Johannesburg posts

by Jamie Rhein (RSS feed) (3 months ago)
Dec 18th, 2009 at 4:00PM:
Last Saturday night, Times Square was literally a Santa free for all. I first noticed the Santa madness as I approached from the direction of the Empire State Building while walking along Broadway. Along the way, a group of five Santas passed me. Then another group of Santas strolled by. Then there was a lone Santa and a Santa with Mrs. Claus. There were also elves.
By the time I reached 42nd ...

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) (3 months ago)
Nov 20th, 2009 at 2:00PM: After a year of "travel slumps," "staycations" and other cringeworthy words and conditions, let's plan to get out on the road next year. Hey, economists are saying that the recession's already over, and the job market's recovery can't be too far behind. So, there's your motive. Opportunity? That's your vacation time; you probably have enough. All that's left to pull the perfect trip together are ...

by Scott Carmichael (RSS feed) (4 months ago)
Nov 17th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Imagine this - instead of sitting in your car, slowly driving through the Lion Safari Park in Johannesburg, one of the cast members decides to pay you a personal visit.
The 300lb lion was able to open the rear door with his teeth, and right as he was about to climb aboard for lunch, the driver hit the gas and drove off.
A car behind the vehicle was able to catch the incident with his camera, ...

by Katie Hammel (RSS feed) (7 months ago)
Jul 27th, 2009 at 9:00AM: The results for Mercer's 2009 Cost of Living survey are out, and while there are some changes, most of the rankings for the most expensive cities are just about what you would expect. Moscow, Geneva, Zurich and Hong Kong are expensive (duh), as are Copenhagen, New York, Beijing and Singapore, which all took spots in the top ten. Japan took top (dis)honors with Tokyo and Osaka taking the number one ...

by Jamie Rhein (RSS feed) (1 year ago)
Jan 20th, 2009 at 5:30PM: After three bags filled with 110 pounds of pot -- cannabis to high brow folks -- were found on a flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow after the plane landed, fifteen members of the cabin and crew were arrested.
From the BBC article, it's not clear why all fifteen were arrested, but they are being questioned to find out what they know about how these bags ended up on their South African Airways ...

by Scott Carmichael (RSS feed) (1 year ago)
Jan 8th, 2009 at 2:30PM: An upstart airline in South Africa is working hard to find somewhere to rent their planes and clear regulatory hurdles for their planned routes. Of course, upstart airlines are nothing new, they appear (and disappear) every month. Airtime Airlines is different though, and grabbed our attention thanks to an innovative new pricing method. The airline has taken a cue from the mobile phone industry, ...

by Josh Lew (RSS feed) (1 year ago)
Nov 25th, 2008 at 2:00PM: In 1950, there were only two cities in Africa with more than one million inhabitants. They were both in Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria). In the 2008 version of continent, there are more than 40 urban centers with populations over 1 million. A report by the UN Human Settlements Programme projects that the number of Africans living in cities will double by 2030 to more than 700 million. The image of an ...

by Josh Lew (RSS feed) (1 year ago)
Oct 29th, 2008 at 12:30PM: In a little less than 2 years, South Africa will become the only country on its continent to ever host the FIFA World Cup. That is, unless FIFA decides that the country is unprepared and moves the world's most watched soccer tournament to one of the alternate locations it has already selected. There are concerns about stadiums and infrastructure projects being completed on time. South Africa has ...