News blues
Expert sounds alarm on fifth wave after Covid-19 curve turns upwards in SA More subvariants! As the World Health Organization tracks two new coronavirus subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5 more cases of these found in countries other than South Africa.Professor Adrian Puren, the head of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said recently, “The public should exercise caution in interpreting these data as there may be changes in test patterns. An early warning indicator, wastewater detection surveillance, shows an increase in Gauteng. He added that there was no clear evidence that Omicron was being displaced as the significant circulating variant. NICD reported that 10.6% of Covid-19 tests were positive in the past seven days, which was 2.6% higher than the previous week.
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Meidas Touch: Texas Paul REACTS to Marjorie Taylor Greene Lying Under Oath! (3:12 mins)
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The Lincoln Project:
This woman votes (0:23 mins) Meidas Touch: Texas Paul REACTS to Marjorie Taylor Greene Lying Under Oath! (3:12 mins)
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On war…
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| Published: 23 APR 2022 © Zapiro |
The Fight Against the GOP's Culture War (7:25 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Three reasons ANC is stuck on nuclear power for South Africa’s power future:Mantashe was enthusiastic, indicating the government was still intending to go ahead with the nuclear build process. Just to be clear, we are talking about a build programme that is likely to cost somewhere in the region of R1-trillion.Read more >>
I'm in the process of introducing South African anti-nuke power activists to Dr. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA) at Canada’s University of British Columbia. Dr. Ramana is also Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues and the Acting Director (2020-2021) of the Centre for India and South Asia Research (CISAR) in the Institute of Asian Research.
My goal? Dr Ramana has agreed to write an article, maybe more, about the impact on South Africa of building nuclear power plants. His prognosis? Not good! And, for many of the reasons presented in the article above. India-born Dr. Ramana is very familiar with the impacts and costs of nuke power on developing countries.
Exciting!
Stay tuned!
“Worryingly, in its assessment for the winter period, Eskom anticipates between 37 to 101 days of load-shedding, the latter in an extreme scenario. If it can limit unplanned breakdowns to below 12,500MW, it could avoid load-shedding,” the BER said.
Fear not, though. President Ramaphosa finds it ‘difficult and unacceptable’ that South Africa continues to face ongoing load shedding, that rolling blackouts are costly for the economy, causing significant frustration and hardship for all citizens and businesses, and that his government now working to ensure it comes to a permanent end.
It turned out not too bad. It helps that putty has a similar consistency to clay with which I’m intimately familiar; putty, however, is stickier, less obliging, and harder to remove from hands.
Yesterday, I applied wood preservative to the frame and, soon as it was dry, I happily replaced the window into the frame, the screws placed in exactly the same screw holes.
Alas, something is off. The window doesn’t fit snugly into the frame. Grrrr!
Story of my life: in theory it “should work”, in reality it hardly ever does. As a wannabe carpenter… or plumber… or “pool gal”… or lily pond maintainer … or roof gutter cleaner… I’ve great respect for expertise… and know enough to recognize I display far more willingness to try than ability to do.
Expertise?
None here!
Sad.
My goal? Dr Ramana has agreed to write an article, maybe more, about the impact on South Africa of building nuclear power plants. His prognosis? Not good! And, for many of the reasons presented in the article above. India-born Dr. Ramana is very familiar with the impacts and costs of nuke power on developing countries.
Exciting!
Stay tuned!
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Take a break from bad news on the planet and focus on wildlife: a photo essay >> Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Yet more on Escom/Eskom… as economists at the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) noted recently that South Africa hit a new record of 22,000MW of generation capacity unavailable last week, with a ‘staggering’ 17,000MW of this being unplanned.“Worryingly, in its assessment for the winter period, Eskom anticipates between 37 to 101 days of load-shedding, the latter in an extreme scenario. If it can limit unplanned breakdowns to below 12,500MW, it could avoid load-shedding,” the BER said.
Fear not, though. President Ramaphosa finds it ‘difficult and unacceptable’ that South Africa continues to face ongoing load shedding, that rolling blackouts are costly for the economy, causing significant frustration and hardship for all citizens and businesses, and that his government now working to ensure it comes to a permanent end.
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Puttied my first window on Friday. To clarify, noticing badly cracked or missing putty in a window frame, I removed the window frame, the pane of glass, and the old putty. After that, I puttied the groove into which I replaced the pane of glass and also applied fresh putty. It turned out not too bad. It helps that putty has a similar consistency to clay with which I’m intimately familiar; putty, however, is stickier, less obliging, and harder to remove from hands.
Yesterday, I applied wood preservative to the frame and, soon as it was dry, I happily replaced the window into the frame, the screws placed in exactly the same screw holes.
Alas, something is off. The window doesn’t fit snugly into the frame. Grrrr!
Story of my life: in theory it “should work”, in reality it hardly ever does. As a wannabe carpenter… or plumber… or “pool gal”… or lily pond maintainer … or roof gutter cleaner… I’ve great respect for expertise… and know enough to recognize I display far more willingness to try than ability to do.
Expertise?
None here!
Sad.
Sad.
