Sideswipe: July 27: Prison staff from abroad?

Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga was reading the NZHerald on a flight to Wellington on Friday morning."Maybe he'll bring some Guantanamo staff over here to help out Serco?" writes a reader.

Five reasons crying is good for you

1. You release toxins

You don't only cry when you're sad. Crying is also your body's response to too much stress. When you cry, you rid your body of the stress hormone cortisol. High levels of the hormone can cause sleep problems, a lowered immune response and abdominal weight gain.

2. You kill bacteria

Tears contain lysozyme, which is a hormone found in human milk and saliva. When you cry, lysozyme is released, killing more than 90 per cent of bacteria in its path.

3. You improve your vision

Crying hydrates the membranes in your eye and helps with focus.

4. You improve your mood

Crying relieves stress, which improves your overall mood.

5. You face your emotions

Facing an emotional crisis is hard enough but holding back tears for the sake of saving face takes effort, and will only serve to increase stress. (Source: Via lifehacker.com)

Young people's pay

"I am 17 and I deliver the Central Leader and have been doing so for six years," writes a reader. "My pay was just over $6, yeah around $5 an hour [when I started]. When I turned 16 my pay made a huge jump. By law people "of age" get paid minimum wage, but if you are younger they can pretty much pay you what they like. When I was 11, though, $6 seemed to me to be a lot and I was quite content with what I could buy. It did come to the point where I didn't want to continue to deliver the paper. That was just before I turned 16 so when I found out my pay had increased I thought that it was worth it to carry on with the circulation."

Suicidal donkey

Spotted at an Auckland girls school.