Ablaze (2019).
-> https://ad-reflex.com/projects
-> https://www.deepestdarkestart.com/adreflex-exhibition-hinsights-with-artwork
The Gravity of Me (2019).
#AD-Reflex #JohanConradie #KarlGustavSevenster
#glitch #decay #oil #digital #collage #artwork #SouthAfrica #art
A video shared online showed Sharon Bar-Li, the deputy director of the African Division at the Israeli foreign ministry, being escorted out at the opening ceremony of the two-day convention.
An AU official told AFP the individual who was "asked to leave" was not invited to attend the meeting, with a non-transferable invitation only issued to Aleli Admasu, Israel's ambassador to the African Union.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing unnamed diplomatic officials, said Bar-Li had the proper authorisation to attend the summit and that discussions are being held to allow her to return.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-african-union-summit-diplomat-removed
Traditional circumcision in Umtata, South Africa.
Photo by Mujahid Safodien 🇿🇦 Stories by Mujahid Safodien.
#MujahidSafodien #circumcision
#dongday #Umtata #SouthAfrica #photo #art
As I posted last week, Pick n Pay in South Africa has gone live to over 1,500 stores countrywide now allowing payments in Bitcoin. I had bought some Bitcoin as it was bottoming out in price about two or three months back, and now with the price having gained a good 10% to 15% I thought it s a good time to try this out, and unload some of the Bitcoin (without having to resell it to an exchange and extract it to my bank account). The Bitcoin was just a very small amount bought to have fun with and was in no way a serious investment.
The requirements to make a payment at Pick n Pay were to use the CryptoQR app. This app does nothing at all except to read one of the 4 approved wallets it works with, and to perform the QR code reading at the till. The app has no settings so I gather it just detects the presence of those wallets. I randomly decided to install the Muun wallet .
Before going to the shop I opened my Exodus wallet on my desktop computer, and obtained the receiving Bitcoin wallet ID from the Muun app on my phone, and sent R1,105 worth of Bitcoin to the Muun wallet. It arrived in the Muun wallet about 5 minutes later.
At the till at Pick n Pay I informed the cashier I wanted her to select Contactless QR payment (I see it was also an option that showed up on the credit card machine display), and then the credit card machine showed a QR code to scan with my phone. I opened the CryptoQR app, and it immediately goes into QR scan mode, and then I got an error saying “not enough funds”. So the mistake was, the till does not just do a part payment by default. The cashier said she can set the amount for the contactless payment, so we tried again for R1,105 this time (which was what my Muun wallet showed as available. And there it went through much to my, and the bag packer’s excitement (yes he said he was also waiting to see someone actually do this, and he thought it was still in beta testing).
CryptoQR screen after scanning QR code
CryptoQR app success message after sending
Pick n Pay receipt showing payment by CryptoQR
All in all actually it is a very smooth process. Apparently the CryptoQR app also helps facilitate “instant” merchant transactions as a normal Bitcoin transfer could take 5 or 10 minutes even, and you can’t have queues being held up waiting for that. I’ll just remember next time to specify the amount I want to pay with Bitcoin, when making the transaction.
But the downside of Bitcoin is, if you had bought say R3,000 of Bitcoin and it’s value was now only R2,600, and use of that Bitcoin is basically a loss. So you have to time spending when the value is roughly the same, or higher, than when you bought it. I had to wait 3 months for that to happen. This is not really what I’ll be doing in future as Bitcoin is not what I invest my money in.
~ Victor Kuster
🗝️ https://augusthouse.co.za/media/in-studio-with-victor-kuster/
#VictorKuster #darkness #light #SouthAfrica #art
Margaret Neville made a fascinating discovery in her backyard in #SouthAfrica on a day in September. A #flower #mantis, a species of #prayingmantis that has evolved to look incredibly “floral,” was sleeping among her lavender bushes. Neville discovered a female flower mantis with a distinctive swirl pattern on her back and protrusions that resemble lavender buds along her legs. Neville was astounded by the mantis’ beauty and gave her the nickname “Miss Frilly Pants” in honor of her purple “pantaloons.”
Snow Landscapes in Lesotho [ANF] - South Africa, 2020.
❄️ -> https://snowbrains.com/sahara-desert-fresh-snow/
#snow #Lesotho #SouthAfrica & #Sahara #desert #landscapes #africa #photo #art
Snow Falls in Africa’s Sahara Desert - Photo by Mustapha Chagos Hajji, 2021.
First Sahara Desert Snow In 37 Years - Photo by Karim Bouchetata, 2017.
Snow Falls in Africa’s Sahara Desert - Photo by Alan Lee, 2022.
Snow in Lesotho [ANF] - South Africa, 2020.
Nicht nur die Flucht übers Mittelmeer Richtung Europa, sondern auch die Migrationsrouten Richtung Südafrika werden immer öfter zu Todesfallen für Migranten. Experten und Menschenrechtsorganisationen schlagen Alarm.#Migration #Zambia #Malawi #Mozambique #southafrica #migrants
Todesgefahr auf den Migrationsrouten im südlichen Afrika | DW | 15.12.2022
MTN is the only South African mobile operator that doesn’t offer Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging. However, it acknowledged that the technology is becoming more popular in the country.
“We note that the business case for mobile advertising is gaining traction — and have seen an increase in RCS protocol usage, particularly to the high-end smartphone users.”
According to Mobi Solutions Group member Messente, Google created RCS messaging to offer non-Apple phone users a competitive alternative to iMessage. The technology is commonly referred to as an upgrade to traditional short message service (SMS) and is intended to replace SMS and MMS.
#technology #southafrica #android #RCS #MTN
#Blog, ##android, ##mtn, ##rcs, ##southafrica, ##technology
On 29th October 2022 various countries in Region 1 of the IARU (International Amateur Radio Union) conducted an exercise to test emergency radio communications via the QO-100 satellite. This exercise allowed us to test mobile deployment of our QO-100 stations, do signal checks, and a chance to pass and receive messages using the standardised IARU message form template.
James ZS1RBT deployed his station at Tyberberg Hospital (next to the Disaster Management Centre) on behalf of HAMNET Western Cape. It took about ten minutes to set up the dish and equipment, and align the dish towards the satellite. The station operated without any Internet or grid power.
A particular advantage of a QO-100 station is that as long as it is in the satellite’s footprint (Southern Africa up to Europe and part of the Middle East), it has a strong and clear signal from anywhere, and is not dependent upon times of the day which typically affect HF propagation. If properly configured, talking via the QO-100 satellite is as clear as speaking via a local VHF repeater. However, this service is only one of many tools available to radio amateurs, because as conditions or locations vary it may mean that various other modes need to be used, and it is for this reason why exercises are conducted at other times for the other modes of communication.
The Net Controller was based in Chester in England, and messages received and sent were perfectly audible. Although all tests today were voice tests, the satellite can also handle data such as Winlink e-mail, FT8, etc.
When the exercise was concluded at local time 13:10, James spent another 30 to 40 minutes explaining how all the components worked inside his “grey box”. As he explained, it is very much a “work in progress” as not only has he adapted quite a few components based on lessons learnt, but he also has a few other plans for further improvements.
In attendance with James today were Michael ZS1MJT (HAMNET Western Cape Director), Allan ZS1AL, and Danie ZS1OSS.
Some photos as well as videos are at https://bit.ly/hamnetwcqo100
#technology #southafrica #HAMNET #QO100 #hamradio
#Blog, ##hamnet, ##hamradio, ##qo100, ##southafrica, ##technology
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69695
https://konstantinkisin.substack.com/p/putin-speech-america-has-nothing
The theme of this year's #forum is #A-Post-Hegemonic-World-Justice-and-Security-for-Everyone. The four day-long meeting brought together 111 #experts, #politicians, #diplomats and #economists from #Russia and 40 foreign countries, including #Afghanistan, #Brazil, #China, #Egypt, #France, #Germany, #India, #Indonesia, #Iran, #Kazakhstan, #SouthAfrica, #Turkiye, the #UnitedStates, and #Uzbekistan, to name a few.
#valdai #international-discussion-club #vladimirputin #putin #speech #konstantinkisin
Wonder what Lula will decide if he wins the election in #Brazil. Not sure he would be comfortable being alongaide KSA or Erdogan but unfortunately it is the only alternative to US$ monopoly of the world economy these days.
And #Iran is also has officially requested a membership.
Driving a truck in South Africa
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/a3ZLx1r_460svvp9.webm
25 sec video **sound
#video #southafrica #truck
Despite intense lobbying by South Africa’s motoring industry, government has so far refused to budge on the high import duties it imposes on electric vehicles, which punish consumers who want to go the EV route.
But one other African country – Ethiopia – has decided there are big advantages to be gained in slashing taxes on so-called new-energy vehicles. In doing so, it could end up pioneering EV adoption on the continent.
Yes EVs are taxed higher in South Africa than importing a luxury sports car. Ethiopia as I recall will still charge 5% duty if an EV is imported fully assembled, as they are trying to boost their local assembly business.
The real danger for South Africa’s motoring industry is that demand for ICE vehicles is starting to fall globally, and it is way cheaper foe Mercedes and others to rather import and assemble their EVs in Ethiopia right now. From Ethiopia they can export globally or tax advantage of the inter-African country tax incentives to export back to South Africa.
#environment #EV #Africa #Ethiopia #SouthAfrica
#Blog, ##africa, ##environment, ##ethiopia, ##ev, ##southafrica
Calls are growing in South Africa for Britain's royal family to return the world's largest known clear-cut diamond in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II's death.
Known as the Great Star of Africa or Cullinan I, the diamond is cut from a larger gem that was mined in South Africa in 1905 and handed over to the British royal family by South Africa's colonial authorities. It is currently mounted on a royal scepter belonging to the Queen.
Demands for the return of the Great Star of Africa and other diamonds -- along with calls for repatriations -- have intensified since the Queen's death. Many South Africans Britain's acquisition of the jewels as illegitimate.'
via @africanartmatters http://edition.cnn.com/style/article/great-star-of-africa-diamond-intl-lgs/index.html
#monarchy #stolenculture #diamond #culturalheritage #britain #britishmonarchy #queen #queenelizabeth #abolishmonarchy #colonialism #crimesagainsthumanity #jewels #colonial #royalscepter #southafrica #africanculture #africanheritage #africanhistory #knowyourhistory #greatstarofafrica #cullinan
#SouthAfrica #Africa #UnitedStates #TheGrayzone #colonialism
The Western media accuses #China of luring us into a debt trap. #TuckerCarlson says environmental, social and corporate governance programs killed us. Everybody blames the #Rajapaksas, the corrupt political dynasty that ruled us until massive protests by angry Sri Lankans chased them out last month.
But from where I’m standing, ultimate blame lies with the Western-dominated neoliberal system that keeps developing countries in a form of debt-fueled #colonization. The system is in crisis, its shaky foundations exposed by the tumbling dominoes of the #Ukraine #war, resulting in food and fuel #scarcity, the #pandemic and looming insolvency and #hunger rippling across the world.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/opinion/international-world/sri-lanka-economic-collapse.html #srilanka #economy #crisis #imf #pakistan #bangladesh #tunisia #ghana #southafrica #brazil #argentina #sudan #uk #usa #russia #india #oil #energy
