News that has you reaching for the smelling salts

THE echoes of the shots in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania had barely died away when myths and conspiracy theories sprang up and the money gears started turning.      

On the same day, you could order a R400 T-shirt in South Africa bearing the seemingly heroic image of a bloodied Donald Trump, fist-pumping, with the Stars and Stripes in the background.

The tattoo ink soon flowed.

And shortly after Trump shouted, fist in the air, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, the Republican spin doctors updated their propaganda films with the powerful images. Whether you agree with it or not, it takes some doing.

The incident is reminiscent of the assassination attempt on another conservative president, Ronald Reagan, in March 1981. He almost died from a bullet in the lung and later described in a biography how it led to a spiritual calling to end the Cold War and the nuclear arms build-up. Domestically, he was a divisive figure, but never as hated by the Democrats as Trump, because he was charismatic and courteous.

Somewhere in Africa it became a play.

Trump's ear bandage became a source of entertainment and ridicule.

The comedian Austin Nasso was on the bandwagon in a flash.

Many cult followers of Pulp Fiction must have had this thought after the shooting, because Trump says on Truth Social: “It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening …"

Biden also took a few shots.

Census without consensus

South Africa is not only the Rugby World Cup champion and home to half of Wimbledon's women's doubles wheelchair champions. We also do very well in undercounting the population.

With our 2022 census, South Africa had the largest undercount of all countries measured by the UN Population Division — an outstanding 31%. This is about 10 percentage points more than the previous record, set by the Comoros Islands in 2017.

Undercounts make census data less useful for planning in critical state departments, especially for investment and the allocation of resources. Two University of Cape Town demographers, Tom Moultrie and Rob Dorrington, who previously did regular demographic work for the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), say the census data is not suitable for use by organisations such as the SAMRC.

Portuguese boertjie makes a plan

When Zak Calisto, one of South Africa's latest tech entrepreneur magicians, wanted to change his company's name on the JSE from Cartrack to Karoo, someone else already owned the karoo.com domain. And he wanted a cool $1 million for it. But Zac loves the Karoo and he is a hard-ass, so he decided to call the company Karooooo, with five Os. He registered all the karoo.com domains from three to six Os. That way, he reckoned, people could accidentally type in any number of Os and still get to his site.

He sure knew what he was talking about. Today, he does business in more than 20 countries, has 2.2 million vehicle tracking contracts and sits on R14 billion. And he built the company from the ground up. — BusinessTech

Man loses organ outside club

A man's penis was chopped off in front of a group of clubbers outside Kayole nightclub in Nairobi , allegedly after a dispute over payment for a Sh80 (R10) beer.

Festus Makori, 28, a bouncer and manager at the club, and Jerica Muthoni, 36, a waitress, appeared in court on charges of assault with intent to do grievous harm.

The man, known in court as SM, reportedly refused to pay for the beer on April 16 after another clubber poured it into his own glass.  He was removed from the club, allegedly tied up and assaulted, at which point he lost consciousness. A motorcyclist later took the injured man to the hospital, where he is recovering. The case was adjourned and the suspects remain in custody. — TNX.Africa  

Lifestyle leads to almost half of cancer cases

About 40% of cancers in the US could be avoided if people made lifestyle adjustments, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society. Smoking should come as no surprise to anyone as the leading cause.

Obesity is a bigger contributor than previously suspected, and alcohol use, inactivity, poor diet and infections such as sexually transmitted HPV all contribute. Exposure to sunlight can damage RNA and lead to skin cancer, and fat cells produce more hormones, which feed cancer.

Lifestyle plays a large role in skin and lung cancer, and obesity in particular contributes to cancers of the uterus, gall bladder, oesophagus, liver and kidneys.

Dr Arif Kamal, the cancer society's chief patient officer, says the general idea is that people are unlucky to get cancer, or have bad genetics, but behaviour plays an outsized role.

It's that time 

Are you anticipating awkward conversations with an elderly parent? This video can help:

Taboos for window dressers

Meet your own children!

Meanwhile, in Claremont, Cape Town …

And the situation in Bloem this week …

♦ VWB ♦

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