This woman has a bush down below

And she wants you to know about it.  For no reason in particular as far as I can discern, apart from the need to fill the webpage with something that would "spark a debate" and making the author feel somehow important and remind her readers that she has a nice rack (and it is) by shoving her chest onto the camera lens.

Upon further reading it transpires that the writer is the Editor of something called Women24 (it's for women geddit) which means she would have been responsible for either compiling or okaying the slideshow that's inspired her to disclose the hairy state of her beaver.  Essentially, the whole thrust of this section of News24 is a group of bra burners get together, be non-conformist and badly-behaved (if the editor's t-shirt is anything to on) and have somehow deluded themselves into believing that they represent women's matters, they matter and if they shout loud enough, people will listen.

Sadly, this couldn't be further from the truth.  It might as well be in the running to be Nuts magazine's female cousin.  There's no depth, no imagination; there's just knee jerk reaction commentary on pop culture all laced with profanity.  And I'm okay with ladies discussing their "pink bits", advising each other on the techniques and the frequency with which blow jobs should be given (as often as is humanly possible please), perving on muscular celebrities and dropping f-bombs all over the place, but to present it under the banner of "women" is a bit of a stretch.

I've seen this done better elsewhere: reporting a "story" and let your panel of columnists tackle it with their opinions, with varying degrees of self-referentialism, a mere hours afterwards.  Even on that front this section doesn't live up to expectations.  We live in an unequal society and it's while it's titillating to read white middle class women advising each other on what lube to use next time they try anal sex, the vast majority of women (remember them) who would want to talk to somebody about women matters don't even have access to the internet.

 I sincerely hope they wanted to brand it girlsgonewild24.com and the suits stepped just before they purchased the domain name and stopped them in an effort to keep their advertisers.

CNBC Asks Kim Kardashian for Her Take On The Economy

I think the title says it all really.  CNBC wanted the renowned academic that is Kim Kardashian share her pearls of wisdom with their viewers.  And she didn't disappoint.

Major #mediafail

Justin Harrison vs Woolworths media fail

South Africa is a country that's obsessed with race.  So if I were a shady "internet entrepreneur" the nature of whose services are not exactly clear a full 10 minutes after reading my website but claims to be an expert who wants to be paid for them anyway , who doesn't feature in first four pages of the google search results of his own name, is gaming his social networking credentials and has to resort badgering local technologically ignorant brands for freebies, I'd jump at an opportunity to stir up a racial tensions in an effort to raise my profile and drive traffic to my website.  That's what Justin Harrison has done.

It looks like he spent the whole weekend pestering white people into boycotting Woolworths for what he considers to be a racist employment policy.  It looks like it finally paid off as word hit the galvanised masses on twitter on Tuesday.  And the "news" gave it legs soon afterwards (Hey news people, what happens twitter is not news.)  As expected Woolworths unleashed their PR machince to the situation and Mr Harrison was roundly mocked on twitter as neatly distilled in this piece (Hey Verashni, it's the 21st century, you can embed tweets to blogs now).

It's no coincidence that he doesn't want to do any interviews.  Why would he?  He got what he wanted: traffic to his crappy website (Hey Justin, I don't know what you're selling but if you're going to get people to part with money for it, you'll do well to hire a writer and an SEO practitioner.  They're very cheap in Kolkata, ask the people who sold you twitter followers, they should know).

Well done media, you've given a delusional nutcase attention and the traffic he so craved and he's now laughing all the way to the top of the top of the google search results.  And for what, so you could sell a few newspapers and airtime spots?  What are you going to do tomorrow?

Talk Radio 702 Twitter account operator fail

Radio 702 would like us to believe that they are a world class radio station.  The truth is they're just a radio arm of a corporation and their purpose is to sell advertising and they hire people to talk between these adverts.  And they should refrain from saying anything contentious, lest they cause advertises trepidation.  They are so great they have a twitter operator who doesn't know the difference between "policy" and "police."

I'm well aware that I'm nitpicking and Sipho from Soweto who's going to call in and be allowed on the air to drone on and on between the adverts, even if he doesn't confine his contribution to the topic, doesn't mind and understands it's a mistake, but shouldn't we expect better from a broadcasting company?

Lead SA you say?  With the grammar like that, it's a no thanks from me.

Media Pass: Greg Marinovich

Source: dailymaverick.co.za

Following the gunning of 34 miners at the hands of the SAPS at Marikana mine a few weeks ago, you'd have been forgiver for thinking that a memo was issued urging all reporters to only dissect and analyse the shooting that was captured in the video that has shocked the world.

As you can see there were no more than a dozen miners in that video.  You'd have expected journalists to find out how the others were killed.  Instead, we got reactions from Politicians and pundits.  That was until Friday when Greg Marinovich's prolific piece journalism was published in The Daily Maverick website.  In it he details his two week investigation, re-traced the steps the police would have taken on that fateful afternoon and interviewed witnesses.

He concludes that a lot of those shot we murdered by the police in cold blood.  Of course an enquiry in is underway but if I were a betting man, I'd say nobody will be held to account.  It will be concluded that the Police shot the miners because they were defending themselves and lessons will be learned and let's move on please.

I digress.  It was very brave of The Daily Maverick to be the lone dissenting voice and publish his piece when it would have been easier to hide behind the safety in numbers.  I'm also encouraged to learn that their paid version iMaverick is doing well, which is no mean feat in the South African digital space.  This can only mean they are not going away anytime soon.

And that's just as well.

Sports journalists fail to condemn Pistorius' behaviour

There's no denying that Oscar Pistorius is an amazing sportsman and deserves all the accolades and the adulation he gets.  I can't even begin to imagine what life would be like if I didn't have my limbs.  Yet he and his fellow Olympians are showing us that disabled people can put their bodies through the physical strain and the discipline that is required - just as their able bodied colleagues did a few weeks ago - to produce sporting spectacle that is currently gracing the East End of London.

Having said that, his behaviour in the immediate aftermath of losing the 200m men's race to Brazil's Alan Oliveira was shameful to say the least.  Maybe the guy's legs were longer than he felt appropriate and he should voice his displeasure but that was hardly the place to do it.  My suspicions that even he knew that were confirmed this morning when he issued an apology for the timing of his outburst.  But what is shocking is the sheer lack of condemnation for his antics.  I don't watch TV, listen to the radio or read tree murdering newspapers on magazines but I read newspapers online and none of them have criticised him.  I follow a couple of sports reporters on twitter, some of whom are currently covering the Paralympics in London, and I have yet to hear a dissenting word about Pistorius.  The only mildly critical tweet that came into my timeline was from a journalist bemoaning being snubbed for an interview:

Oscar Pistorius snubs both SABC & Supersport @ the stadium last night but speaks to international media.So much for a Proudly South African!
— Velile Mbuli (@Veli_Mbuli) September 3, 2012

I wonder why that is Veli.  Maybe he wanted to deal with real journalists first and maybe talk to brown nosers afterwards, if he feels like it.  He can afford to do this safe in the knowledge that he can do no wrong in your eyes.  That's my understanding of that Proudly South African nonsense.

If he was an able bodied athlete, there'd be no end of people lining up to (excuse the pun) stick the boot in.  The only reason he's treated with kid's gloves by the media is because he's disabled.  This goes against the doctrine that disabled people should be treated the same way as everyone else.  This, unfortunately, involves rebuking them when they do wrong.  Pretending otherwise is to do everyone a disservice and very patronising.

Even Oscar would agree with that.  I wouldn't hold my breath for it, because nobody will put it to him.

UPDATE:  05/09/2012:  If you interested in the science of the technology involved, Dr Ross Tucker elaborates here

The Daily Mail don't know what Lewis Hamilton's brother looks like

The Daily Mail has been on Lewis Hamilton's case since he burst into the F1 scene.  If they not bemoaning his Monaco residency that deprives the schooling system he benefited from of millions of pounds in tax it's they are chasing bints he's partying with for a scoop and ultimately try to attribute his off track life to his poor track perfomance.  This is despite the fact that his teammate, Jenson Button, also has Monaco as his primary residence for tax purposes yet he never gets criticised.



Lewis Hamilton and brother Nicolas

 It's a shame they don't invest the same amount of vigour and anthusiasm in the accuracy of their reporting.  They published the above picture to go with this story and claimed the man next to his girlfriend, Nicole Shrezinger, was his brother, Nicolas.  His brother is a prominent racing driver himself and I'd imagine his picture is a couple of mouse clicks away.  The man is Lupe Fiasco, an American rapper who is Lewis' friend.

I know, Daily Mail, black people look the same.  How were you to know?  In the future, ask the work experience kids who are working for you for free until they go back to school.  They listen to "black music".