Free-form musings on life, UCT and everything. An erratic and unreliable hitchhiker's guide to the campus...B-)
Anyone else ever wondered why some obscure Web-hosting company from another country should be advertising on the slip road off the M3 into UCT from the south?
I know I have...from long before there were such companies, and I used to come from the south.
But thanks to XKCD, all is revealed.
Ed Rybicki is an active researcher, a Professor in Microbiology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, and member of the Institute of infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at UCT.
He was seconded for the period 2011-2013 to act as Academic Liaison to the Research Portal Project: his job is to facilitate interactions between the Research Office and ICTS and the research community at UCT, and to improve ICT services for researchers.
Raving [110]
General [45]
Educational technology [12]
GroupWise [1]
Open Access [1]
30/08/2010, 12:47
Yes, T_Ed, I know I should be working...B-(
30/08/2010, 19:12
more to the point - the slip road (or "exit" as non-UK people call it) correctly refers to the Afrikaans translation of UCT as UK - Universiteit Kaapstad. For some reason the official UCT letterhead has deemed it necessary to insert a redundant "van" in there, viz. Universiteit van Kaapstad. That is such an embarrassing Anglisisme that those conversant in the vernacular cringe on behalf of the institution everytime they have to see it. Someone should tell whoever that it's just plain wrong....
(And besides, it shouldn't really be "net", it should be "slegs", in that context. "Net" is more like "just", as in, it will just take a minute. "Slegs" is more like "only".
31/08/2010, 08:46
Ja, boet...but then the somewhat laboured pun wouldn't work, see??
01/09/2010, 09:23
Working? Good grief no. I have just (last night) returned from 4000km of back roads and 4 x 4 trails from CT (g'n 'van' nie), to Sesriem (Nam), across the Cederberg, via Ceres and Franschoek, back to CT (sonder die 'van' - ons het a bakkie gebruik). Not a jot of work for 8 amazing days, all courtesy of my son. Please, Retroid, go on watching the road. BTW, we had some British academic guests here a year ago, and they were extremely puzzled at why a special internet service was available at UCT (met die van) for UK vistors.... (and why it was painted on the road).
06/09/2010, 16:10
So you see, it IS confusing...B-)
And yes, I continue to watch the road - and road signs, they are fun too. I must still snap the "Rotary Golf Driving Range" pic sometime. I didn't know they made rotarys?
21/10/2010, 23:06
I am sure though that "Universiteit van Kaapstad" is entirely correct, even if it is an Anglicization. I speak Afrikaans natively and agree that the phrase sounds awkward but I wouldn't go as far as to say that it is "embarrassing". Surely the UK would have researched this before making the translation!
22/10/2010, 13:24
The UK may well not have, knowing the UK as I do!