A Rorschach Cheat Sheet on Wikipedia? +Link

SHOOT: The controversy is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test Check it out. You might need it if you're going to have your mental health assessed. [We all might.]

clipped from www.nytimes.com Trudi Finger, a spokeswoman for Hogrefe & Huber Publishing, the German company that bought an early publisher of Hermann Rorschach’s book, said in an e-mail message last week: “We are assessing legal steps against Wikimedia,” referring to the foundation that runs the Wikipedia sites. “It is therefore unbelievably reckless and even cynical of Wikipedia,” she said, “to on one hand point out the concerns and dangers voiced by recognized scientists and important professional associations and on the other hand — in the same article — publish the test material along with supposedly ‘expected responses.’ ” Mike Godwin, the general counsel at Wikimedia, hardly sounded concerned, saying he “had to laugh a bit” at the legal and ethical arguments made in the statement from Hogrefe.

Movie Review: ‘Management’ is this year's Little Miss Sunshine

By Nick van der Leek

Management is one of those flicks that er…manages to fly under the radar and boomerangs back as a hit. It’s in the same boat as flicks like The Big Blue, Little Miss Sunshine, The 40 year old Virgin, Gran Torino and most recently, Twilight. It’s often the title that relegates these flicks to the DVD store, and this is doubly true of ‘Management’.

You’ll love ‘Management’ if, like me, you’re a sucker for unrequited love stories. Most of ‘Management’ revolves around a mostly unsuccessful pursuit, but it does so without being too sappy, or too zany. This flick certainly avoids, through its smart script and thoughtful boundary keeping, straying towards the syrupy or lead-heavy topic that epitomize this theme. Instead, it’s enjoyable, light and lyrical.

Now, having seen the movie, I’m not sure if ‘Management’ is the best title, but I can see where they’re coming from. The poster also makes one feel a bit ‘iffy’ about watching it. Is this a movie about Jennifer Aniston wearing the pants? Is it an office romp?

The clue lies in the subtitle, “A Touching Comedy”. What sold me on going to see it was the cast [Aniston as workaholic travelling art seller Sue, Woody Harrelson in a cameo as an ex-punk, and Steve Zahn as the motel loser Mike who falls for her]. So no, there are virtually no offices in ‘Management’ – the title refers to Mike [Steve Zahn’s] reference to himself when he first introduces himself to her, and that provides a good basis for understanding what the filmmakers were trying to achieve: How ‘Management’ evolves.

‘Management’ is really about the growth of little boy blue Mike, who is transformed in his love from a simple mom and pop motel schmuck to something more. Not much more, but he certainly gains a little substance, even insight, along the way, and all get to learn from this.

It’s definitely an off-beat, off kilter film. A couple who entered the cinema 5 minutes late left half-way through. If you want snazzy, sexy, in your face action – give this a miss. ‘Management’ has a gentle, disarming subtlety, which starts off silly and apparently lacking direction, and then gathers momentum, and it has to be said, charm.

‘Management’ has a couple of unexpected laugh-out-loud moments. Mike [Zahn’s] pursuit of Sue crosses many stalker boundaries, but his fault-ridden approach comes across as harmless. The object of his affections does ask him at one point: “Has this approach ever worked for you?” and he concedes, “No.”

It is in the last third of this 93 minute flick that ‘Management’ really gains traction, and surprisingly, imparts a few rib poking insights. Aniston extends herself in this performance. After ‘Marley and Me’ we see a more cerebral version, more taught, and several layers deeper. She’s also dressed down and yet we suspect there’s something more to that sexy butt. ‘Management’ is less about Aniston though. She is the catalyst, and Steve Zahn’s performance is credibly funny, and astonishingly, touching.

In ‘Management’ you get a fairground attraction, and a lot of fun and food for thought besides.

Score: 7.5/10

RATING: R (language)
CREDITS: Written and directed by Stephen Belber
RUNNING TIME: 93 minutes

Read the review in the Washington Times.

Nicolas Cage can't sell his house - can you?

SHOOT: This is happening everywhere. And when you're using the value of your home as an ATM and that value turns, then you;re in trouble and the banks who've dervied their wealth from the assumption that property values always increase.

clipped from www.sowetan.co.za After going unsold for two years on the market, NICOLAS CAGE has slashed the value of his Hollywood mansion - relisting the property at half of his original asking price. The Leaving Las Vegas star first put his Bel Air home on the market in 2007, but the house failed to attract potential buyers with its hefty price tag. After all this time Cage is still struggling to off-load the estate formerly owned by Dean Martin and singer Tom Jones - so he’s revalued it at $17.5 million (down from $35 million), according to RadarOnline.com.

Zuma's Bheki Cele: How will he fight crime, with harsh language?

SHOOT: He's known for his tough talk, and campaigning for the current president. Now the president is campaigning for him. Not much talk of a track record, just tough talk.

Sowetan: He had in the past come under fire for encouraging the police to “shoot to kill”.

Yesterday Johan Kruger, a security expert from the Institute of Security Studies, said the Criminal Procedure Act needed to be revisited because police can use their firearms only when confronted by criminals.

“If criminals walk away there is nothing the police can do. I believe the police should be allowed to use firearms indiscriminately,” Kruger said.

clipped from www.sowetan.co.za clipped from www.sowetan.co.za PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma yesterday appointed another one of his loyalists from KwaZulu-Natal as part of the top structure of the government security cluster. “You can’t be soft and you can’t be moving around kissing crime. You need to be tough ,” he said yesterday after his appointment at the presidential guest house in Pretoria. Asked if his “cowboy” and “abrasive” attitude would follow him into his new position, he said: “Well, cowboys don’t cry. Definitely, we will just fight crime. Abrasive? I’m not sure. If that’s the case … I don’t think that’s a problem.” Known for his tough talk , Cele yesterday rose to the occasion and promised to be tough on criminals. He advised police to use “deadly force” when they are being attacked by the criminals. Cele said the law allowed police to fight back when under attack. He had in the past come under fire for encouraging the police to “shoot to kill”.

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The human body teaches us lessons on efficiency when it comes to arm-swinging

"Rather than a facultative relic of the locomotion needs of our quadrupedal ancestors, arm swinging is an integral part of the energy economy of human gait," says the paper.

SHOOT: Ever thought arm swinging was a waste of energy while you were out walking? Try not swinging them.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Swinging one's arms comes at a cost. We need muscles to do it, and we need to provide energy in the form of food for those muscles. So what's the advantage? Little or none, some experts have said, contending that arm-swinging, like our appendix, is an evolutionary relic from when we used to go about on all fours. But a trio of specialists from the United States and the Netherlands have put the question to rigorous tests. For one thing, it is surprisingly, er, "'armless" in energy costs, requiring little torque, or rotational twist, from the shoulder muscles. Holding one's arms as one walks requires 12 percent more metabolic energy, compared with swinging them. If you hold your arms while walking, this movement, called vertical ground reaction moment, rises by a whopping 63 percent. The downside, though, is that opposite-to-normal swing forces up the metabolic rate by a quarter.

SWINE FLU: Pregnant woman at significantly higher risk - 1 in 8 deaths healthy, pregnant women

“We have also noticed that with pregnant women, their condition will deteriorate quite fast,” said Tim Smyth, deputy director general of health for New South Wales, Australia’s most-populous state.

Christchurch Hospital, the main public hospital in the city in New Zealand, has treated two critically ill pregnant women with severe viral pneumonia, said Geoff Shaw, a consultant in the intensive care unit. One was 21 weeks pregnant and the other 34 weeks, he said.

“It’s almost unheard of for healthy, pregnant women to get a severe, life-threatening pneumonia, and we have two at the same time,” Shaw said over the telephone last week. “We have never seen that before.”

SHOOT: Take note.

clipped from www.bloomberg.com July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu in pregnancy can cause life-threatening disease and warrants treatment with antiviral drugs as soon as possible, a study in the medical journal Lancet found. The study, to be published in the Aug. 8 issue, found about one in eight people who died after contracting the new virus was pregnant. The hospitalization rate for pregnant women was more than four times that of the general population, the study showed. The findings support advice from health authorities including the World Health Organization that pregnancy may put women at greater risk of developing complications from the pandemic H1N1 flu. The data collected and analyzed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are the most comprehensive available to date on the impact of this novel flu virus among pregnant women, the Atlanta-based agency said in a statement today.

MIH Media Lab Entrepreneurship Lecture

View more documents from Justin Hartman.

Perils of the professional lab rat

Officially they are "volunteers", paid only for the inconvenience of giving up their time for science, but with rewards of up to $300 per day in the US or around £150 per day in the UK, many sign up for one trial after another, and consider themselves fully employed. As long as they stay healthy enough to be accepted for the next trial, they can make a decent living out of taking pills, allowing blood to be drawn and spending night after night in testing facilities.

They can, and sometimes do, go awry (see "A dangerous occupation" lower down in the article.

SHOOT: I did this for a spell. It's not something I'd want my kids to be doing.

clipped from www.newscientist.com Oliver* is a professional guinea pig or "healthy volunteer". When we speak, he's in Austin, Texas, taking two different HIV drugs in combination over 20 days. At the end he'll receive $5000. Before this, it was an injection of a cancer drug in San Antonio. "My lymph nodes got swollen and tender but it went away a week later," he says, but it was well worth it for $2800. In January, he pocketed $3000 for a 10-day stint testing an antibiotic (which made him vomit) and in October 2008 he was in Dallas for 32 days to test a liquid anti-cholesterol drug. For that he raked in $9100. In total last year, he earned $34,000 as a therapeutic guinea pig. The 32-year-old former hotel manager is just one of tens of thousands of people around the world who make a living out of participating in clinical trials (see "Guinea pigs 'R us"). While the money can be good, this is potentially dangerous work.

YOUR NEWS: Wunderground surfing on user generated content

SHOOT: Found this in my inbox today. Wunderground received its 1 millionth photo submission recently. I know these guys provided brilliant coverage of hurricanes last year. This year has been quiet on that front, so they've turned their attention to these photos. Nice stuff.

clipped from www.marketwire.com SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - July 28, 2009) - Weather Underground, the world's first online weather service, today received its one-millionth photo submission for its popular photo section WunderPhotos. Launched in 2002, WunderPhotos has become one of the most popular sections on wunderground.com, attracting weather enthusiasts and photography lovers alike. The section features user-uploaded photographs depicting current weather conditions, wildlife and almost any outdoors subject matter. WunderPhotos often features images of significant current weather events such as hurricanes, floods, snow storms, and even solar eclipses -- all submitted by fans of the site. Steremberg says of this milestone, "The one-millionth WunderPhoto is a true testament to the power of enabling your users to drive content on your website. With the help of our users, what started as a pure weather site has turned into an interactive weather community."

It’s cool by the pool – right? [COLUMN]

Some things don’t change. Some things change.

It’s been an interesting week. Bomb scare yesterday, a few new faces surfacing from the past, and a few nasty incidents – strikes, suppressed military SAT photos [evidence of global warming]. I still think we’re generally in zone of not quite knowing what is wrong – or what to do about it, so basically being a bit stoic about it.

Stoicism and conservativeness, it occurs to me, are traits that run fairly deep in my family. I am an impulsive person, but deeper down I’m very conservative [some would say ‘slow’]. I think it is an important survival mechanism. To err on the side of cool headedness. I know I can be a hothead, but when it counts – it’s important to be cool. Your welfare, your life may depend on it. Some things don’t change, or shouldn’t. Our stoicism and conservativeness ought to be in there somewhere.

I’ve often wondered whether perfectionism is a useful trait or not. Perfectionism is also a sign of where our mental health is going - is perfectionism rational or obsessive? I think it is a double edged sword. Perfectionism can eat up a considerable amount of resources. Think of a housewife wanting to be buy her children the exact right pair of cute shoes, and going to five stores to find them? Think how much energy is ‘wasted’ on these errands. Think how a BMW engineer’s precision quest to have a car travel 350km/h has consequences for the world energy equation. But there is a flip side to perfectionism. It is the ability, the discipline really, to know, again, that certain behaviours can have costly consequences, whether in social strata or in survival. Putting your fingers into a plug, being discerning about food or what sort of programmes or products one exposes oneself or children too – these can have long term consequences. Like what you ask? Well, like cancer. You might get away with drinking coca cola every day for a few decades, but finally that behaviour chews through your body’s natural mechanism, like rust. It takes an inward sense of the subtle instinct why not to do just as we want – and this is a kind of perfectionism – that insures we stay around a little longer.

Perfectionism also manifests as a dark side. That when we don’t get what we want [rather than what we need] we find ourselves becoming unhappy and depressed. It becomes a self-fulfilling and vicious cycle.

I want to finish off this column with a few paragraphs dedicated to introspection. Some people are surprised and perhaps disappointed to discover that I seem to ‘moan endlessly’ about a handful of subjects. Energy related, health related and the environment. If you take those three and consider them obliquely – concerns about energy, and health and the environment, you’d think they should be our concerns ordinarily? Why aren’t they then? Well, people turn to the media for opinion leadership, and so when it comes to energy, Peak Oil is described as an extreme philosophy and there is a lot of confusing press – noise – about the state of energy. No one knows apparently. Health. Simple concept, but similar noise and mixed signals when it comes to swine flu and AIDS and even which foods are good for us. You wonder why there isn’t a clear signal on these issues. There isn’t even one on cancer, which next year will become the leading killer of human beings. And finally, there’s the environment. There is probably no area more confusing – in terms of the media blitz than this. No one can agree whether it is a problem or not or how it might affect us. Noise again.

By way of an analogy, I’m going to describe my positions on the above topics. When I lived in South Korea I read a book on diet. Diet conventionally means ‘to lose weight’. Actually, a diet is simply the foods one eats conventionally. It isn’t necessarily synonymous with starving, or cutting down or watching your weight. If we talk about animals we’ll say that parrots survive on a diet of mixed nuts and some fruit. Does that mean they restrict their intake of chicken or meat? Not at all, their natural diet is to eat nuts. In the same way, as soon as this word ‘diet’ is applied to humans, it suddenly sounds very negative. And it turns out to be extraordinarily difficult to eat a conventional, natural human diet. I discovered through extensive reading in Korea that Ironmen triathletes were leaner and stronger endurance athletes than their meat eating counterparts. I also discovered that the muscle tissue of vegetarians was denser. Surprise surprise. I did extensive research, and finally, converted, attempted to stay off meat products. You have no idea how quickly – effortlessly – I lost weight. Simply by cutting out meat and meat products. Why, because meat and meat products has contrived its way into just about every food.

Going vegetarian – it was a very difficult process, especially in a foreign country. What struck me then, and it was something of an epiphany, was noticing how almost every restaurant and burger joint was serving us food that isn’t good for us, that isn’t really our natural diet. You might think that’s no big deal, but tell me, what would you think if your dog started eating cat burgers, or horse burgers, that cows were becoming fish eaters?

I’ll make it even more immediate and uncomfortable. How will you respond when you see a chimpanzee eating meat? Well, fact is, they very seldom do. Gorillas eat virtually none. On the few occasions Chimpanzees do eat meat, it is when they clash with other tribes, and they then literally tear their opponents apart and eat their flesh. In their natural foraging they eat very little meat.

Now human being’s teeth and stomachs demonstrate that we should be eating 70% or more fruit and vegetables. But if you go to the average restaurant, your plate is dominated with food that isn’t good for you. A large steak, fried chips [cooked in fat] and so on. Advertising on television is almost solely messages stimulating us to consume food that isn’t healthy for us. Chocolates, crisps, meat, milk, eggs. How often do you see fruit or vegetables advertised? Almost never because the stuff sells itself. You probably wouldn’t need to buy vitamins if you stayed away from caffeine and all these other products,and stuck to fruit and vegetables. You wouldn’t need to buy medications for heart burn either, because there is natural roughage [fibre] in produce.

The bottom line is that pursuing a vegetarian diet is very difficult, in fact it feels completely at odds with society. Vegetarians are also thought of by society as nutty. Conventionally. It is when you notice this odd schism, this flipping of reality, that you begin to question other things. If we’re taught to shovel poison into our mouths, if so much money is made by garbage food producers like McDonalds, and the media are sort’ve making money out of advertising McD [an unhealthy product that gives us cancer], well then who can we trust?

It turns out that many big companies profit from us not knowing or caring. Same goes for climate change. Energy companies, mining companies, governments. They profit from us not knowing or caring, so mixed messages serve them just fine. Because the last thing they need is another expense to worry about. Health is the same. We know it as health care but what it really is is disease care. Pharmaceutical companies are not interested in showing us how to be healthy [it’s cheaper for us in the long run to be healthy]. They are more interested in showing us what to use to treat our diseases. A sick, addicted, distracted unhappy consumer tends to spend more than a healthy, focussed and discerning one. The very wealthy tend to be the latter though. Wealthy people tend to be healthy, fit, and trim and energetic, and not lazy but discerning in their consumption.

The epiphany I had about diet, and the widespread misconceptions around this were reinforced in my youth by a number of other factors. The SA government stepping backwards from their policy of Apartheid, saying it was wrong. That’s rare – for a regime to say, “We were wrong.” Reinforced again by the death of my mother, which amounted to a similar admission: “I was wrong about how I lived my life.” She was an extreme perfectionist. But also emotional. Something that also afflicts me on occasion. There were others, like Hansie Cronje, who were heroic one day and tragic the next. Michael Jackson is another example. I consider myself an example in a sense too. I certainly don’t feel I have reached my potential in terms of sport, or writing, or work, or relationships.

In two other areas, where one trusted in the wisdom and leadership of others – in religion, and in world economics, it seems wishful thinking and greed clouded the judgments even of the most moral and most astute. And so it began to occur to me to search for reality without having a vested interest, a stake. It’s not easy. And it’s no surprise that no one wants to hear it because it stands in conflict to everything we think we know, everything we’re advertised, everything we believe and tell ourselves. And probably most important of all, reality is seldom good for business. This is why commercials for alcohol and cars and cigarettes [now banned of course] focus on how they make you feel [important, surrounded by friends or a sexy partner] rather than having much to say about fuel consumption or being cancer causing or anything else that, well, actually matters.

So perhaps I have acted as someone hellbent on saving what can be saved, changing hearts and minds in lieu of what must be the inevitable moment when the mirror shatters, and we are left with just ourselves and cold, stony reality. We’re not far away from that immient reality now. That’s going to be a very painful shock for a lot of people. My epiphanies over many years have been that – shocking; imagine the blow of having all this stuff foisted on you in one go as you’re saying goodbye to your wicked life? Revolt, rebellion. But for those who saw it coming, acceptance, and I hope, adaptation.

Some things don’t change, but some things do, and must. You ask why I complain and shake my fist about issues relating to energy, and health and the environment. Quite simply because I care and to me it is obvious. I believe we’re capable of more because I know I’m capable of more. The more who know the better the prospects become for me and these new converts. It is us standing outside a house in our neighborhood and seeing the curtains catch fire, and trying to alert the owners to the obvious. But they would rather watch tv and play computer games. That smoke, those shadows flickering beyond the flames. Could be anything. Could be a trick of the light. Why not check?

Over the next few weeks I’m going to turn my attention to a few other obvious issues. You will no doubt disagree, and say it isn’t black and white, or that I am entitled to a particular point of view. No, it is black and white. Is there a God or isn’t there? If there he is, we can relax because this is all part of the plan, and it’s in his hands, and he’ll probably sort it out. If it ain’t, this mess is our creation, and we have to sort it out.

If we have to sort it out, we need to sort out all the nitwits who continue on seeing their escape clause as exile from problems on earth by an eternity of reward in Heaven. It’s that dangerous and deceptive psychology that propelled us to where we are now. These people need to get onboard a ship called Reality, and begin making towards a Promised Land made out of human labour, not a Promised Land based on God’s promise and now human effort. If they insist on religion – cast them adrift. We need to form communities filled with insight dedicated to enlightening each other and caring for the environment in a sustainable way. Religion in the near term can’t form part of this project. It might, since it tends to foster altruism and the formation of communities, and sharing, but then it needs to lose its delusions of grandeur and exclusivity, and I doubt whether they are capable of that. Religious groups will foster dissension.

In order to address this I will examine conscience, guilt, the idea of the soul, and sin and our idea of God. 5 concepts. I will then provide a summary of how and why Judaism came into being, and unlucky for us, it then went even further to become Christianity. I say unlucky with a bit of license. There were times in our history when faith in God was useful. Towns and cities in new lands were erected around a faithful few. Faith inspired fortitude when we needed it. Now though, the evidence of our luxurious delusions is all too obvious. We think we know the truth, we think we are children of God, but really, what we are is arrogant, we’re just very very silly children who insist on playing our games our way, and imagine our superparent condones us. If there was one, he wouldn’t condone what amounts to chronic hypochondria. Not one bit. Stay tuned for more.

Meanwhile, leave a comment or shoot the donkey.

Halflife Phiri: Zille's rage and indignation could power most of the Cape Town metropole. [HAYIBO]

SHOOT: Great stuff once again from Hayibo.

clipped from www.hayibo.co.za According to renewable energy expert Halflife Phiri, Zille's rage and indignation could power most of the Cape Town metropole. He said that Zille was a "perfect storm" because she combined enormous energy with explosive rage, unlike most politicians who combined enormous buttocks with explosive flatulence. "If we could power the national grid with hot air or flatulence then obviously we could just plug in the National Executive Committee," explained Phiri. "But that kind of technology is still decades away. For now we need more traditional energy sources like rage." He said that Zille was "100 percent renewable". "Basically we've found that if you get her angry she can go from dormant to thermonuclear in minutes, and if she gets tired or happy, perhaps while watching her favourite Hallmark mini-series, you can just show her an ANC press release and she shoots up into the red zone again." However, he said, there were some challenges ahead in terms of plugging Zille into the national grid.

DANIEL BORN: Bomb Scare at Avusa in Rosebank

SHOOT: Curiously despite the building burping out a bunch of journalists and photographers, there doesn't seem any official news on this topic today from those selfsame journalists and photographers. I guess the media don't consider it news when it [news] affects them.

clipped from www.danielbornphotos.com While working (sitting on Facebook) at the office this afternoon, we heard sirens ringing from somewhere in our building. Most continued working and completely ignored the racket downstairs until one of my colleagues came in saying we must evacuate the building as the rest of the publications all seem to be leaving. Thinking it was just a drill, I thought twice about taking my camera, but decided to just in case another story popped up which I would have to go to in the area. The people spilled onto the street, we slowly made our way to a park opposite the building, many cursing at not being informed of the drill and that the impending deadlines must be stretched. When the first fire-truck responded I assumed this is probably not a drill, but a real life bomb scare, so took my camera out of its bag to take a couple pictures.

Selebi gives advice on who should replace him, wants to write a book, concedes "Morale is low."

SHOOT: I have a suggestion for a title: SELEBI - HOW I LET DOWN MY COUNTRY. He's right though on the choice for his replacement. Get a cop with a great track record.

clipped from www.eyewitnessnews.co.za Exclusive: Choose a cop, not a politician, says Selebi Jackie Selebi has told Eyewitness News a career police officer, rather than a politician, should be appointed as his successor. Selebi believes he is leaving a capable team behind but acknowledges morale is low:

South Africa's Swine Flu Noise: No need to close schools or to cancel the 2010 World Cup - maybe it's time SA authorities heeded the WHO

SHOOT: While Fidel Hadebe triumphantly claims to have the small issue of swine flu in hand, the WHO wants to discuss the issue especially with the 2010 World Cup a few months away.
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1015857&lang=eng_news&cate_img=316.jpg&cate_rss=news_Health
Where will swine flu be 6 months from now? Interesting that while public schools aren't closing, some parents aren't sending their kids to school, and private schools are closing. It is wise with something as serious as pandemic flu to rather be more cautious, rather be extra cautious than reactionary. And schools are a reservoir for the virus.

clipped from www.thetimes.co.za Swine flu: no need to close schools South Africa’s health authorities insisted there was no need to close schools in the wake of the H1N1 - or swine flu - pandemic. "There is no need to be closing schools," said health department spokesman Fidel Hadebe. "It will be disrupting learners and they will go to shopping malls anyway," said Hadebe. clipped from www.eyewitnessnews.co.za Schools not to close in spite of swine flu Gia Nicolaides | 4 Days Ago Panic stricken parents, in the province, are not sending their children to school for fears that they may contract the disease. Meanwhile, a private school in Sandton suspended all classes on Friday, a week before its official winter school holidays. clipped from www.thetimes.co.za Swine flu closes private schools THREE private schools in Johannesburg have ended their terms early because cases of swine flu have been confirmed among their pupils. Swine flu hits 30 pupils The World Health Organisation said last week that countries should consider closing schools to slow the spread of the virus.

Why this country disgusts me - Another absolute shocker

IOL: Launched eight years ago by then premier Mbhazima Shilowa, the project was meant to get Internet-run computer labs into every public school in the province.

At an estimated cost of R1-billion, the project failed dismally after five years, and the Gauteng Shared Service Centre (GSSC) tendered the project again in 2007.

SHOOT: Read the end of the article, where you see how in the process of construction they disrupted power to other classrooms, made a mess of tiling jobs, dug trenches and never filled them up and are accused of stealing:

IOL: At least 25 percent of the schools reported thefts after Gauteng Online labs had been installed, with many schools accusing the service providers of being behind the break-ins.

clipped from www.iol.co.za The tender was awarded to a consortium, SMMT Online, which is run by one main member, Tebogo Mogashoa. The company was given R2bn over five years to get the failed project running. "By the end of April I will challenge any media to walk into any school and not see a computer lab, except for schools that need a whole new lab built. The premier's mandate was that we finish this project by the end of the year, but we will complete it by April," Maile said. The Star took up his challenge last week and polled more than 100 schools around Joburg. Eighty percent of them said they either had no Gauteng Online lab or had a lab that was not working. The 20 percent that did have working labs reported frustration with the project, some saying they had no trained teacher to use the labs or that the labs have gone offline many times, and only repeated complaints got their labs working again.

News of Michael Jackson drowned out by flood of bad news

SHOOT: Michael Jackson would be the story of the year, except there is plenty of competition out there - swine flu, the economy in tatters, massive swindles here and there, one crisis after another emerging. Visit SHOOT often to find out which stories we should be paying attention to...

clipped from www.sowetan.co.za Police have seized cellphones and a computer hard drive from the Las Vegas home and office of Michael Jackson’s personal physician. This comes as the probe into the pop star’s sudden death focuses increasingly on the doctor who was at his side when he died. Chernoff said in a statement that Murray was present during the four-hour search of his house “and assisted officers. Investigators left Dr. Murray’s home ... seizing cellphones and a computer hard drive”. Los Angeles coroners have said they expect to issue a report into the cause of Jackson’s death as early as this week, following toxicology reports. Celebrity website TMZ has reported that Murray told Los Angeles police that he had administered propofol to Jackson only hours before he died, but that could not be confirmed officially. The drug, which is sold under the trade name of Diprivan and used as an anesthetic for surgery, is only supposed to be used under doctor supervision.

Is Bheki Cele a supercop? Hard to say since he has never worked a day a police officer

When contacted this week by Sowetan, Cele said he knew nothing about his appointment to the post and the first he had heard of such a development was in the media.

SHOOT: Even the new top cop doesn't know he is the new top cop. If you have a corrupt group who want to cover their tracks, and they have the authority to appoint police chiefs [who could hold them accountable] doesn't it make sense to appoint inexperienced policemen?

clipped from www.sowetan.co.za THE Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday expressed concern amid growing speculation that the province’s MEC for transport, community safety and liaison Bheki Cele will replace suspended national police commissioner Jackie Selebi. DA spokesperson for community safety and liaison Sizwe Mchunu said Cele’s promotion would be based on political connections rather than his ability to do the job. “The DA has major reservations about his appointment to this position since he has no experience as a police officer,” said Mchunu. Mchunu said the DA felt strongly that more suitable candidates, such as Western Cape police commissioner Mzwandile Petros, had been overlooked since senior positions were handed out to those close to President Jacob Zuma. “Many South Africans are living in fear of rampant crime. The only way to beat this is to ensure that our country’s police force is effective – the person chosen to be at the helm is crucial in making this a reality,” said Mchunu.