David Shapshak Push technology hasn’t had the kind of reception in South Africa that it deserves. An innovative means of disseminating information by “pushing” information to people’s computer desktops has great potential for the advertising world. With this in mind Kagiso Media has updated South Africa’s first push channel, Newzdesk, and are using it to […]

Mukoni T Ratshitanga While political parties are busy grappling with programmes on racial equity, authorities in the NorthWest appear blissfully ignorant of the damage that could be caused by their failure to change the names of places. On the N14 highway outside the town of Coligny, a sign points the way to Kafferskraal, 12km away. […]

Tim Phillips The annual computer virus season began last month and the next few weeks will be filled with new viruses with lurid names. But at least three of these -Valentine Greetings, Penpal Greetings and Join the Crew – are hoaxes. Michelangelo and Jerusalem – two of the most feared viruses in the history of […]

Jay Naidoo’s bid for greater broadcasting control has caused an outcry in and out of Parliament, reports Ferial Haffajee Broadcasting minister Jay Naidoo this week fired the first salvo in a battle for greater state control of broadcasting when he rushed badly drafted legislation before Parliament to commercialise the SABC. He also came under fire […]

Marion Edmunds Two former Western Cape housing officials are skimming hefty profits off the provincial low-cost housing programme in exchange for processing subsidy information for the state. The Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has appointed RR, a Cape- Town based consultancy run by two former senior departmental officials, to help manage electronic subsidy […]

Diplomatic relations have all but broken down. In Washington earlier this month, Tony Blair’s most senior advisers ratcheted up the pressure. All-out war cannot be far away. For the British government has the enemy clear in its sights: it is the BBC. Labour fired off two heat-seeking missiles within 72 hours, as the prime minister’s […]

Ann Eveleth Fresh legal action has been launched by 20 South African workers against chemical giant Thor. The workers are claiming unspecified damages from the corporation’s United Kingdom parent company, Thor Chemical Holdings Ltd, for ailments arising from chronic mercury poisoning allegedly sustained during their employment at Thor’s Cato Ridge mercury-processing plant in KwaZulu-Natal. Lephila […]

Tim Radford Humans have underestimated their closest relatives. They cannot form words, but that does not mean they cannot speak. Bonobos – pygmy chimpanzees observed in the wild – post directions and leave notes for each other when they disperse on the forest floor. And recent research has shown something unexpected: a special area of […]

Tim Radford Wounds might be persuaded to heal without scarring, and limbs persuaded to grow again after amputation, according to scientists in Philadelphia. They have found a race of laboratory mice whose livers regenerate after surgery and whose tails grow again after being severed. Amphibians can lose limbs and grow new ones. Mammals, however, cannot. […]

But health inspectors remain watchful, writes Wonder Hlongwa Durban health authorities are concerned about traditional healers’ hospitals which are springing up in the city and may not conform to health regulations. At the corner of Brand and Moore roads in Durban is a two-storey building belonging to Judas Milazi, a traditional healer who operates a […]