KEY POINTS:
Bart Couprie from Devonport writes: "A young lady was negotiating her vehicle through the carpark outside our building whilst lighting a cigarette. The cigarette was dropped in the process of lighting and in attempting to rectify the situation the driver stepped on what she "thought" was the brake.
Fortunately, the cigarette was located later, floating in the passenger seat area, a little damp but otherwise unharmed!"
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A Japanese marketing company is offering staff paid "heartache leave" after a bad break-up with a partner. Tokyo-based Hime & Company, which also gives staff paid time off to hit the shops during sales season, says heartache leave allows staff to cry themselves out and return to work refreshed.
"Not everyone needs to take maternity leave but with heartbreak, everyone needs time off, just like when you get sick," says CEO Miki Hiradate. Staff aged 24 years or younger can take one day off per year, while those between 25 and 29 can take two days off and those older can take three days off, the company said.
"Women in their 20s can find their next love quickly, but it's tougher for women in their 30s, and their break-ups tend to be more serious," Hiradate said.
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Highlights from The New York Times list of Buzzwords from 2007. Bromance: a strong relationship between two heterosexual men.
Drama-price: To lower the price of a house so as to attract the attention of buyers. Also a noun.
Email bankruptcy: What you're declaring when you choose to delete or ignore a very large number of email messages after falling behind in reading and responding to them.
Exploding ARM: An adjustable rate mortgage with rates that rise beyond a borrower's ability to pay.
Global weirding: An increase in severe or unusual environmental activity often attributed to global warming. This includes freakish weather and new animal migration patterns.
Maternal profiling: Employment discrimination against a woman who has, or will have, children.
Multi-dad: Said of a woman who has children by more than one man.
Vegansexual (after a story in a Christchurch newspaper): A person who eats no meat, uses no animal-derived goods and prefers not to have sex with non-vegans.
(Go to nytimes.com and search "Buzzword for 2007" for the full list)
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Tens of thousands of people worldwide are planning to "panic-buy" carrots as part of a joke campaign on Facebook. More than 91,000 Facebook users have signed up to a group called "On May 15, 2008, everybody needs to go out and panic buy carrots". They plan to go out at 2pm on the designated day and buy as many carrots as they can, reports Sky News.
Student Freya Valentine, who created the original site, insists it is all just a bit of fun. "We know we're not going to cause a massive worldwide shortage," she said. David Martin, vice-chairman of the British Carrot Growers' Association, is excited by the idea. (Source: Ananova.com)
Today's Webpick: Don't Judge Too Quickly -- a series of clever and funny ads for the Ameriquest Mortgage Company. Watch it here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
