Paul Damhuis

Every day I think South Africa cannot get any weirder..... and then it does. I am right about 64% of the time, I used to think it was 59% but I was wrong.

[Aaron @LibertarianZA]

It's getting to the point where everyone is communicating requirements with each other with increasingly complex AI drafted emails and documents based on the previous round of AI drafted documents.

And then using AI to implement the actual work.

At what point do we actually lose track?

Will the humans involved sit around a table at some point and realize that they have no idea what's actually going on - that priorities, business rules and decisions were settled in long AI exchanges that nobody bothered to read?

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

@esrtweet @lacker Ian M Banks also has an entire series dedicated to AI in the culture series

[Renaldo “Ngamla” Gouws 🇿🇦 @RenaldoGouws]

Many people have questioned the sudden attack on Oom Pieter Groenewald by Geordin Hill-Lewis and subsequently the Democratic Alliance.

The public response was unanimous in its support of Oom Piet and the @VFPlus, and many mainstream media publications and leaders of other political parties asked where this sudden attack came from.

The answer is one man, Ryan Coetzee. He is a former CEO of the DA, a former Chief Strategist/Campaign Strategist of the DA and a former Member of Parliament for the DA.

His current role within the DA is once again that of a chief strategist for the party, specifically within the ministerial caucus of the DA. He started in this role in April this year, weeks before the attack on the @VFPlus.

Some of Ryan's most notable achievements are:

- Being the Director of Strategy for the Liberal Democrats in the UK (2012 - 2015), and whilst being in that role, the Lib Dems suffered a catastrophic collapse where they went from 57 seats to 8 seats. Most blamed him as the chief strategist for this collapse.

- After the above failure, he was given the Director of Strategy role for the Brexit Remain Campaign, which ultimately led to another embarrassing defeat and many critics cited his "Fear Campaign" and "Elitist Campaigning" as being out of touch with reality.

The reason I mention all of the above is simple: Ryan Coetzee is trying the exact same strategy that has led to massive defeats and, in one case, nearly destroyed a political party. So why is the DA so hell-bent on implementing his strategies?

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

@rorysutherland https://t.co/9eGR7sXk3S

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

@rorysutherland The British have no idea what a dysfunctional post office looks like. I come from South Africa where although the post office exists deliveries of post do not. Royal Mail do an excellent job at a very reasonable price.

[AC @saveusculture]

My final solution to the software industry: lock developers in cages with an unlimited supply of pizza and coffee, and give them each one of these equipped with 4GB of RAM, a spinning HDD, and a 10mbps internet connection.

Leave them there until software is good.

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

This is the fundamental problem with BEE. It’s not that you are obligated to have a 30% partnership which implies that someone buys 30% of your business. It’s that you are compelled to GIVE 30% of your businesses to partners who will never contribute will never work will never support the business in difficult times but will expect a share of profits and more.

[Farai Mazhindu @FaraiMazhindu]

Elon Musk could have simply paid off the cadres, and it would have been officially reported that he complied with the regulations.

Starlink would then be operating in South Africa, just like every other business right now.

The bribe would not even be the full 30%, it would be far less, pocketed directly by the cadres, and these cuts do absolutely nothing for the average South African.

It is an extortion system, hand over 30%, ask the investors for a bribe to get clearance, and then report to the public that they complied.

This routine is an extortion system set up by political patronage to enrich private empires, not South Africa.

B-BBEE laws have done nothing for the South African people, but they have done a lot for politicians and their immediate circles.

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

@Recon1_ZA @helenzille @geordinhl You do know that the DA have no influence over SARS even if SARS are operating in Cape Town.

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

@DrMagier @ClareCraigPath We should always try to save a life, anyone’s life.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

In America, a stranger will rename you in a single breath, and you are simply expected to come when called.

I went to eat at a busy restaurant. A young man at the front asked for my name, to mark my place in line. I gave it the weight it has carried for eight hundred years.

"Nobunaga."

He smiled, nodded, and wrote it down with great confidence. Then he read it back to me, to be sure he had honored it correctly.

"Perfect. Banana, party of one."

Banana. He had heard my name, held it a moment, and returned to me something rounder and more cheerful. To refuse the name a host gives is to refuse his welcome. I bowed. I was Banana now.

Then he handed me a small black disc, said it would "light up and buzz" when my table was ready, and turned to the next guest as though he had not just placed a living thing in my hands.

I held it in both palms, the way one holds a small sleeping beast that may wake. I found a place to stand. I waited, ready.

It woke.

It screamed. It flashed red. It leapt and shook in my hands like a captured spirit demanding release. A lesser man would have dropped it. I did not. I gripped it, steady, looked into its blinking lights, and told it, in a low voice, that its time had come. Then I carried it back to the host with both hands, the way one returns a hawk to its master.

He took it without looking and shouted across the entire room.

"BANANA! Party of one, your table's ready!"

A hundred strangers turned. I rose. I crossed that floor as Banana, spine straight, chin level, a man answering to his name. A child pointed at me. I gave the child a small bow. He had recognized me.

All through the meal they kept me. "How's it tasting, Banana?" "More water, Banana?" The check, when it came, said Banana, and thanked me for visiting. By the end the whole staff knew me. They waved as I left. "Night, Banana!"

So tell me honestly.

For eight hundred years my clan answered to one name. Tonight I answered to a fruit, calmed a screaming relic in my bare hands, and ate among people who were glad I came.

When the little disc lights up, is the table truly mine, or am I only keeping it warm for the next Banana?

Because I have already decided to return on Friday, and to ask, very humbly, for the same disc.

[Adam Gwiazda @delestoile]

🟥 Czy Henry Nowak mógł przeżyć?
Dr Krzysztof Magier @DrMagier , lekarz pediatra i były konsul honorowy RP w Cowes, przeanalizował nagrania z policyjnej kamery nasobnej pokazujące śmierć Henry'ego Nowaka.
Dr Magier jest lekarzem prowadzącym oddział intensywnej terapii dziecięcej, z doświadczeniem w szkoleniach z medycyny pola walki oraz po specjalistycznym kursie leczenia ciężkich urazów (w tym ran postrzałowych i kłutych).
Nie zgadza się z opinią patologa i sędziego, że Henry Nowak nie miał żadnych szans na przeżycie i ze skucie go w kajdanki nic w zasadzie nie zmieniło. Wręcz przeciwnie – istnieje duże prawdopodobieństwo, że to interwencja policji przyczyniła się do jego śmierci.
Przeanalizował on raport z sekcji, który wskazuje na uszkodzenie żyły podobojczykowej jako główne źródło krwawienia i tłumaczy, gdzie leży problem.
U zdrowej osoby krwawienie żylne odbywa się pod niskim ciśnieniem i często samoogranicza się dzięki powstającemu naturalnie skrzepowi, a samo zbliżenie krawędzi rany i ucisk otaczających tkanek domyka żyłę na tyle, że spowalnia albo nawet zatrzymuje krwawienie.
Z nagrania z policyjnej kamery nasobnej wynika, że gdy policja przybyła na miejsce (prawdopodobnie 5-10 minut po zranieniu), Henry był na tyle przytomny, że mówił dość głośno. Nie był zatem jeszcze w stanie terminalnym. Po wykręceniu rąk do tyłu i skuciu za plecami najprawdopodobniej doszło do rozciągnięcia żyły, rozerwania skrzepu i gwałtownego nasilenia krwawienia. W ciągu zaledwie ok. trzech minut stracił przytomność i zmarł.
Osoby z podejrzeniem urazów wewnętrznych nigdy nie powinny być gwałtownie przemieszczane ani szarpane – takie działanie może zniszczyć naturalny skrzep i doprowadzić do masywnego krwotoku wewnętrznego.
Zamiast natychmiastowego wezwania zespołu ratownictwa medycznego i przekazania pacjenta w ręce ratowników, policja go skuła. Gdyby na miejscu jako pierwsi pojawili się paramedycy, szanse Henry’ego na przeżycie byłyby znacznie większe. "50%" - pisze dr Magier.
Ratownicy mogliby szybko założyć kroplówkę, podać płyny zwiększające objętość krwi krążącej oraz kwas traneksamowy stabilizujący skrzep, a w razie potrzeby wykonać dekompresję igłową (wkłucie grubej i długiej igły w płuco), bo problemem nie był tyle brak funkcji płuca, ale ucisk zalanego krwią płuca na serce i śródpiersie, który blokuje krążenie.
Co gorsza, incydent miał miejsce zaledwie kilka minut jazdy samochodem (2–3 minuty karetką na sygnale) od Southampton University Hospital – regionalnego Major Trauma Centre dysponującego pełnym zapleczem specjalistów, procedur i sprzętu. "Jestem przekonany, że gdyby Henry dotarł tam żywy, lekarze nie pozwoliliby mu umrzeć" - pisze dr Magier.
Podsumowując: agresywna interwencja policji, zamiast ratować życie, doprowadziła do śmierci przez nieodpowiednie postępowanie z ciężko ranionym człowiekiem, mimo że najwyższej klasy opieka była w zasięgu kilku minut. "Obawiam się, że Sędzia i patolog byli zbyt łaskawi dla policji" - pisze dr Magier.

[Jason | 🇬🇧 🇿🇦 🇮🇱🇺🇲 @Ajaon_of_All]

Let me categorically Debunk this utter rot. @sainsburys.

I am a poultry Breeder. The hens that lay white eggs (Amberline/White Star) DO NOT have a lower carbon footprint.

Yes they eat a bit less and produce roughly the same amount of eggs as the Brown egg layers (Bovan/Lowman/ISA Brown) but they live shorter lives, are prone to dying suddenly when startled, a flighty and nervous and because they live shorter productive lives (12 -18mnths) vs brown 18/24mnths (both commercial farmed), you have to incubate more which is increased (Electricity/gas costs) and their eggs are not the same quality.

I breed and keep 20+ different breeds, including: ISA Brown hens and White Stars. All my hens are 100% free range, Not a single barn kept bird, I have ISA browns that are 5yrs old and still laying beautiful Brown eggs, I have not seen a White star live beyond 3yrs and certainly none have laid eggs past 18-24mnths.
White stars Lay themselves to death. They are slender birds and because they dont eat a lot, it drains their personal vitality to keep up laying the eggs you want to sell because of the nonsensical lie that they are "More Carbon Neutral"

You want to know about eggs, come talk to someone like me, Don't rely on some hairbrained imagination of a buyer who's trying to squeeze the profit margin for a few extra pennies at our expense and to the poor hens detriment.

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

I am never buying a new car

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

As a parent this must be the most horrific thing to watch

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Send the video to everyone you know showing how heinously Nowak was treated by the police in his dying moments and how the police cravenly kowtowed to his murderer.

Legacy mainstream media, same ones who wrote about George Floyd millions of times, are dead silent about Nowak.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Send the video to everyone you know showing how heinously Nowak was treated by the police in his dying moments and how the police cravenly kowtowed to his murderer.

Legacy mainstream media, same ones who wrote about George Floyd millions of times, are dead silent about Nowak.

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

It would make so much sense to have this pedal powered. A stationary bike instead of a hand wheel

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

@wilkinsoncape All signed up with 5 year contracts. So when as I expect the DA takes over they either have to honour the contracts or fight them in court.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

When the Romans came to Britain in 43 AD, they brought their farming with them.

Mostly grain. Wheat, barley, the kind of arable agriculture that worked in Italy and southern Gaul and required a lot of organised labour and the kind of climate where summer is reliable.

They discovered, fairly quickly, that Britain did not have that climate. The summer was a rumour. The winter was a threat. The rain was constant. The soil in most of the country was either acidic, waterlogged, or sitting on top of clay that turned to concrete in July and slop in January.

The native Britons, watching the Romans struggle, were running a different system. They had cattle. They had sheep. They had pigs that lived in the woodland and ate the acorns. They moved animals seasonally, between summer uplands and winter shelter. They built their food production around the things that Britain actually grew, which was grass and acorns and not very much else without an enormous amount of effort.

The Romans, eventually, adapted. The villas they built had grazing land attached. The estates were structured around livestock as well as grain. They learned, with some reluctance, that you cannot impose Mediterranean agriculture on a country that has decided to be Britain.

In 2026, a government policy unit in Westminster is suggesting that we should replace livestock with plant proteins.

The Romans got the message in two centuries.

We appear to have forgotten it in less than one.

[Paul Damhuis @ibanzi]

This might actually work