What is the origin of the word ‘bluetooth’? Which UK football ground is flanked by Bloemfontein & South Africa roads? When walking round Rondebosch Common, why is it wise not to go widdershins?

These are a few of the questions put to John Maytham by 567 CapeTalk listeners in the Rapid Fire insert on the late drive-time show. Join him on a tour of the oddest, arcane and most surprising questions – and be tickled by the weird and wonderful answers.

In Dockside Reading, Isabel Hofmeyr traces the relationships among print culture, colonialism, and the ocean through the institution of the British colonial Custom House.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, dockside customs officials would leaf through publications looking for obscenity, politically objectionable materials, or reprints of British copyrighted works, often dumping these condemned goods into the water. These practices, echoing other colonial imaginaries of the ocean as a space for erasing incriminating evidence of the violence of empire, informed later censorship regimes under apartheid in South Africa.

By tracking printed matter from ship to shore, Hofmeyr shows how literary institutions like copyright and censorship were shaped by colonial control of coastal waters. Set in the environmental context of the colonial port city, Dockside Reading explores how imperialism colonizes water.

Hofmeyr examines this theme through the concept of hydrocolonialism, which puts together land and sea, empire and environment.

Given what we know about climate change, should we still be raising and eating cattle? And how do we weigh the cultural and economic value of cattle against their environmental impact? This engaging book brings history, science, economics and popular culture together in a timely discussion about whether current practices can be justified in a period of rapid climate change.

Journalist Gregory Mthembu-Salter first encountered South Africa’s love of cattle during his own lobola negotiations. The book traces his personal journey through kraals, rangelands and feedlots across South Africa to find out more about the national hunger for cattle. He takes a broad sweep – drawing on such diverse sources as politicians involved in land reform, history, braai-side interviews with cattle farmers and abattoir owners, conversations with his mother-in-law, and analysis of cutting-edge science.

Mthembu-Salter suggests that perhaps 'cattle can remain wanted and treasured … more as living assets, kept in modest numbers on land where crops will not thrive, whose beef is eaten rarely – and, when it is, is savoured.'

Ton Vosloo’s remarkable career in the media spanned nearly 60 years in South Africa’s history. During this turbulent time, South Africa went through the transition from Afrikaner Nationalist rule to an ANC government. At the helm of the leading press group founded in 1913 to support nascent Afrikaner nationalism, Vosloo’s story is not just one of newspapers and politics but also one of singular business and commercial success as the Naspers Group evolved from a print group to an electronic company with significant investments across the world.

In 1983 Vosloo was appointed managing director of Naspers and set about vigorously transforming the group. On the ideological front, it was a fight to the death with the old Transvaal’s predominantly right-wing Perskor Group for the soul of the Afrikaner. On the commercial front, Vosloo established the pay television network M-Net. In 1992, Vosloo became chairman of Naspers with Koos Bekker succeeding him as CEO. The story of Naspers’ successes in investing in Chinese internet company Tencent and in establishing a footprint in 130 countries is a continuing one, but one begun under Vosloo’s stewardship.

In Across Boundaries, Vosloo gives his account of these momentous times with wry humour and a journalist’s deft pen.

ALSO AVAILABLE IN AFRIKAANS AS OOR GRENSE

After 70 years, open the next chapter of record breaking!

Filled with thousands of awesome facts and feats for the whole family, this year's edition celebrates Guinness World Records' 70th anniversary. Learn how record breaking has changed over the years and what incredible looks like in 2025.

Celebrate the ICONS that shaped our world from Taylor Swift to the Tallest Man Ever. Discover the next generation of record breakers... and how you can become one, with a dedicated KIDS ZONE. Chart the history and ultimate limits of record breaking with poster-style FLASHBACKS - including speedy rubix cube solves, eye-watering football transfers and more.

Travel through 70 years of the famous book with an opening chapter filled with retro features.

In the third volume of this series, Media Studies, the emphasis is on media content and media audiences. Media content and media audiences (or users) are covered from methodological and theoretical perspectives.

For the revised reprint of this volume, a new introduction has been included to highlight the relevance of the current content and to contextualise within it the content of Volume 4 Social (New) Media and Mediated Communication Today (2017).

Part 1 of the book deals with: quantitative content analysis; communication and media semiotics; media, language and discourse; media and visual literacy; visual text analysis; textual analysis: narrative and argument; narrative analysis; film theory and criticism Part 2 deals with: media audience theory (dealing with the uses and gratification theory, reception theory and ethnography); questionnaire surveys in media research; field research in media studies; measuring media audiences; psychoanalysis and television as an illustration of an applied theoretical approach in media audience research.

Revolt is a provocative challenge to the prevailing wisdom about the rise of nationalism and populism today. With a vibrant and informed voice, Nadav Eyal illustrates how modern globalization is unsustainable. He contends that the collapse of the current world order is not so much about the imbalance between technological advances and social progress, or the breakdown of liberal democracy, as it is about a passion to upend and destroy power structures that have become hollow, corrupt, or simply unresponsive to urgent needs. Eyal illuminates the forces both benign and malignant that have so rapidly transformed our economic, political, and cultural realities, shedding light not only on the globalized revolution that has come to define our time but also on the counterrevolution waged by those globalization has marginalized and exploited.

With a mixture of journalistic narrative, penetrating vignettes, and original analysis, Revolt shows that within the mainstream the left and right have much in common. Eyal shows how their stories feed our current state of unrest. More than just an analysis of the present, though, Revolt also takes a hard look at lessons from the past, from the Opium Wars in China to colonialist Haiti to the Marshall Plan. With these historical ties, Eyal shows that the roots of revolt have always been deep and strong. The current uprisings are no passing phenomenon—revolt is the new status quo.

The #1 New York Times and top ten Sunday Times bestseller

'I love this book . . . reading it will actually change not just how you see strangers, but how you look at yourself, the news - the world. Reading this book changed me' Oprah Winfrey

The highly anticipated new book from Malcolm Gladwell, international bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw and David and Goliath

The routine traffic stop that ends in tragedy. The spy who spends years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon. The false conviction of Amanda Knox. Why do we so often get other people wrong? Why is it so hard to detect a lie, read a face or judge a stranger's motives?

Through a series of encounters and misunderstandings - from history, psychology and infamous legal cases - Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual adventure into the darker side of human nature, where strangers are never simple and misreading them can have disastrous consequences.

No one challenges our shared assumptions like Malcolm Gladwell. Here he uses stories of deceit and fatal errors to cast doubt on our strategies for dealing with the unknown, inviting us to rethink our thinking in these troubled times.

A unique cocktail of personal memoir, cultural criticism and Hollywood history by the one and only Quentin Tarantino.

In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with CINEMA SPECULATION, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans - and all movie lovers - could have hoped for.

Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.

At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT's and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever.

Returning to the family homestead in the Eastern Cape for the holidays, and worried that your city ways and less than perfect knowledge of Xhosa culture will get you a wagging finger in the face from ooMalume – the uncles?

No need to fret. Don’t Upset ooMalume! captures the essence of Xhosa heritage and culture, and explores different aspects of village life. It covers a range of topics, from major Xhosa life ceremonies and traditional clothing, to the significance of uronta (the rondavel) and ubuhlanti (the kraal). Not forgetting the importance of traditional food, the author describes popular dishes, edible forage and even medicinal plants.

This book was born from writer and agriculturalist Hombakazi Mercy Nqandeka’s concern that aspects of Xhosa heritage will be lost to future generations. By interweaving her guide to Xhosa culture with stories from her daily life at Mqele and Bulungula villages, and lessons taught to her by her mother and her late grandmothers, she hopes to help reconnect Xhosa people to their roots.

Although the theory is based on material used in the USA and other overseas universities, South African students will be able to identify with the local examples, TV programmes and other mass media, and the political and social experiences referred to in this title, many of which have been localised to reflect the South African context. Beginner students majoring in communication studies as well as those who are studying towards various degrees or qualifications where communication is a prerequisite, will find this title useful. In addition to interpersonal, group and mass communication, there is an extensive chapter on public speaking, which takes into account that many professionals today have to address their colleagues and business associates in order to succeed in their profession. Public speaking in this sense is a skill required by most graduates in any job or profession, and the chapter is pitched at these requirements as well as at speaking to larger audiences. The title is divided into two parts. The first provides students with a strong foundation of communication, while the second focuses on the areas of specialisation within communication studies. In addition, each chapter starts with the learning outcomes and a short overview of the chapter. Students may monitor their learning with the summaries and 'test yourself' questions at the end of every chapter. Scenarios provide examples of how the theory can be applied in practice.

Dive into thousands of new and classic records, with topics as diverse as rollercoasters, robots, movie props and gaming.

The theme of this year's edition is the BLUE PLANET, so take the plunge with our opening chapters, as we encounter bizarre and deadly sea creatures, swim through the largest coral reefs and explore the seabed for shipwrecks.

Rod Hunt's fourth and final cover in his collectable series also conjures an aquatic wonderland packed with record holders - how many can you spot?

In the second volume of the four-part textbook series on Media Studies the emphasis is again on the relationship between media and society. While further exploring media as an institution, this volume also introduces the topics of media regulation and content.

Volume 2 is guided in part by the question: How do we control and manage the media? Communications policy is explained, with overviews of how the Southern African media is externally and internally regulated to ensure a well-organised and disciplined modern media system. Strategic ways of managing the media are discussed. The book deals with the concept of media representation: How does the media reflect and represent reality or its aspects? Is the news that is presented an accurate portrayal of reality? How does the media deal with identity, race, gender, sexual orientation, the environment, AIDS, violence and terrorism?

This section thus critically analyses questions about how the media depicts people, topics, organisations and issues.

“There will be a black Springbok over my dead body.” — Dr Danie Craven, President of the South African Rugby Board, 1969

Just a year after the controversial D’Oliveira affair, the organised disruption of the all-white 1969/70 South African rugby and cricket tours to Britain represented a significant challenge to apartheid politics. Led by future cabinet minister Peter Hain, the ‘Stop the Seventy Tour’ campaign brought about the cancellation of both tours, presaging white South Africa’s expulsion from the Olympics and the end of apartheid sport altogether.

With his brand of attention-grabbing, direct action sports protest, the 19-year-old Hain emerged as a hero to some and enemy to others. Now, reflecting on these experiences with fifty years of hindsight, Lord Hain, together with South Africa’s foremost sports historian and fellow anti-apartheid activist André Odendaal, shows how decades of relentless international and domestic campaigning for equality led to a Springbok team captained by black athlete Siya Kolisi winning the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Interspersing a wide range of examples with personal testimony, Pitch Battles explores the themes of sport, globalisation and resistance from the deep past to the present day. Published in the same year as the Stop The Tour documentary from acclaimed director Louis Myles, this compelling story of sacrifice, struggle and triumph reveals how sport should never be divorced from politics or society’s values.

This book’s title says it all! Now in an updated second edition, it provides a clear understanding of how trees are constructed and what to look for when identifying a tree.

The book is divided into two parts: Part 1 describes and clearly illustrates the different parts of a tree and their role in tree identification. Part 2 features a key to 43 tree groups, based on easy-to-observe stem and leaf features. It carefully outlines each group and the southern African tree families represented in the different groups. Numerous colour photographs and explanatory illustrations support the text, making this an accessible and easy-to-use guide.

How To Identify Trees In Southern Africa will equip readers with a sound understanding of how trees work and what to look for in order to make a positive ID.

A workbook on the process of writing research and the journey a dissertation researcher has to take. Underlying themes are scholarship, thinking and writing.

Aimed at students completing Master's degrees, doctoral candidates and also supervisors of research.

The research techniques and methods discussed are applied to researching advertising, mass-media audiences, mass-media efficiency and organisational and development contexts. The research problems or issues addressed are also relevant to other communication fields, including political, government, marketing, intercultural, health and interpersonal and small-group communication, plus information and communications technology.

This second edition elaborates on the application of additional measurement scales and of content analysis. It contains more practical examples of the application of scientific criteria and it includes additional marginal notes that facilitate the comprehension of key concepts.

What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us Sapiens? Yuval Noah Harari challenges everything we know about being human in the perfect read for these unprecedented times.

Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it: us.

In this bold and provocative book, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here and where we’re going.

‘I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species’ Bill Gates

‘Interesting and provocative… It gives you a sense of how briefly we’ve been on this Earth’ Barack Obama

For seventy years, Queen Elizabeth has ruled over an institution and a family. She has been constant in her desire to provide a steady presence and to be a trustworthy steward of the British people and the Commonwealth. In the face of her uncle's abdication, in the uncertainty of the Blitz, and in the tentative exposure of her family and private life to the public via the press, Elizabeth has become synonymous with the crown.

But times change. Recent years have brought grief and turmoil to the House of Windsor, and even as England prepares to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, there are calls for a changing of the guard.

In The New Royals, journalist Katie Nicholl provides a nuanced look at Elizabeth's remarkable and unrivalled reign, with new stories from Palace courtiers and aides, documentarians, and family members. She examines Charles and Camilla's decades in waiting and beyond-where "The Firm" is headed as William and Kate present the modern faces of an ancient institution. In the wake of Harry and Meghan leaving the Royal Family and Andrew's spectacular fall from grace, the royal family must reckon with its history, the light and the dark, in order to chart a course for Britain beyond its Queen and to show that it is an institution capable of leadership in an ever changing modern world.

Your complete one-volume guide to the year 2023. This fantastic and in-depth book includes month-by-month forecasts for every sign and all you need to know to find out what is in store for you in the year ahead. The only one-volume horoscope you’ll ever need. Your essential guide to love, life and career success in 2023.

This popular, complete one-volume guide contains all you need to know about your personal horoscope for the year 2023. Be prepared for the forthcoming year with monthly predictions for your own sign and discover how to maximise your opportunities and potential to make the most of 2023.

This bestselling astrological guide contains:

• A personality profile for each sign
• A forecast for the year ahead – what you can expect in terms of wealth, home, health, social and love life
• A month-by-month forecast of your best days and worst days – the ideal days to attract love, money or success, and when it’s better to just stay in bed!

Joseph Polansky is a leading US astrologer who has been practising astrology for over 20 years.

For many years Research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human services professions supported social sciences researchers and human services professionals with a comprehensive, local and easy-to-use research guide. The work in this updated and expanded edition continues to assist novice researchers as well as more experienced researchers, postgraduate students and academics with a range of methodological decisions required in planning, designing, executing and reporting on their research endeavours.

Although many salient features of the previous four successful editions have been retained, exciting new features have been added, including material to support lecturers who teach research courses. The unique structure of the book, consisting of different sections highlighting methodological decisions common to both the qualitative and quantitative approaches, those unique to qualitative and quantitative research and those which combine these approaches, have been developed from decades of work with postgraduate students and practitioner-researchers. New content includes a focus on the growing impetus of ethical conduct in research with human participants; debates and developments in the field of big data sets; and the latest trends in thematic and narrative inquiry, as well as contemporary data collection methods.

In April 2013 a global breaking-news story surfaced on social media and in the world press, and rapidly gathered momentum. A South African man had fallen overboard in the night during a storm in remote Indonesian waters, without anyone else on board realising. Eight hours later a frantic search was underway. The incident caught the world’s attention as readers were instantly transported into the terror of the moment – imagine being left alone, 100 kilometres out to sea in the middle of a storm, watching your friends sail into the distance… Had he been dealt a fraction more bad luck, Brett would have died immediately.

According to the experts, he should have died within 10 to 14 hours. But he chose not to die. Instead for 28-and-a-half hours Brett Archibald endured – the ocean, the elements, the creatures of the deep, and his own inner demons. Alone: The Search For Brett Archibald is the incredible but true story of what it takes to defy needle-in-a-haystack odds and survive what should have been certain death. Outdoor savvy, astonishing imagination, mental toughness, a refusal to give up hope and a canny rescuer with an unbelievable background ultimately saw him through.

Most of all this is a story of the power of the human spirit that defies rational explanation.

The End Of Whiteness aims to reveal the pathological, paranoid and bizarre consequences that the looming end of apartheid had on white culture in South Africa, and overall to show that whiteness is a deeply problematic category that needs to be deconstructed and thoughtfully considered.

This book uses contemporary media material to investigate two symptoms of this late apartheid cultural hysteria that appeared throughout the contemporary media and in popular literature during the 1980s and 1990s, showing their relation to white anxieties about social change, the potential loss of privilege and the destabilisation of the country that were imagined to be an inevitable consequence of majority rule.

The ‘Satanic panic’ revolved around the apparent threat posed by a cult of white Satanists that was never proven to exist but was nonetheless repeatedly accused of conspiracy, murder, rape, drug-dealing, cannibalism and bestiality, and blamed for the imminent destruction of white Christian civilisation in South Africa.

During the same period an unusually high number of domestic murder-suicides occurred, with parents killing themselves and their children or other family members by gunshot, fire, poison, gas, even crossbows and drownings. This so-called epidemic of family murder was treated by police, press and social scientists as a plague that specifically affected white Afrikaans families. These double monsters, both fantastic and real, helped to disembowel the clarities of whiteness even as they were born out of threats to it. Deep within its self-regarding modernity and renegotiation of identity, contemporary white South Africa still wears those scars of cultural pathology.

The third edition of Communication: A Hands-on Approach focuses on different forms of communication, emphasizing writing as a communication tool, particularly within the business environment. To support this, each chapter contains numerous exercises to enable the student to practice the skills learnt in that chapter and to assist lecturers in reinforcing content covered in class. The evolution of technology and its use in the business environment has been taken into account and for this edition the chapter on digital media has been expanded and updated to take into account the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and disruptive approaches to education. A new chapter on intercultural communication has been included to prepare students to communicate for diversity.

This up-to-date, comprehensive, user-friendly and accessible series has been written by key thinkers in Media Studies locally and from abroad.

Media Studies encompasses the systematic, critical and analytical study of the media, in all its forms, and sees the media as one of the most important generators and disseminators of meaning in contemporary society. Media Studies investigates who owns the media, who produces the media, media content and the users of the media. It investigates the power relationships between the media and politics, culture, economy, society, and above all, the relationship between the media and democracy.

Contents Include:
• A history of the South African media
• A macro history of the media in Africa
• Theoretical approaches to mass communication and media research
• The functions and effects of the media in society
• Media culture/media and culture
• The ideological power of the media
• The media as public sphere in contemporary society
• The impact of globalisation and communication technology on media and media communication.