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The Red Telephone Calls

The South African government are threatening to “declare all agricultural land a national asset”,  which would effectively mean nationalising it…

Some of the responses in the South African Mail and Guardian Newspaper make very enlightening reading:

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” LAND must be a NATIONAL ASSET!!!!! ”
Pan Africanist on March 15, 2010, 10:22 am
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“Land is power,money,bread and life, any liberated nation without land is the lost nation of poverty,exploitation and economic exclusion.

The so called property clause in the constitution protect the rights of the agressors,opressors and exploiters who took our land through the barrel of the guns,our parents work through their blood and sweats to maximise profits of this imperialists on farms and they got nothing in return.

It is about time that the ANC government realised that they have misled the poor of the poorest are still in cesspool of poverty while whites are owning more farms.

Aubrew Ngwatle ”
Aubrew Ngwatle on March 15, 2010, 12:15 pm
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“Id just like to point out, that the ANC government, in the past year or so, have sold prime property to foreign companies.

A few areas have been sold to Australian platinum mine companies. And prime industrial/commercial waterfront properties have been sold to middle-eastern countries. All by the ANC.

This land issue is merely diversionary tactics, to make you believe that our country burning, is the fault of the white man, and not the ANC.”
Sinudeity @gmail.com on March 15, 2010, 2:07 pm

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“Its pointless for whites (farmers) to make noise about the land. This land belongs to blacks and its in our interests to have it nationalised not to be owned by a minority.

As you may know, the clause will pass in Parliament since ANC has the majority and they are being mentored by the man himself who had the balls to kick the white farmers from the Zimbabwean land (Bob). Surely you claim to own the farms, did you pay for them? You think Malema’s utterances are ill advised?

Finally there shall be sanity South of Limpopo and the land shall be returned to its rightful owners whether these white farmers like it or not”
Honourable Marshall Makoni on March 16, 2010, 10:32 am

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On a lighter note, I did have a good chuckle at an email that arrived today:

Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth, and Vladimir Putin all die and go to hell.

While there, they spy a red phone and ask what the phone is for. The devil
tells them it is for calling back to Earth. Putin asks to call Russia and talks for 5 minutes.

When he was finished the devil informs him that the
cost is a million dollars, so Putin writes him a cheque.

Next Queen Elizabeth calls England and talks for 30 minutes.When she was finished the devil informs her that cost is 6 million dollars, so Queen Elizabeth writes him a cheque.

Finally Nelson Mandela gets his turn and talks for 4 hours. When he was finished the devil informed him that there would be no charge for the call and feel free to call South Africa anytime.

When Putin hears this he goes ballistic and asks the devil why Nelson Mandela got to call South Africa free.

The devil replied, “Since Jacob Zuma became president of South Africa, the country has gone to hell, so it’s a local call.”

Free Sci Fi Plots

I sometimes have to chuckle at myself when I realise that what I thought were the correct words to a song turn out to be somewhat off the mark, so I do like to see what kinds of misconceptions other people have, to make me feel a bit better and it’s astounding to see what creative imaginations peoples’ ears can have.

GET YOUR SCI-FI WRITTEN HERE…
If you are ever looking for good ideas for a science fiction book or a short story, the wierd and wonderful things people think they hear can be a very good place to start…
Here are a few of the mis-heard lyrics I have come across on the web:
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Song: Africa
Artist: Toto

Real Lyric:
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do

Misheard Lyric:
There’s nothing that a hundred men from Mars could ever do
————–

Song: Mrs Robinson
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel

Real Lyric:
We’d like to know a little bit about you for our files

Misheard Lyric:
We’d like to know a little bit about your four armed flies
—————–

Song: Blowin’ in the Wind
Artist: Bob Dylan

Real Lyric: The answer, my friend,
is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

Misheard Lyric:
The ants are my friends,
they’re blowin’ in the wind
The ants are a-blowin’ in the wind.
——————

You see… that’s just three examples and you already have some great imagery for a science fiction story in the making.

Of course, some of the misheard lyrics are far more down-to-earth and quite believable even if they weren’t actually the words to the song. One good example of this comes from the Canadian National Anthem, no less:

Song: Canadian National Anthem

Real Lyric: Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee..

Misheard Lyric:
Oh Canada, we stand on cars and freeze…
………………….
That’s quite believable, although why they would be standing quite there does leave a bit to the imagination.

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And when your science fiction novel is finished you can get Molly to help getting it printed:

Rain

This “Rain Orchestra” video is quite amazing to see and  shows how powerfully an idea can be conveyed,  even using the simplest of tools…

An orchestra or choir  convincingly recreate the exhilarating sound of light rain starting to fall,  building up to the cresendo of a thunderstorm, using nothing more than their hands and feet as instruments.

From Moscow or Mars to Obama’s Striped Stars

Well, I was going to start on a somewhat different note, but I had the BBC news on in the background this evening (Monday 26 Jan) when what appeared to be a senior official from the MOD (Ministry of Defence) started explaining that yes, there have been violations of British airspace recently by UFOs, (here he explained that we don’t know if they’re from Moscow or Mars ..) and the British Defense Force has fired at them on a number of occasions. (Unsuccessfully so far, the news reader assured me). This stopped me in my tracks and wondered if I was hearing things.

Because I had only half been watching I’m not sure if this was the repeat of a statement made a while ago or a current one, but that was a first for me, a top-brass Military Man (or at least a well-dressed MOD spokesman) stating that yes, they were currently dealing with UFO’s (whether made of Marshmallows or from Moscow or Mars, it was still a first.) I shook as much dust out of my ears as I could in case the statement was repeated but it wasn’t.

A few weeks ago there was a news story about a wind turbine that had been damaged, alongside reports of UFO sightings. The original news story gave possible explanations of the damage being done by ice being flung off another of the turbines, or even a frozen block of urine falling out of a plane, but these seem to have been dismissed.

The Telegraph have a write-up saying that “Debris from a destroyed wind turbine which reports have claimed was hit by a UFO has been sent for forensic analysis in Germany. “ and “Hundreds of local witnesses claimed to have seen bright flashing spheres in the skies above the turbine, and many are convinced the damage was caused by a flying saucer.”

I sent a text to my brother who is on holiday in Egypt, telling him of the MOD admitting to firing at UFOs, and got the reply: “Shame, they probably just came by to refuel…” which warranted the reply: “True… it was actually British Gas who were firing at them…”

The UFO controversy has taken on a whole new dimension since Britain’s Ministry of Defense released files on UFO sightings to the National Archives at Kew. These date back to the 1970s and include witness accounts and the government’s response, and are part of a four-year project to make all UFO documents available to the public via the archives at Kew. CNN covered this in May last year.

If you want to find out more about close encounters over Gatwick Airport, alien abductions, stray satellites – and what the UK Government thought of it all – then this is the place to be – UFOs at The National Archives at Kew. Anybody interested in digging through this archive may want to start with Dr David Clarke’s background guide to the files a synopsis of the highlights in PDF form.

Even Obama doesn’t seem to have avoided the UFO factor according to a video clip of CNN broadcasting from the inaugration which has images of a UFO over Obama’s inaugration, passing the Washington Memorial at a time when no planes were allowed over the area. Is this a hoax or is this real?
I think it looks like a turbo-charged pigeon, but it is somewhat strange.

Well, I started with the BBC news on in the background now I feel as if I may be in a strange other-worldly dream of UFO’s… I’ll finish this when I wake up, but…
… Its All Out There …