Popular Mechanics January 2016 ZA

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MAN vs DRIVERLESS CAR

WE RACE AN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE. WHO WON?
EXCLUSIVE
F-16s
AGAINST
ISIS US FIGHTER ACES TRAIN
IRAQI TOP GUNS
STUPID or
AMAZING?
WE MAKE THE CALL ON
TODAY’S TECHNOLOGY
17
SKILLS ➜ THE SCIENCE OF LAWN MOWING
MUST-HAVE
GADGETS
➜ GET STARTED IN ROCK CLIMBING
➜ HOW TO RESPECT THE TURKEY
Product colour, shape and interface are for reference only.
The actual product may vary. UI functions and applications may vary by region.
FROM THE EDITOR...
BUYER, BEWARE
W
ater is the subject, if you’ll excuse And so to our reader. I had filed away
the excruciating pun, on every- his letter, written at the time in response Futuretech 2016
one’s lips. It certainly deserves all to my June 2015 editorial, “Eskom, con- Finally, it seems to be coming together.
the headlines it gets. But it may for the sider yourselves shed”. With sponsorship lined up, a venue
moment have taken our eye off the He noted my point that Eskom had selected and a projected date of late
42 090-megawatt gorilla in the room: betrayed the trust of all of us and that April, you can look forward to a day of
our electricity supply. we needed to investigate installing solar the cutting-edge and the mind-blowing
Perhaps because the past few months electricity with immediate effect. at PoPular Mechanics 2016. Details,
have been load shedding-free – and Eskom He had this warning, though: “But next month.
suggests this will continue – we might be technophobes like me, who do not know
lulled into a false sense of well-being. the difference between a volt of electric
The point is, the maintenance that we potential and a bolt of lightning, actually He conducted due diligence, contract-
keep hearing about has to be done at some listen to people like you; and we, in our ed apparently government-approved
stage. When we get to that stage, many of ignorance, act on your advice and get capable suppliers (“genuinely NOT fly-
us will be looking for alternatives. ourselves into the most inordinate by-night types”) with engineers who
Which brings me to a reader’s plea. amount of trouble.” spent many days inspecting and check-
Energy alternatives are all very well, he What was lacking, he said, was an ele- ing and pulling at wires and walking
says. Some of them are marvellous. But ment of caveat emptor. “Your articles make around with meters.
often they are not all they are made out it all sound so easy – if you have the Well, he has moved on. Found another
to be. money, you just go out and get someone to electrical contracting company. At R450
What got me thinking along these install a fortune’s worth of equipment on an hour. They have been hard at work
lines was my first fumbling attempts at your roof, and there you have it. Exit and at the time of writing their bill had
DIY home automation, which you can Eskom. Your problem is solved. QED.” topped R15 000. Oh, they haven’t actual-
read about in this month’s Tested. The Do you know, it really isn’t like that. ly done any real work yet – so far all they
point being that today’s smart home Instead, he says, he has been sitting with have been busy with is trying to work
gadgets not only do stuff, they also tell R300 000-worth of solar installation that out what on earth the previous people
you stuff – such as how much electricity has been seven months of nightmare. installed.
you are consuming individually. Being You know, perhaps it is time, as he
able to monitor this suddenly opened the says, to write about the perils waiting
floodgates to a whole new level of obses- for the non-technical reading public out
siveness, with the ability to compare there, and about charlatans and the clue-
LED vs LCD and so forth, in real time, less who claim to be solar installation
from anywhere on the planet, at 2 in the experts.
morning if you like (I was just checking So watch this space.
my Whatsapp messages, dear). In the meantime, I’d like to take this
I began to realise that, like the nation, opportunity to wish you a peaceful,
my newfound interest in kilolitres had blessed Festive Season and a sparkling
momentarily distracted me from the New Year.
very important question of kilowatt
hours.
[email protected]
COMPETITION
WINNERS.
Details online at www.
popularmechanics.co.za
www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016 1

CONTENTS
JANUARY 2016 I VOL 14, NO 6 I I BE THE FIRST TO KNOW
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TECH » SCIENCE » WHEELS » HOME » OUTSIDE www.popularmechanics.co.za WIN

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JANUARY 2016
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POPULAR MECHANICS
MAN vs DRIVERLESS CAR

WE RACE AN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE. WHO WON?
EXCLUSIVE
F-16s
BE THE FIRST TO KNOW
AGAINST
ISIS US FIGHTER ACES TRAIN
IRAQI TOP GUNS
STUPID or
AMAZING?
WE MAKE THE CALL ON
TODAY’S TECHNOLOGY
VOLUME 14, NO.6
17
MUST-HAVE
SKILLS ➜➜ THE SCIENCE OF LAWN MOWING
GET STARTED IN ROCK CLIMBING
➜ HOW TO RESPECT THE TURKEY GADGETS
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Samsung Blu-ray Home
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS WHEELS Entertainment System worth
12 ● The most important hackathon on Earth 58 Audi’s self-driving RS7 R12 000!
● Robotic cancer treatment breakthrough Man takes on machine around (See page 49 for details).
● The new agricultural revolution California’s Sonoma circuit
● Campers united PM drives
● Infiniti QX80
FEATURES PM impressions
26 Baghdad, Arizona ● Hyundai Santa Fe
US fighter pilots teach elite Iraqi airmen ● Ford Everest
how to fly F-16s – against ISIS ● Mercedes-Benz GLC and GLE
34 The call of the wild ● Nissan off-road technology
Match your camping toys to your lifestyle

38 A beautiful thing SKILLS
Woodcraft for good 69 The art of firewood: It’s more than just
chopping and splitting
50 Stupid or Amazing
Taken apart: pay phone
● The drone takeover
The science of lawnmowing: Getting
● Hyperloop transportation
your lawn to a manicured state requires
● Science-aged whiskey
careful planning
● New car technologies
Respect the turkey: How not to embarrass
● GMO babies
yourself at the holiday table 78
● Self-assembling table
4 easy plywood projects
● Ultra Panavision 70
66 How to get started in rock climbing MONTHLY
All you need to know, from knots and gear
1 From the Editor
to shoes and chalk
4 Credits
8 Letters
SCIENCE 10 Time machine
44 Entangled universe 20 Great new stuff
How connections through space may 96 Do it your way
warp reality
TESTED
Cover and this page: A group of elite
40 ● Fibaro home automation
Iraqi airmen are being trained in the
● Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro
US to fly their country’s first F-16s.
● LG G4 Stylus 38
They have faced not only the task of
gaining familiarity with a formidable
fighting weapon, but also long hours
in the sky, a strange culture and a
deadly crash.
18 58 66
JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 3
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LET TERS / WHAT ’S ON YOUR MIND?
Write to us, engage

NIN
G
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erage of scientific and technology accumulates. Water is on, well, every-
advances in How Your World Works In richer countries, nearly every one’s lips, with drought and
of November 2015. adult owns a car. A quarter as many water quality among the
For the past couple of decades, own computers with which they can biggest threats facing our
the wealth and technological power transmit or receive unlimited quanti- society. For many, filtering
of the human race has been increasing ties of text and pictures through the their water has become
more or less continuously – starting Internet between all points on the second nature and with
almost precisely with the first voyage globe, at no cost beyond that of a Little Luxury Vitality that
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It is a situation in which the people on the Moon, with the prospect that house, at huge cost finan-
of each century can look back to thousands more will do the same cially and environmentally,
the time of their great-grandparents, within the lifetimes of many now alive. with diesel truck emissions
even their grandparents, and observe How does that sound for “porten- adding to the pollution.
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long distances at a cost of an ever programme, which sent man to the by the FDA.
smaller percentage of their income. Moon. For it created the modern It’s the perfect gift for your bar, desk,
There are two reasons for the in- computer industry, which, in turn, kids’ rooms, next to granny’s bed and on
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a desire to better themselves, and the deliberately do, he may unwittingly
second is that all technologies have help nature do for him. Many scien-
a continuous trend towards improve- tists are fascinated by the possibility
ment. In short, when science is ad- that mankind will be succeeded by Send your letter to: PoPular Mechanics,
vancing, there are few public disasters intelligent robots that will make us PO Box 180, Howard Place 7450, or e-mail
that can destroy capital faster than redundant. Many are actively trying [email protected]
private citizens can create it. And this to make this happen. Please keep it short and to the point.
rule works like a differential equation KRISH DE CHESARAE PILLAY Regrettably, prizes can be awarded only
in physics. Change one value and you DURBAN to South African residents.
change the other. The faster science
LEDS: STILL STUMPED TURN ON TO THE WEB that very spot where the cow “dumped”
Thank you for publishing my letter (Nov- The answer to Robin Hayes’s problem is probably has better grass than the spots
ember 2015). In his response (December simple: switch to Internet radio! All his that haven’t been dumped on.
2015) Kobus Stander laid the blame at the favourite stations can be found there. If Some of you might be thinking: what
door of the 220 V to 12 V transformer. The he still has a problem, then he should has this got to do with me? I’ll tell you what.
trouble is, I am using 220 V LEDs and not look elsewhere in his system for a fault. That grass is eaten by a cow, digested by
12 V ones, so no transformer is involved. ADRIAN WINSOR its body, turned into muscle and milk –
I read on the Internet that 220 V LEDs BY EMAIL and more “dump” is made. When the cow
with a metal body don’t cause this prob- is ready, it is slaughtered and turned into
lem – mine are plastic. Perhaps if I wrap meat. That’s what it has to do with you.
metal tape or tinfoil around the body to NATURE’S WAY What I am getting at is this: Nature has
act as a shield… The cow eats its food, digests it and then… given us gifts, including the ability for
I will let you know if this is successful. “dumps” its load. Sounds boring, doesn’t it? “dumps” to be turned to compost, the
ROBIN HAYES Well, the “dumpings” of the cow are cow’s meat-factor and lots more. It would
BY EMAIL nutrient- and mineral-rich. After a few years, be a good idea for the big names in this
field (pun intended) to stop trying to
make synthetic meat, to stop keeping
cows in, frankly, torture chambers. MATCH, DON’T MIX
And it also makes financial sense. Why? I enjoyed reading Angus
Imagine if you’ve invested in a meat compa- Moodie’s letter on piston
ny, and one day you hear that scientists have speed, but got a bit mixed
been experimenting with synthetic meat. up with his quoting stroke
Just imagine the outcry from the thinkers and bore in millimetres
because, if it should (God forbid) succeed, and piston speed in feet.
cows, pigs, etc would become redundant – My calculations show a
probably extinct. This, among other reasons, piston speed of 152 857,2
is why we should use our “dumps” for crops, millimetres per minute (for
use solar power and try to think of other a stroke of 93 millimetres).
ways to use Nature’s gifts the way we where It’s all a bit like the UK still
meant to. being in pounds, gallons
WARREN CARLESS and miles per hour when
BY EMAIL the world generally is met-
ric. One wonders how piec-
es for Airbus match when
some are made in France.
DEN OSBORNE
BY EMAIL
GREEN NEEDN’T BE DIRTY

In “Don’t kill the diesel” (December 2015), the
section headed “The green alternative” says that
biodiesel doesn’t contain aromatics and other
nasties found in diesel fuel and causes lower
FIRE AWAY emissions.
Let’s start on a high note. PM is my absolute The statement is only partially correct.
favourite mag, followed by Guns & Ammo. Biodiesel does, in fact, emit higher NOx than
Sadly, I can only afford either but rarely. diesel (see table below) for one litre of pure bio-
The articles are fascinating, supported diesel compared with a litre of fossil diesel.
by reliable facts and figures. Biodiesel does provide a lifecycle reduction in
Until now. greenhouse gas emissions of 76,4 per cent rela-
Your November 2015 report, “The future tive to average 2005 petroleum diesel fuel.
of the modern home”, includes a segment We, as biodiesel producers, are ashamed by
on security that features the Armatrix the pictures used in the article. They create a
smart weapon (above). perception in reader’s minds that biodiesel is
Please do not emulate the majority of dirty and this does not encourage readers to want
fiction writers, who show a pathetic – some- to use biodiesel, but rather discourages them
times laughable – knowledge of firearms. If from doing so. Your article unfortunately does
you want a good laugh, just mention silenc- more harm to the biodiesel industry than good.
ing a revolver to a firearms enthusiast. If you want to obtain another perspective in
The pistol, as described in the text, does the local biodiesel industry, we would welcome
not have .22 bullets in a ten-round chamber. you to our biodiesel factory in Stikland,
What it does have is probably .22 Bellville, Cape Town.
ROUNDS in a ten-round MAGAZINE. CRAIG WATERMAN
The bullet is the bit that exits the barrel GREEN-DIESEL, CAPE TOWN
on firing. It is contained in a metal case
(usually brass) containing nitrocellulose TABLE
propellant (note, not gunpowder), which Average change PM HC CO NOx SO2 CO2
is ignited when a blow is struck to a primer Percent reductions -47,19 -67,36 -48,11 10,29 -100,00 -76,0
via a firing pin. The whole assembly is called Pounds of emission
a round of ammunition. reductions -0,01 -0,01 -0,06 0,02 0,00 -18,80
Not to worry, other august literary heavy-
weights – including Wilbur Smith and Ian ABBREVIATIONS
Fleming – have made worse errors. PM Particulate matter HC Hydrocarbons
TIM PAINE CO Carbon monoxide NOx Nitrogen oxides
WIERDA PARK SO2 Sulphur dioxide CO2 Carbon dioxide PM

TIME MACHINE / IT MADE PERFECT SENSE AT THE TIME
1947
Our ever-inventive readers are always
finding crafty ways of doing things more
cheaply, efficiently or weirdly. The tip
pictured appears to fit all three of those categories:
braze a hinge to a bilge pump as a footrest to make
operation easier. What a pity that the efforts of our
nattily attired but clearly sinking oarsman seem to
have progressed well beyond the point of futility.
1937
What at first glance
looks like a sun-
bather in her
shades soaking up
some beats via her
February 1967
Another decade, another US venture into for-
Beats is in fact a
eign terroritories. This month’s cover story
patient undergoing
involves a kind of warfare by proxy, but back
shortwave therapy
in February 1967, the American foray into
for what are quaintly
Vietnam was as personal as it got – and, inevitably, controversial. Whereas 2015’s
described as “ills”.
featured weapons platform is the F-16 and the target is ISIS, the 1967 version
The goggles pro-
highlights what looks like the formidable Bell Cobra (which by the way is still in
tected against
production) visiting righteous wrath on the Vietcong. It’s hard to look at these
exess radiation from the quartz mercury ultraviolet lamp
images today and not be troubled by the fervour surrounding the 1967 issue’s
and the earpieces contained electrodes that radiated
“salute to our fighting whirlybirds, including a two-page painting of them in
heat energy, or judging by her glazed look, possibly
action”. But, as they say, talk is cheap, war is an ugly thing and hindsight is 20/20.
early Pet Shop Boys.
1950
Memories of World War II may have been fading, but with-
in a month of publication hostilities would resume in Korea.
In the meantime, matters of a less militaristic nature were
on the agenda, such as testing fishing tackle at California’s Long Beach
Tuna Club. Given the tuna’s understandable reluctance to act as a
guinea pig (guinea fish?) the anglers enlisted the aid of “mermaids” to
swim off attached to special harnesses, testing – and sometimes
breaking – the fishing gear. According to our story, club members “tell
about the one that got away with added sighs these days”. PM

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HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
HACKERS SURGERY TECH A U T O M AT E D FA R M I N G POD TENTS G R E AT U N K N O W N S
TECHNOLOGY
THIRTY-SIX
HOURS AT
THE MOST
IMPORTANT
HACKATHON
ON EARTH
Here’s what happens when
400 prodigies and 1 500 cans In two days, Timothy
of free Red Bull descend on Su, 21, created an app
that exchanges money
Silicon Valley. between payment
BY A L E X A N D E R G E O R G E platforms, such as
Venmo and Bitcoin.

E
VEN INSIDE THE COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM, August in
Silicon Valley is too warm for a hoodie, so most of
the 400 young engineers and programmers gathered
here are wearing graphic T-shirts and baggy gym shorts
or cargo pants. Many wear running shoes, but some are
barefoot, and almost all have slumped posture and
unstylish haircuts. Speakers on tripods at the edge of the
room play dubstep, bass-heavy electronic music that Above, Fernando Faria, 22,
reminds one of the sound effects from video games. “It’s tests an Oculus Rift system
built by another hacker that
like you’re a machine!” one engineer exclaims. Work sur-
teaches motor skills to
faces are covered with oversize monitors, ergonomic people with cerebral palsy.
mice, empty cans, and Sun Chips crumbs. Every item in At left, branded swag and
sight serves the sedentary, stress-fuelled, often solitary hackathon fuel (Red Bull).
nature of inventing the future with ideas and a keyboard.
This weekend, however, is anything but solitary.
This is Hack the Planet, an especially prestigious hack-
athon. But that word, hack, doesn’t mean the same thing
it does in news stories about data breaches at Bank of
America or Ashley Madison. In the context of this event
and the thousands like it that take place around the world, At the next table, Shariq Hashme, 21, Justine De Caires,
to hack means to create: a hackathon is an invention HACKED 17, and Anthony Lobko, 19, are building a non-invasive
competition with a time limit. Participants have 36 APPS glucose meter for diabetics, but the lightbulb that sends
hours to make a gadget or an app that improves lives. Impressive light through the finger to the sensor keeps melting the
As for what makes this event more prestigious than creations born adhesive holding it in position. More experienced engi-
most: Major League Hacking, the organisation that hosts at previous neers stand by to help competitors who are stuck, easily
hackathons.
Hack the Planet and sanctions more than 150 hackathons spotted by their heavy sighs, rapid foot tapping, and
every year, invited only university and graduate students muttered profanity. The mentors, barely older than the
and a handful of high schoolers who demonstrated both GroupMe competitors, point out problems in their code.
the creativity to come up with unusual ideas and the A group-messaging A few competitors spend the entire weekend awake, like
coding and engineering acumen to execute them. Jon app that preceded Shane Engelman, 27, a former US Air Force serviceman,
Gottfried, an MLH cofounder, explains that he and the now essential work- or at least try to, like Aki Gao, 21, who drank five Red
commissioners call up past winners and fanatical partici- place chat providers, Bulls within the first two hours and 13 more over the
this was built at the
pants from other hackathons, but also entrants like TechCrunch Disrupt course of the hackathon. Most sleep intermittently, either
Stefanie Cohen, 23, who’s known for creative hacks Hackathon in 2010. on pads in gender-segregated, darkened conference rooms
involving visual art. The builders who meet these criteria Skype bought it or under the main room’s fluorescent lights. Many of
are exceptional, which is why sponsors such as Microsoft, a year later for those napping are wearing Pebble-branded pajamas or
an estimated
Oculus, and venture-capital titan Andreessen Horowitz resting on Microsoft-branded neck pillows – freebies.
R611 million.
give Major League Hacking the cash to rent the second Sunday morning, time is called at 10:00, and the pro-
floor at the Computer History Museum and hand out grammers set up their creations like students at a sci-
soldering guns and Bluetooth transmitters. In return, Workflow ence fair. Four finalist judges, veterans of the software
those companies get to scout for new hires. For the few Created at the 2014 and hardware industries, are looking for functionality,
who don’t already have work lined up, meetings here MHacks at the technical complexity, creativity, and whether they’d
often lead to full-time jobs after graduation or lucrative University of actually use the end result. They give top honours to an
summer internships. Michigan, this app
app that lets you make music with your voice while wait-
can trigger a set of
By 11:00 Friday night, a quiet chaos that will last functions under pre- ing on hold on the phone. Sponsors, who all offer their
through the weekend has descended over the hall. Some set conditions, such own awards, announce other winners. BMW’s motorcycle
programmers work alone, but some form teams. A few as automatically division has the most coveted prize: a trip to the Munich
met weeks before tonight through the event’s Facebook uploading photos. headquarters to pitch the idea to management. That one
It won an Apple
group. Others met at the team-building session a few Design Award.
goes to an app that links experienced motorcycle owners
hours ago, at which one Hack the Planet organiser wrote with curious newbies.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DARCY PADILLA
participants’ ideas on a whiteboard. Participants are, or pretend to be, indifferent to the

Brijen Thananjeyan, Krishna Bharathala and Jeffrey Cosmos results. When asked whether he was upset about not
Chen, all 19, went to high school together. They take A team of four built winning the BMW prize, Engelman says, “That’s not why
turns strapping an Oculus Rift headset around their this text-based Web I come to these things.” Watching the intense collabora-
heads, testing the virtual room they’re designing in crawler at a tion happening around the room, you can see his point.
University of
which users can draw on the walls. “The marks are pink,” A trip to Germany might be the highlight of a young
Michigan event and
Bharathala says. “And I can’t figure out how to change is now expanding it adult’s life, but the social communion among 400 people
them.” at an accelerator so in the same place who enjoy talking about nodes and API
Jenna Seco, 20, and Dan Stepanov, 24, who are dating, exclusive that fewer – that is why they come. It’s the chance to code and hack
work with three other people on a calculator app that, than 1 per cent of and solder, yes. Of course. It’s the opportunity for
applicants are
when given the right number sequence, unlocks a secure admitted.
internships and job offers. But really, they come for the
messaging system for use in ISIS-controlled territories. humans.

Renowned robotic surgeon Dr Vipul

Patel, who has led more than 8 500
robotic prostatectomies, speaks of being
on the cusp of a surgical revolution.
similar benefits to those of robotic prosta-

tectomies. “Robotics is the most minimally
invasive surgery available, resulting in
much quicker recovery time, much lower
blood loss and far less pain.”
MEDICINE Africa’s only urological specialist centre,
the Urology Hospital has been in existence
DOCTOR ROBOT, I PRESUME for 19 years. Its staff includes 20 leading

urologists who use highly specialised tech-
nology, focusing on (among other things)
We’re on the brink of a cancer treatment breakthrough prostate disease/cancer, kidney stones,
bladder problems, urological cancer man-
IN LATE OCTOBER 2015, surgeons at Pretoria’s The Urology Hospital performed the country’s agement, female urology and paediatric
first partial nephrectomy using robotics. In plain language, they removed part of a cancer- urology. Other common procedures
ous kidney – without laying a hand on the patient in the critical part of the procedure. besides prostatectomies include circumci-
Using techniques honed through several hundred prostate surgeries at TUH, the pio- sions, vasectomies and male infertility.
neering medics see this as a breakthrough moment. One of the world’s top urologists, on The hospital works closely with the depart-
a visit to South Africa at the time, didn’t mince his words either. Dr Vipul Patel, in the ment of urology at the University of
country for a conference hosted by TUH, spoke of being on the cusp of a revolution. Pretoria Medical School.
Robotics is now the standard care for many urological cancer procedures in the US, says Prostate cancer is the most common cancer
Patel. And he should know. A noted writer on the subject, he is medical director of the in black South African men and the second-
Global Robotics Institute at Florida Hospital Celebration Health and medical director of most common in white men, according to
the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute Urologic Oncology Programme, as well as holding the national cancer registry. But it’s not
multiple professorships. Patel has performed more than 8 500 robotic prostatectomies only in respect of cancer treatment that
and leads one of the world’s most experienced robotic surgery teams. robotic prostate surgery is having a dra-
As it turns out, robotic prostatectomies (removal of a cancerous prostate) are well matic effect. Other spin-off benefits include
established in SA, too. TUH has undertaken 400 of the 700 total nationwide since intro- lower rates of impotency: TUH’s Dr Lance
ducing the technique two years with its R20 million Da Vinci Surgical System. Coetzee says robotic surgery counters erec-
TUH urologist Dr Frans van Wijk explained that robotic kidney procedures would have tile dysfunction in prostate operations.

Before robotics, many men suffered Above:
from impotence, incontinence and a long The robot is
steered from
and painful recovery after surgery. Now,
a console by
thanks to the precision and minimally surgeons.
invasive nature of robotic surgery, vital
nerves may be preserved more easily, sig- Right:
nificantly lowering the risk and incidence TUH urologist
of impotence and incontinence. Other Dr Lance
Coetzee says
benefits include less pain, less blood loss,
robotic sur-
shorter hospital stay and a quick return to gery has
normal daily activities – sometimes within benefits for
a week, compared with six weeks previously. surgery as
“Robotic surgery effectively preserves well as for
erectile function and urinary control in recovery.
many cases,” says Coetzee. Because it
allows vision and precision, if conducted
properly, by well-trained surgeons, it
reduces the chance of damaging vital
nerves. He explains: “Previously, potency
may have returned – sometimes only par- Previously, some men chose to live with prostate cancer, maintain potency and die
tially – over a period of one to two years from the disease, rather than undergo an operation and risk becoming impotent. That’s
with an average 50 per cent recovery rate. no longer necessary.
Now, we’re seeing erectile function often And there’s good news for women, too: the robot could also be used for a range of
returning within one to three months, gynaecological procedures. Talks are under way with medical aids about covering the
depending on the patient’s potency before costs of the operations.
the operation.” ● Source: TUH

OPERATING WITH ROBOTS: robot. The remaining 10 per cent are

being done pure laparoscopically or by
surgeon’s-eye view open surgery.
In South Africa we have four robots at
IN PROSTATE REMOVAL SURGERY, using robotic methods is described as being the least inva- present. The first was installed at TUH in
sive method there is. It typically involves five keyhole incisions in the abdomen; those Pretoria in October 2013. To date we
small incisions mean faster healing, less scarring and less risk of infection than traditional have done more than 400 robotic assisted
open surgery. At the same time, there’s better access to organs, tissues and nerves laparoscopic radical prostatectomies.
According to TUH, the surgeon experiences magnified 3D visualidation plus increased PM What are the alternatives?
precision, control and range of motion. Thanks to the Da Vinci system’s better ergonom- There are alternatives available. In terms
ics, surgeon fatigue is reduced. of surgery as mentioned above, it can
TUH urologist Doctor Francois du P Boezaart takes us through the process. also be done laparoscopically or via open
PM What are the essential components of robotic surgery? Who does the surgery. The laparoscopic approach is
physical work on the patient? technically very difficult, with a very
We use the robot to do robotic assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomies (for localised steep learning curve. Only a very few
prostate cancer). This device enables the doctor to do more accurate surgery laparoscopi- urologists in the country are able to carry
cally. The robot makes the procedure easier to learn. The improved 3D vision, as well as it out. At our hospital we have done more
the ability to set the sensitivity of the device, makes the surgery more accurate. This than 1 800 laparoscopic radical prostatec-
device works on a master-slave principle: the surgeon works from a console. tomies, but the steep learning curve (the
PM To what extent is the robotic part automated or, in fact, autonomous? difficulty of acquiring the skills) makes
The robot does not do the procedure by itself, but is steered from the console, where the this procedure less viable for general uro-
surgeon controls everything. The slave part is at the patient’s bedside and consists of logical practice. This is where the robots
robotic arms that are inserted via small incisions (about one to two centimetres long) step in to make the procedure more read-
through trocars put into the patient’s body. ily available in terms of minimal invasive
The operation is then done by the surgeon sitting at the console. The advanced flexibility surgery. Open procedures are still being
and mobility of the small robotic instruments inside the patient’s body make for very done, in many cases, in South Africa.
accurate and concise surgery to be performed. All tremors of the steering hand would As far as non-surgical alternatives are
also be filtered out, resulting in absolute stability of the robotic instruments inside the concerned, radiotherapy is currently the
patient’s body. No action of the robot is performed without it being steered by the sur- only viable alternative. It is generally
geon. Thus there is no automated functionality. reserved for poor surgical risks patients
PM Can it be done at a distance (say cities apart)? and those patients who prefer the non-
The surgeon at the console works mostly in the same theatre, but can also do so in a surgical approach.
PM What special training is needed?
different setting, depending on the quality of the broadband connection (even on a
different continent). There is in place a well developed pro-
PM Where does robotic surgery fit into the medical liability scenario? gramme in learning the technique. At
The doctor performs the procedure and would ultimately be responsible for surgical out- present, robotic surgeons undergo basic
comes. The device is merely a tool to improve visibility and accuracy of surgery as men- training overseas. They have to complete
tioned above. There are, however, medical legal cases all over the world in which patients modules as they progress to the actual
have sued the company or the doctors involved, or both, where complications have arisen. procedure. The first five to 10 cases are
These, however, are few and far between. The robot in general enhances the doctor’s done under supervision of a proctor. We
ability to provide quality surgical care. have a simulator available through which
PM Why has robotic surgery became a focal area in treating prostate cancer, the skills can more easily be acquired. The
specifically? different modules that I have mentioned
The robot has become the primary device used for radical prostatectomies in the US, would also encompass simulated training.
where more or less 90 per cent of these procedures are being done with the help of the
‘The robot does not do the procedure by itself, but is steered

from the console, where the surgeon controls everything.’

FARMING TOMORROW:
PRECISION LAND MANAGEMENT
AGRICULTURE New Holland says its Precision Land
THE NEW
Management (PLM) technologies
(above) are revolutionising agriculture.
“They are becoming an essential tool
AGRICULTURAL for many farmers as they strive to

reduce input cost, improve yields, and
REVOLUTION
increase efficiencies,” says the compa-
ny’s PLM product specialist, John
Downes.
Sustainable farming for future New Holland’s PLM offering includes
generations won’t just be about displays, guidance and telematics sys-
tems, mapping software, crop input
genetically modified crops.
control systems and data management
AN ALTERNATIVE-ENERGY ENGINE, assisted New Holland associate, FPT Industrial. software – even steering assist.
steering and navigation system are what The tractor underwent real-world test-
you would expect to find on today’s high- ing at the La Bellotta farm in Venaria,
tech vehicles. But new-generation farm Italy. That’s also where the company is
implements are finding themselves right up deploying its Energy Independent Farm
there on the frontiers alongside smart cars. concept. The objective: to generate the
A prototype alternative-fuel tractor energy the farm needs from the crops it
could change the face of sustainable already grows, alongside recycled waste
farming tomorrow, says farming machin- by-products. “With biogas innovation, we
ery manufacturer New Holland – and the have been able to restart investment and
company’s driver-assistance systems are re-employ people. This is the result of a
already doing so today. virtuous process,” says Luca Remmert,
The methane-powered tractor was owner of La Bellotta.
showcased at the recently concluded 2015 ● Source: The Newsmarket
Expo in Milan, Italy. With the theme
“Feeding the planet, energy for life”, the
Expo hosted more than 850 000 visitors. NEW-WAVE
A second-generation prototype, the Fuel cost savings of between 20 and 40 per cent are forecast for the
TRACTOR:
Methane Power Tractor. It has 80 per cent lower polluting emissions than
tractor is seen as a hint of a future in GROW YOUR a standard diesel tractor and complies with future greenhouse gas targets
which farms can be energy-independent OWN FUEL in Europe, expected to impose a 20 per cent cut in emissions by 2020.
and more environmentally friendly. Even better, using biomethane (derived from biomass) cuts overall
Based on a standard New Holland T6 CO2 emissions further. An Energy Independent Farm could grow the
tractor (above and right), it is powered by biomass and recycle its waste byproducts to produce its own biometh-
a natural gas engine manufactured by a ane, eliminating CO2 emissions and slashing fuel costs.

5m
2, 2m
2,7m
3,8m
PODS
CAMPERS UNITED
Modular connected tents help foster the
spirit of togetherness
TENT VILLAGES AT MUSIC FESTIVALS are masterpieces of
instant community planning. But even though the
tents are all clustered together, the fact that they are
separate entities can militate against a true spirit of
togetherness (some, of course, would consider that a
distinct advantage).
POD tents of the UK (podtents.com) solved that
problem by designing modular tents that can be con-
nected in unique formations. It’s an idea that appears
to have taken off in a big way in the UK, Europe, South
Korea, the USA and Australia since the concept was ing huge groups of revellers to
launched about a year ago. The good news for local fes- camp together.
tivalgoers is that POD has set its sight on global mar- “Personal sleeping pods
kets for 2016, with the launch of its new Elite range allow the privacy of a separate
scheduled for early in the new year. Improvements to tent, but the connecting corri-
the Elite range include better UV protection, lighter dors and tunnels help to keep
weight and more durable design. everyone together and can
The inaugural range of tents included the POD Maxi create unique communal
and POD Mini, for sleeping eight or four people areas that groups of friends
together in one tent with separate rooms. POD tents will lose at a festival,” says
can be externally and internally adapted to create com- Jason Thorpe, director
munal living spaces and private sleeping pods for large of POD Tents designers M2C
groups. Each POD can be connected to another, allow- Innovation.

Do you have unusual questions about the world and how it works and why stuff happens? This is the place
to ask them. Don’t be afraid. Nobody will laugh at you here. Email [email protected]
Questions will be selected based on quality or at our whim.
when you sum them up, equate roughly to

“beats us”. In any event, salt water is a
good conductor (that is, it has low resist-
ance), which means that when lightning
does strike the ocean, it spreads quickly
on the surface and disperses. Don
MacGorman, a senior scientist at the
USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s National Severe Storms
Laboratory, says that unless a fish is right
underneath a strike and swimming at a
depth of less than 3 metres or so, it’s
probably safe. Consider this, though: a
BIG QUESTIONS. 2013 NOAA study found that 64 per cent
of lightning deaths since 2006 occurred
ANSWERS YOU CAN’T while people were participating in “leisure
FIND ON THE INTERNET. activities”. The deadliest? Fishing.
Will we ever have Star

Trek-style teleporters?
How will they work?
How many we really ought to do more often) we need
to account for an inopportune property of Never say never, though
AA batteries electrical connections: they bring with from today’s scientific van-
would it take them something called resistance. In tage point, it’s hard to see how we’ll bridge
the gap from the dreaded depredations of
short, every connection demands more
to start a car? current, and if you’re soldering, welding, Boarding Group 4 to the breezy conveni-
wiring, whatever, 200 AA batteries together, ence of “Beam me up, Scotty.” But, hey,
AA? WE PREFER SIMPLY AA – as in the then hooking them up to your car’s starter let’s dream for a minute.
Automobile Association, which, for a motor, you’re going to need a lot more There have, in fact, been successful
nominal yearly membership fee, will gladly juice along the way. That means more bat- experiments in something called quantum
send a mechanically inclined gentleman in teries. How many? Lots. The calculations teleportation, in which the information
a well-equipped truck to start your car for are too complex for this space, to say contained in one atom is transferred to
you if you ever get jammed up with a dead nothing of our liberal arts background, another, effectively replicating the first
battery. But maybe you’re stranded outside and involve a bit of technical guesswork. atom in another place. “That would be fine
an Eveready warehouse with no phone But various reckonings suggest it might in a Star Trek sense,” says Steve Rolston,
service or you’re just determined, for rea- actually require anywhere from 1 200 to codirector of the Joint Quantum Institute
sons of your own, to get all MacGyver nearly 5 000 AAs in total to crank up old at the University of Maryland, “except
with it. Here’s what you need to know: Bessie. Given that, you’d be better off sell- when I do it with Star Trek, I have to do it
No. 1: This is an impractical idea. It ing the batteries and using the money to with however many atoms are in you.”
would be difficult, expensive, and possibly buy a car that starts. Which, Rolston adds, amounts to “more
dangerous. We do not recommend it. No. information than we would ever have any
2: It is possible. Let’s start with what we possibility of keeping track of.”
might call the “perfect case”. Professor and Even if that hurdle were overcome,
automotive engineer Giorgio Rizzoni of When lightning strikes human teleportation would be quite a bit
Ohio State University lays out the follow- the ocean, how many messier than the shaft of swirling jelly
ing assumptions: the car employs a stand- fish die? beans seen on TV. You’d need some kind
ard 12-volt battery, and the temperature Fewer, perhaps, than die of medium on the arriving end – a blob of
is above freezing. Starting the engine will when one dumps an ancient carbon, oxygen or nitrogen – just waiting
require 250 amps for a half second, and Ford Cortina with a bootful of AA batter- to become your winsome smile, gruesome
TYPOGRAPHY BY GEMMA O'BRIEN
the most current a 1,5-volt AA battery can ies into the ocean out of frustration that toenails, and everything in between. And
produce is 10 amps. Given the above, the bastard still won’t turn over. Indeed, what would be left on the other end?
you’d need to start with a string of eight fish tend to lead short and brutish lives, Another blob. Gross.
AAs to get your necessary 12 volts. but lightning is way down on the list of Fear not, however. Professional futurist
However, to produce the necessary cur- threats they face. Michael Rogers argues teleporters will soon
rent (250 amps) you’d need 25 parallel For one thing, and this may surprise be unnecessary, thanks to the developing
strings of eight AAs (25 × 10 amps = 250 anyone who has seen the intro to Gilligan’s field of “telepresence”, in which far-flung
amps). So, in a strictly theoretical world, Island, lightning storms at sea are not all robotic avatars connected to our senses will
200 AA batteries ought to be able to start that common. The farther offshore you go, enable us to “be” anywhere we like without
a typical midsize car – once. the rarer they get. Ask a scientist why this ever leaving home. At last, a truly practical
Stepping out into the real world (which is and you’ll hear a variety of theories that, use for all those AA batteries. PM

GADGETS AND GIFTS FOR ALL ● EDITED BY LINDSEY SCHUTTERS
GREAT STUFF NEW

HOLI
SURVIDAY
Disney Infinity 3.0 GIFT G VAL
UIDE
Part toy box and part video game, Disney’s Infinity is all-
ages fun and an expensive nightmare for collectors every-
where. Following in the footsteps of Skylanders and bringing
toys to life on your TV screen, the playsets consist of a
base station that you plug in to your console of choice. The
compatible characters are then placed on the base. You
can choose to play in Play Set mode, where you help the
characters achieve various goals within a relevant story line;
or Toy Box mode where you design your own play world
and choose any characters to join in the fun. Infinity 3.0
launched the Star Wars franchise on the platform (with
Force Awakens characters released to coincide with the movie)
and Disney hasn’t been shy to add popular characters from
their latest animated movies Inside Out and The Good
Dinosaur. Gameplay and visuals are geared towards the
more childlike, but it is a great alternative to the realism
found in the first-person shooter realm. It’s a hoot for
most ages and will work on Wii U, Xbox (360 and One)
and PlayStation (3 and 4).
Starter packs cost R700 and can be found at most retailers
where games are sold; visit infinity.disney.com for more.

Huawei MediaPad M2 8.0
The Chinese electronics giants has gone
audio-heavy on its latest 8-inch media
consumption device. Harman Kardon
was enlisted to tune the two 1W stereo
speakers, which sound good piping
out of the metal unibody design.
One for the enthusiasts.
From R9 400,
consumer.huawei.com
Samsung Galaxy
Note 5
The king of the big-screen Android phones returns
for a fifth instalment of market dominance. Purists Apple
who like their Google-powered handsets unadulterated
will turn to the Huawei-made Nexus 6P for phablety
Macbook
goodness, but this is the phone that started the trend. A redesigned slim keyboard
Samsung doesn’t shy away from innovation with a (with butterfly switches), a
redesigned (but still class-leading) S Pen stylus that solitary USB type-C port and
comes with added functionality like taking notes with pressure sensitive Force Touch
the screen turned off. The beefy Exynos 7420 chipset trackpad set this apart as the most
handles processes with an eight-core monster unit and interesting laptop of 2015. Much
is supported by 4 GB of RAM. Screen size is 5,7 inches more than a glorified iPad.
and it’s of the 1440p (QHD) Super AMOLED variety. From R22 000, istoreonline.co.za
On main camera duty is the superb 16MP snapper
with optical image stabilisation and a decent 5MP
unit. This is easily the best Android phone for most
power users despite the negative press about no
expandable storage and a sealed battery.
You can get a 32 GB model for around R10 400, but
the 64 GB is the one you want. Visit samsung.com Apple iPhone 6S
for more info. If you prefer your phone
in fruit flavour, the iPhone
6S (or Plus variant) is the
best in the business. The
new 12 MP rear camera
and pressure-sensitve
screen are the hardware
features to own and it
makes a solid case for an
upgrade. Sorry, new
iPhone 6 owners.
From R11 800, istore-
online.co.za

GREAT NEW STUFF
Master Lock Connected Padlock

Using your smartphone to unlock things is old hat, but for a company
with a reputation for security like Master Lock, it’s huge. It all starts
with an encrypted app called Vault that you use to pair with the
Bluetooth-enabled padlock. The two variants (outdoor and indoor)
work in much the same way, although the outdoor one is taller and
has a 51 mm Boron shackle. You can unlock it via Bluetooth from
an app-authorised phone or use the four-way directional pad to dial
in the back-up sequence. Power comes from a CR2 lithium coin
battery with a minimum life of one year, and there’s a clever jump
start terminal system if the battery dies while locked. Within the
app you can share access to the lock (requires other users to down-
load the app), track the lock activity, schedule access and manage
the back-up directional password. In all it’s a great progression for
the padlock industry and we’d love to see the technology extend to
bicycle U-locks. The indoor model will set you back R2 000 and
outdoor model R2 600; see mackiediy.co.za for more.
WD My Passport Pro
You’ll love the rapid data transfers -
3 GB file in 34 seconds - but hate that
it’s only for Apple fans, or for hectic
gaming systems that have a built-in
Thunderbolt port.
From R4 200, wdc.com Canon EOS M10
The famed camera company has finally figured
out how to make good compact mirrorless units,
and this is one for the masses. It’s packing an
excellent 18 MP APS-C sensor, Wi-Fi and
NFC, so your Instagram shots are easier to
share from camera.
From R4 600 (body only), canon.co.za
Airwheel M3 SkateBoard
Skating as an adult is only a good idea if you
haven’t stopped skating since high school. If you
have, this is right up your alley. Airwheel are
champs at Segway-type devices, so the M3 is self-
balancing and can hit a max speed of 18 km/h.
Lithium-ion batteries hold charge and you control
the power via remote control.
R8 000, airwheel.net

HOLI
SURVIDAY
GIFT G VAL
UIDE
DIY 7-in-1 Solar Space Fleet Kit
Toy-building kits are more about learning
skills than about having fun, but both
happen at the same time. This model
kit comes in six unit parts and can be
Voltroned together to form one giant
robot. The rechargeable battery can switch
between the different toys, or you can opt to
use the solar panel which will recharge from sunshine
or a halogen light source. There aren’t remote controls, but
enquiring minds will love the intricate construction details and
how everything works together. Also, there’ll be the hours of bonding time under
the festooned tree to look forward to when the receiver wants to play with all of it now.
Get this set for R400 at mantality.co.za
Desk Pets
Tribe Star Wars Charge it via USB and use your
USB Flash Drive phone as the remote control. It’s
like the Micro Machines of our
While we don’t condone time, but without the fast-talking
piracy, it would be awesome TV ads.
to have a copy of the latest From R400, thegadgetshop.co.za
Star Wars fliek on one of
these. Sizes max out at 8GB,
but the force of novelty
value is strong with this
one.
R250, thegadgetshop.co.za
Homido Smartphone
Virtual Reality headset
Getting a virtual reality experi-
ence on the cheap is easy with
Google Cardboard, but those
units don’t last very long. This
unit is a great platform-agnostic
solution that you can buy now
and connect to your smartphone,
instead of waiting for Oculus.
R1 500, mantality.co.za

GREAT NEW STUFF
HOLI
SURVIDAY
GIFT G VAL
UIDE
Razer Mamba Chroma

You may think it’s the pulsing
LED racing stripes or the superior
grippiness that sets this mouse
apart from the competition, but
you’d be very wrong. The Mamba’s
magic is something you can’t see:
the invisible 16 000 DPI laser
tracker. Adding customisable
LEDs was a purely aesthetic
move to justify the Chroma
name, but the wired/wireless
functionality is a hoot especially
since the charging stand doubles
as the wireless receiver. Razer
WD Black 3TB promises precise motion tracking
and response that will shame
The performance car of hard
your official office equipment
drives does away with the
more than a naked walk to the
hybrid SSD configuration
Red Keep, but the adjustable click
and instead rolls with discs
force doesn’t really change much.
that spin at 7 200 r/min
Still, the grippy rubberised texture
(just shy of the torque peak
is quite pleasing and the ergo-
on a VTEC engine). This is
nomics are spot on. If it’s good
robust storage for high-
enough to keep gamers happy,
demand systems.
your eight-hour slog will be
R2 500, wdc.com
quite comfortable. Yes, the bat-
tery can last that long. Available
at most PC hardware outlets for
R2 500; visit razerzone.com
Unilite Prosafe Inspection

light
From the blinding unboxing experience
to finding Barbie’s shoes under the
bed, this inspection light has earned
its place in my life. The nine LEDs all
burn at once, powered by three AAA
batteries, and can switch between
strobe, dim and bright.
LG 29-inch 21:9 UltraWide monitor R320, uni-lite.com PM
Though we’re a little against having to move your head to follow the
action in a game, this landing strip is decadent in its abundance of
crispy pixels. The 2 560 x 1 080 resolution holds up well and you can
definitely describe the experience as immersive.
R6 500, lg.com

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RIGHT NOW, ON A
MILITARY BASE IN
TUCSON, AMERICAN
FIGHTER PILOTS
ARE TEACHING A
GROUP OF ELITE IRAQI
AIRMEN HOW TO FLY
THEIR COUNTRY’S
FIRST F-16 S .
IN THE US THEY’VE
FACED A STRANGE
CULTURE, LONG
HOURS IN THE SKY,
AND A DEADLY CRASH.
BACK HOME LOOMS A

GREATER CHALLENGE,
THEIR ULTIMATE
TARGET: ISIS.

OVER FOUR DAYS IN EARLY SEPTEMBER 2015, Iraqi fighter pilots carried out 15 air
strikes against Islamic State targets in Salah ad Din and Kirkuk provinces, just north
of Baghdad. The story didn’t get much play. Five short sentences in the Associated Press,
with a canned quote by a Pentagon spokesman and few details. None of the major news
networks paid any mind. The Guardian, one of Britain’s leading daily newspapers, pre-
sented a marginally fuller picture: the planes were American-made F-16s, among 36
ordered by the Iraqi government back in 2011. The United States had repeatedly delayed
delivery of the jets, citing safety issues as the Islamic State group, or ISIS, became a
direct threat to Balad Air Base – the jets’ future home. Of course, ISIS was the very
reason Iraq now needed the planes
urgently, and eventually the first four
arrived in July. Still, The Guardian largely
dismissed the delivery of the F-16s – the
first ever in the history of the Iraqi Air
Force – saying they would not be “a
game changer” in the fight against ISIS.
It had been more than a year since ISIS had cap-

tured Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, prompting
the intervention of a coalition led by the US. Air
strikes had targeted ISIS territories for much of that
year. So you could understand how the news media
didn’t think 15 more carried out by four Iraqi planes
would change the fight in a fundamental way. But
how those pilots came to be flying those airplanes in
the skies over their home country – that was a big
change indeed. The men flying the F-16s had recently
returned to Iraq from a base in Tucson, Arizona,
another desert more than 12 000 kilometres from
Baghdad, where they had completed more than three
years of training with United States Air Force pilots.
They had lived among Americans, eating tacos at
Mexican cantinas, trying to follow the NBA. They had
missed their families, their own beds, the mothers’
home-cooked meals, their hometowns. These men,
who back in Iraq had learnt how to fly in Cessnas
and Beech-craft T-6 single-engine prop training
planes, now knew how to control the mighty F-16
Fighting Falcon, a multimillion-dollar, Lockheed
Martin-built military combat machine that can
reach speeds of 2 400 km/h.
And they weren’t the only ones. Back in America
there were others. Around 20. Iraqis just like them,
learning to fly F-16s, training to fight ISIS. Though
that number was one less since June, when one of
those men had died.
No, in the 24-hour news cycle, four Iraqi Air Force
pilots flying some bombing runs in a confusing and An F-16 in the
far-off war didn’t merit a mention in the crawl along the bottom of your television screen. 162nd Wing’s
And yet to the pilots who flew the missions, and to the rest still in Tucson counting the days “hush house,”
before they could return home to do the same, and to their wives and children and mothers a soundproof
hangar where
and fathers, and to the family of the man whose F-16 crashed in an eruption of flames in the engines are
Arizona desert just days before he was supposed to return to Iraq to help lead the fight – to tested.
them, it was everything.

AST VALENCIA ROAD, a 10 km stretch of the Iraq War – one of the largest airdrops since World War II. In
shopping centres, butcheries, industrial 1988, near the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein fatally
parks and chain hotels, runs alongside gassed thousands of Kurds. Nawaf’s family and neighbours antici-
Tucson International Airport. Three years pated a similar attack in response to the American invasion. “We
into their training programme, the Iraqi were afraid Saddam would do something terrible,” he says. “We
pilots have done their best to fit in here. made gas masks and prepared our cars to flee the city. The car had
They live in small apartments near the to be ready with everything in the trunk, even food, 24/7.” The
airport, on the city’s south side. Some chemical attack never came, and Kirkuk was quiet in the early
drive American muscle cars, bought with their pilot years of the US occupation.
salaries. The younger ones have discovered Congress Violence increased as Nawaf got older, but that’s not why he
Street, a downtown district full of craft breweries and enrolled in the Iraqi Military Academy in 2008 as an Air Force
tequila bars where University of Arizona students go candidate. His father had been a conscript in Saddam’s army and
on the weekends. They’ve also discovered Las Vegas. wanted to be an Iraqi Air Force pilot, but there was no chance.
The weather is like Nawaf’s father was a Kurd, and
home, pretty much – Kurds were not allowed to be
dry and hot most of pilots. “I’m doing this for my dad,”
the year, except for a Nawaf says.
few weeks of summer In September 2011, with American
thunderstorms that forces pulling out of Iraq and taking
locals call the monsoon. their air superiority with them, Iraqi
The reliable climate Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
makes Tucson a great purchased 18 brand-new F-16s from
place to fly. Only three the US with the goal of rebuilding
per cent of all sorties an Iraqi Air Force capable of defend-
are cancelled due to ing its own airspace. Two decades
dangerous conditions. earlier, Iraq had been the most
Take away the towering feared air power in the Middle
saguaros and the Sonoran East, with more than a thousand
desert looks a lot like aircraft mostly obtained from the
Iraq – especially from Soviets and the French. But after
the sky. But on the Saddam invaded Kuwait and the
ground America is so Gulf War began, nearly all of Iraq’s
much different. aircraft were destroyed by the
Its mix of skin colours. Americans or flown to Iran, first by
Everyone free to go about defecting Iraqi pilots, then under
their business – the chil- The view from a two-seater D-model F-16. direct orders from Saddam. The
dren, the groceries, the ensuing no-fly zones further cur-
job, the errands, the tailed the Iraqi Air Force and the
night out, the sick day, 2003 American invasion completed
the golf game, the business trip, the oil change, the early- its destruction. By 2004, the Iraqi Air Force had just 35 personnel
morning meeting – without worrying about suicide and zero aircraft.
bombers. The Iraqi pilots move among a population In December 2011, al-Maliki ordered another eighteen F-16s,
unaware of where they’re from, of who they are, of bringing the total cost to around $6 billion. This sum included
what they’re doing. the jets themselves, along with a standard package of 20 mm
Nawaf has been in the US since 2011. (Nawaf is not his Vulcan cannons, hundreds of missiles and laser-guided bombs,
real name. For the protection of his family, his colleagues, targeting pods, and all necessary communications and navigation
and himself, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence allowed him systems. The per-unit sticker price of roughly $165 million in-
to be interviewed only on the condition of anonymity. cluded sending pilots to America for F-16 training. A group of six
Neither would they permit photography of him or the came first, the others arriving in small groups over the months
other pilots – or even provide the exact number of pilots in that followed.
the F-16 training programme, though earlier news reports They started at San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base, where they
estimated 24.) His family – mom, dad, a sister and two spent four months learning English. Then it was on to Laughlin
brothers – lives in Sulaymaniyah, though for most of Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, where they took Undergraduate
Nawaf’s life they lived in Kirkuk, just under 120 km Pilot Training – the Air Force’s introductory flying course – proving
west, an ancient city as famous for the diversity of its themselves on the single-prop T-6 Texan II. From there, they
population as for its oil fields. Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, advanced to the dual-jet T-38 Talon at Columbus Air Force Base in
and Turkomans, Christians and Muslims, Sunni and Mississippi. Then it was back to San Antonio, this time to Randolph
Shia all live there. Nawaf is a Kurd. Now 25, he was Air Force Base, for eight more months in the T-38, practising evasive
barely a teenager in March 2003, when one thousand tactics and air-to-air combat. Finally, they headed to Tucson Inter-
members of the US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade national Airport, home of the 162nd Wing of the Arizona Air
parachuted into Kirkuk to open the northern front in National Guard, for the final phase of training in their very own

Brigadier General Hasan in his F-16, the same in which a plane. Each classroom lesson was followed by simulator
he would fatally crash. time, then finally real-time exercises with an instructor
riding in the backseat of a two-seater D-model F-16.
Eventually, the Iraqis began flying solo in the same jets
they would take with them back to Iraq. They progressed
to dogfighting and air-to-ground tactics, adapting skills
they’d learnt on the T-38 to the F-16. They practised
strafing runs on shipping containers in the nearby
Barry M. Goldwater Range. Ground controllers from the
US military talked them onto the targets to simulate
the kind of complex scenarios they would encounter back
home. They learnt to use laser-guided bombs as large as
two thousand pounds. They also practised dropping
dumb bombs, the kind you have to aim the old-fashioned
way, angling your jet in a dive towards the target, then
quickly peeling away at an altitude safe from man-portable
surface-to-air missiles – like the ones ISIS claims to have
discovered in large numbers on captured military bases.
“We have to be so precise in order to not have collateral
F-16s. The instructors here are some of the most skilled fighter damage, not hit civilians,” Nawaf says. “When we get
jocks alive, having flown combat missions in Iraq, the Balkans, back home, it’s our own cities that we will bomb.”
and Afghanistan, and averaging three thousand hours in the F-16 In 2014, Nawaf and the other pilots had watched the
– the equivalent of flying nine-to-five every day for a year. Today, news as ISIS emerged, seemingly out of nowhere, to begin
F-16s make up roughly 15 per cent of the total aircraft in the systematically tearing Iraq apart. Rolling into Iraqi towns
world’s air forces. For foreign pilots, Tucson is where it begins. in Humvees seized from fleeing Iraqi troops, waving their
Tucson is where Nawaf was one night in late June, sitting in black flags. Capturing civilians, soldiers, policemen and
his one-bedroom apartment watching TV when the phone rang. international reporters. The beheadings. That June ISIS
“You okay?” claimed its most significant victory yet, seizing Mosul
It was one of his American friends. Nawaf said he was fine, with fifteen hundred men against an Iraqi military force
thinking his friend was asking about the weight-lifting injury he’d of thirty thousand. From there its fighters pushed into
been rehabbing. Kurdish territory, their clear objective to overtake Kirkuk,
No. On the news, his friend said. He’d just seen it. An F-16 had just a hundred or so miles to the southeast. Sulaymaniyah
crashed near the Mexican border. Was he okay? was not far from the advancing ISIS fighters.
Nawaf spoke to his family on the phone every day and
N PHOTOGRAPHS, the F-16’s smooth contours, compact they assured him they were okay. His father, who had once
shape and sleek gunmetal-grey skin make it appear light- dreamed of being a pilot, wanted only to talk about Nawaf’s
weight and easy to manoeuvre. Even looking at it up close training, always asking what manoeuvres he’d practised
– measuring a modest 15 metres nose to tail, with a 10- and what kind of targets he had attacked. Still, for
metre wingspan – it seems like a delicate thing. It’s only Nawaf, thoughts of home were filled with uncertainty.
once you’re in the cockpit, enclosed in that seamless bubble
canopy, that you start to feel its complexity. Its ferocity. HE 162ND WING has trained pilots from
The ten-ton empty weight. The three multifunction displays the Netherlands, Turkey, Israel, Venezuela,
by the pilot’s knees that show a variety of data including thermal Pakistan, Chile, and many other countries.
video from the targeting pods. The cameras that, at altitude on a Those trainees are usually in Tucson seven
clear day, can capture action on the ground from 80 km away. The or eight months. Then they return home
head-up display mounted above the instrument panel that allows to train as wingmen with veteran pilots
the pilot to monitor vitals like airspeed, g-force and bearing with- from their own militaries, until they’re
out looking down. The single Pratt & Whitney engine delivering deemed “mission qualified”– ready to fly
over 29 000 pounds of thrust. real-life combat missions. The Iraqi pilots couldn’t go
From way up high, it’s hard to tell when you’re going supersonic. back home to train with veteran F-16 pilots because there
The world appears stationary, like a photograph. It’s hard to tell were no veteran F-16 pilots in Iraq. And when the first
you’re moving at all. “It’s like you’re not sitting in a jet,” Nawaf pilots became mission-ready in 2014, Balad Air Base was
says. “It’s like you have wings, and you’re flying all by yourself.” not secure. So they stayed in Tucson, rooting for the Spurs,
Until you’re rolling into an eight-g turn and feel the blood rush hitting the drive-through at Chickenuevo Mexican Grill,
from your head as your g-suit bladders inflate. Or swooping down watching and waiting, staying sharp, flying four days a
to 150 m, tearing across Tucson pecan orchards and over the week.
highway, the plane’s shadow fluttering over speeding cars as if The instructors offer as much reassurance as they can.
they were parked. “Every one of us has been deployed, whether a mobile
The Iraqis spent many hours in the classroom learning skills as training team for three months or an overseas deployment
basic and necessary as taking off before they got anywhere near for a year,” says Major Shayne Sullivan, 37, an instructor
an F-16. Nawaf remembers 12-hour days when he never laid eyes on pilot in Nawaf’s squadron. “We know how to deal with

The site near Douglas, Arizona, where Brigadier General
Hasan’s plane went down.
being away from family. We can talk through that.” Mohammed Sideeq Hasan, call sign “Fitter,” the NATO code name
Each day before going up in the air, the instructors for the Soviet-built Su-20 he’d flown as a young pilot. He was a
talk to the foreign students to determine their mental graduate of the Iraqi Air Force academy but only flew for a short
state. With students from, say, Norway or Japan, these time before Desert Storm and all that followed essentially grounded
informal check-ins could be as mundane as asking what him for two decades. Now, at forty-five, nearly twice as old as the
a student had for breakfast. With the Iraqis, the con- rest of them, he was back in the cockpit. With his black moustache
versations might be about friends and family killed by and gold aviator sunglasses and general’s stars on his epaulets, he
gunfire or car bombs. If an instructor thinks a student cut the figure of an old-school officer from the Saddam era. But
is too rattled, he’ll sit out the flight. he was known around the base as an unfailingly warm and gentle
Mostly, though, the Iraqi pilots depend on each man. He treated the young Iraqi pilots like nephews. He was the
other for support. They come from different regions – one they turned to when the gruelling training became too much,
Baghdad, the Kurdish north, the Sunni Triangle, the or when they worried about their families so much it made them
Shiite south – but they almost never talk about their sick. Hasan stayed focused. While the others were out revving their
sectarian identities. They hang out at each others’ V8s on days off – Nawaf in his red 2014 Dodge Challenger, a 392
apartments making Iraqi food, like a stewed beef dish Hemi with matte black racing stripes down the hood, a radar
called pima or the Kurdish okra recipe that Nawaf’s detector on the windshield, and a tiny pair of traditional Kurdish
mother walked him through over the phone. shoes dangling from the rearview mirror – Hasan would usually be
“We are Iraqis,” Nawaf says. “We are family.” sitting alone in his bare one-bedroom apartment studying, preparing
The head of that family was Brigadier General Rasid for his role as Iraq’s first-ever F-16 squadron commander.

Hasan had been married as long as some of them had been
alive and had four kids, his youngest son born just months before
he left. Now, the boy was counting numbers on his fingers –
counting the days until Hasan’s return. That’s what he told his
father when they talked over Skype on Wednesday, 24 June. In
just two days, Hasan was booked on a Turkish Airlines flight back
to Iraq. The delivery of the first four F-16s had finally been sched-
uled for mid-July. He was assigned to be one of the first flight
leads. He was supposed to be in one of those F-16s that, come
September, would bomb ISIS. But there were still a couple last
training flights. Later that night he once more climbed the ladder
into his plane, streaked down the runway, and shot off into the
Arizona sky.
AWAF HUNG UP WITH HIS FRIEND and called one

of the other pilots who lived in his building, and the F-16’s emergency power unit, and piles of tyres some-
they sped towards the airport. When they got to one had dumped out in the creosote barrens. About
the base, they saw some of their guys standing 3:30 AM, the pilots began to drift back to their own apart-
outside the Iraqi squadron’s building. They knew ments. There was still no word about whether Hasan had
it was Hasan from the flight schedule. They stayed managed to eject, but they knew how unlikely it was.
at the squadron building until 1 AM. before driving Only when the tyres finally stopped smouldering a day
to one of their apartments to wait for more news. later were the hazmat teams able to search for a body.
The plane had gone down near Douglas, an old mining town of No one knew what had gone wrong. It was a routine
17 000 residents just shy of the border, about 160 km from the night training mission, a two-plane formation with an
base. Not much there but empty desert and mountains. The Tucson American pilot on one wing. The pair were headed back
news broadcasts showed a cellphone video shot by a man who lived north to Tucson. An eyewitness told the newspapers he
nearby. The flames were raging, brush fires stoked by the hydrazine in saw the plane bank left and then just all of a sudden
tumble out of the sky.
Brigadier General Hasan was the first Iraqi
F-16 pilot to die in training and only the second
pilot to die in the 23-year history of the 162nd
Wing’s F-16 program. The Air Force is still
investigating.
Master Sergeant Jésus Enriquez had the job
of cleaning out Hasan’s apartment and packing
his belongings for repatriation. Enriquez had
bonded with him over the similarities between
Arabic and Latino culture. They compared
Mexican and Iraqi rice dishes, tortillas and an
Iraqi flatbread called samoon. They talked smack
about soccer. “He liked the English league,” says
Enriquez, a fan of the Spanish league. “We would
talk about which was harder, who had better
players.” Mostly, they talked about their children.
“I’m a father, he’s a father,” says Enriquez. “We
talked about how much he missed his children
and how fast they’d grown. The first thing out
of his mouth was always, ‘How is your family?’
And I do that now – I learnt that from him.
Every time I meet somebody I ask them, ‘How
are you, and how is your family?’ ”
Hasan had made little effort to settle into his
apartment, so there wasn’t much to pack up.
His gold aviators sat on an otherwise empty table.
“I always told him, ‘Hey, I like those glasses,’ ”
The men of the 162nd Wing (clockwise from

left): Colonel Phil Purcell, Lieutenant Colonel
Mike Martinez, Major Shayne “Tito” Sullivan,
and Master Sergeant Jésus Enriquez.

says Enriquez. “And he would tell me, ‘They’re
older than you.’”
N 7 JULY, a few weeks after the

crash, a Tuesday, a busy workday,
about 80 pilots, crew chiefs and
base personnel filled the burgundy
folding seats of the 162nd Wing’s
auditorium. Framed photographs
of F-16s and MQ-1 Predator drones
hung on the walls. The space was
normally used for briefings and promotions.
That day it would serve a different purpose. That
day it would be the site of a memorial service
for Hasan. Enriquez and the Iraqis did their
best to make the place worthy of the man. They
placed an Iraqi flag beside the US and Arizona
State flags. They laid flowers on a table beside
the stage. They brought in a large portrait of
Hasan, standing with his arms crossed in front
of his F-16, wearing his aviators.
Lieutenant Colonel Mike Martinez, a Roman
Catholic priest and one of the 162nd’s chaplains,
opened the memorial with a non-denominational
prayer. The Iraqi pilots wrote a eulogy. Martinez
and Enriquez had helped them compose it. The
words showed on a projector screen as an Iraqi
pilot read them in Arabic: “General Hasan was
our brother and our leader. By his outstanding
example, he gave us strength and inspiration to
sacrifice for our country.”
“We have lost one of our own and we grieve
with his family and countrymen,” Colonel Phil
Purcell, commander of the Wing, told the airmen
in attendance, who represented nine countries.
“Every fighter pilot works hard to acquire the
skills necessary to employ an F-16, but he did it
worlds away from his home, his wife and his
children.”
Lieutenant Colonel Brant Putnam then followed
with a message intended for the Iraqi pilots:
“Hasan said that his wish was for Iraqi pilots to
be focused and work together in Tucson, so they
could fly and fight as one cohesive unit. In so doing, if you’re in the jet and you don’t think for a couple of seconds,
you will become the fighting force your country sent something’s wrong.” So they flew.
you here to become. And the best part of all is that you When they finish – when they are mission qualified – the pilots
will grant General Hasan his wish.” will leave as they came, in groups of four, in pairs, or alone, adding
The Iraqis had understood this from the beginning. their firepower to the fight against ISIS one F-16 at a time. Nawaf
Nawaf still remembers the speech Hasan had given him still has another year. The pilots who have returned to Iraq tell him
when he first showed up in Tucson: “Now that you’re here, they’re thrilled to be doing their jobs at last. Nawaf can’t wait to
you have to study harder than ever. You have to fly better join them, but he’s as nervous about going home as he was to come
than ever.” Soon, Hasan constantly reminded the Iraqi to the US. Once he’s at Balad Air Base, he won’t be allowed to leave
pilots, they’d be back home, at the controls of F-16s with because of the risk. And he’s gotten used to living alone, to the
the Iraqi flag painted on the tail, dropping ordnance on ISIS. ease of life here, to the freedom of the American highway. He’s
“He always wanted to make sure that we flew well,” planning to bring his Challenger back with him.
says Nawaf. “He wanted us to be good.” Hasan’s remains were returned to his family draped in an Iraqi
The memorial service lasted about 45 minutes, then flag. In Tucson, his name was engraved by hand on a polished wall
everyone went back to work. The Iraqis had been given of black granite, a memorial commemorating members of the 162nd
a week off after the crash to mourn but, ultimately, they Wing who have died. Guys named Dale, Willie, Bruce, James,
found the best way of coping was being in the air. “It’s Harry, Jack.
total concentration,” says Nawaf. “There’s a saying that Hasan, Rasid Mohammed Sideeq. It barely fits on one line. But it fits. PM

● CAMPING ● CARS ● TENTS ● TECH
THE CALL
OF THE WILD
THERE’S SOMETHING COMPELLING ABOUT THE CALL OF THE GREAT OUTDOORS THAT MAKES
US ALL, AT SOME TIME, CONSIDER BECOMING CAMPERS. WHICH OF THESE THREE ARE YOU?
Whether your idea of camping is as simple as just
the starry sky over your head or as sophisticated COMPILED BY KYLE KOCK AND NIKKY OOSTHUIZEN
as an all-mod-cons tented camp, the fact is that PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIAN ERIKSEN
we can’t all afford – or don’t want – to have the
same experience.
With that in mind, we decided to have some fun
matching lifestyles to camping accoutrements,
which includes wheels. But hey, if your camping
tastes run to champagne while your daily trans-
port is more on the level of beer, nobody’s keeping
score. Besides, champagne tastes just as good out
of plastic glasses.

OUTDOORS
THE EMPTY NESTERS

Okay, this profile could also double as the family option, given the
relative affordability of this bracket. But empty nesters can opt for
the comforts they probably thought twice about, not too long ago.
THE CAR THE TENT

The Subaru Outback speaks Space, seen by some as a luxury,
to those who could do with the is regarded as one of the fringe
extra space, but have no desire to benefits of empty nesting,
live with SUV proportions on a which is why PM editor Anthony
daily basis. Of course, its 213 mm Doman picked the perennially
ground clearance means that you popular K-Way Vista four-sleeper
can venture off the beaten track as the perfect fit for a couple. THE TECH
with a fair amount of confidence. It has room for two stretcher Many swear by Bialetti's Moka Pot (from R400) to
Because of the extra space (up to beds, undercover storage space, redress their caffeine imbalance in style, but the easy
1 801 litres) you’re able to take is tall enough to stand in and its and clean Aeropress (R700) is gaining support.
that much more along – including two entrances feature mosquito Campsite coffee cultists who demand the ultimate
the grandkids, from time to time. netting. With familiarity, set-up in freshness will want to add a hand grinder such
It’s powered by a 3,6-litre, is a breeze – in a pinch, it’s a one- as the R460 Hario Mini Mill.
horizontally opposed six-cylinder person exercise. – R2 000
motor that churns out 191 kW The Lil' Bud emergency light is rechargeable not
and 350 N.m of torque. Mounted only via a separate 8-volt solar panel, but also
low and deep into the engine bay, by means of a regular two-prong or car charger.
the motor allows for a low centre Other features include an FM radio and MP3
of gravity. Result: great on- and player and a mobile phone charging point. Its
off-road manners, thanks to the 30-LED, 170-lumen lamp boasts six hours of run
firm’s legendary symmetrical all- time. – R740
wheel-drive system. – R544 000 With a Powerstick around, nobody should be
praying for a mains power outlet. Its 2 600 mAh
capacity should be able to top up an iPhone 6S
Plus, provided that you bring along the right
charger tip. – R250
LOCATION: Imhoff Park, Kommetjie www.imhoff.co.za

LOCATION: Hardekraaltjie Resort, Bellville www.hardekraaltjie.co.za
LOCATION: Imhoff Park, Kommetjie www.imhoff.co.za

OUTDOORS
THE CAR Popular Mechanics team wasn’t able to

While the previous generation Q7 replicate the manufacturer’s claim of
was Audi’s landmark first foray into erecting the Wizz in 30 seconds, we
the SUV segment, the all-new Q7 has reckon our five-minute effort is damn
improved on the original, and then impressive. The key lies in its duralu-
some. With a more angular design, min tube frame, which slides into place
THE HIGH-END the Q7 is a styling statement that will inside the structure. – R5 500
OVERLANDERS endear itself to technophiles.
The 3,0-litre turbodiesel V6 motor THE TECH
Ballers, high-rollers: whatever under the bonnet provides you with The ultimate all-in-one (or maybe for
you want to call them, splash- 183 kW and 600 N.m of torque for when nobody feels the need to braai),
ing out on luxury items just impressive performance on- and the Cobb Kitchen-in-a-Box consists
isn’t a problem for these folk. off-road. The Quattro all-wheel-drive of a frying pan, frying dish, roast rack,
But they also probably don’t system sends up to 70 per cent to the chicken stand, dome extension and
go too far anyway. front axle or 85 per cent to the rear, Cobb cooker – all constructed from
if the conditions require as much. We durable stainless steel. – R2 670
suspect those pesky sand trails just
north of the border shouldn’t be too The Ecoboxx 600 is quite a handy device,
much of a hassle. – R924 000 essentially a solar-powered generator
capable of charging a number of differ-
THE TENT ent devices through its two 600 W AC
The Howling Moon Wizz Tent isn’t outlets, dual USB charging ports and
massive by any means. It will sleep two two 12 V DL jack points. Its two LED
comfortably with plenty of room for lights have independent switches and
luggage and gadgets. On the plus side, there are two 10 W solar panels.
it’s really easy to set up. Although the – R12 000
THE CAR
A Renault Sandero Stepway perfectly fits the bill for this buyer. One of the most
affordable in its class of B-segment crossovers, and armed with a thrifty turbo-
THE MUSIC FESTIVALGOERS petrol three-cylinder motor, the Stepway carries its brand loyalists over a long
It’s all about getting maximum value for distance in reasonable comfort and minimal cost at the pumps – with niceties such
money, but also having as much fun as as front and rear electric windows and air-conditioning – and it sips unleaded fuel
possible. With mates on a budget in tow, at the rate of just 5,4 litres/100 km.
the moola has to stretch as far as possible. The raised ride height and supple suspension make the occasional gravel road
that much more bearable, while the black plastic cladding relegates fear of chipping
or scratching the bodywork to the back of your mind – because that’s the last thing
you want to deal with when you’re in the mood to party. – R176 900
THE TENT
The brightly coloured Starlight 2 tent by First Ascent makes so much sense at a
festival, because in a sea of makeshift housing for a weekend or more, it’s easy to
mistake someone else’s home for your own. It folds neatly into a cylindrical pack
half the length of your typical camping chair. – R1 400
THE TECH
Now what would a music festival be without plenty of chilled beverages to keep
spirits high? The Igloo Quantum 52 QT boasts a 49-litre capacity and comes with
a lockable lid and recessed drain plug. More importantly, it reportedly holds ice for
up to five days and with a flat top, and four self-draining cup holders, can be used
as a makeshift table as well. – R1 500
Ultra-affordable and portable, the Ultratec SLS lantern can be charged via the
Sun’s rays or its USB port. It’s waterproof, just in case. – R 249 PM
*Camping items supplied by Outdoor Warehouse except Vista tent, coffee makers

A BEAUTIFUL
THING
FINDING THE BEAUTIFUL OBJECT
concealed in reclaimed wood and turning
it to social good is the Milkshed story.
This non-profit crafts beautiful hand-
made furniture using reclaimed wood
and then uses the profits from the sale
of these items to make a difference in
local communities. Milkshed woodcraft
Doing things the traditional way would
involve starting with the product itself
and matching the material to the product.
But Milkshed works the other way around:
the wood directs what product it will
ultimately become. All the furniture is
designed by co-founder Blaire Rieger,
who, it’s said, has that priceless ability
to see the potential in an anonymous
hunk of wood. At their East London
factory in a refurbished milk shed (of
course) fellow co-founder Douglas
Grobbelaar leads the carpentry team.
Products are sold via an online shop.
“The profits of all sales are channelled
into our social initiatives and community
projects, which fall under the umbrella
of the name Something Good,” says third
co-founder Cindy Taylor. The projects
are varied and range from bringing a bit
of sunshine to the lives of the elderly to
providing women with much-needed
sanitary wear or fixing up schools. They
are strict about making sure that they
are assisting people in a positive way
and not contributing to or creating
learned helplessness. “The profits are
helpful in fuelling our projects, but
they are actually not the focus of what
we’re trying to do, which is to show
people that making a difference is not
about donating a wad of money or having
to sacrifice all your time. It’s about doing
what you can, where you are, with what
you’ve got.”
Their aim is to create a platform to
connect people. Says Taylor: “You might
have something in your garage collecting
dust that could make a big difference in
someone’s life. Or you might have a skill
that could really help an organisation,
but have no idea that the need exists.”
The take-away: a collection of small
efforts can really have a big impact. PM
l www.milkshed.co.za

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Milkshed
FOUNDERS:
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Cindy Taylor
LOCATION:
East London

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two individual lights to go on and
off at specific times (including
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on specific days of the week. And
I can override that at any time
from anywhere in the world
with an Internet connection.
You don’t need the smartest
of phones to run the app, either.
At home, an iPhone 5 and old
Galaxy Tab do the job just fine.
Events can be quite complex,
Opposite: PC dashboard displays device state and data such as energy even using the Lite’s standard
consumption – also indicated by plug glowing in a certain colour. Left: graphical flow-chart event cre-
The app, as displayed on a smartphone. Above: Graphic display of how ation system. However, it does
energy-efficient two different types of lights have been over the course not allow comprehensive pro-
of roughly eight weeks. gramming using Lua code; for
that you will need the more
powerful Home Centre 2.
Now that I was on a roll, I
THE RISE OF THE Internet netic sensors and timers to category. This allows the likes of hooked up the smoke detector
of Things has brought automa- switch lighting on and off. The smart TVs and robotic vacuum (doubles as a thermometer) to
tion to the level of the mass obvious questions were: could cleaners to be connected and the system and screwed it to
market. Where before you might the Fibaro system plug into this? controlled. the kitchen ceiling. The motion
have been tied in to one-make Would we need to replace exist- By the way, individual Fibaro sensor in the lobby outside the
proprietary systems or frus- ing equipment? And how easy sensor devices are wireless in bathroom will be linked to a
trated by mix ’n’ match set-ups or difficult is it to set up? the power sense as well: they future alarm system, but in the
with built-in obsolesence and Out of the box, set-up is are battery-operated. Used with meantime its primary purpose
the risk of dead-end options, straightforward for anyone who the supplied long-life battery, is to switch on lighting auto-
now there are modular solu- has fired up a router, hooked they should be good for about matically when one of us stum-
tions that offer interoperability, up a media player or activated two years’ service. bles out of bed in the wee hours.
upgradability and DIY capability. a smart fitness device. After One immediate element of A camera is in the process of
Fibaro sensors use the Z-Wave connecting the home centre to our current home automation being installed and our intercom
wireless automation protocol to our ADSL modem/router using I wanted to change involved needs to be linked, too. Our
connect to a central controller, the supplied ethernet cable, I switching lights on and off to sunroom awning should really
which comes in two flavours: went online to download the simulate a human presence while be motorised to avoid having to
basic or advanced. Both ver- Fibaro app. Once logged in, I had we’re away. The electromechan- use the air-con so often. And in
sions can manage essentially a few frustrating moments trying ical timers we used worked these water-restricted times,
the same amount of sensors, to add sensors to the network, okay, but constantly needed to what about activating a sprinkler
but differ greatly in the amount but with a little familiarity this be reset after loadshedding. system more precisely according
of programming options available becomes second nature. There’s Plus, you could hear them to the weather report...?
– and cost, of course. a specific procedure for each type whirring away all the time.
The clever thing about these of sensor (click three times on Replacing our old timers with THE FINDINGS
sensors is that they talk not only the motion sensor microswitch, Fibaro plugs made things a whole The Fibaro Starter Kit provides
to the central “brain”, but also for instance). The app will work lot smarter. The Fibaro plug a decent entry to the world of
to each other, forming a mesh fine with local access when with- combines a switch, power meter smart home automation at a
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each individual sensor or com- but you can go online to fibaro. its time setting even after power prefer to have at least one more
ponent constitutes a network com to register for remote access. outages, but also indicates power plug and to do away with the
smart node that is able to To make things easier to see, consumption in real time by flood sensor. On the whole it
receive as well as relay data. you could gain access via your glowing a particular colour, or is practical, expandable, man-
Fibaro’s Starter Kit seemed PC (no app needed) though the graphically on the Home Centre ageable for the DIYer and
like a good place to, er, start. online operation this way can interface. All of this data is stored offers a surprising degree
Its centrepiece is the Home be a little laggy compared with along with backups in the cloud, of functionality.
Centre Lite, packaged with a the smartphone app. However, so you can track and compare
variety of sensors and clearly the full-featured PC dashboard your energy consumption.
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like many others our household system so versatile and useful. switching on a device: motion, flood sensor, smoke sensor,
has some elements of automa- As well as built-in device light level (the motion sensor motion/light sensor, smart
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controlled driveway gate, alarm – such as sensors, lights and door switch, for instance. Using PRICE: R8 000, urbantek.com
system with motion and mag- plugs – there is a “virtual device” time as a trigger, I was able to set
JANUARY 2016
APRIL 2015 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za
_ www.popularmechanics.co.za 412
TESTED
LENOVO YOGA
3 PRO
Convertible king
FULL DISCLOSURE: I love convertible Windows
laptops. I’ve even calculated a 40:60 ratio of usefulness
of touchscreen and trackpad. It takes me at least a day to
adjust to a Windows machine that doesn’t have a touch-
screen and I’m baffled by Apple’s insistance to not adopt
the tech in the Macbook. That said, most convertible
Windows laptops are crap.
A great screen and touch experience come at a heavy cost,
so the technology doesn’t have a chance to trickle down to
cheaper units and thus haven’t entered a true mass
market. But if you’re willing to cough up over
R15 000 for a relatively well-specced lap-
top with a great screen that can tilt
through 180 degrees and offers
good touch response, this is
the machine you get.
Unfortunately, the
test unit was still rocking
Windows 8.1 so I couldn’t sample it under
the load of the new operating system, but the Intel Core M,
256GB SSD and 8GB RAM configuration kept everything
running smoothly and, because of the processor’s fanless
design, quietly. There is no optical drive in sight, but at
JUST THE FACTS: least there’s an SD card reader alongside the two USB 3.0
SCREEN: 13,3-inch 3 200 x 1 800 touchscreen and HDMI ports. The other port worth mentioning is a
PROCESSOR: Intel Core M-70 USB type-A-looking thing that Lenovo uses for the power
RAM: 8 GB cable. It’s a shame that the company abandoned the
WEIGHT: 1,19 kg reversible power cable for this sometimes USB 2.0
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, LAN (via USB adaptor), HDMI monstrosity, but c’est la vie.
PRICE: From R20 000, shop.lenovo.com Notable improvements over last year’s Yoga 2 Pro are the
new watchstrap-inspired hinge and a better texture on the
keyboard. In all the Yoga Pro is in its third succession of
2-in-1 laptop market dominance and long may it reign, but
hopefully with a battery that can last 10 hours next year
(only managed five on the trot with this model – not
great).
Actually, the next iteration has already broken
cover in the form of the Yoga 900 and it
addresses all of the problems from this
model, bumping up performance to Intel’s
latest Skylake silicon and in line with
the Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

LG G4 STYLUS
Competent competitor
LG FOUND ITS FEET with the G4 and has gone to lengths to
capitalise on that phone’s relative success. One of those lengths is to
rebrand the G Pro Lite as stylus-toting versions of the company’s
flagship phones. Yes, I’m saying that this G4 Stylus and the preceding
G3 Stylus are rejigs of the budget-champion LG G Pro Lite.
The recipe of low-end chipset, mediocre camera, big battery and
capacitive stylus has produced enough winning results to warrant an
annual iterative update. It’s not a bad thing, but I expected LG to take
more pride in the G Pro lineage. That said, you get an excellent device
for your R4 000 and although the model does lose the manual camera
controls and leather cladding of its G4 siblings, LG put an extra battery
in the retail package to make up for it. On the performance front it’s
an adequate experience. Android 5.0 works well, but there is a noted
lag as the sparse hardware lugs around LG’s “enhancements” and
graphics, but you’ll only notice if you cycle through many flagship
phones or are stepping down from a more powerful device.
I used this as my primary device for a work trip and was only
tripped up once when hurriedly trying to access my boarding pass in
the phone’s gallery. With a little foresight and patience G4 Stylus is a
great business companion with its large screen and ergonomic build.
Stylus integration is nowhere near as good as what Samsung is doing
with the class-defining Note series, but that’s been the tale with
every major manufacturer trying to topple the giant.
The difference being Samsung uses a Wacom-style screen digitiser
that plots the position of the stylus on the screen and then uses the
stylus to sense the pressure applied, whereas a standard rubber tip
stylus is just like a thin finger. Apple is on the right track with the
Pencil on the iPad Pro and hopefully that gets ported to the Plus
variety of iPhones soon. So yes, you may never use the stylus on this
phone, but that’s okay because the rest of the device delivers enough
to compensate.
The rear camera has an 8 MP sensor and is functional, while the
selfie cam is a practical 5MP unit. It looks expensive and delivers an
all-round pleasing experience and should definitely be considered if
you want a good big screen phone on the cheap, just don’t expect to
install too many apps on the 8GB of internal memory. And definitely
invest in a micro SD card. PM
JUST THE FACTS:

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JANUARY 2016
APRIL 2015 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za
_ www.popularmechanics.co.za 432
Entangled
universe MIGHT WEIRD CONNECTIONS THROUGH
SPACE-TIME BE THE WARP AND WEFT OF REALITY?
ANIL ANANTHASWAMY PULLS AT THE THREADS

I
T WAS A CRYPTIC EMAIL THAT
JUAN MALDACENA PINGED across
the US to fellow physicist Leonard
Susskind back in 2013. At its
heart lay a single equation:
“ER = EPR”. The message clicked
with its recipient. “I instantly knew
what he was getting at,” says Susskind.
“We both got quite excited.”
Excited, because that one equation
promises to forge a connection
between two very different bits of
physics first investigated by Albert
Einstein almost 80 years ago. Excited,
because it could help resolve paradoxes
swirling around those most befuddling
of cosmic objects, black holes, and per-
haps provide a route to a unified theory
of physics. Excited, because it might
even answer one of the most funda-
mental questions of all: what is reality
made of?
The origins of the story lie a century missing something. The theory describes
ago. In November 1915, Einstein pre- space-time as a malleable yet smooth
sented the final form of his revolution- and featureless backdrop to reality.
ary theory of gravity to the Prussian Problems start when a great agglomer-
Academy of Sciences in Berlin. The ation of matter folds this cosmic fabric
general theory of relativity overturned so tightly that a black hole singularity
notions of gravity that stretched back arises – an object with a gravitational
as far as Isaac Newton’s day. It said pull so great that nothing can escape.
that everything that happens in the Black holes are a prediction from
cosmos at large – be it an apple falling the earliest days of general relativity.
from a tree on Earth or the distant But in the 1970s, physicists Jacob
whirling of a cluster of galaxies – hap- Bekenstein and Stephen Hawking
pens because stuff follows invisible derived a strange result about them:
ISTOCK PHOTO/DRACO-ZLAT
contortions in space and time that are black holes have a temperature, and
caused by the presence of other stuff. hence a property called entropy. This
Gravity follows from the geometry takes us into the realms of quantum
of a warped space-time. theory where everything, be it forces
In the past century, general relativity or matter, comes in discrete chunks.
has never failed an experimental test. Entropy measures how many ways you
Yet the suspicion has grown that it is can organise a system’s various con-

stituents – the arrangement of atoms in
a gas, for example. The greater the num-
ber of possible configurations, the higher
the entropy. PARADOX LOST:
THE BLACK HOLE SOLUTION
Hole in the theory The main problem with the black hole paradox is the idea of quantum mono-
But if a black hole is just an extreme gamy – a particle can only be entangled with one other particle at a time (see
“Paradox regained”). This means that three quantum systems – say a particle
scrunching of smooth space-time, it inside a black hole’s event horizon, a particle outside it, and a third far, far
should have no substructure, and thus away — can’t all be entangled at the same time.
no entropy. For Susskind, of Stanford But physicists Juan Maldacena and Leonard Susskind argue that this can
University in California, this contradic- be resolved if the particles just inside the horizon and the particles far away
tion points to a hole in Einstein’s theory. are connected via a wormhole. When a wormhole connects two objects, one
“We know that general relativity is must lie to the future of the other.
incomplete,” he says. “Its inability to So, although these two particles might be entangled, their entanglement
account for the entropy of black holes is doesn’t necessarily conflict with the entanglement of the particle inside the
probably the most obvious incomplete- horizon and its immediate partner outside the horizon – because they aren’t all
happening at the same time. Uncomfortable apparitions such as blazing fire-
ness of the theory.”
walls at the event horizon disappear. Paradox removed.
That’s a turnup for the books. In his
lifetime, Einstein levelled a similar charge
at quantum theory. In May 1935, the New
York Times ran a story with the headline
“Einstein Attacks Quantum Theory”, But if string theory does hold the
reporting on a paper Einstein had written answer, it’s well hidden. The theory
with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen. It has more than 10 500 solutions, each
brought to light a weird property of the describing a different sort of universe –
quantum world in which two particles making it nigh-on impossible to find the
could instantly influence each other, even one solution that corresponds to the
if they were at opposite ends of the uni- geometrically flat, expanding space-time
verse. In Einstein’s view, this “spooky filled with the exact complement of fun-
action at a distance” – quantum entangle- damental particles we observe around us.
ment, as it became known – was prepos- A startling insight from Maldacena in
terous. It was a clear sign there was 1997 gave new hope. He conjectured
something missing from the quantum that string theory equations describing
description of reality. gravity in some volume of space-time
But quantum theory has breezed were just the same as a set of quantum
through even more precise experimental equations describing the surface of that
tests than those devised for general rela- volume. If you could solve the surface
tivity. And it is the very property that equations, you could get a viable theory
JUAN MALDACENA
Einstein discovered – entanglement – describing gravity inside.
that continues to expose the contradic- This “Maldacena duality” was a bold
tions between the two theories. Allowing leap – but physicists found that it held.
quantum entanglement and general rela- “The funny thing was that it was not
tivity to cohabit in the contorted space- proven, and it was difficult to even
time around black holes yields unpleasant understand why this was happening,”
and unsustainable consequences. For says theorist Mark van Raamsdonk
example, information seems to be of the University of British Columbia
destroyed – an impossibility according to in Vancouver, Canada. “It was very
quantum physics – or the black hole mysterious.”
becomes surrounded by a blazing “fire- In 2001, Maldacena himself provided
wall” of energetic particles (see “Paradox an intriguing example, going back to a
regained”). paper written by – you guessed it –
So we need some way to square the Einstein, again with Rosen, and again in
two schools of thought – to quantise 1935. This one exposed another peculiar-
space-time and form a quantum theory ity of black holes. It showed how some-
LEONARD SUSSKIND: STANFORD UNIVERSITY
of gravity. Susskind and Maldacena, who LEONARD SUSSKIND

thing that looked like two separate black
works at the Institute of Advanced holes from the outside might be connect-
Studies in Princeton, have long been ed on the inside. This interior connection
JUAN MALDACENA: ANDREA KANE
leading lights in perhaps the most prom- WORMHOLES R US formed a shortcut through space-time,
ising field with this aim: string theory. It What if empty space is full of holes, and came to be known as an Einstein-
replaces the point-like particles of cur- and all the world is made of infor- Rosen bridge – or in common parlance, a
rent quantum theories with wiggling mation? That’s the implication of wormhole.
strings of infinitesimal size, and suggests the latest promising route to a
space-time has a grainy substructure: “theory of everything”. Quantum chewing gum
you can’t keep chopping it indefinitely The really odd thing, though, was that
into smaller and smaller pieces. Maldacena’s duality showed that such a

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Singularity Singularity
Horizon Horizon
wormhole would only form if the out- Horizon
sides of the black holes were quantum-
entangled.
By 2009, the underlying mathematics Left exterior Right exterior
was sufficiently well developed for Van
Raamsdonk to explore further. Entangle-
ment is not an on/off thing – it can exist Matter
in varying degrees. So what would happen Time
if you were to slowly reduce the amount
Einstein-Rosen
of entanglement between the black holes’ bridge Singularity
surfaces to nothing? The answer was rather
like pulling at two ends of a piece of chew- Space Eternal black hole
ing gum. “The two sides get further apart, (b)
and what’s connecting them is this really Vacuum
thin piece of gum, and eventually it
snaps,” he says. The wormhole becomes Collapsing black hole Die
thinner until it breaks, and you have two (a)
unconnected bits of space-time. Reverse Meet
the process – increase the entanglement –
and the wormhole starts to form again.
It took a few more years for the penny
to finally drop in Maldacena’s mind, and Bob Alice
for him to make the suggestion laid out
in that excited email. ER = EPR. ER – the
paper Einstein wrote with Rosen in 1935
introducing the concept of wormholes.
EPR – the paper he wrote with Podolsky (d)
and Rosen the same year introducing the
Einstein-Rosen bridge
concept of entanglement. What if, asked (c)
Maldacena, wormholes and entangle-
ment are in fact two sides of the same A: This spacetime diagram representing a collapsing black hole shows only the time and radial directions. At each
point in the diagrams, there is also a sphere. Lines at 45 degrees represent the direction of propagation of light
coin: the same physics in two different signals. The shaded region contains the collapsing matter. The thick line is the “singularity”. Black holes that are
guises? actually formed in our universe are represented by such spacetimes. B: The full eternal black hole has two
The immediate attraction was that the asymptotically flat regions, one to the left and one to the right. Each of these regions looks like the outside of a
principle seemed to get rid of those pesky black hole. The Einstein-Rosen bridge is the spatial section of the geometry that connects the two sides at a spe-
cial moment in time. C: The spatial geometry of the Einstein-Rosen bridge. D: Bob and Alice jump into their
paradoxes involving firewalls around respective black holes and meet in the interior.
black holes (see “Paradox lost”). But it
also provided some form of explanation
for the phenomenon Van Raamsdonk’s
work had exposed, in which space-time in
the form of wormholes could be created the 1s and 0s of entangled information? Polchinski is concerned that the ER =
and destroyed simply by tweaking the The short answer is: we don’t know. EPR idea will end up modifying a central
amount of entanglement. One very big caveat is that all of the work principle of quantum theory, known as
“It’s pointing to a statement that is linking entanglement with space-time so superposition. Exemplified by
really quite dramatic,” says Van far has been done with a space-time that Schrödinger’s cat, this principle explains
Raamsdonk. “Space-time is really just isn’t expanding. Van Raamsdonk and oth- that a quantum system can exist in two
some geometrical manifestation of ers are working to extend the results to different states at the same time. When
entanglement.” Maldacena comes to the the sort of expanding, accelerating space- quantum objects become entangled, they
same conclusion. “There is a very close time that makes our cosmos. also enter a superposition.
connection between quantum mechanics But for those involved, this is the most At first glance, the ER = EPR hypothesis
and space-time,” he says. “The continuity positive lead yet towards a theory of would mean quantum systems that
of space-time, which seems to be some- quantum gravity that can unify the forces become entangled, and therefore enter a
thing very solid, could come from the of nature. The ER = EPR principle is some- superposition, suddenly gain a wormhole
ghostly properties of entanglement.” thing “that a theory of quantum gravity – a conjuring trick the superposition prin-
Susskind speculates further. Quantum should obey”, says Maldacena. Susskind ciple doesn’t obviously allow. That’s prob-
thinks so, too. “We are sure that these lematic, says Polchinski. “Quantum
ILLUSTRATION: JUAN MALDACENA/IAS
entanglement is a form of information,

and so “space-time is a manifestation of things are going to be part of the final mechanics is weird, but it works,” he says.
quantum information”, he says. story,” he says. “But I don’t think we have “When you give up superposition, it’s just
Heady stuff. But does that really mean a clear picture of what that final story weird.”
that when quantum entanglement exists is yet.” Still, he remains open to the eventuality.
between two particles – as can easily be Others are less convinced. Joe “In the history of science, things that
made to happen, say between photons in Polchinski and Don Marolf are physicists seemed absolute in many important cases
a lab experiment – they are connected by at the University of California, Santa have turned out to be not absolute,” he
a microscopic wormhole? Or that we live Barbara, and part of the team that says – Newton’s law of gravitation, for
on a backdrop that is nothing more than exposed the black hole firewall paradox. example. “Maybe superposition is one of

them.” Maldacena says that it’s too early to
say if their work is threatening the super-
position principle, because the mathemat- P AR A DO X R E GA I N E D:
ics hasn’t been worked out in detail. THE B LA CK HO LE PRO B LEM
Marolf for his part isn’t convinced the In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking the University of California, Santa
ER = EPR equality works in all circum- showed that black holes emit radia- Barbara, and colleagues showed
stances: Susskind and Maldacena have tion. The mechanism has to do with this option creates other problems.
shown how to avoid the firewall only for quantum mechanics, which allows General relativity demands that the
a particular entangled state of black pairs of quantum-entangled particles space-time around a black hole’s
holes. “You might think that it shows to spontaneously pop into existence. horizon should be smooth and fea-
how to get out of the [firewall] paradox When this happens near a black tureless. It turns out that for this to
hole’s event horizon, one particle may be the case and for information not to
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC
for any highly entangled state, but that’s

travel outwards, while the other goes be lost, a Hawking particle on its way
not true,” says Marolf.
towards the black hole. The result is in would have to be entangled with
Given that Einstein developed the a steady stream of outgoing particles, all other Hawking particles that left the
ideas of both wormholes and entangle- called Hawking radiation. black hole at all earlier times, rather
ment, one can only wonder what he If no new matter falls into the black than just its partner outside the
would have made of it all. “My guess is hole, this emission means the black horizon.
that the old Einstein would have said hole will eventually evaporate. But This offends a fundamental quan-
poppycock,” says Susskind – after all, matter is information, and in quantum tum rule known as “monogamy of
(C) 2015 REED BUSINESS INFORMATION - UK.
Einstein spent much of his later years theory information is sacrosanct: it entanglement” – that a quantum
arguing for a hidden reality that wasn’t can never be destroyed. So if a black particle can only ever be fully entan-
subject to the vagaries of quantum hole evaporates, what happens to the gled with one particle at a time. But if
matter, and therefore information, that you break the polyamorous entangle-
mechanics. “But the young Einstein
fell into it? ment of Hawking particles, an ener-
apparently had a much more flexible One possible solution to this “black getic “firewall” of radiation forms at
mind. My guess [is] that the young hole information loss paradox” is the the event horizon. That, unfortunately,
Einstein would have embraced these idea that information escapes with goes against the tenets of general
ideas, loved them.” the Hawking radiation. But in 2012, relativity. Paradox preserved.
Joseph Polchinski and Don Marolf of
■ Anil Ananthaswamy is a consultant
for New Scientist.
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BE THE FIRST TO KNOW
N O L O G Y AND ADVANCEMENT, BUT IT HAS TO HAV
F O R TECH INIMALLY BIASED LOOK AT A YEAR OF INNO E A TRUE
L L M VATION PURP
WE ’RE A HERE, A . O SE.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY TYPOGRAPHY BY
JEFF WILSON TRAVIS SIMON

They’re everywhere.
Crashing into the
seats at the US Open.
Crashing on the White
House lawn. Drones
may be getting more
and more popular, but
what can you really
do with them? Does a
normal person actual-
ly benefit from them?
I decided to find out.
BY NEAL POLLACK

STUPID
OR
AMAZING?
HEY SENT ME DRONES. Integrate them

into my daily life, they said. It was going
to be a challenge. My daily life tends
towards the mundane.
“Can they fold laundry?” my wife
asked. “Can they do dishes? Can they
cook dinner? Can they drive carpool?
Will they mow the lawn? Or vacuum?
Or sweep out the garage?”
My wife and I share these duties.
Neither of us likes any of them, except the cooking,
sometimes, which we weren’t about to turn over to a
remote-control flying machine.
“Probably not,” I said.
“Then what good are they?”
It was the million-dollar question. And not just for us,
but for everyone. Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI), the world’s
largest personal drone-maker, is expected to hit a billion
dollars in sales for 2015, double 2014 and four times its
2013 sales. The company’s largest market is the United
States. Owning a drone is becoming as American a right
as owning a gun; Congress has forbidden the Federal
Aviation Administration from limiting hobbyist drone
use, even if that means, as happened last year, those hob-
byists occasionally fly their drones into the White House.
So drones are everywhere, but unless you make a
living filming awesome surfing footage, their uses aren’t
exactly clear. I thought I could have one fly into the
kitchen and fetch me a beer. But someone would have The author operat-
to open the fridge and place the beer on the drone. either end to the top to form a sort of protective cage. ing DJI’s Phantom
Someone else, probably me, would have to make sure that Parrot recommended this for indoor use. We also gave it 3, his favourite
drone.
the drone flew the correct path back to me without an ironic handlebar-mustache sticker, one of many that
dropping the beer. That seemed pretty inconvenient came in the box.
and difficult. Parrot drones are operated via a free app called
Domestic considerations were out. Drones weren’t FreeFlight 3, which the Spider connects to via Bluetooth.
going to help me work, unless one of them was a sentient All you have to do is pair your device and then you can
typing drone. So I turned my thoughts towards leisure operate the drone. We chose my son’s iPad because it had
pursuits. Drones couldn’t help my pub-trivia team. I the largest screen. The app was fairly intuitive. At first. I
briefly considered taking the drones to play Frisbee golf pressed Take Off. The Spider whirred to life, lifted off the
with me. They could carry my bag. But the ones I had can’t ground and hovered a few feet in the air, like a vicious,
lift more than a kilogram safely. Also, I don’t play Frisbee wheeled, red hell-bee. Buttons on the screen allowed the
golf. drone to shift directions and angle up or down, but
My cleverest idea involved having a drone wait in my motion also controlled it. I tilted the iPad. The drone gave
stead at a trendy restaurant, where there’s always a line. a little wheeze, lurched forward, and slammed headfirst
I could put a “Pollack + 1” sign in its talons and take pho- into my office door. It was a start.
tos of the hipsters watching the drone, whether they The app made sense, as long as you remembered to
were amused, annoyed, or both. But even then I’d have to keep your finger on the correct on-screen “button,” which
be nearby, making sure the drone hovered and moved helped glide the drone left or right. A left button rotated
forward. Also, even the sturdiest drone battery eats the drone. They were easy to get confused at first and also
through its charge in twenty-five minutes. You can barely every time I flew the drone.
get seated at a KFC in eKasi in that amount of time. We got the Spider down the passage to the kitchen and
There was only one option left, what’s more or less my cheered when it flew through the buffet opening into the
favourite thing anyway: screwing around. dining room. Everything was going great. Suddenly, the
On a Sunday afternoon, my friend Jennings came over drone’s green eyes turned red. It dropped to the ground
with his sons, who are fourteen and ten. Joined by my and started turning around madly in a circle, making
son, thirteen, we began with the Rolling Spider Mini crazy whirring sounds.
Drone from a French company called Parrot. It came out I rushed into the room to find the Spider running up
of the box angry-looking and ready to party, the size of a and down my wife’s leg, like a horny puppy, only with
small rodent. We easily snapped it together, attaching a chopping blades. The Spider holds a charge for only six
flexible plastic axle with two large rubber wheels on minutes or so, though it apparently doesn’t die instantly,

pany called Axis Drones. It contained four tiny drones,
each about the size of a Marie Biscuit and just as tempt-
ing. Two were prototypes, but the others, the Axis Nano
Drone for Beginners and the Axis Turbo-X Drone – “The
World’s Fastest Nano Quadcopter”– are available now.
These little drones operate on a six-axis stability system
that allows them to do complicated flips with
perfect balance. All you need are two AAA batter-
ies and a USB charging port, and you’re set.
The Axis drones operated via a double joystick,
like a very complicated Xbox controller. As a
friend said, “These are the drones you need to fly
first, so you don’t end up crashing an expensive
model into a TV tower.” The left joystick con-
trolled throttle and rotation and the right joy-
stick operated the directional movement. If you
pressed the left joystick in, it changed the speed NEW
and pressing the right joystick would make the FACEBOOK
drone do flips. There were also small arrow but-
tons for “directional compensation.”
BUTTONS
Recently, Mark
It was all a lot of fun, though not entirely Zuckerberg
intuitive. We flew the Axis drones around, most- hinted at the
ly outside. They were very fast, like little UFOs. possible intro-
The major drawback was that they needed to be duction of a
charged every five minutes. Unlike the Parrot “dislike” button
drones, which use batteries, these need to be to Facebook.
Soon after, the
charged via USB. So we flew one around for a few
company tested
minutes, then charged it quickly while flying the six emoji icons
other one around. They got integrated into my (love, laughter,
daily life by taking over my daily life completely. happiness, sur-
When it was finally my turn to fly the Turbo-X prise, sadness,
drone, it launched and hovered. I flicked the left anger) called
joystick. The drone flung into the air. “reactions.”
going through a dementia phase that’s painful for every- “That’s going pretty high,” Jennings said. Before This will be an
one to experience. I could stop it, the drone was over the rooftops of amazing thing.
my neighbourhood. Then it was over the tree line. It’s great to be
Next, we went outside to try another Parrot drone, the
able to show
Bebop, which is larger and comes with a built-in camera – Panicked, I flicked the joystick, which only flung it
your friend “I
but is just as intuitive and easy to use, as drones go. By this further. We lost radio contact. Then we lost the also don’t like
point my son had gotten bored with drone life and kept his drone. Inside the box, they’d written, in marker, that your ham-
iPad indoors, so we used Jennings’s Android phone, the “BE CAREFUL!” Now I knew why. ster died,” but
next-biggest screen available to us. Jennings and the boys and I spent the next 45 it’s also cathar-
The Bebop worked slightly differently than did the minutes searching the drainage culvert behind tic to be able to
Spider. Because of the camera, you saw the street view on my house and the three houses on either side of express another
the app. Jennings’s older son, Eamon, figured out pretty mine. No luck. I snuck into the backyard of the sentiment.
creepy house two doors down from me, an act Namely, “Tina,
quickly that the best way to fly the Bebop was to look at
if you post one
the screen. If you tried to look at the drone while manip- that in Texas runs you the risk of a twelve-gauge
more picture
ulating the screen controls, it would be disastrous. shell in your face. The Turbo-X had completely of your brunch
Needless to say, we flew it into every tree on the block. vanished. If only we had a drone that could help I’m going to
But eventually we figured the drone out and even us find it. unfriend you.”
landed it safely a couple of times. The Bebop whizzed up The following weekend, I had to drive down to
and down the street merrily until Jennings lost control of Houston for an assignment. My friends Dakota STUPID AMAZING
it and thunked it onto a roof across the street. It sat on a and Allison, who used to be in my band, live
slope pretty near the edge and would be easy to get. there now. I brought the Rolling Spider drone,
I rang the doorbell. A couple of minutes passed. An figuring we’d have some fun.
elderly lady hobbled to the door. It was nearly 4 PM on a Dakota’s life is always taking weird tech turns.
Sunday, so perhaps I’d woken her. I arrived at his house to see that he’d recently
“Yes?” she said. acquired a 1980s LexisNexis terminal, which he turns on
“I’m your neighbour,” I said through the door, which just so he can see it say that it can’t find its network. He
she clearly wasn’t about to open. “I flew a drone onto your also has two old black-and-white Sony TVs with little
roof and I have to get it off. It won’t take long.” screens and long backs, which he’s hooked up to his com-
Ten seconds passed. Finally, in the most reluctant tone
possible, she said, “Okay.” She clearly regretted having
lived long enough to see the drone era come to pass. LIGHTNING
The three vacationing Americans who fought and disarmed a
Along with the Parrot drones, I got a box from a com- ROUND!

STUPID
OR explosions. Maybe I should have taken the GENETICALLY
Ghost out of the box first.
AMAZING?
It came with written instructions on how to
MODIFIED
fly it via an iPhone app and with a list of parts BABIES
but with no instructions on how to put it A new gene-
puter so when he has FaceTime business calls, the people manipulation
together. By degrees, we figured it out. We
technique called
he’s talking to “look like Max Headroom”. Drones weren’t assembled the camera, but we’d lost some CRISPR uses an
going to scare this guy. screws, so Tyler had to connect the camera to immune-system
We had a jolly time bashing the Spider drone into walls, the bottom using kitchen ties. response discov-
but it got old. Then, at dinner, Dakota said, “Allison’s “I thought you were coming with a mechanic ered in bacteria
parents got me a remote-control shark balloon for my and a drone pilot,” Tyler said, looking a bit to extract por-
birthday. We could set it up and have the drone battle it. annoyed. “I thought we’d be ready to go.” tions of DNA in
It would make a great video.” No such luck, buddy. After nearly an hour of cells and replace
Allison didn’t look too excited about this idea. “I don’t frustrated wrangling, we snapped the battery them with a
want to explain to my parents why you popped the shark into place. The Ghost hummed to life, with desired combina-
balloon,” she said, but then added, with a twinkle in her tion. While the
blinking red and blue lights. It was very cool and
concept is not
eye, “We do have other balloons. And a helium tank.” futuristic-looking, all white and stainless steel. new, CRISPR is
We blew up balloons and drew faces on them with mark- Daylight was running short. We had to get it significantly faster
ers. Then we tied them to chairs. Each of us took turns into the air quickly. and more cost-
getting “kills” while the others filmed the drone. It was There was a little black box, which turned out effective than
really exciting when we managed to ram the drone into the to be a Wi-Fi apparatus that could simultane- previous meth-
balloons, and it was even better when we were able to keep ously communicate with the Ghost and with my ods. If we can
it upright when the balloons popped. But the real bonus phone. But I couldn’t find the antenna. I spent somehow avoid
moments came when we missed. Either the Spider brushed fifteen minutes trying to ram a piece of plastic the impulse to
by the balloon with its wheels, leaving the balloon teeter- pick our kids’
landing gear into the antenna slot. That didn’t
height and hair
ing but staggered, or, even better, it missed entirely, and work. I watched a video on the app, which showed colour in utero,
went bouncing off walls, crashing to the floor with maxi- a guy flying with the box under his phone, with- CRISPR brings
mum drama. We could only do this for six minutes at a out the use of an antenna. But when I tried to us much closer
time before we had to recharge the batteries and then we get the app to connect, it just gave me incom- to being able to
had to wait an hour and a half. If the charging time had prehensible calibration instructions. Then I remove bad
been less, or if there had been an extra battery and remote looked at the owner’s manual, which was also mutations, such
charger like with the Bebop, we probably would have flown on the app, but it was in Chinese. Tyler, his as the one that
the Spider all night. It was that much fun. girlfriend, Mollie, and I, all three relatively com- causes cystic
“I can imagine one of these things following me around petent adults, could not for our lives figure out fibrosis.
the house on wheels, telling me when it was time to call what to do next. The instructions just weren’t
STUPID AMAZING
people or take the dog out for a walk,” Dakota said. “They clear. I pressed a link on the app called “Binding,”
should make that drone.” and this appeared on the screen:
The Spider had passed its audition. “Reminder BINDING… After success Then
the plane electricity. STOP BINDING Cancel.”
HERE WERE TWO MORE DRONES LEFT. The This instruction appeared over an area map. Of
Ghost Aerial was from a Chinese company Guangdong, China. By now it was dark, and it was very
called Ehang. It has a pivoted support that is clear that we weren’t going to get the Ghost into the air.
compatible with a GoPro camera. I arranged for But I wanted to see fireworks.
shipping with a young woman who had a North So we left the drone on their kitchen table and drove a
Carolina number, though the Ghost came to me from Las couple kilometres out to Tyler’s friend’s property. She
Vegas, by way of Hong Kong. The Ghost was a mysteri- lives on eight hectares of cow pasture, untroubled by
ous, unreliable pain in the butt. I later figured out that it’s light pollution. The drone would have loved it.
a poorly made knockoff of DJI’s Phantom 3, the best As we walked onto the property, a guy was tossing a jug
drone I tested and the gold standard of the drone world. of kerosene onto a pile of wood as three mastiffs and Mr
The Phantom comes with a built-in camera and compre- Magoo, the largest Boston terrier I’ve ever seen, ran
hensible instructions. It’s the product that will influence around him in circles, snarfling madly. Within seconds, it
how we think about personal drones going forward. But was a raging bonfire. So we sat out there on the grassland
on the day that my friend Tyler was available, all I had was for a while, lighting off fireworks and drinking beer and
the Ghost. then lighting off some more fireworks. Tyler had gotten
It was my biggest and most powerful drone at the time ahold of some good ones. If only the Ghost drone had
and was the one with the most filming capability. We been able to film them. It would have gotten a real nice
intended to do something spectacular with it. Tyler, look at my daily life.
a movie and TV prop master and explosives expert, is
a huge pyro. I’ve spent many delighted hours in his STUPID AMAZING
company blowing up pumpkins with fireworks. I told him
to prepare a platform, and we’d film some spectacular
terrorist on a French train. AMAZING. PewDiePie, a YouTube sensation who records himself narrating scenes from video games. STUPID.

THE SELF-ASSEMBLING TABLE
Think of the ideating, engineer-
ing, and innovating that went
into the design and technology
behind this amazing side table
that assembles itself. This furni-
ture – the first time anyone has
thought to
create such a
thing – was
invented at the
MIT Self-
Assembly Lab.
The malleable
wood is sand-
wiched around
a synthetic tex-
tile and when
the flat table is
removed from
the box, all you
do is give it a
slight pull and
the tension of
the fabric caus-
es the wood to
Since 2013, when Elon Musk snap into place.
gave away his rough plans for It must have
the Hyperloop – a tube-based been a stagger-
transportation system that ing number of
would travel at nearly the man-hours and
speed of sound – two compa- a huge amount
nies have emerged to develop of brainpower
it. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies crowdsources its labour, pays in equity, and has more from some
information on its Facebook page than on its home page. The other, Hyperloop Technologies, has incredibly smart individuals.
venture capital funding, a former president of Cisco for a CEO, and a hip Los Angeles headquar- Just imagine if they had spent
ters. We don’t know which, if either, will be successful. But that doesn’t matter. What’s amazing their efforts creating something
about the Hyperloop is not actually the Hyperloop. It’s how we address challenges like it. the world actually needed.
The Hyperloop is a staggering proposal – a completely different form of human transportation
that would connect cities in ways never before possible. But how will the capsules that riders sit
in be slowed for stops and transfers without causing a pileup? Can g-forces be kept within rea-
sonable limits? Will there be bathrooms? How hard will they
be to use without peeing on yourself? If crowdsourcing, social
media and open-source technology can surmount these chal- STUPID AMAZING
STUPID AMAZING
lenges and create large-scale physical infrastructure, we’ll
officially be in the next epoch, one in which the technologies
we’ve spent the past thirty years trying to understand will have
finally been harnessed.
THE LATEST SPECIAL EFFECTS

FURIOUS 7 TERMINATOR: GENISYS
After Paul Walker’s When Arnold Schwarzenegger
death during the film- debuted as Terminator, he
ing of Furious 7, director James Wan was in his thirties. No matter how well he
had to complete a movie without one aged in the thirty-one years since, it would
of its stars. Using archival footage, have been impossible for him to re-create his
Walker’s brothers as body doubles, and iconic nude scene for this year’s Terminator:
advanced CGI software, Wan created a Genisys. Unfortunately the plot called for it,
seamless stand-in – and a surprisingly and audiences were subjected to a video-
touching homage. Twenty years from game-like rendering of young Arnold. In a
now, when a new generation watches movie in which computer software threatens
this movie for the first time, unless it’s humanity and time-travelling machines have
revealed by the hologram information German accents, the youthful Schwarzenegger
bubbles that will undoubtedly annotate was the hardest part to believe.
life by then, no one will even know.
McDonald’s new all-day breakfast menu. AMAZING. The vapRwear hoodie with a “discreet e-cigarette built-in the drawstring.” STUPID.

STUPID
OR
AMAZING?
Cleveland Whiskey founder and

CEO Tom Lix is not a patient man.
He didn’t want to wait the years it
INDUCTIVE takes to age a whiskey naturally –
in charred oak barrels as subtle
CHARGING changes in pressure and tempera-
ture filter the alcohol through the
The concept has been around wood’s pores, slowly absorbing its
since the Palm Pre – a smart- flavour and colour. So he found a
phone that charged without way to age his whiskey in one day.
cables, simply by being placed Cleveland Whiskey is placed in
on an inductive surface. The Pre oak barrels, but that’s only to meet
never found the success it Cleveland Whiskey
the requirements necessary to call founder Tom Lix at
deserved, but this year, induc-
it bourbon. From there, the liquor ther do stainless-steel tanks, work in the lab.
tive charging finally did. Two
main options, Qi (pronounced
and barrel wood are placed in a which allow Lix to experiment
“chi”) and Powermat, compete vacuum-sealed tank, where rapid with woods such as black cherry, STUPID AMAZING
for dominance. Their surfaces pressure changes force the spirit hickory, or sugar maple to add
are sold for home use or incor- through the wood’s pores. After different dimensions and taste.
porated into Ikea furniture and twenty-four hours, Lix says, his Cleveland Whiskeys aren’t quite
the counters of some Starbucks. whiskey can compete for complexity as hearty as more traditional options and have a little
Some phones, like the Samsung with those aged eight to ten years. more burn on your tongue, but the flavours drawn
Galaxy S6, have the technology The process also allows the two- from the woods do make for an interesting drink.
built in. Others require a special year-old company to play with fla-
case or patch. But it’s worth it.
Besides, even if whiskey purists take issue with Lix’s
vour. In the past, whiskey makers product, it doesn’t matter to him. Lix considers
Set your phone down on a
charging pad and listen for a exclusively used oak barrels Cleveland Whiskey a technology company, not a
chirp. No dangling cables, no because they don’t leak. But nei- distillery.
inserting the micro-USB plug
upside down, no searching for a
wall outlet. Inductive charging is
slower than plugging in, but that
doesn’t matter. Charging with
inductive surfaces becomes so
PERISCOPE And it might’ve been more if
not for Periscope, the live-
event and concert industries.
In the first half of 2015,
convenient that you can do it all Were you one of the 4,4 mil- streaming video app Twitter North American concert
the time. If a coffee shop near lion suckers who paid nearly acquired earlier in the year. prices averaged R1 000, an
you offers tabletop chargers, R1 200 to watch Mayweather- There were 66 confirmed all-time high. Periscope and
you can buy a Grande Latte and Pacquiao at home? Those Periscope streams of the other live-streaming apps
top off while you sip. Pretty no-punching swindlers each fight – sixty-six people like Meerkat may not be the
soon we’ll look at these rat’s banked over R1-billion from broadcasting the action (or perfect solution, but they do
nests of cables we carry like the record pay-per-view sales. lack of) to thousands of offer a way for consumers
LIX: PHOTOGRAPH BY BILLY DELF
anachronism that they truly are. Twitter users, free. The to fight back. Would have
streams were far from HD, been nice if Mayweather or
and they didn’t last long. Pacquiao had done the
Twitter worked quickly to same.
shut them down. But their
simple existence showed
STUPID AMAZING the potential for amateur STUPID AMAZING
live streaming to disrupt the
out-of-control sporting
The Davek Alert, an umbrella with Bluetooth that tells you when you’ve left it behind. AMAZING (AND EXPENSIVE). A Mary Poppins remake. STUPID.

PoPular Mechanics automotive editor Ezra Dyer on a few things that
confounded and delighted him this year.
ULTRA PANAVISION 70
Hatch sensors Quentin Tarantino is
The idea is that you’re walking up to your car, arms full of groceries and STUPID AMAZING
famous for breathing
you deftly sweep a leg beneath the rear bumper, prompting the hatch to new life into things.
magically swing open. When the systems work, they’re wonderful. Blaxploitation. Kung fu.
Genius. But what’s the worst place to mount a sensor of any kind? John Travolta. With his
Probably right underneath the rear bumper. You can’t see it, and every new film, The Hateful Eight, he’ll do the
piece of oily crud on the road ends up glomming on in that general same for Ultra Panavision 70. Most movies
you see in theaters, whether they’ve been
vicinity. So maybe you’re a little off-target with your leg-wand, or
shot digitally or on 35 mm film, have an
maybe the sensor’s covered with a Chappies wrapper. The success rate aspect ratio of 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 – wider
for these things seems to be about 50 per cent. than the 16:9 of most wide-screen TVs. In
the 1960s and 70s, some of cinema’s
Lane-departure warnings greatest epics – 2001: A Space Odyssey,
These systems use cameras to read lane markings and determine wheth- Lawrence of Arabia – were shot on 70 mm
er you’re straying towards a ditch or oncoming traffic. It’s a good idea, for a 2.20:1 ratio. But because of the high
cost, 70 mm narrative features are rare.
but in practise, the constant squawking becomes background noise, just
Since 1992 only three have been shot
another push notification in the Pac-Man soundtrack of your life. entirely that way.
Tarantino originally planned to shoot The
Lane-keeping systems Hateful Eight in 70 mm. A couple of months
Lane keeping takes the warning sounds of lane-departure technology before production was to start, the film’s
and adds the element of action, teaming the camera with your electric cinematographer, three-time Oscar winner
power steering to provide a smooth nudge of the wheel when called Robert Richardson, was visiting Panavision’s
LA headquarters and stumbled across a
for. It’s the fixer, saving the day while taking no credit.
shelf with some strange museum-piece
lenses. This was Ultra Panavision 70, a pat-
Knobless entertainment systems ented anamorphic lens introduced in 1957
Perhaps if we all repeat the mantra often enough, it will come to pass: that achieved an astounding aspect ratio of
all cars should have one knob for the stereo volume and another to 2.76:1. Only ten films had ever been shot
change the station, track or source for whatever streaming ethereal using Ultra Panavision 70 before the lenses
cloud of code constitutes your preferred Bieber delivery system. Basic were left on that shelf in 1968 – most
famously Ben-Hur. Naturally, the chariot
ergonomic decency aside, the touchscreen aesthetic does not belong in
race was what Panavision screened for
your car. Your phone, your tablet, your TV – you have enough sleek Tarantino to sell him on the idea. “We start-
glass interfaces in your life. You need tactility. It’s the difference ed off with the curtains open to [the width
between video poker and laying down a handful of cards on a felt table. of] a typical movie,” says vice president of
marketing and technical support Jim
Roudebush. “Once we rolled it, we opened
the screen all the way out to the very far
edges and said, ‘This is what you’re gonna
Roll your eyes all you want. When get.’ He was jumping up and down, whoop-
Apple copies something (tablets, ing and hollering.” The exact same lenses
Spotify, smart watches), the result is that shot that scene in Ben-Hur were used
almost always better than the original. for The Hateful Eight. And, because of the
Its new stylus, the Apple Pencil, is no different. It makes sense: way the glass aged, they look better than
STUPID AMAZING
The most valuable company on Earth has more resources ever. “Over time,” Roudebush says, “the
than a few engineers with a Kickstarter page – the guys mak- coatings on the elements alter. The flaws
ILLUSTRATIONS BY TIMO MEYER
ing many of the styluses to this point. The difference between give it character.”
Apple and others is obvious if you try doodling with another Since many theaters lack the technology
brand’s stylus. Because the stylus is trying to manipulate the screen to think it’s a to screen the 70 mm version of the film, a
finger, the experience never feels like pen on paper. There’s a delay between the digital transfer, which Roudebush believes
movement of the tip across the screen and the mark that follows. Pencil, though, will lose none of its magnificence, opens
speaks directly to the iPad Pro, which means fast, precision tracking of the angle 8 January. Two weeks before, however,
and pressure applied to the tip. While the usefulness doesn’t seem immediately 70-mm prints will be released at fifty select
obvious to us (nor did it to Steve Jobs, who famously hated theaters. It’s worth the effort to find one. PM
the accessory), Apple’s always been good at selling us stuff
we didn’t know we wanted.
Australian daredevil Robbie Maddison rigs his dirt bike so that he can use it to surf in Tahiti. FINE, AMAZING.

AUTONOMOUS AUDI ➜ DASHBOARD DIAGNOSIS ➜ INFINITI QX80 ➜ MERCEDES OFF ROADERS ➜ FORD EVEREST ➜ HYUNDAI SANTA FE
Compiled by KYLE KOCK [email protected]
AUDI’S
Robby cuts the wheel towards the apex is loaded down with hardware and elec-
of Turn 1, corrects a moment of under- tronics that allow him to drive himself,
steer, and powers out to the edge of the the rest of the car is gutted, stripped of a
AUTONOMOUS track with tyres howling. This is a 418-kilo-

watt machine – an Audi RS7 – on Sonoma
Raceway, a fast road course scrawled across
back seat and interior trim in the name of
weight savings. Audi wants the car and his
CAR
two passengers to weigh exactly the same
the hills of Napa wine country in northern as a stock RS7 with only a driver. You see,
California. We’re on our way to something we’re about to have a contest, mano a
like a two-minute lap time, which is seri- máquina, and Audi isn’t about to handicap
MAN VS DRIVERLESS MACHINE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT KERIAN
ously hauling butt. Robby really knows its robo race car with extra lard. If I out-
HOW SMART ARE SO-CALLED this car. Actually, Robby is the car. drive Robby, it’ll be on equal terms.
SMART CARS, REALLY? EZRA DYER Yeah, there’s a guy sitting behind the Among the world’s car manufacturers,
CHALLENGES AUDI’S SELF-DRIVING wheel, Audi engineer Markus Hoffmann. Audi is one of the most heavily committed
RS7 TO A TRACK BATTLE TO FIND OUT. But he’s not doing anything except hold- to autonomous research. In 2010, a modi-
ing a kill switch that he’ll deploy if he fied version of its TT sports car developed
thinks Robby here is about to go Maximum with Stanford University raced up Pikes
Overdrive on us and destroy the humans. Peak by itself. Robby’s predecessor, Bobby
I’m in the passenger seat. Because Robby (both were named after the legendary

Unser family of racing fame), drove from THE TECHNOLOGY set up a blazing exit from the one two
San Francisco to Las Vegas earlier this turns away. “On his own, Robby can get to
year, 880 kilometres, with the driver just How Audi’s driverless about 90 per cent of his potential best
along for the ride. Audi is working on sport sedan works time,” Hoffmann says. “To get the
self-parking cars and will soon debut a rest, we program it in.” Command:
production system that allows autonomous Override late apex. Initiate trail
highway driving in certain situations. 1 braking. Deploy max throttle.
But Robby isn’t here to prove a car can 3 “What happens if a deer
recognise a stop sign or change lanes runs out in front of us?” I
to pass a dawdler. Robby is built to 4 ask as the tach needle
demonstrate that Audi’s suite of bumps the redline and we
sensors and software is mature sail madly over a blind uphill
enough to take a fast car to left-hander. “We’d hit it,”
its limits on a diabolical Hoffmann says. In the name
road course. And if it can of speed, Robby isn’t running
do that, then there’s radar, because the nature of
another layer of confi- radar – judging speed to avoid
dence when you surren- collisions – is at odds with the goal
der the wheel on your of driving straight towards a wall and
daily commute. You want hitting the brakes at the last possible
to know this thing can moment, as you do before the hairpin at
drive. 2 Sonoma’s front straight. Robby is fast, but
As we make our way around the dumb. Back in the garage, he probably
track, my initial impression is twofold: chugs 10W-40 and pays the Stanford TT
disbelief that the car is blitzing this track at to do his homework.
what feels like 10/10ths, and dismay that I 1. Differential GPS: Relies on a new network of When we return to the pits, our lap
fixed ground-transmitter stations that improve
might not be able to match the lap time of time is displayed on a whiteboard: 2:02.
the accuracy of roving satellite receivers. Instead
this automotive player piano. But as we That’s the time to beat, for the honour of
of accuracy measured in metres, we’re talking
reach the halfway point of our lap, my humanity. Since I don’t know the track,
centimetres.
sense of sheer sci-fi wonderment gives way Audi proffers an equaliser: a hotshoe in
to a hint of clinical analysis gleaned from 2. Sensor unit, image-processing unit, control unit: its R8 supercar will be my lead. I can
track-day lessons imparted by living, the brains of the operation; they process visual and follow him and try to ape his lines and
breathing instructors: Robby is fast, but I GPS data. braking points, if I can keep up.
see how he could be faster. I try to push it as hard as I can, bearing
Where a human driver would try to pick 3. Front 3D camera system: the eyes on the road. in mind the peculiarities of the RS7 – its
a line and stay on it throughout a corner, torque-vectoring rear differential means
4. Driver: or, as Audi refers to the person behind
the self-steering Audi twitches its wheel you can get on the throttle earlier than
the wheel, “the final redundant system”.
with high-frequency corrections, scrib- you expect, the rear end forcing the front
bling a sine wave of small inputs. People
tend to do that, too, if they’re not looking
far enough down the track, as short-range
focus causes you to drive from point to
point instead of thinking about the set-up
for that corner 200 metres away. If Robby
were human, a driving instructor would
tell him to keep his eyes up. Camera up,
Robby?
Riding with Robby is my first lap of
Sonoma, and I’m just trying to note which
way the corners go, never mind figure out
the braking points and racing line. Ol’
Robby’s definitely got an advantage when
it comes to experience. First he took a
couple of laps and mapped the track with
his high-resolution camera, recording the
boundaries of the tar all the way around.
With that data stashed, he overlaid a plot
of an ideal racing line and began turning
laps. But since each track is different, the
theoretical best line is sometimes at odds
with real-world technique – maybe you
want to sacrifice speed on one corner to

COMING SOON
REMOTE-CONTROLLED
PARKING
The new 2016 BMW 7 Series has a

remote-parking feature intended to help
squeeze the car into tight spaces that
would otherwise have you climbing out
the sunroof. Standing outside the car,
you press the forward arrow on the key
fob and the 7 Series steers itself into a
space. Use the reverse arrow to back it
out. Simple, right? Not in the US. There
they have a shift-interlock rule that
to follow your steering commands. Still, triumphed over the engineering might of requires the brake pedal to be depressed
I’m a nervous mess. Racers tell you to one of the world’s biggest car companies. before you can put a car in gear – diffi-
cult to do without a driver in the car.
drive without emotion, but that’s hard to And if a deer had run out, I would’ve
BMW is trying to get some clarity on
do when the fate of all humankind rests swerved. If only Audi could build a robot
that regulation, since the rule obviously
on your lap time. Maybe I’m building this as talented as I.
predates remote-controlled luxury
up a little much, but it’s hard not to think Well, the thing is, they will. Whether it’s sedans. But they say the system is
about this challenge in absolutes: if the Robby or the next Unsermobile Version ready to go as soon as the rules allow.
robot car is faster, what’s the point in 3.0, they’re going to make the steering The key itself offers a hitherto una-
screwing around on tracks? Will anyone inputs smoother, the braking zones deep- vailable level of smartness, including a
care about driving skill if it’s relegated to er, the racing line a little closer to the display.
the status of long division? I don’t need to hairy edge of the roadway. The story’s not And that’s just one of the many fea-
know how to do long division. I’ve got a over. Which is underscored as we walk tures in the seriously tech-rich new flag-
calculator on my phone. over to the wall at the start–finish line, ship from BMW. Due out here in January
I pull into the pits to see my time on the where Robby’s “father”, Bobby, sits idling. 2016, it raises the bar in terms of func-
whiteboard: 1:59. I beat Robby, albeit with An unseen engineer pushes a button and tionality and innovation. Gee-whiz items
an assist from a fellow sentient being. the white RS7 roars off for a hot lap. With for the gadget freaks include a rear
Victory is ours! My inner ear and I have nobody inside to enjoy it. touch screen infotainment display and
Gesture Command. What you can’t see
is impressive, too: the underlying effi-
ciency of the design is characterised by
features such as carbon core and
Active Air Stream kidney grille.
The trunk of Robby’s predecessor,

Bobby. Audi says that by the time
its piloted driving system is ready
for production, the control hardware
(pictured), which currently weighs
20 kilograms, will be about the size
of an iPad Mini.

EASY CAR UPGRADE
Want? Order it at
www.ktgroup.co.za
[ ]
OLD FAITHFUL SOMETIMES JUST NEEDS A GADGET TO MAKE IT GREAT. DON’T The product: Drivebot
SELL JUST YET; INSTEAD, TRY THIS TO ENHANCE YOUR MOTORING EXPERIENCE. Price: R2 496
Claim: Turn your smartphone into
THE CULPRIT: an all-seeing, all-knowing mechanic
THE FAMILY’S VENERABLE 1997 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 4,0 LAREDO for your car.
We all know that older vehicles

require some maintenance.
Sometimes, though, mechanics
out there will make it sound
like your trusty steed needs
more work than is actually
required. We all want to know
what’s really happening under
the bonnet and sheetmetal, so
we jumped at the chance to
use the Drivebot on my dad’s
Grand Cherokee. Besides the
mammoth thirst, we wanted
to know what else could be
looming.
Step 1: Locate the OBD-II port

on your vehicle. The Drivebot is
compatible with most vehicles
made since 1996, but if you’re and the device emitted a loud
not sure you can check the list beep to indicate that it was
of more than 2 300 vehicles on active.
the website. On the Jeep, the
OBD port is dead centre below Step 3: Connect to the Drive- Step 4: The Drivebot will per- schedule of services and parts
the facia panel under the steer- bot via your smartphone’s form a scan of the vehicle’s replacement if you so choose.
ing column. Other vehicles Bluetooth system. Once paired, vital statistics, including the
might have the port closer to the device will ask you to verify electrical systems, steering and On its best trip while testing
the transmission tunnel or yourself as the owner and create braking, engine and transmis- the Drivebot, the Jeep
somewhere else. a profile with the make and sion. It will also inform the returned 18 litres/100 km, and
model of your vehicle. With the driver of any issue that might with the Drivebot suggesting
profile created, you’re all set be a concern in the near future. that everything is in order we’ll
to go. Fortunately, the scan showed put it down to the near two-
that every key area was in top ton mass, permanent all-wheel
condition on the Jeep. drive and really old technology
in that long-in-the-tooth six-
Step 5: Over and above the cylinder motor.
diagnosis of your vehicle’s cur-
rent state, the Drivebot also Verdict: The possibility that
Step 2: After inserting provides a detailed trip log, the Drivebot could pick up
Drivebot and downloading the showing fuel efficiency, fuel minor issues before they
app – a 10 MB file available for used and distance driven – giv- become major headaches
free on Android and iOS devices ing you tips along the way is in itself invaluable. That
– switch the vehicle on. With about driving style, and which exorbitant consultation fee
our test unit, after two seconds, routes will cost you more. It at the local repair shop is
the Drivebot’s lights flicked on also allows you to set a detailed now a thing of the past.

HEAVYWEIGHT HOEDOWN
WE’RE CELEBRATING THE YEAR OF THE SUV WITH SOME OF THE BIGGEST ARRIVALS ON THE LOCAL MARKET.
INFINITI QX80 brand, there’s strong standard specification. The only optional
extra is metallic paint. True to form, nearly everything’s automatic,
PM
D R IV E
While the rest of the Infiniti range offers varying from the auto-on LED high beam and auto-levelling headlamps to
degrees of desirability and market competitiveness, auto tailgate. That includes the Hydraulic Body Control Motion
there’s something altogether mesmerising about the system, with automatic hydraulic chambers that control suspension travel,
heftiest of the bunch – the range-topping QX80. and automatic mode to the all-wheel-drive system (with 4H and 4L modes),
I mean, just look at it. The mammoth proportions and an automatic rear levelling system.
are a lot to take in, easily dwarfing the likes of the Occupant comfort has clearly been accorded a high priority: three-zone
Land Cruisers and Discoveries that are so very popu- climate control, 10-way electrically adjustable driver’s seat, heated steering
lar in Mzansi. It’s a distinctly American approach wheel and even a heating function for the outer seats on the second row
that never fails to draw plenty of criticism – and (the front seats boast full climate control).
admiration. There are nine cupholders scattered throughout the cabin, and four bottle
The QX80 is powered by a normally aspirated 5,6- holders in the door pockets to ensure that nobody in the ’80 goes thirsty. If
litre V8 that could very well do service in NASCAR. their thirst is more of an existential nature, the infotainment system packs
The 298 kW and 560 N.m of torque did an impres- an eight-inch touchscreen and 30 GB Infiniti Hard Drive Navigation System
sive job of hustling the three-ton behemoth along with 10 GB of music storage that plays through a 15-speaker Bose Cabin
the daily route to the office and back. Simple prods Surround system. While the dual seven-inch monitors integrated on the rear
of the throttle are met with quite a responsive roar of the front head restraints (complete with individual headsets) keep the sec-
and surge of torque that belies ond row occupied, that main screen
the QX80’s mass. The V8’s up front is vital for moving the
throaty roar is emphasised on QX80 in and out of tight spaces
downshifts by the rev-match- through the around-view monitor.
ing downshifts from the seven- The QX80 won’t suit everyone’s
speed automatic transmission. taste, but it’s not meant for every-
The downside was the rather one. If you intend to stand out
impressive thirst – we managed however, this is a sure thing.
an average of 18 litres/100 km. Price: R1 238 00, with a five year/
As can be expected from the 100 000 km maintenance plan.

HEAVYWEIGHT HOEDOWN
PM firs
MERCEDES-BENZ GLC 250D impressionts
AND GLE 500

THE THREE-POINTED STAR’S SUV FAMILY JUST GOT BIGGER
GLC 250D
Flying into the middle of Namibia wasn’t exactly how I pictured
Mercedes-Benz would launch of one of its most important introduc-
tions to the local industry. Namely, by starting the driving route in
the middle of the desert. Then again, after the success that segment
has had locally, it seemed about time the Stuttgart-based firm got in
on the action. What better way to prove the new vehicles
credentials than by throwing it in the deep end?
The deep end, in this case, involved endless dirt roads with some
off-roading thrown in for fun, all so we could get better acquainted
with Merc’s new compact SUV. Behind the wheel of the mid-range
250d, I was immediately impressed with just how ensconced in the
cabin I felt. The setting is very familiar and that’s because the GLC is
based on the company’s C-Class. As a result, there’s a full suite of
comforts on offer, including electric tailgate, automatically releasing
parking brake, automatic headlamps and tyre pressure monitoring
system.
The 2,2-litre turbodiesel that lies under the bonnet (providing
150 kW and 500 N.m of torque to all four wheels through a nine-speed
automatic transmission) was muscular enough to plough through
most of the rough terrain that the Namibian countryside could throw
at the media contingent. But venturing out on the softest sand has to
be done with plenty of caution. The rate of attrition on the Namibian
dunes highlighted the fact that this isn’t an outright off-roader.
The GLC is most comfortable on the road, as was highlighted when
we returned to asphalt. That said, at least it does feature some credible
off-road ability.
Price: R619 900
GLE 500
Mercedes-Benz’s new naming convention means that it’s dropped the
ML designation for the model that defined the premium SUV segment
nearly 20 years ago. With the third generation Mercedes-Benz has
upped the ante on what it now calls the GLE with a mid-cycle facelift.
Visually, there are plenty of styling cues taken from the E-Class, on
which the the GLE is based. There are revised headlamps with the
firm’s signature daytime running light styling, while the grille, bonnet
and front fenders have also been updated. Along the profile new alloy
wheel designs can be found and at the rear, new LED tail lamps can be
found just above the bumper.
This particular model is powered by a twin-turbocharged 4,7-litre
V8 with a peak power output of 320 kW and a lusty 700 N.m of
torque. Through the seven-speed 7G-tronic automatic transmission
and 4-MATIC permanent all-wheel drive, the GLE simply traipsed
some of the obstacles that had the GLC straining. But the huge differ-
ence, though, came on the dune just outside Swakopmund, where the
larger SUV handled the powdery surface with aplomb.
The GLE comes packed with a comprehensive safety specification,
including the anticipatory Crosswind Assist and Collision Prevention
Assist Plus. The optional Driving Assistance Package Plus includes
Distronic Plus with Steering Assist, Pre Safe Brake with pedestrian
detection, Active Blind Spot Assist, Active Lane Keeping Assist and
Pre-Safe Plus.
Price: R1 166 000

HEAD TO HEAD
THE “BUDGET” SUV MARKET HAS JUST RECEIVED TWO
BIG PLAYERS IN THE FORM OF FORD’S EVEREST AND
HYUNDAI’S SANTE FE. THERE’S A SHOWDOWN ON THE
HORIZON
FORD EVEREST XLT 3,2 AUTO 4X4

The Blue Oval’s last attempt at taking on the might of the
Toyota Fortuner was valiant, but came across as something
too little, too late – being based on the outgoing Ranger.
This time round, though, Ford has come in charging hard
with the second-generation model. It boasts new looks,
plenty of standard specification and importantly, that Built
Tough philosophy.
Although looks are subjective, the new is certainly striking.
The boxy dimensions of its predecessor have given way to a
bold new design that, while lending certain elements from
the Ranger, has also added more rounded corners and lines.
That rugged stance would ultimately not
be as fitting if the Everest wasn’t up to
scratch off the beaten track. So, that’s
exactly where Ford South Africa took local
media – out to play in the mountains of the
Western Cape. With its ground clearance left Somerset West and headed for Sir
of 225 mm, body-on-frame chassis and Lowry’s Pass – and sipped unleaded to
Terrain Management System that allows the point where the average claim of
drivers to choose between modes that 8,3 litres/100 km was just slightly con-
include normal, snow/gravel/grass, and servative for the all-wheel-drive model I
sand and rock, the Everest easily handled drove on the media launch.
the rough environment. The Santa Fe’s cabin exudes a premium
Powered by a revised version of the ven- feel, which is exactly where the company
erable 3,2-litre, five-cylinder, turbodiesel was aiming. The sombre black leather
motor (147 kW and 470 N.m) mated to a upholstery is contrasted by brushed
six-speed automatic transmission, the metal look trim accents that line the
Everest returns a claimed average of facia, centre console and door cards.
8,2 litres/100 km. Specification includes Blind Spot Detection,
Inside, occupants are treated to Ford’s automatic tailgate and an Eco driving
SYNC 2 infotainment system with voice mode.
control, eight-inch touchscreen and Price: R699 900
10-speaker sound system with subwoofer,
as well as Ford’s Blind Spot Information
System, folding second and third row seat-
ing and more than 30 stowage compartments.
Price: R593 900
HYUNDAI SANTA FE 2,2 4WD

7-SEAT ELITE
Although Hyundai’s Santa Fe was never really regarded as
an off-road vehicle, it would have been a complete insult
to call it a soft-roader. The Korean brand has definitely
approached the aforementioned status a bit with its new
range-topping SUV.
One of the key features on the updated Santa Fe is that
the looks have been jacked up significantly under the pen
of design boss Peter Schreyer and his team. The revision
makes use of new bumpers front and rear, revised head-
lamp layout while newly designed 19-inch alloy wheels and
LED tail lights freshen up the profile and rear end.
The Santa Fe is exclusively available with Hyundai’s 2,2-litre
turbodiesel four-cylinder motor with 147 kW and 436 N.m
on tap. It’s certainly quite refined, as I discovered when we

HEAVYWEIGHT HOEDOWN
NISSAN SUV TECH

LOOK MA, NO EYES
There’s something undeniably spooky
about manoeuvring a vehicle without
looking where you’re going. Well, to
be accurate, what I mean is without
looking out of the windows. I was
using the onboard cameras as my only
means of guidance. Sort of how pilots
fly in cloud, using only their instru-
ments. It didn’t take long for me to
develop a healthy respect for those
skilled in IMC – Instrument Meteorol-
ogical Conditions, in aviation parlance.
We were blindly – in a manner of
speaking – navigating our way around
a laid-out course in one of Gauteng’s
slightly down-at-heel upmarket shop-
ping mall parking areas. The occasion
was a Nissan demonstration of its
Qashqai, Juke and X-Trail compact
SUVs. The point: the moderately
priced SUV of today is more than just
a supersized hatchback and it actually
can do some of the stuff (and features
some of the cool tech) more commonly
associated with its big-ticket big
brothers. Control yourself
Now reversing cameras and even Also available on Nissan’s
forward-facing ones, these days, can Qashqai and X-Trail mod-
be found on pretty average cars. Many els is a suite of advanced
big 4x4s add a camera either side to electronic vehicle manage-
make it easier to judge your progress, ment technologies under
monitor vehicle extremities and avoid the umbrella of what it
scrapes in punishing off-road condi- calls Chassis Control.
tions. Using clever image-stitching, These include Active Trace
they can also generate a virtual over- Control, Active Engine
head birds’-eye view. It all comes Braking (for automatic
together on a touch-screen dashboard models) and Active Ride
display. It comes as a pleasant surprise Control.
to find them on a moderately priced Active Trace Control.
SUV, instead of just on a high-end Mimics a front-mounted
model where you’d expect to find it. limited slip differential by managing engine power and braking individual wheels to maintain
My assessment: yes, those cameras your chosen cornering line.
can be as useful in the urban jungle as Active Ride Control. Not quite a magic carpet ride, but clever nonetheless. Minimises body
well as the great outdoors. Suddenly movement on rutted roads by subtly applying brakes to stabilise the vehicle.
those awkward parking bays become All Mode 4x4-i. Can distribute up to 50 per cent of the engine’s power to the rear of the vehi-
a whole lot more manageable. (The cle during on- or off-road driving. Includes Hill Start Assist and, in the X-Trail, Hill Descent
camera view operates only at low Control. – A N T H O N Y D O M A N PM
speed, naturally.)
Of course, those cameras aren’t just
about enabling you to squeeze into a Less discomfort motion Good bounce damping
parking spot from which it’s actually Pitch motion W/control
impossible to open the doors. The Pitch from W/o control
cameras feed into Nissan’s Driver control
Assistance package, which includes
Around View Monitor, Moving Object
Detection, Blind Spot Warning and
Lane Departure Warning. Engine torque control Undulated
(only available for TR25-ENG) surface Brake control

HOW TO GET STARTED IN . . . BY JACQUELINE DETWILER
ROCK
There is immense reward in
hauling your own body to the
top of a wall using nothing but
flexibility, cunning, and the
CLIMBING
strength of a couple of fingers.
We asked Sierra Blair-Coyle, a
professional climber who buck-
led into her first harness at age
eight, how to get there.
ADVANCED
Sierra Blair-Coyle, 21,
is a five-time World Lead climbing is a
Cup competitor and more challenging
a two-time junior form of long-dis-
National Champion. tance climbing that
can be practised
either in a gym or
outdoors. To do it,
you tie into a safety
rope and then run
that rope through
anchors set into the
wall as you move
up it. Outdoors, the
lead climber is the
guy in the front of
the train. Lead climb-
ing also requires a
belayer.
Free solo climbing

is the same as boul-
dering, but is per-
formed on walls high
enough to cause
injury or death if you
slip. You – and all
Choose your T YPE S OF INDOOR CL IMBING

the courage you can
muster – just climb
discipline
up a big, scary wall.
Solo climbers are
the sort who might
BASIC also enjoy wing-suit
BEFORE YOU CLIMB, you’re going to
gliding or base
spend a lot of time watching other Bouldering, or creeping up, under, and jumping.*
people climb, so you’d better make across shorter structures (these may
sure you like your climbing buddies. vary depending on the gym’s size) like a
crab, tends to be more social, because
In a rock-climbing gym, which is
lots of people can climb at once.
where you should start, you’ll Bouldering does not require a harness
encounter two beginner-level disci- or ropes, but can demand technical
plines – bouldering and top roping. moves: it started out as a way for long-
Most gyms offer both, but some distance climbers to practise difficult
places may have a more robust tricks close to the ground.
BLAIR-COYLE PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS HINKLE
community around one or the *A safer alterna-

other. The two specialities also tend Top roping, or creeping up taller walls tive: Want to experi-
to attract different kinds of people: (indoors, up to 15 metres), is better in ence the terror of
Bouldering is great for extroverts pairs. This is the easiest form of long- swinging by your
distance climbing, in which climbers index fingers 300
and larger groups; top roping is metres up a cliff,
tackle vertical routes using a rope. In
ideal for those who want to learn this case, a rope threaded through an but don’t want to
with a single friend. anchor in the ceiling is tied to your har- possibly die? Read
free solo climber
It may be worth visiting several ness. Your partner on the ground,
Alex Honnold’s new
gyms until you find a group and known as a belayer, holds the other end memoir, Alone on
style you like. to let you down. the Wall.

Get your gear
“THE FIRST TIME you go to a climbing gym, all you really need
to bring with you is yourself, ” Blair-Coyle says. You can rent
everything you need there. Once you’re hooked, you’ll want
these four items.
SHOES
Gripping with your feet is just
as important as gripping with
your hands. Gym shoes typically
have a thicker sole, as they
have to endure more wear and
tear. La Sportiva’s Mythos shoe
(R1 699) is great for beginners,
as the soft leather upper adapts
to the shape of the climber’s
foot, and the upper rand’s per-
foration allows for stretch.
CHALK
To get the strongest hold, you
need dry hands, and for that you
need chalk. Metolius’ Super
Chalk (R50 for 71 grams) is a
favourite among South African
climbers. The chalk is made with
magnesium carbonate, which
HARNESS locks up moisture without
The first few times you try rope- caking.
based climbing, you’ll spend CHALK BAG
a lot of time falling into, and Chalk bags aren’t an area of
hanging around in, your harness. climbing inclined to innovation. CONSIDER
Comfort is important. Black Some bags have a stiff rim to T I P ! LIQUID CHALK
Diamond’s Momentum Harness make it easier to dip your hand If you eventually move
(R975) has an ultra-comfortable while you’re hanging from a on to crack climbing – an
waistbelt, with a pre-threaded wall. Evolv’s Andes Chalk bag advanced technique that
buckle that eliminates errors (R337) is detailed with fabric requires jamming your hand
when tying in. It’s popular and handwoven by locals living in into a crack for a hold – try
great for beginners. the Andes mountains. Singing Rock’s Magnum liquid
chalk (R135 for 150 millilitres).
It’ll keep your whole hand
dry.
Strap in
Top ropers take note.
If you plan to boulder,
you can skip this part. 1
Tie your harness to a rope hanging from

the ceiling using a figure-eight knot 1 . Your
partner, the belayer 2 , will clip in to the
other end using a carabiner attached to a
belay device 3 , which looks a lot like the
front of a pig’s nose. The belay device func-
tions as a friction brake, lightening the load
ILLUSTRATIONS: BROWN BIRD DESIGN
Behold, the auto-belay

the belayer has to support if you fall. As you Some gyms offer auto-
move up the wall, the belayer removes slack belay systems, which hang
from the line. If you lose your grip, or from the ceiling and per-
brake
2
you’re ready to come down, the belayer form the same function as a
locks the rope in the belay device by pulling belayer. You tie into one
end of the rope and it
the free end out to the side, leaving you 3 retracts as you climb, lock-
comfortably dangling. Most climbing gyms ing automatically if you fall
offer intro courses or lessons in both knots or sit back. The auto-belay
and belaying. truly is a wonderful thing.

HOW TO GET STARTED IN . . . ROCK CLIMBING
Pick your problem PROBL E M-R AT ING SYS T E MS
UPON APPROACHING your gym’s top-roping wall or bouldering course,
Sport Climbing
you’ll notice knobs and handles everywhere. How hard could it possibly
EWBANK SYSTEM
be to climb a wall that’s got more nooks than an English muffin, you Largely used in South Africa, Australia and New
might think. Here’s what makes climbing hard: you don’t get to use all the holds. You Zealand, the Ewbank Decimal System is an open-
have to follow a preselected route, which climbers call a problem. Some gyms will mark ended grading system that starts with one – an
a problem with coloured tape. In other gyms you’ll follow holds that are all the same easy route that requires little skill – and escalates
colour. The problem’s difficulty is rated on one of two different scales, depending on as the difficulty increases. The Ewbank system
rates the entire climbing experience, including
whether you’re bouldering or top roping. “Harder routes have worse holds – sometimes
technical difficulty, exposure, length, rock quality
they’re smaller, and sometimes they’re harder to grab,” Blair-Coyle says. “You might and protection.
have fewer holds that are further away, and you might be in awkward positions.” Internationally there are other grading systems,
including the American Yosemite Decimal System,
Bouldering the British or UK grading system and French
courses rated
numerical system. Beginning climbers will begin to
a 4 or higher,
sweat at about grade 14 on the Ewbank system.
such as the
one Blair-Coyle
is climbing Bouldering
above, have THE FONTAINEBLEAU SYSTEM
problems t Named after the region of France famous for
hat require its highly concentrated bouldering areas, the
precarious Fontainebleau system in an open-ended grading
positions and system that starts at one. Most problems are rated
even leaps. from only four. However, once the scale reaches
six, a suffix is added to distinguish difficulty and
a + can also be added to indicate a change in dif-
ficulty. For example, a climb rated 6B+ is more
difficult than a 6A route, but less difficult than a
6C route.
The so-called Font system also includes colour
circuits, which range from yellow to black.
Another popular boulder grading system is the
American V-scale system, which grades between
VB and V15, with the difficulty increasing as the
number adjacent to the V increases.
Climb FIND YOUR INNER

BEGIN AT THE HOLD marked Start, put a hand on it, and crawl along the
holds on your problem. Easier problems often have more holds than you MONKEY
When faced with indecision, resist
need, so always choose those that will get you in position to best reach the the impulse to contract your arms
next comfortable spot. There are tricks to moving your centre of gravity and hold close to the wall. Think like
around that you’ll learn as you get better, but usually you want to reach for a monkey: a monkey doesn’t cling to
a new hold, move your feet up to a set of new holds, and then stand. Keep a tree, but keeps its body relaxed
most of the weight on your legs, because your arms will tire first. while it hangs. “Climbing is really
about learning to use your body so
you’re minimising the strength you
PRIMER: THE HOLD HIERARCHY require,” Blair-Coyle says. “You want

to try to keep your arms as straight
From easiest to hardest. as possible when you can.”
GETTING DOWN
If you fall, don’t panic. Just alert
your belayer by saying “falling”. If
GEAR: DON PENNY; ILLUSTRATIONS: BROWN BIRD DESIGN
you’re not falling, but you’ve had

enough, say “take”. Either way, your
2. PINCHES belayer will lock the rope in the
A little like door- belay device, which he can do
knobs. Best quickly. Then just sit back like
gripped between
4. SLOPERS you’re sitting in a chair. Trust the
your fingers and
Big, round bubbles with few rope. It will hold you. Kick gently off
1. JUGS thumb, like you’re 3. CRIMPS
holding a tin. irregularities to grip, slopers the wall as your belayer lets you
Practically These thin-edged down.
BLAIR-COYLE: CHRIS HINKLE
are best attempted with the

handles. Put your nubs barely
help of friction. Feel for any
hand in the extend from the
defect that might help you, With thanks to Peter Steadman and
opening and wall. Clench your
then get as much of your Kate Mullen, owners of the Stronghold
grab. fingers close to
palm on the hold as possible. Climbing Gym in Los Angeles. Special
your palms to get
Hang directly away from the thanks to the staff at CityROCK climb-
your fingers on
roundest part. ing in Cape Town. PM
the top.

THE ART OF FIREWOOD THE SCIENCE OF LAWNMOWING RESPECT THE TURKEY
TA K E N A PA R T: PAY P H O N E P LY W O O D P R O J E C T S SHOP NOTES
THE ART OF FIREWOOD

It can be so much more than chopping and splitting.
BY CJ CHIVERS
O
ne crisp midwinter dawn, after a cup I walked down the gentle slope behind much of the trunk as soft as Styrofoam.
of hot coffee and a plate of warm our house. At the small woodlot at the Without an intervention, this tree was
eggs, a weekend routine began. I edge of our neighbour’s property were going to meet a violent and unpredicta-
rousted the kids, who groaned and three trees that needed to come down. ble end.
briefly resisted. While waiting for them One, a huge locust, had split almost Another ant colony had settled into a
to dress and find their way downstairs, from the ground to six metres up. It second maple nearby. Weakened, that
I stepped out to the chilly shack and swayed and creaked in a light breeze. tree leaned precariously over a shed. These
checked the tools and safety kit – padded Beside the locust was a thick maple that were problems that were not going to
earmuffs, impact-resistant goggles, heavy was succumbing to the unrelenting solve themselves. Our neighbours had
gloves, scrench (chainsaw adjuster), wedg- industry of carpenter ants, which had invited us to remove the trees and keep
es, rope, first-aid box, and a freshly softened a wide band from about a metre whatever firewood we wished.
sharpened spare chain. The saw, a 70,7 and a half above the soil to more than Soon the kids had joined me, and we
cubic centimetre Husqvarna, brimmed three metres overhead. Heart rot had set to work on a labour that would last,
with bar oil and fresh 50:1 fuel. followed the ants’ intrusion, leaving off and on, into spring: felling, limbing,

Collect
HOW TO FORAGE
firewood –
and create 1 Find wood from willow, pine or similar trees for
a bond with kindling. Although these woods burn quickly, they light
family and easily. (Fires made with them are also easier to extinguish
surroundings.
because they don’t leave much of a charcoal bed.)
2 Be wary of wood that you find on the ground, as it’s

more likely to be wet or rotten.
3 Most of your campfire wood should come from low
iSTOCKPHOTO/OMGIMAGES
branches. If they snap off easily, they’re dead
already and will burn well. If they don’t snap off easily,
leave them alone.
4 For larger, longer-burning pieces of wood, find a

nut-bearing tree. Such trees are are hardwoods,
which means they’re denser and have a higher Btu.
(See below.)
bucking, and then hand-carrying splits now slowly dulling to brown came
the wood home, where it would be from an old locust that had snapped Dry wood in descending order of Btu in millions per cord
split and then stacked for season- in a storm. The rich grey section with
ing. We would do it piecemeal, a heavy bark has its origins in a leader
few hours at a time, working in off a massive, trident-shaped oak that
the effort between their home- crashed to the ground after a storm.
work and other demands. That oak piece – my kids named it the
Oak Maple Hickory
We began by clearing a few bits beach-ed whale – had to be hand-split
of brush under the first tree, mak- in place and carried uphill, chunk by 27,6 25,5 24,6
ing a safe place to work and an chunk, to the pick-up, excepting what
open escape route in case of the the kids ferried home in a hand-pulled
unforeseen. We chose the felling sled.
direction, and discussed the spots Firewood comes to us opportunisti-
for notch and felling cuts. cally. A neighbour will want a tree felled.
The children backed off before A storm will blow through and knock Elm Birch Walnut
the two-stroke engine roared to down limbs or uproot and topple entire 20 20,8 22,2
life. I released the brake. The chain trees. A few trees will have to go to make
began to spin. A long chore that I way for a home addition or access to a
would look forward to each week- new lot. Sometimes it almost seems as
end had started – harvesting future if the wood finds us.
heat, together, and almost for free. Occasionally the wood can carry other
meanings. We cut and carted away the
I
Aspen Pine Willow
n an age when many people heat white birch rounds from the sprawling
with gas, oil, or electricity, the grounds of a body corporate at the request 18,2 17,7 17,6
richness and rituals of gathering of a friend who was managing the place.
and seasoning wood for homes The property had lost trees in a storm, long time. But we had been lucky not to have a
risk fading into our past. Those but the contractor hired to clean up the barrage of winter storms, and we knew we should
who use wood heat do more than mess had left much of the wood behind. collect and move as much as we could before winter
save money, live locally, and keep My children and I ended up with the bore down and covered the site in snow, locking
some of their cash from flowing bounty, glad to help, grateful for the fuel. the wood in ice.
offshore. They tap into a primal Not long after we split and stacked a few The next weekend we returned. And then again, until
activity, and often enjoy rewards truckloads, our friend was diagnosed the wood was frozen up tight. Still, we had plenty to
beyond what they might expect. with cancer. She passed with startling do. Until recently, a weathered stockade fence stood
What can I mean? The varied speed. Every time we bring a sack of along our southern property line. A previous owner
tasks related to heating a home birch inside for the stove, we think of had installed it, and for a few years it had been sagging.
with firewood can create an inti- her, aware of the emotional power a Then came Superstorm Sandy in 2012, which neatly
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOEL KIMMEL
macy with your surroundings and wood stack can hold. snapped a few of the rotting posts at the ground on
with your family that is as sustain- the way to blowing down several sections of fence.
U
ing as the warmth the wood pro- nder the trees on that cold winter This led to an epiphany. Why pay the timber costs
vides as it burns. day, the work took its shape. We for a new fence? Why even replace the fence with a
Even the woodpiles themselves felled the first maple, then the fence? What if, instead of rebuilding a suburban stand-
become a tangible library of mem- locust, limbed much of them, by, we built a wood-seasoning rack along the property
ory. Each section of our stack tells and started to carry home the rounds, line that would provide the same function – privacy
of its source. The once bright yellow armload by armload. This would take a and a windbreak – for a portion of the cost but would

FUEL
be far sturdier, more handsome, and useful, too? about a metre above the original bottom rack,
I was busy with work, but scrounged the hours each resting on a cleat for extra support. In one
to remove what remained of the old stockade. Then rack we framed the opening for a small gate.
I paid a carpenter friend to install a basic rack When winter loosened its grip, we returned to
made with paired pressure-treated 100 x 150 the trees at the edge of the woodlot out back, and
posts and 50 x 150s running low and parallel to finished cleaning them up. Our neighbours lent
the ground, like baseboards. us their John Deere 52 log splitter, a minibeast
A crude but eminently sturdy and functional and a gem from the early 1980s that had become
system had taken form. Each section held more slightly balky with age. We commenced the next
than a half cord. With nine sec- step: splitting the gathered fuel to
tions and a southern exposure, size.
our would-be fence amply stored After a few shifts I managed to
SIGNS YOUR (and cured) a sizable portion of break the pull cord off the starter.
WOOD IS our annual firewood needs while In an age A call to a friend who repairs com-
WELL SEASONED taking up almost no yard space. when many mercial fishing boats led to a quick
And it looked good. heat with gas, session in the yard, during which
✖ It doesn’t smell like wood. With time, however, flaws in its oil, or electricity, we removed the starter, rethreaded
Most of the woody scent you quick design emerged. First the posts the richness and tied in the cord, and then clean-
get is caused by moisture. heaved ever so slightly during sea- and rituals of ed and tuned the carburettor. Soon
sonal freezes and thaws, forcing gathering and the machine was purring, its old
✖ It’s dull in colour. Sea- the racks out of their original par- seasoning Briggs & Stratton engine content-
soned wood should look grey.
allel arrangement. This not only wood for edly revived. Over the course of
looked bad, but it also changed the homes risk the next few weekends my sons
✖ It’s not heavy. Water fading into
makes up as much as three- way the firewood sat, so much so and I converted about ten cords
that one stack between the posts our past. of green wood into splits.
quarters of the weight of a
green piece of wood. bulged and collapsed in another By then spring had warmed the
hard storm. yard. Potatoes were sprouting, and
✖ The ends have cracks. As Restacking is labour lost. So, as asparagus, too. The woodstoves in
the wood dries out, it becomes the last of the seasoned firewood the house and the shack were clean
more brittle. found its way into our pair of woodstoves, and and silent, idle until fall. The new green firewood
as we found a new source for wood but could was neatly piled about the property, beginning
✖ The bark is missing or not work with it until a thorough thaw, it was to dry. The chainsaw was cleaned and ready to
comes off easily. When the time for an upgrade. be put up for the warm season with a fresh tank
moisture goes, the bark usu- Using a level, heavy bar clamps and a comealong of fuel.
ally goes with it. for tension, and framing timber to force the posts We were done. And we knew the satisfying
back square and true, we straightened the posts, feeling of being, in one area at least, well pre-
✖ It sounds hollow when you
hit it against something.
bringing each perpendicular to the ground and pared by our own sweat and our own hands. My
(Probably best if that some-
parallel to the others. These we locked in place only regret was that it was over. We’d have to
thing is another log.) with newly purchased pressure-treated planking wait another year to resume.
5 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR FIREWOOD
With thanks to John Gulland at woodheat.org.
1 Stack wood in a 2 When stacking, use a 3 Before splitting wood 4 Cut cords shorter 5 Check your local
single row, out of the criss-cross pattern to on a stump, secure than you think (around authority’s policies on
shade, with enough space make pillars at each end an old tyre to the top of the a third of a metre long), cutting your own firewood.
between the pieces to for stability. They act as stump. After you split the split them smaller than you
allow air to pass through. bookends for the wood in wood, it will lean against think (8 to 15 centimetres
This exposes more wood the centre. the tyre instead of falling to wide), and vary the size of
to sunlight and breeze, the ground. the splits. The logs will be
which helps dry it out easier to carry, and the fire
faster. will be easier to build.

THINGS YOUR DAD SHOULD HAVE TAUGHT YOU
THE SCIENCE OF
NO MATTER WHAT YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING, you’re mowing
your grass wrong. Firstly, you shouldn’t be palming the job
off to a private contractor unless you really don’t have any
time, or your plot is massive or you can’t enlist your off-
spring. Secondly, it really isn’t difficult to maintain if you
start with a well laid out plan.
Mowing is the most basic practice for maintaining lawn turf.
Performed at the correct height and frequency is essential to
the health and density of the lawn. Removing leaf tips induces
plants to form new sprouts, increasing stand density. Mowing
can affect water quality, too. And healthy stand can withstand
more pest pressure and will then require less pest control.
The denser turf cover also helps prevent soil erosion, which
is an important pollution problem.
The height at which a given perennial grass can be cut
and still survive for extended periods is directly related to
its ability to produce enough leaf surface to keep up photo-
synthetic production of food. Basically this ability is related
to the type and habit of growth found in the grass. (The length
of internodes, the number of stolons or rhizomes, and the
number of basal buds all influence the amount of leaf mass
produced by a given grass; hence, its ability to withstand
low heights of cut.)
Turfgrasses are well adapted to frequent mowing, but mowing
too short will reduce the vigour of the plants because less leaf
area means less photosynthesis. Also, there is a direct relation-
ship between cutting height and the amount of roots a grass
plant can maintain. Lowering the mowing height reduces the
root system. This restricts the ability of the plant to absorb
water and nutrients. In recent years, recommendations for
mowing height have steadily increased for home lawns. Current
standards suggest between five and seven centimetres. Higher
cut lawn grasses are more stress tolerant, which is especially
important during the summer heat period. Taller grass plants
with higher density will also have a shading effect on the soil
surface, which reduces germination of weed seeds. This is an
excellent way to reduce herbicide use, especially where the
lawn is properly fertilised and watered to maintain vigour.
How often you mow is also an important consideration in
the maintenance programme. Infrequent clipping allows the
grass to grow to such a degree that any subsequent clipping
removes too much leaf surface. At no time should clipping
amounts in excess of 1/4 to 1/3 of the total leaf surface be
72 www.popularmechanics.co.za ● JANUARY 2016

l aw n m o w i n g
than a few ic
e-cold b ee rs an d a weekend to g
do it on your
own.
et your
It takes more ured state, but you can

ic
lawn in a man
OUR NEW FAVOURITE TOOL:

LAWN STAR PRO 48 LSMP 8548 MB
The petrol-powered push mowers from your Pappa’s days required
a song and dance of priming and setting a choke, and were smokey
two-stroke noise machines. This grass-eating demon is of the 190 cc the Pro 48 is more than enough for most people. You get a mulching
four-stroke variety with overhead valve, air cooling and delivers 3,7 kW blade and stopper included, plus the tools to do the conversion, and
of cutting power and 11,2 N.m of torque at a constant 3 060 RPM. with 11 position/ ranging from eight to 65 mm heights you’re covered
Revs are constant because there’s only two speeds, off and on. If for all types of grass and lawn styles. Lawn Star back the product
you want you can mate the Briggs and Stratton cast iron sleeve with a 24-month domestic use warranty and 12-month commercial
engine to a bigger chassis by opting for the Pro 57 and gain 20 use warranty, and since assembly is done locally, you won’t need
extra litres on the grass catcher, but the 50-litre grass catcher on to go far to find spares or a tune up.
JANUARY 2016 ● www.popularmechanics.co.za 73

THINGS YOUR DAD SHOULD HAVE TAUGHT YOU
removed at a given mowing. Removing larger amounts of leaf surface

will result in a physiological shock to the plant, cause excessive ESTABLISHING TURF
graying or browning of the leaf tips, and dramatically affect the The essential steps to amazing lawn
photosynthetic production of food, depleting root reserves.
Add to this the excessive mulch clippings that may smother the SOIL TESTING
grass and provide the perfect environment for disease organisms A soil test will determine the pH level of your soil which
and insects. Excessive clippings should be removed promptly. To you can then adjust by adding lime as a fertiliser. Lab testing will
prevent thatch build-up you should catch and bag clippings every uncover the mysteries of the soil and the amounts of phosphorus,
alternate mow. The frequency of mowing must be governed by the potassium, and organic matter present, but a probe test kit
amount of growth. In turf, growth is related to weather conditions, (available at any large nursery) will give you a basic pH reading.
season of the year, soil fertility, moisture conditions, and the Pro tip: You want a pH of 6,2-7, anything higher is too acidic and
natural growth rate of the grasses. lower is alkaline. Raise pH by adding organic compost like
A general rule of thumb is not to remove more than one-third decomposing pine needles or lower it by adding lime.
of the total leaf surface when mowing your lawn. This may require
mowing every four to five days during rapid growth in the spring. ROUGH-GRADING
Remove all debris and large stones, till the soil and bring area
to rough-grade before trying to correct the pH. If you need to
add or replace topsoil, rough-grade to the contour of the
final product – it will save you work later.
CHOOSE YOUR TURF
Are you #TeamBermuda or #TeamBuffalo? LIMING
Speak to a horticulturist to get exact lime to soil ratios working
Bermuda grass can be divided into two off the results of your soil test, but a general rule of thumb is
classes, common and hybrid. You want 45 kg of ground limestone per 100 m2 of soil.
the common type because it’s coarse-
TILLING
textured and more drought-tolerant.
Till the seedbed to a depth of 10–15 cm, making sure the lime-
Both common and hybrid Bermuda
stone, topsoil and/or fertiliser are evenly mixed through.
grasses should be fertilised 4–6 times
per year. Bermuda goes dormant FINISH-GRADING
when the temperature drops. Many Rake the area to finish-grade just before to seeding.
golf courses and homeowners over-
seed with perennial ryegrass for the STARTER FERTILIZER
cooler months. This keeps the lawn Use a starter fertiliser immediately before seeding, work
nice and green instead of brown. The 45 kg per 100 m2 into the top 25 mm. The fertiliser must be
ryegrass dies off when the temperature turf grade, having an approximate 2-1-1 ratio and containing
climbs back up again, letting the Bermuda 35 per cent or more of the total nitrogen as water insoluble
grass take over. Mow between 15 and 35 mm for best results. or controlled release nitrogen. If you only have farm grade
Water when 50 per cent of the lawn shows signs of wilt.
fertiliser, (soluble nitrogen) use 10 kg per 100 m2 and
refertilise after six weeks of growing weather.
Buffalo is hardy and drought tolerant,
but needs to be fertilised every two SEEDING
months or the softer variants will lose Late summer to early autumn is the best time for seeding
colour, health and vitality. Annual iron permanent turfgrass.
supplementing in either spring or
autumn. Regular mowing will keep COVER SEED
the lawn from developing too much Rake lightly or drag area to cover seed no deeper than 10 mm.
thatch, will reduce the risk of dam-
SEED-SOIL CONTACT
aging the lawn through shock and will
Roll lightly to firm soil around seed.
slow Buffalo runners from creeping
into surrounding gardens and promote MULCHING
more green leaf growth. Buffalo is prone Mulch seeded area with clean straw. Light mulches (some soil
to disease infections like Brown Patch, showing through mulch) may be left on the area to decompose.
which should be treated by stopping fertilising Heavy mulches (complete soil coverage) should be removed from
during the outbreak, cutting the grass higher and watering in the
the area within a few days after seed germination.
morning only on watering days. Mow between 35 and 65 mm
for best results. Water in the morning after 30 per cent of the lawn
shows signs of wilt.
Watering in the morning provides the lawn with water in the soil throughout the day when the weather is warmest and
when the grass is most actively growing. When lawns are watered at night, much of the water drains away through the
soil before the lawn can use it – this wastes water. When water is left sitting on the lawn surface overnight, this will greatly
promote fungal diseases.

FOOD
RESPECT THE TURKEY

How not to embarrass yourself at the holiday table. BY WYLIE DUFRESNE
I
f you take a close look at Norman doing very little cooking during the THE TOOLS
Rockwell’s iconic painting of a holidays, but everyone assumes I’m
family gathered around their going to take care of two important All you really need for this task is a knife and a fork.
holiday dinner, you’ll notice that tasks: pulling corks out of wine bottles I’ve used all types, depending on what I’m able to find
the grandpa, in a matter of seconds, and carving. I enjoy both jobs, and I in other people’s drawers, but these are best:
is going to pick up the carving knife find the carving almost therapeutic.
and hack the bird apart right at the While the whole family is busy gath- A B C The curve of a traditional
table. Now, maybe he happens to ering around the table, figuring out fork can get in the way.
have great knife skills and he will not, where to sit and whose wineglass is The F Dick 18 cm
straight-tined fork (A)
in fact, dishonour the meat before whose, I get to escape to the kitchen
is flat, which means that
everyone’s very eyes. But that is and spend a few quiet moments with
when slicing you can
unlikely, because most people don’t the bird. I can’t overstate the impor- run your knife straight
know how to properly carve a turkey. tance of careful carving: someone down the back of the
What the man should do is tell his (ideally not you) has spent days fork and into the meat.
wife to hand him the bird so he can planning and preparing the meal,
take it back to the kitchen, put it on and hours watching over the meat The Honesuki-style
a cutting board, and carve it slowly in the oven. The last thing you want boning knife (B), usually
and properly, without the entire to do is mess it up at the end. You 14,5 centimetres long, is
family looking on. owe it to everyone to understand the designed for butchering
I’ve been the designated turkey anatomy of the animal and remove poultry. A suitable (and
carver in my family for years. Some- the meat in the proper way. Start easier to find) alterna-
how I’ve managed to get away with by letting the meat rest for up to tive: the Wüsthof
45 minutes. Then do this. Classic 15-centimetre
boning knife (C).
Go to popularmechanics.
com/turkey for the definitive VIDEO HOW TO CARVE A BIRD
of how to carve a turkey.
1 With the bird on a cutting board inside a 2 Once you’ve cut through skin and meat, 3 Separate drumstick and thigh by working
sheet pan, make an incision between the use a hand and your knife to crack the your knife into the apex of the V formed
body and the drumstick. thigh joint. by the leg and pulling.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOEL KIMMEL
4 To remove the thigh bone, slice along it 5 Remove the wing the same way you 6 To remove each breast, slice along the
until you can see the end, then pull up separated the drumstick and thigh. rib cage, then downward, pulling the
on the end while scraping the bone with the Pull the wing out until you see the joint and entire breast off as you slice.
knife. Slice the meat. run your knife through.

THINGS COME APART
A PHOTOGRAPH BY TODD MCLELLAN
D I S A S S E M B LY R E P O R T
(25), where the coin-box
PAY PHONE spring (19) holds it tightly

in position behind the vault
door (16). Two mechanisms
must be unlocked to remove
MODEL: PROTEL XP1230 NUMBER it. One is built into the coin-
OF PARTS:
box lid (18), and the other is
453
a four-armed locking mech-
PRODUCED: LAKELAND, FLORIDA
anism (15) behind the vault
door. Until turned by a T-key
TIME TO DISASSEMBLE: 4 HOURS, 45 MINUTES
(14), the arms fit into slots in
the body of the phone, keep-
NOTES: For years, if you were away from home and wanted ing the door shut.
to make a phone call, pay phones were your only option. Coins can also be pilfered
Even now that most of us have phones in our through the refund gate
pockets, pay phones aren’t going anywhere.
(13). Vandals used to jam a
Telecommunications regulatory bodies such as
the USA’S Federal Communications Commission sock inside the coin return
(FCC) suggest having them in certain places in the morning, then go back
for the sake of public safety or welfare (such in the evening, pull the sock
as outside a police station, where you might out, and collect the coins
need to make a call after being arrested). Pay that had got stuck above it.
phones manage to connect calls, set prices, To prevent this, the coin-
and accurately collect payment using only refund door (10) is rigged
electricity drawn from the phone line. They’re to block access to the coin
also basically bulletproof, devised to withstand
chute when the door is
all manner of vandalism and theft.
opened.
The other major target for
theft is the handset. To
POWER used more often than credit and into the refund gate. If prevent cutting, the lanyard
When the handset (22) is cards. The card reader money is owed, the relay tips (20) that connects it to the
removed from the cradle (27) built into the phone’s to the left, and the coins fall phone has steel braided
(23), the lever releases and upper-housing faceplate into the coin box (17). sheathing on the outside and
triggers the hook switch (26) accepts either. Coin a heavy-gauge stainless-
(21). That allows the phone payments are more compli- SECURITY steel wire down the centre.
to start drawing power, cated. When an object drops The XP1230 has a number of The lanyard anchor (12)
giving the user a dial tone – through the coin slot in the features designed to keep it keeps it securely fastened
the signal that the phone is chrome faceplate (24), intact. The coin box, with a to the upper housing (7).
ready to be used. During a it falls into the enclosure healthy capacity, is a target Unfortunately, there’s noth-
call, the 48 volts of electricity (6) of the electronic coin for theft. It fits into a hole in ing to keep it sterile. – KEVIN
supplied by the phone lines mechanism (4). As it falls, it the phone’s lower housing DUPZYK
power all the phone’s elec- passes by two pairs of wire
tronics, including, crucially, coils (5) and iron discs. One
its master controller (3) and pair emits a high-frequency
LCD screen (1). The phone alternating current, which
has a rechargeable NiCd measures the coin’s surface
battery (2) used for only one characteristics. The second
purpose: when the handset pair emits a low-frequency REASONS YOU MIGHT
is replaced in the cradle, the current that penetrates the FIND YOURSELF IN NEED
phone has to either bank object and reveals what it’s
the payment for the call or made of. Combine the two OF A PAY PHONE
return coins to the caller. and you’ve got a good way
Each call charges the battery to distinguish a genuine coin • Your cellphone • You miss the
just enough to carry out this from a poker chip. Assuming died. good clean fun of
operation. it’s a coin, the payment pro- • You are in a sub- the 1950s. committed and
ceeds into the escrow relay way station. • You need change you’re still in your
PAYMENT (9). If the call isn’t com- • You are a fan of and are hugely civilian clothes.
prank calls and optimistic. • You don’t have
The XP1230 offers two pleted, a coil (8) powered by
don’t know how • You are having an pink eye and are
ways to pay: card or coin. the battery tips the relay to to turn off your affair. interested in catch-
At the time this phone was the right, sending the coins caller ID. • A crime is being ing it.
designed, calling cards were down the coin chute (11)

1 2 3 4
27 5
26
25
24
23
22
9
21
10
11
12
20
19
17 16
18 15 14 13

BOARD GAMES
As you head into the new year and enjoy the holiday
period, here are four quick and easy projects to help
1
you while away a spare afternoon in relaxing fashion
– or even to craft a last-minute Christmas gift.
Runner-up entries to our DIY Challenge No 1 (create
something using only a sheet of plywood) they
require the minimum of expertise.
Words on
wheels
STORE YOUR READING MATTER NEATLY, WITH THE
CONVENIENCE OF PORTABILITY AS AN OPTION
Rather craftily, Pieter de Villiers called his

plywood creation a “PoPular Mechanics
Magazine Rack”. He says that you don’t
need to go thicker than 16 mm, which
makes this quite an economical project.
If you are able to get your board cut by

your hardware store, that will make your
life a lot easier. Alternatively, you will
need a circular saw.

Figure 1 300 300 600 300 300
240 240
594
240 240
240 240
240 240
594
240 240
810 600 810
13
Figure 2
10
302
240 240 302
240 240
302 302
594
594
302 302
240 240
240 240
302 302
10 600 600
13
STEP 1 Dry fit the upright panels before glueing.

Materials Cut the plywood into sizes/parts as follows Note: the slots in the top and bottom panels
DESCRIPTION (refer to Figure 1): are mirror images of each other.
1 One sheet of any type of plywood – 8 x upright support panels (810 x 240)
2 x top and bottom panels (600 x 600) STEP 4
16 mm thick will do for this project
4 x shelves (300 x 240). Glue the upright panels to the inside of the top
Wheels (optional – attach underneath,
and bottom panels’ slots (put some weight on
which makes reaching all four sides STEP 2 top of the magazine rack for a couple of hours
easier) Sand down the flat faces of the boards and so that the glue can set – use a stack of PM
Wood glue the edges to the desired finish magazines as weight).
Sanding paper
Varnish STEP 3 STEP 5
Cut the slots/recesses on the top and bottom Optional: attach wheels underneath or corner
panels – 5 mm deep – with a router so that blocks (use some of the offcut material). Var-
Tools the upright panels fit snugly into them (refer nish the magazine rack.
DESCRIPTION to Figure 2). The slots end 10 mm and 13 mm
Circular saw (optional) from the edge of the panel, respectively (as (Note: the magazine rack shown in the photos
Router per Figure 2) . was constructed with more than one sheet of
Chisel Square off the rounded router edges (in the ply wood, hence is taller than the description
slots) with a chisel. above)

HEADBOARD SUITABLE FOR
A QUEEN-SIZE BED
Construction is straightforward and follows from the
cutting plan.
MATERIALS
20 mm plywood, cut to the following sizes:
1. 1 200 x 50 (34)
2. 400 x 50 (2)
Wood glue
Clamps
Suitable brackets to mount the headboard to the wall
Just
a-sitting
and a-rockin’
Jos Froon describes his rocking horse design as an ideal weekend
project for Dad or Granddad. Preferred ply thickness is 22, but 18
1x
will do (that’s in fact what he used, because it was all that the
hardware store had available on the day).
MATERIALS
Rocker boards: 1 000 x 200 (2) 2x
1x
Seat board: 72,5 x 240 (1)

Head front board: 630 x 220 (1)
Cross sections: 500 x 150 (2)
Tail board: 500 x 150 (1) 2x
Strut sections: 275 x 150 (2) 2x
Handle: 200 long, 22 square. Then round edges for
about 80 each side (1)
INSTRUCTIONS 2x
Cut wood to the size of the plan for final use. The radius of the rockers
is 1 000 if you want to cut them with the router using an extension arm.
It is advisable to have the rocker a little wider if cutting the radius Assemble the rocker and cross section, followed by the head
with a router bit. board with the seat. Then add the tail section.
Edges of the head, tail section and the seat can be rounded off The unit can be assembled with wood screws or wood dowels and
with a router rounding bit or sanded to suit. can be painted and decorated with a tail to suit.
4
COAT STAND
*
7. 400 x 50 (3)
Again, construction is pretty basic (see below) and follows from 8. 300 x 50 (2) Plans and
the cutting list. 9. 200 x 50 (6) cutting lists
10. 100 x 50 (4) for 3 and 4 are
MATERIALS 11. 60 x 50 (2)
available on our
20 mm plywood, cut as follows: 12. Wood glue
1. 1 200 x 150 with two 50 x 50 cutouts at one end (1 required) 13. Clamps Website. Go to
2. 1 200 x 100 (2) Home How-To at
3. 1 200 x 50 (2) ASSEMBLY popularmechan-
4. 360 x 50 with cutouts to form coathooks (2) Items 1 to 3 form the upright. ics.co.za
5. 65 x 50 with cutouts to form hooks (2) Items 4 and 5 form the coat hooks.
6. 500 x 50 (1) Items 6 to 11 form the base.

WIN! with our home workshop challenge
STAND-UP DESK
AND announcing:
Workshop Challenge No. 4
Accept the PM Home Workshop Challenge and a
Makita DHP458ZK Cordless 18V Lithium-Ion
Impact Drill Kit, valued at R6 386, could be yours.
THE THEME: IN THE GARDEN
Summertime and the living is easy. And a lot of the time

it’s outdoors. Whether your garden is the green leafy kind
or the austere Oriental kind, there’s bound to be a way it
can be enhanced with your own efforts. We’re thinking
daybed, brick braai, water feature, treetop deck, unusual
planter, labour-saving device… with just one condition.
Unlike Challenge No. 3, this time around you are required
to creatively use at least one power tool in putting
together your project. Your scope is as wide as the
imagination allows.
THE PRIZE:
Makita DHP458ZK Cordless 18 V Lithium-Ion Impact Driver Drill Kit.

This top-of-the-range Makita 13 mm impact driver drill features a bat-
tery indicator that displays the remaining battery charge; twin LED lights
that illuminate when the trigger is pressed; and three functions – drilling,
hammer action and screw driving. The DHP458ZK provides plenty of
power for demanding tasks, with 21 torque settings to choose from –
giving you perfect control and a maximum torque of up to 91 N.m.
This model is extremely compact, with a two-speed metal gearbox
and steel keyless chuck. It features a rubberised grip, an extended side
handle for greater control, a reversible belt clip for both left- and right-
handed operation and a twin bit holder.
Included in the prize are a Makita DHP458ZK impact driver drill
(supplied in a handy carry case) with 2 x 4,0 Ah Makita Lithium Ion
batteries (BL1840, which recharges in 36 minutes) and a Makita
compact fast charger (DC18RC).
To find out more, visit www.makita.co.za, like Makita on Facebook
Makita-PowerToolsSA or call 011 878 2600.
Your project will appear in a future issue of PoPular Mechanics.
Email your plans and a picture of the results, by 13 January

2016, to [email protected].
For full competition rules, see www.popularmechanics.co.za/workshopchallenge

A BOTTLE OPENER FOR
SHOP NOTES
We are always looking for clever solutions to everyday
THE WORKSHOP
Take a bit of scrap board easily gripped
by hand and drive a nail through it so the
head remains about a centimetre above the
surface. Bend the shank back against the
problems. Email your shop notes to popularmechanics@
ramsaymedia.co.za
opposite side of the board. To open a bottle,
use the nailhead to grip the cap, then pull.
Assemble before consuming beer.
Shifting spanner
The bricks in the wall calliper
When drilling a hole for a nut-
Getting headers and stretchers from hod* to course and wythe isn’t as simple as it
and-bolt assembly, quickly
sounds. When building a brick wall, a mason uses a particular formula for orienting
determine what size bit to use by
bricks, called a bond pattern. Today, brick is rarely load-bearing, but when bonds
tightening a shifting spanner
originated their purpose was to align bricks and vertical joints for structural integrity. around the bolt, then finding
They persist in non-structural uses because of their pleasing aesthetic qualities. the drill bit that fits snugly into
the jaws at that width.
THE WALL THE BRICKS
Improve wireless
router effectiveness
Wireless routers connect
COURSE computers and an ever-growing
A horizontal unit of wall, list of vital home devices to the
one masonry unit high. STRETCHER HEADER Internet and to each other, so when
their signals get patchy it’s a
nightmare. Two quick improvements
help. First, plug the router into a
cheap electric timer set to briefly
WYTHE turn it off – effectively resetting it –
A vertical unit of wall, one every night while the house sleeps.
masonry unit thick. SAILOR SOLDIER Then, on routers with multiple
antennas, position the antennas
QUOIN perpendicular to each other.
A decorative treatment This provides the best chance
for the corner of the wall, for the wireless signal to align
consisting of brick or stone with devices’ antennas.
different from that used for ROWLOCK ROWLOCK
the face of the wall. STRETCHER
or SHINER
THE BOND Christmas tree

PATTERNS RUNNING BOND
Only stretchers are
STACK BOND
Only stretchers are used,
coasters
used. Vertical joints are but vertical joints are Contributing editor Richard
offset for strength. aligned. The weakest of Romanski cuts drink coasters from
Easy to install, this is the commonly used
the most common bonds, stack bond
tree trunks. Use your Christmas
bond used today. requires significant tree to make your own – a fresh
additional support. cut from the trunk will also keep it
vibrant and healthy longer into the
*A brick hod is used holiday season. An ideal coaster
for carrying brick. In
the wrong hands, it
thickness is about a centimetre, so
can be quite danger- a cut about 20 centimetres off the
ous, and should only bottom of the tree easily yields a
be hoisted by individu- full set. For stability, clamp the cut
als of true strength
COMMON BOND FLEMISH BOND ENGLISH BOND and cunning. portion of the stump between two
Periodic header courses Each row alternates Rows of headers and battens, then use the clamp as a
break up rows of run- headers and stretchers. stretchers alternate, with
ning bond. The header Multiple stretchers can headers centred above handle to carefully slide it through
courses require a cut come between headers: stretchers and stretch- a band saw. In time the wood’s
three-quarter-length a pattern with three ers aligned vertically. WITH THANKS to Brian natural moisture will evaporate and
brick at the corners. stretchers between The English cross Trimble of the US Brick
headers is called bond or Dutch bond Industry Association.
the coasters will crack, but by then
garden-wall bond. variation offsets the you’ll have rung in the new year. PM
stretcher rows.

Ad ve nture
ac tiv iti es
Ki dd ies’
ac ti vi ti es
unlock your
travel dreams
Pl an you r next
holid ay APRIL 1–3 2016
FRIDAY 10AM-6PM • SATURDAY 9AM-6PM
SUNDAY 9AM-5PM
LOURENSFORD WINE ESTATE

La test cam pin g SOMERSET WEST
an d outdoor gea r
Tickets are available at the gates or online.
Adults R70, pensioners and students R40, kids 12 and under free.
Family pass (family of four) R150, Weekend Pass R150
Gre at off ers

an d pri zes
www.getawayshow.co.za
BUYER’SGUIDE To advertise in Buyer’s Guide contact Joanne, Lindi or Patrick on 011 449 1100 or
email: [email protected]






CFP TECHNOLOGIES
Electric motors & Drives
Speed Control for your Machinery,
Pumps, Conveyors, Fans, Mixers, etc
Variable Speed Drives for Electric Motors (VFD’s or VSD’s)
Single phase input, three phase output models. 0.18 Kw - 4 Kw
Three phase input, three phase output models. 0.18 Kw - 1000 Kw
Electric Motors
Single Phase: 0.12 Kw - 7.5 Kw Three Phase: 0.18 Kw - 330 Kw
Website: www.cfptech.co.za
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 082 8570324



IDEAL FOR THE

WORKSHOP
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For more information:
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +2731 717 6800
Visit our website: www.lgtools.co.za
Available at selected retailers countrywide
*Prices are recommended retail value and include VAT



DO IT YOUR WAY / USEFUL, CLEVER TIPS FOR YOUR HOME
WIN
WINNING TIP SEND US YOUR
HINT – AND SCORE!
Send us your best home, garage work-
shop and general DIY hints – and win!
This month’s winning tip will receive
a Master Lock hamper worth R1 500.
The hamper consists of a shackle key
storage unit, keyed locking cable and
M1 Excell Padlocks. The Shackle Key
Storage Unit is a large key storage com-
partment that holds multiple house or car
keys. It is secured by a four-digit reset-
table combination with dials mounted at
an angle for easier use and good visibility.
COVER ALL THE ANGLES Its solid zinc body withstands hammer-
ing and sawing; dual locking levers and
I suddenly needed a cut-off machine for my 115 mm grinder. I could not find one in
hardened steel shackle provide stern
nearby stores, so had to improvise. Some scrap wood and two eyebolts did the trick.
resistance to attempts at intrusion.
The photos say it all. The base can swivel 360 degrees, so you can cut at any angle.
Weather-resistance measures include
JOHAN DE SWARDT a protective plastic door and vinyl-coated
DURBANVILLE shackle. The Keyed Locking Cable com-
prises a 1,8-metre self-coiling cable and
pin tumbler cylinder. A vinyl cover protects
jubilee clip. Use a hacksaw blade to cut your belongings from being scratched;
WATERPROOF JOINTING ON THE CHEAP it’s available in blue, red and transparent.
through the plastic pipe left in the hose
Cut the appropriate size and length of Finally, the M1 Excell padlocks are built
and then break it out using a screwdriver.
plastic conduiting to slip over your cable. using the toughest boron alloy material
You will now find it impossible to force
Stagger the length of your connection so and cutting-edge technology. Master
the new plastic pipe into the old hose, but
that the joints do not overlap and form a Lock registered more than 40 patents to
don’t despair. Take the glue for sealing
thick connection. Connect each with a ferrule create Excell, a truly high-security pad-
the plastic joints and smear it around the
and tape them up individually. Then slip lock that is 50 per cent stronger than a
inside of the hose. Now, light that with a
your piece of conduiting over the joints, standard padlock. In laminated steel and
match or lighter!
leaving an overlap on each side. Finally, available in different sizes, it’s perfect
In a couple of minutes the glue will
fill with silicone and seal it off on both for indoor and outdoor applications,
burn off leaving the hose pliable enough from securing factory fences to locking
ends to make a waterproof connection.
to push the new plastic plumbing into the sheds or store front gates. For more
FRED HEYDENRYCH
hose. Don’t forget to put a new jubilee information on Master Lock, visit
KENSINGTON
clip over the hose first. Tighten the clip mackiediy.co.za or call (021) 508 1250.
over the newly made joint.
DAVE BELL Send your tips to:
POOL PUMP PLUMBING MADE EASY
BENONI PM Do It Your Way, Box 180, Howard
If you are a swimming pool owner there
Place 7450, or e-mail popularmechanics
will be a time when you have to repair or
@ramsaymedia.co.za. Please include
replace your pool pump. Quite often you
your name, address and contact number.
will find a pump at a price you want to pay, POWER-SAVING CUPPA Regrettably, only South African residents
but not the same fitting as the original. A humble but effective electricity-saving are eligible for the prize. Prizes not
The plastic piping is easy to replace, the tip for kettles, which use quite a lot of claimed within 60 days will be forfeited.
jointing being done by purchase of a special electricity: when you use the kettle first
glue designed for joining plastic pipe work thing in the morning, fill it up and boil,
and making the joints waterproof under use what you need, and put the rest in a
pressure. However, invariably you will flask. Later in the day, use the hot water
find that the pipework to and from the for coffee without having to boil, or re-fill
pool is a “flexible” type of hose. the kettle to quickly boil for tea. At sup-
To refit the new plastic piping to such per time, use the remaining water for
hose is an issue. The hose is clamped by cooking. This saves on stove time as it is
means of a jubilee clip. First cut the old still quite hot.
plastic pipe off the hose leaving a few cen- CAROL BAILIE
timetres sticking out. Remove the old EDENVALE PM
RESERVATION OF COPYRIGHT
The publishers of PoPular Mechanics reserve all rights of reproduction or broadcasting of feature articles and factual data appearing in this journal under Section 12 (7) of the Copyright Act,
1978. Such reproduction or broadcasting may be authorised only by the publishers of PoPular Mechanics. Published by RamsayMedia Pty Ltd for the Proprietors, PoPular Mechanics (SA) Pty
Ltd, Uitvlught, Howard Drive, Pinelands, Western Cape. Distributed by RNA, 12 Nobel St, Industria West, Johannesburg, and printed by CTP Gravure, 19-21 Joyner Road, Prospecton,
Durban. Apple Mac support: Digicape tel 021 674-5000.

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ENERGIZER POWER BANK FREE!
This little battery backup will ensure that your mobile device never
runs out of charge while on the road. Its 2 200 mAh internal
battery has enough life to charge a phone, giving you
about eight hours of additional talk time. The 5V/1A
USB output provides a charging rate similar to a
wall charger’s. Included in the package is a USB
to micro-USB cable for connecting to either the
battery backup or compatible devices such as
Android smartphones from Samsung, Motorola,
HTC, Nokia, and others. The Power Bank
comes with a handy drawstring pouch for easy
transportation and keeping your cables and charger
together.*Mobile device shown in the photo not included with gift.
Hand-delivery option now available

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Plus FREE digital subscription!

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beneﬁts of the oﬀer above. Simply contact us and quote 16/01/SP/PM
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This offer is valid until 31 January 2016 and applies to print subscribers with a South African address only. Stock of the Power Bank is subject to availability and while stocks last.
Popular Mechanics magazine assumes no responsibility with any issues related to use of the Power Bank. Print subscribers can claim a FREE digital version – just contact us to
confirm the email address for the link. For foreign rates and other great offers, visit www.magsathome.co.za
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TESTED: Fibaro smart home kit + Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro + LG G4 Stylus

TECH » SCIENCE » WHEELS » HOME » OUTSIDE www.popularmechanics.co.za WIN

MAN vs DRIVERLESS CAR

www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016 1

TESTED: Fibaro smart home kit + Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro + LG G4 Stylus

TECH » SCIENCE » WHEELS » HOME » OUTSIDE www.popularmechanics.co.za WIN

MAN vs DRIVERLESS CAR

Stand a chance of winning the

US fighter pilots teach elite Iraqi airmen ● Ford Everest

how to fly F-16s – against ISIS ● Mercedes-Benz GLC and GLE

34 The call of the wild ● Nissan off-road technology

Match your camping toys to your lifestyle

EDITOR: Anthony Doman GROUP PUBLISHER: Neil Piper

PRODUCTION AND CREATIVE TEAM

BUSINESS AND SALES TEAM

R150 Patrick Kennedy, Nicky Lloyd,

MARKETING, EVENTS AND CIRCULATION

PUBLISHED BY RamsayMedia (PTY) LTD

Cape Town head office: Uitvlugt, 3 Howard Drive, Pinelands, 7405

Published and distributed by RamsayMedia (Pty) Ltd by permission of Hearst

Write to us, engage

GREEN NEEDN’T BE DIRTY

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 9

10 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

12 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

participants’ ideas on a whiteboard. Participants are, or pretend to be, indifferent to the

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 13

Renowned robotic surgeon Dr Vipul

similar benefits to those of robotic prosta-

DOCTOR ROBOT, I PRESUME for 19 years. Its staff includes 20 leading

14 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 15

OPERATING WITH ROBOTS: robot. The remaining 10 per cent are

‘The robot does not do the procedure by itself, but is steered

16 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

AGRICULTURAL for many farmers as they strive to

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 17

18 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

when you sum them up, equate roughly to

Will we ever have Star

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 19

GREAT STUFF NEW

20 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 21

Master Lock Connected Padlock

22 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 23

Razer Mamba Chroma

Unilite Prosafe Inspection

24 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

Single issues are also available.

BACK HOME LOOMS A

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 27

It had been more than a year since ISIS had cap-

28 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 29

30 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ JANUARY 2016

JANUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 31

AWAF HUNG UP WITH HIS FRIEND and called one