Sideswipe: Rocky road of parenting

Before you get all outraged, here's how this picture probably came about ... Someone saw a picture of two outdoorsy people tossing a backpack across a rocky divide, then someone else said, "It would be funny to Photoshop in a baby".

Not quite so advanced

Students taking advanced world history at Virginia's Westfield High School were told they could use only their textbook, class handouts, and class notes to complete assignments. Anyone caught doing any outside reading, or even talking to their parents about their school work, would get a zero on the assignment. The principal said the rules were to make things fair, since some students might have access to more resources than others. (Source: Reason.com)

Fly secret in a vacuum

Andre van Zyl finds that New Zealand flies are relatively slow to react. "An effective and clean tool that I use to get rid of flies is the vacuum cleaner. Using the hose of the vacuum cleaner, I slowly stalk the flies. I move really slowly so the flies don't react. A couple of weeks ago, I got 14 flies in one evening!"

Roads are for cars, not people

Mark Graham says dismissing stupid pedestrian road crossing habits and complaining about drivers ignores the point. "Driving up Victoria St West last night, a pedestrian crossing five lanes of traffic actually slowed down when he saw me coming and seemed to think he had every right to be on the road obstructing cars. Pedestrians often ignore vehicles in the belief the car will slow down. Roads are for cars, pavements for people. Person vs car has only one outcome."

The car always wins

Karen agrees: "Remember the car always wins. The driver who hit me was having a nap and I was crossing while the green man was flashing. Best rule of thumb is treat cars as the dangerous objects they are ... I was lucky, only three months before I could walk again. I now ensure eye contact with the driver before moving across the road, especially at crossings."

Think before crossing
Steve writes: "If you can't cross the road between oncoming vehicles without that vehicle slowing down, then it's not safe to cross the road!"

Mystery object

More than 65 people emailed identifying our mystery object and one meat-eater identified it as a ham press, used to turn scrappy pork pieces into pressed ham. "De-boned pork is soaked in curing brine and larger pieces pumped with brine, then drained and stuffed into ham presses. The lid is forced down to apply lots of pressure to the meat, which fuses into a block shaped by the mould." (The loaf-like shape is not some neat-freak's idea of how meat should be, it's so the meat will fit into a slicing machine).

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Today's Webpick: There are a lot of peas in this recipe (pay very close attention)... Go here.

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