KEY POINTS:
Rex Sellar, of Onehunga, asks: "Am I the only person irritated by the Genesis TV ad featuring a cute syncopated pukeko turning off an unattended light and extolling me to "do my bit for climate change"? Yes, promote saving electricity to save money, but to insinuate that this action reduces CO2 from our predominantly hydro production is stretching global warming hype too far. The IPCC cannot find any anthropogenic CO2-induced global warming for the past 10 years, but if the ad agency still believes this fallacy, it could hold its collective breath for one minute and "save" breathing out CO2. It's all rather inane."
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Property Press Commercial Manager Garry Lenihan writes: "The bulging letter box at Unit 6B will soon have a reprieve - from the 'super-sized' Property Press at least. The Central and North Shore editions of the Property Press will no longer be home delivered from May 15 for Central and from June 6 for North Shore. These two Property Press editions have grown substantially in size, sometimes reaching up to 280 pages a week, and weighing up to 900g an issue (as opposed to an average community newspaper, weighing around 110g). The Property Press will be available at kerbside red box and basket outlets."
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A Singapore television station was fined $11,000 for airing an episode of Find and Design in which the host acknowledged a homosexual couple and a baby as a family. This broke the "free-to-air TV program code" which doesn't allow programs to promote, justify, or glamorise gay lifestyles.
(Source: Boston.com)
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Police in Osaka, Japan, mobilised a helicopter and 460 patrol cars, involving 2240 law-enforcement officers, to apprehend fugitive Hirofumi Fukuda, 27. What crime invoked such a large number of police resources? Assaulting a police officer.
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Iran's prosecutor general has warned of the "negative impact" Western toys could have on Iranian children. Qorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi said the mainly illegally imported toys such as Barbie, Batman, Harry Potter and Spiderman might cause "irreparable (cultural) damage." In a letter to Vice-President Parviz Davoudi, the ultra-conservative cleric called for alternatives to the "cultural offensive".
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In an effort to counter Barbie dolls, Iran in 1996 began producing an Islamic version named Sarah and her brother Dara. The Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults at that time compared Barbie dolls with the "Wooden Horse of Troy, say they had many cultural invading soldiers inside them".
Today's Webpick: Dont you hate it when the women youre flirting with casually drops into conversation that she has a boyfriend? This guy really hates it. (NSFW language). Watch it here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.