KEY POINTS:
Rhonda and Barry Spence invite the lines company's pruners to own up.
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Sitting on his balcony which overlooks San Antonio Bay in Ibiza the other morning, Tim Russell watched in disbelief when a middle-aged Spaniard pulled up in a late-model BMW and proceeded to spend an hour carefully washing it. "This guy collected at least a dozen buckets of water straight from the sea to clean his expensive car. Carefully making sure he poured it down all the cracks and crevices to make sure they were clean. He used a mop to scrub the car, then finished off with another five or six buckets of sea water and then drove off with a clean car, looking very pleased with himself."
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A lonely Japanese man, wanting to make friends with police officers and fire fighters, has made 388 prank phone calls this year. "Fire! Fire! I've set petrol and kerosene alight!" is what the 52-year-old Saitama man would regularly say to his local safety departments. Once, 10 fire engines with 35 firemen and an ambulance were sent to his home. After being arrested on suspicion of obstructing the emergency services, the man simply said, "I live by myself and I was sad. I like the fire services and the police so I called them. I wanted them to come and look after me." (Source: Sky News)
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Online shorthand: You may have just worked out what the acronyms LOL (Laugh Out Loud) and OMG (Oh My God) mean in internet shorthand, but now there's a whole lot more abbreviations to get your head around:
GI - Google it.
MOP - Mac or PC?
IIOYT - is it on YouTube?
DYFH - did you Facebook him/her?
BIOI - buy it on iTunes.
GGNUDP - gotta go, no unlimited data plan.
WLF - with the lady friend.
JUOC - jacked up on caffeine.
MBLO - much better-looking online.
NBL - no battery left.
CTTC - can't talk, teacher's coming.
TWD - typing while driving.
(More at Pogue's Posts, nytimes.com
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Angela Herbulot writes: "Went out walking at lunchtime today, and passing a city bus stop noticed a book on the seat. I picked it up, a brand new book about birds. I decided to take it back to the office and see if someone might put a sign on the bus stop, 'lost book'. However inside the cover is a wee note saying the book is NOT lost, rather it has been placed on the seat for people to take home, read and then put on another public transport seat for someone else to enjoy. There is no indication who is behind this idea. Does anyone know? Has anyone else found a book on a seat?"
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Humble apologies readers: Sideswipe stuffed up publishing the Pak'N'Save sign at Sylvia Park, which read 8am-12am. Clear enough for most readers, but numerical dyslexics, such as myself, got a little confused. But really, wouldn't it be much clearer if the sign said 8am to midnight?
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Today's Video Webpick:A motorcyclist films himself doing 176mph (that's 283 kilometers per hour) on the open road and shares it on the web. Police are now investigating. (For mature viewers only). Watch it here. These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
