One day, this will be mine (I hope!)

See this?  It's an enlargement.  The originals are about the size of modern printed currency...

 

I first saw this at a Boy Scout camporee in September of 1985.  I was a brand new full Boy Scout.  They were handing out life-size copies of this: A ten shilling note used during the Siege of Mafeking during the Boer War in South Africa.

It dates back to 1900.  Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, who later started the entire Scouting movement, had these printed up and used in place of scarce real currency.  After the siege was lifted and true money started flowing again these were redeemable for actual ten shilling coins.

My friend and grandfather figure Doc Lewis told me about all that.  The “shillings” they were handing out during the camping event were copies of an actual siege note that our local Boy Scout council had in its possession.

I’ve been fascinated by this note ever since.  So much so that I resolved to someday own a real one.  It’s still a dream of mine.

I found some really good pics of Mafeking siege notes and then printed this one out.

It’s been on the wall next to my computer desk I’m writing this from for awhile now.  It’s become a source of inspiration for me. Baden-Powell held out in Mafeking for 217 days until relief finally arrived.

If he could do that with limited supplies, maybe I can hold out a little while longer for whatever God may have for me.  I hope so.

And hey, how many currencies in world history have soldiers manning cannons and machine guns printed on them?  That alone makes this note pretty cool!

If I ever can finish and sell my book, I’m going to buy a real ten shilling note from the Mafeking siege and frame it and put it on my living room wall.

I think that would be pretty neat.

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Pigeons much faster than Internet in South Africa

Telkom is the largest provider of Internet service in the country of South Africa. You'd think that data delivery would be especially speedy over its network, right?

Well, Unlimited IT wasn't satisfied. So on Wednesday it conducted an experiment: using an 11-month old carrier pigeon to send data from the company's office near Pietermaritzburg to the city of Durban, 50 miles away. A data card was strapped to the pigeon's leg and sent on its way. As Winston the pigeon was flying out the window, Unlimited IT began transmitting the same data via the Internet to the Durban location.

Winston the pigeon arrived 1 hour and 8 minutes later. The data was downloaded upon arrival. The complete transfer took 2 hours, 6 minutes and 57 seconds.

By that point, Telkom had only delivered four percent of the same data!

(I don't think my old 14.4 modem was that slow...)

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Robot cannon malfunctions, kills 9

According to this story on Wired (which I first found via Slashdot), a robotic cannon being tested by the South African military went haywire last week and started shooting at everything on its own. Nine people died and fourteen others were wounded.

Here's some of the account...

SA National Defence Force spokesman brigadier general Kwena Mangope says the cause of the malfunction is not yet known...

Media reports say the shooting exercise, using live ammunition, took place at the SA Army's Combat Training Centre, at Lohatlha, in the Northern Cape, as part of an annual force preparation endeavour.

Mangope told The Star that it “is assumed that there was a mechanical problem, which led to the accident. The gun, which was fully loaded, did not fire as it normally should have," he said. "It appears as though the gun, which is computerised, jammed before there was some sort of explosion, and then it opened fire uncontrollably, killing and injuring the soldiers."

Other reports have suggested a computer error might have been to blame. Defence pundit Helmoed-Römer Heitman told the Weekend Argus that if “the cause lay in computer error, the reason for the tragedy might never be found."

So much for Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics :-(

Or maybe not...

"Please put down your weapon. You have twenty seconds to comply."

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