France and New Zealand may be out of the Rugby World Cup, but they have come up with a desperate new attempt to prove they remain a force on the international stage. In just three weeks, France has doubled the size of its regional network on Facebook, from 141 000 to 284 000. The New Zealand network […]
2007
Posted inLifestyle
Doing them for a fiver
Walking around Brixton in the United Kingdom trying to sell overweight filofaxes to old ladies doesn’t exactly give you that “holiday” feeling. But sooner or later, if you’re a young South African on a working holiday (as I once was), you have to start working — preferably while you can still afford a travel card. […]
Posted inMedia
Leave whoever took Manto’s records; our political health is at stake
Who makes the judgement call about what resources to deploy in a police investigation, and then whether to pursue a prosecution? Because whoever did so in the case of the Sunday Times leadership, who are now apparently facing prosecution, seems to have been motivated by reasons that go beyond sheer law enforcement. And sheer logic. […]
Posted inSport
Brian Ashton to be rewarded?
Barely weeks after the English media were telephoning vets across England to ascertain the price of having their coach spayed comes the heartwarming story of the English RFU’s decision to extend his contract. Wonderful news, which means I can now throw away my copy of Dr Alan Cresswell’s report. The vet from Bath was waffling […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Is technology manipulating consumer behaviour?
The advent of armchair shopping has turned the consumer space completely on its head. Traditionally the capacity to store and move goods hampered the rate of consumption, which ultimately gave birth to larger brick and mortar stores and faster courier services in an attempt to present and sell the ever-growing selection of goods to the […]
Posted inMedia, Sport
Real men don’t watch sport
My God, is it just me or is this crushing, pervasive near-religious rugby fervour downright depressing? I know, it’s just me. I don’t get sport. I mean, I get why people play it. Out there on the field in the sun. Breathe in some fresh air, kick a ball around, whack one with a racquet […]
Posted inGeneral
Real men don’t watch sport
My God, is it just me or is this crushing, pervasive near-religious rugby fervour downright depressing? I know, it’s just me. I don’t get sport. I mean, I get why people play it. Out there on the field in the sun. Breathe in some fresh air, kick a ball around, whack one with a racquet […]
Posted inMedia
My brush with the law
It felt like I was back at school and in the headmaster’s office. I checked to see that my top button was fastened. It wasn’t. It wasn’t the headmaster’s office, but it was close enough. It was the office of the Eastern Cape deputy director of public prosecutions (DDPP) — and although we were sipping […]
Posted inBusiness, Tech
The Remora business model, or how widgets make money
If you have a blog or a Facebook account, I’ll bet you have plenty of widgets or applications on your pages. Ever thought of how the developers make money off these little tools? Photobucket sold to MySpace for $250-million, and myBlogLog was recently acquired for $10-million. The TripAdvisor supposedly paid $3-million for the “Where I’ve […]
Posted inSport
Bring on the Poms!
So we’re in the final. Who would have guessed that we would be facing England there, for the second time in the World Cup? The Bokke played well on Sunday. The forwards were fierce, led by great performances by Juan Smith, Schalk Burger and Bakkies Botha. Os once again played out of his boots, even […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Tito marshals us to higher interest rates
It is rare for private-sector economists and Cosatu to agree on anything. But, they have jointly criticised the decision of the South African Reserve Bank to increase the interest rate last week. The basic argument is that the monetary policy committee has gone too far by increasing the interest rate to 10,5%. Or, as they […]
Posted inSport
Pumas, Boks, stats and the hypocrisy of a rugby community
The Springboks’ well-deserved win yesterday over Argentina in the Stade de France was built on three key pillars: a deadly instinct to take advantage of opposition errors; crushing dominance in the lines; and Jake White’s brilliant stratagem to suffocate the rather one-dimensional, albeit effective until then, style of play of the Pumas — a stratagem […]