Wednesday, August 31, 2011
NW man rapes goat
Man in court for raping goat
A man appeared in the Ga-Rankuwa Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday for allegedly raping his goat, North West police said.
Zacharia Tivane, 41, would remain in custody until his next appearance on October 21, Sergeant Kelebogile Moiloa said.
Tivane was arrested on Sunday morning and charged with bestiality.
His 48-year-old wife and teenage son heard the goat screaming, at their home in Madidi village near Klippan, and went to investigate.
They allegedly saw Tivane raping the animal.
The woman called the police.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The greatness of sharks
South Africa gets many things wrong, but its policy on marine life is pretty good. Nowhere is this better shown than with sharks. Other countries slaughter sharks to the point of extinction - Seychelles is a good example. By and large we leave ours alone.
I grew up along these shores, swam there for decades, and never saw a shark.
They take a person or two a decade, but they are a national treasure.
But I would not take a dip right now:
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/NSRI-issues-Cape-shark-warning-20110829
Monday, August 29, 2011
Public Protector for President!
As sent to me by neighbour Owen Williams:
The cancer of corruption – appropriately referred to as a crime against the poor – is eating public resources at the speed of lightning, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said on Friday. Addressing a conference of the Institute of Municipal Personnel Practitioners of Southern Africa, she said if the stories she had heard during the recent road show themed, "The Public Protector dialogues with the Nation", are proven to be true, "then as a nation we are in trouble".
"We may have reached the tipping point after which trying to end corruption will be like trying to bring water up from the bottom of a waterfall."
Anecdotal evidence suggested that the most serious crisis lay in the state procurement system.
"It appears that if we don't take drastic action there will soon be no money for service delivery," Madonsela said.
Billions of rands meant to deliver on the constitutional promise of service delivery in pursuit of a better life for all were "unlawfully and greedily siphoned into the private pockets of persons within and outside government".
Even where there was no proven corruption, billions of rands were still wasted through lack of diligence in public sector procurement management.
"It's a well known joke that if you want to sell any goods or services at multiple market value – from pencils to multibillion construction projects – target government.
"Who hasn't heard about the pens that are bought from stationery shops for R3 and sold in bulk to government for R15 or more?
"How about stories that laptop computers that are purchased from retail outlets at the cost of R5 000 or so and bought by government through bulk purchasing at R40 000 per laptop computer?"
Ordinarily, bulk purchasing gave one leverage for lower pricing but that did not apply to the government, she said.
During stakeholder consultations last year, a municipal leadership implored her office to ask provincial and national government to step in with about R130 000 to fix street lights as the municipality's budget had been exhausted.
An investigation into allegations of corruption within the same municipality in an unrelated manner revealed that millions of rands had been wasted on a contract issued irregularly and without due diligence in regard to pricing control.
"We get these kinds of cases at all levels of government, including state entities such as Transnet, Telkom, and Eskom, she said.
"In one of the provinces, during the current stakeholder consultations, we were told about a company that was paid R8 million for building one RDP house.
"What worries me and my team most, are ill-considered projects that will bind this nation for years to come and whose costs keep escalating to the point that they may bankrupt us as a nation.
"The possibility of national bankruptcy is not a farfetched possibility. It is a real threat," Madonsela said.
Edited by: Sapa
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
First ever: ship goes aground because skipper stuck in loo
A Finnish ferry has run aground while its captain was locked inside the ship's bathroom.
The tourist ferry slammed onto a rock near the shore of Finland's capital city Helsinki, coastguards said on Friday.
Officials said the captain of the boat had got stuck in the bathroom because of a jammed lock and had yelled for help.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028038/Finnish-ferry-ran-aground-captain-stuck-loo.html#ixzz1WCbAIeUx
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Queen Elizabeth ready to do an Arnie and stop the London riots
Doing some work at last. Ta to colleague Jeanne for this.
Excellent use of SA taxpayers' money
Reminder: we gave this man R2,4bn.
60 000 REGISTER FOR REED DANCE
READY TO GO: Imbali from all corners of the Kingdom and beyond converged at the Ludzidzini Royal Residence to register to participate in this year's Reed Dance ceremony which kicks-off today
OVER 60 000 members of the Imbali regiment converged at the Ludzidzini Royal Residence to register for this year’s much anticipated Umhlanga Reed Dance ceremony.
http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=28966
SA criminals can do the most barbaric things
Man found buried alive on Cape Town beach
A man survived being buried alive on a Cape Town beach on Wednesday, a day after being kidnapped in Macassar, said city officials.
He and two of his friends were bundled into a Toyota Quantum with eight occupants on Tuesday, said safety and security spokesman, Richard Bosman.
They were taken to a beach and forced to dig their own graves, he said.
Two of them got away and waved down rapid response unit officers on patrol near the Wolfgat Nature Reserve just before midnight, said Bosman.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/08/24/man-found-buried-alive-on-cape-town-beach
What a nice ambassador we have
Guilty ambassador sticks to his guns on gays
A defiant Jon Qwelane has promised to fight to the bitter end to "protect his human rights" and to be allowed to express any views he believes in.
Qwelane, a former Sunday Sun columnist and current South African ambassador to Uganda, wants the Equality Court in Johannesburg to rescind an earlier judgment in which he was found guilty of hate speech.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/08/24/guilty-ambassador-sticks-to-his-guns-on-gays
The offending article can be viewed here: http://www.mambaonline.com/images/features/sundaysun_small.pdf
Surfer killed by shark in Plettenberg Bay
The man, who surfing website Wavescape identifies as Tim van Heerden, was attacked by an unknown breed of shark on Lookout Beach.
According to reports, the attack happened at Keurbooms River Mouth. Despite paramedics' attempts to resuscitate him at the beach, he later died in hospital.
Wavescape writes that eye witnesses said the shark looked like a "small" great white and that the man was pulled out of the water by a fellow surfer, identified as Charles Reitz.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/08/23/surfer-killed-by-shark-in-plettenberg-bay
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
How life could have arisen on Mars
Life on Mars? Fossil find shows it's possible
Cellular life thrived on Earth 3.4 billion years ago — without oxygen
LONDON — Scientists have found Earth's oldest fossils in Australia and say their microscopic discovery is convincing evidence that cells and bacteria were able to thrive in an oxygen-free world more than 3.4 billion years ago.
The finding suggests early life was sulphur-based — living off and metabolizing sulphur rather than oxygen for energy — and supports the idea that similar life forms could exist on other planets where oxygen levels are low or non-existent.
"Could these sorts of things exist on Mars? It's just about conceivable. This evidence is certainly encouraging and lack of oxygen on Mars is not a problem," said Martin Brasier of Oxford University, who worked on the team that made the discovery.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44221621/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.TlHrnais-cc
Amla named SA Sports Star of the Year
The Proteas' prolific Hashim Amla was SA Sports Star of the year at the annual awards at Sun City on Sunday night.
The newly appointed vice-captain of the national one-day and Twenty20 teams was recognised ahead of four other nominees for the Sports Star of the Year accolade – Masters golf champion Charl Schwartzel, swimming world record holder Cameron van der Burgh, Springbok sevens flyhalf Cecil Afrika and leading Banyana Banyana goal-scorer Noko Matlou.
Amla, the world's top-ranked ODI batsman, made 1 848 runs in limited overs internationals during the voting period, averaging 63.72, and 1 437 test runs at 65.31, including an unbeaten 253 against India in Nagpur in February 2010.
Van der Burgh was named Sportsman of the Year.
The 23-year-old breaststroke specialist holds the 50m and 100m short course world records, and the 50m long course global mark, picked up medals in both his specialty events at the 2009 World Swimming Championships, the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2010 World Short Course Championships.
Matlou, a former African Women's Player of the Year, steered South Africa to the bronze medal at the African Women's Championships last year to bag the Sportswoman of the Year award.
The Bulls were named Team of the Year, and Frans Ludeke was named Coach of the Year. -- Staff Reporter, SportsCentral
Seems Gaddafi is going to spend his last days in Pretoria
We do love dictators. We gave succour to Aristide. We bail out the world's worst ruler in Mswati with R2,4 billion when we can't even fix our streets, hospitals or house our own people.
Now if reports are to be believed, South African planes are going to escort Gaddafi out of Tripoli and he can do what Idi Amin did in Saudi Arabia and live his days out in comfort.
Ah, nothing like human rights.
It must always be remembered that rumours have never been settled that Gaddafi bankrolled Zuma's rape trial.
http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-08-16-is-gaddafi-headed-for-sas-free-skies
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Perfectly preserved baby mammoth found
Herder finds baby mammoth
2011-08-19 14:16
Moscow - A reindeer herder in Russia's Arctic has stumbled on the pre-historic remains of a baby woolly mammoth poking out of the permafrost, local officials said on Friday.
The herder said the carcass was as perfectly preserved as the 40 000-year-old mammoth calf Lyuba discovered in the same remote region four years ago, authorities said, adding that an expedition had set off hoping to confirm the "sensational" find.
http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Herder-finds-baby-mammoth-20110819
Friday, August 19, 2011
3rd rock stage disaster in a month
Update: Death toll now 5, concert cancelled.
Three killed as massive storm destroys music festival stage
By Paul Cahalan
Friday, 19 August 2011
At least three people were killed last night, and 71 injured, when a stage collapsed during stormy weather at a Belgian music festival.
Video footage showed stage equipment dangling in high winds as rain-soaked concertgoers at the Pukkelpop festival – whose line-up includes Foo Fighters, Eminem and The Offspring – ran for cover near the town of Hasselt, about 50 miles east of Brussels.
About 60,000 people were said to be at the three-day event, which started yesterday.
Julius Malema
Ivo Vegter in Knsyna says Google returns this result when you search for "Julius Malema".
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Man chops own son's head off with meat cleaver
A Louisiana man has been arrested for decapitating his 7-year-old disabled son and leaving his head by the side of a road for his mother to see, cops said.
Jeremiah Lee Wright, 30, told police he did it because he was tired of taking care of the boy, who suffered from cerebral palsy and required a wheelchair and feeding tube, authorities told The Daily Comet newspaper.
http://nydn.us/opKE7f
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Storm kills 5 at music concert
A stage collapsed during a powerful storm at the Indiana State Fair on Saturday, sending steel scaffolding into the terrified crowd below and killing at least five people among fans awaiting a performance by the country band Sugarland.
The collapse came moments after an announcer warned of the advancing storm and gave instructions on what to do in event of an evacuation. Witnesses said a wall of dirt, dust and rain blew up quickly as a gust of high wind toppled the rigging. People ran amid screams and shouts, desperate to get out of the way.
Hundreds of concert-goers rushed afterward amid the chaos to tend to the injured, many with upraised arms seeking to lift heavy beams, lights and other equipment that blew down onto the crowd. Many of the injured were in the VIP section closest to the stage. Emergency crews set up a triage center in a tunnel below the grandstand at the Indianapolis fairgrounds.
About 40 people were injured, including at least one child, WTHR reported. Witnesses reported seeing many people with head and neck injuries and broken bones.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=14300630
Early spring in Linbro Park
We gave our son Matthew his very first haircut this morning. Then he went out and was picking jasmine as a present for mommy.
Tender boss paid Malema R1.2m: Sunday Times
Bank records show businessman's R1.2m payments to youth league leader.
Julius Malema was paid R1.2-million by businessman Steve Bosch who scored tenders worth tens of millions of rands in Limpopo.
This is the first proof to emerge confirming that tenderpreneurs in Malema's home province finance the ANC Youth League leader's lavish lifestyle, adding fuel to claims that he assists them in scoring government business.
The Sunday Times can today reveal that Bosch's company, Sizani Build It, made at least two payments from its Standard Bank account - and on behalf of Malema - to an Investec bank account belonging to Aurielo Cimato, the architect building Malema's multimillion-rand house in Sandton.
The first R900 000 was deposited on March 4 this year, and another R300 000 on June 4. "J Malema" is listed as the beneficiary reference for the payment - with the bank sending payment confirmations to Malema that same day via sms.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2011/08/14/tender-boss-paid-malema
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Life may have started in outer space
NASA researchers have found the building blocks for life on earth in meteorites, indicating that the components for life on Earth may have originated in outer space.
According to the findings from a group of NASA-funded researchers, the scientists found that ready-made DNA parts could have crashed to earth's surface on objects like meteorites, and then assembled under earth's early conditions to create the first DNA.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/195073/20110809/nasa-dna-meteorites-building-blocks-life-on-earth-from-space.htm
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