Poor Sepp Blatter. Things still aren’t going his way. Blatter said yesterday how hurt he felt after being criticised for his comments about racism in football. Visibly perplexed, he said: “I was very much hurt by these comments because it touched me in my conscience.”
More and more of the technology that we see in the movies is becoming an everyday reality. The contact lens embedded with a tiny LED that can light up when a wireless signal is sent to it is one of these realities. Soon you’ll be able to stream your social media feeds and bring up other holographic images cybernetically.
In September, the science world was left in shock when workers at the world’s largest physics lab announced they had recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light. Now, measurements by an opposing team of physicists suggest neutrinos cannot have travelled faster than the speed of light.
This is why you always double check if you have clicked “reply”, and not “reply to all”, when sending an email, especially when it concerns your annoyance about something. The email in question has to do with repairs being made to a car at a Johannesburg dealership, and, well, it’s rather self-explanatory. Click through to cringe.
He also called them “absolutely useless”, and he might have a point too. The Duke of Edinburgh, at age 90, rightfully points out that wind farms are heavily reliant on subsidies, and that those who claim they’re one of the most cost-effective forms of renewable energy believed in “fairy tales”.
There appears to be a growing trend among rich New Yorkers in response to the increased attention being paid to “the 1%”. They’ve taken to buying cargo vans that look plain on the outside, but are opulent on the inside, tricked out with massage chairs wi-fi and widescreen televisions. Some of these guys cost upwards of ZAR 4 million.
Pakistan’s telecoms watchdog, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, has decided that mobile phone operators in that country must block all text messages using offensive words. The list contains over 1 600 words and phrases including, “flogging the dolphin”. Some linguistic purists are expected to be delighted by the move that comes into force today, while George Orwell turns in his grave.
Jaco Haasbroek is a designer from Cape Town. This guy designed a t-shirt so cool that it has now been worn twice on one of the biggest TV shows at the moment. The shirt is called “High 5” and it popped up in an episode of Modern Family last month, and again on last Wednesday’s episode. High-five!
Orion Cold Storage, the Cape-based company accused of rebranding meat as Halaal when it couldn’t have been, is in the Western Cape High Court today facing the music. Orion themselves have laid charges of sabotage, but the two workers charged say they have evidence proving their claims, like the video they shot, for instance.
It’s the Year of Setsuden in Japan, which Google tells me means “saving electricity'”; this means that the lavish Christmas illuminations that Tokyo usually sets up are a little hard to justify. Minna no Illumi has found a pretty neat solution to the problem, though, with an entirely biodiesel-powered display.
Happy birthday Facebook wall posts just got interesting. It probably won’t be long before one starts scrolling through those birthday wall posts to see who has sent a greeting card with a little bit of a surprise attached. Tech-savvy grannies everywhere will be rejoicing.
Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, the abdominal muscle infatuated Jersey Shore actor, is suing Abercrombie and Fitch for making and selling t-shirts with phrases like “The Fitchuation” on them. He is also still distressed about the fake press release Abercrombie put out asking him not to wear their clothes anymore.
The American Senate has officially begun holding hearings on the the ‘Internet Blacklist Bill,’ also known as the “PROTECT IP Act” or the “Stop Online Piracy Act.” It is potentially the most harmful bit of Internet censorship legislation to date, and you should know what’s going to happen if it passes.
South Africa’s Environmental Affairs Department has said it’s sending a mission to China following a record R18 million rhino horn bust in Hong Kong on Monday. So far, officials have released little information about the massive haul that left Cape Town harbour, but they have said this mission was a positive sign for relations with China.
Thailand’s Thai Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department confirmed that a total of 562 people have already died during the more than three-month long flooding taking place there, which is the worst in over 50 years. Nevertheless, some Thai residents affected by the flooding have begun dealing with the lemons that life has thrown at them in unique ways.
Nonhle Thema lost the plot again last night on Twitter. She tried to have another catfight with Bonang Matheba because Bonang had mentioned Nonhle’s name in an interview. But Nonhle ended up battling herself instead. It could also be because Bonang has more Twitter followers than Nonhle, and that Nonhle was jealous over Bonang’s new True Love cover shot.
Indonesians and Malaysians don’t like each other very much. In fact, they dislike each other so much that “Hate Malaysia” and “Hate Indonesia” were even trending topics on Twitter last year after Indonesia lost a football game to their counterparts, that involved laser pointers. Now Indonesian students are being paid to support their archenemies in the Southeast Asia Games.
International cricket is desperately trying to save some face after years of ridicule at the hands of numerous match-fixing scandals. And with the recent jail terms handed to the Pakistani cricketers, probably the most scandalous of all match-fixing cases is set to be reopened: the Hansie Cronje archives.
There is a good chance you will have come across, or heard about, a cat meme. Either in picture or video format, they can be rather amusing. Or not. This isn’t an actual cat meme, but rather a lewd take on the phenomenon of cats and the internet.
How do you capture wanted criminals that keep avoiding arrest? You lure them with free beer, of course. Derbyshire police managed to snag 19 wanted criminals after they managed to trick them into meeting officers by baiting them with a free crate of beer.
As reported in morning spice earlier today, James Murdoch claimed yesterday that two of his former senior News of the World executives had failed to tell him the truth about the scale of phone hacking at the News of the World, and that they had misled parliament. They’ve both since issued statements and called his new evidence “disingenuous at best”.
Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has collaborated with an Afropop group, ironically called the Born Free Crew, to release a single that is getting some airplay on national television and radio stations. Keeping things in the family, the album’s executive producer is Mugabe’s Minister of Information, and of course, it’s about colonialism.
Darren Aronofsky is the well-known film director behind Requiem for a Dream, and more recently, Black Swan. He has made a series of shocking adverts – each stressing the horrible consequences of abusing methamphetamine, or Tik as it is known here. Be warned however, even though these are must-see material, some of them are very disturbing and probably NSFW.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles The Red List, and which is widely recognised as the most comprehensive method for evaluating the conservation status of animal and plant species around the world, has declared the subspecies, the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes), as extinct.
Orion Cold Storage, a Cape Town-based food distributor, has been caught red-handed lying about an extensive range of food products destined for shop shelves. Undercover footage recorded by an employee on his cellphone between February and August this year shows an employee “blessing” food as Halaal when it clearly isn’t.
The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has ruled that a new ad for perfume, created by designer Marc Jacobs, sexualizes children. The campaign features teenage actress Dakota Fanning posing with an oversized bottle of perfume between her legs. The fragrance is called “Oh, Lola!” and the name is a reference to the famous literary character Lolita. You know, the 12 year-old who had sex with a man four times her age.
A former policeman-turned private detective says he shadowed 90 people, including Prince William for News of the World. Derek Webb has said he started working for the paper shortly after setting up his private detective agency in 2003, and they paid him right up until July. James Murdoch’s meeting tomorrow just got even more interesting.
In a continuation of its world domination, China Central Television, which produces the ruling Communist party’s news shows and other propaganda, is planning to broadcast English-language programming from the heart of the US capital of Washington DC. It has also built a studio facility in Nairobi, and plans to open a broadcasting centre in Europe too.
A 37-year-old Pakistani national is due to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court later this week on charges of contravening the telecommunications act. He was apprehended while seated and looking shady in his car, following an anonymous tip-off. He had 4 000 Pre-Rica’d SIM cards in the car, and police found thousands more after searching his home.
American mother and pillar of the criminally insane community, Wendy Werkit, identified a gap in the junk food market and took a leap of faith. “Why has no one thought of this yet”, she thought, as she put the finishing touches on her Facebook ad. “Fifty dollars isn’t bad for a ‘pox’ infected sucker”, she thought, as her brain fell out of her ass.