Your CD collection has officially become outdated, because 2011 was the year that digital music sales finally surpassed their plastic disc-based counterparts, and the trend doesn’t look to be over.
Here’s a little inspiration for your Friday morning. A 19-year old boy with no arms has just found out he has got into the university of his choice, having written his matric exams with his feet. Letlhogonolo Mafela, from Matshepe Village, North West has done his school and his family proud.
Five days into 2012 and we’ve already got fancy new technology. A team from Cornell University have developed a light-distortion device that can mask events as if they hadn’t happened; they managed to use light distortion to hide an event for 40 picoseconds. Which, granted, is 40 trillionths of a second, but the research is groundbreaking in the extreme.
South Africa’s much awaited IEB Matric results are in, and while there is a noticeable increase in the overall pass rate, commentators have aired concerns over some of the trends emerging. Here’s the Sparks Notes version. Pay attention, there may be a test later.
Scientists researching previously unexplored deep-sea vents in Antarctica stumbled upon a host of new species, including hairy-chested crabs, ghostly octopus and predatory starfish, in what has since been dubbed a “lost world”.
This is rather spicy. When you’re in the spotlight a lot, like the Royal Family of England tends to be, it can be a little tricky to explain why the body of a murdered woman has been found on your estate. This is what has happened to the Her Royal Majesty herself, at her Royal Estate in Sandringham.
Tomorrow will mark what many Saudi women will consider a small milestone in personal shopping. From this week, only female staff will be allowed to sell lingerie, relieving the embarrassment of buying underwear in the highly conservative Muslim nation. This is by order of the king, incidentally. The new law provides a rare opportunity for the employment of women, which was previously outlawed.
In one of the closest candidate-selection ballots in US history, former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney won out over Rick Santorum at the Iowa caucuses, the nation’s first major electoral event of the year. Santorum and Romney switched between first and second frequently during the night, but a last-minute eight-vote tie margin put Romney ahead.
Earlier this week it was revealed that there are literally hundreds of bloggers who were bribed to promote Google Chrome and to claim that their blog’s were “sponsored by Google”. Google’s response has been to point the finger at ad agencies.
Apple is holding a product event later this month in New York – and since the Christmas buy-a-palooza is just past, it’s looking unlikely that they’re going to be announcing any new hardware just yet. Instead, Apple seems set to refurbish iBooks, their eBook retail platform, with a couple of new publishing options.
Wendi Is All Over Rupert Murdoch’s Twitter Vibe – As the News International tycoon opened his Twitter account on New Year’s Day by pouring scorn on the British for taking too much time off over Christmas – from the sun-kissed Caribbean island of St Barts – Mrs Murdoch was quick to deflect any criticism. Follow […]
The World Welcomes 2012 – An astounding one million revelers erupted in cheers amid a confetti-filled celebration in New York’s Times Square to welcome in the new year, part of star-studded celebrations and glittering fireworks displays around the world to usher in 2012. From New Zealand to New York, the world eagerly welcomed a new year […]
Every new year a group of us has great fun forwarding and swapping SMSs with each other. You know the ones I’m talking about – “May you and your loved ones have blessed New Year and blah blah blah.” It is a very weird practice, but more-so because the wording is so unnaturally elaborate – […]
When you think of an airport you’re likely to conjure up images of wide open spaces, cordoned off for kilometres, free of any midair obstacles, and normally you’d be right on the money. However, perched between two 6km mountains, Paro Airport in Bhutan is anything but normal.
Partyrockers LMFAO are currently touring through Latin America, and had a show in Honduras last night. This show unfortunately had to be stopped after a fire broke out, right in the middle of their set. Click continue for the full gallery of the devastation.
The Presidency in Pretoria has released our own Dear Leader’s message to the nation on the (almost) eve of the new year. It appears we can give ourselves a collective pat on the back. Read the whole thing after the jump.
Despite rumours of his resignation as SA’s test cricket captain, which spread like wildfire yesterday in social media channels following the Proteas’ resounding defeat to Sri Lanka, Graeme Smith is not resigning. While a comment on Twitter alluded to him possibly stepping down as skipper, he has confirmed that this “is not the case at all”.
Social media feeds, especially Twitter feeds, started buzzing with a rumour that Nelson Mandela had been admitted to hospital a few hours ago. It appears a DJ just happened to watch a programme airing on E-TV about the year that’s passed, and saw old visuals that prompted him to think Madiba had in fact been hospitalised.
Stephen Hawking is one of the most brilliant scientists of our lifetime, and author of “A Brief History of Time”. And he is currently shopping around for a new assistant. His website features a picture of his wheelchair, complete with wires and complex electronics. The caption reads “STOP PRESS: Could you maintain this?”
It’s the 29th of December, which means we are all now sick of Top 10 lists. There are Top 10 lists of Top 10 list. Except this particular Top 10 list is actually pretty informative, collating the year’s illegal torrent data to tell us which films people wanted to see but weren’t willing to pay for. #1 is really awful.
C2C - F·U·Y·A from On and On on Vimeo.
Due to the proliferation of easy-to-use software and affordable digital equipment, electronic music is often side-lined as a sub-par musical genre, lacking complexity and technical prowess. This video for C2C’s “F.U.Y.A.” demonstrates exactly how far from the truth that is.
HARARE — An explosion hit the provincial office of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF in the central city of Gweru, causing only material damage, state media reported on Thursday. “We are still investigating the cause of the explosion” which occurred late Tuesday, police inspector Patrick Chademana told The Herald newspaper. He said nobody was injured […]
Any article discussing some fun new tech in Japan is liable to be instantly out of date, because those guys have everything. Voice synthesizers, Olympic robots, eco-friendly Christmas lights – whatever. But this is new, and probably practical enough to port overseas: vending machines that sell Wi-Fi accessible within a 50m radius.
The 2000s haven’t been kind to the US music business, with year on year shrinkage in sales since Y2K leading to the longest slump this side of the Second World War. In 2011, three artists managed to turn the slide around, while many others floundered in mediocre sales. Care to guess who?
Peace and quiet can come at a premium, especially if you live and work in a busy urban environment. However, a new study shows that the biggest actual threat to our hearing is one we deliberately expose ourselves to every day.
Well this is a little embarrassing. While we all have our suspicions, Twilight star Taylor Lautner has vehemently denied any rumours that he might be gay. This didn’t stop someone from creating a false People Magazine cover, outing the actor. The cover has since gone viral, briefly trending on Twitter. See the full cover after the jump.
Our latest addition to the 2oceansVibe Boss Hall of Fame is living proof that you shouldn’t ever pay for life’s necessities…such as beer. An effortless demeanor, a decent skirt and a pair of strong thighs will do the trick just fine.
North Korea has begun two days of funeral services for its late leader, Kim Jong-il, with hundreds of thousands expected to attend in Pyongyang. Mourners can be seen bowing in the snow, and reporters can barely contain their tears, as the procession makes it way through the streets.
Life is difficult for those who live on a permanent diet of Viagra and velvet robes. Not only does Hugh Hefner have to juggle himself between a whole group of playmates, but now they want to take his puppies away from him as well.
An annual report from comScore on what happens online has shown that 1 in every 5 minutes of time online this year was spent on social networking sites – as compared to the 6% of internet time that went to social networking in 2007. By all accounts that sort of growth is expected to continue, and speed up, in 2012.