Sideswipe: February 18: Fancy a log

A shop in Muswell Hill, North London, is selling painted logs for £10 ($22) each.

Shhhh ... just move on

China is to displace more than 9000 people so the world's largest radio telescope the Government is building in the hope of finding extra-terrestrial life can be in a quiet place. The 500m-diameter device in Guizhou province will cost China 1.2 billion yuan ($280.2 million) and will be the world's biggest telescope. But don't worry, the 9110 poverty-stricken residents of the area will be given 12,000 yuan ($2801) in compensation to relocate their homes/lives more than five kilometres away. (Source: Independent)

Extreme measures to hide hit-and-run

Christopher Lemek was arrested in Palmer, Massachusetts, last month and charged over a New Year's Eve hit-and-run accident that took a pedestrian's life. Lemek emerged as a suspect a few days after the collision when police, visiting his home, noticed freshly disturbed earth in his backyard. Eventually, Lemek confessed to literally burying the evidence by using a construction vehicle to crush his truck and an excavator to dig up his backyard and drop the truck into it.

#How stupid can this generation be?

"Not so long ago, a young school-leaver started working in our office," writes a reader. "I overhead her say: 'OMG have you seen those really old push-button home telephones with the curly cords from like the 80s? Why do they have a hashtag button when Twitter wasn't even invented then'!?"

Bird puzzle

In response to the reader who questions whether magpies and mynas can be found together, the answer is yes if you live in Mt Roskill, writes Craig. "At this time of year the magpies like to raid the myna nests and eat their chicks as evidenced by a gruesome spectacle on the neighbour's roof the other night."

Great Waikato cull

Roger Clarke, of Pirongia, can confirm that the birds coexist in Waikato in rather large numbers. "The aggression of the magpies towards our native birds encourages my neighbours and me to undertake regular thinning operations," he brags, "with a silenced .22 being the weapon of choice. Unfortunately, we haven't yet found a solution to the unpleasant, raucous cacophony of the mynas which is even worse than the strident, whingeing squawks of the Aussie cricketers (and their press) when their poor sportsmanship is caught on camera."

Ready to roar and a bit fishy

Etheral tattooing for women by Korean artist Aro Tattoo

Picture this: A giant 20 metre slide five storey's high in a Shanghai mall "What if someone dies in there... and the next person on the slide discovers him? Oh my god," say one commenter on Chinese social media site Weibo...

Video: The latest Celebrities Read Mean Tweets is a goodun (Lionel Ritchie's one is awesome)...

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Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz