The phone call came early in the afternoon.  My wife’s mom calling from 10,000 kilometres away. An article in the paper.  “I thought you should know.” And her cry, of grief and pain and anguish and horror and infinite sadness, as I rushed downstairs to catch her. Full story »

In 2007 I wrote about the asymmetry of “caring”; of how the Indonesian tsunami of that year had unleashed the biggest charity response in history while the Pakistani floods had left people unmoved. Three years later Pakistan has flooded again and The Huffingonton Post makes an impassioned plea as to why we should care, but it is plain we don’t. It isn’t because they’re Muslims, as Radio Netherlands seems to believe. In 2007 Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, was also the beneficiary of an astonishing amount of charity after the tsunami. I’ll restate my original article: Full story »

“Instead of standing aggressively behind the status quo, dressed in the cloak of the fourth estate, they need to talk more about responsibility, more about the importance of ethics, more about improvement in the standards of journalism in all respects. … The public interest means publication or non-publication guided by what is in the interest of the public as a whole, not what readers or an audience might find interesting or titillating.”

The words are a gauntlet thrown down before the media and against free speech as a whole. This is a nation that has shown determination to introduce Chinese-style Internet screening and demanding that ISPs censor content.

Except, these words weren’t spoken in South Africa. They are from Full story »

“A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy…. It must enjoy the protection of the constitution so that it can protect our rights as citizens. It is only such a free press that can temper the appetite of any government to amass power at the expense of the citizen …. It is only such a free press that can have the capacity to relentlessly expose excesses and corruption on the part of the government, state officials and other institutions that hold power …”.

These are wise words, passionately expressed.  But the sentiments are being aggressively eroded.  Freedom of speech, and of media in particular, are under threat like never before.

From Saudi Arabia and the UAE where governments unable to “control” Blackberry emails and so are banning them outright, to China’s promotion of its firewall software to block Internet activity in its sphere of influence, to South Africa where a new censorship bill is being pushed through parliament. Full story »

On 31 May 2005, the US Supreme Court overturned accounting firm Arthur Andersen’s conviction for obstruction of justice.  It would be a pyrrhic victory as, by then, a company which once employed 85,000 people around the world had been reduced to penury.

The rush for victim’s justice in the aftermath of the Enron fraud scandal led to the deliberate instruction of the Texas District Court that the jury find Arthur Andersen, Enron’s auditors, guilty “even if petitioner honestly and sincerely believed its conduct was lawful.”

Then Chief Justice William Rehnquist stated in his opinion for the Supreme Court:  “The jury instructions at issue simply failed to convey the requisite consciousness of wrongdoing. … Indeed, it is striking how little culpability the instructions required. … Only persons conscious of wrongdoing can be said to ‘knowingly corruptly persuade’.” Full story »

You know, that apology…

“I’m speaking totally for myself, I’m not speaking for the Republican party … but I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” Barton said.

He called it “a tragedy of the first proportion, that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, a $20 billion shakedown.”

Barton’s point was that BP should pay for damage claims but should be allowed to follow the “due process and fairness” of the American legal system.

I’m certainly not qualified to comment on whether the US president has the right to force BP to cough up $20 billion.  Full story »

No, really, read it for yourself.

So, the largest global study detailing research into radiation and mobile phones plainly shows that there is no clear link between mobile phones and cancer.  The response from San Francisco is to ensure radiation labeling on phones.  Compare that with the science of cigarettes and cancer which has never been anything but unequivocal.

The Board of Supervisors approved the ordinance, believed to be the first of its kind in the United States, despite opposition from the cell phone industry which argued that it could impede sales and mislead consumers into believing some phones are safer than others.

And this will be both misleading and confusing.  Most countries have regulators that only allow phones that meet certain safety requirements onto the market.  Your phone, somewhere in the fine-print, says “FCC approved.”  So, except for illegally distributed phones, all US phones meet current safety standards.  Full story »

During the course of 2009 and 2010, Toyota recalled over 9 million of its vehicles due to production-related faults.  An alleged 37 people have died due to these faults since 2000.  However, Toyota is only part of an industry that recalled 16.4 million vehicles in 2009 alone.

US President Obama remained mute.

During the course of 2008, the US financial system collapsed requiring massive bailouts directed at individual companies and state-agencies to the amount of $356 billion.  $169 billion of the $245 billion paid to US banks has been repaid. $21 billion has been spent propping up US automakers since they are unable to make products anyone wishes to buy.  Bank and industry bosses paid themselves big bonuses while still on government-life-support.

US President Obama remained mute. Full story »

In a focused interview this afternoon, US President Barack Obama opened up about the future of offshore oil extraction for the US in the wake of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

S&R: President Obama, thank you so much for meeting with us. Clearly the people of the US will not accept the risk of offshore drilling.  You’ve already issued a temporary ban on drilling, including the stopping of existing exploration.  My question is this: where exactly will the oil America needs come from?  Doesn’t this just put you further at risk to exposure to despotic governments in the Middle East? Full story »

I saw a New York Times headline reading “The Randslide and Its Discontents” and assumed it was about the South African currency (which I hadn’t known was in trouble … it isn’t).

This introduced me to one Rand Paul, a self-declared “libertarian”? I use the term by which he calls himself advisedly because that sure as shit ain’t my definition. How does one get to be a libertarian and still oppose a woman’s right to choose an abortion? That’s a contradiction. I didn’t have to go much deeper to find more.

Paul is articulate and hard-line. When he says he is antigovernment, he means it. Unlike McConnell, he wants to end all earmarks, including agricultural subsidies for a state that thrives on them. (He does vow to preserve Medicare payments, however; they contribute to his income as an ophthalmologist.) He wants to shut down the Department of Education and the Federal Reserve. Though a social conservative who would outlaw all abortions, he believes the federal government should leave drug enforcement to the states.

Full story »

Not everyone can be Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. We would all love to be the person who invented the microchip or founded WalMart. We can’t be. It may be that we weren’t born into the right family, clever enough, or simply in the right place at the right time.

But we can buy shares in this luck. In 2004, you may have no design skills but you may recognise that the iPhone is the future and buy Apple shares. You would have done well for yourself.

Maybe you’re not that sharp? Well, you can always invest in an index fund and let the market make you an investor.

The last thing you need is a heavy knock on the door and be arrested for crimes committed by Enron even though you only had $12 in the firm. Full story »

On 23 November 2009, the family of a challenger to the incumbent governor of Maguindanao province in the Philippines were on their way to file his certificate of candidacy. They were accompanied by some 34 journalists, lawyers and aids. They were brutally massacred.

Blood feuds are not some medieval throwback. Modern vendettas continue in parts of Europe, the Middle East, and the Philippines.

In places such as this, one bad business experience will be avenged down the generations. This keeps people perpetually looking over their shoulders rather than investing and getting on with things. Full story »

On 20 April, pressure built up in the well 1,500 metres beneath the Deepwater Horizon, an exploratory oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The pressure catapulted up the pipeline, overcoming the concrete keeping it in place, as well as the blowout preventer designed to stop exactly this type of occurrence.

The gas exploded as it hit the rig sending it to the ocean floor and taking the lives of 11 of its 126 crew. The immense pressure in the rupture is propelling some 5,000 to 25,000 barrels of oil up into the ocean every day.

No-one knows what went wrong. Whether it was direct negligence on the part of the various operators, or whether something unforeseen happened that we can learn from … for next time. Full story »

The O2 squats on the banks of the Thames on the Greenwich peninsula in south east London. Within it is the 23,000 seater O2 Arena. On 28 March it was not full.

It should have been.

“It has become normal to break apart albums and perform individual songs. Tonight we are going to reverse that.” And, with that, Peter Gabriel performed his entire new album, each song in its album order and without pause. Full story »

It didn’t happen and it wouldn’t have worked anyway. UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, was expected to legislate that every bank in the UK provide a free bank account to every adult. No money, just the account.

Which is why it was silly. Just about anyone can walk into a UK bank and open a savings account. And legislating that banks provide the account leads to the question: how is this to be coordinated so that I don’t end up with 50 bank accounts, one from each bank?

Yet this idea has plenty of merit. Consider the phone industry. Service providers have a tremendous lock on their customers and can exercise a monopoly where customers have to sacrifice their telephone numbers in order to change providers. Full story »

Julius Malema hadn’t risen to prominence when I decided to leave South Africa.  That kick-back came after he used the not inconsiderable power of the ANC Youth League to get Jacob Zuma made president of South Africa.

To give you a flavour of Malema’s oratory, consider this official statement made during soon-to-be President Zuma’s rape trial of women who are raped:  “when a woman didn’t enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money.” Full story »

You’re going to find this outrageous.

Last week, the wife and I went out for dinner to a new restaurant in our neighbourhood.  The food was awful and the service insulting.  Afterwards a few of the patrons gathered outside.  One man was particularly engaging and inspired us to take action.  We formed an angry mob, set fire to cars in the parking lot and threw stones and burning wood through the windows of the restaurant.

A few days later we went back to the restaurant and – this is the bit you’re going to find outrageous – their service had NOT improved!

Afterwards I led the riots.  We destroyed nearby shops and looted what we could.  Next week we’ll go back and see if they’ve recognised our concerns. Full story »

The first human-like creature to pick up a pointed stick and use it as a tool to slay another creature changed everything.  Instead of waiting for the accumulation of random genetic variations to impart gradually improving biological tools our creature could create tools itself.

The advantage to humans of being able to organise, teach and use weapons to catch food may initially have been slight.  That marginal advantage has allowed a single species to migrate, settle and dominate their entire planet; something unprecedented in all of Earth history.

The study of human evolution covers a period of six million years, during which a semi-upright-walking woodland ape eventually developed tools, learning, and culture, and survived ice-ages, earthquakes and climate disruption.  Adding to the complexity of this epic tale is that there appears to have been overlap between at least two intelligent species of human-like creatures in the last 50,000 years. Full story »

Nick Griffin, the leader of the tiny British National Party, has a very low profile outside the UK. Their best political showing has been to pick up two seats in the European Parliament, when they polled 6% of the UK vote in that election in June 2009.

They are a minority party and are unlikely to ever lead political thought in the UK, let alone Europe.

Griffin has never appeared on public television to either promote or defend his party. The BBC, acknowledging that he now represents a small, but distinct, subset of the British population, invited him onto their long-running political panel discussion show, Question Time.

Outside, angry demonstrators gathered to protest Griffin’s arrival. Hundreds of police battled hundreds of protestors. 25 broke through a barrier and managed to make it inside the BBC buildings before being dragged back outside. By the end of the evening, three policemen had been injured and six protestors arrested.

What gives? Full story »

“Rodney Deegen was surprised alone in his security booth where he was pleasuring himself while staring at ghost-like images of naked children. He was arrested immediately. Investigators suspect that he may have distributed some 350,000 images of naked people over the past 18 months.”

You remember that story, don’t you? Was all over the press in July 2012? Oh, wait, that hasn’t happened yet. Still to come, so to say. Let me get my thoughts arranged. Full story »