Number crunch

10,400 metres is how far Google Maps Australia recommends you should travel to get from 200 Sussex Street in Sydney across the road to 201 Sussex Street.

Aus$3.00 is the toll you must pay (roughly US$2.35) to cross Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of Google's suggested route.

300 metres is the actual, toll-free, distance between the two buildings — one of which just happens to be Google's Sydney headquarters.

Scorecard

Chinese romance

Shanghai restaurateurs are serving sweet potatoes grown from seeds that went into space on last year's Shenzhou VI mission. The star-crossed spuds are purple — the traditional Chinese colour of romance.

Nagging

Constant nagging really does seem to be counter-productive. In a recent experiment, volunteers completed anagrams more slowly when the face of a nagging loved one was flashed subliminally on a screen. Faces of fun-loving friends and family had no such effect.

On the record

“Danger, stay away.”

The message conveyed by the new 'crystal clear' radiation warning sign designed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Looks good, although it does seem to advocate running in the workplace.

“Tenure is not an inoculation against foolishness.”

University of Maryland physicist Robert Park's opinion on the work of Robert Jahn, whose Princeton University tenure allowed him to run a lab investigating telekinesis.

Sources: TechCrunch, BBC, J. Exp. Soc. Psychol., Reuters