Sideswipe

Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe, the 17-year-old who plays Harry Potter, has decided to take on the lead role in Equus, a "serious" play on London's West End. The play delves into the psyche of a boy named Alan Strang who blinds six horses with a metal spike. The production is scheduled to open next March. "It is an extraordinary play, and he's very much looking forward to the role," Radcliffe's spokeswoman, Vanessa Davies, said. "He is maturing as an actor and beginning to take on new and challenging roles. In one scene the actor playing Strang is required to simulate sexual ecstasy while riding a horse naked."

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A Utah teen with fingers of fury is once again the speed text-messaging king of the world. Ben Cook, 18, returned to the top of the cellphone text-messaging heap at a Denver text-off, blazing through a 160-character standardised message in 42.22 seconds. The phrase used for purposes of professional, competition texting is: "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

The feat was recorded on video and scored by an official timekeeper, validating it for Guinness World Records purposes. In 2004 Cook won the world record by texting the official phrase in 57.75 seconds, a record that soon fell. Before Cook's feat, the record was held by a 23-year-old woman from Singapore at 43.24 seconds, which was set on June 27, 2004.

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A reader writes: "You may be interested to know that if ratepayers pay their Auckland City rates online with a credit card, they incur a "convenience fee" of a huge 2.49 per cent. This amounts to around $37 for rates of $1500. ACC are at pains to explain they receive none of this but Westpac says it was organised with ACC and is needed to cover costs."

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Motorists in Dorset, England, got angry when they found themselves in a 3km traffic jam that kept some of them tied up for half an hour. And they certainly got even more steamed up when they found out the cause of the traffic jam. City officials were stopping cars for a questionnaire. "We were aiming to understand drivers' problems and reduce traffic congestion. It was not possible to give advanced warning as drivers might have taken alternative routes," said a council transport spokesperson. (Source: Reason.com)

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Colin Ray is a 25-year-old film-maker who is making his first New Zealand short film. He writes: "My problem is this - it's called Pineapple and the female character carries a pineapple around with her all the time because her former partner (now dead) loved pineapples. In the end sequence the couple go into the sea and only she comes out. She finds the pineapple she has been carrying around has disappeared, leaving only the green shoots. My problem is I can't find a single pineapple in New Zealand with its green shoots still attached. Can anyone help?"