In preparation for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro has established a huge state-of-the-art surveillance space, boasting 80 interchangeable digital panels, 450 cameras, 80 square metres of surveillance screen space, and an awesome Batcave-esque name: the Control Room. I don’t know how they paid for it either.
Heroes and Star Trek star, Zachary Quinto, took to the Internet to address spiraling rumours regarding his sexuality this weekend, releasing a statement on his website.
Brookfield Properties, owners of the Zuccotti Park at the OWS protestors are demonstrating in, had called up the NYPD for “ assistance during their cleaning operation”. There were concerns that this would bring the protest to an abrupt end. This was prevented by a last minute statement from Deputy May Holloway, insisting that the “cleaning” operation be postponed.
We’re pretty sure that Lindsay Lohan doesn’t buy the court’s warning that she really will go to jail if she doesn’t get her act together. If Judge Sautner, presiding over her case, is not in a very good mood when she hears of the actress’ distinct lack of progress, LiLo could be locked up as early as next week.
After 26 bombs – including six mortar bombs and two submarine depth charges – washed up on Kent’s nudist colony at Leysdown Beach, the Royal Navy was called in to perform a two-day bomb sweep, uncovering another 61 explosives, some dating back to the late 19th century. Miraculously, no uncomfortable puns about nudity and bombs were involved.
Just when you thought they couldn’t eke another sordid drop out of the dried up teat that is the Die Hard series, the Hollywood Powers That Be announced that the fifth installment in the 23-year-old series will hit our screens on Valentines Day 2013.
Our latest addition to the Boss Hall of Fame hails from Nigeria. I’m hesitant to say he is a traffic warden, because he is so much more. Not everyone can pull off directing traffic wearing only black clothing, let alone using a combination of moves inspired by Michael Jackson, Swan Lake, and The Karate Kid. But he does… Like a boss!
Virgin Atlantic announced that their planes will soon be able to fly from London to Hong Kong on fuel that produces half the carbon of regular jet fuel – which is sort of huge news, given that flying is one of our most carbon-intensive activities, enough to offset any good otherwise done by unplugging unused appliances or whatever.
If you thought Madonna had a hard time adopting a Malawian child and getting through the forest of red tape that process entailed, it’s also going to be a much tougher task for foreigners to adopt a South African baby in the near future. Foreign parents hoping for adoption from South Africa are now required to prove their commitment to living here.
Remember back in the day when ninjas trained by having coconuts dropped on their stomachs, or by balancing on one leg for hours? And let’s not forget the whole waxing on before waxing off thing! But a modern world calls for updated practice techniques – such as jumping over a Lamborghini Gallardo doing 80km/h.
Those blessed with early access to the iPhone 4S have spent most of their time talking about Siri, the voice-activated feature that can answer questions like “What’s the time?”, and “What does prawn mean?” They’ve also found that it has a pretty decent cache of responses for people who ask their phone stupid questions.
Here it is comic book fans, what we’ve been waiting four long years for: the first trailer for Joss Whedon directed, The Avengers, set to drop in 2012, is here. Prepare to fangasm in 3… 2… 1…
The Compound was shot on location at the offices of secretive Cape Town institution, 2oceansVibe Media. For the first time ever, the world has a glimpse into the daily lives of those tortured, twisted souls. Catch the full length, 26-minute pilot of 2oceansVibe’s groundbreaking mocumentary, The Compound, by clicking the frame below. The Compound (Comedy […]
A recent study by UNICEF has brought to light some interesting (though not very surprising) stats regarding usage of MXit, one of south Africa’s most popular mobile social platforms.
Apple’s Siri, the fancy voice-activated feature that was supposed to make people feel less disappointed about not getting a shiny new iPhone 5, was actually pretty cool when Phil Schiller showed it off on stage. But how well does it do in real life? See the hands-on after the jump.
You know that thing in sort-of-science-fictional shows or awful police procedurals where they have a blurry photo which they zoom into indefinitely and then use television magic to ‘enhance’ it and keep it from turning into the pixelated jpeg it should be? Adobe Photoshop can do that now.
Well hey there, science. A recent breakthrough at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre has allowed a 30-year-old man who hasn’t been able to move arms, hands or legs in the past seven years to take control of a robotic hand, marking an unprecedented achievement in neuro-robotics.
It Gets Better is a viral video campaign begun in the States in response to a horrific string of teenage suicides last year. Watch this video of Nick Fenton-Wells, the captain of the Ikey Tigers at the University of Cape Town, urging gay players not to be afraid to get involved in sports at UCT.
More specifically, Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr was sentenced to 90 lashes for starring in “My Tehran For Sale,” a movie about how Iran mistreats its actresses. The actress was arrested for being in the film – which was never officially distributed in Iran – in July, and her sentence was handed down this weekend.
Cape Town Tourism chiefs are grinning from ear to ear this week as they smugly proclaimed that just after filling Greenpoint stadium last Wednesday night, UK alt rock sensation Coldplay applied to the City authorities to record a new music video in and around the Mother City, as well as in the Klein Karoo.
The city of Seattle is home to a prolific self-appointed, and self-styled, crime-fighter. In the manner of Batman (or teen superhero, Kickass), the man who calls himself Phoenix Jones wears a black and yellow mask and a muscle bodysuit, and actually has a side-kick called “Ghost”. Unfortunately, Phoenix was arrested on Sunday for assaulting several people with pepper spray.
A young fashion designer from Germany has produced the first man-made synthetic fibre entirely without chemicals. And she did it with a staple you can find in your fridge — milk! The fabric is called QMilch, and is made from high concentrations of the milk protein, casein. The best part is that it looks and feels like silk but doesn’t smell.
A French prankster, with the help of a flash mob, has created a fake Tour de France finish line. The target? Unsuspecting cyclists! They are suddenly greeted by a film crew and an enthusiastic mob which covers them with praise, trophies and bottled water.
As part of its promotional campaign for the new Chrome operating system, Google has quietly opened up its first retail store in London, called the “Chrome Zone”. The store is Google’s first venture in realspace retail, using the location to sell its Chromebook computer line.
Well this can only end well. The US Air Force’s unmanned combat drones in the “Predator” and “Reaper” class have been infected with computer viruses that they can’t get rid of, in case you weren’t sufficiently terrified of the world when you woke up this morning.
If the thought of waiting until the 2015 Rugby World Cup to visit Japan is less appealing right now, consider going there sooner, and for free, courtesy of the country’s tourism agency. The Japan Tourism Agency has announced it will fund airfares for 10 000 foreign travelers in an attempt to help the country’s plummeting tourism levels recover in the face of nuclear disaster.
Let me be clear: this is not a unicycle. This is a bicycle missing a front wheel. And my man here is riding this thing like there’s no tomorrow. On behalf of all here at 2oceansVibe, I’d like to welcome him to our Boss Hall of Fame.
It looks like the tides that swept up the Occupy Wall Street protest campaign – ongoing after three weeks – have broken national boundaries; ‘Operation Ubuntu’ has been set up to launch a simultaneous protests on the 15th of October in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Grahamstown, as part of the global Occupy Revolution campaign.
Here in South Africa, we suffer some of the worst excesses of violent crime. But don’t think for a minute that other countries are spared the onslaught of criminal masterminds.
It’s Nobel Prize Week! Which is when regular people get their egos crushed under the weight of the giants of literature, chemistry, physics, economics, and “peace”. Which sucks. But click through, and you can wow your friends with your knowledge of this year’s Nobel winners, and give that ego a little boost.