If Zuma is true to his word, by 2014 - certainly by 2018 - South Africa could be a major player on a continent that, for all of its soccer talent, was a disappointing pushover in this World Cup.

If you cannot know whether you are in the real world or in the word of a computer simulation, you cannot be sure that your beliefs about the world are true.

If the word on the street is true, for first time since the post of Secretary of Energy was established in 1977, it will be filled by a Nobel laureate and an Asian American.