Alkis

“Although South Africa has been a democracy under a single government since 1994, tax payers’ money is still used to pay ten African kings, a ‘Rain Queen’,13 hundreds of chiefs and thousands of headmen who enact laws that run parallel to the official laws of the land.14 South Africa is also one of the most unequal societies in the world. There is an enormous gap between the haves and the have-nots, the legacy of a succession of white-minority governments whose policies of segregation and apartheid15 left the majority of people disadvantaged. Regrettably, even since the fall of the old systems, there has not been much narrowing of the gap between the rich and the poor, and corruption abounds.”
― Gail Nattrass, A Short History of South Africa

“The distances over which sound can travel underwater are amazing. It is believed that before the proliferation of engine-powered vessels, Antarctic whales could be heard by their Arctic cousins. Such vast ranges are possible partly because sound waves are absorbed far less in water than in air. At 1 kHz, absorption is about 5 dB/km in air (at 30 per cent humidity) but only 0.06 dB/km in seawater. Also, underwater sound waves are much more confined; a noise made in mid-air spreads in all directions, but in the sea the bed and the surface limit vertical spreading.”
― Mike Goldsmith, Sound: A Very Short Introduction

“Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.”
― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It

“So, here you are
too foreign for home
too foreign for here.
Never enough for both.”
― Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Questions for Ada