Move Your Domain Name Account

Dec. 29 is also known as “Dump GoDaddy Day.” The initiative to move domains hosted with GoDaddy to other domain registrars was spurred on by reddit user “SelfProdigy,” in the wake of GoDaddy’s public support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Even though GoDaddy has since reversed course, the company has continued to face backlash from users across the web. [Mashable]

Michael Jordan Engaged

Basketball legend Michael Jordan has proposed to his longtime girlfriend Yvette Prieto.

A spokesperson for the sports icon confirmed the news to GossipCop.com on Thursday.

Jordan and the Cuban-born model began dating three years ago.

The former star athlete has been married once before - he split from Juanita, the mother of his three kids, after 17 years of marriage in 2006.

99-year-old divorces wife

The Italian man, identified by lawyers in the case only as Antonio C, was rifling through an old chest of drawers when he made the discovery a few days before Christmas.

Notwithstanding the time that had elapsed since the betrayal, he was so upset that he immediately confronted his wife of 77 years, named as Rosa C, and demanded a divorce. [Telegraph]

Fuel price to drop next Wednesday

The retail price of petrol and diesel will drop next week, the energy department said on Thursday.
A litre of 95 ULP (unleaded) petrol in Gauteng would cost R10.61 from Wednesday.

The price of 93 ULP (unleaded) petrol would decrease six cents a litre, while the price of 95 ULP petrol would drop five cents a litre.

Diesel prices were also set to decrease. The price of diesel with a 0.05% sulphur content would drop 21 cents a litre.

Diesel with a 0.005% sulphur content would cost 20 cents a litre less.

The wholesale price of illuminating paraffin would decrease by 25c a litre.

The single maximum national retail price for illuminating paraffin would decrease by 33c a litre. [M&G]

Meet Miss KwaNdebele

KELETSO Reminder Nkadimeng, the new Miss KwaNdebele in Mpumalanga, has big plans.

The 18-year-old from Tweefontein in the KwaMhlanga area, on Saturday beat 20 other contestants to be crowed the first-ever Miss KwaNdebele.

And she believes that this contest is the beginning of many great things to come.

"I am still young and the future looks very bright for me. I intend taking part in the Miss South Africa contest next and who knows, I might even be Miss World in the near future," she said. [Sowetanlive]

8 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit

"I am vindicated. They have to compensate me, but I don't believe the compensation will erase the hurt that I suffered," he said.

Peter Matlala, 48, was sentenced to life after being arrested for a pension point payout robbery in Brits in 2001.

And now, after spending eight years in jail, three judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein have acome to a different conclusion, saying Matlala was in fact innocent. [Sowetan]

Shocking sex videos on South African website

The website is currently under investigations by cyber police, a national crime intelligence wing, after it was exposed by Sowetan last week.

At least 15 videos have been uploaded over the past five days, generating more than 100000 downloads per video clip.

One of the latest videos, posted over the weekend, features two police officers threatening to circulate a video of a couple they caught having sex in public. [Sowetanlive]

Malema shower head use amuses Zapiro

"The irony is that Malema has come from a place so deeply embedded in the Zuma camp and (now) he's attacking him using the shower device," Shapiro - more commonly known by his pen-name of 'Zapiro' - told The Star newspaper.

On Saturday, at the ANC's Limpopo conference, Malema joined in the singing of anti-Zuma songs which proclaimed "showara wa re sokodisa" (the shower man is giving us a hard time). He also held his hand over his head to represent a shower.

Malema is currently appealing a five-year suspension from the party after he was found to have brought the party in disrepute. [Timeslive]

Beauty Queen Eva Ekvall Dies of Cancer

Venezuelan beauty queen Eva Ekvall died this week at age 28 after a two-year battle with breast cancer.

Ekvall, who was crowned Miss Venezuela at age 17 in 2000, died Saturday to the dismay of thousands of Venezuelans who watched closely her fight against the illness, including a brief remission last year. [abcnews]

Blackstar’s ‘discount’ Mvela offer rejected

A BID by investment firm Blackstar to acquire SA’s Mvelaphanda Group in a R1,9bn deal collapsed yesterday, after shareholders argued Mvela’s unbundling would create more value than Blackstar’s cash and shares offer.

The offer was yesterday described as an attempt to pick up Mvela’s lucrative assets at a "discount".

The failure of the bid, which was announced just two weeks ago, will hamper Blackstar’s ambitions of using SA as a springboard for its planned investment drive into the rest of Africa. [Businessday]

Limpopo ANC for freedom by seizure

The ANC in Limpopo yesterday repeated its calls for the nationalisation of mines and the expropriation of land without compensation.

The provincial party was convinced that ending private ownership of economic resources would help bring about "economic emancipation", it was declared at the elective conference of the Limpopo party.

"We reiterate our call for the nationalisation of mines and other key strategic sectors like Sasol and ArcelorMittal," newly elected provincial secretary Soviet Lekganyane said. [Timeslive]

Nobanda Nolubabalo's Cocaine Dreadlocks Images

By now you must have heard of Nobanda Nolubabalo, the 23 year-old South African who was arrested in Bangkok on Monday. She is accused of being a drug mule and was allegedly carrying 1.5kg of cocaine, hidden in her dreadlocks. Photos of customs officers searching her hair have since appeared online.



The drugs have a street value of R1,2m! The people who hired her allegedly only paid her a little over R15 000 for this “job” that could now cost her her life. This is because Thailand has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws on the planet, with judges permitted to impose the death penalty for traffickers.



Nobanda was arrested on the very same day that another South African, Janice Linden, was killed by lethal injection after she was caught in November 2008 trying to smuggle 3kg of crystal meth into the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.



[Source: Daily Mail]

European Payment Service Klarna Raises A Whopping $155 Million

European e-commerce payments provider Klarna just raised a huge, pre-IPO round of $155 million. The round was led by General Atlantic and Yuri Milner’s DST Global, and included Sequoia Capital, which led its last $9 million round in May, 2010. At that time, Sequoia partner Michael Moritz (he of Google, PayPal, and Yahoo fame) joined the board. [Techcrunch]

Twitter introduces new look, and new Headquarters

Thursday was a big day for Twitter. The ubiquitous microblogging service not only began rolling out a top-to-bottom redesign of its site; it also unveiled its future headquarters in downtown San Francisco. One thing is clear: the company is confident that big things are in its future.

Join us as we take a tour of the company’s new digs – both virtual and physical.

With this redesign, Twitter has aimed to simplify its interface, as well as standardize it across many platforms. The new look follows a four-column layout that’s consistent across the website, iOS and Android apps, and the TweetDeck desktop app. The redesign is rolling out slowly – Twitter says it’ll happen over several weeks – but early reactions are generally positive. [csmonitor]

Zumas’ unpaid flat bills

President Jacob Zuma and his former wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, owe their body corporate R120 000 for electricity, water and rates for two flats they own in a building in Saratoga Avenue in Berea, Joburg.

And, because the entire building where his units are situated is in arrears of R1.8 million for their municipal services, the electricity to Saratoga Gardens was cut off two weeks ago.

It appears that the president has either not been informed of the arrears, or has forgotten that he owns the two units on the fifth floor, where he and his son once lived. [iol]

Lindsay Lohan Playboy Cover Leaked

Trial date set for Mpumalanga's Mabuza spin-doctor

Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza's former spin-doctor, Mabutho Sithole, will only stand trial next year after the corruption case against him was again postponed, this time to allow the defence to brief the newly hired advocate about the case.

Sithole, 39, appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court on Monday on corruption charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

The case was postponed to March 7 and 8 next year for trial. Sithole is out on R6 000 bail. [News24]

Majola in tears at commission

Cricket SA (CSA) CEO Gerald Majola burst out in tears after appearing in front of a commission of inquiry into the organisation's bonus scandal.

The Beeld newspaper reports that Majola was in tears when he faced journalists after appearing in Pretoria before the Nicholson Inquiry, chaired by Judge Chris Nicholson.

Majola said the whole ordeal was a "nightmare" for him and his family. [Sport24]

Zahara's Booking Cost

Fans that came in their numbers, including President Jacob Zuma, were left disappointed when Zahara failed to show up for the World Aids Day Concert in the Eastern Cape on December 1.
The Afro-soul singer Zahara was booked to perform for the World Aids Day concert by the Department of Health in the Eastern Cape, but was dropped and replaced by Theo Kgosinkwe from the group Mafikizolo. [MSN]

Facebook flaw lets you view someone's private photos

A hole in Facebook's account-reporting process potentially lets any user sneak a peek at someone else's private photos.

The process--outlined at a body-building site--requires you first to report or block that individual's Facebook account. From there, clicking on the option "Inappropriate photo profile" moves you to the next screen where you're asked why you find the photo inappropriate.

Clicking on the option to report the photo to Facebook then brings you to another window that says: "Help us take action by reporting additional photos to include with your report." Clicking on that last option reportedly reveals a page of thumbnail photos from or of that person, some of which could be private. [Cnet]

Porn Sites Set To Go .XXX Today

It's either a new, safer era for adult content on the Web or the first step in creating a digital porn ghetto, depending upon who you ask.On Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET, more than 100,000 websites are expected to go live with the new .xxx domain.

The suffix was approved as a "top-level domain" address last year by ICANN, the international not-for-profit that coordinates Web addresses. The idea, they say, is to more safely organize content that has become, like it or not, common on the Web. [CNN]

Facebook Auditions Kid Hackers With All-Night Codefest

“Yes! We have elegance!” says a student from the University of Waterloo. Then he pauses, and his shoulders slump. “Actually,” he adds, “I don’t know what the fuck this is.”

He points to a botched graphic on his computer screen, and his fellow students crowd around. They talk quietly among themselves, making suggestions here and there, and ultimately, they find a way of achieving something at least a little closer to elegance.

This is what happens at a Hackathon. If you’re a spectator, it’s not exactly riveting stuff. But if you’re a participant, it’s a gas — particularly when you’re competing in building number 4 on the campus of Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters. These students aren’t just hacking for fun. They’re hacking for a job with one of the biggest names on the net.

Facebook, Google, and other tech giants use events like this as recruiting tools. Sports teams hold combines to assess prospective players. Internet companies hold Hackathons to size up developers. They throw coders into a large room and give them a task or a problem to solve, and if their solution is good enough, they win some cash and a trophy — or maybe a call from the Facebook HR department. [Wired]

Beyonce and Jay Z might buy Ricky Martin's Mansion

The seven bedroom, 10 bathroom palatial home also includes a swimming pool and was originally bought by Ricky for $10 million in 2005.

Beyonce and Jay-Z already own an apartment in New York City and are thought to be preparing a huge nursery for their little one.

A source told Us Weekly their home "will have a nursery that is 2,200 square feet".

But some of the couple's friends are not too keen about the idea of creating such a big space for their tot to play in. [Sowetan]

Juju fashion designer

Last year the owner of OB Fitted got tongues wagging when he sent Prosper Mkwaiwa and his then girlfriend, Tina, down the red carpet in sumptuous outfits during the Metro FM Awards.

When asked about his colourful streetwear range, which features berets, T-shirts and caps for men and women, he says it is a dream come true.

He says his range is inspired by suspended ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, whom he calls a hero, and Mabopane, his township. [Sowetan]

IBM Goes to the Racetrack With Super-Speedy Memory

Thanks to cloud computing and the rise of “Big Data,” the world is crying out for faster, cheaper, and more durable ways of storing data. IBM’s answer: If you wanna hold on to all these bits, send ‘em flying.

IBM is cooking up a new type of memory chip that sends bits whizzing along tiny wires, dubbed racetracks. The technology has leaped into the realm of the realistically possible with Big Blue’s announcement today that it can make racetrack memory using standard chipmaking processes. [Wired]

StumbleUpon Launches Major Redesign

StumbleUpon completely revamped its website Monday — adding a new logo, design and a channel feature that gives brands a non-intrusive role in the service.

“Really this is the biggest refresh in terms of look and feel that we’ve ever had on the web,” StumbleUpon CEO Garrett Camp told Mashable. [Mashable]