KEY POINTS:
One the subject of real estate photoshopping, Mike of Mt Eden writes: "I saw a photo of a house I used to flat in four years previously for sale. The owners had done the place up and I admired what they had done with the interior but then I did a double take. One of the interior photos showed a beach view through the window indicating that the beach was at most a couple of hundred metres away. Having lived in the house for three years I can validate that the house has a sea view, but it is at least 1.5km from the sea and you definitely can't see the beach. Inquiries among my friends who were selling/buying property at the time showed that the agent with her name on the ad was one of the "top selling agents in the area". Trust a real estate agent? Not likely."
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Steven Levitt recounts the experience of law professor John Donohue in his book Freakonomics to illustrate how estate agents use their greater knowledge to instil fear in their clients: "I was just about to buy a house on the Stanford campus, and the seller's agent kept telling me what a good deal I was getting because the market was about to zoom. As soon as I signed the purchase contract, he asked me if I would need an agent to sell my previous Stanford house. I told him that I would probably try to sell without an agent, and he replied, 'John, that might work under normal conditions, but with the market tanking now, you really need the help of a broker'."
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New mint packets being sold by Hershey look nearly identical to the tiny heat-sealed bags used to sell illegal powdered drugs like crack, heroin and cocaine and glorify the drug trade, a Philadelphia police official says. Ice Breakers Pacs are small, dissolvable pouches with a powdered sweetener inside and have been selling since November. The packets, which come in blue and orange plastic slide-up cases, are similar enough to drug packets that a child familiar with the candy could mistakenly swallow a heat-sealed bag of drugs, Chief Inspector William Blackburn says. "It glorifies the drug trade. There's really no reason that a product like this should be on the shelf." (Source: Neatorama)
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Shirley writes: "It appears that the North Shore City Council either doesn't know its own street names or is in the process of renaming some. On a map sent to residents in the Belmont area, notifying us of a proposed school speed zone to be set up for the benefit of the Bayswater School, Roberts Ave has been renamed Roberts Rd. Since there is a Roberts Rd in Glenfield and it has taken me six years to ensure that my mail is delivered to Roberts Ave, Belmont, not Roberts Rd, Glenfield, I am not a 'happy chappie' about this mix-up."
Today's Webpick: The cutest Japanese ad for tea we've ever seen. Watch it here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
