Sideswipe

Lookalike: National Party leader Don Brash and South Park teacher Mr Garrison.

Labour finds a nifty way of publicising the downside to tax cuts: If you call 0800-Don-Brash (0800-366-272), you will hear a very familiar voice saying the following words: "Thanks for calling National's automated tax survey. Don Brash would like to know how you'd like your Mars bar-sized tax cut of approximately $1.25 funded. Please select from the following options. We will record your responses.

If you would like to sell your local school, press 1.

If you would like to raise the cost of visiting the doctor, press 2.

If you would like to triple the cost of tertiary education, press 3.

If you would like to sell New Zealand troops to President Bush, press 4.

If you would like to get rid of a few hundred nurses and a couple of hundred teachers, press 5.

If you would like to increase Government borrowing and push up interest rates, press 6.

If you would like to continue the asset sales of the 1990s, press 7.

Or, if you like none of the above options, vote Labour."

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Two teenagers performed a caesarean section on a dead cat they found, saving two of four kittens. Monica Castonguay, 15, and Kim Quimpere, 13, from New Brunswick, Canada, told the French-language Acadie Nouvelle newspaper that they recognised the cat and knew it was pregnant. After discovering that the cat's body was still warm, they decided to try to save its kittens, even though neither of them knew how to carry out the procedure or had studied biology. Kim borrowed a sweater, knife and some cotton swabs from a nearby house. They decided Monica would perform the surgery. She told the newspaper she wasn't sure where to cut, but made an incision into the mother cat's belly and could see the kittens. She pulled them out and found that two of four were still alive, so she cut their umbilical cords and wiped the mucus from their noses. (Source: CBC News)

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Artist Al Emmons from Wisconsin has been told to remove a sculpture of Big Bird from the chimney of a duplex he owns. Neighbours complain the sculpture detracts from the historical nature of the area, and they say Emmons didn't have a permit to place the sculpture on his house. (Reason.com)