing party (the ANC Youth League), a period best described as "shambolic". Malema was fond of appearing at meetings in semi-military garb, complete with beret, although he never served in any armed force in any capacity whatsoever ..... more | |
| 20 Feb 2013 | Two massive meteors ... on the SAME day | Some time ago NASA announced that a 46-metre wide asteroid was heading for the Earth and at its closest approach would pass by within 27 000 kilometres of us. In cosmic terms that is too close for comfort - satellites that are in geosynchronous orbit round the Earth are further away than that! The Moon is ..... more | |
| 5 Feb 2013 | Century on debut ... batting at number 10 | Cricket is the strangest game on the planet. It could only have been invented by the British, and was spread to the far-flung corners of the Empire where the phrase "mad dogs and Englishmen out in the midday sun" was entirely appropriate. Cricket also throws up odd coincidences that defy explanation ..... more | |
| 18 Jan 2013 | Bafana Bafana play in Cape Town | In January 2013 South Africa played a friendly football international against Norway in Cape Town, only the second time that the national team has played in the Mother City since Cape Town's new stadium was completed in 2010 ..... more | |
| 2 Dec 2012 | Fourth Innings batting heroics | When Faf du Plessis batted for almost eight hours in November 2012 to save South Africa from near-certain defeat in a cricket test match against Australia, he continued a fine tradition of heroic fourth-innings defensive efforts. Jacques Kallis in 1997 and Jacques Rudolph in 2005 had scored fighting centuries ..... more | |
| 21 Nov 2012 | CIA chief resigns in disgrace | The head of the CIA fell on his sword recently after an extra-marital affair was made public. General David Petraeus' sexual exploits with Paula Broadwell continue a long and noble tradition among leaders in the USA, from John F Kennedy's rampant womanising to Bill Clinton's unseemly conduct with Monica Lewinsky ..... more | |
| 12 Nov 2012 | Bamboo trains in Cambodia | Years of conflict, war and neglect has left Cambodia with wrecked roads and no railway service. But the railway tracks themselves had survived and lay disused, rusting in the sun and tropical humidity. So locals came up with a simple and ingenious solution - why not run our own trains? And thus was born the "Bamboo Train" ..... more | |
| 11 Oct 2012 | Gordon Igesund at last! | After years of bumbling around, the South African Football Association has finally appointed the best possible coach for the national team - Gordon Igesund. Media and football fans alike have been clamouring for Igesund for several years, and now, at last, his proven pedigree as a football coach has been recognized ..... more | |
| 8 Aug 2012 | Experiences on Chinese Trains | My wife and I travelled on several long-distance trains while exploring China in June and July 2012. During the course of this trip I made a number of observations about China Railways ..... more | |
| 2 Jul 2012 | Travelling in China | Travelling around China is hard. Nothing can quite prepare you for the total and complete culture shock that hits you - you cannot read anything written anywhere, bus and train schedules are a total mystery, the language is incomprehensible and even ordering food in a restaurant becomes a bit of a lottery .....more | |
| 7 Jun 2012 | Facebook goes public | Facebook became a public company on 18 May 2012 ; the initial share price of $38 gave it a staggering overall value of $104 billion. Has the entire world gone mad? 104 billion dollars for a company that has absolutely no products, no long-term business strategy, no sales of any kind .....more | |
| 22 May 2012 | Franschhoek Literary Festival | The Franschhoek Literary Festival is a celebration of all things book-related that takes place annually in this charming country town. The festival lasts three days (Friday to Sunday) and comprises ..... more | |
| 19 May 2012 | The Franschhoek Wine Tram | A group of local people dreamed of seeing trains once again operating over the picturesque rail route through the Franschhoek valley, abandoned and derelict since 1993. A brand new, custom-built tram has been delivered to Franschhoek and is being tested ..... more | |
| 14 May 2012 | Tablets, Netbooks and Common Sense | The world's insane desire to be both fashionable and connected, fuelled by some extremely clever marketing strategies, has resulted in explosive sales of hand-held devices like the Apple iPad and Samsung's Galaxy Tab. It seems like everybody either has an iPad or wants one ..... more | |
| 6 Apr 2012 | Hacker group targets China | The shadowy organization called Anonymous, an informal collection of computer hackers who describe themselves as "hacktivists", attacked and defaced several hundred Chinese government web sites ..... more | |
| 26 Mar 2012 | Century City by Train | Getting to Century City and Canal Walk using public transport has always been difficult. But the new train station constructed nearby (which was used as a "park and ride" facility during the 2010 Football World Cup) means that access by train from Cape Town is now possible ..... more | |
| 15 Mar 2012 | Google vs Duck Duck Go? | Google's web search service provides incredibly good results, but it is now so bloated with relentless advertisements and add-ons that I find myself getting increasingly irritated with it. So I was pleasantly surprized to discover a new search engine recently called Duck Duck Go ..... more | |
| 12 Mar 2012 | Green Point Park | An open area next to Cape Town Stadium has been transformed into a verdant and tranquil public park, with different areas for picnicing, exercising and strolling through a showcase of wetlands and indigenous plants ..... more | |
| 6 Mar 2012 | The truth about Truth Coffee | Truth Coffee Cult is a coffee shop and roastery located in the front section of the Prestwich Memorial, a building constructed in memory of the many slaves who lived and died in Cape Town. But beware of ordering a single espresso there ..... more | |
| 8 Jan 2012 | Cape Town's MyCiTi Bus Service | Recently my wife and I took one of the new "MyCiTi" buses from Cape Town to Table View. This route is part of Cape Town's ambitious Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) system, whereby buses travelling in dedicated lanes will supplement the existing commuter rail network ..... more | |
| 31 Dec 2011 | Brutal Chinese Rule in Tibet | Tibet has been a so-called "Autonomous Region" of China since 1951, when Chinese troops invaded the country and placed Tibet under military rule. The spurious reason often put forward by the Chinese government for this act of naked aggression is that Tibet was historically ruled by China ..... more | |
| 28 Nov 2011 | Decks Cafe in Kommetjie | My wife and I were recently pleasantly surprized to discover a new coffee shop/restaurant in Kommetjie - Decks Cafe. Somebody has invested a LOT of money in renovating the place, because it has been completely remodelled and now boasts a stunning interior ..... more | |
| 12 Nov 2011 | Why is Graeme Smith criticized so much? | Graeme Smith has been captain of South Africa's Test cricket team since 2003. He has brought his own brand of confidence, aggression and directness to the captaincy, together with a "never back down" attitude and a propensity for scoring big runs when they are needed the most. But why is he hated so much? ..... more | |
| 25 Sep 2011 | Technical Support telephone scam | I recently received a telephone call from a lady with a broad Indian accent, very obviously calling from a foreign location. She told me a long story about how "the Windows users" had been reporting problems with their computers and because ..... more | |
| 21 Aug 2011 | The Cost of Data Storage | In February 2008 I bought a 160 Giga Byte (Gb) portable hard drive for about R750. Just over two years later, in May 2010, I bought a 1 Tera Byte (Tb) external hard drive for under R1000 - six times the space for only a little more cash ..... more | |
| 29 Apr 2011 | The Ups and Downs of being Self-employed | At the end of May 2010 I left full-time employment and started working for myself from an office at home. Thus far it has been a very interesting, rewarding and challenging experience - no more answering to a boss with whom I may disagree, no more filling in tedious timesheets ..... more | |
| 10 Dec 2010 | Simon's Town railway closed for over a year | In December 2009 a severe storm caused damage to the railway line that runs from Cape Town to Simon's Town down the east coast of the Cape Peninsula. Trains could not travel over the affected section of track so the line was closed between between Fish Hoek and Simon's Town ..... more | |
| 2 May 2010 | Free/open source software | There are so many outstanding, free-to-use computer software applications out there that I often wonder why people even bother using commercial stuff ..... more | |
| 11 Apr 2010 | A visit to Cape Town's World Cup stadium | On Saturday 10 April 2010 the third "trial run" of the newly-completed Cape Town stadium was held. This was the last trial before the stadium was handed over to FIFA, and included the use of the floodlights ..... more | |
| 5 Apr 2010 | Terrible driving on route 27 near Cape Town | My wife and I explored the Western Cape's West Coast over the 2010 Easter Weekend. Driving north out of Cape Town on route 27 (the R27, also known as the "West Coast Road"), we were amazed, shocked and taken aback ..... more | |
| 13 Mar 2010 | Tribeca Bakery and Coffee Shop in Kalk Bay | Tribeca Bakery and Coffee shop, located on the Main Road in Kalk Bay (a suburb of Cape Town) serves delicious coffee in a setting reminiscent of New York City ..... more | |
| 22 Feb 2010 | Fantastic service (and prices) at Loot.co.za | I am always amazed at the outstanding service I receive from Loot, an online store based in the Western Cape of South Africa. Not only that, their prices for books, CDs and DVDs are always consistently lower than anywhere ..... more | |