American horror maestro, Stephen King has announced he is writing a sequel to his 1977 classic chiller, “The Shining”. You might not remember the book, but you’ll certainly recall the 1980 film of the novel, directed by the late Stanley Kubrick, and starring a demented Jack Nicholson shoving his face through a hotel room door he just hacked apart with an axe. Man had some issues.
Facebook has finally admitted that it has been watching the web pages its 750 million members visit. The huge privacy breach was simply a mistake, it says. Software that automatically downloaded to users’ computers when they logged in to Facebook “inadvertently” sent information to the company, whether you were logged in or not.
The unmanned spacecraft, Tiangong-1, which translates awesomely to Heavenly Palace, is set to blast off tonight from China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gansu province, marking the start of China’s first rendezvous and docking mission. That guy is set to take off between 13h16 and 13h31 GMT.
Wonderful. Leisha Hailey, former The L-Word castmember, was thrown off of a Southwest Airlines flight yesterday for kissing her girlfriend – the flight attendant citing the apparent fact that Southwest is a “family airline.” This is the same airline that booted Kevin Smith for being fat, and Green Day’s Billy Joel Armstrong for wearing baggy pants.
In another pretty sensational twist in the Lolly Jackson murder tale, the man identified as the prime suspect for killing the late Jackson’s lawyer was found dead this morning. Ian Jordaan, lawyer of the slain Teazers owner, disappeared last week, and the body of suspect Mark Andrews was found in the East Rand earlier today with a gun shot wound evident.
In the spirit of not taking ourselves too seriously, please enjoy this new music video by The Brothers Streep, in which they take a gentle stab at a few big South African musical acts. You can catch the Brothers Streep live on their own show, every Friday on 2oceansVibe Radio. Click here, for details.
A study from Lawrence Berkely National Library has claimed that when you smoke a blunt, you contribute indirectly to a little under a kilogram of carbon dioxide emissions. The same study suggests that US pot growers are responsible for 1% of national electricity consumption. So I guess it’s not that green after all. (Sorry.)
Well hey, that sounds at least a little familiar. Ivan Lewis, shadow culture secretary is presently proposing a licensing scheme for journalists at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, which would have the power to prohibit people from doing any sort of journalism – which would have to include tweeting, blogging, and uploading pictures of stuff.
Remember we told you a while back about an American guy that made a wedding proposal in the form of a movie trailer, and then surprised his fiancé with it? Mubeen Allie from Lansdowne recently proposed to his girlfriend in the same fashion. This legend asked for her hand on the big screen as she watched from the audience at Cavendish Nouveau.
So hey, it turns out that on top of everything else, Hitler got slapped with a speeding fine south of Ingolstadt for going twice the speed limit in his Mercedes limousine. This was about two years before becoming Fuhrer, though, so Adolf got his chauffeur to take the heat to keep from spoiling his image.
Anyone who watched Eastbound & Down will want to see this. And anyone who hasn’t watched Eastbound & Down, should. Get season 1 on Kalahari here and season 2 here. For those of you living in the future, get it on US iTunes (get US iTunes account here). The following video contains swearing, so, you know, […]
From the Brazilian super model to Crocs, everything eventually has its time in the sun. That rule also applies fully to health food. The “newest” African superfood has been growing on some really old trees for a really long time – it’s Baobab fruit.
Vata Ngobeni, a South African rugby journalist, was detained by police in a New Zealand pub last night. According to the officer who took him into custody, he “fitted the profile of a drug dealer.” Ngobeni happened to be the only black person in the venue at the time. He was also the only one that was asked to take a trip downtown. Awkward.
On Sunday, 20 000 bullfighting fans packed Barcelona’s La Monumental bullring to watch the last corrida that Catalonia will hold; the event was headlined by Spain’s premier matador, José Tomás. The regional ban on bullfighting, which was approved at the end of last year, goes into effect in January.
As the “Occupy Wall Street” protests enter their ninth day, an increasing number of videos and photos have begun surfacing, showing near-indiscriminate use of tasers, mace and kenneling by the NYPD on demonstrators, who are protesting a financial system that apparently favours the wealthy and powerful over ordinary citizens.
A hero This Saturday 24 September is National Braai Day. There are a few hours left, so you really need to get your act together and you need to get ready. Check braai equipment, snap up that meat from butchery, find friends, and decide where you will be braaing. In places like New Zealand, it’s […]
What were you doing today my friends? Working? I should hope not. Because, as you’ll know by now, a Friday done Jack’s way involves little to no work at all. And that’s what these lucky rascals in the video below were doing two weeks ago, as winners of our Monthly Friday Done Jack’s Way Competition, […]
It’s Friday, so come get your secondhand vertigo on and watch this Russian adrenaline junkie scale the 133 meter “Stalin’s skyscraper,” near Krasnye Vorota, without any sort of safety gear. The camera’s mounted on the climber’s head, so I guess he had a helmet, but I’m not sure that counts at 133 metres.
We all have our lapses of judgment. But some of us make such horrendously poor decisions that one simply has to ask, “What were they on?”. Every week we bring you three contenders in what can only be described as a battle of small wits. So, with great pleasure we present this week’s three La […]
It’s always nice when the world catches up with 80’s sci-fi films. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have succeeded in reconstructing people’s visual experiences using MRI and image libraries. Which means that if you click on the link you can see somebody’s brain try to replicate the Pink Panther film trailer.
This is exactly what Cape Town needs. A committee whose sole purpose is to reconcile relations between the city’s residents and baboons. Capetonians have lived in fear of their sandwiches being stolen for long enough.
The mother of a young school child in Missouri has been arrested, following her son’s show and tell day with his kindergarten class. Because, unfortunately, the subject of the little boy’s S&T presentation this month was his mom’s crack pipe.
The October issue of Playboy Magazine is on its way and. Readers will be happy to know that yet another South African celebrity features on the cover. It is none other than Eve, South Africa’s unofficial Minister of Domestic Affairs. This awesome image of the cover was posted on journalist Gus Silber’s blog earlier today.
Stellenbosch-based start-up investment firm, World of Avatar, headed by South African online media up-and-comer, Alan Knott-Craig Jnr, has reportedly bought MXit for an undisclosed amount (that some are speculating could be as much as R500 million).
This is just the start. Soon we’ll be giving them the vote. A three-foot-tall robot called the iCub has been nominated to participate in the Olympic Torch Relay for the 2012 London Games, partially to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Alan Turing’s birth, and partially to creep people out with three-foot-tall, fire-wielding robots.
Look, it’s nice to know Apple isn’t the only company that knows how to create buzz by accidentally leaking information. Ji Lee, Facebook’s creative director, tweeted about Facebook Music, which is set to launch tomorrow. The post was quickly deleted, but not before the Internet had time to get all excited about it.
In a week that Americans’ celebrate the introduction of full equality in their Armed Forces, and wrestle over tax and economic reform, another group is trying to focus attention on the plight of millions of single, un-married Americans.
Nelson Mandela is a more visible world leader than Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama and the Pope. This is according to the Reputation Institute, which has done a perception assessment of 54 individuals currently considered to be global leaders. Not bad for a man who retired from presidency in the 1990s.
All 15 countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have agreed back Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to replace Jean Ping as chief of the African Union. You go, girl! Apparently the backing of a candidate from southern Africa “did not amount to geographical jostling for power within the bloc.”
Faces from arturo castro on Vimeo.
Watch developer Arturo Castro shows off his fancy new FaceTracker API, which allows users to harvest photographs of other folks’ faces, and project them onto their own. Here we see Castro variously becoming Vladimir Lenin, Chairman Mao, and Steve Jobs. Because, why not?