The End is nigh . . .

[Note: this is not a scientific article, but merely my attempt to make light of a possible reality which is scaring me.] The End is nigh  . . .  at least that is the impression I’m getting from recent newspaper headlines. They seem to be jumping onto the 2012 phenomenon bandwagon, despite the fact that […]

Just a jump to the left . . .

. . . of the International Date Line, that is. Samoa  (formally “Western Somoa” in the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean) is . . .  . . . skipping Friday and going straight to Saturday as it shifts its time zone forward by 24 hours in a bid to move into line with […]

The importance of taking your own advice

They look just like big, friendly pussy cats don’t they? Yet all over the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (in an area known as the Kalahari), there are warnings that visitors should not get out of their vehicles. Or even dangle bits of themselves outside of their vehicles. Even if it doesn’t look like there are any […]

Big Brother is watching you

This post is NOT part of the Kalahari Series! 😉  Although I still have Kalahari photos to show and Kalahari stories to tell, I thought I’d give you all (and me) a break from it. A while back I was out shopping and I saw the following headline on our local paper: “Big Brother is […]

Earth tremor in the Southern Cape

According to News24, the S.A Weather and Disaster Information Service and other sources, a “a light, but quite noticeable tremor” took place at approximately 16:15 on Saturday 14 May. It was felt all the way from the George in the west to beyond Plettenberg Bay in the east, and as far inland as the Langkloof […]

Shift in Earth’s axis has little effect, experts say

Since Friday I have been watching events in Japan unfold with great sadness for the Japanese people. Devastation and loss of life on that scale is absolutely heartbreaking. And scary – and not just for the Japanese people. As has been reported in the media, the earthquake has not only shifted the main island of […]

Video: Hippo lifeguard

I’ve just read an amazing story online about a hippo-turned-lifeguard in Tanzania. Hippos can be very aggressive creatures, and are responsible for numerous attacks on people in Africa. This hippo has decided to help its fellow beasts in their annual migration. At a river crossing on the Mara River, video footage was shot of this […]

Message for chocolate lovers

If you like chocolate you need to be grateful to the Sulawesi Toad (Ingerophrynus celebensis). According to a group of German and Australian agricultural scientists: The world’s supply of chocolate depends partly on hard work by ugly toads in Indonesia . . . The toads like to dine on an invasive pest, the yellow crazy […]

An Expert: Sharks want fish, not humans

So says Ryan Johnson, of the independent research institute, Ocean Research. Yes, I’m on about sharks again! [For those of you who missed my previous posts on the subject, click on the “sharks” tag on the right-hand side of the page.] As we are moving towards our summer and the long summer holidays (when a […]

Biggest tiger hunt in Africa over

Panjo (the tiger I wrote about yesterday) has been found alive and well, and has been returned home. After what has been described in one newspaper as “the biggest tiger hunt in Africa” (the only one surely?!), Panjo was tracked down to a patch of forest. The big cat retreated into the undergrowth as it […]