2oceans Vibe

So! The British Home Office announced yesterday that new legislation will soon allow the government to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of every single person in the UK. The Home Office then had to clarify that, no, this was not some sort of elaborate April Fools prank.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, recently charged for involvement in a prostitution ring, is also being accused of raping a hotel housekeeper – and since he seems to be losing that whole prostitution thing, he’s had his lawyers try to dismiss the case because his former position as head of the International Monetary Fund gives him “absolute immunity.”

Well, this doesn’t look good: Turkcell is suing MTN for $4,2 billion. Turkcell has decided to act on its claims that MTN bribed officials, arranged meetings between Iranian and South African leaders, and promised Iran weapons as well as UN votes, all in exchange for a licence to offer cellphone services in Iran.

An blog post allegedly featuring the residential address of George Zimmerman – the man who killed Trayvon Martin – has gone viral. The post went viral after it was retweeted by Spike Lee to his 250 000 followers. Unfortunately, the address actually belongs to an innocent elderly couple, who now live in fear.

While the public protector, Thuli Madonsela, wouldn’t outwardly say that the current tabulation of the Protection of Information Bill was unconstitutional, she did say MP’s could be spared the embarrassment of having it declared invalid by the courts if they rethought certain aspects of the bill.

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory has partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to launch what will arguably become the most extensive online archive of Nelson Mandela’s life. The free global access to photos, videos, letters and personal documents about his life and times will continue to expand as people across the world add their memorabilia to the archive.

Less than a week after Helen Zille’s latest Twitter-storm about comments she made about the state of education here in the Western Cape versus the same in our neighbours – she called students from the Eastern Cape who attend school here “refugees” – she has gotten all up in the ANC’s grille once more with fresh comments regarding the state of health here versus there.

Despite a lull in tension, all is still not well in sleepy Grabouw. Residents are still at each others throats over the apparent discrimination in the administration of local school facilities. So much so, that the Presidency has taken an unusual step to actually do something about it. More of this alleged good governance after the jump!

6’1′ bombshell, Jenna Talackova of Vancouver was disqualified from the Donald Trump-owned Miss Universe Canada beauty pageant for “not meeting the requirements to compete despite having stated otherwise on her entry form,” according to competition officials. By which they mean she was disqualified for being born with male genitalia.

French President, Nicolas Sarkozy announced late last week that his government will make visiting websites that advocate terrorism or hate a crime, punishable by fines or even prison. Au revoir, internet freedom?

Despite his insistence that Pretoria’s name would be history by the end of this year, it seems Tshwane Metro’s mayor, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, has had to concede that while the city name “Pretoria” will stay, a handful of street names will be made over. Details after the jump!

There’s an old Southampton pub called The Hobbit under threat from the company that controls Lord of the Rings licensing. The company eventually agreed to sell the pub a license to keep using the name it has had for decades. Stephen Fry and Ian McKellan decided this was stupid, so they paid the fee themselves.

Last year, Google announced that it was sending its Street View team to the Amazon basin – and images from that trip are are now being made available on Google Maps. You probably won’t end up using it for directions, but there are some awesome panoramic images on display.

While South Africans took the day off yesterday to reflect on Human Rights Day, the small community of Hangberg near Hout Bay was rocked by violent protests as residents took to the streets to lash out against a police taskforce that raided local homes looking for abalone poachers.

Here is a great example of how easy it is to ensure yourself a long, celebrated career in politics. After attending a conference in Washington recently, Barack Obama greeted some audience members. A deaf student in the crowd signed to him: “I am proud of you.” Not missing a beat, Obama signed back: “Thank you.” Video after the jump.

Popular torrent hosting site, The Pirate Bay has released plans to host their server database in the clouds. Literally in the clouds, I mean; they want to fit flying micro-drones with super-small computers and connect them with long-range radio transmitters, maintaining a network of “Low-Orbit Server Stations.” Which would make police raids a little more tricky.

Black and coloured residents of sleepy Overberg town, Grabouw, were at each others’ throats yesterday as racial tensions exploded over attacks on a local school.