Elections 2004
April 5, 2004
Hello, good morning and how do you do? This is Cybersurf, your weekly window on the web and I am Steven Lang.
Today’s program is, as you might have expected, chock full of election related web sites, and I promise to put this script on my personal blog so that you can recover all the other addresses that I mention. So do not stress, I’ll give you the address, where you can find this script at the end of the program.
But before we look at the election stuff – here is some good news from Google – the world’s most successful search engine is testing its own web mail service. You cannot sign up for it – yet – but gmail – that is what the service is known as - – gmail offers one thousand megabytes of free storage space – so you will never have to delete any mail, and it will all be searchable.
To find out more about the pending service check out gmail.google.com.
Back to the campaign trail – we are now less than ten days away from voting day - April 14 so it is not surprising that all the media houses are putting up special features on the elections.
Our own SABCnews.com has a special elections category, and on results day, the elections feature will link up to the IEC’s computer system and publish the results directly onto the site without human intervention – in other words the SABC’s results system will be automatically updated from the minute the first result is put into the IEC’s system right until the last seats are allocated.
The site also has a feature carrying all the latest opinion poll data from the latest SABC/Markinor survey on voter attitudes about the elections
Other sites have also made a special effort – for example – the Mail and Guardian online – at mg.co.za has a rather creative, interactive section that helps you choose which party you should vote for. It does this with an interactive quiz – asking questions that direct you to the party most consistent with your views.
If you would prefer to read an in-depth analysis of the upcoming elections you should go to EISA.org.za – EISA stands for the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa – it is an ngo site and has very valuable information about democracy and political processes.
An just in case you thought that everyone was only concerned about the April fourteen elections, the demarcation board is already hard at working preparing for next year’s municipal elections. The demarcation board site at demarcation.org.za is truly fascinating because it has maps of all the voting districts in the country, lists of the new names of municipalities and you can even drill down and find a map with your own street and the location of your nearest voting station.
Now if you would like to find any of the addresses of the sites I mentioned in today’s program you can click on my own personal blog which can be found at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com – let me repeat that
And so we come the end of this week’s election edition of Cybersurf. Enjoy the festive season, drive safely, don’t forget to vote – it’s the right thing to do - and remember to keep on surfing.
4 April 2004
29 March 2004
Cybersurf: Political web sites – update
29 March 04
Hello, good morning and how do you do? This is Cybersurf – a weekly window on the World Wide Web and I am your cyberhost – Steven Lang.
As we draw ever closer to the next national and provincial elections, Cybersurf finds it necessary to re-look at electioneering on the web.
Now, because most South Africans do not have access to the Internet, parties have made only a token effort at serious online campaigning.
I believe that just about every party has a least some web presence, but most have not been very good at responding to e-mail queries.
(T) I recently received an e-mail from the ACDP inviting me to review the party’s election site. I was advised not to look at the general site at www.Acdp.org.za - because that is still under construction, but the only way to get to the election site is through the main front page.
The site is fairly standard in terms of presentation – it is clean, easy to read and easy to navigate with a horizontal navigation bar across the top of the page and a secondary, vertical, navigation bar down the right hand side.
A link marked “candidate list” only gives the names and brief profiles of the top candidates – maybe the only ones that have a realistic chance of getting a seat.
It has a very detailed section carrying the party’s election manifesto and a comprehensive election diary section that not only tells you where the party leaders will be campaigning, but it also gives you direct cell phone numbers of whoever is organising that part of the campaign.
If you are interested in the acdp’s election campaign, you have to visit acdp.org.za – incidentally almost all party web sites can be found by typing in the party’s initials and then dot org dot za.
Before we close Cybersurf, I have to refer you to a completely different type of political site at www. Zabalaza.net let me spell that: Z.A.B.A.L.A.Z.A dot net – a site that describes itself as being dedicated to Southern African anarchism – the address of this site was sent to me by someone who signs off as BLACKDRAGON.
The front page of Zabalaza dot net has a link to a poster which says – ‘Why bother to vote – if voting changed anything, they would make it illegal” – so if you would like to download a poster with that anarchist viewpoint – click along to zabalaza dot net.
So we wrap up another edition of Cybersurf – I will put this entire script in my personal blogspace at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com thanx for listening and remember – to keep on surfing.
29 March 04
Hello, good morning and how do you do? This is Cybersurf – a weekly window on the World Wide Web and I am your cyberhost – Steven Lang.
As we draw ever closer to the next national and provincial elections, Cybersurf finds it necessary to re-look at electioneering on the web.
Now, because most South Africans do not have access to the Internet, parties have made only a token effort at serious online campaigning.
I believe that just about every party has a least some web presence, but most have not been very good at responding to e-mail queries.
(T) I recently received an e-mail from the ACDP inviting me to review the party’s election site. I was advised not to look at the general site at www.Acdp.org.za - because that is still under construction, but the only way to get to the election site is through the main front page.
The site is fairly standard in terms of presentation – it is clean, easy to read and easy to navigate with a horizontal navigation bar across the top of the page and a secondary, vertical, navigation bar down the right hand side.
A link marked “candidate list” only gives the names and brief profiles of the top candidates – maybe the only ones that have a realistic chance of getting a seat.
It has a very detailed section carrying the party’s election manifesto and a comprehensive election diary section that not only tells you where the party leaders will be campaigning, but it also gives you direct cell phone numbers of whoever is organising that part of the campaign.
If you are interested in the acdp’s election campaign, you have to visit acdp.org.za – incidentally almost all party web sites can be found by typing in the party’s initials and then dot org dot za.
Before we close Cybersurf, I have to refer you to a completely different type of political site at www. Zabalaza.net let me spell that: Z.A.B.A.L.A.Z.A dot net – a site that describes itself as being dedicated to Southern African anarchism – the address of this site was sent to me by someone who signs off as BLACKDRAGON.
The front page of Zabalaza dot net has a link to a poster which says – ‘Why bother to vote – if voting changed anything, they would make it illegal” – so if you would like to download a poster with that anarchist viewpoint – click along to zabalaza dot net.
So we wrap up another edition of Cybersurf – I will put this entire script in my personal blogspace at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com thanx for listening and remember – to keep on surfing.
21 March 2004
Cybersurf: Sedna and the Near Earth Object Program
22 March 04
Hello good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – a weekly window on the world wide web – I am your Cyberhost Steven Lang. In today’s program, there are quite a few web addresses that you might miss, so I am going to post this script onto my personal blog at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com.
In the last week astronomers have made two very exciting announcements about two unique bodies in our solar system.
The first one concerned a planetoid orbiting our sun in the far reaches of the Kuiper belt. There has been some debate about whether it is a very tiny planet or a rather large asteroid – the interim compromise is to describe it as a planetoid. This recent discovery – known as Sedna – is thought to be about three quarters the size of Pluto – and is the largest body discovered in our solar system since Pluto itself was found.
To find out more about Sedna, you can go to www.jpl.nasa.gov and click on the “releases” section, - the JPL site has some very good pictures and an interesting graphic showing the relative sizes of Sedna, Pluto and earth.
You would also do well to look at the Spitzer telescope site which can be found at www.spitzer.caltech.edu – let me spell spitzer – S.P.I.T.Z.E.R dot Caltech dot edu – The spitzer site is fantastic and if you go to the official press release and scroll down to the bottom of the page, there is a link which will take you to Mike Brown’s Sedna page.
You will find out that Sedna, an Inuit goddess of the oceans was known for her saucy background with a some kinky sexual encounters - so I wouldn’t be surprised if the powers that be of astronomy actually change the name of the planetoid.
Still in space . . . . but this time with a piece of flying rock much closer to home – in fact far too close for comfort if you ask me. If Sedna is the furthest piece of the solar system we have found, then asteroid 2004 FH was certainly the closest.
The thirty metre wide asteroid passed a mere forty three thousand kilometres above the Atlantic ocean on the night of March 18. It was so close that it was visible with a good pair of binoculars.
To find out more about 2004 FH and other asteroids that could hit our planet, you should visit the Near Earth Object Program web site at the following address: neo.jpl.nasa.gov – that is neo.jpl.nasa.gov – the neo of course stands for near earth object.
It is a very informative site giving you facts and figures about efforts to track asteroids and meteors that could hit our planet.
There is an interesting little animated graphic showing a series of pictures taken of the 2004 fh moving through the sky. Because the asteroid is kept at the centre of the frame – it looks like a static, tiny fleck of dust in the middle of an array of other moving flecks of dust. Well worth the visit.
Remember if you have missed anyf of the web site addresses I have read out in today’s program – you will find the full script, together with the addresses at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com – here it goes one more time: www.stevenlang.blogspot.com – and that wraps up the space discoveries edition of Cybersurf – thanks for listening and don’t forget to tune in again next week for more on the best of the web.
22 March 04
Hello good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – a weekly window on the world wide web – I am your Cyberhost Steven Lang. In today’s program, there are quite a few web addresses that you might miss, so I am going to post this script onto my personal blog at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com.
In the last week astronomers have made two very exciting announcements about two unique bodies in our solar system.
The first one concerned a planetoid orbiting our sun in the far reaches of the Kuiper belt. There has been some debate about whether it is a very tiny planet or a rather large asteroid – the interim compromise is to describe it as a planetoid. This recent discovery – known as Sedna – is thought to be about three quarters the size of Pluto – and is the largest body discovered in our solar system since Pluto itself was found.
To find out more about Sedna, you can go to www.jpl.nasa.gov and click on the “releases” section, - the JPL site has some very good pictures and an interesting graphic showing the relative sizes of Sedna, Pluto and earth.
You would also do well to look at the Spitzer telescope site which can be found at www.spitzer.caltech.edu – let me spell spitzer – S.P.I.T.Z.E.R dot Caltech dot edu – The spitzer site is fantastic and if you go to the official press release and scroll down to the bottom of the page, there is a link which will take you to Mike Brown’s Sedna page.
You will find out that Sedna, an Inuit goddess of the oceans was known for her saucy background with a some kinky sexual encounters - so I wouldn’t be surprised if the powers that be of astronomy actually change the name of the planetoid.
Still in space . . . . but this time with a piece of flying rock much closer to home – in fact far too close for comfort if you ask me. If Sedna is the furthest piece of the solar system we have found, then asteroid 2004 FH was certainly the closest.
The thirty metre wide asteroid passed a mere forty three thousand kilometres above the Atlantic ocean on the night of March 18. It was so close that it was visible with a good pair of binoculars.
To find out more about 2004 FH and other asteroids that could hit our planet, you should visit the Near Earth Object Program web site at the following address: neo.jpl.nasa.gov – that is neo.jpl.nasa.gov – the neo of course stands for near earth object.
It is a very informative site giving you facts and figures about efforts to track asteroids and meteors that could hit our planet.
There is an interesting little animated graphic showing a series of pictures taken of the 2004 fh moving through the sky. Because the asteroid is kept at the centre of the frame – it looks like a static, tiny fleck of dust in the middle of an array of other moving flecks of dust. Well worth the visit.
Remember if you have missed anyf of the web site addresses I have read out in today’s program – you will find the full script, together with the addresses at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com – here it goes one more time: www.stevenlang.blogspot.com – and that wraps up the space discoveries edition of Cybersurf – thanks for listening and don’t forget to tune in again next week for more on the best of the web.
22 February 2004
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