Looks like the bitter racial riots at Cronulla have spilled over to Maroubra beach. When I was there two days ago it was the most idyllic beach you ever saw, families, kids, beach soccer, everyone having a great time. Certainly no sign of anything like this then.
Allergic to your cat? Cut off its tongue.
How’s this for a story?
This bloke Frank drives into town to run some errands. His woollen shirt and nylon jacket have been rubbing against each other all day, slowly building up static electricity. He walks into a building, and the charge in his clothes is enough to ignite the carpet which bursts into flames. Apparently unaware of the panic in the office, the bloke returns to his car, where his shoes scorch the floor. He’s a bit puzzled by this, so when he spots the firefighters swarming all over the building he just left, he goes over to seek their help. They rip the jacket off him and find it contains a static charge of 40,000 volts. The guy was on the brink of spontaneous combustion.
A fantastic tale, you think? It happened in Warrnambool last week. Story here.
Got some good tenants moving in this week, feeling much better now.
Here’s the email I got through my ad on craigslist. they sound like lovely people.
Hello Dear,
How are you doing today hope all is well with you? I
am Sandra Smith I am from chicago,illinois,i am an
engineer who specialises in chemicals of all sorts.
I am presently working under contract with a company
in Africa[CHEVRON NIG PLC]in nigeria.So a menber of
the board of directors will be having his wedding on
the 25th of september and he is going to spend his
honeymoon there till october with the rest of the
staffs.
so,i will like to let you know i am going to need a
place that will be convenient for me for two months.
I also want you to know that the company is going to
pay by cashier cheque or by money order.So if that is
pleasing to you,then get back to me as soon as
possible with the cost for two months,your full
name,contact address and phone number.so that the
neccessary payments will be made on time.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Thanks and God bless.
Sandra Smith.. ( s.s)
EDIT 23/9 : Just to clarify - yes this is a real letter I received, but no they are not the new tenants 
You’ve no doubt seen (or avoided) this show on TV, where two families of opposite values (rich/poor, fat/thin, etc) swap their wives for a week. I always wondered how much money they got for having a stack of cameras stuffed into their home. Turns out, from a Boing Boing entry, they pull in a cool $20k per family.
Almost makes me wish I had a dysfunctional family so I could put them on shows like this! They’re looking for a US geek family right now, so check out the link if you qualify.
A 4.9 quake rocks northern Japan today… would that be about the effect you’d get from an 850-whale tail slam?