Sideswipe

The natural progression from Demi Moore and Britney Spears pregnant on magazine covers must be a digitally-enhanced pregnant model advertising non-alcoholic beer. Or maybe it's a beer belly?

A reader snapped this uniformed policeman in Rotorua wearing a pushbike helmet and riding an unregistered, unwarranted motorbike. Must've been official business.
British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood is weary of New York Fashion Week: "I think people should stop wearing clothes for a moment and read a book. There's all this rubbish, awful clothing. Don't buy it. Just wait until you find something you really want to buy," she tells the New York Daily News.

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Super Nanny: The British government maintains a database recording the name, address, birth date, sex, and contact details of parents or guardians, school and doctors of every child in the country. But that's not enough. It is testing a pilot programme that also records things such as whether children go to church, how they are doing at school and whether they get five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Officials say it will speed identification of at-risk children. (Source: Reason.com)

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Further to the nakedness in Tirau's main drag: Jan and Bryan Moran of Papakura wonder if this group is the same group of naked young men they saw playing rugby on the grass by the side of Lake Rotorua about 3.30pm on Saturday?

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The Drudge Report says America's NBC television network has approved inclusion of Madonna-on-the-Cross in a concert special. In the show, Madonna wears a glittered crown of thorns, descends on a suspended mirrored cross singing her hit Live To Tell. An NBC official said Madonna considered the crucifixion a highlight of her show. The network had viewed it "and didn't see it as being inappropriate".

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Rural phone line woes: Steve O'Donnell doesn't buy the "that's rural life, so put up with it" line suggested by yesterday's reader. He says it is long gone, like the multi-party phone line. "I have no problem with my council, it is great. But it is not responsible for phone and data services. They are the realm of a private industry service provider (key word, service). As a telecommunications engineer I know what services can and cannot be provided, especially when cabling is right across the road, and the nearest exchange has plenty of spare channels for voice and is well within broadband reach."