The M&G‘s Faranaaz Parker rounds up five interesting things happening in the world while you weren’t looking.
Smart bullets coming to an army near you
Smart bullets are no longer something you see in an episode of Chuck. Last week California-based tech firm Teledyne Technologies won a $25-million contract from the US army’s defence research arm to design smart bullets that can not only adjust for environmental conditions but also hit moving targets. According to Wired magazine, it’s all part of the US military’s Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance project.
The exact science involved in getting these smart bullets to work remains to be seen but there’s enough speculation out there to make some guesses — GPS guided, remote controlled, chip enhanced? It all sounds so scary and futuristic.
Perhaps there are some things that should stay in the domain of sci-fi novels, comic books and off-beat TV series. That may be wishful thinking though. Teledyne will have to deliver the goods within the next two years. So while the rest of us are busy cheering on Usain Bolt at the London Olympics, US marines may already be out there shooting moving targets around corners in the middle of a night-time sandstorm.
Woolworths flip-flops over Christian magazines
Who among the middle class does not love Woolies with its organic, sustainable bent and its quest to keep eggs out of its baked goods and make sure Johannesburg office workers have somewhere to shop after 6pm?
Turns out, a lot of people. After news websites labelled the company’s decision to no longer stock Christian magazines, Woolies found itself in the middle of a Facebook battle, with Christians calling for a boycott of the company.
Then came the inevitable backlash to the backlash. Among the reams of comments on the Woolies Facebook page, one poster asked: “Does anyone know where I can go to get the Allah Monthly, Jehovah’s Daily, Druid’s Bi-Weekly and Pagan’s EveryOtherDay?”
Other than a few posts about the latest ready-made meals to hit Woolies stores, there was little input on the debate from the company itself. The whole episode makes you wonder if Woolies has a dedicated staff member to man its social media platforms.
Though the company at first maintained it had made a simple business decision to remove items that weren’t selling well, it soon reversed its decision and announced it would be returning the magazines to the shelves.
That too had its consequences, with posters labelling the group “spineless muppets” with “no backbone”. Online commentators agreed that Woolies had lost the PR battle with its poor communication and failure to engage constructively with customers.
Youth league in the limelight
Julius Malema loves the limelight. If he’s not making news of his own, he’s sidling up to some other newsmaker. This time it’s South Africa’s newly crowned Miss Teenager Universe, Chante Jantjies.
Malema has said he’ll gift the 16-year old scholar a whopping R150 000 to “continue her school work and be successful”. According to the Times, this is three times what the youth league gave Caster Semenya after she brought home a gold medal from the IAAF championship.
Should we bother to read anything into this? That the ANC Youth League values looks over skills or that it thinks someone with international exposure, a fledgling modeling career and a host of other prizes really needs more money?
Either way, if Malema’s track record is anything to go by Jantjies shouldn’t hold her breath. Earlier this year a Durban businessman threatened to sue the youth leage for reneging on it’s promise to buy 50 wheelchairs for pupils at Ikhwezi Lokusa Special School in Umtata and a few months ago Bob Skinstad’s charitable foundation had to step in to provide almost 300 pairs of school shoes that Malema had promised impoverished kids at the Makanyu Primary School in Limpopo.
Euthanasia for chickens
This week a New York Times story asked whether consumers will take to the idea of a stress-free death for chickens.
Two major chicken producers in the US are switching to a new system for slaughtering the birds — the gas chamber. The new system uses carbon dioxide gas to “gently render the birds unconscious” before they have their throats slit.
Some say this more humane slaughtering system may appeal to a certain segment of the public — those who like their dead chickens to be antibiotic free, free-range, organic, and to have gotten free daily massages. (That last part was a joke, sort of.)
But when it comes to the dead animal that graces your dinner plate, how much information is too much information? Producers are still struggling to think of a way to couch “death by toxic gas” in fluffy language that will get customers to pick their fillet over any other. Some suggest “slow induction anaesthesia” as the descriptor, though I for one don’t know if I want even a hint of anaesthetic around my food.
Scouring the Shire
It’s becoming more and more likely that filming of The Hobbit will move from New Zealand to the United Kingdom.
The Hobbit is a prequel to the hugely popular Lord of the Rings trilogy. The two-part movie adaptation of the children’s book by JRR Tolkien was originally meant to be filmed in New Zealand, where all three Lord of the Rings films were shot.
But a dispute between producers and the local actors’ union over pay and working conditions has spooked the film’s financial backers who have started to scout elsewhere for locations.
The unions returned to the negotiating table this week after the New Zealand government intervened but it could be a case of too little, too late. This may be good news for Tolkien purists, who believe Middle Earth is British through and through, but could spell disaster for the budding Kiwi film industry.
Given all the delays that have plagued production so far, I believe I speak for the majority when I say I don’t care, just film it already so we can get our Middle Earth fix. It’s already been seven years since the last hit.