NUGGET (29 MAY 2026)

A RECOMMENDATION.

I finished this book during my little study break over the last few weeks and its really good stuff! ‘Nature’s Best Hope’ by Douglas W. Tallamy is a brilliant guide to restoring biodiversity by turning your own yard (if you are lucky enough to have one) into a wildlife habitat – which sounds like a lot of work and might involve lions. But if you invest the time to read this book, you will find it’s not, and the payoff is substantial. People are always asking me, “but what can I do” – and I always say “lots.” Conservation is something that starts at home. It’s important to learn quickly that in 2026, it’s no longer about humans versus nature; it’s about humans with nature. Humans need to be motivated to act, but for the particular problems we face, we cannot wait for the crisis to be in full swing. Discovering our own ignorance is never nice, but once we know that we can make a difference, the will to act seems to happen more ‘naturally’ for us.

This book’s main message is that because a lot (if not most, depending on the country) of land is privately or commercially owned, individual homeowners (and business owners) can save local ecosystems by making a few good decisions. While some parts of this book raised my eyebrows a few times, I think it might have been because of the writing style and his reference to our water crisis hitting a nerve.

All in all, this book is packed with good ideas as well as some real insights on what’s going wrong in our own backyard. Thank you, Douglas W. Tallamy, for the great book! I do hope many more people get to read it.

A NICE NUGGET INDEED.

Have you heard of lights-out automation? It refers to a fully automated factory or facility that operates without any human presence on-site. The term comes from the notion that machines do not require light to perform their tasks, allowing you to literally ‘turn off the lights,’ lock the doors, and let the factory operate autonomously.

The most famous example of a ‘lights-out’ factory must be the FANUC robotics factory in Oshino, Japan. You can find it at the bottom of Mount Fuji. This facility is recognized as a benchmark in the industry for dark manufacturing because it uses robots to manufacture other robots without human oversight for up to 30 days consecutively. How many of these factories exist today? As of the start of this year, there were only 223 ‘lights-out factory’ sites. It’ll be interesting to see how the totals are at the end of 2026.

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS.

A bit sad unfortunately. In their April 2026 update, the IUCN has reclassified Emperor Penguins and Antarctic Fur Seals as endangered. Here is the information:

Emperor Penguins:

• Status changed from Near Threatened to Endangered.

• Threat: Early sea-ice breakup disrupts breeding and leads to high chick mortality.

• Population down by 22% since 2018; projections indicate a potential halving by the 2080s.

Antarctic Fur Seals:

• Status downgraded from Least Concern to Endangered.

• Threat: Food scarcity due to warming oceans pushing krill deeper.

• Population plummeted significantly from 2.19 million in 1999 to 944000 by 2026. This breaks my heart.

I will look for some good news next, but it too is endangered.

THE BIGGEST NEWS.

On the 26th of April, our Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, officially withdrew South Africa’s Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy.

Why? Well, this decision followed the embarrassing revelation that the draft contained numerous fictitious academic citations, identified as AI hallucinations. These fake references indicated that the policy’s authors relied on the very technology it intended to regulate, without adequate human verification.

Do we have to restart the process? Perhaps. Is there a new timeline? Nope. Accountability? Nope

KEEP AN EYE ON THIS?

Our Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE) has proposed a ‘flexible’ Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system to replace the current one-size-fits-all approach with risk-based screening. The goal advertised is to accelerate development, but environmental groups are expressing concerns regarding weakened oversight, as noted in analyses by Daily Maverick and Natural Justice – and I think there is reason to be concerned. Let’s keep an eye on this.

BIG PAY DAY.

There has been a record R2 trillion revenue collection reported by SARS over the last period, with their net collection for the 2024/25 fiscal year. That is an 8.4% increase, apparently driven by improved compliance and mining sector contributions. I hope that moola gets to where it’s needed and not a new jet plane or another SOE bailout.

SOME MUSKENEER NEWS.

For those of you who didn’t know, Elon Musk and Sam Altman are currently (at least at the time I wrote this) at the center of a high-stakes jury trial, alongside OpenAI and Microsoft, which began on Monday, April 27th. So what’s happening? Well, the trial addresses whether OpenAI has deviated from its original mission of serving humanity to become profit-driven. How fascinating is that as a subject for court! Also, this sounds more like a human thing to do than an AI.

Musk argued that OpenAI’s initial nonprofit status attracted top talent and funding under the promise of public service, a status he claims was later exploited for private profit. Musk’s legal team believe that Altman and Greg Brockman transformed OpenAI’s core technology into a commercial entity, primarily benefiting Microsoft, which is also a defendant in the case.

OpenAI’s attorneys, led by William Savitt, describe Musk’s lawsuit as a harassment campaign motivated by jealousy after failing to secure complete control over the company in 2017. So, there’s lots of mud-slinging. Mr. Musk is seeking damages between $130 billion and $150 billion, which he apparently intends to donate to OpenAI’s charitable branch rather than keep for himself. This is an interesting twist and strategy..

The trial’s verdict, which is anticipated to be ready by mid-May 2026, could have major repercussions, including leadership changes with the removal of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman from their positions. A victory for Mr. Musk might also force OpenAI to revert its transition to a for-profit organization, potentially jeopardizing its planned IPO later in 2026. The trial could also legally determine whether OpenAI’s models constitute Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which under original agreements cannot be licensed to Microsoft for commercial use. (Remember, AGI, by the correct definition, does not actually exist… yet.)

I DIDN’T POST ON FREEDOM DAY.

I didn’t do any posts on Freedom Day; I was enjoying some freedom from social media, but I do want to talk about something happening now. There is a trend of xenophobia and a migration drive underway right now. We all know, as the 2026 election cycle intensifies, we can expect there will be shenanigans, but this level of anti-immigrant sentiment has emerged much higher than I thought and is actually a rather prominent theme in party campaigns.

Parties such as ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance are making promises to ‘clean up’ cities by removing undocumented foreigners, repeatedly linking illegal migration to service delivery failures and rising crime. President Cyril Ramaphosa (who I see next week at one of my own work events) was speaking on Freedom Day and condemned recent xenophobic attacks and cautioned that legitimate concerns about illegal migration must not harden into prejudice or street justice. Meanwhile, civil society groups, including the African Diaspora Forum, have criticized much of the political rhetoric as cheap politics designed to win votes at the risk of stoking real-world violence. Low-hanging fruit?

Interestingly, and perhaps coincidentally, deportations appear to have surged, and the Department of Home Affairs reports a cumulative 46% rise in removals over the past two financial years, totalling 109344 people by the 31st of March 2026. Deportations climbed from roughly 39000 in 2023/24 to over 57000 in 2025/26, a jump attributed to ‘Operation New Broom’ — a nationwide campaign using drone surveillance, body cameras, and other high-tech tools to monitor borders and urban hotspots

The END!