Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Book Review: A Disruptive Invention

Author:  Peter W. Shackle
Genre:  Sci/fi – Thriller
Publisher: Amazon.com
Rating: 4 reading glasses


For decades, scientists have been hitting dead ends trying to discover the holy grail of physics; the elusive fifth force, a mysterious energy which causes an electric current to repel gravity. 
Every scientist who has tried hunting the force has failed, that’s until electrical engineer John Sykes accidently discovers the force in his home lab while trying to create a fancy metal detector.

Needing someone in his field to confirm his claim, John uses the opportunity to invite work colleague and secret crush, Judy Chen over to his flat for a practical demonstration of the anti-gravity coils. Unfortunately for John, the sexy Chinese scientist he has been ogling since college insists on inviting Professor Tony Shepard who ran their physics lab in college to the ‘date’.  John relents, and on that fateful day, his two friends confirm the discovery of the fifth force.

After practical demonstrations of the anitcoil technology, the trio manage to convince venture capitalists to invest millions of dollars into their new company Electrolev.  They quit their day jobs, rent a  warehouse building in California, hire more staff and delve into more advanced research which leads to the construction of a completely silent, wingless, rotor less saucer shaped vehicle called a LeviStar capable of near space flight. When they test the LeviStar outdoors for the first time and the Californian public glimpses it, the media reports it as a UFO sighting. The story takes a dramatic turn when these newspaper reports raise the eyebrows of industrial spies.

Since LeviStars would make aircraft carriers, satellite companies, space shuttles, helicopters and airplanes obsolete, not to mention make its owners billionaires, its civilization shattering implications attracts the attention of the Russian government who has been covertly watching the development of the ‘silent helicopter’.  They send ruthless secret agents to infiltrate the Eloctrolev headquarters to steal as much information about the technology as possible, they successfully complete their mission but not without killing several Electrolev employees in the process.

Suspecting a foreign government could be behind these crimes, and fearing they could use LeviStars against America, the US military steps in and moves the Electrolev team to the Area 51 secret air force base, and invests $1billion in a desperate attempt to develop an advanced prototype before the unknown foreign government beats them to it.


ADI has some complicated science jargon which is confusing if you’re not a physics nerd. And despite many gun wielding police, secret agents and military personnel, about four shots are fired in the entire story making the shootouts disappointing.  However, once the LeviStar conducts its maiden space flight you’ll fly through the book anxious to discover if the craft crashes or stalls in space forever.

 Moreover, the love triangle between Judy, Tony and John becomes painful when Judy is forced to choose between the two. What makes ADI unique from traditional UFO stories is that it’s probably the only flying saucer tale not involving little green aliens, making it an original sci-fi classic.

Album Review: Yeezus

Genre: Rap
Label: Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam
Overall: 2.5 Vinyls



Did you know Kanye West & Kim Kardashian named their baby girl North, to “symbolize” the height of their relationship,  or that he bullet proofed his cars & hired extra security to keep away “weirdos and pshycos” from stalking his family? Kanye West’s private life is one of the hottest trending topics right now, so much so that it’s almost like the media has forgotten he has a new album out.

Yeezus is exactly what you’d expect from someone Obama called a jackass on national television, & if you thought that was enough to humiliate him into humility, think again. Lines like “They see a black man with a white woman at the top floor they gon’ call a kid King Kong” on the albums lead single Black Skinhead would easily tempt critics to call him a black dickhead, but don’t bother yourselves, he calls himself a dick anyway in New Slaves where he proudly confesses “I’d rather be a dick than a swallower.”

Though he doesn’t actually mention Kim’s name, we know exactly who he’s talking about on On Sight when he says “…and I know she like chocolate men/she got more niggas of than Cochrane” on I Am A God Kanye sounds like the attention seeking drama queen his wife is “Hurry up with my damn massage…In a French ass restaurant/hurry up with my damn croissants…”  I’m still waiting to hear Kim admit she wrote that. On Can’t Hold My Liquor ft Justin Vernon and Chief Keef Kanye lashes out at various unidentified women for unknown reasons “when I park my Range Rover/slightly scratch your Corolla/ok I smash your Corolla” (hope she has insurance).

 Yeezus only shines when it comes to the impeccable production quality.  He really pushes the autotune and 808 to limits most producers fantasize of reaching. Guilt Trip ft Kid Cudi is one such example, just the line “…Star Wars fur yeah I’m rocking Chewbacca…” coupled with the synth effects could potentially make this the albums best smash hit. The intro On Sight begins with a brain rattling high pitched frequency which transits into a funky EDM/disco tune that would make any 80s disco king proud. The dungeon themed I Am A God easily outdoes most horrorcore beats out there, there’s also a few Ragga samples scattered randomly throughout the album, but the crown jewel is the 6:00 long Blood on the Leaves. Think orchestra, autotune, piano, trap and one hell of a bass.


Don’t let the provocative song titles fool you into thinking Yeezus tackles spiritual or socio-political issues.  On the contrary, from All Falls Down to this, Kanye clearly doesn’t give a damn about grassroots issues anymore. Was he in a rush to get the album over and done with so he could focus on posing for the paparazzi? Nobody would really blame him though; after all his private life is clearly pulling in more money than his album.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Movie Review: They Live

Director: John Carpenter
Starring: ''Rowdy' Roddy Pipper, Keith David, Meg Foster
Genre: Sci-Fi/Horror
Year: 1988
Length: 1h30
Rating: 4 popcorn boxes

What do you get when you mix classic one-liners, a 1980s WWF wrestler, Ray-Bans and ghoulish looking aliens?  They Live! An alien invasion cult classic based on the short story 8’ O Clock in the Morning by Ray Nelson.

Former WWF Wrestler Roddy Piper plays the lead character named John Nada, a drifter who goes to different American cities seeking employment. Nada gets a job doing backbreaking construction work in Los Angeles, while toiling in the construction site Nada makes friends with a black guy named Frank played by Keith David (Chronicles of Riddick, The Thing another Carpenter horror). While awaiting their first pay checks, Frank and Nada move into a squatter camp community with other destitute people. 

You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for them this Fall. You think they're people just like you. You're wrong. Dead wrong. They Live's tag line still sounds creepy after all these years
As Nada settles down he finds that things are a bit strange in his new neighbourhood. For instance, an unmarked helicopter constantly fly’s over their camp. There’s also the blind street preacher, played by Raymond St Jacques (Voodoo Dawn, Time Bomb) who rants at street corners about “our masters.”   Then there are the hackers who have figured out how to hijack prime time television with their broadcast signal to warn people of an evil conspiracy to control humanity.

Nada’s curiosity eventually leads him to sneak into the street preacher’s church across the road from the camp, which he discovers to be the hackers’ broadcast station. The next night police raid the hacker’s base and brutally kill whoever they find. 

"I have come to chew bubblegum and kick *ss...And Im all out of bubblegum" This punchline was so bad *ss it even got used in the video game Duke Nukem 3-D and is a part of pop culture
When Nada returns to the church after the raid, he discovers a hidden box containing sunglasses that allow wearers to see that the world is being taken over by corpse looking aliens disguised as the famous and powerful humans in society’s ruling elite, the very same people admired on TV. There’s also the subliminal messages on billboards and magazines which look like normal advertisements to the blind, but appear as commands like STAY ASLEEP, WATCH TV, MARRY AND REPRODUCE to people wearing the sunglasses.

After uncovering the conspiracy, Nada recruits Frank as a sidekick and they embark on a mission to stop the ugly aliens, and the two get into unrealistic gunfights as they attempt to stop the aliens from taking over Earth. The only time we get to see big tough Nada let his guard down is when he is with his crush Holly, played by Meg Foster. She’s the pretty yet suspicious acting assistant director of the Cable 54 news channel.

This film is low budget and it shows. The alien make up looks dirt cheap and the black and white CGI techniques were considered out-dated even by 1980’s standards. Then there is the corny acting and unconvincing shoot outs and explosions.

The aliens maintain their disguise by broadcasting covert frequencies encoded in TV signals that block people from seeing beyond their human camouflage.

Nonetheless, the $3Million movie raked in $13million in America alone. The acting and special effects might be shoddy and out-dated, but the messages it conveys are still relevant now, more so than in the 80s, explaining why the movie has ascended to cult status. They Live definitely deserves it’s plaque in the sci-fi hall of fame.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Q&A: BBOY Killy

The Red Bull BC One Cipher had some fresh talent. Photographer:@mpumelelomacu
Success begins with dreaming which is the easiest part, then pursuing your dreams (way harder). Thereafter there’ll be one inevitable outcome; either victory or failure. The latter is the most unbearable reality of pursuing success. Case study:  Bboy Marshall at this year’s Back to the City BC One Cyphers in Jozi. He travelled from Zambia to compete – sadly, judges eliminated him in his 1st round battle against Killy. Marshall visibly fought back emotions as he stormed of stage. Hopefully, the fact that Killy whipped everyone else’s ass that night consoled him.

Forget a hand stand, do a spinning HEAD STAND. Photographer:@mpumelelomacu
 Killy, (Lehlohonolo Hato, 26) from Soweto duelled Just Bashi  in the finals. At first it appeared Bashi would win after some dangerous looking head spins/flips. Then Killy took of his hoody, revealing a buff torso, Oh - oh. That’s when shit hit the fan for Bashi. Demonstrating amazing upper body strength, Killy attacked with a devastating barrage of power moves & incredibly fast spins that transformed him into a human top. Bashi never knew what hit him. 


The battles got of to a slow start but picked up pace as they progressed. Photographer: @mpumelelomacu
@Mook_etsi: What do you call your power move?
@killyskills: It’s called 2000 and it involves spinning on both hands with your legs pointing straight up. I learnt it while attending the 2009 Music Mayday in Rotterdam, Holland from my mentor Lil King. To spin faster he said, “Tuck your chin closer to your chest.”
Bboy Killy's signature power move, "2000". Photographer:@mpumelelomacu

@Mook_etsi: What makes a dope bboy?
@killyskills: Being an all-rounder. You can’t just be good at footwork but suck at ground work or vice versa. I guess it is a delicate combination of style, power and tricks.
Killy's hand stands impressed the judges. Photographer: @mpumelelomacu

 @Mook_etsi: What do you call your winning combo?
 @killyskills: Flair- Push of to Elbow Freeze & Elbow Air

Killy executing his power combo: "Flair - Push of to Elbow Freeze & Elbow Air". Photographer:@mpumelelomacu 
@Mook_etsi: WTF? That sounds dangerous.
@killyskills: It is that’s why it took so long to master. It took me three years to learn how to do a proper flair, plus another year to learn how to push of into the air using my elbows.

@Mook_etsi: So where to from now?
@killyskills: I want to see the world some more, learn from international breakers and obviously make tons of money as a bboy.
Killy ecstatic over his win. Next step is the national finals in Cape Town happening in July. Photographer:@mpumelelomacu 
The respective winners of the other ciphers are: JungleKat from Port Elizabeth, Benny from Cape Town and Tarquin from Durban. The national finals will take place on July 6 in Cape Town and the world finals will take place in Seoul, South Korea on November 30th. 


Sunday, April 14, 2013

New AIDS Drug Floods SA

On 8 April 2013 in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria, the Health Department rolled out newer, cheaper 3 in 1 ARV drugs called Atroiza, which millions of HIV positive South Africans are now popping everyday.


Source: UNICEF


A welcome convenience
Instead of taking three individual pills, (Fixed Drug Combnations) FDCs are a combination of all these drugs in a single pill called Atroiza that can be conveniently popped just once a day. Not only is Atroiza cheaper to purchase from the pharmaceutical companies licensed to distribute them, (Health Dept now pays R90 instead of R150 per patient) but they are actually the cheapest in the world. In addition to that, the medication is said to have far fewer side effects -- but more importantly reduces the risk of patients defaulting from treatment. Primary preference for the drug is given to HIV positive pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as newly diagnosed HIV or TB patients. 


The drug dealers
The three pharma companies awarded the multi-billion Rand tender to supply the health department with the drugs are Aspen Pharmacare: a multi-national South African drug company which is also the biggest manufacturer in Africa,  Cipla Medpro: SA's third largest pharma and Mylan Pharmaceuticals from Pennsylvania, USA. A major manufacturer of generic drugs globally. Its this competition government and major opposition parties alike are attributing to the lower costs of the drugs.
Source: GCIS

Money, money, money
South Africa.Info says Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the deal saved the department more than R2billion. Not only are the drugs cheaper to purchase from the pharmaceutical companies licensed to distribute them, (Health Dept now pays R90 instead of R150 per patient) but they are actually the cheapest in the world.

Whats in the drug?
The FDC contains a potent cocktail of emtricitabine, efavirenz and tenofovir that is guaranteed to keep those HIV viruses subdued as long as you keep popping the pills.Paul Miller, Mylan CEO says "If the patients take their tablets at least 90% of the time, in other terms, not miss more than two or three tablets in a month, they will respond well to therapy. They will live longer as a healthy person." 
Source: GCIS

Everybody wants a fix
Doctors Without Boarders says the drugs are good news for the 1.7million HIV pistive South Africans on ARV's, lobby group Treatment Action Campaign applauds the roll out while Health4Men HIV Clinic in Cape Town wants even more pills to be rolled out to avoid them going sold out.

Source: Sowetan Live


On the Sowetan Live, Zuluchick says: "I heard the current pills are thick as phuck, I wouldn't last on ARVs." S.Cold says, "Eish I hate taking these cocktails, at least now I'll have less loads. Easier to hide from my talkative friends," while Dithabs says its all good. "Good news indeed! Even the cocktail is okay as long as it doesn’t make you sick. I take three pills a day, hakuna mathata! I am okay with the whole treatment."  

No group has protested or warned against any possible dangers the new drugs could bring.


Monday, February 11, 2013

PHOTOGRAPHED! ALIEN UFO CLOUD SHIPS IN PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA


“Oh my god, UFO’s!”  I blurted out from the back of a cramped Port Elizabeth bound mini-bus taxi.  None of the passengers in the overloaded taxi even bothered to look at the disc shaped objects I was pointing at, which were hovering in the sky like large, white frisbees. I turned to the only person in the taxi, probably the world, who bothers listening to any of my extra-terrestrial theories. She was half asleep, resting her head on the seat in front of us; “Zen look, flying saucers.” I exclaimed while nudging her with my elbow. “What? Stop lying,” she murmured without lifting her head.  I turned to look out the windows on the right side of the taxi, and was startled when I saw another flying saucer hovering a few hundred meters above the ground. PE was being invaded by aliens!

I spotted a flying saucer disguised as a cloud while entering the coastal city of Port Elizabeth 
At this point, I was so freaked out that my hands were trembling as I pulled out my camera phone from my pocket. I took a pic, but my hands were shaking so much it came out fuzzy. Damnit! I deleted it and tried again, steadying my hands this time, and got a perfect shot. “Those aren’t spaceships, they’re just clouds,” said Zen as she lazily lifted her head. “No, they are CLOUD SHIPS. UFO’s disguised as clouds,” I explained. She rolled her eyes, doing that whatever dude look whenever I act weird, then dropped her head back on the seat.  I took a second picture of the UFO clouds just before they went out of view, and fortunately this picture was as clear as the last. A smug grin emerged on my face while scrolling through the pictures. I finally got it. I thought to myself. Evidence of extra-terrestrials, even though nobody else could see them.

Grabbed my camera phone and snapped these pics of the flying saucer shaped clouds. Notice how distinct they are from the other shapeless clouds

Related article: 7 Reasons Why NASA Could Be Preparing Humanity For Alien Disclosure In 2017
WTF are cloud ships?!
Getting weirded out? Extra-terrestrial species such as the Pleiadians cloak their spacecraft’s, called starships, to prevent them from being seen by people in the third dimension (basically us). These starships can change the colour of their ‘skin’ to match the colour of the sky thus becoming invisible. (Think of how chameleons change colours to hide). The starships can also collect the water molecules from the air and use them to form a cloud that surrounds the ship, hence the term ‘cloud ship.’ With this technology, cloud ships can safely hover above a large city like Port Elizabeth undetected, while appearing as normal clouds to the laypeople going about their daily business on the ground below.
Weird cloud formations over Mt.Shasta in America.
"Dude WTF?!" A skier  in  Mauna Kea, Hawaii looking at a flying saucer cloud.
Ya’ll are probably thinking that I have my head in the clouds so to speak. But one only has to watch movies like The Avengers, V or Signs to understand how entire UFO fleets can cloak themselves while we remain totally oblivious to their presence. So if these strange looking clouds are actually alien starships, what on Earth are they doing here and why are they doing it?
Invisibility shield lifting off a cloud-ship in Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
Cloud ships here to protect us
In most Hollywood blockbusters, UFO’s hovering in the sky usually deploy devastating weapons on the puny humans below, sending us scattering like cockroaches in the light. On the contrary, cloud ships aren’t the threat to us; it’s actually the world leaders. Our world leaders are deploying extremely poisonous chemicals in the sky called chem-trails for evil, clandestine purposes. These chemicals give us cancer, dumb us down, poison our water supply and do a whole bunch of other nasty things which would make you want to grab a pitch fork and lynch someone in the White House if I went into detail. And it’s no conspiracy theory, ever seen high flying airplanes spraying white chemicals that form long, straight streaks in the sky which stay there for hours? Well, those are chem-trails, but some people believe cloud ships are here to neutralize these chem-trails before they do any harm to the humans on terra-firma.
"Cases of flu and other illnesses were supposedly spiking in those areas that had been chemtrailed."
I believe the politically correct way of saying chem-trail is 'persistent contrail' We're fucked!
Apparently, this really pisses of the “dark ones” because cloud ships  aren’t only invisible to our eyes, but are also undetectable by radar, even with the advanced radar technology donated to the dark ones by their apparent “off world overlords.”  So when an airplane sprays a chem-trail and it evaporates immediately,  or you see large, oddly shaped cloud gobbling up the trail behind it, yep that cloud is a starship piloted by benevolent ET’s who are apparently here to guide humanity into our next step of evolution. But are cloud ships really camouflaged alien starships? Or is there a clear, scientific explanation to this UFO cloud ship phenomenon? Well, it turns out there is.


Lenticular clouds, not UFOs
There are very rare but interesting cloud formations called lenticular clouds which form at high altitude. How these lenticular clouds form is a bit complicated,  but to be as simple as possible; lenticular clouds, also known as wave clouds, form when moist air moving in wave motions passes over a mountain range and is heated adiabatically (without transference of heat energy) as it drops. A constant wind may produce flat, disc shaped clouds which remain stable and slow moving for hours, often drifting many kilometers from the mountains which formed them. They get their name from their peculiar lens shape. Look, I’m no meteorologist so you can go to www.thelivingmoon.com to get a fancy explanation.
 
You know, this explanation makes perfect sense because 1, PE is known as the ‘Windy City’, meaning the clouds had an abundance of wind to form and 2. Even though there weren't any mountain ranges where we driving, the clouds could have drifted from the mountain ranges in the Tstitsikama or Garden Route region a few hours’ drive from our location.

‘Lennies’ are famous for giving UFO hunters solid boners because of their flying saucer like resemblance, and one can only imagine what percentage of UFO cloud ship sightings appearing on the net are just good ol’ lennies. I’m sorry if this disappoints UFO enthusiasts, but what I saw were probably just naturally formed lenticular clouds. Or were they?

UFOs/lenticular clouds drawn by ancient artists
In ancient Hindu texts thousands of years old, extra-terrestrials (who were mistaken as gods), are said to have traveled in flying machines called Vimanas which could cloak themselves and become invisible, or even disguise themselves as clouds!  In the bible, Koran and Torah, there are plenty stories of mysterious clouds guiding chosen prophets. Remember the cloud that guided Moses in the desert even at night? (Exodus 13:21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a CLOUD, to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light…)

"The Madonna with Saint Giovaninno" painted in 14th century Italy. I never seen a glowing cloud with portholes . So to did that man & his dog it seems.
The ancients from Sumer, (modern day Iraq) referred to extra-terrestrials as the Annunaki. Interestingly, Sumer is where these Annunaki aliens landed and it was also called Ki.En.Gir meaning land of the lord of the blazing rockets. Just by looking at modern rockets, we know their powerful engines eject bellows of smoke as they take off. Plus, rockets leave a long trail of smoke as they shoot into space. Could primitive people, who couldn't understand what they were seeing, have mistaken the smoke from Annunaki rockets as clouds, just like we still don’t understand cloud ships today?


"The Annunciation with Saint Emidius" 1486. A lenticular cloud or UFO is shining a laser onto Mary's crown chakra. Could the beam of light symbolize telepathic communication?
There are also numerous paintings painted around the medieval era in Europe which show what appear to be flying saucers emerging from guess what? Lenticular clouds. So it’s either people from long ago watched way too many episodes of V, or they recorded their sightings to make their descendants aware of “The Watchers.”
Go figure.
So what did I see?
Chances are, what I saw while we were on holiday in PE during the 2012 festive season was just a natural occurrence. Maybe that’s why the Xhosa’s in the taxi ignored me. Hell, they were probably dissing me and calling me crazy in between those clicks they make. It makes sense; everyone down there is used to seeing lenticular clouds, just as much as meteorologists at the PE weather bureau #ROTFL whenever a hysterical tourist from Gauteng calls in claiming that lennies are UFO’s.

Related Article: 4 reasons why the planet sized UFO refueling by the sun was real

On the other hand, an intelligent race of extra-terrestrials would want to take advantage of the extra camouflage provided by naturally occurring clouds, and the re-assurance that humans would easily dismiss their cloud ships as lenticular clouds, especially if that area has an abundance of clouds like this. They hid in the clouds in ancient times, why can’t they do it now?

One thing is for sure though, I definitely saw flying saucers. Were these flying saucers alien or natural? That’s open for debate; the extra-terrestrials and I will let you decide.