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Education
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Oprah Is Back In SA This Weekend
13 Jan 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Regular visitor to South Africa, Oprah Winfrey, is in the country again. She’s here to attend the graduation of the first batch of girls to matriculate from her school, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. The former talk show host will also try to squeeze in a catch up with her buddy Madiba, if he’s up to it.
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Parent Killed In Stampede At University Of Johannesburg
10 Jan 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The mother of a prospective student has been killed in a stampede for late registrations at the University of Johannesburg, which has been confirmed by a spokesperson for the university.
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Disabled Boy Writes Matric With Toes, Passes Brilliantly
06 Jan 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Here’s a little inspiration for your Friday morning. A 19-year old boy with no arms has just found out he has got into the university of his choice, having written his matric exams with his feet. Letlhogonolo Mafela, from Matshepe Village, North West has done his school and his family proud.
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Concerns Over 2011 Matric Results Despite 70% Pass Rate
05 Jan 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
South Africa’s much awaited IEB Matric results are in, and while there is a noticeable increase in the overall pass rate, commentators have aired concerns over some of the trends emerging. Here’s the Sparks Notes version. Pay attention, there may be a test later.
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Rustenburg Girls High School Is Getting A Heated Pool [Video]
16 Dec 2011 by Seth Rotherham / 4 Comments
That’s just one of the facts I gleaned from the new Rustenburg Girls High School promotional video which has just hit the net – you might want to have a peep. Besides from the school’s excellent educational offering and facilities, I was more impressed with the head-girl, who completely owns the camera. Her delivery was […]
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Children’s Book About Marijuana Reissued In Time For Christmas
28 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
It’s Just a Plant is an illustrated picture book about marijuana for the younger members of society. The plot is fairly simple: Jackie catches her folks smoking a joint one evening, and then her mother takes her on a trip the next day to learn more about marijuana.
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Science To Tear Space A New One With Ultra Powerful “Laser”
01 Nov 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A new laser is to be built that is as powerful as “concentrating the rays of the sun for the entire earth onto the tip of a pen”. Scientists claim it could allow them boil the very fabric of space, AKA the vacuum. Because that’s a fantastic idea. It is official, mankind has a death-wish.
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Samsung’s Solar-Powered Internet School
28 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Samsung Africa has unveiled a unique initiative they are calling the Samsung Internet Schools Programme. The initial programme will span five African countries: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan. In time it will branch out into other African countries too. The school is a mobile, solar-powered, independent classroom housed in a container.
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UK Teachers Say Boys Mistake Academics With Homosexuality
24 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Black schoolboys in the UK are deliberately underachieving because academic success is seen as “gay”. Apparently there is a cultural misconception that being clever is a sign of homosexuality. Instead, many of these boys rather turn to a so-called “hustle culture” to make money, because it is more “manly”.
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Schoolboys From Oudtshoorn High Arrested Over Sex Video
18 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
Three boys from Oudtshoorn High School have been arrested after a sex video did the rounds at the school. The clip involves them and a girl engaging in some rather disturbing after-school activities. The 15-year-old girl laid a charge of statutory rape against them, after the video’s existence became public knowledge.
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Scientists Win Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize For Wasabi Fire Alarm
30 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
How do you wake a deaf person, especially if the building that they are in is on fire? You squirt a puff of wasabi at them, obviously. Seven Japanese researchers were awarded the Ig Nobel prize for chemistry in the 21st annual Ig Nobel awards, a spoof of the real Nobel awards, at Harvard University last night for their invention.
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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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NYPD Increasingly Violent Towards “Occupy Wall Street” Protesters [VIDEO]
26 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
As the “Occupy Wall Street” protests enter their ninth day, an increasing number of videos and photos have begun surfacing, showing near-indiscriminate use of tasers, mace and kenneling by the NYPD on demonstrators, who are protesting a financial system that apparently favours the wealthy and powerful over ordinary citizens.
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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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UCT Makes List Of Top 300 Universities Worldwide
06 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 4 Comments
An annual global ranking survey of 2 000 tertiary institutions has been completed by major research company, QS. It takes into account reputation, faculty citations, student-faculty ratio and international population. And according to this ranking, the University of Cape Town is the 156th best university in the world. It is also the only African university on the list.
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Malema Fails! The ANC’s Charges Remain
02 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The National Disciplinary Committee has dismissed comrade Julius Malema’s application to have the charges that have been brought against him dropped. In what represents yet another blow to the embattled youth league leader, he’ll probably be staying in and drinking some hot chocolate this evening, contemplating what life holds in store for him next.
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Google Street View Boats And Tricycles Start Mapping The Amazon Rainforest
19 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
Google has begun to map parts of the Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers, as well as small areas of northwestern Brazil, in an attempt to capture panoramic images of the remote region and its communities for the world to see. Google enlisted the help of locals and will use camera-equipped tricycles as well as boats to capture the imagery.
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Local School Principal Beats Pupil With Hosepipe [VIDEO]
25 Jul 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
The Diversity High school in Alberton certainly lives up to its name when it comes to punishing their learners. In this shocking cell phone video the headmaster can be seen viciously beating a Grade 8 boy with a hosepipe. In another video a teacher forces a pupil’s hand into a bucket of cold water before striking the girl’s hands with a chalkboard duster.
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‘Obedient Wives Club’ Launches New Branch [VIDEO]
20 Jun 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A new club that opened in Jakarta, Indonesia, this weekend, is encouraging women to be totally obedient to their husbands and focus on keeping them sexually satisfied. Predictably, the new branch of the 800-member strong organisation has generated a chorus of disapproval from activists and academics alike.
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Swine Flu Returns To Gauteng, Over 100 Treated Already
14 Jun 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The Beeld newspaper this morning reported that a Johannesburg school will be closed for a week after a break-out of mumps and swine flu. The King’s School, situated in the Sandton suburb of Linbro Park stopped classes last week after about six pupils contracted mumps and another two swine flu, said the school’s principal John Pilkington.
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South African Scholars Get Two More Well-Deserved Long Weekends
07 Jun 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
To all the overworked and swamped scholars in South Africa, we’d like to say please hang on a little bit longer – help is on the way! The education department has announced that students will now also get June 17 and August 8 off from school. This is due to the those dates’ “proximity to public holidays”.
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Richard Dawkins, And Others, To Open New British University
06 Jun 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, along with 13 other professors is planning to open a new university in London at the end of next year. All of the professors will teach and their aim is to offer the “highest-quality” education to “gifted” students. For those hoping to obtain anything other than a BA – sorry. They are only offering humanities degrees.
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ANC Calls For Delay On Info Bill Draft, No Spice
03 Jun 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
For once, news that seems to be too good to be true, actually is true. The ANC has done a little back-peddle today and called for an extension to the June 24 deadline to complete the drafting of the Protection of Information Bill. Jimmy Manyi must be beside himself at the moment.
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Is It A Boy Or A Girl? Parents Not Telling, Baby Will Decide
27 May 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The name Storm is gender-neutral, but it’s also listed as a synonym for controversy in some dictionaries. And at just four months old, blond-haired, blue-eyed Storm and its (sic) Canadian family have opened up a debate that is getting traditionalists and liberals understandably excited.
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Burn Down The Herald: ANC Leader
23 May 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
ANC Nelson Mandela Bay chairperson Nceba Faku encouraged more than 100 party members to burn down Port Elizabeth’s The Herald newspaper as he celebrated the party’s election victory outside the Port Elizabeth City Hall on Thursday night. Faku said the party was celebrating an “important battle that is between the ANC and the media”.
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Chinese Pay $98 Million For Completion Of Robert Mugabe School Of Intelligence, No Spice
19 May 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Zimbabwean defence minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has told the Zimbabwean parliament that China will put up the money for the completion of the Robert Mugabe School of Intelligence. It’s not clear how and when the money will be repaid by the Zimbabwean government, who’s debt to China is now about US$1.65 billion.
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Pitzer College To Add Secularism Major To Curriculum
11 May 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
One of America’s more notably known liberal arts schools, as they call them over there, has decided to add a major on secularism to their curriculum thereby making them that little bit more liberal than some of their competitors. This will be the first of its kind in America.
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Thailand Authorities Freak Out A Little Over Topless Worshippers
26 Apr 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A couple of videos of young women dancing without shirts at a traditional Thai festival have gone viral – and despite the fact that this festival is one honouring Thai goddesses that are often depicted dancing without shirts, authorities have condemned the act, fining the dancers and threatening the photographer with jail time.
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CIA Reveals Invisible Ink Formulae
20 Apr 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
Finally, the average layperson will be able to write and solve invisible ink messages. And not with those funny highlighters that did the rounds in the 90’s either. The CIA has no doubt allowed us all to become privy to this information because they have no need for invisible ink anymore. Data encryption has progressed somewhat.
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FearSquare, Because How Dangerous Is Your Location
14 Apr 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
The use of the FourSquare application has been popular to say the least. You know, you sign yourself in at a particular place in a brave attempt to make others jealous of where you currently are, it shows up in your various newsfeeds and boom, you are instantly cool. Now there’s FearSquare.
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