The Economist has surprised everybody by doing something fun, using the United Nations’ World Drug Report 2012 (released yesterday) to generate a map of the world’s heaviest weed users. The Pacific island of Palau wins easily, with nearly a quarter of people aged 15 to 64 having smoked pot in the past year. South Africa does okay, too.
Norah Ehpron basically created the mould for modern day romantic comedies, writing both “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless In Seattle.’ She passed away yesterday in Manhattan of complications relating to acute myeloid leukaemia.
Earlier this month Vision Of Humanity released its latest Global Peace Index of 158 countries, on it South Africa place 127th. SA dropped 29 places from when it sat at 98 in 2007. Conversely, the world has become more peaceful for the first time in three years.
Cyprus has become the fifth euro zone country to seek emergency funding from Brussels, and it may require a bailout amount worth up to half the size of its economy. We’re not talking the kind of numbers that Spain and Greece have been after, but when half of your economy is looking a bit worse for wear, it’s not ideal.
‘Robot and Frank’ stars Frank Langella as an old man forging an unlikely bond with his Peter Sarsgaard-voiced robot butler, which starts off as an odd-couple comedy and then turns into a heist film, because Langella used to be a jewel thief. It looks pretty great, and they loved it at Sundance. Take a look.
On Sunday night, England dropped out of Euro 2012 in a quarterfinal against Italy. After 120 minutes of play, without any score, the teams went into a penalty shootout which saw Ashley Cole and Ashley Young both miss their attempts. The two players, who are both black, drew heavy racist abuse on Twitter which is now being investigated by British police.
It has just been announced that South Africa is set to be the host of this year’s Champions League T20 in October. Cape Town, Johannesburg, Centurion, and Durban, are the chosen venues for the most lucrative club-cricket tournament in the world, now into its fourth year.
These photographs of famous landmarks such as St Paul’s Cathedral and Blackpool Tower could have been lost forever, were it not for a major conservation project which has made them freely available on the internet for the first time.
Saudi Arabian officials have taken a huge, progressive step and will, for the first time ever, allow Saudi women to compete in the Olympic Games at this year’s event in London.
The issue of the construction of a luxury hotel development in the Kruger National Park was discussed at length on 2oceansVibe last year when the weighty issue of hotel development in the Kruger National Park became public knowledge. The first of these developments, to be built near the Malelane Gate, the most convenient entrance from Johannesburg and the airport in nearby Nelspruit, is finally about to get underway.
A tour operator in Nepal calling itself ‘ZipFlyer’ claims to run the world’s fastest zip-line, a 1.8km line that drops 600m, attaining speeds of 160 kmph. Honestly I’m not sure what kind of speeds zip-lines are supposed to be clocking so those numbers don’t mean much, but the helmetcamera bits in the video look insane. Have a look.
A Cape Town woman has accused four members of New Zealand’s under-20 team, the Baby Blacks, of gang rape at the Southern Sun Hotel Newlands on Friday night.
It’s quite rad to be in that gang of famous people who own their own islands. But you’ve done something particularly impressive when the aerial photo of your island is actually a satellite photograph. You gotta give it to Oracle boos, Larry Ellison – he really nailed it with this latest $500 – $600 million […]
Spencer Tunick is world-famous for photographing hundreds of naked people at a time. His latest work brings to life his interpretation of scenes from Richard Wagner’s opera “The Ring”. He shot it in downtown Munich yesterday and used 1 700 naked volunteers, spray-painted either gold or red.
The European Commission is drawing pretty widespread condemnation for releasing a video — ostensibly aimed at getting girls into science — which pretty much depicts female scientists as sexy models in short skirts who hang around bunsen burners, giggling. Take a look at what lady scientists apparently look like in Europe after the jump.
It’s been more than a decade since the last Jurassic Park sequel, and Spielberg’s royalty checks are starting to run a little dry, so writers have been hired to develop the script for Jurassic Park 4, taking it in a ‘completely different direction.’ So long as that direction still involves cloned dinosaurs and lots of money.
Matt Harding is back, people – the man we all love to hate for having the cojones to live the life we all wish we could. Better known simply as ‘Matt’ or ‘Dancing Matt’, he recently completely his latest “Where The Hell Is Matt” video, and it’s every bit as awesome as its prequels. Click through for the video.
You know that thing where you post a comment on Facebook and immediately regret your decision? Well, Facebook sure does. Which is why they’re rolling out a comment-editing functionality over the next few days. Rest easy, people whose grammar falls apart whenever they get excited.
Chad’s father passed away last year. He had suffered from Alzheimer’s, and his deterioration into dementia was quick and incredibly painful. Chad’s father spent the last six weeks of his life in hospital, and Chad spent every one of those days at his side. In the end, he suffered more than any person deserved. Chad’s […]
Fruit and Veg City has been taking a social media lambasting from irate consumers that caught the fresh food retailer selling endangered fish species in a few of their stores. Debate was intense, with both customers and Fruit and Veg City getting in on the action. The retailer has since issued an official statement detailing how they plan to handle the situation of endangered fish “slipping through their nets”.
Spencer West lost his legs when he was five years old. At the age of 31 he scales the world’s highest freestanding mountain, the 6km high Kilimanjaro – on his hands! See this guy’s incredible journey inside.
The trailer for Dredd – the gory, R-rated adaptation of the gritty post-apocalyptic comic book 2000AD – has been released. The film was shot over the last two years on set in Cape Town, because apparently Cape Town is the best place to film a post-apocalyptic landscape in. Take a look after the jump.
We sometimes underestimate the importance of language, especially when swimming in the ubiquitous sea of English. Language is bound tightly with identity, and when you imagine a language going the way of the Dodo, it is scary to think what else is lost with it. Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, has launched the Endangered Language project, a website devoted to preserving languages that are close to dying out.
Somalia’s Defense Minister announced today that a South African man and woman, who were captured by Somali pirates 20 months ago, have finally been released.
The Stiletto in Sydney, fondly referred to as a mega-brothel, is set to become Australia’s largest sex premises. A multi-million-dollar expansion is currently underway. In future, patrons will be hanging out in rooms featuring multiple king-size beds and pool tables. Slightly N5FW images of the “construction process”, after the jump.
The internet is a bizarre place, filled with dancing robots singing Bohemian Rhapsody, crazy lawyers suing charities and cartoonists for no good reason, pages and pages of tentacle porn, and gigs and gigs worth of hate-filled YouTube comments. But every now and then the internet dons a cape and becomes a super hero.
A few days ago Microsoft unveiled what many are calling its “iPad killer”, the brand new Surface tablet. Unfortunately for them however, things went horribly, horribly wrong at a live product demonstration. Click for for a laugh at their expense.
I always hate the end of the month when the money runs dry. No money equals stress, no fun, and generally less food. Not if you are Heidemarie Schwermer, however, has firmly given “The Man” the finger and has been living at the end of the month for the last 16 years.
Over the weekend, an American aircraft carrier group recovered close to 19 000 pounds of marijuana that had been dumped in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California.
Finally mankind has used it technological prowess to create something that is actually useful and will change lives, a bed that will make itself! That’s right folks, a European manufacturer has designed a Smart Bed that can make itself in less than a minute, eureka!