"These dogs seen in Onehunga were happy," says Dave. "But I think it's too risky for them with their heads sticking out."
Agents' best friend
Regarding the dog that featured in yesterday's Sideswipe, carried in a compartment attached to the back of a car, Brian from Pukekohe writes: "Stock agents have the deepest respect, dare I say, love, for their dogs. You cannot carry a boisterous huntaway inside a car, or the cab of an articulated stock truck. The dog is unlikely to be in the box for more than the time it takes to travel from one farm to another. After all, a dog that is too cramped, cannot get out and work rounding up livestock."
Drivers in the doghouse
A reader writes: "The wake behind a moving vehicle draws exhaust fumes which will always follow the car. The dog is breathing this mixture, which contains carbon monoxide. CO symptoms start with severe headache and end with death. (Having tested aircraft for CO leaks and personally experienced it in a car, I can speak with some authority)."
John writes: "After another year or so in Mozambique it's always a surprise returning to NZ. Transporting a pooch in a caboose behind the car? Awesome! Dogs love fresh air and a view, far superior to being stuck in a - probably overheated - car. Wish New Zealanders could care about more important things - like decent housing for our poor!"
A first time for everything
An Australian film-maker's stunt to make a documentary about virginity - and the losing of it - seems to have worked in a big way: An anonymous Japanese man won an online auction with a bid of $780,000 to be 20-year-old Brazilian Catarina Migliorini's first lover, reports the Huffington Post. Migliorini gets to keep the money, though she has promised to give most to charity. Film-maker Justin Sisely promises everything will be safe and legal, the latter by having the encounter on a plane to skirt prostitution laws. The auction also featured a male virgin, though Alex Stepanov got only $3000. (Source: Newser.com)
Measuring up in today's world
"In this increasingly global planet us citizens of the world need to be able to understand terms which are standard in the industry or place where they originated," explains Will. "Knowing that there are approxinmately 25mm to the inch, 300mm to the foot, that a mile is 1600m, what a 15-inch laptop screen looks like, what 18in tyre rims are, what a 6in Sub is, and that shipping containers are either 20ft or 40ft long is necessary and, like understanding two languages, is good for the noggin. A third advantage is appreciating that, while millimetres and metres are units of measurement, feet and inches are units of measurement AND units of design. That a standard bench is 3ft high, a table 2.5ft, a chair 1.5ft and a step 0.5ft is because of the ratios and proportions of a 6ft tall human being ..."
Thinking about stuff: The world is full of noise and those that are the loudest are the ones we tend to follow but what about the quiet ones? This idea of the extrovert and the introvert is explained with a wonderful animation here.
TV: My favourite comedian David Mitchell articulates his disappointment with period drama Downton Abby ("...perhaps it's just a delivery system for olden days hair dos and Maggie Smith?")
