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COVID AND ITS ORIGIN STORY We are now more than three years on from the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, that was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The origin story of the virus remains a mystery to this day and one of the most hotly contested origin stories outside of any Marvel movie.  The science largely backs the zoonotic virus theory in that Covid-19 was transmitted from animals to humans. Covid-19 is not the first zoonotic virus that we have ever experienced by any means. According to the CDC, “Six out of every 10 infectious diseases in people are zoonotic, which makes it crucial that the nation strengthen its capabilities to prevent and respond to these diseases.” In reality, according [...]

SOUTH AFRICA’S NEW MINISTER OF MISERY ELECTRICITY It is a President’s prerogative to choose his cabinet and then reshuffle it, especially when it is filled with detractors rather than supporters. It would be a strong move for our President to strategically surround himself with people who are looking to sustain his presidential term, versus those who seek to end it prematurely through impeachment proceedings. Given the current power crisis both from an electrical ad political perspective – it is no wonder President Cyril Ramaphosa has had to think outside the box and at implementing something entirely new through the addition of yet another minister to his already ‘bloated’ cabinet, at least according to local opposition parties, who have been incredibly vocal about this [...]

TIKTOK’S TIME LIMIT TikTok is one of the most addictive social sites around with users consuming hours of short-form video content on a daily basis. TikTok founds itself on the premise that its users don’t just scroll through its content while doing other everyday tasks – they become immersed in the different TikTok communities and content lead algorithms. Unlike other social sites, TikTok doesn’t lend itself to simultaneous screen time meaning that most people won’t watch something on Netflix and engage with TikTok content, unlike social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. It’s no wonder that the app and its users need to consider the amount of time dedicated to consuming its content on a daily, especially due to the fact that [...]

CENSORSHIP VERSUS SENSITIVITY IN THE LITERARY WORLD Censorship versus ‘sensitivity’ is an on-going intergenerational issue, in the media, online and generally – globally. Older generation’s view the upcoming generations such as millennials and Gen Z as sensitive and soft whereas those who fall within those generations consider themselves well informed, emotionally attuned and ‘woke’. Either way, neither seems to be able to agree on what is purely censorship versus sensitivity when it comes to ideologies and content produced at a different time to speak to a different era. From a dictionary standpoint, censorship can be defined as the “suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.” Ideally content that [...]

THE METEORIC RISE AND MONETIZATION OF CHATGPT ChatGPT is still the buzzword on everyone’s lips – all you have to do is login to LinkedIn to see the number of companies and professionals putting the app to the test and posting their surprising results – some surprisingly accurate and some way off the mark. With some of the results, it’s hard to believe that a human wasn’t on the other side of the content creation, in others, a distinct lack of emotional quotient separated the AI from the actual humans. Based on this it is entirely unsurprising that ChatCPT is well on its way to being the fastest growing pp to date by gaining over 100 million monthly active users, otherwise known as [...]

DREADING THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK In January 2023, Atomic scientists reset the Doomsday clock to 90 seconds to midnight, which is the closest that humans have ever come to midnight on the Doomsday clock, with midnight representing annihilation. This may seem a bit dramatic, especially since a clock is being used to indicate how close the human race is to ‘the end of the world as we know it’, however its symbolism is there to act as a warning system for humans on the seriousness of the current global state. The Doomsday clock is a rather unknown entity to most of the world’s population but is effectively a symbolic mechanism used to showcase how close we (the human race) are to total annihilation. Determining [...]