John Kani's Nothing But the Truth (2002) dramatizes South Africa's collective confrontation with its traumatic past – played out on the public stage most visibly in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings – through the personal situation of Sipho Makhaya and his family. This essay analyses the obstacles Sipho and his daughter face in their attempts to negotiate new identities within the shifting social and physical geographies of post-apartheid South Africa. Identities in the apartheid era were rooted in specific places and socio-spatial configurations that are now being radically and rapidly transformed; Kani's play implies that this transitional moment in the country's history provides the opportunity to rewrite the codes that determine the ways that space is produced and used, and in the process to alter the ways that people form identities and memories in relation to both social space and other people.

We used implanted miniature data loggers to measure brain and arterial blood temperatures in three free-ranging zebras (Equus burchelli) in their natural habitat, every 5 min for 9 days. The animals experienced globe temperatures exceeding 40°C, and radiant heat load of about 1000 W m-2. Arterial blood exhibited a moderate amplitude (1.7°C) nychthemeral rhythm, with an acrophase at 19.00 h and a nadir late in the morning, at 10.00 h. Brain temperature consistently exceeded blood temperature, on average by 0.2-0.4°C, and changes in brain temperature closely tracked changes in blood temperature. There was no evidence of selective brain cooling, even during the hyperthermia which followed surgery or that associated with intense, short-duration exercise. The relationship between brain and arterial blood temperatures in free-ranging zebras was unlike that reported for horses in the laboratory. Our results do not support the view that mammals lacking a carotid rete can achieve selective brain cooling.

Postoperative pain in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) is often attributed to muscle spasm and is difficult to manage using opiates and benzodiazepines. Adductor-release surgery to treat or prevent hip dislocation in children with spastic CP is frequently performed and is often accompanied by severe postoperative pain and spasm. A double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 16 patients (mean age 4.7 years) with a mainly spastic type of CP (either diplegic or quadriplegic in distribution) was used to test the hypothesis that a significant proportion of postoperative pain is secondary to muscle spasm and, therefore, might be reduced by a preoperative chemodenervation of the target surgical muscle by intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin A (BTX/A). Compared with the placebo, BTX/A was found to be associated with a reduction in mean pain scores of 74% (P<0.003), a reduction in mean analgesic requirements of approximately 50% (P<0.005), and a reduction in mean length of hospital admission of 33% (P<0.003). It was concluded that an important component of postoperative pain in the patient population is due to muscle spasm and this can be managed effectively by preoperative injection with BTX/A. These findings may have implications for the management of pain secondary to muscle spasm in other clinical settings.