KEY POINTS:
A quick anecdote from Stephanie Wickham's "are you kidding" file. She writes: "My partner and I were shopping at Dick Smith Electronics in New Lynn on Sunday. We spent $29.92 and presented $30 in gift vouchers to pay for the goods. You would expect that we would get 10c change, as if we had paid with cash. No, the staff member wasted 10 minutes trying to print us a new gift voucher for - you guessed it - 8 cents! The staff member had even consulted a more senior staff member who advised giving us the change as a gift voucher. I am forwarding the voucher to Dick Smith head office who may want to invest in some retraining."
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A coven of witches are claiming victory in their battle to get the name of a $900 million shopping centre changed. They were outraged when Hammerson, the developer, called the Leicester project the Highcross Quarter - also the title for sacred times in the Wicca calendar and the name of their website address. After a year-long wrangle, the developer changed the name of the development to Highcross Leicester. Wicca is an alternative sect which is said to be a modern continuation of ancient witchcraft religions. Wicca spokeswitch Morrigan Wisecraft told a local paper: "We were amazed that anyone would name a shopping centre after the high points on the Pagan/Wicca calendar historically so closely associated with witchcraft. If we, a small Wicca coven composed in the main of elderly grey-haired ladies in our twilight years with all our infirmities and aches, pains and frailties have been faster off the mark to obtain these domain names than a world-class, pinstripe-suited multinational like Hammerson then that, quite simply, is tough."
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A Chinese man has aspirations of getting into the Guinness Book of World Records - by clapping his hands. Zhang Quan, 70, of Chongqing city, can clap his hands almost as loud as the sound of helicopter blades. Recently his clapping was measured at 107 decibels whereas helicopters can reach 110dB. (Source: WeirdAsianNews.com)
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According to a number of Google-literate readers the one-hit Google search game Ray Storey was trying to remember in yesterday's Sideswipe is called Googlewhackblatt. For example, if you type in "kiwifruit linguaphiles" you only get one search result back; same with "barrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" which, not surprisingly, takes you to someone's profile on MySpace.
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Coming soon to China: A taste of the taikonaut life. Dishes such as roast pork and stewed duck specially concocted for taikonauts - the Chinese term for astronauts - will be sold in supermarkets by the end of the year, Chinese news agency Xinhua says. The Scientific Research and Training Centre for Chinese Astronauts and a Shanghai-based food company have developed more than 60 space dishes for the country's space programme, only the third to launch someone into orbit. Confident of the products' appeal, the centre began co-operation with manufacturers on mass production last year, Xinhua said.
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German luxury cookware maker Fissler has created the ultimate cooking receptacle. According to their website: "A pot adorned with gold and diamonds from Fissler will be presented to the exclusive clientele of the London department store Harrods from the 10th of September. This true gem will be exclusively produced to order and will cost £100,000." Who would buy a £100,000 ($256,640) pot? Seriously?
