Sideswipe

It takes guts to park your car so close to Paul Holmes' 2006 Bentley (L), Movers & Shakers salt and pepper shakers.

Think global, ignore local? Starbucks Coffee, the purveyor of homogenous coffee outlets around New Zealand and the world, would like to raise awareness of its new Fairtrade Certified coffee, Caf Estima Blend from Latin American and East African beans. Coinciding with Fair Trade Fortnight the PR noise is an effort to "bring attention to critical social and economic issues facing coffee farmers", says a story on AP. And conveniently, their ubiquitous brand. Meanwhile, the very same Starbucks pays its young workers some of the lowest wages around.

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Battle of the ostentatious car brands: A Porsche driver writes: "With regard to the silly antics of a yellow Ferrari driver in the eastern suburbs, reported in Sideswipe last year, seems Mr More-Money-Than-Brains is at it again. City-bound traffic is queued at a red light at Mission Bay. Mr MMTB takes the left turn lane, pauses, then accelerates straight through the intersection against the red light. Hope he got to work that 30 seconds earlier ... If you are the Ferrari owner in question, are you not aware how conspicuous your vehicle is? I hope it doesn't get vandalised by someone who really objects to your idiotic driving!"

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Quotable: Said by a skanky contestant, after being booted off season seven of find-yourself-a-rich-husband reality show, The Bachelor: "There is such a racist against beautiful people in this country."

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Anne Martin was amused by these reasons given by pet-owners in England for handing their unwanted pets in to the RSPCA.

1. The cat's fur doesn't match the new carpet.

2. I thought chinchillas only lived for two years. I don't want a pet that lives for 20.
(Source: Medway News)

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Movers and shakers: Salt and pepper shakers for the very, very lazy: Slashfood.com says, "I find Movers & Shakers (Picture above) , the self-shaking salt and pepper shakers, to be ridiculous. To operate you pull the cord at the bottom of the shaker, invert over your plate and they vibrate, shaking out as much or as little seasoning as your taste buds desire. The only thing that they don't do is hold themselves over the plate." 

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China's Ministry of Public Safety has issued new guidelines for baby names that exclude thousands of rare Chinese language characters. The rules are tied to the introduction of electronic identity cards. Authorities say they cannot write rare characters on ID cards anymore and they will register only names included in the official database. (Source: reason.com)