The Grand Final on September 26th,  2009 goes down in football history as one of the sport’s Greatest Games, as the Geelong Cats wrote themselves into the history books. Aussie Rules Football has become an integral part of the Australian cultural scene.

When Geelong’s Cats beat the St Kilda Saints by 12 points, it was the apex of a brilliant season, having eclipsed Collingwood’s 1927/29 all-time three year winning percentage of 86.9% wins. Geelong not only won its second premiership in three years, it also clocked up its 63rd win in its last 70 games, (90%) writing itself into the history books.

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Susan Atkins, 61, California’s longest serving prisoner has died from a brain tumour. Atkins was a member of Charles Manson ‘family’.

She admitted to having ruthlessly stabbed to death, pregnant actress Sharon Tate. During the Manson cult’s rampage in 1969, Tate was one of 7 people, cold-bloodedly murdered in two Los Angeles homes.

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Carolyn Savage, 40, had no idea that when she booked in for an IVF at an infertility clinic, they could possibly implant her with an embryo that belonged to someone else.

Carolyn, from Ohio, gave birth to a healthy baby boy and instantly handed him over to the biological parents, Paul and Shannon Morell, of Detroit.

The two families did not know each other. When Shannon Morell leanred of the mistake whe was terrified that Carolyn would choose to abort the baby, rather than to carry it full-term.

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There are times in the great southern continent of Australia, when the sun is obliterated by dust, but never has anything been seen like the dust storm that swept across the eastern seaboard of Australia this week.

Fine red dust was lifted off the red heart of the great continent of Australia and sucked 3 km into the sky, by a deep low-pressure system and gale force winds. The massive dust storm, carrying millions of tones of dust and dirt, was the biggest in 79 years.

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Chasing a wheel of cheese down an extremely dangerous and slippery hillside is not for everyone. Yet hundreds take part in this extreme sport every year.

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Californian couple, Ron Bednar, 64 and wife Mary McCurnin, 59, declared bankruptcy in 2003 after insurance covered only 10% of costs for his intestinal bleeding and her breast cancer. In 2004 her cancer returned and Bednar underwent open heart surgery.

In spite of repeatedly refinancing their home to pay medical bills they are forced to file for divorce, if they are to have any chance of growing old together.

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Hilary Rodham Clinton, looking every bit her 61 years of age, is the first politician to hold the office of Secretary of State, in 60 years. All other candidates have filled the position from fields of foreign policy, or the military.

According to Glenn Kessler, of the Washington Post, “Clinton is the consummate team player and often the best-briefed, most prepared person in the room. President Obama’s aides say he values her advice and appreciates her dedication.”

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The question has been raised, are the solar panels made using human hair, nothing more than some elaborate hoax? If so, haven’t people got better things to do with their time?

The following was written for tropic post by Craig Hyatt, as a follow-on from the article we published on the19th September. At Tropic post we encourage people to submit to us opposing, or different points of view. Craig writes:

A reporter for the Daily Mail makes a compelling case: an 18-year-old schoolboy in a rural Nepalese village invents a world-changing $38 solar panel made from human hair. The reporter witnesses the solar panel in operation and photographs it powering fluorescent bulbs. There’s even a video of the students demonstrating the panel to a group of dignitaries.

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The 22 year-old American from Montana,Tyler Bradt, anextreme kayaker, knew it was too late to change his mind, as he sat on the lip of a 186 foot drop.

Less than four seconds later he was celebrating the world record for kayak free-falls.

Bradt reached speeds of 100 mph as he plummeted over Palouse Falls in eastern Washington.

He disappeared under the water at the base of the torrent, to emerge, six seconds later, still in his fibre glass kayak, with a broken paddle and a sprained wrist.

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One of the country’s oldest cities, the university city of Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand, now has a new notoriety, as prospecitve community leaders gather criminal records.

The usually quiet streets have been rocked by mayhem and violence as university students challenged the local police, after the Canterbury University students’ Undie 500 car-rally arrived in town. The rally is organized by the Canterbury University engineering students, as a pub crawl from Christchurch to Dunedin, in cars valued under $500.

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