Sideswipe: February 3: Lovestruck Mt Eden tagger?

"The transformer box across the road is tagged on a regular basis and on a regular basis, with suburban lips well pursed, I contact the authorities to have it removed," writes Sher Foley-Lovelock. "However, in a time of pestilence and plague this overnight effort made me smile and, dare I say, actually laugh. Even Banksy had to start somewhere."

Smart beds

The dystopian technology on show at China's Olympic Games include smart beds. Athletes' beds at the Olympic Village have been fitted with memory foam mattresses that monitor breathing and heart rate - designed to capture an athlete's "body signature" and send reports to their coaches about changes in vitals. While the high-tech beds might help some of the world's top athletes sleep more soundly, workers in China have not found the deployment of vital-sign tracking technology in the workplace quite as comfortable. When employees at one Hangzhou-based tech company were given office chair cushions that could similarly monitor their vital signs, heart rates and levels of alertness, they found that their supervisors were also using the technology to track their breaks and working hours. One employee likened the feeling of being constantly watched at work to being in jail.

Kumera or walrus?

Longest lightening flash

The World Meteorological Organisation has certified that two lightning flashes that occurred in 2020 have broken historical records in length and duration. A lightning bolt in April 2020 spanned 477 miles across the southern United States. Two months later, a flash across the Uruguay-Argentina border lasted an incredible 17 seconds. Neither lightning bolt hit the ground. From New Scientist: "The flashes were seen in thunderstorm hotspots, in the Great Plains of North America and the Rio de la Plata basin in South America, respectively. The geography of the areas makes them prone to relatively large convective systems, which can cause individual thunderstorms to combine into massive weather systems that trigger extreme lightning strikes."

Dating Lecter

Back in the 90s, Martha Stewart dated Sir Anthony Hopkins. She told Ellen DeGeneres: "I dated Sir Anthony Hopkins but broke up with him because I couldn't stop thinking of him as Hannibal Lecter. I have a big scary house in Maine that's way by itself on 100 acres in the forest, and I couldn't even imagine taking Anthony Hopkins there — all I could think of was him eating, you know ..."