LATEST NEWS

Amazon Alight The Amazon is burning, and not for the first time. At this very moment there are an estimated 93,000 fires burning in the Brazilian Amazon. This is a significant increase, a 60% increase in fact from those recorded at the same time last year. It is also the highest number of active fires recorded in the Amazon since 2010 (National Geographic, 2019). According to the Global Fire Data Organisation, the Amazon’s fire season which affects mainly the southern Amazon region, runs from June to November, with its “peak burning activity in September along the eastern and southern Amazon forest frontiers, a swath sometimes referred to as the "arc of deforestation" (Global Fire Data.Org 2019). This annual fire season varies in intensity [...]

South Africa’s War on Women In the wake of what has been a horrendously ironic, eye opening and devastating Women’s Month in South Africa, the country has been left reeling after a scourge in gender based violence. The month of August in South Africa is meant to be one used to celebrate the women in our country, but instead as the statistics and continuous stream of news just this month alone has shown, has been used to decimate them instead. Uyinene Mrwetyana, Janika Mallo, Meghan Cremer, Jesse Hess and Leighandre “Baby Lee” Jegels are just a few of the names to populate the local and international news in the past month – and the country has come to know and love them posthumously, [...]

The buzz about blood types Have you ever wondered why you might be covered in mosquito bites, but the person next to you remains untouched? Why do some people get bitten more than others, is it purely coincidence and chance, or is there something more behind the bite? Well, as it turns out – there may be a more scientific reasoning behind a person’s propensity to be bitten by mosquitoes. It is very likely that if you are the ‘chosen’ one in your family or friendship group – then you are being particularly targeted by the female mosquito. The female mosquito is responsible for drinking blood, and as it turns out “are attracted to some humans more than others” (Business Insider, 2019). Historically, [...]

Ngwevu Intloko, the latest local dino-discovery A new dinosaur species has been discovered in the vaults as part of a 30 year old fossil exhibition at the University of the Witwatersrand. The fossil in question is not a new discovery, as far as fossils go, and has been a part of an exhibition at the University’s Evolutionary Studies Institute after it was originally found in 1978 at a farm in Fouriesburg in the Free State. However, only recently has it come to light that the fossil was actually misidentified as it was initially thought to be a specimen of Massospondylus. Massospondylus was an omnivorous dinosaur that existed during the early Jurassic period (approximately 204 – 208 million years ago) and one which was [...]

The Changing Face of Facebook The mobile Apps that we have come to know, love, and utilise on a daily basis may be getting a somewhat slightly controversial facelift soon. It is a well-known fact that both Instagram and WhatsApp are owned by Facebook. WhatsApp was acquired by the company in February 2014 in what was deemed a ‘landmark’ $19 billion deal, and only a mere five years after it was started by Jan Koum and Brian Acton. WhatsApp is the world’s most utilised messaging service with approximately 600 million users globally (Forbes, 2014). At the time of acquisition, WhatsApp made its money by charging users a $1 annual subscription fee in countries that implement data billing and carrier service fees where credit [...]

South Africa – The World’s Unhealthiest CountryThe Indigo Wellness Index tracks and determines the health status of the world’s countries by using a metric of ten key measures. The Index covers over 150 countries across the world and is considered to be one of the most comprehensive of its kind, by drawing on data supplied from a diverse range of sources including the World Health Organisation, public health data and the World Happiness Report (Global Perspectives Infographics). The ten key metrics that form the focus of The Index are as follows: “Blood pressure, Blood glucose, obesity, depression, happiness, alcohol use, tobacco use, exercise, healthy life expectancy, and government spending on healthcare” (The Indigo Wellness Index). In terms of the world’s rankings of healthiest to [...]