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Taxpayers To Pay For “Zumaville”
03 Aug 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
The Mail and Guardian reported today that the government is building South Africa’s first new town at a cost of R2-billion town in President Jacob Zuma’s home village of Nkandla, and taxpayers will be footing half the bill.
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“I Am So Ronery” North Koreans Have It Hard At The Olympics
02 Aug 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
It must be tough to be a North Korean athlete at the Olympics. The hermit kingdom keeps a very close eye on their sportsmen and women in London, making sure none of them defect.
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China’s Athlete Factory [GALLERY]
01 Aug 2012 by Harry Haddon / 1 Comment
Nearly all of China’s 396 Olympians qualified for the Games under the patronage of the country’s monolithic Soviet-style sports system. Most are handpicked at an early age – as young as four – by scouts, and attend special schools to train in sports assumed to match physical attributes.
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Another Weekend Wine Trip: Hemel-en-Aarde Valley
31 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 4 Comments
It seems we are on to a good thing with these little wine trip columns. So here is another one. It’s in a similar area to the last one, but just a touch further down the road. This week I’ll be giving you a guide to the Hemel en Aarde Valley.
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William Shatner Narrates Rad NASA Video Days Before Mars Landing [VIDEO]
31 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
The Mini-Cooper sized Curiosity Rover is on target to land on the surface of Mars at 07h31 am on August 6th. This presents the most advanced mission to Mars in the history of space exploration. William Shatner and Will Wheaton have contributed their voices to videos explaining the mission.
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Fans Told Not To Tweet During Olympics
30 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
Olympic fans wanting to share every race, event and lunch over twitter, were told on Sunday to avoid non-urgent text messages and tweets during events because overloading of data networks was affecting television coverage.
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Prototypes Of iPads And iPhones Come Out In Court [GALLERY]
27 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
The iPhone design, like quite a few Apple products, is iconic, yet we hardly ever get a chance to see the development process that leads up to the product ending up on the market. Recent court documents reveal early design stages of both products.
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MP’s To Get Big Pay Rise, Still Not Linked To Performance
26 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 1 Comment
Members of parliament could soon be raking in R900 000 a year if President Jacob Zuma accepts a proposed 5,5 per cent salary increase for public office bearers. None of this is performance based.
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Selebi Gets Dialysis Machine Ahead Of Terminal Patients
25 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 3 Comments
Jakie Selebi is on a dialysis machine, but in getting one has seemingly jumped the queue at Steve Biko Academic Hospital where 82 patients were on the waiting list.
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Ministers Rack Up Huge Speeding Fines
24 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 1 Comment
In another spectacular use of state funds, Eye Witness News is reporting that Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has amassed almost R65,000 in traffic fines since April 2009.
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Syria: We’ll Only Use Chemical Weapons Against “External Aggression”
23 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 1 Comment
Though Syria claimed yesterday that they would never use chemical or bilogical weapons against their own, they did acknowledge they have a bunch of chemical and biological weapons, and would use them against external forces if they have to.
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The Digital Life Of South African Wine
21 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
Everything must go digital. That’s what it feels like anyway. I reckon if the Luddites were around today they’d probably have blogs. I have had two digital vinous experiences over the last week or so that I thought were pretty interesting. The ubiquitous “digital”. You want to go on a trip? Blog about it. Hey [...]
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FNB Customers Can Now Draw Cash From Supermarket Tills
20 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 2 Comments
FNB, trying to get relief from foot traffic in its branches, is now offering cash back at Pick n Pay and Shoprite Checkers. This move comes as government is placing increased pressure on banks to reduce transaction and banking fees.
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Inactivity Is As Deadly As Smoking
18 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
A new study suggests that not enough exercise is causing as many deaths as smoking across the world. This is especially chilling news for smokers who do not excercise, as they are expected to drop dead at any moment.
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Al-Qaeda Video Shows South African Hostage Is Healthy [VIDEO]
17 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 4 Comments
In a video published on YouTube recently, three men kidnapped in Mali last year by al-Qaeda say they are well. One of the men is South African Stephen Malcom McGown.
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DEA Discover Drug Tunnels Under U.S. Mexico border
13 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 1 Comment
The DEA have discovered two tunnels constructed for smuggling drugs into the US. The one tunnel was incomplete, but the other had recently completed and was thought to be used to get meth into Arizona from Mexico.
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Radio Lazarus: A Vineyard Reborn
12 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 5 Comments
I took a trip out to a vineyard that is being lovingly restored by a winemaker bent on making authentic, great South African wines. It lifted my spirits, it made wine worth writing about.
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Unnoticed, Al-Qaeda Has Taken Over Vast Areas Of Mali
12 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 1 Comment
The West have unintentionally cleared the path for al-Qaeda to take control over 300 000 square miles of African terrain. “Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM) and its allies have taken over an area of the Sahara more than three times the size of Britain, complete with airports, military bases, arms dumps and training camps.
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Amazing ‘Gymkhana 5′ Gets 3,7 Million Views In 24 Hours [VIDEO]
11 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
Ken Block is back with another crazy-ass stunt drive around San Francisco with Gymkhana 5, and it has gone viral, hard. The video has gained 7.8 million views since it went up on Monday, getting half of that in the first 24 hours.
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Survey Reveals The Obvious: No One Trusts Zuma
10 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
The Reputation Institute’s survey results, published at the weekend, show that out of the 24 public figures surveyed for perceived trustworthiness, President Zuma comes in at position 19, scoring just 36 percent. The only politician who scored lower than Zuma was former Congress of the People (Cope) leader Mbhazima Shilowa.
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Thousands To Lose Internet In FBI Server Shutdown
09 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
There may be no emails or lolcats later for more than 300 000 people as the FBI shuts off servers used by cyber criminals. The FBI seized the servers in November 2011 during raids to break up a gang of criminals who used viruses to infect more than four million victims.
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The Best View Of Mars Yet
09 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 1 Comment
After months and months of image collection, NASA has released what is the best image of Mars yet. If you can’t get there this week, this is the next best thing. Described by Nasa as the ‘Greeley Panorama’ from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, the first image documents the fifth Martian Winter of the mission.
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Wine Trips: Botrivier
06 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / 1 Comment
It’s time for another wine trip. This week I am taking you out on the N2 over Sir Lowry’s Pass and town into the lush, green, pastoral valley of Botrivier. This region usually gets bunched in with Walker Bay and Elgin. But, I believe, it deserves it’s own column and trip.
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Frenchman Stranded In Desert Turns His Car Into A Motorcycle [PICS]
06 Jul 2012 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
Lookout, we have a badass on out hands. Although the story is only emerging now, in 1993 Emile Leray’s Citroen down broke in a Moroccan desert miles from nearest village. Unfazed, he took the car apart and turned it into a motorbike.
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