“Charged particles from the sun will strike the Earth on Tuesday after a huge solar flare erupted on Monday.

The M9-class solar flare was observed by Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and erupted from a sunspot on Monday at 03:59 GMT, SpaceWeather.com reported.

The coronal mass ejection or CME is travelling to Earth at 2 200km/s which means that it could potentially cause communications disruptions to networks on the planet that could include disabling satellites in its path.

In the polar regions people could observe spectacular auroras, that may even be visible at lower latitudes.

The CME may have a particular impact in South Africa because of the South Atlantic Anomaly where the Earth’s magnetic field is weakest.

The CME is scheduled to hit at about 14:18 GMT on Tuesday and South Africans should take care to avoid being exposed directly to the sun.”

Anne posted a request for help getting a cat down which was at the time of her posting stuck on outside of a building on the 13th floor for a couple of days already. It appeared that no-one else was paying any attention and I had some time on my hands.

Embrace your inner fireman
I must start off with saying that I’m scared of heights, not full blown acrophobia, but a good case of getting jelly legs & feeling very shaky when I get close to the edge of a high place. I had to give myself a proper pep talk before going over that edge and definitely thought “What was I thinking to volunteer for this?!”

Enjoying the view from 16 floors up

The request was to just locate the cat as they had lost sight of it. From there they would place a baited cage and hope for the best. In the end my whole effort was a bit of a waste of time: we had some miscommunication regarding where I should look and I left my phone on the roof – by the time I got back up to phone Anne they had spotted the cat again. From there I helped  little with setting up the cage and left.

Two days and a second cage later the cat was safely inside. Anne took it to the vet for a checkup and reports that it was all skin & bone but otherwise healthy.

We could be aliens after all
Life on Earth may have its origins in outer space, according to Nasa research. The carbon-rich fragments were found to contain chemicals similar to one of the key components of DNA, the building blocks of life.

Tests show that the presence of these chemicals cannot be explained away by Earthly contamination, suggesting DNA’s origins may lie in outer space.

Speaking of aliens:
UK UFO ‘X-Files’ put online
Men in black, Mork and Mindy, shining lights in the sky and more than 20 years of other alien visitations and bizarre sightings recorded in Britain’s own “X-Files” were made available online to the public on Thursday.

http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ (Free downloads for the next month, hurry and get your very own X-files today….)

The Shit Box
For those who want to take being in the great outdoors to a whole new level, there is now a special box where you can take a fresh-air dump.

That one just sorta left me speechless…

At last some sanity!
Reveal fracking chemicals – US
A US Department of Energy panel wants energy companies to reveal all the chemicals they use in a drilling technique that has allowed them to reach huge and previously inaccessible deposits of natural gas and paved the way for tens of thousands of new wells but that critics say could poison water supplies.

Finally, something a little less serious:
Screaming for a nudist resort
Anton Voster, founder of a nudist resort due to open in Somerset West this summer, says Cape Town is “screaming” for it. Ever since he was reported to have said this, I have been diligently looking for these screamers. Believe me, they are hard to find.

If you want to make a “drop the match and walk away” fire, skip this post – drop by the Freestate around August on a day with a light breeze, around midday (so the frost is gone) when there’s no snow around and then try your luck. You can even go to the Cape, there they’ll look the other way when you use gas to start your fire

I’ve always had the impression that anthracite is the real deal when it comes to home heating, so I decided to give it a go

First things first, you’ll need some supplies:

• Hardwood
• Stuff to make the hardwood burn. If you’re in the Cape using gas might be an acceptable method. I like to use a little bit of firelighters & charcoal – an excellent way to get the wood going.
• Temperature gauge – steel cup with water in. You may laugh at this, but I found it most useful. It also doubles as a humidifier. 
• Poking and prodding tools – the steel stuff, not the Facebook kind. 
• Anthracite. 
• Matches or the ability to communicate with wood along with a sales pitch that inspires cult-like devotion and ultimately self-sacrifice.

Knowing it was going to be a hard to light the anthracite I made starter-fires from very my first attempt on, with  limited success. So I approached Dr Google and to paraphrase what he said: “Light kindling to start a small fire. Use that to light your hardword fire. Stoke your hardwood fire until you have a bed of coals approximately 3 inches deep, else your anthracite will not burn satisfactorily”

Google has spoken, so I went in search of really good hard wood. These things can be scarce: I suspect the devil uses all the “krans mopanie” to stoke his own fires leaving very litte for us mortals, but I managed to win some in a card game

Once you’ve got your ingredients & tools in place get that hardwood going. Make sure your thermometer is on the stove and filled with water. I like it when the whole stove starts making this gentle rumbling sound and water bubbles along at a good rate – I’ve managed to evaporate a 3/4 cup in the time the hardwood took to make coals. Good time to put on some Jethro Tull.

hint: Use purified water, it leaves less of that white residue
which can be hard to wash off if you’ve been re-using the cup.

When your hardwood made a bed of really hot coals, start adding some anthracite, not really any more than a scoop at a time. Make sure not to linger too long while the door is open, if your fire is any good they start popping and shooting off sparks in all directions. Wait at least until the popping phase has passed before considering to add more, and then only if the ones you added before are clearly burning – it’s quite easy smothering your fire at this point.

If after adding the anthrasite the fire looks like it just won’t take off (and here you’re thermometer is your best friend, you’ll clearly hear how well your fire is doing by listening to how fast it’s boiling), go on to you knees. You can pray for it, or alternatively look at your fire from below through the ash door – I recommend the latter. If you can’t see the fire glowing, the ventilation slats are clogged. Choose your weapon and start rattling it from below until all the ash blocking it has fallen through and you can see the fire’s glow.

hint: I’ve found that even with the anthracite properly lit, it was not quite
as hot as my hardwood fire at full blast, but it still made the water boil steadily.

Repeat.

Start closing the big flaps, in the end all you’re going to leave open is the small vent holes. I’ve made a fire that gave of significant heat for 10hrs from about 5 scoops of anthracite. Adapt to your taste.

Next time:
I’ll chop the logs a bit thinner. This will make them turn into coal quicker and if their of uniform size they’ll all be ready at about the same time. I’ll organise a shovel with a longer handle – it’s quite unpleasant touching the sides of the door opening with your hands.

Upside:
You get to play with fire and hopefully not wet your bed (Terms and conditions apply)
I like making fire and watching it.
It lasts really long once you’ve got it going well.

Downside:
It’s not a one hour job. My hardwood took over an hour to start resembling coals.. In other words: You don’t bag a chick and tell her “Hey Hey baby I’m gonna light you a fire”.  If you reword that you might have better luck.

“Making fire 101″
A course I present in an effort to help along the domestication of my fellow man-animal. Below one of my top students, we’ll be progressing to soft logs in our next session.
 

Opening a wine bottle using a shoe

A financial advisor advised me on Nedbank’s “Park-it” branded money market account as being the best out there for such a purpose. At the time it was a reasonable suggestion and I went with it. The account requires a minimum balance of R10 000 and last I checked pays 4.05% interest. Withdrawal of any amount above the R10 000 threshold can be arranged via internet but is subject to a 2 day waiting period. Closing the account to get hold of the rest of your money involves a trip to your closest branch ID book in hand and a 14 day wait.

Wait a minute…..I have to say pretty please for my own money?! I won’t even mention my bank charges at Nedbank…

I started shopping around. I knew Virgin Money had a good rate on their credit card – 4.25% on any positive balance and it’s linked to the Reserve Bank’s repo rate: if the repo rate goes up, so does your interest on the positive balance. Getting your money is as easy as sticking your card in an ATM.

Much better yes? But wait, there’s more.

Capitec Bank has a range of savings plans, ranging from a standard savings account (6% for a balance under R10k, 4.75% thereafter) as well as fixed deposit options over several terms – starting at about 6.05% and ending at 8%. The one thing that really set them apart in my mind is the option to link up to 4 additional savings accounts of any flavour to your main account. You can name them ”Car”, “Holiday” etc.

So, here’s my solution:
I’ve created the allowed 4 additional plain savings accounts  – no fixed term, immediately accessible, each with an interest rate of 6% while under R10 000. I spread the money I save between the 4 “sub” accounts maintaining a balance under R10 000 so that the interest rate stays at 6%. I then use my main account as a catch all for any of the sub accounts going over R10 000 – for instance if via the interest paid account 4 goes to R9990, I take R1000 from it and dump into the main account. You can also specify where interest is paid to, so you can save yourself the hassle of manually checking and maintaining the balances each month.

Effectively you can then have R39 996 drawing interest at 6% each month – just short of R200.  The rest saves at 4.75% which is pretty good by any measure.

All immediately accessible with monthly account  maintenance fee of only R4.50. Beautiful.

Here’s how the scam works:

Two nice-looking, college-aged girls will come over to your car or truck as you are packing your purchases into your vehicle. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windowlene, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. (It’s impossible not to look). When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say ‘No’ but instead ask for a ride to McDonald’s.

You agree and they climb into the vehicle. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.

I had my wallet stolen Mar. 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th, & 29th. Also Apr. 1st & 4th, twice on the 8th, 16th, 23rd, 26th & 27th, and very likely again this upcoming weekend.

So tell your friends to be careful. What a horrible way to take advantage of us men. Warn your friends to be vigilant.

Wal-Mart has wallets on sale for R2.99 each. I found even cheaper ones for R1.99 at the R5 store and bought them out in three of their stores.

Also, you never get to eat at McDonald’s. I’ve already lost 11 pounds just running back and forth from Checkers, to P&P, to Liquor Town, Etc. And keep in mind, I have only been on pension for a very short time.

So please, send this on to all the men that you know and warn them to be on the lookout for this scam. (The best times are just before lunch and around 4:30 in the afternoon.)

If your company blocks the online player, the BigBadWolf just did you a little favour – download the clip here: CPR.

(Jethro Tull)

….and man invented email and powerpoint slides. He invented adress books and made it possible to send emails to everyone at once. He thought up soppy stories of religion which he spread mercilessly and without thought,
and saw that it was not enough.

He added thinly veiled threats of impending misfortune, or sly insinuations of not caring for family and friends to ensure recipients did not “break the chain” and faithfully assisted in spreading these messages.

But man was not satisfied. In a desperate cry of insecurity, he added a rule: “Though shall send this message to all your family and friends. Though shall also send it to me, and I shall feel vindicated”

I’ll add religious mails to my list of things I hate about the email I get. I think I’ll make this post my standard reply to any further religious mails. A little random something’n'something to think about before hitting “Send” next time round.

Accept for a strange one about kittens, I’m still not getting mail like Seth‘s getting - must be doing something wrong <sigh>