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South African (Off-Topic) Quiz


DamhuisClan

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correct Carbon Hunter

 

A most fascinating ring made popular by the Dutch Graphic artist MC Escher.

 

A model can easily be made by taking a paper strip and giving it a half-twist, and then joining the ends of the strip together to form a loop. with a pencil draw along the face of the loop and if you continue long enough you come back to the spot where you started. If you cut along that line you surprisingly get only one loop!

 

over to you

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Now one with a vague SA connection only - seeing as Tom mentioned Escher - the Dutch artist (and one of my favourites).

 

King Willem-Alexander has just ascended the Dutch throne. When was the last time The Netherlands had a King? (or alternatively - how many queens have there been since the last king)?

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I was re-reading Beachcomer by LG Green and came across this - later confirmed in wikipedia.

 

Silbo Gomero (Spanish for 'Gomeran Whistle'), also known as "el silbo" ('the whistle'), is a whistled language spoken by inhabitants of La Gomera in the Canary Islands to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys (gullies) that radiate through the island.[1] A speaker of Silbo Gomero is sometimes referred to in Spanish as a "silbador" ('whistler'). It was declared as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2009.

 

interesting youtube examples exist - but how it works is still a mystery - it is supposed to be whistled form of Spanish!

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Okay - sorry for the delay - what was "Keert de Koe"?

 

No response - so here goes - it was one of the forts put up by van Riebeeck to protect the settlement.

 

By the late 1650s the settlement around the Fort De Goede Hoop had expanded, and also included free burgher farms along the Liesbeeck River to the east of the fort and Table Mountain, cutting off the local Khoi from their traditional grazing areas. The land along the lower reaches of the Liesbeeck River to the mouth of the Salt River consisted of barren, rocky soil with sparse vegetation. Van Riebeeck declared this also VOC grazing lands and consequently instructed Kaptains Autschomao and Gogosa of the Goringhaiqua "not to establish their kraals in the vicinity of the Liesbeeck and Salt Rivers" The Khoi reaction to the dispossession of their lands was to disrupt farming, and in 1659 full-scale war broke out, which ended in a stalemate. A line of manned forts was erected on the eastern side of the Liesbeeck River amongst the farms and connected by a log fence.

 

These simple earth and timber fortifications works (redoubts) stretched from Fort Dynhoop in Table Bay in an arc towards, what is now, Kirstenbosch gardens. Amongst which were Kyckuyt (1659-1670s) -- present-day Paarden Eiland; Keert de Koe (1659-1670s) -- present-day Maitland and Houdt den Bul (1659–1663) -- present-day Bishopscourt. In addition, a wild almond hedge was planted to prevent the indigenous cattle of the Khoi-Khoi to graze on "Company land". None of these redoubts has survived the expansion of the town, only a short fragment of the wild almond hedge is said to be extant in the Kirstenbosch gardens.

 

Over to anyone else to ask a question?

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