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www.thevillagenews.co.za
FROM THE EDITOR
17 February 2021
Let’s focus on the light
Undoubtedly the past year has seen the biggest changes to our daily lives any of us has experienced in such a short time. The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in ways we could never have foreseen and according to some experts the hangover of the pandemic will be with us for at least the next seven years. But it’s not only the big things that have changed. There have been so many little things we had to adapt to and that we now take for granted – like the little bottle of emergency hand sanitiser that has found its way into our
handbags and cubbyholes. We could never have anticipated that we would take much care in choosing our mask every morning as we do the clothes, shoes or tie we wear. It would be interesting to see if the familiar pair of socks for dad on Father’s Day will be replaced by a snazzy three-layer mask. Did you ever think that seeing someone wearing a stylish mask would induce a sudden twinge of mask envy? Come on, who has not felt that? As the country went into lockdown for
NEWS De Waal Steyn
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Yes, there is much doubt and confusion with regards to vaccines and their effectiveness. There is concern over the South African variant that is much more transmissible than the one that set foot in our country in March last year. There are also huge challenges that we will continue to face on the economic front. Scientists are working around the clock to adapt the vaccines fairly quickly to be more effective against the various variants – one of the many advantages the brand-new mRNA vaccines offer developers.
And as the new normal keeps on making permanent changes to the way we live, we also need to understand that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Later this week the provincial government will, during the State of the Province Address, outline their next steps to boost the economy to stimulate job creation. This is the good NEWS - Ed
The Sci-fi Circus and Fluid Flirtations
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the first time, it was generally expected that within a few weeks this would all be over. But then the reality struck, and many families sat around dinner tables at night wondering whose upcoming birthday would be celebrated while still in lockdown. Little did we know that little over a month from now, all of us would have celebrated a birthday in lockdown.
In the end the aim of vaccines is to stop people from developing severe illness or being hospitalised, in an effort to lessen the load on overworked hospital staff. In addition to the vaccines, it is now evident that following the basic rules of wearing a mask, staying away from crowded spaces, maintaining social distance and regularly using sanitisers or washing your hands are effective in bringing the number of infections down.
By Murray Stewart murray.stewart49@gmail.com
Bob was seriously un-chuffed. This defeated the object of the project altogether. He felt that he’d been taken for a ride, but he wasn’t finished yet. The final doccie/book is called UFOs: Past, Present and Future, and being a film-maker in Hollywood had its perks. He just happened to show his book – over a few sundowners – to a chap called Steven.
Nixon’s inner circle. They were ushered into a bug-proof room where they received their secret briefing…
T
he For Fact’s Sake columns are, according to Google and The Duck ‘n Fiddle’s archives, based in truth.
They saw what? For over 60 years, many movies have been made about man’s interaction with alien beings, either here on earth, or out in the dark emptiness of space. They’ve been clumped together as ‘Sci-fi’ movies, and blockbusters like Star Wars, Star Trek and ET, among others, have had us enthralled for decades. Many of those amazing ‘supernatural’ gadgets and concepts portrayed back then are realities today. Top scientists in projects involving inter-planetary exploration and potential interaction with ‘other-worldly’ beings, operate with technologies 50 years ahead of what we’re allowed to know. One wonders if some Hollywood film producers had an inside track with a few of these scientific types, because they obviously didn’t just thumb-suck things like death rays, anti-gravity propulsion, harnessing electro-magnetic energy, skin-tight armoured bodysuits or teleportation (beam me up, Snotty). Anyway, meet Bob Emenegger, a Hollywood film director / producer / composer / writer. In 1972 he and producer Allan Sandler were approached by a consortium of high-ranking scientists and top officials from the CIA, the military, and
An increasing amount of UFO activity was being reported across the globe since Roswell. Not only was the cat out the bag, but the whole litter was emerging, so the USA administration decided to ‘come clean’ and shoot a doccie to educate the population about the realities of UFOs – and please not to panic. Nixon reckoned that as the free-world leader, revealing the truth under his watch would boost his chances of re-election.
In the final scene of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg reproduced – with CGI – exactly what Bob saw in the original CIA footage. One wonders how long these movies will still be regarded as science fiction.
Bob and Alan were granted unrestricted access to military and scientific files, and were even shown 16mm footage and stills of ‘beings’ and alien space-crafts. For security reasons, they were told this footage would only be released for the final edit, so in the meantime artists re-created detailed images of what Bob saw in the clips. These graphics were interspersed between interviews with military officials, religious leaders, scientists and actual abductees.
Ludicrous liquids If you baulk at paying R1 000 for a bottle of wine, or R1 500 for single-malt whiskey, there are other liquids available that’ll make your nose bleed. Chanel No.5, for example, is the most expensive perfume ever produced, some of which sells for $6 900 per litre. And, as we all know, with a low insulin count, the body can be prone to diabetes or metabolic syndrome, among other diseases, so why not splash out for a litre of insulin, just in case – only $26,400.
The doccie reaches its ‘grand finale’ scene when an egg-shaped space-ship lands at Holloman Airbase, New Mexico in 1964. A sliding door opens, a ramp appears, and out walk aliens, met by military top brass – all beautifully rendered by the artists.
Then there’s the semen from a gold medal-winning race horse which comes in at a bile-curdling $4,7 million for 5 litres! One can only congratulate the horse. But scorpion venom, used to treat autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis, costs an eye-watering $10,3 million a litre.
As it turned out, the actual footage of that historic meeting was denied at the last minute for ‘political’ reasons – Nixon was already in deep water. The final ‘meeting’ sequence showed only the animated artist’s impressions with the narrator asking, “What if this were true?”
So don’t get sick. And savour those eye-drops – they’re over R70 for only 10ml.
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