KEY POINTS:
Zela Charlton of Whangarei writes: "It is impossible to keep up with all the acronyms in today's world, coming as I do from the 20th century. What on earth is a PS3 that someone on home detention has to have? For that matter, what is an MP3?
And someone just turned up in a car that I was told was a V8. I thought that was a vegetable drink."
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A reader says confusion over "manchester" and "linen" reminds him of a similar word muddle when he used to work for the Post Office, before it was Telecom. "In the 1980s I was working with a foreign foreman on a cable gang. We were looking for a faulty cable connection, commonly known to us as a cable joint. I remember going into a shop on K Road and a shop assistant came over. The look on the assistant's face when my foreman said he was looking for a joint was priceless. It was almost impossible to restrain my laughter, but the foreman thought nothing of it, it went right over his head."
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A bomb threat forced the evacuation of all 1850 students from a high school in Texas - all except eight special needs teenagers. Principal Shirley Reich said one reason the children were kept inside was the chilly day and that "If anything, I erred on the side of compassion for them".
(Source: Weird News.net)
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In 1982 a reader took a friend visiting from England to the Hikurangi Hotel north of Whangarei for a beer and a look at the renowned blue whale's penis mounted above the bar. "But there was no sign of the massive appendage (it had been taken down pending alterations to the bar). The Commonwealth Games in Brisbane were on TV at the time and another patron at the bar was watching the men's 5000m final. My English friend said to him 'So where's that whale's prick?' The guy replied: 'I didn't even know there was a Welshman in the final'."
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Google Insight is a service which adds up how many people are searching for what, revealing a dark side and a silly side to human nature. Gizmod.com reports that in the United States, there were more than five million pages searched from people asking or answering: "How to get pregnant", and only 800,000 pages searching "I think I'm pregnant". Only 69 million people were asking: "How to make money" but depressingly, 256 million people typed "I want to die".
A whopping 880 million people asked: "Why do I have no friends?" and 33 million broken hearts asked: "How to get over someone?". More than a million searched for: "Sex is for making babies and revenge", and 42,000 declared: "Why Luke Skywalker is an idiot".
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Today's Webpick: Have you seen the Hong Kong Airport You Tube hit? Woman misses her flight and has a huge tantrum. View here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.