Miscellany Cool

First is this pretty damn interesting story about the first and only black paraglider in South Africa:

Cyril Mazibuko grew up in the shadows of the mountains. Born in a small kraal at the foot of the Drakensberg range in the southern part of the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, Cyril would often look up at the 3,000-meter basalt peaks, a playground for African paragliders. Enthralled, Cyril made a decision: He would build his own glider and join them in the sky.

Now 26, Cyril is the only black South African currently registered with the sport’s ruling body. And it all started with a glider he made from plastic bags, purloined rope and baling wire, a glider that flew — sort of — though it both amazed and horrified the professional paragliders who saw it.

Here’s a video of a style of hip-hop called Nerdcore. This is by MC Frontalot (considered the founder of Nerdcore) called It Is Pitch Dark which was an immortal line in the Zork series of games by Infocom. It was usually follwoed by the line “You are about to be eaten by a grue”, and if you didn’t get a light source going tout de suite, you were. This song is chock-a-block with references from tons of Infocom text adventures other than Zork. I picked up references from A Mind, Forever Voyaging; HGTTG*; Suspended; and The Leather Goddess of Phobos (and numerous others). Unless you’ve played these before (or are a hardcore geek), this might not appeal to you (as in, you aren’t the target audience).

* – Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy