It can be frustrating when, after speaking to a journalist for 20 minutes, they only use one line of your comments. This happened to me last week after I was interviewed by the Sunday Times about the proposed takeover of Johncom, publisher of the Sunday Times, by a group involving senior government officials. I don’t […]
2007
Posted inTech
Make space for the PC in the museum
Three days of wonderful inspirational stuff at the Flash on the Beach conference has regrettably come to an end. As an aside, I got a beach towel and beach thongs, or flip-flops for the South African readers, in my free handout kit. It’s all of something like 14 degrees during the day and four degrees […]
Posted inLifestyle
A tale of four tossers
On Wednesday night I went to see Jethro Tull in concert. Not because I’m a fan, but because my wife is and one of my favourite things to do is go to live concerts. Another is to keep my wife happy, so this worked all round. In fact, even saying I’m not a big fan […]
Posted inLifestyle
New study finds it’s good to be fat
I’ve finally worked out what it is that’s killing people. It’s not butter or margarine. It’s those clowns who carry out the medical studies. Every day we’re told that studies show that eggs are killing more people every hour than Stalin ever did — only to be informed two days later that in a study […]
Posted inGeneral
Sinking feeling, or is the Earth moving faster?
If all the world’s glaciers were to melt and engulf the coasts on all continents, would you get a sinking feeling? Here I have to reminisce a little about physics and geology lectures (which I rarely attended) and the fact that buoyancy of continental plates is a factor of the density of the Earth’s mantle […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
A personal place
Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, Jay Brannan, to be seen engaged in a sexually explicit (and hilarious) gay threesome in Shortbus, was “raised religious”. Brannan is in South Africa as a guest of the Out in Africa gay and lesbian film festival, accompanying another film he stars in, Holding Trevor. He’s probably still answering […]
Posted inLifestyle
Traffic is cool
I sat in traffic for about an hour this morning. No big surprise there — most people in Cape Town living outside the City Bowl probably sat in traffic for about an hour this morning. What was unusual about my early-morning traffic experience was that I enjoyed it. Not endured it, but enjoyed it. Allow […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Gangster’s paradise in the ANC ahead of Limpopo?
Here we go again with the “political posts”. Blame Thought Leader if you find my “political posts” crappy. You see, I’m much more of a Thought Leader consumer than I am a contributor. Of course, the more astute have already figured out that I never write about politics per se, but rather about some of […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Origin of the blog revealed
Scientists have found a 60 000-year-old neck bone that suggests Neanderthals were anatomically able to produce the speech sounds modern humans make … That implies that voice-production machinery has changed little over the past 60 000 years. – News report “You have reached the cave of Ak Ar. I’m away right now, but if you leave […]
Posted inLifestyle
Oprah’s school is tragic, but Jokela is symptomatic of something more dangerous
Last year, in the face of the new legislation relating to child abuse, I went out and bought a coffee-table-sized wooden book on child psychology. And what a joy it’s been — every time the kids give me crap, I hit them with it. I mean, what are parents supposed to do? You can’t touch […]
Posted inLifestyle
Addictive reading
I just finished reading the final Harry Potter. I know, I know, I’m a writer — I should be reading intelligent, “grown-up” fiction. But Jeez Louise, was it exciting! Death Eaters! Dementors! Powerful wands! Body-bind curses! We’re talking serious stuff here. Dangerous stuff. And yes, there were moments during the three-week reading of this monster […]
Posted inNews/Politics, Sport
Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile says sports quotas are out
I have decided to have Makhenkesi Stofile’s children. It’s not a decision I have taken lightly and I’d better not suffer any morning sickness (I’m a bastard as it is). If I do, he’ll have me on the phone every day, going on about how I slave over a hot stove and clean the house […]