General

Seems so… I am pretty sure most tech-loving internet users have read the posts by Gizmodo at this point. It sounds like a movie: young guy who programmes iPhone baseband software uses an unreleased iPhone prototype and goes for a drink at a bar. Guy forgets the iPhone on a bar stool. Guy #2 picks […]

Liverpool have always proven to be a conundrum to me, especially as a Manchester United fan. Last year they should’ve won the title, but didn’t. The reason? They drew too many games against opposition they should have beaten, plus Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard getting injured at unfortunate times. Perhaps also missing that vital experience […]

It’s about time we had some earthquakes in Rome. The historical home of the fiddle hasn’t had a shake in ages. Global warming may be biggie, and Iran may prove tsunamis to be minor ripples, but the man in the big hat has been bust, he fiddled while kids were razed. I’m comforted to know […]

Of course, your opinions are more important than the blog — that’s the whole point. I was going to write something new — but wanted to respond to Maria. It is unfortunate that you feel I used the term “social Down’s Syndrome” in a shallow way to describe stupid. I didn’t. Just because someone has […]

The eruption of volcano EyjafjallajÖkull has had its fun side. John Cleese allegedly paid a taxi driver $5 100 to travel 675 miles across a portion of Europe because he could not catch his plane. Oh, it was a car pool of people. As already argued, that taxi ride could be movie-making stuff, filled with one-liners. […]

One often gets the impression that what is known as social constructionism has won the day, in so far as people seem to be slaves to the belief that everyone is conclusively “constructed” — that is, “determined” — by the cultural practices and beliefs they have adopted in the course of growing up. This is […]

Dear Steve Hofmeyr, We’ve never met, and what I know of you is what I’ve gleaned from newspaper and magazine articles that detail your suburban conquests there in the East Rand, or wherever your haunt is. You don’t know me, which I’m perfectly happy with. Despite all this, I decided to write this little letter […]

Right-wingers continue to huddle and mutter about Armageddon. The Youth are supposedly led by a confused victim of social Down’s syndrome, and homosexuality has never had such a bad month. Ricky Martin and ET? Ouch. Obviously, the local crime scene experts have never watched CSI — letting an imaginary condom vanish, and failing to notice […]

The realisation hit me around one o’clock in the morning, as we were jiving to the crazy guitar notes of a hastily assembled jam outfit called “The Albert Frost Trio” in the packed auditorium of the so-called “Club Al Capone” at the KKNK festival last Thursday night. I had accompanied my friend Theresho to the […]

I watch the welts appear through the boy’s underwear. The boy’s head is caught between a grinning, stocky policeman’s thighs which imprison the boy and keep him bent over. In front of the boy stands another policeman, face furrowed in thought as he wields the cane. The cane comes hissing down on the boy’s buttocks […]

Julius Malema must be quite the conundrum for our journos and editors. Every week he has a print run boosting opinion or reaction to something or another. The man is walking circulation gold. He is also in danger of swamping the national consciousness with his often ill-delivered, though often on the mark, commentary on issues. […]

President Jacob Zuma’s statement on political conduct and social cohesion issued late Saturday is exactly what this country has been waiting for. It is a reaffirmation that the president, government and ruling party share the same goals as the vast majority of South Africans in building our fledgling constitutional democracy. In clear terms it sets […]