Sideswipe

Hugh Chapman's son is working in Western Australia and sent his Dad this picture of a golf course in a town called Parraburdo

A Ukrainian has invented a condom that plays music during sex, says Korrespondent magazine. Scientist Hryhory Chausovsky developed the birth control device as a novelty and an aid for more pleasurable love-making, he said. A miniature loudspeaker and motion sensor implanted in the condom's upper cuff provides a range of musical tones during sex. Music volume depends on intensity of love-making. Tone varies based on the sexual position adopted by lovers, Chausovsky said. "It [the condom's sound] is directly related to the emotional level of the users." The music volume generated by the condom would serve not only to assist lovers in obtaining higher quality sex, but also inform them when an erection is present, Chausovsky said. The condom's main limitation is primitive sound quality, similar to tones produced by first-generation mobile phones.

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This note was found on the footpath: "Hello Parking Warden, My class starts at 10.05am and finishes at 11.55am. That means I'll be leaving my car for 130 minutes, not 120 minutes. Please don't give me a ticket, I am coming back, in fact, no doubt I'll be running because I have to be at work in Meadowbank by 12.25pm. I hope you have a wonderful God Bless." If the writer of this note is reading this, we'd really like to know if it worked.

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A teddy bear that fell into a pool at a Fish & Game Department hatchery in New Hampshire last month clogged a drain and suffocated a large number of trout. Hatcheries supervisor Robert Fawcett said the bear, dressed in yellow raincoat and hat, is believed to be the first stuffed toy to cause fatalities at the facility. Fawcett has released a written warning: "Release of any teddy bears into the fish hatchery water is not permitted."

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Four years ago a Cincinnati teenager woke to a knife against her throat. A man had slipped in through the back of her home and grabbed the weapon from her kitchen. He told her he had killed her family. Then he raped her. Police never found her attacker, who'd lied about the young woman's family who were asleep, unharmed. Months later as part of a class assignment on ethics at the University of Cincinnati, a journalism instructor handed out the police report detailing her rape. It contained her name, her address, her phone number, even her height, weight and hair colour. It told what had happened to her that summer night. A student in the class knew the victim and the university was sued for invasion of privacy, which it settled out of court for US$7500.