About those beached whales…

Mystery surrounds the beaching of 11 long-finned pilot whales at Farewell Spit beach in New Zealand on February 11, 2017. Photo: Marty Melville.

Dear you,

I’m writing to explain about whales and zombies, the breathers and non-breathers, as it were.

About us zombies, you got three things right. Actually, make that three and a half things.

First, you are right that there are zombies. Yes, for realsies. 

I mean, I’m two-finger typing this, me myself I, not some chatbot or clever dolphin. Ergo, I must be real, right? 

Though by rights, it should have been a dolphin typing, as this is an underwater keyboard designed to be pressed by dolphins’ noses. Hence the two fingers. These keys are so big, I could be fisting them. But fisting would send the wrong message. So I’m two-fingering it. Underwater. 

Which sentence I now realise is as likely to snigger-trigger the teenagers and other gutter-minds in the back. So let’s keep it clean and accept this is the only keyboard I have that works underwater, OK?

Working well underwater is that half a fact your author Max Brooks got right in his wonderful “World War Z”. All those chapters in which he portrays us zombies being quite comfy walking far underwater? They are mostly accurate.

How To Steal a City - review

Published in 2017 by Johathan Ball Publishers

Durban-born government fixer and author Crispian Olver is the kind of guy that does the right thing, even if it hurts.

He qualified as a medical doctor in South Africa before joining government in 1994 to help implement the ambitious aims of the Reconstruction and Development Programme as Manager Developing in the Office of then President Nelson Mandela.

Zuma's MK party dead by 2026

In Africa, only the group survives through constant co-operation. Any planner needs to know Africa's law: Loners Get Eaten. 

Daimler electrics now in South Africa

Daimler's battery powered trucks have already impressed Australian fleet buyers with a 300 km range. 

Daimler is the latest company to launch electric trucks in South Africa.

The eCanter and eActros rigid have already impressed fleet buyers with their 300 km of "realistic range" in Australia, which has very similar road conditions to South Africa.

Daimler has been testing these trucks in South Africa since last year and now aims to sell these small electric trucks to companies who plan to balance the much higher upfront cost of an electric truck by paying a lot less for solar power than for diesel. 

Africa's race towards e-mobility

Africa's many entrepreneurs stand to benefit most from China's excesses. (Photo: Newslex Media).

Africa’s transport sector will be the main beneficiary of America’s aim to replace the paper oil-dollar with a digital carbon-dollar under the “zero emissions” drive. (Read more on this big lie here.)

This drive has led to Western governments diverting taxes to subsidise anything that claims not to emit smoke and is also behind China’s excess stock of dirt-cheap solar panels and electric vehicles.

Thanks to China’s subsidy-based economy, there are a lot of these excess vehicles. Shanghai-based consultancy, Automobility, estimates China’s excess capacity to be between five and 10 million vehicles per year. 

Easter – when wise drivers stay off the roads

It is that time of the year again, when wise truck drivers stay off the roads to make way for Easter’s annual wave of impatient holidaymakers rushing to their deaths.

US and China not good places to be a driver

Despite a slew of reality truck shows portaying a rosy scene, driving jobs in the US still  still see a 100%-300% turnover each year.

Truck drivers are suffering in the world’s two biggest economies. We highlight some of the recent issues raised by truckers on social media platforms in the US and China.