Sideswipe

Mr Hooker Bear before his makeover and after.

Who's next? Santa? LJ Hooker's marketing tool, Mr Hooker Bear, has been replaced by a slimmer version, caving to the hysteria about child obesity. Children in the focus groups said the bear was looking a bit saggy and baggy, which the LJ Hooker marketing people interpreted as needing to lose 10kg. Brett Robinson, general manager for LJ Hooker says, "We decided to make the teddy bear version a bit slimmer and more appealing, a model of a fit and healthy lifestyle. Mr Hooker bears are given away to customers who buy and sell a home through LJ Hooker.

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Janet Drake from Remuera would like to know how to remove a pair of amorous ducks from her swimming pool. "They are very sweet, but very messy and I believe it's illegal to use a shotgun in a built-up area," she says.

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A reader writes to say Eftpos receipts may be evidence the golfer purchased a return ferry ticket, but it doesn't explain where that item has got to (as the IRD knows only too well). "If I pay for a ticket and 'give' it to my mate, or save it for use on another trip, I could make the fuss that one of the golfing seven allegedly made. When are people going to stop making their own problems someone else's? The ticket checker didn't lose the fellow's ticket, and if ticket checkers accepted every lame story they were ever told, not only would revenue decrease, but the poor ticket checker would get the chop".

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In a new book called Rumour Psychology Nicholas DiFonzo explains how gossip and rumours spread and the difference between the two. Apparently most workplace rumours are 95 per cent accurate. "A rumour is what you do when you try to figure out the truth with other people," DiFonzo says. "It's collective sense making. ... Gossip, on the other hand, is sharing information with an agenda," he says. "It could be for entertainment or to bond with another person or to reinforce a social norm. Gossip, which may be true, tends to have an edge. Gossip is more to do with social networks," DiFonzo says. A strong motivation we have as humans is to connect with a group. (Source: Boingboing.net)

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British workers waste almost a quarter of their day making tea, gossiping and planning holidays, a poll has found. The results show Britons are the most distractible and unproductive in Europe, despite working the longest hours. The average employee spends 22 per cent of the working day chatting, surfing the internet or reading the paper, with the biggest time-waster being the tea run.