Fancy embossed invitations to attend a preview of The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen’s new film, are being sent around Washington D.C. – ostensibly from “President Robert Mugabe and the Ministry of Education, Sport, Art, and Culture.” Zimbabwe’s art ministry has assured reporters that it hasn’t come from them.
By now, many people within South Africa’s news-following public are familiar with the recent burst of racism that took place on South Africa’s twittersphere involving a model and a “model”. Mistakes were made, but the backlash and long-term effects from a social and mainstream media clamouring may have devastating consequences on the individuals involved. Things begin to go pearshaped when the media is inaccurate with information that disperses frantically when a news story of this nature breaks.
People over at MIT have developed a piece of open-source software that lets you drag files from your phone to your computer or tablet or whatever with a swipe of a finger. It’s simple and clever and looks like the future – and it works. They’re calling it Swÿp. Take a look at the demo after the jump.
China is abuzz at the moment with pictures allegedly uploaded by a student at a high school in Hubei Province where learners are given amino acids on IV drips to help them study, while they study!. The photos were uploaded to one of China’s many Twitter-like micro-blogging sites, and we’ve got a full gallery, and the official explanation, after the jump!
Following the death of Beastie Boys band member, Adam “MC” Yauch, one of the co-creators of Chapelle’s Show has released previously unseen footage of the band performing “The New Style,” a song from their debut album, on the show in 2004. The show’s co-creator and host Dave Chappelle performs with them for a bit.
African Cup of Nations Local Organising Committee head, Mvuzo Mbebe, told reporters yesterday that Cape Town had not been selected as a host city for the upcoming AFCON because it “did not meet the criteria for hosting,” but did not elaborate quite where the Mother City fell short. Mayor De Lille has different ideas however…
Earlier this month, Apple was briefly the most valuable company in the world, and their cash in hand value currently stands at $76,2 billion. You could literally buy anything with that and still have enough change to buy some more anything. Still struggling? Click through for a look at the National Post’s lovely, informative and aptly named More Money Than God infographic.
LG Electronics, the world’s second biggest TV maker, will launch Internet-enabled TV based on Google’s platform in the United States in May. The South Korean firm is after a share of the emerging Internet TV market, a senior LG executive said today.
It has been two years since 4,9 million barrels of oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. In the midst of the disaster, BP and its contractors did everything they could to keep people from seeing the scale of the disaster. But new photos released today offer some new insight into just how horrific the Gulf became for sea life. See them inside.
47 Ethiopian men were rescued on the weekend from being sold into slavery by a human-trafficking syndicate in Limpopo. Snatched for ransom, those whose families can’t pay, have their relatives unwillingly sold into slavery in SA. The United Nations now estimates that there are more than 27 million slaves in the world.
The Global Marijuana March is a yearly event embracing cannabis culture as a personal lifestyle choice. Around 700 different cities worldwide, including Cape Town, have signed up since 1999. This highly anticipated celebration took place over the weekend. How did Capetonian dagga supporters celebrate? Find out inside.
You guys have heard of Kickstarter – that site that lets people pitch their projects for funding to the internet at large, and which has led to new apps, art projects, and a Robocop statue in Detroit. All of which stopped mattering when Amanda Palmer raised $500 000 in four days on the platform – with 24 days of funding remaining.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, along with three other Frenchmen, have been accused of gang rape. Judges in charge of the investigation into a prostitution ring involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn now face two options: dismiss the new allegations, or bring charges of gang rape against them. It’s likely that the charges will stick.
Mark Zuckerberg officially filed its IPO with Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday afternoon, announcing its intention to sell 337 million shares at between $28 and $35 a pop – in the biggest Internet stock offering since Google went public in 2004. They’ll be going roadshow for the next two weeks to let big investors see what they’re buying.
If you are one of those douchebags (or know such a douchebag) who text while driving, then you need to check out this video. Potential drivers in Belgium were told they had to pass a “mobile phone test” in order to get their driver’s licenses. See how they did, inside.
Because what last year’s homage to excessive, overblown action movies needed most of all was a sequel. Starring even more overhauled action heroes – like Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and, at a guess, more slow-motion explosions and weapon puns, it looks like something you guys should probably watch.
See, this is what happens when you’re a rock star who fails to die young: you end up doing something in aviation, or in Wales. Or, if you’re Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson, I guess you do both, and depress everybody who remembers when you were still cool.
Osama Bin Laden is all over the news again, not bad for someone who has been dead and gone for quite some time now. Today sees the disclosure of documents seized at his compound. It is also a great opportunity for those looking for a keepsake to get in on the ground floor – the bricks from his compound are going on sale.
On World Press Freedom Day, the highly acclaimed writer, and Nobel Prize winner for literature, Nadine Gordimer, called for the Protection of Information Bill to be “rejected in its entirety.” She launched the scathing rebuttal in an article entitled, “South Africa: The New Threat to Freedom”, on the New York Review of Books website.
Director Spike Lee has cast Sharlto Copley as the key villain in his remake of Oldboy, Park Chan-wook’s brutal thriller about a businessman who, after being kidnapped on his daughter’s birthday, hardens himself for revenge during his years of imprisonment. Lee had initially offered the roles to Christian Bale, Clive Owen, and Colin Firth.
The town of Taiji in Japan, made infamous by award-winning documentary “The Cove”, plans to repair its reputation by building a sea life park in the self-same cove where annually hundreds of dolphins and whales are herded, captured and slaughtered by local fishermen. More on this seaside slaughter after the jump. Images might disturb some readers.
An amazing array of eye-opening al-Qaeda documents, seized during the raid of Osama bin Laden’s compound last year, will be made public today. The collection of thousands of files has been described as a treasure trove of information on the Islamist organization – and the single largest cache of terror material obtained at a senior level.
Late yesterday afternoon, you may have been alerted to the fact that we had found out that Salome the cheetah from the Hoedpsruit Endangered Species Centre was due to give birth to her first litter of cubs at some point during the following 24 hours. Her first cub was born at approximately 19h20 last night. Click through for more.
Archbishop Tutu is set to deliver a commencement address at a Catholic university in the States this month, but his visit has drawn the ire of several Catholic groups who claim the Arch’s views are not a good fit for the institution that invited him. They have some petitions going, the University has yet to speak out, and we’ve got the full skinny on their righteous campaigning to stop the Arch, after the jump!
This morning we told you about the One World Trade Centre, which officially became the tallest building in New York City yesterday. See an incredible time-lapse video of its construction over the past eight years – as well as a collection of photos via the WTC Twitter feed – after the jump.
Yesterday, England’s Football Association announced the rather controversial choice of Roy Hodgson to take the reins of the national football team from Fabio Capello for the next four years. Hodgson has the experience of a long career in coaching behind him, but can he turn the fans and even the players to his side in order to recapture England’s long gone football glory days?
A South African man is being used as a bargaining tool by terrorist organisation, al-Qaeda. The 36-year-old SA national, who also has a British citizenship and whose name has not been revealed, was abducted in Mali last year by members of al-Qaeda. His freedom is now being offered, but only in exchange for Britain’s release of the militant Jordanian preacher, Abu Qatada.
South Africa’s next poaching epidemic could emanate out of the trade in lion body parts. Lion bones are being used as a replacement for tiger bones to concoct traditional Asian medicines like tiger brew wine because of the demise of the region’s tiger populations. Lion are already being poached in the northern section of the Kruger National Park.
One of the positive things to emerge from the Kony 2012 saga was the fact that discussion around some of Africa’s many problems increased. One could say that more people know about some of the things we deal with, than before Kony 2012. Charity organisation, Mama Hope, has since released a response video, seeking to break what it calls stereotypes of black African men.
Derided or not, proponents of the KONY2012 campaign have managed to make Kony famous, or at the very least a topic of conversation. And now it would seem authorities are close to capturing him as well. There are three international armies hunting him, and according to Uganda’s army chief Aronda Nyakairima, Joseph Kony is currently operating in volatile border areas between Sudan and South Sudan: