To content | To menu | To search
Wednesday 3 February 2010
By Andy on Wednesday 3 February 2010, 17:00 - Politics
Jacob Zuma has made no meaningful stamp on the
history of South Africa.
Saturday 2 January 2010
By Andy on Saturday 2 January 2010, 18:16
Cape Town boasts a wide variety of Jazz, with
the calendar centred around the Cape Town Jazz Festival, on the 3rd and 4th April this
year.
Friday 4 December 2009
By Andy on Friday 4 December 2009, 16:23
The Copenhagen Climate Change conference opens next week. It is
the 15th major meeting since the start at the Earth Summit in
1992 in Rio de Janeiro. Along the way we had the Kyoto Protocol
in 1997 and an attempt to extend the Kyoto Protocol at the Earth Summit in
Montreal in 2005.
Wednesday 25 November 2009
By Andy on Wednesday 25 November 2009, 13:00 - Zululand
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has a number of ceremonies conducted at his palace in Nongoma, his only traditionally-built palace.
By Andy on Wednesday 25 November 2009, 09:23 - Computers
I have been involved for a
number of years with Hilton Theunissen and the Shuttleworth Foundation and
their efforts to bring computers to township schools. A part of that software
suite was an offline copy of wikipedia.
Monday 23 November 2009
By Andy on Monday 23 November 2009, 14:57
Living in South Africa, this is a much-overused term, derogatory, harking back to the Apartheid era. In my opinion, it indicates a strange paucity of the English language in a very necessary area.
Sunday 1 November 2009
By Andy on Sunday 1 November 2009, 13:46
Toyota Cressidas are nursed into longevity serving as taxis in Gugulethu
township, Cape Town.
Tuesday 6 October 2009
By Andy on Tuesday 6 October 2009, 10:41 - Computers
Associative memory is capable of performing highly parallel arithmetic computation on large datasets in constant time.
Thursday 25 June 2009
By Andy on Thursday 25 June 2009, 17:31
The African Institute for Mathematical
Sciences held the graduation dinner for the class of 2009 at the Muizenberg Pavilion on June 25, 2009. Present were
Vice-Chancellors from three of Cape Town's Universities, and the Kenyan
Ambassador Tom Amolo.
Thursday 11 June 2009
By Andy on Thursday 11 June 2009, 13:18
I visited Gabon
for the last two weeks of May 2009 by invitation of Yoan Anguilet, who has a
business and NGO there promoting ICT and Science literacy in schools. We had
met previously when setting up AUST, a new University on Nigeria. Yoan had invited me to
set up a similar system at two schools in Gabon, as a precursor to a larger
effort later in the year.
Tuesday 16 December 2008
By Andy on Tuesday 16 December 2008, 13:03
The
African National Congress has led South Africa since 1994 - the start of
majority rule. Disaffection with Jacob Zuma's recall of Thabo Mbeki has set an
unwanted ball in motion - a potential split of the party before the next
election.
Sunday 7 December 2008
By Andy on Sunday 7 December 2008, 15:08
The Ministry of Home Affairs, Zimbabwe is position in the Zimbabwean government is
currently subject to a tussle of control between Zanu-PF and MDC. However it is
overshadowed by the Provincial administration in the communal areas, which
largely controls food distribution.
Saturday 4 October 2008
By Andy on Saturday 4 October 2008, 16:42 - Zululand
Every year, Sangomas outside Eshowe hold a
ceremony to honour their ancestors and strengthen bonds between those of like
professions.
Monday 1 September 2008
By Andy on Monday 1 September 2008, 19:28
What is exciting about Cosmology today is how much
we do not know. The observable universe - baryonic
matter we are fairly sure comprises only a few percent of the total mass of
the universe. The rest is a mystery, but mainstream theories split it between
Dark
Matter and Dark Energy.
Thursday 19 June 2008
By Andy on Thursday 19 June 2008, 17:30
At the end of May in South Africa, a lot of violence erupted, apparently targeted against other black africans by fellow black South Africans. Meeting other Nigerians, almost all of them, given a little time, bring up the subject. I found myself having to apologise for the violence, and make some explanation of it.
Monday 9 June 2008
By Andy on Monday 9 June 2008, 15:36
Today, I visited two schools in
Abuja, Nigeria, both of
which were pilot schools for the new low cost laptops targeted at schools in
the third world. One Laptop per Child started
in Galadima Junior school, in Abuja Model Village,
and Intel launched 'One
laptop per teacher and child' at Jabi Junior Secondary school, in Jabi
district, Abuja.
Friday 30 May 2008
By Andy on Friday 30 May 2008, 17:31
Abuja, Nigeria, the
capital city, suffers from lack of infrastructure. Potholes, no landlines,
power cuts every day.
Sunday 11 May 2008
By Andy on Sunday 11 May 2008, 15:10
On May
11, the African Institute for
Mathematical Sciences opened its Research Centre. Present were a host of
dignitaries, led by Stephen Hawking, Michael
Griffin, the current administrator of NASA, and Nobel prize-winners
David
Gross and George Smoot. A lineup indeed.
Monday 14 April 2008
By Andy on Monday 14 April 2008, 17:27
Since the election itself, we have
watched, in slow motion, the frantic backpedalling of ZanuPF to steal the
elections after the fact.
Wednesday 2 April 2008
By Andy on Wednesday 2 April 2008, 12:00
Zimbabwe went to elections last weekend. The Movement for Democratic Change use the open hand as a symbol, ZanuPF the cockerel. ZanuPF were so bereft of
ideas that their slogan was "Get behind the fist" - a clear counterpoint to
MDC's open hand. That makes international opinion the Scissors - unable to
conquer the Rock.
« previous entries - page 1 of 2