Significantly, among the 18-24 year age group, approval for Malema has dropped from 26 per cent in 2001 to 21 per cent. In other age groups, support has risen slightly – most notably from 13 per cent to 19 per cent among 35 to 59 year-olds, and from seven to 14 per cent amongst 50 to 59 year-olds. Still, no great shakes.

When asked to agree or disagree with the statement, “I support what Julius Malema says and does”, black respondents were 27 per cent in favour, while there was just eight, five and six per cent support from white, coloured, and Indian/Asian respondents respectively.

What does this mean? Who knows. But the results suggest that Juju is going to have to re-assess his actions and statements if he’s ever going to win enough favour to become President, which he told us so vociferously yesterday he intends.

[Source: IOL]

Yesterday, a sheriff of the South Gauteng High Court made two unsuccessful attempts to serve court papers on Mdluli.

The papers were to be served on Mdluli, who is the fifth respondent in a case brought by FUL before the North Gauteng High Court.

FUL wants the court to prevent Mdluli from performing any policing duties, and the case is scheduled to be heard on June 5.

The sheriff had filed a certified document at court stating that he failed twice to have the documents delivered to Mdluli’s house in Boksburg, on the East Rand.

From that statement:

At 16h20 I arrived at the above address and was informed by a female on the intercom that no person is to enter the premises and no documents must be accepted for any reason.

At 19h40 once again an attempt was made at the above address and the bodyguards refused to supply their names or allow me entry to the premises. They also refused to accept service of the documents.

Jeremy Gauntlett, an advocate for the legal rights group, earlier told City Press that the situation had since been “resolved”, but that it was “significant Mdluli had anticipated the serving of papers.” He continued that it “also showed his attitude towards the law,” after the attitude displayed by his bodyguards toward the seriousness of the situation.

[Source: CityPress]

Emily Bronte’s Gothic classic may not have been an instant success like her sister’s novel Jane Eyre, but is now regarded as just as important in English literature. The novel has been adapted to film several times, with a string of TV movies in the wake of the 1992 film starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. Twenty years on, filmmakers must have thought there was a niche for yet another adaptation, after all… they did one for Jane Eyre.

They were right and instead of doing a straight rinse-and-repeat went ahead and created an anti-period piece. This isn’t to say they’re against ovulation, but that Fish Tank and Red Roaddirector, Andrea Arnold wanted to change the rules… first by casting James Howson as Heathcliff.

Shaky handheld cameras, on-location shooting, unconventional behind-the-head shots, natural environment “Mallick” shots and a raw, natural beauty pervade this anti-period romance. The reality of their ordinary rural lives is splayed open without dressing things up or making excuses. It’s probably a bit too much for those expecting a film nicely tied up in a bow, which explains the divided opinion on this unconventional adaptation.

“Marry, shag or Heathcliff?”

Dirt, brutality, violence and a raw unkempt fuzziness to the story give this drama a primal edge. The dialogue is kept to a minimum with the camera doing most of the storytelling. Arnold maintains this for a sense of realism, trading the flowery language for strong Yorkshire accents and harnessing the unromantic quality of life in those days. It’s a powerful and refreshing take on a genre that has become dominated by wardrobe changes and careless whispers.

Breaking the mold is a brave move, but Arnold is a visionary director whose dark, elemental version of Wuthering Heights will astound viewers. This is a director’s film. The cast of up-and-coming actors including Solomon Glave, Kaya Scodelario and Shannon Beer do enough to keep you invested in the story, but the focus is on atmosphere, mood and grit and not on performance or dialogue. Just like a portrait, the characters and animals speak more with their mouths shut than open.

The all-new Wuthering Heights is a bold, ambitious drama comparable with Bright Star and Jane Eyre. The visuals are striking and the style is refreshing, but this doomed romance isn’t a crowd-pleaser, it’s an experience… one that may offend sensitive viewers and dash the hopes of many fair maidens. The narrative is a little patchy at times, forcing the audience to fill in the gaps and the cast have low self-esteem in the way that they know they’re “cattle”, as Hitchcock would put it.

Wuthering Heights is experimental at times with moments of breathtaking brilliance and other moments that loosen the grip on the viewer. It’s the kind of dark horse that will take about twenty minutes to get into the saddle. Once you’re there it’s a restless, jarring, spellbinding and untamed experience… some will love it and others will detest it.

The bottom line: Poetry

Release Date: 18 May, 2012
Book Tickets at Ster-Kinekor
Book Tickets at Nu Metro
Catch more movie reviews at SPL!NG

Here is what Knott-Craig had to say about the move:

The number one priority is I have to make sure that we can build a world class quality network with a footprint which is competitive or better than the other network operators. We cannot build a company without a proper network. This new tariff gives Cell C’s prepaid customers the best voice rate in the market, making it – in most cases – even cheaper to call from Cell C to other networks than it is for our competitors’ own prepaid customers to make on-net calls. I know that pricing alone can not guarantee our success. The next step is lower Mobile Termination Rates. I say again: ‘Price is not a strategy’, but it sure beats the hell out of strategies based on high prices.

The new tariff will launch this Sunday and it is seen as a direct assault on the two established SA mobile operators, MTN and Vodacom.

UPDATE: Vodacom also launched a new promotion today, called Freedom 99. It lets users call to any network for 99c a minute (as opposed to Cell C’s per-second billing). ”Customers have been looking for simplicity and for value, and Freedom 99 delivers exactly that. Calls to anyone, anytime, on any network in South Africa are now just 99 cents per minute with Freedom 99. It really is that simple,” said Vodacom marketing head Enzo Scarcella in a press statement.

All eyes on MTN.

[Source: News24, iol]

You should probably know that you stand a chance to win and INCREDIBLE weekend getaway on Bob’s Weekend Getaways, this afternoon, on the Bob Skinstad Show!

You have to be in it to win it, so tune in this afternoon between 15h00 and 17h00!

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For the past five years Heineken International has hosted the Heineken Star Final, where selected global ticket winners can view the UEFA Champions League final in exotic cities around the world. This year they chose a secret location in Cape Town, where guests will be treated to a football feast with VIP treatment on 18 and 19 May.

Isn’t that nice of them? It is nice of them. But it isn’t too surprising. I mean, have you seen the place that we live in?

And have you SEEN our football stadium?

Image source

Street cred, my friend. We have it.

And we’re three days away from the 2012 UEFA Champions League final.

Chelsea and Bayern Munich have only met twice before in the Champions League.

How will the cookie crumble this year? It’s impossible to say.

How YOU experience it, well that’s totally up to you, really.

More details will emerge in the next month or so – such as which asteroid has been targeted – but NASA has confirmed that the mission will take folk a little under five million kilometres from the Earth.

Said Major Tim Peake, a member of the asteroid team:

Asteroids are interesting on a number of different levels. NASA is focused on the science you can achieve as asteroids are essentially a historical record of billions of years of our universe where we can take samples from.

Peake says current technology could support a mission lasting up to a year, with 30 days actually spent on the asteroid’s surface.

He didn’t mention how cool it would be to get to blow up an asteroid, like in that movie.

[Source: BoingBoing]

Helen Zille was live on 2oceanvibe Radio this morning, to discuss yesterday’s clash in the streets between the DA and Cosatu.

Catch the podcast, below.

Helenzille-16-may-2012 by 2oceansvibe.com

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World Boxing Organisation Welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, considered by many as one of the finest boxers currently active in the sport, has come out strongly in opposition to US President Barack Obama’s statement of support for marriage equality in the United States, issued last week.

In an interview with conservative U.S. website and publication, the National Conservative Examiner, Pacquiao; a devout Catholic, congressman in his native country (the Philippines), and the first-ever boxer to win titles in eight different weight classes, quoted the Bible to illustrate his opinions on same sex marriage:

If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

He was quoting the oft-called upon Old Testament book of Leviticus. He also said,

God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other. It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old.

Pacquiao is obviously a man of strong principles, but his statements may come to cost him dearly, not only as an immensely popular athlete with multi-million dollar sponsorships in the U.S., but also as an elected official of a foreign government that is very close to the U.S.

His statements came to light only hours ago, and the backlash in the States is growing by the minute. Says one critic, Rick Jacobs of Courage Campaign, a community organisation based in Los Angeles,

I do think that American sponsors are going to have to look very carefully about whether they can continue to pour money into his apparently rather empty soul. Not only does he live in L.A., he makes a lot of money thanks the United States and sponsors here in particular.

As yet, no further comment from Pacquiao, his representation or sponsors, but the story, like the hour in the States at the moment, is young.

[Source: LA Weekly, NY Daily News, Crave Online]

You wouldn’t say just by looking at him, but this kid has an amazing set of pipes and plays the guitar like a seasoned pro. It’s no wonder then that his YouTube cover of “Sexy And I Know It”, which was posted on 9 May 2012, has already racked up over 4 million views! In fact, at the time of posting it had reached 4 704 123, so it’s fair to assume that the five million mark is only days away.

As it turns out, he’s been at it for a while now, and if you head on over to his YouTube page you can see some of his other work, most of which is rather impressive.

[Source: The Daily, YouTube]

The captain’s dog got a bone.

In case you haven’t caught the video and pictures of the successful mission yet, CLICK HERE.

We were pleased to note that the mission was picked up by the international press, this morning.

2oceansvibers in London may have seen the following clipping in the Metro newspaper, popular reading for the tube commute.

We’ve also heard that a spot of 2oceansvibe Radio is popular among the expats during the daily tube commute. Give it a try. It’s fun, and it’s a piece of home. Download app here, or…

Click the link, below!

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The view of the formation from inside the cockpit

The formation took place in South Wales, near the home of Prince William and Kate Middleton, above the village of Anglesey. Around 30 jets from the RAF Hawks gathered in the sky to form a “60″, marking the 60 years that Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne.

Another formation spells out ER II, formed as E II R, which is the Latin abbreviation of “Elizabeth Regina”.

Some amateur footage of the practice run was captured by a Welsh spectator. The quality isn’t too great, but here you can see the “60″ formation in action.

Pretty good flying, I think. An RAF spokesperson described the level of complexity as ”very, very high” with planes flying in very close proximity to each other. The flypast will happen at a Royal Military Celebration, set to take place in Windsor this weekend. The Royal Family will watch the flypast from Windsor Castle, with military troops watching from below.

Gin and tonic, anyone?

[Source: Daily Mail, Telegraph]

Police say the man was seen pouring liquid over himself before igniting the liquid and trying to gain access to the court building. He was stopped by security officials when he reached the temporary security tent set up to scan everyone entering the building during the 10-week trial.

A N5FW video of the incident can be seen below. In it the man is seen running towards the tent with his black hat on fire, shouting after dousing himself with liquid from a bottle. He is wrestled to the ground by armed security officers who stamp out the flames. He can be heard crying throughout and at about 0:21 he asks the security forces to shoot him.

If this is something you suspect will upset you, then consider this your warning.

[Source: Guardian]

Tilayi said given the weekend’s approaching spring tides, and the increased swell – peaking at five metres on Friday lunchtime – they’d look to make the “perfect pull” on the high tide tomorrow.

This morning, they are going to begin removing fuel from the vessel to prevent any worst-case scenario where the vessel has any holes punched into her from concealed rocks during the tow.

Tilayi said it was difficult to ascertain what lay directly below the trawler, but that they had maps of the area that indicated she is in no danger.

Tilayi also said that claims that the vessel was deliberately grounded were weak at the moment, as no proper investigation had yet been conducted because the removal of the vessel was Samsa’s number one priority.

Tilayi explained that the vessel itself was worth a fair amount to the owner, it was in good working order, and that it would be unlikely he’d give up a vessel this easily.

Although the tuna had now begun to rot, and wouldn’t be worth selling, the fuel was also another valuable asset to the owner.

Two previous attempts to tow the vessel from the beach have already been made, but both failed miserably.

Tilyai said this was because of the suction force, and friction created by the ship and the wet sand:

The vessel is lying at such an angle, and although it should be like pulling a toy car off the beach, the suction force created by the wet sand is remarkable and far greater than we anticipated.

It should have been a simple removal because she is tiny in comparison to what that tug can pull, but without a sufficient point from which to attach the rope to, this becomes very difficult.

That suction force is so strong that she’ll simply rip apart if we don’t do this properly. That’s where the environmental risk starts to become a greater factor.

The theory of a deliberate grounding remains highly plausible though, as the ship’s owner had not yet been found, and it wasn’t known if he had insurance or not at the time of the grounding.

The bill for the salvage operation is currently being footed by the national transport department, via a contract with Smit Amandla Marine – the lead salvage company involved in the operation.

It was a maritime expert that first proposed the theory of a deliberate grounding to 2oceansVibe. The expert, who wished to remain anonymous, has many years worth experience in dealing with trawlers, radio and satellite navigational systems.

He said, after studying the equipment aboard the vessel, that the fog should have played no role in the incident. It has also been established that the vessel’s engines are in working order.

The expert had this advice for the operation:

I’d use a Floating Marine Grade Fuel Transfer Hose line supported by buoys \ rope between the stranded vessel and a suitable vessel anchored off-shore. It’s going to be easier that way, with oil pollution protection measures intact. Other maritime role player’s pumping it to temporary storage facilities seems a waste of time: either 200 litre drums, or a temporary tank infrastructure.

They need to get between 80 – 100 tons towline exertion on the stern area, and there are various options available for that. The objective could be that the salvage tug picks up the slack and keeps the towline tensed, not pulling, but the objective is to exert pulling effort. If the stern \ vessel lifts \ the tug pulls slowly when the vessel drops, it slacks off, that way it would gradually release. The problem is 50 tons of tuna; you can’t dump it overboard on the beach area: it poses real hazards: stinking, rotting fish isn’t conducive. You would also attract every shark species into the Clifton area, and that you don’t want. You can transfer the tuna to another vessel offshore, it all depends on what vessel you can get in at high tide with enough draught clearance.

And in many ways, rigging alternatives to the beach is a waste of time and effort. Also, taking into account the trawler is sandwiched in between rocks, port \ starboard \ stern\ it’s not an easy salvage job. It’s fraught with problems and I can see it sticking out for a while. Getting rid of that load will help. Releasing that amount of weight is 100 tons more or less, and gives you a GRT weight of 300 – 350 tons. 80 – 100 tons less weight allows enough pulling effort to operate with.

The vessel is intact, but do the engines work for propulsion \ have they got rudder control – if they have, it will help. The problems are the existing weight: GRT 450 tons more or less, and the sand is the critical component. Making the vessel lighter, you run the risk of the vessel going more inshore with the wave action from behind. What can they do to make this trawler lighter after 90 \ 50 tons is removed: there are many alternatives at their disposal.

Other vessels reported issues with their GPS systems on Saturday morning at around the same time of the grounding, but there were two beacons that the Eihatsu Maru would have passed on its course, that would have alerted port authorities that she was too close to shore.

It has not been established as to why the port authorities hadn’t contacted the vessel to alert her of this fact.

Tilayi said that he understood that the public wanted answers, but that the authorities needed time to conduct the investigation into what led to the Eihatsu Maru grounding as awkwardly as it has.

Tilayi continued that they were now going to carry out a plan that 2oceansVibe’s source first suggested on Sunday: to fabricate and weld a strong towing point to the vessel because it didn’t have one, and to remove the fuel to lighten her, as well as prevent environmental risks.

The SABC spoke to Samsa CEO Commander, Tsietsi Mokhele, earlier:

It really is make or break now, and Tilayi remains positive that authorities will be able to remove her on the third attempt.

[Source: 2oceansVibe]

CLICK HERE IF YOU MISSED THE VIDEO OF THE PIZZA DELIVERY TO THE SHIP YESTERDAY

Having carved a powerful niche in Southern Africa’s digital marketing sphere, Rob and his minions are privy to some pretty incredible business and social insights. But you’ll have to tune in, to hear them.

Click the link, below!

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Otelo Burning was filmed on location Durban – focusing on a group of township surfer kids in the 1980s, set against the backdrop of  Mandela’s release from prison. Take a look at the trailer above.

Some other titles on show include Semi-Soet, Blitz Patrollie, 31 Million Reasons, Five Finger for Marseillas, One Last Look, The Umbrella Man, Tok Tokkie, RollaBall, Sobukwe, Wandering Fever and I am Craig.

The delegation is being led by the South African National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) in association with the Department of Arts & Culture (DAC).

The DAC guys are planning on signing a co-production treaty with Ireland while they’re there – so South African producers will be able to qualify for incentives associated with home-grown content in Ireland, and vicer-versa. We’ve got existing treaties with Canada, Germany, Italy, the UK, France, Austrialia and New Zealand, which facilitated the production of films like Skin and The Bang Bang Club.

[Source: IndieWire]

Yesterday, 2oceansVibe brought you images from Johannesburg city centre where a DA-led march against trade union body Cosatu turned violent, leading police to turn water cannons on protestors, as well as teargas. In the resulting fracas, journalists and DA supporters were injured.

The principal issue brought by the DA during the march on the trade union’s headquarters was Cosatu’s continued opposition to the DA’s proposed youth wage subsidy. The DA believes the subsidy could assist over 400 000 young South Africans find work, while Cosatu maintains that the subsidy, in the words of Cosatu Secretary General Zwelenzima Vavi, would “use workers’ tax money to enrich company bosses and has to be opposed.”

In a statement following yesterdays protest, spokesperson for Cosatu Patrick Craven praised the Cosatu members for causing the DA protest’s “ignominious retreat”.

“Regrettably, there was some confusion amongst the demonstrators as to precisely where the DA’s memorandum would be handed over,” he told News 24.

He added, “This led to a confrontation… during which there were a few incidents of stone-throwing by individuals, which led to a number of injuries by people on both sides of the confrontation. We wish them all a full recovery.”

Craven explained why Cosatu was so visibly opposed to the DA’s memorandum,

“DA policies… will create no new jobs… and [will] lead to the impoverishment and enslavement of workers and [an] economic meltdown for South Africa,” he said.

“That is why workers are so hostile towards Helen Zille’s party and want to express their justified anger, most especially when there are confronted on the street outside their federation’s head office.”

[Source: News 24, IOL]

Tugboats tried again yesterday to pull free Eihatsu Maru, the Japanese trawler stranded on Clifton beach in Cape Town. The rope snapped – just as it did yesterday – and it occurred to all at 2oceansvibe Media, that the crew (and dog) on board might be feeling somewhat peckish. So we did what any self-respecting Capetonian would do when feeding foreign guests – we ordered them Cape Town’s #1 pizza, Butlers pizza.

As you know, Butlers Pizza only deliver. So that’s exactly what we did – direct to the ship.

And the boys did good! Click play on the video above to check out the madness.

It’s no wonder these waters are known as the ‘Tavern of the Seas.’

Click play on video above then be sure to check out these pics below:

Sitting in the “iPod”, as the activists referred to it, they used a projector to project messages and tweets onto Apple’s main facade. One protestor had the following to say about the protests:

This is an incredibly important issue for me personally. I use Apple products every day, just like millions of people around the world. I use my iPad every day in school, just like the one I’m using right now in this pod. It helps me in everything from taking notes, helping me to study for my tests (or even distracting me from class every once in a while.) My iPhone helps me connect with my friends.

Apple employees arriving for work in the morning were greeted by four protesters wearing iPhone costumes with giant screens displaying similar messages.

After security broke open the pod and chased the activists away, everything went back to normal.

[Source: Electronista; GreenPeace]

Media Merger Gets The Nod - A merger between Media24, the Paarl Media Group and the Natal Witness has been conditionally approved by the competition tribunal. [mail&guardian]

General Motors Says Facebook Ads Don’t Pay Off - General Motors Co. GM -0.97% plans to stop advertising with Facebook Inc. after deciding that paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers’ car purchases, according to a GM official. [wallstreetjournal]

Chinese Physicists Break TELEPORTATION Record – Harry Potter and Star Trek fans, rejoice! Teleportation is real. Using powerful lasers and optics to manipulate photons, or units of light, researchers in China set a record for teleporting a photon more than 10 miles (16 km), TIME reported in 2010. Well now they have sent a photon more than 60 miles (97 km). [time]

Facebook IPO: Social Phobia – The biggest threat to Facebook at the moment isn’t a competing network; it’s skittish users like Heller who are not comfortable that the social network is closer to products than its customers. [thedaily]

Successful Million Rand Rhino Horn Raid – Millions of rands in rhino horn were seized along with hundreds of thousands of US dollars in a raid on a Johannesburg flat. The operation, carried out by the police, home affairs officials and ekhuruleni metro police officers, saw law enforcers arresting a Vietnamese national. [time]

Half Of America Believe Facebook Is A Passing Fad – Nearly half of Americans believe that popular social-networking site Facebook is merely a passing fad, a new study suggests. A poll conducted by the Associated Press and CNBC found that 46% of respondents think Facebook will fade away as new platforms come along in the future. [mashable].

Barack Obama Teases David Beckham About Underwear Ads – President Barack Obama teasingly described David Beckham as a “rare man” who could balance a long football career with producing his own line in underwear. [telegraph]

Ex-CIA Chief: We Used To Bribe North Korean Spies With Porn - Former top spook recounts bribing North Koreans spies with porn; Clinton’s missed chance to take out Osama bin Laden. [nydailynews]

François Hollande Sworn in as French President - Despite lightning hitting his plane, the weather didn’t ruin Mr. Normal’s inauguration. Tracy McNicoll on how Francois Hollande said au revoir to former president Sarkozy. [dailybeast]

Rumour: New Apple 15″ Laptop Will Feature Retina Display – According to photos and other information on the Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac, which quoted “trusted sources” in Apple’s supply chain who had handled components for the device and said it was in test production. The 15-inch notebook will feature Apple’s high-resolution Retina display as well as an ultra-slim design and USB 3.0 technology. [infoexec]

John Travolta Case – First Accuser Drops Case – The first man to accuse John Travolta of sexual assault has just filed papers dismissing his lawsuit against the actor … TMZ has learned. The masseur had claimed Travolta assaulted him on January 16 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. [tmz]

Maybe You Shouldn’t Start Your Own Business? – Finweek Editor, Marc Ashton, makes the case for not starting your own business. In an interview with 2ov Radio, Ashton explains the reality, versus the cool factor of being involved in a ‘startup.’ Podcast. [2ovradio]

Joan Collins Pissed Off With Heathrow Airport – Joan Collins yesterday joined the attack on Britain’s shambolic border controls after getting stuck in a queue of ‘thousands’ of travellers at Heathrow. The actress took to Twitter to complain about the delays to Home Secretary Theresa May. [dailymail]

Facebook Launches File Sharing Capabilities – Could Facebook become the next Dropbox — or a haven for sharing files without regard to copyright? The social network has revealed to Mashable that all Groups will now offer the ability to send files. [mashable]

Vatican And Benetton Settle Dispute Over Pope Kiss Ad – Italian fashion firm Benetton has agreed to make a donation to a Catholic charity to end a legal dispute with the Vatican over an advertisement that showed Pope Benedict kissing an imam on the lips, the Vatican said on Tuesday. [reuters]

Will Smith Lectures French TV About Tax, Before Getting Punished [Video] – The anchor told Smith that Hollande is proposing tax increases on earned income over 1 million Euros, asking what Smith’s view is on the American debate over a 30 percent rate. Smith responded that he’s happy to pay extra money and is happy to be an American along with the taxes that come with that. Then the anchor told Smith that the French proposed rate isn’t 30 percent, but rather 75 percent. Enjoy his reaction. [foxnews]

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[source]

Yesterday, Stephen Fry made the following announcement on Twitter:

Many people may be shocked to learn that Laurie is, in fact, British – despite his convincing American accent on House.

The two starred together in the sketch comedy show A Bit of Fry & Laurie,which ran from 1989 to 1995 at various time on BBC1 and BBC2. The two men, along with Emma Thompson, met while all attended University of Cambridge. They also had a long run together in Blackadder. Here’s a little clip to whet your appetite, in case you need a reminder of their comedic potential.

UPDATE: Is has since been revealed that they will be combining to provide the voices for Oscar Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost”. Fry also tweeted a teaser poster:

;

[Source: Metro]

Indonesia is a secular state, but is home to the world’s largest population of Muslims and a number of hardline Islamic groups. Salim Alatas, the Jakarta head of the Islamic Defender Front (FPI), says that what Lady Gaga represents is “dangerous”.

He also summed up his organisation’s objections to the the singer quite neatly, as follows:

“She’s a vulgar singer who wears only panties and a bra when she sings and she stated she is the envoy of the devil’s child and that she will spread satanic teaching.”

The FPI and two other Islamic groups have succeeded in having the Lady Gaga concert on 3 June stopped, police confirmed today.

[Source: Times Live]

Perverting the course of justice – in this case concealing evidence from police officers – is an offense that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in the UK.

Those now officially charged include Brooks, Brooks’ husband Charlie Brooks, a racehorse trainer; Brooks’ former personal assistant Cheryl Carter; the ex-head of security at News International Mark Hanna; Brooks’ ex-chauffeur Paul Edwards; and Daryl Jorsling, a member of the firm’s security staff.

The charges are specific, and all six were charged with conspiring “with persons unknown to conceal material from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service,” between July 6 and July 19, 2011. Only Carter wasn’t charged with “conceal[ing] documents, computers and other electronic equipment from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service,” between July 15 and 19, 2011.

Rebekah and Charlie issued an initial statement via an AFP spokesperson:

We have this morning been informed by the Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions that we are to be charged with perverting the course of justice. We deplore this weak and unjust decision. After the further unprecedented posturing of the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) we will respond later today after our return from the police station.

Rebekah Brooks and Carter were also charged with conspiring to remove seven boxes of material from the archives of the News International offices.

The senior prosecutor, Alison Levitt, seemed to disagree, and said that there was “sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction” in the six cases.

A seventh person arrested had been released without charge.

[Source: AP]

The DA’s march against Cosatu in the Johannesburg city centre became violent earlier. Cosatu members allegedly stormed the march and rocks were thrown. In the process, DA supporters and a journalist from the Mail & Guardian were injured after being hit with stones.

This resulted in the march being diverted. DA marchers taking part in the march against Cosatu in Johannesburg were also told to take off their blue shirts in fear of Cosatu supporters as police fired teargas on this morning.

DA leaders, including Helen Zille, youth leader Makashule Gana, parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko and national spokesperson Mmusi Maimane were leading the protest.

Here are some pics taken at the event:

[Source: News24, Phillip de Wet, IOL, OFM]

The piece is supposed to say something about child labor issues. I’m not sure what. You guys know that they’re installing anti-air missiles in suburban London, right?

According to Poundland locals, the piece appeared at the early hours of the morning.The style matches previous Banksy installations, but that doesn’t rule out imitation.

The graffiti artist’s people haven’t yet released any statements to confirm or deny the work as one of Banksy’s.

[Source: Hooked]

In the wake of last week’s “Dagbreek mock-exorcism” shenanigans reported in Stellenbosch paper Die Matie, the University is going to tackle the thorny issues around religion in the residences at an open forum tomorrow, according to a poster released today on their social media pages.

“Residence communities and religious practice: Where to in a scientific, democratic & constitutional community?” will take place on the University campus’ central square tomorrow.

Two academics from the University have been approached to anchor the discussion- one is the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Prof. Nico Koopman, and the other is the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Prof. Stan Du Plessis. Added to this, audience members will have the chance to add their voice to the throng, both live from the event, and on Twitter.

Dagbreek mens residence was in the spotlight last week as the issues of “religious culture” and “residence culture” collided.

What’s all the hoo-hah?

Last Wednesday, 2oceansVibe picked up a story off Stellenbosch University campus newspaper Die Matie that told of an incident in venerable mens’ residence Dagbreek where a first year student in need was allegedly prayed over in order to “drive demons out” before any attempt at getting emergency or professional help was undertaken. The student was later hospitalised for his condition, while the University put out a very diplomatic statement. Other than what was reported in the media, no official statement was made by Dagbreek.

Subsequently, student website Vryestudent published (Note: site N5FW, report in Afrikaans) what is allegedly a gag mail from Dagbreek Head Student Pieter Nel, in which the “broers” of Dagbreek are urged to choose between “truth-seeking” and “sensationalism” and are reminded that “true” Dagbrekers “praat nie uit nie” (don’t speak out- to the media, or externally, that is).

Tomorrow’s discussion is likely to be high octane, particularly when the audience get stuck in. This correspondent will most certainly be there, skinny grande Americano in hand, to soak up the vitriol holy incense atmosphere. Look for updates from 2oceansVibe around lunchtime tomorrow.

[Source: Stellenbosch University on Twitter, Die Matie (Archive), Myproperty.co.za, Stellenbosch University]

It comes as no surprise that, according to studies conducted by the WWF,  the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Global Footprint Network, wildlife is coming under increasing pressure the “ever-growing human demand for resources”. The reports were conducted during a time when the world is facing record over-consumption of natural resources, which will have grave consequences for the planet in the long run.

Freshwater creatures in the tropics have seen the worst declines, of around 70%, while tropical species as a whole have seen populations tumble by 60% since 1970. In Asia, tiger numbers have fallen 70% in just 30 years.

2.7bn people live in areas that suffer severe water shortages for at least one month of the year.

In the last four years alone, the “ecological footprint” of mankind has grown by 50% and continues to increase. Resources, particularly fresh water, are being exploited faster than they can be replenished. Basically, people are living like they have one and a half planets to sustain them, they don’t. If demand continues to grow at the current rate, by 2030 two planets would not be enough to sustain the planet’s inhabitants.

David Nussbaum, the WWF’-UK’s chief executive, pointed out that the underlying cause of the decline was the rate of human consumption.

“If you’re relying on your annual account and you overspend, you eat into your savings until there’s nothing left,” he said.

“At the moment we are in danger of doing that with our life support system, Planet Earth.”

Professor Tim Blackburn, of ZSL, reiterated the dire situation, saying: “We are living in a planet in crisis, and the Living Planet Index is one window into how bad that crisis is.”

[Source: SKY News, WWF-UK, Global Footprint Network]

Details are still few and far between, but the New Statesman basically sums up what we need to know:

The former head of News International and her husband Charlie Brooks face charges over phone-hacking.

The Crown Prosecution Service has announced that Rebekah Brooks will be charged with perverting the course of justice.

This makes the former chief executive of News International the first person to face charges in Operation Weeting, the criminal investigation into phone hacking. She was initially arrested in March 2011.

Her husband, Charlie Brooks, is also going to be charged. The racehorse trainer is a friend and former schoolmate of the Prime Minister David Cameron.

More follows…

[Source: NewStatesman]

Eric Gosa, a man from Mamelodi, was arrested four years ago on the suspicion that he had stolen a car. He was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment, even though there was very little evidence against him. In court, the police admitted that the only basis for their suspicion was the fact that the vehicle was missing its battery, and that he was leaning against the car. Not exactly conclusive

In his appeal, the judge awarded him R90 000 in damages for his wrongful arrest, and admitted that his arrest led to humiliation in front of his family. He also lost his job and his wife due to his arrest.

[Source: News24]

Granted Twitter is not nearly as large a social network as Facebook is, it still has a large number of users. And those users are quite active.

With increased regularity, news and important information is beginning to enter the public domain through the likes of social networks first, and especially via Twitter, and then on into traditional media formats like newspapers and radio.

It is an extremely good tool for quickly acquiring information about topics you’re interested in, and many people are finding it harder to avoid checking their Twitter feeds, or simply tweeting to anyone who’ll listen.

Take Larry Carlat, who wrote Confessions of a Tweeter for the New York Times last year. I have seen people on my timeline become a bit like Larry.

Careful, out there, gang.

However, because Twitter only allows the average reader to search back seven days of tweets, this “Twitter digest” email summary can help put your mind at ease when you just can’t get to Twitter.

Twitter has more on how it will work:

Starting today [yesterday], you can discover the best of Twitter in a weekly email digest delivered to your inbox. This summary features the most relevant Tweets and stories shared by the people you’re connected to on Twitter.

Stories feature a design similar to the recently updated Discover tab, emphasizing who shared each story beneath summaries to help you decide which ones matter most to you. Click any headline to finish reading the story, add your take by tweeting directly from the email, and see related Tweets from the people you follow.

This new email digest also features the most engaging Tweets seen by the people you follow, even if you don’t follow those who wrote them. You can see who from your network retweeted or favorited these Tweets and click “View details” to retweet, favorite, reply or view the conversation around them.

We’re rolling out this new email out to everyone over the next few weeks, so keep checking your inbox for new messages from Twitter. Like other Twitter email notifications, you can manage your preferences for this new digest in your Notification Settings.

I wonder if there will be advertising in the email?

[Source: Twitter]

For this city, as for the entire world, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are the guiding stars to our eventual destination. In a cynical age, there is a desperate need for universal hope. Symbols that retain their meaning in these times, and ones that embody the qualities to which we aspire, are worthy of the highest recognition.

The US embassy spokesperson in Cape Town, Brian Denver said it was “a great honour for the couple.” He also promised he would be “liaising with the White House.”

[Source: News24]

Taylor’s full quote ran in Billboard:

“I don’t think I want to. Were somebody (else) to use a hologram of Freddie, I would have no objection… It just doesn’t sit too well with me. I don’t want to appear with a hologram of my dear friend. It’s the real one or no hologram for me. But I think it’s an amazing effect when used properly—obviously in darkness.”

Obviously for most of us the important part here is the bit where he says he wouldn’t be entirely cool with a Mercury hologram, but it turns out that he sort of gave ‘somebody else’ permission to utilize Mercury’s undead image – in this case the producers of Queen’s West End run of We Will Rock You, with the 10th anniversary performance set to start in a couple of hours. Something something another one bites the dust.

Robert De Niro’s going to be on stage too, weirdly. As a human, not as a hologram. This time.

[Source: BBC]

Apple has been forced to drop the use of the term “4G” in its UK advertising for the new iPad, bacause not only is 4G not yet available to iPad users in the UK and Europe; it also appears that not all new iPads will be able to work on UK and European 4G when it does arrive.

In the original marketing explosion for the new iPad launched in March this year, adverts for the tablet claimed it would work with 4G, meaning “fourth generation mobile technology”. The 4G in question was a technology known as Long Term Evolution (LTE), which is starting to appear in the US.

Other countries are expected to catch up with the roll out of LTE in the coming months or years. In an interview in 2011, the head of Ericsson in sub-Saharan Africa, Lars Linden, predicted that the continent’s major carriers would start rolling 4G out in dense, high-data use areas such as South Africa this year already.

But this has not happened yet, and as is the case in the UK currently, 4G operates on different frequencies in different regions with different carriers, and there is no assurance yet that new iPads will work on non-US 4G frequencies.

The backlash on this from the UK public led their Advertising Standards Authority to compel Apple to change their advertising of the new iPad.

In a statement, Apple said,

Carriers do not all refer to their high speed networks with the same terminology, therefore we’ve decided to use ‘wi-fi + cellular’ as a simple term which describes all the high speed networks supported by the new iPad.

They added, “The advanced wireless features of the new iPad have not changed.”

With iPads flying off the shelves this side of the equator, let’s hope that when the mobile-tech powers-that-be do see fit to grant us 4G, they’ll take this issue into account. Meanwhile, there have been no complaints from new users regarding the 3G-readiness of the new tablet. It was released in South Africa late last month.

[Source: BBC News, Times LIVE, ArticlesInbox]

Virgin Permits Mobile Calls On Flights - From today, passengers on Virgin Atlantic’s new Airbus A330 jet flying the London to New York route will be allowed to make calls, send and receive text messages, as well as accessing emails and using a basic internet access via GPRS. [heraldsun]

Authorities Escalate Clifton Salvage - The South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) will lead attempts to pull the stricken Japanese longliner, Eihatsu Maru, from the shore at Clifton First Beach, after previous attempts failed. City spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said the operation would take place between 10:00 and 13:20 on Tuesday. [news24]

Facebook IPO Balloons To $104 Billion – Late Monday, the social network raised the price range for its IPO to $34 to $38 a share, from $28 to $35 a share. The company’s initial price range put Facebook’s valuation at $77 billion to $96 billion, but that rises to $93 billion to $104 billion under the new price range. [wallstreetjournal]

Malema: Listen Carefully, I Will Be President One Day - Julius Malema may have been expelled from the ANC, but that hasn’t dented his ambitions, or stopped him from telling press conferences about them. [mail&guardian]

Breivik: Survivor Clung To Cliff As Friend Died – An 18-year-old has told a Norwegian court how he clung to a cliff on the country’s Utoya island for hours to avoid the bullets of gunman Anders Behring Breivik. Marius Hoft watched his best friend fall down the cliff face to his death, he told Oslo district court. “I started crying, but decided to wait with the tears until I was in safety. [skynews]

DA And Cosatu Head For ‘Street Battle’ – The gloves are expected to come off when the DA marches to Cosatu’s offices in Braamfontein, this morning. The DA has accused the labour federation of being a stumbling block to job creation. DA leaders Helen Zille, Lindiwe Mazibuko and Musi Maimane will lead the march. Cosatu has promised to reply with bigger numbers around its offices. [timeslive]

JP Morgan CIO Quits, Amid Massive Losses – The leader of JPMorgan Chase & Co’s hedging unit is retiring after trading losses that could end up exceeding $3 billion (1.86 billion pounds), a shortfall that President Barack Obama said might have led the government to step in had such losses struck a smaller bank. [reuters]

Pirate Pay torrent ‘blocker’ backed by Microsoft - A Russian company has developed software it says can disrupt and prevent people from downloading pirated content. Pirate Pay has been backed by Microsoft and has so far worked with Walt Disney Studios and Sony Pictures to stop “thousands” of downloads. [bbc]

Kim Kardashian Chops Hair For Vogue Italia - Let’s all say it together now: The most notorious of the Kardshi-klan was spotted with short hair (!) taking part in a very special photo shoot over the weekend — which she says is for Vogue Italia, the Italian edition of that most esteemed brand of fashion mags. [huffpo]

FW De Klerk Addresses ‘Twisted’ Comments – Former president FW de Klerk made his first public appearance – after the controversial CNN interview in Chicago, US with Christiane Amanpour – at the opening of the South African Gold Coin Exchange’s 30th outlet in Cape Town. [timeslive]

Ex-Yahoo CV-Fiddling Chief Has Cancer – Before resigning as chief executive of Yahoo Inc. over the weekend, Scott Thompson disclosed to the company’s board of directors and several colleagues that he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, according to people familiar with the matter. [wsj]

John Travolta Can Expect ‘One Hell Of A Trial’ – The lawyer representing an anonymous masseur who claims to have been sexually harassed by John Travolta says the “Pulp Fiction” actor can look forward to “one hell of a fight” in court. [huffpo]

US Town Bans ‘Walking And Texting’ – Police in the US town of Fort Lee, New Jersey, have started a battle against texters who aren’t looking where they’re going. Anyone caught texting whilst walking is fined for “jaywalking”, an American term for walking on the road instead of the pavement. [bbc]

Spectacular 3-D Cosmic Image of Earth by Russian Electro-L Released [PHOTOS] - The Russians have proved that space lovers and astronauts do not need to depend on Nasa as the only source for high-definition imagery of space and earth. The Russian Earth Observation Centre, NTs OMZ has released an ultra-high resolution of earth with the help of their new geostationary satellite, Electro-L. [ibtimes]

Darwin’s Creepiest Experiment Brought Back To Life – Charles Darwin liked to freak out his friends—for science. Guests visiting the famed naturalist in 1868 were shown a set of “ghoulish” photos of a guy being prodded in the face with an electrical current. Darwin then asked his guests-cum-guinea pigs to describe the emotion displayed in each photo. [wired]

CLICK HERE to tune in to the holiday…
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COMING UP TODAY

Bailey Schneider Show – Lonehill Estate have just returned from LA and Bailey will be catching up with them to find out how their music was received in Hollywood and whats next for the band. [baileyschneider]

Mommy matters with Jess – “Are you mom enough?” asks Time Magazine’s cover, which features Los Angeles mom Jamie Lynne Grumet breastfeeding her almost 4-year-old son… Jess chats about this hot topic this week with our panel of mommy bloggers: Kerry Glaser from My Baby Box, Tanya Kovarsky from Rattle and Mum and Claire Minnaar from Momtrepeneur. [mommymatters]

FRESH PODCASTS

Goldfish With Their New Single On The Premier Show – Goldfish joined Seth and Bruce from The Premier Show to chat about their new single, “Washing Over Me”. The track is a collaboration between Goldfish and Steve Sparrow from Morning Parade, an up and coming UK rock band. [podcast]

The source voiced concern at the fact that on face value – after having himself studied the visible navigational equipment aboard the vessel – that the accident should never have happened.

According to the source, the fog should not have played a role, and it was strange that port authorities hadn’t alerted the captain of the vessel’s proximity to the shore.

The source went on to suggest that the incident might be a “purposeful grounding” because there were no reported engine issues. The delay from authorities in the issuing of the exact reasons why the trawler ran aground doesn’t help either:

That trawler has enough hitech marine electronics onboard to know exactly its position within min 5 meters; there has to be another reason here worth looking into this vessel running aground. These trawlers operate in deep sea conditions, they know exactly where they are at any given moment on the high seas, don’t think fog played a role here as there is fog at sea around the world. Worth looking into this situation. This trawler needs to be removed as soon as possible, they most probably going to remove the fuel, the ammonia on board is for the refrigeration, this is a long line tuna boat its sole purpose is tuna.

I’ve studied the various antenna systems, seen on the photos, the master of the vessel is in direct contact with his office in Japan as the satcomms antenna is clearly visible, the entire vessel gets written off, with its load any negotiations between the owners\insurers\agents\salvage operators is solely for the removal of the vessel, removing the fuel 1st and maybe its load poses additional problems on its existing location in relation to the weather\tidal currents, its going to become difficult to remove this vessel, as it going to get pushed further inshore with the bed suction\sand building up along its keel, the ammonia is a environmental risk factor to residents\sea life in the immediate area, the ammonia is located in tanks on board or cylinders, the fuel tanks are under the bottom and that is where the risk is going to be coming from, although it is aground on a sandbank the concern is going to be more what is beneath the sand\seabed, that is the risk factors here, the longer it stays aground the more it buries itself into the sea bed.

2oceansVibe spoke with two chemical engineers about the risks posed by any potential leaks from the substances aboard the vessel, notably the ammonia and the fuel.

Lev Rushforth explained:

Ammonia (liquid) is used as a refrigerant for fishing trawlers’ massive freezers. At atmospheric conditions it vapourises at -33 degree C, which would be fine if it wasn’t submerged in water. Ammonia is highly soluble in water and forms ammonium and hydroxide. This is more dangerous in stagnant water masses (dams and reservoirs) and should pose a much smaller risk in the sea. Although the risk is there and depending on the mass discharged and how quickly the current can spread and dilute any of the hydroxide, there might be damage to fish.

Gaseous ammonia exposure to the surrounding houses could also cause heavy irritation and human health risks depending on concentrations.

I assume that where the boat is currently stranded, the concentrations would be minimal in the surrounding air and despite mild irritations, it does not pose a serious health threat to humans as it is in the open and gas will dilute very quickly.

The damage done by fuel spillage is highly variable depending on the fuel. I assume that the fuel on a trawler would mostly be diesel. Since diesel is a refined oil product, the damage is less about oil sticking to feathers etcetera, and more about the poisonous nature of these lighter fuels. The damage tends to start with the smaller organisms and then spreads right up the food chain as the large amounts of organisms with oil in their tissues are consumed by higher order predators. Diesel is much less viscous than crude which will also make it close to impossible to remove it of the surface of the water, especially with such choppy seas and the shallow water. Conventional methods of surface removal will not work.

The damage to fish is extensive: red blood cell damage, decrease in eggshell thickness, organ damage etcetera. The poisons in the diesel do get broken down and weathered quite quickly in the sea, so the damage will also be very dependent on the amount of diesel spilt and the rate at which that diesel is diluted by the sea currents into the surrounding water.

Reay Dicks agreed that the greatest risk posed was likely to come from the ammonia. The City of Cape Town’s Gregg Oelofse confirmed the following to 2oceansVibe earlier:

Salvage operations continue and plans are being put in place to pull the vessel off the beach.

The vessel has not suffered any damage as yet and as such pollution risk at this time is very low.  We will continue to monitor the situation.

As in all cases, SAMSA is investigating how the stranding took place.

At the time of writing this article, 2oceansVibe had not been able to get an official response from SAMSA.

The Eihatsu Maru has grounded in such a way that it has made itself nearly impossible to tow from the beach. Authorities have also aborted a plan to attach a metal plate to her that would have been specifically designed for towing her.

SAMSA’s job is not going to get any easier as the swell starts to increase during the course of the week, peaking at more than five meters on the weekend.

You can watch the salvage operation as it unfolds live by following this LINK.

Meanwhile, an entrepreneur has tabled a deal on the Gumtree for the new piece of real estate.

[Source: 2oceansVibe]

[Image: IanThurtell]

What prevents you from making EFT payments for absolutely everything in your life? It’s the clunkiness of the process. You log on, you enter a ream of details, you wait for  confirmation code, you pay… And the recipient waits two days for their money.

Whereas a cash transaction is instant. Value is transferred seamlessly, hand to hand. There’s no lengthy process, and you don’t have to know all of the other person’s details to complete the transaction.

FNB have upped their game in a big way with GeoPayments. This is what they say.

GeoPayments is available to both FNB and non FNB customers. FNB customers will have the benefit of being able to pay as well as receive payments. Non FNB customers will be able to download the App and receive GeoPayments into an eWallet, which can be created via the App.

FNB App users who use the GeoPayments functionality to pay other FNB App users will be identified to each other, with the payer and recipient ‘pairing’ their devices before a payment is made.

GeoPayments is available on the new version of the FNB Banking App for Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices.

In a nutshell:

Open the app, and select “GEO Payments” in the main menu. Choose whether you want to make a payment, or receive a payment.

In this screenshot, we elected to receive a payment. Because we make it rain. The person making the payment had followed the steps above, and was within 500 metres of us.

RB dropped themoneybomb. This stage of the process took all of 2,5 seconds.

Money received, in an instant, sans cash, sans EFT headache. Fairly mean, non? Oui. Tres mean.

And how incredible is this part? Non FNB customers who wish to receive a GeoPayment can download the FNB Banking App for free from the App stores. Upon download and selecting Geo Payments, once entering their cellphone number, an eWallet (electronic store of funds) will be automatically created for them into which they can receive a GeoPayment. Payments made to the eWallet can be withdrawn as cash.

We tried it out, it worked like a frigging charm.

Slow clap, FNB.

Speaking at the annual Advertising Financial Management conference, held recently in Florida, Sorrell summarised his perspective on the shift towards the East and the South that is currently affecting marketers.

When referring to the Southern powers currently experiencing the most growth, Sorrell placed South Africa firmly on the world stage. He highlighted Africa and in particular South Africa as one of the most formidable areas for business and marketing opportunity in the world, alongside Brazil, where the 2014 Soccer World Cup will take place, and the Middle East.

Other key trends Sorrell spoke to were the elimination of regional structures with a shift towards centralised power within corporate organisations, and how sustainability is becoming more and more central to company strategy and values.

[Source: Forbes]

The camera sold for €2,16 million, including the required sales tax. This final price blew away the estimates of experts, who put the value of the camera at between €600 000 - €800 000. The hammer fell at €1,8 million.

The camera is a Leica 0-series, one of 25 prototypes released to test the market for 35mm in the early 1920′s. Less than half of the 25 original prototypes remain in existence in today, with only 12 known models still kicking around. Full production of the 0-series began in 1925.

The previous record auction price for a camera was €1,32 million, also for a Leica 0-series.

[Source: Yahoo!]

Check out video footage, as well as a full picture gallery of this dramatic event, below:

[Source: Daily Mail]

Click here for the BeachCam website.

Click ‘Live Cams’

Then ‘Atlantic’

Then ‘Clifton’

Get their app as well so you can watch it on the move!

Said Mia Garlick, a spokeswoman for Facebook:

We’re constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.

The feature is, by all accounts, aimed less at “friends” in the literal sense than at small businesses or events with Facebook accounts wanting to promote their wares at a specific slice of the social network. Which isn’t exactly great news – Facebook’s news feed is cluttered as it is with marginal advertising, application invitations and “featured” news articles.

The increased shift towards monetization isn’t by any means surprising, given Facebook’s upcoming IPO – scheduled for this Friday, 18 May. More than ever, Facebook will be geared towards finding ways to get people to pay for things.

[Source: CNET]

This episode, Phil makes us a Ciroc Strawberry Martini.

Check out their Facebook page, to stand a chance of winning a deluxe cocktail experience to the value of R5 000 for you and your friends!

Remember to stop by next week, to catch the next installment of the Diageo World Class South Africa cocktail showcase!

CLICK HERE for last week’s Grape Ciroctini!

The Dalai Lama made news this weekend when he told UK weekly, the Sunday Telegraph that he had been warned the Chinese government was training female assassins in the arts of poison in order to have him killed.

Allegedly, the assassins would embed the poisons in scarves or their hands, and when approaching the Dalai Lama to seek his blessing, their trap would be sprung.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry reacted strongly against the Dalai Lama’s allegations, accusing him of “spreading false information and deceiving the public.”

Government-controlled national newspapers also opined that had Beijing wanted the Dalai Lama dead, “it could have done so any time without waiting until he was 76 years old.”

The Dalai Lama and China have been at odds for decades, with the latter claiming the Dalai Lama is using his religious position to advocate the splitting of Chinese-territory Tibet from mainland China. Recently, the Dalai Lama stood down from his official position, but he remains a respected spiritual figure.

The Dalai Lama made international news late last year when the South African government refused him a visa to attend the a party hosted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

[Source: Sowetan Live, Vagobond]

So anyway, I discussed the idea of going to space with 2oceansvibe Chief Whip, SilverStreak, and we both agree that one can be sure to dominate conversation for quite some time after returning. From Space.

Mates would return from climbing Kilimanjaro and they would be raging about it – saying how “epic” it was.

Really, was it THAT epic?

Surely nothing would really matter anymore, once you’ve spent time in space. Once you’ve had that opportunity and that moment to look back at Earth – perspective that only a special few will ever have. That’s when you realise how silly it all really is. Are we just molecules – like in a drop of water? Because that’s even bigger than what the Earth is, compared to the solar system. Do the atoms and molecules inside a drop of water also have iPhones? Is there a chance that they might even have the iPhone 6?

Streak researched the issue further and found this great comedy clip by Rhys Darby, a Kiwi with a beautiful wit.

Check it out – watch the whole thing – it’s quality humour. I like that castle bit at the end as well.

Very good.

CLICK HERE for Virgin Galactic’s website. It’s cheaper to go to space than you think. It’s only $200 000 (R1,5 million). That’s like a very small one bedroom flat in Camps Bay, or a ranch in Parklands. For an experience of a lifetime?

I’m seriously considering it. And I think you should too.

I think you should even think about borrowing the money, just to do it. 

Imagine the advantage you would have over everyone in business? You’d know everyone’s moves before they make them. As I said earlier, the perspective you would get would be second to none!

The report was submitted to Parliament last week and could mean that as of next year the police will put a complete halt on all recruitment. The head of the police’s forensic laboratory has already advised that no new staff will be hired.

“With one of the world’s highest crime rates, we need more police officials. This suggestion bodes ill for the improvement of the police’s specialised services, especially detectives and the forensic division,” said Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA MP and shadow minister of police.

She believes firmly that the country simply cannot afford to have fewer police.

Colonel Vish Naidoo, spokesperson for the police, said the figure of 9000 was not set in stone and that many external factors would also influence the decision.

It will happen over a long period of time. Nobody’s job is under threat. The idea is to reduce existing staff numbers through natural means, resignations, retirements… that kind of thing.

He also brought to attention the fact that between 2005 and 2009 the police appointed more than 55 000 new officers, all in anticipation of the 2010 World Cup. Over those years the average intake of officers was 11 000 per year, almost triple the usual number of 3 500.

Spokesperson for the minister of the police, Zweli Mnisi, said that the minister could neither confirm nor deny the claim that staff had to be reduced. He did state that the minister is committed to the improvement of the police service and that the development of the detective and forensic services was a very high priority. He also said that the minister is determined to increase the conviction rate.

Kohler Barnard has stated that she will request an explanation for the recommendation at the police’s portfolio committee meeting.

[Source: News24, Die Beeld]

Zille said yesterday:

I had undertaken to resign if the tender were found to be corrupt. It is common cause that there was no corruption whatsoever, and I regard these resignation calls as normal political posturing that should be treated as such.

The tender in question concerns a contract between the Western Cape government and advertising agency TBWA Hunt Lascaris. The report found that the involvement of Zille’s political and special advisors in the tender bidding process was “unlawful,” and as such  the entire tender bidding process was rendered invalid.

Zille will be meeting with the Public Protector on Thursday.

[Source: TimesLIVE]

From the Sunday Times:

The discovery comes on the eve of a high court bid by public interest law clinic SECTION27, to force the national Department of Basic Education and Limpopo’s Education Department to supply textbooks to the province’s schools.

Some of the books in the warehouse have been replaced by new ones in grades 1 to 3, and Grade 10, as a result of the implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement. But books still being used by pupils in other grades were also in the building. Textbooks based on the new curriculum for the other grades are only expected to be supplied to schools from the end of this year and early next year.

Teachers and teachers’ union Sadtu have described the dumping of the books as “scandalous”, and asked why the Eastern Cape Education Department hadn’t distributed them last year.

Even though some of the textbooks are out of date in respect to the constantly changing South African education curriculum, one would think that somewhere, someone could make use of them.

Peter Moses, a local King William’s Town school’s head of department at Breidbach Primary School, said:

It’s millions of rands down the drain. The books were unopened – they were still in their plastic seals. It’s really unbelievable to do something like that. [It’s] a shame.

He said his English-medium primary school only received its English workbooks last Thursday, after the Sunday Times had twice highlighted the fact that the school had been given books in Xhosa.

Riaan Erasmus, the owner of the warehouse, said between 20 and 25 bakkie-loads of textbooks were sold to him in mid-November.

In November, a lot of these brand-new books were returned to us by guys claiming they were old curriculum stuff. I just think the distributors didn’t work properly and these people somehow got rid of them instead of taking them to schools. Those who got the contract maybe should be held responsible.

One of the bakkie drivers had told Erasmus that the reason they were getting rid of the textbooks was because they were “clearing out the offices” to make “way for books issued in terms of the new curriculum,” according to the Sunday Times.

Erasmus has been doing what the Eastern Cape Department of Education should have done with the textbooks: offering them to schools because teachers say they can still be used:

They’re delighted. One said she had had two books for 40 pupils, now she can give a book to every one. It’s my personal responsibility to do something with them instead of throwing the stuff away. Government officials clean their offices and bring their stuff here. There’s a constant stream of people coming in.

He had paid for the textbooks, but couldn’t remember off hand what the amount was.

Loyiso Pulumani, Eastern Cape Education Department spokesman, confirmed to the Sunday Times that the department would launch an urgent investigation, and that the destruction or recycling of textbooks was not a policy of the department.

[Source: SundayTimes]

Derek Watts aficionados will agree that Dezza only adds a new “move” once in a blue moon. This is one of those rare moments.

He pulled out a brand new hand gesture on Sunday night, as he delivered his closing message to camera on MNET’s Carte Blanche magazine show. It seems the “fist and thumb” has been trumped by the all new “Pinkie Pinch.” We managed to capture it on camera, as it happened – for you to enjoy at your leisure. Click play on the video above to see it as it unfolded in front of us.

It’s pure genius – as we’ve come to expect from the master. Derek Watts’ on-screen repertoire is known to influence a great number of TV presenters, who will no doubt be attempting to copy the new move in coming weeks.

I won’t lie – I have been known to try out Dezza’s original  “fist and thumb” move on the odd occasion, as you will see at the 38 second mark of this episode of Tech Report, from ETV (every Thursday night channel 403 at 21h30).

It would be remiss of me not to mention another influence of mine, David Brent, who taught me the “finger clasp” (with optional lip-bite), which I threw out in this episode, at the 32 second mark. Sorry if you missed those.

We caught Derek thinking out the box back in 2009 (also during his closing message to camera) as he wished everyone a “schweet week.” No spice – you can check it out here.

Catch “Tech Report” on Thursday nights at 21h30 – ETV News (channel 403).

We’re trying out new moves all the time.

Not only did he get ripped a new one by cartoonist Zapiro in the Sunday Times yesterday, but the National Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said this morning that his comments on Apartheid “are a slap-in-the-face to those who died fighting for democracy.” They have also called for him to be stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize.

Nehawu’s Sizwe Pamla said the ex-statesman did not deserve his Nobel Peace Prize credentials:

We feel that it takes away everything that the Nobel Peace Prize actually represents.

[Source: EWN and TimesLive]

From the Rock Hill Herald:

Earlier this week, Pegasus Global Holdings announced it would build City Labs near Hobbs, N.M. Pegasus selected the site because of the cost of the land, access to electricity and the proximity to federal and university testing labs.

The initial investment will be about $400 million and could expand to $1 billion over 10 years. The project – officially called the Center for Innovation, Technology and Testing – is expected to create 350 permanent jobs in an area hard hit by the oil bust of 1980s.

“Pegasus Holdings’ Centre for Innovation, Technology and Testing” has a 1970′s-Bond sort of ring to it. Especially since Pegasus is a defense contractor.

Since nobody lives in the buildings, there’ll be computerized systems in place to mimic human behaviour, turning thermostats up and down, switching lights off and on, flushing toilets and such.

The next step is fencing off the property, throwing in some people and some weapons, and letting whoever survives go free.

[Source: Slashdot]

Pics Reveal Ashton Kutcher As Steve Jobs - Photographs of actor Ashton Kutcher dressed up as late Steve Jobs have emerged, giving the world a first glimpse of how Kutcher will look in the upcoming independent film about the former Apple CEO. [smh]

16 Hurt In Williams F1 Garage Fire - Pastor Maldonado became the first Venezuelan to win a Formula One race by triumphing at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday before going on to play an heroic role in a dramatic blaze in his Williams team’s garage. [theage]

Clifton Trawler Salvage Attempts Delayed – Attempts to recover the fishing trawler which ran aground at Clifton’s First Beach, will resume on Monday morning. The 50m Eihatsu Maru ran aground in thick for at 05:15 on Saturday, with 28 Taiwanese crew and a dog on board. [news24]

Tokyo Takes On Zuma – Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale’s ANC presidential campaign has finally gotten off the ground with his lobbyists putting together an election slate they hope will help him unseat President Jacob Zuma. [timeslive]

Manchester City Win 2012 English Premier League – Manchester City won the English title for the first time in 44 years, surging past Queens Park Rangers 3-2 on Sunday with Sergio Aguero scoring his team’s second goal late in stoppage time. [espn]

Travolta Sex Accuser Got Date Wrong – Still Adamant – The Plaintiff who filed a bombshell lawsuit against mega-star John Travolta is now admitting that he got the date wrong of when he alleges the Grease star made unwanted sexual advances towards him. John Doe # 1 still maintains the attack happened, however. [radar]

Yahoo CEO Resigns Amid CV Lies – Yahoo’s embattled CEO Scott Thompson is quitting the Silicon Valley Internet giant, in a dramatic end to a controversy over a fake computer science degree that he had listed on his bio, according to sources close to the situation. Blind. [thedaily]

Meet Valérie Trierweiler, France’s Unmarried ‘First Lady’ – Filling Carla Bruni’s Louboutin shoes would be a daunting prospect for anyone, but will certainly be executed with ease by the next woman charged with such a task. [time]

Top Kony Commander Captured – Ugandan forces captured a senior commander of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army after a brief fight with rebels near the Congo-Central African Republic border, an army official said Sunday, in what an analyst said was an “intelligence coup” for forces hunting for Kony. [huffpo]

Whitney’s Family To Star In Reality Show – A reality show featuring Whitney Houston’s relatives, including daughter Bobbi Kristina and mother Cissy, is in the works. Houston representative Kristen Foster confirmed the Lifetime show, “The Houston Family Chronicles,” on Friday. God help us all. [billboard]

Apple Co-Founder Does Not Have Broadband At Home – Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has reportedly let slip an admission that will dumbfound the web generation he helped create – he doesn’t have broadband at home. [guardian]

Surfer Rides Biggest Wave Ever – A 44-year-old Hawaiian surfer has been recognised by Guinness World Records for riding the biggest wave ever thought to have been ridden. Garrett McNamara caught a 78ft wave at Nazare, off the coast of Portugal, beating the previous 2008 record by more than a foot. [bbc]

JP Morgan Debacle Was ‘Accident Waiting To Happen’ – Senior executives at JP Morgan were given repeated warnings about the controversial unit responsible for a shock US$2 billion (S$2.5 billion) trading loss at the bank. [today]

Betty White Endorses Barack Obama – For Betty White, President Obama is just golden. The 90-year-old “Golden Girls” actress “very, very much favors” the commander in chief for a second term, she told the Associated Press on Friday. [nydailynews]

Usain Bolt Dumps Girlfriend Ahead Of Olympics – The world’s fastest man Usain Bolt has done a runner on romance — to concentrate on winning Olympic medals. The champion sprint star has dumped gorgeous fashion designer Lubica Slovak so she won’t “distract” him from training. [thesun]

William Balfour Found Guilty Of Murdering Jennifer Hudson’s Family - The former brother-in-law of Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson has been convicted of murdering three members of her family. [telegraph]

Would You Swim In A See-Through Pool, Suspended In The Sky? – Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao is the new landmark building and the first international branded hotel in the Kangqiao area. The new hotel features a one of a kind swimming pool. Located on the 24th floor of the hotel, the 30 meters long swimming pool is in suspension over the edge. [luxuo]

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COMING UP TODAY

HardWilli In The Morning – At 10h40 today, Finweek Editor, Marc Ashton looks at reasons not to start a business and why cutting email may well make you more productive.[hardwilli]

Joining Captain Kai’s World on 2ovfm, Quentin “Dragon” Chong and 2 of his fighters, promoting the Fight Night happening on Saturday 19 May in Cape Town. Mikey February, who just won both the Junior Mens and open divisions at the Blood Scan Pro surf event in Jefferies Bay. Tune in from 18h00-20h00. [captainkai]

FRESH PODCASTS

moneysmart Shift Ctrl Session – They discuss exactly what the FSB (Financial Services Board) is and why the consumer needs to look out for this accreditation when using financial services institutions. [podcast]

See the rest of the pics at NSRI’s Flickr page (HERE).

We are picking up details as we go, but a local convenience store manager confirmed that he heard lots of buzz about it on his “wireless radio,” which allows him to overhear emergency services conversations. He said it must have occured around 4am.

News24 reckon:

A 50m fishing trawler has run aground at First Beach in Clifton, Cape Town on Saturday morning, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said.

“All people on board at the stage are safe, but with an incoming tide that may change,” spokesperson Craig Lambinon said.

The Japanese trawler was about 20 metres off-shore in the wave-line and rescue efforts were in progress.

If you have any further information, please let us know in the comments.

Click ‘Continue Reading’ for gallery of pics, plus one stunning panoramic shot. 

CLICK THIS GUY WHEN YOU’RE DONE THERE:

CLICK THIS GUY WHEN YOU’RE DONE THERE:

There’s nothing you can do. You definitely can’t force the matter – what would be the use? You’ll be throwing brown paint on the Sistine Chapel.

Do you want to be the guy who undoes a stellar run of hardcore productivity by slogging through a momentary dry patch? I don’t. We only work with diamond minds around here, my friend.

The women in my life (again, I can’t speak for the kind of lady-company you keep) don’t suffer from this kind of problem. They manage to stay on the level, quietly but steadily chewing through a workload.

I don’t know. Blame biology, whatever. But it’s not how I work.

The point being, you need to create your own mechanism to break a creative block.

Mine happens to be a combination of walking, and food. I’m serious, try it. Take your mind for a stroll, get some food in your personal space zone (my PA, Jennifer, has become a regular face at the KFC around the corner from our offices), and reset. It might be the endorphins, the ritual of slicing a burger in two halves (practised since the age of five, thank you), or the simple nutrition. It’s a mystery, to be honest. A wonderful, magical mystery.

Or, when the weather proves to be inclement, walking is replaced by a short, vigorous bout of internet/iPad flash gaming. No spice.

Victory. Power. Winning.

WHAM. You’re reset. Back to cashing cheques and breaking necks.

Check this one out. it’s a goody. You’re welcome.

Microsoft announced today that they are preparing to roll out a revamped version of the net-based search engine Bing, after spending nearly US$6 billion on the service over its three year existence.

The “new” Bing will interface with users’ Facebook accounts, enabling an “ask a friend”-type system where solutions to queries can be sourced within users’ friends and contacts, as well as from the web. The revised engine will then present findings in three panels, one containing the solutions dredged from friends and contacts, another with responses from the web, and a third for “highlighted information” (most likely adverts and web banners for MSN…)

The main reason for the redesign is another attempt to close the gap with net giant Google, which is responsible for a massive two-thirds of global search engine activity annually. On its own, Bing accounts for about 15% of global search engine activity, as well as the 14% held by Yahoo, which is powered by Bing technology.

[Source: News24, Trends Update]

Pavel Tarasov took to the streets to see if he could elicit a reaction from Russian police – but nothing. No one even came up to question him. A friend of his came along for the stroll, and even managed to get a picture of him standing next to a police officer.

His experiment came after police subdued low-key crowds following the celebration of Victory Day, most of them wearing white ribbons as a sign of opposition. Many such protestors have been detained as political offenders. Tarasov came to the following conclusion with his experiment:

My conclusion is that the police is more interested in rooting out political protest instead of carrying out its direct responsiblities. And that is not the fault of the police, but the people in charge of the country.

[Source: RT]

The bank now says it expects a loss of $800 million this quarter for a segment of its business known as corporate and private equity, partly attributed to the $2 billion loss.

It had expected a profit of $200 million for the segment.

JPMorgan managed to lose the $2 billion in the past six weeks through a trading portfolio designed to hedge itself against the risks it takes with its own money.

The division is designed to help control the bank’s exposure to risk in the financial markets, and invest excess money in its corporate treasury.

Ironic, that.

After the shock announcement was made, other bank stocks, including Citigroup and Bank of America, suffered heavy losses too.

CEO, Jamie Dimon:

The portfolio has proved to be riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge than we thought. There were many errors, sloppiness and bad judgment. We will admit it, we will learn from it, we will fix it, and we will move on.

Dimon partly blamed the loss on the “London whale”, a single JPMorgan trader in London, who was making such large trades that he was moving prices in a $10 trillion market back in April.

Dimon admitted the problem was also broader, and said the company had “acted too defensively,” and should have looked into the division more closely.

Dimon apologised for the losses, and said JPMorgan is trying to unburden itself from the portfolio in a “responsible” manner, so as to minimise the cost to its shareholders.

[Source: AlJazeera]

Eskom’s own benchmark is to have a maximum of 3 600 Megawatts (MW) offline at any time in unplanned maintenance. But on 10 May (yesterday) there was a shortfall of 5 037 MW – very near the worst outage of 2012 on May 3, when there was an outage to the tune of 5 776 MW.

Increased demand for electricity in the cooler weather has been cited for Eskom’s capacity problems. As winter progresses, this demand will continue to escalate.

The power supplier has recently begun reporting twice a week on the country’s electricity supply in a bid to provide more regular and transparent communication on the power system. It predicts that South Africa’s electricity supplies will be constrained for at least the next two years.

[Source: IOL]

Childline advocacy and training manager Joan van Nieker:

“The coach – who reportedly turned the victim away when approached for help – should have intervened. And these boys have to suffer the consequences; otherwise they will continue to perpetuate this kind of behaviour in public. The boy’s parents could consider suing the police, the school and the coach. A medical report is not a prerequisite for prosecuting a case of rape.”

[Source: News24]

Moreover, sex-change surgery now becomes a legal right – as treatments to make physical changes to their appearance in keeping with a sex change will be fully covered by health care providers, both public and private.

Which means that gender can be taken up without any physical requirements attached to it – which is sort of unheard-of.

Underage folk will be able to avail of the same rights, with parental consent. The bill’s headed to President Cristina Fernandez’ desk for final rubber-stamping; the president has already given public support for the bill.

Said openly gay Argentinian legislator Sen. Osvaldo Lopez:

This law is going to enable many of us to have light, to come out of the darkness, to appear. There are many people in our country who also deserve the power to exist.

Nice job, Argentina.

[Source: Mercury News]

Again he was asked if he wanted to take the opportunity to say that apartheid was, in retrospect, morally repugnant.

“I can only say in a qualified way,” said de Klerk.  “Inasmuch as it trampled human right, it was – and remains – and that I’ve said also publicly, morally reprehensible.”  He added, “But the concept of giving as the Czechs have it and the Slovaks have it, of saying that ethnic unities with one culture, with one language, can be happy and can fulfil their democratic aspirations in an own state, that is not repugnant.”

These were among some of the alarming revelations shared by former SA president, FW De Klerk, with CNN’s chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour in an interview screened last night. De Klerk was speaking at a summit of Nobel Laureates held in Chicago recently.

Amanpour noted that former President Nelson Mandela had retracted his statement that De Klerk was a “man if integrity” when the latter had refused to categorically renounce apartheid. On this, De Klerk held his position,

“Well, let me first say I’m not aware that Mr. Mandela says I’ve never renounced apartheid.”  He then said, “I have made the most profound apology in front of the Truth Commission and on other occasions about the injustices which were wrought by apartheid.”

But then he added:  “What I haven’t apologized for is the original concept of seeking to bring justice to all South Africans through the concept of nation states (essentially creating two separate states, one black and one white).”

“But in South Africa it failed,” he said. “And by the end of the ‘70’s, we had to realize, and accept and admit to ourselves that it had failed.  And that is when fundamental reform started.”

De Klerk was adamant that he and Mandela were still “close,” telling CNN,

“We call each other on birthdays. There is no animosity left between us.” But then he added:  “Historically, there was.”

Speaking about the homeland system that was devised by apartheid’s engineers to keep different non-white ethnic groups living separately but still dependent on the South African economy for jobs, he denied that blacks in the homelands were disenfranchised.

“They were not disenfranchised, they voted . They were not put in homelands, the homelands were historically there.

“If only the developed world would put so much money into Africa, which is struggling with poverty, as we poured into those homelands. How many universities were built? How many schools?

“At that stage the goal was separate but equal, but separate but equal failed.”

He said he later became “a convert” against the system.

“There are three reasons it (apartheid) failed,” he said.  “It failed because the whites wanted to keep too much land for themselves.  It failed because we (whites and blacks) became economically integrated, and it failed because the majority of blacks said that is not how we want our rights.”

Still, De Klerk would not back off his belief in the validity of the original concept of “separate but equal” nation states.

“With the advantage of hindsight,” said de Klerk, “we should have started the reform much earlier…But the intention was to end at a point which would ensure justice for all.  And the tipping point in my mind was when I realized… we need to abandon the concept of separateness.  And we need to build a new nation with its eleven official languages, accommodating its diversity, but taking hands and moving forward together.”

Here’s the full video clip from CNN:

[Sources: CNN, Times LIVE, Zimbio]

The latter case was that of the Legion’s founder, Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado who was found guilty of raping and molesting his seminaries, crimes which the Vatican insisted were the absolute exception and his alone. During his tenure in the priesthood, Degollado fostered a culture of secrecy which allowed him to hide his crimes, for a time. The newly accused seem to have employed similar measures.

“In a statement Friday to The Associated Press, the Legion confirmed it had referred seven cases of alleged abuse to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. All but one involves alleged abuse dating from decades ago; one case involves recent events, the Legion said.”

Two other priests have also been accused of sacramental crimes, and are believed to have used “spiritual direction to have inappropriate relations with women.”

The Legion was once praised for the sterling example it set, not only in attracting vocations to the priesthood but also substantial financial backing. Since 2010 the Vatican has taken over from the Legion and is strongly pushing for reform.

[Source: NY Times, Washington Post]

But probably not.

But speaking of history, how much do you actually know about Father’s Day?

For example, did you know:

Modern Father’s Day was invented by Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Arkansas, who was also the driving force behind its establishment. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who reared his six children in Spokane, Washington.^[2] She was inspired by Anna Jarvis‘s efforts to establish Mother’s Day. Although she initially suggested June 5, her father’s birthday, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June.

Unofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow Wilson was personally feted by his family in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson made Father’s Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon.^{[citation needed]}

Well played, Sonora, you saucy minx.

Look, that’s all fine and well. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll concede that the kernel of Father’s Day – showing respect and reverence for the Old Man/Pops/Big Dawg/Daddy Cool – has been around since time immemorial.

In some cultures, and in times past, an appropriate gift might have been a pair of polar bear skin mittens, a handsome set of Kudu horns, or a small European country.

Needless to say, the modern equivalent of an appropriately manly and appreciative gift is Old Spice. Or rather, the superinjection of masculinity that accompanies the application of said Old Spice.

Just something to keep in mind, when the-quite-possibly-but-in-all-likelihood-not-last Father’s Day rolls around, this year.

I quickly realised that I had forgotten who I was writing for. You suave, well-dressed, high LSM 2oceansvibe readers may be sailing through these troublesome economic times with more, “Full steam ahead, captain!” and less “Batten down the hatches!” than me. You see, I have, of late, been drifting toward the cheaper end of the wine spectrum as the belt has unwillingly been drawn in these tough economic times. So this column is for stretched budgets, treats, great bottles, and benchmarks.

It’s for JoeMwah.

The column that the comment was posted under explored some new South African wines at very good prices I have come across. They showed excellent balance, freshness and deliciousness. So the wines I suggest now will be international with the same attributes, just a little pricier. I am going to be referencing wines that are available from Wine Cellar in Observatory, Cape Town, as that is where I go to buy international wines. There are going to be one or two wines that are pretty expensive, but I am going to keep them under R250. These are wines that I have tasted in the last year or so that stuck in my head – the wines that I woke up the next morning still thinking about.

The first wine that comes to mind is the Allain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage 2009. I drank a lot of the 2007 earlier this year. I love it. It’s from the Northern Rhone, and very characteristic of the region. The wine is 100% Syrah, and shows loads of intensity, but at the same time there’s a lightness on the palate. It’s juicy, fresh, savoury, with really great earthy, olive characters that I’m a complete sucker for. Chatting with some winos the other day, one said that this might be the best value fine wine in the world. It only costs R195. This is a superb wine for the price. No, actually it is just a superb wine, the price just makes it high-fiveable. It does, however, make me consider what value we are getting for the South African wines that are playing in the R250-plus range.

But it is easy to fantasise. Indeed, as I was dreamily thinking about the Graillot, and almost tasting the bright red fruit and olivey goodness, my cell-phone beeped and reminded me that my car insurance and cell-phone bill, had come off my account. I opened a bottle of Oddbins and carried on dreaming.

Staying in France but heading out of the Rhone to the Languedoc, I thought of Michael Chapoutier’s Bila-Haut ‘Occultam Lapidem’ 2008. This blend of Grenache and Syrah is a really, really drinkable and refreshing wine. It’s shows herbs and spices, with that key combination of richness and lightness. For R145 it is a perfect wine to introduce yourself to this region. Chapoutier is famous for his Rhone wines, and this is a side project for him. Though it is really good value at R145, the problem is you will have to buy two bottles, because the first one finishes very quickly.

How about something very different? Here is a wine from Sicily, grown on the volcanic soils of Mount Etna. The Tere Nere Etna Rosso 2008 is it is produced from 98% Nerello Mascalese, and 2% Nerello Cappuccio, the local grape varieties. It’s a medium bodied wine, almost Pinot like. Fresh and clean. The wine has a mineral streak in it – no I am not going to say you can taste the volcano – and, simply put, it’s just different. This is going to be the cheapest wine I recommend here, and my goodness you’ll be the star of your hipster dinner party if you bring this along. It is only R125. That’s only a little over a single buffalo for a wine from Sicily, grown on a freaking volcano. Okay, not quite on the volcano, but damn close.

What about whites? Well, the first place I am going to take you is Burgundy. White Burgundy is amazing. These wines can be truly magnificent, the queens of wine. They’re complex, nutty, citrusy, angled, light and fucking expensive. It’s just the way things are. If you want to get the good stuff from the most prized vineyards you are looking at a R1 000, easy. However, there are some cheaper versions at the R300 level which are delicious and a good way to get started on a habit that may drain your pension one day. I promise you will not regret it. How about starting with a Joseph Drouhin Mersault? Mersault is a commune within the Côte de Beaune in Burgundy and produces, nutty, oatmeally, citrussy generous wines from Chardonnay. This wine sells from R300 to R335, depending on the vintage. I haven’t had it for a while, but if you are a person who turns their noses up at Chardonnay, this could very well change your mind.

If you want something a little more zingy, then how about  a Loire Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre? The Daniel Chotard Sancerre Blanc 2010 sells for the modest price of R165, and is quite typical of the area. It is aged on the lees for a bit and shows a mineral edge with some citrus and white flower flavours. While it’s not the most complex wine, it is a very satisfying drink. It’s a great primer to a long, wine filled dinner.

I’m going to finish off my suggestions with a Spanish wine with a South African connection. The  Terroir al Limit Dits del Terra 2008 is made by South African Eben Sadie, in the Spanish region of Priorat. The wine is made from 100% Carinena (Carignan) whose vines are 83 years old, grown in schist, or slate soils. I have tasted this wine a couple times from different vintages. I can remember it’s spicy depth and its intensity of flavour, but that it was presented to the palate with such ease and elegance. It is a wine that tastes expensive. And it is rather, at R595 a bottle.

If you are looking to spend that on a bottle of wine, please do, and then give me a call, I’ll bring an Oddbins and some, well, let’s see, I can possibly afford some great conversation.

The three men were found after SANParks rangers, police and members of the military investigated the killing of a rhino cow and her calf early yesterday. A shootout ensued, where one man was fatally wounded. The men were in the possession of four fresh rhino horns, a hunting rifle and an axe.

Unfortunately, the rhino cow and her calf could not be saved.

The two men arrested are due to appear in court soon.

[Source: News24]

Ivo visited the HardWilli in the Morning Show on 2oceansvibe Radio this week, and talked fracking, football, the Euro, and the potential positives of farming rhinos for their horns.

Catch the enlightening, and thoroughly entertaining hour long chat, below.

This is one instance where you won’t find yourself sitting on the fence.

Ivovegterpodcast-9-may-2012 by 2oceansvibe.com

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Yesterday, Tahir Sema, South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) national spokesperson, issued a statement saying that currently, more than 30 000 positions in the Local Government Sector stand vacant.

He said the actual number of vacancies is not known and it could be much higher.

Sema took the opportunity to reiterate that the union has wanted these positions filled for a number of years, and that a previously agreed deal with government to have them filled, has never been implemented.

Here is the rest of Sema’s statement:

We strongly feel that the filling of vacant positions is a matter of grave concern; it should be a key area of focus for Minister Richard Baloyi, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) – a household-based survey started in 2008 – found that in the first quarter of 2012, 4,5 million persons were unemployed of whom 3,1 million or 67,8% have been looking for work for a year or longer. Meanwhile, 59,6% of the job seekers did not have matric, while 44% have never worked before.

The expanded unemployment rate which relaxes the requirement to be searching for work also increased, by 1,2% between the same two quarters, from 35,4% to a shocking 36,%, 4,5 million people, well over a third of the potential workforce. The survey further noted that 75 000 jobs had been lost in the first quarter of the year.

In the face of these glaring statistics the Government must move with a matter of urgency to fill all vacant positions in the Local Government sector. This must be done not only to meet the Government’s target of creating five million new jobs between 2010 and 2020, but also in order to better deliver services to communities that have been promised the basics.

The 5 million jobs promised by National Government shows no sign of appearing. Whilst Government continues to rely on private sector growth, which has shown an appetite for capital-intensive operations, we doubt that this target can ever be achieved.

SAMWU has this year again tabled as a demand to Local Government the filling of vacant positions; we await the South African Local Government Association and the Ministry of Cooperative Governance favourable response.

Those are indeed some glaring statistics.

[Source: PoliticsWeb]

Time Magazine Cover Goes Viral - The headline reads, “Are You Mom enough?” But if that wasn’t enough to fan the flames of the Mommy Wars, there’s the photo that goes with it: A pretty young woman wearing skinny jeans and a tank top, nursing her 4-year-old son. [shine]

ANC Bows To Pressure Over Info Bill - The ruling party bowed to pressure on the Protection of State Information Bill on Thursday, proposing a raft of changes in response to sustained criticism of the Bill over the past two years. [mail&guardian]

Vogue Editor Bans Kim Kardashian – Anna Wintour banned reality TV star Kim Kardashian from Monday night’s Met Costume Institute Gala, according to a report. Kardashian, 31, was conspicuously absent from Kanye West’s arm on the red carpet of the event. [foxnews]

JP Morgan Chase Loses $2 Billion In Six Weeks - JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, said Thursday that it lost $2 billion in the past six weeks in a trading portfolio designed to hedge against risks the company takes with its own money. [time]

Warhol’s ‘Double Elvis’ Fetches $37 Million At Auction – Andy Warhol’s “Double Elvis” sold for $37 million and works by Roy Lichtenstein and Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei broke their own records at Sotheby’s contemporary art sale this week. [huffpo]

Mitt Romney Apologises For Gay Bully School Report – Presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has apologised for school “pranks” after a report he bullied a classmate thought to be gay. The Washington Post reported that in 1965 Mr Romney held down a younger student and cut off his hair. [bbc]

Manchester City’s GBP 930 (R12 Billion) Spending Spree To Turn Club Into Premier Title Contenders -Manchester City have spent £930.4 million turning themselves into Premier League title contenders, a special Telegraph Sport survey of English football’s finances has revealed. [telegraph]

Why the world needs Val Kilmer - He could have been another Brad Pitt. Instead he’s doing one-man stage shows. Is it time for a rescue plan? [guardian]

Nadal Threatens Boycott – “I never was in control of the match, I didn’t know how to win a point,” said Nadal, who intimated he will not show up next year unless the controversial blue clay surface he abhors is modified. [sport24]

SuperEna Lottery His Magic R1 Billion Mark [Buy Tickets] – Tomorrow’s big SuperEna rollover lottery draw is sitting on a jackpot of EUR 92.5 Million. That comes to just under a billion Rand. I’m buying three tickets right now, how about you? [tickets]

Bruce Willis Fathers Child At 57 [Photo] – He became a father for the fourth time just a few weeks ago. And now Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming has given his fans a first glimpse of their baby daughter. [dailymail]

Is Tiger Woods’ Reign Over? – This is the hottest question in golf right now: is Tiger Woods finished as a golfer nonpareil? I’ve read a batch of Tiger career-obituaries over the past month from many seasoned observers who believe “the Woods era” is gone. [bbc]

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COMING UP TODAY

The Premier Show With Seth And Bruce 10h00 to 13h00 – Easing you into your Friday, Seth and Bruce discuss the topics of the day, with a smattering of sport, entertainment and finance. Powered by Jack Daniels! [2ovfm]

2 Girls 1 Mic 13h00 to 15h00 – Jade from Scar joins the girls to talk about the CANSA Shavathon happening tomorrow and it’s the moneysmart Shift_Ctrl session with Tobi from moneysmart. [2girls,1mic]

FRESH PODCASTS

Maya On Money, Brought To You By 10X – Maya tells us about one of her readers, a 22 year old who has saved R360k! She discusses what building wealth is really about. [podcast]

F & Martinengo on 2oceansVibe Radio – Sasha joined IanF in our Melrose Arch studio, to talk Formula 1 and the Spanish Grand Prix. [podcast]

What’s in it for you, besides ever-flowing fountains of praise, pride, and victory?

An incredible prize. That’s what. Bring it in. Team huddle time.

For the past five years Heineken International has hosted the Heineken Star Final, where selected global ticket winners can view the UEFA Champions League final in exotic cities around the world. This year they chose a secret location in Cape Town, where guests will be treated to a football feast with VIP treatment on 18 and 19 May.

That experience will be “quite mean”, as we say in the local parlance.

So what’s the vibe? Essentially, Heineken’s online app tests the extent of your football knowledge. For every question you answer correctly, you’ll score a goal.

And if you’re a top scorer? You’ll be considered for the following prize:

The ultimate victor each week will be treated to a VIP experience at the Heineken Star Final. Here they can watch a live screening of the UEFA Champions League Final Munich 2012 in comfort and style.

TO CAST YOUR HAT INTO THE RING TO WIN TWO VIP TICKETS TO THE HEINEKEN STAR FINAL:

CLICK HERE. And put your knowledge thinking cap on.

Terms & Conditions apply

Best of luck, friends!

Grounds from all 10 Test-playing nations were considered, and no other South African venue featured in the top 10 of 26 highlighted. Here is the rest of the Top 10:

The following grounds to the list:

1.  Lords, London
2. Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa
3. Adelaide Oval, Australia
4. Galle International Stadium, Sri Lanka
5. Trent Bridge, Nottingham
6. Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia
7. Melbourne Cricket Ground
8. Antigua Recreation Ground, Antigua
9. Kensington Oval, Barbados
10. Basin Reserve, New Zealand
11. Eden Gardens, India

WPCA chief executive Andre Odendaal:

“This is an important endorsement of a place that has special meaning for both Capetonians and South African cricket.”

[Source: News24]

BBC Scotland viewers got a surprise at lunchtime today when Prince Charles himself appeared on their screens after the usual daily Reporting Scotland news broadcast and presented the regional weather report.

Standing in front of the BBC’s weather map, Prince Charles delivered a report based on a specially written script which included references to royal residences in Scotland.

Delivering the performance of a lifetime, he said,

The best of the bright and dry weather will of course be in the northern isles and the far north of the mainland. So, a little hazy sunshine for the Castle of Mey in Caithness.

But a cold day everywhere with temperatures of just 8C and a brisk northerly wind. Thank God it isn’t a bank holiday.

HRH the Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall visited BBC Scotland’s headquarters in Glasgow today as part of their Scottish tour during the annual Holyrood Week celebrations. They also spent some time with students at a local University.

[Source: BBC News, ITN]

They’re going with “Blueseed” because “John Galt” was taken.

Theil, early Facebook investor and Pay-Pal co-founder, is putting the thing together with Google engineer and ocean-community activist, Patri Friedman.

The original plans for the floating technology village looked like an architect’s drawing of an oil rig. More recent plans look like a converted cruise ship or barge remodeled into a fancy sort of island/boat thing.

Blueseed hopes to have room for about a thousand inhabitants, with an all-inclusive rent figured at about $1,200 to $3,000 per month – which isn’t that much if you have enough money to construct artificial libertarian islands, I guess.

Says SFIST:

The primary goal of the new island nation is to allow international entrepreneurs a chance to get close to Silicon Valley’s white-hot startup scene without all the messy paperwork involved in actually obtaining a work visa. According to Blueseed’s own research, deportation of foreigners with Master’s Degrees or Ph.Ds in Computer Science is becoming a real problem in [America]. Australian programmers, for example, are apparently excited about the plan, making up about 6% of the demand for onboard space.

No word yet on whether or not the cruise ship will have room for shark tanks, death rays, or other Bond-villain ephemera.

[Source: SFist]

The Olympic Torch will spend the next week traveling through Greece, before arriving in Cornwall on May 18th. The relay will then travel through the United Kingdom for 70 days, being carried by over 8000 members of the public and celebrities before lighting the main cauldron in the London Olympic Stadium to mark the official start of the games.

The first leg of the relay was run this morning by Greek swimming world champion, Spyros Gianniotis. He ran the torch through the Ancient Olympia Stadium, before passing it to 19 year-old Alex Loukos.

The torch is lit in a centuries-old ceremony, which uses the sun’s rays to create flame. This is then used to light to torch.

For a map of the full route, check out this link.

[Source: Telegraph]

Itumeleng Mabeba, an employee at security company Bidvest Magnum, faces internal disciplinary action because of this tweet:

Bidvest Magnum’s managing director, David Crichton, was obviously not amused at what has since transpired, and was quoted as saying:

I’m very distressed about the comment and we shall institute an internal inquiry.

Itumeleng deleted both his Facebook and Twitter accounts after the incident, and has claimed his account was hacked. He is a student at UNISA, and there has been no word from them as to whether he will face disciplinary action from them. At the time of writing, 2oceansVibe had not been able to get comment from UNISA.

Cape Peninsula University of Technology suspended a student for a racist Facebook post earlier this week.

Itumeleng took to his blog to explain his version of events:

Concerned Citizen

Good day,my fellow South Africans.I remember my mother warning me about the drawbacks of social networks,but unfortunately I was too stubborn to listen.Last night I discovered that some haywire hacker hacked into my Twitter account and posted derogatory,racist statements using my name.Upon discovering this,I decided to deactivate both my Twitter and Facebook accounts due to the influx of hate-speech messages I was receiving and mainly because of fear that this sick individual-who is clearly bereft of entertainment-might drag my name further down the mud.

I have gone to the Midrand police stattion to report this unfortunate episode-a report has been drawn up (of which I received a report number for);I have also gone to my network service provider to find out if the hacker can be traced;I have also made a trip to UNISA to report the incident because of fear that it might affect my examination proceedings,as I am due to write my exams in just a couple of weeks-they promised to look into the matter.

I would like to urge all my fellow compatriots-who have not yet been introduced to this nasty cyber world-to think twice when signing up for social-network accounts,because you never know who might be looking into hacking your account and destroying your name in the process.

I hope this idiot of a hacker gets caught and that justice is duly served!

Spicy.

Meanwhile, Mmusi Maimane, Democratic Alliance’s National Spokesperson, met with the racist model and “model” a short while ago.

City Press journalist, Carien du Plessis, was live-tweeting from the meeting:

You can make of that what you will.

[Source: 2oceansVibe, IOL, ItumelengMabeba]

It would appear that Bafana Bafana player (and Mamelodi Sundowns captain) Teko Modise has landed himself in a spot of trouble after failing to pay a monthly maintenance to his estranged wife. She now wants him to be held in contempt of court and sent to jail.

Modise is currently R52 000 in arrears after defaulting on a February court order to pay his wife, Ntswaki Felicia Modise. According to court papers he earned about R150 000 a month and amassed wealth from endorsement deals with a deodorant brand and electronics company. He was also an ambassador for a fast-food chain during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

His wife approached the courts in November after he apparently deregistered their daughter from their medical aid and kicked them both out of their house. According to a report in Cape Times this morning, Modise has until tomorrow to file papers opposing the application. If he does not do so the matter would be set down for a formal hearing in two weeks.

[Source: News24]

Which means they’re really optimistic about how that Spider-Man reboot is going to do in the box office. And I guess there’s some call to be optimistic when you bear in mind that they’d been expecting a loss of around $6,5 billion.

Sony points to factory damaged sustained by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year, production disruption from flooding in Thailand, and “unfavourable” foreign exchange rates for its sustained losses.

The company suggests that their focus on emerging technologies, like the growing smartphone and tablet businesses, will reap benefits enough to get them profitable again by 2013.

Which is unfortunate, given that their smartphones and tablets are almost universally hated.

Hirai, the guy who ran Sony’s PlayStation department and their newly-appointed president, would be working a fistful of miracles just by keeping the company from going under in the next year, let alone returning it to profit.

[Source: AP]

World renowned hairstylist, Vidal Sassoon has died at his Los Angeles home aged 84.

Sassoon came to prominence in the 1960s as he pioneered the “wash and wear” look for women’s hair, basically freeing women from over-stylised, labour-intensive styles that dominated the 1950s. He pioneered an “architectural” approach to hairstyling, using geometric cuts and shapes modeled on the facial structure of the person he was styling. At the time, the approach was revolutionary.

He opened his first salon on Bond Street in London in 1954, and his creative styles and cuts, which required little styling and fell into place perfectly every time, fit right in with the then fledgling women’s liberation movement. Before then, the style for women’s hair was high and tight, curled and hairsprayed into place.

“His timing was perfect: As women’s hair was liberated, so were their lives,” Allure magazine Editor-in-Chief Linda Wells told The Associated Press in a written statement. “Sassoon was one of the original feminists.”

One of his best-known clients was Mary Quant, the famous British fashion designer who popularised the mini-skirt in the 1960s.

On the impact his style had on women’s fashion, and women’s liberation, Sassoon later said,

“My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous. Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn’t have time to sit under the dryer anymore.”

“He changed the way everyone looked at hair,” Grace Coddington, creative director of American Vogue

Sassoon moved his salon to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, and eventually retired from hairstyling in the 1980s in order to focus on his philanthropic work via his Vidal Sassoon foundation.

Besides his iconic career as a hairstylist, Sassoon also led a tumultuous, and often-publicised private life. He was married four times, most recently in 1992. He was also an avid campaigner against anti-semitism, and opened the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the 1980s.

He is survived by his fourth wife, and three of four children from his second wife. His oldest child, Catya, died of an overdose in 2002.

Source: BBC News, MSNBC, Examiner, Telegraph]

News has recently come to light revealing disturbing details of a 16-year old boy who was raped while on a school rugby tour. The incident was part of an elaborate initiation process which clearly went horribly astray, all of which was recorded on cellphones.

The incident in question took place over the weekend of 17 March, of this year. Rugby players from Edgemead High School’s first team were on a tour and had camped near Velddrift on the West Coast, where they played a match against a local school.

On Friday night at approximately 23:30 the mother of the victim received a ‘please call me’ from her son. She immediately phoned and found him to be in severe distress.

“He was hysterical and told me that the older boys wanted to shave his head… I insisted on speaking to them, but they told me I couldn’t tell them what to do, and ended the call.”

The boy has also reportedly asked his coach, Brandon Grant, for help but was told to “stand up for [himself] and be a man”. Initially the boy and a friend tried to hide but when they were later discovered by the group they were locked in rooms and had their heads shaved.

The following night their initiation continued, they were made to drink a concoction, the contents of which was not made known to them. Later in the evening they were also fed alcohol and once they had fallen asleep they were violated with several phallic objects including a broom and a banana, the acts were recorded on cellphones. The victim also had his eyebrows shaved, toothpaste squirted up his nose and had offensive images drawn on his head. According to an account from a fellow student who was also on the tour, another learner wanted to defecate on the boy but was stopped by friends.

The learner’s parents removed him from school and laid criminal charges at the Bothasig Police Station on 20 March. Since then very little has been done about the incident and police informed them on Wednesday that the perpetrators would not be prosecuted as “the boy had not been examined by a district surgeon at the time of the assault.” This was in contradiction to what the boy’s mother had been told, as she had been lead to believe that photographic evidence would be enough.

The Headmaster of Edgemead High School, Redford Lawrence, told Die Burger that the school had held an ”internal disciplinary hearing” and that several boys had received temporary suspension. According to Lee Smith, the chairperson of the school’s governing body, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) was made aware of the incident, however Paddy Attwel, spokesperson for the Department said they had no knowledge of it.

“The WCED are taking the matter very seriously and the case will be investigated,” he said in a statement.

[Source: Die Burger, News24]

Please note this is a special favour for a 2ov staff member – we do not sell cars on this website

Vergara made a solo appearance at the Mets Gala on Monday, which according to sources from the New York Post is due to couple splitting over the weekend. The break up is said to have happened after a long series of arguments between the two. The relationship allegedly became more and more difficult as Vergara’s fame from Modern Family grew.

Loeb is a New York business man and aspiring politician. The two met at the Golden Globes in 2010, after which they started dating.

[Source: LA Times]

Mdluli is convinced certain people are conspiring to oust him, amongst them: acting police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkwhanazi, head of the Hawks, Anwa Dramat, and Gauteng Commissioner Lieutenant-General Mzwandile Petros.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa told reporters yesterday that the decision was made in light of a widely reported letter Mdluli had written to him, President Jacob Zuma, and others.

Mthethwa said:

This letter seems to have political connotations and has caused tensions within the management of the SAPS. It alludes to some conspiracy theory of some in the management [of the police] ganging up against him. They are so serious as to suggest the meddling of policing functions in politics.

DA parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko, wasn’t pleased:

All of the available evidence suggests that Mdluli is not fit to serve in any part of the police service or criminal justice system. President Zuma must re-suspend Richard Mdluli with immediate effect. Anything less is unacceptable. This ‘shifting’ of Mdluli to another part of the SA Police Service does not address these problems.

Mazibuko continued, saying South Africa still didn’t know why Mdluli had been reinstated, especially amidst serious allegations of fraud involving a secret crime intelligence fund.

She’s convinced there has been political interference.

Mthethwa did however announce that he had established a task team to investigate allegations of political interference in police matters.

Sindi Chikunga, an ANC MP who chairs the police portfolio committee, put to bed speculation that Mdluli was to take over as national police commissioner:

There is no vacancy. Nobody is head-hunting a national commissioner. General Mdluli is not being considered.

Yesterday, it emerged that an affidavit penned by Tokyo Sexwale was amongst documents that had been stolen from an advocate acting in a matter against Mdluli.

Mdluli will now reportedly take up a role in the operations department at SAPS.

[Source: 2oceansVibe, TimesLive]

Local Zara Fashion Range: Seasonal Or Laziness? - “I obviously popped into Zara whilst in Jo’burg last week – nothing like a bit of last minute winter shopping. I must say though I am getting quite irritated to see the same items I bought last November at Zara in Barcelona at the Zara in SA. Is it a season thing?” [popyacollar]

Russia’s New Airbus/Boeing Challenger Crashes, Killing 50 - Indonesian authorities say they have found the wreckage of a Russian Sukhoi passenger plane that had gone missing during a demonstration flight near a volcano on Indonesia’s Java island yesterday, officials said. [smh]

Obama Becomes First US President To Supports Gay Marriage - President Obama’s decision to endorse same-sex marriage staked out a stance that carries uncertain political risks but one he said was rooted in the biblical admonition “to treat others the way you would want to be treated.” [latimes]

In Woolies We Trust – Despite taking a publicity knock earlier this year for copying the packaging of a small soft drink maker, Woolworths has the best reputation among South Africa’s top companies. [timeslive]

John Travolta Was In New York That Day – A receipt for a meal Travolta ate at a restaurant in New York on Jan 16, the date the alleged assault was said to have taken place, was published by the celebrity website TMZ. It also published a photograph of Travolta said to have been taken in New York on that day. Note: restaurant slip says 11h38PM and flight time from LA to NY is 5h30 hours. [telegraph]

Brad Pitt Becomes First Male Face Of Chanel No. 5 – Chanel has announced Brad Pitt as the newest model for their Chanel No. 5 perfume. The Academy Award nominated star is now the first man to be named the face of the French-owned company’s top-selling perfume ad campaign. [abcnews]

Facebook’s Mobile Advertising Problem – Facebook amended its public offering prospectus on Wednesday to note that it is showing fewer ads per user on the site because of its lack of mobile advertising. It is the sixth amendment to the document since Facebook filed for an initial public offering in February. [nytimes]

Britney Spears Signs $15 Million X-Factor Deal – After months of eight-figure negotiations, the pop star has finally signed her contract to join Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid as a judge on The X Factor. [eonline]

Anders Breivik ‘Cried With Joy’ As He Carried Out Killings – The first survivor to testify against Anders Behring Breivik said the accused mass murderer cried out with joy as he shot and killed 69 young people on a Norwegian island last July 22. [globalpost]

Islamic Group Vows To Stop Lady Gaga – A hardline Islamic group has warned it will not let Lady Gaga set foot in Indonesia as part of her tour of Asia and Australia, challenging an army of fans awaiting a concert in the nation with the world’s largest Muslim population. [nzherald]

Pippa Planning Move To New York – Pippa Middleton is planning a move to New York in a bid to rebuild her reputation, and build her public profile (in a good way) prior tot he launch of her party planning book ‘Celebrate’ in October. [dailybeast]

Startup Ducks Immigration Law With ‘Googleplex Of The Sea’ – Blueseed says U.S. immigration law is choking the flow of “bold and creative” entrepreneurs into Silicon Valley. So it’s building a floating IT fortress where entrepreneurs can be bold and creative right next to Silicon Valley without actually setting foot on U.S. soil. [wired]

Facebook App Store On The Way – Facebook is taking a giant leap toward making app discovery a more user friendly experience. On Wedesnday, Facebook announced that it will open an App Center, which will serve as a hub for the site’s social apps but won’t be a full-blown “store” in the vein of the iOS App Store or Google Play for Android. [huffpo]

Iggy Pop: The Crooner! – The “grandfather of punk” Iggy Pop has shed his bad-boy image – transforming himself into a smooth crooner. A world away from the wild concerts he has become well known for, he launched his latest album Apres in the lavish surroundings of a Parisian hotel. [skynews]

362kg Woman Prepares To Tie The Knot – Susanne Eman — who is on a proud quest to become the heaviest woman ever — is preparing to waddle down the aisle to marry Parker Clark, a man she met online. And it’s a match made in heavy-set heaven: Clark is a (thin) chef. [thedaily]

Rihanna Rushed To Hospital After Partying – Rihanna was rushed to hospital after partying at the Met Gala in New York on Monday night. The You Da One hitmaker tweeted a picture of herself attached to an IV drip in a hospital. [dailymail]

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COMING UP TODAY

Maya On Money – Maya On Money is a finance feature, hosted by Maya Fisher-French. She will be teaming up with the Just Josie lunch show at 12h30 every Thursday, to bring us simple and useful finance tips. [2ov.fm]

BFF Show – Although some would love to see them in their regular stiletto clad pillow fights, they have a unique, honest and loyal friendship… Bailey Schneider and Karolina Sky are South Africa’s well-known BFFs.Tune in today from 2-3pm and be a part of the show.[bffshow]

FRESH PODCASTS

The Rolling Stone Chart Show – The Rolling Stone Chart Show – 2ov Radio has teamed up with Rolling Stone magazine to bring you the weekly charts – live to your radio / car / mobile phone! [podcast]

Music Week’s FUTURE FACE of 2012 In Studio – US dance artist, Sarah Atereth popped in to our studio’s on her holiday in South Africa, just before catching a flight back to New York. [podcast]

The state-owned lender has decided it will focus on selling debt and obtaining loans in the next 12 to 18 months, Gouws explained in an interview.

We are under-leveraged. In the next 12 to 18 months, our focus will be on bond issuances and borrowings rather than share sales.

Gouws says the IDC will use the money from divestments, borrowing and bond sales to finance renewable energy projects around the country.

Gouws is attending the World Economic Forum on Africa in the Ethiopian capital and says the IDC will borrow and issue bonds to raise as much as 50 billion rand in the next five years.

Gouws says the South African government has ordered the lender to tackle the jobless rate by boosting the backing of projects that will help the continent’s largest economy alleviate unemployment.

South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 25,2 per cent in the first quarter of this financial year. That’s the highest of more than 60 nations that economic news agency, Bloomberg, monitors.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has previously said the government has aspirations to reduce the jobless rate to 14 per cent by 2020 through economic growth, even though that economic growth may slow to 2,7 per cent this year from 3,1 per cent last year.

The IDC currently has investments in more than 200 companies, R50 billion in publicly traded companies, and R30 billion in unlisted stocks.

[Source: MoneyWeb]

Firefighters are currently battling a fire that broke out on the construction site of Mitchells Plain Hospital. Not a lot of details are known at this stage. EWN is reporting that emergency officials are on the scene, and that site managers are trying to keep the media away from taking pictures.

Spokesperson for Cape Town’s disaster risk management centre, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, said that a total of 25 emergency vehicles were sent out, as well as a helicopter.

There are conflicting reports about what may have sparked the blaze at the Mitchells Plain Hospital construction site. Some witnesses said they heard a small explosion before flames erupted.

[Source: EWN and News24]

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Malcolm Harris was arrested in an Occupy Wall Street protest on the Brooklyn Bridge in October for “disorderly conduct.” The New York City Criminal Court ordered Twitter to hand over Harris’ account data as well as whatever tweets he posted over a three month period around the time of his arrest.

Twitter’s lawyers are claiming that the subpoena violates the fourth amendment – as well as Twitter’s terms of service, which say that users’ tweets belong to users and thus can’t be handed over to law enforcement without consent.

Which is, yes, a minor victory for one dude’s internet privacy. But if it suggests a trend in internet companies stepping in to protect user data from government probes, that’s sort of a big deal.

[Source: Wired]

Brandon’s (Fassbender) life is turned upside down when Sissy (Mulligan) moves in with him to find work as a singer. Most people’s regrets are often of a sexual nature and this forms the complex bond between brother and sister in Shame. Their relationship is examined and forms the catalyst for Brandon’s downward spiral… taking his inability to find intimacy and his sexual addictions into darker, more self-destructive terrain.

“I’ve drawn regret from the truth of a thousand lies…”

Shame is difficult to watch… in many ways comparable with American Psycho. The sexual content is overtly graphic with full frontal nudity and several intense sex scenes. Fassbender’s commitment to character is impeccable as the man is transported from one hollow sexual experience to another… never quite reaching fulfillment on a cyclic quest to distract, distance and detonate his insatiable urges, needs and desires.

This is a story that will resonate with many men in a society that lures and subsequently chastises, yet one that is seldom told on film. McQueen channels an ever-widening hollowness as Brandon’s deep yearning to satisfy his vapid sexual desires spirals out of control. Fassbender’s performance captures the essence of this and McQueen powers it home with awkward conversations, broken mirror moments and glimmers of real soulful pain.

A complex character portrait, a strong lead performance from Fassbender, sleek artistic cinematography, a spontaneous feel to the dialogue and McQueen’s ability to transfer empathy and a hollow gratification to his audience makes Shame a must-see… a powerful, yet bleak life of shame.

The bottom line: Powerful

Release Date: 11 May, 2012

Book Tickets at Ster-Kinekor

Book Tickets at Nu Metro

Catch more movie reviews at SPL!NG
Image quote derived from Linkin Park – “What I’ve Done” lyrics.

Pictured above is Bill Clinton, hanging out with his girlfriend, Hillary (yep) at Yale. I’m also pretty sure that he had some awesome nickname, something along the lines of “The Dude.”

The above picture shows a 23 year-old Stephen Hawking, at his wedding day. The picture was taken in 1965, just after his diagnosis, but before he had a need for a wheelchair. He still required a cane though.

Sticking with science, check out Albert Einstein, easily the coolest quantum cat. Just chilling in the sun, goofy hat, smoking something… Beautiful.

Martin Luther King, Jnr was quite the hustler, shown here kicking back in a pool hall. According to history, a lot of the relationships he formed with gangs was done over a pool game. Which he dominated. Like a boss.

This picture proves that nothing can take away the scariness of an evil dictator. Even putting Adolf Hitler on a snowsleigh, he still remains the scariest motherfucker I’ve seen. His eyes… surveying his kingdom.

And here is his buddy, Joseph Stalin. Or should that be Broseph Stalin. Look at this dude. He looks like he would just walk into the club and choose any lady he wants. When he picks your girl, he’d just look at you and you’d skulk away slowly while he pours vodka down her throat.

Here is Kurt Cobain - this picture proves that no matter how depressed you are about life, it’s impossible to not have a smile on your face when you’re smashing a pepperoni pizza into your face. Impossible.

Lastly, here he is. The angriest white boy in rap today. Eminem – you can see he had a very rough time growing up, forced to eat birthday cake and wear pink Alf shirts. I think I would have turned out exactly the same under the circumstances.

[Source: Cracked]

[PLEASE NOTE 2OCEANSVIBE IS THE ONLY PUBLICATION TO HAVE TRANSLATED THE AFRIKAANS ORIGINAL]

Sometimes a headline makes you literally stop walking and do a double take in the middle of the pavement, and this morning’s new edition of Die Matie, the student newspaper of Stellenbosch University, carried just such a headline.

Before we get into it. Play this video, and while the ambience chills your soul, read on…

According to today’s edition of Die Matie, Stellenbosch University’s Management and Communications division were alerted of an incident that occurred about two weeks ago in the Dagbreek mens’ residence when a first year student had some form of psychotic breakdown, and instead of being rushed to hospital, was apparently treated to a group exorcism led by the residence’s spiritual head student.

According to Die Matie, the events proceeded as follows.

At about 15h00 on 24 April, the first year student (not named by the paper) went to see the residence’s head student, Pieter Nel, because he had heard he was about to lose his bursary on academic grounds. He also allegedly told the head student that he wanted to change course.

Later, he let other students in the res know that he was going out to see his girlfriend (despite being known to be single), and he was apparently seen walking naked through the res, on his way to the entrance. He did not respond to efforts to stop him until the head student for spiritual affairs on the residence head committee (ah, res bureaucracy…) allegedly ordered him to return in Tswana. He was taken to the head student’s room where they attempted to calm him down for a couple of hours, while he apparently struggled and swore at the student’s trying to help him.

At this stage, the spiritual affairs guy apparently assembled a group of similarly spiritual students in the room where allegedly, according the Die Matie, “they tried to drive the evil spirits” out of the student, “with prayer”.

Note, at no point up until then was any professional assistance called in, not the University Protection Services, nor the campus’ trauma and counselling unit, both of which stand ready to assist in such circumstances.

After the mock “exorcism” the student was apparently returned to his room, where he later started acting out again, hitting the walls and breaking a window. Finally, records the paper, at 23h00 that evening, six hours after the student first approached the Head Student, the Campus protection services and trauma and counselling unit at the Centre for Student Counselling and Development were alerted. The student was subsequently hospitalised in Stellenbosch and given treatment.

The University made it known that it has been in contact with everyone involved in the incident, including the student and his parents, and wish him a speedy recovery. Sources in the residence, who wished to remain anonymous, told Die Matie that they were shocked at the way the incident was handled, and also by the length of time it took for someone to reach out for the professional help the campus has at the ready.

Dagbreek’s Head Student refused to release further details of the incident, other than to say an investigation into the events of 24 April was underway. The residence made headlines earlier this year when another student on the Head Committee of the residence told a group of first years that he “did not agree with homosexuality,” during an orientation session.

Dagbreek is the largest only mens’ residence on Stellenbosch Campus

[Source: Die Matie - 9 May 2012, Myproperty.co.za, Stellenbosch University]

India’s Supreme Court has put paid to the environment ministry’s cheetah project, and did not mince its words in saying that the whole idea was “totally misconceived”.

“Studies show that African cheetahs and Asian cheetahs are completely different, both genetically and also in their characteristics [...] The African cheetah obviously never existed in India,” pointed out a court advisor yesterday.

Rather embarrassing. Sadly the Asian cheetah – which once roamed wild on the plains of India – is now all but extinct in the country. But given the clear warnings against the introduction of alien species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the ministry of environment is going to have to go back to the drawing board on this one.

[Source: Times Live]

Whereas if I was a racist and got caught (which would never happen) using the K word, I would apologise, and instead of saying I was angry, I would say, “I was so upset with what they did and didn’t want to get into a physical altercation, so instead I spent a moment thinking of the most disgusting thing to say to them. I really wanted to harm them with words. That’s when I thought of the K word and called them that. And I hope it hurt – because that was the intention.”

I would be the BEST racist, if I was a racist.

But they would NEVER catch me.

I’m too smart for that.

That’s why racists get caught – it’s a predisposition – they’re not smart enough to get out of it.

Robbers broke into Sikhakhane’s home on a Sunday morning last month while Sikhakhane was at church. They immediately ascended upon his study, where they searched through drawers and removed documents and books.

The robbers made off with other valuables like a Range Rover, a Golf, and some TV’s, but Sikhakhane didn’t believe it was an ordinary break-in.

He explained that a person who was in the house during the robbery, and who immediately hid when they’d heard the robbers enter, said the robbers made their way up the stairs and to the back of the house where Sikhakane’s study was.

He said:

They went straight to my study. It’s not the usual things that people take. I would not like to speculate which of my controversial matters may be the issue.

The Star newspaper has since revealed that Sexwale’s affidavit alleging Mdluli abused his power, and may continue to do so if he becomes the next national police commissioner, is amongst the stolen documents.

From the Star:

Sexwale has taken legal action against Mdluli after he accused him of being involved in a plot to overthrow Zuma.

In an affidavit seen by The Star, Sexwale calls on Madonsela to probe Mdluli for “possible abuse of state power and resources”.

He said the allegations accusing him and other ANC officials of plotting to oust Zuma were a fabrication. But he was concerned Mdluli’s investigation constituted a serious abuse of state resources.

“Mdluli occupies a very sensitive position in society and within the state. An abuse of his position has serious implications for the country and citizens. It also constitutes a serious conflation of state and party.”

Sexwale also wanted to know if the SA Police Service or government officials had tasked Mdluli to investigate the alleged plot and how much had been spent on the probe.

The affidavit read: “Such unlawful investigation constitutes an abuse of state resources since it was an investigation into (the) internal affairs of a political party.”

Sexwale added in the affidavit: “There is a reasonable suspicion that Mdluli, in his capacity as head of crime intelligence, may continue to abuse his power since he has been reinstated back to his job after his suspension.”

Several ministers who spoke anonymously said they had informally expressed their displeasure at how Mdluli and his factional fights with his colleagues were de-stabilising the police service.

The Sunday Tribune reported at the weekend that one minister, who could not be quoted because she could not discuss “internal matters publicly”, had said some of her colleagues had told her they feared speaking openly on their phones.

“Mdluli comes to mind when we want to discuss private thoughts (and ideas) with (fellow cabinet) members or any other person. We are supposed to be in charge of the country but we live in fear of this (Mdluli) guy,” she said.

There is definitely a true-life crime novel in this.

[Source: IOL]

Google Analytics shows figures of just over 1 million unique readers for last year, 2011 – which was just over double the previous year.

With over half a million unique readers so far this year, 2oceansvibe News is on track to double it’s readership again this year.

Thanks to all the readers out there who are clearly happy with the content!

Just you wait until we launch the new site – 2oceansvibe News v4.0 – during July this year.

Watch this space…

Usually when extremely opulent and established 5-star iconic hotels offer a special price, they tell you it’s R5,000 a night, instead of R10,000 a night. And then they give you the smallest room. Right?

Right! But NOT with the Mount Nelson.

Now consider this ridiculous offer for a second…

Spice up your winter with the Mount Nelson Hotel’s three sensational offers

The Suite Life. It’s akin to flying first class except you can run around the very spacious room, the bed is much bigger (and softer), the views are better, and you get to enjoy a bottle of Cap Classique and sumptuous afternoon tea in plush sofas. And the best part: it is affordable at R1 500 per person sharing a one-bedroom suite, including breakfast.

The Epicure. What could be better than enjoying an aperitif in the alluring Planet Bar, toastily warm next to the roaring fire, followed by a soul-satisfying five-course dinner with matching wines, served in the lauded Planet Restaurant. At R1 500 per person sharing a superior room, aperitif, dinner and breakfast are included.

The Spicy Life. A couple’s massage with hot compresses to loosen tight, tired muscles and your very own blend of deeply relaxing aromatherapy essential oils allows you to enjoy your sojourn with all your senses. Later, spicy bath oils, fragrant candles and rose petals: no mean treat at R1 500 per person sharing and includes a 60minute massage for two and breakfast.

Package price: R1500,00 per person
Terms & Conditions:

• Valid for stays between May and end October
• Subject to availability at the time of reservation
• Applicable to South African Residents only – ID number to be given at time of booking
• Excludes gratuity
• Not applicable for group bookings (10 rooms or more)
• Cannot be combined with any other package, promotion or discounted rate
• Standard hotel cancellation policy applies

Travellers are one thing, but I personally, and strongly, urge locals to do the right thing and treat themselves to a weekend at the Nellie. Tell your mates you’re going away and sneak off to the Nellie for a luxurious weekend, packed with high-teas and spas and curries! And fireplaces. And restaurants. And Bars. And 5-star service…

Check out www.mountnelson.co.za and GET IN TOUCH!

Email reservations@mountnelson.co.za or call +27 21 4831733

I mean, The Dictator hits theatres in a week, so this is just the latest iteration of Baron Cohen’s in-character promotion – recall his spilling ’Kim Jong-Il’s ashes’ on Ryan Seacrest during the Oscars – but whatever, any advertising that messes with Mugabe is fun advertising.

Sadly, the Washington Post followed up and the event isn’t actually happening at the Presidential Residence in Harare. Shocker. The Zimbabwean ministry didn’t even know that the film existed until just about now.

Nice job, Cohen.

[Source: WP]

This morning, he contacted us for full comment. Read his compelling argument, after the jump.

The song is based on my experiences with a Russian cruise ship waitress in 1982 when I worked as a photographer on a Russian cruise ship. My hook is “Natasha the freedom you’ll never know”. Nikita’s hook is “Nikita you will never know”. In Sept 1984 I sent my lyrics to a publisher called “Big Pig”. I learnt, 17 years later, that Big Pig is Elton John and Bernie Taupin. 4 months after getting my lyrics they wrote a song called Nikita. Similar name, theme, hook, chorus and structure. 50 percent of Nikita can be found to have linguistic roots in my lyrics.

I saw the lyrics in 2001 for the first time and was amazed at the similarities. 2 months later I contacted their lawyers. They did what lawyers do and said I didn’t have a case. In time I got 4 of the world’s leading experts in forensic musicology, forensic linguistics, song writing and copyright infringement to confirm that the 2 lyrics were substantially similar.

A statistical analysis shows that there is more chance of winning the lottery 6 weeks in a row than there is for such similarities to happen by coincidence.

11 years ago, when I first discovered the infringement, I was told it would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to take the matter to court. This was money I didn’t have. For 11 years I have been trying to work out how a person of limited financial means is meant to get justice from the world’s richest pop star.

Finally a US attorney, impressed by my struggle for justice and my case, has agreed to help me to take this to court in a way I can afford.

This was one of Elton’s most popular songs. He and Bernie won an Ivor Novello award for “best written song of the year” … yet neither Elton nor Bernie have ever talked about it or the roots of the song … I wonder why that would be ?

Notice what Elton plays in the video … a photographer … mmmm… interesting.

Elton and Bernie had a big break in 1967 when a music business insider connected them – this action changed their lives. 16 years later I was also in London looking for a big break into the music business and song writing – this would have been it – Elton and Bernie had a chance to “pass it forward” and acknowledge that I was a co-writer of Nikita. They choose not to – instead they kept all the credit and royalties to themselves. Not cool …

I thought I had failed as a song writer. Instead I had unknowingly been co-writer of the biggest hit of the year.

I thought I would give you guys a few more facts seeing as there is a lot of confusion out there. At the end of the day, the simple fact is, had I never written Natasha, Nikita would simply never have happened.

Spicy.

What do YOU think?