Melbourne Express: Thursday, July 20, 2017

That's all for the blog today. Have a great day. I'll be back in the blogging chair tomorrow morning. 

By the way, the answer to the Mystery Melbourne was Garden World in Braeside. 

If I ever become a billionaire after inventing the wearable umbrella (see 6.05am post), one of the first things I would buy is the big dinosaur skeleton in Garden World that has the $30,000 price tag. 

And before I wrap up, here is the interview Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gave with Neil Mitchell on 3AW this morning: 

It's almost time to wrap up the blog. It's been a marathon of a morning, so I have been running a bit behind schedule. Sorry for keeping you all in suspense. 

Here was today's 

Don't scroll any further unless you want the answer spoiled. 

Recap: Police have caught a driver who attempted to use the old "ghost car" trick to evade authorities. 

They first sighted the driver's speeding vehicle on Tarneit Road, Hoppers Crossing, about 1.20am, and they attempted to intercept it, the driver turned his lights off and sped off.

Police sighted the car again in Werribee about 3.30am, and this time police were able to intercept the vehicle.

The driver, a 22-year-old Altona Meadows man, will have his car impounded for the next 30 days.

He is also expected to be charged with a range of traffic offences, including conduct endangering life.

The boyfriend of missing Melbourne woman Sophie Dowsley has been found dead in the Canadian wilderness, sparking fears for the fate of the missing hiker.

Ms Dowsley, 34, and her Canadian boyfriend Greg Tiffin, 44, have been missing since a hiking trip around Statlu Lake on July 8.

Read the full article

I've been getting lots of good feedback from readers who can recall what it was like to watch the moon landings all the way back in 1969. 

The front page of The Age on July 22, 1969. Photo: Microfilm

Alf S writes: "I was in Grade 5 and we were sent home from school to watch it live. Very exciting at the time." 

But it sounds like you needed a good TV to get much out of it. 

Another reader writes: "I was in primary school in Cairns and we able to go home from school early to watch it.

"I wasn't impressed as we had a small black and white TV and the viewing was all grainy and did not seem so impressive to a grade one student.

"But i do remember my mother saying this was a day you should try to remember." 

Finally, the front page from The Age's special moon landing edition caused a burst of nostalgia in @buhrnaknown. 

He writes that growing up he had a set of placemats that were covered with reproductions of famous Age front pages. 

The placemats had been given to his father, who had once worked on The Age's printing presses.

Elliott Avenue in Parkville has been closed to traffic after a horror crash between a motorcycle and a car at Macarthur Road. 

A man (presumably the motorcyclist, but I do not know this for sure) was rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with life-threatening injuries. 

The crash happened just before 7am this morning and had been causing bad delays in the region. 

An ad for Apple Music that featured Delta Goodrem rocking out in a car while not wearing a seatbelt has been pulled. 

It's the second faux pas from Apple I've put in the blog today - Premier Daniel Andrews has noticed a mistake in their calendar (see post below) 

Peter Ford was talking about the ad on 3AW a while ago: he reckons it was a deliberate choice.

"You've got to wander if they actually want this extra burst of publicity. I'm very cynical about this," he said. 

I wouldn't be surprised. I saw a deeply stupid ad a while ago and was going to tweet about it, but I reckon that was exactly what the advertiser was seeking as some back-handed publicity. 

How are you going with today's brainteaser? 

Here's a hint from our homepage editor - they won by three feet. 

Also, the answer is not that they were in separate men's and women's races (it would be very bizarre to finish three races with the exact same times) and were competing in the same race together. Also, Helen is not pregnant with Carlos - they are both about the same age, as the picture shows. Nor are they conjoined. 

Let me know if you've figured it out. Send me an email or a tweet (@craigdbutt) if you've got it. If you simply must know the answer by 9am, you'll see that it has already been solved over on  my Facebook page.

I didn't bother looking at The Age's edition on this day, only becuase the commerorative edition that came out on July 22 had so many fascinating stories about the moon landing.

There was an opinion piece asking why the astronauts did not plant a flag that represented all of Earth on the moon - an Earth flag.

There was also a piece from the science writer about how the astronauts would have to be quarantined once they got back to Earth in case they were bringing any nasty moon-dwelling bacteria back to Earth with them.

And finally there was this rather exuberant prediction from a space expert (spoilers: the moon colony hasn't eventuated yet).

The space expert was not Nixon. Photo: Microfilm

A man has sustained life-threatening injuries following a crash between a car and a motorcycle in Parkville, an Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman tells me. 

It is not yet known if the injured person is the motorcyclist. 

The man has been taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition. 

The crash happened on Elliott Avenue, near Melbourne Zoo, about 6.50am. 

VicRoads is warning of delays in the area. 

There has been a smash on Elliot Avenue in Parkville. 

VicRoads reports there are eastbound delays back past Flemington Road and westbound back to the cemetery. 

I am trying to get onto Ambulance Victoria as to the nature of the crash, but from what I am hearing it sounds like a bad one. 

The 7:58am Blackburn to Flinders Street service will originate from Box Hill this morning, Metro says.

On this day in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. However, it was not until July 21 that they went on the famous space-walk.

The front page of The Age on July 22, 1969. Photo: Microfilm

This happened long before my time, so I'd be interested to hear from someone who was alive in 1969 about what the moon landing meant at the time. Was it like seeing the whole thing play out live? Let me know.

One of the best things about doing the blog on Thursday is that all the Throwback Thursday posts start to appear on Twitter.

I find these photos from how hospitals worked in the past utterly fascinating. 

As a bonus, check out these photos from The Peter Mac Cancer Centre from the 1950s.

Here is today's brainteaser: 

Age Artist Jamie Brown has done a great job with this one. 

Let me know if you've figured it out. Send me an email or a tweet (@craigdbutt), or be first to post up the answer on my Facebook page. The first with the correct answer gets the bragging rights. 

I'll post up a hint at 8am before revealing the solution at 9am. 

Looks like Apple's Calendar has got the day of the Grand Final Public Holiday muddled. 

The 7:05am Flinders Street to South Morang train has been cancelled. The next train departs at 7:20am.

Surfer Mick Fanning has had another encounter with a shark. 

He was attacked two years ago by a great white during a surfing event, and this year a shark got within 700 metres of him before he was warned to get out of the water. 

Here's what is on the front page of The Age today: 

• Australia's foreign spy agencies could gather intelligence on "classes" of Australians involved with terror organisations to stop attacks, a review to the Turnbull government recommends. 
• Archaeologists have established that Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for at least 65,000 years, almost 20,000 years longer than previously thought.
• The Bank of England has unveiled its first plastic 10 pound note, and it features Jane Austen.

Page one of The Age, July 20. Photo: Craig Butt