Sideswipe: Go in there? You must be barking mad

Photo / Supplied

Dogs try to send their owner a message. (Source: Arbroath.blogspot.com)

Hidden message...

Barney Meyer writes: "A friend of mine sent me a photograph of an offensive number plate which he spotted in Albany. The term "U DOOS" is a coarse Afrikaans language term meaning, "You ****". As a former South African and proud Kiwi, I take exception to migrants who don't respect the norms of the country which has so kindly taken them in."

...and hidden costs

Downside of online shopping: Sarah ordered some clothing online from Australian chain store Sports Girl. "The items were couriered by UPS, but when they arrived in the country, I was called and told that to receive them I had to pay $182 in taxes and fees. The original order was for A$404 so I can't work out how this could possibly incur so much tax. When I emailed the Australian company, they said it wasn't their problem and I should have thought to check the customs charges before ordering. Shouldn't Australian companies be aware of the costs of shipping to their close neighbour and at the very least warn customers there may be additional costs? Is this a common problem?"

Oops - and ouch!

In Bridgewater, England, a police officer accidentally Tasered Peter Cox in the groin after stopping him on suspicion of driving without insurance. The officer apologised to Cox, who had to be treated by paramedics. The police released him after finding he did have insurance. (Source: Reason.com)

Boxing clever

Mike Dennehy says the amount of work posties do is determined more by the number of letterboxes they have to stop at rather than the number of letters delivered to each box. "Mail volumes are falling, but the posties have to travel further and stop at more letterboxes. To take her example to the other extreme, if you had to deliver a million letters to just one letterbox, it would cost a fraction of a cent for each letter."

Sting in the tail

Kevin from South Seas Film School responds to the complaint about covering up the end of television programmes with the network logo. "The part of the programme you are referring to is called a break sting, and all productions are required to use them as part of their delivery requirements. What we will sometimes do is backtime the theme music, so that it finishes on the network logo; this is just an aesthetic thing. I can assure him that no programme is 'covered up'. No producer wants their work butchered either."