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Today's quotable quote: Milt Kamen: I write for Reader's Digest. it's not hard. All you do is copy out an article and mail it in again.

This day in history: 13 January 2026: Survivor of British Retreat from Kabul Reaches Jalalabad (1842). During the First Anglo-Afghan War, a group of 4,500 British soldiers and 12,000 British civilians left Kabul for Jalalabad. Beset by murderous bands, their numbers quickly dwindled. A few were captured alive and later released, but army surgeon William Brydon was the sole person to escape the final ambush by Afghan tribesman and reach the British camp at Jalalabad that day.


The Vintage

Fair point tbh, 10 January 2026

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Fair point tbh


The Vintage

I'd be afraid of tomatoes, too, 06 January 2026

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I'd be afraid of tomatoes, too



Home - Outeniqua Choo Tjoe

outeniquachootjoe.com, 29 October 2025

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Please watch this site for news about Classic Rails’s project to return steam trains to South Africa's Garden Route.




Klepetan and Malena - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org, 14 October 2025

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Klepetan and Malena were a pair of white storks (Ciconia ciconia) who became renowned in Croatia for their romantic endeavors. Between 2001 and 2021, Klepetan traveled from South Africa to Brodski Varoš, Croatia, each spring to mate with Malena, who was unable to travel due to a gunshot injury. On ...


The Vintage

Woah #fblifestyle, 02 October 2025

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Woah #fblifestyle


A Brief History of the Minimoog Part I

youtube.com, 23 September 2025

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Follow the life of the Minimoog Synthesizer from its inception through its prolific contributions to poplular music throughout the last 4 decades.In this fir...



Physics wins, hydrogen cars lose

medium.com, 24 July 2025

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How many times have we heard that hydrogen-powered cars are “the future”? Well, that future has been collapsing like a house of cards for a…


The Vintage

In South Portland, Maine, a group of parents sparked a quiet revolution by replacing smartphones with landlines for their kids. Concerned about the effects of constant screen time, they formed a “landline pod,” where children use home phones to call one another, plan playdates, and have real conversations—no texting, no apps, no distractions. The result? Kids building confidence, empathy, and stronger social skills through simple, meaningful connection. What began as one mother’s creative idea has grown into a neighborhood movement that’s bringing back the lost art of talking., 20 July 2025

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In South Portland, Maine, a group of parents sparked a quiet revolution by replacing smartphones with landlines for their kids. Concerned about the effects of constant screen time, they formed a “landline pod,” where children use home phones to call one another, plan playdates, and have real conversations—no texting, no apps, no distractions. The result? Kids building confidence, empathy, and stronger social skills through simple, meaningful connection. What began as one mother’s creative idea has grown into a neighborhood movement that’s bringing back the lost art of talking.



Frogsicles: Frozen But Still Alive

youtube.com, 05 July 2025

0

The wood frog's body makes its own anti-freeze that allows it to survive the winter. The secret ingredient? You'll never guess.From: CRAZY MONSTER FROGShttp:...


Contact details

Dion Truter

Work: map2tech, Unit 186, Block F, Millennium Business Park, 19 Edison Way, Century City, 7441

082 389 2834

contact7@truter.org

https://map2tech.com/

In the news

Lizards rewrote the rules of evolution by reinventing their body armor: For more than a century, biologists assumed that the bony plates embedded in the skin of lizards – like natural chain mail – were an ancient feature that some lineages inherited and others later lost. Posted on 13 January 2026.

Lightweight immersive glasses put a 300-inch theater on your face: The mobile entertainment industry has a tendency to make devices lighter and more immersive, blurring the line between everyday life and virtual reality. Posted on 14 January 2026.

Online Gaming’s Final Boss: The Copyright Bully: Since earliest days of computer games, people have tinkered with the software to customize their own experiences or share their vision with others. Posted on 13 January 2026.


Cape Town weather

5 day forecast

  • Wed 14: light rain

    19 ° - 23 ° Wind 7 km/h / Clouds 0 %
  • Thu 15: light rain

    17 ° - 21 ° Wind 11 km/h / Clouds 90 %
  • Fri 16: sky is clear

    17 ° - 22 ° Wind 9 km/h / Clouds 1 %
  • Sat 17: overcast clouds

    18 ° - 22 ° Wind 7 km/h / Clouds 98 %
  • Sun 18: light rain

    17 ° - 21 ° Wind 9 km/h / Clouds 34 %

See next two weeks

News (continued)

How I Get Free Traffic from ChatGPT in 2025 (AIO vs SEO): Three weeks ago, I tested something that completely changed how I think about organic traffic. Posted on 04 December 2025.

‘Rosetta stone’ for database inputs reveals serious security issue: The data inputs that enable modern search and recommendation systems were thought to be secure, but an algorithm developed by Cornell Tech researchers successfully teased out names, medical diagnoses and financial information from encoded datasets. Posted on 13 January 2026.

: Posted on 01 January 1970.

Keir Starmer tells MPs he is open to social media ban for young people: PM says he is alarmed at reports about children’s screen time and has shifted position on Australian-style policyUK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer has told MPs he is open to the idea of an Australian-style ban on social media for young people after becoming concerned about the amount of time children and teenagers are spending on their phones. Posted on 14 January 2026.

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body: Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’High-profile studies reporting the presence of microplastics throughout the human body have been thrown into doubt by scientists who say the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives. Posted on 14 January 2026.

I saw this digital manicure change color in seconds at CES 2026 - and you can order it now: iPolish, a set of acrylic nails that change color digitally, lets you choose from over 400 nail polish colors at the touch of a button. Posted on 14 January 2026.

Huge Roman villa found under popular park dubbed town's 'Pompeii': The largest Roman villa ever found in Wales lies less than a metre under Margam Country Park. Posted on 12 January 2026.

Will these tech trends take off in 2026?: Every year, the MIT Technology Review publishes a list of 10 breakthroughs poised to take off in the coming year. Posted on 13 January 2026.

Meta Plans to Cut 10% to 15% of Employees in Reality Labs Business: The layoffs are set to be announced this week and would affect Meta’s work on the metaverse, as the company spends heavily on building artificial intelligence. Posted on 14 January 2026.

In a Risky Gambit, Trump Tries Brute Force to Lower Prices: . Posted on 13 January 2026.

The Sea Lions of the Galápagos Are Not Ready to Give Up Mother’s Milk: Animals that researchers call “supersucklers” come back to nurse even after they can hunt, mate and fend for themselves. Posted on 13 January 2026.

These dogs can learn new words just by eavesdropping: Some dogs have an amazing ability to learn the names of dozens, even hundreds of toys. Posted on 08 January 2026.

A look at the legal and political fight over trans athletes as cases reach Supreme Court: A hotly debated political issue made its way to the U. Posted on 13 January 2026.

Global Tech-Sector Layoffs Surpass 244,000 In 2025: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Network World: The global technology sector eliminated some 244,851 jobs in 2025, according to a report from RationalFX. Posted on 14 January 2026.

China’s humanoid robots are gaining ground – but they’re not there yet: The U.S. and China are racing to build humanoid robots capable of performing many daily tasks – but the complexity of home and business environments makes that challenging. Posted on 29 August 2025.

Scientists study 100 possible alien radio signals from collapsed Arecibo Observatory, ending groundbreaking 21-year search: A crowd-sourced search for alien intelligence called SETI@Home is in its final stages, analyzing 100 'signals of interest' with the world's largest radio telescope. Posted on 13 January 2026.


Some of the tech in my workday

Best programming language?

The PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language Index is created by analyzing how often language tutorials are searched on Google.

The TIOBE Programming Community index measures popularity based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses, third party vendors and search engine activity.

w3techs analyses page content to determine the technology used, and also uses publicly available information from sources such as Alexa, Google, Microsoft and ipinfo.io.

While Java and Python top the popularity charts, more than 80% of all websites run on PHP.


Longer term weather forecast

Cape Town weather

  • Wed 14: light rain

    19 ° - 23 ° Wind 7 km/h / Clouds 0 %
  • Thu 15: light rain

    17 ° - 21 ° Wind 11 km/h / Clouds 90 %
  • Fri 16: sky is clear

    17 ° - 22 ° Wind 9 km/h / Clouds 1 %
  • Sat 17: overcast clouds

    18 ° - 22 ° Wind 7 km/h / Clouds 98 %
  • Sun 18: light rain

    17 ° - 21 ° Wind 9 km/h / Clouds 34 %
  • Mon 19: sky is clear

    17 ° - 22 ° Wind 11 km/h / Clouds 0 %
  • Tue 20: sky is clear

    17 ° - 24 ° Wind 12 km/h / Clouds 0 %
  • Wed 21: sky is clear

    19 ° - 28 ° Wind 7 km/h / Clouds 0 %
  • Thu 22: sky is clear

    20 ° - 24 ° Wind 9 km/h / Clouds 0 %
  • Fri 23: few clouds

    19 ° - 23 ° Wind 7 km/h / Clouds 16 %
  • Sat 24: scattered clouds

    19 ° - 22 ° Wind 9 km/h / Clouds 50 %
  • Sun 25: overcast clouds

    18 ° - 22 ° Wind 8 km/h / Clouds 99 %
  • Mon 26: sky is clear

    18 ° - 22 ° Wind 9 km/h / Clouds 0 %
  • Tue 27: sky is clear

    17 ° - 23 ° Wind 7 km/h / Clouds 1 %
  • Wed 28: sky is clear

    18 ° - 23 ° Wind 4 km/h / Clouds 0 %
  • Thu 29: light rain

    19 ° - 23 ° Wind 5 km/h / Clouds 16 %