George writes: "A crazy cyclist on the airport motorway at lunchtime last week. Cyclist up truck's rear, going 100km/h. And they say motorists should be careful."
What's in a plate name?
David Major says: "In Ponsonby a couple of years back, I was following a nice-looking older Indian woman. After looking at her licence plate, I had to consult one of my Indian mates, who informed me that Naz was an abbreviation of a popular and much longer Indian name. I would assume that the plate NAZ was already taken, so she had chosen to border her name with the letter 'I' on either side of her name. For a while I had some serious suspicions about this woman's possible affiliations with the Third Reich ..."
Motoring through the meals, courtesy of Toyota
In 2011, Toyota offered to donate their celebrated business management process to the Food Bank for New York City. After some initial scepticism, the donation has "proved transformative". Director Daryl Foriest presented the company with a challenge. "The line of people waiting to eat is too long. Make the line shorter." Toyota's engineers went to work. The kitchen seated 50, and when all the chairs filled, a line would form outside. Foriest waited for space to let 10 people in. The average wait time could be up to 1 hours. Toyota eliminated the 10-at-a-time system, and diners came in as soon as a chair was free. Next, a waiting area was set up inside where people lined up closer to where they would pick up food trays. Finally, an employee was assigned to spot empty seats so they could be filled quickly. The average wait time dropped to 18 minutes and more people were fed. (Via Kottle.org)
