"I get condoms alongside wine, but Tom Cruise videos beside bananas?" Spotted at Countdown in downtown Auckland, by Neil.
Speeding ticket needles driver
"I've been driving for 16-plus years in Ireland and got one speeding ticket," writes Derek McGoldrick of Grey Lynn, Auckland. "I've been driving in New Zealand for 1 years and collected five. I have one sitting on my desk here now for "allegedly" doing 85 in an 80km/h zone going over the Auckland Harbour Bridge. There will always be fluctuations when humans drive a vehicle that needs frequent adjustments in speed. The people in charge also need to read the manuals that come with the radars ... no radar is 100 per cent, unless the laws of physics don't apply in Auckland. This is a nation of drivers far more concerned about the needle on the dash than maintaining safe distances. New Zealand has to drop the caveman attitude that speed alone kills. It's dangerous driving at speed that kills. In Ireland you can do 130km/h on the motorways and there's only half the deaths per million than in New Zealand."
Hanging on by a fingertip
In National Geographic magazine, Andrew Bisharat describes what some climbers do to their fingertips to help with traction: "When a fingertip callus does split, climbers have devised various remedies that allow them to keep going. Athletic tape - applied in an X-pattern to allow full mobility of the finger joint - can provide enough protection for an injury. More advanced than the X-pattern is the "Miami thong", also called the "British flag". A common problem with tape is its tendency to slip off the finger. Instead of wrapping the finger more tightly and risking it going numb, climbers often use Super Glue, applying it directly to the skin before wrapping the digit in tape."
