Go on … put it out for good

Useless Ish

Looks like a toy, doesn’t it?  If all goes well, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces will own it to conduct “intelligence-gathering missions along its borders.”

This is the unmanned air vehicle, the Mini Falcon I UAV, from Israeli company, Innocon.  The World Aeronautical Press Agency reports that the Ugandan government is considering the purchase of the Mini Falcon I UAC.

The Mini Falcon is capable of real-time surveillance and intelligence.  It has a wingspan of five meters and has a maximum launch weight of 85 kilograms.  It can operate for 12 straight hours.  It is capable of unmanned take off and landing.

There you go.  Another set of useless facts delivered straight to you for … well, for whatever.

 You are welcome.

Excuse My French

Kanye West is a dumb fuck.

Although I have a tin ear for rap music, I quite enjoy Kanye West’s work.  That, however, isn’t enough to change my opinion of him.

Kanye West brags about being a disestablishmentalist.  His disdain for books, reading and formal education is a matter of public record.  Interestingly, the man, who says his decision to drop out of school was the best he has ever made, is the music world’s latest author.

Kanye West has co-authored a book, Thank You and You’re Welcome, a 52-page compilation of ‘Kanye-isms.’

In an interview with Reuters on the release of his book Kanye said:

“Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed.  I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life.”

 

Jayzus!

Another Post about Nothing

Miss Baker and Able. 

50 years ago two monkeys were minding their own business, eating bananas, picking ticks off their fur, scratching their armpits, swinging lazily, smelling each other’s rears and thinking up lyrics that don’t only consist of the words ‘ooo’ and ‘aaa’.  Suddenly it was trap! Cage! Testing!  Poking! Probing! Space!

 

All hail the much-abused Miss Baker and Able, the first two creatures to successfully return to earth from space.  All hail the monkeys because without them, we would be endlessly bound to the earth.  All hail because Mojo Jojo says so.

 50 years today, Miss Baker and Able were strapped into a Jupiter AM-18 rocket and shot 500 kilometers into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Unfortunately the rocket flew 2,500 kilometers and landed about 15 minutes after takeoff on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

 

Not their fault, really.

 

Miss Baker and Able returned to base and were paraded at press conferences.  They endured the photographs and questions patiently, munching on peanuts and crackers as they wondered if they would ever see the forest again.

 

Shortly after the experiment, Able died.  An electrode that had been implanted under her skin got infected and had to be operated on. She died on the operating table.

 

Miss Baker lived for 25 years at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  More than 300 people attended her funeral when she died of kidney failure in 1984.

 

Miss Baker and Able, all hail!

Migingo Who?

Reports persist despite the numerous denials:

“Egypt is all set to reap wheat from Ugandan fields as the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation has allocated model wheat farms in order to boost grain production.

The state-owned daily said that a technical team from Egypt and Uganda last year finalized a feasibility study on large-scale wheat production in Uganda.

During the study, the team assessed the suitability of wheat production and exports, according to a report in Commodity Online.

In September last year, the Egyptian government said that it had been allocated up to 2 million acres of land in Uganda to grow wheat and corn for its domestic market. The Ugandan government has since declined to confirm or deny the claim.”

 

Aha.

Strangeness

Two Canadian companies, Big Rock Brewery and BacksideBetty.com, are holding a ‘BootyFest’ to support impoverished families in Uganda. 

The Singing Rocks of Uganda

Mine is a weird and wonderful country.

The video below is the first part of a short film by naturalist sculptor Peter Randall-Page on one of Africa’s most ancient musical stones at Lolui Island in Bugiri district. 

Coming Up for air

Stuck in a mind warp; fighting to break free.

Thank you for visiting while the madness fades.

Another ‘Historic’ Occasion Down South

From the Great Zapiro

Politics and Prose

In case you missed it, one of the most charmingly random articles I have read in Uganda’s newspapers in a long time was penned today by Literature professor and poet, Timothy Wangusa.

 

Politics of Tiny Migingo and President Museveni’ s Finger

 

Of politics, poetry and prophecy,

And especially the lofty politics of tiny things,

Such as a president’s finger in a piece of plaster

And Migingo’s one-acre rocky island

In tempestuous international waters,

I am compelled to sing.

 

And as I commence my song, I pray you, O omniscient spirit of inspiration that has since the beginnings of time sung the rise, decline and demise of empires – first enlighten me as to how many mega-tons of political explosives lie embedded in each finger and each toe of monarchs and presidents and other potentates of this planet. Tell me if the thumb and the index finger harbor similar amounts of political explosives, or if the amounts are in direct proportion to the sizes of those fingers.

 

But in particular, signify to me the political magnitude of that specific right-hand finger (opposite to the nuptial-ring finger) on which emperors and hereditary sovereigns were accustomed to wear their golden rings of authority, with which they dispensed favours to their hero-worshippers, praise-singers and wagtails, or sealed the fate of rebels and conquered peoples.

 

More from the article in The Daily Monitor here.

 

An interesting resurrection of Uganda’s political poetry.