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/ 2 February 2005
In 1990, which is almost unimaginably long ago in internet years, the notion that computer scientists might one day create an artificial replacement for human memory was the stuff of science fiction. This notion gave birth to the idea that would come to change, at a fundamental level, the way we think. Its most feverish point was reached yesterday, with the launch of MSN Search, Microsoft’s long-awaited rival to Google.
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/ 2 February 2005
How to break chopsticks using your buttocks, interesting eBay items for sale, outrageous TV commercials, the new art of airigami, the global strategy of genocide by vaccines, how to speak American, prison penpals, and more … Ian Fraser brings you the weird and wonderful on the world wide web.
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/ 2 February 2005
Once again the health minister is at war. This time, in defence of her medicines pricing regulations, she recognises the need to garner public support. Billed as a struggle between the right of access to medicines and corporate greed, the battle for hearts and minds is not letting the facts get in the way. The need for regulation remains undisputed.
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/ 2 February 2005
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is about to embark on its second fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. The question is whether this mission will be a success or whether the group of about 20 delegates will be deported, as the first mission was in December last year. The <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> fired 10 questions at Patrick Craven, the editor of Cosatu’s magazine <i>The Shopsteward</i>.
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/ 2 February 2005
It is a common refrain: South Africa is a unitary state and it is reactionary and small-minded to engage in parochial battles about which town should fall under which provincial government. So why would councillors resign, tyres be burnt and stayaways be held because some residents of the far East Rand and far West Rand do not want to be moved away from Gauteng?
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/ 2 February 2005
Moving in with someone is easy. I tried it once. After a long, happy relationship, we took the next step and decided to cohabit. Then things started to go bad. So bad, in fact, that we split up and now haven’t spoken in years. So what went wrong? Before moving in together, we lived in virtual cohabitation and spent most of our holidays together, so it couldn’t have been incompatibility. But then we moved in together, one place, one bedroom.
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/ 1 February 2005
Iraqi leaders on Tuesday stepped up efforts to persuade Sunni Muslims to return into the political process as the final vote count from the country’s historic election got under way. Iraq reopened its frontiers and Baghdad airport as it eased a security clampdown imposed for the first free election in the country in more than 50 years.
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/ 1 February 2005
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) denied on Tuesday that it had been summoned to cover an international leprosy conference addressed by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Monday. SABC spokesperson Paul Setsetse said the SABC found it unethical that journalists were reporting on the minister’s private conversations.
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/ 1 February 2005
Unidentified gunmen shot at African Union observers while they were investigating reports that the Sudanese air force had bombed villages in the country’s volatile Darfur region, an official said on Tuesday. The attacks were the latest in a spate of incidents in South Darfur state as violence continues unabated in the vast western region of the country.