John Cassy Sex has been overtaken by music as the most popular search request on the Internet. MP3, the technology that allows music to be downloaded direct from the Net, has knocked sex off the number one spot as the word or phrase most commonly entered into search engines. The rankings are from Searchterms.com, which […]

Michael Finch Hockey Claire Digby, the president of South Africa hockey, had a tough job this week. While delighted with the decision by the National Olympic Committee of South Africa (Nocsa) to include the women’s hockey side in the Olympic team, Digby also had to inform the men’s team that they would not be going […]

Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW Our politics now is a little like a Hollywood western; if you want to be taken seriously, you have to talk tough. The most obvious examples are Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete and his colleague in education, Kader Asmal. Tshwete is given to denouncing criminals and human rights […]

David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY One day, no doubt, my grandson will ask me: “Where were you when Nelson Mandela was released?” I will reply: “I was there, my boy! I was there.” And he will say: “Don’t cry, grandpa. He did live an awfully long time!” “It’s not that,” I will say, irritably brushing away […]

Paul Kirk The owner of The Ranch this week claimed that top policemen had frequented his establishment for free sex before last week’s raid on Johannesburg’s premier high- class brothel. The Ranch’s owner, Andrew Phillips, who has been released on R10E000 bail, said that in addition to using the facilities for free, senior officers struck […]

Steven Poole MUSIC AND SILENCE by Rose Tremain (Chatto &Windus) Music and silence, as Rose Tremain knows, are not necessarily opposites. They inhabit each other. Silence is given meaning by the music built around it. And much of the meaning of music resides in the unique character of silence that it engenders at its end. […]

John Naughton Here is a story to make megacorp executives choke on their muesli: eToys.com, a huge online retailer of toys based in California, has been humiliated by a civil disobedience campaign orchestrated by a community of Internet activists. Late last year, eToys made the mistake of suing a group of Swiss multimedia artists and […]

SATURDAY’S triangular one-day series final betweeen South African and England has been moved back a day to Sunday, with Monday as the reserve day, after week long rains in Johannesburg. Both captains agreed that the rain-sogged Wanderers grounds would not be ready for the scheduled Saturday match. England are in the final after Wednesday’s match […]

ALISTER BULL and SARAH BULLEN | Thursday 4.45pm LOCAL markets stumbled on Thursday, apparent victims of the country’s own success, as a buoyant gold price and upbeat fundamentals perversely dimmed their immediate outlook. At close of trade the all share index was down 1,32% — with the all gold index down 0,29% despite bullion pouncing […]

South Africa’s top women’s high jumper, Hestrie Storbeck-Cloete, was chosen as the best in her field by the influential US magazine Track & Field News. She was also listed 16th for the best women in international athletics last year. SA athletes in other fields have also been included in the magazine’s top ten lists: Hezekial […]