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Politics
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Zuma’s New Jet Could Cost SA Taxpayers R2 Billion
29 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 4 Comments
After years of speculation and constant bickering the debate has finally been settled, size does matter. At least that’s what President Jacob Zuma would have us think as Secretary of Defence, Dr Sam Makhudu Gulube finalises the purchase of a R2bn Boeing in the US.
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ANC: We Want Six Provinces
29 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 9 Comments
A reduction in the number of provinces is something the ANC led government has often toyed with, but it appears this policy has gained increasing support among party delegates at the ANC policy conference in Midrand this year. The biggest change would see the Northern Cape, Western Cape, and some parts of Eastern Cape merge.
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David Cameron Heckled During Olympic Speech [VIDEO]
28 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Less than a minute into a speech to mark the month-to-go countdown to the start of the Olympics yesterday, Britain’s prime minister got heckled by a protester. The guy shouted: “Shame on you, David Cameron – you are crippling the poor in London. Shame on you!” Cameron’s response? “Don’t spoil it, sir!”
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And Now There’s A Starship Troopers Remake
28 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Sony is in the process of rebooting the subervisve, anti-fascist 1997 film Starship Troopers – also known as the movie with a post-Doogie Howser, pre-Barney Stinson Neil Patrick Harris. The reboot follows the trend of such franchise remakes as RoboCop and Total Recall, where satire and irony get cut out and replaced with 3D and totally slick graphics.
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Google’s I/O Keynote Pimps Nexus, Jelly Bean, & Project Glass [VIDEO]
28 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
So hey, we’ve had a pretty cool look at the future thanks to Google’s I/O Keynote yesterday – where they covered the new Nexus 7 tablet, the Nexus Q media orb, and the awesome, skydiving-filled Project Glass demonstration that you’re really, really going to want to watch, after the jump.
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Religion Fail: Court In Germany Bans Circumcision Of Young Boys
28 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 4 Comments
In the first ruling of its kind in Germany, a local court ruled yesterday that circumcision performed for religious reasons on young boys be banned as it could cause long-lasting, irreparable damage. It went on to say that the act should be made illegal due to the serious bodily harm that it could cause.
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SA Government Receives R25 Million Donation For Wildlife Crime Fighting
27 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The Department of Environmental Affairs (read: the South African government) has welcomed (obviously?) the Council of the Global Environment Facility’s approval of R25 million worth of funding aimed at strengthening the current wildlife forensic capabilities in South Africa. The donation will help combat wildlife crimes like rhino poaching.
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Map Of World Weed Use – 2012
27 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The Economist has surprised everybody by doing something fun, using the United Nations’ World Drug Report 2012 (released yesterday) to generate a map of the world’s heaviest weed users. The Pacific island of Palau wins easily, with nearly a quarter of people aged 15 to 64 having smoked pot in the past year. South Africa does okay, too.
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SA Drops To 127th On Global Peace Index
27 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Earlier this month Vision Of Humanity released its latest Global Peace Index of 158 countries, on it South Africa place 127th. SA dropped 29 places from when it sat at 98 in 2007. Conversely, the world has become more peaceful for the first time in three years.
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Cyprus Becomes The Next Card In The Euro Zone Pack To Fall
26 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Cyprus has become the fifth euro zone country to seek emergency funding from Brussels, and it may require a bailout amount worth up to half the size of its economy. We’re not talking the kind of numbers that Spain and Greece have been after, but when half of your economy is looking a bit worse for wear, it’s not ideal.
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UK Police Investigate Racist Abuse Of England Strikers On Twitter
26 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
On Sunday night, England dropped out of Euro 2012 in a quarterfinal against Italy. After 120 minutes of play, without any score, the teams went into a penalty shootout which saw Ashley Cole and Ashley Young both miss their attempts. The two players, who are both black, drew heavy racist abuse on Twitter which is now being investigated by British police.
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Check Out Patricia De Lille Rapping Against Drug Abuse [VIDEO]
26 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Check out Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille, recording a rap tune in a bid to curb drug and alcohol abuse. Non-kids (especially those in advertising and politics) trying to be as cool a real kids normally just looks awkward. So does De Lille manage to not look like a fool doing this? Check it out and decide for yourself – after the jump!
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Olympics 2012: Saudis Will Allow Women To Compete For The First Time
25 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Saudi Arabian officials have taken a huge, progressive step and will, for the first time ever, allow Saudi women to compete in the Olympic Games at this year’s event in London.
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Construction On The Kruger National Park’s First Luxury Hotel Set To Begin
25 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The issue of the construction of a luxury hotel development in the Kruger National Park was discussed at length on 2oceansVibe last year when the weighty issue of hotel development in the Kruger National Park became public knowledge. The first of these developments, to be built near the Malelane Gate, the most convenient entrance from Johannesburg and the airport in nearby Nelspruit, is finally about to get underway.
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You Will Bankroll As Many Wives As Zuma Decides To Have
25 Jun 2012 by Seth Rotherham / 1 Comment
[source:timeslive] That, my friends, is the decision that has been made with regards to us the tax payer supporting all of Zuma’s wives – and anymore to come. This, according to the ANC’s provincial executive Committee (PEC), who said the discussion would not form part of their policy proposals. I guess it’s just a bonus […]
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European Commission Draws Flack For “Sexy Female Scientist” Video
25 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
The European Commission is drawing pretty widespread condemnation for releasing a video — ostensibly aimed at getting girls into science — which pretty much depicts female scientists as sexy models in short skirts who hang around bunsen burners, giggling. Take a look at what lady scientists apparently look like in Europe after the jump.
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Two South Africans Freed From Somali Pirates After Being Held For Almost Two Years
21 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Somalia’s Defense Minister announced today that a South African man and woman, who were captured by Somali pirates 20 months ago, have finally been released.
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SARS To Get The Power To Search And Seize Without A Warrant
20 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
Soon the South African Revenue Service will have the power to search and seize relevant material without the need for a warrant, a tax expert has today told the City Press. The Tax Administration Bill could “have serious and significant ramifications” for taxpayers, the expert continued. However, this doesn’t appear to be a bad thing, if you’ve got nothing to hide.
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RIM Manufacturing Partner Pulls The Plug On BlackBerry
19 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 7 Comments
Celestica, the Toronto-based manufacturer that produces hardware for Research In Motion, have announced that they’ll be stopping production of BlackBerry hardware over the next three months, and charging the company $1 billion for unsold BlackBerry inventory. Between the BlackBerry 10 smartphone getting pushed back to late 2012, and new iPhone rumours, this could sort of be RIP RIM.
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Boris Johnson: London Has Awesome Women, I Want An Airport In The Thames
19 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
In a typically outstanding interview with New York Magazine, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, has come out saying that London is a great city because of a “greater range of girls at the bar,” that he’s doing it all for fame, and he wants to “assume supreme power in England” to build an airport in the thames. Radical.
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Zimbabwe, Congo And Afghanistan All Above SA On Happy Planet Index
18 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
According to the results of the 2012 Happy Planet Index, South Africa is not quite as happy a place as many believe it to be, coming in 142nd out of 151 countries.
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There’s A Karl Marx Credit Card Now
18 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before the word ‘irony’ stopped being able to quite cover it. The German bank Sparkasse Chemnitz have launched a Karl Marx credit card, after the father of Communism won in an online voting poll for new credit card designs. Somewhere a grave is spinning.
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China To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days
18 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
Broad Sustainable Building, a Chinese construction company, is aiming to assemble an 838m-tall building in Changsha, a city in southern China, beating the Burj Khalifa in Dubai by 10 metres. What’s more, they’re looking to build the thing – dubbed SkyCity One – in 90 days because, well, why not.
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A Skype Call In Ethiopia Now Carries A 15 Year Jail Term
15 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
Things have been less than fun with respect to freedom of speech and freedom of expression in the landlocked central African country of Ethiopia in recent years. And they just got worse. Because now a simple 30-second Skype call could land you in jail.
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Protester Attempts To Arrest Tony Blair In Hong Kong [VIDEO]
15 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
After being branded a war criminal at the Leveson Inquiry last month, a member of the public attempted a citizens arrest on Tony Blair yesterday! The former prime minister was about to start a speech on faith and globalisation at Hong Kong University, when the incident took place. Check out video footage after the jump!
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George Bush’s Severed Head Was On Game Of Thrones
14 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
So there was this scene towards the end of the first season of Game of Thrones – that popular, high budget, swords/sorcery/nudity show that HBO’s running – where a bunch of heads were lined up on spikes. And director’s commentary from the recently-released Season 1 DVD has revealed that one of the heads belonged to ex-president George Bush.
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Iran’s Oil Exports Plummet 40%
13 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Western sanctions against Iran’s oil exports have shown that they have fallen by an estimated 40 per cent since the start of the year, according to the International Energy Agency. Separately, the UAE is nearing completion of an oil route that totally avoids Iran. Unlucky, Iran.
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Sweden’s Twitter Experiment Gets A Little Anti-Semitic
13 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
Sweden has been handing its Twitter account to a different citizen every week for the past seven months. Which has been great for the most part, with priests and lesbian truck drivers representing the country – except the latest @sweden handler has been catching some flack for trying to figure out “whats the fuzz with jews.”
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Sir John Major – “Rupert Murdoch Pressured Me Over Europe”
12 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Sir John Major has been giving testimony at the Leveson inquiry into British press ethics today. Some of his testimony appears to directly conflict that of Murdoch’s, who in April claimed: “I have never asked a prime minister for anything.” Major becomes the first ex-Prime Minister to claim Murdoch tried to get him to change government policy.
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Spanish Activists Looking To Sue Former Bank Manager For Financial Crisis
12 Jun 2012 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Spanish activists are raising a large private fund to pay for a civil action suit against Rodrigo Rato – the former chairman of Bankia, one of the banks central to the Spanish financial crisis. The fundraiser is following the usual decentralized online-activist structure, with members organizing themselves under the #QuerellaPaRato (“Lawsuit for Rato”) hashtag.
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