Sideswipe

Gun lore: A t-shirt design for firearm lovers.

Judged by a jury who haven't worked out the difference between reality and fiction: The show CSI is complicating things for some prosecutors, as juries now expect forensic evidence to be brought into every trial, even though police, as a matter of course, do not collect forensic evidence from every crime scene. This has led to acquittals and hung juries in some cases, even when there were eyewitnesses to the crime, and prosecutors having to to call witnesses to explain why forensic evidence was not taken in this case. Defence lawyers have been quick to jump on what has come to be called the "CSI effect". (Source: suicidegirls.com)

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Council on the ball: On Wednesday afternoon at Mt Maunganui Bridge roundabout, the sprinklers came on at 3.30pm ... while the road was closed by flooding.

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Hungry Aucklander had to wait an unusual amount of time in the drive-through queue at McDonald's Grey Lynn the other night while staff processed an order from a police car. Turned out the Big Mac pedlars staff were working out the discount the officers were entitled to. Apparently McDonald's gives on-duty emergency service staff 50 per cent off. Nice deal.

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Delicious and hilarious Parliamentary name-calling: Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove calling Rodney Hide a spongy pud during an exchange in the House last week.

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This ordinary post on a personal weblog turns into a chilling story. The blogger, Simon Ng, of Queens, New York, writes: " ... Anyway today has been weird, at 3 some guy ringed the bell. I went down and recognised it was my sister's former boyfriend. He told me he wants to get his fishing poles back. I told him to wait downstairs while I get them for him. While I was searching them, he is already in the house. He is still here right now, smoking, walking all around the house with his shoes on which btw I just washed the floor 2 days ago! Hopefully he will leave soon ... " Within hours, the ex-boyfriend had murdered both the blogger and his sister. The blog post contradicted the murderer's alibi, and he's been charged with murder. The victim's last post is still online and over 250 readers of his weblog have left condolence messages. (Source: nydailynews.com)

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If the self-congratulatory coverage of television's Qantas Media Awards on Friday's late TV One news wasn't enough to make you cringe, how about the fact the state broadcaster hired a top ad man to ghost-write a few clever one-liners for their MC and eventual Best Presenter winner Susan Wood. Like a good sport co-host Mike McRoberts from TV3 played along, suggesting Susan looked like a million dollars ... Wood quipped back, "You're confusing me with Judy Bailey." Haw, haw, haw, thud.