INSTRUCTIONS

1/ Crosscut the following parts to length from the 20 mm stock: cut part B to 115 mm; cut part D to 50 mm; cut parts E and K to 200 mm and cut part H to 70 mm. (It will later be cut into a parallelogram shape.) Complete part B by ripping it to 22 mm wide. 2/ Crosscut the following parts to length from the 6-mm stock: Cut part I to 100 mm and cut part J to 70 mm. (It will also be cut into a parallelogram shape.) 3/ Cut parts H and J into their finished lengths as a parallelogram shape. Set a mitre saw to 30 degrees and cut these parts so their long sides measure 50 mm. 4/ The crank arm and dowel rod (B and C) are one subassembly. They drive the paddle (H, I, and J), a separate subassembly. But the trick is to allow the crank and paddle to spin freely while supporting it on top of the mixing can. The solution is surprisingly simple.

First crosscut the dowel rod to 178 mm long. Next, make the crank support by gluing parts D and E together. Centre D on the length of E.

When the glue has dried, bore a 12,5 mm hole centred on the width and length of these two parts. Now use an awl to mark the hole for the dowel rod (C) in the crank arm (B). Centre the mark on the arm’s width and

Hanger bolt K The ice-cream sandwich always feels impossibly light when you first draw one from the box at the bottom of the filling-station freezer. You weigh it in your fingertips on the way to the cashier. It barely registers. There is nothing meaty or substantial about its component parts; the cheapo ice cream blown light with air and the reliably damp wafer have no appeal on their own. But stack the former between the latter, create a single nest deck and freeze, then wrap in a mysteriously opaque freezer paper, one that unpeels from the resultant confection like the untroublesome membrane of a summer’s day, and you have the commercial-grade ice-cream sandwich, the inarguable king of small, pleasant treats.

The ice-cream sandwich works. While you may have brand preferences, that basic product assembly has never been improved upon. Five reliable bites. Always cold, urgent with cold, never too cold. Ever sticky in its last moments on the finger pads. One is rarely better than the last, so you never need more than one. This is perhaps the last shining remnant of 20th-century factory food. At home, it is a best-case scenario for a late-afternoon trip to the freezer in your garage, same for your kids as it was for you. The unbeatable small-change (more or less) purchase of a late August roadie. I’m eating one now. Yes. Praise be the ice-cream sandwich, the unchanging bridge and tunnel between otherwise forgotten summer days. PM

ccording to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s latest report, revenue from music streaming in South Africa over the past year has increased by more than 300 per cent. Apple Music, Google Play and Deezer are SA’S largest streaming services and, with more people owning smartphones and Internet access becoming easier, streaming could mean the end of traditional CD sales the world over.

I haven’t yet crossed over to streaming. I am unusual among millennials, I suppose, in being the kind of person that still haunts the CD aisles. But, if ever I were to join the 21st century, I would have quite a few excellent options.

APPLE MUSIC is the go-to streaming service for iphone users. It integrates the user’s music library into the app and works on Mac and PC platforms, Apple TV, or any Apple product that runs on IOS. At a cost of R59,99 a month, Apple Music gives access to a complete library of music, offline play and unlimited streaming. Also included is its free global radio station, Beats 1, select shows such as Carpool Karaoke and access to albums that launch exclusively on Apple Music. For a little more money, you can get unlimited access to six people without having to share personal accounts, if you take out Apple’s family membership at R89,99 a month. pm pm

Google Play Music is Apple’s major competitor in SA. Launched in December 2015, Play Music costs the same as Apple and comes with a free 30-day trial.

The service provides offline music playback, an MP3 store, and the ability to upload music that customers already own.

Outside of the two big players there’s a growing range of alternatives. Deezer, founded in France in 2007, provides its 16 million users with music from artists signed to EMI, Sony, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. Deezer has collaborated with Vodacom to bring its service to South Africa, too. Vodacom offers Deezer’s users six months free with the premium plan (at a cost of R59,99) but also allows a prepaid plan, which is far more affordable and does not require longterm commitment.

To sweeten the deal further, Deezer offers users a free two hours of listening every month. The Deezer app (the company recently launched its desktop version) also has great integration with Facebook, for those who like to get social and share their listening habits.

Then there are the players that don’t rely just on sheer size, convenience or pricing, but on something different. A prime example is Tidal, which has grown immensely popular in SA.

music. (Yes, I plead guilty to audio-snobbery.)

The company’s differential pricing model means that South Africans pay effectively half the rate of regions that can afford the full monthly fee of $19,99 (R287 at current rates), such as North America and Europe. As I started writing this, the scales tipped further in favour of locals when an email dropped into my inbox informing me that in future I would be paying R119,99. Within hours it became apparent why: Deezer was launching its own, competing, high-res offering for the same monthly fee. The jury’s still out on which service has the better selection.

So, for me, the big deal has been the simple equation of sound quality + choice + convenience. Sometimes the choice may be limited by licensing agreements or other obscure reasons: a friend couldn’t find Sadao Watanabe’s Rendezvous, for example. But there is more than enough on the streaming companies’ servers to keep you listening until your vinyl LPS have been ground to dust.

One unforeseen consequence: because of the upsurge of interest in streaming and computerbased music replay, CDS seem to have fallen out of fashion. Which means that there’s really no better time to buy second-hand CDS.

For the moment, though, I’ve got something to look forward to. We’re moving. And the new place has a fibre connection. – Anthony Doman PM

“Please don’t point your camera in that direction,” the official said. Oh no, never, I responded in a flurry, I’m just checking a setting, no worries, I wasn’t going to take any pictures of that part of the harbour, particularly that warship over there. Overhead, a Huey helicopter clattered in what seemed like particularly threatening circles, which was probably just my overactive imagination at work.

We were standing at the water’s edge in Japan’s big port city, Yokohama. A chain link fence separated us from two businesslike-looking grey vessels tied up at a quayside in a zone where the US flag flaps smartly in the brisk sea breeze. Speaking of which, on our side of the fence is Hama Wing, a small patch of shore dominated by a single wind turbine installation that’s a brave attempt at a sustainable way of looking at a hydrogen supply chain. Brave in the sense that wind power has not yet made significant inroads into the country’s energy mix. But it’s seen as providing added impetus to a part of the energy mix that is gaining more and more attention: hydrogen.

Japan’s shortage of natural resources – specifically, the fossil-fuel kind – makes hydrogen a more pressing option there than in oil-rich areas. But that’s not to say the rest of the world shouldn’t be paying attention.

Fuel cell vehicles don’t actually burn hydrogen; they combine it with oxygen to produce electricity.

Mirai (Japanese for The Future), above, is Toyota’s current production expression of the hydrogenfuelled car. Fine Comfort Ride, top, points the way to future premium vehicles.

Essentially, hydrogen passes through a flow field plate to an anode. Cells are grouped in a stack (the stack of Toyota’s Mirai FCV has 370 of those cells) to produce sufficient electricity to drive a motor – and emit only water and heat.

By late 2017, approaching 3 000 Mirais had been sold, mostly in Japan (about half the total) and the US. Other manufacturers have developed own hydrogen-powered vehicles – Honda with the Clarity and Hyundai with the ix35 FCEV. However, much of the initial interest shown in other quarters – Europe, for instance – has waned and battery power has increasingly gained attention.

At the moment, the numbers of FCVS sold are both small enough to suggest that it’s a very niche-y product, and big enough to hint at a potential for bigger sales success. Putting aside concerns about fuel storage and safety, which seem these days to have been thoroughly addressed, the big IF really is fuelling infrastructure. Toyota has in any case proven its application of the technology works, using hydrogenfuelled forklifts. Why forklifts as guinea pigs for fuel cells? Simple. The company has lots of business units, many of which use forklifts.

At Hama Wing, energy generated by the wind drives the hydrogen plant that’s based on an urban-friendly process and at 12 per cent conversion rate is relatively inefficient, we were told. “We have to be able to use urban energy methods,” our guide said. “We also wanted an urban project… to get more media attention… it is easier to get people there.” The site itself was built by the city 10 years ago and the project has been done in co-operation with the country’s ministry of environment.

To cater for those times when the wind doesn’t blow or isn’t strong enough, Toyota has provided energy storage – in the form of obsolete hybrid-vehicle batteries. Specifically, a system designed around 180 endof-life Prius batteries with a total output of 150 kwh. According to Toyota officials present during our visit, there’s plenty of capacity and recharge cycles still in the batteries although they may have reached the end of their design lives. As it’s relatively early days in the project, they can’t say just how much kick these batteries retain, but they do monitor them continually to note any drop-off. Besides maintaining the system output, this also helps in making decisions about the practical longevity of the hybrid battery packs and their possible alternative uses after they have reached their end-of-life stage.

Before scrapping the car, the company collects the batteries and delivers them to a central point, where good ones are cherry-picked. “We have already established a network of battery recycling that way,” a Toyota official explained.

Eventually, once pronounced thoroughly deceased, the scrap battery will be put to use for making batteries once again.

This sustainable approach forms part of the company’s drive to lower the carbon footprint of the installation. “We are (also) selling the batteries to our dealers as a power storage source,” an official said.

The company isn’t pinning all its hopes on hydrogen, of course. Its exhibits at the recently completed Tokyo motor show also highlighted that the ongoing quest to improve the internal combustion engine will have the biggest impact. However, it’s clear that in the short to medium term a mix of combustion engines, hybrid and fuel cell, depending on the market, will be the norm.