Emojis were invented in Japan by Shigetaka Kurita and first appeared on mobile phones in 1999. The Oxford dictionary named the emoji that has tears of laughter its word of 2015. The emoji is called ‘face with tears of joy’… Read More ›
Culture
National Leaders Tree – how many faces
This photograph was created in the 1880s by a now-unknown artists and is said to depict national leaders. I have seen it in several different places, and it never fails to cause heated discussion about how many faces there are… Read More ›
Mukbang
Have you heard of mukbang? It is a trend where people watch videos of others preparing and eating their meals. The word mukbang comes from muok-da (the Korean word for eating) and bang song (Korean for broadcast). Why do you think this is… Read More ›
Happy Daylight Savings Time!
South Africa does not have daylight savings time and I find that when the clocks go forward in Spring, it takes me at least a week to adjust to the loss of that hour. Interestingly MEPs have voted to scrap… Read More ›
A South African’s view of snow
November 14th It started snowing. The first of the season and the first real snow we have ever seen. The wife took out buttered buns and sat by the window watching the soft flakes drift down, clinging to the trees… Read More ›
