Sideswipe: Wickered long drop

Photo / Supplied

To see some real Kiwi ingenuity go to ShowUsYourLongDrop.co.nz, a site set up to showcase all the creative long drops that are popping up around Christchurch. Brilliant!

Clapton is human

You'd think Eric Clapton, worth £125 million ($275 million), could pay someone to do his washing. But according to the Mail Online, the 62-year-old was seen in a laundrette near his LA home, bundling towels into a washing machine and then waiting around to dry them. Celebrity stalking website TZM has even posted footage of the domestic scene.

Chicken feed

According to a WikiLeaked cable, in 2005 the Thai Government offered Lockheed Martin bulk chickens in exchange for a few fighter jets. The cash-strapped nation offered 80,000 tons of frozen chicken for the F16s. Unbelievably, Lockheed Martin was up for doing a deal, but a coup stopped the transaction. (Source: gizmodo.com)

Web of nonsense

Mazda is recalling 65,000 Mazda6 because of possible spider webs. The recall in the US and Canada is due to the yellow sac spiders nesting in the fuel hoses, which could clog the ventilation, causing pressure that would lead to a crack and fuel leakage - and possibly start a fire. About 20 instances have been reported, none severe enough to have caused a leaky tank. One entomologist thinks that explanation is highly unlikely seeing as gas would kill the spider.

Twitter joke of the day

A banker, a National MP and a beneficiary are having morning tea with a plate of 12 biscuits. The banker takes 11, then leans over to the MP and whispers, "Watch out for the beneficiary, she's after your biscuit."