Internet
stampede
gathers pace
HALF a million people have signed up to "storm" a US military base in the Nevada desert in September, which conspiracy theorists say has alien technology stored from wrecked UFOs and could even hold alien captives.
The event, planned for September 20, is called "Storm Area 51: They Can't Stop All Of Us", according to Sky News.
More than a half-million strangers say they will gather at the Amargosa Valley, an hour's drive from Las Vegas, to use a strength-in-numbers approach to find out the truth about Area 51, which is a top-secret US Air Force base.
Will it happen? Who knows? But the bizarre – and disturbing – thing is that it began as a joke on Facebook. How these things can snowball! What mischief – even accidental - is not possible in this digital world we now inhabit? People seem to be waiting to be mobilised in whatever nutty cause.
Hostile bots. Disinformation. Populist rabble-rousers on a scale Nazi propagandist Goebbels could not have dreamed of. It's much scarier than Little Green Men from Mars.
State bank?
JUST about everything run by the government is in a terrible mess. Investment analyst Dr James Greener asks in his latest grumpy newsletter why the government should now want to run a bank?
"In the presence of overwhelming evidence that governments are terrible at running things, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has paused in his hobby of producing on-line cooking lessons to announce the formation of a government-owned bank.
"The implicit reason for such a move is that existing commercially owned banks don't care much about the poor.
"Well, true. The poor are generally not great clients for banks but nevertheless a feature of the recent financial landscape has been the formation of several banking enterprises which admirably can see benefits in catering to our many currently unbanked citizens.
"Taxpayers, who presumably will be expected to fund this state bank venture, would be delighted to be provided with both a business plan and a form with which to accept or decline to participate.
"Come to think of it we still haven't been told how the grandiose National Health Insurance scheme will work, beyond the rumours that the state will decide where, under what conditions and for what rewards all the nation's doctors will practise.
"Cue even more stories about internationally-in-demand professionals flocking to the airports."
Trafalgar Square
WHEN Lord Nelson died he was 5 feet tall. His statue in London is 15 feet tall.
That's Horatio of 3:1.
Change
"THE times they are a changin' …" so sang Bob Dylan 55 years ago now. They have changed and they still are.
Durban poet Sarita Mathur takes up the theme.
We all seek change ,
From the inside out ,
Abundance within our world
Within our heart and mind .
Contentment of another kind
Away from all the noise and din .
In restfulness and peace.
Our outer world will also change ,
Bringing in joy and happiness
Contentment too.
Change within ourselves .
Creates the change we seek .
Our physical world gets transformed too ,
We have to Be The Change
We want to see.
A happy and dynamic future.
Awaits you
As it awaits me.
Tailpiece
HE TAKES life with a pinch of salt … a slice of lemon … and a stiff shot of tequila.
Last word
My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare. - Mike Myers
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