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Culture
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Twitter Shows How Our Happiness Declines Throughout The Day
30 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The study, which took place over a two-year period, is based on a “mood analysis” of some 509 million posts from 2,4 million users. Researchers found that our outlook varies greatly depending on the time of day, the day of the week and the season, with our moods improving as the summer solstice nears and over weekends. So basically it’s a study of what we already know. Kiff.
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China Agrees R19 Billion SA Investment, Dalai Lama Probably Not Coming
29 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has today told a small news conference that China has agreed to invest approximately R19 billion in investment projects around South Africa. He’s been on a three-day visit to China, and has avoided all mention of the constant South African headache that is deciding whether the Dalai Lama should get a visa or not.
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Facebook Admits It Was Constantly Tracking Users, Calls It “Inadvertent” Error
29 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Facebook has finally admitted that it has been watching the web pages its 750 million members visit. The huge privacy breach was simply a mistake, it says. Software that automatically downloaded to users’ computers when they logged in to Facebook “inadvertently” sent information to the company, whether you were logged in or not.
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Vietnam And South Africa Sign Rhino Horn Memorandum
28 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The South African and Vietnamese governments have come together and agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding that will seek ways to stop rhino poaching. Ironically, the Vietnamese officials asked that a domestic medical research institute verify that rhino horn had no medicinal properties, and to make this information public.
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L-Word Star Thrown Off Flight For Kissing Girlfriend
28 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Wonderful. Leisha Hailey, former The L-Word castmember, was thrown off of a Southwest Airlines flight yesterday for kissing her girlfriend – the flight attendant citing the apparent fact that Southwest is a “family airline.” This is the same airline that booted Kevin Smith for being fat, and Green Day’s Billy Joel Armstrong for wearing baggy pants.
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Texas Turns Down Author’s Offer To Cook Free Death Row Meals
28 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Last week, news broke that the state of Texas had decided to move away from the practice of offering prisoners condemned to execution any special last meal. Ironically, Brian Price, a former Texas inmate who cooked the final meals for inmates, and author of “Meals to Die For”, had his offer of free meals turned down.
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Eyewitness News Newsreader Goes Rogue, Drops Multiple F-Bombs During His Bulletin [AUDIO]
27 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 21 Comments
Eyewitness News radio bulletins will never be the same again after one newsreader lost it last night and f-bombed all kinds of philosophies to anyone that was listening to the 01h00 news. Anarchist and environmentalist, Mark Esterhuysen, probably won’t be reading the news anymore. NSFW, obviously.
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Famous Dead Sea Scrolls Now Online
27 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Google and Israel’s national museum, the Israel Museum, have come together to place a number of the world-famous Dead Sea Scrolls online for the first time. The project is the first of many hoping to showcase some of the manuscripts that make up what many consider the most important archaeological find of the 20th century.
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Proposed Dangerous Weapons Bill Being Publicly Shot Down
26 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The Draft Dangerous Weapons Bill, published recently in the government gazette, has been taking heavy criticism this morning. With a bit of luck, the badly worded document, which seeks to ban things like toy guns, will have statements like this removed: “…any object that can cause injury or have the ability to take a person temporarily ‘out of action.'”
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Facebook Is Watching You Very Closely, Even After You Logout
26 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that an Australian technologist, Nik Cubrilovic, has discovered that Facebook is tracking the websites its users visit even when they have logged out of the social networking site. Reactions have been mixed, but is this something we should be that surprised about?
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The Sleepbox: Arriving At Airports Soon
23 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The occasional airport comes kitted with sleeping lounges, but not everyone can get into those lounges. So, that’s what Sleepbox is for. Sleepbox is a temporary bedroom for the average traveler, that can be rented for periods of time while you’re tired and hanging around at the airport.
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Praying In The Streets Of Paris Is Now Illegal
23 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Starting today, praying in the streets of Paris is against the law. The French interior minister warned that police will use force if anybody disobeys the new rule to keep the French capital’s public spaces secular. However, people have been defying the law all morning.
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Iran Publicly Hangs 17-Year-Old Boy
22 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
While the world fusses over another American execution, Iran has publicly hanged a 17-year-old boy for stabbing to death their “strongest man”. The boy begged for forgiveness and professed he had done it in self-defence, but not even an 11th-hour plea by Amnesty International for a stay of execution could stop it.
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R.E.M. Breaks Up After Three Decades
22 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
R.E.M. has decided to unplug their instruments for good, concluding a career spanning some 30 years and having achieved record sales that topped the 30 million mark. The band made the announcement via a statement on their website yesterday and dished out praise and thanks to all their loyal fans for the years of support.
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The Guardian Doesn’t Have To Reveal Phone-Hacking Sources, Yet
21 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
In an abrupt turnaround, the Metropolitan police have dropped their attempt to order the Guardian to reveal confidential sources for stories relating to the phone-hacking scandal. They’d hoped to force reporters to reveal confidential sources for articles disclosing information about the murdered teenager, Milly Dowler, whose phone was hacked on behalf of the News of the World.
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Steve-O Dives Into Mike Tyson’s Fist, Breaks Nose For Charlie Sheen [VIDEO]
20 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Charlie Sheen has been winning for real a bit lately. He revealed on Comedy Central’s, “The Roasting Of Charlie Sheen”, that it’s the love of his family that made him realise this. He gave a touching monologue that seemed to signal he is ready to get back on the straight-and-narrow. Oh, and Steve-O ran into Mike Tyson’s fist.
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“Forest Boy” Keen To Go Back To The Bush
20 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
A teenage boy who has been dubbed “forest boy” by the international media is apparently keen to go back to the bush. The boy, believed to be a 17-year-old English language speaker, handed himself over to German officials in Berlin earlier this month after walking for about two weeks. Officials describe his story as “incredible”.
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South African Fortified Wines Will No Longer Be Called “Port”
19 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A European Union trade pact that dictates that the name “port” may only apply to fortified wines from Portugal will mean that the word will disappear entirely from bottle labels in this country by the beginning of January next year. The move has been on the cards since 2000, when the South African government agreed to stop using it.
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China Is Amped To Buy Debt
15 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
China’s time is now. We’ve all been saying it for ages, but their time really is now. A report from Bloomberg doesn’t beat around the bush: “China is willing to buy bonds from nations involved in the sovereign debt crisis.” They already own millions of hectares of land right here in Africa, but now they want to invest.
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Sarah Palin Snorted Coke And Smoked Weed
15 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
The former Republican vice-presidential contender, Sarah Palin, is alleged to have taken cocaine and smoked weed in a new controversial and highly anticipated biography written by Joe McGinniss. Oh, it’s also alleged that she cheated on her husband (though she’s vehemently denied this before) and let the kids fend for themselves quite a bit.
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North Korea’s First Cruise Ship Is A Bit Of A Joke
14 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
It ‘s going to be creativity and persistence that will get the world through the current financial crises it’s enduring. Our Dear Leader, KimJong-il, has finally come to the party too and ventured into the tourism business: North Korea’s first cruise ship is here. It’s old and a bit of a joke, but a start none-the-less.
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The Best Radio Rant EVER [AUDIO]
14 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
We all have that one radio DJ that we hate. But this guy in the clip from the UK you are about to hear takes radio rants to newfound heights. In one fell swoop, he accuses the presenter for being responsible for the London riots, makes a reference to Orson Welles, and draws a comparison between Nazi’s and hippies. Stunning.
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New Emotion Detecting Camera Knows If You’re Lying
14 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
So they say this kind of thing is “new”, but I think what they really mean is that it’s “new” to public knowledge. It uses thermal imaging technology, something that’s been around for a while already, and it just seems impossible to believe that “scientists” wouldn’t have thought of it before.
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An Ode To Emos
13 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 3 Comments
Hipsters get way too much credit these days. I don’t mean that in a good way. Hipsters – especially those of a South African persuasion – deserve all the deep-seated hatred that comes their way. What I mean is that they are credited with far more social traction than they actually possess. They just aren’t that big of a deal. I’m far more forgiving of emos than I am of hipsters.
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Gingers Hold Massive Confidence-Boosting Weekend Conference
13 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
More than 1 000 gingers held a massive confidence-boosting weekend in Breda, Holland, to celebrate International Redhead Day this last weekend. News reports coming out of the area have been slow because national news agencies were weighing up whether or not such distressing information would serve the public interest.
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‘Half-Arab, Half-Jewish Housewife’ Detained On 9/11 Anniversary For Being Dark-Skinned
13 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Really not exaggerating in that headline. Two days ago, blogger Shoshana Hebshi, a self-described “half-Arab, half-Jewish housewife,” found herself cuffed and thrown off a Frontier Airlines flight and strip-searched – because she was seated next to two Indian guys she didn’t know, and another passenger had found that suspicious.
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Here Are The Real Numbers And Consequences If Greece Goes Bang
13 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
European stocks have bounced back slightly (well, leveled, more than anything) on news that China and Italy are in discussions about “significant” purchases of Italian bonds and investments in strategic companies. Greece will probably get that next round of funding, but Europe still needs to approve it. Here are some interesting numbers if Greece does go bang.
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Scientists Produce Glow-In-The-Dark Kittens For AIDS Research
12 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
This really has nothing to do with making your pet cat fluorescent so that you can see it in the dark and not stand on it when you get up to go the toilet at night. It has, however, everything to do with the similarities between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV).
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Greenpeace Commissioned Giant Vitruvian Man On Arctic Iceberg [PICS]
09 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 4 Comments
Greenpeace! What a dumb idea. That giant recreation of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man is going to disappear as soon as that iceberg melts – OH. Oh gosh. You’re trying to put together some sort of heavy-handed metaphor about ‘mankind,’ ‘melting,’ like some sort of iceberg, because of ‘climate change.’
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Apple Wins: Samsung Galaxy Stays Banned In Germany For Copying iPad
09 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
A German court on Friday upheld an injunction requested by Apple barring the sales of Samsung Galaxy tablets in Germany. In what is surely another groundbreaking ruling against Samsung and the Galaxy Tab, the German court ruled that Samsung had basically copied Apple’s iPad.
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