“It is clear that one is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans; the other a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.”
~Chancellor of Cambridge University, date unknown (pre 1953). (via RL1908.com)

Bing’s results

We’ll start with Bing’s results:

• aol, amazon, amazon.com
• bing, bank of america, best buy
• craigslist, cnn, comcast.net
• dictionary, disney channel, dictionary.com
• ebay, espn, expedia
• facebook, facebook.com, fox news
• google, gmail. gmail.com
• hotmail, hi5, home depot
• irs.gov, itunes, imdb
• jcpenney, juno, java
• kohls, kelly blue book, kmart
• lowes, lyrics, limewire
• myspace, mapquest, myspace.com
• netflix, nascar, noaa
• orbitz, office depot, orkut
• pogo, pandora, pogo.com
• qvc, qvc.com, quotes
• realtor.com, runescape, recipes
• southwest airlines, sears, sam’s club
• target, tmz, twitter
• utube, usps, us bank
• verizon wireless, verizon central, verizon.net
• www.google.com, walmart, weather
• xm radio, xbox, x17
• yahoo, youtube, yahoo.com
• zip codes, zillow, zillow.com

True to form, as identified by Mark Littlewood, the results are exactly the same as for any other country… I also found it a little ironic that slapped across Bing’s home page for the South African search was a breathtaking picture of Turquoise Lake, in… Clark National Park, Alaska, USA. There are plenty of spectacular images of South Africa, thank you very much!

Oh, and while Micorosft owns bing.co.za, they don’t use it prefering to redirect users to the .com address.

Google’s Results

• absa internet banking, absa, autotrader.co.za
• beeld, bid or buy, british airways
• computicket, career junction, currency converter
• discovery health, dstv, discovery
• edgars, exclusive books, eskom
• facebook, facebook login, fnb
• gmail, gumtree, gumtree cape town
• hotmail, hi fi corporation, home affairs
• incredible connection, iol, itunes
• junkmail, jobmail, jobs
• kalahari.net, kulula, kulula air
• lotto results, lotto, lotto sa results
• makro, mango airlines, mtn
• news24, nedbank, nu metro
• one time airlines, old mutual, outdoor wearhouse
• pnet, private property, powerball lotto results
• quotes, qatar airways, quotes about life
• rapport, remax, remax properties
• ster kinekor, sars efiling, standard bank
• twitter, telkom, tiger woods
• unisa, unisa courses, university of johannesburg
• vodacom, vodacom4me, vodacome4me.co.za
• www.facebook.com, weather sa, webmail
• xe, xstrata, xbox 360
• youtube, yahoo mail, yahoo
• z83 form, zeda car sales, z83

Quite lekker, eh! Draw whatever conclusions you want about the actual content of the local “auto-complete” results from Google for South Africa but one thing’s for sure, I know which search engine I’ll be using next to search for South African content.

Captured from a scene of the TV series, Lost

A composite of two different images

Both of the examples mentioned above are an email hoax. Internet hoaxes have been around for as long as I can remember. Aside from the ones mentioned above, there are countless others. Most hoaxes either contain fantastic imagery, or focus on bogus virus warnings, helping sick or dying children, contain urban legends, or offer ways to make easy money.

And let’s not forget the email messages that demand to be sent to hundreds of your closest friends lest the karmic or divine laws of retribution wreak havoc in your life.

All of these messages have one thing in common. They are untrue – fake, false, bogus, counterfeit, phony, a sham and spurious.

If you get an e-mail with something in it that sounds like it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Fantastic stories of giant creatures with supporting photographic evidence are usually creative fakes. Anyone who’s unhappy with a company’s products or services should address them via the correct customer-service channels and not via a chain mail to their friends and family. Most decent companies want to help their customers, not drive them away!

Before forwarding the message, take a moment to check-out any one of the following sites. They all offer credible and substantiated means to check the validity of the e-mail hoa-, er message!

The day is one of the very few saint’s days to mark the anniversary of the birth, rather than the death, of its namesake, John the Baptist. In the northern hemisphere where these festivals were first celebrated, St. John’s Festival marks the summer solstice or mid-summer where nature reaches its fullest growth and the sun is at its greatest strength. The sun at its height and zenith is the symbol for St. John’s time. Here, in South Africa, it’s mid-winter, the complete opposite. The days are short and the nights are long and cold (this year was particularly cold). As winter comes, bringing darkness and cold, we must cultivate our inner light and warmth. The Festival of John the Baptist celebrates the fire of the spirit within the human mind and heart. The Festival reminds us to be inwardly alive and awake in preparation for the new growth to come (as it always does – after winter comes spring). The flame of St. John gives us the warmth and courage to follow our chosen paths, no matter how much of a bumpy road it seems at times.

All the children make lanterns as this gives them a picture of their light within. A huge bonfire is lit and once it is small enough, everyone jumps over it, symbolically leaving the past and preparing for the future. There’s also a real sense of community as warm soup and rolls are dished out afterwards to everyone at the festival.

The entire gallery for St John’s Festival at Michael Mount 2009 can be found on Flickr.

This year we opted to watch the entire series of The Matrix . The last time I watched a matrix movie was about 3 years ago, namely “Revolutions” so I was keen to see the entire thing in one sitting. We also opted to throw in “The Animatrix” for a completion. Here’s the order we chose to watch everything:

• The Second Renaissance, Part 1 (The Animatrix)
• The Second Renaissance, Part 2 (The Animatrix)
• Matriculated (The Animatrix)
• World Record (The Animatrix)
• Beyond (The Animatrix)
• Program (The Animatrix)
• Detective Story (The Animatrix)
• The Matrix
• Kid’s Story (The Animatrix)
• Final Flight of the Osiris (The Animatrix)
• The Matrix: Reloaded
• The Matrix: Revolutions

Prior to the viewing I opted to freshen my knowledge and understanding of the trilogy. Much has been written and discussed about the matrix movies across The Web in terms of content. Nothing, however, prepared me for the full-frontal, uninterrupted sensory assault of watching the entire multi-layered, mind bending experience in one go.

Rich details such as the distinctive colouring, deeper symbolism and religious/spiritual archetypes, missed during the initial disjointed viewing, sprung off the screen and made me marvel at this modern work of, movie-making, art. I was literally – deeply and profoundly – moved by the entire experience. So much so that I still find myself mulling over various elements presented in the films.

Initially drawn to the Matrix films due to the series’ ground-breaking special effects and intense action, I am now far more of a fan due to the realisation and comprehension of various intricate complexities delicately interwoven with the former. It will probably take a number of additional viewings to fully appreciate the depth and layering of all the elements – and even then I will miss some and interpret others differently.

The Matrix movies are a truly great work, offering the viewer the chance to observe and interpret and then reinterpret with increased awareness over and over, each time gaining fresher perspective and insight into the intended message – universally unique!

Can you guess what it is?

In late 2006 the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published a research report and found that the live stock sector (the ranching and slaughter of cattle and other animals) generates an estimated 18 percent of total human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions globally. This is more than the impact transportation has on global warming.

In order to provide a complete view on the issue of global warming the consideration of the impact of meat eating needs to be included. You cannot be serious about the environment and the global warming problem unless you are serious about what you eat (or don’t).

There is a wonderful document published by Compassion in World Farming Trust, available as a PDF, that outlines the Global Benefits of Eating Less Meat.

Here are a number of additional links for further elucidation on the issue of meat eating and global warming: