Sideswipe: Dec 18: I'll have a side of stupid questions please

Just the slaw thanks. Does it come with dressing?

Fears solar panels will suck up sun, starve plants

A town council in North Carolina has rejected plans to rezone land for a solar farm after one resident voiced fears it would "suck up all the energy from the sun" and another, a retired science teacher, said it could hinder photosynthesis in the area and stop plants from growing. Another mentioned that no one could tell her solar panels didn't cause cancer. Other residents feared the effect it would have on the price of their homes. The solar panel company representative (probably with a sigh) told the meeting the only sunlight used would be that which fell on the panels directly and that the panels don't draw additional sunlight.

(Via: Huffington Post)

Ambulance at the bottom of hangover hill

Australia's first Hangover Clinic has opened its doors, just in time for the festive season. Those whose enthusiastic imbibing has left them barely functioning can be cured within half an hour at the Sydney clinic with a $149 IV drip and vitamin cocktail. A one-hour treatment involving a hydration drip, oxygen therapy and more vitamins costs $213.

Drugs don't make jobless people, lack of jobs do

A reader writes: "A report just out claims one in three Kiwi children are living in hardship. John Key reckons the problem is drugs, but the first results of Paula Bennett's random drug testing of beneficiaries (because it wasn't the lack of jobs that was causing higher unemployment) are in and, of 8001 beneficiaries sent for testing, only 22 either failed the test or refused to take it. Hardly money well-spent."

Jesus, a funny man?

Neville writes: "but doesn't that photo of Jesus remind you of Ben Hurley, the comedian?"

Hard-head approach to bicycle helmets

Regarding the Auckland transport billboard showing a helmetless rider: "Lest we forget, New Zealand is just about the only place in the world where helmets are mandatory and that is only on public roads," writes a reader. "Mandatory helmets are simply a representation of a 'do something' approach taken for political expediency. I no longer cycle very often, but used to do so a lot, and I have been pretty adventurous at times. My habit was to wear a helmet, but in all my crashes (and there were quite a few), not once did I hit my head. No doubt they do provide protection in some types of accident, but they do not automatically make riders safer. There is even evidence that drivers, for example, will give more room when passing to riders without helmets. The fact is that enforcing helmets dissuades folks from cycling. There is also evidence that the net health effect is negative, since exercise is reduced. So drivers can keep climbing on to the 'no helmet!' soap-box, but the reality is much more complex."