Gizmodo: south africa

Idiot Civilian Passenger Ejects Himself Out of Plane

Sean Fallon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:20:00 EST

My guess is that when the rockets under his seat fired and he suddenly found himself over 300 feet away from the PC-7 Mk II he was riding in, he probably realized the error of his ways.

That's right, a passenger joyriding over South Africa with an experienced Silver Falcons air display team pilot steadied himself during an aerobatic maneuver by grabbing the ejection seat handle between his legs. Fortunately for him, ejection seats are fairly idiot proof—the chute opens automatically and he glided back to Earth unharmed. [Telegraph Image via Flickr]

Bird Beats Broadband! Pigeon Flies 4GBs Faster than South African DSL

Joanna Stern — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:33:20 EDT

South Africa's broadband has got to be feeling pretty ill-equipped today considering a real, wing-flapping pigeon beat its transfer speeds. No really, a company found out that sending a bird with a 4GB USB drive was faster than uploading.

That has got to hurt for Telkom, one of South Africa's main ADSL providers, but damn is Winston the pigeon feeling like the man today. He is telling all the other pigeons, how it took him two hours to carry the strapped-to-his-back flash drive 60 miles to the company's second office in Durban. In the same time the broadband service had only sent 4 percent of the data. You do the math but that is pretty damn slow upload speeds. No wonder the guys at Unlimited IT first joked that a bird could send files faster.

This is just the kind of story I want to read to children at night (I'm thinking the picture book is called "Winston and the Broadband"). Let's hope South Africa gets those fiber optic lines installed soon or else a crap load of bird seed. [BBC]

South Africa's ATMs Get Weaponized with Pepper Spray

Adam Frucci — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EDT

In South Africa, ATMs have been weaponized with pepper spray to ward off thieves. What could possibly go wrong??

Oh, this is what could go wrong:

The technology uses cameras to detect people tampering with the card slots. Another machine then ejects pepper spray to stun the culprit while police response teams race to the scene.
But the mechanism backfired in one incident last week when pepper spray was inadvertently inhaled by three technicians who required treatment from paramedics.

Patrick Wadula, spokesman for the Absa bank, which is piloting the scheme, told the Mail & Guardian Online: "During a routine maintenance check at an Absa ATM in Fish Hoek, the pepper spray device was accidentally activated.

"At the time there were no customers using the ATM. However, the spray spread into the shopping centre where the ATMs are situated."

Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to risk getting a blast of pepper spray in the face if I put my PIN in wrong. [Neatorama]

Frog Design Working on HIV/AIDS Home Testing in South Africa via SMS

Adrian Covert — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:09:00 EDT

Frog Design has joined Project Masiluleke, which includes the likes of Nokia, to help raise awareness about HIV and AIDS among South Africans with the use of mobile technology. The program includes interactive texts which provide callback numbers for information on HIV testing, home testing kits with cellphone based guidance and information for those seeking treatment. For more information check out the Project Masiluleke page on [Frog Design].

UAV Courier Pigeons Deliver Medical Supplies, Sans Awkward Number Two's

Jack Loftus — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Here's a great example of a robot originally developed for war being reused to help those in need. These tiny UAVs were once spy planes, but today they could deliver medical samples from isolated South African villages to labs for testing, or deliver emergency medicines and antidotes to those same locations. "The implications of these delays are huge for the individual and for the community," says Barry Mendelow, a project leader with the South African National Health Laboratory Service. "The patient is waiting for treatment, and in the meantime they could be passing on a very contagious disease."

And, Barry, when these things get cheap enough for the mass market, give me a ring. There's this remote on my coffee table that's just out of reach. [New Scientist]

South African Schools Install Gadget Prisons

Adam Frucci — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 15:45:00 EST

Apparently kids using their cellphones and other assorted gadgets in class is becoming an epidemic of unruliness in South Africa. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so schools have started installing little gadget prisons in order to make sure phones stay out of the hands of wild and crazy teenagers.

This might be a temporary solution, but what about when the kids revolt and free their gadgets from this prison via a violent coup? What then, teachers? What then? –Adam Frucci

Textually [CrunchGear]