tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23202961111801288712011-04-22T04:52:07.218+02:00flights of fancy on life, technology and anything else worth pecking atPamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.comBlogger151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-15484558624602839232008-11-17T08:56:00.006+02:002008-11-17T09:09:00.808+02:00

We've all been in the room when the human race's answer to the Blue Footed Booby's ritual-to-impress gets underway. As with the birds, it's usually the male of the species that whips it out first, rapidly followed by similar, competing displays from all the other males in the room.“It's got ten quadzillion gigs of memory and can transfer a 100 gig file so quickly it actually does it in negative

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-63911393605915088472008-10-01T15:36:00.002+02:002008-10-01T15:40:42.681+02:00

It's been called a crap sandwich and an outrage, but what else can we expect from a financial collapse-and-bail scenario that involves players with names like Fanny and Boehner?CNN's split screen showed politicians wandering around as the vote see-sawed while Wall St dealers effected a similar rollercoaster ride on the tickertape. You couldn't help but savour it all for the joke it so clearly

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-56322321613093686532008-07-23T11:31:00.004+02:002008-07-23T11:42:42.154+02:00

Oh dear, here we go yet again. Society is under threat thanks to the rapid degradations of values and traditions and black people are the reason. This time, some leftists among the black and white South African communities not only want black people to be allowed to vote and be treated equally in society at large (including, incredibly, church hierarchies), but they're actually demanding that

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-54280744894655872102008-04-08T11:43:00.002+02:002008-04-08T11:56:07.198+02:00

No one on this planet could possibly hate flying more than I do, but I have a feeling that's about to change, courtesy of the EU's announcement that its scrapping its ban on cell phone use on planes. EU officials state emphatically that additional safeguards have been put in place to “protect against terrorism”, but have any of these morons stopped to consider the inevitable fist-fights that will

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-84827667124938136812008-04-01T12:08:00.000+02:002008-04-01T12:11:23.314+02:00

Research undertaken by the University of Wisconsin's Kathleen Dolan has found that while women voters support female candidates in elections, “they are evaluated in the same way that all candidates are evaluated, through the lens of personal and political considerations that take many forms.” Having examined American National Election Study (NES) data, Dolan concluded that there was no evidence

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-12943824758261562482008-03-31T15:52:00.003+02:002008-03-31T16:07:30.268+02:00

On the occasion of Milton Friedman's 90th birthday in 2002, his friend Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve said of The Great Depression: “You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again.”Given the economic meltdown taking place Stateside as we speak, maybe it's time to change the quote to “You did it, Milton. Say sorry.”It's not stretching the imagination

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-87805923273092268482008-03-06T12:20:00.002+02:002008-03-06T12:26:20.206+02:00

According to Elton John, it's the hardest word to say but the past couple of years have certainly seen something of an outpouring as the human race engages in some kind of stampede to apologise for everything from the sublime to the utterly ridiculous. These days, if you're not taking responsibility for something someone else did 300 years ago or last week, you're simply not worthy of your

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-34991280107362452062008-02-15T11:29:00.003+02:002008-02-15T14:27:53.982+02:00

Why logic falls on Thabo's deaf ears Scientists in America have uncovered proof for something that pretty much all South Africans – with the exception of Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet – have known for years: when people feel powerful, they ignore new opinions and ideas. The study, by Ohio State University's Richard Petty and Pablo Briñol, reveals that, the more powerful any individual feels, the

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-45545109922543857022008-02-13T13:36:00.003+02:002008-03-06T14:16:03.700+02:00

Over the Hillary I'm fed up of reading sexist diatribes vaguely disguised as “analysis” that make all sorts of assumptions about how Hillary Clinton would govern were she to be elected. It's hardly surprising to find that these attacks are almost without exception written by men. When they've finished characterising her as a scheming bitch riding on the coat tails of her husband (it's not sexism

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-30889667626271716032008-02-13T13:05:00.001+02:002008-02-14T10:31:52.037+02:00

Like many South Africans, I hire a domestic worker to come and help us with the ironing once a week. This morning, as I worked from home, I heard her chuckling away to herself in my living room where, it turned out, she'd just finished a t-shirt belonging to me that reads: Enjoy Corruption: You Can't Beat the Stealing. It sparked an interesting conversation. Minnie asked if I'd bought the

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-67766425278204503872007-11-16T14:26:00.001+02:002008-02-14T10:40:27.139+02:00

I've always wondered when I was going to get a genuine, bone fide excuse to use this phrase. Thank you Rapport and Deon Maas. I'll be honest, my Afrikaans might well represent an improvement on that of a lot of Engels speakers I know, but it's still pretty lousy. Nonetheless, I do get the gist of what the inimitable Mr Maas wrote in his column; given the near-hysterical outcry his words

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-52315071780590637592007-11-12T08:09:00.001+02:002008-02-14T10:40:58.196+02:00

The death-knell for the Japanese PC market has sounded. According to IDC, consumers in the land of the rising sun would rather buy flat-panel tellies, cellphones and games consoles than those unattractive beige boxy things that make noise and gather dust under the desk. Even if you pimp the thing up, it still won't sit well next to your new plasma and you sure as heck can't impress anyone by

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-16353742577860756882007-11-07T07:41:00.001+02:002008-02-14T10:41:22.463+02:00

I was recently invited to an "event” aimed at women in IT. It is more of a party, really – at which women will be pampered while being brought up to speed on the important things in life.“Balancing work and home” sat drowning in an agenda of talks on make-up application, new trends in work wear and meal preparation. “Experts on fashion, make-up and food" will be there to help us enhance our work

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-44021086424450388452007-11-06T15:47:00.001+02:002008-02-14T10:41:54.114+02:00

I had an epiphany at work the other day. Yes, right there at my desk. My colleagues remained blissfully unaware, but I did Skype a colleague in another room to share the joy, if not all of the details.The source of all this pleasure was the sudden realisation that the cause of any negativity I might ever feel about SA isn't just the crime rate; it's actually something a lot less sinister. It's

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2320296111180128871.post-91798893752460075452007-11-05T19:18:00.001+02:002008-02-14T10:42:21.713+02:00

Never mind the Google-Facebook-Microsoft wars and who's killing which social networking app, I'm beginning to wonder if we're not looking at the imminent demise of the operating system. Or at least, the wholly proprietary version of it.Think about it: even as people are going super-nuts over social networking and the widgets and apps that go with it, there is a distinct trend emerging from all

Pamela Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01985756540855131640noreply@blogger.com0