Bring your umbrella if it's not too late. It'll be 25 in the city, 26 in Parramatta but with an 80 per cent chance of showers or an evening thunderstorm. Yesterday's evening storm left about 7000 homes without power and even set one house in Sydney's north on fire.

We're number one

New figures are out, showing impressive growth in Sydney's GDP per capita, a figure I usually associate with measuring the wealth of nations.

It shows that Sydney's economy generates about $80,000 in income per every head of population. About 40 per cent of the nation's growth happens in this city and our GDP is growing at 4.5 per cent each year, which is the highest it's been since 2000.

But the figures expose the widening gap between Sydney and the rest of the state. We're about $32,000 a year ahead.

An IUD…

… is not the deadly roadside explosive favoured by Iraqi insurgents. A new study finds men know more than we thought about contraception but there's more to do.

Excellence planned for

The University of NSW is planning wholesale redundancies of hundreds of staff, leaked documents suggest. About $30 million in redundancy-derived savings are being targeted according to plans seen by our reporter.

Full points to the University for calling this document a proposal for "operational excellence". Doubleplusgood.

Shirty Laundy

Spare a thought for pub baron Arthur Laundy, a former BRW rich lister and Sydney pub baron, who will be shelling out tens of thousands a year in extra licensing fees after one of his venues was caught selling alcohol to underage girls.

"I'm so shattered," Mr Laundy said.

It comes as the state government looks at changing laws to impose fines upon the license holder, not the pub's owner.

Garbage

The Scottish-American band that drew its name from some early audience feedback played Sydney for the first time in more than a decade last night. They were anything but, our reviewer reckons. ★★★★