Monthly Archives: June 2012

Facebook considering access for users younger than 13

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Facebook is experimenting with methods of opening up the social networking site to children younger than 13, the current cut-off age for joining the website.

Such a move would be controversial, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, as many parents of older children already worry about the possibility for social and criminal problems on Facebook. There are also questions of whether children under 13 are equipped to know which data is advisable for sharing online.

However, the tests – none of which have been made publicly available –might be necessary for Facebook, the Wall Street Journal reported, as so many children already log on to the website by lying about their age, putting Facebook in potential legal jeopardy due to US laws that require companies to verify parental confirmation before collecting data from children.

The plans focus on ways to incorporate parental permission into any logon by a minor, from linking a child’s account to that of a parent or by allowing parents control over what features children use while on Facebook.

The newspaper noted that opening up Facebook to younger children would significantly boost its potential number of users, key to Facebook’s revenue stream.

“Recent reports have highlighted just how difficult it is to enforce age restrictions on the internet, especially when parents want their children to access online content and services,” Facebook stated to the Wall Street Journal in response to questions.

“We are in continuous dialogue with stakeholders, regulators and other policy makers about how best to help parents keep their kids safe in an evolving online environment.”

No other comments were available on the company’s website.

The newspaper noted that Facebook routinely tests technology that is never put into use. It reported no concrete plans to release the technology.

Facebook is in the crosshairs of multiple critics. Privacy concerns have prompted it to submit itself to regular audits by US officials. There are also concerns about the company’s profitability, after a recent initial public offering saw the share price rapidly fall.

The company derives significant revenue from hosting online gaming sites, like Zynga. Such games would likely appeal to many children, meaning allowing them to access Facebook could clear up worries about its business model.

But others worried about the direct effect of a site like Facebook on young children, especially when there have already been reports of cyber bullying incidents among older children already allowed to use Facebook.

Other incidents with older children have centred on party invitations accidentally circulating wildly, resulting in hundreds of strangers showing up at parties at private homes.

“We don’t have the proper science and social research to evaluate the potential pros and cons that social media platforms are doing to teenagers,” James Styer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, a child-advocacy group based in San Francisco, told the Wall Street Journal.

“The idea that you would go after this segment of the audience when there are concerns about the current audience is mind boggling.”

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said publicly in the past that he thinks children under 13 should be allowed to use Facebook.

“That will be a fight we take on at some point,” Facebook quoted him as saying, citing older news reports.

Earth’s evil twin sister

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iol scitech june 4 venus

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Paris – When Venus next week eclipses Earth, an event that will not occur again for more than a century, millions of skygazers may have romantic thoughts about our closest neighbour and its twilight beauty.

But the truth is that Venus is a hell that would have surpassed even the imagination of Dante, and it has caused more grief and disappointment than any other planet in the Solar System.

Early science fiction figured Venus to be a twin to Earth, a balmy, watery home from home that was a plum target for colonisation. So when the Space Age dawned, it was only natural that the second rock from the Sun would be the first planet for humans to explore.

For a decade, the Soviet Union and the United States battered Venus with probes.

They dispatched 21 unmanned missions, nearly all of them struck by failures at launch or in the final approach, before in 1970 the Soviet scout Venera 7 made the first successful landing.

The snatch of data it sent back left everyone stunned.

If Venus was ever Earth’s sister, it was of the sick and twisted kind.

It hosts an atmosphere of carbon dioxide with a pressure 90 times that on Earth and a surface cooked to 457 degrees Celsius (855 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Any astronaut unlucky to land there would be simultaneously crushed, roasted, choked and dissolved,” Britain’s Royal Astronomical Society notes.

Those watching the Transit of Venus next week should spare a thought for Guillaume le Gentil de la Galaisiere, whose life – portrayed in a play by Canadian author Maureen Hunter that has since been turned into an opera – was cursed by the planet named after love.

Le Gentil became swept up in the 18th-century frenzy for the Transit of Venus, which occurs when Venus swings in front of the Sun, appearing through the telescope lens as an enigmatic spot.

Next Tuesday evening, skywatchers in North and Central America will enjoy the start of the 2012 Transit, which will end on Wednesday, more than six and a half hours later, visible from Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. The next time a Transit happens will be in December 2117.

As a Transit of Venus loomed in 1761, Britain and France – at war at the time – jousted for the glory of using the celestial alignment to resolve the greatest puzzle of the day: how far is Earth from the Sun?

By figuring this out, the size and the scale of the Solar System could at last be determined.

How this could be done was proposed in 1716 by the great astronomer Edmund Halley, more famous today for the comet that bears his name.

The point was to measure very accurately, and from different locations on the Earth, the time it took Venus to cross the Sun.

Using triangulation, this would give the distance between Earth and Venus, and thereafter the gap between Venus and the Sun, using an equation on orbital mechanics drawn up by the German mathematician Johannes Kepler.

Hundreds of expeditions were dispatched around the world.

Among them was Le Gentil, who set out to observe the 1761 transit from Pondicherry, a French territory in southeastern India.

By the time Le Gentil arrived, Pondicherry had been seized by the British and his ship could not land. The French astronomer observed the transit from his vessel out at sea, but could not time it accurately because he had only a pendulum clock, which was affected by the ship’s rolling.

Knowing that the next transit was only eight years away, le Gentil decided to stay in Asia, exploring the coast of Madagascar as he whiled away the time.

As the 1769 event loomed, Le Gentil tried to record the transit from the Philippines, only to be rebuffed by the Spanish colonial authorities.

Eventually he decided to go back to Pondicherry, which by this time had returned to French ownership.

Le Gentil built a small observatory to house his precious gear and rubbed his hands expectantly as week after week the skies remained dazzlingly clear.

The morning of June 3 broke and disaster fell upon his head:

clouds moved in and he could see nothing.

Driven almost insane by his luck, Le Gentil decided to return home, only to suffer a shipwreck and dysentery en route. And when he arrived back in France after 11 years away, he discovered that he had been declared dead.

His relatives had grabbed all his possessions, his seat at the Royal Academy of Sciences had been attributed to another – and his wife had married someone else.

There is a happy end to the tale, though.

Le Gentil remarried, had children, regained his place in the academy and died at 1792 at 73, a good innings in those days. – Sapa-AFP

Meet the world’s most expensive car

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A classic Ferrari first built for Sir Stirling Moss has sold for a world record £22.7-million (R299-million), making it the most expensive car in the world.

The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, owned by UK-based businessman Eric Heerema, was sold to a collector in the USA. It is one of eight classic Ferraris sold over the past six weeks for a total of £97million amid high demand in the classic car market.

Chris Evans, the radio presenter, is understood recently to have sold his Series II 250 GTO for about £18million, making a £6.5million profit in just two years. He is thought to have sold it to help fund a more expensive Series I.

John Collins, who runs Talacrest, a specialist Ferrari dealer in Ascot, Berkshire, has been involved in five of the eight deals. He refused to identify buyers or sellers but confirmed Ferraris were now extremely valuable investments.

“If someone wanted to sell their 250 GTO, I could find a buyer in 30 seconds,” he said. “A Chinese customer told me there are three things worth investing in now – diamonds, Warhols and classic Ferraris.”

Mr Collins previously sold the Stirling Moss Ferrari in the mid-Nineties – for £4million.

Only 39 of the 250 GTOs were made between 1962 and 1964 with company founder Enzo Ferrari selling them for £6000. Now there’s a resale value no one can sniff at.

Other owners include Ralph Lauren and Pink Floyd star Nick Mason.

Cut fuel less, halt e-tolls – analysts

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Toll plan Gauteng

By Roy Cokayne

The 55c a litre cut in the petrol price from Wednesday is a lost opportunity by the government to resolve the impasse around paying for the upgrading of Gauteng freeways, according to Econometrix.

The authorities could have reduced the petrol price by a smaller 44c a litre and put 11c a litre into the fuel levy, applying these additional funds to cover the debt servicing costs incurred by the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), the consultancy said on Friday.

However, Econometrix stressed that this ran counter to the government’s stated philosophy that the user should pay for infrastructure.

Econometrix said raising the fuel levy and ring-fencing it specifically for Sanral “would have been a much more practical solution” than electronic tolling on the freeways, based on the high cost of collection and enforcement of such tolls relative to the revenue collected.

The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance meanwhile warned on Friday that the civil disobedience that would arise if e-tolling was introduced would damage South Africa’s credit and investor ratings.

Last month Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Sanral’s credit rating, which will increase its borrowing costs.

This followed the temporary high court interdict that the alliance obtained in April to prevent the implementation of e-tolling. The government has applied to the Constitutional Court to appeal the interdict.

The alliance expressed the hope that a suitable funding option for the GFIP and national roads could be identified before more money was spent on the matter in court.

It said it found last week’s wide-ranging remarks on e-tolling by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe interesting on several fronts, particularly indications based on estimates from Moody’s that Sanral could be losing between R270 million and R500m a month.

“One would have thought Sanral itself could have given more detail about the nature and extent of its monthly commitments without the government relying on estimates from a rating agency.

“Indeed, much greater transparency about GFIP costs and operating model, along with funding obligations and the effect on Sanral’s debt of the R5.8 billion transfer by the Treasury earlier this year, might well give more confidence to both road users and rating agencies,” it said.

Motlanthe’s remarks were also a lost opportunity for the government to clarify the definition of the user-pays principle and how and where it would be applied.

It said water, electricity and telephones were examples where the principle was applied nationally and consistently, unlike the proposed e-tolling of GFIP, which was applied to 185km of roads while many of the provincial roads upgraded by the three-year, R23bn S’hamba Sonke programme remained untolled.

The alliance said the cabinet’s statement – that it had looked at alternative payment models but had found e-tolling was the best – conflicted with the economic analysis report of the GFIP prepared in 2010 for Sanral by the Graduate School of Business of UCT.

There was also “a concerning disconnect” between the cabinet’s view of safe, reliable and accessible public transport and alternate roads in Gauteng and the reality on the ground.

‘Spy cop’ lawyer lives in fear

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A former KwaZulu-Natal state prosecutor and advocate, named by newspapers as an SAPS crime intelligence unit operative, believes his life is in danger.

“I live in Wentworth, which is notorious for crime… I have not left my home in a week,” Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Thomas said in an interview.

Last week, several newspapers reported that Thomas was one of the top cops in the crime intelligence unit: a colonel appointed by suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli, two months after joining as a lieutenant-colonel on January 28 last year.

 

In 2008, Thomas was convicted of fraud after he did not hand over R4 000 bail to a client after his acquittal, the reports stated.

But Thomas has denied the allegations, and said he had successfully appealed against his conviction and sentence.

“Firstly, I do not know Richard Mdluli personally. I have never met the man in my life,” he said.

“I was head-hunted as a legal adviser for the crime intelligence unit in January last year by senior members in the unit. I was not employed as a spy cop.

“Also, I was never promoted twice in two months. I still hold the position of lieutenant-colonel.”

Thomas said the newspaper articles made him out to be an “opportunist… a convicted criminal who spies on people.

“This is a fearful suggestion that could cost me my life.”

Thomas said the exposure in the newspapers had angered his wife and community, who were unaware that he was a crime intelligence employee.

“This has put a huge strain on my family. They did not know the environment I worked in. I kept it a secret to protect them and myself.

“I am afraid for my life. Some criminals in the community have not reacted positively to these claims. They don’t trust me any more.”

Thomas, who was one of 25 members transferred from crime intelligence in the last month, said he had not challenged his transfer.

“There is too much politics. I did not want to challenge the transfer,” he said.

“All I was concerned about was having a job. This angered a few of my colleagues. But I want to assure them I did not sell them out. I just decided I did not have the energy to fight back.”

Thomas said he believed the information about his “criminal” record was leaked to the media from his security vetting clearance.

“I disclosed details of the conviction in my security vetting application. But, the people who leaked the information failed to inform the media that I appealed my sentence and conviction in November 2009, and it was set aside by the Pietermaritzburg High Court.”

Thomas provided written proof of his criminal appeal.

“I did cash the R4 000 bail. But, it was nothing illegal,” he said.

“The bail receipt was in my name as security for legal fees. I disclosed this to the court.”

Thomas said he had been defamed by the articles and was considering his legal options. – Daily News

Pitso the fall guy as Bafana stumble

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By Jonty Mark and Sapa

Pitso Mosimane is set to be sacked as Bafana Bafana coach today, following South Africa’s dismal 1-1 draw with Ethiopia in their opening 2014 World Cup qualifier on Sunday in Phokeng.

The South African Football Association have convened an emergency meeting, where they are expected to fire Mosimane, and replace him with his assistant coach, Steve Komphela.

Komphela was officially named as an assistant coach in April of this year, following a successful season in charge of Free State Stars in the Premier Soccer League. It is unknown whether he will be handed the job on a caretaker or permanent basis, but his first game in charge is likely to be Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Botswana in Gaborone.

But Mosimane acme out fighting after his side’s dismal showing, saying South Africans should not be looking for quick-fixes to the national team’s problems.

He lashed out at the country’s neglected development structures which are costing Bafana.

“You see, in South Africa we don’t want to accept reality – things have not been going well for us since we won the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations,” said Mosimane.

“But we are not changing the formula.

“We have a problem but you are going the same way – we must do things right in terms of our development programmes.”

South Africa is still reeling from Bafana’s failure to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations as they host next year’s tournament.

“We don’t want to accept that the world is catching up with us,” Mosimane said.

“We don’t want to accept that we are not scoring goals, and don’t want to accept that our development is not good.”

Mosimane subtly jabbed the SA Football Association for the poor structures in place while they were still seeking more satisfactory results from the team on the field.

Mosimane felt that until there were changes made to the development formulae, Bafana would continue on their downward spiral.

Bafana face Botswana in their second Group A fixture in Gaborone on Saturday.

Six held after ‘ET revenge killing’

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Sixteen firearms, 15 swords, ammunition, camouflage clothes and a swastika badge: these were all found after police swooped on a house in Primrose East on Friday, after they received a tip-off from an anonymous source.

Police arrested five white men and a woman. The suspects, aged between 19 and 49, have been charged with the possession of unlicensed firearms and are expected to appear in the Germiston Magistrate’s Court within the week.

In addition, police are looking into possible links between the suspects and the murder of 15-year-old Sibusiso Titimani two weeks ago.

Sibusiso had been walking with a friend through an open field on the afternoon of Saturday, May 19. The field is just over 500m away from his mother’s shack in Primrose informal settlement.

His mother, Thandiwe, had been taking a bath when her son’s friend came to her door shouting hysterically, “Mama ka Sibusiso! Uyashaywa uSibusiso nagmabhunu’ (Sibusiso is being beaten up by the boers).”

Thandiwe ran to the field, where her son was lying with his bleeding head on a cement block. Sibusiso was still alive. “I pulled him to sit up straight and kept shouting his name… He would open his eyes and then close them,” she said.

Sibusiso was taken to Boksburg Hospital before doctors transferred him to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, where he later was pronounced dead.

Thandiwe said it wasn’t the first time someone had been assaulted or stabbed in the field.

“From what I hear, it is by white men who say they are taking revenge for Eugene Terre’Blanche,” she added.

“There are whites who are kind and good but these people are evil,” said Thandiwe’s mother, Nosinara, “They stand over here (pointing at bushes in the field) and wait for people to pass before attacking. I came here to cover our child’s blood with soil… how could they do this to our boy?”

Provincial police spokeswoman Pinky Tsyinyane said police were investigating claims of other similar race-related incidents.

“We have received information from the community that the suspects have been terrorising the area as well, following the murder case (Sibusiso’s) that was opened at the station. We want to say to more victims out there that they must come report to us… they must come forward.”

Tsyinyane said the information the police had painted a picture of a group of people who dressed in camouflage and used knives and guns to harass residents of the informal settlement.

On Friday, the weapons were laid out on the ground behind Primrose Police Station, where forensic analysts and investigators processed them for evidence as the suspects stood in line with their backs to the weapons.

When she saw pictures of the suspects, Thandiwe said in a low voice, eyes tearing: “Will these people come bury my son?”

Sibusiso was buried during a small family ceremony on Saturday.

Police have appealed to people with any information relating to crime in the open field in Primrose to contact Captain Deno Davids on 011 776 1600 or 072 997 2997.

 

The Star

Cosatu calls for 14c fuel levy

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SANRAL TOLL jan31 IOL pic

Cosatu wants 14c a litre on the fuel levy. That is what Cosatu suggests could be used to fund the recently built Gauteng roads.

According to Cosatu discussion documents, all motorists from all provinces should bear the brunt of the cost of building new roads, not just those in Gauteng through a fuel levy.

Patrick Craven, Cosatu national spokesman, said this was one of the options that was being considered in discussions between the trade union and the ANC about how to fund the toll roads.

Craven said: “There is no new policy we have come up with, we are still working with the ANC on the best alternative-funding methods and we are looking at different options,” he said.

There are road upgrades happening in other provinces, such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, and they should be funded by all motorists equally, he said.

In the union’s discussion papers on the funding of Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, the organisation states that good infrastructure will benefit the entire country and not just Gauteng road users.

It argues that Gauteng’s roads are widely used by many people, in many industries and professions throughout the country for transportation as it is the “economic heart of South Africa”.

Other provinces must contribute to the cost of Gauteng roads because the province pays more than its fair share to the economy and four times more than it receives from national treasury.

“Gauteng residents do not bemoan this and realise that the government needs to distribute the wealth from the economic hub to the entire country infrastructure.”

“If you are going to push a user-pay principle then on this basis, Gauteng citizens have more than paid for their freeway improvements,” state the papers.

Cosatu has suggested, as an interim measure, a 14 cents a litre increase in the fuel levy.

The Sunday Independent reported that Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe will meet Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi after it was said that he convinced the ANC, which was initially swayed by Cosatu, to change its consideration to scrap the e-tolls.

This is why the ANC last week endorsed the cabinet’s decision to appeal against the Pretoria high court ruling to interdict the collection of the levies on the e-tolls, pending a full court review.

Vavi rejected an earlier comment by Motlanthe at a recent media briefing on e-tolling, that a decision taken between the ANC and Cosatu to delay the Gauteng e-tolls by a month was “just a suggestion.”

He is on record as saying: “It’s quite annoying… to be told that our agreement with the ruling party is a mere recommendation to the superpower, the government.

In April, while the Pretoria High Court was hearing the e-toll arguments, Vavi also said he had no doubt that the government was “going to learn the hard way again with the Constitutional Court when it fails in this application”.

On April 28, the high court handed down an order preventing the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) from levying or collecting e-tolls pending the outcome of a judicial review.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan applied to the Constitutional Court to set aside this court order.

Gordhan argued that Judge Bill Prinsloo had ignored the principle of separation of powers.

The Star

Nando’s ad too ‘xenophobic’ for SABC

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iol news pic Nando's ad

By Xolani Koyana

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Fast food chicken franchise Nando’s latest campaign to get SA to question xenophobia and intolerance has sparked controversy, with the SABC refusing to air one of its adverts.

The public broadcaster was to air the ad for Nando’s new meals, promoting diversity and anti-xenophobia, on Thursday night, but while viewing the footage, it pulled the plug on the ad because of its “xenophobic undertone”.

The broadcaster told Nando’s the advert violated the Electronics Communications and Transactions Act and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) code.

The video begins with a few people with bags jumping over a fence at the SA border, followed by a voice-over which asks: “You know what’s wrong with South Africa?” “It’s all you foreigners,” the voice replies.

It then shows South Africans of all races and cultures disappearing in puffs of smoke. It also shows immigrants, including Chinese, Nigerians, Indians and Europeans vanish.

The only person left, a Khoisan, says: “I’m not going anywhere. You *$@#* found us here,” then he runs off.

The video, which has gone viral on social networks, has enjoyed mostly positive support, especially on Twitter. The video has had 85 000 viewers on YouTube in two days.

Jaysen Sharpe wrote “Great advert from Nandos challenging xenophobia and intolerance”, while @thirusha reddy took a swipe at the SABC: “What a surprise, the SABC is refusing to air the Nandos diversity ad. I personally don’t see how stating facts can be viewed as offensive…”

 

Spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the SABC felt the ad would incite attacks on foreigners.

“For the mere fact that it has a xenophobic undertone we decided not to show it. Nando’s may say that it is trying to promote diversity but what we are concerned about is that the public might interpret it differently.

“With foreigners being attacked in South Africa, our concern is that it might re-enforce that… We are in no way interested in commercial gain over the public’s interest,” Kganyago said.

Cape Times


Safa meeting with Mosimane

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KickOff.com can confirm that Safa are currently meeting with Pitso Mosimane – a meeting which seems likely to result in the Bafana Bafana coach losing his job. 

A high-level Safa source says they are currently in talks with the former SuperSport United following yesterday’s embarrassing 1-1 draw at home to Ethiopia in their opening 2014 World Cup qualifier.

Mosimane’s comment in the post-match interview of ‘What can I do’ has not helped his cause, and reports suggest that he could be booted ahead of this weekend’s qualifier against Botswana in Gaborone.

Steve Komphela, who recently joined the national team set-up as assistant coach, seems likely to take over the reins for that match should Mosimane be fired.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Should Pitso Mosimane be fired?

Ryan Cooper