Author: John
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Gold In South Africa And The Ancient Indian Connection
Like most South Africans I learnt that the history of gold in Southern Africa started with the arrival of European explorers. The truth may be very different.
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Southern Right Whale Placenta Washes Up On The Beach
One beautiful sunny morning, a few days ago, while walking the long stretch of beach named Grotto Beach near Voëlklip on the Hermanus coastline, I came across this amazing sight — the after-birth of a Southern Right Whale, washed up on the beach. At least, that’s what I think it was. The whale that is…
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Drone That Crashed Inside Pakistan – Is It The Festo SmartBird?
An alleged US spy drone crashed into Pakistani territory last week. Strangely, it looks like nothing seen in that theatre before. Stranger still, it looks a lot like the Festo SmartBird an amazing robotic bird. The thing is, there are some significant differences. For one thing the Festo SmartBird flaps it’s wings while the drone…
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Aviation Artwork of Local Hermanus Artist Derrick Dickens
Internationally renowned artist, and local Hermanus resident, Derrick Dickens’ aviation artwork featuring aircraft of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm, as seen here, is the subject of a recently published book. This magnificent work of 168 pages is entitled Illustrated History of the Fleet Air Arm – Stringbag to Shar 1938 to 2006. It features…
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Fish and Fishing in the Bot River Estuary
It seems that Fishing in the Bot River Estuary, one of the largest estuaries in the Cape Province, is not as straight forward as one would think. This vast expanse of water is the subject of a study carried out by researchers of the Department of Zoology at the University of Cape Town in the…
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Adriaan S de Lange Local South African Sculptor and Painter
South African artist Adriaan S. de Lange is featured here as a sculptor and painter who works in the countryside outside Stellenbosch in the Western Cape of South Africa. That’s just 150 kilometres from my home town, Hermanus. That means he’s a local in the broader scheme of things. Well, we like to think so,…
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Native Indian Class Action Lawsuit Scores $680 Million From USDA
On Thursday this week a nationwide class action lawsuit was settled. The historic Keepseagle settlement agreement requires the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to pay $680 million in damages to thousands of Native Americans and to forgive up to $80 million in outstanding farm loan debt. The Indians filed the Keepseagle class action lawsuit…
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Ant Fungus Farmers Hold the Answers for Human Farmers
With the Earth’s population exploding and nearly every arable acre already cultivated, the future of farming is a looming concern. For inspiration science is looking to the leaf-cutter ant which has mastered single crop agriculture and represents the apex of ant agriculture. Monoculture crops are the rule in modern agriculture. This is why modern crops…
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New Contender For World’s Hottest Chilli is Hot, Very Hot
Trinidad Scorpion Butch T Chilli. That’s the name of the new contender for the title of the World’s Hottest Chilli. Marcel de Wit, who was involved with developing and growing it had this to say about eating it: “I had hallucinations, I had to lie down, I couldn’t walk for 20 minutes, dizzy. This chilli…
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Jewish Passover and Christian Easter: What Do They Have In Common?
It is a little known fact that, in the early Eastern Christian churches, the timing of the celebration of Easter was based on the date of the Jewish Passover. According to ancient records Jesus was crucified just before Passover. The famous last supper was the day before that. While the sacrificial lambs were being slaughtered…