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Celebrating and reflecting on 30 years of the World Wide Web March 2019 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the invention of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist. The invention of the World Wide Web revolutionised the way in which we access, process and utilise the information available worldwide. The World Wide Web is deemed the ultimate global ‘information medium’ through which users are able to connect via the internet. Surprisingly to most, the internet and the World Wide Web are not in fact the same thing. The Web is in essence a service provider that operates through the connections provided by the internet. The invention of the internet preceded that of the World Wide Web by quite [...]

How Shrove Tuesday became Pancake Day Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day, is a day that features prominently in the Christian calendar and Western churches. It directly precedes Ash Wednesday, which generally occurs between the 2nd of February and the 9th of March depending on the day that Easter falls on. The term ‘Shrove’ is derived from the word ‘shrive’ or ‘shriven’, which refers to the process of ‘confessing ones sins’ before going into Lent. Ash Wednesday in turn, marks the beginning of Lent which in the Christian calendar is aimed at being a 40-day long fast and reflection period in which a ‘sacrifice’ is commonly made in order to replicate Jesus Christ’s withdrawal into the desert. Nowadays Lent [...]

The deal with data South Africa, unlike a vast percentage of the world that has extensive WIFI capabilities, is a country that still relies heavily on prepaid data, especially for mobile App use and internet access. In 2017, it was estimated that South Africa had over 21 million internet users, most of which were mobile internet users. According to Arthur Goldstuck, the managing directors of researchers for World Wide Worx; “most people access the internet via mobile.” Research has shown that unsurprisingly the top two requisites for internet service providers in South Africa is for faster internet access and cheaper internet access, however unfortunately the two do not necessarily go hand in hand as they fall on opposite sides of the internet service [...]

Copycat or creative license? In academia, and in life for that matter, we are constantly exposed to an overwhelming amount of information. This information is distributed via various channels and we often absorb it without even realising it. This constant exposure influences us in more ways than we know and we often subconsciously adopt things, whether its phrases we pick up from friends, or the latest celebrity slang or a mass retailer taking its influence from major fashion houses or smaller ones in some local cases, or even academic works being reworded as our own. However, there are distinct differences between being influenced by external media, utilising creative license and downright copying, or plagiarism. Plagiarism is a common occurrence particularly in the academic [...]

St. Valentine, the mysterious saint of many things Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day as it’s known in some countries, is a day associated with various expressions of love – these days it mostly comes in the form of cards, chocolates, flowers and other gifts stereotypically associated with love. Although Valentine’s Day is generally universally acknowledged and ‘celebrated’ in February annually, the day’s origin is still somewhat mysterious. Who was the original St. Valentine, and why do we have a day dedicated to them? So, to start with – there was more than one Saint Valentine, and the Saint that we assume inspired the day we all know (and love), may actually have been two men. The Saint that is celebrated in February [...]

The buzz about energy drinks As a student, energy drinks are par for the course when it comes to pulling all-nighters, exam-cramming, last minute assignments and staying awake in lectures. Energy drinks are consumed in order to give us that extra Guarana-boost or caffeinated-push; they have also become synonymous with giving us ‘wings’. Energy drinks have long superseded their original purposes and are now consumed in a multitude of fashions, including as a rather lively mixer for alcoholic drinks – the combination of the two is one that is not regularly endorsed by doctors or any medical professionals for that matter. These seriously stimulating drinks are pumped full of chemicals like caffeine, taurine, ginseng and Guarana which are all deemed ‘energy enhancing’ substances, [...]