Espionage: The AN0M fake secure chat app may have been too clever for its own good
In April 1943, Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was killed when the US Air Force shot down the plane carrying him to Balalae Airfield in the Solomon Islands. The attack was made possible by the USA cracking Japanese codes and decrypting a message that revealed Yamamoto’s flight plan would just take...
National loyalty: Real America has always been a country of white people
As a national narrative, Smart America has a tenuous sense of the nation. Smart America doesn’t hate America, which has been so good to the meritocrats. Smart Americans believe in institutions and they support American leadership of military alliances and international organisations. But Smart Americans are uneasy with patriotism. It’s...
Africa energy industry defies Covid threat, sets November conference in Cape Town
The African Energy Chamber is set to host the first-ever African Energy Week (AEW) in Cape Town from November 9-12, 2021. Themed ‘Replacing Africa Oil Week’, the four-day interactive conference seeks to unite industry stakeholders, international speakers and movers and shakers from the African oil and gas sector. The conference...
PhD holders, researchers want reforms in their fields addressed to rein in wastage
Nations, universities and research institutions around the world must redouble efforts to expand training for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to prepare them for jobs outside academia. So urges a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental coalition of 38 nations. The report, the result...
G-7 DFI and multilateral partners to pump $80 billion into African economies
The G7 DFIs, the IFC, the private sector arm of the African Development Bank, EBRD and the European Investment Bank have announced they will commit $80 billion investment in the private sector over the next five years to support sustainable economic recovery and growth in Africa. The investment is intended...
Kenya’s rugby juniors prepare for Barthes U20 trophy defence in Nairobi
A 28 strong Kenya U20 training squad has been preparing for their Barthes U20 trophy defence under the tutelage of head coach Curtis Olago. The side has had a series of training camps in Nairobi and Nakuru over the past month and has also had the opportunity to play two...
In Smart America, new economy replaced ‘outmoded ideologies’ with dazzling technologies
Winners in Smart America have lost the capacity and the need for a national identity, which is why they can’t grasp its importance for others. Politically, Smart America came to be associated with the Democratic Party. This was not inevitable. If the party had refused to accept the closing of...
Zoom distance: Researchers estimate physical signals make up 70 per cent of conversation
Travel often demarcates an experience, focusing attention and solidifying work-life boundaries –whether it’s a flight to a conference or a daily commute to the office. As the online world has sliced those rituals away, people have experimented with “fake commutes” (a walk around the house or block) to trick themselves...
Online conferencing cuts cost, but weaned of thrill of in-person connection
The pandemic has immersed us faster and deeper in immersive communication technologies. It’s a disrupted, confusing, sometimes exhausting world, but shifting both the tech and our expectations might make it a better one. I am sitting in a darkened room, listening to upbeat music of the type often used at...
Vaccinating adults has double benefit of protecting children against Covid
Unvaccinated children seem to be reaping the benefits of mass Covid-19 vaccination programmes in many parts of the world. Infections in children have fallen as adults get their shots. But experts disagree on whether this means that unvaccinated children are unlikely to become a ‘reservoir’ for infection – and a...
