Last Tuesday was a scorcher in the town of Quriyat, Oman. Temperatures in the town, which is weathering a miserable heat wave, peaked at 49.8C during the day. That is just shy of the Omani record-high temperature of 50.8C set on May 30, 2017. But anyonein Quriyat hoping for an evening respite from the extreme heat would have been disappointed: Temperatures fell to a low of just 42.6C. That's a world record: the highest "low" temperature ever recorded in history. (Source: Live Science)
Unforgettable teacher's rant
Gary Bridger of Greenlane writes: "Colenso High School, Napier, mid-1960s. An English teacher, known for his booming voice and strict discipline, was standing in for the woodwork teacher. While English teacher was using a machine to reduce the thickness of a large piece of wood, it suddenly stopped. Believing a boy had deliberately pulled an emergency cord to cut the power, English teacher flew into a fit of rage and demanded the culprit owned up. When nobody did, he decided to punish the whole class and had us stand to attention beside our workbenches. English teacher marched up and down the rows of benches, ranting and raving with frequent threats he would also cane the lot of us. His performance would have made an army drill sergeant proud. As we neared the end of a totally unproductive period, the power was finally switched back on but the machine still didn't work. The metalwork teacher was called in and found English teacher had overloaded the machine and its circuit breaker had popped. English teacher stormed out without an apology."
"Last Monday I stopped at a petrol station to fill up," writes Steve Hosken. "There I am, bowser pump in hand, filling my car with petrol. A car pulls up on the other side of the same pump, no more than a metre from me and my petrol fuming pump. The driver has all his windows down and sits there sucking in the last few drags on a cigarette. He then throws the still lit butt out the window on to the ground right beneath the pump. Now the funny (tragic?) bit. Written in large graphics on the side of his car is ... SADD: STUDENTS AGAINST DANGEROUS DRIVING."
