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Culture
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Samoa Cancels Friday
29 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
At the moment, Samoa is the last country to see the sun go down every day, but a change in the international dateline will now make it the first to see the sun rise. Samoa is getting ready to skip a day and shift its time zone forward by 24 hours.
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BBC Picks Giant Panda As “Woman Of The Year”
29 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
When it comes to representing females in the media, one has to tread very carefully in order to avoid offending people. This is a lesson the BBC has recently learned after they included a giant panda called Sweetie alongside Pippa Middleton and Adele in its list of the 12 women of the year.
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LIVE: Kim Jong-Il Funeral [VIDEO]
28 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
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.
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The ANCYL Pays Homage To Comrade Kim Jong-Il
27 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
As North Korea lays to rest their Dear Leader, we should not forget that the ANC Youth League wished to show Kim Jong-il their appreciation for all that he has done for the struggle of the North Korean people, as well as his many achievements. The Youth League will miss their other Dear Leader.
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Social Networking Makes Up 20% Of Everything That Happens Online
23 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
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.
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Scientists Invent Solar Paint
23 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A team of scientists has finished developing a cheaply manufactured paint-like product prototype that they hope you will eventually be able to put on the outside of your home. The paint will generate electricity from light – electricity that can then be captured and used to power the appliances and equipment on the inside of your home.
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Have You Seen This BlackBerry Thief?
22 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 5 Comments
One would assume that when one blacklists a phone, one could take it for granted that the phone is, in fact, blacklisted. Mobile phone networks also like to offer their assurance that when one blacklists a phone, that’s actually what happens. However, this isn’t the case for a BlackBerry user who’s found out this chap is now using it.
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Taxidermist Behind Bars For Importing Exotic Animal Parts [PICS]
22 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Miami taxidermist, Enrique Gomez De Molina, is facing five years of jail time and a quarter million US$ in fines for importing body parts of rare and exotic animals to build a series of bizarre hybrid taxidermy sculptures.
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The “Occucopter”: Occupy Wall Street’s 99% Get Their Own Drone
22 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Yes, you read that correctly, the “occucopter” is a drone that is being used by protestors to monitor the police. As the 99 per cent continue their protests around the world, they’ve acquired their own surveillance drone. Tim Pool, an Occupy Wall Street protester, has acquired a Parrot AR drone he amusingly calls the “occucopter”.
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Navy Kiss Seals “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal [ICONIC PIC]
22 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Two female sailors yesterday became the first to share the traditional “first kiss” on the pier following the repeal of the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. And because people are clever about these things, they took a couple of photographs modeled after that post-WW2 first kiss photo. It’s very cool.
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More Woolies “Copying” Emerges
21 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 3 Comments
It hasn’t been Woolworths’ finest month in retail relations. At the beginning of the month, the retailer abruptly announced it would be relieving Jupiter Drawing Room of its advertising business. Then, allegations of product counterfeiting and imitating began to emerge yesterday. Now, another small business owner has come forward and identified Woolworths as selling a knock-off of his product.
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Voice Synthesizer Resurrects Dead Singers’ Voices
21 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Score one for creepy technology. Vocaloid, a voice-synthesis brand owned by Yamaha, has come up with a process by which to “resurrect” any singer’s voice for use in synthesized songs, without requiring the vocalist to build up a painstaking voice library first – so they could be doing that Kurt Cobain/Michael Jackson duet album pretty soon.
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BREAKING: North Korean Military Will Share Power With Great Successor
21 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Kim Jong-un, son and heir apparent to his father’s North Korean throne, may have to share rule of the isolated country with the North Korean military and his uncle, a source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing has said today.
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Zeitgeist 2011: Google’s Year In Review
21 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
It’s that time when all the companies that collect your data start parceling it out to tell you what the year’s really been like – we’ve already had offerings from Facebook and Twitter. What makes Google’s version – Zeitgeist – a little different is that they offer pretty particular data about South African search trends.
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British Banks Scrap Foreign Currency Debit Card Exchange Fees
20 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Banks know they make too much money, and South African banks could learn a thing or two from this. Five of the UK’s biggest banks, including Lloyds, Barclays and RBS, as well as other credit card companies, have agreed to scrap the charges associated with buying currency with a card while abroad.
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IBM Releases Predictions For Technology In 2017 [VIDEO]
20 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
IBM have released their annual predictions for the future of technology, via the IBM “5 in 5” project, which looks at five innovations which they figure will transform modern life within the next five years; these include mind-reading computers, human-generated electricity, and biometric scanning replacing passwords.
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Smurf Town In Spain Votes To Stay Blue
20 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A small city in southern Spain, Juzcar, was used as the film location for the The Smurfs film, and painted blue to fit the theme. Once shooting had wrapped up, Sony Pictures offered to repaint the place – except residents voted yesterday to keep the place Smurf-coloured.
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Squirrel Taxidermy, It’s All The Rage This Season [PICS]
19 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
2010’s Dinner For Shmucks introduced us all to the wonder of “mouseterpieces”, recreations of famous artworks using taxidermy mice. Now, it seems that not only is the practice of mounting rodents real, for one man it’s a flourishing business.
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TIME Magazine Losing Last And Only Black Correspondent
19 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Five years ago, TIME magazine American edition had 15 journalists of colour working for the publication. Now, they’re all gone, and the last remaining black correspondent, Steven Gray, who joined the magazine in 2007, and works in the Washington bureau, has announced that he too is leaving.
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Indonesian Police Arrest, Shave And “Cleanse” Punk Rockers [PICS]
15 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
After being arrested at a punk rock concert in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, enthusiasts were forced to have their heads shaved, “cleanse” themselves in a lake, change their clothes and pray – because being a punk rocker in parts of Indonesia soils the Islamic image they want to uphold.
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Man Used In Lingerie Campaign To Prove Bra Gives “Two Cups Extra”
15 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
HEMA, a Dutch department store has cast a man in its new lingerie campaign. They claim that their latest push-up bra will give females “two extra cups”. And they seem to be telling the truth, as pictures reveal his “no-cup” chest appears to have been augmented up to a B-cup.
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Rhino Horn Smuggler Sentenced As Death Toll Rises To 443
15 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
National Geographic announced yesterday that we have lost a staggering 443 rhinos to poaching this year – a number that seems to climb exorbitantly on a daily basis. It’s with open arms that the country welcomes the sentencing of Hsu Hsien Lung to six years imprisonment for his part in rhino horn smuggling.
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Church Unveils Provocative Christmas Billboard
15 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A controversial New Zealand church has rolled out a publicity stunt in time for Christmas – with a billboard showing the Virgin Mary holding a positive pregnancy test. Auckland’s St Matthews in the City Church launched its festive advertising campaign to “avoid the sentimental and trite” and “spark thought and conversation”.
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Infographic: Where Not To Be Gay In Africa
14 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association has compiled an infographic showing the penalties targeting gays and lesbians in Africa. Parts of the continent are known to discriminate against gays and lesbians, but did you know that more than half the countries on our continent carry at least a prison sentence for the “crime”?
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Rare 1980’s Steve Jobs Presentation Emerges Online [VIDEO]
13 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Regis McKenna has very kindly donated rare vintage footage of Steve Jobs giving a presentation in the early 1980’s to the Computer History Museum. It shows Jobs discussing the early history of Apple, and speaking in his usual inspiring manner.
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Naval Officer Convicted For Spanking Female Colleague
13 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Australia’s military is becoming notorious for its culture of drinking and sexism. Which is probably not much fun if you’re a woman. A senior naval officer has just been convicted of no fewer than seven counts of indecency without consent. He’d been engaging in some pretty questionable behaviour in the workplace, including spanking a female sailor’s bare buttocks to “test her discipline and compliance”.
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Toronto’s Gay Penguins Not Gay – One Mates With Female
13 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Two male African penguins recently made worldwide headlines after it appeared the two might be gay. As it turns out, Toronto Zoo’s gay penguins were not really gay after all. A female has come between them, and they have officially been split up.
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British Police To Test Temporary Blinding Laser
12 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Police in Britain will soon be testing a shoulder-mounted laser that is capable of emitting a blinding wall of light from up to 500 metres away. It’s hoped the laser will help repel rioters and other troublemakers in an effort to prevent a repeat of the rioting that took place there earlier this year.
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Dutch Architects Apologise For Twin Tower Blast Look-Alike Design
12 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A highly embarrassed Dutch architectural firm has had to apologise for its design of twin skyscrapers in central Seoul, South Korea, because they look pretty much like freeze frames of New York’s late World Trade Center, as both towers exploded. The design for the luxury apartment buildings has enraged families of the victims of the September 11 attacks.
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Earliest Known Human Beds Found Near Durban
09 Dec 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Not only are the beds about 77 000 years old, but it appears they were also designed to ward off insects like mosquitoes. The fossilized material has been found at an ancient cliff shelter known as Sibudu, which is near to Durban on our east coast, and continues to fuel the debate that modern man evolved out of Africa.
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