Many of us believe that South Africa is quite simply the best country to live in on the planet. But have you heard of the “misery index”? It’s a measure which takes into account a country’s unemployment and inflation rates. Here’s the list of the 15 most miserable countries in the world for 2011. Take a guess where SA ranks – it’s not cheerful.
Men are regularly accused of disturbing other people’s sleep with the sort of loud snoring that can travel through walls and make its way around quiet suburban streets. Now a study, albeit a small one, is adding further fuel to that fire by claiming that your wife’s sleep is an important part of the key to a successful marriage.
You’d think Isabel Chavelo Gutierrez learned his lesson in the past 22 years while he was sitting in jail for being a pedophile. But it seems he was under the impression that if he went for a 77 year-old this time he’d fly under Karma’s radar. Not so, because as he was halfway through his despicable act, he was struck down with a heart attack.
Yay, science. A new vaccine for meningitis A – that disease killing thousands of people in the central African “meningitis belt” annually – has been released. Which is good, but even better is the fact that it’s way cheaper and more effective than whatever we were using before.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Maid Speaks Out For The First Time – When it was revealed that Arnold Schwarzenegger had a 13-year-old child with a trusted member of the family’s domestic staff, the world let out a collective gasp. The mother, housekeeper Mildred Baena, has since been in hiding and has now decided to set the record straight. [hellomagazine] […]
I need a cooler hobby. Over the weekend, Zane Whitmore, a 34-year-old from Seattle, attached himself to a hot air balloon with four piercings across his shoulder blades, and took to the air for a little more than an hour, cruising at just under 3 000 metres. No, I don’t know why either, look at the video.
I’m not entirely sure if this is a good idea or a bad idea, but a range of wine packaged in perfume-bottle shaped containers has just been launched in Italy and Germany. The drink is specifically targeted at women and makes life for the non-connoisseur, but still fashionable person considerably easier, as there are only three flavours to choose from.
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.
A well-known Star Wars and Harry Potter actor has been arrested for indecent exposure. Nicholas Read, famous for playing dwarf and/or other small-statured fantasy-related characters in movies, recently sat on a bus with a hat on his lap. True story. A 17 year-old girl was sitting next to him, and he apparently pulled everything but a rabbit from that hat.
As rebel forces march further west toward the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and Germany declares its support for the rebels, Muammar Gaddafi took on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the World Chess Federation in a game of chess on Sunday. What do they have in common? They’ve both been in powerful leadership positions for a long time.
Look, I’m no expert here, on either subject, but it’s my job to talk about cars. It’s safe to say I may have bored a few people over the years, so I’ve put together a handy guide to avoiding that. As a car enthusiast, or petrol-head if you must, you will have to talk about the object of your desires with the women you desire. Don’t cock it up.
Eva Ottosson, 56, plans to donate her uterus to her 25-year-old daughter Sarah, who was born without one. This will be the second such procedure attempted, and, if successful, Sarah will carry a fetus in the same womb that once held her. The procedure could take place next spring, in Sweden.The procedure could take place next spring, in Sweden. Matryoshka dolls.
Wind farms are big business in Italy, and the sun-soaked and wind-swept island of Sicily is no exception. Hardly surpising then, that the Sicilian mafia has cottoned on to the idea of harnessing wind and is cashing in on the green movement too.
Belgium has gone one year since their last elections on 13 June 2010 without an official government. Coalition negotiations have dragged on and on, and are still happening as we speak. In the meantime, the country has had to make do with a caretaker prime minister.
Active Facebook Users In US & UK Declines – The United States lost nearly 6 million users, falling from 155.2 million at the start of May to 149.4 million at the end of it. This is the first time the country has lost users in the past year. Canada also fell significantly, by 1.52 million […]
Another South African has scooped a Tony Award for 2011! Last month we told you about Cape Town’s Handspring Puppet Company winning a special award for their theatrical work, but it is Mr. Atholl Fugard who deserves the standing ovation. The 78-year-old theatre maker, with over 30 plays under his belt, walked away last night with a lifetime achievement award. Respect.
The geniuses at Thumbtribe have just finished adding the final touches to our brand spanking new mobile site! So now you can enjoy reading and indulging in REAL news that people REALLY talk about, on your mobile phone. You could always view the site before on your iPhone/Blackberry – but now it is optimised for […]
Hot damn but I love the future. Iceland is drawing up a new constitution, in the wake of the country’s commercial banks collapsing. Which is news, but not news-news; the interesting part is how the former vikings are going about the process – they’re crowdsourcing the draft online, with links to Facebook, Twitter and Youtube accounts.
A scuba diver in California says he’s going fishing for the catch of the century. He plans to recover the body of the world’s fourth baddest man ever (behind Hitler, Stalin and Judas Iscariot).
A hiking trail for nudists opened about a year ago near the town of Dankerode, Germany, about 320 kilometres west of Berlin. The trail was an instant hit and also saw one open in Switzerland, where the issue of nude hiking will soon be taken up by the Supreme Court. Nude Hiking Day coincidentally takes place on June 21.
It was the Le Mans 24 hour race this weekend and somehow the Le Mans 2008 winner, Allan McNish, survived one of the most horrific motor accidents ever witnessed. Needless to say the video went viral. We will now add to this viralness and give it to you right here, right now. Follow the link […]
It’s been a weird sort of season. How do you reconcile the fact that Arsenal beat Chelsea, Manchester United and Barcelona in the last six months of the season with the fact that in the exact same period they lost to third-rate Bolton Wanderers, Stoke City and Birmingham City? How do we come to terms with both the heady highs and the unrelenting lows, like the crushing defeat to Birmingham in the Carling Cup Final and the astonishing 4-4 draw to Newcastle United which effectively ended our title hopes? What does one say of the beautiful football, the young talent and complete lack of any sort of silverware in the last six seasons?
The Shortest Man in the World contest is a really fierce competition. Last year, Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal took the crown from Edward Niño Hernández Of Columbia. But his reign was short-lived, as this weekend Junrey Balawing from the Philippines turned 18 – and therefore became a “man”.
You would be forgiven for thinking that this image was of two homesexual men, in love. This is definitely not the case in this instance. These two men are in fact two hard-core mafia men, displaying a powerful sign of ‘omerta’ – the mafia’s code of silence. Daniele D’Agnese was being piled into a police […]
There was a fair amount of coverage about the apparent arrest of “Amina Arraf”, the pseudonym of openly gay Syrian blogger behind ‘Gay Girl In Damascus,’ which did a lot for getting word out about human rights issues in Syria. Except it turns out that Amina was invented by 40-year-old Tom McMaster, from Georgia.
Sounds pretty remarkable, doesn’t it? You see, it all started when I was cruising around Schipol Airport and noticed that they were selling the iPad 2 for MORE than what you can buy one from at Digicape. Digicape are selling the iPad 2 with 32Gb and 3G for R6,599 – no spice. Can you believe […]
A 72-year-old woman, living on her own in St. Francis Bay, killed an intruder early Sunday morning after she had been tied up, threatened and shoved in a cupboard. I am entirely unashamed to say that I think this woman is awesome and should be awarded the Victoria Cross and The Congressional Medal of Honor.
The trouble started when Richard Moore started sending unwelcome gifts and chocolates to Ashley Alford, demanding “sucky-sucky” in return. But Ashley never gave her manager any sucky-sucky. That’s when our boy took things to the next level by sneaking up on Ashley, holding her by her ponytail, and whacking her on the head with his […]
A mother is suing the Mpumalanga department of health for negligence on the part of the hospital which delivered her son, to the tune of R7-million. The boy suffered severe injuries during birth. He is now eight years old.
I once played in a game where a friend of mine got eight wickets. I thought that was pretty impressive, but Josh Fox, a 13-year-old Cambridgeshire schoolboy from Chatteris in England is even more impressive. Young Josh managed to take two hat-tricks in one game and they happened in successive overs too.