The 81 kg earth observation satellite is equipped with a 6-band spectral imager capable of sampling data from a 45km x 45km swathe at an impressive resolution of 6.25 m, enough to fill up its 24Gb internal storage with up to 10 highly-detailed images (using all 6 bands) before it has to download its data to the CSIR’s Satellite Applications Centre at Hartebeesthoek, which will be responsible for operating the satellite. Having this level of dedicated earth observation capability available to the South African government and other institutions should vastly increase our understanding of vegetation, deforestation, land use, water quality and agriculture in this country. And with sufficient propellant onboard to remain operational for 3 to 4 years I think it’s fair to say that the R26 million the government invested in the satellite’s development and launching was quite a bargain.

This is also excellent news for SunSpace, the satellite’s manufacturer. The company was spun off from Stellenbosch University, following the successful creation and launch of a smaller and lighter micro-satellite, SunSat, in 1999. and has swiftly proven itself as a competent and innovative manufacturer of affordable micro-satellites. I hope they’ll be able to use this launch to get some exposure and begin making serious inroads into what is looking like it may become quite a lucrative market.

So congratulations to the SumbandilaSat team.

And luckily so too. I was in a car accident several weeks ago. I’m fully recovered and was informed I was lucky to not have any spinal, bone or nerve damage although the concussion and whiplash wasn’t any fun in itself. Alas I’m still waiting for my car to be repaired and am highly disappointed with the poor service of a Sandton panelbeater used by a prominent insurance company. I also have to rather wearily admit that Honda’s local spare parts dealer network is extremely poor. Their cars are great, and I think their new Accord is especially awesome but I won’t be buying another one after the poor local support I’ve received. Nor will I allow a relative to buy a Honda Jazz as a result. Sorry Honda, but you need more forward thinking staff members locally and less empty promises in future.

I can’t admit to feeling much love for BMW drivers now either and especially after their SUV Hummer rip off aka X5 rammed me while I was stationery, and more so given how the woman driver responsible for the accident has been, shall we say, somewhat less than willing to engage and help after sending me to hospital for two spinal examinations and CT scans among others. It’s also made worse by the fact that she bizarrely also works for the same company as I do, and sadly wields a lot of influence with powerful figures I gather from co-workers. So much for any potential for a fair outcome there.

So I can’t help but feel a degree of irritation when looking at BMW’s and SUV’s alike and just the sight of X5’s and X6’s really encourages me to drive slowly in front of them now. Hey! I’m just trying to prevent being in another accident with the brutes y’know! After all, their drivers are much more likely to be in motor accidents than normal vehicles per a Top Gear study in the UK. Given too how an impatient Porsche SUV driver on the wrong side of the road nearly ploughed head-on into my parents car when I was being driven home from the hospital from the first accident and all I could do was think ‘Not again!’ at the time just reinforced the notion in my own, perhaps rather concussed, head at the time.

The SANDF’s response should be swift, harsh and unmerciful, and it should be made very clear that this sort of severe breach of discipline will not be tolerated within the ranks of the defence force. The SANDF needs to do more than just suspend the soldiers without pay, as it has done so far; it needs to arrest each and every soldier who was AWOL from barracks or photographed in the mob yesterday and subject them all to a disciplinary review or court martial process. Most, if not all, should receive a dishonourable discharge at minimum and be expelled from the military, while the organisers should be imprisoned. Soldiers like these are a poison in the ranks of the SANDF and the entire force will be much better without them.

There is, quite simply, no possible excuse for the behaviour we saw yesterday. It’s true that, on some level, these soldiers have a legitimate grievance — the pay for lower-level personnel in the SANDF is atrocious — but resorting to violent protest is unacceptable. They should not even have a right to protest peacefully. For defence force personnel, the only routes that should be taken for the addressing of grievances should be through the normal chain of command or, if that fails to produce results, through Parliament and the defence committees tasked with the SANDF’s oversight and finally the media. If none of these routes produce results, then the answer is simple: Quit. Nobody has any right to a well-paying job for life in the military.

Looking to the long term, there is an urgent need for serious debate in both the SANDF and civil society about the role of labour unions in the defence force and whether they should continue to be permitted. From my perspective, the answer to that question is an emphatic no, because defence force unions create an inevitable breakdown in discipline, encourage the bypassing of the chain of command, contribute to a fragmentation of loyalty and generally serve to destroy the bounds, traditions and institutions which keep modern militaries not only effective but subservient to their senior command and the civilian government. As yesterday’s events showed us all too clearly, unions like SANDU are a threat to law and order and our country’s still fragile democracy. We cannot afford to have massive sections of the defence force believing they have the right to do as they please and threaten the rest of us the way SANDU has.

I only hope Defence Minister Sisulu has the foresight to see this problem for what it is and take the steps necessary to prevent it from re-occurring, rather than just sweeping it under the rug the way it has been in the past. Judging by her past actions, I don’t have much faith that she will do the right thing, but I’ll be overjoyed to be proven wrong.

I guess the editor was asleep on the job for this one.

Update: It was fixed fairly quickly though.

The tournament itself was a fantastic success, hosted by Wits and sponsored by Standard Bank. It proved to be – by a long stretch – the single largest, grandest and most successful debating tournament I’ve ever attended, and I suspect Laurence would concur.

But it’s not exactly Mission Complete for US forces. The Council on Foreign Relations highlights that the muted tones with which this event has been passed hint as much. The number of US troops on the ground will remain unchanged, and stand prepped on the borders of Iraq’s cities; ready to intervene with a metric ton of whoopass – I assume – should the ISF prove incapable of enforcing security. Indeed, Michael Yon – my usual source of all things Iraq/Afghanistan – expects the levels of violence to increase, but that AQI post-surge is incapable of actually overthrowing the government. This could mean that Iraq’s democracy is at least insured against security challenges, if not internal political squabbles, and if so I’ll be gladdened to see neither occur. However, Sadr’s militia still lurks, AQI still exists, and President Maliki has displayed relatively strong overture of power consolidation. None of these variables are constant or inevitable, however, but must be kept in the back of one’s mind.

Ultimately it’s an important step, and a necessary one for Iraq and, to a degree, Obama’s determination to get troops out as soon as possible. For both governments this phase in Iraq’s history will see the country either walk proudly into modernity, liberty and all that good stuff which most fob off as rhetoric, or stumble under the haste of the White House and the savagery of their enemy.

What’s been truly annoying me today, however, has been the radio world’s reaction to this. On 5FM the entire day has seen DJ’s paying solemn respect to music-Jesus with tributes, ernest commentary on the man’s achievement, and disgust at the mass of MJ death jokes. But the truly disturbing thing is how blithely ignorant they appear to be of the man they demand the utmost respect for. I mean, for crying out loud, the man molested little children! He does not deserve to be placed on the altar of godlike benevolence. He was an accomplished musician, sure. But he fiddled kiddies and was a perpetual freakshow. That’s not something we should be praising.

But then, perhaps I’m just old-fashioned. The most profound effect MJ had on me was some old 8-bit nintendo game where you threw a hat and grabbed your groin a lot. For others, the impact Jackson had on their lives seems to outweigh the grossly-inappropriate lifestyle the man had. We don’t praise R.Kelly for being a hero, nor Joseph Fritzl. But perhaps if they became slightly more popular 5FM would see fit to prostrate themselves on air before them too.

And yes, here’s the bloody video, because we all want to see it of course:

Innocent or not, one has to think about the consequences of what is effectively incentivising Jihad against the evil infidel America. Send them to Kazakhstan, Turkey or anywhere but a tropical paradise for crying out loud! How many down and out jihadists will consider being sent to Bermuda as punishment a bad thing? This is not, as Conor puts it, a “win-win” situation. Innocent or not (which as never really being established in any sufficient clarity), sending non-Americans off to a luxurious exile with all the civilian rights afforded to actual citizens, and then some, is very much a foolish, short-sighted policy. Sure, it might ‘rehabilitate’ a small minority, but what signals does this send to the thousands of Jihadis who aren’t in Bermuda… yet?

Once again, Day by Day hits the nail right on the head:

Ross Kemp aired a fascinating mini-documentary on counter-piracy operations a week or so ago. The frustration of the sailors and Marines aboard the HMS Northumberland is pretty damned obvious; circling a pirated vessel and told to back off lest the crew get hurt, unable to do anything more than shoot up the pirates’ now-vacated skiff and so on. I suspect that, much like counter-insurgency warfare, count-piracy operations could rank as one of the most tactically and strategically frustrating fields to operate in.