south africa

Vehicles

Idiot Plane Passenger Steadies Himself With An Ejection Handle

12:20PM Sean Fallon | My guess is that when the rockets under his seat fired and he suddenly found himself over 90m away from the PC-7 Mk II he was riding in, he probably realised the error of his ways. More »
Networks

Bird Beats Broadband! Pigeon Flies Faster Than South African DSL

11:33PM Joanna Stern | 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. More »
Gadgets

South Africa’s ATMs Get Weaponised With Pepper Spray

12:00AM Adam Frucci | In South Africa, ATMs have been weaponised with pepper spray to ward off thieves. What could possibly go wrong?? More »
Vehicles

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

8:00AM Jack Loftus | 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.” More »