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.

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This is ridiculous, watch as these clearly insane people calmly cross a ravine, on a rope, 700m from the ground! It’s terrifying, logic-defying, awe-inspiring and incredible all at the same time, and once you start watching there’s no way you can stop. Click through for the video.

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Remember last year when Table Mountain was voted in as one of the seven new “wonders of nature” after an extensive international voting competition run by the Swiss New7Wonders Foundation? Well an international audit has just confirmed the award, making the title official, but what does this mean for Slaapstad and our tourism industry?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Ashton Kutcher, the ridiculously good-looking actor, also recently became the official spokesperson for Popchips – co-developing and portraying a series of characters in an ad campaign for them. But not everyone thought it was funny. One of the characters, named Raj, sees Kutcher in brown make-up and “looking for love”. See the video, and decide if you agree with the accusations of racism, after the jump.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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2oceansviber, Vincent Raffray, made it back from this year’s AfrikaBurn in one piece. And he brought gifts! Check out his stunning photographs, and hear what he has to say about the festival, after the jump!

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2oceansvibe’s attention has been drawn to this fantastic project, and just in time! Africam.com is attempting to broadcast the life of a litter of cheetah cubs from their birth to their hopeful re-introduction into the wild, through a live 24/7 video camera with sound and infrared night vision. The threatened big cats will be new […]

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If you’ve wondered what it would be like to travel inside the brain of a Japanese schoolgirl, then now is your chance. Taiwan-based Eva Airlines, and Sanrio, the company that owns the Hello Kitty brand, collaborated to launch a Hello Kitty-themed aircraft. See all the pink cuteness inside.

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Comedian, actor, writer, director and presenter, Rob Van Vuuren, needs no introduction. Tonight, Rob will undergo severe comedic treatment at the hands of his colleagues and friends. The event, taking place at Mercury Live in Cape Town, promises to leave your stomach muscles in agony. Details after the jump.

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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!

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Plans have recently been put into motion which could make Durban the first South African city to harness energy from the power of the ocean. If successful, it would be a massive boon to the city’s green investment potential. Click through for the full story.

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Every year, S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna release a list of the world’s Top 100 Restaurants. Inclusion in the list is an honour that many restaurants lust after, and in the past we’ve had the privilege in the Western Cape to have several restaurants on the list. This year’s list sees Danish restaurant, Noma, maintain the title for a third year running – but where do our beloved SA restaurants stand?

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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.

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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?

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I recently attended a vertical tasting of Bouchard Finlayson Pinot Noirs, with a couple international examples thrown in. It got me thinking about Pinot Noir, and then about language, and then whether it is just better to get drunk. I decided it actually is better to think, so here are my thoughts.

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Stop for a moment. Put your phone away. The full length trailer for the Dark Night Rises – which is set to open worldwide on July 20 – is here. Christian Bale as back as Batman, joined by Anne Hatheway, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman. See the full clip inside.

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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.

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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.

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While T.G.I.F. garners praise from all corners of the working world, many of us lack the sort of hard-nosed attitude toward the beginning of the work week that would increase our chances of making it past Wednesday in one piece. To that end, we present our latest  satirical column, O.F.I.M. (Oh, [Insert Appropriate Eff Word […]

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Nokia is no longer the world’s biggest selling cell phone manufacturer. For the first time ever, Korean handset manufacturer Samsung has outsold Nokia in the last quarter – by an estimated 93 million mobile phone units compared with Nokia’s 83 million. It’s also predicted that Samsung has outsold the iPhone in the smartphone market in recent months.

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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.

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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:

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Oh awesome, this makes total sense. The UK’s Ministry of Defense is planning to install surface-to-air missiles on top of residential flats in east London for the duration of the Olympic Games. The bulk of the missile array is intended for the Lexington Building Water Tower, which has about 700 people living in and around it.

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Troubled former South African Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Shiceka, passed away in an Eastern Cape hospital this morning after a long illness, according to an ANC press release.

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At the tender age of 18, photographer Shawn Reeder won a trip to Yosemite National Park and promptly fell in love with its “beauty and awe”. Since then he’s been compiling wonderful, high-definition footage which he has finally deemed ready to share with the world.

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